ã€ŠBeyond the Timescapeã€‹


 Chapter 1: Living

    Chapter 1: Living

    It was the third lunar month, the beginning of spring, in a far corner of the eastern part of the continent of South Phoenix.

    The dark, hazy sky hung oppressively overhead, like an ink painting sshed onto a canvas, with the dome of heaven ck and the clouds smudged across it. Crimson bolts of lightning danced among theyers of clouds, apanied by the p of thunder.

    It sounded like the howl of a god, echoing out over the mortal world.

    Blood-colored rain fell with sorrow onto the mundane world.

    Lurking below was a ruined city, pounded by the crimson rain,pletely devoid of any signs of life. Shattered city walls held no living things. Copsed buildings could be seen, as well as greenish-ck corpses and piles of gore. No sound interrupted the silence. What had once been bustling city streets were now deste. In the past, people had traversed these dusty paths, but not anymore.

    The only things left behind were mangled flesh, dirt, and shredded paper, mixed into a bloody paste that could only be described as shocking and ghastly.

    Not far in the distance was an overturned horse cart, stuck in the mud and nearly broken to bits. Draped on the axle was a rabbit doll swaying in the wind, its white fur long since stained red with blood. Its cloudy eyes brimmed with animosity as it stared nkly at the blood-sttered cobblestones ahead of it.

    Near the carty a young man.

    He looked to be thirteen or fourteen, his clothing tattered and filthy. Tied at his waist was a sack made of animal hide.

    His eyes were nothing but slits and he wasn''t moving. The icy wind swept through the holes in his clothes, slowly but surely sucking the heat out of his body. Then some raindrops hit his face, and he blinked, revealing that his cold, hawk-like eyes were focused on something a short distance from him.

    About twenty meters away was an emaciated vulture ripping flesh off the corpse of a stray dog, and asionally ncing around.

    These ruins were a dangerous ce, and all it would take was a slight bit of movement for the vulture to fly up into the air to safety.

    The young man was also waiting for his opportunity, like a skilled hunter.

    It didn¡¯t take long for that opportunity to arrive, as the vulture suddenly plunged its head deep into the chest cavity of the dog.

    The young man¡¯s eyes turned extremely cold, and he shot into motion like an arrow from a bow, racing toward the vulture while simultaneously pulling a ck iron skewer out of his sack. [1]

    The tip of the skewer glittered coldly.

    Perhaps it was that, or perhaps it was the killing intent radiating off the young man. Either way, the vulture sensed it. pping its wings in rm, it flew up into the air.

    It wasn''t fast enough.

    The young man¡¯s face waspletely expressionless as he threw the ck skewer, sending it shooting through the air in a dark streak.

    SPLAT!

    The skewer pierced the vulture¡¯s head, shattering its skull and taking away its life in an instant. The force of the blow carried the vulture through the air until it smacked into the horse cart.

    The blood-soaked stuffed rabbit swayed back and forth.

    The young man¡¯s face was cid as he hurried back to the cart and grabbed both the vulture and the skewer. The boy had thrown the skewer with such force that, when he pulled it out of the cart, it took a chunk of wood with it.

    Having aplished these things, the young man walked away without looking back.

    The wind picked up. At the same time, the blood-soaked rabbit looked like it was watching the young man as he left.

    Thanks to the wind, the rain seemed even colder as it hit the young man and his tattered clothing.

    At a certain point, he hunched over, frowning as he tried to wrap himself up. He let loose a grunt of exasperation.

    He hated the cold.

    Usually, he stayed indoors during weather like this. But right now, he hurried down the street without pause, passing numerous broken-down shops and stores.

    There wasn¡¯t much time left. His vulture hunt had taken longer than he expected, and there was somewhere else he needed to go tonight.

    It shouldn¡¯t be far now.

    Greenish-ck corpses choked the street ahead, their faces masks of fury and hopelessness. It was as if the aura of despair they exuded sought to infect the mind of the young man.

    But the young man was used to it, and he didn''t spare the corpses a second thought.

    In fact, he kept his eyes on the sky. He seemed anxious, as though the darkening sky was more terrifying than all the corpsesbined.

    Eventually, he caught sight of a medicine shop off in the distance. Breathing a sigh of relief, he hurried toward it. It wasn¡¯t arge ce, and there were medicine drawers scattered everywhere. The ce smelled like a mix of medicine and mold, almost like that of a freshly opened tomb. The whole ce was a mess. [2]

    In the corner was the corpse of an old man leaning up against the wall, his skin greenish-ck. He had died with his eyes open, and was staring nkly out into the world.

    The young man nced around and then started rummaging through the ce.

    The medicinal nts in the ce matched the corpses. Most were greenish-ck. Only a few looked normal.

    The young man looked closely at the untainted medicine, seemingly searching through his memories. Eventually, he identified a medicinal nt used to treat incisions. Taking off his tattered shirt, he looked down at a gaping wound on his chest.

    It wasn¡¯t healed, and its edges were turning ck. There was also some blood seeping out.

    Crushing the medicinal nt, he took a deep breath and then smeared the paste on his wound.

    The pain caused his vision to swim, and he shook from head to toe and nearly fell over. He forced himself to keep smearing on the medicine, but he couldn¡¯t stop beads of sweat from popping out on his forehead and rolling down his face onto the ground. They became like blotches of ink below him.

    Ten breaths of time passed. After covering the wound with medicine, the young man was out of energy. Leaning up against the nearby medicine cab, he took some time to breathe, then put his shirt back on.

    Once again, he looked out at the sky. Then he pulled a dpidated map out of his sack and carefully opened it up.

    It was a simple depiction of the city he was currently in. The medicine shop was marked on the map, and many of the city districts in the northeast were crossed out. It looked like he''d used his fingernail to do it. There were only two districts that weren¡¯t crossed out.

    After all these days of searching, at least I know it¡¯s somewhere in those two districts. He folded the map up, put it away, and prepared to leave.

    Just before walking out, he stopped and looked at the corpse of the old man. And specifically¡­ his clothing.

    The old man wore a leather jerkin of such good quality that it was mostly intact.

    After some thought, the young man walked over, peeled the jerkin off the old man, and donned it.

    It was slightly too big, but after putting it on, at least he felt warm. He looked down at the old man for a moment, then knelt and closed his eyes.

    ¡°Rest in peace,¡± he said in a soft, hoarse voice. Ripping one of the curtains off the wall, he covered the old man¡¯s corpse, then left.

    Upon walking out into the open, he noticed a sh of light up ahead. Stuck in the mud was a hand-sized mirror.

    Looking down at it, he could see his reflection.

    His face was dirty, but that couldn''tpletely cover up his delicate and unusually handsome features. Unfortunately, the innocence one would expect to find in a teenage boy was gone, reced instead with cold indifference.

    The young man looked at his reflection for a long moment, then lifted his foot and stepped on the mirror.

    CRACK!

    He left the shattered mirror behind as he ran off into the distance.

    Despite being in pieces, the mirror still managed to reflect the light from the sky. Up there, covering the world, and overlooking all living beings, was the half face of a broken god.

    The face seemed indifferent, with its eyes closed, and hair draped down around it. It was a natural part of this world, simr to the sun and moon.

    Beneath it, the living beings of the world were like bugs. Insects. And as in the Awakening of Insects, the lives of all creatures in the world were influenced by that face, and changed because of it.

    Beneath the face of the god, radiance and light slowly faded from the day.

    The shadows cast by the setting sun created a haze that filled the ruins, covering all the surroundingnds, as if to swallow them whole.

    The rain fell harder.

    As the darkness deepened and the wind picked up, sharp wailing drifted through the air.

    It sounded like the cries of evil ghosts, calling out to rouse whatever grues lurked in the ruins. The sounds were spine-tingling, and would shock the souls of whoever heard them.

    The young man ran through the streets faster and with more urgency as darkness fell. Eventually, he ran past a copsed house and was about to keep moving when his pupils constricted.

    Just now, he had spotted a person off in the distance. This person didn''t seem to bear any injury at all, and wore fine clothing as he leaned up against a wall. Most importantly, his skin looked normal. It wasn¡¯t greenish-ck! In ruins like this, only a living person could possibly look like that!

    The young man hadn¡¯t seen any living people for a long time. This unexpected development left him feeling shaken. Then, a thought urred to him, and he started breathing heavily, as though he were nervous.

    He wanted to keep going, except that the darkness was closing in from behind. He hesitated for a moment. Then hemitted this position to mind and hurried away.

    Just before darkness truly fell, the young man reached his dwelling ce in the ruins. It was a very small cave with bird feathers scattered about everywhere.

    The only way inside was a crack too small for an adult to fit through. However, the young man could just barely squeeze through.

    Once inside, he would cram misceneous items like books and rocks into the crack to seal it up.

    Just as he finished sealing himself inside, it becamepletely dark outside.

    However, the young man didn¡¯t rx. He kept his iron spike gripped tightly in his hand, and masked his breathing as he crouched there listening to what was happening outside. Soon, he heard the sound of mutant beasts howling and gruesughing.

    Some of the howling grew more distinct, closer. The boy became nervous. However, the howling passed by the cave and faded away. Eventually, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    As he sat down in the cave, time seemed to stop. He remained in a daze for a while as his tightly wound nerves rxed.

    Off to the side was a kettle of water. He drank. Then, ignoring the sounds outside, he took the vulture carcass out of his sack.

    He ate, ripping off flesh and swallowing bite by bite. It tasted bitter, but he kept eating, forcing the meat into his belly. He felt rumbling as his stomach struggled to digest the new material. Only when he''dpletely devoured the vulture did he take a deep breath and close his eyes to sleep.

    He ached from exhaustion, and yet he kept a firm grip on his iron spike. He was like a lone wolf, ready to wake up at the slightest sign of anything unusual.

    The darkness outside covered the city like a nket, filling the dome of heaven.

    The world beneath that dome of heaven was immense. The continent of South Phoenix was only one location in the sprawling sea. No one really knew how big the entire world was. However, everyone in the world who looked up into the sky would see that broken face above.

    It was impossible to say when exactly the broken face hade.

    However, from passages in certain ancient records, it was known that it arrived long, long ago. The world had once been filled with the energy of immortals, and had been a glorious and flourishing ce, bursting with life. Until¡­ that immense face came from the void, devouring and destroying.

    Upon the arrival of the face, all living beings in the world united to stop it. But they failed. In the end, a small group of Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns led their people away in a great exodus.

    Not long after the broken face arrived to hang over the world, a nightmare began.

    When h¨©s aura filled the world, it came to pass that the mountains, the oceans, and all living creatures became tainted. Even the spirit power used by cultivators in their cultivation was no exception. [3]

    Living beings withered. Countless people were destroyed. Almost everything died.

    Those few individuals who survived the cmity looked up at the half-face in the sky and called it¡­ a god. They called their world Armageddon, and the ce the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns departed to came to be known as a holynd. As the calendar eras passed, generation after generation used these names.

    There was more to the cmity brought by this god. H¨©s might continued to oppress the living beings of the world, and that was because¡­

    Every so often, sometimes once in a decade, sometimes once in a century, the god would open h¨©s eyes for a short time.

    When that happened, the location looked upon would be infected by h¨©s aura.

    The people there would experience catastrophe, and that location would forevermore be known as a forbidden region. Over the years, more and more forbidden regions came to exist in the world, while the inhabitable areas grew fewer and fewer.

    Nine days ago, the god¡¯s eyes opened and looked down onto the area where this young man lived.

    There were dozens of human cities there, and countless living things. All of it, including the slums outside the cities, were infected as a result, and turned into a forbidden region.

    The terrifying pollution caused many living things to instantly explode into clouds of blood. But others mutated into mindless beasts. In other cases, the souls of the living beings departed, leaving behind greenish-ck corpses.

    Only a few humans and animals survived.

    This young man was one of them.

    A mournful voice echoed out in the darkness, and when the young man realized it wasing closer to his cave, his eyes snapped open.

    Lifting his iron skewer, he looked in the direction of the crack.

    The voice circled around, then moved away. He breathed a sigh of relief.

    Suddenly not feeling in the mood to sleep, he felt around for his sack, found it, and pulled out a bamboo slip from inside.

    It was dark, but he could feel the text carved into the bamboo, and was thus able to read without light. Sitting up, he started to breathe in a prescribed fashion.

    This young man was named Xu Qing, and from a very young age he had eked out a living in the slums outside the city. [4]

    Nine days ago when the catastrophe struck, he hid in a crevice. And unlike all the terrified people around him, he looked up into the sky at the god, and into those open eyes. The god¡¯s pupils were shaped like crosses, and upon seeing them, the terror in Xu Qing¡¯s heart vanished.

    It was also at that moment that he saw a violet light descend from the heavens andnd somewhere in the northeastern part of the city. Then he passed out. When he woke up, he was the only survivor in the slums.

    However, he didn¡¯t start exploring.

    He knew that when the god¡¯s eyes opened, a forbidden region would form. And when that happened, a rain of blood would fall, forming a boundary around the forbidden region. Because of that boundary, people inside the forbidden region couldn¡¯t leave. Nor could anyone on the outsidee in, at least until the forbidden region was fully formed.

    And that would happen when the rain stopped.

    To Xu Qing, who had grown up in rough conditions, this catastrophe wasn¡¯t that bad. The slums had been filled with thugs, stray dogs, and gues. On any freezing night, he could have lost his life. It had always been a struggle to survive.

    As long as he stayed alive, nothing else mattered.

    That said, his brutal life in the slums had contained bits of warmth.

    For instance, there were asional down-and-out schrs who came to teach sses to the children, and instruct them how to read.

    Xu Qing also had some memories of his family. However, those memories were getting more difficult to hold on to, and he had the feeling that they would fade away eventually. At the very least, he knew he wasn¡¯t an orphan. He did have a family. He¡¯d just lost touch with them long ago.

    In any case, his dream was simply to keep on living. If he could do that, then maybe he could find his family again one day.

    Given that he¡¯d somehow survived the catastrophe, he decided to go explore the city.

    He had two goals when he set out. The first was to find the city magistrate¡¯s mansion, where rumor had it there was a method to be stronger. His second goal was to find the spot where that violet light fell.

    That method of getting stronger was something everyone in the slums wanted to get. They called it cultivation. And anyone who practiced cultivation was called a cultivator.

    Bing a cultivator was Xu Qing¡¯s strongest desire, other than reuniting with his family.

    Cultivators weren''t verymon. In all his years in the slums, Xu Qing had only ever once glimpsed one off in the distance in the city. One distinctive characteristic of cultivators was that they caused people who looked at them to tremble. Xu Qing had heard that the magistrate himself was a cultivator, as were all of his guards.

    Five days ago during his search of the city, he finally found the city magistrate¡¯s manor. And on a corpse there, he found the very bamboo slip he currently held in his hand. It had been a dangerous adventure, and it ended with him sustaining that grievous wound to the chest.

    However, the bamboo slip also contained the secrets of cultivation that he had longed for.

    He had memorized the contents of the slip, and had already begun practicing cultivation.

    Because Xu Qing knew literally nothing about cultivation to begin with, he wasn¡¯t sure if the technique described in the slip was authentic. Thankfully, the text was easy to understand, and focused around visualizations and breathing.

    By following the exact routine, he had already achieved some results.

    The method was called the Sea and Mountain Incantation. The cultivation method involved visualizing the image inscribed on the bamboo slip, and then breathing in a prescribed fashion.

    The image was strange. It depicted a bizarre creature with arge head, a small body, and a single leg. Its body was pitch ck, and its face was vicious, like that of an evil ghost. Xu Qing had never seen a creature like that in real life, but the bamboo slip described it as a goblin. [5]

    Not long after he conjured the image in his mind and started breathing, the air around him stirred.

    Streams of spirit power flowed into him, filling his body, reaching every corner of his being. It caused icy cold to reach his bones, making him feel like he was submerged in ice water.

    Xu Qing feared the cold, but he refused to give up, and continued with the session of cultivation.

    Then, after continuing ording to the description on the bamboo slip, he ended the session and found that he was sweating. Despite having just eaten the entire vulture, he felt pangs of hunger in his belly. Wiping the sweat off of himself, he rubbed his belly.

    Ever since he started training in this technique, he found himself getting much hungrier. However, he was also a lot more athletic. Because of that, his tolerance to the cold grew greater.

    Having finished with cultivation, he looked toward the crack, and beyond it, the outside.

    It was still dark, and the terrifying sounds outside were waxing and waning.

    He wasn¡¯t sure why he had survived the catastrophe. Maybe it was luck. Or maybe¡­ it had something to do with that violet light.

    That was why, even as he continued to train in the new technique, he had traveled all the way to the northeast of the city. However, he had not yet found where the violet lightnded.

    Xu Qing thought about these matters as he paid attention to the howls outside. He couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how he¡¯d found that corpse leaning up against the wall the day before at nightfall.

    That corpse had been in the northeast section of the city. And¡­ it actually looked like a living person.

    Don¡¯t tell me it has something to do with that violet light¡­?

    1. The type of skewer described is the kind that is often used to serve skewered meat at street-side stalls in China. Such skewers might have a handle like this or they might have no handle, like this. ?

    2. Traditional Chinese medicine shops usually have walls filled with drawers that contain medicinal ingredients. If you¡¯re unfamiliar with that, here¡¯s a photo reference. ?

    3. The god is described using a unique pronoun for divine beings. It¡¯s pronounced the same as all other pronouns in Chinese, but looks different. I¡¯m going to use a diacritical mark above the vowel in the pronoun to indicate when the divine pronoun is being used. The pronoun usage does be importantter. ?

    4. Xu is listed #11 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Xu also means ¡°slowly, gently.¡± Qing means ¡°green, blue, cyan.¡± Forgetting the tones involved, the pronunciation of Xu is, roughly speaking, like the English word shoe. If you want to be slightly more urate, add a Y sound after the SH. In other words, ¡°shyoo.¡± Qing is basically pronounced ¡°cheeng.¡± Obviously, there is more nuance if you want to havepletely urate Chinese pronunciation, but saying the name as Shoe Cheeng will suffice. If you¡¯d like to hear the name pronounced by Google, you can click here and hit the ¡®listen¡¯ button on the left-hand side. Madam Deathde says this name sounds ¡°schrly,¡± and makes her think of a young, quiet, and well-behaved boy. Those familiar with I Shall Seal the Heavens might remember that there was a character named Xu Qing, who was the protagonist¡¯s main love interest. Though the pinyin and tones are the same for their names, the Chinese characters are different. The female Xu Qing from ISSTH is ÐíÇå while the young man in this novel is ÐíÇà. Both are pronounced X¨³ Q¨©ng, but if you look closely, you can see that the given name is a different Chinese character. ?

    5. The creature described here is from the ssic of Mountains and Seas. In pinyin it¡¯s ¡°xiao¡± and it¡¯s basically described there as it is here in the narrative. Here¡¯s a link to an artist''s depiction of this type of creature. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Greetings everyone! I have a few things to exin about the trantion. I encourage you to read everything, but if you¡¯re not so inclined, skip whatever you¡¯d like!

    Thanks and credits - Many thanks to the team of advance readers, proofreaders, editors, and consultants who help out before the chapters see the light of day. As of theunch, this team consists of: Hawk 9211, Jeddrick, Lorin Bucure, Saline Prune, Sara K., Senior Nepuko, Stompound, The Fiery Moth. Thanks to UnifiedDivide for volunteering to be the official proofreader. Many thanks to RWX for starting the ball rolling on this project and doing his best to make sure it happened despite all the tumultuous events at Wuxiaworld and his ultimate departure. Thanks to Grace for all her hard work. And most of all, thanks to my wife Madam Deathde, for supporting me through the years, and also providing immense help on thenguage side.

    Typos, mistakes, etc. - If you notice any mistakes, please let me know! I will be checkingments, but the ideal notification method would be a DM on Twitter or Discord, or ping me on my Discord server.

    Footnotes (including new bonus feature!) - I¡¯m adding a new footnote feature, and that¡¯s an exnation of the ¡°feeling¡± of the names of the important characters. I¡¯ll do this by asking my wife, Madam Deathde (who is a native Chinese speaker and scored at the top of her ss in standardized Mandarin testing at college in China), for her no-context impression of the names of the characters. I think this will give you an added insight into how these characters are perceived by Chinese readers.

    I¡¯ll also use footnotes to exin certain cultural or linguistic things. In addition, if something is a callback to roughly 10 or more chapters back, I¡¯ll include a reference footnote, as I know a lot of readers like to check those things.

    Some insight into why I trante things the way I do - I hope to make the reading experience such that you experience the story as close as possible to a native speaker of Chinese. For this reason, I try to avoid trantions that are wildly different from their intended perception by the reader. For instance, you will not see any ¡°this old man will kill you¡± or ¡°you dare.¡± If you want more details about my thoughts on this, check out my book Understanding Chinese Fantasy Novels.

    I think of tranting, not as converting bits of text from onenguage to another, but rather, conveying thoughts. When I read, I think ¡°what is the point of this sentence/paragraph/chapter?¡± And I try to make sure those thoughtse across. Because of this, if youpare my trantion to the original text, you¡¯ll find that it won¡¯t match up perfectly. In line with the section below ¡°Er Gen deputized me,¡± I sometimes change sentence structure, paragraph structure, etc. I shift things around, nip and prune the text as necessary, and try to create something that flows well and conveys all the original thoughts.

    Chinese is a high-contextnguage and culture, which basically means that thoughts are often not stated inly. In many cases, a reader needs to pick up on the meaning through vague context or subtext. Often, this makes it difficult for someone reading in English to understand what¡¯s trying to be said. In those cases, I¡¯ll sometimes take those vague thoughts and state them more clearly. That said, there are also asions in which the Chinese text does the opposite, and inly states things that are obvious from context (in my opinion, this is sometimes also rted to the dao of filler). So asionally, I¡¯ll cut those things as part of my editing process.

    Along this same vein, I¡¯ll asionally tweak the way character names are introduced. In the original text, names are sometimes used (either in the narrative or dialogue), without being introduced. Given the way names are perceived in Chinese, this isn¡¯t as jarring as it is in English. I will asionally tweak the text so that such name introductions aren¡¯t as jarring.

    How I trante cussing - Over the years I¡¯ve seenments iming that I ¡°censor¡± the cuss words. This isn¡¯t true. My simple method of tranting cussing is to first determine how ¡°bad¡± thenguage is. PG? PG-13? R? Can kids say this ¡°bad word¡± at home around their parents? At school in front of their teachers? Can it be used on broadcast TV in China? Etc. I then pick an appropriate English equivalent.

    In many cases, the author will use euphemisms. For example, he¡¯ll use the equivalent of darn/dang instead of damn, or shoot instead of sh*t. In some instances, he¡¯ll use words that aren¡¯t ¡°bad words¡± at all, but are still insulting. Sometimes they¡¯re archaic. Sometimes they¡¯re inventive. Regardless, I try to match equivalent words that wille across to the reader in a roughly simr way as they do in Chinese. To be clear, I¡¯m not averse to using cuss words. One fan-favorite character in my original cultivation novel is a guy who cusses nonstop.

    Warning, this is a ¡°live¡± trantion - Because this novel is ongoing, it¡¯s possible thatter plot revtions might change some trantion decisions. The author sometimes lets hundreds of chapters go by without exining what some things mean. Although I¡¯m in contact with the author, I can¡¯t pester him with endless questions. I reserve the right to make changes based onter information. If that happens, I¡¯ll exin the decision in a chapter note or footnote.

    Er Gen deputized me - The author, Er Gen, has given me permission (and even encouraged me) to make minor changes to his writing to conform to western fiction conventions and cultural aspects. I¡¯m sure ISSTH fans remember the ¡°seafood song.¡± That song was based on a popr Chinese song at the time, and Er Gen suggested topletely change his version and use a popr Western song as the basis instead. By the time he made that suggestion, I¡¯d already tranted it and it had be ¡°a thing,¡± so I didn¡¯t see the need to change it. But the point is, he¡¯s fine with making some cosmetic changes to make the story more essible and enjoyable to Western readers. And that brings me to the next point¡­.

    I hate muttering - Years ago when I was tranting ISSTH, I made a decision (backed by a reader poll if I remember correctly), to not have the characters constantly muttering to themselves. This is amon trope and of course you also see it inic books, anime, etc. I¡¯m talking about the characters literally talking to themselves out loud constantly to advance the plot, provide exposition, etc. In many cases, I¡¯m changing that to italicized internal dialogue. I do keep some ¡°muttering¡± because, of course, there is the genre trope of muttered dialogue asionally being overheard by others. Is the author okay with this? Read the previous point if you haven¡¯t already.

    Chinese idioms - Chinese has many four-character idioms, also known as chengyu, as well as folk sayings and expressions. In many cases, I will trante them directly and put them in italics so that you, the reader, will know that they¡¯re Chinese idioms. I also started doing this because of a reader poll back in the ISSTH days. The vast majority of readers liked to see the direct trantions of the idioms, and also have them ¡°gged¡± with italics so they¡¯re easy to spot.

    Trantion continuity - As much as possible, I want to maintain continuity with my previous Er Gen trantions. So in most cases I¡¯m going to use the same terms as the other novels, even if there is a better option. In some cases, though, I will use an updated term. In those cases I¡¯ll exin in a footnote.

    Spoiler chapter titles - If a chapter title contains a big plot spoiler, or spoils something that happens at the end of the chapter, I will use the spoiler title option. This won¡¯t happen very often.

    Splitting very long chapters - There are some chapters that are unusually long. In some cases, I¡¯ll split these chapters and release them as separate chapters. This is because it takes as much as double the time to trante them. In the early chapters, this only happens a couple times (for instance Chapter 1, though I¡¯m not splitting it), but then the author settles into a rhythm of normal-sized chapters. Later on, the author has more unusually long chapters.

 Chapter 2: Mutagen

    Chapter 2: Mutagen

    If that''s a living person, maybe he¡¯s also after that violet light. Or maybe it¡¯s a trap.

    In the days Xu Qing had spent in this ruined city, he hade to deeply understand what happened when the god¡¯s aura infected living beings; it turned them into mutant beasts. They became iparably vicious, and profoundly strong.

    However, perhaps because this area hadn¡¯t fully transformed, most of the mutant beasts spent daylight hours sleeping. The only exception was if they were disturbed, such as when he went to get that jade slip. Normally speaking, as long as you were careful, you didn¡¯t have to worry about them.

    Truth be told, Xu Qing was leerier of living people than the mutant beasts. After all, sometimes people were a lot more treacherous than animals.

    After thinking about the matter for a bit longer, his eyes gradually turned even colder. It didn¡¯t matter if there was a living person there. And it didn¡¯t matter if it was a trap. He had to go back there.

    That said, he knew that if he nned to do so, he had to bepletely prepared.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he looked at the bamboo slip in his hand.

    He had been training for days now using the slip, and it had done a lot more for him than improve his stamina and confidence. It had firmly fixed the cultivation technique into his mind, and also provided him with some general information about cultivation.

    Cultivation had a history that went back into ancient times, before the arrival of the broken face of the god.

    Although some things had changed since the old days, the system was mostly as it had always been. It was broken into Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Gold Core, and Nascent Soul.

    Whatever was after Nascent Soul, it was too advanced, and the bamboo slip didn¡¯t talk about it. However, the slip did exin how difficult cultivation was for cultivators.

    The god''s aura tainted spirit power. To living beings, that taint was the same as a deadly poison.

    At some point in the past, people took to calling the god¡¯s aura ¡®mutagen.¡¯

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure about the details. He just knew that whenever he practiced cultivation, he felt very cold, and that was probably because his spirit power was infected with mutagen.

    When enough mutagen built up inside a cultivator¡¯s body, they would experience mutation. In some cases, they would explode in a cloud of blood. Other times, they would transform into mindless beasts.

    When the god¡¯s eyes opened to look at an area, the mutagen there would instantly be more concentrated. In turn, that would elerate the mutations.

    Cultivation was inherently dangerous, but avoiding it wasn¡¯t possible.

    Xu Qing lived on the world of Armageddon, which was infected by the aura of the god, a world in which the lifespan of humans had a limit, and disease was rampant. Living here was like living in the Nine Serenities. Few people here died peacefully in their sleep. [1]

    Without any other options, cultivation became a path that most people had no choice but to follow.

    For countless years, people had passed down legacies and used them to develop cultivation techniques.

    The traditional method nowadays was to absorb spirit power and use cultivation techniques to iste the mutagen in a specific part of one''s body. That part of the body came to be called the mutation blotch.

    Because of that, the amount of mutagen a technique could iste became an important standard in determining the hierarchy of techniques.

    The techniques that isted high quantities of mutagen were controlled by powerful groups and ns. Such techniques were those organizations¡¯ biggest asset. Of course, a simr state of affairs would have existed whether the god came or not.

    Because of the differences in cultivation techniques, and the different ways of isting mutagen, the location of the mutation blotches could vary.

    Regardless, as long as one practiced cultivation, one had to deal with mutagen, and because of that, would gradually develop a mutation blotch.

    Mutation blotches could never be truly eliminated. Some medicinal pills could dissolve them, but that was only treating the symptom and not the root cause.

    That said, Xu Qing¡¯s bamboo slip did mention there was a way topletely cleanse a mutation blotch. On Armageddon, there were other locations besides South Phoenix. One of them was a massive continent called Revered Ancient. It was considered the maind of the world. That was where humans originated, and though it was also infected by the aura of the god, they had apparently discovered a way to cleanse themselves of it.

    That said, whatever the method was, it couldn''t be widely practiced. Only very important people could use it. For ordinary cultivators, it was just a dream.

    And as for the endless numbers of rogue cultivators, they didn¡¯t have a chance at all. Rogue cultivators had the lowest and weakest techniques of all, which made their practice of cultivation difficult, and put them at high risk of mutation.

    Even despite those dangers, cultivators were still amon sight everywhere.

    That included Xu Qing. After all, he also counted as a rogue cultivator.

    With his bamboo slip, he was like all the other cultivators on Armageddon, walking a dangerous path of no return. They were like mortals who swam into a deep sea toward an unreachable shore on the other side. Most would run out of energy and die long beforeying eyes on that legendary distant shore.

    Xu Qing, who had grown up in the slums outside the city, knew that all it took was one fight gone wrong, or one bout of sickness, and his life could be over.

    Wondering if I might mutate someday in the future is better than wondering if I¡¯ll live through tomorrow, he thought, rubbing absently at the wound on his chest as he looked up into the sky.

    It would be light again soon, and the howling and screaming outside was already starting to fade.

    If this blood rain keeps up, and I can''t find that violet light, then I should think about leaving. Maybe go to a different city to look for medicine.

    He looked down at his wound.

    Because of the god¡¯s aura and the endless blood rainfall, virtually everything in this city was deeply infected, and that included the medicinal nts. The supplies here were deficient at best.

    Xu Qing brushed as much of the blood-infused water away from his wound as possible.

    Face pale, he took a deep breath as he removed his upper garment from beneath the leather jerkin, used it to wrap up his wound, then steeled himself and waited for dawn.

    Not long thereafter, the howling and screaming grew even fainter.

    When it waspletely gone, Xu Qing peered out through the crack and confirmed that the sky waspletely bright.

    Based on his past experience, he knew that it was safe to emerge. However, he didn¡¯t immediately go out. Instead, he got to his feet and started stretching out his stiff joints.

    After he was warmed up, he unsealed the crack, then took advantage of the light to open his sack and look inside.

    Taking out a rusty dagger from inside, he strapped it to his thigh. Then he equipped his ck iron skewer. Finally, he pulled out a severed snake head, which was carefully wrapped up in a cloth. After opening the cloth to inspect it, he put it back in the pouch.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, they were hard and cold.

    With that, he stepped out into the open.

    Outside, he looked around carefully, and seeing that the coast was clear, started moving beneath the brightening sky.

    Blood rain continued to fall from the overcast sky, so there was no sun or sunlight.

    The early morning light seemed like the turbid gaze of a sick old man, slowly piercing the scattered remnants of night fog. And that old man¡¯s exhtions were the dawn breeze, packed with the cold vor of death.

    If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t taken the time to warm up earlier, that breeze would¡¯ve had him trembling. Thankfully, he had enough warmth in him to be unaffected.

    Maintaining a good speed, he headed toward where he¡¯d seen that living person the day before.

    From a high vantage point, he could be seen slipping through the empty ruins like a leopard, moving with fluid grace as he asionally leaped over crumbling walls.

    Keeping pace with him high above was a flock of birds. As he ran, Xu Qing looked up at them and licked his lips. Unfortunately, they were too high for him to reach.

    For some unknown reason, when the god¡¯s eyes opened, all living beings were infected, and most died. That included the animals. The only exceptions were the birds.

    In the past few days, Xu Qing had been hunting birds just like that, in the hopes of alleviating the aching hunger in his belly.

    Although birds would asionally get caught in the blood rain, for the most part they were instinctively capable of finding safe ces to stay. For example, the cave Xu Qing had been staying in was a ce he¡¯d found when tracking down some birds.

    Truth be told, ces like that weren¡¯tpletely safe. However, the grues and mutant beasts tended to overlook them for some unusual reason.

    Actually, it was only one of two noteworthy locations he¡¯d identified. The second was the city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    Right now, he ignored the birds, forgot about the manor, and headed toward the spot from yesterday.

    As he got closer, he decided not to simply approach directly, but instead, to circle around a hill that overlooked the area.

    After carefully climbing to the top of the hill, he stayed on his stomach and kept his eyelids as slits to prevent the sh of his eyes from revealing his position. With that, he looked down.

    Instantly, his pupils constricted, as he yet again saw the person he¡¯d seen yesterday!

    As before, he sat next to one of the crumbled walls, wearing fine clothing, his skinpletely normal. Most importantly... everything about him, from his posture to his position, were exactly the same as Xu Qing remembered. It was as if he¡¯d spent the whole night without moving an inch.

    That made no sense.

    If this guy was alive, he couldn¡¯t possibly have just ignored the dangerous things that lurked in the night in this city. And if he was dead, his uninfected corpse would have been devoured by mutant beasts.

    Xu Qingy there quietly, thinking the matter over and not moving. Having grown up in the slums, he had long since learned patience.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely as he simply remained in ce observing the situation. Eventually, noontime came and went.

    Only after waiting for six full hours did Xu Qing finally reach out and pick up a rock, which he threw in the direction of the man.

    It hit the man with a thump. He swayed back and forth, then toppled over like one would expect a corpse to do.

    As he fell, a wisp of violet light appeared in the spot he¡¯d been sitting. The sight of it caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter. For days now, he had been searching for a violet light that he¡¯d seen falling into this city.

    He had to hold back from rushing forward instantly. And even with all his self-control, he could onlyst for a few seconds before bursting into motion. He seemed to be running with all his might, moving with the speed of a falcon toward whatever was emitting the violet light.

    Reaching the light, he grabbed the object, spun in ce, then sprinted away.

    It all happened very quickly. And it was only when he was about thirty meters away that he stopped, huffing and puffing, to look down at the violet object in his hands.

    It was a beautiful crystal, sparkling and translucent.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded in his chest as he looked back at the toppled corpse. Perhaps because the violet light no longer protected it, the clothing was already decaying, and the corpse¡¯s skin was turning greenish-ck.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing instinctively clutched the violet crystal tightly against his chest. Then he turned in the direction of his cave and started running.

    After a time, he slowed down and looked around, seemingly confused.

    Pulling aside the ps of the leather jerkin, he looked at his chest.

    There was no pain anymore. Instead, the spot only itched a bit.

    Eyes filling with suspicion, he untied the garment he¡¯d used as a bandage. When he looked at the wound on his chest, his expression flickered dramatically.

    Last he¡¯d checked, the wound was still festering, with ckness building up on the edges....

    But right now, the wound was almostpletely healed, with only some light scar tissue on the edges. He didn¡¯t see any blood at all.

    What...? Panting, he looked down at the violet crystal in his hand.

    1. ¡°Nine Serenities¡± is one of many poetic ways in Chinese to describe hell/the underworld. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    By the way, the Chinese characters in the title that I''m tranting as "timescape" form a poetic and umon word that simply means "time." I chose to trante it as "timescape" for various reasons that wille to light muchter....

 Chapter 3: May You Rest in Peace

    Chapter 3: May You Rest in Peace

    What is this thing¡­?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he thought back to how the corpse had beenpletely intact before he took the violet crystal away.

    It can keep corpses intact, and can also heal living people?

    Keeping a firm grip on the crystal, he looked around the area, his heart racing. He knew that there probably weren¡¯t any other living people around, but nheless, he felt the need to be extra cautious.

    Of course, he also knew he couldn¡¯t just stand around, so he started moving again, heading back toward his cave as quickly as possible. As he moved, he realized that not only was his wound healing rapidly, but also he felt a lot less weary.

    He was currently running at a speed that, normally speaking, he could only keep up for about an hour. However, he had already run for more than an hour, and he felt fine. In fact, he was still bursting with energy.

    He was even able to snatch a fallen bird as he moved along the road. He didn¡¯t kill it. Instead, he rendered it unconscious; living creatures stayed fresh a lot longer.

    Finally, he reached the cave. There was still time before night fell, but he was already here.

    Despite his unheard-of good mood, he hadn¡¯t suddenly be careless.

    He knew that, perhaps because of the opening of the god¡¯s eye and the creation of the forbidden region, mutant beasts weren¡¯t the only things that came out at night. There were also grues. Even back in the slums he¡¯d been raised in, he¡¯d heard stories about grues showing up in ces where a lot of people had died. Theughter he asionally heard out in the darkness came from one such creature.

    Everybody knew that you shouldn''t look at, touch, or even get close to a grue.

    Based on Xu Qing¡¯s experience, they always came out at night. However, he had no way of knowing for sure if they could appear during the daytime as well.

    Therefore, he didn¡¯t slow down when he spotted his cave in the distance. Moving at top speed, he shot inside, then quickly sealed the crack.

    Only then did he sit down cross-legged and open his hands. Violet light radiated upward, illuminating the entirety of the small cave, and causing Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter with the same color.

    Withplete focus, he stared down at the crystal.

    It was long and thin, about the same size as one of his fingers, and looked like it had something soft and downy inside. In fact, the violet light wasing from that substance inside the crystal.

    After a time, a thought urred to him. Is my wound healed?

    Pulling open the leather jerkin, he looked down as saw the wound was about ny percent healed.

    The parts that weren¡¯t healed wouldn¡¯t take much longer to return to normal, and the scar tissue on the edges of the wound was starting to fade away.

    Given how hard he¡¯d run, and how he didn¡¯t feel tired, Xu Qing had alreadye to some conclusions about this crystal. It went without saying that the item had restorative properties. It could heal wounds, restore one¡¯s strength, and replenish one¡¯s life force!

    I wonder if it does anything else, he thought, his eyes shining thoughtfully.

    He wasn¡¯t certain if this violet crystal had anything to do with the opening of the god¡¯s eyes, but it seemed like a good possibility.

    Regardless, it was a precious treasure. He had never in his entire life heard of anything so spectacr. With something as useful as this in his possession, he might as well have a second life. However, the only reason he managed to get his hand on it was that he was the only living person in the city to find it. Once the blood rain stopped, and he left¡­ how could he possibly keep the thing safe?

    He had to think of a good way to hide the violet crystal¡­

    After some thought, he pulled out the unconscious bird he¡¯d picked up earlier.

    After binding its beak so it couldn¡¯t cry out, he took the dagger from his thigh and sliced open a cut on the creature.

    The bird struggled vainly as Xu Qing then pushed the violet crystal into the wound.

    Then he kept his eyes wide open as he watched what happened.

    Despite the bird¡¯s struggling, the air rippled and flowed with spirit power. In fact, there was far more spirit power at work than when Xu Qing practiced cultivation. And it all moved toward the bird.

    The bird suddenly struggled with much more force than before, until Xu Qing was having trouble restraining it.

    That caused his eyes to grow even wider. The bird was getting out of control.

    Usually, it would only take a bit of effort to snap the neck of a bird. But this time he had to try several times in a row before it worked.

    He quickly extracted the crystal from the bird¡¯s body, examined it, then closed his eyes in thought.

    The bird didn¡¯t die when I inserted the crystal. Instead, it received an influx of spirit power. And it also got a lot stronger. I¡¯d say¡­ this crystal isn¡¯t dangerous.

    A momentter, he opened his eyes and, withplete resolve, shoved the violet crystal into the still-closing wound on his chest. Pain rippled through him, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it.

    There could be no safer ce to hide this thing than inside his own body.

    Besides, his experiment moments ago proved that having it inside him would bring significant benefits.

    As the crystal entered him, the wound continued to heal, and at the same time, he felt himself trembling.

    Then he saw flows of spirit power that surpassed anything from the bird experiment, rushing toward him from all directions, even out of the ground.

    It was such an astonishing volume that Xu Qing¡¯s skin turned a faint green color. At the same time, intense coldness filled him from head to toe. That was because of the high level of mutagen in the spirit power.

    However, Xu Qing had been ready for that from the beginning. Without any hesitation, he started using the Sea and Mountain Incantation. As he did, the spirit power that entered him separated from the mutagen.

    Therefore, it was only pure spirit power that flowed through his meridians and into his body. A momentter, popping sounds rang out from inside him. It was almost as if silt that had been choking his insides was being cleared out. At the same time, his flesh and blood felt invigorated and healthy.

    Within his mind appeared the image of a goblin, extremely lifelike and energetic.

    Though the Sea and Mountain Incantation was a cultivation technique, it wasn¡¯t a cultivation magic, but rather, a body refinement method.

    It was divided into ten levels that corresponded to the ten levels of Qi Condensation.

    His bamboo slip gave a clear introduction, exining that each level provided the strength of a tiger. The strength of five tigers ultimatelybined to make the strength of a goblin. And the strength of two goblinsbined to make the strength of a hobgoblin.

    ording to the popr saying, goblins can move mountains, hobgoblins can transport seas. And thus, the name of the technique came to be the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    The violet crystal in his chest was like a whirlpool, constantly rotating as it sucked in masses of spirit power. Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation advanced dramatically.

    It was hard to say how much time passed, but eventually, the popping sounds inside of him grew more and more intense. Filth oozed out of the pores in his body and a noxious aroma filled the little cave.

    As the filth emerged, Xu Qing¡¯s body glittered like the morning dew. Though his face was covered with disgusting grime, it was clearly fairer than before.

    More time passed. Eventually, the flows of spirit power ceased, and Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    This time, they glittered with violet light.

    He looked around, stunned.

    The cave was pitch ck, but he could actually see everything quite clearly. Next, he looked down at himself, and an expression of utter incredulity filled his face.

    This feeling¡­.

    Standing, heunched an experimental punch, and a sharp wind whipped through the cave.

    The cave was too small to test how fast he could run, but based on the sensationsing from his arms and legs, he knew that he had definitely surpassed what he was capable of before.

    Reaching up with his right hand, he pulled back the sleeve covering his left arm. When he saw a dark blotch the size of a fingernail there, he took a deep, excited breath.

    So, I reached the first level of Qi Condensation!

    ording to the description in his bamboo slip, the ck spot was a mutation blotch. When practicing the Sea and Mountain Incantation, that mutation blotch was supposed to appear on the left arm. Every time he advanced in level, a new blotch would appear.

    Rubbing the mutation blotch, Xu Qing tried to control his excitement about getting so much stronger. Walking back to the entrance of the cave, he looked out through the crack and tried to decide if he should wait until it was light to go and do some tests.

    Only a moment passed before a vignt expression took over his face. Leaning his head closer to the crack, he strained his ears to detect any sound from outside.

    It waspletely dark outside, but he couldn¡¯t hear any of the usual bizarre sounds.

    He had been in this ce for days and had never experienced anything like this. Furthermore, even during the daytime, when the sound of the grues and mutant beasts ceased, there would still be the sound of the blood rain.

    But right now, he couldn¡¯t hear the rain.

    Don¡¯t tell me¡­.

    His heart pounded as he considered the implications.

    He waited in silence for a time, until a dazzling ray of sunlight shot down, entered the crack in the cave entrance, and illuminated everything within.

    The light caused Xu Qing to tremble.

    He reached his hand out to intercept the beam of light, and when he felt the warmth, it slowly brought him back to his senses.

    Sunlight¡­.

    A moment passed, then Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with excitement. Unsealing the crack, he slowly stepped out into the sunlight. Looking up, he didn¡¯t see any of the dark clouds that had filled the sky before. Instead, he saw the dazzling sun.

    That light was like a sick old man who had a new lease on life, and was finallying to visit the human world.

    The rain¡­ it stopped.

    Xu Qing took in a deep breath of the sun-filled air, then looked around at the ruined city bathed in the morning glow.

    The city seemed dazzling in a way he¡¯d never imagined it could be.

    As the sunlight shot past the crimson clouds on the horizon, it seemed like countless golden whales swimming through the sky. It swept away the sickly fog in the city, revealing the damage that had previously been concealed.

    Copsed houses were everywhere, interspersed with greenish-ck corpses and ghastly pools of blood. Those were the sights that roused Xu Qing from his stupor and reminded him of the catastrophe that had befallen this ce.

    Mixed emotions appeared in his eyes. He had lived for six years in the slums outside the walls of this city. In other words, it had been for six years that he gazed down on this ce. Though he had been in the city on numerous asions, during that entire six years, he had only dreamed of actually living inside.

    I found my cultivation technique here.

    I got the violet crystal here.

    I¡­ lived here.

    After a while, he sighed softly, then walked over to one of the greenish-ck corpses. He looked down at it, stooped, and pulled the corpse onto his back. Then he started walking.

    Eventually he reached a public square, where he put the corpse down. Turning, he went and found a second corpse. Then a third, and a fourth¡­.

    Some corpses justy on the street, others were buried in rubble. Some corpses were intact. Others were mangled.

    One by one, he took as many as he could find and carried them on his back to the square, where he piled them up into a small mountain.

    Eventually, he stood in front of the mountain of corpses with a torch in his hand. He tossed the fire onto the mountain. Perhaps because of the mutagen, the me burned hot, and the smoke rose thick into the air above him.

    He stared at the smoke for a while, then walked to the city¡¯s second district. Before long, smoke rose up from that district as well, thicker¡­ and thicker¡­.

    As the brilliant sun shone down on the city, the ce became full of the smoke of burning corpses.

    The smoke obscured the sun, causing everything to turn red. It was like the sun was heaving a deep sigh, and the streams of smoke were its tears. The shadows cast by the smoke were tearstains on the earth.

    The final tear stain led Xu Qing to the area where he¡¯d found the violet crystal.

    He took the old man from the medicine shop and added him to a pile of corpses to burn. As he stood to the side watching the mes, they reflected in his dark pupils, flickering endlessly.

    The tips of Xu Qing¡¯s long, disheveled hair curled in the heat. Eventually, he sped his hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°May you¡­ rest in peace.¡±

    The mes burned even hotter, sending sparks up like dandelion wisps to float away in the breeze. However, the smoke that drifted up contained unending regret and defiance that could never be dispelled. It rose high, like scars in the sky.

    Insignificant and pointless.

    ***

    Sometimeter, the sound of footsteps rang out. And then, a bizarre and mystifying voice spoke from behind Xu Qing.

    ¡°I was wondering why I didn¡¯t see any corpses around here. It turns out a skinny little brat was wasting his energy cremating them. Ah, whatever. Since you miss them so much, I¡¯ll help you join them!¡±

    Xu Qing spun in ce.

 Chapter 4: An Unexpected Guest

    Chapter 4: An Unexpected Guest

    About seventy or eighty feet away was a group of seven men and women, spread out in a loose formation. They wore clothing of gray leather, and all of them had bags and sacks on their person. Furthermore, they all bore weapons.

    Three had bows and arrows, two had sabers. The weapons were strapped to their backs but ready to use at a moment¡¯s notice.

    One of them, who stood by himself in the middle of their loose formation, wore fighting gauntlets.

    The person who had spoken in the strange voice was a tall, burly man who carried a battle ax. He was the closest to Xu Qing. Scars criss-crossed his vicious-looking face, and he had a full beard. His eyes glittered cruelly, and he shed an evil grin as he walked forward.

    Xu Qing took everything in with a single nce.

    Given the way they were standing around loosely, he got the impression they didn¡¯t normally work together, but rather, had teamed up temporarily for convenience.

    Xu Qing had no problem determining who these people were. They were all... scavengers.

    There was no shortage of scavengers in South Phoenix. Most of them were vicious people who had no bottom line. And they lived lives in which the weak were the prey of the strong.

    Because the blood rain over the forbidden region had stopped, the barrier surrounding it had been opened, attracting these people here.

    The forbidden region was dangerous even to them. But they were people who lived on the edge of a knife, and therefore, the resources avable for the taking here were just too enticing. Just about everything in the city was infected, but there were still valuable things to be taken.

    Mind spinning, Xu Qing turned and prepared to flee.

    However, seeing that, the burly man¡¯s eyes grew crueler, and his grin turned bloodthirsty. ¡°Trying to run? I love ughtering brats like you. I bet you have a lot of loot in that sack of yours. This kid is mine, Sergeant Thunder!¡±

    The burly man¡¯s eyes radiated an overwhelming ferocity that made his massive battle-ax even more intimidating. Striding forward, he raised his ax in his right hand and leaped in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    The ax whistled through the air as it closed in.

    The burly man was both strong and fast. But Xu Qing was faster. Just as it seemed the ax would hit him, he leaped to the side.

    The ax passed right in front of his face, the wind brushing aside his hair to reveal his cold, wolf-like eyes.

    Xu Qing dropped into a roll, and then instead of running away, shot back toward the burly man. That was when his ck iron skewer suddenly appeared in his hand.

    Taking advantage of the fact that he was shorter than his opponent, he jumped, stabbing the skewer toward the taller man¡¯s chin.

    It all happened too quickly. A moment ago, the seemingly frail Xu Qing had made it seem like he wanted to run away, which made it easy to conceal his attack. And now, the burly man was suddenly struck with a feeling of deadly crisis.

    That said, he had a lot of experience. Looking shocked, he lunged backward and threw his head away from the iron skewer. Even still, the skewer hit his chin, slicing open arge cut.

    Before the man could even get angry, Xu Qing¡¯s left hand rose from his thigh with a dagger in it.

    While the burly man was leaning back, Xu Qing dropped down and plunged the dagger into the man¡¯s right foot.

    A poof sound apanied the dagger¡¯s plunge into the leather shoe, through flesh and blood, and into the muddy soil below!

    The burly man¡¯s face distorted as pain ripped through him, and he let loose an agonized shriek. Then, before he could counter attack, the nimble Xu Qing danced backward, slipped behind a section of crumbling wall, and crouched into hiding, waiting to see what would happen next.

    The light of the fire flickered, making it impossible to make out his features clearly. However, his wolf-like facial expression was clear, and it was with both vignce and ferocity that he red out at the scavengers.

    Everything happened so quickly, and Xu Qing himself seemed so young and weak, that the other scavengers didn¡¯t have time to react before he was out of sight.

    Now, they looked around fiercely, and the three with the bows red with very sharp gazes.

    As for Xu Qing, he remained in hiding, not bothering to look at the shrieking man he¡¯d stabbed in the foot. Looking past the three archers, he found his gazeing to rest on the person in the middle of the group, the one with the fighting gauntlets.

    He was an old man, and though he was dressed simr to the others, his eyes seemed sharper. What was more, Xu Qing could sense the fluctuations of spirit power on him. Given where the old man was standing, and the way the others seemed to be instinctively looking at him, Xu Qing had a good guess about who he was.

    This old man... was the leader of his group of scavengers.

    As Xu Qing looked at him, the old man looked back, his eyes flickering with a strange look.

    After a moment, the old man shifted his gaze to the fire and smoke, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

    Meanwhile, the burly man yanked the dagger out of his foot and, eyes zing with fury, started running toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°You brat!¡± he shouted. ¡°I¡¯m gonna kill you!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he prepared to take action. Before he could, the old man spoke in a calm voice.

    ¡°Enough!¡±

    His tone contained such intimidating authority that the burly man immediately stopped in ce and looked back at him. ¡°Sergeant Thunder¡­.¡±

    ¡°This kid is probably a survivor from the slums. The god above let him live, so back off. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°But...¡± the burly man said, obviously not willing to drop the matter so easily. As far as he was concerned, he¡¯d been careless. If he kept up the attack, it would only take a matter of seconds for him to snap Xu Qing¡¯s neck. However, before he could continue with an argument, the old man looked at him casually.

    ¡°Are you really going to talk back to me?¡±

    The burly man struggled to regain hisposure before bowing his head.

    As he did, his eyes flitted to Xu Qing hiding behind the wall, and pure killing intent appeared on his face. Then he turned and limped back in the direction of Sergeant Thunder.

    Sensing the man¡¯s killing intent, Xu Qing kept his eyes on the scavengers as they left.

    They only went about thirty feet. Then Sergeant Thunder stopped and looked over his shoulder. It was hard to say whether or not he was looking at Xu Qing, or at the burning corpses. Either way, he said, ¡°Kid. Do you want toe with me?¡±

    Xu Qing was stunned. Furthermore, it wasn¡¯t lost on him that the old man said ¡®me¡¯ and not ¡®us.¡¯

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how to respond. As he looked at the group, though, he realized that Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t rushing him for an answer. In fact, he was just standing there patiently.

    About ten breaths of time passed, allowing Xu Qing to examine the group, including Sergeant Thunder and the burly fellow he¡¯d stabbed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with strange light. Then he slowly stood up and, without a word, started walking toward the scavengers.

    Seeing that, Sergeant Thunder smiled, turned, and continued walking. The others in the group all gave Xu Qing long, hard looks, then followed the old man.

    Just like that, Xu Qing joined the scavengers as they searched through the city for items of value.

    Before long, he learned that the vicious man he¡¯d stabbed was known by the nickname Cruel Ox.

    On numerous asions, Cruel Ox looked Xu Qing up and down, a sinister expression in his eyes. However, the man obviously had self-control, and he never did anything rash. He was clearly waiting for a time when Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t around. Then he would make a move on Xu Qing. And he seemed fully confident he would get that chance.

    While thinking about the situation, it urred to Xu Qing that Cruel Ox was obviously a greedy man. That was when Xu Qing started taking advantage of his knowledge of the city to assist the scavengers. Acting very subservient, Xu Qing helped them find more valuable items than they could have on their own, and more quickly than normal.

    Cruel Ox really was greedy. Even after getting so much loot that it surpassed his normal weight limit, he still wanted more. Despite being injured, he searched even more enthusiastically than the others, and his burden grew heavier and heavier. At first, it didn¡¯t make much difference. But as time passed, even his immense strength was worn down, and he started getting particrly exhausted.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing could sense that Sergeant Thunder had good intentions. So he didn¡¯t try to lure the scavengers into the dangerous district surrounding the city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    As evening fell, the party left and set up camp in what had once been the slums outside the city. They worked with practiced ease to set up six tents that were little more than tarps hung over bare ground.

    The two saber-wielders shared one of the tents, with the remainder of the tents being assigned to one person each. They spread powder around the camp to form a perimeter, and started burning incense as well.

    As the sky turned dark, and the howling arose in the city, the scavengers entered their tents.

    The only exception was Sergeant Thunder, who eyed Xu Qing standing off to the side. The old man pulled out a sleeping bag and tossed it over.

    ¡°The incense keeps away the mutant beasts,¡± Sergeant Thunder exined, ¡°and the powder keeps the grues out. Given how much you helped us today, Cruel Ox won¡¯t cause any problems. You¡¯re safe here.¡±

    With that, the old man entered his tent.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. After Sergeant Thunder entered the tent, he snuggled into the depths of his sleeping bag. However, he didn¡¯t zip it all the way up. Instead, he kept a crack open so he could keep his eye on the tents.

    The howling continued into the depths of the night, growing more intense the entire time. And the crying of the grues echoed about, creating apletely terrifying atmosphere. From the look of it, no one had any intention of stepping out of their safe night refuge.

    Except for Xu Qing¡­

    Hey in his sleeping bag with his eyes open, unmoving, seemingly waiting for something.

    Time passed, until it was in the middle of the night, the time when most people were deep asleep. That was when Xu Qing slowly crawled out of his sleeping bag.

    He moved very carefully so as not to make any sound. The howling and crying in the city echoed in his ears, yet it didn¡¯t seem to affect him mentally. Slowly but surely, he crawled across the ground toward Cruel Ox¡¯s tent.

    He simply couldn¡¯t allow potential cmities to exist around him. It didn¡¯t matter if they were only potential cmities, they needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible.

    He had shed his own blood learning that lesson the hard way back when he lived in the slums. And it was also the only reason he¡¯d decided toe along with the scavengers.

    What was more, the reason he¡¯d been so helpful, and the reason he¡¯d found so much loot for Cruel Ox, was to make sure the man was both exhausted and off guard.

    That was also the reason he¡¯d acted so subservient.

    It was all for this moment, the moment in which he took action. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were calm as he slowly neared the tent. Once there, he didn¡¯t rush inside. Instead, he crouched outside and spent a long moment just listening.

    He heard the sound of snoring. And it was sustained, even snoring, obviously not fake. Eyes narrowing, he took out his iron skewer and carefully cut a hole in the tent. Then he slowly entered.

    It was dark inside, but he could still see Cruel Oxying there asleep. Given the burden the man had carried through the day, and his injury, he was obviouslypletely wiped out.

    Being the powerful expert he was, there was no way Cruel Ox could ever have guessed that the fawning young man from earlier would, in the presence of all the other scavengers, pose a threat during the night.

    And of course, he had no idea that an uninvited guest was inside his tent.

    As Xu Qing stared at Cruel Ox, his eyes seemed as calm as the deep sea. He inched closer until he was right above the man, then ced his gleaming skewer right over his throat. Without any hesitation, he plunged it in.

    He moved with such speed and force he nearly ripped the head off.

    Blood sprayed like a fountain.

    The intense pain caused Cruel Ox¡¯s eyes to snap open, and he saw Xu Qing¡¯s expressionless face. A look of disbelief and terror appeared on Cruel Ox, and he made to cry out. However, Xu Qing¡¯s left hand snapped out and covered his mouth so he couldn¡¯t utter a sound.

    Cruel Ox thrashed, his eyes wide, his body spasming.

    But Xu Qing had a grip like a vice. Furthermore, he lifted his foot and ced it on Cruel Ox¡¯s throat, exerting more force to keep him in ce.

    As the blood continued to pour out, Cruel Ox seemed like a fish out of water. Despair filled him, and then his eyes begged for mercy.

    Yet Xu Qing¡¯s face remained as cid as before. Cruel Ox fought, but the sound of his struggle waspletely drowned out by the howling and screaming outside the camp.

    After about ten breaths of time passed, Cruel Ox started to weaken. Finally, a tremor ran through him, and he slumped. In thest moment before he died, a look of utter despair and terror filled his eyes.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t release his grip right away. He waited, making sure the man was truly dead, before pulling his hand away. After wiping away the blood, he opened his sack. From inside he pulled out the cloth-wrapped snake head. Being very careful, he punctured Cruel Ox¡¯s skin with the viper¡¯s fangs.

    As the venom spread, green blisters spread out on Cruel Ox¡¯s skin, and then he started dissolving.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the corpse was nothing but a puddle of blood that slowly seeped into the muddy ground.

    At this point, Xu Qing straightened up the tent. He also took some of Cruel Ox¡¯s items to make it look like he¡¯d suddenly disappeared in the middle of the night. After everything was done, he left the tent.

    A cold wind blew the aroma of blood off of him as he looked up into the night sky. Taking a deep breath of cold air, he slowly went back to his sleeping bag.

    Back inside, he finally felt like he could rx. Having eliminated the threat, he closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately. Of course, he kept his iron skewer gripped tightly in his hand.

    The night passed without further incident.

    The following morning at dawn, the first rays of morning sun illuminated thends, and Xu Qing opened his eyes. Quietly climbing out of his sleeping bag, he casually nced over at Cruel Ox¡¯s tent.

    His eyes narrowed.

    Cruel Ox¡¯s tent was gone!

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank, and his vignce grew.

    At almost the same time, the other scavengers starteding out of their tents, and the first thing they noticed was the missing tent. Some of them started looking around for clues, but there were none.

    Cruel Ox hadpletely vanished, even down to his tent. They quickly came to the conclusion that he¡¯d gotten greedy and went back to the city to look for more loot. And even if it had been some other reason, he obviously hadn¡¯t taken the time to say goodbye.

    There were always plenty of reasons someone would go missing in a forbidden region like this.

    This had been a team of convenience, and Cruel Ox had been a lone wolf anyway. Because of that, the other scavengers didn¡¯t care much about what happened to him. As for Xu Qing, none of them even considered that he could have had something to do with it. And given they had no reason to investigate deeply, they quickly forgot about the matter.

    However, Sergeant Thunder, upon taking back the sleeping bag, gave him a deep look.

    ¡°Are you still going toe with me?¡± he asked.

    There was a lot of meaning in those words. Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question.

    Nor did the old man say anything further. Instead, he yelled at the other scavengers to hurry up and get moving now that the sun was up.

    Xu Qing stood where he was, not sure what to do. He looked back at the ruins of the city. He nced back at Sergeant Thunder. After another bit of thought, he started following.

    Six scavengers and one kid walked, their shadows cast long behind them by the sun....

    The wind blew from the distance, sobbing and sighing.

    As they walked beneath the morning sun, Xu Qing listened to the scavengers chatter.

    ¡°This is what you call a tribtion from the god above. The whole city was wiped out.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another forbidden region in the world now....¡±

    ¡°This is nothing. Didn¡¯t you hear about that huge city to the north? About seven or eight years ago, the god¡¯s eyes opened, and the entire city just vanished. It was like it never existed.¡±

    Slowly but surely, they walked off into the distance.

 Chapter 5: Scavenger Basecamp

    Chapter 5: Scavenger Basecamp

    The forbidden region on this eastern part of South Phoenix wasn¡¯t a veryrge ce. The city ruins Xu Qing and the scavengers left behind were just on the periphery.

    That was why the scavengers had entered the ce the same day the sun finally came out. It was also why they left the ruins at sunset. They ran into a few mutant beasts, but the scavengers dispatched them quickly.

    Xu Qing watched them at work, and was able to determine a bit about them. For instance, he was certain that he could stand toe-to-toe with any individual scavenger other than Sergeant Thunder.

    They¡¯re not cultivators, but they fight with confidence and ferocity. And they¡¯re the kind of people who fight fearlessly in the face of death. That makes them very dangerous.

    He might have a hard time fighting two at a time, and if it was three-on-one, then he would lose. With that knowledge in mind, he reminded himself to be very careful.

    As they got closer and closer to the outside world, he noticed that the scavengers looked more and more at ease. They even started bantering a bit.

    The only one who didn¡¯t participate was Sergeant Thunder. The others didn¡¯t mind, and in fact, they seemed to revere him. That, of course, made Xu Qing very curious about who exactly he was.

    That curiosity didn¡¯t reduce his vignce, though, not even as they were about to leave the forbidden region. The entire time, he followed the scavengers but didn¡¯t get too close to any of them. That said, he did remain close enough to listen to them talking.

    It was around the time the sky was starting to get dark when Xu Qing felt warmth in the breeze. Stopping in ce, he looked at the wilderness behind them, then peered at what was ahead.

    It was like there was some sort of invisible barrier stretching from the sky down to thend. Inside the barrier was the forbidden region, where everything was frigid and gloomy. Outside the barrier was the ordinary world, where the weather was like springtime.

    They left the forbidden region.

    It was night outside, but there was a scintiting starry sky overhead, along with a brilliant moon.

    Thends were still deste, but they weren¡¯t sinister like the forbidden region. You could even hear the sounds of ordinary birds and beasts. In a distant thicket, Xu Qing spotted a rabbit looking at them cautiously as they walked along. He stared at everything absent-mindedly.

    The other scavengers looked more rxed than ever, and even Sergeant Thunder seemed less tense than before.

    Once outside the forbidden region, the scavengers werepletely at ease, and started conversing casually.

    ¡°We finally made it out. Things went well this time, but even so, this is probably thest time I step into one of those damn forbidden regions.¡±

    ¡°Not go back in? If you want to stay alive in this damn world, and if you want to live a better life, then you have to risk your life in forbidden regions. Sooner orter I¡¯m going to buy some property in one of the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ cities!¡±

    Xu Qing still maintained his silence, but he listened to everything carefully. So far, he had already learned quite a bit using that method.

    For example, he had heard them mention Seven Blood Eyes several times, and gathered it was some sort of powerful organization. He had also heard them mention the Violet Lands on multiple asions.

    ¡°That¡¯s what you¡¯re after? Seven Blood Eyes has a lot of cities. For example, Antlerville. Except, you don¡¯t have enough spirit coins to buy resources there, and also, you need a rmendation from a Seven Blood Eyes disciple to get in the door. In any case, who wants to just buy property? I want to actually join the Seven Blood Eyes as a disciple!¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯tst three days in Seven Blood Eyes, so stop bragging. You might as well say you n to cross the ocean and settle down in the Revered Ancient maind. That¡¯s where humans originate, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s ears perked up, as he¡¯d seen this Revered Ancient mentioned in his bamboo slip.

    ¡°Revered Ancient maind? If I was so badass I didn¡¯t have to worry about all the dangerous stuff in the sea, you think I wouldn¡¯t go?¡±

    The two scavengers continued their conversation for a time until it started to turn into a somewhat heated argument.

    Xu Qing listened the whole time, hoping to catch some new information. Eventually, Sergeant Thunder cut in.

    ¡°Getting to the Revered Ancient maind isn¡¯t impossible, if you really want to do it. There are four ways. You just have to decide which one is the best for you.

    ¡°First, get to Foundation Establishment by the time you¡¯re fifteen years old, and thus be named as ¡®chosen.¡¯ Second, pay a fee of 300,000 spirit coins to the Violet Lands or Seven Blood Eyes. Or even the Church of Departure.

    ¡°Third, make significant contributions in pill concocting to humankind. Fourth, be named a sessor apprentice by one of the following: a great n from the Violet Lands; a peaklord of the Seven Blood Eyes; the leader of the Church of Departure.

    ¡°Oh right, there¡¯s actually a fifth way. Be a living treasure. So, think about it. Which one makes the most sense for you?¡±

    The scavengers muttered and mumbled throughout Sergeant Thunder¡¯s monologue. And when he got to the fifth method, strange, terrified looks appeared in their eyes.

    Xu Qing saw all of this, especially the part about the ¡®living treasure.¡¯ Back in the slums, some of his buddies had been taken away by rich folks in nice clothing. He remembered people saying they were taken to be living treasures, and a lot of the youngsters in the slums had been jealous.

    Now more than ever he wondered what that was all about. Looking at old Sergeant Thunder, he quietly asked, ¡°Excuse me¡­ what are living treasures?¡±

    Sergeant Thunder looked at him for a moment before responding.

    ¡°They¡¯re people whose bodies have been linked with magical treasures. Their flesh and blood absorbs the polluted mutagen from the treasures, thus making it possible to use the treasures safely. However, because of that, their bodies quickly wither up, and they die.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, but he said nothing further.

    The mention of living treasures seemed to cast a bit of a pall over the group, and nobody said anything else as they continued to walk through the night.

    Some distance away from the forbidden region, they reached a sprawling in where Sergeant Thunder decided to set up camp. This camp was set up differently than the one in the forbidden region. They still set up all the tents, but this time, they also started a big bonfire.

    As the mes crept higher, they warmed the area, and provided a ce to cook food. The scavengers sat around cooking their meal, and a fragrant aroma soon filled the area. The sight of their food made Xu Qing salivate, but all he had to eat in his sack was some tough jerky.

    After a while, Sergeant Thunder looked at him, walked over, and pulled a few steamed buns out of his sack. He handed them to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide, and he had to resist the urge to wolf them all down in one bite.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said quietly.

    Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t say anything in response. He just walked back to the fire and sat down.

    ¡°Why are you treating the kid so well, Sergeant Thunder?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re all losers, right?¡± the old sergeant answered. ¡°I think it¡¯s fate that we met him. Why not help him out?¡±

    There were three steamed buns, and they were still warm.

    Xu Qing hesitated and looked over at the scavengers at the fire, eating their own steamed buns. Finally, he pretended to take a bite, while simultaneously keeping his eyes on the scavengers. When he saw nothing unusual happening, he finally opened his mouth and took a real bite. However, he didn¡¯t swallow, but instead kept the food in his mouth for a time.

    When he was certain it wasn¡¯t some sort of trick, he chewed and swallowed.

    Then he waited for a bit to make sure there wasn¡¯t some sort of reaction. When there wasn¡¯t, he breathed a sigh of relief, waited again, then wolfed down the rest of the bun. After that, he didn¡¯t hesitate at all to devour the second bun. He was still hungry, but instead of eating, he put the final bun into his sack, handling it as gingerly as if it were a precious treasure.

    Soon, it waste. The scavengers all got into their tents, while Sergeant Thunder again gave Xu Qing a sleeping bag. Before walking off, he said, ¡°Keep it.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at him in surprise. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®why?¡¯ Three steamed buns and a sleeping bag aren¡¯t worth anything. If you want, you can treat me to somethingter on.¡° Sergeant Thunder turned and walked toward his tent.

    ¡°What do you like to eat?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Me?¡± Sergeant Thunder stopped and thought about the question. ¡°Snakes. Those things are great.¡±

    With that, he ducked into his tent.

    Xu Qing clutched the sleeping bag and watched him disappear. Then he nodded, spread out the sleeping bag, and got inside. However, despite closing his eyes, he didn¡¯t sleep. Instead, he began cultivating the Sea and Mountain Incantation, as was his custom.

    When practicing cultivation, he felt incredibly cold, but that didn¡¯t make him give up. In fact, he wanted to take every opportunity he could to work hard at it.

    That was especially true considering what Sergeant Thunder had mentioned earlier about reaching Foundation Establishment by fifteen years of age. Although he wasn¡¯t sure how he measured up to the ¡®chosen¡¯ Sergeant Thunder had mentioned, he had at least had a bit of an idea.

    I¡¯m fourteen already, he thought.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely, until five days had gone by.

    Xu Qing traveled with the scavengers as they crossed a mountain and walked across a prairie.

    Along the way, three of the scavengers went different ways. Just as Xu Qing had guessed earlier, the group had been working together out of convenience.

    On the seventh day, the two scavengers with sabers bid farewell, leaving behind only Xu Qing and Sergeant Thunder.

    That night, at the foot of a mountain, they built a fire, and Sergeant Thunder sat across from Xu Qing, watching him eating. Xu Qing nibbled away at half of a steamed bun, then put the other half in his sack.

    ¡°Kid, we¡¯ll reach our destination tomorrow. It¡¯s the ce I call home, and it¡¯s also one of the main basecamps for scavengers around here.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    Gazing off into the distance, Sergeant Thunder continued, ¡°Scavenger basecamps are usually built near forbidden regions. And that¡¯s why, on the other side of these mountains, there¡¯s just one such region.

    ¡°The ce you were in is a new one, while this one has been around for a long time. There are fierce beasts that live inside, and other dangerous things. The mutagen there is so strong that an ordinary person who went in for more than one day would die. Even I couldn¡¯tst a full week inside.

    ¡°However, seven-leaf clover grows there, which is one of the key ingredients in white boluses.

    ¡°White boluses are one of the mostmon pills cultivators use to purge themselves of mutagen. That¡¯s why a lot of peoplee here. However, being not fond of dying, and unfamiliar with the area, they usually don¡¯t get the seven-leaf clover themselves. They pay good spirit coin to hire scavengers to do it for them.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Do you get what I mean?¡±

    Having heard what white boluses were good for, Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment before answering, ¡°Scavengers are ouws willing to do anything for money?¡±

    Sergeant Thunder¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, and then heughed.

    ¡°One hundred percent correct. In scavenger basecamps, there¡¯s one rule: the weak are the prey of the strong. Strength is more important than anything else.

    ¡°That said, our basecamp is a good ce to live. There are markets where you can buy anything you need, and caravanse through sometimes, so there are usually nice things to buy wherever you go.

    ¡°Therefore, not just anybody gets to live there. Newbies who want to settle down first have to pass a beast trial to get a residence permit. Those are the rules set by the camp owner.

    ¡°If you pass that test, then you can stay with me if you want.¡±

 Chapter 6: The Kid

    Chapter 6: The Kid

    South Phoenix was a big ce. Seen from high above in the sky, it was roughly elliptical, and surrounded by ocean on all sides. It was separated from the Revered Ancient maind by the Sea of Endlessness, and thus was almost like an ind. However, it was big enough that most people wouldn¡¯t be able to walk from one end of it to the other in their lifetime.

    Furthermore, most locations on thendmass were ces difficult for humans to enter, and were blocked off by the Mountains of Truth, which bisected the mainndmass diagonally.

    Southwest of the Mountains of Truth was a vast forbidden region that made up about seventy percent of South Phoenix. Only the areas northeast of the mountains were inhabited by humans.

    Despite that, there was a huge human poption.

    The northeast was filled with a vast array of cities, both big and small. Some were huge ces with mighty city walls, others were little more than viges. Regardless, the cities were built away from the forbidden regions.

    Nobody who had a choice in the matter would choose to live in constant danger. Only fugitives and outcasts would do so, and the ces where they gathered were dog-eat-dog camps filled with constant violence.

    Just about every forbidden region had a scavenger basecamp near it. Sometimes more than one.

    From the mountain peak he stood atop, Xu Qing had a good view of the basecamp below. It didn¡¯t look very big, and if he had to guess, the poption was in the hundreds.

    It was early morning, but the smoke of campfires rose high into the air, and the ce already seemed bustling. Even from this distance, he could hear shouting, cursing, bargaining, and unscrupulousughter, all mixed together.

    As for the ¡®housing¡¯ Sergeant Thunder had mentioned, it got more and more simple going from the center to the periphery. On the edges of the camp, the ¡®houses¡¯ were nothing more than tents.

    On the other side of the camp, some distance away, was a pitch-ck jungle, filled with swirling mist and, presumably, terrifying monsters. Even though the sun shone brightly, it wasn¡¯t strong enough to pierce the darkness of the jungle. The color reminded Xu Qing of the ck mutation blotches that would appear on people, which was a shocking and ghastly thought.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± Sergeant Thunder asked.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment then said, ¡°Seems like the slums back home.¡±

    Sergeant Thunderughed, then started walking down the slope.

    Xu Qing looked away from the basecamp and focused on following Sergeant Thunder. The two of them climbed down the mountain and headed straight toward their destination.

    Along the way, they encountered a few peopleing and going. Most of them dressed simr to Sergeant Thunder, with their clothing being primarily gray leather. Xu Qing noticed that everyone who saw Sergeant Thunder looked at him with respect. And when their eyes shifted to Xu Qing, they became curious. Now more than ever, he wanted to know who this Sergeant Thunder was.

    It waste morning by the time they finished crossing the in and headed into the actual basecamp. There were no city walls, and the streets seemed to beid out without any n in ce. The ce was dusty, with dead leaves and trash gathered everywhere. The whole ce seemed random and chaotic.

    The sounds Xu Qing had heard from the mountain were now all-epassing.

    There were plenty of structures to see and also lots of scavengers. Some were like Cruel Ox, tall and burly. Some looked emaciated and sinister. Others looked like they were either drunk or asleep, but at the same time, seemed threatening. And there were even youngsters like Xu Qing, who kept out of the way and stared nkly at the sky. A small number were deformed or mutted.

    As Xu Qing walked along, his pupils constricted as he noted spirit power fluctuationsing off of many of the people.

    There were individuals of all sorts, some of them shopping, some fighting, and others just enjoying the sun.

    He saw a few men emerging from special tents decorated with brightly-colored feathers. As they pulled up their pants, lecherous grins covered their faces.

    Xu Qing mused that, to an outsider, this ce would probably seem like hell. However, though he felt the need to remain on guard at all times, this ce actually made him feel at home.

    It really is like the slums, he thought, ncing at the tents with the bright feathers, and the fair figures inside he could barely make out when the tent ps parted. In fact, at one point a young woman in revealing clothing steppedzily out from one of those tents, spotted him, and beckoned him over.

    ¡°Keep your eyes to yourself,¡± Sergeant Thunder said.

    ¡°I know what that ce is,¡± Xu Qing said, looking away.

    A surprised smile appeared on Sergeant Thunder¡¯s wrinkled face, but he didn¡¯t say anything. He just led Xu Qing further into the camp. Along the way, Xu Qing paid close attention to everything, hoping to form a mental image of the generalyout of the camp. That was his usual practice. He liked to be familiar with his surroundings. That way, things were less dangerous.

    Eventually, they reached a huge wooden structure set up in the middle of everything. It looked like some sort of arena for fighting beasts. Surrounding the open area in the middle were numerous simple tables.

    He also heard the growls and cries of beasts.

    There were some townhouses set up next to the arena as well, outside of which were a few scavengers who looked a bit more clean and well-dressed than the others.

    Only moments after he and Sergeant Thunder arrived, a very thin man ambled out.

    Unlike the scavengers, he wore a long robe and had a mustache and goatee. He also emanated spirit power fluctuations. After ncing dismissively at Xu Qing, he looked at Sergeant Thunder. ¡°A newbie?¡±

    ¡°He knows the rules already,¡± Sergeant Thunder replied.

    ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a puny kid. Why would he have a name? Just call him¡­ the Kid.¡±

    ¡°Fine,e with me. You¡¯re lucky, Kid. There are a few others who signed up before you. We should have enough people to hold the event tomorrow.¡±

    Yawning, the goateed man turned and headed toward one of the townhouses.

    Xu Qing looked at Sergeant Thunder. The old man looked back with an expression of both hope and expectation. ¡°Go. I¡¯lle back and get you tomorrow.¡±

    Xu Qing looked him in the eye and nodded, then turned and followed the goateed man.

    They stopped outside the townhouse, where the goateed man introduced Xu Qing to the scavengers there, then turned and left. Xu Qing was instructed to go inside and not leave without permission.

    Upon entering, he saw four pairs of eyes turning in his direction from different parts of the room.

    Three of them were young men, the other was a girl.

    Two of the young men were probably a few years older than him, and they both nced at him casually before looking away.

    The girl was younger than him, and had a huge scar on her face. She was huddled off in the corner, looking around nervously. Apparently, she had arrived recently, just like Xu Qing.

    The oldest young man seemed to already be a full-fledged scavenger, but had recently moved basecamps. Given his status, he looked at Xu Qing with a slightly mocking smile. Then his eyes shifted to the girl, and he licked his lips. However, given he didn¡¯t yet have full status in the camp, he wasn¡¯t going to do anything out of line.

    After scanning the room, Xu Qing ignored everyone else, found a spot near the door, and sat down to meditate.

    Time passed slowly and steadily. Perhaps because of Xu Qing¡¯s uneventful entrance, the three young men eventually started chatting. The girl remained quiet by herself.

    It was obvious that the two younger men were trying to suck up to the older one. For the most part, their conversation revolved around the uing trial.

    Based on what he heard, Xu Qing determined that the basecamp would have trials like these every so often, when there were enough people gathered who wanted residency status.

    The trial was very simple. The camp owner would gather a number of mutant beasts, and thebatants would draw lots to fight them. There were two possible oues: either you lived, or you died.

    If you lived, then your reward was a residence permit. If you died, then you became food for the beasts.

    Obviously, the trials took ce in the arena outside.

    When the time of the trial came, the scavengers in the camp would buy tickets to watch the blood-soaked event. They had a good time, and of course, the camp owner would open a betting hall. Everyone benefited.

    In this brutal world, lives weren¡¯t worth as much as money.

    That said, people who didn¡¯t qualify to live in cities, and also didn¡¯t qualify to live in scavenger camps, would have no choice but to try to survive in the wilds. And the chances of dying were even greater there.

    Of course, the slums were always an option, but the people who chose toe to the scavenger camps always had a story to exin their choices.

    Xu Qing sat off to the side, meditating cross-legged, and simultaneously listening to the conversation.

    One topic that came up was the most recent instance of the god opening his eyes.

    ¡°When I arrived,¡± one of the younger men said, ¡°someone told me you were one of the survivors. Is that true?¡±

    Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes.

    When he did, he realized that the young man who had just spoken wasn¡¯t looking at him, but rather, the girl in the corner. Shivering, she nodded in response.

    Xu Qing looked at her more closely.

    The other young men had only heard about what happened, but Xu Qing had lived through it. Therefore, he knew full well that anybody who survived and made it to this camp couldn¡¯t possibly be as weak as this girl seemed on the surface.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, she turned to look at him.

    He closed his eyes again and started meditating again. He wanted to spend every moment possible in cultivation; that was his best chance of staying alive.

    And thus, the night passed.

    The next morning at dawn, after the chaotic mor of the camp arose, the doors of the townhouse mmed open. Sunlight spilled in, silhouetting a scavenger standing in the doorway. His shadow spread through the room, covering the girl in the corner.

    ¡°Get your things together,¡± he said coldly. ¡°It¡¯s time for your performance.¡±

    ¡°It took long enough,¡± said the oldest young man, the one who was already a scavenger. Smiling, he walked out of the door and offered greetings to those outside.

    The other two younger men hurried to follow him. Xu Qing was the fourth out the door, and the girl was thest.

    It seemed the scavengers outside were familiar with the oldest young man. They joked andughed, ignoring everyone else as they walked toward the fighting arena.

    As they got closer, they heard raucous shouting and yelling. By the time they entered the arena, the sound was overwhelming.

    There were at least a hundred people gathered at the tables, including men and women, like a horde of devils here to watch the show. The loud noise caused the girl to tremble even more, and the two younger men went pale in the face. Only the older young man seemed excited.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, didn¡¯t have any dramatic change of facial expression. He simply studied his surroundings.

    This ce isn¡¯t very big. There¡¯s nowhere to hide or run away to. I can¡¯t let the fight drag out. The wooden sides are too high to take the fighting out into the stands. I see some marks that are probably for doors. And there¡¯s a full-on passageway over there. I suppose¡­ I could try to buy time and hope the screaming audience intimidates the beast I¡¯m fighting. Then again, the shouting could whip the thing into a rage. I think the best thing will be to end the fight quickly.

 Chapter 7: Please, Eat

    Chapter 7: Please, Eat

    As Xu Qing looked around amidst the shouting and screaming, therge gate they had just walked through mmed shut, sending a cloud of dust out in all directions. The sound acted like a bugle call, whipping the surrounding scavengers into an even more excited frenzy.

    Xu Qing also noticed a raised tform straight ahead. Walking onto the tform was a middle-aged man in a brocade robe, followed by a host of attendants.

    He was so far away that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t make out much in the way of details. However, it was obvious the man was important. Despite the distance between the two of them, Xu Qing sensed spirit power fluctuationsing off of him, and they were far above the level of his own.

    That alone put Xu Qing on guard. Although he couldn¡¯t be sure, it seemed highly likely this man was the camp owner. Lending further weight to this spection was the fact that the goateed man from yesterday was next to him, whispering something into his ear.

    The camp owner nodded, then sat down. The goateed man remained standing next to him, looking down into the arena.

    Another huge wooden gate opened, and from within came the sound of howling animals.

    At the same time, a number of scavengers appeared.

    There were four groups, each of them made up of three people. And they were pulling outrge iron cages, within which were snarling beasts that lunged and snapped at the restraining bars.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes swept over the cages.

    He saw two giant wolves, onerger than the other. Both had razor-sharp teeth, pitch-ck bodies, and blood-red eyes. Saliva dripped down their jaws as they stared, with brutal ferocity, at Xu Qing and the other fourbatants.

    There was a bear with crimson fur and limbs thicker than the thighs of an adult human. A vicious expression covered its face as it repeatedly shook its cage. It took a lot of effort from the scavengers to keep the cage steady.

    In the final cage was a beast that seemed less imposing than the others. It was a gibbon, its skin covered with painful boils. In a ghastly disy, the creature repeatedly threw itself at the iron bars, causing some of the boils to burst.

    The arrival of the beasts caused the crowd to roar.

    The two young men in Xu Qing¡¯s group looked even more pale in the face, and the girl seemed absolutely terrified. Even the older young man, who was already a scavenger, seemed nervous.

    Howe there are only four? Xu Qing thought, looking back at the open passageway.

    As he did, the four howling beasts suddenly wentpletely quiet, as if they¡¯d been intimidated into silence. At the same time, an iron cage twice the size of the others appeared, pulled along by six scavengers.

    Someone in the crowd shouted, ¡°A giant horned anaconda!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe the camp owner brought in a giant horned anaconda! I guess it makes sense, though. As far as he¡¯s concerned, a beast like that isn¡¯t worth much.¡±

    ¡°Whichever of these brats gets that snake is dead for sure. Even if one of us ran into that thing out in the wild, we would need a partner to take it down. And even then, it wouldn¡¯t be a sure thing.¡±

    The anaconda, thicker than an adult¡¯s waist, was dark gray, with markings that seemed to depict a host of horn-shaped mountains. It sat coiled in the cage, its huge head raised and its yellow eyes staring out coldly at the world around it. When the snake¡¯s gaze shifted to the wolves, and the gibbon as well, the other creatures trembled in fear. As for the red bear, it roared at the snake, but at the same time, slowly backed away until it was on the opposite side of the cage.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let me get the snake. I absolutely, positively must not pick the snake....¡± Behind Xu Qing, both of the young men shivered and muttered prayers to the same effect.

    As for Xu Qing, his eyes glittered. He had seen this kind of giant horned anaconda before. Back when he lived in the slums, he remembered a hunter had brought in a dead one. ording to what Xu Qing had heard, this kind of snake was so strong it could wrap itself around a tree and snap it in half. It had very tough scales, allowing it to absorb more damage, but at the same time, wasn¡¯t very fast. Furthermore, its gall dder had remarkable medicinal properties, and could dispel filth from the body. The snake flesh itself was also very nourishing.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing was reminded of Sergeant Thunder and how he¡¯d mentioned liking to eat snakes.

    Then Xu Qing thought about how he¡¯d often caught snakes as a child, and he licked his lips.

    Along with his progression in cultivation, his mutation blotch had been growing darker. And during his session the previous night, it had even started hurting. He had the feeling that if he could eat this snake¡¯s galldder, it would probably help the situation.

    He kept his eyes fixed on the giant anaconda as the time drew near to draw lots.

    The goateed man had another scavenger bring forth five bamboo sticks, upon which were inscribed the names of the beasts.

    The oldest young man was the first to draw. When he saw which beast he was to fight, he breathed a visible sigh of relief.

    Next were the two younger men, and then the girl.

    The two young men seemed to pray fervently as they drew their lots. Afterwards, they had pained expressions on their faces.

    The girl simply looked despairingly at her result. She had drawn the giant horned anaconda. Thest bamboo stick was left to Xu Qing. It was for the smaller of the two wolves, which was clearly the weakest of the five beasts. Looking at the stick he¡¯d drawn, he frowned.

    The scavengers left, and thebatants were taken to a small pen off to the side where they could watch safely. The crowd roared as the first battle was announced.

    The first to engage in battle was one of the younger men. Trembling, he stepped out into the fighting arena to face the red bear.

    The battle went quickly. The young man wasn¡¯t a match for the bear at all. He held his own for only a few blows, then fell to the ground and was torn to pieces.

    Blood sprayed everywhere. About half the crowd cheered, while the other half hurled curses at the deadbatant for losing them money.

    The sight caused the other young man, who was supposed to fight next, to shake with fear, and ask if he could back out of the trial.

    The crowd hissed in displeasure as a scavenger took the young man away.

    Third in line was the young man who was already a scavenger. He had been paired with therger of the two wolves. Given his experience as a scavenger, he was much more ruthless than an average person.

    After several shocking rounds ofbat, he gained the upper hand and killed the wolf, though he was gasping for breath by the end of it. Thus, he became the first victor in the trial. The gate opened, and he left, doubled over in pain.

    Fourth in line... was the girl.

    As the giant horned anaconda was released from its cage, she gritted her teeth and walked past Xu Qing, despair in her eyes.

    Before she could walk out into the arena, though, Xu Qing said, ¡°Let¡¯s switch.¡±

    The girl stopped walking and stared at him in shock. Before she could do or say anything, he handed her his bamboo stick and took hers, which had the words ¡®giant horned anaconda¡¯ inscribed on it. Not even taking note of the gratitude in her eyes, he walked out toward the snake.

    The crowd howled, as many of the spectators had been paying attention to the order ofbatants.

    That said, other than the people who had already ced bets on either him or the girl, no one cared very much. The camp owner didn¡¯t mind and was content to let things y out as they happened.

    Xu Qing kept his eyes on the huge snake as it slowly crawled out into the open, its scales grating against the iron bars as it did.

    Though it instinctively focused on him, he was different from the prey it was used to. As a result, it didn¡¯t immediately attack him. Instead, it coiled up outside the cage, then lifted its head high into the air as if trying to decide what to do with him.

    The cheering of the crowd grew louder, while the jeering faded.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he strode forward. Perhaps because he had entered the snake¡¯s strike range, or perhaps because of the atmosphere generated by the crowd, the giant anaconda¡¯s yellow eyes seemed to grow colder. It smacked the ground with its tail, causing a boom to echo out in the arena, then struck, its mouth opening wide to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. A noxious aroma sted out as it lunged toward Xu Qing to devour him.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the iing snake. Just as the beast was about to hit him, he jumped to the side. He didn¡¯t immediatelyunch a strike; instead, he ignored the giant head as it passed him, then focused like a skilled hunter on the snake¡¯s abdomen.

    The massive jaws snapped onto nothing but air.

    Then the snake growled as it shed its tail at Xu Qing. Acting on instinct, it sent its head and tail into movement as if it were hunting in the wild, making a circle as it seemingly attempted to wrap itself around him.

    Xu Qing remained quiet and focused on the abdomen. As the tail neared, he clenched his right hand into a fist and struck out.

    BAM!

    He had only trained in the Sea and Mountain Incantation up to the first level, but even that gave him a significant boost to the strength of his fleshly body. He struck the tail, sending it iling off to the side. The anaconda was clearly hurt, but it wasn¡¯t a fatal blow. In fact, it seemed to make it angry. Eyes burning, it struck again at Xu Qing with its massive jaws wide open.

    However, that was when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he found the opening he¡¯d been looking for, and he stepped right toward the snake.

    With his right fist, he unleashed a vicious punch. Then a second, and a third....

    Fists rained down furiously!

    His onught forced the snake into retreat. Then it shrieked as it tried to wrap itself around him. However, his punches were so forceful it had no hope of seeding.

    Finally, the blowsnding on its abdomen, caused the weak scales there to shatter, and blood to spray out. The thing was obviously badly hurt.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing didn¡¯t give it a chance to shift positions.

    Eyes shing coldly, he used his left hand to pull out his dagger, which he plunged right into the anaconda¡¯s flesh.

    Then he ripped the de through the creature.

    Blood sprayed everywhere as the giant horned anaconda shrieked. A shocking and ghastly wound opened up on the serpent¡¯s belly, revealing the galldder inside.

    The snake was huge, but that was because of its mutations. As a result, the gall dder was actually small, roughly the size of a chicken egg.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing plunged his hand inside, grabbed the organ, and ripped it out. The snake howled.

    Blood rained down onto the sandy soil underfoot.

    Ignoring the gore, Xu Qing held the galldder for a moment as he looked around at the scavengers. Then he put the organ in his mouth and swallowed it.

    Meanwhile, the snake, which was still alive, thrashed about, howling. Eyes wild, it once again lunged at Xu Qing, as if hoping to swallow him alive.

    He looked at it coldly, and at the veryst minute, jumped up. Then, in midair, he extended his right hand, within which was a ck iron skewer.

    Eyes burning with killing intent, he dropped down and used his own momentum and body weight to back the skewer, plunging it right into the spot where the snake¡¯s heart was.

    The skewer shattered the scales like a hammer crushing an ice cube.

    Rumbling echoed in the arena as the giant horned anaconda trembled wildly. Then its head and tail slumped to the ground as it made a final, despondent cry. Finally, it smacked its tail a final time on the ground.

    As the sound echoed out... the dust settled, and the crowd of scavengers looked down, astounded.

    Quite a few of the spectators were on their feet, staring at the young man with the iron skewer, standing atop the corpse of the anaconda. They wouldn¡¯t have reacted this way if the snake had been killed by an adult. But this was a skinny kid who had efficiently extracted the galldder, then killed the snake, all the while maintaining a cold and indifferent facial expression.

    Even in a scavenger basecamp, this was an unusual thing.

    The little wolf and the red bear, who were still in their cages, were so terrified that they just huddled there, shaking.

    It was almost as if this wasn¡¯t a trial, but a hunt.

    As the spectators looked on, Xu Qing put away his iron skewer, stuck his hand into the gaping wound on the snake to pick it up, then walked toward the exit, leaving behind a long trail of fresh snake blood.

    Upon reaching the exit gate and seeing that it wasn¡¯t open, he looked over his shoulder.

    A momentter, the goateed man who stood on the tform above waved his hand, and... the gate rumbled open.

    Outside, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, was Sergeant Thunder. He gave Xu Qing a grin.

    ¡°Can I stay at your ce?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    With a nod, Xu Qing tossed the snake corpse onto the ground between the two of them.

    ¡°You like snake meat, right? Please, eat.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder gaped for a moment, then threw his head back andughed heartily. Picking up the snake corpse, he led Xu Qing back toward his house.

    ***

    Xu Qing was gone, but the crowd in the arena was still cheering. Meanwhile, in one corner of the arena was an old man in a violet robe. Next to him was an expressionless middle-aged man who looked like a servant, and had a pentagram tattoo on his forehead.

    Whether it was their clothing or their bearing, they were obviously different from the people around them. In fact, no one seemed to even notice their presence, not even the camp owner.

    The old man had a ruddyplexion, and also seemed to radiate destructive power. He obviously wasn¡¯t an ordinary person. As he sat there watching Xu Qing leave, a smile broke out on his face.

    ¡°What an interesting young man.¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Some of you might have been following my work for years, others might be new. So I figured I would do a quick intro and update about the Deathde n. We consist of:

    Deathde. I also go by the pen name Jeremy Bai.

    Madam Deathde (MDB). My wife, born and raised in North China. Her favorite things are: Chinese pce drama TV shows; good food; me.

    Battle Boy. My son, who was originally called Baby Deathde (BDB). He¡¯s now 7 years old going on 12. He''s a very chill kid who loves reading, gaming (especially Minecraft), Naruto, Adventure Time, and many other things. He picked the online gamer handle Battle Boy, so that¡¯s what I¡¯ll call him for the time being.

    Princess Deathde (PDB). My daughter who is 2 years 11 months going on 16. Unlike her brother, she¡¯s a fireball of destructive energy.

 Chapter 8: Set for Three

    Chapter 8: Set for Three

    Bright sunlight shone down onto Sergeant Thunder and Xu Qing as they walked through the scavenger basecamp. One was tall, the other short. One was old, the other young. Yet from a distance, they seemed to belong together. Despite the brutal world they lived in together, they seemed like closepanions.

    Perhaps because of the snake corpse that Sergeant Thunder carried, any locals present who didn¡¯t go to the arena... didn¡¯t even think about causing problems for them.

    Xu Qing reveled in the sensation. Maybe it was the uing chance to eat the snake, or simply the warmth of the sunlight. Either way, he felt wonderful and eager.

    What was more, the way the sunlight shone on the snake¡¯s scales made him salivate.

    He also loved eating snake.

    Sergeant Thunder¡¯s ce was in the middle ring of the camp.

    The inner ring had brick houses with tile roofs, and the outer ring had simple tents. The middle ring featured wooden cabins collected into groups of three. The cabins weren¡¯t very big, but they were a lot better than the ces Xu Qing had lived in the slums.

    What was more, Sergeant Thunder even had a small courtyard with a bamboo gate, which wasn¡¯tmon. Sergeant Thunder opened the gate and stepped inside. Xu Qing followed, looking around to get his bearings. Sergeant Thunder, carrying the snake corpse, headed toward the kitchen. As he did, he pointed at the second cabin of the three.

    ¡°You stay there, Kid. Look around. I¡¯ll let you know when the meal¡¯s ready.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder disappeared into the kitchen, and it wasn¡¯t long before the sound of chopping rang out.

    Xu Qing swallowed his hunger as he went into the cabin Sergeant Thunder had pointed to. It had a bed, a nket, and a table. Nothing else.

    The floor was swept and the desk didn¡¯t have a spot of dust on it. Clearly, someone kept the room clean, and opened it often to get sunlight.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have been more pleased. He didn¡¯t like big rooms; he preferred ces he could take in with a single nce. He felt safer that way.

    After looking at everything, he nced at the neatly made bed, but decided not to get on it. Instead, he sat down on the ground.

    Closing his eyes, he started working on his daily cultivation.

    As the spirit power poured into him, he heard the faint sound of cooking oil popping and hissing in the kitchen.

    Before long, a fragrant aroma drifted in through the cracks in the wall, filling his small room and making his stomach grumble.

    It smelled wonderful. At a certain point, his throat twitched, and he opened his eyes. He had lived for years in the slums, and couldn¡¯t remember ever smelling something this wonderful. Trying hard to ignore the cries of his stomach, he closed his eyes again and went back to cultivation.

    Just like that, time slipped by slowly but surely. Eventually, evening came.

    He was just finishing his cultivation when Sergeant Thunder called to him from outside. His eyes snapped open. Rising to his feet, he walked out and saw the old man beckoning at him from the kitchen.

    Xu Qing stopped at the door and looked inside to find a table filled with seven or eight dishes. There was fried snake, braised snake, steamed snake, snake soup, and more. It really was a serpentine banquet.

    Sergeant Thunder clearly was a master of the culinary arts. Everything looked and smelled amazing. In fact, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide looking at it all. Sergeant Thunder chuckled, turned, and began to set the table.

    Xu Qing walked inside, the aroma growing stronger around him as he did. However, he didn¡¯t sit down. Instead, he waited for Sergeant Thunder to set out the bowls and chopsticks. When he did, he set the table for three.

    The sight of three sets of tableware caused Xu Qing to momentarily stop focusing on the amazing food. Looking cautiously at Sergeant Thunder, he quietly asked, ¡°Is someone elseing?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just a habit of mine. The third set... is for someone who¡¯ll nevere.¡±

    A flicker of reminiscence passed through Sergeant Thunder¡¯s eyes a moment before vanishing. He sat down.

    Xu Qing nodded and also sat. Unable to restrain himself, he reached out and grabbed a piece of fried snake and shoved it in his mouth. It was burning hot, but it tasted amazing. Very juicy. Swallowing a bite, he licked his lips and reached for the braised snake.

    Sergeant Thunder cleared his throat. ¡°Use chopsticks.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Xu Qing took a pair of chopsticks, fiddled with them briefly, then stabbed them into a piece of braised snake.

    Neither of them talked as they ate. They just enjoyed the meal.

    Sergeant Thunder ate slowly, taking only two or three bites from each dish. It seemed at odds with how scavengers usually acted. On the other hand, Xu Qing ate like a ravenous wolf, consuming far more food than Sergeant Thunder.

    Seeing how Xu Qing was eating, Sergeant Thunder eventually said, ¡°Howe you aren¡¯t picking at it like you did with the steamed buns?¡±

    Xu Qing swallowed a chunk of snake meat, looked up, and said, ¡°The steamed buns were yours. This snake meat is mine.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t sure whether tough or cry. He just sat there watching Xu Qing stab things with his chopsticks and slurp the snake soup. However, he also noticed that Xu Qing left plenty for him to eat, yet didn¡¯t hold back in devouring his own portion.

    ¡°That snake was big,¡± Sergeant Thunder said. ¡°I think it¡¯ll take half a month to eat it all. Plus, the skin and bones are worth quite a bit....¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll pay the rent in full,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Don¡¯t deduct the value of the snake.¡±

    As far as he was concerned, the snake meat would make up for the steamed buns and the sleeping bag. And the skin and bones would cover Sergeant Thunder¡¯s silence regarding the fate of Cruel Ox. That wouldn¡¯t leave any extra for the rent.

    In terms of Sergeant Thunder taking him out of the ruins and to the basecamp, he would treat that as a favor. Paying back a favor with material things didn¡¯t seem right, but Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t forget it.

    Sergeant Thunder looked at him for a moment, and could see how serious he was. Xu Qing was obviously a person who knew whom to show gratitude to, and whom to feel resentment against. Sergeant Thunder nodded.

    ¡°I bet you have some questions about who I am, right, Kid?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, but he slowed down in eating.

    ¡°People call me Sergeant Thunder. That¡¯s not my real name, but it doesn¡¯t matter. Nobody in scavenger basecamps uses their real name.¡± Sergeant Thunder picked up a chunk of steamed snake and put it in his mouth. ¡°The reason for the name is that I have a group of friends here that I trust with my life. We call ourselves Squad Thunderbolt. I know, it¡¯s not the most inventive name.

    ¡°We take whatever work we can get, and it¡¯s only when we get something really difficult that we work together. Including me, there are four members. As of right now, the other three are out on assignments.

    ¡°However, they¡¯ll be back soon, and I¡¯ll introduce you to them. I want you to be our newest member. That¡¯s how you¡¯ll earn money to live on and resources for your cultivation.¡±

    Apparently, Sergeant Thunder was full, as he set his chopsticks down and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised that Sergeant Thunder knew he practiced cultivation. If he could tell that Sergeant Thunder was a rogue cultivator, it made sense that the man had noticed the same thing about him.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Xu Qing said with a nod. He had no reason to hesitate. In fact, he felt relieved. Living in the slums, he had long since learned that people didn¡¯t give you things or offer help without wanting something in return.

    ¡°Keep eating,¡± Sergeant Thunder said. ¡°I¡¯m old, so if I eat too much, I have digestion problems.¡± Clearing his throat, the old man stood up and stepped to the door. ¡°Spirit power is like poison. If you rush it, you won¡¯t get far without the mutagen spreading within you. You should really go for slow and steady over fast and aggressive.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Sergeant Thunder looked back at Xu Qing and shook his head. ¡°That said, focusing on cultivation is the right thing to do. The forbidden region next to this basecamp is different from the ce you came from. The reason so many fugitives and rogue cultivators gather in this area is because of the resources to be found there. If you¡¯re going to live here, you¡¯ll have to go inside eventually. So you really do need to work on your cultivation.¡±

    With that, the old man left.

    Left alone, Xu Qing finished all the snake meat. However, he didn¡¯t just go back to his cabin. He collected all the bowls and chopsticks, cleaned the kitchen, and then returned.

    Sitting down cross-legged, he started cultivating again.

    Xu Qing knew that if he didn¡¯t want to be weak, if he didn¡¯t want to struggle through life, and if he didn¡¯t want his survival to be controlled by other people, then he had to get stronger.

    There were a lot of rogue cultivators in the scavenger basecamp. In fact, there were more here than he¡¯d seen in the past six yearsbined. And they weren¡¯t good people. If the slums had been a kennel of dogs, this ce was a den of wolves.

    If he didn¡¯t get stronger, he¡¯d die at the hands of a scavenger before he died from mutation. He would be dead and buried at the hands of another person.

    Thanks to the information in his Sea and Mountain Incantation bamboo slip, Xu Qing knew that there was a medicinal pill that could alleviate the effects of mutagen.

    Though that method was treating the symptoms but not the root cause, it was still the best option. Thanks to his time on the road with the other scavengers, he knew that the pill was called a white bolus.

    And the forbidden region near the camp was where you could find some of the ingredients to make it. Given that, it seemed obvious that this camp would have ces that sold white boluses.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he rubbed the spot on his chest where he¡¯d inserted the violet crystal. He already knew that the crystal gave him powers of regeneration, but also, made him faster and stronger. What was more, though he had only reached the first level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, he could sense that he already had more strength than that described in the bamboo slip. The first level had the power of a single tiger, but he was beyond that.

    I could kill multiple tigers, he thought. Based on the spirit power fluctuations within him, he was certain that his focus on cultivation while traveling had pushed him close to the second level. I¡¯m going to get there tonight!

    His eyes shone with determination before he closed them and started his breathing exercises.

    Before long, spirit power rolled toward him from all directions. Thankfully, there was a lot less mutagen outside of forbidden regions than within, which meant his cultivation advanced more quickly.

    Opening himself up, he used his breathing exercises to absorbrge amounts of spirit power. As he did, his chest beneath his clothing glittered with violet light.

    Time passed. Soon, popping and cracking sounds rang out from inside Xu Qing, and ck sludge oozed out of his pores.

    As his flesh and blood was nourished, he grew tougher, and the energy within him built toward an explosion point.

    ***

    It was night outside, and the girl from the beast trial was approaching.

    Standing outside the courtyard gate, she hesitated for a moment. Finally, she mustered her courage and knocked. The sound was so weak it didn¡¯t seem capable of passing through the gate and into the rooms beyond.

    What was more, the moment she knocked was when the popping sounds inside Xu Qing reached a crescendo.

    ***

    A roaring sound filled his mind, and his eyes snapped open. Violet light twinkled within, and a pleased expression covered his face. Looking down at his arm, he saw a second mutation blotch.

    He had reached the second level of Qi Condensation!

 Chapter 9: Consequences of a Threat

    Chapter 9: Consequences of a Threat

    I finally broke through.

    Xu Qing stood, made a fist, andunched an experimental blow. A cracking sound rang out, and a strong gust of wind blew through the room. His eyes went wide. Even just standing there, he felt a lot stronger than he had earlier.

    If he had to fight the same giant horned anaconda, he was certain he could destroy the thing with a single blow to the abdomen. Not only that, but he could also tell that his senses were sharper. He could see clearer and also hear better; and that was when he noticed someone knocking softly on the bamboo door.

    Surprised, he walked over to the door and looked out. Just barely, he could see the girl standing in the moonlight outside the courtyard¡¯s bamboo gate. She looked hurt, and she was also shaking visibly.

    He frowned, and decided just to ignore her. However, she persisted in knocking.

    Finally, he opened the door and stepped out.

    The girl looked nervous to see Xu Qing suddenly standing there on the other side of the bamboo gate, but she didn¡¯t back away. Instead, she just stood there looking at him.

    ¡°Can I help you?¡± he said.

    Stammering a bit, she answered, ¡°I... I g-got my residency permit. And... and I got work in the camp.¡±

    ¡°Good to know,¡± he replied, then turned to go back into his room.

    ¡°Wait!¡± she blurted. ¡°Thank you. I came here because I wanted to thank you.¡±

    ¡°No need for thanks. I wanted to eat that thing. It had nothing to do with you.¡± He went back into his cabin.

    Looking at his back, the girl raised her voice and said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I still want to thank you. And... I¡¯ll repay you one day.¡±

    Turning, she staggered a bit as she walked off into the night.

    Xu Qing watched her leave then closed the door, unconvinced she would follow through on her words. Inhaling deeply, he took some more time to examine the changes inside of him. He now felt a lot more confident in being able to survive.

    However, the pain in his arm, which he presumed was from the mutagen, was more intense. Not even eating the snake¡¯s galldder had done much to alleviate the mutagen effects.

    It was quiet thiste at night. He didn¡¯t hear any beast sounds echoing across the camp. Walking to the bed, he looked down at the clean nket, and then at his filth-covered clothing. After some thought, he took the nket off, rolled it up, and put it to the side. Then hey down on the wooden bed ts.

    Acting on instinct, he pulled out his ck iron skewer and tried to get to sleep.

    That skewer was his most trustedpanion. He had found it years ago while rifling through a pile of trash. Thinking that it seemed sharp and strong, he¡¯d kept it at his side ever since, and it was now his preferred weapon.

    I need to find a ce that sells white boluses.

    He rubbed his sack, which contained all of his belongings and savings, including a few gemstones he¡¯d found back in the ruined city. That said, he wouldn¡¯t keep a lot of gemstones on himself. That was just a way to get in trouble. He¡¯d learned that at a young age.

    Wrapped up in his thoughts, he eventually closed his eyes.

    However, he never released his grip on his iron skewer.

    The night passed, and eventually sunlight seeped in from outside.

    Xu Qing woke. Stepping outside, he looked over at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cabin only to realize the old man was gone. Noting his absence, Xu Qing headed out into the camp. Perhaps because of his performance in killing the snake, a lot of eyes were fixed on him as he walked around.

    No longer did people look at him as a child to be bullied. People recognized him. And some seemed wary of him. What was more, the young people roughly his same age who lurked in the alleyways seemed envious.

    The only way to get respect is to earn it.

    While looking for a shop that sold white boluses, Xu Qing familiarized himself with the camp.

    There were a lot of stray dogs, most of whom snarled and snapped over food. Many were skinny and emaciated, but a few looked healthy and strong. Xu Qing kept his eyes out for dogs as he explored.

    Eventually, he had a general understanding of how the camp wasid out. And it was in the inner ring of the camp that he found the shop he was looking for.

    It was a fairlyrge ce, with a lot of customers going in and out.

    He took a few minutes to just watch from the outside, which was when he realized the same girl fromst night was working as an assistant. She seemed to be doing misceneous jobs, hustling about, her forehead dripping with sweat.

    When Xu Qing finally entered, she noticed him almost immediately, and was about to say something when a scavenger asked her about some of the goods for sale.

    At first, Xu Qing didn¡¯t look around at the wares. Instead, he studied the other customers.

    There were seven people present, some of them looking through the items for sale, some standing around in thought, others haggling. There were two people who seemed to be there together, a fat fellow and a skinny fellow.

    The fat one was round, the skinny one had a horse face, and both seemed tough, with strong spirit power fluctuations. The skinny one was currently yelling at the girl for not answering his question in a satisfactory way. As the girl apologized over and over again, Xu Qing started browsing the wares.

    Based on what he was seeing, this was a general store. There were medicinal pills, weapons, clothing, food, and just about everything else. After looking around, he walked up to one of the sales counters, behind which was a shopkeeper smoking a long pipe.

    ¡°How much are white boluses?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The shopkeeper opened his eyes and looked Xu Qing up and down. Perhaps because he recognized him from the fight yesterday, he responded in a rtively polite manner. ¡°Supply¡¯s limited. I only get about five in per day, and today I already sold two. Ten spirit coins each.¡±

    Xu Qing had been ready for a high price, but to hear that they cost ten spirit coins made him frown.

    His entire life savings consisted of twenty-three spirit coins. However, the mutation blotches on his arm, and the pain they radiated, prompted him to immediately pull out twenty spirit coins and hand them over.

    The shopkeeper epted them, opened the cab, and took out a cloth-wrapped bundle that he handed to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing opened it to find two white medicinal pills inside. He frowned again. The pills were already turning a bit green, which was not their original color. They weren¡¯t fresh, and they didn¡¯t even emanate a medicinal aroma. They were clearly low-quality pills.

    ¡°White boluses in the basecamp are all like that,¡± the shopkeeper said with a wooden smile. ¡°We don¡¯t have good quality stuff here. They might be on the verge of going bad, but they still work. Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re safe to consume.¡±

    Xu Qing was too cautious to do that. Instead, he decided to take the pills back to Sergeant Thunder and ask for more information. Putting the pills away, he prepared to leave. However, he suddenly dodged to the side.

    In that same instant, a hand snatched down onto the exact spot where he¡¯d been standing.

    Looking over coldly, he saw the horse-faced scavenger who¡¯d been yelling at the girl shortly before. Looking surprised, the man pulled his hand back. At the same time, his rotundpanion sidled over to the shop entrance, blocking the exit and staring at Xu Qing with a toothy grin.

    The other customers in the shop saw what was going on and immediately reacted.

    ¡°It¡¯s Fatmountain and Horsefour from Squad Bloodshadow!¡± someone remarked.

    Then the shopkeeper coldly said, ¡°That kid came back with Sergeant Thunder. I know Thunderp and Bloodshadow don¡¯t get along, and I don¡¯t n to interfere. But don¡¯t waste time. I have business to do.¡±

    Passersby outside noticed themotion and craned their necks in interest. The girl looked very anxious, but wasn¡¯t sure how to help Xu Qing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this won¡¯t take long,¡± said Horsefour, looking at Xu Qing with cold eyes and a colder grin. ¡°Kid, I¡¯ve killed a lot of giant horned anacondas, so I don¡¯t n to cause problems for you. But I need white boluses. Give me the two you just bought. If you do, you can leave quietly. But if you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll break your neck and take the pills from your corpse.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes darkened. His eyes flitted to the man¡¯s throat, then to his fatpanion. And finally he nced at the crowd gathering in the street. Both of these people had strong spirit power fluctuations, and both looked like they were in the second level. He was confident that, one on one, he could defeat either of them in ten breaths of time or less.

    If they came at him together, he was still confident he could win, but it would take longer.

    That wasn¡¯t to mention that this was a public market; if fighting broke out, there might be fellow members of their squad who woulde to help them.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to rest everything on the hope that Sergeant Thunder woulde to his rescue. That was just the kind of person he was. He didn¡¯t like relying on others, and would rather control his own fate.

    Once again ncing at Horsefour¡¯s throat, he took out the package with the white boluses and threw it at him. The man caught it, looked at him, andughedcently. His partner Fatmountain also threw his head back andughed. Meanwhile, Xu Qing simply started walking.

    The crowd both inside and outside the shop seemed to take all of this as a matter of course. Everyone knew that the weak are the prey of the strong. It was a naturalw. And when the weak could adapt to circumstances, it meant that they knew how to stay alive.

    The girl sighed in relief, wiped the anxious sweat from her brow, and continued working.

    As for Fatmountain and Horsefour, they swaggered out of the shop, joking andughing with each other as they walked down the street.

    However... neither of them noticed that they were being followed. Xu Qing stayed behind them in the shadows, patiently keeping pace, being careful not to reveal his presence. His eyes were like those of a wolf stalking its prey.

    Time passed. Eventually, evening arrived.

    Fatmountain and Horsefour visited a number of locations in the camp. Not once did they ever realize they were being shadowed.

    Soon, the moon hung high in the sky, which was when they finally parted ways.

    Fatmountain sat down at the bonfire near their residence, while Horsefour strolled toward the periphery of the camp and the feather-covered tents, a licentious grin on his face.

    Just before he arrived at his destination, he heard a sound in the darkness behind him. He looked over his shoulder suspiciously, but saw nothing. Then surprise filled his face and he made to move, except it was toote.

    A small hand reached out and mped down over his mouth. Another hand appeared, a dagger in it. Without any hesitation, the owner of the dagger shed it across Horsefour¡¯s throat.

    A swishing sound could be heard, and a spray of blood shot out into the night. Horsefour¡¯s eyes went wide.

    He tried to struggle, but the hand was too powerful. Then, the person holding him dragged him backward.

    He iled his feet, but they found no purchase on the ground. Momentster, he was being dragged like a chicken onto the ground in a dark alley.

    The hand kept its grip on his mouth, and after a short time, he couldn¡¯t struggle any more, choking as he was on his own blood. Finally, he was thrown onto the ground.

    That was when, in his despair, he saw a cold-faced young man standing above him in the moonlight.

    All he could do was make a sobbing, choking sound. How could he ever have guessed that the young man who had meekly handed over those white boluses earlier in the day... could be so ruthless?

    He wanted to speak. He wanted to say he¡¯d only been making a threat. That he wasn¡¯t actually going to kill anyone.

    But the blood clogging his throat made it impossible for him to speak. He could only gag as he looked hopelessly at the young man rifling through his pockets.

    Eventually, Xu Qing found his white boluses, plus five more. He also found some spirit coins and a few other random items. After taking them, he ignored Horsefour¡¯s terrified expression and pulled out his severed snake head. After carefully opening it, he exposed the fangs and pierced Horsefour¡¯s skin with them.

    Horsefour started convulsing. Then the skin surrounding the puncture marks started to melt as agony spread through him.

    Eventually, Xu Qing reached down and closed his eyes. From then on, Horsefour saw nothing else of the world.

    His body melted, bing nothing but blood that soaked into the ground.

    Having learned from past mistakes, Xu Qing took out a sack into which he put Horsefour¡¯s clothing. Then he turned and left.

    Shortly thereafter, two people suddenly appeared on the spot where Horsefour had been killed.

    It was the same violet-robed old man and his servant who had been invisible to the crowd the day before. The old man looked down at the ground, then at Xu Qing walking away in the distance.

    ¡°The boy has potential,¡± said the old man. ¡°He¡¯s patient, but kills decisively. At the same time, he¡¯s ruthless. He also cleans up after himself. Not bad at all.¡±

    The servant seemed surprised. He had served this old man for years, and rarely heard him say ¡®not bad at all¡¯ about others. Already, he¡¯d praised this young man twice.

    ¡°An interesting young man indeed,¡± the old man said with a smile. Then he casually asked, ¡°How long until Grandmaster Bai arrives?¡± [1]

    Looking away from Xu Qing, the servant said, ¡°Master Seventh, ording to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s itinerary, he should be here in a day or two.¡±

    ¡°So he¡¯s almost here. In that case, I¡¯m going to do my best to convince him of the truth. Over in the Violet Lands, they¡¯re always jabbering on and on about following the rules. He¡¯d be much better off joining us in Seven Blood Eyes.¡± The old manughed contentedly as he watched Xu Qing disappearing in the distance. ¡°Let¡¯s go. I want to see what this wolf pup does next.¡±

    1. This Bai is a somewhat rare surname that doesn¡¯t appear on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡®cedar, cypress.¡¯ In maind China, it¡¯s pronounced Bai, but in Taiwan it¡¯s pronounced Bo. I happen to know this because, when I lived in Manhattan Chinatown, I knew some fellow non-Chinese students of Mandarin who had been given this surname, and it always caused confusion, because some people would call them Bai, and other would call them Bo. It¡¯s not the same surname as Bai Xiaochun. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks to UnifiedDivide for joining the team as official proofreader! He has a sharp eye for mistakes and typos, hopefully this will up the quality.

    As always, if you notice any mistakes, please do notify me in whatever way works the best for you (usually a DM is best, as it''s easy to missments on WW)

 Chapter 10: New Clothes

    Chapter 10: New Clothes

    It was the third lunar month, so the weather was starting to get warmer. However, it was still cold. To someone who just emerged from a forbidden region, that level of cold wasn¡¯t even noticeable. But after staying outside in it for long enough, it would slowly cause frigidness to seep into the bones. Of course, the nights were icier.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t let the frigid wind slow him down. He just wrapped his leather jerkin around himself a bit tighter. He still had a matter to attend to, and thus, he moved carefully through the shadows of the basecamp.

    He ran into asional stray dogs that bared their teeth at him, but upon seeing the bloodthirsty look in his eyes, they scurried away. Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother them after they fled.

    Eventually, he reached a cabin in the middle ring. Crouching in the darkness across from it, he sat unmoving and watched.

    A fizzling bonfire let up a few wisps of smoke.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten what Horsefour left to do when parting ways with Fatmountain. So for now, he was just nning to wait for Fatmountain toe back out.

    Icy wind bit into him, but he remained as unmoving as a stone, waiting patiently.

    Behind him was a building with a prominent roof, atop which crouched Master Seventh and his servant. Looking down at Xu Qing, Master Seventh smiled.

    ¡°Just as I predicted. The little wolf pup is on a killing spree. Now I¡¯m very curious to see how he performs when he goes into the nearby forbidden region.¡±

    Time slipped by. About an hourter, Xu Qing frowned. After some thinking, he turned around and slipped back into the night like a specter. He didn¡¯t immediately return to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s residence. Instead, he circled around it to make sure the coast was clear.

    Only then did he enter, quietly passing through the courtyard and into his cabin.

    Taking a deep breath, he rubbed his hands together to drive the cold from his body. Wiping himself clean of blood, he sat down cross-legged on the bed to think.

    Scavengerse and go randomly whenever they get work, and that Horsefour is obviously a lecher. It will take a bit of time before anyone realizes he¡¯s missing. During that time, Fatmountain won¡¯t be on guard. To wrap this matter up properly, I need to get rid of Fatmountain.

    It was the same as when he¡¯d killed Cruel Ox without hesitation. Having been raised in the slums, he simply couldn¡¯t allow threats to his own life to exist around him. He¡¯d killed Horsefour, not only because the man stole from him, but also because he was a threat. And he needed to get rid of Fatmountain for the same reason.

    After mulling the matter over, he dumped Horsefour¡¯s items out onto the bed in front of him and looked through them.

    They were all random things. For instance, there was a palm-sized chunk of iron that somewhat resembled a box. It seemed to be nothing more than a crafting material. There were also about seventy spirit coins, which was quite a haul for Xu Qing.

    After taking stock. Xu Qingpared the white boluses that Horsefour had taken with the ones he¡¯d already possessed. All of them were in poor condition. Because of that, his trust in the shopkeeper¡¯s words increased a bit.

    After more consideration, Xu Qing consumed one of the pills, then closed his eyes to experience the effects. He felt something warm flowing through him and eventually gathering at the mutation blotches on his left arm. It was a pleasant sensation. Sometimeter, the feeling faded. Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at his arm. The two mutation blotches looked lighter in color, and they didn¡¯t hurt as much.

    It worked, he thought, looking pleased.

    He took out a second pill. The same feeling filled him, and when it faded away, it took all of the pain with it. He felt cleansed andfortable, as though his flesh and blood had been purged. Furthermore, he felt even stronger and faster than before.

    He didn¡¯t consume any more of the white boluses, but instead packed them away into his bag. Then he closed his eyes to work on his cultivation.

    The night passed without incident.

    The next morning, he opened his eyes and prepared to face the day.

    Out in the courtyard, he could see that Sergeant Thunder was in his cabin, sitting cross-legged and doing breathing exercises. Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother him. Quietly opening the main gate of the courtyard, he stepped out, closed it behind him, and headed off into the camp.

    The wind seemed even colder than the night before, hitting Xu Qing so hard that he shivered. Even the stray dogs were hiding in their holes.

    There was also a thick fog, which brought up bad memories of life in the slums.

    He hated the cold.

    To street urchins, a cold wind was like a catastrophe that you had to struggle against just to survive.

    Because of that, as Xu Qing made his way through the cold wind and happened to pass a clothing shop, he stopped walking and looked over. Inside that shop were stacks of clean, freshly folded new clothes.

    Patting his bulging bag, he turned and walked in. There weren¡¯t many other customers, so he feltfortable taking his time examining the garments for sale.

    The shopkeeper behind the counter nced at him, then looked at the salesgirl and said, ¡°Go into the back and straighten up a bit. If there are any custom orders that haven¡¯t been picked up for a month, bring them out to sell.¡±

    ¡°What if the people who put the order ine back?¡± the salesgirl asked.

    ¡°Come back? People go missing in this camp all the time. Some die in the forbidden region, others just up and vanish. Nobody wille back for those clothes other than ghosts. Hurry up.¡±

    Waving his hand, the shopkeeper shooed the salesgirl into the back.

    Xu Qing kept browsing, but didn¡¯t find anything he liked. Around that time, the salesgirl returned with an armful of clothes that she started arranging for disy. Looking over, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shed when he saw a dark fur overcoat among the items.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing walked out of the shop wearing the overcoat. It wasn¡¯t very heavy, and did a great job of keeping out the cold. At the very least, he felt a lot warmer than he had with the other coat. That said, therge overcoat didn¡¯t quite fit his small frame, so it looked a little odd.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. In fact, he was so happy about the new overcoat that he went out of his way to avoid any mud in the street as he walked.

    His first inclination was to go find Fatmountain, until he noticed some sort ofmotion on the periphery of the camp. In fact, many scavengers were heading in that direction.

    Xu Qing looked over.

    Beneath the rays of the rising sun, he saw a dozen or so horse carriages majestically approaching.

    The people riding on the outside of the carriages seemed to be nothing more than drivers and guards, but they were dressedvishly. They had ruddy faces and sparkling eyes, and all of them radiated astonishing spirit power fluctuations. It was impossible to tell who was inside the carriages, but Xu Qing had to guess that they were important.

    He had heard Sergeant Thunder mention that caravans like this would oftene to the basecamp. Usually, they were merchants who dealt in seven-leaf clover, which was used to create white boluses.

    Fatmountain was in the crowd who¡¯d assembled to look at the carriages. After noticing him, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay any attention to the neers, and instead narrowed his eyes and started following the rotund man.

    The arrival of the carriages threw the entire camp into high gear. It turned into a market day, and thanks to themotion, Xu Qing didn¡¯t find any opportunities to deal with Fatmountain. Late that night, he could only watch as Fatmountain went back into his cabin. Tucking his dagger into his sleeve, Xu Qing left.

    He hadn¡¯t found his chance, but he was a patient person. Returning to his cabin, he sat down in his new overcoat to meditate. Later, he fell asleep with the overcoat on.

    It wasn¡¯t until the next morning at dawn that he actually took the coat off. As he prepared to go out into the camp, he put on his old, ratty jerkin from the ruined city. Looking at his new overcoatying there on the bed, he wondered if he¡¯d been too impulsive the day before.

    d in the old threadbare garment, he headed into the basecamp, browsing market stalls and peering at the area where the horse carriages were stationed. Of course, the reality was that he was looking for Fatmountain.

    Off in the distance, Master Seventh sat on a rooftop yawning. Looking at the carriages, then Xu Qing, he asked his servant, ¡°Did you send the invitation to Grandmaster Bai?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Master Seventh. He replied that he fell ill recently....¡±

    ¡°Fell ill? He¡¯s a doctor! Isn¡¯t that... wait.¡± Looking surprised, Master Seventh said, ¡°The Kid was wearing new clothes yesterday. Why did he change back to the old outfit?¡±

    Even as Master Seventh puzzled over the matter, down in the crowd, Xu Qing caught sight of Fatmountain and started following him.

    And that was how the day passed.

    As night arrived, just when Xu Qing was thinking Fatmountain would return to his cabin, he instead found the man was heading toward the outer ring of the camp. Rtively speaking, it was a remote location.

    Did he notice me?

    Frowning, Xu Qing looked into the fog through narrowed eyes. Instead of following, he nced around to make sure he himself wasn¡¯t being followed, then took a different route that got him to the outer ring before Fatmountain.

    After making sure he wasn¡¯t being led into some sort of ambush, he found a shadowy area to conceal himself.

    A momentter, Fatmountain arrived. He stopped walking.

    ¡°I realized yesterday that you were following me, whoreson,¡± he called out. ¡°Step out into the open. This ce is remote enough that it¡¯s easy to get rid of bodies here. If you don¡¯t face me now, then next time, I¡¯lle after you with friends. You might have Sergeant Thunder watching out for you, but Squad Bloodshadow has ways to deal with you regardless.¡±

    Given the man¡¯s words, Xu Qing saw no reason to keep hiding. He stepped out.

    Fatmountain looked at him. ¡°Horsefour didn¡¯t ept some secret job. You killed him, didn¡¯t you? I guess I underestimated you.¡± Smiling wickedly, he took a step in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. ¡°That¡¯s fine. I never liked Horsefour. If you hadn¡¯t killed him, I would have done it myself sooner orter. Therefore, I should be thanking you. I couldn¡¯t care less that he¡¯s dead, except, I happen to know his sack had something really amazing in it. And now you have it.¡±

    Fatmountain eyed the sack at Xu Qing¡¯s waist, his eyes glittering with greed. Not even waiting for a response, he lunged forward, his rotund frame exploding with speed that surpassed the second level of Qi Condensation. Intense spirit power fluctuations rolled out of him, making a stream of magic that swept ice-like air toward Xu Qing.

    Fatmountain definitely wasn¡¯t in the second level of Qi Condensation, but rather, the third. Because of that, and because of the item in Horsefour¡¯s bag, he wanted to take out Xu Qing by himself.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. This was his first time facing a cultivator in battle, and his first time seeing someone externalize their spirit power flows. However, he had faith in his own strength and speed.

    Even as Fatmountain started moving, Xu Qing lunged forward explosively.

    In the blink of an eye, he evaded Fatmountain¡¯s attack, leaving the rotund man visibly surprised. Then Xu Qing spun behind his opponent, clenched his right hand into a fist, andunched a blow.

    Xu Qing had never unleashed his full strength in a fight.

    His fist mmed into Fatmountain, releasing a huge cracking sound. A massive tremor passed through Fatmountain, and his external energy flow shattered. At the same time, his internal organs shivered, and a great glob of blood exploded from his mouth.

    The killing intent in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes grew stronger.

    Next, he pulled out his iron skewer and jumped toward the retreating Fatmountain, aiming the skewer toward his head.

    However, right at that moment, Xu Qing¡¯s face fell, and he immediately lunged in the opposite direction.

    At the same time, a vicious gleam appeared in Fatmountain¡¯s eyes.

    Two ck streaks of light shot out from his ears, screaming through the air toward Xu Qing, one after the other. The two ck streaks were winged centipedes that moved with incredible speed. As they neared, Xu Qing shed out with his dagger, chopping them in half. Even still, one of them got within about seven inches of his face, and the danger of the situation caused his killing intent to grow even stronger.

    Because Xu Qing was forced to back up, Fatmountain had a moment to stabilize his internal organs.

    Falling back even further, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, which made his face turn red. Then he exhaled sharply, spitting out a huge cloud of poison gas. [1] [2]

    The gas roiled out into a cloud that shot toward Xu Qing, apanied by sharp hissing sounds.

    Afterward, Fatmountain¡¯s face was pale white, and he even seemed less fat than before. He took another step back, his eyes containing both fear and hatred.

    Xu Qing was obviously a lot stronger than he¡¯d anticipated.

    Fatmountain had never considered that, given he was in the third level of Qi Condensation and had numerous poison-rted attacks, he would actually be threatened by someone like this. That poison gas was a trump card of his. If he didn¡¯t finish the fight quickly, then he would have to call for help. That was how dangerous this opponent was.

    Hanging over all of this was the fact that if he cried out for help, he wouldn¡¯t get Horsefour¡¯s stash.

    He did have one taboo item left, a piece of amber that he pulled out, just in case. However, he hesitated to use it, and instead peered at Xu Qing as the cloud of gas roiled around him.

    To his shock, the gas suddenly parted, and Xu Qing shot out from inside.

    He moved so quickly that Fatmountain saw nothing but a blur. Heart pounding, he made to smash the piece of amber and took in a breath to let out a shout. But he was too slow.

    A pitch-ck iron skewer stabbed into his head, piercing his skull like a hot knife cutting through butter. Blood sprayed out onto Xu Qing.

    Fatmountain went stiff, then slowly dropped to the ground.

    Ignoring the corpse, Xu Qing looked around, gasping for breath. They were in a remote part of the camp, but that didn¡¯t guarantee that no one had noticed the sounds of fighting. Not seeing anyone around, he hurried to Fatmountain and grabbed his bag.

    He was about to dispose of the corpse with his severed snake head when he noticed something in Fatmountain¡¯s hand. Pulling the fingers straight, he found a half-crushed piece of amber. It didn¡¯t look particrly special, other than the scorpion tail inside.

    Xu Qing carefully picked up the piece of amber. Then he turned the corpse into a pool of blood like he¡¯d done with the others. Afterward, he sped off into the night. Behind him, the blood soaked into the ground, leaving behind no trace of what had urred.

    ***

    Master Seventh and his servant stepped out from the darkness.

    Master Seventh watched Xu Qing go. He had been there observing the fight the entire time, and looked like he had just realized something.

    ¡°I get it. The Kid didn¡¯t want to get blood on his new clothes. He¡¯s been traumatized by living in poverty, and can¡¯t bear to ruin his new outfit.¡±

    His servant sighed.

    Master Seventh had been pondering this issue for the entire day, trying to determine why Xu Qing didn¡¯t wear his new clothes. Now he had his answer, and could stop wondering.

    1. I sometimes see people ask why I use ¡®incantation gesture¡¯ instead of something simple like ¡®hand sign.¡¯ The simple reason is that Chinese has a word for ¡®hand sign¡¯ and this is not that word. Furthermore, most C-E dictionaries mention the English word ¡®incantation¡¯ in the definition of this term. ?

    2. Since this is the first chapter that goes into ¡°poison¡± attacks, I would like to point out that I¡¯m aware of the nuances of the words poison, toxin, venom, etc. in English. In Chinese, all of these words can be described using one character, and that¡¯s a character frequently used in fantasy novels. As a result, I am going to use the general word ¡°poison¡± in virtually all instances, regardless of whether a substance would more precisely be a toxin rather than a poison. I¡¯ll asionally use ¡°venom¡± when it makes sense. ?

 Chapter 11: A Gathering

    Chapter 11: A Gathering

    Late in the night, Xu Qing sped through the camp like a cat, nimble and silent.

    asionally, he reached up and mped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from coughing. At first, it didn¡¯t hurt much. But as he continued to force himself not to cough, his lungs began to burn, and his face turned pale white.

    Thankfully, the camp wasn¡¯t veryrge, and it didn¡¯t take long to reach Sergeant Thunder¡¯s courtyard, and his own cabin.

    Instead of rushing inside, he stood a short distance away, trying to steady his breathing. After inhaling and exhaling, he started walking again.

    Opening the bamboo gate, he looked around, then entered his cabin.

    Once inside, he couldn¡¯t control himself anymore, and coughed up a huge mouthful of ck blood. When it sshed on the ground, it hissed loudly. After coughing up the blood, some of the color returned to his face. Gasping, he dropped into a cross-legged position and went into meditative breathing exercises.

    Time passed. Finally, he opened his eyes.

    What a powerful poison!

    The cloud of gas Fatmountain had used was indeed highly poisonous. However, if Xu Qing hadn¡¯t taken the action he did, Fatmountain might have been able to call for help, and that would have made things a lot more difficult. Even if Xu Qing had pretended to be injured, he doubted it would have been enough to fool Fatmountain and get the upper hand.

    Once the man realized he was being followed, he had manipted the situation perfectly. His only mistake was underestimating how strong Xu Qing was.

    In the end, Xu Qing had trusted the violet crystal in his chest, and its powers of regeneration. He had braved the dangers of the poison gas, rushing forward to kill his opponent as quickly as possible.

    It seemed he¡¯d made the right choice. The violet crystal really did have the ability to neutralize poisons, and repair damage done by them. His lungs still itched, and he still felt like coughing, but those were signs that the healing process was underway.

    Scavengers are moreplicated than they seem. Now that I think about it, if I hadn¡¯t hit Horsefour so urately, and if he¡¯d had a chance to fight back, things would have been a lot more difficult.

    As he sat there, he ran through both encounters and tried to identify areas where he could have done better. Later, he sighed heavily and looked over the contents of his sack. He knew that he was missing something.

    Fatmountain wanted to kill me by himself because he wanted something from Horsefour¡¯s sack. He was even ready to hunt me down over it. What¡¯s so special about all these things?

    He dumped the contents of the sack out in front of him, including all the spirit coins. After ncing over the collection, he began studying each item one by one. In that manner, he identified which objects were ordinary in nature. Which was basically all of them. In the end, he was left with the piece of iron. Looking at it with a furrowed brow, he tried to determine what was special about it.

    Is this what he was after? It doesn¡¯t seem special at all. Is it some valuable crafting material?

    After some more thought, he put everything away and decided to dig around to find more information about the iron.

    Next, he looked through Fatmountain¡¯s sack.

    It didn¡¯t contain any white boluses, but it did have a lot of spirit coins. There was also arge collection of bottles and jars filled with poisonous substances. Xu Qing didn¡¯t dare to open any of them.

    Finally, he examined the half-crushed piece of amber that Fatmountain had been about to use before he died.

    And what might this be...? He was trying to crush it right before I killed him. Realizing that he didn¡¯t have enough information to make a determination, he put it away carefully.

    After finishing with all those tasks, he worked on his cultivation.

    Now that he was in the second level of Qi Condensation, he found that, when he went to sleep, he would only need about two hours before he was fully rested. Because of that, he was able to spend most of his spare time in cultivation.

    And now that he didn¡¯t need to shadow Fatmountain, he had even more time. For the entire following day he remained focused on meditation. It was only as evening approached that he opened his eyes and looked at the door.

    At exactly the same time, he heard Sergeant Thunder.

    ¡°Kid,e out into the courtyard.¡±

    Xu Qing stood and walked out.

    Sergeant Thunder had set up a table in the courtyard, and it was filled with food and drink. Altogether, there were six chairs and six sets of tableware. Sergeant Thunder beckoned Xu Qing to sit down. Given all the bowls and chopsticks, Xu Qing could only surmise that people wereing for a meal.

    ¡°Have you settled into the basecamp over thest few days?¡± Sergeant Thunder asked, ncing out the main gate.

    ¡°Pretty much,¡± Xu Qing replied, looking over the spread of food.

    Whether it was because of the extended session of cultivation, or the fragrant aroma, Xu Qing¡¯s belly was grumbling loudly.

    Sergeant Thunder heard it andughed. ¡°Calm down. We¡¯re waiting for some guests.¡±

    ¡°You mean the rest of Squad Thunderbolt?¡±

    The old man nodded and was about to say something, when he suddenly looked back toward the main gate. Xu Qing did the same.

    A burly man was there, walking in from the shadowy street.

    He was taller and more muscr than Cruel Ox, to the point where he was like a small mountain. His muscles rippled with each step he took, and he radiated an intimidating air. He had a huge steel shield strapped to his back, and carried a wolf tooth club that was taller than Xu Qing. His every footfall caused a reverberating sound to echo out. When he stepped into the courtyard, the entire ce seemed smaller, and he seemed so powerful that Xu Qing felt like he was in the presence of one of the huge mutant beasts back in the ruined city he came from.

    ¡°Hey, Boss, I¡¯m back,¡± the big man said, grinning at Sergeant Thunder. Then he looked at all the food, and his eyes lit up. He quickly took off his shield and put it to the side along with the wolf tooth club. Both made loud thumping sounds when he ced them down. He sat, and the chair made a very loud creaking sound. The entire time, the man didn¡¯t spare a single nce for Xu Qing. [1]

    Sergeant Thunder grinned, but didn¡¯t say anything. And thus, the huge man just sat there looking at the food but not eating any of it.

    As for Xu Qing, he nced out of the corner of his eye at the shield and the wolf tooth club. Given the sound they made when being put down, they were obviously incredibly heavy. In fact... he bet they weighed more than he did.

    Not much time passed before the silence in the courtyard was broken again. Two people appeared this time, a man and a woman.

    The man was young, and had a bow on his back. He was tall and thin, and had a crucifix-shaped scar on his face that looked like it had been carved into him against his will. That, coupled with his sharp eyes, made him seem very intimidating.

    The woman looked to be in her thirties. Her facial features were average, but she wore tight leather clothing that made her extremely sexy and alluring.

    When they entered, Sergeant Thunder called out a greeting, and as they sat, the young man with the bow gave Xu Qing a very close look.

    As for the woman, she had a curious gleam in her eye as sheughed and said, ¡°Boss, you went out for one job and came back with a child? I had no idea you were so hale and hearty, old man. Is that why you called us all back here? To tell us you had a secret love child this whole time?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not the right age,¡± the burly man said.

    Xu Qing kept his mouth shut, but eased his left leg a bit to the side to make it easy to grab his dagger if he needed to. He had the feeling that it wouldn¡¯t help much against three people, and he could tell these neers were very strong. In fact, they were probably stronger than Fatmountain. That was especially true of the man with the bow, whose eyes seemed to pierce deeply into Xu Qing.

    Ignoring the others, Sergeant Thunder looked at Xu Qing, then pointed at the burly man. ¡°This is Savage Ghost. He¡¯s reached the third level of body refinement, and is a natural-born powerhouse.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder then pointed at the others and introduced them.

    ¡°Graceful Raptor is in the third level of Qi Condensation. She canmunicate with animals. Most of the stray dogs in the camp are her eyes and ears. [2]

    ¡°Crucifix is at the peak of the fourth level of Qi Condensation. Few people in the same level could match him.

    ¡°And this is the Kid. He¡¯s reached the second level of body refinement.¡±

    The other members of the squad listened respectfully to Sergeant Thunder, as did Xu Qing.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s eat. We can talk at the same time.¡± Sergeant Thunder picked up a piece of meat and started to eat. Then he continued, ¡°The reason I called all of you back is that the spring crop came in early this year, and the camp owner has announced new mission rewards. Whichever party brings in the most seven-leaf clovers will receive three dustpurging pills. And as you know, dustpurging pills are far more effective than white boluses. What do you say we head inside to that hidden patch ofnd we have, and start the harvest early?¡±

    In response to his words, the other squad members¡¯ eyes shone brightly, and they all nodded.

    Xu Qing had never heard of dustpurging pills, but based on what Sergeant Thunder said, they were better than white boluses.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re all in agreement, let¡¯s get ready to head in. And the Kid will being along.¡±

    ¡°Him?¡± Savage Ghost said.

    Crucifix frowned. ¡°Boss, the second level of body refinement is too weak. It means we¡¯ll have to look out for him the whole time. It¡¯s just not appropriate.¡±

    ¡°Everybody has to have their first time,¡± Sergeant Thunder said, looking first at Crucifix, and then at Xu Qing. ¡°It¡¯s your choice, Kid.¡±

    ¡°I can do it,¡± Xu Qing replied with a curt nod.

    He had five white boluses in his sack, and thus didn¡¯t feel a huge need to get dustpurging pills. However, he already knew what life in the scavenger basecamp was like. He would have to go into the forbidden region eventually, and therefore... it made sense to go with a squad of extremely experienced people. He could learn a lot that way.

    Crucifix didn¡¯t say anything further.

    ¡°Finish eating,¡± Sergeant Thunder said, ¡°then head out for the night. We¡¯ll meet in the morning and then head off.¡± With that, he stood and went into his cabin.

    Xu Qing stabbed a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. Then, with a final nce at the three squad members, he went back to his cabin. He never feltfortable around strangers, and had no desire to sit around with them.

    Nothing happened during the night, and there wasn¡¯t much Xu Qing needed to do in the way of preparation. He was used to living in a constant state of readiness.

    The next morning, they gathered, and Sergeant Thunder led the way toward the outskirts of the camp.

    An azure sky stretched overhead, and the sun shone brightly. A hawk circled overhead, seemingly watching them.

    Simrly, the scavengers they passed in the camp noticed the group. Perhaps that was because of Savage Ghost¡¯s towering frame and the alluring Graceful Raptor. Even some people from the recently arrived caravan looked their way.

    Actually, there were a lot of scavengers gathered in the caravan area, seemingly waiting for something.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been out for a full day, so he had no idea what was going on. Seeing his curious look, Graceful Raptor smiled and said, ¡°I heard that a caravan from the Violet Lands arrivedst night. They have a famous physician with them. He even healed that old pervert Lame Jackal¡¯s hip injury. Now everybody is lining up for treatment.¡±

    ¡°That physician must make a lot of money,¡± Savage Ghost muttered enviously.

    Xu Qing felt envious too. After eyeing the scene for a bit, his attention was drawn to something else.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one. Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor suddenly looked very attentive. Only Crucifix and Sergeant Thunder looked the same as ever. However, they also noticed what was up ahead.

    There was another squad of scavengers in their path.

    This one had about seven or eight members, including both men and women. All of them radiated an air of brutality.

    They were clustered around an old man that reminded Xu Qing of Sergeant Thunder. The man had disheveled hair and a bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes. Furthermore, he was sitting on top of the corpse of a stray dog, and was slowly chewing one of its legs.

    ¡°Go find Fatmountain and Horsefour,¡± he said in a sinister tone. ¡°Those bastards. How dare they show upte. Are they tired of living?¡±

    This was Squad Bloodshadow!

    The old man eating the dog meat was Squad Bloodshadow¡¯s captain, and he wasn¡¯t making any attempt to conceal his spirit power fluctuations. When Xu Qing heard him mention Fatmountain and Horsefour, his eyes narrowed to prevent them from glittering.

    Meanwhile, Graceful Raptor looked at the dead dog, and her eyes red with rage and killing intent. That was her dog!

    It was at this point that Squad Bloodshadow noticed Sergeant Thunder and the others. Grinning atop the dead dog, the old man looked at Graceful Raptor and licked his lips.

    ¡°Hey, you little tramp. You raised this dog, right? I have to say, it¡¯s delicious. But it makes me wonder what you taste like.¡±

    1. I¡¯m sure most of you know what a wolf tooth club looks like, but just in case, here¡¯s a reference image. ?

    2. Graceful Raptor¡¯s name in Chinese is literally ¡°Luan Tooth.¡± The luan is a bird from Chinese mythology, sort of simr to the phoenix, but not the same. ording to Madam Deathde, this woman¡¯s name sounds both elegant and fierce in Chinese, so instead of going with a direct trantion, or even a stretch of a trantion like Phoenix Beak, I¡¯m using Graceful Raptor, which I think captures the spirit of her name. ?

 Chapter 12: The Dangers of the Forbidden Region

    Chapter 12: The Dangers of the Forbidden Region

    The outright provocation from Squad Bloodshadow caused killing intent to surge in Graceful Raptor¡¯s eyes. But instead of taking action, she turned to look at Sergeant Thunder.

    Sergeant Thunder¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he simply said, ¡°Crucifix.¡±

    Without a single word, Crucifix took the bow off his back, nocked an arrow, and shot it into the sky. It whistled as it ascended, like a reverse lightning bolt. And a momentter, it pierced right into the hawk circling overhead. Blood exploded like red flower petals, and a miserable shriek rang out as the hawk fell. A momentter, it smacked into the ground right between the two squads.

    Meanwhile, one of the members of Squad Bloodshadow staggered in ce, his face turning as pale as death as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The hawk was his. But unlike Graceful Raptor¡¯s dog, this animal was connected to him with spirit power, allowing him to control it. When it got injured, so did he.

    The other Bloodshadow members red with killing intent, but their captain gestured for them to stay in ce. Getting off the dog, he ignored Graceful Raptor and looked at Sergeant Thunder.

    Sergeant Thunder looked back at him with icy eyes.

    The two faced off for a long moment, then both of them gave cold harrumphs.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Sergeant Thunder growled, and he led the squad forward, including Xu Qing.

    To Xu Qing, the animosity between the two squads was palpable. After they were further along, he looked over his shoulder, and realized the members of Squad Bloodshadow were still waiting for Fatmountain and Horsefour. Of course, those two would never arrive.

    Looking back, he followed Sergeant Thunder and the others as they left the basecamp.

    Xu Qing remembered thinking the forbidden region wasn¡¯t very far away, but it took longer to get there than he imagined. They hiked for about an hour before the ck jungle appeared in front of them. The trees spread out as far as the eye could see in both directions.

    It was alreadyte in the morning, and the sun shone brightly. But the jungle appeared to be a different world altogether.

    Storm clouds filled the sky above the jungle,plete with lightning bolts that fell asionally. All-in-all, the forbidden region seemed like a mysterious and dangerous location.

    Xu Qing took it all in silently as he followed Squad Thunderbolt. The squad also maintained silence. However, as they neared, Xu Qing could sense them getting tense. He felt the same.

    At a certain point, he felt a strange sensation, like he¡¯d suddenly stepped into an area of frigid coldness that sucked all the warmth out of his body. That was when he knew he was actually inside the forbidden region.

    Simultaneously, all extraneous thoughts from the outside world were purged from his mind. The familiar, sinister coldness seeped into his bones, immediately reminding him of the ruined city and the blood rain.

    He took a deep breath and maintained full vignce, keeping a tight grip on his iron skewer. Just like back in the ruins.

    One main difference was that the city was full of crumbling buildings, whereas this ce....

    Twisted trees loomed like evil ghosts. The mud beneath their feet was as rotten as the soil of the Yellow Springs. Leaves wed toward the sky like fangs and talons. [1]

    The members of Squad Thunderbolt took it all in stride.

    With weapons strapped to their backs, they walked carefully along what was obviously a familiar path. Some areas seemedpletely ordinary, but they avoided them. And some areas seemed very dangerous, yet they walked right through them. In this manner, they avoided numerous hazards.

    Xu Qing kept pace, paying close attention to everything.

    One strange thing he noticed was that Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t always take the lead. Sometimes Savage Ghost was in front, other times it was Graceful Raptor. They seemed to be taking turns. They moved forward steadily, and despite the asional howl of a beast, Xu Qing felt rtively safe.

    asionally, venomous insects would appear, whereupon Graceful Raptor would light some special incense to drive them away.

    After two hours of hiking without a single word spoken between anyone, they took a break next to a muddy marsh.

    Xu Qing watched as Graceful Raptor took out a medicinal powder and threw it out over the mud. Momentster, a host of venomous insects burrowed out, and though they seemed about to attack, Graceful Raptor calmly took out another type of powder and scattered it over them. The insects scattered in all directions, and a momentter, the marsh was quiet.

    With that aplished, the squad members began taking mud and smearing it on themselves.

    ¡°Did youmit everything to memory?¡± Sergeant Thunder asked Xu Qing. ¡°All the details so far?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded as, without any hesitation, he scooped up mud and smeared it on himself.

    ¡°We avoid any areas where the fallen leaves are piled up,¡± Sergeant Thunder continued. ¡°The reason being we know the beasts avoid those parts, otherwise the leaves would be crushed.

    ¡°We follow paths where we can see animal droppings. Obviously, the animals will instinctively pick safe paths. At the very least, there won''t be a lot of hazards or deadly quicksand pits.

    ¡°Savage Ghost has a very acute sense of smell. He can detect the scent of dangerous mutant beasts, allowing us to avoid them. Obviously there¡¯s a lot for you to learn. Just remember as much as you can.¡±

    When Savage Ghost was mentioned, Xu Qing looked over at him. The burly man looked back at him and shed a grin.

    Continuing to spread mud over himself, Sergeant Thunder continued, ¡°Years ago, we discovered that this marsh contains the shed skin of night lizards. By smearing the mud on us, we can conceal our aura and also repel many other dangerous creatures.

    ¡°North of us is the Poisonous Dragon Pond. This forbidden region has been explored enough that we scavengers have divided it into distinct regions. One of those regions is the Poisonous Dragon Pond. But we¡¯re not headed there today. Instead, we¡¯ll keep going straight.¡±

    By this point, Xu Qing was finished with the mud. At the same time, Crucifix walked past. Yesterday, Crucifix had spoken against Xu Qing¡¯s involvement. But now he offered a bit of advice.

    ¡°Pay attention to your mutation blotches. Forbidden regions have a lot of mutagen. If you surpass your mutation limit, nobody will be able to save you.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, though the advice was unnecessary. He had alreadye to sense how strong the mutagen here was. It was weaker than it had been back in the city ruins, but he knew he had a high concentration of mutagen built up within. Even when he wasn¡¯t practicing cultivation, just breathing was enough to cause the mutation blotches on his arm to throb.

    Taking out a white bolus, he put it in his mouth and let it sit on his tongue to slowly dissolve.

    Eventually, everyone was coated with mud, and they started moving again.

    However, the path they followed was very different from any of the paths they¡¯d traveled so far. They moved slowly, and everyone kept their weapons in hand and ready to use.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but study those weapons.

    Savage Ghost had his steel shield and wolf tooth club. Sergeant Thunder had his fighting gauntlets. Crucifix had his bow. And Graceful Raptor carried a gleaming sawtooth dagger.

    Xu Qing¡¯s days spent following Fatmountain hadn¡¯te without benefit. His sharp sense of hearing had enabled him to listen in on quite a few conversations among various scavengers. And he had learned quite a bit.

    For example, he knew that weapons were generally ssified as being magical treasures, talisman treasures, or prized treasures.

    Magical treasures were exceedingly rare and legendary items. Supposedly, all such items were polluted with mutagen of varying levels. Using such treasures would increase their mutagen levels, essentially making them nonrenewable resources. And as such, they were extremely precious. Magical treasures were also the reason living treasures came to be. Sometimes, people were raised from childhood for the express purpose of diluting the mutagen in magical treasures.

    Sergeant Thunder had said as much.

    After the magical treasures came the talisman treasures and the prized treasures.

    Talisman treasures were also rare, butpared to magical treasures, they were easier to acquire. Prized treasures were the mostmon of all, and could be crafted from special materials. Because of that, even ordinary people could sometimes get them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer was a prized treasure, and so were the weapons wielded by Squad Thunderbolt.

    Time passed as Xu Qing followed the group deeper and deeper into the forbidden region. On a few asions, they ran into small groups of mutant beasts that Savage Ghost handled by himself. A few stronger beasts were taken out by Crucifix¡¯s bow. Graceful Raptor relied mostly on magical techniques, and could intimidate beasts into freezing in ce.

    Xu Qing had a taste of the action when a viper attacked the group from behind. He simply grabbed the thing and crushed it to death.

    Eventually, Crucifix seemed to realize that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t making any amateur mistakes, and the disdain in his eyes slowly began to fade. He even started teaching Xu Qing a few things.

    ¡°The forbidden region seems dangerous, Kid, but to experienced hands like us, there are basically only three things to worry about. Commit all this to memory.

    ¡°The first is that in the depths of the forbidden region, you¡¯re likely to run into mutant beasts you¡¯ve never seen before. But that rarely happens on the periphery, which is where we normally operate. If it happens, it can be very dangerous. We know how to deal with the mutant beasts we¡¯re familiar with. However, the forbidden region is huge, and there are all types of beasts inside with all sorts of powers. Apse in concentration can be deadly.

    ¡°The second thing is the Singing.¡± A look of fear suddenly appeared on Crucifix¡¯s face. ¡°People say that you can sometimes hear a type of music inside the forbidden region. If you hear that Singing, you¡¯re almost certainly going to die. I¡¯ve never heard it myself. In fact, nobody in our squad has except for Sergeant Thunder.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Sergeant Thunder. The old man didn¡¯t say anything, but as he looked out into the jungle, mixed emotions could be seen in his eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯ll exin the third danger,¡± Graceful Raptor said, smiling at Xu Qing, ¡°which also happens to be the mostmon. And that¡¯s the Fog of Confusion. When it appears, you can hardly see a thing, and it¡¯s easy to get lost. It usually sticks around for an extended period of time, and if you lose your way inside, you won¡¯t make it out easily. And if that happens, mutagen will build up inside you, which, in turn, means you¡¯re on the way to dying.

    ¡°There are two ways to deal with the Fog of Confusion. The first is to dispel it with fire. The second is to have someone born with psychic powers, or someone who''s worked hard to cultivate them. Using fire is treating the symptoms but not the root cause. It will clear a small area of the fog. However, this is a gruish fog, and you can¡¯t keep a fire going forever in it. Eventually, when the fire goes out, the fog will return. In terms of people with psychic powers, our basecamp only sees one such person every few decades. And they don¡¯t stay around long. They usually leave quickly to develop their powers elsewhere.¡±

    Savage Ghost, who was taking the lead, looked over his shoulder and said, ¡°There¡¯s a fourth danger. And that¡¯s other scavengers. Especially if they set up an ambush.¡±

    Graceful Raptor was about to say something in response, when Sergeant Thunder¡¯s expression flickered as he looked off into the jungle.

    ¡°Quiet!¡± he said.

    Crucifix immediately nocked an arrow to his bow. Graceful Raptor looked around with shing eyes, and Savage Ghost¡¯s muscles rippled. As for Xu Qing, he felt his hair standing on end, as though something incredibly dangerous were nearby.

    Momentster, scattered bits of cold, sinister light could be seen out in the dark jungle.

    Eyes.

    Numerous eyes staring at them. As the eyes grew more distinct, they saw ck, scaly skin. Huge wolves were approaching, each one asrge as an ox.

    At a nce, Xu Qing could see dozens of them, and there seemed no end to them. Maybe there were even hundreds. Every single wolf radiated spirit power fluctuations of the second level. All of the squad members looked worried.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pack of ck-scaled wolves!¡±

    ¡°They normally roam in areas deeper in the forbidden region. What are they doing out here?¡±

    Crucifix looked around through narrowed eyes, and Graceful Raptor¡¯s face looked wan. To them, a single ck-scaled wolf wouldn''t be anything to worry about. But dealing with arge number like this was going to be difficult.

    Of even greater significance was the fact that the mutagen here was strong. Once they started running low on spirit power, and were forced to absorb spirit power from the surroundings, things would get dangerous. In the heat of battle, there wouldn¡¯t be time to extrude the mutagen from the spirit power, which meant that their own corruption would increase rapidly.

    Xu Qing found himself gasping for breath as the pressure exuded by the wolves weighed down on him.

    ¡°Everybody withdraw,¡± Sergeant Thunder said. ¡°I¡¯ll hold them here.¡±

    He started walking forward, spirit power fluctuations rolling off of him that surpassed Crucifix¡¯s by double.

    The wolves stopped walking and red at Sergeant Thunder.

    1. ¡±Yellow Springs¡± is one of many poetic Chinese terms for hell or the underworld ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    "Gruish" is an invented word that I''m using as the adjective form of "grue." The Chinese word is a rtivelymon word that simply means "bizarre" or "strange." However, as we have already seen, it''s being used in the story to describe a specific kind of monstrous being. When used as an adjective, it usually is supposed to connect to the monster, and I want to maintain that connection. Thus, I''ll trante it as "gruish" when it makes sense.

 Chapter 13: Vile Shadow

    Chapter 13: Vile Shadow

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Crucifix said, ncing at Sergeant Thunder then backing up. Graceful Raptor and Savage Ghost did the same.

    Xu Qing looked at the sergeant heading toward the wolf pack. The wolves seemed cowed by the explosive spirit power rolling off of him. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t move. Instead, he stood in ce and lifted his iron skewer, which glittered even in the dim light.

    ¡°Kid, do you know why Sergeant Thunder is in charge?¡± Crucifix said, even as he flew backward. ¡°It¡¯s not just because his cultivation base is in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. It¡¯s because of his sense of judgment, and how he takes responsibility in times of crisis.¡±

    At the same time that Crucifix¡¯s words reached Xu Qing, a loud rumbling sound echoed out. An arrow from Crucifix¡¯s bow had struck a huge tree about six hundred meters away, and it toppled to the ground.

    Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor also took action to fell one tree after another, creating a wall with only a small opening in it like a gateway. After it was done, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor continued to retreat.

    Meanwhile, Savage Ghost stood in ce in front of the opening, looking like a mountain, his shield in one hand and his wolf tooth club in the other.

    Up ahead, Sergeant Thunder suddenly exploded into motion, his hands shining radiantly as he lunged toward the wolves. As he moved, he struck out, and each wolf he hit exploded into a cloud of gore.

    However, there were so many wolves in the pack that Sergeant Thunder soon disappeared within them. The rest of Squad Thunderbolt could only hear the sound of explosions and the cry of the wolves.

    ¡°Kid!¡± shouted Crucifix. ¡°Get back here with us. You¡¯ll have your chance to fight soon.¡±

    Squad Thunderbolt obviously had a battle n in ce, so Xu Qing backed up toward Savage Ghost.

    Savage Ghost grinned at him and hiked his thumb toward the opening in the makeshift wall of trees. Xu Qing slipped through, then followed Crucifix and Graceful Raptor.

    Six hundred meters past Savage Ghost, he caught up with Graceful Raptor, who had also piled up trees to create a barrier. Right in front of the opening, she¡¯d taken out some more powder, scattered it around, and had just bitten her thumb to draw blood. With the blood, she traced aplex symbol on the ground.

    Upon sensing Xu Qing approaching, she looked at him and gave him a look that said ¡®keep going.¡¯

    Xu Qing passed her and continued toward Crucifix, who was crouched in a tree another six hundred meters away. The tree was huge, giving a great view of the entire area. Looking down as Xu Qing approached, Crucifix said, ¡°You¡¯re in charge of the area behind me. Fall back six hundred meters.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. By now, he realized what Squad Thunderbolt had in mind.

    After racing past the tree, he ran six hundred meters and then looked around. Confirming the area was clear, he found a patch of mud by some bushes, where he went into hiding.

    This was just like when he would hunt for food in the city ruins.

    After getting into ce, he remainedpletely motionless. Shortly thereafter, the booming explosions off in the distance grew more intense.

    Because of all the trees blocking his line of sight, he couldn¡¯t see what was happening twenty-four hundred meters away. However, he could sense that there was fierce fighting going on.

    Just beyond the range of Xu Qing¡¯s sight, Sergeant Thunder was indeed battling the wolves. Though he was in the sixth level of Qi Condensation, given that he couldn¡¯t waste energy, he wasn¡¯t able to do anything extraordinary. Thankfully, he had incredible control over his spirit power. Taking advantage of that, he was now leading the ck-scaled wolves toward Savage Ghost.

    With a nasty grin, Savage Ghost lifted his wolf tooth club overhead. Then Sergeant Thunder zipped past him, and he smashed it down toward the iing wolves.

    High in the tree, Crucifix had his bow at the ready. Streams of spirit power in the form of arrows screamed forth, leaving behind streaks in the air as they shot toward the wolves.

    Howling filled the air again as Sergeant Thunder left Savage Ghost behind and raced toward Graceful Raptor¡¯s position. Now, Savage Ghost stood there alone, a living mountain blocking all enemies.

    It was around this point that Xu Qing, from his position hidden in the mud, spotted Sergeant Thunder racing toward him and away from the fighting.

    Sergeant Thunder passed him at high speed. The old sergeant made eye contact, but had no time even to nod. Momentster, he was six hundred meters past, where he dropped down cross-legged, pulled out a white bolus, and began meditating. There he would remain until it was his turn to fight again.

    This was Squad Thunderbolt¡¯s basic battle strategy.

    Sergeant Thunder was the strongest among them. He held the enemy off while the others fell back and took up positions. Savage Ghost was the next line of defense. When he grew tired, Graceful Raptor would step up. And behind her was Crucifix.

    By taking turns holding off the enemy, they could have time to rest and recuperate. That was the ideal way for a small squad to fight in the forbidden region, where the mutagen was strong.

    Of the group, it was Sergeant Thunder and Crucifix who worked the hardest. The former had to fight for the longest, kill the most wolves, and buy the most time for hispanions. As for thetter, he not only had to do his best to keep the wolves at bay, but also, he had to take advantage of his spot up above to keep the other squad members safe.

    That said, everyone had an important role to y, and they all had to trust each other and cooperate.

    So this is what a scavenger squad is like¡­ Xu Qing thought, a look of determination growing in his eyes. He remained in ce, unmoving, for quite a while. Then he saw Savage Ghost retreating from the fight, his chest heaving as he breathed.

    Not long after that came Graceful Raptor, who looked very pale, and had her hands sped at her chest.

    Finally, Crucifix passed Xu Qing.

    The man had a grave expression on his face, like usual. However, Xu Qing could sense that his spirit power fluctuations were very weak. Behind him was an endless horde of wolves. Crucifix seemed hesitant to leave Xu Qing there to fight.

    ¡°I can handle it,¡± Xu Qing said grimly.

    Crucifix didn¡¯t respond. He kept moving, and the wolves closed in.

    An acrid breeze hit Xu Qing. Looking out, he saw about a dozen wolves leading the charge, their bodies covered in ck scales, their eyes crimson. As they charged toward him, they radiated brutality and madness.

    Obviously, the initial sh with Squad Thunderbolt had left many of them dead and injured. But the smell of blood had driven the rest of the ck-scaled wolves into further levels of ferocity. Apparently, the wolves didn¡¯t notice Xu Qing at all, and were intently focused on Crucifix.

    However, as they passed, Xu Qing¡¯s dagger flew out and stabbed into the head of the nearest wolf.

    The wolf let loose a brief howl of agony before dying. Even as its body fell, Xu Qing blurred into motion.

    His ck iron skewer glittered as he stabbed it into the eye of another wolf. Then he clenched his left hand into a fist andunched a blow into a third wolf. That wolf exploded, showering Xu Qing with blood.

    In the briefest of moments, he had killed three wolves.

    He was as nimble and deadly as a rakshasa as he dashed through the wolf pack, his eyes cold and his attacks decisive. One ck-scaled wolf after another fell to his iron skewer, filling the area with agonized shrieks. Soon, he was soaked in sticky blood, but he kept his grip on his skewer, which was now red instead of ck.

    And yet, the wolves were so numerous that, before long, some of their attacks made it past his defenses. One by one, fang and w wounds built up on him.

    Thankfully, he managed to avoid most of the attacks. What was more¡­ the regenerative powers provided by the violet crystal also worked wonders.

    Flesh wounds would heal up in a matter of a few breaths of time, and even the more serious wounds would at least stop bleeding rather quickly. That said, he was so sttered with wolf blood that it wasn¡¯t possible for the other squad members to see what was happening.

    Because of his terrifying ability to heal himself, he was able to keep fighting far longer than anyone thought possible. Wolf corpses piled up, and Xu Qing¡¯s eyes grew colder. Eventually, he had held his ground longer than any of the other squad members, to the point that the wolf pack now seemed wary of him.

    From a distance, the faint bits of light that pierced through the canopy fell on his blood-sttered form, making him look even more terrifying.

    Six hundred meters behind him was Sergeant Thunder, and high in the trees above, Crucifix.

    Both men werepletely shocked at Xu Qing¡¯s level of ferocity, and his ability to stand and fight.

    ¡°Kid, get back!¡± Sergeant Thunder finally yelled.

    Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t tired, but he could sense that he was getting dangerously low on spirit power.

    The violet crystal could restore his body and heal his wounds, but it couldn¡¯t make up for lost spirit power.

    Thankfully, he practiced body refinement, so unlike Graceful Raptor, being low on spirit power didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t fight.

    But it still affected him. He had to breathe, and that meantmingling mutagen with his spirit power. And the mutation blotches on his arm throbbed more than ever.

    Therefore, when he heard Sergeant Thunder¡¯smand, he unhesitatingly fell back. Just as he started moving, a wolf lunged toward him that, unlike the others, had ck eyes instead of red.

    Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer became a streak of red as he thrust it into the wolf¡¯s head, then prepared to keep falling back. However, that was when¡­.

    The wolf corpse¡¯s shadow suddenly twisted and distorted. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if he was seeing things. Given the dappled sunlight in the area, it was possible. But it seemed like the shadow was moving toward him.

    The sunlight was dim and scattered, making it impossible to see exactly what was happening. And before he could determine for sure, the shadow touched him. A tremor passed through him, and he felt an unspeakable evil suddenly fill him from head to toe.

    Before anything else could happen, though, the evil reached his chest, and the violet crystal there that, up to this point, had done nothing else other than heal Xu Qing.

    In that instant, he trembled again as an icy flow erupted within him.

    A momentter, that sense of encroaching evil vanished.

    The icy flow quickly ceased. In the blink of an eye, it was like it had never existed, and the violet crystal went back to normal.

    Xu Qing stared down at himself in shock. However, now was not the time to ponder the situation. Body healing, he flew backward, wondering if Sergeant Thunder or Crucifix were aware of what had just happened.

    As Xu Qing fell back, Sergeant Thunder strode forward, a surprised expression on his face.

    ¡°Good job. Now get back there and rest up. ck-scaled wolves live in the depths of the forbidden region where the mutagen is strong. They hate ces such as this, where the mutagen is weaker. All we have to do is hold out for long enough, and they¡¯ll eventually just back down.¡±

    With that, Sergeant Thunder continued forward, surging with spirit power as he attacked the wolves Xu Qing had just disengaged from.

    Savage Ghost appeared. He had been waiting further back for a while now, and seeing Xu Qing covered in blood as he left behind the piles of wolf corpses, reached out with an arm of support.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Xu Qing said, brushing his arm away and continuing away from the front line. Savage Ghost watched him go, a look of respect in his eyes.

    When Xu Qing reached Graceful Raptor, it was obvious she¡¯d been told about his fighting, but she still seemed shocked by his appearance. A momentter, she produced a leather pouch which she handed to him.

    He epted it, and could feel from the shape that it contained medicinal pills. Thanking Graceful Raptor, he continued past her until he spotted Crucifix high up in a tree.

    Crucifix didn¡¯t say anything, but he gave Xu Qing a nod of approval.

    Xu Qing returned the nod silently. Finally, he found a spot in the very back where he expelled a breath full of impure vital energy, then took out three white boluses. As the pills did their work, he started absorbing spirit power to replenish himself.

    About an hourter, he opened his eyes. He was no longer exhausted. Furthermore, he was surprised to find that the mutagen within him¡­ seemed negligible.

    Then he pulled up his sleeve and looked at his left arm, and to his shock, he found that one of the mutation blotches was gone! However, he was still clearly in the second level of body refinement. He hadn¡¯t weakened at all from the fierce fighting, and after recovering, he even found that he had made some progress.

    He clearly remembered that, while fighting, he had been forced to absorb some surrounding spirit power, and had felt the two mutation blotches on his arm throbbing. He had consumed white boluses before, but they had never been this effective. Yet there was no other exnation for what had just happened to him.

    Other than¡­ that coldness which had flowed through him thanks to the violet crystal.

    That shadow felt vile. Then the crystal sent that coldness out¡­.

    His eyes narrowed as he thought back to the gruish scene from earlier.

    He was absolutely certain that he had seen that shadow moving, and that it hadn¡¯t been a trick of the light. And the stream of coldness from the violet crystal had also been real. It was like it had fought back against the encroachment of evil, and had sucked it inside.

    Did it¡­ consume it?

    All he had now were suspicions and spections.

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to vqid, JustNa, Apujanata, and Ryu980 for the reviews. Reviews help a lot, so if you''re enjoying the story and inclined to do so, please leave a review! I won''t bug y''all about them all the time. Just every once in a while! ??

 Chapter 14: Danger Everywhere

    Chapter 14: Danger Everywhere

    What exactly is this violet crystal? And what was that evil encroaching shadow? Does it have anything to do with my mutation blotch disappearing?

    Xu Qing really couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around it. As he sat thinking about it, the other members of Squad Thunderbolt began to pass him by.

    Eventually, he calmed his thoughts, though his eyes continued to glitter brightly. The answers to his questions didn¡¯t matter right now. He was now rested, and it was his turn to fight again. He stood and wiped off his iron skewer. Then Crucifix fell back, and he jumped into the action.

    With incredible speed, he bore down on the wolf pack. Agonized shrieks rang out like a horrifying symphony.

    He had survived the opening of the god¡¯s eyes, and the blood rain. And this twilight battle was like a grindstone honing him into something even sharper than before. He fought even longer this time. Then he fell back, and the rest of the squad took their turns. Time passed.

    The sun set, and the moon rose. In the dark night of the forbidden region, the deadly sounds of battle continued to ring out.

    Until¡­ everyone was exhausted and the white boluses had all been consumed. They had so much mutagen building up within them that they were reaching the point of mutation. That was when dawn came.

    Thest of the exhausted ck-scaled wolves looked at them, then turned tail and vanished. Everything went quiet. Every member of Squad Thunderbolt was sttered with blood as theyy on the ground gasping for breath.

    Xu Qing was no exception. The violet crystal healed his wounds, but he was so mentally drained that he felt as exhausted as everyone else.

    ¡°We finally¡­ made it out alive,¡± Graceful Raptor whispered. Struggling to her feet, she looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Savage Ghost, despite huffing for air, looked at Xu Qing and gave him a big thumb¡¯s up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s performance in the night of fighting surpassed anything Sergeant Thunder or Crucifix could have expected. In fact, without him, the wolf pack probably wouldn¡¯t have retreated, and Squad Thunderbolt might have experienced mutation.

    Only Xu Qing, whoy there staring up at the sky, was full of doubts.

    During the fighting, it had be very obvious to him that his rate of mutagen absorption was much slower than before. In fact, he even got the sense that the mutagen inside of him was slowly fading away.

    As everyoney there, Sergeant Thunder rubbed his forehead, then looked at the group and said, ¡°This wasn¡¯t a coincidence. The ck-scaled wolves just kepting anding, almost like they were after something in particr. We need to take out all of our belongings and inspect them. I have a feeling¡­ this was the work of human hands.¡±

    The other members looked doubtful, but they did as the sergeant ordered and took out all of their belongings.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as he considered whether something in Horsefour¡¯s bag might be the reason for the wolf attack. However, that was when Graceful Raptor made a sudden cry of shock, and pointed at Savage Ghost.

    Among his belongings was a tattered wooden box.

    Shockingly, the box seemed to be slowly disintegrating, to the point where wisps of smoke rose up from it. Because of theplex mixture of aromas in the jungle of the forbidden region, the smell was easy to miss.

    ¡°Why is it disintegrating?¡± Savage Ghost asked, sounding puzzled.

    Sergeant Thunder walked over, took the box, and handed it to Graceful Raptor. After sniffing it, an unsightly expression overtook her face, and she nodded.

    ¡°Where did you get it?¡± Sergeant Thunder asked.

    Scratching his head, Savage Ghost said, ¡°I bought it the day I got back to camp. It¡¯s an insect-repelling powder.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s made from butterfly-rabbit droppings,¡± Graceful Raptor exined. ¡°When exposed to the right stimnt, they¡¯ll ignite, and attract scaled creatures¡­. And of course, ck-scaled wolves are scaled creatures.¡±

    Savage Ghost froze.

    The atmosphere suddenly became very tense. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he considered the implications.

    A long moment passed, and then Sergeant Thunder shook his head. ¡°Savage Ghost got tricked. If we¡¯re talking about someone in the camp setting a trap for us, it¡¯s easy to imagine who it is.¡±

    ¡°Squad Bloodshadow!¡± Crucifix said coldly.

    ¡°I¡¯d imagine they¡¯ll have a follow-up move,¡± Graceful Raptor said. ¡°And we¡¯re in bad shape right now.¡±

    Looking off into the distance, Sergeant Thunder said, ¡°Then the question is whether we proceed with the mission, or give up. What does everyone think?¡±

    Xu Qing kept his mouth shut.

    The others exchanged nces, but it was Crucifix who finally said, ¡°Sarge, we¡¯re not very far from the harvesting point. We¡¯ve wasted a lot of resources on this trip. If we go back empty-handed¡­.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t say anything immediately. He looked at Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor. The former had his head bowed in shame, and thetter had a defiant tilt to her jaw. Sergeant Thunder sighed.

    ¡°We keep going,¡± he said. ¡°Once we reach the harvesting point, we need to hurry up with the harvest. Then we split up and take different routes back. We¡¯ll reconvene in the camp.¡±

    The decision having been made, they took a short time to rest, then started moving through the forbidden region again.

    Along the way, Xu Qing approached Graceful Raptor and asked her about the piece of amber he acquired from Fatmountain. She couldn¡¯t hide her shock as she took the amber and looked at it closely.

    ¡°It¡¯s the tail of a ghostface scorpion,¡± she said. ¡°Its venom is powerful, and it has positive medicinal properties that can releasetent power hidden within the body. However, the venom is dangerous, and has to be neutralized quickly after use. Nevertheless, many people raise ghostface scorpions because of those reasons, plus the price they fetch on the market.¡±

    Xu Qing thanked Graceful Raptor and put the piece of amber away.

    The group kept on high alert, but at the same time, moved ahead quickly. This time, they kept even quieter than before.

    Perhaps because of the incident with ck-scaled wolves, there didn¡¯t seem to be any other beasts in the area. The squad met no dangers, and soon reached a border area that marked the interior of the forbidden region depths.

    The terrain was no longer just pure jungle. Now, there were rolling hills and flowing streams. Of course, the water in the streams was ck, and not viable for human consumption.

    A path led through the thickest part of the jungle, at the end of which was a beautiful canyon.

    Upon entering the canyon, Xu Qing felt like he was in another world.

    Thick vines grew overhead like a ceiling, blocking out most of the sunlight. However, there were no trees in the canyon, only flowering nts.

    The flowers were roughly the size of a fist, and were all sorts of colors. The stalks, which emanated a bluish glow, had seven leaves. They looked like glittering stars, and together made it seem like the de itself was a peaceful starry sky. It was incredibly beautiful.

    This was the harvesting point Squad Thunderbolt had discovered in the past. It was a secret location that allowed the squad to livefortably by profiting off what they could harvest there.

    There was a special way to harvest the nts, so in order to save time and avoid damaging the product, Xu Qing didn¡¯t participate.

    After observing for a bit, he settled down off to the side to do some breathing exercises.

    Because of the previous day¡¯s battle, his cultivation base had improved, and he was nearing a breakthrough point. In order to give himself the greatest chance of surviving future dangers, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to waste any time. Even in the forbidden region, he continued working on his Sea and Mountain Incantation, and absorbed spirit power from the surroundings.

    As the spirit power poured into him, a wind picked up in the de.

    Sergeant Thunder looked over, but didn¡¯t do anything to stop him. After all, he knew full well that they might be attacked on their way back. Right now, even a slight bit of extra power might be enough to guarantee their survival.

    Some time passed, and Squad Thunderbolt was still harvesting nts. That was when popping and cracking sounds rang out inside Xu Qing.

    Filth oozed out of his pores, mingling with the wolf blood that still coated him. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and blood began to ravenously devour the surrounding spirit power.

    The sounds within him grew louder, then suddenly stopped, whereupon his mind filled with rumbling sounds.

    All the blood vessels in his body swelled, and his flesh filled with astonishing levels of spirit power. A prating aura slowly filled him as the spirit power fluctuations around him faded.

    He had reached the third level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Before opening his eyes, he bowed his head. As a result, no one could see the violet glimmer in his eyes. Truth be told, there was no joy in his eyes. Rather, he had deep misgivings.

    And that was because, when looking down, he saw something happening with his shadow.

    His session of cultivation just now had felt¡­ off. After absorbing the surrounding spirit power, he used the Sea and Mountain Incantation to separate the mutagen, and then send it throughout his body. But the mutagen¡­ did not go into the mutation blotch on his arm. Instead¡­ it flowed into his own shadow.

    It was like his shadow was consuming the mutagen.

    After some thought, Xu Qing suppressed his misgivings and looked up.

    After first looking at Squad Thunderbolt going about their harvesting work, he turned his attention to the entrance of the de, and the jungle beyond.

    Just barely, he could see some structures off in the distance. It looked like a templeplex, sinking away into time, pulsing with an ancient aura.

    Sergeant Thunder followed his line of sight and realized what he was looking at. ¡°Nobody knows when that ce was built. It marks the most distant boundary we scavengers can go to. In other words, you can¡¯t go past it. If you¡¯re in danger, it¡¯s a good ce to hide out.¡±

    ¡°Boundary, huh?¡± Xu Qing said.

    Plucking a seven-leaf clover and putting it into his bag, Sergeant Thunder continued, ¡°Yeah. People say that, back in those days, this particr forbidden region was formed because the eyes of the god above opened and looked upon those temples. Scavengers have explored the ce, and nobody ever found anything. There¡¯s nothing inside other than some special crystals.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean special?¡± Xu Qing asked, curious.

    ¡°Crush those crystals into dust, and rub the resulting powder onto a scar, and it¡¯ll disappear. Completely without a trace. To scavengers, they¡¯re basically useless.¡± He nced at Crucifix. ¡°But sometimes important peoplee asking for them.¡±

    At this point, Crucifix, Savage Ghost, and Graceful Raptor finished collecting the nts. After handing their portions to Sergeant Thunder, he split the collection up into five parts, handing one part to Xu Qing.

    ¡°This is yours. And now we split up. That will increase our chances of getting back safely.¡± He pulled out a map and handed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got big ns, Kid,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s why Squad Bloodshadow is after me. Furthermore, I¡¯m in charge, so I need to be the distraction. You get back to camp as fast as you can. Wait for me there.¡±

    Xu Qing wanted to say something to him, but before he could, Sergeant Thunder slipped out of the de and vanished.

    Crucifix sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder briefly, then also left.

    Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor both gave some further words of advice to Xu Qing, then disappeared.

    He watched them go. Then he put the seven-leaf clovers away and took a final look at that templeplex.

    A momentter, he took a deep breath and headed out of the de. Now that he was in the third level of body refinement, he was much faster than before. He moved through the jungle as nimbly as a monkey, moving nonstop through the trees. He didn¡¯t follow the same path they¡¯d taken to the de. Instead, he used the map to find a more circuitous route.

    Using the techniques he¡¯d learned along the way, he avoided danger as much as possible. He did run into a few mutant beasts, but he took care of them without any trouble.

    asionally, he would spot his shadow, and remained convinced that it seemed strange.

    By now, he knew with certainty that whenever he absorbed mutagen, whether it was from spirit power or just by breathing, it would end up in his shadow! And tracing the timeline back, he knew that it started with the flow of coldness that emerged from the violet crystal. It had all be very obvious after he reached the third level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. After the violet crystal engulfed the shadow of the ck-scaled wolf, his own shadow¡­ had transformed.

    He narrowed his eyes at how gruish it seemed.

    Rolling up his sleeve yet again, he confirmed that he only had one mutation blotch on his arm. What was more, that single mark was faint, to the point where he almost couldn¡¯t make it out.

    If things kept going in this manner, then the mutagen within him would be weaker and weaker, until he waspletely cleansed.

    Based on what he¡¯d read in the Sea and Mountain Incantation bamboo slip, that level of perfect purity was something only seen in elite humans in the Revered Ancient maind.

    Is it all the doing of the violet crystal?

    Stopping for a moment on the branch of a huge tree, he stared up into the sky and rubbed the spot on his chest where the crystal was. Then he forced aside his misgivings and started moving through the jungle again.

    Maybe mutagen wasn¡¯t a threat to him for now, but there were still plenty of dangers to deal with in the forbidden region.

    In fact, he had just spotted two mutant bears that were even stronger than Sergeant Thunder.

    Shockingly, on the back of each bear was a huge, colorful spider. Countless strands of spider silk stretched from the spiders and into the bodies of the bears, apparently allowing the spiders to control them. The bears careened about,pletely unable to control themselves. They smashed trees, and even crushed other mutant beasts as they ran along.

    If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that they were chasing some sort of red tiger, and thus didn¡¯t notice Xu Qing, he would have been in big trouble.

    The forbidden region was full of things like this.

    About two hourster, Xu Qing found himself at the top of a tree, carefully examining his surroundings. Off in the distance, he had spotted something that didn¡¯t seem like it belonged in a jungle.

    It was a massive, mountain-sized jellyfish, emanating frigid coldness. It glowed faintly as it floated high in the air above the forbidden region. Because its body was translucent, it was possible to see countless rotting beast corpses inside it.

    It had a host of tentacles dangling beneath it, all of them covered with gruish eyes. However, most of the eyes were closed.

    As it drifted along slowly, the jungle beneath it was overwhelmed with intense cold.

    Its aura was strong, far beyond Xu Qing¡¯s level of strength. In fact, he was fairly certain that the bears he¡¯d just encountered were weaker.

    Even looking at the thing from a distance, he felt stiff and cold, and could sense how dangerous it was.

    Only when the giant jellyfish disappeared in the distance did he breathe a sigh of relief. It had left behind a streak of frozennd in the jungle that was clearly visible from where he was.

    If that thing hade in this direction¡­. He gulped.

    There was danger everywhere in this jungle, but because of how his shadow absorbed mutagen, he had an advantage in that he could stay inside this ce longer. As he grew stronger, he had the feeling that advantage would grow greater.

    After resting for a moment, he continued with more vignce than ever.

    Time passed, and eventually the sun set, leaving behind only an evening glow.

    As howling echoed out in the jungle, Xu Qing checked his map. Based on his estimations, if he kept running through the night, he would make it out of the forbidden region by daybreak.

    As he contemted the matter, he heard a boom off in the distance, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. And the voice sounded familiar.

    Savage Ghost?

    His eyes turned sharp. Without any hesitation, he approached the source of the noise, moving stealthily through the vegetation.

    Before long, he reached the point where the sound came from. Hiding at the top of a tree, he found himself looking down at six or seven corpses. And one of them¡­ was Savage Ghost!

    His skin was greenish-ck, making it obvious he had mutated. At the same time, he had been decapitated, and his body was mutted. His huge steel shield had been broken in two, creating onerge chunk of metal and one small chunk. As for his wolf tooth club, ity off to the side, covered in blood.

    Obviously, Savage Ghost had, in the midst of his mutation, taken his enemies out with him.

    Xu Qing looked at the scene reticently, sorrow rising up in his heart, when he suddenly noticed something else.

    Some distance away, surrounded by five enemies, his body turning green as he hovered on the brink of mutation, was Sergeant Thunder!

    When Xu Qing saw that, his pupils constricted. Then he tightened his hand around his iron skewer, his killing intent surging.

 Chapter 15: Blood-Colored Evening

    Chapter 15: Blood-Colored Evening

    Looking around, Xu Qing realized that Sergeant Thunder was surrounded by Squad Bloodshadow!

    The sun was setting, recing daytime with the darkness of night. It wouldn¡¯t be long before everything around them was pitch ck. Sinister coldness proliferated, filling the area. The sun was like a dying old man who refused to breathe hisst. It struggled to illuminate the area, and was barely able to prate the thick, leafy canopy.

    Hidden at the top of the tree, Xu Qing was different. He looked down coldly, taking in the entire tableau.

    There were five members of Squad Bloodshadow present. Two of them were fighting Sergeant Thunder, while the other three blocked off any possible avenues of escape. Thetter group seemed about as strong as Graceful Raptor; they were in the third level. They didn¡¯t dare to get too close to the actual fighting, and thus hovered on the periphery. That said, their mere presence was enough to keep Sergeant Thunder slightly distracted.

    Of the two who were fighting, one had spirit power fluctuations only slightly weaker than Sergeant Thunder. He was in the sixth level of Qi Condensation, and he was also an old man. His hair was disheveled, and he had wild eyes. His clothes were tattered, revealing rippling muscles underneath. He was Captain Bloodshadow, leader of Squad Bloodshadow, and the same man who had feasted on Graceful Raptor¡¯s dog.

    Licking his lips, Captain Bloodshadowunched attacks with lightning speed as he red at Sergeant Thunder, whose skin was slowly turning more and more green.

    ¡°Squad Thunderbolt is going to be expunged from the listings in the basecamp,¡± said the captain. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just kill yourself, Sergeant Thunder? That would be better than mutating like Savage Ghost did. At least you¡¯ll have a normal corpse left behind. Hey, if you justmit suicide, I¡¯ll make sure to take care of the rest of your squad.¡±

    After the captain finished speaking, the other fighter chimed in. ¡°That¡¯s right. Don¡¯t worry, Sergeant Thunder. After you die, we¡¯ll take good care of Squad Thunderbolt. I¡¯ve been wanting to see what Graceful Raptor tastes like. And that kid you took in would make us a lot of money as a living treasure.¡±

    This other person was a middle-aged man who was nothing short of ugly. He had a deformed, hunched back, and only one good eye. The other eye was nothing but a mass of scar tissue. His spirit power fluctuations didn¡¯t reach the same level as his captain¡¯s. That said, he was stronger than Crucifix; in other words, he was at the fifth level of Qi Condensation.

    However, his cultivation base didn¡¯t seempletely stable, indicating he¡¯d only recently made a breakthrough.

    Both of Sergeant Thunder¡¯s opponents were trying to get him riled up. But the sergeant¡¯s face remained expressionless, and he had death in his eyes as he attacked with renewed vigor.

    The two members of Bloodshadow obviously didn¡¯t want to kill Sergeant Thunder at the price of being seriously injured in the process, so they were keeping their distance.

    Meanwhile, Sergeant Thunder was obviously intent on taking out his opponents, even if he died in the process.

    Killing intent swirled in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    One in the sixth level. One in the fifth level. Three in the third level.

    The truth was that he could just leave. But he valued gratitude, and Sergeant Thunder had treated him well. So he wasn¡¯t going to leave. Instead, he took another look around the area. There wasn¡¯t a lot of room to fight, as the trees were thick here. And the deepening darkness meant that there were ample ces to strike from the shadows.

    Having made a decision, he crouched on the tree branch, his eyes burning with murderous intention.

    Then he jumped, tapping into all his strength to shoot down like an arrow released from a bow.

    The third level of the Sea and Mountain Incantationbined with the power of the violet crystal, making his fleshly body incredibly strong.

    He moved with such speed that he left a string of afterimages behind him. The people below had no idea what wasing. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing was on the field of battle.

    He appeared first next to a skinny youth who was watching Sergeant Thunder through narrowed eyes andpletely unaware of Xu Qing¡¯s presence.

    However, when the wind brought by Xu Qing hit him, he looked over in surprise. And then¡­ an iron skewer pierced his temple with terrifying force.

    Before the body fell, Xu Qing was on the move again. Bending at the waist, heunched himself with cheetah-like speed toward the next person in his line of sight.

    The second scavenger saw himing. The man¡¯s pupils constricted, and he tried to jump away. But Xu Qing was too quick, arriving with a fist full of shocking power from the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    The punchnded on the man¡¯s chest, caving it in and causing blood to spray everywhere. In fact, an explosion of blood emerged from his back, along with the sound of shattering bones. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s left hand swept through the air, sending his dagger flying with terrifying speed toward the third scavenger.

    When the second man¡¯s chest and back exploded, it alerted the third man.

    However, despite being on guard, all he saw was a blur, along with a st of wind that hit his face. Eyes wide, he used hisst remaining bits of energy to reach up to his forehead, which was when he felt the cold dagger protruding from his face. The force of the dagger had crushed the bones, caving in the top of his face!

    All of these things happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint.

    Xu Qing was moving so fast, and acting so decisively, that the first and third corpses dropped to the ground at the same time. A momentter, the man whose torso he¡¯d crushed fell backward.

    The toppling corpse revealed Xu Qing to the others on the battlefield. His long hair covered half of his face, and his ring eyes made him seem like a wolf.

    Sergeant Thunder and the two Bloodshadow members were all looking at him in surprise.

    The wind seemed to go still.

    Suddenly, the death in Sergeant Thunder¡¯s eyes was drowned out by a ripple of light as his eyes focused on Xu Qing. ¡°Get out of here, Kid!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him, and instead focused on Captain Bloodshadow, who looked past him at the three bodies, his cheek twitching. He had to admit that he had made some errors in assessing Sergeant Thunder¡¯s sense of judgment. The first mistake was not realizing that Savage Ghost didn¡¯t fear death. The second mistake was underestimating the Kid.

    ¡°Kill him!¡± Captain Bloodshadow said with a cold snort. As of this moment, he¡¯d decided that this fight needed to end even if he got seriously injured in the process. Energy surged from within him as he made a fist andunched a blow at Sergeant Thunder.

    The middle-aged man in the fifth level of Qi Condensation grinned viciously as he turned in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Spirit power surged as he walked forward and simultaneously cracked his knuckles.

    He knew that this young man he faced was very quick on his feet. And he had just killed three enemies in the blink of an eye. But the man was stillpletely confident. Given that he¡¯d just recently achieved a fifth-level cultivation base, he was certain he could kill this opponent with ease.

    Xu Qing stared at him with eyes even colder than before. Based on his experience, he was confident that he could kill someone in the fourth level of Qi Condensation. As for someone in the fifth level¡­ he wasn¡¯t sure he coulde out on top.

    But there was only one way to find out.

    He burst into motion, tapping into all the speed he could muster as heunched a fist at the middle-aged man.

    The cultivator watched hime, a disdainful smile on his face.

    Almost as soon as Xu Qing started moving, the middle-aged cultivator released a stream of spirit power fluctuations, which formed an invisible barrier in front of him. Xu Qing¡¯s fist crashed into the barrier.

    A boom rippled out, and cracks spread out across the barrier. However, it didn¡¯t copse, and there was even a powerful bacsh that swept through Xu Qing, causing a crack to ring out from his wrist as it was dislocated.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he violently shook his right arm to force the wrist bones back into ce. Then, vicious light shone in his eyes as, instead of backing up, heunched another blow.

    Another boom rang out, and more cracks spread across the barrier. Then, it copsed.

    At the same time, a violent st erupted from the other side of the barrier, causing dirt to spray everywhere as it enveloped Xu Qing.

    The shattered remnants of the barrier seemed to form countless invisible des that shed numerous bloody wounds onto Xu Qing. He was sent staggering backward, blood spraying everywhere. The wrist he had just fixed was now dislocated again, and his arm hung limply at his side.

    As dirt rained down around them, the middle-aged cultivator looked at Xu Qing scornfully and said, ¡°Moron! You think a measly body cultivator can do a thing against someone who cultivates magic? That¡¯s not to mention I¡¯m three levels higher than you. You¡¯ve bitten off a bit more than you can chew!¡±

    In reality, he was astonished. Never could he have imagined that his spirit power barrier would copse after only two blows. It was a good thing he¡¯d recently reached the fifth level, allowing him to unleash the follow up attack after the barrier copsed. Otherwise, he could tell his opponent would have fallen upon him in fury.

    Xu Qing stood there with his brow furrowed as pain rippled through him, especially from his arm. ring at his opponent, he once again violently snapped his arm out to relocate the wrist.

    When his opponent saw the brutal way Xu Qing treated himself, the man stopped in ce with wide eyes. Then he put his hands together, performed an incantation gesture, and waved his finger in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    The spirit power around him converged, transforming into a head-sized fireball that rushed toward Xu Qing.

    The fireball moved with shocking force, causing the air around it to ripple and distort from the heat.

    As it neared, Xu Qing dodged to the side, yet the fireball followed him.

    Killing intent flickered in the middle-aged cultivator¡¯s eyes. Not bothering with another spirit power barrier, he performed another incantation gesture, sending a second fireball after Xu Qing, then a third.

    Xu Qing could tell that the three fireballs were going to be impossible to escape. Seeing that he was right next to one of the bodies he¡¯d just in, he grabbed it and threw it at the nearest iing fireball.

    A whoomp rang out as the fireball hit the corpse, setting it aze. In only three breaths of time, the corpse had been transformed into ash.

    That alone gave Xu Qing a clear understanding of how dangerous the fireballs were.

    Even just the heat radiating off of them made his skin feel like it was burning. And before he could jump out of the way, the second and third fireballs closed in. Then, the cultivator¡¯s eyes turned scornful as he unexpectedly detonated the fireballs.

    RUMBLE!

    mes exploded everywhere, creating a stupefying level of deadly heat.

    It was impossible for Xu Qing to fully avoid the attack. He was fast enough that he managed to stay out of the way of the main st. Even still, the heat caused blisters to break out all over his body, and his internal organs felt like they were being cooked.

    ¡°Hurry up, mecrow!¡± shouted Captain Bloodshadow.

    ¡°I know, Captain! There¡¯s no way this wolf pup can handle two more of my fireballs without bing a corpse!¡±

    mecrow grinned as he looked at Xu Qing. Eyes burning with brutality, he extended his right hand and he summoned two more fireballs and sent them flying. Fearing Xu Qing might dodge out of the way, he did the same thing as before, making sure to cut off all possible routes of escape.

    The intense heat burned the ground and turned the trees into ash. Without the leaf canopy to block out the evening sun, brightness suddenly flooded the area, making it impossible for mecrow to clearly see the aftermath of his attack.

    However, he was absolutely confident that, backed by the fifth level of his cultivation base, the fireballs would wipe out anyone in the third level or lower.

    Panting a bit, he brushed off his hands arrogantly and turned to the fight between Sergeant Thunder and Captain Bloodshadow.

    ¡°Hey Sergeant Thunder,¡± he said. ¡°Your people are worthless!¡±

    Heughed coldly as he walked back to join the fight. However he didn¡¯t have a chance to see any despair on Sergeant Thunder¡¯s face. All he saw was his captain¡¯s expression transform into one of shock.

    mecrow reacted quickly and dodged to the side.

    But he wasn¡¯t fast enough. A scrawny form burst toward him with two fists that mmed into his spirit power barrier.

    The barrier shattered, and Xu Qing was forced backward by the bacsh. However, a dagger and an iron skewer appeared in his hands, and he hurled them out.

    Because the barrier provided a modicum of resistance, the dagger slowed down enough that mecrow managed to avoid it.

    Even still, it sliced through his ear, sending blood sttering out. As for the iron skewer, it stabbed right into his chest. Blood sprayed out of his mouth. However, the injury apparently didn¡¯t hit any vital spot, and wasn¡¯t enough to kill him.

    Pain fueled the fury in mecrow¡¯s eyes as he shouted in rage, then looked over his shoulder.

    Kneeling in the mes only about twenty meters away was the bedraggled Xu Qing.

    He was still covered in blisters and burns. But in the evening sun, his eyes¡­ were as cold as ice, and raged with killing intent!

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks so much to Dao of Cheese, Gizrah, and Ludicrous Daoist for the reviews. Very much appreciated! ??

 Chapter 16: You Ask When Iâ€™ll Return, My Lord; I Canâ€™t Give a Time

    Chapter 16: You Ask When I¡¯ll Return, My Lord; I Can¡¯t Give a Time

    The sight of Xu Qing illuminated by the evening sun was aplete shock to mecrow. He was a veteran scavenger. But if he was some other person, even someone with a superior cultivation base, he would have been astonished into immobility by this turn of events. However, despite the surprise that shook him to the core, the deadly rage he felt caused his eye to burn with killing intent.

    ¡°Okay, you little wolf pup. I¡¯m going to rip out your teeth one by one and keep them as trophies!¡±

    With that, he tore off his damaged shirt, revealing his wizened torso. Not paying attention to the chunk that had been sliced off his ear, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture to summon a fireball farrger than any of the previous ones.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, then he burst into motion.

    ¡°Release!¡± howled mecrow, and he threw his hands out, causing the massive fireball to split into five parts.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the fireballs spread out and then bore down on Xu Qing. However, Xu Qing simply went on the attack, going for the spirit power barrier with two fists.

    The iing fireballs burned him and shoved him back, but his momentum kept him going forward. And thus, he and mecrow started fighting fiercely in the jungle.

    As the battle grew more and more intense, it became sadly obvious that Xu Qing was simply not on the same level as his opponent.

    The spirit power barrier and the fireballs made it extremely difficult to get close enough tond blows. At the same time, they posed a dangerous threat.

    Xu Qing¡¯s advantages were his spectacr powers of regeneration, allowing him to rapidly heal his wounds without any negative effect on his battle prowess. His body was strong, and though the endless pain had an effect on his psyche, he had grown up in the slums, and had mental fortitude that surpassed ordinary people.

    Most importantly¡­ the strong mutagen in the surrounding spirit power didn¡¯t have any effect on him. It was a different story for mecrow, though. The wound to his ear wasn¡¯t worth worrying about. But his chest injury was getting worse. And then there was his spirit power¡­.

    His cultivation base was in the fifth level of Qi Condensation, but he couldn¡¯t just burn through power endlessly. He had to absorb spirit power from around him to keep going.

    And Xu Qing was putting a lot of pressure on him, making it impossible for him to have any time to rest. As a result, mutagen was building up within him.

    Soon, mecrow went from being angry to being nervous. And then, anxiety became inly visible on his face.

    Things were going wrong within him with the mutagen building up, and at the same time, there was obviously something very strange going on in the person he was fighting.

    Ordinarily speaking, a third level opponent like this couldn¡¯t possibly take so many hits from fireballs. In fact, even a fifth level opponent would have been killed by now.

    Not even mecrow himself could survive a situation like this. Though the young man in front of him was heavily wounded, from the very beginning of the fight, he hadn¡¯t lost an ounce of speed or power.

    mecrow was feeling increasingly unsettled. The mutagen within him continued to grow, and as he got closer and closer to the point of mutation, he started to get incredibly anxious.

    Captain Bloodshadow was still fighting Sergeant Thunder, but at the same time, kept an eye on the other fight. At a certain point, he angrily shouted, ¡°mecrow, you piece of trash, hurry up and beat him!¡±

    He was inclined to help, but Sergeant Thunder was going all out to prevent him from doing so.

    To Sergeant Thunder, it was obvious that Xu Qing was trying to force mecrow into mutation.

    He wasn¡¯t sure where Xu Qing got his confidence from, or how he managed to keep fighting considering the pain he was obviously in. But everyone had their secrets. Sergeant Thunder knew that well, for he was the same. Instead of wondering about the details, he did everything he could to prevent Captain Bloodshadow from helping hisrade.

    The fighting continued.

    The increasingly frustrated mecrowunched three more fireballs, all the while being peppered with curses from his captain. With every moment that passed, his apprehension grew, until it turned into pure madness within him.

    All of a sudden, he smacked himself in the chest with his own palm, causing himself to cough up a massive mouthful of blood. Before the blood could drop to the ground, he reached out and grabbed it.

    Then he started muttering an enchantment that turned the blood ck.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and he felt a sense of intense crisis building up within him. Lunging forward, he attempted to interrupt whatever magic his opponent was trying to unleash.

    Unfortunately, mecrowunched the magical technique with incredible speed. Xu Qing had just started moving when mecrow looked up, his expression twisted and distorted with brutality as he waved his right hand out in front of him.

    The ck blood therein expanded rapidly into a head-sized blood sphere.

    The sphere bubbled, surging with shocking power as it shot in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Time to die!¡± mecrow howled. He was visibly drained afterunching the technique, and as mutagen surged within him, his legs trembled weakly.

    Meanwhile, killing intent raged in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Sergeant Thunder had guessed correctly that Xu Qing was trying to force mecrow into mutation. However, there was one thing that Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t realize: Xu Qing had never given up on the idea of trying to kill his opponent before that happened.

    He no longer held his dagger or his iron skewer, yet he was still looking for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow. Upon seeing mecrow sag limply, he knew his opportunity had arrived.

    The instant the blood sphere appeared, Xu Qing pushed himself forward with even greater speed.

    However, he didn¡¯t move in a straight line toward his opponent. He shifted slightly to the side, allowing him to pass Savage Ghost¡¯s corpse.

    The corpse was charred and burned thanks to the fireball attacks. However it was still there, and next to it was¡­ Savage Ghost¡¯s equipment!

    His wolf tooth club, and the two pieces of his steel shield.

    Xu Qing was specifically aiming for therger piece of his shield. As he sped by, he reached down and picked it up. Using it to cover his skinny frame, he raced onward toward the ck blood sphere and mecrow.

    A huge boom rang out when the blood sphere hit Xu Qing, or more specifically, the shield. Countless drops of blood exploded out.

    In the blink of an eye, the shield shattered into five pieces. Nevertheless, it still absorbed the majority of the force in the attack.

    Xu Qing was hit by some of the ck blood, but not enough to be fatal. Gritting his teeth, he kept moving, bing a streak of afterimages that closed in relentlessly on mecrow.

    A mocking gleam appeared in mecrow¡¯s eyes, and he didn¡¯t even bother to evade the iing attack. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the countless drops of ck blood behind Xu Qing to rise into the air, then turn into arrow-like streaks that shot toward him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s escape route had been cut off, but¡­ he was never nning to retreat in the first ce.

    All that did was ensure that Xu Qing didn¡¯t even have the option of retreating.

    Closing in, he clenched his left hand into a fist. And yet, it was his right hand that actually delivered a punch.

    RUMBLE!

    Cracks exploded out onto the surface of the spirit power barrier protecting mecrow. Blood sprayed left and right from Xu Qing¡¯s right fist. However, it was also possible to see something scaly in the mangled flesh in his hand.

    Before mecrow could see exactly what was happening, Xu Qing unleashed a second fist strike.

    The barrier shattered,shing Xu Qing with a bacsh, forcing him away and making it impossible for him to advance. The mockery in mecrow¡¯s eyes grew stronger.

    However!

    Seemingly out of nowhere, Xu Qing managed to unleash a scrap of additional power. Unlike before, he didn¡¯t actually back up because of the bacsh from the shattered barrier. Forcing himself to move again, he reached out with his right hand and viciously grabbed mecrow in the chest, exactly where the iron skewer had stabbed him earlier.

    Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯sst scrap of energy only allowed him to do this one thing; instead ofnding a fatal blow, all he managed to do was open up mecrow¡¯s wound a bit more, then fall back.

    mecrow¡¯s face flickered in surprise, and he shoved himself away from Xu Qing.

    However, when he realized that this move of Xu Qing¡¯s wasn¡¯t a big threat to him, heughed cruelly and focused on his ck blood attack.

    Except, only a momentter, his face fell, and he looked down at his chest.

    Within the flesh and blood of his wound, there was¡­ a crushed fang and some scales.

    Even as he looked down, the flesh around his wound started to rot and decay, and poisoned blood started pouring out of the wound. Then, the rotting effect began to spread. Unbearable pain surged through him, forcing mecrow to unleash a bloodcurdling scream. Immense terror filled his eyes.

    Continuing to fall back, he looked at Xu Qing crouched some distance away, and noticed him toss aside a mass of shredded flesh and fangs. If you took that mass and put the pieces back together, it would look like the severed head of a snake. It was the very same viper Xu Qing had used to dispose of corpses in the past.

    As for his left hand, it trembled slightly as he opened it up to reveal a crushed piece of amber. As the chunks of amber fell to the ground, they revealed the tail of a ghostface scorpion, pierced directly into Xu Qing¡¯s palm!

    One hand contained a deadly venom used for attack, and the other gave him that slight burst of power he needed to break through the spirit power barrier!

    ¡°You¡­¡± mecrow growled. Then he howled in grief. He could barely talk, let alone think about escaping this battlefield alive. The terror in his eyes grew more intense as he tried to wipe the poisoned blood off of himself. However, it just kept pouring out of the wound, causing his life force to slowly fade.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he knelt there. His battle with Fatmountain had proved to him how formidable the violet crystal¡¯s regenerative powers were. It also helped to prove definitively that the crystal could neutralize poisons.

    That fact was driven home when looking at his hand, which had been infected by the snake venom, yet wasn¡¯t rotting.

    This was the fatal attack he¡¯d prepared. Standing up, he started moving toward mecrow.

    As mecrow watched Xu Qing approach, the terror in his eyes turned into despair. He struggled to move away, and even managed to desperately scream, ¡°Captain! Help!¡±

    Looking over, Captain Bloodshadow¡¯s eyes went wide. He wanted to save his subordinate, but Sergeant Thunder was making it impossible for him to do so. He could only watch as Xu Qing closed in on mecrow with increasing speed.

    At this point, mecrow¡¯s mental state copsed, and at the same time, the mutagen within him surged out of control.

    Even before Xu Qing could reach him, he went stiff. Mutagen spread through him, and then a pop rang out as¡­ he exploded into a mist of blood. When experiencing mutation, some people turned into greenish-ck corpses, and others exploded.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and gazed at the spot where the blood fog was now dissipating into the air. Then he turned with cold eyes to look at Sergeant Thunder and Captain Bloodshadow fighting.

    The evening sun was setting, but the dome of heaven looked different from before. Instead of weing the darkness of night, the entire sky seemed a strange red color.

    As that red color covered Xu Qing, itbined with the wounds that crisscrossed his body, and his cold eyes, to create an indescribably intimidating image.

    It was something so intimidating that Captain Bloodshadow, whose cultivation base far surpassed Xu Qing, trembled in fear. The miserable death experienced by mecrow had been a huge blow to him.

    The sustainedbat with Sergeant Thunder, and the sight of Xu Qing fighting with such vicious tactics, caused Captain Bloodshadow¡¯s mind to crack. Seeing Xu Qing approaching, he threw a punch at Sergeant Thunder and then started backing away.

    He was done fighting.

    Sergeant Thunder was inclined to pursue him, but then he looked up at the bizarre redness in the sky, and his expression flickered. Seemingly affected on an emotional level, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Then, as greenish-ck coloring spread out across his skin, he started swaying back and forth as if about to topple over.

    Xu Qing hurried over and offered him a steadying arm.

    Sergeant Thunder gasped for breath as Xu Qing helped him over to a nearby tree and sat him down. Then Xu Qing turned and looked at the fleeing Captain Bloodshadow.

    Sergeant Thunder grabbed his sleeve. ¡°Don¡¯t go after him alone. He won¡¯t aplish anything now that Squad Bloodshadow is wiped out.¡± The old man looked up into the sky. ¡°And this red sky. I feel like I¡¯ve seen this before¡­.¡±

    ¡°That man is a potential cmity,¡± Xu Qing said.

    He didn¡¯t like the idea of leaving loose ends around. What was more, he felt like he had an advantage in the forbidden region. If he could drag mecrow into death, maybe he could do the same with Captain Bloodshadow. However, Sergeant Thunder¡¯s words struck him, and he found himself looking up into the sky.

    Right then¡­.

    The faint, indistinct sound of singing drifted through the jungle.

    All of the howling mutant beasts out in the trees wentpletely silent.

    The Singing grew clearer.

    It was like a woman, bitterlyining about her husband¡¯s departure. As the song echoed, a thin red fog appeared in the area where Captain Bloodshadow sped away. The fog spread, covering everything in the area.

    Xu Qing shivered. And Sergeant Thunder, leaned up against the tree, also trembled. Both were looking in the direction the Singing came from.

    The former seemed iparably vignt, while thetter¡­ seemed dazed or even confused.

    As the song entered Xu Qing¡¯s ears, he felt an indescribable coldness filling him, almost like the coldness he felt in the blood rain back in the city ruins.

    Despite being in the third level of body refinement, he felt like he might not be able to take the cold. His teeth started chattering, and he felt like he couldn¡¯t move. His mind reeled as he suddenly thought back to the three dangers that Crucifix had mentioned back when they first entered the forbidden region.

    Off in the distance, Captain Bloodshadow suddenly stopped in ce and started shaking.

    It was almost like some unseen figure had approached, and was draining him of the power to run.

    As Xu Qing watched, streams of white energy seeped out of Captain Bloodshadow¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and flowed into the surrounding blood fog.

    Then Captain Bloodshadow¡¯s body disintegrated, transforming into a desated corpse. Then the corpse copsed into dust, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

    The floating fog then rolled across the ground toward Xu Qing and Sergeant Thunder.

    As it neared, Xu Qing trembled. And that was when he noticed that, in the spot where Captain Bloodshadow had died, there was¡­ a tattered pair of red women¡¯s boots.

    What¡­? Xu Qing¡¯s breath came in ragged pants, and his eyes were wide as he watched those boots start walking slowly toward him. Above the boots¡­ was nothing but the bitter song, getting closer and closer.

    It was as if an invisible woman wearing red boots was there, singing and walking.

    What was more, it seemed like she was walking specifically toward Xu Qing.

    The bizarre scene caused his pupils to constrict, and he felt the urge to flee, except he couldn¡¯t move. He was so cold he was frozen in ce, his teeth chattering loudly. He could only watch as the boots neared, step by step, until they were less than two meters away. The threat of death filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart and mind. But he was stuck in ce as countless blood-red strands of fog swirled toward him.

    The pair of red boots took another step in his direction. But then¡­ a hoarse, quavering voice spoke. It was Sergeant Thunder.

    ¡°Taohong¡­ is that you¡­?¡± he asked, sounding uncertain.

    The moment he spoke, the strange song stopped.

    The boot, which had been about to step down, shifted direction. It made it seem like the woman had turned and was facing Sergeant Thunder.

    Sergeant Thunder shivered visibly and was having a hard time breathing steadily. He was exhausted, and seemed to barely have the energy to stay conscious, yet his eyes shone with unprecedented brightness as he looked at the empty spot above the boots. It was as if his eyes were able to perceive a woman standing there, a woman who was iparably important to him.

    They looked at each other, separated by the void, by the world, as distantly as yin from yang.

    Sergeant Thunder, strong and resilient, couldn¡¯t stop the tears from welling up in his eyes and flowing down his cheeks.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ you¡¯re back¡­?¡± he said, reaching out with a trembling hand. The red boots slowly took a few more steps until they were right in front of him.

    The invisible woman seemed to be kneeling in front of Sergeant Thunder, tenderly taking his trembling hand and putting it onto her face.

    Except that Sergeant Thunder¡¯s hand wasn¡¯t touching anything.

    His hand dropped. And his tears¡­ flowed harder. He muttered something, indecipherable, yet filled with sorrow.

    A long moment passed, and the woman sighed. The red boots turned around and walked away, circling around Xu Qing, and then disappeared along with the red fog.

    ¡°You ask when I¡¯ll return, my lord; I can¡¯t give a time.

    ¡°Hidden in the fog are scattered emotions; the song fades like smoke.¡± [1]

    The song continued, bitter and sorrowful, ever fading into the distance. The fog flowed past Xu Qing and Sergeant Thunder. Eventually, the Singing became too faint to hear and¡­ the fog vanished.

    Finally, Xu Qing felt he could move again. Eyes filled with shock, he turned to look at Sergeant Thunder sitting there against the tree. The old man was looking off into the distance, tears still flowing down his face.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He didn¡¯t ask any questions.

    Now wasn¡¯t the time.

    After a long while, Sergeant Thunder spoke in a soft voice. ¡°I bet you¡¯re wondering what that was about.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded silently.

    ¡°Like Crucifix said, I¡¯m one of the few people who has heard the Singing.¡± He continued to gaze off into the distance. ¡°You know, most people who hear it end up dying. Those who survive are rare indeed.

    ¡°Any who live to tell the tale receive a little ¡®gift¡¯ from the forbidden region. And that is¡­ the second time they hear the Singing, they¡¯ll see the person they most want to see. I used to think it was just a story. And yet, it¡¯s because of that story that I¡¯ve stayed in the basecamp for decades, my hair turning white¡­. Today, I saw it.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Sergeant Thunder seemed to grow much older. The wrinkles on his face deepened, and weakness spread through him.

    ¡°Is there someone you¡¯re separated from as distantly as yin from yang?¡± Sergeant Thunder muttered bitterly. ¡°If so¡­ don¡¯t be like me. Don¡¯t wait around this ce. I saw the one I wanted to see, but now I feel empty¡­.¡±

    He closed his eyes, yet the tears continued to flow through the wrinkles on his face and fall onto his clothing.

    Xu Qing looked back to the spot where the Singing had vanished, and felt himself being lost in memories.

    There were people he wanted to see.

    People he wanted to see very, very much.

    1. The first line is from a poem called ¡®Sent North on a Rainy Night¡¯ byte Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin. The second line is written by Er Gen ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter is unusually long. In the future I''ll probably split chapters like this, but for now I''m not going to worry about it.

    Thanks so much to aichaeon, Jobbie6488, and Unpale for the reviews. Er Gen and I appreciate it a lot! ??

 Chapter 17: What Are You?

    Chapter 17: What Are You?

    Perhaps because of the Singing, the cries of the mutant beasts never returned. That song seemed to be the sovereign of the jungle; even after it left, everything stayedpletely silent.

    Sergeant Thunder sat there quietly, staring off into the darkness.

    Mixed emotions could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. After a while, he shifted his attention to Savage Ghost¡¯s wolf tooth club and shattered shield. Like the other corpses, Savage Ghost¡¯s body had turned into dust because of the Singing. He no longer existed. Most scavengers didn¡¯t have family, so when they disappeared, few people cared. And even if they did have family, as the years passed, they would gradually be forgotten.

    Xu Qing thought back to the slums, and one of the schrs that had treated him well. Before wasting away and dying of illness, that schr had said something to the ss.

    ¡°True suffering is when you can¡¯t forget about someone you miss. True happiness is when someone else can¡¯t forget about you.¡±

    Back then, Xu Qing didn''t really understand what he meant. But now, as he looked at Sergeant Thunder, he understood itpletely. Instead of bothering the sergeant, he went over to the spot where Savage Ghost¡¯s corpse hadin earlier. Taking out his dagger, he dug a hole in the dirt.

    He hadn¡¯t known Savage Ghost very well, nor had he spoken much to him. But Savage Ghost had taught him about the jungle, and they had fought together in the battle against the wolves. Xu Qing had also used Savage Ghost¡¯s shield to protect himself from that ck blood. So Xu Qing felt like he should do something. It was simr to how he¡¯d cremated the corpses back in the city ruins. It took some effort, but he managed to dig a sizable hole. Inside of it, he buried Savage Ghost¡¯s wolf tooth club and the remnants of his shield. Xu Qing¡¯s expression waspletely focused as he worked.

    Unbeknownst to him, Sergeant Thunder eventually turned his attention from the depths of the forest to Xu Qing. He had the same surprised expression on his face as when he¡¯d firstid eyes on Xu Qing in the city ruins. After watching him bury Savage Ghost¡¯s equipment, he realized Xu Qing was looking for something to act as a gravestone.

    ¡°Scavengers don¡¯t need gravestones,¡± Sergeant Thunder said quietly. ¡°Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That¡¯s the life of a scavenger. We struggle in life, so in death¡­ there¡¯s no reason for a ceremony. Being able to rest in peace is more than enough.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder was getting weaker. His injuries were very serious, and he had a lot of mutagen in him. Only moments after speaking, he closed his eyes andpsed into unconsciousness.

    Xu Qing walked over, pulled out some seven-leaf clover, and shoved it into the old sergeant¡¯s mouth. He wasn¡¯t sure if it would do anything, but he knew that it was an ingredient in the white boluses. Even if it dispelled a tiny bit of mutagen, it might help.

    Having aplished that, he managed to get Sergeant Thunder onto his back and tie him in ce with some strips of torn cloth. Taking a deep breath, he started running through the jungle.

    Upon passing the spot where Captain Bloodshadow had died, he noticed an animal hide sack, which he grabbed. Unfortunately, it contained random items and no medicinal pills.

    About an hourter, Sergeant Thunder regained consciousness. It took him a moment to realize he was on Xu Qing¡¯s scrawny back, and that they were running. With his eyes open, he could only see the side of Xu Qing''s face.

    He said nothing.

    However, Xu Qing could sense that he was awake.

    ¡°Feeling better?¡± he asked. ¡°You can keep sleeping. It¡¯ll be a few more hours. I think we can get out of the forbidden region by daybreak.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t respond immediately. He was old, and it was getting harder to hide how weak he was. With some effort he looked up at the dark sky, but it was hard to see. He could tell that he would pass out again soon.

    ¡°Kid,¡± he murmured, ¡°do you know why I took you with me when we left that city?¡±

    Continuing to run, Xu Qing shook his head.

    Voice even fainter, Sergeant Thunder asked, ¡°Remember what you were doing when we met?¡±

    ¡°I remember.¡± Xu Qing ran up a fallen log, then jabbed his hand out to grab a mutant lizard hiding in the shadows. Continuing to move, he threw it out in front of him. As soon as the lizard smacked into the ground, a host of writhing vines reached out and wrapped around it. The vines stabbed into the lizard¡¯s armor-like scales and began sucking out its flesh and blood.

    Taking advantage of the situation, Xu Qing leaped over the vines and continued on his way.

    Sergeant Thunder continued talking, but his voice was getting so faint it was hard to hear him.

    ¡°When I saw you cremating all those bodies, with the fire shining on you, it seemed like¡­ you had brought a bit of warmth and kindness into this brutal world.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped running for a moment. Sergeant Thunder again fell into unconsciousness.

    After taking a few deep breaths, Xu Qing once again ran through the depths of the jungle.

    Time passed. Before long, two hours had gone by.

    Xu Qing managed to avoid all dangers, and continued onward to the periphery of the jungle.

    When the night sky was at its darkest, the cold in the forbidden region reached its peak. Thankfully, Xu Qing was constantly on the move, which kept his body warm, and fought back against the iciness.

    And yet¡­ the coldness grew more intense. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing felt like the encroaching cold was overpowering the heat within him. Expression grim, he looked at the road ahead.

    In front of him was a wall of thick fog. It was different from the blood fog that hade with the Singing, and didn¡¯t seem oppressive and dangerous. However, he could tell that once he got into that fog, it would be impossible to see anything clearly.

    The darkness of night made it even worse. Xu Qing wished he could avoid it, but even after running parallel to it for quite some time, he saw no end to it.

    He knew what this fog was.

    When he first entered the forbidden region, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor had spoken of the dangers here, and one was called the Fog of Confusion. Anyone who entered that fog would end up lost inside of it. Once it formed, it would take a long time for it to dispel naturally.

    Xu Qing had the feeling that he could just wait out the fog, since the mutagen in him wouldn¡¯t cause a problem. But Sergeant Thunder was getting weaker and weaker. If the sergeant got stuck because of the fog, it was possible he could experience mutation and die.

    As a result, Xu Qing had no choice but to back up and keep trying to find a way around.

    However¡­ the fog was just too all-epassing. Despite moving as quickly as possible, he eventually reached a point where he couldn¡¯t get out of the way of the expanding fog, and it swept over him. Yet, before long, the fog in the area immediately surrounding him grew thin, until he was left standing there looking confused.

    He looked down at his feet.

    He couldn¡¯t have a shadow in the middle of the dark night, but he could sense that the surrounding fog was being sucked into the area beneath his feet.

    It was as though he had an invisible shadow that was now a vortex, pulling in everything around it.

    The speed involved wasn''t incredible, and after a short time, his shadow seemed to get full. At that point, the fog around Xu Qing grew dense once again.

    However¡­ after his shadow was finished absorbing the fog, power rebounded through Xu Qing, traveling to his eyes. After that, the fog became transparent to him. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t that he could see what was around him, but rather, could sense it!

    The fog was still there, and it was iparably dense, but his senses had reached a level that he didn¡¯t feel lost within it.

    He looked at his feet again, yet still didn''t see any shadow.

    ¡°What¡­ are you?¡± he murmured.

    After a moment, he looked around for a moment, then started moving again, trying to maintain top speed as he slipped through the fog like a specter.

    Before long, he saw other living people in the fog. They were two scavengers that he remembered seeing back in the basecamp. They were sping hands as they moved like blind people through the fog, slowly but surely feeling their way ahead.

    However, Xu Qing could tell that what they thought was forward movement was actually leading them in a circle. Perhaps they knew that, too, as they were sweating profusely and seemed to be in the midst of despair.

    After ncing at them, Xu Qing looked away and prepared to move on. He was not the kind of person who overflowed with sympathy. He lived in a brutal world, and wouldn¡¯t save people unless there was a reason. He had seen many situations in the slums in which the person being saved turned around and harmed their rescuer.

    However, though the fog blocked sight, it didn¡¯t block sound, and the two scavengers detected the sound of Xu Qing''s footsteps as he passed.

    Nervous expressions overtook their face, as they couldn¡¯t tell if the footsteps belonged to a human or an animal. One of them suddenly released a ferocious howl, apparently hoping to frighten away the neer.

    In contrast, the other scavenger cried out for help. And in a show of good faith, he pulled out a white bolus and some spirit coins from his sack, offering them as payment to be led to safety.

    Xu Qing stopped moving and looked at the white bolus. Sergeant Thunder seemed very weakying there on his back.

    After some thought, he reached to his own sack and pulled out a candle. When he lit it, the me was weak, but it was enough to push away the fog.

    Putting the candle on the ground, he backed up a bit and then looked back toward the two scavengers.

    ¡°Walk seven paces to your left,¡± he said, ¡°then ten paces to your right.¡±

    Upon hearing his voice, the two scavengers trembled. Looks of wild hope appeared on their faces as they immediately followed Xu Qing¡¯s instructions.

    Thanks to Xu Qing, the two men threaded their way past some dangerous areas, and were soon in the area where the me of his candle had dispersed the fog in the immediate area.

    Upon entering that area and seeing the candle, they rushed over excitedly to stand next to it.

    Xu Qing was a few paces off, still visible, but deep enough in the foggy darkness that the two scavengers couldn''t make him out clearly.

    ¡°Give me that white bolus,¡± he said coolly.

    The one with the bolus shivered. Given that he¡¯d just been given a new lease on life, he took out the bag of spirit coins and white bolus and tossed them to Xu Qing, offering his thanks along with it.

    The other man also seemed about ready to pull out a medicinal pill. But then he looked at Xu Qing and suddenly seemed to change his mind. Although he couldn¡¯t see Xu Qing clearly, there was enough of him visible to make it obvious he was a scrawny young man with an unconscious person on his back.

    The scavenger¡¯s eyes glittered, and he smiled. ¡°I already consumed all my white boluses, young friend. But don¡¯t worry. Once the fog is gone, or if you have a way to get us out of here, I¡¯ll make sure to repay you.¡±

    His eyes shed as he looked at Xu Qing, as if he was thinking about making a move.

    Hispanion was also seeming to have second thoughts at having handed over his pills and coins so quickly.

    Xu Qing looked at the white bolus, and then the scavengers. He didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, he waved his hand, causing a wind to blow out and extinguish the candle. Instantly, darkness and fog returned to the area.

    Approaching the man who¡¯d just spoken, Xu Qing grabbed his sack away from him.

    ¡°Never mind,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°You can just stay here.¡±

    ¡°Wait. Wait! I¡¯m sorry. It was a mistake. You can have my white boluses. I¡­.¡±

    He reached out as if to grab his sack back, but his foot caught on a protruding root, and he fell to the ground. Climbing back to his feet, he panted and looked around with regret in his eyes. ¡°Let me exin, young friend! I¡­.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him and walked in the direction of the man who¡¯d given him the white boluses, who looked rmed at being thrust back into the fog.

    As Xu Qing passed him, he coolly said, ¡°Follow the sound of my footsteps.¡±

    Without another word, and without looking back, he continued on his way. Behind him, the man followed, now rejoicing that he¡¯d been so quick to hand over the requested items.

    That was especially true when he heard the mournful cries of the other man, and how they soon turned into wild curses. No matter what that man said, he couldn¡¯t remove the despair from his voice. As the follower continued after Xu Qing, he trembled, and felt deep respect growing within him.

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to SquidDragon, Asura_va, Kaining, varius, Zero Life Night Vision, and EvilFruitz for the reviews! It''s very much appreciated! Seriously, y''all are amazing, and have blown me away with the reviews. Thank you!

 Chapter 18: Grandmaster Bai

    Chapter 18: Grandmaster Bai

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to the man following him. As he continued through the fog, he fed the white bolus to Sergeant Thunder.

    Whether it was because of the pill or the seven-leaf clover, the greenish-ck color had stopped spreading across his face. However, there was still too much mutagen within him. Not even the white bolus was enough to reverse its effects.

    Because of that, he remained unconscious. What he had experienced in this mission in the forbidden region had been too much for him.

    And thus¡­ in the depths of the night, Xu Qing continued through the fog. Along the way, he encountered more scavengers, with whom he traded white boluses in exchange for safe passage out. All they had to do was follow his footsteps.

    There were some fools who didn¡¯t cooperate. They became stark examples for the people who agreed to follow Xu Qing. And the respect in thetter group grew. All of them hade to the conclusion that Xu Qing was one of those rare people born with psychic powers; after all, that was the only type of person who could deal with the Fog of Confusion.

    Graceful Raptor had told Xu Qing about people like that. When he¡¯d traded for the white boluses, he was also thinking about this, and let the misunderstanding happen so as to conceal his real secrets.

    After giving Sergeant Thunder over a dozen white boluses, hisplexion had improved. Instead of being greenish-ck, it was just greenish. He also seemed to have an easier time breathing.

    At the same time, Xu Qing realized that his shadow couldn¡¯t feed power into him for very long.

    As he moved onward, he realized that the fog wasn¡¯t as transparent as before. Things started getting hazy until, eventually, he was seeing the same thing as everyone else.

    Thankfully, he was already close to leaving the fog.

    Despite losing his ability to see clearly, he moved even faster than before. Darkness was fading from the sky, and the morning sun peeked over the distant horizon. As the light of dawn spilled over thends, Xu Qing finally emerged from the foliage with Sergeant Thunder on his back.

    He felt a bit emotional as he sped out into the outside world and left the jungle behind. No longer was he surrounded by sinister coldness. Instead, he felt a gentle breeze and warm sunlight.

    In fact, the sun forced him to squint as he stood there, taking in great breaths of fresh air.

    Those who had been following him also emerged, and were finally able to see their surroundings clearly. They had all lived through a perilous ordeal in which they almost died. Every member of that disparate group was excited. One old man even dropped onto his hands and knees, and kissed the dirt.

    It was only at this point that they were able to see who they had been following. It was young Xu Qing, carrying Sergeant Thunder. Only a few of them recognized the former, but all of them were familiar with thetter. This was a sight they wouldn¡¯t forget, and Xu Qing himself had made a deep impression on them.

    ¡°Kid!¡±

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder!¡±

    Then Xu Qing nced back at them, and they instinctively closed their mouths.

    Truth be told, the way Xu Qing had dealt with the evil-hearted scavengers he had encountered left this group of survivors with feelings of awe.

    Ignoring the followers, Xu Qing was just about to start running again when he saw two figures racing in their direction.

    They were none other than Crucifix and Graceful Raptor. They had not returned to the basecamp, but had instead been waiting anxiously just outside the forbidden region. And they had already decided that if Sergeant Thunder and the rest of the squad members didn¡¯t emerge soon, they would go back in to rescue them.

    Then they saw Xu Qing off in the distance, and raced to his side.

    When Crucifixid eyes on Sergeant Thunder, his pupils constricted. Then he looked at Xu Qing, and his gaze softened. Graceful Raptor also looked shocked, and killing intent burned in her eyes as she red at the people following Xu Qing.

    The group shrank back, panting in anxiety.

    ¡°They weren¡¯t involved,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°In fact, I have them to thank. Without their aid, Sergeant Thunder wouldn¡¯t have made it.¡±

    Graceful Raptor¡¯s killing intent faded, and the followers breathed sighs of relief. sping hands and bowing in both respect and thanks, they went their own ways.

    After they were gone, Crucifix stepped forward to take Sergeant Thunder off of Xu Qing¡¯s back. Xu Qing stopped him.

    ¡°Let him sleep,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Crucifix said. ¡°Let¡¯s get back to the basecamp and get the sarge to the physician.¡± He took out another white bolus for Sergeant Thunder. Then the three of them raced toward the camp.

    Along the way, Graceful Raptor seemed to be working hard to keep her mouth shut. But finally, she couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What about Savage Ghost? Is Squad Bloodshadow still following you?¡±

    Xu Qing took a moment before answering. ¡°Savage Ghost experienced mutation and died in battle.¡±

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor stopped in ce. Though they had been prepared for an answer like this, they couldn¡¯t prevent their eyes from filling with grief. Graceful Raptor looked downright despondent.

    However, the next thing that Xu Qing said left thempletely astonished.

    ¡°Squad Bloodshadow was wiped out.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s how the sarge got hurt so bad,¡± Graceful Raptor muttered, ¡°and also why his mutagen levels are so severely high¡­.¡±

    Graceful Raptor seemed content with the exnation. But Crucifix had a dubious expression on his face, as though he suspected there were more to the story. He even gave Xu Qing a deep look. However, he didn¡¯t ask any further questions.

    Nor did Xu Qing offer any exnations, or mention the Singing. That was Sergeant Thunder¡¯s secret to keep, and it wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s ce to make decisions about revealing it.

    The three of them raced back to the basecamp, immediately heading to the caravan area in the middle, where the famous physician was taking patients.

    When Squad Thunderbolt appeared, the others waiting in line could sense their somber and deste mood. And when they saw the unconscious Sergeant Thunder, they moved out of the way. Thus, Squad Thunderbolt took the first ce in line outside the physician¡¯s tent.

    It was a big tent that emanated a medicinal aroma. Guards in te armor stood by in the tent, where the physician was examining a scavenger who had a pained expression on his face.

    The physician was a skinny old man wearing a clean gray robe. He had a wrinkled face, but his eyes were lively and full of wisdom. In fact, they sparkled like stars, making it seem like he could see into the heart of whomever he looked at.

    He was nked by a young man and a young woman.

    The young man seemed about the same age as Xu Qing. He wore a blue silk garment and his hair was tied with a ck jade headband. Hanging at his waist was a piece of fine jade carved into the shape of a dragon, with a golden tassel that spread out on the cushion he sat on. He was handsome and well-kempt, but seemed like he was barely awake. His chin currently rested in his palm, and though he had an alchemy textbook in the other hand, he wasn¡¯t even looking at it. Instead, he kept yawning.

    On the other side of the physician was a young woman of about sixteen or seventeen years of age. She wore a long, blue skirt, and had a waterfall of ck hair that framed a perfect, oval face. Her skin was as fair as snow, and her facial features were outstandingly beautiful. Her eyes, bright and clear, sparkled like the stars, and when she nced at herpanion and saw him dozing off, she smiled, then returned her attention to the medicinal codex she was studying. When she smiled, her eyes became like crescent moons overflowing with lingering charm. Her facial expression seemed noble, ensuring that anyone who looked at her would marvel at her grace and elegance.

    This lovely young pair exuded a purity that scavengers rarely saw. In their presence, Graceful Raptor felt a bit self-conscious, and Crucifix couldn¡¯t hold back from ncing at them repeatedly.

    As for Xu Qing, he was mostly interested in the medicinal books they were studying. Upon seeing them, his eyes glinted with envy. Then he forced his eyes away from the books and focused on the physician.

    The physician was currently exining a few things to his scavenger patient. The scavenger offered profuse thanks, then left, whereupon the physician washed his hands in a copper bowl off to the side, then looked at Xu Qing and the others.

    His gaze stopped briefly on Xu Qing, and he looked a bit closer at him, then went on to look at Sergeant Thunder.

    ¡°Put him down here,¡± he said.

    For some reason, Xu Qing felt nervous when the old physician looked at him. It was the same feeling he remembered when attending ss with the schrs back in the slums.

    With Crucifix¡¯s help, he set Sergeant Thunder down carefully in front of the physician.

    Sergeant Thunder¡¯s eyes flickered open, and he looked around in surprise. Then he saw everyone around him, and was about to struggle into a sitting position.

    ¡°Lay still,¡± the physician said coolly.

    Sergeant Thunder looked up at him, and their eyes met. Then Sergeant Thunder continued to struggle up. Crucifix hurried forward and helped him to his feet. When Sergeant Thunder was able, he sped hands to the physician.

    ¡°I got hurt, so they brought me here. I don¡¯t want to cause you any trouble, Grandmaster Bai. I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°You know me?¡± the old physician asked curiously.

    Sergeant Thunder nodded and respectfully said, ¡°A few years ago I had a chance to see you from a distance.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai looked at him deeply for a moment. ¡°Your injury isn¡¯t severe. And the mutagen in you has already been suppressed. But your mental state is an issue. You¡¯ve obviously had some big ups and downs emotionally, and it¡¯s damaged your heart and blood vessels. Combine everything, and it¡¯s troublesome. I can treat you, but¡­ the real issue doesn¡¯t have to do with the recent injuries.

    ¡°You sustained internal injuries years ago, didn¡¯t you? Someone crippled your cultivation base, though you managed to rebuild it over the years, which is quite an aplishment.

    ¡°However, when youbine everything that¡¯s happened to you, you can say that you¡¯ve overtaxed your system in a way thatmon herbs and minerals can¡¯t treat. Not even I have the ability to fix you. I¡¯ll give you some medicine that will help a bit. The rest will be up to luck.

    ¡°There¡¯s one thing you need to realize. Going forward, you cannot practice cultivation or do breathing exercises. If you do, the mutagen will cause your old internal injury to re up. And then¡­ you¡¯ll die beyond the shadow of a doubt.¡±

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor took in Grandmaster Bai¡¯s words withoutment. Clearly, they were aware that Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cultivation base had been crippled in the past. But it was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing of the matter. Looking at Sergeant Thunder, he thought back to the Singing, and the blood-colored women¡¯s boots.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing else we can do?¡± Crucifix asked gloomily.

    ¡°There is,¡± Grandmaster Bai replied. ¡°If you could find a precious material such as a lifespan flower, he might get a new lease on life. A few years ago, I heard that the forbidden region here produced one such flower.¡±

    Crucifix didn¡¯t respond, and Graceful Raptor seemed worried. But when Xu Qing looked at Sergeant Thunder, the man looked calm, and he even gave a faint smile.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal,¡± Sergeant Thunder said, ¡°just an old injury. I¡¯m sorry for bothering you, Grandmaster Bai.¡± sping hands once again, Sergeant Thunder gathered Xu Qing and the others to leave.

    After everyone had offered formal thanks, they took the medicine prescribed by Grandmaster Bai and left.

    As for Xu Qing, he had the feeling that, when they had sped hands upon leaving, Grandmaster Bai had been looking closely at him.

    After leaving the physician¡¯s tent, the surviving members of Squad Thunderbolt didn¡¯t say anything to each other.

    They returned to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s residence, where both Crucifix and Graceful Raptor seemed like they wanted to say something. Sergeant Thunder interrupted and told them to leave.

    When they were gone, Sergeant Thunder got some tobo from his cabin, took a pipe out of his sack, and started smoking. As the smoke drifted about, he sighed and looked at Xu Qing with an expression of concern.

    Waving away some of the smoke, he smiled and said, ¡°I couldn¡¯t even think about smoking in the forbidden region, but now we¡¯re back. This feels great. Smoking is much better than any kind of medicine.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to reply, but Sergeant Thunder cut him off.

    ¡°What do you want to eat? I¡¯ll cook. And¡­ we can drink together.¡±

    From what Xu Qing could tell, Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t interested in talking about the recent events. After a moment, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s eat snake.¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks so much for the review, Penguinos! Long live the F5 Sect!!!

 Chapter 19: Life

    Chapter 19: Life

    The scavenger basecamp was known to have everything required for day-to-day life. Also, it had a lot of meat. Because of its proximity to the forbidden region, scavengers came and went on a daily basis, and they needed to eat. Meat. So there were vendor stalls set up for just that purpose.

    Upon hearing that Xu Qing wanted to eat snake, a vibrant smile broke out on Sergeant Thunder¡¯s wrinkled face. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that Xu Qing obviously remembered his love of snake meat.

    Before Xu Qing could go out, though, the old man blocked his path.

    ¡°There are a lot of crafty people in this camp,¡± he said. ¡°And you¡¯re not familiar with all the mutant beasts that live in the forbidden region. More than likely, you¡¯ll end up getting scammed. I¡¯ll buy the meat.¡±

    Upon hearing the word ¡®scam,¡¯ Xu Qing subconsciously rubbed his iron skewer, thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Nobody¡¯s gonna be scamming me.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder eyed the skewer, thenughed involuntarily. Without another word, he walked out.

    After the old man was gone, Xu Qing went to the kitchen, carefully cleaned everything up, and then set the table. Thest thing he did was ce a third set of tableware down. As he put the extra bowl and chopsticks out, he suddenly realized something.

    ¡°The third set¡­ is for someone who¡¯ll nevere.¡± Thinking back to those words, he moved the third set of tableware next to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s ce at the table.

    He did the same with the third chair.

    Having aplished these things, he looked back out at the courtyard. It was evening, and a cold wind blew a few snowkes along with it.

    In the eastern part of South Phoenix, the end of the third month was when warmth returned to thends. nts bloomed and animals awoke from hibernation. But winter rarely relinquished its hold willingly, and used the asional snowfall to remind everyone it was still around.

    As dusk grew deeper, the wind carried more and more snowkes into the courtyard. As they fell from heaven into the world of men, however, theynded on the ground and melted.

    Eventually, everything was muddy.

    No matter how high of a vantage point one could attain, and no matter how clean that person was, it was impossible to avoid the reality that the human world was filled with filth that could never be wiped clean.

    It was hard to say if the coldness of the wind caused the snowkes to appear, or if the appearance of the snowkes caused the wind to be colder. Either way, as the wind blew across thends, through the basecamp, and into the courtyard, Xu Qing felt chilled to the bone.

    He was a cultivator, but still couldn¡¯t forget the deep-seated fear of the cold that he had harbored for years. As such, he felt ufortable.

    Eventually, he noticed a figure lurching along through the cold wind and snow. When the figure opened the gate to the courtyard and stepped inside, he was smiling.

    ¡°We got lucky, Kid. Look at this. It¡¯s a safflower snake. Their meat is exceptionally good. You just wait, I¡¯m going to show you how good I am in the kitchen.¡±

    With that, Sergeant Thunder carried the dead snake inside. When he saw how clean the kitchen was, and how the table had been set, his smile widened. Looking at Xu Qing, he asked, ¡°Want to learn how to cook a snake?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing replied, his eyes shining. He loved learning new things, and besides, he already knew how well Sergeant Thunder could cook.

    Smiling, Sergeant Thunder beckoned Xu Qing to his side and started working, exining as he did.

    ¡°You know, most people think you should cut off both the snake¡¯s head and tail when you cook it. Well, the snake¡¯s excretionse from the tail area, so you do need to remove that part. But not the head. As long as you¡¯re careful to remove the venom, the head will add a lot of vor to the dish as a whole.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder absolutely loved talking about cooking. Xu Qing watched and listened carefully as Sergeant Thunder cleaned the snake, skinned it, removed the offal, then prepared the meat.

    ¡°Remember, Kid, if you just eat the meat in, it won¡¯t have any vor. You need a good broth to go along with it.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder started boiling some water in an earthenware pot, then added numerous herbs and spices. Finally, he put the snake head in.

    Before long, a fragrant aroma filled the air, and Xu Qing started salivating. Seeing this, Sergeant Thunderughed heartily, took out a clean wok, and stir-fried the rest of the meat. Hissing and popping sounds filled the kitchen, and the fragrant aroma grew so strong it drifted outside.

    The frigid coldness was driven away, and Xu Qing¡¯s stomach rumbled loudly. As he looked at the sizzling snake meat, his eyes grew wider and wider.

    Finally, Sergeant Thunder finished frying the meat, whereupon he dumped it into the earthenware pot and closed the lid.

    ¡°Are you going to remember all that?¡± he asked.

    Xu Qing eyed the earthenware pot and nodded. The process didn¡¯t seem very hard as far as he was concerned.

    Sergeant Thunder smiled, left the kitchen, and came back with two gons of liquor. One he gave to Xu Qing, the other he kept. Taking a sip, he sighed.

    ¡°Meat¡¯s easy to find in this camp. But liquor¡­ ahhhh. It¡¯s a lot more rare.¡±

    Xu Qing lifted the gon and looked at the cloudy liquid inside. He¡¯d never consumed alcohol before. ording to Sergeant Thunder, liquor was rare. And Xu Qing remembered that alcohol didn¡¯t even exist back in the slums; only adults in the city had drunk it. Seeing how much Sergeant Thunder seemed to enjoy it, Xu Qing put the gon to his lips and drank a mouthful. It burned, but he forced himself to swallow. Warmth slid down his throat and into his belly, where it seemed to explode, sending out a current of heat into the rest of his body. He exhaled, nearly coughing, and could smell the alcohol on his own breath.

    ¡°It¡¯s disgusting,¡± he said, looking at Sergeant Thunder.

    The old man threw his head back and roared withughter. Pointing at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°You¡¯re too young to appreciate the vor of liquor. You¡¯ll like it when you¡¯re older.¡±

    With that, he reached out to take the gon from Xu Qing. However, Xu Qing pulled it away.

    ¡°Let me try again.¡± He took another drink, and though he frowned, he felt like he was already getting used to the unusual vor.

    Time passed as they drank together, Sergeant Thunder poking fun and joking with Xu Qing the entire time. Eventually, the meat was done.

    When Sergeant Thunder put the earthenware pot on the table and removed the lid, the delicious aroma billowed out. Xu Qing felt his throat twitching. Putting the gon down, he waited for Sergeant Thunder to take the first piece of meat. Then he used his own chopsticks to stab a piece and put it in his mouth. As before, he couldn¡¯t hold back from wolfing down the food like he usually did.

    And thus, as the snow fell outside and the wind blew, an old man and a young one ate and drank together, warmth filling them.

    As Sergeant Thunder watched Xu Qing awkwardly work with the chopsticks, a tender look appeared in his eyes.

    He¡¯s a good kid. It¡¯s too bad he lives in such a brutal world.

    The cabin had cracks in it, which allowed bits of snow to blow inside. When theynded on Xu Qing, it didn¡¯t matter that he was sweating from the food, he still didn¡¯t like the cold sensation, and huddled in on himself a bit.

    Sergeant Thunder noticed, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Time passed. Xu Qing watched how Sergeant Thunder drank and learned from him, taking a sip, then exhaling the fragrance of the alcohol. At a certain point, he looked at this old man who had taken him out of the city ruins, and said, ¡°Your injury¡­?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be okay. I¡¯ve dealt with it for years now. I won¡¯t die easily. I¡¯m fine.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He¡¯d wanted to ask about how Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cultivation base got crippled to begin with. But after thinking back to what happened in the forbidden region, he held his tongue.

    They enjoyed the meal for quite a while, until finally Sergeant Thunder finished his alcohol. At that point the old man stood, his eyes a bit cloudy as he returned to his cabin. Xu Qing suddenly realized that the trip to the forbidden region had taken away some of the sergeant¡¯s previous imposing manner.

    He sat alone for a time before getting up to clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. When the work was done, he went back to his cabin. Sitting on the bed, he watched the snow falling outside the window, and eventually curled up and took out the sack that had once belonged to Captain Bloodshadow. There were no medicinal pills inside. But there were a lot of spirit coins, as well as some random things.

    There was a set of ck gauntlets made, not from leather, but metal. Xu Qing tried them on and found that they were very tough, and would be a big advantage to his defenses. He threw a few experimental punches, and was very happy with the results. Taking the gauntlets off, he sat down and went into some breathing exercises.

    The night passed without incident.

    It was still snowing in the morning, but it was warmer than the previous night. However, there was enough leftover cold that the snow stuck.

    Upon walking out of his cabin, Xu Qing saw the snow on the ground and wrapped his clothes a bit tighter around him. ncing at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cabin, he left the courtyard. His goal for the morning was to find some white boluses to buy for the sergeant.

    His feet crunched in the snow as he headed toward the general store.

    Along the way, he passed by Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, where he heard the voices of that young man and woman from the day before. They were reading books aloud, which caused Xu Qing to stop and listen enviously.

    After a short time, he looked away from the tent and continued to the general store.

    As he neared, he saw the girl from the beast trial, working hard to sweep the snow from the front of the store. Her garments were tattered, her hands were red, and her breath puffed in front of her as she worked. He hadn¡¯t seen her for a few days, but it seemed that she was already used to life in the basecamp. She looked tired, but she was working spiritedly.

    The snow still fell, but she swept anyway. In the morning light, the scar on her face seemed even more prominent. She noticed him as she approached, and looked up. She smiled.

    ¡°Morning!¡±

    ¡°Morning¡­¡± Xu Qing mumbled back. He wasn¡¯t used to calling out greetings. Nodding at her, he looked into the store. Perhaps because it was early, or perhaps it was the cold, but either way the store was empty.

    ¡°What do you want to buy?¡± the girl asked. ¡°I¡¯ll get it for you.¡±

    He looked at her. ¡°White boluses.¡±

    cing her broom against the wall, she led Xu Qing inside. Running to one of the counters, she rummaged around and pulled out a few sacks. Looking through them, she picked one specific sack and handed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°The owner said we can only sell five per day,¡± she said, looking a bit sheepish.

    Xu Qing took the sack and looked through it carefully. To his surprise, the white boluses inside were of a much higher quality than the ones he¡¯d purchased before. In fact, three of them didn¡¯t have any green coloration at all, and emitted a faint medicinal aroma.

    Thinking about how the girl had been so specific about which bag to take out, Xu Qing looked up at her.

    She blinked a few times, smiled, and then said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m allowed to do this.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    She shed a radiant smile. ¡°No need for thanks. I should be thanking you. If it wasn¡¯t for you, I wouldn¡¯t be alive right now.¡±

    Her words seemed to remind her of something, so as she escorted Xu Qing to the door, she quietly said, ¡°I heard the shop owner mention that a lot of young people have gone missing in the forbidden region recently. And based on his expression, I got the impression he didn¡¯t think it was because of the forbidden region itself. More like¡­ people are responsible. Just¡­ be careful.¡±

    From the look in the girl¡¯s eyes, she seemed to be genuinely concerned about him, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t really sure how to respond. Nodding, he thanked her and left.

    Some distance away, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the girl once again was sweeping the snow. For some reason, her scar seemed very prominent on her face.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing remembered Sergeant Thunder¡¯s story about how the temple in the forbidden region had some sort of crystal that could remove scars.

    If I have a chance, I¡¯ll get one of them for her.

    As he walked away, he left a trail through the snow. Behind him¡­ the snow fell harder.

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thank you to Deathwalker, DaoistFilth, yer Kh, Eric Rasputin, The Last Daoist and Venerable Tengoku for the reviews. Very much appreciated!!! I''m really taken aback by all the reviews.

    Incidentally, it''s been a while since I posted on Wuxiaworld. I like this "favorite chapter" feature. I''m adding this one to my list.

 Chapter 20: Home?

    Chapter 20: Home?

    Xu Qing walked through the wind and snow back to the courtyard. Before he even entered, he heard Sergeant Thunderughing from inside. He also heard the sound of barking. Pushing open the main gate, he saw about a dozen stray dogs in the courtyard. They froze in ce, looking at him coldly, and he looked back. He didn¡¯t do anything threatening, just look at them, yet they still growled and backed away from him, their hackles raised.

    He heard talkinging from Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cabin, then the door opened and Crucifix and Graceful Raptor walked out. Upon seeing Xu Qing, and then the stray dogs, Crucifix grinned.

    Kneeling, Graceful Raptor patted the head of the nearest dog, smiled, and said, ¡°They¡¯re saying you have a very strong baleful aura, Kid.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, but instead looked over at Sergeant Thunder, who was also walking out of the cabin.

    The old man wore a thick leather jerkin and had a pipe in his hand. Gesturing at Graceful Raptor, he said, ¡°My little girl Graceful Raptor said that, because of my injury, she¡¯s worried about my safety in the camp. So she assigned these dogs to guard the courtyard.¡±

    There was additional meaning to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s words that Xu Qing picked up on. Because Xu Qing hadn¡¯t told anyone about how they heard the Singing, Sergeant Thunder had returned the favor and not revealed the details of what Xu Qing had aplished.

    Xu Qing nodded, then pulled out the bag of white boluses and tossed them to Sergeant Thunder.

    The old man nced at them and smiled. ¡°Alright, alright. I have to admit I need these things. But from now on, don¡¯t go buying them for me. I have enough money saved up to buy them for myself. Crucifix.¡± He looked at the man. ¡°Now that the Kid¡¯s back, you can tell him.¡±

    The smile left Crucifix¡¯s face, to be reced by a more somber expression. ¡°We came for two reasons. The first was to bring that special medicine for the sarge. Graceful Raptor and I bought enough tost for a month. Once that supply is used up, we¡¯ll get more.¡± At this point, Crucifix pulled a sack of animal hide out and ced it off to the side.

    ¡°The second matter,¡± he continued, ¡°is this: because Squad Bloodshadow waspletely eliminated, our squad brought in the biggest harvest of seven-leaf clovers. Other scavengers brought in bits and pieces, but nowhere close to us.

    ¡°Yesterday, Graceful Raptor and I went to hand our collection in to the camp owner, and we got a big reward. However¡­ the camp owner is as stingy as ever, and instead of giving us three dustpurging pills, he only gave us one.¡± Crucifix looked at Graceful Raptor.

    She pulled out four sacks, put one off to the side, and also took out a wooden box. Upon opening the box, Xu Qing could see a pigeon-egg-sized medicinal pill inside, cyan in color. The medicinal aroma that wafted off of it was vastly superior to that of a white bolus.

    ¡°Savage Ghost didn¡¯t have any family, so I split his share between the rest of us. These four bags are the spirit coin reward. And as for the dustpurging pill¡­.¡±

    Crucifix looked at Sergeant Thunder, obviously waiting for him to make a decision about what to do with it.

    ¡°Give it to the Kid,¡± the old man said coolly. At that moment, there was no question that he was in charge of Squad Thunderbolt.

    Crucifix nodded. Graceful Raptor looked surprised, then thoughtful. Both of them had asked Sergeant Thunder what happened in the jungle, but the sergeant never answered their questions. But given his decision regarding the loot, it was now fairly obvious.

    ¡°As for Savage Ghost¡¯s share¡­ you split it up right. After all, we¡¯re his family.¡±

    With a sigh, Sergeant Thunder picked up his share of the reward, as did Crucifix and Graceful Raptor. Xu Qing followed suit.

    Then Graceful Raptor offered Xu Qing the dustpurging pill. Xu Qing nced at Sergeant Thunder first, and from the look in his eye, realized the old man was very serious about his decision. Xu Qing took the pill.

    There was some further chatting, primarily between Crucifix, Graceful Raptor, and Sergeant Thunder. Xu Qing remained silent as usual and just listened to the conversation.

    That said, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor didn¡¯t ignore him, and even asked him a few questions now and then. Time passed. Eventually, it was noontime, and the snow had stopped falling temporarily. Crucifix and Graceful Raptor bid farewell and prepared to leave.

    Just before leaving through the main gate, Crucifix turned to Xu Qing and said, ¡°Kid. Graceful Raptor and I took a mission. We¡¯ll be gone for a while, so¡­ you take care of the sarge while we¡¯re away.¡± Then he pulled out a dagger which he handed to Xu Qing. ¡°Your old dagger is too rusty. Use this one instead. It¡¯s sharp.¡±

    Next, Graceful Raptor gave Xu Qing a whistle.

    ¡°Kid, you¡¯re strong. But you need eyes around the camp sometimes, and maybe even other help. This whistle will give you rudimentary control of the stray dogs in the camp. When you need them, blow the whistle. They¡¯re smart, and they¡¯ll be able to figure out what you need.¡±

    Then the two of them offered him some more advice and warnings. Finally, they sped hands to Xu Qing and took their leave.

    Watching them leave, Xu Qing put the whistle away and tucked the new dagger into his boot. However, he didn¡¯t throw his old dagger away.

    Eventually, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor disappeared from sight, so Xu Qing turned back to look at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s cabin. Then he made his way past all the dogs into his cabin. There, he sat down cross-legged to meditate.

    The wind screamed outside, and more snow fell. The snow in the sky seemed to merge with the snow on the ground, seeping through the cracks in cabins and tents alike, startling those within.

    Sergeant Thunder was resting in his cabin, but he had long since grown used to the freezing wind, and hardly noticed. However, the old man couldn¡¯t help but recall the image of Xu Qing huddling in on himself because of the cold. He nced over at Xu Qing¡¯s cabin, then after some thought, put on a leather snow hat and walked out.

    In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

    During that entire time, the snow fell hard. Every time it seemed like it would stop, it came back with renewed vigor. The snow didn¡¯t have time to melt, and eventually, it built up thick on the ground. It was nasty weather, but scavengers lived harsh, cold lives anyway, and it couldn¡¯tpare to that.

    The poption in the camp seemed to be growing slowly. Some people visited the physician, others headed to the forbidden region.

    Eventually, people noticed that Squad Bloodshadow hadn¡¯t returned. Rumors swirled. Then, a story started to spread that the squad had been wiped out in the forbidden region. At first, few people believed that story. After all, every member of Squad Bloodshadow was formidable and well-known. That was especially true of their captain, who was one of the strongest experts in the camp. The squad had been into the forbidden region too many times to count, so it seemed unlikely that they would suffer aplete defeat.

    However, after two days passed in which there wasn¡¯t a hint of anyone from Bloodshadowing back to the camp, people started to believe the rumors. Then people connected the fact that Sergeant Thunder had returned to the camp unconscious, and that Savage Ghost had seemingly disappeared. At that point, people started putting the puzzle pieces together.

    Regardless of the truth, Bloodshadow was gone, which meant that Thunderbolt was the strongest squad around.

    Because of that, whenever Xu Qing went out into the camp, he noticed the respectful looks given to him by the other scavengers.

    Of course, they were giving respect to Squad Thunderbolt, not him personally. Either way, he was starting to get a bit suspicious as to why Sergeant Thunder was leaving early anding backte every day. He seemed to be busy with some task, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what.

    Of course, Xu Qing knew that people had a right to privacy, so he didn¡¯t ask any questions. Furthermore, he had a lot of his own goals to work on. For one thing, he spent most of his time in his cabin working on his cultivation. Due to his hard work, his cultivation base improved, slowly increasing both his strength and speed.

    He also put time into studying his shadow. So far, he couldn¡¯t identify anything different about it. However, it did absorb the mutagen, which caused the mutation blotch on his arm to fade even further. His body felt pure and clean, which in turn made his cultivation progress even more quickly than before.

    Two dayster in the afternoon, when he was sitting in meditation and preparing to stabilize himself after his recent progress and possibly attempt a breakthrough into the fourth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, he frowned, then opened his eyes.

    He heard dogs barking outside, and then realized someone was knocking on the main gate of the courtyard.

    Upon leaving his cabin, he checked to confirm that Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t around, then looked at the gate. Standing there was a scavenger with a hesitant expression on his face.

    It only took a moment for Xu Qing to realize that this was one of the handful of people he had saved from the Fog of Confusion in the forbidden region. Upon seeing Xu Qing, the scavenger sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Brother Kid, it¡¯s me! Bonede!¡±

    ¡°How can I help you?¡± Xu Qing replied in a cool tone, his facepletely expressionless.

    ¡°Er¡­¡± Bonede said. He hesitated briefly, then seemed to make up his mind. Gritting his teeth, he continued, ¡°Brother Kid, I want to buy insurance from you. Here are five white boluses for the payment.¡± He tossed a sack to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t catch it. Instead, he let it fall to the ground and looked suspiciously at the man. Around them, the stray dogs stared but didn¡¯t approach.

    Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s suspicious attitude, Bonedeunched into a further exnation. As he talked, Xu Qing gradually understood what he meant by ¡®insurance.¡¯ The man was nning a trip to the Poisonous Dragon Pond in the forbidden region. If he didn¡¯t return in three days, he wanted Xu Qing toe rescue him.

    ¡°Brother Kid, I¡¯m not worried about the mutant beasts in the forbidden region. If they kill me, that¡¯s just fate. But I¡¯m terrified of the Fog of Confusion. I really don¡¯t want to die in that fog.¡±

    Xu Qing had a somewhat odd expression on his face. He was really taken aback that Bonede would ask for something like this. After some thought, he said, ¡°What happens if you don¡¯t run into the fog during those three days? What if you make it out fine?¡±

    ¡°You can keep the pills. I¡¯ll consider them a payment for peace of mind.¡± Bonede sped hands and bowed deeply to Xu Qing, a pleading expression on his face.

    Thinking about it some more, Xu Qing opened the bag with the tip of his foot and examined the contents.

    There were five white boluses inside, and of course, he didn¡¯t need them. However, they were treated as currency in the camp, so in the end, he decided that he might as well take them.

    He nodded.

    Upon seeing that Xu Qing was agreeing to the offer, Bonede heaved a sigh of relief. Offering profound thanks, he bowed again and then left.

    Xu Qing picked up the bag and looked at it again through narrowed eyes. He was a vignt person by nature, and didn¡¯tpletely trust Bonede. However, it didn¡¯t seem like this was a trap.

    If the fog didn¡¯t arise, he wouldn¡¯t have to do anything. And if Bonede had the ability to predict when the fog would appear three days in advance, why would he need to hatch plots against people like Xu Qing?

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t let his guard down, and would worry about dealing with the fog if and when it became an issue.

    Going back into his cabin, he started meditating again. The night passed quickly.

    The next morning at dawn, he finished his session of cultivation, and looked out into the courtyard. The dogs were barking again.

    Heading out, he was met with a strange sight. Sergeant Thunder was packing his belongings into a number of packages and parcels, which he then tied onto the backs of the dogs. The dogs¡¯ tongues lolled out, and some seemed about to buckle under the weight.

    Wiping the sweat from his brow, Sergeant Thunder said, ¡°Finished with your cultivation? Let¡¯s go. I want to take you somewhere.¡±

    Smiling, he patted the head of the nearest dog, then opened the gate and beckoned for Xu Qing to follow him.

    Xu Qing was confused, but went along. The dogs followed them as they headed into the central part of the basecamp.

    When they passed from the middle ring to the inner ring, they walked past more shops. Most of the houses were built with tiles and brick, and seemed very sturdy.

    Eventually they reached arge courtyard residence. Around the courtyard were four freestanding rooms with brick walls and tile roofs. They were much better than Xu Qing¡¯s old cabin, being well-built against the elements.

    Xu Qing looked inside, then turned to Sergeant Thunder.

    ¡°From now on, this is our home,¡± the sergeant said with a smile.

    ¡°Home?¡± Xu Qing was stunned. After all, the word ¡®home¡¯ was something that felt very unfamiliar to him.

    ¡°I worked hard my whole life to save up money. Now that my health is failing, I want to live infort.¡±

    Laughing heartily, Sergeant Thunder walked into the courtyard, followed by the dogs. He immediately started taking the packages off their backs.

    Xu Qing stood there for a long moment, then slowly walked inside. Even the ground was paved with blue-gray bricks. He was just staring around absent-mindedly when Sergeant Thunder called to him for help.

    They worked for hours, until night fell. It was still cold and windy, but when they got a fire going in the stove in Xu Qing¡¯s room, warmth filled the ce. There were no cracks in the walls, making it impossible for the wind to shove the coldness in. Xu Qing felt himself warming up.

    ¡°Not cold, is it?¡± Sergeant Thunder asked with a smile.

    ¡°Nope. Not cold.¡± Xu Qing looked at Sergeant Thunder, his eyes shining in the light of the fire.

    He really wasn¡¯t cold. In fact, he was warm. And it caused him to tremble to the core of his being.

    Some time passed, then Sergeant Thunder left for his own room, leaving Xu Qing alone in front of the stove.

    ¡°Home?¡± he murmured.

    Meanwhile, Sergeant Thunder was in his own room, the smile still on his face. However, his face seemed flush. He coughed lightly, then swallowed to get rid of the acrid vor it brought. Sighing, he looked out the window toward the forbidden region, reminiscence in his eyes.

    ¡°I wish¡­ I could see her one more time.¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Hey everyone, I have a minor surgical procedure today. It''s no big deal, but it will put me on bedrest for at least a day, maybe two. The chapters will keeping, but I''m not sure if I''ll be able to checkments or give shoutouts to reviews like I''ve been doing. Once I''m fully back online, I will definitely give shoutouts to any reviews, and also check throughments! I honestly don''t know how painful it will be post-op. Maybe I''ll be able to use myptop to check things out while in bed. Or maybe I''ll just watch movies all day. We''ll see!

 Chapter 21: Thirsting for Knowledge

    Chapter 21: Thirsting for Knowledge

    That night, Xu Qing dreamed.

    This was his first time in six years sleeping in such a luxurious room. It was his first time beingfortable, without the cold biting at him. And thus, it was one of the first times in a long time that he¡¯d dreamed.

    In his dream, the world wasn¡¯t a brutal ce. The god¡¯s broken face didn¡¯t hang in the sky, and his father and mother were there with him. So was his older brother. Without a care in the world, he headed to ss with his friends. Afterward, he returned to a warm home, where he had a hot dinner with his family. Then he went to sleep feeling wonderful.

    Even in the dream, he couldn¡¯t quite make out the faces of his family. He tried, but it was like they were covered by a concealing mist.

    Early in the morning, he woke up, opened his eyes, andy there in bed staring at the ceiling. He felt warm as he slowly emerged from his dream, and then he looked around¡­.

    The room was built from gray bricks and tiles. There was a desk and a bed, as well as a washroom. The floor still radiated a bit of warmth, left over from the fire in the stovest night. There was a woven rush mat on the floor, and there was even a bookshelf, though it was empty.

    Everything was simple, but to Xu Qing, it was extremely luxurious.

    Taking a deep breath, he went to the washroom. After carefully putting his hands into the basin, he watched the muck slowly slide off of them before quickly pulling them out of the water. After looking down at them, he wiped them on his sides to get them dirty again.

    Then he looked in the mirror. He saw his overcoat, his long ck hair, which was an absolute mess, and his face covered with dirt. He also saw his sparkling eyes. After looking at himself for a while, he peered out the window, and his eyes turned cold.

    The snowstorm had passed, and the sun had risen, casting light over thends to melt away thest snowfall of winter.

    Off in the distance, the melting snow in the trees revealed green buds, which indicated that spring¡­ was finally here.

    He walked out of his room and, as was his custom, looked over at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s room. The dogs in the courtyard didn¡¯t get up, but they wagged their tails in greeting.

    I¡¯ve got things to do, he thought, and his eyes filled with determination. Opening the courtyard gate, he walked out into the camp with a clear idea of where he was going.

    It was dawn, and there weren¡¯t a lot of scavengers up and about.

    He headed toward the caravan area. The guards watched him but didn¡¯t block his path. Eventually, he reached the physician¡¯s tent, whereupon he heard someone reading aloud from a book.

    After hesitating a moment, Xu Qing quietly stood outside the tent and listened.

    The caravan guards looked at him curiously, then most of them looked away. A few kept their eyes on him.

    Xu Qing ignored them. As he listened to the sound of reading from in the tent, he became thoroughly entranced. And eventually, he realized that it wasn¡¯t just someone reading, but rather, the sound of some sort of test being administered.

    It was the girl he remembered seeing. She was saying, ¡°Golden twistgrass, also known as three-leaf pearls or cold-dispelling grass, is a sedge nt known by themon name short-leaved kyllinga, and is useful from root to tip. It¡¯s a perennial herb that grows in forested mountains and damp wilderness regions. In South Phoenix, it can be found in the southern prefectures of Rising Nether and Widespirit. It can diffuse the lungs and relieve coughing, can clear heat and resolve poisons, can dissipate blood stasis and reduce swelling, is effective against venomous snake bites, can be used to treat injuries from falls, fractures, contusions, and strains. It works well inbination with¡­.¡±

    At first the girl spoke with confidence, but the further along she got, the more hesitant she became.

    ¡°It works well inbination with what?¡± Grandmaster Bai asked in a strict tone.

    ¡°It works well inbination with rhino-fire blossoms when refined into a medicine, taking the yang and converting it to yin. It can be used to create aprehensive poison-preventing liquid that¡¯s a major ingredient in grandization pills.¡± The young woman almost sounded scared, and spoke in a rapid-fire manner that ended with her taking a long breath.

    Xu Qing stood outside the tent, listening closely.

    Next came the young man, who spoke even more hesitantly than his counterpart. ¡°Paleback root, also known as¡­ uh, well, it¡¯s a rubber nt of the spurge family, with pale roots. It¡¯s s-slightly astringent and bitter, and is native to¡­ well, anyway, it can calm the f-five yin organs, and¡­.¡± Toward the end, he trailed off, obviously having forgotten the information.

    Inside the tent, the young man looked extremely nervous, and even nced at the young woman, hoping she would help him out. She obviously knew the details, but didn¡¯t say anything, until the young man appeared to be on the verge of tears.

    Meanwhile, Grandmaster Bai, who was sitting in front of them, suddenly looked toward the outside of the tent. One of the guards looked at him meaningfully. Grandmaster Bai thought for a moment, then shook his head.

    Turning his attention back to the stammering young man, he snorted coldly. ¡°Tonight you¡¯ll copy the ssic of nts and Vegetation ten times in a row!¡±

    The young man really did look like he was going to cry, but he didn¡¯t offer any retort. Instead, he hung his head despondently.

    After testing both of his apprentices, Grandmaster Bai proimed that he was about to begin his daily lecture. For some reason, his voice seemed louder and clearer than usual.

    The young man didn¡¯t notice, but the young woman did, and seemed a bit curious. Blinking a few times, she looked to the side, and saw the shadow of a scrawny figure standing outside, silhouetted by the morning sun.

    Outside the tent, Xu Qing listened attentively to every word spoken by Grandmaster Bai. Fearful that he might forget something, hemitted everything to heart. To him, knowledge was a priceless treasure that he had long hoped to acquire.

    Time slipped by. Grandmaster Bai lectured for longer than usual, perhaps twice as long. It waste in the morning by the time he finished, and there were scavengers now lined up outside seeking treatment. That was when Grandmaster Bai said, ¡°Would the young man outside the tent please step inside for a moment?¡±

    Xu Qing emerged from his daze in a start. Feeling a bit guilty all of a sudden, he took a deep breath, opened the tent p, and quietly stepped inside. Normally speaking, he wouldn¡¯t be so nervous. However, he¡¯d originallye to ask some questions, only to end up eavesdropping outside the tent. In the scavenger basecamp, many people would react negatively to such behavior.

    Seeing how nervous Xu Qing was, Grandmaster Bai calmly said, ¡°Can I help you?¡±

    Off to the side, the young woman looked curiously at Xu Qing. She recognized him, and it only took a moment to recall that he had brought an unconscious old man to them on his back.

    ¡°Well met, Grandmaster Bai,¡± Xu Qing said, inclining his head. Then, remembering how Sergeant Thunder had acted before, he sped hands and bowed deeply. After a moment of hesitation, he said, ¡°I wanted to know a bit more about lifespan flowers.¡±

    Then he took out the five white boluses he¡¯d been given by Bonede, and ced them in front of Grandmaster Bai. Even one such pill was precious, but Xu Qing felt that one wasn¡¯t enough topensate for listening in on the ss. In fact, five of them probably weren¡¯t enough, so he also took out ten spirit coins and put them next to the pills. Only after this did he feel a bit more at ease.

    Grandmaster Bai gave him a long, close look, then turned to the girl. ¡°Tingyu, you exin.¡± [1]

    The girl sat up straight, a solemn expression on her face as she said, ¡°Lifespan flower, also known as life-extending me and god-spirit weed, is a mutated variety of a god-type vegetation known as a regeneration tree. There are actually seventy-three known mutations, but only the first type can be used in medicines. They grow randomly in forbidden regions, without any specific habitat pattern. They¡¯re extremely rare. They can be used to regrow severed limbs, reinvigorate life force, and treat any injury other than those to the mind.¡±

    After finishing with the exnation, the girl pulled out a book, flipped through it, then held up a page with a picture on it. ¡°This is what it looks like.¡±

    The picture depicted a flower that looked ordinary other than the sawtooth edge to its leaves. There was also a strange marking in the middle of the flower.

    Xu Qing looked closely at the picture,mitted the details to memory, then bowed deeply to Grandmaster Bai and the girl. Finally, he turned to leave.

    Before he could walk off, Grandmaster Bai casually said, ¡°It¡¯s the kind of nt that can be encountered by chance but never searched for and found. They usually grow in ces whererge mutant beasts can be found. Be careful.¡±

    Xu Qing once again sped hands and bowed, then raced back through the camp to his room.

    Once inside, he pulled out a nk bamboo slip and used his iron skewer to inscribe it with both the description provided by the girl and the image of the lifespan flower itself. After that, he went on to write down as much information as he could remember from what he¡¯d heard in the lecture.

    After looking at the bamboo slip covered with text, he felt content, and put it away as surely as if it were a precious treasure.

    I hope I can go back again and hear more.

    He put some thought into a good way to returnter and listen to more of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lessons, then cleared his mind and started his cultivation routine.

    That night, he waited in the courtyard for Sergeant Thunder to return, whereupon he mentioned that he was making a run into the forbidden region. Sergeant Thunder seemed like he wanted to say something in response, but chose not to. He just nodded and offered some suggestions based on his experience.

    At that moment, he seemed like an old grandfather offering advice to his grandson before sending him out into the world. In fact, he spent almost the whole night offering advice. Xu Qingmitted everything to memory. Finally, Sergeant Thunder gave him an animal skin sack which contained some medicinal powder that Graceful Raptor had left behind.

    After making sure he knew how to use it, Xu Qing said his farewells and headed out. Speeding through the morning light, he arrived some timeter at the periphery of the forbidden region.

    When he stepped through the boundary, he felt himself cut off from the warmth of the sun. Icy coldness pierced him, and he narrowed his eyes and looked around vigntly. Then he shot into the depths of the forest so quickly he left behind a string of afterimages.

    A momentter, there was no sign of him.

    This was his second time entering the forbidden region jungle, and he felt a lot more at ease this time. It was very different from his first time.

    That said, he was more cautious than ever. And as he moved, he kept an eye on the flowers and nts around him, hoping to spot a lifespan flower. Eventually, he reached the muddy marsh, and remembered what Graceful Raptor had taught him there. After covering himself in mud, he continued on.

    Before long, the day had gone by.

    During the entire time, he never encountered the Fog of Confusion, and by being careful, he was able to go around anyrge mutant beasts.

    He eventually reached the spot where they¡¯d fought the ck-scaled wolves. Everything looked mostly the same. Even the defenses they¡¯d erected were in ce. However, the wolf corpses had already dposed, leaving behind nothing but bones.

    He checked the bones for signs that the meat had been torn off of them by teeth, but found no such evidence. Apparently, they¡¯d rotted naturally. He breathed a sigh of relief. If nothing else, it seemed to indicate there were no dangerous mutant beasts around. With that, he found a suitable ce in the area to hunker down for the night.

    He settled on a hollow inside a huge tree. As darkness fell, and he huddled in the tree, he looked ahead to the canyon with the seven-leaf clover, and beyond it, the templeplex.

    He had other goals on this journey other than simply looking for lifespan flowers. He also wanted to find one of those scar-removing crystals for the girl in the general store.

    ¡°Tomorrow,¡± he murmured, ¡°I¡¯ll see what¡¯s out there.¡±

    1. Ting means ¡°pretty, attractive, graceful¡± and Yu means ¡°jade.¡± This does note across as a surnamebined with a given name. It could be a nickname, or it could be her given name used without the surname. It¡¯s impossible to tell. That said, it doesn¡¯te across as a daoist name. Madam Deathde says it sounds ¡°cute and pretty.¡± ?

 Chapter 22: Temple Complex

    Chapter 22: Temple Complex

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with nighttime in forbidden regions. Whether it was the city ruins, or this jungle, it was roughly the same. He had lived for upwards of two weeks in the former, and had spent a number of nights in thetter.

    As he huddled in the tree hollow, he kept his eyes half-open as he quietly performed breathing exercises, absorbing the mutagen-heavy spirit power. Once the spirit power was inside him, he cleansed it with the Sea and Mountain Incantation, allowing the pure spirit power to spread through his body, while the mutagen entered his shadow.

    He had already be used to the difference in cultivation that his shadow provided. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was because of his shadow, or the general danger in the forbidden region, but regardless, he had no choice but to maintain a high level of concentration. And thanks to that concentration, his cultivation progressed rapidly.

    Right now, he wasn¡¯t far from the fourth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    It¡¯s like a grindstone.

    He wasn¡¯t sure exactly how grindstones worked, but he remembered a cksmith back in the slums talking about how you needed to work a knife against one to get it truly sharp. Right now, the dangerous forbidden region had be his personal grindstone.

    After working under the influence of that grindstone, Xu Qingpleted a full cycle of cultivation, then opened his eyes. Looking out of the tree and into the night, he heard mutant beasts roaring. It sounded like the howling of devils.

    A sinister coldness was ever-present, seeping into everything. And even hidden in the tree, Xu Qing was no exception.

    It was very cold.

    It reminded him of his time in the city ruins, and before long, he also felt a simr sense of loneliness. That said, he was used to loneliness. After a short time, he closed his eyes again and started another session of cultivation.

    In that manner, time passed.

    He had selected a very safe ce to settle down. However, about halfway through the night, in the middle of his cultivation, he heard footsteps outside. It sounded chaotic, like there were numerous people walking around outside.

    Xu Qing looked suspiciously out of the tree, but other than the trees, there was nothing else outside in the darkness. His heart sank further as he realized that the mutant beasts outside had grown silent. That put him even more on the alert. He thought back to the Singing and the footsteps from before. However, these footsteps seemed different.

    It doesn¡¯t sound like the Singing. There¡¯s no song at all.

    Havinge to this conclusion, he remained quietly in ce, even masking his breathing.

    The footsteps grew clearer, and eventually, it sounded like a group of people approaching.

    At the same time, a coldness arose, so intense that Xu Qing worried it might freeze him where he hid. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with this type of coldness. Whether it was the time he heard the Singing, or asions in the city ruins when the grues came out.

    However, this seemed different than when he heard the Singing. Back then, he felt like his soul was frozen, but right now, though it was ufortable, he could at least still move.

    This is something like the grues in the city ruins!

    Having reached this determination, he gripped his iron skewer tightly and took a deep breath. Trying to stop his heart from pounding, he closed his eyes tightly.

    Don¡¯t look at them. Don¡¯t touch them. Don¡¯t get close to them.

    After he closed his eyes, the footsteps became more urgent, and closer. It was like a host of people were milling about the tree.

    Xu Qing was shaken, but he forced himself not to open his eyes and look at whatever was outside.

    Eventually when the sun rose into the dome of heaven, the footsteps faded into the distance.

    It was daytime.

    However, Xu Qing still didn¡¯t open his eyes. He waited for a moment before looking out of the tree hollow. To his shock, he found that the opening had been sealed over with ice.

    Seeing that sunlight shone through the ice onto his face, he exhaled a shaky breath, then clenched his hand into a fist and punched the ice, shattering it.

    Xu Qing climbed out into the open and looked around. All the wolf bones he¡¯d seen the night before were gone. In their ce¡­ were a mass of footprints.

    Human footprints.

    There were so many that there had to have been hundreds of people in the area.

    Xu Qing had never heard of a situation in which hundreds of people would enter a forbidden region together.

    And what was even more unusual was that¡­ they were actual footprints, not shoe prints.

    Eventually, he looked away from the footprints, feeling a new sense of understanding about the grues in forbidden regions. Thankfully, it was now daylight, which meant there was less danger to deal with. And Xu Qing wasn¡¯t about to give up on his search. He continued on.

    Several hourster, he reached the spot where he and Squad Thunderbolt had harvested seven-leaf clovers in the canyon.

    Just like before, the sunlight couldn¡¯t prate the leafy canopy of vines that stretched over it. The entire ce was filled with a floral fragrance, and seemedpletely different from the dangerous world outside of it. It was almost like a paradise. Upon reaching the harvesting spot, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Then he looked beyond it to the distant templeplex.

    He rested only a moment before retracting his gaze and continuing onward at top speed.

    The jungle past the canyon was even thicker, with less sunlight making its way through the canopy. But perhaps because the ancient templeplex still radiated a bit of its former might and glory, the area seemed less dangerous.

    The surrounding jungle also seemed a bit warmer.

    In fact, as Xu Qing got closer to theplex, the jungle trees seemed more like ordinary trees from the outside world. They didn¡¯t seem twisted and dark. He even spotted some seven-leaf clover, which he harvested.

    Everything about this area was surprising, but he didn¡¯t let his guard down.

    Another two hours went by, and evening was about to fall. That was when Xu Qing emerged from the jungle proper and saw the templeplex in front of him.

    There were still trees in the area, but not many. The sunlight that hit his eyes was dazzling, but he still saw the numerous temple structures. They were round, and all of them were dozens of meters tall. Most of the stone walls were crumbling and covered with moss, but a few of the buildings were rtively intact. The entire ce contained an air of grandeur.

    Stepping inside, he heard the sound of gravel crunching beneath his feet. And for some reason, he felt like he was looking around at an immense kingdom. Everything was in ruins, but it all had an aspect of profound age to it. It almost seemed like the ruins were trying to exin their history to him.

    Walking a bit further in, he found himself in front of a crumbling statue. Most of the bottom of the statue had been crushed into rubble, but the head and shoulders were intact.

    Even still, the statue loomed ny meters in the air. Back when it was whole, it must have been at least 600 meters tall. Standing in front of it, Xu Qing felt miniscule.

    The wind sounded like a lonely flute that cut this area out of space and time. Whatever glory this ce had once embodied, it was now a thing of the past.

    He looked at the statue for a long time. He thought back to the slums outside the city ruins, and wondered what they would be like when people came back yearster to explore them. Would those people be like him now, carefully entering the forbidden region and peering into the ancient past?

    After a while, Xu Qing left the statue to look around the rest of the templeplex. However, he didn¡¯t find the special crystal Sergeant Thunder had mentioned.

    Before leaving, Sergeant Thunder had described it in full, which was how Xu Qing knew it glowed with a seven-colored light. Apparently, they were natural objects that didn¡¯t conform to any specific pattern in terms of where they appeared.

    After a fruitless search, he was feeling a bit disappointed, and headed to the top of one of therger temples to look around.

    Behind him was the jungle of the forbidden region, which seemed to go on without end. After calcting the date, he realized that this was the fourth day since Bonede had bought ¡®insurance¡¯ from him.

    He hadn¡¯t noticed any fog in the jungle the day before, and it didn¡¯t seem like there was any today. So, he wouldn¡¯t have to do any rescuing.

    On the other side of the templeplex¡­ were the true depths of the forbidden region.

    Looking up, he saw that there was still some daylight left. That meant there was some time to explore deeper into the forbidden region, thene back to the temple to rest.

    Having made his decision, he jumped off the temple and continued onward to explore. As soon as he was in the jungle again, his nerves felt stretched taut, and he put himself on full alert. After all, this ce would be full of more hazards than the outside areas.

    In fact, only about an hourter, he was back in the temple, his expression grim and fearful.

    On the upside, his sack was absolutely full.

    He had barely gone 500 meters into the jungle before finding arge patch of seven-leaf clovers. Much to Xu Qing¡¯s delight, it had obviously been a long time since anyone harvested from that location. As a result, the harvest would fetch quite a sum.

    However, as he began picking the clover, he sensed the surrounding mutagen getting stronger. If it wasn¡¯t for his shadow being able to absorb the mutagen, it would have been difficult to make much progress at all.

    And that was when, far off in the distance, he saw the same type of gruish jellyfish he¡¯d seen before. Except it wasn¡¯t just one jellyfish, it was about ten. They were smaller, but at the same time, emanated an intense coldness. Most of them seemed to be hanging from trees asleep, but the mere sight of them caused Xu Qing to creep away quietly.

    The further he got into the jungle, the more he got the sense he was being watched by countless avaricious eyes lurking in the depths of the jungle. It caused a prickling sensation on his neck and back. And that was only the outside part of the forbidden region depths. It defied imagination to think of what terrifying things might exist further in.

    Not daring to explore any further, he¡¯d hurried back to the templeplex. It was only after reaching theplex that the prickling sensation on his back faded away. Theplex itself was a border that marked the truly deep parts of the forbidden region.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and used thest bits of evening light to find one of the intact temples to hole up in for the night.

    Inside, he found a wall crevice into which he crawled. Sergeant Thunder had mentioned that this ce was a safe ce to find refuge.

    Xu Qing looked around the temple. It wasrge, with an enormous statue, a divine likeness, bearing a saber. It stood in the position of honor, surrounded by other life-like statues on the walls. However, all of them were eroding in the sands of time.

    That said, there weren¡¯t many mutant beast droppings or footprints. If there were none, or if there were many, that would be an abnormality, and he would have picked another location. As long as those signs were few, it meant this ce was rtively safe.

    The templeplex was in the middle of the jungle, but was in something of a clearing, so it made sense that the surrounding mutant beasts wouldn¡¯te in very often.

    Soon, night fell.

    As the howl of beasts drifted in the night air, Xu Qing started his breathing exercises.

    Time passed. As he had guessed would be the case, a few mutant beasts came into the templeplex. But those he did hear were far away. However, just like the night before, about halfway to morning, he heard the chaotic sound of gruish footsteps!

    This time, they were just outside the temple!

    They¡¯re back?

    He frowned, wondering why these footsteps had appeared twice, both near him. He felt very uneasy, but considering the previous experience, he decided the best thing was to keep his eyes closed.

    However, instead of the footsteps eventually going off into the distance, they seemed to grow more numerous.

    As they gathered, sinister coldness spread. It made it seem like a whole army of grues was gathering to attack the temple.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank, and he gripped his iron skewer tightly as he thought of ways to escape if things got too dangerous.

    However, that was when the footsteps outside ceased, and everything became iparably quiet.

    The silence didn¡¯t make Xu Qing feel like he could breathe easily. It was like the quiet before a storm, and it caused the hair to stand on end. He felt convinced that the grues were simply hesitating about whether to enter.

    And then, inplete silence, one of the grues finally did walk into the temple. Xu Qing could hear the footsteps on the stone floor tiles.

    His heart leapt into his throat. But then, a murmuring sound drifted through the temple, something that sounded incredibly holy. Streams of golden light seeped out of the walls, filling the temple with light, and covering Xu Qing. Now, his closed eyes perceived, not a world of pitch ck, but one of radiance.

    And the golden radiance grew so intense that his eyes hurt. Then, for the first time since encountering grues, he opened his eyes.

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks so xon12, bulletstorm, and Daoist_Egodeath for the reviews. You guys are awesome!

    The surgery went well and I''m all good. I''m still taking it easy today. That said, I might (MIGHT), try to do a short livestream test on my YouTube channelter today. That''s right, I do have a YouTube channel, although it''s pretty much dead, and I haven''t posted anything for a long time. I want to do a live stream event on 6/15 when this trantion goes public and I drop a ton of chapters all in one day. To make that happen, I need to do a test livestream ahead of time. So if you''re interested, subscribe to my channel and keep an eye out for that livestream. If it does work well, then I hope to do that cool event on 6/15, talking about the trantion, sharing some of my favoritements from the time it was in the Sneak Peek section, and... who knows, maybe some other cool stuff.

 Chapter 23: Single Saber Strike

    Chapter 23: Single Saber Strike

    Xu Qing saw bright, golden light!

    It came from the statues on the walls, as worn with time as they were. Every statue was a light source, filling the temple with iparable radiance. However, the greatest source of light wasn¡¯t those smaller statues.

    Instead¡­ it was the huge, primary statue of the temple, the divine likeness whose hands held a huge stone saber.

    Shaken, Xu Qing looked into the light at the temple, and saw that, at the temple door was a figure surrounded by a dark fog. It wasn¡¯t possible to make out any distinguishing features, but the figure seemed vaguely human. And as the golden light shone on it, it rippled and distorted.

    Beyond it, outside the temple, was an even greater host of dark, shadowy forms. There had to be hundreds, and while some were vaguely human, others seemed bestial. They radiated an astonishing coldness that rushed like a wave to connect to the figure inside the temple.

    As for the shadowy figure inside the temple, as the golden light shone on it, it threw its head back and released a howl that could shake one¡¯s soul. However, it didn¡¯t take a single step further into the temple.

    It was as if it was now prohibited from doing so!

    Xu Qing looked over at the saber-wielding statue, and suddenly noticed how life-like it looked. Then, to his astonishment, it stepped off of its pedestal and started walking. Overflowing with profound dignity and holiness, like a god from heaven descended into the mortal world, it strode toward the shadowy figure.

    It lifted the saber, and swung it down.

    That saber move was simple and unrefined, yet it contained a dao resonance that could shake heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hear any sound, but his soul trembled as if it sensed mournful screaming emanating from the shadowy figure.

    The fog surrounding it evaporated, revealing a rotting body draped with tattered clothing. Visible now was an old man with eye sockets that were nothing but gaping holes. A momentter, his body copsed, dissipating as surely as the fog that had surrounded him.

    The shadowy figures outside were also affected. The fog surrounding them began to fade, and because of the golden light, Xu Qing was able to see some of them clearly. One was a recognizable face.

    It was¡­ Captain Bloodshadow!

    He was in the crowd, his gaunt face expressionless. As the golden light shone on him, it was like he became purified, and then vanished.

    A few momentster, there was nothing out in the darkness of night. All of the shadowy figures had disappeared.

    The light in the temple faded, and the shocking statue turned around and walked back to its ce. Eventually, it stopped glowing and once again turned into a statue, standing there, looking at the main door of the temple, waiting and guarding.

    Soon, everything was back to normal. However, Xu Qing still huddled in the stone crevice, panting, his eyes shining with disbelief.

    The obviously dead Captain Bloodshadow still existed.

    The obviously ordinary temple shone with shocking golden light at night.

    The obviously unmoving statue became a god-like figure whose single saber strike was boundlessly majestic.

    Before long, the sun rose, and a new day began.

    It took a while for Xu Qing to settle his thoughts, whereupon he crawled out from the stone crevice. He looked at the light outside, then the statues on the wall, and finally therge statue with the saber. He wasn¡¯t sure what exactly the statue was, and whether it was alive or dead.

    He had no idea how long ago it was when this temple had been in its heyday, or what it had been like back then.

    But the events of the previous night had left him shaken.

    That was especially true of the majestic energy that apanied that saber strike. It had left a mark deep in his soul, ensuring that he would never forget it. What was more unimaginable was there was actually an area in this dangerous forbidden region that darkness could not encroach upon.

    Sergeant Thunder hadn¡¯t mentioned that to him, but then again¡­ maybe the old sergeant didn¡¯t even know. For one thing, events such asst night¡¯s weren¡¯t exactlymon. Furthermore, there weren¡¯t many people in the basecamp who stayed for prolonged periods in this forbidden region.

    Therefore, even if such events did ur asionally, few people would have been around to serve as witnesses. Any stories that people did tell would have eventually turned into nothing but legends.

    Taking a long look at the statue, Xu Qing sped his hands and bowed deeply.

    Then, after some more thought, he took a candle out of his sack, put it in front of the statue, and lit it. Finally, he offered another respectful bow and then left the temple.

    After emerging from theplex, he kept looking over his shoulder at it, hoping it would help him remember everything. And he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about that single saber strike.

    In fact, as he was traveling back through the jungle, he found himself lifting his hand overhead and imitating the movement. With every attempt to copy it, he felt like the move was more and more familiar.

    The cultivation of the Sea and Mountain Incantation involved imitating the image of the goblin. But now, Xu Qing was recing the image of that goblin with the image of that single saber strike.

    As he did, his cultivation base shot past the breakthrough point, and he entered the fourth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, all without Xu Qing even noticing what was happening!

    Perhaps because of how he was imitating that saber strike, this breakthrough didn¡¯t just provide a boost to his power and speed. It also pushed him to a breakthrough in his psyche.

    As a result, Xu Qing felt like he could think more clearly. And when he raised his hand overhead, it already seemed like it contained some of the fundamental nature of the saber strike.

    It filled him with delight.

    Two days passed. Perhaps it was because he was in the periphery of the forbidden region, or perhaps it was the shocking event that had yed out in the temple, but either way, he didn¡¯t run into any grue footsteps.

    And the mutant beasts were few and far between.

    His cultivation base had reached a higher level, making it easier to keep himself safe. But he still was very careful and cautious.

    He hadn¡¯t found the lifespan flower or the scar-removing crystal. But he¡¯d harvested a good amount of seven-leaf clovers, so as soon as he returned, he would sell them for a hefty sum of spirit coins.

    It was evening when he neared the edge of the jungle. And that was when he stopped walking and looked down at a nt near his feet. It looked simr to the lifespan flower, although based on what he remembered from the picture he¡¯d seen, it was another kind of nt.

    However, after some thought, he looked around guiltily as a n formed in his mind, then reached down and harvested the thing. Finally, he ran out of the jungle and into the basecamp, shortly after sunset.

    It wasn¡¯tte at night, so the camp was bustling. That was especially true of the feather-covered tents, which seemed filled with the sound of yful banter and spirited panting. Xu Qing ignored the sounds as he returned to the residence. As soon as he opened the courtyard door, he saw Sergeant Thunder walking out.

    The sergeant noticed how bedraggled Xu Qing looked, but didn¡¯t say anything about it. Instead, he looked relieved.

    ¡°You were gone a long time.¡±

    ¡°I went to that templeplex.¡± Moonlight mixed with themplight in the courtyard, allowing Xu Qing to see Sergeant Thunder¡¯s bloodshot eyes and exhausted expression. He clearly hadn¡¯t been sleeping much. Was it because¡­? When Xu Qing put the pieces together, he felt warmth in his heart.

    ¡°Templeplex?¡± Sergeant Thunder said, sounding surprised. He really hadn¡¯t envisioned Xu Qing going that far into the forbidden region. However, he didn¡¯t ask questions. Instead, he led Xu Qing into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves and put some food on the table.

    The food was hot, and clearly hadn¡¯t been touched. Xu Qing was taken aback. Obviously, Sergeant Thunder hadn¡¯t been sure when Xu Qing would return, yet had hot food ready for him the moment he got back. It was very telling.

    The sergeant¡­ had been preparing food every night, and waiting for him.

    Xu Qing went to get the bowls and chopsticks. As usual, he set the table for three, with two sets opposite of his own. Then he sat down to eat.

    It was delicious in a way that the taste buds might not be able to detect, but the heart could.

    Sergeant Thunder didn¡¯t eat much. For the most part, he drank and watched Xu Qing, a smile on his face.

    ¡°Eat up,¡± he said at one point. ¡°You¡¯re still growing. If you don¡¯t get enough food, you won¡¯t grow tall.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down for a moment, then cleared his throat and obediently started eating some more. Then he started telling Sergeant Thunder about everything that happened in the temple.

    Before, Sergeant Thunder had simply been sipping his alcohol. But after hearing the story, he took a deep breath and said, ¡°I heard someone mention something like that before. But it was a long time ago. There may have been others who saw what you did. But like the Singing, it eventually turns into a legend. Now that I think about it, the stories always talk about it happening after the Singing.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder suddenly seemed wrapped up in his thoughts, as if he were recalling old sorrows.

    Xu Qing could guess what he was thinking, and felt that he was to me. He probably shouldn¡¯t have told the story.

    Shortly thereafter, Sergeant Thunder regained hisposure. Seeing Xu Qing looking glum, he smiled.

    ¡°You¡¯re too sensitive, Kid. I¡¯m not as weak as you think I am.¡±

    He took another sip of alcohol, then changed the subject, going on to tell Xu Qing some funny stories about things that happened in the camp while he was gone.

    Sergeant Thunder drank and talked. Xu Qing ate and listened.

    It really did seem like the two of them were¡­ family.

    Later that night, the sergeant was still drinking as Xu Qing cleaned up. Finally, the old man smiled, got up, and went into his room.

    Xu Qing went to his own room, and saw that the bedding had been changed. And instead of being rolled up at the bottom like he usually kept it, it was spread out over the bed. It also smelled like it had been aired out in the sun recently. [1]

    He was about to sit down when he looked down at his clothes and hands and saw how dirty they were. Rolling the bedding back up, he sat on the wooden ts to work on his cultivation.

    At dawn, Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    He was about to leave when a thought urred to him. Going into the washroom, he washed his hands. Given how unused he was to such a thing, it took some effort.

    After his hands were clean and sparkling, he left the courtyard and headed toward the caravan.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if he was going too early, but he really didn¡¯t want to arrive toote. If he arrived early, Grandmaster Bai might not have begun the lecture. But if he arrivedte¡­ then he would miss out on the first part of the ss. Calcting the time on his fingers, he arrived at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent. As it turned out, he was just in time to hear the testing.

    Feeling very excited, he stood outside the tent and listened carefully.

    ¡°Blue lotus flower syrup, also known as blue lotus syrup, is derived from the flowering buds of water lilies. It is an aromatic liquid created by a unique heating technique. It can stabilize the lungs, help control bloody coughing from fire-rted techniques¡­.¡±

    It was the voice of the young woman. Xu Qing listened intently, hardly aware of the passage of time. Before he knew it, two hours had gone by. Suddenly, the tent opened, and Grandmaster Bai was standing there looking at him.

    ¡°Can I help you?¡±

    Grandmaster Bai¡¯s gaze wasn¡¯t sharp, but it was imposing. Xu Qing instantly felt nervous. Quickly reaching into his sack, he pulled out the medicinal nt he¡¯d harvested the day before. Keeping his head bowed, he said, ¡°Grandmaster Bai, I¡­ I wanted to ask whether or not this is a lifespan flower.¡±

    In response to his words, Grandmaster Bai stared at him nkly for a moment. Then an unusual expression flitted over his face. He looked at Xu Qing¡¯s hands, which seemed a lot cleaner than before, and then at Xu Qing¡¯s face which was taut with anxiety.

    ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± he said.

    Xu Qing quickly sped hands, then hurried away, breathing a sigh of relief as he left the caravan area. Then he looked back and realized Grandmaster Bai was still looking at him.

    The old man nodded. Xu Qing stopped walking, then sped hands and bowed deeply before continuing on his way.

    After Xu Qing disappeared, Grandmaster Bai went back into the tent. Inside, the guards, as well as his two apprentices, remained in ce, motionless, as if they were made in stone.

    Right in front of his seat, there was now a table spread with a variety of fine food and drink. On the opposite side of the table from Grandmaster Bai¡¯s seat was an old man in a violet robe, behind whom stood a servant in a gray garment.

    Looking at Grandmaster Bai, the old man in violetughed heartily. ¡°Well, what do you think, Grandmaster Bai?¡±

    Grandmaster Bai didn¡¯t seem at all surprised at the sudden arrival of this old man in violet. Nor was he worried that his people in the tent were frozen in ce. Sitting down in his chair, he lifted one of the gons of alcohol and took a drink. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®what do I think?¡¯¡±

    The violet-robed old man smiled. ¡°I¡¯m talking about the Kid. Like I saidst time, while I was waiting for you to show up earlier, I found a boy with lots of potential.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai gave a cold harrumph and red at the violet-robed man. ¡°Potential? The first time the child eavesdropped, it wasn¡¯t a big deal. But this time he pulled out some medicinal nt and asked me if it was a lifespan flower. Now I¡¯m getting the feeling he¡¯s going to start bringing all sorts of random nts here as an excuse to eavesdrop. If not for your rmendation, I would have driven him away immediately.¡±

    The man in violetughed again. ¡°You have a mouth like a de, but a heart like tofu. Given your foul temper, if you didn¡¯t think he has some potential, it wouldn¡¯t matter who introduced him to you, you wouldn¡¯t give him the time of day.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai gave another cold snort, and instead of offering a further exnation, asked, ¡°You want to take him to Seven Blood Eyes, don¡¯t you? Taking him to that pestilent ce would be a waste of a potential academic!¡±

    Eyebrows twitching, the man in violet said, ¡°Waste? I think not. Besides, what good is it to be an academic? In this world, everything is about your cultivation base.¡±

    ¡°What good is it to be an academic??¡± Grandmaster Bai retorted heatedly. ¡°Let me ask you: why did youe here and repeatedly beg me, an ordinary person, to go with you to Seven Blood Eyes?¡±

    With an embarrassed smile, the man in violet said, ¡°Oh, well, you¡¯re different, sir¡­.¡±

    ¡°How am I different?¡± Grandmaster Bai snapped, ring.

    The man in violet suddenly smacked his own forehead. ¡°Aiya. Ipletely forgot that I have something really important to do right now. I need to leave, Grandmaster Bai. I¡¯lle back tomorrow and we can drink some more together.¡±

    He got up and prepared to leave, but at thest moment, looked back at Grandmaster Bai. When he spoke, his tone was very earnest. ¡°Grandmaster Bai, if you really think the boy has potential, then teach him some more. Give him a chance. Maybe he can get to Seven Blood Eyes as an academic with a cultivation base.¡±

    With that, he left with his servant. After he was gone, everything in the tent returned to normal, with no one having any idea something strange had just taken ce. The guards stood there, the young man was muttering anxiously, and the young girl looked pleased with herself like usual.

    As for Grandmaster Bai, he sat there looking thoughtfully at the spot where Xu Qing had disappeared.

    1. In China, themon way to clean your bedding (more specifically yourforter, which is often made of silk, but not always) is to hang it outside in the sun. When ites to silkforters, my understanding is that you can''t wash them with water, so I guess there¡¯s really no other way to do it. Maybe it¡¯s alsomon to do that in other parts of the world, but not where I was raised. We would usually just wash it. In any case, the fact that he noticed his bedding had been hung in the sunes across as very Chinese to me. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Hey all: after a sessful livestream test earlier today, I''m officially announcing that I''m going to do a celebratory livestream on Thursday 6/15 to go along with the publicunch of this novel and a big mass release of chapters. Among other things, I''m going to be sharing some of my favoritements from when the novel was in sneak peek. That includes this chapter and everything up to the chapters on Wednesday. There is still a chance to get some goodments into the mix!

 Chapter 24: Kid, You Answer

    Chapter 24: Kid, You Answer

    After reaching his residence, Xu Qing let loose a long sigh. He was worried he hadn¡¯t done the right thing in eavesdropping. However, it wasn¡¯t as though he had any other options if he wanted to sate his thirst for knowledge.

    One thing was obvious: Grandmaster Bai had seen through his little scheme.

    I should offer a payment.

    The only question was what to offer, and whether it would be epted. If not, would he ever get another chance like this again?

    Worried that he might forget about this new idea, he took a bamboo slip out of his sack and used the iron skewer to carve ¡®Grandmaster Bai¡¯ on it.

    After finishing, he looked it over, then added four more names. One was Sergeant Thunder, and the other three were people who had helped him back in the slums. Though that help had been minor, he wanted to remember it.

    After finishing with the names, he took out another bamboo slip and started recording the contents of the lecture.

    Then he took out the slip with the first lesson¡¯s information and reviewed it all. Only then did a look of satisfaction appear on his face.

    I already know the details of twenty-seven types of medicinal nts.

    Xu Qing was in a good mood, and itsted all day, even through his daily cultivation routine.

    The next day he got out of bed early and went out to buy some seven-leaf clovers. He also bought another nt that looked simr to a lifespan flower, then followed what was now bing a routine as he went to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent.

    He stood in the same spot as the day before, and just like the day before, he listened carefully to the entire lesson. Also simr to the previous day, Grandmaster Bai came out and asked what he was doing there. Xu Qing meekly held up the flower and asked the same question as the day before.

    Grandmaster Bai looked at the flower and sighed. Shaking his head, he told Xu Qing all the information about the nt he¡¯d bought.

    Of course, that gave Xu Qing details about yet another medicinal nt. Feeling very pleased, and also deeply thankful, he bowed deeply then hurried away. Just like before, he looked over his shoulder to see Grandmaster Bai watching him. Yet again, they shared a nod.

    Xu Qing was building memories he would never forget.

    In this manner, half a month passed.

    Every day, Xu Qing would go to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent with a medicinal nt in hand. He would listen to the lecture, then ask about the nt. As a result, he learned a lot about nts and vegetation, and in addition, learned about how different nts worked inbination.

    He benefited immensely, and now had dozens of bamboo slips filled with information.

    Grandmaster Bai never mentioned anything about his eavesdropping, and always patiently exined the details of the nts Xu Qing brought with him.

    Eventually, the guards got used to seeing the kid in the fur overcoat showing up early in the caravan area. And Grandmaster Bai¡¯s two young apprentices were the same.

    In fact, once when it was raining heavily, Grandmaster Bai and both of his apprentices assumed Xu Qing wouldn¡¯te, only to have him show up in a woven rush raincoat. Neither wind nor rain could stop him. The two apprentices were deeply impressed by that.

    As a result, when one day came in which Xu Qing uncharacteristically didn¡¯t show up, both young apprentices were craning their necks to look outside. They were actually surprised that the dirty little scavenger hadn¡¯te.

    But they didn¡¯t end up disappointed, as Xu Qing eventually did show up, exhausted.

    The reason he waste on that day was that, in addition to attending lectures at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, he also took time to go into the forbidden region and look for lifespan flowers and scar-removing crystals. Further, he honed his skills by hunting mutant beasts.

    None of his efforts that day had gone smoothly. He had not found either of the two items he was looking for, and ended up having difficulty with some of the dangers in the forbidden region.

    Despite being in the fourth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, and having the acute judgment and powers of observation normally reserved for long-time scavengers, not even he could avoid every dangerous thing in the forbidden region¡¯s periphery.

    The day he waste, he ran into a mutant beast that had wandered out from the depths, and he barely made it out of the encounter alive. Only by running through the night did he manage to make it back to the basecamp by morning. He hadn¡¯t even rested, and had instead gone straight to the lecture.

    That said, he had made some financial gains in recent days, specifically by selling more ¡®insurance¡¯ to Bonede.

    Bonede was doing very well. After the first instance in which he bought insurance, he made it a habit. So far, he had never encountered the Fog of Confusion again, and thus Xu Qing had never needed to rescue him. But Bonede seemed determined to keep it up. And because of that, others in the camp started to do the same thing.

    For the sake of caution, Xu Qing refused most offers, with the exception of the small group he had saved in the past.

    However, he still had a steady stream of profit. And thanks to earnings made from his forays into the forbidden region, life was good.

    Sergeant Thunder couldn¡¯t go on missions anymore, so Xu Qing offered to pay more rent. Sergeant Thunder refused, but Xu Qing insisted, and after going back and forth about it, the sergeant realized he had no choice but to ept.

    He spent most of the money on food, and thus, whenever Xu Qing came back from the forbidden region, there was always a hot meal waiting for him.

    Sergeant Thunder even bought Xu Qing some new clothes.

    They were so splendid that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t bear to put them on. He just folded them up carefully and put them in the cupboard. asionally, he would bring them out and look at them contentedly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s favorite time of day was dinnertime.

    Not only was the food delicious, but also, Sergeant Thunder was always there with him. The sergeant seemed like a grandfather in retirement, always ready to share thetest gossip about the neighbors, and exin thetest news of camp matters.

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor would return every once in a while, and they would join dinner, before heading out on more missions.

    Xu Qing felt happier than he had in the past six years.

    He had food to eat, clothes to wear, and Sergeant Thunder to keep himpany. His cultivation base continued to improve, and his knowledge of nts and vegetation grew constantly. He cherished everything, and of course, whenever he listened to the lectures outside the tents, he paid very close attention.

    It was on one bright morning that, as he stood outside the tent, he heard Grandmaster Bai testing his apprentices.

    ¡°Chen Feiyuan, tell me about nightcorpse morning glory.¡± [1]

    Over the course of thest month or so, Xu Qing had learned that Grandmaster Bai¡¯s male apprentice was named Chen Feiyuan, while the female apprentice was Tingyu.

    Upon hearing the question, Chen Feiyuan stammered some nonsense before finally closing his mouth.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see inside the tent, but asionally when he¡¯d been able to peep in through the p, he¡¯d seen Chen Feiyuan looking very despondent.

    ¡°You ignoramus!¡± Grandmaster Bai said harshly. ¡°Tingyu, you answer.¡±

    Unfortunately, Tingyu wasn¡¯t as prepared as she usually was.

    ¡°Nightcorpse morning glory, also known as poisonous mountain rootmottle¡­ teacher, I¡­ I forgot.¡± She trailed off into silence.

    The tent was very quiet, apparently as Grandmaster Bai sat there with his fury simmering. Finally, he spoke, and he did nothing to hide the anger in his trembling voice.

    ¡°Kid, you answer.¡±

    Outside the tent, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide for a moment, and then he started talking without even thinking about it.

    ¡°Nightcorpse morning glory, also known as poisonous mountain rootmottle, refers to the stalk and root of feverfew veined turtledove chrysanthemums. It is a woody vine-type nt found in ravines of the Corpse Mountains, usually in chilly streams or jungle thickets. It¡¯s astringent but feels warm in the mouth. It also imparts a sensation of decay. It¡¯s particrly useful in protecting against drafts and inducing perspiration. That said, it¡¯s extremely poisonous, and is a typical example of the prity of yin and yang in medicinal nts.¡± With that, Xu Qing closed his mouth.

    Inside the tent, the two young apprentices seemed slightly upset at having been outshone, so Grandmaster Bai asked, ¡°What are the symptoms of overdose?¡±

    Xu Qing felt extremely nervous, but without hesitation, he answered, ¡°Symptoms include stomach pain, dizziness, and hallucinations. If you don¡¯t start counteracting the poison within fifteen minutes, the result is death.¡±

    ¡°How do you counteract the poison?¡±

    ¡°You begin by inducing vomiting and pumping the stomach. Then you use abination of egg whites and redthorn stamens, treating the symptoms at noon when the sun is bright. The treatment time shouldst for no more than an hour, and should continue for three days.¡±

    During Xu Qing¡¯s exnation, Grandmaster Bai sat in the tent, his facepletely expressionless. As for the two apprentices, they stared with wide-eyed shock.

    ¡°Why is it a good example of the prity of yin and yang?¡± Grandmaster Bai asked.

    ¡°The prity of yin and yang is expressed perfectly in the opposition between vitality and unhealthiness. Vital yang represents beneficial medicine. Yin unhealthiness represents dangerous poisons.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s answer came without even thinking. He had learned this information recently, and had recited the details numerous times, until he remembered every bit perfectly.

    ¡°What can you do with this nt?¡± Grandmaster Bai asked.

    ¡°You could take nightcorpse morning glory andbine it with mindset leaf, which would double its yang efficacy. That would help treat damage to the soul, and also relieve some of the effects of mutagen. However, if youbine it with downy orchid, it would increase its yin efficacy. In fact, it would be so poisonous that, if an ordinary person consumed it, they would die within thirty breaths of time.¡±

    ¡°How do you deal with downy orchids? What are the uses of mindset leaf roots? How can you¡­.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai asked more questions in a rapid-fire manner, making Xu Qing even more nervous. However, he responded in kind.

    For the time it takes an incense stick to burn, an old man and a young man went through an intensive question and answer session.

    The questions Grandmaster Bai asked were all rted to the content of the lectures in recent days. Thus, Xu Qing knew all the answers and was able to provide them quickly.

    The two apprentices went from being shocked to looking shaken, and stared nkly at Xu Qing¡¯s shadow silhouetted on the tent wall.

    Finally, Grandmaster Bai asked a concluding question.

    ¡°Take three one-year-old nightcorpse morning glories,bine them with six three-year-old cloudpassing tufts, add in nine ten-year-old short-leaved kyllingas, and create a medicinal liquid. What does it do?¡±

    Both of the young apprentices¡¯ faces fell. This question was not about a simple description of nts, but rather aplicated mixture.

    It was also the first question that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t answer immediately. After thinking for more than thirty breaths of time, he took a deep breath and said, ¡°Unhealthiness is difficult to suppress. Yang exhrates, yin debilitates. Bringing in the cloudpassing tufts¡¯ yang efficacy raises the short-leaved kyllingas¡¯ detoxifying properties to an astounding level.¡±

    After finishing speaking, Xu Qing stood there with his eyes wide, as if he had just realized something.

    ¡°And that,¡± Grandmaster Bai said coolly, ¡°is seventy percent of the pill form for a basic grandization pill. Combine those three medicinal nts, heat them for fourteen hours, and you¡¯ll have the pill. I asked you a lot of questions. Now, do you have anything you want to ask of me?¡±

    Xu Qing felt shaken. Over the past month or more, he had plenty of unanswered questions. After all, he had been eavesdropping. And though Grandmaster Bai hadn¡¯t prevented him from doing so, there was no way he could ever bring himself to interrupt the lecture with questions.

    But now that Grandmaster Bai had given him the opportunity, he didn¡¯t hesitate.

    ¡°Grandmaster Bai, do merope hemp and yangseed needles work well no matter where they grow? I know they¡¯re simr, but how exactly do they differ?¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t you pick coffin-resting buds during the daytime?¡±

    ¡°The sap of mindset leaves obviously drives out unhealthiness. But why can¡¯t they be used together with lifesight branches, which also drive out unhealthiness?¡±

    Xu Qing asked question after question, and Grandmaster Bai answered them all in detail.

    It seemed as though there would be no end to Xu Qing¡¯s questions. Time passed, until it was far past when the lecture would usually end. From the expressions on the faces of the two apprentices, it was as if they were witnessing a freak of nature. Finally, Xu Qing looked up at the sun, and seeing howte it was, stopped asking questions.

    As far as he was concerned, it was impossible to describe how much he had benefited this day. Many of his questions had been answered, and more than ever, he felt like he was gainingprehensive understanding of the topic. And it only made his thirst for knowledge grow even more intense.

    As he was preparing to leave, Grandmaster Bai said one more thing from inside the tent.

    ¡°From now on, don¡¯t stand outside the tent. And don¡¯t bring those random medicinal nts either. Henceforth, you¡¯ll be attending ss inside.¡±

    1. Chen Feiyuan: Chen is listed #5 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Fei means ¡°fly¡± and Yuan means ¡°source, origin.¡± Madam Deathde says that when she sees this name, it seems like ¡°a mediocre guy, nothing special about him.¡± ?

 Chapter 25: Dao of Poison; Corpse-Ravaging Powder

    Chapter 25: Dao of Poison; Corpse-Ravaging Powder

    When those words hit Xu Qing¡¯s ears, his eyes widened even further. He had previously only dreamed of being able to go into that tent to listen to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lessons. Trying to mask his excitement, he sped hands, bowed deeply, and said, ¡°Many thanks, Grandmaster!¡±

    He spoke the words inplete earnest. Only after a long moment passed did he rise from his bow and leave.

    This time, he didn¡¯t look back to see if Grandmaster Bai was watching him. However, he did hear the grandmaster loudly criticizing his two apprentices.

    He thrummed with excitement as he hurried back to the residence. When he broke the news to Sergeant Thunder, the old man was delighted. And seeing Xu Qing so happy made him smile even more broadly.

    The old sergeant felt emotions tugging at his heart as he thought about how Xu Qing had been visiting the forbidden region so oftentely. Although Xu Qing never said why he was doing it, Sergeant Thunder knew that at least one reason was to look for lifespan flowers. The Kid was devoted and loyal, and had literally saved his life. In the cold and bleak world they lived in, that was something worth treasuring. However, whenever Sergeant Thunder saw Xu Qinging back exhausted and bedraggled so often, he felt bad.

    And thus, Xu Qing¡¯s exuberance filled him with joy. Heading to the kitchen, he cooked a sumptuous feast for dinner, during which he repeatedly exhorted Xu Qing to show respect to his teacher, be deferential, and listen carefully to the lectures. Xu Qing, of course, took all the advice very seriously.

    After dinner, Xu Qing went to his room, still feeling excited. Given that he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about going into that tent the next day, he wasn¡¯t able to sleep.

    As he fretted about what could go wrong, and hoped about the things that could go right, he found himself thinking back to his time in the slums, when he and some of the other kids had met one of their schr teachers for the first time.

    Finally, he opened his trusty sack, pulled out an empty, brand-new sack, and dumped about half of his spirit coins inside, as well as arge collection of white boluses. Xu Qing knew that knowledge was priceless, and that even if he gave Grandmaster Bai all of his savings, it wouldn¡¯t count for much. But he had to think about Sergeant Thunder, so he held some back.

    With that, he felt a bit more at ease. Closing his eyes, he started his breathing exercises and cultivation routine.

    That night passed very slowly for Xu Qing.

    When the sun rose, he put on a fresh set of clothes, washed his hands, and walked outside.

    He was about to step out the gate when Sergeant Thunder called for him to wait. The old sergeant had taken to sleeping intely, but was up early today.

    The sergeant again went into detail with many reminders of how to be a good student. Xu Qing didn¡¯t mind. He just nodded and listened carefully. Finally, Sergeant Thunder straightened Xu Qing¡¯s clothes, then offered him a sack. ¡°You can¡¯t go into that tent empty-handed.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to,¡± Xu Qing said quietly, refusing to take the sack.

    Sergeant Thunder red at him briefly, but could see the determination in his eyes, and pulled the sack away. Then he went back into his room and came out with a jug of alcohol.

    ¡°I happen to know Grandmaster Bai likes to drink. Take this for him.¡±

    This time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t refuse. Taking the alcohol, he left the courtyard, walked a bit, then looked over his shoulder and waved at Sergeant Thunder. Then he hurried toward Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent.

    Watching Xu Qing leave, Sergeant Thunder smiled. The Kid¡¯s even happier than when I took him to harvest seven-leaf clovers.

    Feeling both happy and nervous, Xu Qing walked up to the tent he had stood outside on so many asions over the past month or so. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the main tent p.

    ¡°Come in,¡± Grandmaster Bai said. Xu Qing looked down at his clothing, quickly adjusted the fold of his robe and smoothed out some wrinkles, then opened the p. Inside the tent were the guards, plus Grandmaster Bai and his two apprentices.

    As Xu Qing looked at them, they looked back.

    Grandmaster Bai had a cid facial expression, but the two apprentices did not. The young man named Chen Feiyuan looked a bit resentful, while the girl, Tingyu, seemed curious.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed to Grandmaster Bai, then took out the sack he¡¯d prepared along with the alcohol. As he¡¯d learned in ss in the slums, he bowed at the waist and offered them with both hands.

    Though he was in a bowing position, he saw a bit of warmth in Grandmaster Bai¡¯s eyes.

    Grandmaster Bai didn¡¯t touch the sack. But he did ept the alcohol. He even opened the jug and drank a sip in a formal way, like it was some sort of ceremony.

    Then he put down the jug and said, ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡±

    As usual, he started with some testing. This time, Tingyu and Chen Feiyuan seemed on par with Xu Qing. They had done their homework, and answered all the questions correctly. Then they looked at Xu Qing.

    He kept his attention on Grandmaster Bai as he answered all of the questions. Afterward, Grandmaster Bai nodded and started the lecture.

    Xu Qing listened attentively. The opportunity to listen to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lectures from inside the tent was precious to him, so he didn¡¯t allow himself to be distracted in the slightest. Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu were doing the same thing, which caused Grandmaster Bai to smile in his heart.

    A dozen or so days passed. Xu Qing was already used to listening to lectures, and now that he was officially part of the ss, he did not take it any less seriously. As a result, his base of knowledge grew.

    That said, it only took a few days for Chen Feiyuan to go back to his old ways. In contrast, Tingyu kept pace with Xu Qing, and paid close attention in ss.

    After the lecture was over, she would even talk to him a bit. Most of her questions were about life in the basecamp, and though Xu Qing was reluctant to go into details, he did offer simple exnations.

    As for Chen Feiyuan, he still seemed resentful of Xu Qing, and had hardly spoken more than a few words to him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. He had never been great with social interactions, and always did his best to leave the tent as quickly as possible after the lecture. Then he would go into the forbidden region. However, now he had a new goal while there: to find nts and vegetation that he had learned about.

    Before he had begun attending lectures, the nts in the forbidden region had all seemed the same. But things were different now.

    Now Xu Qing frequently ran across nts he knew about, and seeing them in real life added to his depth of knowledge. However, as time passed, he came to realize that the vast majority of nts in the forbidden region were the unhealthy yin type that were poisonous. Vital yang nts were rare. As a result, his personal research into nts started to focus on poisons.

    After harvesting numerous such nts, he started keeping them in a small hut in the same canyon where Squad Thunderbolt had harvested seven-leaf clover from. That ce became his personalboratory, where he focused on studying poisons.

    Given that he was inherently capable of breaking down poisons within his own body, it gave him a lot more confidence in working with dangerous nts. After quite a bit of experimentation in differentbinations, he eventually created apletely new and unique poisonous serum.

    It was created bybining eight types of poisonous nts plus viper venom. It had violently corrosive properties, such that, after some testing and refining, Xu Qing found it could dissolve an entire mutant beast corpse in only five breaths of time. It only worked that well on corpses. When used on living beings, it wasn¡¯t as effective. Regardless, this poison serum was the first medicinal mixture Xu Qing had personally invented, and he was very pleased with it. After drying it in the sun to turn it into a powder, he decided to give it a name: Corpse-Ravaging Powder.

    Vital yang nts were rare, but he did find some, and was thus able to experiment withbining the poles of yin and yang. As a result, he created a medicinal liquid using seven-leaf clovers to suppress mutagen.

    He showed it to Grandmaster Bai and asked if it might help Sergeant Thunder with his condition.

    Grandmaster Bai said that nothing other than a lifespan flower would do any good for the sergeant. Even the medicine he was already taking would slowly lose effectiveness.

    He was absolutely right about that. Sergeant Thunder always took his medicine, yet he kept growing weaker and weaker. Xu Qing could only watch it happen.

    On one particr day, the two of them were eating dinner when Sergeant Thunder seemed about to say something, then hesitated for a while. Finally he told Xu Qing that, for health purposes, he needed to leave the scavenger basecamp. In fact, he was already preparing to purchase a residency permit in a nearby city.

    ¡°Kid, I know your path is going to lead you far away from this little camp. You have a bright future. I don¡¯t want you sticking around with me while I grow old.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped eating and looked down for a long moment. Then he quietly said, ¡°Are you going toe back?¡±

    ¡°Of course! I¡¯ll definitelye back to visit.¡± Smiling, Sergeant Thunder reached out to tousle Xu Qing¡¯s hair. Inside, he sighed. The truth was that he didn¡¯t want Xu Qing facing the dangers of the forbidden region for his sake.

    Xu Qing¡¯s instinct was to avoid Sergeant Thunder¡¯s hand. But he didn¡¯t. And thus, the sergeant tousled his hair and smiled again. ¡°Besides, you cane visit me anytime you want.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    That night during Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation routine, he frequently looked in the direction of Sergeant Thunder¡¯s room. He felt glum, but kept it hidden.

    Every day, he went to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s for the lecture, then spent as much time as possible in the forbidden region, looking for lifespan flowers.

    Unfortunately, as Grandmaster Bai had said, such flowers could be encountered by chance but never searched for and found.

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks so much to God of Destruction Asura and Destroyerknife12 for the reviews. Y''all rock!

 Chapter 26: The Dusk of a Personâ€™s Life

    Chapter 26: The Dusk of a Person¡¯s Life

    In the east of South Phoenix, it was already summer. Rainfall increased, and temperatures rose.

    It waste in the morning and ss was over. As Xu Qing walked out of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, he looked up at the deep blue sky, squinted at the sun, and murmured, ¡°It¡¯s the fifth month.¡±

    It was hard to believe, but he had been in the scavenger basecamp for two months already. When he thought back to the blood rain and the city ruins, and everything he¡¯d experienced there, it seemed like such a long time ago. Yet the memories were clear in his mind. He was very differentpared to two months ago in the slums. He had a cultivation base that continued to grow stronger, his knowledge of nts and vegetation grew, and all-in-all, Xu Qing felt like he was growing up. Thanks to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s amazing meals, which included a lot of meat, his previously scrawny frame was starting to fill out.

    And thanks to his cultivation of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, his masculine blood pumped more vigorously than ever. Without any effort, he exuded a powerful aura that would seem prating to anyone in his presence. Perhaps thanks to how he¡¯d been practicing the saber strike he¡¯d witnessed in the templeplex, his eyes seemed to shine more brightly than the average person. And that effect only seemed to increase as he practiced the saber strike.

    At the same time, his ss attendance, and the knowledge he was picking up, made him seem like an academic.

    Because of all that, Xu Qing had gotten into the habit of washing his hands. And though he still hadn¡¯t washed his face free of grime, it wasn¡¯t possible for the dirt to cover up his good looks. As a result, thedies of the night in the feathered tents often batted their eyes at him and called out to him. He ignored them.

    For days now, his mood remained glum. For one thing, he hadn¡¯t found a single lifespan flower. Worse, Sergeant Thunder was getting visibly older and weaker.

    Eventually, Xu Qing stopped going to the forbidden region as often. After listening to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lecture, he would go home to work on cultivation. Being able to sense Sergeant Thunder in the next room helped him stabilize his mood.

    He cherished dinner even more nowadays.

    On one particr night that was no different from the others, he ignored the surrounding scavengers as he headed toward the general store after ss.

    The girl he knew there was busy at work, but when she saw him, she immediately ran behind the counter and came out with a jug of alcohol. She handed it to him. She had long since gotten used to himing at this time to buy alcohol.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said quietly. He couldn¡¯t help but nce at the scar on her face. Despite how vicious it looked, the girl was generally optimistic.

    Smiling, she made small talk for a few minutes until a customer yelled at her toe help him.

    Xu Qing hefted the jug and turned to leave. When the girl saw that, she quickly said a few things to her customer, then ran to the door.

    ¡°Big Bro Kid!¡± she called.

    Xu Qing stopped walking and looked over his shoulder as she hurried to him. As she neared, she held out her hand, and he saw that in her palm was a piece of candy.

    ¡°I can tell you¡¯ve felt down recently,¡± she said. ¡°Whenever I¡¯m sad, my momma would always give me some candy. I just had to eat it, and I¡¯d feel better. This is myst piece of candy and¡­ I want you to have it.¡± She seemed worried he might refuse, so she pushed the candy into his hand and ran back to the shop. At the door, she stopped, looked back, and said, ¡°Feel better, Big Bro Kid!¡±

    He stood there awkwardly for a moment as she ducked back inside, then looked down at the candy. A moment passed¡­ and he carefully put the candy away.

    On the way back, the camp seemed louder than normal, which was when he noticed two caravans entering one after the other.

    The lead caravan had fancy carts and strong, muscr horses, surpassing the quality of any of the caravans Xu Qing had seen up to this point. Among the members of the caravan were a host of guards, plus four or five middle-aged men who radiated intense spirit power fluctuations.

    However, they weren¡¯t the most important people in the caravan.

    As the carts proceeded, a group of young men and women appeared. Most looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old, and they strutted along in fancy clothing. All had fair skin, with the young men being handsome and refined, the young women elegant and beautiful.

    These people clearly had extraordinary backgrounds. Disdaining the squalor and chaos of the basecamp, they had set up their tents outside. Their arrogant demeanor was in for everyone to see.

    Each member of the group had attendants, such that the group of only fifteen or so young ones had about a hundred people following them.

    Behind them was a second caravan, and though it looked nice, it obviously wasn¡¯t as impressive as the first. Because of the high status of the group of young men and women, the second caravan didn¡¯t dare to overtake them. And thus, the members of the second caravan went their separate ways upon entering the camp, and kept a much lower profile.

    Xu Qing merely nced at them as he walked past.

    Caravans came every few days, either to sell goods or to set up camp before entering the forbidden region. All kinds of people could be seen in such groups. That was just how life worked in the basecamp, and Xu Qing already took it as a matter of course.

    Once back home, Xu Qing saw that Sergeant Thunder was in the courtyard doing some stretching. The sunlight shining down made the old man seem more than ever like he was in the twilight of his life. Xu Qing¡¯s mood sank again.

    Seeing the jug in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, Sergeant Thunder smiled and said, ¡°You bought liquor again? Excellent! You go straighten up the kitchen. I¡¯m going for a walk to get some food for dinner.¡±

    Hands sped behind his back, he strolled out of the courtyard.

    This was their arrangement. Sergeant Thunder had to be the one to buy the food. Of course, Xu Qing demanded to pay a bit more in rent to make up for the cost.

    Sergeant Thunder came back a bit earlier than usual. Xu Qing had just finished preparing the kitchen when the old man walked in with a bag of meat. Grinning at Xu Qing, he set about preparing dinner.

    Like usual, Xu Qing just sat off to the side and observed, hoping to learn a thing or two. As he watched, something seemed off¡­.

    Normally speaking, they ate dinner a lotter than this.

    Realizing that, Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank even further. However, he just watched Sergeant Thunder work. He thought about asking for details, but in the end, kept his mouth shut. Like usual, Sergeant Thunder cooked and talked at the same time.

    It felt just like the chatter one would expect while preparing a family dinner. Even before the evening sun sank below the horizon, the food was finished. Putting it on the table, Sergeant Thunder looked at the glum Xu Qing and tousled his hair.

    ¡°Kid, I already bought my residency permit for Laughing Pines. Later tonight, I¡¯ll pack my luggage. I¡¯m leaving first thing in the morning.¡± He drank a big mouthful of the alcohol Xu Qing had purchased.

    Xu Qing felt like didn¡¯t know what to do. Finally, he quietly said, ¡°I didn¡¯t realize you¡¯d be leaving so soon.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder chuckled. ¡°I actually made the purchase a while ago. I just didn¡¯t tell you. Don¡¯t be so sad, alright? In this world, there¡¯s no banquet thatsts forever.¡± He took another drink. ¡°Come on. Eat up.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder looked older than ever. Almost ancient.

    Xu Qing quietly picked up his chopsticks and started eating. Though the food was probably delicious, to Xu Qing, itcked vor.

    Sergeant Thunder saw this and sighed. However, he still smiled and went into thetest camp gossip. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°Can¡¯t you wait until Crucifix and Graceful Raptor get back? It shouldn¡¯t be long now.¡±

    ¡°Nope. When they get back, they¡¯ll act just like you. It¡¯ll just make things worse. Besides, they can alsoe visit me whenever they want.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder took out his pipe, loaded it up, then started smoking. The smoke spread, slowly making the room hazy. When Sergeant Thunder finished eating, he went to pack his luggage.

    Xu Qing stayed behind, sitting at the table, looking at the food. He didn¡¯t feel hungry. For the first time, he didn¡¯t wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. Instead, he went to the sergeant¡¯s room.

    ¡°Do you really have to go?¡± he asked.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so sad. I¡¯m going to live in a city now! You should be happy for me.¡±

    Sergeant Thunderughed heartily, then asked Xu Qing to help him fold clothes. Xu Qing first washed his hands, then started helping. With his help, Sergeant Thunder finished packing even more quickly. He didn¡¯t have much that he needed to take with him. Other than his clothing, he left everything to Xu Qing.

    ¡°The house is yours,¡± he said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll pay rent,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    Sergeant Thunder smiled and didn¡¯t continue that topic. Instead, he pulled Xu Qing to a table off to the side, and they sat down. There, Sergeant Thunder told Xu Qing even more about the scavengers in the camp. And one key point he emphasized was the background of the camp owner.

    ¡°The camp owner isn¡¯t some random person. He¡¯s from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, the most powerful group in this region. They own dozens of cities and basecamps, and their patriarch is a Foundation Establishment expert. Going forward, be very careful around the camp owner.¡±

    By the time they reached this point in their discussion, it was gettingte. Xu Qing could see that Sergeant Thunder was tired, so he got up and left. Sergeant Thunder watched him go and sighed.

    That was the first night in a very long time that Xu Qing didn¡¯t practice cultivation. He sat staring out of the window into the night, until the horizon grew bright and the sun rose.

    That was fast.

    Feeling full of mncholy, he chose not to go out into the courtyard like he usually did. Instead, he waited until he heard the sound of Sergeant Thunder opening the main gate. Only then did he leave his room.

    As the morning sun sent dawn rays over thend, the two of them stood in the courtyard looking at each other.

    Sergeant Thunder smiled. ¡°I¡¯m leaving, Kid.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you off.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. You should get to ss.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you off.¡±

    ¡°You¡ª¡°

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you off.¡± [1]

    Sergeant Thunder seemed to realize he wasn¡¯t going to be able to dissuade Xu Qing, so he nodded.

    And thus, the two of them walked through the basecamp while most of the other scavengers still slept. When they neared Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, Xu Qing ran over to it. Grandmaster Bai wasn¡¯t there, nor was Chen Feiyuan. Only Tingyu was present, studying a medicinal codex.

    ¡°Do you mind helping me ask for the day off?¡± he said. sping hands and bowing, he turned and hurried off.

    Tingyu looked very surprised, and even walked out of the tent, which was when she saw Xu Qing and Sergeant Thunder walking off into the distance.

    The morning light cast their shadows in front of them as they walked, further and further away.

    Xu Qing carried Sergeant Thunder¡¯s bag on his back. He didn¡¯t say anything.

    Sergeant Thunder had mixed emotions. Looking at the stubborn young man carrying his things, he tried to talk about some of the camp gossip. But after only a few sentences, he found he couldn¡¯t continue talking.

    The two of them climbed the mountain where once they¡¯d rested and looked down at the basecamp. Back then, Sergeant Thunder had led the way, and Xu Qing followed.

    The former had looked as profound as a sword, thetter had seemed like a lone wolf.

    This time, Xu Qing led, and Sergeant Thunder followed.

    This time, the former looked like a mountain peak, thetter lurched like the fall of dusk.

    Xu Qing reached out to steady Sergeant Thunder. And then he hoisted him onto his back, just like back in the forbidden region.

    Sergeant Thunder could see the side of Xu Qing¡¯s face, and it made him sigh.

    ¡°You need to keep your eye on the other scavengers,¡± he said quietly. ¡°I know you¡¯ve be very strongtely, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can underestimate them. Scavengers¡­ well, they¡¯re ouws. They¡¯ll try to get what they want by fair means or foul¡­.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to feed the dogs every night. You can trust them more than anyone else in the basecamp.

    ¡°Remember to eat well. And don¡¯t eat cold food. Warm it up first! You¡¯re still growing, so don¡¯t getzy about that kind of thing.

    ¡°If you do, you¡¯ll regret it when you get older. Oh, right. Remember to sleep in bed. And use the bedding! Don¡¯t be afraid of getting it dirty. Just wash it if you need to, and hang it in the sun to dry.

    ¡°Another thing¡­.¡±

    Everything Sergeant Thunder said was filled with deep concern.

    Xu Qing nodded as he carried the old man along. And hemitted everything to memory.

    Sergeant Thunder kept talking and talking. But he was old and weak, and eventually fell asleep.

    When Xu Qing heard the snoring, he made sure to keep his footsteps quiet. At the same time, he tried to pick the best course to follow, to make the journey smooth. And thus, Xu Qing carried Sergeant Thunder through the wilderness, avoiding rough terrain, until evening came. As the waning light stretched their shadows out, Xu Qing spotted a city in the distance.

    Around then, Sergeant Thunder woke up and noticed the city. He sighed. ¡°We¡¯re here!¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing said, his heart heavy. At Sergeant Thunder¡¯s request, he put the old man down carefully.

    Sergeant Thunder took his bag out of Xu Qing¡¯s hand. He looked at the city gate, then back at Xu Qing. A moment of silence passed. Sergeant Thunder smiled. Reaching out, he tousled Xu Qing¡¯s hair.

    ¡°Time to head back, Kid. If you miss me,e visit. I¡¯ll be at No. 3 Clearwater Road in the south of the city.¡± Hefting his luggage, he walked toward the city gate.

    Xu Qing felt like he had a thousand things to say, but wasn¡¯t sure how to say them. So he just stood there mutely.

    Just before entering the city gate, Sergeant Thunder stopped and looked back. Giving Xu Qing a profound look, he waved. Then the guards hurried him inside, and he was gone from sight.

    Xu Qing stood there looking lonely for a long time¡­.

    The city gate closed for the evening, and his heart feltpletely empty.

    ¡°Take care of yourself,¡± he murmured. Then he turned back, feeling bitter and lonely.

    Night fell, covering him with darkness. Alone, he walked through the fields, around the rough terrain, and up the mountain. Further¡­ and further away.

    1. As I¡¯ve mentioned before (and will again), ¡°seeing someone off¡± in Chinese culture is very important. When you part ways, you should escort the departing person a certain distance. The farther you escort them away, the more respect it shows. In some cases, such as with family or close friends that you see all the time, this formality might be ignored. But even then, it will usually involve an exchange of ¡°I¡¯ll see you off¡± followed by ¡°there¡¯s no need.¡± In any case, the reality remains that ¡°seeing someone off¡± is important, and how far you see them off is relevant. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks so much to jollysadness for the review! Much appreciated!

 Chapter 27: A Stranger Like Jade

    Chapter 27: A Stranger Like Jade

    The howl of wolves echoed through the mountains, but then the sound faded into nothing, almost as though a fiercer animal had scared the wolves away.

    As Xu Qing made his way through the darkness, he couldn¡¯t bury the sense of loss in his heart. Growing up as he had in the slums, he¡¯d long since grown ustomed to goodbyes. But this was different. Deeper. The emptiness in his heart reflected itself in his posture. He looked bleak.

    He took his time going back, and the sun wasing up when he caught sight of the basecamp. There didn¡¯t seem to be manymps burning in the camp. From what Xu Qing remembered, no matter howte he came back from the forbidden region, there was always onemp burning for him. But today, that onemp was gone. And it would nevere back.

    His mncholy deepened as he entered the camp and walked through the darkness to the courtyard. Inside were a dozen dogs. They nced at him quietly when he appeared.

    He finally looked up and saw three rooms. And darkness. There was no sign of life. No light. No energy. The leftovers from the previous night were still on the table in the kitchen.

    Xu Qing walked into the kitchen and looked at the three sets of bowls and chopsticks. After a very long moment, he sat down and started eating the cold food. He took a bite. Swallowed. Took a bite. Swallowed. After, he washed the dishes, straightened up the kitchen, and went back to his room.

    Closing his eyes, he started a session of cultivation.

    Outside of the courtyard stood the violet-robed old man and his servant. They could see everything.

    After a moment of silence passed, the man in violet sighed. ¡°What an affectionate and faithful boy.¡±

    ¡°Master Seventh, should I give him an identity medallion?¡±

    ¡°Wait until after we get that cloudydream blossom from the forbidden region for Grandmaster Bai.¡± With that, the man in violet faded into nothing. The servant nodded and did the same.

    ***

    The night passed.

    The following morning at dawn, Xu Qing walked out and, out of habit, looked over at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s room. He quickly retracted his gaze. He didn¡¯t say much at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lecture, and returned home in silence.

    He ate dinner alone, though he made sure to put three sets of dinnerware on the table.

    He couldn¡¯t help but asionally look at the spot where Sergeant Thunder used to sit. Now¡­ there was one less person and one less voice.

    Eating in silence caused mncholy to again fill his heart, but eventually he shoved it down. After eating, he cleaned up, then got food for the dogs. He watched them eat, then went back to his room to meditate.

    Days began to pass, all of them roughly the same. Soon, it was six days after Sergeant Thunder¡¯s departure.

    Xu Qing had buried his sense of loss deep in his heart, and was now back to his usual detached self. However, if one looked closely, it was possible to see something much colder in that detached attitude. He only rxed when listening to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lectures. At all other times, he remainedpletely on guard. It wasn¡¯t an unfamiliar way of life for him. This was how he¡¯d lived for six years.

    As a lone wolf.

    He worked even harder at cultivation, as if only like this could he return to that familiar lonely state sooner. On the evening of the seventh night, he experienced a breakthrough. Before, he had reached the fourth level with the Sea and Mountain Incantation. Now he was in the fifth.

    As popping sounds rang out within him, the dogs outside sensed the increased pressure and terrifying aura, and they backed up, trembling.

    The sounds of the breakthroughsted longer than in the past. In fact, the entire processsted longer. After about an hour, when all the filth had oozed out of his pores, his eyes snapped open. At the same time, the room glittered with a violet light.

    The popping sounds still rang out, as though his bones were growing and his flesh was being torn and shredded. None of it was beyond what Xu Qing could bear.

    After things went quiet, another hour passed. Finally, he stood up, whereupon his clothing seemed shorter than before.

    Although he wasn¡¯t an entirely different person, he did seem more refined. That was especially true of his facial features, a result of his body being pure and free of mutagen.

    His handsome features,bined with his cold, detached attitude, made him attractive in a way that the filth and grime couldn¡¯t cover up.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to any of that. Going out into the courtyard, he did some tests to check how much faster he was now. And he threw some experimental punches, resulting in loud cracking sounds filling the air. From what he could tell, he was more than twice as strong as he¡¯d been in the fourth level!

    Even more shocking, when he threw punches, the spirit power fluctuations caused the image of a goblin to appear, its teeth bared to reveal sharp fangs. It looked almost like an evil ghost!

    So, this is the power of one goblin?

    As he looked down at his clenched fists, the surrounding dogs trembled.

    ording to the description, each level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation provided the strength of a tiger. Fivebined created the strength of a goblin. And two goblins made a hobgoblin.

    However, something about the description didn¡¯t seem right to him.

    Given how strong he was, he was fairly sure he was at the level of seven or eight tigers. It was the same in terms of speed. And he was fairly certain that once he reached the sixth level, he would have the strength of two goblins, which was much earlier than normal.

    It must be because of the violet crystal. And the saber strike from that statue in the templeplex.

    Extending his right hand, he recalled the image of that statue. Energy swirled around him. He dropped his hand.

    Still not quite there yet.

    His version of that saber strike wasn¡¯t good enough yet. Just as he was about to go back into his room, he suddenly looked down and noticed his shadow. After the breakthrough, it was just like before; the mutagen flowed into his shadow, leaving his body absolutely pure.

    As he looked at his shadow, a thought urred to him.

    I wonder if I can control my shadow¡­?

    As the thought percted, he continued to stare at his shadow, willing it to move. Unfortunately, even after expending a lot of effort, nothing happened. He sighed softly and, thinking he might be getting a bit too greedy, was about to give up when¡­ his shadow¡¯s hand suddenly twitched slightly!

    That sight caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to widen.

    He definitely wasn¡¯t seeing things, as he was absolutely sure that his flesh-and-blood hand hadn¡¯t twitched. Only the shadow version of it. He tried again.

    Time passed. And then, as Xu Qing himself remained absolutely motionless, his shadow¡­ slowly raised its hand!

    It only moved slightly, but that effort alone made Xu Qing feel like his head was about to explode. Only after a long moment passed did he regain hisposure. However, his eyes were now shining brightly.

    I can control it!

    He looked back down at his shadow. Exercising that bit of control took a huge amount of effort, and while his mind had felt empty moments before, now he felt the pain of a headache. It was obvious that doing this was very taxing. However, he was confident that as he practiced, and as his cultivation base improved, he would gain greater and greater control.

    And eventually, his shadow¡­ could be used as a weapon to catch his enemies off guard!

    I hope that dayes sooner rather thanter.

    Feeling like his head was splitting, he returned to his room and sat down cross-legged to meditate.

    The next morning, he was only half-recovered, and felt quite dispirited. Trying to force himself into a better state of mind, he changed clothes and hurried to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent.

    Chen Feiyuan wasn¡¯t there, and the grandmaster hadn¡¯t arrived yet either. But Tingyu was reading the same medicinal codex from before. When she saw Xu Qing arrive, she waved and called out a greeting, then went back to reading.

    Mornings had all begun like thistely. ording to Tingyu, the newly arrived group of young men and women included some friends of Chen Feiyuan¡¯s, whom he often went to see. Grandmaster Bai was busy with some important matter for the past few days, and usually arrivedte, then left immediately after his lecture.

    Xu Qing sat down off to the side, took out a bamboo slip, and started reviewing the previous day¡¯s lesson. A short timeter, Tingyu suddenly stopped reading and looked at him.

    ¡°Why do you look different today?¡± she asked.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t look up at her. He just kept studying.

    Tingyu¡¯s bright eyes opened wider as she looked even more closely at Xu Qing.

    Then Grandmaster Bai arrived, and she didn¡¯t say anything further. However, throughout the lecture, she kept looking over at Xu Qing.

    Grandmaster Bai was usually very strict, but he seemed to have something on his mind, and only offered some minor admonitions to Tingyu for herck of attentiveness. After finishing the lecture, he reminded them of what he would test them on the next day, then hurried off.

    Xu Qing stood and prepared to leave. However, before he could get outside, Tingyu jumped in his way. Frowning, he looked at her.

    Lifting her chin, she red back. She had a very pretty face, with eyes that sparkled like the stars and moon.

    ¡°I figured it out,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re taller.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Xu Qing replied, nodding. Then he tried to walk around her, except she once again moved to block his way.

    Looking at him curiously with her sparkling eyes, she said, ¡°Kid, youe here every day with that dirty face of yours. I just realized I don¡¯t know what you actually look like. And now I can tell you¡¯re different from before. Nope. This isn¡¯t going to work. I¡¯m going to wash your face and see the real you.¡±

    Pulling a handkerchief out of her sleeve, she started moving toward him.

    Xu Qing put his hands up defensively, and was about to flee in the opposite direction when Tingyu gave a cold snort.

    ¡°I helped you ask for the day off, Kid. You owe me a favor!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped moving, which was when Tingyu jumped toward him. At the same time, she sent spirit power fluctuations running through the handkerchief to turn it damp. Then she started rubbing his cheek.

    Instantly, the fair skin on his cheek was revealed. However, Xu Qing had no patience for this, and decided to force his way to freedom.

    ¡°Kid!¡± she shouted, ¡°I¡¯m your elder sister!¡±

    The term ¡®elder sister¡¯ was obviously an important one, and it caused Xu Qing to freeze in ce. [1]

    Then, Tingyu¡¯s eyes became like crescent moons filled with both beauty and craftiness. Moving with lightning speed, she started rubbing at the rest of Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    Xu Qing wanted to shove her away, but because of how she¡¯d called herself his elder sister, he didn¡¯t.

    And thus, as Tingyu scrubbed and wiped, Xu Qing¡¯s real face was fully revealed. Toward the end, her movements slowed, and her eyes grew wide. Stepping back, she looked at his face. And somehow, at that exact same moment, a ray of sunshine hit his face.

    This was the first time Xu Qing¡¯s face had been washed clean in thest six years, and he wasn¡¯t used to it. As Tingyu stared, he walked around her and dashed out of the tent.

    He wasn¡¯t used to the sun being so warm when hitting his face. In fact, he felt naked.

    Outside, he squatted, scooped up some mud, and rubbed it on his face. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Feeling much better, he settled back into his detached self, and headed to the forbidden region.

    After he was gone, Tingyu took a very deep breath. Hunh. He¡¯s pretty good-looking.

    Pulling aside the main tent p, she looked at him disappearing in the distance, her face slightly flushed. She looked around to see if anyone had noticed what just happened.

    He¡¯s better-looking than Chen Feiyuan. Actually, no. Chen Feiyuan can¡¯t evene close toparing to him!

    1. As I¡¯m sure many of you know, forms of address in sects and organizations often mirror familial terms. Elder brother/sister, junior brother/sister, and even things like aunt/uncle aremonly used. However, these forms of address do not corrte exactly to the way they''re used in families. For one thing, romances between sect brothers and sisters is amon thing. Also, they¡¯re very important in establishing hierarchical rtionships. In a formal ssroom or sect situation, the status of a person with the higher social standing would be something to take fairly seriously. For more details on my view of this subject, you can check out chapter 9 of my non-fiction reference guide Understanding Chinese Fantasy Novels. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thanks you Pacificstar, purplish, and Skyx for the reviews. Very much appreciated!!!

 Chapter 28: You Donâ€™t Need Light to Travel the Night

    Chapter 28: You Don¡¯t Need Light to Travel the Night

    That night, Tingyu, who had grown up in the Violet Lands without any understanding of the hardships of life, had a dream about Chen Feiyuan making things very hard for Xu Qing. It made her furious. When she woke up in the morning, she was in a very unusual mood. After arriving at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, she sat in her usual ce to read her medicinal codex, but just couldn¡¯t concentrate. She found herself constantly looking up at the entrance of the tent.

    Eventually she caught sight of¡­ Chen Feiyuan.

    She blinked suddenly as she recalled the dream from the previous night.

    Pushing his way through the tent entrance, Chen Feiyuan yawned and rubbed his eyes, then prepared to sit next to Tingyu. Before he could, she pushed his seating cushion out from under him.

    Chen Feiyuan stared down in shock. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    Not even bothering to look at him, she pointed to Xu Qing¡¯s usual spot and said, ¡°You sit over there.¡±

    ¡°But, why?¡± Chen Feiyuan asked, not moving an inch.

    She red up at him. ¡°Why? Because you don¡¯t study hard. And you¡¯re always asking for time off. Having you next to me is annoying. Is that enough of an exnation?¡±

    During her rapid-fire response, Chen Feiyuan simply stared at her. After she finished, he muttered a bit and, obviously trying not to provoke her further, plopped down where Xu Qing usually sat.

    After sitting there for a short time, Chen Feiyuan muttered, ¡°Oh dear. Tingyu, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me dear!¡± she snapped. ¡°What would happen if someone overhears and gets the wrong idea?¡±

    ¡°Huh? I didn¡¯t call you dear!¡± Chen Feiyuan looked utterly confused, but before anything else could happen, the tent p opened and Xu Qing entered.

    When Tingyu saw him, she smiled, causing two faint dimples to appear on her cheeks. Then she brushed off the cushion Chen Feiyuan had been about to sit on earlier.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you sit here,¡± she said.

    Xu Qing looked startled. Chen Feiyuan stared in shock.

    ¡°What are you staring at?¡± Tingyu said. ¡°Teacher¡¯s going to be here soon. Hurry up!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, first looking at Tingyu, then the spot where she was trying to get him to sit down, and then Chen Feiyuan. It really was time for Grandmaster Bai to arrive, so after a moment, he sat down next to Tingyu, right in the spot where Chen Feiyuan usually sat.

    Looking embarrassed, Chen Feiyuan pointed at Xu Qing and was about to say something when Tingyu red at him fiercely and barked, ¡°Shut up!¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything!¡± he whimpered, looking like he was about to cry. As far as he was concerned, all of this was very unfair, and he was about to say something when the tent p opened and Grandmaster Bai walked in.

    Chen Feiyuan had no choice but to bite his tongue and sit there fuming. Opposite him, Tingyu seemed very happy, and Xu Qing looked profoundly ufortable.

    After taking a few steps inside, Grandmaster Bai noticed where Xu Qing was sitting. He looked at Tingyu, and then the hapless Chen Feiyuan. Smiling faintly, he sat down and began the testing.

    As usual, Chen Feiyuan stammered his way through his answers, and got thoroughly berated by the grandmaster. Tingyu looked very pleased with herself as she answered her questions, and then looked at Xu Qing with anticipation.

    He answered his questions perfectly, and even asked some very meaningful followup questions.

    During the entire testing part of the ss, Chen Feiyuan looked very depressed. After the lecture was over, he was the first to hurry out of the tent, feeling very discriminated against.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, felt ufortable during the entire ss. When it was over, he stood, bowed to Grandmaster Bai, and then made to leave. Before he could get out, Tingyu said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, why is your face dirty again?¡±

    Rising to her feet, she pulled out her handkerchief eagerly. Xu Qing, however, made it out of the tent and vanished. After he was gone, Tingyu seemed hurt. Turning to Grandmaster Bai, who was just sitting there enjoying the show, she said, ¡°Teacher, why is the Kid always so dirty? I just want to help him out.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai threw his head back andughed. Then he patted her head and said, ¡°Because, to people who lead bitter and dangerous lives, attracting attention isn¡¯t a good thing.¡±

    Tingyu nodded thoughtfully.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear Grandmaster Bai, but he was thinking the exact same thing. Back in the slums, he had learned that the less attention you attracted, the safer you were. If everyone around you was dirty, and you weren¡¯t, that made you like a torch on a moonless night. And then things got more dangerous. From the time he was small, he had always avoided attention. People who didn¡¯t were either stronger than everyone else, or they didn¡¯t live very long. It was for that reason that he didn¡¯t make it a habit of bathing; it made it easier for him to blend into his surroundings. He was like a skilled hunter in hiding who revealed their ability only in the moment of attack.

    Right now, he was heading into the forbidden region, and he did the same thing there. Once he was in the jungle, he picked up a handful of rotten leaves, crushed them into a paste, and covered himself with it. With that natural disguise on, he headed into the forbidden region.

    Though Sergeant Thunder had already moved away to the city, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t given up on his hope of finding a lifespan flower.

    His advancements in cultivation base made him stronger, and he had a lot more experience now. Plus, he knew a lot more about nts and vegetation. That, coupled with his general vignce, ensured that he encountered few dangers in the periphery of the forbidden region.

    Nowadays, he didn¡¯t limit his explorations to the area leading up to the temple. Instead, he ventured past it into the deeper jungle. The further in he got, the more dangers there were. But such training improved his battle prowess, and also helped him with his knowledge of nts.

    Simr to what he had found elsewhere, there were a lot of medicinal nts in the interior of the forbidden region, though most of them were unhealthy yin nts, full of poisons. The more poisonous nts he was able to study, the more his knowledge of nts and vegetation veered in the direction of poison. As he made more progress, he refined his poison powders into a few different varieties.

    It was for that reason that he¡¯d purchased a coat that had a lot of pockets. In each pocket he put a different type of poisonous medicine.

    What was more, he started using that pair of ck gauntlets he found in Captain Bloodshadow¡¯s sack. The more he fought with them, the more familiar he became with their usage.

    The gauntlets made his fist attacks even more powerful, and also added a measure of protection against poisons. Now, his signature weapons included the gauntlets, the dagger Crucifix had given him, and his trusty iron skewer.

    The sun was setting by the time he finished his day of training and poison concocting. Leaving hisboratory in the canyon, he organized all his weapons and poison powders, then started running toward the templeplex at top speed.

    It had be a custom of his to visit the temple to look for scar-removing crystals before returning to camp. Though he had yet to have any sess, he had asked around and knew more about what to look for. He knew that they formed naturally and glowed with seven colors. They were rare, but people did find them asionally. Thus, he didn¡¯t give up on his search. And this time¡­

    When he got to the templeplex, it was bathed in an evening glow. Perhaps because of that reason, he immediately noticed a stone statue off in the distance, and the seven-colored glowing from its forehead.

    Eyes narrowing, he quickly scanned the area to check the traps he¡¯d set up. None had been sprung. Jumping up to the rooftop of a nearby temple, he crouched and observed the area further.

    After confirming that the area was safe, he sped toward the statue.

    Once in front of it, he looked up and saw that, in a crack in the forehead, there was a seven-colored crystal, growing naturally. Before, that statue had been ordinary in nature. But in this mysterious temple, the strange passage of time ensured that, on this day, it was different.

    Xu Qing quickly harvested the crystal, then searched the area hoping to find more. As luck would have it, he found five more.

    When he was finished, he stood looking at the crystals in his hand, and he let loose a long sigh. He had long been searching for both lifespan flowers and scar-removing crystals, and now he had finally found at least one of those two things.

    Carefully putting the six crystals away, Xu Qing looked around at the templeplex, then bowed deeply at the waist. After that, he sped off into the jungle.

    Before long, he was leaping from treetop to treetop. As night fell, the roar of the beasts rose into the air. Xu Qing maintained the same pace the entire time.

    At one point, as hended on a branch and prepared tounch himself into the air, a giant horned anaconda exploded out of the dirt below, shooting up with a gaping maw toward Xu Qing.

    This serpent was muchrger than the one he¡¯d fought in the camp, but Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change at all. He just reached out and flicked his finger, hitting the anaconda on the top of the head. [1]

    A thump rang out, and then the anaconda shrieked. It couldn¡¯t evene close to standing up to Xu Qing¡¯s strength, and exploded into a mass of flesh and blood.

    However¡­ its galldder was left intact. Xu Qing reached into the mist of blood, grabbed it, and sped off.

    It was just before the break of dawn when Xu Qing left the jungle and got back to the basecamp. It was still dark, but there were somemps and fires in the camp as Xu Qing made his way through it. He had been very excited to find the scar-removing crystals, but the closer he got to his residence, the more his mood sank.

    The only thing waiting for him in the dark were a few of the stray dogs. When they noticed him, they wagged their tails. He walked into the courtyard, looked at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s old room out of habit, then went to the kitchen. He heated up yesterday¡¯s leftovers to fill his stomach, then went back to his room.

    He sighed.

    I wonder how Sergeant Thunder is doing in that city. He should be fine. If I can¡¯t find that lifespan flower soon, maybe I can buy one with spirit coins.

    Closing his eyes, he started cultivating.

    The next day, he went through his usual routine.

    Tingyu seemed to be acting more normal, though she did save the same spot for him. Chen Feiyuan had epted his fate, and just nced helplessly at Xu Qing sitting where he used to. After the lecture was over, Tingyu didn¡¯t bring up face-washing again. It seemed Grandmaster Bai¡¯s exnation had sunk in.

    Xu Qing noticed that. Bowing his head, he sped hands to Grandmaster Bai and took his leave.

    Outside the tent, he rubbed his sack, within which were the scar-removing crystals, and headed toward the general store where that girl worked.

    Upon nearing, he noticed that there was a group of strangers gathered around the store! They wore unusual clothing, including ck cloaks embroidered with blood-colored suns. However, most noticeable was the somber, deste, and bloodthirsty aura they emanated.

    1. He fought the giant horned anaconda in chapter 7 ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    I don¡¯t usually trante the post-chapter notes from the author, as they¡¯re usually not relevant. But in this case I¡¯m tranting a little story he shared. Enjoy.

    ***

    Author note:

    I¡¯d like to share a true story with all of you. I¡¯m not sure why I still remember this incident to this day. I guess there were a lot of reasons why it was so memorable. I even recall going home and asking my mom and dad for advice¡­.

    It was when I was in fourth grade, and my desk mate was a girl. One morning, she seemed to really have it out for me. I just remember that I said to her, ¡°Oh dear. So-and-so, can you let me borrow your homework for a minute?¡±

    She red at me and snapped, ¡°Don¡¯t call me dear! What would happen if someone overhears and gets the wrong idea?¡± After that, she looked past me to a boy in the front row¡­.

    It¡¯s a true story. Yearster at a ss reunion, I mentioned this story to my old deskmate, and she imed it never happened¡­.

    ***

    My trantion of this humorous section is tweaked slightly so that it makes sense in English, but I think it conveys the thought and feeling. The story is funny but also pretty corny. When I shared the Chinese version with MDB via a text message, she responded like this: ??????

    ***

    Also, many thanks to Kylixxx for the review!

 Chapter 29: The Sorrow of Parting

    Chapter 29: The Sorrow of Parting

    The ck-cloaked men were tall, but their faces were concealed in hoods, making it impossible to make out their features. However, the cold glitter of their eyes was visible, and it made the surrounding scavengers tremble inwardly.

    These ck-cloaked figures seemed indifferent to life in general, as if theypletelycked humanity, and were nothing more than killing machines. As they stood there, the heat of the sixth month seemed to be driven away by them, making the area around the general store sinister and cold.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know who they were, but he quickly learned by listening in to the hushed reactions of the surrounding scavengers.

    ¡°It¡¯s aw enforcement team from the Church of Departure!¡±

    ¡°The Church of Departure¡­ they¡¯re all lunatics! They hardly ever show up at scavenger basecamps. What are they doing here?¡±

    ¡°I heard they came looking for someone. They already searched the other cities and basecamps in the area, so now they¡¯re here.¡±

    Hearing the talk, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he surreptitiously took out his iron skewer. Eyes cold, he observed the general store. Only a momentter, three people walked out.

    First came two people, one tall, one short.

    The tall one stood as straight as a blood-sttered sword. He wore clothing different from thew enforcement team outside. His cloak was blood-red, and was embroidered with a ck sun. Furthermore, his head wasn¡¯t covered, revealing ck hair and the angr face of a young man. The moment he appeared, the ck-cloaked members of thew enforcement dropped to one knee in unison, and bowed their heads.

    This scene caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to narrow. The aura pulsing off of this red-cloaked young man reminded him of the powerful beasts he¡¯d encountered out in the jungle.

    The short individual next to the tall young man was none other than the girl Xu Qing hade to see. She grinned from ear to ear as she sped the hand of the young man next to her.

    Given the age difference between the two of them, he was apparently her older brother. And though his expression was generally cold, when he looked down at the girl, his eyes softened. At the same time, there seemed to be an indelible sadness in his expression. Apparently, he was thinking back to loved ones lost in a catastrophe.

    Behind the two of them was the owner of the general store, who followed obsequiously while quietly offering ttering words.

    Upon seeing all this, Xu Qing put away his iron skewer and patted the bag of crystals, trying to decide what to do.

    Right then, the girl happened to notice him in the crowd.

    She quickly said a few words to the young man next to her, who turned to look at Xu Qing. Then the girl pulled her hand away and ran over.

    The scavengers around Xu Qing edged away from him, allowing the girl to run up to him.

    ¡°My big brother came to get me!¡± she said. Anticipation gleaming in her eyes, she continued, ¡°Do you want toe with us, Big Bro Kid?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    The girl looked disappointed. However, she quickly put a smile back on her face and said, ¡°That¡¯s okay. When I grow up, I¡¯lle back and see you. I told you I was going to pay you back for saving my life, Big Bro Kid. And I will. I¡¯m leaving with my big brother, and he treats me great. He gives me anything I need. Do you have a big brother too?¡±

    The girl kept talking and talking, until her brother cleared his throat.

    ¡°I have to go, Big Bro Kid,¡± the girl said, gazing at Xu Qing. Over the past two months, he was the only person she¡¯d gotten to know. And now she didn¡¯t want to say goodbye.

    Xu Qing pulled out one of the seven-colored crystals and handed it to her. ¡°This stone can get rid of scars. Take it.¡±

    The girl looked surprised, but took the stone. She seemed like she had more to say, but then her brother called to her. With a final look at Xu Qing, she ran to her brother with the crystal in her hands. The ck-cloaked men clustered around them. Looking back at Xu Qing, she waved.

    He waved back. Thinking about her constant optimism and smile, he watched her leave.

    ¡°Please¡­ stay safe,¡± he murmured. Then he turned and went back to his residence.

    Life went on. He cooked by himself. Ate by himself. Cleaned up by himself. Meditated. Went to ss. Just like that, seven days passed.

    He was living now just as he¡¯d lived back in the slums. Furthermore, he hade to the realization that Grandmaster Bai¡­ wasn¡¯t going to stay in the camp forever. That fact had be more than obvious a few days before when Grandmaster Bai¡¯s convoy started to pack up.

    As the grandmaster had mentioned before, he came from the Violet Lands. And from what Xu Qing had heard, the Violet Lands¡­ were in the middle of South Phoenix.

    Early in the morning, Xu Qing arrived at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent, only to realize there were no guards there. Neither were Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu present.

    The only person in the tent was Grandmaster Bai.

    Xu Qing knew what wasing.

    Grandmaster Bai gave a very detailed lecture, and Xu Qing paid very close attention. Time flew by. When it was over, Grandmaster Bai looked at Xu Qing standing there silently, and he sighed.

    ¡°I¡¯m leaving,¡± he said. ¡°Before I go, I want to exin something that you¡¯ll find very helpful in the future. Due to an oath I took, I can¡¯t exin directly. Whether or not you understand what I¡¯m about to tell you will depend on your personal fortune.¡± Grandmaster Bai gave him a meaningful look.

    Xu Qing looked back at him.

    The moment their eyes met, Grandmaster Bai started speaking in a quiet voice.

    ¡°Kid, I want you to think back to the medicinal nts from the lessons I taught to you on the third day, the seventh day, the eleventh day, the fifteenth day, the seventeenth day, and the neenth day. That¡¯s six lessons. Identify the proper nts, and then, using the ratio of 1:2:4, add in the proper amount of seven-leaf clover and refine the mixture at high heat. By doing so, you can produce a pill that everyone in this world needs. A pill equivalent to pure spirit coins. You can concoct¡­ a white bolus!¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide. He was not the same person he was two months before when he first started listening to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lessons. Given everything he¡¯d learned, he knew how valuable pill forms were. Usually, they were kept under the control of the great ns and organizations, and were considered priceless resources. That was especially true¡­ of white boluses, which might as well be considered a currency of their own. That pill form was so valuable it defied description. Normally speaking, it would never be revealed to anyone.

    Someone who could concoct white boluses wouldn¡¯t need a very high cultivation base. They could live a great life just with that ability.

    This was an incredible favor!

    Xu Qing trembled as he looked at Grandmaster Bai. Seeing his white hair and the kindly expression on his face, Xu Qing thought back to everything from the past two months.

    How he had eavesdropped outside the tent, how he had attended ss. How Grandmaster Bai had taught him so attentively. There was so much he wanted to say. So many words of thanks. So much gratitude. And he didn¡¯t want to say farewell.

    But all he could do was incline his head to his teacher, a man who seemed so strict, yet was so kind at heart. sping hands, Xu Qing bowed as deeply as he could.

    ¡°Thank you¡­ Teacher.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder felt like family to him. But Grandmaster Bai felt like a true teacher and Master, and was just as important to Xu Qing.

    Grandmaster Bai looked at Xu Qing¡¯s deep, formal bow, and he smiled. Despite how Xu Qing hid it, the grandmaster could see how emotional he was. He chuckled.

    ¡°Kid, I¡¯m doing this because you¡¯re a good student. And you¡¯re smart. Also, I really hate those old fogies who make rules about giving out pill forms.

    ¡°But sometimes, my status makes it impossible for me to do what I really want to do. This isn¡¯t the first time I¡¯ve helped someone learn the dao of medicine, and even some pill forms. I¡¯ve been all over South Phoenix, and I¡¯ve taught a lot of people. We humans shouldn¡¯t let our medicine skill decline because of matters of status.

    ¡°Finally, there¡¯s one more thing I want to tell you. Remember this¡­. The world is a tavern for living beings. And the timescape is an old guest. As long as we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again. I hope that when we do, you¡¯ll have made something of yourself.¡±

    Grandmaster Bai¡¯s words seemed very profound, especially thest part. In all Xu Qing¡¯s years, this was probably the most meaningful thing he¡¯d ever heard, and hemitted it to heart.

    Later that day as Grandmaster Bai¡¯s caravan left the camp, the grandmaster gave Xu Qing a medicinal codex to study. Xu Qing walked the caravan out of the camp, then watched it go off into the distance. He noticed that Tingyu kept looking over her shoulder at him.

    Soon, the caravan disappeared into the evening.

    Xu Qing stood there for a long time, his shadow growing longer, until finally he went back into the camp.

    For some reason, only a few people leaving made the camp seem very different.

    It didn¡¯t look different. It was still dirty and filled with all kinds of people. There were old folks yelling, kids crying, burly menughing, and women whispering. Under the setting sun, life pulsed.

    But it felt different.

    As Xu Qing walked amidst all that, he headed, not to his residence, but to the general store where the girl used to work. Finding the new assistant there, he purchased some alcohol.

    Then he returned home. That night, he didn¡¯t eat anything.

    He just looked at the empty kitchen, then at the jug of alcohol. Finally, he lifted it and took a drink.

    The hot, spicy liquid poured down his throat and into his stomach, where it seemed to explode into the rest of his body. Before, Xu Qing had never liked the taste of alcohol, but tonight was different.

    He took another drink.

    Then another, and another.

    Soon, his head began to swim. He thought about his six years in the slums. He thought about Sergeant Thunder walking into that city. He thought about Grandmaster Bai leaving with his caravan. He thought about the girl leaving.

    And he especially thought about what the girl had asked him.

    ¡°Do you have a big brother too?¡±

    Xu Qing held the jug of alcohol as he leaned against the wall and looked up at the moon.

    ¡°I do,¡± he murmured. ¡°But I don¡¯t know where he is.¡±

    Outside was the violet-robed old man and his servant, listening in.

    ¡°The world is a tavern for living beings,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°And the timescape is an old guest. As long as we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again.¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    The chapter title is a rtively obscure idiom that literally means ¡°farther than a flying goose can see,¡± which poetically refers to the sorrow of parting.

    Thank you to RoguePrimum and Bhelliom Rahl for the reviews. You guys are awesome!

 Chapter 30: An Unexpected Gift

    Chapter 30: An Unexpected Gift

    It was a dark night with no stars, only a moon faintly visible through the drifting clouds. It was very windy. However, the wind didn¡¯t interfere with the flowing moonlight. The pure white light was like a river flowing into the human world. It fell onto the scavengers, and onto Xu Qing¡¯s courtyard, where two people stood outside his door.

    One was Master Seventh, d in his violet robe, his hands sped behind his back. The moonlight illuminated his wrinkled face as he muttered to himself, apparently trying to make a decision about something.

    To the side, his servant waited patiently.

    As far as the dogs were concerned, these two didn¡¯t even exist. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to them. Things were quiet, except for the faint sound ofughter and shoutinging from the outer ring of the camp.

    There was no more speaking from inside the room, only the sound of breathing exercises. Some time passed, enough for an incense stick to burn.

    Then Master Seventh sighed. Instead of opening the door, he turned to leave. Reaching the gate, he stopped and said, ¡°Give him the identity medallion.¡±

    ¡°What color?¡± the servant asked.

    ¡°The mostmon one. Exin the basics, but no more than that.¡±

    Master Seventh walked out of the courtyard.

    The servant¡¯s eyes narrowed, and his heart pounded. He had been with Master Seventh during the entire time in the scavenger basecamp, and had been there on numerous asions to observe the one called the Kid.

    When Master Seventh talked to Grandmaster Bai about him, the servant knew the boy had an amazing opportunitying. That was why he had asked earlier about giving him an identity medallion. Specifically, that medallion qualified someone to enter Seven Blood Eyes. Anyone who possessed such a medallion could take a qualification assessment, and if sessful, could join the sect.

    There were different colors of medallions. The violet medallions were the highest, and were given to conve disciples. Yellow were the middle rank, and were given to disciples of the inner sect. Last were the white medallions, which were the mostmon, and were given to ordinary disciples.

    The servant had guessed that Master Seventh would bestow a yellow medallion, only to be told to give a white one. Furthermore¡­ he had been instructed not to go into any details. This unusual turn of events not only got him thinking, but also, caused his heart to pound.

    There¡¯s only one exnation. Master Seventh has taken a liking to the Kid. He doesn¡¯t just want to bring him into the sect. He wants¡­ to take him as an apprentice? And so, he wants to test him? The first three highnesses all started out that way. Don¡¯t tell me the Seventh Peak is going to have a fourth sessor apprentice?

    The servant knew exactly how powerful the word ¡®sessor¡¯ was. Whoever became a sessor apprentice to Master Seventh would be the center of attention of all the powerful groups in the entire continent of South Phoenix.

    Then again, that seemed somewhat far-fetched to the servant. After all, Master Seventh hadn¡¯t epted any new apprentices for quite a long time.

    Regardless, the servant knew he needed to pay close attention to this child. With such thoughts on his mind, he took a deep breath, gathered his thoughts, and then knocked on Xu Qing¡¯s door. When the thudding sound rang out in the room, the sound of breathing exercises ceased. A smile appeared at the corner of the servant¡¯s mouth, and then he faded from view. Astonishingly, when he reappeared, he was on the back side of the structure!

    In the back wall of the room was a hole, dug out over the course of time and covered over with removable bricks.

    ***

    Xu Qing had just crawled out through the hole in the back wall, and had been nning to go around the side of the house and see who was knocking. However, before he could do anything, the servant appeared.

    Xu Qing stopped moving and looked at the figure. His heart sank. In front of him was a middle-aged man in a long gray robe. He had ordinary facial features but an eye-catching pentagram tattoo on his forehead. The tattoo glittered with peaceful light that caused the glow of the moon to ripple and distort.

    The man emanated such pressure that Xu Qing found himself gasping for breath. However, he still grabbed his iron skewer with his right hand and pulled out some poison powder with his left.

    The man¡¯s sudden arrival was bizarre, to say the least, and from what Xu Qing could tell, the man was far, far stronger than the scarred girl¡¯s brother from a few days before. That was especially true of his gaze, which caused Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and blood to tremble. It was as if his body was screaming at him that this person standing in front of him was an extremely dangerous threat!

    Xu Qing realized exactly what his body was telling him, and waspletely on guard. At the same time, he prepared himself to take action.

    He had long since thought through numerous scenarios in which he suddenly faced dangerous circumstances. And most dangerous of them all was a person who could slip past the dogs without them being alerted. Narrowing his eyes, he slowly backed away.

    ***

    ¡°I have no evil intentions,¡± the servant said, smiling as he eyed the violent, wolf-pup-like Kid. He also realized that the hole in the wall was a backup n the Kid had in ce for emergencies.

    He¡¯s prepared for situations like this, and doesn¡¯t get flustered when unexpected things happen. Also, he¡¯s ready for a fight. No wonder Master Seventh has taken a liking to him.

    The servant thought back to Xu Qing slitting Horsefour¡¯s throat, and killing Fatmountain. Eyes shining with admiration, he pulled out a white identity medallion and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    ***

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t attempt to catch it. Instead, he jumped backward while simultaneously tossing out a handful of poison powder and then chucking two daggers out in front of him. His eyes went wide when both daggers flew harmlessly through the gray-robed man and hit the wall behind him. As for the poison powder, it also went through the man, and slowly drifted to the ground.

    Xu Qing¡¯s nerves grew even more taut, and he prepared to flee.

    However, the gray-robed man just smiled and began to fade from existence.

    It started with his legs, then his torso. As his head disappeared, he said, ¡°Kid, someone wanted me to give you that identity medallion. It qualifies you to enter Seven Blood Eyes. There¡¯s a map on the back. You can go to any of the cities owned by the sect. Just show the medallion and you¡¯ll be given a one-time free teleportation to the sect headquarters.¡±

    Then the man vanished as if he¡¯d never been there to begin with. Xu Qing, meanwhile, just stood there quietly for a long time. He could sense how powerful the man had been, and how weak he himself was.

    Finally, he walked forward, retrieved his daggers, and then looked down at the identity medallion.

    It was the color white, and the front side was carved withplicated decorative designs. As it reflected the moonlight, it seemed both profound and simplistic at the same time.

    Xu Qing put on one of his fighting gauntlets to flip the medallion over. On the back was a map filled with hundreds of raised dots that represented cities.

    Seven Blood Eyes¡­.

    Sergeant Thunder had mentioned Seven Blood Eyes to him, and he knew they were one of thergest and most ruthless organizations in South Phoenix. Countless people attempted to join their numbers every year. However, the Seven Blood Eyes was very strict about who they let in. And they most certainly did not let just anyone through the doors. First, you needed an identity medallion, which of course, was not somethingmonly handed out.

    Xu Qing had no idea why he¡¯d been given one. He didn¡¯t know that man in gray, and also didn¡¯t know if the medallion was legitimate. After mulling the matter over, he decided that, given how terrifyingly powerful the man in gray was, it seemed unlikely he had been ying some prank. In all likelihood, the medallion was real.

    But why did he give it to me?

    Xu Qing had no idea, but it wasn¡¯t lost on him what the man had called him. The term ¡®Kid¡¯ had differentyers of meaning. Though it was amon noun that could be used on any young person, it had a more specific usage in this scavenger basecamp. Here, only Xu Qing was called the Kid. The fact that the man used his scavenger nickname indicated he knew something about Xu Qing. Also, he¡¯d mentioned that ¡®someone¡¯ wanted Xu Qing to have the identity medallion. That meant the gray-robed man was working with someone else, and that person was probably of a higher rank.

    Don¡¯t tell me it was Grandmaster Bai?

    Xu Qing looked down at the medallion for a long moment, then finally picked it up.

    The first glimmers of dawn were now visible. Xu Qing covered up the hole in the back wall, then went to feed the dogs. So far the dogs hadn¡¯t been any help to him, but feeding them had be something of a habit over time.

    As he saw them jostling for food, he was about to leave to listen to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lecture when he suddenly stopped in ce, then sat down.

    Yet another habit¡­.

    So he sat there until the sun was high and bright in the sky. Only then did he walk out of the courtyard to stroll through the camp.

    Though he knew the camp well, right now it seemed somewhat unfamiliar. Neither Crucifix nor Graceful Raptor had been back in a while. After walking around a bit, he decided to go visit hisboratory in the canyon. Though the forbidden region was a dangerous ce, it also held a lot of memories. Besides, he figured he might as well take a shot at concocting a white bolus, and so, he made his way out of the camp. Before he stepped out of it, though, he heard someone calling out to him.

    ¡°Kid. Kid!¡±

    He recognized the voice. Turning, he saw an old man with a full head of white hair running toward him.

    He was one of the scavengers Xu Qing knew. No one knew his real name, and everyone called him Ol¡¯ Stony. He was one of the handful of people Xu Qing had saved when carrying Sergeant Thunder back to the camp on his back. Later on, the man hade to buy insurance from Xu Qing, just like Bonede did.

    ¡°Hey, Kid!¡± the old man said excitedly. ¡°I got a big job!¡±

    He thenunched into an exnation. Somehow, Ol¡¯ Stony had convinced the newly arrived group of young men and women to hire him as a guide. They wanted to go to the templeplex in the forbidden region. Before going on the trip, he wanted to buy insurance.

    ¡°Same deal as before, okay?¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Five white boluses, and if I don¡¯t get back in a week, then youe rescue me. Alright, Kid?¡±

    ¡°A week?¡± Xu Qing said, surprised.

    Ol¡¯ Stony sighed. ¡°Yeah. Those spoiled brats from the Violet Lands are dead set on staying in there a week. They¡¯re paying me really well, so I¡¯m going to risk it. After this mission, I¡¯m going to retire.¡±

    As a longtime scavenger, Ol¡¯ Stony knew that staying in the forbidden region that long was tremendously risky. And the difficulties with mutagen would be even more problematic. But the payment was high enough that he could finally buy a residency permit for a city. Thus, he hade to Xu Qing with enough white boluses to buy insurance.

    Xu Qing frowned. He had no interest in continuing with the ¡®insurance¡¯ arrangement, and right now, he wanted to focus on researching white boluses. However, that was when he noticed Ol¡¯ Stony¡¯s look of anticipation, and his white hair. It reminded Xu Qing of Sergeant Thunder. A momentter, he nodded.

    ¡°This¡¯ll be thest time,¡± he said.

    After Ol¡¯ Stony gratefully handed over the white boluses, Xu Qing ran out of the camp toward the forbidden region.

    ***

    As it turned out, the Fog of Confusion had indeed risen up in onerge section of the forbidden region. And it was spreading¡­.

    Outside of the fog, near the Poisonous Dragon Pond area, a terrified scavenger hid inside a tree crevice, shaking from fear.

    In the area were four figures, their eyes icy cold as they searched for someone.

    The fog¡¯sing!! All I have to do is hold on long enough for the Kid toe save me!

    The person hiding in the tree crevice was none other than Bonede, the very first scavenger to buy insurance from Xu Qing.

    ***

    Xu Qing, who had just entered the jungle, stopped in ce.

    The fog¡¯sing.

    He could sense his shadow twisting and rippling as the wisps of fog became clearer and clearer up ahead.

    He hesitated briefly, then hurried forward through the jungle. He still wanted to get to hisboratory in the canyon, and knew that with the help of his shadow, he would have plenty of time to reach it.

    The truth was that though the Fog of Confusion was dangerous, that applied to mutant beasts as well. Therefore, traveling through it was quite safe for him. Of course, that was all assuming he didn¡¯t get lost, and the mutagen didn¡¯t get too intense.

    Xu Qing sped up as he moved through the jungle.

    Two hourster, the fog seemed to be getting closer, and Xu Qing reached the marsh with the nightlizard skin.

    Standing next to a big tree, he looked north.

    That¡¯s where the Poisonous Dragon Pond is¡­

    He had heard a bit about that area, mostly from Bonede. And that was because every time the man bought insurance, he designated the rescue location as the Poisonous Dragon Pond.

    After thinking about the matter, Xu Qing remembered that Bonede had actually bought insurance from him only two days ago.

    Although the insurance time limit hadn¡¯t been reached, since the fog had arisen, he decided he might as well go in and check. With those thoughts on his mind, he sped into motion, leaping through the treetops toward the Poisonous Dragon Pond.

    As he neared, his eyes narrowed, and his expression turned into one of vignce. He also started moving more stealthily.

    He saw someone up ahead.

    It was a man in a ck leather jerkin, with a vicious mask on his face. In his hand he held a long sword that glittered brightly as he searched the area for something. He pulsed with extraordinary spirit power fluctuations, reminding Xu Qing of the Squad Bloodshadow member he had fought some time ago, mecrow.

    Xu Qing watched him for a moment, then went around him. However, not long after that, he saw a second person dressed the same, and with a simr cultivation base.

    They¡¯re not scavengers.

    Maintaining full caution, he continued to circle the area until¡­ he saw Bonede!

 Chapter 31: He Bought Insurance from Me

    Chapter 31: He Bought Insurance from Me

    Bonede was unconscious, his hands and feet bound. He was currently being carried on the shoulder of a burly man.

    Next to the burly man was a hunch-backed old man in a ck leather jerkin. Perhaps because of his back, the man didn¡¯t bother wearing a mask. He had messy gray hair, a face full of wrinkles, and cold eyes. All-in-all, he had a somber and deste air. The fluctuations he emanated made it obvious he was past the level of Sergeant Thunder and Captain Bloodshadow; he was in the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

    Xu Qing had never seen someone with this kind of cultivation base in the scavenger basecamp.

    As Xu Qing looked on, the man holding Bonede growled, ¡°Chief, this fog ising at the worst time. What do we do about the other meat treasures?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all the fault of this meat treasure,¡° said the old man, ring at the unconscious Bonede. ¡°We wasted a lot of time figuring out where he was hiding. Call everyone back here. We need to wait for this fog to disperse, then we can find the other meat treasures.¡±

    ¡°What is the big boss thinking?¡± the burly man grumbled. ¡°Why can¡¯t we just capture people in the basecamp? Why do we have to wait until theye to the forbidden region to grab them?¡±

    The old man snorted coldly. ¡°The boss likes slow and steady profit. That¡¯s something your pig brain can¡¯t understand. If we started grabbing people right in the camp, how long do you think it would be before people stopped camping there?¡±

    The burly man didn¡¯t seem convinced, but also didn¡¯t argue. Taking out a whistle, he blew it, and before long, two other ck-garbed men hurried to them.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t take any action. He just crouched in the treetop watching coldly.

    After confirming that there were only four people in this group, and that they were getting ready to leave, Xu Qing nced at the unconscious Bonede.

    If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t stumbled onto this scene, if Bonede hadn¡¯t purchased insurance, or if it had been outside of the jungle, then Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have batted an eyelid. He wasn¡¯t a saint, after all, and didn¡¯t want to waste energy going around saving people.

    But he did have his principles. If someone bought insurance from him, then it was his job to see them safely out of the forbidden region. What happened to them afterward wasn¡¯t his concern.

    Xu Qing suddenly shot into motion, leaving behind a streak of afterimages as he headed with arrow-like speed toward the burly man and Bonede.

    Because he had been concealed so perfectly, and because of his incredible speed, only the old man sensed him. The burly man and the other two had no idea he wasing.

    The old man spun and waved his right hand, causing numerous ice des to gather and shoot up. However, he was too slow.

    By the time the ice des shot over, Xu Qing was at the burly man, his hair whipping around him, the sharp de of his dagger glinting, his eyes radiating killing intent.

    His dagger shed through the burly man¡¯s throat. And though the man was in the fifth level of Qi Condensation, he had no opportunity to fight back. He didn¡¯t even have a chance to scream before his head tumbled through the air.

    Blood sprayed everywhere!

    Bonede began to fall along with the corpse, but Xu Qing grabbed him by his clothes and bounded away into the jungle. Tossing Bonede off into the bushes, Xu Qing turned with cold eyes to face the three surviving enemies.

    The burly man¡¯s head and corpse, as well as the old man¡¯s ice des, were only now hitting the ground.

    Everything went quiet. It was a shocking scene, and both the old man and his twopanions were deeply shaken as they looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°It¡¯s the Kid!¡± one of the masked men in ck said, his eyes wide.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± the old man shouted.

    The masked man, realizing he¡¯d slipped up, kept his mouth shut.

    Xu Qing looked closely at the three of them. What had been said so far was already very revealing.

    Looking grimly at Xu Qing, the old man said, ¡°This has nothing to do with you, Kid. Get out of here, and I can pretend we never saw you.¡±

    A breeze picked up, causing Xu Qing¡¯s bangs to drift. Then it reached the old man and hispanions, stirring some dead, crackling leaves along the way. With the breeze, the fog seemed to swell.

    Xu Qing simply stood in ce, not saying a word.

    Bonede was awake, but was feigning unconsciousness. When he heard the old man¡¯s words, he suddenly got very nervous that Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t continue to help him. Then he realized that if he dragged Xu Qing into the matter, it would force his hand, and give him only one option. Opening his eyes, he shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him, Kid! They work for the camp owner. A lot of the scavengers who have gone missing through the years were captured by him and sold to caravans to be turned into living treasures! It¡¯s the camp owner¡¯s biggest secret!¡±

    The ck-garbed old man narrowed his eyes, looked at Xu Qing, and said, ¡°This is yourst chance to mind your own business.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored Bonede. Whatever was the cause of this situation, it had nothing to do with him. To Xu Qing, everything was very in and simple. If someone bought insurance from him, he would get them out of the forbidden region. What happened after that didn¡¯t matter.

    ¡°He bought insurance from me,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    The old man¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and a cruel smile yed out on his face. Then he lifted both of his hands, and a glowing ring of red light appeared beneath his feet. Wind whipped inside the ring, slowly transforming into an extraordinary tornado.

    ¡°Youck experience, Kid. You gave me too much time. So¡­ now you can die.¡±

    He threw his hands out in front of him, and the tornado grewrger. Now it was possible to see that it was made up of countless blood-colored ice des. At the same time, the other two ck-garbed men grinned viciously and rushed toward Xu Qing from either side.

    A look of despair appeared on Bonede¡¯s face.

    In contrast, Xu Qing looked as calm as ever. As the two figures closed in from either side, and as the tornado of ice des grew evenrger, he quietly said, ¡°I should thank you.¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the two ck-garbed men suddenly stopped in ce.

    Their skin started to turn dark, and terror filled their faces as streams of ck blood oozed out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    Both had been poisoned, and were now incapable of breathing. Their terror deepened, and instinct urged them to flee.

    However, they took no more than a few steps before both coughed up huge mouthfuls of ck blood. Then they staggered and fell, their bodies twitching, their expressions filled with agony as they let out torturous screams. Then they died.

    Bonede was shocked to the core, and the old man unleashing the magical attack was simrly stunned, so much so that his tornado destabilized. Then his eyes started bleeding ck blood.

    ¡°You¡­¡± he said, his face falling. He couldn¡¯t possibly finish his magical technique, so he shoved his hands out, causing the ice des to explode prematurely.

    Thanks to his shaken state, the explosion wasn¡¯t very well-controlled, and Xu Qing easily avoided the attack. Then he watched as the old man turned and ran in the opposite direction.

    As the man ran, he pulled out a medicinal pill and consumed it. Xu Qing did nothing. As Bonede looked on in terror, Xu Qing just counted quietly.

    ¡°One. Two. Three.¡±

    The moment he said ¡°three,¡± the old man vomited ck blood that contained rotting chunks of internal organs.

    He staggered, his face pale, but he didn¡¯t fall. From the look of it, he still had some energy to flee.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing frowned and burst into motion after the old man. The old man looked back despairingly as Xu Qingunched a blow. The energy of his fist attack created the vicious face of a goblin, grinning fiercely as it bore down on the old man.

    SLAM!

    The old man shook violently as his clothing was ripped to shreds and his internal organs shattered. He was dead.

    His corpsended on the ground, the chest sunken in, the shattered flesh and bone deformed into the face of a goblin. It was truly a ghastly sight.

    Theoretically speaking, once the seven types of poison powderbine in the wind, it should kill the victims within a few breaths of time. But he survived¡­. It seems I have some room for improvement.

    Ignoring the terrified Bonede, Xu Qing went to collect his spoils of battle. Then he sprinkled Corpse-Ravaging Powder on the three bodies.

    Hissing and popping sounds filled the jungle as the corpses turned into pools of blood.

    With those things done, Xu Qing looked at Bonede. Bonede was struck to the core with fear from everything he¡¯d seen Xu Qing do. In fact, Xu Qing was the most terrifying entity in the world as far as he was concerned.

    And when Xu Qing looked at him, he shook from head to toe.

    Then, as he shook, he suddenly noticed that the skin on his hand was turning green. He nearly passed out.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Kid, I-I¡­ I got poisoned!¡±

    ¡°The wind in this area is filled with my poisons,¡± Xu Qing exined calmly.

    ¡°Antidote! I need an antidote¡­.¡± Bonede felt pain building up inside of him.

    ¡°There are no antidotes for my poisons.¡± Xu Qing looked at the Fog of Confusion, which was getting ever-closer, and then he looked at the despairing Bonede. ¡°I came to save you because you bought my insurance. I¡¯m not someone you can manipte with petty tricks.¡±

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Kid, I¡¯m sorry. Really, it was my mistake. This hurts so bad! Look, I¡¯m turning green¡­.¡±

    Bonede trembled as he held his hands up. They were already turning greenish-ck, which had happened to the two men in ck garb, just before they started bleeding from all their orifices. Bonede couldn¡¯t have been more terrified.

    Looking at him coldly, Xu Qing waved his hand, sending a package of medicinal powder over.

    Bonede grabbed it and dumped the entire thing into his mouth. Soon the green color began to fade, and yet, his face started to swell.

    ¡°What did you give me?¡± he said, feeling his face. ¡°I¡¯m swelling up. It feels numb¡­.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down at him.

    ¡°That was also poison.¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Hey everyone, this is thest day for this novel to be in Sneak Peek. Tomorrow is the publicunch! Make sure to check out the livestream starting at 12:30 Pacific. I¡¯ll be sharing some of my favoritements from the first 31 chapters, having some cool giveaways, and will also have a guest that you¡¯ll not want to miss!

    Thanks to everyone who¡¯s beenmenting. I recognize some of you from over the years, others are new to me. Either way, I appreciate all thements and do my best to read as many as I can and interact with them as well.

    I want to thank all of you who left reviews. I¡¯ve really been blown away! We currently have more reviews than any of the other new releases, and we aren¡¯t even public yet! Speaking of which¡­ are there any of you out there who have a moment to add another review to the mix? I will definitely give you a shoutout. We have a chance here to absolutely smash any previous record for number of reviews on the day of publicunch!!! Let¡¯s do it!!!

    Speaking of which, thank you Zhadar for the review!

    Okay everyone, brace yourselves for a BIG mass release of chapters throughout the day tomorrow!

 Chapter 32: Life to the Left, Death to the Right

    Chapter 32: Life to the Left, Death to the Right

    ¡°Also¡­ also p-poison?¡± Bonede stammered, his eyes wide with despair. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but before he could, he passed out.

    That was when the Fog of Confusion rolled over them, covering the area and swallowing both Xu Qing and Bonede.

    Four hourster, at a crossroads at the edge of the jungle, Bonede opened his eyes. His entire body ached, but the first thing he did when he opened his eyes was jump to his feet nervously.

    There were no dangers around, and he didn¡¯t see Xu Qing. He sighed in relief. Then he checked his face and found it wasn¡¯t swollen anymore. It didn¡¯t seem like he was poisoned any longer.

    ¡°I¡¯m not dead?¡± he murmured, his heart pounding at the realization that he¡¯d somehow made it alive out of a seemingly impossible situation. Then he noticed a bamboo slipying off to the side with some text on it.

    ¡°Insurance expired.¡±

    Mixed emotions filled Bonede¡¯s heart as he read the words, including shame at the trick he¡¯d tried to pull earlier. Finally he sighed, sped his hands, and bowed deeply in the direction of the jungle.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Turning around, he saw that there were two paths in front of him. The one on the right led straight back to the basecamp. On the left was a road that would eventually go to the city of Laughing Pines.

    Given there was no one around, he stood there, thinking.

    The camp owner is from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, and they control all the cities around here. Even if I go to Laughing Pines, I doubt I¡¯ll escape the wrath of the camp owner, especially considering the team he sent after me is dead.

    Bonede struggled to make a decision. The easiest way to stay alive would be to go back to the camp andy all the me on the Kid. He could exin that the Kid was the one who killed the camp owner¡¯s subordinates, and that he had nothing to do with it. That idea pricked his conscience, as the Kid had saved him. But after some thought, he made his decision.

    In this chaotic world, the most important thing is to keep on living. You can¡¯t worry about other people! Having reached this point in his train of thought, he quashed his guilt and started running back to the camp.

    However, the moment he started moving, a cold beam of light shot toward him with shocking speed, and in a split second, pierced through his head. With a thump, Bonede fell to the ground, his eyes wide, blood pooling around him. He twitched a few times, and then his view of the world turned dark. And it would remain that way forever.

    He was thoroughly dead.

    Xu Qing stood above the corpse, retrieving his iron skewer.

    He wasn¡¯t interested in getting involved with the camp owner. And he understood human nature, so he hadn¡¯t left the scene. Instead, he waited to see what Bonede would decide to do.

    The path to the left led to life.

    The path to the right led to death.

    Bonede had chosen the path to the right.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing sprinkled Corpse-Ravaging Powder on Bonede¡¯s corpse, then turned and sped off.

    The Fog of Confusion was still present in the jungle, but that didn¡¯t pose an obstacle for Xu Qing. Eventually he reached the canyon with hisboratory. Upon entering the canyon, he heard the faint cry of a wolf, but he ignored it.

    First, he checked to make sure the traps he¡¯d set up before leavingst time hadn¡¯t been sprung. Then he pushed open the door of theboratory and stepped inside.

    It wasn¡¯t very big inside. There was no bed to sleep on, and the walls were covered with a grid of small cabs, within which were various medicinal nts and poison nds. Some of them had already been prepared for use in mixtures. Others werepletely intact. Altogether, there were hundreds of specimens.

    Xu Qing looked around and felt very pleased.

    This was the collection he had built up after he started studying with Grandmaster Bai, and most were things he had personally collected in the forbidden region.

    Poisonous nts made up most of the collection, with only a small portion being medicinal nts.

    Xu Qing inspected everything, then sat down to think.

    Grandmaster Bai had given him the pill form for the white bolus, but it was hidden in the content of his lectures. Xu Qing had taken extensive notes, and also had a very good memory, and had already organized the information from those specific lectures. However¡­ he didn¡¯t have all the medicinal nts he needed to concoct the pill.

    I have no way to make the pill, but I might be able to substitute some other nts with simr qualities to the ones I¡¯m missing.

    He had no idea if it would work, but even if it didn¡¯t, he would learn from the process. Having reached this point in his train of thought, he waved his hand, causing seven or eight medicinal nts to fly out of various cabs andnd in front of him.

    After inspecting them closely, he thought for a bit, then went to the small courtyard behind theboratory. The courtyard had colorful flowers growing everywhere, and also a small patch of dirt where a few medicinal nts were growing. Those nts were the kind that had to be used within a certain period of time after being harvested. After turning this back courtyard into a medicinal garden, he had transnted them here.

    As he stepped into the medicinal garden, he heard the wolf howling again, even more clearly than before.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he harvested three nts from the garden, then went back inside.

    There, he produced a stone basin, within which he began to crush the various ingredients together into a mixture.

    Whether it was picking off leaves, extracting the liquid, or separating flower petals, he worked with great precision, making sure not to add too much or too little of anything. Gradually, the medicinal liquid in the basin turned pitch ck in color.

    I¡¯m missing five kinds of medicinal nts¡­.

    Looking around at the cabs, he considered the matter carefully before gathering the recement ingredients.

    Using the principle of yin-yang prity, he tried to create something that would produce the proper result, but it turned out to be harder than he expected. The night passed, and morning came before he was finally able to produce the mixture he wanted.

    Looking at the ck, viscous liquid in the stone basin, he frowned. It didn¡¯te close to resembling what he expected a white bolus mixture to look like. But given the work he¡¯d put in so far, he wasn¡¯t going to give up now. Gritting his teeth, he took out some seven-leaf clover and added it to the mixture.

    Soon, the medicinal liquid in the basin started bubbling, and it looked like the color might change. But after three breaths of time passed, it went still.

    Looking closely, Xu Qing saw that the liquid was no longer ck, but instead, a brown color.

    Xu Qing hesitated. Rubbing his chest where the violet crystal rested inside, he thought about his resistance to poisons, and finally decided he wasn¡¯t in any danger. Reaching carefully into the basin, he took a small handful of the mixture and rolled it into the shape of a pill. Then he put it close to his nose and inhaled.

    It smelled so revolting and acrid that he didn¡¯t dare to eat it.

    Is it even edible? After some more hesitation, he took the pill out to the medicinal garden.

    Yet again came the howl of the wolf. This time, Xu Qing walked through the medicinal garden and directly toward the source of the howling. Beyond the garden, in a patch of weedy overgrowth, was arge cage made of iron, wood, and vines. Inside the cage was an emaciated ck-scaled wolf.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing, it got to its feet and bared its teeth. However, its eyes shone with terror; clearly, it was afraid of Xu Qing.

    Some time ago when Xu Qing was out in the jungle harvesting nts, this wolf attacked him out of nowhere. Instead of killing it, he¡¯d brought it back here to be a test animal.

    Upon noticing the brown-colored pill Xu Qing held, the wolf started trembling, and edged away from him.

    It did no good. Xu Qing reached into the cage, grabbed the wolf by the neck, and pulled it toward him.

    No facial expression could be seen on Xu Qing as he looked coldly at the trembling wolf. Using his other hand, he took the pill he¡¯d just concocted and put it to the wolf¡¯s lips.

    The ck-scaled wolf shook uncontrobly. Realizing that death shadowed over it, the wolf meekly took the pill and swallowed it.

    A momentter, ck smoke started rising off the wolf, and then it vomited. At the same time, a huge blister formed on its head, which grewrger andrger until it popped loudly. Then the wolf sagged to the ground, gasping for breath.

    Xu Qing frowned, threw a few pieces of meat into the cage, and then went back to theboratory to think.

    Why didn¡¯t it work as expected¡­? Something strange happened when the medicine kicked in. Instead of neutralizing the mutagen, it caused it to converge and then explode.

    After considering the matter, Xu Qing decided it was probably because he didn¡¯t include a medicinal augmentation agent. If he added one, it would probably make the medicine more effective.

    An augmentation agent. What if I used snake venom in the mix?

    He waved his hand, and three different venom nds appeared in front of him. After carefully extracting the venom, he added it to the mixture in the stone basin, causing the liquid to hiss and pop, while green fumes wafted up.

    Seeing the poisonous fumes, Xu Qing waved his hand to fan them outside. Then he set the stone basin off to the side to ferment.

    While waiting, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged to do breathing exercises and cultivate the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Later, as evening fell, Xu Qing checked the medicinal liquid. Pulling out another handful to create a pill, he again went over to the ck-scaled wolf.

    A string of popping sounds rang out, and then Xu Qing returned to theboratory looking dejected. After sitting down to think for a while, he took out apleted white bolus, melted it, and then studied the results.

    In this manner, six days went by in a sh.

    During that time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to anything but his research into white boluses. He¡¯d already used about half of his collection of medicinal nts, and his garden waspletely empty. Furthermore, he¡¯d made more than ten attempts at creating different versions of the white bolus liquid.

    As for the ck-scaled wolf¡­.

    Upon consuming thetest pill, the mutagen within it experienced a rapid influx. That, in turn, caused the spirit power in the area to pour into the wolf, bringing even more mutagen with it. Finally, the wolf exploded into a cloud of blood.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow could absorb mutagen, otherwise the resulting convergence would have inundated him.

    Seeing that final result, Xu Qing felt even more discouraged. That said, he knew that white boluses weren¡¯t easy to make, and that was especially true considering he didn¡¯t have all the right ingredients.

    Even still, he was learning a lot about mixing medicinal ingredients. Every time he tried to make a new version of the mixture, he learned more. Furthermore, the final version of his pill actually did something.

    Unfortunately, what it did was the opposite of what a white bolus did.

    White boluses dispelled mutagen, but the pill Xu Qing made attracted it.

    Looking down at the stone basin, he saw a thin green membrane that was created by adding seven-leaf clovers to the mix. Underneath it was a pitch ck medicinal liquid. The reason for the membrane was that, without it, the liquid would immediately attract mutagen and create a strong convergence.

    That was what had killed the ck-scaled wolf.

    Xu Qing sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Focusing on the fluctuations of his cultivation base, he tried to get rid of any feelings of failure.

    He hadn¡¯t seeded with the medicinal pill, but he had experienced some growth in his cultivation base. Right now, he was at the peak of the fifth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    I should be able to reach the sixth level tonight.

    Taking a deep breath, he stopped thinking about medicinal pills and went all out to achieve a cultivation breakthrough. In the chaotic world he lived in, every additional level of strength led to greater chances of survival.

    That night, when the moon hung high in the sky, rumbling sounds echoed out within Xu Qing.

    These sounds were far louder than anything from before. And despite the fact that he¡¯d assumed there was no more filth within him to extrude, as soon as he reached the breakthrough point, massive amounts of impurities emerged from inside him.

    An unprecedented sense of rity swept through him, and then a roaring sound echoed out from behind him.

    In the past, his fist strikes caused the spectral image of a goblin to appear. This time, a simr image appeared behind him, exceptrger and fiercer. And instead of having a single leg, it had two legs.

    Moreover, this time¡­ the spectral goblin even had a horn!!

    Strictly speaking, it wasn¡¯t actually a goblin, but instead, a hobgoblin!

    The howling of the hobgoblin echoed out into the night, causing the roars of the mutant beasts to cease.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and violet light spilled out into theboratory, as though a bolt of violet lightning had justnded. As the violet light spread out, and the hobgoblin roared, Xu Qing sat there looking profoundly intimidating.

    A momentter, the light faded, and the spectral hobgoblin disappeared.

    Sea and Mountain Incantation. Sixth level!

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to mrnicedonovan, demonfox12, Deov1000, Azura The Immortal God Of Dao, De Kelvin for the reviews. You guys are awesome! Going forward, reviews will be put into the highest sponsor tier chapter so that everyone has a chance to see them. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to review the novel. Er Gen and I really appreciate it!

 Chapter 33: Eternal Darkness

    Chapter 33: Eternal Darkness

    The Sea and Mountain Incantation was an ordinary technique, and the way it separated mutagen from spirit power wasn¡¯t anything special. There were many such techniques throughout the continent of South Phoenix, most of them cultivated by small ns or minor organizations. Even cultivating it to the peak didn¡¯t provide any amazing level of battle prowess. After all, the parts of the technique description that made it sound amazing were mostly exaggerations.

    The saying about goblins can move mountains, hobgoblins can transport seas was a perfect example.

    However, Xu Qing was unleashing power that had never before been seen in the Sea and Mountain Incantation. In fact, not even the person who created it had ever done something like this.

    His fifth-level spectral goblin was actually as strong as what would normally appear in the sixth or seventh level. And today, his sixth-level goblin had already advanced to the form of a spectral hobgoblin. Though it was a young hobgoblin, its power vastly surpassed that of a goblin.

    One could only imagine what Xu Qing¡¯s Sea and Mountain Incantation would be like when he reached the seventh level. Most likely, that hobgoblin wouldpletely transform.

    For most cultivators, the hobgoblin was the end of the line for the Sea and Mountain Incantation. But Xu Qing still had further to go.

    He currently sat in hisboratory, a curious expression on his face. ording to the technique description, the hobgoblin isn¡¯t supposed to appear until the tenth level. And it won¡¯t turn into an adult until reaching the peak level. Given my progress, it¡¯s going to reach adulthood in the seventh level. So what will happen in the eighth? And what about the ninth and tenth, and then the peak level of the technique?

    Feeling full of anticipation, Xu Qing looked down at himself.

    This time, he didn¡¯t do any tests of speed and strength. He could already tell that he was vastly stronger than he¡¯d been in the fifth level. In fact, it was a level of strength that he already found astonishing. It was the same with his speed. From what Xu Qing could tell, he could now move so fast that wind resistance was the only thing he needed to worry about.

    He had to wonder where he stacked up to the strongest people in the scavenger basecamp. One thing he was certain of: even if he had to fight two people who were like that ck-garbed old man, both of whom could unleash magical techniques from the seventh level of Qi Condensation, he could still ughter them. A momentter, he took a deep breath and looked around.

    It was nighttime, and theboratory was dark. However, he could still sense the presence of his shadow.

    His breakthrough had affected his shadow too, allowing it to absorb even more mutagen. Furthermore, their connection was stronger and moreplex.

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the ground as time slipped by. Eventually, the sky grew light, and sunlight filtered down into theboratory. At that point, Xu Qing was able to make out the shape of his shadow. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed.

    The moment he had been waiting for had arrived, as he had just seen his shadow ripple and distort. Then the shadow¡¯s right hand slowly raised.

    Xu Qing took in a deep breath and kept his eyes focused on the shadow. Under his control, the shadow stretched across the floor toward a dark spot across the room. There, the shadow merged into the darkness and then disappeared. Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid, yet he could still sense his connection to the shadow.

    Next, he sent the shadowy hand toward one of the cabs, where it grabbed a medicinal nt. As the shadowy hand touched the nt, the mutagen within it grew more concentrated, and the nt turned greenish-ck. That was when Xu Qing reached the limit of what he could do. His head felt like it was about to explode as he released control, and his shadow snapped back to its original shape.

    A momentter, he looked up. His eyes were bloodshot and his head hurt so badly that he simply closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing.

    Two hourster, he opened his eyes. His headache was gone.

    I can¡¯t really control it very well, he thought, staring at the shadow for a bit.

    He wasn¡¯t in a rush. He knew that sooner orter he would be able to have full control over his shadow. And when that happened, his shadow¡­ would be his most secret trump card.

    After taking some time to rest, he reached out, causing the mutated medicinal nt to fly toward him. Once it was in his hand, he studied it closely.

    This nt mutated just as if the eyes of the god above had opened. Does that mean my shadow can send mutagen into anything it touches?

    Once again, he began to experiment with his shadow. Four hourster, Xu Qing had a much deeper understanding of his shadow. It couldn¡¯t send out mutagen into external objects at any time. It was only when Xu Qing had control of it.

    By using that ability at an unexpected moment, he could definitely kill someone if he caught them off guard. At the same time, he felt just the same as ever that he needed to be wary of his shadow.

    He nced down at his chest to the spot where the violet crystaly hidden inside. From what he could sense, it was only the violet crystal that allowed him to keep the shadow in check.

    Finally, he put down the medicinal nt he¡¯d been studying and looked around at all the little cabs on the wall. He¡¯d eventually tossed everything into that stone basin, and therefore, his collection was almostpletely depleted now.

    Looking at the basin, he sighed.

    On the one hand, he regretted wasting so much of his collection. On the other hand, that ck medicinal liquid had some good uses, and could even be considered a weapon.

    After some more thought, he took the remaining medicinal liquid and rolled it into pills that he covered with a seven-leaf clover membrane. In the end, he had ten pitch-ck pills that were slightly green on the outside.

    ¡°I¡¯ll call them ck boluses,¡± he murmured. Putting the pills away, he left hisboratory and prepared to go harvest some nts and think of a way to capture another ck-scaled wolf. After all, it had worked well to have a wolf as a test animal.

    Leaving the canyon, he headed to the templeplex. However, he didn¡¯t stop when he reached it. Instead, he ran through and continued deeper into the forbidden region. There were a lot more medicinal nts in that area.

    Though he hadn¡¯t gone very far into this area, he had explored it on a number of asions, and had reaped quite a harvest each time.

    Not long after Xu Qing made his way into the depths of the forbidden region, a group of people slowly made their way into the jungle in the periphery behind him.

    There were over a hundred in the group, including both men and women. There were also bodyguards, including five or six men who emanated unusually powerful auras.

    The people being guarded were the very same young men and women who had set up their tents outside of the scavenger basecamp. Apparently, they¡¯de out into the jungle for sightseeing purposes, and they didn¡¯t seem the least bit anxious. In fact, the sound of chatting andughter could be heard from them.

    Their guide was Ol¡¯ Stony, who didn¡¯t have much choice in how the party proceeded. As he led the way, he nced at the carefree young men and women, and grumbled in his heart.

    This is a forbidden region!

    He wanted to speak up, but knew that they wouldn¡¯t listen to him. City people like this thought they understood the dangers of forbidden regions, but the truth was that they had no idea of the terrors there that scavengers knew.

    The city dwellers had learned things in books, or by hearing stories. But the scavengers had experienced things firsthand.

    I just hope everything goes smoothly, and I can finish this mission and finally retire. Then I¡¯ll nevere to a forbidden region ever again.

    Nervous, but on guard, Ol¡¯ Stony continued to lead the group forward.

    Unbeknownst to anyone present, something was happening in the middle of the group. One of the young women, a true beauty with long ck hair, d in a cyan gown, was talking with a fawning young man in a blue jerkin. But at the same time, that young woman was casually scattering some medicinal powder.

    As the wind blew, the powder drifted about, odorless and invisible. That powder was apparently a catalyst of some sort, and it soon provoked a reaction deep in the forbidden region.

    Xu Qing noticed.

    As he was moving along carefully, he suddenly realized that there were a lot less mutant beasts than usual.

    He even spotted an aggressive lizard that was on the same level of strength as the sixth or seventh level of Qi Condensation. Normally, that lizard would have attacked him, but now, ity concealed in a mud pit. Even when Xu Qing got close to it, it didn¡¯t do anything. It almost seemed afraid.

    Xu Qing was on even higher alert than normal as he looked around. Feeling very uneasy, he harvested a medicinal nt then prepared to leave. But before he could, a frigid aura erupted from even deeper in the jungle, spreading out so rapidly the trees started freezing up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. Looking up, he saw numerous transparent jellyfish floating out from the depths of the forbidden region. Six of the jellyfish were gigantic, and they were surrounded by hundreds of smaller jellyfish. All of them floated in the general direction of the templeplex. It was almost as if something there was attracting them. As the group flew over, they noticed Xu Qing below.

    One of therge jellyfish turned in his direction, its mass of eye-covered tentacles writhing. Most of those eyes were open.

    A sensation of crisis exploded within Xu Qing. At the same time, his flesh and blood vibrated as, behind him, the spectral hobgoblin appeared, then looked up and howled noiselessly at the jellyfish.

    Xu Qing looked on, his eyes narrowed. He was no longer the same person he was back in the third level of Qi Condensation, when he first felt the might of a jellyfish like this. Back then, he had been incapable of standing up to it.

    As for the jellyfish, when it saw the howling hobgoblin, it seemed to hesitate.

    Whether it was because of the force of attraction in the templeplex, or the fact that Xu Qing posed a threat, the jellyfish turned and floated away.

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

    Looking around, he thought about how strange this part of the jungle was today, and decided to leave.

    Are they actually going to the templeplex? Or are they going somewhere else? I hope it¡¯s thetter. Otherwise, I¡¯m going to have to go the long way around¡­.

    Looking thoughtful, he proceeded at top speed, bing a streak of light that pierced through the jungle.

    About two hourster, Xu Qing heard rumbling sounds in the distance as he perched atop a tree looking at the distant templeplex. He was only about an hour from theplex, and was close enough that he could just barely see the outline of the buildings there.

    Unfortunately, the circumstance he had been worried about had arisen.

    The group of jellyfish was hovering in the air above the templeplex, where they seemed to be fighting a group of people.

    It was too far to make out any details of who was involved in the fight. After mulling the matter over, he headed carefully toward theplex.

    Meanwhile, in the templeplex itself, Ol¡¯ Stony trembled, his lips quivering as he looked around in despair.

    Bodies littered the ground around him, all of them servants and bodyguards of the group of young men and women.

    Before, the young men and women had been carefree and rxed. But not now. Their faces were pale, and all of them were injured. In their bedraggled state, they looked terrified.

    The surviving bodyguards and servants surrounded them protectively as they desperately tried to fight their way out of theplex.

    They were being constantly attacked by the hundreds of small jellyfish, while further up, the five or six huge jellyfish fought the five middle-aged cultivators who were part of the group.

    Ol¡¯ Stony was in the group trying to break free. Why is this happening? Why is this happening¡­? Everything was going fine¡­.

    Unfortunately, he was old, and he couldn¡¯t move as fast as the others. After only taking a few steps, a jellyfish broke through the bodyguards and rushed toward him. He wasn¡¯t quick enough to evade. A momentter¡­ the jellyfish swept past Ol¡¯ Stony, leaving behind a gaping hole where his heart had been. Then it attacked the young men and women.

    Ol¡¯ Stony fell onto the ground, twitching.

    Blood poured out of his chest, pooling up around him. Blood also filled his mouth and throat, making it impossible for him to say a word.

    I guess¡­ I won¡¯t get that city residence permit¡­.

    Ol¡¯ Stony closed his eyes, and his energy dissipated. Then, his view of the world became eternal darkness.

 Chapter 34: A Chance Encounter

    Chapter 34: A Chance Encounter

    Bodiesy everywhere in the templeplex. Bodyguards. Servants. And a few young men whose understanding of the dangers of the forbidden region came from books alone. They stared up into the sky, their faces filled with the terror they had experienced before dying.

    There were also dead jellyfish.

    Unlike humans, when jellyfish died, they became shapeless gray sludges that flopped to the ground and emanated a noxious stench. They didn¡¯t seem anything like the beautiful, colorful creatures they were in life. They also emanated a powerful level of mutagen that seeped into everything around it.

    The disaster continued.

    As the young men and women desperately fled into the jungle, the jellyfish pursued them, wreaking death and havoc.

    It wasn¡¯t until about two hourster that Xu Qing reached the templeplex. When he looked around at all the corpses, his facial expression didn¡¯t change. He had seen many corpses in his life. He left the dead bodyguards and servants alone, but did collect some of the jellyfish remains to studyter. Whatever possessions remained on the corpses were tainted by the dead jellyfish mutagen, and were thus useless.

    Eventually, Xu Qing stopped next to one corpse in particr. It was Ol¡¯ Stony. His chest had a gaping hole in it, but the blood was already coagting. The man stared up with vacant eyes that still contained a bit of regret.

    Xu Qing sighed.

    He wasn¡¯t a god, so even though Ol¡¯ Stony had bought insurance from him, there was no way he could have saved him from this. That was even more the case considering the Fog of Confusion hadn¡¯t risen up.

    After a quiet moment, Xu Qing knelt and closed Ol¡¯ Stony¡¯s eyes. Then he buried him. He didn¡¯t bother with a gravestone. As Sergeant Thunder had said, scavengers didn¡¯t have family, and thus, there was no need for any ceremony. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That was the life of scavengers. They struggled to survive in a chaotic world, and after they died¡­ being able to rest in peace was enough. It was sad, but that was how most scavengers ended up.

    Standing in front of where he¡¯d buried Ol¡¯ Stony, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the basecamp and thought about his life recently.

    It had already been four months since he arrived at the camp.

    Captain Bloodshadow was dead. mecrow was dead. Fatmountain and Horsefour were dead. Savage Ghost was dead. Bonede was dead. Ol¡¯ Stony was dead. Sergeant Thunder had retired. And there were many other scavengers who had died during that time.

    It was a brutal, chaotic world in which human life wasn¡¯t worth much.

    The only way to keep on living is to get even stronger.

    Expression turning cold, he turned and left.

    In the fading evening light, a wind blew, rustling his clothing. It was a cold sound, and it grew fainter as he disappeared into the jungle. Despite the light fading, it still worked hard to prate the leafy canopy, as if it sought to shine on Xu Qing as he ran. But he was too fast, and the light couldn¡¯t catch up.

    After moving for some time, Xu Qing suddenly stopped and looked down, a disbelieving gleam in his eyes. Kneeling, he sniffed the air as he looked at one nt in particr, and more specifically, an almost undetectable trace of powder on one of its leaves. If it weren¡¯t for his solid understanding of poisonous nts, and his familiarity with the smells in the forbidden region, he wouldn¡¯t have noticed it. After observing the powder for a moment, he plucked off the leaf and stared at it even more closely.

    I can¡¯t identify every ingredient, but I know it has ageless centipede blood in it!

    His eyes glittered as he thought back to a lecture in which Grandmaster Bai talked about ageless centipede blood.

    It had certain medicinal properties, but was usually used as a catalyst in other medicines. And because it could bebined with other medicinal items to create a substance that attracted beasts, it was an important ingredient to hunters.

    Does this have something to do with those jellyfish going on the move? Narrowing his eyes, he carefully put down the dangerous leaf, then brought out a packet of poison powder.

    After scattering the powder on the leaf with the ageless centipede blood on it, he started moving again, this time in a different direction.

    He had no intention of going in a simr direction as the young men and women Ol¡¯ Stony had been working for. Their affairs had nothing to do with him, and he didn¡¯t want to get involved. Even if they were friends of Chen Feiyuan, he wasn¡¯t duty-bound to help them. Besides, they had experts with them who could fight the giant jellyfish, and as far as Xu Qing was concerned, those experts could be a threat to him as well. Most importantly of all, it seemed like someone in that group had, for some unknown reasons, intentionally provoked the jellyfish.

    After determining where they were, Xu Qing went around them. The sky was dark by the time he reached the canyon and hisboratory. Carefully putting all his newly harvested medicinal nts into storage, he started working on the white bolus project again. Despite having avoided the fleeing young men and women, as the night grew deeper, Xu Qing could still hear the rumbles and booms of their fight. And it was getting closer. He frowned.

    Eventually, when he heard footsteps nearing, he sighed.

    Getting to his feet, he walked out of theboratory and into the moonlight. From the entrance of the canyon, he heard frantic voices.

    ¡°The path leads here!!¡±

    ¡°Everybody hurry. Get inside!¡±

    The voices belonged to a group of bedraggled young people in tattered garments. They looked terrified.

    Behind them were a dozen or so people of the same age, then seven or eight bodyguards, most of them injured to varying degrees.

    In total, they numbered more than twenty. As they ran into the canyon, the bodyguards took up defensive positions by the entrance. Meanwhile, the young men and women breathed sighs of relief and looked around the beautiful canyon. Almost immediately, they noticed Xu Qing standing there outside of hisboratory.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s here!¡±

    The young men and women cried out in rm, and stumbled back, away from Xu Qing. At the same time, three of the bodyguards flew past them and red at Xu Qing with both vignce and killing intent.

    The killing intent caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to turn as cold as ice. Then he looked past the guards to the young men and women. Two of them stood out to him.

    One looked to be a bit older than Xu Qing, perhaps sixteen or seventeen. He was in bad shape, but instead of being flustered like hispanions, he was alert and on guard.

    The other was a pretty young woman whose garment was very dirty. She appeared to be terrified. However, Xu Qing had seen so much in life that, at a single nce, he could tell that her terror was an act.

    Furthermore¡­ that girl wore a set of very clean gloves. Xu Qing, who was already very knowledgeable about working with poison, knew that gloves like that had many uses.

    For instance: scattering medicinal powder.

    Eight bodyguards, all with cultivation bases in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. Everyone else is in the fifth level or lower. They¡¯re organized into three groups. That fellow is the only one with a cultivation base in the seventh level. And that girl¡­ is the one who brought the jellyfish. The experts fighting the big jellyfish aren¡¯t here. They must have led the big jellyfish away from the main group.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s habit to size people up this way. And there was no way that these young men and women could have any idea that all he needed was a single nce to determine so much about them.

    However, the bodyguards were different. They could sense the coldness in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and upon looking at hisboratory behind him, the vignce in their eyes grew stronger.

    Here they were in a forbidden region, where they found a canyon with a workshop in it. It could indicate only one thing; this young person in front of them was familiar with the forbidden region, and probably lived inside of it. And that meant that he was a dangerous person.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist, are your parents around?¡± one guard said. ¡°We have no ill intentions. We were attacked by some mutant beasts and fled here to hide.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll leave at daybreak,¡± said another guard. ¡°Please forgive us for disturbing you.¡±

    The guards were instinctively polite. And their words were a surprise to the young men and women behind them. Sensing that something unusual was going on, they peered at Xu Qing.

    The oldest young man in the group looked at Xu Qing for a moment, and his expression turned serious.

    As for the girl with the gloves, she looked at him suspiciously. Then she nced at hisboratory, and could smell the faint aroma of medicinal nts. That was enough for her to get an idea of what Xu Qing was all about.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing frowned as he looked over the group, then at the canyon entrance. Without saying a word, he walked back toward hisboratory. Doing so, he gave them tacit approval to stay.

    Seeing that, the bodyguards sighed in relief. However, the young men and women all seemed nervous.

    The only exception was the girl with the gloves. Her eyes glittered strangely, and then she spoke in a cautious but seemingly hurt tone.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ you¡¯re so mean! We just want to hide here from the mutant beasts! If we go out there, we¡¯re dead!¡±

    Her voice seemed to provoke sympathy in those who heard her speak, and it caused the young men in the group who liked her to suddenly swell with courage.

    ¡°That¡¯s right! How could you be so cold-blooded?¡±

    ¡°We have no ill intentions. We just want to rest here for a bit.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like he owns the forbidden region! We don¡¯t have to ask his permission!¡±

    A few softly spoken words were all it took to get these people riled up at Xu Qing. They weren¡¯t whipped into a fury, but it was enough that the girl felt pleased with herself. She liked using people, and right now, she wanted to know more about the young man they¡¯d encountered.

    However, that was when a cold light glittered from Xu Qing as his dagger shot out with lightning speed toward the girl.

    Her face fell, but before she could dodge, the dagger passed by her ear, slicing through a lock of hair, and then thumping into the stone behind her. Sparks flew. The shocked young woman¡¯s right hand hung in the air where she¡¯d thrown it up to defend herself. Then she looked at Xu Qing, and saw him ring back at her with the cold, murderous eyes of a wolf. The look in his eyes shook her to the core.

    As for the bodyguards and the other young men and women, they looked simrly astonished. The former became even more vignt than before, while thetter let loose exmations of surprise.

    Giving the girl a hard look, Xu Qing suppressed his killing intent and said, ¡°We met by chance, like patches of drifting duckweed. Don¡¯t push me.¡±

    Then he walked back to hisboratory. He seemed to meld with the moonlight, bing as cold as the night.

    Everyone else in the canyon went silent. During that brief moment, many in the canyon suddenly felt they had faced a danger just as frightening as the jellyfish outside.

    In the silence, Xu Qing entered hisboratory. And then a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the entrance. A small jellyfish had just found them, and had stabbed one of the guards, sucked up his organs, and then entered the canyon.

    And behind it was a whole host of jellyfish, rushing forward.

 Chapter 35: Troubles Bring a Frown

    Chapter 35: Troubles Bring a Frown

    Frowning, Xu Qing turned around.

    Hundreds of jellyfish poured into the canyon toward the group of young people and their bodyguards. The group looked shocked, but they immediately started fighting back. And the bodyguards looked like they were ready to give their lives to stop the onught.

    The young man that had caught Xu Qing¡¯s attention earlier, who was in the seventh level of Qi Condensation, unleashed an attack that sent colorful rays of light toward the enemy.

    Unfortunately, there were just too many jellyfish. What was more, they seemed naturally resistant to magical techniques, significantly reducing the damage they sustained when hit. Worse, they were very fast, had prating attacks, and were nimble. As a result, seven or eight people died just in the initial onught.

    One young man, who had once been decked out in luxurious clothing that was now in shreds, looked to be inplete despair as a jellyfish closed in on him. Scrambling away, he called for help from his seventh-level friend.

    ¡°Young Master Bai, help!¡± [1]

    A colorful ray of light shot past him, dying the jellyfish long enough for the terrified young man to make his way to safety.

    Xu Qing was some distance away from the fighting, but some of the jellyfish had already taken notice of him. Three of them sailed in his direction, ready to pierce him through. His eyes glittered with cold light, and he clenched his right hand into a fist.

    Jumping into motion, he mmed his fist into one of the jellyfish. The creature trembled and, unable to sustain the force of the blow, exploded into bits. Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a second. A dagger appeared in his left hand, and he dashed toward the other two iing jellyfish.

    He was a lot faster than them, and also more agile. In the blink of an eye, he passed them, whereupon both of them split in two.

    The young men and women fighting the other jellyfish saw this, and were so astonished they instinctively headed in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Upon realizing that three of their number had been ughtered, the other jellyfish opened their bizarre eyes and then surged in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    This time, it was a group of ten.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever. Instead of backing up, he charged forward, leaving a blur of afterimages. Then his dagger glittered coldly as he passed one enemy creature after another, leaving behind popping sounds and exploding jellyfish.

    As they died,rge quantities of mutagen spread out, causing the nts and vegetation in the canyon to turn greenish-ck. That included what was in Xu Qing¡¯sboratory. The injured bodyguards were also being affected.

    Seeing his canyon affected in this manner caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to burn with killing intent.

    He started moving again, faster than before, his dagger dancing left and right to ughter jellyfish. However, it didn¡¯t take long before he was frowning as he realized the mutagen was eroding the de of his dagger. And as he continued to fight, the metal started to crumble.

    There was no time for him to feel bad about the dagger. His iron skewer appeared next, and he continued to slice apart jellyfish. At the same time, he started scattering poison powder. The jellyfish were naturally resistant to poison, so it didn¡¯t do much to them, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t give up. After all, his poisons didn¡¯t just kill, they could also neutralize odors.

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing¡¯s weapons weren¡¯t working well. His iron skewer had prating power, but couldn¡¯t slice as well as the dagger. That was when he heard someone call to him from behind.

    ¡°Friend, use my sword!¡±

    A cold streak of light shot toward Xu Qing, and he reached back to grab the sword tossed to him by the young man who¡¯d been called Young Master Bai.

    The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he could sense that it was an extraordinary weapon. When he swung it, a cold glow emanated from the sword. Xu Qing was no swordsman, but the weapon was sharp, and only a momentter, he¡¯d already chopped apart seven or eight jellyfish.

    As the jellyfish corpses piled up, Xu Qing became sttered with their blue blood. Meanwhile, the surviving bodyguards and young people had gathered behind him, and watched the spectacle in shock and disbelief.

    ¡°S-so¡­ so strong!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a body cultivator. But what level is he in? Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s at the peak??¡±

    ¡°Given his spirit power fluctuations, I doubt it. He looks more like he¡¯s in the fifth or sixth level.¡±

    ¡°Cultivation base doesn¡¯t matter. What sticks out about him is how ruthless he is.¡±

    Bodyguards and young people alike were all astonished by Xu Qing¡¯s fighting. Even Young Master Bai seemed surprised. And the suspicious young woman in the group was nervous; given how terrifying Xu Qing was, she stowed any crafty thoughts.

    She sensed the same aura on Xu Qing that some people in her n had that earned them the epithet ¡®monster.¡¯ The monsters in her n were people who had ughtered crowds of enemies, and whenever sheid eyes on them, she felt fear in her heart. And that was exactly the same feeling she experienced with Xu Qing. He was the kind of person she had no interest in provoking.

    Besides, she¡¯d aplished her mission this day. She¡¯d instigated the jellyfish attack. As for whether the people from the Church would get what they wanted from the jellyfish nest, that had nothing to do with her. Things had turned a lot more dangerous than she expected, and she already had her hand on a jade slip in her garment. That jade slip was a talisman treasure, and it would teleport her out of here if necessary.

    That was her emergency backup n. As she hesitated about whether or not to use it, a boom echoed out from the entrance of the canyon as dozens of jellyfish swarmed in.

    That helped her make up her mind. She snapped the teleportation jade slip, and then faded away.

    Mixed emotions appeared on the faces of herpanions as she disappeared.

    Xu Qing kept his focus on the iing jellyfish. After calcting how much time he had to work with, he stood there, his energy and blood surging. Looking at the iing jellyfish, he opened his mouth and unleashed a roar. As his energy and blood raged, and he tapped into Sea and Mountain Incantation, the spectral hobgoblin appeared behind him, and it also roared noiselessly. It was fierce, with a horn on its head, its body pitch ck, as if it had just climbed out of the Yellow Springs. And the violet glitter in its eyes was astonishing to anyone who beheld it.

    Thebined roar of Xu Qing and the hobgoblin caused the iing jellyfish to halt in ce, their eyes wide and staring.

    They weren¡¯t the only ones shocked into immobility. The young men and women behind Xu Qing stood there with pale faces, staring at the image behind him.

    ¡°A projected image of energy and blood!!¡±

    ¡°This¡­ this is¡­ this is the kind of bizarre image that appears only at the peak of body refinement!!¡±

    All of them were shaken to the core. The jellyfish could also sense how fierce Xu Qing was. Furthermore, Xu Qing¡¯s poisons masked the scent of the ageless centipede. After a brief, tense standoff, the jellyfish slowly retreated, exiting the canyon and floating off into the distance.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and looked coldly at the group of young people. And his gaze lingered on the spot where the gloved girl had been moments before.

    Of course, she wasn¡¯t there.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Meanwhile, a few of the young women were so struck with fear by Xu Qing¡¯s gaze that they wept. Truth be told, the baleful aura pulsing off of Xu Qing was quite strong. He stood there in the moonlight, covered in blue blood, his eyes as cold as if he had also just climbed out of the Yellow Springs. Combined with the hobgoblin behind him, he looked like an evil ghost!

    Only Young Master Bai managed to suppress the awe he felt in his heart, and stepped forward with hands sped.

    ¡°Sir, I am Bai Yundong. Many thanks for your assistance, friend. The favor you have shown us will most certainly be repaid in kind.¡± Noting the spot Xu Qing had just eyed, Bai Yundong took a deep breath and added a bit of exnation. ¡°The girl who teleported away was Li Ruolin, whoes from a n that specializes in spell formations. They provided her with a teleportation talisman to make it easier for her to escape deadly situations.¡±

    ¡°The rest of you don¡¯t have something like that?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at Bai Yundong.

    Bai Yundong smiled wryly, and the other young men and women just stood there quietly.

    ¡°We alle from big ns in the Violet Lands. But none of us are from the primary bloodlines in our ns, so we¡¯re more sh than substance.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and tossed the sword back to Bai Yundong. The other young men and women all offered words of thanks. Then Xu Qing looked at Bai Yundong and asked, ¡°Who is Grandmaster Bai to you?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s my grand-uncle,¡± he replied, looking surprised. ¡°You know my grand-uncle?¡± [2]

    Xu Qing gave him a nod but didn¡¯t say anything else, then looked briefly at the canyon entrance before checking how dark the sky was.

    ¡°The mutagen is strong here now,¡± he said. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t stay around. I¡¯ll escort you out.¡±

    With that, he started walking to the canyon entrance. Bai Yundong hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and followed. The other young men and women also seemed to know what was best for them, and did the same.

    Thus, the group left the canyon and sped through the nighttime jungle. Though they had all suffered under the attacks of the jellyfish, they were all cultivators. The deadly experience they had just gone through had helped them transform for the better. No one spoke, they just followed Xu Qing. A few of the young women were physically weaker than the others, but even they gritted their teeth and followed.

    Around daybreak, they were so close to the edge of the jungle they could see the outside world beyond. All the young people were excited, and despite the exhaustion they felt, let out whoops of joy.

    At the same time, Xu Qing looked around vigntly. A momentter, he saw three figures speeding toward them in the sky.

    They were the powerful experts who had guarded the young men and women.

    Xu Qing had guessed right earlier. They had drawn the big jellyfishes away from the group; that much was obvious from the casualties they had suffered. The group of young people immediatelyunched into a spirited recounting of what happened, all of them casting nces at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing kept his guard up, and maintained distance between them, keeping some poison powder hidden in his hand the entire time.

    The three experts didn¡¯t approach him. But they did give him nods of acknowledgment before leading the group onward.

    They seemed to be already close to the outside, but it was still around noon before they officially left the jungle. When the young people were finally out in the open, and could finally be assured that they had survived a deadly ordeal, some of them simply wept.

    Xu Qing looked at them silently.

    Meanwhile, Bai Yundong, who seemed to be a sort of leader among the young people, approached Xu Qing with sped hands.

    ¡°This trip was a spur-of-the-moment decision, so we don¡¯t have much of value on us. That¡¯s not to mention that we lost most of our belongings in the forbidden region. Given how much mutagen we¡¯ve taken in, we need to get to a nearby city and use a teleportation portal to get back to the Violet Lands as quickly as possible. I won¡¯t forget about the kindness you showed us. Please, ept this sword of mine.¡±

    Bai Yundong bowed deeply and then gave Xu Qing his sword.

    Xu Qing watched them leave, then hefted the sharp sword.

    It was a beautiful and refined weapon that glittered with cold light. Though it had been used to ughter numerous jellyfish and was now polluted with mutagen, it hadn¡¯t sustained any damage. Xu Qing could feel the frigid aura of the weapon, and knew right away that it was a high-level prized treasure.

    It was a bit long for his taste, not as convenient to use as a dagger. But it had worked well for him in the heat of the moment. After wrapping it up in some hemp strips to hide its glittering aura, he strapped it to his back.

    ncing up at the sky to check the time, he headed toward the basecamp.

    His current n was to buy a few new daggers, then wait until he was sure the jellyfish were gone before heading back into the forbidden region. Afternoon sunlight streamed down on him as he entered the basecamp. He was only a few steps inside when he frowned. Something about the camp seemed off¡­.

    Too many strangers were about.

    When the surrounding scavengers looked at him, they had odd expressions on their faces. And he even noticed one of the people he had saved in the past, looking at him like he wanted to say something, but hesitating to do so. Despite not speaking, the man used his eyes to indicate that Xu Qing should go to his residence.

    Heart pounding in his chest, Xu Qing started walking faster, while simultaneously looking around. When he reached his residence, he noticed that a lot of people were in the area, looking at him with cold eyes. Given their clothing, Xu Qing realized that all of them were special guards in the employ of the camp owner.

    In the mouth of a nearby alley was the goateed man who worked for the camp owner, standing there with a sinister smile on his face.

    Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, pushed open the courtyard gate, and saw Crucifix sitting there, his face pale as though he¡¯d lost a lot of blood. And next to him, weak and severely injured, was Graceful Raptor.

    The moment Xu Qing entered, the two of them looked up at him.

    Trembling as he wrapped a bandage around himself, Crucifix said, ¡°Kid¡­ something happened to the sarge.¡±

    Talking caused him to cough so badly he spat up some blood.

    The words hit Xu Qing so hard he felt like he¡¯d been struck by lightning.

    His heart started pounding, and he felt himself stiffening up. A bad feeling rose up within him, turning worse and worse by the moment. An iparably baleful aura began to pulse in him, something that he couldn¡¯t control at all, making all warmth in the area turn cold.

    ¡°What happened?¡± he asked, his voice trembling and bone-chillingly cold.

    1. Young Master Bai¡¯s surname is the same as Grandmaster Bai¡¯s. It¡¯s not a verymon surname, so it sticks out. ?

    2. To be clear, this means that Grandmaster Bai is the brother of Bai Yundong¡¯s grandfather. ?

 Chapter 36: Killing with Impunity

    Chapter 36: Killing with Impunity

    Crucifix¡¯s hands were tougher than an ordinary person¡¯s. Because of his years of archery practice, he had many thick calluses. Back during the encounter with the ck-scaled wolves, he had fought for an entire day and night. Yet even then, his hands didn¡¯t shake like they did now. It was impossible to imagine what vicious fighting he had engaged in before Xu Qing arrived.

    He had clearly encountered an enemy he couldn¡¯t deal with. Otherwise, his fingers wouldn¡¯t be in such bad shape, and he wouldn¡¯t be covered in wounds. Simrly, Graceful Raptor¡¯s exhausted state showed that she¡¯d pushed herself to the limit.

    Given what Xu Qing had seen upon entering the camp, including all of the strange faces, therge number of the camp owner¡¯s people, and the goateed man, he already knew who the enemy was.

    Unfortunately, that only made him more uneasy. At his urging, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor exined the situation.

    Many years ago, Sergeant Thunder wasn¡¯t a scavenger, but rather, an ordinary citizen in a distant city. Being a talented person, he eventually ended up as a city guard. That was also when he learned how to practice cultivation. He had earned the favor of the city magistrate, and had also be engaged to his childhood sweetheart.

    Life was good back then. But then a caravan showed up, and everything changed.

    Not even Crucifix and Graceful Raptor knew all the details. They just knew that, some years ago, when Sergeant Thunder got drunk one night, he muttered about how he¡¯d ¡®lost everything.¡¯ His fianc¨¦e died, and in the process of exacting revenge, his cultivation base was crippled. After barely surviving, he fled his hometown and began the painstaking process of restarting his cultivation. That was when he became a scavenger.

    Decades passed until he was an old man with one foot in the grave. The sergeant had long since given up on his old life, and wanted to simply retire. Until¡­.

    He saw a certain person in a caravan that visited the scavenger basecamp. It was the person that had ruined his life, and that he thought he¡¯d killed. Except that person wasn¡¯t dead at all.

    However, Sergeant Thunder chose not to pursue revenge, fearing that he would implicate the people close to him. Instead, he made the difficult decision to hurry off to Laughing Pines.

    Unbeknownst to him, his nemesis was already aware of his existence. Some days ago, the camp owner sent people to Laughing Pines to drag Sergeant Thunder back and give him as a gift to a friend. And that friend was, of course, the very same nemesis Sergeant Thunder had from years ago.

    ¡°One of the camp owner¡¯s people is someone whose life I saved some time ago,¡± Crucifix said through gritted teeth. ¡°When Graceful Raptor and I got back two days ago, he secretly let us know what happened. Of course, as soon as we found out, we tried to rescue the sarge, but failed¡­. While we were at the camp owner¡¯s ce, we saw the sarge¡¯s nemesis. It seems his cultivation base was also damaged years ago. Like the sarge, he managed to rebuild it and make advancement. He¡¯s even beyond the sarge, although not by that much.¡±

    ¡°We did some asking around,¡± Graceful Raptor said quietly, ¡°and found out that the caravan he¡¯s part of is backed by a mysterious organization called Night Dove. It¡¯s a huge group that operates countless caravans throughout South Phoenix, and visits all sorts of scavenger basecamps and small cities. They often do business with camp owners and city magistrates, especially in the trade of¡­ living treasures.¡±

    ¡°Camp owner, caravan¡­.¡± Xu Qing was breathing hard, and his eyes already contained powerful killing intent. He felt like there were mes inside him, burning hotter and hotter, making his eyes bloodshot, and stoking his rage sky high. Turning, he walked toward the gate.

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor immediately looked nervous.

    ¡°Kid,¡± Graceful Raptor said anxiously, ¡°we need to talk about this. We should ally with some other scavengers, as this has to do with all the people going missing over the years. We¡ª¡°

    ¡°No need!¡± Xu Qing said. He reached up and took the long sword off his back.

    The sword became a cold streak of light that shot at top speed toward the courtyard gate, backed with explosive power. The courtyard gate shattered, revealing one of the camp owner¡¯s guards outside eavesdropping.

    The man had a dagger in his hands, and his eyes were wide as he looked down at the sword piercing through his torso. Then he flew back, blood spraying out of his mouth, his expression one of shock.

    The sword was so powerful that, after piercing through the guard, it continued onward toward a nearby alley. There, the goateed man let loose an agonized shriek as the sword plunged into his thigh, impaling him to the ground.

    The two sudden casualties caused silence to reign outside. Then shouting and yelling rose up as the seven or eight camp guards in the area rushed toward the gate.

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor looked stunned as Xu Qing shot like a lightning bolt out of the courtyard.

    The moment he was outside, he grabbed the dagger out of the dead guard¡¯s hands and took a step toward the nearest enemy. Without even looking, he walked past the guard, using the dagger to sh open his throat. Blood sprayed out like a fountain, and yet that blood couldn¡¯tpare to the redness that filled Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. His bloodshot eyes seemed to be looking at Sergeant Thunder in the camp, seeing his nemesis, and shaking inwardly with grief and indignation.

    Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent grew stronger. Spinning, heunched a fist that mmed into the chest of a guard behind him. A boom rang out as blood oozed out of the man¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and his internal organs shattered. Then he flew backward like a kite with its string cut before flopping onto the ground.

    At the same time, three guards charged toward Xu Qing. Of that group, two were in the fifth level and one was in the sixth. But as they neared, Xu Qing waved his right hand, and his iron skewer flew out.

    It pierced one of the men¡¯s skulls. Then Xu Qing bent over, as agile as a cat, and jumped forward, his dagger shing through the other man¡¯s throat as he leaped toward the sixth-level guard.

    CRACK!

    The sixth-level guard reacted fast, putting up a spirit power barrier that blocked the dagger. However, the man wasn¡¯t strong enough to stand up to Xu Qing¡¯s strength. Xu Qing pushed against the barrier, shoving the man backward across the ground until he mmed into the wall behind him. To the shock of the sixth-level guard, the dagger pierced through the spirit power barrier and stabbed into his throat. In fact, the force was so great that the wall behind the man copsed.

    Standing there, Xu Qing slowly turned, his eyes burning with murder.

    The remaining handful of camp guards trembled, their eyes wide. Even though all of them had sixth-level cultivation bases, they slowly backed away from him. The goateed man¡¯s screaming ceased, and his face drained of blood as his anxiety built.

    And the ughter wasn¡¯t over yet.

    Xu Qing lunged forward again, and the terrified camp guards tried to run, but it was toote. Xu Qing was just too fast. With his left hand he punched the head of one of the guards, and it exploded. Then he moved with specter-like agility to appear next to another guard. His dagger shed. Then he moved again, appearing in front of a third guard.

    Trembling, the man let out a desperate howl and jumped forward, wrapping his arms around Xu Qing. Apparently, the man wanted to end this fight in mutual death.

    However, the only thing waiting for him was Xu Qing¡¯s head, which smashed forward. The camp guard¡¯s skull caved in, and he died. Xu Qing took a step back, only to run into another guard.

    The dagger in his hand stabbed backward. Once. Twice. Three times.

    Only when a wall stopped his blows did Xu Qing look around.

    Thumping sounds rang out as all the camp guards in the area dropped to the ground, dead. And none of them had died with corpses intact!

    After killing so many people, blood was sttered everywhere. In thete afternoon sun, it was a truly ghastly sight.

    Sunlight hit Xu Qing, and all the bloodbined made him seem like a devil.

    The ughter here attracted the attention of many of the scavengers living nearby, who stepped out of their residences and stared in shock at the scene.

    ¡°It¡¯s the Kid!¡±

    ¡°How¡­ how is he so strong?¡±

    ¡°All of those bodies are people who work for the camp owner. Is this an insurrection?¡±

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor walked out, supporting each other as they did. When they saw the corpses everywhere, and Xu Qing illuminated in the sun and covered in blood, they were deeply shaken.

    Amidst the uproar, Xu Qing walked toward the trembling goateed man, retrieving his dagger and skewer along the way. Soon, he reached the goateed man and stood above him.

    The goateed man trembled, and sweat poured down his face. Though he was in pain, it couldn¡¯t surpass the terror he felt in his heart. He tried to struggle, but the long sword stabbing through his thigh made it impossible for him to move. Despair in his eyes, he squealed, ¡°Kid, listen to me, you don¡¯t¡ª¡°

    Xu Qing grabbed the hilt of the sword and wrenched the weapon upward.

    It sliced through the goateed man¡¯s leg, into his belly, and out his chin. Blood erupted along with an agonized shriek as the goateed man was split in two.

    With this aplished, Xu Qing stood there with an expressionless face, but surrounded by roiling killing intent. As the sun reflected off the pools of blood, he started walking.

    All the scavengers in front of him trembled and backed away. They had seen vicious acts, but usually it was adults who perpetrated them. And most of the perpetrators were ouws. Xu Qing was only a teenager, and yet had carried out his ughter withplete calmness. Furthermore, it seemed he wasn¡¯t finished. It was truly a rare sight.

    ¡°He¡¯s going¡­ toward the camp owner¡¯s mansion!¡±

    When people realized where he was heading, they let out exmations of shock. All of them were stunned, and without any coordinated agreement, all started walking after Xu Qing. From a distance, it looked like Xu Qing was leading a big group of people to the camp owner¡¯s mansion. As word spread, and more scavengers heard about what was happening, the crowd increased in size.

    Meanwhile, the top experts among the camp guards and caravan strangers were closing in on Xu Qing, ready to kill him.

    Inside the mansion, the camp owner was drinking some tea. At the table with him was an icily arrogant old man wearing a brocade robe. The two of them were chatting.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mister Sun. In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, this matter will be resolved. Even when scavengers act like this, they aren¡¯t on the same level as sect cultivators like us. I¡¯d been nning to groom the Kid a bit further, and possibly rmend him for the sect. But given how stubborn he¡¯s being, it¡¯s probably better to just cut him down.¡±

    The old man in the brocaded robe took a sip of tea, then put the cup down and said, ¡°I¡¯d rather have him alive.¡±

 Chapter 37: Power over Life and Death

    Chapter 37: Power over Life and Death

    As the teacup touched the table, the street outside the camp owner¡¯s mansion filled with blood and corpses!

    Xu Qing moved like a tiger, and wherever he went, blood blossomed. It was a ghastly sight as he ughtered enemies with every step he took. Camp guards blocked the way to the mansion, and more guards rushed toward him from all other directions. At the same time, ten strangers in ck robes appeared, cultivators from the caravan.

    Whether guards or caravan strangers, they all had one target: Xu Qing.

    The wind blew, lifting his hair away from his face as he strapped the unfamiliar sword back on his back and pulled out his dagger. Then, he seemed to be part of the wind itself as he went straight toward a caravan cultivator who was in the sixth level of Qi Condensation.

    The moment they shed, the enemy¡¯s head flew into the air!

    Blood sprayed out as more ck-garbed men and guards advanced.

    Xu Qing looked at the caravan cultivators, and briefly thought back to how it was the same day they arrived that Sergeant Thunder went out to buy food for dinner, and had returned sooner than expected. That must have also been the day the sergeant spotted his nemesis, which was why he ended up leaving the camp earlier than expected.

    Xu Qing said nothing, but his killing intent grew more intense. He moved with even greater speed than before, not even making a pretense of retreating, and just charging forward.

    Some distance away, on the eaves of the mansion, stood two people.

    One was old, the other middle-aged. The old man wore a blue Daoist robe, while the middle-aged man was d in fine garments. The former stood with his hands sped behind his back, calmly watching the fight y out on the street. Thetter sat there with a metal string between his teeth, also closely watching the action. Shockingly, that string was one of Crucifix¡¯s bowstrings.

    Crucifix didn¡¯t use normal bowstrings. And generally speaking, metal strings like that wouldn¡¯t snap easily, yet this man was slowly biting the string to pieces.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± said the middle-aged man. ¡°He¡¯s a body cultivator like me. But it looks like he¡¯s in the sixth level. He should be more fun to deal with than that guy with the crucifix scar.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to handle this?¡± the old man asked calmly. ¡°Or should I?¡±

    Spitting out some saliva-covered bowstring, the middle-aged man grinned viciously and said, ¡°We¡¯re in territory controlled by your Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. And the camp owner is an elder in your sect. Furthermore, do I even need to mention that you¡¯re a newly-appointed elder yourself?¡±

    As the two men conversed, a boom echoed down the street, along with bloodcurdling screams. All eight of the camp guards and ck-garbed men surrounding Xu Qing staggered away from him, blood spraying out of their mouths. All of them had been hit in vital spots, and it only took a moment for them to fall onto the ground. Then Xu Qing stepped out of the ring of corpses and kept moving.

    His fur coat was drenched in blood. His hemp shoes were caked in ck mud. His hair swayed in the wind. And his eyes¡­ were as cold as the eyes of a lone wolf.

    His right hand hung at his side, gripping his dagger, which dripped blood as he walked.

    The eight corpses were in horrific condition, but he hadn¡¯t killed them sadistically. No, he had struck grievous blows to vital spots. He attacked to kill and didn¡¯t waste any movements. Because of that, the scavengers who were watching the scene y out were overwhelmed with shock and horror.

    Not sparing a nce for the corpses, Xu Qing sped onward along the muddy street, his facepletely expressionless and his eyes bloodshot.

    His goal, the camp owner¡¯s mansion, was barely more than 900 meters away.

    As he neared, the surviving dozen or so camp guards and ck-garbed caravan cultivators trembled and backed away from him.

    He started moving faster. But then he looked up at the two figures standing on the eaves.

    They had stronger auras than anyone else he¡¯d killed so far, making them the most dangerous opponents he¡¯d fought. But Xu Qing had known from the beginning that, once he started this ughter¡­ he had to see it through to the end. Furthermore, these people were standing between him and the camp owner¡¯s mansion.

    Therefore, he took a few more steps, extended his hand in the direction of the two men, and then made a beckoning gesture with his fingers.

    ¡°How arrogant!¡± said the old man in the blue robe, his eyes narrowing. Then, wind swirled beneath his feet as he walked off the roof and through the air toward Xu Qing.

    This sight caused the guards, the ck-garbed cultivators, and the scavengers to reel in shock. They all knew that only Foundation Establishment experts could walk on air.

    To them, a Foundation Establishment expert might as well be an immortal in heaven. There were many people who never evenid eyes on someone like that. And any person who reached Foundation Establishment could be the patriarch of a small organization like the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, or the founder of a small n.

    But this blue-robed old man clearly wasn¡¯t a Foundation Establishment expert. He had only just stepped into the eighth level of Qi Condensation. His ability to walk on air was just a trick that had something to do with the wind technique he cultivated. It didn¡¯t give him much of an advantage in battle. Nheless, it was enough to shock the bystanders.

    Xu Qing, on the other hand, didn¡¯t care. The moment his opponent walked toward him through the air, he secretly dispersed a packet of poison powder and then shot forward. He moved so quickly that he left behind a blur of afterimages. And before the old man in blue knew what was happening, he found, to his shock, that Xu Qing was right beneath him.

    Xu Qing unleashed a fist strike, and the spectral hobgoblin appeared, howling noiselessly. The old man in mid-air had no time to avoid the strike, and could only perform a frenzied incantation gesture to throw up a defensive barrier. A boom rang out, and cracks spread out over the barrier. Meanwhile, the old man staggered back under the force of the blow. Then Xu Qing¡¯s ck iron skewer appeared, shing as it shot toward the old man.

    Thump!

    A small shield appeared and blocked the skewer.

    The shield copsed, and the power of the skewer vanished. But behind the destroyed shield, the old man in blue was coughing up blood, and looked to be in very bad shape.

    The old man looked like he was about to speak, but before he could, Xu Qing stamped his right foot down and shot toward him.

    The old man¡¯s pupils constricted with rage as he waved both hands out, causing a wild wind to fill the area. Then he inhaled deeply, and the wind raced into his mouth, causing his face to turn red and the brutal, killing intent in his eyes to surge.

    He was about to exhale when, all of a sudden, his expression flickered, and his eyes bulged. ck patches appeared on his skin, which were a sign of poisoning. He started to tremble.

    ¡°You¡­.¡±

    Before he could say anything else, Xu Qing was upon him. His dagger moved so fast that it turned as red as me, like a soldering iron that shed through the old man¡¯s throat.

    Blood sprayed, and he let out a miserable shriek before Xu Qing grabbed his head with his other hand, and ripped it off the torso!

    It all happened so quickly!

    Then, Xu Qing took the greenish-purple head and threw it toward the eaves, where the shocked middle-aged man was only just standing up. Afterwards, Xu Qing reached out and made the same beckoning gesture as before.

    Everything went quiet.

    The scavengers, the guards, the caravan members, all of them were battered by massive waves of shock, and simply stood there trembling.

    ¡°S-so¡­ so strong¡­.¡±

    ¡°Was that poison¡­? It was so deadly!¡±

    The middle-aged man on the eaves looked down, his heart pounding.

    ¡°Is everyone from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect such trash?¡± he said. ¡°I can¡¯t believe he was trying to show off in the middle of a fight!!¡±

    He knew full well that the old man in blue was no weakling. His wind technique was spectacr. However, his attempt to show off by walking on the air lost him the initiative, and by underestimating his opponent, he failed to detect the poison until he had already inhaled it. In the final analysis, sect cultivators oftencked the ferocity and resourcefulness that scavengers developed naturally in their struggle to survive.

    With such thoughts on his mind, the middle-aged man took out seven or eight packets of poison repellents and antidotes, and consumed them all. Then he gritted his teeth as popping sounds rang out from inside him. He was already tall and sturdy, but now his body bulked up even more as he jumped off the roof eaves and dropped toward Xu Qing like a diving falcon.

    Xu Qing looked up, his eyes hardly visible through his long ck hair. Then he dashed toward his opponent.

    A boom rang out when they shed, and the middle-aged man shook from head to toe as they backed away from each other. A look of astonishment was visible on the middle-aged man¡¯s face, whereas the force of the impact brushed Xu Qing¡¯s hair aside, revealing his bloodthirsty eyes.

    Xu Qing could sense that his opponent was strong, but not as strong as himself. Furthermore, Xu Qing knew that his powers of recovery were far superior. Eyes bursting with killing intent, he gathered his strength and unleashed another punch!

    When body cultivators fought, it was pure brutality. Over and over again they shed, parted, and then shed again.

    Booms filled the street, and roof tiles crumbled to the ground from the resulting shock waves.

    Soon, the middle-aged cultivator was panting, and his face was pale. As he fought, blue veins bulged out on his skin, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with terror and despair.

    In terms of strength and speed, he wasn¡¯t a match for Xu Qing, and his powers of recovery weren¡¯t worth mentioning inparison. After little more than thirty breaths of time passed, his fists exploded into blood and bone. His arms couldn¡¯t sustain the force, and were ripped to shreds. He let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

    Then Xu Qing jumped up and smashed his knee into the man¡¯s head. A crunch could be heard as the sound of crushed bone brought the agonized shrieking to a halt. Then the man was dead.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look around. Eyes surging with killing intent, he stepped over the corpse of the middle-aged man and headed¡­ directly toward the camp owner¡¯s mansion!

    The guards and caravan members outside the mansion had long since been intimidated so badly they lost all courage.

    When they saw Xu Qing approaching, drenched in blood and looking like some sort of devil, they were overwhelmed with the instinct to flee for their lives. It was hard to say who started running first, but hardly a moment passed before they were all gone.

    Under the eyes of the masses of scavengers who had gathered, Xu Qing started moving like the wind toward the mansion gate.

    As he neared, the gate suddenly exploded, and a fist appeared, mming right into Xu Qing. A rumbling sound echoed out as, for the first time, Xu Qing was forced backward. He took three steps, then looked up with cold eyes.

    Walking out of the shattered remnants of the gate was the camp owner, wearing a golden robe, his expression very unsightly. Behind him was a grim old man in a brocade robe. In that old man¡¯s hand was someone that Xu Qing recognized!

    The moment he saw that person, a tremor passed through him, and indescribable emotions surged within his heart.

    It was Sergeant Thunder, struggling to breathe!

 Chapter 38: Total Extermination

    Chapter 38: Total Extermination

    ¡°You don¡¯t know the immensity of heaven and earth, snotty whoreson!¡± growled the camp owner. There was no way he could ever have predicted that his guards would be incapable of dealing with a boy like this. What was worse, only moments ago he had boasted that in the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the fight would be over. Except, that amount of time had not yet passed, and his guards had already been routed. ¡°Those pieces of trash!¡±

    Eyes shing with cold light, the camp owner strode out of the door and headed right toward Xu Qing. As he moved, intense spirit power fluctuations rolled off of him, and his energy and blood erupted with force, causing his muscles to swell beneath his robe. To the onlookers, he looked like a mountain. He also emanated a faint golden light. The camp owner was also a body cultivator!

    What was more, the technique he cultivated wasn¡¯t something low-level like the Sea and Mountain Incantation, but rather, a consummate art from his sect. It was called Dharma of the Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Tapping into all his power, his pace quickened and he became a streak of light as he rushed forward. A momentter, he was right in front of Xu Qing, where heunched a punch. As his fist flew, he glowed with dazzling golden light.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing nced at the gate, where the old man in the brocade robe held Sergeant Thunder. He forced himself to be patient. He knew that if he managed to get the upper hand in this situation, the man would surely use Sergeant Thunder as a hostage.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want that to happen, and the only way to prevent it was to act quickly. So quickly that his opponent didn¡¯t have time to react. Therefore, he clenched his hand into a fist and met the camp owner¡¯s iing blow.

    A boom rang out, and Xu Qing staggered backward seven or eight steps. However, he didn¡¯t move in a straight line backward. Instead, he moved diagonally.

    The sun was behind his back, and his shadow was on the ground in front of him, twitching slightly.

    Meanwhile, the camp owner also retreated a few steps. During the sh, he¡¯d clearly felt how much power Xu Qing was capable of unleashing. Even still, his eyes overflowed with scorn as he once again charged toward Xu Qing, his cultivation base operating at maximum. He spoke no words, and his expression was one of contempt. Yet, when he attacked¡­ he did so with full force. His scornful expression was clearly put on for show. He was the camp owner, after all, and he needed the scavengers to respect him. He might be a member of an important sect, but he couldn¡¯t have the locals looking down on him.

    ¡°Golden Vajra Warrior: First Dharma!¡± he roared. Suddenly his body bulked up even more, and his power and strength skyrocketed.

    The camp owner unleashed a smashing attack, and Xu Qing threw up his hands to defend himself, but kept his head down, making it impossible for the camp owner to see his eyes. At the same time, his shadow twitched even more intensely.

    However, no one noticed that.

    Seeing that Xu Qing had already stood up to two blows, the camp owner, whose cultivation base was already at the peak of the eighth level of Qi Condensation, red with even more killing intent.

    ¡°Golden Vajra Warrior: Second Dharma!¡±

    Yet again, he bulked up, then unleashed another punch toward Xu Qing. As his fist sailed through the air, the golden light grew stronger.

    But before the fistnded, Xu Qing suddenly looked up. The killing intent in his eyes zed as he shifted positions, allowing his shadow to get closer to the old man in the brocade garment, using the movement of his own body to disguise what he was doing with the shadow. Furthermore, because of the position of the sun in the sky, his shadow stretched out very long.

    As Xu Qing looked up, and as the killing intent within him surged, he ignored the camp owner¡¯s fist and jumped straight up.

    That, in turn, allowed his shadow to bridge the gap to the old man in the brocade. The distorted shadow reached out and covered the wrist of the old man¡¯s right arm, which was currently wrapped around Sergeant Thunder!

    The shadow didn¡¯t touch Sergeant Thunder at all!

    This was the reason Xu Qing had positioned himself as carefully as he had.

    Xu Qing roared as he unleashed the gruish power of his shadow.

    The old man¡¯s face fell as he was struck by intense pain and an eruption of mutagen. Instantly, his hand turned greenish-ck.

    The sudden development caused the old man to instinctively release Sergeant Thunder.

    At exactly the same time, Xu Qing let the camp owner¡¯s strikend directly on him. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he burst into motion. Disappearing from the spot in which he stood, he left behind a series of afterimages as he shot forward. His dagger and iron skewer became like shining bolts of lightning.

    As for the old man, his hand was already starting to mutate, so he had no choice but to fall back.

    That gave Xu Qing the opportunity he needed to reach in and grab Sergeant Thunder. Then he threw him forcefully off to the side, to where Crucifix and Graceful Raptor were hiding in the crowd. The two of them leaped out, caught the sergeant, and raced off.

    All of this happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint!

    ¡°Your shadow!!¡± blurted the old man in the brocade. Everything had happened so quickly that he didn¡¯t even have time to react. The camp owner was also shocked at everything Xu Qing had done.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing wiped blood off of his lips and stared coldly at his two opponents. In the light of the evening sun, he looked like a bird of prey as he quietly growled, ¡°Now, it¡¯s my turn.¡±

    He immediately rushed toward the old man in brocade. Xu Qing knew that, if he needed to pick between a body cultivator and a magic cultivator, he should take out thetter first.

    Almost as soon as he started moving, he was already closing in.

    An unsightly expression covered the old man¡¯s face as he flew backward while performing a double-handed incantation gesture. Then he waved his finger, and a mist shot out, transforming into the image of an evil ghost that lunged viciously toward Xu Qing.

    Off to the side, the camp owner howled, golden light surging off of him as he shot toward Xu Qing. Between the two of them, they sent two attacks toward Xu Qing, like vice grips, leaving him no room to evade.

    It was a critical moment, but Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as his energy and blood burst forth. Its power erupted in all directions like a windstorm, while at the same time, the spectral image of the hobgoblin appeared, snarling viciously, its inaudible howl shaking the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hands both formed fists as heunched two strikes at the same time!

    The movement of his fist caused the spectral hobgoblin to split in two, with one part heading toward the camp owner, and the other toward the old man.

    ¡°Energy and blood projection?? That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s¡­.¡±

    The camp owner¡¯s face fell as his fist collided with Xu Qing¡¯s left fist. As the spectral hobgoblin snarled, the golden light around the camp owner faded, and he was sent tumbling backward over twenty meters.

    The old man in the brocade was also shocked. The vicious ghost he¡¯d summoned with his magical technique trembled in fear at the iing hobgoblin. Then the hobgoblin snapped it up, only to keep going toward the old man. A boom rang out as the old man fell back, blood spraying out of his mouth. Luckily for him, he was surrounded by a glowing blue light that prevented him from sustaining any serious injuries. Shockingly, that glowing light came from a paper talisman!

    It was¡­ a talisman treasure!!

    Xu Qing looked a bit pale. Though he was incredibly strong, he was facing a double threat from the camp owner and the old man in brocade. As a result, his internal organs were in chaos.

    He was also coughing up blood. However, he hadn¡¯t lost any of his ruthlessness. What was more, he took advantage of the shock of the camp owner to rush toward the old man, putting all of his strength into his next punch.

    ¡°Looking to die?!¡± the old man said, his face pale, but his eyes filled with venomous hatred.

    Taking a step back, he kept up the barrier created by his talisman treasure, and simultaneously performed another double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, eight evil ghosts appeared.

    Each seemed as strong as the seventh level of Qi Condensation, and pulsed with sinister coldness as they lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with ruthless light as, instead of trying to avoid them, he let them sh into him with their teeth. At the same time, he increased his speed and unleashed a punch.

    A huge boom rang out, and the talisman treasure shook. That said, it was still a talisman treasure. Until it waspletely and utterly drained, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to get past it. On the other hand, it was unlikely that even this old man would have a second talisman treasure. And he had used this one so many times that the calligraphy on its surface was getting hard to see clearly. As Xu Qing battered it, that effect grew more pronounced.

    The old man realized this, and he looked even more worried than before. Realizing how ferocious Xu Qing was, and knowing this was a life-or-death situation, his eyes filled with madness as he performed an incantation gesture and then spat out some blood. That blood transformed into a blood-colored ghost that rushed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s energy and blood were surging, so he didn¡¯t even bother looking at his opponent¡¯s magical technique. Ignoring his injuries, he unleashed another punch!

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder was already in his dying days. But you just couldn¡¯t let him go, could you?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as the spectral hobgoblin threw its head back and howled. Then its fistbined with his as hended his blow.

    The talisman treasure held, but was badly shaken, such that the old man in the brocade staggered backward, blood spraying out his mouth, and his eyes filling with hysteria.

    Feeling like death was looming over him, he howled, ¡°What are you standing around for, Zhang Shiyuan? Let¡¯s attack together!!¡±

    Zhang Shiyuan was the camp owner¡¯s name. Hearing his name being called, the man suppressed his shock and once again charged forward on the offensive.

    Blood seeped out of a neck wound on Xu Qing, and pain pulsed through him, but he ignored it. His energy and blood surged, and his heart overflowed with both fury and madness.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder chose to leave, but you had to keep causing problems! He lived a miserable life, but your heart was set on total extermination!¡±

    Xu Qing seemed almost insane as he unleashed one fist strike after another on the old man¡¯s defensive barrier, all while the spectral hobgoblin howled and joined him in the attack.

    Booms rang out in the scavenger basecamp as the calligraphy on the talisman treasure faded more. Though the defenses still held, the old man still sustained damage from the force of the attack. Indescribable terror filled him as the shadow of death grew stronger. His talisman treasure was especially effective against magical techniques. But he was dealing with a body cultivator whose repeated attacks created a power of resonance. And his already-damaged body wasn¡¯t going to hold out for much longer. As he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, his despair grew.

    He wanted to beg for mercy, but the resonance caused by the fist strikes hammered at him, making it impossible for him to do so. As he trembled, incapable of releasing any more magical techniques, he could only scream inwardly.

    I¡­ I don¡¯t want to die. I¡ª

    Veins bulged on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead, and his eyes were crimson as heunched both fists at the defensive barrier created by the talisman treasure.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    An astonishing boom rang out as the talisman treasure twisted and distorted. It still remained intact, but the old man inside the barrier was shaken so badly his eyes bulged. And at this point, he really couldn¡¯t take any more of this barrage. His eyes exploded, his organs copsed, his flesh and blood were shredded into a paste!

    Having done this, Xu Qing slowly turned around, his breathing in ragged gasps. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he turned andunched a punch to meet the attack of the iing camp owner.

    Xu Qing was sent tumbling back about twenty meters. His numerous wounds opened up again, causing more blood to ssh out. Beneath the evening sun, Xu Qing looked to bepletely drenched in blood.

    Seeing this, the camp owner was shaken to the core.

    He looked at his partner, who had been blown to bits, and then his opponent, who was covered in blood but still standing there ready to attack, his eyes filled with killing intent. A chill ran down his spine.

    At the same time, the surrounding scavengers looked on, also shaken. And as their eyes came to rest on Xu Qing, they seemed¡­ awestruck.

 Chapter 39: A Requiem to the Mortal World

    Chapter 39: A Requiem to the Mortal World

    After a short silence, the camp owner looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Kid, let¡¯s let this matter drop. You saved Sergeant Thunder, and his nemesis is dead. There¡¯s no reason for you and I to fight to the death. Besides, I¡¯m an elder in the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. If you keep fighting with me, you¡¯re basically dering war on my sect. Our patriarch is a Foundation Establishment expert!¡±

    Xu Qing stood there quietly before coughing up a mouthful of blood. Staggering a bit, he reached up as if to wipe away the blood.

    However, that was when the camp owner, who had seemed like he was ready to stop fighting, suddenly rushed forward, eyes shing coldly. He moved even faster than before, the golden light around him erupting with greater intensity than ever as his body seemed to transform into gold.

    ¡°Golden Vajra Warrior: Third Dharma!¡±

    From a distance, golden light seemed to cover the camp owner, and his killing intent burned with unmatchable intensity.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change at all. What was more, the stagger from before instantly disappeared. It was clearly an act. And he hadn¡¯t been raising his hand to wipe the blood from his mouth, but rather, to lift it over his head. He closed his eyes. In his mind, he recalled the image in that temple in which the walking, god-like statue lifted its hand to unleash a saber strike that contained some sort of great dao. Xu Qing had practiced that saber strike countless times, but had never used it inbat. Right now, he had the feeling that he could use it.

    Violet light spilled out, covering him, and circling up to his right hand.

    The statue of the god was gold, but Xu Qing was different.

    As the violet light surged, the camp owner howled and closed in. Then Xu Qing¡¯s right hand dropped in a seemingly casual movement.

    There was nothing spectacr about it, and in fact, it seemedpletely ordinary. Even simple. Yet within that ordinary movement was something profound. Because of that profundity, as the violet light converged on his hand, and as the hand dropped past his head¡­ the image of a saber appeared in it!

    It was a huge, heavenly saber!

    Violet light glittered, recing the sunlight, superseding the golden light, taking over everything. As Xu Qing¡¯s hand fell, that saber fell¡­ and sliced through everything in its path! A sound like a thunderp echoed out, and the ground in the camp shook. A rushing wind swept through the camp, apanied by blinding light.

    The scavengers backed away without even thinking about it.

    As for the camp owner, he had been speeding toward Xu Qing, but now he slowed down, until he came to aplete stop about three meters from Xu Qing. First he looked at Xu Qing, then he looked down at the ground. Beneath him, there was a perfectly straight fissure. It was over twenty meters long, and it stretched much further past where he stood.

    ¡°That saber¡­.¡± he murmured. Blood appeared on his face, stretching from his forehead down to his chin. Then it went to his chest, and toward his dantian region. Blood sprayed out as he splitpletely in two. After the two sides flopped to the ground, silence prevailed.

    The only sounds to be heard were the faint gasps from the incredulous onlookers.

    The setting sun shone on the young man who stood there, blood dripping off the tips of his fingers andnding below, causing ripples to spread out in the pools of blood that filled the street.

    His reflection was hard to see in the blood, but even still, the coldness of his eyes was visible.

    Xu Qing quietly put away his bloody dagger and skewer. He picked up the talisman treasure with its faint calligraphy, then turned and walked toward Crucifix and Graceful Raptor, who likewise had expressions of awe on their faces. Xu Qing took the unconscious Sergeant Thunder into his arms and carried him away.

    Heads bowed, Crucifix and Graceful Raptor followed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow stretched long in the evening sun. It seemed unspeakably mncholy as it moved across the blood-soaked ground.

    The scavengers watched him leave, then turned their attention to the corpses, which were like bloodstains left behind as Xu Qing walked away. Some of the people present thought back to when Xu Qing had fought the giant horned anaconda in the beast trial, and how he had also left behind a streak of blood as he dragged it out of the arena. Those two images seemed tobine into one.

    ¡°Kid!¡± someone yelled. And then the other scavengers started to say the same thing.

    ¡°Kid!!¡±

    ¡°Kid!!!¡±

    Their voices joined, growing louder. Old people, young people, adults. Even the girls in the feather tents. All of them looked at him with fervent admiration as they called his nickname louder and louder. It was¡­ a special salute from the scavengers!

    ***

    The sun had almost set. At the main gate to the basecamp, Xu Qing stopped to shift Sergeant Thunder onto his back, and then looked over his shoulder at Crucifix and Graceful Raptor. They looked back at him with respect and otherplicated feelings. They had an idea what was going to happen next.

    ¡°You¡¯re leaving?¡± Crucifix asked quietly.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I¡¯m going to take Sergeant Thunder on the final leg of his journey. Then I¡¯ll leave this ce.¡±

    Neither Crucifix nor Graceful Raptor said anything.

    It was really only at this point that Xu Qing realized he had to say goodbye. He gave them a deep look, and then nced at the camp where he had spent almost half a year of his life.

    Graceful Raptor took a step forward and straightened his hair. Ignoring the blood soaking him, she gave him a hug. ¡°Take care of yourself.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t push her away. ¡°What about you two?¡± he asked softly.

    ¡°We¡¯re going away. Don¡¯t worry. Crucifix and I can take care of ourselves. We¡¯re strong enough that we can do well at whatever basecamp we end up in.¡± She smiled.

    Crucifix didn¡¯t say anything. He just stepped forward and gave Xu Qing a firm hug.

    With that, Xu Qing walked a few steps, turned and waved, then left the camp and walked toward the forbidden region.

    Crucifix and Graceful Raptor stood there watching him get farther and farther away. When he finally disappeared from sight, Graceful Raptor said, ¡°What do you think, Crucifix? Will we ever see him again? We never even asked his real name.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see him again. And as for names¡­ they aren¡¯t important.¡± Reaching out, he took Graceful Raptor¡¯s hand.

    ***

    Xu Qing carried Sergeant Thunder on his back, just like he had when the old man was injured and he took him out of the forbidden region. In fact, he followed the same path back. Unfortunately, Sergeant Thunder grew less and less heavy, as though the life force in him were draining away. And slowly but surely, an aura of death built up in him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s sorrow grew stronger. He entered the jungle, going deeper and deeper in one specific direction. Eventually, the sun set, and night took hold.

    Because of the energy and lingering killing intent on him, no mutant beast blocked his path. They simply let him pass in his grief.

    About two hourster, a raspy voice spoke from behind him.

    ¡°Kid, I had a dream.¡±

    Sergeant Thunder was awake, and he had an absent-minded look on his face. He didn¡¯t ask Xu Qing where they were, or how they got there. He didn¡¯t ask what happened to him.

    ¡°I dreamed of Taohong. And you.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, and his heart heavy with sorrow. He started walking faster, but did everything possible to keep his gait steady. They were almost there.

    ¡°In the dream, you were just as clever as you are now. You were always first ce in ss.¡± It sounded like Sergeant Thunder wanted tough, but speaking took too much energy. His voice was getting weaker. ¡°It was a really good dream. I can¡¯t hold on much longer, Kid.¡±

    Xu Qing raced forward as fast as he could. He tried to somehow use the powers of his violet crystal to heal Sergeant Thunder, but it didn¡¯t do any good. The old man¡¯s life force just kept slipping away.

    Another hourter, they reached the spot where they¡¯d encountered the Singing.

    Xu Qing put Sergeant Thunder down beneath the same big tree as before. His eyes were red and his nose stung as he looked down at the old man¡¯s wrinkled face.

    ¡°Sarge¡­¡± he said softly.

    As the old man leaned against the tree, his eyes flickered open. They were cloudy and somewhat nk. But a momentter, he realized where he was, and he smiled. There was still some life left in his eyes.

    ¡°Got any liquor, Kid?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and took a jug of alcohol out of his sack. Opening it, he put it to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s lips and helped him take a drink. The sergeant¡¯s eyes shone a bit brighter after he swallowed. It was like the glow of a candle right before it went dark.

    Sergeant Thunder looked up at Xu Qing¡¯s red eyes, and he chuckled. ¡°You don''t need to cry.¡±

    The sergeant seemed to regain a bit of strength, and with Xu Qing¡¯s help, pushed himself up against the tree into a standing position. Then he tried to reach out and tousle Xu Qing¡¯s hair, but couldn¡¯t manage it, and his hand fell back. Xu Qing reached out, grabbed his hand, and put it on his head.

    The old man smiled.

    ¡°You know, I¡¯m actually lucky to have someone with me at a time like this. And I have some alcohol, too. Even better, once I die, there¡¯s someone here to bury me. A lot of people in this world die sad and alone, out in the middle of nowhere, their corpse rotting away in the sun. You know, death isn¡¯t something to be afraid of. What¡¯s really scary is being alone in the moments before you die¡­.¡±

    The light in Sergeant Thunder¡¯s eyes was starting to fade.

    ¡°Kid, help me take onest drink.¡±

    Grief filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart as he carefully put the jug of alcohol up to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s lips. The alcohol spilled out, but didn¡¯t enter his mouth. The sergeant looked over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders, his gaze vacant as he murmured, ¡°Are youing for me, Taohong¡­?¡±

    The alcohol seeped down the sergeant¡¯s garment onto the ground below. He didn¡¯t drink. The light in his eyes went out as his life force dissipated.

    Xu Qing trembled, bowing his head as he lost control of his sorrow. It swept over him from head to toe. He gripped the jug of alcohol so hard his fingers bit into the y surface, but he didn¡¯t notice. A long momentter, he bit his lip, put the jug off to the side, and looked at the old man in front of him. The old man who would never wake up again.

    In his mind, he could see that time in the city ruins when Sergeant Thunder had looked over his shoulder and suddenly said, ¡°Kid. Do you want toe with me?¡±

    Tears seeped out of Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, creating rivulets as they cut through the blood on his face and fell onto his garments. Back in the slums, he had never cried. But right now, he couldn¡¯t control himself.

    He stood there with Sergeant Thunder until the sun rose. Then he buried the old man beneath the tree, along with the jug of alcohol.

    Scavengers didn¡¯t need gravestones, as no one would visit them to mourn.

    But Sergeant Thunder had a gravestone.

    Xu Qing stood in front of it, staring nkly.

    Time passed. Eventually, he reached into his sack and pulled out a small item wrapped in hemp cloth. It was a piece of candy. Putting the candy in his mouth, he leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. The candy was sweet.

    Someone had once told him that, when he felt bad, he should eat this candy, and it would make him feel better.

 Chapter 40: Growing Up

    Chapter 40: Growing Up

    Eventually, the candy melted in his mouth. Sunlight streamed down through the treetops, lingering on his face for a time until it, too, melted down into his soul. As if to assuage his grief.

    Eventually, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked up at the sun in the sky. Then he looked down at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s gravestone. He sighed.

    ¡°Sarge, have a safe journey¡­.¡±

    sping hands, he bowed deeply, then turned and walked away. As he did, he took all his feelings of weakness and buried them in his heart. As for his youthfulness and immaturity, they were buried in the ground with Sergeant Thunder, never to be seen again.

    Fate had given Xu Qing a bit of warmth, but then the world cruelly stole it away. That was just life. He had no choice but to continue walking the path in front of him. Gradually, his gaze again became as sharp as a de, but at the same time, there was something deeper in his eyes.

    Moving quickly, he headed toward the edge of the jungle. As he slipped through the mottled sunlight, there was still a bleakness in him that the brightness couldn¡¯t dispel. As it built, it turned into loneliness.

    Deeper and deeper.

    Colder and colder.

    He was like a wolf pup that had grown up alone in a brutal jungle, and was getting closer and closer to being a true lone wolf.

    A day went by during which he didn¡¯t rest at all. Eventually, he was out of the forbidden region. The area he stepped out into wasn¡¯t connected to the basecamp. He had no ns to go back there. There would definitely be consequences for killing Sergeant Thunder¡¯s nemesis. That man had worked for an organization that operated throughout the continent of South Phoenix. Even though he wasn¡¯t a very important person, they would surely investigate his death. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to gamble on it either way.

    But most important was that he¡¯d killed the camp owner. Xu Qing had heard Sergeant Thunder talk about the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. Night Dove was powerful, but could only be considered an outside force, while the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect was the strongest force in the region. They had connections to dozens of cities and scavenger basecamps, and directly ran many of them.

    What was more, the sect¡¯s patriarch was a Foundation Establishment expert. To the people who lived around here, including the scavengers, Foundation Establishment experts were like immortals. Although few had ever seen one, the awe and might theymanded was enough to strike reverence into the hearts of all. Because of that, Xu Qing knew that since he had killed two of their elders, the sect was going to be enraged at him specifically. There was one simple way to deal with the problem.

    He needed to join an organization that could strike fear into the hearts of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, and ensure that they wouldn¡¯t do anything to him.

    That organization was none other than Seven Blood Eyes. To the local cities and basecamps, the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect was a colossal monster of a group. But to the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, the same could be said about Seven Blood Eyes. Even if the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect was a hundred times more courageous, it wouldn¡¯t dare to provoke Seven Blood Eyes. The best way to resolve this crisis, at least for the moment, was for him to be a disciple of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Therefore, as soon as he was out of the forbidden region, he patted the Seven Blood Eyes identity medallion in his sack, and then looked around with shining eyes.

    He was going to take a trip to Seven Blood Eyes!

    It was located so far away that an ordinary person would waste years of their life walking there. Not only would they have to cross entire mountain ranges, but also, they would face numerous dangers.

    But the identity medallion was going to make things a lot easier. On the back was a map which showed cities controlled by Seven Blood Eyes. All he had to do was take his medallion there, and he would get a one-time free teleportation to the sect headquarters.

    Right now, the nearest city to Xu Qing was Antlerville, which was in the opposite direction as Laughing Pines. Unlike Laughing Pines, you couldn¡¯t just buy a residence permit to live in Antlerville. Instead, you needed a rmendation letter from a Seven Blood Eyes disciple. That was why Sergeant Thunder hadn¡¯t been able to settle down there.

    When that thought crossed his mind, Xu Qing turned to look back at the forbidden region. Then, as the evening stretched out, he headed toward Antlerville.

    It should only take me about three days to get there.

    He had never been to Antlerville, but he was familiar with the name, as it wasn¡¯t very far from the city where he had once lived for six years.

    Two days passed by.

    ***

    Xu Qing¡¯s decision to avoid the basecamp had been the right one.

    There were now dozens of Golden Vajra Warrior Sect disciples there keeping an eye on things. And there were seven or eight who were in the jungle searching for clues. The reason for this was that there were all sorts of people among the scavengers, all with their own goals and ideas. The only way to keep events in the camp a secret would have been to wipe them all out. But news traveled fast, and when the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heard what happened, they were furious. To them, losing two elders was a big matter, especially in terms of face. In essence, it was a provocation, and therefore, they had to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to maintain their prestige.

    Even after two days of waiting, though, Xu Qing never showed up. Of course, the forbidden region was huge, and they had no idea if he actually went inside. And the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect didn¡¯t have enough people to thoroughly search the wilderness.

    It was impossible to stop the spread of rumors, and soon, all of the cities and camps in the area knew about what happened. The fact that the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s search for the culprit wasn¡¯t going anywhere made every member of the sect even angrier.

    At the moment, an angry roar could be hearding from the middle of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. The sect headquarters wasn¡¯t very far from Laughing Pines. It was a very expensive and beautifulplex of buildings built on a mountain, filled with hundreds of disciples and quite a few top experts. As for the angry roar, it came from the grand hall on the very top of the mountain.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t found him?¡±

    Sitting on a throne at the end of the hall was a middle-aged man dressed in a golden robe. He was imposing, and his eyes shed with anger. Given his rage, it was no surprise his spirit power fluctuations weighed down heavily on the others present.

    Currently, there were two people standing in front of him. Both were middle-aged, and wore the same type of golden robe. Their spirit power fluctuations were intense, surpassing that of the camp owner, and they were both frowning.

    ¡°Sect Leader,¡± one of them said, ¡°the wilderness is too big. Why not have the camp guards and scavengers organize a search? If we do that, it shouldn¡¯t take more than three days to find the culprit.¡±

    ¡°What are you, aedian?¡± the sect leader shouted. ¡°Some boy kills two of our elders, drenches our basecamp in blood, and you want to ask help from the guards and scavengers? The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect would lose all face!!¡±

    The other two men held their tongues and said nothing further.

    A momentter, the sect leader took a deep breath and, eyes glittering with killing intent, pointed at his two subordinates.

    ¡°Grand Elder Li. Grand Elder Chen. You¡¯re both at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Condensation. Either of you could kill this ¡®Kid¡¯ without expending any effort.

    ¡°I already sent a message to the patriarch asking for instructions. I requested two of his search talismans for you, so once we get formal permission, you will go out and do whatever you have to do to resolve the issue. I want the Kid¡¯s head brought back to me in twenty-four hours or less!¡±

    The two grand elders epted the orders with very serious looks on their faces.

    Meanwhile, the sect leader¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he gave them each a jade slip. Then, just as they were about to go ask permission from the patriarch, the sound of a cold harrumph echoed out in the hall like thunder. The sound was so powerful it caused the two elders¡¯ minds to reel. Even the sect leader reacted visibly. Then he stood and walked away from the throne as, at the other end of the hall, an old man appeared, wearing a gold robe with a primarily red color scheme.

    The old man was tall and burly, and his face was ruddy. His long, white hair was disheveled, and his eyes crackled as if with lightning. As he entered, spirit power fluctuations rolled out thatpletely surpassed the Qi Condensation level. Wherever he walked, the ground split and cracked beneath him. Furthermore, his aura was so impressive that it created something like a tempest around him. In fact, if one looked closely, they would see that his feet weren¡¯t even touching the ground. He was actually walking on thin air.

    This was not some trick using a wind cultivation technique; he was really walking on air!

    Behind him, it was possible to see the illusory image of an angry vajra warrior, pulsing with so much power that, if it attacked, the entire surrounding hall would be destroyed.

    As soon as this man arrived, the three people in the hall dropped to their knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Our respects, Patriarch!¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior said nothing, but instead strode to the throne and sat down. Then he looked coldly at his three subordinates for a moment before his lightning-like gaze came to rest on the sect leader.

    ¡°Yunwen, did you forget the sect mandate of our Golden Vajra Warrior Sect?¡±

    Sweat broke out on the sect leader¡¯s forehead as he immediately replied,

    ¡°Patriarch, sir, I haven¡¯t forgotten. The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s mandate states that we try not to take action unless necessary. But when we do take action, we use the sharp energy of the golden to strike like a vajra warrior. That¡¯s why I already arranged for these two grand elders to go out and handle the matter.¡±

    ¡°You numbskull!¡± the patriarch raged. ¡°I just looked into the Kid¡¯s background. He rose to prominence out of nowhere recently. As a new member of Squad Thunderbolt, he ughtered a whole host of enemies on his first run into the forbidden region there. Despite being weaker than Squad Bloodshadow, he wiped them out. And he saved a lot of scavengers!

    ¡°He¡¯s proficient in the dao of poison, and even though he¡¯s only in the sixth level of Qi Condensation, he ughtered two of our elders and numerous disciples. Then he got awaypletely unscathed. Now, you can¡¯t even find him.

    ¡°Despite how many people live in that scavenger camp, there have been only two people willing to give information about him. Obviously, people like him!

    ¡°Based on ounts I¡¯ve read in the ancient records throughout the years, when dealing with a person like this, you either work things out with them, or you go all out to kill them.

    ¡°And now you¡¯re nning to send out only two people to get him? A person who¡¯s proficient at winning from a position of weakness? You might as well be sending them to their deaths!¡±

    By the time he finished speaking, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior seemedpletely infuriated. The three subordinates couldn¡¯t do anything but tremble and bow their heads.

    Snorting coldly, the patriarch continued, ¡°I can tell that if you two go out and run into him, he¡¯ll end up killing you both.¡± Looking at the sect leader, he said, ¡°Then you¡¯d get pissed off and go chasing after him, and he¡¯d kill you too. Finally, I would show up, but by that time he¡¯d be long gone. Then, yearster, he¡¯de back and p me to death with a single blow.¡±

    The sect leader was stunned to hear this analysis, and was sweating now more than before. Of course, he didn¡¯t actually think that events would y out like that, but he also didn¡¯t dare to argue with the patriarch. Keeping his head bowed, he simply said, ¡°What should we do, Patriarch?¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked out at the wilderness for a long moment. Then he said, ¡°Send the disciples out to search the area. Have everyone in the cities and scavenger basecamps keep an eye out as well. I¡¯ll give these two elders flight talismans in addition to the search talismans. They can each cover one half of our territory. I¡¯ll join the search too. If anyone finds him, they¡¯re to notify me first. That is the way we can strike like a vajra warrior. It is also the only surefire way to ensure our sect¡¯s prestige is not damaged!¡±

    Shortly thereafter, bells rang in the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    Disciples poured out of the main gates, while at the same time, the patriarch took the grand elders up into the sky.

    In front of him were three glittering paper talismans that indicated a direction to follow. The three symbols turned into three beams of light that shot in different directions. From that point, the patriarch and the grand elders split up.

 Chapter 41: Nets Above and Snares Below

    Chapter 41: Nets Above and Snares Below

    Xu Qing sped through the wilderness for two days. An ordinary person who tried to keep going for that long would quickly fall into exhaustion. But with Xu Qing¡¯s powers of recovery, that wasn¡¯t something he had to worry about. In fact, he felt limber and warmed up.

    It didn¡¯t take long for him to notice that there were people looking for him. They wore the same robes that the camp owner and other Golden Vajra Warrior Sect cultivators had worn. By exercising care, he was able to avoid them.

    About a day out from Antlerville, he reached a fork in the road.

    If he went left, he would reach the city he¡¯d lived in for six years. Of course, it was now a forbidden region, covered with darkness that was visible even from a great distance. If he picked the road leading to the right, he would be heading to Antlerville.

    Standing there, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the forbidden region for a few breaths of time. Then he turned to head toward Antlerville. However, before he could start moving, his expression flickered, and he ducked into a thicket on the side of the road. Eyes narrowed, he looked up into the sky. Up above, a golden streak of light screamed past.

    From this distance, all he could see was the bright, golden light. He wasn¡¯t able to make out the figure within it. But the spirit power fluctuations were more intense than the camp owner. Xu Qing was shocked.

    This pressure surpasses the camp owner¡¯s¡­.

    Then the beam of light disappeared into the distance, and Xu Qing took a deep breath. However, his eyes flickered with hesitation. During the past two days, he had encountered three groups of cultivators from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. He had avoided all of them, and yet, none had seemed particrly threatening to him.

    If I keep going this way, I¡¯ll reach Antlerville.

    On the one hand, no one knew he had that identity medallion, so no one would be able to use that information to guess that he wanted to get to Antlerville. But he had another advantage; given that he didn¡¯t have to worry about the mutagen in forbidden regions, he could stay in a forbidden region for long periods of time without any problem.

    Heading to Anterville would have its advantages as long as he moved quickly enough that the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect didn¡¯t realize what was going on. If he could reach it in time, he could teleport away before they knew what was happening. But the downside was that if they spotted him on the road, they would realize where he was going, and then he would be in big trouble. The advantage of going to the forbidden region was that he could buy time.

    Once the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect got tired, then he would have an additional advantage, and would have a much better chance of reaching Antlerville safely. In the meantime, if he ran into danger he would always be able to retreat further into the forbidden region.

    Two options to pick from¡­.

    As he weighed the pros and cons, the golden beam of light suddenly appeared again up in the sky, moving at incredible speed.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing frowned. Remaining unmoving in his hiding spot, he watched the light as it flew closer and closer.

    Eventually, he was able to spot a middle-aged cultivator in the light. He had a paper talisman on his right leg, which emanated spirit power fluctuations that apparently allowed the man to fly. In front of him was another paper talisman, which was the source of the golden light. Within that constantly flickering light, it was possible to make out a shadowy form. As Xu Qing looked, he suddenly realized that it was one of the camp guards he had killed outside the camp owner¡¯s mansion. It seemed they were using his soul as a sort of hunting dog to sniff out prey. The middle-aged cultivator slowed down, looking around the area before shifting directions and continuing his search.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding.

    A talisman treasure!

    Although he wasn¡¯t exactly sure what that paper talisman did, he could guess.

    They¡¯re using someone I killed to sense me and identify my position? Thankfully, the range doesn¡¯t seem to be veryrge.

    Xu Qing suddenly felt a profound sense of understanding regarding the spectacr things that magical techniques could do. After spending a short time further considering the pros and cons, he made his decision.

    I can¡¯t keep going to Antlerville. It¡¯ll take an entire day, and my chances of being discovered during that time are too great. And if they do find me, I won¡¯t have anywhere to hide.

    Turning, he sped in the direction of the forbidden region. His current n was to hide out there for a short time while deciding what to do next. He had only been moving for the time it takes an incense stick to burn when the golden light appeared in the sky again, this time behind him. He quickly found a hiding spot, then looked back. The golden light seemed to be locked onto his position, and was elerating. Even worse, there was a stream of sword light that sped out in front at even greater speed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered slightly, and he burst out of hiding and started moving at top speed.

    The moment he started moving, rumbling echoed out and the sword light mmed into the spot where he¡¯d been hiding, sending soil exploding out in all directions.

    Meanwhile, the golden light continued to approach. Then he heard a cold snort.

    ¡°You little whoreson. I finally found you. So this is where you were hiding!¡±

    The golden light got closer and closer, and within it, the middle-aged man became more clearly visible. He had a square jaw and wore a long golden robe. He looked average in both height and facial features, but had prominent eyebrows. Beneath those eyebrows, his eyes glittered with sinister killing intent as he looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Just as he did, Xu Qing suddenly stamped his right foot down and jumped straight up into the air toward the man.

    The cultivator sneered. The first time he¡¯d passed by earlier, the search talisman had reacted strangely, and thus, he¡¯d returned for a closer look. Now, just as he had a lock on his target, Xu Qing jumped up toward him.

    Just as Xu Qing reached the maximum height his momentum would allow, and right before he started falling back down, the middle-aged cultivator extended his right hand.

    A tempest appeared around him, and he waved his finger. Instantly, the tempest fell, surrounding Xu Qing with whipping winds.

    A boom could be heard as he mmed into the ground. Then he started racing toward the forbidden region.

    The cultivator made to chase, but then a glittering light shot from Xu Qing, resolving to a dagger. The cultivator¡¯s eyes narrowed as he twisted out of the way to avoid it.

    ¡°Useless!¡± he yelled.

    Xu Qing looked up but didn¡¯t say anything in response. He just pushed forward with greater speed. He could already tell that he wasn¡¯t a match for this person. Maybe if the man couldn¡¯t fly, then he could rely on his powers of regeneration to keep him going through serious injury and eventually kill him.

    But as long as the enemy could fly, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t do much. When one person was in the air, and the other was stuck on the ground, thetter was at a huge disadvantage.

    As Xu Qing pushed forward with all the speed he could muster, the golden-robed cultivator pulled out the transmission slip he had to contact his patriarch. At the same time, he sped after Xu Qing, performing incantation gestures to unleash beams of magical light.

    As a grand elder in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, he had abundant spirit power and plenty of magical techniques to use. From a distance, it was possible to see numerous wind des and fireballs smashing into the ground. Even when Xu Qing managed to dodge the attacks, he would still get hit with shockwaves and debris. Already, blood was oozing out of the corners of his mouth.

    Laughing coldly, the cultivator said, ¡°The patriarch is too cautious. I don¡¯t need his help. I can kill you all by myself!¡±

    Despite his bravado, and even though Xu Qing already looked bedraggled, the grand elder didn¡¯tnd on the ground. He stayed in the air, performing a double-handed incantation gesture that sent a windstorm down toward the ground.

    Killing intent glittered in Xu Qing eyes; being hammered at in such a passive position made his desire to kill even stronger.

    However, he also knew that though he was only dealing with one person at the moment, the enemy could surely contact his sect for backup. So Xu Qing kept speeding toward the forbidden region. If more people from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect showed up, especially the patriarch the man had just mentioned, Xu Qing knew he would be in great danger.

    Because the man stayed high in the air, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t counterattack, nor did he have any way to lure the man down.

    This guy is too cautious. I can¡¯t keep waiting.

    A violet glow flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as the tempest descended. When the winds hit him, a violet-colored saber suddenly appeared above his head. Xu Qing coughed up blood as the winds injured him, but at the same time, he dropped his arm. The heavenly saber appeared once again, shing downward.

    The cultivator in mid-air suddenly felt an intense sensation of deadly crisis, and his face fell. Backing up, he tapped into all the power of the flight talisman to gain altitude. Just as he did, a shocking rumble echoed out as the image of a saber shed through the air right below him.

    If he had reacted just a bit too slowly, or if he had been flying lower, then he knew he would have been shed by that attack. He had evaded death, yet didn¡¯t get out unscathed. His left foot was hit, slicing a huge, bloody wound into it.

    Intense pain pulsed through him, causing his killing intent to skyrocket. At the same time, his vignce grew. There was no doubt that, without his flight talisman, that shocking saber would have hit him straight on, and even if it didn¡¯t kill him, it would definitely have seriously injured him.

    The patriarch was right! The Kid fights dirty!

    Down on the ground, Xu Qing wiped the blood from his mouth and stared up coldly at his enemy and his injured left foot. He wished he had done something slightly different that resulted in the man being dead, but there wasn¡¯t time to think about that now. Turning, he sped toward the forbidden region.

    Gritting his teeth against the pain, the grand elder bandaged his wound and looked at Xu Qing, his killing intent raging. Then he hesitated for a brief moment before deciding not to give chase. Instead, he flew higher to gain altitude, then unleashed some magical attacks to try to interfere with Xu Qing¡¯s progress.

    He wasn¡¯t going to take action personally at this point. His life was a lot more important to him than aplishing a task for the sect. And if Xu Qing was dead set on entering the forbidden region, he wasn¡¯t going to stop him.

    Once the patriarch shows up, the boy is dead!

    Because he wasn¡¯t willing to get too close, his magical techniques didn¡¯t cause much problem for Xu Qing. What was more, Xu Qing was already recovering. As he moved, he picked up speed. Before long, he dashed into the forbidden region.

    Outside, the cultivator hovered in midair trying to decide if he should follow inside. Before he could, something like the crackle of thunder reached his ear from behind, and he looked over his shoulder to see two people approaching.

    In the front was a man with red on his robe, and white hair whipping around him, making him seem threatening without being angry. In the air behind him was the spectral image of a golden vajra warrior, surrounding the man with whipping winds. This was none other than Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Behind him was the other grand elder. Reinforcements had arrived.

 Chapter 42: Faceless Woman in White

    Chapter 42: Faceless Woman in White

    Xu Qing, who had just stepped into the forbidden region, looked back and saw what was happening. His pupils constricted as an intense sensation of deadly crisis filled him. He even started trembling physically. Of course, it was all because¡­ of the tall, burly old man in the red robe.

    Foundation Establishment!

    That was the main thing Xu Qing was thinking about. The immense pressure he felt caused him to tremble even a great distance away. It was truly stupefying.

    This man¡¯s identity was self-evident. He was the patriarch of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. The image of the golden vajra warrior behind him was especially noteworthy. It was like a heavenly warrior that caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to sting when merely looking at it. It reminded him of his days in the slums when he caught sight of Qi Condensation cultivators from a distance. However, the sensation vastly surpassed that.

    What was more, when looking at the patriarch, he felt like the man had somehow locked onto his position. Even after closing his eyes, an image of the man seemed burned into his mind. Worse, that image brought pain with it, causing Xu Qing to feel like his head was aching.

    In some ways, this corrted to a mental attack. That said, because of Xu Qing¡¯s experience struggling with control over his shadow, he was familiar with such sensations. Furthermore, after practicing the saber strike from the god-like statue, he had grown mentally resilient, so the pain wasn¡¯t too much to deal with. Looking away from the patriarch, he started picking up speed.

    As he ran through the forbidden region, he pulled a handful of his ck boluses out and threw them behind him.

    When they hit the ground, they exploded. Once the outer surface formed from seven-leaf clover sap vanished, the interior of ck medicinal powder spread out, then turned into vortexes that attracted the surrounding mutagen.

    Because he¡¯d thrown about a dozen pills, it looked like a huge tide of mutagen rushing from all directions to the convergence point.

    The grand elder who¡¯d been about to rush into the forbidden region suddenly stopped and frowned. Not sure what was happening, he didn¡¯t dare proceed.

    Though the ck boluses were the result of Xu Qing¡¯s failed experiment to create white boluses, he was loath to waste them. However, in the heat of this moment, it seemed the perfect thing to do.

    As Xu Qing fled, the mutagen behind him turned into an astonishing storm. Rumbling sounds filled the area, until the distant beams of light grew near.

    Upon reaching the edge of the forbidden region, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s eyes flickered with killing intent, and instead of stopping to look around, he shot straight inside.

    The two grand elders gritted their teeth and followed. They shot right through the convergence of mutagen, but when they came out the other side, what was waiting for them was arge cloud of poison gas.

    ¡°Patriarch,¡± cried the grand elder with the injured foot, ¡°this little punk fights dirty!¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior snorted coldly, then exhaled sharply, creating a st of wind that spread out and dissipated the poison gas. At the same time, he grabbed the two grand elders, then continued after the fleeing Xu Qing.

    It was already evening, and darkness approached. Everything was getting cold, and the mutagen was strong. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior wouldn¡¯t have any problem continuing onward with flight, but the grand elders didn¡¯t have that luxury. That was especially true of the injured one.

    Thus, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior coldly said, ¡°You two catch up. I¡¯m going to nab the Kid!¡±

    Tapping into his cultivation base, the patriarch threw his head back and roared. At the same time, the golden vajra warrior behind him started to grow taller, until it was ny meters in height. Then the giant started running forward. Each stride took it the same distance as it was tall, and standing on its head was the patriarch.

    Someone who couldn¡¯t tap into spirit power wouldn¡¯t be able to see the golden vajra warrior, so from a distance it would seem like the patriarch was floating through the air.

    ¡°The patriarch is so mighty!¡±

    ¡°The patriarch is going to bring this brat¡¯s corpse back sooner rather thanter.¡±

    Both of the grand elders were visibly excited. As far as they were concerned, now that their patriarch was taking action personally, the Kid was going to die beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    But then time started to go by. Two hourster, the two grand elders seemed less excited. Then they exchanged a bewildered nce, having long since lost sight of their patriarch. They really couldn¡¯t figure out how a mere body cultivator in the Qi Condensation level could be so fast and skilled that the patriarch hadn¡¯t dealt with him already. They were confused. But Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was even more confused.

    Far from the location of the two grand elders, the patriarch was ring in frustration at the small figure speeding madly away from him in the distance. Although there was still a speed difference between the two, he had to admit that his target was very fast. Furthermore, every time heunched a fist strike with the power of the golden vajra warrior projection, a glittering field of light would appear around the young man to protect him.

    There would be a boom, and then the glittering field of light would fill with cracks, but at the same time, his target would use the momentum to get further away.

    As night fell, the mutagen got stronger. And it seemed to be even worse on the path the young man took. Everything behind him waspletely frigid.

    It caused even the patriarch to worry a bit, and forced him to circle around the coldness. In turn, that slowed him down, and made the chase take even longer.

    ***

    ¡°Dammit!¡± Xu Qing muttered. His face was pale and his eyes were bloodshot as he pushed forward with all the speed he could muster. His left hand was clenched so tightly into a fist that the blood vessels bulged on the back. It was a ghastly sight. Inside that hand was a scorpion tail.

    Back when he fought mecrow, he still had a bit of that tail left. However, as this chase continued, the venom was slowly draining out. There wasn¡¯t much left. He knew it would only keep him going for a short time.

    In his right hand was a paper talisman with barely visible calligraphy on it. That was the paper talisman he¡¯d taken from Sergeant Thunder¡¯s nemesis. By now, the calligraphy was almost gone.

    However, thanks to the incredible speed he¡¯d been maintaining, he had already spotted the familiar city ruins in the distance.

    Eventually, the boost from the scorpion tail faded, and Xu Qing finally started to slow down. Gritting his teeth, he made one final leap, sailing through the stark moonlight andnding on the city wall. This¡­ was the ce Xu Qing had been trying to reach.

    He had no way to fight Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior or the two grand elders, and therefore, he had no choice but to find heavenly timing, earthly advantage, and human harmony!

    Heavenly timing was the mutagen in the forbidden region.

    Earthly advantage was the familiar terrain.

    And human harmony was the grues in the city and the mutant beasts in the city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    By using these advantages, he hoped to get out of the sticky situation he was in. Once in the ruins, his speed slowed down significantly. Then he heard a rumbling sound behind him, whereupon a huge fist pierced through the air and mmed into him.

    RUMBLE!

    The defensive barrier provided by the paper talisman shattered.

    Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he tumbled forward, his internal organs quivering as they sustained serious damage. The pain caused his vision to swim, but he gritted his teeth and ran frantically forward through the familiar streets. Momentster, he disappeared into the ruins.

    Not long after, the red-robed Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared on the scene. His expression was cold as he rolled his right hand to loosen his wrist. The punch he had justunched from a distance had been blocked by a talisman treasure. However, he knew that not all the force had been rebuffed. And he was convinced that a mere Qi Condensation cultivator who was hit by that blow would either die or be severely injured.

    The patriarch shot into the city. However, the moment he was inside, his face fell as his ears picked up on the sound of weeping.

    Then, a sinister, cold aura drifted out from the street Xu Qing had just disappeared down.

    On this dark night, within the sinister moonlight and icy cold, a woman appeared at the end of the street. Given how far away she was, she seemed small. But as she walked forward, she grewrger andrger, until she was taller than the surrounding buildings. Soon, she was fully thirty meters tall. She wore a white gown, had long ck hair, and had¡­ no facial features. Her face waspletely empty, as if it didn¡¯t exist. However, her long garment had countless human faces on it, all of them weeping. The weeping sounds mixed together into a mournful sound that echoed in the area. Surrounded by that sound, the faceless woman in white slowly walked toward Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    As she neared, the weeping grew louder.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sucked in a breath. Despite how valiant he was, his heart pounded. He knew what this woman was, and as that realization sank in, he felt a growing sense of reverence.

    Without an ounce of hesitation, he turned and fled.

    He didn¡¯t continue his pursuit of Xu Qing, but instead, chose a different avenue to go deeper into the city.

    This brat is in the Qi Condensation level. He doesn¡¯t have much chance of surviving the dangers here. But I¡¯m not going to rest easy until I can confirm he¡¯s dead. The patriarch¡¯s eyes shone with killing intent.

    Based on his past experience, he knew that the Kid was someone that¡­ if he didn¡¯t kill him right now, would return yearster and p him to death. With great care, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior proceeded deeper into the city ruins.

    There were two options: find his target alive, or recover his dead corpse.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was back in his little cave that he had used as a hiding ce in the past. Sitting there cross-legged, he breathed hard until he coughed up some clotted blood. Only then did some color return to his face.

    Wiping the blood from his mouth, he looked grimly out the crack to the outside. Then he gritted his teeth and started doing breathing exercises with the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Thanks to all the effort fleeing, as soon as he recovered, he found himself at a breakthrough point with his cultivation base.

    I¡¯m going to reach the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation! Without hesitation, he attempted the breakthrough.

    In the sixth level, he could project the spectral image of a hobgoblin. At that point, he was able to kill the camp owner, who was in the eighth level of Qi Condensation. However, someone in the ninth level would be much more difficult to deal with. Because of that, he was eager to see what battle prowess he could attain in the seventh level.

    My Sea and Mountain Incantation is uniquely incredible thanks to the blessing of the violet crystal!

    Taking a deep breath, he endured the pain in his chest and continued with his breathing exercises.

 Chapter 43: Complete Success with the Hobgoblin

    Chapter 43: Complete Sess with the Hobgoblin

    The floor of Xu Qing¡¯s cave was covered with bird feathers, and the air swirled with impure vital energy. The pile of rocks and other misceneous items he¡¯d used to block the entrance had long since been corroded by mutagen. There was a lot more dust built up as well. Now that this area was a forbidden region, scavengers had already beening through to explore. However, this refuge was so well-hidden that no one had discovered it. The smell of dust and decay filled Xu Qing¡¯s nostrils, but he ignored it.

    Sitting cross-legged, he cultivated the Sea and Mountain Incantation, building up enough momentum to attempt a breakthrough to the seventh level.

    Outside, he heard the howls of the mutant beasts and the bone-chilling mourning of the grues. It caused a somewhat vacant expression to fill Xu Qing¡¯s face as he suddenly found himself back in the same spot from over half a year ago. He remembered the god¡¯s eyes opening, then the blood rain. It had been a real struggle for him to survive in the broken city after that.

    After that, he buried such thoughts and focused on cultivation. As his cultivation base rotated, spirit power poured into him. Eventually, popping sounds rang out within him, growing louder and louder, until it was a roaring in his mind.

    ck filth oozed out of his pores more and more as the moments passed. During the process, he felt his flesh and blood growing astonishingly stronger. His blood vessels swelled as he felt painful tearing sensations ripping through him. Even his bones creaked.

    About two hourster, the roaring in his mind became like the constant crack of thunder. Then he opened his eyes, and violet light erupted from his pupils.

    And then, the spectral hobgoblin appeared behind him.

    This time¡­ the hobgoblin looked different! It was an even deeper ck color, and was burlier. Its head didn¡¯t have a single horn. Instead, it had two horns like an ox, except they spiraled, and had ck sparks of lightning at their tips. Its face was more vicious, and when it opened its mouth, it seemed capable of devouring evil ghosts. Furthermore, it had sharp ws that,bined with its violet pupils, emanated a hair-raising brutality.

    Powerful fluctuations rolled off of the spectral hobgoblin, apparently piercing through the surrounding stone of the cave.

    It was aplete sess with the spectral hobgoblin!

    This was the development that would ur when pushing the Sea and Mountain Incantation to the perfect level. For most other people, this would indicate that he had reached the perfect level of body cultivation in Qi Condensation, and couldn¡¯t go any further. However, Xu Qing had reached this point at only the seventh level.

    Of course, the transformations to his body were also significant. He was slightly taller, and the violet light in his eyessted for longer after the breakthrough.

    As for his face¡­.

    In the sixth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, he had been iparably fair and good-looking. But now, with the violet glint in his eyes, he could be considered almost enchanting were it not for the grime covering his face.

    Of course, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that. He just cared about how much stronger he was getting.

    Eventually, he looked down and slowly clenched his hands into fists, noticing the blood vessels bulging through his skin. The violet light in his eyes slowly faded, but he could clearly sense how powerful he was¡­.

    He was at least twice as strong as before!

    Is this the power of a hobgoblin?

    It was pitch ck outside, and there was no light in the cave, but Xu Qing could actually see around him, though not to the extent of being able to see his shadow. That said, he could sense his shadow, so after considering the matter, he made another attempt to control it. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, an excited gleam appeared in his eyes.

    He had much better control over his shadow now, to the point where he could even call it subtle. He could even take mutagen from the shadow and return it to his body. Of course, that wasn¡¯t a useful thing, but it proved that he wasmanding increased control.

    After taking everything into consideration, Xu Qing was certain that with his current level of battle prowess, he could defeat someone like the camp owner without relying on the statue¡¯s heavenly saber. All he would need would be a single punch¡­ and if someone in the eighth level of Qi Condensation tried to meet the blow, their arm would explode.

    Unfortunately, I¡¯m not even close to being able to deal with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Xu Qing shook his head. Although he hadn¡¯t directly shed with the patriarch, being forced to deal with his long-range fist attacks had been very illuminating.

    Even if Xu Qing used his shadow to catch the man off guard, he knew that there was just no way he was strong enough to fight a Foundation Establishment expert.

    That said, I should be able to kill those two fellows in the ninth level of Qi Condensation.

    Eyes gleaming, he looked through the crack to the outside. The bizarre sounds of the grues continued to echo out, but they were off in the distance. The cave itself was quiet. Once again, Xu Qing felt like he was in the past, and he even instinctively took out his iron skewer as he tried to decide what to do next.

    If he left the forbidden region, he felt confident that he could get to Antlerville.

    However¡­ he also didn¡¯t feel like simply running away. That much was evident from the killing intent flickering in his eyes.

    If I don¡¯t kill some of these people, I¡¯m always going to be worrying about potential cmity.

    Narrowing his eyes, he envisioned his old map of the city. He knew the city well. Thinking about all the different streets, he remembered where certain mutant beasts slept, where the birds hid, and other details.

    The city magistrate¡¯s manor! The coldness in his eyes grew more intense.

    His main goal was going to be leaving the city ruins. But if he encountered any people from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, then he already knew how he would fight back. Sensing that the sounds outside were very distant, Xu Qing opened up the cave and slowly crawled out.

    The cave opening was small and narrow, and Xu Qing was already taller and bigger than before, so it was a bit of a struggle. But his expression was the same as ever as he forced himself out. He got a few scrapes and cuts in the process, but they healed almost instantly.

    After looking around vigntly, he carefully started making his way through the ruins. This time, he moved with caution even greater than back in the jungle by the basecamp. After all, there were a lot more grues and mutant beasts to worry about at night time here.

    Thankfully, he knew the generalyout of the city. That, coupled with his speed, enabled him to avoid any dangers he came across.

    In those cases when fleeing wasn¡¯t an option, he ended matters with a lightning-fast attack.

    He continued through the mutagen for about two hours, and was nearing the edge of the city when he heard a distant rumbling sound. With eyes shing like a lone wolf, he prowled through the city toward the noise. Soon after, he saw seven or eight mutant beasts pursuing two people.

    They were none other than the grand elders from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    A short time after the two saw Xu Qing and their patriarch disappear into the city, they followed.

    However, given it was the middle of the night, they¡¯d decided not to venture into the depths of the city, and had stayed near the edge.

    Unfortunately, there were just too many grues and mutant beasts. Furthermore, the hiding ce they had picked was a far cry from the bird cave Xu Qing had identified. Thus, it wasn¡¯t long before they were discovered. Not wanting to attract the attention of even more mutant beasts, they had simply fled, deciding to only start fighting if absolutely necessary.

    Because of that cautious approach, and also their incredible strength, they had been able to deal with everything thus far. In fact, they were just on the point of being able to shake off the group of mutant beasts chasing them. However, that was when a cold streak of light suddenly shot toward them.

    It shot like an arrow through the night, heading straight toward the grand elder in the lead position.

    This was not the man who had shed with Xu Qing earlier, but instead, was the one who had shown upter with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Face falling, he quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing an ice shield to rumble out around him. He also had a personal defensive barrier as well.

    The cold light moved with astonishing power, and it pierced through the ice defense, then stabbed into the defensive barrier.

    Spirit power fluctuations rolled out as cracks spread across the defensive barrier. However, it held strong. That was when the grand elder realized that he had been attacked with a ck iron skewer!

    Pupils constricting, the grand elder looked over his shoulder at hispanion, but by then it was toote.

    At the same moment as the first attack, a shadowy figure lunged out of an alley, bing like a ck lightning bolt that shot toward the other grand elder.

    That shadowy figure was none other than Xu Qing.

    The attack with the skewer had been a feint, as his true goal was to take out the grand elder with the injured left foot.

    Xu Qing moved with explosive speed, vastly superior to his limits with the sixth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. The wind screamed as, in the blink of an eye, he was right next to the injured grand elder.

    The grand elder was injured, had to deal with strong mutagen, and couldn¡¯t fly anymore. Because of that, he had a harder time moving than hispanion did. When he realized the danger he faced, his eyes went wide, and a feeling of deadly crisis rose up in his heart. He dodged backward, but there was no way Xu Qing was going to let him get away that easily. Jumping into the air, Xu Qing clenched his right hand into a fist and unleashed a punch.

    Whether in terms of speed or strength, Xu Qing filled the blow with everything he had. As he struck out, the vicious spectral hobgoblin appeared behind him, roaring noiselessly as its power focused on Xu Qing¡¯s fist.

    Cracking sounds echoed out, and the air exploded from the immense force as the man¡¯s defensive barrier shattered like ss, and Xu Qing¡¯s fistnded on his chest.

    A huge boom echoed through the stillness of the city.

    The grand elder coughed up blood like mad as his chest caved in and his organs were shattered. Then he flew backward like a kite with its string cut. He was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, but his face was a mask of terror. Meanwhile, the flight talisman on his right leg glittered, and the power of flight swept through him, causing him to jerk up into the air.

    However, that was when another cold light shot toward him. This time it was a long sword that, in the briefest of moments, shed directly through his right leg. Blood sprayed everywhere, apanied by a miserable shriek as the flight talisman was cut away along with his leg.

    Before the leg could fall to the ground, Xu Qing stamped his foot andunched himself into the air. As he did, the spot he had just upied was filled with a host of wind des shot by the other grand elder.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look behind himself; he stayedpletely focused on the despairing grand elder as he tumbled down.

    Xu Qingunched another punch, and the spectral hobgoblin roared.

    This time, the blownded on the grand elder¡¯s head. A thump rang out as the man quivered for a moment. Then his head exploded, sending blood everywhere as he died!

    The moment his corpse hit the ground, the pursuing mutant beasts pounced on it and tore it to pieces.

    Not slowing down a bit, Xu Qing grabbed the flight talisman off the severed leg, turned, and shot toward the surviving grand elder.

    Xu Qing licked his lips, looking like a wolf as he closed in.

    ¡°Die!¡±

 Chapter 44: Cause and Effect

    Chapter 44: Cause and Effect

    The grand elder died a horrible death, and as his final scream echoed through the city, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior noticed. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he had acute senses, and immediately looked up when he noticed the sound. Expression grim, he jumped into the air and started moving in the direction of the sound.

    Although there were dangerous creatures around, given his level, he had nothing to fear as long as he didn¡¯t encounter either a grue or an entire horde of mutant beasts. Not even the strong mutagen was much to worry about for him. Given the level of his cultivation base, he could stay in these ruins for as long as a month without any difficulty.

    After confirming he was heading in the right direction, the patriarch let loose a loud cry backed with the power of his cultivation base, ensuring that even someone a great distance away could hear him.

    ¡°Keep that brat busy until I get there!¡±

    As the words echoed out, he shot forward with explosive speed, making him look like a shooting star.

    Meanwhile, back on the field of the battle, the surviving grand elder was backing away from the iing Xu Qing. He had heard his patriarch¡¯s orders, but at the same time, didn¡¯t want to end up dead.

    He didn¡¯t care if he ended up berated by the patriarch. Xu Qing¡¯s baleful aura was too intense, and he fought too ruthlessly.

    Therefore, the grand elder fell back at top speed, adding in the benefits of the flight talisman to move back hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he also heard Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s words. However, he didn¡¯t stop chasing the grand elder. Scooping up his iron skewer along the way, he prepared to use his newly acquired flight talisman. Just before he did, though, his expression flickered, and then he turned and shot back in the opposite direction.

    Upon seeing this, a look of shock appeared on the fleeing grand elder¡¯s face. Then he sensed a wave of sinister coldness before realizing that an enormous figure was right next to him.

    It was a gigantic woman with no facial features and long ck hair, wearing a flowing white garment. The countless faces on her garment wept mournfully, filling the area with a gruish aura, and causing the moon above to turn the color of blood.

    From a distance, the grand elder looked like an ant in front of her. Because of the countless weeping faces, the grand elder trembled violently, and his expression turned to one of sorrow as he, too, began to weep. His eyes shone with immense terror, as if the weeping was beyond his control.

    Then his weeping merged with the weeping of the faces on the dress, until they seemed united. White energy then seeped out of the grand elder¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, flowing into the faceless woman¡¯s dress. A momentter¡­.

    The grand elder was a desated corpse that toppled to the ground,pletely devoid of energy.

    At the same time, a new face appeared on the woman¡¯s dress. It was the grand elder¡¯s face! Though there was no expression on the face, as soon as it appeared on the white garment, it began weeping.

    Xu Qing saw this happening, as did Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and both were shaken.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, suppressed his shock, and picked up speed as he fled into the ruins.

    In contrast, the newly arrived Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was so shocked his scalp tingled and he felt rooted in ce.

    And that was because the faceless woman in white was heading in his direction.

    The patriarch knew that, when facing an entity like this, one shouldn¡¯t make sudden moves. Someone who did so would end up like the grand elder from moments before. Therefore, he suppressed his terror and stood in ce as the faceless woman slowly moved past him and off into the distance. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, he felt that something strange was going on.

    Running into a grue twice is strange. Why do I have this feeling¡­ it has something to do with that brat? He really does fight dirty!

    Looking in the direction Xu Qing had fled, the patriarch felt more than ever that he had to exterminate him. Gritting teeth, he flew after him.

    The night echoed with roars that filled every corner of the ruins, along with the sounds of chewing, weeping, andughter. Beneath the moonlight, the crumbled ruins seemed more demonic and gruish than ever.

    As Xu Qing sped along, although he was familiar with the city night, he was still fearful of all the strange, gruish sounds. He also felt like he was the subject of countless malevolent gazes that sent frigid coldness into his body. Even as that cold feeling grew more intense, Xu Qing passed the spot where, months before, he had set an ambush for a vulture. And that was when his pupils constricted¡­.

    A short distance away, he saw the broken-down horse cart. Before, there had been a blood-soaked rabbit doll hanging from the axle. But it was in a different position now. It was now sitting on the cart itself, its back to Xu Qing so that he couldn¡¯t see its face.

    Scalp tingling, Xu Qing fled.

    Shortly after, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior arrived in the same spot. Looking around, he spotted the cart, as well as the blood-soaked rabbit. Which was now facing him.

    The eyes embedded in its face were dark, and the doll seemed gruish to the extreme. And it was looking at the patriarch very eerily.

    The patriarch¡¯s pupils constricted and his hair stood on end. Stopping in ce for a moment, he then crept away slowly before exhaling softly and continuing on his way. [1]

    He didn¡¯t get too close to Xu Qing. The patriarch was convinced Xu Qing used all sorts of evil tricks, including the ability to make mutagen stronger. Therefore, the patriarch didn¡¯t want to approach him and directly attack. Instead, he decided to watch from a distance and wait until daylight to make a move.

    For a Foundation Establishment cultivator to be so cautious in dealing with a Qi Condensation cultivator would result in a huge loss of face if word got out. But given the circumstances, the patriarch wanted to y it safe.

    Slowing down a bit, he kept trailing Xu Qing from a distance.

    Xu Qing sensed what was happening. He had already been preparing how to fight back, including getting his shadow ready to take action, and making sure his ck boluses were ready to throw out.

    He had felt confident that, though he couldn¡¯t unleash any fatal attacks, he could at least inflict some damage. And though he would be seriously injured in the sh, he should be able to escape. What was more, the added element of injury would help sell the next phase of his n.

    But despite being a Foundation Establishment expert, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was being extremely cautious, in turn causing Xu Qing to be more cautious. Despite the fact that the man was keeping his distance, Xu Qing still wanted to go through with his trap, so he kept moving at top speed toward the city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    It was located in the very middle of the city, where the mutagen was stronger than anywhere else. Yet for some reason, there were fewer mutant beasts there.

    As Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior observed what Xu Qing was doing, his expression flickered, and a sensation of danger filled him.

    As Xu Qing fled, the patriarch looked at a nearby fallen building and suddenly stopped in ce. In fact, not only did he not continue chasing, he actually backed up.

    This wentpletely beyond what Xu Qing had nned for. Just when he was only a few hundred meters from the city magistrate¡¯s manor, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly retreated?

    It¡¯s toote to change ns now! Gritting his teeth, Xu Qing suddenly threw out arge quantity of ck boluses.

    In fact, in the interests of achieving his goal, he threw out half of his entire collection.

    When they exploded, they created a massive vortex that caused waves of mutagen to rush forth, rippling the air, twisting everything, and making it impossible to see anything clearly.

    The level of mutagen at y was astonishing.

    The retreating Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was shocked, but more than that, puzzled, as Xu Qing was right in the middle of all the mutagen.

    Forgetting the danger of the mutagen itself, this event would surely attract mutant beasts and grues, which would kill Xu Qing for sure. It almost seemed like he wasmitting suicide.

    As the patriarch wondered what was going on, a few hundred meters away in the city magistrate¡¯s manor, an intense rumbling shook everything in the area, followed by a terrifying roar. The ground trembled, and the blood-colored moon in the sky grew blurry.

    The patriarch was visibly shocked, and the sensation of deadly crisis within him grew more intense than ever. Backing up even faster, he looked toward the sound and saw numerous shadowy figures flying out of the mansion. They were incredibly gaunt, with wings of ck me, and a stupefying level of mutagen on them that caused everything around them to ripple and distort. The shocked patriarch¡¯s face went pale, and he gasped as the entire city magistrate¡¯s manor copsed in on itself, leaving behind a huge hole in the ground.

    Crawling out of that hole was a gaunt, three-hundred-meter-tall figure, roaring to the heavens. It seemed as slender as a tree, and actually was more than three hundred meters tall, as it was only halfway out of the crater. It waved its arms, and its ten fingers became long vines, some of which stabbed into the ground. Using the vines, the gaunt figure began pulling itself further out of the hole.

    ¡°What the hell is this freaking thing??¡± the patriarch blurted in his shock. Looking astonished beyond reason, he turned and fled at top speed.

    Then his heart filled with even more madness as he realized that the winged creatures that had originally been attracted to the strong mutagen had for some reason emerged from that area and were now howling as they flew toward him!

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?? Where¡¯s Kid??¡±

    The patriarch¡¯s eyes went wide as he realized that, no matter how fast he fled, they were going to catch up. Having no other choice, he turned and unleashed an attack.

    The flying figures exploded, but strangely, they recovered after only a short moment, and kepting. What was more, the terrifying entity further back had almost climbed out of the giant hole in the ground.

    As Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior dealt with the maddeningly deadly situation, it was a short distance away, just beyond the area of strong mutagen, where Xu Qing had found a crevice in a wall, and was in hiding.

    From that position of safety, he watched events y out.

    Back when he had been exploring the city, he discovered more than one location where birds had roosted. And this crevice was one of them! When he¡¯d found the cultivation technique in the city magistrate¡¯s manor, and been severely injured in the process, he ended up hiding here to evade the mutant beasts chasing him. [2]

    That said, it was too close to the city magistrate¡¯s manor for him to choose it as a long-term camping site.

    When the eyes of the god above opened, and catastrophe began, all types of living beings were wiped out. The only type that weren¡¯t affected¡­ were birds, for some unknown reason. And they instinctively were able to find safe hiding ces. Although such locations weren¡¯t absolutely without risk, the chances of grues or mutant beasts discovering them were small.

    Of course, that was allparatively speaking. Were it not for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior being present, hiding in this ce would have meant certain death in the circumstances.

    Seeing Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in such bad condition, and also seeing the gigantic figure climbing out of the ground, Xu Qing took in a deep breath. Then he gritted his teeth, charged out into the open, and tossed about a dozen ck boluses in the direction of the fleeing patriarch.

    When they exploded, the mutagen in the area became even more shockingly dense. At the same time, the explosion seemed to surpass a limit of some sort. All of a sudden, the countless malevolent gazes that had locked onto Xu Qing after he emerged from the crevice¡­ shifted to look at a different subject. They were now looking at that influx of mutagen. And they weren¡¯t the only ones. Other grues and mutant beasts in the city all looked in the same direction.

    Then, they started moving!

    A howl of rage erupted from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s mouth. Xu Qing, looking over his shoulder as he fled, saw the grues and mutant beasts rushing toward the intense mutagen.

    The patriarch also wanted to flee, but was being harried by the winged figures, making it impossible for him to do much. At that moment, his anxiety grew deeper, and his rage toward Xu Qing more intense.

    Xu Qing sped down a nearby road, getting further away from the city magistrate¡¯s manor and heading toward the edge of the city. But then¡­ a wave of intense, sinister coldness hit him.

    He heard weeping from up ahead, and then the faceless woman in white appeared. One moment, she was far away. The next, the gruish woman was right in front of him. She moved with such incredible speed that there was no way he could flee. As the coldness covered him, his mind went nk, almost as if it had been frozen in ce.

    The countless faces covering the woman¡¯s garment wept mournfully, the sound piercing into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. They created fluctuations that stirred his emotions, and it seemed like he might start weeping at any moment.

    But then¡­ some of the faces on the faceless woman¡¯s dress suddenly stopped weeping and looked at Xu Qing with nk expressions. A moment passed, and unexpectedly, they smiled and opened their mouths as if they were speaking. However, he heard no sound. More and more faces ceased weeping, until finally¡­ more than half had smiled warmly at Xu Qing and spoken to him, though he couldn¡¯t hear a single thing they were saying.

    All he could do was stare dumbstruck at the scene. Before he could make heads or tails of it, the faceless woman moved past him, and the weeping continued¡­.

    Eventually, Xu Qing felt he could move again. Struggling to breathe, he looked over his shoulder at the faceless woman. In the darkness of night, her white dress seemed like a beacon of me¡­.

    For some reason, the faces that smiled at him¡­ seemed very familiar.

    As if he knew them¡­.

    And that was especially true of one face in particr. He had carried that person on his back to be cremated, and had told him to rest in peace. It was¡­ the old man from the medicine shop.

    Xu Qing stood there quietly looking at the figure, until a look of understanding appeared on his face. sping hands, he bowed deeply and whispered, ¡°Thank you.¡±

    And that was the same thing the smiling faces had said moments ago.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    1. Surely everyone remembers the creepy doll from chapter 1! ?

    2. It was also in chapter 1 that we read about Xu Qing getting his cultivation technique from the city magistrate¡¯s manor, and being wounded there (which led to him putting the violet crystal in his chest). ?

 Chapter 45: Seeking Revenge over the Smallest Grievance

    Chapter 45: Seeking Revenge over the Smallest Grievance

    The arrival of the god¡¯s broken face was like the Awakening of Insects, which affected all living things, and forced them to change. It changed the world into a colder and more brutal ce. [1]

    The forbidden regions were convergences of that coldness, but right now¡­ as Xu Qing watched the figure in white, he suddenly thought back to what Sergeant Thunder mentioned about their first meeting.

    ¡°Do you know why I took you with me when we left that city? When I saw you cremating all those bodies, with the fire shining on you, it seemed like¡­ you had brought a bit of warmth and kindness into this brutal world.¡±

    Just like Sergeant Thunder back then, Xu Qing felt like he sensed a bit of warmth right now. It came from the faceless woman in white, and from the numerous smiling faces that had thanked him. It came¡­ from the humanity that this brutal world couldn¡¯t take away.

    Eventually, Xu Qing again sped hands and bowed deeply.

    Then he turned back in the direction of the city wall and started moving.

    ***

    Apparently, he had thrown out so many ck boluses that he pushed the mutagen in that part of the city beyond the brink, making it like a bright torch on a dark night. Perhaps it was a matter of cause and effect. Regardless, he didn¡¯t encounter much danger at all as he sped toward the outskirts of the city.

    Once outside, he looked back into the city, and could hear the roars and screams echoing through the darkness.

    I wonder when I¡¯ll be back¡­ he thought. Then he hopped off the city wall and sped away into the night. In order to maximize his speed, he put his new flight talisman on his leg, then poured spirit power into it. He instantly shot up into the air.

    Sailing along with the wind against his face was a new feeling, as was the incredible speed he was capable of. This was his first time flying. He looked down at the world speeding by below, a somewhat dazed expression on his face.

    So this is what it feels like to be a bird flying in the air.

    Having reached the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, he had perfect control over his body, and thus quickly limated to flying. Combined with his natural speed and power, he was able to soar for long periods before dropping back down. And he could thrust his fists behind him to gain added bursts of speed.

    From a distance, he looked like a beam of light speeding through the air of the forbidden region. Any other person would have been forced to worry about mutagen, but not him.

    It didn¡¯t take long before he saw the boundary of the forbidden region. Bursting through it, he entered the outside world, and felt the warm breeze against his face. It quickly drove out the cold of the forbidden region.

    Hovering in the air, Xu Qing looked thoughtfully toward Antlerville, and then shifted to look in a different direction.

    After living in the scavenger basecamp for half a year, Xu Qing had picked up quite a bit of knowledge. For instance, he had learned the names of many ces and locations in the area, and knew the general location of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect headquarters.

    It wasn¡¯t yet sunrise, and the moon didn¡¯t do much to illuminate the darkness, but he could still make out mountains in the distance.

    Hovering there, he looked back and forth between Antlerville and the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect headquarters.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to let this go,¡± he murmured.

    He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in the ruins, but he doubted the man was going to perish. However, he would probably end up severely injured, and it didn¡¯t seem likely that he would extricate himself any time soon.

    Xu Qing knew that if he went toward Antlerville immediately, he would reach it without any problems. But he just couldn¡¯t make himself do that.

    After thinking about it more, his eyes shone with cold light as he tapped into the power of the flight talisman to head¡­ toward the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was in a bad situation, and two of the sect¡¯s grand elders were dead. The sect itself was in a state of unprecedented weakness, so now would be the best time to strike a deadly blow.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s personality.

    Any other person would probably have chosen this moment to flee. But Xu Qing had learned from a young age that potential cmities needed to be eradicated as quickly as possible. Even if this specific potential cmity couldn¡¯t be dealt with fully, he could at least inflict some pain on his enemy. And enough pain could turn into a deterrent. That was thew of the slums, and that was thew of the scavengers. Whether or not that was thew of the chaotic world in general, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure. But that was hisw.

    He wasn¡¯t convinced that killing two grand elders would be enough of a deterrent.

    Xu Qing sped along, and as the sun rose over the horizon he caught sight of his destination.

    The headquarters of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect!

    It consisted of numerous buildings on a mountain. As the sun shone on the grand hall atop the mountain, it looked incredibly inspiring and beautiful. However, most of the sect cultivators were out searching for Xu Qing right now. There was only a small group of disciples left behind to stand guard, and only a few of them were visible this early in the morning.

    They all had arrogant looks on their faces, as though they represented a paramount figure in all creation. Leading into the sect was an arched bridge, where five disciples stood chatting andughing.

    Their conversation revolved around how their patriarch had gone out to look for some child. From the tone of their conversation, it was obvious they thought this whole thing was a big fuss over a minor issue.

    Further inside, some disciples sat cross-legged in their quarters, doing breathing exercises.

    The sect leader was in the grand hall, flipping through some ounting records for the local cities and scavenger basecamps. Simr to the disciples outside, he wasn¡¯t convinced the patriarch even needed to be outside the sect.

    It¡¯s just some scavenger. He might be skilled, but our two grand elders can handle him easily. There¡¯s no reason for the patriarch himself to have gotten involved. Now the sect ispletely empty.

    The sect leader shook his head. His opinion didn¡¯t really matter, as there was no way anyone would defy the patriarch.

    As all members in the sect sat around not doing much, no one noticed Xu Qing high above the sect, looking down coldly.

    After first checking the direction of the wind, he circled around the sect until it was downwind of him. He also determined the speed of the wind.

    Facepletely expressionless, he took out arge amount of poison powder and scattered it. In that one moment, he threw out about eighty percent of all of his poison powder reserves.

    As the different powders mixed, they created an astonishingbination of poisons that drifted into the sect with the wind. Instead of taking any further action, he watched and waited. It didn¡¯t take much time before the wind turned brown, and then ck. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered coldly.

    That should do it.

    The ck wind finally attracted the attention of the cultivators in the sect. The first to notice it were the disciples chatting on the bridge. The entire group looked up in astonishment and shock.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that?¡±

    The ck wind passed through a tree, which instantly withered. The disciples¡¯ faces fell.

    ¡°Poison!!¡±

    As the cry rang out, other disciples in the sect heard, and they rushed out into the open to try to drive away the poison wind.

    That was when Xu Qing suddenly appeared, like a bolt of lightning that shot toward the sect headquarters.

    As the cultivators of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect reacted with shock and fury, and as warning bells nged inside the sect, Xu Qingnded on the ground halfway up the mountain.

    A boom rang out, and cracks spread out from his feet as he looked up with killing intent at the shocked enemy cultivators. Then he attacked!

    A huge boom echoed out.

    As he moved with shocking speed, screams filled the air, and corpses fell to the ground. Although the majority of the disciples were out of the sect, that still left plenty behind to fight. Soon, enraged shouts filled the air, and more figures were rushing toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°An ambush!¡±

    ¡°Dammit! I can¡¯t believe someone is actuallyunching a surprise attack on us!¡±

    ¡°Kill him!!¡±

    Meanwhile, in the grand hall, the sect leader realized something was happening, and strode out furiously. When he saw the chaos, and the poison wind, he shouted, ¡°All disciples, consume anti-poison pills and drive this poison wind away!¡±

    Then he red down toward the area halfway down the mountain where the rumbling sounds came from. Eyes cold, he rushed in that direction.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t fighting the sect disciples there. Instead, he was moving away at top speed and throwing ck boluses behind him.

    Some exploded when contacting the ground, others exploded in midair. All of them created vortexes of mutagen. It was like the mutagen in the area was alive as it converged rapidly on the mountain

    ¡°Mutagen!!¡±

    The disciples who had been about to charge in that direction saw what was happening and instinctively backed up. Some were close to the vortexes, and the sudden increase in mutagen caused their skin to start turning greenish-ck.

    ¡°This is outrageous!!¡± the sect leader shouted as he arrived from the grand hall.

    Cultivation base fluctuations that surpassed the perfect level of Qi Condensation rolled out. This was a level of strength beyond the grand elders Xu Qing had killed, and was second only to the patriarch of the sect.

    The sect leader¡¯s golden robe fluttered around him, and grim killing intent pulsed on his face. However, when he saw Xu Qing, a scavenger, and a very young one at that, a tremor passed through him. He had no need to guess who this person was.

    ¡°It¡¯s you!¡±

    As the realization hit him, his heart pounded.

    1. By way of reminder ¡°Awakening of Insects¡± is also the name of volume 1 of the story. Here¡¯s a link to the sr terms. ?

 Chapter 46: Razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect

    Chapter 46: Razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡±

    The sect leader red at Xu Qing, his heart pounding with shock. Actually, he wasn¡¯t sure if he could believe his eyes. But the young man in front of him wore a ck jerkin, had wild and messy hair, and was covered in grime. What was more, his jerkin was deeply stained with blood and carried a baleful aura.

    His messy hair and the grime on his face made it difficult to clearly see his facial features. But when the poison wind lifted the hair from his face, it was impossible to miss his indescribably cold eyes.

    The moment the sect leader made eye contact, he felt a frigid coldness filling his heart.

    Having seen Xu Qing¡¯s portrait, the moment the sect leaderid eyes on him, he recalled his scavenger moniker.

    ¡°You¡¯re the Kid!!¡±

    He was well aware that the sect patriarch as well as two grand elders were out chasing this very person, as were a whole host of sect disciples. But now¡­ the patriarch and grand elders had yet to return, and the boy they were chasing had unexpectedly shown up at their front door.

    Fear welled up in the sect leader, but there was no time to think about the matter at the moment. He instantly started an incantation gesture, causing a rushing wind to spring up and drive away the poison. At the same time, the wind swelled into a wave of air that shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing assessed the situation coldly. Ignoring the sect leader, he simply jumped out of the way of the attack, then sped off in another direction, continuing to throw out ck boluses.

    As booms echoed out, the sect leader felt the bizarre effects of the ck boluses, and his face fell. Stamping his foot, he shot after Xu Qing.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in fighting him. He dodged again, then used the flight talisman for speed, continuing to meander through the sect. As a result, the sect leader was also forced to use a flight talisman.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the sect leader chasing Xu Qing, sending out attacks that caused explosions left and right.

    Xu Qing threw out another ck bolus, which exploded, and then he threw out another.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± the sect leader raged. He wanted to do something to stop Xu Qing, but they were both using flight talismans with the same top speed, so the sect leader couldn¡¯t catch up.

    Before long, the constant explosions of ck boluses ensured that the entire Golden Vajra Warrior Sect was filled with vortexes, and shocking levels of mutagen were rushing toward it from all sides. In fact, it almost resembled a forbidden region.

    By the time Xu Qing ran out of pills, the entire sect¡­ was one massive vortex. As the vortex spun, and the mutagen rushed in, the sky was obscured. The mutagen became something like a roiling fog that filled the entire area. Howls and screams rang out from within the fog, as the disciples therein were overwhelmed with astonishment.

    Furthermore, there just weren¡¯t enough disciples to deal with the poison wind, and therefore, the poison powder circted and became part of the fog.

    In all corners of the sect, nts and vegetation withered and died, and even rocks started hissing and melting.

    Agonized shrieks could be heard everywhere.

    The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect was in a really bad state. Thebination of the mutagen and the poison was simply terrifying.

    Furthermore, it all happened in the space of a hundred breaths of time, so quickly that nobody could possibly react fast enough.

    The sect was in such chaos that many disciples were tripping over each other to flee. The poison-negating pills they¡¯d taken weren¡¯t strong enough to deal with the poison, so blood oozed out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as they screamed piteously.

    Some tried to go into hiding, but it didn¡¯t do any good.

    Echoing over everything were the enraged shouts of the sect leader as he chased Xu Qing.

    As the sect descended into absolute madness, Xu Qing sped up and then disappeared in a sh. As the search for him continued, a flicker of fire suddenly appeared within the fog. Those who could see it felt their scalps tingling in shock. The sect leader was astonished, and was forced to abandon his pursuit to lead disciples to put out the fire.

    Unfortunately¡­ there wasn¡¯t just one fire. mes flickered in numerous locations, and quickly spread into a massive congration.

    ¡°Kid!!¡± the sect leader howled, his voice thrumming with hatred. Unfortunately, there was no time to search for Xu Qing, as he was wrapped up dealing with the fires.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was visiting one beautiful sect building after another. He would go inside, rifle around and take any valuables he found, then set the ce on fire before moving on. He kept a very quick pace.

    At a certain point, he noticed a building far more extravagant and beautiful than the others. There also happened to be a que above the door, inscribed with the name of the building.

    Treasure Pavilion?

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing clenched his hand into a fist andunched a blow at the door. The door of the Treasure Pavilion shattered, and poison gas rushed inside. Xu Qing followed, and looked around to see that the walls were covered in shelves. Arrayed on those shelves were all sorts of medicinal pills, spirit coins, and prized treasures.

    As Xu Qing looked around, his heart started pounding. He quickly started grabbing everything he could.

    Just before he was about to leave, he noticed that the poison gas was seeping into a part of the wall that normally wasn¡¯t visible. Looking closer, he saw the very faint outline of a door.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Stepping forward, he kicked the door. The outline of the door became more obvious as a result, but it didn¡¯t break. Making a faint expression of surprise, Xu Qing clenched his hand into a fist. Cracking sounds rang out from within him, and the spectral hobgoblin appeared. Roaring soundlessly, itbined its fist with his, and he unleashed another blow.

    Another boom rang out, and the door copsed, revealing a hidden room behind it.

    There was only one thing inside the room: a cloth bag the size of his palm.

    Shocked, he reached out to grab it.

    However, in that very moment, numerous beams of light erupted from the bag, shooting down to form a symbol on the ground. Then, theplicated symbol glittered as it projected a host of wind des around the bag.

    Xu Qing pulled his hand back and took a close look at the wind des and the bag they protected. It seemed obvious that this was some sort of precious item.

    What is this thing?

    Frowning at the spirit power fluctuations that came off of it, he finally snorted coldly, took out a ck bolus, and crushed it.

    Mutagen rushed into the area, filling the secret room. The symbol on the ground glittered, but wasn¡¯t able to defend against the corrosion caused by the mutagen. It dimmed, then cracking sounds could be heard as the symbol was destroyed.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing grabbed the cloth bag, then turned and fled.

    Outside, he looked around at the chaos in the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, including the howls of grief, the mutagen, the poison gas, and the fires raging. The flight talisman glittered as he flew into the sky, his facial expression as cold as ever.

    He knew full well that he¡¯d only gained an advantage in his sneak attack because the patriarch wasn¡¯t in the sect. The longer he stayed around, the more dangerous things would get.

    His goal had been to show up, kill as many people as possible, destroy as much of the headquarters as he could, and steal anything he could get his hands on. Having aplished those things, he decided to make his getaway.

    However, that was when a howl of rage echoed out, and the disheveled sect leader flew toward him and attacked.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with killing intent as he unleashed the power of the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. The spectral hobgoblin appeared, and heunched a punch at the iing sect leader.

    A boom echoed out, and the sect leader was shoved backward. Then, just as he was about to press the attack, he saw a violet saber forming behind Xu Qing. The heavenly saber shed down, directly toward the sect leader.

    Looking shocked, the sect leader fell back into the poison wind and the mutagen fog, with the violet saber following him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t continue the attack. Eyes shing, he backed up, then turned into a beam of light that shot away at high speed.

    Before he could make his way off into the distance, though, seven figures emerged from the fog andunched vicious attacks.

    The immense power of the attacks shattered the air where Xu Qing had just been hovering, causing massive rumbling sounds to echo out. This seemed to be a strength simr to the Foundation Establishment level!

    If Xu Qing chose to engage instead of dodge, he would have been hit directly by the attack.

    These seven figures were old men whose faces were now pale, with blood oozing out of their mouths. The attack they had justunched was abination move aplished by means of a secret magic. Right now, they were eyeing Xu Qing and trying to decide whether or not to chase him.

    ¡°Dharma Protectors!¡± the sect leader said. ¡°Don¡¯t give chase!¡± The sect leader staggered out of the fog. One of his arms had been severed, and the stump was dripping blood. His face was ashen, and it looked like he could hardly stay on his feet. ¡°That criminal is too cautious. I can¡¯t believe he didn¡¯t press the attack against me earlier. Right now our priority is to clear the poison wind and mutagen from the sect. Then we wait for the patriarch to return!¡±

    The sect leader was feeling very frustrated. He had intentionally sustained injury in the hopes of luring Xu Qing into a fight. In the end, he failed.

    Meanwhile, the seven dharma protectors kept their mouths shut. Some of them helped the sect leader, while the other stared nkly at the chaos in the sect, then sighed and hurried forward to help.

    Slowly but sure, the day passed.

    By the time evening came, the sect was mostly clear of poison and mutagen. As for the former, it mostly came down to the disciples¡¯ wind-type magical techniques. As for thetter¡­ they had to destroy masses of spirit coins and use the resulting pure spirit power to dilute the mutagen.

    It was a huge loss.

    The sect headquarters¡­ was in shambles. Even the grand hall atop the mountain was in ruins, and most of the buildings were copsed or damaged by fire. Restoring things to their former glory was going to be expensive. Even worse, every surviving disciple was polluted with high levels of mutagen. Most were greenish-ck from head to toe, and purifying them would take massive amounts of white boluses and dustpurging pills.

    The sect leader and the dharma protectors were irritated and exhausted when, off in the distance, a beam of light appeared.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had returned.

    He was in bad shape. He had numerous wounds, his hair was disheveled, and he looked furious. After fighting his way out of the forbidden region, he had already promised that he would pay any price to see the Kid dead.

    Then he spotted the sect headquarters in the distance, and he gaped in astonishment before speeding forward and looked down at the ruins.

    When the disciples saw their patriarch, they wept.

    ¡°Patriarch¡­.¡±

    ¡°Patriarch, when you were gone, the Kid came and ran rampant in the sect. Lots of disciples were killed or injured.¡±

    ¡°Patriarch, that goddamn criminal cleared out our Treasure Pavilion! And what he didn¡¯t take, he polluted with mutagen!¡±

    ¡°Patriarch, the Kid has no humanity! So many disciples are poisoned, and we can¡¯t dispel the poison!¡±

    Only the sect leader and dharma protectors didn¡¯t join in.

    As the wails of the disciples filled the air, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked at his destroyed sect, the injured disciples, the sect leader with his severed arm, and the injured dharma protectors. The patriarch slowly started trembling. His face went from ashen white to burning red, and finally, to a livid green color. Staggering in ce, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood.

    Panting, he clenched his hands tightly into fists, and his eyes became so bloodshot he looked like he was ready to eat someone alive. Throwing his head back, he howled, ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you!¡±

    His voice echoed like thunder, but it didn¡¯t quite reach all the way to the teleportation portal in the city of Antlerville.

    Xu Qing stood there in line at the massive portal. The portal itself was constructed atop an octagonal altar, and was covered withplex magical symbols. Every time it activated, brilliant, colorful light rose high into the sky. The portal guards all had extraordinary cultivation bases, and they kept cold eyes on everyone in the line. Based on their disposition, it seemed they were ready to instantly ughter anyone who acted out of line.

    Eventually, everyone in front of Xu Qing teleported away, and he was next in line.

    He walked up to the altar and into the middle of all theplex magical symbols. Then he looked out at the surroundingnds that had been his home for all these years. The setting sun cast gentle light over thends. The breeze in the seventh month was warm, causing his hair to sway as he looked around.

    He looked in the direction of the city ruins. He looked in the direction of the scavenger basecamp. Finally, he looked coldly in the direction of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t over,¡± he murmured. His eyes glittered coldly as the teleportation portal activated, and brilliant light rose high, washing over him until he disappeared.

    A momentter, the light vanished, and Xu Qing was nowhere to be seen.

 Chapter 47: Seven Blood Eyes

    Chapter 47: Seven Blood Eyes

    It was the eighth month, the Limit of Heat. The scorching sun infused the wind with heat, which spread out to warm thends. However, the sr terms were changing, making it obvious that the heat of summer was waning. Eventually, it would have no choice but to watch helplessly as the geese returned and the crows migrated back to their normal haunts. Then, it would wait until the new sr term, White Dew. [1]

    Compared to the people who lived beneath it, the sun had a much easier time seeing the ind below, surrounded by the Sea of Endlessness.

    After all, the continent of South Phoenix was really just an ind. It had an elliptical shape, and was divided in half by a mountain range that ran diagonally from north to south like a crouching dragon. They were called the Mountains of Truth. The part of the ind west of the mountains made up about seventy percent of the continent, and was thergest forbidden region. In fact, it bore the name Forbidden by the Phoenix. It was filled with sinister jungles that covered many ancient ruins, as well as drifting fog, numerous mutant beasts, countless grues, and very strong mutagen. As for thend east of the mountains, it took up about thirty percent of the continent, and was where humankind resided. There happened to be a very unique location there. That was the spot where the northern part of the Mountains of Truth made contact with the sea.

    This location had Forbidden by the Phoenix to the west, humannds to the east, the Sea of Endlessness to the north, and a branch of the Mountains of Truth to the south.

    The topography created thergest port in South Phoenix, where huge cargo ships sailed in and out constantly. Some came from other inds to trade, while others came from¡­ the Revered Ancient maind.

    Being such a strategic point, it was obvious that a powerful organization would want to control the area. And as such, it made sense that this was where Seven Blood Eyes kept their headquarters.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that the city attached to the port was divided into seven sections, with one part being the Port District. Overall, it was an astonishingly beautiful and powerful-looking city.

    This ce was the capital city of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Next to it were seven peaks that were the northern terminus of the Mountains of Truth. Atop each peak was a 300-meter stone statue of an eye. Each eye was a different color, but they all seemed to look out with sharp gazes. Whether it was day or night, those eyes never closed, and in fact, they formed a grand spell formation that covered the area. The seven eyes looked out over thends like the eyes of a massive beast, awe-inspiring and cold, such that anyone who looked at them felt shaken to the core.

    That was the origin of the sect¡¯s name, Seven Blood Eyes.

    In fact, the sect headquarters was made up of the capital city and those seven mountain peaks. The tallest were the Seventh Peak, which was next to the port, and the First Peak. They were like two giants looking out over South Phoenix and casting fear into the hearts of all.

    Although humans upied thirty percent of South Phoenix, theirnds were still full of many dangers. The wilderness was full of mutagen, and many mutant beasts and vicious ouws lurked there.

    Though the mutant beasts weren¡¯t as fierce as those in the forbidden regions, they were still dangerous enough that any humans who left their cities would need to fear for their lives. As for the ouws, given there was now and order in the wilderness, encountering them could be worse than dying.

    Therefore, most humans longed for nothing more than to live in a city.

    And Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ capital city was the grandest city in all of South Phoenix. It was a bustling ce protected by the Seven Blood Eyes Formation, which kept out the mutagen and thus improved the lifespans of everyone who lived inside.

    That was why so many people dreamed of joining Seven Blood Eyes. Many people longed to be a member, and those who became members never wanted to leave. However¡­ the capital city had a lot of very strict rules.

    And there was a proverbial whip hanging over the heads of everyone who lived in the city.

    The name of that whip: survival of the fittest.

    In the city center by the port, three enormous teleportation portals were constantly being opened and closed. They were organized like the character Æ·, and people streamed in and out of them nonstop.

    At one point, one of the teleportation portals red to life, and a young man appeared. He wore a dark jerkin, baggy pants, and hemp sandals. He was covered in dried bloodstains, had wild, unkempt hair, and his face was smudged with grime. However, his eyes sparkled like stars.

    As he stepped out of the portal, he heard the bustle of people and the crash of waves. The wind was humid and warm, causing him to immediately feel sticky. They were all new sensations to this young man, who was of course Xu Qing, just having arrived from Antlerville.

    I¡¯m here¡­.

    Having just experienced teleportation, Xu Qing¡¯s head hurt a bit, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn¡¯t linger on the portal, but stepped off and looked around.

    Everything was operating in an orderly fashion.

    Guards in ck suits of armor patrolled the area. The teleportation portals all had long lines snaking away from them, filled with men and women with packed bags of all sizes. There were also caravans present. All of these people looked hopeful, as though they longed to settle down in the city. These teleportation portals weren¡¯t cheap, which made their hope burn even hotter.

    Xu Qing examined his surroundings as he joined the line that led to the exit.

    Unlike the Antlerville portals, one had to pass an inspection before being allowed out. As he waited, Xu Qing looked outside and saw the vast, dark sea beyond. In another direction were the mountains, which were particrly conspicuous in the evening sun. That was especially true of the seven statues of the eyes, which sent out fluctuations that stretched high into the sky, and made the area above the statues swirl like a vortex. Within that vortex, the swirling clouds seemed to conceal some massive, rare beast that would asionally release a holy growl.

    The scene left Xu Qing feeling shaken.

    Eventually, the person in front of him in line passed inspection, got their jade entry slip, and headed into the city. It was his turn, so he breathed a sigh of relief and focused on the inspection.

    ¡°Present your travel permit and exin the purpose of your visit.¡±

    There was a desk in front of Xu Qing, behind which sat a young man and woman. The young man was handsome and wore a gray robe, but had his eyes closed as if he were sleeping. He emanated intense spirit power fluctuations. The young woman also wore a gray daoist robe, and looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old. She was pretty, with fair skin and glittering eyes that a person could easily be lost in.

    The person who had just spoken was the girl. Looking up at Xu Qing, she seemedpletely oblivious to the grime that covered him. Apparently, she had seen plenty of scavengers like him. After speaking to him, she pulled out a jade slip to record the information he gave. From what Xu Qing could sense, her spirit power fluctuations weren¡¯t very intense, yet for some reason, he felt a sense of danger in her presence.

    Even still, he was certain that in a battle to the death, he could kill her. Calmly reaching into his sack, he pulled out his identity medallion and handed it to her.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Looking surprised, she took the medallion, inspected it, then handed it back to Xu Qing. As she did, her eyes were no longer as cold as before, and in fact, she looked at him with a meaningful expression. ¡°I had no idea you were a new junior brother here to join the sect. I hope you¡­ enjoy your stay in Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    Xu Qing was a bit puzzled by her wording, but he took the identity medallion and then nced at the jade slip, which he had expected her to give him as his entry pass.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need a jade slip for merit points like ordinary people,¡± she exined. ¡°You can just use your identity medallion. That medallion also qualifies you to enter the city. However, let me remind you that you must take the entrance assessment as soon as possible. And try to limate to life in Seven Blood Eyes as quickly as you can¡­.¡±

    Having said that, she ignored him.

    Wrapped up in his thoughts, Xu Qing left the inspection area. As he did, he couldn¡¯t help but notice the envious looks of the people behind him in line. Ducking his head down, he looked at the identity medallion and hurried away.

    After he was gone, the young man behind the desk opened his eyes and smiled.

    ¡°Since when did you be so friendly?¡± he asked. ¡°You offered kind words to a neer, and gave him some advice?¡±

    ¡°Because he had an identity medallion from the Seventh Peak, just like me,¡± she replied coolly. ¡°It was only white, but you never know what will happen in the future. It doesn¡¯t take any merit points to say something nice and offer some advice. If he rises to prominence eventually, today might just count as a lucky encounter for me.¡±

    ¡°Next,¡± she said, beckoning at the next person in line.

    ¡°Come on, there¡¯s no way he has a good future ahead of him,¡± the young man said. ¡°He¡¯s obviously a scavenger. For him, getting a white medallion isn¡¯t going to be some stroke of good fortune. Who knows if he¡¯ll even pass the entry assessment? Besides, how will he even afford the thirty spirit coin living fee, and all the expensive cultivation resources he¡¯ll need? I bet he doesn¡¯tst two months. Either he¡¯ll be expelled, or poof¡ª¡° the young man made a fist, then snapped it open wide ¡±¡ªhe¡¯ll just disappear.¡±

    He spoke softly enough that there was no way for Xu Qing to hear him.

    After all, Xu Qing was already some distance away in the city. As he walked along, he felt more and more shocked. This ce was incredibly prosperous and bustling. Any given building he saw was vastly more luxurious and beautiful than the old city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    Blue-gray tiles were everywhere, as were vibrant green nts. Everything looked very neat and clean.

    There were people in every direction he looked, and their clothes were all clean. Most of them wore silk, and he saw almost nobody in hemp clothing. At the same time, everyone had indifferent expressions as they hurried on their way.

    As the evening grew darker, he noticed colorfulmps andnterns of all varieties. The light they cast made the streets as bright as day. Surprisingly, the buildings on either side of the street were very quiet.

    Off in the distance, he noticed a narrow canal, within which was a small boat. On the boat was a young woman in a daoist robe, her face covered with a veil. She was tossing some medicinal pills into the water, where a host of fish circled, asionally jumping out and creating ripples in the water. He saw some boys jumping into the water as well, struggling with the fish to get the pills. It was a really strange sight.

    Nothing seemed familiar to Xu Qing, so he kept his guard up. This city seemed nothing like the scavenger basecamp, but at the same time, it wasn¡¯t like the small city whose slums he had lived in.

    However, there was one simrity¡­.

    Xu Qing caught a faint, familiar scent in the air. It wasn¡¯t easy to detect, but he had honed his sense of smell in both the slums and scavenger basecamp, and had detected this smell often in both ces. It was the scent of blood. After noticing it, Xu Qing looked around with increased vignce.

    He didn¡¯t walk down the middle of the street. Instead, he stuck to the shadowy areas to the side. That was his custom.

    His n was to find an inn where he could rest. The smell of blood made him want to stay off the street, and he had no interest in investigating where the smell came from. Right now, his priority was to pass the entry assessment, officially join Seven Blood Eyes, and make sure he didn¡¯t have to worry about the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect chasing him down.

    As the evening light faded into darkness, Xu Qing continued to look around for a suitable ce to stay. Darkness grew deeper, the city became quiet, and pedestrians walked faster to reach their destinations.

    Lamplight shone from the buildings, but all doors were closed tight, and there was no sound. Most of the businesses were the same, and the few that still had doors open didn¡¯t have any customers inside.

    By the time the sun finally set, the streets werepletely empty.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he hurried on looking for an inn.

    After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he finally spotted one up ahead, and was about to head toward it when a shadowy figure emerged from a nearby alley, with eight burly men in hot pursuit, vicious grins on their faces.

    ¡°Trying to run? Where do you n to run to?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since we¡¯ve met someone brazen enough to steal merit points from one of our marks!¡±

    Xu Qing saw that the person being pursued was a woman, apparently injured. She stumbled as she ran, and her hair was in disarray, but a vicious expression was on her face.

    Xu Qing looked away. This matter had nothing to do with him, so he simply continued on to the inn.

    However, upon seeing Xu Qing, the young woman¡¯s eyes glittered, and she suddenly yelled, ¡°Hey, you have the merit points now! What are you standing around for? Run!¡±

    Xu Qing red coldly at the woman, wondering if she really thought her clumsy trick would work.

    When he looked at her, she shivered subconsciously as a sensation of icy cold swept through her. In fact, the sensation of danger she got from Xu Qing surpassed that from her pursuers. She suddenly had a very bad feeling, but she couldn¡¯t take her words back now, so she gritted her teeth and kept running.

    1. Here''s the sr terms reference link. ?

 Chapter 48: Buy Corpses?

    Chapter 48: Buy Corpses?

    The sea wind stirred Xu Qing¡¯s hair and caused his baggy pants to ripple. He seemed like an unsheathed de as he stood there with cold eyes watching the woman rush off in another direction. He hesitated. He didn¡¯t want his first act in the city to be a killing, so he looked away and continued toward the inn. However, as the saying went, the tree may wish for quiet, but the wind will not subside.

    As the sea breeze hit the shore, it seemed a fight was brewing.

    Among the eight burly men chasing the woman, one had a vicious scar on his face. He seemed to be the leader. Seeing what was happening, heughed coldly and said, ¡°I don¡¯t care what¡¯s going on here. Grab that boy for me. He has the fluctuations of the sixth or seventh level of body refinement, so he¡¯s probably got some merit points!¡±

    His underlings split up, some of them running to grab the woman, and the others heading toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned as he sized up the situation. The four mening after him were all cultivators, and they seemed to be in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. From the look of it, they focused on body refinement.

    He really didn¡¯t want his first act in the city to be a killing, so he backed away from them and growled, ¡°I don¡¯t know her.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, whoreson! It¡¯s bad luck for you either way!¡±

    One of the burly menughed coldly andunched a fist strike. The other three also prepared attacks, with one of them pulling out a de. The moonlight shining on the weapon made it obvious it was coated in poison.

    There were some people in the world who loved to dance in front of the gates of hell. Xu Qing had hoped to avoid a fight, but since these people wereing at him with killing intent, he had no choice. Without a word, he stopped in ce and retreated no further.

    Then he lunged forward as fast as lightning, moving past his attacker¡¯s fist and putting his left hand on the man¡¯s forehead. The speed with which he moved was nothing short of astonishing.

    A popping sound rang out. There was no scream. Xu Qing was already as strong as the great circle of body refinement, and thus, his movement caused the man¡¯s head to instantly explode. Blood and gore rained down in a mist as Xu Qing walked forward, his expression calm. Bypassing the de held by the next opponent, Xu Qing used his shoulder to strike a blow.

    The de wielder¡¯s torso shattered.

    Next, Xu Qingunched ranged fist attacks at the two remaining men.

    They tried to retreat, but the pulse of the attack moved through the air and mmed into them, caving in their chests and causing blood to erupt from their mouths. They fell to the ground, dead.

    In the space of two breaths of time, Xu Qing had killed all four men.

    The sight of this caused the other four men to stop and stare at Xu Qing with their jaws hanging open.

    ¡°M-mis¡­ misunderstanding¡­ we¡­.¡± stammered the leader. Gone was his arrogant attitude from before, and he was literally shaking. Seeing the cold look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he stumbled backward, his mind reeling.

    As he did, Xu Qing started moving.

    A momentter, the other three men in the group coughed up mouthfuls of blood as gaping holes appeared in their temples. They toppled over, dead.

    Walking past them, Xu Qing wiped the blood from his hands and then went after the fleeing leader.

    When Xu Qing killed, he made sure to wipe out any and all potential cmities.

    In a sh, he was right in front of the man, whereupon he raised his hand. Before he could drop it, though, the man started babbling.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist, I work for the Night King. Don¡¯t do anything rash¡­.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand stopped moving, and he looked at the ashen-faced, trembling man. ¡°Are you a Seven Blood Eyes disciple?¡±

    Looking surprised, the man replied, ¡°Not Seven Blood Eyes, but¡ª¡°

    Before he could finish, Xu Qing¡¯s hand dropped onto the man¡¯s skull. A thump rang out, and blood sprayed.

    Xu Qing bent down and searched the corpse. Then he looked off into the night. Not being familiar with theyout of the city, he didn¡¯t bother trying to find the fleeing woman, who was long gone. However, he would remember what she looked like.

    Looking at the corpses in the street, he was trying to decide what to do with them when he suddenly turned in the direction of the inn and tensed in preparation for a fight.

    Standing just outside the door of the inn was an old man who had appeared there moments ago. He wore the robe of an innkeeper, had a hunched back, and the sallow skin of his face had age spots. He looked somewhat sickly. Seeing Xu Qing looking at him, he shed a smile full of yellow teeth.

    ¡°Interested in selling those corpses, boy? I see eight of them. I¡¯ll give you ten spirit coins a piece.¡±

    Xu Qing was taken aback. This was the first time he had ever heard of someone buying corpses. Instead of answering the old man, he looked back and started sprinkling Corpse-Ravaging Powder on the corpses.

    The old man just shook his head. ¡°Ah, what a pity. Recently killed corpses are the freshest.¡±

    When Xu Qing was done, he looked back at the inn and wondered if he should really stay there.

    Seeing his hesitation, the old man smiled. ¡°I can tell you¡¯re new around here. I¡¯m the only ce open right now. Everywhere else is closed. It¡¯ll cost you 80 spirit coins or 80 merit points. We offer fair prices to all.¡±

    ¡°Merit points?¡± Xu Qing said. He had heard the woman at the teleportation portal check station mention the same thing.

    The old man grinned. ¡°You really are new here, aren¡¯t you? You¡¯ll learn more about merit pointster. Suffice it to say, they¡¯re worth the same as spirit coins.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. Everything here was so strange. Spirit coins and merit points were worth the same. Corpses could be sold. And rooms were expensive.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stingy, now!¡± the old man said with an insincere smile. ¡°Nights in this city are anything but peaceful, and all the other inns are closed by now. Plus, I only have two rooms left.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the sky to determine the time, then turned back to the old man. As he considered what to do, he noticed a shadowy figure suddenly rush toward the inn entrance, trailing blood as he ran.

    It was a cultivator. Without a word to the old man, he handed over a bag of spirit coins and then disappeared into the inn.

    ¡°Now I only have one room left,¡± the old man said, patting the bag.

    Xu Qing decided to just pay for a room. After handing over the spirit coins, he went inside to a room on the second floor. Before going inside, he looked over the balcony at the old man, who was now smoking a pipe behind the main counter.

    ¡°What do you buy corpses for?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The old man looked up at him and smiled. ¡°I have a pet that loves to eat them. Sadly, you didn¡¯t want to sell. But if you have more corpses to sellter on, let me know. I¡¯ll give you a good price.¡±

    With a final look at the old man, Xu Qing entered the room. After inspecting everything for safety, he opened the window and looked out into the night.

    The city was dark, but the moon hung high in the sky, covering the city in a veil of gauzy light. Off in the distance, he heard the cry of the sea birds, and the crash of the waves. There were lighthouses casting beams of light out over the water, and he could just barely make out huge ships floating in the port.

    Seeing all this, he thought back to what the young woman at the teleportation portal had said. Now more than ever, he felt like this city was a deep pool of water filled with hidden dangers. He now knew where the smell of blood came from. In fact, he had just added to it. Actually, other than the nice buildings and clean surroundings, this ce wasn¡¯t very different from the other ces he¡¯d lived.

    This really is a world of chaos.

    Right now, his biggest priority was the entry assessment.

    I shouldn¡¯t have trouble passing the assessment, but I should still make sure I¡¯m ready. And I should n what to do afterward. I still have to worry about Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. He¡¯s the biggest threat to me now. I have to get stronger as fast as possible so that I can kill him.

    Such thoughts upied his mind as the night grew deeper. He did not hear the sound of mutant beasts or grues, but the wind carried with it the faint sound of shouting and raucousughter, making the darkness seem alive with humanity.

    Xu Qing ignored all that and took out the small cloth bag he¡¯d taken from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. He had examined it briefly while on the road, and had been shocked. The bag seemed small, being only the size of his palm. However, it opened into a different space, which contained enough room to fit a small table. Xu Qing had heard of items like this back in the scavenger basecamp. They were called bags of holding. Whether in the slums or the basecamp, items like this were incredibly rare and valuable. In fact, you couldn¡¯t even buy them.

    Losing this bag of holding was going to be a huge blow to the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. And that wasn¡¯t to mention that it contained a medicinal pill bottle. In that bottle were over thirty dustpurging pills.

    And even more amazing than that, Xu Qing found 111¡­ spirit stones!

    Xu Qing had never seen spirit stones before, but one time at dinner, Sergeant Thunder had talked about them. They were rarer than spirit coins, such that one spirit stone was worth 1,000 spirit coins. They contained immense spirit power, and could even be used for cultivation purposes if necessary. Even one spirit stone was incredibly precious.

    Compared to the bag of holding and the spirit stones, all the other things he took from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect weren¡¯t worth mentioning.

    After examining everything, Xu Qing put them in order. One thing was certain: he was rich. From the time he was small until now, he had never possessed such wealth.

    If I pass the entry assessment, then this should be enough to keep me going in the city for a while, and further my cultivation¡­. With that, he closed his eyes to start his daily cultivation routine.

    Regardless of where he ended up, or how the entry assessment went, Xu Qing had to keep furthering his cultivation. That was the foundation of everything, and the best way to make sure he stayed alive. In the chaotic world he lived in, even things that seemed as certain as the sun rising and setting¡­ could change at any time.

    Anything was possible.

    The only thing that didn¡¯t change was that the weak were the prey of the strong.

    Furthermore¡­ in Xu Qing¡¯s experience, the more people there were in a ce, the more danger there was. After all, people had treacherous hearts that were often hard to read. And that was truer than ever in this dangerous and mysterious capital city of Seven Blood Eyes.

    To Xu Qing, this ce might as well be a forbidden region.

    Just a different type than those from before.

 Chapter 49: Godly Blood

    Chapter 49: Godly Blood

    The night passed.

    The morning light wasn¡¯t as intense as it was during midday, but it still shone aggressively through the window and into Xu Qing¡¯s room. The sunlight didn¡¯t seem to care whether anyone was willing or not. Unless you hid in the shadows, it would find its way down and shine on you. And it was warm enough to wake a sleeping person.

    Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes. He looked at the window, soaked in the sunshine for a bit, and once his blood was pumping, he got up. After doing some stretches to warm up, he opened the door, carefully peered outside, then walked out.

    The city waspletely different during the daytimepared to night. Food carts sold breakfast items, as did many of the shops. People slowly filled the streets, just as detached and in a hurry as the day before. Everyone moved around as if they had a lot of pressure to deal with on a daily basis. asionally, he could hear the sound of children reading books in ss, echoing out from behind the walls of some of the buildings. That, at least, gave the impression of an ordinary pace of life.

    As Xu Qing walked along, he thought back to one of the medicinal nts Grandmaster Bai had lectured about. It was called a doublelife orchid, and it was a strange flower that contained an indivisible symbiosis of light and darkness.

    Are all big cities like this?

    Young people were in the crowd, buying food and moving at a faster pace than the adults.

    Before long, he felt like he was getting used to the environment. After buying a simple breakfast, he started asking around about the entry assessment.

    Apparently, the city residents were all familiar with the subject. Xu Qing quickly learned where to go, and found that he needed to arrive by noontime. For the rest of the morning, he spent time familiarizing himself with theyout of the capital city.

    Given the time constraints, he got a general idea, but the city was too big for him to take in after only a few short hours. The city was probably ten thousand times asrge as the scavenger basecamp, and what was more, there were areas only Seven Blood Eyes disciples were allowed to enter.

    Eventually, he checked the time by looking at the sun in the sky, then headed toward the entry assessment. It was located at the southern edge of the city, in the foothills of the Mountains of Truth.

    Further south from the city were the sects¡¯ seven mountain peaks. From a distance, it was possible to see paths that wound through the greenery to the top of the peaks.

    The assessment area was arge square surrounded by a glittering shield of light that only people with identity medallions could pass through.

    When Xu Qing arrived, he saw a few dozen people already present, most of them seventeen or eighteen years old. Some wore simple clothing, others were dressed in finery. Some were clean from head to toe, others were covered in grime like Xu Qing. They were all people with identity medallions who hade from near and far to participate in the assessment.

    In the middle of the square stood three middle-aged cultivators who emanated spirit power fluctuations so terrifying that they surpassed Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    They chatted with each other as they waited for the assessment time to arrive, though they asionally nced at the gathering group of new arrivals.

    Xu Qing assessed the scene cautiously.

    He wasn¡¯t someone who liked to socialize, so he found a ce off to the side where he could stand alone. There he waited and observed the other people here for the assessment. Most of them seemed to be preparing their cultivation bases.

    One person stood out to him, a young man in a long, blue gown, with a fan in his hand. His clothing looked expensive, and he was handsome. Furthermore, his casual, approachable attitude had caused a small crowd to form around him.

    ¡°I can exin some basics for everybody,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°The capital city of Seven Blood Eyes has seven districts that correspond to the seven mountain peaks. Those seven peaks all specialize in different things, and have their own unique aspects.

    ¡°For example, the Seventh Peak governs the Port District, and is very powerful. They have unique cultivation techniques, so the disciples from there have astounding battle prowess. They also travel a lot, and have a special connection to the Forbidden Sea.

    ¡°The First Peak is often considered the outward-facing sword of the sect. Their members do a lot of training in Forbidden by the Phoenix, and are iparably grim warrior cultivators. They seldom go out to sea, and prefer to live and die in the forbidden regions.

    ¡°Those two peaks are the gships of Seven Blood Eyes, and they recruit a lot of disciples every year. That said, they have very strict requirements. You don¡¯t get to pick them, they pick you! Without a special identity medallion, you can¡¯t get into them. The other mountain peaks also have identity medallions, but the requirements aren¡¯t as strict. Depending on how well you do when you pass the assessment, you might be able to pick one of the Peaks, or they might pick you. The Sixth Peak specializes in equipment forging, the Fifth Peak in formations, the Fourth Peak in beast-taming, the Third Peak in magical techniques, and the Second Peak in the dao of alchemy.

    ¡°Regardless of which peak you select, you won¡¯t have the right to earn profit from Seven Blood Eyes until you¡¯re a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Before then, life is brutal, unless you be a conve disciple¡­. In any case, you¡¯ll see what I mean after you pass the assessment.¡±

    All of the surrounding assessment-takers listened to his exnation, including Xu Qing. He took special note of the mention of brutality, and also profit. He fully understood the meaning of the first term, but when it came to the second, he had questions. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to ponder the issue.

    At the moment, he was trying to decide which peak would be the best fit for him.

    I¡¯m pretty familiar with forbidden regions, he thought, and that made him wonder if the First Peak was the best one for him. That said, he wasn¡¯t sure what type of identity medallion he had.

    As he thought about it, the sound of bells rang out from the seven peaks.

    The three cultivators in the middle of the square stopped talking, and suddenly looked very solemn. The one in the middle nced at the dozens of assessment-takers, and then said, ¡°Silence!¡±

    His voice didn¡¯t seem very loud, yet it crashed like thunder in the ears of the gathered crowd. The young man in blue stopped talking, and the other people all stood there looking nervous. Xu Qing, meanwhile, had a calm facial expression.

    ¡°It¡¯s time for the assessment,¡± the cultivator continued. ¡°There are three phases. If you pass all of them, you¡¯ll earn a thousand merit points. Take first ce overall, and you¡¯ll receive an additional reward. The first phase of the assessment involves checking your mutagen levels!

    ¡°Before we begin, though,e up one at a time and hand us your identity medallion. State your surname and given name, and don¡¯t hide anything from us. If you vite any rules, you¡¯ll be punished severely!¡±

    In response to the instructions, the young man in blue rolled his eyes and walked forward. After handing over his identity medallion, he raised his voice and said, ¡°I¡¯m Zhou Qingpeng. Greetings, Seniors.¡± [1]

    Hearing his loud, clear voice, the three middle-aged cultivators nodded in approval.

    A second person walked up, then another, until six had already gone through the line. Finally, Xu Qing went up, respectfully handed over his identity medallion, and after a short moment of hesitation, said, ¡°I¡¯m Xu Qing. Greetings, Seniors.¡±

    It felt strange to Xu Qing, as it had been a long time since he told someone his real name. In fact, it was nearly seven years at this point.

    Bowing his head, he backed away.

    The three middle-aged cultivators looked over all the identity medallions, but didn¡¯t spare any more attention for the assessment-takers.

    With the initial formalities out of the way, the first phase of the assessment began.

    The first phase was simple. One of the middle-aged cultivators waved his hand, causing a three-meter-tall bluish stone to appear. It dropped onto the surface of the square with a thump, sending out a cloud of dust in all directions.

    ¡°Step up in the same order you just presented your identity medallions,¡± he said. ¡°Simply ce your hand on the surface of the stone.¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng walked up first.

    Xu Qing watched how he put his hand on the stone, and then noted how it glittered with light as aplex design appeared on its surface. Within that design were more than forty points of glowing light.

    ¡°Forty-two,¡± said one of the middle-aged cultivators, nodding. ¡°Not bad. You pass.¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng looked pleased as he backed up to watch everyone else take their turn. As the testing proceeded, Xu Qing soon realized what was happening. The higher the number, the more mutagen one had in one¡¯s body. And anyone with a number higher than one hundred was told they didn¡¯t meet the standard.

    I bet I don¡¯t have any in me, Xu Qing thought, his eyes narrowing. Given that this was his first day, he didn¡¯t want to make a big scene that made him the center of attention. That just wasn¡¯t how he did things.

    That said, if he didn¡¯t do well enough on this assessment, it could affect his future prospects in the sect. So after a while, he nced down at his shadow and carefully tapped into the mutagen it had stored within it.

    As he did that, he heard exmations of surprise around him.

    ¡°Thirty-four! Outstanding!¡± The middle-aged cultivator sounded shocked at this. Xu Qing looked up and saw a young woman about the same age as himself standing in front of the bluish stone. She was dressed simr to him, had a grime-covered face, and seemed to be a scavenger. She looked so nervous she wasn¡¯t willing to meet anyone¡¯s eyes, but she sped hands respectfully to the officiating cultivator and hurried back into line.

    I think her name was Li Zimei. [2]

    Looking away from her, he walked up to the stone and put his hand on it. The light glittered, and the symbol appeared, then glowing dots started to pop up.

    The middle-aged cultivator nced at him and nodded. ¡°Forty-three. Very good. You pass.¡±

    Xu Qing pulled his hand away and walked back in line. Once he released control of his shadow, the mutagen that had seeped into his body was sucked back out again.

    Forty-three wasn¡¯t amazing, but it was good enough as far as Xu Qing was concerned.

    He was right. Of the over sixty assessment-takers, only neen had a number less than fifty. And there were twenty who surpassed a hundred. Those twenty had somber, ashen faces.

    ¡°The final assessment score is abination of all three phases,¡± said another of the middle-aged cultivators, a man with a long face, a somber air, and a hoarse voice. ¡°The next phase tests the strength of your will. Everyone sit down cross-legged.¡±

    The assessment-takersplied, Xu Qing included. Looking up at the long-faced cultivator, he tried to guess what a test of will would be like.

    The long-faced cultivator waved his hand, and a small silver bottle appeared in his fingers, inscribed with numerous magical symbols. It looked ancient, and at the same time, gave the sense that it contained something very special. With the bottle out in the open, the other two test officiators stood by somberly.

    ¡°Inside this bottle is a drop of blood that has been diluted countless times over. When the blood is in the open, it will unleash a wave of might. If you can¡¯t handle it, bite your tongue to draw blood and give up.¡±

    With that, he opened the bottle and poured the contents onto the bluish stone.

    Xu Qing looked closely as a drop of viscous, golden liquid emerged. When the golden liquid touched the stone, brilliant light shot up, golden in color, apanied by a roar that seemed to emanate from ancient times.

    All of a sudden, the image of an enormous eye appeared.

    A host of tentacles erupted from the eye, but along with that gruish sight came a feeling of utter holiness. It was like the god above gazing down coldly at all living things.

    The assessment-takers sitting there cross-legged felt their minds reel as heavenly lightning was exploding in their head. Then they trembled as if they had lost control of their own bodies, and were being ripped out of themselves. They began to shiver in the depths of their souls, while at the same time, they felt an instinctual sense of immense fear. Madness rose up in their heart, and many hovered on the verge of losing their minds. Almost instantly, three people coughed up blood and copsed, screaming.

    Zhou Qingpeng and Li Zimei looked pale in the face, and were trembling visibly. They even had blood leaking out of their eyes and noses.

    Xu Qing was unique. Though he was also shaking, he was also profoundly shocked because¡­ this eye seemed familiar to him!

    Back when the eyes of the god above opened, Xu Qing had looked up, and had felt a sense of might¡­ exactly the same as this!

    1. Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s surname Zhou is listed #10 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It has a variety of meanings. Qing is the same character from Xu Qing¡¯s name, and means ¡°green, blue, cyan,¡± etc. Peng refers to the giant mythical bird that¡¯s also part of the ¡°kunpeng¡± mythical creature. This is sometimes tranted ¡°roc¡± (as I did in ISSTH). Madam Deathde says this sounds like the name of a lively, energetic young man. Zhou is pronounced like themon English name Joe. Qing starts with a CH sound, so Qingpeng is pronounced roughly like ¡°cheeng-pung.¡± ?

    2. Li Zimei: Li is listed #2 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡°plum.¡± The Zi character is a verymon character that has no real meaning in the name. Mei is another word for ¡°plum¡± or possibly ¡°plum flower.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds sort of old-fashioned, like the name of someone from a vige. She also says it sounds like the name belonging to a quiet person. ?

 Chapter 50: Seventh Peak

    Chapter 50: Seventh Peak

    One difference was that the god¡¯s face had eyes with pupils that resembled crucifixes, while this illusory eye had a vertical pupil. What was more,pared to what he¡¯d felt when the city he lived in was turned into a forbidden region, the current sense of might was like a fireflypared to the sun.

    It had to be because of how much the drop of blood in the bottle had been diluted. If it had been a pure drop of blood, the mightiness would have been terrifying.

    But even then, that level of might would have been as different from the open eyes of the god above as heaven was from earth.

    Regardless, Xu Qing was shaken to the core. Only part of that was the physical reaction, though. The rest came from how this event was changing his view of the world.

    Don¡¯t tell me Seven Blood Eyes has actually extracted blood from the god above? No, that¡¯s impossible.... The feeling I get is roughly the same, but one is very different from the other. Does that mean that... there are other god-like beings alive in this world?

    That conjecture caused Xu Qing to suddenly want to learn much, much more about the world around him.

    The rumbling continued, and more people coughed up blood. About half of them couldn¡¯t hold out, and copsed into unconsciousness, whereupon the long-faced cultivator took them away. Eventually, only three other people were left. One of them was Zhou Qingpeng, another was Li Zimei, and third was a young man who, though he wasn¡¯t dressed like a scavenger, wore simple clothes that indicated he came from a small city. Finally, that third young man couldn¡¯t take it any longer, and gave up.

    Now, there were only three remaining, including Xu Qing. If he wanted to, he could put on an act during this test of will, to make himself seem weaker than he was. But in the face of this cold god, he didn¡¯t want to.

    He refused to yield. He stared into the eye, his muscles tensed, his heart pounding, his will pushing against the eye.

    I survived under the gaze of the broken god face. So how could I possibly yield to a bit of watered-down blood like this?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, and he was shaking from head to toe. His blood screamed at him, but after his harsh tempering in the slums, and his training in the forbidden region, his will had be strong, and he held firm.

    Eventually, he was the only one left standing, which left the rest of the assessment-takers shocked as they watched.

    Even the long-faced cultivator and his twopanions were visibly surprised. After all, Xu Qing had been holding on for a long time. In the months since this specific assessment had been administered, Xu Qing was one of only three people who hadsted this long.

    ¡°I wonder if he¡¯ll get past the final wave.¡±

    ¡°Nobody¡¯s seeded at that so far this year.¡±

    As the cultivators shared these words, the melting of the golden liquid passed the halfway point. However... as it was about to fade awaypletely, the illusory eye twitched, and then seemed to stare intently at Xu Qing.

    Terrifying pressure converged on him, as though this god demanded that he yield. Mountain-toppling, sea-draining force crushed down on him. He shook, and his head slowly began to bow, as though forced by the pressure.

    Seeing this, the three assessment officiators looked surprised, and closely observed what was happening.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s head bowed, he shook harder, and then slowly lifted his chin. Veins bulged on his forehead, but his eyes were as cold and unyielding as those of a wolf.

    Staring at the illusory eye, he tapped into the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, forcing power to erupt from within him and form the spectral hobgoblin. It was many meters tall, with pitch ck skin, twin, spiraling horns, violet eyes, and a gaping red mouth. ring at the eye, it unleashed a soundless roar.

    ROAR!!

    Xu Qing also roared at the illusory eye.

    As he did, a tremor passed through him, as though his mind had been struck with a hammer. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and the hobgoblin disappeared. However, the eye also faded away into nothing.

    It was over.

    Xu Qing panted for breath, and his head ached, but he struggled to his feet, wiped the blood from his mouth, then sped hands and bowed to the three officiators. Then he walked back into line.

    The spectators were looking at Xu Qing as if he were some sort of freak, and all of them had expressions of utter disbelief on their faces.

    ¡°Was that... a projection of energy and blood?¡± someone said. ¡°That¡¯s what you see at the great circle of body refinement. It¡¯s the same as the great circle of Qi Condensation!¡±

    Numerous gasps could be heard.

    Xu Qing simply stood there with his eyes closed as the pain in his head slowly dissipated. At the same time, he felt stronger than before. It was like when metal was pounded over and over again, turning it into something sharper and stronger.

    This second phase of the assessment... had brought good fortune to Xu Qing. He had acquired something as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns. [1]

    It was actually a shock to him. He could tell that his perceptions had grown sharper, and his will, tougher. Of course, thetter was impossible to test out, so he wasn¡¯t absolutely sure if he was right.

    ¡°Excellent!¡± said the long-faced cultivator, looking at Xu Qing with an approving nod. ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing, right? Since you endured the final wave of might from the second phase, you¡¯ll experience an increase in psychic power. Consider the blood of a godly entity as a grindstone that can sharpen your will to iparable levels!¡±

    ¡°Godly entity?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the long-faced cultivator.

    The man didn¡¯t offer any exnation, but instead looked away andunched into the third phase of assessments.

    The final officiator was the third cultivator. He had a round face with small eyes that glittered sharply. Walking out in front of hispanions, he said, ¡°The third phase isbat, in which you¡¯ll fight illusory versions of mutant beasts.¡±

    The round-faced cultivator pointed at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You, Xu Qing, won¡¯t need to participate. Evidently, you¡¯ve practiced body refinement to the point of unleashing a projection of energy and blood. In other words, you have battle prowess equivalent to the great circle. There¡¯s no point in you participating in the third phase, so you are officially the first person to pass the assessment.¡±

    The other assessment-takers looked at Xu Qing enviously, but none of them offered any words ofint.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior,¡± Xu Qing said, sping hands and bowing deeply. He wasn¡¯t a big talker, but when he was shown favor, he would respond with courtesy.

    The third phase began. While the others participated, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged to settle his psyche. By the time the third phase was over, he was mostly recovered.

    Based on what he could sense, it seemed to him like his perception and awareness were twice as good as before. As of now, he could observe things such as the way the breeze stirred the grass. This development caused his heart to beat with excitement.

    The grindstone of will worked wonders.... Once I¡¯m done here, I need to go test my level of control over my shadow. I bet it¡¯s improved.

    After the third phase of the assessment was over, and everyone was back in their original positions, Xu Qing stood and joined them. Some distance away, the officiators were making their final decisions.

    It¡¯s too bad the First Peak requires a special identity medallion, Xu Qing thought, looking at his own medallion and wondering where he would end up.

    A momentter, the results were announced. Of the sixty participants, a small group didn¡¯t meet the qualifications. They were told that, having failed to be members of Seven Blood Eyes, they had two hours to leave the sect. If they stayed longer, the sect¡¯s spell formation would automatically kill them.

    When Xu Qing heard that, his pupils constricted. Meanwhile, the people who had failed looked both frightened and dejected.

    But then another option was presented to them. If they had enough spirit stones to buy merit points, they could stay in the city and live as ordinary citizens. All it cost was thirty merit points per day. The disciples who passed the assessment had to pay the same fee, but they also earned the privilege of being able to buy cultivation resources from the sect. Xu Qing was a bit confused by how all this worked, but assumed he would figure it outter.

    After this, the long-faced cultivator announced the Peak assignments.

    ¡°Zhen Han. First Peak.

    ¡°Zhao Chungang. Third Peak.

    ¡°Zhou Qingpeng. Seventh Peak.¡±

    There were five people assigned to the first peak, three to the seventh, and the rest of the five peaks got about six or seven each.

    As the man announced the names, Xu Qing quietly waited to hear his own assignment.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Seventh Peak.¡±

    After announcing Xu Qing¡¯s assignment, the long-faced cultivator looked at the group of young men and women and said, ¡°Those of you who passed the assessment will be rewarded with a thousand merit points. As for Xu Qing, who took first ce, he will receive ten thousand merit points.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that, he sucked in a breath. Just getting to the Seventh Peak was a good thing, but getting that much wealth as a reward was quite a shock.

    Doing some quick mental math, he determined that since merit points were worth the same as spirit coins, his ten thousand merit points were worth ten thousand spirit coins. And if you converted the spirit coins, it meant he had ten spirit stones.

    That¡¯s so much!

    The long-faced cultivator produced a jade slip and made some adjustments to it. A momentter, Xu Qing felt his identity medallion vibrating. Looking down, he saw the ancient character for ¡®ten thousand¡¯ appear on its surface.

    However, a momentter, it changed into nine thousand, nine hundred, and ny-nine. It was missing one!

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    The other disciples who had passed the assessment also looked at their identity medallion, and many of them looked rueful. A momentter, the long-faced cultivator started taking away the disciples in small groups.

    Meanwhile, the round-faced cultivator approached Xu Qing, nced at his identity medallion, and then smiled faintly. ¡°Ignore that for the time being. I¡¯ll exin everythingter.¡±

    With that, he gathered the other disciples who were now assigned to the Seventh Peak. Then he led them toward the mountain itself.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m going to take you to visit the headquarters of the Seventh Peak. Cherish this opportunity, it could well be the only time you ever go up the mountain!¡±

    1. To be clear, this expression about phoenix feathers and qilin horns is amon Chinese idiom. I¡¯m directly tranting it for vor purposes. It¡¯s not intended to imply anything about the rarity/existence of phoenixes or qilins in the world of the story. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter marks the end of theunch day mass release. I hope you all are enjoying the story up to this point!

    I would like to thank the team who has been helping out behind the scenes: Hawk 9211, Jeddrick, Lorin Bucure, Saline Prune, Sara K., Senior Nepuko, Stompound, The Fiery Moth. And thanks to UnifiedDivide for proofreading.

    If you like the trantion, please consider leaving a review. They help, and I¡¯ll be sure to give you a shoutout.

    And finally, if you¡¯d like more chapters, you can be a Champion and get early ess to (as of right now) six chapters. I¡¯ll be adding more advance chapters in theing days.

 Chapter 51: A Boat for Life

    Chapter 51: A Boat for Life

    The evening sun cast its light on a small path that ran up the mountain. The sunlight looked like a fine, golden gauzeid over little stone steps, and made everything seem holy. Walking up the steps was like walking on sunshine and heading into gloriousness. On either side of the path were leafy, flowering nts. The mountain wind carried the aroma of flowers and soil, whichbined with damp sea air to fill a person¡¯s heart and mind. There were also many trees, within which echoed the melodious sound of singing birds, as if they had specificallyposed music for anyone who walked this path, including the current group of people.

    There were five people, including the round-faced cultivator in the lead, his hands sped behind his back as he introduced the sect to Xu Qing and the others.

    ¡°Since all of you have sessfully be members of Seven Blood Eyes, allow me to exin a bit about the sect. Actually, from my perspective, Seven Blood Eyes isn¡¯t even a sect. It just calls itself a sect, when in fact, it¡¯s a very profitable business!¡±

    The four new disciples were all shocked to hear this.

    Including Xu Qing, the group was made up of Zhou Qingpeng, Li Zimei, and another young woman named Xu Xiaohui. She wore her hair in a ponytail, and had ordinary clothes. Obviously she wasn¡¯t from a rich family, but neither was she a scavenger. She was probably from a small city somewhere. [1]

    She¡¯d tried to make some conversation with Xu Qing, but that wasn¡¯t his forte, and besides, he didn¡¯t like people getting too close to him, so he just nodded in response to her. Eventually, she¡¯d shifted to trying to cozy up to Zhou Qingpeng.

    Zhou Qingpeng had a warm, affable smile, quite the opposite of the taciturn Xu Qing. Because of that, he and Xu Xiaohui got along well immediately, and conversed in low tones here and there as they walked along.

    Li Zimei seemed reserved and cautious, perhaps to the point of feeling inferior, so she brought up the rear, and also kept her distance from everyone else.

    Zhou Qingpeng took the initiative to include both Xu Qing and Li Zimei in the conversation, and was very friendly with them. As a result, Li Zimei soon warmed up to everyone else.

    The mountain breeze stirred everyone¡¯s hair as they walked along and the round-faced cultivator continued to introduce the sect.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes is divided into two parts that we call Onpeak and Offpeak. They¡¯re really twopletely different worlds. As for you four, you¡¯re... Offpeak disciples. Only Foundation Establishment cultivators qualify for Onpeak life. They also get a split of the profit generated by Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°Offpeak disciples live in a world of cruelty and bitterness. They have to struggle to survive. Because of that, Offpeak disciples long to eventually be promoted to the Onpeak world. Do you know how many people live in the Offpeak capital city?¡±

    The round-faced cultivator looked at the young men and women following him. None of them volunteered an answer.

    ¡°3,000,000 people!¡± he said, holding up three fingers. ¡°Most of the poption is made up of ordinary citizens, but it also includes the low-ranking disciples from the various peaks. As of now, that includes you.

    ¡°Like everyone else, you need to abide by the rules of Seven Blood Eyes. Those rules are actually simple. All Offpeak people, includingmon citizens and disciples, have to pay thirty merit points per day to live in the city. Thirty spirit coins are also eptable. They¡¯ll be deducted from your identity medallion every day, as you already experienced earlier. If your bnce is ever negative, you¡¯ll be expelled from Seven Blood Eyes. That goes for both ordinary citizens and disciples. If you refuse to leave, then within two hours, you¡¯ll be killed by the spell formation.¡±

    Xu Qing looked just as surprised as everyone else to learn this. Even Zhou Qingpeng looked a bit fearful.

    ¡°Of course, that¡¯s just the base fee. You have to figure out your own food and lodging. It¡¯s survival of the fittest. Things in our capital city are very expensive, and most expensive of all are the cultivation resources.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response to this information, and the other three new disciples seemed shaken.

    After a moment, Xu Xiaohui hesitantly asked, ¡°Since that¡¯s the case, why do so many ordinary citizens want to live here? Thirty spirit coins a day is... one spirit stone a month. That¡¯s too expensive. Furthermore, if we as disciples have to pay the same merit point fee, then what exactly is the benefit of being a disciple?¡±

    The round-faced cultivator looked at Xu Xiaohui.

    ¡°It¡¯s not cheap to teleport here. So, by default, the people who doe here are skilled and resourceful. Theye because they want the best. In the capital city, we keep everyone safe. Disciples are not allowed to wantonly ughter innocent people, and what¡¯s more... the spell formation keeps out mutagen and extends one¡¯s lifespan.

    ¡°Compared to life outside, where the mutagen is everywhere, and beasts and ouws run amok, our capital city is naturally a ce most people only dream ofing to.

    ¡°As for the benefit of being a disciple?

    ¡°First, only disciples get ess to cultivation resources. Other people aren¡¯t allowed to buy them. Furthermore, it¡¯s against the rules to resell cultivation resources outside. Do that, and you¡¯ll be executed.

    ¡°Second, only disciples who cultivate Seven Blood Eyes techniques can, after reaching Foundation Establishment, get the right to live Onpeak and also get a split of the profits. You four need to work hard going forward. By the way, though the sect prohibits disciples from killing each other, every month... there are a lot of disciples who mysteriously go missing. The sect basically turns a blind eye to it. They figure it¡¯s like putting venomous bugs in a jar and letting them fight it out. Casualties are to be expected.

    ¡°If a Foundation Establishment cultivator from outside the sectes to cause problems for our Qi Condensation disciples, that person will be immediately punished for viting the rules. That said, Seven Blood Eyes doesn¡¯t pay attention to outside Qi Condensation cultivators.¡±

    The round-faced cultivator gave them a meaningful smile.

    Hearing this, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief, as that was one of the main reasons he¡¯de to Seven Blood Eyes.

    Off to the side, Li Zimei hesitantly asked another question. ¡°Given all of this, how does the sect create a sense of belonging among the disciples here? What¡¯s the unifying force?¡±

    The round-faced cultivatorughed heartily.

    ¡°Unifying force? What exactly do you mean by unifying force? Friendship is a type of unity. As is gratefulness. And reverence. But none of those are very reliable. In the brutal, chaotic world we live in, the only thing that provides a true sense of belonging, and the only true unifying force, is profit!

    ¡°Only Seven Blood Eyes disciples can use our techniques to break through to Foundation Establishment, and get the right to be Onpeak disciples. Once they do, they get a share of the sect¡¯s profits.

    ¡°By the way, Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ monthly profit is public information. Ites from residency fees, the sale of cultivation resources, andmerce in the port. Daily ie amounts to about 500,000,000 spirit coins. Convert that, and ites out to 500,000 spirit stones. Do the math, and you can see that the monthly profites out to 15,000,000 spirit stones.

    ¡°The profit is split between members based on the level of their cultivation base. Of course, some is withheld for sect expenditures, but the rest is given out to the Foundation Establishment disciples and any with a higher cultivation base than that. The higher your cultivation base, the bigger the split you get. An early Foundation Establishment disciple will get about 5,000 spirit stones a month. If you¡¯re in Gold Core, you¡¯ll get about 10,000.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I said that Seven Blood Eyes is more like a business. Onpeak disciples in the Foundation Establishment level are like investors in a business. For every day they¡¯re around, they earn a day of profit!

    ¡°Now let me ask you. If you had a business out in the world, and someone came along and tried to rob you, wouldn¡¯t you fight back?¡±

    The round-faced cultivator¡¯s words caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to shine with profound light. At this point, he had a good understanding of how Seven Blood Eyes worked.

    And maybe it was true that in a chaotic world, the only true unifying force... was as this man said. Profit.

    Li Zimei didn¡¯t have any further questions.

    The round-faced cultivator chuckled, then continued to walk, while basically repeating the same general information, that they lived in a chaotic world, and that profit was the only thing that remained constant. At one point, he pointed down the mountain peak.

    ¡°Let me exin a bit about the prosperity of Seven Blood Eyes. See that over there? That¡¯s the biggest port in South Phoenix. Shipse and go through it every day. That includes trading vessels from the outside and sect disciples from the Seventh Peak, heading out to the sea to go on missions. Of course, our peak controls the port.

    ¡°Because of that, ships... are very important to the cultivation of Seventh Peak disciples. We call them dharmaboats.¡±

    Following the line of the round-faced cultivator¡¯s finger, he looked down into the port, which was currently bathed in the evening sunlight. Within the port were numerous horseshoe shaped harbors, each with a sluice gate and a towering lighthouse. There were over a hundred of them, and they were huge, with each one having room for many, many ships.

    From this distance, Xu Qing could see that different harbors were different colors. About half of them were white, and were filled mostly with huge trading ships. The other part of the port had violet harbors. From what he could see, the ships in the violet section were small and numerous.

    ¡°The white part is for outsiders,¡± exined the round-faced cultivator. ¡°The violet part is where Seventh Peak disciples live. All of the ships there are the dharmaboats I mentioned!

    ¡°Our dharmaboats are famous throughout South Phoenix. They¡¯re like the heart and soul of Seventh Peak cultivation.

    ¡°Your dharmaboat is essentially your mansion grotto and your mount, all at the same time. More than that, they¡¯re like your fighting partner, and also something you absolutely need to acquire the resources you require. You can treat your dharmaboat like... a magical treasure!¡± [2]

    In response to his words, Li Zimei and Xu Xiaohui¡¯s eyes went wide. Obviously, they knew all about magical treasures. Zhou Qingpeng also looked down at the ships below, his eyes shining with anticipation.

    Xu Qing reacted simrly. He knew how rare and expensive magical treasures were. Then he looked down at the densely packed ships in the violet section of the port, and suddenly wondered if calling them ¡®rare¡¯ was urate.

    ¡°Of course, they¡¯re not really magical treasures,¡± the round-faced cultivator continued. ¡°But Seventh Peak dharmaboats can be upgraded. As your cultivation base increases, you can refine them, and eventually, you really could turn yours into a magical treasure.

    ¡°In any case, all new Seventh Peak disciples long to have a dharmaboat. Unfortunately, even a brand new dharmaboat costs 100,000 merit points, or a hundred spirit stones.

    ¡°Furthermore, only disciples with dharmaboats are allowed to work and live in the port. As for disciples who don¡¯t have a dharmaboat, they have to earn enough money to buy one. If they can¡¯t save up enough to pay for a dharmaboat within three years, then they¡¯ll have their cultivation base crippled, and they¡¯ll be expelled.

    ¡°The reason for this is that the techniques of the Seventh Peak are all rted to the sea, and require a dharmaboat to cultivate. They have spirit convergence formations built into them that saves effort and leads to better results in cultivation. Oh, by the way, the techniques are free for disciples.¡±

    The round-faced cultivator¡¯s exnation filled Xu Qing not only with the strong desire to get a dharmaboat, but also helped him understand what the Seventh Peak was all about.

    Only by focusing on the dharmaboat and the cultivation base can someone on the Seventh Peak reach Foundation Establishment. That¡¯s the key to survival! I absolutely have to get a dharmaboat!

    By this point in the introduction, the group was about halfway up the mountain. This was where their identity medallions would be fully activated, and they would get their cultivation technique and daoist robe. There was only one type of daoist robe, and it was gray. That was the uniform all Offpeak disciples in Seven Blood Eyes wore, regardless of which peak they were from.

    Activating the identity medallion cost 1,000 merit points. After that, the identity medallion would keep track of a disciple¡¯s information, including their merit points. It could also be used formunication.

    When Xu Qing got his daoist robe, he sensed spirit power fluctuationsing from it, which was when he realized it was definitely an extraordinary item. The fabric was soft, but wouldn¡¯t wrinkle easily. If a daoist robe like this were sold outside the sect, it would be very expensive.

    Li Zimei and Xu Qing both seemed equally impressed with the daoist robe. As for Xu Xiaohui, she seemed to want to follow Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s lead.

    Zhou Qingpeng looked at the round-faced cultivator and the senior members of the sect distributing the items, and quietly said, ¡°Seniors, I want to buy a dharmaboat.¡±

    The round-faced cultivator smiled. As for the individual distributing their new items, he was an emaciated old man who looked at Zhou Qingpeng and coolly said, ¡°100,000 merit points. Or a hundred spirit stones.¡±

    Li Zimei and Xu Xiaohui inhaled sharply upon hearing this. To both of them, a hundred spirit stones was a level of wealth they could only dream of right now.

    As for Zhou Qingpeng, he hurried forward and pulled out a golden piece of paper currency which he offered respectfully with both hands.

    ¡°A spirit note from the Second Peak? That¡¯ll work.¡± The old man took the note, then handed Zhou Qingpeng a violet brocade box. He looked at the other three new disciples. ¡°Anyone else want to buy anything?¡± [3]

    Li Zimei and Xu Xiaohui looked down. As for Xu Qing, he thought for a moment, then steeled himself, stepped forward, and took a hundred spirit stones out of his sack.

    The old man didn¡¯t say anything in particr. As he took out another brocade box, Li Zimei and Xu Xiaohui looked on enviously. Zhou Qingpeng merely nced at him out of the corner of his eye.

    Xu Qing took the box and opened it. Inside were two items: a jade slip and a transparent bottle.

    The bottle was unusual. It could fit in his palm, and contained a liquid that seemed like it might be seawater. Floating on that water was a small boat with a ck canopy! [4]

    It waspletely ck, and simplistic in its design. However, all of the nks that made up the boat were covered in magical symbols. And despite being inside the bottle, the boat exuded an extraordinary pressure. In fact, whether it was the bottle itself or the little boat inside, both seemed to be worth a lot more than a hundred spirit stones. As for the jade slip, it contained all the information about the boat.

    ¡°Alright,¡± said the round-faced cultivator, ¡°you can head back down the peak now. Remember, neither our techniques nor dharmaboats can be distributed to outsiders. Do that... and the consequences will be severe.

    ¡°Xu Xiaohui and Li Zimei, I hope the two of you can work hard going forward, and eventually save up enough to get a dharmaboat. Zhou Qingpeng and Xu Qing, your identity medallions contain all the information about your current assignments. You can see yourselves down the mountain.¡±

    The four new disciples sped hands to the round-faced cultivator, then turned to leave. However, before Xu Qing could even take a step, the round-faced cultivator called out to him.

    ¡°Xu Qing.¡±

    As the others left, Xu Qing turned back around respectfully.

    ¡°You¡¯re strong for a low-level cultivator,¡± the round-faced cultivator continued. ¡°You¡¯re obviously in the seventh level of body refinement, yet can produce energy and blood projections like someone in the great circle. It¡¯s clear you¡¯re talented, and are probably toward the top of the pack amongst low-level cultivators. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you could easily kill rogue cultivators in the ninth or even tenth level.

    ¡°However, body cultivation is simplistic. It gives you speed, strength, and recovery power. But it¡¯s not considered a great dao.

    ¡°To cultivators, the true great dao is the cultivation of magic! I suggest that, going forward, you focus more on magical cultivation. Your spirit power and magical techniques are too weak. If you encounter rogue cultivators, you¡¯ll be fine. But face a disciple from one of the great sects, and you¡¯ll be in trouble!¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing felt shaken.

    ¡°Furthermore, I¡¯m not sure where youe from, but I bet you lived in constant danger. Because of that, you¡¯ve developed some instinctual habits.¡±

    ¡°Habits?¡± Xu Qing asked, not sure what he meant.

    ¡°Given how well you performed in the assessment, I¡¯m going to give you some advice. When you were walking up the peak just now, you rarely moved your right hand. And your right index and middle finger seemed to be in a constant state of readiness. I¡¯m willing to bet that, in your sack, you have some hidden weapons ready to throw out at any time. Maybe some needles or flying daggers.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious. This was the first time someone had ever seen through him so easily.

    Smiling broadly, the man continued, ¡°I suggest that you don¡¯t let this habit be so second-nature. If you do, people will notice, and you¡¯ll end up in trouble. Don¡¯t give off clues. Hide your ruthlessness behind a gentle appearance, like a needle concealed in silk.¡±

    The man¡¯s smile didn¡¯t seem to contain anything threatening. It seemed like he was doing nothing more than offering a bit of advice to a new disciple. Maybe he even considered it a small investment in the future.

    But his words caused chills to run down Xu Qing¡¯s spine. Taking a deep breath, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    As he left, he thought about what he¡¯d just heard, and then looked down at his right hand. Flexing his fingers, he tried to make himself look more natural. It took some effort to keep his fingers less rigid, but it started to work. However, if someone looked closely enough, they would see that, within the seemingly natural position of his fingers, was hidden something deeply threatening.

    He kept practicing as he walked down the mountain.

    ***

    Far away from Seven Blood Eyes, in a random scavenger basecamp in the wilderness, Master Seventh crouched on a rooftop, looking down at a young man fighting a stray dog. The young man had dog blood all over his mouth, and a vicious expression on his face.

    Master Seventh looked on approvingly. Next to him was his servant, who was currently looking at a jade slip.

    ¡°Master Seventh,¡± the servant said quietly, ¡°the Kid reached Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    ¡°The Kid?¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Who?¡±

    The servant smiled wryly. ¡°The young man who didn¡¯t want to get his new clothes dirty when killing people. You put in a good word for him with Grandmaster Bai, and he started learning the dao of nts and vegetation. Later, I gave him a white identity medallion.¡±

    Master Seventh nodded, and as he thought back to Xu Qing, his eyes gleamed with approval. ¡°I remember now. He was that affectionate and faithful child.¡±

    ¡°Should I take any special measures to watch over him?¡± the servant asked.

    Master Seventh waved his hand dismissively. ¡°There¡¯s no need. In this chaotic world, people who want to survive need to rely on their own strength. If he can get by on his own, then when he finallyes to me, I¡¯ll reward him with some good fortune.¡± Master Seventh pointed down at the young man fighting the dog. ¡°Between this young man and the Kid, which do you think more resembles a wolf pup?¡±

    The servant looked down at the fighting young man, and smiled wryly. He had answered questions like this many, many times on their journey. Since encountering the Kid, they had found nine other children that Master Seventh took a liking to.

    ¡°They¡¯re about the same,¡± the servant said.

    Master Seventh looked over at the servant andughed. ¡°It was a kindness for me to rmend him to Grandmaster Bai, and then give him a white identity medallion. But that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ve picked him to be my apprentice. I don¡¯t owe him anything. I gave him an opportunity, that¡¯s all.

    ¡°I really do want a fourth apprentice. But remember, to get my third apprentice, I sent out over fifty white identity medallions. He was the only one who seeded. You haven¡¯t been with me for long, so you¡¯re not used to my style.

    ¡°In fact, I have the feeling that giving out fifty medallions won¡¯t be enough to find my fourth apprentice. It¡¯ll probably take a hundred.

    ¡°Go give that child down there a white medallion. As before, keep the exnations to a minimum.¡± With that, Master Seventh turned and left.

    1. Xu Xiaohui: This surname is a different Xu than Xu Qing¡¯s. This one is #11 on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. It means ¡°slow, gentle.¡± Xiao means ¡°small, little¡± and Hui means ¡°intelligent, rational.¡± Madam Deathde says that this sounds like the name of an ordinary girl. Forgetting the tones, her surname is pronounced the same as Xu Qing¡¯s. Xiao starts with an SH sound and rhymes with cow, with a little bit of a Y sound after the SH. Hui rhymes with ¡°say.¡± So her given name is sort of like ¡°shyow-hway.¡± ?

    2. In my previous Er Gen trantions, I tranted ¡®mansion grotto¡¯ as ¡®immortal¡¯s cave.¡¯ Iter came to realize that ¡®immortal¡¯s cave¡¯ is not urate, and also causes a lot of problems with term continuity. In this novel, I¡¯ll use the term ¡®mansion grotto¡¯ instead. ?

    3. For those unfamiliar with Chinese ¡°brocade boxes,¡± they¡¯re basically boxes with brocade fabric exteriors and a soft fabric interior. They¡¯re generally used to put valuable or fancy items in (or used to make things seem valuable or fancy.) . ?

    4. Based on the description, the type of boat described is like . ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter is extra long. Considering this is the first chapter after the initial release¡­ I can¡¯t bear to split it in half. However, future chapters that are this long will be usually be split in two, as they take upwards of twice as long for me to trante.

 Chapter 52: Colleagues

    Chapter 52: Colleagues

    The sun sank, and dusk approached. The light shining on the small mountain path gradually grew dimmer.

    Xu Qing had his brocade box slung over his shoulder as he continued to contemte what the round-faced cultivator had told him. He already felt he understood the basics of Seven Blood Eyes.

    The capital city seemed like an orderly ce, but was actually filled with hidden dangers. That was especially true at night, when vicious people came out in droves. Some people, in order to improve their chances of survival, were willing to bare their teeth to anyone who got too close. That wasn¡¯t the wrong choice to make.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to be mincemeat himself, so he decided he needed to find a dark corner somewhere to put the brocade box in his bag of holding without anyone being able to see the bag. He started walking more quickly. Before long, he was at the foot of the mountain, where he saw two people in gray daoist robes.

    They were none other than Zhou Qingpeng and Xu Xiaohui.

    Xu Xiaohui was pretty, and though her gray robe covered most of her figure, it was still possible to see some of her curves. Somehow, the gray robe made her even more alluring. Zhou Qingpeng had been handsome to begin with. With the gray robe, he seemed very elegant. And that made Xu Xiaohui even more starry-eyed. Although, it was hard to say if she was starry-eyed over Zhou Qingpeng, or over his dharmaboat.

    Seeing Xu Qing approaching, Zhou Qingpengughed heartily and walked over to him.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you¡¯re finally down. I¡¯ve been waiting for you.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever, but inside, he put his guard up. Instead of walking to meet Zhou Qingpeng, he kept his eyes on the young man¡¯s throat, and simultaneously shifted his right hand to the opening of his sack, so he could pull out his iron skewer if necessary.

    ¡°We¡¯re both from the Seventh Peak now,¡± Zhou Qingpeng said, ¡°and we joined the sect together. Since neither of us are very familiar with this ce, I was thinking we should stick together as best we can. That way, if either of us run into trouble, we¡¯ll already have a friend we can call on. A connection.¡± He seemed very sincere as he then sped hands to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing rxed a bit. He had to admit that what Zhou Qingpeng said made sense. So he nodded.

    Zhou Qingpeng smiled and said a few more things. Seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to be talkative, he stepped away to send a voice message with his identity medallion. Then he left with Xu Xiaohui.

    After watching them disappear into the distance, Xu Qing looked down at his own identity medallion.

    It can send voice messages?

    Examining the medallion curiously, he sent some spirit power into it, and instantly saw a host of information.

    Curious, he walked along while simultaneously continuing to study the medallion.

    Once back in the city, he found a quiet alley where he put the brocade box in his bag of holding. He didn¡¯t change into the daoist robe, but rather, kept on his dirty old jerkin. During the daytime, when the city was neat and orderly, being a scavenger would make him stick out. But at nighttime, it would make it easier to blend in. And he figured it might also help him avoid any bothersome confrontations. After all, scavengers were generally poor, so anyone who targeted him wouldn¡¯t be someone strong, and by extension, it meant he could handle them easily.

    He also spent some time to make sure he knew all the functions of the identity medallion, for instance, how to send messages. His personal information was also stored in the medallion, including his work assignment.

    I work in the Violent Crimes Division?

    Although he wasn¡¯t sure what that job involved, just based on the name... it seemed dangerous.

    ording to the information, he needed to check in for work the next day. The medallion also told him the berth number for his ck-canopied boat.

    The sect automatically assigned berths to disciples with dharmaboats, and would extract a monthly fee for the spot. It costs 30,000 merit points per month, or thirty spirit stones. If you didn¡¯t pay the fee, you lost your spot.

    Celestial #33 in Harbor 79?

    Xu Qing looked in the direction of the water, then started moving cautiously through the night, doing his best to stay out of sight.

    Eventually, dusk passed, and it was night. Most people in the city had closed and locked their doors for the night. During the day, the city was loud and bustling. Right now, it was very quiet.

    As Xu Qing hurried along cloaked in darkness, he witnessed some of the dangers inherent to night in this city.

    He saw people being robbed. He saw deadly fighting. He saw people fleeing for their lives. He saw the miserable result when fleeing people ran out of ces to run.

    Hidden in the darkness, he ignored all of that and kept moving, like a specter through the night.

    Along the way, he spotted some gambling halls and brothels. They were well-lit, and offered a glimpse into another prosperous side to the city. Perhaps because Xu Qing was being so cautious and stealthy, he didn¡¯t run into any trouble. But asionally, he sensed people watching him. The gazes were cold and full of ill intent, but when they noticed he was dressed as a scavenger, most of them just ignored him.

    He raced through the city for two hours until he reached the Port District. There were over a hundred harbors, and he needed to find number 79 in the violet part.

    Just as he was about to head out to find his harbor, he shrank back into the darkness of an alley and looked down the street.

    At first, he could only hear footsteps. But shortly after, a group of cultivators in gray daoist robes appeared, moving along at top speed. They seemed somber and deste, and radiated cold, sinister auras. Some of them stayed in the middle of the road, others inspected the surrounding buildings. Each of them had a badge on their robe, with the word Violent Crimes inscribed on it in the color of blood. Xu Qing observed these Seventh Peak disciples with narrowed eyes, noting their spirit power fluctuations and baleful aura.

    Are these Violent Crimes Division constables?

    They soon reached Xu Qing¡¯s hiding spot. There were quite a few people in this group, and they were all paying close attention to their surroundings. There was no way he could run away without them noticing.

    And thus, it didn¡¯t take long before a young man with graceful, phoenix-like eyes spotted him and walked toward him. [1]

    As he neared, his baleful aura reached Xu Qing. Xu Qing tensed at the sense of incredible danger. Even before the young man was close, his mere presence turned everything in the alley as cold as ice. Only someone who had done a lot of killing would have a baleful aura like this.

    Xu Qing knew that if he bolted, the young man would definitely attack him. Therefore, he stood in ce unmoving, though he did put his hand close to the ck iron skewer.

    ¡°Identity medallion!¡± the young man said, looking Xu Qing up and down. His gaze lingered on Xu Qing¡¯s right hand.

    A few other disciples approached, surrounding Xu Qing. They all had icy expressions; it was obvious that if he did anything wrong, they would attack him instantly.

    Noticing that they were looking at his right hand, he told himself that he really did need to work on his habits. Looking around, he carefully got his identity medallion out and handed it over.

    The young man looked at it, and his cold expression softened. Sounding surprised, he said, ¡°Guess what, boys? He¡¯s a new recruit from the Seventh Peak, also assigned to the Violent Crimes Division! Alright, calm down everyone. You¡¯re going to scare our young friend to death before he even reports in for duty.¡±

    Most of the auras shrank back, although a few of the surrounding constables still kept their eyes on Xu Qing.

    So they really are from the Violent Crimes Division.

    Xu Qing sensed the energy fluctuations that had been locked onto him fade away. However, the young man with the phoenix-like eyes continued to examine him as he returned his identity medallion.

    ¡°You¡¯re a funny one, young friend. Get going. This ce isn¡¯t safe at night.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, took his identity medallion, and was about to walk off when a piercing, bloodcurdling scream rang out from a short distance away.

    Xu Qing turned to look in that direction, his expression serious. Off in the distance, near a tall building, a shadowy figure stumbled out onto the air itself, coughing blood. This person¡¯s spirit power fluctuations were in chaos, but they were obviously in the Foundation Establishment level.

    Pursuing him was a middle-aged man in a violet daoist robe, his expression threatening without being angry, and his spirit power fluctuations so intense that they were like a raging firepared to the other man. Whistling through the air toward the first man, the fellow in the violet robe produced a long spear that he thrust forward viciously.

    The air itself seemed to split, and a shockwave rolled out in all directions. Meanwhile, the spear erupted into mes, which formed a fire dragon that shot toward the fleeing, shadowy figure.

    It was a dazzling sight.

    The fire dragon moved with incredible speed, causing a piercing sound to ring out. When it hit the shadowy figure¡¯s torso, it pierced through him with a thump, then continued onward to m into the street below. As it did, it sent a st of wind in all directions. The shadowy figure had been killed with ruthless efficiency!

    Xu Qing was shaken by the scene. From what he could sense, the shadowy figure that had just been killed was probably on the same level as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    His spear had been iparably strong. Xu Qing knew that if he had to fight someone like that, he would surely be killed.

    The surrounding constables from the Violent Crimes Division looked very excited.

    ¡°It¡¯s the division director!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Ignoring Xu Qing, they raced over to the scene of the fight.

    Even after they were gone, Xu Qing still felt his mind reeling from watching that spear attack. Then he took a deep breath, and his eyes shone with anticipation.

    I wonder when I¡¯ll be able to do something like that?

    With onest nce in the direction the violet-robed man had disappeared to, Xu Qing turned and walked away.

    Sensing that it wasn¡¯t a calm night, he hurried on his way. It took about an hour for him to find the horseshoe-shaped Harbor 79.

    The Port District was different from the city proper. It was very dark, and though there were patrolling guards, they seemed unusually vignt. Furthermore, they avoided anyone they saw. Clearly, their vignce came because they were worried about getting hurt. They avoided Xu Qing as well.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing¡¯s understanding of the level of danger in Seven Blood Eyes increased.

    Nearing his assigned harbor, Xu Qing felt the humidity in the sea breeze, and could see thepping waves.

    There were other boats docked there, but they maintained distance from each other. Most were roughly the same size, although there were a variety of designs. However, examining them closely for a moment, Xu Qing realized that most of them resembled his own ck-canopied boat. There were over two hundred of them.

    That said, Harbor 79 was so big that the current set of boats docked there only took up about twenty percent of the entire avable space. Some of the boats hadmps burning, but most were still and silent. He didn¡¯t see any disciples around. Apparently, everyone put their guard up when night fell.

    Xu Qing sensed that the spirit power was strong here, but so was the mutagen. Apparently, it came in from the sea. The water was so dark that it was impossible to see the seafloor. That alone would make people uneasy. Who could possibly tell what dangers lurked down there? ncing at the water, Xu Qing felt his hair standing on end, the same as it often had back in the forbidden regions.

    Practicing cultivation here will lead to fast progress. Every moment of cultivation is like working on a grindstone....

    With that, he hurried toward Celestial #33.

    It was an out-of-the-way spot, without many other boats nearby.

    After arriving, Xu Qing looked around the area, and after making sure he was alone, took out the brocade box, then the bottle. When he opened it, the little boat inside flew out to rest on the water. There was a loud thump, and then water rippled as the boat expanded until it was nine meters long.

    It was pitch ck, its nks covered with magical symbols that emanated a ck glow, as well as extraordinary spirit power fluctuations. The ck canopy seemed to be made of the hide of some sort of mutant beast. The scales on the hide were clearly visible.

    It seemed very sturdy. There was a figurehead on the prow of the boat, depicting arge crocodile head, its gaping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. It looked vicious, and radiated an air of brutality. From a distance, his little boat actually looked like a crocodile floating on the water.

    1. Have you ever wondered what these ¡°phoenix-like¡± eyes look like? Basically they¡¯re slender with an upturned end. Here is the  taken from Baidu wiki. ?

 Chapter 53: Sea Cultivation

    Chapter 53: Sea Cultivation

    The moon shone, cloaking the giant crocodile in its light. From a distance, it almost looked like the boat was alive and doing breathing exercises, absorbing the quintessence of the moon. At the same time, the moonlight seemed to grow more intense as it flowed into the boat, then streamed out into the area.

    Xu Qing just looked at it for a while.

    Whether it was his time in the slums or his life in the scavenger basecamp, he had always had simple amodations. The only exception was the house Sergeant Thunder had given him. As for this little canopy boat that looked like a crocodile, as it sparkled in the moonlight, it looked so impressive that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but kneel down and put his hand on it. It was cold, but clearly made of quality materials.

    Most importantly...

    ¡°It¡¯s mine,¡± he murmured. Then he prepared to step aboard, until a cold flicker ran through his eyes, and he stopped. He had suddenly sensed evil eyes gazing at him. Whoever it was, they were well hidden, and Xu Qing had no way of identifying their location. Remaining calm, he casually looked down at his hemp sandals.

    They were old and tattered, caked with both mud and dried blood. Through the gaps in the material, he could see his dirty toes.

    After some thought, he removed his sandals and stepped into the sea water, washing his feet until his fair skin was clearly visible. During the entire process, he remainedpletely calm. However, he was also observing his surroundings, and waiting for whoever was watching him to step out into the open. The person seemed cautious, though, and remained hidden even when Xu Qing pretended to bezy and off-guard.

    Expression the same as ever, Xu Qing finally stepped into the boat and looked at the area under the canopy.

    It wasn¡¯t veryrge. And it was simply furnished. There was a bed, a woven rush mat, and a washbasin. The area inside wasn¡¯t very tall. In fact, an average person wouldn¡¯t be able to stand up inside. But it was more than adequate for sitting.

    Xu Qing examined the interior, but didn¡¯t go inside. Instead, he sat on the deck looking out at the waves, and feeling the sensation of the boat bobbing up and down. It was peaceful, and eventually, his eyes seemed to lose focus, as though his thoughts were drifting.

    As he sat there, he recalled his struggle to survive in the slums. He thought about the little bedroom he holed up in, and how cold it was at night. In fact, during winter, the wind was so cold he¡¯d often wondered if he would wake up the next day. It wasn¡¯t umon back then for people to freeze to death during the nights. That was why he feared the cold. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t that he feared the cold, just his memories of it.

    As he sat quietly on the deck, he looked at the moon, and thought back to the first person he¡¯d ever killed, years ago.

    That person had been starving, and wanted to kill Xu Qing and eat him. A fight broke out, and though it was a huge struggle, Xu Qing managed to kill him first. Then he cut his head off and put it outside the door to his room. From then on, people looked at him differently.

    As his boat bobbed up and down in the water, Xu Qing recalled that event, and thought, Should I do the same thing again?

    He suddenly leaned backward, and a cold stream of light shot right in front of him.

    Upon dodging the light, the faraway look in his eyes vanished. It had been an act the entire time, and now, the true coldness within him stabbed out.

    ¡°You finally showed yourself!¡± he growled. The water next to the boat erupted as a man shot out, heading directly toward Xu Qing, cold light glittering in his right hand.

    It was a dagger, and even in the moonlight, it was possible to see that it was covered in poison.

    Xu Qing quickly assessed his assant. It was a fellow disciple in a gray daoist robe. He wore no face covering, so it was possible to see that he was about thirty years old. Though he was only in the fifth level of Qi Condensation, Xu Qing could sense that he was dangerous. The disciple had a vicious expression, and his eyes abounded with killing intent. He moved with incredible speed; in the blink of an eye, his dagger was closing in on Xu Qing¡¯s chest.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he ignored the dagger and instead thrust out his right hand to grab the man¡¯s arm. Unleashing the power of his body cultivation, he lifted the man bodily into the air.

    The man¡¯s eyes went wide with disbelief as Xu Qing then mmed him onto the deck of the boat.

    A muffled thud rang out. At the same time, blood showered left and right as a gory tentacle erupted from the man¡¯s torso, sshing slime as it whipped toward Xu Qing. Shockingly, the tentacle¡¯s aura surpassed the fifth level of Qi Condensation, and was in the sixth.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as the spectral hobgoblin appeared behind him and crushed the tentacle.

    Another boom rang out as the tentacle exploded.

    Upon losing the tentacle, the cultivator coughed up a heap of blood, and his face turned ashen. He tried to struggle, but Xu Qing used his free hand to relieve the man of his dagger, then shove the weapon up to his throat. The cold dagger pierced the skin a bit; with only minimal effort, Xu Qing could slice the man¡¯s throat open.

    The cultivator shivered, looking at Xu Qing with terror in his eyes.

    ¡°How did you hide yourself so well?¡± Xu Qing asked coldly. ¡°And what was that tentacle?¡±

    ¡°It was an octopus arm I transnted onto myself. It boosts battle prowess and covers my aura when I¡¯m in the water. Lots of people in the sect graft mutant beast parts onto themselves. Look, Junior Brother, I can make all of this up to you. I don¡¯t have a lot of merit points, but I can take a mission tomorrow and¡ª¡°

    Xu Qing shed him through the throat with the dagger.

    The man¡¯s eyes went wide, but before he could scream, Xu Qing mped his hand over his mouth. Meanwhile, blood poured out onto the deck of the dharmaboat.

    After a few breaths of time, the man went still.

    Xu Qing looked at the mess on the deck and frowned. Taking out some Corpse-Ravaging Powder, he sprinkled it on the corpse to dissolve it. During the entire time, no other disciples showed their faces in the area. Perhaps things like this were somon that nobody cared.

    As the sea breeze caused the smell of salt and blood to fill the area, Xu Qing looked through the man¡¯s sack. It waspletely empty.

    He was after my dharmaboat.

    Xu Qing suddenly thought back to how the round-faced cultivator had mentioned disciples mysteriously going missing all the time. Patting his iron skewer, he looked around with cold eyes, then took out the brocade box and pulled out the jade slip with the description of the boat. After studying it, he looked at the boat, his eyes glittering.

    This boat... is spectacr. Extending his right hand, he smacked the deck and, following the instructions in the jade slip, sent spirit power pouring out. By doing so, he created a sealing mark which settled onto the deck.

    The boat shuddered as though powering up.

    Xu Qing then bit his finger and extracted a drop of blood, which he used to draw a simple magical symbol on the deck. As he did, the boat trembled, and at the same time, he felt his mind bonding with the boat. As the jade slip described, that was the boat acknowledging a new owner. Now, Xu Qing would be able to operate the boat by merely thinking about it, as if it were an extension of his body. He issued another thought, and a glowing defensive shield appeared, covering the craft from one end to the other. Only at that point did Xu Qing finally feel safe.

    Looking back down at the jade slip, he reviewed all the information about the boat andmitted it to memory.

    Seven Blood Eyes dharmaboats really did have the capacity to grow with their owners.

    Disciples could customize their speed, defenses, attack capabilities, and special functions. Those four things could be upgraded one at a time, or simultaneously. It depended on the whims and resources of the owner. The speed, defenses, and attack capabilities were easy to understand. As for the special functions, they referred to general magical techniques, as well as the ability of the boat to go underwater, to fly in the air, or change the form and appearance of the boat. In terms of the special functions, or the other three categories, the biggest determining factor in dealing with them was the material used for the upgrades.

    In most cases, Seventh Peak disciples had two options when it came to the structure of their boat. The first was man-made materials.

    By upgrading materials and to allow for higher-level spell formations, it was possible to make the boat tougher and more durable. Doing that required working with disciples from the Sixth Peak. Furthermore, developing the boat in that way often required dealing with limitations in human ingenuity. Still, it was an option many disciples picked.

    It was also a rtively safe method. All one had to do was follow the general pattern that had beenid forth.

    As for the second method.... You can use mutated organisms to alter the structure of the boat. Then you don¡¯t need spell formations created by people.

    As the jade slip exined, mutated organisms had natural spell formations built into them.

    Such spell formations with extraordinary natural functions were referred to as forbidden arrays. Mutant beasts were all built differently. They all had different forms, and different powers.

    Both methods will require a lot of effort and resources.

    As he reviewed the jade slip, Xu Qing had to admit that Seven Blood Eyes was a terrifying organization. After all, as a brand new disciple, all he had been able to purchase was a ss-one boat.

    The watercraft of the Seventh Peak were ssified as either boats, skiffs, ships, or cruisers. Furthermore, each of those four types was divided into ten sses. The jade slip also indicated that there was something else beyond the cruiser-level.

    It was called a dreadnaught.

    Each level upgrade costs a lot of resources....

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to calcte the details, but based on what he could tell, it was a shocking level of wealth.

    Putting down the jade slip, he sat there in a daze for a short time. Then he looked down at his sack and bag of holding. Unfortunately, he just didn¡¯t have enough in either of them.

    I need to figure out a way to make money. I have one month before I have to pay rent on my berth. With that, he took out another jade slip and began to study it.

    This slip contained information about the Seventh Peak technique, which he was forbidden from sharing with outsiders. It was called the Seaforming Scripture.

    As an apex power in South Phoenix, Seven Blood Eyes had techniques that were very impressive in both their ability to extrude mutagen, and in how strong they made the practitioner. The techniques of other smaller groups and ns simply couldn¡¯tpare. In fact, two people with the same cultivation base, but with different techniques, could be as different as a firefly and a burning torch.

    After studying it, Xu Qing inhaled deeply. Now he knew why the Seven Blood Eyes disciples he encountered seemed so dangerous despite having low cultivation bases.

    The type of technique was everything.

    For instance, the Seaforming Scripture had ten levels that corresponded to the ten levels of Qi Condensation. In order to cultivate the technique, one had to be near the sea. In fact, being out at sea was even better.

    Each level involved absorbing the aura of the sea, then using it to cultivate a 30-meter-wide spirit sea. At the tenth level, which was the great circle, the spirit sea would reach 300 meters in size.

    Disciples who cultivated the Seaforming Scripture would have spirit power that surpassed other cultivators by many times over. That, in turn, would allow them to utilize many more magical techniques in battle, and would naturally provide a huge boost to battle prowess. Even more miraculous, their spirit sea would have the aura of the Forbidden Sea in it. Thus, when they fought an opponent, they would naturally exude an intense mental pressure that would weaken the enemy.

    In fact, in the Qi Condensation level, someone with the aura of the Forbidden Sea in their spirit sea would surpass anyone else in the same level.

    The Sea and Mountain Incantation is a body cultivation technique. My spectral hobgoblin is already at the level of the great circle, making me like someone in the great circle of Qi Condensation. That said, when stacked up against other high-level techniques, that ¡®great circle¡¯ is actually rather weak.

    On the other hand, because I have no mutagen in me, and because of the blessing of the violet crystal, my version of the seventh level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation is already able to unleash the spectral hobgoblin, which normallyes with the great circle. In other words I already have battle prowess as strong as the great circle.

    In the final analysis, the Sea and Mountain Incantation can¡¯tpare at all to the Seaforming Scripture. One is body cultivation, the other is cultivation magic.

    Yet again, Xu Qing thought back to what the round-faced cultivator had told him

    A momentter, a look of determination appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Furthermore, he noticed that the description of the Seaforming Scripture indicated that there wasn¡¯t an upper limit to the final size of the spirit sea.

    People had different constitutions, and also, their levels of mutagen would be different.

    The less mutagen one had, therger the spirit sea could grow. ording to the records kept by Seven Blood Eyes, the highest level ever attained by someone in the great circle of Qi Condensation was a fully sixty-year-cycle in the past, when someone had a spirit sea that was 810 meters. That person was none other than the current peaklord of the Seventh Peak.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes hardened as he thought about the fact that he had no mutagen in him....

    If I cultivate the Seaforming Scripture to the great circle, how big will my spirit sea be?

    Intense anticipation built within Xu Qing. If mutagen continued to be no problem for him, then his upper limit would be determined by what his body could handle. And because he had terrifying powers of recovery, his endurance was naturally immense.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with unprecedented brightness.

    Furthermore, it wasn¡¯t lost on him that the Seaforming Scripture wasn¡¯t about body refinement. His fight with the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect had left him with a deep understanding of the inherent ws in pure body cultivation. Therefore, it was without the slightest hesitation that hemitted all the details of the technique to memory, then closed his eyes and started cultivating it.

    As he did, a wind kicked up around his boat, and the water rippled as spirit power infused with the aura of the Forbidden Sea, as well as mutagen, rushed in his direction. The defensive shield around his boat would block magical techniques, but it didn¡¯t stop pure spirit power. It poured in, entering his body through the pores in countless fine threads.

    Because he didn¡¯t have any mutagen in him, the spirit power rushed through his meridians without any obstacles. He was like a dried-up sea sponge absorbing water; the spirit power simply poured inside, heading to his dantian region, where it slowly built up.

    As he continued with his cultivation, he sensed that the Sea and Mountain Incantation was being stirred into action by the Seaforming Scripture. However, the meridians used by the two techniques were different, so he suppressed the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    However, the Sea and Mountain Incantation seemed to tremble with desire, so eventually he stopped suppressing it. Instantly, the Sea and Mountain Incantation surged into operation, causing the spirit power influx to dramatically increase.

    As it converged in his dantian region, the spirit sea there began to expand.

    That came as a big surprise to Xu Qing.

    The two techniques seemed to be working together. The Sea and Mountain Incantation wasn¡¯tpeting with the Seaforming Scripture, but rather, was helping it. Seeing no reason not to, Xu Qing let his energy and blood swell, causing the spectral hobgoblin to appear. The hobgoblin threw its head back and roared noiselessly, lifting its hands as if it were transporting a sea. As a result, the spirit power of the Forbidden Sea flowed with even more force.

    To Xu Qing¡¯s shock, the spirit sea in his dantian region was already 30 meters from side to side.

    He had alreadypleted the first level of the Seaforming Scripture.

    Then a tremor passed through him as, before he even realized what was going on, he moved to the second level. And then, the second level reached its own great circle.

    This fast? Without the slightest hesitation, he moved on to the third level.

    Inside of him, the spirit sea grew and grew. 63 meters. 66 meters. 69 meters....

    As he continued, the spirit power outside his boat created a vortex. The wind whipped, and the waves grew sorge that the guards on the shore looked over. They looked surprised.

    ¡°Which freakish disciple is working on their cultivation?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re absorbing spirit power at such a rapid rate....¡±

    As they watched in shock, the vortex spunrger andrger, causing the surface of the bay to ripple even more wildly. Many of the boats were rocking up and down so much that the disciples inside looked out with cold frowns. However, their expressions quickly turned into those of surprise.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    The vortex kept growing!

    Inside his boat, Xu Qing trembled as his spirit sea pushed past the 90-meter mark and reached 111.

    And it kept going.

    114. 117. 120!

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they glittered with brilliant violet light.

    ¡°Seaforming Scripture. Fourth level!¡±

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Okay, this chapter is actually on the long end, and I considered splitting it. But¡­ nah, screw it. No split chapters untilter on!

 Chapter 54: Total Transformation

    Chapter 54: Total Transformation

    That night, Xu Qing cultivated the Seaforming Scripture, achieving multiple breakthroughs and eventually reaching the fourth level.

    It was a somewhat ridiculous progress speed, and it caused all the surrounding Seventh Peak disciples to be shocked. That said, Seventh Peak disciples were known for keeping their true abilities hidden. Therefore, after realizing that Xu Qing¡¯s boat was new to the area, indicating he was a newly promoted disciple, most of them went back into their own boats and didn¡¯t pay any further attention. Of course, in reality, they were all making inquiries trying to find out more information about who this new disciple was.

    It was when the sun finally peeked over the horizon in the morning, casting its light over the sea, that Xu Qing opened his eyes. Violet light spilled out, and itsted for a few dozen breaths of time before fading away. It left behind a look of shock.

    As the night had progressed, Xu Qing¡¯s progress slowed, and he only made one more breakthrough, leaving him in the fifth level of the Seaforming Scripture.

    Even still, that level of progress surpassed anything he could have predicted would happen.

    The Sea and Mountain Incantation worked together with the Seaforming Scripture.... he thought incredulously.

    He looked differentpared to the day before. The sharp angles on his face were now a bit softer, and there was something about him that seemed purer. That was the aura brought by the Seaforming Scripture.

    Upon sensing the 150-meter spirit sea within him, Xu Qing thought back to the saying associated with the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Goblins can move mountains, hobgoblins can transport seas.

    However, based on his analysis, he was fairly certain his astounding progress had less to do with the Sea and Mountain Incantation, and more to do with thepleteck of mutagen in his meridians. He was like a well-forged receptacle; it simply didn¡¯t make sense topare him to someone who had just started practicing cultivation.

    It was only logical that he sted through the early stages because of therge amounts of spirit power pouring into him. That also exined why he had slowed down during thest half of the night. There were limits to what that well-forged receptacle could hold.

    That said, I did achieve one more breakthrough. There¡¯s a limit to my speed, but I should still be able to advance rtively quickly.

    As he pondered everything, his eyes shone. He hadn¡¯t just made progress with the Seaforming Scripture during the night. He had also made some advancement in the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    He was now very close to the eighth level.

    Most importantly, each level of the Seaforming Scripture came with magical techniques. Looking down at his right hand, Xu Qing sent forth a thought, and watched as a drop of seawater suddenly formed on his palm. In the blink of an eye, it became a ball of water asrge as a human head. Then it transformed into the shape of a flying dagger, then a shield, and then a bird.

    The ball of water continued to transform, the amount of water changing depending on what item it formed. Each one was a different weight, and had a different level of power.

    Within the jade slip for the technique, there were over a hundred different transformations between all ten levels. They all emanated a frigid coldness as well as the aura of the Forbidden Sea, which would be very intimidating to enemy opponents. But they weren¡¯t just intimidating, they were downright mighty.

    The ball of water had so much explosive power in it that he could easily overwhelm any of the scavengers he¡¯d met in the fifth level of Qi Condensation. Based on what Xu Qing could tell, it would take no more than forty of these balls of water to kill the old version of himself in battle.

    And right now, with this 150-meter spirit sea, he could create fifty balls of water. When you added in all the transformations, that was a level of power that, even now, could be deadly if someone used it against him, though he would certainlyst longer in such a fight than the old version of himself.

    Perhaps it was a bit exaggerated, but he had already cultivated the Sea and Mountain Incantation to seventy percentpletion, yet he was already as strong as someone in the tenth level of that technique.

    In other words, an ordinary person who cultivated the Sea and Mountain Incantation to the tenth level would still have trouble killing a Seventh Peak disciple who¡¯d cultivated the Seaforming Scripture to the fifth level.

    This gave Xu Qing an even greater appreciation for Seven Blood Eyes, as well as the fighting abilities of Seventh Peak disciples.

    Rogue cultivators aren¡¯t even remotely on the same level as disciples from a sect. Right now, it would only take the new me a few minutes to kill the old version of me.

    Although his cultivation base had not grown significantly, his battle prowess had increased a lot. In fact, he felt almost like he was walking a different path than before.

    As the dawn sun filtered into his boat, it made his shadow clearly visible on the deck. He looked down at it.

    During his night of cultivation, his shadow had absorbed all of the mutagen he had taken into himself. The shadow looked even darker than before, and when you looked at it closely, it resembled a deep abyss.

    As Xu Qing stared, the shadow¡¯s arms moved. Then it flexed its fingers before forming a fist, then went back and forth between those two postures. It could also shrink and stretch rapidly in very gruish fashion. After a moment, a wave of exhaustion swept through Xu Qing, but he recovered almost instantly.

    After that second phase of the assessment, and my breakthroughs with the Seaforming Scripture, my control over my shadow is increasing dramatically.

    With that, Xu Qing looked out at the sun in the sky.

    Then he slowly got to his feet, arranged his belongings, and took out his daoist robe. Putting it on the table, he straightened out the folds. Waving his hand, he formed a drop of water, then turned it into a sphere, and finally, transformed it into a mirror. Looking at himself, he saw a delicate and even pretty face, dashing and charming. His skin was smudged, but his eyes glittered like bright stars. After examining himself, a look of determination appeared on his face, and he took off his scavenger clothes, revealing the impressive physique he had developed with the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Waving his hand at the mirror, he pulled it toward him, while simultaneously transforming it into a rushing stream of water vapor. As it washed over him, it removed all the muck and grime, creating a pool of dirty water at his feet.

    It was the first time in about seven years that he had thoroughly washed.

    The reason was that his environment had changed. In the slums and the scavenger basecamp, being dirty made him look like everyone else. But here, that look would attract unwanted attention. After what happened on his dharmaboat the previous night, he knew that people would have a hard time believing that he was poor.

    He let the water run down his face and hair, revealing his fair skin.

    After all the filth was gone, he opened his eyes.

    The sun shone through the canopy of his boat,nding on his hair and face, and it seemed to remember him with longing, as if it hoped to never leave him. It felt a bit ufortable to Xu Qing, so he backed up into the shadows.

    His hair was long and ck. He looked like he was about sixteen or seventeen, with dramatically angled eyebrows, ck eyes, thin lips and a strong profile. He was tall and slender, like a young eagle that wanted to spread its wings in the night.

    He seemed cold, lonely, and intimidating, but at the same time, had a bit of the immaturity of a young person. However, that only served to make him more dashing.

    After looking at his hands for a moment, he took the gray daoist robe and started putting on the various pieces, starting with the inner garment. He put on the shoes provided by the sect, then put on the outer part of the robe. Then he summoned another ball of water to clean the bloodstains off the deck of his boat. When he finally stepped out into the open, he looked like apletely different person. He was like a gem that had been covered with dirt, but finally cleansed.

    Quite a few of the patrolling guards looked over at him in surprise.

    His eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar sensation of the sun shining directly onto his skin. However, he soon opened his eyes wide, realizing that he had to get used to it quickly.

    After a while, he took a deep breath and stepped off of his boat. Waving his hand, he sucked the boat back into the bottle and then walked off.

    Later today, he had to report in to the Violent Crimes Division.

    He also wanted to find a medicine shop in the Port District, as he needed to buy some medicinal nts to make white boluses and poison powder. After all, he had long since run out of ingredients.

    Despite how early it was, the port was already busy. Both trader ships and Seventh Peak disciples sailed in and out of the various harbors, creating a very bustling atmosphere. Many shops had already opened their doors, and the pedestrians were hurrying to and fro.

    Xu Qing¡¯s physical appearance attracted many eyes. That said, to cultivators, good looks were like a mask. And thus, most people simply nced at him then looked away.

    Xu Qing felt like he was getting used to this ce. However, he still preferred to stick to the shadows. As he headed toward the Violent Crimes Division, he looked around to see what shops were open. He saw ces that sold weapons and ces that specialized in spell formations.

    Thanks to the information in the dharmaboat jade slip, he knew that not all disciples could personally upgrade their own boats. Most of them would collect the materials required, then take them to shops run by disciples from the Fifth or Sixth Peak to do the work.

    After browsing some of the shops, Xu Qing asked around to determine the exact location of the Violent Crimes Division.

    Before long, he found himself in front of a veryrge buildingplex. The front gate reminded him of the city magistrate¡¯s manor, but inside, it was a lot bigger. There were dozens of smaller structures inside, and of course, the entire ce radiated an intense pressure. The entireplex was pitch ck. On either side of the front gate were vicious stone statues that looked like rakshasa demons. [1]

    The area around the front gate was icy cold, such that passing pedestrians made sure to avoid it.

    There were two young cultivators in gray robes attending the front gate, one male and one female. Both seemed to be in their twenties, and were very good looking. They lounged next to the gate, yawning as if they needed sleep. When Xu Qing approached, they looked up at him.

    Xu Qing kept a neutral expression on his face as he approached, stopping a short distance away to sp hands and bow.

    ¡°Disciple Xu Qing from the Seventh Peak, reporting for duty.¡±

    ¡°A newbie?¡± the young man said, his eyes glittering as he looked Xu Qing up and down. Sensing the extraordinary fluctuations rolling off of Xu Qing, he was about to continue talking when the female disciple pushed him aside and walked right up to Xu Qing.

    shing a pretty smile, she said, ¡°What business do you have here, little Junior Brother?¡±

    ¡°He said he¡¯s reporting for duty,¡± the young man said with a deadpan smile. ¡°Why are you asking him what he¡¯s doing here?¡±

    The girl ignored him as she continued to look at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing instinctively took a few steps back. He didn¡¯t like being very close to people, and what was more, he wanted to observe these two for a moment. Most of all, he needed to get a good look at their throats.

    1. Here is . ?

 Chapter 55: An Unusual Captain

    Chapter 55: An Unusual Captain

    After realizing that both of these people seemed to be in the sixth level of Qi Condensation, Xu Qing determined that they weren¡¯t a huge threat. Given his current level of battle prowess, he could kill them if it came down to that. As a result, he felt a bit more rxed.

    Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s eyes on him, the young man rubbed his nose and then tried to make himself look a bit more imposing. There was something about this newbie that was different from ordinary newbies.

    The female cultivator seemed to sense the same thing. Her eyes narrowing in curiosity, she licked her lips and said to the young man, ¡°You keep an eye on the gate. I¡¯ll take this little junior brother inside.¡±

    Then, a beautiful smile appeared on her face as she beckoned at Xu Qing to follow her into the Violent Crimes Division.

    ¡°Come with me, little Junior Brother.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Xu Qing said.

    The young man simply nodded. So, the tramp is trying to get a new boy toy? Well, this brat might seem different than the usual new recruits, but I¡¯d be surprised if hests three months in the Violent Crimes Division.

    Upon entering theplex, Xu Qing kept some distance between himself and the young woman. Walking through the main courtyard, he saw a host of other disciples d, like himself, in gray robes.

    At the minimum, they had cultivation bases in the fifth or sixth level of Qi Condensation. But there was no shortage of people in the seventh or eighth level. Some seemed cold and detached, others warm and gentle. Some reeked of blood, others walked around with their arms full of ordinary office supplies.

    Taking it all in, he didn¡¯t see anything that made the ce seem like one cohesive department. What was more, everyone seemed to keep their distance from each other. Walking along silently, Xu Qing nced at the throat of each passing cultivator and tried to judge whether or not his current level of battle prowess was enough to kill them. That was simply instinct by now.

    Before long, he felt the need to keep his guard up more than ever. That was because he had trouble finding people he knew he could kill, and saw quite a few who seemed extremely threatening.

    Simultaneously, he was paying attention to theyout of the ce, and was starting to get an idea of its general structure.

    Suddenly, the young woman leading him turned around and took a step toward him.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, why do you seem so fond of looking at other people¡¯s throats?¡±

    As the words left her mouth, she reached out to touch his chest. But then, her expression flickered, and she lunged backward, while simultaneously taking out a generic antidote pill that she consumed. Then she looked at Xu Qing, her expression serious.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like people getting too close to me,¡± Xu Qing said, looking at her calmly.

    She gave him a deep look, nodded, and then abandoned her previous ns for him. By now, she realized that there was a lot more to this new recruit than met the eye.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± she said. ¡°Someone like you should be able tost a long time in the Violent Crimes Division.¡±

    With that, she continued leading him. And this time, he didn¡¯t need to maintain distance between the two of them. She took the initiative to stay away from him. Nor did she attempt any more conversation. After taking him past seven or eight buildings, and through a number of different pathways, she stopped in front of a veryrge hall. Its exterior was pitch ck, which created a stark contrast to the sunshine outside.

    Looking very serious, she raised her voice and said, ¡°Director, we have a new recruit reporting for duty. His name is Xu Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing kept a simr serious expression on his face as he stood there with his head bowed.

    Deep inside the grand hall, two bright lights appeared, like burningmps. They were eyes, and their gaze pierced out of the hall andnded on Xu Qing.

    Feeling the gazend on him, Xu Qing shivered at the sense of immense pressure. It was like whoever was in that hall was a vicious beast whose mere presence could suffocate a person. Xu Qing¡¯s hair stood on end, and he had trouble breathing. Without even thinking about it, his right hand inched to his side, and he tensed in preparation to take action.

    Thankfully, the gaze retracted, whereupon Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he sensed an immense force wrap around the identity medallion in his left hand and pull it away.

    With a whoosh, it disappeared into the hall.

    He knew he couldn¡¯t have fought back against that level of force. In fact, he had the feeling that if the force wrapped around him and not his identity medallion, then he would be inside that hall right now. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

    A momentter, a cold voice echoed out from inside. ¡°Go report in to Celestial Bureau, Unit Six.¡±

    Along with the words, his identity medallion flew back out from within the hall, along with some sort of badge. Xu Qing reached up to catch the medallion and badge. When they hit his hand, he felt so much force behind them that his torso swayed backward, and he was forced to put one foot back to steady himself.

    His reaction caused the eyes in the hall to brighten momentarily. However, no words apanied them. Then the eyes closed.

    When the female disciple saw Xu Qing simply catch the medallion and badge, her pupils constricted.

    He¡¯s more cautious than many old timers in the sect. And he¡¯s so strong.... She blinked a few times. Before, she¡¯d sensed that Xu Qing was someone she shouldn¡¯t provoke, and had thus decided to keep her distance from him. But now she changed her mind. This was a person she should make friends with.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯m very familiar with Unit Six. I¡¯ll take you there.¡± She also made a gesture to him indicating that he should put on the badge.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, put the badge on, then sped hands and bowed in the direction of the grand hall. He also offered thanks to the young woman.

    Xu Qing was young, but he had years of experience in life, and had long since learned to read people. He could guess the reason why this female disciple¡¯s attitude had suddenly changed. His judgment was correct. As the girl led him along, she provided a self-introduction.

    ¡°Junior Brother, I¡¯m Xu Yanhong, from Earth Bureau, Unit Nine. By chance, I was assigned to watch duty at the main gate today. I guess it¡¯s just destiny that the two of us met.¡± [1]

    As Xu Yanhong led him through the Violent Crimes Division, she pointed out different buildings and exined what they were.

    ¡°That¡¯s the deputy director¡¯s office. It extends to that building as well.¡±

    ¡°Elder Sister Xu,¡± he asked, ¡°how many deputy directors are there in the Violent Crimes Division?¡±

    Upon hearing Xu Qing call her Elder Sister, the girl smiled and went into an exnation. ¡°There¡¯s one director and four deputy directors. They lead the four bureaus of Heaven, Earth, Celestial, and Terrestrial. Each bureau has nine street units. You¡¯re assigned to Celestial Bureau, Unit Six. You actually got lucky. The deputy director of Celestial Bureau spends most of his time in seclusion, so you won¡¯t see him often. In other words, you¡¯ll be able to rx a bit.¡± [2]

    Eventually, she had led Xu Qing to the Celestial Bureau, which was in the southwestern part of the Violent Crimes Divisionpound. There were a few dozen buildings there, with numerous cultivators about, hustling and bustling.

    The bureaus maintained a high level of security, and thus Xu Yanhong didn¡¯t go inside. Before sending him through the entrance, she gave him her contact information, then bid him farewell.

    Stepping inside, he quickly found the captain of Unit Six.

    It wasn¡¯t his first time seeing him. He was the very same young man who had given Xu Qing such a threatening feeling of danger the previous night. Once again, Xu Qing felt his guard going up.

    The young man saw Xu Qing, looked him up and down, and immediately recognized him. He didn¡¯t seem very surprised to see him.

    Intrigued, Xu Qing quietly backed up a few steps.

    ¡°I talked to the director today,¡± said the captain, ¡°and asked him to assign you to me. I honestly had no idea that dirty face of yours would clean up so well. You lookpletely differentpared tost night.¡±

    His guard going up further, Xu Qing said, ¡°Well met¡­¡±

    ¡°Captain. You can just call me Captain.¡± Smiling enigmatically, he continued, ¡°So¡­ you aren¡¯t surprised I wanted you in my unit?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m surprised,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°If you¡¯re surprised,¡± the Captain replied quizzically, ¡°why are you acting so calm?¡±

    Xu Qing had to admit that what the Captain said made sense, so after some thought, he stered a surprised expression onto his face.

    ¡°....¡± A moment passed, then the Captain continued, ¡°The reason I asked for you to be assigned to my unit is that we¡¯ve lost a few constables over the past few days. We¡¯re short-staffed, and we have some important assignmentsing up.¡± As he spoke, the Captain kept his eyes on Xu Qing.

    Upon hearing that constables had died, Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank a bit. However, he didn¡¯t jump in with any questions, and instead kept his eyes on the Captain and waited for more details.

    Seeing Xu Qing react this way, the Captain smiled broadly.

    ¡°Excellent. You seem a lot stronger than past new recruits. Xu Qing, you¡¯re the first person to show up today, and you¡¯re not familiar with how things work. How about this? I¡¯ll take you on patrol with me. Along the way, I¡¯ll tell you all about your duties in the Violent Crimes Division.¡±

    Captain was a swift and decisive person who struck like lightning and moved like the wind. Not bothering to mention who else was in the unit, he took Xu Qing out to the street.

    As they walked slowly through the crowd, the Captain would asionally call out greetings to shop owners. He seemed warm and kind, but Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten the dangerous look in his eyes from the night before. He certainly had not seemed very warm and kind then. Because of that, Xu Qing kept as much distance as he could.

    From what Xu Qing could tell, the Captain¡¯s cultivation base was somewhere in the ninth or tenth level of Qi Condensation. In Seven Blood Eyes, disciples of that caliber were far superior to the old version of Xu Qing.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so stiff,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Around here, you need to practice having two dispositions. If you don¡¯t, you won¡¯t survive long.¡±

    After thinking about the words, Xu Qing realized they made sense, so he tried hard to make himself seem a bit more rxed. However, after all the things he¡¯d been through during the past seven years, it wasn¡¯t very easy.

    ¡°Forget it for now,¡± the Captain said,ughing. ¡°You¡¯ll figure it out eventually.¡± Stopping to buy a few apples, he thought, I recruited a real freak, didn¡¯t I?

    Seeing that the Captain didn¡¯t offer him an apple, Xu Qing bought two for himself.

    ¡°Okay, let me exin what the Seventh Peak Violent Crimes Division does. Basically, we have one responsibility. And that¡¯s to kill people.¡± Walking along, the Captain noticed a homeless person on the side of the road. He tossed two spirit coins to the man, who caught them and offered thanks.

    Xu Qing noted that the homeless person wasn¡¯t a cultivator. Then, he thought about what the Captain had just said, and asked, ¡°You kill violent criminals?¡±

    The Captain took a bite out of an apple, swallowed it, and seemed to relish the sweet vor. Then he said, ¡°The Patrol Division protectsmon citizens from illegal behavior of both disciples and criminal elements, and makes sure they can pay their bills and taxes. In a word, they maintainw and order. But when they run into situations that they can¡¯t handle, the Violent Crimes Division steps in. For instance, if they encounter ouws or murderous cultivators.

    ¡°Because of that, the Violent Crimes Division always goes on dangerous missions with a high casualty rate. Unit Six has gone through a lot of new recruitstely. Some died on missions, others were assassinated. Going forward, you need to be very careful.

    ¡°There are upsides to being in the Violent Crimes Division. The pay¡¯s good. And we¡¯re the only division that gets to hand over wanted criminals and keep the bounty.¡± With that, the Captain took another bite of apple.

    Xu Qing looked at the apple for a moment, then asked, ¡°After you kill someone, do you get to keep their belongings?¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± The Captain looked back at Xu Qing and saw the serious look on his face. He smiled. ¡°Interesting. You¡¯re the first new recruit to ever ask that question at this point in the introduction. Well, let me exin. If you single-handedly kill an ouw or murderer, then you get to keep everything. If it¡¯s part of a team effort, then it gets split up. By the way, in this city, there are some people who, if you see them, you should simply walk the other way.¡±

    As he spoke the words, he pointed across the street to a young man wearing a pale violet daoist robe, walking through the crowds with an arrogant look on his face. When he stepped into one of the shops, the shopkeeper called out a respectful greeting. Everyone on the street who saw the color of his daoist robe looked at him with expressions of reverence, and most of them bowed their heads. Even the constables from the Patrol Division did the same thing. It was almost like he was the child of a god strolling through the mortal world, a being that no one dared to look at directly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    ¡°Remember this,¡± the Captain continued. ¡°In the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, people who wear dark daoist robes, and people who wear pale daoist robes like that, should never be provoked. The former... are senior-ranked Onpeak Foundation Establishment disciples. Thetter are Onpeak conve disciples. Conve disciples aren¡¯t in Foundation Establishment, but they lead charmed lives nheless.

    ¡°When ites to people like you and me, a hundred could die and the sect wouldn¡¯t care. But if a single conve disciple dies, it¡¯s a major event.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at the distant Seventh Peak.

    ¡°Jealous?¡± the Captain said. ¡°Just stay alive and keep working on your cultivation. Once you reach Foundation Establishment, even the conve disciples will have to bow their heads to you.¡± He took another bite of apple.

    ¡°By the way, I should probably remind you that sect rules prohibit gray-robed disciples from fighting and killing each other. But those are just the rules as written. Fighting and killing actually happens all the time. You just need to figure out a good way to dispose of the bodies. Honestly, the best way is to take their merit points and spirit stones, and then, because their bnce is at zero, the spell formation will take care of them....¡± Chewing his apple, the Captain gestured with his chin and said, ¡°Like him.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over to see a young man in a gray robe, covered in wounds and gasping for breath, his eyes burning with rage and indignation.

    His lips were busted and his limbs broken, making it impossible for him to speak or even walk. His identity medalliony on his chest, and even from a distance it was possible to see that his merit point bnce was at zero.

    Even as Xu Qing looked at him, a ck beam of light shot down from above and incinerated the young man out of existence, leaving behind only a bit of drifting ash.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. However, the passersby seemed to take the event as a matter of course, and most didn¡¯t even look over. They just hurried along, cold and detached.

    ¡°That fellow made a practice of robbing and killing fellow disciples. It was to be expected that he¡¯d end up like that eventually.¡± The Captain smiled and was about to keep talking when, all of a sudden, his expression turned serious, and he looked further down the street.

    Xu Qing followed his gaze, and noticed that, further down in an alley, were mutagen fluctuations.

    He and the Captain were on a busy street, but that alley looked shadowy and dark, and most people seemed to be avoiding it.

    The Captain sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this is happening in broad daylight. Wait here for a moment, Junior Brother.¡±

    With that, the Captain finished his apple as he walked over to the alley.

    Xu Qing watched as the Captain then disappeared into the alley. About ten breaths of timeter, he emerged, eating another apple, but smelling like blood.

    Xu Qing eyed the alley.

    ¡°Some poor idiot who had transnted mutant beast body parts onto himself ran into a problem and started mutating. I urge you not to do anything like that. It can boost your cultivation base, but will ultimately cause no end of trouble for you.¡± With a broad smile and an innocent expression, he led Xu Qing onward down the street.

    Xu Qing nodded and then followed silently. The man he¡¯d killed the night before also had transnted mutant beast body parts. Before, Xu Qing didn¡¯t even know it was possible to do that.

    Seeing the Captain enjoying the sweet apples, Xu Qing finally took a bite out of one that he¡¯d bought. It really was very sweet.

    And thus, the two of them strolled through the city, enjoying apples. The Captain ate quickly, Xu Qing ate slowly. Eventually, the Captain ran out of apples, and looked over at the second apple Xu Qing had bought. Xu Qing looked back at him and took a bite out of the second apple. The Captain rubbed his nose and pulled a tangerine out of his sack.

    ¡°Let me tell you about our current mission. We have one main goal for now, and that¡¯s to capture members of Night Dove.¡±

    ¡°Night Dove?¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°They¡¯re a massive criminal enterprise that operates all over South Phoenix. They specialize in kidnapping children and cultivators and selling them to be living treasures. Normally speaking, they carry out their vile business outside of our borders. But nowadays they¡¯ve expanded operations into Seven Blood Eyes territory. The popce is on edge, and if things keep going as they are, the Onpeak bigshots are going to see a dip in profit. And they won¡¯t be happy about that.

    ¡°What you sawst night was our director killing one of the Night Dove leaders. It was a joint operation with the Violent Crimes Divisions from all seven districts, the goal being to devastate their base of operations here.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he thought back to the caravan leader he¡¯d killed back in the basecamp. Eyes narrowing, he nodded.

    The Captain was a smart person, and could guess what the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes meant. However, he didn¡¯t ask any questions. Instead, he continued to lead him through the city and exin things.

    At a certain point, Xu Qing noticed a homeless child at the side of the road, and thinking back to what the Captain had done earlier, he tossed the boy a spirit coin.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then looked at Xu Qing with an enigmatic smile and said, ¡°Oh, you already have informants in the city?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. However, he was surprised to realize the reason behind the Captain¡¯s action before. At the same time, he almost felt like he¡¯d been pranked.

    Eventually, as the sun started to set, they reached the harbor. As they walked past an area filled with piles of cargo, a gruff voice rang out.

    ¡°Say one more thing, and I¡¯ll rip your jaw off your face.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over and saw that, squatting next to a huge pile of cargo, was a Seventh Peak disciple. He was middle-aged, and didn¡¯t seem out of the ordinary in any way. In fact, he seemed like an honest, good-natured person.

    However, he was the one who had just spoken.

    In front of him was an old man in expensive clothing. He looked angry, and had apparently been arguing with the Seventh Peak disciple.

    ¡°Whose jaw are you going to rip off, huh, Zhang San?¡± said the Captain, finishing a tangerine and then taking a pear out. He took a bite. [3]

    When the old man saw the Captain, his expression flickered and he hurried away. Meanwhile, the Seventh Peak disciple looked around with a silly smile on his face. After calling out a greeting to the Captain, he looked at Xu Qing with the same smile.

    ¡°This is ourtest addition to the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing,¡± the Captain said. Then he pointed at the middle-aged disciple and said, ¡°This is Zhang San. He used to be in Violent Crimes Division, but turned out to be a big coward so he transferred to the Transportation Division. Don¡¯t be fooled by his friendly appearance. He¡¯s killed so many pirates and rogue cultivators that there¡¯s hardly enough room around here to pile them up.¡± He gestured at the piles of cargo by way ofparison.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up. What was most intriguing was that he didn¡¯t sense any powerful fluctuations on this Zhang San. If what the Captain said was true, then there must be something very unusual about him.

    ¡°Come on, those are just rumors,¡± Zhang San said, rubbing his hands together. ¡°I killed a few small-time crooks, that¡¯s all. Ai. I still feel bad about that down to this day.¡± All the while, the silly smile never left his face.

    From what Xu Qing could tell, there wasn¡¯t an ounce of remorse on the man¡¯s face.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, don¡¯t listen to the Captain¡¯s nonsense. You have to watch out for yourself.¡± With that, he stood and offered a small bone to Xu Qing. ¡°Here, take this. A gift to mark the day we met.¡±

    1. Xu Yanhong¡¯s surname is a different Xu than Xu Qing¡¯s (it¡¯s actually the same as the other female character we met earlier, Xu Xiaohui). Yan means ¡°colorful¡± and Hong means ¡°red.¡± ?

    2. Those of you who¡¯ve read A Will Eternal might remember a ranking system in that novel that also used heaven, earth, celestial, and terrestrial. The bureaus in Violent Crimes Division used the same pattern of Chinese characters. The first two are themon characters for heaven and earth. The second two are characters with a variety of meanings, but when paired with the first two, create a four-character grouping in which thetter two are also describing heaven and earth. ?

    3. Zhang San: Zhang is #3 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. San means ¡°three.¡± Zhang San is amon ¡°generic name¡± like John Doe. Madam Deathde confirmed this and said it sounds "almost like nothing." Also, in Northeastern China "Zhang San" is apparently a name often applied to wolves. Given that Er Gen is from Northeastern China, I have to wonder if that yed into the name. Zhang starts with a J sound and rhymes with long. San rhymes with fawn. ?

 Chapter 56: A New Recruit in the Violent Crimes Division

    Chapter 56: A New Recruit in the Violent Crimes Division

    The bone was bright red, shaped like a hook, palm-sized, and glittered with a strange light. Upon examining it closely, one would see that the surface had aplex set of natural markings on it. The markings seemed to absorb spirit power from the surroundings automatically, causing wind to swirl around Zhang San¡¯s palm as he held it out.

    ¡°An immortal bone from a winged fish?¡± the Captain said, taking another bite of pear. ¡°Put that thing in your dharmaboat spell formation and it¡¯ll provide a big boost to your speed. Not bad at all!¡± Squatting down next to Zhang San, he smiled, nudged him with his shoulder and continued, ¡°What are you being so generous for today, you little punk?¡±

    ¡°How else could I wee Junior Brother Xu Qing?¡± Zhang San answered innocently.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ept the gift, but instead looked at the Captain for an indication of what to do. He had the feeling that Zhang San wasn¡¯t doing this for Xu Qing himself, but rather, for the Captain.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s reaction, the Captain smiled. ¡°Take it. He¡¯s giving it to you in the hopes that you won¡¯te around here arresting people very often.¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing turned back to Zhang San, who looked back with his silly smile.

    Xu Qing nodded, took the fish bone and examined it curiously, then put it in his sack.

    Then, imitating the Captain, he squatted down, though he kept a bit of distance between himself and the other two. [1]

    Seeing this, Zhang San¡¯s smile widened.

    ¡°Anything unusual going ontely, Zhang San?¡± the Captain asked. Having finished eating the pear, he pulled a peach out and took a bite.

    Xu Qing looked intently at Zhang San, waiting to hear his answer.

    Instead of answering immediately, Zhang San produced a pipe, took a puff, and then tapped it on the ground. Ash tumbled out, forming into the image of a face, along with a line of characters.

    ¡°There¡¯s a new face over by the south docks,¡± he said.

    The Captain looked thoughtfully at the ashes on the ground, then sped Zhang San¡¯s shoulder and smiled at Xu Qing. ¡°You can head home, little Junior Brother. You¡¯re off duty now. Don¡¯t bete tomorrow morning.¡±

    Xu Qing could tell that the two men wanted to talk in private, so he nodded, sped hands to both men, then turned and left. The orange light of the setting sun shone on his gray daoist robe as he departed.

    When he was gone, the Captain smiled. ¡°What do you think of the new recruit? You really are acting more generously than usual today.¡±

    ¡°Where did you find him? The first thing the brat did was look at my throat. How could I not be generous with someone like that?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily.

    ¡°What are youughing for?¡± Zhang San said, rubbing his neck awkwardly. ¡°What kind of person do you think makes it a habit of going around studying throats?¡±

    ¡°The kind of person who slits them,¡± the Captain said. He finished his peach, produced a second peach, and took a bite. ¡°The little punk is good looking, but he has a very strong baleful aura. He tried to hide it, but I can still sense it. And then there are his eyes....¡±

    Zhang San¡¯s expression was now somber as he puffed his pipe.

    ¡°Did you notice that?¡± the Captain went on. ¡°They¡¯re the eyes of someone who seeks revenge over the smallest grievance. I bet he has his own set of principles, and won¡¯t think twice to kill anyone who vites them.... A person like him will work out great for you as long as you treat him well. Treat him badly, and you¡¯ll get bit. He¡¯s killed a lot of people. I get a sense of danger just looking at him. If I met him out on the open sea, I¡¯d be very careful not to provoke him. I don¡¯t want to die, after all.¡±

    Zhang San looked at the Captain. ¡°This new junior brother is indeed very interesting.¡±

    The Captain eyed Xu Qing as he made his way off into the distance, looking pleased at Zhang San¡¯s final assessment.

    Zhang San sighed helplessly, and reminded himself that the Captain was a real freak who always had numerous tricks up his sleeve.

    As the Captain and Zhang San chatted, Xu Qing reached the far end of the harbor. The sky was starting to get dark, and the streets were emptying. Most shops were closed. Eventually, Xu Qing reached his berth, but he didn¡¯t immediately take out his dharmaboat. First, he looked around carefully.

    Someone hade hoping to kill him yesterday, so he wanted to check the area thoroughly. He even sprinkled some poison powder onto the water. When he was satisfied it was safe, he put his dharmaboat onto the water and stepped on board.

    Only after the defensive shield was up did he truly feel safe.

    With that, he sat down cross-legged. However, instead of starting his cultivation routine, he mentally reviewed the events of the day. He had a hard time getting a read on the Captain. But based on their conversation, Xu Qing¡¯s intuition was telling him the man was sincere. Meanwhile, he got the feeling Zhang San was hiding something. And it seemed like he feared Xu Qing.

    Then Xu Qing thought back to the gray-robed disciple who had been robbed of merit points, crippled, and then had to look up in despair as he was wiped out of existence.

    Everything he had seen and heard only reinforced his realization that this capital city was a brutal ce for disciples. Nothing was as simple as it seemed, and you couldn¡¯t ever trust what you saw on the surface.

    If you took either the Captain or Zhang San and dropped them into a scavenger basecamp, they could toy with the scavengers with ease, and probably massacre them in the blink of an eye. In fact, as far as Xu Qing was concerned, Seven Blood Eyes as a whole was like a forbidden region. And because of that, he had to focus on getting stronger through cultivation.

    That was especially true when he thought back to that young man in the pale violet daoist robe. He had such a noble status that everyone around him bowed in deference. It really reinforced Xu Qing¡¯s perception of how important social hierarchy was here.

    He had seen that kind of thing from the time he was young, and he knew how it worked.

    In his caution, he hadn¡¯t asked the Captain for details about the person who gave Xu Qing his identity medallion to begin with. If that person wanted to show his face, he would. If he didn¡¯t, he wouldn¡¯t. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to dig for details.

    I really doubt it has anything to do with Grandmaster Bai. Closing his eyes, he started his cultivation routine.

    Two hourster, when it was dark outside, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He looked hesitant.

    His cultivation speed was much slower than the day before, and he had a good idea why.

    If he likened himself to a vessel, then yesterday, he had been almostpletely empty. Because of that, it hadn¡¯t taken much effort to absorb lots of spirit power. But now the vessel was much fuller. Therefore, he needed to improve his absorption ability in order to attract spirit power.

    Looking down, he performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then waved his finger at the deck off to the side.

    Immediately, glittering light arose from gleaming lines, as a spell formation appeared.

    As the spell formation began to operate, the spirit power on the outside of the boat stirred in his direction. This was why practicing cultivation on a dharmaboat led to quicker advancement.

    After all, it was a ¡®spirit convergence¡¯ formation.

    I need to improve the boat¡¯s power source.

    The jade slip with information about the dharmaboat indicated that one couldn¡¯t just focus on upgrading the boat with better materials. You also had to upgrade the power source.

    The power source was the core of the dharmaboat, like its heart. It determined how much power the boat had, and there was virtually no limit to how much it could be upgraded. It was also the most expensive aspect of upgrading.

    All Seventh Peak disciples¡¯ dharmaboats started out with a single spirit convergence formation, which could slowly absorb surrounding spirit power and store it for backup use. If a disciple wasn¡¯t satisfied, they could feed spirit stones into the formation to make it stronger and improve the level of power. In addition to that, the hearts of certainrge mutant beasts could be used as power sources. The greater the power in the heart, the greater the power of the formation. At the same time, the speed and other general properties of the boat would receive a boost. Without making the proper internal adjustments, it didn¡¯t matter what the external configuration was, it couldn¡¯t be fully utilized.

    With these thoughts in mind, Xu Qing gritted his teeth, took out ten spirit stones, and put them onto the formation. A momentter, the spirit stones disappeared, and Xu Qing felt the dharmaboat shudder.

    Brilliant shafts of light shot out of the spell formation, and the dharmaboat became like a vortex as dense spirit power rushed toward it from all directions.

    Xu Qing immediately began his cultivation, and this time, progressed much more quickly. Around the time the sun rose, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and violet light spilled out of them.

    ¡°Seaforming Scripture. Sixth level!¡±

    He took a deep breath as he sensed the 180-meter spirit sea within him. It was only thirty metersrger than before, but that small increase provided profound benefits. He had a much greater spirit power capacity, and even better, had ess to many more transformations than before. He was also stronger.

    At this rate, it won¡¯t take long before my Seaforming Scripture is at the same level as my Sea and Mountain Incantation. Xu Qing was pleased with the speed of his progress, but sighed at the resources he¡¯d been forced to spend.

    Over the course of the night, he hadpletely wiped out his collection of spirit stones.

    Given that it was morning, Xu Qing straightened out his robe, then debarked his dharmaboat and headed to the Violent Crimes Division for his second day of work. His assignment was mandatory, but he got a sry. ording to the information in his identity medallion, his remuneration was 3,000 merit points per month.

    Because of that, he was taking it seriously. Not long after sunrise, he arrived at the Violent Crimes Division and went straight to the Celestial Bureau. There, he saw the Captain as well as some of the other Unit Six constables.

    There were about twenty people in the unit, including both men and women. Everyone had their own look, but they all had extraordinary cultivation base fluctuations. As they looked at Xu Qing, most had cold expressions, and the majority seemed cautious of him.

    Not being very sociable himself, Xu Qing stepped off to the side and waited quietly. The Captain casually ate an apple as he said, ¡°Our mission today is to go out and look for members of Night Dove.

    ¡°Don¡¯t spend all your time focusing on the bounty list. I know the bounties are enticing, but right now our focus should be on Night Dove. If you uncover any clues, don¡¯t beat the grass and startle the snake. Come back here and report the matter. The division will arrange for aprehensive investigation. Now, get to work!¡±

    The constables of Unit Six dispersed. This time, the Captain didn¡¯t take Xu Qing with him. Instead, he gave him a jade slip with a bounty list, then sent him off on his own. Xu Qing had no problem with this arrangement. Before long, he was out of the Violent Crimes Division, patrolling through the city while simultaneously examining the bounty list.

    Since he wasn¡¯t sure of the best route to patrol, he did the same as they¡¯d done the day before, and headed toward the Port District. He kept his guard up, and took off his Violent Crimes Division badge. Most of the time, he kept to the shadows and other locations where he wouldn¡¯t attract notice.

    As he looked at the bustling crowds and busy shops, he came to an even deeper understanding of how prosperous this city was.

    At a certain point, he noticed a vendor selling candied fruit on a stick. Thinking back to when he was young and always wanted to have candied fruit, he stepped over to buy a skewer. After inspecting them to make sure they were safe, he bought one and continued on his way. [2]

    After studying the bounty list, he realized why the Captain had reminded Unit Six not to focus too much on bounty hunting. The bounties for capturing such criminals started at ten spirit stones and went up into the hundreds.

    Several hourster, as noon approached, he was still working on his skewer of candied fruit when he suddenly stopped walking and looked down the crowded street.

    Threading her way skillfully through the crowd was a slender, good-looking young woman in a coarse garment. As Xu Qing watched, she picked the pockets of two passersby. She seemed very confident in her skills, and even smiled smugly as she ced the stolen goods in her own sack.

    Her smilested until she spotted Xu Qing looking at her from down the street, his facepletely expressionless. Face flushing with embarrassment, she was about to walk away when she realized that Xu Qing was walking straight toward her.

    She looked cautious, and obviously didn¡¯t recognize Xu Qing, but could tell that she was in danger, and quickly backed up to melt into the crowd.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, had already recognized her.

    This woman was the same one who had tried to get her pursuers to shift attention to him on the street the other night. That was Xu Qing¡¯s first night in the city, and also the first time he killed someone here.

    Xu Qing quickly finished thest piece of candied fruit and then suddenly threw the bamboo skewer, which shot like a bolt of lightning toward the woman.

    When the woman saw how fast he was, her face fell. She had no time to react, and no chance to disappear into the crowd. The bamboo skewer pierced the woman¡¯s right foot, and with a thump, she fell to the ground. She screamed, but the passersby didn¡¯t want to get involved and quickly fled.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s cold voice reached the trembling young woman¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Scream again, and I¡¯ll rip your jaw off your face.¡±

    As it turned out, Xu Qing had a good memory, and was also skilled at imitating others....

    1. I¡¯m sure most people reading this novel are familiar with the ¡°Asian squat,¡± but for any who aren¡¯t familiar, this is the kind of thing you will see everywhere in ces like China, Chinatown, and other Asian countries. It¡¯s extremelymon for people to squat down to rest, smoke, chat, etc. . ?

    2. Candied fruit on a stick is a verymon street food snack in China. The mostmon fruit is hawthorn, which looks like small red apples, but other fruits are used as well, from strawberry to kiwi to orange. . ?

 Chapter 57: Take a Spirit Coin

    Chapter 57: Take a Spirit Coin

    Xu Qing was still irritated about what happened that night. He ?had wanted to avoid killing anyone on his first day in Seven Blood Eyes, but this woman had dragged him into her issue. If he had been someone else with a weaker cultivation base and lower battle prowess, then he would probably have been killed.

    That was why he struck like lightning.

    As soon as the woman heard his words, she snapped her mouth shut andy there trembling. Of course, she knew full well what advantages women had. Most men would feel pity for a terrified woman, and therefore, she did her best to make herself seempletely beside herself with fear.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing, still chomping on hisst candied fruit, walked toward her, while making sure to keep an eye out in case the woman was working with a partner. Before he even got close, the crowd had vacated the area around the woman.

    There were a few people in the area who had cultivation bases, and seemed inclined to help the pitiable woman. But when they saw Xu Qing and sensed his extraordinary energy, they ducked their heads and left.

    As Xu Qing approached, the woman, whose foot was still impaled to the ground, trembled as hard as she could. She was even sweating profusely. However, it was at that moment that something clicked, and she realized who Xu Qing was.

    On the very night she tried to set him up, his cold eyes and ruthless manner made it obvious that she¡¯d gotten tangled up with a terrifying person. Ever since then, she¡¯d been in hiding, and hadn¡¯t stepped foot outside. It was only today that she decided the matter must have blown over. Most likely, the terrifying person she¡¯d dragged into her affair was some criminal figure from out of town, who wouldn¡¯t possibly show his face during the day.

    That was why she¡¯d finallye out. It had seemed impossibly unlikely that she would actually run into that very person. And even if she did run into him, she was confident that she could simply run away from him. After all, she was an ordinary citizen, and the Patrol Division kept the peace. ording to the rules of the city, she shouldn¡¯t be in any danger. But as Xu Qing approached and squatted in front of her, she suddenly realized that the Patrol Division wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen, and she started to wonder if she was about to die. The only thing she could do was tremble harder and make herself seem more terrified, hoping to buy enough time that someone woulde to her aid.

    ¡°Cut the act,¡± Xu Qing said, reaching down and pulling the bamboo skewer out of her foot.

    The pain, and the fact that he had seen through her act, caused the woman¡¯s eyes to grow wide with real terror. Realizing how close he was, she considered one final option, and her right fist twitched. However, she just didn¡¯t dare to toss out the poison powder she held there.

    Around then, the sound of a whistle pierced the air as a team of cultivators from the Patrol Division appeared down the street and started racing in their direction.

    Hope finally flickered in the woman¡¯s eyes.

    However, when Xu Qing shed his Violent Crimes Division badge to the Patrol Division cultivators, they turned and left.

    Finally, the hope in the woman¡¯s eyes was reced with despair.

    Trembling, she stammered, ¡°I¡¯m s-sorry about what happened before. I can make it up to you. I... I have information about a wanted criminal!¡±

    She didn¡¯t bother trying to haggle with him about how much she owed. Given the years she¡¯d spent operating in the night, she knew that a person this strong could easily kill her. She was in no ce to negotiate, and therefore, cooperation was the only option.

    Not waiting for Xu Qing to say anything in response, she quickly continued, ¡°I¡¯m talking about Master Greencloud, who was recently expelled from the Spirit Cloud Sect. For the past few days, he¡¯s been staying at a ce on nkspring Way. It¡¯s the same inn where you and I ran into each otherst time.¡±

    ¡°Wanted criminal?¡± Xu Qing nced down at the jade slip with the bounty list, and didn¡¯t have to look long before finding Master Greencloud¡¯s name. The reward for his capture was twenty spirit stones.

    ¡°Also,¡± the woman continued, ¡°I heard that the Violent Crimes Division has been investigating Night Dovetely. I know where one of their hideouts is.¡± Knowing how much danger she was in, and hoping to save her own life, she went on to exin all the details about the hideout.

    After hearing everything, Xu Qing looked at her, then thought back to the captain¡¯s informant. Taking out a spirit coin, he held it out to her. ¡°If you have more information like this,e back here and wait for me to find you.¡±

    The woman stared in shock, and even hesitated for a moment. She knew full well what kind of arrangement she was getting herself into. Gritting her teeth, she nodded and took the spirit coin. Then she got up and hobbled away as quickly as she could.

    After she disappeared into the crowd, Xu Qing stood up. He didn¡¯t bother to check into whether or not the woman¡¯s information about the Night Dove hideout was urate. He would simply report the information and let the division handle the further investigation.

    By the time he finished his patrol, the sun was sinking toward the horizon. At that point, he headed back to the inn where he¡¯d spent his first night in the city.

    Despite being daytime, the inn was open, although it seemed mostly empty.

    Xu Qing eyed the ce from a distance, thinking back to the gruish old man who ran it. Never the one to take action blindly, he simply watched the inn for a bit, then headed back to the Violent Crimes Division to deliver the information about the hideout. After that, he was off duty.

    It was possible that the woman from earlier had no intention of being his informant, and would simply disappear. To Xu Qing, it didn¡¯t matter. And that was because the coin he gave her... had poison on it, and she would need the antidote within three days.

    Back at the division, he saw some other Unit Six constables, but they were all cold and detached, and didn¡¯t say anything to him. There was one middle-aged constable who offered him a smile and invited him to go drinking.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, where killing was prohibited, yet people fought and robbed each other left and right, a sudden invitation like this seemed suspicious. So Xu Qing politely turned down the invitation.

    Today was a special day, and he didn¡¯t want to kill anyone. He wanted to be alone.

    What was more, he had one more stop: a medicine shop.

    There were some special medicinal nts he needed to concoct white boluses, and if he seeded in making the pills, he could sell them. He had almost run out of poisons and ck boluses, and needed to replenish his stock. And what was more, he had some ideas for more types of poisons that he wanted to experiment with.

    Consulting his mental map of the city, he went to a medicine shop he¡¯d noticed earlier. It was a big shop, and had a lot of customers, all of them wearing gray daoist robes. Medicinal pills and simr items were things disciples from all the different mountain peaks needed. When Xu Qing entered the shop, his delicate, almost pretty face attracted some attention. However, after ncing at him, the disciples looked away.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked around at the people inside the shop, then walked over to the counter.

    The old shopkeeper was at the counter, as well as a customer, a pudgy young man in a gray daoist robe. His robe was almost too tight for him, making him look like a bulging ball. He had fair skin and freckles, and looked like he was sixteen or seventeen years old. He was currently yawning as he put the medicinal nts he¡¯d purchased into a big sack hanging from his shoulder.

    From the haphazard way he put everything into his bag, Xu Qing could tell that he didn¡¯t know anything about medicinal nts. There were some nts that shouldn¡¯t be stored together, but this young man was just throwing everything in randomly.

    As he neared, Xu Qing heard the pudgy young man talking in a dissatisfied tone. ¡°Shopkeeper, this isn¡¯t much of a haul. Why so few nts?¡±

    ¡°Youe every day and clear everything out! Come back tomorrow. The big boss has a new shipmenting in.¡± The shopkeeper was obviously familiar with the young man. After handing over all the nts, the shopkeeper noticed Xu Qing. ¡°Hello there, Junior Brother. What medicinal items are you looking for?¡±

    ¡°I need ten-year-old mothbone flowers, living,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Thirty stalks of goldwing leaf. Ten stalks of cleversprite branch, prepped for use. A bunch of seven-leaf clovers, any vintage. And a hundred stalks of goldbutton weed. Also, rhino-fire blossoms with the roots attached, as well as some condensing spirit leaves. I need ten each, with white-colored roots.¡± After some thought, Xu Qing mentioned a few types of venom and poisonous nts, then concluded with. ¡°Do you happen to have any rotcloud mud or ckgem thorns?¡±

    The shopkeeper stared at Xu Qing for a moment. Most customers who came to this shop were disciples buying pills. asionally, people woulde in to buy medicinal nts, but they were usually disciples from the Second Peak. Either that, or people like this pudgy young disciple who didn¡¯t know much about medicinal nts. He didn¡¯t see many people like Xu Qing, who were so articte, yet unfamiliar, and obviously not from the Second Peak.

    What was more, the shopkeeper knew that most of the ingredients Xu Qing had mentioned were required for white boluses. After a moment, he said, ¡°We have all of that. It¡¯ll cost you 380 spirit coins. Er, actually, we don¡¯t have condensing spirit leaves. Ourst hundred were just purchased by this fellow here.¡± He pointed at the pudgy young disciple. ¡°We¡¯ll have more tomorrow.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Although the condensing spirit leaves were important, he could wait for a day. The asking price was reasonable. Assuming his concocting efforts went well, he would be able to make over a hundred white boluses, plus a lot of poison powder.

    Just as he was about to hand over the money, the pudgy young man looked over at him and said, ¡°Condensing spirit leaves? Do you need these things too? What are they good for? I¡¯ve asked the shopkeeper a bunch of times, but he won¡¯t tell me.¡±

    The shopkeeper sighed. ¡°If I spent time answering all of your countless questions, I wouldn¡¯t have time to attend to any of the other customers!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the pudgy young man and thought about himself in the past, thirsting for knowledge.

    ¡°There are two main uses for condensing spirit leaves,¡± he said. ¡°First, they can be a catalyzing agent when used with other nts, allowing you to guide the resulting variations in the mixture. Second, they¡¯re great for moisturizing the skin.¡±

    A look of enlightenment suddenly appeared on the pudgy young man¡¯s face. Then he pulled out a handful of condensing spirit leaves, about seven or eight in total, and handed them to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Thank you, Brother. Here, take these.¡± With that, the young man shouldered his bag and walked out, looking very pleased. It seemed that, to him, giving away free medicinal nts to people was something of little consequence.

    Xu Qing was taken aback, and wanted to decline the offer, but before he could, the pudgy young man was walking away, pulling out his identity medallion to send a voice message to someone.

    Meanwhile, the shopkeeper chuckled. ¡°The fat kid is Huang Yan from the Seventh Peak. He¡¯s a prodigy when ites to pursuing love. I¡¯m not sure which girl he¡¯s obsessed with, but he¡¯s beening here for seven or eight years to buy medicinal nts for her. In fact, he¡¯s spent so much money he could be my boss. In any case, the kid isn¡¯t as simple as he seems. People who stick out from the crowd usually die early, but he¡¯s been around for years.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Huang Yan walking off into the distance. Not making conversation with the shopkeeper, he purchased his medicinal nts and then left.

    Back at his berth, he did his usual inspection and then got into his dharmaboat. After activating the defenses, he breathed a sigh of relief. He felt a sense of security inside the dharmaboat that was impossible to feel while outside.

    Taking out his new nts, he arranged them ording to their type, then thought of the pill form for white boluses. Despite never having all the ingredients to make white boluses, he hadn¡¯t forgotten the mixture ratios. And now that he had everything ready, he didn¡¯t waste any time in attempting to concoct the pill again.

    Time passed, and soon, it waste in the night.

 Chapter 58: A Birthday Alone

    Chapter 58: A Birthday Alone

    As the wind blew, rippling the water, the little boat creaked, bobbing up and down, creating gray froth.

    Inside the boat, Xu Qing waspletely focused on his pill concocting. One by one, he took out the medicinal nts he needed, either plucking off the leaves, extracting the sap, or removing stamens before carefully putting them into the stone bowl. As he worked, more and more medicinal liquid built up.

    After confirming the mix ratio and making some final adjustments, he added the seven-leaf clover. And then, at just around midnight, he carefully added the sap of the condensing spirit leaf into the ck liquid. Hissing and popping sounds rang out, and a green smoke rose up that he brushed away. Then the medicinal liquid in the stone bowl turned white and semisolid. At the same time, it glowed faintly.

    He had seeded!

    After a final inspection, he took the liquid out and rolled it into the shape of arge pill. Putting it down to dry, he looked at it, his eyes glowing with satisfaction.

    I finally made a white bolus!

    All of a sudden, he thought back to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lectures in the scavenger basecamp.

    Today was a special day, and because of that, such memories caused his mood to be unusually tranquil. A momentter, he sighed and looked out into the darkness outside the boat.

    The moon hung in the sky, its reflection visible on the rippling surface of the water. Everything was quiet, except for the faint sea breeze, humid and cold, causing his hair to sway gently.

    Grandmaster Bai should be back in the Violet Lands by now. I wonder where Crucifix and Graceful Raptor ended up....

    Does Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave have weeds growing on it already?

    I still haven¡¯t found any lifespan flowers.

    He was used to being alone, and was also used to adapting to new situations. But in the end, he was still a kid. Sitting there quietly, he thought back to the ce he¡¯d once lived in the scavenger basecamp, and that familiar old man who loved eating snake meat. He¡¯d often listened to him talking about thetest gossip in the camp, while enjoying a smoke and a drink.

    The memories were vivid.

    Xu Qing looked down.

    That schr back in the slums once said that when you start thinking about the past, it means you¡¯re growing up....

    Xu Qing took out a jug of alcohol he¡¯d purchased while on patrol earlier. Looking back up at the bright moon, he raised up the jug respectfully, then took a drink.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a young man alone on a boat, drinking respectfully with the moon.

    The alcohol in the capital city was stronger than in the basecamp. It burned when it went down, bing like a fire in his belly that spread out to fill his entire body. After taking a drink, he took a moment to breathe before drinking again.

    I wish Sergeant Thunder¡¯s soul a good journey in heaven.

    I wish Grandmaster Bai health and longevity.

    And I wish myself... a happy birthday.

    He took another drink.

    Today was special because it was his birthday.

    Xu Qing seemed like he was sixteen, but in reality he was only fifteen. Given how much he¡¯d grown, he was a lot more experienced than someone the same age as him.

    This year, just like so many years in the past, he spent his birthday alone. The only difference was that this time, he had some alcohol.

    Taking another drink from the jug, he thought about his family. He could still remember them. However, the memories were hazy, no matter how hard he tried to recall the details. It hurt inside. He didn¡¯t want the memories to be hazy, but... there were some things you just couldn¡¯t change.

    Time passed.

    ¡°Are you all... doing well?¡± he murmured, his head bowed.

    The wind blew, brushing against his hair and face. It was cold, and it gradually pulled him out of his memories, and caused his eyes to harden. Again, his facial expression went back to its usual cold and detached state.

    Keep on living. As long as I stay alive, then I¡¯ll have a chance to see Dad and Mom again. And that... would be amazing. Therefore, I have to get stronger!

    He looked up, and the moonlight shone down on him. He seemed like a lone wolf staring off into the distance.

    Then, he settled down cross-legged to start his cultivation routine.

    Time passed.

    After his birthday, he settled into a routine. For days, he went on patrol during the day, and worked on pill concocting and cultivation in the evenings.

    Even by using spirit stones to speed up his cultivation of the Seaforming Scripture, progress was still a bit slow. It took several days to go from the sixth level into the seventh.

    He knew that his speed would continue to slow going forward, althoughpared to other people he would still be astonishingly fast.

    Once in the seventh level, Xu Qing could tell that his battle prowess was vastly superior to before. In fact, he waspletely and utterly confident that if he had to fight the version of himself that had just arrived at Seven Blood Eyes, he would kill him in thirty breaths of time or less.

    Although he was still a far cry from being a match for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, Xu Qing was confident he could at least hold his own for a time in such a fight.

    Once I¡¯m a bit stronger, I¡¯m going to go back and kill Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior!

    He would feel uneasy until the day he aplished that. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior surely knew how Seven Blood Eyes operated, and wouldn¡¯t try to kill him in the sect. But he could lend someone a knife and have them do his dirty work for him.

    Xu Qing knew he had to improve his cultivation base and get rid of that threat once and for all.

    He had done a lot more research into dharmaboats, and had read the jade slip instructions thoroughly. What was more, he had practiced enough that he hadplete control over the operation of the boat.

    For now, he¡¯d decided that the first thing he needed to focus on was the hull. He would upgrade his dharmaboat by means of improving its hull and defenses. That would prevent the boat from being damaged, and would thus ensure that he didn¡¯t need to worry about making repairs. What was more, Seven Blood Eyes was a ce where you always had to worry about being ambushed. The dharmaboat was the most secure and safe location, a ce where he needed privacy to rest, concoct pills, and work on cultivation. Because of that, he needed the boat to have adequate defenses.

    As the days passed, Xu Qing concocted quite a few white and ck boluses. Furthermore, he created some more poison powders. As he concocted pills, he paid very close attention to everything that happened, thus improving his understanding of nts and vegetation. After every concocting session, he would carefully organize his leftover nts. Thus, the interior of his dharmaboat eventually became packed with all sorts of ingredients.

    Because of the dense poption in the city, he didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to experiment with new poison concoctions. However, he did start building up a good collection of ingredients to do so.

    Next time he got a chance to leave the city, he would find a safe ce for some experimentation.

    He got more and more familiar with working in the Violent Crimes Division. The entire division was still focused on tracking down members of Night Dove, with new informationing in on a daily basis.

    Xu Qing had the feeling it wouldn¡¯t be long before the division tightened the and took action.

    On one particr day when Xu Qing was supposed to be on night duty, he submitted an application to switch shifts with someone. All constables in Violent Crimes had to go on night patrol at some point, although those shifts were a lot more dangerous. His application was approved, and thus, as the sky grew dark, Xu Qing straightened his clothing, put some poison powder packets into his sleeves, strapped his daggers and iron skewer into ce, and then walked out of his dharmaboat.

    Darkness was already driving away the evening light, and a light rain ensured that the sky wasn¡¯t even visible.

    Xu Qing slipped into the darkness, blending into the rain and the shadows. As the rain sttered onto him, and the cold wind hit him, he took in a deep breath.

    The rain drove away any heat that remained in the city, but it couldn¡¯t get rid of that unique smell the city had. Xu Qing sped along, sshing through the puddles formed by the rain. As the sshes rippled out, they looked like flowers. In fact, it seemed like each step he took formed lotuses beneath his feet.

    The night grew deeper, and the rain fell harder. Xu Qing sped by alleyways and closed-up shops. He saw people fighting in the streets, but avoided them.

    Eventually, he reached nkspring Way. Staying beneath the eaves of a building across the street, he watched the inn through the rain. It was only a few days ago that he had learned that the wanted criminal Master Greencloud was staying in this ce.

    ording to the information in the bounty list, he¡¯de from a small sect in the Violet Lands called the Spirit Cloud Sect. The man was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and was vicious, merciless, and given to lust. After killing some female disciples in his sect, he fled. During the process, he had piged numerous viges, raping and killing to his heart¡¯s content.

    Originally, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been inclined to go arrest him. He had no beef with the man. In the brutal, chaotic world they lived in, everyone lived in their own way, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to go around sticking his nose in the affairs of others.

    But Master Greencloud had made a mistake.

    Xu Qing had been expecting his informant toe back two days after their initial meeting to ask for the antidote to the poison he¡¯d given her. Except, she never showed up. The next day, Xu Qing had gone looking for her. The city was a windy ce, but that couldn¡¯t drive away the unique scent of the poison powder he¡¯d used. Therefore, it wasn¡¯t hard for him to track down her residence. Inside, he saw signs of a struggle, and then traces of the poison powder going in a different direction. He¡¯d followed it to this inn. After waiting outside for a time, he saw a person enter the inn, covered in that very same poison powder.

    It was none other than Master Greencloud from the bounty list.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had requested time off so that he coulde here.

    That woman was his informant, and therefore, this was now his matter.

 Chapter 59: A Lonely Figure on a Rainy Night

    Chapter 59: A Lonely Figure on a Rainy Night

    As time passed, the rain fell harder. The howl of the wind sounded like weeping as it swept through the capital city of Seven Blood Eyes. In every street and alley, it met the embrace of the rain. And eventually itnded on nkspring Way, and Xu Qing. It hit the surrounding roof tiles in a stato patter, while the wind caused Xu Qing¡¯s robes to p.

    However, as he stood beneath the eaves of the building, he didn¡¯t seem to even notice the wind. He was a part of the shadows, like a skilled hunter,pletely unmoving as he stared coldly across the street. He was patient, his breath rate low as he waited.

    Two hours passed.

    Lights in the houses throughout the city were slowly extinguished, until the city was pitch ck and silent but for the sound of the storm. That was when a shadowy figure stuck its head out of the inn. It was a middle-aged cultivator in a long red robe. He was clearly well-built, with broad shoulders and an intimidating presence. He was none other than Master Greencloud. His spirit power fluctuations were extraordinary, like those of the ninth level of Qi Condensation. He was very strong.

    However, that level of strength would only be impressive in a small sect or organization. This was Seven Blood Eyes territory. Disciples here had unique techniques that gave them an unusually strong foundation. Furthermore, the ruthless atmosphere of this sect made it such that an ordinary disciple of Seven Blood Eyes who was in the seventh level of Qi Condensation would be able to crush someone from a smaller sect who was in the ninth level.

    Because of that, Master Greencloud acted with great caution while here. Remaining inside the inn, he looked out to make sure the coast was clear, then took a single step outside. After taking that single step, he blurred into a run. However, after going only five steps, his expression flickered as though he¡¯d sensed some extreme threat in the area. He hadn¡¯t seen Xu Qing, but trusting his senses, he spun back toward the inn.

    Xu Qing frowned. He¡¯d originally nned to let the man run a bit farther before making a move. But seeing what was happening, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly and he started moving. He was like a bolt of lightning piercing through the rainwater.

    Something like a thunderp rang out as, from Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, the rain slowed to a crawl.

    Master Greencloud¡¯s face fell as he saw Xu Qing and realized the terrifying speed he was capable of. Also, he could sense the aura of the Forbidden Sea on him, which created such an intense pressure that his own spirit power became sluggish. Instantly, his heart pounded with a profound sensation of deadly crisis.

    Eyes turning crimson, he bit down on the tip of his tongue to unleash a secret magic. Tapping into his cultivation base, he shot forward with even greater speed toward the door of the inn.

    As all of this happened, an old man inside the inn smoked a pipe and watched Xu Qing through the haze of smoke.

    Master Greencloud¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he reached a spot so close to the inn that he was only half a step from reaching the interior. Just as his right foot was about to span the gap, a dark blur bursting with the spirit power of the Forbidden Sea pierced through Master Greencloud¡¯s defenses and stabbed into his right calf.

    It moved with such speed and power that Master Greencloud instinctively let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

    His right foot was now incapable of stepping into the inn. What was more, he was knocked to the side, where he staggered backward as a second dark blur raced toward him. It was a dagger that flew with shocking speed to stab into Master Greencloud¡¯s left arm.

    Thump!

    Terrifying spirit power exploded into him, shattering his meridians and blood vessels as he was knocked down and pinned face-first to the ground. He was now within arm¡¯s reach of the inn¡¯s front door. Screaming, blue veins bulging out on his forehead, he struggled to pull the dagger out of his arm and crawl into the inn. But he was too slow.

    Xu Qing arrived and stamped his foot down onto the man¡¯s back. The immense force in his foot caused cracking sounds to ring out as Master Greencloud¡¯s spine shattered. More pain coursed through him violently, causing his screams to turn even more bloodcurdling.

    Inside the inn, the old man took his pipe out of his mouth. At the same time, a very dangerous aura erupted from him as he looked out coldly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Are you going to break my house rules?¡±

    His eyes had turned yellow, and writhing tentacles wriggled out from their depths. At the same time, his forehead split open, as if something shocking and ghastly existed inside of him.

    A strange sound could be heard inside the inn as a massive anaconda appeared, its body as thick as three people put together. Lowering down from the rafters of the inn, it looked at Xu Qing, radiating an icy and bloodthirsty air.

    In addition to that, a horde of centipedes burrowed out from the ground, all of them pitch ck and obviously extremely venomous, and ready to attack at any moment. Finally, piercing auras emerged from the rooms in the inn, forming ropes that locked onto Xu Qing and encircled him. The ropes almost seemed alive, as if, at any moment, it could bind Xu Qing before he could react. They were permeated with a boundless aura of death, as if they had killed far too many people to even count.

    Everything present was focused on Xu Qing.

    He stood there at the door, his foot nted firmly on the back of the screaming Master Greencloud. Then he looked up at the old man.

    Their eyes met.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem to notice the mutant beasts, or the powerful auras locked onto him, or the ropes. Instead, he just looked at the old man.

    As he did, a figure appeared behind him, a hobgoblin like a pitch-ck evil ghost, just waiting to attack. As the Sea and Mountain Incantation thrummed to life within him, every bit of his flesh and blood seemed to ready for explosive action. It was the same with the Seaforming Scripture. All of the rainwater around him stopped in midair, then began to slowly rotate around him in response to the call of his internal spirit sea.

    It seemed he was ready to unleash lethal arts at any moment. His poisons were ready, and his shadow, though silent and undetectable, had already slid inside the inn and was just in front of the gruish old man¡¯s feet.

    Especially noteworthy was how the rainwater that flowed above Xu Qing seemed to reveal the outline of an illusory saber. It was barely visible, but it contained impressive might. And though it seemed restrained at the moment, it was capable of sending that heavenly saber shing down into the earth.

    Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. He didn¡¯t seem shaken by the tentacles in the old man¡¯s eyes, or the way his forehead was about to open up. He could tell the innkeeper was strong, but at the same time, couldn¡¯t simply back down.

    Expression calm, he said, ¡°I haven¡¯t stepped inside, therefore, I haven¡¯t broken your house rules.¡±

    The old man¡¯s eyes glittered with an unusual light as he looked at Xu Qing for a long moment, then smiled. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right.¡±

    All of the auras that had been locked onto Xu Qing vanished. The anaconda slid back up into the roof beams and the centipedes rustled back into the ground.

    The ropes also vanished. A momentter, there was nothing there. Only the old man remained, though the tentacles and the split in his forehead were gone, and he looked just like he had before. He was now an old man smoking a pipe.

    ¡°Want to sell the corpse?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. Grabbing the trembling Master Greencloud by the hair, he looked down and said, ¡°Where¡¯s the woman you kidnapped two days ago?¡±

    Master Greencloud¡¯s hair was disheveled, he was covered in blood, and looked to be in very bad shape. But even as he trembled, it seemed he was going to make it clear he wouldn¡¯t talk... by spitting in Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    Before he could, Xu Qing released his hair, allowing his head to drop back down to the ground. Then he patted his head gently.

    A momentter, a scream rang out as Xu Qing grabbed Master Greencloud¡¯s right arm and shattered the bones within. Then he did the same with his other arm. Master Greencloud shook from the pain, and screamed uncontrobly. Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid. Looking Master Greencloud up and down, he then clenched his hand into a fist and punched the man¡¯s dantian region, crushing his cultivation base. Now that the man wasn¡¯t a threat, Xu Qing stepped over to retrieve his dagger and iron skewer. Finally, he grabbed Master Greencloud¡¯s foot and dragged him away.

    The streak of blood left behind was quickly diluted by the rain. But as Master Greencloud felt his wounded flesh scraping against the ground, he screamed even more shrilly.

    And thus, Xu Qing walked away, leaving behind a quickly vanishing trail of blood behind him.

    Seeing this, the old man¡¯s pupils constricted, and he murmured, ¡°This kid is certainly ruthless enough....¡±

    The screaming Master Greencloud didn¡¯t go unnoticed by people creeping through the darkness of night. When they saw him, they were deeply shaken, and of course, were struck even more profoundly by the expressionless young man dragging him along.

    There were some disciples on patrol who, upon hearing the screaming, rushed to investigate. But when they recognized Master Greencloud, they looked in shock to identify who it was that was dragging him through the streets.

    Master Greencloud might only be from a small sect, but he was still in the ninth level of Qi Condensation. Yet Xu Qing had not only captured him alive, but had inflicted serious torment in the process. Nobody would dare to mess with a person who could do that.

    This fight was going to earn Xu Qing some prestige in the city.

    Master Greencloud was strong-willed, and held out for almost two hours before giving in. Just before passing out, he gave Xu Qing the information he sought; the location of the informant that he¡¯d kidnapped.

    As it turned out, Master Greencloud had groomed that woman as a personal spy. What was more, he had no idea she¡¯d sold him out to Xu Qing. However, he had a custom of only keeping his spies around for a limited time before getting rid of them.

    Sadly for that woman, her turn hade.

    After confirming the address, Xu Qing went there and looked around for traps. Once inside, he found himself in a secret subterranean dungeon that stank of evil. There he found his informant, barely breathing.

    She didn¡¯t have the spirit coin Xu Qing had given her, and though she still bore the faint scent of his poison powder, this location was sealed to the outside, which was why he¡¯d been unable to find her. She wasn¡¯t dead, but on her left and right were rotting corpses of both men and women. They had died horribly and in torment. What was more, there was a spell formation on the ground; apparently their deaths were part of some sort of ritual.

    Seemingly sensing Xu Qing¡¯s presence, his informant opened her eyes. And when she saw the unconscious Master Greencloud, a wave of strength rose up within her. Lunging forward like a wild animal, she tore a chunk of flesh out of the man¡¯s shoulder. Waking up, he screamed, but she just kept biting and ripping out chunks of flesh.

    Eventually, when Master Greencloud was a mass of mangled flesh, she stopped, panting. Then she looked up at Xu Qing, who stood there expressionless off to the side.

    He looked tall and handsome in his gray robe, but there was also something cold and grim about him that she couldn¡¯t quite pin down. And the aura he exuded left her slightly breathless.

    The madness on her face faded, and as she calmed down, she became docile and meek. She even started shaking. Then, she seemed to recall something, and got to her feet and started looking around.

    Eventually, she found a jade slip. Getting onto her knees in front of Xu Qing in an almost worshipful posture, she offered him the jade slip with both hands.

    He took it and examined the contents. It described a spell formation that, upon being activated, would bestow unfathomable power. In order to activate the formation, it needed to be fed the emotions of living beings. Things like happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy.

    Xu Qing looked around at the miserable conditions within the dungeon, then turned to drag Master Greencloud¡¯s corpse away. Just before leaving, he said, ¡°Going forward, I hope you work hard as my informant.¡±

    He also tossed her a spirit coin and an antidote pill.

    She took them and watched Xu Qing leave. And deep in her soul, she agreed to his demands.

    Dawn was just around the corner as Xu Qing took out a ck umbre and started dragging Master Greencloud¡¯s corpse through the streets. [1]

    The dark clouds in the sky seemed to mirror his mood. Eventually, he dropped the corpse off at the Violent Crimes Division, to the shock of his colleagues. By that time, the sun was visible in the sky, and he could also see the face of the god above. Determination appeared in his eyes.

    In this brutal, chaotic world, you have to get strong. That¡¯s the only way... to avoid bing meat on a chopping block!

    1. There is no detailed description of the umbre. However, given the setting, it most likely looks like an Asian-style umbre, as opposed to the modern Western style. In other words, it  ... . Same goes for other umbres that appearter in the novel. ?

 Chapter 60: Invitation Only

    Chapter 60: Invitation Only

    Thunder crashed!

    The boom echoed out through heaven and earth as the clouds roiled. It sounded like there were invading godsunching attacks from above. Sometimes the thunder came as muffled booms. In other cases, it sounded like a string of explosions that dragged the citizens of the city out of their deepest dreams. Lightning pierced through the sky, ripping apart the darkness of night. It was almost like the sun, obscured by the dark clouds, had a fleeting chance to illuminate the human world below.

    At dawn, the rain came down harder.

    The wind grew in intensity, like a howling giant whose cries reached the most distant corners of the city. It almost vied with the thunder.

    A figure walked along the street holding a ck umbre, barely visible thanks to the sheets of rain.

    Rainwater smacked loudly into the umbre, and seemingly in defiance of the obstacle, ran in rivulets down the sides. Only by struggling to fall to the ground below could the drops of water reunite with theirpanions on the street. That reunion caused ripples of water to spread out, cleaning the streets of the blood that had been shed during the night. However, it couldn¡¯t wipe away the brutality of the crimes that had beenmitted.

    ¡°Everyone has evil in their heart. It¡¯s just that the chaotic world we live in makes it easier for people to release it.¡±

    That was something Sergeant Thunder had said once during dinner. Xu Qing had to admit it made sense.

    The rain grew fiercer. The thunder boomed. And as the storm raged, Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts grew calm. Without realizing where he was going, he ended up back at Harbor 79, where the water seemed to be boiling. Like usual, Xu Qing inspected the area, then took out his dharmaboat.

    Once inside, he activated the defenses, and as the boat rocked up and down, he sat down cross-legged under the canopy.

    The boat¡¯s defenses blocked the rain, and Xu Qing had long since grown ustomed to the motion of the boat on the water. In contrast to the rocking boat, and the rain and wind outside, Xu Qing feltpletely calm as he started concocting some pills.

    In recent days, Xu Qing had consistently purchased medicinal nts to concoct white boluses, ck boluses, and poison powders. Simr to hisboratory back in the forbidden region, he had created atticework of cabs within which were packed with all sorts of vital yang and unhealthy yin medicinal nts.

    I still need to find a good ce to experiment with concocting poisons. After examining the cabs, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture, causing several nts to fly toward him. As the storm raged, he continued his concocting work.

    Time passed. It rained all day, heavier and heavier, until it was a true, raging storm.

    Waves surged into the port, causing countless boats and ships to rock violently. Thankfully, the dharmaboats were generally safe once their defenses were activated. From a distance, they looked like a host of fallen leaves bobbing on the surface of the water.

    Because of the storm, there were no visiting trading ships entering the port, nor did anyone leave. Most of the sect departments closed for business, with many of the disciples staying in their residences. The Seven Blood Eyes portrgely shut down during the shocking storm.

    However, the ughter on the streets¡­ continued.

    As night fell on the second day, and the wind and rain seemed to get even worse, Xu Qing sat in his dharmaboat. His eyes suddenly opened as a sense of profound danger rose up within him. That danger wasn¡¯t because of the nasty weather, but rather, came from the shore just next to his dharmaboat.

    Despite the rain and wind, he was able to detect the odor of poison powder. It came from some powders he had deposited in the area to act as an early warning system. If anyone got close to his dharmaboat, they would have to step through that powder. Then, if they stepped onto his boat without his permission, other poison gasses on his boat would mix with the powder to create something fatally poisonous. Furthermore, his psychic power, which had enabled him to take first ce in the entry assessment, had advanced by leaps and bounds thanks to his cultivation of the Seaforming Scripture. His sensory abilities were far beyond the level of his peers.

    Thanks to these two lines of defense, he knew that someone¡­ had approached his dharmaboat and was now standing outside.

    Eyes glittering coldly, he didn¡¯t wait inside the boat. Instead, he stepped out onto the open deck and looked through the defenses to the outside world.

    The dense rain and wind was interspersed by the sh of lightning, which illuminated someone standing on the shore wearing a woven rush raincoat and carrying a jug of alcohol. [1]

    He was looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back.

    A moment passed, and then the man lifted up his wide conical hat to reveal the smiling face of a middle-aged man.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, you don¡¯t need to be so overly cautious. It¡¯s me! I went out to buy some alcohol, and was passing by, so I figured I¡¯d ask if you¡¯d like to have a few drinks together. How could it not be a wonderful thing to drink together in wretched weather like this?¡±

    This man was a fellow constable from the Violent Crimes Division, and was actually in the same unit as Xu Qing. He was the same person who had invited him out drinking previously.

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just stared coldly at the man.

    This caused the man to chuckle helplessly. ¡°Well, never mind. In this damnable sect, it¡¯s hard to trust anybody. All I can say is that I don¡¯t have any ill intentions. I just want to make friends, Junior Brother Xu. Lots of members of our unit have had drinks with me, but if you¡¯re not interested, I¡¯ll take my leave.¡±

    Shaking his head, he turned to go.

    But that was when Xu Qing said, ¡°Alright. Step aboard.¡±

    The man stopped walking and looked back curiously at Xu Qing. He looked at his boat, and a deep glimmer of light passed through his eyes. Then he shook his head.

    ¡°Forget about it. I¡¯m not interested in forcing the issue.¡±

    Then he started walking a bit faster. However, he¡¯d only taken five or six steps when a high-pitched whistling sound erupted out as a dagger shot toward him with spectacr speed.

    He immediately jumped out of the way, his face falling as he looked at Xu Qing leaping out of his dharmaboat, his iron skewer in hand.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, what are you doing?¡±

    His pupils constricted as he realized Xu Qing was rushing right toward him. Quickly performing an incantation gesture, he caused the raindrops in the area to turn into arrows that shot toward Xu Qing. However, before they got close, Xu Qing waved his hand, and the raindrop arrows shivered, then shifted directions and shot toward the middle-aged constable.

    The constable was shocked by this, and as a sense of profound crisis rose up in him, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood. It instantly expanded into a blood mist that blocked the iing rainwater arrows. Meanwhile, he started moving backward as if to flee.

    But he wasn¡¯t quick enough. He had misjudged Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing shot toward him, his iron skewer shining like a lightning bolt as it closed in on the man¡¯s head.

    It radiated a coldness that could pierce bones.

    The constable¡¯s eyes turned bloodshot, and he howled as he unleashed the full extent of his cultivation base. A glittering defensive shield sprang up, while a vicious-looking mouth appeared on his chest, ripping through his garments and unleashing a piercing shriek in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    The man¡¯s defenses shattered, but the sound waves erupting from the mouth on his chest managed to slow down the iron skewer. Taking advantage of that extra time, the man threw the jug of alcohol at Xu Qing, turned, and fled at top speed.

    Halfway to Xu Qing, the jug shattered, revealing that it didn¡¯t contain alcohol, but rather, a viscous poison liquid. As it sttered, it began to corrode everything it touched. Even the defenses of the dharmaboat began to melt.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. He had suspected from the beginning that something fishy was going on, but couldn¡¯t be sure. But given the weather, and the fact that this constable had shown up under such strange circumstances, Xu Qing decided to act first. Killing intent glittered in his eyes as he looked at the fleeing man. He didn¡¯t give chase. He just reached out and made a vicious grasping gesture.

    Inside of him, the Seaforming Scripture roared to life.

    In response, the surrounding rain shivered, then flew through the air madly and converged in the area surrounding the middle-aged constable. There, they transformed into a huge hand that sped around him. His eyes went wide with astonishment, and he struggled to free himself, but failed.

    RUMBLE!

    The man was suspended in midair, his face ashen as death, his eyes filling with terror. He was just opening his mouth to say something when Xu Qing arrived and shed his throat open with his dagger.

    The force of the blow sent the man¡¯s head flying off his shoulders.

    As blood sprayed everywhere, the huge mouth in the constable¡¯s chest bulged out and tried to bite Xu Qing¡¯s hand.

    Xu Qing¡¯s Sea and Mountain Incantation surged, and the spectral hobgoblin appeared, howling noiselessly. At the same time, the hand of rainwater smashed down toward the ground.

    A boom rang out as the man¡¯s headless corpse was smashed into a paste, and the mouth was crushed. Afterward, Xu Qing stood in ce, breathing hard.

    The battle had ended quickly. But the truth was that this man¡¯s cultivation base was extraordinary, and his battle prowess shocking. In fact, it was about the same as Xu Qing¡¯s before he entered the city.

    Not even Master Greencloud would have been a match for this man. After all, people who cultivated the Seaforming Scripture had battle prowess that surpassed small organizations by a wide margin.

    Xu Qing looked around to see if his dead foe had anypanions in the area. But because of the wind and rain, the port was pitch ck, and was only illuminated by the asional bolt of lightning.

    1. I¡¯m sure most of you have an idea what a Chinese woven rush raincoat looks like, but just in case,  of a historical raincoat and matching hat. ?

 Chapter 61: A Beautiful Young Woman with an Umbrella

    Chapter 61: A Beautiful Young Woman with an Umbre

    Xu Qing inspected the area, then picked up the dead cultivator¡¯s blood-soaked sack. After sprinkling Corpse-Ravaging Powder on the corpse, it dissolved into a bloody sludge that mingled with the rainwater.

    After that, he went back to his dharmaboat. Inside, he opened the sack, then frowned when he realized it only contained a few misceneous items. There were no spirit stones or cultivation resources. There most certainly wasn¡¯t a dharmaboat. The only thing of note was a blood-colored jade slip and the man¡¯s identity medallion. Now that he was dead, the medallion had gone dark, making it impossible to see his merit point bnce, or to transfer the bnce away.

    The person had to be alive to do that.

    He must have his belongings hidden somewhere, Xu Qing thought. Unfortunately, due to his custom of striking to kill, it wasn¡¯t going to be possible to get the man¡¯s merit points.

    Maybe next time I should try to maim first and kill after?

    After thinking about it, he still felt it would be too risky to do that. Next, he examined the blood-colored jade slip, which caused his eyes to glitter.

    It¡¯s a hit list? It looked simr to the bounty list from the sect, except this list was obviously distributed by an individual. It listed a whole series of disciples from Seven Blood Eyes, and next to each name was a mary value. Shockingly, one of the names on the list was Xu Qing. It also listed his scavenger nickname, as well as a bounty of 50 spirit stones.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with cold light. The patriarch was the only person who knew his information and could put up a bounty of 50 spirit stones for him. The man had obviously tracked him down and knew he was now in Seven Blood Eyes.

    It made sense. Although Antlerville was a city owned by Seven Blood Eyes, the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect obviously had connections there, so finding out where Xu Qing went wouldn¡¯t have been very hard.

    The fact that he figured it out so quickly seems to indicate that he has connections in the sect. But it¡¯s against sect rules for outside Foundation Establishment cultivators to kill our disciples, so he had to put out a bounty on me!

    After studying the blood-colored jade slip a bit more to figure out how to use it, he chose to just ¡®continue¡¯ with the mission to ¡®kill Xu Qing.¡¯

    I need to speed up my cultivation so that I can finally get rid of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior!

    Four days passed in which the rain did not let up.

    On the third day, it became a massive tempest that kicked up huge waves in the entire port. However, the capital city¡¯s spell formation kept things in control. Despite the shocking winds, the port held strong.

    On the fifth day, the unrelenting winds finally started to die down.

    At dawn, Xu Qing looked up to see a leaden, overcast sky weighing down over the city. At that point, he organized his medicinal pills and stepped out of his dharmaboat. On the shore, he felt the wind and rain, and inhaled the scent of the ocean. Within it, there was still a faint hint of blood. During the four days in which the storm raged, the Violent Crimes Division didn¡¯t shut down. For the most part, their work involved searching for clues about Night Dove. However, thanks to the storm, they now had an additional task.

    Hunting for murderers.

    When storms hit Seven Blood Eyes, most sect departments ceased operation. And because most cultivators stayed indoors¡­ the robberies and murders that happened in the shadows became even more widespread.

    During those four days, the Violent Crimes Division received reports of more than eighty disciples being killed in the Port District. And seven victims were actually members of the Violent Crimes Division. As for how many people were killed in the other six districts, that information wasn¡¯t known publicly either, but it surely wasn¡¯t a small number.

    It was hard to run an investigation in the rain. Besides, Seven Blood Eyes was used to this kind of thing happening, and didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. The Violent Crimes Division only ran cursory investigations, then dropped the cases.

    There was even a member of Unit Six who died, yet no one batted an eyelid.

    Xu Qing managed to ask the Captain about the old innkeeper from nkspring Way. He was told that the man wasn¡¯t human. What was more, he had connections to the First Peak, which gave him the right to reside permanently in the city. Normally speaking, the innkeeper kept his head down. Though it was known he would asionally give shelter to viins, in order to give face to the First Peak, the Violent Crimes Division usually looked the other way when he was involved, as long as nothing outrageous happened.

    This was the first time Xu Qing came to realize that humans weren¡¯t the only intelligent species in the world. There were actually many others. However, to date he had only everid eyes on one nonhuman: the innkeeper. For now, he didn¡¯t think too much about it.

    After attending morning roll call at the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing opened his umbre and started walking down the street. He was nning to head to the medicine shop and try to sell the white boluses he¡¯d concocted recently. He also wanted to buy more medicinal nts. However, because of therge amount of white boluses he was carrying, his guard was fully up.

    Perhaps because the rain had started to die down, the streets were a lot more crowded than usual. Because of that, it took a bit longer to safely make his way to the shop he frequented. There weren¡¯t many people in the shop. However, there was one familiar face: Zhou Qingpeng, who had been in his group when he officially joined the sect.

    Zhou Qingpeng nced his way and hesitated briefly, but didn¡¯t seem to recognize him. It was little surprise, considering that on the day of the assessment, Xu Qing had been dressed like a filth-covered scavenger.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything to Zhou Qingpeng. Off to the side, the old shopkeeper smiled. He was familiar with Xu Qing by now, and knew that despite not being a Second Peak disciple, he was knowledgeable regarding medicinal nts.

    ¡°You came just in time,¡± the old shopkeeper said. ¡°I have something special to show you today.¡±

    With that, he pulled out a mysterious-looking bag, which he opened to reveal the corpses of what appeared to be five bugs, blue in color andpletely dried up. They were vicious-looking, with long mandibles, numerous spikes, and natural striations on their backs that resembled ghost faces. Each ghost face was different. One was crying, one wasughing, one was angry, and so-on. Especially noteworthy were their tails, which had mouths on the ends, filled with countless razor-sharp teeth. They were dead and withered, yet they looked just as astonishingly vicious as they had in life.

    ¡°Ghostlonging horseshoe crabs!¡± Xu Qing murmured in surprise. Hurrying closer, he looked closely at the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs, which he remembered Grandmaster Bai talking about in a lecture. They came from the deep seafloor, and were rarely seen onnd. In the broadest sense, they were considered poisonous bugs. Their blood was blue, and highly poisonous. However, whenbined in the right ratio with other ingredients, it became an incredibly wondrous medicine.

    Off to the side, Zhou Qingpeng, who was browsing through the medicinal pills, nced over.

    ¡°So, you recognize them,¡± the shopkeeper said with a smile. Yet again, his estimation of Xu Qing improved. Even many disciples from the Second Peak wouldn¡¯t be able to identify a rare poison bug like this. And more than ever, the shopkeeper was curious how this handsome young man had learned so much about the dao of medicine.

    ¡°How much are you selling them for?¡± Xu Qing asked, inwardly excited.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dare sell them,¡± the shopkeeper replied, clearing his throat. Putting the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs away, he noted the longing with which Xu Qing gazed at the bag. Grinning, the old man continued, ¡°My boss tasked me with finding those things, and it took a lot of sweat and blood. They were delivered earlier today, and the boss will be byter to get them. If I dared to sell them¡­. Well, anyway, I just wanted to show them to you. After all, they¡¯re extremely rare.¡±

    Xu Qing felt a bit disappointed as he looked away from the sack with the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs in them. However, he didn¡¯t immediately take out his white boluses. He waited until Zhou Qingpeng had paid for his purchases and left. Only then did Xu Qing take out his sack and put it on the counter.

    ¡°I¡¯m not here to buy nts,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°I want to sell pills.¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± The shopkeeper¡¯s eyes turned serious as he opened the bag and looked at the content. Then his expression turned into one of surprise. ¡°So many white boluses!¡±

    He didn¡¯t immediately inspect them. Instead, he washed his hands and then put on a pair of gloves. After making sure Xu Qing noticed that the gloves were spotless, he started taking the pills out of the bag.

    After cing them all out on the counter, the old man looked even more astounded than before. There were over 500 of them, each one smooth and round. And the medicinal aroma they exuded filled the entire shop. Many customers noticed the scent, causing Xu Qing to frown and instinctively let his hand slip down next to his sack, where his iron skewery.

    After thoroughly inspecting the pills, the shopkeeper felt profoundly taken aback. Looking closely at the young man in front of him, he realized that he didn¡¯t just have a very outstanding understanding of nts and vegetation, he was also exceedingly skilled at concocting pills. These pills were of the highest quality. What was more, the old man could tell that each pill was the result of single-session concocting sesses. They weren¡¯t a refined version of a previously deficient batch. Every single pill was pure white and naturally lustrous, indicating the presence of natural medicinal oils.

    Skill like this was a rarity even among Second Peak disciples. After taking inventory, the shopkeeper muttered for a moment then said, ¡°How about 10 spirit stones?¡±

    Xu Qing was familiar with prices in the city, and knew that a white bolus usually sold for thirty spirit coins. And one spirit stone was equal to 1,000 spirit coins. After thinking about it, he agreed.

    The shopkeeper quickly took out the spirit stones and gave them to Xu Qing, then started organizing the medicinal pills to put into storage.

    Xu Qing looked around one more time at the customers in the shop, then turned to leave.

    As he did, a young woman appeared at the entrance of the shop. She exuded a strong medicinal aroma. She looked to be only seventeen or eighteen, carried a white umbre, and was wearing a pale orange daoist robe!

    In Seven Blood Eyes, the Offmountain disciples from the various mountain peaks wore gray daoist robes. Only conve disciples wore colored garments. For example, conve disciples from the Seventh Peak wore pale violet. In other words, daoist robes like this indicated a very high level of rank.

    Xu Qing noted the garment and stepped aside to let her pass, taking the opportunity to examine her a bit more closely.

    Beneath the white umbre, she had long raven-ck hair that cascaded down her shoulders, and bangs that fell diagonally across her face, just above her eyes. She had long eyshes, and eyes that glistened. On her, the pale orange daoist robe almost looked like a beautiful gown. With her slender waist and spectacr beauty, she almost didn¡¯t seem to belong in the human world. That was especially true when the wind blew, causing her hair to drift aside, revealing skin as fair and smooth as jade.

    The young woman noticed Xu Qing, and instead of acting arrogantly as one might expect of a conve disciple, she smiled and indicated that he could walk out before she entered.

    Nodding, he looked away from her and departed. After he was gone, the young woman entered the shop, and her perfume filled the air.

    The shopkeeper immediately ran over, his expression very deferential as he said, ¡°Boss, you¡¯re here! You didn¡¯t need toe in person, ma¡¯am. I could have sent them to you.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so formal, Uncle Peng,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°I got tired of concocting pills on the mountain peak. I needed to get out and clear my head.¡± [1]

    ¡°Of course, of course,¡± the shopkeeper said, acting as deferential as before. ¡°Do what you have to do.¡±

    Together they walked to the counter, whereupon the shopkeeper took out the sack with the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs, which he handed to her.

    The young woman shook her head helplessly at the shopkeeper¡¯s insistence on being respectful. Taking the sack, she was about to leave when she noticed the white boluses on the counter, which the shopkeeper hadn¡¯t finished organizing.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± she murmured. Picking up one of the white boluses, she gently squeezed it, then held it closer to examine it. Her eyes flickered with surprise.

    Seeing her do this, the shopkeeper carefully asked, ¡°Boss¡­ is something wrong with that pill?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no problem at all,¡± she said. Putting the pill close to her nose, she inhaled. ¡°The quality is spectacr. You don¡¯t see pills like this very often.¡±

    Hearing this, the shopkeeper looked even more astonished than before.

    ¡°Boss, you¡¯re a conve disciple from the Second Peak. Your dao of alchemy makes you like someone chosen by heaven. Ma¡¯am, are you really saying that these pills have a rare level of purity? Even high-quality white boluses are still just white boluses.¡±

    The young womanughed. ¡°You¡¯re right, Uncle Peng. White boluses are indeed nothing but white boluses. Although it¡¯s great to have a high quality version, you can get the same effect by just consuming a few more low quality pills. No, what interests me is that whoever concocted this pill is obviously very skilled.¡±

    She seemed very intrigued as she continued to study the pill. Then she had the shopkeeper take out the entire lot of pills for her to study one at a time. As she did, her expression of astonishment increased.

    ¡°Each one is the same. And there are so many! Based on the temperature of the pills, they were concocted in batches, with the most recent batch finished yesterday. This person¡¯s ability to craft medicinal liquids has reached a superb level. Every batch is exactly the same!¡±

    Eventually, she had the shopkeeper pack all of the white boluses up so she could take them away to study further.

    Before leaving, something urred to her, and she stopped and said, ¡°Uncle Peng, where did you get these white boluses from?¡±

    ¡°Some disciple from one of the other peaks. He left just now. You walked right past him.¡± As he spoke the words, he looked outside the shop, but Xu Qing was nowhere to be seen.

    The young woman thought back to the handsome young man she passed when entering the shop. She nodded.

    ¡°Uncle Peng, if hees back to sell more pills, please buy them all and don¡¯t put them up for sale. I want them for myself.¡±

    Hearing this, the shopkeeper was more surprised than ever. ¡°Of course,¡± he said, his curiosity about Xu Qing continuing to grow.

    1. In this case, the girl is calling him ¡°uncle¡± out of respect for his age, not because of a familial rtionship. ?

 Chapter 62: A Ladies Man

    Chapter 62: A Ladies'' Man

    After leaving the medicine shop, Xu Qing headed back toward Harbor 79. In the Violent Crimes Division, attendance at morning roll call was mandatory. After that, you would leave to go on patrol. However?, unless there was a big mission, there was usually a lot of free time. And thus, Xu Qing would often go back to his berth to work on his cultivation. As usual, he walked along the side of the road, where he could stick to the shadows.

    Because of the big storm, there were many traders and sect disciples who hadn¡¯t been able to bring their ships and boats back into the port, and were stuck out on the open sea. But the storm was over, and though it was still raining, there was a lot more traffic on the water.

    As Xu Qing walked along, he thought about medicinal pills and cultivation.

    The base cost of concocting a white bolus is about three spirit coins. If I keep this up, I should be able to make significant profit. He patted his sack with the spirit stones he had earned from selling his white boluses.

    Cultivation is ridiculously expensive. If I want to keep progressing as quickly as I have so far, I need to use at least one spirit stone per day. I also have to worry about the fee for my berth. What¡¯s more, it¡¯s going to be very expensive to upgrade my dharmaboat.

    He sighed inwardly, and wished he hadn¡¯t killed that man so decisively the other night. He really lost a big opportunity by not taking his merit points.

    Then he started considering tracking down some wanted criminals, or maybe even taking a trip into a forbidden region. Otherwise, he would never save up the funds needed to upgrade his dharmaboat.

    Everything in this capital city was expensive, and most expensive of all were the cultivation resources. Most of themon citizens could afford the cost of living, but didn¡¯t qualify to buy cultivation resources. And even if they did, they definitely wouldn¡¯t throw their money away blithely.

    As for Seven Blood Eyes disciples, the daily living fee of thirty spirit coins wasn¡¯t much to worry about. What really fueled all the infighting and ughter were cultivation resources. Anyone who wanted to progress had to either ept missions and leave the sect, or stay within it and resort to murder and theft. There were no other options.

    The only ones who had it slightly better off were the Onpeak conve disciples, though they didn¡¯t get a share of the sect¡¯s profits.

    Over the past few days, Xu Qing had learned a lot more about Seven Blood Eyes, and had a much better understanding of the conve disciples. They were people who had acquired an identity medallion of a certain color associated with a given mountain peak.

    For instance, the Seventh Peak had violet identity medallions.

    Anyone with an identity medallion like that could live Onpeak. They would also get pale-colored garments of the same color. Xu Qing had seen disciples on the street like that, for instance the young man with the pale violet daoist robe, and the young woman with the pale orange daoist robe. [1]

    They were usually children of senior members of the various mountain peaks, and when they went shopping in the city, they usually got a fifty-percent discountpared to Offpeak disciples. Perhaps because of that, the sect forbade them from reselling items for profit, and any who vited that rule would be expelled.

    There was no fairness to the differences between conve disciples and Offpeak disciples. However, that was just how destiny worked. People on the mountain peaks who had dark-colored daoist robes were Foundation Establishment cultivators or higher. They surpassed the conve disciples, and had the right to share in the sect¡¯s profits.

    I need to think of a way to make money....

    As he pondered these matters, the noise of amotion interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he saw arge group of disciples gathered on the shore nearby, apparently waiting for something. Many Seventh Peak disciples wereing out of their dharmaboats to see what was happening. And as Xu Qing stood there, he heard the sounds of scrambling from behind him as over a hundred Seventh Peak disciples rushed over to join the crowd.

    Upon finding a ce to stand, they looked out at the main entrance of the port with expressions of excitement and anticipation.

    Curious about what was happening, he looked in the same direction, and before long, caught sight of an enormous ship.

    At the very least, it was about 500 meters long, maybe even close to 550. It was the color of gold, and looked very fancy as it glittered in the light of the setting sun. The prow of the ship was the huge statue of a spider with a human face. The human face had only one eye, which was made of a scintiting gemstone. From a distance, the ship looked like some gigantic beast slowly piercing through the water. Looming over the deck was a beautiful superstructure crafted from exquisite materials. And amongst the various parts of the superstructure were a host of guards. The ship made a loud thrumming noise as it got closer and closer to the bay.

    ¡°It¡¯s Third Highness.¡±

    ¡°Third Highness is back!¡±

    There were quite a few exmations within the crowd.

    Third Highness? Xu Qing watched curiously as the iparably beautiful ship sailed into the bay.

    As it neared, it brought with it the pungent aroma of the open sea. It also exuded an intense pressure that left the mind shaken.

    Upon sensing that pressure, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. It filled him with a sense of profound crisis, simr to what he had sensed from the various terrifying entities he¡¯d encountered in the jungle depths of the forbidden region.

    Even more astonishing, as the ship neared, Xu Qing realized that in addition to the extravagant superstructure, and all the guards stationed there, the ship was also covered with countless glittering spikes. Any given spike was about three meters long, and covered withplex magical symbols that exuded a shockingly destructive power.

    This was the most terrifying ship Xu Qing had seen to date.

    In fact, there was no way he could fight against this ship. Just looking at it gave him a new understanding of the Seventh Peak¡¯s dharmaboats. As he stood there, shaken, he suddenly realized that the crowd was cheering respectfully, which caused him to look up at the main deck of the ship, where a group of people had emerged from one of the cabins.

    In the lead was a tall, thin young man d in a violet daoist robe!

    Unlike the pale violet robe Xu Qing had spotted previously, this robe... was dark violet!! That dark color indicated that this young man had a very high status, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s expression to harden. He knew... that this young man¡¯s cultivation base was at the Foundation Establishment level. And from the respectful words being uttered by the crowd, this young man... was not an ordinary Foundation Establishment disciple. That said, his face was a waxen yellow color, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He was extremely thin, and almost looked hung over. What was more, there was ascivious gleam in his eyes.

    As he walked to the front of the ship, Xu Qing noticed he wore a white cap embroidered with the character ½û, which meant ¡®forbidden.¡¯ Strangely, that embroidered character pulsed with an indescribable pressure.

    The dark violet daoist robe he wore, a robe that could drive crowds of disciples into envious madness, was so voluminous that it pped loudly in the wind, and made it seem like the young man might get knocked over at any moment. He seemed to realize how weak he was, so as he walked, he enjoyed the adoration of the crowd while simultaneously relying on the supportive arms of two cloaked young women on either side of him.

    One of the young women held a crystal bottle with some sort of nutritious liquid inside that she put to his lips asionally. The two young women had outstandingly beautiful facial features. Their eyes were green, and exuded an enticing charm that could worm its way into the hearts and minds of any human. Their long hair swayed in the sea breeze, which lifted their cloaks, revealing dramatic hourss figures. Their curvaceous forms,bined with their pure beauty, would stir primordial urges in any man.

    They were dressed outrageously, in sexy, revealing clothing that showed off pale white skin beneath. The garments were so sheer it seemed like the wind might blow them away. Because of their physical appearance, it was easy to overlook the fact that both young women had gills on the sides of their faces, just beneath their ears. As they walked along, theyughed bashfully as they allowed the young man to wrap his arms around them.

    ¡°Greetings, Third Highness!¡± the crowd roared respectfully.

    As Xu Qing observed the young man, he got the distinct impression that, without the help of the two young women, he would fall over. It was strange to the point of seeming almost unbelievable.

    When he looked closely at the two beautiful young women, his eyes narrowed as he experienced a clear sensation of danger. Quickly looking away from them, he noticed that, in addition to the guards on the deck of the ship, there was also a group of ck-robed figures. Just like the young women, they had green eyes and gills on the sides of their faces. What was more, they all had extraordinary cultivation base fluctuations.

    There was another young man on the ship who looked to be about the same age as Xu Qing. He was dressed in extravagant clothing, had menacing green eyes, and also had gills.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s second time seeing people that looked mostly human, but were actually different. However, the other disciples around him didn¡¯t seem surprised at all; apparently, nonhuman people weren¡¯t actually very rare.

    Xu Qing looked away and was about to leave when Third Highness suddenly said, ¡°Even though we ran into a storm, it was still a profitable trip. And how could we not share some of our profits with all the Junior Brothers and Sisters who came here to receive us?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, several servants on the ship waved their hands, causing a number of palm-sized scales to fly out to the people in the crowd.

    Being present, Xu Qing grabbed one of them. It felt slippery and cold, and when he tried to squeeze it, it wouldn¡¯t break. It was obvious the scale wasn¡¯t an ordinary item. Now it made sense why so many people had gathered on the shore here.

    If something like this happened every day, you wouldn¡¯t need to work hard to make money.

    Putting the scale away, he joined the rest of the crowd in offering thanks to the Third Highness.

    As the calls of thanks rang out, therge ship entered its berth, Third Highness waved at the crowd of fellow disciples on the shore. And then, seemingly unconcerned with so many people watching, he pped both young women on their rear end. The young women cried out coquettishly, and the emaciated Third Highness grinned. The gathered disciples averted their gazes; not a single one dared to stare at the two nonhuman girls while Third Highness was around.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t think they were that attractive, but he did notice that the nonhuman young man behind them seemed to have a look of disdain on his face.

    Meanwhile, Third Highness¡¯s amorous eyes seemedpletely focused on the girls, as if he didn¡¯t care at all how the young man behind him was reacting.

    ¡°Wait for me here, my immortal beauties,¡± Third Highness said. ¡°Don¡¯t go off the ship unless absolutely necessary, otherwise Master will scold me.... Actually, I¡¯m not even sure if Master is back yet. I¡¯ll go take a look, and if he¡¯s not back, then the three of us can have some funter tonight.¡±

    The two young women seemed pleased, and smiled at him flirtatiously. After some more back-and-forth with them, Third Highness cleared his throat, took the crystal bottle, and turned to the servants and guards.

    ¡°Unload all the cargo. Be careful and don¡¯t open anything!¡±

    In response to his words, the servants and guards started bringing out a host ofrge chests, all of which were sealed tightly, making it impossible to even guess what was inside.

    ¡°Make sure to keep a record of everything, including images. I prepared all this for Eldest Brother, who¡¯s currently in seclusion. He¡¯s very petty, so I¡¯d better not hear about any of the cargo getting damaged.¡±

    Chuckling, Third Highness sped hands and bowed to the gathered disciples, then walked off the ship and headed toward the Seventh Peak.

    The disciples backed up to make room for him, while simultaneously looking around with vignce. At the same time, tensions seemed to build.

    Everyone present had received one of those scales, and everyone hade prepared to keep it. But that didn¡¯t stop malicious, greedy looks from appearing in the eyes of some of the disciples present. Just because you acquired a boon didn¡¯t mean you could keep it.

    People began backing away and then left. Some of the disciples were being eyed by others, but not Xu Qing. Because of how he¡¯d killed Master Greencloud, he¡¯d earned a bit of a reputation, and the disciples present were clearly hesitant to cause problems for him.

    After looking around coldly, Xu Qing left, keeping his guard up all the way until he was back at his berth. He did his usual inspection to make sure the area was safe, then brought out his dharmaboat.

    Meanwhile, he thought back to the Third Highness¡¯ enormous ship.

    The difference between the two watercraft was immense. After some thought, Xu Qing decided not to get on his dharmaboat and start working on his cultivation. Instead, he put the dharmaboat away and headed toward the shops run by disciples from the Sixth Peak.

    It was time to upgrade his dharmaboat.

    Upon finding an appropriate shop, he took out the scale he had just received, plus the fish bone Zhang San had given him. Then he handed over the payment, and waited for the result. He wouldn¡¯t have to wait for long. ording to the Sixth Peak disciple who¡¯d taken his order, it would only require the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    While he waited, Xu Qing looked at the other items for sale in the shop. Most of them were materials from living creatures. And all of them were expensive. One thing that caught Xu Qing¡¯s eye was a lizard skin. After asking the clerk, he found that it cost 150 spirit stones.

    ¡°So expensive!¡± he murmured. He¡¯d been expecting it to cost a lot, as he knew that cultivation resources were expensive. But the list price was simply astonishing.

    ¡°It¡¯s the skin of a sealizard in the fifth level of Qi Condensation,¡± the clerk exined. ¡°And it¡¯spletely intact, which is rare. It¡¯s a great way to toughen up your boat.¡±

    Xu Qing looked away from the lizard skin and scanned through some of the other items until he noticed arge heart, the size of a human head. Stored in a crystal bottle, it twitched and wriggled as though it still had some life left in it.

    ¡°That¡¯s the heart of a dragonbeard. It¡¯s not quite at the level required for a Foundation Establishment dharmaskiff, but it would make a great power source for a dharmaboat.¡±

    Xu Qing asked how much it cost, and found that it was even more ridiculously expensive than the sealizard skin. In the end, materials taken from living creatures were all incredibly expensive.

    After browsing through the shop, Xu Qing determined that his savings were absolutely insufficient. He sighed.

    Around that time, the upgrade to his dharmaboat was finished. When the disciple handed him back his bottle, Xu Qing saw that the dharmaboat inside looked different. It was a bitrger, and now had totem designs on it that resembled the scale he¡¯d acquired. Sending some spirit power into the bottle, he found that it wasn¡¯t just the physical appearance that had changed. The dharmaboat was sturdier, having been upgraded by an entire level. Nodding in satisfaction, he offered thanks then headed back to the Port District to test out the boat on the water.

    Back at his berth, he checked the area for safety, then took out the dharmaboat. Light glittered as the boat appeared. It was now densely covered with scale totems. It was over 20 meters long, perhaps close to 25, and was about three meters wide.

    This version of his dharmaboat was much fiercer, and looked even more like a crocodile. That was especially true considering that the fish bone had been put into the crocodile figurehead, and caused gusts of wind to swirl around it. One could only imagine the speeds the boat would be capable of when that power was unleashed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly.

    If I had enough spirit stones and materials, I wonder what my dharmaboat would look like. I need to make money!

    1. The young man with the pale violet robe appeared in chapter 55. ?

 Chapter 63: Hardworking Xu Qing

    Chapter 63: Hardworking Xu Qing

    Cultivation required resources. That was truer than ever after the arrival of the broken god¡¯s face, which caused all living things to be tainted by mutagen. That made it even harder to acquire resources, and made it such that bloodshed was almost always involved.

    A thoughtful expression could be seen in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. He needed spirit stones and physical ingredients. Lots of them. So many that not even concocting white boluses would be enough.

    My monthly sry in the Violent Crimes Division is three spirit stones. The white boluses... can bring in 20 spirit stones a month if I work hard. That means I can currently rely on 23 spirit stones per month.

    He frowned.

    If he wanted rapid cultivation progress, he needed one spirit stone per day. And if he wanted to buy materials from the Sixth Peak disciples¡¯ shop, then he had to deal with prices that were dozens of spirit stones at the minimum.

    My berth costs 30 spirit stones a month. Therefore, I need an ie of at least 60 spirit stones a month. But that would only be enough to keep things going as they are. If I want to upgrade my dharmaboat, I need even more.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he opened his bag of holding and looked inside. He currently had 20 spirit stones left, which was the bounty he¡¯d earned from the Violent Crimes Division after killing Master Greencloud.

    There are three main ways I can get more spirit stones. The first would be to go exploring the forbidden regions. The second would be bounty hunting. And thest would be to go to sea and harvest materials myself.

    The first method was the wheelhouse of the First Peak. That meant that if you wanted to go into the nearby forbidden regions, you had to get a First Peak guide. Such guides obviously charged for their services.

    The third method, going out on the open sea to hunt for materials, was probably the most suitable. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t just require a high cultivation base, it also required a suitable dharmaboat. Without a sufficiently strong dharmaboat, one could go out to sea and nevere back.

    Xu Qing felt his cultivation base was high enough, but his dharmaboat level was just too low. And to upgrade it, he needed more spirit stones and materials. It was something of a catch-22.

    The fastest method is going to be bounty hunting. Either that or start killing fellow disciples. Then, once I get both my dharmaboat and cultivation base high enough, I can go out onto the open sea. At that point, I¡¯ll get so much momentum going I¡¯ll be unstoppable!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone. As far as he was concerned, it would be much preferable to go after bounties than to kill fellow disciples who hadn¡¯t done anything to provoke him. Therefore, after making a decision, he sat down cross-legged in his second-ss dharmaboat, put a spirit stone into the spirit convergence formation, and started his cultivation.

    Before much time had passed in his cultivation routine, he opened his eyes and took out his identity medallion. A new voice message had juste in.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, it¡¯s me, Zhou Qingpeng. Was that you I saw at the medicine shop? You¡¯ve changed a lot! It took me a while to figure out who you were. I could tell you were interested in those ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. My n runs a medicinal ingredient business, so if you need something like that, I can make some arrangements to get them for you. It¡¯ll be expensive though.¡±

    After listening to the message, Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. It seemed Zhou Qingpeng wanted to earn some spirit stones. At the same time, Xu Qing really was interested in getting some ghostlonging horseshoe crabs to use in his poison research. After some thought, he agreed to the proposal.

    Time passed. Six days went by in a sh.

    During that time, Xu Qing checked in at the Violent Crimes Division every morning, making sure to get an updated bounty list when he did. He also had his informant start digging around for information. However... there were a lot of people in the Violent Crimes Division who wanted to make money by hunting bounties. Because of that, everyone kept their information to themselves. What little information Xu Qing did end up getting usually turned out to be outdated and useless. After a while, Xu Qing realized he needed to change his strategy.

    Meanwhile, a new disciple joined the Violent Crimes Division.

    This person had an impressive background, and was not in the same bureau as Xu Qing. Nor was this person an ordinary member of a unit. Instead, he was immediately appointed as the captain of Earth Bureau Unit Three. Apparently, he had some tricks up his sleeve, as it only took him two days to whip the more than twenty members of the unit intoplete subservience. Clearly this person was formidable in some way.

    Each of the four bureaus in the Violent Crimes Division had different directors, and though they would work together on big cases, most of the time they went their own ways. As a result, there usually wasn¡¯t friction between the different bureaus. Normally speaking, the fact that Earth Bureau Unit Three got a new captain usually wouldn¡¯t cause any waves. However, the appointment of this new captain did indeed cause some waves.

    And that was because... this new captain wasn¡¯t human.

    Xu Qing caught sight of him from a distance, and immediately recognized him. He was the very same young man who had been standing behind Third Highness the other day. Xu Qing had noted the look of disdain in his eyes when seeing the Third Highness dealing with the two nonhuman young women.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the disciples in the Violent Crimes Division to dig up information about his background. Xu Qing learned from other members of Unit Six that this young man was one of the Merfolk.

    Merfolk weren¡¯t human, but they were allies of Seven Blood Eyes and traded with the sect. ording to the rumors, this newly appointed captain had a high status even among the Merfolk. Aftering to the capital city with Third Highness, he had officially joined Seven Blood Eyes, and then been assigned to the Violent Crimes Division.

    Xu Qing hade up with his own theories about who the Third Highness was, and after asking some fellow members of Unit Six, he confirmed that he was right. The other disciples were more than happy to share all of the details.

    The peaklord of the Seventh Peak had three sessor apprentices, two men and one woman. Each of those three individuals was like a crown prince or senior princess in a royal court. A single word from them would cause countless disciples from the Seventh Peak to bow their heads in deference. Actually, most anyone in the entire Seven Blood Eyes would react simrly. They were essentially in the session line of Seven Blood Eyes in general.

    The peaklord of Seventh Peak was extremely talented, and was famous throughout the continent of South Phoenix. He had shocking battle prowess, and was extremely influential. Anyone listed as his sessor would be high in the session list of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Among those three, the highest ranking one was the grand highness, who was said to be in seclusion trying to break through a cultivation bottleneck. He hadn¡¯t been seen in public for years. However, all the talk Xu Qing heard was about how mysterious and deadly he was. When he was in Foundation Establishment he had killed numerous enemies in the same level as himself, and had ughtered entire tribes of non-humans in battle. When it came to the ranking of all sessor apprentices in Seven Blood Eyes, the grand highness was listed as second.

    As the disciples discussed this matter, the Captain sat off to the side eating an apple. When he finally cut in, he exined everything in a single sentence. ¡°People like that aren¡¯t exactly thirsting for blood at all times, but if you piss them off, you¡¯ll get killed.¡±

    Xu Qing felt fully convinced that the Captain was right.

    When Second Highness was mentioned, the other members of the unit all looked reverential. In contrast to the mysterious grand highness who few people had ever seen, the second highness went out in public all the time. In fact, she often went for strolls in the Port District. She had a strong personality, was very decisive, and had a reputation for being aggressive. In fact, her temper was such that she even caused trouble for the elders of the Seventh Peak.

    ¡°She¡¯s sick in the head, I tell you,¡± the Captain muttered.

    The most popr of the peaklord¡¯s apprentices was Third Highness. He was inclined to give in to passion, but had no other weaknesses. He often smiled, didn¡¯t act arrogant toward other disciples, and was very generous. When other disciples asked him for help, he did his best to resolve their issues. What was more, he had a good rtionship with the nonhumans out on the sea. In fact, many disciples called him the Seventh Peak¡¯s top foreign ambassador. And most disciples admired his romantic ir.

    The Captain, munching on his apple, seemed inclined to offer his own assessment. But in the end, he couldn¡¯t think of anything to add, so he just kept eating the apple, a smile on his face.

    Xu Qing listened as the discussion continued between the other members of the unit, but didn¡¯t pay very close attention. Whether it was the young Merfolk captain, or the three sessor apprentices from the Seventh Peak, they didn¡¯t have much to do with him. What was most important to him at the moment was the bounty list, and his new method of tracking down the targets on the list.

    And that was: to trust chance rather than show the initiative.

    On this particr day, Xu Qing had the night shift. It was dark and windy, with only a hint of moonlight. The wind carried the humidity of the sea into every corner of the city, as if to bear witness to whatever sinister acts took ce during the night.

    The gambling halls and brothels had opened their doors, and people streamed in and out of them. asionally, it was possible to see people d in ck from head to toe, vaulting over walls and speeding across the rooftops. From time to time, spirit power fluctuations would erupt from an alleyway, as if demons, devils, and ghosts hade to the human world along with the light of the moon.

    However, there was one person who walked along and caused everything to go still and quiet in his presence. Only after he passed by did things turn lively again.

    Of course, it was Xu Qing.

    Ever since he had dragged Master Greencloud¡¯s corpse halfway across the city, his night-time patrols were always like this. It was virtually impossible to keep secrets in the capital city. Master Greencloud had been in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and even though he was from a small sect, it was no small aplishment to not only capture him, but kill him in such a vicious way.

    Not only that, but Xu Qing had stood toe to toe with the innkeeper on nkspring Way. All of that went to show that this new addition to the Violent Crimes Division was someone that shouldn¡¯t be trifled with.

    Actually, that was one reason why Xu Qing hadn¡¯t run into any of the criminals on the bounty list. He wasn¡¯t worried. He had a new method in mind, and therefore, he stalked through the shadows of the city until he was at nkspring Way. Blending into the darkness beneath the eaves of a building across the street, he started watching the inn.

    Having found no clues, and no information about anyone on the bounty list, he¡¯d decided to simply wait for opportunities toe to him.

    Xu Qing was a patient person, and didn¡¯t mind waiting. He¡¯d considered that waiting outside the inn might offend the old innkeeper. However, spirit stones were more important right now. Besides, Xu Qing was certain that if it came to a fight, his battle prowess was sufficient enough that he could hold his own.

    Time passed. Four hourster... just before dawn, a figure appeared off in the distance, speeding silently toward the inn.

    He was an emaciated middle-aged man with small eyes and a long beard. Given his pointed chin, his beard made him look strange, almost like a rat. His small eyes flickered with vignce as he approached. The closer he got to the inn, the more visibly he rxed.

    Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ capital city is such a wonderful ce. That¡¯s especially true of these inns that stay open at night. ording to their rules, they¡¯re safe havens, no matter what. It¡¯s so wonderful. Although, they¡¯re too freaking expensive. It costs 80 for a day. 160 for two days. It doubles every day.... If I stay a few more days, I¡¯ll have to clear out a small town to get enough money to pay. The only downside is that those small townsfolk scream loudly and don¡¯t have much savings to take.

    By this point, the emaciated man was only about six meters from the inn¡¯s entrance, and was about to leap the final distance.

    That was when a cold wind hit him from behind, apanied by an icy voice.

    ¡°Daoist Rat?¡±

    The emaciated man¡¯s pupils constricted, and all the hair on his body stood on end. Without the slightest hesitation, he waved his right hand behind him, sending a powder flying into the air. Then he shot forward with all the speed he could muster.

    Unfortunately for him, he was too slow. In almost the exact same moment that he threw his hand out behind him, a dagger shed through his throat! Blood sprayed everywhere as the man fell to the ground, twitching and gasping in shock.

    Behind him was Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless. That poison powder waspletely ineffective when used against him. Ignoring the dying Daoist Rat, Xu Qing looked up at the tavern to see the old innkeeper standing there looking very dour.

    ¡°This is Daoist Rat, originally from the Church of Departure,¡± Xu Qing said, reciting the details from the bounty list. ¡°He¡¯s skilled in the use of drugs that cause confusion and changes in temperament. He ughters mortal citizens for pleasure, and had a 15 spirit stone bounty put on his head by the Violet Lands half a year ago. He¡¯s wanted throughout all of South Phoenix.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to recite the description,¡± the old man said grimly. ¡°I know there¡¯s a bounty out for him.¡±

    Without another word, Xu Qing cut off Daoist Rat¡¯s head, put it in a bag, and then kicked the headless corpse. A thump rang out as the bodynded in front of the tavern¡¯s open door.

    ¡°He didn¡¯t step into the tavern,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°so I haven¡¯t broken any of your rules. Don¡¯t worry, you don¡¯t need to pay for the corpse. Consider it a gift from me.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing backed up a few steps, and when he was sure he was a safe distance away, carried Daoist Rat¡¯s head off.

    I still need to make 45 spirit stones this month....

 Chapter 64: Coo. Coooo.

    Chapter 64: Coo. Coooo.

    Killing intent flickered in the old innkeeper¡¯s eyes as he watched Xu Qing leaving. However, he didn¡¯t make a single move, and eventually, Xu Qing disappeared around a distant street corner. Only then did the killing intent gradually dissipate. At that point, the head of a huge anaconda dropped down from the rafters, making cooing sounds that made it seem like it was speaking.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t I kill him?¡± The old man rolled his eyes. ¡°The young fellow fights dirty. Plus he seems dangerous. I have the feeling that unless I used a trump card¡ª¡°

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the piece of trash!¡± the old man snapped. ¡°Your whole family is trash! Eat, eat, eat. All you freaking do is eat! Fine. Go ahead and eat.¡±

    The anaconda struck, its jaws mping onto the corpse of Daoist Rat. Swallowing the body, the snake slowly retreated into the rafters.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing headed through the night back to the Violent Crimes Division. After turning in Daoist Rat¡¯s head, he pocketed the 15 spirit stone bounty, then headed through the dawn light toward a little shop run by somemon citizens. There, he had a bowl of soymilk and some tbread. At the urging of the shopkeeper, he decided to splurge a bit, and bought three eggs. After finishing the eggs, he went back to his dharmaboat. [1]

    He had earned more than just the 15 spirit stone bounty. He also had Daoist Rat¡¯s sack, which contained one spirit stone and some misceneous items. Based on what he knew of prices in the Port District, Xu Qing was confident he could sell those items for three spirit stones.

    ¡°This is definitely a good way to make money.¡± With that, he started working on his cultivation.

    The day passed, and soon it was nighttime. That was when Xu Qing opened his eyes. He had another night shift, and yet, as the moon climbed, he headed back in the direction of nkspring Way. Since waiting for opportunities seemed to be profitable, he was going to make the same gamble as the night before.

    After arriving, he walked around a bit, then stationed himself in the same spot as before, keeping his eyes on the inn from the shadows. This time, it didn¡¯t take long for someone to appear. However, it wasn¡¯t a wanted criminal, but rather, the old innkeeper. He walked right out of the inn and up to Xu Qing, his expression grim.

    ¡°Did you really think I wouldn¡¯t do something if you came back to cause trouble, young fellow?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°You...¡± the old man growled. For a moment, he seemed to be at a loss for words, until he gritted his teeth and said, ¡°What exactly are you nning to do? Come lurk around here day after day?¡±

    Xu Qing said nothing for a few breaths¡¯ worth of time. Then he looked at the man and said, ¡°I need to make money.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? So do I!¡± Tentacles began to burrow out from within the old man¡¯s eyes, and his forehead split. At the same time, a cold and sinister aura spread out from him. ¡°If you keep this up, there won¡¯t be a single customer who darese to my inn. You¡¯ve already caused business to drop.¡± ring at Xu Qing, the old man continued, ¡°Therefore. You will leave this ce. Now!¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and realized what the old man said made sense. If he kept waiting for criminals in this spot, then soon people wouldn¡¯t dare toe around. Nodding, he walked a bit further down the street and found a new hiding ce.

    The old man had assumed Xu Qing was leaving the area. Instead, he simply switched hiding spots. This caused veins to bulge on his skin, and he nearlyughed out loud with rage. Instead, he said nothing as his forehead continued to split, until his entire head separated into two parts. Where his head had once been was now a mass of red, like blood, and shockingly, it was full of fleshy, bloody tentacles.

    The ghastly tentacles writhed as the man then stalked toward Xu Qing.

    As terrifying fluctuations rolled out in all directions, the anaconda stuck its head out, while at the same time, numerous ropes appeared and slowly amassed around Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the old man walking toward him.

    ¡°This is a public street,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°not your inn. I abide by your house rules and won¡¯t cause problems for anyone inside. But it would bepletely unreasonable to expect me to leave them alone after they left. Don¡¯t tell me that your room fee includes the guarantee of safety in public?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the old man. From what he could sense, the man seemed to be reasonable, so he expected a reasonable answer.

    The old man stopped walking. ¡°It does include a guarantee of safety. You have a problem with that?¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then took out a sum of what appeared to be 200 spirit coins, and handed them over.

    The old man stared in shock.

    ¡°Since you guarantee safety,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious, ¡°I¡¯d like to book two nights in one of your rooms. Now you¡¯re in charge of keeping me safe.¡±

    The old man stared at the spirit coins, then looked back up at Xu Qing. After a long moment passed, he let loose a frustrated sigh. The two halves of his head stitched back together, and he looked at Xu Qing with a helpless expression.

    Some distance away in the inn, the anaconda suddenly said, ¡°Coo. Coooo....¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± the old man snapped, looking angrily at the snake. ¡°I know what he said makes sense!¡±

    As it turned out, the old man was a reasonable person. Everything Xu Qing said made sense, and the old man... couldn¡¯t find a way to argue with him. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t broken any of his house rules, and had also paid a fee of spirit coins. If the old man stuck to what he¡¯d said previously, then he did have to guarantee his safety¡­.

    Thus, the old man could only stand there feeling increasingly helpless.

    He looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back.

    After ring at each other for a short time, the old man sighed. ¡°How about I give you information about two people on the bounty list? It should be enough for you to track them down. In exchange, you stay away from here.¡±

    The old man took out a jade slip, imprinted it with some information, and then handed it to Xu Qing. Keeping the spirit coins, he turned and walked back to his inn without so much as ncing over his shoulder.

    As he left, the ropes in the area vanished. As for the anaconda, it nodded at Xu Qing as if in greeting, then disappeared.

    Looking at the jade slip, Xu Qing saw two addresses, as well as the names of two criminals. Aftermitting the information to memory, Xu Qing took the time to remove some undetectable powder from the walls next to him, and scattered some poison-neutralizing powder on the ground.

    After, he walked back to his previous hiding spot. Waving his right hand, he neutralized the poison powder he¡¯d left on the ground and in the air. Finally, when all traces of his presence had been removed, he plucked seven or eight weeds from the ground. Those weeds wouldn¡¯t survive anyway, thanks to having been coated with five different types of poison.

    Earlier, he had made sure that both of his hiding spots had all sorts of poison powders set up around them.

    The old man was infected with thirty-seven types of poison, but didn¡¯t present any symptoms at all....

    Xu Qing looked at the inn through narrowed eyes before finally turning to leave.

    After he was gone, the old innkeeper¡¯s calm expression disappeared. Looking anxious, he quickly started rummaging through his collection of medicinal pills. After consuming about ten different types of poison-negating pills, he quickly performed an incantation gesture, causing the sack Xu Qing had given him to burst into mes.

    The spirit coins inside vanished.

    ¡°This young fellow is so ruthless! He covered the whole street in poison! And he even poisoned the spirit coins he gave me!¡± The truth was that there were two reasons he had agreed topromise with Xu Qing. The first was that Xu Qing really had made sense. The second was that... the old man had been just about to lose control of the poison that had seeped throughout his body. Actually, thetter was the more important of the two reasons.

    ¡°He¡¯s so young, yet this is how he acts.... Once he grows up, he¡¯s definitely going to be a fiendish killer among humans.¡±

    From the rafters, the anaconda made some cooing sounds.

    ¡°You like him?¡± the old man asked. ¡°Yeah, he likes you too. Didn¡¯t you notice? The first time he saw you, he was looking at you. Specifically, the area where your galldder is.¡± The old man chuckled coldly.

    The cooing sounds stopped.

    ***

    As the night grew deeper, Xu Qing sped through the streets. There was no way he would take the old man¡¯s information at face value. After some thought, he took out his identity medallion to send a voice message to someone in particr. Then he continued on his way.

    The first location was somewhat remote. After arriving, Xu Qing staked out the ce for a time. Eventually, he determined that though someone had been staying here in the past, they were no longer around.

    With that, he went to the second location. This ce was a bustling gambling hall. Finding a spot across the street under the eaves of a building, he observed the ce coldly. ording to the information in the old man¡¯s jade slip, there was a criminal named Sun Dewang who had recentlye ashore and was spending time at this gambling hall. He wasn¡¯t human, and was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation. He spent most of his time on the Forbidden Sea engaged in piracy and rted activity. He was quite well known, and had connections to a group called the Sea Ghosts. They were actually one of the most active groups of pirates on the open seas. The bounty on Sun Dewang¡¯s head was quite high, being 40 spirit stones. And it was offered by a group of about a dozen merchant ships. It was obvious how vicious of a character Sun Dewang was.

    Because of that, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to take action casually. After watching the ce for about an hour, he saw all sorts of people go in and out, and was able to overhear many of them conversing. The patrons included poor people, rich people, people who were high-spirited and full of mettle, and others who were despondent and bitter.

    Even after confirming that there were no high-level spirit power fluctuations in the area, Xu Qing decided to stay outside.

    About four hourster, when the sun wasing up, he finally spotted his target.

    Sun Dewang was a fat man in a brocade garment, who looked like a rich oldndlord. As he emerged from the gambling hall, he barely took two or three steps before looking directly at Xu Qing hiding in the shadows. His eyes narrowed with rm.

    Advancing directly toward Xu Qing, he growled, ¡°What a rotten day. I lost all my freaking money gambling, and now some damn bounty hunter thinks he¡¯s going to get my head? How dare some pitiful runt in the seventh level of Qi Condensatione after me. Are you tired of living? Get ready to bleed!¡±

    As the light of dawn spread, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and he shot into the open.

    1. There are two words in Chinese that aremonly tranted as ¡®soymilk.¡¯ The type of soymilk referenced here is more like a soy broth or soup. It¡¯s heartier than the type of soymilkmon in western countries, and ismonly eaten for breakfast in China. ?

 Chapter 65: A Secret Worth 100 Spirit Stones

    Chapter 65: A Secret Worth 100 Spirit Stones

    A momentter, two people shed outside the gambling hall.

    Xu Qing tapped into both the Sea and Mountain Incantation and the Seaforming Scripture, giving him both incredible speed and immense strength.

    When his fist mmed into Sun Dewang, the man¡¯s face fell. He had misjudged the situation, and as soon as he shed with Xu Qing, he sensed the terrifying strength within him. He immediately fell back, and yet,pared to Xu Qing, Sun Dewang was almost slow. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qingnded another fist on the man¡¯s belly. A thump rang out as the man shivered. However, this time he didn¡¯t fall back. Instead, his skin expanded toward Xu Qing as if he didn¡¯t contain any innards. The man was like an octopus, stretching out in all directions to bind Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned as, all of a sudden, a host of water droplets appeared around him, creating something like the shape of an arrowhead as it pierced through the stretched skin.

    A momentter, a vicious-looking figure shot backward from within the skin. He was humanoid, but covered with sticky fluid; he had green hair and a body covered in scales. His eyes shone with brutality, and he had a mouthful of sharp fangs, plus a forked tongue. ring at Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t make any further attacks, but instead, prepared to flee.

    Staring back coldly, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a screen of water to pop up in the nonhuman Sun Dewang¡¯s path, making it impossible for him to escape.

    ¡°Looking to die!?¡± Sun Dewang growled. Throwing both of his hands out in front of him, he summoned a mass of ck energy that became a host of vengeful souls, screaming shrilly as they shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing remained expressionless as his own energy and blood spread out. As a result, the vengeful souls screamed as they were dispersed. Then Xu Qing strode onward to the cultivator, reaching out with his right hand to grab him.

    Sun Dewang was panting, and his eyes shone with madness. In that moment of critical danger, all of the scales that covered him suddenly fell off, turning into a host of des that shot toward Xu Qing like a tornado. Having aplished that, the man didn¡¯t flee, but instead surged with brutality as he lunged toward Xu Qing¡¯s neck with ws outstretched.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    A fraction of a secondter, Sun Dewang¡¯s eyes went wide with disbelief.

    Xu Qing hadpletely ignored the tornado of scales, and had smashed through them like a hammer crushing an ice cube. Reaching out, he mped his hand down onto Sun Dewang¡¯s arm.

    A cracking sound rang out as Xu Qing twisted his wrist and broke the arm. Getting closer, he mmed his forehead viciously into his opponent¡¯s face, provoking a scream. Sun Dewang tried to back up, but Xu Qing had too tight of a grip. It was like an iron pincer that caused the nonhuman to gasp with astonishment.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist, I¡¯m¡ª¡°

    Before the man could finish speaking, Xu Qing calmly grabbed the man¡¯s own wed hand and shoved it deeply into his forehead. The sound of bone cracking and flesh tearing rang out. The cultivator let loose a bloodcurdling scream of despair, and his eyes shone with terror. However, his body structure was different from that of a human, and thus, it wasn¡¯t a fatal blow.

    That said, it was still a grievous injury. As blood poured out, Sun Dewang¡¯s energy rapidly began to fade. Xu Qing grabbed him by the neck, and hepsed into unconsciousness. Then, he was like little more than a corpse as Xu Qing dragged him away.

    The gambling hall was silent. Even the guards outside were trembling. The fight between Xu Qing and Sun Dewang had been intense, but it had ended very quickly thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s vicious attacks. And when they realized who that nonhuman cultivator was, they were even more fearful, and even more convinced of how terrifying Xu Qing was.

    In that tense atmosphere, Xu Qing was walking off. Then he suddenly stopped in ce and turned his head.

    Some distance away, a person was approaching from a shadowy street. As the neer neared, he reached themplight, and it became clear that he was wearing a pale violet daoist robe.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    It was a young man with long ck hair and extraordinary facial features. He was tall and thin, with a haughty expression. And of course, his daoist robe made it obvious the high position he held. He emanated the fluctuations of the Seaforming Scripture and the eighth level of Qi Condensation, causing his entire person to be surrounded by a host of water droplets. And all of them seemed to be locked onto Xu Qing.

    ¡°Which bureau of the Violent Crimes Division are you from? Give that nonhuman to me, and I¡¯ll pretend I didn¡¯t see any of this.¡± His words were cold, and spoken with much authority.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He looked at the young man, whom he remembered seeing when he went with the Captain on patrol for the first time. He had seen this disciple from a distance, and remembered thinking he looked like the child of a god, descended to the mortal world.

    Obviously, he was a conve disciple from the Seventh Peak.

    Xu Qing frowned. Although he had taken some precautions in case further fighting ensued, given this was a conve disciple, he wouldn¡¯t be able to use them. That said, there were 40 spirit stones at stake here. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, that sum was worth getting into a conflict with a conve disciple.

    Before he could say anything further, a cold voice spoke from behind the disciple in the pale violet robe.

    ¡°Conve disciples are impressive. They¡¯re even willing to interfere withw enforcement matters right in the presence of the Violent Crimes Division.¡±

    The disciple in pale violet spun around, and Xu Qing looked over.

    From some distance away sauntered the Captain, eating an apple as he walked.

    The disciple in pale violet looked surprised, as did Xu Qing. Although, it wasn¡¯t that Xu Qing was surprised to see the Captain, per se, more that he was surprised he¡¯d chosen this moment to show his face.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t trusted the information given to him by the old innkeeper from nkspring Way. In the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, where everyone harbored evil intentions, it seemed more likely the old man had given him information as a means to lend someone a knife and have them do his dirty work for him.

    After all, a gambling hall like this would certainly be backed by some important people. That was why, on the way here, Xu Qing had sent a message to the Captain, offering him half of the reward if he showed up to help in a tricky situation. Of course, he would give the spirit stones regardless of whether or not a tricky situation arose. The first bit of information had been a bust, so the Captain never showed up. But even though the second clue drew out a conve disciple, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t expected the Captain to do anything.

    The Captain noticed Xu Qing¡¯s surprise. Taking another bite of his apple, he blinked a few times, then looked at the ufortable-looking disciple in pale violet.

    ¡°ording to section three of the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s policies and procedures, anyone who interferes with a public servant¡¯s execution of thew will be punished severely. This is a wanted criminal, and we¡¯re executing thew. We¡¯re also public servants. So the question is... are you interfering?¡±

    The Captain smiled at the disciple in pale violet.

    The Captain was obviously wearing an ordinary gray daoist robe. But his words were spoken with such authority that the conve disciple looked very ufortable. In fact, it seemed almost like he and the Captain had switched statuses.

    Xu Qing was more than a little shocked.

    The truth was that the conve disciple was feeling very anxious. Sun Dewang had plied him with plenty of gifts, and besides, he owned this gambling hall, and normally wouldn¡¯t allow someone to harm one of his customers. But this was the Captain from Celestial Bureau Unit Six, and even this conve disciple was a bit afraid of him. In fact, he remembered that about two years ago, a different conve disciple had gotten into an argument with the Captain. And not long after that... the conve disciple went missing.

    That thought put him more on guard, and at the same time, made him even more nervous. Even more telling, no one on the mountain peak had looked into the matter. In fact, nobody even talked about it. To this day, no one was sure what really happened.

    Normally speaking, if a conve disciple went missing, that was a huge deal in Seven Blood Eyes. But on that asion... nobody seemed to care.

    After some thought, the conve disciple snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve, and walked off.

    The dramatic scene was very surprising to Xu Qing, and created a lot of questions in his heart about the Captain.

    ¡°My spirit stones?¡± the Captain said, smiling.

    Without a word, Xu Qing gave him 20 spirit stones.

    The Captain looked pleased to take the stones. Then he nced at the conve disciple walking away in the distance.

    ¡°That¡¯s Zhao Zhongheng. He¡¯s mostly an idiot. If it weren¡¯t for his grandfather being an elder on the Seventh Peak, he would have been killed long ago. I¡¯m honestly surprised he¡¯s stuck around as a conve disciple. That said, I heard his grandfather actually sent him off the mountain to a management position in the Dispatch Division. I guess he wants him to get some real world experience.¡± [1]

    As he spoke, the Captain started walking back in the direction of the Violent Crimes Division, and Xu Qing followed. Along the way, Xu Qing looked at the Captain out of the corner of his eye several times, but didn¡¯t ask any questions. As they got closer to the Violent Crimes Division, the Captain looked at him, seemingly surprised.

    ¡°You little punk,¡± he said. ¡°You really know how to hold your tongue! Aren¡¯t you going to ask what makes me formidable enough to make a conve disciple back down?¡±

    ¡°Okay, what is it?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain looked back at him, seemingly a bit disappointed. ¡°You already took the fun out of it.... Ah, whatever. Since you¡¯re in my unit, I¡¯ll tell you. Two years ago, I offended a conve disciple, and was nning to flee Seven Blood Eyes. However, you¡¯ll never guess what happened.¡± The Captain couldn¡¯t hold back fromughing. ¡°That disciple got unlucky and died at sea. The sect investigated and found it was just an ident, though they never determined all the details. In any case, after that, a rumor spread among the Onpeak conve disciples... that I was responsible. Ever since then, they all avoid me.¡±

    Grinning, the Captain looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded back at him.

    ¡°You actually believe me?¡± the Captain asked, sounding surprised.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Xu Qing said, shaking his head.

    ¡°Then why did you nod...?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer.

    The Captain sighed, and felt more than ever that Xu Qing had taken all the fun out of the conversation.

    Shortly thereafter, as they approached the main gate of the Violent Crimes Division, the Captain lowered his voice and said, ¡°The truth is that I did kill him. That¡¯s my big secret, Xu Qing. And it¡¯s worth... er, 100 spirit stones!¡±

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing, blinking.

    Xu Qing did not give him 100 spirit stones.

    The Captain sighed, muttered a few more things, and then made Xu Qing promise to pay him 100 spirit stonester. Finally, he stretched a bit and headed toward the Celestial Bureau.

    Xu Qing rubbed the bridge of his nose as he watched the Captain leave, feeling a bit irritated at being forced to owe the man 100 spirit stones. Finally, he sighed. The reason he hadn¡¯t asked any questions on the way back was that he¡¯d sensed some killing intent on the Captain. The Captain¡¯s cultivation base seemed to be in the ninth or even tenth level of Qi Condensation. But Xu Qing got the sense the Captain¡¯s true battle prowess was actually beyond that level. What was more, that killing intent didn¡¯t fade away until after Xu Qing agreed to owe him the spirit stones.

    Feeling a bit calmer now, Xu Qing looked in the direction of nkspring Way, his eyes glowing coldly.

    A momentter, he headed into the Violent Crimes Division to get the bounty for Sun Dewang. Before leaving, he passed a few spirit coins to the disciple in charge of handing out the bounties, and asked him about Zhao Zhongheng.

    Taking the spirit coins with a wooden smile, the disciple exined what he knew to Xu Qing. The story was basically the same as what the Captain had told him, although the Captain¡¯s version was more detailed. Afterward, Xu Qing thanked the disciple and left.

    On the way back to his berth in the harbor, Xu Qing thought back to the events of the night.

    The Captain is strong. And ruthless. But he treats me differently. Why? What does he want?

    Back at his berth, Xu Qing felt more of a need than ever to be on guard. Once inside his dharmaboat, he pulled out an old bamboo slip that he had clearly had with him for a long time. There were a number of names carved on it, none of which had been scratched off. One of the names was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Using his iron skewer, he carved a new name on the slip: nkspring Way Innkeeper.

    After that, he carved The Captain. Then he thought about it for a moment, and added a question mark after the Captain. He¡¯d put the Captain¡¯s name there because of the killing intent he sensed on him. The question mark was because that killing intent had been dispelled by 100 spirit stones.

    After that, Xu Qing resolved not to worry about the Captain¡¯s secrets, nor to pry into them. Next, he took out Sun Dewang¡¯s sack, which he opened and examined. As he did, he thought back to what the man had said after stepping out of the gambling hall. His sack was basically empty. There were some random things of no value, and that was it. Frowning, Xu Qing tossed the sack to the side and sat down cross-legged to start his cultivation.

    Days passed. After earning those 20 spirit stones, he chose not to go back to nkspring Way. However, given how the old innkeeper had obviously used him, he had already started nning how to kill him. It was going to be difficult, and therefore Xu Qing decided that he would do nothing to beat the grass to startle the snake.

    Most of his focus was spent on cultivation, as well as on using spirit stones to upgrade his dharmaboat.

    In fact, he had upgraded it by two entire sses. It was now a ss-four dharmaboat. It looked very different from the original. It was much bigger, and instead of being covered with scale totems, it was actually covered with real scales. As the boat floated on the water, it looked like a real crocodile, pulsing with a brutal and violent aura. What was more, the crocodile¡¯s head seemed like it was alive, with its eyes glittering.

    That was because Xu Qing had purchased two solid rock discs to serve as eyes, which increased the overall defenses of the boat.

    What had once been a simple canopy was now a real cabin with a door, which made him feel even safer when he was inside.

    ss-four dharmaboats weren¡¯t something that everyone in the port had. Although Xu Qing had upgraded it with low-level materials, in Harbor 79, it was still fairly eye-catching. There was nothing he could do about that. He could have asked the shop to mask the effects of the upgrades, but that would reduce their effectiveness. All he could do was keep his guard fully up.

    Thankfully, he was used to doing that. It was simply a part of his life.

    Now that he was upgrading his dharmaboat, his n of going out onto the open sea was closer to bing a reality. All in all, he felt a lot of anticipation. Granted, it was expensive to upgrade the boat, but it was worth it.

    There were never any repercussions from Zhao Zhongheng. It seemed the Captain had really cowed him.

    Meanwhile, the Violent Crimes Division publicly reined in their efforts to hunt down members of Night Dove. However, the truth was that things were very tense behind closed doors. From what Xu Qing could guess, there was a big trap being set up for Night Dove, and it would be sprung soon.

    Two dayster, after Xu Qing was off duty, but before he had left the division, he received notice that no one was allowed to go home, and everyone should wait with their units for instructions. All identity medallions and transmission jade slips were locked down.

    From that, Xu Qing could guess that the trap was going to be sprung that very night. He was right. About two hourster, as the sun set, the Captain appeared.

    ¡°The Division has decided that the Night Dove trap will be sprung tonight in all seven districts. Over the past few days, we¡¯ve confirmed that there are seventeen hideouts in the Port District. All units from the four divisions of Heaven, Earth, Celestial, and Terrestrial will be working together tonight.¡±

    Smiling at Xu Qing, he continued, ¡°Xu Qing, the location you reported some time ago was indeed a hideout. And that¡¯s exactly where we¡¯re headed tonight, along with Earth Bureau, Unit Three.¡± His expression turned serious. ¡°The hideout we¡¯re raiding has two people in the great circle of Qi Condensation, four in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, seven in the eighth level. And in terms of people lower than that, there are about twenty-five.

    ¡°The division is taking this matter very seriously. Any unit that takes out a hideout chief will get a reward of 10 spirit stones per unit member. And the person whonds the killing blow will get 80 spirit stones!

    ¡°In addition to that, every additional Night Dove operative that you kill will earn you 10 spirit stones. Brothers, the time hase to earn some tidy profits!¡±

    This information caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict. If he wanted to get his dharmaboat from a ss four to a ss six, then he needed to purchase a lot of materials. If he chose low-level materials, he would need dozens of spirit stones. But he had his heart set on mid-level materials, which meant he would need something more like 80 spirit stones. In terms of high-level materials, he hadn¡¯t even bothered thinking about that.

    Given how hard he had worked to earn spirit stonestely, the new information from the Captain caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter brightly.

    1. Zhao Zhongheng: Zhao is #8 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Zhong means ¡°middle, center¡± and Heng means ¡°permanent, constant.¡± To Madam Deathde, this sounds like a very mature and wise name, almost like a name you would expect an old politician or something like that. ?

 Chapter 66: Trying to Take Credit for My Work?

    Chapter 66: Trying to Take Credit for My Work?

    The rewards up for grabs during this mission were spectacr. That alone showed how much the leadership of Seven Blood Eyes detested Night Dove.

    It wasn¡¯t just Xu Qing who was deeply struck. It was all of Unit Six. Everyone stood there with shining eyes, chuckling and licking their lips. Some even had expressions of open desire. To disciples in Seven Blood Eyes, cultivation resources were everything.

    Just about everyone in Unit Six would spend time hunting bounties to make extra cash. Large-scale operations didn¡¯te along very often, and thus, everyone realized that if things went well, the immediate future would be filled with days of plenty.

    ¡°Captain, when do we start?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do this!¡±

    Upon hearing the anxious exmations of the unit, the Captainughed. Taking a bite of apple, he produced a handful of jade slips which he passed out.

    ¡°Our goal isn¡¯t very big. The two hideout chiefs in the great circle of Qi Condensation. We have to take out those two. Once we reach the hideout, I¡¯ll sneak in to kill the first. The rest of you find the other and surround him. If you can kill him, fine. If you can¡¯t, then at least buy enough time for me to show up. I really hope that everyone is alive at the end of this operation. Now, let¡¯s head out!¡±

    The entire Violent Crimes Division was on the move.

    As the moon shone down onto the division headquarters, countless figures emerged, speeding off in different directions into the city. They moved quickly, emanating somber and deste auras. The streams of people looked almost like tentacles stretching out, as though the Violent Crimes Division were some primordial beast that had just awakened and was ready to rain fury down on its enemies. Every criminal in the city was shocked.

    As Xu Qing sped along with Unit Six, his eyes shone with anticipation. Whatever unit kills a hideout chief will get 10 spirit stones per constable. That means if Unit Six kills two of them... we¡¯ll get 20 spirit stones each!

    He had already read through the jade slip the Captain had passed out. It contained detailed information about everyone holed up in the hideout. That included a physical description and their preferred techniques. Obviously, the division had worked hard in recent days to run a very thorough investigation into Night Dove.

    No one spoke. They simply followed the Captain, moving faster and faster, their killing intent growing stronger.

    There had been absolutely no advance warning that the Violent Crimes Division was going to run an operation this night. Because of that, everyone they passed in the darkness was absolutely shaken to the core, and immediately ran into hiding. The brothels and gambling halls, which were usually bustling ces, wentpletely silent. Their doors shut, and everyone inside waited with hearts pounding. Every criminal in the city knew full well that with the Violent Crimes Division on the move like this...

    Blood would run in the streets!

    Countless people would lose their lives. It would be like a lightning bolt from the sky, cleansing the city of unhealthy yin elements!

    Many of the inns in the city chose to keep their doors closed, and that included the one on nkspring Way....

    As Unit Six passed by that very street, Xu Qing caught a glimpse of the old innkeeper through the window. Their eyes met for a moment.

    He¡¯s scared.... Xu Qing looked down at the badge on his gray daoist robe. On this night, at least, that robe and badge represented the grandeur of Seven Blood Eyes. Whatever snakes or dragons lurked in the city would be forced to bow their heads and shrink back in deference. And anyone who tried to interfere with this operation would be crushed out of existence.

    Earlier, as the Captain was allocating different mission tasks, he had said, ¡°Every ce in existence has a mix of light and darkness. Our city is no exception. The sect treats us like venomous bugs in a jar. They allow the darkness to proliferate. But there are two lines which cannot be crossed. One: you can¡¯t harm the ordinary citizens. Two: outside Foundation Establishment cultivators can¡¯t kill Qi Condensation disciples. Anyone who crosses one of those lines... will pay the price.¡±

    Although Xu Qing had known that from the beginning, the operation tonight was the first time he¡¯d seen how domineering Seven Blood Eyes was when it came to enforcing those rules.

    It took an hour for them to reach their destination.

    The hideout was located in a sprawling manor. The moon hung in the sky over the darknds below. The manor was lit withmps, but in the darkness, they seemed like little more than flickering sparks.

    As Unit Six approached, a few Violent Crimes Division constables emerged from hiding spots to meet them. They were the disciples assigned to surveince. Upon seeing the Captain, they sped hands in salute, then left.

    ¡°Follow the n,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Eyes shining, he slipped into the manor. Next, eight constables split off from the group to cut off all avenues of escape. The remaining dozen or so headed to predetermined spots to infiltrate the ce.

    Xu Qing was one of the infiltrators, and he moved with the speed and grace of a cat.

    From a distance, the various constables of Unit Six looked like a huge hand, stretching toward the flickeringmp light, about to grab it.

    Meanwhile, another group of disciples from the Violent Crimes Division appeared on the scene. It was none other than Earth Bureau Unit Three, led by the young Merfolk captain, and assigned to the same task as Unit Six. Upon arriving and seeing that Unit Six was already on the move, the young Merfolk captain waved his hand scornfully. A ck, spherical object shot out,nding in the middle of the manor and then exploding loudly. His subordinates grinned viciously and they threw simr objects, resulting in more booms.

    The explosions alerted the Night Dove operatives in the manor, and they ran out into the open ready to fight. In the blink of an eye, Unit Six¡¯s n to quietly infiltrate the manor and take out the hideout chiefs was foiled.

    Xu Qing frowned. Unit Three was obviously interfering with Unit Six on purpose. In fact, one of the exploding objectsnded a short distance away from him. As the Night Dove cultivators scattered, fire started to spread, causing both mes and smoke to rage.

    Soon, the haze of smoke became so thick it was hard to see. However, the sound of fighting, yelling, and explosions continued to fill the manor.

    Eyes glittering coldly, Xu Qing ignored Unit Three and sped through the haze of smoke, his killing intent surging. His right hand shot out, and his dagger shed through the throat of a Night Dove cultivator, a middle-aged man in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. As his blood sprayed out of his destroyed throat, terror filled the man¡¯s eyes.

    Xu Qing took his sack and let the corpse drop to the ground. Speeding onward through the smoke, his dagger glittered as he closed in on another Night Dove cultivator. His dagger shed through the cultivator¡¯s neck, but his expression remained the same as ever. The body dropped, dead, whereupon Xu Qing took the sack and moved on to find a third target.

    Events unfolded rapidly. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the sounds of screaming and explosions grew more intense. At a certain point, Xu Qing stopped in ce, then leaped backward just in time to avoid a wind de that shot past.

    The wind brushed back his hair, revealing his wolf-like eyes. Dashing in the direction the wind de came from, Xu Qing found two Violent Crimes Division constables, one from Unit Six, the other from Unit Three, working together to fight someone from Night Dove.

    The Unit Three disciple didn¡¯t look happy to see Xu Qing. As for the Unit Six constable, he was sincerely delighted to see him. On this night, they were truly working together as a team.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this guy¡¯s in the eighth level of Qi Condensation!¡±

    There were already two mangled corpses on the ground.

    As for the Night Dove cultivator, when he saw Xu Qinging, he backed up as if he nned to flee. He was toote. Xu Qing burst forward with explosive speed. To the shock of the Unit Six and Unit Three disciples, he closed the distance in the blink of an eye, appearing right in front of the Night Dove cultivator, his dagger slicing toward the man¡¯s throat. Blood sprayed everywhere as the Night Dove cultivator¡¯s head flew off of his shoulders, and the corpse fell to the ground.

    The Unit Three constable¡¯s face looked ashen, and fear flickered in his eyes. He had seen strong people before, but it wasn¡¯tmon to see someone who could kill an eighth-level opponent in one blow.

    Not daring to stick around, the Unit Three disciple sped away. As for the Unit Six disciple, he took a deep breath. Feeling simrly shaken by Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, he sped hands, bowed deeply, then disappeared into the smoke.

    Xu Qing nced at the three corpses on the ground. Leaning over to grab their sacks, he dumped their contents into his own bag, his face remaining expressionless the whole time. After taking the sack from the third corpse, Xu Qing brushed off his hands and was about to leave. However, that was when the dagger in his hand suddenly shot at high speed toward the corpse¡¯s forehead.

    The speed was incredible, and the move came withpletely no warning whatsoever. However, the corpse moved, sliding to the side so quickly that Xu Qing¡¯s dagger didn¡¯t hit anything.

    The corpse floated into a standing position, and its eyes opened, revealing sinister coldness as it stared at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What gave me away?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the ¡®corpse¡¯ and replied, ¡°I¡¯ve seen a lot of mangled corpses. Your disguise wasn¡¯t realistic.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Well, I suppose that makes you unlucky.¡± The ¡®corpse¡¯ rubbed its face, removing some of the blood and grime and revealing the features of a middle-aged man. Then he blurred into motion, heading toward Xu Qing and unleashed the power of the great circle of Qi Condensation.

    This was one of the hideout chiefs, a cautious man who had hoped to disguise himself as a corpse and then slip away when the moment was right. Never could he have guessed that someone would see through his ruse. However, he was also ruthless. Knowing he didn¡¯t have a lot of time to work with, he attacked with full force. Spirit power fluctuations erupted from him, making nine me serpents that rushed viciously toward Xu Qing. Every serpent was strong enough to rip apart someone in the ninth level, and as they circled around Xu Qing, he realized it was the highest level of power he had seen from anyone in the Qi Condensation level.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t provide much of a reaction. Waving his hand, he summoned countless droplets of water that thrummed with the energy of the Forbidden Sea. As soon as they appeared, the water droplets converged, creating the image of a crocodile. It was vicious and covered with countless scales, with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Looking very lifelike, it roared and shot toward the nine me serpents.

    As they shed, a boom rang out, and the extent of Xu Qing¡¯s Seaforming Scripture divine ability became manifest. In the initial sh alone, his crocodile devoured five of the me serpents. And though four remained, it didn¡¯t seem the Seaforming Scripture would have trouble dealing with them.

    Then, to the utter shock of this cultivator in the great circle of Qi Condensation, Xu Qing strode forward, his energy and blood surging to create a spectral hobgoblin. As it roared, Xu Qing shot forward like an arrow.

    ¡°You¡¯re not an ordinary Seven Blood Eyes disciple!!¡± The Night Dove chief¡¯s pupils constricted as he sensed immense danger. Shooting backward, he waved his hand to unleash the blue glowing light of a talisman treasure. Not bothering to see if it worked as expected, he turned and fled.

    Unfortunately, he had used that blue talisman treasure a few too many times. Its light had faded, and the power it unleashed wasn¡¯t amazing. A blue ghost hand appeared, pulsing with a bit of the power of Foundation Establishment as it closed in on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing could sense that this talisman wasn¡¯t particrly amazing, but he still dodged out of the way. The hand followed him, making it impossible for him to chase the Night Dove chief. However, he didn¡¯t seem anxious about that. Stepping to the side, he merely nced at the fleeing chief.

    ¡°The poison still hasn¡¯t kicked in,¡± he said.

    The Night Dove chief¡¯s face fell, and his heart started pounding. Of course, that only caused the poison to kick in faster. He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of ck blood. At the same time, his face started turning greenish-ck.

    ¡°Poison?¡±

    He staggered as the poison exploded within him, causing his internal organs to melt. Eyes shining with madness, he used a secret magic, mming both of his palms onto his chest. mes burst out all over him as all thetent energy within him was unleashed to suppress the poison. A momentter, the greenish-ck coloration on his face faded away.

    Saving himself hade at great cost, and he looked visibly drained. However, there was only one thing on his mind at the moment: escaping with his life. With that, he started moving even faster than before.

    At the same time, Xu Qing once again dodged an attack from the giant ghost hand. Then he started moving like a lightning bolt, heading right toward the hideout chief.

    However, at almost the exact same instant, an intense sensation of deadly crisis filled him, and his expression flickered. Pupils constricting, he threw himself backward just in time to avoid a razor-sharp chakram, which emitted a piercing whistle as it whizzed through the air.

    If he had reacted even a moment toote, it would have sliced right through him.

    Flying through the night behind the chakram was a person whopletely ignored Xu Qing and headed straight toward the Night Dove chief. It was... the sinister young Merfolk captain of Unit Three.

    ¡°Trying to take credit for my work?¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes turning very hard.

 Chapter 67: Crossing the Line!

    Chapter 67: Crossing the Line!

    Whoever killed the hideout chief would get 80 spirit stones. And it went without saying that they would be credited with meritorious service for the sect. If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t encountered the hideout chief, and hadn¡¯t started fighting him, it wouldn¡¯t have been a big deal. But he had already seriously injured the man, and was about toy hands on him. At that very moment, this Merfolk captainunched his own sneak attack, which was an obvious attempt to take credit for Xu Qing¡¯s work.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes burned with killing intent.

    However, because of the giant blue hand summoned by the talisman treasure, he didn¡¯t have time to do anything.

    Just as the young merman was about tounch his final killing blow, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture. Instantly, a host of water droplets rose around the merman, transforming into a jellyfish.

    ¡°What is this crap?¡± the young merman sneered, instantly summoning a defensive shield to block the jellyfish¡¯s attack. However, as soon as the jellyfish hit the shield, it shattered.

    The young merman had obviously underestimated Xu Qing¡¯s jellyfish.

    As the shield copsed, the jellyfish once again turned into a host of water droplets, which then took on the shape of a huge, locking the young merman in ce. The merman frowned as his chance to nab the hideout chief vanished. In fact, the chief had already fled about nine meters away.

    Xu Qing took advantage of that moment to burst into motion, while simultaneously allowing the huge hand to m into him from behind.

    BOOOOOM!

    Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. However, he used the momentum of the st to pick up more speed, zing past the merman and bing a series of afterimages that closed in on the hideout chief.

    As he neared, he lifted his right hand, within which glittered his ck iron skewer.

    Around then, the young merman broke free of his constraints. Eyes glittering coldly, he sneered and waved his hand, causing his chakram to streak past Xu Qing and toward the hideout chief.

    In the blink of an eye, it was closing in on the target....

    However, right in that critical moment, the iron skewer became a ck streak that shot forth with even greater speed. It was like a ck lightning bolt that screamed through the air, passing the chakram and stabbing into the back of the hideout chief¡¯s head, then emerging from his forehead! Then a scream rang out as the chakram arrived, slicing through the chief¡¯s neck and sending his head flying off in an explosion of blood. The man was dead!

    Ignoring the chakram, Xu Qing dashed forward and grabbed the flying head. Then he spun and looked coldly at the very frustrated young merman.

    Not waiting for Xu Qing to speak, the young merman gritted his teeth and growled, ¡°Who the hell do you think you are to take credit for my work?¡±

    Eyes zing with killing intent, he reached out to grab the chakram as it flew back to him, and then took a step toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood there with the hideout chief¡¯s head in his hand, his eyes burning with equally intense killing intent. He didn¡¯t say a word. He was already prepared to start fighting, and had even crushed a poison pill and dispersed it into the wind.

    At the same time, his shadow stretched out. All the young merman had to do was take another step forward, and he would step right onto it. Once he did, the shadow would unleash a torrent of mutagen, and Xu Qing would attack.

    Xu Qing was confident that, in the heat of the moment, he would be able to kill his opponent quickly. However, even as the young merman¡¯s foot moved through the air, and right before it stepped onto Xu Qing¡¯s shadow, a cold voice rang out from the surrounding haze of smoke.

    ¡°And who the hell do you think you are to take credit for Unit Six¡¯s work?¡±

    The Captain strolled out from the haze, an apple in his hand. Behind him were about four additional constables from Unit Six, all of them holding severed heads. As for the Captain, he reeked of blood, and his eyes were so cold it seemed like they could freeze the air.

    The young merman stopped moving. His foot did not touch the shadow. Instead, he slowly backed up, keeping his eyes on the surrounding Unit Six constables. A few breaths of time passed during which a few constables from Unit Three arrived.

    The tension mounted, until finally the young mermanughed coldly. Looking at Xu Qing with raw killing intent, he said, ¡°You can keep your life for now. But I¡¯m not going to forget this.¡±

    Flicking his sleeve, he left, followed by the other constables from his unit.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes revealed nothing about what he was thinking as he stood there quietly.

    After the young merman was gone, the Captain smiled at Xu Qing, eyed the severed head he held, and said, ¡°You did well.¡± He offered Xu Qing an apple. ¡°My treat.¡±

    Xu Qing epted the apple and took a bite. It was sweet, but also tasted like blood. Xu Qing swallowed, then looked at the young merman off in the distance.

    The constables of Unit Six were all very excited.

    ¡°The Captain killed one hideout chief, and Xu Qing killed the other! We¡¯re gonna be rich!¡±

    ¡°20 spirit stones is just the beginning. Our bet paid off!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing, let us help you with all those severed heads. It¡¯s easy to tell which ones you killed. They all have their throats shed.¡±

    Normally speaking, the constables were all cold and detached. But right now, they were genuinely happy. It really felt like being part of a team. The Captain looked pleased, and had seemingly forgotten about the constables that had fallen in the fighting. Waving his hand, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s withdraw!¡±

    Carrying their spoils of battle, they left the manor and went through the night back toward the Violent Crimes Division. All Unit Six constables looked at Xu Qing with newfound respect.

    It wasn¡¯t just any person who could kill a hideout chief the way the Captain did. And not just anyone would dare to argue with another unit¡¯s captain over getting credit.

    As for who tried to steal credit from whom, it didn¡¯t matter. The fact that Xu Qing ended up prevailing showed how strong he was.

    As usual, Xu Qing was walking toward the back of the group. However, at a certain point, the Captain slowed down until he was walking next to Xu Qing. In his hand was a blue talisman treasure, which was the same talisman the Night Dove chief had used to unleash the giant ghost hand. Now that the chief was dead, that talisman was considered a battle trophy. Although it was tattered, it could probably be used one or two more times.

    ¡°Take it. You earned it.¡±

    Xu Qing was a bit surprised, but he took it. Then he looked over and saw the Captain looking at him with a profound look in his eye.

    ¡°Did I show up a bit too early just now?¡± the Captain asked.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°There were too many people around,¡± the Captain continued. ¡°Not just people from the Violent Crimes Division. There were also nonhuman dharma protectors. I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t kill him. But the Merfolk are indeed allies. That said, they have a rebellious streak. I heard that a few years ago, they were nning an armed uprising. The Onpeak folks found out about it, and used the Great Competition to crush them. But in the end, allies are allies. You have to think twice before moving against them openly.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what that fish is up to, but I do know that he asionally shakes his dharma protectors and goes off on his own....¡± The Captain smiled broadly as he trailed off.

    Xu Qing put the talisman away, then took out two pears from his sack. One of them, he gave to the Captain, who looked surprised. Taking a bite from the other pear, Xu Qing asked, ¡°Captain, do nonhumans have a different body structure than us humans?¡±

    ¡°There are some differences. For example, let¡¯s talk about poisons. There are some poisons that humans can¡¯t deal with, but don¡¯t work on nonhumans. And the opposite is true. There are some substances that are powerful medicines to us humans, but will kill a nonhuman.¡±

    The two of them exchanged a nce, but said nothing further.

    As Xu Qing walked along, something cold stirred within his eyes. There was one line that he maintained, and if anyone crossed that line, he would think of a way to kill them, no matter what. Even if he wasn¡¯t strong enough, or had no way to actually kill that person. Until they died, the matter would be like a fish bone stuck in his throat.

    Anyone who threatened his life... crossed the line.

    It was like that in the slums. It was like that in the scavenger basecamp. And it was like that in Seven Blood Eyes.

    The only difference was that he had to be a lot more careful here. He had to find the right opportunity to strike a deadly blow.

    The young merman had crossed the line in a way even worse than the tavernkeeper from nkspring Way. In fact, the young merman was on about the same level as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had to think of a way to kill him. As soon as possible.

    After Unit Six got back to the Violent Crimes Division and the operation was officially concluded, everyone dispersed. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t go back to his dharmaboat. Instead, he hid nearby and waited.

    About two hourster, he caught sight of the young merman.

    However, he wasn¡¯t alone. And as Xu Qing observed cautiously, he realized that the strongest of the energy fluctuations surrounding the group were in the Foundation Establishment level. Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up further.

    At the same time, there was no sign that the young merman had been poisoned.

    Xu Qing was certain he had released the poison, so it confirmed what the Captain said. The young merman also had powerful people protecting him, so Xu Qing didn¡¯t get near him. After confirming the general direction he left in, Xu Qing departed.

    That night, the trap set for Night Dove by the Seventh Peak was sprung, and it was aplete sess. Seventeen hideouts in the Port District were all vanquished, and any groups working with Night Dove were simrly exterminated.

    Some of the assistant directors even joined in on the action. Many of Night Dove¡¯s powerful experts were killed. It was the same in the other districts of the city.

    Nearly 2,000 members of Night Dove died. And when it came to aplice organizations, there were even more deaths. The heads of the leaders were hung on the city walls the next day, and the gory image shook the region.

    Casualties in the Violent Crimes Division weren¡¯t low. Three hundred disciples died. Two of them were the young man and woman Xu Qing had met on the day he first reported for duty. [1]

    But overall, it was a resounding sess. The purging caused the city to calm down a bit in the following days. Even the infighting among disciples eased up.

    When the rewards were distributed, Xu Qing ended up with 138 spirit stones, which was an unprecedented level of wealth. Of course, it made him even more on guard against greedy interlopers. If anyone tried to rob him, then he would kill them.

    With so many spirit stones, Xu Qing started thinking that the materials he had previously thought to be so amazing actually weren¡¯t very good quality. And then he started thinking about what better materials he could purchase for his dharmaboat.

    During the two days that passed after the operation, Xu Qing kept his eye on the young merman. He followed him on a number of asions, but the dharma protectors were always with him. Xu Qing never had an opportunity to make a move.

    Thankfully, he was a patient person.

    On the afternoon of the third day, he had the day off and was working on his cultivation in his dharmaboat when someone sent him a message. It was an invitation. And the person who sent it was none other than Zhou Qingpeng, one of the disciples in his group when he officially became a disciple of the Seventh Peak.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, I finally got those ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. Not many. Only two. But that¡¯s better than nothing. I was thinking that our little group that joined the sect together have drifted apart. So I invited Li Zimei and Xu Xiaohui to dinner tonight. Why don¡¯t you join us? I¡¯ll bring the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs to give to you.¡±

    The message seemed sincere.

    As Xu Qing thought about it, he considered how the young merman hadn¡¯t been affected by his poison, and realized that the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs would probablye in very handy. After checking his work schedule to confirm he didn¡¯t have a night shift, he replied to the message saying that he woulde. Then he continued with his cultivation.

    Before long, it was evening. Xu Qing opened his eyes and calcted the time, then left his dharmaboat and headed to the restaurant to meet Zhou Qingpeng.

    It was a fairly famous ce located in an expensive-looking two-story building not far from the port. Xu Qing had never gone inside, but he had seen it in themercial registry list in the Violent Crimes Division. Based on that, he knew that the restaurant was owned by the Coastguard Division.

    The Coastguard Division was very different from the Violent Crimes Division. They were actually more simr to the Patrol Division, except they patrolled the sea and not thend.

    Nearing the restaurant, Xu Qing looked around cautiously before entering. A waiter noticed Xu Qing immediately, and called out a warm greeting. When Xu Qing said he was meeting friends in one of the private rooms, the waiter led him up to the second floor. [2]

    The room Zhou Qingpeng had reserved was in the very back, and was not open to the public. Only Seven Blood Eyes disciples could use it.

    Nearing the room, Xu Qing heard the sound of Zhou Qingpeng and the othersughing and chatting.

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhou, this is my first time here. I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s really hard to get a reservation, and in fact, they don¡¯t even let ordinary disciples book private rooms. They have three specialty dishes, right? Supposedly, they¡¯re all really beneficial for your cultivation base.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it was easy to get a reservation. This ce is owned by the Coastguard Division, and since I¡¯m a disciple from there, it¡¯s simple for me to book a spot. If you ever want a reservation, Xiaohui, you just let me know. I¡¯ll handle it for you.¡±

    ¡°Aw, thanks, Elder Brother Zhou! Cheers!¡±

    The waiter opened the door to the private room, and Xu Qing looked inside to see a table spread with all sorts of dishes. Three people were already seated around it. There were two women and a man. The young man was obviously Zhou Qingpeng, who beamed as he held his ss of alcohol up to the charming Xu Xiaohui, who was offering him a toast. Last was Li Zimei, who looked just as reserved and cautious as she had in the past. In fact, she even seemed somewhat nervous. When Xu Qing appeared, the two young women looked at him in surprise.

    ¡°And... who are you, Elder Brother?¡± Xu Xiaohui asked, her eyes shining. She had obviously taken note of Xu Qing¡¯s good looks and intense spirit power fluctuations.

    Zhou Qingpeng grinned and got to his feet, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    It was actually Li Zimei who, after looking at Xu Qing for a moment, hesitantly asked, ¡°Is that you... Elder Brother Xu Qing?¡±

    As it turned out, she recognized him at first nce.

    1. I guess the potential romance with Xu Yanhong from chapter 55 isn¡¯t on the table any more ?

    2. In China, virtually all nice restaurants (and in fact, most sit-down restaurants) have private rooms. In some cases they¡¯re small enough for a table of only 6-8 people, but in other cases arerge enough to seat 20-30 people or more. ?

 Chapter 68: Everyone Has Difficulties

    Chapter 68: Everyone Has Difficulties

    In response to Li Zimei¡¯s softly spoken words, Xu Xiaohui¡¯s eyes went wide, and she looked closer at Xu Qing. It was little wonder she didn¡¯t recognize him. In her memory, Xu Qing was covered in filth and grime.

    But the person who had just stepped into the private dining room was tall and slender, with long ck hair that flowed past his shoulders. There was something indescribably elegant about him, and of course, his face was nothing short of entrancingly handsome, like something from a sculpture. Almost pretty. He had dashing, angr eyebrows over cold, profound eyes. Combined with his spirit power fluctuations, he was the type of person no one would dare to underestimate.

    ¡°It¡¯s me,¡± he said with a nod.

    A flush crept up Xu Xiaohui¡¯s face, and she quickly took a drink from her raised cup to mask her shock.

    Meanwhile, Zhou Qingpeng burst outughing as he hurried forward to formally receive Xu Qing.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, please, have a seat.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands in greeting, then sat down. Usually, other disciples in the sect seemed cold and brutal to him. But in the presence of these three, he felt warmth.

    That said, all of them had clearly changed during their time in the sect. Zhou Qingpeng seemed to radiate happiness, but Xu Qing could see the exhaustion he tried to hide in his eyes. What was more, there was something about him that made it obvious he had gone through some trying times, and had grown up as a result.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t put his finger on what exactly was different about Xu Xiaohui. But he felt like she had somehowe to resemble the women in the feathered tents back in the scavenger basecamp.

    Li Zimei seemed to have changed the least. She was still cautious, and seemed tock self-esteem. There was more vignce in her gaze than before, as though she wouldn¡¯t let her guard down no matter who she was around.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely as they chatted. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say much, but the atmosphere was homey, and even he warmed up to the conversation a bit. This small group had not been in the sect long enough to bepletely cold to each other.

    Most of the conversation was between Zhou Qingpeng and Xu Xiaohui. Li Zimei was like Xu Qing, and didn¡¯t say much. And when she asionally looked at Xu Qing, herck of self-esteem really showed.

    Eventually, after Zhou Qingpeng had downed a few drinks, he sighed and said, ¡°I knew a bit about this sect before joining it. But actually being a memberes with a very different feeling. In Seven Blood Eyes... it¡¯s not easy to live a good life. If you slip up even once, you¡¯ll end up dead.

    ¡°The rest of you probably feel the same, right...? Oh, by the way, you never mentioned which department you got assigned to, Junior Brother Xu Qing. I got sent to the Coastguard Division. Xiaohui has some skills, which is why she already managed to buy a dharmaboat. She was assigned to the Dispatch Division.¡±

    Off to the side Xu Xiaohui smiled and nodded, though there was somethingplex about her smile that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t quite read into.

    ¡°I¡¯m in the Violent Crimes Division,¡± he said softly. He still wasn¡¯t used to this environment. It seemed theplete opposite of the cold and brutal world outside.

    ¡°Violent Crimes Division?¡± Xu Xiaohui said, her eyes lighting up.

    Even Li Zimei looked envious. Although she wasn¡¯t dressed like a grimy scavenger, she still wore the clothes of amoner, and was inclined to avert her gaze from others. It wasn¡¯t lost on her that she was the only one out of the group of four that didn¡¯t have a dharmaboat. Sitting there, she felt like she was under a lot of pressure.

    ¡°Wow, you¡¯re in the Violent Crimes Division?¡± Zhou Qingpeng said. ¡°I heard your division was involved in a big event a few days ago. The heads of a bunch of Night Dove leaders were hung from the city walls afterward. There must have been thousands of them! Everyone was talking about it. Hey, Junior Brother Xu Qing, I haven¡¯t forgotten how strong your projection of energy and blood was during the entrance assessment. Does that mean you were a part of the Violent Crimes Division operation the other night?¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng looked quite excited. When he ran into Xu Qing a few days before, he had sensed Xu Qing¡¯s spirit power fluctuations, and had realized he¡¯d gotten stronger. Now he was curious to find out more.

    When Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond immediately, Zhou Qingpeng quickly continued, ¡°Although, arge-scale operation like that was probably really dangerous. I know you excel at body cultivation, Junior Brother Xu Qing, but magical techniques are what really count. Since you¡¯re new to the sect, staying alive and furthering your cultivation are the most important things. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have other opportunities in the future to show what you¡¯re made of.¡±

    Xu Qing could tell that Zhou Qingpeng was picking his words carefully so as not to say something offensive. Truth be told, Xu Qing got a good feeling from these three. They all seemed genuine, without malicious intentions. That was the main reason he¡¯d agreed toe, other than the ghostlonging horseshoe crab.

    In response to Zhou Qingpeng, Xu Qing nodded, but didn¡¯t offer any further exnation.

    ¡°The Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division is just like the Coastguard Division,¡± Zhou Qingpeng went on. ¡°We both have a lot of fierce people as members. Oh, hey, Junior Brother Xu Qing, I heard someone say that in that big operation the other night, there was one disciple who really stood out.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s in the Celestial Bureau. I forget his name, but people are saying he killed a hideout chief who was in the great circle of Qi Condensation. He was the only one in the entire operation who did something like that and wasn¡¯t a captain. For him to kill someone that strong means his Seaforming Scripture is probably at the peak level. Meritorious service of that sort is definitely going to earn him a promotion.¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s eyes were full of admiration. At this point, he wasn¡¯t digging for information. He really was just feeling envious. As far as he was concerned, the story he¡¯d just told couldn¡¯t possibly have anything to do with Xu Qing. Xu Qing was strong in body cultivation, and could perform energy and blood projections, but after Zhou Qingpeng started cultivating the Seaforming Scripture, he realized it was strong enough that using it to kill body cultivators would be an easy thing. And of course, the Violent Crimes Division was full of many powerful experts.

    Although he had sensed the spirit power fluctuations of the Seaforming Scripture on Xu Qing when they ran into each other at the medicine shop, it didn¡¯t even ur to him that Xu Qing could possibly stand out among all the other experts in the Violent Crimes Division.

    ¡°I heard about that too,¡± Xu Xiaohui said, carefully serving some food to Xu Qing and Zhou Qingpeng. ¡°Everyone was talking about it a few days ago. The fellow you just mentioned is in Celestial Bureau Unit Six.¡±

    It was absolutely true that disciples from all of the departments in the Seventh Peak had been talking about the trap the Violent Crimes Division had sprung on Night Dove. And everyone had been talking about the outstanding figures who yed key roles in the operation.

    Xu Qing was actually surprised by this. He had beenpletely focused on trying to find an opportunity to kill that young merman, and hadn¡¯t been paying attention to much else. This was his first time encountering the sect¡¯s rumor mill, and it was also his first time hearing anything about promotions.

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t have anything to do with us four,¡± Zhou Qingpeng sighed. ¡°To people like us... just staying alive is the most important thing.¡±

    As he spoke, he gingerly rubbed his thigh, where he had a wound that wasn¡¯t quite healed yet. Looking over at Xu Qing, who still wasn¡¯t saying much, he said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, you shouldn¡¯t be so reclusive. It¡¯s a personality trait that you need to change. You should learn how to be more flexible. For instance, give some gifts to your boss. Do that, and you¡¯ll get someone to watch your back. It¡¯ll up your chances of survival.¡±

    Xu Qing just nodded. He wasn¡¯t good with words, and wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to Zhou Qingpeng. As the meal continued, he spent most of his time listening and not talking. As for Zhou Qingpeng, he seemed to be reverting to his old self before he joined the sect. Chatting andughing, he often raised his drink for toasts.

    Eventually, when Zhou Qingpeng was obviously a bit drunk, he started bragging a bit about his aplishments.

    For example, he said that he had a good rtionship with his boss in the Coastguard Division, and then he went on to talk about some of the friends he had made at work. He exined about some of the important connections he¡¯d made, and then told Xu Xiaohui that he would help her expand her socialwork.

    On several asions, he reminded Xu Qing to work on his personality traits. He also told Li Zimei that the Coastguard Division had some odd jobs that needed to be handled, and that he would rmend her.

    ¡°My boss promised me that as long as I score well on my next review, he¡¯ll rmend me to Elder Brother Ding Xiaohai. You know Elder Brother Ding, right? People call him the number one Qi Condensation cultivator on the Seventh Peak.¡± [1]

    Zhou Qingpeng seemed very pleased with himself, and Xu Xiaohui offered plenty of ttering words in response to his bragging. Xu Qing even smiled and offered a toast to Zhou Qingpeng. The atmosphere in the room was only getting warmer and friendlier.

    Xu Qing had no dislike of Zhou Qingpeng. After all, everyone had their own style of living. The fact that Xu Xiaohui already had a dharmaboat went to show that she must have some skills of her own. As for Li Zimei, though she wasn¡¯t a big talker, Xu Qing had noted how quickly she recognized him, which meant she had keen powers of observation.

    They ate and drank together for about two hours.

    It was dark outside, and Zhou Qingpeng was even more drunk than before. Finally, it came time to part ways. Zhou Qingpeng handed over the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs, and when Xu Qing tried to pay for them, he waved his hand dismissively.

    ¡°Business is good for my n. Consider the crabs a gift between friends.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs in the bag, and then at the sincere look on Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s face. After some thought, he decided not to force money on Zhou Qingpeng. Instead, he simply sped hands and offered thanks.

    They left the private room, walked out of the restaurant, and stood outside the entrance. Looking at Xu Qing, Zhou Qingpeng smiled and said, ¡°All three of you shoulde visit me whenever you can. And I¡¯ll do the same. We all joined the sect at the same time, so we should keep in touch. At the very least, we can have a few people to trust in this cold, indifferent organization. Maybe that¡¯ll be the key to us making some progress. Say, Junior Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯m in the Ground Bureau of the Coastguard Division. What bureau of the Violent Crimes Division are you in?¡±

    ¡°The Celestial Bureau.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s response seemed to sober Zhou Qingpeng up a bit. Xu Xiaohui also seemed surprised.

    ¡°Celestial Bureau?¡± Zhou Qingpeng eximed. ¡°Hey, that¡¯s the same bureau as the famous fellow from the operation the other night. He was in Unit Six. Which unit are you in, Junior Brother Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Zhou Qingpeng and Xu Xiaohui, then over at Li Zimei. He hesitated.

    ¡°I¡¯m also in Unit Six....¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s eyes went wide. Looking bbergasted, he said, ¡°You¡¯re in the same unit as that famous guy? Hold on, wasn¡¯t he also surnamed Xu...?¡±

    Even Xu Xiaohui, who seemed to be thest in the group to pick up on things, suddenly realized the implication.

    ¡°There are usually twenty people in a unit...¡± Zhou Qingpeng muttered. At this point he waspletely sober.

    Li Zimei also looked shaken. However, back when she first saw Xu Qing enter the room, her acute senses had detected the scent of blood and gore.

    Everything went quiet for a long moment. Then Zhou Qingpeng threw his head back,ughed, and sped hands to Xu Qing as if to mask his surprise. Xu Xiaohui had a dazed expression on her face, and looked like she wanted to say something to Xu Qing, but ultimately decided not to.

    Soon the group parted ways.

    As for Zhou Qingpeng, after he was alone, he shivered briefly, and then his eyes shone with incredulity. Taking out his identity medallion, he sent a message to someone he knew, asking how many people surnamed Xu were in Celestial Bureau Unit Six....

    Xu Qing watched everyone go, then turned to leave. However, after taking only a few steps, he sensed something unusual, and looked back in the direction of the restaurant.

    A petite figure stood at the entrance, nodding over and over again while discussing something with one of the waiters. The waiter looked irritated.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re a sect disciple. That doesn¡¯t mean you can cause trouble whenever you want. Your group finished eating and we cleared the room. And now you¡¯re asking to take the leftovers with you?¡±

    The petite figure was Li Zimei. She had gone back hoping to get the leftover food, but hearing the waiter¡¯s exnation, she now looked embarrassed.

    Xu Qing walked over. As he neared, Li Zimei sensed his approach, and turned to look at him, her face bright red. Then her face went pale, and she started trembling from embarrassment.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have cleared the room so quickly,¡± Xu Qing said to the waiter.

    The waiter looked at him. He had seen many disciplese to this restaurant, and could sense that Xu Qing was the type that wasn¡¯t worth trifling with. His attitude became very respectful.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, we shouldn¡¯t have.¡± He hurried back into the restaurant and then came out shortly thereafter with a to-go package that he handed to Li Zimei.

    Li Zimei mumbled a thanks, then stood there awkwardly. The reason she¡¯d left and thene back was that she didn¡¯t want any of the others to see her asking for leftovers. Now, her feelings of shame caused her to gnaw her lip so bad it started to bleed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°There¡¯s no need to waste food. When I was young, I ate a lot of food that people had left to be thrown away. Sometimes I had to fight with others just to get those leftovers.¡±

    Li Zimei looked at Xu Qing and opened her mouth to speak, except she couldn¡¯t think of what to say. As the wind blew, the moonlight shone down, revealing a deep scar that ran along her neck, normally covered by her hair.

    Looking at her, Xu Qing was reminded of the little girl back in the scavenger camp. What was more, he could detect the strong aura of mutagen on Li Zimei.

    Disciples who didn¡¯t have dharmaboats usually didn¡¯t have a very big ie. But that was onlypared to disciples who did have a dharmaboat.

    Whenpared to themon citizens, even disciples with a low ie were still considered fairly well-off. Considering that, Li Zimei shouldn¡¯t be in this condition. The only exnation as to why she would be so frugal was if she was saving everyst merit point to eventually buy a dharmaboat.

    After a moment, Xu Qing took out a few of the white boluses he had concocted. He put them in Li Zimei¡¯s hands.

    ¡°Keep up the good work. I look forward to the day when you can get that dharmaboat.¡±

    With that, he turned and walked off.

    Xu Qing knew that no matter how much he helped Li Zimei, in the end, what would truly determine her fate was her own choices.

    Li Zimei stared at Xu Qing as he left. Then she looked down at the white boluses, and a deep warmth rose up in her heart. In fact, it was such a cold world, and the sect was such a brutal ce, that this was the first time she had felt such warmth. After a very long moment, she looked up, and there was deep gratitude in her eyes. She was thankful for the white boluses, but even more than that, she was thankful for the words of encouragement. She had her pride, and because of that, she didn¡¯t like people pitying her. In fact, she rejected all expressions of sympathy. But right now, she needed encouragement.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± she murmured. ¡°I¡¯m going to get that dharmaboat!¡±

    1. Ding Xiaohai: Ding is listed #48 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Xiao is a somewhat poetic character that means ¡°firmament, heaven, sky.¡± Hai means ¡°sea, ocean.¡± Madam Deathde¡¯s reaction to this character name is that it sounds like ¡°a person with ambition and dreams¡­ his name literally has sky and ocean in it!¡± ?

 Chapter 69: Fair and Just

    Chapter 69: Fair and Just

    Time passed, and soon, the tenth month was half gone.

    It should have been Cold Dew, but because Seven Blood Eyes was located next to the sea, the days were still hot. [1]

    It was only after the sun set that the wind turned cold. It was the same with the sea, as if the sinister cold on the seafloor would follow the moonlight up into the world above, and eventually fill cultivators with the malicious iciness of winter. As the wind blew, moonlight spilled over the Port District and the bluish limestone that paved the streets.

    The light of the moon also fell on Xu Qing, who was on his way back to his berth after a long day of work. He walked tall and straight in his gray robe, his long hair swaying around him. From a distance, he looked like a lonely figure under the moon in a scroll painting.

    However, the frigid wind made him feel very cold. What was truly cold was not his body, though, but his memories of life in the slums. It was like a scorch mark on a painting. Even if ink was used to cover up that scorch mark, and no one noticed it... the scorch mark was still there. As the frigid wind blew, Xu Qing started walking a bit more quickly.

    Half a month had passed since his reunion dinner with Zhou Qingpeng and the others. During that time, he reported in for duty regrly at the Violent Crimes Division, just like before. The promotion Zhou Qingpeng had mentioned never happened, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that. As far as he was concerned, cultivation was the most important thing right now.

    His Seaforming Scripture was at the peak of the seventh level, not far from the breakthrough point. He was in a simr position with the Sea and Mountain Incantation, being close to the eighth level.

    It filled Xu Qing with anticipation.

    Given his current battle prowess, once he broke into the eighth level with both techniques, he could absolutely crush the version of himself that existed beforeing to Seven Blood Eyes. Although being in the eighth level wouldn¡¯t make him strong enough to defeat Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in a fair fight, if he used his shadow andid an ambush, he would at least be able to hold his own for a time.

    ¡°Soon...¡± he murmured, his eyes narrowed. Right now, he urgently needed to kill both Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and that young merman.

    When it came to the former, he knew that he just needed to wait for a bit longer, until he was stronger. As for thetter, he continued to seek the right opportunity.

    Unfortunately, despite shadowing the young merman almost every day for the past half-month, the dharma protectors never left his side, making it impossible to make a move. On one asion, the merman did as the Captain had mentioned, and went off on his own. But he used some special item to mask his presence, making it impossible to follow him.

    Xu Qing continued to search patiently, but to no avail. After that incident, he came to the conclusion he should try to nt something on the merman to make it easy to track him.

    Going forward, I should do the same with any opponent I have to deal with like this.

    He would treat this new challenge just like he¡¯d handled the old challenge of dealing with corpses.

    Eventually, he reached his berth in Harbor 79. On his way back, he didn¡¯t be the subject of any malicious gazes, nor did anyone cause any trouble for him. He hadn¡¯t been in Seven Blood Eyes for very long, but he had already carved out a reputation for himself. Because of that, few people dared to target him.

    He took out his dharmaboat, and the moment it appeared, it smacked down onto the water with a ssh, sending waves out in all directions.

    The boat was very impressive now, being more than 60 meters long and nine meters wide. It was pitch ck in the moonlight, emanating a ck glow from its scaly surface. With the vicious crocodile head on the prow, it really did look like a gigantic crocodile. The open mouth had countless razor-sharp teeth in it, and its eyes glowed with a mysterious, intimidating light. If one looked closely, it was possible to see that there was an outeryer of scales, beneath which were more scales. The boat had a special keel running its length that made it extremely tough.

    As the wind whipped around it, the dharmaboat looked like a giant beast resting in the water, exuding a threatening aura. The boat¡¯s hold was much bigger than before, as was the cabin. It now had a location for rest, cultivation, and even a special medicinal ntboratory. There was also a greenish light that flowed back and forth across the boat, almost like a living thing. That was something that made the dharmaboat much more durable. Most importantly, there was arge open spot in the deck that was currently empty, but had clearly been set aside for a special reason.

    So far, Xu Qing had spent over 100 spirit stones, using mid-level materials to upgrade his dharmaboat to ss-six!

    The open spot in the deck had actually cost ten spirit stones. The reason was that a very unique item had caught his eye. It was a whale skull. Once set into the deck, it would make the dharmaboat much tougher, and would push it past ss-six and to the peak of ss-seven.

    Unfortunately, the whale skull was shockingly expensive. After all, it was considered a high-level material. In order to purchase it, he would need a full 200 spirit stones. It seemed like a ridiculous price. But after going back several times to examine the whale skull, he finally gritted his teeth and decided that he would buy it.

    Once my cultivation base reaches the eighth level, I¡¯ll buy that whale skull and push my dharmaboat to ss-seven! Then... I¡¯ll go out into the open sea!

    Boarding his dharmaboat, he sat down cross-legged to start his session of cultivation. The wind blew all night. By morning, it seemed so tired that it faded into nothing. Then the sun shone down, causing Xu Qing to open his eyes to a new day.

    Now that they didn¡¯t need to investigate Night Dove, things were a lot more rxed in the Violent Crimes Division. asionally, the Patrol Division would encounter situations they couldn¡¯t handle, and would request support. In fact, when Xu Qing showed up for roll call, Celestial Bureau Unit Six was given just such a support request.

    Not many people went on the assignment. It was the Captain and five others including Xu Qing. As the Captain led them out onto the street, he exined the details. As it turned out, the Patrol Division actually needed help dealing with the Dispatch Division. The Dispatch Division and the Pilot Assistance Division were two of the most important parts of the port. Dispatch was responsible for all the dispatch orders for iing and outgoing watercraft. Pilot Assistance was responsible for assisting ships and boats that wanted to enter the port.

    Every single harbor in the port had a bureau of each division. And today, there was an issue in Harbor 96.

    The Dispatch and Pilot Assistance Divisions in that harbor were at odds. Over 100 members of Pilot Assistance had gathered at the Dispatch Division office to protest. And thus, the Dispatch Division had put in a request for help from the Patrol Division. The Patrol Division, not confident that they could handle the situation, had in turn put in a request for support from Violent Crimes.

    After hearing this exnation, one of the Unit Six constables sneered and said, ¡°The reason for all of this is that the Dispatch Division in Harbor 96 should have given an incentive payment to Pilot Assistance this month. Instead, Dispatch only gave twenty percent of the usual. Put anybody in the shoes of Pilot Assistance, and they¡¯d react the same.¡±

    ¡°Disciples in Dispatch and Pilot Assistance get a regr sry,¡± another constable said. ¡°But Pilot Assistance provides a lot of help to Dispatch, which results in Dispatch getting extra money on the side. Because of that, it¡¯s customary for Dispatch to give incentives.¡±

    Although this was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing about this arrangement, it made sense to him.

    ¡°You know why?¡± another Unit Six constable said. ¡°It¡¯s because Harbor 96 Dispatch just got a new overseer. It¡¯s that conve disciple Zhao Zhongheng.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s a conve disciple, so he thinks he can change all the rules. I¡¯ve heard that historically, Dispatch and Pilot Assistance split things fifty-fifty. But this Zhao Zhongheng decided to change it to ny-ten. No wonder the Pilot Assistance disciples are angry.¡±

    Xu Qing listened to the talk as they proceeded to Harbor 96¡®s Dispatch Division. When they arrived, Xu Qing saw that the division headquarters itself looked like arge sailid on the ground. It was made up of numerous structures, and had numerous dharmaboats docked off to the side.

    In front of the main gate, over a hundred Pilot Assistance disciples had gathered. A group of Dispatch disciples was also there, and they were shouting at each other. The atmosphere was tense, as if fighting might break out at any moment. Arge group of other random disciples had gathered to watch themotion.

    There were also Patrol Division disciples present, trying to mediate between the two groups. However, neither side seemed willing to back down. It seemed the slightest spark could cause aplete blowup. When the Patrol disciples saw the group from Violent Crimes arrive, they breathed sighs of relief. As for the crowd of onlookers, they parted to allow Violent Crimes through.

    The Captain munched on an apple as hepletely ignored Patrol as well as the two opposing factions. Instead, he found a suitable ce off to the side to sit down and watch things y out. After all, the Violent Crimes Division only needed to get involved once deadly fighting broke out. Until that happened, they didn¡¯t have to lift a finger.

    The other Violent Crimes constables followed suit, including Xu Qing. After he sat down, he looked over the crowd. He didn¡¯t spot Zhao Zhongheng, but he did see one familiar face.

    Standing at the front of the group from the Pilot Assistance Division was the same pudgy young man who had given Xu Qing some condensing spirit leaves at the medicine shop some time ago. His name was Huang Yan. [3]

    In fact, Huang Yan seemed to be speaking for the Pilot Assistance disciples. ¡°You Dispatch bastards! You might as well make it impossible for us Pilot Assistance disciples in Harbor 96 to make a living. Without our monthly incentive, we won¡¯t be able to keep up with cultivation and pill concocting. How are we supposed to survive like that in this deadly city? You¡¯re literally trying to get us killed! Well since we¡¯re dead either way, we might as well take you out first!¡±

    Huang Yan wore an ordinary gray robe, but he stood with his shoulders square and his chest out. He had a very vicious expression on his face, and when he yelled, his neck bulged.

    The person standing in the leadership position of the Dispatch disciples was a middle-aged man who wore the same gray daoist robe as Huang Yan. He actually wasn¡¯t from the Dispatch Division in Harbor 96, but rather, was one of Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s retinue.

    Given Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s status, there was no way he would go out to deal with a matter like this one, so he¡¯d had one of his followers handle it.

    The middle-aged cultivator¡¯s eyes shone with cold light and extreme annoyance. He had been a follower of Zhao Zhongheng for a long time, and normally speaking, Offpeak disciples treated him with a lot of respect. He had brushed shoulders with so many conve disciples that he¡¯de to forget his own status. As far as he was concerned, these gray-robed disciples weren¡¯t even worth thinking about. That was especially true considering he knew without a doubt that Zhao Zhongheng wouldn¡¯t change his mind about his decision.

    ¡°One incense stick¡¯s worth of time,¡± he shouted. ¡°Anyone who wants to live had better screw off before then!¡±

    When he said that, the Pilot Assistance disciples¡¯ killing intent surged. And when the Dispatch Division saw that, their eyes shone with cold light. Each disciple in Seven Blood Eyes was someone who had ughtered their way out of a den of wolves, and didn¡¯t ever feel the need to rely on the help of others. To people like that... killing wasn¡¯t an unusual thing.

    ¡°You want us to screw off? Screw your grandpa!¡± Eyes wild, Huang Yan lunged forward in a head-butt, moving at top speed.

    At that point, the tension exploded, and the two sides started fighting. Booms rang out, and the fluctuations of magical techniques shot out in all directions. Xu Qing looked on as hundreds of people started battling, and blood flowed.

    The Patrol Division disciples who had been trying to broker a peace just backed up. At the same time, Xu Qing and the other Violent Crimes constables remained seated.

    Xu Qing looked over at the Captain, who just kept eating his apple and asionally cheering as he watched the fight y out.

    ¡°There are way too many people involved in the fight,¡± the Captain said between cheering. ¡°A chaotic battle is the most dangerous type. Let them fight it out for a bit, then we¡¯ll step in and calm things down. Besides... the sect doesn¡¯t want two divisions ughtering each other. I¡¯d say there¡¯s an eighty or ny percent chance the bigwigs send someone to interfere.¡±

    There were already casualties on both sides. As the screams and booms rang out, Xu Qing spotted Huang Yan in the crowd, eyes bloodshot as he fought wildly. He was in the seventh level of Qi Condensation, which made him particrly deadly in the fighting.

    Before long, Xu Qing noticed the ringleader of the Dispatch Division, the middle-aged cultivator, backing up while ring venomously at Huang Yan. Taking advantage of the fact that Huang Yan was facing away from him, the man waved his arm, causing a flying dagger to shoot out from his sleeve.

    The dagger was made from a special material; it was translucent and glowed with a faint blue light. Apparently, it was poisoned.

    Huang Yan was so caught up in fighting that he had no idea the dagger was heading straight toward his neck.

    However, Xu Qing saw it. Eyes narrowing, he flicked his right hand, causing a drop of water to fly with shocking speed toward the flying dagger. When the water hit the dagger, a loud pinging sound rang out, and the dagger was knocked off course, speeding just past Huang Yan.

    Expression flickering, Huang Yan looked at Xu Qing and nodded. Then a malevolent expression overtook his face as he turned toward the middle-aged cultivator, howled, and threw himself forward.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± the middle-aged cultivator growled, and he tried to leap back, but Huang Yan blocked his path, then lunged forward with a head-butt.

    The resulting crunch was drowned out by the general chaotic sound of the battle, but Xu Qing saw the middle-aged cultivator¡¯s face distort with pain before heunched a counter attack.

    The fighting continued, and the casualties grew.

    Off to the side, the Captain nced at Xu Qing and then smiled enigmatically.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, and in fact, looked away from Huang Yan. He had interfered in the fighting simply because Huang Yan had been so generous with those condensing spirit leaves.

    As the fighting between the two departments grew more intense, a booming voice rang out like thunder.

    ¡°Everybody stand down!¡±

    A figure appeared overhead, walking through the air and emanating a terrifying aura that weighed down on the entire area. All of the disciples below looked up in shock.

    ¡°Time to get to work,¡± the Captain said quietly, getting to his feet. He really looked like he was ready to enforce thew. Xu Qing and the others joined him.

    At that exact same moment, the figure from above resolved into a young man in a violet daoist robe. He wasn¡¯t particrly good-looking, and his eyes weren¡¯t unusually threatening. But there was something shocking about him as he hovered in midair, looking down coldly at the disciples from both sides of the conflict.

    1. Here¡¯s the reference link to the sr terms. ?

    2. Zhao Zhongheng is the same disciple who appeared briefly in chapter 65. ?

    3. Huang Yan¡¯s surname is listed as #7 on the list of top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡°yellow.¡± Yan means ¡°rock, cliff.¡± To Madam Deathde, this seems like an ordinary name. It sounds nice but doesn¡¯t convey any special feeling. ?

 Chapter 70: Let Me Treat You to an Egg

    Chapter 70: Let Me Treat You to an Egg

    All of the disciples from Dispatch and Pilot Assistance stopped in ce, expressions of reverence on their faces. One person in the crowd recognized who this person was, and immediately offered a respectful salute.

    ¡°Greetings, Honor Guard Li.¡±

    Meanwhile, Zhao Zhongheng flew out from inside the Dispatch Division, looking a bit taken aback. Once outside, he bowed respectfully to the figure hovering above.

    Xu Qing was shocked by all this. He could sense the spectacr fluctuationsing from this Honor Guard Li. And given that his memories of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior were still fresh, he was certain Honor Guard Li was much stronger.

    Meanwhile, Honor Guard Li looked around coldly and said, ¡°I¡¯m here with orders from Elder Zhao. All disciples from the Dispatch Division and the Pilot Assistance Division who participated in the fighting will be fined three months¡¯ sry. Furthermore, Pilot Assistance will receive the same incentive as before! Zhao Zhongheng, Elder Zhao wants to see you. Come with me!¡±

    Although Honor Guard Li kept his face expressionless when he looked at Zhao Zhongheng, inside, he was feeling very disappointed. He knew exactly what the problem was here: Zhao Zhongheng was the grandson of an elder, but he was also an idiot. He was a conve disciple with a spectacr background, but his Offpeak assignment had resulted in a huge mess.

    How could such a spectacr elder have such an idiot for a grandson?

    Honor Guard Li looked away and made a grasping gesture. As a result, Zhao Zhongheng was snatched up, his face pale with shock and terror. Then the two of them disappeared in the direction of the Seventh Peak.

    With him gone, the issue between Dispatch and Pilot Assistance was resolved. However, there were still bloodstains and corpses to deal with, and as a result, despite the issue being over, there was still visible animosity in the eyes of the disciples on both sides.

    The Captain stepped forward, took a bite of his apple, and then said, ¡°Alright, everyone, show¡¯s over. We¡¯ll be leaving now. By the way, that fellow just now, Honor Guard Li, is one of Elder Zhao¡¯s favorites. Li Diling. Considering that he personally came to take away Zhao Zhongheng, I¡¯d say Zhao Zhongheng is in for some rough treatment.¡±

    With that, he walked away.

    Unit Six went with him. As Xu Qing left, he looked over his shoulder and saw the disciples from the Pilot Assistance Division clustered around Huang Yan.

    Xu Qing looked away, and the sea breeze lifted his hair back, revealing his eyes. From the way they glinted, it was clear he knew whom to show gratitude to, and whom to feel resentment against.

    His shift came to an end as the evening sun cast its light over thends.

    Once off duty, Xu Qing spent some time shadowing the young merman. Unfortunately, the opportunity he sought never presented itself, so eventually he went back to his dharmaboat to work on his cultivation.

    Life was a lot more interesting in Seven Blood Eyespared to the scavenger basecamp, but Xu Qing kept the same routine when it came to cultivation. He knew that cultivation was the foundation of everything. Furthermore, his n to go out on the open sea required a cultivation base breakthrough, and that point kept getting closer and closer.

    It won¡¯t be hard to achieve that cultivation breakthrough. But I still need to upgrade my dharmaboat to ss-seven. Unfortunately, I still can¡¯t afford the materials I need.

    Pulling out a jug of alcohol, he took a sip. He wasn¡¯t sure when exactly he had acquired a taste for alcohol, but he liked it now. As he drank, he considered going to nkspring Way to try to earn some cash. After thinking about it, he decided not to. Until he figured out a way to get rid of that innkeeper once and for all, he needed to stay away for fear of beating the grass and startling the snake.

    He pulled the jug up to take another sip, which was when he realized it waspletely empty. It was currently dark, and he wasn¡¯t inclined to go out to buy more alcohol, so he put the jug down to the side and closed his eyes to meditate.

    Time passed, and soon the moon was up, casting its light over the water. The bay looked almost like a mirror in the night, both mysterious and beautiful. In those nighttime circumstances, Xu Qing opened his eyes from meditation and looked outside his boat. Shortly thereafter, footsteps could be heard on the shore. And then, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he heard a familiar voice from outside.

    ¡°Brother Xu Qing, it¡¯s me, Huang Yan. From the Pilot Assistance Division!¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing stepped out onto the main deck. There on the shore, bathed in moonlight, was a pudgy young man whose gray daoist robe was both wrinkled and stretched taut over his belly.

    Seeing Xu Qinge out, Huang Yan grinned. After the fight earlier that day, something wonderful ended up happening to him, and he went out drinking. After getting a bit tipsy, he started thinking about the events of the day, then did some asking around to find out Xu Qing¡¯s name and his berth number. Then he¡¯de here to offer thanks in person.

    ¡°Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯d like to say thanks for what you did today.¡±

    Xu Qing gave him a nod, then said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for thanks. You already gave me some condensing spirit leaves at the medicine shop a while back.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Huang Yan said, looking stunned. Then he thought back and apparently remembered the incident. Shaking his head, he said, ¡°You helped me because I gave you some condensing spirit leaves?¡±

    ¡°Not ¡®some,¡¯¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious. ¡°You gave me seven stalks in total.¡±

    Huang Yan blinked a few times, looked more closely at Xu Qing, and thenughed. He had originally nned to simplye here and say thanks. He hadn¡¯t intended to get into a conversation. At the most, he¡¯d figured he would give a small gift as a token of gratitude. But now he wasing to feel that Xu Qing was more amusing than he¡¯d realized. Reaching into his sack, he pulled out two palm-sized eggs. They were pale, and in the light of the moon, they seemed to sparkle.

    ¡°Brother, you¡¯re an interesting guy. Let me treat you to an egg.¡±

    With that, he tossed the egg toward Xu Qing. Unexpectedly, it passed right through the dharmaboat¡¯s defensive shield.

    Surprised, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a host of water droplets to appear, surrounding the egg and stopping it in mid-flight. Looking at it closely, he saw that even after passing through the defensive shield, it was still whole, without even a crack on its surface. He looked back at Huang Yan.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°A little thingy.¡±

    Grinning, Huang Yan put his right index finger in his mouth, licked it, and then used it to poke a hole in the egg. Instantly, a fragrant aroma filled the area, which Xu Qing could smell even inside the defensive barrier of his boat. Huang Yan then swirled his finger around inside the egg, put it to his lips and took a sip, a rapturous expression on his face.

    Meanwhile, the wonderful aroma caused Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base to stir, and he felt an instinctual sensation inside of him telling him that the egg was something absolutely extraordinary. After a moment of hesitation, he tried to poke a hole in the egg with his finger, only to discover that the egg was extremely tough. He tried again with more force, but nothing happened. Confusion shone in his eyes.

    Huang Yan burped, then said, ¡°You need to use your spit. These thingies are strange. If you don¡¯t use spit, it¡¯s way too hard to break them open.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then sucked his finger for a moment before poking a small hole in the egg. Instantly, the same amazing aroma spread out, causing his cultivation base to stir even more dramatically. In fact, his flesh and blood seemed to thirst for a higher level of life.

    Panting slightly, Xu Qing put the egg to his lips and took a sip. Then his eyes went wide and he took a much bigger sip.

    Huang Yan stood off to the side, staring in anticipation as he waited for Xu Qing to react.

    However, even after a very long moment passed, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Well?¡± Huang Yan said. ¡°What do you think? Was it good?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, pretty good.¡± Xu Qing felt something warm flowing through him, and he even had beads of sweat on his forehead.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s a given,¡± Huang Yan said, looking pleased. ¡°It took a lot of effort for me to get these eggs. My Elder Sister loves them, but today I¡¯m letting you try them.¡±

    By this point Huang Yan was starting to get a sense of Xu Qing¡¯s personality, so he took a deep breath and didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Neither did Xu Qing. He just continued to drink from the egg.

    Time passed, and silence prevailed. Huang Yan sat on the shore, Xu Qing sat on his boat. Neither seemed inclined to disturb the other.

    It was a fantastic feeling as far as Huang Yan was concerned. He felt more and more rxed, and as the effects of the alcohol he¡¯d consumed earlier continued to take hold over him, his eyes became a bit unfocused. Then, he looked at Xu Qing sitting in the moonlight, and couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Say, Xu Qing, you¡¯re pretty good-looking. But that¡¯s not going to help much if you fall in love. It¡¯ll make girls feel insecure. When you look like me, though, girls can have true peace of mind!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He just sat there sipping the egg, making sure not to lose a single drop.

    Huang Yan didn¡¯t seem bothered by Xu Qing¡¯s silence. Stretching out on the beach, he put his hands on his chest and looked up at the moon. It seemed like he was thinking about a specific person. He sighed.

    ¡°Do you have a special someone, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing was getting a sense of Huang Yan¡¯s personality; he was obviously a warm and casual person. Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°See, I told you! With your good looks, it won¡¯t be easy to woo a girl. It¡¯s different for me. In fact, I don¡¯t mind telling you that today was a really great day. Not because of the reward I got from the Pilot Assistance Division after that fight. No, it¡¯s because I found out my Elder Sister really does care about me. That¡¯s why I went drinking tonight. You know what, Xu Qing? I¡¯ve been sending my Elder Sister gifts for years now. Today was the first time she asked me to get something for her. She said to do it soon as possible! This is so amazing. She actually likes me!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. He had never fallen in love, and wasn¡¯t even sure what to do if it happened. But he did know that something seemed off about what Huang Yan was saying. ncing curiously over at Huang Yan, he could see that he was a bit drunk, and also, that it wasn¡¯t the time to question him.

    Then he thought back to what the shopkeeper at the medicine shop had said about Huang Yan chasing some girl for seven or eight years.

    After a moment, Xu Qing knew what he should say. Taking another sip from the egg, he spoke from his heart and said, ¡°Congrattions.¡±

    Looking even happier, Huang Yan patted his stomach. ¡°I can tell you mean it, Xu Qing. Not like other people. You know what? I¡¯m the kind of person who repays kindness with kindness. You helped me out today, and I¡¯m going to make sure you didn¡¯t help me in vain.¡±

    Huang Yan sat up and took out a small leather sack. He tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Scrambling to his feet, he continued, ¡°There are some dharmaboat materials in there. Consider them a gift tomemorate our newfound friendship. Well, I¡¯m taking off now. Let¡¯s hang out again sometime.¡±

    Swaying a bit as he walked away, he took out his identity medallion and started to send a message....

    Xu Qing simply watched him sending a message and chuckling as he left. He was d he hadn¡¯t said anything more than he did. After Huang Yan disappeared in the distance, Xu Qing went back inside the cabin.

    Meanwhile, the sea breeze blew past Xu Qing and through his hair, carrying his scent through the night toward the main city.

    The wind passed numerous structures, and blew through street after street. It witnessed all the bustling activity. Eventually, it started to lose power toward the south part of the city, where the Sixth Peak rose high. And it finally stopped upon reaching an old man who was quietly climbing the stairs that rose up the peak.

    If the wind had a spirit, and it could return to Xu Qing and report what it saw, he would recognize that man. It was none other than... Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    The moonlight revealed that his face was more wrinkled than before. In fact, every wrinkle seemed deep and full of mncholy. Altogether, they made the patriarch seem full to the brim with bitterness. After trudging to a spot halfway up the mountain peak, he stopped outside of a mansion grotto.

    It had an arched stone doorway surrounded by verdant green grass. Above the doors, the name of the grotto was carved in calligraphy as mboyant as dancing dragons and swirling phoenixes.

    Idle House Grotto.

    The name alone made it obvious that whoever upied this mansion grotto was calm, tranquil, and elegant. They were the kind of person who liked to pick flowers and rx indoors.

    Outside of the grotto, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior took a deep breath, then sped his hands and bowed.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Idlecloud. Do you have time to visit with an old friend?¡±

 Chapter 71: Jabbering Patriarch

    Chapter 71: Jabbering Patriarch

    The bright moon illuminated the dome of heaven, revealing a few idle clouds.

    However, outside of the mansion grotto on the Sixth Peak, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior actually looked gloomy in the moonlight. And that gloominess amplified the worry visible on his face. The truth was that he didn¡¯t care too much for the wealth he¡¯d lost. The real reason he¡¯d coughed up blood was the fury of seeing his sect headquarters ruined.

    The spirit stones that had been out for the taking had been ced there mostly for decoration.

    And what he worried about now was that his enemy was in Seven Blood Eyes, getting stronger and stronger. As anxiety mounted within him, he looked at the mansion grotto, and noted how silent it was. There seemed to be no response to his greeting.

    Enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn. Then, he heard a sigh from within.

    ¡°Long time no see, Master Freespirit.¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s actual daoist name was Master Freespirit. However, it had been years since people in the area started referring to him as a patriarch. Thus, there were only a few people who called him by his daoist name. When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior heard that name, a flicker of reminiscence appeared in his eyes, and he sighed lightly.

    ¡°Long time no see,¡± he said.

    The closed stone door of the grotto rumbled open, revealing inky darkness within, out of which strode an unusual-looking person. He was an old man who walked with a very rigid gait. He wore a deep blue daoist robe, had long gray hair, and he had a very somber expression on his face.

    As he walked up to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and stood in front of him, the wind caught the edge of his robe and it swayed to the side, revealing... that he didn¡¯t have legs of flesh and blood. Instead, his legs were a mechanical construction. They glittered with blue light, and seemed especially cold because of the moonlight.

    The blue-robed old man looked up at the clouds in the sky, and softly said, ¡°It has indeed been a long time. And thus... I have to wonder what brings you here today.¡±

    Although they were standing on equal footing, it actually seemed like Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was positioned beneath him as an inferior. After a moment of bleak silence, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior exined the situation with Xu Qing.

    ¡°A huge cmity struck my sect recently.... Before leaving, the little thief stole all of my resources. He poisoned everyone, set a number of fires, and basically burned the headquarters to the ground.

    ¡°If he was just some ordinary brat, I wouldn¡¯t care as much. But after spending a huge amount of money to run a background check, I found out that he joined Seven Blood Eyes. Not only that, but he¡¯s doing well here. Now I¡¯m sitting around worried all the time. I can¡¯t stop thinking about ounts I read in the ancient records a few years ago.

    ¡°I¡¯ve actually studied many ancient stories, and as it turns out, people like him usually have an unbeatably strong destiny. I was really an idiot to go after him with only two grand elders to back me up. I should have taken the whole sect with me. I should have gone all out to destroy him! Either that, or I should have turned weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk and just apologized....

    ¡°Ai. Sadly, I missed that chance. Anyway, based on my analysis, I¡¯m absolutely certain that after he grows up, he¡¯ll be impossible to stop.... And then I¡¯ll be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt!

    ¡°I just know in my heart that, once he rises to prominence, he¡¯ll rain fire and blood down on your Seven Blood Eyes, andpletely destroy it! The ancient records all say that things will y out that way. And then, all it will take will be a single word from him, and my Golden Vajra Warrior Sect will be reduced to ashes.¡±

    Having finished his exnation, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior hung his head bitterly.

    The blue-robed old man stood there with a strange expression on his face as he listened to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Then he shook his head.

    ¡°Master Freespirit, after all these years, you... really have taken to jabbering. You think a nobody like that has an unbeatably strong destiny? That he¡¯s going to rain fire and blood on Seven Blood Eyes, and wipe the sect out of existence? With one word, he¡¯ll destroy your Golden Vajra Warrior Sect? It sounds to me like you¡¯re imagining things....¡±

    The patriarch sighed. ¡°You don¡¯t get it. I trust my instincts....¡±

    Seeing the patriarch like this, the old man in blue shook his head again. The truth was that the two of them didn¡¯t have some sort of deep friendship. Other than a few interactions years ago, they weren¡¯t very close.

    ¡°What peak is the kid assigned to?¡±

    ¡°The Seventh Peak,¡± the patriarch replied quietly. ¡°ording to the background search I paid for, his name is Xu Qing, and he¡¯s in the Violent Crimes Division.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what division he¡¯s in, he¡¯s still just an Offpeak disciple. That said, though we treat them like venomous bugs in a jar, and even allow them to fight and kill each other, the fact remains that there are certain sect rules which just can¡¯t be broken....¡±

    Seeing the patriarch look even more dejected than ever, the old man in blue sighed again.

    ¡°Ah, whatever. Look, I can have him roughed up, then force him to give you back the things he stole. If he doesn¡¯t have them, then I¡¯ll take everything he owns.¡±

    With that, he took out his identity medallion and sent a message. Then he pointed at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s done. As for you, spend some time working on your cultivation! Even after all these years, you¡¯re still just in early Foundation Establishment? You haven¡¯t made any progress at all! Stop spending all your time reading those random ancient records. Stop sitting around jabbering all the time! If you keep this up, you¡¯re going to develop an inner devil!¡±

    The patriarch seemed to have more to say, but held his tongue. Things hadn¡¯t turned out exactly as he¡¯d hoped, but he could see that no amount of arguing was going to do any good. Sighing inwardly, he sped hands and bowed.

    ***

    The night passed without incident for Xu Qing. At dawn, he opened his eyes from meditation and looked at the sack lying next to him. Last night, Huang Yan had given it to him as a gift, and inside were three mutant beast parts. There were two diamond-shaped skulls, and one feather.

    All of them glittered with red light, indicating that they came from the same creature. Their auras were extraordinary, but unfortunately, they wouldn¡¯t boost the toughness of his boat. Instead, they were rted to magical techniques and speed.

    I wonder how many spirit stones I could get if I sold them. Also, I¡¯ve built up about 1,000 white boluses....

    After organizing his belongings, Xu Qing left the dharmaboat and headed to the vendor cart where he usually purchased breakfast. The vendor was a burly, middle-aged man with no cultivation base. Like mostmon citizens in the capital city, he was a frank and straightforward person, and when he saw Xu Qing approach, he grinned. He liked this handsome young man from the Violent Crimes Division, and felt that he didn¡¯t have the vicious air that most Seven Blood Eyes disciples did.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even need to put in an order. As soon as he walked up, the vendor served him some stuffed buns, steamed eggs, and a te of pickled vegetables.

    Xu Qing thanked him and sat off to the side, picked up some chopsticks, and started eating. He had be ustomed to eating with chopstickstely. After finishing the meal, he put some spirit coins onto the table, then left for the Violent Crimes Division.

    Morning roll call was a simple thing. He just had to swipe his identity card on the limestone stele at the Celestial Bureau, then wait for the formalities to end. Xu Qing was used to the process. After the roll call, he checked the duty roster, then headed back out onto the street. As he left, other disciples in the Violent Crimes Division offered polite greetings. After what happened with the Night Dove operation, he had a good reputation in the division.

    Out on the street, Xu Qing bought a few pears to eat as he headed toward the medicine shop. His n was to sell his white boluses, and also see how much he could get for the materials Huang Yan had given him the night before. Afterward, he hoped he would have enough to purchase that whale skull.

    Before long, he caught sight of the shop he usually frequented to buy and sell medicinal pills and nts. It was as bustling as it usually was.

    Xu Qing was a regr at this location, so as soon as he entered, the busy shopkeeper noticed him and smiled.

    ¡°Haven¡¯t seen you for a while. Are you here to buy nts or sell pills?¡±

    ¡°Sell pills.¡±

    Smiling even more warmly, the shopkeeper nced at the pills Xu Qing handed him, then started counting out 20 spirit stones.

    ¡°You¡¯re not even going to inspect them?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The shopkeeper waved his hand dismissively. ¡°There¡¯s no need to inspect your pills.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He was absolutely confident that all the pills he¡¯d concocted were of the highest quality. After taking the spirit stones, he sped hands and left.

    After he was gone, the shopkeeper took out a jade slip and sent a message to his boss. Then he yelled at one of the shop clerks toe over, put the medicinal pills in a box, and take them to the Second Peak. The clerk knew how important the pills were to the boss, so he packed them up quickly then ran out of the shop at top speed.

    Before long, the box had been delivered to a young woman in her mansion grotto on the Second Peak. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, and wore a pale orange daoist robe. Sitting down with the box, she examined the pills.

    In the light of the sun, her skin was as fair as snow. Her eyes glistened, and her long, ck hair was coiled in a bun like that a princess might wear. The bun was fastened with a pearl hairpin, but a few strands of hair hung down and drifted about her face.

    This young woman was the owner of the medicine shop, and was the same person Xu Qing had passed by some days ago when leaving the shop. As she examined the pills, the young woman made a faint exmation of surprise, and her eyes widened.

    I can¡¯t believe they have such a high level of purity.

    Although she could achieve the same quality, she couldn¡¯t do it every single time. All of a sudden, she felt her sense ofpetitiveness stir.

    If a Seventh Peak disciple can do this, then so can I. After all, I¡¯m a cultivator who specializes in the dao of alchemy!

    She waved her hand, causing several medicinal nts to fly over to her. Looking very serious, she started a session of pill concocting.

    As she was trying to match Xu Qing¡¯s efforts, he was walking the street toward the shops where the Sixth Peak disciples offered equipment forging services. As he neared one shop in particr, his eyes flickered with suspicion. Perhaps it was a misperception, but he felt like the vendors from the Sixth Peak were, intentionally or otherwise, ncing at him out of the corners of their eyes. Before, it hadn¡¯t been like this.

    Are they watching me?

    Eyes narrowing, he put his guard up even more, and at the same time, gave up his n to visit the Sixth Peak vendors. Instead of purchasing any materials, he headed back to Harbor 79, where he went into a session of cultivation.

    Days passed and nothing happened. Xu Qing was still feeling suspicious, though, and was cautious everywhere he went. He also went through the Sixth Peak vendor area a few times to see what would happen.

    He never again got the sense he was being watched. However, he didn¡¯t let down his guard. A few dayster, after confirming repeatedly that it was safe, he picked a shop that had never participated in the strange behavior, and headed in that direction. He really did want to upgrade his dharmaboat, and virtually all the ces to buy the necessary parts were run by the Sixth Peak. They essentially had a monopoly on that business in the Port District.

    Even if something strange was going on, Xu Qing was ready to give it a shot.

    Keeping his guard fully up, he hurried down the street toward the shop. However, that was when he heard a familiar voice.

    ¡°Xu Qing.¡±

    He looked over his shoulder to find that Huang Yan was a short distance behind him. Huang Yan waved enthusiastically as he hurried to catch up, his fat jiggling up and down as he ran.

    ¡°Xu Qing, guess what? My Elder Sister returned my messages again today! Hahahaha! Come on, I¡¯m in such a great mood that I have to treat you to some eggs!¡±

    With that he reached out to grab Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was inclined to step back to avoid him, but then he thought about those fantastic eggs, as well as the materials Huang Yan had given him, and he hesitated. ¡°I need to sell some things.¡±

    ¡°Sell things? Are you low on money? I can give you some!¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°Well, fine,¡± Huang Yan said, looking no less happy than before. ¡°But at least let mee along. Afterward, the two of us are going to splurge on eggs! Deal? Okay, deal!¡± Huang Yan was clearly dead set on sharing his good mood. Looking around, he pointed at one of the nearby shops. ¡°That¡¯s a good one. I¡¯ve been there a few times.¡±

    It was the same shop Xu Qing had intended to go to, and it was busy inside. In fact, Xu Qing recognized one of the customers. It was none other than Zhang San, who was there buying some things. When Xu Qing entered with Huang Yan, Zhang San noticed, smiled, and called out a greeting. [1]

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go,¡± Huang Yan said. ¡°Hurry up and sell your stuff. Remember, the eggs are the most important thing right now.¡±

    Xu Qing found the shopkeeper and walked over without any hesitation.

    It was a big shop with two floors. There were all sorts of mutant beast materials up for sale, and all of them were very expensive. As Xu Qing neared the counter, the shopkeeper looked up. He was middle-aged, with a mustache shaped like the character °Ë, and a shrewd look. Upon seeing Xu Qing approaching, he smiled.

    ¡°Hello, Fellow Disciples. What are you looking to buy?¡±

    ¡°I want to sell some materials,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, then took out the materials from his sack. He didn¡¯t just take out the items Huang Yan had gifted him, he also took out some things he¡¯d taken from criminals he¡¯d killed recently.

    The shopkeeper looked at Xu Qing, then at the items. Muttering to himself, he looked at something behind the counter, then peered at Xu Qing. Face darkening and eyes turning hard, he said, ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with these items, young friend! A few days ago, the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect got in touch with our Sixth Peak and reported a big heist perpetrated on their sect. They lost a lot of resources, and the items here... are listed on the incident report as belonging to the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect! Young friend, are you really trying to sell me stolen goods? What¡¯s the meaning of this! Don¡¯t tell me that you have something to do with the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist? Could it be that a disciple from the magnificent Seventh Peak actually robbed the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect?¡±

    It was obvious that the shopkeeper was deliberately speaking louder and louder, until every disciple in the entire shop could hear what he was saying. By the time he was done talking, the shop waspletely silent, and everyone was looking at Xu Qing and the shopkeeper.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really care, though he was sighing inwardly. Despite all his caution, he had been unable to avoid this situation. Obviously, this whole thing was connected to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and it caused the killing intent in his heart to grow even more intense. And now he knew that some important person from the Sixth Peak was actually working with the patriarch.

    He nced at the shopkeeper¡¯s throat, as well as all the materials on the shelves, and then looked out at the open sea. His eyes started to turn cold as he tried to decide whether to just leave, or get into an argument.

    As he deliberated, Huang Yan¡¯s eyes turned wide and pped his hand onto the counter with a loud thump.

    ¡°Stolen goods? Is this a stolen good?¡± Huang Yan picked up one of the mutant beast skulls he¡¯d given to Xu Qing as a gift. At the same time, his eyes burned with unprecedented anger, as though he had just been insulted in the most outrageous manner. ¡°This freaking thing belongs to me, got it, you bastard? How dare you say that one of my things is stolen!¡±

    Brimming with indignation, Huang Yan threw the bone into the shopkeeper¡¯s face.

    1. Zhang San was introduced in chapters 55-56 ?

 Chapter 72: Terrifying Huang Yan

    Chapter 72: Terrifying Huang Yan

    Huang Yan¡¯s voice was loud, and his eyes burned with fury. As far as he was concerned, the shopkeeper was insulting him, not Xu Qing. After all, among the things Xu Qing was offering for sale were the items Huang Yan had given to him.

    The shopkeeper¡¯s hand snapped up to grab the bone Huang Yan had thrown in his face. His expression was now very grim. Inside, he was thinking scornfully of how Huang Yan had spent eight years working in the Pilot Assistance Division all for the purpose of chasing after a girl. The shopkeeper had the feeling this ¡°Elder Sister¡± was probably just a random country farm girl, yet Huang Yan wouldn¡¯t give up on showering her with expensive gifts. If Huang Yan was just looking for trouble, the shopkeeper had no problem giving it to him.

    ¡°You¡¯re absolutely correct,¡± the shopkeeper said casually. ¡°They are stolen items. Apparently, you were an aplice in the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist. Someone report this to the Violent Crimes Division! The perpetrators of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist have turned themselves in!¡±

    In response, one of the shop clerks dramatically pulled out a transmission jade slip, looked at the shopkeeper, and then slowly sent a message to report the incident. The other customers in the shop, who were all disciples from various mountain peaks, looked on with glittering eyes.

    Disciples who joined Seven Blood Eyes and lived in the environment they did were all clever people. Everyone present could see what was going on here. This matter didn¡¯t really have anything to do with the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist, but rather... the fact that someone from the Sixth Peak wanted to cause trouble for either Xu Qing or Huang Yan. Or both.

    No one in the crowd could tell for sure who was being targeted, but to everyone, it seemed likely that it was Xu Qing, as he was the one who had taken out the ¡®stolen¡¯ goods.

    Not one person said a thing. Everyone just looked on, including Zhang San.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the bystanders. He was most concerned with Huang Yan and his reaction. The two of them didn¡¯t have a very deep rtionship, and because of that, he was a bit suspicious as to why Huang Yan was doing this.

    He was even more suspicious of why the shopkeeper brought up the Violent Crimes Division, and how the clerk made the obviously exaggerated show of sending in a report. Altogether, this didn¡¯t seem like a trap set up by Huang Yan to kill him. After all, if Huang Yan wanted him dead, he could have just attacked him directly. There wouldn¡¯t be a need to drag the Violent Crimes Division into the situation andplicate matters. To the important people in the sect, Offpeak disciples killing each other wasn¡¯t worth causing a hugemotion.

    In fact, this whole thing seemed more like an attempt to pressure him into returning the items he¡¯d stolen from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    Beyond all that, on his approach to the shop, he noticed that there were no intense spirit power fluctuations in the area, which indicated there weren¡¯t any powerful experts in hiding.

    As Xu Qing pondered these things, and the shopkeeper reported the matter to the Violent Crimes Division, Huang Yan got even angrier.

    ¡°Violent Crimes Division? Xu Qing is in the Violent Crimes Division!¡±

    Brow furrowed, the shopkeeper said, ¡°Oh? Well, knowing thew and breaking it anyway is an even worse crime!¡±

    Barking an angryugh, Huang Yan was about to take a step forward when Xu Qing, whose suspicions were getting even deeper, held his arm out in front of Huang Yan and quietly said, ¡°This has nothing to do with you, Huang Yan. You should leave.¡± Examining the shopkeeper¡¯s throat, he continued, ¡°These things are battle trophies I took from criminals I killed, so stop ndering me. If there¡¯s something you want to say, say it.¡±

    The shopkeeper¡¯s guard immediately went up. Xu Qing¡¯s reaction made it obvious he wasn¡¯t an average person. Truth be told, considering the situation had beenmunicated to the shopkeeper from the Sixth Peak, he could have simply demanded that Xu Qing return the stolen items. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity to make a small fortune, and had thus hatched a n to nder Xu Qing.

    However, Xu Qing had seen through his n, which was very telling. What was more, people who could earn a good reputation in the Violent Crimes Division were generallyplicated people.

    As a shopkeeper, this man had powerful backers. He wasn¡¯t like the ordinary disciples, stuck like venomous bugs in a jar. Generally speaking, Offpeak disciples would go out of their way to avoid causing problems for him. However, the chill he felt on his throat made him change his strategy. Not wanting to cause furtherplications between himself and Xu Qing, and figuring he¡¯d put on enough pressure already, he decided to simply exin the situation, including the demands of his superiors on the Sixth Peak.

    Except, right at that moment, Huang Yan shouted, ¡°You don¡¯t need to help me out, Xu Qing! This matter has nothing to do with you. They¡¯re obviously targeting me. I know what¡¯s going on here. This is the work of Zhao Zhongheng. He has a grudge against me and knew I would end uping here, so he hired you to smear my name!¡±

    The shopkeeper looked at Huang Yan with an odd expression on his face. Xu Qing was also looking at Huang Yan, his eyes narrowed. Xu Qing just wanted to resolve whatever the issue was, but Huang Yan had apparently decided that this whole thing was about himself.

    Smacking the counter loudly, Huang Yan was about to keep yelling when the sound of footsteps drifted in from outside, along with a cold, sinister voice.

    ¡°Who would dare to perpetrate a crime like this?¡±

    Along with the words, a group of people entered the shop.

    When Xu Qing looked over his shoulder at the new arrivals, his eyes narrowed even further. They all wore gray daoist robes with Violent Crimes Division badges prominently disyed on them. In the lead position was the captain of Unit Three, the very same young merman Xu Qing had been shadowing for the past half a month. He had four Unit Three disciples with him.

    Looking at Xu Qing coolly, he said, ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t you.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, but the vignce in his heart grew to an even more intense level. The Violent Crimes Division had arrived very quickly. What was more, the person to arrive was the very same young merman he¡¯d had issues with in the past. Something seemed suspicious about the situation.

    Things only seemed to be getting more and moreplicated. There were three main issues. The first was the shopkeeper trying to pressure him intopensating the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. That said, it was obvious that the situation would be easy to resolve. The second issue was Huang Yan taking the me for everything, for unknown reasons. The third issue was the young merman showing up, which hardly seemed to be coincidental.

    Without understanding the details of exactly what was going on, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to take action.

    Meanwhile, the young merman nced around the shop, and the people in it, with a look of scorn. The truth was that he had never wanted to join Seven Blood Eyes. The Merfolkmunity wasn¡¯trge, but even still, he had a very high status in it, and as a result, had be an arrogant person. What was more, he looked down on humans. When the report came into the Violent Crimes Division, the case had originally been assigned to the Celestial Bureau. However, because it involved a person in that bureau, the case was then transferred to the Earth Bureau. And when the young merman found out Xu Qing was involved, he remembered their sh during the big operation, and personally took over.

    Pointing at Xu Qing and Huang Yan, he said, ¡°We have the criminal behind the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist right here, along with his stolen goods. And someone from our very own Violent Crimes Division is in on the whole thing. Arrest them both and take them back for interrogation!¡±

    Huang Yan, seeing that the Violent Crimes Division was turning a blind eye to the truth, got even angrier. Stepping between Xu Qing and the young merman, he shouted, ¡°Are you blind, you idiot? You think my stuff was stolen?¡±

    Taking out his bag of holding, he turned it upside down in front of the eyes of everyone present. Instantly, hundreds of crafting ingredients and building materials started pouring out from inside, creating a huge pile. There were all sorts of items from mutant beasts, mostly bones and feathers from the same type of creature.

    The onlookers gasped in surprise. All of these people had been around the block; they knew that this collection had to be worth thousands of spirit stones. Furthermore, the mere fact that Huang Yan had a bag of holding caused all of their eyes to glitter.

    ¡°You think my stuff is stolen? Well what about all this? Did I get all this from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect? This is actually theplete corpse of a windwalker, except for the most precious part, the skull, which I gave to my Elder Sister. Are you trying to tell me I stole a windwalker??¡±

    Even Xu Qing was so surprised to see these items that he gasped softly. He¡¯d known that Huang Yan was rich, but seeing all of these thingse out of his bag of holding came as a shock.

    The shopkeeper was starting to feel a headacheing on. The Violent Crimes Division had shown up much more quickly than he anticipated, throwing a big kink into his n. He looked hesitant. However, once you nock the arrow to the bow, you cannot but shoot it, and therefore, he braced himself and said, ¡°The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s report mentioned a windwalker!¡±

    It seemed like apletely outrageous development, so Xu Qing just stood there observing coldly.

    ¡°Since the skull was also stolen,¡± the young merman said, ¡°and you gave it to your Elder Sister, that means we have another aplice. Take them away for interrogation, and go arrest the female criminal as well.¡±

    The four Unit Three disciples immediately headed toward Xu Qing and Huang Yan. One toward Huang Yan. Three toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re the criminal!¡° Huang Yan shouted, rolling up his sleeves. ¡°Your whole family is full of criminals!¡± Then he stalked toward the disciples.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the three people heading toward him. Before, he¡¯d intended to hold back until he knew exactly what was going on. But since the people from Unit Three were being so aggressive, he lifted his right hand. Instantly, water droplets filled the area, causing an intense pressure to build up. The disciples from Unit Three suddenly looked shocked as they realized they were locked in ce and incapable of moving.

    Although these people had been present during the joint operation with Unit Six against Night Dove, none of them had personally seen Xu Qing in action. They had only heard stories. But now that they were experiencing his strength in person, it caused waves of surprise to fill their hearts.

    ¡°Resisting arrest?¡± the young merman said, smiling to reveal a mouthful of sharp teeth. At the same time, he strode forward, moving so fast it caused a sonic boom in the shop. An instantter, he was in front of Xu Qing, reaching out with his right hand to grab his neck.

    He had long, sharp fingernails, and he moved with such incredible speed that an ordinary person wouldn¡¯t have been able to react. However, in the instant before he arrived, a ck iron skewer appeared right in front of him.

    He was fast, but Xu Qing was faster. And as Xu Qing pulled out the iron skewer, he lifted his right foot and sent his knee flying forward.

    The young merman pulled his right hand back just as Xu Qing¡¯s knee smashed into his own knee.

    A boom rang out, and while Xu Qing rocked in ce, the young merman staggered back five paces, then looked up with a bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting?¡± As he spoke, the ripples of the ninth level of Qi Condensation erupted from him, and behind him appeared a projected image of a vicious merman wielding a ck trident. This wasn¡¯t a projection of energy and blood, but rather, a natural bloodline power he possessed. Again, he moved toward Xu Qing, causing rumbling sounds to fill the shop.

    They smashed into each other again, then again. Seven or eight times in a row, they shed, sending out shockwaves that might have destroyed the shop if it weren¡¯t for the spell formations built into it.

    The surrounding onlookers watched with utter shock.

    ¡°They¡¯re so strong!¡±

    ¡°The captain of Unit Three isn¡¯t human. He¡¯s got a Merfolk bloodline power, and battle prowessparable to a disciple in the great circle of Qi Condensation from a powerful sect. As for Xu Qing... I can¡¯t believe he¡¯s so astonishing!¡±

    ¡°Remember that story going around about the only non-captain who killed a hideout chief during the Night Dove operation? Now that I think about it, that person was Xu Qing!¡±

    Upon hearing the reaction of the crowd, an enigmatic smile appeared on Huang Yan¡¯s face as he huddled in a hiding spot off to the side. Then the smile disappeared, reced by an expression of fury as he yelled, ¡°Great job, Xu Qing! Cut that fish down to size! He should die for trying to frame us! Kill him and we can have fish for dinner!¡± [1]

    More booms rang out as the young merman was again forced backward, blood seeping out of the corners of his mouth. At the same time, the bloodthirsty look in his eyes grew stronger. To him, fresh blood was very exciting. Besides, he had a trump card that he hadn¡¯t yed yet. In fact, he put both of his hands together to start an incantation gesture.

    What he didn¡¯t notice was that he had just stepped on Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression had remained cid the entire time. But now his eyes flickered with killing intent, and he was about to make a move. However, that was when several very powerful auras suddenly locked down the entire area.

    ¡°Wait!¡± the young merman said, a vicious expression on his face. ¡°I can handle this. Just watch.¡±

    However, in that exact moment, an even more terrifying aura suddenly appeared outside the shop. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the other handful of auras that had locked down the area crumbled like dried-up weeds.

    The young merman¡¯s eyes went wide as he looked over his shoulder. Xu Qing also looked in the same direction, his pupils constricting.

    A figure appeared, walking into the shop. At the same time, the cold voice of a woman rang out.

    ¡°Did someone just say I have stolen goods?¡±

    Her voice was like an icy wind that froze everyone in ce. Whether it was the young merman or the Sixth Peak shopkeeper, her single sentence caused everyone to shiver uncontrobly and look at the person who had just entered. She was a young woman, tall and menacing, with bronze skin and long, flowing hair. There was nothing dainty and beautiful about her; rather, she seemed wild and violent. She wore a pale violet daoist robe, and wielded a huge ck sword that was almost two meters long. As she entered the shop, dragging the sword behind her, the tip caused sparks to fly up off the ground, and it left a huge furrow both in the door lintel and the floor.

    Seeing her, everyone inhaled sharply. Someone bowed at the waist, then another, until everyone was bowing and sping hands.

    ¡°Well met, Second Highness!¡±

    ¡°Well met, Second Highness!¡±

    ¡°Well met, Second Highness!¡±

    This young woman was like a senior princess on the Seventh Peak. She had the authority to kill Offpeak disciples at her whim, and could even cripple conve disciples if she wished. She was... the peaklord¡¯s second sessor apprentice.

    At this point, Huang Yan scuttled out of his hiding spot and said, ¡°Elder Sister! You¡¯re finally here!¡±

    1. ¡®Merfolk¡¯ in Chinese is literally ¡®person-fish,¡¯ so any jokes or insults using the word fish make a lot of sense. ?

 Chapter 73: Domineering Second Highness

    Chapter 73: Domineering Second Highness

    The peaklord of the Seventh Peak had three sessor apprentices.

    One of them was forthright, charismatic, and made friends easily. That was, of course, the third highness.

    One of them had a fiery temper and was feared by fellow disciples. That was clearly the second highness. It wasn¡¯t just disciples from the Seventh Peak who could feel her wrath; disciples from other peaks could as well. Everyone knew that she had a violent temper, as well as a bewildering level of strength. Say one wrong thing to her, and she might attack you. Furthermore... over the years, her wrath had been unleashed even on Foundation Establishment cultivators from other peaks. A lot of them.

    Because of her spectacr strength, and the fact that she represented the peaklord, no one could even attempt to reason with her. She was so domineering that her name was known throughout all of Seven Blood Eyes. Even elders hated running into her, much less ordinary disciples. In fact, she wasn¡¯t just famous in the sect. She was even more well-known on the open sea. She had killed too many pirates to count, and there were entire minor species who would tremble upon hearing her name.

    Now that she was here, her incredible might weighed down on everyone present, even Xu Qing. He felt an intense sensation of crisis in his heart, something that reminded him of the spectacr beasts in the forbidden region jungle.

    In fact, she seemed far stronger than Honor Guard Li, to the point where Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior would seem weak in her presence.

    Xu Qing was more on guard than ever and even backed up a few steps out of caution.

    The threatening sensation he felt from Second Highness was simply too intense and terrifying. In fact, he even looked through the door and out onto the street, but didn¡¯t see anyone... apparently, nobody else in the sect cared about what was happening here.

    However... Huang Yan didn¡¯t seem to feel any of the pressure at all, as if he¡¯d nned all of this and things were going exactly as he¡¯d thought they would. He didn¡¯t even try to keep the excitement off his face.

    Groveling over to Second Highness, he said, ¡°Elder Sister, this shopkeeper and that stinking fish said that the things I gave you were stolen from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. Elder Sister, you know that I¡¯m an upright person. I¡¯m sincere, honest, straightforward, genuine, gentle and considerate. You¡¯re the only person I¡¯ve ever loved! If they want to nder me, fine, I can deal with that. But they cannot nder the gifts I give to you! ndering my gifts is the same as ndering the love I¡¯ve shown for you for the past eight years, Elder Sister!¡±

    Standing next to Second Highness, the pudgy Huang Yan looked a bit out of ce. Whether it was how tall she was, or how thick he was, he seemed like a child standing next to an adult.

    In response to his words, everyone in the shop gaped in absolute shock, including Zhang San. To them, this turn of events seemed almost inconceivable.

    The shopkeeper looked a bit dazed as he muttered, ¡°Second Highness... is the Elder Sister you talk about all the time?¡±

    The words sounded awkwarding out of his mouth, yet they revealed how the shopkeeper felt inwardly, as though an endless herd of wild horses was trampling through his mind and heart. Most people were familiar with Huang Yan, who was rtively well-known on the Seventh Peak for being ¡°head-over-heels in love.¡± Everyone had heard the rumors about how he¡¯d been pursuing some Elder Sister for eight years, showering her with so many gifts they could fill up entire shops....

    Because of the details, everyone assumed that there was more to Huang Yan than met the eye, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t have been able to survive for so many years with his wealth intact. However, many looked down on him. After all, most people didn¡¯t think a true man would debase himself so much for a woman.

    Therefore, everyone present, from Zhang San to the shopkeeper to the other disciples, were now seeing Huang Yan in a new light. Most of them looked at him with unprecedented reverence, and others seemed outright jealous.

    Obviously... all of them wished they could have an Elder Sister like this.

    It didn¡¯t matter if it took them eight years, eighteen years, or even twenty-eight years.

    Xu Qing was also shocked. He looked at the smugly content Huang Yan, then at the domineering Second Highness, and he seemed somewhat dazed. Never in his wildest imaginings could he have guessed that the person Huang Yan had pursued for eight years was actually the second highness from the Seventh Peak. Now Xu Qing realized that Huang Yan had been so brash earlier because he missed his Elder Sister. He had intentionally created a scene in the hopes of getting her to show up.

    Upon hearing Huang Yan¡¯s tale of being wronged, Second Highness¡¯s eyebrows shot up and she stalked contemptuously past the young merman, who stood there with his head bowed.

    Huang Yan went with her, keeping his chin stuck up in a good imitation of her contemptuousness.

    Her attitude seemed to irritate the young merman. He trembled as if he were having a hard time controlling himself. However, hisplexion was ashen, and there was fear visible in his eyes.

    Right now, he was thinking about a massacre that took ce in the Merfolk Isles thirty years before. Second Highness had been in the middle of it all, sttered with blood. It took ce during the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition. Because humans were evil to the core, and because the magnificent Merfolk refused to acknowledge subservience, the Seventh Peak chose to have their Grand Tournament in Merfolk territory. The reality was that they used it as a pretense to suppress the Merfolk. It was only after that incident that the Merfolk and the humans became ¡®allies.¡¯

    After that, Seven Blood Eyes had stepped in on numerous asions to save the Merfolk from being exterminated by others. But to many Merfolk, the only reason the humans did that was because they were obligated to. In the end, the alliance with humans was a disgrace to them.

    Despite his chaotic mood, the young merman kept his head bowed, and didn¡¯t dare to look up. However, in his heart, he was raging, and he vowed to make Seven Blood Eyes pay for the humiliation they had heaped on his people.

    Seeing the young merman stand there with head bowed, Second Highness seemed even more contemptuous than before. Walking up to Xu Qing, she looked at him coldly.

    Taking a deep breath, he kept a somber expression on his face as he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, Second Highness.¡±

    ¡°Elder Sister,¡± Huang Yan said, ¡°this is my good friend Xu Qing. He got implicated in this whole thing as well.¡± He went on to proudly show off all the items he had just dumped out of his bag of holding.

    Nodding, Second Highness turned away from Xu Qing and stepped to the counter. Lifting her huge sword, she put it down with a thump.

    The ck sword was so huge and heavy that the sturdy wooden counter creaked and half-copsed. As a result, the sword tip came to point right at the shopkeeper¡¯s belly. As it gleamed coldly, the shopkeeper started to sweat, and his face turned pale.

    Trembling, he said, ¡°Second Highness, I just¡ª¡°

    ¡°You said my things were stolen goods?¡± she asked coolly.

    The shopkeeper started sweating even more, to the point where his back was soaked. His expression was bitter, and in his heart, he was howling in grief. He had originally thought he could make some money out of all this. Then Huang Yan came along and threw everything into chaos. And how could the shopkeeper have ever guessed that Huang Yan was backed by someone as god-like as this? There was no way he would ever dare to provoke the explosive Second Highness. In fact, not even the honor guard who had organized this entire matter would ever dare to trifle with her. After all, Master Seventh doted on her, treating her like the senior princess of the Seventh Peak.

    All the shopkeeper could do was stammer, ¡°It was a m-mis... misunderstanding. Really, j-just a misunderstanding. I misjudged the situation. How could those possibly be stolen goods....?¡±

    Xu Qing saw all of this, and his eyes gleamed. More than ever, he realized that in the world he lived in, strength was the eternal constant. What was more, Second Highness¡¯ words revealed what it truly meant to be domineering.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t misjudge,¡± Second Highness said coldly. ¡°These really are stolen goods. And you know who stole them from the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect? Me. You have a problem with that?¡± She nudged her sword forward, so that it sliced into the shopkeeper¡¯s garment, and touched the skin of his belly.

    He shivered from head to toe, and cold sweat poured down his face. Although he wanted to go along with whatever she said, he wasn¡¯t sure exactly how to respond.

    Continuing, she said, ¡°You can tell whoever you work for that I¡¯m the one responsible for the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect heist. Furthermore, you can tell the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect that they have three days to bring me a satisfactory apology apanied by a gift.¡±

    Her words were an obvious threat. Anyone who heard her understood that if the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s apology and gift weren¡¯t satisfactory, then... soon enough there wouldn¡¯t be anything called the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. After clearly establishing how domineering she was, she looked at the items Xu Qing had been trying to sell.

    ¡°Are you going to buy these?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes... yes I¡¯m going to buy them....¡± the shopkeeper said. Wanting to pant from frustration, but not daring to, he quickly took out 100 spirit stones. Then he noticed Second Highness frowning, and he gritted his teeth and took out an additional hundred. With 200 spirit stones ced neatly off to the side, he looked at Huang Yan and Xu Qing with a pleading smile.

    Ignoring him, Second Highness picked her massive sword up off the counter and turned to leave. As she passed the young merman, she said, ¡°Get the hell out of my way. You stink like rotting fish.¡±

    The young merman trembled visibly, but he also backed up a few paces.

    As she stepped out the door, everyone in the shop sped hands and joined their voices to say, ¡°Respectful farewell, Second Highness!¡±

    Xu Qing did the same, though he looked up with his eyes to observe her leaving.

    After she was gone, Huang Yan nced around at the crowd looking very pleased. Then he pped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°You saw that, right?¡± he said, beaming with delight. ¡°That was my Elder Sister. My goddess. After this, who would ever dare to nder us? That said, you were certainly on your game, you little punk. You didn¡¯t hesitate to stand up for me, and even share responsibility. I¡¯m going to remember this. Let me tell you, I¡¯m the kind of person who repays kindness with kindness. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have anything good on me right now. But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll go back and find a good gift to send youter.¡±

    Before Xu Qing could respond, Huang Yan waved goodbye and rushed after Second Highness. ¡°Elder Sister! Wait for me....¡±

    Xu Qing still felt a bit dazed. After Huang Yan was gone, he looked down at his clothing, then at the dour young merman, whose eyes shed when their gazes met.

    Xu Qing took the 200 spirit stones from the shopkeeper, who didn¡¯t even dare to meet his eyes. Then he left without another nce at the merman. Outside of the shop, he adjusted his clothing and walked off with a dark look in his eyes.

    Meanwhile, back in the shop, the young merman watched Xu Qing leave, his expression unsightly, and his heart full of malice.

    When someone dares to touch me, even if they survive, they don¡¯t stay alive for much longer afterward. Sadly, I rarely get to see them die.

    With a cold harrumph, he flicked his sleeve and left. In his mind, Xu Qing was an ant, and would be dead already if it weren¡¯t for Huang Yan.

    Everyone in Seven Blood Eyes deserves to die. That kid took credit for my hard work, so he deserves to die more than anyone else. And he¡¯ll be dead sooner orter.

 Chapter 74: The Path to the Yellow Springs

    Chapter 74: The Path to the Yellow Springs

    The sun shone hot and bright in the dome of heaven. It was noon, so the sun was right in front of the face of the god above. The dazzling light made it difficult for mortals to even look up.

    The god behind the sun seemed to surpass space and time. It didn¡¯t matter whether it was day or night. It didn¡¯t matter whether one was dreaming or not. It didn¡¯t matter if you talked about the past or the future. That god was always there. H¨¥ witnessed the transformations to the world below. H¨¥ witnessed all life and death. H¨¥ witnessed the brutality and chaos that h¨¥ had brought to the world. Even the burning sunlight seemed more vicious because of that god. It was like the sunlight was more evil, as though it didn¡¯t want the current season to leave quietly, the way it should ording to the way of nature.

    Instead, the sun beat down onto thends below, and filled every corner of the Seven Blood Eyes capital city with devastating heat. Even standing in the shade of a tree, or beneath the eaves of a building, it would seep in. Not even the sea breeze could dispel it. It was like a poison that had seeped deep into the bones and marrow.

    It was like... something on the hem of Xu Qing¡¯s daoist robe.

    Although that hem seemed ordinary, if you looked closely, you would see traces of powder on it. Like the vicious heat that seeped into heaven and earth under the influence of the god¡¯s broken face, that powder sent something deep into Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and blood. It was moving very quickly, and it seemed ravenous.

    From the moment it appeared until it seeped into him, only a few breaths worth of time passed. Xu Qing looked calmly down at the hem of his garment, then headed toward his berth.

    The powder had been ced on his garment by the young merman during their fight. Virtually any other person would probably have been unaware of what happened. After all, the poison was colorless, odorless, and in some respects, didn¡¯t even count as a poison. But Xu Qing was skilled in the dao of medicine, and could already think of seven or eight different types of medicinal items that could behave in this manner. It would take some analysis for him to determine which it was. That said, his shes with the young merman made Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent even more intense than before.

    It¡¯s about time to do some fish-killing.

    Back at his berth, he stepped onto his dharmaboat and activated the defenses, separating himself from the outside world. Everything became quiet.

    He sat down cross-legged, and ripped the hem off his daoist robe. After looking at it closely, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, causing a small fireball to appear in his palm.

    The Seaforming Scripture relied on water. However, it wasmon for magic cultivators to master a number of different techniques, for backup if nothing else. Even the jade slip with the technique description had introductions to other techniques.

    After summoning the fireball, Xu Qing sent it toward the ripped hem of his garment, causing it to catch fire.

    Hissing sounds rang out as it burned, causing a thin smoke to billow up.

    The flickering me illuminated Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as he closely watched the fabric burning. The mes were red, and they burned through the material very quickly, turning the gray fabric into crumbling bits of ash. Within the space of a few breaths of time, it had beenpletely burned up.

    Xu Qing looked at the ash and sniffed the smoke.

    It¡¯s made from the blood of ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. It¡¯s a poison, but at the same time, not a poison.

    The medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had left with Xu Qing talked about ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. They lived in the depths of the sea, and were quite rare. Xu Qing had two of them in his possession, but hadn¡¯t found anyplementary medicinal ingredients, so he hadn¡¯t done anything with them.

    That said, he knew that their blood could be used to create an incredibly effective medicine. But if prepared in a different way, then in ord with the prity of yin and yang, the blood¡¯s aura would be something loathsome to a wide variety of mutant beasts.

    It also has the characteristics of morningstar grass. Xu Qing closed his eyes to think. When he opened them, their ck recesses glittered with iparable coldness.

    Grandmaster Bai¡¯s codex didn¡¯t exin what happened when you mixed those two types of ingredients. However, based on Xu Qing¡¯s understanding of medicinal principles, he knew that adding thetter would amplify the loathsome quality of the mixture. A small amount of that mixture would cause mutant beasts to shy away. But arge amount would attract them with killing intent.

    If you put that mixture onto a person, it would seep into their aura, and invade their flesh and blood. It wasn¡¯t a poison, so it didn¡¯t cause the symptoms of poisoning to appear. In fact, the mixture could be considered nourishing. As a result, it wasn¡¯t something easy to detect. But once it was in the body, getting rid of it wasn¡¯t easy. It was something that could stick around for years.

    Xu Qing had experience with a loathsome substance that would attract mutant beasts. The first time he fought with Squad Thunderbolt in the forbidden region, Savage Ghost had a bottle in his sack that contained something like that. And Savage Ghost¡¯s little bottle was like nothingpared to the substance that had been put on Xu Qing¡¯s daoist robe. In fact, they were as different from each other as heaven and earth. [1]

    Here in the sect, being infected with an aura like this wouldn¡¯t be very dangerous. But out on the open sea.... Xu Qing knew that if he went out to sea with this aura on him, he almost certainly wouldn¡¯te back alive.

    It was an incredibly devious way of killing someone. It left behind no evidence, and was vastly more sinister than the venom of a viper. Furthermore, it would work even if a lot of time passed. Someone other than Xu Qing, without his understanding of the dao of medicine, would probably die without any idea of who had killed them.

    But I wonder if you have what it takes to spot my little poison trap! Xu Qing thought.

    Though the young merman had poisoned him, the truth was that the mantis was stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Xu Qing had also poisoned the young merman!

    Simrly, it was an undetectable poison that served as a mark. The difference was that the merman¡¯s mark would attract the loathing of mutant beasts in the sea, while Xu Qing¡¯s mark was a symbol of death for people who walked on thend.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing collected the ashes of his burned garment, then opened his bag of holding and looked at the medicinal pills he had inside. Then he nced at the surrounding medicine cabs. He wasn¡¯t extremely skilled in dispelling poisons. Besides, the aura he was infected with wasn¡¯t actually a poison, so the powers of regeneration provided by the violet crystal wouldn¡¯t be much help.

    However, what he was good at was dealing with being infected by poisons. Therefore, he took out some poison powders and pills. The pills he consumed in quick session, then he scattered the powders and inhaled deeply.

    A violent tremor passed through him, and beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. However, he remained seated in a cross-legged position, feeling himself burning up from the inside. Meanwhile, the killing intent in his heart fermented, like the calm before a storm.

    The poison inside of him burned at his organs, bones, flesh, and blood. He couldn¡¯t extrude the aura of the ghostlonging horseshoe crab and the morningstar grass. So instead, he would eliminate them with poison, then use his powers of regeneration to regenerate himself. The process took about four hours.

    Around evening time, he slowly opened his eyes, which werepletely bloodshot. The poisons within him had been driven out, and along with them went the aura of the ghostlonging horseshoe crab and the morningstar grass. After inspecting himself, he looked at the sun outside.

    ¡°Soon enough, I¡¯ll be able to have a good night¡¯s sleep,¡± he murmured. Standing, he straightened out his clothing and closed his eyes.

    Eventually, the sun seemed to be moving out of the way for the moon to take its ce. Then evening turned dark, and the moon rose. The stars in the sky were like fireflies in a graveyard, hardly enough to provide much illumination.

    It was a good night for killing.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. Quietly cing his iron skewer in his sleeve and his daggers in his boots, he checked to make sure he had all of his poisons ready. Then he left his dharmaboat and sped off into the night.

    The moonlight shone down coldly as he sped through the city like the wind, his eyes as cold as a lone wolf¡¯s.

    The icy sea breeze hit him, rustling his garment and lifting his hair. However, it couldn¡¯t purge the city of the unique scent of the marker he¡¯d ced on his target.

    Eventually, the sound of the wind in his ears became something like a call to death.

    He was going to be doing some killing tonight.

    1. The event with Savage Ghost happened in chapter 14. ?

 Chapter 75: Fish-Killing!

    Chapter 75: Fish-Killing!

    The night wind was a bloody scythe, gory and humid, an ambassador of death that swept through every corner of the city. In the darkness, that ambassador of death moved relentlessly forward, merging with the shadows, then dispersing, foreboding to the extreme as it sought to bring all to despair.

    Until... its relentless progress into alleys of the city caused it to run into a person standing in the shadows.

    This person wore a gray robe, and seemed like someone that des or needles couldn¡¯t harm. And he emitted a frigid energy that seemed to block off the light of the stars. It was suffocating.

    When the wind hit him, it was like when cold rivers ran into the sea, or when a pack of jackals encountered the king of all wolves. The wind stopped, and everything went quiet. The person in gray looked over his shoulder, and his eyes were as cold as a deep pool of ck water. The windughed. It had found something to believe in. Arade. Hefting its scythe of death, it blew past the figure in gray, stirring his long hair and robe.

    The wind¡¯s stronger than usual tonight. Xu Qing turned to look through the darkness toward a building. To him, the building was like a coffin looming in the night. It was the home of the young merman. Because he wasn¡¯t an ordinary disciple from the Seventh Peak, he didn¡¯t qualify for a dharmaboat, and was forced to rent a ce onshore.

    Xu Qing watched the ce quietly. In the darkness of night, his breathing sounded like a cold, winding stream.

    He was waiting.

    Because of the marker he had ced, he knew for certain that the young merman was here. Furthermore, based on what he had learned from shadowing the merman recently, he would likely be going out alone soon. Maybe even tonight... considering how bad his mood was.

    Therefore, Xu Qing was inclined to simply wait through the night. Time passed. Two hourster, when the moon slipped behind some clouds, the breeze picked up, scraping over the house, which was now cloaked in darkness.

    Because of the coffin-like building, the wind seemed even lonelier, like a hoarse whisper uttered just before death.

    A figure appeared on the outer wall of the building.

    His gray daoist robe couldn¡¯t cover up the smell he exuded, which was like the sea, and his green eyes didn¡¯t do anything to make him seem less sinister. His robes pped in the breeze, making an impressive silhouette in the darkness, but at the same time, it almost seemed like a peeled-offyer of human skin.

    This person was none other than the young merman, who was in an extremely foul mood today because of the humiliation he had suffered earlier.

    Senior princess of Seventh Peak? Who cares about you? One of these days I¡¯m going to brutalize you! I¡¯ll use your body to raise ghostworm maggots! The young merman ground his teeth in fury. His bad mood had caused him toe out a few days earlier than usual. He really felt the need to vent.

    And the way he did that was have his two older cousins make arrangements to bring him, not women, but children. It was a secret he had to keep tightly under wraps: he liked to torture and kill non-Merfolk children. That was what truly made him happy.

    Jumping off the wall, he sped into the night, quickly vanishing. Anyone present who was either watching him or observing him in some other way would lose track of him. It was like he didn¡¯t even exist. However, that didn¡¯t mean that Xu Qing¡¯s mark had gone away.

    Xu Qing looked in the direction the merman had disappeared into, and quietly started moving through the darkness.

    The wind picked up, slicing through the air like a de, and echoing through the silence of the night.

    An hourter, in a remote alley of the city, the air rippled and distorted as the young merman appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. As soon as he appeared, a sensation of danger filled him, and he shot backward.

    He wasn¡¯t fast enough. A thick screen of water appeared behind him, which rapidly spread out to cover the entire alley, blocking all avenues of escape. Then something like a growl echoed from within the water ahead of him.

    There, a whale appeared, the result of a magical technique, bulging out from the water at high speed. It rushed toward the young merman with iparable force and boundless killing intent, its gaping mouth full of sharp teeth.

    The young merman¡¯s eyes glinted sharply.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this funny. Here I am in a foul mood, and you show up to amuse me.¡±

    His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, but before he could finish, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow, which was melded with the darkness, seemed to stretch like ropes, wrapping around his arms and pulling his hands apart, making it impossible to finish the gesture. Then the shadow stretched toward his throat.

    Wherever the shadow touched him, he felt an intense pain, like something corroding his flesh. The young merman¡¯s expression flickered.

    Along with the pain came an intense sensation of deadly crisis, and his breath came in ragged pants as the whale got closer and closer. Just when it seemed the whale would consume him, he howled loudly, and a blue light erupted from within him. The blinding light scattered the gruish shadow and spread out to fill the area. It stabbed into the whale, causing the projection to copse.

    However, the power behind the whale didn¡¯t vanish, and continued to surge like a wave. The young merman trembled and staggered backward, coughing up blood, his expression ferocious. Yet he managed to take advantage of the time bought by the blue light to reach toward his bag of holding. Before he could open it, the shadow once again grabbed his arms, preventing him from moving. Then the shadow started spreading out over him.

    This development caused the young merman¡¯s heart to fill with astonishment. At the same time, a dark glow shot out from the darkness and toward his forehead. Behind that dark glow... was a figure in gray, emerging from the screen of water!

    The dark glow moved with the speed of a ck bolt of lightning. And the young man behind it had ck hair swirling around him, his face expressionless, but his eyes as cold as ice.

    The wind around him was like a scythe, as if the ambassador of death hade with him, grinning within its ck cloak.

    ¡°It¡¯s you!!¡± the young merman blurted as the sensation of deadly crisis within him grew stronger. Then he spat out something silver-colored.

    It shot into the wind, transforming into a massive chakram that rolled toward the iing iron skewer. When the two weapons shed, a huge boom echoed out.

    The massive power behind both attacks caused both the chakram and the skewer to fly off to the side. However, that didn¡¯t stop Xu Qing and the young merman from locking eyes.

    As Xu Qing closed in, the spiked gills on the side of the young merman¡¯s face red, making him look even more vicious than before. At the same time, he spat out a blue pearl.

    ¡°Time to die!¡± he howled. The blue pearl erupted with shocking rays of light which shot toward Xu Qing from all directions.

    This was a life essence divine ability, and the young merman was fully confident that not even someone in the great circle of Qi Condensation could stand up to it. Only a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have a chance. Grinning viciously, he prepared to deal with the gruish shadow that still covered him.

    However, that was when the blue light unleashed a huge boom, and the young merman¡¯s expression flickered with surprise.

    Within the bounds created by that blue light, a massive figure could now be seen, seemingly propping up heaven and earth as it stood there. It was pitch ck, with two horns on its head and spikes covering its body like an evil ghost. In fact, it seemed almost like the king of all evil ghosts. Roaring noiselessly, it extended both of its hands and grabbed the blue light.

    It was... the spectral hobgoblin!

    Beneath that immense spectral hobgoblin was Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless as he closed in on the young merman.

    Xu Qing was covered in wounds from that binding light, but his flesh was already healing. What was more, the killing intent in his eyes had reached an explosive level.

    Neither in his previous sh with the young merman, nor on the asion when he fought the non-human innkeeper, had Xu Qing gone all out like this. He hadn¡¯t used his shadow, he hadn¡¯t summoned the spectral hobgoblin, and he hadn¡¯t revealed his powers of regeneration.

    He would only reveal his true abilities when dealing with someone he was about to kill.

    ¡°Projection of energy and blood? And your cultivation base! This is impossible! Your powers of regeneration, they....¡± The young merman¡¯s face was a mask of utter astonishment. And as the sensation of deadly crisis turned into one ofplete terror, he lost his ability to speak straight.

    He wanted to open his bag of holding and take out amunication jade slip to send a message asking for help. But the shadow wrapping him up almost seemed alive. No matter how he wrenched his hands about, he couldn¡¯t free himself, and couldn¡¯t take out anything from his bag of holding. As for Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t waste any time at all. As he closed in, a dagger glinted in his right hand.

    When the young merman saw the dagger, he let loose a mad howl. Ignoring the shadow wrapping around his neck, as well as how various parts of him were melting, he suddenly twitched.

    In that instant, his legs flipped up and blurred, transforming into a ck fish tail, which he thrust toward Xu Qing with all the force he could muster. At the same time, his natural bloodline ability erupted, causing the illusory merman projection around him to join with him in the powerful tail strike.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained unchanged. Nor did he slow down. Instead, he clenched his left hand into a fist and punched. As he did, the spectral hobgoblin did the same. Flesh was shredded and blood sprayed everywhere as the young merman¡¯s fish tail copsed into several pieces. And as the spectral hobgoblin¡¯s blownded on the huge merman projection, it shattered.

    The ground shook, and a miserable shriek rang out from the young merman¡¯s mouth. However, the surrounding water screen was so thick that the sound remained captured in the alley.

    ¡°I curse you!!¡± the young merman screamed, his eyes crimson. As he did, the shattered and bloody remnants of his fish tail twitched as if alive, then burst into mes, which shot toward Xu Qing at incredible speed.

    It happened fast, but not faster than Xu Qing could react. As the ming flesh and blood surrounded him, he moved with even greater speed, leaving behind nothing but a series of afterimages to be surrounded by the curse attack.

    Then he appeared behind the young merman, and before the shattered fish tail could do anything further, he put his dagger to the young merman¡¯s throat.

    Trembling, and his voice shrill, the young merman shrieked, ¡°Xu Qing, I¡ª¡°

    He never finished speaking. Only those three words left his mouth before...

    Xu Qing shed the cold dagger through his throat. As usual, he wasn¡¯t interested in hearing anyone¡¯s dying words.

    A familiar shing sound echoed about. As blood sprayed, the young merman twitched violently, like a fish on the chopping block whose neck had just been slit. His eyes went wide, and he tried to look over his shoulder, but he failed. He took ast gurgling gasp, then copsed to the ground in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°You got my clothes dirty,¡± Xu Qing said softly. That was the only thing he said during the entire fight.

    ¡°You....¡± Blood poured out of the young merman¡¯s neck, and he twitched again. Then he lost his ability to breathe. His eyes still contained a desire to live. And they also seemed incredulous at what was happening. He still couldn¡¯t believe that someone like himself, chosen by heaven, would die like this.

    Then, he was thoroughly dead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained calm as he took the speed-enhancing talisman treasure off his leg. Then he scooped up the young merman¡¯s bag of holding, which had not been opened the entire fight. Finally, as he turned to leave the alley, his shadow left the young merman¡¯s corpse and returned to his feet.

    At the mouth of the alley, he didn¡¯t stop walking, and didn¡¯t bother to look back at the carnage. He just snapped his fingers.

    The screen of water which had sealed off the alley trembled and then started to move. It grew smaller, converging on the corpse of the young merman. Finally, it made a thump as all of the power of the water screen was focused on the corpse. A boom rang out as the corpse shattered into a mass of gore. The young merman had been killed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing walked off into the distance.

    The screen of water became droplets that cleansed the quiet alley. The blood was washed away, creating puddles that the rising sun shone off of brightly.

    When night ended, and day came, it happened in the blink of an eye. It was simr with humans. It was simr to life and death.

 Chapter 76: Drought Demons can Scorch all Living Things

    Chapter 76: Drought Demons can Scorch all Living Things

    The early morning breeze drifted through the port, causing the boats to sway in the water. A few wisps of wind, not content to just make the boats sway, tried to kick up some waves. However, the waters of the sea were too deep, and if the wind wasn¡¯t careful, it would end up consumed by the waves. In that respect, it would be like a fish that overestimated its strength, and provoked something it shouldn¡¯t have.

    The light of dawn was quieter than the wind, and seemed content to simply illuminate the boats on the water. Eventually, it shone on Xu Qing, who was still on his way back.

    To him, there was no difference between killing people and killing fish. As long as someone looked at him with killing intent, the end result was determined. He wanted to stay alive, and therefore, anyone who threatened his life had crossed the line.

    Some people had it better in life than others. One of the schr teachers back in the slums had once joked about that. He said that in a rich and flourishing world, those in power would fix such problems with a simple bandage. However, in a chaotic world, there was no way to cover up the truth.

    In Xu Qing¡¯s journey of life, he hade to understand that there was one thing in life that was fair. And that was: death wiped away everything. It didn¡¯t matter if someone died alone in an alley, or if they died surrounded by treasure and fine wine. Both were dead.

    Second Highness was right. He did smell like rotten fish.

    Once in his dharmaboat, he washed himself until the noxious odor was gone. Only then did he rx. He was off duty today, so there was no need to go in for roll call. And feeling like there was one less thorn in his side, he was ready to get some good sleep.

    But first, he settled into a cross-legged position and took out a bamboo slip, upon which was carved ¡®young merman.¡¯ He scratched the name out. He looked at the first name on the list, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and his eyes glittered with killing intent.

    ¡°Soon...¡± he murmured. Then he took a look at the bag of holding that the young merman had failed to open. He was curious to see what was inside. After examining it briefly, he sent some spirit power inside. To his surprise, it wasn¡¯t as difficult to open as he¡¯d suspected. After someone died, the branding mark on the bag of holding would vanish.

    After sending his spirit power inside the bag, he saw a few items. He subconsciously gasped softly.

    He was this rich?

    There were only 100 spirit stones. However, there were also 20 spirit notes from the Sixth Peak, each of which was worth 100 spirit stones. That level of wealth got Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounding. After all, he¡¯d never had this much money on hand. Of course, he knew that he would need to wait for some time to pass before he tried to exchange the notes.

    There were some other things in the bag of holding. There were four or five prized treasures, as well as two talisman treasures.

    One of the talismans was yellow, the other was blue.

    Seeing them caused Xu Qing no small amount of shock; the markings on the talismans were about eighty to ny percentplete, indicating they hadn¡¯t been used much.

    After some examination, he concluded that the blue talisman was defensive, while the yellow one could be used offensively.

    If that fish had managed to get into his bag of holding.... Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he contemted how the fight might have turned out. He probably would have been able to kill his opponent in the end, but it would have taken a lot longer, and would have been much more draining.

    My shadow is proving more and more useful. He nced down at his shadow, and thought back to how it had wrapped around the young merman. It had almost seemed like his shadow was alive.

    Was I seeing things?

    Looking at his shadow, he rubbed his chest where the violet crystal was. Eyes glittering, he thought again about how the crystal seemed to help him exercise restraint and control over his shadow.

    Whether or not his shadow was alive, he had the feeling he should do some more tests.

    With that, he sent some of his spirit power into the violet crystal, though it took several tries to do sessfully. Once he did seed, his entire body shone with violet light, which became a force of suppression that weighed down on the shadow. The shadow twisted and distorted while simultaneously growing a bit fainter. Xu Qing looked closely at the shadow and felt satisfied.

    He didn¡¯t want to waste mental energy trying to figure out if his shadow was somehow alive. The worst case scenario would be that the shadow had no way to be alive, and he would waste some spirit power figuring out how to suppress it. After a few more attempts, he went through the process of suppressing the shadow, then moved on to other things.

    Putting the two talisman treasures away, he looked at the remaining items in the bag of holding. There were two things of note. One was a sea chart covered with meticulous notations. It was much more detailed than the sea charts kept by disciples from the Seventh Peak.

    It even noted the location of the Merfolk Isles. After examining it, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that it was far more valuable than either of the talisman treasures. After all, to disciples who needed the sea to further their cultivation, a detailed sea chart would make sea travel much safer, and would make it a lot easier to collect resources. Information was often far more precious than spirit stones.

    Thest item was also far more valuable than the talisman treasures. And that was because... he had seen an item like this before, albeit only once. It was a palm-sized piece of iron that resembled a box, yet wasn¡¯t a box. After looking at its metal surface, Xu Qing took out a simr piece of metal from his bag of holding. He had acquired this from Horsefour in the scavenger basecamp. The man¡¯s partner Fatmountain had coveted that piece of iron so much that he intentionally let Xu Qing attack him. [1]

    Putting the two pieces of iron next to each other, Xu Qing studied them, which was when he realized that they looked exactly the same.

    What¡¯s going on here? Xu Qing felt more curious than ever.

    He had been in many of the shops in the Port District, but had never seen anything like these pieces of iron for sale. Yet whether it was Fatmountain¡¯s greed to acquire it, or the fact that it was hidden in the young merman¡¯s bag of holding, there was obviously something very unusual about this type of metal.

    I need to figure out a way to get some more information.

    After some thought, Xu Qing put everything away, looked out at the sky, theny down on his wooden cot and closed his eyes. He didn¡¯t rest for long. About four hourster, when it was after noon, he opened his eyes and stretched. He actually felt great. Best of all, he felt a lot more rxed after the previous night¡¯s events. And he also sensed that his Sea and Mountain Incantation... was very close to the breakthrough point.

    The seventh level was the great circle for me. So what will happen when I reach the eighth level....? I wonder if I¡¯ll have enough battle prowess to kill Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Actually, he felt like he had spent too much time in the seventh level.

    But during that time, the Sea and Mountain Incantation had been preparing for some sort of transformation, and now he could sense the time hade. Sitting down cross-legged, he activated the spirit convergence formation, fed it a spirit stone, then closed his eyes and started cultivating.

    Time passed. Afternoon faded into evening, and then night fell. As Xu Qing sat there cross-legged, he suddenly shivered, and his flesh and blood became taut. His bones started to creak, and his blood vessels bulged, bing like vicious snakes spreading across his skin. It was a shocking sight, but at the same time, the power of his energy and blood surged with every beat of his heart.

    As the power of energy and blood swirled around him, the spectral hobgoblin appeared, roaring noiselessly to the sky. As it did, its expression twisted and distorted as if some immense force was forcing it to transform!

    When an ordinary person cultivated the Sea and Mountain Incantation to the great circle, the result was an adult spectral hobgoblin. But with Xu Qing, the spectral hobgoblin appeared in the seventh level. He had no idea what would happen after that.

    The truth was that not even the person who invented the Sea and Mountain Incantation could ever have guessed that someone like Xu Qing woulde along and reach the great circle early.

    After all, the Sea and Mountain Incantation was a low-level technique that was usually cultivated while simultaneously having to deal with mutagen. Never before had someone done what Xu Qing had done, in other words, cultivate it whilepletely free of mutagen.

    As time passed, the veins on Xu Qing bulged out even more, until it looked like his skin was covered with countless cracks. Blood started oozing out all over him, and his energy and blood seemed like they might make him explode. It was like Xu Qing¡¯s body was a y pot, and his energy and blood were trying to explode out from inside.

    However, that was when a violet light spilled out from his chest, covering him, repairing all the damage. His physical form became more refined, while at the same time, intense pain filled him. His bones cracked. His flesh and blood shattered. It was like he couldn¡¯t keep control of his physical body. However, the light of the violet crystal repaired everything.

    It became a cycle, over and over again. His energy and blood grew stronger, to the point where the dharmaboat¡¯s spell formation couldn¡¯t contain the fluctuations. From a distance, it looked like his boat was bathed in a blood-colored glow.

    As the power flowed out, it attracted the attention of other disciples in Harbor 79. As they looked over in astonishment, Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they were crimson. A massive rumbling sound echoed out, filled with the resonance of a single character. It filled his mind with heaven-rending, earth-crushing booms, and caused him to shake from head to toe. Meanwhile, the spectral hobgoblin¡¯s noiseless howl grew more intense as it began to split apart and... reveal a new body!

    It waspletely green, and seemed to burst with berserk madness. There was also something very gruish about it; its cracked and wizened skin resembled the ground during a deep drought. Its hair was long and messy as it hung over its shoulders, and its eyes were crimson. It had vicious fangs, as well as a long, ck horn that crackled with lightning. As it howled noiselessly to the sky, it seemed ready to rip apart the dome of heaven. What was more, it seemed to be surrounded, not with water vapor, but with ck mes that scorched everything around it. Strictly speaking, they weren¡¯t mes, but rather, a natural result of all the water vapor in the area being sucked up.

    ¡°Drought demon!¡± Xu Qing murmured. That was the specific character that had filled his mind. It was also the next iteration of the energy and blood projection of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. [2]

    It was even stronger than the hobgoblin!

    Goblins can move mountains, hobgoblins can transport seas, and drought demons can scorch all living things!

    The moment Xu Qing opened his mouth to mutter ¡®drought demon,¡¯ a power more vigorous than anything before erupted from within him. Xu Qing shot to his feet, bursting with fleshly body power that broke through all previous shackles. He was now in a higher level of Qi Condensation!

    His dharmaboat defenses couldn¡¯t withstand the force and shattered, and even the boat itself sustained some damage.

    Meanwhile, the disciples in Harbor 79 looked on with wide eyes and hearts filled with shock.

    Not even Xu Qing could have guessed that his Sea and Mountain Incantation breakthrough would cause such amotion. Furthermore... he could tell, because of the explosive results from the Sea and Mountain Incantation, his Seaforming Scripture was now stirring on the verge of a breakthrough.

    As Xu Qing stood there silently, the surrounding disciples sped hands and called out respectfully to him.

    ¡°Congrattions, Elder Brother Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°Congrattions, Elder Brother!¡±

    They showed respect to strength. That was also why they called him Elder Brother.

    They could easily imagine the incredible strength required to cause amotion this way during cultivation, and also shatter the defenses of a ss six dharmaboat. What was more, the pressure emanating off of Xu Qing caused all of them to tremble violently.

    This was... the pressure of a truly powerful expert!

    1. Xu Qing acquired the first piece of iron in chapter 10. ?

    2. In Chinese, this upgrade is only one Chinese character, as opposed to the two words it takes to convey in English. ?

 Chapter 77: Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale

    Chapter 77: Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale

    Moonlight shone onto the surface of the water and the damaged dharmaboat. Xu Qing stood there, somewhat in a daze as he listened to the surrounding disciples offer their congrattions.

    Although he had gone into this Sea and Mountain Incantation breakthrough intentionally, the process had been dangerous, and his heart was still pounding as a result. He thought back to how his body had copsed over and over again. Reliving the feeling, he couldn¡¯t help but inhale deeply. If he hadn¡¯t been able to rely on the violet crystal to recover, then the spectral drought demon would never have appeared, and he would be dead. Of course, the boost that came from surviving that ordeal was quite spectacr.

    That was especially true of the now-vanishing spectral drought demon, whose terrifying strength had Xu Qing full of anticipation.

    After a moment, he walked out onto the main deck, where the moonlight illuminated his ck hair and gray robe. He stood tall and straight, his facial features cold but delicately attractive. He had the unusual air of a breakthrough still on him.

    Looking around calmly at all the nearby disciples, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Many thanks, fellow disciples.¡±

    The disciples returned the bow. They could detect the cultivation fluctuations that continued to roll off Xu Qing, and from that, they could deduce that his nighttime session of cultivation wasn¡¯t going to end with this breakthrough. Feeling even more shocked than before, they went back into their dharmaboats, not wanting to disturb him any further.

    It would have beenpletely inconceivable for something to happen like this a few months ago when Xu Qing first arrived at Seven Blood Eyes. But now it was a reality.

    Xu Qing retracted his gaze and stepped back into the cabin. Sitting down cross-legged, he looked at the spirit convergence formation, and the spirit stone there, which was full of cracks and almost fully drained. He also looked around at the damage to his boat. He frowned.

    He knew that his boat¡¯s defenses had been destroyed by the sudden shockwave. The spirit stone had simrly suffered.

    I wonder if the next Sea and Mountain Incantation breakthrough will be like this one....

    He still felt a bit nervous, but more than that, disappointed. After all... it was going to be expensive to fix his dharmaboat. However, after thinking about what he¡¯d acquired after killing the young merman, he felt a bit better.

    That said, now wasn¡¯t the time to be calcting money matters. Stowing his anxiety regarding the Sea and Mountain Incantation breakthrough, he focused on his Seaforming Scripture, which was currently roiling on the verge of its own breakthrough.

    Taking a deep breath, he reced the depleted spirit stone in the formation, then reactivated the boat¡¯s defenses.

    Then he looked at the moonlight streaming down to hit the boat itself, and after mulling the matter over, he added a second spirit stone. Then he performed an incantation gesture, and the dharmaboat rumbled as the power of the two stones added further strength to the defenses. A momentter, even the moonlight waspletely blocked out.

    Having aplished that, he closed his eyes and sensed the power flowing through him, which was many times greater than before.

    Previously, he had already been as strong as the great circle of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. Now that he had burst through the previous shackles, his fleshly body power had reached an even higher level.

    It was so intense that Xu Qing knew he wouldn¡¯t even need to utilize the Seaforming Scripture to strike fear into the heart of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. He could do that with a single punch from the Sea and Mountain Incantation. It made sense considering that he was the first person, whether in ancient times or modern, to cultivate the Sea and Mountain Incantation to this level.

    In the past, the hobgoblin was the limit. But now the spectral hobgoblin had experienced an unheard-of transformation into a drought demon. Xu Qing could still sense that arid dryness and mad desire to scorch all living things.

    What was more, the spectral drought demon could be considered a newborn while in the eighth level. Xu Qing could hardly imagine what it would be like in the ninth level. And when he reached the tenth level, which was the true great circle, he had to wonder... would the drought demon transform again?

    At this point, there was no one who could give him guidance regarding the Sea and Mountain Incantation. Not even its creator had aplished what Xu Qing had.

    After pondering the situation for a bit, he started working with the Seaforming Scripture.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Two hourster, a wind kicked up in Harbor 79....

    As it passed over the water, it converged on Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, where it created a vortex, like a ck hole that caused all the spirit power in the area to rumble toward it. As the wind blew, the boats in the harbor swayed up and down. All of the Seventh Peak disciples there looked back to the spot they had been focused on before, as if they all wanted to witness Xu Qing¡¯s rise to prominence.

    Majestic streams of spirit power struggled to outdo each other as they rushed toward Xu Qing¡¯s boat, where they poured into him and converged in his spirit sea.

    Every time the Seaforming Scripture powered up, that sea grew by 30 meters. Although that growth included both its surface area and depth, looking at it from above, it was like watching a small circle grow into arger circle. As Xu Qing neared the breakthrough point, the aura of the Forbidden Sea entered him with the spirit power, causing rumbling and cracking sounds to fill him. At the same time, his spirit sea expanded.

    As it broke past the previous limit, it reached an extent of 240 meters.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. As the spirit power continued to course madly through him, the sea expanded further.

    246. 249. 252.

    It continued all the way to 261. Only then did the spirit sea seem full. Xu Qing opened his eyes, and violet light glittered brightly. At the same time, something about him seemed beyond that which was mortal.

    ¡°Dragonwhale,¡± he murmured, waving his right hand. Something like the howl of a dragon erupted from within him, while at the same time, a head burrowed out from his chest that resembled both a dragon and a whale. It was pitch ck and emanated a shocking and ghastly aura.

    It howled as it emerged from Xu Qing, growingrger andrger, smashing through the dharmaboat defenses to rise overhead.

    It was fully 240 meters in length and had numerous swaying tentacles that emanated a blue fluorescence. As it appeared, the rumbling sounds caused waves to roll across the surface of the water; if this dragonwhale crashed down, it would surely unleash force that would cause mountains to shake.

    The disciples in the surrounding dharmaboats were shocked.

    ¡°Forbidden Sea dragonwhale!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the characteristic magic from the eighth level of the Seaforming Scripture! But not everybody can form a dragonwhale in the eighth level. You have to have an exceptional level of mastery to pull it off!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing unleashed a shocking disy of fleshly body power earlier. Now that his magical techniques have reached the eighth level....¡±

    ¡°This battle prowess....¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing sat cross-legged in his dharmaboat, looking up at the dragonwhale undting above. His eyes shone brightly; he had been looking forward to this day.

    The Seaforming Scripture description mentioned that when reaching the eighth level and forming a spirit sea of 240 meters, it was possible to form a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale. It was the result of a magical technique, and would exist permanently within him. The whale would swim in the sea, apanying a Seventh Peak disciple and their dharmaboats as they traveled about. In other words, they could provide major assistance to the disciples when they went out to the open sea.

    However, forming the dragonwhale required a high level of control, so not all disciples could seed when reaching the eighth level.

    I finally reached this level. Then he exercised a thought, and the dragonwhale roared as it shot down into the water in a huge ssh. Afterward, it was nowhere to be seen. However, when Xu Qing sent his thoughts out, the dragonwhale would form again in the water. The Forbidden Sea dragonwhale was... a watershed point for Seventh Peak disciples!

    If I ran into Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior out on the open sea, I¡¯d probably be able to cut him down!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    If I wasn¡¯t on the open sea, though, I would have to pay a huge price just to seriously injure him. I need to go out to sea. I need to improve my cultivation base, get more resources, then return... and figure out a way to ughter Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior!

    At daybreak I¡¯m going to go upgrade my dharmaboat. And hopefully, I¡¯ll be able to go out to sea tomorrow. Worst-case scenario, I¡¯ll aim for the day after!

    Xu Qing could also tell that along with his double breakthrough in both fleshly body and cultivation base, he had a more subtle level of control over his shadow.

    That made him even more confident than before.

    Meanwhile, all of the disciples in the harbor around him had heard the roar of the dragonwhale. It was a unique sound that most people wouldn¡¯t recognize. But disciples of the Seventh Peak knew exactly what it was¡­.

    ***

    In the Coastguard Division in Harbor 32, a huge battleship was leaving the port. Coastguard battleships were unique, and very different from the disciples¡¯ dharmaboats.

    A young man in a gray robe stood on the deck of the battleship, pulsing with powerful fluctuations. He had blue hair and golden eyes, and as he gazed off into the distance, he murmured, ¡°So, another person reached the eighth level. And they formed a dragonwhale. Whoever this is, they¡¯re not an ordinary person.... Very interesting.¡±

    ¡°Do you want me to make some inquiries to find out more information?¡± asked one of the seven or eight Coastguard Division disciples behind him.

    Unexpectedly, one of those disciples was Zhou Qingpeng, who stood there looking cautious and somewhat timid.

    As he had mentioned during the reunion dinner, he had received a rmendation to work with a chosen disciple in the Coastguard Division. It was the young man with blue hair, who was generally known as the number one Qi Condensation disciple in the Seventh Peak. Even some conve disciples would call him ¡®Fellow Daoist.¡¯ He was Ding Xiaohai.

    ¡°Wait until we get back,¡± Ding Xiaohai said coolly. Then he looked away.

    ***

    Around the same time, the Captain reclinedfortably in his chair in the Violent Crimes Division, munching on a rather rare star-shaped fruit. He also noticed what was happening, and it caused him to look in the direction of Harbor 79. He smiled.

    So, he was in such a good mood he broke through? What a straightforward kid.... I like him, but he¡¯s still a bit too weak. I really can¡¯t have someone so weak in my unit. Maybe I should find a few people for him to kill?

    The Captain put down the fruit and started to think deeply about the issue. He really was a freak, just like Zhang San said.

    ***

    That night, quite a few people from the Seventh Peak noticed Xu Qing¡¯s dragonwhale. It led to a variety of reactions. Some people felt anticipation, others admiration, and others, envy. There were also some people in the Port District who felt fury and grief. And those were... the Merfolk cultivators.

    Several people had gathered in the shadowy alley where the young merman had died. In front of the group were two figures, one short and one tall. They were sisters, and they were the older cousins of the young merman, as well as the lovers of Third Highness. The oldest sister seemed calm, but the younger one stood there trembling, her gills red and her eyes burning with killing intent.

    Off to the side was an old merman, who seemed to wallow in pain and bitterness as he said, ¡°This is where His Highness¡¯s aura vanished. However, this area has clearly been cleaned up. There aren¡¯t any clues to determine what happened. Given His Highness¡¯s strength and status, I¡¯d say he probably isn¡¯t dead, just missing. Although, surely his life slip¡ª¡°

    ¡°His Highness¡¯s life slip shattered,¡± said the younger of the two sisters through gritted teeth.

    The old merman¡¯s face went pale. As a dharma protector, he knew that he should face consequences for a mistake like this. However, he had only been following orders. He had been strictly prohibited from following His Highness earlier that night. Of course, he had an idea about the young merman¡¯s secret hobby. That said, he could never have guessed that something like this would happen....

    ¡°Could it be the work of Seven Blood Eyes leadership?¡± the old merman asked hesitantly.

    ¡°If Seven Blood Eyes leadership wanted to kill someone, would they need to cover it up?¡± the older of the two young mermaids said, her voice cold. ¡°Furthermore, His Highness¡¯s bag of holding had a wish box in it. That item is very important, and we can¡¯t let it fall into the hands of a random person.¡±

    ¡°Sister,¡± the younger mermaid said angrily, ¡°His Highness perished! We need to be thinking about revenge! Why are you so focused on the wish box??¡±

    ¡°You know full well how important a wish box is. It¡¯s a gift that represents an entire epoch!¡±

    ¡°All I know is that His Highness perished, and we need to track down the killer!¡±

    The two sisters red at each other for a long moment. Then the older sister said, ¡°You want revenge. I want the wish box. We can do both. As a member of the imperial n, His Highness¡¯s blood can be tracked. If the killer is nearby, we should be able to sense it. First, we need to identify all the people His Highness had conflicts with recently. That includes the family members of anyone he tortured and killed. We need to investigate all of them. I want to know who had the guts to kill the crown prince of our people!¡±

    Off to the side, the younger sister ground her teeth, her eyes shining with madness. ¡°After we find him, I¡¯m going to torment him! I¡¯ll make him and his family beg for death. They¡¯ll howl in pain and grief! Then I¡¯ll force their souls into the bodies of shrimps, and eat them!¡±

 Chapter 78: Zhang San Makes an Investment

    Chapter 78: Zhang San Makes an Investment

    To most people in Seven Blood Eyes, that night was no different than usual. But to others, it was a very different night. Among those others, the reactions included...

    ... sighing on a dharmaboat, envious of extraordinary people.

    ... stewing in fury and rage, vowing to chop enemies into mincemeat.

    ... leaning back casually in a chair, a mountain of fruit seeds piling up off to the side.

    ... sitting bitterly in an inn, feeling iparably flustered and anxious.

    In some cases, the way to decide if a person was limating to a new situation wasn¡¯t to look at their demeanor or bearing. Instead, you looked at how people reacted to them.

    Those who were envious were the disciples in Harbor 79. Those who were furious were the Merfolk cultivators. The one with the pile of fruit seeds was the Captain. And the one who was flustered and anxious was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Regardless, as the light of dawn spread out over thends, it obscured the various reactions. It was like the poem that spoke of the dragon-fish dancing through the night. The next day, that energetic, sleepless night resulted in exhaustion. [1]

    As shafts of sunlight poked through the damaged exterior of the dharmaboat andnded on Xu Qing, he opened his eyes. The sunlight revealed the sparkle in his eyes which, like the rising sun, held endless optimism for the future.

    I wonder if sunrise on the open ocean will feel like this.

    Thinking about such things, he got to his feet. He had a lot to do today.

    First he went to the Violent Crimes Division to request time off to go out to sea. It wasn¡¯t aplicated process. Seventh Peak disciples didn¡¯t always stay at port; since their cultivation was linked to the sea, it was only natural for them to leave. After going through the various procedures, he was granted forty days of leave. If he came back early, he was required to report in. If he came backter, he would have to work overtime to make up the difference. After finishing at the Violent Crimes Division, it was still early, so he decided to head to the Sixth Peak shops. After all, it seemed unlikely that what happenedst time would reur.

    However, after arriving, he looked around at the shops and hesitated. As he did, he realized he¡¯d just received a voice message on his identity medallion. It was from the Captain.

    ¡°Xu Qing! Did you forget about something?¡±

    Xu Qing stared at his identity medallion in shock, trying to figure out what the Captain was talking about.

    ¡°Never mind. I¡¯ll just be frank. You owe me 500 spirit stones, Xu Qing. When are you gonna pay me back?¡±

    ring, Xu Qing responded with a single sentence. ¡°It¡¯s 100 spirit stones.¡±

    ¡°Alright, fine, fine. I¡¯m not gonna haggle. 300 spirit stones, okay? Now, when are you gonna pay me back?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Instead, he took out the bamboo slip with the names of his enemies carved onto it. Finding the Captain¡¯s name, he scratched out the question mark after the name.

    ¡°Hey, why aren¡¯t you saying anything? I saw that you requested time off, you brat. Are you going out to sea to avoid paying me back? Ah, whatever. The open sea is dangerous, and you really have to make sure your dharmaboat is upgraded. I want to make sure you don¡¯t end up dead and my 500 spirit stonespletely lost. Therefore, I have to remind you that if you want work done on your dharmaboat, you should go see Zhang San!¡±

    Zhang San? thought Xu Qing. He hesitated.

    The Captain, meanwhile, seemed very excited to talk about Zhang San. In fact, he went on to give more details, exining how Xu Qing should act around Zhang San, what he should say, and other things. Finally, he ended his message.

    Xu Qing stood there for a while thinking. Then, feeling a bit surprised at himself, he went to the Transportation Division. Upon arriving, he found Zhang San squatting atop a pile of cargo, smoking a pipe and looking very rxed. asionally, he would shout some orders to the workers under hismand.

    When he caught sight of Xu Qing, his eyes narrowed slightly, and then they glittered.

    ¡°Yo! Shouldn¡¯t you be at work now, Junior Brother Xu? What are you doing here?¡±

    As Xu Qing neared, he noted how Zhang San was squatting on the pile of merchandise. Without hesitation, he hopped onto the pile. This time, before Xu Qing could worry about maintaining some distance, Zhang San shifted to the side to make sure there was some space between the two of them.

    Xu Qing looked at him for a moment, then squatted down.

    Smiling, Zhang San noted Xu Qing¡¯s handsome features that would drive the opposite sex crazy. After muttering to himself for a moment, he said, ¡°Squatting is prettyfortable, huh?¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Xu Qing said with a nod.

    ¡°So. What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhang, my dharmaboat needs some upgrades.¡±

    Zhang San was stunned. ¡°You need to upgrade your dharmaboat? Who told you to talk to me about that? The Captain?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question. He just took out two apples, one of which he gave to Zhang San.

    Zhang San epted it out of instinct, then suddenly seemed regretful. He offered it back to Xu Qing. Xu Qing didn¡¯t take it.

    Zhang San smiled wryly, muttered a few more times as he rubbed the apple, and then looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him.

    A moment passed, and Zhang Sanughed. ¡°If you promise me one thing, I¡¯ll help you with the upgrades.¡±

    Xu Qing had been paying attention to Zhang San¡¯s wording, and noticed that he didn¡¯t mention helping Xu Qing find someone else to help with the upgrades. He was going to do the work himself. ¡°Say the word, Elder Brother Zhang.¡±

    ¡°From now on, do you mind not staring at my throat? It¡¯s hot today... but it¡¯s giving me the chills.¡± Zhang San blinked a few times as he looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then looked Zhang San in the eyes.

    Zhang San facepalmed and sighed. ¡°Your gaze is really strange. It¡¯s like whatever you look at, you want to hurt. Alright, forget it. It¡¯s not going to be easy for you to change how your eyes work. I¡¯ll help you with your dharmaboat. But I have to tell you up front that I charge a lot....¡± With that, he hopped off the pile of cargo and beckoned to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood, sped hands, and then followed. Zhang San led him to a warehouse behind the Transportation Division. When he opened the warehouse door, Xu Qing saw a whole host of crafting materials glittering brightly.

    Xu Qing was taken aback. The materials were all very high quality, and he even saw seven or eight entire dharmaboats that were in various states of disassembly. Toward the back of the warehouse, there was a half-built Coastguard Division battleship....

    There were also watercraft from various nonhuman groups. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but gasp at the sight. He felt like he was actually in one of the Sixth Peak shops.

    Off to the side, Zhang San looked very pleased with himself.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± he said, sping his hands behind his back. ¡°Let me tell you, when ites to Seventh Peak disciples, I might not be the best fighter and I might not have the best cultivation base. But when ites to working on dharmaboats. Hmmmphh. Most Sixth Peak disciples can¡¯t measure up to me. I have a few dozen warehouses in this area, all filled with my work. Furthermore, no one would dare try to rob me!¡±

    Thinking back to the instructions the Captain had given him, Xu Qing opened his eyes wide and tried to look shocked. Then he asked, ¡°Elder Brother Zhang, are you really a Seventh Peak disciple?¡±

    Zhang San seemed very pleased with Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression. He burst outughing. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what the Captain asked me. Sadly, my innate talents were discovered toote, otherwise I¡¯d already be a conve disciple in the Sixth Peak. Now, bring out your dharmaboat so I can have a look.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with respect as he took out the little bottle with his dharmaboat in it. Zhang San looked it over, and then without a word turned to start working. But then Xu Qing, after hesitating for a moment, thought back to what the Captain had told him and said, ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, I feel like my dharmaboat is actually built fairly well. It has many parts that I¡¯ve upgraded to a very high standard.¡±

    Zhang San stopped in ce, his eyebrows raised to form an inverted °Ë shape. ¡°Fairly well? Very high standard? Are you serious? Forget the materials, the craftsmanship alone is just atrocious. And look at the sides of the boat! Just ncing at the hull on either side you can tell the spirit convergence formation is put in shoddily. That scale was installed wrong, which messes up the boat¡¯s structure and influences the formation. I can tell with a nce that this work was done by some piece of trash disciple from the Sixth Peak.

    ¡°Oh, and look at the prow and stern. This is supposed to be a ss-six dharmaboat, not a ss-one! The emphasis should be on the inner workings, not the appearance! Why make it so eye-catching? It¡¯ll just attract the attention of enemies. Practicality is the most important thing.¡±

    Peering into the bottle, Zhang San said, ¡°Trash. This thing isplete and utter trash. You can¡¯t take this thing out on the open sea. If you do, and you run into a big storm or arge sea monster, then it simply doesn¡¯t have the strength, rigidity, stability, or reliability to keep it watertight.¡±

    Xu Qing felt shaken at how professional Zhang San sounded. Feeling even more respect than before, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    Seeing this, Zhang San felt pleased. He enjoyed it when other disciples showed him reverence and admired his professionalism. That was how the Captain had treated him as well, although in retrospect the end result was him losing a lot of spirit stones....

    Regardless, he had originally intended to just do some minor upgrades. But after Xu Qing mentioned that his boat was built ¡®fairly well,¡¯ it was too much for Zhang San to take.

    Zhang San bore Xu Qing no ill will; everything he said was urate. If an ordinary disciple took Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat out to sea, it wouldn¡¯t be problematic. But Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess virtually guaranteed that he would run into some powerful sea beasts, and go to some dangerous areas. Therefore, a dharmaboat like this wasn¡¯t suitable.

    Looking very pleased with himself, Zhang San proudly said, ¡°I can see that you¡¯ve been focusing on durability, so I¡¯ll help you focus on that. We¡¯ll make sure that when you take this dharmaboat to sea, if you get attacked by any huge beasts, you¡¯ll be fine as long as they aren¡¯t in the Foundation Establishment level. And even if you take damage, the boat won¡¯t copse!¡±

    ¡°Many thanks, Elder Brother,¡± Xu Qing said somberly, and then took out some spirit stones. ¡°I have 200 spirit stones here. I have some more that I set aside to use when I go out to sea. Is this enough...?¡±

    He had the feeling that 200 spirit stones probably wouldn¡¯t cover all the work.

    Zhang San looked at the spirit stones, and then at Xu Qing. Then he thought back to what the Captain had said about Xu Qing, and what he¡¯d witnessed that day in the Sixth Peak shop. He recalled the cry of the dragonwhale the previous night, and the spirit power fluctuations. And considering how happily he¡¯d criticized Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, he swallowed any bitterness he felt and put on a smile. [2]

    ¡°That¡¯s enough. You have some great future prospects, kid. I invested in the Captain back in the day, and as for you... I¡¯ll consider it another investment. Come pick up the boat tonight.¡± With that, Zhang San got to work.

    Xu Qing looked deeply at Zhang San, gave a solemn expression of thanks, sped hands and bowed deeply, then left.

    After he was gone, Zhang San let loose a long sigh and scowled.

    I screwed up again. Every time I run into these people who are so good at cultivation, I always have to show off my skills. I could just sit around enjoying my work. But now... I have to live up to my own bragging. Wait, hold on. Howe the little punk was acting like the Captain...? That said, the Captain is really stingy. He didn¡¯t give me a single spirit stone. Pretended he was broke. The kid is actually a lot nicer than the Captain.

    In the final analysis, he was doing this for two reasons. The first was that the Captain had rmended keeping an eye on Xu Qing. The second reason... was that he trusted the Captain¡¯s sense of judgment.

    I¡¯m not going to regret making this investment!

    Zhang San had started out obscure and unknown. Now he was still obscure and unknown, although he kept it that way on purpose. He was very wealthy, ran the entire Transportation Division from behind the scenes, and was someone nobody would ever dare to rob. And all of that was because he had once helped the Captain upgrade his dharmaboat.

    ***

    After leaving the Transportation Division, a strange expression appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Finally, he took out his identity medallion and sent a voice message to the Captain.

    ¡°Captain, do you think it worked?¡±

    ¡°Did you do everything I told you to do?¡±

    ¡°Yeah....¡±

    ¡°Hahaha. Perfect. It¡¯s fine. Zhang San is one of us. Plus, he¡¯s rich. But if you think you¡¯re taking advantage of him now, just make sure to help him outter.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded earnestly. Then he took his bamboo slip back out. On one side, he added Zhang San¡¯s name. Then he flipped it to the side with his enemies on it, and added a question mark back to the Captain¡¯s name.

    ***

    Back in the Violent Crimes Division, the Captain was happily eating some strange fruits that couldn¡¯t be purchased in the capital city, and could only be found on one of the nonhuman inds far out at sea. After finishing his message to Xu Qing, he picked up a document rting to aint filed against Zhang San. On a recent mission out at sea, Zhang San had unleashed an incredible level of bloody violence, including plundering some nonhuman trading ships. Theint demanded that Zhang San be severely punished. After reading it, the Captain smiled, then waved his hand, causing the report to crumble into ashes.

    As long as my Offpeak friends don¡¯t betray me, nobody willy a hand on them.

    1. The poem in question is by poet, calligrapher, and military general Xin Qiji, who lived during the Southern Song period. ?

    2. The Captain¡¯s words about Xu Qing were in chapter 56, while the Sixth Peak shop incident was in chapter 71-72. ?

 Chapter 79: A New Person at Sea

    Chapter 79: A New Person at Sea

    By noon, the sun shone brightly.

    As Xu Qing walked the streets, he decided that he would definitely help out Zhang San sometime in the future. He had to pay back this favor with the dharmaboat. Although he wasn¡¯t sure what the dharmaboat would look like after Zhang San was finished, he had the feeling that there was going to be a lot more than 200 spirit stones¡¯ worth of work in it.

    He also needed to properly thank Zhou Qingpeng for the gift of the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs.

    As he thought about such things, he kept his eyes on his surroundings, and the people on the street. Nothing looked any different than it usually did. It seemed that... the death of the young merman hadn¡¯t caused any big waves in the capital city. It was the same in the Violent Crimes Division. In fact, few people seemed aware of what had happened.

    Xu Qing pondered that as he headed in the direction of the Hall of Sea Annals.

    All disciples had to visit the Hall of Sea Annals before going out to sea for the first time. All sorts of precious information was kept therein. It contained years upon years of ounts detailing the strange and wonderful things Seven Blood Eyes disciples had encountered on the open sea. That included countless descriptions of sea beasts. It was a spectacrlyprehensive collection of information. It was prohibited to copy the information and take it out of the Hall of Sea Annals. But by paying a small fee, you could go inside and study the annals to your heart¡¯s content.

    Furthermore, whenever disciples encountered strange matters or new sea beasts, they were asked to report the matter. After the information was verified, a considerable reward would be given. And the rewards were even greater for more precious information. Of course, if a disciple couldn¡¯t provide clear and strong evidence to prove their report was urate, the verification process could take a very long time. Sometimes, hundreds of years could pass. That alone generally prevented people from randomly reporting false information in the hopes of getting a reward. And the unverified information didn¡¯t make it into the Hall of Sea Annals. As a result, any information found in the halls could be considered true and urate. Because of that, Xu Qing knew that everything he learned was important, and could possibly save his life.

    He already knew which general direction he wanted to explore. Thanks to the detailed sea chart from the young merman¡¯s bag of holding, he had his eyes set on one ind in particr. It was located beyond the Westcoral Archipgo, in an area filled with dangerous submerged reefs. Because sealizards often shed their skin in that area, the ce was called Sealizard Ind. Sealizards were both vicious and rare. They usually lived in groups at the bottom of the ocean, and only came to the surface when they shed their skins. Anyone who wanted the skins had to collect them very quickly after they were shed, otherwise they would crumble into nothing. Because of that, they were very valuable. Acquiring such skins was difficult.

    Furthermore, their defensive properties were amazing, which made them a high-quality material. In fact, mid-quality and low-quality materials couldn¡¯t evenpare to them. Xu Qing had seen them for sale in some of the Sixth Peak shops, and knew that the skin of a lizard that was only in the third level of Qi Condensation would fetch a price of at least thirty spirit stones.

    As a sealizard¡¯s cultivation base grew, its skin would be more and more expensive. The skin of a fifth-level lizard would go for 150 spirit stones, while the skin of an eighth level lizard would cost 500-600. It was a shocking level of wealth that ensured Sealizard Ind was constantly visited by vicious bands of non-human cultivators from throughout the Forbidden Sea. In short, it was a dangerous ce. Without a certain level of strength, going there was risking certain death.

    That was exactly where Xu Qing intended to go.

    As he thumbed through the sea annals, time passed by slowly but surely. Before he knew it, evening hade. Aftermitting as much to memory from the sea annals as possible, he left.

    I¡¯m totally ready. I just need my dharmaboat.

    As he looked out at the sea, the sound of the crashing waves reached his ears, and his eyes shone with anticipation.

    The moon was up by the time he got back to the Transportation Division. The workers, tired after the hustle and bustle of the day, were leaving en masse. Walking past them, Xu Qing noticed Zhang San sitting atop a pile of cargo, smoking his pipe. Zhang San¡¯s face was somewhat obscured by the shadowy evening light, but the flickering me of his pipe made it possible to see how exhausted he was. Xu Qing felt a bit apologetic as he prepared to walk over. However, that was when he noticed a familiar face in the crowd of workers who were hustling to get out of his way.

    It was a petite young woman who was none other than Li Zimei. She had joined the sect at the same time as Xu Qing. When she spotted him, she seemed as reserved as ever, but she still smiled.

    In the light of the moon, her smile seemed warm and sincere.

    Xu Qing gave her a smile of encouragement in return, then watched her as she left. Finally, he joined Zhang San.

    ¡°You know her?¡± Zhang San asked curiously.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing said softly. ¡°Her name is Li Zimei. We joined the sect at the same time. She has a very tough character.¡±

    Zhang San nodded. ¡°She¡¯s a good girl. Since the two of you are acquainted, I¡¯ll make sure to look after her.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Xu Qing said solemnly.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Come on, let me show you your dharmaboat.¡± Eyes sparkling, he hopped off the pile of cargo and led Xu Qing toward a warehouse in the back, different from the one they¡¯d been in earlier.

    Upon stepping inside, Xu Qing saw a huge boat that was so impressive he stopped in ce. He¡¯d known all along that his boat would look different. But even still, the sight of it left himpletely stunned.

    The prow, which had previously resembled a crocodile head, was no longer long and narrow. Now, it was a much more snub-nosed beast, with a ck horn thaty mostly hidden in its forehead, but seemed ready to stab out at any moment. The boat had previously seemed shy and mboyant, but now, it seemed reserved, with its brutality kept hidden.

    There were more changes. The boat was no longer 60 meters long and shaped like a willow leaf. Instead, it was actually shorter, but at the same time, wider. It was roughly diamond-shaped, and even resembled a turtle shell to some extent. Each nk on the deck was covered with scales, as well asplex formation markings.

    Both sides of the ship featured two circr legs, four in total for the whole boat. They could expand and retract, which would allow the boat to move onnd. Hidden within the wheels at the end of the legs were numerous sharp spikes.

    There were big changes to the cabin as well. It now consisted of a small, two-story superstructure which would save space while also adding more room for the spell formation. Most eye-catching of all were therge sails that now stuck up from the deck, shaped like heavenly sabers. There were eight total, with four near the prow and four near the stern. All of them were tilted symmetrically at an angle. They resembled wings, but at the same time, looked like sharp des. In the hold of the boat was arge empty area that could hold sea beasts.

    Overall, the dharmaboat now looked like some gigantic, awe-inspiring creature.

    ¡°This...¡± Xu Qing said, reeling a bit at the dramatic changes to his boat.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s reaction, Zhang San¡¯s exhaustion turned into pride.

    ¡°The craftsmanship on your old dharmaboat was sadlycking,¡± Zhang San said coolly. ¡°Therefore, I made some changes. The biggest alterations were to the boat¡¯s keel, hull, internal structure, cabin, prow, stern, and superstructure.

    ¡°Ipletely reced the keel, which will make the boat a lot more stable. With some adjustments to the internal structure, you can reach optimal levels of strength and speed. However, you still have some room to make upgrades in those regards.¡±

    With that, Zhang San leaped up onto the dharmaboat.

    ¡°I injected some devourer marrow into the ck horn at the prow. If you stab a sea beast with that horn, it will absorb its spirit power and then store it in the spell formation.

    ¡°See the four legs? Each leg has 3,600 razor-sharp spikes in it. If you get into a dangerous situation, you can shoot those spikes out and detonate them.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t change the spirit convergence formation, but I did create this magazine here which will let you load up 50 spirit stones at the same time. Also, there¡¯s a small flying boat hidden inside the hull that can move at double your normal top speed. You have to sacrifice the dharmaboat to use it, but it could save your life if you run into a really bad situation and need to escape.¡±

    Zhang San reached up to touch one of the sails. Looking very proud, he continued, ¡°And then we have the sails. I invented this type of sail. Watch.¡±

    He took out a spirit stone, put it into the spell formation, and then stamped his foot. The formation activated, and the eight de-like sails folded up, creating a defensive shell. In that configuration, the boat looked like a huge snapping turtle, ready to either attack or defend itself.

    ¡°When you add in the dharmaboat¡¯s default defense system, this means you have two lines of defense. It makes the boat even more durable. What¡¯s more, you can also use the sails like des to unleash extraordinarily deadly attacks.

    ¡°The groove on the bottom of the boat allows you to establish a firm connection to your dragonwhale. In the right conditions, that will allow you to use your dragonwhale to fly for short periods of time.¡±

    Zhang San jumped off the dharmaboat, stood in front of Xu Qing with his hands sped behind his back and chin up, and said, ¡°And this, Xu Qing, is a true ss-seven dharmaboat. What do you think? Satisfied?¡±

    Xu Qing felt battered by waves of inward shock. Taking a deep breath, he took a few steps back, sped hands, and bowed very deeply.

    ¡°Many thanks, Elder Brother Zhang. This dharmaboat makes me... very, very satisfied!¡±

    ¡°When ites time to upgrade your dharmaboat to a dharmaskiff,¡± Zhang San replied, ¡°then I¡¯ll help you n everything out ording to your power source. A dharmaskiff is a real weapon!¡±

    Overall, Zhang San was very pleased with Xu Qing¡¯s attitude. However, his exhaustion was getting the best of him, and he couldn¡¯t hold back from yawning.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing said his goodbyes. After cing some more spirit stones off to the side, he packed up his dharmaboat and left the Transportation Division.

    After he was gone, Zhang San let loose a dejected sigh. I lost so much money on this deal, I can hardly take it. I can¡¯t believe I did such a good job.... I¡¯m gonna go broke. This brat had better do really well in the future....

    Swallowing his grief, he took the spirit stones and left the warehouse. Along the way, he recalled the disciple that had joined the sect along with Xu Qing. Taking out his identity medallion, he sent out some voice messages to make sure she was taken care of.

    If I¡¯m going to make an investment, I might as well go all in. There¡¯s no other option.

    As Zhang San continued to sigh, Xu Qing returned to Harbor 79. Back at his berth, he produced his dharmaboat, which crashed down onto the water. Taking a look at the huge boat, he stepped aboard and started inspecting everything up close.

    That night, Xu Qing looked at all of the work Zhang San had done, and he felt more admiration than ever. Finally, as the night came to an end, he stood on the deck and watched the sunrise.

    Then, he performed a right-handed incantation gesture.

    Time to go out to sea!

    The water seethed as his ss-seven dharmaboat exited its berth. Then, as numerous other disciples watched him from their dharmaboats, he turned the prow toward the sluice gate of the harbor.

    His boat was like a caged beast that was finally being freed. As he stood on the deck, his long hair streamed behind him in the ocean breeze, glittering in the morning sun, his gray daoist robe fluttering.

 Chapter 80: Bronze Dragon Chariot

    Chapter 80: Bronze Dragon Chariot

    The sun shone brilliantly over the untamed Forbidden Sea, causing the raging waves to howl to the heavens. The crashing waves caused the ck water to froth up and ssh on the defensive shield around Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat. As he stood at the prow looking out at the sea, his hand shed in an incantation gesture, causing spirit power fluctuations to roll out and dispel the mutagen brought by the sshing water.

    Simr to the broken face of the god above, the Forbidden Sea that surrounded South Phoenix forever caused humans to feel awe and reverence. It wasn¡¯t just because the sea was wide and deep, but also because, in the hearts of humans, it was eternally mysterious. It was that sense of mystery that filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart as he gazed at the distant horizon where the sky and the Forbidden Sea touched each other.

    Compared to the vast sea, the boats and shipsing in and out of Seven Blood Eyes seemed like tiny feathers drifting about on the water. The people on the dharmaboats were the same.

    Xu Qing looked at the boundlessness and felt minuscule.

    The sea annals mention that when disciples go to sea for the first time, they feel tiny. It¡¯s a normal reaction. At the same time, it makes you want to go out and conquer the world.

    As Xu Qing looked out at the ck water, he realized that this wasn¡¯t just his first time going out to sea. It was also his first time seeing the sea from the sea. That said, he didn¡¯t feel the urge to conquer the world. He had no grand ideals or lofty aspirations. He just wanted to stay alive in the chaotic world. And if he could improve his life a bit, that would be even better.

    And thus, it was with full vignce that Xu Qing sat down cross-legged for cultivation, while simultaneously keeping an eye on everything around him.

    Time passed with nothing but the crash of the waves. However, at around noontime, amotion from behind him caught his attention.

    Eyes shing, he looked over his shoulder.

    Coming from the direction of the Seven Blood Eyes port were seven or eight dharmaboats, and the people aboard them were making quite a bit of noise.

    Other than the dharmaboat in the lead position, most seemed to be ss-five or -six.

    As for the lead boat, the spirit power fluctuationsing off of it indicated it was probably ss-eight or -nine. It looked amazing, being gold in color, with golden feathers all over it that glittered in the sun. It was especially ostentatious in contrast to the ck water of the Forbidden Sea. In fact, it seemed like a chicken spreading its tail in the hopes of looking like a peacock. Altogether, it was vulgar and inelegant.

    The prow was crafted to look like a phoenix, so it should have looked elegant and graceful. But with all the gold and other embellishments, the phoenix seemed to have lost its soul, and was worried that other people might not notice it.

    Upon seeing it, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he took out a dagger.

    The capital city of Seven Blood Eyes was a dangerous and brutal ce, but at least there were rules there. For instance, Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn¡¯t cause problems for Qi Condensation cultivators. But Xu Qing knew there was only one rule on the open sea, and that was... the weak were the prey of the strong.

    It didn¡¯t matter if you were dealing with humans or non-humans. It didn¡¯t matter if you were dealing with fellow members of the sect, or dangerous beings native to the Forbidden Sea. If you ran into an enemy in the Foundation Establishment level, you could die in an instant.

    Out here, anyone could be an enemy.

    As the ostentatious dharmaboat neared, Xu Qing heard a voice from the deck that he detested, carried to him by the sea breeze.

    ¡°Elder Sister, a lot of people are curious about how many spirit stones I spent on The Phoenix. Honestly, I don¡¯t want to go into that, since most people just get depressed when they hear the details. As I¡¯m sure you know, to people like us, spirit stones are a constant source of frustration.

    ¡°Truth be told, I don¡¯t think much about spirit stones. When the sect was establishing the rankings of the dharmaboats, they asked my opinion about it. They really wanted my boat to rank seventeenth. Anyway, I don¡¯t really care about that sort of thing.

    ¡°In my opinion, it doesn¡¯t matter how many spirit stones I spend on The Phoenix. All I care about is that the boat can further my dream. And what is my dream, you might ask? It¡¯s to be like a phoenix and soar through the dome of heaven.

    ¡°Elder Sister, I also hope to have apanion to soar by my side, to see the beautiful scenery with me, and to share my troubles with.¡±

    The voice carried to Xu Qing by the breeze was none other than the person the Captain had described as an idiot, Zhao Zhongheng. He stood on the deck of his golden dharmaboat named The Phoenix, and next to him was a young woman wearing a pale violet daoist robe. She was in her twenties, charming and slim, her garment making her seem like a beautiful violet flower. As Zhao Zhongheng spoke, her brow was slightly furrowed as if from irritation. As the sea breeze caused her violet gown to sway, she noticed Xu Qing on his dharmaboat in the distance.

    As the sun shone down, a whale breached the water between Xu Qing and the young woman, soaring high up into the air.

    The whale¡¯s cry was like something from the ancient past, like a flute echoing out to make everything still and empty. Then the whale crashed down, sending water spraying up and cutting off Xu Qing and the young woman.

    As for the young woman, the sun shining into her eyes made it impossible for her to see Xu Qing¡¯s face clearly. However, there was something about him that she knew she wouldn¡¯t forget.

    A momentter, the dharmaboat convoy she was part of disappeared into the distance.

    Xu Qing watched them go. After confirming that they really had just been passing by, he put his dagger away and continued with his cultivation.

    Time passed. As he worked on his cultivation, his dharmaboat continued deeper into the Forbidden Sea. Slowly but surely, the ghastly and gruish nature of the sea became more apparent to him. He saw a school of zombiefish, whose power of will remained after death, like a ck polluted shadow that stretched toward his dharmaboat. He saw the terrifying shadow of a giantfang shark, iparably vicious as it tore its prey to shreds. [1]

    There were some areas in which he sensed immense might emanating from the sea floor. He usually tried to go around those areas, and when he couldn¡¯t go around them, he kept his guard up. Based on his study of the sea annals, he knew that none of these things were unusual. But he still felt the need to stay fully vignt.

    The mutagen in the Forbidden Sea was very strong, almost as if the sea itself were made from it. Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow grew even more pitch ck, as if it were made from ink. And then, suddenly, it seemed as if it wanted to move of its own ord.... When Xu Qing noticed that, he didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment to use the power of the violet crystal to viciously suppress it. He had to repeat the process several times to make it work properly. Only when the shadow seemed to grow somewhat fainter did he feel a bit more at ease.

    Eventually, the sun began to set, and Xu Qing prepared for his first night at sea. Perhaps because this part of the sea was so close to Seven Blood Eyes, he hadn¡¯t experienced any serious dangers during the day.

    As the evening light stretched out over the water, some aggressive swordfish appeared, leaping in and out of the water, leaving behind arcs of scintiting water before they shot beneath the surface again. With the sun reflecting off of their cyan bodies, they seemed to glow, making them incredibly beautiful.

    Perhaps because of Xu Qing¡¯s dragonwhale, most of the swordfish kept their distance. However, a few jumped up and mmed into his dharmaboat defenses, which hissed loudly as the fish were subsequently knocked back into the water. When the swordfish hit the shield, they were close enough that Xu Qing was able to get a good look at them. They had rows and rows of menacing sharp teeth, and red eyes that glowed ferociously.

    At a certain point, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing numerous water droplets to form just outside the shield and create a buffer. That way, none of the fish would identally kill themselves from hitting the shield. The sea annals emphasized that when Seventh Peak disciples went out onto the Forbidden Sea, they should avoid killing sea beasts as much as possible. Killing sea beasts could attract the attention of grues that were native to the sea.

    The sea annals didn¡¯t go into details about such grues. However the thought of them caused Xu Qing to pay attention to every rustle of the wind during his first night.

    ording to the sea annals, nighttime was a lot more dangerous than daytime. On the open sea, anything was possible. That said, the sea annals also made it clear that though there was danger everywhere, a lot of things came down to luck. An unlucky person might die on their first outing. A lucky person could go out to sea countless times without any trouble.

    It seemed Xu Qing¡¯s luck was good, as he didn¡¯t experience anything gruish on his first night, and didn¡¯t hear anything other than the sea breeze and the crash of waves.

    As dawn approached, he opened his eyes and prepared to rx a bit. However, that was when a sudden sensation of intense fear erupted within him like a volcano. He suddenly went tense from head to toe, his eyes opened wide as he scrambled to make sure his dharmaboat defenses were at maximum.

    At the same time that he opened his eyes, his dragonwhale did the same. The dragonwhale could act as Xu Qing¡¯s eyes and ears, and since it was in the water under his boat, he was able to look down toward the sea floor. However, he saw nothing in the darkness. But he heard something that sounded almost like the grinding of teeth.

    C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch!

    The sound caused Xu Qing¡¯s breath toe raggedly as he thought back to the Singing in the forbidden region. The coldness he had felt back then was exactly what he was sensing now.

    Expression turning even more serious, he tapped into his cultivation base and made sure his dharmaboat waspletely in defensive mode. As he remained fully on guard, he kept watch through the eyes of the dragonwhale. Gradually, he saw something on the seafloor. It was a gigantic humanoid creature, covered with countless tentacles that swayed and writhed. Draped over one shoulder was a massive chain that stretched behind it. Shockingly, at the end of the chain was a bronze dragon chariot. [2]

    The chariot was very rundown, covered with rust and other traces of extreme age. However, the body of the chariot had beautiful carvings that still emanated an imperial air.

    The giant was pulling the dragon chariot along, and with each step taken, massive amounts of silt billowed up from the sea floor. It seemed to be simply passing by. And thanks to the distance, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to see it clearly. However, despite the distance, the crunching sound of each step pierced into his heart and mind, filling him with fear, and causing him to tremble instinctively.

    Only when the giant figure disappeared into the distance did he start to calm down, though the fear lingered within him.

    What was that?

    Face pale, he walked out onto the main deck and stood by the prow, looking off into the distance.

    As for the dragonwhale beneath the surface, all it could make out was a vague shadow that was the giant.

    Thest bit of darkness before dawn retreated, and the sky turned bright. The sun was like a torch, evaporating the ck waters to create the clouds overhead. The heat spread, until the sky was bright red. This was the beautiful morning glow of dawn.

    1. The shark mentioned here bears the same name in Chinese as a megalodon. There are asional creatures in this novel whose names are the same as dinosaurs (sometimesmon dinosaurs, other times obscure ones). In Chinese, dinosaurs often have ¡°dragon¡± in their name, and usually they sound very colorful and cool. For instance, a stegosaurus is a ¡°sword dragon.¡± In my opinion, using the English dinosaur names usuallyes across as silly. What¡¯s more, when you see these creatures in xianxia games and whatnot, they often do not look like dinosaurs, but rather, dragons or other monsters that simply share the same name as dinosaurs. Therefore, I will be either directly tranting these creatures¡¯ names (for instance using ¡®sword dragon¡¯ instead of stegosaurus), or I will create near-direct trantions that rte to the way the creatures are described. I''ll also include an exnation in the footnote when this happens. This is a stylistic choice. I get that some people might think using dinosaur names is cooler, and I respect that. But for this trantion, I will lean into a more fantastic style of trantion that I feel is befitting fantasy genres. ?

    2. The ¡®dragon¡¯ aspect of this chariot implies that it¡¯s something associated with a king or emperor. ?

 Chapter 81: A Fair Price

    Chapter 81: A Fair Price

    The radiance of daybreak swept over the sea, illuminating everything, including Xu Qing.

    Eventually, he exhaled. The terrifying entity at the sea floor had disappeared along with theing of day. He had no idea who that giant was, nor who the dragon chariot belonged to. He hadn¡¯t seen any mention of them in the sea annals. But even just a distant glimpse of the giant had left himpletely shaken, and also convinced that it was something absolutely astonishing. And for something that powerful to be dragging a chariot begged the question of who the owner of the chariot was, and what sort of glory they hadmanded in the past. Thankfully, the giant didn¡¯t seem to have any evil intentions, or at least, not toward someone as weak as Xu Qing.

    ¡°The Forbidden Sea....¡± Xu Qing murmured, the vignce in his eyes growing more intense.

    Now that he had personally experienced some of the danger of the sea, he was going to be even more cautious in his travels. And would not deviate at all from the navigation route indicated on the sea chart.

    A few days passed.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t see any other people. He was now getting more familiar with the Forbidden Sea. On a few asions, he encountered sea beasts, and a few times, he was forced to fight. Every encounter ended with him acquiring some organic crafting materials. His dragonwhale had already proved to be invaluable, and what was more, the fighting rapidly improved Xu Qing¡¯s ability to engage inbat on the open water.

    He didn¡¯t see any more terrifying entities like that giant.

    One day, when the sun was hot and the sea breeze warm, Xu Qing finished his session of cultivation and looked through his dharmaboat defenses at something off in the distance. He frowned.

    That was the direction of the Westcoral Archipgo, and beyond that, Sealizard Ind. ording to the sea chart, he would have to travel for seven more days to reach his destination. The notations on the sea chart indicated that his current path was the safest, and would eventually take him past the Westcoral Archipgo. However, now he was starting to doubt that this was the safest route.

    The surface of the water ahead was covered with creeping vines. And in the middle of the vines were some dharmaboats, apparently stranded. However, the boats were so far away that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t tell for sure. He seemed to be on the edge of the vined area, where the vines were less numerous.

    Apparently, something had attracted the vines from the depths of the sea floor, and after enough time passed, they would sink back down.

    However, now that Xu Qing had arrived, giving the vines a new target, they started speeding in his direction. As he stood at the prow, fully on guard, his hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing his dharmaboat to back away from the iing vines.

    Because he hadn¡¯t plowed headlong into the depths of the vines, he didn¡¯t need to waste time going all out to evade them. Unfortunately, they moved with extreme speed, and a couple managed to reach him and start wrapping around the hull of his boat.

    The vines, pitch ck and as thick as an arm, were covered with countless spikes, making them look extremely vicious. Even more shocking was that they had some sort of power of absorption, and thus, despite not immediately affecting the speed of the dharmaboat, Xu Qing got the feeling they were draining away some of the boat¡¯s spirit power.

    Eyes shing coldly, he pulled out his dagger, jumped over, and shed the vines off the side of the boat. His quick action, coupled with the boat¡¯s speed, ensured that he was able to escape the area before any more vines could arrive.

    Once at a safe distance, he looked back at the area with the vines. That was when he noticed something on the deck.

    A few pieces of severed vine were there, wriggling like sea snakes, and oozing a green liquid with corrosive properties that made hissing sounds as it spread onto the deck.

    An unsightly expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face. When cutting the vines earlier, he had felt how tough they were; despite his high level of fleshly body power, it had still taken a lot of effort to cut through them.

    After thinking the matter over, he performed a right-handed incantation gesture, causing spell formation lines underfoot to glow as the nucleus of the spirit convergence formation appeared.

    Studying it, Xu Qing realized that three of the spirit stones in the middle of the formation were duller than the others, as if they were almostpletely drained.

    So, the vines really do absorb spirit power.

    ording to the sea annals, there were over a hundred types of creeping vines, although most were simr to each other. Because of having read about them, he was quickly able to judge which type this was. However, neither the sect¡¯s sea charts nor the sea chart he¡¯d acquired from the young merman indicated that creeping vines like this were located around here.

    That means that these vines moved to this location from somewhere else. And there is only one type of vine that likes to devour spirit power. Spirit-guzzling creepers.

    Xu Qing thought back to the sea annals and frowned.

    Spirit-guzzling creepers love to devour spirit power. They can¡¯t be harmed with magical techniques, and can only be severed by using brute force. They can gobble up the power of a dharmaboat, and can also take spirit power from cultivators. If you get caught by them, you¡¯ll die in agony. However, they¡¯re sensitive to mutagen, so they can usually be found in areas where the mutagen is weak.

    Xu Qing looked off into the distance.

    His current route was the fastest way to get to the Westcoral Archipgo, so if he deviated to avoid the vines, it would cost him a lot of time. Furthermore, he had no idea how much area was covered by the vines. ording to the description in the sea annals, when spirit-guzzling creepers invaded, they would usually float about to cover a veryrge area.

    Going around would cost time. And it¡¯s not like I¡¯m out of options. Spirit-guzzling creepers aren¡¯t impossible to deal with.

    After a bit more thought, his eyes narrowed, and he reached down to his bag of holding. A momentter, a ck medicinal pill appeared in his hand. Of course, it was a ck bolus, which contained arge amount of mutagen. Holding the pill in his hand, he stood on the prow and directed his dharmaboat right into the vine-filled area.

    Soon, the surface of the water seethed with vines as they rushed voraciously toward Xu Qing and his dharmaboat.

    However, as they got close, Xu Qing calmly tossed out the ck bolus. As soon as it hit the water, it dissolved, and the mutagen levels skyrocketed. The iing vines shivered as if they had sensed something profoundly loathsome, and then they roiled away in the opposite direction. Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat was nowpletely unobstructed.

    Looking a bit more at ease, Xu Qing sent his dharmaboat moving onward at top speed. Though there were a lot of vines in the area, every ck bolus he tossed out forced them away from him.

    As he proceeded, and as he tossed out more ck boluses, the mutagen around his boat grew more dense. Eventually, there was so much that he didn¡¯t need to throw out any more ck boluses. The vines instinctively avoided him.

    And thus, as he proceeded, he eventually neared the dharmaboats he¡¯d spotted earlier. That was when the sea breeze carried voices from that boat into his ears.

    ¡°You were leading the way, Zhao Zhongheng! And this is where you brought us??¡±

    ¡°Elder Sister Ding, please, calm down.... There weren¡¯t any vines in this area before. They must have shown up only in thest few days. I had no way of knowing! But don¡¯t worry, I already sent a message to my grandfather asking for help. He should send people soon to help free us....¡±

    It was none other than Zhao Zhongheng and his boat The Phoenix, which was stranded by the creeping vines, and had to struggle to make any progress forward. Surrounding him were the other boats in his convoy. All of them were trapped, and the disciples on them looked very anxious as they hacked away at the vines.

    Zhao Zhongheng looked quite annoyed. It was absolutely true that he could never have predicted that creeping vines would be in this area. Right now, he was exerting every ounce of strength to try to get The Phoenix free of the vines. Meanwhile, Elder Sister Ding was clearly upset, and all he could do was apologize and beg her to calm down. After all, she had an extraordinary background.

    Eventually, he had no choice but to take out a jade box, which he handed to her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be angry, Elder Sister Ding. Trust me, we¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ll get us to the Westcoral Archipgo. Look, this clearbright lozenge is a rare soul-nourishing medicine. Very expensive! My grandfather gave it to me, and now I¡¯m giving it to you as an apology.¡±

    The beautiful Elder Sister Ding was running very low on patience. Frowning, she took the jade box from Zhao Zhongheng and forced herself to calm down a bit. Then, she opened her mouth to speak.

    However, at that very moment, the sound of a dharmaboat reached her ears, and she looked over to see a boat speeding in their direction.

    At the prow was a tall figure in a gray robe that pped in the wind. He had long ck hair, and as the sunlight shone through it, a scintiting halo glittered over his head. Beneath that halo was a face that could cause any member of the opposite sex to swoon. It was cold yet handsome, so much so that the creeping vines actually moved out of the way.

    Elder Sister Ding¡¯s eyes glittered, and a charming smile appeared on her face as she waved at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Junior Brother! How are you dealing with these vines? Are you able to help us a bit?¡±

    Her smile and voice were as sweet as candy, making Zhao Zhongheng, who had just spotted Xu Qing, look very ufortable. Despite being extremely polite during their entire journey, Elder Sister Ding had never once smiled at him in this way....

    A look of displeasure appeared on his face, and hostility brewed in his heart as he red at Xu Qing. And that was when he realized he recognized this neer.

    ¡°It¡¯s you!¡±

    If it was anyone else, he probably would have long forgotten their face. But Xu Qing was the kind of person people didn¡¯t easily forget. As soon as he recognized Xu Qing, he sensed the spirit power fluctuationsing off of him, and realized that he was a lot stronger than thest time they¡¯d met. That said, Zhao Zhongheng was a conve disciple with a very high status, the type of person who looked down on countless Offpeak disciples. [1]

    Eyes turning cold, he coolly said, ¡°Get over here and help us open up a path.¡±

    This was the way he normally bossed around gray-robed Offpeak disciples. After all, based on his experiences, disciples like that were usually in awe of him, and listened to everything he said.

    Xu Qing had noticed The Phoenix earlier, as well as the two conve disciples in pale violet robes who stood upon it. However he hadn¡¯t intended on doing anything other than speed past them.

    ¡°Hey, are you deaf?¡± Zhao Zhongheng shouted. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what I said?¡±

    Looking very grim, he summoned a host of water droplets that turned into a sword which shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat. As it neared, a screen of water shot up to block it. The water sword shattered.

    Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat suddenly decelerated to a stop. He slowly turned and looked at Zhao Zhongheng, his eyes cold. Then the water by his boat seethed as a massive dragonwhale breached the surface. However, it only emerged partly from the water, the sunlight glinting dazzlingly on its surface. It let loose a spine-tingling roar, then smashed down onto the water and sank beneath the surface, creating a huge ssh that sent water out in all directions.

    The sight caused Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s face to fall. And his attendants all looked on with wide eyes. Even Elder Sister Ding looked surprised.

    ¡°A Forbidden Sea dragonwhale!¡± Zhao Zhongheng gasped, looking at Xu Qing in disbelief. He was a conve disciple, so he usually exerted crushing pressure on Offpeak disciples. Except... that wasn¡¯t an absolute rule.

    An Offpeak disciple who could summon a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale while in the eighth level of the Seaforming Scripture indicated a shocking level of talent. People like that almost always reached Foundation Establishment.

    Zhao Zhongheng knew that people like that weren¡¯t worth provoking, and in fact, were worth making friends with. After all, if someone like that reached Foundation Establishment, their status would instantly reach a very high level. And then, they would be someone he would have to offer respectful greetings to.

    Looking coldly at Zhao Zhongheng as his facial expression changed, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°I charge twenty spirit stones per boat. Except yours. For you it¡¯ll be a hundred.¡±

    1. Xu Qing and Zhao Zhongheng met in chapter 65. ?

 Chapter 82: Countless Movements Became Sinister

    Chapter 82: Countless Movements Became Sinister

    Back at the scavenger basecamp, Xu Qing had often charged a fee to provide help to others. Although his rate was a bit dramatic on this asion, he didn¡¯t feel ufortable about it at all. He was under no obligation to provide help, and therefore, it made sense that he would charge more money to someone who gave him an attitude.

    Upon hearing his words, Elder Sister Ding looked thoughtful, while Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s expression turned grimmer. Zhao Zhongheng even seemed inclined to say something in response, but didn¡¯t. In the past, he would definitely have made a sarcasticment, but right now, he was hesitating.

    Xu Qing looked over the group, and when it seemed like they weren¡¯t going to pay him, he didn¡¯t say anything further, and just turned his boat around to leave. However, that was when Elder Sister Ding spoke up.

    ¡°No problem!¡± she said. Waving her hand, she summoned her own dharmaboat, a beautiful craft that resembled a willow leaf and pulsed with impressive spirit power. Leaping onto it, she sent it toward Xu Qing.

    Stunned, Zhao Zhongheng stammered, ¡°Elder Sister, y-you....¡±

    Elder Sister Ding didn¡¯t spare a second nce for Zhao Zhongheng. As she neared Xu Qing, the creeping vines in the area swarmed toward her. In the blink of an eye, she seemed to be in great danger.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, sending out a ck bolus tond right in front of Elder Sister Ding. Instantly, the vines backed away, allowing her clear passage. Once she was next to him, she jumped onto his dharmaboat and collected her own back up. Of course, she was actually standing precariously on top of his dharmaboat¡¯s defensive shield.

    Frowning, Xu Qing looked at her.

    ¡°Thank you for your help, Junior Brother. I¡¯m Ding Xue. I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯m older than you, so you can call me Elder Sister. My dharmaboat isn¡¯t suited to travel in this area, so I¡¯d really like to spend an additional twenty spirit stones for safe passage with you.¡± [1]

    Elder Sister Ding was already getting a sense of Xu Qing¡¯s personality. With a sweet smile, she produced a Sixth Peak spirit note worth 40 spirit stones and offered it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nced at the note, scanned Elder Sister Ding¡¯s cultivation base, and then quickly studied her throat. Finally, he created a small opening in the defenses, allowing her to drop down onto the deck. Then he waved his hand, causing the spirit note to fly over to him.

    After confirming it was authentic, he didn¡¯t say anything further. He put the note in his sack, then got his dharmaboat moving again. He wasn¡¯t worried that she had any ill intentions; after all, the moment she stepped onto his boat, she was infected by his poison. That said, the poison required interaction with other poisons to be active.

    As the setting sun shone over Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, he stood tall and straight, looking iparably handsome. Next to him stood Elder Sister Ding, slender and beautiful, her hair swaying in the wind. It was an amazing sight.

    Meanwhile, back on Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s boat, there was no such beautiful image. Furthermore, the wind caused Elder Sister Ding¡¯s tender voice to float right back to Zhao Zhongheng.

    ¡°What should I call you, little Junior Brother? This dharmaboat of yours is amazing. I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. Say, little Junior Brother, what department do you work for?¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng was already getting very anxious. After all, he had expended painstaking effort just to get Elder Sister Ding out onto his boat. Feeling very frustrated, he gritted his teeth and took out a red paper talisman.

    Shockingly, it was a talisman treasure!

    Seeing that Elder Sister Ding was leaving with Xu Qing, he threw the talisman out onto the water. It instantly ignited, releasing a huge wave of energy that rolled out in all directions.

    The vines surrounding The Phoenix were caught in the explosion; many of them directly copsed, while the others retracted rapidly.

    Taking advantage of the moment, Zhao Zhongheng shouted, ¡°Elder Sister, wait for me!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he sent The Phoenix shooting off at top speed, not holding anything back. As for his friends in the other boats, they all started crying for help.

    ¡°You wait here,¡± he yelled back. ¡°I already contacted my grandfather, he¡¯ll send people soon to save you.¡±

    Having no more time to waste on them, he left them behind. Unfortunately, there were just too many creeping vines in the area, and they quickly started entangling him again. Heart aching, Zhao Zhongheng threw out more talisman treasures.

    As the talismans exploded, clearing a path through the vines, he got closer to Xu Qing.

    The sound of the explosions finally caused Elder Sister Ding to look away from Xu Qing and over her shoulder. When she saw The Phoenix and Zhao Zhongheng, as well as all the explosions, sheughed coldly.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t ask you to follow me, Zhao Zhongheng. You offered to take me to the Westcoral Archipgo. I told you to take a different route, but you insisted on going your way. I could have dealt with being stuck, especially since you said there was nothing you could do about it. But as it turns out, you did have a way to get us free. You just didn¡¯t want to use it!¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng looked at her bitterly. The bravado he¡¯d shown when first going out to sea waspletely gone.

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, Elder Sister,¡± he said. ¡°My grandfather... he gave me these life-saving talismans for emergency use only. I hardly have any left....¡±

    Elder Sister Ding snorted coldly, looked away, andpletely ignored him.

    Zhao Zhongheng was getting even more anxious, as he didn¡¯t dare to offend Elder Sister Ding. And the more he looked at Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, the more he disliked it. However, he could tell that Xu Qing was strong, so therefore, he suppressed his anger and threw out a few more talismans. Finally, he broke free and was able to get close to Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat.

    ¡°Elder Sister, please,e back and join me,¡± he said. ¡°I know I messed up....¡±

    It seemed as if Elder Sister Ding hadn¡¯t even heard him. Smiling sweetly at Xu Qing, she said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, are you hungry? I have some snacks here.¡±

    With that, she took out a small box from her bag of holding.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing shook his head and looked over at her. ¡°Elder Sister Ding, we¡¯re free from the creeping vines now. Please disembark.¡±

    Hearing his words, Zhao Zhongheng started to get excited, and mused to himself that Xu Qing apparently did have some tact. Then he looked at Elder Sister Ding with high expectations.

    ¡°Where are you heading, Junior Brother Xu?¡± Elder Sister Ding asked sweetly. ¡°Maybe the two of us are going in the same direction?¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s expression turned unsightly again.

    Xu Qing frowned.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s reaction, Elder Sister Ding¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. After a moment of thought, she hesitantly continued, ¡°Let me exin, Junior Brother Xu. I¡¯m heading to the Westcoral Archipgo. It¡¯s about five days from here. If it¡¯s too far out of your way, we can part ways. But if it¡¯s convenient for you, I¡¯d like to offer 200 spirit stones for safe passage. Does that work for you, Junior Brother?¡±

    With that, she pulled out two spirit notes and looked at Xu Qing, her beautiful eyes glittering.

    Xu Qing looked at the spirit notes and his heart started to beat a bit faster. He never could have guessed that his sea outing would result in making so many spirit stones in one day. He was heading to Sealizard Ind, which was so close to the Westcoral Archipgo it was almost part of it. So naturally, it would be convenient to give her a ride. If she had simply asked for free passage, he would have refused. But since she was offering 200 spirit stones....

    Although 200 spirit stones was a lot of money, this was his boat, and ording to the traditions of the sect, he was responsible for the safety of anyone onboard. In other words, giving Elder Sister Ding passage was like epting a temporary mission. The open sea was a dangerous ce, and this mission was somewhat urgent. Therefore, it wasn¡¯t unusual at all that he would charge a spirit stone fee.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, he nodded.

    Elder Sister Ding¡¯s smile became even more radiant as she handed the spirit notes to Xu Qing. Meanwhile, back on The Phoenix, Zhao Zhongheng lookedpletely miserable. Though he knew that Xu Qing was an extraordinary person, he couldn¡¯t keep the fury from showing in his eyes.

    Xu Qingpletely ignored Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s re, and just sent his dharmaboat speeding forward.

    Xu Qing was actually in a great mood. 200 spirit stones was a very tidy profit. However, he felt a bit out of sorts as Elder Sister Ding just kept talking and talking, asking all sorts of questions. In fact, there seemed no end to her questions, and most of them revolved around personal information. Also, she kept staring at his face, which he found somewhat annoying. For the most part, he ignored her.

    However, the more he ignored her, the friendlier she got. All he could do was try to get a bit more speed out of his dharmaboat in the hopes of ending the journey sooner.

    Meanwhile, Zhao Zhongheng felt like he was going to explode. The fire in his eyes and the fire in his heart seemed like they might erupt into real mes. That was especially true when he thought about all of his hard work, including asking his grandfather to talk with Elder Sister Ding¡¯s family to allow the two of them to go out alone.... And now an Offpeak disciple was reaping all the rewards. He felt like he was going mad, like all the frustration within him was about to erupt from within his heart.

    That stinking shrew! I let her on my boat for free, but now she¡¯s throwing away money to ride with some pretty boy? It¡¯s obviously because she likes him. Is she blind? I¡¯m obviously exponentially better than that little punk!

    Spirit stones? I have too many to count. Status? I¡¯m a conve disciple! Background? My grandfather is an elder on the Seventh Peak! That brat can¡¯tpare to me at all. In fact, he can¡¯t evenpare to a single hair from my head.

    What¡¯s impressive about him, other than that Forbidden Sea dragonwhale? He¡¯s got nothing! He¡¯s just some Offpeak egghead. So what if he¡¯s good-looking? Being good-looking doesn¡¯t put food in your stomach!!

    As Zhao Zhongheng stewed in his jealousy, the sun sank toward the horizon and dusk spread.

    When the sun set over the sea, everything became more profound and mysterious. There was still a faint red glow on the horizon, illuminating the waves, making the scene look like a beautiful painting. The glowing light made the waves seem like rolling mes, one cresting the other.

    Eventually, the fire in the sky faded away, and the mes on the water died out. Everything turned dark. The waves subsided into ripples, and the wind eased, making everything very quiet and peaceful.

    It wasn¡¯t safe for boats to move about at night. There were far more dangers than during the day, and therefore, Xu Qing stopped andy anchor. Meanwhile, Elder Sister Ding pulled out some food, smiled sweetly, and offered him some.

    Xu Qing declined her offer, went into the cabin, and activated the cabin¡¯s defenses. Elder Sister Ding didn¡¯t seem the least bit offended by Xu Qing¡¯s cold demeanor. In fact, she smiled, sat down cross-legged in front of the cabin, and said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, you¡¯re going to work on your cultivation? I¡¯ll sit as dharma protector for you!¡±

    On The Phoenix, Zhao Zhongheng once again felt like he was going mad. Looking over at the beautiful Elder Sister Ding, he called, ¡°Elder Sister, I have some fresh fish that we could¡ª¡°

    ¡°Not interested,¡± she interrupted coolly.

    ¡°Elder Sister, I¡ª¡°

    ¡°Don¡¯t need it.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡°

    ¡°Could you keep it down?¡± she said, ring at him impatiently. ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt Junior Brother Xu¡¯s cultivation.¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s face darkened, and he gnashed his teeth as he red at the cabin. By now, the madness in his heart was at a peak level. However, there was nothing he could do but sit down in a huff and start meditating. And thus, time passed, until it was deep in the night.

    Being wrapped up in meditation, the three of them didn¡¯t notice something very unusual happening.

    It seemed like countless twinkling stars on the surface of the water, slowly transforming into shadowy figures. It was almost as if... the darkness of the Forbidden Sea was set aside for these figures as a profound and mysterious realm of dream.

    However, as the shadowy figures rose into the sky, their expressions turned vicious, until they were like evil ghosts. Some seemed to be people who had died of drowning. Others looked like rotting beasts. Before, they had been resting peacefully, but now they had be vicious, and they released piercing cries that shook the soul. Anyone who heard their miserable cries would feel their scalp tingling from shock.

    Soon, the dream... became a nightmare!

    Everyone opened their eyes.

    Zhao Zhongheng looked around, his pupils constricting, while Elder Sister Ding appeared somber as she rested her hand on her bag of holding.

    Xu Qing walked out on the deck, looking around sharply. What he saw was countless evil ghosts, madly flying high into the sky, almost as if they had been summoned.

    Hordes of them. Filling the area.

    Gloomy and sinister. Strange and gruish.

    It was a case of... ghosts haunting the night.

    Xu Qing looked up at the numerous evil ghosts letting loose piercing cries. As he did, he recalled a passage in the sea annals which described this phenomenon..

    ¡°There is a fantastic symphony in the endless sea; mortals are unable to hear it; it apanies Crimson Yang the golden crow; countless movements be a song; it is called Natural Sounds Wee the Moon.

    ¡°The god loved it; the god''s eyes gazed upon it; the endless sea became forbidden; countless movements became sinister.

    ¡°Disciples of our sect who encounter it, shall not engage, shall not touch, shall not disturb....¡± [2]

    The sea annals went on to recount a story that taught Seven Blood Eyes disciples that the sea surrounding the continent of South Phoenix was originally called the Sea of Endlessness.

    Many years in the past, before the broken face of the god came to the dome of heaven, a strange symphony could sometimes be heard on the never-ending sea. It was a very unusual symphony that ordinary people couldn¡¯t hear. Only cultivators could catch snippets of it drifting across the water.

    The story exined the details of the symphony¡¯s origin.

    The sun in the sky wasn¡¯t a star, it was actually a huge golden crow. A divine bird. Its name was Crimson Yang, and every day it would fly out from its pce in the depths of the Sea of Endlessness. At night, it would return to the same ce. That cycle continued endlessly. It was as if the divine bird had been given a mission it would never deviate from.

    Every night when it returned to its pce, the musicians there would y a symphony. That music contained countless symphonic movements thatbined into a dreamlike illusion. The name of the symphony was Natural Sounds Wee the Moon.

    When the symphony yed, the moon would rise into the sky, and would take Crimson Yang¡¯s ce to patrol heaven and earth.

    One day, the broken face of the god arrived. The god heard the symphony and liked it. Then the god¡¯s eyes half-opened looked in the direction of the music¡¯s origin. That gaze caused the Sea of Endlessness to boil as unimaginable levels of mutagen erupted there. As the Sea of Endlessness filled with mutagen, it changed into the Forbidden Sea.

    The countless movements that made up the symphony also came under assault. The music became sinister, deathlike. Ghostly.

    That was why it came to be that countless ghosts would asionally haunt the night.

    1. Ding Xue: Ding is listed #48 on the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Her surname is the same as Ding Xiaohai (the number one figure from the Seventh Peak, the same one Zhou Qingpeng recently started working with). Xue means ¡°snow.¡± Being a two-character name withmon characters, it¡¯s not very unusual, and Madam Deathde says it sounds ¡°cute.¡± The fact that Ding Xue and Ding Xiaohai share a surname indicates they could be rted. Or they might not be. ?

    2. Just in case you¡¯re aren¡¯t familiar with symphony nomenture, a ¡°movement¡± is a musical subsection of a symphony. ?

 Chapter 83: A Dragon from the Depths

    Chapter 83: A Dragon from the Depths

    The story was a way of telling the disciples of Seven Blood Eyes that if they encountered this strange event out on the sea, they shouldn¡¯t engage with it, touch it, or do anything.

    Xu Qing stood there quietly. Thinking about the sea annals, he sat down cross-legged and looked out into the cold darkness at the countless evil ghosts, shrieking as they flew up into the sky.

    The most relevant aspect of this ount from the sea annals isn¡¯t the actual story itself. Rather... it¡¯s the fact that it¡¯s called a story and not a legend. Compared to legends, stories contain more aspects of truth.

    As he looked at the countless ghosts, their cries grew even more piercing. It was a scene that would leave more timid people trembling. Xu Qing, on the other hand, was used to things like this. He had gazed into the eyes of the god above. He had lived for half a month in a city filled with grues and mutant beasts. From a young age, he had survived in city slums, surrounded by the worst humanity had to offer and witnessing countless deaths. In both the forbidden region jungle and Seven Blood Eyes, he had been sharpened as if on a grindstone. He knew that there were many things in the world that would try to take your life. There were many things that could kill you.

    So while this scene would strike terror into the hearts of most people, to him, it actually seemed peaceful. To him, it was as if the shrieking of the evil ghosts was actually the lingering sound of a symphony. Closing his eyes, he sat still and listened.

    From a distance, both Xu Qing himself and his dharmaboat seemed insignificantpared to the countless ghosts haunting the night.

    However, the lingering sound of the symphony grew clearer and clearer in his ears....

    Countless ghosts haunted the night. Countless ghosts danced in the night. Countless ghosts made a symphony in the night.

    Zhao Zhongheng looked very nervous. Xu Qing listened to the music. Elder Sister Ding seemed very curious about Xu Qing. Time passed.

    When dawn came, the music vanished, and Xu Qing opened his eyes. In his mind, he could recall various bits of the symphony.

    As for Elder Sister Ding, she couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, did you listen the whole night? What did you hear?¡±

    Xu Qing ignored her. Feeling a bit annoyed at being disturbed, he focused on the lingering symphony in his mind. That just made Elder Sister Ding more curious. Peering at him, she tapped her bag of holding and produced a jade box which she offered to him.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, here¡¯s a clearbright lozenge, which can do a great job of nourishing your soul. Please take it. And... do you mind answering my question?¡±

    Over on The Phoenix, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s eyes were wide with fury. That was the same pill he had given to Elder Sister Ding earlier when she seemed irritated.... And now, when Xu Qing seemed irritated, she was giving it to him....

    Zhao Zhongheng felt like he was going to be overwhelmed with madness.

    ¡°Clearbright lozenge?¡± Finally, Xu Qing¡¯s concentration was broken, and he looked over at the pill. He knew that clearbright lozenges were very valuable, and also rare. A bit surprised, he took the jade box, checked it to make sure it was safe, and then put it in his sack.

    Elder Sister Ding seemed pleased, and looked at him with an expectant smile.

    ¡°Okay, Junior Brother Xu, now you have to tell me. I¡¯ve read the story in the sea annals about countless ghosts making a symphony in the night. Not many people get a chance to hear it. Only people with very keen senses are able to.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, and a look of reminiscence appeared in his eyes. ¡°I heard the voice of my teacher, patiently instructing me about nts and vegetation.¡±

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, you¡¯re skilled in the dao of nts and vegetation?¡± she said, her expression one of admiration. ¡°That¡¯s incredible!¡±

    On The Phoenix, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s lips curled with derision, and he muttered, ¡°Who can¡¯t talk big?¡±

    Ignoring the jealous Zhao Zhongheng, Elder Sister Ding politely started asking some questions about the dao of nts and vegetation.

    Although Xu Qing still felt a bit annoyed, because of the clearbright lozenge, he forced out some answers. Shortly after, they started moving again.

    Zhao Zhongheng was clearly getting very anxious, because he kept fawningly offering gifts to Elder Sister Ding in the hopes of getting her back onto his boat.

    However, she coldly refused most of his offers. In some cases, she had no choice but to ept a gift, but even still, didn¡¯t give any indication that she nned to rejoin him. asionally, Zhao Zhongheng would hear herughing, and it caused his internal organs to burn as if with fire.

    As the days passed, Zhao Zhongheng heard more of Elder Sister Ding¡¯sughter from Xu Qing¡¯s boat than he himself had heard in an entire year. On many asions, Elder Sister Ding would bring up the topic of medicinal nts with Xu Qing, even though Zhao Zhongheng knew that she generally had no interest in that subject.

    Any time Xu Qing actually answered her questions, she would give him some gifts as a ¡®consulting fee.¡¯ And all of those gifts were things that Zhao Zhongheng had given her.

    As for Zhao Zhongheng, he eventually started realizing that the scene actually seemed very familiar. It was... simr to how he acted around Elder Sister Ding.

    It was a disheartening realization. However, Zhao Zhongheng wasn¡¯t ready to give up yet, so all he could do was try to keep his spirits high and do his best to keep moving forward.

    In fact, in the hopes of attracting Elder Sister Ding¡¯s attention, he made a show of unleashing his cultivation base to kill various sea beasts that they encountered, and then prepare them as meals. Then he would invite her over to his boat to have a taste. Although she never epted any invitations, it seemed like she might agree at some point, and that was encouraging.

    At noon on the third day of travel, as Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat and The Phoenix proceeded along, a piercing cry suddenly echoed down from the sky.

    Xu Qing, who was sitting cross-legged, opened his eyes and looked up to see a pseudotooth albatross. It had long, slender wings, with a wingspan of over twelve meters. It was cyan, with brown spots all over it, but most eye-catching was its beak, which looked like a huge pair of iron pincers. One could only imagine how terrifying of a bite it had.

    Right now, the sea was calm, making it seem like a huge, ck mirror. And it wasn¡¯t unusual to spot sea birds flying in the sky. This pseudotooth albatross was only one of many such sea birds. There were others, most of them tiny dots in the distance as they soared about hunting for food.

    As for the pseudotooth albatross, it circled directly above, making it seem like Xu Qing was its next target. However, after only a short time, it apparently realized how dangerous Xu Qing was, and it veered away to leave.

    Xu Qing looked at it for a moment, then looked back at the cid surface of the water.

    In contrast, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and he looked over at Elder Sister Ding.

    ¡°Elder Sister Ding! The sea annals say that pseudotooth albatrosses taste amazing. If you want, I can shoot it down and we can have a wonderful lunch.¡±

    Standing, Elder Sister Ding looked at the bird, then smiled at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, do you want to have pseudotooth albatross for lunch?¡±

    Xu Qing was warming up to Elder Sister Ding. She was actually a good student, and reminded him of himself back when he would ask so many questions about medicinal nts. Of course, she also offeredpensation. In fact, up to this point she had already given him nearly 200 spirit stones in exchange for information.

    The past few days had given him a much deeper insight into these conve disciples, and he hade to the conclusion that they weren¡¯t bad people. That said, he would reserve judgment for conve disciples in general. After all, conve disciples were just people. And people were all different. Some were intelligent, some were foolish. Some were sharp-witted, some were impulsive.

    Although some conve disciples seemed somewhat innocent, there were others who had risen through the ranks of the Offpeak gray-robed disciples, people who had profoundly baleful auras. Xu Qing had the feeling that hisck of contact with conve disciples exined why he hadn¡¯t run into people like that. Zhao Zhongheng was no viin. He was foolish and, just like the Captain had said, was an idiot. In contrast, Elder Sister Ding was no fool. But she had clearly lived a sheltered life, which was unusual in the chaotic world they lived in. It just went to show that she must have an impressive background.

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s way of treating her was more proof of that.

    When Xu Qing thought back to when the countless ghosts haunted the night, he remembered how she¡¯d kept her hand on her bag of holding the entire time. She definitely had some astonishing life-saving items in there, given to her by senior members of her family.

    As Xu Qing saw Zhao Zhongheng preparing to take down the bird, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t forget. When the sea is too calm, something is wrong.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what cowards say!¡± Zhao Zhongheng replied,ughing coldly. cing his hands together, he prepared a magical technique to snatch the pseudotooth albatross.

    Just then, as the pseudotooth albatross seemed about to leave, it noticed Zhao Zhongheng about to attack it. Wheeling around, it picked up speed and shot down like a meteor toward the two dharmaboats.

    ¡°Perfect timing,¡± Zhao Zhongheng said,ughing. Jumping off of his dharmaboat, he stretched out his hand.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered with vignce, and he shot to his feet. Looking back at the sea behind them, he noticed an area of roiling water many dozens of meters in diameter, following along just underneath the pseudotooth albatross.

    There was something under the water, and it was getting closer!

    Eyes shing coldly, Xu Qing rapidly performed an incantation gesture, causing his dharmaboat to shift into defensive mode. At the same time, he looked through the eyes of his dragonwhale, allowing him to see something absolutely colossal moving up at high speed from the depths of the sea.

    RUMBLE!

    It shot out of the water behind them, creating an explosion of water fully 300 meters from end to end.

    It was covered with ck scales, and had an iparably vicious head that seemed like a mix between a dragon and a crocodile. The salty smell of the sea grew stronger, and the waves seethed as massive jaws opened and chomped down on the pseudotooth albatross, consuming it in a single bite!

    The pseudotooth albatross was big, butpared to that gigantic mouth, it was tiny. A momentter, the huge dragon sshed back down into the water and disappeared.

    Waves surged out, causing Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat and The Phoenix to spin like leaves on the surface of the sea. That said, the former was in control, while thetter was not.

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s face became a mask of utter astonishment. He had only just shot up into the air, and hadn¡¯t been moving very fast. Otherwise, he would have been right in front of the pseudotooth albatross, and he would have been gobbled up as well.

    Dripping with seawater, and feeling the lingering terror of having nearly died, he turned around and shot back toward The Phoenix. Even after his feet were nted firmly on the deck, he still trembled uncontrobly. He seemed terrified that the huge creature would appear again.

    Despite his fear, he still had the heart of a Seventh Peak disciple, so he instinctively took control of his dharmaboat and got it back under control. As he picked up speed, he called, ¡°That was a snakeneck dragon! Elder Sister Ding, hurry back here to The Phoenix. We need to get out of here!¡± [1]

    ¡°Shut up!¡± she shot back. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t been an idiot and provoked that bird, it would have left. The sea annals clearly state that snakeneck dragons eat pseudotooth albatrosses! The dragon obviously showed up because of the bird. If you hadn¡¯t attacked the bird, the dragon would probably have just moved on!¡±

    Seventh Peak disciples knew that, of all the beasts that hunted the Forbidden Sea, snakeneck dragons weren¡¯t at the apex. But they could survive in the mutagen-infested waters of the deep sea, and their savagery was widely known. What was more, it was impossible to judge them by cultivation level alone. After all, they were so huge that, unless someone possessed clearly superior battle prowess, the dragon would always have the advantage.

    Zhao Zhongheng knew all of this, so though he wanted to argue back, he didn¡¯t have much to say.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably gone already by now....¡±

    Elder Sister Ding was much more on top of things than Zhao Zhongheng. Despite being flustered, she kept her cultivation base ready and pulled out a long, green sword, just in case she needed to take action. At the same time, she kept her right hand on her bag of holding, where she clearly had a trump card ready to use. Then she kept her eyes on the sea.

    Xu Qing was the calmest of the three. He had sensed early on that something unusual was going on, which was why he had activated all of his dharmaboat¡¯s defenses.

    The rushing waves were like the hands of a giant that roughly shoved his boat off into the distance. That said, his dharmaboat was very stable, so he didn¡¯t lose control, and instead used the momentum of the waves to aid in his retreat.

    His calmness seemed to affect Elder Sister Ding, as she rxed a bit, though her gaze remained sharp.

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered, and he growled, ¡°It¡¯s not gone!¡±

    1. In Chinese, the ¡°snakeneck dragon¡± is a plesiosaurus, a marine dinosaur from the early Jurassic period. As you will see from the descriptionter, the ¡°snakeneck dragon¡± generally resembles an actual plesiosaurus. As I exined in a previous footnote, though, I¡¯m not going to use the Greek/Latin based dinosaur names, but will instead directly trante them. What¡¯s more, the ¡°snakeneck dragon¡± is often referred to as simply a type of dragon. ?

 Chapter 84: Magical Enlightenment from the Sea

    Chapter 84: Magical Enlightenment from the Sea

    Thanks to his dragonwhale, Xu Qing was able to see that the terrifying entity from the depths of the sea had not left.

    After moving some distance away, it turned its long neck and looked at them with its part-dragon part-crocodile head. Its cold eyes brimmed with ughter as it locked its gaze onto Xu Qing¡¯s dragonwhale like a hunter assessing the weakness of its prey. Its torso somewhat resembled that of a massive penguin, and was fully 600 meters long. It had four draconic flippers that swayed back and forth in the water, covered in living barnacles. Most spectacr of all was its long neck, down the back of which ran a crest of ck spikes. This was indeed a snakeneck dragon!

    As was recorded in the sea annals, this was one of themon predators in the Forbidden Sea.

    Xu Qing remained calm. Back in the forbidden region jungle, he had learned that when dealing with powerful beasts, you should never show fear. Furthermore, the sea annals said that snakeneck dragons were actually very cautious. If there was any sign that their prey was actually a threat, they would take the initiative to flee.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. ¡°Both of you, unleash the power of your cultivation bases. We need to make ourselves threatening!¡±

    Without a word, Elder Sister Ding did as requested, releasing explosive fluctuations from her cultivation base. Zhao Zhongheng, though somewhat foolish, wasn¡¯t stupid beyond all hope, and also did the same thing. He also put The Phoenix in full attack mode.

    The snakeneck dragon stirred restlessly. It was obviously affected, but didn¡¯t seem ready to give up yet.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing gave a cold harrumph and performed a single-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, his dharmaboat¡¯s sails retracted into defense position. At the same time, Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the aura of the eighth level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation caused the spectral drought demon to appear behind him. Its green and cracked skin, spiral horn, and bright red eyes made it look ferocious as it let loose a guttural scream toward the water. At the same time, an astonishing level of heat rolled out from it. It was an unusual heat that could not be extinguished, and in fact caused steam to rise from the surface of the sea and fill the area with a haze.

    The snakeneck dragon stirred again, and then, apparently not liking this development, it started to back up, albeit slowly.

    Elder Sister Ding¡¯s eyes went wide, and then they started to shine. As for Zhao Zhongheng, he took a deep breath and looked over at Xu Qing in amazement.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t spare them any attention. He remained focused on the snakeneck dragon. After releasing the power of the Sea and Mountain Incantation, he also unleashed the Seaforming Scripture, causing the surrounding seawater to swirl rapidly. At the same time, his dragonwhale¡¯s aura violently locked onto the snakeneck dragon.

    And he wasn¡¯t done. His dharmaboat¡¯s solitary horn, as well as its four legs, glowed brilliantly, sending out awe-inspiring light in all directions. The horn could devour spirit power, and the legs each had three thousand spikes that could shoot out, and both were ready to be used.

    The snakeneck dragon seemed shocked. Its crest of spikes began to undte, as if it was starting to think of Xu Qing as a direct threat.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was integrated with that of his dragonwhale, and it was as cold as ice.

    In this manner, enough time passed for an incense stick to burn.

    The snakeneck dragon swam in a few circles, then slowly backed up. Its aggressiveness vanished, it turned and fled.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t let his guard down. He maintained the aggressive stance as he started his dharmaboat moving. Only after traveling for about half a day did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

    That was when Elder Sister Ding and Zhao Zhongheng on The Phoenix also rxed.

    The sea annals were right. They don¡¯t like to take risks, and will only attack when they¡¯re one hundred percent confident of achieving victory.

    Xu Qing turned to look at the sea ahead of him. He knew that, in reality, these were considered coastal waters, and weren¡¯t even close to being the ¡®deep sea.¡¯ Despite that, there were still real dangers present. It was easy to imagine what gruish dangers lurked further out. He looked up at the broken face of the god above. All of it was the fault of that entity. The god had changed all living beings, and created constant terror and danger everywhere.

    Xu Qing looked back at the sea. For a long time... he simply thought about that snakeneck dragon.

    It looks like it belongs in the Forbidden Sea.

    After some thought, he sat down cross-legged and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. His goal: to slowly change the appearance of his dragonwhale.

    Meanwhile, now that they were out of danger, Elder Sister Ding and Zhao Zhongheng both looked at Xu Qing. The former had bright eyes, thetter seemed both bitter and astonished.

    Although they had not witnessed Xu Qing fight, they had seen his power, and hadid eyes on the terrifying spectral drought demon. Then there was Xu Qing¡¯s dragonwhale. Because of those things, both conve disciples realized that Xu Qing was even stronger than either of them had imagined before.

    As for Zhao Zhongheng, he was thinking, This Xu fellow can generate projections of flesh and blood. And he also has a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale from the Seaforming Scripture. In other words, his body cultivation seems to be in the great circle. How could he be this strong?

    Meanwhile, Elder Sister Ding was thinking, Junior Brother Xu isn¡¯t just good-looking. His cultivation base is more profound than I realized. And there are probably other things he¡¯s being deceptive about. Someone like him has a high probability of reaching Foundation Establishment in the future....

    As the two of them were lost in their thoughts, Xu Qing¡¯s dragonwhale was growingrger. Its neck grew longer, and a crest of spikes appeared atop it. Four fins grew out of its sides. It was already starting to look like a snakeneck dragon. It seemed more vicious than before, and also stronger.

    Before encountering a snakeneck dragon, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have been able to make these changes. But after seeing one, he felt that this change to his dragonwhale would make it faster, more nimble, and better at attacking.

    At the same time, as he drew on the Seaforming Scripture, the water droplets formed swordfish, pseudotooth albatrosses, and even a giant. A momentter, water exploded as Xu Qing¡¯s modified dragonwhale shot out. As it roared in midair, several swordfish leaped out to join it, creating something like a glittering rainbow.

    The sight caused Elder Sister Ding and Zhao Zhongheng to look over with wide eyes. And when they sensed the spirit power fluctuations of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Seaforming Scripture, they were stunned.

    Not every disciple who reached the eighth level of the Seaforming Scripture had the level of control necessary to create a dragonwhale. And not all disciples who could create a dragonwhale would be able to gain the enlightenment sufficient to change its form.

    Because of that, Elder Sister Ding and Zhao Zhongheng were even more shocked than they had been before.

    Neither the snakeneck dragon nor the swordfish existed in the magical technique illustrations in the Seaforming Scripture. They were all the product of Xu Qing¡¯s enlightenment. It was as if the sea itself had led him to a new dao. It was profound and gruish, and did not need to speak a word to impart great teachings. It could provide inspiration and revtions.

    Time passed. As they traveled, Zhao Zhongheng hung his head in bitterness and discouragement. By now, he was absolutely convinced that Xu Qing... was a person he couldn¡¯t afford to provoke. He was convinced Xu Qing would reach Foundation Establishment, and when he did, Zhao Zhongheng would have no choice but to treat him respectfully.

    He didn¡¯t want to ask his grandfather for help to deal with Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t dare. The reason was that he had attempted such things in the past. And though such enemies would usually end up miserable, so would he, as his grandfather would usually beat him to a pulp afterward. He could only pray that this journey would end soon, and that Xu Qing would be on his way.

    While Zhao Zhongheng prayed incessantly, the waves calmed down. The three travelers didn¡¯t encounter any further dangers, and soon, they were getting close to the Westcoral Archipgo. Eventually, they spottednd on the horizon.

    Elder Sister Ding remained in high spirits the entire trip. From the moment she had boarded Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat until this point, she had paid him about 300 spirit stones in exchange for the knowledge he had imparted to her.

    From that, Xu Qing could see that Elder Sister Ding really did value knowledge and learning. He hade to like her. After all, if the trip had gone more smoothly, he wouldn¡¯t have benefited as much as he had....

    Of course, given how much effort he put into answering her questions about nts and vegetation, and also everything that had gone into keeping her safe, he felt that their deal was perfectly reasonable.

    For thest half a day of travel, Xu Qing patiently answered all her questions. And this time, he didn¡¯t ask for anything in exchange. That was how pleased he was with Elder Sister Ding¡¯s attitude toward learning.

    When Zhao Zhongheng saw that, he fell intoplete despair. If the pretty boy had stopped asking for payment, it meant he was ready to finally make a move....

    That was when Zhao Zhongheng noticed the distant Westcoral Archipgo, and he could hardly wait to end this trip and get rid of Xu Qing.

    As evening fell, it was obvious that Elder Sister Ding was reluctant to part ways with Xu Qing. However, the Westcoral Archipgo was getting very close.

    When they were finally at their destination, Zhao Zhongheng could hardly contain his excitement as he looked at Elder Sister Ding, waiting for her to get off of Xu Qing¡¯s boat.

    Just before disembarking, she turned back to Xu Qing and said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, are you sure you don¡¯t want toe with us? I need to go offer my respects to one of my seniors. It¡¯s my aunt. She has an amazingly profound cultivation base, and loves to help members of the younger generation. If youe along, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll benefit a lot.¡± [1]

    Off to the side, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s heart was pounding into his throat, and he was staring straight at Xu Qing, terrified that he might nod in agreement.

    ¡°I think not,¡± Xu Qing said with a polite smile. ¡°I have some other matters to attend to. Take care, Elder Sister Ding.¡±

    Elder Sister Ding kept looking over her shoulder as she disembarked. When she was finally on the shore, Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat rumbled to life and turned around.

    Elder Sister Ding stood there, her long ck hair and daoist robe swaying in the breeze. Looking at Xu Qing on his dharmaboat, she called, ¡°Safe travels, Junior Brother Xu. Once we¡¯re both back at the sect, I¡¯lle find you to ask some more advice!¡±

    Hearing this, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s heart pounded, and he looked like he might start crying.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing gave her a nod, waved, and then sent his dharmaboat speeding out to sea. As he left the ind behind, and his dharmaboat once again became quiet and peaceful, his expression turned cid. However, his gaze remained sharp. He stood there like an unsheathed sword, eyes glittering coldly as he looked at the Forbidden Sea beyond the archipgo.

    That was where his ultimate destination was. Sealizard Ind. Given his current rate of travel, he would get there in two days. Sealizard Ind was amon ce to harvest sealizard skins, so it was almost guaranteed that there would be fighting and killing there.

    His days of travel had him feeling very familiar with the Forbidden Sea. And also... he was ready for action.

    I need to stay even more on guard than ever.

    He waved his right hand, and the dharmaboat sped up. Following the sea chart, he got closer and closer to Sealizard Ind.

    Along the way, he made sure his daggers were ready. He put on his gauntlets, sharpened his ck iron skewer, and put his poisons in order.

    One day. Two days....

    On the evening of the third day, as crimson sunlight stabbed through dark clouds onto the sea, the wind picked up. That was when Xu Qing spotted an ind ahead.

    The ind itself was pitch ck, as if it were covered with a sinister haze that hid man-eating monsters. Humidity and rot filled the air,ced with failure and death. Hundreds of watercraft were moored in the area, many of them very unusual-looking and obviously not dharmaboats from the Seventh Peak. On the beach were corpses of both people and beasts, creating an even more sinister air.

    As he neared, he realized the ind was covered with ck-forested mountains. The ce was somber and deste, and there was a constant pressure, like ck clouds that made an evening feel oppressive.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat approached the beach, he sensed eyes beyond the treeline, watching him. The gazes were not friendly. When he sensed them, his eyes narrowed, and though his expression remained calm, he unleashed a sharp, prating aura.

    It was almost like he had transformed into a lone wolf. As a result, the gazes shifted away from him.

    Xu Qing stepped onto the beach, collected up his dharmaboat, and then brushed some dust off his shoulder. As he walked toward the jungle, he looked down at the corpses.

    1. Specifically, the aunt is Ding Xue¡¯s ¡°mother¡¯s younger sister.¡± ?

 Chapter 85: The Summit of a Fiendish Island

    Chapter 85: The Summit of a Fiendish Ind

    Grayish-brown bones were scattered on the ck sand. Some had been wiped clean by the wind-blown sand. Others were fresher, and still had bits of rotting flesh on them. Thanks to the wind, the sand piled up against the bones, and filled the skulls of people and beast alike.

    Sealizard Ind looked like a sinister and brutal ce to Xu Qing. The red glow of sunset created dappled light on the beach, like red leaves. It looked almost like a crimson shroudid over the dead.

    Xu Qing looked away from the scattered remains, and in the gathering darkness, he headed into the jungle. The moment he stepped into the trees, it was as if two hands had blotted out the sky, turning everything pitch ck.

    Xu Qing was like a specter moving through the jungle, eyes darting back and forth to coldly look at his surroundings as he moved. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with jungles. Granted, this was an ind in the middle of the sea, so the jungle wasn¡¯t exactly the same as the one he had be familiar with. But there were a lot of simrities. For instance, the vegetation on the ground included manymon medicinal nts.

    Xu Qing was like a fish in water, moving along without any problem. He quickly identified some of the unique aspects of this ce. There were many fallen trees, and upon examination, he realized that the line of fallen trees led straight back to the water. Standing atop one such area, he looked at the surrounding trees, then closely examined the ground.

    There are scales on the trees.

    He even picked up a palm-sized scale, which was grayish-ck and still smelled like the sea.

    This is from a sealizard. And it¡¯s fresh. From what Xu Qing could tell, this was a path a sealizard had taken after crawling out of the water. It was what had knocked down the trees.

    There are other paths here. Each was left by a shedding sealizard. It makes sense that they all go in different directions. I wonder where they go to shed. Is it random... or is there one specific ce they gather?

    After some thought, he decided to follow the trail. Having made his decision, he started moving, going faster and faster. At the same time, he kept fully on guard. He had no idea if there were cultivators here who were beyond the Qi Condensation level. On the one hand, sealizard skins were very valuable. On the other hand, they weren¡¯t very useful for Foundation Establishment cultivators.

    Regardless, he needed to be careful. After all, a smallpse in judgment could be deadly.

    The breeze in the jungle carried with it the scent of rotting vegetation. Xu Qing inhaled, but didn¡¯t detect any other odors. Therefore, he proceeded onward steadily. About an hourter, it was night, and he was getting deep into the mountains. Leaping up into a tree, he crouched down, and looked at what was ahead.

    Not too far away was a grayish-ck lizard skin. It was broken down and dried-up, and had obviously been sitting there for a while. Most likely, it had been damaged in a fight.

    Thanks to his earlier research, Xu Qing knew that there was a special way to preserve sealizard skins as long as they were harvested right after being shed. That was when they were most valuable. Without being preserved, they would degenerate and be worthless. That was why there was often bloody fighting that went on when sealizards shed. It was also why Xu Qing expected to run into other cultivators here.

    Xu Qing dropped out of the tree and searched the area more thoroughly.

    As he explored the mountains, he found more damaged lizard skins. At the same time, he came to realize that the shedding spots were all near the actual mountains. In fact, the higher into the mountains he got, the more skins he found. He was now starting to understand things better.

    The sealizards must shed their skins at high elevation.

    Looking up, he saw a very tall mountain in the distance. His gaze sharpened.

    There. That must be the best spot on the ind. The biggest and strongest sealizards must go there. And those skins will be the most valuable!

    With such thoughts on his mind, he started heading toward that specific mountain. As he moved along swiftly, he finally started noticing other cultivators.

    They were all rogue cultivators, and most were in about the fifth level of Qi Condensation. Although they weren¡¯t very strong, all of them had vicious looks in their eyes. However, they knew their ce. They were all on smaller mountains, and when they spotted Xu Qing, they simply watched him pass, then breathed sighs of relief when he was gone.

    Xu Qing also breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that so many low-level cultivators were gathered here seemed to confirm his theory that it was unlikely he would run into anyone in Foundation Establishment.

    That said, he didn¡¯t lower his guard. After all, if there were Foundation Establishment cultivators here, then they would be gathered in exactly the location he wanted to reach.

    As time passed and Xu Qing sped along, he passed through numerous mountains until he was at the tallest peak on the ind. Looking up, he saw many auras erupt from the mountaintop and lock onto his position.

    He froze. However, after sensing what was happening, a strange expression appeared on his face as he realized these weren¡¯t the auras of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

    Continuing on calmly, he noticed that there were more and more sealizard skins on the mountain. From the aura they emanated, they all seemed to be roughly in the fifth or sixth level of Qi Condensation. It seemed to also confirm his theory that the sealizards liked to get to a high elevation before shedding.

    As for the energy fluctuations he had detected, he ignored them as he started speeding up the mountain.

    The top of the mountain was actually a huge basin surrounded by a ridgeline with trees. There were quite a few cultivators there, and they were stronger than the cultivators he¡¯d encountered so far. Most were in the eighth or ninth level of Qi Condensation, though he noticed a few in the great circle. Most importantly, there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators!

    Everyone present had either brutal gazes or cold expressions. They seemed bloodthirsty, and the type who would kill anyone on the spot. There weren¡¯t many humans present. The majority of the cultivators were non-human. Some cultivators stood alone, others gathered in groups. Many of the cultivators smelled like the sea, indicating that they were probably pirates who spent most of their time on the water. Virtually everyone present turned to look at Xu Qing when he arrived.

    Xu Qing looked the group over and immediately recognized four or five criminals from the bounty list, causing his eyes to glitter. However, he didn¡¯t make any move. Instead, he found a big tree where he sat down cross-legged to rest.

    Although he was d there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators present, he couldn¡¯t operate under the premise that all his assumptions were correct.

    After sitting down, he looked around to think. He was used to being in the presence of ill intentions. Whether it was in the slums or the scavenger basecamp, that had been a matter of course. Therefore, he just sat there calmly and prepared to do some cultivation. However, that was when he frowned and looked coldly at a group of pirates that had been eying him since he arrived.

    It was a gang of about eight cultivators. Two of them were human, six were non-human. In terms of thetter, some had tentacles for hands, some had three eyes, and one of them looked human, but had wings. They were looking at Xu Qing with overt ill intentions and malice. The one with wings even turned to one of hispanions to mutter something. After that, the three-eyed non-human stood up and started walking toward Xu Qing.

    As he neared, the three-eyed non-human grinned nastily and said, ¡°I¡¯ve never liked Seven Blood Eyes disciples. So this one can either screw off, or he can stick around to be food.¡±

    He emanated the fluctuations of the eighth level of Qi Condensation in an obvious attempt to seem threatening.

    Xu Qing studied him, trying to determine if his throat was a vital spot. Then he nced at the cultivatorpanions further back. Obviously, they were trying to feel him out, and if they determined that he was worth bullying, then they would target him.

    After sizing up the situation, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and reached over his shoulder.

    A momentter, a semi-transparent figure appeared behind him, with Xu Qing¡¯s hand gripping its neck firmly. The struggling figure resolved into a blue-haired non-human covered with scales. From the clothing he wore, it seemed he was also a member of the pirate gang.

    His eyes shone with terror as he tried to fight back. However, that was when a crack rang out as Xu Qing broke his neck.

    Then Xu Qing sent the power of the Seaforming Scripture coursing into the nonhuman¡¯s blood, causing him to explode. Blood and gore rained down everywhere, though none of it touched Xu Qing.

    Non-humans had different organs and body structures than humans, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in wasting time trying to figure out what vital spots to hit. Therefore, he just eradicated him by detonation.

    In the instant Xu Qing killed the non-human, he didn¡¯t show even a hint of expression in his eyes. It was almost as if he had just killed a bug. Then he looked coldly at the three-eyed nonhuman, who was now trembling in anxiety. What was more, hispanions behind him all looked absolutely shocked, and were nowpletely on guard.

    ¡°Sorry, this was just a misunderstanding,¡± the three-eyed nonhuman said. Then he slowly walked back toward hispanions.

    Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t know Xu Qing, and thus had no idea that Xu Qing didn¡¯t allow any threats to his safety to exist. Even as the three-eyed nonhuman started moving backward, Xu Qing burst into motion. He became a string of afterimages that arrived so quickly the three-eyed nonhuman barely had time to throw up his spirit power defenses.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into the defensive barrier, and it shattered. The three-eyed nonhuman¡¯s pupils constricted, and he opened his mouth to speak. But before he could, Xu Qing¡¯s fist smashed into his chest like a hammer crushing an ice cube. The nonhuman¡¯s chest caved in and his organs exploded.

    The other pirates shot to their feet, yelling in anger as they prepared to join the fight. However, Xu Qing was already moving toward them. The moment he had killed the first pirate, he had already made the decision to kill the others too. By doing so, he would cut the weeds and eliminate the roots.

    Xu Qing moved with blinding speed. The surrounding rogue cultivators and nonhumans watched as he fell upon the pirates. Bloodcurdling screams rang out and booms filled the area.

    In the blink of an eye, six pirates were dead, leaving behind only the nonhuman with the wings, whose expression was one of unprecedented terror as he backed away. However, a momentter, a sharp dagger whistled through the air and stabbed into his forehead. His body flopped to the ground.

    It was over.

    Gasps could be heard from the other cultivators in the area. Everyone had witnessed the event, and all of them were now looking from the corpses of the pirates to the expressionless Xu Qing.

    Feeling the gazes on him, Xu Qing went one by one to each corpse and cut off its head with his dagger. Going back to his original resting spot, he hung the severed heads from a tree. With that done, he sat down cross-legged and looked across the basin to the opposite ridge. There, he saw a huge anaconda poking its head out from behind a boulder. Beneath that snake¡¯s head was a familiar face.

    He¡¯s here too? thought Xu Qing, his guard going up even more and his eyes narrowing as he looked at the huge snake behind the gruish old man.

    It was the innkeeper from nkspring Way, and when he saw Xu Qing, his heart sank.

    ¡°What is that little punk doing here?¡± he murmured. Their eyes met, and then just as quickly, they looked away from each other.

    ¡°Bad luck,¡± the old man growled. Next to him, the anaconda¡¯s eyes glittered.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by ¡®hello, Elder Brother¡¯?¡± the old man said, ring. ¡°He doesn¡¯t understand your cooing.¡±

    ¡°Coooo, coo.¡±

    ¡°Uh, what? You want to ask which he likes, snakes in general, or eating snake gall dders? Are you crazy? What¡¯s the point in even asking? Didn¡¯t you notice how he was looking at your gall dder area?¡±

    ¡°Coo!¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± the old man said incredulously.

    ¡°Coooo.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not going to ask him for you. I know full well that you secretly signed up with the Seventh Peak Intelligence Division, so you can just go back and ask them how many snakes the brat has killed.¡±

    The old man was fed up with the anaconda. From the moment the snake hadid eyes on Xu Qing, she had been bewitched. Gone crazy, even.

    ¡°Trust me,¡± the old man said with a sarcastic chuckle, ¡°he¡¯s not admiring your figure.¡±

 Chapter 86: Donâ€™t Mess with Me

    Chapter 86: Don¡¯t Mess with Me

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the tree, stayingpletely on guard as he looked at the spot where the old innkeeper from nkspring Way was hiding. Killing intent shed through the depths of his heart. The innkeeper was on his list of enemies on his bamboo slip. However, Xu Qing had never been confident in being able to best him, and had thus steered clear of nkspring Way.

    Lo and behold, the innkeeper was here.... Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    That said, Xu Qing¡¯s primary reason foring here was to earn profit. And considering how hard he knew it would be to kill the innkeeper, he stifled his killing intent and scanned the area again.

    The people here were all extraordinary, especially the people who were here on their own and not with groups. There were many that Xu Qing sensed were very dangerous. That was one reason why he¡¯d ughtered the pirates who had provoked him. At a young age in the slums, he had learned that being deceptive about your true skills and abilities had both advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, being deceptive would end up causing you even more trouble.

    Therefore, he¡¯d struck like lightning, openly disying a bloodthirsty and baleful aura to shock the onlookers. It was something he had nned to do from the moment he arrived, and was a tactic he had honed in the slums.

    In certain moments, baring your fangs was the best way to give a warning to others and say, Don¡¯t mess with me!

    The reason he had beheaded them was twofold. First, he wanted to intimidate the onlookers. Second... there were bounties on those heads.

    After looking around, Xu Qing flicked his finger to send some poison powders filtering down in the area around him. Then he closed his eyes to meditate and wait for the sealizards toe. His actions had achieved the desired result. Everyone seemed afraid of him. What was more, they acknowledged that he qualified to be there, and also approved of how, in the end, he maintained the previous bnce in which everyone tolerated each other¡¯s presence.

    Because of that bnce, nothing else happened as the night came and went. As the sun rose the following day, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked down the mountain. At the same time, seven or eight other pairs of eyes did the same thing.

    Further down, beyond the line of sight of anyone present, there were loud rumbling sounds, as though some colossal creature were on the move. As the sounds drifted up the mountain, the cultivators present seemed to pulse with somber and deadly auras.

    A momentter, Xu Qing watched as a 25-meter-long sealizard appeared within the trees. It was pitch ck, with skin that looked like the bark of an old tree, and sharp ws on all four limbs. Its skin bore the scars of age, and reflected the morning sun as it moved. The skin already seemed to be ready to slough off, indicating that the lizard was about to shed. It seemed to be gasping for breath as it climbed, as though each step caused it pain. Yet it moved without pausing for a moment.

    Despite its apparent weakness, it emanated fluctuationsparable to the eighth level of Qi Condensation. Everyone present tensed; there was no way the lizard didn¡¯t realize there were so many cultivators in the area. That said, it didn¡¯t seem to care. As it struggled up the mountain, more rumbling sounds could be heard from behind it. Trees crashed to the ground as another sealizard appeared. Then a third and fourth. In total, six sealizards could be seen climbing up the mountain.

    Six eighth-level sealizards!

    Xu Qing was starting to get a bit excited. He knew that in the Port District in Seven Blood Eyes, the skins of these lizards were worth a lot of money. Probably 500-600 spirit stones each.

    His eyes glittered as he looked at the lizards. It was almost like he wasn¡¯t looking at mutant beasts, but rather, spirit stones. However, seeing that no one else present moved a muscle, he waited quietly to see what would happen next.

    The rumbling sounds continued as the six sealizards crawled up to the top of the mountain. Not even ncing at the surrounding cultivators, they crawled into the basin. Releasing powerful roars, they began to wriggle out of their old skins. The sound of the roars left the surrounding cultivators feeling shaken.

    As for Xu Qing, he watched with sharp eyes as the sealizards¡¯ struggle made the topyer of their skin fall off.

    The entire process took about an hour. The first lizard topletely shed its skin looked rejuvenated, and left without ever looking at the cultivators. The shed skin was exactly the same size as the lizard that had shed it, but it wasn¡¯t ck. Instead, it was partially translucent and cyan in color, with visible striations. It glittered almost like a jewel.

    Still, no one made a move.

    Xu Qing stayed put, his eyes shing.

    A short timeter, the second lizard shed its skin and left. Then the third and fourth. It was only after thest lizard finished shedding that someone took action.

    It was the innkeeper from nkspring Way, who shot down into the basin like an arrow loosed from a bow. Then the other cultivators sprang into action, their killing intent raging.

    Xu Qing did the same, leaving behind a string of afterimages as he dropped down from the tree and shot with astonishing speed into the basin.

    There were about thirty cultivators in total, all of them trying to take six lizard skins. In the blink of an eye, merciless and deadly fighting broke out.

    As booms echoed, Xu Qing became like an unsheathed sword as he got close to the nearest skin. Next to him was a nonhuman cultivator wearing a woven rush raincoat, his eyes glittering coldly.

    ¡°Screw off!¡± the nonhuman said, waving his hand. The spirit power of the ninth level of Qi Condensation erupted out with crushing pressure toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t spare a look or even a change in expression for the man. Clenching his left hand into a fist, he threw a punch. As his fist flew through the air, a projection of energy and blood appeared. The spectral drought demon roared noiselessly as its fistbined with Xu Qing¡¯s to strike the enemy.

    The nonhuman¡¯s face fell. He had known from the beginning that this Seven Blood Eyes disciple had an unusually powerful cultivation base. But it wasn¡¯t until he saw the spectral drought demon that his heart started to pound with fear.

    ¡°A projection of energy and blood? You¡¯re in the great circle of body refinement!¡±

    He tried to back away, but was too slow. Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into him, causing blood to spray out of his mouth.

    He was also an extraordinary cultivator; using some unknown technique, he blurred, then disappeared. An instantter, he reappeared off in the distance, still coughing up blood. His rush raincoat had been half-shredded to pieces, revealing that he had blue skin. As he looked at Xu Qing, his eyes shed with fear.

    Xu Qing ignored him, reached out, and grabbed the lizard skin. Then, just as he was preparing to secure a second skin, he heard a shout from off in the distance.

    ¡°Are you trying to get us all killed?¡±

    Xu Qing turned to see a rogue cultivator who had arrived to the scene toote to join in the fight for lizard skins, and thus, was heading toward thest of the departing sealizards.

    Before he could get close to it, he was intercepted by a burly nonhuman with a long nose that looked like an elephant trunk.

    ¡°You damn idiot!¡± the trunked cultivator yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t you know that if you kill even a single sealizard, we¡¯ll all die?¡±

    Furious, he knocked the rogue cultivator to the side. The other surrounding cultivators red at the neer with overt killing intent.

    The rogue cultivator¡¯s expression flickered as he backed up and said, ¡°It¡¯s just one sealizard! How could it possibly kill all of us?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re new here, aren¡¯t you? Do you know why there aren¡¯t any Foundation Establishment cultivators here or in the surrounding waters? Do you really think we¡¯re standing on an ind? Listen up. This is not an ind. We¡¯re standing on the back of a gigantic lizard! These mountains are the ridges on its back!¡± The trunked nonhuman¡¯s eyes shone with killing intent.

    ¡°The reason there are so many sealizards here is that they¡¯re the offspring of the big one! In order to protect them, it keeps the area clear of anything above the Qi Condensation level. Now you¡¯re trying to kill one of its offspring while standing on its back? Are you freaking tired of living? If you piss off the big one, we¡¯re all dead!! The only reason it allows Qi Condensation cultivators here is because we¡¯re too weak for it to care about!¡±

    The trunked nonhuman unleashed another attack, as did some of the other rogue cultivators who had failed to secure a lizard skin. An agonized shriek rang out as the newly arrived rogue cultivator was hit from multiple sides, and then died. A momentter, his belongings were being split up by those who had attacked him.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing sucked in a breath as he finally came to understand why there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators nearby. ncing down at the ground beneath his feet, he then shot toward a group of cultivators fighting over one of the skins. His dagger shed with cold light. Whoever got in his way, he cut down, and as the wind lifted his hair, his eyes shone harshly. After cutting down three cultivators, Xu Qing secured a second lizard skin. Looking around, he saw that the other lizard skins were all ounted for. Already, he could identify who the top cultivators were. Each of them was sttered with blood, and had risen to the top by ughtering everyone around them.

    Xu Qing had acquired two lizard skins, as had the innkeeper from nkspring Way. Of the remaining two, one fell into the hands of a lone nonhuman, and the other was taken by a group of five. Although everyone present was more than willing to fight and kill, for the moment, they were holding back.

    Xu Qing scanned the area, his gaze lingering on the innkeeper, and especially the anaconda behind him.

    The huge snake met his gaze, and actually nodded to him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t return the nod. Seeing that the fighting was done, he returned to the treetop and sat down cross-legged.

    The other parties seemed relieved that he wasn¡¯t taking further action, and also fell back to their waiting spots.

    The basin once again became tranquil. However, the cultivators who had not acquired lizard skins had grim expressions as they looked at Xu Qing and the others who had.

    Meanwhile, the old innkeeper took out a pipe and started smoking, looking very content. However, after a moment, he seemed to remember something, and quickly took out a generic antidote pill and consumed it. Next to him, the anaconda made some cooing sounds, but he ignored them.

    Eventually, the huge snake nudged him, and the innkeeper looked over, annoyed, and said, ¡°Like hell I¡¯m going to ¡®remind¡¯ him. He¡¯s a greedy wolf who kills without batting an eyelid. I don¡¯t need to remind him of anything. You think he doesn¡¯t know there¡¯s gonna be a big fight tonight? You ingrate! Why do you care so much about him, huh? Ai. I treat you so well. I raised you! But you don¡¯t care at all about my old bones! I was just poisoned, for goodness sake!¡±

    As the old man griped, Xu Qing studied the area through narrowed eyes. He was careful to take note of everyone with vile dispositions, and especially, their bags.

    Licking his lips, he scattered some more poison powder in the area.

    The day passed and night fell.

    Stark moonlight shone through the trees, creating countless mysterious shadows that swayed and danced like ghosts in the night. Slowly but surely, the cold night filled with killing intent. Not even the moonlight could cover over the greed of the cultivators. And the somber sea breeze moaned like a dirge.

 Chapter 87: A Vicious Night

    Chapter 87: A Vicious Night

    Dark clouds slowly obscured the moon and turned the Forbidden Sea pitch ck. Eventually, not even the dirge of the wind dared to interfere with the darkness, and it faded away. Gradually, an oppressive aura weighed down on the quiet mountain top.

    At one point, a howl of anguish pierced the silence. Everyone was instantly on the alert.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. He saw figures drifting through the night, obviously targeting the people who had acquired lizard skins during the day. He didn¡¯t spare any attention for the other three parties who had acquired skins. Instead, he focused on seven figures closing in on his position. Theck of moonlight couldn¡¯t prevent his eyes from glittering coldly with killing intent. Almost as soon as the figures started moving toward him, he took action.

    The attackers thought that the darkness would be their ally, but little did they know that Xu Qing actually preferred that darkness.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing had disappeared from the top of the tree.

    There were a total of seven attackers, and three were leading the charge. Of that group, one shivered as his forehead was split open by an iron skewer. Blood sprayed out of the mouth of another as Xu Qing passed by him. The third died in even more agony. He was an extremely obese nonhuman. As he neared the tree, a dagger shed, tearing through his throat with such force that his head flew off his shoulders along with an eruption of blood.

    It wasn¡¯t until the third was already dead that the other two screamed as they also died.

    After the three clean kills, Xu Qing lunged backward, mming into a human cultivator who was in the middle of unleashing a magical attack. A thud rang out as the man¡¯s chest caved in, and blood sprayed left and right. There were only three more attackers, and seeing what had just yed out, they all gasped.

    ¡°You two unleash magical attacks,¡± a nonhuman shouted. ¡°I¡¯ll pin him down!¡±

    This nonhuman was extremely short, about the same height as a five-year-old child. However, as he charged toward Xu Qing, he grewrger with each step, until he was three meters tall.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. Ignoring the giant cultivator charging toward him, and the other two behind him performing incantation gestures, he lifted his right hand and made a pinching gesture. A buzzing sound filled the air as countless droplets of water rose up from the surrounding nts, then converged into long, thin threads that formed a of water. Underneath the pale moonlight, the threads glittered coldly, spreading out to cover the other cultivators, with Xu Qing in the very middle.

    Swishing sounds filled the air, and the two cultivators performing magical attacks looked shocked as the water hit them. Their spirit power defenses provided almost no resistance. The water sliced through them, then hit the cultivators, instantly chopping them up into chunks of bloody flesh.

    As for the giant nonhuman rushing toward Xu Qing, his face went pale, and his eyes shone with terror. He opened his mouth to speak, but then his skin started turning greenish-ck. Screaming, he staggered backward, then fell onto his back, where he twitched a few times before dying.

    Then the water fell on him, as well as the other recently-killed cultivators, chopping them all to bits.

    The extremely obese cultivator was obviously dead, but as he was chopped up, he unleashed a bloodcurdling scream. Then a small ghost-like imp emerged from within him. Many nonhumans had unusual ways of staying alive. Using some strange technique, the imp became very skinny, slipped through the water, then fled.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pursue him. He just watched coldly and counted in his head.

    One. Two. Three....

    A momentter, the cultivator in imp form started shaking visibly. Turning to look at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Let me go....¡±

    Before even finishing with the third word, his body started to melt, beginning with the tongue. Even without a tongue, he was able to scream shrilly. It was so loud and piercing that it drowned out the sounds of the fightinging from the other three directions.

    Everyone looked over. As they watched, the imp fell to the ground, thrashing around while screaming. Eventually, the screams stopped as he transformed into a pool of blood. Gasps rang out, but were immediately cut off as the surrounding cultivators scrambled to pull out antidote pills. The only one who didn¡¯t seem concerned was the old innkeeper.

    He had been steadily consuming antidote pills ever since Xu Qing arrived the day before. After all, he had some experience dealing with Xu Qing¡¯s poisons.

    Ignoring the surrounding cultivators, Xu Qing retrieved his dagger and iron skewer, took the bags that had belonged to his opponents, and then went back to the treetop to meditate.

    Perhaps because this ind was really the back of a huge lizard, the spirit power and mutagen were both very strong. Most cultivators who spent long periods of time at sea were used to such environments. They all had various cultivation techniques to separate the mutagen from the spirit power. However, at some point, they would all have to go ashore and use medicinal pills or other methods to extrude the mutagen they had built up.

    But Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to do that. As a result, he had no apprehensions about furthering his cultivation here. What was more, because of the aura of the Forbidden Sea, it was even easier to make progress with the Seaforming Scripture.

    Even though Xu Qing was sitting there with his eyes closed, no one even considered attacking him. In fact, they all kept their distance, fearful of being poisoned. Their fear affected the fighting in general, and before long, things calmed down again.

    And thus, the night passed.

    When dawn came, it was as if it bit the lip of night, causing blood to seep out. That blood spread out, growing fainter and fainter until light filled the sky.

    On the ridge overlooking the basin, the lone nonhuman cultivator who had acquired a lizard skin the day before had been joined by a fellow cultivator. Apparently, they hade to an agreement to work together. The neer was the cultivator in the woven rush raincoat that had shed with Xu Qing briefly the day before.

    As for the group of five who hadid im to one of the lizard skins, they were now dead. In their ce was the burly, trunked nonhuman, who was leading a group of seven other cultivators.

    Only Xu Qing and the innkeeper from nkspring Way were still alone.

    The only difference was that Xu Qing was surrounded by blood and gore, while... not a single corpse could be seen near the innkeeper.

    Xu Qing nced at the innkeeper¡¯s anaconda, and the snake seemed to notice. Looking back at him, she nodded as if in greeting. That seemed strange to Xu Qing, but he didn¡¯t think about it too much. Closing his eyes, he continued meditating.

    Meanwhile, the old innkeeper nudged the huge snake with his foot, and gave a cold harrumph.

    ¡°Did you see that?¡± the innkeeper said. ¡°He¡¯s ignoring you. If I were you I¡¯d stop thinking about the little punk all the time. I¡¯m the only family you have in this world.¡±

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡±

    Looking hurt, the snake gazed longingly at Xu Qing at the top of the tree. Seeing this, the innkeeper sighed. Feeling a bit bad, he said, ¡°Now you¡¯re crying? Come on. The brat can¡¯t speak snakenguage, so of course he¡¯s ignoring you....¡±

    Hearing this, the anaconda¡¯s eyes brightened a bit.

    When a girles of age, the innkeeper thought, marry her off. It¡¯s the same with stupid snakes.

    For a moment, the old man tried to decide if he should kill Xu Qing. However, the thought of Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness made him abandon such thoughts.

    Time began to pass. Ten days went by.

    During that time, cultivators came and went. At some times, nearly a hundred cultivators gathered on the ridge. At other times, there were only a few dozen. Some were lone operators. Others were pirates. Some were nonhumans from other inds in the sea. Regardless, though there was constant fighting and killing, there were always new cultivators to rece the old ones. Sealizards appeared on three asions, and each time, Xu Qing fought with ruthless decisiveness. Not only did he acquire more lizard skins, but also, the area around his meditation spot became piled up with corpses. In fact, the entire tree seemed stained with blood. It was a truly ghastly sight. Eventually, it became such a shocking area that, to the people in the area, Xu Qing¡¯s area was like its own forbidden region.

    There were others who had a simr reputation. One was the innkeeper, and the other was a new team made up of the nonhuman in the woven rush raincoat and the burly, trunked cultivator. They had acquired quite a few lizard skins, yet didn¡¯t seem ready to leave. Apparently, they were waiting for something to happen.

    Sensing that there was more toe, Xu Qing didn¡¯t leave, but rather, focused mostly on cultivation. The spirit power was lively, and the mutagen strong. Because of that, Xu Qing increasingly felt like he was in the forbidden region outside the scavenger basecamp, where his cultivation speed had increased rapidly.

    He was now getting close to the ninth level of the Seaforming Scripture.

    I should be able to break through in three days or less.

    As he went through his breathing exercises, spirit power rushed into him, nourishing him. At the same time, the mutagen poured into his shadow. As a result, his spirit sea, which had once been 261 meters, grew evenrger.

    264 meters. 267 meters.

    Two more days passed. On the morning of the third day, Xu Qing¡¯s rippling spirit sea was very close to being 270 meters. When it hit 270, his Seaforming Scripture would reach the ninth level.

    A disciple who reached the ninth level of cultivation using Seven Blood Eyes techniques would be able to dominate just about any other human cultivator in that same level anywhere in the continent of South Phoenix. They could even consider fighting a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a small sect.

    There was little need to mention that Xu Qing¡¯s body cultivation had reached an unheard-of level by using the Sea and Mountain Incantation. After all, he could summon the spectral drought demon. Therefore... once he achieved a breakthrough with the Seaforming Scripture, his battle prowess would skyrocket. When that happened, he would surpass people at the very peak of Qi Condensation, and could well be considered as strong as a Foundation Establishment expert. In fact, Xu Qing was convinced that, once he was that strong, he could defeat and even kill Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, though it would be a long, hard fight.

    I¡¯m going to break through tonight! Eyes filling with anticipation, he prepared to continue with his cultivation when, all of a sudden, the sound of footsteps echoed from further down the mountain.

    Whoever was walking toward them hadn¡¯t shown their faces yet, but an aura of cold brutality preceded them, filling the basin, and causing everyone to look over, expressions flickering.

    The neers... weren¡¯t sealizards, but rather, were cultivators!

    They wore an odd assortment of clothing, but looked shockingly fierce, like the kind of people who would ughter others without the slightest scruple. There were sixteen of them, and each one emanated powerful cultivation base fluctuations, and had ghastly auras.

    ¡°Sea Ghosts!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the Sea Ghosts!¡±

    ¡°Dammit, what are they doing here??¡±

    Immediately, cries of astonishment echoed out in the basin.

 Chapter 88: Xu Qingâ€™s Rules

    Chapter 88: Xu Qing¡¯s Rules

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with enigmatic light. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with the Sea Ghosts. Back in Seven Blood Eyes, when he was low on spirit stones, he had collected bounties on a handful of criminals, and one of them was Sun Dewang from the Sea Ghosts. [1]

    The man ended up getting cleaned out in a gambling hall owned by Zhao Zhongheng, and when he left, Xu Qing took his head. Other than the bounty itself, he hadn¡¯t earned much from that incident.

    Back during that time, Xu Qing had learned that most pirate organizations in the Forbidden Sea were made up of outcasts from various sects, inds, and ns. They were usually people who had nowhere else to go, and thus joined a pirate organization. There were a fewrge-scale pirate groups, and one of them was the Sea Ghosts.

    All of these neers had cultivation base fluctuations that surpassed Sun Dewang. And there were four who were at the top of the pack. From what Xu Qing could tell, they were all in the great circle of Qi Condensation. These were people who lived on the edge of a de, and from their strong, baleful aura, Xu Qing could tell that they surpassed anyone that he had encountered in the scavenger basecamp.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the sixteen Sea Ghosts. After flying up to the ridge surrounding the basin, the other cultivators present bristled with an aggressive aura.

    Obviously the Sea Ghosts had a reputation such that, wherever they went, people disliked them. The Sea Ghost cultivators didn¡¯t seem to care. They all had cold, detached expressions, while some even smirked coldly as they looked around. Their attitude was just as cold when they looked at Xu Qing and the innkeeper. It was as if no one present was worth their attention. However, they didn¡¯t take any action. They found an empty spot and sat down cross-legged.

    As they looked around coldly, one of them said, ¡°Everyone here can get lost. Or not. But if you stay, all you can do is look at the sealizard skins. If you try to take them from us... you¡¯ll die.¡±

    The voice pulsed with killing intent as if it reached the ears of all present. No one said anything in response.

    Xu Qing sat there thinking about what to do. Based on how hesitant everyone else seemed, he could only guess that the Sea Ghosts hade to Sealizard Ind because of some special reason.

    Should I just leave?

    After taking a moment to examine the fluctuations of his cultivation base, his eyes filled with determination, and he turned and left. He moved with such speed that, only a momentter, he was off in the distance.

    All of the other cultivators present were visibly surprised, including the innkeeper, who thought, Is the brat really leaving?

    A few of the Sea Ghosts nced at him leaving, but quickly looked away.

    And thus, Xu Qing moved at top speed through the jungle and down the mountain, not stopping for anything. About an hourter, he was back at the beach. Looking as calm as ever, he tossed his dharmaboat out onto the water and jumped on board.

    The first thing he did was activate the defenses. As they whirred into ce, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and the water around the boat roiled as a snakeneck dragon appeared. It began to swim circles in the water below as it kept an eye on the surroundings.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing looked back at Sealizard Ind, his eyes shining.

    His smooth victories on the ind, and his increase in cultivation base, had not caused him to be less vignt and alert. His temperament was the same as before. Therefore, because he was just on the verge of a cultivation base breakthrough, he decided not to arrogantly stay on the ind. It would likely have been safe, especially considering how strong he already was, and the fact that he had enough poison to kill anyone who got too close to him. But all that wasn¡¯t necessary.

    He had been like this even in his days in the slums. All it took was a bit of arrogance or carelessness, and you could give someone an opportunity to do something to you. Considering that he made it a practice of exterminating any threats to his safety, it didn¡¯t make sense for him to put himself in a position to be targeted by others. It was a simple rule for survival in a chaotic world.

    Some people would forget that as they got stronger and stronger. But Xu Qing would never forget the hard lessons he had learned growing up. They were engraved onto his very bones.

    Now that he was in a safe location, he closed his eyes. Almost immediately, his cultivation base rumbled as he began the breakthrough.

    Meanwhile, back at the basin on Sealizard Ind, the poison in the area was already starting to fade away. Many of the cultivators present were breathing sighs of relief. That said, the Sea Ghosts posed a big threat, and therefore, the rogue cultivators were feeling more pressure than ever. Of course, all of them were hesitant to leave. As time passed, some finally made the decision not to stay.

    Before long, evening was approaching.

    As the evening sun dropped past the horizon, a fog appeared on the water. It spread out in all directions, almost as if some invisible god were in the middle of breathing exercises, and its aura were spreading across the Forbidden Sea.

    Fog wasn¡¯t exactly a rarity on the Forbidden Sea. Therefore, even if it appeared, people wouldn¡¯t be surprised. However, when an incredible shockwave rolled from the shore out to the open water, quite a few cultivators looked over.

    All of them saw intense spirit power fluctuations in that direction. Seemingly endless amounts of spirit power were rushing toward a dharmaboat on the water. The size of the disturbance reached over 180 meters, but kept growing rapidly, until it was 267 meters.

    That wasn¡¯t the end of the matter. As the spirit power continued to rush in, the area around Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat became like a huge whirlpool.

    As it rumbled, water sprayed everywhere, and like a torch on a dark night, it captured the attention of many of the people on Sealizard Ind. Numerous gazes shifted to observe what was happening, and up in the mountains, gasps could be heard.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe someone is breaking through!¡±

    ¡°This breakthrough feels... so strong!¡±

    The people by the basin were shocked, including rogue cultivators and Sea Ghosts alike. All of them looked at the whirlpool with expressions of shock.

    ¡°That¡¯s the disciple from Seven Blood Eyes who left earlier!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s actually going for a cultivation base breakthrough!¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear any of the reactions. He was on his dharmaboat in the middle of the whirlpool, trembling as his spirit sea grew along with the whirlpool outside.

    It was almost like there was another world within him, superimposed with the world outside.

    As those two worlds ovepped, Xu Qing trembled even more violently, while simultaneously emitting bright violet light. He began to breathe more heavily as his cultivation base operated. Then his spirit sea pushed past that final distance to reach 270 meters, while in the outside world, the whirlpool also became the same size.

    His inner sea and the outer sea had reached the same point, and it caused rumbling like thunder to explode in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!

    He had broken through from the eighth level of the Seaforming Scripture and into the ninth!

    But the process wasn¡¯t over yet!

    The whirlpool and the spirit sea kept growing. 273 meters. 276 meters. 279 meters¡­.

    The whirlpool in the outside world seemed to stimte his spirit sea, and together they increased in size.

    Xu Qing had never experienced anything like this before because he had never achieved a breakthrough while out in the Forbidden Sea. The spirit power was much stronger than in the harbor. The growth continued.

    282 meters. 285 meters. 288 meters.

    When the whirlpool reached the 291-meter mark, it was the same with his spirit sea. That was when the fluctuations of the ninth level of Qi Condensation erupted from within him.

    Meanwhile, the water in the 291-meter area around him erupted, shooting water high into the air.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open. Violet light shone from his eyes for several breaths of time before fading away. Then, even stronger fluctuations rolled out. The spectral drought demon appeared behind him, as berserk and vicious as an evil ghost as it howled to the sky. As a result, the water for nearly 300 meters around the boat seemed like it burst into mes. In other words, it became a sea of fire. The howling spectral drought demon then inhaled deeply, and the 291-meter sea of mes rushed into its mouth. Upon swallowing all of it, the drought demon shivered, and the cracks covering its skin glowed with red light. The light grew brighter and more intense, until it looked almost likeva.

    Finally, dazzling light filled the area, while something like the power of fire shot out from within Xu Qing!

    It wasn¡¯t a case of water somehow transforming into fire. Instead, it was a gruish mixture of the two. And because of the fire, the aura of the Forbidden Sea became like a flow of water. It was also the sign that Xu Qing¡¯s breakthrough wasplete.

    The violet light disappeared, and he slowly stood. As his aura swept out from the dharmaboat, all of the top experts on Sealizard Ind were shocked to their cores.

    That was especially true of the cultivators by the basin. All of them struggled to keep their breathing calm as they realized a huge enemy was going to being their way.

    Xu Qing really had experienced a shocking breakthrough. And the people who knew that the most clearly were those who had shed with him previously. All of them were bbergasted.

    Xu Qing had been dangerous before, but now that he had broken through, they could only imagine how much more dangerous it would be to fight him.

    The innkeeper from nkspring Way looked stunned as he spoke quietly to the anaconda.

    ¡°Maybe you should go try to seduce him? There¡¯s more to this little punk than meets the eye. He¡¯s in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, but to me, he feels more like someone in Foundation Establishment!¡±

    Of course, the biggest reason why everyone was feeling nervous was that... Xu Qing jumped back onto the shore and started racing back up to the basin! After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, his wild aura was once again spreading out atop the mountain.

    Ignoring everyone else, he went back to his same spot on top of the tree, where he sat down cross-legged and started meditating.

    This time, the Sea Ghosts were obviously taking him very seriously. And some of them even looked afraid.

    Making a show of strength came with upsides and downsides. And in this environment, the upsides seemed to outweigh the downsides.

    Xu Qing had used his breakthrough to tell the Sea Ghosts: don¡¯t mess with me.

    As for their demand for others to not touch the sealizard skins, he was responding with: your demands... don¡¯t apply to me.

    1. The fight with Sun Dewang was in chapters 64 and 65. ?

 Chapter 89: Unbreakable Alliance

    Chapter 89: Unbreakable Alliance

    He didn¡¯t speak the words. He made them clear through his actions. Now, he sat at the top of the tree, and he didn¡¯t leave like he had before. He wasn¡¯t doing anything different from before, nor had his facial expression changed, but the feelings of the surrounding cultivators were dramatically different.

    Those who had feared him before¡­ currently feared him even more.

    Those who had disregarded him before¡­ were now paying very close attention to him.

    The mood in the basin became more stifling. Then, as the night grew deep, rumbling echoed out from the bottom of the mountain as two eighth-level sealizards started climbing up.

    Everyone paid close attention to the lizards. However, after they climbed into the basin and shed their skins, no one did anything. They just watched as five of the Sea Ghosts went down to retrieve the skins.

    Everyone except for Xu Qing, that is. Opening his eyes, he looked at the two shed skins and then got to his feet.

    Everyone looked over.

    Ignoring them, Xu Qing simply dropped out of the tree and shot into the basin. Completely disregarding the Sea Ghosts cultivators, he headed toward the nearest lizard skin.

    Seeing this, one of the nonhuman Sea Ghosts red at him grimly. Eyes shing, he flexed his fingers, causing his fingernails to grow longer until they were like des. shing at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°That¡¯s my lizard skin, friend, so you¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, Xu Qing reached up, grabbed his arm, and wrenched it forward, while simultaneously jumping up and kneeing him in the chest.

    Cracking sounds echoed out as the nonhuman¡¯s chest caved in. Cracks spread out to the rest of his body, and then a boom rang out as he exploded. However, what exploded wasn¡¯t flesh and blood. Instead, it was wood. This nonhuman cultivator wasn¡¯t actually a person, but rather, a puppet!

    The other Sea Ghosts seemed to put their guard up as Xu Qing reached over and took the sealizard skin. Then he turned in their direction and looked at them coldly.

    Several of the other Sea Ghosts seated cross-legged nearby stood up, looking both fearful and ferocious.

    The two parties faced off for a short time.

    One of the Sea Ghosts was a burly, bare-chested man whose chest was a mass of wriggling flesh that resembled a vicious face. It looked like a newborn child, wrinkled, but abounding with life force. It had crimson eyes that were currently locked onto Xu Qing as it said, ¡°You broke my toy, friend. But that doesn¡¯t matter. How about... we split the sealizards here fifty-fifty? That¡¯s not too much to ask, is it?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He just took the sealizard skin he¡¯d just grabbed, turned around, and went back to the treetop, where he sat down to meditate.

    He had a very clear purpose foring to Sealizard Ind, and that was the lizard skins. He hadn¡¯te to kill people. As long as no one got in his way, there wasn¡¯t any need for fighting. Furthermore, he didn¡¯t see the need to be overly greedy.

    Xu Qing knew that acting this way would have benefits. Because of the intimidating Sea Ghosts, the other rogue cultivators wouldn¡¯t cause any trouble. In the end, he would benefit more. He had sufficient battle prowess. But given the life-or-death circumstances, he knew some of these people would have trump cards. Besides, what would be the point of ughtering them?

    In the end, the Sea Ghosts¡¯ proposal aligned with his interests, so he epted the offer.

    Time passed. Three days went by.

    During that time, Xu Qing acquired another lizard skin without any incident. He was still suspicious about why the Sea Ghosts had shown up, and why the other cultivators were just sitting around doing nothing.

    On the third day, a huge ship appeared out at sea, and its destination was obviously Sealizard Ind. At that point, Xu Qing¡¯s suspicions grew even stronger.

    The ship was at least 300 meters long and was pitch ck. The style of construction did not resemble Seven Blood Eyes dharmaboats; it was shaped somewhat like a maple leaf. What was most curious of all was that anyone who looked at it would feel a chill rising within them, as if there were grues aboard it straight from a forbidden region. The main reason for that was the ckcquer that covered the ship. That dark color wasn¡¯t natural; rather it seemed to be a type of blood that had been spread on the ship, making it seem very gruish!

    ¡°The Church of Departure!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe they¡¯re here too!¡±

    From the ridge of the basin, it was possible to see all the way down to the sea. And therefore, Xu Qing had a good view of the ck ship speeding toward the ind. He also heard all of the whispered and fearful reactions around him.

    The more than one dozen Sea Ghosts had serious expressions on their faces, and were conversing in hushed tones. It seemed they viewed this iing force as dangerous enemies.

    Xu Qing observed through narrowed eyes. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with the Church of Departure.

    Back in the scavenger basecamp, he¡¯d befriended that young girl whose brother was the captain of aw enforcement team from that church. Eventually, that girl¡¯s brother hade to take her away. [1]

    On that asion outside the general store, Xu Qing had heard the scavengers talking about the Church of Departure. Apparently, most people thought of them as lunatics.

    Later, after joining Seven Blood Eyes, he had found more information about the church while browsing through information in the Violent Crimes Division.

    The Church of Departure was one of four major powers in South Phoenix. The others were the Violet Lands, Seven Blood Eyes, and Words of Truth.

    The Church advocated for following the example of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns in leaving the world of Armageddon. They constantly preached that the holynd the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns had left to was a ce of beauty, with no famine, frost, or killing. And the spirit power there was pure. They imed that, one day in the future, that holynd would open its doors to the world of Armageddon, and that everyone who exercised faith in the Church would be able to go there.

    The members of the Church of Departure truly believed in their creed. And they viewed anyone who disagreed with their faith as heretics who deserved to be punished with the death penalty.

    It was only natural that a church with such fanatical doctrines would be considered full of lunatics.

    I wonder how she¡¯s doing, Xu Qing thought as he recalled that little girl and the candy she¡¯d given him. However, he was quickly pulled away from his memories and back to the present as the Church of Departure¡¯s ship got closer and closer. What exactly is going on here on Sealizard Ind?

    As Xu Qing¡¯s suspicions grew deeper, the old innkeeper from nkspring Way looked down at the Church of Departure¡¯s ship, and he sighed.

    ¡°It¡¯s over. The Sea Ghosts and the Church of Departure are here this time. They¡¯re obviously here for the same reason as me.¡±

    As the innkeeper facepalmed bitterly, the anaconda made a few cooing sounds. The innkeeper looked at the snake for a moment.

    ¡°That actually makes sense.¡±

    The innkeeper stood up and headed toward Xu Qing¡¯s tree, with the anaconda following along looking very excited. Of course, not many people know what an excited anaconda looks like, so few people realized it.

    The fact that they were moving caused the other surrounding cultivators to look over and see what was happening. That included the Sea Ghosts. That said, the arrival of the Church of Departure was too distracting for them to pay much attention to anything else.

    Xu Qing eyed the innkeeper¡¯s throat as he approached. The old man stopped with the anaconda about 30 meters away from the tree.

    ¡°Hey, young fe. I want to talk business. Don¡¯t spread out any more poison, alright? And can you clear a path through the poison that¡¯s already here?¡±

    Xu Qing already had an idea why the old innkeeper hade, so he waved his hand as if to dispel the poison in the area.

    Seeing that, the innkeeper sighed and stepped into the 30-meter perimeter. Walking up to a point about nine meters from the tree, he quietly said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious why the Sea Ghosts and the Church of Departure are here? I won¡¯t waste words. I¡¯ll tell you exactly what¡¯s going on. Based on seasonal calctions, there¡¯s a high likelihood a Foundation Establishment sealizard will appear soon. Lizard skins like that are worth a lot of money. Early Foundation Establishment skins go for 2,000 spirit stones. The mid-level go for 5,000, and thete-level go for at least 10,000.

    ¡°I¡¯m old and not as strong as I used to be, so what do you say we work together? Forge an unbreakable alliance! We join forces to get the lizard skins, and we split everything fifty-fifty. And we trust each other to watch each other¡¯s backs!¡±

    The old innkeeper spoke with dignity, but also quickly. After he finished, he looked up at Xu Qing, only for his face to fall. Scrambling to produce a handful of medicinal pills, he consumed them and then started cursing Xu Qing.

    ¡°You damn brat! You said you wouldn¡¯t spread out any more poisons, didn¡¯t you??¡±

    After thinking for a moment, Xu Qing said, ¡°I didn¡¯t spread out any more poison. That was left behind from earlier.¡±

    ¡°Flipping... wait, why did you wave your hand a moment ago?¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. ¡°You told me to clear a path through the poison.¡±

    ¡°... did you?¡± the innkeeper asked, ring.

    ¡°My poisons can¡¯t be cleared away.¡±

    Xu Qing was starting to get a bit irritated. This old man was listed on his bamboo slip, and it was only because of the tenuous circumstances that he wasn¡¯t attacking him.

    The innkeeper looked at him for a long moment, speechless, before finally sighing. ¡°Trying to talk with you is impossible. Are you saying that, since you can¡¯t clear your poison, you just waved your hand as an act? To make me feel better?¡±

    Xu Qing stared coldly at the old man, not saying a word.

    Veins started to bulge on the innkeeper¡¯s forehead. Meanwhile, the anaconda made a few cooing sounds. Gritting his teeth, the innkeeper consumed another handful of medicinal pills, then looked angrily at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Allies. Agreed? Or not?¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    Xu Qing¡¯s quick response caused the innkeeper to sigh. Then, he was about to say some more when the Church of Departure¡¯s ship reached the shore.

    At least seven or eight figures shot off of the ship and into the jungle. The light of the moon wasn¡¯t enough to illuminate thempletely. However, they all wore ck cloaks with hoods that covered their faces. They emanated somber and gory auras, and moved with incredible speed as they shot toward the mountaintop basin.

    Looking grim, the old innkeeper said, ¡°The Church of Departure is full of crazy people. You know, there¡¯s a story people tell out at sea. Supposedly, the Church of Departure secretly controls a bunch of inds where they carry out research and experiments on grues. The locations are so secret that no one has ever figured out where they are.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked in the direction of the iing members of the Church.

    1. The girl was taken away by her brother in chapter 29. ?

 Chapter 90: A Golden Glow that Causes Madness

    Chapter 90: A Golden Glow that Causes Madness

    Before long, footsteps could be heard as the group from the Church of Departure walked out of the forest and to the ridge line surrounding the basin. There were eight of them, and they all wore ck cloaks with red suns embroidered on them. They looked strange and bizarre, and at the same time, radiated a sinister coldness. That was especially true given how their eyes gleamed within the darkness of their hoods. There wasn¡¯t a scrap of emotion on them, as if the living beings here meant absolutely nothing to them and their Church.

    That apathy toward death struck the rogue cultivators and nonhumans to the core. Even the Sea Ghosts, who were widely known to be cruel and ruthless, seemed somewhat afraid of them. After all, cruelty and ruthlessness were aspects of humanity. However, the people from the Church of Departure seemed like emotionless killing machines.

    Along with their arrival came a sinister coldness that filled the basin and caused many of the surrounding rogue cultivators to finally turn and leave. The people from the Church of Departure didn¡¯t bother looking at such rogue cultivators. They simply sat down cross-legged. After that, they didn¡¯t move a muscle.

    Xu Qing nced at them, but didn¡¯t see the big brother of that young girl from the scavenger basecamp, so he looked away and closed his eyes to meditate.

    The innkeeper didn¡¯t go back to his previous spot. Instead, he picked a much closer spot that was poison-free, and sat down cross-legged, keeping his guard up against both Xu Qing and the other nearby cultivators.

    This little brat agreed too quickly. Something seems off. I have to be careful.

    The atmosphere in the basin remained tense as ten more days passed.

    During that time, no sealizards appeared.

    None of the cultivators present seemed surprised by that. The water surrounding the ind was calm, with few waves. It was like the increasing pressure that would build up before a storm. It was the same in the basin. Everyone remained silent, except for the anaconda, who would asionally look at Xu Qing and make some cooing sounds.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t understand, so he ignored the snake, and instead focused on remaining in peak fighting condition. He wiped his dagger clean. He sharpened his iron skewer.

    As for why he¡¯d agreed so quickly to the alliance, it was because he didn¡¯t trust the old innkeeper, and knew the innkeeper didn¡¯t trust him.

    It was on the evening of the tenth day that something finally happened.

    Rumbling could be heard from the sea, and the waves which had been mostly absent for the past ten days suddenly surged. Terrifying auras erupted from the sea, spreading out in all directions and covering the ind. Far out past the shore, Xu Qing saw numerous whirlpools in the water, getting closer to the ind.

    The cultivators present didn¡¯t say anything. They just kept their cultivation bases rotating in a ready state, ready to strike like lightning when the time came.

    When the first whirlpool reached the shore, water erupted everywhere as a huge sealizard stepped onto the sand, its 150-meter-long body ckish violet. In the twilight, it almost looked like it was covered with jeweled armor that glittered with ck light. It seemed incredibly tough, and at the same time, radiated pressure that far surpassed the Qi Condensation level.

    The immense energy caused dust and sand to whip about in the air everywhere.

    It was a Foundation Establishment sealizard!

    Whether it was its armored skin, its sharp ws, or the terrifying vertical pupils in its eyes, this sealizard seemed capable of unleashing endless ughter. It seemed intelligent as it shook the water off of itself, then looked around coldly at the ind. Finally fixing its attention on the basin, it began contemptuously climbing up.

    The immense mightiness on disy caused all of the cultivators on the ind to feel like they were being crushed.

    Furthermore, there wasn¡¯t just a single Foundation Establishment sealizarding to the ind. A second climbed up onto the shore and entered the jungle, then a third. The aura of the third was stronger than the others, and it looked to be 300 meters long. When it threw its head back and howled, a windstorm sprang up around it, causing the trees in the jungle to shake violently.

    Even the cultivators at the basin could feel the strong, sea-vored wind hitting their faces. The sensation of crushing weight on their cultivation bases got even stronger.

    Even Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he sensed the terrifying might of the three Foundation Establishment sealizards. From what he could tell, the first two were strong, while the third was so overwhelming his eyes stung when he looked at it. He inhaled sharply as he thought back to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Even the first two sealizards were so strong that they could crush the patriarch into dust.

    Eyes lighting up, the innkeeper from nkspring Way said, ¡°Two mid Foundation Establishment sealizards. And one inte Foundation Establishment! The skins of the first two are worth at least 10,000 spirit stones each. As for the skin of the third... it would sell for 15,000-16,000! Xu Qing, it¡¯s time to make our alliance a reality.¡±

    The other cultivators in the area looked simrly excited, including the Sea Ghosts, rogue cultivators, and nonhumans. Tens of thousands of spirit stones were on the line, and that was just too enticing. In the world of Armageddon, that level of wealth was simply too much for these cultivators to resist.

    Xu Qing looked down at the beach where the three sealizards had exited the sea. The feeling of danger was so intense that his hair stood on end, and he felt himself quivering.

    Part of that was because of the aura crushing down on him, but part of it was his body telling him that it was ready to take action at any moment.

    If I can get one of these Foundation Establishment sealizard skins, then I can go back fully satisfied. That much wealth would be more than enough to upgrade my dharmaboat, and also keep my cultivation going without constantly having to worry about earning spirit stones.

    Counting the lizard skins he had already collected, he had enough to make about 2,000 spirit stones. If he added in the items he had taken from the cultivators he¡¯d killed, plus the gifts Elder Sister Ding had given him, he would probably end up with a total of 4,000.

    Add in a Foundation Establishment lizard skin, and I can go home victorious!

    As he made up his mind, rumbling sounds reached his ears as the sealizards started climbing the mountain. They didn¡¯t fly in the air, but instead, charged through the jungle, knocking down the trees along the way, which actually aided in the shedding process. When they finally reached the top of the mountain, theypletely ignored the cultivators as they tromped into the basin. They were so huge that the three of them took up the greater part of the open space in the basin. Being so close to Foundation Establishment creatures caused the cultivators to temporarily stop breathing.

    Then the sealizards threw their heads back and roared, and the sound of which was powerful enough to be deadly. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the sound waves swept out in all directions.

    There were some cultivators whose fleshly bodies couldn¡¯t stand up to the force. Trembling, they coughed up huge mouthfuls of blood as they sustained serious injuries.

    At the same time, many of therge trees in the area shattered.

    As the sound of the roars rolled out destructively, it became obvious that any weak cultivators didn¡¯t stand a chance.

    Xu Qing also trembled, but his fleshly body was strong, and the sound waves didn¡¯t cause him much trouble. However, the tree he had been sitting atop crumbled into ashes.

    As Xu Qing dropped to the ground, he ignored the tree and instead looked around the basin like a hawk, waiting for the firstplete skin to appear.

    The innkeeper was doing the same thing, as were the Sea Ghosts and other nonhuman cultivators who could stand up to the sound of the roar.

    As everyone waited in anticipation, enough time passed for an incense stick to burn. At that point, the two mid Foundation Establishment sealizards finished shedding. However, it was to the disappointment of everyone present that the huge lizards rippedrge portions of their shed skins off of therger swaths, then swallowed them. Then, they leaped into the air above the basin, unleashing muffled roars into the heavens.

    Though the skins they left behind had holes in them, they still possessed bizarre properties. As everyone watched, they rapidly shrank down until they were palm-sized.

    The more than one dozen Sea Ghosts burst into movement, as did the nonhumans and rogue cultivators. Apparently, nobody was worried about the threats the Sea Ghosts had made, and werepletely obsessed with the potential profits to be had.

    The old innkeeper simrly charged forth.

    However, Xu Qing was the fastest of all. In the shortest of moments, all of the cultivators present were on the move, with the exception of the people from the Church of Departure.

    Now, dozens of people were fighting over two pieces of Foundation Establishment sealizard skin.

    Xu Qing chose to head toward the nearest one, as did the innkeeper. Neither of the two liked each other, so despite choosing to work together, they still had their guard up.

    As they closed in on the skin, they faced theirpetitors, killing intent zing.

    Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base, causing droplets of water to spring up everywhere, then fly out in all directions. He also wielded his dagger, aiming it with cold efficiency at one of the nonhuman Sea Ghosts. This Sea Ghost was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, which meant he was very strong. But Xu Qing was stronger. Xu Qing¡¯s right fist mmed into his chest, apanied by the might of the spectral drought demon.

    The nonhuman cultivator howled as he was sent flying backward, pulling out a talisman treasure to protect himself. Even with the added protection, blood sprayed out of his mouth. Then the talisman treasure copsed, and he mmed into the ground 20-25 meters away.

    The old innkeeper was equally as fierce. Numerous ropes appeared, wrapping around the necks of the nonhuman cultivators. However, some of them also whipped toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had just knocked several enemies away and was about to grab the lizard skin. However, that was when the ropes appeared. Thankfully, he had been ready for something like this, and let out a cold harrumph as he sent the power of his energy and blood surging out.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the ropes copsed, and it seemed like he was just about toy his hand on the lizard skin. However, that was when four Sea Ghosts lunged at him with burning killing intent, their eyes bloodshot as they performed incantation gestures to unleash magical techniques.

    The old innkeeper was also surrounded by rogue cultivators.

    Two other Sea Ghost cultivators shot toward the lizard skin, and were about to grab it when the air near the skin rippled and distorted, and a huge anaconda appeared out of nowhere, struck out, and grabbed the skin in her mouth.

    Looking very excited, the anaconda nced at Xu Qing and the innkeeper, and seemed inclined to go help Xu Qing.... That was when the innkeeper¡¯s eyes shed, and he startedughing uproariously. The glow of a talisman treasure appeared, knocking aside everyone and closing in on the snake.

    As the light wrapped around the anaconda, the innkeeper¡¯s expression was one of excitement.

    ¡°Good girl. Wonderful job!¡±

    The spectral drought demon appeared behind Xu Qing, howling, a sea of mes spreading out from it in all directions. Nearby Sea Ghosts screamed and fell back, coughing up blood. But Xu Qing ignored them and turned to face the innkeeper, his eyes glittering with icy coldness.

    Meanwhile, the 300-meter sealizard that remained in the basin threw its head back and roared.

    Old skin exploded as the lizardpleted the shedding process and emerged anew. Then it chomped up a mouthful of the shed skin before shooting up into the sky. Its energy and blood seemed to surge to new heights as if the lizard were in the process of surpassing the Foundation Establishment level!! It roared madly, leaving everyone below shaken, and their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth bleeding.

    As for the remaining shed skin, it rapidly shrank down and formed three pieces. Those three pieces of lizard skin emanated iparably astonishing energy that far surpassed the other two skins. What was more, they seemed to glitter with golden light.

    As that golden light spread out, even the clouds above stirred, and there was a god-like feeling that weighed onto everyone. In fact, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but think back to the Seven Blood Eyes entrance assessment, and the blood of the godly entity!

    Eyes wide, the innkeeper from nkspring Way shouted, ¡°This... am I seeing things? Thiste Foundation Establishment lizard actually has some godliness! That aura of godliness is going to make those skins even more valuable!!¡±

    At that point, the people from the Church of Departure opened their eyes, and they shone with cold, callous light. This was what they hade here for!

 Chapter 91: Killing for Treasure

    Chapter 91: Killing for Treasure

    Given how massive an organization the Church of Departure was, and how small of a team was present, it didn¡¯t seem likely their goal was spirit stones. Besides, ¡®desire¡¯ was something each member had long since sacrificed to their overall goals. They were here on a more important mission, and that was a mission assigned by the Church. It was... to get a lizard skin that contained godliness!

    Therefore, the moment the lizard shed that skin, the eight Church members shot to their feet, somber and deste auras erupting from them. All of them pulsed with the fluctuations of the great circle of Qi Condensation as they headed right into the basin. They moved so quickly that, in the shortest of moments, they were closing in on their target.

    Most shocking of all was how their group moved inplete unison, even down to the cement of their feet as they moved. They were like eight shining des stabbing forth together.

    As for the rogue cultivators in their paths, they didn¡¯t have time to get out of the way, and were shed down like stray weeds in the path of a sh flood.

    The strength on disy from the Church of Departure caused the Sea Ghosts, who had been eying them this entire time, to look at them even more coldly. The Sea Ghosts had sent ten cultivators into the fight for the two mid-Foundation Establishment lizard skins, keeping back five. Now, those five rushed forward, pulsing with the fluctuations of the great circle.

    The burly man with the fiendish face on his chest was the strongest of all, as even faint traces of Foundation Establishment were present in his aura.

    The two sides shed, and booms filled the basin. Then Xu Qing¡¯s cold eyes shed as he unleashed the full power of his cultivation base and shot forward.

    The lizard skin from earlier fell into the hands of the innkeeper from nkspring Way. However, the only circumstance in which Xu Qing would worry about that was if the innkeeper didn¡¯t return to Seven Blood Eyes. As long as he returned, then even if he tried to back out on the deal... Xu Qing would make sure he paid his fair share including interest.

    Because of that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay much attention to the innkeeper, nor did he say anything about the lizard skin. As the Church of Departure and Sea Ghosts started fighting, Xu Qing clenched his hands into fists and circted his energy and blood.

    The spectral drought demon appeared behind him, more clear and visible than ever. Its huge body was covered with cracks that seemed to flow with bright-redva. The drought demon also surged with power that surpassed the Qi Condensation level, and thus, so did Xu Qing¡¯s two fists.

    KA-BOOOOOOM!

    One punch hit the Church of Departure. One punch hit the Sea Ghosts.

    The full force of Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess caused a deafening noise to fill the basin, along with a powerful windstorm.

    Within that windstorm, the Sea Ghosts looked shocked, and the eight members of the Church of Departure shot backward and looked over at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Looking to get killed!?¡±

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes....¡±

    The Church of Departure and Sea Ghosts attacked, focusing some attention on each other, and some on Xu Qing. Both sides wanted to prevent anyone else from getting the lizard skins that floated in the middle of the basin.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s ferocity was already on clear disy. Having grown up in the slums, and experienced life in the scavenger basecamp, he knew how to take things by force. Waving his hand, he summoned a host of water droplets that shot out like rain in all directions.

    At the same time, he mmed into a Sea Ghost nonhuman. The cracking sounds that resulted weren¡¯t even drowned out by the boom of the collision, and then a dagger appeared, which Xu Qing shed through his opponent. Not pausing for a moment, Xu Qing suddenly lunged backward and mmed his fist into the chest of a Church of Departure cultivator behind him. More loud cracking sounds rang out.

    As his killing intent raged, blood sttered over his daoist robe, and his delicately handsome face looked iparably cold and harsh.

    After killing two opponents in a row, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to go into an incantation gesture with his left hand. Instantly, the spectral drought demon behind him howled, and all of the water droplets in the area transformed into mmable oil that burst into me.

    From a distance, it looked like innumerable fire arrows were shooting this way and that.

    The fire cast chaotic shadows, making it seem like a horde of devils was dancing wildly in the firelight. Because of that, no one noticed that a shadow was making its way through the chaos toward the lizard skins.

    As the mes spread, Xu Qing backed up, while at the same time, the enemies up ahead formed a perimeter to prevent anyone else from getting close to the three lizard skins. However, that was also when a shadow suddenly shot up from the ground and started wrapping around the lizard skins. Simultaneously, the air next to the skins rippled and distorted, and the innkeeper bizarrely appeared, looking almost fanatical as he reached toward the lizard skins.

    He was clearly one step behind Xu Qing, as the shadow beat him to the punch.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± The innkeeper¡¯s handtched onto nothing but air. As he fell back at high speed, others in the area noticed what was happening, and instead of focusing their rage on Xu Qing, they attacked the innkeeper.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he took advantage of the moment to retreat further. Using his shadow to pull the lizard skins to him, he turned and raced toward the ridgeline.

    Seeing that he was making his escape, the beleaguered innkeeper yelled.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have them. Look, fools, this bag of holding is the only thing I have on me!¡± The innkeeper pulled out his bag of holding and threw it in Xu Qing¡¯s general direction. ¡°Everything¡¯s in there, you little punk. You keep it from now on!¡±

    The innkeeper was a vicious person in his own right, and he knew that no amount of exnation would convince everyone of anything. Suddenly, a boom rattled out as the old man, without an ounce of concern for maintaining face, detonated all of his clothes except for his underpants. There he stood,pletely bare to the world. He even spun in a circle to show everyone he wasn¡¯t hiding anything. Finally he dashed over to the anaconda, grabbed her, and then sped in pursuit of Xu Qing.

    The others present were skeptical, but a few of them flew down the mountain after the old innkeeper, including members of the Sea Ghosts and the Church of Departure. However, as they got close, they switched targets to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Your tricks won¡¯t work on me! Other people might not be able to sense the aura of the lizard skins, but to me they¡¯re like a bright torch on a dark night!¡±

    ¡°Hand over the lizard skins!¡±

    Two sets of pursuers unleashed astonishing magical techniques.

    Xu Qing stopped suddenly and backed up, avoiding the attacks from the Church of Departure and the Sea Ghosts, his eyes glittering with killing intent. He didn¡¯t bother paying any attention to the innkeeper¡¯s bag of holding; he was certain nothing good was hidden inside.

    Xu Qing had never assumed he would be able to pull a fast one on the other cultivators. It had been a lucky break that the innkeeper made a move, and that had given him hope that he might be able to get away while the others focused on the old man.

    It quickly became apparent that Xu Qing was no coward. As killing intent burned in his eyes, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing a blue talisman treasure to appear in front of him.

    As spirit power entered it, it activated, transforming into a huge statue. It appeared to be a god of death worshiped by some nonhuman tribe. It had three heads and six arms, and emanated a cold aura of death as it lunged toward the Sea Ghosts and Church of Departure cultivators.

    Xu Qing had acquired this talisman treasure from the young merman, and hadn¡¯t used it much. As such, it contained an attacking forceparable to the Foundation Establishment level. As it crushed down toward the Church of Departure cultivators and Sea Ghosts, they pulled out their own glittering talisman treasures to defend themselves.

    A huge boom rang out as a shockwave surged out in all directions. Everyone backed away.

    Xu Qing was strong, but there were too many enemy cultivators present. Blood was already oozing out of his mouth. That said, the injury wasn¡¯t bad enough that the violet crystal¡¯s powers of regeneration couldn¡¯t deal with it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes seemed to glitter more profoundly as he looked around at the cultivators in the area. He licked his lips, and the acrid taste of the blood reminded him of his days in the slums, and the scavenger basecamp. He didn¡¯t likeplicated scenarios. He had the lizard skins, and his enemies didn¡¯t want him to leave. In that case, it was a simple situation.

    I just need to kill them all.

    As he looked around, the surrounding cultivators were shaken inwardly.

    They had seen vicious people before, but this young disciple from Seven Blood Eyes had killing intent so intense it made many of their hearts pound. That said, godly lizard skins were at stake, and that was just too great of a temptation. Because of that, few of the cultivators were willing to back down.

    The only ones who did were some of the nonhuman cultivators who had held back from attacking Xu Qing up to now. They knew how ruthless he was, and therefore, they hung back, hoping that an opportunity might present itself. Among them was the nonhuman in the woven rush raincoat and the burly trunked man.

    After a brief standoff, the first to make a move was the Church of Departure. The Church had lost one of their members in death, leaving behind seven. All of them pulled out long spears and rushed toward Xu Qing with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    The Sea Ghosts took action as well, along with a few of the scattered nonhuman rogue cultivators.

    As everyone rushed forward, someone in the lead unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as his body started turning ckish-green. Then he vomited a huge mouthful of ck blood.

    ¡°There¡¯s poison here!¡±

    There were more than a few cultivators who were affected. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight started bleeding out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. As everyone looked on in shock, Xu Qing made a move. Moving with incredible speed, he closed in on the Church of Departure cultivators. His dagger appeared in his right hand, which he used to bat aside a spear. Then he dodged more spears before stabbing his dagger into the throat of an enemy.

    As blood sprayed everywhere, Xu Qing pulled his iron skewer out of his sack and advanced toward the gathered foes.

    A rumbling sound could be heard as the spectral drought demon appeared, howling to the heavens as a sea of mes erupted around it, causing Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body power to skyrocket.

    In the blink of an eye, a great ughter went underway on the mountaintop basin!

    Off in the distance, the old innkeeper shook thest of his pursuers. As he carried the anaconda along, he looked over his shoulder and cursed, ¡°Stinking brat! So you did take them!¡±

    He picked up speed as he ran. However, the anaconda didn¡¯t seem willing to flee, and instead wanted to go back and help Xu Qing. As she struggled, she made urgent cooing sounds.

    ring, the innkeeper said, ¡°The damn punk is iparably treacherous. Don¡¯t you realize that, you silly girl?¡±

    Smacking the snake unconscious, he raced along until he reached the shoreline. Not needing a boat, he headed into the water and disappeared without a trace.

 Chapter 92: Blood-Soaked Sealizard Island

    Chapter 92: Blood-Soaked Sealizard Ind

    At night on the open water, the wind could change with no warning. The weather was as unfathomable as the depths of the sea. In the sky over Sealizard Ind, thunder rumbled and asional lightning bolts could be seen. A storm wasing.

    Thanks to the illumination of the lightning, it was possible to see a great ughter underway on the tallest mountain on the ind.

    Three godly lizard skins were valuable enough that any rogue cultivator would risk life and limb to get them.

    As the thunder boomed overhead, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes overflowed with killing intent. Lunging forward, he body-mmed a cultivator from the Church of Departure, sending the man staggering backward.

    Not bothering to wait for a counter attack, and ignoring the iing magical techniques, Xu Qing plunged his iron skewer into the man¡¯s chest six or seven times, piercing his heart. The man trembled with each blow. Then Xu Qing jumped away as the magical techniques arrived. They mmed into the cultivator¡¯s corpse, ripping it to shreds.

    Meanwhile, as Xu Qing backed away, four Sea Ghost nonhumans spread out to surround him. All of them were obviously powerful body cultivators.

    There was also the burly man with the vicious face on his chest. Performing a double-handed incantation gesture, he summoned a huge sphere of blood that quickly transformed into a crimson bat. As the bat shot toward Xu Qing, it bared its fangs; obviously a bite from this bat would result in either severe injury or death.

    Seeing the danger, Xu Qing threw out a talisman treasure that created a defensive shield. As the bat and the other Sea Ghost cultivators were held off, Xu Qing then turned toward three cultivators from the Church of Departure.

    His current goal was to wipe out the people from the Church of Departure! And that was because they were the biggest threat.

    The Church of Departure didn¡¯t care about life. That applied to their enemies and to themselves. As a result, they were formidable fighters.

    As Xu Qing closed in with the spectral drought demon and its sea of mes, the Church of Departure cultivators¡¯ expressions flickered. However, they still continued with their attack, even if it meant their own injury or death.

    Booms rang out as one of the three cultivator¡¯s chests caved in. The next cultivator managed to grab hold of Xu Qing¡¯s waist. Xu Qing stabbed him in his head, but before dying, the man grabbed the skewer, making it impossible for Xu Qing to pull it out.

    The third cultivator was the first to show any sort of emotion in his eyes. It was fanaticism.

    ¡°Departure!¡± he howled, and his entire body burst into mes, turning into a dazzlingnce that shot toward Xu Qing with shocking speed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as his spirit sea suddenly erupted, appearing outside of him and rushing out in all directions.

    The corpses of the two Church of Departure cultivators copsed from the force, and the other cultivators in the area who had been rushing toward Xu Qing had no chance to get out of the way, and were struck.

    Taking advantage of the moment, Xu Qing spun, just barely avoiding the burningnce, which passed right by his chest.

    That said, even though it didn¡¯t stab him, it still brushed against him, shredding his clothing and slicing open his flesh.

    Gasping for breath, Xu Qing backed up about fifteen meters. Stopping, he bent his legs, thenunched off of one foot, shooting forward like an arrow. Leaving behind a string of afterimages, he closed in on another of the Church of Departure cultivators. This cultivator¡¯s eyes also burned with fanaticism.

    ¡°Departure!¡± he howled, as he also chose to self-detonate.

    There were only three people left from the Church of Departure. Of that group, one remained unmoving, while two flew toward Xu Qing at top speed. Within their cloaks, their eyes burned just like theirpatriots, as they also chose to self-detonate!

    Some distance away, the Sea Ghosts¡¯ eyes were bloodshot as they looked on. They had roughly a dozen cultivators left, all of whom were unleashing trump cards, including three talisman treasures.

    There were more. The surrounding rogue cultivators, including people who had rushed over from other mountains on the ind, were edging forward andunching their own attacks.

    From a distance, it looked like Xu Qing was in a very dangerous position. In the blink of an eye, three cultivators from the Church of Departure self-detonated, all of the Sea Ghosts attacked, and multiple talisman treasures exploded. The area around Xu Qing exploded, and waves of dirt showered over him.

    And yet, before that dirt could settle, Xu Qing shot out from inside like a bolt of lightning. Surrounding him was a glowing yellow light cast by another talisman treasure. Specifically, it was a flight talisman, attached to his leg.

    With that, he could achieve levels of speed surpassing anything from before. Moving at top speed, he mmed into a rogue cultivator who held a dagger.

    The man screamed as his body exploded. Not pausing, Xu Qing grabbed the dagger and sped toward more surrounding enemies.

    Blood still oozed out of the corners of his mouth, and his Seven Blood Eyes daoist robe was in tatters. However, the iciness in his eyes didn¡¯t show any signs of thawing. Wherever he went, screams rang out, and bodies dropped. Blood spread out everywhere until the muddy ground reeked of gore.

    Several Sea Ghost cultivators lost their heads as he dashed by them.

    Amidst the brutal ughter, the sole remaining cultivator from the Church of Departure and the Sea Ghost with the fiendish face on his chest joined forces and were able to temporarily keep Xu Qing at bay.

    Shrugging off a magical attack from the two of them, Xu Qing plunged his right hand into the chest of a rogue cultivator, then threw him to the side. Flying up to a nearby boulder, he lowered himself to his haunches and red icily at the surrounding enemies.

    The remaining member of the Church of Departure was their leader.

    There were four Sea Ghosts, including the man with the face on his chest.

    As Xu Qing scanned the area, blood dripped off of his dagger and mixed with the blood on the ground. Xu Qing had a flight talisman, and thus could have simply flown away. But these people wanted to kill him. ording to his own rules, he couldn¡¯t just leave. He needed to eliminate any potential future threats by killing everyone present.

    There were over forty corpses on the ground, and the aura of death they emanated was incredibly strong. The rogue cultivators that were still alive were all trembling, and didn¡¯t dare to keep fighting.

    Xu Qing frowned.

    He needed to eliminate anyone who had attacked him today. Even someone whose cultivation base was weaker than his was a potential cmity.

    At this point, the sole survivor from the Church of Departure, their leader, suddenly spoke. ¡°I just want one lizard skin. Give it to me, and once I report back to my superiors, you¡¯ll earn the friendship of the Church of Departure!¡±

    ¡°I want one too,¡± said the face on the chest of the burly Sea Ghost. ¡°If you don¡¯t cooperate, you¡¯re going to have a hard time making it out of here alive.¡±

    Ignoring them, Xu Qing tapped into the flight talisman to speed toward the fleeing rogue cultivators who had attacked him earlier. Momentster, their heads flew off their shoulders.

    Seeing this, the Church of Departure cultivator and the burly Sea Ghost again joined forces andunched an attack.

    The Church of Departure cultivator¡¯s ck hood flew back, revealing the face of a middle-aged man with cold eyes and an astonishing aura. His energy surpassed the great circle of Qi Condensation, and was very close to that of Foundation Establishment. As he waved his hand, a ck fog rolled out that turned into the shape of a huge gravestone. It was covered with cracks and was surrounded by numerous vicious souls. However, the souls were vague and difficult to see clearly, making it clear that this man couldn¡¯t fully utilize this technique. Regardless, the gravestone of ck fog shot right toward Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, the burly Sea Ghost howled as his body shriveled up, while at the same time, the vicious face surged with blood-colored light. The redness of its eyes spread to the entire face, and then it spat out a mouthful of blood. The blood instantly transformed into a flying sword that pulsed with a baleful aura as it shot toward Xu Qing.

    The other Sea Ghost cultivators also used trump cards to attack Xu Qing.

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed and he lifted his right hand over his head. Violet light flickered, swirling around overhead to make the shape of a huge saber.

    It was thirty meters long, nine meters wide, made from violet light, and oppressively sharp!

    It was like a heavenly saber hovering in midair, and thrummed with an indescribable harmonious dao, as though the saber contained magicalws of both heaven and earth.

    The moment the saber appeared, the burly Sea Ghost¡¯s face fell, and he gasped, ¡°Qi Condensation enlightenment can produce daoist magic?? This is freaking... something Qi Condensation can produce???¡±

    He immediately fell back in terror.

    The leader of the Church of Departure was also shaken, and his face was pale.

    That was when Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless, dropped his hand.

    An intense rumbling echoed out as the violet saber fell from the sky, shing into the basin and destroying everything in its path!

    The blood-colored flying sword shattered. The ck tombstone exploded. Everything shook as the entire basin was sliced into two parts. As for the leader of the Church of Departure, he stared in shock at Xu Qing as he was ripped apart, blood spraying everywhere.

    The burly Sea Ghost trembled visibly, and a look of despair appeared in his eyes. He wanted to look down at his waist, but before he could, the de shed through him, cutting him in half. He was dead, as was the face on his chest.

    Also torn to shreds were all the other Sea Ghost cultivators.

    A momentter, everything in the basin went silent. The only sound that would be heard was the thunder in the sky. The rain... had finally started falling.

    The raindrops plopped onto the ground, but it wouldn¡¯t be easy to cleanse the blood.

    Xu Qing stood there, panting and covered with wounds. Though most of the wounds were already healing, there were some that were so deep it didn¡¯t seem they would stitch up. This had not been an easy battle for him, especially considering how many opponents he had to deal with.

    Turning, he noticed the trembling nonhuman in the woven rush raincoat, and the trunked cultivator.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t attack you!¡±

    ¡°We never made a single move against you!!¡±

    The two of them were shaking uncontrobly.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Off to the side were more of the rogue cultivators who had attacked him, and were now fleeing in confusion. He didn¡¯t chase them. He just watched closely as, before they could get far, they screamed, their bodies turning greenish-ck as they fell over dead.

    The trunked cultivator and the nonhuman in the raincoat trembled even harder.

    Ignoring the two of them, Xu Qing turned and made a grasping gesture with his right hand. His iron skewer flew into his hand. Then he waved his hand again, and the skewer shot back and forth among all the corpses. He needed to make sure none of them were just pretending to be dead.

    The cultivator in the raincoat and the trunked man backed up slowly. When they were sure Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to them, they started running. It wasn¡¯t until they were a good distance away in the jungle that they breathed sighs of relief.

    However, not even they could suppress the greed in their hearts, and both of them surreptitiously took out jade slips that they could use to send messages to their leader. They were worried that if they waited too long, Xu Qing would get away.

    However, before they could even send their messages, two streams of light screamed toward them. Looks of surprise appeared briefly on their faces before their throats were shed open. They fell to the ground, dead.

    Xu Qing looked away calmly. He knew that even though there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators on Sealizard Ind, that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t hiding out at sea. The two cultivators he had just killed had been about to send out messages, and he had no doubts it was for that purpose. Ordinary people wouldn¡¯t stop to send messages in a moment like that.

    While checking to make sure everyone was dead, Xu Qing also organized all of the loot.

    Before long, he looked up suddenly, and his shadow shot toward three rogue cultivators who were only pretending to be dead. The shadow wrapped around their necks and hoisted them into the air.

    Before they could plead for mercy, snapping sounds rang out as their necks were crushed.

    Meanwhile, the dead face on the chest of the burly Sea Ghost suddenly opened its eyes, and a small blood-colored imp emerged from it. It was obviously some unusual method to evade death. In the blink of an eye, the imp shot out to the open sea, and fled off into the distance.

    Watching coldly, Xu Qing said only one thing.

    ¡°Forbidden Sea dragonwhale!¡±

    The sea off the coast of Sealizard Ind erupted as a 300-meter-long snakeneck dragon shot up and devoured the blood-colored imp in a single bite!

    Then it sshed down beneath the surface and disappeared, leaving behind only rolling waves.

    The rain fell harder.

 Chapter 93: Like a Phoenix. Like a Hawk.

    Chapter 93: Like a Phoenix. Like a Hawk.

    It was amidst pouring rain that Xu Qing appeared on the beach again. Walking past the bones and corpses half-buried in the sand, he eventually reached the water. The storm had kicked uprge waves which obviously contained hidden dangers.

    Xu Qing suddenly recalled that the Church of Departure hade on a ship, but he didn¡¯t see it anywhere.

    Although there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators on this ind, he didn¡¯t dare to stick around the area, even in the water near the ind. If there was a Foundation Establishment cultivator nearby who had it out for him, they wouldn¡¯t be far away. That was where they would be waiting for their Qi Condensation cultivators to return sessfully with lizard skins.

    Xu Qing obviously couldn¡¯t be certain that the Church of Departure or Sea Ghosts had sent Foundation Establishment cultivators along on the trip. But if they were out there, it was highly likely they had already been notified about the big fight that broke out. There was no way that Xu Qing could personally prevent allmunications from leaving the ind.

    After some thought, he decided not to leave immediately. Instead, he sat down cross-legged and meditated a bit to stabilize his cultivation base and recover a bit. A short timeter, he opened his eyes and looked out at the open sea, his eyes shing coldly.

    If there¡¯s a Foundation Establishment cultivator out there....

    After pondering the matter further, he suppressed any killing intent within him. Having no idea how many of them might be, he didn¡¯t want to get involved in another dangerous fight.

    After more thought, he took out his dharmaboat. Then he waved his hand, and cracking sounds rang out as a small flying boat emerged from the bottom. Zhang San had installed the flying boat as an emergency contingency in case the dharmaboat was destroyed and he needed to escape. The flying boat wasn¡¯t built ording to the dharmaboat specificationsid forth by the sect. In fact, the smaller boat couldn¡¯tpare to a real boat in terms of defensive or offensive capabilities. However, Zhang San had given it a huge boost to speed, ensuring that it could move at more than double the top speed of the dharmaboat.

    Of course, using it for long-term travel on the open sea would be dangerous.

    After thinking about it some more, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes filled with determination. After taking out the jade slip with the detailed instructions for the dharmaboat, he set it to auto-pilot, put it on the same course he¡¯d followed whening to the ind, then activated the defenses and started it moving.

    As he watched it speed off, he suppressed the regret of losing his dharmaboat, and then stepped into the flying boat.

    Just as he was about to leave, he turned back and looked at the ind. Rain obscured most of it, and as the wind made its way through the nts and trees, it sounded almost like whispered conversation, perhaps gossip about the recent bloody battle.

    It was a dark and stormy night, and the mountains were quiet.

    Xu Qing looked at it all, then sped hands and bowed deeply at the waist.

    ¡°Sorry for disturbing you, Senior.¡±

    Having said that, he turned and sent the flying boat off the beach and under the surface of the water. As the boat sped along underwater, Xu Qing retracted his aura. His dragonwhale was also there to mask its presence.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s n to get away safely from the ind. One boat was a distraction, the other was hidden. And they were going in different directions. Hopefully, this would help him avoid any Foundation Establishment cultivators out there.

    After he was off in the distance, the rain-soaked ind suddenly trembled, and then slowly sank beneath the surface.... Seawater surged across the ind as that happened, washing away whatever traces of blood the rain had been unable to remove. Shortly after, the ind floated back up. This time, it was free of any bloodstains. Strangely, all of the fallen trees and shattered boulders had returned to their previous state. Even more strange, while the ind was under the water, a pair of huge eyes opened, looked indifferently at the flying boat off in the distance... and then closed again.

    ***

    An hourter....

    As the flying boat moved at an astonishing speed underwater, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, stabilizing his cultivation base. At a certain point, his eyes snapped open, and he took out the jade slip from the dharmaboat. It crumbled into ash, indicating that the dharmaboat had been destroyed.

    So, there was a Foundation Establishment cultivator out there. Should I go deeper underwater to avoid detection, and wait for the Foundation Establishment cultivator to leave? Or should I pick up speed?

    After some thought, he chose thetter option.

    He didn¡¯t want to just sit around and wait to die. After all, there were terrifying things underwater as well. And if this enemy stuck around for a long time, he could be in trouble.

    He didn¡¯t want his own life to depend on whether this opponent stayed around or left.

    As the flying boat picked up speed, he worked even harder to keep his aura reined in. Thankfully, the water itself would ensure his aura didn¡¯t spread very far. What was more, because he didn¡¯t need to worry about mutagen, he could stay deeper underwater.

    The only question was how the flying boat would fare.

    That said, it wasn¡¯t a question he could sit around pondering in the moment. Under his control, the flying boat shot along under the water. Sometimeter, his pupils constricted as a sense of deadly crisis filled him. Someone out there was searching for him.

    Trying to stay absolutely quiet, he dropped deeper while simultaneously moving forward.

    The feeling of crisis didn¡¯t go away. What was more, the flying boat was suffering from the effects of the water pressure and the encroaching mutagen. Going on in this way wasn¡¯t an option. Frowning, he put away the flying boat and proceeded with only his dragonwhale around him.

    Time passed. Soon, it was the next day.

    The sense of crisis slowly faded. However, it didn¡¯t disappearpletely. Somehow, this enemy had locked onto Xu Qing in a way he couldn¡¯t discern.

    Xu Qing knew he couldn¡¯t afford to be careless. Gritting his teeth, he prepared to go even deeper into the water to try to escape whatever was locked onto him. However, that was when his mind spun as an immense pressure suddenly weighed down from the dome of heaven.

    Being under the water, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see what was going on above him on the surface, but he could definitely sense the terrifying pressure.

    This wasn¡¯t something from Foundation Establishment, but rather, a colossally monstrous aura from the sky. Because of that pressure, whatever force was locked onto him retreated in rm.

    Shaken, Xu Qing took advantage of the moment to continue on with greater speed. Some distance away, after confirming that he was free of whatever had been locked onto him, he continued on his way.

    However, he knew that he could only travel this way temporarily. Though he hadn¡¯t run into any underwater danger so far, the longer he stayed below the surface, the more likely he would encounter something deadly.

    After continuing for some time, he triple checked that there was no danger on the surface, then carefully went up. Poking his eyes above the surface of the water, he looked around. Almost immediately, his attention was drawn to the sky. It should have been dawn right now, but the sky was pitch ck. And that was because there was a thick cover of ck clouds overhead. They stretched for what had to be hundreds of kilometers, blocking out everything beyond.

    And Xu Qing was right in the middle of it all.

    The wind screamed and thunder rumbled. Lighting crackled across the dark clouds, causing heaven and earth to shake violently. The sea seethed, as though it were kowtowing to whatever entity was above!

    If that were all there was to the situation, it might not have been a big deal. But as Xu Qing looked up, he realized to his shock that there was some entity within those clouds that defied imagination. It was as if this being existed on a different level of life, exuding so much pressure that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t move his muscles. Even his soul felt like it was vibrating, and his mind went nk.

    He could do nothing but move his eyes, and as he did, he caught a glimpse of the terrifying entity above.

    It was a massive creature covered in ck me that resembled both a phoenix and a hawk!

    It had the head of a phoenix, a neck like a snake, a beak like a swallow, a curved back like a turtle, and a tail like a fish! Beneath the ck mes, the entity¡¯s body was five-colored and dazzling in a way that defied description. As it soared within the ck clouds, it seemed immensely holy. [1]

    In fact, it even seemed to contain some of the same godly resonance that existed in the god¡¯s face above.

    It was obviously this being that had driven away the unknown cultivator that wished to do harm to Xu Qing.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the ck clouds eventually rolled off into the distance, leaving behind the clear, bright sky behind it. When it was off in the distance, and Xu Qing regained his senses, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    However, just as the breath left his mouth, that terrifying being in the ck clouds turned and looked back at the surface of the water.

    As it did, the water a few dozen kilometers from Xu Qing exploded, sending out massive waves in all directions, along with whipping winds. At the same time, the mutagen became vastly more intense as if it were converging on that spot.

    Even though Xu Qing was a good distance away, he could see it very clearly, and not only was he physically shaking, but also, his mind reeled. The hawk-like phoenix retracted its gaze and disappeared back into the clouds. Thunder rumbled as the clouds disappeared over the horizon.

    Eventually, the waves died down, and Xu Qing let loose a long sigh of relief. His face was pale as he looked off into the distance, still feeling shaken. The feelings he had experienced because of that god-like bird were unlike anything else he had experienced while traveling the open sea. Not even the giant dragging the bronze dragon chariot came close.

    What was it? It was flying in the direction of South Phoenix....

    Suddenly, he thought of something.

    South Phoenix. Phoenix...?

    Xu Qing had perused many of the ancient records in the Violent Crimes Division back in Seven Blood Eyes, and he remembered reading that on the other side of the Mountains of Truth was a huge forbidden region that made up seventy percent of the continent.

    The biggest forbidden region on the continent of South Phoenix is called Forbidden by the Phoenix....

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled as he spected what it might mean. After a short time, he took a deep breath and stopped specting. The best he could do was ask around when he got back, and do some more research.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing sank back down into the water, then kept moving as before. A few hourster, after determining that he really wasn¡¯t being followed, he broke the surface, got on his flying boat and started moving at top speed.

    Three days passed during which he traveled very carefully to make sure no one had locked onto his position. He still suspected that the appearance of the phoenix had inadvertently shaken his pursuers, ensuring that it couldn¡¯t track him properly. However, that didn¡¯t mean he would let his guard down. Though he didn¡¯t go underwater again, he didn¡¯t spare any spirit stones to make sure the flying boat moved at top speed.

    During the three days that passed, most of his injuries healed. However, he was still very pale, and was also exhausted from all the fighting.

    When he thought back to the ughter, he realized that despite his extraordinary cultivation base and battle prowess, he had never been this tired in his entire life. Thankfully, the benefits had been astounding, and thus, he was pleased with how it all turned out.

    Not only did he have three godly lizard skins, but also, he had ten skins from ninth-level lizards, and even more skins from lower-level lizards. What was more, he had acquired numerous prized treasures, and even three talisman treasures. Though the calligraphy on them was fading, meaning they could only be used a few times, they were still worth a lot. In terms of spirit stones.... ording to his calctions, he had over four thousand.

    Most rogue cultivators weren¡¯t very rich, so thatrge amount came mostly because of the Sea Ghosts he had killed. The people from the Church of Departure all seemed destitute, much to his disappointment.

    Given how much he had benefited overall, he decided not to worry about the Church of Departure¡¯sck of wealth.

    Forgetting the godly lizard skins, I have a total of about 20,000 spirit stones. After tallying everything up, he pushed the flying boat toward Seven Blood Eyes as fast as it could go.

    His increase in cultivation base, and the wealth he had acquired, ensured that he didn¡¯t care at all about the spirit stones he needed to feed into the flying boat to keep it going. All of the days he had spent traveling had given him a deep reverence of the sea. His bags were full, and now all he wanted to do was get back.

    By using the spirit stones to push the flying boat to its limit, he knew he would reach the sect in only three more days.

    On the way back, he kept close to the coast, and thus avoided any unusually dangerous circumstances. It was about half a day out from the Seven Blood Eyes port that he finally ran into another watercraft from the sect.

    It was a battleship, heading toward him at high speed.

    Although it appeared to be a Seventh Peak Coastguard Division ship, Xu Qing kept his guard up. He made sure his snakeneck dragon was just below the surface of the water at fighting readiness. At the same time, he took note that there were five dragonwhales under the Coastguard Division battleship. One of them looked like a giantfang shark.

    Xu Qing shivered inwardly, and maintained full vignce.

    Before long, the battleship neared, water spraying around it. The ship was covered with terrifying spell formations, and it had over eighty magical spikes that could release terrifying power. What was more, Xu Qing saw over thirty Seventh Peak disciples on the main deck.

    With all of that, the battleship obviously was at peak readiness forbat. As the battleship neared, a voice echoed out from it, harsh and authoritative.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes Coastguard Division here. Unknown craft, identify yourself.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Xu Qing from the Seventh Peak Violent Crimes Division,¡± he replied calmly.

    The thirty cultivators on the battleship were clearly clustered around one young man in particr. He had a gray daoist robe that swayed in the wind, and lightning-like eyes that radiated immense pressure. From the fluctuations that rolled off of him, he seemed to be in the great circle of Qi Condensation. As he stood there, he looked sharply at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡± a familiar voice said from within the thirty cultivators on the deck of the Coastguard Division ship. A momentter, Zhou Qingpeng emerged from the crowd. Looking surprised, he waved in greeting to Xu Qing, then turned respectfully to the young man in the great circle of Qi Condensation and said a few things.

    The young man nodded curtly.

    Zhou Qingpeng sped hands, then leaped off the battleship andnded on Xu Qing¡¯s flying boat.

    Smiling, he said, ¡°Xu Qing! I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re meeting here on the open sea. Are youing back from a sea voyage?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been out for a while, and I¡¯m on my way back to the sect.¡± Xu Qing looked over at the young man standing on the deck of the battleship.

    ¡°That¡¯s my boss,¡± Zhou Qingpeng exined proudly. ¡°He¡¯s Ding Xiaohai from the Coastguard Division.¡± He looked at Xu Qing¡¯s flying boat. ¡°What happened? Your boat is in such bad shape.... The Coastguard Division has the authority to search all watercraft, but I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll need to look at yours.¡± [2]

    The two of them chatted for a bit, until Zhou Qingpeng finally sped hands in farewell. Before leaving, he recalled something and leaned over to Xu Qing.

    ¡°By the way,¡± he said quietly, ¡°once you¡¯re back at the sect, don¡¯t go out to the open sea again for a while. The Coastguard Division was informed that some unusual things have been happening on the seafloor. In fact, my boss said that some very terrifying beings have been seen.¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng looked frightened to report this information. After giving some more advice, he jumped back onto the battleship.

    Terrifying beings? Xu Qing thought as he sped hands and bowed to Zhou Qingpeng on the battleship.

    The battleship turned, then headed off in another direction.

    On the battleship, Ding Xiaohai looked at Xu Qing and his flying boat, as well as the snakeneck dragon under the surface of the water. Turning to Zhou Qingpeng, he said, ¡°Zhou Qingpeng, that friend of yours is no ordinary person.¡±

    Zhou Qingpeng looked surprised for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, ¡°Elder Brother Ding, a while back the Violent Crimes Division sprung a trap on Night Dove. There was a story about someone who wasn¡¯t a captain, but managed to kill one of the hideout chiefs¡ª¡±

    ¡°It was him.¡± A thoughtful look could be seen in Ding Xiaohai¡¯s eyes.

    Hearing Ding Xiaohai¡¯s words, Zhou Qingpeng looked off in the direction of Xu Qing¡¯s flying boat, a bit in a daze.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing stood on his boat, seemingly unaffected by the waves rolling across the surface of the water.

    1. The description of this creature is taken almost verbatim from a description of a Chinese phoenix (fenghuang) in the Erya, which is the first surviving Chinese dictionary, generally epted to date to the 3rd century BC. ?

    2. You might remember that in chapter 68, Zhou Qingpeng mentioned he hoped to get a rmendation to work with Ding Xiaohai and by chapter 77 had been promoted. ?

 Chapter 94: Gu Muqing

    Chapter 94: Gu Muqing

    The rest of the day went by in a sh.

    The moon rose over the still sea, and stars appeared in the dome of heaven, making it seem like the port district of Seven Blood Eyes was covered in a fine, mysterious gauze veil.

    From a distance, the seven towering peaks hung over thends, seven blood-colored eyes looking out like awe-inspiring guardians. They stood guard over the prosperity of the sect, ensuring thatmoners longed toe to the city. It was a ce where people could make something of themselves, and earn enough money to pay the residence fee. That, in turn, ensured that Seven Blood Eyes was a prosperous ce. The eyes struck fear into the hearts of those on the outside, and ensured that nonhumans and other criminals didn¡¯t dare to cause any problems.

    In terms of the vicious disciples within the sect, they were simply like venomous bugs in a jar. Those that emerged would be lone wolves that were capable of surviving in the chaotic world. Only wolves like that deserved to be members of Seven Blood Eyes, and share in the profits of the sect.

    Xu Qing looked at the port as he flew closer and closer in his flying boat.

    Numerous dharmaboats floated on the surface of the water, and beams of light from the lighthouses shifted back and forth everywhere. That, coupled with the light of the moon, made the water sparkle.

    One particr beam of light belonged to the lighthouse on Harbor 79. And that was where Xu Qing¡¯s seemingly rickety flying boat came to a stop. The beam of light focused on him, forcing him to narrow his eyes. Shielding them with one hand, he produced his identity medallion with the other. A soft glow emerged from the identity medallion as a spell formation scanned it to confirm his identity. Only then did the sluice gate open to let him in.

    The beam of light shifted away from him, and his vision returned to normal. As he entered, the familiar breeze hit him, lifting his hair as he looked out over the harbor. At longst, he breathed a sigh of relief. Seven Blood Eyes was a vicious and dangerous ce, but it was much saferpared to the open sea. At the very least, Offpeak disciples wouldn¡¯t have to face enemies that existed at a higher level of cultivation than them.

    ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± he murmured as he piloted his flying boat back to his berth.

    His return in the middle of the night attracted some attention from the other disciples in Harbor 79.

    If had been anyone else, he wouldn¡¯t have earned much more than a nce. But when the disciples realized it was Xu Qing, many of them stepped out onto the decks of their dharmaboats and offered him greetings with sped hands.

    Hisst breakthrough, when the Forbidden Sea dragonwhale appeared, ensured that he was well-known in Harbor 79.

    The disciples who stepped out to greet him noticed the dpidated flying boat he was on, and realized he must have faced some very harrowing circumstances. However, Offpeak disciples knew how to maintain decorum, and wouldn¡¯t ask inappropriate questions. Thus, all of them just pretended not to notice that Xu Qing¡¯s boat was in such bad condition.

    In response to the greetings called to him, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed formally. Then, when his flying boat was back in his berth, he nced around a final time, stepped into the cabin and started meditating. It was just the same as he had done before going out to sea.

    As soon as he closed his eyes, he put away thoughts of the ughter back on the ind. However, he remained as vignt as ever. That was especially true considering the wealth he had returned with. Granted, he was well-known enough that it seemed unlikely anyone would try to attack and rob him. But he still didn¡¯t let his guard down. As before, he scattered poison powder both on the shore and in the water around him.

    At the same time, he hadn¡¯t forgotten about the young merman he killed before going out to sea, or the dharma protectors that had been keeping an eye on him.

    I wonder how things have been going with the issue of that dead fish.

    Instead of asking around, he just focused on his breathing exercises.

    The night passed. The next morning at dawn, the wind was gentle and the sun beautiful. The first rays of morning light were like the lips of a beautiful woman, gently bringing warmth to all living beings, and driving away the cold of night.

    When the sunlight hit his boat, Xu Qing opened his eyes, walked out, and looked at the port district.

    Finally, he was looking at something familiar. Perhaps it was the sight of the disciples on patrol, or the other early risers. Perhaps it was the morning wind, the sound of themoners getting to work, or the aroma of food in the air. Regardless, Xu Qing was in a very good mood.

    Not worrying about the dpidated state of his daoist robe, he flew off of his flying boat, put it away in the bottle, and headed to the cart where he usually ate breakfast. The vendor gave him an enthusiastic greeting as he ordered a big meal. The vendor nced at his ruined robe, but didn¡¯t say anything about it. Apparently he¡¯d seen things like that many times in the past. The meal was so familiar and delicious that Xu Qing ordered seconds.

    After settling the tab, he didn¡¯t report in to the Violent Crimes Division immediately, but instead went to the city¡¯s Disciple Administration Office to buy a new daoist robe.

    After changing, he thought for a bit and then decided that he should go to the Transportation Division to see Zhang San. His flying boat needed some work, and as for his dharmaboat... he needed a whole new one. However, after considering how much wealth he had umted, he wasn¡¯t worried about that.

    Elder Brother Zhang San helped me out a lot, and I never paid him back. I need to make up for that.

    Patting his bag, Xu Qing headed toward the Transportation Division.

    As the sunlight grew brighter, Xu Qing arrived. From a distance, he saw that, in addition to the various workers assigned to the Transportation Division, there were some other disciples present that he wasn¡¯t familiar with.

    There were seven or eight of them, and they were all young women. Every single one was good-looking, and not even their daoist robes could cover up their attractive curves. In addition to their beauty, there was something distinctive about them; they all specialized in the dao of alchemy. These young women were disciples from the Second Peak.

    Among the group was a young woman whose pale orange robe made it clear she was a conve disciple. Her robe was eye-catching, but so was she; she was immactely attractive and beautiful. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, was elegant and lithe, with bright eyes, a sunny disposition, and a graceful aura. She seemed like a sweet-tempered person. Thus, despite how the others crowded around her, she didn¡¯te across as being a conve disciple. She just stood there looking calm and refined.

    As Xu Qing looked over the group, he realized that they were standing around Zhang San.

    Compared to the beautiful girls, Zhang San, who was squatting on a sandbag rubbing his hands together, looked very unimpressive. That was especially true considering his well-worn clothing. Seeing Xu Qing approach, Zhang San waved a greeting, then looked at the Second Peak disciples and pped himself on the chest.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry at all,dies. It¡¯ll all be taken care of. When Ol¡¯ Zhang goes out to sea, everyone gives me face.¡±

    Realizing that Zhang San was in the middle of some sort of business deal, Xu Qing stayed off to the side in the shadows. Within the darkness, his gray daoist robe looked attractive and gentle. At the same time, his position in the shadows created a stark contrast with the bright sunlight. In fact, because of that contrast, his gentleness seemed like a mask, beneath which was a cold indifference that bordered on hostility. What was more, his long ck hair cascaded down his back, making another contrast with his clothing, and giving him a very unique look.

    All of that caused the Second Peak disciples to notice him and cast nces in his direction.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained unchanged as he stood there quietly, waiting.

    Before long, Zhang San finished his negotiation, then stepped over to Xu Qing and grinned. ¡°So, you¡¯re back, you little punk. How did you do out there?¡±

    ¡°Not bad,¡± Xu Qing replied with a smile.

    ¡°As long as you made a bit of profit, that¡¯s all that matters. By the way, see those disciples? They¡¯re from the Second Peak.¡± Looking very pleased with himself, he gestured with his chin and continued, ¡°And look at that pretty one. She¡¯s a conve disciple named Gu Muqing. It¡¯s impossible to say how many people dream of being her daoist partner. Ahem. Including me. They¡¯re going out to sea for training, and are looking for an escort. It¡¯s a big deal. Lots of other disciples in the port district were vying for the job, but I beat them all out. Not even the Captain canpete with me.¡± [1]

    With that, Zhang San looked at Xu Qing, assuming that he would get an envious reaction.

    Xu Qing just nodded.

    Zhang San looked disappointed. ¡°Uh... Junior Brother Xu Qing, shouldn¡¯t you congratte me? After Ie back, I could very well have a daoist partner!¡±

    After thinking about it, Xu Qing realized that Zhang San was right. stering a congrattory look onto his face he said, ¡°Congrattions.¡±

    Zhang San looked back at him, speechless at Xu Qing¡¯sck of envy. ¡°Alright, whatever. I¡¯m not going to force you.... So, did youe for repairs to your dharmaboat?¡±

    Removing the congrattory expression from his face, Xu Qing took out one of the lower-level sealizard skins. ¡°Elder Brother Zhang, I did indeede for repairs to my boat. I was also hoping that you could add this sealizard skin to make it more durable.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Xu Qing suddenly looked over at the Second Peak disciples not too far away. They had been about to leave, until Xu Qing took out the sealizard skin. At that point, the Gu Muqing that Zhang San had mentioned noticed the skin and stopped walking, her eyes lighting up.

    ¡°Say, Fellow Disciple,¡± she said, ¡°is that an eighth-level sealizard skin?¡±

    She had that immature type of voice that was unique to young women. Couple with the soft sunlight that shone down on her, and that air of alchemy that surrounded her, she seemed unusually attractive.

    However, when Xu Qing heard her words, he frowned and instinctively put the sealizard skin away. His guard was up, and he reminded himself that he couldn¡¯t just go around to the shops in the sect showing off the sealizard skins. And he should have waited until this girl was far away before pulling it out.

    Gu Muqing noticed his change in demeanor, and quickly said, ¡°There¡¯s a medicinal pill I want to concoct that requires arge amount of sealizard skins. I¡¯ve already bought every single one I could find in the shops in the city. In fact, that¡¯s one of the reasons I came out today. Unfortunately, I still don¡¯t have enough. If you have some extra, I¡¯d be more than willing to buy them. Money isn¡¯t an issue.¡±

    Having finished her exnation, Gu Muqing looked at Xu Qing, her eyshes quivering and her eyes glistening as if with anticipation.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. He wasn¡¯t opposed to selling her some sealizard skins, but before he did, his main priority was to attend to his dharmaboat.

    Off to the side, Zhang San seemed stunned. He looked at Xu Qing, then at Gu Muqing, and suddenly had the feeling that his n about escorting her out to sea was in danger. In fact, he already felt like he was a third wheel. Clearing his throat, he prepared to say something when Gu Muqing looked closer at Xu Qing, and suddenly her eyes lit up.

    ¡°Wait a second. I remember now. You¡¯re Xu Qing!¡±

    1. Gu Muqing: Gu is listed #88 on the list of the mostmon 100 Chinese surnames. Mu means ¡°bathe, cleanse¡± and Qing means ¡°clear, clean, distinct.¡± To Madam Deathde, this sounds like the name of a "gentle, pure, anddylike woman." ?

 Chapter 95: The Creditor Comes Knocking

    Chapter 95: The Creditor Comes Knocking

    It was midday, and the sun hung so brightly in the sky that a mortal person wouldn¡¯t even be able to look at it directly.

    Standing in that bright sunlight, Gu Muqing shone like an immortal. Though her pale orange daoist robe covered her from head to toe, she was attractive in a way the garment couldn¡¯t conceal. The curves entuated by the fabric made it possible to imagine the kind of slender, elegant figure that was hidden beneath. The skin not covered by the sleeves of her robe was as fair as a lotus in the snow, and coupled with the waterfall of ck hair going down her back, made her exceptionally beautiful.

    As Zhang San looked at her bathed in sunlight, he seemed a bit distracted, and was even blushing a bit. In contrast, Xu Qing, who still stood in the shadows, didn¡¯t look any different than usual. In fact, his cold eyes were currently measuring up the young woman¡¯s throat. To him, it didn¡¯t matter if she was beautiful.

    This wasn¡¯t his first time encountering her. There weren¡¯t a lot of conve disciples in the capital city, and he recognized the time he¡¯d encountered her at the entrance of the medicine shop a few months ago. [1]

    He had brushed past her, nothing more. But the fact that she knew his name caused his guard to go up even more than usual. He needed to determine quickly whether or not she was a threat.

    After assessing her, he came to the conclusion that if it came down to a fight, he could kill her. Her cultivation base wasn¡¯t bad, but in terms of her state of readiness or the way she carried herself, she couldn¡¯te close to the rogue cultivators on Sealizard Ind. Then he considered that she was a conve disciple from the Second Peak, and given that the Second Peak focused on the dao of alchemy, he quickly checked the area for signs of poison.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to look so surprised, Junior Brother Xu Qing,¡± Gu Muqing said with a sweet smile. Her voice was clear and charming. ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San didn¡¯t tell me about you. I heard your name somewhere else.¡±

    At this point, Zhang San¡¯s heart was racing, and he was thinking that this girl really did deserve her reputation as being chosen by heaven on the Second Peak. And he was very pleased with the way she called him Elder Brother. Zhang Sanughed heartily and was about to say something when Xu Qing¡¯s calm voice cut through hisugh.

    ¡°I¡¯m not surprised.¡±

    ¡°Uh....¡± Zhang San said, looking at Xu Qing. Inwardly, he sighed and thought, Ahh, Xu Qing. Don¡¯t you know what to do when a pretty girl takes the initiative? You¡¯re not even reacting! If it was me, I would start chatting her up and then ask her out on a date. Come on, this is pure destiny!

    Hearing Xu Qing¡¯s words, Gu Muqing smiled, took out a medicinal pill, and extended it in her palm for Xu Qing to look at.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, you sold all of your white boluses to my shop! I¡¯ve been researching your medicinal pills for a long time now. I¡¯m really curious: how did you manage to get such a high level of purity?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the pill and could tell it was one of his. After thinking for a moment, he didn¡¯t answer her question, but instead took out a few sealizard skins.

    ¡°I have eighth level skins for 530 spirit stones, ninth level skins for 960 spirit stones, and great circle skins for 1,030. How many do you want?¡±

    These were the same prices that the skins would sell for on the open market. He had the feeling that if he tried to sell them directly to a shop, he wouldn¡¯t get as good of a price. Since Gu Muqing wanted to buy lizard skins, it made sense for him to deal with her directly.

    Upon seeing the lizard skins, Gu Muqing¡¯s eyes lit up. However, she didn¡¯t immediately buy them, but instead repeated her previous question, though worded slightly differently. It seemed that, after realizing she was talking with Xu Qing, her interest had shifted from lizard skins to something else.

    Xu Qing frowned. But then he considered how many white boluses her shop had purchased from him, and that she was now considering buying his lizard skins, he decided to just patiently answer her question.

    ¡°When blending the mixture, I add in an appropriate amount of nightcorpse morning glory to improve the purity level.¡±

    Upon hearing this, Gu Muqing thought about the answer for a moment, then asked another question. She was very polite, but Xu Qing felt irritated nheless. As far as he was concerned, knowledge was valuable, and shouldn¡¯t be given away withoutpensation. For her to ask for free information was a bit over the top. In contrast, Elder Sister Ding had a sense of propriety, and had offered him something valuable along with every question she asked.

    Therefore, instead of answering her, Xu Qing actually came back with his own question. ¡°Is there any way to increase the poison level in ghostlonging horseshoe crab blood? And is there a way to keep it fresh for longer?¡±

    Gu Muqing considered the question. Then, looking very sincere, said, ¡°I never thought about that before. My Master mostly teaches about vital yang medicine. Let me think for a moment.... If it was me, I¡¯d add in some inworld tea leaves as a thickening agent. That would make the ghostlonging horseshoe crab blood more poisonous.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze turned serious, and after thinking about her answer for a moment, he perked up a bit. Her suggestion had opened up a new path for him to explore, something he hadn¡¯t thought about before. As such, he had to ask another question.

    ¡°Inworld tea is usually used as a neutralizer, but it does have some poison elements. How would you turn those poison elements into medicinal primers?¡±

    ¡°Ahhh? More poison questions? Well, let me think.... Maybe you could pull it off by using goldbutton weed?¡± Although Gu Muqing wasn¡¯t sure of her answer, it was obvious from Xu Qing¡¯s reaction that something had clicked in his head.

    This got Xu Qing even more excited, and thus ensued a deep conversation with Gu Muqing regarding the dao of medicine. It was something of a strange conversation. Xu Qing mostly asked questions about poisons, and Gu Muqing mostly asked questions about medicines. But that didn¡¯t matter. Both parties could confirm that what the other was saying was correct. And as they talked, both of them were able to clear up areas of confusion they¡¯d had. Eventually, Gu Muqing stepped into the shadows next to Xu Qing as they went back and forth talking to each other.

    Time passed.

    As the sun shone, a delicately handsome young man stood with a pretty, spirited young woman. It was like a beautiful painting that was marred only by Zhang San standing there in his grubby work clothes.

    Zhang San was bbergasted by what was happening. As he looked at the two of them, he sighed inwardly and mused that being good-looking really was a huge advantage.

    Furthermore, he was really starting to worry about his sea venture. That said, Xu Qing had just returned from a sea voyage, and likely wouldn¡¯t go out again soon. Breathing a sigh of relief at that thought, he said, ¡°Hey... Junior Brother Xu Qing, why don¡¯t you give me your dharmaboat? It doesn¡¯t seem like the two of you will be done chatting any time soon. I can start working on it in the meantime.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully to Zhang San, then took out the bottle with the flying boat in it and handed it to him.

    Zhang San took the bottle without even thinking about it. Then he looked down at it, and his eyes went wide as he saw that there was only one dpidated flying boat inside.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this the flying boat from inside the dharmaboat? Where¡¯s the actual dharmaboat?¡±

    ¡°Destroyed,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, and then he turned back to Gu Muqing and asked about something rted to the dao of poison.

    Zhang San inhaled sharply as he looked at the little bottle. That was when he started to realize that Xu Qing had definitely encountered some deadly situations while out at sea.

    Four hours passed.

    Eventually, the afterglow of the setting sun caused thends to be filled with a dappled mixture of brightness and darkness. Gu Muqing seemed like she wanted to keep talking, but Xu Qing ended the conversation and alsopleted the sealizard skin deal with her.

    ¡°Thank you so much for clearing all that up, Junior Brother Xu Qing. It¡¯s gettingte, so I¡¯ll say goodbye for now. I want to get back and try some of the things you suggested regarding white boluses. I still think it¡¯s going to be hard. After all, I made a lot of attempts, but never managed to get the level of purity as high as yours.¡±

    Gu Muqing looked somewhat frustrated.

    As for Xu Qing, he was of the mind that part of his sess was due to the tutge of Grandmaster Bai, and part of it was because he had no mutagen in him. Because of thetter, the medicinal pills he concocted would have less impure energy, and thus, the results would be purer. Of course, that wasn¡¯t something he would reveal to anyone.

    Shaking her head, Gu Muqing turned to leave, wrapped up in her thoughts.

    Xu Qing gave her a respectful salute, then watched her leave. He had benefited a lot from their exchange, and it had given him an even more rounded understanding of the dao of poison. Furthermore, he now had some new directions he wanted to explore.

    After Gu Muqing was gone, Zhang San returned. With a concerned sigh, he said, ¡°So... Xu Qing. Your boat.... It¡¯s not going to be an easy job. I don¡¯t even have enough spirit stones in savings to cover everything. You basically need a new boat. It¡¯s going to be really expensive.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. He just looked around to make sure they were alone, then took out the three godly lizard skins.

    The instant Zhang Sanid eyes on them, he started shaking. All of his concern vanished, and his eyes went wide. Looking at the golden glowing off of the skins, he inhaled sharply, then said, ¡°Those....¡±

    Without saying another word, he grabbed Xu Qing and pulled him into the warehouse. Once inside, he reached out with trembling hands to take the lizard skins. As he examined them closely, he started to breathe heavily, until finally he looked up at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Godly lizard skins! They¡¯re from Foundation Establishment sealizards, but I can even sense a Gold Core aura! These things are worth so much money! If you showed these off in public, it would lead to mass ughter! How did you get them?¡±

    ¡°I won them in a fight,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly. ¡°Is it enough for a new dharmaboat?¡±

    Upon looking at Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, Zhang San¡¯s pupils constricted. He could tell that there was a lot of shed blood behind Xu Qing¡¯s exnation, and finally realized why Xu Qing had gone out to sea on a dharmaboat ande back on a flying boat.

    ¡°It¡¯s more than enough,¡± Zhang San said. ¡°With this, I can make you a dharmaboat that will be iparably stupefying! But I need some time. Come back tomorrow!¡±

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes were shining. He knew that with the godliness in these lizard skins, he could create a dharmaboat that would be a masterpiece, something the likes of which he had never created before.

    Xu Qing nodded, then took out about 5,000 in spirit notes and put them off to the side. After some thought, he took out another ten thousand spirit stones from his bag of holding, and also put them off to the side. Many of the spirit stones were sttered with blood.

    Seeing them, Zhang San¡¯s eyes went wide, and his heart skipped a beat. With an odd expression on his face, he asked, ¡°How many people did you kill?¡±

    ¡°Not many,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    ¡°If you use all your spirit stones for a new dharmaboat, then what will you use for cultivation? Also... do you really trust me this much?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s someone who owes me a few thousand spirit stones. I¡¯m going to collect them tonight. As for trust.... Elder Brother Zhang San, I¡¯m pretty sure the stuff you have in your warehouses is worth a lot more than what I just handed over.¡±

    sping hands to Zhang San, he turned and left.

    It was evening, and everything was rapidly turning dark. As Zhang San watched Xu Qing walk off into the distance, he thought, Someone out there owes him thousands of spirit stones? Also... considering how much he trusts me, there¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to skim anything off the top. I¡¯ve thrown my lot in with him, so I¡¯m going to support him to the bitter end!

    ***

    As evening fell over nkspring Way, the old innkeeper sat therecently, smoking a pipe and reveling in feelings of sess.

    ¡°I really came out on top this time,¡± he said. ¡°A mid-Foundation Establishment lizard skin! This thing is worth 5,000 spirit stones! It¡¯s a pity I couldn¡¯t get those godly lizard skins. That said, there¡¯s no way that poisonous brat had an easy time back there. The more I think about him leaving empty-handed, the better I feel. Hahaha! I haven¡¯t opened for business in quite a while now. I bet I¡¯m going to get a lot of customers tonight!¡±

    As the innkeeper sat there feeling very pleased with himself, the huge anaconda suddenly smacked her head into him, then made numerous indignant cooing sounds.

    The old innkeeper red at the anaconda and was about to chide her, when he realized how sad she looked, and felt bad. He sighed.

    ¡°Ai. The young fellow is plenty crafty. If things got bad, he could always just run away, right? I doubt he ended up dead.¡±

    The anaconda seemed to feel slightly better hearing that, but she still seemed dispirited as she shrank back into the corner. The old innkeeper said a few moreforting words. Eventually, it was dark outside, and the innkeeper heard the footsteps of customers outside.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get you some good snacks to eatter,¡± he said. ¡°Enough chatting. It¡¯s time to open the doors.¡±

    Stepping outside, he saw a customer rushing toward the inn. A smile broke out on his face. However, only a momentter, that smile disappeared.

    A dagger shed through the night, flying like a lightning bolt, stabbing right into the neck of the criminal that had been running toward the inn. It threw him through the air until he mmed loudly into the wall on the other side, leaving behind a huge plume of blood. The criminal screamed. Then the screams turned into gurgles.

    After that, more footsteps could be heard from the surrounding darkness.

    1. Xu Qing encountered Gu Muqing in chapter 61. ?

 Chapter 96: A Gruish Inn

    Chapter 96: A Gruish Inn

    The wind picked up as the darkness of night deepened. The moonlight only made things colder. The night was so deep that it was like the hand of death, poised over the Book of Life and Death, covering everything with ink.

    Eventually, the scene became a dark painting of death. Everything was ck. The only color was the ghastly red blood dripping out of the neck of the criminal who was now pinned to the wall. The footsteps grew louder and a figure in gray appeared, slowly emerging from the painting.

    As that figure neared, it superseded the flowing blood, and became a source of frigid cold outside the inn on nkspring Way. In fact, it was so cold that the dripping blood seemed to congeal. At the same time, the innkeeper¡¯s pupils constricted as he looked at the neer.

    It was a young man with flowing ck hair. He was tall and slender, with cold eyes that perfectly matched the sharp angles of his face. He looked like an unsheathed de as he approached.

    He was none other than Xu Qing.

    His expression was calm as he walked past the innkeeper to the corpse. Reaching down, he took the criminal¡¯s sack, then pulled the dagger out of the wall, twisting it so that it decapitated the corpse. As the body fell to the ground, Xu Qing kicked it.

    The corpse flopped down in front of the grim-faced innkeeper.

    A whooshing sound could be heard as the anaconda appeared, peeping past the innkeeper to look at Xu Qing. Her eyes glittered.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡±

    ¡°My treat,¡± Xu Qing said coolly.

    Looking very happy, the anaconda swallowed the corpse and gave Xu Qing a nod.

    ¡°This is too much, Xu Qing!¡± the old innkeeper said, ring at him coldly.

    Xu Qing turned to look at the old man, then flicked his wrist, sending his dagger flying out into the darkness. It pierced through the wind, then provoked another scream as a second criminal who had been running toward the inn was stabbed through the forehead. The force of the blow shattered his skull, sending blood and shattered bone flying everywhere. The body flew six meters back through the air until flopping onto the ground.

    Seeing this, the innkeeper¡¯s eyebrows shot up. He could now tell that Xu Qing was actually stronger than he had been on Sealizard Ind.

    ¡°Just what do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± the innkeeper said angrily, veins bulging on his forehead. At the same time, a sense of danger was building in him, causing ropes to appear out of nowhere and drape around him.

    However, the moment the ropes appeared, intense mes erupted from Xu Qing, raising the temperature so high that the ropes bent away from him.

    Around then, a third scream rang out.

    It was a third criminal. Upon simply approaching the area, his entire body turned greenish-ck, and he died a momentter.

    Xu Qing ignored the dead criminals and instead eyed the innkeeper¡¯s throat as he tried to decide whether or not to kill him.

    The innkeeper looked at Xu Qing, his heart sinking. He knew why Xu Qing hade, yet he was loath to simply hand over thousands of spirit stones. Everything he had said up to this point had been in the hopes of convincing Xu Qing that the bag of holding he had thrown him on Sealizard Ind was valuable enough that their spirit stone debt should be considered settled.

    But the fact that Xu Qing hadn¡¯t said a word so far made it clear that no amount of bartering was going to appease him. Furthermore, Xu Qing¡¯s aura was full of killing intent, which caused the old innkeeper¡¯s heart to pound with a feeling of deadly crisis.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash, Xu Qing!¡± he blurted. ¡°I have a trump card!! It¡¯s my inn. Actually, it only looks like an inn. The truth is that it¡¯s a grue! It¡¯s sleeping, but if it wakes up, the First Peak will mobilize to crush it. And if that happens, you¡¯re done for!!¡±

    Behind him, the entire inn shivered, and a terrifying pulse of energy emerged from the very tables, chairs, tiles, and bricks that made it up. It seemed like the inn really was some sort of grue, and it was about to wake up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and the sudden sensation of deadly crisis caused him to back up a few paces.

    As for the anaconda, she had been lying off to the side watching curiously but not interfering. She seemed to think that if Xu Qing and the innkeeper started fighting, nothing dangerous woulde of it. When she sensed what was happening with the inn, a gleam of familiarity appeared in her eyes, and she patted the floor of the inn with her head as if in greeting.

    Then she noticed Xu Qing looking in her direction, and made several cooing sounds, while simultaneously nodding her head, as if to tell him that the innkeeper was telling the truth.

    ¡°I¡¯m not human, Xu Qing,¡± the innkeeper went on. ¡°And this is no ordinary inn. It¡¯s a grue. My people have the power to put grues to sleep; years ago, I put this thing to sleep and brought it to Seven Blood Eyes. I¡¯d hoped to sell it to the First Peak. However, they wanted me to keep it here for ten years before giving me any money. There were no other options, plus they offered me a lot of money, so I agreed. But that doesn¡¯t change the fact that I¡¯m poor! I also need cultivation resources!

    ¡°Besides, I¡¯m friends with Huang Yan! Plus, I saved Zhang San¡¯s life once. And the Captain and I owe each other our lives. So don¡¯t do anything rash, Xu Qing. We can be friends! I gave you information about wanted criminals before, remember? That information was real! I haven¡¯t done anything to harm you.¡±

    Xu Qing listened grimly. Then he looked at the inn. To him, it seemed like a massive, ghastly mouth, ready to devour anything in its path. He¡¯d known all along that there was more to this old innkeeper than met the eye. And he¡¯d always assumed the old man would have trump cards. That was why he¡¯d always held back from making a move on him. But he would never have guessed that the man¡¯s trump card was the inn itself!

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t believe for a minute the part about selling the inn to the First Peak. But the sensation of danger was absolutely real. And because of that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t think it was worth it to press this issue. Being as cautious as he was, he made the decision not to take any further action. Instead, he would keep an eye on nkspring Way. Looking at the innkeeper, he retracted any killing intent and coolly said, ¡°Give me my spirit stones.¡±

    Sensing that Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent had vanished, the innkeeper took out three spirit notes, each worth 1,000 spirit stones. With a flick of his fingers, he sent them flying over to Xu Qing. Xu Qing looked them over and then walked off with the heads of the criminals.

    During the entire encounter, he only said two things.

    Meanwhile, the anaconda made a few cooing sounds in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. She sounded cheerful.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t look back.

    ¡°Pipe down,¡± the innkeeper said, taking out some generic antidote pills and consuming them. ¡°You ungrateful snake! Now we¡¯re out of spirit stones, and instead of feeling sorry for me, all you care about is him! He nearly killed me, and the inn almost woke up!¡±

    ¡°Coo!¡±

    ¡°You think I deserved it...?¡± Looking angrier than ever, the innkeeper swished his sleeve, sat down, and furiously started smoking his pipe again. When he thought back to the killing intent he had just felt from Xu Qing, he felt astonished. The young fellow¡¯s murderous aura is even stronger than before. I wonder what ended up happening on Sealizard Ind. I need to ask around!

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was walking through the night thinking about what had just yed out. There were a lot of unusual things in the world, and though he couldn¡¯t be sure that the innkeeper¡¯s story was true, what he did know was that the sense of immense danger from the inn was real. After walking quite a distance away, he looked over his shoulder in the direction of nkspring Way, then fully suppressed his killing intent.

    Because his dharmaboat wasn¡¯t finished, he decided that it would be best to spend the night at the Violent Crimes Division. As he entered, he ran into the Captain, who was just leaving after a busy day of work. He was munching an apple as he walked out. When he noticed Xu Qing carrying three severed heads, he smiled and tossed him an apple.

    ¡°So hardworking!¡± he said. ¡°You just got back and you¡¯re already out nabbing criminals? Did you have a profitable time out at sea?¡±

    Xu Qing caught the apple, then took out a 100-spirit-stone note and gave it to the Captain. ¡°I did okay.¡±

    The Captain epted the note, then hopped onto a nearby stone bench. Squatting down, he said, ¡°I heard that there was an ind near the Westcoral Archipgo where a lot of people died. Were you in that area, by any chance?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    The Captain smiled and continued to eat his apple. Instead of continuing with the previous subject, he lowered his voice and dramatically said, ¡°Let me tell you about a really shocking event that happened. Just after you left, we got a huge case. All the disciples were talking about it. It was really grisly, to be honest.¡±

    At this point, the Captain looked at Xu Qing, expecting him to ask for details.

    Xu Qing just looked back at him.

    A moment passed, and then the Captain sighed. ¡°Ah, Xu Qing. When people talk to you like this, you¡¯re supposed to act curious. That way, the person who¡¯s talking to you won¡¯t feel embarrassed, and they¡¯ll befortable going on. It¡¯s called being polite.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then tried to look curious.

    Looking pleased, the Captain nced around to make sure they were alone, then lowered his voice again and continued, ¡°Remember the Captain of Earth Bureau, Unit Three? That merman? Well, he was killed! Violent Crimes Division got the case, but considering it was a nonhuman, it wasn¡¯t made a huge priority. The victim had dharma protectors, plus two cousins, and they¡¯ve gone crazy trying to track down the murderer.... Ah, what a chaotic world we live in. I mean, the guy was a crown prince of one of our allies! But dead is dead, and thus, it was kind of a big deal. Anyway, enough chit-chat, Junior Brother Xu. I need to go on patrol.¡±

    With that, the Captain stood, straightened his clothes, and hopped off the bench. As he left, he stopped right next to Xu Qing, leaned over, and whispered, ¡°The Merfolk and Seven Blood Eyes are allies. So they¡¯re being allowed to search for the culprit. Also, I heard... that the Merfolk have a magical technique that allows the two cousins to sense the presence of the killer. They¡¯ve been searching for over a month, and have investigated every person that fish had dealings with. I bet they¡¯ll find the killer sooner rather thanter. Everyone is waiting to see what happens. It¡¯s quite an interesting situation.¡±

    Giving Xu Qing an enigmatic smile, the Captain left.

    Xu Qing stood there thinking. After a moment, his eyes glittered coldly. Turning in the heads of the criminals and taking his reward, he found a ce to meditate.

    The following morning at dawn, he left the Violent Crimes Division. As he walked along, he passed a candied fruit vendor, where he bought a skewer. Then he headed into a certain alley, where he stopped in ce. Only momentster, a woman approached from behind. She was good-looking to the point of being alluring, and upon reaching him, she dropped to her knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Milord,¡± she said. This was the informant he had hired when he first arrived in the city. Up to this point, he hadn¡¯t needed any information from her, so he hadn¡¯t summoned her.

    Turning, he took a bite of candied fruit and asked, ¡°Has anything big happened recently?¡±

    Seeing him eat from the skewer of candied fruit, the woman shivered a bit. However, only a momentter, she looked at him reverently and said, ¡°There are two big things that everyone¡¯s talking about. The first is the Seventh Peak¡¯s uing Grand Competition, which they hold every thirty years. The Grand Competition is always a violent and blood-soaked affair. Supposedly, they chose a Merfolk ind as the location of thest tournament, and the ce ran red with blood. Afterwards, they became Seven Blood Eyes allies.

    ¡°The second big thing also has to do with the Merfolk. One of their crown princes died, and his two cousins have been searching the Port District for over a month, trying to find the killer....¡±

    People who worked the street usually knew the most about what was going on. After bing an informant for Xu Qing, this young woman had obviously worked hard to gather information. As a result, he was very pleased with her report.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± he asked.

    The informant thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Nothing big. Although, I did hear about a small sect that moved out of Seven Blood Eyes territory. You don¡¯t hear about that kind of thing very often. It was called the Golden¡­ something... Sect.¡±

    ¡°Golden Vajra Warrior Sect?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Yes!¡± she said with a nod. ¡°It was the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.¡±

    After considering all of the information, Xu Qing handed her five spirit stones, then turned and left. To this young woman, five spirit stones was an immense amount of wealth. Gasping, she looked at the departing Xu Qing with even more fanatical reverence than before.

    Once outside the alley, Xu Qing started walking along and thinking about the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    They moved away? he thought, his eyes narrowing. Then he thought about the Merfolk situation. The Captain and his informant had told him essentially the same thing, and it caused killing intent to bubble within him.

    Both of these situations are potential cmities.

    After he was off duty that day, he headed to the Hall of Sea Annals to submit a report about the giant he¡¯d seen pulling that dragon chariot. ording to the rules governing the Hall of Sea Annals, if you submitted new information that was corroborated as true, you would get a reward. It could take time for that to happen, though. After he was finished with the report, it was evening time, and he headed to the Transportation Division.

    There, he found Zhang San looking exhausted, but at the same time, wildly excited.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, I really went all out with your dharmaboat. I¡¯ve never been more proud of my work!¡± Leading Xu Qing to the warehouse, he threw open the door.

    The first thing Xu Qing saw was a shockingly amazing dharmaboat.

    It was 300 meters in length, covered in sealizard skin, and glowed with a scintiting ck light. It pulsed with the energy of the great circle of Qi Condensation, and had defenses so strong they were visible to the naked eye.

    The basic structure hadn¡¯t changed. However, there were now two huge, curved horns stretching along either side of the boat. They looked vicious and intimidating, and even Xu Qing was so struck by their appearance that his pupils constricted.

    Even more astonishing was that the eight sails were now more than twice asrge. Their structure was different as well, and they were pitch ck. They looked like the wings of some ferocious beast.

    The interior of the boat was covered with Foundation Establishment lizard skin. Because of that, the boat was tougher on the inside than it was on the outside, giving it a mysterious quality that could make all the difference in a life-or-death situation.

    ¡°As for the godliness,¡± Zhang San exined excitedly, ¡°I extracted it and then infused it into the eight sails. Once you activate them, the dharmaboat will be able to either fly above the surface of the water or dive beneath it.

    ¡°Most importantly, I connected the godliness to the boat as a whole, giving the entire boat the ability to repair itself to a certain extent. There are few qualities more precious to Seven Blood Eyes disciples than that, and your boat has it!

    ¡°Furthermore, the godliness can be sent outward in the form of a shocking attack. I¡¯m not even sure if a Foundation Establishment cultivator could stand up to it, and even if they did, they would definitely end up seriously injured. That said, I suggest you refrain from doing something like that. It would be a big waste, and if you do it enough, the godliness will run out. Once that happens, all of your dharmaboat¡¯s properties will decline.

    ¡°All said, this dharmaboat of yours is not technically in the Foundation Establishment level of strength. But it¡¯s not that far off. In fact, all you need to do is add in a Foundation Establishment power source, and then it will not only be in that level, it will be impressive within that level!

    ¡°That said, don¡¯t casually insert a Foundation Establishment power source. You need the heart of some really amazing beast. Ideally, it would be the heart of a godly entity.... If you add that, your dharmaboat will be on the same level as an actual Foundation Establishment godly entity!

    ¡°Of course, I know you, Xu Qing. You don¡¯t like to show off. Therefore, I designed your boat so that you can easily make it look exactly like it did before. Then, you can reveal its true state only when you deem it necessary!¡±

    Xu Qing was deeply shaken as he looked at the huge dharmaboat. Sometimeter, he left the Transportation Division and went back to Harbor 79. Even after he arrived, he still felt excited.

    ***

    Five figures made their way through the night in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city. Two led the way, and three followed those two. The three in the back were attendants, and the two in the lead were young women with sharp eyes. These sisters were the cousins of the young merman, and they were also the lovers of Third Highness. The younger sister had eyes bursting with killing intent, while the older sister had a curious expression. Thetter wasn¡¯t interested in killing; she had a different goal.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been searching for over a month!¡± the younger sister said through gritted teeth, her eyes burning with vicious anger. ¡°We eliminated everyone who ever had a problem with our little cousin. This is the only person we couldn¡¯t investigate because he was out at sea.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± the older sister said. ¡°All we have to do isy eyes on him and our bloodline ability will tell us if he¡¯s the killer!¡±

    ¡°If it really was him, then I¡¯m going to skin him alive! I¡¯ll make him understand true suffering. I¡¯ll eat a bit of his flesh every day, and then after he dies in agony, I¡¯ll extract his soul and ce it in a memp to burn for all time!¡±

    On this dark night, it seemed that asuras were out, ready to take lives!

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This is an extra long chapter. Even though I said earlier that I would split these chapters, for the time being I won¡¯t. Later on when there are numerous long chapters in a row, or the asional mega chapter, I will have to split them.

 Chapter 97: The Asuras Appear

    Chapter 97: The Asuras Appear

    It was a dark night without much wind. And when that meager wind hit the defenses of Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat in Harbor 79, it dispersed into nothing. However, if it had been able to pierce the defenses and sweep through the dharmaboat, it would have found... no one.

    Some distance away, Xu Qing waited quietly in the shadows, leaning against the wall of a building, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched his dharmaboat. His eyes were sharp and focused.

    I wonder if they¡¯lle tonight. He looked up at the dark sky. It seems like a good night for killing.

    It made him think of his return trip out at sea, when he looked up at those ck clouds and caught a glimpse of the hawk-like phoenix.

    After retrieving his dharmaboat from Zhang San, he had asked about that entity, and Zhang San told him that it had something to do with the biggest forbidden region in the continent of South Phoenix: Forbidden by the Phoenix. The phoenix was the emperor of that forbidden region, and its name was me Phoenix! The ce was called Forbidden by the Phoenix because of that phoenix. It was a supreme entity that maintained dominance, not just over that forbidden region, but over all of South Phoenix. Furthermore, the name South Phoenix also came from that phoenix!

    It was said that, to the south of the Revered Ancient maind, there was a godly entity, a phoenix, that danced in the highest heavens. Its might caused the dome of heaven to grow dark, and it inspired awe among all living beings. It was named me Phoenix, and its dwelling ce was an ind that came to be called South Phoenix.

    Zhang San didn¡¯t know any more details than that.

    me Phoenix, Xu Qing thought. As he furthered his cultivation, broadened his horizons, and expanded his knowledge, he came to know a lot more about the world he lived in.

    The wind blew, carrying with it the sound of fabric brushing against fabric. That caught Xu Qing¡¯s attention, so he put aside thoughts of me Phoenix and turned his cold gaze to a spot further down the harbor.

    Soon enough, he caught sight of five figures. Three men. Two women.

    Xu Qing was familiar with these women. Whether it was the scent of the sea that surrounded them, or their physical appearance, he realized instantly that they were sisters rted to the young merman he¡¯d killed. They had strong cultivation bases. One was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and the other was in the great circle. Behind them were three attendants who were also Merfolk cultivators. They appeared to have cultivation bases in the eighth level of Qi Condensation, and in the light of the moon, their features were vicious and full of killing intent.

    Xu Qing looked at them coldly, his eyes narrowed. However, he didn¡¯t take any action, he simply watched them.

    Where are the Foundation Establishment dharma protectors?

    As he watched, the five Merfolk made their way clear of some patrolling disciples, then approached his dharmaboat.

    Perhaps they felt confident because of their association with Third Highness. Or maybe it was simply their Merfolk arrogance. Regardless, upon nearing the dharmaboat, the younger sister made as if to charge forth in attack.

    The older sister reached out to stop her. The older sister was obviously the more prudent of the two, and didn¡¯t want to act blindly. Lifting her right hand, she produced a talisman treasure. It wasn¡¯t a talisman used for attacking purposes, though, but for surveince.

    After only a few breaths of time, Xu Qing could tell that the two mermaid sisters knew he wasn¡¯t in the boat. Then he watched as they backed up as if to leave. His eyes grew colder. The reason he¡¯d left his boat was that he didn¡¯t want to kill anyone near it. If he did, it would be too obvious what happened, and there could be consequences.

    Of course, if they actually managed to get past the defenses and get on board, he had ways to deal with them. But now that the five Merfolk were leaving, he would simply follow them and pick them off one by one from the shadows.

    However, after they only took a few steps, the older sister¡¯s expression flickered, and she suddenly turned and looked directly at the spot where Xu Qing was hiding.

    ¡°Bloodline curse fluctuations!¡± she said. ¡°Our brother¡¯s killer is right there!¡±

    The moment the words left her mouth, the younger sister looked over, her green eyes burning with killing intent. She charged forward, right toward Xu Qing. At the same time, the three attendants¡¯ killing intent raged, and they also charged toward him.

    So, they noticed me.

    Xu Qing frowned. If he killed Third Highness¡¯ people right here, it would surely attract attention. Besides, there was also the chance that they could call for backup.

    Therefore, as they charged forth, he flew backward, keeping his aura reined in and also trying to make himself look panicked. Hopefully, if they thought he was scared, it would decrease the likelihood they would send a message for help.

    That said, he didn¡¯t n to get involved in a prolonged fight. As long as he could lead them to an out-of-the-way location, he would strike like lightning.

    And thus, the five Merfolk began chasing him. The younger sister was in the lead, her eyes murderous. As she dashed forward, she waved her hands, causing ck bubbles to appear around her and then shoot toward the ¡®panicking¡¯ Xu Qing. As the bubbles neared him, he could sense the fluctuations of a magical technique, as well as a very strong level of mutagen. This attack was obviously designed to pollute him.

    ¡°So, you killed my cousin! Now that we found you, I¡¯m going to make you wish you could die!¡±

    Behind her, the three Merfolk attendants all pulled out prized treasures.

    One of them had a bone sword. The second used an item that covered his hands with scales that rapidly turned into poison spikes. Finally, a tumor appeared on the back of the third, growing so rapidly it burst through his clothing. Then it exploded, sending out a cloud of poison gas that formed the image of an evil ghost and shot toward Xu Qing.

    The older sister was in the very back. She was obviously the most cautious of the group, and didn¡¯t want to get too close to Xu Qing. She had some sort of defensive talisman treasure in her hand.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t look at any of the magical techniques being used. Instead, he just picked up speed.

    By the time they were about to hit him, he had reached a remote corner of the harbor. Suddenly stopping in ce, he turned, his eyes full of killing intent. Then he shot toward the Merfolk, moving many times faster than moments before.

    In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of the furious younger sister. Completely ignoring the bubbles and the mutagen, and before she could even react to the development, he mmed right into her chest.

    She was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and was considered innately talented. However, Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body power surpassed the Qi Condensation level, and his spirit power was also incredibly strong. Against that, her body might as well have been made from paper....

    A thump rang out, and her eyes widened. Before she could even scream, she shattered. Blood sprayed left and right as every part of her besides her head exploded. As for her head, a blue light wrapped it up, keeping it alive and shooting backward in retreat.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing threw his iron skewer toward the head. Without losing any momentum, he continued toward the merman cultivator with the bone sword.

    The cultivator¡¯s face fell as Xu Qing reached out, grabbed the sword, and twisted his wrist. A crack rang out as the sword snapped. Then Xu Qing used the broken tip to stab the merman in the throat. This attendant was in the eighth level of Qi Condensation, but that didn¡¯t stop the blood from spraying everywhere as he died.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Xu Qing jumped onward, reaching the attendant with the tumor on his back and the cloud of poison gas. The attendant tried to back up, but before he could take more than a few steps, he suddenly turned greenish-ck. Then blood sprayed out of his mouth and he dropped dead from poison. As it turned out, his poison wasn¡¯t nearly as effective as Xu Qing¡¯s.

    The third attendant was so shocked he was shaking. And he nned to release a scream. But before he could, a host of water droplets appeared around him, which then smashed down onto him, crushing him into a pulp.

    By this time, the iron skewer had reached the blue shield of light protecting the younger sister¡¯s head.

    The shield was astounding, and managed to prevent the skewer from piercing it. However, the power behind the skewer was so intense that it sent a shockwave through the shield, half-destroying the head. Even still, it wasn¡¯t enough to kill the mermaid. Screaming, she used her momentum to keep flying toward her older sister.

    Everything happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Xu Qing attacked with ultimate ferocity, killing the three attendants, and then pulling out a dagger and rushing at top speed toward the older sister.

    The older sister¡¯s face filled with unprecedented terror and fear. In fact, she almost couldn¡¯t believe that her younger sister was hovering on the brink of death. Because of her natural caution, the defensive talisman treasure, and the fact that she was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, she didn¡¯t end up being poisoned. What was more, the attack of a single dagger wouldn¡¯t be enough to break through her talisman treasure.

    A rattling boom rang out as the talisman¡¯s defenses shook violently. The older sister was inplete shock. Never could she have guessed that the seemingly ordinary Harbor 79 would have such a terrifying entity in it. This level of battle prowess was virtually the same as Foundation Establishment. And then she thought about how she had intentionallye to provoke this person.... The older sister¡¯s scalp tingled, and she inwardly cursed her dead cousin.

    Dead is dead! Why did we have to provoke a fiendish killer like this??

    In that moment of ultimate crisis, it was without the slightest hesitation that she pulled out another talisman treasure and threw it out with all the force she could muster. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it transformed into a huge fish tail which swept toward Xu Qing.

    Using that moment of opportunity, the older sister grabbed her panting sister¡¯s head, then unleashed the full power of her cultivation base to turn and run. Her expression was one ofplete terror, and in her heart, she could think of only one thing: flee!

    If she could run far enough away, maybe the dharma protectors would show up. They had agreed ahead of time to do just that. In fact, as she sped away from Xu Qing, she pulled out a transmission jade slip to send them a message. However, she had no time to check if the message was received. With her cultivation base burning at maximum, she pulled out a third talisman treasure to break through a wall of water put up by Xu Qing.

    Booms rang out left and right. Normally speaking, someone would have noticed thismotion in the harbor. But it was a remote corner, and Xu Qing had set up a wall of water to keep the sounds of fighting contained.

    It didn¡¯t take long for Xu Qing to deal with the huge fish tail. Face grim, he looked at the fleeing mermaid, then started moving after her. He shot forward at full speed, even using a flight talisman to ensure that he moved like a lightning bolt right toward her.

 Chapter 98: One out of Fifty

    Chapter 98: One out of Fifty

    The night was as quiet as dead water. The wind was as sharp as the edge of a de. Xu Qing sliced through the silent night like a saber.

    A fight had started, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about anything else. The Merfolk cultivators hade after him, and therefore, he would kill them! It didn¡¯t matter if they were associated with Third Highness. Since they had attacked him, he was already prepared to deal with Third Highness if he had to. Worst case scenario... after he killed the Merfolk, he could leave Seven Blood Eyes and go out to sea. He really didn¡¯t want to do that, but since things were already in motion, he would if he had to.

    Right now, he pushed forward at top speed, getting closer and closer to the mermaid. Unfortunately, she had a very strong cultivation base, and a lot of talisman treasures. She was also burning her cultivation base in her attempt to escape. As he got closer, she suddenly pulled out three talisman treasures that seemed to function just like flight talismans.

    In the blink of an eye, she elerated with astonishing speed, leaving Xu Qing behind as she shot toward a certain harbor.

    Despite getting some distance away from Xu Qing, she wasn¡¯t feeling at ease. From the moment the three attendants had been killed, and her sister grievously wounded, she had been thrown into a state of utter anxiety. Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness put her more at fear for her life than she had ever been. What was worse, the coldness in his eyes caused her to tremble to the core of her being.

    Up ahead in the harbor, she spotted a familiar dharmaboat, and it was only then that she started to feel less terrified. In fact, hope appeared on her face. She¡¯d stopped wondering why her dharma protectors hadn¡¯te to her aid, and was only focused on reaching that dharmaboat as quickly as possible. That was where she could find shelter.

    You killed my cousin. You killed my family. You got me in this bedraggled state. Xu Qing... I¡¯m going to have Third Highness expel you from Seven Blood Eyes! And then I¡¯ll get my revenge!

    The mermaid gritted her teeth, and her eyes turned red as she burned her own blood to get even more speed.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice. He could tell that his target was heading toward Third Highness¡¯ dharmaboat, and in fact, he could already see the luxurious craft off in the distance. It was lit withmps, and the sound of singing and dancing could be heard from inside. That only caused Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent to grow more intense. Burning the flight talisman for everything it was worth, he sped up. However, that was still too slow.

    Momentster, the mermaid¡¯s act of burning her own blood earned her enough speed that she leaped onto Third Highness¡¯ dharmaboat. Staggering as shended, she shrieked for help.

    ¡°Help me, my love!¡±

    Almost instantly, a group of Third Highness¡¯s retainers jumped out to surround her protectively.

    At the same time, Third Highness flew out from the cabin and to the mermaid¡¯s side, a look of astonishment on his face. He looked at her bedraggled state, like a begonia pelted by rain in a storm, and his face filled with tenderness.

    ¡°Why are you crying, my belle? Who¡¯s been bullying you?¡± Then he looked at her younger sister, gasping breathlessly. Anger appeared on his face. ¡°How did you end up like this?¡±

    That was when Xu Qing arrived at Third Highness¡¯ dharmaboat. Stepping into the water outside the boat, he looked at Third Highness holding the mermaid.

    Gritting her teeth in grief and indignation, she pointed at Xu Qing and said, ¡°It was him, my love! This Xu Qing killed my cousin! My sister and I went to talk things over with him, but the evil viin destroyed her body and killed our attendants. I had to burn my own blood to get here in time. You have to take charge of the situation, my love! Whether for personal reasons or the alliance, we Merfolk aren¡¯t going to let this matter go. And look at the state my sister is in!¡±

    At this time, the younger sister¡¯s eyes opened, and she looked up at Third Highness and let loose a string of curses.

    After hearing everything, Third Highness¡¯s eyes looked as cold as ice as he slowly said, ¡°What incredible gall! This ispletely outrageous! Do you have a death wish?¡±

    The retainers all started pulsing with deadly and somber auras.

    Xu Qing stood there silently, his daoist robe swaying in the sea breeze, and his long hair dancing behind him. He looked at Third Highness, and then he looked at the sea beyond the port. He had made his decision.

    Meanwhile, the mermaid breathed a sigh of relief, while simultaneously ring at Xu Qing with venomous hatred. She already knew exactly how she was going to deal with Xu Qing. In fact, she felt like her younger sister¡¯s earlier suggestion was too tame. She would do ten times worse, and would make sure that Xu Qing regretted ever existing.

    ¡°Many thanks, my love. Please, make sure this¡ª¡±

    ¡°You misunderstood, baby,¡± Third Highness interrupted gently. ¡°I meant that you have a lot of gall.¡±

    Stunned, the mermaid looked up at Third Highness. ¡°My love, you....¡±

    He looked like he always did; loving,passionate, and tender. His eyes seemed full of love. In fact, she wondered if she¡¯d misheard him, and was about to ask him to repeat what he said. But then, Third Highness reached up like he usually did to stroke her hair, and instead mmed his palm onto the crown of her head.

    A pop rang out as a tremor passed through the mermaid. Then her head exploded. Blood sprayed out in a mist, and her headless corpse flopped onto the ground.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    This was unexpected.

    Off to the side, the cursing young sister was bbergasted. Her expression changed from one of weakness and pain into intense shock and disbelief. That was especially the case considering Third Highness looked as tender and loving as he always did, with the exception of the blood on his hands. The younger sister felt like her mind was ying tricks on her. She just couldn¡¯t believe that the person who had held her and her sister so closely in his arms, had just killed her sister. If his facial expression had changed, for instance bing cold and sinister, it would have been easier to ept. But the fact that his face remained aspassionate as ever caused the younger sister to tremble uncontrobly.

    ¡°My love...¡± she said, her eyes filling with terror.

    Wiping his hands clean, Third Highness smiled warmly at the younger sister, then nced at Xu Qing. ¡°Please forgive myck of manners, Junior Brother. Can I help you with something?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s hair stood on end as he looked at the smiling, tender Third Highness, and then the corpse on the deck of the boat, and then the terrified head of the younger sister, who had obviously been poisoned, and wouldn¡¯t live long.

    Xu Qing had never encountered anyone like this before. Third Highness¡¯s words and actions truly had him trembling with fear. There was no way he could ever have predicted this oue, and had actually been in the middle of nning his escape from Seven Blood Eyes. After quietly looking at Third Highness¡¯s genial smile, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. Then, heart full of vignce, he left.

    Some distance away, he looked back and saw Third Highness standing there on the boat. Looking at him, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but recall the image of him gently killing that young mermaid.

    Obviously, Third Highness was an extremely dangerous person!

    ***

    After watching Xu Qing disappear into the distance, the smiling Third Highness looked over at the younger sister¡¯s head. Eyes full of tender warmth, he said, ¡°You and your sister were wonderful, baby. I couldn¡¯t have aplished Master¡¯s mission without you. Plus, I was able to do a favor to the little fiendish killer from Sealizard Ind. Not bad. Not bad at all. I like you even more now.¡±

    In response to his warm words, the younger sister¡¯s expression became one of absolute terror. Then, she opened her mouth to speak. Before she could, Third Highness lifted his foot and stomped it down. The head exploded.

    Looking regretful, he said, ¡°Ai. Now I¡¯ll only be able to relish your tenderness in my memories.¡±

    The surrounding retainers kept their heads bowed, and not daring to even look at Third Highness, started cleaning the gore off the deck. Before long, the deck looked as good as new. Then one of the retainers produced a crystal bottle which he handed reverently to Third Highness.

    ¡°Third Highness,¡± he said. ¡°We caught the Merfolk dharma protectors red-handed. We have them captive now.¡±

    ¡°Very good,¡± Third Highness said with a smile. ¡°Go to the Merfolk and exin that I can help them cover up the incident of the dharmaboat blueprints stolen from Seven Blood Eyes. However, in exchange, I want an ancient teardrop from the Merfolk royal n. Have it sent over here immediately.¡±

    Having said that, he took the bottle and took a drink of the nutritional tonic within. After handing it back to the retainer, he walked out into the air, then shot in the direction of the Seventh Peak.

    It didn¡¯t take him long to reach the summit. There in a grand hall was Master Seventh, sitting in front of a Go board, deep in thought. Across the board from him was the same servant from before. [1]

    Looking up solemnly at the servant, he said, ¡°You yed the wrong move!¡±

    The servant looked down at the board, picked up one of the pieces, and then put it down in a different spot.

    ¡°Are you seriously trying to take back your move?¡± Master Seventh snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t you know that taking back a move counts as losing? You just lost!¡± Swiping his hand across the board and scattering the pieces, he looked over at Third Highness.

    ¡°Well met, Master,¡± Third Highness said. His tone of voice waspletely different than moments before. He sounded very respectful as he kowtowed.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Master Seventh asked coolly.

    ¡°Master, I got to the bottom of the Merfolk situation. Things didn¡¯t go exactly as nned, but in the end, it all worked out.

    ¡°They really were here at the behest of the Seazombies, trying to steal dharmaboat blueprints from the Seventh Peak. We caught them red-handed. I also confirmed that, in order to curry favor with the Seazombies, the Merfolk secretly built a Corpse Tower to offer as blood tribute.

    ¡°The proof is here on this jade slip. It also contains a list of four names, those being sect honor guards who are on the payroll of the Merfolk Isles.¡± With that, Third Highness offered a jade slip forward with both hands.

    Master Seventh made a grasping gesture, and the jade slip flew over to him. After looking at the list of names, his face turned cold. However, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    Next, Third Highness trembled slightly as he lowered his voice and said, ¡°There¡¯s something I need to apologize for. That Merfolk prince killed somemoner children. He was working together with his two older cousins. I didn¡¯t realize what was going on, and for that, I ept any punishment you give me, Master.¡±

    Master Seventh actually looked somewhat relieved. ¡°You broke the rules, therefore, confine yourself to the Bone-Scorching Cavern for seven days.¡±

    Upon hearing the words ¡®Bone-Scorching Cavern,¡¯ Third Highness shivered. Bowing his head, he voiced his affirmation then departed.

    Watching his apprentice leave, Master Seventh stood and looked down the mountain toward the port. It seemed he was focusing on Harbor 79.

    A momentter, he shifted his gaze to the open sea.

    Off to the side, his servant quietly said, ¡°The Merfolk aren¡¯t idiots. It seems unlikely that they would brazenly attempt to steal our dharmaboat blueprints....¡±

    ¡°Third Sib is greedy for profit,¡± Master Seventh said, ¡°and I know he¡¯s not above ying games. But he wouldn¡¯t dare to fabricate evidence of a Corpse Tower. The Merfolk... have been getting close with the Seazombies, who are the sworn enemies of Seven Blood Eyes. The Merfolk have some wild ambitions, that much is obvious. It seems all the financial aid we sent them, and all the disciples that died for their sake... mean nothing. In that case, we¡¯re going to take back what we''re owed. Principal and interest.¡± [2]

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he looked out at the open sea.

    1. If you¡¯re ever reading a xianxia, wuxia, or xuanhuan novel, and the trantion says that the characters are ¡°ying chess,¡± it¡¯s highly likely (but not necessarily guaranteed) that they are ying the game of Go. If you want to learn more about the game, which is very fun to y incidentally, just google it. In a word, it involves cing ck and white pieces down onto the board to ¡°control territory.¡± Here¡¯s a picture of what it looks like when it¡¯s yed in an ancient Chinese setting. ?

    2. The Chinese term I¡¯m tranting as ¡°Third Sib¡± is amon form of address used to rank children (or apprentices in a situation like this). The Big Sib would be the oldest child, Second Sib would be second oldest, and so-on. Or in an apprentice rtionship, the Big Sib would be the senior-ranking apprentice. ?

 Chapter 99: Traveling to the Crimson Wilds

    Chapter 99: Traveling to the Crimson Wilds

    Standing at the top of the Seventh Peak, Master Seventh looked coldly at the sea for a long moment. Then he looked away.

    ¡°Come on,¡± he said, ¡°let¡¯s y another game.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± the servant said. As he prepared the board, he hesitated, then quietly asked, ¡°Master Seventh, about Third Highness and the Kid....¡±

    Master Seventh looked at the servant. ¡°You care a lot about the Kid, don¡¯t you?¡±

    The servant nodded but didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Third Sib does things by fair means or foul,¡± Master Seventh continued. ¡°That¡¯s just who he is. He looks kind, but the reality is that he¡¯spletely emotionless. That¡¯s how he rose to the top during his Offpeak years, and that¡¯s how he joined the ranks of my apprentices. It¡¯s what I like about him. As for the Kid, the question is whether he can figure out what Third Sib is all about, and whether he can stand out in his own way. It¡¯ll depend on how smart he is. In this chaotic world, fools don¡¯tst very long.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh looked out at the predawn sky, which was just about to fill with light.

    ***

    Beneath that same dome of heaven, in Harbor 79, Xu Qing sat down in his dharmaboat to think. As the sun rose, driving away the darkness of light, his eyes glittered.

    First. Thirty years ago during the Grand Competition, the Merfolk became allies of Seven Blood Eyes. It makes sense that the two parties would seem united, but have underlying disagreements. Back during that incident at the Sixth Peak shop, the young merman was obviously scared of Second Highness. That seems to indicate that she was part of the Merfolk ughter at thepetition thirty years ago.

    Second. Apprentices of the peaklord of the Seventh Peak probably wouldn¡¯t openly go against his wishes. Second Highness¡¯ attitude toward the Merfolk shows that things aren¡¯t going perfectly with them. Then Third Highness actually killed some Merfolk. None of this is hard to reconcile. Except, why would Third Highness invite the Merfolk to Seven Blood Eyes, and then kill them? And also, why did he do it right in front of me? Third Highness has some other motive. If I was him, what circumstances would motivate me to do something like that? What would make me kill someone in another person¡¯s presence?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he realized there was one obvious answer.

    There¡¯s only one thing that makes sense, and that would be if I wanted to ckmail the Merfolk. I would need some sort of leverage against them. And if no leverage existed, then I would need to create the leverage! I would only kill someone with a witness around if doing so would be profitable. Then I could both ckmail the Merfolk and also earn a favor at the same time. The premise is that the witness would need to be important.

    Xu Qing thought back to the mysterious smile on the Captain¡¯s face when he talked about the incident at Sealizard Ind. It was obvious the man had some backdoor channels to get information. If the Captain had the means to do that, Third Highness would too.

    Furthermore, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten about how someone had locked onto his position when he fled Sealizard Ind. He hadn¡¯t been able to identify the person behind that when he was speeding along underwater, but right now, his eyes glittered as he came up with a theory about who it was.

    The fact that Seven Blood Eyes is allowing all this to happen seems to indicate... that they want to strike a blow against the Merfolk! Regardless, the time hase for me to get out of here for a while!

    Xu Qing had no way of knowing if his analysis was correct. Therefore, he would leave for a short time in case there were ramifications to the recent events. Only after they blew over would he make his return.

    After all, he was very close to reaching the tenth level of Qi Condensation. After that woulde the breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, which would qualify him for Onpeak life, and also earn him the right to share in Seven Blood Eyes profit. That meant he would have a minimum monthly ie of 5,000 spirit stones for as long as Seven Blood Eyes existed. From the moment he heard about that, he had been intrigued by the possibility. Of course, staying alive was more important.

    Therefore, it was without hesitation that he chose to take a trip out of the sect. Besides, this was a good opportunity to take care of something that had been troubling him for a long time. And that was... Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Only by killing him could Xu Qing truly sleep well at night.

    Having made his decision, he didn¡¯t waste any time. As the sun rose, he put away his dharmaboat then went to the Violent Crimes Division.

    The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect is an official sect. They might be small, but if they really relocated their headquarters, they won¡¯t be able to do it secretly. Seven Blood Eyes keeps an eye on everything that happens in its territory.

    As a member of the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing had the right to browse the division archives, which contained all sorts of information about what was going on in Seven Blood Eyes territory.

    Of course, the information wouldn¡¯t be as detailed as what the Intelligence Division had ess to. But it was a lot easier to do research in his own workce than to go to the Intelligence Division.

    Therefore, it didn¡¯t take long before he was at the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s Archives Office.

    He was much more well-known in Violent Crimes than the sect in general. He had performed spectacrly in the Night Dove operation, and had brought in the heads of numerous criminals for bounties.

    Because of that, when he arrived, the Archives Office disciples were very polite, and gave Xu Qing ess to whatever he asked for. Before long, he was browsing through some random reports that the sect didn¡¯t take very seriously. That was where he found the clue he was looking for.

    They sought asylum with the Church of Departure?

    His eyes narrowed as he read through the file. Most people thought of the Church of Departure as being full of lunatics. And most organizations viewed the Church with either revulsion or fear. It was moremon to leave their area of influence than get closer to them.

    I doubt it¡¯s just because of me that they moved. It probably has a lot to do with Second Highness and her demand for gifts. After paying up, they were probably broke, and also terrified. Rather than stay in Second Highness¡¯ territory, they decided to just leave.

    Xu Qing rubbed his chin as he perused the details of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s departure. Then he left the Violent Crimes Division.

    Out on the street in the Port District, he went around to some random shops to sell some of the misceneous items he¡¯d acquired on Sealizard Ind, including a handful of lizard skins. He also bought some things he would need while away from the sect, including quite a few poisonous nts.

    Finally, he stood outside of a shop that sold talisman treasures. Trying not to feel disappointed at how many spirit stones he was about to lose, he went inside.

    Shortly after, he came out with some special talisman treasures. These specific talismans could change a person¡¯s appearance and aura. Although the effect wasn¡¯t perfect, it was good enough for what Xu Qing wanted to do.

    It was currently noontime, and though winter was on the way, Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ geographical position ensured that even winters were warm. After all, the sun shone brightly here year-round.

    Walking through that sunlight, Xu Qing entered an alley. When he emerged from the other end of the alley, he looked different. He wasn¡¯t delicately handsome, but rather, looked like a sallow, long-faced middle-aged man. And instead of a daoist robe, he wore an ordinary jerkin. His cultivation base fluctuations were different as well. Instead of being those of the ninth level of Qi Condensation, they were more like the third.

    He knew full well that someone in the ninth level of Qi Condensation would stand out among scavengers. But someone in the third level of Qi Condensation, though impressive, wouldn¡¯t draw a lot of attention.

    Sensing that the power of the talisman treasure was active, Xu Qing looked around cautiously, then kept his face expressionless as he headed toward the teleportation portals. He didn¡¯t use his identity medallion, but instead paid the spirit stone fee. Before long, he stepped onto the portal and disappeared into the dazzling light.

    ***

    In the eastern part of South Phoenix, some tens of thousands of kilometers away from the old headquarters of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, was a vast, sparsely popted area. It was a wilderness in which a specific type of crimson, saw-toothed grass grew. Because of that grass, it came to be called the Crimson Wilds.

    From a distance, the ce looked like it was covered with fresh blood. It was actually a somewhat ghastly ce. The mutagen there was much stronger than in most wilderness areas of South Phoenix, and as a result, the mutant beasts were much fiercer.

    It was no surprise that in such a foul environment, cities were notmon. You might see one every few hundred kilometers. They were crude and primitive ces, and scavengers usually upied the slums around them.

    Whether you considered the geography or the poption, the Crimson Wilds was a nasty ce. The ns of the Violet Lands looked down on it, and Seven Blood Eyes hardly paid it any attention. However, the Church of Departure, because of certain aspects of their teachings, liked nasty ces like this, and often proselytized there. That was why the Crimson Wilds came to be part of the Church of Departure¡¯s territory.

    On the edge of the Crimson Wilds was a city jointly operated by the Violet Lands and Seven Blood Eyes. It was the only ce in the Crimson Wilds that had a teleportation portal.

    The teleportation portal zed to life, and a middle-aged cultivator with a sallowplexion and a ck jerkin appeared. Of course, it was Xu Qing in disguise.

    Before he even stepped off of the portal, he was surrounded by a putrid, noxious scent. To people who weren¡¯t familiar with it, that odor would be very difficult to limate to. But Xu Qing was very familiar with it, though it was a bit stronger than the ces he¡¯d lived before. He kept his face expressionless as he walked off the tform. The handful ofzy guards nearby barely looked at him.

    As he walked through the city, he saw that most of the buildings were gray and dpidated. Trash and feces littered the ground. Everyone looked on edge, and people kept their distance from each other. There weren¡¯t many women, and those he did see looked ferocious. There were a few children, who stuck to the shadows in the alleys, and looked out with dull eyes that had seen plenty of death. asionally, he heard screams or angry curses.

    Seems more like a scavenger basecamp.

    People looked at him with either caution or ill intent, but he ignored all of them. He didn¡¯t stay in the city long. In fact, he went straight out the gate and then started moving at top speed through the wilderness.

    The Golden Vajra Warrior Sect had relocated to the Crimson Wilds, and wasn¡¯t very far from this exact city.

    Beforeing, Xu Qing had checked a map of the area, and knew where he was going.

    He moved with incredible speed, the chill wind biting against his face. He even felt a few snowkes smack into him, and some of the distant low-lying mountains were capped with snow. Winters were warm in Seven Blood Eyes, but in this ce, it was already getting very cold.

    It made him think of the past. And as he traveled, he saw many beasts, as well as human remains.

    A chaotic world. Expression calm, he picked up speed.

    In this manner, time passed. Soon night came, and with it, more wind and snow. Once he was far from the city, and out in the Crimson Wilds proper, Xu Qing suddenly stopped moving and looked off into the distance.

    Along with the wind came the sound of viciousughter and blood. Through the snowy wind, he could see a pile of corpses. Within it weremoners, guards, and surrounding it were random cargo and damaged horse carts. It was obviously a merchant caravan that had been heading toward the city.

    Next to the pile of corpses stood a group of about a dozen people in tattered clothing, their hair disheveled, and their expressions vicious. They were criminals, and most of them were in the second level of Qi Condensation. Some were tending to weapons, some were rifling through cargo, and others were dragging the corpses away. A few were giving way to bestial desires upon the corpses of dead women.

    Even further away were some fires; apparently someone was preparing hot food. Obviously, this merchant caravan had run into these criminals, and everyone in the caravan was now dead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival attracted the attention of some of the criminals, who looked at him with vicious eyes.

    Seeing that he emanated the fluctuations of the third level of Qi Condensation, they grinned viciously and started heading right toward him.

    They thought Xu Qing would be their next victim.

    Xu Qing looked at them coldly. He had seen acts of ughter just like this many, many times. Of course, his experience with scavengers led him to realize that the caravans that braved the wilderness usually weren¡¯t filled with good people. People in those caravans wouldn¡¯t hesitate to ughter anyone weaker than themselves.

    That was just how things were in a world of chaos. People killed, and they got killed. There was no point inpassionately trying to figure out who was good and who was bad.

    But... since these people had attacked him, he couldn¡¯t just leave them alone.

 Chapter 100: The Patriarchâ€™s Anxiety

    Chapter 100: The Patriarch¡¯s Anxiety

    A waning moon hung in the dark sky, like a curved de that caused the wind to scream. That wind kicked up the scattered bits of snow on the ground and bent the red grass of the Crimson Wilds.

    Fresh blood sshed here and there as Xu Qing walked forward like a specter. His dagger gleamed in the darkness as it shed through one criminal after another. The evil in that blood did not qualify to melt the coldness, nor was it capable of warming the snowy wind. Even the red grass seemed to despise it, bending over so the blood dropped to the ground.

    One corpse after another fell within the cold wind.

    Xu Qing¡¯s dagger became thest light they would ever see. With every step, he killed. When his dagger shed through the neck of the final scavenger, the terror in the man¡¯s eyes faded into darkness. Then Xu Qing stood there surrounded by the fallen corpses.

    Every person died from a single sh.

    Every wound was in the throat.

    Slitting the throat was the most convenient and quickest way to kill someone. That said, it involved a lot of blood, and Xu Qing frowned at how much had sshed on his clothes. But the killing intent in his eyes was not reduced by the blood on his clothing. When he attacked, he cut the weeds and eliminated the roots. It didn¡¯t matter that these criminals were likely powerless to seek revenge if he let them live.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like carelessness, and he didn¡¯t like potential cmities.

    Besides, he was on his way to deal with a thorn in his side. As a result, he couldn¡¯t afford for anyone to start talking about him.

    Looking up, Xu Qing gripped his dagger and started walking toward the sound of an uproar.

    Up ahead was where the cooking was going on. Surrounding the pot were eight criminals who had previously been partaking in the soup. But after the ughter that had just been carried out, they were now looking in terror at Xu Qing.

    He looked back at them.

    On the ground between the two parties were the tracks left by corpses that had been dragged across the ground. Except... no corpses were visible. Only torn clothing.

    The corpses... well, Xu Qing knew exactly where they were.

    The smell of meat in the air was not unfamiliar to him. He had smelled the same thing back when he lived in the slums. After all, the first person he had ever killed had been someone trying to eat him. [1]

    As he walked forward, Xu Qing kept his eyes on the eight people around the pot. Their faces fell as they stumbled backward to flee. But even the fastest among them only got a few steps away before a ck iron skewer flew through the air like lightning, stabbing into his head and piercing out the other side.

    Xu Qing started walking faster. His dagger shed in the moonlight, even colder than the surrounding snow as he shed the throat of the second scavenger.

    ¡°Friend, don¡¯t be so¡ª¡±

    A head flew!

    ¡°We¡¯re sorry! We didn¡¯t realize who you are!! We can give gifts¡ª¡±

    Blood spilled from a shed neck.

    ¡°You¡¯re dead, fool!!¡±

    A head exploded.

    The ughtersted for five breaths of time. After that, everything went quiet. The lonely moon shone down, and snow drifted in the wind. The corpses bled, turning the soil red. It really was the Crimson Wilds.

    Looking around at the bodies, Xu Qing cleaned his de and took out his Corpse-Ravaging Powder. Before long, the corpses had been melted into blood. He looked at the big pot, then extinguished the fire beneath it.

    He was suddenly struck with a better understanding of why endless numbers of people struggled to live in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, despite the exorbitant living fee that had to be paid on a daily basis.

    In this chaotic world, human life wasn¡¯t worth much.

    Turning, he continued on his way.

    As the night went on, the wind grew stronger, and more snow fell. As the snowkes drifted down around him, the wind lifted his long hair behind him, and tried to burrow into his clothing. Frowning, he tightened his clothes, spit some snow out of his mouth, and kept walking.

    The night passed.

    The next morning at daybreak, he saw a mountain off in the distance.

    The Crimson Wilds were mostly ins, without many mountains. And the few mountains present were usually more like hills than mountains. But this was a true mountain, though it wasn¡¯t quite on the same level as the original headquarters of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. Whether in terms of extravagance or intimidation factor, it just didn¡¯t measure up.

    Xu Qing could see some buildings on the mountain, but overall, the ce looked a bit bare. There didn¡¯t seem to be very many disciples either.

    ¡°This is the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect?¡± he murmured.

    ording to the information he¡¯d dug up, this mountain was indeed the new headquarters of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. Obviously, not everyone in the sect had been willing to limate to a new environment. That was more the case considering that the Crimson Wilds were so nasty and deste.

    And given that they had only been here a short time, the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect currently seemed quite sad.

    However, Xu Qing kept his guard up. Just because the sect didn¡¯t look to be doing well didn¡¯t mean he could rx. He had no idea what things were like inside the sect, nor would he know until he took a look himself. Therefore, instead of doing anything specific, he would take some time to observe.

    Like a hunter, he would remain patient.

    Turning away from the sect, he left the area and found the nearest scavenger basecamp, which was about 50 kilometers away. It was a lot livelier than the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, and even from a distance, Xu Qing could hear the raucous sounds of life. Before getting too close, he took out his old fur overcoat and put it on. He also took some mud from the ground and smudged up his face. Given his vignt eyes and his physical appearance, he looked very much like an ordinary scavenger.

    After making sure his disguise was perfect, he headed into the camp. There were guards outside, but they did nothing more than nce at him as he passed. It almost didn¡¯t make sense to say that Xu Qing had disguised himself as a scavenger. The reality was that he was a scavenger. He had the same air. The same eyes. The same ferocity.

    After entering the camp, he looked around at the tents, and then focused his attention on a spot up ahead where about a hundred scavengers were gathered. They were all cheering spiritedly, and were the source of the noise he had detected further out.

    What had them all excited was a brutal scene ying out in front of them. It was some sort ofpetition, almost like a dog race. There were eight emaciated people in tattered clothing, running as fast as they could. All eight people had strong mutagen, and their skin was mostly greenish-ck. Obviously, they were very close to mutating. They looked both maddened and in despair as they ran along a course full of sharp rocks and broken des. Every step they took caused more blood to flow, and drove them into further madness. Their goal was visible at the end of the racetrack: a blotchy white bolus.

    To someone close to mutation, a white bolus could literally save their life, if only for a time. For this group, this was their chance to get such a pill.

    To them, it didn¡¯t matter if they bled a bit. They would still run with madness to get that pill.

    Considering how raucous the crowd was, it was obvious many people had ced bets on the oue.

    As Xu Qing watched, one of the runners reached the end of the track, grabbed the white bolus, and consumed it. The other contestants stopped in despair and were dragged back to the starting line. Meanwhile, another white bolus was put up at the end of the track, and another race began.

    Some of the scavengers in the audience howled with delight, others cursed endlessly. But now that a new race was starting, new bets could be ced.

    Turning away from the spectacle, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    ***

    50 kilometers away from the basecamp in that very sect, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sat in the grand hall atop the mountain, looking angrily at the sect leader, who seemed to be hesitating to speak.

    ¡°You think I wanted toe to this dump?¡± the patriarch grumbled. ¡°Obviously not! But do you know what would have happened if I didn¡¯t? That damn shrew from the Seventh Peak is just outright evil! That ¡®gift of apology¡¯ drained me of half my life savings!!

    ¡°And then there¡¯s the Kid, who¡¯s rapidly rising to prominence in Seven Blood Eyes. What do you expect me to do, sit around until he reaches Foundation Establishment and thenes to p me to death? Based on all the ancient records I¡¯ve read, I¡¯m in a no-win situation....¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was truly angry at how badly everything had gone in such a short time. The ramifications of moving the sect had been dramatic. Not everyone wanted toe along, and many of the disciples secretly fled. He had killed some for betraying the sect, but he couldn¡¯t kill them all.

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter. My medicinal pill is going to be done soon. Once I consume that pill, I¡¯ll be able to open my 30th dharma aperture and ignite my first life me. Once my life me is lit, then I can enter the profound radiance state.

    ¡°In the profound radiance state, my battle prowess will increase dramatically, and then I won¡¯t have anything to fear from the Kid....¡± This thought caused the patriarch¡¯s expression to brighten a bit. ¡°Wait, no. ording to the ancient records I read, it¡¯s usually at an important juncture like this that something unexpected happens....¡±

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the patriarch¡¯s face fell, and he pulled out an identity medallion. Flipping it over and over in his hand, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way that the Kid reached the breakthrough point yet. Besides, now that I¡¯ve joined the Church of Departure, I count as an adherent. The Church is just as powerful as Seven Blood Eyes, and therefore, I¡¯ve got some good protection. I¡¯m safe for the time being. Also, Fellow Daoist Cardfortune is still here as a guest....¡±

    He looked down at the identity medallion that he had spent so much to acquire, and felt a bit better. However, the medallion alone wasn¡¯t enough, so after moving his sect here, he¡¯d taken to inviting friends toe stay in the sect for a while as guests. Of course, every guest that came needed to be given gifts.

    Up to this point, he had extended invitations to everyone he knew, even if he¡¯d barely done more than make their acquaintance.

    ¡°One mistake will ruin everything....¡± Sighing, he looked listlessly off into the distance.

    As the sun hit him, he looked older than ever.

    1. The story about the first person he killed was mentioned in chapter 53. ?

 Chapter 101: If Youâ€™re Doomed, Youâ€™re Doomed

    Chapter 101: If You¡¯re Doomed, You¡¯re Doomed

    Xu Qing had no way of knowing that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was moaning and sighing in his sect headquarters. Back in the scavenger basecamp, he bought a small residence so he would have a ce to rest when needed. In scavenger basecamps, neers usually had to go through certain formalities before being allowed to take up residence. But if you were strong enough, those rules didn¡¯t apply.

    All Xu Qing had to do was show off the spirit power of the third level of Qi Condensation, and he had a new log cabin. Because of showing off the fact that he could easily afford something like that, he immediately attracted the attention of two scavengers with malicious intentions.

    Before long, their severed heads were hanging outside his door.

    After that, Xu Qing was epted as a member of the camp. Days began to pass. A few people paid attention to him at first, but his behavior was exactly the same as the average scavenger, so he quickly blended in.

    He would kill people who provoked him. He would go on missions. He would buy white boluses. And he prowled the camp with an instinctive vignce and caution that made it so no one doubted that he was anything other than a random scavenger.

    It didn¡¯t take long before people didn¡¯t even think of him as being a neer. After all, the wilderness was full of scavengers, and it wasn¡¯t unusual for them to eventuallye look for a residence after a long period of wandering.

    Of course, Xu Qing would slip out of the camp to go study the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect and the area around it. And he would asionally see disciples make the trip from the sect to the basecamp to spend their time off.

    Xu Qing recognized some of those disciples from when he¡¯d attacked their previous sect headquarters, poisoned everything, and set the ce on fire. They walked around the camp looking haughty and arrogant. But within their eyes was a deep sense of hesitation and helplessness that Xu Qing picked up on.

    As more time passed, Xu Qing got more first-hand information about the sect moving into the area, as the event had not gone unnoticed by the local scavengers.

    After about half a month, Xu Qing had a fairly good understanding of the whole situation.

    There aren¡¯t even a hundred people left in the sect. Only four of the original seven elders remain. The sect leader is still around. That means that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior only has four experts among his subordinates. This area is controlled by the Church of Departure, which is why he came here. To seek refuge with the Church....

    Xu Qing was being patient. He might have impressive battle prowess, but he was dealing with a Foundation Establishment enemy. If they ended up fighting, he could probably win, but it would be a long, hard fight.

    Therefore, Xu Qing was as cautious as usual. He took time to analyze all the bits of information he¡¯d uncovered, and didn¡¯t take any action. Another half a month passed. One night when shadowing two disciples on their way back to the sect, he overheard a conversation that provided some very interesting information.

    ¡°The patriarch is really blowing all of this out of proportion. Whenever he has guests, he makes us disciples leave the sect every three or four days to ¡®identally¡¯ spread rumors about the sect. But... what¡¯s the point?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. It¡¯s been half a year since we saw the Kid! Ai. I really can¡¯t believe the patriarch is constantly inviting so many friends to the sect. When one leaves, barely a few days pass before another guest arrives. Furthermore, we¡¯re being too obvious about spreading these rumors.¡±

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s nothing we can do.... We can¡¯t dare ignore the patriarch¡¯s orders.¡±

    When the disciples were just about to reach the sect, Xu Qing quietly made his way back to the basecamp feeling the need to be more cautious than ever. After that, he was more attentive in his observations.

    One evening as he was staking out the sect headquarters, he saw a bright beam of light shooting from the top of the mountain and off into the distance. Just barely, he could make out someone on top of the mountain, seeing the guest off.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, then he hurried back to the basecamp to organize his weapons and poisons. Then he looked up at the sky to check the time, and started waiting.

    ***

    At the grand hall at the very top of the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect, the patriarch watched his guest leave, then sighed. He could only persuade guests to stay for so long. Turning back toward the hall, he started thinking about who to invite next.

    It won¡¯t be long before that pill is done. I¡¯ll consume it immediately and open my 30th dharma aperture. Once I have my first life me, and can enter the profound radiance state... then I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

    The patriarch disappeared into the hall.

    ***

    As the glow of dusk turned darker and darker, a cold wind whimpered through the scavenger basecamp, slowly growing stronger and stronger.

    The dirt ground was already frozen hard, so there was no dust to be kicked up. But there was trash, tumbling along the streets. And the cold wind eventuallynded on the huddled forms of some of the children who resided in the camp.

    It was like a sharp de, trying to slice apart everything it encountered.

    Eventually, snow started to fall, nketing the Crimson Wilds for as far as the eye could see.

    Theter it got, the harder the snow fell. The snowkes became like goose feathers piling up everywhere. The camp residents who didn¡¯t have shelter could only shiver, their eyes looking numb and dead. It seemed that this winter was going to be a cold one, and that meant more people would freeze to death.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had made all his preparations, so he walked out of the log cabin.

    Upon seeing all the snow, and feeling the cold wind, he wrapped his clothing a bit tighter around himself. He saw some shivering children nearby, thought for a moment, then continued walking. He didn¡¯t shut the door behind him. There was a fire in his cabin, making it a lot warmer than the outside. When the children noticed the open door, their dead eyes suddenly flickered with a bit of hope.

    Xu Qing walked faster and faster in the snow, until eventually he merged with the wind, bing a string of afterimages that headed straight toward the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. The energy and blood within him boiled, and he kept the Seaforming Scripture operating at a maximum level. Violet light flowed through him, converging above his head in the very vague shape of a heavenly saber.

    Soon he arrived at the sect, and looked up at the headquarters framed by falling snow. Moonlight fell, refracted by the snow, causing the sect headquarters to be illuminated clearly.

    Seeing it, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes burned with killing intent. Without any hesitation, he jumped off the ground. The flight talisman glittered like the light of a saber as he shot up through the snow toward the hall atop the mountain. He moved faster and faster, and within a short moment, was standing outside the hall.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he lifted his right hand, then chopped it down toward the hall.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as a huge heavenly de took full form in the sky above him. The wind and snow were strong, but they didn¡¯t cause the de to waver by even the smallest fraction. Violet light shone everywhere as the heavenly de chopped down.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that the de was dozens of meters long. Even more shocking was the mad grandeur of the de as it descended, as if it could sever anything that it touched. In the blink of an eye, itnded on the hall, and a massive boom shook the entire mountain. The hall couldn¡¯t stand up to even a single attack, and began to crumble. Then the light of the de shed into it, cutting the entire hall in half.

    Within the gap was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, staggering backward with shock in his eyes. He saw Xu Qing hovering in the air, but before any words could be spoken, Xu Qing unleashed a second saber attack!

    Along with his increase in cultivation base, Xu Qing¡¯s enlightenment of the saber attack from the temple had improved, and he could unleash it more times in a row. Furthermore, he had been stockpiling energy over the past month, and didn¡¯t hesitate to tap into it. As soon as the second heavenly saber appeared, he shed it down toward Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    The violet saber descended amidst deafening rumbling sounds, and the patriarch howled and prepared to meet the second attack.

    This time, the hall entirely copsed. Meanwhile, the furious patriarch¡¯s energy and blood were also boiling. Shooting backward 300 meters, he waved his hand to summon the projection of a golden vajra warrior, surging with immense energy. That said, his hair was disheveled and his eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious that Xu Qing¡¯s two saber attacks had put him in extreme danger.

    The patriarch was actually a bit confused about what was happening. And he almost couldn¡¯t believe he was dealing with someone this powerful. Of course, he had his suspicions. Hoping to get some more information, he said, ¡°Fellow Daoist, you¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, his face fell, and he tried to lurch backward. However, he was too slow. A shadow had been stretching out across the ground right toward him. Though he moved fast, it wasn¡¯t fast enough to stop the shadow from touching his arm. Instantly, mutagen exploded into him, turning his arm greenish-ck, and causing his heart to fill with rm.

    Up in the air, Xu Qing looked down coldly at the patriarch. And without saying a single word, he tapped into his stored energy to unleash a third saber strike. Violet light erupted, and the saber appeared, shing through wind and snow right toward the patriarch, who was only just starting to fall back.

    The patriarch¡¯s summoned vajra warrior howled, throwing out both hands to block the attack. A boom rang out as the vajra warrior¡¯s arms copsed, and blood oozed out of the patriarch¡¯s mouth as he staggered away.

    In the end, though, he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He didn¡¯t have the techniques of a big sect, but Foundation Establishment was still Foundation Establishment. He had incredible battle prowess, and thus, the ambush with the saber and the shadow had only wounded him. Eyes bloodshot, he looked at Xu Qing, gritted his teeth, and said, ¡°It¡¯s you, isn¡¯t it, Kid?¡±

    Astonished, the sect disciples, elders, and even the sect leader charged out and looked up into the sky.

    They saw Xu Qing up above, his hair floating around him. His scavenger outfit only made him seem more deadly. With the moon, the wind, and the snow around him, he looked like someone from the underworld, ready to takemand over life and death.

 Chapter 102: Damned by Myriad Tribulations

    Chapter 102: Damned by Myriad Tribtions

    When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior blurted out his true identity, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. He wasn¡¯t the type of person who liked chatting in the middle of a fight. Eyes narrowing as the patriarch backed up, he tapped into the flight talisman.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing became a streak of light shooting toward the patriarch. As he moved, the spectral drought demon appeared behind him. It looked vicious, withva flowing through the cracks that covered its skin. And intense mes surrounded it in every direction, causing the snowkes to melt and turn into a mist.

    Xu Qing¡¯s energy and blood was stimted to the ultimate degree. With the Sea and Mountain Incantation operating at full force, his body cultivation abilities were at the peak. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the patriarch, unleashing a vicious fist strike.

    The patriarch¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent, and he waved his hand, causing the projected vajra warrior to howl to the heavens as it met the iing attack with its own fist.

    Neither side held back. When the two fists collided, the resulting explosion shoved Xu Qing backward, blood oozing out of the corners of his mouth. In terms of pure body cultivation level, he was still a bit under the Foundation Establishment patriarch.

    That said, the patriarch suffered in the sh as well. His energy and blood were reeling as he also staggered backward. Though his facial expression was vicious, he was actually astonished. He was now certain he was dealing with Xu Qing, but that only made him more surprised.

    He knew that Xu Qing would get stronger beforeing back, but he could never have guessed that in less than a year he would be so strong he would try to directly kill him and wipe out his sect. He was so much stronger thanst time that it was hard to believe.

    ¡°You...¡± the patriarch said, panting, but before he could continue with anything else, Xu Qing shot toward him with a fierce look in his eyes.

    Booms rang out. Xu Qing was attacking with relentless speed, not giving any chance for pausing or catching breath. Fist after fist fell, and he attacked with kicks as well. Even his head was a weapon, as hended vicious head-butts.

    The savagery was so intense that the patriarch could do little more than gasp for breath and fall back across the field of battle. As his astonishment built, his projected vajra warrior suddenly reeled on the verge of copse.

    ¡°Looking to die?!¡± he howled. Hands shing in an incantation gesture, he activated the dharma apertures within him, causing the energy of Foundation Establishment to erupt. Crushing pressure weighed down on Xu Qing, and then the patriarch went through another incantation gesture, causing blinding golden light to appear. The light turned into a whip, which heshed viciously at Xu Qing. A massive cracking sound filled the air.

    Xu Qing¡¯s spectral drought demon howled as the mes surrounding it met the attack of the whip. The drought demon didn¡¯t shatter, and in fact, grabbed the whip in its hand. However, that whip was backed by the power of Foundation Establishment, and thus, a massive tremor passed through Xu Qing, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

    At the same time, he was sent spinning out of the air and right toward the sect headquarters.

    Down below were the sect leader and the three elders, whose eyes burned with killing intent. The other disciples of the sect looked the same, their eyes filled with animosity. As Xu Qing fell, they attacked.

    ¡°Time to die!¡± shouted the patriarch, whose bloodshot eyes raged with killing intent as he rapidly performed another double-handed incantation gesture. A Foundation Establishment magical art converged, creating a huge sealing mark in the air. It was dozens of meters from end to end, and its pulsing energy caused the wind and snow around it to change course wildly. Then the mark started to move down toward Xu Qing.

    The entire sect trembled, and the snowkes were crushed into dust.

    The patriarch¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he performed another incantation gesture, resulting in an additional two golden vajra warriors to appear, both of whomunched twin fist attacks.

    There were three projected vajra warriors. Six fists. And they sailed toward Xu Qing from three different directions.

    Any other person in Qi Condensation, even someone in the great circle, would not survive this situation. The magical techniques of Foundation Establishment were incredibly powerful, and the might of dharma apertures was shocking. It was the same level of attack that could be produced by seven or eight talisman treasures.

    In that moment of extreme danger, Xu Qingnded on the ground in the sect headquarters. He was facing attacks from all the disciples of the sect, three golden vajra warriors¡¯ fists, and a huge sealing mark. Yet when he looked around, his eyes glittered. His hands shed in an incantation gesture, and spirit power fluctuations erupted out in all directions. In the blink of an eye, they reached three hundred meters, forming a huge spirit sea! It was like a shockwave, filled with terrifying force.

    The sect leader, elders, and disciples might as well have all had the same cultivation base level in the face of this shockwave, because when it hit them, they trembled... and then exploded!

    Xu Qing¡¯s spirit power shook the mountain, destroyed buildings, and... killed everyone it touched, in body and soul!

    Then massive rumbling sounds echoed out as the spirit power hit the patriarch¡¯s magical techniques. The three vajra warriors turned blurry, and then they vanished like fleeting shadows in the wind. As the huge sealing mark descended, it rippled and disappeared.

    The patriarch¡¯s face fell as he shot backward. Yet even he was hit by the spirit power, and blood started flowing out of the corners of his mouth. He had suffered serious internal injuries, and what was worse, because he wasn¡¯t paying attention, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow grabbed onto his left arm. He ripped free, but not before his entire arm turned greenish-ck from the surge in mutagen. And then, a ck iron skewer shot toward him and stabbed into his right shoulder.

    In addition to all that, he trembled to the core of his being when he realized that his energy and blood were unstable. He had been poisoned, causing his face to turn iparably grim. Falling back, he threw some medicinal pills into his mouth and prepared to flee. But then he red at Xu Qing down below, his eyes filled with killing intent.

    ¡°The Seaforming Scripture from the Seventh Peak in Seven Blood Eyes is capable of unleashing a one-time shockwave that can shake Foundation Establishment. But you can only do it once! Therefore, the time hase for you to die!¡±

    Xu Qing breathed hard as the defensive talisman treasures glittered. Even still, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. All in all, he wasn¡¯t surprised about anything so far. Foundation Establishment was powerful, and he¡¯d known that from the very beginning. But he was still convinced he could kill the patriarch!

    From the moment he started his attack, he had resorted to his most deadly killing moves. The heavenly saber. The spectral drought demon. And instead of unleashing random magical techniques from his spirit sea, he released its power in one huge attack. Furthermore, from the beginning of the fight until this point, he had already utilized seventy-three different types of poison.

    So far, nothing that had yed out went beyond anything he had predicted would happen. Therefore, when the patriarch looked down at him grimly, Xu Qing lifted his right hand into the air toward the patriarch, and made a grasping gesture.

    When that happened, the patriarch¡¯s pupils constricted; the countless snowkes around him suddenly stopped moving and melted into droplets of water. From a distance, it looked like everything for 300 meters around him was liquid.

    ¡°You! You still have spirit power? How??¡± As the patriarch looked around in astonishment, the water droplets transformed into a massive hand that crushed down.

    Rumbling sounds echoed, and blood sprayed out of the patriarch¡¯s mouth. But then, his astonishment increased as the huge hand of water transformed into... a snakeneck dragon!

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s Forbidden Sea dragonwhale. Howling, its energy erupting explosively, it lunged toward the patriarch with snapping jaws!

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s face fell, and he blurted, ¡°Forbidden Sea dragonwhale?¡±

    He was familiar with Seven Blood Eyes, and knew about the Seventh Peak¡¯s Seaforming Scripture. He was well aware that, after cultivating it to the eighth level, some outstanding disciples could unleash a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale. When that happened, the dragonwhale became a second stockpile of spirit power for that disciple. Of course, not many people could form the dragonwhale.

    What was more, he had seen Forbidden Sea dragonwhales before, and though Xu Qing¡¯s had the same type of energy, in terms of physical appearance and the power of the Forbidden Sea it contained, it waspletely different.

    The patriarch kept falling back. At this point, he didn¡¯t want to fight anymore. The mutagen within him was reaching dangerous levels, and he couldn¡¯t deal with the poison. His internal organs all started to dissolve, and the blood seeping out of his mouth was ck and noxious.

    If only I could enter the profound radiance state....

    The patriarch feltpletely helpless. That wasn¡¯t even to mention that gruish shadow that lurked around. All it had to do was touch him, and the mutagen levels within him would soar. What was more, the strength of the Forbidden Sea dragonwhale,bined with Xu Qing¡¯s body cultivation power, filled the patriarch with a sense of ultimate crisis.

    ¡°I¡¯m a member of the Church of Departure. I¡ª¡±

    Even as the words left his mouth, Xu Qing¡¯s flight talisman glittered brightly, and he flew up into the air.

    ¡°Same difference,¡± he said. It was the first time he had spoken in the entire fight.

    Before the patriarch could say anything else, Xu Qing waved his hand... and his dharmaboat appeared!

    It was several dozens of meters long, and looked like a mixture between a crocodile and a xuanwu turtle. It had sails like wings, and as it shot through the air, it pulsed with indescribable brutality and killing intent. [1]

    What was more, the boat shone with golden light that converged on the spike at the prow. As it did, a holy, god-like aura erupted from the dharmaboat and locked onto the patriarch. That holy, god-like aura felt like it came from an actual god, and caused all of the surrounding wind and snow to simply vanish.

    A shocking might descended.

    Standing on the dharmaboat, Xu Qing seemed like he was a sovereign who couldmand gods. Staring coldly at the patriarch, he lifted his right hand, and as he did, godliness converged. Then, he dropped his hand, and the godliness exploded outward.

    The godly attack was the strongest move his dharmaboat was capable of. Xu Qing had even considered leading with this attack, but he had worried that the Foundation Establishment patriarch wouldn¡¯t be felled with that one attack. Therefore, he had kept it until the right moment, which was now. And now, he was certain it would kill his opponent!

    Meanwhile, the patriarch¡¯s face turned absolutely pale, and his scalp tingled as was overwhelmed with a sensation of disbelief.

    ¡°Godliness!!¡±

    In that moment, despair overwhelmed the patriarch, and then became terror. Now more than ever he felt like he was going to die.... Every fiber of his being trembled in the face of that godliness.

    I can¡¯t escape. If I faced this at the very beginning, I might have stood a chance. But now....

    As Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked at Xu Qing standing on his dharmaboat, he thought back to those ancient records he had read. And suddenly he had an idea.

    ¡°Wait a moment, Fellow Daoist! Listen to me. I¡¯m willing to be your servant. A servant for life! Milord, from now on I¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing, his expression cold as ice, ignored the patriarch. He had no interest in having servants. His right hand dropped!

    1. As I¡¯m sure many of you know, the ¡®xuanwu¡¯ or ¡®xuanwu turtle¡¯ or ¡®ck turtle¡¯ (or substitute tortoise depending on the trantor), is one of the ¡®Four Symbols¡¯ or four mythological creatures associated with various constetions. The others are the azure dragon, the vermillion bird, and the white tiger. Xuanwu turtles traditionally have a snake on their back, although sometimes art depicts its tail as a snake. And in xianxia they sometimes appear as just turtles without the snake.  of a more fantasy-themed xuanwu. ?

 Chapter 103: Back from Deathâ€™s Door

    Chapter 103: Back from Death¡¯s Door

    Xu Qing was not in the habit of paying attention to his enemies¡¯ dying words. Nor was he interested in having a servant. Besides, human hearts were hard to judge, and it was always possible a servant could turn traitorter on. It seemed much better to just kill an enemy and be done with it.

    When it came to enemies, he had one philosophy: a dead enemy was the safest. And the sooner you killed them, the safer you were.

    Besides, though he was new to the Crimson Wilds, and had only spent a month limating, he had learned enough to know that because of the impoverished conditions and horrible environment, the Church of Departure didn¡¯te often to proselytize. The scavenger basecamp was 50 kilometers away, plus there was a snowstorm. It seemed unlikely anyone knew about what was going on at the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    Because of the talisman treasure, he lookedpletely different. Furthermore, his dharmaboat had always been disguised, and the only person who knew what it really looked like was Zhang San.

    Xu Qing had done all he could in the short time avable. Things hadn¡¯t yed out perfectly, and there were some ws, but overall, he felt that things had gone very smoothly.

    Of course, the main reason for it all was that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had misjudged when he woulde. He had also underestimated how quickly Xu Qing would advance in his cultivation. Most importantly, there was no way he could have predicted that Xu Qing woulde prepared with an attack of godliness, something that could be dangerous to even Foundation Establishment cultivators!

    Godly entities were very rare, and materials rted to them were astonishingly expensive. But Xu Qing had sacrificed a godly lizard skin, as well as well over 10,000 spirit stones, to have his dharmaboat crafted in this way.

    How could things not have gone smoothly?

    The wind howled, spreading snow in all directions.

    The dharmaboat¡¯s power of godliness converged, and when Xu Qing¡¯s right hand dropped, it shot out of the horn at the prow of the ship, bing a blinding mass of golden light.

    Looking at the scene from below on the ground, one would see the snowkes covering everything, except for that impossibly holy beam of golden light.

    It was pure and god-like in a way that could crush all souls and vanquish all living beings. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled visibly, the terror in his eyes so intense it almost became corporeal.

    The godliness swept toward him with the power to kill him in body and soul. And seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t listening to him, the patriarch¡¯s eyes shed with determination. Howling, he did something that Xu Qing could never have imagined that he would do.

    He actually... killed himself before the godliness hit him!

    As Xu Qing watched, he struck himself on the forehead with his own hand.

    A boom rang out, and his Foundation Establishment cultivation base erupted with power as his palm struck his own head. And then, seemingly worried that he might not sessfully kill himself with that one blow, he pulled out a knife and stabbed himself in the heart. The force of the blow caused the de to explode, whereupon countless bits of metal shrapnel, backed by the power of Foundation Establishment, ripped through his body. At the same time, his head literally exploded.

    All of it happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Then the patriarch¡¯s headless, shredded corpse tumbled to the ground....

    Xu Qing stared in shock. Wait, is he a nonhuman that doesn¡¯t need a head to live? Or is he trying to fake his own death?

    Studying the corpse below, he confirmed that there were absolutely no signs of life in it. He had never heard of any human being able to fake their death after losing their head, and at the same time, he didn¡¯t get any sense that the patriarch wasn¡¯t human.

    For the first time in the process of killing someone, Xu Qing hesitated, as he wondered if he should waste some of his precious godliness on what was obviously a corpse....

    He had killed a lot of people over the years, but had never seen anything like this. The dharmaboat godliness attack wavered as Xu Qing started to rein it in.

    Then, he waved his hand, and the countless water droplets in the area stabbed down into the mangled corpse.

    Booms rang out as the corpse was chopped into pieces.

    However, that was when a soul shadow appeared, wriggling out from the gore. It was somewhat indistinct, and trembling in the wind, like it might fade from existence at any moment.

    Despite the indistinct nature of the soul shadow, it clearly bore the visage of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. However, it had not yet be a deceased soul, but instead, seemed to waver between rity and blurriness. Yet Xu Qing could clearly see the signs of life in it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened, filling with killing intent again. Before he could do anything, the patriarch¡¯s soul shadow suddenly shot at top speed... toward the ck iron skewerying on the ground a short distance away. In the blink of an eye, he was next to the iron skewer, his expression one of anxiety, as though he were fleeing for his life, fearful that if he didn¡¯t get close enough to the skewer, he would be wiped out of existence by Xu Qing. Without any hesitation, the soul shadow merged into the iron skewer. The skewer trembled, and then the ck glow that emanated from it suddenly seemed much colder.

    From the way it pulsed it had obviously transformed into something precious!!

    For the second time ever during the process of a battle, Xu Qing stared in open shock.

    He was a member of Seven Blood Eyes now, and was not ignorant to the ways of cultivation, like he had been before. All it took was a single nce at the iron skewer, and he knew exactly what he was looking at.

    It has a spirit automaton now?

    There were many differences between prized treasures and magical treasures. But the biggest difference... was that prized treasure did not have spirits, and magical treasures did. Adding a spirit to a prized treasure didn¡¯t automatically make it a magical treasure, but with a spirit automaton, it would have the potential to be one!

    After thinking for a moment, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture with his right hand, and the ck iron skewer shot toward him. Grabbing it out of the air, he looked at it coldly and squeezed it hard. He then rxed his hand before squeezing hard again. After doing that a few times, he considered the situation further.

    He could tell that his iron skewer did indeed have a spirit automaton now. And that spirit automaton... was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Xu Qing had no idea how the patriarch did it, but it was obvious that, fearing death, he transformed his soul into a spirit automaton and then inserted himself into the iron skewer.

    ¡°Get the hell out of there!¡± Xu Qing growled anxiously.

    The iron skewer trembled, and then the patriarch¡¯s face appeared on its surface. Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s expression, he shivered and smiled obsequiously.

    ¡°Milord, what matter can your humble servant handle for you?¡±

    He spoke smoothly, with a touch of ttery, in a way that didn¡¯t seem forced at all. It almost seemed like he had practiced speaking in this way. And the truth was that¡­ he had. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was a very cautious person, and always preferred to y things safe. He loved reading ancient records, preferred to do things differently than the average person, and was quite talkative.

    That said, he didn¡¯t think of himself that way. Given the chaotic state of the world, he felt that his own cultivation base level, and his inability to enter the profound radiance state, made him worthless. Furthermore, his sect was tiny. Therefore, based on the ancient records he had read, he knew that he would make the perfect grindstone for one of those legendary people with unbeatably strong destiny.

    The patriarch had read about such ¡®grindstones¡¯ many times in the ancient records. They always died horrible deaths, and not one of them ever survived. That had left him feeling terrified about his future prospects.

    He could have simply given up and retired into seclusion, but he couldn¡¯t bear to do that.

    Years in the past, when it had seemed unlikely he would end up so unlucky, he had decided to put in ce some failsafes. And thus, he took an ancient magical technique he had found in some ruins, and secretly started cultivating it.

    That ancient technique was something ordinary people wouldn¡¯t cultivate, as it had only one purpose: it allowed you to sacrifice yourself to be a spirit automaton. Furthermore, there was a high failure rate, and failure led to the destruction of one¡¯s spiritual and physical souls.

    But the patriarch felt that the ancient technique was very important, and viewed it as a way of having a second life. Therefore, he had continued to cultivate it every so often. And you could say he had some natural gifts in that regard....

    He had always felt that, it was highly possible that if he reached the point in which someone was about to kill him, and calling them ¡®milord¡¯ and even swearing a dao oath of service didn¡¯t convince them to spare him. Then not even using some sort of death-faking talisman would be truly reliable. The most reliable thing would be to turn himself into the spirit automaton of a weapon. After all, the vast majority of cultivators thought of spirit automatons as being very useful.

    The more the patriarch read the ancient records, the more he became convinced that his n was a good one....

    And it was on this very day that the technique he had cultivated for his whole life finally became useful. He had been in a position in which death was certain, but now he had a chance to keep living.

    Even as the patriarch smiled tteringly, Xu Qing stood there feeling nervous. This was his first time being in a situation in which he was hesitating about killing an enemy. It was just that spirit automatons were so incredibly precious....

    ¡°How did you turn into a spirit automaton?¡± he asked coldly.

    With an ingratiating smile, the patriarch loudly said, ¡°Years ago, your humble servant had a dream. In the dream, I traveled to the future and met a Lord of Destiny who would baptize this cruel and cold world, and give it warmth and kindness. I was so moved that I swore an oath to follow him. When I woke up, I spent all my savings to purchase an ancient magical technique that can be used to turn oneself into a spirit automaton. You see, I¡¯ve been preparing for this very moment for years!¡±

    ¡°You sound like a lunatic,¡± Xu Qing said coldly, and his killing intent started bubbling.

    Seeing this, the patriarch shivered, and mused that it had been a wise choice to kill himself when dealing with a person like this, who sought revenge over the smallest grievance. Only by transforming himself into a spirit automaton had hee back from death¡¯s door.

    There really had been no other options. This wolf cub would never have epted a servant, and had been dead set on killing. The patriarch knew that if he had acted even a bit slower, then he would really be dead now. It had been an exhausting ordeal, and he couldn¡¯t help but grumble to himself about how much effort it had taken.

    With such thoughts in his mind, he lowered his voice and told the truth, and even revealed his life essence spirit to Xu Qing.

    As Xu Qing listened to the story, inspected the life essence spirit, and looked at the iron skewer, the killing intent in his eyes waxed and waned. Seeing that, the anxious patriarch said, ¡°Milord, my poor little life is worthless. But I¡¯m a spirit automaton now, which means I can make your weapon more effective, and provide it with endless opportunities for future growth. I might only be a Foundation Establishment spirit automaton, but with my augmentation, a prized treasure will be considered rarer and more dangerous. In the future, there are many other ways I can be of use. But of course, milord, you can exterminate me with a mere thought.

    ¡°Milord, don¡¯t hurry to get rid of me. On my corpse you¡¯ll find a medicinal pill that¡¯s almostplete, and that thing can really boost your cultivation base.

    ¡°Also, milord, there¡¯s a treasure storehouse in my sect, and inside is a formation crossbow designed to be used on a Seventh Peak dharmaboat. I don¡¯t have a dharmaboat, so I could never use it. I nned to give it away as a gift....

    ¡°Oh, right. Milord, we should get out of here. A few days ago I invited a Fellow Daoist toe visit, and he should arrive sometime tomorrow. Also, the Church of Departure is supposed to send an emissary here soon.¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior knew that, since he¡¯d made the choice to submit, he needed to submit thoroughly andpletely. That was the only way he could stay alive.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless. After putting away the patriarch¡¯s life essence spirit, he made a grasping gesture to pull the bag of holding from the corpse. Then he made to destroy the corpse itself, except the patriarch quickly interfered.

    ¡°Milord, milord, uh... that bag of holding is just for show. It¡¯s not even real. There¡¯s another holding device on my corpse. It¡¯s hidden in a talisman treasure.¡±

    Xu Qing looked deeply at the patriarch.

 Chapter 104: Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity

    Chapter 104: Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity

    With Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s enthusiastic help, Xu Qing found a pearl of holding, which the patriarch had actually kept buried in his flesh. There were only three things inside of it.

    The first was a spirit note worth 500 spirit stones. The second was a jade box used for liquidizing medicinal pills. Inside of it was a violet pill that was in the process of liquidizing. The third was a stack of three jade slips, which were the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect¡¯s techniques, plus the spirit automaton technique.

    The fake bag of holding only contained random items worth about a hundred spirit stones in total.

    Seemingly worried that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t pleased, the patriarch quickly whispered, ¡°That second highness was simply too ruthless. That¡¯s why I don¡¯t have much left.¡±

    ¡°The bag of holding you left out in your previous sect headquarters was also a fake?¡± Xu Qing asked slowly.

    ¡°Yeah....¡± the patriarch replied, trembling.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Sprinkling Corpse-Ravaging Powder on all the corpses, he headed into the ruined sect headquarters, where he found the secret treasure storehouse the patriarch had mentioned. The only thing inside was the formation crossbow. As the patriarch had said, it was specifically designed to be used on a dharmaboat, and even required a dharmaboat spell formation to work. After looking it over, Xu Qing took it.

    He cleaned out the rest of the sect, but there wasn¡¯t much to take. The dead disciples didn¡¯t have anything valuable, and the sect lord and the elders only had a bit more than that.

    ¡°You were right to kill them, milord. These traitors were secretly nning to rebel against me next time I went into seclusion. I was actually nning to take care of them myself.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care if what the patriarch said was true or not. After searching the sect thoroughly, he disappeared into the snow and wind.

    As the dark sky filled with more and more snow, it slowly covered the Crimson Wilds until they were white instead of red.

    The wind grew more bone-chilling, carrying snow everywhere to cover everything.

    This was true winter. A lot of people would die.

    Xu Qing kept his clothes wrapped tight around him as he sped through the wilderness. He didn¡¯t go back to the scavenger basecamp. Instead, he headed through the night to the city on the edge of the Crimson Wilds.

    ¡°I need to get back to Seven Blood Eyes as quickly as possible,¡± he murmured. ¡°I can¡¯t stay out here.¡± As he sped along, he nced down at the iron skewer in his sack.

    He still hadn¡¯t decided whether to destroy the spirit automaton that was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. However, he decided that since he had the patriarch, he might as well ask some questions.

    ¡°Tell me about the Church of Departure.¡±

    Sensing that he wasn¡¯tpletely safe, the patriarch nervously went into every detail he could think of. ¡°In the continent of South Phoenix, the Church of Departure is one of the big powers that stands alongside Seven Blood Eyes, the Violet Lands, and Words of Truth. It also has its foundation in Revered Ancient. The South Phoenix branch is considered a subsidiary congregation.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®its foundation is in Revered Ancient?¡¯¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the patriarch. Although Xu Qing knew something about the power structure in the continent of South Phoenix, it was obvious that as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the patriarch would know more.

    Sensing the doubt in Xu Qing¡¯s voice, the patriarch, hoping to prove his value, began a rapid-fire exnation. ¡°Milord, of the four major powers in South Phoenix, the Violet Lands is the only truly native force. The other three have foundations away from South Phoenix.

    ¡°Your sect, milord, is a perfect example. The seven mountain peaks of Seven Blood Eyes seem like they¡¯re all united. But the truth is that each mountain peak is self-governing. It just so happens that they all follow the same rules. And after all the years that have passed, they¡¯ve gradually be like one united force.

    ¡°Even still, the seven peaks are actually branches of the Seven Sect Coalition, which is made up of seven of thergest human sects on the Revered Ancient maind! Branches like that actually exist on all the inds in the Endless Sea on which humans live. It just so happens that South Phoenix is one of thergest inds on the sea, so the branches here are particrly formidable.

    ¡°As for Words of Truth, well, they¡¯re very secretive, and I don¡¯t know much about them.¡±

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing anything like this. ¡°Tell me more about the Seven Sect Coalition.¡±

    ¡°The Revered Ancient maind is massive, and humans upy only a small area. That said, the area they upy could still be considered huge. Of course, I¡¯ve never been there, so I don¡¯t know all of the details. But I¡¯ve heard that the Seven Sect Coalition is a superpower that exists near the coast. I get the feeling... that if you consider all humans as a whole, the Seven Sect Coalition probably isn¡¯t the strongest group out there.

    ¡°Of course, everything is rtive. To your humble servant, even one of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ mountain peaks is a colossal monster of an organization....¡±

    Xu Qing was shocked to hear all of this, and as he looked out at heaven and earth, he realized that he only knew a little bit about the world around him.

    ¡°However,¡± the patriarch continued, ¡°I do know about the Church of Departure. They have countless adherents all over the world, and they¡¯re very powerful. It¡¯s all because of their teachings....

    ¡°The Church of Departure¡¯s teachings stretch far beyond the brutal world we live in. They fanatically believe that in ancient times, when the broken face of the god arrived, the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns departed to establish a holynd. And they firmly trust that, one day in the future, those Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns will take them there.

    ¡°One of the reasons the Church of Departure has so many congregations is that their holy writings say that there were a total of nine Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns who created that holynd.

    ¡°Because of that, the Church of Departure has nine factions, each of which adheres to a different one of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. None of those factions get along, and they all believe that they worship the greatest of the nine, and that only the one they worship will lead them to the holynd.

    ¡°Of course, the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns weren¡¯t all human. Some were nonhuman. And that¡¯s why you¡¯ll find adherents of the Church of Departure among all types of living beings.¡±

    Hearing all this, Xu Qing felt deeply shaken. However, as he digested the information, he asked, ¡°What are these Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns?¡±

    The patriarch looked a bit stunned. The truth was that he didn¡¯t even know the answer to the question. However, not wanting to look ignorant while Xu Qing was still deciding his fate, he thought for a moment and then said, ¡°The realm of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns is beyond my ability to fathom. But one of the ancient records I read said... that Ancient Emperors were the beings who united the Revered Ancient maind and conquered all living beings. And the Imperial Sovereigns were beings who did not unite the Revered Ancient maind, but had the power to defy heaven and were strong enough to do battle with the Ancient Emperors.¡±

    Xu Qing seemed fascinated by all this, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Seeing that look on his face, the patriarch secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Truth be told, he had no idea if that description was urate. After all, the ancient records that he read were mostly considered folk tales....

    With that, he shifted the conversation topic back to the Church of Departure.

    ¡°The most supreme entity in the Church of Departure is the mysterious Arbiter of Destiny, who is supposedly not even a cultivator from this world, but rather,es from the holynd itself.

    ¡°The leaders of the nine factions are called the apostles.

    ¡°The congregations here on South Phoenix are all branches of the Dark Serenity faction. The Dark Serenity faction headquarters is on Revered Ancient, and they worship the human Ancient Emperor, who is none other than Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity!

    ¡°ording to the ancient records, before the broken face of the god arrived, there was once an epoch among the many other epochs which was called the Epoch of Dark Serenity. That epoch was founded by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and it was during that time that he led humans to unite the Revered Ancient.¡±

    Hearing all of this left Xu Qing feeling more than a little bit shaken. However, he sped on through the night. By the time the light of dawn appeared, his destination was in sight. It was the chaotic city that was the location of the only teleportation portal in the Crimson Wilds. By now, Xu Qing hade to a decision about what to do with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    ¡°What kind of pill is in that jade box?¡± he asked.

    Looking at the city in the distance, the patriarch quickly replied, ¡°Ah. That¡¯s a spirit whale pill, and there¡¯s a very special way to use it. You can¡¯t consume it right now. It needs to liquidize in that jade box for a hundred days. At this point, there are three days left.¡±

    ¡°I like quiet,¡± Xu Qing suddenly said.

    The patriarch shivered and was about to say something, but then he felt great pressure weighing down on his life essence spirit. It covered the iron skewer, inflicting serious damage on his spirit automaton self, and then ultimately sealed him.

    Xu Qing still didn¡¯t feel at ease having the patriarch simply sealed, so he added a bit more pressure. Under all of that weight, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior grew weaker, and then slipped into a deep sleep.

    Xu Qing had decided not to kill him. A spirit automaton was too valuable, so he would keep him around and use him to perfect his iron skewer. However, without any reliable methods to control the spirit automaton, Xu Qing nned to wait until he was in Foundation Establishment before waking him up. And he was ready to wipe him out of existence immediately if he caused any problems.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing took a deep breath and made his way through the morning snow and away from the city.

    The truth was that, earlier in the night, he had muttered about returning to Seven Blood Eyes so that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior would hear him. Although the spirit automaton seemed to be telling the truth about everything, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t trust him that easily.

    His question about the medicinal pill had also been a test. If the patriarch lied about the pill, then he would exterminate him instantly. As for mentioning Seven Blood Eyes, he¡¯d done that in case the patriarch had some way to secretly pass a message to someone else. After all, he didn¡¯t actually n to go back to Seven Blood Eyes.

    As he sped through the wind and snow, he used all of his flight talismans to move as quickly as possible.

    Eventually, when night was about to fall again, he found a remote cave to hole up in. After sprinkling poison powder all around the entrance, he sealed himself inside, sat down cross-legged, and took out the jade box with the medicinal pill.

    Your life or death depends on whether you told the truth about this pill!

    Putting the box down, he stepped back a bit, then waved his finger. The lid of the jade box slowly opened, and a medicinal aroma wafted out.

 Chapter 105: 810

    Chapter 105: 810

    There was a melting medicinal pill inside the jade box. In fact, about half of the box was filled with a liquid that emanated a strong medicinal aroma in the cave.

    Xu Qing had never heard of a spirit whale pill, but he understood nts and vegetation. So, after smelling the aroma, his mind kicked into high gear as he analyzed it.

    Halfmaple blossom, hundredgrass leaf, storax seed... also plumed cockb musk, trumpet vine lotus.... Xu Qing made a brushing motion with his hand, bringing some of the fragrant aroma right to his nose. He inhaled. And seagold paste!

    Looking very serious, he stared at the jade box as he analyzed everything.

    The pill had a lot ofplicated ingredients, so Xu Qing couldn¡¯t break down the entire mixture just by smelling it. But he could identify the majorponents. Given his skill with the dao of poison, and his general knowledge of nts and vegetation, he could tell that the pill was intended to be a nourishing supplement. After all, every living thing had spirit power in it, especially nts.

    The basic theory behind nutritional medicines was to take the spirit power in nts and change it into something a cultivator could bring into their cultivation base.

    I can smell numerous medicinal ingredients in this pill, including something that seems like blood. I wonder what it¡¯s from. The pill name has ¡®whale¡¯ in it. Could it be from some sort of sea beast? After some thought, he extended his right hand, and the jade box flew into his palm.

    Although I don¡¯t know all the details of the pill, I can easily catalyze it to thepletion point. Narrowing his eyes, he took out some medicinal nts from his bag of holding, adjusted the ratios, and then put them into the jade box.

    A few hourster, it waspletely dark outside, and there was even more wind and snow than the day before, to the point that the cave Xu Qing hid in waspletely buried. However, the snow couldn¡¯t mask the screaming of the wind. Xu Qing listened to it as he watched the jade box.

    The half of the pill that had remained before was now gone, and the entire box was filled with medicinal liquid. It was translucent and bright orange, and the aroma from before was a bit more faint.

    After looking at the liquid, Xu Qing picked up the box and drank it.

    As the liquid poured down his throat and into his belly, a mysterious wave of heat erupted inside him. It was a stark contrast to the frigid cold outside, and it made him feel like he was about to explode. Every single one of his meridians opened up to ept the heat, which spread through all of his flesh and blood. It was like he had be a sponge, sucking up every bit of the spirit power in the medicinal liquid. A tremor passed through him, and his eyes shone. He could tell that this medicinal pill had shocking medicinal efficacy, and as a result, felt his trust in Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior growing a bit.

    Part of the reason for hisck of hesitation in consuming it was his natural ability to resist poison. As he activated the Seaforming Scripture, his spirit sea, which had reached 291 meters on Sealizard Ind... started growing rapidly.

    It instantly reached 294 meters!

    And it didn¡¯t stop there. With the help of the spirit power from the medicinal liquid, his spirit sea kept growing rapidly, reaching 297 meters. And then... 300!

    When that happened, a bright violet glow erupted in his eyes, causing him to inhale sharply. He had just broken through from the ninth level of Qi Condensation and into the tenth!

    To most disciples, that was the absolute limit of the Seaforming Scripture! The technique was broken into ten levels, each of which brought different transformations to spirit power, and more crushing might from the energy of the Forbidden Sea. This was a level of strength that surpassed most small sects and ns, and was considered a high-level technique. It was also the source of strength for Seventh Peak disciples.

    However, there were limits to it. The first level started with a 30-meter spirit sea. The tenth level ended with a 300-meter spirit sea. That was the final limit of the technique¡¯s growth!

    But asionally, a disciple woulde along who broke past that limit, and continue to grow their spirit sea. People like that weren¡¯t verymon, and even when they dide along, they usually only went ten or twenty meters past the limit. Even still, anyone like that was considered outstanding among their peers.

    However, based on what Xu Qing hade to understand, the reason for those limitations to the Seaforming Scripture was mutagen!

    When cultivators practiced cultivation, it was impossible for the mutagen to not umte over time. Even using medicinal pills to cleanse the body was simply treating the symptoms but not the root cause. After enough time passed, mutagen eventually umted. And the more mutagen you had, the more severe the limitations on the Seaforming Scripture.

    But he... had absolutely no mutagen in him.

    What influences the size of my spirit sea isn¡¯t mutagen, it¡¯s my own limitations.

    His eyes flickered with violet light as he sensed the spirit power raging in him thanks to the medicine. In fact, he was somewhat shocked that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had acquired a pill like this.

    To the patriarch, this pill must have been absolutely precious....

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, his eyes filled with determination. Whether it was the danger he would surely face once he returned to the sect, or simply his desire to improve himself, he wanted to see what level he could push his spirit sea to.

    Taking a deep breath, he activated the Seaforming Scripture, and started bringing the medicinal pill¡¯s spirit power into him. He did the same with his fleshly body, and a momentter, the spectral drought demon appeared and began to perform breathing exercises.

    There was no sound outside, but in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, there were deafening rumbling sounds as wave after wave of spirit power caused his spirit sea to expand.

    303. 393. 483¡­.

    His spirit sea grew at a terrifying rate. Before long it was at 690 meters, and it was still going. Thanks to the terrifying breakthrough, as Xu Qing sat there cross-legged, he emanated a might vastly beyond anything from before.

    A vortex formed, causing the wind and snow outside to distort and ripple in an area the exact same size as Xu Qing¡¯s spirit sea: 690 meters.

    It kept growing!

    720. 750. 780 meters....

    It was at this point that the medicinal properties began to lose effectiveness within him.

    Meanwhile, the wind and snow around the cave had transformed into a dramatic tornado. Thankfully, he had picked a remote part of the Crimson Wilds to do this, a ce where there were few inhabitants. And during a big storm at that. As a result, no one was there to witness it.

    ording to the Seaforming Scripture description, from ancient times until now on the Seventh Peak, the biggest spirit sea to ever form in Qi Condensation was 810 meters....

    Opening his eyes, he quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then threw his hands wide. The previously vanishing medicinal effects were suddenly put under immense weight. At the same time, random bits of spirit power from the surrounding wilderness flowed wildly toward Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t the purest spirit power, but he absorbed it nheless, and it was enough for his purposes.

    Thebination of his actions caused his spirit sea to grow again!

    789. 798. 807¡­.

    And finally, 810 meters!

    The entire cave shook in that final moment. The wind and snow copsed, and cracks appeared on the surface of the ground. Then the entire hill exploded, revealing a huge crater with Xu Qing sitting in the middle of it.

    Terrifying spirit power fluctuations rolled off of him, and the wind and snow didn¡¯t dare to get close to him. The spectral drought demon threw its head back and howled, and violent mes erupted out from it.

    More cracks appeared on the drought demon¡¯s skin, and theva within them grew more intensely hot. All of the snow in the area transformed into rain, which then melted into hissing water vapor. Two bulges appeared on the drought demon¡¯s back, which seemed to be fleshy wings that could spring out at any moment.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they erupted with violet light. Looking down at himself, he could sense his spirit sea and the shocking aura that surrounded him.

    ¡°The great circle of Qi Condensation!¡± he murmured. He had the feeling that he wouldn¡¯t even need an attack of godliness to defeat the old Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. With his magical techniques, heavenly saber, and dao of poison, he could kill the man in his own right.

    At this point, Xu Qing waved his finger toward the sky, and his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale appeared in the form of a snakeneck dragon. As it stretched out, it reached a length of 810 meters. Then Xu Qing murmured something, and it shrank back down to 300 meters.

    He did the same with his spirit sea.

    As was his custom, he kept the true extent of his strength hidden. After making sure he was sufficiently disguised, he got to his feet, his eyes shining with deep anticipation. And that was because he could sense that his spirit sea had not reached its final limit. It could still grow further.

    I guess I¡¯ll find out for sureter!

    With that, he sped off into the night. His n was to find another city to get passage back to Seven Blood Eyes. He had been away for over a month, had taken care of some important matters, and had improved his cultivation base. Now was time to go back and see if things with the Merfolk and Third Highness had blown over.

    Using flight talismans, Xu Qing took three days to reach his destination, which was a Seven Blood Eyes city some distance away from the Crimson Wilds. Entering the city, he headed straight to the teleportation portal. Upon reaching it, he paid the fee, looked back at the Crimson Wilds, and then let out a sigh of relief.

    After all this time, he felt he could breathe a bit easier. Although Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior wasn¡¯t actually dead, the end result was something he could ept.

    And now, as long as things are calm in the sect, I can get a good night¡¯s sleep.

    The teleportation portal activated, and a sea of light swept over him. When the light faded, he was gone.

    Wind and snow still swept over thends, turning them white. Everything looked clean. Coldness filled every inch of the wilderness, turning into killing intent, and ruthlessness.

    How very brutal.

 Chapter 106: The Mute

    Chapter 106: The Mute

    In the seaside capital city of Seven Blood Eyes, the winter wind was soft and cool on every street corner. It was different from the frigid cold of the Crimson Wilds. This cold was gentle and humid, and was easy to overlook. But eventually, it would seep into the depths of your being. When it reached that point, it was impossible to get rid of.

    It was simr to Offpeak disciples. Hidden underneath every smile was raw brutality, so that each disciple was like a needle concealed in silk.

    That was especially true with the Seventh Peak. Seventh Peak disciples all seemed innately skilled at maintaining deceptive exteriors. They didn¡¯t care about false dignity; they focusedpletely on profit and self-interest. Xu Qing had longe to a deep sense of how true that was.

    By now, he was fully assimted into life in the capital city. Furthermore, as his cultivation base improved, he had no choice but to rely on ruthless methods to stay alive, to avoid danger, and to earn a reputation. Of course, his caution and vignce had not suffered in the slightest.

    Xu Qing knew that the low-level Seventh Peak disciples were easier to deal with. They were less subtle. But the higher-level disciples, such as those in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, or the tenth, were profound schemers. They were good at putting on false faces and were also very patient, like vipers hiding in the shadows. If they targeted you, you would probably die before even realizing who your enemy was. And it didn¡¯t stop there. People who climbed to the top and became Foundation Establishment cultivators excelled even further in that regard.

    For example, Third Highness....

    As Xu Qing walked the streets of the capital city, his expression was calm, but inside, he was fully on guard. He still hadn¡¯t reverted to his true appearance. He had spent the better part of the day in the city sticking to crowded ces where he could listen in on thetest gossip. His main goal was to see if the situation with Third Highness and the Merfolk had calmed down.

    He was patient in his efforts. When evening came, he didn¡¯t revert to his true form. Upon entering the city earlier, he hadn¡¯t registered with his identity medallion, but rather, had used an anonymous jade slip.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, anonymous jade slips were an industry of their own. They were a good choice for criminals or other people who wanted to get into the city without revealing who they truly were.

    Of course, they were extremely expensive. But the advantages were just too incredible for those who needed them. The sect generally turned a blind eye to the matter. There would be asional crackdowns, but for the most part, as long as someone didn¡¯t break thew or do anything too outrageous, nothing would happen to those who used them.

    Xu Qing had killed a lot of criminals on the bounty list, and as a result possessed many such jade slips. Therefore, when he came back into the city, he found an inn and used one of them to book lodging.

    Three days passed by in a sh.

    During that time, Xu Qing gathered information using all sorts of methods, even spending some spirit coins. After all of that, he didn¡¯t get any clues about the Merfolk situation. It seemed that there hadn¡¯t been any repercussions at all. Nor had Third Highness followed up on the matter.

    Actually, the biggest topic of interest among most disciples was the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Grand Competition. Xu Qing heard a lot about that subject as he gathered intelligence. In fact, he heard more about that than anything else. The more he heard about it, the more interested he became.

    The Grand Competition was hosted every thirty years, and was usually held in an outside location. It was known for being a very brutal and bloody event. For example, the previous tournament, thirty years ago, had been held in Merfolk territory, and had resulted in the Merfolk being crushed. Only afterward did they be allies with the humans.

    The host location had already been decided. It was an ind in the Westcoral Archipgo inhabited by the Northspirit species. They were a brutal and bloodthirsty lot who made their living via piracy. They were backed by otherrge nonhuman groups, who provided them resources that they used to carry out their activities on the Forbidden Sea. They were a big threat to trading vessels, including those from Seven Blood Eyes, many of which had been plundered by them recently.

    That had attracted the wrath of the sect, who wanted the piracy stopped. As it happened, it coincided perfectly with the timing of thetest Grand Tournament, and therefore, the tournament was to be held on Northspirit Ind.

    A lot of people were very interested in thetest developments, and that was especially true among disciples of the Seventh Peak. Because of that, prices on cultivation resources in the Port District had increased by twenty percent.

    The sect had also released the rules and regtions regarding attendance. The Seventh Peak had a total of thirteen divisions. Each division could send no more than four hundred people to the tournament, for a final total of 4,000.

    It wasn¡¯t going to be an easy task for each division to pick four hundred people to send, and the problem wasn¡¯t ack of disciples to draw on. Even the smallest divisions had close to a thousand disciples, and therger ones had thousands.

    Of course, the harder it was to get into the tournament, the more people wanted to join.

    After all, there were incredible rewards up for grabs. Anyone who killed a Northspirit cultivator would earn 10,000 merit points, and that was just the base reward. The higher the cultivation base of the enemy, the greater the reward. The rewards would be automatically distributed to the identity medallions. The amount of wealth that could be acquired was enough to provoke deep envy among any disciple who was struggling to acquire cultivation resources.

    But what was causing the most widespread excitement was that whoever took first ce in the tournament...

    Would be a conve disciple!

    To virtually all Seventh Peak disciples, the conve disciples in their pale violet daoist robes, were like the children of gods. As the Captain had exined early on, a hundred Offpeak disciples could die, and nobody would care. But if a single conve disciple died, it was a huge deal. Given that, it was no surprise the disciples were going crazy with the idea of taking first ce.

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care much about bing a conve disciple. Back when he first joined Seven Blood Eyes, the conve disciple position had seemed enticing. But now that he was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, he was much more interested in breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

    Furthermore, he had the feeling the tournament situation was moreplicated than it seemed. He suspected that hosting the event on Northspirit Ind was just a front. If he was right, the real battle was going to be with the Merfolk.

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing spent a few more days gathering information and observing things.

    After determining with absolute certainty that there were no ramifications because of the Merfolk or Third Highness, Xu Qing finally resumed using his real form. However, for a few days, heid low and stayed vignt. He didn¡¯t want to leave Seven Blood Eyes unless it was absolutely necessary. He wasn¡¯t far from Foundation Establishment, and really wanted to start earning that monthly five thousand spirit stone ie.

    It was with full vignce that he slowly resumed his normal routine. A few dayster, he got a message from the Captain.

    The second reward for the Night Dove operation had finallye in, and Xu Qing was being promoted to deputy captain of Celestial Bureau, Unit Six. His sry was going up. Instead of 3,000 merit points per month, he would get 6,000.

    The Captain took a bite of an apple, smiled, and said, ¡°You owe me, Xu Qing. If I hadn¡¯t pushed hard for this, you would never have been promoted.¡±

    Then he eyed Xu Qing up and down, obviously assessing his cultivation base fluctuations. After, he simply smiled and took another bite from the apple.

    ¡°Thank you, Captain,¡± Xu Qing replied, smiling. Ever since arriving at Seven Blood Eyes, he had been practicing his different facial expressions. By now, smiling came a lot more naturally.

    ¡°Therefore,¡± the Captain said, ¡°don¡¯t forget that you owe me 1,000 spirit stones.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile faltered. ¡°It¡¯s 100. And I already paid you back.¡±

    ¡°Huh? You paid me back?¡± The Captain facepalmed and sighed. ¡°Aiya, my memory is so bad. Ohhhh, I remember now. You did pay me 100. Fine, so you only owe me 900 now.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face looked very unusual, and out of instinct, he had dropped his hand to the sack at his side. He blinked a few times.

    ¡°Say, Xu Qing, are you attending the Grand Competition?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°Can you keep a secret?¡± the Captain continued. ¡°Given how familiar I am with the sect, I can tell you... that the Grand Competition isn¡¯t about the Northspirits!¡± Looking excited, he hopped up onto the desk, squatted, then took out two tangerines. Tossing one to Xu Qing, he peeled the other and continued, ¡°I think the tournament is about a much bigger, much richer nonhuman species. The Northspirit thing is just a smokescreen. And guess what? I checked the tournament applications in some of the other divisions, and all the shameful characters have signed up!

    ¡°Every single one of those shady bastards has long since saved up enough spirit stones to purchase Foundation Establishment Pills. But they haven¡¯t broken through, and are even keeping their cultivation bases suppressed for that purpose. They¡¯re like dogs: they can smell a good opportunity a mile away. Think about it, Xu Qing. Why would they dy Foundation Establishment for months? It¡¯s because they think they¡¯re going to have an opportunity to seize some amazing cultivation resources during thispetition!

    ¡°Remember, a lot of people got rich during the Grand Competition thirty years ago. Very rich! I heard that shrew Second Highness rose to prominence back then. And she got so rich that some of the elders got jealous. She even won eight Foundation Establishment Pills!!

    ¡°In addition, there are a lot of people in the sect whose cultivation bases have reached the breakthrough point, but they just don¡¯t have enough spirit stones. You can imagine how enticing the Grand Competition is to people like that. Given the opportunities to get rich at this thing, are you going?¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing with a smile on his face.

    Like usual, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He had alreadye to the same conclusions as the Captain, and already had his own ideas about the true reason for the tournament.

    ¡°Well,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°you really ought to go. You could get rich! And you could also lock in your chance to reach Foundation Establishment. Oh, by the way, we have a new member of Unit Six. I¡¯ll call him over for you to check out.¡± The captain pulled out his identity medallion and sent a voice message. Before long, soft footfalls could be heard outside the office door.

    Then the door opened, revealing a young man standing there. He had messy hair, a dirty face, and though he wore a gray daoist robe, it bulged because of the ck, dog skin jerkin he wore underneath it. What was most unusual about him were his eyes. They contained a harshness and brutality that made him seem less like a person and more like a wild dog. There was a murderous aura around him that made it seem like he made a practice of devouring his enemies. When he opened the door and saw the Captain and Xu Qing, he grinned, which made it obvious... he had no tongue.

    ¡°Meet the Mute,¡± the Captain said.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell on him, the Mute¡¯s smile faded, and his eyes went wide. He looked at Xu Qing sitting there in the chair, and his expression changed, as if he were suddenly looking at something absolutely terrifying. Then he started trembling physically.

    This sudden change made the office seem... like it was filled with death!

 Chapter 107: Junior Brother Xu Qing, Are You Around?

    Chapter 107: Junior Brother Xu Qing, Are You Around?

    In the office, the Mute trembled while the Captain looked on curiously.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t say anything. However, what he did notice was that the Mute seemed to be looking with terror at his shadow.

    As Xu Qing stared at him, the Mute trembled, clenching his fists tightly as beads of sweat popped out all over him. And popping sounds could be heard from his legs, as his muscles and bones grated against each other. It seemed like, on an instinctual level, he was ready for a deadly battle. As the moments ticked by, it seemed like he was undergoing unimaginable torment.

    Eventually, Xu Qing looked away, sped hands respectfully to the Captain, and then turned to leave.

    As he walked toward the door, the Mute¡¯s terror seemed to grow, yet he didn¡¯t dare to back up. It was simr to how Xu Qing acted in the forbidden regions when he encountered a grue. As Xu Qing passed, the Mute¡¯s terror reached a fever pitch. His mind screamed at him, and spittle appeared at the corners of his mouth. He was literally shaking.

    Xu Qing frowned. He wasn¡¯t unleashing any pressure or revealing any killing intent. After looking deeply at the young man one more time, he walked out of the room.

    After Xu Qing was gone, the Mute¡¯s terror finally subsided. He stopped trembling, and his facial expression returned to normal, leaving behind only a few traces of lingering fear. Clearly, he didn¡¯t dare to look over his shoulder at Xu Qing.

    Seeing all this, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with curiosity. Munching an apple, he walked over to the Mute, circled around him a few times, then handed him an apple.

    ¡°You know him?¡±

    The Mute shook his head.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know him. Then why are you so afraid of him?¡±

    The Mute had been in the Violent Crimes Division for about half a month. Simr to Xu Qing early on, he had killed a lot of criminals from the bounty list. He was like a wild dog, incredibly vicious, a person who looked at everyone with hostility and caution. In fact, this was the first time the Captain had ever seen him look so afraid.

    The Mute heard the Captain¡¯s question, but he kept his mouth shut.

    However, that only got the Captain more interested in finding out the exnation for all this. Seemingly forgetting about the apple he was eating, his eyes glittered as he suddenly unleashed a shocking murderous aura.

    As it spread out, it locked down on the Mute.

    Upon sensing it, the Mute tensed. He turned a bit pale, and even trembled. However... there was no terror in his eyes, only an unbending strength. The Captain retracted his killing intent and sighed.

    ¡°If you tell me why you¡¯re so scared of him, I¡¯ll go talk to the director and have him promote you early. How about that?¡±

    The Mute didn¡¯t say a single word.

    ¡°Right, I forgot you can¡¯t talk. How about you write it down?¡±

    The Mute looked at him with a determined expression and shook his head. It seemed he would prefer dying to answering the Captain¡¯s question. At that point, the Captain gave up. Waving the Mute away, he squatted back onto his chair and started eating his apple again.

    ***

    A short distance away from the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder in the direction of the Celestial Bureau, then nced down at his shadow. There was no question about it; the mute young man had been afraid of his shadow.

    Could he sense it? His eyes turned cold.

    Looking away from his shadow, he thought about what the Captain had said about owing him spirit stones. Xu Qing took out his bamboo slip, found the Captain¡¯s name, and scratched out the question mark behind it.

    He had already scratched out Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, as well as the young merman. The innkeeper was still there. As for the Captain, he had a few scratched-out and crossed-off question marks after his name. Xu Qing looked at them, then went to Third Highness¡¯ name and added a question mark.

    Finally, he put the bamboo slip away and headed toward a medicine shop.

    He didn¡¯t go to the shop he usually frequented. Instead, he went to a muchrger shop that he knew sold Foundation Establishment Pills. The prices were outrageous. Xu Qing was quite wealthy now, but even he sighed in disappointment when he saw how expensive they were.

    100,000 spirit stones...?

    He quietly walked back to his berth.

    Although his cultivation base and battle prowess had reached a shocking level, he was as cautious as ever. Before taking out his dharmaboat, he inspected the entire area carefully.

    After ensuring there was nothing suspicious, he took out the dharmaboat, stepped aboard, and activated the defenses. Then he entered the little medicinal ntboratory he had set up and sat down cross-legged. A momentter, violet light spilled from his chest.

    Without hesitation, he directed the power of the violet crystal to suppress his shadow. After exerting pressure three times, he stopped his efforts. That was his usual practice. He wasn¡¯t sure what exactly his shadow was now, but that wasn¡¯t important. To y it safe, he would keep his shadow suppressed.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing started concocting poison.

    The Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition....

    As he concocted, he thought about thepetition.

    His cultivation base was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, and though he knew he could continue to cultivate the Seaforming Scripture, he also knew that he should start collecting the items he would need to break through to Foundation Establishment. He didn¡¯t know a lot about Foundation Establishment, but he did know that having Foundation Establishment Pills would increase the chances of sess when attempting the breakthrough. And having one pill wasn¡¯t enough.

    The sect had records with information about Foundation Establishment, but they weren¡¯t public. You needed to spend a huge amount of merit points to gain ess. If you didn¡¯t get that information from the sect, you would have to buy it from someone else.

    After thinking about it for a while, he decided that he should pick a good time to wake up Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and ask some questions.

    Foundation Establishment Pills are just too expensive. I definitely can¡¯t afford to buy them. I guess that means I¡¯ll have to go win some in the Grand Competition. Having made his decision, and considering evening was falling, he finished his poison concocting and started working on his cultivation.

    Outside, the setting sun spread a saffron gauze out over the port. The structures in the Port District looked like parts of an ink painting, and the clouds in the sky were bright red.

    In that evening light, a beautiful young woman appeared, d in a pale violet daoist robe, her hair in a ponytail. She had an ancient bronze sword strapped to her back as she walked in the direction of Harbor 79. She was slim and pretty, and her ponytail and ancient sword made her seem valiant and heroic. She looked just like a conve disciple should look, and even radiated a dashing aura. Wherever she went, the surrounding disciples would bow their heads and sp their hands in greeting. Many of them felt their hearts pounding as she passed.

    She was in a good mood. Whenever disciples offered greetings, she would nod back in acknowledgement. Eventually, she reached Harbor 79, where she stopped for a moment, her face flush and her heart racing a bit.

    After taking a few deep breaths, she kept walking... right up to Xu Qing¡¯s berth.

    When she saw the familiar dharmaboat there, memories came flooding back. Raising her voice, she said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, are you around?¡±

    Harbor 79 wasn¡¯t usually a very loud and bustling ce. People didn¡¯te around very often, and therefore, someone with a pale violet daoist robe would stand out a lot. As a result, this young girl had already captured a lot of attention. And when the disciples realized she hade to Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, their eyes went wide.

    The fading light of the setting sun shone down on her, her long hair streaming behind her in the breeze and her daoist robe rippling around her curvaceous form.

    It was hard to say if her face was naturally flushed in this moment, or if it was the sunlight shining on her. Either way, her eyes seemed to sh with liveliness and spirit.

    ¡°That¡¯s conve disciple Elder Sister Ding Xue!¡± [1]

    ¡°What is she doing over here...? Is she here for Elder Brother Xu Qing? Ai. If only she¡¯de here looking for me.¡±

    As the surrounding disciples looked on jealously, Xu Qing sat in his dharmaboat cross-legged. When he heard her voice, he frowned slightly, then walked out and saw her standing on the shore.

    ¡°Elder Sister Ding,¡± he said by way of greeting. Truth be told, he didn¡¯t like it when people interrupted his cultivation.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, I returned to the sect recently, but when I came to visit, you weren¡¯t here. I¡¯m sorry to inconvenience you by showing up unexpectedly, but I have a lot of questions about nts and vegetation. Could you help me out a bit?¡± Suddenly, a spirit note appeared in her hand as she continued, ¡°Sorry for the trouble, Junior Brother Xu.¡±

    Xu Qing was originally nning to refuse. But after seeing the spirit note and thinking about how many things he needed to prepare for Foundation Establishment, he changed his mind. After all, even a hundred spirit stones was a hefty sum.

    Nodding, he lowered the dharmaboat¡¯s defenses. He didn¡¯t feelpletely safe outside. But on his dharmaboat, with the blessing of godliness it contained, and all of his poisons present, he felt very safe.

    Ding Xue seemed very pleased to see him open the defenses. Stepping aboard gracefully, she walked over to him. She smiled. ¡°Junior Brother Xu, where have you been recently? I heard you got back to the sect a while ago.¡±

    ¡°What questions do you have about nts and vegetation, Elder Sister Ding?¡± Xu Qing didn¡¯t dislike Ding Xue. When they were on the open sea together, she had worked hard to learn from him. However, he still felt it was best to keep some distance.

    She didn¡¯t seem to care that he was on guard, and went right into the questions she had prepared.

    Xu Qing listened and answered ordingly. For a hundred spirit stones, he felt she deserved very detailed answers. As the sea breeze blew, and the evening light covered them, the two of them made a very charming image. It was a scene that made all the surrounding disciples very jealous, including nearby cultivators on patrol.

    Meanwhile, some distance away in the city was a young man in a pale violet daoist robe, rushing anxiously toward Harbor 79, seemingly unconcerned that his actions were not befitting of a conve disciple.

    Elder Sister! How could you be so foolish? You and I have been getting along so well! Y-y-you... you really didn¡¯t need to look for him, did you?

    This person was none other than Zhao Zhongheng.

    He really was full of anxiety, especially when he thought back to how Elder Sister Ding looked at Xu Qing back when they were out at sea. And when he thought about how Xu Qing eventually stopped charging money to give advice, his heart started pounding.

    It was obvious Xu Qing was about to make a move. And that made Zhao Zhongheng extremely nervous.

    I can¡¯t let this happen. I have to hurry!!

    1. Ding Xue met Xu Qing in chapter 80. When they parted ways in chapter 84, she promised toe visit him when they were both back at the sect. ?

 Chapter 108: Chrysanthemum Mollusk

    Chapter 108: Chrysanthemum Mollusk

    The crimson sunset seemed brighter and more colorful than usual. There was also something indescribably gruish about it, as though someone was using fresh blood to paint a picture on the dome of heaven. Moreover, there seemed to be traces of gold in the red, which caught the attention of people on all seven of the peaks in Seven Blood Eyes. Quite a few Onpeak cultivators stepped out of their mansion grottoes to look at the horizon, curious expressions on their faces. Many disciples in the Port District also noticed the unusual situation.

    Xu Qing in Harbor 79 was no exception. Noticing the bright red glow, he quickly answered all of Elder Sister Ding¡¯s questions, took the 100-spirit-stone note, and then looked back toward the horizon.

    I feel like I¡¯ve seen this described somewhere before.

    He thought back to the sea annals and tried to recall the specific passage.

    The red glow didn¡¯tst for long. It soon began to fade, as though it wished to sacrifice its own beauty to dy the setting of the sun. But the sun set over the horizon anyway. When Elder Sister Ding saw that it was getting dark, she had no choice but to say her farewells.

    Before leaving, she looked at Xu Qing again, and then her eyes glittered. Earlier, she hadn¡¯t paid much attention to Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, but after inspecting him, her expression became one of disbelief and she said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, your cultivation base... is it in the great circle?¡±

    Xu Qing had been attempting to hide his cultivation. However, Ding Xue¡¯s techniques were obviously special, allowing her to detect someone¡¯s spirit power. Seeing his cultivation base fluctuations left her visibly shocked. She had known all along he was strong, but this surpassed anything she could have predicted would happen. It caused her eyes to shine.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, since you¡¯re on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment, do you mind if I ask how much you know? About Foundation Establishment, that is?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at her, feeling more on guard than ever now that she had seen through to the truth about his cultivation base. Shaking his head slowly to indicate ¡®not much,¡¯ he reached out and bolstered the dharmaboat¡¯s defenses.

    ¡°Well, I know a lot!¡± she said with a happy smile. ¡°My aunt has talked to me about it so many times I¡¯ve lost track.¡± As the words left her mouth, she pulled three jade slips out of her bag of holding and offered them to Xu Qing. [1]

    Xu Qing stared nkly at them. He knew how expensive information about Foundation Establishment was in the sect. He was moved by the sight of the three jade slips, but at the same time, also knew that good things didn¡¯te for free. Everything in the world involved trading one thing for another.

    ¡°How many spirit stones?¡± he asked.

    She smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t be so polite, Junior Brother Xu. If it wasn¡¯t for you, I would never have made it to the Westcoral Archipgo so smoothly. After everything we went through together out at sea, these jade slips count for almost nothing.

    ¡°Besides, you¡¯ve taught me a lot about nts and vegetation. Given the level of your cultivation base, you¡¯re obviously going to make friends with other conve disciples. I just want to get first in line. If you think it¡¯s not appropriate, then how about you promise to help me in the future, if I ever find myself in a dangerous situation? Okay?¡± With that, Elder Sister Ding put the jade slips down on the deck of the dharmaboat. She smiled again. ¡°Truth be told, I¡¯m the one taking advantage of you. Now, Junior Brother Xu, I¡¯ll take my leave.¡±

    With that, she turned to walk away. Xu Qing opened the dharmaboat¡¯s defenses, and she hopped off.

    Back on shore, she walked away looking very happy. At the same time, she took out her identity medallion and started sending messages to some of her best friends. Unlike men, women are usually very eager to share news with friends, and that¡¯s especially true if it¡¯s news rted to the opposite sex. Perhaps that wasn¡¯t the case for people who struggled bitterly to survive. But for conve disciples who lived mostly sheltered lives, it was definitely the norm. It was like how winter was different in the Crimson Wildspared to the Port District. Actually, the moment she returned to the sect, she told the whole story of Xu Qing to her best friends. And it was only her friends egging her on that gave her the courage to go see him on his dharmaboat.

    ¡°See what I mean, girls?¡± she whispered into her identity medallion. ¡°This Xu boy is mine for the taking!¡±

    In the middle of sending her voice messages, and before even getting out of Harbor 79, she suddenly noticed Zhao Zhongheng rushing toward her.

    ¡°Elder Sister Ding... that Xu fellow didn¡¯t try to pull a fast one, did he? I¡¯m here to help!¡±

    ¡°Oh, for god¡¯s sake!¡± Ding Xue muttered impatiently as she turned and walked in another direction.

    Zhao Zhongheng chased after her, and though she ignored him, he started following closely behind. Inside, he was more determined than ever about what to do.

    One of these days, Ding Xue, you¡¯ll understand that all other people in your life are passing travelers. Migrating birds! Only I, Zhao Zhongheng, am like the sea itself. I will never leave or forsake you. Once you get used to me being around, you¡¯ll realize how important I am. No matter how many passing travelers you encounter, none will ever measure up to me!

    Zhao Zhongheng red over his shoulder at Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat, envy eating at his heart. However, when he thought of how strong Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was, and also the threat of the Captain, he dared not show his resentment on his face. He could only grit his teeth and endure the torment.

    What does he have other than a pretty face? Compared to my endurance andpanionship, he¡¯s got nothing! Everything will be clear with time!

    As Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s emotions stirred, the red glow in the sky disappearedpletely.

    Darkness spread out over the sea, and as it did, something unusual happened. Countless gorgeous points of light appeared on the surface of the water outside the port, illuminating the sky and attracting attention throughout Seven Blood Eyes.

    An uproar began to build as numerous figures stepped out onto the dharmaboats, and people gathered on the shores to watch.

    The points of light transformed into streams, swirling through the water at high speed, forming together into densely packed groups. Before long, the surface of the water was covered with them. It almost looked like entire rivers of shooting stars. Then, the countless glittering streams of light passed the main gate of the port and started flowing into the various harbors.

    It caused widespread shock among the Seven Blood Eyes cultivators, and as for Xu Qing, he stood on his dharmaboat watching, his eyes shining. He could see that, within each stream of light was a palm-sized creature that resembled a snail or conch. They possessed the natural ability to emit light, which was causing the beautiful scene.

    ¡°Chrysanthemum mollusks....¡±

    At this point, Xu Qing recalled the description from the sea annals, and his eyes lit up. [2]

    Although the sea annals didn¡¯t go into a lot of details about chrysanthemum mollusks, there was a description of a bright red sunset with tinges of gold. After such a sunset, the chrysanthemum mollusks would appear. There wasn¡¯t much detail beyond that, other than a note that the mollusks weren¡¯t dangerous.

    However, the medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had left him contained more detailed information about them. They were a very precious medicinal ingredient from the sea, and they were especially effective as a harmonizing agent used to reduce the explosive effects of other medicines.

    Around this time, Elder Sister Ding and Zhao Zhongheng, who were still in Harbor 79, also noticed what was happening. Elder Sister Ding seemed entranced.

    Off to the side, Zhao Zhongheng was talking nonstop. And seeing Xu Qing not very far off, he made sure to talk very loudly.

    ¡°Do you know what those are, Elder Sister? They¡¯re chrysanthemum mollusks, also called star snails. asionally, when there¡¯s a bright red sunset, they¡¯ll float up to the surface. They¡¯repletely useless, as all they do is glow. They look pretty, but don¡¯t do much else.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever, and he didn¡¯t feel the need to waste time correcting Zhao Zhongheng. In fact, he didn¡¯t pay him much attention at all. Instead, he stood at the prow of his dharmaboat and looked at the surface of the water.

    Beneath the rolling waves, the chrysanthemum mollusks glittered brightly as they intertwined with one another. Some moved along as if in unison, others moved in apletely chaotic fashion. Those moving in unison stuck close together. Those moving in chaos would collide with the others then move off in another direction, as if they were looking for something.

    It was thetter that interested Xu Qing.

    Thinking back to some of the things Grandmaster Bai had taught him, he kept his eyes on the chaotic chrysanthemum mollusks and waited for the right opportunity.

    Not all chrysanthemum mollusks made good medicinal ingredients. Instead, you needed to wait to identify a male mollusk that couldn¡¯t find a suitable mate. Because of certain aberrations in such mollusks, they were the type that could be considered medicinal minerals useful for cultivation!

    Zhao Zhongheng seemed very pleased with himself when Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response to him. Chin jutting out arrogantly, he said, ¡°Sect records indicate these things are useless. The show will be over shortly.¡±

    Elder Sister Ding seemed annoyed with Zhao Zhongheng as she coolly said, ¡°It¡¯s good enough that they can glow. They don¡¯t keep their gorgeous light to themselves; they illuminate others as well. That¡¯s a lot better than being pitch ck.¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and he was about to say something further when, out of nowhere, Xu Qing, who had beenpletely ignoring them up to this point, suddenly shoved his hand in the direction of the water and made a grasping gesture. The water vapor in the area instantly turned into water droplets, which then converged into the shape of a hand. Moving with shocking vigor, the hand dropped into the water toward the countless chrysanthemum mollusks.

    A momentter, the hand returned to Xu Qing, then vanished. The chrysanthemum mollusk that it held then dropped into Xu Qing¡¯s palm. The creature¡¯s spiral shell was covered with natural striations that resembled a chrysanthemum flower. And though its shell had been glowing, that light was starting to fade. Just before it wentpletely dark, a stream of frigid coldness shot from Xu Qing¡¯s hand and spread out over the chrysanthemum mollusk, turning it into a block of ice. Once frozen, it continued to glow faintly.

    Grinning, Xu Qing put the block of ice away and then looked back at the water.

    Around the same time, there were seven or eight other people in different parts of Harbor 79 who, simr to Xu Qing, knew the value of chrysanthemum mollusks, and were using various means to capture them. It was the same in the other harbors. In fact, it was possible to see figures flying down from the mountain peaks to do the same.

    That was especially true of the Second Peak.

    It was like a huge p in the face to Zhao Zhongheng, who had just called the chrysanthemum mollusks useless. He could only look around, dazed and wondering what was going on.

    Seeing what was happening, Elder Sister Ding curiously went back toward Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaboat.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu, why are there so many people trying to capture these chrysanthemum mollusks?¡± Being used to Xu Qing¡¯s personality, she pulled out a spirit note and offered it to him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t take the spirit note, yet still answered her question. ¡°In the moment before a male chrysanthemum mollusk dies, it transforms into a rare medicinal ingredient that can be very helpful for cultivation.¡±

    Then, thinking about the jade slips she had given him with information about Foundation Establishment, he went into a more detailed description.

    ¡°Chrysanthemum mollusks, also known as star snails or snake mollusks, are mutated soft-bodied cephalopods, and can be categorized as invertebrates. Their namees from the chrysanthemum-like striations on their shells. Active year-round, they prefer living in rocks and crevices on the deep sea floor. They be active during breeding season; whenever they appear in the open sea, it causes golden-tinged red clouds to appear. Though they¡¯re distributed throughout the Forbidden Sea around South Phoenix, their breeding season times are indeterminate, and they¡¯re difficult to track. Because of that, they¡¯re rarely seen close tond. They¡¯re effective in converting mutagen into spirit power. Further, by using them to treat the five stranguaries and white urinary discharge, they canplement spirit power in producing the transformations of the tides.

    ¡°They are characterized by sweetness and frigidity, are slightly poisonous, and can calm the nerves. By using yin-yang prity techniques on them, and by extracting their hemocoel fluids, you can concoct spirit ascending pills.

    ¡°Most modern medicinal theories treat chrysanthemum mollusks as parasite hosts. By using special methods to extract their spirit, their shells can be used as natural pill furnaces to produce high-quality pills. At the same time, using them as part of harmonizing techniques can suppress violent medicinal effects in other ingredients.¡±

    As he exined all this, Xu Qing continued to stay focused on the water and capture more chrysanthemum mollusks.

    Elder Sister Ding didn¡¯t understand everything he was saying, but she was extremely impressed nheless. Her eyes brightening, she asked, ¡°Why do they glow?¡±

    ¡°Because, during the breeding season, when theye to the surface, the males want to attract females, so they emit a bright light. The females emit light for a simr reason. After finding a potential mate, if their lights shine in harmony, then they¡¯re a sessful match. But if the male¡¯s light can¡¯t remain in harmony with the female¡¯s, then the male is rejected. If a male can¡¯t find a suitable partner, his light will fade, and he will die.¡±

    Xu Qing reached out again and captured another chrysanthemum mollusk.

    Elder Sister Ding looked at Xu Qing with an expression that bordered on worship. However, she didn¡¯t ask any more questions, and instead chose to learn by observation. Every time he captured a new mollusk, she paid close attention. And once she understood the basics of what he was doing, she started to help.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need help, and in fact, felt that she was actually making things a bit harder. But given the jade slips, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    Time went by, and more disciples showed up because of the event. Eventually, the night passed.

    By the time the light of dawn appeared, the chrysanthemum mollusks which had sessfully found mates made their way off in the distance to return to the sea floor. The only ones that remained behind were the floating bodies of the dead males who hadn¡¯t been captured. As the sky grew bright, they disintegrated and became part of the sea again.

    Elder Sister Ding seemed very happy after the night of hard work. Finally, she said goodbye.

    Zhao Zhongheng followed her, looking very depressed. His eyes still shone with a bit of hope, You just watch, Ding Xue. You¡¯ll appreciate me sooner orter!

    1. Ding Xue mentioned her aunt before in chapter 84¡­. ?

    2. The chrysanthemum mollusk is literally ¡®chrysanthemum rock¡¯ in Chinese, and is usually tranted ¡®ammonite.¡¯ For a number of different reasons, I¡¯m not going to use ¡®ammonite.¡¯ For a picture of Battle Boy and Princess Deathde at the ammonite exhibit at our local natural history museum, plus an artist¡¯s rendition of what a living ammonite looks like, check this (p.s. yes¡­ my kids look bored to death in the picture, probably because I dragged them away from the cool ankylosaurus skeleton to pose for this picture lol). Here¡¯s the , though keep in mind the version in the story are fantasy versions. ?

 Chapter 109: Glorious Life Flames Illuminate Heavenly Palaces

    Chapter 109: Glorious Life mes Illuminate Heavenly Pces

    Xu Qing made out well that night.

    He acquired over 700 chrysanthemum mollusks. When he examined the collection of mollusks in ice blocks in his bag of holding, he could think of at least six or seven ways to use them in poisons. And each one would be very formidable.

    And then I have my ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. If Ibined them with the chrysanthemum mollusks, and added in some medicinal nts that provoke transformations in yin and yang... then I might be able to create a poison powder that would instantly kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

    After more thought, he realized he was probably being too optimistic. Thinking back to his fight with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, he remembered how well the man resisted poison. And that was probably typical for Foundation Establishment cultivators. What was more, thatbination would probably be a strong attracting agent to wild beasts. That said, the presence of the chrysanthemum mollusk could have a harmonizing effect on the attractant.

    I need to make more powerful poisons!

    Eyes glittering, he decided that he needed to find another opportunity to go out to sea and do some experimenting with the dao of poison.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he looked away from his bag of holding and produced the three jade slips Ding Xue had given him. Sending some spirit power into one of them, he started studying the contents. Before long, an astonished look gleamed in his eyes.

    Hundred Suns Foundation Establishment?

    Looking thoughtful, he studied the second jade slip. And thus, an entire day passed. It was evening of the following day when he finished the contents of the third jade slip. Putting it down, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. His eyes still contained that look of astonishment.

    The glorious life mes illuminate heavenly pces!

    Establish apertures in a hundred suns; hide your cultivation the entire time!

    ording to the description in the jade slip, the process of a cultivator breaking out of Qi Condensation and into Foundation Establishment was a terrifying event. Apparently, there was some unknown evil force that would interfere with the breakthrough.

    Furthermore, it took a long time for the breakthrough, which was why the event was called Hundred Suns Foundation Establishment. It didn¡¯t mean that the breakthrough would require a hundred days. Rather, it meant that once the process started, it couldn¡¯t go past a hundred days. And the longer it took, the more terrifying it was. The jade slips didn¡¯t go into detail about why it was so terrifying. But it did imply that when a cultivator tried to break through to Foundation Establishment, it would attract grues. And even those who escaped death and survived the ordeal would end up in a wretched state.

    Because of that, the passage of time was an important factor in Foundation Establishment breakthroughs. The breakthrough process was almost like stealing destiny and trying to make sure the act wasn¡¯t discovered.

    What was more, in order to avoid the attention of those terrifying grues, cultivators attempting a breakthrough would usually use special magical devices to protect themselves. Such devices weren¡¯t necessarily rare, but they were usually under the control of great sects and species. Seven Blood Eyes had them, and they were kept in special locations. When a disciple wanted to attempt a breakthrough, they could apply to use them.

    Of course, they were very expensive; you had to pay an hourly rate of 100 spirit stones to use them.

    Rogue cultivators, or people who didn¡¯t n to use magical devices of protection, were taking a huge risk in attempting to reach Foundation Establishment. The death rate was high, and thus, few people would ever try to make a breakthrough on their own.

    Xu Qing immediately thought of the broken face of the god. It didn¡¯t seem like much of a stretch to think that the god had something to do with the difficulty in the breakthrough.

    Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the information from the three jade slips.

    Foundation Establishment was about using your spirit sea to open dharma apertures within your body! Dharma apertures were spots hidden throughout the body which contained a mysterious force within them. Upon opening them, one¡¯s life level could bepletely transformed. Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment were fundamentally different. In Qi Condensation you built reserves of spirit power into a spirit sea. In Foundation Establishment, cultivation was about opening consecutive dharma apertures.

    Once you reached the great circle of Qi Condensation and then tried to step into Foundation Establishment, the first step was to sense how many dharma apertures you had, and where they were. Next, you used your spirit sea to batter open a single dharma aperture. Spirit power would flow into that dharma aperture, and would give birth to dharma force, something that vastly surpassed spirit power.

    Qi Condensation cultivators had spirit power. Foundation Establishment cultivators had dharma force. Thetter was poles apart from the former!

    Simr to how different cultivators could umte different amounts of spirit power, the amount of dharma force that came with the opening of dharma apertures was also different. The more spirit power you umte during Qi Condensation, the more dharma force you would haveter. That advantage applied to every single dharma aperture you openedter. And that effect would build up, leading to wildly varying differences in cultivators.

    Sensing the location of those dharma apertures was the most important factor. If you wanted to open arge number, you needed to be able to sense all of them. That was where Foundation Establishment Pills came in handy.

    Because the initial breakthrough would determine one¡¯s future potential, it was a very important moment for cultivators.

    As for mutagen, it would interfere with one¡¯s ability to sense the location of dharma apertures.

    In a world encroached upon by the aura of a god, ny-nine percent of all living beings had different levels of mutagen within them. Only a very small minority didn¡¯t.

    The more mutagen a cultivator had when trying to reach Foundation Establishment, the fewer dharma apertures they would be able to find.

    Generally speaking, being able to sense 80 of them was considered eptable.

    Those who sensed 90 were outstanding, and was generally only possible for disciples in the great sects.

    Casting your senses out to find dharma aperture was like groping around in the darkness of night. It was possible to encounter terrifying things, and it could attract the attention of grues.

    That was the origin of the saying establish apertures in a hundred suns, hide your cultivation the entire time!

    In terms of the upper limit of dharma apertures, it was 120. However, that was only a theoretical limit. People who could open that many dharma apertures were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns.

    One of the jade slips mentioned that in the Revered Ancient maind, where humans originated, there were special methods that could be used to purify the body of mutagen, and then attempt to reach the higher limits. But that required a massive amount of spirit power. And even being purged of mutagen, one¡¯s natural characteristics would influence one¡¯s ability to sense the dharma apertures.

    People who aplished that always had impressive backgrounds, or were fundamentally terrifying in nature. They were usually people who came from superpower sects or extremely ancient ns, the type that had once produced Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns.

    Seven Blood Eyes was powerful, but that was only in the context of South Phoenix. Only the Seven Sect Coalition could possibly be considered a superpower sect on the Revered Ancient maind.

    In fact, Seven Blood Eyes didn¡¯t even qualify to produce disciples like that. From ancient times until now, not a single one had appeared there.

    Not a single one.... Xu Qing looked away from the jade slip and up into the dark sky. Up in the inky ckness, he was able to spot a few twinkling stars. Looking at them, he thought about the second part of the process of reaching Foundation Establishment.

    The first was sensing the dharma apertures.

    The second was actually breaking open the first dharma aperture, unleashing dharma force, then sending it throughout one¡¯s body to push it into a different level of life!

    When you did that, your breakthrough to Foundation Establishment was considered a sess.

    Afterward, your cultivation would involve using your sect¡¯s various techniques to open more dharma apertures. After you opened 30 dharma apertures, you could use the resulting dharma force to form your first life me.

    After opening 60 dharma apertures, you could form a second life me.

    With 90 dharma apertures came a third life me.

    At that point, you could attempt a breakthrough to the Gold Core level. In terms of a fourth life me, that was something only extremely talented and lucky individuals could ever attempt.

    As for the life mes, all you needed was a single one to cast light over you, and you would be like sparks in the night, illuminating the heavenly pces. A Foundation Establishment cultivator who formed a life me was on apletely different level of existencepared to one who had not. And that was because one of the characteristic abilities of Foundation Establishment cultivators was the ability to enter the profound radiance state.

    Life mes were very draining, but igniting them released astonishing might. Therefore, most cultivators kept them in a state of being extinguished. Only when they were in a full-fledged fight would they choose to ignite them. Once ignited, the cultivator¡¯s battle prowess would increase dramatically, allowing them to surpass anything they were capable of before. And that was called the ¡®profound radiance state.¡¯

    Normally speaking, someone who had developed a 300-meter spirit sea, and then opened a 30th dharma aperture, would be able to enter the profound radiance state for 1,800 breaths of time.

    Every breath of time involved draining a huge amount of dharma force.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and let all the details about Foundation Establishment sink in.

    The information Ding Xue had given him was veryprehensive. However, Xu Qing was cautious by nature, and though he didn¡¯t get the sense any of it was false information, he couldn¡¯t be absolutely sure until he corroborated it. Besides, though his spirit sea had previously reached the size of 810 meters, he knew that in his recent cultivation it had already expanded to 870 meters.

    And that wasn¡¯t his final limit. Nor was he finished with the Sea and Mountain Incantation. He wanted to push both his fleshly body and his spirit sea to the absolute limit before aiming for Foundation Establishment.

    That said, he could still start working on umting the resources he would need for the breakthrough, for instance, the Foundation Establishment Pills.

    I might not have mutagen in me, but if I want to y it as safely as possible, I should still get some Foundation Establishment Pills. Ideally, I should get two, although I¡¯m not sure how I can afford that. Looking into his bag of holding, he sighed. He really was a long way from having that much money.

    I¡¯ll also have to rent a safe ce, and that¡¯s also ridiculously expensive. The jade slip says Seven Blood Eyes disciples can get loans to cover the cost. Once you reach Foundation Establishment, you¡¯ll have three years to pay it back in principal and interest. But I would still have to provide the pills....

    He really didn¡¯t like the idea of paying interest. After all, his payments would work out to about fifty percent interest.

    At 5,000 spirit stones per month for three years, that¡¯s 180,000 spirit stones. The rent for a hundred days would be 200,000. No, it¡¯s not worth it.

    He had to sigh at the realization of how difficult it was to reach Foundation Establishment. Now he realized what the Captain had been talking about. This was why so many disciples kept their cultivation base low and were setting their sights on the Grand Tournament. And it seemed he was in the same position, and was now really starting to look forward to the tournament.

    After some more thought, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started working on his cultivation.

    The next morning at dawn, as Xu Qing was still hard at work on his cultivation, he shivered and opened his eyes. Walking out to the deck of his ship, he looked up into the sky, his cultivation base pulsing with spirit power.

    Almost at the same moment that he looked up, he saw a bright beam of light flying through the air in his direction. The person in the air didn¡¯t seem like he nned to stop, as if he intended to go right through the dharmaboat¡¯s defenses andnd on the deck.

    But after seeing Xu Qing step out, he made an exmation of surprise, and came to a stop in the air above the boat. It was a young cultivator in a dark violet daoist robe. He was obviously in Foundation Establishment, and looked with open surprise at Xu Qing standing there.

    ¡°Well met, Honor Guard Li,¡± Xu Qing said. Of course, his guard was up, and he was scrambling to think of the reason why Honor Guard Li hade.

    After all, this was the same person who hade to take Zhao Zhongheng away to see Elder Zhao. And he was also known as one of Elder Zhao¡¯s favorites. [1]

    ¡°Well isn¡¯t this a surprise,¡± Honor Guard Li said with a smile. ¡°You secretly cultivated your way to the great circle of Qi Condensation. You¡¯re almost at the breakthrough point.¡± All of a sudden, his seemingly rigid attitude softened. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry. Elder Zhao just sent me here because he wants to ask you some questions about that giant pulling the dragon chariot. That¡¯s all.¡± [2]

    Honor Guard Li recognized the look of vignce on Xu Qing¡¯s face. Honor Guard Li wasn¡¯t a conve disciple who had reached Foundation Establishment. Rather, he was an ordinary Offpeak disciple who killed his way to the top. Normally speaking, he wouldn¡¯t treat a disciple the way he was treating Xu Qing. But now that he realized Xu Qing was on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment, things were different.

    1. Honor Guard Li was introduced in chapter 70, which was when he came to take away Zhao Zhongheng. ?

    2. Xu Qing saw the giant and chariot in chapter 80, and reported the matter in chapter 96. ?

 Chapter 110: The Sunâ€™s Imperial Carriage

    Chapter 110: The Sun¡¯s Imperial Carriage

    The giant pulling the dragon chariot?

    It took a moment for Xu Qing to realize what Honor Guard Li was talking about. After going out to sea and returning, Xu Qing had indeed gone to the Hall of Sea Annals to submit a report about seeing a giant pulling a chariot at the sea floor. Shortly after, he left for the Crimson Wilds. Now he was back. On the one hand, it made sense that someone would want to talk to him about that chariot, but on the other hand, it didn¡¯t make sense. What made sense was that some time had passed. What didn¡¯t make sense was that such an important individual would want to talk to him in person.

    If this invitation was genuine, then Xu Qing could only guess that the giant and the dragon chariot were very important, and thus the matter had been escted to Elder Zhao.

    Of course, refusing the invitation wasn¡¯t an option. With a silent nod, Xu Qing put away his dharmaboat, stepped onto the shore, and looked up at Honor Guard Li. The honor guard looked back at him with an enigmatic smile.

    ¡°I suggest you don¡¯t keep the elder waiting,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re going up the peak; given the level of your cultivation base, you surely have some flight talismans on hand. Do I need to carry you up? Or can you follow on your own?¡±

    With a nod, Xu Qing took out a flight talisman, put it on his thigh, and flew up into the air.

    Honor Guard Li smiled again, then turned into a beam of light that shot toward the Seventh Peak.

    Xu Qing followed.

    As they got closer, Xu Qing thought about how this was actually his second timeing to the Seventh Peak. The first time was when he¡¯d joined the sect. He still remembered something that the round-faced cultivator had said.

    ¡°This could well be the only time you ever go up the mountain.¡± [1]

    Up to this point, that cultivator had been right. After all, not everyone had real hope of reaching Foundation Establishment. Even now, Xu Qing was trying to figure out how to get all the resources he needed.

    As the Seventh Peak grew more and more clear in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he was able to make out the verdant vegetation that covered the mountain, as well as a path that wound from the foot of the mountain to the peak.

    Many side paths branched off from it, leading to all sorts of pces, halls, and other buildings. There were also public squares in different ces on the mountain, as well as mansion grottoes.

    As they flew past various buildings, Xu Qing spotted the location where he¡¯d received his daoist robe and dharmaboat. Then he noticed a magnificent hall at the very top of the mountain. It was constructed in a very imposing manner, with white spirit tiles. It was richly ornamented, with carvings of fantastic beasts that were so lifelike they looked like they might fly into the air at any moment. In front of the entrance of the hall were two stone statues that radiated awe-inspiring might.

    The hall¡¯s doors were opened, yet for some reason the interior wasn¡¯t visible to Xu Qing. Everything inside looked blurry.

    Honor Guard Linded in front of the hall, and Xu Qingnded next to him a momentter.

    Instantly, a sense of intense danger filled Xu Qing from head to toe. There were spell formation fluctuations in the area that he could sense were capable of crushing him to a paste in the blink of an eye.

    But what was more terrifying came from the hall itself. It felt like there was some astonishingly terrible beast inside of it, exuding an aura that could shake one¡¯s soul with the force of a tempest.

    Honor Guard Li looked very respectful as he bowed his head and said, ¡°Elder, Xu Qing hase.¡±

    ¡°Come in,¡± a hoarse voice responded from within the hall.

    To Xu Qing, that voice sounded like thunder, and he gasped softly for breath as an immense pressure weighed down on his heart and mind. It was a struggle for him to stay on his feet as he bowed his head and sped his hands in front of him. Then he started walking forward, one step at a time, working hard to stay steady.

    With every step he took, beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. The astonishing grandeur inside that hall made his mind spin as he got closer. All of his muscles trembled and twitched.

    However, he got no sense of maliciousness from whoever was in the hall. The pressure and might were released naturally, and therefore, given Xu Qing¡¯s body refinement level and cultivation base, he was able to proceed into the hall.

    Once inside, he realized why the interior of the hall had seemed blurry to him. It was because... everything inside of it was twisted and distorted.

    The chairs, the pirs, and even the walls all looked like they were swaying constantly. And all of the distortions led to one spot: an old man sitting on a throne at the far end of the hall. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see his face clearly, but he did see that the old man wore a violet daoist robe and had white hair. The ripples and distortions radiated out from the man, apparently the result of some invisible force within him.

    Fighting back against the vertigo he felt, Xu Qing inclined his head, sped hands and bowed. ¡°Greetings, Elder.¡±

    ¡°Tell me the details of the golden crow dragon chariot that you saw.¡± Though the old man spoke calmly, his words became like echoing booms inside Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. There wasn¡¯t really anything about the incident that he could hide. Since it was a single chance encounter, he¡¯d chosen to report it. And in response to the elder¡¯smand, he recounted all of the details.

    Elder Zhao didn¡¯t interrupt to ask any questions.

    When Xu Qing was finished, silence filled the hall. He just stood there, enduring the pressure.

    After a very long moment passed, Elder Zhao spoke again, his voice devoid of any sort of emotion.

    ¡°You missed out on a destined opportunity.¡±

    Xu Qing stood there quietly.

    ¡°But that also saved your life.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment. Then, struggling with vertigo, he sped his hands and said, ¡°Elder, might I ask... what was that dragon chariot?¡±

    More silence filled the hall for a moment. Then the elder said, ¡°Since you saw it, I guess there¡¯s no harm in exining. That was the sun¡¯s imperial carriage!¡±

    The words caused Xu Qing to reel even more than he already was.

    ¡°Inside the bronze dragon chariot is inscribed a secret magic known as Golden Crow Refines Myriad Spirits. From ancient times until now, it stands as one of the very rare imperial-ss secret magics.

    ¡°Very few people have ever seen the sun¡¯s imperial carriage. And even fewer people encounter the carriage and then have the opportunity to see that secret magic. And even rarer are people who can learn the secret magic.¡± At this point, a tinge of emotion could be heard in the old man¡¯s voice, as if he were sighing with sorrow or regret.

    Secret magic? In Xu Qing¡¯s mind, he thought back to that giant and the dragon chariot.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I say you missed out on a destined opportunity. Luck was not with you. But things like that can¡¯t be forced.

    ¡°Only one person has ever learned some of that secret magic. It was the exalted president of the Seven Sect Coalition, which oversees Seven Blood Eyes. When he was young, he caught a glimpse of the interior of the dragon chariot, and thus picked up a fragment of the secret magic.

    ¡°After that, the dragon chariot disappeared into the depths of the sea. Now, a hundred yearster, it seems to be looking for someone else connected to it by destiny. When another person gains enlightenment of the secret magic it carries, it will again disappear into the depths of the sea, and wait for another period of time before awakening.¡±

    Xu Qing felt deeply shaken by all this information. It was obvious this matter was a secret that couldn¡¯t be revealed to other Offpeak disciples.

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you all of this because we can¡¯t put such information into the Hall of Sea Annals, and therefore, are not able to give you a reward of spirit stones. As such, the knowledge itself will be your reward. It seems your cultivation base is on the verge of a breakthrough. The Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition ising up. Do your best.¡±

    As the old man¡¯s words echoed in the hall, a stream of power wrapped around Xu Qing and removed him from the hall. Once outside, everything on the interior again seemed blurry to him.

    Hands sped, he bowed deeply in the direction of the hall. He was now covered in cold sweat. Though he had only been inside the hall for a short time, the immense pressure had been difficult to endure. Elder Zhao reminded Xu Qing of some of the beasts he had seen in the forbidden regions in the past, except vastly stronger and far more terrifying.

    Honor Guard Li was waiting outside. Upon seeing Xu Qing emerge, he smiled.

    ¡°I¡¯ll escort you down,¡± he said. [2]

    With that, he flew into the air.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and followed him. As he flew, the wind blew, drying his sweat. However, it couldn¡¯t remove the memory of the terrifying feeling of being in Elder Zhao¡¯s presence.

    Looking back at Xu Qing, Honor Guard Li said, ¡°Elder Zhao isn¡¯t an ordinary Onpeak elder. Of the thirteen elders on the Seventh Peak, he ranks third. By the way, I heard Zhongheng mention you. Zhongheng is... well, as the elder himself has said, he¡¯s an idiot, but he has a good heart.¡±

    At this point they were beyond the Seventh Peak. Leaving those words with Xu Qing, Honor Guard Li turned and went back to the mountain.

    Xu Qing watched him go, then entered the city.

    He knew exactly what was meant by the final words. They were a warning that, regardless of what friction existed, he shouldn¡¯t try to kill Zhao Zhongheng.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t even been considering that anyway.

    Zhao Zhongheng has a good grandpa. Also... the Grand Competition is almost here, isn¡¯t it?

    As he walked through the city, he thought back to what he¡¯d felt in the presence of Elder Zhao¡¯s might. And then he thought about the formation crossbow he¡¯d acquired from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and he decided to head toward the Transportation Division.

    He really needed to improve his dharmaboat before the Grand Tournament.

    It was currently noontime, and people in the city were all hustling and bustling on various business. As Xu Qing made his way along, he noticed a vendor cart selling some unusuallyrge apples. After looking them over, he bought all of them, put them in his sack, and then continued toward the Port District.

    Just when he¡¯d spotted the Transportation Division off in the distance, something caught his attention. Looking into a nearby alley, he saw a pair of very cold eyes.

    Peering deeper into the shadows of the alley, he saw a young man in a gray daoist robe. The robe bulged a bit, as underneath it was a dog skin jerkin. The young man¡¯s face was dirty and smudged. He was none other than the Mute from the Violent Crimes Division. It seemed like he¡¯d been waiting in this spot for a while. After seeing Xu Qing, he suddenly pulled a corpse out from behind him. After putting it down in front of Xu Qing, he stered an ingratiating smile onto his face, then backed away into the alley and disappeared.

    Xu Qing frowned, then looked down at the corpse. It was a criminal from the bounty list. The head was intact, but there were wounds covering the rest of the body. They looked like bite marks, as if the man had been ripped to shreds by a wild animal.

    1. Xu Qing went up the mountain peak in chapters 50-51. ?

    2. It¡¯s noteworthy that Honor Guard Li is escorting Xu Qing down the mountain. If you recall, when Xu Qing joined the sect, the round-faced cultivator did not see him down the mountain. As I mentioned in a previous footnote, in Chinese culture, seeing someone off, or escorting them when they depart, is a sign of respect. The further you escort them, the more respect it shows. ?

 Chapter 111: Jade Slip Contents

    Chapter 111: Jade Slip Contents

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t stingy about spending spirit stones on his cultivation. But when it came to daily expenses, he was frugal. In the past, even when he had a sudden windfall, he would still have a breakfast of a couple eggs.

    Because of that, he was very familiar with the bounty list. And though the list was updated frequently, he was still able to keep all the details fresh in mind. Spirit stones were spirit stones, and if you got lucky, there might be good loot to be had in a criminal¡¯s bag of holding. As such, he immediately recognized this dead criminal. He was a member of some pirate organization, and his head was worth fifteen spirit stones.

    Nowadays, that wasn¡¯t many spirit stones as far as Xu Qing was concerned. But he could only imagine that, to the Mute, it was a fortune. And the Mute had simply handed the body over....

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the spot where the Mute had disappeared. It was obvious the young man had been waiting here on purpose... to deliver a wanted criminal to Xu Qing as a gift.

    Is it a trap? Ignoring the corpse, he continued on his way down the street, eventually disappearing around a street corner.

    Meanwhile, the passersby had noticed the corpse on the street. Most were avoiding it, but a few disciples were looking at it with glittering eyes, as if they were considering taking it.

    However, before any of the disciples could get near, an emaciated figure lunged out of the alley like a wild dog. Squatting above the corpse, he looked around with ring eyes at anyone who got close, like he was guarding over food. He had sharp teeth, almost as if they had been filed into points, and looked so wild that even the nearby disciples stopped before getting too close. Then they noticed the bite marks all over the corpse, and decided just to back up and leave.

    The Mute just squatted by the corpse, his expression one of confusion and even disappointment. Time passed. When dusk neared, the Mute dragged the corpse into the alley. Eventually, he reached a small hut.

    This was where he lived. Not on a dharmaboat. A hut was a lot cheaper than a berth. Upon nearing, he didn¡¯t immediately enter. Instead, he went around the back, where he pushed open some bricks to reveal a hole in the wall. Squeezing through the hole, he entered the hut. Once inside, he breathed a sigh of relief. From this position, he could see both the window and the door. After a moment, he looked down at the corpse, and his expression once again became one of dismay. After some more hesitation, he patted down the corpse. Apparently, he hadn¡¯t searched it before. This time, he found the criminal¡¯s sack, opened it, and to his surprise, found three spirit stones.

    Gripping them tightly, he looked around with vignce, then put them away. To date, he had managed to save up 77 spirit stones.

    After counting them, he looked just as dismayed as before. Some time passed, then he pulled out a rough stone that he used to file his teeth into even sharper points.

    Right now, he was only in the third level of Qi Condensation, so he had no way of detecting Xu Qing standing outside the small hut, coldly assessing his every action.

    Xu Qing was cautious by nature, so despite having a higher cultivation base than the Mute, he was still being very careful. Based on what Xu Qing was seeing, he¡¯de to the conclusion that the Mute really had been waiting there in the alley to give him a gift. However, there was something else going on. In the brutal and chaotic world they lived in, anything could happen. So instead of just epting the gift, he had secretly followed the Mute to try to decide what to do next.

    Is he trying to curry favor after being so terrified of me the day we met? Narrowing his eyes, he pushed open the door and walked into the hut.

    The instant he entered, the Mute bared his teeth and bristled as if he might explode into action. But then he saw Xu Qing, and he trembled, his eyes filling with terror as he remained rooted in ce.

    ¡°What do you see?¡± Xu Qing asked, tossing a jade slip to the Mute.

    The Mute caught it, trembling.

    Because of the moonlight, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow stretched into the hut,ing very close to the Mute¡¯s position.

    The Captain had asked the same thing, but the Mute seemed to prefer death rather than answering. Right now, though, it was without the slightest hesitation that he imprinted some words on the jade slip and cautiously handed it back to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took it and sent some spirit power inside to check the contents. When he did, his expression flickered. Eyes shining coldly, he looked at the Mute, then took out eight spirit stones and handed them over. Turning, he left.

    Seventy-seven spirits stones, plus fifteen, plus eight equaled one hundred. And that was exactly enough to buy a dharmaboat.

    Xu Qing walked back to his berth, the jade slip gripped tightly in his hand the entire way. Once on his dharmaboat, he crushed the jade slip, turning it into ashes. Then he entered the cabin, closed his eyes, and started working on his cultivation.

    The night passed.

    The next morning at dawn, Xu Qing went to find Zhang San. It wasn¡¯t hard for Zhang San to install the formation crossbow. It would now be Xu Qing¡¯s second most powerful trump card, just after the godliness attack.

    ¡°The crossbow is a real beauty,¡± Zhang San said. ¡°Xu Qing, once you get a Foundation Establishment power source, we can upgrade your dharmaboat to a dharmaskiff. Say, are you going to the Grand Tournament? It¡¯s only a few days away. I¡¯m thinking of giving it a shot. If you¡¯re going, maybe we can team up.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going,¡± Xu Qing replied with a curt nod.

    Zhang Sanughed heartily, but didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Xu Qing sped hands and left. On the way back to the port, he noticed that the shops were packed with Seventh Peak disciples buying all sorts of things. It was a lot more crowded than usual. There were more dharmaboats in the harborpared to usual, and Xu Qing saw many unfamiliar faces on the street. He also detected quite a few people who were clearly in the eighth or ninth level of Qi Condensation. He even noticed some people in the great circle....

    These were Seven Blood Eyes disciples who normally spent time either in secluded cultivation or out at sea. But now they were back for the Grand Competition.

    All of them had chilling, murderous auras that emanated from the depth of their being.

    Xu Qing had heard a rumor that the Northspirits from the Westcoral Archipgo were in a state of frenzy. Not only were they pleading for help from other nonhumans, but also, they had dispatched ambassadors to negotiate with Seven Blood Eyes.

    This made Xu Qing think back to the Captain¡¯s spections.

    Could it be that the real target is the Merfolk?

    Later that night, a familiar guest arrived at his berth in the harbor.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Xu Qing! You came back but didn¡¯t message me? I thought we were bros!¡± Standing on the shore was Huang Yan, and he didn¡¯t look very happy.

    Hearing his voice, Xu Qing stepped out onto the deck and smiled. He had met a lot of people in Seven Blood Eyes, but few came across as honest and straightforward as Huang Yan.

    ¡°I had a few things to take care of after I got back,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Huang Yan seemed to ept his exnation immediately. Laughing, he sat down on the shore, just likest time.

    ¡°I learned a big secret today, Xu Qing,¡± he said. As soon as Xu Qing heard ¡®secret¡¯ his guard went up, and he thought about the secret the Captain had told him that ended up costing 100 spirit stones.

    Before Xu Qing could say a word, Huang Yanunched into a boastful, rapid-fire exnation.

    ¡°Haven¡¯t you got the feeling that something weird is going on with the Grand Competition? Sure, they usually announce the location where it¡¯s being held. But it just seems too specific. Given how the Seventh Peak operates... I bet that the real location of the Grand Competition actually isn¡¯t the Northspirit inds. In fact, after looking into it and asking around, I¡¯m convinced that the real target is the Merfolk!¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at Huang Yan and noted his facial expression. Without any prompting, Xu Qing stered a look of surprise onto his face. Seeing that, Huang Yan nodded in satisfaction.

    ¡°Hahaha! Actually, I have to admit I¡¯m exaggerating a bit. My Elder Sister told me all this. Nowadays, she and I don¡¯t keep any secrets from each other.¡± Tossing a jade slip to Xu Qing, he lowered his voice and continued, ¡°After I found out the news, I started looking through the intelligence reports about the Merfolk Isles. Once I found out you were back, I figured I¡¯d share. What do you think? Am I a total bro, or what?

    ¡°Even I was surprised by what I learned. The Merfolk are just ridiculously rich. They have four inds, which are known as Emiche Ind, Nethervault Ind, Joine Ind, and Meegah Ind. Every ind is bursting with treasure, but thanks to my research, I¡¯ve figured out the best treasures in each ce. Few people know all the details, but I¡¯ve put them on that jade slip.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing sent some spirit power into the jade slip to examine it. As he did, Huang Yan started exining the details, almost as if he had memorized them.

    ¡°Remember, it took a lot of hard work for me to get this information. Now, listen up. On Meegah Ind there¡¯s a suit of armor called Meegah¡¯s te Armor, and it¡¯s hidden somewhere in the Meegah Volcanoes. It¡¯s the result of a thousand years of Merfolk craftsmanship, and is considered a magical treasure. Of course, it¡¯s incredibly valuable, and there¡¯s no way we could ever get our hands on it.

    ¡°Next is Emiche Ind, which is known for the Tears of the Merfolk. The Tears of the Merfolk are simr to spirit pills. However, the most valuable of them all is the Tear of Emiche. Emiche is the name of the very first merman, and that tear was shed by him in the moment before he died. Then it was set into a crown.¡±

    At this point, Huang Yan took out two eggs, one of which he tossed to Xu Qing. Poking a finger in his egg, he took a sip and kept on talking.

    ¡°Nethervault Ind is like a huge graveyard, and there are countless treasures among the funerary objects. Probably the most interesting of them all is a feather. And you know who that featheres from? Ites from me Phoenix! You know about me Phoenix, right? me Phoenix rules the forbidden region to the west of the Mountains of Truth, and is like the king of South Phoenix. In fact, the name of the continentes from me Phoenix. You probably know that already.

    ¡°Next is Joine Ind, which is a very astonishing ce. Reportedly, there are tons of pill storehouses there, and within them, numerous Foundation Establishment Pills. That¡¯s where my Elder Sister got her Foundation Establishment Pills, although I have the feeling it was only after a deadly fight.

    ¡°Anyway, everything I¡¯ve described so far is like nothingpared to a treasure from Joine Ind that¡¯s worth about 500,000 spirit stones. It¡¯s called the Spirit Breath Lamp.

    ¡°The Spirit Breath Lamp is one of the Merfolk¡¯s Foundation Establishment holy items, and it¡¯s kept in Foundation Establishment Tower in the capital city of Joine Ind.

    ¡°That¡¯s where Merfolk cultivators go to reach Foundation Establishment, simr to the ces here in Seven Blood Eyes where disciples can rent space for 100 spirit stones an hour. The difference is that our space relies on godly blood, while the Merfolk¡¯s relies on thatmp.

    ¡°All great sects and species have items that can keep disciples safe during Foundation Establishment breakthroughs. And truth be told, the Merfolk¡¯smp isn¡¯t that amazing overall. Thus, the great sects and species don¡¯t really care much about it.

    ¡°The reason I say it¡¯s worth 500,000 spirit stones is that when my Elder Sister seized it by force and tried to sell it back to the Merfolk for 2,000,000 spirit stones, they only took it after negotiating her down to 500,000.

    ¡°Oh, by the way, I heard that the Spirit Breath Lamp holds clues to some sort of godly temple, but even after all these years, no one has figured out the details. My Elder Sister only sold it back to the Merfolk after she failed to extract the clues. The details are all in that jade slip, you can go over themter.¡±

    After hearing all this, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have much to say. But it really put things into perspective topare the tens of thousands of spirits stones he was worried about to the millions that Huang Yan had just mentioned. It wasn¡¯t a great feeling. He poked a hole in his egg and took a sip, but was unable to stop thinking about everything.

    Huang Yan had finished with his monologue about the Merfolk, and had now started chattering idly about his Elder Sister.

    For the most part, Huang Yan talked and Xu Qing listened. It was an odd way to have a conversation, but Huang Yan seemed to be having a great time.

    When it started to get dark, Huang Yan finished thest bit of his egg, patted his stomach, and prepared to leave. Letting loose a burp, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Xu Qing, I probably don¡¯t need to tell you this, but... don¡¯t be foolish and try to take first ce. Bing a conve disciple isn¡¯t important. The point of the Grand Tournament is to get resources. You¡¯ll understand more of what I mean when you actually get there.

    ¡°As a matter of fact, hardly anybody cares about the final rankings. The point is just to get rich. Also, keep all of this a secret. It¡¯s just supposed to be between you and me. We¡¯re bros, so I don¡¯t mind sharing, but don¡¯t spread the information. When we get there and figure out what ind we¡¯re on, then we¡¯ll take what we can get ande out wealthy!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Patting his belly contentedly, Huang Yan turned and left. A short distance away, he took out his identity medallion to start sending sweet messages to his Elder Sister.

    After he left, Xu Qing sat on the prow of his boat looking out at the Forbidden Sea. The waves came in slowly, causing the boat to bob up and down. In the moonlight, he could see his shadow on the deck in front of him, stretching out past the edge of the boat and into the ck water. His eyes glittered coldly as he recalled the sentence written by the Mute in the jade slip.

    ¡°It¡¯s sleeping....¡±

    Time passed. Six hourster, disciples from the Seventh Peak felt their identity medallions buzzing as a voice message came in.

    ¡°All disciples participating in the Grand Competition have a quarter hour to gather at the central altar. The Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition is about to begin!¡±

    1. The names of three of these inds are intended to sound like transliterations of foreign-sounding names. You can pronounce them however you want. The way I envision them being pronounced is uh-MEESH, joe-EE-nee, and MEE-guh. In the case of the third name, the characters that make it up give off a sort of bizarre/sinister vibe in Chinese, which is why I interpreted the name the way I did (I briefly considered using Mia, because that''s the name of my daughter''s best friend lol. But that doesn''t fit). ?

 Chapter 112: The Punishment of Extermination

    Chapter 112: The Punishment of Extermination

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open. Getting silently to his feet, he straightened his clothing and walked out of his boat.

    It was a gloomy day. The sun had risen, but it seemed like the light of dawn had sensed the aura of ughter in Seven Blood Eyes, and had donned a gray battle robe that sucked away all the light and warmth. Beneath the dark clouds, numerous figures came forth from different parts of the Seven Blood Eyes Port District and headed toward the central altar. They seemed vicious, like cold des. And all of them had extraordinary cultivation bases, with the weakest being in the sixth level of Qi Condensation. There were also a good number who were in the eighth and ninth level.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, where disciples were like venomous bugs in a jar, all such people would have their own way of surviving. Even kind, warm people who were in an environment like that would change. Those who didn¡¯t would die.

    As they emerged, an aura of killing spread out in all directions, bing a stifling force that weighed down on the city, and ensured that mostmon citizens in the Port District stayed indoors. Those few who did venture out would stick to the sides of the streets, and would quickly make room for any disciples they saw.

    The voice these people had just heard was like the howl of the ultimate wolf, calling all the other vicious, bloodthirsty wolves to a gathering.

    Xu Qing hopped off of his dharmaboat, then waved his hand, causing the dharmaboat to shrink down and shoot into its bottle, which he kept in his bag of holding. He began walking, and his first step took him nine meters. It wasn¡¯t flying, but it was something ordinary pedestrians weren¡¯t capable of, and it enabled him to move down the street at incredible speed.

    A whistling sound met his ears, and he looked up to see some disciples using flight talismans. However, most just ran along the streets. Upon passing the Violent Crimes Division, he spotted the Captain.

    The Captain smiled, tossed him an apple, and quietly said, ¡°Don¡¯t look so sullen. It doesn¡¯t matter which nonhuman species we target. The point is to get rich. Whatever the true goal is, it¡¯ll be handled by the Onpeak bigwigs.¡± The Captain looked at him and blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing nodded. Then he and the Captain sped toward the center of the city.

    And thus, the 4,000 disciples participating in the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition closed in on the central altar.

    Xu Qing spotted it from a distance. It was a massive circr spell formation, covered with countless magical symbols bothrge and small. Each symbol glittered with bright, violet light that seemed to connect the formation to the dome of heaven.

    It was fully 300 hundred meters tall, and as Xu Qing neared, he saw that the magical symbols were arranged in numerous concentric rings. The rings were all rotating at different rates of speed, and at the same time, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering aura pulsed out. The closer he got, the stronger and more terrifying that aura became, and thus, he slowed down.

    By the time he arrived, there were already over 2,000 people present.

    Everyone who approached had to slow down and eventually stand and wait. Though everyone maintained distance from everyone else, their deste aurasbined, causing the clouds above to grow denser. It was just barely possible to see something astonishing in those clouds, like a dragon, surrounded by countless lightning bolts. It was also possible to hear muffled thunder.

    Xu Qing waited quietly for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. At that point, everyone was gathered. No one spoke.

    However, all of the icy gazes were focused on the enormous spell formation.

    The formation, which had been in constant motion this entire time, began to rumble.

    Then, a long streamer of violet silk emerged from the formation, stretching up into the air. A thump could be heard after that as a figure appeared at the end of the streamer. Along with it came the fluctuations of a Foundation Establishment cultivation base.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. More silk streamers appeared, until there were a hundred of them.

    And at the end of each one appeared a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

    The auras of 100 Foundation Establishment cultivators caused even more weight to crush down onto the disciples present. That included Xu Qing, who stood there, his mind spinning.

    Then an additional thirteen violet streamers emerged from the formation, like thirteen dragons flying into the air. Upon those streamers appeared thirteen god-like individuals. They included men and women, and their faces were blurry, making it impossible to see them clearly.

    Rumbling sounds filled the entire area, and Xu Qing found himself gasping for breath. Although he couldn¡¯t see their faces, he had felt something like this before when in the presence of Elder Zhao.

    ¡°Greetings, Elders!¡± said the 100 Foundation Establishment cultivators, their voices rolling out like a massive wave.

    The thirteen elders ignored the greetings of the Foundation Establishment cultivators, and instead inclined their heads to a spot higher in the air.

    ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Peaklord!¡±

    As the words left their mouths, lightning crashed above, causing the dark clouds to part, revealing the enormous creature therein. It was a massive dracolizard, pitch ck with vertical golden pupils, at least 3,000 meters in length. There was something holy about it, and each of the ck scales that made up its armored hide radiated terrifying fluctuations that caused all light around it to dim, and whipped the wind and clouds into a fury. If it had wings to p, it could cause a tsunami, and if it roared, it could reduce all living things around it to ashes.

    Shockingly, a host of luxurious pces existed on its back. They weren¡¯t constructed; they were grown, as if they were a part of the creature¡¯s body!

    Standing atop the tallest of the pces was a lone figure. That person was too high off the ground for Xu Qing to make out any details, but he could sense a spectacr might and pressureing from them.

    Compared to him, the thirteen elders seemed much less impressive. In his presence, the 3,000-meter dracolizard seemed docile. That level of strength... was beyond anything Xu Qing had encountered before, and defied description. Without any hesitation, he bowed his head.

    ¡°That¡¯s the peaklord¡¯s dreadnaught!¡± said the Captain, who was standing next to Xu Qing. ¡°Remember, dharmaboats are ssified as boats, skiffs, ships, and cruisers. But above those four ssifications are the legendary dreadnaughts....¡±

    Mind reeling, Xu Qing was about to ask a question when the highest-ranking elder began to speak, his words echoing like ps of thunder.

    ¡°Listen well, disciples of the Seventh Peak. The Merfolk were once our allies. But they have broken faith and abandoned righteousness. They have forgotten favors and vited justice. How? By colluding with the mortal enemies of Seventh Peak, the Seazombies. They have offended Seven Blood Eyes in the deepest manner, and thus, by unanimous decision of the seven peaklords, the location of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition will be located in the Merfolk Isles. Furthermore, the Merfolk... are sentenced to the punishment of extermination!

    ¡°For every Merfolk cultivator you kill, you will earn 10,000 merit points. More points will be awarded for those you kill with higher cultivation bases. As was previously announced, whoever takes first ce will be named a conve disciple! All battle trophies are yours for the taking, and do not need to be reported to the sect! Now... let the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition begin!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the spell formation rumbled even more loudly, and the concentric rings rotated even more rapidly. Then, dazzling light rose up from the circr structure.

    Up in the sky, the dracolizard threw its head back and howled, and then dove into the spell formation.

    After that, the light of the spell formation suddenly increased in size by several times over, covering the entire central altar, and rising high into the sky. And the light swept over the 100 Foundation Establishment cultivators, the thirteen elders, and all of the thousands of Seventh Peak disciples, including Xu Qing.

    As the sea of light expanded, they all disappeared!

    ***

    Out on the Endless Sea, it seemed like any ordinary day in the Merfolk Isles.

    In terms of strategic position, the Merfolk Isles were in a superior locationpared to South Phoenix. They also had an advantage in trade. That was because they were located in between South Phoenix and the Revered Ancient maind. The isles¡¯ western borders neared the Westcoral Archipgo, and its north border was close to one of the forbidden regions in the Endless Sea. In some respects, that geographical position affected the temperament of Merfolk in general.

    They were fickle and rebellious. When facing a more powerful force, they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to bend the knee. They could even offer sincere smiles when being harmed. But as soon as they got a chance, they would immediately bare their fangs and viciously take a bite.

    That was what happened thirty years in the past. They had gone out of their way to provoke Seven Blood Eyes, and had acknowledged allegiance only after being crushed. They bent the knee and chose to be allies. Thirty yearster, the Seazombies rose to prominence, so they started working with them in an attempt tosh back at Seven Blood Eyes.

    Unfortunately for them, Seven Blood Eyes couldn¡¯t tolerate such behavior.

    It was a clear day on the four inds that made up the Merfolk Isles. But then, in the blink of an eye, dark clouds roiled out, obscuring the sky and covering the sun. Immense darkness and terrible pressure weighed down everywhere. The sea was whipped into a fury, wild waves running amok from the pressure. Thunder crashed and lightning fell. Other bizarre meteorological or astronomical phenomena attracted the attention of Merfolk far and wide.

    Everyone knew that today was when the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition was to begin. And though the Merfolk had long learned that the target was the Northspirit people, they had remained on guard anyway. Even still, when Seven Blood Eyes rose to action, it was hard to bepletely prepared!

    As the thunder crashed, a violet light appeared, spreading out in all directions. In the shortest of moments, it filled the dome of heaven above all four of the inds, turning the sky into a sea of violet light.

    Then came a roar that could shake heaven and earth as, within that sea of violet light, a huge ck dracolizard appeared. Below, all Merfolk were shocked to the core. As the dracolizard howled, it spit out a ck pearl. It looked small, but was actually dozens of meters in diameter. When it appeared, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Lightning crashed around it, and it emitted crushing pressure as it dropped toward the four inds.

 Chapter 113: Joine Island

    Chapter 113: Joine Ind

    As the pearl fell, it created a tideflow power that caused the sea to surge. Waves crashed like the massive hand of a giant heading at top speed toward the Merfolk Isles.

    However, at the same time, an enormous shield of light shot up around the four inds. It was a grand protective spell formation operated by the Merfolk, and with its incredible power active, the ck pearl slowed down. However, its might was not lessened, and the shield trembled.

    As for the iing mass of waves, the shield blocked them, causing a huge crashing sound to fill the air. Along with it came a howl of rage from Emiche Ind.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes! What is the meaning of this?¡±

    As the voice rang out, a huge face appeared in the air by means of projection, growingrger andrger until it surpassed the size of the ind below. It looked like an old man with gills on the side of his face, his eyes radiating astonishing might as he red at the dracolizard. But even as the old man¡¯s howl still echoed through the air...

    Many of the buildings that were connected to the spell formation nodes exploded! More than forty buildings suffered, causing an instant change to the formation. In addition, booms and shockwaves exploded out on other parts of the inds. Seven Blood Eyes wanted to ughter Merfolk, and had been making preparations for a while now. They wouldn¡¯t havee this day unless they werepletely confident in seeding.

    The old merman¡¯s face fell as the ck pearl again flickered with dark light. As the light spread out, it became a massive hand that blotted out the sky. Covered with violet lightning, it crushed down toward the shield projected by the grand spell formation.

    A deafening boom rang out as the spell formation shield sank inward. Then that portion copsed, causing a huge hand-shaped hole to appear in the shield. Countless violet lightning bolts then shot down onto the jagged, broken parts of the formation. Every lightning bolt thatnded destroyed more of the formation. After only a few dozen breaths of time passed, the Merfolk¡¯s massive protective formation had been destroyed. The force unleashed by the destruction caused more explosions on the inds.

    Meanwhile, after piercing through the shield, the huge hand grewrger andrger, until it smashed into the projected face of the old merman and shoved it into the surface of the Emiche Ind. A huge boom rang out as a massive palm print appeared on it.

    Within that palm print were countless crushed buildings, as well as pulverized flesh and blood. Only one building stood up to the palm, and though it wasn¡¯t destroyed, it did end up covered in cracks.

    It looked like some sort of temple made from bones, and appeared both magnificent and profoundly sinister. The reason for its sinister nature was that, astonishingly, the bones that made it up were all human! And from the bits of spirit power that remained in the bones, it was obvious that the majority were from Seven Blood Eyes disciples!

    The old merman whose face had just been projected above the ind was now fleeing from inside that tower, coughing up blood, his face very unsightly. After looking up into the sky, he started moving as if to fight back.

    Up in the air, on one of the pces on the dracolizard, a figure appeared, looking down at the temple on Emiche Ind. When he spoke, his cold voice echoed throughout heaven and earth.

    ¡°Merfolk! For years, Seven Blood Eyes has treated your people well. After you became our ally, we provided immense financial aid. Twenty-three years ago, when you faced a mutagen gue, we spared nothing to help you. We provided you countless resources that surpassed a value of 100,000,000 spirit stones.

    ¡°Sixteen years ago, when the Witherspirits attacked you, and you faced the threat of extermination, no one came to your aid. But I personally brought a group of disciples here, many of whom sacrificed their lives as we resolved the crisis. Countless members of your people begged us to bury our disciples here as a testament to our friendship. You should have honored those sacrificed disciples, but instead, you curried favor with the Seazombies by digging up the bodies and using them to build a tower as a blood tribute.

    ¡°You have forgotten favors and vited justice. You have returned evil for good. Heaven and earth will not tolerate your existence, and thus, you will be exterminated.¡±

    The speaker stepped out into the air, revealing that he was the peaklord of the Seventh Peak, Master Seventh. He wore a violet gown, and his eyes shone as if with lightning. He seemed threatening without being angry, and had such an imposing and magnificent manner that his voice caused the clouds to stir around him. ring at the Merfolk patriarch, he unleashed another palm strike, then flicked his sleeve and pointed down with his right hand.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the Merfolk patriarch was crushed downward. At the same time, innumerable water droplets appeared around him, forming into a huge sphere.

    Inside the sphere, the Merfolk patriarch tried to struggle, but was incapable of doing so. Face distorting, he howled, ¡°Don¡¯t waste your breath, Zheng Kaiyi. The Seazombies will protect us. Their army will make you pay for this incursion. In fact, they¡¯re already on the way!¡± [1]

    ¡°I¡¯m waiting,¡± Master Seventh said coolly, and then he extended his finger. The spot where he pointed to rippled and distorted, and then astonishingly, a figure appeared there.

    It wasn¡¯t a Merfolk, but instead, appeared to be a middle-aged human cultivator. He wore a ck suit of armor, and had a powerful aura. However, he reeked of death; his skin was covered with necrotic patches, some of which were infested with maggots. It was like he was actually a corpse.

    He had obviously been waiting in hiding tounch an ambush. Now that he had been revealed, he wanted to attack, but was unable to. Countless water droplets surrounded him, transforming into a sphere that kept him sealed inside. Just like the Merfolk patriarch, he was now immobile.

    After sealing the two, Master Seventh ignored them and turned his attention to the Merfolk Isles. He pointed, and the dracolizard howled. Shockingly, row upon row of magical devices appeared on its back, releasing a host of magical techniques.

    At the same time, numerous figures appeared within the violet sea above. They were the Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Seventh Peak, and alongside them were their astonishing dharmaskiffs. They came in all sizes and shapes, but all of them were incredibly magnificent. As they lined up, dharma force converged, then was unleashed in a massive attack.

    Numerous dharmaskiffs unleashed magical techniques, like a hundred deadly spears shooting down. In addition, there were thirteen watercraft that were even more dramatic than the hundred. Each one was around 200 to 250 meters in length. They were dharmaships, and they also released terrifying attacks on the inds.

    The four inds trembled as the attacks of the Seven Blood Eyes forces focused on the ces where they had either magical devices or Gold Core cultivators.

    The locations with magical devices were all destroyed. As for the Gold Core cultivators, they had nowhere to hide. They were all locked down, sucked up into the air, and then suppressed.

    A momentter, there wasn¡¯t a single Gold Core entity on any of the four inds!

    Having aplished these things, Master Seventh waved his hand, and the violet sea of light descended onto the four Merfolk inds. It created an all-epassing formation that crushed down on the Merfolk within, provoking howls of grief. Numerous Merfolk cultivators coughed up blood.

    Those in Qi Condensation didn¡¯t suffer many ill effects. But those Foundation Establishment cultivators found their cultivation bases restricted, forcing them to drop down an entire realm into the great circle of Qi Condensation.

    At the same time, violet teleportation light rose up from the Forbidden Sea around the Merfolk Isles as the Seventh Peak disciples arrived. None were fazed by the fact that they were teleporting in above water. They simply took out their dharmaboats andnded on the sea. Xu Qing was among them.

    This was when Master Seventh spoke coolly from above.

    ¡°The Seventh Peak Grand Competition has officially begun, my wolf pups. This Grand Competition... will be observed by many peoples. Kill well, and make every kill bring glory to Seven Blood Eyes!¡±

    With that, he flicked his sleeve, and a violent wind sprang up, giving a blessing of speed to the 4,000 disciples¡¯ dharmaboats, and sending them shooting through the water like des toward the four inds!

    Xu Qing looked up at the terrifying dharmaskiffs overhead, and the inds covered by the violet spell formation, and he felt deeply shaken. From his perspective, he had simply gone through a teleportation. Yet in that short amount of time, victory had already been decided. It was just as the captain had said. The important matters had been handled by the Onpeak bigwigs.

    For the Offpeak disciples, the important thing was to get rich. Of course, the premise was that you needed to be capable of taking what you wanted to get.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He had already decided the direction he wanted to take, and thus shifted his dharmaboat to head toward Joine Ind. That was the location of the Foundation Establishmentmp and the Foundation Establishment Pills. Although he couldn¡¯t think of how the former would be of much use, if he could sell it for 500,000 spirit stones....

    He wasn¡¯t the only disciple to be thinking in that way. Many others who had high cultivation bases headed toward Joine Ind. In fact, from above, it looked like more than a thousand were going there. Some whose dharmaboats focused on speed had already arrived.

    But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t far behind. When he reached the shore, he put away his dharmaboat and immediately raced toward the jungle. Just before he reached the tree line, his eyes glittered as a magical rain of arrows shot out toward him with deadly speed.

    There were Merfolk cultivators in the jungle, and seeing Xu Qing arrive, their killing intent boiled over. Howling, they rushed toward him. Xu Qing didn¡¯t slow down. His dagger flew, taking off a head. Three more bodies fell. Then he suddenly lunged backward, and blood sprayed as he ripped open the belly of a Merfolk cultivator who had been about to fall on him from behind. Then more snarling Merfolk cultivators rushed out of the jungle in his direction.

    His eyes narrowed. Although he had no deep hatred for Merfolk, he was here for the Foundation Establishmentmp, and didn¡¯t want to waste time. So he turned to go around them.

    However, more Merfolk cultivators arrived, and they immediately fanned out, their killing intent burning. It only took moments before he was surrounded. Seeing that he had no easy way to leave, he lunged forward to take the fight to them.

    Shortly after, he left the scene of the battle behind, his dagger dripping blood as he entered the forest.

    At this point, Seventh Peak disciples were all over the Merfolk Isles, and fierce fighting had broken out everywhere!

    1. Zheng Kaiyi: Zheng is listed #21 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. Kai means ¡°armor¡± and Yi means ¡°pleased, to rejoice.¡± Madam Deathde says this name makes her think of an average guy. At the same time, there¡¯s a popr celebrity named Zheng Kai (same characters) and she said the name also makes her think of him. . Remember, that¡¯s just her impression; there¡¯s no indication the author intended for people to think of this celebrity in rtion to Master Seventh. ?

 Chapter 114: Nonhuman Lands

    Chapter 114: Nonhuman Lands

    From high in the sky, the Merfolk Isles looked like a crescent moon covered by violet light.

    On the top of that moon-like shape was Meegah Ind. The middle two were Joine Ind and Emiche Ind, and on the bottom was Nethervault Ind.

    Emiche was the main ind, with the other three being subsidiary inds.

    Previously, Xu Qing didn¡¯t know much about the Merfolk. But after closely studying the jade slip Huang Yan gave him, he learned a lot.

    That slip didn¡¯t just contain information about ces and objects of value. It also went into detail about Merfolk history and culture.

    The Merfolk believed that when they died, they traveled through the Temple of Meegah to a ce called the Field of Clouds, which was a bizarre world that they called a kingdom of gods. Buried there was the original god from their ancient mythologies. That god¡¯s name was Meegah. Meegah Ind was named after that god, as was the suit of armor that had been sacrificed to the volcanos there. Although Meegah was considered a saint in the Merfolk mythologies, he eventually died. And the Merfolk faith needed a substitute. There were even experts among them who required that the recement be able to unleash godly magic.

    Therefore, they put their faith in another mysterious entity whose name was Joine. Joine Ind was named after her. ording to the jade slip from Huang Yan, although Joine was called a god, the truth was that... Joine was actually just a godly entity from the depths of the sea. Strength was strength, and Joine was a far cry from truly being a god.

    As for Nethervault Ind, it was devoted to relics of the past. The Merfolk thought it was important to bury their dead with funerary objects. The more such objects someone was buried with, the more important they were in life. That was why important Merfolk were buried on Nethervault Ind with all of the riches they had umted in life. Furthermore, there was no stigma forter generations to dig up those riches. In Merfolk culture, it was a form of destiny for other Merfolk to recover such objects and fight over them, and in fact, was considered a type of rebirth.

    Finally, there was Emiche Ind. Considered the main ind, it bore the surname of the original chieftain of the Merfolk. Because of that, Emiche was considered the surname of the royal house, and Emiche Ind was viewed as the cradle of all Merfolk civilization.

    As Xu Qing thought back to all that information, he recalled how Huang Yan mentioned the Foundation Establishment holy treasure, which was officially named the Spirit Breath Lamp, as well as the clues it contained regarding that mysterious temple.

    ording to Merfolk legends, after their original god Meegah died, he took the Temple of Meegah with him. The stories imed that the Spirit Breath Lamp contained clues as to the location of that temple, although no one had identified any such clues despite all the years which had passed.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that aspect. He just cared about how valuable themp was. As he mentally reviewed all of this information, he sped through the jungle without pausing for a moment.

    Eventually, he heard the sound of explosions up ahead, and sensed spirit power fluctuations. Clearly, there were Seven Blood Eyes disciples up ahead fighting with Merfolk cultivators.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he scanned his surroundings, then bent forward and moved ahead at top speed, sticking to the treetops and the shadowy areas. He was very used to traveling in a jungle.

    While he moved, he spent some time analyzing what he knew about Third Highness and the sect in general. After considering everything in context, he felt certain that no one was going toe cause problems for him because he killed that young merman back in the capital city. That was quite a relief.

    Eventually, he leaped onto one particr treetop, and stopped in ce, his pupils constricting.

    A sense of profound danger had just risen up within him. He jumped backward, and at that exact moment, a bright red tree branch snapped through the air toward the spot where he¡¯d been standing. It looked almost like a tentacle.

    Simultaneously, the tree behind the branch withered rapidly, as did several other trees in the area. Along with the withering came more red branches, whistling through the air directly toward Xu Qing. His facial expression was the same as ever as he nimbly jumped up to avoid them. Then, instead of attacking, he simply went around the area with the trees. Off in the distance, he could see the location where the branches came from.

    Within a muddy crater was a huge red tree, slowly rising up, glittering with red light. Despite the re, Xu Qing could see that inside the trunk of the tree was a mass of severed limbs.

    Some were human. Some were nonhuman. All were greenish-ck. It was almost as if they had been buried in that spot so their flesh and blood could feed the tree. What was more, all of them had mutation blotches on them.

    As the tree slowly grew, Xu Qing noticed that it had a dozen or so huge fruits growing on it. They were semitransparent, and within each one was a Merfolk cultivator, eyes closed.

    Large amounts of mutagen was coursing out of those cultivators, into the fruit, and through the tree to the severed limbs.

    Clearly this was a special method the Merfolk used to purge mutagen.

    There wasn¡¯t just one of these trees present. Xu Qing saw at least seven or eight just within his field of view. And when he thought to how much of Joine Ind was covered in jungle, he realized that there must be many, many more such trees.

    As he took all of this in, the numerous tentacle-like red branches shot toward him with obvious killing intent.

    As they neared, the closest tree branch suddenly withered, its red coloration suddenly being covered with ck spots. Those ck spots almost seemed alive as they spread across the branch like rot.

    As the rot continued to cover the iing branch, it began to drip with ck fluid. The ck fluid contained poisons that infected anything it touched, even the soil below, which started hissing when the poisoned liquidnded on it. It wasn¡¯t just one branch that was affected. All of the iing branches started rotting. What was more, the ck spots of rot continued to spread toward the main trunk of the tree.

    There were soon dozens of branches that werepletely rotten, with the effecting right up to the trunk. As the rot spread onto the tree, the huge fruits shivered, as the Merfolk cultivators inside sensed the sudden danger. A few opened their eyes and broke out of the fruits. Not all of them could react so quickly. Only four managed to break free. As for the rest... the rot quickly spread to them.

    Seeing this, the four who had broken free red at Xu Qing with killing intent, then rushed toward him, bursting with the energy of the great circle of Qi Condensation. From their perspective, Xu Qing was in the great circle, the same as them. And since it was difficult for humans to unlock thetent talents of their species, it wasmon for nonhumans to be superior when fighting someone in the same cultivation level as them.

    Although the dao of poison was dangerous, their body structures were different from humans, and therefore, they looked down on human poisons.

    Four Merfolk cultivators bore down on Xu Qing from four different directions. However, as they got close, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered and he suddenly elerated dramatically.

    It was a level of speed thatpletely surpassed anything the four Merfolk cultivators could have anticipated. There wasn¡¯t even a chance for them to look surprised before Xu Qing appeared in front of the first of them, his dagger shing. The cultivator¡¯s head flew off his shoulders, and then Xu Qing bashed into the second cultivator.

    Cracking sounds rang out. This specific Merfolk cultivator had an innate species skill making his fleshly body incredibly powerful. It also gave him a power of dispetion. Despite all that, he couldn¡¯t sustain the force of the blow, and screamed as his body copsed into a mash of blood and bone fragments.

    As the gore sttered to the ground, Xu Qing¡¯s dagger stabbed through the forehead of the third cultivator. The fourth cultivator of the group looked terrified, and immediately turned and fled.

    However, he wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    Before getting thirty meters away, he started shaking from head to toe as ck spots appeared all over him. He shrieked in agony as his body began to rot, then melt. Merfolk did have different body structures that made certain poisons useless against them. But Xu Qing had ounted for that, making his poison powder even more effective against them.

    After killing the four of them, Xu Qing calmly went through all of their possessions. As he did, he suddenly looked up as another Seven Blood Eyes disciple appeared.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know him, but based on his spirit power fluctuations, he could tell that he was in the great circle of the Seaforming Scripture. At the same time that Xu Qing looked up, the disciple stopped in ce.

    Their gazes met, and the other disciple stopped breathing for a moment. To him, it was like he had just run into some powerful sea beast out on the Forbidden Sea. He felt himself going stiff, and it took a great deal of force not to simply freeze in ce. Looking incredibly vignt, he quickly said, ¡°I bear no ill will, Elder Brother. I¡¯m just passing through.¡±

    Then he took out a handful of medicinal pills and stuffed them into his mouth. Putting both hands above his head to indicate he wasn¡¯t a threat, he slowly backed away.

    Xu Qing watched coldly as he left, then organized his battle trophies before moving on.

    After making sure Xu Qing was gone, the disciple who had just encountered him exhaled sharply. He was feeling profoundly shaken.

    If I¡¯d gotten any closer, or if I¡¯d shown any malicious intentions, I¡¯d be dead already!

    His heart still pounded with lingering fear. Xu Qing¡¯s aura had weighed down on him with such pressure that, for a moment, he¡¯d wondered if Xu Qing wasn¡¯t a Qi Condensation disciple, but rather, a Foundation Establishment honor guard.

    When did the Offpeak disciples get such a fierce new member...?

    This disciple had been out at sea for half a year, and had no way to know who Xu Qing was. He started moving, but only got a few steps before coughing up a huge mouthful of ck blood. Terrified, he consumed some more medicinal pills, whereupon the symptoms faded a bit.

    Lucky for him, Xu Qing¡¯s poison had been created to target Merfolk. If it had been the original version, the disciple would have died beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    He has a strong cultivation base, kills decisively, and has a terrifying dao of poison....

    Not wanting to risk crossing paths with Xu Qing again, he picked a different direction to travel.

    And thus, time passed. Fighting raged throughout the Merfolk Isles, with casualties on both sides. At the same time, Xu Qing slowly ughtered his way through the jungle.

    Eventually, he spotted a Merfolk city up ahead. It was a very unique ce. Instead of being built of brick and tile, the entire city was formed from a massive fish skeleton,rge enough to rival one of the districts in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

    Xu Qingpared what he was seeing with the information in Huang Yan¡¯s jade slip about Joine Ind. Then he continued toward the city.

 Chapter 115: Destination, Foundation Establishment Tower

    Chapter 115: Destination, Foundation Establishment Tower

    Joine Ind wasn¡¯t huge. It only had three cities, plus a number of vige-like camps. Xu Qing¡¯s destination was Joine City, which was one of those three main urban areas. He had selected his debarkation point with that in mind. As such, it was no surprise that the fish skeleton city ahead was his target destination.

    ¡°Joine City...¡± he murmured, his eyes shining.

    The city was in chaos, with many sections crumbling or in ruins. That was thanks to Master Seventh and the dharmaskiffs of the Foundation Establishment disciples and Gold Core cultivators. Smoke rose up everywhere, and there was chaotic fighting left and right.

    Xu Qing kept his eyes on the city as he sped toward it. Although it seemed close, the truth was that even at the speed he was moving, it would take him an hour to reach it. The closer he got, the more of the astonishinglyrge fish skeleton he could see. He could only imagine how amazing that fish must have been when it swam the waters of the Forbidden Sea. Even dead, it still radiated a mighty pressure.

    That pressure was no threat to the Merfolk, presumably because of the characteristics of their species. But it was different for non-Merfolk. The immense pressure would cause the heart and mind to reel, and it would suppress the cultivation base to a certain extent. Of course, thanks to the violet sea of light that covered everything, the pressure put out by the fish skeleton was reduced by more than half.

    What remained wasn¡¯t enough to significantly affect the cultivation bases of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples.

    As he neared, Xu Qing heard the sounds of fighting, and he could sense the fluctuations put out by magical techniques. Obviously there were a lot of disciples already in the city. Upon reaching the borders of the city, he sped inside.

    The architecture in Joine City was unique. Some structures were constructed in the style of human buildings. Others had a bizarre honeb structure, while others looked like they were giant poisonous mushrooms. There were even some buildings that resembled shipwrecks or seashells. The human structures were made from brick and tile, and looked exactly like the architecture in Seven Blood Eyes. Obviously, those were ces that Seven Blood Eyes had built.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t spend time sightseeing. He simply ran toward the city center, and his ultimate destination, the Foundation Establishment Tower. ording to the clues provided by Huang Yan, that was where the Spirit Breath Lamp was, normally guarded by top experts from the Merfolk.

    I need to figure out a way to get it. And if I can¡¯t, then I¡¯ll head to the pill storehouses to look for Foundation Establishment Pills. He knew time was of the essence, and therefore, he elerated even more as he headed toward the tower.

    That said, he didn¡¯t use a flight talisman, as it would attract too much attention. Although the Merfolk cultivators had their cultivation bases suppressed, Xu Qing didn¡¯t think it would be an advantage to paint himself with a target. As he moved along, he saw a lot of Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Most of them kept to the shadows and side streets as they looked for loot. Though some of them fought and killed enemies, most were just looking for profit.

    Almost no one was specifically focused on ughter. In some cases, disputes arose among disciples over who had the right to take what. Usually, one side would back down. After all, the city wasrge, so there was no need to get into conflicts over every little thing.

    asionally, Xu Qing saw monuments dedicated to the alliance between Seven Blood Eyes and the Merfolk. One of them was arge stone stele, upon which were written a host of names. ncing at the names, he realized that they were Seven Blood Eyes disciples who had died helping the Merfolk in past crises. And the monument contained their remains.

    The stele looked immacte, as though it had been regrly cleaned and maintained. However, because of the power of the spell formation covering the ind, it was possible to see that the stone stele had previously been protected with an illusion spell. Now that the spell wasn¡¯t effective, it was obvious that the remains from inside were no longer there. Someone had dug them out....

    Xu Qing looked at the stone stele, then looked up at the Onpeak cultivators in the sky. Now he realized why the Seven Blood Eyes leadership was so furious about this situation. Xu Qing had only been in Seven Blood Eyes for a short time, and was mostly concerned about his own interests. That said, he instinctively loathed the concept of forgetting favors and viting justice.

    Suddenly, he waved his hand, causing numerous water droplets to appear and form a defensive shield, which blocked a dozen bubbles that had just shot out of the stone stele. When the bubbles hit the water, they copsed, sending out powerful ripples. At the same time, five Merfolk cultivators sprang out, vicious expressions on their faces as they charged toward Xu Qing.

    Eyes cold, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing the water shield to copse and transform into a collection of water arrows.

    As the arrows shot toward the Merfolk, Xu Qing sped onward. A secondter, the five Merfolk became pincushions, and as they toppled over dead, the droplets of water took their sacks toward Xu Qing. Putting them into his collection, he sped onward to the Foundation Establishment Tower.

    Xu Qing handled all conflicts like that. He wasn¡¯t interested in fighting and killing, just reaching his destination. But if there were fools that wanted to bring a fight to him, he would kill them and take their belongings.

    About an hourter, Xu Qing saw the city center up ahead, as well as the Foundation Establishment Tower. It wasn¡¯t an ordinary tower. Just like the description in the jade slip, it actually resembled the Merfolk¡¯s god Joine.

    The tower looked like an old woman in a long robe. She had countless tentacles snaking out from her, each one covered with eyes. And if viewed from the correct angle, it was possible to see a ghost face on her back, its long tongue draping down her side and onto the ground, like her shadow.

    The top of the tower was Joine¡¯s head, and it was built with an open framework that made it possible to see amp inside.

    Given the distance, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t make out all the details, but it seemed like there was a person sitting there cross-legged, possibly in the middle of a breakthrough. There were also a lot of guards around the tower. Whoever that person was making the breakthrough, they certainly had bad luck. If they were in the middle of Hundred Suns Foundation Establishment, then given the circumstances, it seemed highly unlikely they would be able to see it through to the end.

    Right when Xu Qing caught sight of the Foundation Establishment Tower, he suddenly sensed explosive killing intent from off to the side. Then he saw a green hand holding a sharp seashell, speeding noiselessly toward his throat.

    Eyebrows raised, he unleashed the power of his cultivation base, causing the spectral drought demon to appear behind him and send intense mes out everywhere. The shell copsed, and the hand holding it pulled back. Then, ripples and distortions revealed a partially visible figure backing away from him.

    Eyes burning with killing intent, Xu Qing looked at the disappearing figure, clenched his hand into a fist, andunched a punch.

    Rumbling sounds filled the air as the spectral drought demon joined in the attack. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the profound radiance state would be shaken by this attack. The partially visible figure was clearly shocked, and had no way to evade.

    In that moment of deadly crisis, a blue glow sprang up from a talisman treasure to protect the partially invisible cultivator. A boom rang out as the blue light copsed, and the talisman treasure tumbled off to the side. However, as Xu Qing lunged forward, he found that the cultivator was gone.

    He can turn invisible?

    After looking around suspiciously, he turned and walked toward the Foundation Establishment Tower, making it seem like he was giving up on finding his opponent. However, after taking only seven steps, he suddenly lunged backward.

    As he mmed into the cultivator behind him, a dagger appeared in his right hand, and he started stabbing his enemy over and over again.

    The cultivator struck him back, but Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body power was so strong that he could shrug off the blows. And even if he did sustain some injuries, they wouldn¡¯t count for much.

    Spinning, he reached out and grabbed the partially invisible outline in front of him. He had already stabbed this person dozens of times, and had also thrown out some deadly poisons. At this point, the person¡¯s true form was revealed.

    He was a middle-aged merman with green eyes, a body covered with scales, and prominent gills. His cultivation base was in the great circle of Qi Condensation. If an ordinary Seven Blood Eyes disciple in the great circle faced this opponent, they would die.

    Because of his ability to resist Xu Qing¡¯s poison, and also because of his strange abilities, it was obvious that this person¡¯s true cultivation base wasn¡¯t actually in the Qi Condensation level.

    This merman was a Foundation Establishment cultivator! It was only because of the spell formation that his overall realm had fallen into Qi Condensation. Eyes full of disbelief, he bit down on the tip of his tongue to release a counter attack. However, that was when a ck streak shot forth, and Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer pierced his forehead and shot out the other side.

    As it passed through his head, the skewer released the fluctuations of Foundation Establishment, which inundated the merman, bursting all of his internal organs.

    After confirming the man was dead, Xu Qing stepped over to get his iron skewer, then took a bag from the cultivator. It wasn¡¯t an ordinary sack, it was a bag of holding!

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart raced, but he didn¡¯t open it. Putting it away for the time being, he started moving toward the Foundation Establishment Tower again.

    ***

    High in the sky above, Master Seventh looked off into the distance, his hands sped behind his back. Behind him were thirteen elders and a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators. None of them spoke.

    On either side of Master Seventh were two huge spheres of water. Sealed in one was the cultivator who looked like a corpse, and in the other was the Merfolk patriarch.

    Looking down at the inds below, the Merfolk cultivator chuckled and said, ¡°Do you actually believe you¡¯re going to win this, Zheng Kaiyi?¡±

    At almost the exact same time that the words left his mouth, rumbling sounds erupted from the four inds below. Then, ck light shot out from the sea, spreading toward the inds. It was a huge spell formation, like a ck cover that spread out of all the inds.

    The ck light rippled and distorted as if it were trying to fight the power of the Seven Blood Eyes formation. Of course, if the Seven Blood Eyes formation copsed, all of the Merfolk Foundation Establishment cultivators would recover their true strength. And if that happened, the Grand Competition would turn into a ughter!

    ¡°The Seazombies are on their way, Zheng Kaiyi! And when your sect¡¯s spell formation falls, those disciples of yours will be sacrificed to my people!¡±

    Suddenly, ck light shone on the horizon as a huge vortex appeared in the air. It erupted with an aura of death, and an intense, frigid coldness that turned the seawater into ice.

    As that aura spread, a 3,000-meter half-dposed crocodile crawled out of the vortex.

    It had cold, yellow eyes, and its body seemed to pulse with the power of countless resentful souls. As the vicious, rotting crocodile crawled out, it was possible to see a host of figures on its head. All of them had shocking auras, and behind them... was an entire army of cultivators!

    These people were none other than... the Seazombies!

    ¡°They¡¯re finally here,¡± Master Seventh said, a faint smile on his face.

 Chapter 116: Hungry Sir Bloodsmelter

    Chapter 116: Hungry Sir Bloodsmelter

    Inside and outside Revered Ancient, on whatever ind one reached, there were countless forbidden regions, within which existed all sorts of unusual species.

    The Seazombies were just one of many. They originated on the fringes of a forbidden region in the Sea of Endlessness. However, they didn¡¯t exist in the countless epochs before the arrival of the broken god¡¯s face. When that god arrived, bringing an aura that assailed the world and transformed countless living things, some species vanished into history. Other species struggled hard enough to survive, while at the same time, many new species arose.

    Among those new species were the Seazombies. They were a strange species that were able to directly absorb mutagen. Furthermore, they were incapable of reproducing, and had to use a special method to multiply. That method was... zombification. By cing a special mark on the dead of any other species, they could resurrect them! The resurrected corpses wouldn¡¯t have intact memories from their past, to the point where they were like different people. They would be more violent, cruel, and ruthless, and they would pulse with mutagen. They hated the world around them, and at the same time, felt a constant call to join the Seazombies.

    That call would lead them to the Seazombies¡¯ ancestralnd, where they would be a full-fledged seazombie. After that, they could cultivate seazombie techniques, gradually recover their mind, and be stronger.

    Because of the unique qualities of this species, as they advanced in cultivation, they became more ruthless, and cared less about the world. Furthermore, the stronger their cultivation was before death, the greater battle prowess they would have as a seazombie. However, there were many limitations that came with the zombification process. Also, there was a high failure rate. Therefore, other species didn¡¯t view them as a huge threat. But for various reasons, they had survived and multiplied.

    Over the epochs that had passed, the Seazombies hade to discover that the corpses of human cultivators had a higher sess rate when hit with seazombie marks. Therefore... Seazombies came to focus on humans. Because the Seazombies¡¯ ancestralnd was close to Seven Blood Eyes and the continent of South Phoenix, the two hated each other. As that hatred grew, war would break out every so often.

    Now, because of what was happening in the Merfolk Isles, the Seazombie army hade. Thus, the vortex appeared, and a 3,000-meter crocodile climbed out of it.

    Atop the crocodile¡¯s head were numerous figures who pulsed with ck energy and strong mutagen. Because of the ck energy, they weren¡¯t fully visible. It was only possible to see red eyes within a dark fog. However, they seemed to have cultivation base fluctuations no weaker than the Merfolk patriarch.

    Seeing that the Seazombies had arrived, the Merfolk patriarch howled withughter. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see what your sect is capable of, Zheng Kaiyi!¡±

    ¡°Then pay attention.¡± Master Seventh¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever as he produced an ordinary jade slip, which he threw in the direction of the Seazombies.

    Before the Seazombies could do anything to the jade slip, it reached their ranks and exploded.

    At that instant, it seemed like countless thunderps erupted out. The dome of heaven sank down, and great rifts spread out across the sky. The rifts looked like serpentine dragons whipping about wildly. From a distance, it was like a massive brush was being used to draw a painting in the sky.

    Before long, those rifts connected together. Shockingly... they formed the image of a person! It was an old man! He seemed connected to the canopy of heaven itself, and his face waspletely expressionless as he looked down at the living beings below. Beneath his gaze, the sea surged with massive waves, and for 5,000 kilometers in all directions, all of the beasts hidden beneath the surface trembled.

    His terrifying gaze caused the Merfolk patriarch to cough up mouthfuls of blood, then drop to his knees trembling.

    When he looked at the force of Seazombies, the half-emerged crocodile howled in grief, and the rot covering it began to spread rapidly. However, it didn¡¯t dare to move. The powerful experts on the crocodile¡¯s head also began to shake, and the mutagen surrounding them fluctuated wildly. In their shock, all of them coughed up blood. Many Seazombies in the army behind them immediately exploded.

    ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Patriarch!¡± Master Seventh sped hands and bowed respectfully to theposite image of the old man.

    The elders and Foundation Establishment cultivators all did the same, and they joined their voices with Master Seventh to offer greetings. The moment they sped hands and bowed, the countless rifts that made up the image of the Seven Blood Eyes patriarch sprang into motion as if they were alive, bing countless red streams of light that crashed down into the seazombie army, throwing it into chaos.

    The seazombie cultivators reacted with open astonishment as the red streams of light stabbed into one after another of them. Each seazombie that was stabbed in this manner seemed like they were being devoured from the inside out, and within moments, withered into husks.

    In the blink of an eye... the 3,000-meter crocodile copsed into nothing, and the experts atop its head were withered into destruction.

    The rest of the army had no way to flee, and within moments had been reduced to ashes....

    Next, the red streams of light shot toward the vortex that had brought the seazombie army. Apparently, that vortex was the true goal!! The vortex began to close, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough. It was with insatiable madness that the red light streamed inside....

    A momentter, the vortex disappeared. However, it was possible to imagine what was happening on the other side!

    With the vortex gone, the sky turned bright and clear again, and the sea went back to normal. It was as if nothing had happened. However, the withered husks of the dead Seazombies fell down to the surface of the sea like raindrops. It was a very ghastly sight.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± Master Seventh said, turning to the prostrated and trembling Merfolk patriarch.

    The Merfolk patriarch¡¯s eyes shone with despair as his mind and heart crumbled. ¡°H-he broke... broke through...? The patriarch of Seven Blood Eyes, Sir Bloodsmelter... he broke through? You didn¡¯te here for us Merfolk, did you, Zheng Kaiyi? This was all a trap for the Seazombies!!¡±

    The Seazombie cultivator in the other sphere of water looked like he was about to melt, and his previously cold expression had turned into one of absolute terror.

    ¡°So, you aren¡¯t an idiot after all,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Our sect couldn¡¯t care less about you puny Merfolk. Our patriarch broke through and was hungry, therefore, we decided to lure out the Seazombies. I do have to thank you for bringing them here. Just in the moment our patriarch broke through and was feeling hungry, they opened their front door for him. And now, the Grand Competition can continue.¡±

    Sweeping up the Merfolk patriarch and the Seazombie, he stepped onto his dreadnaught and sat down, looking very carefree. He didn¡¯t bother observing thepetition below. When raising venomous bugs in a jar, genuine moments of danger were a good thing.

    ¡°The wolf pups are just there to make some money. There¡¯s nothing worth paying attention to.¡±

    ***

    Down on Joine Ind, in the fish skeleton city, Xu Qing was heading toward the Foundation Establishment Tower. Suddenly, he looked up, but didn¡¯t see anything noteworthy overhead; the sky was clear.

    However, the Merfolk spell formation was eating away at the Seven Blood Eyes violet sea, causing the pressure from thetter to slowly ease up. Sensing that, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    I need to hurry!

    Taking out a flight talisman, he pped it onto himself, then suddenly shot forth as a beam of light toward the Foundation Establishment Tower. It only took thirty breaths of time for him to get close to the tower, which was over thirty meters tall. That was when he saw at least seventy Merfolk cultivators standing as dharma protectors around the tower.

    Obviously, whoever was in that tower was no ordinary person. There were seven or eight Seven Blood Eyes disciples around as well, all of whom seemed interested in the Spirit Breath Lamp. That was no surprise considering it was worth 500,000 spirit stones.

    The fighting was fierce, and corpses were already piling up, some from Seven Blood Eyes disciples, and some from Merfolk. There was so much blood and gore that anyone unused to such things would vomit.

    Both sides noticed Xu Qing rushing onto the scene. However, before any of them could get a good look at who he was, he transformed into a series of afterimages that headed straight toward the tower itself.

    Instantly, the Merfolk cultivators who weren¡¯t involved in any fighting roared and jumped to intercept him.

    One of them was currently in the great circle of Qi Condensation, though in reality he should have been in Foundation Establishment. ring at Xu Qing, he performed an incantation gesture and waved his right hand. The projected image of a merman appeared behind him, pitch ck in color and holding a trident. As it charged viciously toward Xu Qing, the other Merfolk unleashed magical techniques in his direction.

    At the same time, the other Seven Blood Eyes disciples looked over with grim eyes. One after another, they produced various trump cards which they used to charge toward the Foundation Establishment Tower, hoping to use Xu Qing¡¯s actions as a distraction to acquire themp.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes filled with coldness. He had already made the decision that he would kill anyone who tried to take what was his. Therefore, he waved his hand, causing ck light to spread out as his dharmaboat appeared.

    It was dozens of meters from prow to stern, and was awe-inspiring in a way that made it obvious this dharmaboat was different from the boats of other disciples.

    The moment it appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s hand shed in an incantation gesture, and the boat¡¯s four legs reached down to the ground. Cracking sounds rang out as the spikes on them shot out with explosive force, creating a tempest in all directions.

    The Merfolk cultivators who were hit by the storm screamed in agony as they were punched full of holes. The Foundation Establishment cultivator looked shocked, but not even he was able to escape. His flesh was ripped into gore as he screamed, until a knife shed with shocking speed through his throat, killing him.

    The Seven Blood Eyes disciples who had thought topete with Xu Qing met the same fate. From the moment they chose to take what he wanted, he decided not to hold back. After the storm subsided, the area around the tower was filled with corpses and silence.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had never stopped moving, and was now racing to the top of the tower. Looking through the open framework to the interior, he saw a young merman sitting cross-legged in front of amp. Themp looked like an opened ck umbre, turned upside down, with the handle serving as the wick. It was a strange sight, as the light¡¯s auburn glow covered over the young merman, offering himplete protection.

 Chapter 117: The Shadow Awakens!

    Chapter 117: The Shadow Awakens!

    After taking everything in, Xu Qingunched a fist strike. However, the walls of the tower were very tough, plus there was a defensive shield in ce that dispersed the force of his attack.

    That said, the Seven Blood Eyes spell formation lowered the cultivation level of everything on the ind that was in the Foundation Establishment level or higher, and that included this tower and its shield. Therefore, though the force of his blow was dispersed, it wasn¡¯t negated entirely, and ripples flowed across the shield.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. Not wanting to waste any time, he quickly performed a right-handed incantation gesture, causing his dharmaboat to shift directions and bash into the shield.

    His dharmaboat was already almost at the level of Foundation Establishment. In fact, other thancking the proper power source, it was a Foundation Establishment dharmaskiff. When his boat mmed into the tower, cracks spread through the shield, then it shattered. It also punched a hole in the wall.

    Xu Qing put his dharmaboat away, then leapt through the hole and into the tower. Once inside, the light of the Spirit Breath Lamp cast his shadow onto the wall.

    Not pausing for a moment, he leapt toward themp to grab it. However, that was when the young merman opened his eyes. Expression that of anxiety and fury, he was about to say something, but then coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. His cultivation base power was thrown into chaos, yet he still managed to grit his teeth and point his finger at Xu Qing. As a result, the projected image of a merman appeared and viciously attacked Xu Qing.

    With no time to spare, Xu Qing clenched his right hand into a fist and thrust it at the iing merman.

    The projected image copsed, and more blood sprayed out of the mouth of the young merman as he was thrown back against the opposite wall. Without the defenses to bolster them, the walls were ordinary, and thus, the young merman crashed through and fell to the ground. It was impossible to tell whether he lived or died, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to waste time checking. He strode up to themp and reached out to grab it.

    However, at that exact moment, his shadow suddenly twitched, and,pletely without Xu Qing doing a thing to control it, started moving!

    Before Xu Qing could grab themp, his shadow¡¯s pitch-ck hand reached past him and, seemingly in revulsion of the burning me, it... extinguished themp!

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing and he looked over his shoulder at the wall. However, now that themp was out, his shadow wasn¡¯t visible.

    That said, Xu Qing could sense that his shadow had stretched back to its original shape, and was now ordinary in nature.

    Expression unsightly, he picked up the Spirit Breath Lamp. Now that it had been extinguished, themp didn¡¯t seem very special, other than its unique craftsmanship.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about themp by now. Looking coldly at the spot where his shadowy in the darkness, his expression turned grim. The shadow wasn¡¯t doing anything unusual now, but he couldn¡¯t help but think back to what the Mute had written in the jade slip.

    ¡°It¡¯s asleep.¡±

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized that what had urred just now was like when a sleeping person was annoyed by a flickeringmp, and reached out to turn it off.

    Eyes glittering, he sent some spirit power into the Spirit Breath Lamp, and after a few attempts, managed to ignite it. Light spread out everywhere, and his shadow was once again cast onto the wall. The moment that happened, his shadow twisted and distorted. Then, it yet again sent out that pitch ck hand to the Spirit Breath Lamp to extinguish it.

    Snorting coldly, Xu Qing sent his will out to seize control of his shadow. As a result, the shadow¡¯s hand stopped short of themp, then started to struggle against him to close the distance.

    ¡°Are you sleeping?¡± Xu Qing asked coldly. ¡°Or just pretending to sleep?¡±

    At the same time, he activated the violet crystal and used its power to viciously suppress the struggling shadow. Xu Qing was very familiar with how to do this. In the past, he¡¯d done it on a daily basis, usually performing the same process five or six times. But this time, he performed the process thirteen times.

    Only then did the shadow tremble and then fade a bit.

    Not pausing for even a moment, he went through the suppressing process another twelve times. At that point, the twitching shadow finally stopped fighting back. Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t happy though. Looking coldly at his shadow, he held the Spirit Breath Lamp up to it, then slowly relinquished control.

    Despite being free, the shadow didn¡¯t try to extinguish themp. It trembled, but did nothing more.

    Expression cold, Xu Qing then put themp directly onto the shadow. When he did, the light of themp changed the color of the shadow, turning it from amber to a light green color. It looked extremely bizarre. Despite its intense trembling, the shadow didn¡¯t do anything to resist.

    Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and was about to say something when his expression flickered and he looked at the Spirit Breath Lamp.

    Back when he had picked up themp, and even when he lit it, he didn¡¯t sense anything unusual about it. But when he put it into his shadow, he felt faint fluctuations.

    At the same time, he sensed fluctuationsing from somewhere underground, almost as if something down there was calling out to themp. He quickly pulled themp away from the shadow, and the fluctuations ceased. Also, themp reverted to its ordinary state.

    Then he put themp back, and the fluctuations rose up again, this time more clearly. They were essentially pointing in a specific direction.

    ¡°This...¡± he muttered, narrowing his eyes. Suddenly thinking back to the jade slip from Huang Yan, he recalled the legend about the clues leading to the Temple of Meegah, which were supposedly hidden in this verymp. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder if what was happening with his shadow had anything to do with that.

    ncing coldly at his shadow again, he said, ¡°You can go back to sleep.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t sure if it would understand or not, but after making sure to remember the general direction where the fluctuations came from, he extinguished themp, put it away, and jumped out of the Foundation Establishment Tower.

    Afternding on the ground, he looked around for the young merman he had sted out of the top of the tower. Having been interrupted in the middle of a Foundation Establishment breakthrough, he should either be dead or severely injured. It didn¡¯t take long for Xu Qing to spot him a short distance away.

    He looked like he was in the middle of crawling. Apparently he¡¯d survived the fall, and had tried to crawl away, only to die from his injuries momentster.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to risk him actually being alive, though, so he unleashed a few magical techniques on him, and also sprinkled some poison powder on him. After confirming that he was well and truly dead, he squatted down and searched him for his bag of holding.

    He was obviously an important person, so he definitely had some Foundation Establishment Pills. I just hope he didn¡¯t consume them all. After finding the bag of holding, he quickly opened it. The contents made him smile. Standing, he was about to leave, when all of a sudden... he heard someone pping.

    Swiveling, he saw someone walking toward him, half of a little apple in his mouth as he slowly pped.

    It was the Captain!

    ¡°Wo. Did you kill everybody here, Deputy Captain Xu? Looks like you made out quite nicely. I guess you must have taken the Spirit Breath Lamp already?¡±

    Remaining on guard, Xu Qing kept his face expressionless and replied, ¡°No, I got here just a moment toote.¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly wondered how the Captain was managing to talk with half an apple between his teeth.

    The Captain didn¡¯t look surprised at Xu Qing¡¯s expression. He bit through the little apple, causing one section to fall, which he reached out to grab before it hit the ground. shing a cocky grin, he then looked around at the mangled corpses.

    ¡°Your dharmaboat did this? That punk Zhang San really put a lot of hard work into your boat. By the way, you owe me 2,000 spirit stones. When do you n to pay up?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t owe you anything,¡± Xu Qing replied, eyeing the apple in the Captain¡¯s hand. Facepletely expressionless, he pulled arge apple out of his own sack and started eating it.

    The Captain stared at him nkly. He looked at Xu Qing¡¯srge apple, then his own small apple, which suddenly didn¡¯t look as appetizing. He cleared his throat.

    ¡°Cut the act,¡± the Captain said, sounding slightly irritated. ¡°Your acting skills are subpar at best. You should take lessons from me. Why go to the trouble of pretending you didn¡¯t take the Spirit Breath Lamp? I couldn¡¯t care less about that thing. In fact, I wouldn¡¯t take it if you offered it to me. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s a lifemp.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond to what he¡¯d just said.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask me what a lifemp is?¡± the Captain asked, apparently surprised at Xu Qing¡¯sck of reaction.

    Xu Qing looked at him. ¡°What¡¯s a lifemp?¡±

    The Captain sighed. ¡°Since we¡¯re on the same unit, and you owe me 2,000 spirit stones, I guess I¡¯ll tell you. The Spirit Breath Lamp is actually a knockoff version of a lifemp. And even as a knockoff it¡¯s not very well made.

    ¡°You¡¯ve heard how Foundation Establishment cultivators can enter the profound radiance state, right? It¡¯s when they ignite the life mes within their body. And the top limit for life mes is three.

    ¡°One life me equals early Foundation Establishment. Two is mid Foundation Establishment. And three iste Foundation Establishment. Theoretically speaking, once you reach that point, you can attempt core formation. Only people with amazing destiny can get four life mes. Now, all these things rted to life mes and the profound radiance state were the same even before the broken face of the god arrived.

    ¡°However, there are some very rare people that don¡¯t follow the normal trend. The direct bloodline descendants of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns follow a different path. Because of their bloodline and imperial-ss techniques, they don¡¯t just have life mes in Foundation Establishment, they have lifemps!

    ¡°One lifemp makes one life me as powerful as two life mes!! Life mes have no foundation, but lifemps do. The former are like dandelion seeds, thetter are like boulders.

    ¡°With only one lifemp, you could fight someone with much higher cultivation than you. With two, no Foundation Establishment cultivator could match you, and you¡¯d already be ready for core formation. And with three, you¡¯d be the top individual among all species, at least under Gold Core. Of course, the exception would be other people with lifemps.

    ¡°In the modern era, the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns have been gone for many epochs, so hardly anyone cultivates lifemps. The only people who do are consummate chosen experts on the Revered Ancient maind, thanks to their spectacr background and unmatchable destiny.

    ¡°Furthermore, their lifemps are legacies passed down by deceased descendants of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. When you have a lifemp, then after you die it can be removed and given to someone else to be used in their cultivation.

    ¡°Of course, you might as well not even bother hoping to get one. For all intents and purposes, lifemps are things of legend. Even just onemp like that would cause the great sects from Revered Ancient to mobilize.

    ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s almost not even worth talking about. If you want to reach Foundation Establishment, you need to think of a way to get some Foundation Establishment Pills. Lucky for you, I happen to know where one of the Merfolk¡¯s big pill storehouses is. There should be quite a few Foundation Establishment Pills there. Why don¡¯t we go together? There¡¯s nothing else worthwhile on this ind.

    ¡°The good stuff is all underground. Come on, we need to hurry. That brat Zhang San is probably already down there.¡±

    The information about lifemps left Xu Qing feeling shaken. What was more, the fluctuations from the Spirit Breath Lamp had his heart pounding.

    Lifemps?

 Chapter 118: Thereâ€™s Always a Dolt Somewhere

    Chapter 118: There¡¯s Always a Dolt Somewhere

    Xu Qing looked down at the ground.

    Wherever the Spirit Breath Lamp had been pointing specifically, he knew it was underground. Huang Yan¡¯s jade slip had gone into some detail about what was beneath the Merfolk inds.

    Forplicated cultural reasons, the Merfolk civilization was divided into an upper world and a lower world. The upper world was on the surface of their inds, and the buildings there were usually made of either skeletons or shells. Merfolk liked skeletons. It didn¡¯t matter if they were the skeletons of fishes, animals, or other intelligent non-Merfolk species. The more sinister and evil-looking the skeletons were, the more they liked them. It was a cultural legacy that was passed down within the very souls of the individual Merfolk.

    The second world was under the surface. It wasn¡¯t a cavework. Rather, that world existed beneath the inds themselves, within the sea. All of the Merfolk Isles were like that. The reality was that the inds were like leaves floating on the water, with buildings both above and below, and some mysterious force that prevented them from sinking. The jade slip used only one word to describe the undersea world of the Merfolk: magnificent.

    Reportedly, the buildings there were constructed of colorful coral, atop which grew sea anemones with countless tentacles. Other than that, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what the ce looked like.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± the Captain called. ¡°There¡¯s nothing good up here. The fish eye is where the entrance is.¡±

    With that, he blurred into motion.

    Xu Qing decided to follow, though he kept some distance. His rtionship with the Captain was unusual, and though he trusted him in some ways, he distrusted him in others. The Captain had always seemed like a mysterious person. And though Xu Qing couldn¡¯t quite figure the man out, he had the feeling that he was dangerous. That was especially true since, despite the fact that Xu Qing was now capable of fighting Foundation Establishment enemies, whenever he sensed the Captain¡¯s aura, it seemed stronger than his own.

    It was very puzzling. Every time he achieved a breakthrough, he would intentionally feel out the Captain, and every time, the man seemed stronger than himself. Because of that, he had to keep his guard up.

    The two of them sped along through the fish skeleton city toward the entrance of the world below.

    Along the way, they saw quite a few Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Some moved along in the shadows, some looted buildings, and some searched Merfolk corpses hoping to find spirit stones. Others waited to ambush others, be they fellow disciples or Merfolk.

    The disciples were like wild dogs, adept at both staying concealed and at hunting prey. Those who saw Xu Qing and the Captain made sure to stay out of their way, though it was hard to say if it was because of the former or thetter.

    ¡°See those fellows?¡± the Captain said, pointing to a group of disciples demolishing a building. ¡°Most of them could have broken through a long time ago, but they kept their cultivation bases suppressed so they coulde here and get rich. Each one has a keener sense of smell than a dog. My god... they¡¯re even demolishing houses to take as loot. It¡¯s outrageous.¡±

    The building they were tearing down was unique, as it was constructed from shells that pulsed with spirit power.

    As Xu Qing looked over, the Captain suddenly rushed toward the group of disciples, his cultivation base ring with power. In response, the group backed away and then disappeared into the shadows. Eyes glittering, the Captain then continued the demolition work. Xu Qing joined him, taking the shells away one by one. [1]

    ¡°These things are amazing,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I wonder whose house this was. Even just one of these things will sell for a few dozen spirit stones.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, but he started collecting the shells even faster. After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, they left. The house was gone.

    Along the way, they found other simr situations, and the Captain stopped at all of them.

    ¡°This is ridiculous. These old-time disciples are obviously extremely strong! I can¡¯t believe they¡¯re stooping to stealing loot from kids like us!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s face, confirming that he appeared to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± the Captain asked, looking askance at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re no kid,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly. ¡°I am.¡±

    This was only the fourth thing Xu Qing had said since encountering the Captain.

    The Captain sighed. ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, I think it might be better if you just stayed silent. No talking, okay? By the way, I¡¯d appreciate it if you hurried up and paid me the 5,000 spirit stones you owe me.¡±

    With that, the Captain started moving along at top speed.

    Xu Qing pretended to have not heard. He followed silently, and the two of them got closer and closer to the head of the fish skeleton. Soon enough, they caught sight of a veryrge cavern there. That was when they heard a huge boom off in the distance.

    Looking over, they saw a Merfolk cultivator fleeing from what appeared to be a bright blue streak of light. As the blue light got closer, it became obvious it was a young man wearing a flight talisman. It was none other than the chosen member of the Coast Guard Division, Ding Xiaohai. [2]

    Ding Xiaohai looked very somber. During his time on the ind, he constantly searched for Merfolk cultivators to kill, and everywhere he went, he left behind corpses. Unless it was absolutely convenient, he didn¡¯t take any loot, as he felt it would influence his ughter.

    As he chased his quarry, he didn¡¯t seem to even notice the Captain and Xu Qing, much less stop to talk to them. He just kept pursuing the Merfolk cultivator he was chasing. He was behaving very differently from the other disciples. Instead of focusing on getting rich like everyone else, he wanted to rack up points!

    ¡°What a great disciple!¡± the Captain said loudly. ¡°See that, Xu Qing? That¡¯s what a real member of Seven Blood Eyes is like! It¡¯s only because of disciples like him that Seven Blood Eyes has a future!¡± Clenching his hands into fists, he threw them over his head and shouted, ¡°You¡¯re awesome, Elder Brother Ding! Go, go, go! Elder Brother Ding, Celestial Bureau Unit Six from the Violent Crimes Division backs you one hundred percent! You¡¯re definitely going to take first ce and be a conve disciple!¡±

    Ding Xiaohai nced coldly at the Captain as he fought his opponent.

    To Xu Qing it was obvious that Ding Xiaohai was dead set on taking first ce.

    Meanwhile, the Captain sighed, then leaned over to Xu Qing, lowered his voice, and said, ¡°Don¡¯t be like him. He¡¯s obviously cultivated his way into being an idiot. Why should he give a crap about being a conve disciple? He¡¯s going to break through soon and get a violet robe. When that happens, the conve disciples will have to offer him respectful greetings. So why is he working so hard? Does he like the sect that much?¡±

    ¡°Everybody¡¯s different,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say why he¡¯s doing this.¡±

    It was the fifth time Xu Qing had spoken to the Captain. The Captain smiled and pointed at Xu Qing as if he was going to say something in response. But then his expression flickered. Xu Qing reacted simrly, and the both of them jumped backward at the same time.

    As they did, the ground in front of them exploded, and four pitch ck hands shot out. Though they snatched nothing but air, they also unleashed explosive fluctuations.

    From the crumbling ground emerged two figures. Both wore ck armor, had long unkempt hair, and had necrotic patches on their exposed skin. Their eyes were bright red, and they exuded a brutal and bloodthirsty air. Without hesitating for a moment, they rushed toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Seazombies!¡± the Captain said. ¡°Be careful, Xu Qing. Both of them are in the great circle of Qi Condensation. They¡¯re not in Foundation Establishment, but Seazombies are strange. Their cultivation relies on mutagen, which means they¡¯re full of the stuff. Plus they have incredibly strong fleshly bodies, and also use zombie poison. We can¡¯t let ourselves get hit too badly.¡±

    A long spear appeared in the Captain¡¯s hands, which he swept toward the iing Seazombies.

    Meanwhile, the ground erupted near Ding Xiaohai as a third seazombie emerged and attacked him.

    All three disciples were instantly embroiled in fighting.

    Xu Qing quickly experienced what the Captain had just mentioned. Even when hended a fist strike at full force, his seazombie opponent simply staggered back a few steps, seemingly uninjured. And when he shed the seazombie¡¯s throat with his dagger, it didn¡¯t even seem to notice. After joining Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing had seen quite a few different nonhuman species. But this was his first time encountering a species this bizarre. And then his opponent tossed out some zombie poison, and Xu Qing¡¯s curiosity piqued even further.

    Which will be more ferocious? Zombie poison? Or my poison?

    1. I just have to point out that there were a lot of Meng Haoments in Chinese regarding this part¡­. ?

    2. Ding Xiaohai was first mentioned in chapter 68, and west saw him in chapter 93. ?

 Chapter 119: Above Forbidden Grounds

    Chapter 119: Above Forbidden Grounds

    High overhead, the violet sea of light and the ck spell formation shed. Neither of those forces were intelligent, but their inherent qualities were such that they couldn¡¯t tolerate each other¡¯s existence. It was simr to the six cultivators fighting atop the fish skull.

    Ding Xiaohai gracefully wielded a long sword in the manner of the Seaforming Scripture; it produced numerous sword flowers, each of which contained stupefying killing intent. He also used talisman treasures which, whenbined with his magical techniques, created something like a sea around him. As a result, the Seazombie that was fighting him was temporarily unable to equal him. The Seazombies, with their mutagen and zombie poison, plus their inherent brutality, were generally beyond Ding Xiaohai¡¯s ability to defeat. Thankfully, he had trump cards to rely on.

    The Captain¡¯s spear swished about like a dragon, moving with incredible speed as he engaged the Seazombie. His moves contained numerous variations, sometimes being domineering, other times incisive. asionally, he would stab his spear like an embroidery needle, other times he would sh it down like an ax. He was clearly very skilled with the weapon. In fact, he didn¡¯t use his offhand to perform incantation gestures, but rather, held an apple from which he munched. He even took moments to cheer on Ding Xiaohai.

    ¡°That was amazing Elder Brother Ding! You¡¯re awesome, Elder Brother Ding! Go, go, go!¡±

    Then he turned to cheer on Xu Qing. ¡°Xu....¡±

    His eyes went wide, his jaw dropped in amazement, and he nearly dropped his apple.

    ***

    Moments ago¡­.

    Xu Qing moved in a blur, using his dagger to sh wounds into his Seazombie opponent, into which he threw handfuls of his poison powder. It looked almost like he was carrying out experiments to improve his dao of poison. He made so many shes with his dagger that the Seazombie¡¯s flesh looked like mincemeat.

    In fact, much of the flesh had fallen off, revealing the bones beneath. Scattered about on the ground were... masses of blue skin and blood. Xu Qing¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless despite the ghastly sight of the blue gore around him. He seemedpletely focused on poison research.

    Truth be told, Xu Qing was not doing experimentation. The Seazombie cultivator he was fighting didn¡¯t seem to feel pain, and none of Xu Qing¡¯s poisons were working on him. Despite having his throat shed, he fought viciously, as if he didn¡¯t care about his own life. Even after suffering the most grievous of wounds, he would keep attacking. He kept ring at Xu Qing with red eyes, as if he wished to rip him to pieces. He pulsed with the fluctuations of magical techniques. However, they didn¡¯t contain spirit power, but rather mutagen. And they caused a ck cloud of ghost faces to rage toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t fear mutagen. However, he didn¡¯t want to publicize that fact. Frowning, he backed away and used a talisman treasure to defend himself. Seeing that this opponent was as ferocious as ever even after being wounded, Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent grew stronger. Dancing away from the Seazombie¡¯s attacks, he plunged his dagger toward his opponent¡¯s head.

    Red eyes burning, the Seazombie cultivator reached out with his hand to meet the dagger.

    A crunching sound rang out as he used his own bones to block the dagger, and then he opened his mouth wide and lunged forward to bite Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shed as, instead of dodging, he head-butted the enemy. A boom rang out as the Seazombie¡¯s mouth exploded, his teeth shattering, and half of his head being bashed in. Then Xu Qing attacked again, shing out viciously with his dagger. One of the Seazombie¡¯s arms fell off. The dagger shed again, and the Seazombie¡¯s belly was shed open.

    Putrefying viscera and organs spilled out. It was such a grievous wound that, finally, a look of terror appeared on the Seazombie¡¯s face. It was that specific sight that caused the Captain to drop his apple.

    Seazombies weren¡¯t emotionless. It was just that they had much more simple emotions than other beings. And it didn¡¯t matter how simple their emotions were, when they were about to die, they would feel the urge to flee. This Seazombie cultivator had reached the point where he didn¡¯t want to fight any more, and instead wanted to escape. But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to let that happen. He jumped forward again, his dagger flying. At the same time, he sent out a host of water droplets to create a barrier blocking the path of the Seazombie.

    As rumbling sounds echoed out, the Seazombie¡¯s terror grew more obvious. This disciple from Seven Blood Eyes was iparably bizarre. For one thing, he seemed unaffected by mutagen, which seemed like aplete impossibility to the Seazombie.

    Even chosen disciples who had no mutagen in them wouldn¡¯t be unafraid of mutagen. Such a person who went into a forbidden region would still have to deal with the encroachment of mutagen. But when the Seazombie¡¯s mutagen entered this opponent, it just seemed to disappear.

    What was more, the zombie poison that Seazombies were so proud of didn¡¯t seem to have any effect at all. It was like this disciple wasn¡¯t even afraid of it. And the disciple¡¯s poison was causing the Seazombie¡¯s mind to spin, and filled his body with pain. Seazombies didn¡¯t fear pain, and had powerful fleshly bodies, but this disciple... seemed even more powerful than him.

    And then there were his powers of regeneration. Seazombies had unique characteristics that gave them powers of regeneration that non-zombie cultivators couldn¡¯t match. But this opponent... seemed to surpass him in that regard as well. Was he some sort of grue?

    The Seazombie¡¯s red eyes glittered as he tried to back up, but then Xu Qing¡¯s dagger shed, and more blue blood sshed out onto the ground.

    Eventually, it was thanks to the mutagen and the corroding effects of the zombie poison that Xu Qing¡¯s dagger copsed. Thankfully, he had spares.

    It was at this time that the Seazombie thought he would be able to make his escape. Until a ck sh of light stabbed through his chest. It was the ck iron skewer. The moment it pierced into his chest, the weapon erupted with the power of its spirit automaton. Foundation Establishment fluctuations poured out into the Seazombie¡¯s ravaged body. With a boom, the Seazombie exploded. The iron skewer flew around and returned to Xu Qing¡¯s hand. Meanwhile, the blood on the ground vanished, as if it had been sucked into the soil.

    Off to the side, the Captain looked at the destroyed zombie, and then at Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer. Then he noticed Xu Qing looking at him, and suddenly felt a bit foolish. Waving his spear, he caused it to ripple and distort as it turned into a stream of water that rushed toward his Seazombie opponent.

    The water emanated frigid coldness as it rapidly wrapped around the Seazombie. Then, in the blink of an eye, it froze the Seazombie into a solid piece of ice.

    Astonishingly, that coldness was something that could harm the soul.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. Seeing that lump of ice filled him with a sense of danger; it was obviously not ordinary ice, but something filled with a mysterious power he couldn¡¯t identify. Clearing his throat, the Captain said, ¡°See that, Xu Qing? When you kill an enemy, you need finesse. Artistry! Not just brute force.¡±

    Sticking his chin out, he took a bite of his apple, walked over, and tapped on the ice with his knuckle. Cracks spread out through it, and a momentter it copsed, along with the Seazombie cultivator inside of it.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up even further. That Seazombie cultivator had been in the great circle of Qi Condensation, and considering the Seazombies were superior to human cultivators in the same level, he should have been very difficult to kill. That just went to show... that the Captain was incredibly strong.

    ¡°By the way,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°I suggest you improve your magical techniques a bit. Why not try putting poison into your water droplets? That would make them a lot more difficult to deal with.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and realized what the Captain said made sense. He nodded.

    The Captain seemed very pleased that his little speech had improved Xu Qing¡¯s impression of him. ¡°Let¡¯s keep moving. If we get down there toote, Zhang San won¡¯t be around anymore.¡±

    With that, he sped toward the fish eye, not paying any further attention to Ding Xiaohai.

    Xu Qing followed, simrly ignoring Ding Xiaohai. His thoughts were currently focused on the suggestion just put forth by the Captain. As they neared the eye, Xu Qing suddenly asked, ¡°Captain, are the Seazombies¡­ corpses?¡±

    It wasn¡¯tmon for Xu Qing to ask questions, so upon hearing this, the Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. Clearing his throat, he looked over at Xu Qing and said, ¡°A question like that is worth¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing tossed him arge apple that was at least double the size of the small one he¡¯d been eating.

    The Captain paused to take a big bite, then continued, ¡°Alright, since you¡¯re a member of my unit, I guess I might as well tell you. The Seazombies are basically reanimated corpses. They¡¯re fantastic, really. Their ancestralnd is located on the border of the ninth forbidden ground. You know about the forbidden grounds, right?¡± [1]

    ¡°Forbidden grounds?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°When the eyes of the god above open, the location those eyes look upon bes a forbidden region. But... what happens if those eyes look upon a ce that¡¯s already a forbidden region?¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing with a very profound expression on his face.

    Xu Qing had never thought about this question before. After pondering it for a moment, his eyes glittered.

    Taking another bite of apple, the Captain continued, ¡°If the god looks at a forbidden region, then the mutagen there gets even stronger. And after the mutagen passes a certain point... the ce bes a forbidden ground. There are some huge differences between forbidden regions and forbidden grounds.

    ¡°Forbidden regions usually have mutant beasts and grues in them. But forbidden grounds... can give birth to new intelligent species!

    ¡°ording to the records in Seven Blood Eyes, there are at least fifteen forbidden grounds in the world, and maybe more. In some cases, we know what new species havee to exist in the forbidden grounds, but in other cases, we don¡¯t. There¡¯s one forbidden ground in the Sea of Endlessness, and it¡¯s called Forbidden by the Zombie. The Seazombies came to be on the edge of that forbidden ground. Here on the continent of South Phoenix, we also have a forbidden ground. And that¡¯s Forbidden by the Phoenix, which I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard of. Within Forbidden by the Phoenix is an emperor named me Phoenix, an apex godly entity. Although me Phoenix isn¡¯t exactly on the same level as a real god, it¡¯s close enough to count as one. me Phoenix came to be within the forbidden ground known as Forbidden by the Phoenix.¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to race. Thanks to the Captain¡¯s word, some of the veil of mystery that obscured the world around him was being lifted.

    ¡°In that case,¡± Xu Qing asked, ¡°what happens if the god¡¯s eyes open and look at a forbidden ground?¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t respond, as they had just reached the fish eye, and were looking down at a deep pit. He jumped in, and then started to talk, his words echoing up behind him. ¡°From ancient times until now, that¡¯s only happened four times. I¡¯m not sure exactly what happens when he looks at a forbidden ground. However, I do know that afterwards, they aren¡¯t called forbidden grounds anymore. They¡¯re called... god domains.¡±

    1. I know it¡¯s not the most important bit of foreshadowing, but Xu Qing bought therge apples in chapter 110. I saw at least onement specting that Xu Qing bought the apples to give them to the Captain so... nice spection there! ?

 Chapter 120: Leaving Poison Behind

    Chapter 120: Leaving Poison Behind

    As Xu Qing watched the Captain drop into the chasm, his words also fell, except not into the chasm, but rather, into Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    This new information was very astonishing. In the past, Xu Qing¡¯s understanding of forbidden regions came mostly from the jungle outside the scavenger basecamp where he¡¯d lived. All he knew was that the deeper in you went, the more sinister danger there was.

    He had heard about Forbidden by the Phoenix on the other side of the continent, but had been under the impression the only difference was that it wasrger, and the mutant beasts and grues inside were stronger.

    Now he realized that understanding was mistaken, and what he knew before was just the tip of the iceberg. The world was huge, and humans were just a small part of it. And therger part was made up of nonhumans and numerous forbidden regions. Above the forbidden regions were the forbidden grounds, which were on apletely different level, and could produce new species of intelligent life. And then... the Captain mentioned god domains, but offered no exnation about them.

    Regardless, there were many types of powerful entities and grues in the world. It made Xu Qing think of the saber-wielding statue in the templeplex, the giant pulling the dragon chariot, and the true form of Sealizard Ind.

    Looking over his shoulder at the Seazombie Ding Xiaohai was fighting, his eyes shone. Forbidden by the Zombie had produced Seazombies, and they were very powerful.

    If Xu Qing had faced a Merfolk or human cultivator in the great circle of Qi Condensation, he would have killed them much faster.

    I wonder what Foundation Establishment Seazombies are like.

    He had the feeling that there were definitely Foundation Establishment Seazombies below. The spell formation above restricted cultivation bases, but even still, he would have to be very cautious about engaging any Seazombies. That was especially true considering the spell formation was obviously bing increasingly unstable.

    The more he learned about the mysteries of the world he lived in, the more he felt like he was simply too weak. He needed to get to Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible. He needed to get stronger.

    Taking a deep breath, he jumped into the pit. It was essentially a huge tunnel carved through the dark soil, and it was so deep he couldn¡¯t see the bottom.

    He could just barely make out the Captain as a tiny dot below him. As Xu Qing fell, his eyes narrowed. He didn¡¯t attempt to control his speed, but just allowed himself to fall, while simultaneously examining his surroundings.

    The further down he got, the more humid it became. He saw lichenoid nts growing, and even spotted a few ces where flowers bloomed in the darkness. As the humidity grew, he eventually heard a sound from below. It didn¡¯t seem like the Captain had been attacked, but rather, had sshed into water.

    Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base, then took out his iron skewer and stabbed it into the wall. A grating sound rang out as the skewer dug a huge furrow into the soil. Eventually, the friction caused him to slow down.

    He could see water at the bottom of the tunnel. It was pitch ck, and he couldn¡¯t see anything underneath the surface. However, it was obvious that the path forward went through the water. After some thought, he scattered some poison powder, then waited a few moments. Nothing happened.

    Next, he took everything that wasn¡¯t waterproof and put it in his bag of holding. Finally he dropped into the water, surrounded by the defenses of the Seaforming Scripture, which kept the water at bay.

    After proceeding through the water for a time, he realized the Captain was nowhere to be seen. It made it seem like this dark tunnel contained some unknown danger that had swallowed the Captain whole.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing took out a bag of varied poison powders that he had prepared for a situation like this, and sent it outside of his defenses. Once it was in the water, the poisons started spreading everywhere. Keeping a good grip on the bag, he continued sinking down. As he went, the ck water was infected by the poison, and turned even darker.

    Perhaps because of how deadly Xu Qing¡¯s poisons were, as he sank down, no dangers appeared. As he got closer and closer to the end of the tunnel, he ran lower and lower on poison. Finally, he shoved the bag down toward the exit of the tunnel. There, it opened, and the poison spread out like a cloud of ink.

    If there was no enemy waiting there to ambush him, nothing woulde of it. But if there was an enemy there, then they would regret setting an ambush. Suddenly, the water below seethed, and screams could be heard as six Merfolk cultivators emerged who had been lying in wait. Their skin was already turning greenish-ck and rotting away. Momentster, they were dead.

    Coldness filled Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as he moved as quickly as possible toward the exit. As soon as he was out of the tunnel, he heard rumbling booms everywhere, along with muffled shouting through the water. He was in the middle of a chaotic battle.

    At the same time, the magnificent underwater world spread out in front of his eyes. Everything here was upside down, and in fact, you had to turn yourself around so your feet would touch the surface of the ind. Multicolored coral was everywhere. Every building was made of it, and they were all very luxurious. And there were sea anemones all over. The anemones had red centers surrounded by masses of swaying white tentacles, all of them covered with sharp spines. The tentacles of the anemones were of varying lengths. Some were only a handful of meters long, others were dozens of meters long. But the way they swayed made the underwater world seem exceedingly beautiful.

    Countless semitransparent eggs floated everywhere, and within each one was a child of seven or eight years old. Shockingly, these were the Merfolk children.

    This was the true world of the Merfolk, and their real foundation. As Xu Qing took in the sights, he looked around at the surrounding fighting.

    There were Seven Blood Eyes disciples plundering both the coral itself and anything else of value. And there wererge numbers of Merfolk cultivators, viciously attacking the disciples. Because blood couldn¡¯t fall to the ground, it floated everywhere in the water. Before Xu Qing could fully take stock of the situation, his eyes glittered coldly, and he lunged forward to bash into a Merfolk cultivator that had been about to ambush him.

    A thump rang out as the Merfolk cultivator¡¯s body copsed, sending out clouds of blood everywhere. At the same time, one of the nearby anemones opened its mouth and sent its tentacles sweeping toward Xu Qing. Before the tentacles reached him, they started withering up. The effect spread to the anemone¡¯s main body, and it turned pitch ck. Ignoring the anemones, Xu Qing started moving while simultaneously looking around.

    There weren¡¯t just Merfolk fighting the Seven Blood Eyes disciples, there were also Seazombie cultivators. At a nce, Xu Qing could tell there were around a hundred in total. They were all extremely fierce, and there were seven or eight who seemed very close to the Foundation Establishment level. To fight Seazombies like that, disciples had to work together in groups of five or more.

    Seeing all that, Xu Qing waved his hand, and his iron skewer shot out, stabbing into the forehead of an enemy that had been rushing toward him before returning to him.

    He kept moving.

    He rarely took the initiative to attack anyone. He wasn¡¯t here for killing. Rather, he wanted to find the source of the fluctuations that had called out to the Spirit Breath Lamp. Actually, he didn¡¯t even want to be on this battlefield. As he moved in the direction of the fluctuations, a sense of danger suddenly rose up in him.

    Stopping, he looked off into the distance.

    Across the battlefield, he noticed a group of a few dozen Merfolk who looked different than the ones he was familiar with. They wore white robes, and emanated bizarre fluctuations that were neither mutagen nor spirit power. In fact, when he sensed those fluctuations, Xu Qing was reminded of the godliness in his dharmaboat. His pupils constricted.

    What was more shocking was that each of these Merfolk had a vicious mutant beast with them!

    Some of them were humanoid, except extremely tall and slender. They were dozens of meters tall, making them seem as slender as bamboo. Furthermore, they had veryrge heads and green skin. Some looked like giants with two heads, their faces vicious as they walked along snapping their teeth in attacks. Some had eyes that looked like boils, with extremely long tongues snaking out from the pupils. And there were some that looked like rotting sharks with rusting weapons stabbed all over them.

    ¡°Godpriests,¡± Xu Qing murmured. He had learned of the godpriests from Huang Yan¡¯s jade slip. They were a special type of Merfolk cultivator who were very rare, and didn¡¯t use magical techniques powered by spirit power. Instead, their power stemmed from the Merfolk¡¯s gods, and they were known as god magic.

    The strange beasts the godpriests led were materializations of their god magic.

    They immediately had a big effect on the battlefield. The Seven Blood Eyes disciples seemed flustered. However, the disciples were like venomous bugs in a jar, and were ruthless by nature. In fact, many of them seemed interested in targeting the godpriests with attacks. After all, since the godpriests were high-level Merfolk, they obviously had riches that surpassed those of ordinary cultivators.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested. Looking away from the godpriests, he prepared to continue on his way when his expression suddenly became very odd. On another part of the battlefield, he noticed a mangled ¡®corpse¡¯ that, despite being covered with blood and very grisly wounds, was actually crawling along at high speed. It would crawl, then stop, asionally stopping at the corpses of Merfolk and disciples, where it would clearly search through them for things to take. It would then keep moving.

    If it encountered some powerful enemy, the corpse would justy there unmoving. If it encountered someone with an ordinary cultivation base, it would suddenly attack and kill them, take their belongings, then continue to act like a corpse. Although this ¡®corpse¡¯ had a good disguise on, Xu Qing still recognized who it really was. Elder Brother Zhang San....

    The moment Xu Qing noticed Zhang San, he sensed some fluctuations from behind him, and he spun in ce ready to throw out his iron skewer. That was when he heard a familiar voice.

    ¡°Hey, Deputy Captain Xu! It¡¯s me!¡±

    It was the Captain.

    However... he looked quite different from earlier. He was greenish-ck, and looked like he might have been poisoned recently, as his lips were purple. As he walked toward Xu Qing, he popped antidote pills into his mouth.

 Chapter 121: Joine Awakens

    Chapter 121: Joine Awakens

    ¡°Captain, you¡¯ve been poisoned,¡± Xu Qing said.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Poisoned? I¡¯m not poisoned. You think someone as skilled as me would get poisoned?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve definitely been poisoned,¡± Xu Qing said with conviction, noting that the Captain¡¯s face was about as dark as the ck waters of the sea.

    A somber expression overtook the Captain¡¯s face. ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, please don¡¯t make irresponsible remarks. And always back your words with hard evidence. A moment ago I saw an interesting-looking sea fruit, ate it, and got sick. I suppose I shouldn¡¯t randomly eat any fruit I see around here.¡± [1]

    Suddenly realizing that his face was starting to feel numb, the Captain produced another handful of antidote pills and popped them in his mouth like candies. Inside, he was feeling very down. After falling into the water earlier, he¡¯d hidden himself so that Xu Qing would be forced to explore the passage first. He¡¯d then nned to just follow when the way was clear. Never could he have guessed that Xu Qing would actuallyce the entire tunnel with poison.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was about to continue the conversation about poison, the Captain suddenly looked over to Zhang San in his corpse disguise. ¡°Hey, who¡¯s that? Isn¡¯t that Zhang San?¡±

    Not waiting for Xu Qing to respond, he rushed over to Zhang San. Upon arriving, heunched a kick, but Zhang San jumped out of the way, then looked up to see the Captain and Xu Qing, who was also walking over.

    Immediately noticing the greenish-ck coloration on the Captain¡¯s face, Zhang San said, ¡°Captain, did you get poisoned?¡±

    ¡°Shut up.¡± Clearing his throat, he continued, ¡°Cut the crap, Zhang San. By the way, do you really think you¡¯re going to get anything good byying around here pretending to be a corpse? Come with me. I¡¯ll show you where the really good stuff is.¡± After looking around to confirm his location, the Captain picked a specific direction and started moving.

    Zhang San didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment. Jumping up, he called a quick greeting to Xu Qing then followed the Captain.

    Before going too far, the Captain looked over his shoulder and called, ¡°By the way, Deputy Captain Xu, the ce I¡¯m going to has those Foundation Establishment Pills you want. Come on!¡±

    Xu Qing looked around at the chaos on the battlefield. Then he looked at the Captain, and realized he was heading in the same direction as that indicated by the Spirit Breath Lamp. Seeing no reason to hesitate, he followed.

    And thus, the three of them left the fighting behind. They were mighty enough that, though they did encounter some obstacles, they were easy to ovee. The Captain was obviously in a hurry. His hand constantly exuded a frigid energy, and whenever he encountered Merfolk cultivators, he froze them into blocks of ice instantly.

    Zhang San had a very different manner of fighting than the Captain. He had all sorts of interesting items and gadgets that he would throw out, most of which created extremely deadly explosions. As a result, the Merfolk were almost incapable of getting close to them. He also wielded a silk thread that was hard to detect with the naked eye. It spun around him constantly, and was iparably sharp.

    Sometimes after the Captain froze an enemy into ice, Zhang San would follow up by slicing them to pieces. The way they worked together made it obvious that this wasn¡¯t their first time teaming up. And it also helped the group move very quickly.

    Xu Qing also noticed that Zhang San had attached a thread to the Captain, which made it easier for Zhang San to follow him. Of course, Xu Qing¡¯s methods of attack were different from both the Captain and Zhang San. More specifically, he actually didn¡¯tunch any attacks. Instead, heced the surrounding water with a colorless poison powder that he had specifically developed to target Merfolk.

    As they moved along, any Merfolk who got too close would start dissolving. Even if they tried to flee after noticing they were poisoned, their entire bodies would rot away and they would die screaming in agony.

    When Zhang San saw that, his expression flickered, and he quickly took out a handful of antidote pills. He also tried to move a bit faster to put more space between himself and Xu Qing.

    The Captain, of course, continued to pop antidote pills. As they sped onward, Xu Qing eventually realized that, to his surprise, the Captain¡¯s destination was the very same ce the godpriests hade from.

    About an hourter, as the sounds of the battle faded behind them, they reached a location with numerous bizarre buildings.

    They were made from coral, but they were all pitch ck, and they were grouped together in a circr configuration. The architecture reminded Xu Qing of the temples from the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp.

    It¡¯s a templeplex, Xu Qing thought, his pupils constricting. At the same time, he was fairly certain the fluctuations from the Spirit Breath Lamp had pointed in that exact same direction. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have time to take themp out to confirm.

    ¡°We¡¯re here,¡± the Captain said excitedly, elerating toward the templeplex.

    Their arrival attracted the attention of the Merfolk guards inside theplex, who rushed out to fight. There weren¡¯t very many of them. Normally speaking, there would have been more, but considering the cmity that had struck the Merfolk, and the fact that there was fighting going on everywhere in the underwater world, there were a lot fewer than normal.

    Given the Captain¡¯s strength, Zhang San¡¯s gadgets, and Xu Qing¡¯s colorless poison, it didn¡¯t take very long for them to clear a path into the templeplex. A few Merfolk appeared who were Foundation Establishment cultivators, but had their cultivation bases suppressed to the Qi Condensation level. But the Captain simply unleashed his explosive power, and they were frozen. It didn¡¯t matter what cultivation base level he faced, the result was the same.

    The sight left Xu Qing feeling shaken. The Captain obviously had incredible battle prowess. Furthermore, Xu Qing wasing to realize that the Captain had a very clear idea of where he was going. During the entire trip, he hadn¡¯t taken them down one wrong path. They had made a beeline for this specific location.

    Is the Captain after the same thing as me? Xu Qing kept his guard fully up as he followed.

    When they were deep into the templeplex, they eventually found themselves in front of a specific temple building that was blue in color.

    ¡°Zhang San,¡± said the Captain, ¡°you set up some traps in the area. Use your best little gadgets. I¡¯ll pay you backter. Xu Qing,y down some poison. Don¡¯t be stingy! I¡¯llpensate you when we get back to the sect!¡±

    Zhang San immediately got to work, and before long, there were explosive traps set up everywhere. And they were all ced in an ingenious and clever manner that would make them very difficult to detect, let alone disarm.

    For example, he dug a hole in the floor and ced a trap into it, which would obviously be triggered when stepped on. Upon noticing that Xu Qing was watching him work, Zhang San grinned and exined, ¡°Nothing will happen to the first person who steps on it. But when a second person steps on it... boom!¡±

    Xu Qing watched, then looked around. Based on what he remembered from the Spirit Breath Lamp, he got the feeling this wasn¡¯t the exact spot he was looking for. He probably needed to go deeper into theplex. That caused him to breathe a sigh of relief. After Zhang San was finished setting up all his traps, Xu Qing spread out his poison powder, ensuring that this temple would be even more dangerous to enter.

    Finally, he looked over at the Captain.

    Visibly pleased, the Captain opened the door in front of them and beckoned for Xu Qing and Zhang San to follow. Beyond it was a huge open space with nothing in it other than a statue of Joine.

    Looking around anxiously, Zhang San said, ¡°Captain, what are you up to? There¡¯s nothing here at all, much less the thing I¡¯m after.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, he just looked at the Captain.

    ¡°Calm down, you two,¡± the Captain said, squatting on his haunches. ¡°I guarantee that both of you will get what you¡¯re after. Just be patient.¡± With that, he pulled out a withered-up eyeball that didn¡¯t look human. Putting it down in front of him, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. The eye opened, and then a projected image shot out from its pupil. It looked like the ind and everything around it.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s take a look at what¡¯s going on,¡± the Captain said, looking excited.

    ¡°A spirit rhino eye?¡± Zhang San eximed, walking over to look at it. ¡°Those things are expensive. Where did you get it?¡±

    Xu Qing looked closely at the bizarre eye, then the Captain. After that, he backed away a bit to look at their surroundings. What Zhang San had said was urate. There was absolutely nothing around them but the statue. The statue itself seemed to be made from coral, and did not emit any fluctuations of godliness. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel he could rx. He fully remembered the statue with the saber in the templeplex near the scavenger basecamp. That statue had lookedpletely ordinary in nature as well.

    That said, Xu Qing had no intention of sticking around for long. As soon as he had an opportunity, he was going to leave.

    Even as he studied the area, the ground trembled, and the sound of a distant explosion reached their ears. They also heard a piercing sound that cut through everything in the underwater world. The source of that noise was the very same battlefield Xu Qing, the Captain, and Zhang San had left behind. The ce was now strewn with corpses. The dozens of godpriests were still alive, but were in very bad shape.

    Their god magic beasts were all dead, and the priests themselves were in a state of madness as they emitted piercing shrieks. At the same time, they burst into mes, burning their own life force to unleash a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering god magic.

    The same thing happened on other battlefields throughout the underwater world. Although there weren¡¯t a lot of godpriests, when they burned their life force and shrieked, the soundsbined, growing louder and louder to a shocking level.

    Within moments, several hundred godpriests throughout Joine Ind were all shrieking, and the sound pierced the entire ind. The sound even passed outside of the spell formations to reach the depths of the sea. They were summoning something!

    Eventually, a howl echoed out from the depths of the waters. It was like a cry that originated from heaven and earth, and was indescribably intimidating. As the howl erupted, waves rose up on the surface of the water for thousands of kilometers in every direction. The sky changed colors, and wild winds sprang up. In the extreme depths of the sea... an astonishingly massive figure appeared, 30,000 meters tall, like a god.

    It seemed that every movement it made took extreme effort, but at the same time, every step it took caused the seafloor to quake. Terrifying might erupted from the figure, causing countless sea beasts to tremble, regardless of the level of their cultivation base. At the same time, the souls of the Seven Blood Eyes cultivators trembled at the might exuded by the god-like figure.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out constantly. If one could peer from the sky down into the bottom of the Sea of Endlessness, they would see an old woman wearing a long robe made of fish skeletons, tentacles writhing around her as she walked toward the Merfolk Isles. Wrinkles covered her face, and much of her skin was rotting off. But her emotionless eyes still shone with golden light. And when she exhaled, her breath contained strong mutagen, but also, traces of godliness. Her tentacles all had eyes on them, and they were also golden, and though they were only half open, they were all looking in the direction of the Merfolk Isles.

    Emerging from the woman¡¯s back, jutting out of the fish skeleton robe, was a massive scarlet tongue covered with innumerable deceased souls. Shockingly, those deceased souls appeared to all be Merfolk godpriests, and it was their shrieks that the woman was responding to.

    As all of this happened, the spell formations covering Joine Ind weakened to the point where the cultivators there could see what was happening beyond the ind.

    This figure was the god worshiped by the Merfolk... Joine!

    1. In Chinese, the Captain specifically indicates that a ¡°wind evil¡± entered him. The ¡°wind evil¡± is not some sort of fantasy/xianxia invention, but rather, a real-life concept from Traditional Chinese Medicine. That¡¯s why I tranted it as simply ¡°got sick¡± rather than ¡°wind evil,¡± because for all intents and purposes, that¡¯s what he¡¯s saying. TCM is extremelymon in China, even in big hospitals. Doctors who don¡¯t even believe in TCM will still enforce general rules from it, such as not letting wind blow on you when you¡¯re sick, or the catch-all directive to ¡°wear more clothes and drink hot water¡± whenever you don¡¯t feel good. ?

 Chapter 122: Why is he Crazy?

    Chapter 122: Why is he Crazy?

    The Merfolk worshiped a god named Joine.

    That said, she wasn¡¯t truly a god. The term ¡®god¡¯ was applied to her by the Merfolk in a show of reverence and humility. The truth was that she was actually just a mysterious entity from the bottom of the sea who had godliness.

    Even still, godly entities that could lie dormant on the seafloor would obviously be incredibly mighty. In fact, they were so mysterious that most species couldn¡¯t understand them, and the same could be said for their mightiness. Before the broken face of the god arrived, sea monsters did exist in the sea surrounding the Revered Ancient maind. But they weren¡¯t like this. After the broken face of the god arrived, living beings were changed. In many ces, entities appeared that contained some of the essence aura of the broken face of the god. And those beings came to be called godly entities. Their predecessors, which had been researched by various intelligent species, were evolved forms of grues from the forbidden regions. Joine was one such being.

    To ordinary mortals¡­ she was basically a god.

    For many epochs, godly entities like her stood at the apex of creation, and were worshiped as deities by countless minor species. Even the most powerful species would fear them. However, as the epochs passed, and the intelligent species in the world grew stronger by struggling to survive, they came up with ways of defending themselves against godly entities.

    In fact, some species could pose a threat to godly entities, and the most powerful species could even fight the emperors of the forbidden grounds. Humans, despite being scattered in so many locations, counted as one of the powerful species.

    The waters seethed with every step Joine took on the seafloor. As she approached the Merfolk Isles, Master Seventh stood atop his dreadnaught, looking down at the bottom of the sea.

    ¡°Zheng Kaiyi,¡± said the Merfolk patriarch, ¡°if Joinees, she¡¯ll bring a tempest of blood and carnage. There¡¯s no need for your sect and my people to fight each other. We¡¯re allies! And we can continue to be allies! We¡¯ll cede all our rights and benefits to you! We¡¯ll even help you defeat the Seazombies.¡±

    ¡°You and your people are bending the knee toote,¡± Master Seventh said coolly. Ignoring the Merfolk patriarch, he waved his hand and said, ¡°Bring out the War Banner of Humankind!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the dracolizard dreadnaught roared to heaven, and the thirteen Gold Core elders bowed their heads respectfully. The over one hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators did the same.

    On the tallest building atop the dracolizard¡¯s back, an enormous banner appeared. It was fully 300 meters long, multicolored, and was sttered with blood. It looked tattered, as though it were actually only the corner of a muchrger banner. As it pped in the wind, it released an unparalleled murderous aura that caused heaven and earth to tremble. In fact, that aura was so strong it caused the air to go still, and the surface of the sea to be cid. It seemed capable of suppressing all beings in existence; even godly entities would bow their heads in its presence.

    The blood sttered on the banner pulsed with godliness, as though countless godly entities had died beneath it. Especially noteworthy was one specific drop of blood that was a pure gold color. That blood exuded a sensation that surpassed godliness, making it seem very close to the broken face of the god above.

    The Merfolk patriarch¡¯s face drained of blood, and in a trembling voice he said, ¡°The War Banner of Humankind? There¡¯s no way Seven Blood Eyes could have a precious human treasure like that. Even if it is only one corner of it....¡±

    The banner pped, and a massive wave of force erupted from it, creating the illusory image of a finger. It contained a boundless sensation of ancientness, like something from the River of Time itself. It did not contain any special mightiness, but anyone who saw it, even from afar, would feel so shaken their mind would empty.

    It seemed like that enormous finger represented a dao of heaven, and as it stretched forth, it pushed down toward the sea.

    The surface of the sea for a diameter of 50,000 kilometers evaporated, revealing Joine, the eyes on her tentacles wide open as she fought back against the power of the finger. Her resistance did nothing. Most of her tentacles simply exploded, as did her fish skeleton robe. The long tongueing from her back withered up, and the rot on her flesh spread out rapidly. Then, her lower half exploded, sending flesh and blood spraying out everywhere. Her top half survived, and as she screamed in agony, she retreated into the depths of the sea!

    Of course, no one in the Merfolk Isles saw any of that happening, save the cultivators on the shoreline who could see through the weakening spell formation. The disciples in the underwater world had no way to see it, except for those who had special items that let them see what was happening outside. For instance... a spirit rhino eye.

    Inside the temple, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were wide as he stared at the image projected by the spirit rhino eye.

    By means of that projected image, he saw the dreadnaught, the banner, and the huge finger. He saw the 50,000 kilometer area of sea evaporating, and Joine exploding. However, there were limits to what the spirit rhino eye could do, and after a certain point, the terrifying image caused the eye itself to explode. When that happened, the Captain did something that struck Xu Qing with profound shock, and left Zhang San wide-eyed and speechless. He took out a hand-sized crimson lump of flesh and pped it onto the statue of Joine.

    The flesh melted, spreading out over the entire statue as it did, almost as if it were eating the statue. They even heard bizarre chewing sounds. When the statue waspletely devoured, and had be a massive chunk of flesh, a crevice appeared on it. It was almost like a door within the flesh. It wriggled and twisted as if it wasn¡¯t stable. The entire chunk of flesh did the same, like it might wither up at any moment.

    Within the darkness of that crevice was what appeared to be the seafloor. And scattered about there were numerous chunks of flesh. Astonishingly, they were mangled bits left behind after Joine exploded. Apparently there were other beings in the depths of the water who found those chunks very attractive, and were rushing toward them greedily.

    The aura from that flesh was so powerful it emerged from the crevice, allowing Xu Qing to sense it. It was so strong that it seemed capable of instantly killing anything it encountered. Even the Seven Blood Eyes forces in the air above the inds seemed leery of it, and weren¡¯t interested in trying to acquire it.

    However, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with unprecedented madness. Turning away from the chunks of flesh on the seafloor, he looked at Zhang San and Xu Qing. ¡°I know why the two of you are here. And I wasn¡¯t lying. I told you I¡¯d bring you to the good stuff, and those things are right here. Zhang San, you want the blueprint for the Merfolk¡¯s Flying Fish Armor, right?¡±

    The Captain pulled out a bright red jade slip. It was clearly an extraordinary object, as it radiated strange fluctuations, almost as if whatever was inscribed therein was alive. Within those fluctuations was the image of a fantastic suit of armor. Even at a nce it was obvious it was extraordinary.

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes went wide as he reached out toward it. ¡°What is it doing here?¡±

    The Captain smiled and handed the red jade slip to Zhang San, who took it excitedly. Next, the Captain looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Now for you, Xu Qing. You wanted some Foundation Establishment Pills, right? Here are three. And they¡¯re very high quality. Very expensive. Very precious. First-ss pills, no doubt. Definitely not like ordinary Foundation Establishment Pills.¡± He produced a jade box that he handed to Xu Qing. ¡°Well, what do you think? That¡¯s what you wanted, right?¡±

    Pupils constricting, Xu Qing opened the box and saw three blue-colored medicinal pills that exuded a fragrant aroma. They also emitted a faint mist, making it seem like they were living things. Shaken, Xu Qing closed the box, put it away, and looked up at the Captain. There was no way he would believe that the Captain was just going to give him something as valuable as this.

    ¡°It took a lot of work for me to help the two of you out. And since I helped you, now you¡¯re going to help me. Stand guard here, for just a short while. I¡¯ll be back in the time it takes an incense stick to burn! When I¡¯m back, I¡¯ll share some of the loot with you. And if I¡¯m not back in that amount of time, you can just forget about me and leave.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to collect some of Joine¡¯s flesh. She¡¯s a god to the Merfolk, so it¡¯d be great if the two of you could pray for me to live through this. If I do get back alive, then the three of us are going to be rich. Rich, you hear me?¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have been more shocked to hear that. He looked at the flesh through the crevice, and sensed the terrifying aura. Then he looked at the crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eyes, and came to the conclusion that the man must be insane. Either that, or he didn¡¯t like the idea of living for too long, and wanted to live dangerously.

    Xu Qing had encountered people like that before. They usually came in two varieties, which were pr opposites. One was the type who quickly ended up dead, and the other... benefitted wildly.

    Xu Qing hoped the Captain was thetter, and therefore he asked, ¡°How can we increase your chances ofing back alive?¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t. It alles down to luck.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°What¡¯s the point of life, anyway?¡± the Captain said. ¡°To have fun, right? And it¡¯s not my first time having fun. Alright, here I go!¡± Taking a deep breath, and his eyes burning with that crazy look, he dove into the crevice of flesh and blood.

    There was something else in his eyes besides craziness, and that was ruthlessness. He really did seem like he had a death wish as he shot toward the mangled remains of half of Joine¡¯s body. The wriggling lumps of flesh already seemed like they were starting to wither, as though they might notst much longer.

    Zhang San watched for a moment, then sighed. ¡°Have you ever seen someone in Qi Condensation like this? Does he freaking want to die...?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. Even if the Captain cut open his own belly to show his cultivation base and prove he was a Qi Condensation cultivator, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t believe him.

    ¡°Are coffins expensive in the capital city?¡± he asked.

    ¡°I had one made for him before,¡± Zhang San replied, ¡°but never needed it, so I demolished it. Oh, this reminds me. I used the demolished coffin in your dharmaboat. I ran out of materials and didn¡¯t have anything else on hand. When we get back, I can make him a new one....¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. Then, a momentter, he looked toward the entrance of the templeplex. Narrowing his eyes, he quietly said, ¡°Something¡¯sing.¡±

    A momentter, they heard sizzling sounds, as though something was being melted by poison. Then they heard the booms of Zhang San¡¯s traps exploding.

 Chapter 123: The Temple of Meegah

    Chapter 123: The Temple of Meegah

    It was a bizarre situation.

    That said, both Xu Qing and Zhang San had experienced things like this before. What was more,pared to what the Captain was doing, whatever unseen enemies were on the way didn¡¯t count for much.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t looked up to many people in his life. In the slums, he had admired his teacher. In the scavenger basecamp, he had admired Sergeant Thunder and Grandmaster Bai. Now, there was another person on that list. The difference was that when it came to the Captain, what Xu Qing admired was his crazy way of living dangerously. At a moment like this, the Captain was going to the seafloor and risking his own life to get some of Joine¡¯s flesh. It seemed like absolute insanity. As far as who the Captain really was, and what the true level of his cultivation base was, Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother trying to specte. There wasn¡¯t any point.

    ¡°I hope you seed, Captain,¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    The Captain had given him three Foundation Establishment Pills in exchange for an incense stick¡¯s worth of protection. So Xu Qing would keep him safe for that long. Without any hesitation, he headed toward the main entrance of the temple.

    At the door, he looked out, then waved his hand, sending out arge collection of poison powder into the water. These powders weren¡¯t colorless. Instead, there were powders of many colors: ck, red, blue, green, and more, which instantlybined into a multicolored, highly poisonous cloud.

    Meanwhile, the sizzling sounds and explosions from outside grew louder. Ripples appeared in the water, followed by a huge tentacle that shot directly toward Xu Qing. It moved with incredible speed, sending out pulses of energy through the water as it did. There wasn¡¯t just one such tentacle. More followed, until there were dozens of them shooting in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Eyes cold, he dodged the first tentacle, then shed his dagger through it,pletely severing it. Backing up a step, he engaged the next tentacle to reach him. Blood erupted everywhere, but there were so many tentacles trying to grab him that eventually he dropped his dagger, grabbed one of the tentacles, and pulled as hard as he could. Rumbling sounds could be heard as a huge crater opened up in the ground and a bizarre beast was dragged out into the open. As it twitched and writhed, its head appeared,plete with a vicious mouth that lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing remained calm as the spectral drought demon appeared behind him, and he struck the beast with a vicious punch. A boom caused the water to explode, and the beast copsed.

    However, the fight wasn¡¯t over. Xu Qing grabbed another tentacle, pulled the beast out into the open, and then punched it into oblivion.

    Further back inside the temple, Zhang San was breathing hard as he watched. Xu Qing isn¡¯t quite as crazy as the Captain, but he¡¯s definitely pretty ferocious.

    Zhang San wasn¡¯t just sitting around. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing nearly invisible threads to shoot out from him toward the outside. He was also taking part in the ughter.

    More and more explosions could be heard from outside as Zhang San¡¯s traps continued to be sprung. Many enemies fell victim to Xu Qing¡¯s poisons and were forced to show their faces. These neers were Merfolk.

    However, they weren¡¯t like ordinary Merfolk. They had the ability to turn invisible, and they were also unusually fierce. As they appeared, coughing up blood and showing other signs of being poisoned, they chose not to retreat, but instead charged toward the temple entrance.

    Their target wasn¡¯t Xu Qing, but rather, the statue covered in flesh. In fact, they seemed to be going mad with the desire to stop the fluctuationsing from that flesh. However, the moment they burst into the entrance of the temple, a huge explosion urred. They had walked right into one of Zhang San¡¯s traps. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t hurt at all, but the Merfolk were blown to bits.

    The explosion forced the rest of the Merfolk back. As for Xu Qing, who was still struggling with the tentacles, a look of shock appeared on his face. He had just sensed some powerful fluctuations, and could tell that an intense aura was approaching the temple from under the ground.

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, carry that statue out of here!¡± he shouted.

    Zhang San reacted with lightning speed. Without the slightest hesitation, he ran back, threw the flesh-covered statue onto his shoulders, and charged out of the temple. At the same time, his right hand danced, manipting the sharp threads to swirl around him. Exactly as he burst out of the temple, the temple copsed, and a massive, rotting hand exploded from the ground. Although it didn¡¯t grab anything, it did p down onto the surface and then exert tremendous force to pull a huge, 300-meter-tall figure out of the ground. As it came up, powerful zombie poison spread out in all directions.

    Shockingly, this was a zombie creature. Except, it wasn¡¯t a single zombie, but rather, a host of zombies all bunched together. Once out into the open, it crouched on all fours like an animal before charging toward Zhang San.

    Zhang San¡¯s expression flickered. Taking the statue from his shoulder, he tossed it toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing leaped up and grabbed it, then backed up. At the same time, he used his dagger left-handed to sh at something next to him. Blood bloomed as a head tumbled down.

    Meanwhile, the giant zombie shifted directions toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Picking up speed, he fled. Meanwhile, Zhang San borrowed some of Xu Qing¡¯s speed to hurry after him. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by that. The moment he caught the flesh-covered statue, he had sensed a thread connecting it to Zhang San.

    ¡°What is that thing?¡± Zhang San asked as he got close. ¡°It took the Captain to the bottom of the sea, but it seems to have driven the Merfolk and Seazombies mad.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He was thinking about what the Captain had said about an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. He tossed the statue back to Zhang San. ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, you hold the line here.¡±

    Then, eyes erupting with killing intent, Xu Qing gripped his dagger with his left hand and pulled out his ck iron skewer with his right. As the spectral drought demon howled behind him, he charged toward the iing giant zombie. He moved at top speed, and as he closed in, the spectral drought demon joined him tounch a strike. He also released plenty of poison.

    Under the force of his relentless attacks, individual Seazombies fell off of the giantposite zombie, until it was falling back in retreat.

    Next, Xu Qing summoned a host of water droplets to create a set of fetters to lock the giant creature in ce. Then he waved his hand to summon his dharmaboat and unleash an attack of godliness. A golden beam of light appeared that seemed capable of purifying anything and everything. Shooting through the water, itnded right on the giant zombie. The giant thing trembled, then exploded into bits.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to waste the godliness he had. Putting away his dharmaboat, he turned, killing intent flickering in his eyes. Then heunched himself toward the other Merfolk. His dagger danced, spreading blood everywhere. His iron skewer zipped about, piercing one Merfolk after another. Though Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was still sleeping, now that the iron skewer had a spirit automaton, it was an extraordinary and deadly weapon.

    A short timeter, the entire area had been cleared by Xu Qing. He was covered with blood, and he looked a bit tired, but his killing intent burned as intensely as ever.

    The iron skewer was in a simr state. It pulsed with a baleful aura, as well as a hint of Foundation Establishment. From the look of it, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior would awaken soon.

    Behind Xu Qing, the spectral drought demon looked around viciously as if to bear witness to the carnage.

    Off to the side stood Zhang San, who was deeply shaken. He saw Xu Qing covered in blood, standing there like an unsheathed de. And suddenly, he realized he¡¯d made an error in judgment. Though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t as crazy as the Captain, in terms of ferocity, he was on exactly the same level! That was especially true considering that all the bodies on the ground had their necks sliced open.

    Enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn. And the Captain wasn¡¯t back.

    Xu Qing stood there silently looking at the flesh-covered statue on Zhang San¡¯s shoulders.

    They waited long enough for another half an incense stick to burn. Even Zhang San was starting to think too much time had passed. He looked a bit gloomy. Some more time passed.

    Finally, Xu Qing said, ¡°Time¡¯s up, Elder Brother Zhang San. I have some other ces to go. Take care of yourself.¡±

    He gave Zhang San a bag of poison, told him how to use it, then turned and sped away. He hoped everything went well with the Captain, but he wasn¡¯t going to just sit around waiting. He had more important things to take care of.

    After he was far enough away that he was sure he was alone, he took out the Spirit Breath Lamp and put it into his shadow. Almost immediately, he was able to confirm which direction he needed to go. He continued moving through the huge templeplex. An hourter, he stopped in front of what appeared to be a very ordinary temple. Though it didn¡¯t seem any different from the surrounding buildings, this was where the Spirit Breath Lamp was pointing to. After looking around and confirming he was alone, he took out some poison and scattered it around, making sure it covered the entire temple, and even drifted inside.

    Even then, he didn¡¯t just go in. He waited for a while to see if anything happened. When nothing did, he finally cautiously entered the temple. There was nothing inside other than a statue. It was not a statue of Joine. Instead, it depicted an old merman. He looked threatening without being angry, and wore a royal crown on his head. Other than that, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything special about him.

    Xu Qing looked around, even taking time to study the walls.

    However, the ce was indeed empty, even the walls. After finding no clues, Xu Qing took out the Spirit Breath Lamp. Nothing happened. After some thought, he ignited themp and walked around the entire temple, yet still didn¡¯t notice anything noteworthy.

    He put some more thought into the matter, then put themp into his shadow. Almost instantly, the me changed color, turning from amber to a pale green. As the light touched the walls, Xu Qing realized they looked different.

    Eyes narrowing, he walked up to one of the walls.

    As he got close, and themplight shone more directly on the wall in front of him, it rippled. Then, to his shock, a mural appeared on the wall. It depicted a massive altar, piled high with so many bones they were like a sea. And atop that sea of bones towered three figures. Two of them were bowing, the other stood tall. One of the two bowing figures was the same old merman depicted in the statue in this temple. He looked like an emperor, regal, formidable, and out of the ordinary. On his head, he wore a royal crown covered with jewels.

    The other bowing figure was an old woman with a host of tentacles wearing a robe of fish skeletons. On her back was a ghost face. It was, of course, Joine.

    As for the figure to whom they bowed, it was a giant, around whom coiled a huge, nine-headed serpent. The giant wore a suit of armor covered with magical symbols. On each shoulder, he carried a separate world, and a sword floated above his head. The sword looked extremely disturbing, as if it was powerful enough to sunder the heavens and crush the earth. In fact, this figure that the Merfolk emperor and Joine were bowing to seemed very much like a god.

    One of the serpentine mouths held a burningmp.

    Thatmp resembled an upside-down umbre. In that respect, it looked like the Spirit Breath Lamp. However, the feeling it let off made it seem like it was something far beyond the Spirit Breath Lamp. [1]

    That difference was like the difference between an ordinary rock and a piece of fine jade.

    And it exuded a royal might that ensured that anyone who looked at it would know that it was real and authentic.

    1. Like I mentioned in a previous footnote, umbres in xianxia novels generally don¡¯t look like traditional modern Western umbres. They would rather resemble ancient Chinese-style umbres, such as the one in  or . In the case of the umbre in this chapter, it¡¯ster likened to an ¡°imperial canopy,¡± in other words, the umbre that an emperor would use, typically over his imperial carriage/chariot. Such ¡°canopies¡± could just look like a regr Chinese umbre. They might look different, though. Here are a few examples: , , . With so many possibilities to pick from, use your imagination to decide what looks the coolest to you! ?

 Chapter 124: Xu Qingâ€™s also Crazy!

    Chapter 124: Xu Qing¡¯s also Crazy!

    Xu Qing looked at the mural, shaken in mind and heart as he saw the ck umbre glowing with such intensity it seemed real. In fact, the lighting from it emerged from the wall and spread out in all directions.

    At the same time, the Spirit Breath Lamp Xu Qing held glittered with even more intense light. Together the two fields of brightness created a surging, glowing sea.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as that light washed over him. Even if he had made the decision to back away, he wouldn¡¯t have had time. In the blink of an eye, the sea of light vanished, and Xu Qing went along with it! Paradoxically, the process seemed to take a very long time, but also, happened in an instant.

    Everything faded away from Xu Qing¡¯s perspective. Then things started to grow clear again. The first thing he sensed was an absolutely terrifyingly mighty pressure, almost like the roar of an immensely powerful wild beast,ing from straight ahead. There was clearly no sound, just the pressure. But nheless, it caused Xu Qing¡¯s ears to ring so badly he worried they might copse. Blood even started oozing out of them.

    Then blood started dripping out of his nose, and his eyes hurt so badly he was having trouble opening them. It was worse inside of him, as his internal organs all started to tremble.

    Because of the intense pain, and the fact that he couldn¡¯t open his eyes, he had no idea what was around him. All he could do was drop to his haunches and try to fight back against the pressure. He did sprinkle some poison powder around him, and also took out his iron skewer. Next, he didn¡¯t hesitate for an instant to release the sealing mark on Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. The moment the sealing mark was removed, a howl of grief erupted from the skewer.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, milord! I¡¯m really sorry! Where are we? Oh my god! This... this¡­. Milord, you really didn¡¯t need to throw me in here to suffer endless torment. I¡¯m familiar with the ancient records, and have read the story of many characters who were punished like this.

    ¡°Milord, I swear that I¡¯ve truly acknowledged allegiance to you. I really want to be your spirit automaton. Don¡¯t kill me! I¡¯ll follow orders. I know what I did was wrong. Okay, I confess that I actually have another spot with a spirit stone stockpile. Actually, I paid some fellow daoists a lot of money toe track you down if I ever disappeared. I¡¯ll tell you who they are, milord, and you can just kill them!¡±

    ¡°Shut up,¡± Xu Qing growled, still unable to open his eyes. ¡°Just tell me where we are!¡±

    The patriarch didn¡¯t dare to do anything but follow orders. After all, his life was in Xu Qing¡¯s hands, as Xu Qing could end him with a thought.

    Voice trembling, the patriarch said, ¡°Milord, it looks like we¡¯re near some sort of altar. There are bones everywhere. A whole sea of bones! We¡¯re on an elevated spot, and there¡¯s a staircase in front of us. It leads down to a narrow path that runs between two cliffs. And at the end of the path there¡¯s a circr altar. The sea of bones is in front of the altar. Oh my god. It¡¯s so huge! There are also three astonishing statues in front of the altar!¡±

    ¡°Are they standing in a row?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°No. Only one of them is standing, the other two are kowtowing.¡± Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had no idea that he¡¯d once again managed to save his own life.

    ¡°Continue,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°The standing one is a giant with a nine-headed snake wrapped around him. He looks like a god! Holy moly, what is he? I feel like I¡¯m going to go blind looking at him. If I wasn¡¯t a spirit automaton, I¡¯d probably be blind. And there are two more in front of him... I¡¯m sorry, milord, really. What is this ce...?¡±

    As the patriarch continued to jabber, Xu Qing reeled as he came to the conclusion that he was somehow inside the world of the mural. After mulling the matter over, he waved his hand to seal the patriarch again. Once everything went quiet, he just waited to limate to the environment.

    As enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the violet crystal¡¯s powers of regeneration worked constantly. Eventually, he started getting used to the mighty pressure around him. He still felt pain, but didn¡¯t feel like his entire body was about to be crushed. And it took a lot of effort, but he managed to open his eyes and look around. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had described the ce urately. On the one hand, this ce seemed like an enormous cave temple. On the other hand, it seemed like a different world.

    The stairs in front of him were enormous, like they hadn¡¯t been built for humans to walk. And in the middle of the sea of bones were three divine statues. The pressure that Xu Qing could hardly tolerate wasing from the statues.

    As blood leaked out of the corners of his eyes, his pupils constricted because of the sight of the giant standing in the middle of the bones. In one of the nine-headed snake¡¯s mouths was the ck umbremp. The ck umbremp cast out glittering, scintiting light onto the two worlds that rested on the giant¡¯s shoulders, making them seem incredibly lifelike. Xu Qing struggled to breathe, his heart pounded, and his mind spun as he stared at the ck umbremp.

    A lifemp?

    He¡¯d had his spections when he arrived in this ce, but had been too out of sorts to think about it. But now he was certain that the ck umbre was actually a lifemp! As he thought back to what the Captain had said about lifemps, an indescribable desire to acquire thatmp erupted in his heart.

    If word of this got out, the Grand Competition would end immediately, and this ce would be the center of all attention. And the first people toe would be from the Seven Sect Coalition on the Revered Ancient maind. It would lead toplete insanity. Whenpared to a lifemp, the entire Merfolk species would be considered trivial.

    The Merfolk obviously had no idea the lifemp was here, otherwise they could have given it to some powerful sect in return for protection from Seven Blood Eyes.

    And Xu Qing would never have had this chance if his shadow hadn¡¯t found this ce and led him here. As he looked at the lifemp, his heart pounding, he chose not to do anything rash. Instead, he took a deep breath to calm himself and steady his nerves. Reaching up, he wiped the blood off his face. As the violet crystal continued to heal him, he realized he felt a lot better than earlier.

    After some more breathing and rest, he felt even better. Looking up at themp, his eyes flickered with determination. He cautiously walked forward until he was at the edge of the first of the massive steps. Then he dropped down to the second step. The moment hended, the pressure suddenly grew vastly more intense than before.

    His entire body trembled, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. As his face turned pale, he immediately got into a cross-legged position to stabilize his breathing.

    After some time passed, he started to recover. Gritting his teeth, he kept walking forward, shaking the entire time. Blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and his bones felt like they might shatter.

    Eventually, he reached the end of the second step. At that point, he felt like he had reached his limit. He was even having trouble seeing. He was certain that he couldn¡¯t continue, and had the feeling that if he dropped to the third step, something even more terrifying would happen. But then he looked up and stared at the lifemp. He just couldn¡¯t bear to leave without it. So, he looked back down at the ground.

    Because of the light from up ahead, his shadow wasn¡¯t visible in front of him. Looking back at the shadow behind him, he narrowed his eyes and said, ¡°Wake up. You like extinguishingmps, right? I¡¯ve got one right here for you.¡±

    As he spoke, he took control of his shadow. It twitched, almost as if it wasn¡¯t willing to move from its spot behind him. But then it slowly crept forward. The bright light made his shadow so faint it almost wasn¡¯t visible. But he knew it was there. And under his control, it slid down to the third step.

    Xu Qing felt no adverse effects.

    Eyes glittering, he stretched his shadow out to the fourth step, then the fifth. Eventually, it reached the altar, where it continued through the sea of bones to the three statues.

    Xu Qing actually wasn¡¯t sure how far his shadow could stretch. But he could tell that the further it went, the more effort he had to expend to control it. At the same time, the shadow was growing unstable, which made it even more difficult to control. As it closed in on the statues, it was so unstable in Xu Qing¡¯s mind that he didn¡¯t think he could push it any farther.

    His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the lifemp and then checked his shadow. Unfortunately, he had only one option left.

    Tapping into the violet crystal, he used the power of suppression on the shadow, hoping it would make it a bit longer. It was an option when he was out of options. And yet, before the power of suppression could even be fully unleashed, the unstable shadow suddenly twitched and, as if tapping into power it didn¡¯t even possess, stretched out even farther. It reached the statue of the giant, stretching up it until it was almost touching the lifemp in the snake¡¯s mouth.

    However, this time, the shadow had really reached its limit, and was visibly trembling and starting to break apart. It didn¡¯t matter how much more Xu Qing suppressed it, he couldn¡¯t go any further. What was more, it looked like it was about to start shrinking back. Xu Qing inhaled sharply.

    He just wasn¡¯t sure that he could actually trust his shadow. For all he knew, it was doing this on purpose, and actually could reach themp.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t get thatmp,¡± he said calmly, ¡°then after I leave this ce, I¡¯ll suppress you a thousand times, even if I die in the process!¡±

    Though his voice was calm, the shadow could sense the deadly intent in his voice. Trembling, it tried to push itself farther, but clearly, was incapable of doing so. It was really starting to break apart now. At this point, Xu Qing finally believed that his shadow was at its limit. However, decisiveness still gleamed in his eyes as he took out a talisman treasure, as well as his dharmaboat, whose defenses he activated.

    Climbing onto the dharmaboat, he took out a huge quantity of spirit stones and loaded them into the spell formation magazine, to bolster the defenses. Taking a deep breath, he sent the dharmaboat forward, until it was over the third step. As the dharmaboat moved, the shadow advanced, closing the distance to themp in the snake¡¯s mouth. The shadow touched themp, and tightened around it.

    Before Xu Qing could confirm whether or not he¡¯d seeded, the advance of the dharmaboat caused a massive rumbling sound to build up, louder than anything from before. It exploded from in front of him, like rolling thunder, turning into a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force that mmed right into him. His dharmaboat couldn¡¯t stand up to the force, and the sails, which were the first line of defense, ripped apart, and the dharmaboat tumbled backward. Then the second set of defenses copsed, and all of the spirit stones were drained and subsequently shattered. The dharmaboat tumbled backward even more rapidly. Next, the force hit the prow, and the godliness from the lizard skin erupted out, but not even that could stand up to the rumbling force. Starting at the prow, the dharmaboat crumbled, until it was half-destroyed.

    As the dharmaboat suffered grievous damage, the force reached Xu Qing, who was surrounded by the protection of a host of talisman treasures. They fought back wildly against the attacking force, but the calligraphy on the paper rapidly grew faint, then disappeared. Then the force hit Xu Qing.

    He trembled violently. It felt like he was being struck by an entire mountain, causing enormous amounts of blood to spray from his mouth. Many of his bones shattered, and his flesh was ripped to shreds. By then, his dharmaboat had tumbled back as far as it could go, and glittering light rose up everywhere.

    Back on Joine Ind in the Merfolk Isles, Xu Qing and his dharmaboat shot out from the mural.

    The massive force which had assailed him propelled him all the way across the temple to the opposite wall, which copsed. The dharmaboat left a huge, 300-meter furrow in the ground all the way back to the mural.

    Xu Qing was still coughing up mouthful after mouthful of blood. In many ces, his flesh was shredded so badly his bones were visible. And of course, many of those bones were broken. There was a huge wound in his stomach that pierced through his entire torso. And most of his clothing had been shredded off. He was surrounded in blood, and could hardly see. He had never been injured this badly. However, his right hand was tightly clenched onto something.

    It was the lifemp that his shadow had sessfully grabbed!

    I can¡¯t pass out.

    As his vision swam, he bit his tongue hard and forced his eyes to stay open. From inside his bag of holding, he produced a huge handful of medicinal pills. Not wanting to waste time eating them, he shoved them directly into the wound on his belly. He also scattered some poison powder around him, just in case any enemies showed up. There was no time to inspect the lifemp. He immediately put it into the pearl of holding he¡¯d acquired from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. [1]

    Then he put the pearl of holding into a bag of holding, yet still wasn¡¯t convinced that was safe enough, so he put the bag of holding into another bag of holding. Hopefully, burying the bag in so manyyers would prevent its aura from seeping out.

    There was only a bit of godliness left in his dharmaboat, and though he hated to lose it, now wasn¡¯t the time to be miserly. Using the godliness, he created a defensive barrier around himself.

    As he aplished that, he coughed up another mouthful of blood. He now felt so weak he was certain death was calling for him. Thankfully, the violet crystal within him glittered as it sent its power throughout his body. His entire body thrummed with intense pain, to the point where he couldn¡¯t hold back from moaning. Gritting his teeth to stay conscious, he endured the pain as he waited for the violet crystal to heal him.

    1. He acquired the pearl of holding in chapter 104. ?

 Chapter 125: It Was Worth It!

    Chapter 125: It Was Worth It!

    Xu Qing had never evene close to being this badly injured. Both of his dharmaboat¡¯s lines of defense had been destroyed, and even though he fought back with godliness, the front half of the boat was crushed. He had used arge number of talisman treasures as well, and had fought back with every scrap of his great circle fleshly body strength. Despite all that, he barely made it out alive.

    In fact, he could tell that even with the violet crystal¡¯s powers of regeneration, it would take quite some time before he was back to normal. Fear still lingered in his heart despite the fact that he¡¯d made his escape. He had the feeling that if he¡¯d been missing even a single line of defense, then he would be dead right now.

    ¡°But... it was worth it!¡± he murmured as he gritted his teeth against the pain. Then he decided to take a quick inventory.

    He didn¡¯t care as much about the talisman treasures as he did his dharmaboat, which he had worked so hard to upgrade. Right now, it had almost no godliness left. The front half was almostpletely destroyed. It was going to cost a lot to get it back in shape.

    Even still, he was extremely excited at how much he had benefited.

    And I still have the knockoff Spirit Breath Lamp! Now I understand why the Captain was willing to put everything on the line. As long as you seed, the rewards are spectacr!

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to make a practice of this sort of thing. Otherwise, he really would end up dead one day.

    Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down, then circted his cultivation base and tried to get the violet crystal to heal him faster. At the moment, he couldn¡¯t even move, and knew that the longer he stayed in ce, the more danger he would be in.

    Before long, an hour had passed.

    ***

    Some distance away from Xu Qing, but still within the bounds of the templeplex, was an area where someone had dug out a small cave in the ground. Inside the cave was a flesh-covered statue, and sitting next to it was Zhang San.

    Zhang San was guarding the entrance of the cave. Outside were a host of explosive devices, as well as a lot of poison. Anyone who tried to approach would have a hard time not dying while doing so. Leaving the cave would be tricky, but Zhang San had left a path and knew how to tread it.

    But not even all those preparations were good enough for Zhang San, so he had spread his thread weapon throughout the area as well. asionally, he would look back at the flesh-covered statue and sigh.

    ¡°Come on, Captain. You¡¯re not going to die inside there, are you? Did you really have to do this? Why are you so interested in risking your poor little life? Wouldn¡¯t you rather have some fun with some of the girls back in the sect?

    ¡°That was Joine! She might not be a real god, but she¡¯s a terrifying godly entity. None of the Merfolk are on her level, except for maybe that Meegah, although who knows if he¡¯s even real.

    ¡°Don¡¯t die on me, Captain. If you do, then all these years of investments in you will have been for nothing.¡±

    Zhang San had been sighing in this manner for about four hours, and had already resigned himself to the fact that the Captain was probably dead. Shaking his head, he decided that he would wait for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, and if the Captain didn¡¯te out by then, he would stop waiting.

    Looking around, he was contemting whether or not he should cut off a chunk of flesh from the statue to keep as a souvenir, when suddenly the statue trembled. And then, a cry echoed out from inside that made Zhang San shiver.

    Expression flickering, he backed up, while simultaneously manipting his thread weapon to surround the statue.

    Then the statue trembled again, and the crevice in the flesh split open, growingrger and then smaller, then back and forth between those two states, as if it were breathing. The howling inside also grew clearer. It seemed like some terrifying creature was inside, trying to get out.

    Astonished, Zhang San backed up again, until he was at the entrance of the cave, ready to flee at any moment.

    As he waited there nervously, the flesh on the statue twitched, and a hand stretched out from inside. It was covered in blood, and only had three fingers attached. Most of the skin was yed off, making the bones clearly visible.

    The hand gripped the flesh on the statue, and used it to struggle out from inside. Eventually, the Captain¡¯s torso appeared. He had no hair, and his head waspletely covered in blood. Most of the skin on his face was melted off, and all the bloody flesh made it seem like he wasn¡¯t even human. He was covered in all sorts of ghastly wounds, some of which pierced all the way through him. However, his right hand was tightly gripping a wriggling chunk of golden flesh. From the terrifying godliness that radiated off of the bloody flesh, it was obvious that it was Joine¡¯s flesh! As soon as the flesh was out in the open, the air around it rippled and distorted, and seemed to fill with countless agonized shrieks.

    Zhang San¡¯s mind spun, and blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His entire body felt unstable.

    ¡°Pull me out!¡± the Captain said urgently.

    It took effort, but Zhang San wrapped his thread around the Captain, then pulled. Slowly but surely, the Captain¡¯s torso emerged from the crevice in the statue.

    Then he dropped to the ground.

    His lower half, including both legs, was gone. Only his upper half remained, though it was all a mass of mangled flesh.

    ¡°Hurry up and destroy the statue!¡± the Captain cried. ¡°There¡¯s something behind me!!¡±

    At the same time, he performed a one-handed incantation gesture and pointed at the statue.

    Zhang San could sense the danger, so he gritted his teeth and joined in the effort. Booms rang out as they attacked the flesh-covered statue. A momentter, it exploded.

    As it was destroyed, a howl of rage echoed out from inside.

    The mere echo of that howl caused blood to spray from Zhang San¡¯s mouth, and he staggered backward, cracking sounds emanated out from him as upwards of forty jade slips on him shattered. Then he fell to the ground, heavily injured. After struggling to produce some medicinal pills, he consumed them. Only then did some of the color return to his face.

    The Captain also coughed up blood as he tumbled off to the side. However, he didn¡¯t let go of the chunk of flesh.

    After it was all over, heughed uproariously.

    ¡°Who else could have done this but me?¡± he said excitedly. ¡°As soon as I heard about the attack on the Merfolk Isles, I hatched this n. And now I finally got some flesh from a godly entity. I pulled it off! I really pulled it off this time!¡±

    Grimacing in pain, but still chuckling, he quickly put away Joine¡¯s flesh.

    ¡°Was it worth it?¡± Zhang San asked, smiling wryly. ¡°You lost your legs in the process.¡±

    ¡°It was worth it!! Who cares about half a body? I specifically cultivated a secret magic for regrowing lost limbs. Couple that with some of the best medicine from the sect, and I¡¯ll have my legs back in a few months. And with the godliness from Joine¡¯s flesh, I¡¯ll recover even faster.¡±

    The Captain looked around. ¡°Hey, where¡¯s the deputy captain?¡±

    Continuing to consume some medicinal pills, Zhang San said, ¡°You told us to wait for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. That was four hours ago. Junior Brother Xu stood guard for two incense sticks¡¯ worth of time. When you didn¡¯te back, he went to take care of some other things. Before he left, he gave me a bunch of poison powders.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense. Even I didn¡¯t think I would be in there that long. And I almost didn¡¯t make it back.¡± The Captain produced an apple, took a bite, and was about to continue exining what happened when a huge rumbling sound reached their ears.

    In fact, all of Joine Ind shook down to its core, so violently that all of the buildings copsed. At the same time, streams of ck mist emerged from the buildings, the seagrass, and the anemones. Massive amounts of it seeped out of everything in the underwater world, and as it congregated together, it turned into ck clouds that roiled out in all directions.

    The mutagen it contained was so strong it melted everything it touched. What was more, there was something gruish in it that, when it touched the mangled corpses in the underwater world, caused them toe back to life.

    More ck mist seeped out, and it made the ck clouds thicker and thicker, covering everything. Seeing this development, the Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the underwater world reacted with shock. Without any hesitation, all of them rushed toward the exits.

    The ground trembled as if dragons were hidden in the earth, to the point where the Captain¡¯s torso fell over. Barely managing to keep his apple in his mouth, he scrambled to climb up Zhang San¡¯s back.

    ¡°The Merfolk are finally using their ultimate trump card. I took too long getting back. Hurry, we have to get out of here! Get us to the exit!¡±

    As the ck mist surged toward them, Zhang San started running toward the exit.

    ***

    In another part of the templeplex, the violet crystal had healed Xu Qing enough that he opened his eyes. When he sensed the rumbling, and saw the ck clouds gathering, his pupils constricted.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he put away his dharmaboat, which was so badly damaged it couldn¡¯t fly. Gritting his teeth, he started running. Only moments after he left, ck clouds filled the area where he had been recuperating.

    Because of the masses of ck mist, no one could possibly see that, on the seemingly nk walls of the temple, the mural was glittering, almost as if it wanted to reveal itself. However, the Merfolk emperor in the mural slowly faded away and disappeared.

    All of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples under the water were now rushing to escape.

    Dramatic things were also happening in the outside world. ck clouds weren¡¯t just appearing on Joine Ind. They were also present on Emiche Ind, Meegah Ind, and Nethervault Ind.

    From a distance, it looked like all four inds were being covered with ck clouds.

    This was the final trump card the Merfolk had to y.

    High in the air on his dreadnaught, Master Seventh looked down at the Merfolk Isles and the spell formation covering them. Although the spell formation blocked physical sight, he could sense what was happening. However, instead of causing a serious expression to appear on his face, it prompted him to turn to the Merfolk patriarch andugh.

    ¡°Nice. You¡¯re finally doing something impressive. And here I was worried that thispetition was going to be too easy for these wolf pups. Up to this point it was hardly apetition. It was more like you just giving us gifts. Thankfully, you do have some fight in you. Now that the difficulty has been ramped up, the wolf pups are finally going to face some real danger!¡±

 Chapter 126: A Reunion of Three

    Chapter 126: A Reunion of Three

    In the undersea world beneath Joine Ind, Xu Qing felt immense pain with every move he made. The wounds on his arms, legs, and belly kept ripping open and bleeding. What was left of his tattered daoist robe was soaked with blood.

    Though he had spirit power defenses around him, preventing the sea water from reaching his wounds, he still felt wracked with pain. He had been injured so badly that not even the violet crystal had the ability to heal him in a short time.

    ck mist seethed around him. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about the mutagen it contained, but he was worried about the intense zombie poison within it. Given his current state, if he got infected with zombie poison, the power of the violet crystal wouldn¡¯t be able to neutralize it. He also saw corpses within the ck clouds getting back to their feet. Howling like beasts, they began to run amok.

    One thing was for sure: if that ck mist reached him, he would be in a deadly crisis. He had to get away quickly. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he picked up speed.

    He had no options other than to endure the pain. In fact, he even used a flight talisman as he sped toward the exit. It wasn¡¯t just his fleshly body that had taken damage. His spirit power was almostpletely drained. Given he was in such dangerous circumstances, he needed to conserve what little spirit power he had left in case he got into a fight. Thus, he resorted to using a flight talisman rather than tap into his cultivation base.

    Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, whereupon he emerged from the templeplex. Looking around, he saw that the ck mist was everywhere. It filled the temples and coral buildings. Everything was being consumed by it. There hadn¡¯t been many living people in this area to begin with, and now there were none at all. There were only the howling zombies.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim as he realized that the ck clouds seemed to being from the sea floor, which meant he couldn¡¯t escape in that direction. Having no other choice, he started speeding along on the ground.

    Unfortunately, the exit was just too far away. After proceeding for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the clouds were building up to the point where he couldn¡¯t avoid them. As soon as they enveloped him, his spirit power defenses started corroding. What was more, he was now having a hard time seeing things clearly.

    The howls of the zombies grew louder and more distinct.

    Eyes shing with killing intent, he waved his right hand, and his iron skewer shot out toward one of the zombies.

    This zombie looked different from the Seazombies. It was a Seven Blood Eyes disciple who had been killed. Now, he was pitch ck, both his skin and his eyes. And even after Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer shed through his throat, and his head fell to the ground, he still reached out toward Xu Qing with w-like hands.

    Xu Qing¡¯s left hand shed in an incantation gesture, and a screen of water spread out, then shoved the zombie back by about thirty meters.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t waste time on further fighting. There were more howlsing closer. Eyes filled with determination, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, causing countless water droplets around him to form into a snakeneck dragon.

    After appearing, the snakeneck dragon quickly grew to 300 meters, wrapped around Xu Qing, then howled as it carried him forward. As they moved, the snakeneck dragon would p aside any zombies that got in their way.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s final trump card. If the snakeneck dragon were to be destroyed, then it would be a big challenge escaping. Thankfully, the snakeneck dragon was capable of astonishing levels of speed, and was strong enough to barrel through any resistance. The corroding effect of the ck clouds ate away at it, causing it to shrink, but Xu Qing had stored up a lot of spirit power in it. As a result, the snakeneck dragon kept Xu Qing moving through the clouds, getting closer and closer to the exit.

    Along the way, he saw a few Seven Blood Eyes disciples, struggling to fight their way to freedom. None of them paid any attention to him. However, as he got closer to the exit, he also got closer to areas where the fighting had been fierce, and a lot of cultivators had been killed. Therefore, the howling of the zombies grew more intense.

    The Seven Blood Eyes disciples who had made it this far were going to have a tough time dealing with the sea of zombies. Grim-faced, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then threw his hands out.

    The snakeneck dragon shrank down, withering as its spirit power flowed into Xu Qing, restoring some of his lost reserves.

    Unfortunately, that resulted in him losing the snakeneck dragon.

    There was no other option. By the time the snakeneck dragon disappeared, his spirit power reserves had been restored by about half. He was still badly wounded, but at least his battle prowess was restored to an extent. Performing an incantation gesture, he caused water droplets to circte around him, and then he charged forward, leaping directly over the sea of zombies. When the asional zombie tried to intercept him, he would sacrifice some of his water droplets to encase them in water and prevent them from reaching him.

    As he moved along, and as he trapped one zombie after another, he eventually caught sight of the exit. However, that was also when he suddenly looked to the side to see a figure rushing in his direction. As this person ran, they tossed out random traps that would instantly explode. And on his back was another person, who was calling out in a familiar voice.

    ¡°Go, go, go, Zhang San! Right! Throw them like that and blow them up! Aiyo, you threw that one in the wrong direction. You should have thrown it that way!¡± The person running was Zhang San, and the person yelling was the Captain.

    Zhang San gasped for breath as he sprinted. On his back, the Captain wasughing as if he wasn¡¯t worried at all about their current circumstances.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Zhang San yelled.

    ¡°Huh? Zhang San, how could you use such a tone on someone that used to be your captain!¡± Taking out an apple, he took a bite.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t keep your mouth shut, I¡¯ll throw you down and you can run the rest of the way on your own!¡±

    ¡°Go, Zhang San, go!¡±

    An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he watched Zhang San running toward him with the Captain on his back. Seeing that the Captain was missing his lower half, he once again was struck by how crazy the Captain was. When Zhang San finally saw Xu Qing, his eyes went wide. Sending his thread whipping out, he used it to grab onto Xu Qing and then pull himself toward him.

    Then the Captain noticed Xu Qing¡¯s wounds, and his tattered daoist robe, and his eyes went wide.

    ¡°Yo! Deputy Captain Xu! Look at the state you¡¯re in. You must have aplished something amazing. You look drained! Don¡¯t tell me you found the sleeping chamber of the mermaid princess, and she wore you out?¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s missing lower half and calmly asked, ¡°Will it grow back?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about it,¡± the Captain said proudly. ¡°I¡¯ll be shipshape in no time once we get back.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Xu Qing said coolly. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a feather when we¡¯re back at the sect.¡±

    ¡°Feather? Why would you give me a feather?¡± The Captain lookedpletely confused. [1]

    ¡°My god, now¡¯s not the time for chatting!¡± Zhang San snapped. ¡°We need to get out of here!¡±

    As far as Zhang San was concerned, both Xu Qing and the Captain were freaks. After all, who else would sit around chatting in such dangerous circumstances?

    Looking away from the Captain and his damaged body, Xu Qing started moving again. Zhang San used his thread to borrow momentum from Xu Qing. And thus, the two-and-a-half of them rushed into the exit and then disappeared.

    Not long after they left, the ck clouds inundated the entire area.

    Although the entire underwater world had been filled with the clouds, things weren¡¯t over yet. Soon, the clouds started seeping onto the surface of the inds as well, moving through the tunnels and various other passages. The poison Xu Qing hadced the water with had mostly dissipated already, though he wasn¡¯t sure if it was naturally or by some other means. After moving through the tunnel for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, he broke the surface of the water and flew out into the open with the power of the flight talisman.

    Zhang San was right behind him, also moving with a flight talisman. Meanwhile, the Captain was talking nonstop.

    ¡°What did you mean about the feather, Xu Qing?¡± he asked.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, don¡¯t forget you owe me 8,000 spirit stones! Now tell me what you mean about the feather!¡±

    Ignoring him, Xu Qing looked around at the outside world, felt wind on his face, and suddenly looked surprised. Zhang San reacted in the same way.

    They were surrounded by chaos and whipping winds. ck clouds were rising up everywhere, creating huge pirs that looked like dragons, connected to the spell formation above. There were eight such pirs in total, two per ind.

    Countless streams of ck mist on the ground fed into the eight pirs. And as Xu Qing, Zhang San, and the Captain watched, the pir nearest them began to transform.

    Started at the very top, it split into multiple parts, with each parting to resemble the head of a snake. In total, there were nine heads, and after they formed, they let loose howls that caused the earth to quake.

    The howls caused boundless mutagen and zombie poison to emerge from the ground. Meanwhile, the howling of the serpents grew more intense, as if it might be able to pierce through the Seven Blood Eyes formation. In fact, it seemed to be climbing toward the Gold Core level.

    The scene caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to spin as he realized he recognized this huge snake. It was the same snake that had been wrapped around the giant in the mural.

    The other seven pirs were undergoing the same transformation, and as they howled, the mutagen in the Merfolk Isles grew vastly more intense.

    Merfolk and Seven Blood Eyes disciples alike all began to corrode under its strength. At the same time, countless corpses opened their eyes as they were resurrected.

    1. I had to read the readerments in Chinese to figure out what this joke was about. Apparently, even many Chinese readers didn¡¯t get it. There were two main theories I noticed being mostmon. The first was that the feather reference had something to do with the feathered tents in the scavenger basecamp. The second, and more likely theory was¡­ well first, WARNING: it¡¯s a bit graphic. Basically, in ancient China, when court eunuchs were castrated, they would insert a feather quill into the urethra to prevent it from getting blocked as the wound healed. So when Xu Qing asked ¡°will it grow back¡± ¡­. anyway¡­. ?

 Chapter 127: Elder Brother, Iâ€™m Lingâ€™er

    Chapter 127: Elder Brother, I¡¯m Ling¡¯er

    The Merfolk Isles were in chaos.

    The mutagen continued its assault, and the zombie poison spread more and more. The surviving Merfolk cultivators had vicious expressions as they fought with even more ferocity than before. It almost seemed like they hoped to take all the Seven Blood Eyes disciples with them into death.

    However... those surviving Merfolk cultivators soon realized that something unusual was going on.

    The eight nine-headed serpents looming above the four inds were getting stronger and stronger. The mutagen and zombie poison was impressive. And more and more resurrected corpses became zombies.

    However, the Seventh Peak disciples all seemed prepared for such things.

    In fact, they were all popping white boluses like they were candy. Many had talisman treasures designed to provide temporary protection from mutagen, and they didn¡¯t hesitate to use them. Some dug into their surroundings, hoping to simply stay out of sight of the zombies, and power through the mutagen and zombie poison. Most such individuals had extraordinary cultivation bases. Some of the disciples produced their dharmaboats, and stayed inside while watching what was happening outside.

    A few disciples took out prebuilt defensive spell formations, and called out to other nearby disciples that they could join them inside for a fee. Most outrageous of all was a group of disciples on Emiche Ind who had somehow taken control of a group of several dozen zombies, and had stationed them in a perimeter to absorb the mutagen and zombie poison. They didn¡¯t look like they were worried about the situation at all, and were even inviting other disciples to join them in safety.

    Just about everything imaginable could be seen.

    There were some disciples who actually slipped into the sea of zombies to pickpocket their bags of holding, or to set up ways to lure the zombies away and ambush them. All in all, it didn¡¯t seem like any of the disciples were worried about the nine-headed snakes. More precisely, they weren¡¯t going to let the terrifying snakes impede their efforts to make money.

    What seemed to worry them most was the possibility of not making a profit. Their attitude seemed to be: either kill me, or get out of my way while I make money.

    Seeing this caused waves of shock and helplessness to rock the Merfolk cultivators. However, it didn¡¯t take long for them to realize what was happening. High in the sky, Master Seventh on his dreadnaught, had initially seemed excited about thepetition bing more difficult.

    However, when he saw the eight nine-headed dragons, his eyes glittered, and he shoved his hand down toward them. Instantly, three of the dragons let out howls of grief as they copsed, turning into masses of ck clouds that flew toward Master Seventh.

    As they gathered into his hand, his expression became one of delight. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    The thirteen Gold Core cultivators were also surprised, and tried to collect their own samples. The spell formation made that difficult, but all of them managed to get bits of the ck mist.

    As for the hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, they joined in the effort, with some of them even flying right up to the spell formation in the hopes of acquiring some of the mist.

    Because of that, the five remaining snakes all seemed to weaken. One of them even withered so badly that it screamed in anguish and then vanished from existence. As for the other four, they were drained so badly that they fell from the Gold Core level to early Foundation Establishment. However, the process didn¡¯t stop at that point, it just slowed down.

    When the Merfolk patriarch saw what was happening, and how the Seven Blood Eyes cultivators were so excited, he fell into despair.

    ¡°Oh how mighty Seven Blood Eyes is,¡± he muttered. ¡°The sect changed after Zheng Kaiyi became peaklord of the Seventh Peak. It changed. Everything changed....¡±

    When the Seven Blood Eyes disciples saw what was happening, many of them joined forces to attack the huge snakes.

    On Joine Ind, Ding Xiaohai¡¯s clothes were tattered, but he looked as energetic and imposing as ever. He was the first one to charge toward the snake outside the fish skeleton city. Three other disciples joined him. That said, the other three just seemed to want riches, while Ding Xiaohai wanted the kill.

    Booms rang out, and as Xu Qing watched, he noticed that among the three disciples, all of whom had extraordinary cultivation bases, there was one young woman in a gray daoist robe who was particrly eye-catching.

    She was petite but bewitchingly charming. Her face was as beautiful as a lotus flower, her eyebrows were like willow leaves, and she had eyes more seductive than peach blossoms. Her long, beautiful hair flowed around her, and her red lips were slightly parted, making her seem extraordinarily attractive. Though her daoist robe was voluminous, as she moved, it was possible to see her slender waist and dramatic curves. Her looks made her exactly the kind of person who attracted a lot of attention.

    Upon seeing her, Zhang San gulped. However, the pressure from the huge snake left him feeling shaken, and he had the feeling that if he got hit by that snake, he would be crushed to death.

    Xu Qing did not have any such reaction. He was more interested in the nine-headed snake, which looked exactly like the one he remembered from the mural. Not only was he shocked, but also felt the need to be very careful. If this snake was here, then what if the giant with the two worlds on his shoulders also showed up?

    As for the Captain, he finally stopped asking Xu Qing about the feather. As he perched on Zhang San¡¯s back, he stared at the huge snake, his eyes shining. ¡°That thing¡¯s amazing! Look at how strong that living mutagen is. It would be the perfect weapon for treacherous people!

    ¡°It¡¯s being suppressed by the spell formation, which makes it much easier to deal with. Anybody who manages to take it down and sell it would get rich overnight. The Onpeak bigwigs would trip over themselves to buy it. I honestly can¡¯t believe that Ding Xiaohai, who normally acts so honest and upright, would actually try to fight over something like that! No way. I have to get this thing. Come on, Zhang San! Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Zhang San¡¯s face twitched, and then he started walking in the exact opposite direction.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, Zhang San. Come on, let¡¯s go. That thing is pure money!¡±

    ¡°How about I put you down and you can crawl over there yourself!¡± Zhang San shot back.

    The Captain sighed and looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing, you go over there. That thing is totally worth it.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him. The treasure he had hidden on him was so dangerous that, as soon as thepetition was over, he nned to leave this ce and try to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.

    Seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t doing anything, the Captain sighed heavily several times in a row. Taking a bite of his half-eaten apple, he looked longingly at the huge snake. From the look of sorrow on his face, one might think he was watching someone steal something that belonged to him.

    Meanwhile, the bewitchingly charming young woman who was fighting the snake alongside Ding Xiaohai seemed to realize people were looking in her direction. As she danced nimbly around the snake, she looked over to see Xu Qing and the others standing off in the distance. When she saw Xu Qing, her face lit up, and she gave him a nod as if in greeting. When he didn¡¯t seem to notice, her flight talisman glittered as she abandoned the fight with the snake and flew over to him. Xu Qing instantly went on guard, pulling out his iron skewer and preparing some poison powder.

    Considering they were strangersing together by chance, the fact that she was rushing toward him seemed suspicious.

    When Zhang San saw what was happening, and realized Xu Qing might release some poisons, he quickly put some distance between the two of them, while simultaneously keeping his eye on the girl. The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he smiled enigmatically.

    ¡°Hello, Elder Brother,¡± the young woman said, apparently not even noticing that Xu Qing seemed ready to take action. Running up to him, she extended her right hand, within which was a small bottle with some ck mist in it.

    It was none other than some of the huge snake¡¯s flesh. ¡°Elder Brother, I¡¯m Ling¡¯er from the Intelligence Division. I have a question I¡¯d like to ask you. If you answer it, I¡¯ll give you this chunk of flesh. Sound good?¡± [1]

    Her voice sounded like the singing of birds. However, she didn¡¯t seem adept at reading facial expressions, as, before Xu Qing could respond to her request, she immediately asked her question. ¡°Elder Brother, do you A) like snakes in general, or B) like eating snake galldders?¡±

    Then she stood there looking at him with keen expectation, andpletely ignoring the Captain and Zhang San. It was as if this was a question she had been pondering for a very long time.

    Zhang San looked at this petite young woman who was almost ridiculously attractive, and then he looked at Xu Qing. In his heart, he sighed.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing frowned and instinctively took a few steps away from Ling¡¯er. It seemed like a very unusual question, so he kept his guard up and cautiously replied, ¡°Snake gall dders are too bitter.¡±

    ¡°So that means you like snakes in general!¡± Her eyes lit up even more. Apparently, she also wasn¡¯t adept at hiding her feelings, as a look of joy appeared on her face, and she twirled excitedly in a circle. Tossing the bottle to Xu Qing, she turned and raced back to rejoin the fight with the nine-headed snake.

    The Captain, still perched on Zhang San¡¯s back, looked at the little bottle that was now in Xu Qing¡¯s hands, and then at the young woman running back toward the snake. ¡°Junior Sister Ling¡¯er, you can ask me a question too! Hey, three questions is fine. Even ten!¡±

    Ling¡¯er looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him, then kept running toward the huge snake. Looking angry, the Captain pped the top of Zhang San¡¯s head. ¡°What gives? I¡¯m just as good-looking! Ten questions isn¡¯t much of a difference from the one question she asked Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°You want to know what gives?¡± Zhang San said. ¡°You¡¯re missing your lower half. That¡¯s what gives.¡±

    The Captain seemed inclined to argue back, but then Zhang San moved his hands up as if to throw the Captain on the ground, so he didn¡¯t say anything. And thus, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    The Onpeak cultivators continued to extract bits of the four snakes through the spell formation, and the snakes grew weaker. Coupled with the fact that the disciples on the ind could tell how valuable the snakes were, they swarmed like wolf cubs to join in destroying them. When thest of the snakes was destroyed, thepetition was over.

    The spell formation up above was opened, and sunlight once again spilled onto the battle-damaged surfaces of the inds, and the disciples with their bulging bags of loot.

    More than half of the disciples who had participated lost their lives. But the survivors¡¯ eyes shone brightly in the light of the sun. Xu Qing was among them, looking up at the cultivators in the sky, and the figure atop the head of the dreadnaught.

    ¡°You did well,¡± Master Seventh said proudly. ¡°I imagine the Seventh Peak will have some new Foundation Establishment cultivators soon. Congrattions in advance!¡±

    1. Ling¡¯er: This girl¡¯s name is tricky, as it could be a given name sans surname, a family nickname, or something akin to a daoist/jianghu nickname. Based onter information, I¡¯m interpreting it as a nickname. There¡¯s some wordy involved with the name that initially prompted me to create a trantion for it, but I ended up deciding to treat it more like a name. Ling means ¡°spirit¡± (and that is relevantter, so don¡¯t forget that part). Er doesn¡¯t mean anything in this context, and just makes the name sound cute. ?

 Chapter 128: Silly Girl

    Chapter 128: Silly Girl

    Master Seventh¡¯s words officially ended the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition in the Merfolk Isles. This time, the Merfolk didn¡¯t have the opportunity or right to be allies. Well over half of the Merfolk were dead, and their top experts had been suppressed and enved. All of the wealth on the four inds had been plundered. Of course, it was to be expected that a species such as the Merfolk would have other wealth and treasure hidden away. That said, those were things that the Offpeak Qi Condensation disciples couldn¡¯t deal with. Although the spell formation had suppressed everything on the inds, there were still many private chambers and reserve items that Qi Condensation cultivators couldn¡¯t detect.

    One could only imagine the windfall the Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators were about to experience.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes has won a major victory,¡± the Captain said, still perched on Zhang San¡¯s back. ¡°We killed many birds with one stone!¡±

    He threw his head back andughed, though that seemed to aggravate his injuries. He quickly took out a new apple and took a bite, and the look of pain disappeared. Apparently, eating apples helped him stop thinking about the pain.

    ¡°How many birds?¡± Zhang San asked.

    It was the same question Xu Qing had been thinking about.

    ¡°Making the Merfolk Isles the location of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition was just the tip of the iceberg. First, the Offpeak disciples got their share of plunder. Next, the Foundation Establishment will get their share. And finally the Gold Cores will carry out the third round of looting. After that, the old man wille in for the fourth and final round. Everything the Merfolk have been saving up over the years will be taken away. That¡¯s the first bird down.

    ¡°After that are all the secret agendas. For instance, the Merfolk were just bait to draw out the Seazombies. Once their teleportation portal was open, our patriarch, who had just experienced a breakthrough and was ravenous, got to fill himself up. That was the second bird.

    ¡°Everything that happened will provide an overt warning to all other nonhumans, showing them how powerful Seven Blood Eyes is. That was the third bird. Amazing!

    ¡°And then wee to the fourth bird. The Merfolk Isles are halfway between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies. It¡¯s the perfect staging ground for war. And war ising. Soon.¡±

    Xu Qing had been missing a few key pieces of information, so the Captain¡¯s analysis was very enlightening. However, there was still something he didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Why was the patriarch hungry after his breakthrough?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t want to know,¡± the Captain said, giving him a meaningful nce.

    Around then, Master Seventh looked contentedly downward and waved his hand. His dreadnaught roared to heaven, and then spat out a flow of violet light. It spread out, bing a sea of light that covered all four inds and started a teleportation.

    When the rumbling sounds echoed out, Xu Qing finally started to rx. A momentter, he and all the other disciples vanished as they were teleported back to the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters.

    After they were gone, the Foundation Establishment cultivators looked down with glittering eyes.

    Master Seventh nced at them and smiled.

    ¡°Go!¡± he said.

    Instantly, a hundred beams of light shot down to the four inds. If these Foundation Establishment cultivators didn¡¯t get their chance at some profit, they would not have been happy. The Grand Competition was limited to Qi Condensation cultivators, and thus, they hadn¡¯t been very interested in the proceedings. But now was their chance to get some loot.

    ***

    In midair above the central altar in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, a violet sea of light appeared, creating a huge circle. Within the circle appeared all the Seventh Peak disciples, who floated down to the ground.

    It was only now that Xu Qing realized that there weren¡¯t even 2,000 people present. As for those who were present, they all pulsed with murderous auras.

    4,000 went, and barely half came back.

    It really hammered home the point that the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Grand Competition was a brutal event. Afternding, he looked around and wasn¡¯t able to spot Zhang San and the Captain.

    Though the returning disciples all had murderous auras, they also looked excited. Everyone had obviously profited significantly.

    Xu Qing spotted Huang Yan in the crowd. He had ended up going to a different ind than Xu Qing. Right now, he stood there with his eyebrows dancing in delight. He had seven or eight bags of holding on his belt, and looked very high and mighty. Noticing Xu Qing, he hurried over.

    ¡°How¡¯d you do? Did you make out well? I certainly did.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. However, he was still wracked with pain, and felt incredibly weak and tired.

    Huang Yan was about to continue talking when another figure emerged from the violet sea of light. The instant the person appeared, his cultivation base fluctuations weighed down on the entire area, causing all the disciples to go silent and look up.

    That included Xu Qing. Above, he saw Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s grandfather, the Seventh Peak¡¯s Third Elder.

    ¡°There are still matters to attend to on the Merfolk Isles,¡± Third Elder said. ¡°The peaklord needs to wait there for the patriarch to return. Therefore, since the Grand Competition is over, I will announce the results.

    ¡°Your kill count was recorded in your identity medallion. Don¡¯t worry, the medallions don¡¯t keep track of the items you looted. They¡¯re not capable of doing that. Whatever you took is yours. Historically, the Grand Competitions have always been like that. The sect won¡¯t pry into your business. And now, the time hase to announce the winner. Ding Xiaohai, step forward!¡±

    Ding Xiaohai rose up into the air using a flight talisman, his daoist robe in tatters, his body covered in wounds.

    ¡°Ding Xiaohai, you have taken first ce in the Grand Competition. As such, you are promoted to conve disciple. You may now wear a pale violet robe, and have the right to live on the mountain peak. However, mansion grottos are expensive, and you have to buy one with your own money.¡±

    Looking excited, Ding Xiaohai sped hands and bowed deeply. ¡°Many thanks to the sect!¡±

    Third Elder looked down at Ding Xiaohai with a look of approval on his face.

    Ding Xiaohai had long been considered the top figure among Offpeak disciples, and had always won acim.

    Third Elder appreciated the fact that this disciple had gone all out for the glory of the sect. But his appreciation was limited to that, and he had no intention of showing him favors. Besides, Ding Xiaohai had thanked the sect, not the elder. From the perspective of the sect, a disciple like Ding Xiaohai was great, as he had fought hard and killed many enemies to take first ce. But from Third Elder¡¯s perspective, he believed Ding Xiaohai to be stubborn and obstinate. He cared too much about prestige, and had sacrificed possible profit simply to win thepetition. People like that usually didn¡¯t survive long in the chaotic world they lived in. And it was a waste to bestow favors on someone who wouldn¡¯t live long. In troubled times, it was generally better to keep a low profile and not attract attention.

    People who stuck out usually ended up paying dearly for that. Because of that, Third Elder actually admired a young fellow named Xu Qing, who had advanced to a very high level with hardly any fanfare.

    As Ding Xiaohai offered his excited thanks, the surrounding disciples all congratted him.

    ¡°Congrattions, Elder Brother Ding!¡±

    ¡°Congrattions, Elder Brother Ding!!¡±

    Xu Qing stood in the crowd, with Huang Yan next to him cheering. A momentter, Huang Yan turned to him and quietly said, ¡°Elder Brother Ding is great. All he cares about is killing. He¡¯s not like you and me, who care about profit. If everyone in Seven Blood Eyes was like Elder Brother Ding, that would be great.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Ding Xiaohai hovering in midair, and he remained calm at heart.

    Everyone had their own way of living. Some people cared about profit. Some people cared about reputation. Neither were wrong. Although Ding Xiaohai was already on the verge of a cultivation base breakthrough, whereupon he would get an ordinary violet robe, perhaps it had just been his dream to be a conve disciple. Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel the need to judge him either way.

    All he knew was that he didn¡¯t care about those things. The only thing about Seven Blood Eyes that he cared about was the potential profit. He needed to reach Foundation Establishment, both to ensure that he could stay alive, and also to get a share of the sect¡¯s monthly profits.

    Besides that, he didn¡¯t like sticking out in the crowd, unless it came with astonishing benefits. Otherwise, he preferred to stay hidden in the shadows where it was safe.

    After bestowing rewards upon Ding Xiaohai, Third Elder went back into the violet sea of light. Then the disciples on the altar went their separate ways.

    Xu Qing was exhausted. However, he didn¡¯t dare to stay in Seven Blood Eyes for very long. He had profited far, far too well during thepetition. If anyone got any hint of what he had taken, all of Seven Blood Eyes would be shaken to the core. After all... even the great sects on the Revered Ancient maind coveted lifemps.

    Therefore, the first thing he did was go to the shops in the Port District and sell all of the random things he¡¯d acquired. He bought some new talisman treasures, then went to a spell formation shop and used the vast amount of merit points he¡¯d earned in thepetition to buy five sets of defensive spell formations.

    These spell formations were astonishingly effective. Even one of them would protect a disciple from a Foundation Establishment cultivator for an extended time period, as long as they weren¡¯t in the profound radiance state.

    And as long as you had enough spirit stones, and the proper cultivation base power, you could keep the formation going for a long time. With five of them operating simultaneously, they would be even more effective. Buying those five formations drained Xu Qing¡¯s merit points by about ny percent. But it was worth it. Next he went to a medicine shop to buy all sorts of medicinal pills and poisonous nts.

    At that point, he felt mostly prepared, with the exception of his dharmaboat.

    I¡¯ll go see how long it will take to get my dharmaboat repaired. If it¡¯s less than a day, I¡¯ll wait. But if it¡¯s longer than that... I can¡¯t afford to stick around.

    He wanted to get into Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible. Considering he had a lifemp, every additional day he waited was another day of anxiety and danger.

    It was obvious that he couldn¡¯t attempt the breakthrough in the sect. He wasn¡¯t sure if using the lifemp during the breakthrough would emit fluctuations that others could detect. But he wasn¡¯t willing to risk it. Back on Joine Ind, he had seen what could happen if things went bad during a Foundation Establishment breakthrough. Although it was unlikely something like that would happen in Seven Blood Eyes, it wasn¡¯t impossible. Xu Qing wanted to be prepared for anything.

    Given he could use the Spirit Breath Lamp, he felt that he could attempt the breakthrough outside of the sect. Therefore, he didn¡¯t dally at all on the way to the Transportation Division to find Zhang San. It was already dark by that point.

    ***

    Back at nkspring Way, the old innkeeper sat on the floor, tenderly treating some wounds on the anaconda lying in front of him.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you secretly bought a shapeshifting pill without telling me. You can¡¯t just go around consuming those things. You¡¯re not ready for shapeshifting yet. Besides, the effects onlyst for a few days. And if you consume too many, you could cripple your cultivation base. Understand?¡±

    The old innkeeper obviously cared dearly for the anaconda. After applying the medicine and wiping away the excess, he continued to scold her. ¡°You silly little snake. I¡¯m even more stunned that you used the shapeshifting pill to join the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition. Do you know how dangerous thatpetition is?¡±

    The anaconda actually seemed very happy as she looked at the innkeeper and said, ¡°Coo. Coooo. Cooooooo.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not lying. That Xu scoundrel really was looking at your gall dder. Wait a second.¡± The innkeeper red. ¡°You didn¡¯t go to the Grand Competition hoping to run into him, did you?¡±

    ¡°Coo. Coooo!¡± the snake said.

    The innkeeper looked at the snake and sighed. Then he reached out and stroked her head. Sounding like an old dad talking to his daughter, he said, ¡°You silly girl. If he said that snake gall dders are bitter, doesn¡¯t that mean that he¡¯s eaten them before? And probably not just one....¡±

    The snake looked stunned, and then her eyes turned red like she might start crying.

 Chapter 129: Going Out for Foundation Establishment!

    Chapter 129: Going Out for Foundation Establishment!

    In the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, the wind settled over everything like fine sand. And Xu Qing walked on a carpet of moonlight as he made his way through the city.

    His cultivation base was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, but he had not yet healed from his wounds. Therefore, he remained as much on guard now as he had been when he first arrived at Seven Blood Eyes.

    Considering he had a lifemp on him now, he was in a state ofplete readiness. His right hand swayed at his side in a seemingly natural motion, but the truth was that at the slightest provocation, he could use it to pull out his ck iron skewer. He had learned this behavior here in Seven Blood Eyes. The best way to survive was to be a needle concealed in silk. Unless there was an urgent need, it was better to hide your advantages.

    Another skill he had picked up in Seven Blood Eyes was the ability to be even more rxed the more his guard went up.

    Back in the slums and the scavenger basecamp, he had been wound up too tight. He had walked around looking like he was ready to fight at a moment¡¯s notice. But the truth was that being that anxious all the time made him slower. The ideal method was to remain rxed, but ready to take action. That way, enemies wouldn¡¯t realize he was in a state of readiness.

    Many of his habits and attitudes had changed subconsciously thanks to picking up these new abilities. That said, Xu Qing was still young, and hadn¡¯t reached the same level as the Captain, whose mastery over his facial expression had reached the level of perfection.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t trying to imitate the Captain. Everything he did was based on instinct. It was in that manner that he hurried through the city toward Zhang San and the Transportation Division.

    However, as he walked along, he stopped upon passing a certain alley. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes turned cold. Slowly emerging around the corner was an emaciated figure. The Mute.

    The Mute¡¯s daoist robe was voluminous, but he was still wearing a dog skin jerkin underneath it, making it look bulky. One difference from his appearance before was that he had a Violent Crimes Division badge on his robe. He was now a formal member of the division. Seeing that Xu Qing had noticed him, he squatted down onto his haunches to make it clear he wasn¡¯t nning to do anything hostile. Instead, it seemed more like he was following Xu Qing, perhaps watching over him protectively.

    Xu Qing eyed the Mute, including his daoist robe and badge. He had read the Mute¡¯s file, and thus knew that he had originally been assigned to the Violent Crimes Division as an intern. Obviously now he was a full-fledged member.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like people following me.¡±

    The Mute looked at him for a moment, then backed away and disappeared into the night.

    Xu Qing looked away. At the moment, he wasn¡¯t in the mood to try to figure out if the Mute¡¯s intentions were good or malicious. But Xu Qing would kill him if he ignored the warning and kept following him.

    He continued on his way, and before long, reached the Transportation Division. Zhang San was there, organizing the items he¡¯d acquired in the Grand Competition.

    Zhang San saw himing and waved. After doing ast bit of organizing, he pulled out his pipe and started smoking. ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing! We just got back. Shouldn¡¯t you be resting? What are you doing here?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask Zhang San why he hadn¡¯t put his loot into a bag of holding. Instead, he took out his dharmaboat. It thumped down onto the ground with a bang, and sent damaged parts scattering every which way.

    ¡°I need my dharmaboat fixed,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes seemed like they might pop out, and he stood there with his pipe just held in his hand, staring at the partially familiar, partially unfamiliar half of a dharmaboat. After a moment passed, he said, ¡°Hold on, we did meet during the Grand Competition, right? You, I, and the Captain went into a templeplex. And we came back together. Right?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Xu Qing said, looking a bit confused.

    ¡°Okay, so I wasn¡¯t hallucinating. It really was you that I ran into during the Grand Competition. In that case, do you mind telling me how the hell your dharmaboat got into this shape? My god! This was my finest work! I-I-I mean... even a freaking Foundation Establishment cultivator shouldn¡¯t have been able to damage your dharmaboat this badly!! How exactly did you manage to destroy half of it? Did you pull it out and use it as a shield?¡±

    From the way he spoke, it seemed Zhang San was more upset about the damage to the dharmaboat than Xu Qing was. He clearly remembered Xu Qing using the dharmaboat in the fight against the giantposite zombie, and at that time, it was in one piece. It seemed inconceivable that it could have been damaged so badly after that. Unless Xu Qing did something as crazy as the Captain had done....

    Zhang San¡¯s heart suddenly skipped a beat when he thought back to their flight from Joine Ind, and how bedraggled and weak Xu Qing had seemed. He inhaled sharply. ¡°Did you really do something as crazy as the Captain?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head no. ¡°How long will it take you to fix it, Elder Brother Zhang San?¡±

    Zhang San walked around the entire dharmaboat to inspect it, then sighed in resignation. ¡°Alright, fine. Last time all you brought back was the flying boat, sopared to that, this actually isn¡¯t that bad. At least you have half a dharmaboat this time.

    ¡°That said, I can¡¯t fix it anytime soon. Tomorrow, the Captain and I are going out for a while. He needs me to carry him to some ce where he can heal himself. He also said it would be a good ce for my Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

    ¡°If you¡¯re not in a rush, then I¡¯ll wait until after I¡¯m in Foundation Establishment. That way, I could do an even better job. Plus, the Captain got some flesh that would serve as an excellent power source.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it, then nodded. He didn¡¯t ask Zhang San any questions about his ns for Foundation Establishment. It didn¡¯t matter how close you were to someone, asking questions like that would be suspicious.

    sping hands, he took his leave.

    Thiste at night, the Seven Blood Eyes teleportation portals were never activated unless it was an emergency. And Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to stay at an inn. Instead, he headed to the Violent Crimes Division. Now that he was a deputy captain, he had his own office in the Celestial Bureau. He rarely used it, but considering he had nowhere else to stay, he decided to spend the night there. After all, the Violent Crimes Division was a lot saferpared to the inns.

    The bureau was empty thiste at night, so Xu Qing went into his office, activated one of the defensive spell formations he¡¯d bought, and sat down to meditate.

    The night passed.

    The following morning when the sun rose, he opened his eyes, quickly put away the spell formation, and left the Violent Crimes Division. He headed straight toward the teleportation portals in the city center. He moved quickly, and arrived at his destination in only an hour.

    There weren¡¯t many people in line. But there were two individuals who stood out in the crowd. One was Zhang San, and the other was on his back. The Captain. Given their conversation yesterday, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised.

    The Captain noticed Xu Qing right away. Taking a bite of an apple, he waved.

    As Xu Qing approached, Zhang San said hello, and the Captain smiled at him enigmatically.

    ¡°You don¡¯t want to break through in the sect, so you¡¯re going out. Am I right? Want some suggestions on where to go?¡±

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes gleamed when he heard the Captain¡¯s questions, as if he was pleased to see his investment paying off.

    ncing at the line leading to the teleportation portal, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°No, I just have some business outside the sect.¡±

    ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, your expression is waaay too fake. Okay, let me give you a quick lesson. When you lie, you need to look the other party in the eye. That way, youe across as being sincere. Considering how evasive you¡¯re being, I can onlye to the conclusion that you must have encountered something amazing on the ind. Come,e. Bring it out and let me see. I want to know if it¡¯s worth as much as this apple.¡±

    Finishing his current apple, he produced therge apple Xu Qing had given him on Joine Ind and took a bite.

    Looking back from the teleportation portal, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Sure. So, where are you going, Captain?¡±

    ¡°Me? I¡¯m going to heal up ande back even stronger than before. When I¡¯m back, you little punk, you¡¯d better pay me the 10,000 spirit stones you owe. If not, I¡¯ll crush you mercilessly.¡±

    Eyes narrowing, the Captain slowly looked down at Xu Qing¡¯s bag, then looked back up and took a huge bite of his apple.

    ¡°I hope you recover quickly, Captain,¡± Xu Qing said, looking the Captain directly in the eyes.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide as he returned Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, and recalled what he had just said moments ago about sincerity.

    Zhang San sighed. He was starting to wonder if the freaks that were the Captain and Xu Qing would always start chatting like this when they ran into each other. He was about to interrupt when, all of a sudden, the sky above Seven Blood Eyes started turning dark. And then, a mighty pressure descended that caused the entire capital city to tremble, and even the seven peaks! Everyone in the city, from cultivators to mortals, was shaken to the core, and looked up at the dome of heaven. Huge waves surged through the entire port area, almost like it was high tide.

    As for Xu Qing, his expression flickered as he looked at the source of the darkness.

    It was a majestic and seemingly never-endingyer of ck cloudsing from the direction of Forbidden by the Phoenix. As it passed over Seven Blood Eyes, it blocked out the sun, and turned everything below it dark. The ck clouds were filled with endless lightning that crashed down to thends below it. And the clouds emanated a threatening air that affected all living beings. Anyone who saw it would feel an instinctual sense of deadly crisis rising up within them.

    Within those ck clouds, it was just barely possible to see something like a god that resembled both a phoenix and a hawk. It was brown like a rock, with feathers that burned like fire. It seemed to be moving with rage and anger toward the Forbidden Sea, and as it moved out over the water, it whipped the waves into a fury.

    Based on the sensation alone, this level of might vastly surpassed that of Joine.

    As Xu Qing stared at the clouds, a splitting pain filled his head. It was the same with everyone else, and many people even bled from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    To Xu Qing¡¯s shock, he knew who this being was. He had encountered these ck clouds on his first trip out to sea. This was none other than the emperor of the number one forbidden region on South Phoenix. It was me Phoenix! Back on that asion, me Phoenix had seemed calm, and thus, Xu Qing had not experienced any pain. But now me Phoenix was obviously furious, and those emotions affected everything around it. [1]

    ¡°If me Phoenix is going out to sea, something big must be going on,¡± the Captain said quietly. ¡°I wonder if the emperor of Forbidden by the Zombie has left the forbidden ground?¡±

    The ck clouds passed over Seven Blood Eyes and then disappeared into the distance. The sun once again shone down on the city, but everyone remained shaken.

    After returning from sea, Xu Qing had asked Zhang San about me Phoenix, and had a general idea of the phoenix¡¯s identity and terrifying nature. He also knew that though it was generally asleep, it did wake up asionally. It treated humans and nonhumans equally, and acted as something of a protector to the living beings on the continent of South Phoenix. In fact, that was one reason why humans continued to live on South Phoenix.

    With me Phoenix gone, things in Seven Blood Eyes gradually started returning to normal. As for Xu Qing, he looked away from the disappearing clouds, walked up to the teleportation portal, and vanished.

    ¡°The little punk doesn¡¯t trust me,¡± the Captain said. ¡°He must have got something really good. But I doubt it could be as impressive as some of Joine¡¯s flesh.¡± Grinning, he pped Zhang San on the top of the head. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Zhang San. Big Bro¡¯s going to treat you to some delicious meat!¡±

    Zhang San sighed and thought, Xu Qing doesn¡¯t trust you? Well neither do I! But considering how much I¡¯ve invested in you, I don¡¯t really have any choice, do I? All I can do is follow orders.

    ¡°Investments of mine aren¡¯t big bros. They¡¯re big grandpas!¡± Shaking his head, Zhang San carried the Captain into the teleportation portal.

    After Xu Qing, Zhang San, and the Captain left, Seven Blood Eyes gradually returned to normal. However, the skies seemed a bit overcast. A big storm wasing.

    1. Xu Qing encountered me Phoenix in chapter 93. ?

 Chapter 130: Using a Lamp in Lone Cultivation

    Chapter 130: Using a Lamp in Lone Cultivation

    Xu Qing knew he had to be very careful about picking a location for his Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

    There were many aspects to consider. For example, he needed to make sure no one was following him. At the same time, he needed to determine if there were any powerful organizations nearby. The local spirit power levels were important; he wanted a ce where it wasn¡¯t too strong, but wasn¡¯t too weak. He didn¡¯t want to be too close to a forbidden region, but at the same time, didn¡¯t want to be near a city. All things considered, the wilderness seemed like the best option.

    It didn¡¯t seem like there were going to be a lot of ces to pick from.

    After he narrowed down the ces that were suitable, he needed to determine if anyone else had used those ces in the past for breakthroughs.

    He had considered the templeplex in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp. But the surroundings were too dangerous. Besides, the Singing made him hesitant. So in the end, he chose not to go there.

    The first ce he visited was a Seven Blood Eyes city near Violet Lands territory. It was in the hearnd of human-upied South Phoenix, where there weren¡¯t many forbidden regions, and things were rtively safe.

    That said, there were a wide variety of people here.

    As the light of teleportation faded, Xu Qing walked off the spell formation. He didn¡¯t immediately leave the city. Instead, he found an inn where he could keep an eye on his surroundings and rest. The next morning, he used a talisman treasure to change his appearance, then teleported out of the city.

    That was how he spent the next two weeks. He teleported to seven or eight different locations, changing his appearance each time. Not only did it give him a chance to see what the rest of South Phoenix was like, but also, it allowed him to confirm that nobody was following him. At that point, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    During those two weeks, his wounds recovered by about seventy or eighty percent, cing his battle prowess at roughly the same ce it had been when he went to the Merfolk Isles.

    After hisst teleportation, he left the city and began searching the wilderness for a suitable spot for his Foundation Establishment breakthrough. That search took another half month. The ce he finally selected was a mountainous region in the southeast of the continent. There were many mountains here, and most of them were covered with jungle. It wasn¡¯t a forbidden region. Rather, it was more like a rainforest, with high humidity and silty soil.

    Because of the terrain, there weren¡¯t many cities nearby. In fact, the nearest one was about a week away. The mutagen wasn¡¯t very strong, but neither was the spirit power. Because of that, there were no major organizations nearby. Although there were some aspects to this area that weren¡¯t perfect, after having inspected so many other areas, Xu Qing decided that it would work for him.

    The specific location he picked wasn¡¯t on top of one of the mountains, but rather, in a deep jungle valley between two mountains.

    Given his experience dealing with jungles, it wasn¡¯t hard for him to find a space to excavate a cave. The soil was loose, making it difficult to dig in. However, Xu Qing was able to use the Seaforming Scripture to extract most of the moisture from one section. Then, deep beneath the surface, he created something like a cave temple.

    He concealed the entrance, and also scattered poison powder all over the area. Then, he sat down cross-legged in the cave, took a moment to settle in, then set up and activated all five of his defensive spell formations.

    He had an additional formation that would conceal his aura and fluctuations. Putting some spirit stones into the formation to activate it, he settled into ce and started breathing deeply. At longst, he was feeling safe.

    This is where I¡¯ll reach Foundation Establishment.

    Looking down into his bag of holding, he checked the various food items he had purchased on his journey through the various cities recently. There was enough food tost for at least half a year.

    He wasn¡¯t sure how long he would need for the breakthrough, but he had already decided that once he started the process, he wouldn¡¯t go outside until it was finished.

    He was now totally ready for the breakthrough. However, before beginning any actual cultivation, there were two things he needed to take care of.

    Taking out his ck iron skewer, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and then sent spirit power into it to suppress Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. The patriarch instantly wailed in agony.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, milord? I¡¯m sorry! I was wrong! Don¡¯t kill me. Just tell me what I did wrong!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him and continued with the suppression. Eventually, the patriarch became so weak that he passed out. At that point, Xu Qing stopped. He had been worried that the patriarch might interfere with him in the middle of the breakthrough process. But now the patriarch was weak enough that it wouldn¡¯t be an issue. Next, with numerous incantation gestures and portions of spirit power, he put a host of seals on the iron skewer.

    His shadow was able to sense everything he had just done, and now it was trembling with the knowledge of what was toe.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing looked at his shadow.

    The shadow trembled even more. Then, as Xu Qing stared at it, it started splitting apart, as if it were damaging itself intentionally.

    ¡°Not enough,¡± Xu Qing said tranquilly. Using the power of the violet crystal, he viciously suppressed the shadow, until it became so faint it looked like it was about to copse. Only then did he stop and say, ¡°If I fail to reach Foundation Establishment, then right before I die, I¡¯ll suppress you out of existence!¡±

    With his shadow taken care of, Xu Qing had weakened two of his greatest potential cmities. Only then did he feel like he could rest at ease. Taking out the Spirit Breath Lamp, he lit it.

    Instantly, the light of themp spread out to epass him. Normally speaking, using protective magical devices like this was very expensive. Because of that, cultivators generally would only light them right on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment.

    It was the same even in the fabulously wealthy Seven Blood Eyes. Most disciples who were approaching a breakthrough would rent a spot in the sect, not go outside like Xu Qing. Doing that was considered a luxury.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t ready for his breakthrough quite yet. His first goal was to expand his spirit sea as much as possible. What was more, he wasn¡¯t going to power themp with his own resources, but rather draw on themp¡¯s inherent spirit power. He could sense that themp had an abundance of spirit power, and he felt no qualms about burning it.

    Next, he produced two jade boxes.

    One of them contained three Foundation Establishment Pills. The other contained two. The first he¡¯d acquired from the Captain, and the second was from the corpse of the unlucky merman whose breakthrough Xu Qing had interrupted at Foundation Establishment Tower in the Merfolk Isles. That merman had obviously been an important person, and had originally possessed more than these pills. But he had consumed several of them, leaving only two remaining at the time of his death.

    Xu Qing was pleased to have a total of five pills. Taking a deep breath within the light of the Spirit Breath Lamp, he closed his eyes and began cultivating.

    Seven days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qingpletely immersed himself in cultivation. He constantly used the Seaforming Scripture, bringing in spirit power from the surroundings and sending it coursing through his body and into his spirit sea. As the process continued, his spirit sea grewrger. It went from the previous limit of 891 meters to 1,020!

    That alone smashed all historical records in the Seventh Peak. After all, when Master Seventh broke through, he only reached 810 meters. [1]

    Before Master Seventh, no one had reached that level. Now, a full sixty-year-cycleter, in a little cave no one knew about, Xu Qing pushed the Seaforming Scripture to new heights. [2]

    His 1,020-meter spirit sea was shockingly majestic, and if he revealed it openly, it would shake the jungle around him. If people in Seven Blood Eyes found out about it, they would be shaken, from the top leaders to the lowliest disciples.

    Unfortunately, that would attract far too much attention in the sect. And in a ce where the only unifying force was profit, being so dazzling wouldn¡¯t necessarily lead to a good oue.

    Xu Qing had no intention of letting anyone know the truth. Prestige didn¡¯t matter to him. He just wanted to stay alive, and maybe increase his quality of life. In the brutal world he lived in, the only way to do that was to get stronger. If an enemy threatened your safety, you needed to be able to kill them. That was the only way to stay truly safe.

    Of course, if there was some purpose to revealing his spirit sea, he would consider it. But until he was sure that he was superior to everyone around him, he would keep it hidden, and use it only to strike a killing blow unexpectedly. That was his way of staying alive.

    Taking a deep breath, he calmly continued with his cultivation.

    More days passed. He had not reached the final limits for his spirit sea, and thus, every day it would grow by another thirty meters.

    1,050.

    1,110.

    By the time another seven days passed, his spirit sea reached the shocking level of 1,200. His spirit sea was now quadruple the size of an ordinary disciple in the great circle.

    Thanks to the light of the Spirit Breath Lamp, Xu Qing seemed sparkling and translucent, as though endless seawater was flowing through him. In fact, the entire cave was filled with thick water vapor.

    Opening his eyes, he took a short break to eat, check the spell formations and poison powder, and then prepared to continue.

    I can still push it farther!

    1,230 meters. 1,260 meters. 1,290 meters.

    At the end of the third week, his spirit sea reached 1,410 meters, and at longst, he was starting to feel pain.

    It was like he was a bag of water. As that bag filled with water, it would eventually reach its limit, and burst if too much was added.

    Breathing unsteadily, Xu Qing mulled the matter over and then gritted his teeth and continued with his cultivation. This time, he went slower. Instead of adding 30 meters per day, he instead added 15.

    As he made further progress, the pain increased. Half a monthter, his spirit sea reached the astounding size of 1,500 meters.

    Pain assailed him throughout his body, to the point where he seemed like he might burst. Meanwhile, the violet crystal worked madly to help him recover.

    ¡°That¡¯s my limit,¡± he murmured.

    He had pushed himself so far that he felt like it would be difficult to move. It was like entire mountains and seas were resting on his shoulders, pushing down on him with incredible force. Thankfully, he had the violet crystal, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t be able to continue with cultivation.

    Now it¡¯s time for Foundation Establishment!

    Eyes shining with determination, he took out the first Foundation Establishment Pill and put it in his mouth.

    It was like throwing water into boiling oil. His 1,500-meter spirit sea exploded, its surface instantly turning into raging waves as it spread out with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    1. It was in chapter 105 that we first heard about someone reaching 810 meters. Now we know who that person was. ?

    2. I believe this is the first time a sixty-year-cycle is mentioned in this novel. The sixty-year-cycle, or a sexagenary cycle, is amon way of measuring time using the system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. If you want to learn more, here¡¯s a wikipedia link. Over the years I¡¯ve seen a few questions about my trantion choice for this term, so I¡¯ll answer them here. Question: Why not just say ¡°sixty years¡± to make it simple? Answer: because this is an important and unique aspect of Chinese culture, and I think it¡¯s important to keep those things in the trantion as much as possible. Question: Why not use ¡°sexagenary cycle¡± instead? Answer: For the specific term used in Chinese, virtually all of the dictionaries I use in trantion (and there are over twenty of them), use ¡°sixty-year-cycle¡± or a variation on that. Furthermore, using ¡°sixty¡± in the trantion makes it easier for everyone to understand what it¡¯s talking about. Also ¡°sexagenary¡± sounds weird right? ?? ?

 Chapter 131: Grues Blowing Out the Lamp

    Chapter 131: Grues Blowing Out the Lamp

    The breakthrough from Qi Condensation into Foundation Establishment involved three steps.

    The first step was sending umted spirit power exploding into one¡¯s body to search for dharma apertures and memorize their location. The most important aspect during this time was the total number of dharma apertures found. The step could be repeated as many times as necessary, and Foundation Establishment Pills helped during it. Usually, this part took up about half of the total breakthrough time. The second step was to converge one¡¯s spirit sea, use it to batter the first dharma aperture, and ultimately open it. After enough spirit power was poured into the opened dharma aperture, then the cultivator¡¯s first batch of dharma force would result. When the dharma force was unleashed, it would fill the cultivator, transforming their flesh and blood, and increasing their life level. That was the third step in the process.

    When all three steps wereplete, the cultivator was officially in Foundation Establishment. It sounded simple, but the reality was that the only way to sessfullyplete all three steps was to be 100% prepared, and also have a bit of luck.

    Xu Qing started with the first step by unleashing the full power of his 1,500-meter spirit sea. As the waves of power surged, he began the search for his dharma apertures.

    Dharma apertures were not acupoints. Because no two physical bodies were exactly the same, the dharma apertures were never in the same location.

    Xu Qing had a huge reserve of spirit power, so he could spend more time looking. What was more, there were various ways to attempt to sense the location of the dharma apertures. Among the jade slips Ding Xue had given him was a suggestion to use a method called Forceful Exploration. [1]

    The reason it was called Forceful Exploration was that it involved using one¡¯s spirit power to force the dharma aperture to reveal themselves. Many Qi Condensation disciples considered it a trump card to use at the very end of the step.

    But Xu Qing could use only a small portion of his spirit power to utilize the method much earlier.

    He didn¡¯t expect one usage of Forceful Exploration to reveal all of the dharma apertures. So he nned to do some experiments first. He started by releasing only twenty percent of the power of his spirit sea, in other words, 300 meters of it.

    Although it was only twenty percent to him, it would be going all out for most ordinary disciples.

    He trembled from head to toe as 300 meters of spirit sea erupted from his dantian region, sweeping through his meridians, flesh, and bones like the tide. As it spread, his meridians became like rivers, and the spirit sea raged like sea dragons through them.

    As for his flesh, bones, and organs, they were like parched fields that sucked up the spirit power greedily. As all of that happened, he began his search.

    Almost immediately, he noticed ces in his meridians that were like small vortexes. They were very small and difficult to spot, and would only be noticeable when the meridians were absolutely full to capacity.

    The vortexes were like heavenly gates that, when filled with spirit power, released a very mysterious aura. Upon sensing that aura, Xu Qing came to realize that the vortexes were indeed the dharma apertures.

    The apertures weren¡¯t just located in his meridians. They were also in his flesh, organs, and bones.

    91 of them!

    His eyes shone as he ended his first attempt to sense the dharma apertures.

    ording to the information he¡¯d read about Foundation Establishment, mutagen would interfere with the attempt to sense the apertures. However, theoretically speaking, there should be 120 of them in total. Normally, finding only 80 would be considered a sess, while someone who found 90 would stand head and shoulders above ordinary cultivators.

    Because 30 dharma apertures was the requirement to form a single life me, that meant that only three life mes were possible after the first.

    If Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about the total number of apertures, then he could easily proceed to the second step of Foundation Establishment.

    Wait, I don¡¯t have any mutagen in me. So why did I only sense 91 dharma apertures?

    After some thought, he came to the conclusion that it muste down to aptitude. Before the broken face of the god came, there was no mutagen in the world. Back then, cultivators didn¡¯t have to worry about the purity levels within their bodies. Everything came down to aptitude.

    But things were different now. Most sects and organizations didn¡¯t care much about aptitude. The only people who did were the important scions of massive organizations.

    In other words, myck of mutagen doesn¡¯t change the fact that if my dharma apertures are deeply hidden, my ability to sense them wille down to aptitude.

    After thinking about it some more, his eyes shone. He wasn¡¯t worried that he hadn¡¯t found all the apertures. And if his aptitude was limited, that didn¡¯t matter either. As long as he had enough spirit power, then there were ways for him to find the hidden dharma apertures.

    If he didn¡¯t find them in one shot, then he would try a second time. And if that didn¡¯t work, he would try five or six times.

    Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he closed his eyes and released half of his remaining 1,200 meters of spirit sea.

    600 meters of spirit sea exploded out as he began his second attempt to sense the dharma apertures.

    What he was doing was absolutely iparable, and would be considered astonishing to ordinary cultivators. As his spirit sea erupted, his meridians swelled, and his flesh, organs, and bones filled with spirit power, causing him to tremble inside and out. The force of his effort was so intense that, in the blink of an eye, five dharma apertures appeared.

    He had already sensed a total of 96 dharma apertures!

    There was still spirit power left for his second attempt, however, so he continued the search.

    I have enough spirit power and enough Foundation Establishment Pills.

    Before his second attempt was even over, he decided to unleash his remaining 600 meters of spirit sea. However, that was when something unexpected happened!

    As he sat there cross-legged in his cave temple, the Spirit Breath Lamp, which was casting its light over him and separating him from the darkness, suddenly seemed to sway as if it had been hit by some wind. In fact, as the me flickered, it looked like it might be extinguished.

    As the me swayed, shadows appeared on the walls of the cave, like people or creatures. However, they were iplete, and so blurry that it was impossible to make them out clearly. It was like they existed in the cracks between time and space, and thus weren¡¯tpletely visible.

    Normally speaking, they didn¡¯t pay attention to what was happening around them. But the aura created by Xu Qing sensing his dharma apertures seeped into their world, attracting their attention. Their world was a huge ce, and auras like this would often appear there. Because of the great distances involved, only grues who were in the immediate vicinity would usually notice. But the me of the Spirit Breath Lamp could exert pressure on them, and thus, all they could do was congregate in the cave and look on greedily.

    As that greed transformed into malicious intentions, Xu Qing sensed it, and his mind spun.

    He didn¡¯t know exactly what these grues were. His jade slips with information about Foundation Establishment hadn¡¯t offered a clear exnation. But he could sense their maliciousness, and knew that if they attacked him, his breakthrough would fail. Thankfully, the Spirit Breath Lamp couldn¡¯t be extinguished so easily. Though its me flickered, it still cast its protective light around Xu Qing.

    Knowing he didn¡¯t have a lot of time to work with, he took a deep breath and used his spirit sea to continue looking for dharma apertures.

    Rumbling filled him as he found an additional seven. He was now at a total of 103!

    He only needed seventeen more to reach the theoretical limit of 120!

    ¡°Again!¡± he murmured through gritted teeth.

    Sending his spirit sea sweeping through himself, he heard cracking sounds as he found four more dharma apertures.

    107!

    At the same time, the bizarre shadows around him grew clearer. Howling noiselessly, they circled, exhaling sinister winds to try to extinguish themp. The Spirit Breath Lamp¡¯s me flickered even more wildly, as if it might be extinguished at any moment.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that. Opening his eyes, he consumed another Foundation Establishment Pill, instantly causing his dried-up spirit sea to fill with spirit power. Without hesitation, he sent the power through his body, making him feel like he was swelling up dramatically.

    As his third attempt began, and the spirit power flowed through him, he found three more as-yet undiscovered dharma apertures.

    He was now at a total of 110!

    Gasping for breath, he waved his hand, causing one entire box of Foundation Establishment Pills to fly over. Inside were three pills that he consumed all at once.

    Rumbling filled him as the power of the pills became like raging sea dragons within him. He wondered if his body could even sustain the force, as it felt like he was swelling up even more than before. However, one dharma aperture after another appeared.

    111. 113. 115.

    All the way to 118!

    He just needed two more dharma apertures to reach the limit. However, no matter how he searched, he found that the aura emitted by the dharma apertures he¡¯d found so far was too intense. That itself was what had attracted the grues.

    Most cultivators would sense 90 apertures, or perhaps a few more. Xu Qing really was very close to the limit.

    The intense aura that resulted was like a bright torch on a dark night.

    As for the Spirit Breath Lamp, it wasn¡¯t the highest-quality treasure possible, and it could only hold on for so long. After all, it had never been tasked with protecting a cultivator like Xu Qing.

    As the flickering of the me grew even more intense, a final st of sinister wind suddenly extinguished it!

    1. Ding Xue gave him the jade slips in chapter 108. ?

 Chapter 132: Life as an Umbrella

    Chapter 132: Life as an Umbre

    In the instant themp went out, all of the light vanished, and the countless grues erupted into cacklingughter. Filled with unprecedented greed and longing, they lunged toward Xu Qing.

    However, also in that instant, a light red that surpassed the Spirit Breath Lamp by many times over. In fact, it wasn¡¯t even possible topare them. One was like a firefly, the other was like the brightly shining moon. The light swept out to fill the entire cave with brightness like that of daytime!

    The grues let loose bloodcurdling screams as they were instantly transformed into ash.

    In front of Xu Qing appeared a burningmp that looked like a ck umbre. Of course, it was none other than the precious treasure he had taken from the Merfolk, the lifemp. Themp had not been lit; the brilliant light that shone out from it came from themp itself. It looked like it was burning, yet actually wasn¡¯t.

    Even unlit, it was shocking to the extreme, and its light covered Xu Qing with such intensity that the grues in the area were like moths that flew into a me. Though some survived at the outskirts, none of them dared to get close after that.

    The brilliant light also gave Xu Qing some clues about the dharma apertures.

    As spirit power rushed through him, his mind spun and his body shook violently. At the same time, he found the final two dharma apertures!

    120 apertures!

    Throughout the entire history of Seven Blood Eyes, no one had ever sensed 120 dharma apertures. And it was only possible to sense the apertures during the breakthrough process. Therefore, it was generally epted that, however many you sensed in that moment, that was your limit going forward.

    It wasn¡¯t just rare for someone to sense 120 dharma apertures in Seven Blood Eyes. It was also the case in most great sects and organizations.

    However, in the information in Xu Qing¡¯s jade slips, 120 was actually called the ¡®theoretical¡¯ limit for dharma apertures. Though there was no information indicating there was anything past that, after sensing the 120th dharma aperture, Xu Qing realized that 120 actually wasn¡¯t the limit. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t possible to detect beyond 120 at the moment. He would have to open all the apertures before he could explore what was beyond.

    What was more, he got the feeling that if he broke past that point of 120, then finding more dharma apertures would result in heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformations.

    He took a deep breath, his heart filled with anticipation. However, he also knew that now wasn¡¯t the time to contemte those matters. He could worry about themter.

    In that case, I¡¯ll start the second step. It¡¯s time to open my first dharma aperture of Foundation Establishment!

    He reached out, took his final Foundation Establishment Pill, and consumed it. His spirit sea exploded like the raging tide, rushing directly toward his first dharma aperture. Xu Qing felt like he was being pummeled, like an enormous beast was smashing into him at high speed. It almost seemed like his body might copse. However, it was also to his surprise that his 1st dharma aperture immediately opened!

    The opened dharma aperture became like a point of light, a burning me that started sucking in spirit power until it became a vortex.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as dramatic transformations urred to his energy. Burning like fire, it expanded rapidly. At the same time, a brightly burning thread of highlypressed fire appeared within the vortex. That thread was the dharma force of Foundation Establishment! It surpassed the great circle of Qi Condensation by a huge amount, to the point where they were onpletely different levels.

    As it rose up, glittering with dazzling light, it emitted shocking heat that seemed reflected in Xu Qing himself. The spirit sea in his dharma aperture vastly surpassed anything from an ordinary cultivator. Clearly, his work to push his spirit sea to 1,500 meters had been worth it. And given that his dharma aperture could fit a 1,500-meter spirit sea, it was little wonder that his dharma aperture surpassed anything that an ordinary cultivator could form.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s aura transformed, the dharma force coursed through him, provoking extremely dramatic transformations. It started with his meridians, which became tougher. Furthermore, it was possible to see countless natural striations within him. Next was his flesh. As the dharma force flowed through it, it transformed on a substructural level. Then came his bones and organs, all of which became tougher. And all of them, along with this flesh, came to bear natural striations. This was a dharma body!

    When cultivators stepped into Foundation Establishment, their life force leaped to a higher level. They turned what was mortal into something dharmic!

    As his dharma body formed, and his dharma force proliferated, he began to emit fluctuations that surpassed Qi Condensation. As they rolled out explosively, he opened his eyes, which shone with violet light.

    ording to what he¡¯d read in the jade slips, when a disciple who had a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale reached Foundation Establishment, they would be able to open their 2nd dharma aperture more quickly than average.

    During the actual process of the breakthrough, opening a 2nd dharma aperture would result in a second opportunity to refine the body. And it could only happen then. After the breakthrough point, opening more dharma apertures wouldn¡¯t result in any changes.

    It was a precious opportunity, and in some ways, that 2nd dharma aperture became like a second life.

    Xu Qing threw both of his hands out, and his dragonwhale appeared, which had reformed after his previous grievous injuries. Forcing it down into the size of his fist, he put it in his mouth and swallowed it. A momentter, the snakeneck dragon emitted a cheerful cry as it rushed toward his 2nd dharma aperture.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the 2nd dharma aperture opened!

    The snakeneck dragon charged inside, transforming into a 1,500-meter spirit sea vortex. mes raged, and a second thread of dharma force appeared! When it appeared, it swept through him and once again transformed and blessed his body.

    The shadowy grues surrounding him looked more greedy than ever, but when they tried to approach, the lifemp kept them at bay.

    But then, an unprecedented sinister wind erupted, like a tempest. It was as if some mighty fiend had risen up from within the grues, and was trying to extinguish themp. Although the grues could not blow out the fire, they did manage to weaken it. And as it weakened, that unseen fiend seemed to get very excited, and howled noiselessly. Then it unleashed a projection that, in the blink of an eye, shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    However, as the lifemp glittered brightly, the projection was forced to abandon its assault and shrank back.

    Then, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow, which he had suppressed earlier, seemed to catch a whiff of an appetizing aroma, and shot toward the projection. Before the projection could return to where it came from, the shadow arrived and gobbled it up.

    As the fiend¡¯s howls faded, the shadow burped and then looked back maliciously at Xu Qing. In the end, though, it shivered a few times and seemed to reconsider taking action. It remembered being viciously suppressed, and as a result, didn¡¯t dare to make a move. Returning to Xu Qing, it once again assumed its bored and bedraggled countenance from before.

    Meanwhile, the grues in the area all trembled like fish in the face of a shark. Then, all in the same moment, they vanished.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked down at his shadow.

    The shadow shivered, and more cracks appeared on it. Whether it was real or an act, Xu Qing didn¡¯t know. Narrowing his eyes, he examined himself. His dharma body was still being blessed, and rumbling sounds filled him from the beating of his heart.

    It sounded like war drums.

    At the same time, the second thread of dharma forcebined with the first.

    That new unified thread of dharma force made Xu Qing burn even brighter as the two spirit seas in his two dharma apertures continued to produce more dharma force. After filling himpletely, it seeped out into the open.

    His aura was now far beyond what it had been in the past. In fact, it surpassedparison. And in terms of level, if he encountered another Foundation Establishment cultivator right now, then that person¡¯s dharma apertures wouldn¡¯t be nearly as dazzling as Xu Qing¡¯s.

    The point of opening dharma apertures is for life mes! 30 dharma apertures allow you to form your first life me! One life me is the true early Foundation Establishment. Two life mes is mid Foundation Establishment. Only by forming life mes can one truly unleash the signature power of Foundation Establishment cultivators, the profound radiance state!

    As Xu Qing knew from his jade slips, Foundation Establishment cultivators didn¡¯t keep their life mes ignited for long periods of time. After all, being in the profound radiance state was extremely draining. That said, the profound radiance state provided incredible amounts of battle prowess. That was why most Foundation Establishment cultivators with life mes only used them in battle.

    That was why I was able to beat Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. He hadn¡¯t opened his 30th dharma aperture. I need to get to that point as quickly as possible!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with both vignce and anticipation. The vignce was from the fact that he now knew Foundation Establishment cultivators were moreplicated than he had realized. The anticipation was from knowing that after opening enough dharma apertures, he could enter the profound radiance state. And then there was his lifemp!

    Even the great sects and organizations long for lifemps. One suchmp contains the power of an entire additional life me. That said, in order to use themp I have, I first need a life me. Only then can I ignite it within me.

    In other words, once I form my first life me, I can then put it onto the lifemp. With that foundation for my life me, I¡¯ll actually have the power of two life mes, allowing me to crush anyone in early Foundation Establishment. And I bet that, given the profundity of my dharma apertures, I¡¯ll be able to stay in the profound radiance state for much longer than average. [1]

    Eyes shing like lightning, he picked up the lifemp. As its light reflected in his eyes, they seemed to burn even more brightly.

    Next, I need to put the lifemp inside of me. That¡¯ll be the safest thing.

    The dharma force within him erupted out of his 2 dharma apertures. cing his hands over the lifemp caused it to be slightly transparent. Then he used the dharma force to merge it into himself. As his dharma force came back inside his body, he sensed the lifemp in his dantian region, like a ck umbre. It abounded with profound mystery, and as it slowly opened and closed, it pulsed with a baleful aura.

    After the lifemp pulsed brightly, then darkened back and forth a few times, it settled down. It had be part of Xu Qing¡¯s body, and as it did, a feeling of ancient times settled into him.

    Just barely visible above Xu Qing¡¯s head was the image of a ck umbre, like an imperial canopy, tapping into the fires of heaven to emanate a screen of protection around him. Beneath that umbre, Xu Qing felt iparably safe.

    At the same time, his dharma apertures experienced a blessing. The spirit seas within them rotated faster, and the speed of production for his dharma force increased.

    It was now possible to sense some of the aura of that ck umbre within his dharma force. It seemed wild and ancient, and burning hot. As it spread through Xu Qing, he felt like he was being scalded. In fact, at that moment, his clothes crumbled into ashes. The cave temple filled with intense heat, causing the walls to crack. And then the rainforest outside started steaming. Trees burst into mes then crumbled into ashes. Before long, the intense heat spread out to the entire rainforest.

    As steam roiled up, the ground became parched. And soon, all the trees had been burned into ashes, for a range of over 9,000 meters!

    Within that area, the shocking heat made thend look like it had been scorched by drought for a thousand years!

    In the middle of that drought-scourged area, the soil around Xu Qing¡¯s cave had already been baked into ck crystal. And he sat in the middle of it all, eyes closed peacefully as he meditated.

    If someone else in Foundation Establishment was able to look inside of him in that moment, they would be bbergasted to realize that their dharma apertures were small while his were enormous. Furthermore, he had a ck umbre inside of him protecting his soul. The glow of the ck umbrepletely epassed him, and within that glow it almost seemed possible that there existed heavenly pces.

    After a long time passed, Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    1. Given the description of how the life me and lifemp work together, it makes sense that themp would resemble real-life ancient Chinese oilmps . Combine that with images from previous footnotes about Chinese umbres and ¡®imperial canopies¡¯ in chapter 123 and you should have fertile inspiration to imagine what the lifemp looks like. ?

 Chapter 133: Leaving Mortality

    Chapter 133: Leaving Mortality

    When his eyes opened, the 9,000-meter area of me grew more blistering, sending steam roiling up into the sky to form the indistinct image of a ck umbre, which in turn masked the fluctuations. As a result, no one saw what was happening. However, all of the wild beasts in the area trembled and prostrated on the ground, not daring to move. One reason was that Xu Qing¡¯s aura was already that of Foundation Establishment, the might of which would weigh down in stupefying fashion. The other reason was because of the lifemp in him!

    It was impossible to know what that umbre-shaped lifemp had gone through during its existence, but it had an intense, murderous aura.

    ording to the information from the Captain, thismp had toe from the time before the broken face of the god arrived, and was linked to the bloodline of one of the Ancient Emperors or Imperial Sovereigns. And it must have been created using an imperial-ss technique.

    Even in that past era, people like that were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns. Any such individual could dominate everything around them. And the only cultivators who could fight them were also from a bloodline of one of the Ancient Emperors or Imperial Sovereigns, and also possessed lifemps.

    After the broken face of the god arrived, the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns left. Because of that, lifemps were exceedingly rare in the world. Only the trusted scions of powerful sects and organizations would be lucky enough to get them.

    I wonder which of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns thismpes from. Xu Qing took out an ordinary set of clothing and put it on. He looked at the ck umbre above, formed from steam and mist, then opened his mouth and inhaled. Instantly, all of the mist from the 9,000-meter area of me rushed toward him.

    Xu Qing became the center of a vortex as the intensely hot mist rushed into his nose and mouth. As the mist vanished, his eyes shone brightly, glittering as if they had stars in them, their light thrumming with the dharma force of Foundation Establishment, which could shake one down to the soul. Apparently, he was so full of dharma force that he was instinctively releasing it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as this happened. He knew that, because he had just stepped into Foundation Establishment, he simply wasn¡¯t ustomed to the terrifying nature of dharma force.

    Ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators form one life me per 30 dharma apertures. As a result, they usually form three before stepping into a new cultivation realm. But my current dharma apertures already have the potential to eventually form a total of four life mes.

    Looking down at the umbre-shaped lifemp within him, his eyes shone with keen anticipation.

    ording to the Captain¡¯s spections, even back in the era before the broken face of the god came, the scions of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns generally only formed one lifemp.

    Back then, only those truly chosen by heaven and thought to have the potential to be Ancient Emperors or Imperial Sovereigns, would form multiple lifemps. And for them, the number of lifemps they could form was equal to the number of life mes they had.

    I¡¯m happy to just have one. Now I really need to open 30 dharma apertures!

    Xu Qing took a moment to inspect himself thoroughly. Because of the ck umbre covering him, his cultivation base fluctuations weren¡¯t very obvious.

    Looking down at his shadow, he sent his thoughts out to control it. In response, the shadow sent a sliver of itself inside Xu Qing to cover over the lifemp. As the shadow neared themp, it shivered as though it was being shoved away. However, Xu Qing calmly forced the shadow to continue, and it didn¡¯t dare to resist. Under Xu Qing¡¯s control, the shadow formed a cover that wentpletely over themp.

    Xu Qing¡¯s entire person seemed to go dark at that moment. He still pulsed with Foundation Establishment fluctuations, but the lifemp wasn¡¯t visible.

    It¡¯s too bad my Sea and Mountain Incantation is at such a low level. Or maybe it¡¯s because the technique really has reached its final limit. Either way, it doesn¡¯t seem like I can push it any higher than it is.

    The Sea and Mountain Incantation had been immensely helpful to him, and he had pushed it far past its original limit. Now, it seemed impossible to improve it any further. But Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help feeling that he was missing something.

    I need to try to figure out a way to push the Sea and Mountain Incantation to a higher level. And now that my cultivation base is stabilizing, I need to hurry back to Seven Blood Eyes, register my cultivation base on the Seventh Peak, and get a new Foundation Establishment technique.

    Because he didn¡¯t have a Foundation Establishment technique, he couldn¡¯t open any new dharma apertures. Therefore, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on recovery cultivation.

    A month passed slowly but surely.

    He had now been away from the sect for about three months. With his fluctuations held back, and his shadow covering the lifemp, he seemed like an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator in all respects.

    During the month that had just passed, he significantly improved his understanding and control of the lifemp.

    When he opened his eyes, something like lightning flickered in their depths. Calmly performing an incantation gesture, he pointed his finger toward the dome of heaven.

    Igniting his 2 dharma apertures, he sent their shocking power through his finger and shooting high up into the sky.

    Up above, a semitransparent entity became visible, spiraling in the air as it turned into a snakeneck dragon. Throwing its head back, it roared to heaven as its semitransparent form grew more and more visible.

    A wild aura built up within it, stronger and stronger. Eventually, it looked like a real, living creature, with absolutely no differences from a real snakeneck dragon. What was more, it pulsed with the fluctuations of Foundation Establishment. It seemed savage and wild, pitch ck in color, with a long neck and a crest of vicious spikes. And its burning eyes seemedpletely lifelike. In fact, if you put it in the Forbidden Sea, then unless it actually started fighting, it would be difficult for anyone to tell that it was the result of a magical technique.

    Its back was almost like a turtle shell, providing powerful defenses. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth that made it look even more ferocious. And its four draconic flippers were so impressive they would obviously make it capable of attaining incredible speed in the water. As the 900-meter snakeneck dragon hovered in the air, Xu Qing stood and walked toward it. Now, he didn¡¯t need a flight talisman to walk through the air.

    Step by step he ascended, walking toward the dragon.

    At first, the sensation was unsettling. But after seven or eight steps, he limated, and walked up into the air toward the snakeneck dragon.

    The dragon lowered its head, and he stepped onto it. When he turned around to face forward, the dragon howled, pped its four flippers, and shot up into the sky.

    The speed it could attain was shocking.

    Mortals wouldn¡¯t be able to see the snakeneck dragon. And even Qi Condensation cultivators would see little more than a vague blur, unless they focused their spirit power on their eyes. Otherwise, they would only see Xu Qing standing in midair, his hands sped behind his back as he moved forward!

    This was Foundation Establishment.

    It was just like how, back when Xu Qing had fled from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior through the slums into the depths of the forbidden region, the patriarch had moved along while perched on his golden vajra warrior projection. [1]

    That said, the patriarch¡¯s golden vajra couldn¡¯tpare to Xu Qing¡¯s snakeneck dragon, whether it was in terms of its level of corporeality, or its aura.

    The two were in the same cultivation realm, but they were still poles apart.

    Xu Qing looked calmly down from the snakeneck dragon¡¯s head as he sent it toward the nearest city with a teleportation portal. As he flew along through the wilderness, he noticed how the rugged environment was filled with countless bones. Mortals in this world lived very difficult lives.

    Although it seemed like cultivators had better opportunities than mortals, the truth was that because of the dangers of mutagen, and how expensive cultivation resources were, most cultivators had no hope of advancing far.

    The only way to get stronger was to fight, and fighting could always lead to dying. In reality, cultivators had very few options to pick from.

    It was for that reason that people like Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who had experienced some level of glory, eventually decided that, after struggling so hard, it was better to settle down and eke out a living as a local tyrant, and just enjoy life as best they could in the chaotic world they lived in. It was a decision that had benefits and drawbacks.

    Xu Qing might have done that as well, except he had the feeling that you could onlyst for so long living in such a way. Eventually, someone woulde along out of nowhere and crush you out of existence. Therefore, the only way to be truly safe, and the only way to stay alive, was to get stronger and stronger.

    I just want to stay alive in this chaotic world, and maybe improve my quality of life.

    Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts were focused inward as the snakeneck dragon picked up speed. Eventually, as the wind buffeted his face, he caught sight of a city in the distance. It was not the city he hade from. Despite being a Foundation Establishment cultivator now, Xu Qing was just as cautious as when he was in the Qi Condensation level.

    As he neared, he dispelled the snakeneck dragon and dropped to the ground.

    There, he adjusted his clothing and changed his physical appearance so that he looked like a sallow-faced, middle-aged man. Then he started walking. The city ahead was not run solely by Seven Blood Eyes.

    It was a ce simr to the city he¡¯d passed through in the Crimson Wilds. Here, Seven Blood Eyes, the Violet Lands, and the Church of Departure cooperated to maintain a spot with a teleportation portal. ces like this weremon throughout South Phoenix. There were many locations on the continent that were upied by humans, but not considered to be the territory of any one specific organization. In some cases, shared cities were located on the borders. In other cases, they were in ces with no resources, and were generally considered unimportant. However, in order to facilitate travel, multiple groups would create ces that were rtively safe havens around the teleportation portals.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival caused an rmed buzz of activity among the city guards. Despite having hidden his lifemp, and dispelling his snakeneck dragon, he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator. And his arrival in the city was noticed.

    Unless a Foundation Establishment cultivator worked hard to conceal their fluctuations, then they would automatically release some of their aura, and that would cause rm for any Qi Condensation cultivators who sensed it.

    It was the same for Xu Qing when he was a Qi Condensation cultivator. He remembered the first time he saw Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Even from a distance, it had left him feeling shaken.

    And the patriarch didn¡¯t even have a life me, and could not enter the profound radiance state.

    The lower one¡¯s cultivation base, the stronger the effect would be. Only someone in the eighth level of Qi Condensation could stand up to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. And even then, it was only true because most Foundation Establishment cultivators from small sects couldn¡¯t even open 30 dharma apertures.

    A Foundation Establishment cultivator from a big sect who had a life me and could enter the profound radiance state would be someone that even the most amazing Qi Condensation cultivator couldn¡¯t deal with. They were just onpletely different levels. Back in the incident outside the Pilot Assistance Division, Honor Guard Li had shown up and spoken a single sentence that left Xu Qing shaken to the core. The cultivators in this city reacted simrly to Xu Qing¡¯s arrival.

    1. The patriarch moved along atop the vajra warrior projection in chapter 42. ?

 Chapter 134: Bells Arouse Notice in the Mountain

    Chapter 134: Bells Arouse Notice in the Mountain

    In the chaotic world that existed after the arrival of the god¡¯s broken face, the majority of cultivators were in the Qi Condensation level. Rtively few ever reached Foundation Establishment. Because of that, outside of cities, they were rare. And only big sects like Seven Blood Eyes would have Foundation Establishment in numbers. It was only natural that Xu Qing¡¯s arrival would cause something of amotion. As the guards offered respectful greetings, and before Xu Qing could even make his way toward the teleportation portal, powerful fluctuations rolled out from the direction of the city magistrate¡¯s manor.

    Frowning, Xu Qing looked in that direction, his eyes cold.

    A beam of light appeared, shooting in his direction anding to a stop about nine meters away from him in the form of an extravagantly dressed middle-aged man. He was handsome, and pulsed with Foundation Establishment dharma force as he sized up Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing nced at his throat and simultaneously tried to judge how many dharma apertures he had opened.

    ¡°Can I help you, Fellow Daoist? I¡¯m Zhou Hengli from the Zhou n in Violet Lands. I was appointed as city magistrate to run this city, which is jointly owned by Violet Lands, Seven Blood Eyes, and the Church of Departure.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just passing through for teleportation,¡± Xu Qing said tranquilly. He could sense that this man didn¡¯t have many dharma apertures open, and thus didn¡¯t have a life me.

    Zhou Hengli hovered in the air, his expression nothing out of the ordinary. However, inside he was fully on guard, as he could sense a very strong baleful aura from this sallow-faced cultivator. Obviously, he had killed many people. However, it was hard to tell where he was from, and thus, Zhou Hengli didn¡¯t take the situation lightly. Especially noteworthy was how his hair stood on end when the young man looked at his throat. Most shocking of all was that he couldn¡¯t tell if this cultivator had a life me.

    ¡°After you!¡± Zhou Hengli said, feeling shaken but trying not to show it. Turning, he gestured toward the teleportation portal and barked some orders.

    Immediately, everyone on the street moved to the side to make room for Xu Qing, leaving a path that led straight to the portal.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever. He could sense that the city magistrate wasn¡¯t very happy to have him in the city, and wanted him to leave as quickly as possible. What was more, Xu Qing could sense other powerful fluctuations in the city. They didn¡¯te from a cultivator, but from a spell formation that was just being activated.

    This was an ordinary reaction as far as Xu Qing was concerned. This was a city in the middle of the wilderness, so it made sense that they would be wary of a random Foundation Establishment cultivator who showed up out of nowhere.

    Xu Qing nodded. Then, instead of walking, he flew through the city toward the teleportation portal, kicking up a strong wind as he did, which sent dust flying everywhere.

    Pupils constricting, Zhou Hengli quickly followed.

    When Xu Qing arrived at the teleportation portal, he saw that it had already been cleared for his use. There were no random people present, only the handful of guards that operated the portal, who trembled and bowed to him in greeting.

    ¡°Well met, Senior. The teleportation portal is ready. Sir, where would you like to go?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at them, and then at the city magistrate, who was obviously trying to look casual but was fully on guard. It really gave Xu Qing a sense of what it meant to be a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

    Walking up to the portal, he said, ¡°The capital city of Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    The guards voiced acknowledgement, made some adjustments to the formation, and then after triple checking to make sure everything was in order, backed away thirty or so meters.

    Xu Qing looked at the teleportation portal. He wasn¡¯t intimately familiar with the workings of spell formations, but he had learned a bit. After examining it, he stepped onto the portal, whereupon the formation started shining with bright light.

    After he vanished, Zhou Hengli breathed a sigh of relief. He was in Foundation Establishment, but he had no interest in provoking someone with such a powerful baleful aura.

    Seven Blood Eyes doesn¡¯t permit outside Foundation Establishment cultivators to enter their capital city. But that¡¯s where he¡¯s going. I¡¯d say it¡¯s unlikely he¡¯s a criminal. So does that mean he¡¯s a Seven Blood Eyes Foundation Establishment cultivator?

    Scratching his neck, Zhou Hengli decided not to think about it. As far as he was concerned, all outside Foundation Establishment cultivators were dangerous. If such a person had a life me and could enter the profound radiance state, they could take his life in an instant. Therefore, all he wanted to do with such people was escort them on their way as quickly as possible.

    If conflict erupted with a person like that, given how far away he was in the wilderness, away from his n, he would be dead long before his n had any idea what was happening.

    ***

    In the eastern part of the continent of South Phoenix, where the Mountains of Truth connected to the sea, there were seven huge blood-red eyes that looked down on a bustling city. In the city center there was a teleportation portal, where Xu Qing stepped out of the glittering light.

    The moment he appeared, and before he could even look around, his expression flickered. He could sense powerful fluctuations filling the city, and in the blink of an eye, they were converging on him. They didn¡¯t do anything, but they remained around him, as if they were monitoring him. Xu Qing knew what was happening. This was the Seven Blood Eyes Grand Formation at work.

    It had never behaved like this in the past when he returned to the sect. But things were different now that he was in Foundation Establishment. Now he had a better understanding of why outside Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn¡¯t blithely enter Seven Blood Eyes.

    From the perspective of the spell formation, the fact that he was in Foundation Establishment was more important than him being a disciple. So though it recognized him as a disciple, until he went to the Seventh Peak to register his cultivation base, the spell formation would continue to monitor him closely.

    Taking a deep breath, he calmly walked off the teleportation portal. The fact that he was being monitored by the spell formation was not something other cultivators or ordinary citizens would notice. After leaving, he changed into the standard gray daoist robe. He had learned his lesson after Sealizard Ind, and upon returning, had bought several gray robes as spares. As he walked down the street, he tested out whether hiding his cultivation base would prevent the spell formation from locking onto him. It didn¡¯t, which gave him an even deeper understanding of the spell formation.

    I wonder if it would work if I used my shadow.

    After some thought, he decided not to do any experiments. For the time being, it wasn¡¯t necessary, and besides, could theoretically be dangerous.

    I guess it¡¯s time to go up the Seventh Peak.

    Looking at the distant Seventh Peak, he started walking.

    As he passed the various shops, the cold and detached pedestrians, and the asional gray-robed disciples, he thought back to everything that he¡¯d done in Seven Blood Eyes. It caused him to sigh inwardly. At the same time, he was full of anticipation at the idea of getting his share of the sect¡¯s profits in the form of 5,000 spirit stones a month.

    Just as he was about to start walking faster toward the Seventh Peak, he noticed a familiar face.

    This person immediately attracted the attention of themon citizens, who looked at him in awe. Some of the nearby Offpeak disciples stared at him with open envy. He was a young man in a pale violet daoist robe. Of course, the color of his robe indicated how important he was. Coupled with his handsome features and his powerful cultivation base fluctuations, he seemed like the child of a god descended into the mortal world. He was none other than Zhao Zhongheng.

    Xu Qing saw him.

    He saw Xu Qing.

    Before, Zhao Zhongheng would have ducked his head and walked in the other direction without saying a word to Xu Qing. But today, he snorted coldly, waved his hand, and pointed toward the dome of heaven. All of a sudden, a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale appeared above him, roaring briefly before vanishing.

    The scene caused amotion in the area, with many of the Offpeak disciples cheering loudly.

    Looking extremely pleased with himself, Zhao Zhongheng faced the expressionless Xu Qing.

    ¡°I also cultivated a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale!¡± he said proudly.

    Xu Qing showed no reaction whatsoever. Not wanting to waste time on Zhao Zhongheng, he just kept walking toward the Seventh Peak.

    Zhao Zhongheng frowned. He was a bit irritated that Xu Qing didn¡¯t react with shock to his dragonwhale. However, he hadn¡¯t forgotten everything that happened when they met out on the open sea. And therefore, he just bit his tongue, stowed any thoughts of showing off, and headed toward the Seventh Peak. He hade off the peak today to pick up a phoenix hairpin he¡¯d had custom made for Elder Sister Ding, and now he nned to give it to her. As he went further south in the city, he eventually neared the gate that led to the seven peaks. Because that was the only thing in this part of the city, there weren¡¯t a lot of pedestrians. And that was when a look of surprise appeared on his face as he realized Xu Qing was still ahead of him.

    At this point, he realized that Xu Qing must be nning to go to the peaks. Of course, Zhao Zhongheng was curious about this, but being as proud as he was, he didn¡¯t ask for details. Sometimeter, they were getting close to the stairs that led up the Seventh Peak. When they were about 300 meters away, he finally couldn¡¯t hold back any longer.

    Hurrying to catch up, he asked, ¡°Where are you going, Xu Qing?¡±

    ¡°Up the peak,¡± Xu Qing replied with a slight frown.

    Zhao Zhongheng looked Xu Qing up and down, and didn¡¯t notice any unusual fluctuationsing from him to indicate he was stronger than before. What was more, he didn¡¯t see anyone waiting to receive Xu Qing. Snorting coldly, he said, ¡°Up the peak? Gray-robed disciples can¡¯t go up the peak unless they¡¯ve been invited. And even if they have been invited, they have to wait to be escorted up! Only conve disciples can go up without an escort!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored Zhao Zhongheng and kept walking toward the stairs.

    Seeing this, Zhao Zhonghengughed coldly. ¡°Offpeak disciples are prohibited from going up the peak, Xu Qing. If you step onto that staircase, the spell formation will activate. Xu Qing, if you keep walking you¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, Xu Qing calmly ced his foot onto the first step on the staircase. The moment his foot touched the step, it suddenly blurred, as though some invisible force were gathering there to confirm something about him. Xu Qing looked up toward the top of the peak and simultaneously released the power of his cultivation base. A Foundation Establishment aura erupted out, causing the tolling of bells to echo out from the top of the Seventh Peak.

    As the melodious sound filled the air, Xu Qing started walking up the stairs. Behind him, Zhao Zhongheng staggered backward under the force of the Foundation Establishment aura, trembling, his face pale and his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.

    ¡°F-F... Found... Foundation Establishment!¡±

 Chapter 135: Onpeak Rules

    Chapter 135: Onpeak Rules

    The moment Xu Qing¡¯s Foundation Establishment aura erupted out, and the sound of bells filled the Seventh Peak, three figures shot down from the top of the mountain.

    If an outside Foundation Establishment cultivator tried to step onto the peak, the spell formation would block their path, not cause bells to ring. Then the formation would ask why that cultivator was visiting. If they hade to pay a visit to someone on the peak, that person would be notified. If that person agreed to see the visitor, then the spell formation would let them in. That was what happened when Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior came to visit Daoist Idlecloud. [1]

    But for bells to ring like this meant only one thing: a sect disciple had arrived who hadn¡¯t yet registered as reaching Foundation Establishment. Of course, enemy attacks were another matter entirely.

    Not every disciple in Seven Blood Eyes would use the sect¡¯s facilities set aside for Foundation Establishment breakthroughs. For one thing, such ces were expensive. Also, most disciples who managed to w their way up through Qi Condensation in such a chaotic world would have some ¡®destined opportunity¡¯ that would set them apart from the masses. Such situations weren¡¯t umon. In a sect that focused solely on profit, trust was a raremodity, therefore, about thirty percent of disciples would leave the sect for their Foundation Establishment breakthrough.

    Such matters of ¡®destined opportunities¡¯ often involved going to distant ruins. In such cases, other disciples would usually notice if someone close to a breakthrough left, and could theoretically follow them to take advantage of the situation. However, that was heavily frowned upon. After all, if word got out, it could harm the reputation of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Therefore, the sect was very strict about prohibiting internal fighting when it came to Foundation Establishment breakthroughs. Granted, it still happened, and in those cases, the Onpeak cultivators didn¡¯t pay much attention, as whoever carried out such operations would n them carefully. Few people would be foolish enough to try without doing so.

    Of course, Xu Qing had carefully considered all of those factors before making his decision to leave the sect for his breakthrough.

    A sharp whistling sound could be heard as the three figures from further up the mountain flew toward him. In the lead position was an average-looking man in a violet robe, with a round face. He was the very same cultivator who had led Xu Qing up to get his daoist robe when he first joined the sect. He was also the one who had given Xu Qing advice about his habit of holding his hand in a certain way, and had told him it was better to be a needle concealed in silk. Xu Qing felt a bit nostalgic seeing him. Back then, he hadn¡¯t truly understood what it meant to be a needle concealed in silk. But after his experiences in Seven Blood Eyes, he knew firsthand how important it was. [2]

    Xu Qing had learned a lot in Seven Blood Eyes. sping hands, he bowed deeply to the three cultivators. He was met with heartyughter.

    The round-faced cultivatornded in front of him and smiled warmly. ¡°Xu Qing! I knew when we first met that there was something special about you. That¡¯s why I gave you that advice. Now, look! You¡¯re already someone I can consider a peer!¡±

    ¡°Many thanks for that advice, Senior,¡± Xu Qing said, sping hands again.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to call me Senior. You¡¯re a Foundation Establishment cultivator now, so we can call each other Elder and Junior Brother. Junior Brother Xu Qing, my name is Zhang Yunshi. From now on, just call me Elder Brother Zhang.¡± [3]

    Looking down, Zhang Yunshi noticed the astonished Zhao Zhongheng. Being a shrewd individual, he could guess what was going on between Zhao Zhongheng and Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t ask any questions.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, shall we go up the peak?¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s no bother, Elder Brother Zhang,¡± Xu Qing replied, politely bowing his head. At the same time, he respectfully sped hands to the other two cultivators nking Zhang Yunshi.

    Apparently, all Onpeak Foundation Establishment cultivators concealed their fluctuations, as he had no idea how strong any of them were. That included Zhang Yunshi. That realization made him more aware of keeping his guard.

    These two obviously ranked lower than Zhang Yunshi; when they realized that Xu Qing and Zhang Yunshi knew each other, they smiled faintly and took their leave.

    And thus, Zhang Yunshi took Xu Qing with him up the peak.

    The trees on either side of the mountain path connected overhead like a canopy, and as the sea breeze drifted through the leaves, birds sang.

    It sounded lovely, and also stirred Xu Qing¡¯s memories, making him think back to the first time he¡¯d walked this path.

    ¡°Junior Brother Xu,¡± Zhang Yunshi said, ¡°I was the one who introduced you to Offpeak life in Seven Blood Eyes. Today, I¡¯ll exin about Onpeak life. There are thirteen elders on the Seventh Peak, and all of them are Gold Core cultivators. Underneath them are the Foundation Establishment cultivators like us. There are currently more than 140 of us in total. After you register today, there will be exactly 149 Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment disciples.

    ¡°That seems like a lot, but it really isn¡¯t. In total, Seven Blood Eyes has close to a thousand. That¡¯s it. And remember that our sect is one of the fourrgest on the continent of South Phoenix. The point is that Foundation Establishment cultivators have a very high status. It¡¯s the same everywhere in South Phoenix, including Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°After you register, you¡¯ll start earning about 5,700 spirit stones per month. The exact amount changes every month depending on sect ie and expenditures.

    ¡°As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you have the right to live on the peak. But you¡¯ll have to spend your own money to get a mansion grotto. It¡¯s the same with Foundation Establishment techniques. In Qi Condensation, you got them for free, but not now. That said, you do qualify to purchase any Foundation Establishment technique from the Hall of Scriptures and Magic.

    ¡°As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you have four privileges.

    ¡°The first privilegees with two options. The first option is to develop your own harbor in the port! It can be a sect harbor or a public harbor. As the owner, you¡¯ll split the profit from that harbor with the sect. That said, you¡¯ll have to run the business, and you¡¯ll need to provide the initial investment funds for the development. If you don¡¯t want to have your own harbor, your second option is toy im to one of the streets in the capital city. All of the shops on that street will pay their rent to you. That option is easier than the first. All Foundation Establishment cultivators get to pick between one of these two options. Take your time to think about which one fits you best.

    ¡°The second privilege is that if any Offpeak disciple offends you, you can kill them on sight. However, you have to pay a fee of 10,000 spirit stones for the first person you kill. If you kill a second, you have to pay double, and so on. You can never kill someone without paying that fee, and the debt can never be wiped out.¡±

    Although Zhang Yunshi exined this with a smile, it caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict.

    ¡°This rule is something that all Seven Blood Eyes Foundation Establishment cultivators have to bear in mind. It doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re outside the sect, or in it. You always have to consider whether or not it¡¯s worth it to kill someone weaker than you. By the way, if it¡¯s an Offpeak disciple from one of the other peaks, the fee is double.

    ¡°The third privilege is that you can pick two Offpeak disciples, or anyone else that you approve of, to be your attendants. They earn the right to live for free in the capital city, or they can practice their cultivation on the peak, registered under your name. Coupled with the third privilege is the right to teleport to any Seven Blood Eyes city for free. In addition, every year, you can distribute one hundred living permits for any Seven Blood Eyes city. Remember, in scavenger basecamps and other small towns, such permits are very expensive. And they are only avable to people with a rmendation from a Seven Blood Eyes disciple.

    ¡°The final privilege is that you get protection from Seven Blood Eyes. Because of that, no Gold Core cultivator from the outside would dare try to kill you. In fact, assuming you pay enough spirit stones, not even a Nascent Soul cultivator would dare cut you down. Actually, if you offer enough spirit stones as a reward, the sect will even help you go out and kill people like that.

    ¡°Something you must remember is that, while Offpeak disciples are like wolf pups, Onpeak cultivators are a pack of lone wolves!

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about Gold Core cultivators harming you in the sect. Outside the sect, you¡¯re on your own. But here in the sect, a Gold Core sect member who kills a Foundation Establishment disciple has to pay an initial fine of 1,000,000 spirit stones. It¡¯s the same for a Foundation Establishment cultivator who kills another Foundation Establishment cultivator. And the fines double for every subsequent kill. Just like the fines I mentioned before, such debts can never be wiped out. Also like I mentioned before, it¡¯s a situation of determining whether killing that person is really worth it.¡±

    Zhang Yunshi was still smiling, but his words made it clear what the Foundation Establishment position and Onpeak brutality were all about.

    ¡°What are my responsibilities?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Responsibilities?¡± Zhang Yunshi chuckled. ¡°All of us here worked hard to fight and kill our way up from among the Offpeak disciples. It was all our own effort. Therefore, we owe no responsibilities to the sect. If you want to stick around, you can make money. If you want to leave, no one will try to get you to stay. That said, the missions posted by the sect offer handsome rewards, so people usually scramble to finish them. If you want to save up a lot of spirit stones, earning some extra on the side always helps.

    ¡°Now, if enemies harm our interests and interfere with our long-term profit, we will step in. After all, as long as Foundation Establishment cultivators are careful, we can live a very long time. So maintaining our monthly ie is important.

    ¡°Of course, it¡¯s always possible that enemies will try to buy you off. And you¡¯re free to ept such offers if you want. But consider: do you really think our enemies are stupid? For one thing, they know that buying off one or two of our cultivators wouldn¡¯t be worth it. If they wanted to make any such operation work, they would need to buy off a lot of us. In fact, it would cost so much money that, in the end, it wouldn¡¯t even be worth it.

    ¡°Full-scale wars with our enemies can actually be quite profitable, as you learned in the Grand Competition, so our cultivators generally flock to join in the fighting.

    ¡°The Onpeak elders know that disciples are wolf pups, so they don¡¯t worry much about overseeing us. Everythinges down to profit. The ones the leadership really care about are the conve disciples, who enjoy the best aspects of the sect. They really try to give them a unifying force and sense of belonging.¡±

    Thanks to Zhang Yunshi¡¯s exnation, Xu Qing understood a lot more about Onpeak life in Seven Blood Eyes. At this point, they were about halfway up the peak.

    ¡°You came at a bad time. Normally, new Foundation Establishment cultivators get to offer greetings to the peaklord. But all seven peaklords went out to sea recently. I guess something big is going on.

    ¡°Grand Elder and Second Elder are gone as well, which means Third Elder is in charge right now. After you offer greetings to him, I¡¯ll take you to get your mansion grotto and show you the Hall of Scriptures and Magic.¡±

    Just then, Xu Qing spotted Third Elder¡¯s grand hall, which he had been to before. In fact, there was a familiar figure sitting cross-legged outside: it was none other than Honor Guard Li, who worked closely with Third Elder. [4]

    Upon opening his eyes and seeing Xu Qing and Zhang Yunshi, Honor Guard Li smiled faintly. ¡°I had a hunch the bells were ringing because you reached Foundation Establishment.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands politely. Honor Guard Li was also masking his fluctuations. However, from what Xu Qing remembered of being around him, he was likely in Foundation Establishment, and strong within that level.

    He¡¯s probably got a life me, Xu Qing thought, though he remained calm and collected.

    ¡°Go on in. The elder¡¯s waiting for you.¡± Honor Guard Li looked from Xu Qing to Zhang Yunshi. Zhang Yunshi shrugged his shoulders and backed up a few steps to wait.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and walked into the hall for the second time. He sensed the same thing he hadst time. As soon as he stepped in, he felt mountain-toppling, sea-draining forceing from the person seated cross-legged on the other side of the hall.

    But this time, he was able to see the old man clearly. Third Elder had age spots on his face, and wore a violet daoist robe embroidered with gold. His face waspletely expressionless as he looked at Xu Qing. When their gazes met, Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun. The elder¡¯s eyes seemed to pierce through him like lightning, allowing the elder to see everything about him. Thankfully, the lifemp was hidden by his shadow, and the elder didn¡¯t detect it.

    ¡°Greetings, Third Elder.¡± Xu Qing said, inclining his head, sping his hands, and bowing deeply.

    ¡°You¡¯re so young, but you¡¯ve already opened two dharma apertures. Impressive.¡± Then Third Elder said something that struck Xu Qing to the core. ¡°So, you¡¯re the one who took the Spirit Breath Lamp from the Merfolk?¡±

    1. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior visited Daoist Idlecloud in chapters 70-71. ?

    2. The conversation with the round-faced cultivator about a needle concealed in silk was in chapter 51. ?

    3. Zhang Yunshi: Zhang is #3 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Zhang San. Yun means ¡°cloud¡± and Shi is a title word that can mean a lot of things, including ¡°soldier, schr, gentleman.¡± Madam Deathde said that this name made her picture ¡°an older guy with sses, probably a schr.¡± ?

    4. Honor Guard Li, and also Third Elder,st appeared in chapter 110. ?

 Chapter 136: Donning the Violet Robe

    Chapter 136: Donning the Violet Robe

    Third Elder¡¯s question was like a thunderp ringing in Xu Qing¡¯s ears. However, he managed to keep his face mostly expressionless. And he didn¡¯t take much time thinking before responding.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± he said respectfully. There was no point in hiding the truth. The Merfolk¡¯s Spirit Breath Lamp was valuable, but it wasn¡¯t something considered impossible to acquire. Although Xu Qing had tried to hide any evidence that he was involved, if someone thoroughly investigated the matter, they would probably find clues leading to him. Lying wouldn¡¯t benefit him at all, and would actually make him seem more suspicious.

    ¡°What do you n to do with it?¡± Third Elder asked calmly.

    ¡°Sell it,¡± Xu Qing answered immediately. He looked up at Third Elder. The old man radiated endless ripples and distortions, and caused immense pressure to weigh down on the entire hall. And when he had spoken just now, that pressure grew even more intense. The piercing nature of his gaze was simr tost time, except now, Xu Qing found it easier to endure. On his previous visit, it had taken immense effort just to lift his head, and his eyes had burned.

    Upon hearing Xu Qing¡¯s answer, Third Elder smiled. Apparently, the answer satisfied him. ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m not going to beat around the bush. I like you. You took the Spirit Breath Lamp fair and square, and I¡¯m not going to try to take it away from you. I don¡¯t care about themp, but you¡¯d do well to sell it quickly. Eventually, people are going to start wondering where it ended up. If I could figure out that you took it, so can someone else. Now, give me your identity medallion.¡±

    Shifting his gaze away from the elder, Xu Qing took out his identity medallion. Third Elder waved his hand, and the identity medallion flew over andnded on his palm. Almost instantly, it started shining with bright light. The elder inspected it, and then a momentter, fluctuations rolled out as he imprinted it with new information. It shone more brightly, and then the light faded. Finally, the Elder sent it flying back to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it, expecting it to m into him with immense force, as had happened when he offered greetings to the director when he checked in to the Violent Crimes Division.

    However, that didn¡¯t happen. When he caught the medallion, it was as if all the force dissipated the moment he touched it. That caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict as he realized how different Third Elder was from the director. It was easy to unleash force externally, but controlling it with such finesse was difficult.

    ¡°You can leave now,¡± Third Elder said, closing his eyes.

    Xu Qing again sped hands respectfully, then turned to leave. Just as he was about to step out of the hall, Third Elder¡¯s voice reached him.

    ¡°Zhongheng... has a good heart.¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± Xu Qing said, turning and bowing again. Then he left the hall. Last time, Third Elder hadn¡¯t said these words to him personally, but rather delivered them through Honor Guard Li. The reason was that, back then, Xu Qing¡¯s status was too low. But things were different now. [1]

    Upon leaving the hall, Honor Guard Li gave him a nod, then closed his eyes. Xu Qing walked over to Zhang Yunshi.

    Smiling, Zhang Yunshi took him to get his daoist robe and pick out a mansion grotto. Unfortunately, most of the mansion grottoes were already upied, so the one he picked was in a somewhat remote location. Even still, he liked it. And it wasn¡¯t as expensive as he¡¯d imagined it would be.

    Finally, Zhang Yunshi took him to the Hall of Scriptures and Magic, where he could get some Foundation Establishment techniques. He also acquired a new body refinement method.

    By the time everything was taken care of, it was dusk. Zhang Yunshi took Xu Qing back to his mansion grotto, then sped his hands in farewell. Before leaving, he smiled and said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu, there are two reasons why I¡¯m the one who helped you out today. The first is that I think we¡¯re connected by destiny. The second is that I¡¯m receiving a nice reward from the sect for epting the task of receiving all new Onpeak disciples this month.

    ¡°So you don¡¯t need to be overly suspicious of why I¡¯m working so hard to help you out. That said, I really do feel like there¡¯s some destiny at work in our encounters. If we ever meet each other while out at sea, I hope we can have each other¡¯s backs.

    ¡°Finally, Junior Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯d like to offer you a friendly tip. When we cultivators enter Foundation Establishment, the most important thing is to open 30 dharma apertures. As quickly as possible. When you form your life me, you can enter the profound radiance state.

    ¡°Cultivators without a profound radiance state are on apletely lower level than those who have it. Since you worked so hard to get into Foundation Establishment, you must form your life me as quickly as possible. Until then, you¡¯re at a huge disadvantage. Many dead Foundation Establishment cultivators lost their lives before they formed their life me. Foundation Establishment cultivators without the profound radiance state can do little more than bully Qi Condensation cultivators.¡±

    Having finished speaking, he nced at Xu Qing¡¯s right hand. Detecting no signs of the previous bad habit, he smiled and strolled away.

    Thanks to Zhang Yunshi¡¯s reminder, and Xu Qing¡¯s own understanding, he now realized more than ever how important life mes were in Foundation Establishment. sping hands, he bowed toward Zhang Yunshi as he disappeared. At the same time, he rxed the guard he had been keeping against the man.

    Turning, he looked at his new mansion grotto, which was located next to a cliff. Right now, the pitch ck stone door was closed, and there were weeds growing everywhere. There was even moss creeping up the door. A humid wind constantly blew through the area.

    After inspecting the area, Xu Qing stepped up to the stone door and took out the jade slip that acted as the key. When he sent some spirit power into the jade slip, magical symbols glowed on the door. Then Xu Qing used the method described in the jade slip to touch the magical symbols.

    After imprinting his mark onto the door, the magical symbols glowed brightly as the mansion grotto became linked to him. Then the door opened, revealing the interior. It wasn¡¯t veryrge inside. It had two rooms, and was lit by luminescent pearls set into the ceiling. It obviously hadn¡¯t been used in a long time, as everything was covered in dust.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, sending a wind through both rooms to clean them out. Then he closely inspected the entire ce to make sure it was safe. After, he went back out and sprinkled poison powder everywhere. He applied the poison very liberally, making sure every area was thoroughly covered. Then he went back inside and spread even more poison. After, he took out his defensive spell formations and activated them.

    With the door closed and the formations activated, he breathed a rxed sigh.

    Sitting down, he thought back to everything he had seen and heard. It reminded him of his first day in Seven Blood Eyes, except back then he was in Qi Condensation, and now he was in Foundation Establishment.

    I¡¯m finally in Foundation Establishment.

    Thinking about all the perks to being a Foundation Establishment cultivator in Seven Blood Eyes, he changed into his new violet robe. Looking down at the daoist robe, his eyes shone. The robe itself had a defensive spell formation in it. It was the type of garment that people outside the sect, or even Offpeak disciples, would fight over, assuming the color was different.

    After donning the robe, he sat down cross-legged and pulled out a jade slip. This was one of the Foundation Establishment techniques he had acquired at the Hall of Scriptures and Magic.

    Pouring some spirit power into it, he examined the contents. He knew that it was important to start cultivating a Foundation Establishment technique as quickly as possible after a breakthrough. Otherwise, he would be wasting time. After all, he could further the cultivation of his new and old techniques at the same time.

    Time passed as he examined the contents of the jade slip. Soon, moonlight touched the door of his mansion grotto, and eventually, the bright moon rose high in the sky. In the light of the moon, the stone door seemed simple and unsophisticated, yet also filled with the sensation of ancient time and profound changes.

    Inside the mansion grotto, Xu Qing looked up from the jade slip, his eyes glittering sharply.

    Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture!

    One of the Seventh Peak¡¯s signature Foundation Establishment techniques was the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. From the name alone, it was obviously something meant for killing. It was easy to imagine that this technique would be categorized as a nefarious art. That said, Xu Qing felt that it was befitting of a sect named Seven Blood Eyes.

    The Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture wasn¡¯t divided up into different levels. Instead, the cultivation method was focused on opening dharma apertures as quickly as possible. In addition to that, it allowed for the creation of a type of me inside the dharma apertures, a me called balefire.

    When that me was mixed with the aura of the Forbidden Sea, it created a bizarre reaction. The more one cultivated it, the hotter the balefire became.

    On the one hand, balefire could be used to attack. Also, it was a keyponent in the scripture¡¯s ¡®soulswallowing¡¯ aspect. After extracting the soul of an enemy, it was used like kindling for the me. The resulting explosive force was used to burst open dharma apertures. It was a brutal method, but at the same time, simple and direct. ording to the technique description, a disciple cultivating the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture could use the soul of a Foundation Establishment cultivator with no life me to open one dharma aperture. If using the souls of Qi Condensation cultivators, they would need over a hundred to achieve the same result. Of course, the requirements only increased as one rose in cultivation level.

    Both sea beasts and nonhumans can be used as kindling for the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. Between the two, nonhumans are better, especially Seazombies. Because of their physical nature and their soul, they lead to spectacr results.

    The words in the jade slip almost seemed to drip with blood.

    The technique was indeed simple. There was nothingplicated or shy about it. It was just about pure brutality.

    After he finished reading the description, Xu Qing took a deep breath. Upon cultivating the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture topletion, the balefire would reach its ultimate state, and would exist in all of one¡¯s dharma apertures. At that point, one wouldn¡¯t need souls to open dharma apertures, and you could extract enemy souls and imprison them inside the dharma apertures. By burning them day and night, it was possible to make one¡¯s dharma force even stronger.

    In a word, disciples who cultivated the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture became living gods of death.

    However, not all disciples cultivated the technique. There were a total of three signature Foundation Establishment techniques in the Seventh Peak.

    The second technique was called the Sea King Register.

    It was a less brutal technique that focused on assimting sea beasts, then using a special method to keep them in one¡¯s dharma apertures and absorb nutrients from them. It was divided into ten levels, and each level involved opening about seven or eight dharma apertures. The key to cultivating ity in constantly capturing and absorbing sea beasts. When fighting with this technique, the results were astounding. When all the dharma apertures were opened, all of the numerous sea beasts inside the disciple would make their dharma apertures very impressive.

    The first technique was brutal. It led to rapid cultivation advancement, but required a lot of killing. As a result, the slightest mistake could also lead to the cultivator dying. The second technique revolved around sea beasts, and made one¡¯s dharma force more and more powerful. It made it easier to defend oneself, but at the same time, didn¡¯t help improve battle prowess very much.

    The third technique was called the Life Nurturing Incantation.

    This technique was even milder, and didn¡¯t involve the use of any external force. Disciples who cultivated this technique spent most of their time in seclusion. It took time to seed, but came with some big advantages as one didn¡¯t need to go out fighting and killing. Because disciples who cultivated this technique didn¡¯t need to fight a lot, it was usually suitable for those who preferred support positions in a group. Each technique seemed good for different personalities, and each disciple would pick one based on their preferences.

    After thinking about it, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure which one was best for him. The first one he ruled out was the Sea King Register, as it seemed mediocre at best. As for the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture and the Life Nurturing Incantation, they seemed like pr opposites.

    ***

    As Xu Qing wrestled with his decision, far away from Seven Blood Eyes out on the Sea of Endlessness, a dreadnaught roared through the heavens. This dreadnaught was almost like a godly entity. Everywhere it went, waves crashed beneath it. In one of the buildings on the dreadnaught¡¯s back, Master Seventh was looking back in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Standing next to him was the same middle-aged servant who had given the identity medallion to Xu Qing. He had a jade slip in his hand. After examining it, he turned to Master Seventh and quietly said, ¡°Master Seventh, the Kid reached Foundation Establishment. After we return, shall I arrange for him to meet you?¡±

    Master Seventh shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no need. War ising. We¡¯ll worry about it after that. I passed out a hundred identity medallions. He was the first to report in, but there are others out there. We need to see how they measure up to each other. Besides, he has a long way to go before he¡¯s ready to be my fourth apprentice.¡±

    1. Honor Guard Li talked to Xu Qing about Zhao Zhongheng in chapter 110. ?

 Chapter 137: Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture

    Chapter 137: Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture

    The Life Nurturing Incantation is too passive!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with determination as he sat in his mansion grotto.

    On the one hand, the Life Nurturing Incantation would work well with his lifemp, as he wouldn¡¯t need to leave his mansion grotto. Once he reached the point of being able to use the lifemp, his battle prowess would be astonishing.

    However, it would take too long to reach that point. Cultivation required spirit stones, and he also needed to upgrade his dharmaboat. Most important of all, Xu Qing knew that it was possible his situation could change overnight.

    Therefore, it didn¡¯t make sense for him to focus on the quiet and peaceful Life Nurturing Incantation. It seemed entirely possible that, before he even reached the point of being able to use the life me, catastrophe could befall him. He did not like the idea of being so passive.

    Therefore, he decided to cultivate the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture.

    With the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, he could imprison the souls of enemies in his dharma apertures. Not only would it make his dharma force more powerful, but ording to the technique description in the jade slip, he could use a special method to link the imprisoned souls to a dharmaskiff. By doing so, his dharmaskiff would essentially have its own spirit. In other words, his dharmaskiff would have some of the characteristics of a magical treasure!

    Xu Qing had actually neverid eyes on any magical treasures. But he knew that they were extremely rare, could not be used indefinitely, and had heaven-shaking, earth-shattering power.

    Is my lifemp actually a special kind of magical treasure?

    He wasn¡¯tpletely sure.

    After some more thought, he confirmed that this was the right decision. Taking the jade slip, he sat there cross-legged, closed his eyes, tapped into his dharma apertures, burned his spirit seas, and began following the description of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture to cultivate the technique!

    The first step in the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture was forming the actual balefire.

    All Foundation Establishment cultivators had mes in their dharma apertures. Those mes could ignite the spirit sea and turn into dharma force. It was also the same me that was critical to lighting one¡¯s life me.

    Because of fusing with the ck umbre that was the lifemp, the mes in Xu Qing¡¯s dharma apertures had changed, and were now pitch ck.

    As it happened, the fire cultivated in the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture was also the same color. The two types of me seemed very simr. However, after only four hours of cultivation, Xu Qing seeded in creating balefire in his dharma apertures, which was when he realized they were actually very different.

    The me from the ck umbre existed on a higher level than the balefire, and it was also much hotter. The only thing itcked was the ability to absorb souls.

    However, it was an easy issue to resolve. Xu Qing simplybined the balefire with the ck fire that already existed within him. Soon the ck fire in him also developed the ability to absorb souls, just like the balefire.

    Feeling very pleased, Xu Qing proceeded with cultivation.

    Three days passed.

    Eventually, when the ck fire in both of his dharma apertures was fully capable of absorbing souls, he stopped the session of cultivation. Going forward, the most important thing for him would be souls. He needed souls as kindling to open his third dharma aperture.

    I wonder if Elder Brother Zhang San is back. Once he finishes fixing my dharmaboat, I can go out to sea.

    Looking down at his shadow, he thought for a minute, then took out his ck iron skewer and undid the seals on Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    The patriarch¡¯s aura appeared, but he didn¡¯t say a word. He was obviously afraid that if he said the wrong thing, it would provoke killing intent in Xu Qing. After studying the iron skewer briefly, Xu Qing tapped into the power of the violet crystal and crushed his shadow with suppressive force. This was all while the patriarch was hiding in the skewer watching.

    Xu Qing did this on a daily basis. During the entire process, his facial expression didn¡¯t change. His shadow was also used to it, and didn¡¯t fight back. It just allowed itself to be viciously crushed.

    However, inside the iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled in fear at the sight of it. It was a case of killing a chicken to frighten the monkey, and in this case, the patriarch was the monkey.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t as useful to me now as you used to be,¡± Xu Qing said calmly to his shadow.

    Now that Xu Qing was in Foundation Establishment, he viewed his shadow differently. It had its own sense of will, but he could suppress it. At this point he actually wanted his shadow to be stronger. Otherwise, his shadow wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with him, and he couldn¡¯t use it as a trump card in a fight. He also felt the same about Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in his iron skewer.

    The patriarch had nothing to do or worry about, and that didn¡¯t suit Xu Qing¡¯s path. The words he had just spoken caused both his shadow and the iron skewer to tremble.

    A momentter, his shadow rippled and distorted. As the fluctuations rolled off of it, a tiny scrap of will appeared and spoke in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Mutagen... upgrade... godliness....¡±

    A thoughtful expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face. Then he looked from the shadow to the iron skewer, and his eyes burned with killing intent. That gaze caused the skewer to tremble even more intensely.

    ¡°What good are you?¡± he asked slowly. He raised his right hand, and within it appeared a scrap of the patriarch¡¯s life essence spirit. It looked like Xu Qing was ready to crush it. However, that was when the patriarch flew out of the iron skewer to appear in front of him.

    ¡°Milord, Milord, don¡¯t kill me!¡± he moaned. ¡°I can practice cultivation! I have a spirit automaton technique. Buttely I¡¯ve either been too weak or just asleep, so I haven¡¯t been able to cultivate it. Give me a chance, Milord. I¡¯ll definitely, definitely, definitely cultivate it! I¡¯ll work really hard!¡±

    He looked absolutely terrified.

    ¡°In six months I¡¯m going to assess both of you,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°The loser gets eliminated!¡±

    In response to his words, his shadow seemed to pulse with ferocity. However, it wasn¡¯t targeting Xu Qing, but rather, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. The patriarch felt a simr ferocity in himself, but he didn¡¯t let it show on his face. Instead, he made himself seem calm and cid. That seemed suspicious to the shadow, who reined in some of its ferocity.

    Xu Qing knew how the patriarch operated, so he didn¡¯t bother paying attention to the scheming that was already underway between him and the shadow. Putting away the iron skewer, he opened the door of his mansion grotto.

    It was currently noontime. The sky was blue and dotted with white clouds. Sunlight streamed down, and carried on the humid wind were the sounds of the Offpeak world. However, the city was distant, so the mor seemed like it came from another world. It almost didn¡¯t seem real.

    Xu Qing walked over to the cliff and looked down at the city, noticing the bustling harbors and the shipsing in and out of the port. The other districts in the city were just as busy. The streets were packed with people. The Seven Blood Eyes capital city really was a flourishing ce. On Xu Qing¡¯s first time up the peak, he¡¯d had a chance to look down at the Offpeak world like this. But now he was an Onpeak cultivator, and the feeling was very different.

    Things are the same. And they¡¯re different.

    What was different was his level. What was the same was that the broken face of the god still loomed over everyone.

    Eventually, Xu Qing headed down to the Port District. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he now had the right to develop his own harbor. However, he hadn¡¯t yet decided if he wanted to do that. In fact, he was thinking about that very topic as he walked through the air down toward the city.

    His n was to visit some of the shops in the Port District and buy some powerful jade talismans that were suitable for Foundation Establishment. After all, given the level of his cultivation base, ordinary talisman treasures wouldn¡¯t be of much use. Foundation Establishment cultivators primarily used jade talismans.

    Another thing he nned to do was find his informant. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he was allowed to have attendants, and he wanted his informant to be the first, though he didn¡¯t n to take her up the peak. Another objective was to see if Zhang San was back.

    Given his breakthrough, his standing in the Violent Crimes Division had changed. He still had a position there, but his position was different. Instead of being the deputy captain of Unit Six, he was now a deputy director, and he was in charge of the Celestial Bureau. Being a deputy director meant that he didn¡¯t have to go to the Violent Crimes Division very often. In fact, he only needed to show up for important operations. His sry had increased, and was now 100 spirit stones per month.

    As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could resign from the division if he wanted. His spirit stone sry wasn¡¯t muchpared to what he would earn from the sect¡¯s profits. But for now, he wanted to stay. After all, when he first arrived in Seven Blood Eyes, 100 spirit stones was a huge sum.

    Uponing down from the peak, he became the subject of numerous envious gazes in the port district. When hended and started walking the streets, everyone got out of his way, and no one spoke to him. When he entered one of the shops, the shopkeeper rushed to meet him, bowing and offering respectful greetings.

    The Offpeak disciples present, regardless of which peak they were assigned to, bowed at the waist and called out respectful greetings.

    To Offpeak disciples, Foundation Establishment cultivators were no different from gods. After all, both gods and Foundation Establishment cultivators could kill them. And thetter were a lot more likely to do so.

    As the sun shone onto Xu Qing¡¯s violet robe, it seemed to radiate a boundless majesty.

    To Xu Qing, who preferred keeping a low profile, being the focus of so much attention was unusual. Therefore, he quickly left the shop.

    The next ce he appeared was his set meeting location with his informant. After he summoned her, she came running. When she saw his dark violet daoist robe, she skidded to a stop, seemingly at a loss for what to do. The reverence in her eyes increased, and she started breathing heavily. She lookedpletely stunned. Then she saw Xu Qing¡¯s cold gaze, and she shivered and fell to the ground to kowtow.

    ¡°Milord!¡±

    Xu Qing took out a jade medallion and waved his hand, sending it streaking toward her. It stopped right in front of her, hovering in the air until she put out her trembling hands to take it.

    ¡°That¡¯s an attendant medallion. I¡¯m sure you know how much it¡¯s worth. For now, you won¡¯t live on the Seventh Peak. For the next three months, your task is to determine what¡¯s necessary for me to develop a harbor.¡±

    A momentter, Xu Qing was gone. The sea breeze stirred his informant¡¯s long hair, revealing a look ofplete incredulity on her pretty face. Looking up at the departing Xu Qing, she tried to steady her breathing. Never could she have imagined that he would reach the lofty Foundation Establishment level in such a short time.

 Chapter 138: This is the Profound Radiance State!

    Chapter 138: This is the Profound Radiance State!

    On the way to the Transportation Division, Xu Qing happened to pass the Sixth Peak shop in which the shopkeeper had tried to scam him. Upon noticing the ce, he stopped outside the door. As everyone in the area greeted him reverently, the shocked shopkeeper and clerks noticed what was happening and rushed out to kowtow. ¡°Well met, Senior!¡±

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the shopkeeper but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Sweat poured off the shopkeeper¡¯s face onto the ground, and his back was already soaked. He was terrified, and had the feeling his life was on the line. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that Xu Qing would reach Foundation Establishment. Back during that incident, he had mostly been frightened of Second Highness. Xu Qing had hardly been worth giving thought to.

    The shopkeeper was an attendant of Honor Guard Idlecloud from the Sixth Peak, so no Offpeak disciples would dare to mess with him. But Xu Qing was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and the shopkeeper had no idea if Honor Guard Idlecloud would risk hostilities with a fellow Foundation Establishment cultivator just to help an attendant.

    As the shopkeeper trembled, Xu Qing looked away from him and moved on.

    Even after Xu Qing was gone, the shopkeeper felt paralyzed, like he had just toed the line between life and death.

    The reason Xu Qing hadn¡¯t killed him was because it was too expensive. What was more, he didn¡¯t want to beat the grass to startle the snake. He had learned from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior that the shopkeeper was connected to Idlecloud, who was currently listed on his bamboo slip. He just hadn¡¯t found a good opportunity to take action.

    For now, he put the matter out of mind. On this, his first trip down the peak after his breakthrough, he was finallying to realize why he had hardly seen any Foundation Establishment cultivators in the city. They just attracted too much attention. Wherever he went, everyone was watching him.

    Only people who loved attention would feelfortable in such a situation. And it was worse considering Xu Qing preferred sticking to the shadows. It was simply impossible to do that with so many people paying attention to him.

    Considering that the Foundation Establishment cultivators on the Seventh Peak were all grim individuals who had ughtered their way out of the Offpeak world, it was only natural that none of them were like that.

    What does everyone else do? He could only specte.

    Thinking about these matters, he hurried through the streets even more quickly on his way to the Transportation Division. Along the way, he sent a voice message to Zhang San, and found that he was indeed back already. Upon arriving at the Transportation Division, Xu Qing spotted Zhang San in his gray daoist robe. Next to him, with his lower half back, was the Captain, also wearing a gray robe.

    Perhaps the ordinary workers in the Transportation Division didn¡¯t realize it, but Xu Qing, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, could sense that they were a lot stronger than before. In fact, just looking at them, he knew that they had both risen to the Foundation Establishment level. They were just masking their auras.

    The two of them squatted on some sandbags, Zhang San smoking a pipe, the Captain munching an apple. As the sun shone down on them, their gray robes seemed particrly splendid. It didn¡¯t take long for them to notice him approaching. And when they saw his violet daoist robe, the Captain smiled proudly, while Zhang San sighed.

    ¡°You lose,¡± the Captain said. Zhang San took out a spirit stone and handed it to the Captain.

    Seeing all this, Xu Qing realized that his previous spection that they were leaving the sect for Foundation Establishment breakthroughs had been correct.

    Grinning, Zhang San said, ¡°Xu Qing, why are you actually wearing your violet robe? Foundation Establishment cultivators in Seven Blood Eyes only wear their colored robes when something important is happening. Otherwise, you stick out too much.¡±

    Zhang San was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but he hadn¡¯t forgotten Xu Qing¡¯s ferocity in the Grand Competition. Thus, he kept things as friendly as possible, while also exining to Xu Qing why he and the Captain weren¡¯t wearing violet robes.

    ¡°You should go back and change ASAP,¡± Zhang San continued. ¡°By the way, don¡¯t spend all your time on the peak. Nothing¡¯s more boring than Onpeak life. Didn¡¯t you notice that there are basically no Foundation Establishment cultivators up there? You listen to me. Every single one of them ispletely treacherous. They all wear gray robes and hide down here in the Offpeak world. And who can me them? Everything is much more exciting and much more convenient down here.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded seriously.

    As for the Captain, he smiled enigmatically and said, ¡°For all you know, Xu Qing, you might have already run into some gray-robed Foundation Establishment cultivators. You just didn¡¯t realize it. Hardly anyone on the Seventh Peak flies around everywhere like Honor Guard Li. Besides, he only started doing that after he took up working for Elder Zhao. And you only see Zhang Yunshi when he shows up for work. People say he actually enjoys helping out newbies. By the way¡ª¡± he took a bite out of his apple, then cleared his throat and continued, ¡°Deputy Director Xu, you owe your director 10,000 spirit stones. When do you n to settle up, huh?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. Just like before he had reached Foundation Establishment, the Captain¡¯s cultivation base fluctuations were impossible to read.

    ¡°The director?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right. After I got back, I was appointed as the director of the Violent Crimes Division. So, Deputy Director Xu, I suggest you get those spirit stones together as quickly as possible. The director is running a bit low on cash right now.¡± Seeming very pleased with himself, the Captain looked at Xu Qing expecting him to be envious.

    Recognizing this look from the Captain, Xu Qing didn¡¯t need any prompting. ¡°Congrattions, Captain.¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! It¡¯s great to be chatting like this again with you, Deputy Director Xu. Although, you need to update your form of address and call me Director.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Okay, Captain.¡±

    ¡°Director!¡± the Captain corrected, then viciously took a bite of his apple.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Xu Qing replied with another nod. Taking out threerge apples, he gave one to Zhang San and one to the Captain.

    Grinning, Zhang San said, ¡°Would the two of you calm down already? I finished fixing your dharmaboat, Xu Qing. In a minute I¡¯ll take you over there to see it. Ai. It¡¯s hard to believe the three of us all reached Foundation Establishment so smoothly. It feels like it¡¯s been a lifetime since thest time we were together.

    ¡°I honestly never thought I¡¯d see Foundation Establishment. I heard that a lot of people broke through after the Grand Competition. And Ding Xiaohai was one of the first. He made the breakthrough here in the sect.¡± Zhang San sighed.

    ¡°What an idiot, right?¡± the Captain said, taking a bite out of the apple Xu Qing had just given him. ¡°Everyone else went to the Grand Competition to get rich. He went to be a conve disciple. Then the first thing he does afterward is reach Foundation Establishment. What was the point of the whole conve thing?

    ¡°I hope neither of you are ever like that. Deputy Director Xu, I think you¡¯re doing fine. You don¡¯t care about anything but getting rich, so you¡¯re not in danger of bing an idiot. But Zhang San, you need to watch yourself.¡±

    At this point, the Captain lowered his voice. Looking both mysterious and very excited, he said, ¡°Alright, listen up, both of you. I¡¯ve been working on a big n. I still need to get a bit more information, but once I do, the n will be ready to carry out. I¡¯m going to take the two of you with me, and we¡¯re going to make out like bandits. The rewards are going to be far more spectacr than Joine¡¯s flesh.¡±

    Zhang San suddenly looked like he was on guard, as did Xu Qing.

    ¡°What are you looking at me like that for?¡± the Captain said, ring at them. ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t exin any further. Besides, I have to gather some more information first. Regardless, the two of you are far too weak. You need to form life mes as quickly as possible, so that you can unleash the power of the profound radiance state. Otherwise, I won¡¯t let you take part in my n.¡±

    The Captain rose to his feet.

    ¡°What exactly is the profound radiance state?¡± Xu Qing asked. He had heard about and read a bit regarding the profound radiance state, but that was all theoretical. He had never actually seen it.

    Zhang San also looked curiously at the Captain. Apparently, he was in a simr situation as Xu Qing, having not ?had many dealings with Foundation Establishment cultivators when he was in Qi Condensation.

    ¡°You want to know?¡± the Captain asked, smiling at Xu Qing and Zhang San. ¡°Ah, whatever. Considering we¡¯ll be working together in the future, I guess I might as well exin. Do you know why I wanted to get some of Joine¡¯s flesh? It¡¯s because after you eat the flesh of a godly entity, you can open multiple dharma apertures in rapid session. And that makes it possible to form your first life me. So, what is the profound radiance state? Instead of using words to exin, I¡¯ll just show you.¡±

    Suddenly, a shocking rumbling sound erupted from within the Captain, like heavenly thunder. As everything around them shook, a terrifying shockwave rolled out from him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide with shock as he backed up rapidly.

    It was like there was a furnace inside the Captain that had been ignited, sending intense heat rippling out in all directions. At the same time, the fluctuationsing off of him instantly became stronger than before by many times over.

    The Captain looked like he was made of fire now. There was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering image projected behind him, but even looking at it was painful to the eyes. And everything around him rippled and distorted. Then he moved.

    Xu Qing saw nothing but a series of afterimages, and then his mind reeled with an intense sensation of deadly crisis. He wanted to fall back, but wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    The Captain was right in front of him, holding his right hand out.

    sped in his fingers was a single one of Xu Qing¡¯s hairs. Because of the intense heat, it rolled up and dissolved into ashes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as the furnace within the Captain suddenly went out, and he returned to his normal state. Smiling at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Deputy Director Xu, if I had wanted to kill you just now, you¡¯d be dead already.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response, but his heart was pounding and his mind spun in shock. Most of what he had known about the profound radiance state came from what he¡¯d read in jade slips. But seeing it in real life was totally different.

    Just now, the Captain had seemedpletely invincible.

    ¡°Of course, I am a genius,¡± the Captain said proudly, ¡°so when other people enter the profound radiance state, it¡¯s not as impressive. But you wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against them either. Entering the profound radiance state involves unleashing power from all of your dharma apertures. When you do that, both your magical techniques and your fleshly body reach their peak state. It doesn¡¯tst for long, but it¡¯s enough to either kill your enemy or escape with your life.

    ¡°The only way to fight the profound radiance state is to also be in the profound radiance state yourself. And Foundation Establishment cultivators without the profound radiance state are as weak as wild chickens. Therefore, little Ah Qing, don¡¯t let the wild chickens you¡¯ve seen in the past fool you about what Foundation Establishment cultivators are like. You need to work hard! And remember to hurry up and pay back the 20,000 spirit stones you owe me.¡±

    Smiling, the Captain took a bite out of his apple and then walked a few paces away. There, he shot into the air in a beam of light, heading, not toward the Seventh Peak, but toward the Violent Crimes Division.

    Xu Qing watched him go. The sense of danger he had experienced just now was like nothing he had ever experienced before. And it left him feeling very anxious. He needed to open more dharma apertures, and get to 30 as soon as possible. With a life me, he could then enter the profound radiance state. That was obviously a big priority.

    Zhang San was also standing there silently. A momentter, he chuckled bitterly and shook his head. ¡°The Captain is such a freak. Come on, I¡¯ll take you to your dharmaskiff.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Keeping his eye on the disappearing Captain, he followed Zhang San.

    Once I form a life me, then with the blessing of the lifemp, I¡¯ll actually have the power of two life mes!

    Eventually Zhang San reached his warehouse. As Xu Qing followed him inside, he caught sight of a watercraft that was both familiar and unfamiliar. It was a huge dharmaskiff, 150 meters long, with a hull covered with a Foundation Establishment sealizard skin. It also had a different overall shape. Before it had looked like a crocodile, but now it looked like a sealizard!

    And fluctuations of godliness rolled off of it. Instead of the feathered wings that had been on his dharmaboat, this sealizard had two leathery wings on either side of it. The entire thing seemedpletely fierce and violent.

    ¡°Okay, Xu Qing. The Captain gave both me and you a very small portion of Joine¡¯s flesh. I added it in as the power source. With that upgrade, your dharmaboat became a true dharmaskiff! Of course, if you want to uninstall Joine¡¯s flesh, that¡¯s fine. But I think having a dharmaskiff is better for you. With it, you¡¯ll have a much better chance of surviving out on the Forbidden Sea!¡±

 Chapter 139: His Own Fortune

    Chapter 139: His Own Fortune

    Xu Qing felt battered by waves of shock as he looked at the sealizard-shaped dharmaskiff.

    He had seen Foundation Establishment sealizards before. And because he had seen one in real life, he could spot the differences between a real sealizard and this sealizard-shaped dharmaskiff that Zhang San had crafted. However, in terms of the aura, it was almost exactly the same.

    The hull was 150 meters long, and it had four limbs with razor-sharp ws at the end. Its head was extremely lifelike, and its tail even swished back and forth. It really looked just like a sealizard.

    The main thing that didn¡¯t resemble real sealizard anatomy was the pair of leathery wings. They were huge, and just looking at them, Xu Qing guessed that when they unfurled, each wing would be as long as the lizard¡¯s entire body. He could only imagine what wild winds would spring up when they pped.

    The cabin was on the lizard¡¯s back, a three-story structure that looked beautiful while simultaneouslying across as being very sturdy.

    Zhang San looked extremely proud of himself, and his jaw even jutted out a bit as he gazed at his masterpiece. ¡°Seventh Peak dharmaboats are ssified as boats, skiffs, ships, and cruisers. Yours is one hundred percent in the dharmaskiff category, and ss-3 at that. However, because of the godly lizard skin and Joine¡¯s flesh, it actually surpasses that level in some ways.

    ¡°The points of weakness are the keel, some of the misceneous building materials, and the core power source. Joine¡¯s flesh is precious, but the Captain didn¡¯t part with much of it. And the godliness within it is limited. If you can get your hands on the full heart of a godly entity, then your dharmaskiff will be worth far more.

    ¡°Unfortunately, Foundation Establishment dharmaskiff materials are vastly more expensive than the Qi Condensation type. Also, dharmaskiff parts are a lot moreplicated. Basically, to upgrade even the lowest level Foundation Establishment materials, you¡¯re going to have to spend 30-50,000 spirit stones.

    ¡°If you want to upgrade something higher-level, such as your sealizard skins, it¡¯s going to be even more expensive. Probably 150,000 or more. Not even I could afford that. And there are more expensive items that go for astronomical prices. In other words, Xu Qing, if you want to upgrade your dharmaskiff, you really need to make some money.

    ¡°One reason why dharmaskiffs are so amazing is that, once they reach ss-8, they have a special function rted to the profound radiance state. Simply put, it lets you suppress an enemy¡¯s profound radiance state! The better materials you have, the longer it works!¡±

    Upon hearing that, Xu Qing was shocked. Seeing the Captain¡¯s profound radiance state had left him feeling very anxious. Now that he knew the dharmaskiff could do something like this, it caused his eyes to glitter.

    Zhang San grinned. ¡°Surprised? Well, now you know why Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators are so focused on upgrading their dharmaskiffs. And you also know why people from the Seventh Peak are often called ¡®boat cultivators.¡¯

    ¡°Considering your previous dharmaboat got half-destroyed, I decided to shore up its toughness and defenses. Significantly. Your dharmaskiff is definitely much more impressive than your old dharmaboat. Whether it¡¯s moving on the surface of the water, flying in the air, or moving under the surface, it¡¯s capable of shocking power.

    ¡°Finally, I added an exterior shell to the boat, taking inspiration from the way sealizards shed. If your dharmaskiff sustains an overwhelming attack, the exterior shell will explode like heavenly maids scattering blossoms. It will look like your dharmaskiff is badly damaged, and hopefully it will make your enemy hesitate to waste dharma force on a second attack.

    ¡°However, with a mere thought on your part, the shattered pieces of the exterior shell can form back together. That said, I¡¯m not very familiar with the method of constructing the exterior shell, so don¡¯t use it too many times. I¡¯d say no more than twice. In any case, when you use that ability, whether you fake death or counterattack, it will catch your enemy off guard.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Zhang San, and then back at the dharmaskiff. He could sense how much effort Zhang San had put into helping him upgrade his boat. It was a precious thing considering how things worked in Seven Blood Eyes.

    sping hands, Xu Qing bowed deeply. ¡°Many thanks, Elder Brother Zhang San!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so polite,¡± Zhang Said. ¡°I¡¯ve invested in you, and seeing how you and the Captain are turning out, it seems I invested wisely. I just hope that I can improve your chances of staying alive. After all... I think both of you are absolutely crazy. Although, the Captain will probably end up dead sooner than you.¡± He sighed.

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then asked, ¡°Does my dharmaskiff still have the materials in it you originally bought for the Captain¡¯s coffin?¡±

    Zhang San cleared his throat and smiled. ¡°Of course! Those were some good materials. Half of them got destroyed when your boat was damaged, but there¡¯s no need to waste the rest!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. sping hands, he thought for a moment, then took out 20,000 spirit stones and handed them over.

    Zhang San epted them. After all, he had used quite a few materials in his work. Waving goodbye, he left.

    Xu Qing took his dharmaskiff and looked out at the open sea, his eyes shining with anticipation.

    Tomorrow morning, first thing, I¡¯m going out to sea!

    Having made his decision, he left the Transportation Division, all the while calcting how many spirit stones he had on hand.

    I spent way too much on Foundation Establishment. I barely have 50,000 spirit stones left now. I really need to sell that Spirit Breath Lamp. That¡¯ll replenish my coffers.

    By the time he was heading back toward the Seventh Peak, it was gettingte, and there were few people on the streets of the capital city. Night time was when Offpeak disciples would prowl the streets with malicious intentions. None of that had anything to do with Xu Qing. Criminals from the bounty list weren¡¯t worth it anymore. However, as he moved along through midair, he suddenly stopped and looked down.

    Lying there in the middle of one of the streets was a person he recognized. It was a young man in a gray robe, underneath which was a dog skin jerkin. Both the jerkin and the robe were soaked with blood. It looked like he had a mortal wound on his abdomen. There were other cuts and wounds visible on him, and he had also been poisoned. His fingernails had been plucked out, as had all of the teeth that he had filed into points.

    It was the Mute.

    He was badly wounded and gasping for breath. As for the identity medallionying on his chest, it had no merit points in it. Based on the time, when the sun rose in the morning, he would be wiped out of existence by the Seven Blood Eyes Formation. Xu Qing looked down at the Mute. Then he dropped to the street and stood above him.

    The Mute was unconscious. In fact, he looked so badly wounded that he might not make it to dawn. He had no sack and no dharmaboat.

    Xu Qing knew that beating someone to the point of death, then taking all of their belongings, was amon way for Offpeak disciples to get revenge on someone.

    The Mute had earned a vicious reputation in the Violent Crimes Division, and someone had finally retaliated.

    As he looked down at the Mute, Xu Qing recalled how the young man had offered him a dead criminal from the bounty list. And he remembered how the Mute had followed him on the day of the Grand Competition, and also the advice he had given about his shadow. After some consideration, Xu Qing picked up the Mute¡¯s identity medallion and transferred one spirit stone¡¯s worth of merit points into it. Then he forced some medicinal pills into the Mute¡¯s mangled mouth. After that, he grabbed him by his clothing and dragged him away. Upon arriving at the Mute¡¯s small shack, which seemed like little more than a doghouse, Xu Qing tossed him inside. Turning, he left.

    In the chaotic world they lived in, these actions alone could be considered extreme humanity and utmost virtue. As for whether the Mute pulled through and managed to stay alive, it was up to his own fortune.

    The truth was that the Mute had actually regained consciousness on the way to his shack. Xu Qing knew that, but didn¡¯t care. After he was gone, the Mute opened his eyes and shivered. Looking weakly at Xu Qing¡¯s retreating figure, he closed his eyes and curled up into a ball.

    Back at the Seventh Peak, Xu Qing was heading toward his mansion grotto when he saw a familiar figure sitting on the edge of the cliff. It was Huang Yan.

    His legs dangled over the edge of the cliff, and he was currently sipping from an egg. Upon seeing Xu Qing flying toward him, his eyes widened and he waved.

    ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re finally back. I¡¯ve been waiting forever!¡± Huang Yan reached into his robe and pulled out an egg which he tossed to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it and sat down next to Huang Yan. Xu Qing was in Foundation Establishment now, but things didn¡¯t seem any different than before. Poking a hole in the egg, he took a sip. It was just as delicious as he remembered.

    Sounding very pleased with himself, Huang Yan said, ¡°I heard yesterday that you were back, so I came to see you. Well? Am I awesome or what? I cane and go as I please now on the Seventh Peak. The spell formation doesn¡¯t do anything to stop me.¡±

    ¡°Second Highness treats you well,¡± Xu Qing replied with a grin. He really liked Huang Yan. In fact, of all the people he had met from the Seventh Peak, Huang Yan was the one he truly felt was a friend.

    As soon as Xu Qing mentioned Second Highness, Huang Yan proudly thumped his chest. ¡°Well that¡¯s a given. I¡¯m telling you, Xu Qing, she really does treat me well. She gave me an identity medallion so that I coulde visit her whenever I want.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled and continued enjoying his egg. As they sat beneath the moonlight, it was just like the old days in Harbor 79. Xu Qing mostly listened while Huang Yan talked and talked about how well his Elder Sister treated him. About an hourter, Huang Yan stood up, wiped the dust off his rear end, and grinned.

    ¡°By the way, Xu Qing, there¡¯s another reason I came. I heard you¡¯re the one who got the Spirit Breath Lamp from the Merfolk. Want to sell it to me? I¡¯d like to give it to my Elder Sister. We¡¯re bros, so I¡¯m not even going to think of taking advantage of you. I¡¯ll buy it for 500,000, except I don¡¯t have that much saved up. It¡¯ll take me a month to get it together. But if you¡¯re fine with it, then let¡¯s seal the deal right now.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it, then nodded in agreement.

    Hearing that, Huang Yan was very excited. Shortly after, as he was preparing to leave, he suddenly thought of something, and his expression turned serious. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, my Elder Sister told me that something big is going on in the sect. During the battle with the Merfolk, our Seven Blood Eyes patriarch experienced a cultivation base breakthrough, and then invaded Seazombie territory. But there¡¯s more toe. After all... his cultivation base is different now. It looks like the sea territories need to be redistributed.

    ¡°If things don¡¯t go smoothly, war will break out. Actually, it¡¯s a good thing for us. War is like the Grand Competition. There¡¯s always a big opportunity for profit. Of course, the more dangerous the situation, the more profit there is to be had.¡± With that Huang Yan took his leave.

    Xu Qing watched him go, then looked out at the open sea.

    ¡°War, huh?¡± he murmured.

 Chapter 140: Fishing for Dragons

    Chapter 140: Fishing for Dragons

    Xu Qing had never experienced war personally, but he had witnessed something simr. That said, it was a far cry from real war. The small city in whose slums he had lived had battled with another city. The fighting had gone on for about seven or eight days.

    If Seven Blood Eyes goes to war with some other force, will itst for that long?

    Xu Qing thought back to the Grand Competition and the fight with the Merfolk. Then he remembered what the Captain had said. Such weighty matters were beyond their control, and would be handled by the leadership of the sect.

    If there¡¯s not enough profit to be had, I won¡¯t join in the fighting. Going back into his mansion grotto, he sat down cross-legged and took out the Life Nurturing Incantation jade slip.

    The Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture was a martial technique, but the way it used ughter made it something like a magical technique. After cultivating it, the way you opened dharma apertures revolved around magical martial arts stances.

    The Life Nurturing Incantation was different. It revolved solely around a cultivator¡¯s breathing exercises. In that regard, it was simr to the Seaforming Scripture. By slowly strengthening oneself, the cultivator would open dharma apertures one after another.

    After more thought, Xu Qing hade to the conclusion that his previous assessment was incorrect, and that the best thing would be to cultivate both techniques at the same time. It didn¡¯t matter which one he focused on more, as the Foundation Establishment level was all about opening dharma apertures and forming life mes, and both could do that.

    And thus, he began cultivating the Life Nurturing Incantation.

    The night passed.

    The next morning, as sunlight slowly filled the sky, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He organized his weapons and poisons, as well as the talisman treasures he¡¯d purchased. Then after his usual routine of suppressing his shadow, he opened the door of his mansion grotto and looked out at the rosy sky.

    I need to go out to sea, kill some sea beasts, and use their souls to open more dharma apertures. Striding away from his mansion grotto, he stepped out into midair. His snakeneck dragon then appeared beneath him, roaring to heaven. pping its four draconic flippers as if the sky were the sea, it shot with shocking speed toward the horizon.

    ***

    The Sea of Endlessness was covered with ck waves.

    Compared to the bright sky, the darkness of the water was bizarre. It seemed almost like ink. Its mysterious depths imparted a sense of awe.

    Though this was not Xu Qing¡¯s first time out at sea, he didn¡¯t feel very much different than the previous time. He remained cautious and careful. In the sect, there were rules that everyone had to follow, but outside the sect, anything could happen.

    Instead of showing off by flying, he traveled on his dharmaskiff. And he used the disguising function to make it seem like an ordinary dharmaboat. After sitting down cross-legged, he activated the defenses and set a course.

    It feels better to be on my boat than in my mansion grotto.

    His first destination was a location he had been to before, specifically, the area where he, Zhao Zhongheng, and Ding Xue had encountered that snakeneck dragon. [1]

    And that was because his first chosen type of prey was snakeneck dragon.

    He needed souls to open his dharma apertures, and he¡¯d decided that sea beast souls would be the perfect kindling for now. Of course, he knew it was unlikely he would encounter the exact same snakeneck dragon. But he figured it would be a good ce to start looking.

    Not wanting to waste time, he cultivated the Life Nurturing Incantation while he traveled, and simultaneously worked on putting his personal snakeneck dragon into one of his dharma apertures. His snakeneck dragon had a Foundation Establishment aura now, and he was worried that if it was out in the open, wild snakeneck dragons would fear it and stay away.

    As he traveled, he saw other Seven Blood Eyes dharmaboats. He was always very leery of them. It didn¡¯t matter that he was in Foundation Establishment now, he was still as cautious as ever. Generally speaking, other watercraft treated him the same. Everyone was careful when on the open sea, and hesitated to get too close to each other.

    Time passed. Three dayster, Xu Qing¡¯s Foundation Establishment level of speed allowed him to reach that same spot he was looking for. It was high noon, and puffy clouds danced in the blue sky above.

    As Xu Qing sat on the deck, he looked at the ck waters of the Forbidden Sea, then focused his senses on what was happening beneath the surface. After quite some time passed, he didn¡¯t see any snakeneck dragons. Xu Qing stilled his dharmaskiff so that it didn¡¯t send out any fluctuations. Then he looked to the skies, peering about until he spotted a pseudotooth albatross circling in the distance.

    Waving his hand, he sent his iron skewer shooting out. The pseudotooth albatross reacted with rm, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough topletely avoid the attack. The skewer pierced the bird¡¯s wing, causing the bird to let out a piercing shriek. Then Xu Qing controlled the skewer in a manner to pull the bird out of the sky and onto the surface of the water, preventing it from flying away.

    Then Xu Qing waited.

    Time passed. The pseudotooth albatross¡¯ struggling didn¡¯t do any good. Eventually, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he noticed something deep beneath the surface. Water flowed, and eventually, he saw a majestic snakeneck dragon more than 900 meters long.

    It had an astounding aura, apparently somewhere between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment. But most amazing was its physical form. There was no way a Qi Condensation cultivator could fight it. As it neared, it noticed Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff. However, Xu Qing had the dharmaskiff¡¯s fluctuations masked, and was doing the same for himself. The snakeneck dragon circled around him, then suddenly shot right in his direction,pletely ignoring the pseudotooth albatross.

    From the look of it, the dragon thought that Xu Qing would taste more delicious than the bird.

    As the dragon neared, Xu Qing sat unmoving on the deck. When it was almost upon him, his eyes turned cold and he reached out toward it with a grasping motion.

    The water around the snakeneck dragon erupted, rising high in the shape of a hand that pulsed with the dharma force of Foundation Establishment.

    As the hand grabbed the dragon, the iron skewer shot down from above. Inside the skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was going all out to prove his worth, and didn¡¯t hold back as the skewer stabbed toward the dragon.

    The dragon howled, creating a sound wave that blocked the iron skewer. At the same time, its draconic flippers swept through the water, creating a wave to fight back against the huge hand. From the look in its eyes it was clearly rmed and wanted to flee. But it reacted too slowly. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the massive hand crushed around the dragon. As it did, the iron skewer glittered, stabbing into the snakeneck dragon and piercing through its flesh toward its heart.

    ¡°I need it alive!¡± Xu Qing said coolly. The iron skewer trembled as it stabbed into the heart, then came to a stop before going all the way through. Although the iron skewer was like a tiny needlepared to the dragon, the creature still howled in pain. It writhed, trying to free itself, but the huge hand lifted it out of the water and into the air.

    Seawater poured off of it like a waterfall. The dragon was so huge that it blocked the sun, casting Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiffpletely into shadow.

    Xu Qing looked up at the snakeneck dragon, his expression cid as he extended both hands and began an incantation gesture. ck balefire shot from his dharma apertures out into the open.

    From a distance, it looked like Xu Qing was wreathed in ck fire. As the fire rose into the air, the snakeneck dragon¡¯s eyes filled with terror, and it howled and struggled even more ferociously.

    Its efforts did nothing. Xu Qing¡¯s incantation gesture caused more and more ck fire to erupt forth, eventually transforming into what looked like the head of a devil, cackling as it approached the dragon. When they collided, the devil head spread out to cover the dragon and then immte it. Of course, what was being immted wasn¡¯t the dragon¡¯s body, but its soul. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the dragon¡¯s struggling grew weaker and weaker. Eventually, the fire swept away from the dragon and back into Xu Qing. Its body was limp now. Having lost its soul, there was no life left in its physical form, making it useless.

    The giant hand released the dragon, and it sshed down into the water and sank down.

    As the iron skewer flew back and circled around Xu Qing, he looked at the results of his first usage of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. Inside of him there was a white soul shadow with a few traces of green on it that looked like a snakeneck dragon.

    ¡°So, it¡¯s white,¡± Xu Qing murmured. ording to the description in the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, Qi Condensation souls were white, Foundation Establishment souls were green. Green souls were ideal for opening dharma apertures, whereas the white variety were inferior.

    Might as well give it a shot. With a thought, he caused the snakeneck dragon soul shadow to ignite like kindling. As the fire burned, he sent it racing toward the spot where his third dharma aperture existed.

    A tremor passed through him as the third dharma aperture trembled, and a crack appeared on it. However, it didn¡¯t open. And then the snakeneck dragon¡¯s soul power faded away.

    It¡¯s working, but not fast enough. After some thought, he wondered if it was because he wasn¡¯t familiar enough with the process. Piloting his dharmaskiff to another location, he used the same method to try to catch another dragon.

    The pseudotooth albatross had only been the starting point. This time, he used himself as bait, but releasing some Qi Condensation fluctuations into the water. At the same time, he prepared to fly up into the air in case things went wrong. After all... it was possible that his attempt to catch snakeneck dragons could actually result in something more terrifyinging up from the depths.

    Of course, it didn¡¯t seem extremely likely, as the truly terrifying entities wouldn¡¯t be enticed by a mere Qi Condensation aura.

    Three dayster, Xu Qing¡¯s attempts bore fruit as a second snakeneck dragon approached. Following the same pattern, he used its soul power to batter at his third dharma aperture. After that, he went to another location. And thus, for the greater part of a month, he hunted for snakeneck dragons. It was only after taking a dragon in the great circle of Qi Condensation that he finally broke his third dharma aperture open, although not all the way.

    The process was going far too slow. Frowning, he did some quick math, and came to the conclusion that at this rate, even if he worked nonstop and without rest, it would take three years to open thirty of his dharma apertures. And that was probably being too optimistic with his estimate, as dharma apertures weren¡¯t all the same. The more you opened, the more soul power you needed. Considering that, he would probably need twice as much time. That wasn¡¯t to mention that he would eventually have to go back to the city. And who knew what other things could cause dys. All in all, using this method to open dharma apertures would probably end up taking him dozens of years.

    I need to think of a way to kill sea beasts faster!

    Eyes glittering coldly, he looked off into the distance.

    There, he saw a giantfang shark racing through the water, hundreds of meters long, pulsing with the fluctuations of Foundation Establishment. Flying in the sky behind it in pursuit was a person standing on a huge, ancient bronze sword. It was a young man wearing a First Peak crimson daoist robe. His long hair whipped behind him in the wind, and he looked grave and stern, with cold eyes.

    When he noticed Xu Qing, he looked at him coldly and said, ¡°Calling the wind and summoning the rain is not unique; put the stars in a bag to y hide and seek.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned.

    1. They encountered the snakeneck dragon in chapter 83. ?

 Chapter 141: Opening Apertures on an Uninhabited Island

    Chapter 141: Opening Apertures on an Uninhabited Ind

    In Seven Blood Eyes, each peak used daoist robes of a different color. The Second Peak was orange, the Sixth Peak was blue, and of course violet was for the Seventh Peak. As for the First Peak, they had robes as red as blood.

    When it came to Seven Blood Eyes, the most famous peaks in South Phoenix and the Forbidden Sea were the First Peak and the Seventh Peak. The First Peak warrior cultivators were known for being grim ughterers. They rarely went out to sea, and preferred to do their training in Forbidden by the Phoenix. Only First Peak cultivators who hadplete confidence in their own cultivation base and battle prowess would go out to the unfamiliar Forbidden Sea for training. Because of that, whether it was in the sect or out at sea, this was the first time Xu Qing had ever seen one of the First Peak warrior cultivators.

    It was impossible to misidentify another disciple. That was because their daoist robes contained invisible designs that were connected to the identity medallion and aura of the disciple. When they got close to another daoist robe with such designs, they would shimmer in response. The reason for this was that the sect was too big for all disciples to recognize each other, and thus, there was a need for a method to prevent outsiders from impersonating disciples.

    However, it didn¡¯t matter that this was a fellow disciple. Xu Qing didn¡¯t let his guard down in the slightest. What was more, he had no idea what this disciple meant with his cryptic poetry. His guess was that, perhaps, this disciple was warning him not to steal his prey.

    After all, he did mention a ¡°bag¡± and ¡°hide and seek¡± while simultaneously chasing a giantfang shark.

    Xu Qing watched him coldly, his iron skewer glittering at his side, his shadow beneath him looking like nothing special, but ready to leap out under Xu Qing¡¯s control. His dharmaskiff was ready as well, and his snakeneck dragon was in his dharma aperture, the row of spikes running down its long neck bristling.

    As the giantfang shark fled in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, he could sense its extraordinary aura. Roaring, it spun in ce and then lunged toward the iing First Peak disciple, its mouth opened wide. Suddenly, a blood mist erupted from the shark¡¯s mouth, which transformed into a host of fish and shrimp that shot toward the First Peak disciple.

    ¡°The puny heavenly maiden¡¯s silver river; it¡¯s waiting for me to drink in one gulp.¡± His right hand shed in an incantation gesture, and his bronze sword thrummed, causing row upon row of sword projections to appear.

    In the blink of an eye, over fifty smaller versions of his bronze sword could be seen, radiating an aura of ughter. The First Peak disciple waved his finger, and all the swords except for the one he stood on shot toward the giantfang shark.

    Shocking rumbling echoed out, and waves surged out across the water as the giantfang shark howled. Seven or eight of the swords stabbed into its massive frame, causing blood to ssh into the water around it as it fled off into the distance. That blood contained a Foundation Establishment aura, so it would scare away many sea beasts. On the other hand, it was also possible it could attract even stronger sea beasts into the area.

    Xu Qing simply looked on.

    Hovering in midair, the First Peak disciple snorted coldly.

    ¡°The snow-white rabbit slips through the sky; the night-ck toad swims on by.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, his huge sword thrummed again, growingrger andrger until it was roughly 300 meters long. Then, he shot over the water in pursuit of the shark.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t spoken a word the entire time, nor had he done a single thing. He had listened to the disciple¡¯s ridiculous poetry, then watched him race off, staying on guard the entire time. Now that he was gone, Xu Qing simply piloted his dharmaskiff off in a different direction. Based on what he had sensed, the First Peak disciple was stronger than he was, but not by much. He wasn¡¯t at the level of being able to enter the profound radiance state, and probably had something around 20 dharma apertures opened. If it came to an all-out battle to the death, Xu Qing had the feeling he coulde out on top. But a Foundation Establishment sea beast wouldn¡¯t be worth getting in a fight like that.

    A few dayster, Xu Qing reached his next target destination. He was about halfway between South Phoenix and the Westcoral Archipgo, roughly where he had encountered the creeping vines. There was also an ind nearby.

    It wasn¡¯t veryrge, but the ind itself was shaped like the character °¼, with a natural bay.

    There were a lot of uninhabited inds on the Forbidden Sea. Some of them were always there, others came and went. The former were real inds, while thetter were often some type of huge sea beast.

    As for this particr ind, Xu Qing checked the water underneath to confirm that it was a real ind. His sea chart also indicated it was, but it was always good to double check things like that. The ind itself was barren and had no resources, which was why it was uninhabited.

    After scouring the surface of the ind to make sure it was safe, he moored his dharmaskiff in the bay and took out a small bottle.

    Within that bottle was a blue liquid, which was ghostlonging horseshoe crab blood. By refining that blood ording to the principles of yin-yang prity, and bybining it with other medicinal nts, it was possible to create a substance that would attract ferocious beasts. It was simr to the substance the young merman had used on Xu Qing. [1]

    This was the method Xu Qing was going to attempt in the hopes of opening his dharma apertures. He would attract arge number of sea beasts, then kill them and take their souls. However, it was going to be difficult to control, and it was entirely likely he could attract a beast he couldn¡¯t deal with.

    In the hopes of fine-tuning the process, he would use chrysanthemum mollusks, which could function as a harmonizing agent. With their aura as an addedyer, Xu Qing¡¯s idea would still be risky, but he was willing to try it. [2]

    Once I start it, it¡¯s not going to stop....

    As he sat on the deck, he started refining the ghostlonging horseshoe crab blood. It took about an hour, and it was nightfall by the time he finished. He watched as the shell of the chrysanthemum mollusk turned blue; at this point, all that was required was a drop of his blood to start the process. Seeing that it was already dark, he decided there was no rush, and closed his eyes to meditate.

    The night passed without incident. The next morning at dawn, he opened his eyes and scattered poison around the area.

    Because he was in a harbor, the poison powder mixed with the seawater and began to spread about. Being very determined about how the event should y out, he put even more poison into the water. However, that wasn¡¯t enough. He needed something else to enhance the poison effect.

    Therefore, he took out a stick of incense and put it off to the side. It was a kind of incense designed to stimte the poison. Once it entered the water, and he added more poison, it would be hyper-poisonous.

    Everything¡¯s ready to go. Eyes flickering with anticipation, he bit the tip of his finger and spilled a drop of blood onto the blue chrysanthemum mollusk. The moment it fell onto the shell, the mollusk turned a darker shade of blue. At the same time, a very faint smell pulsed off of the shell, so faint, in fact, that it was easy to miss. As the smell wafted out, Xu Qing looked at the entrance of the bay, his eyes narrowed, the poison-stimting incense gripped in his hand.

    Time passed.

    An hourter, his eyes flickered with cold light as he saw a huge plume of water in the distance. A 300-meter-long whale breached the surface, let loose a piercing cry, then sshed back down into the water. That, in turn, revealed that within the water around it was a school of fish that resembled crocodiles. They were ck-scaled crocfish, which were simr to ck-scaled wolves. They usually congregated in schools of over a hundred individuals, and usually reached the eighth or ninth level of Qi Condensation.

    As for the whale, it was in the great circle of Qi Condensation. Seeing this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up. As he waited, the ck-scaled crocfish caused waves to surge as they rushed toward the bay. The whale was close behind. Shortly thereafter, rumbling sounds filled the bay as the ck-scaled crocfish entered, swimming straight toward Xu Qing and mming into his dharmaskiff defenses. Booms rang out, but his dharmaskiff defenses were strong, and they didn¡¯t even crack under the assault.

    Just as in the forbidden region jungle, sea beasts were primarily body cultivators, and few had magical techniques. For the most part, their tough physical form was their greatest asset.

    Only about a hundred. That¡¯s not much.... Not hesitating at all, he put more spirit stones into the formation to power the defenses. Before long, he saw more waves off in the distance.

    This time, it was a school of huge swordfish,rger than any he¡¯d seen before. There appeared to be hundreds of them. Most were between the third and fifth levels of Qi Condensation, but there were forty or fifty that were in the eighth or ninth level. Their eyes were bright red as they rushed into the bay. That was when Xu Qing tossed the poison-stimting incense stick into the water.

    Instantly, the more than one hundred types of poison in the water erupted, and the ck water turned an even deeper ck color, so that it looked like a thick ink. As the effect spread, the ck-scaled crocfish trembled and went still. The whale was also rendered motionless. The same thing happened to the swordfish. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the entire bay, which had just been spraying with water, waspletely still and silent.

    Eyes filling with anticipation, Xu Qing waved his hand and made a grasping motion. As a result, a huge hand formed from water grabbed all the sea beasts and dragged them toward him.

    Then, Xu Qing¡¯s dharma apertures erupted with mes that shot out to burn them. Of course, they weren¡¯t dead. His poison was powerful, but he hadn¡¯t designed it to kill them, just render them incapable of fighting him. As the ck mes burned, one soul after another flew into Xu Qing. There in his dantian region, they became soul shadows that served as kindling as he battered at his 3rd dharma aperture. Only a momentter, a tremor passed through him, and his eyes glittered as his 3rd dharma aperturepletely opened. When that happened, spirit power rushed into it, and then dharma force spread out into his body.

    He didn¡¯t stop there. With the ck mes still absorbing souls, he was able to send the power toward his 4th dharma aperture. It opened!

    The bay had be a ce of death. Though there was nothing on the surface, below the surface were numerous beast corpses.

    With 4 dharma apertures opened within him, dharma force surged through him, and his aura became stronger than before. As the ck mes raged, and the fire within his 4 dharma apertures burned, it made Xu Qing seem like he was engulfed in mes as he sat on the deck. Though this was a far cry from the profound radiance state, it was clear that his dharma force was far more majestic than when he had first stepped into Foundation Establishment.

    This is the kind of speed I¡¯m looking for! Sometimeter, Xu Qing opened his eyes, looked around, and then started creating more of the ghostlonging horseshoe crab substance.

    1. The young merman applied the substance to Xu Qing in chapter 73, but the details weren¡¯t exined until chapter 74. ?

    2. The idea ofbining chrysanthemum mollusks and ghostlonging horseshoe crabs was first brought up in chapter 109. ?

 Chapter 142: Massive Killing Intent

    Chapter 142: Massive Killing Intent

    Time was like water, flowing by day by day. The beast corpses were like dead leaves, drifting down. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days passed. Xu Qing was no longer in the same bay as before. He had changed inds five times. This was his sixth uninhabited ind, and on this one, he had dug out a simple bay to use. During those twenty days, he had done only one thing other than change inds: focus on breaking open dharma apertures. He just opened his 10th.

    Within the ck iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had spent thest half month in a state of absolute trepidation. By now, he was in somewhat of a daze, and was convinced he was in one of the ancient records he¡¯d read in the past. With each dharma aperture that a cultivator opened, more soul power was needed, and the process became more difficult. Because of that, it had taken the patriarch eight years to open 10 dharma apertures. But Xu Qing had done the same thing in twenty days.

    It was a rate of progress that left the patriarch gobsmacked. Based on what he knew, even in Seven Blood Eyes, it wasmon for disciples to take two years or so to open that many dharma apertures. The only exception would be in the case of a huge war, in which a cultivator could killrge numbers of enemies.

    But there had been no major war for Seven Blood Eyes in many years. There were only asional small battles. As for the use of sea beasts, the Forbidden Sea was vast, but although the sea beasts weren¡¯t very intelligent, it was hard to kill them inrge numbers.

    It was only by using poison and spell formations that Xu Qing was able to achieve such rapid progress. There weren¡¯t many people who could do that. It not only required special resources, it necessitated an exceptional level of strength to begin with. And it also required the ability to make sure truly dangerous sea beasts didn¡¯t show up.

    Xu Qing knew that he couldn¡¯t keep this up for a long time. First of all, ghostlonging horseshoe crabs were rare, and he had already refined the two he had, and only had a bit of their blood left. At the same time, he didn¡¯t have arge number of chrysanthemum mollusks. What was more, Xu Qing was starting to feel nervous. He was creating a lot of beast corpses in the bays he visited, and if he kept it up, he was worried it might attract the attention of something truly terrifying. Because of that, he was already thinking of going back to the sect. Right now, he was extracting the soul of a snakeneck dragon, which he used to batter at his 11th dharma aperture.

    Even as a crack appeared on the 11th dharma aperture, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and he looked off at the distant sea, his eyes gleaming.

    That aura....

    Off in the distance, the surface of the water exploded as a roughly 300-meter long sea beast shot up into the air. It was covered with what appeared to be a metallic suit of armor, and it had a huge, vicious mouth. While it hung in the air over the water, it looked over at Xu Qing in the bay.

    That¡¯s a Foundation Establishment armored mackerel!

    This wasn¡¯t the first Foundation Establishment sea beast he had encountered in the past twenty days. Just seven days before, he¡¯d run into a spiraltooth horseshoe crab. Its terrifying appearance, astonishing aura, and the furnace-like heat it had in it gave Xu Qing the impression it could enter the profound radiance state. He had immediately retreated to thend, maintaining full vignce, and keeping his dharmaskiff¡¯s godliness ready to use. However, the creature hadn¡¯t seemed very interested in him. It simply examined him for a moment then left. Ever since then, he had been even more on guard against such dangerous beasts.

    As he looked at the armored mackerel, he came to the conclusion that it was very powerful. It seemed intelligent, as it didn¡¯t get too close to him, but rather circled the ind as if taking stock of him. Its armor made a distinctive clinking sound as it swam through the water. Then, after enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, it suddenly shot toward the bay Xu Qing was in.

    Halfway toward him, it leaped into the air and howled in his direction, releasing a shockwave that created a wave on the surface of the water that rumbled toward the ind with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and his dharmaskiff thrummed as godliness converged within it. Xu Qing reached out with a grasping motion, and his snakeneck dragon appeared in midair. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the snakeneck dragon flew toward the armored mackerel. In response, the armored mackerel stopped and backed up to flee. Apparently, it realized Xu Qing was someone who shouldn¡¯t be trifled with, as it dove into the water to flee.

    It can¡¯t enter the profound radiance state!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up. He had been hoping to find a Foundation Establishment sea beast that couldn¡¯t enter the profound radiance state. Now that he had found one, there was no way he could let it get away.

    Bursting into motion, he became a streak of light that shot forward, while at the same time, he raised his hand over his head. The image of a heavenly saber appeared above him, which he shed down toward the surface of the water.

    Water crashed as a 300-meter-long furrow opened up in it, revealing the armored mackerel. However, its armor was truly spectacr, as the heavenly saber didn¡¯t damage it at all. Instead, the fish turned to look at Xu Qing with a ruthless expression.

    However, that was when the iron skewer flew forth, a bluish light glittering on it that revealed it was covered with poison. Xu Qing had done that at the fervent request of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. It seemed like the iron skewer was intending to hit the fish¡¯s armor, but at thest minute, it spun bizarrely in the air, then stabbed into the armored mackerel¡¯s eye.

    The armored mackerel let loose a howl, then shivered. Instantly, the area around it became filled with countless projections of fish scales. All of them thrummed with dharma force; if they struck a Qi Condensation cultivator, that person would definitely die.

    Yet they didn¡¯t stop Xu Qing. The ck mes within him spread, emerging from his right hand to form something that looked like a dagger.

    This was a magical technique from the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture that came after opening 10 dharma apertures. It was called Balede, and it changed its appearance depending on the needs of the cultivator. Right now, the dagger of ck fire pierced right into the armored mackerel, destroying its armor and sending fire out to cover it. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t done. Next, he sent his shadow out toward the fish. Looking very rmed, the armored mackerel twitched, causing its armor to vanish and take the me with it, then transform into a metallic tempest that raged toward Xu Qing.

    Having aplished that, it swished its tail, which caused a huge wall of water to rise up between it and Xu Qing. ring at Xu Qing, the fish then opened its mouth and spat out a huge ck pearl.

    The pearl was filled with rotting corpses, some of them beasts, some of them humanoid. The corpses all opened their eyes and howled as if they wanted to escape from the pearl. In fact, their arms began to emerge from within the pearl, making it look like it was covered with spikes as it flew toward Xu Qing. His eyes were cold as the fire billowed higher around him. The spectral drought demon appeared behind him, howling, while at the same time, his snakeneck dragon shot out from the water and toward the ck pearl.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the snakeneck dragon swallowed the pearl. The dragon¡¯s belly suddenly swelled as if the pearl were fighting violently to escape, but the dragon kept it contained. After all, the dragon was the manifestation of a magical technique. That said, it seemed like it wouldn¡¯tst for much longer.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing burst through the metallic tempest sent at him by the armored mackerel. His personal defenses were activated as he closed in on the fish with his dagger of me aimed at its eye.

    The fish howled, and seemed to want to dive back down to the bottom of the sea. But Xu Qing¡¯s shadow had split into two parts, one stretching toward the ind, and the other wrapping around the armored mackerel. As the fish struggled against the bonds, Xu Qing¡¯s dagger stabbed into its eye. Then he lifted his left hand, and his 10 dharma apertures raged with fire, covering that hand. Pushing down on the armored mackerel, he began to immte it.

    As it burned, and soul power streamed into Xu Qing, he suddenly felt a sensation of profound danger.

    Looking up, he saw dozens of ancient bronze swords flying through the air toward the armored mackerel.

    They were arrayed in such a way that the attacker obviously didn¡¯t care about hitting Xu Qing. Worse, a huge vortex appeared directly below, giving Xu Qing no other option than to back up and use his ck mes to create a shield to defend himself.

    Rumbling sounds rang out as the dozens of swords fell, stabbing into the armored mackerel. Of course, it had lost its armor, so it was immediately sliced to bits. At the same time, Xu Qing backed away at top speed. After making sure he was clear of the falling swords, Xu Qing¡¯s face turned extremely grim as he looked at the fish corpse floating on the water. Then he looked up to see a young man flying atop a huge ancient bronze sword.

    His crimson daoist robe made him very eye-catching. As the First Peak disciple stood with his hands sped behind his back on his sword, streams of energy and blood rose from the corpse of the armored mackerel, which he then absorbed.

    Looking down coldly at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°It is no waste to wait from dusk ¡®til dawn; as you wish, produce a new treasure to add on.¡±

    Then he turned and left.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Looking at his snakeneck dragon, he saw that the pearl inside it had stopped struggling now that the fish was dead. It waspletely suppressed by his snakeneck dragon, who was now consuming it. He hadn¡¯t been able to extract all the soul power from the armored mackerel, but he had managed to take about forty percent of it. So he sent it toward his 11th dharma aperture.

    A momentter, the 11th aperture opened, and his dharma force rose to new heights. Then he looked in the direction the First Peak disciple had disappeared to. Knowing that the disciple didn¡¯t have a life me, Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent began to burn. Waving his hand toward his dharmaskiff in the bay, he sent the terrifying godliness within it out in an attack. A golden beam of light shot off into the distance toward the First Peak disciple.

    When the First Peak disciple saw that, his face fell, and he scrambled to pull off an incantation gesture. As he did, the huge bronze sword he stood on tilted up to block the iing godly attack. Then the sword shattered, and blood oozed out of the corners of the First Peak disciple¡¯s mouth as he was shoved backward 300 meters. There, his eyes shone with killing intent as he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Easy it is for youths to discard an escort; the fifth watch sounds, taking the escort¡¯s life.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing had no idea what that meant, so all it did was make his killing intent stronger. Bursting into motion, he closed in on the First Peak disciple, his dagger shing toward the young man¡¯s throat.

    1. This particr poem contains two lines from a real-life poem, except tweaked slightly by the author. Most Chinese readers did not realize this, but some readers in thements made the connection. It¡¯s a poem by Song Dynasty poet Yan Shu. I could not find any existing trantion of the poem, although it might exist somewhere. For the most part, all of the other ¡®poetry¡¯ spouted by this guy is invented by the author. ?

 Chapter 143: Set to Kill

    Chapter 143: Set to Kill

    Xu Qing had his own set of principles. Previously, this person chased a giantfang shark right past him. It wasn¡¯t that he hadn¡¯t been tempted by that shark. He had been. But he hadn¡¯t made a move because he felt that the shark wasn¡¯t his.

    It was just like that time, so long ago, when Sergeant Thunder gave him some steamed buns to eat. He had been deeply grateful from the bottom of his heart. That said, he wouldn¡¯t have felt it inappropriate for Sergeant Thunder to not give him those buns. Later, he treated Sergeant Thunder to some snake, and had felt fully justified in joining whole-heartedly. He had no problem wolfing down what belonged to him.

    It was the same today. He had worked hard to capture that armored mackerel, had nearly killed it, and was just about to fully extract its soul. Then this person rudely jumped in and attacked the fish. It was behavior that, to Xu Qing, crossed the line. Thest person who had acted this way toward Xu Qing was that young merman. If someone far stronger than him treated him in this way, he would patiently wait for the right opportunity to destroy them. But this person wasn¡¯t that strong. And Xu Qing wasn¡¯t feeling patient.

    Bursting into motion, his ck dagger rippled with dark mes as he aimed it toward the young man¡¯s throat.

    The First Peak disciple¡¯s sword had copsed, but an illusory sword appeared in front of him which blurred to intercept the dagger.

    A boom rang out, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to follow up with a punch mirrored by the howling spectral drought demon. His Sea and Mountain Incantation coupled with his dharma body unleashed such force that a vortex sprang into being in the air in front of his fist, rumbling toward the First Peak disciple like it could rip apart anything it touched.

    The First Peak disciple¡¯s expression flickered as he backed up. His hands met each other to perform an incantation gesture, but then Xu Qing¡¯s shadow closed in, wrapped around his wrist, and interrupted. That distraction had profound effects.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into the illusory sword in front of the disciple. His fist crushed through the sword like a boulder crushing a drinking ss, and as the sword exploded, the blownded on the young man. The First Peak disciple¡¯s pupils constricted, and blood sprayed out of his mouth as he tumbled backward like a kite with its string cut. And before he could stabilize the terrifying force threatening to rip him apart from the inside, the water below him exploded as a snakeneck dragon lunged up with its gaping maw. At the same time, a huge heavenly saber appeared, bursting with shocking momentum as it shed toward him.

    In that moment of deadly crisis, the First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes were bloodshot and he howled at the top of his lungs. Instantly, something like a furnace raged into life within him, something almost like the profound radiance state. Brilliant light spread out everywhere, shredding the snakeneck dragon into pieces that dropped down to the water below. They quickly reformed, but it was obvious the dragon had sustained serious damage. Meanwhile, the heavenly saber struck true, but let loose a thrumming boom as it did. Though the saber hit the disciple, it didn¡¯t sh him in half. Instead, it caused blood to ooze out of his mouth as he borrowed the force from the blow to retreat 300 meters.

    Xu Qing had noticed that the young man had something that resembled the profound radiance state, yet was different. His best guess was that it was a secret magic that released a fraction of the power of the profound radiance state. However, this young man didn¡¯t have a life me, and therefore, using this secret magic would harm him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s assessment was correct. As the First Peak disciple fell back, he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, and the raging furnace within him winked out. His face was now very pale, yet his eyes were still locked on Xu Qing and burning with the desire to do battle. He didn¡¯t know Xu Qing, and didn¡¯t believe that Xu Qing was worth knowing. This disciple was the most recent, and also final, apprentice to be taken in by the peaklord of the First Peak. In other words, he was the First Peak¡¯s ninth highness, and it had been a very long time since he encountered a fellow disciple from the sect who could make him cough up blood.

    Now, his eyes filled with killing intent as he red at Xu Qing. Stabilizing his energy and blood, he wiped his mouth clean of blood and waved his trembling right hand. Instantly, a host of over thirty bronze swords appeared behind him, arranged in aplex spell formation pattern. As they radiated intense sword energy, he pointed at Xu Qing, and the swords shot forward. Then the First Peak disciple sprang into motion, looking almost like a sword himself as he headed right toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing lookedpletely calm as he also charged forward, waving his hand to cause the ck fire in his 11 dharma apertures to spring to life. The fire then erupted out of him, wreathing himpletely in me. At the same time, numerous illusory me daggers appeared around him.

    When they mmed into each other, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering boom rumbled out. Xu Qing¡¯s daggers copsed, and the mes surrounding him faded a bit. However, the First Peak disciple¡¯s swords all shattered, and he coughed up three sessive mouthfuls of blood.

    Xu Qing also sustained injuries, but because of his body cultivation and dharma body, he didn¡¯t even pay attention to them.

    But the First Peak disciple was an extraordinary individual. More sword projections appeared around him and shot toward Xu Qing as he approached, filling the sky and causing rumbling sounds to echo out over the surface of the water.

    Xu Qing waved his right hand, and a huge wave rolled up, transforming into an enormous hand that grabbed toward his opponent. Meanwhile, the First Peak disciple performed an incantation gesture and touched his forehead. Instantly, the mark of a sun appeared on his forehead, then sent out dazzling light that destroyed the hand of water. Xu Qing frowned, but kept pressing the attack. This time, as they closed in on each other, he decided to resort to a simple head-butt. A boom rang out, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth.

    At the same time, the First Peak disciple howled in grief, tumbling back, his forehead bleeding and seemingly about to copse.

    Xu Qing was about to chase after him again, but suddenly realized something and backed up. The instant he did, all of the broken pieces of the sword from earlier suddenly shot out of the water, creating a tornado of des that swept right over the spot where he would have been passing through if he gave chase.

    The First Peak disciple suddenly ceased howling. After backing up a few more meters, he stopped in ce to catch his breath. Inside, he was shaken by Xu Qing¡¯s performance. The First Peak disciple felt confident in his own status as a very strong cultivator. His own Master had outright said he was. In fact, his Master said he was the strongest new Foundation Establishment cultivator with no profound radiance state in the entire history of the First Peak.

    This fight was a big blow to his faith in himself. However, he wasn¡¯t ready to give in yet.

    ¡°When I go strolling in the sky; the sun and moon both say good-bye!¡±

    The only response he got from Xu Qing was a second godly attack from his dharmaskiff. The dazzling beam of light caused everything around it to ripple and distort as it shot toward the First Peak disciple. The First Peak disciple¡¯s expression yet again flickered, and he immediately threw out a jade talisman in front of him. The talisman exploded, and a host of soul shadows appeared from within it.

    These soul shadows were all the beasts the First Peak disciple had in. By using a special sealing method, he captured them and transformed them into a magical technique he could unleash. Most were beasts from forbidden region jungles. As they appeared in the open, they merged together to form one huge, pitch-ck monster that faced the iing attack of godliness. Everything rumbled loudly.

    The First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes burned with killing intent as he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood. Then he lifted his right hand again and jabbed it onto his forehead. A tremor passed through him, and his energy and blood surged. His skin became crimson, to the point where he looked like he was covered in blood. And there was something sharp and incisive that glittered within him as well. Just barely, it was possible to see the image of a huge, blood-colored sword surrounding him as he pierced through the air toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing felt a sensation of danger, but he didn¡¯t back down. Throwing both hands out in front of him, he tapped into all 11 of his dharma apertures, causing each of them to emit a 1,500-meter sea of fire.

    Combined together, that was a total of 16,500 meters that raged in all directions. As that sea of fire was reflected in the water below, the Forbidden Sea energy for 16,500 meters in all directionsbined with it, creating a crushing pressure. And the First Peak disciple in his blood sword form mmed right into it.

    A boom rang out. Xu Qing¡¯s 16,500-meter sea trembled and began to fade away. But at the same time, the First Peak disciple in his sword form shook violently, and began to copse starting from the tip of the sword. It didn¡¯t take long. After ten breaths of time, the blood sword copsed, and the First Peak disciple was sent tumbling away. As he did, Xu Qing¡¯s 16,500-meter spirit sea became a massive fist which shot toward him.

    Mouthful after mouthful of blood sprayed out of the First Peak disciple¡¯s mouth, and his eyes went wide. In that critical and potentially deadly moment, he didn¡¯t hesitate to pull out a pearl that he then crushed. A haze of water vapor instantly surrounded him, blocking Xu Qing¡¯s terrifying attack, and simultaneously allowing the First Peak disciple to turn and flee. His expression seemed very unsightly, and he had given up any aspirations of continuing the fight.

    For one thing, he got the feeling he couldn¡¯t beat this opponent. In addition to that, he was terrified of this Seventh Peak disciple¡¯s spirit sea. He couldn¡¯t assess Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, but he had the feeling it was close to being able to produce a life me.

    However, just as he thought he was about to escape, a ck shadow shot out of the water and wrapped around his leg. Then, the First Peak disciple¡¯s face fell as he realized an iron skewer was shooting toward his throat. He was nearly losing his mind with the intense sense of imminent crisis. Before he could do anything, a pop could be heard as the iron skewer hit him.

    However, it didn¡¯t pierce into the skin of his throat. What was more, it seemed the shadow had finally met its match, as the First Peak disciple slipped out of its grip as if he were coated in oil.

    The First Peak disciple didn¡¯t escape without paying a price, though, as a jade pendant he had hanging around his neck shattered.

    It was a life-saving item his Master had given him, which would substitute itself for him in death. Now that it was destroyed, true terror appeared in the First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes. Without any hesitation, he started fleeing at the highest speed he could muster. However, behind him, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing his dharmaskiff to fly out of the nearby bay. As its wings unfurled, Xu Qing jumped onto it, recalled his shadow and skewer, and then started chasing after the First Peak disciple.

    This opponent was strong. In fact, he was the strongest Foundation Establishment cultivator Xu Qing had encountered outside of the Captain in his profound radiance state.

    If the old Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior faced an opponent like this, he would die within three breaths of time. But he had stolen something that belonged to Xu Qing, and therefore, Xu Qing was dead set on killing him.

 Chapter 144: Unprecedented Brutality

    <h4>Chapter 144: Unprecedented Brutality</h4>

    The First Peak disciple could move fast. But out on the water, he had only himself to rely on. That was especially true considering that Xu Qing had destroyed his huge bronze sword.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had his dharmaskiff. Not only did he not need to expend any effort to move at top speed, but also, he could simply sit on the deck and recover while doing so. It was easy to imagine how a chase between the two would ultimately y out. This was one reason why the ¡®boat cultivators¡¯ from the Seventh Peak were so mighty. Once in Foundation Establishment, they were strong on shore, but at the same time, could stay out on the water for long periods of time.

    As a result, after about two hours passed, the First Peak disciple was starting to feel extremely anxious at having Xu Qing chase him with his dharmaskiff.

    Xu Qing wanted to kill his target, and therefore, he had no qualms about using the godliness in his boat. At a certain point, he unleashed another godly attack. The First Peak disciple let loose an agonized shriek, and quickly performed an incantation gesture and threw out a talisman treasure to defend himself. Blood sprayed from his mouth, but he survived and kept fleeing.

    Snorting coldly, Xu Qing kept up the chase. Before long, it was getting dark. As the sun set, slowly turning sea and sky the same color, Xu Qing elerated on his dharmaskiff. This time, instead of using the godliness in an attack, he just tried to close the distance.

    Then he waved his hand, and the sea erupted loudly as a snakeneck dragon suddenly popped up in front of the First Peak disciple, blocking his path. Then, as Xu Qing closed in from behind, he sent his ck iron skewer shooting out. As it circled around, looking for an opening, the excited voice of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior could be heard from inside.

    ¡°Milord, milord, you have to destroy this guy! Over the years, your humble servant has read many ancient records, and I¡¯ve seen a lot of ounts of people like this. Based on his clothing, he¡¯s obviously from the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ First Peak. He¡¯s in Foundation Establishment, but hasn¡¯t ignited his first life me, yet is obviously very strong. In books, people like that are usually the main character. He¡¯s obviously not an ordinary person. He might even have the title ¡®highness.¡¯

    ¡°Also, milord, did you notice that he talks very strangely? In most books, people with so many special qualities are usually very hard to kill!

    ¡°However,pared to you, milord, he¡¯s like a knockoff protagonist while you¡¯re the real thing. In the ancient records your humble servant has read, people like this usually have incredible destiny. However, after you kill them, you can take their destiny! So you really, really, really don¡¯t want to miss out on this opportunity!

    ¡°Another thing. Considering how this guy loves to indulge in histrionics, and how he loves spewing loads of meaningless crap, we have a duty to beat him until he talks like a normal person. It¡¯s satisfying just thinking about it!¡±

    As the patriarch jabbered excitedly, he flew the iron skewer closer and closer to his target. At the same time, he was thinking,You¡¯re dead! There¡¯s only one person who can survive being chased by the Fiendish Xu. And that¡¯s me! There won¡¯t be a second!

    As the patriarch pushed the iron skewer to higher speeds, Xu Qing got closer, lifted his hand overhead, and summoned the illusory heavenly saber.

    Wailing inwardly, the First Peak disciple threw out a dozen or so talisman treasures, and as they exploded, they repelled the snakeneck dragon and the heavenly saber. Then he continued to flee.

    However, that was when Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw his opening, and shot forward to stab the First Peak disciple through the arm.

    Breathing heavily, and his eyes filled with a vicious gleam, the First Peak disciple shouted, ¡°Burn!¡±

    Instantly, the blood covering the iron skewer burst into me.

    The patriarch shouted in rm and quickly worked to put out the fire. Feeling like he had lost a lot of face, he howled angrily, causing a huge sealing mark to appear outside the skewer and shoot toward the First Peak disciple.

    The First Peak disciple was about to fight back, but then Xu Qing arrived. The moment he did, ck fire erupted from him and surrounded the First Peak disciple. It seemed like Xu Qing was about to start extracting his soul.

    This level of brutality was shocking to the First Peak disciple, and he fell back at top speed while simultaneously trying to point out to Xu Qing that they were both from the same sect, and didn¡¯t need to be fighting like this.

    ¡°A home amongst immortals puts the heart at ease; we two are neighbors within the mountains and seas!¡±

    Xu Qing had no idea what that meant, so he tuned out the First Peak disciple¡¯s voice and sent ck mes raging out with full force. As the moment grew more critical, the First Peak disciple shouted loudly and pulled out a small ck statue of a human. When he threw it out, dazzling light exploded from it, and a projected image appeared. It was a middle-aged cultivator in a ck daoist robe, his face expressionless. Looking at Xu Qing, he flicked his sleeve, and a wild wind sprang up, blocking Xu Qing¡¯s ck mes.

    Xu Qing was also sent spinning away, blood oozing out of the corners of his mouth. When he finally stopped his backward motion, the First Peak disciple was fleeing in the opposite direction.

    ¡°Milord,¡± Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shouted urgently as he flew back in the iron skewer. ¡°This little punk has too many tricks up his sleeve. Let¡¯s just poison him!¡± The patriarch was really trying to make it sound like he and Xu Qing were working together as a team.

    ¡°I already did,¡± Xu Qing said coldly, looking at the First Peak disciple¡¯s retreating form.

    All of a sudden, the First Peak disciple coughed up a mouthful of ck blood. Terror grew in his eyes, as he sensed his energy and blood growing very unstable. At the same time, intense pain struck his internal organs, as if they were melting. Realizing that these were symptoms of poisoning, he immediately pulled out some antidote pills. However, consuming them didn¡¯t do anything. In fact, they made the symptoms worse. Xu Qing had designed his poisons specifically to counter the effects ofmon antidote pills.

    Looking more rmed than ever, the First Peak disciple unleashed a secret magic to suppress the poison. He was really confused by everything that was happening. They were both from the same sect, and all he¡¯d done was snatch a Foundation Establishment sea beast. Was that really worth this sort of life-and-death battle?

    ¡°Modern morals have fallen far; bullies make me wonder who I am.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him and sent his dharmaskiff forward in a battering attack.

    The First Peak disciple howled in grief, wondering why this Seventh Peak brat was so difficult tomunicate with. He had already exined who he was and where he came from, yet his opponent wouldn¡¯t give up the fight. At this point, he wasing to the realization that he actually might die. As anxiety built in his heart, he bit his tongue and spat out some more blood. Yet again, he entered his blood sword form, then shot away.

    Time passed.

    Xu Qing pursued with relentless brutality, chasing the First Peak disciple for two days and three nights!

    They shed numerous times, and Xu Qing always fought at full force. He took advantage of every opportunity to utilize poison, but the First Peak disciple skillfully used some sort of bloodletting magic to neutralize it. What was more, he repeatedly tapped into his secret magic to assume his blood sword form and escape. Xu Qing hadnded grievous blows on him numerous times, yet couldn¡¯t kill him.

    However, he wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sighed inwardly. Watching the First Peak disciple flee kept making him think of himself.

    You little brat. I don¡¯t care if you really are an MC. That alone isn¡¯t enough now that you¡¯ve run into the Fiendish Xu. The only way you could survive is if you do the same thing I did. But there are only a few open spots left for that kind of thing. At this point, only the dharmaskiff is avable!

    Though the patriarch sighed, he also felt quite proud of himself.

    By now, the First Peak disciple¡¯s hair was disheveled, his robe was in tatters, and he looked very weak. The paleness of his face made it obvious how much blood he had lost. He had bitten his tongue so many times that he was worried that if he kept it up, he might not have a tongue left. By now, his cold demeanor had long since vanished. He had never met anyone as stubborn as this. During this two-day and three-night chase, neither of them had slept. It really seemed like this person was not going to give up until the First Peak disciple was dead.

    ¡°The heart falls numb when winteres and autumn goes; when leaves fall and blood pools, homesickness grows!¡±

    The First Peak disciple suddenly threw a medicinal pill out behind him, which exploded, revealing a host of souls.However, they didn¡¯tunch an attack. It seemed more like the First Peak disciple was giving them to Xu Qing.The First Peak disciple had been collecting them, some for cultivation use, and some to sell to Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators. After all, he knew that though these types of souls weren¡¯t as useful as freshly extracted ones, they could still be helpful.

    ¡°Where water meetsnd, reach the moon in the sky; all living beings know that you rule on high!¡±

    He forced the words from his mouth hoping they would save his life, then bit his tongue and transformed into a blood sword.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t make heads nor tails of his babbling poetry. However, after seeing all those souls, he sent out his ck mes to absorb them.The souls didn¡¯t resist, and immediately became kindling that he sent smashing into his 12th dharma aperture. As a result, he managed to half-open it. Eyes lighting up, he elerated in his pursuit.

    Seeing that, the First Peak disciple¡¯s expression became one of grief and indignation. He really didn¡¯t understand why Xu Qing was being so unreasonable. The First Peak disciple had begged for forgiveness, and even offeredpensation. He had even pointed out that they were on the same side! But despite all that, including ttery,thiswas the result?? It was just a sea beast, right?

    ¡°Sun, moon, and stars are seen every day; to we immortals they are friends to stay.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response, and instead, kept up the chase. Another day and night passed. The First Peak disciple had run out of souls, and Xu Qing had opened two dharma apertures, putting him at a total of 13. Despite that, he wasn¡¯t giving up the chase, and had evenunched some mortal blows, only to have his quarry evade them. The First Peak disciple was so bedraggled his robe almost didn¡¯t look like clothing. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his face was extremely pale.

    On a few asions he was hit so badly he saw stars, and was worried he might pass out from exhaustion. And thanks to the poison, he was even weaker, pushing him closer and closer to the point of despair. He was d he had prepared so well for this trip out to sea. All the boosts to his battle prowess allowed him to evade numerous mortal attacks from the Seventh Peak disciple.

    Unfortunately, he had gone too far out to sea. Despite the days that the chase had stretched out, they still weren¡¯t close to the sect. And if his calctions were correct, they were still about five days away from it.Realizing that, his heart filled with despair. He had tried sending some voice messages to ask for help, but was so far away from shore that the messages didn¡¯t go through.As his pursuer elerated, the First Peak disciple moaned inwardly. But then, he noticed rumbling sounds in the sky ahead. Craning his neck, he saw figures flying through the sky, causing thunderous rumbling sounds, and kicking the seawater into a storm-like frenzy.

    Dozens of figures up ahead were engaged in fierce fighting, and there appeared to be two groups. Their cultivation bases were difficult to assess, and the shockwaves that rolled out from their blows filled the area with wild winds. The sky above them was dark.

    Despite being a great distance away from them, the First Peak disciple felt such immense pressure from their aura that he coughed up some blood. Behind him, Xu Qing saw the same thing, and as his mind spun, he also coughed up blood.

    The figures ahead seemed almost like gods, and they definitely surpassed Third Elder. Just looking at him caused Xu Qing to feel like his body might copse. Then he saw that beneath one of the figures was a dreadnaught, which was when he realized who they were.

    At the same time, the First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes lit up as he realized that one of those figures was his Master. Whooping with joy, he cried,¡°The setting sun casts out a divine ray of light; a new thread of hope rises up deep in the sea.¡±

 Chapter 145: One Talisman, Two Lives

    <h4>Chapter 145: One Talisman, Two Lives</h4>

    When the First Peak disciple called out in excitement, he projected his voice with dharma force, ensuring that he could be heard from quite a distance. His voice pierced shrilly high into the dome of heaven. In fact, all of the dozens of fighting cultivators from both sides of the conflict heard him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered and he backed up. It wasn¡¯t just the unfathomable poetry that caused him to do so, but also... the dozens of gazes that turned in their direction. Every single one of those gazes had eyes like gods, and all of them had auras that, despite the great distance involved, had caused Xu Qing to tremble and cough up blood.Therefore, when they looked over... Xu Qing backed up without any hesitation. He fully activated his dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses, took out some defensive talisman treasures, and waved his hand to call over his snakeneck dragon as well.

    However, the indescribable terrifying pressure was so intense that, as Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun, his snakeneck dragon copsed, and his talisman treasures shattered. Thankfully, his dharmaskiff was extraordinary, and had been built with godliness. Therefore, though the defenses were destroyed, the boat itself remained intact.Shaking, he coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood. However, as the dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses reactivated, and he backed up at high speed, he managed to finally stand up to the pressure.

    Meanwhile, the First Peak disciple coughed up eight sessive mouthfuls of blood as three of his life-saving items copsed and his blood sword form was destroyed. He even pulled out an amazing shield, but it shattered.By that point, he was far enough away that he could resist the pressure. Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded with fear as he continued to back up, while simultaneously taking in the scene.

    High in the dome of heaven, the two parties involved in the conflict exchanged blows that caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth, massive rumbling to echo out, and a tempest to rage on the surface of the water. Among the figures involved in the fight, Xu Qing spotted the peaklord of the Seventh Peak. There were six other individuals with him, wearing different colored robes, and all of them pulsing with auras simr to his.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to guess who they were. They were obviously the peaklords of the other mountain peaks in Seven Blood Eyes.

    Fighting them on even terms were Seazombies. Xu Qing had encountered Seazombies in the Merfolk Isles. As for these, his eyes stung as he looked at them, but he could tell that they looked like humans. Each one wore a ck suit of armor, and their eyes burned with ck mes. At the same time, they seemed to exude a towering zombie poison.

    There were other cultivators present as well, with weaker cultivation bases. However, they were still mighty. Xu Qing saw Third Elder, as well as Seazombie cultivators who were roughly on the same level as him.

    Eventually, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes hurt so bad that he looked away. If he kept looking, he knew that his eyes would eventually copse. That was how much more powerful this group was than him.

    Suddenly, a howl echoed across the dome of heaven, and a crimson-robed old man from the Seven Blood Eyes group waved his hand. Instantly, an awe-inspiring golden sword appeared around him as he shot away from the Seazombies and toward Xu Qing and the First Peak disciple. The old man¡¯s face was as red as his crimson robe, making it seem like he was a burning sun. At the same time, he emanated a hair-raising heat. This was the peaklord of the First Peak.

    Seeing him approach, the First Peak disciple excitedly shouted,¡°A new thread of hope rises up deep in the ocean; the setting sun casts out a divine ray of light!!!¡±

    ¡°Even in a moment like this you refuse to talk like a normal person, my apprentice?¡± shouted First Peaklord. ¡°Get the hell out of here! Stick around and you¡¯ll end up dead!¡± He waved the sword in his hand, blocking an attack from one of the Seazombies that had broken away from the main battle to chase him.

    In the blink of an eye, their fighting had taken them off into the distance. Hearing what the old man said, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted and he sent his dharmaskiff underwater and shooting away at top speed.

    Not too far off, the First Peak disciple also seemed anxious to get away. He knew that time was limited, and if his Master left him, he would be dead for sure. Looking like he was hardly able to spit the words out, he shouted, ¡°Master, help me! This Seventh Peak punk has been trying to kill me for ten days and ten nights! He won¡¯t rest until I¡¯m dead! Don¡¯t leave me, Master! Heeeelp!!¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to push his dharmaskiff in the opposite direction with as much speed as possible.

    Some distance away, the old man from the First Peak looked back in shock. He had known from the beginning that hisst apprentice liked to babble meaningless poetry. And that was because the young man had learned that Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had often hidden profound truths within poetry. Ever since then, he¡¯d gone crazy trying to do the same thing.In fact, thest time the peaklord heard his apprentice speak like a normal person was three years ago. The old man¡¯s gaze shifted like lightning to Xu Qing¡¯s fleeing form.

    Despite how far away he was, and the fact that Xu Qing was now under water, the pressure of his gaze still caused Xu Qing to tremble. And then he simply couldn¡¯t move at all, as though he were restrained in ce, his life hanging on a thread.

    Opening his mouth, First Peaklord said, ¡°You¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a kid¡¯s scrap,¡± a voice said coolly from higher up. The person who spoke the words stood atop a dreadnaught, and was casually fighting three Seazombies. He was none other than Master Seventh.

    The First Peak disciple was visibly taken aback. However, First Peaklord didn¡¯t react at all, and continued speaking, making it impossible to determine if Master Seventh¡¯s words had made him change his mind about what he had been about to say.

    ¡°¡ªYou two are really getting into a scuffle considering the circumstances?¡± He waved his hand, and a golden paper talisman flew out. It appeared to be a talisman treasure, but at the same time, seemed a hundred times more powerful than any talisman treasure Xu Qing had ever seen. It sshed into the water and headed toward him. As it closed in, it suddenly ripped in half, with one part heading toward the shocked First Peak disciple andnding on his face. The other part pierced right through Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff defenses andnded on his arm.

    The moment it happened, Xu Qing and the First Peak disciple trembled, and the talisman disappeared, leaving behind a golden mark on both of them.

    ¡°This lifelink talisman won¡¯t harm you in any way. However, if one of you dies, the other will also die. If you want to kill each other, then go ahead. But if you don¡¯t, then get the hell back to the sect. Once you¡¯re there, the grand formation will dispel the talisman.¡±

    Next, the peaklord sent a massive wave of force down, picked up Xu Qing and the First Peak disciple, and threw them off into the distance. Finally he shot back into the battle, waving his sword to chop the leg off of one of the Seazombie cultivators. Before the Seazombie could react, sword energy shot through him, and he exploded. Then another Seazombie engaged with him, and they started fighting, rapidly moving off into the distance.

    Waves rolled across the surface of the sea, and a very unsightly expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he looked down at the mark on his arm. The mark wasn¡¯t actually limited to his arm; it covered his entire body.

    Not too far away, the First Peak disciple was also looking at the mark. However, in contrast to Xu Qing, he was breathing a sigh of relief. In fact, he even took out a half-broken sword, sat on it, and looked at Xu Qing on his dharmaskiff.

    Xu Qing looked back at him coldly. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve lived free, as if drunk or dreaming; with a masked face, I¡¯ve traveled the world.¡±

    Struggling to keep his killing intent under control, Xu Qing summoned an illusory dagger of ck me and rushed toward the First Peak disciple.

    The First Peak disciple¡¯ heart leapt into his throat, but he trusted his Master, so he forced himself to just sit in ce. The knife closed in on his throat, and just when it seemed like it was about to plunge into the flesh¡­

    Xu Qing suddenly felt an intense sensation of deadly crisis. He hated to admit it, but it seemed this lifelink talisman really was astonishing. With the talisman in ce, he couldn¡¯t kill his opponent. Nor did it seem possible to beat him to a pulp, or cripple his cultivation base.

    Besides, given how tenacious he was, it was always possible Xu Qing might identally kill him, and thus, kill himself. That wasn¡¯t even to mention that the fellow had formidable battle prowess, ensuring that it would take a lot of effort topletely defeat him. After weighing the options, Xu Qing quashed his killing intent, red coldly at the young man, then put his dagger away and got back onto his dharmaskiff.

    Seeing that, the First Peak disciple finally started to recover from the terror which had been building up in him.

    As for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in the iron skewer, he looked at the distant peaklords and sighed deeply.

    Why didn¡¯t I think of that? It¡¯s a freaking good idea!!!

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing sat cross-legged on his dharmaskiff, using his shadow to overload himself with mutagen, hoping that it might get rid of the lifelink talisman mark. Actually, the lifelink talisman mark did flicker a bit, but Xu Qing could tell that the process was going very slowly.

    Ignoring the First Peak disciple, Xu Qing kept up the process of chipping away at the mark, then took out his bamboo slip and used the iron skewer to carve something on it.

    Upon seeing the bamboo slip and all the names on it, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s eyes went wide. That was especially true considering his name was at the top of the list. That got his heart pounding, and he was suddenly struck with how vengeful of a person Xu Qing was. But what caused him to tremble even more was the realization that, though his own name was crossed out, it looked different from other names that had been crossed out. The other names were crossed out with three lines, but his was only crossed out with one. And it was very faint.

    Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s still thinking about killing me?Terror gripped the patriarch, and he suddenly decided that he had to work much harder at being useful. The patriarch then watched as Xu Qing wrote a new name on the list.

    ¡®Idiot.¡¯

    Peering surreptitiously at the First Peak disciple, the patriarch mused that he fully approved of putting this name on the list.

    As for the First Peak disciple, he was breathing a sigh of relief, and thinking that if he hadn¡¯t run into his Master, he would probably have lost his life already.

    Then he started thinking about the implications of Master Seventh¡¯s words, and that caused him to look over at Xu Qing.

    Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t actually know a lot of poetry. Most of the things he said were just random words thrown together. Though he wanted to ask Xu Qing some questions, he wasn¡¯t really sure of how to word them.

    After thinking for a moment, he forced out the following lines.

    ¡°On a sleepless night, I listen to the rain; is the immortal in the sky your father?¡±

    Completely ignoring the psychotic ramblings, Xu Qing finished writing ¡®Idiot,¡¯ and then put the bamboo slip away. After that, he activated his dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses and prepared to put some distance between himself and this young man.

    Just as he was about to perform an incantation gesture... a rumbling could be heard off in the distance. Looking over toward where the Seven Blood Eyes cultivators were fighting the Seazombies, he saw the mangled torso of a Seazombie Gold Core cultivator ssh into the water, sending out a huge wave before sinking down.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

 Chapter 146: Xu Qingâ€™s Dao Protector

    Chapter 146: Xu Qing¡¯s Dao Protector

    Xu Qing recognized that Seazombie as the same one First Peaklord had shed with his sword. This was apparently the second grievous injury he had sustained. Though it wasn¡¯t possible to tell if he was alive or dead, if he wasn¡¯t dead, he would be soon. Looking at the spot where he had fallen, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up in the same way the Captain¡¯s eyes had lit up upon seeing Joine¡¯s flesh.

    The First Peak disciple was also looking at the same thing, although he seemed hesitant.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, and then a look of determination appeared on his face. Beneath his dharmaskiff, his snakeneck dragon suddenly shot down toward the sinking remains of the Seazombie cultivator.

    The body was in bad shape. Its lower half was gone, as was its head, leaving behind only the torso. Vast quantities of ck blood spewed out of it into the surrounding water. The Seazombie¡¯s chest was still; it really seemed as if he was dead.

    As his snakeneck dragon reached the torso and prepared to bite it, the torso suddenly twitched and its arm lifted. Its hand touched the snakeneck dragon, whose entire body copsed. The only thing left behind was the armored mackerel¡¯s core. However, the dragon quickly reformed back around that.

    Meanwhile, the Seazombie cultivator seemed to have drained thest of his strength. His hand dropped, and his aura seemed incredibly weak. In fact, the mere act of moving his arm had made many of his chest wounds worse.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture, sending his snakeneck dragon back in for another bite. This time, the Seazombie twitched again, severely damaging the dragon, but at the same time, the dragon managed to bite off some flesh. In this case, it was a finger.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to go down himself, and instead reformed the snakeneck dragon. He wasn¡¯t hiding what he was doing, so off to the side, the First Peak disciple saw everything.

    At first he seemed suspicious, but when he realized what Xu Qing was doing, his eyes lit up. Looking at Xu Qing, then looking down into the water, he watched as the snakeneck dragon made a second attempt.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the Seazombie¡¯s arm exploded, causing the snakeneck dragon to copse. Seeing that, Xu Qing shot to his feet.

    However, that was when the First Peak discipleughed heartily, and before Xu Qing could do anything else, dove into the water and went down toward the sinking Seazombie.

    Xu Qing dove into the water right behind him, and pretended to try to catch up, though he intentionally hung back a bit. He had never nned to be the first into the water. Despite the tests with his snakeneck dragon, he was still leery. After all, this was a cultivator on the same level as one of the sect elders. Even in the dpidated state he was in, it was still possible he had lifesaving items on him. That wasn¡¯t even to mention the bizarre recovery capabilities of the Seazombies, which Xu Qing himself had personally witnessed. Therefore, he would rather have someone else go ahead of him to check out the situation.

    As for whether this disciple from the First Peak would end up dead... Xu Qing doubted it. The disciple obviously had more lifesaving items hidden away on him. And if he really got into a deadly situation, Xu Qing was fairly confident he could save him using his shadow. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, Xu Qing kept his distance and watched as the First Peak disciple got close to the Seazombie cultivator.

    As the First Peak disciple neared, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, summoning a host of swords that he sent flying down. He wasn¡¯t stupid. Although he had beat Xu Qing into the water, he was worried the whole thing might be a trick. However, the temptation was too great for him to resist, so he had gone ahead. That said, he was still going to do some of his own testing.

    Just as his swords were about to reach their target, the Seazombie cultivator¡¯s chest suddenly opened up, and a glob of ck blood appeared, which transformed into a vicious ghost. Roaring, it flew toward the First Peak disciple.

    That roar contained shockingly violent power, which smashed all of the iing swords and caused blood to ooze out of the First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Pulling out a jade pendant, he crushed it, causing a defensive barrier to appear while he fell back, terror written on his face.

    However, at the same time, Xu Qing rushed past him, heading at top speed toward the Seazombie cultivator.

    Again, the ghost on the Seazombie¡¯s chest roared. As it did, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and a ck umbre appeared, opening up and bearing the brunt of the attack as the sound once again rumbled out. Xu Qing trembled violently, and blood oozed out of him. But at the same time, a dagger of ck me appeared in his right hand, and he thrust it out viciously toward the ghost.

    The ghost writhed as ck mes swept out over it. Then, a second ghost appeared on the Seazombie¡¯s chest, and it also unleashed a roar.

    Xu Qing was shoved backward by about thirty meters. Meanwhile, the Seazombie cultivator took advantage of the moment to elerate downward into the water. He was trying to flee.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered coldly. In the brief contact he had made with the Seazombie, he could sense a scrap of its discarnate soul. That alone was tempting, but more than that, he had noticed a bag of holding on the Seazombie. [1]

    There was no way he would let this opportunity slip through his fingers. It wasn¡¯t often that you would run into a dying cultivator on the level of a sect elder. And even if you did, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily be possible to take their belongings.

    His mind made up, Xu Qing shot toward the rapidly sinking Seazombie corpse. His snakeneck dragon swirled down to surround him, helping him pick up speed. And his dharmaskiff also sank under the surface of the water, glittering as it prepared an attack of godliness.

    Meanwhile, the First Peak disciple watched with wide eyes as Xu Qing shot down. Although he was tempted by the possibilities of this situation, he didn¡¯t feel like it was worth risking his life over. After all, he was the ninth highness of the First Peak. He didn¡¯t mind taking some risks, but putting his life on the line blithely wasn¡¯t an option. He had a bright future ahead of him. But... Xu Qing was going for it. And he was connected to Xu Qing with a lifelink talisman. If Xu Qing died, he would die as well, and vice versa. While only moments ago, he had felt very pleased because of that, now he was feeling very nervous. He was also starting to think that his Master might not be the amazing genius he¡¯d thought.... After vting for a moment, he gritted his teeth, uttered a curse in his heart, and followed after Xu Qing.

    In order to pick up speed, he bit his tongue, spitting out some blood to use his secret magic and turn into a blood sword. After all, he was worried this Seventh Peak lunatic would get himself killed if he didn¡¯t hurry up. As he neared, he took out a lifesaving jade amulet and, despite how much it pained him, tossed it to Xu Qing. Xu Qing grabbed it.

    When the First Peak disciple saw that, he sighed deeply, and mused that he really shouldn¡¯t have tried to steal this person¡¯s sea beast. Instead of feeling free from worry thanks to the lifelink talisman, he felt more like he¡¯d be a dao protector.

    Feeling very frustrated, he watched as Xu Qing head-butted the Seazombie corpse. Picking up some speed, he hurried to help, keeping an eye out for his own safety, but simultaneously making sure Xu Qing was safe as well.

    And thus, the two of them engaged in a bitter fight with a Seazombie under the surface of the water. The Seazombie only had a discarnate soul left in him, but the ghost projections he could create were still formidable. Both Xu Qing and the First Peak disciple took significant damage.

    The way Xu Qing seemed to disregard his own life made the First Peak disciple very frustrated. So, he kept giving him lifesaving items, while also using his own trump cards in the hope of ending the battle sooner.

    Eventually, Xu Qingpletely stopped defending himself. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, ck mes erupted and he started extracting the soul power while the First Peak disciple protected him. Anyone who saw how this was ying out would be deeply stunned. Finally, the First Peak disciple gritted his teeth and backed away, convinced that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t actually suicidal, and that he would take over defending himself.

    Xu Qing just looked at him coldly, then ignored him and kept up the assault on the Seazombie. The First Peak disciple watched in shock. When he saw Xu Qing nearly die a few times, he howled inwardly and threw out some more defensive jade talismans. A bitter look on his face, he also joined in on the attack.

    He put all of his frustration into his attacks. The battlested all day. Eventually, Xu Qing had extracted all of the Seazombie¡¯s discarnate soul, and had also taken his bag of holding. At that point, both he and the First Peak disciple werepletely exhausted.

    Back on the dharmaskiff, the First Peak disciple whipped out a sword and held it up to his own throat. Gasping for breath, and his eyes filled with iparable determination, he gritted his teeth and said, ¡°During Tomb-Sweeping, two incense sticks are burning; heartbreak is avoided when splitting the earnings!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Xu Qing replied coolly, putting the bag of holding away.

    The First Peak disciple¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he stared at Xu Qing. After some struggling, he forced himself to speak like a normal person for the second time.

    ¡°We split the loot! If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll kill myself right in front of you!!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him and saw the determination in his eyes. And as he thought about it, he realized the young man had been a big help. He had worked hard keeping Xu Qing safe, to the point where he actually seemed superior to an ordinary dao protector.

    Opening the bag of holding, he dumped it out between the two of them. A mass of items fell out into a huge pile, including a stack of spirit notes, a vast assortment of spirit notes and jade slips, some medicinal pill bottles, various crafting ingredients, and the like.

    There were two particr jade slips that emanated powerful fluctuations. Xu Qing had seen jade slips like this before. They were like the lifesaving items the First Peak disciple had used. Given the fluctuations, they were obviously very impressive. Xu Qing had also seen things like them in shops in the Port District, and knew that they hadn¡¯t been created by Foundation Establishment cultivators. Instead, they had been made by Gold Core cultivators. Of course, mere jade couldn¡¯t contain the full might of a Gold Core cultivator, so such jade slips usually contained only a bit of Gold Core power.

    These two slips seemed recently crafted, and weren¡¯t something this Seazombie would have needed. In all likelihood, they had been intended as gifts for someone else. There was also a piece of jade carved into the shape of a feather. When Xu Qing and the First Peak disciple saw it, both of their eyes glittered.

    A magical device! Xu Qing thought. The Spirit Breath Lamp was a magical device, and his iron skewer was, in some ways at least, simr to a magical device.

    Magical devices existed between talisman treasures and magical treasures, and were items that had been created by a cultivator. However, they were not as powerful as the legendary magical treasures. And they were categorized into the tiers of lesser, greater, and superior.

    Few cultivators would ever have the opportunity to get a magical treasure, and magical devices were simrly rare. Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment to reach out and grab the jade feather. The First Peak disciple also reached out at the same time, but he didn¡¯t reach for the feather. Instead, he picked up something that didn¡¯t look very impressive at all.

    It was an iron box.

    1. I¡¯m going to continue to use ¡°discarnate soul¡± to maintain continuity with my other trantions. Essentially it means a broken, damaged, and/or iplete soul. ?

 Chapter 147: Wish Box

    Chapter 147: Wish Box

    When Xu Qing noticed the box, his pupils constricted. He had seen two other boxes like this.

    The first had been in the possession of Horsefour back in the scavenger basecamp. The second had been with the young merman. To this day, Xu Qing still had no idea what they were. And in all of the shops he had visited in the capital city, he never saw anything like them. [1]

    Today, he saw a third one. However, exactly as heid eyes on it, the First Peak disciple snatched it and put it into his robe. Looking vigntly at Xu Qing, he, ¡°A hundred mouthfuls of blood were coughed up today; splitting the earnings is what true heroes do.¡±

    ¡°Talk like a normal person,¡± Xu Qing said coldly, then he waved his hand, activating the dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses and making it impossible for the First Peak disciple to leave.

    Seeing this, the First Peak disciple sighed. Then he punched himself in the gut, causing himself to cough up a mouthful of ck blood. After confirming that he had been poisoned, he used his secret magic to suppress it, then looked helplessly at Xu Qing. All the while, he mused that people from the Seventh Peak reallycked good character. This guy put poison on his own dharmaskiff? Was he trying to kill himself?

    A long moment passed in which Xu Qing just stared.

    Finally, the First Peak disciple sighed and said, ¡°We said we¡¯d split the loot, right? I just want this. You can have everything else.¡±

    Without a word, Xu Qing collected all the other items together. As he did, he happened to notice a seven-colored medallion. It had been crafted of wood, and appeared to be an identity medallion. It looked quite well-worn. From the patina on the surface of the wood, it seemed like it had been handled frequently by someone. Xu Qing studied at it, then looked up at the First Peak disciple.

    ¡°In the vast wilds, people flock to the¡ª¡± Before he could finish with his poem, he noticed Xu Qing frowning, and stopped talking. Worried that if he didn¡¯t make himself clear, Xu Qing might not cooperate, he again forced himself to talk like a normal person. ¡°It¡¯s an identity medallion from the Seven Sect Coalition. Since we got it from a Seazombie, it probably means that, in life, he was a Seven Sect Coalition cultivator.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that other thing you picked up?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The First Peak disciple hesitated. Obviously, this Seventh Peak disciple didn¡¯t know what a wish box was. Originally, he¡¯d intended to not exin. But then he decided that might not be a good idea. If the Seventh Peak disciple thought he was trying to keep some astounding treasure, it could lead to a very dangerous situation.

    Shaking his head helplessly, he said, ¡°It¡¯s a wish box. Wish boxes contain gifts from cultivators from a previous epoch, ced inside specifically to be received by other cultivators in subsequent epochs.

    ¡°After the broken face of the god arrived, this tradition began as a way to mark the ending of epochs in the Revered Ancient maind. In thest days of an epoch, wish boxes will be created using special materials. A lot of them have been created over the years.¡± At first, the First Peak disciple had found it difficult to speak without poetry, but the more he talked, the easier it became. In fact, it actually felt somewhatfortable.

    ¡°Wish boxes are specially made to be able to survive the ending of an epoch. I¡¯ve heard that some people have found wish boxes that look like coffins, and contain dead cultivators. Other people find wish boxes that are empty. There¡¯s no way to know what¡¯s inside before you open it.

    ¡°Each box contains items sealed inside by a different powerful expert. In other words, that person is the only one who could know what the box contains.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of people finding magical treasures. Techniques. Things like that. Sometimes a wish box will contain nothing more than some leaves or other random things. In some cases, it can bepletely worthless. In the final analysis, it alles down to how lucky you are.

    ¡°I¡¯ve already opened three wish boxes, and none of them had anything spectacr in them. But I have the feeling this is the time I¡¯m going to get lucky. They¡¯re easy to open. You just concentrate your dharma force on the box and it¡¯ll open, though it¡¯s usually a slow process. The reason I want this one is that you can tell the dharma force concentration has already reached the point where it will open soon.¡±

    Apparently, once the First Peak disciple started talking, he would keep going without giving any opportunities for interruption. After he finished speaking, he backed up a few steps and looked vigntly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t agree, then I¡¯ll give you the wish box in exchange for that magical device and those two jade talisman treasures.¡±

    After mulling the matter over, Xu Qing opened his dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses. From that, the First Peak disciple realized that Xu Qing was allowing him to leave. He quickly flew off the boat andnded on his sword.

    Xu Qing looked away from him, sat down cross-legged, and sent his dharmaskiff back in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes. He wanted to get rid of the lifelink talisman as quickly as possible. Although his shadow was eating away at the mark, the process was too slow, and felt like a waste of time.

    As he sat there, he started going through the items he¡¯d acquired. The bag of holding had belonged to a Gold Core cultivator, and it contained some astonishing things. The spirit notes alone were worth more than 200,000 spirit stones. Granted, they weren¡¯t Seven Blood Eyes spirit notes, but he could exchange them in the sect for a small fee.

    Xu Qing estimated that he could sell the random items in the bag for a few hundred thousand spirit stones. As for the two jade talismans, they were probably worth a few tens of thousands of spirit stones.

    What was worth the most was the magical device shaped like a feather. It was a shocking haul.

    However, Xu Qing had the feeling that a Gold Core cultivator should have a lot more belongings. This was probably only a small portion of his true savings. After all, most people didn¡¯t just have one bag of holding.

    What a pity. I guess whoever injured him must have taken his other things. Either that, or he kept them somewhere else. Sighing, he focused inwardly on the discarnate soul that was just now beginning to burn as kindling. Let¡¯s see what an elder-level discarnate soul can do. And the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture supposedly works great on Seazombies. I wonder how many dharma apertures I can open!

    He checked his dharmaskiff defenses, then looked at the First Peak disciple, who seemed very much on guard. Then he closed his eyes and focused on the ck mes within him. All 13 of his dharma apertures raged with balefire, burning the Seazombie discarnate soul. Then he sent the resulting soul force toward his 14th dharma aperture. The dharma aperture trembled and then opened. But the process didn¡¯t stop there. Under Xu Qing¡¯s control, the power of the burning discarnate soul continued to his 15th dharma aperture, which also opened! Then his 16th and 17th. It was only after the 20th opened that the discarnate soul finally faded away.

    I opened 7 dharma apertures!

    Although he had anticipated something like this might happen, it was still surprising, and his eyes shone brightly as a result. The more dharma apertures you opened, the harder it became to open new ones. And once he had gone past 10, he had increasingly sensed that the soul power he needed was reaching ridiculous levels. Despite that, this discarnate soul had allowed him to open seven in a row, which suddenly made him wish he could find more such souls.

    Sadly, it¡¯s too hard.

    Xu Qing knew full well that he had only seeded with the help of the young man from the First Peak. Without all the lifesaving items he¡¯d given, it would never have worked.

    I made out quite well. Now I just need to get back to the sect, remove the lifelink talisman, thene out to sea again. Before long, I should be able to form my life me!

    At this point, Xu Qing focused on gathering dharma force in his dharma apertures. At the same time, he took out the feather-shaped magical device. After inspecting it closely, he sent some dharma force into it.

    Gradually, three days passed.

    While Xu Qing focused on his dharma apertures and the magical device, the First Peak disciple worked on the wish box. When it finally reached the point where he knew he could open it, he looked over to confirm that Xu Qing was working on his cultivation. Then he slowed down a bit to put some distance between himself and the dharmaskiff. Finally, he waved his hand to summon a defensive barrier that would give him some privacy.

    As he held the iron box in his hands, his eyes shone with excitement. He had not been lying to Xu Qing. He really had opened three wish boxes in the past. However, what he hadn¡¯t revealed was that the first one he opened contained an ancient jade slip. Although the slip itself wasn¡¯t valuable, it had contained information about the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. Information like that was worth a lot.

    Specifically, that ancient jade slip told the life story of three specific Ancient Emperors. The First Peak disciple had be fascinated with those stories, especially the detail about how Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity loved hiding profound truths in poetry. That had been very inspiring.

    Taking a deep, excited breath, the First Peak disciple again made sure that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t looking at him. Rubbing his hands in anticipation, he hit himself on the forehead, and thennded a blow on the pit of his stomach. Then he went into a ritualistic prayer with his eyes closed.

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, his eyes opened, and he reached down and put his hands on the box. A cracking sound rang out. There had been no visible cracks on the box before. It had seemed like a pure lump of metal.

    But now, it opened exactly like a box to reveal a finger-sized jade bottle. It already had dark spots on it, making it look very old. And it seemed to contain a medicinal liquid of some sort. Next to it was an ancient jade slip. The First Peak disciple¡¯s heart started pounding.

    The first wish box he had opened had contained something interesting, but the other two had beenpletely worthless. Therefore, seeing that this box not only had an ancient jade slip, but also a bottle with medicinal liquid in it, he couldn¡¯t help but be excited.

    ¡°I struck pay dirt!¡± he murmured. Suddenly realizing that he was getting too used to speaking normally, he cleared his throat. ¡°All the misery at sea was not in vain; prosperity surges to amazing heights.¡±

    Feeling a bit better, he picked up the bottle, studied it for a bit, and then opened it. Almost immediately, a very unusual odor wafted out. The First Peak disciple had no idea what was in the bottle, but the odor stimted his psyche, giving him the feeling that the liquid was still effective.

    Chuckling, he murmured, ¡°Jade dragons and heavenly spirits give good fortune; yet only I shall benefit from it.¡±

    That said, he didn¡¯t dare to consume the liquid. After taking another whiff, he closed the bottle and looked at the ancient jade slip.

    The moment he inspected it, a message from inside rang into his mind.

    ¡°Greetings and best wishes, oh ye destined one.

    ¡°I wast born in the Dark Serenity epoch, and blessed with the dao by an Ancient Emperor. I knoweth not whether the god Ru Cang existeth in thy time. This wish didst contah the treasure of a foolish friend, but in mine disdain, I didst discard it as refuse and rece it with mine precious gift.

    ¡°That gift beeth mine bloodline. If thou beeth of the fairer sex, then bear thee mine descendants.

    ¡°Thank me not, oh ye destined one. Fare thee well.¡±

    1. The first iron box was mentioned in chapter 10, then again in chapter 11. The second mention was in chapter 76. The item was also referenced by name in chapter 77. ?

 Chapter 148: What Did You Get?

    Chapter 148: What Did You Get?

    The First Peak disciple stared in shock. He believed himself to be very skilled in literary and academic arts. After all, he normally spoke in poetry. But the contents of this jade slip were bewildering, to the point where he needed to analyze everything bit by bit. Even after that, he still didn¡¯t feel that he understoodpletely, and could only stare nkly at the jade slip.

    Mine descendents? Wait¡­ ¡®mine descendents.¡¯ What descendents? And what does he mean by ¡®fairer sex.¡¯ Isn¡¯t the term ¡®fairer sex¡¯ used to describe women?

    Then he looked at the bottle, and his eyes went wide.

    There¡¯s no way¡­. Then he thought back to how he¡¯d smelled the contents of the bottle, and suddenly felt a bit queasy.

    ¡°This is ridiculous!!¡± He almost threw everything into the water, but couldn¡¯t quite bear to. After all, he basically had half of the bloodline of an Ancient Emperor. But why did it have to be the male side?

    Around this time, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked over from his dharmaskiff. Guessing that the First Peak disciple had opened the box, and curious about the results, he said, ¡°What did you get?¡±

    The defensive barrier around the sword faded away, and the First Peak disciple sat there, an unsightly expression on his face as he breathed heavily through his nose. It almost seemed like he was trying to purge it of something. He even brought dharma force through his nose until, eventually, his expression returned to normal. Looking up at the sky, he put the wish box away without saying a word.

    Xu Qing felt even more curious now, but he looked away.

    Time passed as the two of them got closer and closer to Seven Blood Eyes. Along the way, Xu Qing got more familiar with the feather-shaped magical device, which he came to realize augmented speed. When activated, it gave one explosive quickness that surpassed one¡¯s ordinary limit by many times over. However, it drew deeply on the fleshly body.

    Because he wasn¡¯t alone, he didn¡¯t want to test it out. But he could imagine what shocking levels of speed he could achieve if he did.

    I need to find a ce to test it out and get familiar with how to actually use it. Around that time, he spotted a Seventh Peak dharmaboat off in the distance.

    The First Peak disciple had seemed overwhelmed with boredom ever since opening the wish box. When he spotted the distant dharmaboat, he took out a new daoist robe and put it on. He seemed so familiar with the process that it was a habit for him. Then his expression turned as cold as ice. Sword energy swirled out to surround him, making him look extremely vignt. And as the sword energy swirled, it lifted his hair around him, such that any casual observer would think he was a very extraordinary person.

    However, it was apparently all an act. After the Seventh Peak dharmaboat passed by them, he slumped back down dejectedly. That, coupled with the rapid manner in which he changed clothes, was very strange to Xu Qing.

    As time passed, they encountered more and more disciples from Seven Blood Eyes. The same thing happened each time. Xu Qing got used to it. Eventually, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior took advantage of the situation to quietly say, ¡°Milord, this brat obviously cares a lot about outward appearances. Given he¡¯s that kind of person, maybe we don¡¯t need to kill him after all. People like that can sometimes be useful.

    ¡°When the moment is right, say a few ttering words to him. Based on the ancient records your humble servant has read, this is the kind of person who will shed blood for the sake of face.

    ¡°Furthermore, because your humble servant realized that he cares so much about face, I used a special technique to record images of this brat in his bedraggled state. I also recorded him speaking like a normal person. I¡¯m not sure it wille in handyter, but at the very least, we have some things we can use against him.

    ¡°If you find the right opportunities, Milord, you should create some situations in which he¡¯ll lose a lot of face. For example, make him beg you for help, make him fall into some filth, that sort of thing. I¡¯ll make sure to get a recording of it, and then we¡¯ll have even more ammunition for when the timees.¡± The patriarch spoke at a very rapid rate, and though he didn¡¯t emphasize his own role, it was obvious he was trying to prove his worth.

    ¡°Also, Milord, I beg you to punish me for not thinking of this sooner. It took a lot of thought on the part of your humble servant, and I know I spent too much timeing up with the idea. Please, punish me, Milord. Please. I¡¯m such a fool! Milord, your talents and mine are poles apart.

    ¡°If you just give me a chance, Milord, I¡¯ll work very hard. Please, in the future, let me handle small tasks like this. The grunt work. The dirty work. Just entrust those things to me. Master Freespirit will work himself to the bone to do everything you ask me to do.¡± [1]

    Looking at the iron skewer, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°You have three more months, but for your sake I¡¯ll add an extra month. The shadow gets the same advantage.¡±

    The patriarch was very excited, and pretended to nce casually at the shadow. As for the shadow, it trembled, then stretched down into the sea water and started absorbing mutagen.

    Xu Qing ignored them, closed his eyes, and started cultivating the Life Nurturing Incantation.

    As time passed, they got closer to the Seven Blood Eyes port. As ships and boats became more prevalent, the First Peak disciple eventually put aside whatever was bothering him, and stood in ce looking determined and extraordinary.

    As Xu Qing coldly sized him up, he noticed that he didn¡¯t seem as depressed as before.

    In fact, after ncing at Xu Qing a few times, the First Peak disciple calmly said, ¡°In front of Chenghuang Temple grew a flower; cultivators who passed it died more quickly.¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing reached down and rubbed his iron skewer. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior discreetly released a ferocious aura that settled on the First Peak disciple.

    The First Peak disciple cleared his throat. He could obviously tell that Xu Qing didn¡¯t understand his poetry, but also wasn¡¯t inclined to exin what he meant out loud. Taking out a jade slip, he imprinted it with some information and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned and caught it. Looking inside, he saw the message.

    ¡°Brother, I think the two of us are connected by destiny. I¡¯m the ninth highness of the First Peak, Wu Jianwu. You know the old saying: from an exchange of blows, friendship grows. You have a strong baleful aura, but we¡¯re members of the same sect, and there¡¯s no need for us to be mortal enemies.

    ¡°Be careful about showing too much of a baleful aura outside the sect. I heard that, years ago, the conve disciple Elder Brother Chen from the Third Peak had a strong baleful aura, and ended up going missing. Even yearster, his killer has never been found.

    ¡°Furthermore, the only son of the Sixth Peaklord also had a strong baleful aura, and he went missing too.

    ¡°Anyway, I urge you to handle matters judiciously.¡± [2]

    As Wu Jianwu stood atop his sword, he looked at Xu Qing examining the jade slip. Then, he shot up into the sky in a blood-red streak, where he transformed into a huge sword. He looked extremely impressive.

    In the blink of an eye, he was a huge distance away from Xu Qing and his dharmaskiff. Just before he screamed through the sky toward the First Peak, he uttered one final poem.

    ¡°Surpass mortal life and be refined; I¡¯ll be an immortal and surpass mankind.¡±

    As his words echoed out in all directions, quite a few people looked over in amazement. To them, this chosen disciple from the First Peak in his crimson robe, his hair swirling around him, really did seem like an immortal.

    Xu Qing watched coldly as he left. He wasn¡¯t bothered by Wu Jianwu¡¯s little act. And the closer they got to the sect, the less likely Xu Qing was to react violently to his annoying behavior.

    Looking away, Xu Qing piloted his dharmaskiff into port. Once he was inside, the lifelink talisman mark glittered with soft light, then faded into nothing. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

    ncing at Wu Jianwu, who was still flying toward the First Peak, Xu Qing put away his dharmaskiff, then ascended into the air and flew toward his mansion grotto on the Seventh Peak. Landing outside, he checked the area to make sure all of the poison he¡¯d ced in the area was still in ce. Then he opened the door, entered, and sealed himself inside.

    Now that I¡¯m back, I need to go see how many spirit stones it will take to develop my own harbor. Living here on the peak is just too inconvenient. I¡¯d rather just stay in my dharmaskiff.

    After some thought, he looked at his violet daoist robe, and then thought back to how the Captain and Zhang San both wore their gray robes. A gray robe did seem like the best decision.

    Next, he looked at the jade disc in the middle of the grotto, which pulsed softly with glowing light. That jade disc was the heart of the mansion grotto¡¯s spell formation, and made the formation function without needing to add spirit stones into it. It also served as a recording device, and would keep track of the details of everyone who had sent messages to see if he was able to ept visitors. He saw one request from Huang Yan, one from Zhou Qingpeng, three from Ding Xue, and two from Gu Muqing. There were two people who had made far more requests than the others. One was from the director of the Violent Crimes Division, who had sent twenty-three requests.

    And the other was from a Unit Six constable. The Mute. He had sent forty-one requests. In fact, it seemed that he had sent such requests on a daily basis. Xu Qing thought back to the day when he found the Mute on death¡¯s door, and had spent a few moments to save him. Clearly, the Mute was strong, and had survived the incident.

    Even as Xu Qing was examining the jade disc, it shimmered with light as another request from the Mute came in. Outsiders needed permission to visit Onpeak cultivators, and that applied to Offpeak disciples as well. After thinking about it for a moment, Xu Qing approved the request. Before long, an emaciated figure appeared cautiously outside of Xu Qing¡¯s mansion grotto.

    Opening the door, Xu Qing stepped out. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    The Mute stood about nine meters away, and obviously didn¡¯t want to get any closer. He was dressed the same as before, and all his wounds were healed. However, he seemed grimmer than before. Having returned from death¡¯s door, he seemed to have grown a lot.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze caused the Mute to shiver slightly. Taking out a medallion, he respectfully ced it off to the side, then backed up a few paces. Looking at Xu Qing, he then dropped to his knees and kowtowed, banging his head onto the ground so hard his forehead started bleeding. Then he stood and raced down the peak.

    Xu Qing watched him go. Then he made a grasping gesture with his right hand, and the medallion flew over to him. Examining it, he realized it wasn¡¯t an identity medallion, but rather, an authentication device linked to a warehouse.

    Being familiar with the port district, Xu Qing knew exactly what it was. The port district was generally divided into two halves. One was used by Seventh Peak disciples, and the other was for public use. All sorts of ships and boats woulde in and out of it, sometimes even pirate vessels.

    Non-sect watercraft couldn¡¯t be put into bottles like Seven Blood Eyes dharmaboats and dharmaskiffs, so they needed to eithery anchor or be stored in dry dock. And to ess such watercraft, one would need to use an authentication device.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, the only way toy im to a watercraft was to have an authentication device.

    Xu Qing realized what was going on. After his gift of a dead criminal was rejected, the Mute came to believe that Xu Qing didn¡¯t like criminals. So he was offering an authentication device instead. This time, Xu Qing epted the gift.

    1. As a reminder, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s original daoist name was Master Freespirit, which was revealed in chapter 71. ?

    2. Wu Jianwu: Wu is listed #9 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It doesn''t really mean anything by itself, other than being a surname. It¡¯s also the name of a number of different ancient Chinese dynasties. Jian means ¡°sword.¡± Wu means ¡°witch/wizard/shaman.¡± Madam Deathde says this sounds like a dramatic, edgelord style name. ?

 Chapter 149: Emerging with a Gray Robe

    Chapter 149: Emerging with a Gray Robe

    The next day, Xu Qing went to the location linked to the authentication device. He found an average-sized trading vessel packed with ordinary cargo. It wasn¡¯t anything unusually valuable. What was noteworthy was that the cargo contained a lot of medicinal ingredients. The disciples in charge of the area cautiously exined that no one hade to im the ship for two months.

    Xu Qing collected the medicinal ingredients, then called his informant over to deal with the trading vessel. While she was there, he asked her about the matter of developing a new harbor.

    Lowering her voice, she said, ¡°Milord, I learned everything there is to know about developing new harbors. I can exin everything, sir. You can either open a sect harbor or a public harbor. Both have different advantages. Sect harbors aren¡¯t very profitable. But they¡¯re helpful in establishing information and powerworks with Offpeak disciples. Public harbors can be very profitable. However, they require the presence of a lot of sect departments to operate. For example, Pilot Assistance, Dispatch, Transportation, and so-on. But even the simplest of harbors will bring in a lot of trading vessels, and thus, astounding profit. Businesses will also want spots on the docks, and you get a share of their profits as well.¡±

    His informant had held nothing back in her efforts to learn about this subject over the past two months. She had even spent a significant amount of spirit coins to get good information.

    ¡°However,¡± she continued, ¡°the construction costs are high. Even the most barebones harbor will require an investment of 3,000,000 spirit stones for all the initial construction. And if you want buildings for businesses to rent, that investment cost will rise to at least 10,000,000. Of course, the cost can go even higher depending on your requirements.¡±

    Upon hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change, but inside, he felt deeply shocked. He had considered himself somewhat wealthy, especially considering that the seazombie bag of holding he¡¯d looted had contained several hundred thousand spirit stones worth of loot. But his informant¡¯s exnation left him a bit speechless.

    ¡°That said, the profits you¡¯ll earn are astounding. There¡¯s limited space in the Seven Blood Eyes port, and after spending some time observing the water traffic, I can tell you that every day about thirty percent of the vessels are forced to wait outside.

    ¡°If you open a public harbor, there won¡¯t be anyck of trading vessels who want to use it. Milord, after studying some of the other harbors, and also doing some calctions, I think that if we invest 3,000,000 to start, we can easily use subsequent profits to expand the initial construction. If things go smoothly, it will only take about two years to reach an equilibrium point. Then, it will take an additional three years to earn back your investment. After that, you should be able to make an annual profit of 3,000,000 spirit stones.

    ¡°Furthermore, I asked around about other Senior Foundation Establishment cultivators who have opened harbors. Most of them don¡¯t make an investment solely with their own funds. Usually, they pool funds with others. Milord, if you have any friends you trust, it might be worth trying that. The only prerequisite is that they would also need to be Foundation Establishment cultivators. Also, I heard that there are private investment firms that will lend money for harbor development, although there are a lot of restrictions in ce by the sect, so it¡¯s not verymon.¡±

    Xu Qing mulled the matter over. He had previously felt that he didn¡¯t want to waste the opportunity to open a harbor. After all, once he did, he would be able to rake in a significant annual profit without doing anything. That was why he¡¯d asked his informant to gather all of this information.

    But now, though he still thought it would be an amazing opportunity, he also knew it was simply too expensive. And there was also a lot ofplicated work involved. Furthermore, investing so many spirit stones in that manner would tie him deeply to the sect. All of these aspects made him hesitate. Now it made sense why so few Foundation Establishment cultivators chose to open harbors.

    After more thought, he decided to abandon the idea. Dismissing his informant, he changed into a gray daoist robe, then got ready to go shopping.

    There were a lot of things he needed to buy, including medicinal nts and talisman treasures. And he also wanted to check what magical devices were avable. Magical devices were extremely expensive, so in the past, he hadn¡¯t even considered buying any. But he had some money to work with now, so he figured he¡¯d at least look around. He was also very interested in the soul pills Wu Jianwu had used, and wanted to see if he could find a ce that sold them. After all, they weren¡¯t that amazing, but did make it easy to absorb souls. And then there was the Spirit Breath Lamp.

    As he walked along in his gray robe, he kept his cultivation base hidden, and thus looked like an ordinary disciple. However, he would asionally sense people looking at him from within the crowd.

    Now, he realized that they were other Foundation Establishment cultivators who, like him, were disguised in gray robes. When he spotted them in the crowd, they would lock gazes briefly, then part ways without causing any trouble for each other.

    Xu Qing went to his usual spot for breakfast and sat down. The vendor called out a friendly greeting and brought some food. This time, Xu Qing ate four eggs. Upon reaching Foundation Establishment, it wasn¡¯t necessary for a cultivator to eat food. They could survive on dharma force alone. But Xu Qing enjoyed his usual routine, and enjoyed the sensation of eating.

    As he ate, he took out his identity medallion and sent a voice message to Huang Yan asking about whether he still wanted to buy the Spirit Breath Lamp.

    Huang Yan didn¡¯t reply immediately. It was only after Xu Qing was finished eating and getting ready to leave that the reply came in.

    ¡°I¡¯m in, Xu Qing! Are you back? Where are you? I¡¯lle find you.¡±

    Hearing the reply, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with anticipation. He was really looking forward to having an additional 500,000 spirit stones. After telling Huang Yan where he was, he only had to wait a short time before the pudgy cultivator was rushing toward him.

    As it turned out, Huang Yan looked even pudgier than before, and his robe hardly seemed able to contain his girth. Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, heughed heartily and pulled out a thick stack of spirit notes.

    ¡°These are 1,000-spirit-stone notes directly from the Sixth Peak. Two hundred of them. I didn¡¯t have enough time to gather more than this. Can I make up the difference with a magical device?¡±

    With that, Huang Yan produced a ck hauberk that he offered to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Magical device?¡± Xu Qing said, taking it. Sending some dharma force into the armor, he saw countless magical symbols arranged in a special design. At first nce, he estimated that there must be a hundred thousand of them. Obviously, this was a very extraordinary hauberk.

    ¡°It¡¯s a Myriad Talismans Hauberk,¡± Huang Yan exined. ¡°I¡¯d nned to give it to my Elder Sister, but I think she¡¯d like the Spirit Breath Lamp more. If you sell it, you can easily get 300,000 spirit stones. It¡¯s a lesser-tier magical device, but it has good defensive qualities. With that on, you could hold your own for several rounds ofbat against a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the profound radiance state, as long as they don¡¯t have two life mes.¡±

    Huang Yan seemed to know a lot about Foundation Establishment. Obviously, his Elder Sister had helped him a lot in that regard. In fact, it seemed he was just on the verge of a breakthrough.

    Xu Qing nodded and epted the Myriad Talismans Hauberk, then handed the Spirit Breath Lamp over.

    ¡°Do you need me to escort you back to the Seventh Peak?¡± Xu Qing asked quietly.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Huang Yan replied, patting his belly. ¡°Who would dare to steal a gift intended for my Elder Sister?¡±

    Putting the Spirit Breath Lamp away, he took out his identity medallion to send a voice message to his Elder Sister. However, that was when he seemed to suddenly remember something, and looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°Hey, Xu Qing. Remember I told you about the possibility of war? Well, it¡¯s definitely going to happen. You should think about whether or not you want to participate.¡±

    With that, he waved goodbye and rushed off toward the Seventh Peak.

    Watching him go, Xu Qing sighed. Huang Yan really did have a lot of money. He just handed over hundreds of thousands of spirit stones, plus a magical device, all without hardly thinking about it. Up to this point, Xu Qing had not looked into Huang Yan¡¯s background. There were some things that were taboo in Seven Blood Eyes, and he had no intention of viting those taboos.

    After Huang Yan was gone, Xu Qing thought about his parting words.

    ¡°War....¡± he murmured. That was enough to make himpletely forget about his idea of opening a harbor. Instead, he would invest in a street in the city. Although the profits wouldn¡¯t be as amazing, it would be better than nothing. Having made his decision, he went to find a shop that sold jade talismans.

    Most of the shops that catered to Foundation Establishment cultivators were run by Sixth Peak disciples in the Rocbright District as opposed to the Port District. Because prices were so high in such shops, they usually weren¡¯t very busy. Most of them had private viewing rooms and disciples trained in sales.

    After arriving in the Rocbright District, Xu Qing looked around and settled on a shop called the Brightness Pavilion. It was one of thergest shops there, being fully five stories tall, with each story covering about 600 meters. It was extravagantly decorated inside, and the clerks, whether they were male or female, were all extremely good-looking. And there seemed to be more clerks than customers. Upon entering, Xu Qing attracted a bit of attention. Though he only wore a gray robe, he was extremely good-looking, and thus, quite a few female clerks eyed him. He seemed to bring a bit of brightness to the shop. What was more, it was obvious that anyone who dared to enter a shop like this had to be extraordinary in some way. At the very least, he was a conve disciple. Furthermore, since these clerks had dealt with lots of Foundation Establishment cultivators, they knew it wasmon for such people to wear gray robes.

    Several of the clerks made to walk over to Xu Qing. However, the fastest of them was a pretty young woman with pigtails. Flushing a bit, she softly said, ¡°Hello, Elder Brother. You can call me Little Hui. I¡¯m happy to help you with whatever you need. I¡¯mpletely at your service. Here at the Brightness Pavilion, we specialize in tools, weapons, items, and the like. The first floor is devoted to magical treasures, the second floor to jade talismans, and the third floor to magical devices. Whatever you¡¯re looking for, Elder Brother, I can help you find it.¡±

    Xu Qing looked around and noticed that he was the only customer on the first floor. Furthermore, the walls were covered with all sorts of talisman treasures. Though they were all sealed, they still released extraordinary fluctuations. There were also a few crystal pirs upon which rested brightly glittered talisman treasures.

    The fact that they were being disyed as individual items indicated that they were very high quality.

    ¡°I want to see your magical devices,¡± Xu Qing said, looking back at the clerk.

    When the blushing girl heard that, her eyes glittered.

 Chapter 150: War Brings Opportunity

    Chapter 150: War Brings Opportunity

    ¡°The magical devices are on the third floor. Allow me to lead the way, Senior!¡± Upon hearing that Xu Qing wanted to shop for magical devices, this young woman, who had dealt with many Foundation Establishment customers, immediately knew that Xu Qing was also in Foundation Establishment. It was for that reason that she switched from calling him Elder Brother to Senior. Eyes shining, she led the way instead of waiting for Xu Qing to go ahead of her.

    There was nothing rude about the way she led the way. In fact, as she climbed the stairs, her garment clung more snugly to her hips, making her curves even more obvious. She was very seductive, but at the same time, her pigtails made her seem charming and innocent.

    Sadly for her, Xu Qing didn¡¯t notice those things. When they reached the third floor, it was to the young woman¡¯s disappointment that she didn¡¯t get any sense Xu Qing was attracted to her. However, she quickly dismissed her disappointment and led Xu Qing to a private viewing room. There, she asked him for more details about what kind of magical devices he wanted to see.

    ¡°Weapons,¡± he replied. ¡°Under 300,000 spirit stones.¡±

    Nodding, she left the room. A short timeter she returned with a tray, upon which were arrayed three items.

    One of them was a blue shortsword, attached to which was a paper talisman that reduced its fluctuations by about ny-nine percent. The second item was a ne, iid with five finger-nail sized ck pearls. It was also sealed with a talisman. The final item was a small red bell.

    ¡°The Frigid Mountain Sword contains the aura of the Forbidden Sea. Part of the forging process involves burying the sword for three years at the bottom of the sea, which imbues it with a shocking level of frigid coldness. With dharma force, you can control that frigid energy. It¡¯s a very fast sword, and is iparably sharp.

    ¡°This is the Fivebales Pearl Ne. Each pearl contains a golden baleful aura that, upon being released, transforms into a golden lightning bolt of punishment that can kill anything it hits. Once hit, the victim must dispel the energy, or they will die. To operate the ne, fill it with dharma force and inscribe the name of your opponent onto one of the pearls.

    ¡°Last is the Living Spirit Bell. By ringing this bell, you can shake your opponent¡¯s soul into immobility. It is ineffective against grues, as it only works on opponents with fleshly bodies. This weapon has a weakness, as the wielder suffers the effects of the bell as much as the target. However, because it¡¯s a very rare magical device rted to souls, it¡¯s more expensive than average magical devices.

    ¡°The Frigid Mountain Sword costs 270,000 spirit stones. The Fivebales Pearl Ne costs 300,000 spirit stones. And the Living Spirit Bell costs 330,000 spirit stones.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral as he looked over the three items. Inside, he was bemoaning the fact that magical devices were so expensive. But at the same time, he knew that, considering he couldn¡¯t enter the profound radiance state, he really needed the added benefit of having a magical device. That was especially true considering that... war wasing. It made sense to start preparing now; once the official announcement was made, prices would start climbing.

    Truth be told, he liked all three of these items. But he couldn¡¯t afford them all. He still had jade talismans to buy, as well as all sorts of poisonous nts. After further inspection, he finally gritted his teeth and chose the Living Spirit Bell. Though the weapon had a weakness, he had a way of negating that weakness. He nned to attach the bell to his iron skewer, and have Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior use it. After all, the patriarch didn¡¯t have a fleshly body. As a spirit automaton, he wouldn¡¯t suffer the adverse effects.

    ¡°That one,¡± he said, pointing at the bell.

    The clerk looked excited. Obviously, selling this magical device woulde with a bigmission for her. Being very respectful, she helped him take care of all the formalities of the purchase. Then, upon his request, she took him down to the second floor to browse the jade talismans. There, he purchased three defensive jade talismans and one talisman used for offense. In total, he spent 120,000 spirit stones on them.

    After leaving the shop, he rubbed his bag of holding and sighed. Back in Qi Condensation, he had believed cultivation resources to be expensive. Now that he thought back, he realized that the things he had believed to be too expensive actually weren¡¯t so bad. The jade talismans and magical devices required in Foundation Establishment were really expensive.

    Upgrading my dharmaskiff is also going to require a lot of spirit stones....

    Shaking his head, he tried not to think about how much money he had spent and headed toward the Second Peak¡¯s Clearspirit District to shop for medicinal nts. After all, the medicinal nts avable in the Clearspirit District were on a different level than those avable in the Port District.

    He also wanted to see if he could find some ghostlonging horseshoe crabs and chrysanthemum mollusks to buy. Both were critical in attracting sea beasts to open his dharma apertures.

    However, as he was on his way to the Clearspirit District, his identity medallion vibrated, and he took it out to find that Zhang San had just sent him a voice message.

    ¡°Xu Qing, are you back?¡±

    ¡°I got back yesterday,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    ¡°Where are you? Can youe meet me? Or I can go to you. I have a business proposition I want to talk to you about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m heading to the Clearspirit District to shop for medicinal nts.¡±

    Xu Qing was curious what it was about, and wondered if it had anything to do with the Captain¡¯s visitor requests back in his mansion grotto.

    ¡°Okay. Do you know the Hundred nts Workshop in the Clearspirit District? Why don¡¯t we meet there?¡±

    Xu Qing thought the matter over as he headed to the Clearspirit District. Eventually, he found the Hundred nts Workshop, which was a veryrge establishment. In fact, it was one of the most famous Second Peak shops there was.

    Even before he got close, he spotted Zhang San waiting outside.

    Zhang San sat on one of the stone steps smoking a pipe, looking very unremarkable in his gray daoist robe. When he saw Xu Qing, he grinned, stood, wiped the dust off his rear end and hurried over.

    Pulling Xu Qing off to the side, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, did you happen to talk to the Captain since you got back?¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him,¡± Xu Qing replied, looking curiously at Zhang San.

    ¡°Okay, good. The crazy loon has been going around borrowing money like there¡¯s no tomorrow. He even tried to get me to put my port development rights as coteral for a loan. Said something about buying a technique to disguise yourself as another species. He keeps saying if he can get that technique, he can get a one thousand percent return on his investment. I have the feeling he¡¯ll hit you up for money eventually. Anyway, Junior Brother Xu Qing, do you still have your port development rights?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Awesome!¡± Zhang San said,ughing heartily. ¡°Xu Qing, would you be willing to transfer your port development rights to me? It took some convincing, but I already got the Captain to give me his. If I add yours into the mix, we can make a really big investment.

    ¡°I got some very reliable information indicating that the sect is going to war with the Seazombies soon. Of course, many people have spected this will happen. But information like this means different things to different people. Everything is about context.

    ¡°When wares, some people worry about personal safety. Some people think about earning merit points. Some people are just downright scared. Some people realize war can make you rich, but just don¡¯t know how to actually make it happen. Many of those people think that hoarding important resources to sellter is the way to go. But I¡¯m different.¡± Having reached this point in his exnation, a look of pride appeared on Zhang San¡¯s face.

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, Xu Qing, when war breaks out, it¡¯s the perfect opportunity to get really rich. If I were you, I wouldn¡¯t even think about some sort of hoarding scheme. It¡¯s useless, and also, most people hate that behavior. No, we¡¯re not going to make money off of fellow disciples. We¡¯re going to make money off the sect!

    ¡°The sect is definitely going to make a very big deal about this war with the Seazombies. And when the timees, they¡¯re going to make full use of the harbors. Whether ites to storing magical devices, prepping battleships, or providing transportation for disciples from the various mountain peaks, everything is going to focus around the harbors.

    ¡°Furthermore, there are limited harbors avable. Therefore, if I take three harbors and develop them together into onerger harbor, the sect will definitely put that one on the top of their list to use.

    ¡°And of course, we¡¯ll charge for that. Therefore, we need to get this thing up and running before the war starts, with at least a few buildings and some extra berths. Based on my calctions, if the warsts for three months, we¡¯ll make our entire investment back in that time. If itsts for a year, we¡¯ll make quadruple profit! And if the warsts even longer, then we could be sitting on the kind of opportunity that onlyes around once every hundred years. We have to do this!¡±

    Hearing this exnation from Zhang San, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide, and he felt deep admiration for him. Zhang San obviously had great instincts when it came to making money, far beyond that of ordinary people.

    Seeing the look on Xu Qing¡¯s face, Zhang San threw his head back andughed.

    ¡°You look just like the Captain did, Xu Qing. By the way, I don¡¯t need a single spirit stone from you. Just transfer your port development rights to me, and I¡¯ll handle the initial investment. After we break even, then we¡¯ll split the profit between you, the Captain, and me. 25/25/50.

    ¡°Of course, we can keep the harbor running after the war, and we¡¯ll still keep making money.¡±

    Zhang San looked expectantly at Xu Qing, awaiting his answer. Xu Qing considered the matter, then took out his port development authentication device and gave it to Zhang San.

    Zhang San¡¯s face lit up with enthusiasm. ¡°I guarantee that within a year, I¡¯ll be handing you at least a few million spirit stones of profit!¡±

    Laughing again, he took out his identity medallion and started contacting people in hiswork to start the project. Then he waved goodbye and left.

    Xu Qing watched him go. He couldn¡¯t help but think that Zhang San really was a genius. Not only was he amazing with equipment forging, he also seemed to make good progress in cultivation, and also was amazing at making money.

    I hope that in a year I really do get a good split of profit. The thought of making millions of spirit stones as Zhang San had mentioned caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart rate to increase a bit. To someone with a nearly empty bag of holding like Xu Qing, talk of that much profit was just too much of a temptation.

    Finally, Xu Qing took a deep breath and entered the Hundred nts Workshop.

    After enough time passed for two incense sticks to burn, he walked out with all the poisonous nts he needed. Although he had spent a lot of spirit stones, he was satisfied with his purchase. This shop actually had more poisonous nts than it did vital yang nts. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this was what a shop was supposed to be like that imed to specialize in nts and vegetation. After all, in the final analysis, the vast majority of medicinal nts were actually poisonous? if used correctly.

    He even managed to buy a lot of nts that, to date, he had only read about in the medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had given him. He was now very eager to work with them. Sadly, he hadn¡¯t found any ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. However, the shopkeeper had ced an order for him, and told him he should be able to pick it up in about a month.

    I need to concoct some poisons that will quickly kill someone in Foundation Establishment. And also something that works on Seazombies!

    With that, he rose into the air and hurried back to his mansion grotto on the Seventh Peak.

    Time passed.

    As Xu Qing worked on poison concocting in his mansion grotto, half a month went by. Then, a bit of news started spreading that caused the atmosphere in Seven Blood Eyes to grow very tense.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes is going to wage full-scale war on the Seazombies!¡±

 Chapter 151: Declaration of War

    Chapter 151: Deration of War

    The news was like a tempest that rapidly spread throughout all of Seven Blood Eyes. Both Onpeak and Offpeak cultivators were deeply interested in the subject.

    In a war, high-level cultivators would make up the backbone of the fighting force. However, there were still many things that higher-level Qi Condensation cultivators could do, whether it was as foot soldiers, handling logistics and transportation, or many other things. Besides, there were Qi Condensation level Seazombies as well. In other words, the Offpeak disciples could also participate in the fighting.

    As the news spread, a buzz filled the city.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to all that. For one thing, he had personally witnessed the peaklords and elders fighting the Seazombie experts. Also, Huang Yan had already mentioned war twice to him, and then there was Zhang San and his whole business n. Because of all that, Xu Qing had long known that war wasing.

    Xu Qing had never thought much about war. Earlier, Zhang Yunshi had told him that Foundation Establishment cultivators weren''t obligated to join the fighting, and that the main reason they would go was for profit.

    But after Xu Qing started cultivating the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, he''d changed his mind. And the truth was that all Foundation Establishment cultivators who practiced that technique thought of a war as very important. After all, it was an easy thing to get souls when fighting in a war. All you had to do was stay alive, and you could open multiple dharma apertures.

    That was even more the case considering that Seazombie souls were especially effective for use with the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. That was what got Xu Qing excited, especially the thought of how useful Seazombie souls were....

    He currently had 20 dharma apertures open. That meant he had only 10 to go before he could form his first life me.

    If he had ghostlonging horseshoe crabs and chrysanthemum mollusk to attract sea beasts, then considering the diminishing returns as he opened more apertures, he had the feeling it would take about two years, even if he did asionally run into a Foundation Establishment beast.

    Of course, that method was also dangerous, and that wasn¡¯t even taking into consideration travel time, plus the question of whether or not he could get enough ghostlonging horseshoe crabs.

    Taking those factors into consideration, three years was a more reasonable estimate.

    Going for that long on the open sea without being able to enter the profound radiance state seemed extremely dangerous. When a powerful expert ran into a Qi Condensation cultivator out at sea, it wouldn¡¯t be worth it to kill them. But it was a different story when running into Foundation Establishment cultivators.

    War would be dangerous, but in terms of the potential benefits, it was vastly superior.

    As the news spread about war, Zhang San was working hard on thebined harbor project. He had spent a lot of spirit stones already. Having identified the harbors to develop, he had hired thousands of Sixth Peak disciples, as well as tens of thousands of ordinary construction workers. The work had already begun.

    With so many people working day and night to develop a new harbor, the ce changed on a daily basis.

    And there were already new businesses nning to open there. Because Zhang San was a deputy bureau chief in the Transportation Division, it was within the scope of his authority to establish a new bureau to service his harbor.

    The Captain had simr authority. Though he was away from the sect, he arranged for the Celestial Bureau to move to the new harbor to serve as a new branch of the Violent Crimes Division.

    Somehow, Huang Yan learned that Xu Qing was one of the investors in the new harbor, and made the arrangements for the Pilot Assistance Division to set up a branch operation there.

    As news spread, Gu Muqing quietly made arrangements to open a veryrge medicine shop there as well.

    The Sixth Peak shopkeeper who had once tried to ckmail Xu Qing, perhaps at the behest of his backer, was one of the first to arrive and buy a storefront. Apparently, it was a show of goodwill.

    As more and more people showed up at the new harbor, things got more and more lively. Other than the uing war, it was the biggest topic of conversation in the sect.

    When Ding Xue heard about what was going on, she wanted to show her support, and thus purchased three storefronts that formed a triangle surrounding Gu Muqing¡¯s shop. Ding Xue didn¡¯t really know what she was going to do with them, but seemed very enthusiastic about the prospects. She even contacted all of her best friends and asked them to alsoe support the new harbor project.

    The day after Ding Xue bought her storefronts, Zhao Zhongheng hurriedly made arrangements for the Dispatch Division to open a branch there as well....

    Zhang San was very pleased with all of this. Of course, he had been the one to spread word about Xu Qing¡¯s involvement, at the Captain¡¯s behest. As the Captain had said, good-looking people often came in very handy.

    Zhang San also tapped into his ownwork, and before long, people from the Third, Fourth and Fifth Peaks wereing to purchase storefronts. Just about anything you could possibly need for cultivation was avable there.

    Considering that this new harbor was basically being run by the Violent Crimes Division, it was no surprise that gambling halls and brothels started popping up there immediately. In fact, they made up the majority of the new arrivals.

    Storefronts were selling out fast.

    Another half-month went by, and the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs Xu Qing had ordered from the Hundred nts Workshop came in.

    That was when, with great fanfare, the new harbor officially opened for business. They went to the Seventh Peak to officially apply for a harbor number, and were assigned 176.

    The day it opened, Xu Qing moved off of the mountain peak and found an out-of-the-way berth in Harbor 176, which was where he would call home going forward. As he walked along the new harbor, which was already bustling, Xu Qing mused that Zhang San really had gone all-out to get the ce done in time to start earning money from the sect. When Xu Qing sat on his dharmaskiff, listening to the sound of the waves and feeling his boat sway in the water, it made him think back to his Qi Condensation days. Right now, he was simply meditating. For the time being, he was dying his n to go out to sea.

    As Harbor 176 was being constructed, more and more rumors about war spread. And just about every day, it was possible to see beams of light shooting through the air as cultivators returned to the seven peaks. That was what gave Xu Qing the indication that the war was getting close.

    Another half month passed.

    One morning, when Xu Qing had just used the Life Nurturing Incantation to open his 21st dharma aperture, the sound of bells rang out from the seven mountain peaks. It was very rare to hear bells like this. Their loud tolling filled all of Seven Blood Eyes, attracting the notice of both Onpeak and Offpeak cultivators.

    Many disciples stepped out onto their dharmaboats to look at the seven mountain peaks. Many such disciples were actually Foundation Establishment cultivators. Simr things happened throughout the capital city. There were also Foundation Establishment cultivators who lived on the peaks, and they emerged from their mansion grottos, their gazes sharp.

    Shortly after the bells rang, the voice of an old man echoed out, suppressing the sound of the bells as it filled Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°Disciples of Seven Blood Eyes, I am Sir Bloodsmelter, whom you may address as Patriarch. Today, I have an important matter to share with you. War hase.

    ¡°Our sect is formally dering war on the Seazombies. They have umted wealth worth over a hundred billion spirit stones, and I intend for at least half of that to go to you as a reward!¡±

    As his ancient voice echoed out, countless streams of blood emerged from the seven peaks, like writhing eels that shot up into the dome of heaven and became a massive cloud hanging overhead. As the countless threads of blood that made up the cloud merged together, they eventually formed the huge face of an old man. The ghastly looking face sent rumbling sounds throughout the sect, and caused everything to look like it was the color of blood.

    Looking at it, Xu Qing was reminded of the time he had spotted me Phoenix. From a distance, it seemed like the entire area had been turned into and of devils.

    Meanwhile, a torrent of sword energy erupted from the huge eye on the First Peak. As it shot out, it turned into a blood-colored sword, formed from countless bolts of crimson lightning. It was a shocking sight, as even one of those lightning bolts was strong enough to crush a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Standing on that sword was a crimson-faced old man who was none other than the peaklord of the First Peak. He pulsed with a shocking and deadly aura that made it seem like he could ughter gods.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed, Patriarch!¡±

    Almost as soon as the peaklord from the First Peak appeared, rumbling echoed out from the Second Peak as a massive pill furnace rose up from it. Sitting cross-legged atop it was a graceful middle-aged woman who was surrounded by a medicinal pill aura so powerful it glowed. Even more astonishing was that, within the pill furnace she sat atop was a medicinal pill that shone like the sun, and emanated terrifying fluctuations.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed, Patriarch!¡±

    From the Third Peak came a schrly middle-aged man who stood on a yellow cloud. That cloud was filled with a shocking, grue-like aura, and surrounding the man were countless ghost projections. Stunned, Xu Qing realized the ghosts reminded him of the faceless woman in white that he''d seen back in the slums of the city he once lived in. They were all grues! [1]

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed, Patriarch!¡± the middle-aged schr said.

    After him came someone from the Fourth Peak. He was a burly man with a chain wrapped around him. The front end of the chain was a huge eyeball which he held in his hand. As soon as the eyeball appeared, a god-like, holy aura erupted out, which Xu Qing realized came from a godly entity, although one not quite on the level as Joine.

    No one came out of the Fifth or Sixth Peak!

    Finally came the Seventh Peak. Rumbling sounds echoed out as Master Seventh appeared, striding out into midair. He seemed ordinary in nature, andpared to the other peaklords, didn¡¯t look very impressive. He almost seemed mortal, as he didn¡¯t emit any fluctuations. And yet, with the exception of First Peaklord, all the other peaklords bowed their heads in deference.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed, Patriarch!¡± Master Seventh said, sping hands and bowing.

    When the patriarch Sir Bloodsmelter looked down at Master Seventh, he seemed surprised, and evenughed. ¡°Little Seventh, you¡¯ve improved your dao resonance and didn¡¯t say anything. You¡¯re getting close to a breakthrough. Congrattions!¡±

    1. The faceless woman in white was introduced in chapter 42 and the details of the ghost faces were in chapter 44. ?

 Chapter 152: Going to War

    Chapter 152: Going to War

    In response to Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s praise, Master Seventh smiled faintly. He didn¡¯t say anything, but he did sp hands and bow again.

    The patriarch, his face made up of countless streams of blood in midair, shifted his smiling gaze from Master Seventh to the capital city below. Given how high he was in the air, and the level of his cultivation base, it seemed like all the disciples in the sect were fixed in his mind. As he looked at them, he spoke in words that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°Based on the existing agreement, peaklords and elders are required to fight in this war. However, it is not so with Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation. I know that you have reached your state of cultivation due to your own hard work; though the sect may have provided some bit of help, it wasn¡¯t much.

    ¡°Therefore, you will not be required to participate in this. But those of you who do wish to participate, you may choose missions that are appropriate to your own abilities and style. Therefore, disciples of Seven Blood Eyes, who is willing to fight?¡±

    Throughout Seven Blood Eyes, all disciples in the fifth level of Qi Condensation and higher felt their identity medallions vibrate as information poured into them regarding the profits that were up for grabs.

    Seeing all that, Xu Qing took out his identity medallion to check the information.

    ¡°Those who go to war will bepensated ording to the level of their cultivation base. There is an initial payment ofpensation for anyone who participates. Those in the fifth level of Qi Condensation will receive 500 spirit stones. That number will increase with each level to the great circle of Qi Condensation, which will be rewarded with 3,000 spirit stones. Foundation Establishmentpensation starts at 100,000 spirit stones, and goes up to 500,000 for the great circle. Once you agree to go to war, you may not leave the fighting until the war is over. However, you¡¯re free to ept whatever missions you want.¡±

    When Xu Qing saw the initial payment just for joining the war effort, he felt excited. It meant he could instantly get his hands on 100,000 spirit stones, which was no small amount of wealth.

    ¡°During the war, missions will be handed down from the peaklords to the elders. The elders will then distribute the missions for any disciple from any peak to take. The rewards for the missions are incredible.

    ¡°Any valuables you acquire, whether during a mission, or not during a mission, are yours to keep, and you don¡¯t need to report them!

    ¡°After the war is over, the sect will carry out aprehensive analysis of the efforts of everyone who participated, and will distribute the final loot ordingly.

    ¡°Seazombie souls are particrly effective for our sect¡¯s Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. You¡¯ll understand when you use them!

    ¡°So, who is willing to go to war?¡±

    Considering the base pay for participating in the war, it was easy to imagine the astonishing possibilities with the missions.

    Seeing the message, Xu Qing was shaken. After all, he was suffering from a severeck of spirit stones. After buying all the magical devices and poisonous nts he needed, he only had enough spirit stones for daily expenses. He knew full well how important spirit stones were for cultivation. If he had 10,000,000 spirit stones, then he could post his own missions, and have hordes of sect cultivators go hunting for Foundation Establishment sea beasts to bring him. In fact, with enough spirit stones, he could hire elders to help him. In that case, opening 30 dharma apertures would be a lot easier.

    And if he had an evenrger amount of spirit stones, he could forget the elders and just upgrade his dharmaskiff to a dharmaship, and then as long as he avoided anything too dangerous, he could dominate entire swathes of the Forbidden Sea.

    The rewards being offered during this war were extremely enticing. That was especially true considering how effective seazombie souls were. Xu Qing had already experienced that himself, and it only added to the temptation. After all, he was already the type of person who could ughter enemies decisively. After thinking about it for a while, he made his decision.

    As the cultivators saw the details, their eyes lit up with excitement and hope. Before long, voices began to ring out from within the capital city and the mountain peaks.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go to war!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go to war!!¡±

    As the cries echoed in the sect, figures flew out from both the city and the peaks and stopped to hover in midair. They included Foundation Establishment cultivators, and also Offpeak Qi Condensation disciples in the fifth level and higher who had flight talismans.

    Of the roughly 1,000 Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Seven Peaks, about seventy percent chose to participate. Together, they formed a massive force whose energy fluctuations caused winds to scream in the area, and the sea to surge violently.

    Of course, numerous elders appeared to stand next to the peaklords from their respective peaks. In the capital city, there were too many Qi Condensation cultivators to count. Some chose to go to war, others chose to simply see how things yed out.

    After all, disciples in the fifth level of Qi Condensation or higher were not people who just sat around idly.

    ¡°Activate the grand spell formation,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said, ¡°and connect the teleportation line to the Merfolk Isles!¡±

    All of Seven Blood Eyes trembled as the seven huge eyes on the mountain peaks emitted bizarre light that covered the entire sect. The grand spell formation was activating.

    Within the identity medallions of all the disciples, there was more than just mission information. There was also a general outline of the sect¡¯s battle strategy. Apparently, the sect wasn¡¯t worried about the details being leaked.

    The Merfolk Isles were to be the frontline base of operations. Any Seven Blood Eyes cultivators who wished to join the war effort would simply affirm through their identity medallion that they were participating. The spell formation would then teleport them to the Merfolk Isles.

    For one thing, this would ensure that the battlefield would be far from Seven Blood Eyes. Also, the Merfolk Isles upied a strategic location, being halfway between the sect and the Seazombies.

    During the Grand Competition, the sect concealed the fact that they were going to the Merfolk Isles. Then, by taking advantage of the patriarch¡¯s breakthrough, they sowed chaos among the enemy and caught the Seazombiespletely unaware. As a result, they easily took the inds. That was really the first part of the overall battle strategy. The second part was to quell any resistance from the Seazombies who remained in the Merfolk Isles. The first part of the strategy had been a clever scheme. The second part was not.

    ¡°Warriors, advance!¡± Sir Bloodsmelter copsed into innumerable terrifying red streams of light that shot into the spell formation and disappeared.

    The five peaklords followed.

    Next came the elders, and finally, the seven hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators. Bristling with baleful aura, they disappeared into the teleportation.

    Xu Qing was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but he wasn¡¯t the first one to teleport away. He was watching the city. Although there were people staying behind to guard the capital, the ce already looked a lot emptier than normal. Though the ce was protected by the spell formation, it was still in a precarious state.

    That said, his time in Seven Blood Eyes had left him the impression that every member of the sect was a profound schemer, so he doubted the patriarch and peaklords would be negligent when it came to the sect headquarters.

    I bet Seven Blood Eyes has secret reserve powers that nobody knows about. In fact, I wonder if the city and the sect headquarters are actually being left vulnerable as a trap to lure in an unsuspecting enemy.

    After some thought, he looked at the grand spell formation, eyes glittering. Raising his identity medallion, he thought, I¡¯ll go to war!

    Light from the spell formation shot down and surrounded him. Then he vanished. As simr beams of light shot down into the city, numerous disciples disappeared as they were teleported away. It seemed unlikely that such arge number of teleportation lights would appear again in the city anytime soon.

    ***

    Out on the Forbidden Sea, a nket of spell formation light also covered the Merfolk Isles.

    The formation obviously had defensive properties, and it was linked to the formation in the sect headquarters. This was how the disciples were teleporting in. Fierce fighting was already underway in the air above all four inds. The sea was covered with surging waves and thick water vapor, which also emanated the sounds of fighting. It was possible to see some of the fighters. There were Merfolk cultivators fighting Seazombies!

    After being crushed in the Grand Competition, the Merfolk had been forced to fully acknowledge allegiance to Seven Blood Eyes. And now they were serving as the first wave of fighters in the war. However, the fighting didn¡¯t seem as intense as it could be.

    The four inds that made up the Merfolk Isles all had unusual non-Merfolk structures on them. They were towers, all of them glittering as blue lightning crackled on them. That lightning connected to the other towers on the other inds, so that all four inds were linked. There were also huge magical devices that had been installed on the inds, which were capable ofunching shocking magical techniques onto the battlefield.

    There were also spell formations active on the inds. At regr intervals, magical symbols would appear in the air above them, then sink into the ground, stabilizing the spell formations.

    There were simple residence structures that had been erected in various locations. On Nethervault Ind, massive amounts of mutagen had been collected into the shape of a nine-headed snake, apparently to be used as a mount.

    The volcanoes on Meegah Ind had also been altered by Seven Blood Eyes, and their eruptions caused massive amounts of terrifying force to roll out in all directions.

    On Emiche Ind, a hugeke of swords had been carved out of the surface of the ind, filled with swords that were currently gathering power. That was clearly the work of the First Peak, and when it was unleashed, the result would be astonishing.

    The biggest changes were to Joine Ind. The ind now had a huge eye on it that took up about seventy percent of the ind. Looking at it closely, it actually resembled the huge eyes on top of the mountain peaks back in the sect. As the eye blinked, it sent out information into the identity medallions of all the cultivators in the area.

    When Xu Qing arrived, he was in the air over Meegah Ind. Looking around, he saw the Merfolk Isles and all the dramatic changes to them. Shaken, he looked off into the distance, where Sir Bloodsmelter and the five peaklords could be seen above Joine Ind.

    Bowing in front of Sir Bloodsmelter were the other two peaklords who hadn¡¯t been present in the sect. One of them was an old woman, standing atop a spell formation chart that seemed to contain tens of thousands of spell formations. The other was an old man with a grim facial expression. He didn¡¯t seem imposing at all, as if there was a bitterness within him that could never be dispelled. He held a gourd of alcohol in one hand from which he asionally sipped. These were the peaklords of the Fifth and Sixth Peak.

    Now Xu Qing realized why these two hadn¡¯t been present when the other peaklords gathered. They were the ones who had orchestrated all the dramatic changes to the four Merfolk inds!

 Chapter 153: Someoneâ€™s Teleporting In

    <h4>Chapter 153: Someone¡¯s Teleporting In</h4>

    The volcanoes on Meegah Ind rumbled, sending out billowing clouds of ck ash in all directions. The ash was then captured by the power of the Seven Blood Eyes formations and sent out onto the Seazombie battlefield. Some of the ash fell on the ind like ck snow. asionally, the rumbling of the volcanoes ramped up into a deafening sound that overwhelmed all other sounds.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t dare to stay up in the air for long. Dropping to the ground, he looked around at the disciples from the various peaks, rushing about this way and that.

    Everyone had their own goals and destinations. Some were setting up spell formations, others were performing maintenance on weapons. Some were heading toward teleportation portals to go to the field of battle, which was just beyond the boundaries of the ind. Up above, certain Foundation Establishment cultivators flew in midair, just within the bounds of the spell formation. And new people continued to arrive.

    Xu Qing¡¯s identity medallion vibrated as new mission information arrived. In fact, upon arriving, a waterfall of new missions poured in. Keeping his guard up, Xu Qing started to inspect the mission listings.

    Some missions disappeared almost as soon as they came in, having been epted by individual disciples. Other group missions would list how many people had epted them, and when the slots were filled, would disappear.

    ¡°Stand guard over weapons on Joine Ind. Needed: three disciples from the Sixth Peak in the fifth level of Qi Condensation or higher and three Foundation Establishment cultivators. Reward: 50,000 spirit stones, split up based on performance and cultivation base.¡±

    ¡°Sixty Qi Condensation disciples needed on Emiche Ind, plus two Foundation Establishment disciples, to root out enemy ambushes targeting First Peak disciples as they work on frontline magical device setup. Total reward: 70,000 spirit stones.¡±

    ¡°Needed: three hundred people skilled in spell formation maintenance. Total reward: 60,000 spirit stones.¡±

    ¡°Needed: ten Qi Condensation disciples to ept grue forms. 1,000 spirit stones for one day of service.¡±

    After ncing through the missions, Xu Qing realized there was one particr mission that was pinned to the top. It was a battle mission.

    ¡°Long-term mission on the battlefield outside the inds. Kill more than 10,000 Seazombie cultivators, regardless of cultivation base level. Reward: a destined opportunity to reach Gold Core.¡±

    After looking at the mission, Xu Qing felt shaken. The reward was incredible. For most Foundation Establishment cultivators, any destined opportunity to reach the Gold Core level was something that would turn their eyes red with anticipation.

    As he continued to look through various missions, he noticed a new mission that was bright red, like blood, making it stand out from the others.

    ¡°Needed: ten Foundation Establishment disciples who can enter profound radiance state, to cross the battlefield to the Seazombies¡¯ third fortified ind. Mission details will be provided by an elder. This mission is very dangerous, and could involve shes with Gold Core cultivators. The reward for each individual participant is 8,000,000 spirit stones.¡±

    It was a shocking mission as far as Xu Qing was concerned, and it seemed incredibly dangerous. In fact, it was the kind of mission in which death seemed more likely than sess.

    However, after only a few moments, the mission capacity filled up, and the mission vanished. It made Xu Qing think back to what Zhang Yunshi had said about war, and how disciples would rush to ept missions that came with a lot of profit.

    I need to pick a mission.

    Based on what he was seeing, the Qi Condensation missions didn¡¯te with very good rewards, and most of them were split between the participants.

    And the really good Foundation Establishment missions required profound radiance state. Because of his cultivation base, he couldn¡¯t ept such missions. For that same reason, he didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to ept any battlefield missions.

    What he needed was a mission that would provide some spirit stones, but at the same time, give him a chance to kill a lot of Seazombies.

    It didn¡¯t take long for him to find a mission just like that in the list.

    ¡°Scouts report the underwater world on all four Merfolk inds have small-scale Seazombie teleportation portals. We need eight Foundation Establishment cultivators, two for each ind, to search for these spell formations and destroy them. Kill any Seazombies you encounter, or if they¡¯re too difficult to kill, report them immediately. For every teleportation portal you destroy, the reward is 10,000 spirit stones. You will also be rewarded based on your kill count.¡±

    The mission seemed to meet every one of Xu Qing¡¯s requirements, so without any hesitation, he selected it. By the time he did so, seven of the other mission slots had already been filled. He was the final one to sign up. Had he been even a bit slower, he would have missed out on the mission.

    After epting the mission, more mission details were sent to his identity medallion. He was assigned to Meegah Ind. There were eight people signed up for the mission, but the names were kept private, so he had no idea who the other seven were.

    The mission details also contained a physical description of the teleportation portals, and an exnation of how to identify them by their fluctuations. It exined how to destroy them, and also included a reminder that, until a teleportation portal was destroyed, it was possible Seazombies could teleport through it.

    Because of the restrictions in ce by the sect¡¯s grand spell formation, it was impossible for the small-scale teleportation portals to amodate Seazombie cultivators with two life mes. The majority who came through wouldn¡¯t even have life mes, and they would be on suicide missions to destroy spell formations and magical devices belonging to Seven Blood Eyes.That said, Seazombie teleportation portals didn¡¯t operate on spirit power or dharma force, but rather, mutagen. Coupled with the high concentrations of mutagen deep underwater, the teleportation portals would be difficult to find.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he considered that there would be another sect disciple on the same ind as him, working on the same mission.

    With that, he moved toward the nearest city. The passages to the underwater world were all in the cities, as he knew from experience. Most Merfolk cities were now nothing but ruins, but the jade slip Huang Yan had given him had a detailed description of Meegah Ind, and he remembered that there was a tunnel not very far away.

    As he sped along through midair toward his destination, the deafening sound of the volcanoes surrounded him, and ck ash drifted down everywhere. He saw other Seven Blood Eyes disciples as he went, but no one called out greetings to each other. Everyone just hurried on their way. After an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, he saw the crumbled ruins of a city up ahead.

    It didn¡¯t take long to find the tunnel entrance. The area around it had been cleared. Coming from deep in the tunnel was a frigid energy and also the smell of blood. Previously, the sea water had been deep in the tunnel, but the water level had risen, and was visible from the tunnel mouth.

    Looking down suspiciously, he took out some poison powder and scattered it. Before it could even dissipate into the water, he jumped down.

    Once in the water, he took out a sack of poison like he had before, then started moving down. For about thirty breaths of time, he just went down and down. Everything was still and quiet, with all of the mor of the world above cut off by the water. The rumbling of the volcanoes was little more than a faint vibration. However, Xu Qing kept his guard up as usual. When he neared the bottom, he tossed the sack down, where it exploded and sent poison everywhere. Finally, he emerged from the tunnel.

    Looking around, he saw that all the buildings were inplete ruin. The coral and sea anemones were all rotting. Apparently, the ck smoke that had spread out during the Grand Competition hadin waste to everything.

    I need to hurry and find the teleportation portals.

    Looking around, he didn¡¯t get any sense of where the portals were. Therefore, he sent his dharma force into the violet crystal within him to create a force of suppression. The shadow instantly pointed out a direction to go in.

    One of the reasons he¡¯d epted this mission was that he knew his shadow was sensitive to mutagen. Others might have a hard time finding the teleportation portals due to the strong mutagen under the water, and would have to rely on special magical devices. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t have to do that. Besides, he had the feeling his shadow would be much better than any magical devices at sniffing out the mutagen signature of the teleportation portal. The only thing he was worried about was that his shadow wouldn¡¯t cooperate.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to assess you ten days earlier....¡± he said.

    His shadow trembled, then clearly focused on trying to find the right mutagen signature.

    Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior spoke from within the iron skewer. ¡°Don¡¯t be angry, milord. The shadow doesn¡¯t understand you the way your humble servant does. Milord, I know how tired you get from all your hard work. Obviously, the two of us need to take the initiative to share in your weariness. What worries you, milord, worries us. What concerns you, milord, concerns us.¡±

    Hearing this, the shadow suddenly bristled with killing energy.

    After thinking about it, Xu Qing decided that what the patriarch had said made sense, and thus he looked coldly at the shadow and suppressed it three times in a row.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like that killing energy of yours.¡±

    The shadow trembled as if in humiliation. However, it cooperated, dutifully pointing the way to the teleportation portal while Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked oncently.

    With the shadow as his guide, Xu Qing quickly found the teleportation portal. It was located in a crater that had likely been hewn out by a st from a magical technique. Within the mud and silt was the teleportation portal. It didn¡¯t emanate any fluctuations, which meant that the only way to find it would be to notice how strong the mutagen was in the area.

    Looking at it, he could see that the portal wasn¡¯t active. Based on the description from the mission, he knew where the eye of the portal was. With one vicious kick, he destroyed it. It didn¡¯t take any prompting for his shadow to find the next portal and lead the way to it.

    Xu Qing moved at high speed, quickly destroying a second and third portal. As for the fourth portal, just when he was about to destroy it, it red to life.

    Muttering in surprise, he focused on the glittering portal, and sensed a Foundation Establishment aura. It seemed that someone was teleporting in. The aura wasn¡¯t particrly strong. Whoever wasing, they didn¡¯t have a life me. Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing chose not to destroy the portal, and instead quickly scattered poison powder all over the portal. In only ten breaths of time, he put over a hundred types of poison in ce.

    Then his iron skewer flew out and hid itself next to him. There was now a small bell tied to the skewer. That bell would affect the soul of anyone with a fleshly body. But it didn¡¯t affect spiritual souls. Inside the skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was very excited, as he knew his time hade to shine.

    The anxious shadow, not wanting to show any weakness, remained at the ready.

    Finally, Xu Qing took out his dharmaskiff, then backed up a few paces and squatted on his haunches, his eyes glittering with cold light as ck balefire rushed out to form a dagger in his hand.

    ¡°They¡¯re almost here,¡± he murmured. The teleportation portal red with light, and the mutagen levels soared. Then, Seazombies started emerging.

 Chapter 154: A Meal for Three

    Chapter 154: A Meal for Three

    Xu Qing had fought a Seazombie in the great circle of Qi Condensation. It had been a tough fight. Whether in terms of fleshly body power or their tenacious life force, it had taken an immense effort for Xu Qing to kill the Seazombie. [1]

    Unfortunately, he had no experience fighting Foundation Establishment Seazombies, and therefore, he kept his guard up. Also, he didn¡¯t get too close to the teleportation portal. As he watched the portal, a shadowy shape took form within the glittering light.

    It was not a human that had been zombified. Instead, it was a nonhuman the likes of which Xu Qing had never seen before. Shockingly, this Seazombie had bat-like wings, although they were tattered and broken. Despite the damage it had obviously suffered before dying, it pulsed with a clear Foundation Establishment aura. This Seazombie was obviously a cautious individual, for as soon as he materialized fully, he prepared to back up.

    However, he could never have anticipated what Xu Qing had set up. Before he could even start moving, the water in the area stirred, transforming into solid walls in front of him, behind him, on either side, and even overhead, making it impossible for him to move anywhere. And each wall pulsed with a terrifying aura that crushed down on him.

    He mmed into the wall behind him, and a muffled rumbling sound could be heard. Foundation Establishment was mighty, and the wall copsed. But then, a second, third, and fourth wall appeared to rece it. Xu Qing¡¯s dharma force vastly surpassed anything from someone in the same level as him. His hands shed in an incantation gesture, causing all of the walls of water to rush toward the Seazombie cultivator.

    The Seazombie nced around with cold eyes, and quickly spotted Xu Qing. Grinning viciously, he said, ¡°You¡¯re alone?¡±

    He waspletely ignoring the poison around him. After all, seazombies were known for their zombie poison, which gave them general immunity to other poisons. But as he put his hands together for an incantation gesture, his face suddenly fell as he realized that the surrounding poison was causing his wings to melt.

    ¡°What poison is this?¡±

    Then his face flickered even more dramatically as he noticed that the surrounding walls of water were causing the poison levels to increase. As more than a hundred types of poisonbined, the Seazombie cultivator¡¯s entire body started to show signs of melting.

    Shocked, he shifted to a different incantation gesture, sending clouds of zombie poison out. At the same time, he pped his wings, releasing terrifying shockwaves to m into the walls of water. The walls copsed, but as they did, new walls appeared. In fact, though the Seazombie managed to destroy some of the walls, so many new ones formed that the total number increased, not decreased.

    At the same time, the poison cloud being kept in ce by the walls was causing big problems. The Seazombie had a powerful fleshly body power and amazing regenerative powers. But he was still starting to melt from head to toe. In fact, he had the feeling that if things kept going as they were, that after enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he would be melted into nothing.

    Without any hesitation, he pulled out a pitch-ck beast bone. Eyes shing with killing intent, he spat out a mouthful of blue blood onto the bone. The bone trembled, and then erupted with mutagen, which created a ck, shadowy form that seemed intelligent. Erupting with cacklingughter, it sent out waves of energy in all directions, destroying whatever walls it touched.

    That beast bone was clearly a magical device. The Seazombie focused its effect on Xu Qing, using it to smash through the intervening walls. Bursting out from the cloud of poison, he closed in on Xu Qing with cold killing intent.

    Xu Qing remained in ce, his expression cid and his heart calm.

    He¡¯s in Foundation Establishment, but can¡¯t enter the profound radiance state.

    If the Seazombie could enter the profound radiance state, it wouldn¡¯t have been so difficult for him to break through the walls. He would have instantly smashed through. And it seemed very unlikely that this Seazombie could enter the profound radiance state, but was holding back as a trick. After all, he was in enemy territory. Anyone in this situation would want to kill any enemies they found, then go into hiding to make sure the coast was clear.

    Havinge to these conclusions, killing intent red in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    The Seazombie cultivator sted through the final wall, and though the shadowy figure he had summoned faded away, he thrummed with a killing aura as he lunged toward Xu Qing.

    However, Xu Qing was a lot faster; he burst into motion, and in the blink of an eye, body-mmed the Seazombie.

    The Seazombie looked shocked as blood sprayed out of his mouth and he was thrown backward. Before he could do anything, Xu Qing unhesitatingly charged forward again. ck balefire surged on his dagger despite the fact that it was in water. As Xu Qing closed in, he and the Seazombie shed again.

    Booms rang out as they fought back and forth.

    The Seazombie grew more and more shocked. It was simr to Xu Qing¡¯s original fight with the Seazombie in the great circle of Qi Condensation. His mutagen had no effect on Xu Qing, nor did his zombie poison. And Xu Qing obviously had amazing recovery powers.

    As Xu Qing shed his dagger out, the Seazombie raised his right hand and used his beast bone to send the cackling shadowy figure toward Xu Qing. The shadowy figure had red eyes that burst with greed as it closed in. However, then those eyes went wide, and the figure tried to back up. But it was toote!

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow burst out. It had been eying the shadowy figure, and now, suddenly seemed hungry as it rushed toward it.

    The shadowy figure reacted as if it had suddenly encountered a deadly predator. It trembled and slowed down, as if it didn¡¯t dare to flee.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow pounced on it, opening its mouth wide and swallowing the shadowy figure.

    A momentter, a burping sound could be heard, and then the shadow¡¯s incorporeal eyes locked onto the shocked Seazombie cultivator.

    The Seazombie looked terrified, and backed away rapidly. However, that was when the sound of a bell rang out from behind it. It was a sound that seemed to pierce through the fleshly body and lock onto the soul. As it entered the Seazombie¡¯s ears, he suddenly stopped moving. It onlysted for a moment, but during that moment, the sound of the bell got closer.

    ck light shed as the iron skewer stabbed through the Seazombie¡¯s forehead, swirled around, then stabbed him through the throat. Afterwards, the bell rang again.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was covered in ck balefire, bing like a human torch. At the same time, he tapped into the feather-shaped magical device.

    As soon as that magical device was activated, Xu Qing¡¯s top speed skyrocketed. He took a step forward, and water surged around him as he moved with incredible speed toward the shocked and injured Seazombie.

    His dagger shed viciously through the Seazombie¡¯s throat, causing blue blood to explode out along with an agonized shriek. Then, Xu Qing¡¯s dagger became a stream of ck fire that entered the wound and spread into the Seazombie¡¯s body.

    The Seazombie struggled to break free, but Xu Qing mmed his knee into his abdomen. A thump rang out as the Seazombie¡¯s body almost copsed. And as the ck fire burned his soul, he let loose a hoarse scream.

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s shadow arrived and wrapped around the Seazombie¡¯s legs, provoking more howls of anguish. On the spots where the shadow touched the Seazombie, its flesh melted. It seemed that, within moments, he was going to be an actual corpse. That was because the mutagen within him was being devoured by Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. And as a result, the shadow began to let off some of the aura of a Seazombie.

    The ck iron skewer wasn¡¯t sitting around doing nothing. It stabbed directly into the beast bone magical device. After it did, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior began devouring the spirit resonance in the device.

    The entire process took an incense stick¡¯s worth of time.

    As the Seazombie cultivator fell into despair, he grew weaker and weaker. Then a final rumbling could be heard as thest of his mutagen was sucked out. At the same time, he lost his soul, and his entire body crumbled into ash that dissolved in the water. The beast bone magical device also crumbled into nothing.

    Xu Qing used the Seazombie soul as kindling, sending raging fire toward his 21st dharma aperture.

    A boom echoed through him as the dharma aperture opened. As spirit power poured into it and turned into dharma force, Xu Qing turned to look at the teleportation portal.

    Instead of destroying it, he set up more poison, then fell back to wait. At the same time, he looked at his shadow. He had been paying attention when his shadow devoured the Seazombie¡¯s mutagen and thus gained a Seazombie aura.

    After some time passed, it was to Xu Qing¡¯s disappointment that a second Seazombie did not teleport in.

    Seazombies weren¡¯t stupid. It seemed likely that after the first one teleported in, those preparing to follow had realized something unusual was going on. Finally, Xu Qing just destroyed the portal and moved on.

    His shadow¡¯s mutagen levels were clearly higher, and at the same time, it seemed it had developed a new taste for Seazombies. It seemed more interested than Xu Qing in encountering a second one.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior seemed stronger as well after devouring the enemy¡¯s magical device. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what he thought about that, considering magical devices could be sold for a tidy profit. The patriarch could tell from Xu Qing¡¯s expression what he was thinking, and quickly went into a very carefully worded exnation.

    ¡°I lost control, milord. Next time, I¡¯ll only absorb seventy percent, and leave thirty percent behind. That way, you can still sell the thing. As a spirit automaton, I can do it in a way that whoever you sell it to won¡¯t be able to tell. That said, milord, I suggest you not sell such items in the sect. I know plenty of ck markets that would be a much better choice.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the skewer but didn¡¯t say anything.

    The next day, thanks to the help of the shadow, Xu Qing found another teleportation portal hidden in a crevice. After making various preparations, he waited. Days passed and he finally destroyed it and moved on to another portal. This time, after he made his preparations, the portal started to activate.

    1. Xu Qing fought the Seazombie in chapter 119. ?

 Chapter 155: Opening Apertures Like Mad

    Chapter 155: Opening Apertures Like Mad

    The fluctuationsing from the portal were so strong that Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and he suddenly felt physically jumpy. His shadow also transmitted rmed emotions to him.

    At the same time, a figure rapidly became visible in the portal. He saw a tall, burly fellow that was clearly in the Foundation Establishment level, but also pulsed with the fluctuations of a life me. Obviously, this Seazombie cultivator, knowing he was teleporting into enemy territory, had activated his profound radiance state before teleporting, just in case he ended up in a dangerous situation.

    Without hesitating for a moment, Xu Qing thrust out his right hand, and before the figure could fully coalesce, he activated a detonator among the items he had set up around the portal. A thump rang out as the portal copsed. As for the figure that had been teleporting in, he let out a defiant howl that slowly faded into nothing.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing gathered up the items he had ced in the area and moved on to look for another portal. Four dayster, he found one. This time, he didn¡¯t have to wait long before two Seazombie cultivators teleported in.

    They were also Foundation Establishment cultivators, but after Xu Qing confirmed they weren¡¯t in the profound radiance state, he had his shadow check their mutagen levels. The shadow, knowing that this was as much of a benefit to it as Xu Qing, earnestly did so. These two Seazombies were exceptional; however, they definitely couldn¡¯t enter the profound radiance state. Therefore, as soon as they materialized, fierce fighting began.

    After previous encounters, Xu Qing had made adjustments to his poisons. This time, he employed it in a much more efficient manner. And the n of attack was for the shadow to move first, followed by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, with Xu Qing following up as the third wave.

    His dharmaskiff would be his trump card, used only as ast resort. Enough time passed for two incense sticks to burn, during which time booms and shrieks rang out. They faded away when Xu Qing sessfully ughtered the second of the two Seazombies.

    After absorbing their souls and immting them, they provided enough force to open his 22nd dharma aperture! Xu Qing was quite excited, and now understood that the talk of Seazombie souls being effective were no exaggerations.

    I only need 8 more dharma apertures before I can form my first life me! Once I do, and I put it on the lifemp, then my battle prowess will increase dramatically!

    He was about to destroy the teleportation portal, when suddenly he sensed another aura teleporting in.

    It was ordinary, without any trace of the profound radiance state. However, his shadow urgently informed him that this aura was actually exactly the same as the Seazombie they¡¯d encountered who did have the profound radiance state. Apparently, this Seazombie had learned from his previous mistake by not entering the profound radiance state before the teleportation. Sadly for him, he had the bad luck to run right back into Xu Qing.

    Even as his form began to take shape, Xu Qing viciously struck the spell formation, destroying it. The figure struggled as if he thought he could make it through just in time, but failed, and could only let loose another defiant howl.

    I have the feeling this method of mine isn¡¯t going to work for much longer. The Seazombies are going to figure out what¡¯s going on.

    This mission really couldn¡¯t be more perfect for him, but it wouldn¡¯tst forever. He had the feeling that if he wanted to reach the profound radiance state, he was eventually going to have to go out to the battlefield.

    I¡¯ll try a few more times.

    As he continued his search, days passed. There weren¡¯t very many teleportation portals underneath Meegah Ind. Probably no more than a dozen.

    Xu Qing had already personally destroyed eight of them. He encountered two more Foundation Establishment Seazombies. One of them he killed quickly. But the other had many lifesaving magical devices, and was very close to forming a life me. It took Xu Qing a lot of effort, and about two hours, before finally being able to kill him.

    That gave him a very good sense of how powerful Foundation Establishment Seazombies were. Thanks to those two, he was able to open three dharma apertures, leaving him with a total of 25. However, he wasn¡¯t done yet. He found three more teleportation portals, but didn¡¯t encounter anyoneing through them, so he just destroyed them.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sighed in disappointment at that, and the shadow seemed bored stiff.

    Having destroyed all of the teleportation portals, Xu Qing had no choice but to head back to the surface of the ind. Just when he was about to turn the mission back in and consider going to the battlefield, his identity medallion vibrated as a text message came in.

    ¡°This is Elder Ouyang Ling from the Third Peak. Based on your identity information, your name is Xu Qing, right?¡±

    Xu Qing looked suspiciously at the message and didn¡¯t respond.

    Then a second message came in. This time, it wasn¡¯t a text message, but rather, a voice message, and the voice was so powerful it caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to spin and his 25 dharma apertures to tremble.

    ¡°Don¡¯t overthink why I¡¯m messaging you. I¡¯m the one in charge of the teleportation portal mission. Unfortunately, things aren¡¯t going as quickly on the other three inds. I don¡¯t care how you finished your mission so quickly. That¡¯s personal and it doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m wondering if you would consider going to Joine Ind and the other two inds to do the same thing you did here. What do you think?¡±

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing responded with a voice message. ¡°I ept the mission, Elder.¡±

    The Third Peak elder seemed satisfied with Xu Qing¡¯s answer. He quickly adjusted Xu Qing¡¯s mission, so that it wasn¡¯t just to scour Meegah Ind, but all the inds. His spirit stone reward for the original mission also came through. When Xu Qing saw the number, he felt even more anticipation than before.

    110,000 spirit stones!

    He had destroyed eleven portals, and was rewarded 10,000 for each one. As for the four Foundation Establishment Seazombies he¡¯d killed, he didn¡¯t get a spirit stone reward for them, but they were added to his kill count.

    Xu Qing looked at the reward and the kill count, and sighed regretfully. Of those four Foundation Establishment cultivators, only two of them, the first and thest, had magical devices.

    That said, my goal is to open dharma apertures!

    Looking in the direction of the other three inds, he decided to head to Emiche first.

    Given that Joine Ind had that huge eye on it which resembled the giant eyes back in the sect, he had the feeling the teleportation portals there would be easier to find for the disciples on the quest. And if he was wrong, it didn¡¯t really matter.

    Flying out over the water, he headed to Emiche Ind, which was where the sect had hewn out ake of swords. And thatke had been imbued with some power that made the swords in it incredibly sharp. From a distance, theke was covered with water vapor, but inside, it was possible to see countless flying swords floating about. There were also many smaller swordkes set up around therger one.

    As Xu Qing got closer, he sensed a very dangerous aura from within the swordke, and it was focused on him.

    Apparently, it was scanning him. A momentter, it vanished, and he stepped onto what had once been the home of the royal Merfolk n, Emiche Ind. Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a moment. Using the information from Huang Yan¡¯s jade slip, he immediately went toward the nearest tunnel going to the underwater world.

    When he reached the underwater world of Emiche, he was met with a sight that was far more entrancing than the inds of Joine or Meegah. There were countless pces here, and even though most were in ruins, it was still possible to see how glorious they had been. This ce had once been the Merfolk¡¯s royal pceplex.

    After gaining his bearings, Xu Qing started looking for teleportation portals. It seemed a given that other disciples had already searched the surrounding buildings, and sure enough, his shadow quickly led him away from the pceplex.

    About half a dayter, in a ce full of coral, he found the first portal. Eyes glittering, he set things up around the portal and waited. This time, luck was with him. After only a few days, the portal glittered, and an aura seeped out. Xu Qing confirmed that the cultivation base level was appropriate, then attacked. It didn¡¯t take long. After killing the new arrival, Xu Qing destroyed the portal and continued his search.

    In that manner, time passed. Over the course of a month, Xu Qing went all over the underwater world on Emiche Ind, searching for teleportation portals and destroying them. Along the way, he reached 28 dharma apertures.

    Only two more until I can start my life me!

    Full of anticipation, he headed toward Nethervault Ind.

    As Xu Qing went about his mission, the war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies became more intense. The fighting had been going on for nearly two months, and the Seazombies had alreadyunched five full-scale assaults in the hopes of forcing Seven Blood Eyes out of the Merfolk Isles.

    Each of those five assaults was bigger than thest. However, thanks to Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ tight defenses, the sect¡¯s forces held strong. What was more, they took the initiative tounch their own counter-offensives into the Forbidden Sea.

    At the same time, more and more Seven Blood Eyes disciples were arriving to join the fighting force. There were also nonhuman allies of Seven Blood Eyes who bolstered their forces. Because of that, other nonhumans were amon sight in the Merfolk Isles.

    Of course, the Seazombies had other nonhumans working with them as well. The scale of the war just kept getting bigger and bigger.

    None of that had anything to do with Xu Qing. Right now, he was speeding along in the underwater world of Nethervault Ind, following the direction of his shadow to the next teleportation portal.

    If I¡¯m lucky, I should be able to open thest two dharma apertures in less than half a month!

    Scanning his identity medallion, he saw that he had a bit over 300,000 spirit stones. But the idea of starting his life me was far more exciting than that.

    I wonder how I¡¯ll measure up to the Captain after I ignite my first life me and add the lifemp to it.

    Inside the ck iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was equally excited, as he could sense that he was also getting close to a breakthrough. Once I break through, I¡¯ll be even more useful. Then I won¡¯t need to worry about the Fiendish Xu getting rid of me!

    The shadow was in a simr state. Its mutagen continued to grow stronger. Of course, that made Xu Qing consider deeply whether or not to start suppressing it even more often. Sensing what Xu Qing was thinking, the shadow trembled and tried to act as ingratiating as possible.

    But Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were firm with determination. There was something very strange going on with his shadow. After consuming a Seazombie, it gained a Seazombie aura, and that alone put Xu Qing on guard. Even if he prevented it from breaking through, he felt like he still needed to be very careful.

    Just when he was tapping into the violet crystal to suppress his shadow, his expression flickered, and he turned to look off into the distance. About five kilometers away, he saw very clear teleportation fluctuations. Considering how powerful they were, it wasn¡¯t a single person teleporting in. It was arge group!

 Chapter 156: Itâ€™s You!

    Chapter 156: It¡¯s You!

    The powerful fluctuations were joined by faint rumbling sounds, as well as a flow of dharma force.

    Xu Qing stopped moving and looked at the distant portal, numerous thoughts running through his head. The portal was active, and there were Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivatorsing through.

    He could hear the sounds of fighting; obviously there were already Seven Blood Eyes disciples there fighting the invaders. Most disciples were on the surface carrying out missions. In the two months he had been down here, he hadn¡¯t encountered very many other disciples. If he was correct, these were other disciples on the same mission as he was.

    Xu Qing wasn''t quick to take action. Staying hidden, he slowly approached. When he felt he was close enough, he squatted down and looked at his shadow.

    The shadow had been with Xu Qing long enough to know his personality. What was more, after Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had trifled with the shadow earlier, it had been working very hard to be impressive. It didn¡¯t need any urging to stretch out toward the battlefield. The light in the underwater world came from the colorful coral, and though it provided illumination, it wasn¡¯t very bright. Therefore, it was easy for the shadow to move around undetected. That was especially true considering how strong the mutagen was in the area. Therefore, it didn¡¯t take much effort for the shadow to reach the battlefield.

    After looking around, it came back to Xu Qing. There, it projected some vague information to him while simultaneously creating some images on the ground that only he could see. Xu Qing looked down at the images. Though he could control his shadow, he did not have the ability to look through its eyes. Based on the images the shadow had created, Xu Qing realized what he was dealing with.

    ¡°Three Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivators,¡± Xu Qing murmured. ¡°They¡¯ve surrounded a Seven Blood Eyes Foundation Establishment disciple. And you can tell none of them have the profound radiance state.¡±

    His shadow nodded its head, then danced back and forth in anticipation.

    ¡°Are you sure you didn¡¯t miss anything, Little Shadow?¡± Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior said. ¡°Like me, you should be taking our lord and master¡¯s safety seriously. That should be your number one priority! Under absolutely no circumstances should you ever be careless!¡±

    The patriarch felt very proud of his words. If the shadow performed well, then he could im some of the credit with the Fiendish Xu. And if the shadow made a mistake, then the patriarch would still get credit with the Fiendish Xu. It was a win-win situation.

    The shadow¡¯s killing intent locked onto the ck iron skewer, but Xu Qing ignored both of them as he crept forward. He currently had 28 dharma apertures open, and if his calctions were correct, then killing two or three more Seazombies might get him to the point of opening 30.

    I can''t let this opportunity pass me by!

    He kept his cultivation base hidden as he got closer and closer to the powerful fluctuations ahead. Eventually, he caught sight of the teleportation portal. The ce was covered with long seagrass that made it difficult to see the portal. However, it couldn¡¯t block out the light the portal emitted.

    There was one Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivator on the portal, making adjustments to it. Apparently, he was preparing it to receive even more Seazombies via teleportation. This Seazombie had once been human. Other than his rotting skin and the zombie poison which surrounded him, he still looked almostpletely like an ordinary human. In fact, he resembled a schr, with a ck daoist robe and powerful cultivation base fluctuations.

    In addition, there was a young disciple from the Third Peak, d in a dark yellow daoist robe, who was fighting with two Seazombies who were slightly weaker than him.

    There were obviously other things to worry about in the area; when Xu Qing got close enough, his identity medallion lost its connection to the sect. Xu Qing ignored that and kept observing the battlefield.

    The Third Peak disciple had a set of ck gauntlets that emanated ck mist as he fought. That mist spread out and took the indistinct shape of various grues. At the same time, on the disciple¡¯s forehead was the image of what appeared to be a grue, facing away and struggling to turn around. However, it was restricted in ce so that turning around would bepletely impossible.

    This Third Peak disciple couldn¡¯t enter the profound radiance state. However, he was fighting two Seazombies at the same time, so it seemed likely he had about 20 dharma apertures open.

    However, the Seazombies were attacking with materialized mutagen, andbined with their powerful fleshly bodies and zombie poison, plus the fact that they were teaming up two-against-one, the Third Peak disciple was obviously in great danger.

    The image on the disciple¡¯s forehead made Xu Qing think back to the Third Peak¡¯s reputation in the sect.

    The Third Peak magical techniques revolve around grues!

    As Xu Qing was examining thebatants, they seemed to take notice of him.

    The Third Peak discipleunched an attack, forcing the two Seazombies away. At the same time, he shouted to Xu Qing, ¡°The Seazombies locked down all voice messages. Help me out, and I¡¯ll pay you 10,000 spirit stones.¡±

    This was how Seven Blood Eyes disciples usually did things. Despite being fellow disciples from the same sect, they had no obligation to help each other.

    Even as the Third Peak disciple called out, the Seazombie in the ck schr robe stopped working with the spell formation, rose, and rushed toward Xu Qing. As he closed in, his hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the field of interference to sweep wider andpletely contain Xu Qing. Apparently, he felt that he had trapped this new disciple, preventing him from retreating. And he also felt confident in being able to kill him. Despite not being able to enter the profound radiance state, he had 29 dharma apertures open.

    Couple that with the Seazombie¡¯s naturally superior fleshly body and regenerative powers, plus the strong mutagen near the sea floor, and he waspletely confident that he could defeat virtually anyone in the same cultivation level as himself. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention that this new opponent was only a human. He had killed his fair share of Foundation Establishment humans.

    However, as his dharma apertures rumbled with power, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes, as this Seven Blood Eyes disciple didn¡¯t retreat as expected. Instead, he charged forward.

    ¡°You have so much confidence in your cultivation base and battle prowess that, instead of retreating, you¡¯re fighting? That¡¯s not how you Seven Blood Eyes cultivators usually operate. In that case, let¡¯s see if my fleshly body is stronger than yours!¡±

    Laughing coldly, the Seazombie elerated, obviously intent on crushing Xu Qing into a bloody pulp.

    Some distance away, the Third Peak disciple looked over. A violet robe? He''s from the Seventh Peak. How could someone from the Seventh Peak be that stupid?

    However, he wasn¡¯t in any position to do anything other than specte. He couldn¡¯t extricate himself from the fighting, and was struggling just to defend himself. A momentter, the Third Peak disciple¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Xu Qing and the Seazombie raced toward each other, and when they were only about thirty meters apart, both of them suddenly elerated dramatically.

    Xu Qing had pulled out the feather-shaped magical device, while the Seazombie schr was using a ck fan. However, almost as soon as the Seazombie elerated, he shifted in a different direction. Xu Qing also veered to the side.

    As it turned out, Xu Qing¡¯s real target wasn¡¯t the schr. Instead, it was one of the two Seazombies the Third Peak disciple was fighting.

    Xu Qing preferred taking out the weak targets first. Things usually went smoothly when he fought in that way. And thanks to the feather-shaped magical device, he was so quick that, after changing directions, he almost immediately arrived next to the two Seazombies that were fighting the Third Peak disciple.

    As for the Seazombie schr, he hadn¡¯t been targeting Xu Qing at all. And his previous talk about battle prowess and fleshly body had been a ruse. His true target was the Third Peak disciple.

    And thus, in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint, both of them streaked toward the spot where the Third Peak disciple was fighting the two Seazombie cultivators. A huge boom rang out.

    The Third Peak disciple coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and staggered back in shock. However, in that moment of crisis, a ck tattoo appeared on his neck. It depicted a lotus, and it quickly spread out to cover his head, blocking what would have been a mortal blow from the schrly Seazombie.

    Off to the side, Xu Qing was wreathed in ck balefire, and his iron skewer flew next to him at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, one of the weaker Seazombies was pierced through the forehead, while the other¡¯s throat was shed with a dagger. The one pierced through the forehead grunted and staggered back, his hands flying into an incantation gesture that summoned a huge six-armed statue of a god. Roaring, the god statue blocked the iron skewer, preventing it from making any further attacks.

    As for the Seazombie whose throat Xu Qing had shed, he wasn¡¯t as lucky. The ck dagger turned into mes that engulfed him. And then Xu Qing¡¯s left hand closed into a fist, which smashed into the Seazombie''s chest and crushed his heart. At the same time, ck balefire erupted from all of Xu Qing¡¯s 28 dharma apertures!

    The Seazombie let loose a bloodcurdling scream as he burst into mes. However, that was when Xu Qing¡¯s shadow wrapped around him and started absorbing his mutagen. Almost immediately, the Seazombie withered up by half. Then, as he screamed and burned, his soul was sucked away.

    As for the shadow, its Seazombie aura grew stronger, though it immediately tried to suppress it.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but as a matter of fact, it happened in an instant. After the ughter, Xu Qing looked up at the Seazombie with the ck schr¡¯s robe. He seemed surprised that the Seazombie had used the exact same tactic as he had.

    The Seazombie schr looked equally surprised. Ignoring the Third Peak disciple who had just barely escaped death, he red at Xu Qing.

    That was when the teleportation portal suddenly emitted powerful fluctuations, as a new teleportation began. However, the aura that apanied it wasn¡¯t very strong, as if it were only interested in probing the area.

    Then it seemed to catch sight of Xu Qing, and the portal surged as a howl came out from the other side.

    ¡°It¡¯s you! You just wait, I¡¯m going to kill you!¡±

    The fluctuations of the profound radiance state erupted from the portal. This was the very same Seazombie cultivator that Xu Qing had already twice prevented from teleporting in. After detecting Xu Qing, it was with a heart full of rage that he fully activated the teleportation portal!

 Chapter 157: Xu Qingâ€™s Profound Radiance State!

    Chapter 157: Xu Qing¡¯s Profound Radiance State!

    Upon hearing the words spoken by the profound radiance state Seazombie cultivator, the Seazombie schr looked thoughtful. As for the Third Peak disciple, he backed away in shock.

    Xu Qing frowned but didn¡¯t say anything in response. Using the soul of the Seazombie he¡¯d just killed, he started battering at his 29th dharma aperture. At the same time, he ignored the schr and dashed toward the other Seazombie that had been injured by the iron skewer, and was now scrambling in the opposite direction. Along the way, he looked at the Third Peak disciple and spoke for the first time, saying, ¡°If you don¡¯t want to die, keep that ck-robed one busy.¡±

    Xu Qing knew that it would be a waste of time to either try to destroy the teleportation portal or deal with the Seazombie schr. If he tried to destroy the portal, the other Seazombies would interfere. And killing the schr would just take extra time. He was strong, and he was also very smart, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel like dealing with such an opponent right now. Instead, he wanted to reach the profound radiance state and deal with him after.

    Therefore, the optimal choice was to have the Third Peak disciple buy time with the schr, while Xu Qing tried to kill the second of the weaker Seazombies. If he could devour his soul and use it to open his 30th dharma aperture, then he could form his life me.

    Xu Qing had plenty of experience fighting. From when he was small in the slums to right now, it was impossible to say how many fights he had been in, and how many people he had killed. But he had long since honed his senses and his judgment.

    Thus, he bore down on his target at top speed. This particr Seazombie had been a nonhuman in life. He had a long nose like a trunk, simr to the cultivator Xu Qing had dealt with on Sealizard Ind. [1]

    Xu Qing closed in, not hesitating at all to attack. Rumbling booms echoed out everywhere.

    Meanwhile, the Seazombie schr was trying to decide what was going on. He couldn¡¯t figure out what Xu Qing was nning, although he guessed that it had something to do with the profound radiance state. That would exin why, instead of fleeing, he tried to kill the other Seazombie on the battlefield.

    Despite not knowing the details, he did know that if this person reached the profound radiance state, he still wouldn¡¯t be a match for the personing through the teleportation portal, the exalted Yun Chen.

    After all, profound radiance states differed from each other based on the number of dharma apertures they drew on.

    However, there wasn¡¯t time to analyze the situation deeply. Whatever was happening, he had to stop the enemy from seeding. Therefore, he prepared to charge toward Xu Qing. People who could cultivate their way to Foundation Establishment were generally not idiots. And this Seazombie schr was no fool.

    Neither was the Third Peak disciple. He had just been a bit slow to react earlier. He didn¡¯t quite understand what Xu Qing was nning, but he did know that despite his own Third Peak advantages, he wasn¡¯t quite strong enough to block the path of an opponent as strong as this Seazombie schr. And if he couldn¡¯t block him, then it made sense to flee.

    But if a Seazombie capable of entering the profound radiance state entered through the teleportation portal, then even if he managed to get out of the area of interference and send a voice message asking for help, it wouldn¡¯t do any good. He knew how terrifying the profound radiance state was. It didn¡¯t matter where he fled to, he would almost certainly die. The best course of action seemed to be going all out in a different way.

    As soon as he made this decision, his eyes shone with determination. If he wanted the best shot at staying alive, there was only one option.

    Gritting his teeth, he went into a double-handed incantation gesture, then viciously hit his forehead to unleash a Third Peak secret magic.

    When he did that, the figure on his forehead turned around to reveal the face of a woman. She had a pale face with blood oozing out of her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. She was a grue, and she looked ghastly, almost like she was ready to climb out of his forehead. She grewrger andrger until, finally, she did separate from him, floating out into the open. Then, the spectral grue shot forward, not in the direction of the Seazombie schr, but instead, toward the glittering teleportation portal!

    That was the Third Peak disciple¡¯s n. If the portal was destroyed, it would resolve the crisis. And the only thing preventing him from destroying it was the Seazombie schr. Therefore, doing this would also align with the request from the Seventh Peak cultivator.

    It would ensure that, if the Seventh Peak disciple was plotting against him, it wouldn¡¯t work. It would also ensure that the Seazombie schr didn¡¯t have time to attack him, since he would be defending the portal. And that meant the disciple would have a better chance of escaping this situation with his life.

    If the portal opened, then the Seventh Peak disciple would be the initial target, giving further opportunities for escape.

    I gotta risk it!

    The Third Peak disciple gritted his teeth, and without looking back at all, ignited his dharma apertures and fled at top speed.

    Situations could change in an instant on the battlefield, and when dealing with opponents at roughly the same cultivation level, victory was often decided by who could think most quickly. When the Seazombie schr saw the Third Peak disciple send a grue toward the teleportation portal, then flee, he had a bad feeling about what was happening.

    From his perspective, the most important thing was making sure the exalted Yun Chen arrived. Therefore, he couldn¡¯t bother fighting Xu Qing, nor could he waste time chasing the Third Peak disciple. He headed straight toward the teleportation portal. As he neared, he went all out to prevent the grue from reaching it. Booms echoed out.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all by the Third Peak cultivator¡¯s decision.

    Xu Qing was currently doing everything possible to kill his Seazombie opponent. The Seazombie struggled mightily, and used his summoned statue skillfully, but it did no good.

    The ck iron skewer whistled through the air, stabbing into the statue and absorbing it madly. With other people present, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t show himself. But he didn¡¯t hesitate at all to absorb the statue. That said, he also knew he needed to show some restraint, as he didn¡¯t want to harm the Fiendish Xu¡¯s chances of making some spirit stones. Therefore, after absorbing seventy percent of the statue, he stifled his greed.

    The shadow acted simrly. Taking advantage of the fact that no one could see him, the shadow lunged toward the Seazombie cultivator and wrapped around his leg.

    The Seazombie screamed shrilly as his leg copsed into ashes, and terror filled his eyes. He wanted to flee, but couldn¡¯t. And then Xu Qing¡¯s dagger plunged toward his throat. In that moment of deadly crisis, the Seazombie cultivator proved how vicious he was. A look of madness filled his eyes as he detonated half of the dharma apertures within him. Booms echoed out as the shocking power of half of his dharma apertures erupted, breaking him free from the grip of Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Dodging the iron skewer and avoiding Xu Qing¡¯s dagger, he turned to flee.

    The Third Peak disciple was nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, the grue he had left behind was starting to fade away thanks to the distance between them. And then, under the powerful attack of the Seazombie schr, it vanished.

    Having handled the grue, the Seazombie schr turned to look at Xu Qing. However, just as he was about to charge forth, he saw that his fleeingpanion suddenly shivered violently and coughed up a huge mouthful of ck blood. Seazombie blood was blue. But he coughed up ck blood. It wasn¡¯t poison that Xu Qing had thrown out. Instead, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had requested that Xu Qing coat the iron skewer with poison. And when he stabbed the Seazombie through the forehead, he released that poison.

    It just took a bit of time to kick in. Therefore, when the Seazombie detonated half of his dharma apertures, he became so weak that the poison took effect. As the poison red up, numerous daggers of ck mes shot toward the Seazombie at high speed and stabbed into him. There were six in total. One hit his neck, one hit his heart, one hit his forehead, and the other three hit limbs. Cracking sounds rang out as the Seazombie was thrown to the ground from the impact. Then the iron skewer shot toward him. The skewer stabbed him numerous times, and then the shadow wrapped around his other leg.

    Agonized shrieks rang out as ck fire spread all over him. Meanwhile, Xu Qing ignored the iing Seazombie schr. Stepping toward the wounded Seazombie, he reached down and mped his hand over the thing¡¯s mouth. The screaming stopped. Meanwhile, balefire shot into the Seazombie. After taking its soul, Xu Qing turned it into kindling to batter his 30th dharma aperture.

    A massive rumbling filled him!

    He shook as his 30th dharma aperture opened. Then, all 30 of his dharma apertures linked together as one. Dharma force streamed out of them, turning into threads of fire that converged in his dantian region. Wrapping around themselves, they became a small ball of fire. It grew denser and brighter, and then a whooshing sound could be heard, which signified that this Foundation Establishment cultivator had formed his first life me!

    Shocking fluctuations rolled out in all directions as the life me ignited. Bright mes shone on his thirty dharma apertures, making them almost transparent, and faintly illuminating his heavenly pces.

    At the same time, a mighty aura shot out from within him. As Xu Qing looked around, the world seemed different. Everything moved more slowly, even the water, the crumbling ruins around him, and the Seazombie schr. The schr was still charging forward, but seemed like he was moving in slow motion.

    In fact, everything was moving so slowly it felt ufortable to Xu Qing at first. He even noticed individual dust particles within the water. And when he focused on the dust particles, he felt like he could zoom his view closer to them at will. As he noticed all of these things, the life me inside him burned, and he felt a terrifying power within him.

    His magical techniques were all improved now, and his fleshly body seemed on a higher level. It was as if his soul was now d in armor. Everything seemed different from before. Xu Qing had known all along that having a life me waspletely different from not having one. But now that he was personally experiencing that difference, he realized that he had underestimated it. They were twopletely different realms. Now, his 30 dharma apertures were like thirty ovens, all of them burning rapidly through their fuel. As they burned to create his life me, brilliant light shone in all directions, making it seem like there was a huge furnace within him!

    Within the iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled in envy and hope. The shadow also trembled, as though Xu Qing¡¯s brilliance made it ufortable

    But Xu Qing¡¯s upgrade wasn¡¯t over yet. As everything around him slowed, and as the teleportation portal in the distance became fully activated, Xu Qing moved his life me to align with the wick of the ck lifemp.

    The surrounding seawater exploded wildly as a terrifying aura swept out. As the lifemp ignited, it released power vastly more terrifying than the life me, sweeping through his meridians, flesh, and blood. Everywhere it passed, Xu Qing felt like his life force was advancing. He trembled as massive rumbling sounds echoed out within him.

    Now, what was inside him wasn¡¯t a furnace, it was an erupting volcano!! This was a power that could crush anything in its path!

    As that power was raging through Xu Qing, the teleportation portal finished opening fully.

    Within it appeared a Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivator in the profound radiance state. He was not fully materialized, but by now, there was no way to stop the teleportation.

    Grinning cruelly, he said, ¡°You failed to stop me this time, human brat. Are you ready to die?¡±

    1. The ¡°trunked cultivator¡± was introduced in chapter 86 and killed in chapter 92. ?

 Chapter 158: Mount Tai Crushing an Egg

    Chapter 158: Mount Tai Crushing an Egg

    ¡°Uhhh....¡± The Foundation Establishment Seazombie on the teleportation portal suddenly stopped talking.

    In life, he had been a species that looked mostly human except for having six eyes. In addition to the eyes where humans normally had them, he also had an eye on each cheek, one on his forehead, and one on the back of his head. He was now about half-materialized on the teleportation portal, and the materialized parts included his head and eyes. His breath was alreadying in ragged pants, and all of his five visible eyes that Xu Qing could see were filled with shock and disbelief. It was simply impossible for him to hide the heaven-shaking, earth-toppling incredulity he felt in his heart.

    ¡°Y-you... you have a life me? And not just one!! Th-this... this....¡±

    The Foundation Establishment Seazombie was so shocked he was physically shaking. The intense sensation of deadly crisis was so strong that even his soul was trembling. In fact, now he wanted the teleportation portal to be destroyed. Given how far along the teleportation was, there was no way for him to back out of it now.

    Looking at the ck-robed Seazombie schr, he shouted, ¡°Destroy the portal. Now!¡±

    Of course, the iing Seazombie wasn''t the only one to be shocked. The Seazombie schr who had just now been closing in on Xu Qing was also being ravaged by waves of astonishment. The fire within Xu Qing was just absolutely terrifying! There was an explosive, volcanic level of strength in him that caused the Seazombie schr¡¯s eyes to sting so badly he felt the urge to look away. And his heart was so rocked by shock that he thought he might pass out.

    Given the circumstances, the Seazombie schr didn¡¯t dare to get any closer. The sensation of deadly crisis within him was telling him that he had only one option. And that was to ignore his instinctual drive to follow the orders of his superior, and take advantage of the distraction that superior was providing to make an escape.

    He made the decision in the blink of an eye. Turning, he fled.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing slowly looked up.

    The volcanic power within him caused burning fire to circle around him, boiling the surrounding seawater. And his eyes also seemed to contain piercing fire that made him look like the child of a god. His gaze seemed capable of piercing through all barriers and obstacles. Not even the fluctuations of the teleportation portal could influence it. And thus, Xu Qing looked directly at the six-eyed Seazombie cultivator.

    From Xu Qing¡¯s perspective everything was still moving very slowly. The Seazombie schr was running away in slow motion, and the dust in the area seemed frozen in ce. Everything looked like a painting.

    The teleportation portal¡¯s fluctuations were like ink slowly spreading out in the water. Only the six-eyed Seazombie cultivator seemed to be moving slightly faster than everything else. But he was still slow!

    When Xu Qing looked at him, the six-eyed cultivator¡¯s mind reeled, and his facial expression flickered dramatically. Inwardly, he howled in anguish. Two life mes. He has two! This is a Seven Blood Eyes Seventh Peak disciple with two life mes!! But why did he prevent me from teleporting in before?

    Taking advantage of the part of him that had already materialized, he began attacking the teleportation portal, hoping to destroy it. However, that method wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    Xu Qing raised his right hand in the direction of the portal, then exerted a slight pressure.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as ck balefire erupted from within him with volcanic might. Sweeping forth, it became a huge ck hand that descended toward the Seazombie. The heat being released by his hand could devastate anything and everything. Cracks and crevices spread out on the ground, until it seemed like it might crumble into nothing.

    The seagrass in the area crumbled into ash, and the water in the area boiled away, leaving an empty space that revealed the teleportation portal all by itself. The six-eyed cultivator on the portal was shrieking hysterically. As the sensation of deadly crisis grew more intense, he held nothing back in his efforts to fight back. Four additional arms sprouted out from his torso.

    Clenching all six hands into fists, he activated his profound radiance state, going so far as to destroy some of his own dharma apertures to release all of histent power. Instantly, he transformed into a mass of fire as he braced himself against Xu Qing¡¯s hand of ck me. At the same time, he produced three magical devices and also spat out a blue piece of jade. His expression was one of madness and despair.

    Sadly for him, none of that was enough! Someone with a single life me simply couldn¡¯tpare to a cultivator with a lifemp.

    As the hand of ck me descended, everything was reduced to ashes. The six-eyed Seazombie¡¯s first magical device copsed. His second broke into pieces. And his third didn¡¯t evenst for half a breath of time before exploding.

    Then the blue piece of jade shattered. As the cracking sounds echoed out, the Seazombie¡¯s fleshly body failed to stand up to the force, and began to rip apart. Three of his six arms exploded into clouds of blood. Then his legs couldn¡¯t take it, and they also exploded. His remaining three arms bent under the force, then also exploded into a haze of blue blood.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand of ck me crushed through everything with ease,nding on the surface of the ground, and continuing onward! The teleportation portal was smashed into bits of ash.

    A huge handprint appeared embedded in the ground. The six-eyed Seazombie had already been crushed out of existence, leaving behind nothing other than a dim ball of green fire that shot off in flight.

    It moved so fast that someone without a life me wouldn¡¯t be able to track it. But to Xu Qing, it looked slow. He took one step forward.

    As he did, the water in the area exploded, turning into rivulets that spun away in every direction. Xu Qing moved with such speed that, in the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of the fleeing six-eyed Seazombie¡¯s soul. Ignoring the heat of the cultivator''s life me, he reached inside and grabbed the soul like he was grabbing a baby chicken.

    The Seazombie cultivator screamed in agony as ck mes enveloped him. Xu Qing was directly refining his soul! The dead Seazombie had no way of understanding how this Seven Blood Eyes disciple could be so strong, yet earlier had prevented him from teleporting in. All in all, he had never encountered someone with a single life me who was this strong. To him, Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem like someone who had just created their life me.

    Three breaths of time passed, and then Xu Qing rxed his hand. The Seazombie¡¯s soul had been fully refined, and was now kindling within him.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing turned and looked at the Seazombie schr who was still slowly fleeing. All of a sudden, Xu Qing was struck by the difference between someone with a life me and someone without it.

    The difference is beyond astounding.

    Sighing, he took a step toward the fleeing Seazombie schr.

    Because Xu Qing was in the profound radiance state, the fleeing Seazombie couldn¡¯t even track his movement. Then, the water around him boiled away explosively, and Xu Qing was standing in front of him.

    As a look of terror spread across his face, Xu Qing reached out, summoned a dagger of ck me, and shed it through the schr''s throat. His head flew off his torso, though the two remained linked by ck fire. But as the fire burned them, the two parts separated. And then they both copsed into ash. Xu Qing turned to look in the direction of the fleeing Third Peak disciple.

    Because of how far away he was, there was no way he had any idea what had happened. After thinking about it for a moment, Xu Qing decided not to chase him.

    The disciple could still unleash grues. And though his actions had been mostly out of self-preservation, he had still helped Xu Qing to a degree.

    Xu Qing collected his battle trophies from the area, looked around to make sure there were no clues left behind as to what had yed out, then vanished.

    As Xu Qing sped through the underwater world while in the profound radiance state, he felt a sensation that was difficult to describe. It was a feeling of all-epassing safety that stemmed from his immense strength. He moved with such speed that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn¡¯t be able to see him. The resistance of the water did slow him down, but only by a bit. When he looked inward, the volcanic explosiveness within him was shocking to say the least.

    I wonder how I wouldpare to the Captain. Within him, he could sense the life me burning in his lifemp, and the power of the profound radiance state. All strength is the result of transformation!

    As he sped along, he waved his hand, sending out a sea of ck me that descended onto a Seazombie teleportation portal and wiped it out of existence. Then he clenched his hand into a fist and punched, hewing out a massive crater.

    Next he performed an incantation gesture. Seawater roiled around him, changing into a tornado-like vortex that smashed into the crater with deadly force. Any ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator who faced that attack would be destroyed in body and soul.

    My magical techniques and fleshly body have all improved!

    Finally, he came to a stop in a remote part of the underwater world. As the seawater boiled around him, he looked down at his shadow, and also waved his hand to summon the ck iron skewer.

    His shadow trembled, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in the skewer was also shaking. After Xu Qing entered his profound radiance state, both of them had remained silent. Even they were terrified by Xu Qing in that state, and how easily he could destroy anything.

    ¡°Assessment time ising,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

 Chapter 159: A Shadow Scam

    <h4>Chapter 159: A Shadow Scam</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to issue any more threats. His shadow immediately shivered in response to his words. In fact, in its terror, it seemed to react instinctively by ripping itself apart in several ces. Then it seemed to exert its consciousness anxiously to send a message to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Seazombie... eat... quick breakthrough... breakthrough quick....¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother to wonder what the difference was between ¡®quick breakthrough¡¯ and ¡®breakthrough quick.¡¯ Nor did he care whether or not the shadow was being sincere. Instead, he shifted his attention to the iron skewer.

    The skewer trembled as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared on its surface. He had obviously prepared himself mentally over the past few moments.

    As soon as he appeared, he pped his chest and confidently said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, milord! All I need to do is consume a few more magical devices and I can achieve a breakthrough with my spirit automaton techniques. Based on your humble servant¡¯s calctions, once that happens, then under my control, our dear little skewer will be able to achieve a speed and sharpnessparable to the profound radiance state.

    ¡°Although it won¡¯t be able to stay in that state long, milord, I¡¯ll work very hard not to hold you back. Incidentally, your humble servant has been looking into self-detonation methods.

    ¡°I¡¯ve already thought it through. What worries you, milord, worries me. What concerns you, milord, concerns me. My life isn¡¯t worth anything, so if a true moment of deadly crisis arrives, then your humble servant won¡¯t hesitate to self-detonate to make sure you have a chance to escape. Milord, all of this is to make sure you can follow the path of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns!¡±

    The patriarch spoke with great passion, and repeatedly thumped his chest to emphasize his words. Off to the side, the shadow trembled in amazement. Afterward, Xu Qing looked deeply at the patriarch, then nodded.

    ¡°I understand.¡± Looking away, he exercised a thought, and the life me within him winked out. As it did, Xu Qing returned to his previous state, and no longer shone brightly. The terrifying pressure that he had exuded vanished.

    The moment he left the profound radiance state, he felt a temporary ufortable sensation. In fact, he briefly felt the urge to go back into the profound radiance state. He suppressed the urge.

    It was a normal sensation for any Foundation Establishment cultivator who left the profound radiance state. That state involved explosively releasing everything from one¡¯s dharma apertures. It caused dharma apertures and spirit seas alike to surge, and also boosted the dharma body. As could be imagined, it was extremely draining.

    As a result, Foundation Establishment cultivators had to exercise restraint, and know how long they could stay in that state. For most single-me cultivators, they couldst for an hour or perhaps a bit longer.

    Because of that limited time, most people wouldn¡¯t use the profound radiance state unless they absolutely had to. And that was because the state tapped into the life me. If the life me ran out, then the dharma apertures in one¡¯s body would rapidly wither up. And withered apertures would leave one irreversibly crippled.

    After getting used to being out of the profound radiance state, Xu Qing checked his battle trophies.

    He had just killed four Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the most disappointing thing about it was that the one who had teleported in wasted four magical devices defending himself.

    Because it happened when Xu Qing had just entered the profound radiance state, and also had his lifemp active, he had been unable to exert refined control, and had only been able to attack with full force. And sadly, crushing his opponent had also involved crushing those magical devices.

    They were probably worth more than a million spirit stones!!

    Thinking about that, he sighed, then took out the bags of holding he¡¯d taken.

    These bags were better than any of the ones he¡¯d taken up to this point. In total, they contained about 300,000 spirit stones. Sadly, he only found a single magical device. It was the fan belonging to the Seazombie schr, which was a speed-boosting item. Xu Qing looked at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who was obviously antsy to devour it. He tossed it over.

    The iron skewer thrummed as it stabbed into the fan in a very crafty way, into the frame of the fan from underneath, in a way that the damage wouldn¡¯t be easy to spot.

    As the fan¡¯s spirit resonance was sucked away, it grew a bit dimmer. When the patriarch was satisfied, he pulled the skewer out of the fan, then turned back and exhaled onto the fan. That exhtion had a marvelous effect; when itnded on the fan, it went from being dim to glowing brightly. It looked exactly the same as before!

    ¡°It¡¯s just a bit more fragile, that¡¯s all!¡± the patriarch said, blinking a few times. He looked a bit apologetic, as if he was intentionally trying to seem like he wasn¡¯t a shady character. Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever as he took the fan back. Ignoring the patriarch¡¯s facial expression and words, he unleashed the power of the two Seazombie souls within him to open his 31st dharma aperture.

    I need more souls!

    Now that he had passed 30 dharma apertures, he could tell that the soul power wasn¡¯t as effective. An ordinary Foundation Establishment soul wasn¡¯t enough to open a dharma aperture. He needed souls from cultivators with life mes. Though he had opened the 31st aperture, he could now see that he would need more souls to open the 32nd.

    As his dharma force built back up, Xu Qing burst into motion, heading toward the exit of the underwater world. He soon found it and went right in without slowing down.Before long, he was back on the surface. As soon as he was there, he saw numerous Seven Blood Eyes cultivators flying overhead. The atmosphere of war was even stronger than before. As rumbling echoed in the distance, shocking fluctuations rolled through the sky. Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned somber as he looked up. High in the sky, he saw more than ten high-ranking members of Seven Blood Eyes fighting with a group of Seazombies. Further away over the water there was even fiercer fighting going on between the two sides.

    Meanwhile, row after row of magical devices on the four inds sent out powerful magical techniques, creating a multi-colored glow which rose high into the sky. Flying swords shot out of the swordke and screamed through the air. The spell formations were also working like mad.

    Apparently, the war had reached a critical point, and the Seazombies were counter-attacking in a ferocious manner.

    Xu Qing sent some dharma force into his identity medallion to check the missions, and saw that most of them were for the front-line battle. The rewards were spectacr. And there were already seven or eight people creeping close topleting the mission to kill 10,000 enemies and get a destined opportunity for core formation. While he was paying attention to his identity medallion, he turned in thepleted teleportation formation mission. However, he didn¡¯t immediately pick a new mission.

    Right now, the most important thing as far as he was concerned was to exin how he had the power of two life mes within him, despite only having a single life me.

    The obvious way to avoid revealing that fact would be to figure out a way to stay away from Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Otherwise, if he got into a fight in the presence of others, he would have to reveal the truth, and might end up in a deadly crisis as a result. But that would be difficult long-term. So the alternative was toe up with a n to exin his unusual strength.

    The best exnation he could think of would be to say that he had devoured a lot of souls in battle. That seemed like the least risky cover story.

    Looking at his kill count on his identity medallion, he saw that he had killed fifteen Foundation Establishment Seazombies, but none in the Qi Condensation level.

    That¡¯s not enough.If someone investigated him, and saw such a low kill count, they would immediately be suspicious. Therefore, Xu Qing found a remote area, checked to make sure he was alone, then looked down at his shadow.

    ¡°You emitted a Seazombie aura earlier, right? Do it again.¡±

    The shadow seemed confused, and even formed itself into a question mark on the ground in front of him.

    ¡°Just do what you¡¯re told!¡± barked Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Looking somewhat hurt, the shadow released a small Seazombie aura. However, the moment it happened, the violet crystal in Xu Qing immediately suppressed it out of existence. As the shadow looked terrified and bewildered, Xu Qing checked his identity medallion and found that his count for Qi Condensation kills had risen from 0 to 1. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up.

    So, I was right.

    When he had seen that Seazombie auraing from the shadow earlier, he had wondered how the identity medallion would keep track of the kills. Seeing the result of his experiment, he was very pleased.

    The identity medallion wasn¡¯t alive, and thus had no sense of judgment. All it did was take note when various auras and fluctuations copsed, and used that as the basis to determine the kill count. Normally speaking, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to cheat the medallion. As for what would happen when multiple people attacked a single target, there was a function in ce to calcte the results. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but was good enough in most cases. But Xu Qing¡¯s bizarre shadow was different.

    This was the method he nned to use to deal with the situation. He would ept a mission, and use it to actually refine souls to open apertures, but at the same time, use his shadow to bolster his kill count for both Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment enemies. Then it would be more believable that he would have the battle prowess of two life mes. That was especially true during wartime, when so many enemies were present. As long as he didn¡¯t do anything too outrageous, it wouldn¡¯t seem suspicious. The main thing to consider was how many times the shadow could be suppressed.

    After a bit of consideration, Xu Qing decided it wasn¡¯t worth worrying about. After all, he had suppressed the shadow numerous times without it dying, so he doubted a few more times would hurt much.

    And thus, for the next two months, Xu Qing epted missions like mad. For most missions, he only used the power of a single life me, and would only use his lifemp when he was alone.

    And of course, just to make sure there weren¡¯t problems because of his identity medallion noticing the power of two life mes, he had his shadow conceal the presence of themp at all times.

    All of the missions required high kill counts. And of course, Xu Qing would asionally require his shadow to release Seazombie auras in the Foundation Establishment level. However, it could not attain that same level of battle prowess.

    Apparently, the shadow had limits. Regardless, Xu Qing¡¯s kill count of Foundation Establishment Seazombies increased.

    His shadow was in a miserable state, and that caused Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to shiver in terror. Although the current situation had nothing to do with him, he still couldn¡¯t stop worrying about his own survival.That was more true than ever on a few asions when it seemed like the shadow was really about to copse. Through the two months, Xu Qing also got many legitimate kills. Because of that, the shadow got a chance to bolster itself some, and its battle prowess was slowly returning to normal. That was quite a shock to Xu Qing. Meanwhile, Xu Qing reached the point of opening 40 dharma apertures.

    c71241599ffa2342522e9fa0e93245a9d8ec4ad4e8c3c5baf0c66a8666374fd0c33fa00b84a44bda63401fadc1c6c755152dd8a2c9978ff1ae01c7be1fc41e9e

 Chapter 160: Hooking a Fiendish Killer

    Chapter 160: Hooking a Fiendish Killer

    Xu Qing¡¯s kill count soon reached a much better-looking state. He was at over 3,000, and most of them were thanks to the shadow. At that point, Xu Qing figured he was in a good ce, and didn¡¯t dare to push his luck any further.

    If he recorded too many fake kills, it would be too suspicious. Upon checking the sect¡¯s kill list, he saw that even among the most vicious disciples, virtually none had more than 10,000. There were only seven or eight who had more than 7,000, with arger group that had around 5,000.

    Xu Qing suspected that those high kill counts must be from people using special methods, or perhaps killing a lot of Qi Condensation enemies. Without some such exnation, such high numbers seemed ridiculously exaggerated and unrealistic.

    After all, Seazombies weren¡¯t weak by any stretch of the imagination.

    The person upying the top spot on the list was Wu Jianwu. His kill count was so high that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but suspect that it was a fake number. Considering that, though, it seemed unlikely that his own numbers would be investigated. There were others with far more suspicious numbers. That said, there were people on the list whom he knew were ferocious fighters. The number two spot was upied by Second Highness, who had killed over 8,000 enemies. [1]

    After some more thought, Xu Qing wondered if the sect was fine with such ridiculous numbers to either improve morale, urge the disciples to fight harder, or make Seven Blood Eyes seem impressive.

    Regardless, now that he was done padding his numbers, he started looking for an actual mission for himself. After all the hard work he¡¯d put intely, he was feeling a bit tired, and was hoping to find something simple.

    It didn¡¯t take long for an escort mission to catch Xu Qing¡¯s eye.

    Second Peak cultivators were known for their pill concocting. However, they didn¡¯t just concoct pills for healing and boosting the cultivation base. They also concocted poison pills, or medicines with random and unusual properties. There was also a category of pill they would make that were known as taboo pills.

    Generally speaking, taboo pills were made for war purposes; once they were unleashed, their terrifying and lethal effects were difficult to deal with. Some could cause instant mutation, some could attract mutagen, and some could provoke meteorological phenomena. Every taboo pill had different effects, and every pill was used in a different way.

    What was more, taboo pills had to be buried immediately after being concocted. Therefore, in most cases, the Second Peak disciples would concoct a partial taboo pill in the sect, then find a good ce on the battlefield to finish the concocting process.

    This escort mission was being assigned because there were a lot of small inds surrounding the Merfolk Isles, many of which had volcanoes that served perfectly as locations for Second Peak disciples to concoct pills.

    Of course, the Seazombies also valued such locations, and would do everything possible to break through the battle lines, reach those inds, and interrupt the Second Peak disciples¡¯ efforts. And thus, this urgent mission was calling for Foundation Establishment cultivators to buy time for the Second Peak disciples to move from one location to another as they concocted and buried their pills.

    The listed mission reward was 300,000 spirit stones.

    When Xu Qing saw that, he was intrigued. An escort mission seemed a lot more reasonable than a mission to join the chaotic fighting on the battlefield. As he pondered whether to ept it, the twenty open positions in the mission began to fill up. When he saw that there were less than half of the open slots avable, he epted the mission. He immediately received a small portion of the spirit stone reward upfront. Then he was given the location of the teleportation portal to go to the mission area, as well as some other instructions.

    After looking over the information, Xu Qing headed to the teleportation portal, and soon disappeared within the glittering light.

    ***

    To the southwest of the Merfolk Isles were a series ofrge inds stretched out in a row like a pearl ne. The inds had been there for a long time, and though they were veryrge, the volcanoes that covered them made them unsuitable for habitation. On the Seven Blood Eyes sea charts, these inds were called the Pearl Archipgo. The volcanoes in the Pearl Archipgo were active, belching out ck smoke that caused ash to fall down like snow, and burningva to fall like rain. The ash andva that covered the Pearl Archipgo made the ce seem like the Yellow Springs.

    Meanwhile, waves surged around the inds as figures rushed toward the shore at high speed.

    Those figures were, of course, Seazombies. When they climbed on shore, fierce fighting broke out, and booms rippled across the inds. Dharma force fluctuations rolled out, and mutagen surged.

    On one of the inds in the middle of the archipgo, arge force of Seazombies had already ughtered their way to the central region. In that central region was a valley where the ground was covered with ck ash. asionally,va would spray down into the valley, forcing the people there to keep their defensive shields active.

    The people there were all Seven Blood Eyes disciples, most of them from the Second Peak. They looked very anxious as they watched a group of Fifth Peak disciples trying to repair a spell formation nearby.

    The Second Peak disciples hade here to bury taboo pills near the subterranean earthme. The fierce Seazombie assault hade seemingly out of nowhere. In fact, they had just buried their taboo pills, and hadn¡¯t even had a chance to make any adjustments. Because of the assault, they had no choice but to leave the area.

    Unfortunately, once the Seazombie army appeared, the teleportation portals stopped working correctly. They now only allowed for iing teleportations, not outgoing. As far as these disciples could tell, the Pearl Archipgo was a trapid by the Seazombies.

    And they were right. Therge Seazombie army assaulting the Merfolk Isles was actually a feint to allow for the real operation to take ce in the Pearl Archipgo. If they seeded, then they could establish amand base here, and then use it to deploy troops against Seven Blood Eyes much more easily.

    If Seven Blood Eyes sent forces to deal with the Pearl Archipgo, then the Seazombies could easily turn their feint on the Merfolk Isles into the main assault. All of the spell formations on the ind were being affected. Furthermore, the Seazombies were going so far as to destroy some of the teleportation portals, while keeping others intact. Apparently, they wanted to guard a tree stump waiting for rabbits; if any Seven Blood Eyes cultivators teleported in through those portals, they would attack and kill them to earn battle credit.

    In the northwest part of that one particr ind, there was a deep valley in the middle of the ind where a teleportation portal currently glittered with bright light. Surrounding the portal were several dozen Seazombie cultivators.

    The leader of the Seazombies here was an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, a nonhuman with three eyes. Keeping those eyes fixed on the teleportation portal, he shouted,

    ¡°Everybody get ready. Keep a close eye on the dharma force fluctuations. If a cultivator with a life me starts toe through, destroy the portal instantly. Hopefully no one like that appears, because I really want to rack up some merit points.¡±

    The Foundation Establishment cultivator looked at the glittering teleportation portal with keen anticipation.

    The truth was that when the Seven Blood Eyes patriarch unexpectedly invaded the Seazombies after his cultivation base breakthrough, he ended up seriously injuring their patriarch. And that threw the entire Seazombie people into chaos. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that some of their sleeping old-timers awakened to take control, the Seazombies might have been wiped out. After that, Seven Blood Eyes set up their mainmand base in the Merfolk Isles. Subsequent attempts by the Seazombies to retake the Merfolk Isles had all failed.

    In the hopes of eking out a victory, the Seazombie leadership were offering amazing rewards, including the chance to upgrade their life force. All that was required to get those rewards was enough merit points, and that had whipped the Seazombie cultivators into a frenzy.

    The Seazombie cultivator waiting in ambush by this teleportation portal was no exception. However, he was also cautious, and was worried that a Foundation Establishment cultivator with the profound radiance state woulde through. Thus, he had brought along a magical device that could read fluctuations.

    In fact, right next to him was an enormous eyeball that had eight tentacles, each of which had dug into the forehead of a Qi Condensation Seazombie in the great circle. The eyeball was slowly absorbing them to assess what was happening with the portal.

    Suddenly, the eyeball shone with white light.

    Seeing that, the Foundation Establishment Seazombie grinned viciously and prepared to jump toward the portal. However, that was when, just as a figure became visible in the portal, a stream of ck light shot out from within. It moved with such incredible speed that, in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of the Foundation Establishment Seazombie.

    Shocked, the Seazombie lurched backward. But at the same time, the ck blur doubled its speed, carrying with it the tinkling of a bell that seemed to affect the soul. The Seazombie cultivator shivered.

    Then the ck blur stabbed into the Seazombie¡¯s chest and came out the other side.

    Meanwhile, as the figure in the teleportation portal grew more distinct, the giant eyeball glittered, not with white light, but with red light.

    ¡°Red dharma force!¡± shrieked the wounded Seazombie. ¡°Destroy the formation!¡±

    The moment the order left his lips, the surrounding Seazombies attacked the teleportation portal. Unfortunately for them, it was right then that the roar of a dragon echoed out from the formation. A snakeneck dragon shot out, growingrger by the moment until it was 300 meters in length. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it bore the brunt of all the iing magical techniques, ensuring that none of them hit the teleportation portal.

    At that point, the figureing through the portal became clear. It was none other than Xu Qing. Instead of stepping off the portal immediately, he looked around.

    He saw the shocked Foundation Establishment Seazombie, and the dozen or so Qi Condensation Seazombies. It was obvious that he was being ambushed, and yet, that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise to him. He hade in as prepared and vignt as always. Given that he had recently done the exact same thing these Seazombies were doing, it was no wonder that he¡¯d made preparations before teleporting in.

    Having sized up the area, the volcanic force within him exploded, and he entered the profound radiance state. As intense mes spread out from him, bringing incredibly high heat, the surroundings rippled and distorted.

    As a result, the huge eye exploded, and the eight Qi Condensation Seazombies connected to it screamed and coughed up mouthfuls of blood. The other Qi Condensation Seazombies in the area also let loose agonized shrieks. Given how far their cultivation bases were below Xu Qing, to them, he was on apletely different level of existence. It was simr to how he had felt when he first met Third Elder.

    Of course, he currently wasn¡¯t on the level of Third Elder, but then again, these Seazombies weren¡¯tparable to his level back then.

    As the screams echoed out, Xu Qing burst into motion, arriving right in front of the wounded Foundation Establishment Seazombie.

    The Seazombie was so shocked that, before he could even turn around, Xu Qing¡¯s hand hadtched onto the top of his head. Then, ck fire raged out to consume him. The Seazombie struggled. Unfortunately, Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp exerted terrifying pressure, and this Seazombie didn¡¯t even have a life me. His eyes went wide as his dharma apertures rumbled and his cultivation base was thrown into chaos. Then, ck balefire surged into him.

    He let loose another agonized shriek. He was strong. So strong, in fact, that back when Xu Qing didn¡¯t have a life me, a fight between the two of them would have gone a different way. But right now, the Seazombie had no hope.

    To Xu Qing, Foundation Establishment cultivators with no life me were as weak as wild chickens.

    1. Wu Jianwu is the disciple who got that wonderful wish box in chapter 147. ?

 Chapter 161: Mission Alteration

    Chapter 161: Mission Alteration

    Xu Qing ignored the screaming Seazombie, whose soul power was rapidly being sucked away. Instead, he checked his surroundings and also mentally reviewed the map he had been given as part of the mission. ording to the map, this particr teleportation portal was supposed to be difficult to find.

    Considering that the Seazombies had been waiting there in ambush, it seemed to indicate that things in the area weren¡¯t going very well for the sect. It was definitely not what the mission description had indicated.

    After Xu Qing absorbed the souls of all the Seazombies, he looked back at the teleportation portal and thought about just reactivating it and leaving. If a mission turned out to be too different from its description, disciples had the right to give up on it.

    A momentter, his heart sank. There was some strange force suppressing the teleportation portal, making it impossible to leave through it.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    Still in the profound radiance state, he flew up into the air. Of course, he didn¡¯t just hover there like an idiot. He started moving, while at the same time, assessing his surroundings. All the while, he used the souls he¡¯d absorbed to batter at his next dharma aperture. Unfortunately, with 40 open apertures, the soul power required going forward just kept getting more astonishing. An ordinary Foundation Establishment Seazombie just wasn¡¯t enough to break one of them open. He needed more than that.

    After getting an overview of the ind, Xu Qing dropped down out of the ash andva-filled sky,nding atop a tree in the jungle. The treetop had no leaves, only charred branches.

    He left the profound radiance state, and when he returned to his ordinary state, he frowned. He had just seen arge number of Seazombies in the distance. It was an army, surging out of the sea and onto the shore.

    And he had also seen numerous locations on the ind where Seazombiesy waiting in ambush. With that many Seazombies, there had to be some who could enter the profound radiance state. And it was even possible there were Gold Core cultivators among them. It was for that reason he¡¯d left the profound radiance state; he didn¡¯t want to attract any unwanted attention.

    There¡¯s something unusual going on with this mission!

    Xu Qing braced himself mentally. The mission description hadn¡¯t mentioned anything about dangerous circumstances. There was no way that only twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators could hold this spot against an entire army.

    Around then, his identity medallion vibrated, and he looked at it to find that the mission had been updated.

    ¡°A huge Seazombie army has suddenly assaulted the Pearl Archipgo. All escort and aid missions are being changed. The mission rewards are being doubled. Head without dy to the central part of the ind you are on and help any Second Peak cultivators there to evacuate.

    ¡°Be aware that all central areas have Fifth Peak disciples on duty. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the sect will activate the grand spell formation on the Merfolk Isles, and unleash a tideflow power to destroy the restrictive spell limiting teleportations on the Pearl Archipgo. At that time, all disciples can work with the Fifth Peak cultivators to teleport to safety.¡±

    Even as Xu Qing read the information, the mission ssification changed to red, indicating that it was now an extremely dangerous mission.

    I wanted a simple mission that would allow for some rest. This is annoying.

    Sighing, he shot backward to collide into a Qi Condensation Seazombie who had been sneaking up on him. The Seazombie was on such a lower level than him that he instantly exploded. Not bothering to look over his shoulder, Xu Qing waved, sending his snakeneck dragon out. As it mmed into the ground below, trees shattered, revealing several dozen Seazombies who had been preparing an ambush. They were all in Qi Condensation, and thus, they exploded one by one.

    That said, their presence was concerning. Ordinarily speaking, why would Qi Condensation cultivators try to ambush a Foundation Establishment cultivator? He wasn¡¯t in the profound radiance state, but his fluctuations were that of Foundation Establishment. It didn¡¯t take long for him to find out the answer to the question.

    Within the remains of the exploded Qi Condensation cultivators, he saw white threads. They were imnted within the bodies in a way that would allow those cultivators¡¯ minds and actions to be controlled like puppets.

    Right when Xu Qing spotted the white threads, two shadowy figures suddenly shot toward him at high speed. They were both Foundation Establishment Seazombies.

    One of them had a huge tumor on his arm that split open to reveal an eye. The eye glowed with white light as it stared at Xu Qing, as if it were assessing him. It reminded Xu Qing of the eye he had seen when he first teleported in. It seemed these eyes allowed Seazombies to check whether a Foundation Establishment cultivator could enter the profound radiance state.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was still keeping his lifemp concealed.

    After these two Seazombies believed that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t enter the profound radiance state, theyunched their attack.

    As they closed in, one of them performed an incantation gesture to summon a huge battle-ax with a ck dragon coiled around it, which stared at Xu Qing with vicious eyes. The other summoned a host of puppetized great circle Qi Condensation Seazombies, each of which stared at Xu Qing with glowing eyes as they spread out to surround him. At the same time, both Seazombies pulled out magical devices which vastly increased their destructive capabilities.

    They were apparently skilled at performing magical attacks inbination with each other. As they unleashed their dharma force, a skeletal hand formed over Xu Qing, pulsing with power that bordered on the profound radiance state as it crushed down toward him.

    Xu Qing took it all in, quickly checked the surroundings to make sure it was safe, then ignited his lifemp! It didn¡¯t matter that these opponents didn¡¯t have the profound radiance state. Xu Qing was going all out, like a lion pouncing on a hare. Thest thing he wanted to do was fail where failure was least expected.

    It was like a volcano erupting within him as dazzling light spread out to cover him. Terrifying force radiated out, smashing into everything around him with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    The attacking Foundation Establishment Seazombies¡¯ faces fell, and their pupils constricted.

    As for the Seazombie with the eye on his arm, his mind reeled as that eye suddenly emitted bright red light. That was a warning that this Seven Blood Eyes cultivator was extremely dangerous!

    However, the warning came toote.

    With Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp lit, these two Seazombies were trembling so badly it seemed like they might copse....

    The skeletal hand they had summoned didn¡¯t have a chance to even reach Xu Qing before it started emitting cracking sounds. In the blink of an eye, it was so damaged it was obviously about to explode. The Qi Condensation puppets burst into mes and were wiped out of existence. The battle-ax flying toward Xu Qing turned bright red, as if it were about to melt, and the eyes of the coiling dragon changed from vicious to terrified.

    The two Seazombies were already scared out of their minds. How could they ever have predicted that the cultivator they had already scanned and thought to be safe, would actually be able to enter the profound radiance state?

    And this terrifying power obviously surpassed the level of a single life me. This was the power of two life mes, in other words, mid-Foundation Establishment. And they knew full well how terrifying of a level that was.

    Not all Foundation Establishment cultivators were the same. Those who had a life me, and those who did not, were different. And the difference between one life me and two... was poles apart.

    It was possible for Qi Condensation cultivators in a lower level to fight a cultivator in a higher level of Qi Condensation. But in Foundation Establishment, the terrifying difference between levels made that impossible. There weren¡¯t many Foundation Establishment cultivators who had cultivated their way to having two life mes. As a result, people like that generally had high positions.

    And none of them were random people no one had ever heard about. The only person who could fight someone like that was another cultivator with two life mes.

    These terrified Seazombies now wanted nothing more than to simply flee.

    To Xu Qing, everything was moving in slow motion. Reaching out to the two shocked Seazombies, he made a grasping motion with his right hand.

    The battle-ax shattered. The ck dragon screamed as it crumbled into ashes. The skeletal hand crumbled.

    The two terrified Seazombies were wrapped up with massive force that dragged them toward Xu Qing. That force was so strong that cracking sounds rang out from inside their bodies. A momentter, ck balefire erupted from Xu Qing and engulfed them. They didn¡¯t even have time to scream. Their dharma apertures copsed, their bodies exploded, and their flesh and blood became a haze as their souls were sucked into Xu Qing. Turning, he left.

    Everything happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint.

    And after Xu Qing disappeared, the area went still, as if nothing had just happened. The ground was dry, the nts and vegetation gone. The skeletal hand and the battle-ax were nowhere to be seen, and the Seazombies had turned into dust that mixed with the ck ash falling from the sky.

    Xu Qing was moving in the profound radiance state, like a lightning bolt crossing the ind toward the central area.

    He could ept a change in the mission. Circumstances on a battlefield could transform very quickly, and often in ways that no one could predict or control. However, the fact that the mission had been amended so quickly went to show that the overall situation was still under the control of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Therefore, he would carry out the mission to help the Second Peak cultivators evacuate. As for the other disciples who had epted the same mission as him, he didn¡¯t care about them. He knew that he only had the time it takes an incense stick to burn. And thus, he didn¡¯t hold anything back. In only ten breaths of time, he caught sight of the central valley.

 Chapter 162: Hair Like Black Snow

    Chapter 162: Hair Like ck Snow

    The valley wasn¡¯t very big, and was filled with the fluctuations of teleportation. There were over a hundred Second Peak disciples, most of them disassembling pill furnaces and other magical devices that Xu Qing didn¡¯t recognize. Behind them was a mid-sized teleportation portal. Next to the portal were a handful of Fifth Peak disciples in green daoist robes, attempting to make adjustments to the formation. Every so often, the portal would emit fluctuations and glitter with light, then go dark.

    There was fighting at the entrance of the valley. About thirty cultivators from various peaks were engaged in fiercebat with a swarm of Seazombies. The ground beneath their feet was littered with corpses, severed limbs, and the like. It was a shocking and ghastly sight. The fighting was primarily between Foundation Establishment cultivators, and the shockwaves from thebat rolled out far in all directions.

    Meanwhile, further in the distance were two cultivators who surpassed the others. Shockingly, they were both in the profound radiance state.

    The Seazombie had been an old human man in life. He wore an extremely tattered gray robe, the extraordinary fluctuation of which pegged it as a magical device.

    The Seven Blood Eyes cultivator was a tall young woman. [1]

    She wore the orange daoist robe of the Second Peak, and though her beauty carried with it an air of maturity, she moved with incredible speed. Unfortunately, Second Peak disciples weren¡¯t known for their fighting ability. Therefore, despite the fact that she and her opponent were both in the profound radiance state, she was clearly at a disadvantage. Blood oozed out of the corners of her mouth, and she didn¡¯t have time to wipe it away.

    The profound radiance state made cultivators capable of incredible speeds. However, the slightest misstep could be fatal, and therefore, she couldn¡¯t afford to get distracted.

    Right when Xu Qing appeared, the young woman from the Second Peak ran out of dharma force, and her life me started flickering out. Her speed suffered as well, and the Seazombie took advantage of the opportunity tond a vicious blow to her chest.

    The young woman¡¯s garments were shredded open, revealing flesh beneath. At the same time, blood sprayed out of her mouth as she flew backward and mmed into a nearby boulder. The boulder cracked in half and sent chunks of small rock flying out in all directions. The young woman struggled to get back to her feet, but her life me was already out. Once again, she coughed up blood, causing her face to turn even more ashen than before.

    Seeing that, the Seazombie snorted coldly, then ignored the young woman as he turned toward the teleportation portal in the valley. Before he could move toward it, his expression became one of shock as he looked over his shoulder.

    ¡°The power of two life mes!¡± he blurted. From his perspective, everything in the valley was moving in slow motion. However, off in the distance, he saw a shocking figure blurring toward him at incredible speed.

    The contrast between the slow motion and the incredible speed prompted the Seazombie to immediately turn tail to flee.

    Given that he only had one life me, he knew full well that he was as different from someone with two mes as a regr Foundation Establishment cultivator with no profound radiance state was different from him.

    Dammit, there¡¯s a two-me cultivator here. That¡¯s mid-Foundation Establishment! Only a fellow Seazombie who also has two mes could fight him! The intelligence reports were wrong!!

    Though the Seazombie tried to flee, he was toote.

    Xu Qing had already spotted him! And now, this Seazombie with only one life me was his prey.

    Right now, Xu Qing needed souls to open dharma apertures, and ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators weren¡¯t enough to open them. In fact, even the two Seazombie cultivators he had just killed weren¡¯t enough to open his 41st dharma aperture.

    But assimting a Seazombie with a life me would be totally different. Even just one would be enough to open a dharma aperture.

    As soon as the Seazombie started fleeing, Xu Qing changed directions. Instead of heading toward the portal in the valley, he shot right toward the Seazombie. He was moving so quickly that it only took three breaths of time before he was right in front of his target.

    Clenching his right hand into a fist, he unleashed a blow backed by the terrifying power of his lifemp.

    The Seazombie could only attempt to avoid the blow. He was in the profound radiance state, but was so far below Xu Qing that he couldn¡¯tpare to him in terms of speed. Therefore, he failed, and Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into his chest. A boom rang out, like heavenly thunder, crashing out in all directions.

    Blood sprayed out of the Seazombie¡¯s mouth, and his body was ravaged as he was sent spinning off to the side, where he mmed into a boulder. In fact, he hit the boulder so hard he couldn¡¯t extricate himself. He was clearly grievously wounded. It was only due to the fact that he had released the power of the magical device that was his robe, and simultaneously overdrawn on his dharma apertures, that he wasn¡¯t killed in one blow.

    Even still, he was so badly injured that he clearly wouldn¡¯t recover anytime soon. Despair filled his eyes.

    And that was because, from his perspective, Xu Qing had just vanished.

    A momentter, ck me filled the Seazombie¡¯s field of vision. It was Xu Qing¡¯s hand, reaching out toward his forehead.

    As rumbling sounds filled the Seazombie¡¯s mind, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow went crazy, lunging forward to corrode the Seazombie¡¯s fleshly body. The iron skewer also stabbed into the daoist robe, and began to absorb the magical device.

    Because of those three assaults, the Seazombie let loose a bloodcurdling scream. However, it didn¡¯tst long, as he transformed into nothing but ashes a momentter. The only things left behind were his daoist robe and bag of holding, which Xu Qing took, then hovered in midair looking down at the fighting in the valley.

    More ck ¡®snow¡¯ fell, intermixed with crimson droplets ofva that looked like phoenix feathers.

    The red light from theva shone on Xu Qing¡¯s stern face, creating a stark contrast to the coldness of his eyes. It was an image like something from an ethereal scroll painting, filled with both beauty and somberness.

    The battlefield had gone still. All eyes were fixed on Xu Qing, and they seemed as dazed as if they were gazing at the child of a god. As the cultivators who hade here for the same mission as Xu Qing arrived, they also saw him, and felt shaken to the core, their hearts filling with reverence as they saluted him formally.

    It was the same with the Second Peak disciples, as well as the Fifth Peak cultivators who were trying to fix the teleportation portal. All of them looked at him with deep respect.

    Gu Muqing was in the crowd, and when she looked up at Xu Qing hovering amidst the ck snow and falling crimson sparks, she seemed lost in a daze. It was a profoundly moving visual image that she would never be able to forget. [2]

    As for the Seazombies trying to invade the valley, they were all trembling. And though it was hard to say which one was first, they began to flee in terror.

    Unfortunately for them, a ck iron skewer was waiting for them, as well as a shadow that, because evening was falling, was hard to see, yet was very interested inpeting with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Just outside the valley was the Second Peak young woman who had finally struggled to her feet. With a strange look in her eyes, she said, ¡°Well met, Elder Brother! Many thanks for the kindness of saving my life!¡±

    After she spoke, everyone said simr things.

    ¡°Well met, Elder Brother!¡±

    ¡°Well met, Elder Brother!!¡±

    The wind blew, causing the ck ¡®snow¡¯ to swirl along with Xu Qing¡¯s long hair. Then he looked up, and his eyes glittered like stars.

    As the disciples offered greetings, screams could be heard in the distance as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow unleashed a whirlwind of death. To the shadow, any Seazombie could be considered food, and though they didn¡¯t taste very good, the shadow wasn¡¯t picky. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior specifically needed magical devices. However, he felt like he didn¡¯t quite match up to the shadow in terms of strength, so he made a big show of the fighting. The reality was that he hoped to arouse the shadow¡¯s fighting spirit. The faster the shadow absorbed enemies, the sooner the patriarch would be able to find the magical devices. Given that, the circumstances actually ensured that they were working well together.

    That said,pared to the wily old fox that the patriarch was, the shadow was actually a bit immature. As a result, the shadow never realized what was going on, and continued to fight harder and harder, even asionally looking a bit contemptuous of the patriarch. The patriarch, in turn, egged on the shadow by pretending to look annoyed.

    The screams of the Seazombies created a stark contrast to the Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the valley offering respectful greetings to Xu Qing

    After looking over the group, Xu Qing turned his attention to the Second Peak young woman, who was in a very weak state. Nodding to her, he exited the profound radiance state.

    He had a lot of dharma force, but could only support the sustained use of his lifemp for about six hours. Therefore, he wanted to conserve dharma force as much as possible. Of course, most two-me cultivators who knew about that would be shocked, as they would only be able to remain in the profound radiance state for about an hour, perhaps a bit more. Because of all the work Xu Qing had done in Qi Condensation to prepare for his breakthrough, that was how different he was from the crowd.

    Xu Qing moved down into the valley.

    Now that he had extinguished his life me, it was much easier for the other disciples to make out his features. Before, they had only been able to catch a glimpse of his face, but now they could clearly see his spectacrly good-looking, nearly bewitching, features.

    All the disciples who looked at them, be they male or female, felt dazed. Of course, the female disciples seemed to remain in a daze for longer than the male disciples. Much of that had to do with the dazzling disy they had seen moments ago.

    Regardless, Xu Qing¡¯s features, plus the power of his cultivation base,bined with his violet robe and long, flowing hair, made everyone feel like they were looking at an immortal.

    As he walked through the valley, the Second Peak disciples all treated him with great respect, and the female cultivators¡¯ eyes glistened as they secretly studied him from head to toe.

    When Xu Qing spotted Gu Muqing in the crowd, he gave her a slight nod. Because of that, many of the surrounding Second Peak disciples nced in her direction. She blushed a bit, and was thinking of saying something, but Xu Qing just walked past to the teleportation portal.

    ¡°When can we teleport out of here?¡± Xu Qing asked quietly.

    The Fifth Peak disciples greeted him respectfully. Then one of them, a Foundation Establishment cultivator with no life me, said, ¡°Elder Brother, the formation is mostly ready. Once the sect¡¯s tideflow power arrives, I think we should be able to open the portal.¡±

    1. There are different words in Chinese that can be tranted as ¡®young woman.¡¯ The word I normally trante that way (and the word mostmonly used by the author, at least in this novel) implies a young woman in her mid tote teens. The term used here specifically means ¡°young (married) woman¡± and refers to a woman in her mid twenties to early thirties. ?

    2. Gu Muqing was introduced by name in chapter 94. She was mentioned briefly in both chapter 148 and 151. ?

 Chapter 163: A Freak!

    Chapter 163: A Freak!

    Seven Blood Eyes was a sect in which profit was the most important thing to everyone. For that reason, the weak showed clear respect to the strong. And no one would be foolish enough to behave improperly in front of someone stronger than them. People who did that didn¡¯t end up living for very long.

    That was why the Fifth Peak Foundation Establishment disciple was acting as respectfully as if Xu Qing were a sect elder. It didn¡¯t matter what he thought inside, he made sure to show the right attitude on the outside. In response to the disciple¡¯s words, Xu Qing nodded, then found a ce to sit down cross-legged and meditate. His n was to wait for the tideflow, and simultaneously work on his 41st dharma aperture. The soul of a life me Foundation Establishment cultivator turned out to be just as useful as he¡¯d imagined. It only took a moment for him to open his 41st dharma aperture, and even make some progress with his 42nd. He felt very pleased. If he could keep up this level of progress, then it wouldn¡¯t be long before he could ignite his second life me. At that point, it would look like he had two mes, but would actually be as strong as someone with three.

    Sadly, Foundation Establishment cultivators with life mes aren¡¯t verymon. I guess it¡¯s going toe down to luck. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he was probably going to have to ept dangerous missions.

    As he pondered the matter, more disciples entered the valley to help the Second Peak disciples dismantle their pill furnaces and magical devices. When all of the work was done, the disciples gathered near the teleportation portal to wait for the sect¡¯s tideflow to arrive.

    Of course, many of them were surreptitiously looking at Xu Qing and whispering amongst themselves. He was their pir now. Though they were still on the battlefield, his presence made them feel a lot safer. As time passed, the ind shook and trembled. Simultaneously, the fluctuations of teleportation continued to spread out. Also, the mutagen got stronger. Meanwhile, the sky grew darker, and the clouds above made the sky vague and indistinct, as though great danger were hidden inside them.

    As Xu Qing sat in meditation, the young woman from the Second Peak approached, holding her ripped garment against her chest as she did. She was obviously seriously injured, as her face was pale white. However, it didn¡¯t make her any less attractive. She had an oval face with arching eyebrows and phoenix-like eyes that seemed perpetually sad. Her age was probably around thirty, and because of her constant work with medicinal pills, she was simr to Gu Muqing in that she exuded a pleasant, medicinal aroma.

    ¡°Elder Brother, I previously hid a lot of magical eyes on this ind. More than half have been destroyed, but there are enough left to get a good idea of what¡¯s going on.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at her. It was hard to say if she was doing it intentionally, but the way she stood over Xu Qing as he sat there made it impossible for him to not see right through the ripped part of her garment to her half-covered bosom, which was as fair as snow.

    Xu Qing shifted his gaze to focus on her face.

    Meanwhile, as she got a good look at his face, and sensed how terrifyingly powerful he was, her heart started pounding. However, she quickly realized she was acting inappropriately, so she bowed her head, performed an incantation gesture, and summoned a projected image.

    The image revealedrge amounts of Seazombies pouring onto the other inds from the water. It was a shocking scene. There were Seazombies converging on this ind as well, in several locations, including the valley they were in.

    ¡°How long until the tideflow?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°A hundred breaths of time.¡± The one to answer wasn¡¯t the young woman, but Gu Muqing.

    She seemed anxious as her long ck hair swirled around her. A few strands of hair fell across her face, but that only made her seem more beautiful. Her bright eyes, and the pleasant aroma she naturally exuded, made her seem like a beauty from a painting.

    Looking at the injured Second Peak cultivator, she bowed slightly. ¡°Well met, Sect Aunt Li.¡±

    The woman smiled, then gave a deep, meaningful look to Gu Muqing, who in her eyes was nothing more than a little girl.

    Gu Muqing turned back to Xu Qing. ¡°Elder Brother Xu.¡± When she confirmed that Xu Qing didn¡¯t mind if she addressed him in that manner, she rxed a bit inwardly. ¡°Elder Brother Xu,¡± she continued, ¡°this jade slip contains all the instructions for the taboo pills here. We were instructed to activate the pills before we left. You have the highest cultivation base here, so the decision is yours to make.¡± With that, she handed him a jade slip.

    He took it, not bothering to think about why Gu Muqing possessed the jade slip, and not the Foundation Establishment cultivator. As he well knew, many of the old-timers in Second Peak trusted conve disciples more than anyone else, so it was no surprise to him.

    As he scanned the jade slip, shouting could be heard from outside the valley as a group of Seazombie cultivators appeared. Hardly paying any attention at all to the corpses on the ground, they charged into the valley.

    Everyone in the valley seemed nervous, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t look away from the jade slip.

    However, only a momentter, agonized shrieks rang out as the approaching Seazombies realized they had started melting. Some only managed to take a few more steps before bing nothing more than pools of blue blood. The disciples in the valley were all shaken. However, the Second Peak disciples recovered their wits more quickly than the others. Looking at the area where the Seazombies had been killed, they then looked at Xu Qing. They knew that it was poison.

    Only a very unique poison could kill a Seazombie so quickly, and could only be concocted by someone with a very deep understanding of medicinal theory. And it would also require a lot of experimentation. The former was a lot more attainable than thetter.

    That was one reason why not very many people on the Second Peak specialized in concocting poison. Oftentimes, the person concocting the poison would end up poisoning themselves and dying before they even had a chance to use their poison on someone else.

    The presence of the deadly poison made everyone feel a little less nervous, and the area outside the valley went quiet. The poison there, plus the presence of the iron skewer and Xu Qing¡¯s shadow, ensured that things were still.

    Thus, a hundred breaths of time passed, and everyone stood and approached the teleportation portal to wait for its activation. The portal wasn¡¯t veryrge, and thus, it was going to take three rounds of teleportation to get everyone out.

    Standing, Xu Qing walked over to the portal, and was about to say something when his expression suddenly flickered, and he looked in the direction of the valley entrance. There in the distance, from out of the darkness of the night, emerged a burning fire surrounding a man in a white robe. He pulsed with zombie poison, and had a profound radiance state that obviously surpassed the level of one life me. As he neared, thunder rumbled.

    He moved with such incredible speed that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn¡¯t track his movements properly. Not even the Second Peak woman with one life me was able to see him clearly. The other disciples present simply felt an immense pressure building up in their minds.

    The volcanic power within this Seazombie,bined with his zombie poison, made it so that the mes surrounding him were green.

    Two life mes. Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    This was the first cultivator Xu Qing had seen on the battlefield who had two life mes. His shocking power and burning light made everything in the area turn a shade of green. It was like a huge green hand was approaching the valley to crush it.

    When the approaching white-robed Seazombie got close enough to see everything in the valley clearly, he seemed to pause for a moment. But then heughed bizarrely and sped up. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he stepped forward and ignited his life me.

    The volcanic eruption caused him to enter the profound radiance state, which was now bing quite familiar. Then, everything around him slowed down except for the iing white-robed Seazombie. Xu Qing shot up into the air to meet him.

    In the blink of an eye, they mmed into each other, causing a boom to crash out that surpassed any kind of thunder. Then Xu Qing clenched his right hand into a fist and let loose a punch backed by his burning life me. The white-robed Seazombie did the exact same thing, and when their fists met, another huge boom exploded out.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and he felt his internal organs vibrating. This opponent was so powerful that he was now gaining a new appreciation for two-me opponents. Thanks to the reserves he had built up in Qi Condensation, and his lifemp, he should still have an advantage over someone with two life mes. But from what he could tell, he was about on equal footing with this white-robed Seazombie.

    Waving his hand, he sent his snakeneck dragon roaring forth, while simultaneously tapping into his balefire to summon a host of me daggers. As the daggers flew forth, he raised his left hand over head to summon the heavenly saber. Boosted by the profound radiance state, the saber was stronger and could affect a greater area. And ck mes wreathed it as it shed toward the white-robed Seazombie. A huge boom rang out.

    The white-robed Seazombie staggered backward, as if it had been difficult to stand up to the attack, and his life me was flickering dangerously.

    Then, Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned more vicious as he pressed the attack. The Seazombie¡¯s white robe was so voluminous it was hard to make out his facial features. But his zombie poison was extremely potent. What was more, his eyes were visible, and they radiated a crazy look that caused Xu Qing to frown briefly. However, there wasn¡¯t time for him to consider the situation at length. Charging forward, he mmed into the Seazombie again.

    Booms rang out continuously as they shed back and forth, moving at incredible speed and unleashing shocking magical techniques. In the space of only a few dozen breaths, they attacked each other over a hundred times.

    After a final barrage, the two of them backed away from each other. Xu Qing was coughing up blood, as was the Seazombie. However, as the Seazombie red at Xu Qing, his eyes radiated that crazy look, plus... a bit of defiance.

    Xu Qing looked him in the eyes. Then, without a word, he tapped into that volcanic power and shot forward like a de.

    His dagger danced, and the heavenly saber appeared. His spirit seas unleashed crushing might, and the ck iron skewer shot through the air, its bell tinkling. Of course, Xu Qing released poison as he attacked. As he closed in at top speed, he aimed his dagger right at his enemy¡¯s throat.

    The white-robed Seazombie was also extraordinarily skilled. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing frigid cold to freeze the entire area in front of Xu Qing, blocking his path. As that barrier shot up, the Seazombie alsounched an attack.

    Xu Qing was forced to back away. At this point, the Seazombie cultivator¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he suddenly used a secret magic to pierce through the air and appear right in front of Xu Qing and reach out toward his throat.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing did something the Seazombie couldn¡¯t ever have predicted. Instead of evading, he viciously head-butted the Seazombie¡¯s hand.

    As blood flowed out of Xu Qing¡¯s head, the white-robed Seazombie¡¯s hand copsed past the wrist, and he howled in anguish. Then, just as he was about to flee, Xu Qing pressed the attack and shed his dagger into the Seazombie¡¯s abdomen.

    The attack was so quick that the white-robed Seazombie¡¯s pupils constricted, and he lunged in the opposite direction. Though he seeded, he didn¡¯t quite move fast enough, and Xu Qing¡¯s de shed open his robe, causing some items inside to fall out.

    It was an odd assortment of things, but what stood out most to anyone who could see it was the fruit. There were tangerines, peaches, pears, and of course a lot of apples¡­.

 Chapter 164: Seeking Revenge over the Smallest Grievance

    Chapter 164: Seeking Revenge over the Smallest Grievance

    Xu Qing froze for a moment and looked at all the fruit. Especially noteworthy was that the pile included several veryrge apples. Xu Qing had to wonder why this Seazombie would have so many things like that stuffed into his robe.

    The white-robed Seazombie had been in the process of retreating at full speed. But now he also froze in ce. As he did, the hood of his robe shifted, and though it didn¡¯t reveal his face, it did cause some of his hair to fall out into the open. At the same time, he looked down at the fruit.

    The two of them looked back up, and their gazes locked. Xu Qing stood there quietly. The white-robed Seazombie also stood there quietly.

    Then, the ground quaked, and the surface of the sea beyond the shores of the ind exploded into motion. Off in the distance, a rumbling sound echoed out that could shake heaven and earth, like the roar of a god.

    A violet light appeared off in the distance, like a violet sea, spreading out rapidly. Looking at it closely, it was possible to see that the source of that rumbling, and the light, was the Merfolk Isles. This had to be the Seven Blood Eyes Formation¡¯s tideflow power that was mentioned in the mission description.

    As the sea of light expanded, the Seazombie¡¯s ability to suppress the teleportation portals in the Pearl Archipgo waned, allowing for teleportations to begin. Thus, the Fifth Peak disciples behind Xu Qing in the valley made some adjustments and activated the teleportation portal. The first wave of disciples stepped onto the portal and vanished. Simr things were happening on the other inds in the archipgo. Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay close attention to all that, but he could sense that the second wave of teleportations would begin soon. Right now, what interested him more was this white-robed Seazombie.

    A moment after their eyes locked onto each other, Xu Qing burst into motion. In the profound radiance state, he was capable of spectacr levels of speed, and the lifemp gave him immense strength. In the blink of an eye, he was closing in on the white-robed Seazombie. However, instead of aiming a blow at his abdomen, this time he aimed toward his hair.

    For some reason, he seemed particrly interested in this Seazombie¡¯s hair. The white-robed Seazombie gasped and again unleashed the power of his life mes. A terrifying wave of energy erupted out, allowing him to evade Xu Qing¡¯s grasp. Then the two of them started fighting again, and booms echoed out.

    Xu Qing moved so fast that the cultivators in the valley couldn¡¯t even see him clearly. The Second Peak woman, who had not yet teleported out, nervously activated her own profound radiance state, but not even she was able to see exactly what was happening. All she could see was a host of blurred afterimages. The ground shook, and the terrifying crashing sounds made it obvious how dangerous this battle was.

    The white-robed Seazombie also fought with deadly precision, although, as the battle raged, he seemed mostly interested in protecting his hair. He was so incredible that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was incapable of doing anything to him; the patriarch couldn¡¯t catch up to him, and in fact, could hardly see him. It was the same with Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Compared to the white-robed Seazombie, the shadow was slow.

    However, Xu Qing attacked with brutal ferocity. On a number of asions, he almost managed to grab some hair. At one point, he sent his dharma force into his fist, only to dodge to the side to avoid the Seazombie¡¯s attack, then send his knee flying viciously toward his opponent¡¯s lower half.

    The white-robed Seazombie¡¯s expression flickered. However, this Seazombie was a ferocious opponent. Blocking the knee with one hand, he opened his mouth and spat out a huge cloud of zombie poison.

    The poison attack seemed like it would immediately start to melt Xu Qing. And yet, Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever. With his knee strike blocked, he spun, sending his left leg flying toward the Seazombie¡¯s head like a whip.

    A boom echoed out, and the two separated. Not hesitating for a moment, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture, causing ck fire to rage out into the shape of numerous hands, which then shot toward the Seazombie.

    By this point, the Seazombie was gasping for breath. Obviously this battle was very draining to him. Howling, he threw out a hand and performed an incantation gesture, then shoved his hand toward Xu Qing. Instantly, the air in front of him crumbled in on itself, the effect spreading rapidly toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered, and he dodged to the side. As he did, the white-robed Seazombie suddenly elerated, appearing right in front of him and shoving his hand out to hit him in the chest.

    Xu Qing tumbled backward about 300 meters, blood oozing out of his mouth. Then he stabilized himself and shot back toward the fight. As he did, ten heavenly sabers appeared above him which he shed down in an attack.

    The Seazombie¡¯s pupils constricted. There was no time for him to avoid the attack, and thus the attack shed into him, sending him flying back 300 meters, blood spraying out of his mouth. However, he immediately shot back into the fight. The two opponents shed again in midair, and this time Xu Qing¡¯s knee again flew viciously toward his opponent¡¯s lower half. It was almost as if Xu Qing knew that his opponent¡¯s lower half was his weak spot.

    The white-robed Seazombie cursed, but the sound of it was lost in the chaos of thebat. Then a crazy look appeared in his eyes as, instead of blocking the attack, he also sent a knee flying toward Xu Qing.

    At exactly the same time, Xu Qing managed to reach out and grab a handful of his opponent¡¯s hairs.

    One of them let loose a muffled grunt, the other shouted miserably.

    The muffled grunt came from Xu Qing, and the miserable shout came from the Seazombie. Although both eximed in different ways, as they backed away from each other, both of their knees were bent unnaturally. However, the awkward bend to the Seazombie¡¯s knee made it obvious his injury was far more severe. Furthermore, sweat was dripping down his face.

    Xu Qing backed up, his eyes gleaming. As the Seazombie watched, he held up the handful of hair. Then the hair turned into ashes. It was a very familiar scene, except this time, it was a handful of hair instead of a single strand. [1]

    As the ash drifted away, Xu Qing prepared to charge forward again. However, that was when an urgent voice rang out behind him.

    ¡°Elder Brother, the tideflow is about to end. This is thest chance to teleport out!¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. At the same time, it was possible to see that, on the horizon, a mass of ck mes was approaching, spreading out through the sky. Within those mes was a Seazombie that appeared to be a young boy, his hands sped behind his back as he stared at the Pearl Archipgo. As he moved along, the sea beneath him split, forming a valley with two huge cliffs of water on either side. The Pearl Archipgo trembled as terrifying might weighed down, and wild winds whipped over them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened, and without any hesitation, he retreated back into the valley. At this point, the second wave of teleportations had ended, and the third was beginning. The Seven Blood Eyes disciples on the portal had previously been closely watching Xu Qing¡¯s fight as they waited for the portal. But now they were waiting for Xu Qing to join them. As soon as he appeared among them, the Fifth Peak disciples immediately activated the portal. Thanks to the continuing tideflow, light glittered on the portal.

    The white-robed Seazombie didn¡¯t give chase. His eyes were glued to Xu Qing, and despite the distance between them, and the teleportation beginning, they could both see the odd expression in each other¡¯s eyes. Then, the teleportation light reached an apex, and their mutual gaze ended as Xu Qing was whisked away.

    ***

    After Xu Qing and the other disciples were gone, the white-robed Seazombie looked up into the sky and realized that the iing Gold Core Seazombie had gone to a different ind. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he rubbed his knee vigorously, then touched the spot on his head where some hair had been ripped out.

    What exactly is going on here? How could the brat have be so strong in such a short time? OUCH!

    I think he recognized me, too. He was targeting my lower half! And it seemed like he was trying to rip out my hair out of revenge! This sucks! He has no respect for his superior! Besides, all I didst time was pluck out a single hair, right?

    It¡¯s not like this big mission of mine has been easy. If I want to get a high-level zombie heart, then I have to pay a lot of merit points. I freaking invested a lot to perfectly disguise myself as a Seazombie.

    I was just trying to scare them, grab some pill furnaces, and then turn them in for merit points. And once I realized that brat was here, I was just nning to give him a good thrashing as payback for the poison in that tunnel in the Merfolk Isles.

    OWWWW!

    The white-robed Seazombie shook out his half-destroyed right arm, then used some unknown method to regrow the hand. Gasping for breath, he took a short time to recover. Cursing to himself, he lurched over to where his fruit had fallen to the ground. Most of the fruit had been destroyed. There was only half of one of therge apples left. Picking it up gingerly, he took a big bite. But then, his eyes went wide and he spat it out.

    ¡°It¡¯s poisoned!¡± he shouted angrily. At this point, he realized this situation wasn¡¯t eptable. As a captain, he couldn¡¯t allow himself to suffer such a loss of face. In fact he decided that he was going to find an opportunity to remove one of his seals and teach a good lesson to the brat. That was the only way to maintain dignity. Although he was loath to remove a seal, he would have to endure that pain to make sure he saved face. Having made that decision, he shot off into the distance.

    ***

    Back on Meegah Ind, a teleportation portal glittered as Xu Qing and the other disciples appeared. As Xu Qing walked off the portal, he noticed that the atmosphere in the frontline camp was tense. Numerous figures zipped overhead in flight.

    The battle raged off in the distance, and everyone seemed busier than before. All of the disciples who had just teleported in from the Pearl Archipgo sped hands and offered greetings to him. The Second Peak woman joined them. After exchanging contact information with him, she then hurried away.

    Then Gu Muqing approached to say farewell. As she did, Xu Qing returned the taboo pill jade slip, and told her that he had activated them before leaving.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu, my fellow disciples and I still have toplete this mission. We need to go to another location to activate more taboo pills. I heard my Master say that Seven Blood Eyes is prepared for this war to drag out for years, and that we have to win it. And there are going to be some big operationsing soon. Please be careful, Elder Brother.¡± At this point she hesitated for a moment, then edged a bit closer to Xu Qing, lowered her voice, and continued, ¡°I¡¯m a conve disciple, so there are times when I have no choice but to go out on certain missions. But you don¡¯t have to do that, Elder Brother. By the way, if you see any missions rted to the Seazombies¡¯ seven fortified inds, you absolutely must not take them.¡±

    With that, Gu Muqing gave a curtseying bow and then left.

    Looking thoughtful, Xu Qing took a look at his identity medallion. The mission he had been working on just now wasplete, and more new missions were flooding in.

    Meanwhile, he thought back to his fight with that white-robed Seazombie, who had seemed like a Seazombie in every respect, down to his zombie poison. But it hadn¡¯t taken Xu Qing long to realize he seemed familiar. That was especially true of his eyes. And of course the fruit.

    Why is the Captain disguised as a Seazombie? Is there some Seazombie loot he¡¯s trying to get that requires it? I guess it¡¯s also possible he just got unlucky and got killed by a Seazombie, and was turned.

    If it were any other person, Xu Qing would assume the second option was the most likely. But with the Captain, it actually seemed like the first was more in line with his crazy personality.

    Given how petty the Captain is, I bet he¡¯s not happy with how our fight ended. His cultivation base really is unfathomable. He¡¯s definitely going to try to get back at me. I need to open more dharma apertures!

    1. I remember a scene simr to this one in chapter 138¡­. ?

 Chapter 165: A Mysterious Summons

    <h4>Chapter 165: A Mysterious Summons</h4>

    A month went by.

    During that time, many dramatic things urred in the war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies. The Seazombies made several full-scale assaults on the Merfolk Isles, but failed to take them. They could do nothing but watch as Seven Blood Eyes grew more deeply entrenched, bringing in more magical devices and more allies. The inds were bing an increasing threat to the Seazombies.

    However, the Seazombies had some victories of their own. Thanks to their diversionary tactics, they sessfully took control of the Pearl Archipgo, which became their newmand base. The taboo pills that Seven Blood Eyes had buried on the inds were all dug up by the Seazombies after a very thorough search of all the inds in the archipgo. For the Seazombies, it was a military victory. For Seven Blood Eyes, it was an embarrassing slipup.

    And in war, slipups could be fatal. For about half a month, Seven Blood Eyes was put into a passive position, and thus, there were two dangerous Seazombie offensives that almost seeded in taking the Merfolk Isles. On one asion, the peaklord of the Third Peak fell into a Seazombie ambush and nearly perished. Only by using a technique called Grue Death Substitution did he manage to make his escape, badly wounded. In addition to that, the peaklord of the Sixth Peak was also ambushed and seriously injured.

    Ten Gold Core elders were wounded to the point of being on death¡¯s door. All of those things were a huge blow to the morale of Seven Blood Eyes, and resulted in an immediate decline in mission participation. This was one big w in Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ methods of operation. When they had the upper hand, the disciples were as ruthless as wolves or tigers. But when things didn¡¯t go well, it was easy for the disciples to lose courage. And when that happened, it wasn¡¯t easy to recover.

    After the Seazombies¡¯ trap sessfully won them the Pearl Archipgo, Seven Blood Eyesunched a counterattack. It was half a monthter in the middle of the night. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, and Xu Qing, who was justing back to Meegah Ind from a minor mission, looked out and saw numerous mountain peaks rising up from the sea.

    Together, they formed a majestic mountain range.

    As the seawater seethed, the mountain range continued to rise, until it seemed like a spine. Using his snakeneck dragon, Xu Qing looked under the water and realized it was actually a huge beast. In fact, that beast was familiar. It was a sealizard! And those mountains were the sealizard¡¯s back!

    It was so massive that it made the inds of the Pearl Archipgo seem like insignificant ants. The sealizard simply rolled over, and the Pearl Archipgo waspletely smashed into oblivion. Afterward, the sealizard, who had only revealed part of its back above the surface of the water, left.

    That sealizard attack was a huge shock to the Seazombies. An entity like that was multiple levels above them, and obviously was not something Seven Blood Eyes could casually call on for help. Yet it hade, and it had obviously been targeting the Pearl Archipgo.

    Even Xu Qing was shaken by what happened. It gave a big morale boost to Seven Blood Eyes. What was more, there was an official announcement regarding the matter. The announcement made it clear that the sealizard hade at the behest of the peaklord of the Fourth Peak. Many years ago, that peaklord had been friends with the giant lizard, so it hade to destroy the Pearl Archipgo as a favor.

    ording to the official announcement, the entire thing had been arranged in advance. In other words, the entire situation with the Pearl Archipgo had been a double trap. Seven Blood Eyes had encouraged the Seazombies to attack it, and had buried taboo pills there to lure them in. The Seazombies had fallen right into the trap.

    The end result was an instant boost in morale for Seven Blood Eyes.

    Of course, Seven Blood Eyes disciples weren¡¯t stupid, and the Seazombies were inherently schemers. It didn¡¯t take much analysis for anyone toe to the conclusion that the Seven Blood Eyes leadership¡¯s story was probably only partly true.

    Besides, if Fourth Peaklord could get a giant sealizard to destroy an entire archipgo, then why not send it to attack the Seazombies¡¯ fortified inds or their main ind?

    So the matter led to a lot of questions, and many people assumed it had something to do with the Seven Blood Eyes patriarch. As for what was really going on, no one but the Seven Blood Eyes leadership knew. Regardless, the Pearl Archipgo was gone, and the Seazombies there had been routed.

    Seven Blood Eyes took advantage of the situation tounch assaults on the Seazombie positions surrounding the Merfolk Isles. This also was the call for a general offensive. The Seazombie¡¯s main army was constantly battered backward and forced into defensive fighting. Seven Blood Eyes pressed the assault, forcing the battle lines further and further away from the Merfolk Isles, and closer to Seazombie territory.

    Now, the only thing between the Seven Blood Eyes forces and the Seazombie¡¯s main ind were their seven fortified inds. That was theirst line of defense. The close proximity of the enemy put a lot of pressure on the Seazombies. However, due to their fierce counterattacks, the fighting eventually reached a stalemate.

    There were casualties on both sides, though the Seazombies had it worse.

    That said, Seven Blood Eyes also suffered horrendous casualties. As a result, there was already a wave of applications from disciples wanting to leave the fighting. Although the sect didn¡¯t refuse such applications, they didbat the trend by offering greater rewards for missions, including the first batch of destined opportunities for core formation. They also added in two trump cards. The first were fifty magical treasure projections. Every disciple who reached the top fifty would be able to call upon a projection of the sect¡¯s magical treasure.

    Magical treasures were legendary items, each one of which would have heaven-shaking, earth-shattering power. In fact, they were so unimaginable that Seven Blood Eyes only had one such item.

    But even the projection of that item would be incredibly shocking. The news caused a big stir among the disciples participating in the war. However, the second trump card was even more astonishing. And that was... the patriarch would ept ten Foundation Establishment disciples as inner sect apprentices and three Gold Core cultivators as sessor apprentices! The apprentices would be selected based on the missions they hadpleted and how many Seazombies they killed.

    This news caused such amotion among Seven Blood Eyes disciples that many who had applied to leave the war changed their minds and stayed.

    After all, for years, the patriarch had not epted any apprentices. And considering he had just experienced a breakthrough, it was obvious that whoever he selected as apprentices would benefit spectacrly.

    Getting into that position would make one likethe carp leaping over the dragon¡¯s gate. An inner sect apprentice would be superior to elders, and would stand on a simr footing as the peaklords. And a sessor apprentice was an even loftier position.

    The news wasn¡¯t enticing to just Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even the Gold Core cultivators were moved. Not even they were sure when the sect would ever offer rewards like this again.

    From all of this, it was possible to see how determined Seven Blood Eyes was to defeat the Seazombies.

    Xu Qing was moved, but he quickly suppressed thoughts of pursuing such lofty goals. Although the rewards were amazing, he knew that there were a lot of strong people in the sect. He was a far cry from being the strongest in Foundation Establishment, as each mountain peak had disciples with three life mes.

    With people like that around, it would be hard to secure an apprenticeship without putting his life on the line. That said, he was confident he could make it into the top fifty, and thus get that magical treasure ess.

    The overall ranking for the war effort was different from the kill count. The overall ranking took into consideration both missions and kill count, and was also weighted based on the type of mission and its requirements. Because of how Xu Qing had gone a bit wild earlier trying to inte his kill count, his name wasn¡¯t far from being in the top fifty.

    ¡°Seventy-third,¡± he murmured as he epted another mission.

    Another half a month went by, during which time Xu Qing¡¯s name climbed up to fifty-ninth. At the same time, as he ughtered more Seazombies, his dharma apertures continued to open. He was now at forty-four. As he progressed, he needed more and more souls.

    One day, as he had just epted a reinforcement mission, a personal summons appeared in his identity medallion.

    It was obviously a message from someone important, as it immediately dismissed all other missions, even the one he had just epted. In fact, he instantly received the reward for that mission, despite not having done a single thing.

    ¡°Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment disciple Xu Qing,e to Joine Ind and report to themand tent there. The vice-peaklord of the Seventh Peak wishes to see you!¡±

    Xu Qing was stunned. After mulling the matter over, he had some ideas about what it was about, but couldn¡¯t be sure. After all, he had never even heard of there being a vice-peaklord. However, there was no doubt that the summons was authentic. And as he thought about it, the message repeated itself several times with the same information. Obviously, there was no way he was going to get out of this. Finally, he headed toward Joine Ind.

    Although he did not enter the profound radiance state, he still moved quickly. Before long, he saw the ind ahead of him, and the huge eye in the middle of it all. This was where Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ mainmand base was.

    Normally speaking, disciples couldn¡¯t even get close to this ce without being summoned. As Xu Qing neared, he felt a terrifying divine will lock onto him. Also, the massive eye shifted to look at him.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and presented his identity medallion. ¡°Disciple Xu Qing here at the summons of the Seventh Peak¡¯s vice-peaklord. I seek an audience.¡±

    His identity medallion glittered, and the huge eye blinked three times. Then a teleportation power swirled around him, and before he could react, he vanished.

    Inside of the huge eye was a magnificent grand hall, which was where Xu Qing had been teleported to. As he materialized, he heard the voice of a woman speaking.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re Xu Qing?¡±

 Chapter 166: The Seventh Peak is Her Home....

    Chapter 166: The Seventh Peak is Her Home....

    The voice was lyrical and unearthly. But at the same time, it was cold, and when it entered Xu Qing¡¯s ears, it became an iciness that pierced through all of his body, leaving him shivering. He exhaled, and his breath became white vapor in front of him. His eyebrows and hair were starting to freeze, and he felt himself going stiff from head to toe. It reminded him of times in the past when he had encountered deadly grues. Even the air around him seemed to crack as if it were turning to ice, and that wasn¡¯t even to mention his 44 dharma apertures. Xu Qing felt like they were dead. His dharma force seemed incredibly sluggish, and his spirit seas were the same. As for his life me, in this state, he couldn¡¯t even ignite it!

    He felt absolutely shaken to the core. The sense of security he¡¯d acquired after getting his life me waspletely gone. And now he realized what it was like to be in the presence of someone truly powerful. They could prevent him from entering the profound radiance state!

    That said, he wasn¡¯tpletely powerless to fight back. As the coldness spread through him, he could still sense warmth in his lifemp. It didn¡¯t seem affected at all by the invasion of frigid cold. In fact, Xu Qing suspected that he actually could use it to light his life me. That realization made his guard go up even further. He knew that he absolutely, positively couldn¡¯t allow anyone to know about his lifemp. After confirming that his shadow was still covering themp, he took a deep breath and, with great effort, turned around.

    As he did, he saw that there were two women standing behind him. One was middle-aged, the other was younger.

    The middle-aged woman was dressed in a crimson, double-breasted official¡¯s garment. It was embroidered in gold thread with the images of butterflies and flowers, and was as extravagant as the rising sun. However, that did nothing to dispel the iciness that she exuded from head to toe, or the seemingly endless depths of her phoenix-like eyes. It was as if everything she looked at would be turned into ice. And anyone who looked into her eyes for long enough would be shaken to their soul. Right now, this woman was looking right at Xu Qing.

    Her clothing was not that of any specific mountain peak. And Xu Qing had never seen her in Seven Blood Eyes. However, he had seen the young woman who was standing next to her.

    She wore a voluminous daoist robe of pale violet, which almost resembled a formal gown. She had an ancient sword strapped to her back, and her hair was tied into a ponytail. She seemed valiant and formidable, but at the same time, whatever skin her garment didn¡¯t cover was fair and slightly rosy. She seemed heroic, but at the same time, warm and tender. In fact, she was smiling at him, and her eyes were like glittering crescent moons. This girl was none other than Ding Xue. [1]

    She blinked a few times as she looked at him, an enigmatic smile ying out on her face. ¡°Elder Brother Xu, this is my aunt. She¡¯s the vice-peaklord of the Seventh Peak, providing assistance to my uncle, the peaklord.¡± [2]

    Within Ding Xue¡¯s softly spoken words were something of a warning.

    Despite the fact that the vice-peaklord¡¯s mere gaze made Xu Qing feel like he was about to be frozen, he sped his hands respectfully and said, ¡°I¡¯m Disciple Xu Qing. Well met, Vice-Peaklord.¡±

    She seemed surprised to see him react in this way. Looking him up and down, she said, ¡°Rx.¡±

    She could see how brightly her niece¡¯s eyes were shining. Having been around the block herself, she knew what that gaze meant. Sighing inwardly, she reduced the intensity of the coldness in her gaze. Her voice also seemed softer as she said, ¡°I summoned you here today to give you a mission. I want you to be Ding Xue¡¯s dao protector for a time.¡±

    ¡°Aunt,¡± Ding Xue blurted, reaching out to grab the older woman¡¯s arm, ¡°we¡¯re just friends helping each other out!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever, and he remained standing in ce just like before. But inside, he was shocked. For one thing, he could never have guessed that Ding Xue would have such an impressive background. Beyond that, from what he could tell, this vice-peaklord¡¯s cultivation base gave him the same feeling as when he¡¯d encountered the peaklords out at sea.

    More than ever, he realized how terrifying people on the level of the peaklords were.

    In response to Ding Xue¡¯s outburst, the middle-aged woman¡¯s cold gaze turned a bit warmer. Patting Ding Xue¡¯s head, she said, ¡°Xu Qing, I know you and Ding Xue are friends. So I¡¯m not asking this of you as the vice-peaklord. Instead, I¡¯m asking it as a member of the older generation. The front lines aren¡¯t safe, but Ding Xue has to be here. And I have other matters to attend to that I can¡¯t ignore. I¡¯m worried about Ding Xue¡¯s safety, so I want you to take care of her for a month. What do you think? Once the mission is over, I¡¯ll give you the right to leave the war at any time you want. Plus, I¡¯ll also give you three entropic teleportation talismans.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard ¡®entropic teleportation talismans,¡¯ his heart started beating faster. Entropic teleportation talismans were a type of jade talisman that were actually more expensive than magical devices. A single one would usually sell for more than 700,000-800,000 spirit stones.

    They were also very rare, and when they appeared, people would often fight over them. Back when Xu Qing went to the Brightness Pavilion in the Sixth Peak¡¯s Rocbright District, he had seen one, except it wasn¡¯t for sale. Items like that could count as an extra life, as all you had to do was crush it, and it would randomly teleport you to another location. It could be nearby, or it could be 5,000 kilometers away.

    This alone made it obvious that Ding Xue had specifically asked for Xu Qing to be her dao protector. After all, there were countless top experts who would fight fiercely for the chance to get three entropic teleportation talismans.

    Xu Qing looked at Ding Xue.

    When she noticed, she blushed slightly, and gave him a sweet smile.

    Seeing that, Ding Xue¡¯s aunt shook her head. Handing a bag of holding to Ding Xue, she coolly said, ¡°You two make the final decision.¡±

    With that, she turned and left.

    Seeing that, Ding Xue hurried up to Xu Qing and said, ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, my aunt usually stays in the Westcoral Archipgo as opposed to Seven Blood Eyes. Remember back when you escorted me across the sea? I told you I was going to visit her. [3]

    ¡°Zhao Zhongheng insisted oning with me, and my aunt¡¯s so nice that she gave him a medicinal pill. If you hade with me, I bet she would have given it to you instead. Zhao Zhongheng used that pill to make his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale. What a cheapskate.¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then looked at Ding Xue and asked, ¡°Who is Seventh Peaklord to you?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s my uncle,¡± she said with a smile.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    ¡°My aunt and uncle are daoist partners, but they have differing views on some things, and because of that, my aunt moved out of Seven Blood Eyes. That¡¯s why she lives in the Westcoral Archipgo now. However, because of the war, she came back.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, can you please agree to watch over me? I¡¯m here to fill out my r¨¦sum¨¦. You see, conve disciples get assessed every so often. And my uncle wants to send me to the Seven Sect Coalition. If I want my application to be epted, I have to have some real-life experience. By the way, going forward, I really want to focus on nts and vegetation. And that¡¯s why I¡¯m hoping you can help.¡±

    Ding Xue was very direct in exining the entire situation. At the same time, she put the bag of holding into his hands. Clearly, she was going to give him the entropic teleportation talismans whether he agreed or not. He looked at the bag of holding, and then at Ding Xue.

    He had always liked the way she seemed so enthusiastic about learning new things. And whether it was the Foundation Establishment jade slips she¡¯d given him, or these three entropic teleportation talismans, he knew he had no logical reason to refuse to help her. If he did, he would feel bad. So he nodded. Within the bag of holding were glowing jade slips that pulsed with dharma force.

    ¡°Awesome! Thank you, Elder Brother Xu Qing!¡± Ding Xue looked extremely excited, and even reached out to grab Xu Qing¡¯s arm, though he pulled it away from her reach. She didn¡¯t seem bothered by that. Smiling, she led him to a nearby teleportation portal to leave the centralmand base.

    After that, Ding Xue would spend the evenings with her aunt, and the rest of her time with Xu Qing gaining experience on the front lines. Ding Xue was smart. Though she had fought to get this chance to work with Xu Qing, she didn¡¯t allow her personal feelings to show. And she repeatedly got him to agree to go on special missions.

    Xu Qing knew that as a conve disciple, Ding Xue had ess to different missions. Conve disciples got better rewards. Furthermore, their missions were usually less dangerous. Most of them could be finished without going out onto the battlefield. That said, conve disciples were tied much more deeply to the sect. If ordinary disciples got into some irresolvable conflict with the sect, they could simply leave, and no one would care. But if something like that happened with a conve disciple, they would be hunted down and killed. In other words, being a conve disciple came with ups and downs.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t envious of them. And he was actually very pleased with the current arrangement. On a daily basis, he would take Ding Xue out to aplish all sorts of random missions. They were things like transporting goods from one ind to another, taking care of funerary arrangements after battles, or tracking casualties. None of them were very difficult, and none involved life-threatening danger. When they had free time, she would ask him about nts and vegetation, and would always show her respect for knowledge by offering spirit stones.

    To Xu Qing, her payments of one or two hundred spirit stones didn¡¯t seem as amazing as before, but as the saying went, piling up many grains of sand will make a pagoda. About a weekter, the missions avable to Ding Xue started getting more difficult. For example, she was tasked with finding Merfolk traitors or Seazombie infiltrators.

    That said, though they were more difficult, they came straight from centralmand to her, so they weren¡¯t extremely dangerous. The sect was quick to provide her with such missions, which made sense considering she was trying to fill out her r¨¦sum¨¦.

    Ding Xue was obviously taking the matter very seriously. Even when the missions became dangerous, she didn¡¯t hold back from fear of getting hurt. In fact, the more dangerous a mission was, the more eager she was to finish it. Of course, with Xu Qing watching over her, she always ended up more scared than hurt, and any dangerous situations were resolved.

    However, that made Ding Xue a bit nervous. This wasn¡¯t exactly how she had nned things out. That was especially true after she realized the month time-limit for the mission was approaching. One morning at dawn, she suddenly appeared in front of Xu Qing coughing up blood. Face pale, she staggered in ce as if she might fall over at any moment.

    Xu Qing stared at her in shock, not quite sure what to do. Examining her more closely, he saw that her cultivation base was in chaos. Her energy was clotting, blocking her meridians. And if it wasn¡¯t fixed quickly, she could suffer serious injuries. Face pale, she said, ¡°Elder Brother Xu, it¡¯s my fault. I was in too much of a rush. I know I¡¯m weak. I really just want to reach the great circle as quickly as possible. Last night I experienced a mishap and ended up injuring myself. My aunt is out on the battlefield, so she can¡¯t help.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just rest for a few days,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°You can finish more missions after you¡¯re better.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± she blurted. Are you really telling me to go rest, you dolt! If I did that, then I would have hurt myself for nothing!

    1. Although Ding Xue has been mentioned a few times in recent chapters, thest time she appeared ¡°on-screen¡± was in the chrysanthemum mollusk scene starting in chapter 107. She was introduced in chapter 82. ?

    2. Just to reiterate, the specific title used here in Chinese is ¡°mother¡¯s younger sister (aunt).¡± So Ding Xue is rted by blood to her aunt, while the peaklord is her uncle by marriage.What¡¯s also of note is that when Ding Xue and Xu Qing met in chapter 82, she told him to address her as Elder Sister. In chapter 107, she still addressed him as Junior Brother. Now she¡¯s addressing him differently. ?

    3. Ding Xue initially mentioned her aunt in chapter 84. Fun fact: she also mentioned her aunt in chapter 108. ?

 Chapter 167: The Obvious Social Situation

    Chapter 167: The Obvious Social Situation

    ¡°Joining the Seven Sect Coalition is my dream!¡± Ding Xue said, her eyes full of determination. ¡°I have everything I need except aplete r¨¦sum¨¦! I can¡¯t give up just because I made a little mistake! I epted sixteen missions today, Elder Brother Xu. I only have average aptitude, so the only way to get ahead is to work hard. I might be hurt, but I¡¯m not going to give up. Otherwise, what¡¯s the point of all the work I¡¯ve put in so far? I can¡¯t let my aunt down. Elder Brother Xu, can you please help me finish my missions? Please??¡±

    Toward the end, Ding Xue¡¯s voice trembled, until finally she gave a curtsying bow. However, she seemed so weak that she could barely stand, so Xu Qing stepped forward with his hand held out to support her. She copsed into his arms, her eyshes fluttering, panting slightly as a flush crept up her neck to her face.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He could tell something strange was going on, but also couldn¡¯t think of a way to refuse her request. After all, Ding Xue really was hurt, and it looked serious. And so, he spent the day helping herplete all sixteen of her missions.

    As for Ding Xue, though she was weak, she was feeling incredibly excited about how things were going. This was the result she had hoped for. The whole reason she had begged her aunt to assign Xu Qing as her dao protector was that she wanted to have time alone with him to forge deeper bonds. She also knew that winning him over was going to take time. The best strategy was to take her time and slowly get closer to him. That was why she had intentionally injured herself. Of course, she couldn¡¯t do this kind of thing all the time. Nor could she allow herself to seem desperate.

    Therefore, the next day when she was feeling better, everything went back to normal. Over the following days, Ding Xue kept careful track of how much time was left for the mission. With great enthusiasm, she dragged Xu Qing from ind to ind doing all sorts of tasks.

    About a weekter, Ding Xue decided that it was time to move on to the second phase of her n. She was confident that during this phase, she would be able to get to know Xu Qing much better. After all, she had been preparing all this for months.

    Unfortunately, something happened that dampened her excitement. And that was an unexpected guest.

    Zhao Zhongheng.

    For some unknown reason, after Xu Qing reached Foundation Establishment, Zhao Zhongheng suddenly started making rapid progress in his cultivation. Right now, he was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, putting him very close to the point of attempting a Foundation Establishment breakthrough. Realistically speaking, he should have been preparing to go into seclusion to prepare for that breakthrough.

    Except after he heard about what was going on with Xu Qing and Ding Xue, he decided he would participate in the war after all.

    After arriving in the Merfolk Isles, he ignored all sense of propriety and face, and went to find Ding Xue. And once he found her, he refused to leave her side.

    When she got irritated at his presence, he quickly pulled out a mission jade slip. Using some unknown method, he had procured the same mission as her. And thus, she had no choice but to ept his presence.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. After all, it didn¡¯t have anything to do with him. What was more, after calcting the time that had passed, he realized that they were getting very close to the end of the month-long mission.

    While Xu Qing stood off to the side, Ding Xue red in irritation at Zhao Zhongheng

    ¡°If you want toe with us, Zhao Zhongheng, you have to agree to two things,¡± she said. ¡°First. You¡¯re not allowed to speak, from the beginning of the mission to the end! Second. You have to stay at least nine meters away from me. If you don¡¯t agree to those things, you can leave! If you do agree, you can stay!¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng took a deep breath. Beforeing, he¡¯d assumed she would react like this. Looking at her beautiful face and curvaceous form, then at Xu Qing, who didn¡¯t seem to be paying attention to what they were talking about, his eyes flickered with unprecedented determination.

    I don¡¯t care how high his cultivation base is. He can¡¯t measure up to my unswerving sincerity. Pursuing a woman isn¡¯t a fight, so a high cultivation level doesn¡¯t mean crap. My grandpa¡¯s cultivation base is even higher, and my grandmother kicked him to the curb! And Master Seventh lives alone on the Seventh Peak. That just proves that having a high cultivation base is useless!

    My sincerity is the key to ultimate happiness. It¡¯s unstoppable! It¡¯s a reflection of heaven, and is a lesson for both gods and men alike! The eyes of the broken face above could never destroy it!

    If pursuing women was only a matter of cultivation base, then the patriarch would have concubines galore! All the women in the sect would be his!

    The more Zhao Zhongheng thought about it in this way, the more it made sense. Determination filled his eyes as he looked at the girl he had been in love with his entire life.

    ¡°Fine!¡± he said.

    Ding Xue wasn¡¯t happy at all to have Zhao Zhongheng tagging along.

    But it didn¡¯t make any difference to Xu Qing, even when he caught Zhao Zhongheng surreptitiously staring in the general direction of his forehead. That made Xu Qing curious, but he wasn¡¯t worried too much about it. That was especially true considering that Zhao Zhongheng went out of his way to avoid doing anything to offend Xu Qing. Sometimes Xu Qing even forgot he was around.

    A few dayster when the three of them finished a random mission and were gathering after a night of rest, Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhongheng with a very unusual expression.

    And when Ding Xue saw Zhao Zhongheng, her jaw nearly dropped. She looked at Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s eyebrows, then looked at Xu Qing, and her expression turned even odder.

    Only Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s expression remained the same as ever. Feeling very pleased with himself, he lifted his chin to give Xu Qing and Ding Xue a good view of his eyebrows.

    Anyone present to observe what was happening would realize that Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s eyebrows now looked exactly like Xu Qing¡¯s. Whether it was how high they were on his face, how long they were, or their angle. Everything was the same.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing now realized why Zhao Zhongheng had been ncing at his forehead over the past few days. He¡¯d been looking at his eyebrows.

    This guy has a screw loose, Xu Qing thought. Then he recalled what Elder Zhao had said about his grandson, and had to admit the old man was right. [1]

    Ding Xue sighed. As far as she was concerned, Zhao Zhongheng was acting like he was possessed. Different eyebrows looked different on the faces of different people, and of course, Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows looked much better on Xu Qing¡¯s face. She actually thought that Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s original eyebrows looked good, while the new ones just looked freakish. In fact, they looked like two peacock feathers stuck onto a wild chicken.

    But Zhao Zhongheng clearly didn¡¯t think that. He looked quite pleased, and felt that he now stood out much more when Ding Xue looked his way. Next, he started eyeing Xu Qing¡¯s nose....

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    Over the next few days, the three of them got along well. However, Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s appearance continued to change slowly. However, it was very obvious what was happening, leaving Xu Qing speechless.

    There was another change to Zhao Zhongheng that was even more surprising to Xu Qing. And that was... whenever Zhao Zhongheng gave gifts to Ding Xue, he gave her two of the same thing.

    Ding Xue was also surprised by this.

    When Zhao Zhongheng saw how Xu Qing and Ding Xue reacted to this new behavior, he was very happy. His most recent session of secluded cultivation had been very productive, as it resulted in this idea. When in love with someone, it was good to remember themon phrase, love for a person extends even to the crow on their roof.

    He had devoted his life to pursuing Ding Xue, and therefore, he had to be patient. And that included being patient with whatever other passing travelers she encountered. Therefore, why would he possibly give her gifts in a way that didn¡¯t conform to the obvious social situation? If he was going to give gifts, he would give two! That way, she could give a gift to the passing traveler, but also have one for herself. And it would also highlight how different Zhao Zhongheng was. Zhao Zhongheng was really proud of how he¡¯d thought all this through. [2]

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s mood only seemed to improve. On one particr day after they opened a hidden tunnel filled with mutagen, and were waiting for the mutagen to dissipate, Zhao Zhongheng pulled two medicinal pill boxes out of his robe and handed them to Ding Xue.

    When Ding Xue opened them, she looked surprised.

    ¡°Mutagen-Stripping Pills?¡± she said. ¡°These are secret legacy pills from the Second Peak. They¡¯re not even allowed to sell them. Normally speaking, it¡¯s hard toy eyes on one!¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng smiled and nodded.

    With an odd expression on her face, Ding Xue held the two boxes and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing,¡± she said, ¡°thank you for helping me on my missions over the past few days. And also, thank you for all the information about nts and vegetation. I have the feeling a pill like this won¡¯t be of much use to you. But it¡¯s rare. Maybe studying it will give you some new insights.¡± Smiling sweetly, she offered the medicinal pill to Xu Qing. ¡°Also, Elder Brother, you took good care of Zhao Zhongheng over the past few days. Consider this a reward for that.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and realized her reasoning made sense. He took the pill. Zhao Zhongheng struggled to keep his breathing steady, forced a smile onto his face, and gave Xu Qing a nod of agreement.

    Xu Qing looked at the pill and was about to put it away, when suddenly his expression flickered and he looked at the hidden tunnel. Walking over to the tunnel mouth, he said, ¡°You two get back.¡±

    In response, Ding Xue immediately flew backward, as did Zhao Zhongheng. Meanwhile, Xu Qing stared at the tunnel mouth, his eyes narrowed. The tunnel entrance was located beneath a copsed building. Obviously, the area had been recently excavated and set up as some sort of safehouse. There were magical symbols everywhere, though none were still working. Most likely, they had been set up to keep the tunnel hidden.

    The tunnel wasn¡¯trge; it was made to amodate a single person crawling through it. Now that the tunnel entrance had been cleared, the cold air inside mixed with the hot, humid air outside and created a fine mist. That mist contained strong mutagen levels, plus a bit of zombie poison.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guard was up. This was a mission Ding Xue had picked to search for Seazombies hiding throughout the Merfolk Isles. So far they had searched a few locations but hadn¡¯t found any Seazombies. Now they were in a town on Nethervault Ind, where Ding Xue was using a special magical device to sense unusual mutagen fluctuations. That was what had led them here.

    Xu Qing had no qualms about their search method. Based on his experience killing Seazombies, he knew that even if there were some of them hiding in the Merfolk Isles, a Qi Condensation cultivator like Ding Xue wouldn¡¯t be able to find them. Not even her special magical device would help much. Unless a Seazombie intentionally revealed themselves, it would be an easy matter for them to hide their aura indefinitely.

    From what Xu Qing could tell, the sect had prepared missions like this for Qi Condensation cultivators so that they could understand how war worked. In reality, there was almost no danger involved.

    Moments ago, after Ding Xue opened the tunnel, the strong mutagening out of it had alerted Xu Qing to the fact that something strange was going on.

    Don¡¯t tell me Ding Xue really found a Seazombie.

    Eyes shing, Xu Qing tossed some poison powder into the tunnel, and also neutralized the zombie poison. However, that was when he realized that the zombie poison had long since broken down and be ineffective. As he stood there taking stock of the situation, a weak voice echoed out from inside the tunnel.

    ¡°Daddy,e home....¡±

    It sounded like the plea of a young boy, filled with longing. In fact, as it reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears, it seemed so realistic he wondered if there might actually be a boy in the tunnel.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, Ding Xue and Zhao Zhongheng also heard the voice, and their expressions flickered.

    ¡°Is it a grue?¡± Zhao Zhongheng asked, breathing heavily.

    1. Elder Zhao made ament about Zhao Zhongheng in chapter 136. He previously had the same message ryed in chapter 110. ?

    2. The line about passing travelers is a callback to his internal monologue in chapter 108. ?

 Chapter 168: Anxious Patriarch

    Chapter 168: Anxious Patriarch

    Ding Xue immediately took out her identity medallion and looked at Xu Qing. At his signal, she would send a voice message requesting help. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, he listened. A short whileter, the voice again spoke out in the tunnel, saying exactly the same thing.

    ¡°Daddy,e home....¡±

    The voice seemed full of longing and deep emotion. As it echoed out of the tunnel, it seemed to be calling out to anyone nearby who could hear it. It was so clear and distinct it was possible to visualize the boy uttering the words.

    After further consideration, Xu Qing determined that there were no dangerous fluctuations in the tunnel. Also, he didn¡¯t sense the frigid cold of grues. However, just to be safe, he ignited his life me and entered the profound radiance state. Despite the fact that the month time-limit for the mission was almost up, this was his first time entering the profound radiance state in the presence of Ding Xue. So far, none of the dangers they had faced required it.

    As his energy erupted, Ding Xue and Zhao Zhongheng gasped and instinctively backed away, shielding their eyes from the painful light.

    Ding Xue had it a bit better off. Though she had to close her eyes, she felt more excited than astonished. As for Zhao Zhongheng, his expression flickered; he had been mentally prepared for this moment, but now that it was here, felt like he was going to copse from disappointment.

    Who says standing in the light makes you a hero? I have true sincerity on my side. I¡¯m different from everyone else!

    Xu Qing had no idea what Ding Xue and Zhao Zhongheng were thinking, nor did he care. Now that his profound radiance state was active, he didn¡¯t hesitate to go right into the tunnel. He moved at top speed, shooting down the tunnel, causing explosive popping sounds to ring out as he did. At the same time, he confirmed that the mutagen and zombie poison in the ce really was fading away. It was almost like it was dead. As he pondered that, he burst out the other end of the tunnel like a lightning bolt.

    He found himself in a simple room that was obviously constructed as a hiding ce.

    There was a Seazombie huddled in the corner who looked like an old human man. He was dead. He had a number of ghastly wounds on him, and his dantian region was a mass of shredded flesh. That was obviously the fatal blow that had killed him, as it seemed to pierce all the way through his body. This corpse was obviously the source of the mutagen and the zombie poison. Although the Seazombie was dead, he still emitted some faint fluctuations.

    After looking him over, Xu Qing determined that, at the very least, he had possessed one life me. The Seazombie had obviously sustained mortal wounds in the fighting, but had still climbed down into this hiding spot. Unfortunately for him, he never had a chance to escape, nor did he have any way to recover from his wounds. It seemed doubtful that he¡¯d been dead for very long, which was why there was still mutagen in the tunnel when they opened it.

    Xu Qing left the profound radiance state.

    This Seazombie¡¯s facial expression was different from other Seazombies Xu Qing had encountered. Though his skin was rotting, it couldn¡¯t hide the bewilderment he had experienced before dying.

    What was more, his hands were tightly sped around a small bronze bottle. It was as if, in the moments before dying, that bottle had been the most important thing to him. It was an old, battered bottle, opened, and the voice Xu Qing had heard wasing out of it.

    ¡°Daddy,e home....¡±

    The voice spoke softly, yet was full of longing and emotion.

    As this old Seazombiey dying, he had opened this bottle and listened to those words repeating over and over again. Apparently, it was the voice of a rtive....

    Xu Qing looked at the bottle, then studied his surroundings further to make sure there was nothing dangerous around. Around then, he heard footsteps behind him.

    Zhao Zhongheng and Ding Xue hade through the tunnel aftering to the conclusion there was nothing dangerous inside. Ding Xue had been most anxious, and had hurried through the tunnel first. Zhao Zhongheng had had no choice but to follow.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing standing there, Ding Xue breathed a sigh of relief. Then she looked around and noticed the bottle.

    ¡°That¡¯s a recording bottle,¡± she said in surprise. There were many things that ordinary cultivators wouldn¡¯t recognize that she knew a lot about. Seeing Xu Qing nce at her, she quickly continued, ¡°Recording bottles are ancient items that you don¡¯t see very often. To some people, they¡¯re literally priceless, while other people think they¡¯re useless. They only have one function. They can capture sound. Afterward, you can open the bottle and hear whatever sound you captured.

    ¡°The sound quality is perfect, just like the original. That¡¯s the amazing thing about them. However, the recording doesn¡¯tst long once you start listening to it. After a while, it fades away, and then you need to capture a new sound.¡±

    Looking at the bottle sped tightly in the Seazombie¡¯s hand, something suddenly seemed to click in her mind. ¡°Seazombies cane from different species. The special method used to resurrect and zombify them removes most of their memories, leaving them with only scraps of their old life. However, those memory scraps don¡¯t do them any good. After being resurrected and zombified, they be brutal and ruthless. Their connection to their previous life is severed, and in most cases, they have no physical object to connect them to the past.

    ¡°But if this bottle belonged to him, then maybe this Seazombie was different. If the bottle tied him to the past, then he must have been reluctant to part with it. Perhaps it was his obsession. As for the voice in the bottle, maybe it was his son. Although, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter what his life was like before. In the end, he ended up as a Seazombie.¡±

    Ding Xue didn¡¯t speak with a lot of conviction, as she couldn¡¯t be sure if any of her conjectures were true. After she finished speaking, she looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter now,¡± he said, shaking his head. He waved his hand, and the bottle flew to him. The voice from the bottle was very weak now, and a momentter, it spoke onest time and then went silent.

    Ding Xue exchanged a nce with Zhao Zhongheng. Any other person who she looked at that way wouldn¡¯t understand the meaning behind the look. But Zhao Zhongheng understood. He immediately walked over to the Seazombie, searched him, and found a bag of holding.

    Then the three of them left through the tunnel.

    As for the bottle, Xu Qing closed it and stashed it with his belongings.

    Ding Xue notified the sect of the hiding spot they¡¯d found, which meant she could mark the mission aspleted. As for the bag of holding, it didn¡¯t contain much. There were a few random items, but no magical devices or jade talismans.

    There were a few hundred spirit stones, three or four spirit notes, and nothing else. Perhaps this Seazombie had been poor, or perhaps he kept his riches stored somewhere else.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need any of it, and was happy to just keep the bottle. He had no idea if he would ever find a use for such an item, but it seemed marvelous and he had the feeling it coulde in useful.

    Zhao Zhongheng and Ding Xue were both from rich families, so the contents of the bag of holding weren¡¯t very impressive. However, they split them evenly anyway. After all, profit was profit. Now that the location of the hiding spot had been reported, the sect would send other disciples to handle any follow-up matters.

    With that, Xu Qing¡¯s month-long mission ended.

    Of course, Ding Xue was very depressed that Zhao Zhongheng had shown up and ruined everything. As Xu Qing was taking his leave, she hurried over to him.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu, the front lines are dangerous. You have to be careful. Remember, put safety first. My cultivation base is weak, so there¡¯s nothing I can give you to help. But I¡¯ll talk with my aunt and make sure she looks out for you. If you run into any situation you can¡¯t deal with, you get in touch with her immediately, okay?

    ¡°Oh, another thing, Elder Brother Xu. Thanks for all of your help. I¡¯m going to work really hard to learn everything I can about nts and vegetation, and then join the Seven Sect Coalition. When that timees, Elder Brother, maybe I can help you out with nts and vegetation.¡±

    Looking very earnest, she said one final thing. ¡°Truth be told, the Second Peak¡¯s dao of nts and vegetation isn¡¯t that great. I¡¯m definitely going to surpass the Second Peak disciples eventually.¡±

    ¡°Many thanks,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Take care of yourself. And keep up the good work.¡±

    The truth was that he was a bit touched by her words. She sounded very sincere. During the month he had worked with her, he could tell that she¡¯d had something on her mind that she never talked about. But overall, she was a good person. Also, she was enthusiastic about learning new things, which he very much approved of. He hadn¡¯t had much of a chance to interact with the Second Peak, so he had no way of knowing if her assessment of their dao of nts and vegetation was correct, but it seemed possible. sping hands to her, he turned and left.

    She watched reluctantly as he disappeared. Then she turned and red at Zhao Zhongheng briefly before snorting coldly and leaving the Merfolk Isles. She knew full well that the danger on the front lines was too great, and her cultivation base was too low.

    As Zhao Zhongheng watched her go, the determination never left his eyes. He was still confident that he had the right outlook.

    Cultivation base isn¡¯t important. My sincerity and genuineness will win out over everything. That Xu Qing has a high cultivation base. But he just said goodbye and left without looking back. I¡¯m not like that. I¡¯ll always stay with you, my Elder Sister.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Zhao Zhongheng took a deep breath and followed Ding Xue, ignoring how irritated she seemed.

    Xu Qing did not leave the Merfolk Isles. Thanks to the mission with Ding Xue, he now had three entropic teleportation talismans, as well as a dharmic decree from the vice-peaklord, which meant that he could decline to participate in the frontline war effort without even needing to submit an application. He could even do that while in the middle of a mission.

    In other words, he could go back to the sect headquarters any time he wanted. That said, he could still support the war, just not necessarily on the front lines. If he did that, his kill count and contributions to the war effort wouldn¡¯t suffer. In other words, it gave him a lot of freedom of choice.

    Not even Gold Core elders could issue dharmic decrees like this. Only someone simr to a peaklord had that authority. Xu Qing was well aware that the vice-peaklord had given him this gift at the behest of Ding Xue.

    It¡¯s a big favor. I¡¯ll definitely repay Ding Xueter on.

    Having made that decision, Xu Qing took out his identity medallion and started looking through the missions again.

    He didn¡¯t n to go back to the sect immediately. Thanks to wasting a whole month as Ding Xue¡¯s dao protector, his standings in the war rankings had dropped below seventy. That said, he didn¡¯t think it would be hard to climb back up. He wanted to be in the top fifty to earn the right to summon a projection of the sect¡¯s magical treasure.

    Going forward, he once again immersed himself in taking one mission after another. He would kill Seazombies, absorb their souls, and sometimes bolster his kill count with his shadow.

    Eventually, he rose above the sixtieth rank, which meant he was very close to being in the top fifty. One day when he had just turned in a mission and was about to select a new one, his expression flickered and he looked down toward his feet.

    Then his eyes glittered, and then he burst into motion and headed to a remote area. There, he calmly said, ¡°What do you want to say?¡±

    Moments ago, he had detected fluctuations of emotioning from his shadow. It took some struggle, but his shadow conveyed to him, ¡°Upgrade... quiet... safe... breakthrough....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    During this whole war with the Seazombies, his shadow had proved very helpful. After consuming many Seazombies, it was now on the verge of a breakthrough. Xu Qing was actually looking forward to that.

    After forming his life me, both the shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had fallen behind. That said, he was still on guard against both of them, especially the shadow.

    As the shadow conveyed that message to him, the ck iron skewer shivered, and then the patriarch said, ¡°Milord, your humble servant needs to report that he is also close to a breakthrough. I also need a quiet, safe ce to do so. However, because of cultivating spirit automaton techniques, and also some other random things, my breakthrough will be different. It will provoke Soul-Cleansing Heavenly Lightning!! Once I break through, I¡¯ll have something simr to the profound radiance state. I¡¯ll be almost unstoppable!¡±

    Although the patriarch¡¯s words were spoken with utmost confidence, he was actually feeling extremely anxious. He wasn¡¯t exactly on the breakthrough point, yet felt that he couldn¡¯t wait any longer. After all, if the shadow broke through before him, then given his current state, he would rank second between the two of them. In other words, he would be of little value or interest to Xu Qing. And if that happened, then he had the feeling it wouldn¡¯t be long before he became cannon fodder. So he decided to put everything on the line.

    Xu Qing looked at the iron skewer, then the shadow. He had already made his decision.

 Chapter 169: Fighting for Position!

    <h4>Chapter 169: Fighting for Position!</h4>

    The top fifty cultivators in Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ battle rankings would get the right to summon a projection of the sect¡¯s magical treasure. The thought excited Xu Qing. He had never even seen a magical treasure before, but had heard astonishing stories about them. After all, in the entire Seven Blood Eyes sect, there was only one magical treasure. Xu Qing was curious why there were so many rumors about magical treasures, and also wanted to know what the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ magical treasure looked like, and what it did.

    That said, right now, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow both were about to reach breakthroughs. He didn¡¯t want simple curiosity to interfere with that. He knew without any doubt which of the two was most important.

    Even if magical treasures were incredibly powerful, the prize was a single use of the projection of that magical treasure. In contrast, upgrading the shadow and the patriarch would permanently boost his battle prowess.

    Therefore, Xu Qing unhesitatingly dropped the mission he had been considering, and used the dharmic decree from Ding Xue¡¯s aunt. Even as Seven Blood Eyes seemed to be making a lot of headway in the fighting, he chose to leave the battlefield.

    I need to find some safe, remote ind somewhere. A ce where the patriarch and the shadow can break through without worrying about being interrupted.

    Of great concern was the fact that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior mentioned dealing with tribtion lightning.

    After some thought, he used a teleportation portal to head in the opposite direction of the fighting. Specifically, he teleported to a location very far away, where a nonhuman species called the Hornsanders lived.

    The Hornsanders were allies of Seven Blood Eyes. They were generally kind and peaceful, and had benefited from the protection of the sect for over a hundred years thanks to a crafting ingredient they produced called seaglitter, and also their skill in puppet creation.

    The Hornsanders were a strange people; they looked exactly the same as humans, except they were about as tall as an average person¡¯s hand. To them, humans were like giants. Their ancestralnd was a lilliputian kingdom. However, to make it easier to wee friends from other species, they had built an ordinary-sized city not far from their teleportation portal.

    By the time Xu Qing materialized on the Hornsander¡¯s teleportation portal, it was already dusk. The afterglow of the setting sun cast burning red light through the sky, while the ck water had a violet hue to it. Everything seemed mysterious and profound. It was rare to find harmonious and peaceful ces like this on the Forbidden Sea. And considering that Xu Qing had juste from a war zone, and pulsed with a baleful aura, he didn¡¯t seem to fit in.

    Looking up, he saw numerous small cities off in the distance. Within them, countless Hornsanders bustled about, sometimes singing as they went about their tasks. He even saw some very tiny children ying in the sand. That said, he also detected the auras of quite a few powerful experts.

    Hornsanders were very small, but that didn¡¯t mean Xu Qing looked down on them. He had read the file about them back in the Violent Crimes Division, and knew that though they were normally peaceful, when they did fight, they revealed astonishing fighting prowess. What was more, they were experts in the dao of puppetry.

    Stepping off of the teleportation portal and looking around, he saw that there were a total of eight puppets seated cross-legged in the area. The puppets were human-sized, and were made of abination of metal and wood. Their faces were pitch ck, and they had gemstones for eyes. They didn¡¯t emanate any spirit power fluctuations, making them seem like they were dead.

    As he looked them over, one of the puppet¡¯s gemstone eyes lit up. Then clicking sounds filled the air as the puppet got to its feet, sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Wee to Hornsander territory, esteemed guest from Seven Blood Eyes. How can we help you?¡±

    Xu Qing looked more closely at the puppet. Despite the fact that it had just spoken, he still didn¡¯t sense any spirit power fluctuationsing off of it. He was very curious about that, but at the same time, didn¡¯t feel it was appropriate to pry.

    ¡°I¡¯m just passing through,¡± he said gruffly. ¡°I¡¯m heading to a sea district not far from here. Do you have sea charts for sale?¡±

    ¡°Why would an esteemed guest from Seven Blood Eyes need to spend money on something like that?¡± The puppet extended its right hand, and a grain of sand appeared there. It waved its hand, and the sand shot toward Xu Qing.

    He caught it, whereupon his expression flickered with surprise. The tiny grain of sand was actually just like a jade slip filled with information. Sending some dharma force into it, he saw a very detailed sea chart.

    After offering his thanks, he took a final nce at the peaceful Hornsanders, then flew up into the air and headed out over the Forbidden Sea.

    Moving at top speed, he disappeared within moments. After he was gone, the other seven puppets looked up in the direction he¡¯d left. Then they began to project messages to each other.

    <em>¡°Seven Blood Eyes is at war with the seazombies. This person¡¯s cultivation base is profound, and he exerts immense pressure. He also has scraps of battlefield aura on him. Why did he pass through ournds?¡±</em>

    <em>¡°I also sensed his cultivation base fluctuations. Although it¡¯s hard to say for sure, given the fact that I have a single life me, and his presence caused my dharma apertures and dharma force to turn sluggish, I¡¯d guess he¡¯s in mid-Foundation Establishment.¡±</em>

    <em>¡°That said, he didn¡¯t seem to have any ill intentions.¡±</em>

    After they were certain that he was gone, they rxed, bowed their heads again, and then remained in ce unmoving.

    The night passed. The next day at dawn, the light of day spread through the dome of heaven.

    Xu Qing could be seen, speeding along under the burning sun, not having slowed down a bit.

    He chose not to use his dharmaskiff, as it would attract more attention. As he sped along, he searched for his destination as described on the sea chart, which was an abandoned mining ind.

    ording to the sea chart, a vein of spirit ore had been discovered there a hundred years ago, and thus the ind became very important to the Hornsanders. However, after mining it for a full sixty-year-cycle, the mine went dry, and the ind was abandoned. The spirit power wasn¡¯t very strong there, while the mutagen was. Though there were some nts and vegetation growing, most of them were aggressive in nature. Given that there was nothing of value inside or outside of the ind, few people ever went there. There were many inds like this on the Forbidden Sea.

    Upon finding it, Xu Qing examined it from the air. After determining that it was a suitable location for the shadow and the patriarch to break through, hended on the ind. The first thing he did was wave his hand to send poison powder drifting out everywhere. Instantly, all the nts and vegetation that had been stirring in his direction to attack him withered and died. Ignoring them, he headed toward the actual mine, which took a bit of time to find.

    Despite the fact that the morning sun was bright outside, the interior of the mine was pitch ck. Furthermore, it was filled with strong mutagen and a frigid energy. ck ice surrounded the exterior of the mine, and there were no nts anywhere. Apparently the ck ice was poisonous.

    To most cultivators, this would not be a suitable location to practice cultivation. But as far as Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was concerned, it was more than satisfactory. In fact, as the sun cast his shadow down, it seemed to have a hard time not stretching forward into the mine.

    After checking around again to make sure there were no dangers, he broke off a piece of ck ice to examine.

    It had an astonishing frigid energy, as well as strong mutagen. In fact, as soon as he touched it, that mutagen poured into Xu Qing, only to be immediately absorbed by his shadow.

    ¡°Well isn¡¯t this stuff interesting,¡± he murmured. Squatting down, he tried to collect some of the ice. Unfortunately, as soon as he broke off a piece, it would release all its mutagen and be useless. Shrugging, he entered the mine.

    ¡°Be careful, milord,¡± the patriarch said. ¡°As the saying goes,a wealthy person should never sit under the eaves, lest a falling tile crack him on the head. You really need to be cautious about your own safety. Allow me to scout ahead.¡± With that, he took control of the iron skewer and flew into the mine. A short timeter, he reported, ¡°Milord, there¡¯s nothing out of the ordinary here.¡±

    The shadow, who had been focused on absorbing the ck ice, shivered and stretched out into the mine, then sent out fluctuations to simrly indicate that it was safe to proceed.

    Xu Qing was actually pleased to see the patriarch and the shadow contending with each other, but kept his expression neutral. Aftercing the entrance with poison, he entered the mine. The mutagen inside was clearly stronger, and the frigid energy more intense. Everything waspletely dark, so he sent more dharma force into his eyes to see more clearly. There was a huge tunnel leading deeper into the mine, and the walls were covered with the signs of excavation. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing ignited his lifemp.

    In the blink of an eye, brilliant mes exploded out all over him. The indistinct shape of a ck umbre became visible, protecting his soul, while volcanic fluctuations rolled out within him. Xu Qing blurred into motion as he started checking the entire mine for danger. Although he felt generally safe, until he explored every corner of the ce, he couldn¡¯t rest at ease. Thus, the mes of his profound radiance state swept through the mine.

    There were a lot of passages, but he moved so quickly that it only took a single incense stick¡¯s worth of time for him to cover everything. Other than some bats, he didn¡¯t see anything. The ce was indeed safe.

    Finally, he settled down cross-legged in the depths of the mine, and softly said, ¡°Shadow, you can break through now.¡±

    Instantly, the shadow stretched out. Although it was still connected to Xu Qing, ny-nine percent of it went off into the distance. There, where no one could see what it was doing, though Xu Qing could sense it, it started sucking in mutagen like mad. The mutagen became like a vortex, sweeping in from all corners of the mine. As it spun, it became a huge, rotating circle thirty meters across.

    Within that circle, the shadow¡¯s ¡®body¡¯ melted, bing a ck, viscous substance upon whose surface bubbles constantly formed and popped. Each time a bubble burst, it would emit a hair-raising howl, as if to give evidence that some dramatic evolution was urring.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with anticipation, but he kept his guard fully up. After all, his shadow had always been secretly sinister, and it was impossible to say whether or not it would rebel against him after it broke through. In fact, Xu Qing actually kept dharma force flowing into his violet crystal, just in case he needed to suppress the shadow.

    Meanwhile, off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw the shadow getting to work. And he noticed the Fiendish Xu¡¯s look of anticipation, as well as the way he almost seemed to be acting as a dharma protector. All of a sudden, a stabbing sensation of crisis and anxiety filled the patriarch.

    He¡¯s acting as a dharma protector? The Fiendish Xu is obviously favoring the shadow now! Logically speaking, if the shadow breaks through, then I¡¯m going to be at a big disadvantage. Even if I do break throughter, I¡¯ll still be trailing behind. In the stories I¡¯ve read, people who fall behind never catch up. Eventually, they hit rock bottom. I can¡¯t let that happen!

    The patriarch shivered inwardly at that thought.To protect my position, and to make sure I don¡¯t be cannon fodder, I have to break through before the shadow. It¡¯s time to fight!

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the patriarch¡¯s eyes turned bloodshot, and with an incredibly serious voice, he said, ¡°Milord, I beg thee to let me break through!¡±

 Chapter 170: Lightning Spirit Body

    Chapter 170: Lightning Spirit Body

    Xu Qing was shocked. He looked at the patriarch, musing that the words he had just spoken sounded a bit odd.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± he asked. Although he could sense that the patriarch¡¯s aura was stronger than before, and was even getting close to a critical juncture, it also seemed unstable. It definitely didn¡¯t seem like he was ready for a breakthrough.

    ¡°Your humble servant is absolutely certain,¡± the patriarch said loudly, ncing in the direction of the shadow.

    Xu Qing had never been a spirit automaton, so he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what they looked like when on the verge of a breakthrough. After hearing the patriarch¡¯s words, he mulled over the matter for a bit.

    The patriarch waited nervously while Xu Qing considered the matter. The patriarch was worried that Xu Qing cared about the shadow more than him, and would thus refuse his request. Thinking back to the countless ancient records he had read, he remembered one specific, very noteworthy scene. In that scene, the MC refused one of his pet¡¯s requests. For some reason, he fell in love with that feeling, and afterward, would refuse all of the pet¡¯s requests. Eventually, because of all those refusals, the pet ended up being turned into food.

    Has the Fiendish Xu been thinking of using me as fuel for the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture this entire time?

    Although Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was now only the remaining essence of a living being, in life he had always been a jabberer. But after bing a spirit automaton, he spent most of his days living in fear, and had thus be more perceptive than before. He was convinced he was going to die, and that the Fiendish Xu was preparing to devour him.

    Terrified that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to agree to his proposal, he loudly said, ¡°Milord, I can¡¯t hold it any longer. Here Ie....¡±

    The patriarch erupted with power as he tried to force himself into a breakthrough. His eyes turned red and his heart filled with madness.

    I have to break through before the shadow!

    His soul shadow rose up from the ck iron skewer and ck clouds began to form within him. Then they shed, and lightning shot from the clouds through the patriarch. Unable to hold back, he screamed and looked at Xu Qing in terror.

    The patriarch cultivated an iplete technique that allowed him to turn into a spirit automaton. It had a very unusual and impressive-sounding name, that being the Supreme Yin Lightning Spirit Transformation. He had never been able to determine where the technique came from, but presumably it was created by some almighty being who had been researching lightning spirits. By cultivating it to the point of initial sess, one could transform oneself into a body of lightning.

    The first part of the cultivation process required a certain amount of natural skill, as well as a stockpile of resources. The second part of the process required the tenacity to kill oneself and be a soul body. Then, by using the resources built up in the first part of the process, one could transform into a spirit automaton. And that was the beginning of the third part of the process, transforming into a body of lightning. Once onepleted that final transformation, it was considered an initial sess with the technique.

    However, bing a lightning spirit was different than starting out as a lightning spirit. And thus, the technique... did not describe any way of reaching the highest level of sess.

    Right now, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was risking his life to break through and transform into a lightning spirit, a painful process that involved shing with clouds and dealing with lightning. When the lightning passed through the soul body and provoked heavenly lightning, then it would baptize the soul.

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply upon hearing the patriarch¡¯s anguished screams. Then he shifted some of his attention away from the shadow so he could watch both of them. Seeing the state the patriarch was in, Xu Qing had a bad feeling. He started to wonder what would happen to his iron skewer if the patriarch couldn¡¯t hold on, and ended up being destroyed.

    The patriarch¡¯s screams didn¡¯t just attract Xu Qing¡¯s attention. The shadow in its ck liquid form suddenly stopped forming bubbles for a moment, then started again, this time even faster than before.

    And thus, the shadow and the patriarch went crazypeting with each other. The clouds within the patriarch shed with greater intensity, and lightning bolts built up within his soul body. As they filled him, it reached the point where the patriarch felt like he might copse. At that point, a bolt of lightning finally found a way out through the top of his head.

    After that, massive amounts of lighting erupted from that opening, spreading out to cover the patriarch. At the same time, his energy and aura began to skyrocket.

    When that happened, the patriarch breathed an internal sigh of relief. The process had not been easy. But then he thought about the baptism toe, and his heart again filled with anguish. He knew full well that the breakthrough process was dangerous, and that if he failed, he would be wiped out of existence. Back when he was a living person, he would definitely not have done anything like this.

    That aspect of his personality was one reason why he had been slow in opening his dharma apertures. He hade across many opportunities to speed things up, but they all involved risking his life. And therefore in the end, he had just gritted his teeth and slowed down. Right now, he was tempted to do the same thing.

    But then he looked at the shadow in its inky pool of ck, and how something seemed to be rising up from within it! It wasn¡¯t a bubble. Instead, there was something taking shape in that swampy mass. It was something struggling to get to its feet, and as it did, an aura that surpassed Qi Condensation roiled out from it. As that aura grew stronger, it got closer and closer to the Foundation Establishment level. And it didn¡¯t seem like it would stop any time soon.

    The shadow was obviously reaching a critical point in the breakthrough process, and was going to seed at any moment. Expression turning vicious, the patriarch red at the inky mass.

    Eyes turning even more bloodshot, he shouted, ¡°Bring on the lightning!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the sky outside filled with dark clouds and rumbling sounds. Then a huge lightning bolt formed and smashed down in a zigzag shape toward the ind.

    The lightning bolt smashed into the dirt overhead, piercing down into the mine until it hit Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior viciously on the head. A tremor passed through him as massive amounts of lightning coursed into him. Then it merged with the lightning he had been producing, and it began to converge in an astonishing fashion. Meanwhile, the patriarch screamed as his body grew transparent, like it might copse into nothing.

    The shadow seemed shocked, but kept struggling to reach its next form as it rose from the ck liquid. In fact, it seemed to be going all out.

    Xu Qing was visibly moved. He looked at the shadow, then at the patriarch, and a strange expression appeared on his face. However, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn.

    The patriarch continued to howl as more and more lightning built up. Finally, he let loose a scream as all the lightning was sucked through the top of his head and into his body. When that happened, he shivered. It was now visible to the naked eyes that his entire body was being transformed by the lightning, down to his soul body. Gradually, the patriarch looked over at the ck iron skewer, and inhaled deeply. The skewer flew over and he sucked it in; inside him, it was assailed by countless lightning bolts. It was like he was an automaton furnace, the lightning of heaven and earth was a hammer, and his soul body was the me, all of it being used to reforge the iron skewer.

    With every crash of the lightning, the patriarch trembled. However, each st also refined the iron skewer, and also added magical symbols of lightning onto it. The skewer was also trembling as much as the patriarch. However, the patriarch didn¡¯t give up. Lightning smashed into the skewer ten times. Twenty times. Thirty times. Forty times.

    The skewer grew darker and sharper, and the lightning symbols grew brighter until even Xu Qing felt them stinging his eyes. Finally, after striking the skewer with forty-nine bolts of lightning, the patriarch had reached his limit, and he spat out the iron skewer. The skewer had forty-nine lightning symbols flickering on it; its aura surpassed Qi Condensation and seemed unusually strong even for a Foundation Establishment aura.

    Once its aura erupted out, the patriarch could again be seen inside. But this time, his body had transformed significantly. Although his features were the same as before, he glittered with endless bolts of lightning, and he was semitransparent. It seemed that he had transformed into a lightning body. The lightning bolts didn¡¯t hurt him, as they were now part of him. And he pulsed with such a violent aura that Xu Qing felt like he was in front of someone with a life me.

    Also, Xu Qing sensed terrifying fluctuationsing from the lightning symbols on the skewer. Furthermore, the skewer wasn¡¯t inbat readiness; he could only imagine how powerful it would be when its power was unleashed in full. It could probably fight someone with two life mes.

    The reason for all this was partly because the patriarch had started out in Foundation Establishment. The rest was because of the technique he cultivated. Thatbination, plus everything he had stockpiled, led to an amazing breakthrough.

    The patriarch was feeling very strong, and also very excited, especially considering how much effort he had expended. However, he hadn¡¯t forgotten that Xu Qing had some of his life essence spirit, and thus prepared some words that he was sure would please Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯ve finally lived up to your expectations, milord! Your humble servant¡ª¡±

    At that exact moment, the shadow in the dark liquid seemed to be profoundly stimted, and the figure rising up within it roared. The shadow was transforming! It didn¡¯t look like it had before. Instead, it looked like a great tree rising out of the ground in front of Xu Qing and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Branches and leaves spread out rapidly from it, and upon them grew numerous fruits.

    Then the fruits burst open to reveal a host of crimson eyes. There were over a hundred of them, and as they opened, they all focused on Xu Qing. Each and every one of those eyes emanated a fierce and vicious feeling. Then a ghastly mouth opened up on the trunk of the tree, filled with countless razor-sharp teeth. And from that mouth came a bizarre sound that seemed vaguely familiar to Xu Qing.

    C-c-crunch. C-c-c-c-c-crunch. C-crunch.

    It sounded like the grinding of teeth. [1]

    1. I don¡¯t consider it a spoiler to call back to a clue from a previous chapter. Besides, I¡¯m sure some readers remember exactly where this sound came up before. Either way, here is the reference: chapter 80. ?

 Chapter 171: Suppress! Suppress!! Suppress!!!

    Chapter 171: Suppress! Suppress!! Suppress!!!

    The shadow was now an iparably bizarre and gruish pitch ck tree. It had over a hundred eyes, all of which radiated an astonishing crimson light that made the entire mine seem like a world of blood. The malicious ferocity it exuded seemed filled with madness. It was as if the shadow had been holding back for so long that, when it finally managed to reach a breakthrough, everything it had been suppressing in its heart finally erupted into the open. Strangely, though, much of that ferocious maliciousness wasn¡¯t directed at Xu Qing, but rather, at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    Given how Xu Qing had suppressed the shadow on a daily basis for such a long time, it would have made sense for all its killing intent to be focused on him. But obviously, some of the things the patriarch had done aroused the shadow¡¯s hatred to this level.

    The patriarch¡¯s expression was solemn as lightning crackled around him and he looked at the shadow. However, inside he was bursting with joy.

    Ah, Little Shadow, you did perfectly. You couldn¡¯t have picked a better way to reveal your rebellious nature. This is only going to make my position more stable.

    With those thoughts on his mind, the patriarch shouted, ¡°You evil shadow! I can¡¯t believe you want to devour our lord and master!!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he flew in between Xu Qing and the shadow, looking very loyal and protective. At the same time, the lightning symbols on the skewer glittered brightly and exuded a terrifying aura.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as, instead of worrying about the shadow¡¯s sudden maliciousness, his mind raced as he tried to recall why that crunching sound was so familiar. Then it hit him.

    The giant with the dragon chariot! [1]

    Suddenly, to his shock, he noticed a muffled rumbling sounding from far off in the distance, beyond the mine and the ind.

    It was a faint noise, like something very heavy being dragged along the ground. Its vibrations caused waves to roll out on the surface of the water, and the entire ind trembled. Under the water beyond the shore of the ind, Xu Qing¡¯s snakeneck dragon appeared and looked off into the distance.

    What Xu Qing saw through its eyes sent shock rolling through him. Off in the distant sea, he saw a dense mist covering the surface of the water. And besides the sound he had just detected, he also heard chains nking. Shockingly, there was a massive giant on the seafloor, slowly walking toward him step by step. Its huge body was covered with numerous tentacles that looked almost like hair. Every step the giant took caused powerful currents of water on the seafloor, and kicked up massive clouds of silt.

    As it walked along, a set of ghastly ck chains appeared behind it. Those chains draped behind it, ending in an astonishing bronze dragon chariot. It oozed a sensation of ancient time, and was covered with rust and corrosion. It looked to be in very bad condition, and was tilted so badly it seemed like it might fall on its side. It left a huge furrow in the sea floor as it moved. Both the giant and the chariot were enormous, to the point where Xu Qing would seem tinypared to them. To him, both of them seemed like mountains.

    What was more noteworthy were the carvings on the chariot itself. They seemed like something belonging to an emperor, as if only someone filled with a spirit of iparable dignity could ride in this chariot.

    As the giant got closer, the sea whipped into a frenzy. The waves became so huge they turned into a tsunami. This terrifying aura surpassed the level of Joine by so many times over that it was impossible to calcte. It was like the difference between a firefly and a torch. In fact, a momentter, Xu Qing¡¯s snakeneck dragon started to crumble to pieces.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes began stinging, and then blood dripped out of them. Then the walls of the mine copsed, with cracks spreading across them and sea water flowing into the mine. A momentter, the wallspletely crumbled, such that Xu Qing didn¡¯t need the snakeneck dragon to see the giant; he could see it with his own eyes. The aura assailing him caused his mind to tremble.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing ignited his life me and entered the profound radiance state. He erupted like a volcano to fight back against the aura. However, being this close to the dragon chariot, he was actually able to see one of the engravings on it!

    It depicted a handsome young man wearing fine clothing and an emperor¡¯s crown. He sat on the dragon chariot, one hand rested on his chin, the other holding a bamboo slip from which he read. It was a beautiful image, and it was very lifelike. The young man¡¯s posture and expression were very clear. He seemed very interested in what he was reading, and the corners of his mouth were even tilting up in a smile. The dragon chariot was being pulled into the sky by a running giant, around whom curled five golden dragons. The giant was obviously extraordinarily mighty; despite it being a simple engraving, he seemed incredibly powerful.

    The giant in the engraving was looking back at the young man as they ascended into the sky. His expression seemed one of loyalty and even fanaticism. It was as if, to him, that young man carried his fate in his hands. It was as if, to him, pulling that chariot was the greatest honor he could ever experience.

    That wasn¡¯t the only engraving Xu Qing could see. In the next one, he saw the young man with the emperor¡¯s crown riding the chariot through the clouds all the way to the horizon, where he transformed... into the sun. There it hung, high in the dome of heaven! Its radiance shone on all thends below!

    In the final engraving, it was evening, and the sun had once again transformed back into a young man. As before, he sat on his chariot, and was being pulled by the giant across the sea. These series of images shook Xu Qing deeply, leaving him trembling to the core.

    Meanwhile, the giant pulling the chariot issued forth another sound.

    C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch.

    Bizarrely, it seemed like that sound was a response to the shadow!

    Although Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was already submerged in water now, making it impossible for anyone to see, Xu Qing knew that it was still in the shape of that bizarre tree, bursting with malice and madness. And it was still making that same noise!

    C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch.

    The giant trembled and continued to walk in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. As it got nearer, fear rose up in Xu Qing. He looked deeply at the giant for a moment, then chose to flee. Sending out the power of the crystal, he suppressed the shadow, took out his dharmaskiff, and started speeding across the surface of the sea.

    It was currently dawn, and the sun shone brightly onto Xu Qing.

    That, in turn, caused his shadow to appear clearly on the deck of the dharmaskiff. The shadow twisted and distorted as it tried to fight against his suppression. As it did, its appearance changed again. Tentacles spread out from the tree, making it look very simr to the giant pulling the dragon chariot.

    Killing intent appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Tapping into all 44 of his dharma apertures, he sent dharma force into the violet crystal. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the power of the crystal erupted from his chest and mmed into the writhing shadow. This time, Xu Qing suppressed the shadow 50 times in a row!

    The shadow fought back fiercely, its eyes glowing bright red. Then, when it seemed like it was going to issue forth more sound from its mouth, Xu Qing snorted coldly and added the power of his life me into the violet crystal. Then he waved his hand, and a huge ck umbre appeared.

    Instantly, brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed as Xu Qing covered the shadow with the umbre, blocking it from the sun, and thus its connection to the outside world. Beneath the umbre, no one could see the shadow. But Xu Qing could sense its position, and knew its connection had been severed, causing it to look surprised, and to struggle even more.

    ¡°Fool,¡± Xu Qing said. By imbuing the violet crystal with his life me, it became even more impressive, and unleashed an unprecedented level of suppressive power. It was a violet halo that crushed down onto the shadow over and over again.

    3 times. 7 times. 16 times.

    With the added power of the life me, the suppression was vastly beyond anything from before. The shadow trembled, and its fight against the suppression grew weaker and weaker. It couldn¡¯t emit any sound, and eventually began shaking.

    At the same time, Xu Qing checked and found that, thanks to the ck umbre and his effort in suppressing the shadow, the giant and the chariot had stopped moving. Apparently, whatever had allowed the giant to sense them was now gone. Turning, the giant dragged the dragon chariot in a different direction, going deeper and deeper into the sea.

    Even after the giant was gone, fear lingered in Xu Qing¡¯s heart. Turning coldly to look at his shadow trembling in trepidation.

    ¡°Your n failed,¡± he said coolly.

    The shadow shivered as it reverted to its previous shape. The tentacles disappeared, and though its eyes were still red, they didn¡¯t radiate malice, but instead seemed fawning.

    Out on the open sea, the morning sun was brighter than it seemed onnd, its red light spreading out everywhere, making it seem like everything was on fire. Even the ck Forbidden Sea couldn¡¯t contend with the glory of the sun at sunrise.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to that, though. Waving his hand, he dispelled the ck umbre. As the sunlight shone down on them again, the shadow became visible on the deck. After being suppressed so many times in a row, it was back to the same color it had been before its breakthrough. As Xu Qing red at it coldly, it shook harder.

    ¡°My... bad....¡± the shadow conveyed.

    Xu Qing tapped into the violet crystal and suppressed it violently again.

    10 times. 30 times. 70 times. 120 times.

    In the middle of it, he sat down and looked off into the sky, making it seem like he had no intention of stopping. Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was excited, but as it went on, he started to feel more and more anxious. He watched as the shadow got weaker and weaker, trembling so badly that it looked like it might die.

    Then the patriarch looked at the expressionless Xu Qing. Finally, the patriarch couldn¡¯t hold back, and said, ¡°Milord, it¡¯s... it¡¯s about to die.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him. ¡°You feel sorry for it?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± the patriarch blurted, terrified at Xu Qing¡¯s gaze. pping himself on the chest, he produced a mass of lightning that swirled around him. ¡°Milord, we can put this traitorous shadow to death together!¡±

    Worried that he wasn¡¯t reacting fast enough, he sent some lightning flying toward the shadow.

    1. The reference to the giant and the dragon chariot is the same as the link from thest chapter. Chapter 80. ?

 Chapter 172: The Final ???? ????

    Chapter 172: The Final ???? ????

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the patriarch¡¯s performance. He just continued suppressing the shadow while still looking off at the horizon.

    He was thinking back to the time when he acquired the shadow. It was back in the jungle forbidden region when he and Squad Thunderbolt had fought a pack of ck-scaled wolves. The shadow hade out of one of those wolves, almost as if it were a parasite. [1]

    That was the first time the violet crystal within him had done anything different from before, as it had sealed the shadow. From that point on, his shadow had changed. More precisely, it seemed like his own shadow became the host for the ck-scaled wolf¡¯s shadow. The two had be one.

    From then on, his shadow could absorb mutagen, which made his practice of cultivation go much more smoothly. Of course, as the shadow absorbed mutagen, its battle prowess increased. Other than helping him, the shadow hadn¡¯t done much or changed. And after Xu Qing figured out how to control it, it became one of his trump cards.

    It was when he killed that young merman that his shadow first showed some signs of intelligence. Later, the Mute warned him about the shadow. And then there was the time when the shadow seemed to wake up and extinguish the Spirit Breath Lamp in the Merfolk Isles. After that point, his shadow didn¡¯t just seem alive, it seemed intelligent. [2]

    Xu Qing had long since predicted where it all was going. However, the entire time, he had been able to keep the shadow suppressed with his cultivation base and the violet crystal. Therefore, though the shadow had been of concern to him, since he never let it get too strong, there was no risk of it attacking him. The fact that it had done so just now wasn¡¯t surprising. What was surprising was that the shadow had somehow attracted the giant with the dragon chariot. That got him even more curious about what exactly the shadow was.

    Looking down calmly at the shadow, he said, ¡°Regardless, as far as I¡¯m concerned, you¡¯re more of a risk than a benefit.¡±

    When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior heard those words, he shivered.

    At the same time, the shadow could sense that things were different this time around, and it emitted fluctuations of terror and pleading.

    ¡°Since that¡¯s the case,¡± Xu Qing continued, ¡°I don¡¯t need you around!¡±

    Closing his eyes, he extended his right hand and pushed it down onto the shadow on the deck. Violet light surged out with suppressive force, causing the entire dharmaskiff to tremble. The shadow didn¡¯t seem like it couldst much longer, and let loose an unprecedented shriek, along with emotions associated with pain and anger.

    Xu Qing could sense them, but he ignored them and kept suppressing the shadow.

    Hearing the howls of grief, the patriarch was so shaken he backed up a bit and looked nervously at Xu Qing.

    The shadow howled as it grew fainter, until a sound rang out like something shattering, and the shadow reverted from a tree to its previous ordinary form. Another weak cry rang out, one of pleading.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing continued suppressing the shadow.

    180 times. 240 times. 320 times.

    Violet light erupted as he suppressed the shadow over and over again. It grew fainter, more transparent, and its cries grew weaker.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes remained decisive. He really did intend to wipe the shadow out of existence. As for how he would deal with mutagen afterward, he wasn¡¯t sure, but it didn¡¯t concern him too much. To him, the violet crystal was his most important asset, and the shadow was secondary.

    The shadow could absorb mutagen, but the violet crystal could keep it sealed. If that was the case, then it meant the crystal could seal other things simr to the shadow. Worst case scenario, after the shadow died, Xu Qing could start hunting forbidden regions and try to find something else simr to the shadow.

    Therefore, no matter how weak and faint the shadow became, he continued suppressing it.

    350 times. 460 times. 570 times. 680 times.

    He continued relentlessly and without stopping.

    Eventually, as the shadow grew fainter, it shrank into a ball, making it a bit less faint. At that point, it took the shape of a small person that began kowtowing over and over again.

    Xu Qing looked at the shadowy person and once again suppressed it. With a single palm, he crushed it. A scream rang out.

    Xu Qing remained calm as he sat beneath the sun, casting no shadow whatsoever. Ignoring the strangeness of that, he walked to the edge of the dharmaskiff and looked out at the ck water. Given the angle of the sun, if he had a shadow, it should have been cast out onto the mutagen-filled sea.

    Standing there, Xu Qing looked toward the prow of the boat and said, ¡°Get the hell out into the open!¡±

    Everything was quiet on the deck of the boat.

    Xu Qing suddenly smiled, and his eyes turned cold. Violet light glittered on his chest as if it were about to erupt out.

    At that point, the trembling shadow appeared on the deck in the spot where he had been suppressing it. It quickly converged into the shape of a tiny person, which began kowtowing over and over again pleadingly.

    ¡°You took too long,¡± Xu Qing said, and he suppressed it a few more times. There was another bang, and the little person screamed, then exploded.

    Xu Qing remainedpletely expressionless as he sat there meditating, his eyes closed.

    As it turned out, killing the shadow was much more difficult than it seemed. It looked like he would need to do some more research into the violet crystal to see if he coulde up with a more efficient method. Some time passed, and eventually it was noon. With the sun hot overhead, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior stewing in anxiety, Xu Qing finally opened his eyes and looked at that same spot on the deck.

    ¡°Get the hell out into the open!¡±

    This time, the shadow appeared with astonishing speed, clearly terrified of being tormented further. It was still faint, but after recovering for a few hours, it had regained some strength, and now looked like a tree again. Trembling, it sent out emotions of pleading and terror that surpassed anything from before by ten times over.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been with me long enough to know what I¡¯m like,¡± Xu Qing said, looking at it coldly. He really did want to kill it, but it would take time to figure out how to use the violet crystal to do so. Therefore, seeing how terrified it was, he said, ¡°I¡¯ll give you three months to convince me not to kill you. If you fail....¡±

    He trailed off and didn¡¯t say anything further.

    The shadow trembled and kowtowed over and over again to voice its agreement.

    Looking at it, Xu Qing said, ¡°Listen well. It doesn¡¯t matter that you experienced a breakthrough just now. Nothing has changed.¡±

    ¡°Gobble... control....¡± the shadow said.

    However, whether because it was so weak, or because of its inherent nature, even after its breakthrough, it wasn¡¯t capable of ordinary speech, and had trouble expressing itself.

    Xu Qing frowned. He needed more detailed information. Now that the shadow had risen to a higher level, he wanted to know what it was capable of. That information would be critical in fightster on.

    ¡°Milord, I¡¯ll handle this!¡± the patriarch said. Lighting crackled around him as he hurried over to the shadow¡¯s side, squatted down, and nced at its one hundred eyes. Lowering his voice so Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear, he said, ¡°I¡¯ll ask you some questions. Blink for yes. Nod for no. Now, tell me what you meant just now when you said ¡®gobble.¡¯ Gobble what? Gobble mutagen? Gobble flesh? Gobble shadows?¡±

    The shadow clearly didn¡¯t like the patriarch, but it had no choice but to follow his lead. Eventually, when it heard the patriarch say ¡®gobble shadows,¡¯ it blinked.

    ¡°Gobble yourself? Or gobble other peoples¡¯ shadows? Gobble a mouthful? Or the whole thing? Control the body? Or control the soul?¡±

    Aftermunicating in this manner, the patriarch finally reached a certain level of understanding, and turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord, I get it now. Little Shadow means to say that it can devour the shadows of others. Once it consumes the entire shadow, it gains control of that individual¡¯s body. However, milord, you possess something that it fears greatly, and thus, it didn¡¯t work on you!¡±

    As the patriarch exined, the shadow sent out emotions of approval, and nodded repeatedly. But then, only a momentter, it started shaking its head vigorously. Then it stared helplessly at the patriarch.

    Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s unprecedented act of suppression had damaged its intellect to a certain degree, leaving it less intelligent than before.

    ¡°Remember, Little Shadow,¡± the patriarch said kindly, showing no signs that he had any ulterior motives, ¡°blink for yes, nod your head for no. That method should make it rtively easy for me to figure out what you¡¯re trying to say.¡±

    The shadow blinked.

    Though the patriarch was smiling, inside, he was thinking, This obnoxious shadow still dares to look at me maliciously? Just wait and see how I punish you! Once you get used to me interpreting for you, then as long as you remember how to say yes and no, then I can think of numerous ways to make you suffer!

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t concerned with whatever the patriarch was scheming. But he was interested in the shadow¡¯s bizarre ability. He also found it intriguing that the shadow was terrified of the violet crystal.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Eyes... observe....¡± the shadow replied quickly, and then it looked at the patriarch.

    After another back-and-forth conversation, the patriarch exined what the shadow meant.

    ¡°It has another ability that lets it send out shadow eyes and hide them in someone else¡¯s shadow. If you do that, milord, you can observe things through those eyes.¡±

    ¡°Domain...¡± the shadow said.

    The patriarch thought, then asked some follow-up questions. After confirming the shadow¡¯s meaning, he turned respectfully to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord, it can create something like a shadow domain. Once it¡¯s formed, its powers be much stronger while inside the domain.¡±

    The shadow seemed pleased with that exnation, and looked at the patriarch with much less revulsion than before.

    Xu Qing thought about the situation. The patriarch¡¯s changes were visible to the naked eye. Meanwhile, the shadow just grew more and more gruish. It was actually a goodbination, and gave him a lot more options.

    After some more thought, he looked back out at the sea, and recalled the giant pulling the dragon chariot. His eyes narrowed, and he thought back to what Elder Zhao had told him about the dragon chariot containing some sort of secret magic. An imperial-ss secret magic. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits! [3]

    I wonder if I could get into that dragon chariot and learn that secret magic.

    The thought excited him as he looked out at the sea. Then a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

    Still squatting off to the side, the patriarch said, ¡°Little Shadow, I know you don¡¯t like our lord and master very much, do you?¡±

    The shadow seemed surprised, but quickly nodded.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be like that,¡± the patriarch continued. ¡°I¡¯ve read many ancient records, and I can tell you that rebels never meet a good end. I know you don¡¯t like how this has turned out for you. You think that flying free is the only way to live. And thus, you¡¯re still thinking of rebelling. In fact you want toe up with a way to kill our amazing lord and master, am I right?¡±

    Hearing the question, Xu Qing looked over.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shift, the shadow trembled and cautiously nodded.

    1. Xu Qing killed the wolf and got the shadow in chapter 13. ?

    2. The shadow ¡°being alive¡± was mentioned in chapter 76. The Mute warned him about the shadow in chapter 111. And it extinguished themp in chapter 117. ?

    3. Elder Zhao talked to him about the chariot in chapter 110. ?

 Chapter 173: Destined Opportunity for Imperial-Class

    Chapter 173: Destined Opportunity for Imperial-ss

    Xu Qing knew full well that he had suppressed the shadow enough that its intelligence had dropped, and thus it had been tricked by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Despite that, he still felt the urge to suppress it for what it had just indicated. However, doing so wouldn¡¯t be logical, so he dismissed the urge and then red at the patriarch.

    Appearing very obsequious, the patriarch ceased his attempts to make the shadow more irritating to Xu Qing.

    Looking at the shadow, Xu Qing said, ¡°Why are you able to attract the attention of that giant pulling the dragon chariot? What exactly are you? And how many other things like you are out there?¡±

    Shivering, the shadow did its best to express itself.

    ¡°Through... shadow....¡± Having finished speaking, it looked urgently at the patriarch.

    The patriarch, still squatting next to the shadow, started whispering. After a series of blinks and nods from the shadow, the patriarch turned to Xu Qing, sped hands, and respectfully said, ¡°Milord, Little Shadow is trying to say that it doesn¡¯t know what it is. From the moment it gained consciousness, it was just a shadow capable of living like a parasite in the shadows of host beings.¡±

    At this point, the patriarch blinked a few times. A moment ago when Xu Qing had asked if there were other things out there like the shadow, he had sensed some hidden killing intent in the question.

    Lowering his voice, the patriarch said, ¡°The shadow also said that it has never sensed the existence of another being like itself. That said... your humble servant is of the opinion that there are few things in the world that are truly one-of-a-kind.

    ¡°In terms of the giant pulling the dragon chariot, the shadow also doesn¡¯t know the details. It just knows that upon seeing the giant, it was possible to make the same sounds as it, and therefore summon it. Having thought about it myself, your humble servant thinks that the shadow might have something to do with the chariot.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He only partly believed the shadow¡¯s exnation. But given that it had already said so much, he didn¡¯t think it would help to threaten it with more suppression.

    The fact that it can attract the attention of the giant and the chariot is enough. That alone can be a trump card.

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged on his dharmaskiff, looking out at the sea and mulling things over. It was already afternoon, and though the sun was bright, it was already showing signs of nearing evening. He kept thinking about what Elder Zhao had told him about the giant and the chariot. And the more he thought about it, the greater his desire grew.

    If he saw the thing once, and never again, then he wouldn¡¯t have thought much of it. But now he¡¯d seen it twice. What was more, the shadow had the ability to bring it again. And that made Xu Qing wonder if he could devise a n to get a destined opportunity for an imperial-ss technique.

    Of course, it would be incredibly difficult. Just looking at the giant and the chariot from a distance, he had felt like his soul almost couldn¡¯t take the pressure. If he got closer, his body would probably copse. It was a pressure that came from a higher level of life, the same thing Xu Qing had experienced in the mural in the Merfolk Isles. Though his cultivation base was higher at this point, the giant and the chariot had godliness that surpassed the mural. He couldn¡¯t get close, much less step onto the chariot. And even if he somehow did manage to do so, if the giant looked back, then Xu Qing knew he couldn¡¯t withstand that level of might.

    I wonder how the president of the Seven Sect Coalition managed to do it back then.

    Xu Qing got the feeling that unless the giant was asleep, it would be simply impossible to get onto the chariot.

    ¡°Shadow, I¡¯ll give you a chance to atone for some of your crimes. Summon the giant and the dragon chariot to me. Then you sneak inside and make a copy of the imperial-ss technique.¡±

    The shadow immediately released fluctuations of terror. ¡°Very... scared....¡±

    The patriarch didn¡¯t need any urging from Xu Qing. Looking very excited, he startedmunicating with the shadow. Shortly after, he had an exnation.

    ¡°Milord, Little Shadow says the giant has strange fluctuations of godliness, which make it impossible to get close to. Furthermore, the giant doesn¡¯t have a shadow of its own, which would make it even more difficult.

    ¡°Of course, this led me to ask why the shadow summoned the giant and chariot if that¡¯s the case. The answer is that Little Shadow hoped the might of the chariot would kill you, milord. Little Shadow can¡¯t sustain that level of pressure for very long, and it knew that if you died, it would mean freedom for it. Ai, Little Shadow, how could you be so muddle-headed?¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing thought back to when the shadow had attacked him, and immediately suppressed the shadow. The shadow screamed, then sent out emotions of both terror and pleading.

    Looking away from the shadow, Xu Qing stared out at the sky as it gradually crept toward dusk. Many thoughts ran through his head. Eventually, the sun set and the sky grew dark. That was when Xu Qing thought back to the first time he saw the dragon chariot, and also the time he saw countless ghosts haunting the night on his first time out at sea.

    ¡°There is a fantastic symphony in the endless sea; mortals are unable to hear it; it apanies Crimson Yang the golden crow; countless movements be a song; it is called Natural Sounds Wee the Moon.

    ¡°The god loved it; the god¡¯s eyes gazed upon it; the endless sea became forbidden; countless movements became sinister.¡±

    Those lines were from the sea annals, and they described ¡®countless ghosts haunting the night.¡¯

    As Xu Qing recalled them, his heart started beating, and new thoughts urred to him.

    Elder Zhao said that the dragon chariot is actually the sun¡¯s imperial carriage. In that case, the young man in the engraving must be the sun. And that engraving describes how he transforms into the sun.

    That conforms to what was described in the sea annals. The sun was a golden crow that normally assumed the form of a young person, riding through the sky on a dragon chariot during the day as the embodiment of the sun. Then, at night, the dragon chariot would return, and in his pce, the golden crow would listen to countless harmonic movements that weed the moon with the sounds of nature.

    If all that is true, then the giant must have apanied the sun to listen to that symphony. And now, despite having perished, he still pulls that chariot across the Forbidden Sea. If some of the giant¡¯s instincts remain, then if he hears that symphony of natural sounds weing the moon, won¡¯t he lose himself in the music...?

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with anticipation.

    If he wanted to make this n a reality, then he would have to find countless ghosts haunting the night, and at the same time, have a way to collect their music. Thatst aspect was the most important, and it made Xu Qing look down at his bag of holding, within which was that recording bottle. Once he had captured the music, then he would have to find the giant and the chariot.

    The Forbidden Sea was vast, and the giant and chariot were on the seafloor. Anyone who caught a glimpse of them would be considered lucky, and searching for them was basically impossible.

    Assuming I¡¯m correct, then I¡¯m surely not the first person to have realized this. Perhaps the president of the Seven Sect Coalition got the technique in a simr way. Regardless, it doesn¡¯t matter if other people have thought of this idea, does it? Even if they did, they would have to search for the giant and chariot, whereas I can call them to me with my shadow. One method is active, one is passive, and the difference between the two in the chances of sess is immense.

    Even still, he felt like he needed to carry out his n as soon as possible. For all he knew, there was someone out there already trying to do the same thing as him.

    Xu Qing also remembered Elder Zhao saying that whenever the dragon chariot found someone to inherit its legacy, and that person gained enlightenment of the imperial-ss technique, then the giant would go to sleep somewhere on the seafloor. Yearster, after building up enough power to impart the legacy again, it would reappear.

    This seems to indicate that the legacy of that high-level technique cannot be imparted onto a chosen sessor, but rather, can only be acquired in this way. I suppose that can¡¯t be proven untilter, though.

    At this point, Xu Qing was determined to try out his idea.

    ¡°The first thing to do,¡± he murmured, ¡°is find countless ghosts haunting the night!¡±

    He knew that the haunting would only ur at nighttime, and wouldn¡¯tst for very long. And thus, it was without the slightest hesitation that he sent his dharmaskiff flying out over the Forbidden Sea in search of the ghosts.

    Days passed, and Xu Qing¡¯s search proved fruitless. After all, the Forbidden Sea was massive. Searching for ghosts haunting the night was like fishing a needle from the sea, and was fully dependent on luck. However, Xu Qing was patient.

    During the month that passed, he got more familiar with the usage of the ck iron skewer. With Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior having transformed into a lightning spirit, the skewer was now astonishingly faster and more deadly. Now that the skewer was covered with lightning symbols, it burst with power that shocked even Xu Qing. And its speed surpassed that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator with a single life me, and approached the level of one with two mes. Although it wasn¡¯t exactly the same as two mes, whenbined with Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, it made his battle prowess reach an amazing level.

    In addition to that, Xu Qing could clearly sense the abilities of his shadow. He had the ability to control its power to devour other shadows, and had tested it on a giantfang shark. After his shadow devoured the shark¡¯s shadow, the shark viciously bit itself in half.

    It was a bizarre sight that left Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior astonished, and also musing that he was d he was a spirit automaton with no shadow. The only downside was that the devouring process was slow.

    In addition, the shadow could also produce shadow eyes, much to Xu Qing¡¯s delight. Under his control, the shadow could produce over a hundred shadow eyes, and when attached to different sea beasts, they gave Xu Qing the ability to see far and wide. For the most part, he attached shadow eyes to nocturnal sea beasts. That way, he had a better chance of finding ghosts haunting the night. Another month passed.

    On one particr night as Xu Qing was monitoring things through his shadow, his heart thumped as he focused on one shadow eye in particr.

    Through that eye, it was possible to see countless ghostly specters rising up from the water in one particr region of the sea.

    ¡°Countless ghosts haunting the night!¡±

 Chapter 174: The Moment Arrives!

    Chapter 174: The Moment Arrives!

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing put away his dharmaskiff and entered the profound radiance state. His lifemp erupted volcanically as he moved with astonishing speed in the direction of the shadow eye.

    The shadow eye was attached to a fish called a moonglow seabass. Such fishes reached a length of thirty meters and had huge heads that made up about ny percent of their body. They had tiny fins and tiny tails, and their mouths weren¡¯t capable of ever closing fully, making them look anything but intelligent. They didn¡¯t swim very fast either. Because they were attracted to light, whether sunlight or moonlight, they generally stayed on the surface of the water, despite being able to dive down to the seafloor. Normally speaking, they would just float on the surface, unmoving as if dead.

    Moonglow seabasses were definitely one of the more unusual creatures in the Forbidden Sea, as they were usually surrounded by all sorts of injured sea beasts. They weren¡¯t creatures injured by the moonglow seabass. Instead, they treated the fish like a giant rag to clean their wounds. The entry for moonglow seabasses in the Seven Blood Eyes sea annals exined that the mucus they secreted had healing properties, and because of that, they yed an important role in the bnce of nature in the Forbidden Sea.

    Xu Qing flew along at high speed, guided by his shadow. After traveling for about two hours, he saw numerous ghosts floating up into the sky in the distance.

    It was indeed an instance of countless ghosts haunting the night.

    The area in question wasrge, stretching several thousand meters from one end to the other. That was differentpared to thest time Xu Qing had encountered ghosts haunting the night. Obviously, each instance wasn¡¯t the same.

    All of a sudden, he started worrying about whether his idea was going to work or not. He had no idea if his theory had merit, but after the work he had put in so far, he wasn¡¯t going to give up now. He waved his hand, and his dharmaskiff appeared, rumbling as it sshed down into the water. As waves rolled out, his shadow retracted its shadow eye.

    Xu Qing stepped down onto the dharmaskiff, then piloted it toward the ghosts. As he looked at them, strange sounds reached his ears. It didn¡¯t sound like music at all, but rather, the piercing howls of evil ghosts, like weeping or the cry of wolves.

    Xu Qing slowed his dharmaskiff down to a halt right in the middle of all the ghosts. Then he produced the recording bottle, opened it, and sent some dharma force into it.

    Thread-like streams of light floated out of it, spreading out as the bottle¡¯s sound-capturing ability was activated.

    With that, Xu Qing looked up into the dark sky and the ghosts floating up into it. He heard their strange sounds, and thought back to the first time he had encountered this phenomenon. Taking control of his thoughts and emotions, he forced himself to calm down.

    Instead of rejecting the sounds as vicious, he epted them. He tried to sync himself with the sounds, and gradually, as he grew more and more calm, time passed. Before he realized what was happening, it was the next day.

    When the first rays of dawn spread out, and the sea breeze brushed against his face, he slowly opened his eyes. Deep therein was a profound sadness that he slowly forced into the depths of his heart.

    It was daytime. The ghost-haunting event was over.

    The night went by quickly.

    Thinking back to the previous night, he remembered how, as he slowly sank into a state of deep calm, the sounds had changed. He clearly remembered hearing a beautiful symphony.

    He had dreamed. This time, he didn¡¯t dream about Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lessons. Instead, he dreamed that he was eating snake with Sergeant Thunder in the scavenger basecamp.

    Eventually, Xu Qing looked down at the recording bottle. As he picked it up, he heard the same sounds from the night before. They were such a perfect copy that if he closed his eyes, he felt like he was once again watching countless ghosts haunt the night.

    Mixed emotions filled him as he again felt like he was dreaming. This time, the images that he saw were of himself, walking out of the scavenger basecamp with Sergeant Thunder on his back. He could even hear the old man¡¯s reminders.

    ¡°You need to keep your eye on the other scavengers.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to feed the dogs every night. You can trust them more than anyone else in the basecamp.

    ¡°Remember to eat well. And don¡¯t eat cold food. Warm it up first! You¡¯re still growing, so don¡¯t getzy about that kind of thing.

    ¡°If you do, you¡¯ll regret it when you get older. Oh, right. Remember to sleep in bed. And use the bedding! Don¡¯t be afraid of getting it dirty. Just wash it if you need to, and hang it in the sun to dry.¡±

    Xu Qing shivered. The sea breeze blew, stirring his robe and hair, but it couldn¡¯t dispel the sadness he felt from those memories.

    Time passed, and eventually he sighed, looked down at the bottle, and whispered, ¡°I still haven¡¯t found a lifespan flower.¡±

    It took a while for him to get his emotions under control. When he finally did, his eyes glittered sharply with determination.

    I¡¯m too weak. I need to get stronger!

    Looking around, he realized he was in a very remote location. Flying up into the air, he checked the area to make sure he was alone. Then he dropped back down to his dharmaskiff and looked out at the sea.

    ¡°Shadow, call the giant and the dragon chariot.¡±

    The early morning sun was soft on the surface of the sea. The dark water looked like a huge b of mysterious ck jade. As the sun touched it, it seemed partly rotten or decayed. Perhaps in the past, the sea had seemed profound because of its boundless majesty. But now it seemed putrid, thanks to the aura exuded by the terrifying entities that slept on the seafloor. Such as the giant pulling the dragon chariot.

    The shadow didn¡¯t hesitate for the slightest moment. It didn¡¯t understand what exactly Xu Qing was doing, and wanted to transform into the shape of a question mark. But instead, it acted docile and obedient, like any other living being that was terrified of dying

    As soon as Xu Qing issued his order, the shadow immediately opened its mouth and emitted a loud sound.

    ¡°C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch.¡±

    A sound like the grinding of teeth echoed out over the water. It wasn¡¯t extremely loud, but there was something unique about it, as if it was a signal meant to attract the attention of specific entities.

    As Xu Qing waited, maintaining full vignce, the wind started to blow. Ripples spread out over the calm surface of the water, gradually growingrger andrger until they were waves. ck spray from the waves drifted along with the wind.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s attention was focused on his snakeneck dragon, as he looked through its eyes to what was happening beneath the surface.

    It took time. Perhaps it was because Xu Qing had traveled so far away from thest spot where he saw the giant and the dragon chariot. Or perhaps it was because the giant had moved to a distant location. Either way, it took an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. The waves grew higher. Then, through the snakeneck dragon, Xu Qing saw something massive moving through the water in the distance.

    ¡°It¡¯s here.¡±

    He felt nervous, but was filled with determination. Lighting his life me, which caused his lifemp to shine brightly, he entered the profound radiance state.

    As soon as he did, the murky darkness of the sea changed. He could see more clearly, and thus was able to easily spot the massive giant covered with countless tentacles.

    Everything around Xu Qing moved in slow motion, with the exception of the giant. It was almost as if his profound radiance state was useless in the presence of the giant. It strode toward him, bing clearer and clearer, the nking sound of the chain echoing through the water. Behind the giant was the dpidated bronze dragon chariot. Rust covered it, but it was still immenselyrge and ghastly in appearance. They were already as close as about 3,000 meters. The surrounding water didn¡¯t seem to provide any resistance at all to the giant¡¯s movement. And it emanated a profound and terrifying aura.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t gotten this close before!

    The first time, he had been about 30,000 meters away, and had barely been able to make out the engravings on the chariot. Thest time, he was a few thousand meters away, and had a much higher cultivation base, so he had seen the images even more clearly.

    Now, as the giant reached the 3,000-meter mark and got even closer, those engraved images became even clearer. At the same time, Xu Qing sensed a mountain-toppling, sea-draining pressure weighing down on his soul.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered and flew into the depths of the iron skewer to fight back against the pressure.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing, his mind reeling, felt blood oozing out of his nose and eyes.

    Only the shadow didn¡¯t seem affected at all. Apparently, the shadow had been truly cowed by Xu Qing¡¯s torment. Despite seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a very good state, the shadow didn¡¯t dare risk doing anything against him.

    Wiping the blood off his face, Xu Qing looked coldly at the shadow, but didn¡¯t say anything. Then he looked back out at the sea. After a moment of analyzing the situation, his eyes shone with determination.

    ¡°It¡¯s still a short distance away. There¡¯s no time to lose!¡±

 Chapter 175: Where the Sun Reclined

    Chapter 175: Where the Sun Reclined

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth. Now wasn¡¯t the time to sit around hesitating. The question was whether or not the music from the countless ghosts haunting the night would work on the giant. If it didn¡¯t, then Xu Qing would have to think of a way to make his escape. Even if it was effective, he had no idea how long it would take to work.

    Therefore, he waved his hand, causing the recording bottle to shine with glittering light. The same sound from before echoed out.

    Xu Qing held his breath and looked at the giant and the dragon chariot.

    The giant didn¡¯t seem affected by the sound at all, and continued to stride closer and closer to Xu Qing.

    2,700 meters. 2,400 meters. 2,100 meters.

    Xu Qing reeled as the pressure grew greater, weighing down on him, pushing down onto his lungs so hard he struggled to breathe.

    Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s not going to work.

    Xu Qing looked at the dragon chariot and was now able to see the engravings even more clearly, including some written text. The text was hard to make out, but from what Xu Qing could tell, it contained holy content written by a king or emperor.

    I can¡¯t give up now!

    But then he coughed up a mouthful of blood and, looking regretful, sighed and prepared to leave. If the recording bottle wasn¡¯t going to work, there was no point in staying around. If the giant got any closer, then it would be difficult to get away safely.

    However, just as Xu Qing was about to start moving backward, his pupils constricted.

    The giant, which was only about 1,800 meters away, suddenly stopped moving. Then it tilted its chin up, revealing the ck holes that were its eye sockets. It seemed like it was listening to something.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide, and his heart started pounding.

    Then the giant subconsciously took a half-step forward, bringing it within 1,500 meters.

    At that point, the pressure had reached a terrifying level. Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun and blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was moaning from the pressure, and the entire dharmaskiff was creaking as though it might not hold out.

    Thankfully, after the giant took that final half-step, it didn¡¯t move at all. It just stood there like a marite with its strings cut. Then, the ck holes that were the giant¡¯s eyes seemed to quiver, as if emotions did exist on its previously expressionless face.

    As for Xu Qing, a crazy look appeared in his eyes as, without the slightest hesitation, he shot up into the air, putting away his dharmaskiff, but keeping the recording bottle out. Then he dove into the water and started moving toward the giant and the dragon chariot 1,500 meters away.

    As he got closer, cracks spread out across his skin, wounds that immediately oozed blood. His soul trembled as though it might copse, and his life me whipped about as if it were being battered by a fierce wind. In fact, an ordinary life me would have been extinguished. But Xu Qing had a lifemp, and because of that foundation, the me couldn¡¯t easily be put out. In that critical moment, Xu Qing waved his hand, and a huge ck umbre appeared over his head. As soon as the umbre appeared, ck fire flowed out to surround him. As that protection surrounded him on the outside, the violet crystal regenerated him from the inside. But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to such things.

    elerating, he sped past the 1,500-meter-mark as he headed closer to the listening giant. Xu Qing was roughly at the level of the giant¡¯s waist. Compared to the giant in size, he was like a fly that could be killed with a single swat of the hand. An extremely disturbing sensation filled him.

    The closer he got, the more clearly he could see the rotting flesh of the giant. And he could smell its stench. Furthermore, it was now possible to see the shocking wounds that covered it. From the nature of the wounds, it seemed they were made when the giant was trying to protect someone important. Seeing all this, Xu Qing was deeply moved.

    His n was working!

    However, despite the external protections, and the violet crystal restoring him from the inside, his body was still teetering on the verge of copse. And all of it was simply because of the aura exuded naturally by the giant. The two of them were poles apart.

    Xu Qing moved in a blur toward the giant, and more specifically, the bronze dragon chariot. Closer and closer he got, until he was right in front of the imperial carriage. Though it was covered in rust, it still exuded the sensation of a monarch. Though it was dpidated, its carvings were iparably extravagant. Though it was a remnant of the ancient past, it still felt like something imperial.

    Now, Xu Qing could clearly see the engravings, and they were instantly branded into the depths of his soul!

    At the same time, he was filled with the urge to offer obeisance. That said, the sensation of dangering from the giant prompted Xu Qing to ignore that urge. With that, he stepped forward onto the bronze dragon chariot.

    This was where the sun reclined!

    This was where an emperor sat!

    This was a ce ordinary individuals would never get close to in an entire lifetime.

    The dragon chariot was so enormous that, as Xu Qing stepped onto it, he felt like he was entering a pce. In fact, opposite of him, there was an enormous imperial throne. Everything around him was decorated with auspicious designs. He saw brokenmpstands. And even more shocking was that, on the walls were scribbled rows of text. They seemed to have been written in a hurry, perhaps by someone about to die, but not willing to let their legacy disappear.

    As Xu Qing looked at the text, his mind felt like it was being struck by a hundred thousand lightning bolts which then coursed out with destructive power into every corner of his body. He shook violently as his eyes filled with blinding, golden light that gradually took the shape of a golden crow, its wings held tightly to its sides as it shot up to the highest heavens. The golden crow was sorge that, even though its wings weren¡¯t spread, it filled half the sky, and its golden light made it seem like a god. Its aura surpassed anything Xu Qing had ever encountered. Both Joine and me Phoenix would seem like peasants inparison. This was the imposing grandeur of an emperor or sovereign!

    Whether it was the Seven Blood Eyes sea annals, or what Third Elder had told him, or what Xu Qing himself was able to see by looking at the images, they all indicated the same thing.

    The sun of this world was an entity like an Ancient Emperor. The sun was not human, but rather, a divine bird. A golden crow! H¨¥ would leave with the sunrise and return after the sunset. The sun¡¯s light warmed thends before, and though it might not epass all of Revered Ancient, at the very least, h¨¥ was a god to all living beings.

    Xu Qing was shaken to the core, waves of shock battering him, his soul trembling, and his fleshly body quivering. It was a sensation difficult to put into words. He felt almost like he was inside of something not really true, like a myth. Like he had entered a world of the ancient past, before the broken face of the god arrived. And he was standing high above as all living beings offered worship to the sun¡¯s imperial carriage.

    A whole series of feelings struck Xu Qing to the core. And the image he was seeing, of the golden crow flying to the highest heavens like an emperor and like a sovereign, was so clear he was able to see the feathers of its wings, which were still held tightly to its sides. All of the feathers rippled, thrumming with something like a dao resonance.

    It was the same type of feeling he got back in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp, when he entered that temple and saw the golden statue wielding a saber. That saber strike had left him shaken, and had served him as a trump card ever since. However, his level had been too low at the time, and thus, he didn¡¯t have a full understanding of the move. In turn, that meant he couldn¡¯t unleash itsplete potential.

    And yet, that also went to show that Xu Qing¡¯s ability to obtain enlightenment surpassed that of ordinary individuals. In terms of aptitude, he was outstanding in Seven Blood Eyes. That said, if you included all of the countless species and sects in the Revered Ancient maind, there were plenty of people who surpassed him. But for him to have acquired a saber move with dao resonance while in the Qi Condensation level proved that he had unusual powers of understanding.

    Those powers of understanding were on full disy again, as he immersed himself in the sight of the holy golden crow. He watched h¨©m fly to the highest heights. He watched h¨©m pierce the sky. He watched h¨©m rebuke the heavens.

    Outside of Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp, an illusory figure appeared. As it became more and more clear, it came to resemble a golden crow. The image became rapidly clearer. In Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he was watching the divine bird, the golden crow, emanating golden light that shone onto all heaven and earth. Then it spread its wings wide and pped them.

    Heaven and earth seemed like they might copse, as intense rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere. It was like countless lightning bolts crashing at the same time, and it filled Xu Qing with profound astonishment. Though he felt like his mind was about to copse, the golden crow outside of his lifemp coalesced even faster. At the same time, immense amounts of information flew from the golden crow he was seeing and into his mind.

    That information was like a tempest, raging so wildly that Xu Qing had no time to ponder it. He was shaking, veins bulging out on his forehead, his eyes bloodshot as he epted a new legacy.

 Chapter 176: Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits

    Chapter 176: Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits

    The spreading of wings was the imparting of a legacy. And then, shortly thereafter as Xu Qing was still reeling, the golden crow¡¯s wings pped again. This time, it released a terrifying shockwave that caused all light to dim, and sent wild winds screaming everywhere.

    Though Xu Qing didn¡¯t notice, blood was flowing out of his nose, and the recording bottle was weakening. At the same time, the giant stirred, as though slowly leaving its state of absent-mindedness.

    Next, Xu Qing watched as the golden crow climbed higher. Then, the crow¡¯s wings spread again. This was the third time! This time, every feather radiated dazzling golden light. Along with the spreading of the wings, the sky seemed about to split open, and terrifying ripples spread out in all directions.

    Then the sky did split open as a huge crevice opened up above, revealing another world. Xu Qing saw countless species of living beings, all of them strange-looking, and all of them howling. As they howled, the golden crow¡¯s mouth opened, and an echoing sound erupted into that world.

    To Xu Qing¡¯s shock, ck mes enveloped that world, assimting everything in an instant. Countless drops of blood rose up into the air, converging into a golden liquid that shot into the golden crow¡¯s mouth. From a distance, it almost looked like the crow was drinking water.

    Next, Xu Qing was shaken to the core as the golden crow suddenly looked around. Those bright, glittering eyes seemed capable of piercing through the River of Time. And they surpassed even the great dao of space.

    From the most ancient time, and from the most boundless space, that gaze came to rest on Xu Qing. His mind vibrated as a gentle voice spoke to him.

    ¡°This is the life essence technique of an emperor. Of me. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.¡±

    Terrifying levels of information poured into Xu Qing, making him feel like he was a little rowboat floating on the sea during a violent storm. Blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth, out of his eyes, out of his nose, and out of his ears. As that happened, Xu Qing¡¯s vision slowly copsed, and he reverted to his normal state.

    At the same time, he heard Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior wailing.

    ¡°Wake up, milord! The giant¡¯s rousing! We¡¯re finished! Oh, milord. Hurry and wake up!¡±

    The recording bottle had ceased emitting any sound, and as the giant looked at it, it started to copse. Emotions seemed to be stirring in the giant. Its chest heaved as though it wanted to breathe, and then the tentacles covering it started to sway. Its breathing contained unspeakable power that shoved the water away from it. And the astonishing tentacles were writhing.

    It seemed that the sounds from the recording bottle had stirred the giant¡¯s memories, causing it to weep. And then it threw its hands wide, resulting in a tsunami on the surface of the sea. Waves surged out in all directions, some hundreds of meters tall, some thousands. From a distance, it looked like ripples spreading out on a pond, except vastly more terrifying. Then the giant started to turn around to look at the dragon chariot.

    As it turned, breathing, the water around it boiled and evaporated, leaving the surrounding area empty. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and he heard the wailing of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Then he saw the ck, empty eye sockets of the massive giant. As the giant¡¯s face turned directly toward him, its breath swept over him.

    The dragon chariot was made from special materials that wouldn¡¯t be affected by the giant¡¯s mere breathing. But Xu Qing was not. His flesh and blood immediately exploded with intense pain. His face, chest, and abdomen were ripped into bloody shreds. The front of his arms and legs suffered simrly. The mere breathing of the giant was ripping him apart.

    During that moment of crisis, a ck umbre appeared in front of him, blocking the giant¡¯s breath. As the umbre trembled, Xu Qing reached up with a hand that was mostly bloody flesh and bone. Producing an entropic teleportation talisman, he crushed it!

    Instantly, the glittering light of the teleportation talisman surrounded him and the umbre. Then, rumbling sounds could be heard as he vanished.

    ***

    After Xu Qing and the umbre were gone, there was nothing to block the giant¡¯s breath, and it swept over the dragon chariot. When it passed, the giant looked mutely at the empty dragon chariot, then once again began to weep in grief. It didn¡¯t care whether or not Xu Qing escaped. It looked at the chariot, its emotions clearly having been provoked by the recording bottle, causing it to think of its master from the past. Weeping echoed out into heaven and earth.

    Eventually, the giant squatted down in front of the dragon chariot. The weeping grew louder, as though the giant were defiantly trying to summon something. But in the end, there was no response. Its emotions began to die down, and it again returned to its previous state of nkness. Acting on instinct alone, it started slowly dragging the dragon chariot across the seafloor. The legacy had been passed on, and the giant would now go into a deep sleep from which it couldn¡¯t be awakened. A hundred yearster, it would return.

    However, the sea did not calm down. The tsunami that had been kicked up, as well as the winds, continued to sweep out.

    ***

    At a location a few thousand kilometers away that was still not affected by the storm, Xu Qing appeared in a glow of teleportation light. After materializing, he fell down onto the water. As soon as the mutagen-filled seawater touched his wounds, more pain pierced into him. He could hardly see, but he waved his hand to summon his dharmaskiff, climbed on board, and then activated the defenses.

    There hey on the deck, trembling from head to toe, bleeding profusely.

    The flesh had been shredded off of most of the front half of his body, leaving behind little but shattered bone. He looked extremely ghastly. In fact, if there were someone present to look at him, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to recognize who he was.

    Vision swimming, he shakily produced massive amounts of medicinal pills that he began to consume. He also pushed the violet crystal to heal him. As the violet light spread out, he endured the pain. At the same time, his eyes shone with cold light as he looked at his shadow.

    As the sunlight shone down, the shadow shivered obsequiously. It was very afraid. It had been there when Xu Qing got the lifemp, and had seen him injured. But that was nothing like this. So, not only was it afraid because of how Xu Qing had suppressed it in the past, but now it could see what indescribably crazy things Xu Qing was capable of doing. If he could treat himself this viciously, then it was only possible to imagine how viciously he could treat others.

    Therefore, the shadow didn¡¯t dare to even think about trying to cause problems. It tried to send out fawning emotions, and even attempted to stretch out in a way that would block the sun from hitting Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior couldn¡¯t stop himself from shaking. Face pale and eyes wide with terror, he thought, Never in all my freaking years have I seen someone act so suicidal. Back in that unfathomable world we entered in the Merfolk Isles, I felt terror. But this was even worse than that!

    The Fiendish Xu really is crazy. In fact, if he keeps this up, the day is going toe when he ends up killing himself. If he dies, then I¡¯m going to die.... But if he keeps doing this and surviving, he¡¯s going to get more and more precious treasures. And if that happens, then it¡¯s entirely possible he might think I¡¯m not useful anymore, and kill me.

    What am I supposed to do?

    The more the patriarch thought about it, the more scared he got. In fact, he was so scared that he uncharacteristically wasn¡¯t even paying attention to how the shadow was ingratiating itself to Xu Qing. The only solution he could think of was to work even harder to make sure the Fiendish Xu did well.

    That caused the patriarch¡¯s eyes to turn bloodshot. He wasn¡¯t the type of person who liked taking risks. But as he thought about it, he realized that if he didn¡¯t put his life on the line, then his poor little life would end up lost.

    However, there was something else that made him feel like he was in more danger than ever. Based on the ancient records and stories he had read, if someone learned too many secrets about another person, they almost always ended up dying horrible deaths.

    That thought caused him to shiver even more. It was around then that he noticed the fawning shadow, so he quickly sent the iron skewer swirling around Xu Qing. Trying to look so protective that he would risk his life to keep his lord and master safe, he said, ¡°Milord, I¡¯ll keep you safe while you recover. Leave everything to me!¡±

    With that, he red at the shadow. After all, he knew that the shadow was probably the biggest danger right now. Xu Qing took note of the shadow¡¯s fawning behavior, and the patriarch¡¯s efforts to watch over him. After casting a cid nce at the shadow, he looked at the patriarch.

    The patriarch saw the expression of approval and very nearly started weeping out of excitement. In fact, all of his fears about death vanished, and he felt profoundly moved.

    Trembling, he did something he rarely did and started talking without nning out his words first. ¡°Milord!! Going forward, as long as I don¡¯t get killed, I¡¯ll always keep you safe. Your humble servant is even ready to self-detonate if necessary!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then focused on his injuries. The truth was that he was actually trying to distract the patriarch and the shadow, just in case they were thinking of attacking him in his moment of weakness. He was ready to suppress the shadow or crush the patriarch¡¯s life essence spirit at a moment¡¯s notice.

    He had been injured so badly that he had basically lost half a life. However, that also meant he still had half a life left. After his experience with the lifemp, and having witnessed the Captain¡¯s craziness, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t too worried about his current state. Although he hurt from head to toe, and his aura was weak, his eyes still glittered with craziness and excitement.

    It was worth it!

    Struggling to the side where he could lean against the rail of the dharmaskiff, he ignored his injuries and started thinking about what he had risked his life to acquire. He knew that he had only been inside the dragon chariot for a few breaths of time. But he also knew that his lifemp now had the image of a golden crow attached to it. It wasn¡¯t just a mere outline. It waspletely lifelike. Even on the Revered Ancient maind, this was something precious.

    An imperial-ss legacy technique. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits!

 Chapter 177: Like a Devil or a Demon

    Chapter 177: Like a Devil or a Demon

    So-called imperial-ss techniques were secret magics created by Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns from the Revered Ancient of epochs past. Some were entire collections of techniques. Others were individual secret techniques.

    Regardless, they were all astonishingly mighty.

    And they were so mysterious and powerful that most people found them unimaginable, and of course, iparably valuable. The fact that imperial-ss techniques were extremely rare ensured that they were often kept as reserve powers for huge organizations. That said, the majority actually couldn¡¯t be cultivated, as they had very strict requirements. For example, they might need to be coupled with a bloodline power that was itself exceedingly rare.

    In a simr vein, it was generally difficult for one species to cultivate and control a technique designed for another species. There were only a few that didn¡¯t have a bloodline requirement, and those were the most valuable. If a technique like that appeared in the world, people would either go crazy or turn despondent. They would go crazy out of envy, or be despondent because they couldn¡¯t get it.

    Once an imperial-ss technique formed a seed in someone, others couldn¡¯t get it, not even by killing that person.

    If that person exined the technique, the other person wouldn¡¯t be able to remember it. And even if someone had a special way to preserve the memory of the technique, without the legacy seed in them, they wouldn¡¯t be able to cultivate it. The legacy seed was proof that the person who had it qualified to cultivate the technique.

    Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits was like that.

    Put precisely, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits wasn¡¯t a martial technique, but rather, a secret magic!

    Based on the description from the information Xu Qing had acquired, after cultivating the magic to the highest level, the cultivator could form the Golden Crow Emperor Body.

    With the Golden Crow Emperor Body, the cultivator¡¯s fleshly body battle prowess would be at the level of an emperor, and they could transform into a golden crow and rebuke the highest heavens.

    From the descriptions, and based on what Xu Qing knew about cultivation, he came to realize that Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits was a body cultivation secret magic.

    The cultivation method revolved around studying the process of natural selection. By assimting the essence blood of myriads of spirits, and absorbing them into one¡¯s body, it was possible to reshape the fleshly body, making it like a magical treasure. And the ultimate goal was to form the Golden Crow Emperor Body.

    Because the magic had been created by the golden crow, it was not intended to be either good or evil. After all, to h¨©m, the world was a ce where the weak were the prey of the strong, and one had to continuously evolve into being a stronger entity. By constantly absorbing the essence blood of myriads of living things, one could not only strengthen oneself, but also could absorb the innate abilities of other species! That aspect was extremely domineering.

    Of course, there were limitations. In order to acquire the innate abilities of a species, one couldn¡¯t absorb simply a single individual. It required absorbing many, and preferably, individuals with high cultivation bases.

    Xu Qing leaned against the side of the dharmaskiff, his eyes closed as he went through all of the information. As he did, his heart pounded. Sometimeter, he opened his eyes, and they shone with astonishment.

    An imperial-ss body cultivation secret magic!

    He was not unfamiliar with body cultivation.

    The very first technique he had encountered on his path of cultivation was the Sea and Mountain Incantation, which was also a body cultivation magic. He had killed many enemies with it in the scavenger basecamp, and even after arriving at Seven Blood Eyes and getting other techniques, he still didn¡¯t give up on it.

    Eventually, he had pushed the Sea and Mountain Incantation as far as it could go, which was the ninth level, which was its limit. The spectral drought demon that appeared behind him at that time had two fleshy lumps on its back that seemed like they would grow into wings eventually. However, it had never transformed after that, and it didn¡¯t seem like it would be easy to push it to a theoretical tenth level.

    It had nothing to do with Xu Qing. He had no mutagen in him, and coupled with the violet crystal, he had cultivated the Sea and Mountain Incantation to an unheard-of level. His inability to achieve a breakthrough with it was a limitation of the technique itself. After all, it was nothing more than amon low-level technique. Because of that, Xu Qing had been forced to use the Seaforming Scripture to reach Foundation Establishment.

    That said, he hadn¡¯t given up on his pursuit of body cultivation. After reaching Foundation Establishment, he had acquired some other body cultivation techniques, but none of them had worked out, and none seemed to correspond well to the Sea and Mountain Incantation.

    Now, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were shining brightly. As he reviewed the information from Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and sensed the legacy seed of the golden crow attached to his lifemp, he felt incredible anticipation.

    I wonder if my Sea and Mountain Incantation will improve now that I have Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    They were both body cultivation techniques, and thus it made sense to him that the blessings of the Sea and Mountain Incantation would bolster Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    Unfortunately, he was too seriously injured right now. It wasn¡¯t a good time for cultivation. Taking a deep breath, he ignored the pain and steadied his breathing, then poured dharma force into the violet crystal to focus on recovery.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely. Ten days went by.

    Day and night, the shadow sent out emotions of loyalty. During the day, it would try to block the sun, and during the night it would stand guard under the water.

    Seeing that, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior chuckled coldly in his heart. The more you do that, the more the Fiendish Xu will want to suppress you. After all, you¡¯re giving the impression that you won¡¯t behave unless you¡¯ve been beaten down. The best thing would be to not be so obvious. Show your loyalty in more subtle ways.

    With such thoughts on his mind, the patriarch sent the iron skewer flying up into the sky, where he circled around slowly, keeping an eye on the entire area around Xu Qing. On a few asions during those ten days, Xu Qing encountered dangerous sea beasts. However, both the shadow and the patriarch used a variety of methods to ensure that Xu Qing was always safe the entire time.

    As for the sea beasts, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want them killed. He had the shadow bind them and keep them underwater, almost like sheep in a pen.

    As the violet crystal worked to heal him, he eventually reached a point of seeming rtively normal, other than still being quite pale. At that point, he decided the time hade to start cultivating Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    Sitting down cross-legged beneath the morning sun, he reviewed the information that he had been studying for the past ten days.

    ¡°Nine firmaments forge the emperor¡¯s body; the golden crow assimtes myriad spirits; innate abilities are recovered from myriad species; mine own life glorifies the vault of heaven!!¡±

    He performed an incantation gesture, then put his thumbs together in front of his dantian region, spreading his other fingers out like wings. Looking up at the sun, he took a deep breath. Instantly, the spot he was looking at seemed to grow blurry, and an intense heat appeared there that only he could see. Streaming down from the sun, it entered his body.

    The golden crow attached to his lifemp opened its eyes and spread its wings. Lifting its head it opened its mouth and consumed the warmth from the sun. As that warmth flowed inside, its eyes opened further, but not all the way. Only a crack, within which glowed brilliant light. This was the first step in cultivating Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. It was activating the legacy seed of the golden crow.

    And the method to awaken it was to bring in some of the sun¡¯s aura, then nourish it with blood.

    Next, the golden crow shivered and became like a ck hole, while Xu Qing started withering. He shook, his energy and blood trembling as wisps of it entered the golden crow. In the blink of an eye, he looked like a desated corpse. His arms became limp, his face sank in, and he shrank so much that his clothes seemed empty.

    However, his expression was not one of panic. Given all the research he had done into Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits over the past ten days, he knew exactly what was happening. As he remained calm, the golden crow within him absorbed his energy and blood.

    Though he became so withered it looked terrifying, the golden crow eventually reached a critical point and struggled to open its eyes.

    The legacy seeds of imperial-ss techniques didn¡¯t just immediately activate. The cultivators needed to take the initiative to activate them. And that was because legacy seeds took a lot of power. Normally speaking, people wouldn¡¯t attempt it alone. Usually they would have the help of a powerful organization, who would spare no cost to help them.

    For example, the requirements of energy and blood for Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits were so incredible that ordinary cultivators wouldn¡¯t be able to meet them. And if they failed in their attempt, they would be in danger of being killed.

    But because Xu Qing was already at a shocking level of body refinement, and had powerful energy and blood, he was able tost much longer than any ordinary person. Even still, he was reaching the point where he felt like he might not be able to continue. He saw how withered his body was, to the point where he looked like a corpse. However, his eyes glittered as he activated the Sea and Mountain Incantation, causing the spectral drought demon to appear behind him. It roared to heaven, the cracks that covered it flowing with moltenva. It emanated a shocking aura, and a powerful aura of energy and blood.

    Then, a tremor passed through it as streams of energy and blood erupted out of the drought demon and pierced into Xu Qing, heading right to the golden crow.

    The golden crow shivered. As it absorbed more and more, its eyes opened further. The drought demon began to wither, and after about ten breaths of time, it copsed, turning into a haze of energy and blood that shot into Xu Qing to the golden crow.

    The golden crow shook as it tried harder to open its eyes. However, it seemed that the energy and blood Xu Qing was capable of providing wasn¡¯t sufficient. It just wasn¡¯t enough to fully open the golden crow¡¯s eyes.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing extended his right hand and put it onto the deck. Instantly, a gravitational force popped into being, causing Joine¡¯s flesh to emerge from the middle of the dharmaskiff. When that flesh flew over to him, it emanated a terrifying power of energy and blood that filled Xu Qing.

    After the golden crow consumed it, the crow¡¯s eyes opened all the way, and it let loose a piercing cry filled with a dao resonance that shook everything.

    Waves spread out from the dharmaskiff, creating something like a small-scale tsunami.

    From the sky, the sea surrounding Xu Qing looked very strange. The waves were making a very specific image. It was the image of a huge eye. The golden crow¡¯s eye! And Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff was the pupil of that eye.

    As he sat on the deck, he looked like a corpse, but his eyes shone like the stars, and his hair drifted in the wind. All in all... He looked like a devil or a demon!

 Chapter 178: Sweeping the Sea, Sealing a Dragon!

    Chapter 178: Sweeping the Sea, Sealing a Dragon!

    Rumbling sounds rolled out over the sea. As the waves crashed, Xu Qing sat on his dharmaskiff trembling from head to toe, his breathing in ragged pants, and the coldness in his eyes transforming into madness. The reason was... he was hungry! More hungry than he had ever been before. One reason for that hunger was that his withered fleshly body needed to be replenished in order to return to normal. The violet crystal couldn¡¯t help out at all in that regard. It could speed up recovery from injuries, but it couldn¡¯t create energy, blood, and nutrients out of nothing.

    The other reason for that hunger was right behind Xu Qing. There was nothing in the air behind him. But both Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow were both very nervous, as they knew that right behind Xu Qing lurked something extremely vicious and dangerous.

    Xu Qing also knew that there was something behind him.

    Put precisely, the patriarch and the shadow were both tense with fear because, beneath Xu Qing¡¯s clothing, right on his back, was a magical totem tattoo.

    The moment the eyes of the golden crow opened, an image appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s back that looked exactly like it in every aspect. And it pulsed with a hair-raising aura.

    This was the second phase of activating the legacy seed!

    During the ten days in which Xu Qing studied the legacy information about Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, he came to find that activating the legacy seed involved two phases. The first phase was stimting the seed, causing a totem tattoo to appear on one¡¯s body.

    The second phase was making that tattoo visible as a projection of energy and blood. Once that was done, the legacy seed was considered fully activated. The second phase needed massive amounts of energy and blood, and also resulted in extreme hunger!

    As Xu Qing panted for breath, he turned his bloodshot eyes to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    The patriarch shivered. The look in Xu Qing¡¯s eye made it seem like he was getting ready to devour someone. The patriarch immediately revealed a projection of himself, making sure to keep himself mostly transparent to reinforce the fact that he had no energy or blood.

    Xu Qing looked away from him to the shadow.

    The shadow also trembled.

    ¡°Bring them up here,¡± Xu Qing said, his voice faint and raspy. The shadow didn¡¯t hesitate for a second. It slid down into the water, and a momentter, dragged up a huge armored mackerel.

    As Xu Qing eyed the fish, the tattoo on his back shimmered as though it wished to manifest itself, but couldn¡¯t. What did happen was that a host of illusory golden feathers shimmered into being behind him, making two wings. As they swayed, they created a gravitational force that locked onto the armored mackerel.

    Instantly, the 300-meter-long fish trembled as all of its energy and blood were sucked out of it. They converged into a 30-meter sphere of rippling blood that copsed in on itself until it created a tiny point of golden liquid. The golden wings swayed as it absorbed it.

    At the same time, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing ck balefire to sweep over the armored mackerel and extract its soul.

    The shadow couldn¡¯t restrain itself, and greedily devoured the mutagen and spirit power that remained behind. Then the shadow dragged up a second sea beast. Then a third. A fourth....

    During the previous ten days of study, Xu Qing had intentionally kept a group of twenty-three sea beasts confined in the water beneath his dharmaskiff, that way, once his tattoo manifested the golden wings, he would be able to have instant ess to nourishment. As the wings absorbed the energy and blood, they became more and more corporeal. At the same time, Xu Qing replenished himself, and became less and less withered. He was starting to recover.

    Now he could clearly sense that his fleshly body power had progressed past its previous point of stagnation. He was stronger and faster. He also had a new level of perception. That perception was apparently a resonance with magical techniques, allowing him to tap into some of the abilities he knew without using incantation gestures.

    Unfortunately, after performing some tests, he wasn¡¯t able to use it properly.

    I wonder if this is one of those innate species abilities mentioned in the Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits description. And I haven¡¯t assimted enough living beings to use it.

    Right now, his hunger was only partially abated. After some thought, he stood, put away his dharmaskiff, and dove directly into the water.

    Once under the surface, rumbling sounds surged out as he entered the profound radiance state. The tattoo on his back radiated an awe-inspiring aura that made the pressure he exuded even more powerful. Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior crackled with electricity, and the lightning symbols on the iron skewer glittered. The shadow spread out in all directions as well, resembling a ghastly tree, its over one hundred eyes open and looking in all directions.

    Xu Qing¡¯s overall battle prowess vastly surpassed what he was capable of before. Though the Forbidden Sea was still a ce where caution was needed, he was strong enough to be virtually all-powerful in most situations.

    Rumbling swept through the sea as Xu Qing vanished into the distance and began ughtering every sea beast he encountered.

    He needed many more sea beasts, and a lot more blood, to sate his hunger andplete the second phase of the legacy seed activation.

    Half a month passed.

    ***

    In a remote part of the Forbidden Sea, seawater exploded as a 500-meter long bluegreen dragon jumped up into the air. It had a terrifying aura and appearance; even when its mouth was closed, its razor-sharp teeth were still inly visible. These dragons were simply a nightmare for most trading ships and cultivators who traveled the Forbidden Sea. [1]

    The Seven Blood Eyes sea annals went into a lot of detail about bluegreen dragons. They were apex predators in the Forbidden Sea and were known for being vicious and terrifying. What was more, their mutated cultivation base gave them shocking battle prowess.

    This particr bluegreen dragon was an extraordinary specimen. As it leaped into the air, it was possible to see two balls of red fire burning within it. That indicated that this bluegreen dragon had reached the level of two life mes. As the sea exploded around well over a thousand meters in each direction, its normally cold and indifferent eyes actually brimmed with fear. And looking closely, it was possible to see a totem mark on its abdomen.

    That mark looked exactly like a tree, with over a hundred blinking eyes on it. They almost looked like mouths as they devoured the bluegreen dragon¡¯s shadow.

    Then, a host of lightning bolts shot up from the water, within the middle of which was a ck iron skewer. It moved with astonishing speed as it stabbed directly into the bluegreen dragon. A boom rang out as the spot where the dragon had been stabbed exploded. The intense pain caused the dragon to attempt to open its mouth and howl in pain.

    However, it couldn¡¯t open its mouth!

    Instead of a howl, it could issue little more than a muffled grunt. And that was because a young man stood in its mouth. He wore a violet daoist robe as he stood between two of the dragon¡¯s teeth, his hair dripping wet.

    As the bluegreen dragon thrashed, his hair whipped about, spraying water like ck ink. Water flowed down his face, enting his delicate features and fair skin. He was so handsome as to be beautiful, with eyebrows like willow leaves, a body like a jade tree, and long ck hair that was both wildly unkempt and stunningly breathtaking. His eyes contained something fiendish. And that fiendishness wasn¡¯t just visible on his stunning face. Instead, his entire person exuded it.

    At the moment, he had one hand on the bluegreen dragon¡¯s upper teeth, while his feet were nted like nails into its lower teeth. Using his power alone, he was preventing the dragon from opening its mouth!

    This young man was none other than Xu Qing. For half a month he had been hunting and killing sea beasts. The totem tattoo on his back was very close to beingplete, having absorbed quite a bit of energy and blood.

    Thanks to the nourishment, Xu Qing had recovered. He was now vastly stronger and faster than before, to the point that he was able to contend with a bluegreen dragon using fleshly body power alone.

    As his cold eyes flickered, ck balefire erupted out to cover the bluegreen dragon that he had been chasing for half a day. At the same time, countless golden feathers materialized behind him, rippling as they sent out a gravitational force to absorb the dragon. The bluegreen dragon thrashed as it sshed back down into the water. However, that was when a snakeneck dragon appeared, mming into the bluegreen dragon and stopping it from sinking down.

    Although the snakeneck dragon copsed, it created enough of a dy that the balefire covered the entire bluegreen dragon. Also, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits was fully unleashed.

    A howl barely managed to escape through the bluegreen dragon¡¯s teeth as countless amounts of energy and blood were sucked out of it and absorbed into the wings.

    Its soul then appeared within Xu Qing, serving as kindling as he opened his 47th and 48th dharma apertures!

    His dharma force surged, and nourishment from Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits swept through him. Cracking sounds filled his body, causing him to be even more good-looking, and at the same time, boosting his fleshly body power!

    I only need a few more sea beasts to finish the second phase of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. At that point, the totem tattoo will fully manifest, and this imperial-ss technique of mine will be mine permanently.

    Xu Qing then sped off into the distance, leaving behind the desated corpse of the bluegreen dragon to sink to the bottom of the sea. As the shadow raced to follow him, it sent out emotions of frustration.

    It felt that it had been too slow in consuming the dragon¡¯s shadow. The dragon had been killed before the shadow even finished. Unexpectedly the shadow was sending these emotions to the patriarch, who didn¡¯t take the opportunity to try to mess with the shadow. Instead, he was looking at Xu Qing, his long hair and violet robe rippling. The patriarch¡¯s mind was spinning.

    He had witnessed Xu Qing unleash ughter. He had witnessed Xu Qing go crazy. He had witnessed Xu Qing cause members of the opposite sex to swoon. And he had witnessed Xu Qing getting stronger and stronger the entire time. All of it caused a specific thought to ur to him.

    This is what the main character of a novel is supposed to be like! I need to start taking notes, thenter on, I can write my own book!

    1. This ¡°dragon¡± bears the same name as mosasaurs. That¡¯s the dino from Jurassic World that leaps out of the water in a Shamu-style water show. Guess what? A mosasaurus has already made a cameo in this novel¡¯s footnotes, specifically in the picture attached to the chapter 108 footnote of Battle Boy and Princess Deathde at the ammonite exhibit at the local museum. Above them was a big painting of ammonites and a mosasaurus. , showing the mosasaurus. To reiterate, I¡¯m not using the Latin-based dinosaur names for creatures in this novel. ?

 Chapter 179: Big Bro Xu Qing!

    <h4>Chapter 179: Big Bro Xu Qing!</h4>

    While Xu Qing sped through the Forbidden Sea, absorbing one sea beast after another, some distance away from him, three enormous warships made of ck wood sped through the dome of heaven. They exuded an aura of ancientness, and almost looked like three enormous trees. The glittering ck light they exuded kept the ships¡¯ aura locked down and virtually undetectable. At the same time, they would make it difficult for anyone to see who was on the ships.

    The truth was that it was a disguise ensuring that no one knew these were Seazombie warships.

    The ships were powered by mutagen, and because they could constantly absorb mutagen from their surroundings, they could fly for shockingly long periods of time. There were over a hundred Seazombie cultivators on the ships, although most of them were only in the Qi Condensation level. There were four, though, who pulsed with the aura of Foundation Establishment. Those four weren¡¯t ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. They all had life mes.

    The strongest among them wore a white robe. Though he wasn¡¯t in the profound radiance state, he radiated the obvious aura of two life mes. He was in charge of these warships, and as he stared off into the distance, his gray pupils pulsed with intense coldness. In fact, his entire person radiated frigidity, as though nothing around him were possibly worth him paying attention to.

    Standing next to him was a young woman.She was also a Seazombie, and had once been human. She had clearly been beautiful in life, and even after having been zombified, she was an important person. Because of that, she didn¡¯t radiate any of the aura of zombie poison, and had fair skin without any necrotic patches. She was actually good-looking, and even a bit cute. Her eyes seemed livelier than the average Seazombie, and if she was standing in a crowd, it wouldn¡¯t be immediately apparent that she was a Seazombie at all. She currently had an arm wrapped around the white-robed Seazombie¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said, pouting a bit, ¡°tell me! Come on, please! How¡¯d you find me, huh? I was very careful to stay in disguise.¡±

    The white-robed Seazombie shook his head slowly, but seemed to be having trouble resisting the young woman¡¯s pleas. Then she took out a ck stone and handed it to him. He took it.

    Looking at her, he said, ¡°Third Princess, knowledge is priceless. And since you value knowledge so much, I, Xu Qing, will tell you the answer to your question. Before I was a Seazombie, I was a disciple from the Seventh Peak in Seven Blood Eyes. Thanks to a little technique I learned back then, I was able to deduce your identity.

    ¡°Princess, your father the king is very anxious, which is why he posted the mission to find you and bring you back. Please, Princess, don¡¯t make this hard for me. The return journey won¡¯t take long. On the way back to our ancestralnd, don¡¯t throw things around randomly. If you provoke someone you shouldn¡¯t provoke, it could lead to trouble.¡±

    Grinning shyly, the young woman said, ¡°Aw, fine. But don¡¯t forget, Big Bro Xu Qing, you promised that you would be my special dao protector when we got back. I like your personality, Big Bro Xu Qing. You¡¯re special. I can tell. You know, I can¡¯t believe you dared to make me pay you a mutation stone just to answer my question. Not one other member of our species would do something like that.

    ¡°All those things you say, such as ¡®knowledge is priceless¡¯ and ¡®respect knowledge,¡¯ well... I just really like that. They¡¯re very unique.¡±

    The white-robed Seazombie sped his hands behind his back and stared off into the distance. ¡°I, Xu Qing, am a person who never goes back on his word. As long as you help meplete this mission smoothly, Princess, then I won¡¯t stop at just being your dao protector. I¡¯ll even be your consort, if you wish. And if I, Xu Qing, go back on my word, then let me be poisoned with the most deadly poison, and struck by heavenly lightning five times in a row!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d really be my consort, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± Third Princess asked, her eyes lighting up.

    ¡°Absolutely!¡±

    The white-robed Seazombie cleared his throat.

    Meanwhile, in another part of the Forbidden Sea, Xu Qing shivered, and his eyes shone with vignce as he slowly backed up.

    Further ahead of him on the seafloor was a shocking group of ghostly figures moving through the water toward a city. The enormous city was full of buildings, as well as countless shadowy figures moving about through them. Xu Qing heard the hustle and bustle you would expect in a city; there were even vendor stalls and carts that the ghostly figures shopped from.

    At a nce, this ce looked just as big and bustling as the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

    The sight of it caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to pound. It didn¡¯t matter how much he had advanced in cultivation base and battle prowess, this scene still filled him with dread. What he was looking at was a ghost city.

    And what caused him to fear it weren¡¯t the ghosts, but rather the city, which was an entity unto itself. That was why, without any hesitation, he backed away from it. The ghost city didn¡¯t seem interested in him, and had no intention of pursuing him. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any desire to test that out. Picking another direction, he started moving, and only when he was some distance away did he breathe a sigh of relief.

    The seafloor is a dangerous ce. Given the level of my cultivation base, I need to be careful about exploring down so far.

    This was the second entity Xu Qing had run into recently that left him palpitating in fear. The first time, he had seen an enormous head rise up from the water, then ssh back down, as if it were ying. And it had cackled withughter. That time, just as this time, he immediately fled. There had been no conflict, and yet Xu Qing didn¡¯t dare to stay around such beings for long. And he had the feeling that if he ran into a third such entity, it would lead to true danger.

    Therefore, he left the seafloor, went back to the surface, and got onto his dharmaskiff. There, he had the shadow and his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale keep watch.

    I¡¯m almost finished with the second phase of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Going forward, I need to be more careful.

    Sitting down cross-legged, he sent his senses down toward his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale.

    His life essence dragon no longer resembled a snakeneck dragon. Instead, it had changed into something more like a bluegreen dragon. After having hunted and killed that bluegreen dragon, he had applied that enlightenment to adjust his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale.

    Unfortunately, I¡¯ve only killed one, so my imitation isn¡¯t perfect.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes. Seven days passed in a sh.

    He had been out at sea for months now, and had no idea how the war was going back at the Merfolk Isles. However, his identity medallion indicated that his ranking had dropped from the fifties to past a hundred.That seemed to indicate that the war was raging.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about that right now. For the past week, he had beenpletely focused on Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, to the point where it was almostplete.

    I just need one more Foundation Establishment sea beast, and then the legacy seed will be fully activated!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with anticipation as he sent his bluegreen dragon down into the water to search for more sea beasts. The shadow also sent out quite a few shadow eyes to help in the search, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior joined the bluegreen dragon.

    In the middle of that search, Xu Qing suddenly looked up into the sky.It was evening, and as the sky turned as red as autumn leaves, he saw three enormous ck trees flying through the air in the distance. They looked like strange warships.He couldn¡¯t sense any fluctuationsing from the ships, nor could he see who was on them. Thinking back to the sea annals in Seven Blood Eyes, he didn¡¯t remember seeing anything like this mentioned. Therefore, he had no way to know where these ships were from.

    It looked like they were just going to pass by, but he kept his guard up nheless, and also activated his dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses. He even sank down below the surface of the water.That way, if they were nning to just pass by, then it was more likely they would leave him alone. And if they did attack, he would be ready to either fight back or flee.

    However, even as he sank below the surface of the water, the hand of a woman reached out from the lead ship. It was as fair as white jade, and held a ck pearl, within the depths of which was sealed a magical symbol. Then she released the pearl, and it shot with lightning speed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and he sent his dharmaskiff shooting away in the opposite direction.

    Except, to his shock, the magical symbol in the pearl glittered, and the pearl suddenly blinked out of existence, then blinked back into existence right in front of his dharmaskiff.

    It happened so quickly that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t react. His dharmaskiff mmed into the pearl and exploded into countless pieces. Huge waves sshed out everywhere, and then wreckage floated up to the surface.

    From a distance, the flotsam and jetsam roughly corresponded to the shape of a dharmaskiff.

    Up in the sky, Third Princess leaned over the rail of the warship, a grin on her face. ¡°Aiya! That was too easy! It exploded with one hit! So boring. The waves were pretty though.¡±

    Next to her, the white-robed Seazombie was holding his breath, and had a strange look on his face as he looked down at where the dharmaskiff had exploded. After a long moment, he exhaled and said, ¡°Third Princess, what are you doing? I just want to finish this mission. Why are you causing so much trouble?? Can¡¯t you be a bit more low-key? What happens if you provoke some fiendish, monstrous, murderous killer? What then?¡±

    Feeling very depressed, the white-robed Seazombie produced an apple and took a bite.

    Smiling up at him, Third Princess said, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal, Big Bro Xu Qing? It was just a boat from Seven Blood Eyes. And all it took was one strike of my damned father¡¯s divine lightning to destroy it. Who cares?¡±

    The white-robed Seazombie shook his head. He felt like exining more, and also lecturing her about the way she talked about her father the king, but in the end he kept his mouth shut and piloted the ship onward. As the three tree-like warships passed overhead and disappeared into the distance, the waves dispersed the scattered remnants of the dharmaskiff.

    Meanwhile, another dharmaskiff sped along under the surface. It was smaller than the previous one, but looked more vicious, almost like a sealizard. And it was following the three warships!

    The boat that had exploded was the external shell that Zhang San had specially crafted to distract enemies. Currently, Xu Qing stood on his actual dharmaskiff, an unsightly expression on his face. As he looked up toward the surface, his eyes burned with killing intent.[1]</a>

    ¡°Seazombies?¡±

 Chapter 180: The Golden Crow Cometh

    Chapter 180: The Golden Crow Cometh

    The moment the ck pearl shot down from the warship, Xu Qing had sensed unique mutagen fluctuations that led him to the conclusion the operators of the ship were most likely Seazombies. He didn¡¯t have even the slightest favorable impression of such creatures. He had killed too many.

    What had just happened was definitely an unexpected disaster. Although that ck pearl hadn¡¯t been capable of truly hurting him, it did contain extraordinary levels of power. In fact, the attack wasparable to one from a cultivator with a life me!

    And the magical symbol it contained was profoundly mysterious.

    Thinking back, Xu Qing remembered seeing the magical symbol sh, and then the pearl had moved so quickly it was like a teleportation. In fact, it was so fast that he hadn¡¯t been able to react in time to avoid it.

    With that ability, that pearl is on the level of two or even three mes. That thing... is a real treasure!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold.

    A cultivator who could casually toss out items like that either had an extraordinary cultivation base or an extraordinary background. In this case, he had the feeling it was thetter.

    And that means they probably have a dao protector.

    As he sped along in his sealizard dharmaskiff, he kept his eyes glued to the three ck ships flying along overhead. Given that he wasn¡¯t sure if there was a high-level expert on those ships, he wasn¡¯t going to casuallyunch an attack.

    As was his practice, he would follow and observe, like a hunter searching for weak prey to pounce on.

    ***

    On the lead warship, the white-robed Seazombie sighed. As he stood looking down at the sea below, he felt very annoyed. And that was because he could sense that there was an aura locked onto the three warships. And that aura... was very familiar.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be upset, Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± Third Princesss said. ¡°I¡¯m already being low-key. I was going to throw out three of those divine lightning pearls, but instead, I just threw out one....¡± She nced at the white-robed Seazombie, but seeing that he was ignoring her, she stepped over and shook his arm gently. ¡°Alright, fine. I won¡¯t throw out any more pearls. Don¡¯t be mad, Big Bro Xu Qing. Why are you frowning so hard? What are you thinking about?¡±

    When the white-robed Seazombie heard her call him Xu Qing, he sighed again, then turned to look at her. ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out a way to make sure he doesn¡¯t kill you, and at the same time, prevent him from realizing what I did. If he does, he might really flip out.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not really sure what you mean, Big Bro Xu Qing....¡± Third Princess smiled sweetly, but seemed genuinely confused by his words.

    The white-robed Seazombie waved his hand dismissively. Inside, he was bemoaning the fact that, because Seazombie merit points were so hard to acquire, he had epted this mission to find Third Princess. Not only had he sessfully found her, but he had also won her affections.

    Now all he had to do was get back to Seazombie territory, turn in his merit points to acquire a high-level zombie heart, and then use the trust he had earned from Third Princess to get into the Seazombie ancestral sanctuary. Then he could wrap up his second major escapade.

    He was almost done with the first part of this n, and was now only about a month away from Seazombie territory. Unfortunately... this Seazombie princess just had to go throwing those lightning pearls around.

    Just as the white-robed Seazombie was about to sigh again, he looked down at the water and made an expression of surprise. Xu Qing¡¯s aura, which had been locked onto the ships, had vanished. Apparently, he wasn¡¯t following them anymore.

    What¡¯s going on? Don¡¯t tell me the brat has changed his ways. Or did something elsee up that he needed to handle?

    The white-robed Seazombie kept his eyes on the sea as the warships continued on their way. Another three days passed, at which point he was convinced Xu Qing wasn¡¯t following them.

    Weird.

    He was curious what happened, but at the same time, breathed a sigh of relief. Truth be told, he wasn¡¯t worried about Xu Qing learning of his n with the Seazombies. Instead, he felt a bit guilty at having used Xu Qing¡¯s name.

    Ah, it doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m just doing this to make sure he finds a daoist partner. Besides, it¡¯s simply the right thing to do. As his superior, I need to care about his personal life. In fact, he should be thankful that I¡¯m personally trying to make sure he gets a girl.

    As he continued to convince himself that he was right, the white-robed Seazombie sent orders to speed up.

    ***

    Xu Qing¡¯s sealizard dharmaskiff... was still there under the surface of the water! However, it was now covered over by his shadow.

    Three days ago, he¡¯de to realize that someone was observing him. Therefore, he pretended to leave, then disguised his dharmaskiff with his shadow, using it to make his aura seem just like Forbidden Sea mutagen.

    Then he followed and observed. This time, no one noticed him, which meant he was truly hidden from them.

    Furthermore, it also gave him some important information. For instance¡­ he now knew that there were no Gold Core cultivators on those three warships. And it was most likely that there were no three-me cultivators either. If there were, they would be able to detect his aura, and would likely have long since dropped down to deal with him. He had learned other things during the past three days. For instance, he had figured out a way to pierce through the warship¡¯s external disguise if he needed to. And he also determined how fast they could go.

    With all the things he had learned, he was convinced that the three warships did not contain any truly dangerous experts.

    In that case....

    Killing intent swirled in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. For one thing, he was angry about that ck pearl. Also, he needed more fuel for his dharma apertures, and didn¡¯t see any reason to let these Seazombies get away. Another reason... was that his progress with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits had been interrupted by these Seazombies. And therefore, they were going to be nutrients to help himplete it. That was only fair.

    On the evening of the third day, when the night was dark and the moon wasn¡¯t shining very brightly, Xu Qing stood on the deck of his dharmaskiff and began a double-handed incantation gesture.

    His dharmaskiff rumbled as wings stretched out from its sealizard form, and it shot up out of the water. As it flew up into the air, its sealizard mouth opened wide, and a golden convergence of light appeared, then became a beam that shot out at top speed.

    That golden light was, of course, the attack of godliness that Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff was capable of. The instant it appeared, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and the wind screamed. The light stabbed through the darkness of night, moving at a shocking speed as it carried holy might... right into the second of the three ck warships. It smashed through the warship¡¯s defenses as if they didn¡¯t exist, and in the blink of an eye, hit the ship itself. As the warship trembled, and even started to bend, the sea beneath it exploded as a 900-meter-long bluegreen dragon shot up, roaring, to attack the lead warship.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing himself flew off of his dharmaskiff, his lifemp erupting volcanically, sending mes all around him as he shot with incredible speed toward the final warship! Without any hesitation, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sped toward the second warship, which was sustaining the attack of godliness.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint!

    As rumbling sounds echoed out in the sky, Xu Qing arrived at the third warship. Without pausing for a moment, he unleashed all the power of his fleshly body power to m into the ship¡¯s defenses. Cracking sounds erupted out as the shield began to crumble. A momentter, it exploded, and Xu Qing stepped onto the ship.

    There were over thirty Seazombies aboard, but other than a single early Foundation Establishment cultivator with one life me, they were all in the Qi Condensation level. All of them looked shocked, and yet to Xu Qing, they were moving in slow motion. Even the Foundation Establishment Seazombie was slow to ignite his life me.

    Xu Qing nced them over coldly, then unhesitatingly stepped toward the Foundation Establishment Seazombie.

    Terror and despair filled the Seazombie¡¯s eyes as Xu Qing reached out and put his palm on the Seazombie¡¯s forehead.

    Rumbling filled the air as the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture went to work! At the same time, the totem tattoo on his back transformed into countless feathers that enveloped the Seazombie. In the blink of an eye, both techniques were used, turning the Seazombie into a desated corpse. His soul had been extracted, and his fleshly body was drained of blood. The wings consumed the sphere of blue blood, whereupon the totem tattoo surged with heat and power.

    Earlier, Xu Qing had been just on the verge ofpleting the second phase of the legacy seed activation. With that Seazombie¡¯s blood, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits... wasplete!

    A cry rang out to the highest heavens from behind Xu Qing. Then the feathers around him ignited with ck me. The countless feathers of ck fire converged behind him, bing like a sea of mes that was fully thirty meters from end to end, and cast darkness all around him.

    Another cry rang out, this time more clearly. And it came from the ck sea of mes. The moment the cry could be heard... the sea of mes rose towering into the sky, where it took the shape of a divine bird wreathed in darkness!! It was as if it had been born in the mes, as if it had taken shape in the ancient past. It made it seem like the dark night around it was boiling!

    From a distance, that divine bird had a head like a crow, a body like a crane, a tail like a phoenix, and three long legs with ws on the ends! [1]

    As it flew up into the sky, ck fire flowed over it, converging on its tail, where it fanned out into a spectacr circr tail of me! It was very beautiful, but even more than that, profound and mysterious.

    It circled overhead, then dove toward Xu Qing. As it neared him, it seemed to view him as a familiar friend, spinning around him almost as if it were dancing. It spread fire wherever it flew, surrounding Xu Qing with fiery brightness.

    At that moment, just about all of the Seazombies on the three warships looked over at him, and their eyes stung. It was almost as if, in this moment, Xu Qing, with the golden crow circling around him, had be an entity no one dared to look at!

    1. The description of the bird essentially corresponds to the ssic description of the three-legged golden crow from Chinese mythology. Here¡¯s one . ?

 Chapter 181: Incisive

    Chapter 181: Incisive

    On the lead warship, Third Princess¡¯ wide eyes stung with pain. However, despite the tears that welled up in them, she refused to look away from what was happening. She seemed stunned, as if she were looking at the most beautiful thing in the entire world.

    Next to her, the white-robed Seazombie was staring at Xu Qing, a feeling of deep foreboding welling up within him. Dangit... the brat¡¯s even stronger! The golden crow...? Don¡¯t tell me he got that freaking imperial-ss technique that¡¯s been floating around the Forbidden Sea?

    With such thoughts on his mind, he edged over to Third Princess, lowered his voice, and said, ¡°Princess, this fellow cultivates a very nefarious technique. I read about it in an ancient record I read once. It¡¯s called the Yin-Naming Life-Maiming Incantation. It¡¯s very, very formidable. Once he finds out the name of his enemy, he can use that technique to take their life in an instant. Therefore, you absolutely, positively must not say my name. Just call me Big Bro, okay?¡±

    Meanwhile, screams rang out from the ship Xu Qing was on. As the golden crow circled around him, it swished its tail, and the ck sea of mes rumbled out, bing chains of fire that whipped toward the surrounding Seazombie cultivators like fiery snakes. Wrapping around them, the fire lifted them into the air.

    Given the cultivation base disparity at y, the Seazombie cultivators were powerless to fight back. From a distance, it looked almost like the golden crow was fanning its tail!

    Meanwhile, the Seazombies let loose bloodcurdling screams, and withered rapidly as their energy and blood was sucked out of their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he took a single step forward, sending terrifying fleshly body power along with the might of his lifemp into the warship. Instantly, the ship exploded.

    Xu Qing remained hovering in the air, his violet daoist robe rippling in the wind and his long ck hair whipping around him, the golden crow circling behind him amidst ck mes. The desated corpses attached to the fiery chains on its tail made the image even more ghastly. Given Xu Qing¡¯s bewitching facial features, anyone who looked at him in that moment would think they were looking at a demon or devil.

    Third Princess¡¯ eyes shone even more brightly than before; she had never seen anyone like this before.

    Of course, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying any attention at all to Third Princess considering she was only in the great circle of Qi Condensation. Instead, his eyes were locked on the white-robed Seazombie standing next to her.

    The white-robed Seazombie was currently contending with the bluegreen dragon, while simultaneously keeping his eyes on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at him silently.

    He looked back at Xu Qing, seemingly a bit sheepish.

    During that awkward moment, cacklingughter suddenly echoed out, breaking the tension. All eyes turned in the direction of thatughter.

    It came from the second warship, and as Xu Qing looked over, he saw lightning shoot out from the ship and into the air. It was the ck iron skewer. It was covered with crackling electricity, which would asionally stab out into the surrounding air in shocking fashion. The lightning symbols on the skewer glittered, each of them thrumming with a dao resonance that made the skewer seem iparably beautiful, like a precious treasure! In fact, anyone who looked at it would think it was the kind of object you would never want to part with once youid your hands on it.

    There was a bell attached to the iron skewer, which had obviously been blessed by the lightning. A host of souls were attached to that bell, all of them from Seazombies, and they howled in anguish and pain as they struggled in vain to free themselves.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was obviously being very considerate. Knowing that Xu Qing needed souls, he had taken advantage of his lightning spirit body to ughter as many enemies as possible, take their souls with the Living Spirit Bell, and then seal them with lightning. His consideration was on full disy, as was the majestic power he was capable of unleashing.

    As for that cacklingughter, it was obviously not from the patriarch. Instead, it came from a figure who walked out of the ship¡¯s cabin right after the patriarch flew out into the open. It was a Seazombie with a burning life me. He looked like a middle-aged human cultivator, very thin, with prominent necrotic patches on him. He wore a tattered daoist robe, and he had a very arrogant expression on his face as he walked out cackling.

    Anyone who looked at him would feel like they were actually looking at a grue. That was because he took his steps in a very odd way, as if he had only just learned to walk. It was somewhere between a stagger and a stumble. What was even more unusual was that despite his arrogant expression, his eyes were filled with absolute terror. All of these thingsbined into a very odd image.

    Lurching out onto the deck, he suddenly stood straight. ncing contemptuously at the white-robed Seazombie and Third Princess, as well as the other Seazombies on the lead ship, he then turned to Xu Qing. Looking very somber, he dropped down to one knee and offered a formal salute.

    Then he reached up with both of his hands and viciously broke his own neck with a loud pop.

    The other Seazombies all stared at him in absolute astonishment.

    And yet, things weren¡¯t over yet. With vicious strength, the Seazombie ripped his own head off his shoulders and tossed it to the deck, still cackling withughter. Then he plunged his hand into his own abdomen toward his life me... which he extinguished! More popping sounds rang out as he then detonated all of his dharma apertures, causing the rest of his body to copse and fall to the deck. It was a very gruesome spectacle that caused the other Seazombies to gasp with horror.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing frowned slightly. He could tell that his shadow had consumed the shadow of the Seazombie cultivator, and then possessed the body. However, doing that ended up wasting a perfectly good soul. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything about that though. Instead, he turned and headed toward the first warship. As he neared, the Seazombies trembled, and eventually started jumping overboard.

    However, the golden crow behind Xu Qing sent out ming chains that wrapped around them. Screams rang out into the night.

    Xu Qing ignored them as he stepped onto the deck of the warship. The first thing he did was lift his right hand and point at the young Seazombie woman, who despite the pain that caused her eyes to well with tears, was looking at him with morbid admiration.

    Instantly, lightning crackled as the ck iron skewer shot with incredible speed toward the young woman. Just when it was about to pierce through her forehead, the white-robed Seazombie sighed, reached out, and flicked the skewer. A thrumming sound could be heard as the iron skewer was sent spinning off to the side. A momentter, it returned, unharmed, but its baleful aura thrumming and more electricity crackling around it.

    The white-robed Seazombie looked closely at the iron skewer, then at Xu Qing¡¯s feet, and at the golden crow. He felt a big headacheing on.

    Finally he looked at Xu Qing and sighed again. ¡°Hello, Fellow Daoist. This young woman is very important to me....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the white-robed Seazombie. At first nce he hade to the conclusion that the Captain was using this obviously important young Seazombie woman in one of his crazy ns. Attacking her had been little more than a test, and as expected, the Captain interfered.

    Therefore, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all by his words. Furthermore, the fact that he addressed Xu Qing as ¡®Fellow Daoist¡¯ seemed to reinforce the fact that he didn¡¯t want his true identity revealed. Everything confirmed Xu Qing¡¯s theory, and therefore he didn¡¯t hesitate to name his price.

    ¡°100,000 spirit stones!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide in a re, and he was about to say something when Third Princess suddenly startedughing.

    ¡°Big Bro, this sweet little thing is very cute. I think I want him to be my dao protector too!¡±

    As the words left her mouth, she lifted her right hand, upon which was a bracelet. The bracelet shimmered, then cracking sounds emanated from it as it broke up into numerous sections that flew out, then wriggled back together to take the shape of a desated corpse. It was wrapped in red bandages, and emanated a powerful baleful aura. When it opened its eyes, they glowed red, and it took a step toward Xu Qing.

    The moment its footnded, rumbling sounds echoed out as two life mes flickered to life within it. Then red mes spread out to cover its entire body as it rushed toward Xu Qing. Before it could get close, the iron skewer¡¯s lightning symbols shed brightly, and it shot with shocking speed toward the desated corpse.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow also spread out surreptitiously, reaching the corpse¡¯s feet, where all of its eyes opened. As the more than hundred eyes locked onto the desated corpse, it froze in ce. Suddenly, spots of decay appeared all over the corpse, while at the same time, massive amounts of mutagen flowed out of it. At the same time, the iron skewer stabbed through its throat, then circled around and stabbed it through the back.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing strode forward with incredible speed, his fleshly body power surging as he pped his palm on the corpse¡¯s forehead. Winds screamed around his palm, making it seem unstoppable.

    The corpse howled, its body shing red light as it fought back against Xu Qing¡¯s attack. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a moment to bend his arm and smash his elbow into the corpse¡¯s jaw. A loud crack rang out. The desated corpse was able to take the first attack, but not the second. Its head exploded, revealing that though it had flesh and blood, it had no spirit power in it. It was just a puppet!

    In fact, the shattered head also revealed countless slimy strings that twitched and wriggled as if to begin the process of repairing the puppet.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing lunged forward and smashed his knee into the corpse, sending it staggering backward, its abdomen crushed. And yet, it was still repairing itself.

    Snorting coldly, Xu Qing tapped into Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Behind him, the golden crow let loose a cry as it swept toward the puppet. As ck mes swept about everywhere, the puppet was enveloped. Even as it repaired itself, the golden crow absorbed it.

    Then the crow reached out with its three ws, grabbed the devastated corpse puppet, and ripped it to pieces. As the crow stood upon the ravaged corpse, a glob of blue blood so dark it was almost ck flew up and into the crow¡¯s mouth. The corpse puppet had been absorbed, and now crumbled into ash.

    The crow then flew back to Xu Qing, trailing a cloak of mes that pped in the wind. It stopped at Xu Qing¡¯s right side, where it stared back at the young woman and the white-robed Seazombie with cold eyes.

    It was an absolutely stunning and beautiful scene.

    ¡°Awesome!¡± Third Princess eximed excitedly. ¡°Thanks, sweetie, for helping me get rid of the bracelet my damned father gave me. I¡¯ve tried so many ways, even provoking all sorts of enemies, but none of them could kill that thing.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I knew all along you aren¡¯t really a Seazombie. You don¡¯t really want to be my dao protector, do you? You bad boy! And you even said that you, Xu Qing, would be struck by five bolts of heavenly lightning if you went back on your promise to be my dao protector.... You were also lying when you said that you, Xu Qing, would be my consort, weren¡¯t you?

    ¡°But that¡¯s fine. You¡¯re actually from Seven Blood Eyes, aren¡¯t you Big Bro Xu Qing? I guess that means you and this little sweetie here already know each other. And you probably want me to sneak you into Seazombie territory. Are you after precious treasures? Or do you want to destroy some top-secret area? I don¡¯t care what it is, I can help you. I know a lot of things. But there¡¯s only one requirement. You have to take me with you!¡±

    Third Princess still looked very excited, but then she noticed the strange expression on the face of the white-robed zombie. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked at the Captain, his face expressionless, and his lifemp burning hotter and hotter.

 Chapter 182: A Crazy Plan

    Chapter 182: A Crazy n

    Seeing the mes burning hotter within Xu Qing, the Captain¡¯s expression flickered.

    ¡°Don¡¯t kill her!¡± he blurted. ¡°I need her!¡±

    Before the words finished leaving his mouth, Xu Qing was in motion, moving with blinding speed to arrive right in front of Third Princess. As she gasped, he raised his right hand and pped her across the side of the face.

    A boom rang out, and blood sprayed from her mouth as she flopped backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through the side of the deck and off the ship. However, before she could fall, the golden crow sent out a chain of ck fire, which wrapped around her and threw her back onto the ship, where shended in front of the Captain.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t kill her. He could have done it with his first blow, if he wanted to. But he did take her bag of holding.

    Third Princess coughed up another mouthful of blood. Half the bones in her body were broken, yet there was no fear in her eyes, only confusion. As the blood oozed down her chin, she looked at Xu Qing and curiously asked, ¡°He used your name to do all sorts of things. Don¡¯t you care? Shouldn¡¯t you have it out for him? Why hit me?¡±

    The Captain sighed, squatted next to her, and said, ¡°Because it¡¯s a matter between us bros. It doesn¡¯t have anything to do with you. And since you were riling things up, who did you expect him to hit? If I was in his ce, I¡¯d have done the same thing.¡±

    Reaching out, he picked up one of her hands to check for broken bones. He shook his head. ¡°All broken. But at least you can talk. If you can talk, you can breathe, so that¡¯s good.¡±

    Third Princess, however, was still confused, and didn¡¯t think it made sense that Xu Qing hit her. In fact, she even opened her mouth to ask some more questions, but the Captain smacked his palm onto her head, rendering her unconscious. Putting her into a special bag of holding, he turned and faced Xu Qing.

    Now that they were alone, Xu Qing looked back at him and said, ¡°You swore an oath using my name?¡±

    ¡°Nah, she was kidding.¡± the Captain blinked a few times, then shouted, ¡°HEY! You dropped a spirit note.¡±

    Reaching down, he shuffled his hands on the deck, then produced a spirit note worth a hundred spirit coins. Grimacing, he handed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took it, but his eyes never left the Captain.

    ¡°Struck five times by heavenly lightning?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha. That could never happen. Little Junior Brother, I think you weren¡¯t listening carefully. Furthermore, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. Don¡¯t be so gullible when dealing with strangers! As your Elder Brother, and as your superior, I would absolutely, positively never do anything like you¡¯re suggesting. It¡¯s simr to how you have never owed me any spirit stones.¡±

    ¡°Consort?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain sighed.

    Xu Qing stared at him.

    A long moment passed, then the Captain smacked his own forehead.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he said conspiratorially, his eyebrows dancing up and down, ¡°forget all that. I have some good news.... The reason I¡¯m disguised as a Seazombie is that I¡¯m trying to get a high-level zombie heart.

    ¡°And there¡¯s more. My other goal is a lot more risky, so I originally was nning to keep it secret. But since we¡¯re out here alone, I guess I can tell you.

    ¡°As you might know, the Seazombies have a lot of precious treasures and even more top-secret locations. Any one of those top-secret locations could change the whole situation with the war. Of course, that doesn¡¯t really have anything to do with the two of us. The point is that one of those locations is the main target of my n. I¡¯m trying to reach one of the Seazombies¡¯ most holy relics... one of the divine likenesses of the nine Seazombie ancestors!!

    ¡°ording to the legends, the Seazombies started out as a species because of those nine statues. They¡¯re divine likenesses made of a special, one-of-a-kind material.

    ¡°The zombification that creates Seazombies is carried out by those nine statues. They¡¯re scattered throughout the Seazombie ancestralnd, and not only are they the source of the zombification power, but also, they¡¯re known as holy locations where Seazombies can be healed.

    ¡°Most importantly, most of the Seazombies¡¯ top experts are out on the battlefield, meaning their defenses in their ancestralnd are flimsy. Though they do have some measures in ce to keep things secure, that young woman you nearly beat to death is very important in Seazombie society. She¡¯s their Third Princess, and with her to lead the way, the Seazombies won¡¯t be suspicious at all. And by the time they realize something¡¯s happening, we¡¯ll be long gone.¡±

    The Captain had the same look in his eyes that Xu Qing remembered seeing back in the Merfolk Isles, before he did something really crazy. Upon hearing the exnation, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Obviously, sneaking into the Seazombie ancestralnd was an act that would take a massive amount of daring. And it wasn¡¯t just sneaking into their ancestralnd. The n also involved finding holy relics of the Seazombies. That was something the word ¡®daring¡¯ couldn¡¯t even begin to cover. Even though the Seazombie ancestralnd was much emptier than normal right now, it was still something that only someone who was absolutely crazy would try to do.

    Xu Qing looked deeply at the Captain, musing that he was clearly just as crazy as before. Just as he was about to refuse to help, the Captain excitedly continued talking.

    ¡°Each of the nine zombie ancestor statues have shocking power, as well as iparably strong godliness. And they¡¯re not just useful to Seazombies. Human cultivators can use them as well. They can easily open dharma apertures! I¡¯ve heard people say that if you only take a small bite out of one of the statues, you can easily open dozens upon dozens!¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that, his words of refusal stuck in his throat, and his heart started to pound. Right now he had 49 dharma apertures open, with the 50th just barely cracked, and a long way from being fully opened.

    At this point, it was really getting hard to open them. Generally speaking, cultivators grouped dharma apertures into tens. In other words, going from 40 to 50 was a major upgrade. And the only way to open the next dharma aperture was going to be to kill an enemy with a life me.

    Truth be told, Xu Qing was making rapid progress. Without the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, and also the war, he would have been hard-pressed to progress this quickly. Normally speaking, Foundation Establishment cultivators would take ten years to start their first life me. And in terms of the second... it wasn¡¯t unusual to spend thirty years or more. And of course, they had to deal with threats to their life, plus the challenge of purging mutagen. For that reason, there weren¡¯t very many cultivators with two life mes. As for three life mes, that usually took even longer.

    50 to 60... that¡¯s going to take a lot of soul power.

    Xu Qing felt like he wasn¡¯t progressing fast enough, and therefore the Captain¡¯s description of the zombie ancestor statues was very enticing. After thinking about it for a moment, he looked at the bag of holding with Third Princess in it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t trust her,¡± he said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, I¡¯ll handle it,¡± the Captain said, pping himself on the chest. ¡°Besides, you don¡¯t know her situation. If you did, you¡¯d feel sorry for her. Trust me.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. If the entire sess of the n hinged on Third Princess, then she would have to bepletely and sincerely on their side. That was the only way they would be able to sessfully sneak into the Seazombie ancestralnd. She would have to provide cover to get them through all the defenses, inspections, and whatever else stood in their way to reach the zombie ancestor statues. Even the slightest slipup during that process would leave them damned by myriad tribtions.

    The Captain blinked a few times as he saw Xu Qing hesitating. Then he chuckled. ¡°Look, there¡¯s a simple way to solve this problem. I can just disguise you as Third Princess! I¡¯ve been around her long enough to know her well, plus, I got my hands on lots of information about her. I can¡¯t im to know her like the back of my hand, but I can give you some tips on how to talk like her, act like her, and so-on. It wouldn¡¯t work long-term, but for our purposes, it¡¯ll be perfectly sufficient.¡±

    Raising his eyebrows, Xu Qing said, ¡°If you know so much about her, you disguise yourself as her.¡±

    ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, I¡¯m your superior!¡± the Captain said somberly.

    ¡°Consort?¡± Xu Qing replied.

    The Captain¡¯s expression suddenly wasn¡¯t as somber. He sighed. ¡°Why don¡¯t we have a little bet? Whoever loses has to be Third Princess?¡± He looked around, then spotted a sea snake off in the distance. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t very smart, as it was ring at their warship aggressively. ¡°That thing. Whoever kills it wins!¡±

    The moment the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, he lit his life me and simultaneously sent out a shocking frigid energy that froze everything around him, including Xu Qing. Then he burst into motion toward the snake. At the same time, an enormous hand appeared over the water, rumbling toward the sea snake.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Behind him, the golden crow cried out, causing mes to erupt that canceled out the Captain¡¯s frigid energy. Xu Qing also burst into motion. At the same time, he summoned a huge hand which shot, not toward the sea snake, but toward the Captain¡¯s magical technique.

    Rumbling echoed out as the two hands mmed into each other. Then, Xu Qing rammed into the Captain, and more deafening rumbling echoed out. At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the ck iron skewer shooting toward the sea snake.

    However, even as lightning bolts crackled around the skewer, a frigid energy surged toward it. Cracking sounds rang out as it was sealed, leaving the patriarch shocked and unable to fight back.

    Ice also built up around the sea snake, freezing it in ce. But then the golden crow cried out, and fire roiled out, melting the ice.

    Xu Qing lifted his hand, and the heavenly saber shed down, backed by volcanic force. At the same time, he clenched his hand into a fist and punched out, backing his fleshly body power with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    That shocking fist strike caused a vortex to spring up in front of Xu Qing. At the same time, it emanated wisps of zombie poison!

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he performed an incantation gesture to block the move. A huge boom rang out, and the Captain staggered backward.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing elerated.

    ¡°It hasn¡¯t been that long, and you¡¯ve changed so much!¡± the Captain blurted. ¡°Your fleshly body power is off the charts! Combined with your profound radiance state, you¡¯reparable to the three-me level! Also, what¡¯s with the zombie poison? You seem more like a Seazombie than I do! You¡¯re bullying me with that imperial-ss technique!¡±

    A crazy look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. In order to ensure that Xu Qing had to be Third Princess, and also to save face for himself, his eyes suddenly shone with golden light.

    Within that light was a golden magical symbol, and as it pulsed, he erupted with power that surpassed the two-me level!

 Chapter 183: Bewitchingly Charming

    Chapter 183: Bewitchingly Charming

    He was unsealing his second seal!

    The Captain¡¯s true identity had always been a mystery. Xu Qing had his spections about who he really was, and had even considered that he was the grand highness of the Seventh Peak. However, he would only consider that matter asionally, as it wasn¡¯t really important. After all, regardless of who the Captain was, it wouldn¡¯t affect the unique rtionship they had.

    Seeing the Captain suddenly surging with energy, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glowed with a fierce light. He didn¡¯t want to lose this bet either, and what was more, was very much interested in seeing the Captain transform into Third Princess.

    Therefore, as soon as the Captain went all out, Xu Qing burned his lifemp even brighter. Then, the two of them shed again.

    Massive booms rang out everywhere. Having unsealed himself, the Captain¡¯s entire body glowed with golden light that, to Xu Qing, seemed simr to godliness, yet wasn¡¯t. Godliness was holy, but this sensation from the Captain seemed incredibly domineering, as if it was capable of crushing anything and everything. Surrounded by glittering light, the Captain waved his hand, creating a golden sea of light that in turn transformed into an enormous hand that crushed toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to be Third Princess!¡± he roared.

    The sea of light mmed into Xu Qing, shoving him backward relentlessly. That light seemed both crazy and domineering, making it difficult for him to breathe, and even affecting his cultivation base, causing his life me to flicker.

    From a distance, that giant golden hand was a hundred timesrger than Xu Qing, and it seemed like there was no way he could stop it from smashing him down into the water.

    This level of might seemed like the level of two mes to Xu Qing. And the speed was so great he had a hard time matching it. The only way to do so... would be to have the power of three mes!

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as killing intent filled his eyes. The veins on his forehead bulged, and he threw both hands out. Instantly, the cry of a bird echoed out from behind him, and ck mes surged as the golden crow swirled out. As it threw its head back and howled, it superimposed itself on Xu Qing.

    The golden crow¡¯s body ovepped with his, covering his violet robe. The feathers became like an imperial robe, illusory, yet bursting with a sense of majesty. The head became like an imperial crown pulsing with a paragonic aura. The phoenix-like tail became a pendant, and the ck sea of mes attached to it became a cloak.

    From a distance, Xu Qing, with his delicate and even pretty face, coupled with this extraordinary outfit, made him seem like a young emperor. In fact, he actually seemed simr to the golden crow Ancient Emperor in the dragon chariot.

    Even the Captain was stunned, and his eyes narrowed as Xu Qing expressionlessly clenched his right hand into a fist and punched toward the iing hand!

    The punch was abination of his life me, lifemp, and the berserk fleshly body power of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Together, they created the most powerful attack he was currently capable of. Heaven and earth rumbled as the fist created an illusory projection that grewrger by the moment, until it was just as big as the iing hand. And it also radiated an extremely domineering sensation!

    However, the domineering sensation from Xu Qing felt like the disdain of an imperial monarch, whereas the Captain¡¯s felt like the madness of a savage.

    When they hit each other, a deafening explosion urred at the impact point.

    Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he was sent spinning off to the side. The imperial garb created by Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits couldn¡¯t stand up to the force, and disappeared. At the same time, pain exploded into Xu Qing¡¯s right fist as his arm was dislocated.

    The Captain simrly coughed up blood as he was cast backward,pletely out of control. The magical symbol in his eyes flickered a few times, then faded away. His right hand also red with pain, and a cracking sound rang out from his wrist as, apparently, it broke.

    As the two of them skidded away from each other, panting for breath, Xu Qing grabbed his right arm with his left hand, and wrenched it back into ce.

    At the same time, the Captain waved his left hand, causing golden light to re, instantly healing the damage to his wrist. Not showing any indication that he felt pain, he calmly said, ¡°Not bad, punk. You already have about ten percent of the battle prowess your director can unleash. Keep working hard. Oh, by the way... you lose.¡± With that, the Captain looked at the surface of the water.

    The sea snake the two of them had been fighting over was currently being wrapped up by a tentacle that then dragged it out of the water.

    The Captain looked very pleased with himself, and was clearly expecting Xu Qing to say something. However, that was when a gruish light shone in the eyes of the snake, and it opened its mouth wide and bit its own neck.

    The bite contained immense power, and the snake was clearly holding nothing back in the effort. A ripping sound could be heard as the snake¡¯s head was torn off the rest of its body. However, it wasn¡¯t dead. The gruish sensation grew even stronger as the snake then began to eat the rest of its body. Blood sprayed out from the severed parts of the snake, creating a shocking and ghastly sight.

    As the Captain stared in shock, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°Actually, Captain. I win.¡±

    After the words left his mouth, the snake¡¯s head shuddered, and then it seemed to lose whatever power was sustaining it. It dropped down into the water, while Xu Qing¡¯s shadow quietly returned to him.

    It was only at this point that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior finally managed to unseal himself. Returning to Xu Qing, he looked angrily at the Captain. The patriarch had lost a lot of face just now, and what was more, he had to wonder if the Fiendish Xu was going to think he was useless after this fight. Even worse, the shadow had clearly performed amazingly. The patriarch felt a sensation of crisis growing stronger and stronger within him.

    The Captain stared nkly at the mangled sea snake floating on the surface of the water. Then he looked at Xu Qing. Seemingly a bit embarrassed, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, why don¡¯t we negotiate a way¡ª¡±

    ¡°You lose.¡±

    ¡°Hey, you dropped a spirit note!¡±

    ¡°You lose.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah. I get it. Wait, I just had a really good idea! I think¡ª¡±

    ¡°I said. You. Lose!¡± Xu Qing¡¯s expression was very serious as he said the words one at a time. Then he thought for a moment, and an odd expression appeared on his face, as if he disapproved of the Captain¡¯s behavior. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, if you lost a bet, you needed to take the matter very seriously. It was just as important as paying back money you owed. Both came down to heaven¡¯sw and earth¡¯s principle.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was having trouble steadying his breathing. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was even grinding his teeth.

    ¡°Fine. All we¡¯re talking about is dressing up like Third Princess, right? Not a big deal! Hold on a second!¡± Eyes filling with determination, he turned and went into the ship¡¯s cabin.

    The anticipation in Xu Qing¡¯s heart built as he stared at the cabin door and waited.

    Time ticked by. About an hourter, when Xu Qing was just beginning to lose patience, the cabin door slowly opened, and a bewitchingly charming, elegantly lithe young woman strode out.

    She was none other than Third Princess.

    At first, she walked slowly and steadily. But after taking a few steps, she turned her delicate and charming face toward Xu Qing. That was when she noticed the odd look on his face, and her own expression turned sour. Snorting coldly to hold back fromshing out, she stomped over to him, then hiked up her skirt, revealing two long legs. Squatting down, she pulled out arge apple and viciously took a bite.

    ¡°Happy?¡± the Captain said. His disguise was remarkably true to life, making him truly a feast for the eyes. No matter which angle Xu Qing looked at him from, he couldn¡¯t find any ws. The only exception was that his legs were a bit too hairy. Everything else was perfect. The bright eyes and white teeth. The dainty hands, as fair as jade. The arms as slender as a lotus root. Even the most beautiful female disciples back in the sect would have been jealous at the sight.

    Xu Qing was really curious about how the Captain managed to do this, and took a long moment to size him up. Meanwhile, the clearly irritated Captain stretched a delicate hand toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°Give me the bag of holding.¡±

    Xu Qing took out Third Princess¡¯s bag of holding and held it upside down. Instantly, numerous misceneous objects tumbled out into a big pile. Most were clothing items. There weren¡¯t very many spirit stones, although there were some small ck stones that pulsed with mutagen. And Xu Qing also spotted numerous finger-sized crystal bottles, all of which contained ck pearls. And each pearl had a magical symbol inside. Presumably, it was an item like this that he¡¯d run into with his dharmaskiff.

    ¡°So many!¡± Xu Qing picked up one of the bottles to inspect.

    Rifling through the other things, the Captain said, ¡°Those things are called Yin-Illuminating Lightning Pearls. They¡¯re a disposable magical device unique to Seazombies. They¡¯re very powerful, and can only be created by top Seazombie experts. Because of that, they¡¯re rare among other species, and go for different prices depending on how powerful they are.

    ¡°Different Seazombies will make different versions. There was one type created by the Seazombie patriarch that could unleash an attackparable to the Nascent Soul level. A few years ago, it went up for auction in the Violet Lands, and ended up selling for an astronomical price. One unique property of these pearls is that you need to power them up with blood. And they¡¯re more lethal to whatever species the bloodes from.¡±

    As he spoke, the Captain picked up an identity medallion. Sounding pleased, he continued, ¡°I spent a lot of money on this disguise technique. It¡¯s really amazing. Not only does it allow you to imitate the aura of a species, but also, it can perfectly mask your own fluctuations. Since I¡¯ve been keeping an eye on Third Princess for a while now, I can imitate her perfectly.

    ¡°Now, we need to head into Seazombie territory. As long as we don¡¯t somehow end up stuck there for a long time, and as long as we don¡¯t run into any Gold Core experts who can pierce through this disguise, then no one will have any idea what¡¯s going on.¡±

    At this point, the Captain looked at Xu Qing and then tossed him a white robe. He also handed him a small bottle.

    ¡°Get dressed in that. Then open the bottle and pour some of the contents on yourself. It will allow you to exude zombie poison, plus, it will mask your aura and change your physical appearance.¡±

    Xu Qing did as told. Afterward, the zombie poison he emanated and his withered features made him look exactly like a Seazombie. As for the little bottle, Xu Qing could tell that it had been created by someone with a very extraordinary cultivation base. Furthermore, it gave him even new insights into the unorthodox and extraordinary things the Captain did.

    ¡°And now,¡± the Captain said somberly, ¡°you¡¯re going to be my dao protector. You will escort me, the princess, back to Seazombie territory. Going forward, we need to put on an act that nobody can see through. Agreed?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, as what the Captain said definitely did make sense.

    The Captain cleared his throat, stretched at the waist a few times, which revealed his attractive figure, then sat down and slowly crossed his legs. Gently bobbing one leg up and down, he took out an apple and bit into it.

    ¡°Come, little Ah Qing. The princess needs a leg massage.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, then took out some poison powder from his bag of holding and prepared to pour it out into his palm.

    The Captain tucked his legs back and looked somberly at Xu Qing. ¡°It just urred to me that we need to talk about the n.¡±

 Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 1)

    Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 1)

    In the dome of heaven, a warship that resembled a ck tree sped along rapidly, piercing loudly through the clouds. Assuming it stayed on its current course, it was obviously going to reach the ind that was the Seazombies¡¯ ancestralnd in only ten days.

    Based on the sea charts Seven Blood Eyes had given out during wartime, Xu Qing knew that though the ce was called an ind, it was vastlyrger than the home of the Merfolk. Actually, it was about ten percent the size of the continent of South Phoenix.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were on that warship. After going through lengthy discussions, they had finalized their n.

    ¡°Only ten more days,¡± the Captain said, ¡°and we¡¯ll arrive in Seazombie territory. Your n is okay, Xu Qing. Except, we¡¯ll need several days, and I¡¯m worried your n doesn¡¯t allow for enough time. Also... why do you seem so excited about all the prep work for this n of yours?¡±

    The Captain seemed both hesitant and suspicious.

    In terms of ns, their discussion the first day had revealed that the Captain actually didn¡¯t have any. He had just intended to charge into Seazombie territory and figure things out as they developed.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t agree to that.

    After some thought, and determining what his goal was, he came up with the idea of trying to get to the nearest zombie ancestor statue as quickly as possible. After setting that goal, the n fell into ce quickly. The fastest way to get to that statue would be to have a Seazombie cultivator personally escort them there. That way, there wouldn¡¯t be any time wasted.

    As for how to get that escort, Xu Qing and the Captain had already decided that it would be: injury!

    If Third Princess was ¡®injured¡¯ and had struggled to get back safely, then it would be a given that she¡¯d be sent for healing. And given her status, the obvious location for healing was a zombie ancestor statue. After all, the Captain¡¯s intelligence report made it clear that the statues were used for two main purposes: zombification of new Seazombies, and astonishing healing.

    That was why the Captain was still a bit hesitant and suspicious, and had asked the question he just did. ¡°If the healing finishes in a day,¡± he continued, ¡°people will notice and get suspicious.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Not if we keep adding injuries daily for the rest of the journey. Old injuries added onto new ones will seem more realistic!¡±

    The Captain still wasn¡¯t convinced, and was fairly certain Xu Qing was using public authority to avenge private wrongs.

    Xu Qing looked the Captain in the eyes and didn¡¯t make any attempt to look away.

    Seeing that, the Captain sighed and remembered the advice he had given Xu Qing some time ago. Because of that advice, he wasn¡¯t really sure what Xu Qing was thinking. [1]

    That said, the Captain was a ferocious, determined person. Thus, it was no surprise he suddenly pulled out a dagger and stabbed himself viciously in the gut with it. Instantly, his artificially blue blood spilled out, staining his garment.

    ¡°What¡¯s the big deal about something as trivial as that?¡± the Captain asked, continuing to munch on his apple.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Captain, self-inflicted wounds lookpletely different from real wounds. For the good of our n, you¡¯re going to have to suffer through a bit of humiliation. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help.¡±

    The Captain stopped mid-bite, his eyes widening into a re.

    Xu Qing looked back at him seriously, straight in the eye. After a moment of silence, the Captain sighed, tossed his dagger to Xu Qing, and then held his arms out wide.

    ¡°Bring it on.¡±

    Grinning, Xu Qing gripped the dagger, walked forward, and shed the Captain¡¯s stomach. Then he pulled the dagger back for a moment before stabbing the Captain. It was a great feeling. Then the Captain gasped as Xu Qing shed the dagger across his right thigh. As the blood bubbled out, Xu Qing used the Seaforming Scripture to strike the Captain in the chest.

    A boom rang out, and blood sprayed out of the Captain¡¯s mouth. As his face became deathly pale, Xu Qing¡¯s dagger shed left and right, until the Captain was covered with blood, and lookedpletely bedraggled.

    ¡°Okay! Enough! Enough, Xu Qing!!¡±

    Xu Qing was a bit disappointed. Those handful of dagger attacks had felt wonderful. After stopping, he looked at the Captain¡¯s left leg, and decided he would focus there tomorrow.

    When the Captain noticed Xu Qing studying his leg, his eyelids twitched. ¡°Deputy Director Xu, as a dao protector, it makes very little sense that the princess would be so badly wounded while you don¡¯t have a scratch on you.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile faltered.

    ¡°Therefore,¡± the Captain continued, a slight grin appearing on his face, ¡°for the good of our n, you¡¯re going to have to suffer through a bit of humiliation. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help.¡±

    Heart filling with anticipation, he took the dagger back, then viciously stabbed it toward Xu Qing¡¯s thigh.

    Xu Qing¡¯s instinct was to evade the blow, yet he couldn¡¯t refute the Captain¡¯s logic. Taking a deep breath, he simply looked the Captain in the eye as the dagger stabbed into this thigh.

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth.

    Next, the Captain excitedly stabbed Xu Qing three times in the stomach, shed the side of his neck, and inflicted numerous superficial wounds over spots where vital organs were.

    After Xu Qing was dripping with blood, he suddenly took a step back, red at the Captain, and hoarsely said, ¡°Your right leg is pretty badly injured, but not your left. That doesn¡¯t make much sense.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, a dagger suddenly appeared in his hands, and he stabbed it toward the Captain¡¯s left leg.

    A momentter, the Captain gritted his teeth and stabbed Xu Qing again.

    And thus, the two of them exchanged dagger attacks back and forth. Sometimeter... they stopped. Both of themy on the deck gasping for breath, covered in numerous appalling wounds.

    Voice tremulous, the Captain said, ¡°Xu Qing... I don¡¯t think we need to do this every day. I¡¯m the princess. You¡¯re the dao protector. We¡¯re supposed to be fleeing after having been attacked, right?¡±

    After a bit of thought, Xu Qing said, ¡°Yeah, maybe we should flee for seven or eight days, then get ¡®attacked¡¯ one more time. What happens if the Seazombies figure out who we are after we arrive? Do you have an escape n?¡±

    Hearing this, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Grabbing back his half-eaten apple, he took a bite and smiledcently. ¡°Deputy Captain Xu, I do indeed have an escape n for that scenario. But you don¡¯t need to worry. When risking one¡¯s life, it¡¯s better to keep things exciting by not revealing all the details. So you should probably be ready to take care of yourself.

    ¡°Given that you work for me, I suppose I can tell you some details. That said, it¡¯s one of my biggest secrets and so it¡¯s worth, um, 1,000,000 spirit stones!¡±

    Xu Qing had been thinking about selling an entropic teleportation talisman to the Captain. But when he looked over and saw the lowbrow look on the Captain¡¯s face he decided not to. There wasn¡¯t any need.

    The Captain was shocked that Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any follow-up questions. Given that, he came to the conclusion that Xu Qing must have his own life-saving techniques. But even if he did, the Captain couldn¡¯t believe that they were as amazing as his own.

    ¡°When the timees, you¡¯re wee to use it,¡± the Captain said. ¡°All you need is 1,000,000 spirit stones.¡±

    Time passed quickly. Seven days. They were now only three days away from Seazombie territory.

    Xu Qing and the Captain spent time meditating and asionally reviewing their n. Also, in the interest of making sure the n went smoothly, the Captain exined some things about the Seazombies.

    ¡°... and that¡¯s about all there is to say about the Seazombies,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Now let me tell you more about Third Princess. You have to feel bad for the girl. The truth is that she hates the Seazombies more than anyone in Seven Blood Eyes. That¡¯s why I told you she would help us.¡±

    The Captain nced into his bag of holding to check on Third Princess.

    ¡°She was born to Devakind parents. Her father had astonishing cultivation aptitude, and was named a chosen among Devakind. He was thought to have the potential to follow the path of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns.

    ¡°However, he eventually rebelled against his people and intentionally zombified himself. Considering his shocking cultivation base, he met the approval of the Seazombie patriarch, and was named as the first Seazombie king.

    ¡°As the Seazombie king, he cultivated a very unique Seazombie technique called The King Severs Love. And he cultivated it to the highest level, gaining enlightenment of a ¡®will domain¡¯ called... Forgetting Grief! It was all part of his n. When he rebelled against Devakind, he took his wife and three daughters with him, and zombified them along with himself, all for the purpose of sacrificing them to his pursuit of the dao. Simply put, whenever the Seazombie king reaches a cultivation bottleneck, he can sacrifice a loved one to break through it. Over the years that have passed, he¡¯s already sacrificed his wife, his firstborn daughter, and his second daughter. Only his third daughter is left, and the only reason she¡¯s still alive is that her father hasn¡¯t reached a cultivation bottleneck.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I wanted to include her in the n. The girl seems foolish, but that¡¯s only because of the sheltered life she¡¯s lived. The truth is that she hates her father down to her core, far more than anyone from Seven Blood Eyes could hate him. Therefore, she¡¯s always getting into trouble. My n was to get her to swear an oath to help me, with the promise of taking her with me afterward, and helping her truly free herself. I told her over and over again not to stir up any trouble, but that obviously didn¡¯t work. The girl feels like her fate has already been sealed, and that fatalistic outlook has seeped down to her soul.

    ¡°As a matter of fact, my intelligence reports indicate that she¡¯s already been killed seven or eight times in the past few years. Sadly, her father extracted half her soul and keeps it on him at all times. Because of that, he can recreate her any time he wishes, and therefore, even if she dies somewhere far away, it doesn¡¯t mean much to him.¡±

    Hearing this story from the Captain, Xu Qing felt quite moved.

    ¡°My intelligence report also contains a line attributed to the Seazombie king,¡± the Captain continued. ¡°Listen and tell me what you think.

    ¡°Red dust scatters on a scroll painting;

    ¡°The ink can¡¯t trace out the years that pass;

    ¡°They leave behind a burst of loneliness;

    ¡°How can I forget my grief?¡±

    As the words echoed across the deck of the warship, they seemed to contain with them an unspeakable grief.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    Everyone in the world had their own story to tell about what happened after the broken face of the god arrived. And those stories always seemed to be tragedies. Seeking the dao by killing loved ones seemed like a bitter and desperate thing. But Xu Qing had seen things like that from the time he was young. It wasn¡¯t anything unusual. Even still, Xu Qing took out a medicinal pill and tossed it to the Captain.

    The captain caught it in surprise. And when he realized what it was, he said, ¡°What¡¯s this for? My wounds aren¡¯t that bad! I don¡¯t need this.¡±

    ¡°Give it to Third Princess,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain said, smiling enigmatically. ¡°I had no idea you were so kind and gentle!¡± Hefting the pill, he continued, ¡°Hold on, do you like her? Are you actually thinking of bing her consort?¡±

    Xu Qing looked cidly at the Captain. Seeing the rakish expression on the Captain¡¯s face, he declined toment.

    ¡°When you look at me like that, little Ah Qing, are you really looking at me? Or are you looking at your beloved Third Princess? Aiya, if the female disciples back in the sect knew about this, I think they¡¯d all start weeping.¡±

    The more the Captain talked, the happier he seemed. Eyebrows dancing, he put away the medicinal pill and took out a tangerine, which he started to peel. Noticing Xu Qing frowning slightly, he was about to keep on in the same vein.

    However, Xu Qing interrupted him. ¡°Princess, we arrive in Seazombie territory in three days. I think you need some fresh wounds.¡±

    Before the Captain could say anything else, Xu Qing walked over, produced a dagger, and plunged it into the Captain¡¯s stomach. The Captain gasped, grimaced in pain, then took out his own dagger and red at Xu Qing.

    ¡°As the princess¡¯ dao protector, you also need a few wounds!¡±

    He prepared tounch a stab, but Xu Qing dodged out of the way.

    ¡°Princess, your cultivation base is only in the great circle of Qi Condensation, which means you heal slowly. As your dao protector, I need to spend more time on the lookout for trouble, not wasting time healing you. That means your wounds will get worse as we travel. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, my wounds heal much faster. If I have too many wounds, it won¡¯t be realistic!¡±

    The Captain was temporarily struck speechless.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing jumped forward and stabbed him several more times.

    Cradling his abdomen, the Captain jumped backward and red at Xu Qing. However, when he noticed Xu Qing¡¯s earnest expression, he sighed. ¡°Despite being chased, the princess and her dao protector would still have time to rest. Besides, given how close we are to Seazombie territory, our pursuers would eventually give up the deadly chase out of fear.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s true. However, given how close we are to the ancestralnd, the princess definitely needs to be seriously wounded and even on the brink of death. Otherwise, they might not send her immediately to the healing area.¡±

    The Captain looked bitterly at the wounds he already had, then looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s very serious expression caused the Captain to hiss out a sigh and then close his eyes.

    Feeling wonderful, Xu Qing inflicted another four or five dagger wounds, until the Captain was obviously seriously hurt and very weak. Only then did the session of ¡®deadly pursuit¡¯ end.

    In this manner, time passed.

    1. The advice referred to here was given in chapter 129. ?

 Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 2)

    Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 2)

    Soon the three days were almost up, and the warship was finally closing in on the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    As the massive ind appeared in the distance, Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned very serious. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at himself to make sure his disguise was in ce. He also had his shadow emit a Seazombie aura. For all intents and purposes, Xu Qing was a Seazombie. Also, thanks to Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, he really did have one of the innate abilities of the Seazombies: zombie poison. With that addition, his disguise was perfect.

    Though the Captain didn¡¯t have such, he had obviouslye prepared, so Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about his disguise being seen through.

    ¡°Finally, we¡¯re... home....¡± the Captain said, clutching his abdomen as he leaned weakly against the railing, the wind stirring his blood-soaked hair to reveal his delicately beautiful face. His pale skin and the mixed emotions on his face made it seem like the Captain really was Third Princess. It was as if he truly understood everything about her, down to the core of her being.

    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Xu Qing had spent the past few days getting used to the Captain in this form, he wouldn¡¯t have ever guessed who he really was.

    ¡°Thank you for your help on this journey,¡± the Captain said, swaying in ce, his voice both weak and charming. Trembling, he reached out to steady himself on the rail. He seemed to be expending all of his effort on controlling inner wounds so serious that, if he lost control of them, he would die instantly.

    There was an extremely vicious stab wound on his chest right next to where his heart was. From the look of it, the slightest instability would cause the heart to explode. Given that, it was obvious he had damage to his meridians.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s once-white daoist robe was sttered with blood, and his pale skin was even paler than normal. His aura seemed unstable, as if it were taking him a lot of effort to keep it under control. And his most severe wound was on his neck, where it seemed his windpipe had been ripped open.

    Although he had recovered some, he wasn¡¯t able to speak. At the same time, blood slowly pooled around his feet.

    In response to the Captain¡¯s words, Xu Qing ignored his own injuries and expressionlessly sped his hands and bowed.

    That was when powerful energy fluctuations swept over the entire ship, including Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The ship instantly slowed to a halt. These fluctuations didn¡¯te from a cultivator, but rather, a spell formation! It was the Seazombies¡¯ Grand Protective Spell Formation.

    Considering the war going on, the Seazombies kept their grand formation operating at all times, not only to prevent outsiders from entering, but also to bolster the effectiveness of everything inside the formation.

    As Xu Qing knew, these spell formation fluctuations were the first obstacle they needed to pass.

    Of course, both he and the Captain were prepared. As the formation assessed them, the Captain released the correct fluctuations in response. Xu Qing did the same thing, using the contents of the small bottle to help. A momentter, the energy fluctuations vanished. The formation had corroborated their identities.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of admiration for how well-prepared the Captain was. With that, he looked past the ship¡¯s rail at the huge ind that was the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    What he saw was an ind sorge it might as well have been a continent. It looked different than any other location he had ever seen before. The coastal area in front of him was covered with enormous growing nts that resembled magical lingzhi mushrooms. However, these magical mushrooms were pitch ck and emanated zombie poison and a shocking pressure. Even the smallest of the ck, magical mushrooms were several hundred meters in diameter. They grew both on the shore and in the water, and at first nce, he saw over a hundred in the area in front of him.[1]</a>

    Atop each magical mushroom were mooring facilities made of bleached bones. Docked there were countless warships that looked like coffins, ready to fly up into the sky.

    Out of the stalks of the magical mushrooms grew innumerable tentacles, which burrowed into either thend or the water, depending on where the mushroom grew. Some of the tentacles were absorbing mutagen from their surroundings. Others had ropes attached to them to secure various boats that floated on the water¡¯s surface.

    Eventually, Xu Qing realized he was looking at a harbor. And up and down the coast, there were more harbors.

    Meanwhile, the sky overhead was filled with endless dark clouds.Teleportation light flickered within those clouds as Seazombie cultivators teleported away or returned from afar. Seazombie warships as well as individual Seazombie cultivators were constantly moving about. There were constant rumbling sounds, but strangely, virtually no talking.

    Thends further in had pitch ck soil, andrge growths that were simr to the coastal magical mushrooms, but with different colors. The ind types were bright red.

    There were also huge trees that were very eye-catching and unique. The trees were rotting, and emanated powerful mutagen. And there were pitch ck butterflies that flew around everywhere. Also, numerous rivers crisscrossed thends, all of them filled with bright red liquid.This ce seemed like it belonged in the Yellow Springs of the underworld. It was horrendous and appalling, and at the same time, indescribably terrifying.

    As Xu Qing and the Captain remained stuck in their warship, undergoing the inspection of the spell formation, sixteen coffins shot up into the air from the shoreline. Nearing, they surrounded the warship, creating a formation of their own.

    ck lightning bolts shot out, connecting all of the coffins and trapping the warship.

    Then, the coffin directly in front of Xu Qing and the Captain opened, and a Seazombie emerged, wreathed in ck smoke. His features were difficult to make out clearly because of the smoke, but he appeared to be of human stock. Eyes shing like lightning, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain.The fluctuations of Foundation Establishment were strong on him, making it obvious that though he wasn¡¯t currently in the profound radiance state, he had about 90 dharma apertures opened.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank. Obviously, this person was in charge of the harbor below, and hade personally to inspect the warship. Xu Qing bowed his head to show respect ording to Seazombie etiquette.

    This Seazombie was a three-me cultivator, and after sizing up Xu Qing and the Captain, he said, ¡°Well met, Third Princess.¡±

    Gripping the rail, and face rather grim, the Captain said, ¡°How¡¯s my father, the king?¡±

    ¡°The king left for the battlefield and hasn¡¯t returned yet.¡±

    ¡°Is that why you refuse to kneel to me, and even went so far as to lock my ship in ce?¡±

    The Captain lifted his left hand, within which was a ck pearl that he instantly threw at the Seazombie cultivator. The pearl mmed into the Seazombie and exploded.

    The Seazombie was caught by surprise, but wasn¡¯t hurt. Face expressionless, he gave the Captain an unreadable look, then dropped one knee.

    The Captain had exacerbated his wounds just now, and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Seemingly barely capable of standing, he grimly said, ¡°Take me to the nearest zombie ancestor divine likeness. I need healing!¡±

    The three-me Seazombie coolly replied, ¡°The king left orders that you¡¯re to be confined to the pce of operations as soon as you return, and aren¡¯t to be allowed to leave.¡±

    He waved his hand, and the aura of cultivators drifted out of all of the surrounding coffins. At the same time, the ck lightning which had been connecting the coffins reached out and began to guide the warship forward.

    This development didn¡¯t catch Xu Qing and the Captain by surprise. In fact, they already had a n in ce in case things yed out this way.

    The Captain coughed up another mouthful of blood, and sagged so badly it seemed like he was about to die. Staring straight at the three-me Seazombie, he sweetly said, ¡°That¡¯s fine. If I die in the pce of operations, I¡¯ll just get resurrected. Then I¡¯ll have a good excuse to consume you and your entire little squad here. It¡¯ll be fun. Okay, since the matter¡¯s set, please get me to the pce ASAP.¡±

    The Captain, in his disguise as Third Princess, smiled in a sweet and beautiful way that made him seempletely na?ve and innocent. However, the words he spoke were iparably nefarious. They seemed to conceal profound resentment and madness, and as their import sank in, the Foundation Establishment Seazombie cultivator stopped in ce.

    The Captain was familiar with Third Princess¡¯s personality, and knew that on previous asions she had repeatedly gotten herself killed. Furthermore, every time she was resurrected, her father would arrange for some other Seazombies to be given to her to consume, to speed up the resurrection process.

    ¡°Very well,¡± said the three-me Seazombie. Then, after a moment of silence, he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°But you can screw off.¡±

 Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 3)

    Chapter 184: Strange Seazombie Developments (part 3)

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was icy as he released a wave of zombie poison that swirled around him. Voice hoarse, he said, ¡°Are you trying to take credit for my bodyguard work?¡±

    Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, one of the ck coffins behind him opened, and a Seazombie cultivator emerged, bursting with the aura of two life mes. She had been a mermaid in life, and as she closed in, she released a crushing pressure. Clearly, the Foundation Establishment Seazombie in charge of the harbor really was trying to take the credit Xu Qing had earned from acting as the princess¡¯ bodyguard.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice, but his facial expression didn¡¯t change. As the mermaid closed in, he suddenly lurched backward and mmed into her. A boom rang out as he then reached back to grab her viciously.

    The mermaid¡¯s face fell as the power of Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body power smashed into her, and then her life mes flickered as she tried to get away from him.

    He was too fast, plus his hand seemed like it contained a gravitational force that slowed the mermaid down. In the blink of an eye, his right hand stabbed into her chest, where he grabbed her heart and squeezed down viciously.

    A thud echoed out as the two-me mermaid¡¯s heart exploded.Seazombies didn''t feel pain, but the injury caused her to scream nheless. However, this mermaid cultivator was a vicious woman, as the next thing she did was try to bite Xu Qing in the neck.This, of course, was standard Seazombie behavior.It seemed as if her sharp teeth were just about to bite into his flesh.

    But then, Xu Qing smiled coldly and mmed his head into her mouth.Cracking rang out as her teeth shattered in a mass of blood and gore. As she screamed even more shrilly, Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned vicious, and he openedhismouth and bit intoherneck. He put an immense amount of force into his jaws, ensuring that his single bite nearly ripped the mermaid''s neck in half.

    Instantly, strong mutagen flowed out of the mermaid''s body and into Xu Qing. She struggled violently, but Xu Qing held her tightly with both arms wrapped around her. It was a very brutal scene.

    After six or seven breaths of time passed, the mermaid had been sucked dry of mutagen, and Xu Qing dropped her. Her life me had been extinguished, her dharma apertures drained, and she looked like a desated corpse. Though not dead, shey there convulsing.

    ¡°Ai,¡± the Captain said sweetly. Hips swaying, he walked over to the mermaid and licked his lips. ¡°What lovely fun. But why does this sweet girl look so shriveled now?¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing turned to look at the three-me Seazombie cultivator hovering in the air just beyond the warship. Blue blood dripping down his chin, he exuded cold, emotionless fluctuations as he said, ¡°Give me nine more like that and you can have my bodyguard credit.¡±

    A grave expression appeared on the three-me Seazombie¡¯s face. The truth was that though he had been considering taking the credit for the mission, he had also been testing out Xu Qing. In recent days, Seven Blood Eyes disciples were using all sorts of methods to try to sneak into Seazombie territory. Although all of them had been captured and killed, it was always possible that the princess¡¯ return was part of some Seven Blood Eyes plot.

    If things had yed out differently, the three-me cultivator would have notified his superiors, who would have dispatched people to investigate further.

    Now, he had no intention of doing that. The spell formation had confirmed the identity of the princess, as well as that of her escort. Furthermore, the bodyguard¡¯s method of devouring mutagen also proved who he was, as no one other than a Seazombie would do such a thing. What was more, the fact that he had so easily defeated a two-me opponent went to show that he was very close to reaching the same level as the three-me Seazombie himself. He waved his hand, and the lightninging from the sixteen ck coffins vanished, and the coffins flew back to their mooring spots.

    ¡°Escort the princess to the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s divine likeness!¡± he said.

    Below, one of the magical mushrooms rippled, sending out ck clouds that swirled into the shape of an enormous octopus. The octopus floated over, sent one tentacle to wrap around the warship, and then used the others to start carrying Xu Qing and the Captain off into the distance.

    As they left, the three-me Seazombie bowed his head respectfully and called out, ¡°Princess, your humble servant is merely following orders. Please forgive me for any breach in decorum.¡±

    With that, the three-me cultivator put his hand in his mouth and viciously bit off his own finger, which he tossed toward the warship.

    The finger exploded, transforming into a cloud of zombie poison that spread out over the warship to create a glittering sealing barrier.

    ¡°That sealing barrier will ensure that no one bothers you, Princess. Please forgive any offense.¡±

    ¡°You can screw off now,¡± the Captain replied tranquilly.

    ¡°Many thanks, Princess.¡±

    The three-me Seazombie ducked his head, then flew back down to the coastal area to resume his duties.

    And thus, Xu Qing and the Captain remained on the warship as the enormous octopus ran along at full speed toward the location of the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s divine likeness. As a matter of fact, that was the exact location they had nned to be sent to.

    The Seazombies had nine zombie ancestor statues located in different grottoes, all of which were all heavily guarded. The seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s statue was closest to the sea, and also rtively far away from the royal pce.

    Most importantly, ording to the Captain¡¯s intelligence report, because the Gold Core cultivator who cared for the seventh zombie ancestor statue was required to support the front line war effort, he wasn''t even present. The person left behind in charge was only in the great circle of Foundation Establishment.

    Xu Qing had been hesitant about that aspect, but the Captain had guaranteed that his intelligence report was urate, and thus Xu Qing hadn¡¯t pressed him on the issue.

    As they proceeded forward, they got to see more and more of the ind areas of the Seazombie territory.

    Just about everything was the color ck. There were all sorts of ck nts, all of them pulsing with astonishing mutagen. In fact, this ce was far worse than any of the forbidden regions Xu Qing had seen. The mutagen made this ce like a holynd to the Seazombies, while simultaneously making it a deadlynd of poison for other cultivators who needed spirit power.

    Any person like that who came here long-term would find themselves filling up with mutagen. And if they didn''t suppress and control it, their chances of mutation would rise rapidly.

    However, the Captain seemed prepared with methods that made him temporarily capable of ignoring the mutagen. Xu Qing wasn''t sure about the details, but he guessed that it had something to do with godly flesh.

    Obviously, the Joine incident wasn¡¯t the first time the Captain had gone crazy. He had to have done simr things many times before.

    In addition to the ck vegetation and the magical mushrooms, Xu Qing saw more of the huge withered trees and bright red rivers. The sky was dark, but it was still possible to see, as the clouds had countless eyes within them. Whenever those eyes opened, they spilled red light that illuminated thends. They opened at different intervals, ensuring that these darknds always had some level of light. It was a dusky light, but it was more than enough for cultivators to be able to see.

    Xu Qing quickly realized what those eyes were. When one of them became visible directly above him, he saw that it belonged to a massive, rotting fish. The fish had a tentacle on its head, at the end of which was the eye. When the eye was closed, it was hardly visible. But when it opened, it shone like antern.

    Such fish filled the clouds in the skies above the Seazombie territory. There were too many to count, and they would asionally sink down to provide light, then afterward, float back up into the cloud cover.

    It all seemed very bizarre to Xu Qing. He also saw numerous Seazombies of countless species, many of which he had never seen before.

    And up ahead, there was something that caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to reel. It was a huge area ofnd that had been cleared of trees and magical mushrooms. As the octopus led them toward it, Xu Qing saw that countless Seazombies were excavating the area.

    The part that had been excavated so far seemed to reveal a huge hand. It was massive, being hundreds of meters from end to end, as if some ancient giant had been buried here. As the excavation work revealed its rotting flesh, Xu Qing noted that some Seazombies had gathered nearby and were performing a ritual of some sort.

    After the warship passed that area, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar echoed out that caused Xu Qing to look over his shoulder. Back in that location, a several-thousand-meter-long arm was stretching up toward the sky.

    ¡°A resurrection!¡± Xu Qing took a deep breath.

    There were other living beings in thesends. One of them was a type of butterfly that had ghost faces on their wings. Based on all the information the Captain had provided on their journey, Xu Qing knew that they were called ghost thirst butterflies. Supposedly, they were a native insect on this ind.

    They predated the Seazombies, and lived on all corners of the ind. As Xu Qing and the Captain proceeded along, the butterflies would dance around them in the air. It should have been a beautiful sight, but the ghost faces on their wings seemed alive as they greedilypped up the surrounding mutagen. They looked extremely sinister and creepy.

    For some reason, the ghost thirst butterflies seemed to be gathering around Xu Qing. And some were flying toward him from off in the distance.

    He frowned.

    Behind him, the Captain delicately cleared his throat and said, ¡°Well, my dao protector, I had no idea you were such a thirst trap.¡±

 Chapter 185: Settling In

    Chapter 185: Settling In

    Xu Qing looked back at the Captain but didn¡¯t say a word. As far as he was concerned, the Captain was taking this role far too seriously. The charming way in which he¡¯d just cleared his throat was just in jarring. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He knew that though Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had been quiettely, based on the patriarch¡¯s personality, he was surely recording all of this forter use. One day, they would be precious images that Xu Qing was certain he could find a use for. After giving the Captain a long look, he turned away and ignored him.

    The Captain raised his eyebrow and was about to say more when another series of spell formation fluctuations rolled over the warship.

    The octopus shivered and dropped into a kneeling position as it waited for the spell formation to finish the scanning process. As the ghost thirst butterflies dispersed, Xu Qing looked over the rail at a huge structure below them. It was a very simple construction. There were two freestanding pirs that created a sort of gate. Between the pirs was a ck vortex, slowly spinning as red electricity crackled within it.

    Outside of the gate were numerous red magical mushrooms, atop of which sat a host of Seazombie cultivators. There were men and women among them, and they included both humans and nonhumans. There appeared to be about a thousand in total, all of them tasked with keeping this location secure. Clearly, anyone who wanted to enter the vortex would have to pass by them first. Some of them were powerful experts whose gazes caused a feeling of danger in Xu Qing.

    When the spell formation fluctuations swept over the warship, the sealing barrier with the mark of that three-me Seazombie reacted to it, glittering brightly. Then the spell formation fluctuations faded away.

    The octopus crawled back up and cautiously proceeded forward. As they passed the various magical mushrooms, the Seazombie cultivators on them stood and offered greetings with sped hands.

    ¡°Well met, Third Princess.¡±

    ¡°Well met, Third Princess.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid, but inside he was fully on guard. Given that there were so many eyes on them, if a single person saw through their disguise, they would be finished.

    Thebined auras of all these Seazombie cultivators created a mighty pressure that forced the little bottle in his robe to work much faster to deal with it. If things kept going like this, the bottle would stop working much sooner than expected.

    It was the same with the Captain. It wouldn¡¯t matter if his disguise looked even better than it did. He was still in great danger. Taking out a ck pearl, he started fiddling with it while simultaneously stering an impatient expression on his face.

    Soon enough, they were closing in on the gate. However, all of the gazes were still fixed on them, therefore, the Captain suddenly threw the pearl off to the side. It exploded, sending out powerful aura fluctuations toward the surrounding Seazombies.

    ¡°Seen enough?¡± the Captain said, and his irritation faded into a broad, sweet smile. Because hisplexion was pale, and he looked visibly weak, which was no act, his smile seemed even more effective than usual.

    The surrounding Seazombies quietly bowed their heads.

    ¡°Give me a hand,¡± the Captain said loudly, walking unsteadily up to Xu Qing at the prow and reaching out to him.

    Xu Qing really did admire the Captain¡¯s acting skills. Bowing his head, he took ¡®her¡¯ by the forearm and helped ¡®her¡¯ walk off of the warship, away from the octopus, and toward the ck vortex.

    Compared to the vortex, Xu Qing and the Captain looked as insignificant as ants. The mere fluctuations it emitted were so terrifying that both Xu Qing and the Captain reeled inwardly. However, they had strong willpower and were prepared. Moving neither fast nor slow, they approached the gate. Finally, after sharing a quick nce, they stepped into it. The moment they did, their minds filled with rumbling sounds, and they felt like they had entered a different dimension.

    They were now in a world of bright red! It wasn¡¯t a veryrge space, and the ground was covered with a red elixir that made it seem like a pool of blood surrounded by eight stone pirs. Sitting atop each of the stone pirs was a cross-legged Seazombie cultivator!

    Most eye-catching was a huge statue in the middle of the pool. Its feet sank below the surface, but it still stood 3,000 meters tall, making it seem like it was propping up the sky. It was a blotchy crimson color, and looked like the corpse of a human, its head thrown back as it howled to the sky. Its hands were posed in a very unusual way. One hand was extended up, as if to grasp at the dome of heaven. The other hand rested on its chest. The statue had many undting tentacles growing out of it, all of them covered with eyes. That alone was bizarre, but what was even stranger was that if you looked closely at the eyes, they all seemed to contain images of other worlds. Each world was different, and they added to the statue¡¯s astonishing aura, which crushed down on everything around it, and seemed to create a harmonic resonance with the Seazombies.

    Apparently, the surrounding Seazombies had been created by the aura of this statue; the statue itself was their origin.

    The mighty pressure was many dozens of times greater than outside the gate, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s bottle to start draining even faster.

    Meanwhile, a crack appeared on the Captain¡¯s face, in other words, a fracture in his disguise. However, using some unknown method, he quickly fixed the problem. That said, Xu Qing could sense unstable fluctuationsing from him. Clearly, not even the Captain would be able to stay in the ce for very long. Both of them were deeply shaken.

    This statue could only be one thing: the divine likeness of the seventh zombie ancestor of the Seazombies.

    Each of the zombie ancestor statues were different sizes, and the seventh wasn¡¯t even the biggest. Nor was it the strongest. Even still, as one of the nine, it was considered a paramount entity among Seazombies. The Seazombie king himself would pay obeisance every time he came to the statue.

    That was because these nine divine likenesses contained the secret of how to create Seazombies. Furthermore, they would naturally create the bright red pools beneath their feet, an elixir that was required for the zombification process. What was more, it had miraculous healing properties.

    In fact, there were a few dozen Seazombie cultivators sitting cross-legged within the elixir being healed. The weakest of them was at the level of two mes, and there was one at the three-me level. All of them had obviously been seriously injured on the front lines.

    And yet, they didn¡¯t count for much. What was really shocking to Xu Qing and the Captain was that sitting atop the statue¡¯s left hand, which was right in front of its chest, was a young boy in a blood-red robe!

    Xu Qing had first seen this young boy in the Pearl Archipgo. He was one of the Seazombies¡¯ Gold Core cultivators, who had led the assault on the Pearl Archipgo from the sea! [1]

    Upon seeing him here, Xu Qing turned to the Captain.

    The Captain looked stunned, then smiled back wryly. Obviously, his intelligence report had not been urate. Either that, or some adjustments had been made to ensure that a Gold Core cultivator was watching over this ce.

    Xu Qing stood there silently, musing that he had allowed himself to go too crazy this time, and wondering why he had allowed the Captain to drag him along. This ce had dozens of two-me cultivators, over a thousand other cultivators outside, plus a Gold Core cultivator who could kill both Xu Qing and the Captain with a single palm attack. The Gold Core Seazombie was meditating at the moment, and it was impossible to say what would happen when he opened his eyes. Would he see through their ruse? After all, the mere pressure in this ce was causing problems for their disguises.

    Besides, they were in the Seazombie¡¯s ancestralnd, very close to their army¡¯s main camp. Who knew what other powerful experts might show up out of the blue...?

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing stifled his anxiety and turned it into determination. Gritting his teeth, he decided that since he was here, he might as well make the best of the situation. Then he exchanged a nce with the Captain, and saw that familiar crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eyes. Together, they walked forward. After they had walked about 300 meters in, rotten corpse hands began to rise up in front of them.

    The hands weren¡¯t there to grab them, but rather, to provide a ce for them to walk. As the two of them proceeded along, the Seazombie cultivators on the surrounding pirs mostly ignored them. A few cracked their eyes open, but upon seeing Third Princess, they quickly closed their eyes. As for the Gold Core boy, he didn¡¯t open his eyes at all.

    At that point, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Eventually, when they were close to the statue, the Captain found a ce by the statue¡¯s feet where he sat down cross-legged to meditate. Almost immediately, he started readjusting his position to edge close enough to touch the statue.

    Without a word, Xu Qing also entered the pool. As soon as he was in the elixir, he could sense a strange force at work. It wasn¡¯t spirit power, and it wasn¡¯t mutagen. It seemed full of pure nourishment, including soul power. As soon as it entered Xu Qing, his dharma apertures stirred, which was all he needed to confirm that this elixir was going to be a big help in opening dharma apertures.

    He immediately settled down cross-legged, and after taking a look at the surrounding Seazombies in their healing routines, he carefully attempted to absorb that unique force. He knew that he couldn¡¯t directly open any dharma apertures, as the resulting fluctuations would be too obvious. The best thing would be to just do some stockpiling. If he could collect enough of the elixir, then after he left, he could use it to open some dharma apertures. The number of dharma apertures he opened would depend on how much of the elixir he could get.

    Eyes filling with determination, he rotated his cultivation base, whereupon blood-colored streams of liquid started moving from the pond and into his body. He sent them to his dantian region, and they stirred with such rming, soul-stirring power that all of his unopened dharma apertures trembled. At the same time, an intense feeling of thirst arose in Xu Qing. Stopping for a moment, he looked around, then continued with the absorption process. As it turned out, stealing from the enemy right under their noses... was very exhrating.

    1. Xu Qing saw the Seazombie boy in chapter 164. ?

 Chapter 186: Something Happens....

    Chapter 186: Something Happens....

    The seventh zombie ancestor statue grotto was still and peaceful. Normally speaking, there was never much activity in this ce. The Seazombies didn¡¯t permit breakthroughs here. Therefore, the silence was normal.

    The only people allowed to use the blood elixir for healing were extremely high-ranking individuals, or those who had performed amazing services to their people. Because of that, there weren¡¯t many cultivators present. That added to the peacefulness, and also ensured that no one would dare to make any sort ofmotion. For many years, no member of any other species had ever infiltrated this holynd of the Seazombies. The heavy guard outside, plus the spell formation defenses, would make it very difficult to do so.

    That said, such events had urred on a few asions in the past.

    Those who attempted to get into the grotto would attempt to absorb the blood elixir, or steal parts of the statue. The nine divine likenesses were built from special, extremely rare materials. In fact, such materials could only be found in those nine statues, which was why so many other species were keenly interested in them.

    The statues were incredibly durable. Even if they were damaged, they would automatically repair themselves very quickly. Besides, not many people would be able to not only sneak into the grotto and deal with the Seazombies guarding it; therefore, the statues had never been defaced in that way.

    Of course, if someone strong enough came along, they might be able to harm the statues. However, someone that strong wouldn¡¯t need to sneak in. They could just demand cooperation from the Seazombies.

    Furthermore, once those special materials left the Seazombie ind, they would lose their miraculous qualities and be ordinary in nature. Therefore, as time passed, and other species learned those things about the statues, people gradually stopped being as curious about them.

    And because they could repair themselves, they still looked exactly the same as the day they¡¯d been made. There were legends, of course, that there had originally been more than nine statues, and that the current number were only the ones the Seazombies had managed to preserve.

    Regardless, they were holy objects, and any who came with the intent to damage or steal them would have to deal with the wrath of the Seazombies. After all, if the statues were to be harmed in any way, the Seazombies would see it as a humiliation.

    Thest time someone infiltrated one of the grottoes was a full sixty-year-cycle in the past. It was a Foundation Establishment cultivator who used some unknown method to steal arge quantity of the blood elixir, and barely escaped with his life afterward. The Seazombies were enraged, and tried for years to track him down and kill him. Unfortunately for them, the thief was profoundly talented, and escaped any traps theyy for him. Eventually, he was taken in as a son-inw by an almighty individual, forcing the Seazombies to temporarily abandon their efforts. However, from then on, security around the grottoes was increased.

    The Foundation Establishment cultivator who aplished that had risen to prominence in thest hundred years or so, and had be the peaklord of the Seventh Peak in Seven Blood Eyes. He was... Master Seventh.

    On this day, a simr event was taking ce again, in the grotto housing the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s divine likeness.

    Xu Qing carefully absorbed the blood-colored elixir and stored it within himself. As he did, his dharma apertures seemed to quiver with greater anticipation. Of course, the surrounding dangers, especially the Gold Core cultivator atop the statue, made Xu Qing¡¯s heart tremble with fear. So while he absorbed the elixir, he kept a close eye on everything around him.

    I can¡¯t get too greedy. I¡¯ll just take what I need. Once I¡¯ve filled up, I¡¯ll get out of here.

    Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he started absorbing the elixir even faster.

    At the same time, his shadow was there in the elixir, its hundred-plus eyes open and looking around curiously. Then it absorbed a small portion of elixir, whereupon all of its eyes narrowed as if in intoxication. After that, it started absorbing the elixir as quickly as possible.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing thought for a moment, then secretly took out his ck iron skewer and put it into the elixir. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered in anticipation, and when he started absorbing the elixir, his eyes shone.

    Does it work on everything? thought Xu Qing. Surprised, he secretly unleashed Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, whereupon the totem tattoo on his back flickered and then began to suck inrge quantities of the red liquid.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have been more delighted.

    When the Captain noticed what Xu Qing was doing, his eyes turned bloodshot, and he immediately felt a bit jealous. For Xu Qing to absorb so much elixir so quickly was obviously a big loss of face to the Captain, and therefore he looked around to make sure no one was watching, then took out a little bottle and put it down into the elixir.

    Instantly,rge amounts of blood elixir poured into it. It was a miraculous bottle that could hold a lot of liquid in it, but it filled up fairly quickly. Not making a sound, the Captain put it away and took out a second bottle. In that manner, he personally absorbed the elixir and also stored some in various items, and thus was able to match Xu Qing¡¯s speed.

    When Xu Qing picked up on what was happening, he looked over with a frown to see the Captain looking back at him, an expression on his face that said, ¡°Can you top this?¡±

    Xu Qing was well aware of how crazy the Captain was, and didn¡¯t feel it necessary to try topete with him in craziness. Therefore, he kept reminding himself not to get greedy, and to only take what he needed. Once he had absorbed enough, and once his shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior were full, he would leave.

    That said, neither himself, the shadow, nor the patriarch were full yet. And thus, after a bit of thought, Xu Qing started inching closer to the statue. After all, it had quickly be obvious that the closer you got to the statue, the higher the quality of the blood elixir. As he neared the statue, it was to his delight that he realized he could absorb the elixir much faster. It was the same with the shadow.

    Around this time, it became apparent that the patriarch was the most useless of Xu Qing¡¯s assets, as he was already full, and couldn¡¯t absorb any more. After scanning the iron skewer, Xu Qing put it away, feeling a bit irritated.

    Okay, once the shadow and I are both full, I¡¯m leaving!

    With that n in mind, he kept getting closer to the statue. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he was right by the statue¡¯s foot.

    Meanwhile, the Captain noticed what Xu Qing was doing, and also started shifting to a more optimal position. Eventually, Xu Qing was right next to the statue¡¯s left foot, and the Captain was next to the right foot. In the Captain¡¯s mind, Xu Qing was acting a bit crazy. After all, why had he stuck around absorbing the elixir for so long without leaving?

    No way. I can¡¯t be outdone by my own subordinate. Grrrrr. What, he thinks he¡¯s crazier than me?

    The Captain suddenly took out ten bottles and started filling them all at the same time.

    Looking over, Xu Qing frowned.

    The Captain is being way too greedy. If he keeps this up, we¡¯ll be discovered! I can¡¯t stick around here for much longer. I just need to take what I need, no more. I can¡¯t get greedy!

    Xu Qing kept absorbing the elixir for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn. At that point, he realized that he was absolutely full, and couldn¡¯t absorb any more. Though nothing about him looked out of the ordinary, he felt like he was about to explode. From the emotions of contentment rolling off of the shadow, it seemed it couldn¡¯t absorb anything further either.

    Then Xu Qing checked his Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and found that it still wasn¡¯t at capacity, so he leaned back, allowing his back to touch the statue itself.

    I can¡¯t get greedy. However, though I, the shadow, and the iron skewer are all full, the golden crow still has some room left....

    With his back touching the statue, which was the source of the elixir¡¯s power, his totem tattoo began filling up rapidly. All of a sudden, some ripples spread out over the surface of the elixir, causing Xu Qing¡¯s heart to fill with rm. He immediately slowed down his absorption speed.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes were wide as he looked over at Xu Qing. Then he looked down at his bottles, gritted his teeth, and took out an additional ten bottles.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn... the golden crow was reaching the point of being full.

    However, that was when Xu Qing realized something strange was going on. As he used Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits on the divine likeness, there was something else on the move inside the statue other than its energy and blood. It seemed to be some current of power. No observer would be able to detect that current, but with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, Xu Qing could.

    After a short time, he realized the current was a manifestation of impurities within the statue. Because the impurities had no way to leave, they built up inside. What was more, the fluctuations of the impurities caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to pound with anxiety. The fluctuations were unstable, to the point that the slightest instigation could cause them to explode.

    Xu Qing was shocked. After all, if an explosion did ur, it would be terrifying, and he would be caught up in it. He was suddenly struck with an intense sensation of deadly crisis.

    If this thing explodes, it¡¯ll probably cause a chain reaction with other things in the statue.... This situation is far too dangerous.

    Keeping his guard up, Xu Qing slowly retracted Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, making sure not to disturb that current. Afterward, he sensed that, having removed his own gravitational force, the current was now moving upward, and was more unstable than ever.

    Looking up, he spotted the Gold Core boy sitting cross-legged on the statue¡¯s hand.

    Slowly getting to his feet, Xu Qing moved away from the statue.

    The motion caught the attention of the Captain, who looked over in shock. Xu Qing looked back at him and gave him a meaningful look.

    The Captain hesitated, then got to his feet. However, his expression was one of hesitation and even defiance. He wasn¡¯t pleased with how things had gone so far.

    Besides, this whole thing isn¡¯t as crazy as when the old man did it, thought the Captain. If he left now, and no one ever found out what happened, it wouldn¡¯t matter. But if he did leave, and then people found out, it would be downright embarrassing. Chances are, people will find out. And people will also find out if I do something really outrageous. So I might as well go for it. That way, when the old man hears about it, he¡¯ll have no choice but to admit I outdid him.

    After a bit of thought, a crazy look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. [1]

    Xu Qing was still backing away, and was still trying to wordlessly tell the Captain to do the same. But then he saw that crazy look, and he groaned inwardly. Convinced that something bad was about to happen, he unhesitatingly backed away faster than before.

    Meanwhile, the Captain suddenly burst outughing and pulled a lump of flesh out of his robe. The flesh pulsed with the aura of godliness, and as soon as it was out in the open, caused terrifying fluctuations to roll out in all directions. Just as the fluctuations rolled out, the Captain bit a huge chunk out of the meat, chewed it, and then swallowed it. Rumbling sounds echoed out from inside him and he erupted with glowing golden light. Instantly, all the surrounding Seazombies opened their eyes.

    The Captain activated his life me, and at the same, opened one of the seals within him. His entire person shone with golden light as he jumped onto the statue¡¯s toes. Then, hepletely ignored all the surrounding Seazombies, including the Gold Core expert, as he opened his mouth and took a huge bite out of the statue¡¯s toe!

    CRUNCH!

    1. What I¡¯m tranting as ¡°the old man,¡±es with some deeper implications that Chinese readers jumped on. There were manyments on this chapter regarding this. I think ites across in English as well, but just in case, I¡¯m going to spell it out inly. Basically, by this point many Chinese readers were specting that the Captain is either the son of Master Seventh, or the ¡°Eldest Brother¡± among Master Seventh¡¯s apprentices, i.e. the top-ranking apprentice or ¡°grand highness.¡± Obviously some of you readers have made simr spections. The fact that the Captain refers to Master Seventh as ¡°the old man¡± is the first super concrete evidence to lend weight to this. ?

 Chapter 187: Second Life Flame, Activate!

    Chapter 187: Second Life me, Activate!

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply, and his eyes went wide with shock.

    That psycho!!

    Back again was the same Captain with bloodshot eyes that had rushed to get Joine¡¯s flesh. A loud crunching sound echoed out as the wild-eyed Captain took a big bite of the statue¡¯s toe.

    Now, an obvious bite mark was visible on the statue. The material of the statue was inherently something difficult to damage, but by tapping into the godliness of Joine¡¯s flesh, the Captain managed to bite a chunk out of it. Before the statue could repair itself, the Captain had already swallowed the chunk he bit off.

    The surrounding injured Seazombie cultivators were dumbfounded by this shocking twist, and began getting to their feet. The cultivators on the columns also opened their eyes in astonishment and looked at the Captain. At the same time, a terrifying Gold Core aura erupted from the hand by the statue¡¯s chest, as the boy there opened his eyes and looked down suspiciously. His eyes came to rest on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing felt himself trembling, and his heart pounding.

    Then the Gold Core boy looked at the Captain, who shivered and started backing away. Then the boy ignored the Captain and shifted his gaze to the statue¡¯s toe. He instantly noticed the bite mark, and the missing chunk of the statue. Though the statue was already repairing itself, the bite mark was clearly visible.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since outsiders infiltrated this ce,¡± the Gold Core boy said coolly. ¡°Interesting. How would the two of you like to die?¡±

    It seemed that, to him, two Foundation Establishment thieves weren¡¯t anything to worry about. He hardly seemed to even care that they were here, and would probably forget about them immediately upon killing them. Gold Core pressure spread out, causing a rumble like thunder to fill the grotto with apocalyptic pressure. As he got to his feet, his calm face suddenly flickered dramatically as he turned his head to the side to look at the statue.

    Inside the statue, an unstable current was flowing rapidly past him toward the head of the statue. Even as he had spoken a moment ago, it began to gather by the statue¡¯s nose, where it started trying to batter its way out of the statue.

    Then a massive boom filled the entire grotto as the statue¡¯s nose exploded!

    The explosion was so loud that the entire grotto shook violently, and the sound was even audible outside. And the force of the explosion was so intense that... the nose cracked in two and fell off the statue.

    The Gold Core boy was so close to the explosion that he was sent spinning off to the side, coughing up blood like mad until he mmed into the wall.

    Many of the Seazombie cultivators below were hit by the shockwave. Blood sprayed out of their mouths, and expressions of utter shock and disbelief covered their faces as they looked at the spot on the statue where the nose used to be.

    Then, rage filled every single Seazombie¡¯s eyes, a killing intent so intense it caused winds to whip around the grotto.

    Finally, an enraged roar filled the grotto,ing from the Gold Core boy who was currently embedded in the wall, blood oozing out of his mouth.

    ¡°WHAT DID YOU DO???¡±

    His roar was like heavenly thunder, shaking everything. All eyes in the grotto were now fixed on the Captain. Killing intent roiled!

    Truth be told, the bite the Captain had taken out of the statue wasn¡¯t a very big deal. But for the statue¡¯s nose to explode was a different story. The two things were poles apart. Furthermore, everyone present realized that this event couldn¡¯t have just happened randomly. There had to be a cause behind this effect. Obviously, this person disguised as Third Princess had taken a bite out of the statue¡¯s toe, and then the statue¡¯s nose exploded. The two had to be connected!

    The Captain was stupefied. Considering the Seazombies believed he was behind the explosion, it was no surprise that he also suspected that it had something to do with his actions.

    But I was too far away from the nose, wasn¡¯t I...?

    As the Captain stood there panting, and the Gold Core cultivator roared in rage, Xu Qing quickly ran over, threw one of the chunks of the destroyed nose into his bag of holding, and then dashed for the exit.

    Up to this point, no one was paying attention to him. All of the Seazombies¡¯ rage was directed at the Captain.

    Continuing to roar angrily, the Gold Core boy shot toward the Captain. And though he couldn¡¯t personally do anything about Xu Qing, he wasn¡¯t just going to let him escape.

    ¡°Kill the other one!¡± he shouted.

    Meanwhile, the Captain quickly grabbed the other chunk of the nose, then released numerous seals within himself, causing him to rise from two life mes to three. Fire erupted around him, along with a raging godliness, as he fled.

    He was fast, but the Gold Core boy was faster. A boom erupted out, and blood sprayed out of the Captain¡¯s mouth. However, that was when he tapped into a secret magic to flee again.

    The Gold Core boy¡¯s eyes were bloodshot with madness. The fact that something like this happened when he was on watch was aplete humiliation, and his killing intent toward the Captain raged without limit. It had been years since something as vile as this happened to the Seazombies. If the culprit was some incredibly powerful expert, it might not have been a big deal, but instead, it was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. And what caused the Gold Core boy to tremble with absolute fury was that... though the zombie ancestor¡¯s toe had recovered, the nose was not doing the same thing.

    Impossible! Even after an explosion like that, it should still repair itself!

    The Gold Core boy¡¯s heart shook uncontrobly. After all, when it came to the zombie ancestor statues, repairable damage and non-repairable damage were two vastly different things. If the damage could be repaired, the event would be considered vile, but as long as the culprit could be killed as an example, then overall, it wouldn¡¯t matter a lot. At the most, it would result in tightened security on the grottoes. But if the damage couldn¡¯t be repaired....

    The Gold Core boy didn¡¯t dare to think about that. It didn¡¯t even seem possible. From ancient times until now, the Seazombies¡¯ divine likenesses had been damaged, even by explosion, but they always repaired themselves within a few breaths¡¯ worth of time.

    Sometimes when the damage was extensive, it took the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    It¡¯s not possible!

    Taking a breath, the Gold Core boy again looked at the statue, only to realize that the nose still wasn¡¯t growing back. The rage in his heart built as he continued to pursue the Captain. He absolutely had to capture the culprit, otherwise, the consequences for permanent damage to the statue would be absolutely terrifying.

    Because of the unique material the statues were made from, if this statue didn¡¯t repair itself, it meant it would forever becking a nose. If that happened, then for years toe, any Seazombies who came to the seventh zombie ancestor statue would be forced to relive an outright humiliation!

    What was more, if someone possessed the power to actually destroy the divine likenesses, then it meant... they possessed the ability to wipe the Seazombies out of existence! It was something that was even more important than the war with Seven Blood Eyes. And thus, the Gold Core boy was devolving into mad fury.

    At the same time, Xu Qing was anxiously trying to make his escape. Thankfully, the Gold Core boy wasn¡¯t after him; all of the Seazombies chasing him were in the Foundation Establishment level. Even still, he was feeling the pressure, as his pursuers, more than twenty of them, were in the profound radiance state. Most had two life mes, but there was one with three!

    It was an old man, and the power of his three life mes weighed heavily on Xu Qing. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out from him in all directions. Normally speaking, if someone with three life mes pursued someone with two life mes, the chase would end in a matter of moments. But Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body powerbined with the power of his lifemp ensured that not even a three-me cultivator could catch him easily. That said, the distance was closing.

    If he caught up, and was joined by all the other Foundation Establishment cultivators, Xu Qing knew he would be in trouble. Besides, given the fluctuations of the conflict, it was likely Seazombies from the outside would get involved.

    And it wasn¡¯t impossible for another Gold Core cultivator to show up.

    The mere thought of that happening caused Xu Qing¡¯s hair to stand on end. All of a sudden, he realized that he and the Captain had done something very big here.

    Because of the nature of this dimensional grotto, he couldn¡¯t use an entropic teleportation talisman. In order to teleport away, he had to go outside.

    I have to open some dharma apertures! Eyes bloodshot as he fled madly, he decided that his only option was to try to get a second life me as quickly as possible.

    With a second life me inbination with his lifemp, he would have power equivalent to three life mes. Add in the fleshly body strength from Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, then he was confident he could defeat a three-me cultivator. In fact, if he reached that point, he was sure that he could break through the known limitations of Foundation Establishment and wield the power of four mes, enabling him to fight people in a higher realm.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he reached out to the blood elixir in his dantian region and sent it toward his 50th dharma aperture.

    A tremor passed through him as his 50th aperture opened!

    His dharma force increased, and of course, he sped up. But he wasn¡¯t done yet. Thunderous rumblings filled him, sending out shockwaves that caused those pursuing him to reel in astonishment.

    Dharma force erupted as his 51st, 52nd, and 53rd dharma apertures burst open. Yet he still wasn¡¯t finished. Thanks to all the blood elixir he had absorbed, in the blink of an eye, he opened his 54th and 55th dharma apertures!

    The process was happening without pause; with every breath of time that passed, he opened another dharma aperture! After seven breaths of time had passed, he had opened his 56th aperture!

    The eighth breath of time arrived, and he opened his 57th dharma aperture. Dharma force rumbled within him, and his life me burned more vigorously. His energy was like a tempest that caused some of the pursuing Seazombies¡¯ faces to fall.

    That was especially true of the three-me Seazombie, whose heart was beating with anxiety as he tried to catch up. He could tell that the cultivator he was pursuing was opening dharma apertures at a terrifying rate, and so, he gritted his teeth and elerated.

    ¡°Time to die!¡± he shouted.

    In that moment of deadly crisis, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he relied on the toughness of his fleshly body power to sustain him as he pushed the blood elixir to its limits.

    ¡°Open, open, OPEN!!¡±

    Shocking rumbling echoed out as his 58th, 59th, and 60th dharma apertures all opened!

    In fact, he battered at them with such force that he opened all the way to his 65th dharma aperture!

    ¡°Life me!¡±

    His eyes were bloodshot and he was trembling from head to toe as his 31st through 60th dharma apertures connected with countless threads, converging together and causing mes to erupt around him.

    His second life me was illuminating heavenly pces!

 Chapter 188: Two-Flame Godly Might

    Chapter 188: Two-me Godly Might

    Within Xu Qing, 65 dharma apertures created as many vortexes, spinning rapidly and causing deafening rumbling noises to echo out. When his second life me ignited, blinding light erupted. Combined with his first life me, it made his heavenly pces even more visible. Meanwhile, as his 65 dharma apertures burned, he became terrifyingly strong. His two life mes transformed into a sea of mes, causing the ground beneath him to ripple and distort, and sending indescribably intense heat out everywhere. Because of all of this, Xu Qing no longer seemed like he had a volcano erupting within him. It was more like an entire continent engulfed in mes!

    Several of the injured two-me Seazombies pursuing him were caught up in the eruption, and screamed in agony. Their eyes, which had been fixed on their quarry, began bleeding because of the heat of his life mes. Even the two-me cultivators who were mostly healed from their injuries still trembled, and their cultivation base teetered unstably. Because of the immense pressure, their life mes flickered on the point of being extinguished. As for the three-me Seazombie, he was shaken to the core, and in his astonishment, slowed down in his pursuit.

    One life me was early Foundation Establishment. Two life mes was mid Foundation Establishment!

    As of this moment, Xu Qing had two life mes, and thus, he had stepped into a new stage. Mid Foundation Establishment!

    Although it was a breakthrough within onerger level, in the world that housed the Revered Ancient maind, the sub-levels cultivators had to deal with could be profound.

    In Qi Condensation, the sub-levels weren¡¯t very dramatic. But in Foundation Establishment, they were immense. Someone without the profound radiance state who faced a person with it, could be killed as easily as turning a hand over. It was the same whenparing one-me and two-me cultivators.

    As for Xu Qing, because of his lifemp, even though he had only two life mes, his battle prowess was no different than someone with three life mes. When you added in the terrifying fleshly body power of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, then his breakthrough moments ago could only be called heaven-shaking and earth-toppling!

    mes wreathed him as his energy surged high, causing everything around him to twist and distort.

    All of his pursuers stopped in ce, even the three-me cultivator.

    Xu Qing turned to face them, his eyes burning with killing intent. Then he charged toward them with such incredible speed that the two-me cultivators couldn¡¯t track his movement. The three-me Seazombie¡¯s scalp was tingling so hard it felt like it might explode, as all he could make out was a blur.

    However, he was inte Foundation Establishment, and had immense experience in battle. It was a moment of deadly crisis, and thus, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some blue blood. As it ignited, spreading around him, he chose to burn some of his dharma apertures! Among Seazombies, this cultivator had a reputation as being chosen. Tapping into all 92 of his dharma apertures, he entered the profound radiance state. Instantly, his face fell. That was because he could now see what Xu Qing was doing. And Xu Qing¡¯s target wasn¡¯t him, but rather... the Seazombie cultivators further back.

    In the blink of an eye, booms rang out as Xu Qing achieved speed that approached the limit of what Foundation Establishment was capable of. And he was already closing in on one of the injured two-me Seazombies. Without pause, Xu Qing mmed into him.

    The two-me Seazombie seemed as weak as a piece of paper. He exploded, and even as his flesh and blood sttered everywhere, Xu Qing reached the second Seazombie, whom he also mmed into!

    Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth!

    He lifted his right hand, and a dagger of mes appeared, which he shed through the throat of another two-me Seazombie!

    A head flew!

    Blood sprayed!

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior directed the iron skewer out, shooting toward another Foundation Establishment Seazombie.

    At the same time, the shadow stretched out. A host of eyes appeared on the ground, and the Seazombie who stood in the shadow suddenly felt all their mutagen being sucked out.

    Over the course of seven or eight breaths of time, roughly half of the Seazombie pursuers either exploded, lost their heads, or died in some other way!

    The survivors looked absolutely terrified, and without the slightest hesitation, they fled.

    Then, a shriek pierced through the air as the golden crow manifested behind Xu Qing. Looking around coldly, it flew toward the survivors, surrounded by shocking mes as it transformed into a chain.

    Xu Qing was on the move again.

    He still hadn¡¯t left the grotto, and was still in great danger. But once he took action, his instincts would lead him to ughter all opponents. Stamping his foot onto the ground, he burst into motion, his fleshly body rumbling as he moved with shocking speed toward the three-me Seazombie.

    The three-me Seazombie¡¯s pupils constricted. He had no time to evade, and therefore, his expression became one of fury and madness as he threw his hands out in front of him and called on the fury of all of his 92 dharma apertures. In fact, he even went so far as to detonate 2 of them! With the detonation of those two apertures, his energy temporarily rose to a higher level, and he braced to meet Xu Qing.

    The ground in front of him copsed as numerous skeletal arms shot out and swept out to surround Xu Qing.

    There were so many bleached bones that it looked like a sea. However, the three-me Seazombie wasn¡¯t done yet; eyes shing with madness, he spat out a mouthful of blue blood. It transformed into a blue flying sword, and it immediately erupted with a shocking baleful aura. Locking onto Xu Qing, it screamed toward him.

    Then the three-me Seazombie performed an incantation gesture and pped his own chest. His entire person suddenly blurred as he split into four different versions of himself, each of which charged Xu Qing from a different direction.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    Xu Qing snorted coldly. Not slowing down a bit, he sent out a burst of mes that mmed into the skeletal arms and sent them spinning to the side. At the same time, he lifted his hand overhead, then dropped it down viciously. The heavenly saber appeared, and given his current battle prowess, it was even more powerful and faster than before. In an instant, it mmed into the blue flying sword.

    As a boom rang out, Xu Qing¡¯s right hand clenched into a fist, and heunched a blow at one of the Seazombie clonesing in from the side. Blood sprayed out of the clone¡¯s mouth as he tumbled back. Xu Qing followed, striking him with a knee blow.

    Bone and flesh copsed as half of the clone exploded.

    Afterwards, Xu Qing turned his head and exhaled sharply toward the second clone. A burst of ck balefire emerged, turning into a sea of mes that enveloped the clone.

    As bitter screams rang out from within the fire, the third clone closed in, his eyes burning with insanity as his body copsed in on itself. As his flesh rotted and melted, he turned into a ck spike that shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting,¡± Xu Qing murmured, his eyes shining. This three-me Seazombie¡¯s methods, especially the ck spike backed by soul-suppressing power, made Xu Qing very curious. Reaching out with his right hand, he grabbed the spike out of the air. It struggled against him, but that did no good.

    Meanwhile, the air off in the distance rippled and distorted as the three-me Seazombie¡¯s true body appeared. Expression flickering, he backed up and prepared to flee. However, before he could, he suddenly stopped in ce.

    Then his eyes filled with rm and terror, yet strangely, he began cackling loudly and walking toward Xu Qing. Nearing, he dropped onto one knee, put his bag of holding on the ground in front of him, and then broke his own neck.

    Popping sounds rang out within him as his dharma apertures detonated. Xu Qing waved his hand, causing balefire to sweep out and absorb his soul. At the same time, the golden crow glided over. The three-me Seazombie shivered, his eyes bursting with terror as his soul was extracted. At the same time, his body withered, and his energy and blood was absorbed by the golden crow.

    The shadow also appeared to be very satisfied with its meal.

    Only the iron skewer seemed a bit disappointed. Inside, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior felt a growing sense of crisis as he realized that he was turning out to bepletely superfluous.

    I can¡¯t let this happen!!

    The patriarch simply was not willing to be turned into cannon fodder. Reaching out to the Seazombie blood elixir he had absorbed, he decided that he would find the soonest opportunity to achieve a breakthrough.

    Both the shadow and the golden crow were growing much stronger due to the blood elixir. And the shadow also benefited from consuming the three-me cultivator¡¯s shadow.

    And the golden crow continued to grow more and more realistic, until Xu Qing felt almost like it was made from real flesh and blood.

    This was all worth it! Taking a deep breath, he shot toward the grotto exit. As he did, he thought about the Captain and sighed. He¡¯s being chased by a Gold Core expert. What a beast....

    Though this incident had been incredibly dangerous, it was thanks to the Captain attracting the fury of the Gold Core expert that Xu Qing was able to escape his own pursuers. As he neared the exit, his eyes narrowed, and he didn¡¯t need to issue any orders. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior immediately went ahead, shooting out of the exit to scout the area beyond. The shadow seemed to have recovered much of its lost intelligence, and stretched out to do the same thing.

    Pleased, Xu Qing focused on preparing his cultivation base for what was toe.

    A momentter, he received details from the shadow about what was happening outside, and he was stunned. A momentter, his eyes filled with determination, and he gritted his teeth. Lunging forward, he shot out of the exit.

 Chapter 189: Seazombie Dao Child

    <h4>Chapter 189: Seazombie Dao Child</h4>

    ¡°So, you¡¯re finally out?¡±

    The moment Xu Qing stepped out of the vortex between the two stone pirs, he heard someone speaking to him, calmly and without any hint of emotion in their voice. He looked up. The truth was that he had already been expecting this thanks to his shadow. But to see it with his own eyes caused his heart to sink.

    Before, there had been more than a thousand Seazombie cultivators standing guard over this area, but now they were off in the distance, bowing in obeisance.

    In their ce was a single person.It was a young man wearing a golden imperial robe. However, he did not have an imperial crown on his head. His skin did not have any necrotic patches, and his aura was deep and profound. In fact, his eyes seemed to twinkle with starlight. Though he wasn¡¯t as good-looking as Xu Qing, he seemed to exude a noble air, the type that would make him the center of attention wherever he went.He sat atop a huge crimson mushroom, looking coldly at Xu Qing. Floating next to him was a ck cloud, imprisoned within which was Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had been captured the moment he shot out into the open earlier.

    Because of the shadow¡¯s special qualities, it hadn¡¯t been noticed. It was currently on the magical mushroom, slowly and carefully creeping in position to pounce on this enemy¡¯s shadow.

    ¡°I¡¯m Vastworld, the Seazombies¡¯ dao child of this generation,¡± he said coolly. ¡°Elder Ying Ling is after you, so there¡¯s no way you¡¯re getting away. I was really curious who would dare do something as reckless as this, so I came to see with my own eyes. I¡¯m actually a bit disappointed. That said, you have a nice spirit automaton. Can I have it?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Now that he was out of the portal, he checked his surroundings and confirmed that teleportations were still restricted in the area. He would need to get farther away before he could use an entropic teleportation talisman.

    ¡°There¡¯s no use in studying your surroundings,¡± Vastworld said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you¡¯re nning to escape, but it won¡¯t do any good. And that¡¯s because today, you¡¯re going to be one of my battle trophies.¡±

    ¡°You talk a lot,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Vastworld got to his feet,ughing so loudly that it sent out energy fluctuations, which in turn created a harmonic resonance that caused wild winds to spring up. It was a tempest that could topple mountains and drain seas, which kicked up dust and sent the ghost thirst butterflies spinning away.

    Thanks to the wind, Xu Qing¡¯s hair whipped around him, and his clothing pped loudly. It was as if the wind wished to erase him out of existence. Obviously, it couldn¡¯t. All it could do was move his hair and clothing. It couldn¡¯t move his body, nor could it do anything about the coldness in his eyes.

    For a moment, Xu Qing just stared at the young man in front of him, and at his surging energy. Then he burst into motion and charged right toward him.

    He ignited his life mes, and the golden crow totem tattoo on his back erupted with fire, bolstering his fleshly body power. Moving with shocking speed, he pierced through the wild winds to appear right in front of Vastworld, his right hand clenching into a fist and punching forward.

    A projection of the golden crow appeared around his fist, and it pulsed with the power of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. At the same time, he backed it with the rage of a burning continent.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the fist sailed right toward Vastworld¡¯s chest.

    Vastworld¡¯s eyes contained contempt as he prepared to wave his hand. However, before he could, the red magical mushroom he stood on turned ck, and a host of eyes opened up on it.

    Those eyes contained a gruish power that caused Vastworld to pause in ce momentarily.

    Then, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who had previously been imprisoned in the ck smoke, suddenly caused the iron skewer to glitter with lightning. The lightning symbols on its surface red, and then surged with astonishing power. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the skewer shot out of the smoke and headed right toward Vastworld¡¯s neck, apanied by the tinkling sound of a bell.

    Obviously, the patriarch had allowed himself to be captured, and could have escaped at any time, but was just waiting for Xu Qing to make a move before taking action.

    Now that he was making his move along with Xu Qing and the shadow, the results were spectacr.

    Vastworld¡¯s expression flickered as he realized he was in a dangerous situation. He couldn¡¯t avoid Xu Qing¡¯s fist strike, and thus he summoned a fist-sized jade coffin, which appeared directly over his head. It glittered with radiant light that swirled around Vastworld, creating a defensive barrier. Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into it.

    A deafening boom rang out as Vastworld was sent spinning backward like a kite with its string cut. The patriarch shot after him relentlessly, and a thud could be heard as the skewer hit the barrier. Though it didn¡¯t pierce all the way through, it did manage to send lightning smashing into Vastworld.

    At the same time, the shadow came at Vastworld from behind. A vague tree shape could be seen, and a host of eyes opened, causing vast quantities of mutagen to be sucked out of Vastworld.

    Things weren¡¯t done yet, though. Xu Qing was still charging forward at full speed. mming into the barrier with his fist, he then summoned the heavenly saber and shed it down. A rumbling boom could be heard as Vastworld was thrown back 300 meters, where he mmed into the ground so hard a crater opened up. The Seazombies that had been bowing in obeisance all looked shocked, and were about to rush over to help when an angry howl erupted from the crater.

    ¡°Everybody get back! This is my fight!¡± The power of a single life me erupted from the crater, and Vastworld climbed out, his hair disheveled, his eyes burning with killing intent. After he was out of the crater, his second life me whooshed to life. After that came a third, and finally, a fourth.

    Shockingly, this dao child of the Seazombies had 120 dharma apertures opened, allowing him to ignite four life mes.

    Chosen individuals like this would normally spend their time in seclusion, working toward a breakthrough. Based on what he¡¯d said earlier, the only reason he wasn¡¯t in seclusion was because something big was going on with the Seazombies. Perhaps it was because there weren¡¯t many people left behind in the city, or perhaps it was just his curiosity. For whatever reason, he hade to deal with the situation personally.

    But how could he have imagined that Xu Qing would attack him, and also throw in gruish tactics? By striking the first blow, he made Vastworld lose a lot of face. Now Vastworld had to resort to going all out.

    As Vastworld erupted with power, Xu Qing closed in, his lifemp burning. That alone gave him strength equivalent to three mes, but when you added Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, his battle prowess actually surpassed the four-me level.Without hesitation, he attacked, hoping to once again crush Vastworld.

    As a dao child, Vastworld was an extraordinary individual. Right now, his expression was pure ferocity as he waved his hand, sending out drops of ck rainwater. In the blink of an eye, a ck sea took shape around him, which then spun viciously toward Xu Qing. Shocking rumbling echoed out as the spinning ck sea turned into a huge mouth that sought to devour Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent, and yet, he knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to stick around this ce. Without any hesitation, he tapped into all 65 of his dharma apertures, as well as their spirit seas, creating a 3,000-meterke of dharma force around him.

    That mighty dharma force crushed down viciously toward Vastworld.

    The mouth-shaped ck sea copsed, but so did Xu Qing¡¯s dharma force. And then Vastworld shot toward Xu Qing with all four of his life mes burning, his hand stretching toward his heart.

    Xu Qing avoided the attack, then sent his knee mming into Vastworld.

    A boom rang out as they shed. Meanwhile, the iron skewer shot in from the side, its lightning symbols glittering as it screamed right toward Vastworld¡¯s throat.

    Vastworld¡¯s expression flickered, and he was about to dodge out of the way when the shadow pounced from below.

    Xu Qing elerated, balefire raging as heunched a blow toward Vastworld¡¯s forehead.

    In that moment of deadly crisis, Vastworld howled and sent all the power of his life mes shooting outward, creating both an attack and a crushing pressure. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior screamed as he spun away. Meanwhile, Xu Qing bore the brunt of the force, and his internal organs trembled, causing killing intent to once again burn in his eyes.

    The shadow was also repelled, but it still managed to get a sliver of itself onto Vastworld. As it bored into him, it reached his dantian region, and just like the time when the shadow saw the Spirit Breath Lamp for the first time, it tried to extinguish the first life me it encountered.The life me flickered, and in the blink of an eye, it seemed like it was about to go out.

    Yet again, Vastworld was shaken to the core. Inside of him, his life mes red with light and power, and his heavenly pces even seemed like they were working to prevent the life me from being extinguished. Because of that, Vastworld couldn¡¯t pay close attention to everything that was happening, which gave Xu Qing the opportunity he had been seeking.

    His eyes shed with icy coldness as he considered that this was a moment of either life or death. Thus, he didn¡¯t worry about revealing what he was capable of. The golden crow appeared behind him, trailing ck mes as it lunged toward the Seazombie dao child. The golden crow let loose a piercing cry as it dropped onto Vastworld¡¯s face, ck fire sweeping out over his head.

    Assimte!

    Xu Qing had used his shadow to create an opportunity to assimte his opponent while he was still alive!

    The two opponents were fighting each other with such speed that an ordinary observer wouldn¡¯t be able to see what was happening. And though it might seem like the Seazombie dao child was in a bad spot, he was actually incredibly strong, and it was only because Xu Qing held nothing back that he got this advantage.

    In battles between two powerful experts, even slight advantages can be very important.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes werepletely vicious as he used Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits to devour his opponent. Vastworld let loose a bloodcurdling scream, and his eyes filled with terror as he realized his energy and blood was being extracted. And his head was melting! His right ear vanished. The right side of his face had turned into liquid. His good looks were beingpletely disfigured!

    The other Seazombie cultivators were visibly astonished, to the point that they ignored the dao child¡¯s orders and charged forth to attack.

 Chapter 190: Stealing Away

    Chapter 190: Stealing Away

    Unfortunately, the other Seazombies were too far away to provide any help. In that critical moment, Vastworld howled, yet again summoning that jade coffin. Gritting his teeth, he activated the coffin, causing a sea of light to spread out. And this time, a finger stretched out from the coffin and into the light.

    It pointed to the space right in front of Xu Qing, which caused cracking sounds to echo out. Xu Qing¡¯s heart filled with a sense of imminent crisis, and his expression flickered. Without the slightest hesitation, he backed up, which was when Vastworld finally breathed a sigh of relief and also backed up.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior felt like he suffered a lot in this encounter, and was very anxious because of how many times the shadow had helped out. The patriarch was convinced that if he didn¡¯t change the status quo, he would definitely end up as cannon fodder. Eyes bloodshot, he howled and detonated some of the lightning symbols to gain a burst of speed. A momentter, he managed to stab right through the arm of the shocked Vastworld.

    As blood sprayed out of his arm, the Seazombie dao child¡¯s face fell.

    Meanwhile, the patriarch fled, his face lit with excitement.

    From a distance, it was possible to see both parties backing away from each other. However, Vastworld seemed a lot more bedraggled, while Xu Qing seemed much more at ease.

    Of course, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t an arrogant person. He knew full well how spectacr Vastworld¡¯s battle prowess was. Vastworld was only in this state because he had lost the initiative, and also because Xu Qing had attacked relentlessly and used the gruish tactics of his shadow along with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    Although Xu Qing was confident that he could kill this opponent eventually, he also knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to keep the fight going. Turning, he fled at top speed, his shadow and the iron skewer speeding along with him.

    About half of the nearby Seazombie cultivators rushed over to Vastworld, while the other half prepared to chase Xu Qing. However, before any of them could take more than a few steps, their faces fell, and then they coughed up mouthfuls of blood. They had been poisoned!

    The group who had gone to help Vastworld had also been poisoned. Flustered and exasperated, Vastworld pushed them aside, his eyes raging with killing intent, and his heart seething with humiliation.

    In life, he had been a chosen from the Spiritjade people, and had sensed 120 dharma apertures within himself when reaching Foundation Establishment. After perishing, he had been zombified, after which the Seazombies had recognized his talents and ced him into the king¡¯s echelon. After that, his hard work had enabled him to step into the four-me level.

    Regardless of when he had been a Spiritjade or a Seazombie, he had never suffered any humiliation, other than the asion on which he died. Worse, the right side of his face had been melted off, including his ear. Given how much he cared about his physical appearance, he was now going mad with fury.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you!¡± he howled, rubbing his face. Then, mes erupted around him as he gave chase.

    Off in the distance, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed. He was actually itching to continue the fight, but at the same time, he had just sensed three auras on the horizon, all of which surpassed the Foundation Establishment level. They were Seazombie Gold Core experts, three of them, and they were heading in his direction.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth, while the clouds stirred and winds screamed. It was like these three were causing an angry wave to sweep through the dome of heaven, seeking to punish all living beings.

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply as a sense of crisis filled every fiber of his being. Without pausing for a moment, he pushed his cultivation base to its limits, and also tapped into everything his flesh and blood was capable of. elerating rapidly, he shot off into the distance.

    Meanwhile, a different explosive rumbling sound could be heard behind Xu Qing, along with a howl of rage that echoed through all heaven and earth.

    ¡°Thief! I refuse to believe you can use some paltry invisibility technique to evade my Seazombie searching abilities!!¡±

    Xu Qing recognized that voice. It was the Gold Core boy named Ying Ling, who had been chasing the Captain. Apparently, the Captain had managed to evade that pursuit without being killed.

    Yet again, Xu Qing started to wonder at the truth of the Captain¡¯s identity and cultivation base. At the same time, he was feeling very anxious. The Captain was the mastermind behind this whole event, and was obviously the center of attention. But if he disappeared, then that meant everyone would be focusing on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at his iron skewer. Without any hesitation, the patriarch detonated several lightning symbols, creating a boost of speed that dragged Xu Qing forward rapidly.

    With the help of the patriarch, Xu Qing shot along even faster. In an instant, he was 3,000 meters away, just outside the borders of the restricted area around the grotto.

    As the Gold Core auras closed in, and as Ying Ling howled, his divine will sending terrifying fluctuations everywhere, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment to activate one of his entropic teleportation talismans.

    In the blink of an eye, he started to fade from existence. However, just when it seemed like he would teleport away, a cold snort echoed through the air.

    It was an enormous Seazombie with three heads and six arms, his Gold Core aura far stronger than that of the Ying Ling.

    Though he was far away, he pointed at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Confine!¡±

    The single word caused the space around Xu Qing to be locked down. However, his entropic teleportation talisman was powerful, and couldn¡¯t be locked down by a Gold Core confinement. It still activated, and the fluctuations of a teleportation began to roll out. Clearly, Xu Qing would disappear within moments.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± The Gold Core Seazombie¡¯s pupils constricted, and then he tossed out a pearl which he crushed. ¡°Sever!¡±

    The moment the word left his mouth, the power of the pearl connected to the entropic teleportation talisman, and then severed the teleportation link. Not only was Xu Qing incapable of teleporting away, but also, he had been hit by the Seazombie¡¯s divine ability.

    A powerful will of destruction immediately began to eat away at his flesh and blood, causing them to wither.

    In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing pulled out another entropic teleportation talisman and activated it.

    He had originally possessed three such talismans. The first he used to escape the dragon chariot. The second had just been destroyed. This was hisst one.

    At the same time, his dharmaskiff appeared to defend him, only to immediately crumble. However, it had some of Joine¡¯s flesh in it, and that managed to block the power of destruction from the divine ability. As a result, what would have been a deadly blow only ended up injuring him. Blood sprayed from his mouth as every bone in his body was crushed. His life mes were extinguished, and he began to rot away. As he tumbled away, the spot he had just upied copsed into nothing. Even his soul seemed to be damaged.

    However, thanks to thatst-minute defense, his final entropic teleportation talisman fully activated. The Gold Core cultivator was closing in fast, and preparing to attack. However, the entropic teleportation talisman was a gift from the vice-peaklord of the Seventh Peak, and it had been created by a Nascent Soul cultivator. It was no ordinary talisman.

    On this second attempt to escape, teleportation power surged out, wrapping around Xu Qing¡¯s blood-soaked form. Then he vanished!

    The moment he was gone, the Gold Core Seazombie arrived, causing intense rumbling to fill the area.

    A teleportation talisman created by a Nascent Soul cultivator. And he had two of them. He¡¯s obviously an important person. However, given the level of his cultivation base, my Spiritdepth Curse will kill him in three days or less.

    Looking irritated, the Gold Core turned and went back into the restricted area.

    The events that had yed out were already stirring the Seazombies into a fury. A mad hunt was underway.

    ***

    Some distance away in a wide open space, there were some very faint ripples. They were so faint no one could see them, but the reality was that they were there because of the Captain.

    He was covered with wounds. One arm had been severed, and he had a wound on his waist so severe that it had almost cut him in half. His aura was very weak. His one remaining hand held a seven-colored conch shell which made himpletely invisible, and also concealed his aura. He had vanished without a trace. That was how he had evaded his Gold Core pursuer.

    Yet, right now he was somewhat bbergasted. He had watched in shock as Xu Qing snapped an entropic teleportation talisman and vanished. He had previously been thinking of calling out a greeting, but seeing what had yed out caused him to shiver.

    Gone? He left? He teleported away? I....

    Inside, the Captain was howling. Everything about this endeavor had suddenly gone sideways. All the Captain had done was take a bite of that statue¡¯s toe. How could the nose have exploded? Even now, he found it all somewhat hard to believe. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t consider Xu Qing could have been involved. But the fact that the explosion happened right after he took that bite seemed to indicate that the two events were connected.

    The old man didn¡¯t mention anything like this happening. Nothing so crazy yed out the time he came here....

    Scowling on the verge of tears, he prepared to leave, when suddenly, a bit of pride sparked to life in him.

    That said, if you think about it, this just proves I¡¯m way more formidable than the old man. This thing... was actually awesome!

    Feeling a bit smug, he looked around at all themotion, including all the Gold Core auras. There were even traces of Nascent Soul auras on the way.

    Looking down at his prone body, he tried to move a bit. On the one hand, he wanted to find a ce to hide. On the other hand, he was worried that he might rip his lower half off.

    Worst case scenario, I¡¯ll just leave my lower half behind....

    ***

    Three days passed.

    As the matter festered in the hearts of the Seazombies, they got angrier and angrier. Their mad hunt continued. To them, this was a vile matter that was humiliating in a way that words couldn¡¯t even describe.

    The situation Ying Ling had most feared ended up happening. The seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s nose never grew back.

    Right now, Ying Ling stood in front of that statue, his face ashen.

    A middle-aged cultivator stood next to him. This cultivator wasn¡¯t human. He had two wings. And though his aura was retracted, as he stood there, Ying Ling trembled from head to toe.

    ¡°Marquis An, this whole thing¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ying Ling, the king is very, very angry.¡± Marquis An was studying the noseless divine likeness, as well as the Seazombies investigating the area. There was also a team trying to fix the nose.

    In response to his words, Ying Ling trembled even harder.

    Before long, the leader of the team that had been inspecting the nose came over to Marquis An.

    ¡°Marquis, the divine likeness was damaged by some very bizarre power. There¡¯s nothing we can do. The only way we might be able to fix it would be to get the missing pieces back.¡±

    Marquis An was silent for a moment. Then he sighed.

    ¡°You¡¯re telling me that one of our most holy Seazombie items, the seventh zombie ancestor divine likeness, will henceforth have no nose? And all Seazombies will know this? Is that what you mean?¡±

 Chapter 191: Forbidden Sea Bounty!

    <h4>Chapter 191: Forbidden Sea Bounty!</h4>

    Up above was a moderate wind and a beautiful sun. Waves billowed on the sea as far as the eye could see. The sky was blue, the water was ck, and the high noon sun created beautiful, touching scenery. As waves crested, a group of swordfish flew out of the water in a graceful dance. When they sshed back down, colorful rainbows appeared in the resulting spray. The warm beauty made the ck, cold waters seem slightly more forgiving and peaceful.

    This part of the sea was very far away from Seven Blood Eyes, and rtively close to Seazombie territory. Because of the war, there weren¡¯t as many trading ships as normal. Furthermore, the mutagen was strong, and thus, there were manyrge sea beasts under the surface.

    At the moment, a bluegreen dragon sped along underwater. It had a vicious countenance and many sharp teeth. Because of the aura it emitted, most of the sea beasts it encountered fled in terror.

    Nothing stood in the way of this dragon as it sped along rapidly. That said, if a Gold Core cultivator were present to look at it closely, they would be able to tell that this bluegreen dragon wasn¡¯t alive!

    It was the manifestation of a magical technique. What was more, inside of it was a young man sitting cross-legged in meditation. However, a ming ck umbre over his head masked his aura. His clothing was tattered, and he himself was in a bad state. He was covered with deep wounds, and his aura was unstable. He was injured internally as well, and within his body was a strange ck thread.

    The thread wasn¡¯t physical. It was illusory, yet it was embedded deeply within his flesh and blood, and was preventing him from recovering. All of the flesh around it was withered, and its presence made him feel like his body was breaking down.

    This young man was, of course, Xu Qing, still in the process of fleeing from the Seazombies.After escaping from the restricted area around the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s divine likeness, he was able to sessfully teleport away. That said, he hadn¡¯t been teleported out to the open water, but rather, to the shoreline.Using his ability to disguise himself, he had forced his injuries into temporary stability, and then snuck out to the sea. Along the way, he had encountered various Seazombie experts, but by being very careful, had avoided any dangerous situations.

    The most relevant factor in his ability to escape was that, because of information provided by Ying Ling, most of the Seazombies¡¯ efforts were focused on the ringleader of the disaster, the Captain. Though they were also looking for Xu Qing, he obviously wasn¡¯t as important to them.

    As of this moment, ten days had passed since the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s nose had exploded.

    During that time, Xu Qing relied on the speed of his bluegreen dragon to get him deep into the Forbidden Sea. Unfortunately, his injuries weren¡¯t healing, which was very frustrating. The source of that trouble was the illusory ck thread inside of him, which came from the three-headed six-armed Gold Core Seazombie. Though Xu Qing managed to escape with his life, he had taken that ck thread with him.

    The thread was strong. He had used his life me to try to burn it away, but it didn¡¯t work. He had tried suppressing it with his lifemp, but that didn¡¯t work either. Some of that was because Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base wasn¡¯t at the level to fully unleash all of themp¡¯s capabilities. Regardless, he was currently far from being in top form, but at least he wasn¡¯t dead.

    Eventually, he had summoned the ck umbre to prevent his aura from leaking out. And then he had attempted to use Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits to assimte the ck thread. The imperial-ss technique existed on a very high level, so even though Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base wasn¡¯t at the point to fully utilize it, whenbining it with his lifemp, and further adding in the consuming ability of his shadow, he was finally able to make some progress.

    Another seven or eight days passed. He had now been traveling with his bluegreen dragon for half a month. At that point, he finally managed to eradicate the ck thread.

    The moment it happened, he coughed up a huge mouthful of ck blood that obviouslycontained poison. When Xu Qing saw that it was about to infect his dragon and the surrounding water, he quickly took out a small bottle and collected the blood. He could tell that it contained a type of poison that he had never seen before. Either that, or it wasn¡¯t actually poison. Looking closer, he realized that the blood contained countless ck beetles that weren¡¯t visible to the naked eye. Actually, the ck ¡®thread¡¯ that had existed inside him earlier was actually made up of these ck beetles.

    If I research these things, I might be able to turn them into one of my trump cards.

    Taking a deep breath, he put the bottle away and focused on his injuries.

    Without the ck beetles inside him, he was already starting to heal. Seeing that, he finally was able to consider how much he had profited from histest venture. The most obvious aspect was the fact that he had 65 dharma apertures burning inside of him. That alone made him feel very satisfied.

    ¡°It was worth it!¡± he murmured.

    Beyond that, he had acquired an interesting item, which was currently in his bag of holding. Specifically, it was an item about 30 meters tall, so irregr in shape that it was hard to tell what it was at first nce. Only by taking in its shape as a whole was it possible to realize that this item was none other than¡­ the seventh zombie ancestor statue¡¯s nose! Now that it was away from Seazombie territory, the material had transformed, and it was ordinary in nature. It was gray, and didn¡¯t seem miraculous at all.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to just throw it away. Perhaps he could find some use for itter. After all... the nose was a holy item to the Seazombies.

    He had no idea what dramatic ramifications would result from his actions. He had some spections, but in the end, didn¡¯t think that they would be too severe. He and the Captain had absorbed some of that blood elixir. Also... the Captain bit off a chunk of the statue¡¯s toe, apparently causing the statue to be unstable and resulting in the nose exploding.

    It wasn¡¯tthatbig of a deal. Besides, the Captain had mentioned that the zombie ancestor statues could repair themselves, and therefore, it was entirely possible the statue was already back to normal.

    As for the Captain....

    He won¡¯t die that easily.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure exactly why he felt that way, he just knew that the Captain was not the kind of person who could be easily dispatched. Not wanting to waste time thinking about it, he sat down cross-legged within the bluegreen dragon, focusing on healing and also directing the dragon toward the Merfolk Isles.

    His n was to get back to Seven Blood Eyes. He was so far from the sect that it would probably take a year and a half to get back on his own. It would be a lot more convenient to use the teleportation portals at the Merfolk Isles to shorten the journey. Because he was participating in the war, he could use that portal for free.

    ***

    While Xu Qing was traveling and healing up, the Seazombies were in absolute chaos. Although they had tried to prevent news from spreading about the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s nose, word eventually leaked.

    The news of the matter struck the Seazombies like a bolt of lightning. Once the matter got out into the open, word spread like wildfire. Before long, virtually all the Seazombies knew about it, and they were all enraged.

    That was especially true of all the Seazombies that had been zombified by that specific zombie ancestor statue. Their rtionship with that divine likeness was like that between a child and a mother, and therefore, their reaction was even more intense.

    The fact that their zombie ancestor¡¯s nose was missing couldn¡¯t be any more humiliating. After a thorough investigation, they found out that the perpetrators were two damnable Foundation Establishment disciples from Seven Blood Eyes.

    To mortals, Foundation Establishment cultivators were incredibly powerful. But when considered from the perspective of an entire species, they didn¡¯t count for much. How could the Seazombies not devolve into a violent rage when they discovered that low-level people like that hadmitted such a heinous crime?

    It wasn¡¯t just the ordinary Seazombies who were angry. The nobility, and especially the king, were absolutely incensed. It was the same with their powerful old-timers.

    After the news spread through Seazombie territory, it eventually reached the front lines of the war.

    On the one hand, it caused the Seazombies at the front line to fight with almost reckless abandon. On the other hand, their troop formations suffered. There were some militarymanders who could turn their subordinates¡¯ rage into an asset. But it was a double-edged sword, and without extreme care, could be self-destructive.

    There was no way the wily old foxes in Seven Blood Eyes would fail to take advantage of a situation like that. Once they realized what was happening, they started fighting even harder. Over the course of roughly half a month, they made serious progress in the war.

    The Seven Blood Eyes leadership was surprised by this turn of events, but it didn¡¯t take long for them to realize what was happening. They soon learned that two Seven Blood Eyes disciples had done something absolutely astonishing behind enemy lines. After hearing the news, quite a few of the peaklords couldn¡¯t help but look in shock at Master Seventh. They knew full well that only Master Seventh¡¯s Seventh Peak apprentices could possibly pull off something like this. After all... it was only sixty years ago that Master Seventh had done something very simr. That said, his escapade wasn¡¯t as shocking as this event.

    Even Master Seventh was taken aback, and had a very odd expression on his face. When he heard the news, it looked like something clicked in his head, but he didn¡¯t say anything out loud.

    Regardless, the matter raised the spirits of all Seven Blood Eyes disciples. The patriarch was extremely pleased, and issued a promation that the two disciples who perpetrated the affair would be handsomely rewarded.

    Before Seven Blood Eyes could even determine who the two disciples were, the Seazombies did them the favor by announcing the names. It took a lot of investigation on the Seazombies¡¯ part, but they had managed to discover the identities of the criminals and put bounties on their heads! And the rewards weren¡¯t just for Seazombies, but for anyone who brought in the bounty! The list had existed for a long time, and the number one name on it had always been Sir Bloodsmelter. The reward for his head was very high. In the number two spot was Master Seventh. After him were various peaklords and vice-peaklords.

    Virtually everyone in the top ten was a Gold Core expert. But now, the list was different.

    Wanted: Dead not Alive.

    #1 - Chen Erniu - This Seventh Peak disciple is currently the director of the Violent Crimes Division. He is the mastermind behind the n to desecrate the divine likeness of our zombie ancestor. Any Seazombie whoys eyes on this person should do anything possible to kill him, dismember him, chop him into pieces, and consume his flesh and blood! Whoever kills him will be rewarded with a great dao legacy, will be ced in the king¡¯s echelon, will be given the right to take ten items from the Treasure Storehouse, and will be given 100,000,000 spirit stones![1]</a>

    #2 - Xu Qing - This Seventh Peak disciple is currently a vice-director in the Violent Crimes Division. He is an aplice in the n to desecrate the divine likeness of our zombie ancestor. Any Seazombie whoys eyes on this person must kill him immediately. Whoever kills him will be ced in the king¡¯s echelon, will be given the right to take ten items from the Treasure Storehouse, and will be given 70,000,000 spirit stones!

    #3 - Sir Bloodsmelter is the patriarch of Seven Blood Eyes¡­.

 Chapter 192: Becoming Famous

    Chapter 192: Bing Famous

    The war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies had been going on for about half a year. The scope of the war only continued to getrger, as more allies joined in the fighting. The war wasn¡¯t just being fought on the front lines. Other areas in the Forbidden Sea were affected. Nonhuman allies on both sides of the conflict yed a part, and eventually, small-scale military operations were being carried out in various locations near and far. It was a given that a huge war like this would attract the attention of all sorts of peoples.

    However, no event in the war to this point caused a greater stir than the change to the Seazombies¡¯ bounty list. Virtually overnight, countless species in the Forbidden Sea suddenly started paying very close attention to that list.

    To countless nonhumans and human-like species, Chen Erniu and Xu Qing were now household names. Everyone was talking about them.

    There were many people who were enticed by therge reward being offered by the Seazombies. There were even experts in Seven Blood Eyes whose hearts were moved by the thought of that much profit. After all, ording to the description, anyone could im the bounty, even a disciple from Seven Blood Eyes. As long as they aplished the task, they could earn the reward. In fact, the Seazombies even added a rification that whoeverpleted one of the missions could be zombified, and thus join the Seazombies.

    As a Seazombie, they could then join the king¡¯s echelon as part of their reward. It almost seemed lopsided in terms of how amazing of a reward it was. It was enough to turn just about anyone¡¯s eyes bloodshot with desire. The only downside to consider was the sess rate of the Seazombie¡¯s zombification process; it wasn¡¯t guaranteed to be sessful every time.

    However, given the rewards, it was a risk worth taking. After all, members of the king¡¯s echelon were like crown princes, and were generally called ¡®dao child¡¯ on a day-to-day basis. Vastworld, whose face had been disfigured, and who now hated Xu Qing down to his bones, was a member of the king¡¯s echelon. In fact, to date, he was the only member.

    From that it could be seen how unprecedented this reward was. It also made it clear how furious and determined the Seazombies were. It was absolutely clear that they wanted Chen Erniu and Xu Qing dead. In fact, going forward, it would be difficult for the two of them to travel the Forbidden Sea, as they would find enemies no matter where they went. That was more the case considering that such enemies would hide their true motives, making them difficult to identify.

    It would also make cultivation very difficult for Xu Qing and Chen Erniu, as they wouldn¡¯t be able to trust anyone, and would constantly have to remain on guard.

    That said, Xu Qing was used to living like that....

    Right now, Xu Qing was inside his bluegreen dragon on the way to the Merfolk Isles, and he had no idea what was going on outside. The only way to get information about the outside world was through his identity medallion, and he had strayed so far beyond the Merfolk Isles that the medallion wasn¡¯t working properly. Because of that, he waspletely focused on recovering from his injuries. Over twenty dayster, Xu Qing could tell that most of his wounds were healed. After some thought, he decided not to leave his bluegreen dragon. His dharmaskiff was destroyed, therefore, using the dragon was the most convenient option for travel. It would save him both effort and worry.

    I wonder what things are like out there. Did the Captain make it out? What has the Seazombie response been like?

    When he was about a week out from the Merfolk Isles, he looked in the direction of the isles and thought, In the future, I can¡¯t do anything crazy like that again. Every single time, I end up seriously injured... One of these days, the Captain will drag me into something that he survives, but I don¡¯t.

    Looking down at himself, and then thinking about everything he went through, he sighed. He just wanted to stay alive in the brutal world in which he lived. Maybe improve his life just a little bit. To do that, he needed to put everything on the line asionally to get stronger. They were two different philosophies that he had no way to reconcile.

    I¡¯m still too weak.

    When he thought back to that Seazombie chosen Vastworld, and his four life mes, Xu Qing¡¯s heart filled with a sensation of danger. That was his first time facing someone with four life mes.

    The Captain had revealed some of his aura when being chased by that Gold Core expert, yet Xu Qing was still convinced that there was more to the Captain¡¯s cultivation base than he was letting on.

    But Vastworld was different. There was no question that he was a four-me cultivator.

    People like that weren¡¯t exactly verymon. That said, when Xu Qing thought about how big the Revered Ancient maind was, and how many countless peoples and species were there, he had the feeling that four-me cultivators were probably less rare than he imagined.

    Thinking back to the fight, Xu Qing realized that he had definitely worked hard to gain the initiative in the fight. Add in his shadow, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and the fleshly body power of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and he had managed to crush his opponent.

    But if he met Vastworld again, he would need to bepletely on guard, and also be prepared from the beginning. Crushing him in the same way wasn¡¯t going to be easy. From what Xu Qing could tell, though, it also wouldn¡¯t be easy for Vastworld toe out on top.

    Four life mes....

    Anticipation flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. He was now in mid Foundation Establishment. With his lifemp, he could easily crush three-me cultivators, and when he added in Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, he could hold his own against four-mes. With battle prowess like that, he was already at the peak of what Foundation Establishment was capable of. What was more, his ability to escape from a Gold Core expert wounded but alive was something few people could aplish. Yet Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t happy.

    I still have 25 dharma apertures to open before I can get my third life me.... When that happens, I should be able to crush anyone in Foundation Establishment, with the exception of someone else who has a lifemp. At that point, I should be able to live life a little bit more at ease. And that means that it will take too long if I just follow the same routine to open dharma apertures.

    All of a sudden, he found himself hoping that the Captain came back sooner rather thanter.

    The Captain was absolutely crazy, and if Xu Qing could participate in more missions like this zombie ancestor statue event, then it might not be that hard to get to his third life me.

    Once the Captain¡¯s back, I¡¯ll go ask him what other ces we can hit.

    Xu Qing¡¯s decision was made. As far as his previous decision to not do anything crazy, he tossed it aside.

    I have no choice. My cultivation is going too slow. If I want to open more dharma apertures, then I have to find opportunities. Once I have enough dharma apertures open, then I won¡¯t take any more risky chances.

    With that, he nodded his head decisively.

    Five days passed. Now he was only about three days from the Merfolk Isles, and that was when his identity medallion suddenly vibrated.

    Xu Qing took it out and saw the same old mission list, with the missions constantly updating. At a nce, nothing looked out of the ordinary. However, something caught his attention; at the very top of all the missions was something called the Hero Rankings.

    He was generally aware of the Hero Rankings; they basically corrted to the Seazombies¡¯ bounty list. It contained a list of all the bounties the Seazombies had put on Seven Blood Eyes disciples, including the rewards. However, it cost money to check the list, so Xu Qing had never bothered looking at it.

    This time, he hesitated. Though he was convinced that he and the Captain hadn¡¯t done anything incredibly amazing, it still seemed possible that they might have been added to the bounty list. After closer inspection, he realized that it cost a hundred spirit stones to check the list, and that just didn¡¯t seem worth it.

    Just as he made his decision to not check the list, his bluegreen dragon got close enough to the Merfolk Isles that his identity medallion started vibrating like crazy.

    Messages wereing in, one after another, from just about everyone he knew.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, are you back yet?¡±

    ¡°You are so amazing, Elder Brother Xu Qing!!!¡±

    Stunned, Xu Qing started going through all the messages.

    ¡°I think you might miss this message, Elder Brother Xu Qing, considering you¡¯re probably getting tons of other messages. Anyway, I¡¯m so excited! After I saw the news about what you did, Elder Brother, I couldn¡¯t sleep for days. But I¡¯m also worried about you. There¡¯s so many things I wish I could say. If you want to know the gist, look at the first word, the fifth word, and then the third word of my first sentence.¡±

    That message came from Ding Xue.

    Xu Qing checked the words she mentioned, but didn¡¯t notice anything particrly unusual about them, probably because he was distracted.

    By this point, he wasing to realize that the Seazombie incident was apparently bigger than he realized. As he went through the rest of his messages, he found that everyone was asking about the same thing.

    Finally, he unhesitatingly paid the one hundred spirit stones to check the Hero Rankings. As soon as he opened it and saw his own name in the #2 spot, his pupils constricted. Then he looked at the #1 spot.

    ¡°Chen Erniu?¡±

    It was obvious that Chen Erniu was the Captain, and the name left Xu Qing feeling a bit stunned. It was only then that he realized the Captain had never told him his real name. Perhaps it was because his name sounded so unsophisticated.

    After thoroughly examining the Hero Rankings, Xu Qing took a deep breath and frowned. Finally, he looked back at the nose in his bag of holding. During his travels, he had thought deeply about everything that happened, and the reaction of the Seazombies seemed to confirm that... it was almost entirely certain that Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits had created the instability which led to the explosion. Furthermore, the Seazombies¡¯ divine likeness obviously had not repaired itself.

    It seemed unbelievable.

    Maybe after I left the Captain did another crazy thing?

    Regardless, the fact that his name was being spread far and wide left him feeling unsettled. He didn¡¯t like making a scene. It didn¡¯t conform to the way he had learned to live from a small age, and it also was not appropriate considering the traditions in the Seventh Peak and Seven Blood Eyes in general.

    It¡¯s all the Captain¡¯s fault! I should have just backed out when I realized he wanted to do something like that!

    As he studied the Hero Rankings a bit more, he came to realize how furious the Seazombies were. Obviously, they really, really wanted him dead. Forget other people. Even Xu Qing himself found his heart beating at the reward being offered for Chen Erniu. If he had that reaction, others would have an even stronger reaction.

    Why do things never go smoothly for me? Going forward, I¡¯m going to have to be on guard against everyone. The sect won¡¯t be safe anymore. That said, it¡¯ll be better than the outside. Given how big of a deal this is, anyone with malicious intentions won¡¯t be quick to reveal them in the sect.

    He continued to analyze the ups and downs of the situation over the course of the following days. In order to be as careful as possible, he had his shadow mask the fluctuations of his identity medallion.

    As he got closer to the Merfolk Isles, he used his previous methods to disguise himself.

    Obviously, there was no choice but to go to the Merfolk Isles; reaching Seven Blood Eyes any other way would simply take too long. That said, the matter of the bounty list ensured that he kept his head bowed as he flew onto Emiche Ind.

    Not pausing for a second, he headed straight to the teleportation portal. There weren¡¯t a lot of disciples present; just about everyone was on the battlefield. Therefore, Xu Qing didn¡¯t attract much attention. It didn¡¯t take long to reach the portal.

    Once there, he nced at the Fifth Peak disciples in charge of the portal, then quickly shed his identity medallion. After the spell formation confirmed his identity, the teleportation started.

    Around then, the Fifth Peak disciple in charge happened to look at the portal stone, and noticed the name of the traveler on it.

    At first he stared, and then his eyes went wide. Turning, he looked at the teleportation portal and gasped, ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    Right then, the teleportation light wrapped around Xu Qing and he disappeared.

    ***

    In the Seazombie ancestralnd, in a jungle of bare, rotting trees, was a giant in a suit of armor, his flesh rotting as he sat there cross-legged in meditation. Even in a sitting position, he still was about 1,500 meters tall, making him far bigger than the surrounding trees.

    On his head sat a young man in an imperial robe.

    He was none other than Vastworld. Half of his face was withered and disfigured. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t possible to restore it to its previous condition. His ear was still missing. Gone forever were his good looks and noble demeanor; now he looked vicious and fierce.

    Kneeling in front of him was a young woman in a beautiful gown of purple and cyan. Keeping her face averted, she softly said, ¡°Your Highness, none of our healing items can counteract the corroding effects that caused your wound. Only the king and the marquises have the power to heal you. Except, the king... well, he said you created this problem, so you need to fix it. Kill Xu Qing, and the king will treat you.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± Vastworld snapped. ¡°Back when you bullied the Spiritjade people and plotted against me, you didn¡¯t enforce any such rule. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve taken a liking to Chen Erniu and Xu Qing, and want to zombify them? You Seazombies are a bunch of shameless bastards. Screw off!!¡±

    Vastworld¡¯s vicious expression caused the woman to tremble and back away.

    After she was gone, Vastworld sat there, his eyes bloodshot and filled with killing intent. He felt humiliated from head to toe. He was the dao child of the Seazombies. He was in the great circle of Foundation Establishment. He was a four-me chosen. Yet he had been bested by some random nobody, and had also been disfigured horribly.

    ¡°Xu Qing, we¡¯re not done with each other. I won¡¯t rest until I¡¯ve killed you!!¡±

 Chapter 193: The Captain Did It All!

    Chapter 193: The Captain Did It All!

    Xu Qing remained on guard. In the moment before teleporting away, he had noticed the reaction of the disciple by the portal. Although the disciple¡¯s expression had been one of surprise, there had been a certain amount of thoughtfulness in there as well.

    Of course, putting himself in that disciple¡¯s shoes, Xu Qing had to admit that the reward was indeed enticing, so if anything, it would be unreasonable to expect people to not be tempted by it.

    And then there¡¯s my Seazombie enemy. The... what did he call himself? The dao child.

    If the statue¡¯s nose couldn¡¯t be repaired, then it seemed to indicate that when things were damaged by Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, they couldn¡¯t be restored. And in that case... it seemed likely the dao child¡¯s face probably couldn¡¯t be healed.

    He definitely hates my guts. I need to figure out how to get rid of him.

    Those thoughts were on his mind as the glittering teleportation light faded away, and things grew clear. He was back in Seven Blood Eyes.

    He was immediately met by familiar sights and sounds, the usual hustle and bustle of the capital city. There was a line of people waiting to ess the teleportation portals. And there were two disciples off in the distance handling registration matters. One was male, one was female, and both wore gray robes. ncing at them, Xu Qing thought they seemed familiar, but didn¡¯t take time to think much about it.

    As he neared, his violet robe caught the attention of the crowd. As for the two disciples handling registration, their expressions flickered and they immediately got to their feet and sped hands respectfully.

    ¡°Well met, Sect Uncle!¡± they said.

    Xu Qing swept past them, but then his gazended on the female disciple, and he stopped walking.

    She was pretty, a bit skinny, with a ponytail. When his eyes locked onto her, she immediately got nervous and even started shaking a bit. Heart pounding, she bowed her head even deeper.

    ¡°Your cultivation base isn¡¯t bad,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°You¡¯re not far from the sixth level. But the Forbidden Sea aura from your Seaforming Scripture isn¡¯t on par with disciples of the same level from the Seventh Peak. Improve that aura, and you¡¯ll have a much easier time with your breakthrough.¡±

    The trembling girl offered thanks for his advice, and then he was gone.

    The reason Xu Qing gave her the advice was that these two disciples were the same ones who had been there to receive him when he arrived at Seven Blood Eyes. And this girl had warned him about the dangers of the sect. It was a small act of kindness, but Xu Qing figured that upon meeting her again, he might as well repay her with some good advice. [1]

    After Xu Qing was gone, the two disciples stood there sweating.

    Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base naturally emitted immense pressure, and he also had a baleful aura that could only be acquired on the battlefield. To these two Qi Condensation disciples, he seemed like a fiendish monster.

    ¡°That senior¡¯s cultivation base... was so strong!!¡± the male disciple said, gripping his fan so tightly it snapped in half. Looking curiously at his femalepanion, he said, ¡°Wait, do you know him?¡±

    The girl stood there looking absent-minded for a moment, then she rushed over to the spell formation to look at the teleport records. After finding what she was looking for, her eyes went wide.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing!?¡± the male disciple said, shivering. ¡°Wait, you mean the same one who got famous recently after destroying a holy item in Seazombie territory? The one the Seazombies set a huge bounty for? That Xu Qing?¡±

    The female disciple nodded nkly.

    ¡°How do you know him?¡± the male disciple asked, his eyes gleaming with unprecedented envy.

    ¡°I can envision it clearly,¡± she said quietly. ¡°It was about a year ago. Do you remember that scavenger kid who came in with a white identity medallion? I warned him about the dangers in the sect. I remember looking at his information back then. His name was also Xu Qing.¡±

    The male disciple gasped as he thought back to that same incident.

    The girl turned and looked at herpanion. ¡°I remember you saying he wouldn¡¯tst two months.¡±

    The male disciple¡¯s face was ashen; he was having a hard time breathing steadily and controlling his feelings of rm. He remembered thinking back then that this junior sister of his had acted like a fool. But now it seemed she had created a possible opportunity for herself.

    Xu Qing had no idea what the two disciples were talking about right now. He had given that advice on a whim.

    Now that he was back in the city, he put on a gray robe again as he headed toward the Transportation Division in Harbor 176. His dharmaskiff had been destroyed, so if he wanted a safe ce to rest he would either need to go to his mansion grotto on the Seventh Peak, or rent an inn somewhere in the city. The Violent Crimes Division was also an option, but instead of going there, he decided to see Zhang San first to ask him about getting a new dharmaskiff.

    He hadn¡¯t been back in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city for about half a year. Looking around at the crowds, and the familiar shops and vendor stalls, he suddenly felt unusually calm.

    The battlefield was far, far away, and thus, the atmosphere of war wasn¡¯t very prevalent. Everything looked the same as it always did.

    One difference was that the sect was making full use of Harbor 176. It was now an important strategic location for the transportation of goods. Though spell formations could be used to teleport things instantly, they were extremely expensive. Merchant ships were slower, but considering the war had already been going on for half a year, such speeds were eptable. After all, the war wasn¡¯t going to end anytime soon.

    Elder Brother Zhang San gambled correctly.

    Xu Qing thought about the future profits that would being his way, and was very pleased. That said, he also kept his guard fully up. After all, the escapade with the Captain was going to result in a lot of greedy people looking his way.

    It¡¯s a good thing the Captain is in the #1 spot. And he has a bigger bounty. Anyone who¡¯s thinking of making a move will probably target him first.... He¡¯d probably prefer it that way, for his reputation¡¯s sake. I wouldn¡¯t want to make him lose face.

    After thinking about it for a bit, he nodded his head, fully convinced that his assessment was correct. Now he just had to wait for the Captain to get back.

    Before long, he arrived at Harbor 176.

    The sect was using over half of the entire harbor. There were all sorts of boats and ships present, and when Xu Qing saw them all, he sighed. The construction work was much further along than half a year before. The streets were all in good order, and many shops were already doing business. The ce was far more crowded than before. There seemed to be ten times as many people or even more.

    Because the harbor was abination of three ordinary harbors, it was ratherrge. That led torger crowds, and also more shops with more varied wares for sale.

    Xu Qing walked at a brisk pace, taking in the hustle and bustle until he arrived at the Transportation Division.

    Instead of immediately going inside, he sent a voice message to Zhang San.

    A momentter, Zhang San flew out.

    ¡°Xu¡ª¡± Zhang San knew what was what, and after blurting out Xu Qing¡¯s surname, he cut himself off. Looking Xu Qing up and down excitedly, he pulled him into one of the warehouses in the Transportation Division.

    As soon as they were alone, Zhang San said, ¡°You and the Captain are famous!!¡±

    ¡°The Captain did it,¡± Xu Qing corrected.

    ¡°You two are both crazy! I can¡¯t believe you actually destroyed the nose of the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s statue! Did you know the damage is permanent? I heard it has no nose now!¡±

    ¡°The Captain did that too,¡± Xu Qing said immediately.

    ¡°It¡¯s absolutely crazy! I heard that the frontline Seazombie forces went berserk. The Seazombie leadership even tried to open negotiations with our patriarch. They want that nose back! The patriarch refused, of course.¡±

    ¡°The Captain is crazy,¡± Xu Qing said with a sigh, ¡°and I got dragged along against my will. Did you hear what I said earlier? The Captain did all of it.¡±

    Zhang San was finally starting to calm down. Looking at Xu Qing with eyes glittering, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Any chance you still have the nose? Can I see it?¡±

    ¡°I still have it,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°But after leaving Seazombie territory it turned into ordinary stone. There¡¯s nothing miraculous about it.¡±

    Sighing regretfully, he took out the stone nose and put it down with a loud thump.

    ¡°Careful!¡± Zhang San blurted.

    It was huge, being about thirty meters tall. Gray in color, it didn¡¯t emit any aura at all, though it seemed a bit barbaric. There were countless tiny holes on its surface, seemingly put there by sand and wind, which emanated a sensation of ancient time. After walking around it in a circle, Zhang San reached out and touched its surface. Eyes shining even more brightly than before, he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing, who says this nose isn¡¯t miraculous? It¡¯s from the Seazombie¡¯s divine likeness! Every Seazombie in existence wants to get it back. It basically represents their dignity.¡± Zhang San¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he continued, ¡°I have an idea. Why don¡¯t we build a museum here in our harbor? We can put this part of the nose in it. And when the Captain gets back, we¡¯ll put his half in it as well. Together. With a museum like that in our harbor... believe me, Xu Qing, we¡¯ll be unstoppable!

    ¡°We won¡¯t even need to hire guards. The sect will send people to guard it for us. And the sect will do all our advertisement as well. Our harbor is going to be famous! People wille from all over! We¡¯ll be the number one harbor in Seven Blood Eyes!

    ¡°Furthermore, the storefronts near the museum will be worth a lot more money! We¡¯re gonna get rich too!¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up. Seeing how excited Zhang San was, he had to admire how talented he was when it came to running businesses. After some thought, he agreed.

    They discussed some of the details, and then Xu Qing lowered his voice and said, ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, my dharmaskiff....¡±

    Zhang San rubbed the zombie ancestor¡¯s nose contentedly andughed. It was almost as if he had anticipated Xu Qing asking about his dharmaskiff.

    ¡°Bring it out! I figured you¡¯de back with your dharmaskiff all messed up. Our harbor is profitable enough that however bad the damage was, I can have it good as new in no time.¡±

    ¡°Thank you so much, Elder Brother Zhang San,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Hopefully you can get the job done quickly. Many thanks!¡±

    With that, Xu Qing sped hands, then turned to leave.

    ¡°Uh, hey, where¡¯s the dharmaskiff?¡± Zhang San said. ¡°How am I supposed to fix it if you don¡¯t give it to me?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s gone,¡± Xu Qing said.

    The warehouse wentpletely silent.

    Zhang San looked at Xu Qing, his eyes slowly growing wider and wider. ¡°Gone?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded solemnly. ¡°Gone.¡±

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s interaction with these two disciples was in chapter 47, when they weed him to the city. They are NOT the disciples who died in chapter 67 (those were the ones who weed him on his first day in Violet Crimes.) ?

 Chapter 194: Half Back

    Chapter 194: Half Back

    Zhang San stood there for a moment without saying a word. Then he smiled wryly, shook his head, and sighed. ¡°You lost it in Seazombie territory?¡±

    ¡°It was smashed by a Gold Core expert,¡± Xu Qing replied truthfully.

    Zhang San studied Xu Qing¡¯s level expression and decided that his previous assessment was incorrect. This guy was definitely just as crazy as the Captain. He, a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, was so amazing that he lost his dharmaskiff to the attack of a Gold Core cultivator. Usually... a Foundation Establishment cultivator wouldn¡¯t even survive an encounter with a Gold Core cultivator.

    ¡°What about the Captain?¡± Zhang San asked. If Xu Qing had returned in this state, then surely the Captain must have suffered just as badly. Considering what the two of them had aplished, it made sense that the Captain probably lost his dharmaskiff also.

    ¡°The Captain...?¡± Xu Qing thought back to the circumstances when he teleported to safety, and how he had sensed three Gold Core auras.

    ¡°Never mind,¡± Zhang San said with a sigh. ¡°I¡¯ll make the Captain a new coffin while I¡¯m working on your dharmaskiff. Maybe I won¡¯t need to use it this time, but I will eventually.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, said his farewells, and left.

    Zhang San watched him go, then shook his head and walked over to his dharmaskiff workshop, trying to decide if he should make a second coffin while he was at it.

    Since I have two crazy bros, I might as well make a coffin each. That¡¯s only fair.

    ***

    As night fell, Xu Qing walked along the harbor, listening to the crashing of the waves and enjoying the feeling of being rxed.

    Going forward, I¡¯ll just lie low in the sect until the fuss dies down.

    With that, he headed to Harbor 176¡¯s Violent Crimes Division. As a deputy director, his arrival caused no small amount of anxiety among his subordinates. And that was especially true of the harbor¡¯s newly founded Celestial Bureau.

    Xu Qing¡¯s responsibility as a deputy director was to oversee that specific bureau. All of the constables greeted him with respect when he entered, and there were even some Qi Condensation disciples who took it upon themselves to stand guard outside of his office.

    The Mute was one of them.

    Almost as soon as Xu Qing entered his office, the Mute rushed over, squatted outside the door, and red around murderously at anyone who got close. It didn¡¯t matter who it was, even if they worked in the Violent Crimes Division, he treated them as an enemy.

    When Xu Qing noticed themotion outside, he realized it was the Mute.

    He¡¯s made rapid progress.

    The Mute¡¯s spirit sea was already around 210 meters, which indicated that he was in the seventh level of the Seaforming Scripture. Xu Qing didn¡¯t even consider trying to determine how the Mute was progressing so quickly. Everyone had their secrets, and he had no interest in prying.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Half a month.

    Xu Qing kept a low profile, but word eventually spread of his return. Though he stayed in the Violent Crimes Division, and had a very fierce reputation, people started making appointments to visit him. That said, few of them were strangers. Most were people like Huang Yan, Ding Xue, and others he knew.

    During the half month that passed, the situation on the battlefield changed significantly. The fighting between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies reached a fever pitch.

    About a week before, a massive battle was fought in which Seven Blood Eyes split their forces into seven groups to assault the Seazombies¡¯ seven fortified inds. The goal was seemingly to take them all and then advance to the main ind, the Seazombie ancestralnd. The Seazombies held nothing back to stop them. However, Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ assault wasn¡¯t as simple as it seemed. Four of their advances were actually feints intended to pin down the enemy, not take control of territory. The other three advances were the real focus, with the goal of taking those three fortified inds and then using them as springboards to reach the main ind. It was a vicious and brutal battle that shook heaven and earth. Though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t there to witness it personally, the Violent Crimes Division had reports from the battlefield, and they described everything in detail. Eventually, the Seven Blood Eyes forces managed to sessfully take two of the fortified inds. The end result was not ideal for the Seazombies, and some of their top experts took to the field. The scope of the fighting had already reached a very high level. Seven Blood Eyes offered even bigger rewards for missions, causing the disciples¡¯ eyes to light with even more ferocity.

    Because of how the war was ramping up, interest in the bounty on Xu Qing and the Captain died down. That said, one of the bounty rewards was unexpectedly increased, and it caused Xu Qing to be more of a hot topic than the Captain.

    That new bounty reward was added by the Seazombies¡¯ dao child, Vastworld!

    Bounty reward increase: I, the dao child of the Seazombies, will perform ten tasks for anyone who kills Xu Qing. As long as those tasks are within my ability to aplish, I will do them! And anyone who provides urate clues leading to Xu Qing¡¯s death at my hands will be rewarded with one task!!

    As the dao child of the Seazombies, Vastworld¡¯s battle prowess was exceptional, and he was also rtively famous. As a result, many nonhumans heard about the bounty, and were very interested in it.

    Because of this, stories about Xu Qing fighting Vastworld started to spread. That wasn¡¯t exactly what Vastworld had wanted, but it was impossible to avoid. All he cared about was killing Xu Qing; everything else was of little consequence. Thanks to that increased bounty reward, many malicious eyes came to be fixed on Xu Qing. Shortly after the initial reward increase, Vastworld sent Xu Qing a personal message.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you dare fight me, a dao child? No help from any bystanders. Just you and me!¡±

    Xu Qing obviously was aware of both the bounty increase and the message, but he ignored them. In his opinion, this dao child Vastworld was a bit of an idiot. Whether back in the slums or in Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing had never been interested in dueling. He preferred to slip through the shadows and slit his opponent¡¯s throat. That was a much more clean and efficient method.

    During the half month that passed, quite a few things happened in the sect. One of the biggest... was that a huge museum was being built in Harbor 176. Although the details about the museum construction were kept under wraps, it was such a momentous thing that word eventually leaked.

    Once that happened, Zhang San ceased any efforts to keep it a secret, and instead started promoting it everywhere. Before long, everyone in the sect knew about it. There was going to be a new museum in Harbor 176, and there would only be one exhibit inside. And that exhibit... was the nose of the seventh zombie ancestor¡¯s divine likeness!

    Any Seven Blood Eyes disciple would be able to look at it, and nonhuman cultivators would be invited to do so as well.

    The news caused a huge stir in the sect. And when the Seazombies heard about it, they went insane with fury. There really couldn¡¯t have been anything more humiliating to them than that.

    Sir Bloodsmelter heard about the matter, and was very pleased. In fact, he was so happy that he personally penned a scroll of calligraphy and had it sent down to be hung in the museum. The scroll had four characters on it.

    ¡°Nose With Living me.¡±

    Zhang San immediately sent a message to Xu Qing about it. That prompted Xu Qing to finally leave the Violent Crimes Division and visit the nearlypleted museum. When he saw the zombie ancestor¡¯s huge nose, and the calligraphy scroll hanging above it, he gaped in surprise.

    Zhang San stood next to him, a very serious expression on his face.

    ¡°What does the patriarch mean by that?¡± Xu Qing asked. He looked at Zhang San.

    ¡°Does he... want us to set it on fire?¡± Zhang San muttered nomittally. ¡°Or make it look like it¡¯s surrounded by mes?¡±

    Right then, Xu Qing suddenly sensed something behind him, and spun to look at a spot outside the museum.

    Zhang San was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing extended his right hand, within which was a dagger. He shed the dagger out, and it made a swishing sound. Also, an exmation of surprise echoed out from the spot where the dagger had shed through the air.

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    Along with the voice came a sound like wind, brushing past Xu Qing. Facepletely expressionless, he ignited his two life mes, and as intense heat rippled out in all directions, he spun andunched a fist strike.

    As rumbling sounds echoed out, Xu Qing backed up several paces and looked at a nearby spot of empty air that was rippling slightly as it also backed away from him.

    ¡°Chen Erniu,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°That¡¯s Director to you, buddy!¡± a flustered voice said. And yet the Captain still didn¡¯t reveal himself.

    Off to the side, Zhang San recognized the Captain¡¯s voice, and looked excitedly at the spot of rippling air. ¡°Captain, you¡¯re back!¡±

    ¡°Of course I am. It¡¯s not like I was in any danger. I got chased by a few dozen Gold Core experts, that¡¯s all. Escaping from them was as easy as blowing some dust off my shoulder. I even swung by the front lines on my way back.¡±

    An apple suddenly appeared in midair, and then a crunch rang out as the Captain took a bite.

    ¡°Why are you still invisible?¡± Zhang San asked curiously.

    Xu Qing and Zhang San couldn¡¯t see it, but the Captain only had one arm left. His waist was injured so badly his lower half was about to fall off. And he was covered in countless other wounds, some of which pierced all the way through him. His face was in really bad condition as well. It was battered and swollen, and all his hair appeared to have been burned off.

    Ignoring the pain he felt from head to toe, he forced one of his swollen eyes open as he grinned and said, ¡°I¡¯m just used to it at this point. Being invisible is great. Very convenient for a lot of things. And as your superior, being invisible really highlights my position of authority.¡± To emphasize his words, he took a huge bite of his apple, then casually continued, ¡°Anyway, after I ran circles around those dozens of Gold Core experts, I also figured I should go find the first zombie ancestor statue and pee on it. Sadly, the thing was too big to take with me, otherwise I would have brought it here so you could pee on it too.

    ¡°Another reason I¡¯m invisible is for Deputy Director Xu¡¯s sake. You see, I can get in and out of Seazombie territory with my eyes closed. But Deputy Director Xu can¡¯t. So to make sure he made it out safely, I went so far as to visit the Seazombie¡¯s royal pce.

    ¡°If I hadn¡¯t been in a hurry toe back and find the two of you, I would have gone by the ce where the Seazombie patriarch gets healing done, to see if there was anything there worth doing.¡±

    As the Captain proudly said all of these things, his face was so swollen he looked like a pig, and he was in so much pain he could hardly endure it. His injuries seemed about as bad as the ones he¡¯d received in the Joine incident, although the truth was that they were worse. He had barely made it back alive, but given his status as a superior, he obviously couldn¡¯te out on the bottom.

    ncing at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Deputy Director Xu, as your superior, it was my pleasure to help you. This time. Just remember that you owe me 50,000 spirit stones now. And don¡¯t forget to pay me back.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. However, he did look down at the Captain¡¯s shadow, which wasn¡¯t visible to anyone other than Xu Qing.

    The Captain obviously had only one arm and one leg, and was trembling from head to toe as he ate his apple.

 Chapter 195: The Sorrow of the Weak

    Chapter 195: The Sorrow of the Weak

    Looking away from the shadow to the apple, Xu Qing curiously asked, ¡°Captain, the bounty on your head is for 100,000,000. But an arm and a leg together are probably worth 30,000,000 spirit stones, right?¡±

    Some teeth marks appeared on the apple, as if the person eating it had been about to take a bite, then stopped.

    ¡°Leg? Arm? What are you talking about, Deputy Director Xu? I don¡¯t understand. All I know is that you owe me 20,000 spirit stones, and you better note up short. This time, I risked my life to make sure you got away safe!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Xu Qing said, then he took out a jade slip and tossed it to the Captain.

    That jade slip contained a recording made by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. It clearly showed the Captain prancing about disguised as Third Princess....

    The Captain caught the jade slip, and then a few breaths worth of time passed. After that, the sound of heartyughter filled the museum.

    ¡°Oh my dear, lovable little Junior Brother. As your elder brother, I was just joking around with you! Hey, Zhang San! What are you doing here? Did you build this ce? What¡¯s that big nose you¡¯re standing next to?¡±

    An odd expression could be seen on Zhang San¡¯s face. The nose was obviously thergest object in the entire museum. Ahhh, Captain. You really have a random way of changing conversation topics, don¡¯t you?

    Looking at the spot where the apple was slowly being eaten away, he shook his head. ¡°Captain, you have the other half of the nose, don¡¯t you? Take it out and I¡¯ll see if the pieces fit together. That¡¯ll make our exhibit perfect!¡±

    As soon as the words left his mouth, a rumbling sound echoed out followed by a loud thump as a huge gray stone appeared. It was about twenty to twenty-five meters tall, and was none other than the chunk of the nose that the Captain had made off with. Strangely, there were teeth marks on one corner of the nose where someone had obviously tried to bite it.

    ¡°This thing is useless,¡± the Captain said, sounding bored. ¡°On the way back, I tried to bite it a few times, but nothing worked.¡±

    Ignoring the Captain, Zhang San stepped forward, grabbed the nose, and excitedly pushed it next to the piece from Xu Qing.

    ¡°Alright,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I just got back and I have some work to handle. I have a huge n I¡¯m working on. Now that I have my high-level zombie heart, I just need to get a few more intelligence reports. Once I have everything ready, the three of us can go on a really big job!¡±

    ¡°Another job?¡± Zhang San gasped, looking in the direction of the apple as if he was looking at a deity.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing said, ¡°Will it involve opening dharma apertures?¡±

    ¡°Dharma apertures?¡± the Captain said. ¡°Why? Deputy Director Xu, youck ambition! If we do this job, we¡¯ll reach heaven in a single bound! Both Joine¡¯s flesh and my high-level zombie heart are just stepping stones for this new n!¡± The Captain was starting to get very excited, but in his excitement, he opened some of his wounds, and had to grit his teeth against the pain.

    ¡°I¡¯ll exin the detailster,¡± he continued coolly. ¡°I have to go now. Ai. I¡¯m such a workaholic. I have a whole pile of work waiting for me to handle.¡± With that, he hopped away.

    Zhang San couldn¡¯t see anything, but Xu Qing was able to track his shadow.

    ¡°With two pieces of the nose, our museum is going to be incredible!¡± Zhang San said excitedly, slowly walking around theposite nose.

    Xu Qing looked away from the Captain and back at Zhang San. ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, how¡¯s the work on my dharmaskiff?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s done,¡± he said, tossing a bottle to Xu Qing. ¡°There¡¯s an instruction manual inside. Go check it out on your own, Xu Qing; I need to get these two nose pieces properly attached to each other. I want this exhibit to look perfect!¡±

    Laying himself up against the nose, he started nning how to attach the two pieces to each other permanently.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing left with the bottle. He didn¡¯t return to the Violent Crimes Division, but instead went to Harbor 176. When he produced his dharmaskiff, itnded on the water with a thud, sending out waves in all directions. It looked exactly the same as before, down to every detail.

    However, the materials were better than before. Clearly, Harbor 176 was producing a good ie, as Zhang San had made general improvements to all parts of the dharmaskiff.

    Xu Qing could even sense fluctuations from inside that could suppress a life me. He remembered Zhang San mentioning that ss-eight dharmaskiffs could suppress the life mes of other cultivators.

    Looking at the dharmaskiff, he took out the instruction manual Zhang San had referred to and started looking through it. Because this dharmaskiff didn¡¯t have any of Joine¡¯s flesh, itcked godliness. That said, the materials used to create it were superb. All of the interior parts were high-level materials. It was a ss-eight dharmaskiff, and it was obviously worth a lot of money.

    ¡°Xu Qing, dharmaskiffs are different from dharmaboats. Dharmaboats are simple things, and thus, every time you increase their ss rating, they be more impressive. Dharmaskiffs aren¡¯t like that.

    ¡°The first seven dharmaskiff sses are different from each other, but not by much. It¡¯s only when you get to ss-eight that you get something really superior. This time, I focused on creating ss-eight defenses for your dharmaskiff. For its power source I used the heart of a monolithoid. With that backing the defenses, you can reach the same level as the profound radiance state of early Foundation Establishment.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have any godliness, but I left space to add it. If you can get the heart of a godly entity, then your dharmaskiff can be upgraded to ss-nine. At that point, your defenses, and everything else, will beparable to mid Foundation Establishment! Of course, the bigger the godly heart you acquire, the mightier your dharmaskiff will be. If you reach ss-ten, your dharmaskiff will beparable tote Foundation Establishment. Don¡¯t forget that ss-ten dharmaskiffs are quite rare.

    ¡°I put in the same camouge technology as before. Also, I decided to explore a new direction with this dharmaskiff, by adding a special self-detonation ability. It should make things easier for you. I also added something to the self-detonation that I like to call the Participation Effect. Next time you blow up your dharmaskiff, you¡¯ll see how I participated....¡±

    Xu Qing shifted back and forth between looking at the jade slip and studying the dharmaskiff. Despitecking an attack of godliness, Xu Qing was pleased with the dharmaskiff. Stepping aboard, he activated the defenses, entered the cabin, and sat down. It felt cozy.

    I really do prefer being on a boat. But what¡¯s this Participation Effect that Zhang San mentioned?

    Xu Qing was curious about it, but didn¡¯t spend much time thinking about it. After taking a few deep breaths, he settled down to meditate.

    Three days passed in a sh.

    Now that the Captain was back, there was another wave of excitement in the sect regarding Xu Qing and the Captain¡¯s heroic undertaking. That, in turn, led Xu Qing to wonder about the reward the sect had mentioned.

    At the same time, he felt a bit more at ease. With the Captain away, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t felt safe at all. If some higher-ranking member of the sect had malicious intentions, he would have been in great danger. Although it hadn¡¯t seemed very likely, he liked to be prepared for anything. But now... the Captain was back, and Xu Qing felt a lot safer.

    After all, he was the mastermind. He blew up the nose, and the bounty reward for him is off the charts. He¡¯s in the #1 spot! If someone is thinking of making a move, and they¡¯re trying to pick between the two of us, they¡¯ll definitely target him.

    Xu Qing felt very calm. However, three dayster around evening time, someone who was decidedly not calm arrived at Harbor 176 and headed toward Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff. In fact, this person¡¯s heart was full of grief.

    It was a young woman, not very tall, and obviously quite thin and weak. She wore a gray daoist robe, and was in the third level of Qi Condensation. People like this had to be very careful in whatever they did in Seven Blood Eyes, regardless of if they were male or female.

    As it turned out, this young woman was Xu Xiaohui, who had joined Seven Blood Eyes on the same day as Xu Qing. [1]

    She quietly came to stand in front of Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff, her expression one of bitterness. In her heart, she felt not just sorrow, but deep anxiety. Truth be told, it was only because she had run out of all other options that she was seeking out Xu Qing.

    Though she and Xu Qing joined the sect at the same time, she had never spent much time with him. Furthermore, he was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and was so famous in Seven Blood Eyes that everyone knew his name. Someone like her would be hard-pressed to even look someone that important in the eye.

    She had suffered in torment for months before finally making the decision toe. Therefore, upon reaching Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff, she dropped to her knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Disciple Xu Xiaohui is here to request an audience with Sect Uncle Xu Qing.¡±

    Inside the dharmaskiff, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked through the defenses to see Xu Xiaohui.

    ¡°How can I help you?¡± he said.

    The words echoed in Xu Xiaohui¡¯s ears, causing her to tremble. Voice quavering, she said, ¡°Sect Uncle, I came to tell you that Elder Brother Zhou Qingpeng... was killed three months ago.¡±

    Silence filled the dharmaskiff.

    After a few breaths of time passed, Xu Qing walked out of the cabin and onto the deck. Looking at Xu Xiaohui kneeling there, he thought back to the day the four of them had climbed the peak. And he thought back to straightforward Zhou Qingpeng giving him those ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. Although he had never be very close with Zhou Qingpeng, he hadn¡¯t forgotten that he owed him a favor because of that. The ghostlonging horseshoe crabs had proven very helpful. Hearing the news that Zhou Qingpeng had been killed, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. [2]

    It wasn¡¯t very surprising. Offpeak disciples lived brutal lives, like venomous bugs in a jar. That reality hadn¡¯t changed because of the war. There were always people dying, and there were always people to rece them as new recruits in the sect. That said, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t forget the favor he owed, and thus, he wanted to know more about what happened.

    ¡°Exin everything,¡± he said.

    Upon hearing that, Xu Xiaohui¡¯s eyes turned red, and tears began to flow down her cheeks. For months now, she had despaired. But now that Xu Qing wanted to know about what happened, she finally felt a bit of hope.

    ¡°Sect Uncle Xu, you might remember that Elder Brother Zhou started working for Sect Uncle Ding Xiaohai in the Coastguard Division. He told me that he helped Sect Uncle Ding with a lot of things that never became public knowledge. Because of that, Sect Uncle Ding promised that he would make Elder Brother Zhou one of his attendants. [3]

    ¡°However, after Sect Uncle Ding left the Coastguard Division, he didn¡¯t take Elder Brother Zhou with him. As a result, Elder Brother Zhou suddenly had no one to keep him safe. He had done some things in the past that got people angry with him, and that¡¯s one of the reasons he died.

    ¡°In addition to that, back during the Grand Competition at the Merfolk Isles, Elder Brother Zhou made some considerable profits. At first, he had no problem keeping those things safe. But after Sect Uncle Ding Xiaohai took to ignoring him, people started targeting Elder Brother Zhou. Three months ago, he was killed on the street. I¡¯ve been investigating his death ever since, but I still haven¡¯t found out who the killer is.¡±

    Though Xu Xiaohui was visibly distraught, and was even weeping, her thoughts were very well organized. Clearly, she had thought through everything she wanted to say.

    After a moment passed, Xu Qing said, ¡°Were you and Zhou Qingpeng...?¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhou was very kind to me, that¡¯s all. A while back, I took out a big spirit stone loan to buy a dharmaboat. But I couldn¡¯t keep up with the payments, so I had to throw dignity aside to curry favor. I eventually sank to being a ything to other disciples. I might have seemed well-off at a casual nce, but the truth was I lived like an animal, enduring whatever torment they desired. I sometimes ended up covered with cuts and bruises. Perhaps that¡¯s just what I deserved for being so vain.¡± [4]

    Biting her lip, she lowered her voice and continued, ¡°Elder Brother Zhou showed pity to me, and helped me pay back my debt. I thought that maybe he was in love with me, but from beginning to end, he never even tried to touch me. He just kept helping me. I think that... I¡¯m not exactly a great person. But I know how to repay a kindness. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m not that strong. For months I¡¯ve done everything I can to find out the truth. I¡¯ve even sold myself. Nothing has worked. And that¡¯s why I¡¯vee to beg your help, Sect Uncle.¡±

    Xu Xiaohui bent over to kowtow, but a soft and gentle force prevented her from hitting her head onto the ground.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°I owe Zhou Qingpeng a favor. Let me handle this.¡±

    1. Xu Xiaohui was introduced in chapter 51 and thest we saw her was in chapter 68. As a brief reminder, though her surname looks the same as Xu Qing¡¯s in English, in Chinese their surnames are very different. His is Ðí and hers is Ðì. His surname is pronounced with the third tone, and hers, the second. ?

    2. Zhou Qingpeng gave Xu Qing the ghostlonging horseshoe crabs in chapter 68. ?

    3. Zhou Qingpeng mentioned Ding Xiaohai in chapter 68. In chapter 93, we saw Zhou Qingpeng working with Ding Xiaohai. And by way of reminder, Ding Xiaohai is the same person Zhang San and Xu Qing encountered in 118 and 119. Later, he took first ce in the Grand Competition, thus bing a conve disciple (and arousing the disdain of Third Elder). That was in chapter 128. ?

    4. If you go back to read chapter 68, you¡¯ll find that Xu Xiaohui¡¯s circumstances were hinted at/foreshadowed there. ?

 Chapter 196: Erniuâ€™s Secret

    Chapter 196: Erniu¡¯s Secret

    Xu Qing¡¯s words moved Xu Xiaohui more deeply than anything in months. She had not lied at all; everything she told him was true. The only things she had left out were the bitterness and pain she had experienced during the months in which she had personally investigated Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s death. And she didn¡¯t mention how she felt absolutely no sense of belonging in Seven Blood Eyes. She didn¡¯t hate the sect. But she didn¡¯t understand how a good person like Elder Brother Zhou could be killed so suddenly. In the end, she wanted to do everything she could to repay the kindness he had shown her.

    Sometimes she had asked herself if everything she was doing was worth it.... All she knew was that if she gave up, it would mean abandoning what little bit of warmth remained in her heart. Ever sinceing to Seven Blood Eyes, that little bit of warmth had been precious to her. She didn¡¯t want to give it up.

    Even though Xu Qing gently prevented her from kowtowing, she still remained in a kneeling position. From the look of it, to someone as weak as her, kneeling provided a sense of safety.

    Inside, Xu Qing sighed deeply. Taking out his identity medallion, he found someone in his contacts and sent a voice message.

    ¡°Come see me.¡±

    Shortly thereafter, an emaciated figure sped out of the night toward Xu Qing.

    When Xu Xiaohui sensed this person¡¯s presence, her pupils constricted. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a kid in a gray daoist robe, beneath which was a dog skin jerkin. The jerkin made the robe seem full and bulging. However, the kid¡¯s eyes were cold, and he emanated a baleful aura that would make anyone who looked at him shiver. Xu Xiaohui inhaled sharply. She had heard about this person who liked to wear a dog skin jerkin under his daoist robe.

    He was the Mute, and over the past half a year, had earned quite a reputation for himself. Simr to Xu Qing, he had risen to prominence in the Violent Crimes Division, and was known for his cruel and vicious methods. He had ughtered a lot of criminals, and though he was only in the seventh level of Qi Condensation, he had felled quite a few cultivators from smaller organizations who were in the ninth level of Qi Condensation. And that was because the Mute was more willing to put his life on the line than any ouw. It was as if, to him, risking his life wasn¡¯t a big deal. Once he set his eyes on an enemy, either they died, or he died. That was his attitude.

    Upon seeing the Mute running toward them, Xu Xiaohui immediately felt frightened.

    The Mute nced at Xu Xiaohui, then knelt in front of Xu Qing, his expression one of fanaticism and joy.

    ¡°Go look into the death of Zhou Qingpeng,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°If you need to know the details, ask her using a jade slip.¡± He pointed at Xu Xiaohui.

    The Mute nodded firmly, then turned and left. He didn¡¯t ask a single question of Xu Xiaohui. Apparently, he felt that asking others about the incident would make himself seem ipetent.

    Xu Qing watched the Mute go, then stood there quietly, waiting.

    Dusk had passed, and the lingering glow of sunset was reced by inky ckness. The moon was hardly visible. Night hade.

    Xu Qing had picked a special berth in the harbor. Regardless of whether it was daytime or nighttime, things were quiet.

    The Mute didn¡¯t keep Xu Qing waiting for long. His entire investigation only took about two incense sticks¡¯ worth of time. Returning, he knelt and solemnly offered Xu Qing a jade slip.

    Xu Xiaohui had spent months investigating this matter, and had paid an enormous price to do so. But the Mute took two incense sticks¡¯ worth of time. Of course, it was a result of his ce in Violent Crimes Division.

    As Xu Xiaohui waited, trembling, Xu Qing examined the contents of the jade slip. It contained all of the details of Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s death, including what led to it. Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that. He just wanted to know who the guilty party was.

    The killer wasn¡¯t from the Seventh Peak. His name was Li Zelin, and he was an Offpeak disciple from the First Peak. He was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and he was a grim killer. ording to the jade slip, he was implicated in the deaths of at least eleven other Offpeak disciples. However, he was careful. He always went into other districts of the city to kill other disciples, and was always very specific about who he targeted. Because of that, he never became the subject of investigation.

    These sorts of things happened all the time in Seven Blood Eyes. As long as a disciple didn¡¯t go too far, and as long as they didn¡¯t attract the attention of any powerful experts, then the sect didn¡¯t care and nothing would happen to them.

    This situation with Zhou Qingpeng was a perfect example. If it wasn¡¯t for Xu Qing owing him a favor, then he would have died and the matter would have ended.

    The Mute had done a good job. In addition to all the details about the incident and the killer, he also had all the information about Li Zelin¡¯swork of rtionships.

    ¡°He was taken in as an attendant by Wu Jianwu from the First Peak. Just this evening, Wu Jianwu epted an invitation from an unknown individual to meet at the Dreamsense Mansion. Li Zelin is currently standing guard outside there.¡± [1]

    Nodding, Xu Qing handed the jade slip to the nervous Xu Xiaohui.

    She epted it and looked at the contents, then started breathing heavily. That was especially the case when she got to the end of the report. She looked up at Xu Qing, her face full of bitterness and hesitation.

    ¡°Sect Uncle Xu, this....¡±

    Although the jade slip revealed the identity of the killer, given who Li Zelin was, Xu Xiaohui wasn¡¯t sure if Xu Qing would continue to help.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Xu Qing said, his expression the same as ever.

    The Mute led the way, and Xu Qing followed. Xu Xiaohui gaped as Xu Qing walked past her. Then she took a deep breath, calmed her heart, and followed.

    ***

    Dreamsense Mansion was a restaurant.

    In fact, it was one of the most famous restaurants in the Port District. It was veryrge, and usually drew big crowds. It was clearly on a higher level than the restaurants run by the Coastguard Division.

    That became especially obvious when you looked at the menu. They specialized in spirit food. When you ate food like that, it would strengthen your fleshly body and help purge mutagen. Although such benefits were fractional, they were also incremental, and could lead to significant improvements over time.

    On the second floor of Dreamsense Mansion, inside an extravagantly decorated private dining room, three people sat around a table.

    If Xu Qing were present, he would recognize all of them.

    The first was Wu Jianwu from the First Peak. Seated opposite him was the Captain, who looked a bit pale in the face. The Captain was no longer invisible, and was back in one piece. All of his injuries had been healed. The third person, who sat there heaving sighs, was none other than the innkeeper from nkspring Way. [2]

    Truth be told, those three weren¡¯t the only ones present. There was also a snake. It was an anaconda, currently draping from the rafters. She swayed back and forth, almost as if bored and trying to amuse herself. asionally she would stick her tongue out at the Captain, or make a few cooing sounds as if to ask a question.

    Grinning, the Captain looked at the anaconda and said, ¡°Ling¡¯er, are you thinking about a certain someone?¡±

    ¡°Coo. Coooo!¡±

    ¡°How about this,¡± the Captain said, looking very innocent. ¡°Give me ten bottles of that mutagen mist you harvested. Do that, and I¡¯ll call the little punk over here and have him spend a whole evening with you. That¡¯s fair, right?¡±

    The anaconda¡¯s eyes lit up, but not before the old innkeeper jumped into the conversation.

    ¡°You¡¯re pushing it, Chen Erniu! If you want to cheat me, fine. But don¡¯t even think about cheating the girl!!¡±

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu looked coldly at the Captain, picked up a jug of alcohol, and took a drink. Then he coolly said, ¡°If the heart of the just fills with greed, the day shalle in which he bleeds!¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times, then took an apple out and started eating it. Smiling enigmatically at Wu Jianwu, he said, ¡°I know you just came out of seclusion, Little Jianjian, so you don¡¯t know what¡¯s been going on, and you have no idea how strong I¡¯ve be. But let me tell you: if I was Sect Granduncle, I¡¯d beat the living daylights out of you until you talked like a normal person.¡± [3]

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he replied, ¡°Make eyes and wink, look mysterious; heavenly lightning strikes heroes delirious!¡±

    Smiling broadly, the Captain said, ¡°You can stop talking now. I promised Sect Granduncle that I¡¯d stop beating his apprentices. So don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯ty a hand on you.¡± [4]

    The innkeeper face palmed. ¡°Alright, enough. I invited the two of you here today for three reasons. Let me exin so I can leave. Just being around you two is annoying....

    ¡°First. Wu Jianwu, the time limit your Master promised me is almost up. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t stick around in Seven Blood Eyes. So before I leave, I want the seals on the inn strengthened. Tell your Master to hurry up and send people to help. Otherwise, who knows what might happen.

    ¡°Second. Chen Erniu, I can strengthen your seals three more times. After that, you need to think of another suppression method. Ideally, something strong like godliness. Otherwise... if the thinges to life, you might not be you any longer.¡± The innkeeper gave the Captain a very meaningful look.

    The Captain looked back with his usual smile, as though he wasn¡¯t worried about anything at all. That said, if Xu Qing was here, his familiarity with the Captain would allow him to instantly notice that, after hearing the innkeeper¡¯s words, the Captain stopped eating his apple.

    ¡°Third. Like I said before, I need to leave for a time. Ling¡¯er needs to reach Foundation Establishment. She¡¯s a special girl, and thus, I need to take her to her ancestralnd. I probably won¡¯t be back for a few years.¡±

    Shaking her head, the snake looked at the old innkeeper and said, ¡°Coo, coooo!¡±

    The innkeeper red back at her. ¡°You¡¯re still stuck up on that Xu brat? Aren¡¯t you worried at all that he might eat you?¡±

    ¡°Cooo!!¡± the snake said, ring and not backing down an inch.

    Seeing the snake like that, the old innkeeper sighed, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen.

    The Captain cleared this throat and cast an encouraging nce at the snake. ¡°That brat Xu Qing isn¡¯t bad at all. He and Ling¡¯er would make a good pair.¡±

    Ling¡¯er looked very happy, and began swaying back and forth. She even spat out a mist-filled bottle for the Captain.

    Smiling, the Captain took the bottle and put it in the fold of his robe. ¡°Definitely a good pair. In fact, I think that Xu Qing would make the perfect consort for Ling¡¯er.¡±

    ¡°Cooo?¡± Ling¡¯er said curiously, obviously not sure of what a ¡®consort¡¯ was.

    The Captain was about to offer an exnation when Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes went wide. It happened when the Captain said ¡®Xu Qing.¡¯ At that moment, Wu Jianwu went from lounging in his chair to sitting very rigidly. Looking serious, he said, ¡°Who under heaven could match the description; could it be that person from the past?¡±

    The Captain and the innkeeper looked at each other.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡±

    Wu Jianwu seemed to get even more anxious. Struggling to breathe steadily, he gritted his teeth and gushed, ¡°You mentioned Xu Qing. Do you mean the same Xu Qing from the Seventh Peak who¡¯s in Foundation Establishment and recently made a big stir? The one who¡¯s extremely good-looking? Is that the person you mean?¡±

    Yet again smiling enigmatically, the Captain said, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the one. Xu Qing. He¡¯s one of my deputy directors. You know him?¡±

    Wu Jianwu snorted and began, ¡°Through the ancient ages, I know him not; heaven¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t know him, then fine,¡± the Captain interrupted. ¡°Regardless, he¡¯s back. Why don¡¯t I call him over? You can meet him! Or I can take you over to his ce.¡±

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes went wide. Taking a deep breath, he got to his feet. ¡°I have a pill brewing at home, how could I go; if we¡¯re connected by destiny, we¡¯ll meet one day.¡±

    With that, he turned to leave. However, before he could, a shocking pressure suddenly weighed down on the private room,ing from the street.

    The fluctuations caused Wu Jianwu¡¯s face to fall and Ling¡¯ers eyes to go wide. As one, they looked out the window to the street.

    1. West saw Wu Jianwu in chapter 148. ?

    2. It¡¯s worth mentioning that we¡¯ve known for a long time the innkeeper has connections both to the First Peak and the Captain. The first hint was in chapter 61, and it was also mentioned in chapter 97. ?

    3. In the nickname the Captain uses, ¡°Jianjian¡± is a repetition of the ¡°Jian¡± character in Wu Jianwu¡¯s name, which means sword. However, another verymon word with the exact same pronunciation means ¡°slut¡± or ¡°slutty.¡± Because of that, and also just because of how funny it sounds in general, the nickname Little Jianjian is very humorous. ?

    4. I think the context makes it fairly obvious, but the sect granducle mentioned here would, by implication, be the peaklord of the First Peak. ?

 Chapter 197: Like an Emperor in the Shadows

    Chapter 197: Like an Emperor in the Shadows

    The night was deep. The moonlight was cold. The rain fell gently.

    The moon was like a silver te in the sky, casting down cold rays of light that merged with the rain and cast a cold glow over the Seven Blood Eyes Port District. And eventually, it reached the eaves outside the Dreamsense Mansion. Raindrops were pearls on a string, and the strings formed sheets. The moonlight couldn¡¯t be avoided, and cast dim shadows. It was like a scroll painting of people in the night, especially the rarebination of the rain and the moon.

    Walking through the murky streets was a person with a gray daoist robe and a white umbre. It was impossible to see who was under the umbre, but they were slender and stood straight. The aura this person emanated caused the rain around them to turn into a mist that they walked through. The soles of their shoes left ripples as they walked, creating small circles that widened outward.

    The person with the umbre was apanied by two other individuals, who followed along in the shadows of the eaves. One of them also had an umbre, the other ignored the rain. This neer was Xu Qing, and the people following in the shadows were the Mute and Xu Xiaohui.

    It was nighttime, but in a bustling area like this, merriment had only just begun. The shops on either side of the street were busy. People ate and drank,ughter rang out, and yful, flirtatious banter could be heard everywhere. Quite a few disciples with powerful auras were gathered here, as though to keep watch over certain shops. Obviously, they were attendants to the important people enjoying themselves in the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s target was here.

    Li Zelin was a skinny young man lounging beneath the eaves of Dreamsense Mansion. He was chatting with a female disciple, but then his expression flickered and he looked up the street.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one. Virtually all of the shops on the street suddenly went silent.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t release fluctuations from his cultivation base. But his baleful aura, backed by his 65 dharma apertures, ensured that everyone who noticed him was shocked. Countless eyes suddenly became fixed on him. As everyone watched him, Xu Qing expressionlessly approached Dreamsense Mansion.

    As he did, a window on the second floor opened, and an anaconda stuck her head out. She made a few happy cooing sounds, which prompted Xu Qing to tilt the umbre to the side and look up.

    He smiled.

    That smile caused the anaconda to cut short her cooing. Her body suddenly seemed to go a bit limp, and she was about to slide all the way out of the window when the old innkeeper grabbed her. At the same time, he cast an angry, wary nce at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked away from them to the trembling Li Zelin standing beneath the eaves of Dreamsense Mansion.

    Li Zelin was bursting with anxiety; he was panting so hard he could barely breathe, and his eyes stung as he looked at Xu Qing. It seemed like he was looking at a god, around whom the very air distorted. It was like this person was a massive vortex, slowly spinning and spinning as it prepared to devour him. Li Zelin¡¯s terror and astonishment were so intense that he felt himself going mad. He shook violently, and his flesh and blood were screaming at him that he was in incredible danger.

    That was because... he didn¡¯t just recognize Xu Qing. He also realized that Xu Xiaohui was with him, her eyes burning with hatred.

    Xu Xiaohui had been there three months ago when he cut down thatckey Zhou Qingpeng. Later, he hade to realize someone was investigating Zhou Qingpeng¡¯s death. After asking around, he found out it was Xu Xiaohui, the same girl who had stood around as helpless as a wounded deer when her friend was killed.

    To Li Zelin, people who were so weak he could kill them with a single p weren¡¯t even worth paying attention to. However, seeing that Xu Xiaohui was so intent on her investigation, he¡¯d pretended to help, then had some fun with her. Afterward, he found her disgusting and drove her away.

    But right now, he was trembling to his core. Everyone in the sect knew who Xu Qing was. Back when Li Zelin killed Zhou Qingpeng, he knew that Zhou Qingpeng had joined the sect on the same day as Xu Qing. But in Seven Blood Eyes, that kind of thing wasn¡¯t important. Disciples were venomous bugs in a jar, and didn¡¯t bother developing friendships.

    Even now, Li Zelin had trouble believing this was really happening. In fact, he was trying to convince himself that Xu Qing hade here for some other reason. Trembling, he sped hands in greeting.

    ¡°W-well... well met... Sect Uncle Xu.¡±

    ¡°Is that him?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking over at the Mute and Xu Xiaohui.

    The Mute nodded. Xu Xiaohui ground her teeth as she looked hatefully at Li Zelin. The moment she¡¯d seen his name in that jade slip, she realized how much of a fool she¡¯d been. She nodded her head angrily.

    Upon seeing that, Li Zelin¡¯s heart started pounding, and he instinctively started backing up. ¡°Milord! Help! I¡ª¡±

    Before he could say anything else, a ck iron skewer shot from Xu Qing into his neck.

    The power of lightning within it instantly destroyed Li Zelin¡¯s soul, and cracks spread out over his skin, like his body was about to copse. The power of the iron skewer seemed to provoke lighting from the sky. In the blink of an eye, a massive lightning bolt shot down, like a silver snake, to smash into Li Zelin¡¯s corpse.

    A boom rang out, and the body exploded, bing countless chunks of charred, smoking flesh, whichnded hissing onto the rain-soaked street. It was an absolutely shocking scene that caused waves of astonishment to fill the hearts of all onlookers.

    It was a given that a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be able to kill a Qi Condensation disciple with ease. But Xu Qing¡¯s methods were simply spectacr. He actually caused lightning to fall from heaven, and that was enough to leave everyone stupefied.

    The skewer flew back to Xu Qing and hovered behind him, blending into the shadows.

    That also caused the onlookers to tremble.

    As silence prevailed, Xu Qing prepared to leave. However, it was at that moment that a quizzical voice emerged from the second-floor window that Ling¡¯er had opened.

    ¡°Aiya, Little Jianjian. Wasn¡¯t that guy one of your attendants? And wasn¡¯t he just calling for help?¡±

    The voice belonged to the Captain.

    When Xu Qing looked at the anaconda and the innkeeper earlier, he had noticed the two familiar individuals inside the private dining room. Inclining his head, he looked through the window.

    Inside the private room, First Peak chosen Wu Jianwu was looking at the Captain, who was smiling enigmatically.

    After a short moment of silence, Wu Jianwu snorted coldly, then flicked his sleeve. Life me fluctuations rolled out from him, filling the area.

    ¡°Woo-hoo!¡± the Captain shouted.

    In Wu Jianwu¡¯s opinion, the Captain was an idiot, and he didn¡¯t like wasting time talking to idiots. Therefore, without sparing a nce for the Captain, he walked toward the window, his expression deeply grim.

    By the time he reached the window, his cultivation base fluctuations were rolling out wildly. As lightning crashed above, countless bronze swords appeared in the clouds overhead, and all of them were pointing down. It seemed almost like heaven itself was furious. And as Wu Jianwu stood there, explosive killing intent building within him, he looked down at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Why did you kill my attendant??¡± he asked arrogantly.

    His dramatic disy of energy plus his grim expression made him seem exactly like what everyone expected a chosen to be. His words boomed like thunder, filling the entire area. At the same time, the countless bronze swords flickered with brilliant light.

    Everyone in the area was deeply shaken. In fact, many people started leaving. They had the feeling that... a monumental fight was about to take ce.

    After all, Xu Qing had killed Wu Jianwu¡¯s attendant right on the street, and that could be considered a p in the face to Wu Jianwu. Besides, everyone knew that First Peak disciples cared a lot about face, and would never rest to avenge slights.

    Meanwhile, inside the private dining room, the anaconda¡¯s eyes glittered as she looked at Wu Jianwu. It seemed as if she wanted to thrash him. However, the old innkeeper kept his arms wrapped tight around her.

    At the same time, the old man was actually feeling very pleased, and was thinking, Ahhhh, Xu Qing. What are you going to do now? The First Peak watches out for their own. Wu Jianwu has eight Elder Brothers who love big brawls.

    Down on the street, the Mute and Xu Xiaohui were both shaken. The Mute, despite the fact that the pressure rolling off of Wu Jianwu made him tremble, he was baring his sharp teeth and eyeing Wu Jianwu¡¯s throat. As for Xu Xiaohui, she was biting her lip, anxiety building within her as she berated herself for dragging Xu Qing into this matter.

    However... though everyone else seemed shocked, Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He looked up at Wu Jianwu standing next to the window, and his eyes were cold. Not saying a single word, he extended his right hand, causing his iron skewer to float out of the shadows behind him.

    Right then,ughter erupted from Wu Jianwu¡¯s mouth. In fact, he threw his head back andughed uproariously. Then he spoke in a very loud voice that seemed designed to make sure everyone could hear him clearly.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s what happened. Well, that makes total sense. Now I understand that it was a matter of personal vengeance. I, Wu Jianwu, should definitely not interfere.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned but didn¡¯t say anything. A moment passed.

    ¡°No, no. You don¡¯t need to treat me to a meal. Ipletely understand.¡± After a pause, Wu Jianwu againughed loudly. ¡°Hahaha! Brother Xu, you really don¡¯t need to go through that trouble, and besides, I don¡¯t have the time right now. Really, just forget about it. By the way, I heard about your heroic undertaking in Seazombie territory. Amazing¡­. What? No, you¡¯re being too polite! Alright, considering how well you¡¯re treating me, I, Wu Jianwu, will go ahead and pay the 10,000 spirit stone fine for killing this person!¡±

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes went wide as she looked at Wu Jianwu, then she scanned the street, as if she was having trouble understanding what was going on.

    ¡°Mm-hmm,¡± Wu Jianwu continued. ¡°Yes. Okay, fine. We¡¯ll hang outter when we both have time. Well, I need to say farewell for now. It was wonderful to see you, Brother Xu. Truly a pleasure!¡±

    Wu Jianwu had started out sounding very serious, but ended up seeming very happy. Smiling broadly, he sped hands and bowed to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing, who had not said a single thing the entire time, just looked up at him with an odd expression on his face.

    Taking note of Xu Qing¡¯s expression, Wu Jianwu shivered, then flicked his sleeve,ughed, and walked out of the private dining room. As he flew off into the lightning and rain, he looked exactly like an immortal from a beautiful painting.

    ¡°Surpass mortal life and be refined; I¡¯ll be an immortal and surpass mankind.¡±

    Surrounded by thrumming bronze swords, he disappeared off into the distance.

 Chapter 198: No, Iâ€™ll Take the Blame!

    Chapter 198: No, I¡¯ll Take the me!

    When he was far enough away that no one could see him, Wu Jianwu shivered. His face went pale, and his eyes flickered with astonishment. Sweat pouring down his forehead, he took a very deep breath.

    What happened? Two mes?? That fiendish killer was terrible enough before. Now that he has two life mes, he¡¯d definitely be able to kill me if I ran into him outside the sect!!

    Heart pounding, he came to the conclusion that he definitely couldn¡¯t leave the sect for the next few months.

    Thanks to my quick wits, I managed to give him a lot of face. I even paid the fine for him. He¡¯s a reasonable person, right? Next time we run into each other he won¡¯t try to kill me. Will he? Ah, what a headache.... No. I¡¯m not going out of my mansion grotto until I have two life mes!

    Meanwhile, back outside Dreamsense Mansion, Xu Qing stood in the rain, a strange look on his face.

    The Mute waspletely taken aback, and Xu Xiaohui looked dumbfounded.

    Ling¡¯er blinked suspiciously, and the old innkeeper seemed speechless.

    These people were right at the epicenter of the event, and all of them knew that Xu Qing hadn¡¯t said a single thing. He had only taken a ready stance, and then Wu Jianwu had suddenly started spouting all sorts of balderdash. Combined with hisughter and loud voice, it had almost seemed like he was exchanging voice messages with Xu Qing. And apparently it had involved an invitation to dinner.

    It was all so convincing that anyone who simply overheard Wu Jianwu would think it was all a real conversation, woulde to the conclusion that Wu Jianwu really admired Xu Qing, and would believe that the two of them were good friends who respected each other a lot. Furthermore, it seemed that because Wu Jianwu had refused Xu Qing¡¯s invitation repeatedly, Wu Jianwu had felt obligated to pay the fine for killing an Offpeak disciple.

    A loud crunch broke the silence as the Captain got to his feet, munching his apple as he walked over to the window, where he looked down at Xu Qing and blinked a few times. Very impressive acting, Little Jianjian. I admit I¡¯m surprised.

    Xu Qing looked up and noticed that the Captain had all four of his limbs intact. An odd look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. The Captain had recovered very quickly this time. But considering how quickly he¡¯d regrown his lost limbs, Xu Qing had to guess that he didn¡¯t use a cultivation technique or medicinal pill, but rather some gruish ability.

    Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er took advantage of the innkeeper¡¯s shocked state to wriggle out of his grasp, slither out of the window, and approach Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed briefly, but then he saw the snake¡¯s eyes, and they seemed familiar, as if they¡¯d met before. Those eyes did not contain any killing intent, but rather, pure happiness.

    ¡°Coo. Cooooo.¡±

    Looking very happy, the snake shrank down, bing much more slender, and turning into a snow white color. Wrapping around Xu Qing¡¯s arm, she looked at him with wide, adorable eyes. [1]

    ¡°Coo. Coooooo. Coo.

    ¡°Coo coo.¡±

    When the innkeeper saw what was happening, his heart sank, and he was about to start scolding the snake. But then Xu Qing looked up at him with cold eyes.

    The innkeeper shivered and thought back to the time Xu Qing had almost killed him. Feeling both grief and indignation, he realized that whenever a girl had to pick between her sweetheart and her father, who had spent so much blood, sweat, and tears raising her, she would usually pick the former. His heart sank further.

    No. I won¡¯tpromise. That brat is no good. He¡¯s definitely not the right match for Ling¡¯er. Mind racing, he suddenly raised his voice and said, ¡°Coo. Coooooooo!¡±

    He didn¡¯t dare to speak thenguage of humans, and instead spoke Ling¡¯er¡¯snguage. He had just told her that if she wanted to be with Xu Qing forever, she had to be able to shapechange permanently. And if she wanted to do that, she needed to reach Foundation Establishment. Thus, they needed to go.

    Ling¡¯er obviously didn¡¯t want to leave Xu Qing. But after circling around his arm softly once more, she dropped to the ground and raced back to the old innkeeper.

    The innkeeper breathed a sigh of relief. Feeling very pleased with himself, he hurried away.

    As they left, Xu Qing could hear the sound of cooing echoing in their wake.

    ¡°Alright, Deputy Director Xu,¡± the Captain said from the window. ¡°Enough of that. Come have a few drinks with your boss.¡± He beckoned at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then turned and nodded at Xu Xiaohui, indicating that she should leave.

    Xu Xiaohui bit her lip. Heart full of gratitude, she dropped to her knees in the rain and kowtowed to Xu Qing, knocking her forehead against the ground. Then she left.

    The Mute didn¡¯t leave. He walked over and squatted outside of Dreamsense Mansion in the same spot where Li Zelin had been.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. In a sh, he shot through the window and into the private dining room, where he took a seat at the table. Back when the Captain had returned, there were certain things he¡¯d wanted to ask about the Captain¡¯s bedraggled state, but hadn¡¯t because of Zhang San¡¯s presence.

    ¡°Captain, why did the statue¡¯s nose explode?¡± he asked, sounding very serious. He felt like he absolutely had to ask this question. If he didn¡¯t, then given the Captain¡¯s suspicious personality, he definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to feel at ease. And of course, Xu Qing wanted the Captain to feel at ease.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± the Captain said, taking a bite of an apple and grinning at Xu Qing.

    Looking surprised, Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°Come on, my deputy director. Don¡¯t forget that I taught you all your acting skills. We both know exactly why the statue¡¯s nose exploded. You can¡¯t fool me.¡±

    Having finished his apple, the Captain took out a pear and bit into it.

    ¡°This time, I¡¯ll take the me,¡± the Captain continued, looking very mysterious and solemn. ¡°After all, I am your boss. I won¡¯t even charge you spirit stones for it. I only have two requirements.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned, looking a bit hesitant.

    Seeing that, the Captain took out another pear and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Allow me to exin. It¡¯s that reason. Yeah, I saw it all with my own eyes.¡± He sighed. ¡°Whatever. Let me exin my two requirements. What¡¯s the first?¡± Sounding very grave, he continued, ¡°It¡¯s that you can never, ever bring up the story of me disguising myself as Third Princess. That te is wiped clean! What¡¯s the second? It¡¯s that you still have to pay me the 100,000 spirit stones you owe!! If you agree to those stiptions, then I¡¯ll take the me for you for the Seazombie incident.¡±

    The Captain inhaled deeply, then bit the pear in half and looked closely at Xu Qing to see his reaction.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly for a moment, then shook his head. ¡°Since it was my fault, I¡¯ll just announce it publicly. I¡¯ll tell everyone that I did it. I should be the #1 on the bounty list. I was the mastermind behind the zombie ancestor statue incident. As for you, Captain, you were simply an aplice.¡±

    Having said that, Xu Qing stood to leave.

    All of a sudden, the Captain looked nervous. Obviously he felt proud of being the mastermind, and in his attempt to ckmail Xu Qing, had made a fool of himself in trying to be clever.

    Clearing his throat, he chuckled and said, ¡°Ah, look at you. You¡¯re so serious. I was just joking around! I was responsible for everything. I was the mastermind. And there¡¯s nobody who can take that away from me!¡±

    ¡°No, it was me,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t you. It was me!¡± The Captain now sounded even more anxious.

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t. It was me!¡± Xu Qing stared at the Captain.

    Sounding iparably serious, the Captain said, ¡°Xu Qing, I have to give you some constructive criticism here. I¡¯m stating very inly that it wasn¡¯t you. Therefore, it wasn¡¯t. It was me!¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly looked uncertain. ¡°It really was you?¡±

    ¡°Of course it was me! I ate Joine¡¯s flesh, then took a bite of the statue. The power of Joine¡¯s flesh erupted, creating a chain reaction within the divine likeness that resulted in the explosion. It was a reaction to the godliness! After I got back, I read through some of the ancient records, and found that both Joine and the Seazombies share somemon ancestry. That¡¯s clearly why her aura provoked a reaction from the zombie ancestor statue!¡±

    Xu Qing looked stunned. After some thought, he nodded. But then he looked hesitant, and was about to ask another question, when the Captain rose andughed heartily.

    ¡°Sorry, little Junior Brother, but I have another matter to attend to. I¡¯ll see myself out. Don¡¯t think too much about this. The whole thing really was my fault. Ai. There¡¯s so much to handle at work. I really wish it wasn¡¯t like this.... By the way, it won¡¯t be long now before I¡¯ll get the information I need about that big n I mentioned. Then I can exin everything.¡±

    The Captain hurried out of the private dining room. Once he was down on the street, he pulled out another apple, took a bite, then sighed.

    It seems like it really wasn¡¯t the brat who did it. So, was I actually the one at fault? Hmm. Yeah, I guess it was me.

    It seemed reasonable, and the Captain actually felt wonderful about that. After all, as the boss, it made sense that he would be the mastermind.

    Back in the private dining room, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. At longst, he felt he could rest at ease.

    After all that, I doubt the Captain will suspect me.

    Feeling satisfied with how everything ended up, he left Dreamsense Mansion and headed back to his berth. There, he worked on his cultivation and waited in anticipation to hear about the Captain¡¯s big n.

    A month passed.

    During that time, the war with the Seazombies reached a critical point.

    Countless species were watching, because... after upying those three fortified inds, there was nothing blocking Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ path to the Seazombies ancestralnd. And thus began a general offensive to take the main ind!

    Meanwhile, Harbor 176¡¯s museum finally opened for business.

    Zhang San did a spectacr job of fusing together the two pieces of the nose, to the point where it was almost impossible to tell that they weren¡¯t one unified nose. He had also added two everburning mes to the exhibit.

    And the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy hung over it all.

    The opening of the museum caused a big stir in the sect. Out on the battlefield, the patriarch and all the other top members of the sect were very supportive. It also caused amotion among surrounding peoples on the sea, many of whom couldn¡¯t wait toe see the exhibit.

    Harbor 176 was soon busier than it had ever been. People poured in from everywhere. And just as Zhang San had said, they didn¡¯t need to worry about guarding the museum. The sect handled that for them. The Gold Core elders who remained behind in the sect had received orders from the patriarch himself to keep the museum safe.

    Also, the reward for Xu Qing and Chen Erniu was finally announced by the patriarch.

    ¡°Chen Erniu and Xu Qing will serve as envoy disciples of Seven Blood Eyes. Chen Erniu will be promoted within the echelon. And Xu Qing is hereby added to the echelon! They will both be allowed to summon a projection of the sect¡¯s magical treasure three times! Both will be given a destined opportunity for Gold Core, after the war is over! The above items are the first part of the reward. Further aspects of the reward will be discussed after the war!¡±

    The entire sect was abuzz, firstly, because of the mention of the echelon. The other was because of the use of the term ¡®envoy disciple.¡¯

    Truth be told, no one in Seven Blood Eyes had any idea what an ¡®envoy disciple¡¯ was. That was because, up to this point... there had never been any envoy disciples in Seven Blood Eyes.

    Soon enough, people came to know what envoy disciples were.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were assigned the task of representing the seven peaklords in receiving and entertaining visitors who came to see the zombie ancestor¡¯s nose.

    1. I¡¯m fairly certain this is the first time in the story that Ling¡¯er is described as being the color white in her snake form. The fact that a white snake is interested in Xu Qing is interesting/relevant because there¡¯s a famous Chinese story called Legend of the White Snake, centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian (same surname as Xu Qing) and a snake spirit. It¡¯s not to say that Legend of the White Snake will be mirrored in this story. But it is interesting to ponder whether the author intentionally took inspiration from the legend. Or not. . ?

 Chapter 199: A Drama Featuring Two Phoenixes

    Chapter 199: A Drama Featuring Two Phoenixes

    The so-called ¡®envoy disciples¡¯ were basically outward-facing representatives of Seven Blood Eyes. When nonhumans came to visit Seven Blood Eyes, they would interact with Xu Qing and the Captain, and in turn, that would remind them of how badly the Seazombies had lost face thanks to those two. And thanks to the museum, many nonhumans wereing to visit. As a result, Xu Qing and the Captain were both very busy.

    At the moment, Xu Qing stood at the entrance of Harbor 176 awaiting a group of nonhumans as evening deepened.

    Thanks to the glow of the setting sun, his unusually attractive face was clearly visible. As the sea breeze blew, his hair drifted like a ck waterfall, concealing the coldness and irritation in his eyes.

    This was the seventh group of nonhumans that Xu Qing had received after the patriarch had appointed him an envoy disciple half a month ago. He still wasn¡¯t used to it, and in fact, he simply hated this kind of assignment. He didn¡¯t like putting on a show for people, and it made him feel very unsafe. That said, though ¡®envoy disciple¡¯ was just a title and nothing more, it did provide him a measure of protection.

    It actually dispelled malicious intentions in many. After all... it meant that he was the official face of Seven Blood Eyes. On the other hand, having public duties ensured that if something dangerous did happen, it would be far more dangerous than an ordinary situation.

    Xu Qing had heard about the echelon before. Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies both had such groups, though they were different. In the past, the echelon referred to the sessor apprentices of the peaklords of the seven peaks. Getting into the echelon meant you had a very special status, as the peaklords were picked from within the echelon. They also received greaterpensation from the sect. As for Xu Qing, he was the only disciple in the echelon who wasn¡¯t an apprentice of a peaklord.

    Chen Erniu got promoted within the echelon.... That means he must be the Eldest Brother of the Seventh Peak.

    Xu Qing was certain of that, yet at the same time, felt that the Captain had even bigger secrets. Given that, Xu Qing felt like he didn¡¯t have any options. There was no way he could refuse the patriarch¡¯s assignment.

    The sea breeze lifted his hair, brushing against his face and interrupting his train of thought. Looking up, he impatiently murmured, ¡°Why aren¡¯t they here yet?¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu, I heard that the Seastar people all have strange starfish attached to their backs. Normally speaking, they avoid daylight, so considering it¡¯s almost night, I imagine they¡¯ll be here soon.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t waiting there alone. There were over thirty disciples standing behind him. The Captain had handled the details. He was a lot more interested in assignments like this.

    The Captain was the one who made the assignments for the disciples, and Xu Qing was like his trump card. If a visiting group was made up of mostly female cultivators, the Captain would be sure to have Xu Qing join them. Sure enough, whenever Xu Qing showed up, female nonhuman cultivators who came to visit the nose museum would be very curious about him. Xu Qing had originally refused to cooperate, until he realized that if his missions were focused on female-majority groups, he would actually have fewer missions overall.

    The Captain, worrying that Xu Qing would feel out of sorts, had arranged for two fellow disciples he was familiar with to be his assistants.

    One of them was the person who had just spoken. Gu Muqing. [1]

    Gu Muqing had a soft voice, and her refined, delicate good looks made her seem like a stunning lotus in a vase. She had a faint smile and an immature, energetic air to her. Her orange daoist robe clung to her like the brilliant evening clouds.

    Seeing how Gu Muqing was acting, Ding Xue stepped forward and said, ¡°Elder Brother Xu, the Seastar people are really pushing it! I can¡¯t believe they¡¯rete. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter, though. Did I mention I just got epted by the Seven Sect Coalition? Once the war is over, I¡¯ll go there to study the dao of nts and vegetation. Eventually, I¡¯ll be so important I can force the Seastars toe in person to apologize to you! Elder Brother, I¡¯ve been studying really hardtely. If you want, you can give me a quiz!¡±

    As she finished speaking, she shed a spirit note and a jade slip. [2]

    Ding Xue had a sweet disposition, skin as fair as snow, and dark hair. Beneath her straight nose were dainty, rose-colored lips, slightly parted, like a flirtatious rose. When she spoke, she seemed as innocent as an orchid, her glistening eyes so captivating that one could easily be lost in them. Ding Xue was the second assistant the Captain had arranged for Xu Qing.

    The two young women were standing on either side of Xu Qing. Both had their own merits, making them as difficult topare as plums, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums.

    Behind the group of three were over thirty Seven Blood Eyes disciples, including Zhao Zhongheng.

    Over the past half month, Zhao Zhongheng had sighed too many times to count, yet he still managed to have a smile on his face. As for the other disciples, they all looked at Xu Qing as if they were staring at a divine being.

    During the past half month, Gu Muqing and Ding Xue had seemingly got along, but the truth was that they were diametrically opposed to each other. And it was bing more obvious.

    Right now, Gu Muqing was ring at Ding Xue.

    Ding Xue, not wanting to be outdone, raised her eyebrows and pouted slightly. ¡°Elder Sister Gu, even if the Seastar people have a good excuse, that has nothing to do with us. I wouldn¡¯t care if they kept us waiting, but it really irritates me that they¡¯re keeping Big Bro Xu Qing waiting. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re fine with that? Big Bro Xu Qing is so hardworking when ites to cultivation, but now they¡¯re making him stand around. It¡¯s really outrageous.¡±

    Gu Muqing took a deep breath. She was a quiet person who valued elegance, but over the past half month, she had nearly lost her temper on several asions. She just didn¡¯t have a way with words like Ding Xue. Every time Ding Xue made a scene like this, Gu Muqing inwardly cursed her whorish, slutty ways.

    ¡°Ding Xue, why are you always calling me Elder Sister? I¡¯m only seventeen years old. Might I ask how old you are?¡±

    Ding Xue¡¯s eyes turned red, and she bowed her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Elder Sister,¡± she said quietly. ¡°I... I¡¯m just not good with words. If I said something to offend you, Elder Sister, it was purely an ident. I¡¯m just really worried about Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    Veins bulged on Gu Muqing¡¯s forehead, and she struggled to control her breathing.

    Meanwhile, the disciples behind them could hear everything they were saying, and many of them were now looking at Ding Xue with deep admiration. As always, Ding Xue came out on top.

    Xu Qing nced curiously at Ding Xue, then Gu Muqing. Then he ignored them. His time spent with them recently had been very strange, and he¡¯de to the conclusion that they just didn¡¯t get along when on assignments together. He was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a deep rumbling sound could be heard from out at sea.

    Looking out into the evening, Xu Qing saw that there were now waves rolling out across the previously tranquil water. As the rumbling sounds grewrger, he spotted a huge, pitch ck, star-shaped battleship about 3,000 meters away. Actually, it was a procession, as there were six more battleships of the same type behind the first one. As they emanated shocking pressure in all directions, the seven huge eyes on the mountain peaks glittered with red light, as if inspecting them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. As long as the spell formation was active in the sect, it would keep things safe. Beyond that, about half a month ago, Sixth Peaklord had returned to the sect to rest and recuperate. With Sixth Peaklord on duty, Xu Qing felt a lot more at ease.

    As the seven star-shaped battleships got closer, Xu Qing was able to make out cultivators standing on them. It seemed that each ship had about thirty of them.

    The Seastar people looked like humans, with the only difference being that they had blue hair and blue eyes. They also had the strange starfish-like growths on their backs that Gu Muqing had just mentioned.

    Altogether, they wereing to Seven Blood Eyes with over two hundred people, and female cultivators made up about seventy percent of that group. As for the three women who led the group, they had terrifying fluctuations that reminded Xu Qing of the three-headed six-armed Seazombie he¡¯d encountered.

    The three leaders were middle-aged, and standing in front of them was a beautiful young woman who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. She had blue hair, wore a beautiful gown, and had unusually pale skin. When she scanned the shore, she barely looked at Gu Muqing and Ding Xue, and instead focused on Xu Qing. She was, in fact, a Seastar princess.

    ¡°Honored Seastar guests, wee to Seven Blood Eyes,¡± Xu Qing said formally, sping his hands in greeting.

    ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing?¡± the Seastar princess said with a smile, eyeing him curiously.

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± Xu Qing replied with a nod. ¡°The hour iste. Tomorrow I¡¯ll take you to see the Seazombie¡¯s holy item.¡± With that, he turned to the disciples behind him to issue orders. ¡°Take our Seastar friends to their amodations.¡±

    ¡°Hold on a moment,¡± the princess said. ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, we Seastars absolutely detest the Seazombies. I very much admire you for what you did, so I¡¯d like to give you a gift. Please ept it.¡±

    She gave a meaningful look to her attendants behind her, who took out a conch shell and presented it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at the young woman.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, this is a special magical device my people created. Blow the conch shell, and you¡¯ll receive a blessing from us. Also, it can summon all nearby soft-bodied animals from the Forbidden Sea.¡± With that, she sped hands and bowed slightly. Meanwhile, all of the other Seastar people were debarking, and most of them were looking at Xu Qing.

    Ding Xue frowned slightly, and didn¡¯t seem very pleased. And though Gu Muqing didn¡¯t show it, she also wasn¡¯t very happy.

    Ding Xue could guess what all those female Seastars were thinking when they looked at Xu QIng, so she was just about to open her mouth and say something when, all of a sudden, another rumbling sound pierced the evening silence. Figures appeared, flying through the air from the interior of the harbor. The Seastar people all seemed to go on guard, and the three middle-aged women¡¯s eyes glittered.

    Xu Qing looked in that direction, and immediately realized that it was the Captain and Second Highness. [3]

    The Captain was in such a hurry that, when he arrived, he didn¡¯t even greet the Seastars. Instead, he just looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°The patriarch just sent word that Easher Isle is sending a visitor!¡±

    ¡°Easher Isle?¡± Xu Qing said in surprise.

    Off to the side, Ding Xue¡¯s expression flickered, and the three Gold Core Seastars looked visibly surprised.

    Sounding very serious, the Captain exined, ¡°The islemaster of Easher Isle is an old woman named Guru Easher. After the patriarch achieved his breakthrough, his cultivation base reached the same level as hers.... But the visitor isn¡¯t Guru Easher. It¡¯s her granddaughter. And she has a violent personality.... You need to be careful.¡±

    Even as the words left his mouth, a huge wave suddenly rose up, rushing toward the harbor with crushing might.

    1. West saw Gu Muqing in chapter 164. She was introduced by name in chapter 94, though appeared in chapters before that. ?

    2. I doubt any of us have forgotten Ding Xue¡¯sst appearance starting in chapter 166. ?

    3. Although we¡¯ve heard a lot about Second Highness from Huang Yan, thest time she appeared ¡®on screen¡¯ was in chapter 73. ?

 Chapter 200: Coming With Harmful Intentions

    <h4>Chapter 200: Coming With Harmful Intentions</h4>

    The pressure was incredibly domineering, and the wave of ck water which appeared at the entrance of the port instantly turned into a huge wall that rumbled toward the main sluicegate. The wave was so massive, and contained such brutal power, that it provoked a reaction from the grand spell formation. The seven distant eyes glittered, and in response, a screen of red light appeared to block the progress of the wave.

    However, the rumbling grew louder, until it was so deafening that the people in Harbor 176 felt like heavenly thunder was crashing in their ears. Xu Qing frowned and waved his hand, causing dharma force to sweep out and cover Gu Muqing and Ding Xue, blocking the sound from entering their mind. Unfortunately, the rest of the disciples didn¡¯t have it as easy, and one after another, they coughed up blood and staggered backward. This sound was so intense that it was injuring Qi Condensation cultivators!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, while the Captain rubbed his chin and looked at Second Highness.

    Second Highness also frowned as she looked past the sluicegate and barked, ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡±

    ¡°Aiyaaa, Big Sis, don¡¯t be angry!¡± responded a melodious voice from beyond the sluicegate.

    A momentter, a massive octopus tentacle stretched out of the water in roughly that same spot. It was many meters wide, and several hundred meters long as it stretched over the sluicegate and into the port itself. Then a massive octopus rose out of the water, using its tentacles to simply climb over the gate.

    Atop the octopus sat a young woman who appeared to be in her teens. It was hard to determine her specific age, though, because of her physical appearance; her style wasn¡¯t typical of a young woman. She wore tight ck clothing and had very short hair. That said, she was cute, and even seemed dainty as her gigantic octopus made its way toward Harbor 176.

    Upon nearing, the giant octopus dripped ck water everywhere, some of which sshed on the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Meanwhile, the Seastars all trembled and bowed their heads. Shockingly, this octopus radiated the same type of aura as a Gold Core elder! Terrifying sea beasts this huge had battle prowess automatically surpassing cultivators in the same level as them. And right now, this octopus was emitting pressure without the slightest scruple.

    Xu Qing backed up a few steps to avoid the sshing water, all while coldly eyeing the young woman in ck as she got to her feet atop the huge octopus. She was probably around fifteen or sixteen, with an oval face, thin lips, lively eyes, and delicate features. Hopping off the octopus, shended on the dock, nced at Xu Qing and the Captain, and then rushed over to Second Highness.

    ¡°Don¡¯t me me, Big Sis! It¡¯s all Stinker¡¯s fault! I¡¯ll handle the punishment!¡± As the words left her mouth, the young woman waved her hand, causing a host of sharp ck spikes to appear in the air and then shoot toward her own octopus, pulsing with astonishing energy. And they weren¡¯t aimed at its tough hide, but instead, its eyes. The octopus trembled, not daring to move as the ck spikes stabbed into it. A momentter, ck blood oozed down out of its eyes.

    Seeing all this, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. And as he looked more closely at the girl in the ck clothing, his heart beat a bit faster. The reason was that, though this girl looked like an ordinary human, she was actually different. She wasn¡¯t like the Captain, or the Seazombie dao child, or the elders or peaklords. She seemed... much more pure!

    It was a purity that Xu Qing understood very clearly, and it was why his heart was suddenly racing.

    She doesn¡¯t have any mutagen in her!

    It was the first time Xu Qing had ever encountered any other cultivator whocked mutagen. She was so pure she seemed like the daughter of a god! What was more, Xu Qing could just barely make out the evidence that she had many more than 100 dharma apertures open. She hadn¡¯t quite reached the level of 120. Rather, she had 104 of them open. What was more, she was clearly continuing to open more and more of them, and it didn¡¯t seem like she would stop at 120. It was entirely possible she would go past that level.

    That in itself was no shock to Xu Qing, as he had previouslye to the realization that 120... wasn¡¯t the final limit.

    Frowning in irritation, Second Highness said, ¡°Yanyan, this is Seven Blood Eyes. You¡ª¡±

    ¡°Okay, okay,¡± Yanyan said sweetly, slipping her arms around Second Highness¡¯ arm. ¡°My bad, Big Sis.¡± Clearly, Yanyan was close to the Second Highness.[1]</a>

    Shaking her head, Second Highness looked at the Captain. ¡°Eldest Brother, uh... look, Yanyan didn¡¯t do any of this on purpose.¡±

    Smiling, the Captain measured up Yanyan.

    She looked curiously back at him. Smiling to reveal two dimples, she said, ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. If you do, I¡¯ll have Stinker dig your eyes out.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered as he intentionally opened them even wider. Producing an apple, he took a bite and said, ¡°That¡¯s totally fine. In fact, I¡¯ll dig them out for you. How about we trade? My eyes for a bottle of Easher serum?¡±

    Yanyan¡¯s eyebrows shot up, but then Second Highness tightened her arm around her. Yanyan snorted coldly, then finally looked over at Xu Qing. Before, she had barely looked at him, but now her gaze met his face.

    ¡°Big Sis, this guy isn¡¯t a fellow disciple of yours, is he? I¡¯d like to use his face for a mask. It¡¯d look great!¡±

    It didn¡¯t seem like she was joking around. Her eyes glittered with a very odd light, while at the same time, the huge octopus looked coldly at Xu Qing.

    Everyone present was getting very nervous, and the Seastars were edging away.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, but his dharma force was already converging, and his shadow was ready to act at any moment.

    As Yanyan¡¯s eyes narrowed, Second Highness sighed inwardly.

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Second Highness said sharply. It went without saying that Second Highness was familiar with Xu Qing, and knew that he was friends with Huang Yan. ¡°Sorry about this, Xu Qing. You might as well take off now. I¡¯ll exin all of this to Huang Yanter.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and turned to leave.

    However, upon hearing Huang Yan¡¯s name, Yanyan suddenly smiled. ¡°Why are you protecting this guy, Big Sis? Do you have a crush on him? In that case, I don¡¯t want his face after all. Instead, I¡¯ll sh it to ribbons!¡±

    She burst into motion, speeding toward Xu Qing with deep hostility burning in her eyes.

    Though she moved with unfathomable speed, Xu Qing had been on guard the entire time. His life mes instantly burned to life as he entered the profound radiance state and shot toward Yanyan.

    At the same time, the octopus erupted with the pressure of the Gold Core level, and was about to unleash its own attack when a roar of rage erupted from the Sixth Peak like thunder from heaven.

    ¡°How impudent!¡±

    The octopus shivered, and its aura copsed under the sudden pressure. The invisible force was so great that it couldn¡¯t move.

    The Captain chose that moment to shoot toward the octopus. Bursting with frigid energy, he headed right toward one of the tentacles and bit into it.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and Yanyan smashed into each other. A boom rang out as she shed her sharp nails toward his face. He dodged, and then a dagger materialized in his right hand, which he swept toward her throat.

    She twisted to the side to avoid the dagger, but then Xu Qing¡¯s knee mmed into her chest. She crumpled with a booming thud as she flew past him.

    Not pausing for a moment, Xu Qing took out a small bottle of ck liquid and smashed it between his hands with all the force he could muster.

    The bottle shattered, and ck liquid sshed out in all directions. Somended on him, but most of it sttered on Yanyan¡¯s hand, which had been stretching toward him from behind.

    Expression flickering, she flicked her hand at the wrist, but wasn¡¯t able to get the ck liquid off of her. That ck liquid was actually a host of tiny beetles, and the moment they touched her skin, they started burrowing into her pores.

    ¡°You!¡± she blurted.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were burning with killing intent. His ck iron skewer appeared, and shot toward Yanyan, joined by his shadow.

    In that moment of potentially deadly crisis, an irritated voice echoed from the Sixth Peak.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡±

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and he suddenly felt powerless to do anything other than back up.

    It was the same with Yanyan. Face pale, she stepped backward. After looking down at her hand, she took out a medicinal pill and consumed it, but it didn¡¯t do anything. Finally, she had to grit her teeth and produce a golden paper talisman. After applying it to her hand, she was able to stop the spread of the ck beetles.

    Hurrying over, Second Highness sighed again and gave Xu Qing an apologetic look. Wrapping her arm around Yanyan, she began to lead her away.

    ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing, right?¡± Yanyan said venomously as she walked off. ¡°I¡¯m going to remember you. I have my sights set on that face of yours. By the way, tell that fatso Huang Yan that if he keeps going after my Big Sis, I¡¯ll make sure he ends up dead!¡±

    Off to the side, the Captain was struggling to rip off some Gold Core flesh, but was having trouble. Eventually, he had to settle for biting off the tip of a tentacle.

    The octopus struggled against him, but had been fully suppressed, and couldn¡¯t move. All it could do was make some piteous whimpering sounds. Sadly, Yanyan had already forgotten about the octopus.

    As for the Seastars, they were looking at Xu Qing and the Captain with open reverence.

    In their eyes, both of them seemedpletely crazy. One of them, when facing a suppressed Gold Core sea beast, had immediately tried to take a bite out of its flesh. Meanwhile, the other had openly attacked a junior princess from Easher Isle. And he had obviously been trying to kill her.

    It¡¯s hard to say which is crazier! These two are not to be trifled with!

    Then they thought about the bounty put up by the Seazombies, and came to the conclusion that it made sense for two people like this to have done something so dramatic.

    With things calmed down, people went their separate ways. Eventually, the only ones left behind were Xu Qing, the Captain, the suppressed octopus, as well as Ding Xue and Gu Muqing. The Captain dismissed thetter two.

    Ding Xue was obviously worried, but knew that the Captain and Xu Qing had things to discuss, so she took her leave. Gu Muqing also turned to leave, then stopped and gave a medicinal pill bottle to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, this pill works wonders in treating insect wounds.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in thanks and took the bottle. When the two young women were gone, the Captain shouldered the tentacle tip he¡¯d bitten off, then sauntered over to Xu Qing.

    ¡°None of this is my business,¡± he said with a grin, ¡°but just so you know, that girlie has had a crush on Second Sib for years. Obviously, she came here to cause trouble for Huang Yan, and once she found out you¡¯re good friends with him, dragged you into it. She obviously didn¡¯t realize you¡¯d be so hard to deal with.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, but he didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, he started walking toward the octopus.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯re you doing?¡± the Captain said.

    ¡°Chopping off a tentacle,¡± Xu Qing replied quietly.

    ¡°No, don¡¯t! The suppression time is almost over!!¡±

    ¡°If you help, it¡¯ll be easier to chop it off.¡± As the octopus red angrily, Xu Qing summoned another dagger and started chopping.

 Chapter 201: Iâ€™m in Charge!

    Chapter 201: I¡¯m in Charge!

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the Captain said angrily, ¡°you¡¯ve be even greedier than me nowadays!¡± At the same time, he rushed forward and helped Xu Qing chop away at the octopus¡¯ tentacle.

    The Gold Core octopus was clearly enraged, but it couldn¡¯t stop Xu Qing from removing a small tip of one of its tentacles, about three meters in length. Throwing it over his shoulder, Xu Qing left with the Captain.

    A short whileter, the force of suppression vanished, and the octopus let loose a howl of fury. Then, just as it seemed it was about to rise up to its full height, it copsed onto the ground.

    And that was because, out of nowhere, a middle-aged man had appeared in front of it. The man¡¯s face was a mask of bitterness as he slowly walked forward, drinking alcohol out of a gourd bottle.

    He was none other than Master Sixth, the peaklord of the Sixth Peak. Long ago, Master Sixth had been like Master Seventh, a chosen member of the sect. In fact, he had joined the sect along with Master Seventh. However, yearster, he experienced tragedy. His daoist partner died a horrible death, leaving behind him and his only son. In his grief, he had focused all of his love and attention on his son. And his son didn¡¯t let him down.

    As the years passed, his son became an outstanding figure in Seven Blood Eyes. But one day he went out to sea for training and never returned. His life slip in the sect even shattered. It caused a huge stir in the sect. However, his killer was never identified, and the matter became a source of unending torment for Master Sixth. After that, the peaklord was never seen without a bottle of alcohol. [1]

    Taking another drink from the bottle gourd, Master Sixth came to a stop in front of the octopus. ¡°I¡¯m crafting a magical device that could use two eyes. Yours. Give them to me.¡±

    The octopus shivered, and without hesitation, reached two tentacles up to its two eyes. Gripping the eyes, it ripped them out of its head, causing blood to spray everywhere. Then, it respectfully offered the eyes to Master Sixth.

    ¡°Now screw off and wait outside for your owner.¡± Master Sixth tossed the eyes into his bottle gourd, then turned and headed back toward the Sixth Peak.

    The octopus kept its head bowed until Master Sixth was gone. Then, trembling, it returned to the ocean and sank into the water. After it was some distance away from the sect, light glittered around it as it turned into a burly man.

    His eyes had been gouged out, yet the flesh on his forehead wriggled and twitched, and then opened up, revealing a third eye. As he looked at Seven Blood Eyes, his expression was one of fear and trepidation.

    Seven Blood Eyes has grown a lot more confident now that Sir Bloodsmelter achieved his breakthrough. From the outside, they still seem like a subsidiary branch of the Seven Sect Coalition from the Revered Ancient maind. But actually, over recent years, Seven Blood Eyes... hase very close to being an independent sect.

    Low-level recruits are venomous bugs in a jar. Their mid-level disciples are set free to do whatever they want. But once a disciple gets into the echelon and bes truly high-level, Seven Blood Eyes takes care of them!

    Years ago, the Seven Sect Coalition came to realize that trying to alternate patriarchs and peaklords didn¡¯t do much. Sir Bloodsmelter has always been around keeping an eye on things, and even when the peaklords are forced to rotate back into service in the Seven Sect Coalition, their hearts always stay with Seven Blood Eyes.

    This is exactly what you expect to see when a sect rises to prominence!

    The trepidation in the burly man¡¯s eyes grew deeper.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the Captain parted ways. Once Xu Qing was back on his dharmaskiff, he took out his bamboo slip and added a name.

    Yanyan.

    This time, he scratched a circle around the name, indicating that he couldn¡¯t kill this person in public. He needed to find her outside of Seven Blood Eyes and get rid of her in secret. Otherwise, there would be too much trouble.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was very excited when he saw the new name being added to the list.

    Another one! YES!

    After finishing carving the name, Xu Qing was about to put the bamboo slip away when he noticed the iron skewer trembling off to the side. After thinking about how hard the patriarch had been workingtely, he went to ¡®Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯ and scratched another line through the name.

    When the patriarch saw that, his heart filled with unprecedented excitement and appreciation. The trembling of the skewer became even more pronounced. All of his hard work was worth it! Completely worth it!

    Appearing in projected form, he sped hands and bowed, trembling from head to toe.

    ¡°Many thanks... milord!!¡±

    He really had been working hardtely. And that was even more the case after some of the sesses the shadow had experienced. On more than a few asions, he hade close to developing inner devils during cultivation, thanks to always wondering if he was going to be discarded. But now, seeing Xu Qing scratch that line through his name, many of his doubts simply vanished.

    What Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t notice was that, behind Xu Qing, his shadow had opened an eye and was paying very close attention to the patriarch. Clearly, it was trying to learn something.

    Seeing how excited the patriarch was, Xu Qing offered a few encouraging words, then put away the bamboo slip, walked out of the cabin, and sat on the deck looking off into the distance. He was waiting for someone.

    Before long, a rotund figure appeared off in the distance, swaying through the night. He was none other than Huang Yan. He had obviously been drinking, as he couldn¡¯t walk straight. He looked depressed. And this time, instead of sitting down off to the side, he jumped right onto the dharmaskiff. Plopping down next to Xu Qing, he let loose a long sigh.

    ¡°Brother Xu Qing, I owe you for today. I¡¯m really, really sorry. I had no idea my Elder Sister¡¯s bestie was such a loon!¡±

    Huang Yan pulled out a bag of holding and solemnly offered it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have much on me, Brother Xu Qing. That¡¯s 200,000 spirit stones. It¡¯s the thought that counts, right?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t immediately take the bag of holding. Looking at Huang Yan, he said, ¡°What do you n on doing about it?¡±

    Huang Yan sighed. ¡°Why does love have to be such torment? I have it so rough! Xu Qing, did you know that I came to Seven Blood Eyes specifically for Elder Sister? That year... I caught sight of her from a distance. Just one nce. From that moment on, I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about her. So I decided to join Seven Blood Eyes so that I could make her my daoist partner.¡±

    Huang Yan was in a very different mood today than he ever had been in the past. Lifting his bottle of alcohol, he took a drink. Then he produced a second bottle and offered it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing epted it and took a drink.

    ¡°I never would have guessed that her bestie would also bepetition!! You know what? After that shrew showed up today, she wouldn¡¯t leave my Elder Sister alone. And thus, Elder Sister hasn¡¯t had any time for me. And when I went looking for her, she told me to leave! She looked guilty about it, but still!!

    ¡°I could tell something strange was going on, so after I had a bit to drink I went and eavesdropped. And guess what? The shrew is trying to steal Elder Sister from me!¡± Huang Yan ground his teeth. ¡°Why did this have to happen now? If it had happened a few months ago, I would have crushed her with a single breath.¡±

    Huang Yan seemed to be getting very worked up.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing seemed confused. He wasn¡¯t really sure what Huang Yan was talking about, and had never experienced anything like this. Given he didn¡¯t understand the situation, he wasn¡¯t sure how tofort Huang Yan. In the end, he just raised his bottle of alcohol.

    Huang Yan saw that, sighed, and then clinked bottles and drank.

    ¡°You¡¯re too young to¡ª¡± Suddenly, Huang Yan¡¯s identity medallion vibrated in his bag of holding. Eyes flickering, he took it out. After reading the message that had juste in, he frowned in displeasure.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s identity medallion also vibrated. Sending some dharma force into it, he saw a long message.

    ¡°A quarter of an hour ago, our Celestial Bureau received a request for backup from the Patrol Division. A Foundation Establishment cultivator from outside the sect attacked the Pilot Assistance Division. Many disciples were injured. When Patrol responded, themanding officer was injured and all the constables were taken captive.

    ¡°Celestial Bureau provided backup, but were unable to stop the outside cultivator, and everyone was taken captive.

    ¡°The perpetrator demands Huang Yane over from Harbor 176, immediately.

    ¡°This matter surpasses our ability, so we request that the deputy director decide what to do next.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at Huang Yan, who was doing the exact same thing, his expression unsightly and apologetic. Then Huang Yan stood and rushed in the direction of the Pilot Assistance Division.

    Xu Qing suddenly thought back to what happened that day in the Sixth Peak shop. Then he looked down at the bag of holding, which Huang Yan had surreptitiously ced off to the side after Xu Qing refused to take it. [2]

    Huang Yan really does stick by his friends.

    Xu Qing stood and also went toward the Pilot Assistance Division. He could move much faster than Huang Yan, so it didn¡¯t take long before he caught up.

    When Huang Yan saw him, he smiled. ¡°You¡¯reing too?¡±

    Xu Qing also smiled. ¡°Pilot Assistance reported the incident. So of course I¡¯m going to go.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s something special about you, Xu Qing. I¡¯ve been in Seven Blood Eyes for years, and you¡¯re actually the first friend I¡¯ve made. After years of caring only about Elder Sister, now I have you at my side. I don¡¯t have very many friends....¡± Huang Yan took a deep breath, but instead of saying anything further, he started running even faster. Xu Qing kept pace as they got closer to Pilot Assistance.

    The Pilot Assistance Division in Harbor 176 looked like a giant sailboat. As they neared, an astonishing shockwave suddenly erupted from within it.

    The sailboat exploded, sending pieces flying out everywhere. At the same time, a ck figure shot out from inside, heading toward Huang Yan with astounding speed.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing entered the profound radiance state and stepped in front of Huang Yan. Viciously thrusting his hand out, he sent ck fire streaming out, which the iing figure mmed into.

    A boom echoed out as the figure was shoved backward into a nearby rock. At that point, it became clear that the person who had shed with Xu Qing was none other than Yanyan.

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± she said, ring at him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shifted from her to the wreckage of the Pilot Assistance Division. At least three hundred disciples were visible, scattered about randomly.

    All of them were seriously injured, but none were dead. Among them was the Mute.

    Xu Qing took everything in, his expression grim.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to look at all of them,¡± Yanyan said. ¡°Given who I am, I didn¡¯t kill anyone. But even if I did, so what? Do you think anyone would bother to help Offpeak bugs in a jar like this? From the moment I arrived here until now, not one person showed up to stop me.¡± Looking at Xu Qing¡¯s face, she licked her lips. ¡°I had no idea that you were actually in the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ echelon. I guess that¡¯s going to make things difficult.¡±

    ¡°Wrong,¡± Xu Qing said quietly. ¡°The reason the sect didn¡¯t do anything to stop you is that this matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Violent Crimes Division. Until I escte this matter to my superiors, I¡¯m the one in charge here.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing held up a jade signal slip, then crushed it. Instantly, a bright stream of light shot up into the night sky, creating a multicolored glow that read ¡®Violent Crimes.¡¯

    ¡°ording to Section 7 of sectw, outside cultivators who cause trouble in the capital city shall be arrested on sight. All constables from the Celestial Bureau, heed mymand: lock down Harbor 176 and arrest this criminal!¡±

    1. The incident with Master Sixth¡¯s son was mentioned in chapter 148. ?

    2. The Sixth Peak shop incident mentioned here was in chapter 72. ?

 Chapter 202: So, What Is the Echelon Like?

    Chapter 202: So, What Is the Echelon Like?

    ¡°Arrest?¡± ck-garbed Yanyan said,ughing. However, before herughter could cease, countless voices rang out from all corners of Harbor 176.

    ¡°Yes, Deputy Director!¡±

    Along with the voices, numerous figures appeared in the harbor, over a thousand of them, blocking all entrances and exits.

    ¡°You think a bunch of Qi Condensation cultivators can stop me?¡± Yanyan said. ¡°How about I kill a few so you can see what I can do?¡± Her eyes glittered with killing intent as she lit her life mes. Three of them burned bright, erupting with power as she flew up in the air and then shot toward the nearest Violent Crimes Division constables.

    Looking at her coldly, Xu Qing lifted his identity medallion high over his head and said, ¡°I, Deputy Director Xu Qing of the Violent Crimes Division, hereby request that the sect¡¯s grand spell formation lock down the airspace over Harbor 176 and prevent all non-sect cultivators from flying!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, a bell rang, its sound echoing left and right as the Seven Blood Eyes Formation¡¯s power filled Harbor 176.

    Yanyan¡¯s face fell as the formation¡¯s power swept over her, forcing her to the ground and causing her life mes to flicker wildly.

    ¡°What outrageous gall!¡± she growled. Despite the pressure weighing down on her, the killing intent in her eyes didn¡¯t soften. Instead, it grew more intense as her rage burned.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been lying. The reason why Yanyan had been able to run amok without him present was that the chain ofmand was always strictly respected in Seven Blood Eyes. Unless a matter was officially reported to a superior officer, the higher-ranking members wouldn¡¯t do anything. That was just how the rules operated in Seven Blood Eyes, and there were few exceptions.

    Staring with cold fury at Yanyan, Xu Qing continued, ¡°Restrict all non-sect cultivators in Harbor 176, preventing them from lighting more than one life me!¡±

    He actually didn¡¯t need to do much to deal with this young woman. Given his authority in the Violent Crimes Division, and his status as an echelon cultivator, he basically was thew. One reason for him doing things this way was that too many eyes were focused on him right now, and he didn¡¯t want to reveal any of his secrets.

    The moment the words left his mouth, the Seven Blood Eyes Formation rumbled, and invisible power settled down on the harbor.

    Yanyan¡¯s face flickered dramatically as her third life me instantly went out! Only a momentter, her second me also went dark!

    As for her remaining life me, her first, the pressure weighing down on it created a bacsh of power that forced blood to spray out of her mouth. Veins bulging on her forehead, she red at Xu Qing with raging killing intent. She looked like she was about to explode with mad fury.

    Finally, Xu Qing took action. Keeping his lifemp concealed with his shadow, he lit both of his two life mes and entered the profound radiance state. Moving with shocking speed, he pierced through the air and appeared right in front of Yanyan. Then he smacked her on the side of the face.

    A boom rang out as she mmed into a nearby building, her face already swollen. She also coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, within which were a handful of teeth.

    Xu Qing took a step forward, arriving right in front of her again. He stomped down.

    Glittering light sprang up around her, its source being a pendant around her neck. It was a defensive item that created a shield around her, upon which Xu Qing¡¯s footnded with a boom.

    Yanyan leaped to her feet, a vicious expression on her face and madness in her eyes. Then she ripped the pendant off of her neck.

    Voice cool, Xu Qing said, ¡°Prevent all non-sect cultivators in Harbor 176 from using any types of magical devices or magical treasures.¡±

    Yet again, the spell formation rumbled to life.

    Yanyan¡¯s defensive shield copsed. She was bleeding profusely and her hair was disheveled, yet she red defiantly at Xu Qing and said, ¡°If you¡¯ve got what it takes, fight me fair and square!¡±

    ¡°Fool.¡± Xu Qing shot forward and pped her again. She flew to the side, more teeth flying out of her mouth. After righting herself, she pulled out a jade slip and crushed it, causing teleportation power to swell.

    ¡°Prevent all non-sect cultivators from teleporting out of Harbor 176,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    Yet again, power swept forth from the Seven Blood Eyes Formation, crushing all teleportations. Yanyan¡¯s eyes burned with fury and humiliation, and she was about to say something further when Xu Qing again stepped toward her and pped her.

    A boom rang out as Yanyan coughed up blood like mad. She was visibly weak, yet her expression was no less vicious than before. In fact, it seemed like she would rather die than surrender.

    Xu Qing looked at her deeply. His own personal rule was to kill anyone who could pose a threat to him. But he also wasn¡¯t an idiot. If he did that in front of all these witnesses, it would lead to more trouble and danger for himself. In other words, killing her now would be pure foolishness.

    Reining in his killing intent, he smacked her on the top of the head. Blood spilled out of her mouth as her final remaining life me flickered out, and then shepsed into unconsciousness. Her injuries were about the same as all the disciples she herself had knocked out.

    With that aplished, Xu Qing reached down and grabbed her by the hair.

    ¡°Bring me some dharma shackles!¡±

    Numerous Violent Crimes Division constables raced toward him. The first to arrive produced a pair of handcuffs that he ced on Yanyan¡¯s forearms. Momentster, her eyes opened and she howled in fury, causing the dharma shackles to copse. Then sheughed madly. ¡°I¡¯m not going to forget this, Xu Qing! No one has ever dared to treat me this rudely! You¡¯re the first!¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing stepped forward and pped her yet again.

    A thud rang out as her head hit the ground, and she again passed out.

    ¡°Put ten dharma shackles on her,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    These shackles had been designed specifically for use on non-sect Foundation Establishment cultivators. Two of them could suppress a single life me, while ten couldpletely negate the power of three life mes.

    They were the same shackles the old director of Violent Crimes had used when arresting Night Dove operatives.

    Before long, ten shackles had been ced on Yanyan.

    ¡°Lock her up in the Celestial Bureau,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Without orders from me, do not set her free!¡±

    The surrounding constables dragged Yanyan away.

    Around then, a voice echoed out through Harbor 176. ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, can you show some leniency here?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up and saw Second Highness flying toward him. It was possible to detect the lingering traces of a restrictive spell on her; obviously Yanyan had bound her up, making it impossible for her to interfere.

    ¡°Well met, Second Highness,¡± Xu Qing said, sping hands respectfully. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Huang Yan standing nearby.

    Huang Yan looked at Second Highness and said, ¡°Elder Sister, Xu Qing was helping me out.¡±

    Second Highness seemed like she wanted to say something, but held back for a moment. Looking at Huang Yan, and then ncing at Yanyan being dragged off into the distance, she hesitated again. Finally, she said, ¡°Junior Brother Xu Qing, if she dies, it¡¯s going to cause problems for the patriarch.¡±

    There was no threat in her words. Just apprehension. She was obviously giving him a well-intentioned warning.

    ¡°She broke the rules of our sect,¡± Xu Qing said. Lowering his voice, he continued, ¡°But she didn¡¯t kill anyone and thus doesn¡¯t deserve the death penalty. However, ording to sect rules, she must be imprisoned.¡±

    Second Highness nodded. ¡°As long as she doesn¡¯t die. Truth be told, she pissed me off tonight as well. I owe you thanks, Junior Brother Xu Qing.¡±

    She looked at Huang Yan, and her gaze softened. She turned and left.

    Xu Qing looked at the two of them, then turned away.

    The injured were already being tended to. Eventually, Huang Yan sped hands and left. Harbor 176 was already quiet again.

    Xu Qing remained in ce, waiting. He had taken action this night, not only to help Huang Yan, but also because Yanyan had intentionally provoked him. Furthermore, he had been interested to see how safe he was in Seven Blood Eyes now that he was an echelon cultivator.

    Some time passed, and then an old man appeared up above. He wore a blue daoist robe, and emanated the fluctuations of the Gold Core level, causing immense pressure to weigh down everywhere.

    Averting his gaze, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Elder.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know this person. But given the type of daoist robe he wore, and the pressure he let off, he had to be an elder.

    As the elder hovered in midair, he looked Xu Qing up and down, and his eyes glittered with approval. ¡°Xu Qing, Ie with a question from Master Sixth. How do you intend to wrap up this matter?¡±

    ¡°Can I execute her?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°No. Thess might be domineering, but she mustn¡¯t die. Her grandmother is personal friends with the patriarch.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°ording to the sect rules, she should have her cultivation base crippled and then be confined in the Bone-Scorching Cavern for three years.¡±

    The elder smiled. He obviously knew what Xu Qing was thinking, and was aware the girl had instigated the matter. If Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in the echelon, the sect¡¯s official stance on the matter would have been different. Except, he was in the echelon, which meant that he was important to the future of Seven Blood Eyes. People in the echelon weren¡¯t to be casually insulted, and were obviously in the favor of the patriarch. Beyond all that, Xu Qing was also an envoy disciple. Even the patriarch would get angry if someone caused problems for an envoy disciple right in the middle of the sect.

    ¡°Do what you have to do. But don¡¯t cripple her.¡±

    With that, the Gold Core elder turned and left.

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully, then walked back to his berth, all the while thinking about the ramifications of the night¡¯s events. For one thing, he would now have to deal with Yanyan trying to get revenge. And he might have to worry about her friends or family. Other than that, there didn¡¯t seem to be any downsides. The upsides were numerous. Of course, he had helped Huang Yan. And he had also been able to test out what it meant to be an echelon cultivator in Seven Blood Eyes.

    It seems the sect is a lot more tolerant of echelon cultivators, and also treats them very well.

    Given everything he had experienced recently, he thought back to the things Zhang Yunshi had told him when he finally qualified for Onpeak life. For example, he¡¯d said that Offpeak disciples were venomous bugs in a jar, while Onpeak disciples were like lone wolves. Perhaps because of Zhang Yunshi¡¯s status in the sect, he wasn¡¯t very familiar with the echelon. Based on what Xu Qing knew, it seemed to him that echelon cultivators were more like conve disciples than the actual conve disciples.

    As long as I don¡¯t directly break the rules of the sect, I should be quite safe in Seven Blood Eyes. Of course, the biggest downside was that he was now tied even more deeply to the sect.

    That didn¡¯t necessarily make him care about the sect more, but it did mean that in terms of status, and also in the view of outsiders, he was now an even more important part of the sect.

    1. Specifically, Yanyan¡¯s paternal grandmother is friends with the patriarch. ?

 Chapter 203: Another Promotion

    Chapter 203: Another Promotion

    Seven days passed.

    Yanyan from Easher Isle was now locked up in the Celestial Bureau. Despite being constrained with ten dharma shackles, she hadn¡¯t shown any signs of submission. In fact, she constantly came up with all sorts of inventive curses, all of them directed at Xu Qing. Of course, her voice couldn¡¯t prate through the walls of the prison to the outside. But she was full of energy. After the week passed, and it became obvious Seven Blood Eyes wasn¡¯t going to free her, she seemed to go mad.

    When Xu Qing heard what was happening, he issued orders to add ten more shackles to her. However, the increased force of suppression just seemed to drive her even more insane with fury. That said, her energy eventually waned, and her cursing grew more infrequent.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t personally go to see her. He just scanned the reports about her, then moved on to other matters. He wasn¡¯t in a hurry to free her. The sect¡¯s attitude about the whole thing was intriguing. Other than the instructions on the day of the incident, there hadn¡¯t been a single request made about her. For the time being, they really were letting him have full authority on the matter. It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time experiencing something like that.

    Is it because I¡¯m in the echelon?

    That said, he knew his ce, and wouldn¡¯t do anything foolish like kill her. That would have to wait until she was free and he could do it without anyone realizing what happened.

    Therefore, his n was to wait until the sect notified him of what to do next. There was no way the matter was over. After all, Seven Blood Eyes was in the right, and wouldn¡¯t allow any losses in face. That was especially true during wartime.

    Xu Qing was confident in that assessment; all he had to do was maintain the status quo to convey that he was in agreement with the sect.

    During the week that passed, Xu Qing had to carry out envoy disciple duties twice by weing delegates from other species into the sect. He was bing more and more well-known, although not necessarily because of his status as an envoy disciple.

    There were some asions in which the visiting nonhuman women would specifically ask the Captain to bring Xu Qing along so they could get a look at him. And every single time, they were stunned at how breathtaking he was.

    Species were different in physical appearance, but everyone knew that humans had once been the sovereigns of Revered Ancient. Though the human species had declined since then, thesting impression humans had made on the aesthetics and preferences of nonhumans still lingered.

    Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding was full of gifts. Ding Xue and Gu Muqing were very aware of that, and were keeping a close eye on everything. The envoy disciple arrangement had originally annoyed Xu Qing, but now he was warming up to it considering how valuable all the gifts were.

    However, good things neverst. The craze over the zombie ancestor¡¯s nose eventually reached an apex, and then it started dying down, and the nonhuman visitors started leaving.

    Eventually, only a few random allies, including the Seastars, remained to do business. The young Seastar princess seemed particrly interested in Xu Qing, and came to visit him on multiple asions. However, she only gave him a gift on the first meeting. She didn¡¯t bring gifts on subsequent asions. And when she dide, she innocently asked all sorts of random questions about him. It really seemed like she wanted to get to know him personally.

    Xu Qing eventually refused to see her.

    Around this time, both Xu Qing and the Captain got new assignments as part of their award. As for Xu Qing, he was promoted. No longer was he a deputy director in the Violent Crimes Division. Instead, he was the full director!

    He was now in charge of the entire Seventh Peak Violent Crimes Division!

    As for the Captain, ording to the normal process of promotions, he should have been appointed as the deputy minister of the Violent Crimes Ministry. In Seven Blood Eyes, there was a big difference between a division and a ministry. All of the seven peaks had a Violent Crimes Division, but above them was the Violent Crimes Ministry, which oversaw all seven of the divisions. However, for whatever reason, the Captain didn¡¯t take that promotion. Instead, he transferred to the Seventh Peak¡¯s Intelligence Division, where he would serve as the director.

    On his first day as the director of the Intelligence Division, the Captain called Zhang San over to Xu Qing¡¯s ce for drinks. They gathered on the shore by his dharmaskiff.

    ¡°Only an idiot would choose to work in one of the ministries,¡± the Captain said. ¡°The Intelligence Division is going to be great! I¡¯ve been dreaming about working there for a long time. I¡¯ll basically be omniscient! I¡¯ll be assigning missions to spies outside the sect, running counterintelligence against traitors within the sect, gathering information about nonhumans, et cetera. I¡¯m an expert in all those things! This is going to lead to some really good opportunities!¡±

    Zhang San was happy to see that Xu Qing and the Captain had been promoted, but at the same time, was slightly annoyed.

    ¡°Next time the two of you go do something crazy,¡± he said, trying to sound casual, ¡°don¡¯t forget about me. Am I right, Captain? At the very least, if you lose half your body again, I¡¯ll be there to carry you on my back.¡±

    Taking a bite of an apple, the Captain pped Zhang San¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t get jealous, Lil¡¯ Third. Big bro still loves you!¡± The Captain then looked at Xu Qing, who seemed lost in thought. Suddenly curious, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s up, Lil¡¯ Second?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, then nced at Zhang San. ¡°Well, Erniu, I¡¯m thinking about how to improve my poisons. I want them to be dangerous even to Gold Core cultivators.¡±

    Xu Qing had been pondering this issue for a while, and was inclined to start working more on his ck beetles. During his fight with Yanyan, he had used almost his entire stockpile. Thankfully, he had managed to save some. Unfortunately, they just seemed too weak. He was getting the sense he hadn¡¯t fully unlocked the potential of the little beetles. After all... they had been created by a Gold Core expert, so it didn¡¯t make sense for them to be so ineffective when he recreated them. After all, they didn¡¯t even seem capable of crushing a three-me cultivator.

    Upon hearing Xu Qing¡¯s words, Zhang San inhaled sharply. To him, Xu Qing was obviously very different from before. He was already starting to think about fighting Gold Core experts! Then Zhang San thought about Xu Qing¡¯s poisons, and he instinctively edged a bit further away from Xu Qing.

    As for the Captain, his eyes went wide. As far as he was concerned, Xu Qing¡¯s statement was brilliant. They were the type of words uttered by someone who wanted to stand out without making a fuss, and the Captain immediatelymitted them to memory. At the same time, he cleared his throat, then consumed a few medicinal pills just to be safe.

    ¡°Just take your time doing your research,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get down to business. I¡¯m the new director of the Intelligence Division, and you, Xu Qing, are the director of the Violent Crimes Division. In the past, those two divisions didn¡¯t work very well together. But now, we¡¯re one big family.

    ¡°I have a n I¡¯m working on, and the fact that we run both divisions ys right into it. We need to aplish something really big, and do it before the war is over. We need to use our positions in our departments to dominate the Seventh Peak! We need to get everyone to stop thinking they need the peaklords for everything!

    ¡°That way, once the old man and the others are back from the war, they won¡¯t be able to do anything about us. At least not quickly. The two of us need to be real cultivators and aplish big things!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned slightly. ¡°Captain, I was nning to go into seclusion to research poisons.¡±

    ¡°Researching poisons costs money, doesn¡¯t it?¡± the Captain said.

    ¡°I have plenty of money,¡± Xu Qing said, shaking his head.

    The Captain obviously wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Taking out an apple, he continued, ¡°Don¡¯t you need people to experiment on? You¡¯re always looking for test subjects, right?¡±

    ¡°I have plenty,¡± Xu Qing said, shaking his head.

    The Captain was starting to feel a bit discouraged at how difficult it was to hoodwink Xu Qing. Xu Qing was definitely not like he was back in the early days, when the Captain could dupe him with ease. The Captain¡¯s mind raced as he tried to think of a better idea to drag Xu Qing into his n, when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes suddenly glittered. He had just thought of a great way to improve his ck beetles.

    Getting to his feet, he said, ¡°Captain. Elder Brother Zhang San. I need to take my leave now. Let¡¯s meet up againter.¡±

    sping hands and bowing, he hurried onto his dharmaskiff. Once inside the cabin, he activated the defenses, sat down cross-legged, and took out arge amount of medicinal nts, as well as his bottle of ck beetles. Then he started working ording to the idea he¡¯d just been struck with.

    Meanwhile, Zhang San and the Captain exchanged nces.

    ¡°Captain, I think we need to get out of here,¡± Zhang San said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s safe.¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you scared of? I don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    He was interrupted by a muffled boom from inside Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff. Then, a cloud of poison gas billowed out of the cabin. Thankfully, the dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses prevented it from escaping.

    The Captain sat there silently for a few breaths¡¯ worth of time. Then he stood,ughing heartily. ¡°Come on, Zhang San, let¡¯s move along. I haven¡¯t been to the Transportation Division for a long time. Let¡¯s keep drinking there instead of here.¡±

    Zhang San stood, and the two of them hurried away.

    Not long after they left, more booms rang out from the cabin.

    The ck beetles were the only thing Xu Qing had that could pose a threat to Gold Core cultivators. He had hoped they would be a trump card, but they had proven disappointing in his fight with Yanyan. He worked the whole night, using all sorts of medicinal nts and poison elements to try to catalyze the potential of the beetles. Nothing really worked, although the flesh of the Gold Core octopus did seem to make the ck beetles slightly stronger.

    If the only way to improve them is to feed them Gold Core flesh and blood, then they¡¯re worthless. They can¡¯t hurt Gold Core experts, and can only eat, not attack. Useless! I need something that I can use as a trump card to threaten a Gold Core enemy. That said... I feel like it¡¯s because I haven¡¯t explored the right direction.

    With that, he took out the old medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had given him so long ago. He had always treasured that book, and had studied it on many asions. In fact, the pages were so well-worn that many were starting to fall apart, forcing him to be very careful when leafing through it.

    That book was a gift from Grandmaster Bai, and was a physical reminder of how thankful he was to his teacher. Grandmaster Bai was his first true Master. He had introduced Xu Qing to the dao of nts and vegetation, which led to his exploration of the dao of poison, both of which were crucially important to him. Without Grandmaster Bai, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t know anything about nts and vegetation, and would not have his poisons, which were one of his biggest assets.

    ¡°I wonder how Grandmaster Bai is doing nowadays,¡± he murmured.

    After reaching Foundation Establishment, Xu Qing had looked into Grandmaster Bai. However, the grandmaster was always traveling, and only stayed in the Violet Lands for short periods of time.

    Dragging himself out of his memories, Xu Qing started leafing through the medicinal codex, hoping to find something to stir up some inspiration.

    Grandmaster Bai once mentioned that although the dao of alchemy and the dao of bugs seem different, they¡¯re built on the same foundation, and actuallyplement each other....

    Eventually, one particr medicinal nt description caught his attention.

    ¡°Duskthorn lily?¡± he murmured, looking thoughtful. It was a medicinal nt favored by vicious beasts, but generally useless to cultivators. When unintelligent beasts consumed it, they would gain a measure of intelligence. They were also a key ingredient in shapeshifting pills.

    This might work!

    Xu Qing left his dharmaskiff and went to one of the medicinal shops in Harbor 176. Of course, he attracted quite a bit of attention when he walked in. The shopkeeper reverentially asked how he could help, and then immediately prepared the items Xu Qing asked for. Before long, Xu Qing left with a bag of holding, looking a bit regretful.

    These things are expensive!

    He didn¡¯t just have the duskthorn lily. He also had all sorts of medicinal nts required for raising animals, as well as a whole host of poisonous nts. Some were cheap, others were expensive.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to let himself worry about money. He really needed something that could pose a threat to a Gold Core cultivator. Back at his dharmaskiff, he started doing more research and experimentation.

    Seven more days passed.

    During that time, all of the divisions in Seven Blood Eyes were on edge. That was because Chen Erniu, the new director of the Intelligence Division, made it his priority to root out traitors in the sect. The Patrol Division provided the muscle. And all the other divisions were required to do a full audit of all their members, even those in the Foundation Establishment level. All of a sudden, the Captain seemed like a wild dog. However, he had such a high status that all other disciples were forced to bow their heads and submit to the investigation.

    During the seven days that passed, Xu Qing bought even more medicinal nts to experiment with. Eventually, he identified seven types of nts that would stimte growth in the ck beetles.

    Not even that was enough, though. Xu Qing finally realized... that if he wanted to raise these ck beetles, and also make them stronger, he needed to feed them meat!

    Thankfully, as long as I add the right medicinal nts into the food, I don¡¯t need to give them Gold Core flesh....

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he stepped out into the evening and headed toward the cell block in the Celestial Bureau.

    Back when the Captain asked if he had enough people to experiment on, Xu Qing had said he had plenty. And what he was thinking of at the time were all those inmates. The people locked up in that prison were those guilty of the most monstrous crimes. For example, the Night Dove criminals were incarcerated there. The prisoners included many Foundation Establishment cultivators, and were made up of both humans and nonhumans.

    What a pity Violent Crimes doesn¡¯t have any Gold Core prisoners locked up. If I have the opportunity, I¡¯ll have to arrest a few.

    The mere thought of doing something so audacious caused his heart to beat a bit faster.

 Chapter 204: Killing a Goat, Scaring a Lass

    Chapter 204: Killing a Goat, Scaring a Lass

    Wrapped up in his thoughts, Xu Qing headed to Harbor 176¡¯s Violent Crimes Division headquarters.

    It was gettingte, and because of all the activity rted to the Intelligence Division, people were on edge. That, in turn, had caused business to dip at the brothels and gambling halls, as many people weren¡¯t in the mood for partying.

    Because of how the rules worked in Seven Blood Eyes, traitors... were rtivelymon. Qi Condensation disciples were like venomous bugs in a jar, and thus didn¡¯t have any sense of belonging. Truth be told, the sect didn¡¯t care about providing a sense of belonging, as everything revolved around profit. Add in the fact that Foundation Establishment cultivators were like lone wolves, also motivated by profit, and it was little wonder that there were always people ready to sell information for the right price.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t thinking about such things as he made his way through the city. Nor was he worried about the fact that the Mute was following him.

    Eventually, he reached the Violent Crimes Division.

    There were two constables on duty at the main entrance, and when they caught sight of him, their eyes lit up with passion, and then dropped down to kowtow.

    ¡°Well met, Director!¡±

    To them, Xu Qing was already something of a legend. He had started out as an ordinary constable in the Violent Crimes Division, but had quickly risen to prominence. He reached Foundation Establishment in a year, took only a few months to ignite his first life me, and in less than two years, was already a two-me cultivator. And then there was that spectacr event with the Seazombies. He was the one who had crushed the junior princess from Easher Isle, who was now locked up in the Celestial Bureau. Because of that, Xu Qing was now an object of admiration among countless disciples.

    Expression the same as ever, Xu Qing nodded at the constables then headed directly toward the underground cell block.

    All prisoners were kept together, including those in Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment, as well as other special types of cultivators. There were over a hundred cells, with restrictive spell formations built into their metal bars. The atmosphere was vile. The subterranean environment created a noxious stench, whichbined with the odor of feces and urine into something that provoked the urge to vomit.

    Most of the cells were filled with nonhuman criminals, none of which Xu Qing had personally arrested. After all, Xu Qing usually didn¡¯t arrest people. He took their heads.

    He attracted the attention of the nonhuman cultivators as soon as he stepped inside. Some bared their teeth, some smiled ingratiatingly, some spat at him, and some whistled at him in a vulgar fashion. They weren¡¯t the least bit afraid of him. Being locked in here away from the light of day, they didn¡¯t fear death.

    Within the shouting, Xu Qing detected the sound of ck-garbed Yanyan off in the distance.

    ¡°Xu Qing! You¡¯re gonna die a horrible death! Once I¡¯m out of here I¡¯ll slice your heart out of your chest and eat it right in front of you!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he ignored the nonhuman cultivators, and instead turned to the Mute.

    ¡°No matter what you hear, don¡¯te in and disturb me.¡±

    The Mute nodded, and the other constables on guard duty suddenly looked very somber.

    Without another word, Xu Qing closed the main door. When that happened, things got even more raucous.

    ¡°So, it¡¯s a human girly boy? Hahaha! I love that kind of thing. I¡¯m getting turned on just looking!¡±

    ¡°Come over here, little human. I¡¯m in the mood for a massage!¡±

    ¡°Foundation Establishment? Like hell! If you¡¯ve got what it takes, just kill me!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t listen to them, Senior! Help me out, sir! I know a big secret!¡±

    Meanwhile, Yanyan grabbed the bars of her cell, ignoring how the spell formation caused them to hiss and smoke. Eyes full of madness, she red at Xu Qing and cackled loudly. ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯ve already cursed you 273,856 times!¡±

    Xu Qing looked around at the cells until his gaze came to rest on a cultivator with the head of a goat, who was gyrating his hips suggestively. The goat-headed cultivator was a member of Night Dove. Obviously nonhuman, he had ck fur, and appeared to be in the Foundation Establishment level. His cultivation base had been sealed, but he had vigorous life force. Upon seeing Xu Qing look his way, he licked his lips.

    ¡°Me? Oh yeah! Come on, pick me! I¡¯ve eaten quite a few humans over the years. Given how pretty you are, I¡¯m curious how you taste! Hahaha!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and waved his right hand. Instantly, the prison¡¯s spell formation activated, opening the cell door, wrapping around the goat-headed cultivator and dragging him out.

    As the nonhuman hovered in midair, heughed loudly, eyes gleaming with madness. Then, just as he was about to say something, Xu Qing waved his hand again, sending out some poison powder that covered the goat-headed cultivator and then seeped into his body.

    ¡°Poison? Are you kidding me, fool? I don¡¯t¡ª¡± Suddenly, he twitched, and then twitched again. A vicious grin appeared on his face. ¡°Feels great!¡±

    Xu Qing studied him for a time, watching as the goat-headed cultivator twitched even more. Then blood started to ooze out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Finally, Xu Qing took out a bottle of ck beetles and released some of them.

    The beetles rushed toward the goat-headed cultivator and burrowed into his skin. The pain caused the cultivator¡¯s eyes to turn red, but the insane look on his face didn¡¯t change. That said, deep within his eyes flickered a bit of terror. Then, a momentter, he began to wither. ck beetles flew out from him, which Xu Qing grabbed and studied closely. Finally, the goat-headed cultivator dropped to the ground, trembling. And yet, the insanity on his face remained.

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡±

    Turning a deaf ear to the goat-headed cultivator, Xu Qing continued to study the beetles. As it turned out, their aura seemed a bit stronger, although only by a small amount.

    That left him a bit puzzled. Based on his previous research, he had been certain that by adding those seven medicinal nts into their food, it would result in the ck beetles getting a lot stronger. But this result was definitely not matching up to his expectations.

    I need to figure out what¡¯s going wrong.

    He waved his hand, causing the goat-headed cultivator to fly up to him. The cultivator was about to make some sarcasticments when Xu Qing produced a dagger, shed it across the cultivator¡¯s abdomen, then observed the wound closely.

    A bloodcurdling scream echoed out, which then faded into a moan of terror and agony.

    The surrounding jail cells went silent as the prisoners looked fearfully at Xu Qing experimenting on the goat-headed cultivator.

    Sometimeter, after Xu Qing had fully vivisected the goat-headed cultivator, he sat there quietly thinking for a time. Then he took another prisoner out of his cell, one of the ones who had spit at him earlier.

    This one was a merman. His eyes shone with terror and he was panting. Before he could even say a word, Xu Qing scattered another batch of medicinal powder on him, then released the ck beetles for another test.

    More screams erupted as a simr scene yed out as before. Then Xu Qing went to work with his dagger.

    Time passed. The prisoners in the cells no longer shouted and yelled at Xu Qing. They just waited, terror in their eyes.

    They might not fear death, but the idea of being sliced open in an experiment was something none of them had even considered possible. And given they were all watching it happen over and over again, it was only possible to imagine how it was affecting them mentally.

    As Xu Qing methodically grabbed new prisoners, experimented on them, then sliced them open, the ground became covered with blood.

    Eventually, the remaining prisoners couldn¡¯t handle the pressure, and huddled into the corners of their cells, watching Xu Qing with iparable terror and shock.

    As for Yanyan, by the time Xu Qing finished working on the thirty-fourth prisoner, she wasn¡¯t cursing him anymore. Instead, she trembled in terror.

    The night passed.

    At dawn, Xu Qing left.

    He had learned a lot, and now had a lot of ideas. After he was gone, and the Violent Crimes Division constables went back into the cell block, their faces drained of blood.

    It looked like a scene of bloody ughter. After exchanging nces, they decided not to clean up. After all... these nonhuman prisoners didn¡¯t deserve theirpassion. Every single one of them had killed countless innocent people. Raping and plundering was their bread and butter, and they were particrly brutal to humans. Some of them had even kept human prisoners just for food. In fact, they were already doomed to die. Whenever the sect needed some cannon fodder, prisoners like this would be the first ones onto the battlefield.

    After leaving the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing went to the medicine shop and got some more medicinal and poisonous nts. Then he went back to his dharmaskiff to do some more research. The next night, he was back at the prison.

    This time, there was no raucous behavior when he walked into the cell block. The prisoners all trembled in terror at the asura-like Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing strolled past the cells until he stopped at the one next to Yanyan¡¯s cell. Inside was a three-eyed nonhuman cultivator with a big scar on his neck.

    To Xu Qing¡¯s surprise, this cultivator looked familiar. It seemed he was from Night Dove, but Xu Qing couldn¡¯t exactly identify why he seemed familiar. Dragging the man screaming out of his cage, Xu Qing showered him with medicinal powder, then released the ck beetles.

    The night passed in the same way as the previous night.

    Eventually, three days had gone by.

    The Celestial Bureau constables had started spreading word of how terrifying Xu Qing was. The prisoners were all dead, with the exception of ck-garbed Yanyan, who now looked at Xu Qing with even more terror than before.

    ¡°Have the Terrestrial Bureau send their prisoners over here,¡± Xu Qing ordered. And the process continued.

    All imprisoned nonhumans, who had once been so deranged and arrogant, were now trembling in despair.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was making progress with his ck beetles. He eventually added zombie poison, which not only helped the beetles proliferate faster, but also made them more dangerous. Now, the beetles would almost instantly transform any given prisoner into nothing but a pile of bones, having sucked them dry of flesh and blood.

    But Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t satisfied.

    If they eat from the outside in, then they can be blocked. I need them to be like a true poison. They need to take effect secretly.

    After some thought, he sent word for the Earth Bureau to send their prisoners to him.

    All of this was affecting Yanyan deeply on a psychological level. Before meeting Xu Qing, she didn¡¯t even know what fear was. But after the days of watching his experiments, and observing his cold, calcting expression while he sliced open his subjects, she finally understood.

    When the Earth Bureau prisoners were brought in, she looked at Xu Qing waving his hand and sending at a cloud of ck powder. At that point, she trembled, and within the terror in her eyes appeared something else. Something very unusual. Looking at Xu Qing¡¯s profile, she suddenly bit her own finger until it bled, then stretched it out toward him as if offering him something to eat.

    When she realized Xu Qing was ignoring her, she pulled her trembling hand back and sucked the blood from her finger.

    A momentter, she said in a trembling voice, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing... is there anything I can do to help?¡±

 Chapter 205: True Kindness Remains Forever in Souls and Dreams

    <h4>Chapter 205: True Kindness Remains Forever in Souls and Dreams</h4>

    Xu Qing ignored Yanyan. His research into the ck beetles had still not yielded the results he sought. The way they ate the target from the outside in was definitely not what he wanted.

    I think I need to pick between two possible directions of research. One is big beetles, and the other is small ones....

    After some thought, he picked thetter.

    That would be the key to killing silently. After making some adjustments to his methods, he continued with his work. He felt good about the decision. It was like he was a schr doing research, constantly adjusting his methods as he sought the answer to the question.

    In addition to zombie poison, he added other types of poisons he had created over the past two years. Although those poisons seemed ordinary in nature, when the beetles ate them, they gave them a powerful ability to resist poisons.

    If this works, then I¡¯m going to have created a truly unique new kind of poison. A living poison.

    Compared with all the other poisons he had invented already, this one definitely stacked up on top.

    Of course, as time passed, Xu Qing went through spirit stones like crazy, and that didn¡¯t make him happy. He had purchased numerous medicinal nts in his efforts, including some that were very expensive. In the end, he focused on poison nts, which he fed to the little ck beetles. At the same time, his constant experimentation allowed him to identify certain nts that caused the ck beetles to grow smaller.

    Unfortunately his methods weren¡¯t perfect. Because he constantly had to adjust dosages, he also constantly needed subjects to experiment on. The Earth Bureau prisoners were all dead, and Xu Qing had the feeling the Heaven Bureau prisoners wouldn¡¯t keep him going for very long. It was frustrating, because he was reaching a critical point in the process.

    I wonder if I should go out to sea....

    After some thought, he gave up on that idea, and instead took out his identity medallion to post some missions for the Violent Crimes Division.

    Shortly thereafter, the constables in the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division went mad in the Port District, arresting people left and right.

    Whatever criminals were still in the Port District were scared out of their minds. Almost overnight, countless criminals were caught, which resulted in the Port District suddenly bing a much safer ce.

    Upon seeing how well Xu Qing was doing, the Captain, not wanting to be outdone, sent the Intelligence Division into overdrive to root out traitors. When it came to the small fish who hadn¡¯t done much, the Captain just punished them and gave them a warning. He was more interested in the big fish. But as a result, the Port District was really bing an orderly ce.

    Almost overnight, Xu Qing and the Captain had be even more famous than before. That said, the Captain was famous for being like a mad dog, while Xu Qing... was a fiend! Word had gotten out about him using the criminals for experimentation, and thus, Xu Qing was feared much more than the Captain was.

    Despite that, Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t done with his experiments, and therefore, he set his sights on the Violent Crimes Divisions from the other peaks in the sect. Unfortunately, most of them refused to cooperate.

    It was only the First Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division that agreed to send him some prisoners. Because of that, Xu Qing finally had to send his subordinates into other districts to look for criminals.

    Operating out of one¡¯s jurisdiction was generally considered taboo, but Xu Qing couldn¡¯t worry about that. Seeing that Xu Qing was going out of his jurisdiction, the Captain decided to do the same thing.

    Because of that, the Intelligence Divisions and Violent Crimes Divisions in the other six peaks started to get irritated, and thus started simr activities of their own. All of Seven Blood Eyes was now wrapped up in the spirit ofpetition.

    Another half a month went by, and the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ main army finally reached the Seazombies¡¯ main ind. The end of the war was approaching. At that point, the Intelligence Divisions and Violent Crimes Divisions finally started to calm down. The biggest reason was that Xu Qing finally decided he had enough prisoners to work with. As for his research with the ck beetles, it had reached the point where he was now feeding them ck boluses.

    Now, instead of a single bottle of beetles, he had five bottles of them. Each bottle was filled with what appeared to be a ck liquid, but was in reality a host of small beetles. These ones were even smaller than the original beetles Xu Qing had acquired. On an individual basis, they were too small to see with the naked eye. But their fundamental nature hadn¡¯t changed. They were still ck, and when they congregated together, they resembled a ck cloud.

    Most important was that they were deadly. After plenty of testing, Xu Qing had confirmed that they would proliferate inside a victim, then eat them from the inside out. During the process, they would releaserge amounts of mutagen and poison.

    They were very difficult to get rid of, as once inside someone, they would burrow deep into their bones.

    In fact, Xu Qing was certain that, if he had used these beetles during his fight with Yanyan, she would have died in agony within the space of a few breaths of time.

    With an asset like this, Xu Qing felt confident that he could pose a threat to a Gold Core cultivator.

    Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have any Gold Core prisoners to experiment on, so he couldn¡¯t be absolutely sure of how effective the beetles would be. But Xu Qing was very pleased that spending so much money on medicinal nts had ended with this result.

    I¡¯m certain that these little ck beetles can progress even further.?I hope that one of these days I can find a Gold Core cultivator to test my beetles on.

    His eyes glittered coldly at the thought, as he knew that doing so would require putting his life on the line.

    Xu Qing had also fed some of his blood to the little beetles, which would allow him to directly control them.

    The beetles would poison opponents, but Xu Qing had poisoned the beetles! The beetles would need to asionally feed on a bit of his blood, otherwise they would die violently. Because of that, despite the fact that the beetles weren¡¯t really intelligent, they would instinctively protect Xu Qing. After all, if Xu Qing didn¡¯t stay alive, neither would they.

    The beetles also need to eatrge amounts of medicinal and poisonous nts. That was a big drain on Xu Qing¡¯s finances. Before, he had thought of himself as being quite rich, but now, it wouldn¡¯t be long before he went broke.

    That said, he had picked up another asset in all of this, and that was Yanyan.

    She no longer cursed him, and instead sat quietly in the cell block in the Celestial Bureau. When new prisoners came for Xu Qing to experiment on, she would watch him, and that strange look in her eyes grew more intense.

    On numerous asions, she offered to help Xu Qing, and it was obvious from her expression that she was serious.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to make of that. In any case, as his spirit stones dwindled, he started to get more and more nervous. Zhang San still needed more time to fully develop their harbor, and thus, it would be a while before Xu Qing got a split of the profit.

    That got Xu Qing thinking about the magical devices that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior only absorbed in part. What remained behind were defective magical devices, and now Xu Qing was contemting trying to sell them on the ck market.

    However, even as he was weighing that possibility, a bright red jade slip flew from the battlefield into the Seventh Peak¡¯s Intelligence Division.

    When a jade slip was red, it indicated it contained information about an urgent matter. Only peaklords could send messages like that, and even when they were sent from the distant battlefield, they would arrive at the sect only momentster.

    To date, only three other red jade slips had been sent from the battlefield, and they were always rted to monumental war issues that required action in the sect.

    But this time... the message had nothing to do with the war. It had been sent by Master Seventh, and after the Captain read the message, his face fell. After a long moment of thought, he put down his apple, and got to his feet to find Xu Qing. But then he hesitated. A long moment passed. Finally, he sighed, left the Intelligence Division, and made his way to Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff.

    When the Captain arrived, Xu Qing was organizing his collection of magical devices, and was just getting ready to leave.

    At first, Xu Qing didn¡¯t find the Captain¡¯s sudden arrival very noteworthy. But then he saw the uncharacteristically serious look on the Captain¡¯s face.

    ¡°Captain?¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing.¡± The Captain hesitated, looking at Xu Qing as if he wanted to say something, but couldn¡¯t find the words.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He was starting to get the sense something was wrong.

    ¡°Xu Qing, the old man gave me a mission to assign to someone.¡± The Captain didn¡¯t say anything for a few breaths of time. Then his eyes hardened with determination, and he lowered his voice.

    ¡°The mission requires leaving Seven Blood Eyes and going to the Violet Lands. It¡¯s a very urgent mission. The old man is stuck on the battlefield, otherwise he would go. He told me to ask you first, and see if you would personally handle the matter.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim. He obviously knew who the Captain meant when he mentioned ¡®the old man.¡¯

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to beat around the bush, Captain. What¡¯s going on?¡±

    The Captain gave Xu Qing a long look, then handed him the red jade slip.

    Xu Qing took it, sent some dharma force inside, and then studied the message.

    ¡°My dear friend Grandmaster Bai was assassinated today in the Violet Lands....¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly felt like the whole world was spinning, and he staggered backward. His face drained of blood, and veins bulged out on his head and neck. As he stood there holding the jade slip, his hands trembled. He was clearly trying hard to stay in control, yet his breath came harsh and ragged.

    Deep inside, he felt like this couldn¡¯t be happening. It seemed so unreal that he closed his eyes. Within that darkness, he suddenly saw a tent, and heard a raspy voiceing from inside.

    ¡°Kid, you answer!¡±

    ¡°From now on, don¡¯t stand outside the tent. And don¡¯t bring those random medicinal nts either. Henceforth, you¡¯ll be attending ss inside.¡±

    ¡°Remember this¡­. The world is a tavern for living beings. And the timescape is an old guest. As long as we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again. I hope that when we do, you¡¯ll have made something of yourself.¡±

    Within that darkness, the tent ripped to shreds and dissolved into ashes. It was gone, but the voice would still echo in his mind for all eternity.

    ¡°As long we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again,¡± Xu Qing murmured. The words almost stuck in his mouth. He opened his eyes.

    In the truest sense possible, Grandmaster Bai was his very first teacher, who had changed his life forever.

 Chapter 206: Tracking Down the Killer in the Violet Lands

    Chapter 206: Tracking Down the Killer in the Violet Lands

    It was noontime, and it was a bright day. But there was nothing bright as far as Xu Qing was concerned.

    All of the hustle and bustle of Harbor 176 faded away. All Xu Qing could hear was silence. The sensation of unreality grew stronger, until he wondered if this was all some kind of joke. He saw people walking in the distance. Birds flying in the air. Waves crashing against the boats and ships. But it all seemed disconnected.

    It was as if there were two worlds. In one of them, everything else existed. In the other... there was only him.

    This was too sudden.

    When news like this came, most people wouldn¡¯t be able to ept it. Most people would be unable to react.

    Xu Qing staggered back further until he reached the dharmaskiff railing. He grabbed it tightly. The wind blew at his hair, but it couldn¡¯t dispel the heaviness in his chest. He wanted to yell. To scream. To howl.

    Xu Qing was the kind of person who cared deeply about kindness shown to him by others.

    Will we actually meet again...?

    He thought about life in the scavenger basecamp, and about the lifespan flower. He thought about that tent. About Grandmaster Bai looking deeply at him. He thought about showing up with random medicinal nts, and about guiltily eavesdropping. And finally, he thought about watching the caravan leave, and Grandmaster Bai sitting on the cart, a smile on his old face as he nodded at Xu Qing.

    Now all of that was gone forever.

    Sergeant Thunder felt like family to Xu Qing. Grandmaster Bai had shown immense kindness to him. After the god¡¯s eyes opened, creating a blood rain that turned Xu Qing¡¯s world into hell, those two old men had been the ones to bring him back into the world of the living.

    But now, heaven and earth seemed heartless again. The chaotic world was full of brutality. In this world, life wasn¡¯t worth much.

    After joining Seven Blood Eyes, he had seen a lot. None of it had been like the constant misery of the scavenger basecamp. Things had changed. But that didn¡¯t mean the reality of the outside world had changed.

    People went hungry and died from starvation. People brutally ughtered each other. In the world that the broken god face had brought about, such things happened all the time.

    Killing intent burned in Xu Qing¡¯s heart, like a sharp de that sought to burst out of him and sh heaven and earth to bits. He was shaking. However, after a very long time passed, he managed to take a deep breath and look up at the Captain, who seemed very worried. When Xu Qing spoke, his voice was hoarse and very quiet.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    Lifting the red jade slip up again, he forced himself to seem calm as he examined the rest of the message. Master Seventh had a vastwork of contacts, and thus, the jade slip didn¡¯t just exin that Grandmaster Bai had been killed. It also contained clues that had already been dug up by the investigation in the Violet Lands.

    The cause of death was unknown. However, the jade slip did exin that after Grandmaster Bai died, nothing had been taken from his body or his residence. Except for one thing. It was the second half of a pill form for something called a supreme yin chosen assimtion pill. It was an item that had been found in a wish box many years ago. It came from a different epoch, and was inscribed on animal hide. As for the pill description, it was utterly heartless andpletely evil.

    Chosen cultivators were the primary ingredient for supreme yin chosen assimtion pills. It took three chosen to make one packet of ingredients, and it took six packets to create one of the pills. Whoever consumed that pill would undergo a heaven-defying transformation and turn into a chosen cultivator.

    Upon encountering the second half of the form, Grandmaster Bai had decided it was too evil to exist, and wanted to destroy it. However, part of him also realized that it could contain important medicinal theories, so he hid it and kept it a secret.

    The mastermind had not yet been identified, so Master Seventh didn¡¯t have much information in that regard. However, hiswork of informants in the Violet Lands had dug up some clues. The killer wasn¡¯t human. They were from a very rare species of grue from the Forbidden Sea called the Grueglooms. They were known as ¡®the species that can¡¯t die,¡¯ although the name was a bit of an exaggeration. Such grues had a special ability that made it very difficult for others to capture or kill them. Specifically, they could target another living creature, and upon dying, would be resurrected inside of that being. Every time they came back to life in such a way, they ended up weaker than before, and needed time to get stronger again.

    The fact that the killer was a Gruegloom made things difficult for the Violet Lands. Furthermore... things were generallyplicated there. There were various ns there that were always fighting against each other for supremacy.

    Grandmaster Bai had been an important person who helped a lot of people. However, he wasn¡¯t a cultivator. He was a mortal human, and had been an old man nearing death already. To the people of the Violet Lands, especially to the royals, it didn¡¯t matter how important a mortal was, they were still lower ss.

    Tools to be used.

    Therefore, though many people in the Violet Lands were angry about Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death, and though they did investigate the matter, they didn¡¯t put forth much effort. In fact, even many of the people Grandmaster Bai had helped didn¡¯t do much.

    As the saying goes, the tea gets cold when people leave. Now that Grandmaster Bai was gone, few people cared about him. That was just how things worked in this brutal world.

    That said, the teleportation portals in the Violet Lands had been temporarily locked down, and notices had been sent to the Church of Departure, Words of Truth, and Seven Blood Eyes, who all did the same.

    What seemed most important to the Violet Lands was the pill form that had been taken from Grandmaster Bai. Even the Bai n was split on the matter. Some factions in the n wanted revenge, others were interested in the pill form.

    That was how the Violet Lands worked.

    The reason for this was that the Violet Lands were the remnants of the true original inhabitants of the continent of South Phoenix. But because of their deep-rooted obstinacy and istionism, they were only one of a handful of powerful organizations.

    Master Seventh couldn¡¯t look into the matter himself, so he had delegated authority to the Captain. After all, in all of South Phoenix, nobody knew the Forbidden Sea better than the Seventh Peak. There was no better choice when it came to tracking down a nonhuman from the sea.

    ¡°Usually,¡± the Captain said softly, ¡°assassinations like this aren¡¯t carried out byrge groups. Given how Grueglooms usually operate, there¡¯s probably only one killer. I doubt they have a Gold Core cultivation base.

    ¡°The Violet Lands¡¯ grand spell formation restricts and suppresses outside Gold Core cultivators. And they¡¯ve prohibited Gold Core cultivators from going to investigate this matter. However, the formation doesn¡¯t pay close attention to Foundation Establishment. If I were to go, I would start by searching for mutagen with the aura of the Forbidden Sea. Combine that with the use of special magical devices, it should only take a bit of time to find the killer. That said, there¡¯s no telling how long the Violet Lands will stay under lockdown.

    ¡°After all... there are a lot of ns there, and the Bai n is only one of them.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    His voice didn¡¯t contain even the slightest hint of emotion. However, the Captain could sense that there was something explosive brewing in him.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I have a teleportation portal set up over there that you can use to get back here easily. Find the killer and bring him back. Remember, people hire assassins because....¡± He trailed off. ¡°The point is we need to find out who the real culprit is!¡±

    Xu Qing rose up into the air, collected up his dharmaskiff, then flew toward the sect¡¯s teleportation portals. The teleportation portals were about to be locked down, but with the jade slip from Master Seventh, he would be able to leave the sect.

    His heart was filled with both anxiety and killing intent, and they merged together into something extremely heavy. That, in turn, caused him to move with all haste. Anyone in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city who saw him speeding along felt rm in their heart. He soon arrived, and without any hesitation, stepped onto one of the teleportation portals.

    ¡°Violet Lands capital city,¡± he said, his facepletely expressionless.

    When the disciples in charge of the portal realized who he was, they made the adjustments to the formation. Then, after only three breaths of time had passed, Xu Qing was surrounded by glittering light, and then faded from view.

    As the fluctuations of the teleportation rolled out, the Captain arrived. Standing there looking at the light fade away, he sighed.

    After bing the director of the Intelligence Division, he had read Xu Qing¡¯s file, and knew about his rtionship with Grandmaster Bai. And it was also obvious the old man had suggested to give Xu Qing the mission for that very reason. After all, Grandmaster Bai had uncharacteristically approved of Xu Qing.

    Because of that, the Captain knew that he needed to stand aside and let Xu Qing handle the matter. Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t want others involved.

    Something like this happened to me years ago. And when it did... I also wanted to handle it alone. Thinking about that event, the Captain suddenly felt sorrow in his heart. A momentter, he shoved such feelings away.

    Looking around, he grinned and said, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, the Intelligence Division ismandeering this portal.¡±

    A buzz of activity resulted as agents from the Intelligence Division arrived to take over the portal. Meanwhile, the Captain looked up into the sky.

    ¡°As the third-ranking echelon cultivator in Seven Blood Eyes, as the highest-ranking apprentice of the Seventh Peak, and as the director of the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Intelligence Division, I hereby request that the grand spell formation lock down all teleportations in Seven Blood Eyes. I also request that the port be locked down. No nonhuman watercraft shall be permitted to enter or exit the port.¡±

    In response to his words, the Seven Blood Eyes Formation rumbled to life. A momentter, a stream of divine will reached the Captain from the Sixth Peak.

    Turning to the Sixth Peak, the Captain sped hands and bowed. ¡°Sect Uncle Sixth, I have certain evidence and spections that might solve Elder Brother Chen¡¯s murder. I hereby request that you allow me to lock down the sect!¡±

    The Sixth Peak suddenly erupted with loud rumbling noises, causing wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. Then, a momentter, a deep voice rang out from the peak.

    ¡°Request granted!¡±

    The Captain sped hands and bowed deeply.

    I¡¯ve done all that I can do, little Ah Qing. I hope you can get to the bottom of things quickly. I¡¯m getting the feeling... that this is not a simple matter. Supreme yin chosen assimtion pill? A lot of chosen have gone missing at sea over the years.... Quite a lot.... [1]

    The Captain narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

    1. This is not the first time we¡¯ve heard about chosen disciples going missing. It was brought up in chapter 148 and of course 201. From thetter reference you can, by inference, guess about the meaning of some of the things said in the  ?

 Chapter 207: Scattering Alcohol on a Grave; Reciting a Classic

    Chapter 207: Scattering Alcohol on a Grave; Reciting a ssic

    In Seven Blood Eyes, it was still considered the depths of autumn, but the cold of winter had already reached the Violet Lands. Wind carried the snow far and wide over the ancient capital city.

    Crimson pces and halls rose up, like a sea of jewels surrounded by pure white. The snow fell in flurries. Not many pedestrians were about, and those who were on the streets wore heavy jerkins. They didn¡¯t bother sweeping the snow off, and thus it gathered on their heads and shoulders. The falling snow and the numb expressions on the faces of the pedestrians filled the city with a pervading sense of torpor and depression.

    This ce embodied the spirit of the Violet Lands. It had once been the imperial capital of the entire continent of South Phoenix. Many millennia ago, there had been only one royal dynasty in South Phoenix, and it had been called the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. It had unified South Phoenix, and had taken me Phoenix as its totem. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t able to survive the world¡¯s descent into chaos and brutality.

    When civil unrest struck, the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan became a thing of the past. The royal n and its wealth was divided among the rebel factions, and its bloodline fractured and declined. The dividing of the royal n resulted in eight new powerful ns that upied what was now called the Violet Lands. Even now, they still used me Phoenix as their totem, who they worshiped as a god.

    The Violet Lands¡¯ royal capital wasrger than the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, by three times over. And it was divided into eight districts, each of which was controlled by one of the eight great ns. Each district had its own royal pce, which was considered the ancestral home of its respective n.

    Some of those royal pces stood in the middle of green, duckweed-coveredkes. The buildings had overhanging eaves carved with lifelike dragons and phoenixes with scales and feathers of gold.

    Other royal pces had golden roof tiles that glittered dazzlingly in the winter sunlight. From a distance, their dramatic architecture was reminiscent of royal glory.

    This ce had a very different style than Seven Blood Eyes.

    The Violet Lands were like a stubborn old man in resplendent clothing. Everything revolved around traditions and bloodlines. This was their way of surviving in a chaotic world. It was different from Seven Blood Eyes, and it was impossible to say if one way was superior to the other.

    However, Seven Blood Eyes was a subsidiary of the Seven Sect Coalition, and because of that, at its inception, it couldn¡¯t measure up to the Violet Lands. But over the years, the two hade to stand on equal footing.

    In fact, now that the sect¡¯s patriarch Sir Bloodsmelter had broken through, Seven Blood Eyes had even dared to wage full-scale war on a nonhuman species.

    The Violet Lands were not like that. They preferred to iste themselves, and did not like interference from outsiders. Like the broken face in the sky that they gazed upon from below, they looked down on everyone else in the world. They didn¡¯t even respect the Revered Ancient maind. They believed their blood to be the most respectable, and did not think of their nation as a frog in a well.

    In this ce, people who didn¡¯t have the right bloodline didn¡¯t have any future. Such peoplecked vigor, and the mindset of being a servant was so ingrained in their souls that it was passed on from generation to generation.

    Throughout the milleniums-long history of the Violet Lands, there had been few people like Grandmaster Bai. He was the first who wanted to break the ancient traditions of his people, and seek friends and allies among foreign humans. He had paid a steep price for having ideas that ran counter to the ways of the Violet Lands. He had be a mortal. But that didn¡¯t daunt him. Relying on his outstanding talent, and his understanding of nts and vegetation, he had carved out a new dao for himself despite his limited lifespan. Relying on pill forms alone, he, a mere mortal, had surpassed any cultivator when it came to the dao of nts and vegetation.

    In some respects, he was the top figure in the dao of alchemy in all of South Phoenix.

    Even the peaklord of the Second Peak in Seven Blood Eyes, who was a Nascent Soul cultivator, also respected and admired Grandmaster Bai. And even someone like Master Seventh didn¡¯t hesitate to address him as ¡®Grandmaster.¡¯

    From all of that, it was obvious that Grandmaster Bai¡¯s achievements in the dao of alchemy had reached the highest of heights. Despite that, when he was in the Violet Lands, he was still tied down by countless rules and traditions. There were many things he simply couldn¡¯t do. And it was because of his bloodline. Grandmaster Bai was not in the direct bloodline of the Bai n, but rather, came from a subsidiary bloodline.

    The snow fell even harder than before.

    In a public graveyard in the Bai n, a group of a few dozen people had gathered in front of a crystal coffin, within whichy Grandmaster Bai. He had a wound on his forehead, but it had been dressed and covered. His body had been augmented with dharma force and then sealed in the crystal coffin. Despite that, his corpse was already starting to dpose. The ck marks on his skin were evidence of a powerful poison that was elerating the dposition process. The corpse wouldn¡¯tst for long. By this very evening, the coffin would need to be put under the ground.

    Because of his substandard bloodline, Grandmaster Bai didn¡¯t qualify to be interred in the n¡¯s royal mausoleum. That said, Grandmaster Bai had always disdained such matters, and had made it clear years ago that he wanted to be buried in the public graveyard.

    Among the group standing silently by the coffin was Bai Yundong. [1]

    The people gathered were younger rtives of Grandmaster Bai, as well as people who had a good rtionship with him. There weren¡¯t many. That said, in this world, most people didn¡¯t need a lot of friends. Four or five was usually sufficient.

    As the coffin was lowered into the ground, the atmosphere grew heavier. One young woman finally couldn¡¯t restrain her emotions and started weeping.

    She was none other than Tingyu. Two years had passed, and she had grown up in that time. She was slender and elegant, and was normally as carefree and light-hearted as she had been in the past. But when Grandmaster Bai died, her world fell apart. As she knelt in front of the grave, tears of grief spilled down her face. [2]

    Next to her was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old. He stood tall, making him seem dignified and imposing. His gown was extravagant, and he had a jade pendant at his waist that glittered with the light of a magical device. He was none other than Chen Feiyuan. [3]

    He was the highest-ranking son of the youngest generation of the Chen n. After Grandmaster Bai was killed, he was the one who had used his authority to call for the lockdown on teleportations. Right now he stood there with his hands clenched into fists, killing intent burning in his eyes. Because of his grief and anger, he didn¡¯t notice that there was a middle-aged man standing quietly in an alleyway nearby, gazing at the graveyard.

    The man wore a rough hemp robe, and had forgettable facial features and sallow skin. His eyes, however, contained endless grief, and he trembled as he stood there, his hand clenched so tightly against the wall next to him that he had already dug a chunk of the bricks out.

    Evening fell, and as the darkness spread, the group gathered by Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave quietly dispersed. Thest to leave were Tingyu and Chen Feiyuan, along with some of Chen Feiyuan¡¯s attendants.

    That was when the middle-aged man finally approached, walking through the departing crowd and past Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu.

    As Chen Feiyuan helped support the weeping Tingyu with his forearm, he noticed the man, but in his own grief, didn¡¯t pay much attention to him. After all, grieving individuals would visit the graveyard all the time. That thought made Chen Feiyuan even angrier. How could it be that his own Master ended up buried in a ce like this? Sadly, there was nothing Chen Feiyuan could do about it.

    ¡°Do you think he¡¯lle...?¡± Tingyu asked quietly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

    Chen Feiyuan didn¡¯t need to wonder who Tingyu was talking about. Grinding his teeth, he said, ¡°Him? Hmph. If he was going toe he¡¯d be here already. Considering he hasn¡¯t, I¡¯d say he¡¯s just like everyone else. A thankless wretch!¡±

    Tingyu didn¡¯t respond.

    The middle-aged man had already passed them and now stood in front of the grave, his eyes bloodshot.

    ¡°Teacher...¡± he murmured, his voice hoarse as he dropped to his knees.

    This middle-aged man was, of course, Xu Qing!

    The first thing he did after arriving in the Violet Lands was to determine where Grandmaster Bai was being buried. Of course, he had known that his Seven Blood Eyes daoist robe would attract attention, and would in turn make it harder to find the killer. Thus, he had disguised himself in this manner.

    As he looked at the grave, pain filled his heart and spread to the rest of his body.

    This was the second time he had knelt in front of a grave. The first was Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave. And now, he knelt in front of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave.

    ¡°Teacher,¡± he whispered, ¡°I¡¯m going to catch your killer, and the mastermind behind it all.¡± After kowtowing, he took out a gourd of alcohol. ¡°Sergeant Thunder told me you like to drink, Teacher. So let¡¯s drink together.¡± He took a drink from the gourd then scattered the rest of the alcohol over the grave. He put the gourd down.

    ¡°Teacher, before you left, you gave me the ssic of nts and Vegetation. I memorized the whole thing. Sir, allow me to recite it for you.

    ¡°In the dao of nts and vegetation, a myriad phenomenabine into one, and can be considered a great dao. Understand nts, grasp heaven¡¯sw.

    ¡°First nt. Golden twistgrass, also known as three-leaf pearls or cold-dispelling grass, is a sedge nt known by themon name short-leaved kyllinga, and is useful from root to tip. It¡¯s a perennial herb that grows in forested mountains and damp wilderness regions. In South Phoenix, it can be found in the southern prefectures of Rising Nether and Widespirit.

    ¡°Second nt. Rhino-fire blossom, also known as cloudydream silk, is a soulme nt with a perennial soul form. It is useful in diffusing the lungs and relieving coughing, can clear heat and resolve toxins, dissipate blood stasis and reduce swelling, and can be used to treat venomous snakebites as well as injuries from falls, fractures, contusions, and strains¡­.¡±

    ***

    ¡°One hundred and thirty-seventh nt. Meltsoul mist, also known as heaven closes its eyes, is a mutated spirit nt that exists in misty conditions. It can be used to melt markings left on the soul, and is very difficult to detect or extrude. It is a primary ingredient in twenty-four-hour rot-dispelling pills.¡±

    Xu Qing could envision Grandmaster Bai sitting in front of him, sipping alcohol and smiling approvingly.

    ¡°Nightcorpse morning glory, also known as toxic mountain rootmottle, refers to the stalk and root of feverfew veined turtledove chrysanthemums. It is a woody vine-type nt found in ravines of the Corpse Mountains, usually in chilly streams or jungle thickets. It¡¯s astringent but feels warm in the mouth. It also imparts a sensation of decay. It¡¯s particrly useful in protecting against drafts and inducing perspiration. That said, it¡¯s extremely toxic, and is a typical example of the prity of yin and yang in medicinal nts.¡± [4]

    The snow blew in the wind as Xu Qing¡¯s voice drifted out over Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. Eventually, darkness fell, and then his shadow suddenly quivered.

    It seemed to be telling Xu Qing: I found it!

    Xu Qing suddenly looked up at the gravestone. After kowtowing three times, he stood and disappeared into the night, his eyes burning with killing intent.

    Shortly after he left, a group of people arrived. In the lead was Tingyu, and behind her was Chen Feiyuan and his attendants.

    ¡°You were seeing things, Tingyu,¡± Chen Feiyuan said. ¡°He¡¯s a bigshot in Seven Blood Eyes now. How could he possibly remember Teacher?¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t seeing things. I recognized his eyes. I just didn¡¯t realize it until I got home. It was definitely him!¡±

    1. We met Bai Yundong in chapter 35. ?

    2. We originally learned Tingyu¡¯s name in chapter 21, though she was mentioned before that in chapter 18. West saw her in chapter 29 (though who could forget the funny scene with her in chapter 28) ?

    3. Chen Feiyuan¡¯s chapter references are basically the same as Tingyu¡¯s. ?

    4. A number of the medicinal nts in this chapter, and their exnations, were previously mentioned in the story. Specifically golden twistgrass in chapter 21, rhino-fire blossoms in chapter 21 and 57, and nighcorpse morning glory in chapter 24 and 95. ?

 Chapter 208: Grue v. Grue

    Chapter 208: Grue v. Grue

    ¡°There¡¯s no way that brat even remembers Teacher,¡± Chen Feiyuan said. ¡°I refuse to believe it.¡±

    Tingyu stopped in front of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. No one was there.

    ¡°Told you,¡± Chen Feiyuan said. ¡°He couldn¡¯t possibly be here.¡± Despite his words, Chen Feiyuan¡¯s eyes darted left and right as he scanned the area.

    ¡°He¡¯s here,¡± Tingyu said softly, looking at the gravestone.

    Surprised, Chen Feiyuan looked at the gravestone and noted the fragrance of alcohol. He suddenly looked thoughtful. Obviously, someone hade to visit the grave once they were gone. After some thought, he sighed. ¡°We don¡¯t know for certain it was him. It could have been anyone. And even if it was him, what does it matter¡­?¡±

    Tingyu bit her lip, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn¡¯t find the words.

    ¡°He¡¯s in Seven Blood Eyes now,¡± Chen Feiyuan continued, ¡°a glorious member of their echelon. But if he doesn¡¯t showplete and utter loyalty to his Master Seventh, then he¡¯ll be nothing.... There¡¯s not much he could do about Teacher¡¯s death, so there¡¯s no point in deluding ourselves. Besides, maybe you were wrong, and it wasn¡¯t him. Maybe that thankless wretch didn¡¯te here at all. If we want to get revenge for Teacher¡¯s death, we¡¯ll have to do it ourselves!¡±

    With that, Chen Feiyuan led the crestfallen Tingyu out of the graveyard and back to her residence. After seeing her inside, his face became iparably solemn.

    On the way back to the Chen n, one of his three attendants, who looked to be the same age as him, said, ¡°Young Master, the thankless wretch you mentioned, is it that Xu Qing who everyone¡¯s talking about nowadays?¡±

    Suddenly, Chen Feiyuan spun in ce, his eyes cold as he viciously pped his attendant in the face.

    The attendant was thrown to the side and smacked into the ground, but immediately scrambled into a kneeling position.

    ¡°If I want to call him a thankless wretch, that¡¯s my business!¡± Chen Feiyuan snapped. ¡°But he¡¯s my Elder Brother. Maybe I don¡¯t like him, but Teacher approved of him, therefore, so do I. Who the hell are you to talk about him like that in front of me?¡±

    The trembling attendant started knocking his head against the ground.

    ¡°Considering how long you¡¯ve served me, I¡¯ll give you a proper burial.¡± The attendant began frantically begging for his life, but only a momentter, the other two attendants grabbed him and broke his neck. Everything went quiet.

    Chen Feiyuan didn¡¯t pay any attention to themotion. After frowning for a moment, he said, ¡°Activate all my deep-cover spies. I want to know what the Gold Core experts in all eight ns are up to. I don¡¯t care how much this costs. Pay it.¡±

    ¡°You want all of them activated?¡± one of the attendants asked. They both looked surprised.

    ¡°All of them.¡±

    The attendants immediately began to make the arrangements.

    Meanwhile, Chen Feiyuan frowned. I don¡¯t know what that thankless wretch Xu Qing is up to right now, but I have the feeling he¡¯s going to get involved in this thing. If he sticks his head in the wrong ce, he could end up in big trouble.

    He did the right thing by noting to see us. Tingyu is a simple girl who cares only about studying medicine. She¡¯s not built for this kind of intrigue. If she slipped up and leaked word that he¡¯s here, the Seazombie bounty alone would be too tempting for people to resist.

    In fact, it¡¯s possible that someone killed Teacher just to lure out Xu Qing. Kill two birds with one stone. Or maybe there¡¯s an even moreplicated plot afoot! I just hope I¡¯m overthinking things.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one who had changed in the past two years. After Chen Feiyuan returned home and became sucked into n power struggles, he had transformed dramatically. For one thing, he became much more focused mentally. At the same time, his time spent with Grandmaster Bai affected him deeply, imbuing him with a profound hatred for the politicking of the Violet Lands.

    He looked at his two attendants. ¡°Did you make the arrangements?¡±

    The attendants nodded. Then, only a momentter, their faces turned dark and blood sprayed out of their mouths. They dropped dead.

    I had no choice. I can¡¯t even trust the two of you. Now that you¡¯ve done your job, there was no other option but to see you on your way.

    Previously, the only people Chen Feiyuan had trusted in the Violet Lands were his teacher and Tingyu. With his teacher gone, the only person he trusted now was Tingyu.

    I suppose I can trust the thankless wretch also. I wonder if he noticed the evidence of the twenty-four-hour rot-dispelling pill.... Given his skill in nts and vegetation, he should be able to pick up on the clues left behind by the poison in Teacher¡¯s body.

    Frowning, Chen Feiyuan got rid of the corpses and left.

    Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Violet Lands¡¯ capital city, Xu Qing stalked through the shadows, not revealing a scrap of his aura. His eyes were cold as he moved along.

    The reason he hadn¡¯t made contact with Tingyu and Chen Feiyuan was that he feared it could cause furtherplications. Xu Qing knew how much money was on his own head, and it wasn¡¯t lost on him that someone might have set this whole thing up as a trap. Besides, even if it was a trap, it was probably anciry to the actual murder. The fact that the supreme yin chosen assimtion pill form was missing showed that there was arger plot.

    If someone is trying to use this to get at me, it¡¯s probably someone from the Violet Lands. Maybe I¡¯m thinking too much into it, but regardless, I need to be on my guard and ready for anything.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing dusted himself with poison powder and made sure his aura waspletely hidden, then continued on his way.

    He had already identified the clues he needed to track down the killer. Master Seventh¡¯s red jade slip had exined the special characteristics of the culprit. Considering the killer was a Gruegloom, it was going to be difficult to catch. The Captain had offered some advice, but Xu Qing already had his own methods.

    Anything that used mutagen in cultivation could be detected by his shadow. After all, mutagen was food for the shadow.

    The Violet Lands capital city was a ce where good people and viins rubbed shoulders, and had a lot of people with strong mutagen. But when you added in the aura of the Forbidden Sea, then it narrowed down the range of targets.

    Because of that, a matter that would be difficult for most people wasn¡¯t very hard for Xu Qing. All he needed was to provide his shadow with a few key pieces of evidence, and he could easily track down the killer.

    What was more, Xu Qing knew that, given his teacher¡¯s skill in the dao of alchemy, there was no way he wouldn¡¯t leave behind some clues. After all, even Xu Qing, with his inferior skill, could leave behind clues if he ended up being killed.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had taken time to observe the corpse from afar, and had also cast his senses into the soil when he grieved in front of the gravestone. Because of that, he knew for certain that his teacher had been poisoned with a twenty-four-hour rot-dispelling pill.

    Such pills could actually have a beneficial effect when taken regrly over a long period of time, especially on mortals. However, there was an unusual side-effect; someone who consumed such a pill, then died afterward, would start dposing at a rapid rate. In fact, they would usually turn into a sludge within twenty-four hours.

    It was a unique type of pill that Grandmaster Bai would only concoct when he had free time. However, there was more to the pill that average people wouldn¡¯t know about. Only Grandmaster Bai¡¯s students would know that the primary ingredient in twenty-four-hour rot-dispelling pills was meltsoul mist.

    Meltsoul mist, also known as heaven closes its eyes, is a mutated spirit nt that exists in misty conditions. It can be used to melt markings left on the soul, and is very difficult to detect or extrude. It is a primary ingredient in twenty-four-hour rot-dispelling pills.

    That was the clue Grandmaster Bai had left behind. It all made sense. The killer¡¯s soul had been infected with a minute trace of meltsoul mist, and Xu Qing knew exactly how to identify it.

    And thus, he sped through the night, following his shadow to check on three possible suspects. The first one was staying at an inn. Once he was close, Xu Qing personally inspected their aura, then immediately turned and left.

    It¡¯s not this one.

    Taking advantage of the darkness of night, he headed to the second possible suspect. This one lived in an ordinary citizen¡¯s house, and didn¡¯t emit any cultivation base fluctuations or even any traces of mutagen. However, they couldn¡¯t evade detection by Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    Upon nearing, Xu Qing stopped moving. Then his eyes glittered with cold light, and he slipped inside the residence.

    An old many asleep inside, but the moment Xu Qing entered, he opened his eyes. Looking in shock at Xu Qing, he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, a ck iron skewer thrummed toward him.

    A tremor passed through the man, and though he didn¡¯t emit any cultivation base fluctuations, he seemed to have entered the profound radiance state. Dodging the skewer, he appeared right in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°So, you found me? My disguise was perfect! Let¡¯s see who you are.¡± As the words left his mouth, he reached toward Xu Qing¡¯s face as if to dispel the magical technique he had used to disguise himself.

    But then, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and the old man¡¯s face fell. Overwhelmed by a sense of intense danger, he shot backward.

    He moved too slowly. Xu Qing suddenly thrummed with spectacr power, as if he were burning on the inside, and then his knee flew through the air. A boom rang out as Xu Qing¡¯s knee smashed into the old man¡¯s chest. It copsed in a mass of blood and bone, and before the old man could begin to fight, Xu Qing stepped forward and unleashed balefire. However, his opponent didn¡¯t have a soul, so without the slightest change of facial expression, he tapped into Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    The man shivered as he turned into a mass of energy and blood that Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits absorbed. What was left behind was empty skin that flopped to the ground.

    This didn¡¯t surprise Xu Qing at all. His shadow immediately stretched out and covered over the empty skin, then sent some information to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Lead the way!¡± Xu Qing said. He gathered the items he had ced in the area to conceal any fluctuations from the fighting, then sped after the shadow.

    He knew full well that Grueglooms were difficult to truly kill. But he didn¡¯t care. He would kill it over and over again, however many times it took. After all, it had no way to teleport out of the city. The only thing Xu Qing regretted was that the Gruegloom had died so quickly that Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits had only managed to take a tiny sliver of its essence.

    I couldn¡¯t get much Gruegloom essence because of how quickly it died. But it doesn¡¯t matter. Intense emotions can stir one¡¯s spirit... once it gets terrified, it¡¯ll be much easier.

    ***

    Somewhere else in the capital city, in the district controlled by the Zhou n, a sleeping servant suddenly opened his eyes. Sitting up, he took in a few deep breaths and looked around in a panic.

    Who was that guy? Not only was he able to find me, but also, his cultivation base was terrifying. He crushed me in an instant. I was in that body for a long time, and it could unleash three-me battle prowess!

    Unfortunately, thanks to natural limitations, I can only resurrect myself and take over mortals. And it takes time to get used to the new body and unleash its potential. Otherwise, it would be a lot easier to get out of here. Dammit! This mission was supposed to be easy, but then they locked down teleportations. Well, they can¡¯t lock things down forever. That said, why did they have to send a grue cultivator after me?

    The servant¡¯s eyes gleamed wickedly as he looked around, then started chuckling coldly.

    This is just a minor hup. This particr person I marked for resurrection is a Zhou n servant, and now I¡¯m in the royal pce. Unless that guy is working with someone in the Zhou n, he¡¯ll end up dead for sure if he tries toe in here!

    Despite his confidence, he stayed on the alert the entire night. The next morning at dawn, as the sun¡¯s rays entered the royal pce, a burly man with a scar and a Qi Condensation cultivation base opened the door to the servants¡¯ room.

    When the other servants saw that scarred face, their expression flickered and they quickly got to their feet. None of them dared to move slowly. This scarred fellow was a trusted aide to the Zhou n leaders, and he had a short temper. In the past, he had even beaten servants to death. The lives of servants weren¡¯t worth much, and no one cared if they died.

    The scarred man spat onto the ground, snorted coldly, and then strode past servant after servant until he was in front of the one that had been possessed by a Gruegloom.

    The Gruegloom servant shivered nervously as the scarred man measured him up. Then the scarred man pulled out a knife and plunged it into the servant¡¯s heart, before shing it through his throat!

    It happened so quickly the Gruegloom servant could do nothing other than open his eyes wide and stare in shock at the blood pouring out. He was stunned, and had no idea what was going on.

    Meanwhile, the scarred man grinned, and then, in front of all the shocked servants, plunged the knife into his own belly and sliced it open. Pulling out his intestines, he wrapped them around the Gruegloom¡¯s neck, tightened them, and whispered, ¡°My lord and master wanted me to say hi, and tell you... the game has just begun.¡±

 Chapter 209: Without a Trace

    Chapter 209: Without a Trace

    The Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s eyes went wide as he slipped away into death.

    Momentster, in the Bai n¡¯s district of the city, seven or eight vagrants huddled in a narrow alley. One of them, a gaunt young man with scars crisscrossing his body, suddenly opened his eyes. Out of instinct, his hands shot to his neck. Eyes shining with terror, he looked around, then rxed and forced himself to steady his breathing. That said, the rm within his heart was not something he could dispel easily.

    What¡¯s going on? That man just now....

    This young man was none other than the Gruegloom cultivator. The fact that Xu Qing figured out his first identity wasn¡¯t very surprising. But he had felt very confident about his second identity in the Zhou n. Only someone deeply connected with that n should have been able to reach him, or even identify him.

    He had alreadye up with a new escape n that would let him turn the tables on the person hunting him, and show them the true terrifying nature of Grueglooms. He had a teleportation portal hidden outside of the city, but at the moment, he wasn¡¯t desperate enough to use it. The current state of affairs... couldn¡¯tst for long. Based on his analysis, the city would be opened up within about three days, or five at the most. Once that happened, no one would ever be able to find him. Whether it was a Gold Core cultivator or Nascent Soul expert, they could kill him once, but then he would be gone.

    He had been in situations like this before. However, there was something about the current set of circumstances that felt off. The person hunting him was able to track him down very quickly. Furthermore, the person who had confronted his second identity had also seemed gruish.

    What was more, the way the man had wrapped his intestines around the Gruegloom¡¯s throat, and then spoke those final words... waspletely terrifying.

    ¡°My lord and master wanted me to say hi, and tell you... the game has just begun.¡±

    ¡°The game has just begun...?¡± the Gruegloom murmured. Then he shivered. He got the sense things were going to get difficult. This new opponent was strong, and obviously had some very unique abilities.

    I wonder if I should activate that body....

    The Gruegloom cultivator thought about it for a while, then decided against it. The body he was referring to was located outside the city, and he could activate it at any time. But he only nned to do that when he was ready to leave the Violet Lands capital city and nevere back. He was hesitant to do that, and still wanted to wait in hiding until the lockdown ended.

    Maybe that second time was just a coincidence!

    Looking up, he saw that the sky was turning bright. Around him, the other vagrants were starting to awaken. The Gruegloom stood and left the alley.

    With each step he took, he felt sluggish. Although his innate ability was impressive, whenever he possessed a new body, it was as if he consumed the host. In some respects, the host was actually a corpse. He was like the turtledove upying the magpie¡¯s nest. And at first, he was always weak. Only after warming up the host body was he able to restore some battle prowess.

    He had the ability to infuse a host with his innate ability beforehand, but that was very draining, and thus, he saved all of the energy for the body outside the city.

    As he started to pick up speed walking, a thousand thoughts ran through his mind.

    Dammit, I¡¯m usually the one lurking in the shadows, preying on those in the light. But this time the roles are reversed. Who is this guy? I¡¯ve never heard of any grue that can do something like this. He can control other people? That can¡¯t be it. Controlling someone else would involve a release of energy. The only exception would be a divine will possession, but only Nascent Soul cultivators can do something like that. This guy definitely isn¡¯t a Nascent Soul expert. I really get the sense that I¡¯m dealing with a grue.

    As he analyzed the situation, the Gruegloom walked out of the alley, keeping his guard up and heading in the direction of the city¡¯s teleportation portalplex. His current n was to stay in that area and wait until the lockdown lifted. In the meantime, he would see if this annoyingly mysterious person was able to track him down again.

    After he had been walking along for only about an hour, a hand suddenly stretched out from an alley he was walking past. The hand mped down on his mouth, and then fingers worked their way through his lips, parting his teeth and making it impossible for him to bite his own tongue off tomit suicide. It happened quickly, and though the Gruegloom was able to react, this new body was just too slow. Then, he felt himself being dragged forcefully into the alley.

    Whimpering sounds escaped his mouth as he opened his eyes wide in the hopes of catching a glimpse of his pursuer. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t see anything. Then, a momentter, he was dragged into a room and thrown onto the floor.

    At longst he was able to see who he was dealing with. It was the very same middle-aged cultivator who had killed his first body the previous day.

    The man¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice, and looking into them caused the Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s heart to pound in his chest. Suddenly, he felt his jaw being broken, and the pain caused veins to bulge out on his face.

    Thanks to the broken jaw, he couldn¡¯t bite his tongue tomit suicide. And because he had no cultivation base or battle prowess in this new body yet, there was no other way to kill himself.

    As the Gruegloom whimpered, Xu Qing extended his hand and scattered some poison powder onto the Gruegloom cultivator.

    It wasn¡¯t a very deadly poison. Instead, it was a concoction Xu Qing had devised that made the body more sensitive to pain. After watching the powder fall onto the Gruegloom and seep into his body, Xu Qing expressionlessly reached out and started breaking his fingers.

    Pop. Pop.

    One after another.

    The pain caused the Gruegloom to tremble. And the poison made it all worse. It became a tempest in his mind that erupted in the form of a bloodcurdling scream. And because of his broken jaw, his scream caused even more pain. But he couldn¡¯t hold back.

    Xu Qing heard the sound, but didn¡¯t react. He just kept working until the Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s hand was a mangled mess. Then he fed him a medicinal pill to keep him conscious.

    The process continued, for though the Gruegloom cultivator screamed, his eyes did not contain one particr emotion that Xu Qing was familiar with: terror.

    From beginning to end, he screamed and screamed. But despite the pain, he wasn¡¯t afraid!

    As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes grew colder. Eventually, the Gruegloom¡¯s entire arm was mangled, so Xu Qing moved on to the other arm, starting with the fingers.

    After that, he took out a dagger. The Gruegloom¡¯s screams had begun to weaken at that point, but he started on the legs nheless, not letting a square inch of flesh go untouched.

    There was blood everywhere, but the Gruegloom wasn¡¯t dead, thanks to the medicinal pills Xu Qing kept giving him. The entire time, despite all the screaming, the Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s eyes shone with defiance and provocation.

    Suddenly, the Gruegloom spoke by means of divine will. ¡°Want to know why I¡¯m screaming? Because you¡¯re not the first person to do this to me, nor will you be thest. And I¡¯ve long since mastered an ability to vent pain by means of sound.¡±

    The voice spoke to Xu Qing even while he was screaming, almost as if he were two different people.

    ¡°I know that you don¡¯t dare to truly kill me. Are you here to avenge Grandmaster Bai? When the old fogey died, he was writing a letter. Who knows, maybe it was a letter to you. I don¡¯t know how you keep finding me, but I bet you want to know who hired me. You want to figure out who the mastermind is. Well, I know who it is. And if you want to know... too bad. I¡¯m not going to tell you.¡±

    Eyes bloodshot, the Gruegloom continued to scream. That is, until Xu Qing punched him so hard his jawpletely shattered, making it impossible for the screams to leave his body.

    But then, the Gruegloom startedughing maniacally, deep in his chest.

    ¡°Wanna know how I killed the old man? Hahaha! I originally nned to possess that girl Tingyu. But that didn¡¯t seem very fun. So guess who I went with in the end?¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly stopped moving and looked at the Gruegloom, his eyes narrowed as he pulsed with terrifying fluctuations.

    The Gruegloom cultivator was shocked by this. The reality was that he hadn¡¯t beenpletely truthful. Although he wasn¡¯t afraid of dying, and had be used to torture, it was Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness that left him feeling astonished. That was especially true considering that, during this entire time, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t said a single thing.

    It was like he didn¡¯t care about anything other than the torment. He seemed to have done this before, and what was more, he wasn¡¯t showing any signs of letting up. For example, he hadn¡¯t cut any major blood vessels. In fact, it all led the Gruegloom to the conclusion that this person... had done this kind of thing countless times in the past.

    He¡¯s a psycho! A degenerate!!

    He had been hoping to rile this person up and provoke his own death. Though each body he possessed had a built-in death time, on this asion, he wanted to die early.

    The totem tattoo on Xu Qing¡¯s back red to life, and ck mes erupted into the shape of a golden crow. It converged on Xu Qing¡¯s right hand, which he then pressed onto the Gruegloom¡¯s forehead.

    Massive force erupted out, causing the Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s eyes to go wide as his body withered. Massive amounts of energy and blood flowed into Xu Qing¡¯s palm, and thanks to the unsteady emotions, more of the essence mist appeared than before.

    That mist contained the Gruegloom¡¯s essence power.

    On their initial encounter, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been able to absorb much essence. But this time, thanks to the emotions riled up by the torment, the golden crow was able to take a lot.

    In thest moment before the Gruegloom died, Xu Qing quietly spoke for the first time.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t over. See you soon.¡±

 Chapter 210: A Bird in a Cage

    Chapter 210: A Bird in a Cage

    The room was quiet now. No screams echoed within it.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes as he sensed the unique essence the golden crow had absorbed. There wasn¡¯t enough of it to use the ability, but it could at least be used to get a fix on the next location even faster.

    I bet... he¡¯ll be terrified when he resurrects again. But not terrified enough. I¡¯ll probably need to kill him a few dozen times before it gets strong enough.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at his shadow.

    The shadow was currently stretched out through the blood to the corpse. After a few breaths of time passed, the shadow returned, then sent pulses of emotions to indicate a new direction to follow. It also included a request.

    ¡°Pursuit... I¡¯m skilled... bring prisoner....¡±

    There were three reasons why the most recent killsted so long. One was that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t dispel the ruthless fury in his heart. The second was that the golden crow needed time to absorb the essence. And the third was that the shadow needed time to consume the other party¡¯s shadow, and thus get a solid fix on where to go next.

    This time around, given the amount of essence Xu Qing had absorbed, the shadow could now identify where the Gruegloom was with precise uracy.

    In response to the shadow¡¯s request, Xu Qing nodded.

    The shadow immediately released fluctuations of happiness and excitement.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing left the room.

    In the two days that had passed, he hade to realize that someone was watching him. As time passed, the feeling grew stronger. Given that he didn¡¯t want any attention in the Violet Lands, he was now trying even harder to be stealthy.

    About an hourter, outside the city¡¯s east gate, people were lined up to leave the city. Most people were in caravans, and there were plenty of cultivators present.

    Among them was a young man in nice clothing. He clearly didn¡¯te from an average family, but wasn¡¯t important enough to skip the line. That indicated he wasn¡¯t from a very impressive bloodline. As he stood there in line, his face suddenly turned pale, and he started panting and looking around surreptitiously. This young man was now... the Gruegloom.

    He still wasn¡¯t ready to activate his body outside the city. Once he did, he wouldn¡¯t be able to get back into the city, and if he was being chased, that could be a problem. His innate ability only worked in a limited range. To him, ces with high poptions were the most ideal, so he didn¡¯t want to leave the city unless absolutely necessary. After all, if that body were to be killed, it would be far more harmful to him than when he possessed someone.

    He was hoping to use this most recent body to lure his pursuer out into the open, then leapfrog back into the city. After all, if this body died, it wouldn¡¯t be a very big deal to him.

    Given that he had been tracked down three times in a row, he knew his pursuer had a way to find him. What that method was, he didn¡¯t know, and thus couldn¡¯t guard against it. He was feeling more and more uneasy, especially because of the final words his pursuer had spoken. Those words had chilled him to the core.

    Of even greater significance was the fact that, after thistest resurrection, he got the feeling he had lost something very, very important. In turn, that caused a sensation of deadly crisis to build within him.

    This guy is depraved! That said, I refuse to believe that, given what I¡¯m capable of, he can truly get the best of me!

    Given how distracted he was, he didn¡¯t notice that, within the cast shadow of one of the city guards at the gate, was an eye.

    As the Gruegloom got closer to the gate, a mosquito flew over and silentlynded on his neck. The Gruegloom didn¡¯t even notice when the mosquito plunged its proboscis into his skin. A momentter, a voice reached his ears via divine will.

    ¡°My lord and master wanted me to say hi.¡±

    The mosquito then exploded, a host of tiny ck beetles erupting from inside. They instantly burrowed into the Gruegloom cultivator.

    The Gruegloom cultivator¡¯s new body trembled, and he released a miserable shriek. The rmed people in the crowd moved away from him as he toppled onto the ground with a thud, then melted into a pool of blood.

    A momentter, one of the city guards shivered, closed his eyes, then opened them as a different person.

    Taking advantage of the chaos, he immediately turned to walk out of the city. But then, he suddenly felt unable to move. Eyes shining with disbelief, he tried to look down at himself but was unable. In fact, he even started talking in a bizarre voice.

    ¡°Aha! I did it! I got you.¡±

    The guard slowly turned, smiled and called a greeting to one of the other guards, then quickly walked off. As he hurried away, eyes emerged from the shadows of all the nearby guards, flew over, and disappeared into the shadow of the walking guard.

    Astonishingly, all of the guards had shadow eyes, and had been simply waiting for the Gruegloom to show his face.

    The Gruegloom had miscalcted, and fell prey to Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    The Gruegloom¡¯s eyes were now full of terror. Never in his life had he ever encountered anything like this, and his emotions were so unstable he felt like he might copse. As of this moment, he was well and truly afraid. He had finally run into another grue that was actually more terrifying than himself!

    And thus, the delighted shadow sent the city guard skipping down the street, before eventually turning into an alley and entering an abandoned house. There were a lot of abandoned houses in the Violet Lands¡¯ capital city, and it wasn¡¯t unusual for bodies to be found in them.

    Upon entering the house, the Gruegloom saw Xu Qing sitting there, calmly waiting.

    After looking at Xu Qing, the Gruegloom fell to the ground into a kneeling position, then started pping himself over and over again on the face.

    Ignoring him, Xu Qing looked toward the door. ¡°Since you¡¯re here,e on in.¡±

    The shadow stopped the Gruegloom from pping himself for a moment, then resumed.

    Meanwhile, the air outside the door rippled as a young man appeared. He wore a beautiful garment, as well as a jade pendant that glowed with soft light. He was handsome, but had mixed emotions in his eyes. He was none other than... Chen Feiyuan.

    Xu Qing looked at him and sensed a strange aura. His cultivation base fluctuations weren¡¯t very strong, but Xu Qing still got a sense of danger from him. At the same time, his aura seemed incredibly weak. That was one reason why not even Xu Qing¡¯s shadow had noticed him.

    Chen Feiyuan entered the house, sat down, and looked at the Gruegloom cultivator pping himself.

    Then Xu Qing realized what was happening. Chen Feiyuan was only in the Qi Condensation level, yet his blood emanated a sensation of ancient time. It was as if there were some object contained within him.

    ¡°Did you be a living treasure?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°No, not a living treasure,¡± Chen Feiyuan replied. ¡°In the Violet Lands, members of the direct bloodline of each of the eight ns can form a symbiotic rtionship with their n¡¯s sole magical treasure. When I returned homest time, I started the process. It isn¡¯tplete yet. This is one of the reasons the n chiefs in the Violet Lands have such amazing battle prowess. Although our cultivation is important, as well as our cultivation base, our blood is even more important.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a very gruish cultivation method,¡± Xu Qing said softly.

    ¡°The royal n of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan were very gruish. This was their innate ability. They were able to form symbiotic rtionships with any magical treasure. Later, the eight ns stole that ability from them. Then, thanks to our istionism and inbreeding, that innate ability finally reappeared in our blood.¡± Chen Feiyuan shrugged. Looking at Xu Qing, he continued, ¡°Congrattions on your rise to prominence in Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve changed a lot,¡± Xu Qing replied, sounding very serious. The Chen Feiyuan he remembered wasn¡¯t like this. Truth be told, he had known for days that someone was watching him. Following him. But until today, he hadn¡¯t been sure who it was.

    ¡°Some of it is growing up. Some of it is because of Teacher¡¯s influence. And some of it is because of the magical treasure.¡± Chen Feiyuan shook his head. ¡°Besides, you¡¯ve changed a lot too. I never thought that wimpy brat from the scavenger basecamp would end up in the Seven Blood Eyes echelon.¡± Chen Feiyuan looked back at the Gruegloom pping himself, and his eyes filled with killing intent. ¡°Is this him?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Yes. At least, one of his bodies.¡±

    ¡°I visited thest ce you went. There was a lot of blood. This time... let me have a go.¡± His eyes filled with ruthless madness, as well as deep hatred.

    Xu Qing nodded, stood, and walked out. His shadow came with him. And as the shadow released the Gruegloom, bloodcurdling screams and agonized shrieks rang out in the house. They onlysted for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. The level of torment didn¡¯te close to what Xu Qing had unleashed.

    Eventually, Chen Feiyuan walked out, still trembling, and still filled with madness. His eyes were bloodshot as he stopped next to Xu Qing and took a deep breath.

    ¡°Tingyu was sure you woulde. I told her you wouldn¡¯t. Xu Qing, the great ns in the Violet Lands have no idea you¡¯re here. I made sure they didn¡¯t find out. For now. There are limits to what I can do. I can¡¯t keep the city locked down for very long. Avenge Teacher¡¯s death, and then get out of here. As fast as you can. Otherwise you¡¯ll be in danger. There are some old codgers in the great ns who¡¯ll do anything to avoid death. Anything. To them, that Seazombie bounty is very attractive. You¡¯re on your own now, Xu Qing. Take care.¡± With that, Chen Feiyuan walked away.

    Xu Qing could sense a bit of Grandmaster Bai on Chen Feiyuan, and could tell how much he hated the Violet Lands, but at the same time, wanted to change them.

    ¡°Take care, Elder Brother,¡± he said.

    Chen Feiyuan stopped walking, but didn¡¯t look back. A moment passed and he started walking again, looking more determined with each step. Finally, he disappeared.

 Chapter 211: Controlled Completely

    Chapter 211: Controlled Completely

    Xu Qing walked back into the house.

    The Gruegloom cultivatory on the floor, looking like the character ´ó. Other than his head, there was no flesh on his body. Only bones. Yet he wasn¡¯t dead. A glowing red light surrounded his head, keeping him alive. Obviously, Chen Feiyuan had used a special technique to keep the Gruegloom alive while he vented his fury.

    As Xu Qing approached, the Gruegloom looked at him listlessly. Xu Qing put his hand on the Gruegloom¡¯s head and unleashed Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. The head trembled as essence power flowed into Xu Qing.

    A momentter, the Gruegloom was dead.

    Shortly thereafter, in a public graveyard outside of the city, the ground exploded, sending dirt and bone fragments in all directions. A burly man with disheveled hair climbed out into the open. His expression was vicious, and his eyes gleamed with madness. Also in his eyes was unprecedented terror.

    ¡°They¡¯re both degenerates!¡± he growled. This burly man was of course the ¡®unkible¡¯ Gruegloom. He had invested a lot to prepare this body ahead of time and then put it into a state of suspended animation. It was unusual in that it had the capability to sustain a three-me cultivation base. He¡¯d hoped to avoid using this body, as it would be very disappointing to lose it. But right now, he was out of options.

    He didn¡¯t dare to stay inside the city anymore. It didn¡¯t matter whether he hid in one of the eight great ns or not, he was in extreme danger. This opponent seemed able to stay as close to him as marrow was to bone. And the grue factor caused him to feel unrivaled danger. The enemy¡¯s grue had a power that seemed simr to the Gruegloom¡¯s, so much so that, at longst, the Gruegloom was experiencing the same dread its own victims faced.

    Thinking about it all, the now-burly Gruegloom shivered. After looking around to confirm that he was outside of the Violet Lands, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    He shouldn¡¯t be able to track me down anytime soon. I¡¯m too far away. And thus, I should be able to make my escape.

    Even still, he had no idea who was after him. Face grim, he turned, ignited his life me and entered the profound radiance state, then started moving at top speed.

    After the first time I died, it took him a whole night to find me. After the second time, it took him two hours. After the third time, it was an hour....

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the Gruegloom¡¯s expression flickered, and he looked over his shoulder to see a beam of light rumbling through the air in his direction. Within that beam of light was a middle-aged man who seemed to burn with scorching fire and crush everything around him with the pressure he emanated. The Gruegloom, despite having a three-me cultivation base, still felt his eyes stinging just at the sight of it.

    So fast!

    He couldn¡¯t have been more astonished. He had previously thought he understood what kind of person he was dealing with, but now he realized his assessment was off. Based on what he was feeling, this person¡¯s power surpassed that of three mes. It was...

    Four mes?

    Sweat broke out on his forehead. Without the slightest hesitation, he ignited the rest of his three mes, and started barreling forward with frantic speed.

    He was correct. Xu Qing did indeed have the power of four mes! With his lifemp lit, Xu Qing had power equivalent to two life mes. With his second life me lit, he had battle prowess the same as three mes. And when you added in the fleshly body blessing of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, then it was only natural that his battle prowess wasparable to four mes!

    The reason he had been able to track down the Gruegloom so quickly was thanks to the direction provided by his shadow.

    And because Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits had absorbed some of the Gruegloom¡¯s essence, to Xu Qing, the Gruegloom stood out like a bright torch on a dark night.

    As soon as the Gruegloom resurrected, Xu Qing sensed him, and was able to reach him in the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    When Xu Qing spotted him, his eyes burned with killing intent. Given the speed he was capable of, it seemed like the Gruegloom was moving in slow motion. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing arrived andunched a palm strike at him.

    Blood sprayed out of the burly Gruegloom¡¯s mouth as he flopped out of the sky like a kite with its string cut. When he mmed into the ground, a boom erupted. As the Gruegloom struggled to his feet in the crater, Xu Qing closed in again, smashing his knee into his opponent¡¯s chest.

    Blood poured out of the burly Gruegloom¡¯s mouth as he flopped backward. Then Xu Qing stepped onto his chest, eyes filled with animosity as he produced a dagger. He stabbed the Gruegloom once, twice, three times, four times. Seven times. Then he picked the Gruegloom up, broke his arm, then head-butted him.

    The burly Gruegloom screamed. His bones were broken, and it was in a horrifically mangled state. Compared to Xu Qing, his three-me power made him incapable of defending himself. And now, the terror and astonishment in his eyes reached new heights. It was now pure madness. Finally, he threw his head back and howled and prepared to detonate his life mes and kill Xu Qing along with himself.

    However, the power of self-detonation fizzled as the shadow entered him and swept over his life mes.

    The volcanic eruption inside him faded into nothing.

    Because of how his profound radiance state was instantly severed, he suffered a bacsh, causing popping sounds to ring out as many of his dharma apertures copsed. He fell onto the ground, bleeding profusely. He could already guess what torment wasing, and thus, he quickly tried to smash himself in the head to kill himself.

    Except, a ck skewer appeared, stabbing through his hand and preventing him fromnding the blow.

    As his suicide attempt failed, Xu Qing arrived, killing intent swirling in his eyes. A sharp cry pierced the air as a golden crow appeared, gracefully gliding through the air before it started viciously absorbing the Gruegloom.

    The Gruegloom shivered as his energy and blood swept out of him toward the golden crow, within which was his essence.

    Then, Xu Qing stabbed his finger into the Gruegloom¡¯s eye and shattered his skull.

    In the moment before dying, a calm but nightmarish voice reached the Gruegloom¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too quick to tell me what I want to know. This is fun.... See you soon.¡±

    An instantter, in the wilderness outside the Violet Lands capital city, a rabbit suddenly jumped out of the undergrowth and started racing away at top speed.

    However, after less time passed than it takes half an incense stick to burn, a ck dot appeared in the sky that raced in the direction of the rabbit.

    It was a cinereous vulture. Instead of trying to capture the rabbit, however, it mmed into it, causing it to explode into a mass of blood and gore. The vulture also died, but just before it did, a cruel voice echoed out from within it. [1]

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    Moments after the rabbit died, a snake started wriggling out of a tree. After a fraction of an incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, a ck iron skewer shot through the air and nailed the snake to the tree. As terror still flickered in the eyes of the dead snake, a goshawk in the air started pping its wings even harder than before. The only thing that awaited it was a golden crow.

    As time passed, simr scenes yed out over and over in the wilderness. It didn¡¯t matter that the Gruegloom was using his innate ability to its ultimate limits. Every single time, he ran into a ck iron skewer, or a golden crow, or another possessed animal, or Xu Qing himself. His mind was growing unstable. He had died over and over again. Each instance of dying drained him only a small bit. But when added on top of each other, the effect grew more and more pronounced.

    And every time it happened, he felt like he was losing more and more of himself. Eventually it reached the point that, when he was trying to possess a coyote, he experienced interference.

    He¡¯s taking away my innate ability!

    When the Gruegloom cultivator realized that, it shook him to the core. Then Xu Qing caught him and started absorbing him.

    ¡°I only have three more times!¡± he blurted. ¡°Then I¡¯ll die for real! And if I die you¡¯ll never find out who¡¯s behind this!!¡±

    The only response he got was a palm strike from Xu Qing. He exploded, and before he died, a sliver of his essence was taken by the golden crow.

    After thirty breaths of time passed, a ck crow in the sky called out, ¡°You¡¯re from Seven Blood Eyes, right? I can tell from the fluctuations of your techniques. I¡¯m willing to say who the mastermind is. But I¡¯ll only tell Master Sixth!!¡±

    In the blink of an eye, the iron skewer pierced the crow, and Xu Qing watched expressionlessly as it dropped out of the sky. Then Xu Qing looked down at the ground for a moment beforending and stamping his foot. Cracks spread out over the surface of the ground, revealing a pangolin huddling below.

    Fear filled the pangolin¡¯s eyes as it frantically transmitted divine will.

    ¡°Bring it on! Put me to death. Once I¡¯m dead, you¡¯ll never get answers. Take me to Seven Blood Eyes to see Master Sixth and tell everything!!¡±

    Xu Qing pulled his hand back and then smacked the pangolin.

    Insanity filled the Gruegloom pangolin¡¯s eyes, and his mind was on the verge of copse. Yet despite the sense of impending doom that filled him, he refused to talk.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand stopped briefly, then he grabbed the pangolin and examined it coldly.

    Only a momentter, Xu Qing started moving toward the teleport spot the Captain had prepared. It wasn¡¯t far away, so it only took him a moment to reach it. It was a mountainous valley, within which was an abandoned teleportation portal. Stepping onto it, Xu Qing produced his identity medallion and touched it to the surface. Then he waited.

    A short time passed, then the portal activated, and the teleportation began.

    At that exact moment, the pangolin in Xu Qing¡¯s hands shivered and went limp. In an instant, it died. However, right before it died, a new light of teleportation glittered, as if someone had teleported away from that spot before the portal fully activated.

    The Gruegloom cultivator had clearly been bluffing. He only wanted Xu Qing to go to a teleportation portal knowing that he had a special way to make a clean getaway. And of course, he had used some unknown method to teleport away to a location no one could possibly identify.

    After that, the teleportation light disappeared, and Xu Qing was still standing there.

    The Gruegloom cultivator had disappeared, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem surprised. Nor was he angry. ncing down at the dead pangolin, he tossed it to the side.

    Then he closed his eyes for a moment. After, he opened them, and they glittered with a profound light.

    ¡°I¡¯m in a bit of a hurry,¡± he murmured. ¡°Don¡¯t waste time going to meet the mastermind.¡±

    1. The cinereous vulture is a Eurasian vulture species. ?

 Chapter 212: So, It Was You All Along!

    Chapter 212: So, It Was You All Along!

    Meanwhile, not very far away from Seven Blood Eyes near the Forbidden Sea was another abandoned teleportation portal. It flickered with light, and then a mist appeared above it, which gradually took a humanoid shape.

    After the teleportation wasplete, the figure smashed the teleportation portal to bits. Then he breathed a sigh of relief before throwing his head back andughing long and hard. The mist grew denser, eventually revealing the features of a middle-aged man, his face filled with extremecency.

    The truth was that, in the end, he had hoped to be captured by Xu Qing and then use the power of the teleportation portal to activate a secret magic. Everything had gone ording to n.

    I haven¡¯t lost too much time. Next, I just need to get to my employer and recite the form for the supreme yin chosen assimtion pill, which I already memorized. As of now, I¡¯m the only one who knows it, so if she doesn¡¯t hand over the payment item I want, she can forget about ever getting the form.

    Laughing coldly, he burst into motion.

    As he sped through the moonlit wilderness, he didn¡¯t notice that, within his shadow... an eye opened. He was a grue, but he still had a shadow, and as long as that was the case, he was vulnerable to Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Xu Qing had intentionally let the Gruegloom get away. He had never believed the story about wanting to talk to Master Sixth. His n all along had been to lure the Gruegloom into a sense of safety, then follow him to discover the identity of the true killer!

    Back when searching for countless ghosts haunting the night, Xu Qing came to a clear understanding of how the shadow eyes worked. When they were very far away, the images they conveyed became blurry, but they could still impart a general sense of direction.

    Opening his eyes, he made some adjustments to the teleportation portal. The other teleportation portal had been destroyed, but that didn¡¯t matter. He had a direction to move in.

    A momentter, he vanished.

    Meanwhile, the Gruegloom cultivator was speeding along through the night near the waterfront. On more than one asion, he looked over his shoulder, and the entire time, he was keeping close watch on his surroundings.

    Despite confirming that he wasn¡¯t being followed, he was still being very cautious. Sadly for him, he didn¡¯t understand how Xu Qing¡¯s shadow operated, and had no idea that his own shadow had an eye in it.

    That said, the Gruegloom cultivator was being very cautious. He didn¡¯t immediately go to the spot where his employer waited. He spent the entire night taking a roundabout route before eventually going to the shore. Eventually, he spotted a merchant vessel off in the distance.

    ¡°Hey!¡± he shouted. ¡°Come meet me! I have the item you want!¡±

    Then he stood there, quietly keeping an eye on his surroundings. However, he never noticed the eye in his shadow, which was narrowed to a slit, but was still observing him closely. After a long moment in which nothing happened, the Gruegloom turned and started moving in a different direction. Obviously, his words shouted to the merchant vessel had been an act to lure out any potential enemies in the area.

    By now, he was finally starting to feel safe. Looking very pleased with himself as the light of dawn began to spread, he eventually reached the shore and jumped into the water. A momentter, a swordfish nearby shivered, then changed directions and started moving at high speed.

    However... the shadow eye was locked onto the Gruegloom¡¯s true form, so even when he possessed a new body, the shadow eye stuck with him. Grues existed on different levels, and the shadow was obviously on a much, much higher level than the Gruegloom. In fact, it was almost like the shadow was the grue¡¯s ultimate nemesis.

    Meanwhile, the shadow was pulsing with faint emotions. It hade to realize that it and the Gruegloom were a good match. If it hadn¡¯t attempted to possess Xu Qing but instead this Gruegloom¡­.

    The shadow suddenly forced itself to stop thinking such evil thoughts. No, the Gruegloom was not a good match for it. It didn¡¯t measure up to Fiendish Xu, and was only food. How could the shadow possibly consider possessing food?

    The thoughts made the shadow feel embarrassed but at the same time terrified as it recalled the torment it had endured at the hands of Fiendish Xu. Forcing itself to cheer up, it worked hard on observing what was happening and conveying the information to Xu Qing.

    The Gruegloom had no idea what was happening.

    Time passed. The possessed swordfish sped through the water, taking a wide, arcing path. The Gruegloom switched hosts seven or eight times, picking a different sea beast each time. Finally, on the evening of the second day, it possessed a starfish.

    Riding the waves, the starfish eventuallynded on a ck sand beach within Seven Blood Eyes territory.

    Seawater dripped down onto the ck sand, and moonlight shone down onto the frothy water. Everything was mysterious and quiet.

    The Gruegloom starfishy on the sand, not moving at all.

    Time passed, and the night wore on. Eventually, the deepest part of night came and went. Dawn was approaching.... Soon it would be time for the sun to rece the moon.

    Simrly... within the pre-dawn light, shadowy figures appeared in the distance.

    There were four of them.

    They wore ck daoist robes with hoods that covered their heads, making it impossible to make out their facial features. In fact, the robes were so voluminous it was impossible to tell if these people were human or not.

    None of them released any cultivation base fluctuations, and there was also a strange blurry haze around them. It was something that blocked divine sense, and was not the result of a magical device, but rather, an innate species ability.

    The four figures walked along the beach until they eventually reached the Gruegloom in starfish form. When they stopped, one of them just stood there, while the other three moved away in three different directions. Some distance away, they produced disc-like objects which they ced on the ground and studied. They were obviously scanning the area. After finishing, they turned around and stood in ce respectfully.

    A breeze blew across the shore, carrying with it the pungent aroma of the sea. As it did, it stirred the garment of the figure standing next to the starfish. As the hood of the garment shifted... a strand of blue hair appeared!

    Simultaneously, the figure within the hood spoke in a melodious voice.

    ¡°You¡¯rete.¡±

    The starfish on the ground responded, ¡°I almost got killed in the Violet Lands. You didn¡¯t tell me this mission was going to involve dealing with a degenerate psycho! He was more of a grue than me!¡±

    ¡°We had no idea that would happen,¡± came the response. ¡°You¡¯ll be fullypensated. Now, hand over the item.¡±

    The breeze picked up, enough that the hood of the robe tumbled back, revealing an extremely pretty face. She had a mass of blue hair, as well as bright blue eyes, with skin as fair as jade. She was none other than... the Seastar princess who hade to visit Seven Blood Eyes! [1]

    Upon arriving at Harbor 176, she had given Xu Qing a conch shell, and had frequentlye to visit him afterward. On none of those asions did she ever seem like she was plotting or scheming, and had always seemed to admire Xu Qing. She had asked a lot of seemingly random questions, but if you considered the group of questions as a whole... it was obvious she had been trying to learn more about Xu Qing¡¯s personality and habits.

    When you know a lot about someone, you can target them easier. All of it had been part of her n. Everything had been devised with Xu Qing in mind.

    ¡°Hey, slow down,¡± the Gruegloom said. ¡°Considering all of the chosen you¡¯ve captured over the years, including many from Seven Blood Eyes, you have plenty of primary medicinal ingredients. You said you wouldpensate me, so I also want a supreme yin chosen assimtion pill!¡±

    While the princess stared down at the starfish, one of the other ck-robed Seastar people said, ¡°Princess, we don¡¯t have much time left. The elders¡¯ powers are limited, and they can only keep us concealed for so long before Seven Blood Eyes notices something.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll be rewarded back in our territory. Don¡¯t worry, you can go back with us.¡± Without the slightest hesitation, the princess reached down and picked up the Gruegloom in starfish form.

    However, right then...

    A cold voice rang out, filled with killing intent.

    ¡°So, it was you all along!¡±

    The moment the voice started talking, the Gruegloom starfish trembled and unhesitatingly self-detonated, killing himself.

    At the same time, the Seastar princess¡¯ expression flickered, and she shot backward. The other three Seastar cultivators immediately unleashed their cultivation bases to protect her.

    She reacted too slowly. A figure moved with lightning-like speed in her direction. No longer was this person disguised as a middle-aged man. It was Xu Qing in his true form. Within him was a burning force like a continent on fire, and he was surrounded by a massive sea of ck mes. And his killing intent surged to heaven.

    Beneath his feet was a massive bluegreen dragon, like a vicious avenger, and behind him was a golden crow surrounded by ck fire. Xu Qing was not holding back anything. He was letting all of his murderous rage out!

    ¡°Xu Qing!!¡± the Seastar princess blurted, her pupils constricting. But before she could back away, Xu Qing was right in front of her,unching a blow. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the ground below exploded. A huge crater opened up, and all four of the Seastar cultivators coughed up mouthfuls of blood.

    One of them stepped forward to defend against the attack, but Xu Qing, in his rage, directed a palm strike at him, causing him to explode and be absorbed by the golden crow.

    Xu Qing also extracted his soul, imprisoning it in a dharma aperture.

    The remaining three Seastars were visibly bbergasted. Without any hesitation, all three of them tapped into the full potential of their cultivation bases. Shockingly, two of them were in the two-me level, and one was in the three-me level!

    The one with the three mes was the princess herself!

    However, their cultivation bases werepletely useless. Their life mes flickered unstably, and obviously wouldn¡¯t remain lit for long. Meanwhile, Xu Qing, full of rage, erupted with tempestuous killing intent as he closed in on them.

    1. The Seastar princess was introduced in chapter 199. ?

 Chapter 213: Blood-Soaked Garments

    Chapter 213: Blood-Soaked Garments

    Xu Qing had been keeping his killing intent bottled up for a long time. From the moment he found out Grandmaster Bai had been assassinated, insane rage had filled him, seeking a release. Seeking ughter.

    But that wasn¡¯t possible at the time. He had suppressed the killing intent, and forced himself to remain calm. It was the same in the Violet Lands. He had been very cautious, and had forced himself not to outright kill the culprit when he found him.

    Instead, he had unleashed torment on him, all with the goal of finding out who the mastermind was. He had eventually found the clue he needed. And now he didn¡¯t need to suppress the killing intent. Instead, he let it erupt.

    In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of one of the Seastar cultivators.

    She had two life mes, but as Xu Qing neared, they flickered wildly, as though they might wink out at any moment. Then, it was with extreme animosity and utter madness that he shoved his hand right into her abdomen. Slipping his fingers around one of her life mes, he crushed it out of existence!

    A boom rang out, along with a tragic scream. In her entire life, this Seastar cultivator had never experienced pain on the same level as having one of her life mes destroyed.

    But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t done yet. Wrenching his hand to the side, he grabbed her other life me and dragged it out of her in a spray of blood. As it was destroyed, the Seastar cultivator¡¯s dharma apertures all exploded.

    An even more anguish screamed rang out, but it rapidly grew weak. Blood spilled out of her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, yet Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent had not lessened. He head-butted her viciously, causing her delicately beautiful face to explode like a smashed piece of fruit.

    Xu Qing was soaked in blood as he grimly turned his head to look at the remaining two Seastar cultivators, including the princess. Behind him, the golden crow let loose a piercing, vicious cry. It attempted to absorb the fresh corpse but there was nothing there to absorb, so then it turned its brutal gaze onto the princess. Beneath the moonlight, Xu Qing¡¯s baleful aura made him seem like a ferocious god, while the golden crow seemed like an apex beast, its energy causing heaven and earth to shake violently.

    The Seastar princess¡¯ face was pale, and her eyes shone with terror. ¡°Xu Qing, this whole thing¡ª¡±

    ¡°Get out of here, Princess!!¡± the other Seastar cultivator shouted. His entire body burst with light as his life me burned and his dharma apertures all erupted. A force of self-detonation began to build, while at the same time, he performed an incantation gesture to tap into the three discs that had been set up in the area. The three discs erupted with a shocking aura, creating numerous bolts of lightning that shot up into the air like a, surrounding Xu Qing.

    Seeing that, the Seastar princess gritted her teeth, turned, and dashed toward the sea. She knew that if she went back to Seven Blood Eyes, she would never leave.

    However, just before she reached the water, a huge sea turtle suddenly burst out in front of her, its eyes shing with terror and despair. At the same time, it growled cruelly as it snapped its mouth in the princess¡¯ direction. An iron skewer flew from Xu Qing toward her like a ck streak through the air. In the blink of an eye, the sea turtle mmed into the princess, while at the same time, the skewer hit her from the other direction.

    As that happened, killing intent red in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as the lightning from the three discs tightened around him. That was when the power of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits surged within him.

    He looked up, and the golden crow behind him howled and shot forth like an arrow from a bow, its phoenix-like tail trailing ck mes. It mmed into the, and the copsed. Then cracking sounds rang out as the three discs exploded into bits.

    Xu Qing was unstoppable! He was currently unleashing every scrap of four-me battle prowess possible. Because of that, trifling two-me cultivators and their magical devices simply couldn¡¯t stand up to him.

    Xu Qing then vanished, only to reappear in front of the Seastar cultivator trying to self-detonate. Reaching out, he put his hand on the cultivator¡¯s head. Unimaginable terror and despair filled the cultivator¡¯s eyes as Xu Qing then unleashed the power of absorption. Balefire erupted, extracting the Seastar cultivator¡¯s soul. The pain caused him to scream shrilly. Then he began trembling violently as Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits also began to absorb him.

    Energy and blood shot out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. In the space of only two breaths of time, the Seastar cultivator became a desated corpse that toppled over and copsed into ashes.

    Meanwhile, the sea turtle and the iron skewer had blocked the path of the Seastar princess, whose face was now as pale as death. Only moments had passed, yet all of her fellow Seastars were dead. Turning, she saw Xu Qing walking toward her, surging with a baleful aura. Terror pushed her mind toward the breaking point.

    She suddenly thought back to when Xu Qing fought that girl in ck from Easher Isle, and the fiendish reputation he had garnered in the Violent Crimes Division. She also thought back to his beautiful face, which she had gazed at so many times when she went to visit him.

    Everything ovepping, merging together into a reality filled with unspeakable horror. She flew backward, but not fast enough. Her shock gave Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior the opening he needed to send the iron skewer stabbing through her abdomen. Then it spun around and stabbed toward her again.

    As a scream escaped her lips, the sea turtle opened its mouth, bit down on her elbow, and ripped her arm off. It chewed, a mad expression on its face, but terror deep in its eyes.

    The sea turtle was the Gruegloom cultivator, which he had possessed after dying in the starfish form. However, before it could flee, it suddenly found that it couldn¡¯t control this new body at all. It was a familiar sensation, but there was nothing it could do but watch in despair as it turned around and swam back to the shore.

    And now, the Seastar princess, who had been stabbed through multiple times, and seemed to be on the verge of total mental copse, looked at Xu Qing. Trembling, she piteously wept and said, ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m a victim in this too. I also¡ª¡±

    Before she could say anything else, Xu Qing pped her, causing her face to swell up, sending teeth flying and cracking her skull. The p also seemed to damage her thinking ability, and caused her limbs to start twitching spasmodically. The p also extinguished two of her life mes. Before she could recover, he stepped toward her and pped her again. She screamed as the other side of her face swelled up, and more teeth flew out intermixed with blood. This time, her skull seemed almostpletely shattered.

    Also, her final life me exploded out of existence. Then Xu Qing stepped forward and viciously nted his foot onto the wounds on her abdomen. Blood sprayed out of her mouth as all of her dharma apertures shattered, and her cultivation base was crippled.

    The pain caused her to teeter on the verge of passing out. But then Xu Qing shoved a medicinal pill into her mouth, ensuring that her life force wouldst longer, and preventing her from going unconscious.

    Shey there screaming from the pain, her face twisting and distorting. As of now, there was no terror in her eyes. Only madness and malice. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Xu Qing punched her, turning her mouth into a mangled mess.

    Coldly eying her, Xu Qing took a deep breath and waved his hand, causing the bluegreen dragon to quickly consume the sea turtle and then float up into the air. Meanwhile, Xu Qing grabbed the Seastar princess and started walking, dragging her behind him.

    The grains of beach sand were like knives, slicing agonizingly through the Seastar princess¡¯ wounded flesh, and making her pain even more intense than it had been just from the destruction of her dharma apertures. At this point, her screams almost seemed animalistic.

    As Xu Qing walked, he left behind a long, bloody streak in the sand.

    As the streak of blood grew longer and longer, the screams grew weaker and weaker. Eventually, Xu Qing was nearing the border created by the Seven Blood Eyes Formation.

    When he spotted the city, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, member of the Seven Blood Eyes Echelon and director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division, reporting for duty. The Seastar people have rebelled. I hereby request that the sect¡¯s grand spell formation prevent all Seastar cultivators from teleporting away. Furthermore, do not let them send any messages!¡±

    The spell formation rumbled to life as if to assess his request. But then, the voice of an old man spoke from the Sixth Peak.

    ¡°Request granted!¡±

    As the voice echoed left and right, the Seven Blood Eyes Formation activated, creating a force of suppression. Meanwhile, numerous figures flew toward Xu Qing from inside the sect.

    The fastest among them was Master Sixth, who seemed to span the distance with a single step. His Nascent Soul cultivation base was like a burning sun to Xu Qing, creating maddening scorching heat all around him.

    ¡°What did you find out, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he forced himself to limate to the immense pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator. sping hands, he said, ¡°Master Sixth, a soulsearch will be most efficient!¡±

    With that, Xu Qing threw the princess onto the ground in front of Master Sixth. Master Sixth was struggling to control his breathing. Any of the other peaklords would have been much more hesitant to perform a soulsearch simply because Xu Qing suggested it. But he was different. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out, mped his hand onto the Seastar princess¡¯ head, and began a soulsearch!

    Shortly thereafter, the Captain arrived with a handful of others. Looking very serious as he took stock of the situation, he walked over to Xu Qing. He noted the screaming Seastar princess, and also saw the baleful aura that surrounded the expressionless Xu Qing. He sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Your Elder Brother will bear this burden with you, little Ah Qing!¡±

 Chapter 214: Dharmic Decree of Extermination

    Chapter 214: Dharmic Decree of Extermination

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he turned and looked at the Captain.

    ¡°Life is a unique thing, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s full of both bitter grief and sweet happiness. It never has just one or the other. In fact, it can¡¯t. Not even the god above us in the sky can change that. We¡¯re people, not animals, and therefore... I understand your sorrow, and I understand your rage. I guess what I¡¯m trying to say is, do what you have to do. Follow your heart, and live life the way you want to live it.¡±

    The Captain smiled, and it seemed as bright as the sun.

    That light entered Xu Qing¡¯s eyes and illuminated the killing intent within him, provoking an unusual sensation. He didn¡¯t say anything in response. He didn¡¯t hear things like that very often. Only two people had ever talked to him about the principles of life, and they were Sergeant Thunder and Grandmaster Bai. A moment passed, and then Xu Qing looked at the Captain and nodded solemnly. Then he turned back and waited for Master Sixth to finish the soulsearch.

    Xu Qing had handed over the Seastar princess, but not the Gruegloom. He had not yet inflicted enough torment on the Gruegloom, nor had he extracted all the information there was to be had from him.

    Now that the mastermind had been unmasked, whatever further information was needed would be provided by the Seastar princess.

    As Master Sixth performed the soulsearch, he trembled, and veins bulged on his face and neck. He muttered in rage, then suddenly barked an exmation of surprise. Finally, it seemed he had seen everything he had needed to see, as he let loose a shout of rage. The Seastar princess exploded into a haze of blood as Master Sixth extracted her soul and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed the soul viciously, his eyes turnedpletely bloodshot.

    Without uttering a single word, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed to the sky. In response, the Seven Blood Eyes Formation rumbled, and streams of light shot down from it to a specific section of the capital city. The ground quaked, shaking the city, and screams of agony rang out as numerous figures were dragged up into the air by the beams of light.

    There seemed to be around two hundred of them, all Seastar cultivators. Shockingly, three of them were Gold Core experts, and they seemed particrly rmed and shocked.

    They struggled in vain. The Seven Blood Eyes Formation was so powerful that no matter how they fought back, it did nothing. A momentter, Master Sixth clenched his hand into a fist.

    The two hundred Seastar cultivators were wrenched through the air in front of Master Sixth. The force was so intense that many of them couldn¡¯t stand up to it, and their bodies were ripped to shreds. Those who survived lurched to a stop in front of him, trembling in terror.

    Eyes full of vicious rage, Master Sixth inhaled sharply. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and an intense wind sprang up. All of the cultivators hovering in the air screamed shrilly as their bodies rapidly withered, and their souls were extracted. It was possible to see soul shadow streams emerging from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, which then streamed to Master Sixth. That included the Gold Core cultivators. It seemed that, to Master Sixth, there was no difference between Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, and Gold Core!

    Master Sixth began chewing up the roughly two hundred souls as he simultaneously extracted information from them. As he did, his eyes became even more deeply bloodshot. Agonized shrieks rang out until, eventually, all of the souls had been consumed.

    Master Sixth closed his eyes for the space of a few breaths worth of time. Then he opened them, revealing towering killing intent. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Xu Qing.

    It was a struggle, but Xu Qing managed to stand up to the terrifying pressure of the Nascent Soul level as he looked back at Master Sixth.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I owe you for this. If Master Seventh doesn¡¯t take you in, then I want you to be one of my sessor apprentices!¡±

    With that, Master Sixth produced a blue jade slip. It was different from any type of jade slip Xu Qing had ever seen before. It didn¡¯t look like it was made from spirit stone, but rather, some material that was even more precious than that. And it pulsed with an auraparable to the Gold Core level.

    Hefting the blue jade slip, Master Sixth quietly said, ¡°Seventh Sib!¡±

    The truth was that he didn¡¯t need to speak the words audibly. He could have projected them via divine will. However, because Xu Qing was responsible for bringing everything to light, he spoke out loud to make sure that Xu Qing could hear.

    ¡°I got to the bottom of it,¡± he said quietly. ¡°Years ago, the Seastar people acquired the first half of the form for the supreme yin chosen assimtion pill. After that, they secretly started kidnapping chosen disciples from species far and wide. They worked hard to keep the matter top secret. There were many, many victims over the years, and one of them was my son.

    ¡°The active ingredient in the drug is alreadyplete, but they were missing the second half of the form. That¡¯s why they assassinated Grandmaster Bai.

    ¡°The Seastars came to Seven Blood Eyes to further this conspiracy of theirs. Every part of the n, from the kidnapping of the chosen to the murder of Grandmaster Bai, was ordered directly by the Seastar chieftain. On the surface, it seems like a very daring n.

    ¡°But the reality is that the Seastars are weak. They don¡¯t even have a single Nascent Soul expert. Even if it turns out their patriarch was in on it, and helped them cover everything up, it¡¯s not possible that a group like the Seastars could pull off something this incredible without leaking any clues.

    ¡°There has to be someone else involved that we don¡¯t know about. What do you suggest we do?¡±

    Off to the side, Xu Qing struggled to breathe steadily. His eyes burned with killing intent, and he radiated a baleful aura. He heard the Seastar chieftain was the ultimate mastermind, and also heard Master Sixth suggest that there was someone else involved in the conspiracy. As for who that mysterious conspirator was, Xu Qing had the feeling they would find out soon. However, at the moment, his biggest desire was to ughter the Seastar chieftain.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent simmered, he heard Master Seventh¡¯s voiceing from the blue jade slip.

    ¡°The Seastar people vited our alliance treaty, and thus deserve to be exterminated. Time is of the essence, but I¡¯m unable to return....¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to return,¡± Master Sixth replied. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, confirm with the patriarch that it¡¯s okay for me to handle it. I¡¯ve been keeping this bottled up for years. I¡¯m ready for a ughter.¡±

    The killing intent in Master Sixth¡¯s eyes was just as intense as Xu Qing¡¯s, to the point where it seemed he might not be able to control it much longer. For the space of about a dozen breaths of time, there was no response from the jade slip. Then, a grim, hoarse voice echoed out from it.

    ¡°Sixth Apprentice, heed mymand!¡±

    ¡°Patriarch!¡± Master Sixth said respectfully. Xu Qing, the Captain, and the others present all bowed their heads.

    ¡°You¡¯ve had it rough all these years.... Make sure that none of the Seastar people survive. Exterminate them all!¡±

    Master Sixth looked up, and his eyes radiated madness. Xu Qing also looked up, and his eyes overflowed with killing intent.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed, Patriarch!¡± Master Sixth took a deep breath, then threw his head back andughed long and hard. There was nothing joyous about thatughter. Instead, it contained boundless grief and madness, and toward the end, it almost sounded like weeping. Then he waved his hand, and the distant Sixth Peak started rumbling loudly. After a moment, the entire mountain peak rose up into the air in a massive cloud of dust. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out in all directions, while an indescribable pressure weighed down.

    At the same time, countless mansion grottoes on the Sixth Peak opened up, and disciples poured out, including many Foundation Establishment disciples, and even Gold Core experts as well.

    Although most of the Sixth Peak disciples were on the Seazombie battlefield, if there was one thing the Sixth Peak didn¡¯tck it was magical devices and puppets. Terrifying rumbling sounds echoed out as countless puppets flew out into the air, numbering in the thousands. At the same time, numerous magical devices appeared, all of them designed for warfare.

    From a distance, the majestic Sixth Peak, glittering with boundless light, and pulsing with immense pressure and energy, looked like a gigantic floating fortress!

    Master Sixth strode forward, and as he neared, the Sixth Peak trembled. The puppets, the Foundation Establishment disciples, and the Gold Core experts all dropped to their knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Our respects, Peaklord!¡±

    The sound of their voices echoed up into heaven.

    Xu Qing was deeply shaken.

    Even the Captain¡¯s eyes were wide as he murmured, ¡°The old man said he and Sect Uncle Sixth both used to be famous chosen, but that over the years, Sect Uncle Sixth wallowed so much in grief that he got careless with his cultivation... Is this what careless cultivation looks like? He turned the entire Sixth Peak into a freaking fortress. This is unheard-of! We didn¡¯t even see anything like this in the Seazombie war.¡±

    Master Sixth suddenly stopped in midair and looked down coldly at the Captain. The Captain shrank back. Then Master Sixth¡¯s gaze shifted to Xu Qing, and his eyes softened.

    ¡°Xu Qing, take this to keep you safe.¡± He waved his hand, and from within the alcohol gourd that hadn¡¯t left his hand for years, a stream of light appeared and shot toward Xu Qing. Along the way, it transformed into a blue pendant. It stopped in front of Xu Qing, floating in the air and radiating magnificent light. Based on what Xu Qing could sense, it contained a boundless power of protection.

    ¡°Nascent Soul shield!!¡± the Captain breathed, his eyes wide with envy.

    ¡°Also, Xu Qing,¡± Master Sixth continued, ¡°go to that museum of yours in Harbor 176. Get the scroll with the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy. Those four characters each contain a divine ability. With that scroll in hand, plus my shield, you cane with me to ughter Seastars to your heart¡¯s content! You will have your revenge!! The two of us are going to vent our hearts out today!¡±

    With that, Master Sixth stepped onto the Sixth Peak.

    Xu Qing nodded. He was ready for killing. He wanted to cut down any Seastar he saw. He wanted to kill the Seastar chieftain. He wanted to kill until blood flowed like a river. If he didn¡¯t, his frustration couldn¡¯t be dispelled. If he didn¡¯t, his teacher couldn¡¯t rest in peace.

    ¡°Orders heard, Master Sixth!¡± Xu Qing sped hands, then raced toward the Port District. Upon reaching the museum, he nodded to the two Gold Core elders standing guard, took the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy scroll, and then headed toward the Sixth Peak.

    Together with the Captain, he stepped onto the Sixth Peak. After that, intense rumbling sounds echoed out, and heaven and earth seemed to distort as the entire mountain peak pierced through the air toward the Forbidden Sea.

    As it moved, the entire mountain suddenly grew blurry, and then it disappeared in a greater teleportation!

    Death wasing to the Seastar people!

 Chapter 215: Fury Burning the Sea

    Chapter 215: Fury Burning the Sea

    The Sixth Peak of Seven Blood Eyes had been transformed by Master Sixth into a huge fortress.

    Other than Master Sixth, no one knew exactly how many magical devices were hidden in the Sixth Peak, or what exactly the fortress was capable of, as this was the first time it had been deployed. Its might was not fully on disy, but when it disappeared via greater teleportation, all onlookers were shocked to the core.

    A greater teleportation was a divine ability that far surpassed a minor teleportation. It was capable of a much greater range, though at the cost of immense dharma force. What was more, it could only be imagined how much dharma force was required to teleport an entire mountain fortress.

    In the blink of an eye, the huge mountain appeared in the air far, far, away over the Forbidden Sea. Beneath it, the sea roiled and countless sea beasts looked up, trembling. None of them darede up to the surface. The merchant ships were like leaves on the water. The cultivators on those ships looked up at the gigantic mountain, and their expressions were that of astonishment.

    Even being on the mountain, Xu Qing was also shocked. Next to him, the Captain looked left and right, his eyes glittering.

    Standing ahead of them was Master Sixth, holding his alcohol gourd. His face was grim, and his blood seemed to be boiling. As he directed the Sixth Peak forward, thunder rumbled in the sky, and lightning shot down like silver snakes.

    ¡°The Seastars have a small poption,¡± Master Sixth said coolly, ¡°especially whenpared to Seven Blood Eyes. They¡¯re not even as numerous as the Merfolk. They only have seven Gold Core cultivators, and I already killed three of them. That leaves four.

    ¡°The strongest is the Seastar patriarch, who¡¯s in the great circle of Gold Core. However, I suspect he might have broken through secretly, and has been keeping his true level hidden. The other three are in the early Gold Core level. That includes the Seastar chieftain, who¡¯s the son of the patriarch.

    ¡°The fact that such a minor species would dare to provoke Seven Blood Eyes, as well as other species with powerful chosen, hints that something else is going on here. Therefore, be careful, Xu Qing. It¡¯s possible... that the Seastars are keeping something very powerful hidden.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded silently.

    The Captain didn¡¯t say anything. In fact, because Master Sixth and Xu Qing weren¡¯t paying attention to him, he stepped over to the face of the mountain and rubbed it thoughtfully. From the gleam in his eyes... it seemed he was really fond of it.

    Before the Captain could take much time to examine the mountain, deep rumbling sounds echoed out as the entire peak underwent a second greater teleportation. This time... it reappeared in the air above the Seastars¡¯ homnd.

    They upied a single ind thaty roughly between Seven Blood Eyes and the Merfolk Isles. Looking at it from above, it resembled a huge starfish, although the truth was that the Seastars had built it that way from the ground up. It wasn¡¯t actually some immense living starfish. There were five major cities, most of the buildings were made from coral. Even more unique was the fact that Seastar Ind was covered with coral trees! They were massive, and at night, they emitted a five-colored glow. During the daytime, though, they were gray. There were buildings constructed on the huge coral trees as well.

    The poption of the ind seemed to be in the hundreds of thousands. Having benefited from the protection of Seven Blood Eyes for many years, they had not suffered any difficulties, and had prospered greatly.

    The sudden appearance of the Sixth Peak obviously attracted immediate attention. Although the Seastars didn¡¯t recognize the Sixth Peak in its fortress state, there were many of their top experts who realized it emanated the fluctuations of Seven Blood Eyes techniques. Because of that, the moment the mountain peak appeared, a stream of divine will emerged from the ind.

    ¡°To what do we owe the honor of your visit, Seven Blood Eyes? Whichever senior member hase, please forgive us for any breach of decorum.¡±

    The person sending out the divine will was an old man in a five-colored daoist robe. He was all smiles, but it was obvious he was concerned as he floated up into the air and sped hands in the direction of the Sixth Peak.

    The only response he got was the flick of a finger from the furious Master Sixth. Then the entire Sixth Peak rumbled and dropped down toward the ind like a huge sealing stamp. Immense pressure preceded it, crushing down onto the Seastars, causing numerous mountains on the ind to crumble. Thend quaked, and massive crevices snaked out everywhere.

    The old man who hade out to receive them was none other than the Seastar patriarch. Face falling, he said, ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, Master Sixth?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of it? You tell me, you bastard!!¡± Master Sixth¡¯s voice dripped with uncontroble killing intent as he floated out to meet the Seastar patriarch. Then he reached out with a vicious grasping motion.

    Heaven went dark, the stars dimmed, and the sky fractured!

    The Seastar patriarch had no way to evade the move. Master Sixth¡¯s handtched onto his head and crushed down viciously. What resulted was a boom as the patriarch¡¯s head exploded.

    However, as he exploded, a star-shaped blood shadow flew out, then formed into a humanoid shape off into the distance. Coughing up blood, he said, ¡°Master Sixth, this must be a misunderstanding!¡±

    Master Sixth looked coldly at the reshaped Seastar patriarch.

    ¡°So you have been hiding the level of your cultivation base. You broke through to Nascent Soul. Well, that doesn¡¯t matter. It just makes things interesting.... You let me suffer for years after losing my son, so I¡¯ll return the favor by letting you watch as your ancestralnd and all your people are destroyed.¡±

    With that, he performed a right-handed incantation gesture and shoved his hand out. The Sixth Peak rumbled even louder as it continued to drop rapidly toward Seastar Ind. It didn¡¯tnd on the surface, though. Instead, it stopped about 3,000 meters overhead, whereupon it sent streams of blue fire down. They looked like rivers of blue me, instantly incinerating countless buildings, and provoking bloodcurdling screams everywhere.

    ¡°Be assimted! I¡¯ll assimte your species, yournds, your blood! I¡¯ll assimte all Seastars and turn you into a candle that will burn day and night in front of the tomb of my beloved son!!¡±

    Master Sixth¡¯s eyes were bloodshot and full of madness as he waved his hand, causing row upon row of magical devices to appear on the Sixth Peak. And when they rumbled to life, countless beams of light shot toward Seastar ind. At the same time, the surrounding puppets thrummed with killing intent as they charged forth to unleash ughter. The Sixth Peak disciples and elders also descended to fight.

    Seeing all this, the Seastar patriarch¡¯s expression turned grim. He wanted to do something to stop the attack, but before he could, Master Sixth attacked him. Yet again, blood sprayed out of the Seastar patriarch¡¯s mouth. But then, a flicker of silver shed through his eyes, and his energy levels surged, creating a tempest around him as Master Sixth closed in again.

    As that happened, Xu Qing and the Captain leaped off of the Sixth Peak and shot toward the ground below.

    Xu Qingnded on one of the coral trees. The gray coral couldn¡¯t withstand the force and copsed beneath him. Xu Qing, his eyes bloodshot and pulsing with killing intent, dropped down to the Seastar people below.

    The Captain kept pace with him. He could sense the vicious aura that surrounded Xu Qing, and knew that only blood and ughter could get rid of it.

    The Seastar people weren¡¯t important to the Captain. But because Master Seventh had entrusted this matter to him, and because of his rtionship with Xu Qing, he really wanted Xu Qing back to normal. As a result, he was only here for one reason. To show support for Xu Qing.

    ¡°Kill them, little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain murmured, his eyes glittering madly. ¡°In this chaotic world, ughter is the only way to truly vent. I went through something like this before. If you don¡¯t carry out a few ughters like this, no one will respect you.¡±

    Up ahead, Xu Qing was already carrying out that ughter. He had lit his life mes, and his iron skewer circled around him. He attacked anything that moved, causing massive rumbling sounds to echo out.

    All of a sudden, a Foundation Establishment Seastar appeared in front of him. Before the cultivator could react, Xu Qing viciously mmed into him, causing him to explode. As blood and gore rained down, Xu Qing noticed a tiny silver-colored bug wriggling out of the flesh. After merely ncing at it, he raced in the direction of the Seastars¡¯ ancestral temple, where the Seastar chieftain was currently seated cross-legged while concocting a pill.

    While on the way to the ind, Master Sixth had already exined what was toe. Master Sixth would focus his revenge on the Seastar patriarch, and would also assimte the Seastar people as a whole.

    Xu Qing¡¯s target was the chieftain, who was the one who had given the order for Grandmaster Bai to be assassinated.

    An entire continent burned inside of Xu Qing as he raced toward the ancestral temple.

    Blue fire rained down from above, destroying buildings and causing countless Seastars to let loose agonized shrieks. The ground shattered and then started to melt from the intense heat. Blue mes began to gather in spots of low elevation, as if to refine the earth itself. Numerous Sixth Peak puppets, driven by Master Sixth¡¯s will, carried out ughter, joined by the Sixth Peak disciples. Seastar Ind was in pure chaos. Coral buildings shattered, and of the five cities on the ind, three were already engulfed in mes.

    As Xu Qing raced forward, a group of Seastar cultivators appeared in front of him to block his path. He waved his right hand, and Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits instantly turned them into corpses. He didn¡¯t slow down at all. The golden crow followed him, its tail trailing fire like a phoenix. At the same time, he was surrounded by a ck cloud of beetles that resembled a vicious face. His shadow was with him, as was his iron skewer.

    Xu Qing looked like a god of deathe to the mortal world, unstoppable, ready to kill everything!

 Chapter 216: A Road of Blood

    Chapter 216: A Road of Blood

    High in the dome of heaven, Master Sixthughed. However, it was aughter of pain and mourning, filled with indescribable grief that, over the years of being bottled up, had turned into madness. The Seastar patriarch had been crushed over and over again in his hands. But the patriarch had a gruish divine ability to be reborn after being destroyed. And that ability was driving Master Sixth into even deeper madness. The deeper his pain and grief, the more his killing intent raged to heaven. Apparently, he was skinning the patriarch alive, sending down chunks of bloody flesh to be incinerated by the fires below. Yet his hatred had not been sated.

    Down below, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot. He was also in a state of madness. From the moment hended on the ind until he reached the ancestral temple, any Seastar he saw ended up dead.

    He waved his right hand, causing a dagger of balefire to appear, which he shed through the throat of a Seastar cultivator. A head flew, and Xu Qing stepped forward to deal with another Seastar cultivator. His dagger plunged into the enemy¡¯s chest over and over again. Then it flew through the air to sink into the throat of a third Seastar cultivator. Then Xu Qing stepped over and shed out with another dagger. Another head rolled. Yet again, within the corpse, Xu Qing saw what appeared to be threads made of silver worms, which were now severed.

    In some cases the threads were made of many worms entwined together. In other cases a thread was made of a single worm. It was a very gruish sight. It seemed as if all the Seastar cultivators had them. Xu Qing had seen them in every Seastar he killed, and upon collecting some, found that they tried to burrow into him. Thankfully, his tough flesh made that impossible, and he ultimately incinerated them. Except, the threadworms had a very strong life force, and ordinary fire from within Xu Qing wasn¡¯t strong enough to destroy them. He had been forced to use the golden crow.

    Beyond the gruish threadworms¡¯ toughness, it seemed to Xu Qing that they could influence the Seastar cultivators¡¯ will and soul. Part of the reason foring to that conclusion was that he had noticed the threadworms glittering in the eyes of some of the Seastar cultivators. Whenever they glittered, the Seastar cultivators seemed to go absolutely insane, and would attack without regard to their own lives.

    Furthermore, upon devouring Seastar souls with balefire, Xu Qing came to realize that their souls were iplete and damaged, as if they had already been partially devoured. It was the same with their energy, blood, and essence. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits benefited from all that, but only minimally.

    The Seastars looked ordinary on the surface, but had beenrgely devoured by some other force.

    Master Sixth was right. There¡¯s a lot more going on with the Seastars than any of us knew.

    That said, it didn¡¯t matter much to Xu Qing. He blurred into motion, the golden crow following behind him. ughtering six Seastar cultivators in a row, he absorbed them. At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the iron skewer stabbing through one enemy after another. With every stab, thunder boomed, shaking the life force of the enemy.

    The shadow spread out as well. One after another, eyes appeared in the shadows of the Seastar cultivators and began to ravenously devour them. In many cases, before the devouring wasplete, Xu Qing or the patriarch would kill the target. That said, the shadow didn¡¯t give up. And asionally, it managed to fully possess one of the enemy. When that happened, the possessed Seastar would throw its head back andugh uproariously before rushing into the nearest group of Seastars and self-detonating.

    All of that... was what Xu Qing led the attack with. What was truly frightening to the Captain as he watched from further back was the ck cloud that surrounded Xu Qing. The beetles that made up the cloud seemed able to conquer every obstacle in their path. It didn¡¯t matter if it was coral trees or Seastar cultivators, they would ravenously devour them. Bloodcurdling shrieks rang out constantly. The ck beetles even devoured the threadworms, although it took them a lot of effort to do so.

    Regardless, Xu Qing was releasing all of his pent-up fury. Eventually, he ughtered his way to the ancestral temple, leaving behind a wake of blood and bones.

    Four figures sat cross-legged outside the temple. All of them looked up at the same time, and when they did, blue veins bulged on their faces. They were Seastar cultivators, but they were different from the others. The first difference was in their aura; all of them surpassed the three-me level, though they weren¡¯t fully in the four-me level. Second of all, the bulging veins visible on their faces wriggled. Apparently, there were huge threadworms inside of them, moving about.

    As they caught sight of Xu Qing, heid eyes on the person seated cross-legged in front of the pill furnace behind them in the temple. It was a middle-aged cultivator in a long, green robe embroidered with golden thread. Theplex design emanated a noble aura, which was augmented by the imperial crown the man wore. He had a Gold Core cultivation base, as well as a starfish symbol on his forehead.

    The cultivator seemed threatening without being angry, and was ignoring the mass ughter going on outside. He remained seated in ce, his eyes closed as he sent energy into the pill furnace. It was as if he didn¡¯t care at all if his people were wiped out of existence. The only thing that mattered to him was the pill in the furnace.

    This man was the chieftain of the Seastar people, and was the son of the Seastar patriarch who was suffering up above.

    When Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell on the man, the killing intent in his heart erupted to greater heights.

    Meanwhile, the four Seastar cultivators on guard outside rose to their feet. Their eyes did not contain any emotions. However, within their pupils were white threads as thick as chopsticks. As one, they entered the profound radiance state, revealing the battle prowess of three life mes as they closed in on Xu Qing.

    Each of them had a cancerous growth on their back that resembled a starfish, which bolstered their fleshly body power. Howling, they all unleashed fist strikes! Their fists caused everything in the area to ripple and distort as wild power raged.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t attempt to evade the attack. He stood in ce, eyes closed as the golden crow¡¯s feathers of ck me spread out like an imperial robe. Its ming tail became a cape, and its head was like an imperial crown that settled on Xu Qing¡¯s head. A wild and domineering aura pulsed out of Xu Qing, making him seem like a young emperor. Then his eyes opened.

    A boom rang out as the four iing Seastar cultivators found that their fists couldn¡¯te close to harming Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Instead, the power of their attacks created a bacsh that sent all of them skidding backward.

    Before they could think about fleeing, Xu Qing took a step forward, reached out with his right hand, andpletely ignoring the fact that his opponent was in the profound radiance state, grabbed the Seastar¡¯s throat. He tightened his fingers, and a crunch rang out. Then the iron skewer stabbed through the Seastar seven or eight times.

    After that, Xu Qing loosened his grip. As he did, the cape of mes behind him red, transforming into a beam that shot toward the second retreating Seastar. A thump rang out as it mmed into the cultivator, who let loose an agonized shriek. He continued to flee, but Xu Qing was faster, mming into him and causing the Seastar¡¯s head to explode.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. A cloud of ck beetles swarmed over the third retreating Seastar, burrowing into his skin and devouring him. More bloodcurdling screams rang out.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing reached the fourth and final Seastar cultivator, who could do nothing but watch in horror as a golden crow shot out from Xu Qing, spreading balefire all over him and immting him.

    All of this happened in the briefest spans of time. In the blink of an eye, four Seastars died. Their energy and blood was taken, their souls were extracted, and their flesh devoured. Sadly, they were like pieces of meat that had been left in an icebox for years on end. Theycked nutrients and vor, and were as useful as chicken bones.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and the corpses copsed into ash and were blown away in the wind. He wasn¡¯t interested in them. His eyes were dead set on the Seastar chieftain sitting in front of the pill furnace.

    Meanwhile, the Captain caught up with Xu Qing. Holding an apple that, for some reason, was now ck, he took a bite and looked at the chieftain.

    Grinning, he said, ¡°Wo, little Junior Brother. The way you¡¯re looking at this guy, he might as well already be dead!¡±

    However, at that exact moment, the Seastar chieftain¡¯s eyes snapped open, and they glittered like lightning!

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as a tempestuous pressure swept over him. Thankfully, the pendant hanging around his neck dispelled most of the pressure.

    The Captain took a few steps back, magical symbols glittering in his eyes. Expression turning a bit crazy, he licked his lips, revealing that he had some ck apple flesh stuck in his teeth.

    ¡°Xu Qing, why don¡¯t we work together to kill this guy.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Then the two of them rushed toward the Seastar chieftain in the temple.

    The chieftain looked at them with a strange light in his eyes. Then heughed. ¡°Interesting. Who could have guessed that two runts like you, having run into a Gold Core cultivator in a little ce like this, would charge into a fight? I still have enough time to y around.¡±

 Chapter 217: Fiends of Fire and Ice

    <h4>Chapter 217: Fiends of Fire and Ice</h4>

    As the Captain and Xu Qing charged forth, the Seastar chieftain¡¯s words rang out and he took a step forward. The moment his foot touched the ground, his entire body superimposed upon himself, as if two resentful souls had stepped out, one moving to the left, the other to the right. In the blink of an eye, the Seastar chieftain became two versions of himself, one of which headed to the Captain, and the other to Xu Qing. Closing in on Xu Qing, he extended his right index finger toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    He sneered as the finger unleashed an explosion of force. It was the power of Gold Core, and it caused a tremor to pass through Xu Qing, so violent his life mes flickered on the verge of being extinguished.

    At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the ck iron skewer out to block the force. However, the Seastar chieftain simply reached out and flicked the skewer. It was sent spinning off to the side, cracks spreading out on its surface.

    Before it couldnd, the Seastar chieftain lifted his foot and then stomped it back down onto the ground. Everything trembled as the shadow beneath his feet copsed.

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± he said, shaking his head, sending his finger once again toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead. Just when it seemed like it would stab into Xu Qing, the golden crow appeared and inhaled viciously.

    The Seastar chieftain shivered and suddenly turned slightly blurry. However, his finger continued on its path toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead. Just before hepleted the movement, mes erupted from the golden crow.

    At the same time, madness flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as, instead of dodging, he head-butted the finger. A boom rang out. The golden crow seemed to sag listlessly, but did manage to absorb a strand of energy and blood. As for Xu Qing, his forehead smashed into the Seastar chieftain¡¯s finger, resulting in a cracking sound. A curious gleam then appeared in the chieftain¡¯s eyes as his finger was crushed.

    A massive force sent Xu Qing hurling backward. However, the pendant around his neck prevented him from being injured. Even still, his energy and blood vibrated chaotically. As soon as he skidded to a stop, he looked up and red at the astonished Seastar chieftain.

    Off to the side, the Captain was facing the Seastar chieftain¡¯s other version, which was also reaching toward his forehead with a finger strike. The Captain¡¯s method of dealing with the attack was simr to Xu Qing¡¯s, but at the same time, different. The magical sealing symbols in his eyes flickered out, and his energy suddenly surged. Just like Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t attempt to dodge the attack or fall back. But what was different was that he didn¡¯t head-butt the finger. Instead he opened his mouth and, eyes flickering with a crazy light, viciously bit down on the finger!

    It takes some time to describe these two things, but they actually happened at exactly the same moment. The Seastar chieftain¡¯s two versions of himself shed with Xu Qing and the Captain simultaneously.

    The Captain chomped down on the chieftain¡¯s finger, and though he didn¡¯t manage to bite it off, he did pierce the skin, causing blood to ooze out. He also broke a few of his teeth in the process. He released the finger, though the crazy look never left his eyes; his hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, creating a shield to block the Gold Core power that sent him flying backward.

    ¡°How amusing.¡± The two versions of the Seastar chieftain both looked down at their fingers, then merged back into a unified version. The finger immediately healed. Then he unleashed the power of his Gold Core cultivation base. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes stung as though the sun were attacking them, yet the killing intent never left them.

    It was the same with the Captain. He was missing a few teeth, yet that just made it easier for him to lick his lips. He even seemed in high enough spirits to sh Xu Qing a pleased grin.

    The Seastar chieftain snorted coldly, then started walking toward the Captain. However, before he could even take three steps, his face fell.

    His healed finger was now ck, as though it were poisoned. And the effect was spreading to the rest of his body. If anyone present was able to look inside his body, they would see it full of countless ck beetles. They were madly devouring the chieftain¡¯s insides, while at the same time were unleashing massive amounts of mutagen and other poisons.

    This was what happened when Xu Qing and the Captain worked together.

    Xu Qing knew how the Captain operated. He had been there when the Captain took a bite out of the Seazombie ancestor statue. And the Captain had done the same thing with that Gold Core octopus. Therefore, Xu Qing had put some ck beetles in the apple the Captain had been eating.

    The Captain knew, but didn¡¯t mind, and had allowed the beetles to remain between his teeth. When he sank his teeth into the chieftain¡¯s flesh moments before, it gave the beetles just the opportunity they needed to enter his flesh.

    As the chieftain reacted with shock, the Captainughed viciously and rushed forward. Xu Qing also charged forth in attack.

    As Xu Qing moved, his shadow stretched out, and the lightning symbols on the iron skewer flickered to life. A piercing shriek rang out from the golden crow as it superimposed over Xu Qing.

    His life mes ignited, and his lifemp shone. Combined with all the power of his fleshly body, Xu Qing closed in on the Seastar chieftain with a fist strike! He backed the fist with everything he had. All of his life me and lifemp power,bined with the strength of the golden crow. He added the explosive power of his more than 60 dharma apertures. Tempest winds screamed, and a sea of mes erupted out! It was the fire of the golden crow, the fire of his lifemp, and the dharma force fire of his life mes, fueled by his rage!

    The Captain also exploded into action. More magical symbols in his eyes opened, causing the temperature around him to drop dramatically. As a result, the ground froze, and snowkes appeared everywhere. They pulsed with a shockingly frigid coldness, something that surpassed most grues. In fact, it was so cold it didn¡¯t just freeze the ground, it could freeze one¡¯s will.

    The dome of heaven itself seemed to change as the boundless frigid energy from the captain contrasted with the scorching heat from Xu Qing.

    Fire and ice rushed from two different directions toward the Seastar chieftain.

    In the blink of an eye, the crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eye grew so intense that, unexpectedly, the hand of a grue stretched out from his chest! It was a blue, icy hand that didn¡¯t look human at all. It had long ws of bone, and within the palm of the hand, astonishingly, there was a face! It was the face of the Captain himself, though its eyes were closed as if in sleep.

    When the hand appeared, the Seastar chieftain¡¯s eyes widened, and he tried to dodge out of the way. However, the ck beetles chose that moment to erupt with madness, causing countless detonations of mutagen and poison within him. As the chieftain twitched, the hand sticking out of the Captain¡¯s chest mped onto his head.

    A thump could be heard as boundless coldness swept into the chieftain, as well as cracking sounds as parts of him froze solid. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing followed up with his own attack, causing an endless sea of mes to sweep over him. He also chose that same moment to take out the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy scroll.

    ¡°me!¡± he growled. The scroll readNose With Living me, and in response to Xu Qing¡¯s words, the ¡®me¡¯ character turned into green fire and swept toward the chieftain.

    Killing intent burned in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as all of the fire he had summoned converged on his fist, which he aimed at the frozen Seastar chieftain. When the fistnded, cracks spread out over the chieftain. Fire engulfed him, especially the fire from the patriarch¡¯s scroll.

    As the fire burned, and the chieftain¡¯s flesh melted, his eyes didn¡¯t show any fear. Strangely, he just seemed a bit surprised.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you have calligraphy from such an almighty being!¡±

    The chieftain suddenly exploded, whereupon a tentacle snaked out from the gore,shing out toward Xu Qing and the Captain. The power of the blow caused the air to shatter, and seemed strong enough to wither one¡¯s soul. Xu Qing and the Captain were hurled spinning backward.

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing pulled the Captain over to him so he could benefit from the protection of Master Sixth¡¯s pendant. As the pendant blocked the violent attack, the two of them skidded to a stop 300 meters away, coughing up blood and their internal organs aching. Looking up in the direction of the tentacle, they saw... dust settling, and a figure striding out of it.

    Numerous silver tentacles swayed back and forth within the clouds of dust. It quickly became clear that they weren¡¯t tentacles. Instead, they were a host of huge threadworms, all of them bearing vicious fangs as they howled at Xu Qing and the Captain!

    Then the figure within the dust became clear.

    It was a nonhuman, fully three meters in height, pure silver in color, with a triangr head and eyes with double pupils. It had a long tongue, and its whole body was covered with threadworms.

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain werepletely shocked by the sight of it. But even more shocking were the explosive fluctuationsing out of it that distorted everything around it. This wasn¡¯t a Gold Core nonhuman. It was in the Nascent Soul level! As winds screamed and wild colors shed, Xu Qing and the Captain backed up.

    ¡°I really didn¡¯t think I would run into two runts like you in a backwater ce like this. One of you has a stage-four grue sealed in you, and the other has an imperial-ss divine ability and the calligraphy of an almighty being. Sadly, the second of you doesn¡¯t have a grue sealed inside.¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, but at the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief. His lifemp remained a secret, as did his shadow and the violet crystal.

    Off to the side, the Captain also breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, he was thinking something simr to Xu Qing....

    Asthey exchanged a nce, the two of them realized they were both thinking the same thing.

 Chapter 218: Torchlightâ€™s Bai Li

    Chapter 218: Torchlight¡¯s Bai Li

    ¡°What species is this?¡± Xu Qing said as he continued backing up.

    ¡°The Revered Ancient maind is too big and there are too many species there,¡± the Captain replied, looking a bit confused as he also backed up. ¡°It looks like a variant type of Threadwyrm. I vaguely remember reading a file back in the Intelligence Division which mentioned them. Let me think.¡±

    Seeing Xu Qing and the Captain backing away, the nonhuman which had emerged from the Seastar chieftain grinned and blurred into motion.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim, and the Captain¡¯s pupils constricted. Unfortunately, neither of them was fast enough to flee from someone in the Nascent Soul level. Xu Qing¡¯s vision swam as something mmed into him, and he was sent flying back, blood spraying out of his mouth. The same thing happened to the Captain.

    Thanks to the shield created by the pendant, though Xu Qing was thrown backward 300 meters, he wasn¡¯t injured. That said, his organs vibrated painfully, and he could tell that if this fight kept going, the pendant would eventually stop working.

    The nonhuman was about tounch into another attack when a column of blue fire fell from above, blocking his path. Rumbling sounds filled the sky, and the ground shook violently as even more fire descended, consuming countless Seastar cultivators.

    Wherever they died, threadworms crawled out of their corpses. The gruish nature of the scene attracted the attention of all the Sixth Peak disciples, and even Master Sixth. And when Master Sixth saw what happened to the Seastar chieftain, he crushed the Seastar patriarch with a palm, then performed an incantation gesture to block the chieftain from reaching Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°He¡¯s an Ironthread!¡± Master Sixth said, rushing down.

    When the Captain heard those words, his expression flickered and he said, ¡°Xu Qing! I remember now....¡±

    As for the nonhuman, when he heard the words, he looked up into the sky andughed. ¡°It seems I underestimated this sect. That said, you¡¯re only a single Nascent Soul cultivator. Do you really think you qualify to disturb my cultivation?¡±

    The Ironthread lifted his right hand and pointed up to the sky. The wind and clouds seethed as rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven. Something like the howls of gods echoed out in all directions as three huge spell formations appeared overhead, circr and glowing brightly. Each was fully 3,000 meters in size, and they emanated a shockingly powerful force of teleportation.

    Astonishingly, figures began to pour out of the teleportation portals.

    From within the first teleportation portal emerged a group of nonhuman cultivators with wings. They were pitch ck, making them look almost exactly like crows. As they emerged, shocking killing intent rolled off of them, especially the one in the lead position, whose eyes glittered with sparks of electricity, and who pulsed with the fluctuations of a Nascent Soul cultivation base.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet.

    From within the second teleportation portal came a group of nonhuman cultivators with elephant trunks and incredibly muscr bodies. Leading them was a burly man who also had Nascent Soul fluctuations, and whose expression was iparably vicious.

    A simr group emerged from the third portal. They were the strangest-looking of all. They appeared to be made from seaweed, and had triangr eyes. They emanated shocking energy that seemed capable of draining wilnds and crushing mountains, and were also led by a Nascent Soul expert.

    Upon seeing them, the Captain¡¯s pupils constricted.

    ¡°Sixwing Inkravens. Herculean Mammoths. And Snakekelp Daemons. They aren¡¯t exactly major species. They¡¯re on the same level as the Seastars. But the Sixwing Inkravens are allies of Seven Blood Eyes. And the other two are neither allies nor enemies.¡±

    Even as the Captain exined these things, the three groups of neers turned without a word and shot toward Master Sixth and the Sixth Peak! They had no fear of death, and in fact, some of them made suicide attacks to damage the mountain peak. When looking closely, it was possible to see threadworms emerging from those who died. These three species had all been taken over just like the Seastars!

    Master Sixth was obviously hindered by the onught. As for Xu Qing and the Captain, they had no choice but to flee. The two of them could fight an early Gold Core enemy, but when it came to Nascent Soul, there was no way they were strong enough.

    Not even the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy could give them an edge, unless they used it at an absolutely critical juncture.

    ¡°I¡¯m curious to see how long your defenses willst against us!¡± said the nonhuman who had once been the Seastar chieftain.

    Meanwhile, as the Captain fled, he suddenly looked over his shoulder and blurted, ¡°You¡¯re Bai Li! Bai Li of the Ironthreads!¡± [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, while Bai Li¡¯s expression was one of surprise.

    It would have been amusing to Bai Li if one of the peaklords from Seven Blood Eyes stated his identity out loud. After all, he had the feeling the peaklord knew who he was. But instead, it was a low-level cultivator who actually knew his name. It almost seemed unbelievable.

    ¡°I really didn¡¯t think someone like you from a ce like this would know me. You¡¯re a very interesting character.¡±

    Eyes narrowing, the Captain continued, ¡°Bai Li of the Ironthread species. A sixty-year-cycle ago, he was a consummate chosen among the Ironthreads. His people even imed that he had the potential to walk the same path as the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. But for some unknown reason, he betrayed them, sowing chaos among his people and desecrating their holy object. It was a catastrophe in which countless of his people died. After he left, he joined a secret society called Torchlight!¡±

    ¡°Very amusing. You¡¯ve obviously read your fair share of intelligence reports. I think I¡¯ll soulsearch you to find out what else you know.¡±

    Bai Li closed in. The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned vicious as he pulled out the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy.

    Just when it seemed they would sh, a cold snort echoed down from the dome of heaven, like thunder. High in the sky, a bottle gourd appeared above Master Sixth¡¯s head. It was the same gourd that hadn¡¯t left his hand since his wife and son died.

    Now, it suddenly erupted with an incisive, baleful aura as its exterior came to life with countless weapons. They all flew out into the open, soaring out like gliding phoenixes and soaring dragons. They seemed to represent every weapon imaginable. There were sabers, spears, swords, halberds, hatchets, battle-axes, hooks, tridents, and more. There had to be millions of them, and they created a massive vortex of weapons that could crush anything in its path.

    The vortex headed toward the three groups of neers. Almost instantly, it struck the three Nascent Soul patriarchs that Bai Li had summoned. They couldn¡¯t avoid it, and blood sprayed out of their mouths as they were sent spinning away, heavily injured and coughing up blood. As for the other members of the three species, as the vortex of weapons approached, pulsing with a baleful aura, all they could do was look on in shock. Most were ripped to shreds, instantly killed. And those that initially survived obviously wouldn¡¯tst for much longer.

    It was even possible to see a beam of light shooting out of the bottle gourd, carrying with it consummate ferocity and disdain toward the nonhumans.

    RUMBLE!

    The nonhumans hovering there were shocked as they got the sensation they were about to be exterminated by heaven and executed by the earth.

    Apparently, all of this wasn¡¯t enough, as Master Sixth performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the Sixth Peak. mes erupted from it in all directions, engulfing both the Seastars and the survivors from the other three species. Everything was being scorched and melted away.

    For the first time, Bai Li¡¯s facial expression changed. ¡°What magical device is that? How could that baleful aura be so incisive??¡±

    Being unable to kill Xu Qing and the Captain, he vanished in a minor teleportation. When he reappeared, he was in midair not very far away, clearly preparing to make his escape.

    Then Master Sixth spoke, and his voice trembled with fury and killing intent. ¡°I was wondering why weaklings like the Seastars would have the gall to do something this big. As it turns out, they were being manipted behind the scenes by a wanted criminal from the Revered Ancient maind, someone working for the detestable Torchlight. A vile fugitive!¡±

    The bottle gourd above his head erupted further, the baleful aura creating a tempest full of innumerable weapons that shot directly toward Bai Li.

    Bai Li was shaken, and wanted to flee. But Master Sixth stood atop the maelstrom of weapons, closing in with a palm strike. Being unable to escape, a strange light glittered in Bai Li¡¯s eyes, and he spun to fight Master Sixth. When they shed, heaven reeled and the earth quaked. Deafening rumbling sounds crashed everywhere, and all of the onlookers sped in the opposite direction.

    Xu Qing looked on gravely, relying on the pendant to keep him safe.

    Next to him, the Captain grinned, his eyes glittering with crazy greed as he said, ¡°I honestly can¡¯t believe we¡¯ve run into someone from the legendary Torchlight.... From what I¡¯ve heard, every member of that group is a real character.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    Grinning, the Captain exined, ¡°Torchlight is a notorious group from Revered Ancient. They haven¡¯t even been around a thousand years, but supposedly, all of their members are traitors from various species. The Intelligence Division has files on many of them. They try to get people to join them by iming that their members... get destined opportunities to be gods. The requirement to join is that you have to put on a terrifying disy called a Blood-Soaked Performance. The better the performance, the more likely they¡¯ll approve.

    ¡°I heard that a number of years ago, someone from South Phoenix managed to use the opening of the god¡¯s eyes to put on a performance like that, and ended up joining Torchlight.

    ¡°It''s too bad they never came looking for me, otherwise I might have been able to join and see what this ¡®chance to be a god¡¯ is like. Is it just a way to follow the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns? Or is it actually a method that lets you turn into a god? I have a hard time believing it¡¯s true.¡±

    ¡°Same here,¡± Xu Qing said, narrowing his eyes. Then he rubbed the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy and looked up at Master Sixth fighting Bai Li.

    1. Bai Li: Bai is listed #70 on the list of 100 mostmon Chinese surnames, and it also means "white, pure,¡± etc. Li means ¡°crime, sin, perverse, vite, ruthless, unshakable.¡± Madam Deathde¡¯s initial reaction was that this name sounded ¡°sad and unlucky.¡± The Li character is umon enough that she looked it up to make sure she understood it correctly. As you can see from the definitions associated with that character, it definitely does not sound like a ¡°nice¡± name. ?

 Chapter 219: The Patriarchâ€™s Calligraphy Crushes Nascent Soul (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 219: The Patriarch¡¯s Calligraphy Crushes Nascent Soul (part 1)</h4>

    The wind whimpered in the sky, but was overwhelmed by the deafening crashing caused by the fighting between Master Sixth and Bai Li. Each blow exchanged contained force to rock mountains and drain seas, and the shockwaves shattered the air. Rifts filled the sky in the area above them, and asional vortexes sprang up like ck holes, sucking in everything around them. Angry bolts of lightning crackled left and right like thunderous dragons.

    Thebatants flickered back and forth on the field of battle, using minor teleportations as they engaged in close-quarters fighting.

    Both fighters casually wielded tempests like divine abilities, unleashing deadly force. As for Bai Li, he was covered with countless swaying threadworms, each of them capable of forming magical symbols that would unleash mysterious lightning attacks on Master Sixth. If one could carefully examine the lightning bolts, it would be obvious that they were made up of innumerable threadworms. As they got close to Master Sixth, they exploded, creating frozen spatial rifts in the air. From a distance, those frozen rifts looked like countless white centipedes.

    Master Sixth was equally impressive. Each wave of his hand caused an infinitude of weapons to appear, all of them deadly and bursting with baleful auras. They pulsed with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power that could crush any obstacle. However, Bai Li¡¯s cultivation base was on par with Master Sixth, so despite the fact that thetter had his amazing bottle gourd... Bai Li was not at a disadvantage. After all, Master Sixth was innately skilled at?<i>forging</i> equipment, not necessarily fighting with it.

    Rumbling echoed out as Bai Li used a minor teleportation to get right in front of Master Sixth. Hand shing in an incantation gesture, he sent de light slicing through the air toward Master Sixth, leaving a huge rift behind it.

    Expression flickering, Master Sixth backed up.

    Seeing that, Bai Li burst intoughter. ¡°You¡¯re obviously a Nascent Soul cultivator from a backwater sect. You can¡¯t kill me with those magical devices of yours. Maybe I don¡¯t need to flee this fight after all. If I kill you, I can take that supreme-grade magical device. That¡¯s an oue I can ept.¡±

    Bai Li hit his forehead, causing a tremor to pass through him. Then, a huge, horrific boil appeared on his back, filled with countless blood vessels, each of which contained a wriggling threadworm. As soon as it appeared, the boil exploded, and a nt burst out. It was fully nine meters long, allowing it to stretch over Bai Li¡¯s head. It was blood-colored, with six sawtooth leaves, and a triangr floral disc at the end with thousands of swaying stamens!

    Flowing through the nt like blood were unending magical symbols. An astonishingly holy aura surrounded the nt, spreading out in all directions with such power that Xu Qing¡¯s eyes stung looking at it. It was the same with the Captain, except for the fact that a crazy look was now visible in his eyes.

    ¡°Godliness!!¡± the Captain murmured.

    The nt was indeed emanating godliness. And it was strong godliness at that. As soon as the nt appeared, it seemed to look up at the bottle gourd and then shiver. A fierce wind kicked up, causing the stamens on the triangr floral disc to part, revealing... a vicious ghost face! It had evil crimson eyes, and was currently grinning viciously.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see which is stronger, your supreme-grade magical device, or my Torchlight god seeds!¡± Bai Li threw his head back andughed uproariously, then waved his hand, causing a handful of medicinal pills to fly out of his sleeve and up to the ghost face.

    They weren¡¯tplete pills, but rather, a set of halfpleted pills. They weren¡¯t made from any sort of medicinal nt, but instead, raw flesh and blood. Within each of the pills was the shadow of a deceased soul, all of which resembled young people. Obviously, they were the chosen disciples from various locales that had gone missing in recent years. After mercilessly killing them, Bai Li had used their flesh and blood to concoct medicinal pills, into which he inserted their souls. The pills weren¡¯t for his own consumption. Instead, he was using them to feed this evil nt. As for the ¡®god seeds¡¯ he mentioned, he obviously needed a lot of them, and that was why he¡¯de out to the Forbidden Sea.

    It would have been too dangerous to do this on the Revered Ancient maind. But he obviously thought that, given his strength and abilities, he could handle any difficulties that popped up here.

    As he continued tough, the nt gobbled up the medicinal pills, then looked up at Master Sixth and made a very unique sound.

    ¡°Ommmm!¡±

    This was not any ordinary sound. It was an enchantment of some sort, and didn¡¯t even seem like a single sound. Instead, it sounded like numerous voices merged together into somethingpletely extraordinary.

    .

    Cracking sounds filled the dome of heaven as lightning bolts appeared, smashing down into the bottle gourd one after another. In only a few breaths of time, hundreds of thousands of crimson lightning bolts appeared, forming a massive magical symbol. The symbol was incrediblyplex, and looked like a sealing mark. All of a sudden, the might of the bottle gourd faded into nothing.

    After, Bai Li roared with cruelughter and waved his hand yet again, causing a hulking figure to appear in midair. It was fully 300 meters tall, and resembled a gigantic praying mantis, pitch ck, with front legs like razor-sharp sabers.

    This was a battle form, and after it appeared, Bai Li fused with it. When that happened, the massive mantis¡¯ eyes opened and it charged toward Master Sixth with blinding speed. The air shattered as it closed in, raising one saber-like leg in an attack. That saber attack seemed capable ofpletely vanquishing the enemy, and when Xu Qing saw it, he was stunned, and couldn¡¯t help but think back to the saber move he¡¯d seen in that temple. It wasn¡¯t the same, but it was simr.

    Master Sixth held nothing back to block the attack, yet was still shoved backward through the air, blood spraying out of his mouth. Even still, a grim smile covered his face, and the killing intent in his eyes burned just as hot as ever.

    ¡°I¡¯m not that good at fighting, but... I¡¯m still peaklord of the Sixth Peak in Seven Blood Eyes! And what I?<i>am</i> good at is... making magical devices. Especially big ones!!¡± With that, Master Sixth made a grasping motion in the direction of the Sixth Peak. ¡°Come here!¡±

    The Sixth Peak, which had been in the middle of assimting Seastar Ind, suddenly blurred. When it became clear again, it was right in front of Master Sixth. The mountain peak erupted with godly might. All of the magical devices thrummed to life, and the peak shot toward the gigantic mantis, bursting with blinding energy.

    ¡°Crush!¡±

    All of the power of an entire mountain was being used to crush a single person!

    Heaven-smashing, earth-extinguishing power swept out, making it impossible for the target to evade the blow. Bai Li¡¯s expression flickered, and he began to tremble visibly as he looked at the mountain barreling toward him. Cracks spread out over his body, and his eyes turned bright red. Waving both of his saber-like forelegs out in front of him, he prepared to meet the attack, even though he was tinypared to the massive mountain.

    A massive boom rang out as the two smashed into each other. Master Sixth performed an incantation gesture then viciously shoved his hand down, causing the mountain to crush down onto Bai Li, pushing him toward Seastar Ind.

    More rumbling booms echoed out in all directions, and everything shook violently. Xu Qing and the Captain flew backward as Seastar Ind started crumbling apart. Massive waves surged out everywhere.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to assimte you!¡± Master Sixth growled, his hair disheveled and his eyes shining with madness. Hands blurring through incantation gestures, he caused a sea of mes to erupt from the depths of the mountain.

    ¡°You assimted my son. I¡¯ll assimte you!¡±

    The mountain trembled as Bai Li, who was being crushed underneath it, struggled to free himself. A shocking power of godliness seeped out from beneath the mountain, along with animalistic roars. Then, to the absolute shock of Xu Qing and the Captain, the ming mountain moved up slightly.

    Bai Li was using the power of the early Nascent Soul stage to do this, clearly showing... that he deserved to be called a consummate chosen from his people. As the mountain edged upward, a mighty roar echoed out from underneath it. As Bai Li became visible, it became clear he wasn¡¯t using his battle form, but instead, had fused with the evil nt.

    It had a thick stalk, six sawtooth leaves, and countless swaying feelers. As Bai Li used it to lift the mountain, the triangr floral disc became visible, along with the vicious face within it.

    The face was no longer obscure; it now looked exactly like Bai Li, and his red eyes flickered with astonishing godliness. Cackling, he said, ¡°You might be good at equipment forging. But I¡¯ve met a lot of cultivators like that. And the other ones weren¡¯t just good at making things, they were good at using them. As for you, I think¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, a look of utter madness flickered in Master Sixth¡¯s eyes, and he waved his hand. Instantly, a huge banner appeared overhead.

    The banner was about 300 meters long, and as it pped, it burst with colorful energy.

    The banner seemed dpidated, and was sttered with massive amounts of blood. However, it also pulsed with godliness. It looked like it had been passed down from a previous epoch, and had experienced the baptism of innumerable wars. The sensation of ancient time permeated it, and as it was unfurled, it caused the sky to change colors, and made the sun seem less brilliant.

    For tens of thousands of kilometers around Seastar Ind, countless living beings were shaken to their core. Even entities lurking at the seafloor opened their eyes in rm.

    What was especially noteworthy was that there was a drop of golden blood on the g, which seemed to surpass ordinary godliness, and imparted a sensation very simr to the broken face of the god above.

    It could look down on anything and everything!

    Apparently, this war banner had been used to ughter countless godly entities, and innumerable powerful experts from various nonhuman species. As soon as Master Sixth pulled it out, a sensation of shocking brutality swept out to fill heaven and earth. The aura was so strong it locked down everything in the area, and caused all waves on the surface of the water to go still. This banner emanated a domineering aura that seemed capable of destroying everything and crushing all peoples.

    Bai Li started shaking visibly, and his voice changed, bing filled with terror and astonishment.

    ¡°The War Banner of Humankind? What¡¯s that doing in a backwater ce like this??¡±

    1. The Chinese character here has a few definitions, but the one that applies here is: ¡°the sound of a Buddhist incantation.¡±

    2. The War Banner of Humankind previously appeared in

 Chapter 219: The Patriarchâ€™s Calligraphy Crushes Nascent Soul (2)

    Chapter 219: The Patriarch¡¯s Calligraphy Crushes Nascent Soul (2)

    Despite having possessed the chieftain of the Seastars, it seemed that Bai Li wasn¡¯t very informed. At the very least, he hadn¡¯t heard that during the initial battle in the Merfolk Isles, Seven Blood Eyes had unfurled... the War Banner of Humankind!

    The mere sight of that banner scared Bai Li out of his mind. He suddenly started struggling to free himself from the Sixth Peak and flee.

    Master Sixth¡¯s eyes were cold as his hands flew through incantation gestures, causing the War Banner of Humankind to glow with blinding light as it loomed over the mountain. Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t Master Seventh, and his cultivation base was insufficient. Because of that, he couldn¡¯t use it the same way Master Seventh did. He needed time to tap into the power of the banner.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with determination, and he burst into motion. The Captain took a deep breath and looked at Bai Li stuck beneath the Sixth Peak. Then his eyes lit up with a crazy expression.

    ¡°Godliness! Pure, unadulterated godliness!! Godliness without even a speck of mutagen!!!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes were nowpletely bloodshot.

    The two of them shot toward the Sixth Peak, and Bai Li, who was struggling with all his strength, caused pulses of godliness to stream out that were so powerful they would instantly kill low-level cultivators.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing had the pendant; with its light surrounding him, he was able to stay safe, though it took work.

    The Captain was also having difficulty. Every movement forward caused blood to spray out of his mouth, and he was forced to use a shield to keep himself safe. Despite that, the crazy look in his eyes never dissipated.

    Not paying attention to the Captain, Xu Qing approached the base of the mountain, and Bai Li. Waving his hand, he sent forth a stream of ck beetles.

    Unfortunately, Bai Li¡¯s godliness was too powerful, and the beetles died before they could even get close to him. By this time, Bai Li had noticed Xu Qing and the Captain, but had no time to deal with them. Tapping into everything he was capable of, he pushed up against the mountain. The mountain trembled as it moved up a few meters, which was enough room for Bai Li to be able to run out from under it.

    However, it was at that moment that Xu Qing shoved his hand down on the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy scroll.

    ¡°Nose!¡±

    Of the four characters on the scroll, Nose With Living me, the ¡®me¡¯ character was already faded. Now, the ¡®nose¡¯ character rippled and distorted, then caused the projection of a huge nose to appear, which shot toward Bai Li. It moved with such incredible speed that, before he knew what was happening, it was right in front of him.

    Bai Li¡¯s expression flickered as the nose mmed into him. A boom rang out as blood sprayed from his mouth. As he was shoved backward, he lost his chance to flee, and the mountain smashed down on him again. Bai Li screamed as the mountain crushed him, and the sea of fire began to melt him.

    ¡°Damn you, human vermin!!¡± Gritting his teeth, he shoved with all his might against the mountain. At the same time, the Captain took advantage of the moment to rush toward him with all the speed he could muster.

    Bai Li¡¯s mere aura caused the Captain¡¯s skin to start corroding as he got close, but he didn¡¯t care. Ignoring all of that, he lunged in and took a bite out of the trunk of Bai Li¡¯s nt form. A crunch rang out, and Bai Li shivered.

    Meanwhile, the Captain shrieked and shot backward. As he did, his lower half exploded, his right hand shattered, half of his torso was destroyed, he lost an eye, his intestines spilled out, and the rest of his teeth crumbled into nothing. However, he did keep a chunk of Bai Li¡¯s flesh in his mouth, and as he swallowed it, a crazy smile covered his face.

    Bai Li howled in rage, but the crushing weight of the mountain and the persistent fire made it impossible for him to do anything. And he was getting weaker. Eyes bloodshot, he once again released a burst of godliness, causing the mountain to once again move upward. Then Bai Li split into two, each of them speeding in a different direction.

    In the blink of an eye, he was racing out from under the mountain. However, Xu Qing had been watching him closely the entire time, and chose this moment to make his move. Instantly, the ¡®with¡¯ character from Nose With Living me rippled, transforming into a huge fist that shot toward Bai Li. [1]

    Xu Qing was nning to unleash the next character as well, but the fist didn¡¯t need any help distinguishing which of the two Bai Li¡¯s was real and which was an illusion. It instantly closed in on the real one, provoking a cry of despair and rage as it mmed into him. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as the mountain smashed back down onto him.

    RUMBLE!

    This time, Bai Li couldn¡¯t fight back. As he tried to struggle to his feet, blue fire raged toward him, melting his skin. Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes were bright red as he used his remaining hand to propel himself back toward Bai Li. He actually moved faster than before. However, just when he was about to take another bite, Bai Li suddenly looked at him and released a frenzied shout.

    The sound mmed into the Captain, who screamed as more of his torso copsed, and his remaining hand was destroyed. Now, all that was left of him was a nearly fleshless head that tumbled in the opposite direction. However, he wasn¡¯t dead, and his eyes gleamed with a defiant look.

    ¡°Throw me back, Xu Qing! Throw me back!¡±

    As the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, Bai Li went absolutely manic thanks to the deadly sense of crisis. Rumbling sounds echoed from inside of him before he exploded, sending a shockwave out in all directions, including against the mountain. As he self-detonated, a single threadworm appeared, taking advantage of the moment in which the mountain lifted up slightly to speed away. Nothing was left of the evil nt seed.

    Obviously Bai Li was paying an extreme price to try to stay alive. However, he had no other options. Just as he seemed like he was going to make his getaway, though, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly and he unleashed thest of the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy.

    ¡°Living!¡±

    A huge hand appeared in front of Xu Qing, which shot toward the fleeing threadworm at incredible speed. A boom rang out as it mmed onto its target. Broken teeth sprayed out of the threadworm¡¯s mouth as half of its body was ripped to shreds and it was sent spinning off to the side. Afterward, it struggled to start moving again, but that was when the mountain smashed onto it again. This time, Bai Li was being utterly andpletely crushed.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, a sense of extreme weariness swept through him like a tide.

    Given the level of his cultivation base, unleashing the patriarch¡¯s calligraphy had been extremely draining. What was more, he hadn¡¯t even unleashed all of its potential. Thankfully, he had been able to buy Master Sixth the time he needed.

    Up in the air, Master Sixth waved his arms out in front of him, and as his eyes flickered with killing intent and animosity, a finger stretched out from the 300-meter-long War Banner of Humankind. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and winds screamed. A terrifying aura appeared from the finger, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. The finger pushed down onto the surface of the mountain, causing the entire thing to viciously move downward. Unrivaled blue fire erupted from the mountain, sweeping out over all of the Seastars.

    As for Xu Qing and the others from Seven Blood Eyes, it didn¡¯t harm them at all. However, it inundated all of the nonhumans on the ind, causing bloodcurdling screams to rise up into the air as they melted. The screams of countless threadworms filled the air as they were wiped out of existence.

    ¡°I hereby assimte this person and all other living beings on this ind, starting with their blood!¡± Master Sixth said, his voice echoing as he performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. The mountain shook, and streams of energy and blood rose from the ind. That included a powerful stream from Bai Li himself.

    As Bai Li screamed, the threadworms tried to burrow deeper into their nonhuman hosts, but it did no good. All living beings were being melted and assimted! Even the rivers andkes on the ind disappeared.

    ¡°I hereby assimte this person and all other living beings on this ind! Next, their bones!¡±

    Master Sixth waved his hand, and his cultivation base erupted with power. As it entered the mountain, the bones of the nonhumans melted, also destroying the threadworms that were hiding there. Thends received the same treatment, as mountains copsed, and earth shattered. As everything fell apart, it rushed into the Sixth Peak itself, making the mountain even more glorious.

    ¡°I hereby assimte this person and all other living beings on this ind! Finally, their souls!¡±

    Master Sixth waved his hand, and the bottle gourd overhead shook free from the lightning and floated into his hand. He took a mouthful of alcohol, then sprayed it out of his mouth. The mountain trembled as thends below copsed, and souls streamed upward. Any threadworms that had concealed themselves in their hosts¡¯ seas of consciousness howled in grief. There was nowhere left to flee!

    The ind was now shrinking, and the entire thing was covered with endless mes.

    ¡°Assimte reincarnation!¡± Master Sixth bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some blood whichnded on the mountain.

    The rest of the ind copsed and was sucked up into the Sixth Peak. All living things, and every part of the ind, was swept up and disappeared. There was no Seastar Ind anymore! It had beenpletely wiped out! The only thing left behind was a massive crater. As the seawater swept into it, filling it, the Sixth Peak rose up into the air, glittering majestically.

    Bai Li had been killed in body and soul!

    The Seastar people had been exterminated!

    1. In Chinese, there is some wordy connecting the character from the calligraphy to the word for ¡®fist.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t think of a way to make a simr y on words in English and also make the poem work. Furthermore, the final character in the poem ¡®living,¡¯ is usedter in a way that doesn¡¯t involve any sort of wordy, so... ultimately that wordy isn¡¯t very important. ?

 Chapter 220: Bai Liâ€™s Soul Pill

    Chapter 220: Bai Li¡¯s Soul Pill

    Time passed.

    Back in Seven Blood Eyes, in Harbor 176, Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the deck of his dharmaskiff. As the boat swayed up and down in the water, he looked at the brilliant red sunrise. It looked like fire filling the dome of heaven.

    About half a month had passed since the Seastars were exterminated. That affair had caused a hugemotion. After Seven Blood Eyes publicly announced what the Seastars had done, backed by Bai Li from Torchlight, countless groups and peoples finally got an answer as to why their chosen disciples had gone missing. And of course, everyone was furious at the Seastars, Torchlight, and the other three species that had been involved.

    The Seastars had been exterminated, but the other species still existed. Seven Blood Eyes didn¡¯t need to lift a finger regarding them. Other groups that had lost their chosen took the initiative. When countless threadworms were found infecting those other three species, it was all the proof that was needed.

    Before long, those other three species had been exterminated.

    Master Sixth¡¯s actions made Seven Blood Eyes even more the center of attention than before. The fact that he had transformed the Sixth Peak into a fortress struck fear into the hearts of many.

    However, after much analysis, many people came to the conclusion that though the mountain was mighty, itcked a truly formidable power source. Although the fortress was capable of greater teleportations, it was rtively weak when it came to crushing power. Some people even spected that, without using the War Banner of Humankind, Master Sixth wouldn¡¯t have been able to crush Bai Li.

    Regardless, the extermination of the Seastars, and the assimtion of Bai Li from Torchlight, were now matters of public record. As a result, Seven Blood Eyes seemed even more powerful than before.

    After everything was over, Master Sixth had escorted everyone back to Seven Blood Eyes. Along the way, he didn¡¯t speak. Nor did Xu Qing. Neither of them had experienced the satisfaction they had imagined they would after exacting their revenge. Instead, they felt calm and even slightly mncholy. However, life went on. There was still a path to follow.

    As Xu Qing sat on the deck of his dharmaskiff, he raised an alcohol gourd in the direction of the Violet Lands, then took a drink and closed his eyes. ¡°Have a safe journey, Teacher.¡±

    Rumbling sounds echoed within him; his 65 dharma apertures were like furnaces, burning brightly... as the massive numbers of discarnate souls within them were slowly being assimted.

    They were the discarnate souls of the Seastars. However, they were weak and almost valueless. Thankfully, he had acquired enough of them that they were going to be somewhat helpful in opening dharma apertures.

    There was also one special soul in the group, imprisoned in one of his dharma apertures. There it burned, day and night, without ceasing. It was the soul of the Gruegloom cultivator. After capturing the Gruegloom with his shadow, Xu Qing had tormented it for some days. Eventually, the Gruegloom¡¯s body copsed, whereupon Xu Qing extracted his soul.

    Unfortunately, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits had not yet been able to take the Gruegloom¡¯s innate ability. It wasn¡¯t because of a weakness on the part of the imperial-ss technique. Rather, it wasn¡¯t possible to get the ability from only one member of that species. Many members were required.

    That didn¡¯t bother Xu Qing. All he cared about was inflicting suffering on the Gruegloom. Gruegloom souls were unique in that they would naturally recover soul power, even when being suppressed and assimted.

    Master Sixth assimted the Seastars into the Sixth Peak, where he refined them into a candle which he now burns at his son¡¯s memorial tomb. I can¡¯t do that, but I can suppress the Gruegloom¡¯s soul for as long as I¡¯m alive. I¡¯ll make him wish he could die. And I¡¯ll continue to use the soul power he provides. Who knows, maybe one day I¡¯ll be able to steal his innate ability.

    Whether because of the usefulness of the soul power, or his hatred of the Gruegloom, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to simply devour him.

    Right now, Xu Qing was using the power from all the other discarnate souls to batter at his 66th dharma aperture. Before long, it opened, and more dharma force spread out to fill him. However, he wasn¡¯t finished. Shortly thereafter, his 67th dharma aperture opened. Then he sent the remaining soul power toward his 68th aperture, which he just barely managed to open.

    Xu Qing shivered. His aura and dharma force were obviously on a higher level now. As he hade to find out, after igniting his second life me, opening dharma apertures became increasingly difficult. Furthermore, the Seastar souls were not whole, and as a result, he only managed to open three apertures.

    Opening his eyes, he took out a jade box and opened it. Inside was a ck medicinal pill. On the surface of the pill was the image of a vicious soul shadow, constantly howling noiselessly. It almost seemed like there was a soul trapped inside the pill.

    This was an extremely precious, high-level soul pill!

    To cultivators who used the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, souls were kindling used to open dharma apertures. Only by ughtering enemies and extracting their souls was it possible to advance their cultivation base. But sometimes, ughtering enemies was a slow process. Because of that, soul pills like this were often used to get therge amounts of soul power needed.

    For example, the pills Wu Jianwu had given Xu Qing were soul pills, just not a very high quality version. [1]

    This particr pill had been concocted by Master Sixth using part of Bai Li¡¯s soul. He had then given it to Xu Qing as a gift, exining that it was a discarnate soul pill. It was only made using part of the soul.

    Master Sixth had directly exined that he himself needed a lot of souls for his forging work. This one pill was all that he could give. That said, he also stated that he owed Xu Qing a big favor.

    Xu Qing felt it was perfectly reasonable. The only reason he had gotten his revenge so smoothly was because of Master Sixth. Therefore, even if Master Sixth hadn¡¯t given him the soul pill, he still would have been content.

    Besides, Master Sixth had also given him that pendant of protection. Though he had used most of it during the sh with Bai Li, there was still some usefulness left to it. In terms of value, it was worth more than the discarnate soul pill.

    Clearing his thoughts, Xu Qing picked up the soul pill and unhesitatingly put it in his mouth. As he chewed it up, it was possible to hear agonizing screaming from the pill. Eventually, he swallowed it, incinerated it with balefire, and then sent the power toward his 69th dharma aperture.

    A momentter, he shivered as his 69th aperture opened. Then he moved on to his 70th. Then his 71st....

    The majestic power of the soul pill allowed him to open even more dharma apertures. After the 72nd, he proceeded to his 73rd, 74th, and 75th.

    But that wasn¡¯t it! He also opened his 76th, 77th, and 78th!

    The discarnate soul pill made from Bai Li¡¯s soul was astonishingly powerful.

    Finally, popping sounds rang out inside Xu Qing, and he opened his eyes, revealing a violet glitter of light. He had opened his 79th dharma aperture!

    A terrifying energy swept through him, and stupefying dharma force abounded. Waves rolled out on the surrounding seawater as Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base rose to a much higher level.

    I actually opened 11 dharma apertures.... I think this soul pill contained more than just Bai Li¡¯s discarnate soul! Xu Qing was more than a little surprised. When Master Sixth said it was a discarnate soul pill, he must have meant... that he included the discarnate souls of the cultivators from the other three species, including their patriarchs.

    Though those species¡¯ cultivators weren¡¯t very high level, there were many of them, so even a fraction of the aspects of their souls would provide terrifying results.

    Only 11 more dharma apertures and I¡¯ll be able to ignite my third life me!

    With that, he looked into his bag of holding at the two wish boxes he had. After learning how to open them, he had begun the process, but it took time. Now, it was close to the point where he could open them.

    Next, he looked over his shoulder at the continent of South Phoenix as a whole. Now that things had calmed down, he found himself thinking about Sergeant Thunder¡­.

    Beyond that, there had been some major developments in the Seazombie war during the half month that passed. For one thing, Third Highness had aplished something very monumental.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t heard much about Third Highness since the war started, and only now did he realize there was a reason for that. Third Highness had been assigned the task of inciting rebellion behind enemy lines.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how Third Highness did it, but he had sessfully convinced three of the Seazombies¡¯ most important allies to turn against them on their home turf. Previously, the Seazombies and Seven Blood Eyes had been at something of a deadlock, but now things had changed.

    The event had multiple ramifications. For one thing, it won acim for Seven Blood Eyes, and made them even more glorious than before. It also attracted the attention of the Seven Sect Coalition on the Revered Ancient maind, which seemedpletely caught by surprise by the turn of events.

    Clearly, the Seven Sect Coalition had been happy to see Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies in a deadlock. Because of that, they had been content to simply stand by and watch things y out. But now Seven Blood Eyes had taken the fight so far that they were about to invade the Seazombie¡¯s ancestralnd. The Seven Sect Coalition seemed worried.

    That was because... the Seazombies¡¯ ancestralnd was very close to Revered Ancient.

    To be precise, the Seazombie¡¯s ancestralnd, their fortified inds, and the Merfolk Isles created a straight line between Seven Blood Eyes and Revered Ancient.

    Before Third Highness¡¯ n came to fruition, the Seven Sect Coalition had been hoping to see Seven Blood Eyes slowly draining resources as the war dragged on. But then Third Highness¡¯ npletely changed their attitude. All of a sudden, the Seven Sect Coalition began interfering with matters rted to the war. Before long, rumors started spreading in Seven Blood Eyes. Some people thought that the war would end soon, thanks to the interference from the Seven Sect Coalition.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying much attention to all that.

    He was getting ready to take a trip back to the scavenger basecamp. He wanted to go back into that forbidden region, clean Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave, and try to get news about Crucifix and Graceful Raptor. Two years had passed, and he was curious how the two of them were doing. [2]

    After looking off into the distance for a time, he stood, put away his dharmaskiff, and headed toward the teleportation portalplex. Along the way, he spotted the Captain haggling with a vendor over how many spirit coins to pay for a bag of fruit.

    When the Captain spotted Xu Qing, he tossed over an apple, then picked one for himself and took a bite. Smiling, he looked Xu Qing up and down and said, ¡°Going out? Say, why not take me along?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the apple, then the Captain. He refused to believe that this was some sort of chance encounter.

    The Captain cleared his throat, ate some more of his apple, and then sighed and shrugged his shoulders. ¡°Fine, you got me. The old man gave me another mission. I¡¯m supposed to keep an eye on you while he¡¯s gone. Keep you safe. I think the old man is anxious to take on a new apprentice, and doesn¡¯t feel like messing with all those silly tests and assessments. When he sees someone he wants, he seals the deal. Anyway, now he¡¯s anxious to get the war over with ande back.¡±

    The Captain seemed to have no qualms about selling out Master Seventh.

    A strange look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eye as he considered the situation. After some thought, he decided there was no reason to say no. After all, the Seazombies still had a bounty on his head, and as Chen Feiyuan had pointed out in the Violet Lands, there were plenty of people who wanted that bounty. Having the Captain by his side when he went out would make things a bit safer. At the same time, there was also the possibility for craziness.

    ¡°I¡¯m heading home for a bit,¡± he said.

    ¡°Heading home? Then I¡¯ll be a guest! Hahaha! Alright, let¡¯s get going. It¡¯s so boring in the sect nowadays, we really need to get out and get some fresh air.¡± The Captain seemed more anxious to get out of the sect than Xu Qing, and led the way as quickly as possible toward the teleportation portalplex.

    ¡°You did something, didn¡¯t you?¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°You want to go out andy low for a while?¡±

    ¡°How could that be possible?¡± the Captain replied, shaking his head. After arriving at the teleportation portalplex, he asked Xu Qing exactly where they were going, personally made the adjustments to the formation, and then dragged Xu Qing onto it. A momentter, they vanished.

    Not long after they were gone, a howl of rage erupted from the Sixth Peak.

    ¡°Chen Erniu, you little bastard! Is there anything you won¡¯t chew on?¡±

    A stream of divine will swept out of the Sixth Peak and filled the capital city, looking for any traces of the Captain. All to no avail....

    In a temple on the forested back side of the Sixth Peak, Master Sixth stood looking grimly at a cleverly concealed passageway. Only members of the echelon could do something like this, and only the top three members at that. Only they could bypass the Sixth Peak¡¯s spell formation in this way. The tunnel led deep into the interior of the Sixth Peak, which was the core of the battle fortress. The Sixth Peak¡¯s true power source was a secret, and was kept hidden by a concealing fog that would make it very difficult for anyone to perceive its true nature. But Master Sixth could see everything clearly. And on the foot of that power source was a missing chunk with teeth marks on the edges.

    Was Chen Erniu a dog in hisst life? He¡¯ll bite anything!

    Master Sixth sighed. Struggling to control his anger, he looked up at the power source concealed by the fog.

    The little brat must have seen the whole thing. And I bet he guessed at the truth.... That said, he knows when to keep his mouth shut. Besides, he surely noticed that, back when I was crushing Bai Li, I was careful not to tap into the core power source.... If he can¡¯t keep his mouth shut, though, the patriarch is going to skin him alive.

    1. The soul pills from Wu Jianwu were mentioned in chapters 144 and 148. ?

    2. Attending to the graves of dead loved ones is an important part of Chinese culture. I¡¯m sure some of you are aware that one of the major Chinese holidays is . ?

 Chapter 221: Seven Blood Eyesâ€™ Big Secret

    <h4>Chapter 221: Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Big Secret</h4>

    In the east of South Phoenix, in Antlerville, a teleportation portal glittered with bright light as Xu Qing and the Captain materialized.

    Like usual, Xu Qing had disguised himself, as had the Captain, who looked like a middle-aged man. As he walked off the teleportation portal, his legs seemed to be shaking.

    Xu Qing was shocked. ¡°Captain, why are you trembling?¡±

    ¡°Trembling? I would never! You¡¯re seeing things, Xu Qing.¡± Clearing his throat, the Captain smacked his thighs.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. It didn¡¯t take much imagination to specte that the Captain must have done something big back in the sect. And it must have been really?big. Otherwise, the Captain, who was used to doing crazy things, wouldn¡¯t still be shaking.

    But since the Captain didn¡¯t want to talk about it, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to pry. After leaving the teleportation portal, he looked around at Antlerville, which seemed both familiar and unfamiliar. This was the very same ce he had passed through after razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect.

    Thinking back to those days, he led the way through the city. Although the ce was owned by Seven Blood Eyes, it was in a remote location surrounded by rugged terrain. Because of that, the ce was a lot dirtier and more chaotic than the capital city. Noxious things could be seen everywhere, and on most street corners, emaciated figures huddled, staring with vacant eyes up into the sky. A constant pressure seemed to weigh down on everything.

    As they walked along, no one caused problems for them. Though inhospitable ces like this were usually full of violent people, those people also wanted to stay alive, and they weren¡¯t stupid. People like that usually instinctively knew who they could pick on and who they should avoid provoking. Xu Qing and the Captain were thetter.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious, Xu Qing?¡± the Captain said as they reached the city¡¯s main gate. Producing an apple, he took a bite. He didn¡¯t seem concerned at all about their surroundings, and was more interested in why Xu Qing wasn¡¯t asking any questions.

    ¡°I¡¯m curious,¡± Xu Qing said, not bothering to look back at him. After leaving Antlerville, he looked in the direction of the city where he had lived for over six years until the eyes of the god above opened and turned the ce into a forbidden region. Antlerville wasn¡¯t very far from that little city.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look curious at all.... Ah, whatever. Considering you used to work for me, and also owe me 50,000 spirit stones, I suppose I can let you in on the secret.¡± Looking furtively left and right, he lowered his voice and continued, ¡°The patriarch is involved in a veryplicated game of Go! I can¡¯t say more than that. If I did, the patriarch would most certainly skin me alive!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Xu Qing said. Then he started moving faster. He didn¡¯t n to go to the ruined city. There was nothing for him there, and besides, during the Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior incident, he had settled matters with the grues there. There was no point in going there. Instead, he headed toward the scavenger basecamp.

    The Captain kept pace. Spring had juste to the wilderness, but there was still a bit of snow on the ground. And the wind didn¡¯t contain any of the pleasantness of spring. It wasn¡¯t freezing, but it was cold.

    Seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to ask any questions, the Captain couldn¡¯t hold it in and said, ¡°Let me tell you, Xu Qing, Master Sixth... is quite the old trickster. Everything that happened back on Seastar Ind was actually an act!¡±

    The Captain really wanted to exin what he had seen, but obviously didn¡¯t dare to reveal everything.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Aiyaa! Xu Qing, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. This attitude of yours just won¡¯t do!¡± Looking a bit irritated, he took a bite of his apple. ¡°You really have no idea. What I saw in the Sixth Peak was absolutely astonishing. Completely unexpected. I¡¯m telling you, this game of Go is being yed on a board asrge as heaven! I suppose it makes sense. The older someone gets, the more clever they be. The old fogies in Seven Blood Eyes are all the same. They can toy with you with their eyes closed.¡±

    The Captain sighed emotionally.

    Xu Qing frowned. He had no idea what the Captain was getting at, but could tell it had something to do with histest escapade, whatever that was. Presumably it was rted to the Sixth Peak. Then he thought back to how the Captain¡¯s eyes had glittered when he looked at the Sixth Peak, and his heart started to pound.

    ¡°Captain, did you take a bite out of something on the Sixth Peak?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shot up in displeasure. ¡°What do you mean ¡®take a bite,¡¯ huh? Is that the way you talk to your superiors, Deputy Captain?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°Furthermore, I¡¯m your Elder Brother!¡± The Captain finished his apple and took out a pear, all the while looking at Xu Qing knowingly.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t been formally epted as an apprentice,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    Ignoring thement, the Captain looked down his nose and said, ¡°Beyond all that, you still haven¡¯t paid respects to Grand Highness!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. As it turned out, he was having trouble out-talking the Captain this time. Therefore, he pretended not to have heard. Moving quickly, he was able to get from Antlerville to the scavenger basecamp in about an hour.

    In fact, as they reached this point in their conversation, they passed over a mountain crest and found themselves looking down at the basecamp, and the pitch ck jungle beyond it. From this vantage point, the forbidden region seemed covered with ck clouds, within which lightning danced, asionally striking down into the jungle below.

    The Captain took a look at the forbidden region, and he seemed surprised. ¡°What a big forbidden region. And there are fluctuations of godliness in it!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Before, his cultivation base had been too low for him to sense godliness. But now, he could clearly sense such fluctuations in the jungle.

    After a moment, Xu Qing looked away and focused on the basecamp. It looked as chaotic as it had before, and he could hear faint, unscrupulousughter even from this distance. As he started walking down the mountain, the Captain cleared his throat and followed.

    ¡°I could only say so much earlier, little Ah Qing. Don¡¯t feel discouraged. This matter is too important for me to reveal any of the real details to you. You see, it pertains to the war. Seriously, you have no idea how shocked I was to see what¡¯s in the Sixth Peak.

    ¡°Let me just say that, under the leadership of this group of crafty old-timers, the future of Seven Blood Eyes is going to be a bright one.... You¡¯re really not curious at all? How about this: you say a few nice things, and I¡¯ll risk being skinned alive to tell you more details.¡±

    Clearly, the Captain had a secret that he wanted to share, but considering Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in hearing the details, he was starting to get a bit flustered.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, didn¡¯t say a word as he walked down the mountain and into the basecamp. Things were basically the same as he remembered. There was trash in every corner. Everything was dpidated. Scavengers in animal skin jerkins were everywhere, some grimy and dirty, some covered in scars.

    When Xu Qing and the Captain entered, the noisy camp slowly went quiet. At the same time, the scavengers backed away from them with fawning expressions on their faces. Of course, Xu Qing knew that those fawning expressions were fake. The scavengers were really studying them in the hopes of robbing them.

    Xu Qing ignored them. He didn¡¯t see anyone familiar here. Two years had passed, and for most scavengers, that was like a lifetime.

    Xu Qing stopped in front of his old house. Someone had taken it over. Sighing, he turned and left. As for the Captain, he looked at the house, and guessed that it must have been where Xu Qing lived in the past. He followed Xu Qing through the camp, and they were just about to leave it when the Captain noticed one particr tent that stood out.

    A feather hung above the entrance.

    The Captain had not grown up like Xu Qing, so he had no idea how things worked in slums and basecamps. That made him curious about the feathered tent. However, he soon noticed someone stepping out of the tent and buckling the belt on their pants, and everything clicked.

    So that¡¯s how it is. It¡¯s like a brothel. But in scavenger basecamps, they use feathers instead of official signs. He was about to look away, when suddenly his eyes locked onto one of the feathers for a moment before looking at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Say, Xu Qing, remember back in the Merfolk Isles when I lost my lower half, and you offered to give me a feather...?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide.

    Xu Qing looked back at him, produced an apple, took a bite, then walked off.

    The Captain snorted coldly, nced at the feather again, then hurried over to the tent. It was hard to say what he said, but shortly thereafter, he hurried after Xu Qing with seven or eight feathers in his hand.

    ¡°These things are great. I¡¯m going to give one to Zhang San when we get back.¡±

    Xu Qing left the scavenger basecamp and walked in the direction of the forbidden region. He only spared a nce for the feathers in the Captain¡¯s hand. When they were getting close to the forbidden region, he suddenly said, ¡°What did you see in the Sixth Peak, Captain?¡±

    A smile broke out on the Captain¡¯s face. This was exactly what he had been waiting to hear. He had been biting his tongue the entire trip and had been reaching the point where he couldn¡¯t take it any more. Putting the feathers away, he looked around furtively, then lowered his voice and said, ¡°Before I exin, I want you to think back to how this war actually yed out.

    ¡°It started with the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition on the Merfolk Isles. That drew out the Seazombies, and then the patriarch suddenly achieved his breakthrough.... After that, the Merfolk Isles became our forward base of operations.

    ¡°After dering war on the Seazombies, we advanced step by step, taking over their fortified inds, and eventually reaching the point of attacking their ancestralnd.

    ¡°Now, in your mind, draw a line on the Forbidden Sea. Originally, Seven Blood Eyes was a long way from Revered Ancient. But if we take over the Seazombies¡¯ ancestralnd, we¡¯ll be very, very close to the maind....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    ¡°So,¡± the Captain continued quietly, ¡°what exactly is the sect trying to aplish? Is it just about defeating the Seazombies? There¡¯s no way. Defeating the Seazombies... is just part of a much bigger n. When I was in the Sixth Peak, I saw... a zombie ancestor statue that <i>isn¡¯t </i>one of the nine from the Seazombie ancestralnd. That thing is the real power source of the Sixth Peak fortress!¡±

    1. Xu Qing passed through Antlerville after razing the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect in

    2. Xu Qing made thement about the feather in

 Chapter 222: Supreme Vastness Daoist Temple

    <h4>Chapter 222: Supreme Vastness Daoist Temple</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he turned to look at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back at him with an enigmatic smile.

    ¡°There are grues in this forbidden region,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°But they¡¯re not that bad.¡±

    ¡°Right. Sounds good. I haven¡¯t been to many forbidden regions. I spend more time at sea. I guess this¡¯ll be a good opportunity for me to learn a thing or two.¡±

    As they entered the forbidden region, the two of them dropped the previous conversation topic, leaving it behind as if they had forgotten it. Both of them knew that it was too weighty of a topic for them to be talking about openly. It rted to Seven Blood Eyes as a whole. But even just thinking about it, it was obvious there was something very big going on behind the scenes.

    After all, the Seazombies currently had nine ancestor statues. But that didn¡¯t mean they had always had nine.... In the ancient past, there had been more of those divine likenesses. However, after certain events unfolded, some of those statues were taken by other species to research. And for whatever reasons, they were never returned. In the end, the Seazombies were left with only nine statues.

    It was worth noting that Seven Blood Eyes hadn¡¯t used the Sixth Peak fortress in the war. Furthermore, when Master Sixth exacted his revenge, he only resorted to ordinary tactics. There was deep meaning to be extracted from all that.

    Now Xu Qing understood why the Captain had been so jumpy, and also why he had shamelessly invited himself toe along on this trip. For one thing, the Captain was the type of person who always felt the urge to talk. For him to know a secret like this, but be unable to brag about it, would be too much for him. Furthermore, if he stayed in Seven Blood Eyes, the sect would probably have locked him up in solitary confinement to make sure the secret didn¡¯t get out.

    Xu Qing shook his head and chose not to think about the matter anymore. It was too monumental of a situation. Besides, it didn¡¯t have much to do with him personally. The war would end soon, and then things would be clear.

    Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind and walked into the jungle. It was hard to say how many times he hade into this ce. He was very familiar with it. Maybe he couldn¡¯t travel about with his eyes closed, but almost. He recognized the different types of nts and vegetation, all of which he had seen before.

    He picked up speed as he moved, slipping like a specter through the jungle.

    The Captain followed, looking around curiously. He really hadn¡¯t been into very many forbidden regions. The only ce he had been into was Forbidden by the Phoenix, next to the sect. He had gone there to seek enlightenment of a divine ability, but had failed to seed.

    Seeing how quickly Xu Qing was moving, he elerated, making sure to step in the same spots. By observing closely, he started to get an idea of how to move about properly.

    I had no idea he knew so many things. The Captain kept his eyes on Xu Qing, and didn¡¯t seem worried at all about the mutagen. The mutagen out at sea was stronger, and Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ techniques to extrude mutagen were very effective. Unless a disciple was stuck in a dangerous location, and was forced to push their mutagen levels to the limit, they usually didn¡¯t even think about it.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the Captain. He was lost in his memories. Images from times past yed through his mind as he got closer and closer to his destination.

    Before long, he slowed down and approached a solitary burial mound next to a big tree. There were a lot of weeds growing in the area, but the gravestone was still there, standing straight as before. Two years had passed, almost three, but it seemed people still remembered the things Xu Qing had aplished here, and had treated this grave respectfully as a result. Maybe they hadn¡¯t cleared the weeds, but at least they hadn¡¯t disturbed it.

    All scavengers knew that for someone to get a proper burial after death was considered a blessing. No one would take the risk of desecrating a scavenger grave, especially if there was no profit to be had out of it.

    Xu Qing looked at the gravestone, then sat down in front of it, right next to the tree. With the wave of a hand, he cleared the weeds. Then he produced some alcohol, took a sip, and poured some on the grave.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder... Grandmaster Bai is gone too,¡± he said quietly. Leaning up against the tree, he looked up at the dark clouds overhead.

    The Captain didn¡¯t say anything. He looked at the gravestone, and looked at Xu Qing. And he kept his distance. He could tell that Xu Qing needed to be alone.

    Leaning against the tree, Xu Qing drank until the sky grew dark. Then he looked out into the jungle and saw... absolutely nothing.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder,¡± he said quietly, ¡°you once said that if someone hears the Singing and lives, then hears it a second time, they¡¯ll see the person they most want to see.... But there are a lot of people I want to see. If I ever hear the Singing again, I wonder if I¡¯ll see all of them.¡±

    He took another drink. Everything was quiet around him, and as the sky grew dark, the jungle also became pitch ck. Xu Qing sat there in silence. After another hour passed, he sighed. After kowtowing, he stood and emptied the bottle of alcohol onto the grave.

    ¡°I still haven¡¯t found that lifespan flower.¡± With onest look at the grave, he turned and walked off. Step by step, he disappeared into the darkness. Before long, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. It was the Captain.

    ¡°If we have the chance one day, Xu Qing,¡± he said, his voice soft and hoarse, ¡°I¡¯d like to take you to my home. It¡¯s been a while since I paid respects.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    As they moved through the dark jungle, no mutant beasts appeared. The beasts could instinctively tell that the two people who had appeared in the jungle on this night were different from the scavengers.

    Late in the night, Xu Qing stepped into a canyon. The blood that had been spilled here years ago had long since disappeared in the overgrowth. There were plenty of seven-leaf clovers; clearly, no other scavengers had found this spot and harvested it. He looked over at the crumbled remains of hisboratory, and thought back to all the times he had concocted poison here. His shadow seemed to be trembling with emotion, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior hadn¡¯t said much during the entire trip.

    After all, the forbidden region had once been home to the shadow, and therger area around it had once been controlled by the patriarch.

    Xu Qing passed through the valley and eventually spotted the templeplex in the distance. It waste at night, but the asional bolts of lightning provided some illumination. From what Xu Qing could see, the templeplex didn¡¯t look like it had changed at all. Most likely, even if a much greater span of time went by, and generations of scavengers came and went in the nearby basecamp, this templeplex would still be here, unchanging.

    Suddenly, the Captain made an exmation of surprise. ¡°What? There¡¯s actually a Supreme Vastness daoist temple here?¡±

    ¡°Supreme Vastness daoist temple?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking over his shoulder at the Captain.

    ¡°I remember now. A while back, I saw you use a divine ability that resembled a heavenly saber. I remember it looking familiar. Well, now it makes sense. You little punk! You actually gained enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, didn¡¯t you?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes got wider as he talked, until he looked bbergasted. ¡°There¡¯s no way. But the more I think back to that saber move of yours, the more it makes sense. Did I get it right?

    ¡°My god! That was?the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber! Do you know what the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber is? This is incredible!¡±

    Xu Qing looked deeply at the Captain. He knew full well that the Captain liked to be deliberately mystifying, and he also knew that if he asked a question, it was entirely possible that he would somehow end up owing the Captain spirit stones. The best strategy to use on people like this was to not ask any questions at all. If you let them stew long enough, then once you asked for details, they wouldn¡¯t hold anything back.

    Therefore, he looked back at the templeplex and started walking. The Captain blinked a few times, then followed. Sighing, he started muttering asionally.

    ¡°Incredible.¡±

    ¡°Wow.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely tremendous.¡±

    He continued on in that way until Xu Qing reached the templeplex, and eventually found the very same temple where he had gained enlightenment of the saber move. Entering, he looked at the statue for a moment, then sat down cross-legged in front of it.

    In addition to paying respects to Sergeant Thunder, his other reason foring back was to seek further enlightenment of the heavenly saber move.

    ¡°So, it really is a Supreme Vastness daoist statue!¡± the Captain said. He strolled around the statue, looking at it closely, then peered at Xu Qing sitting in front of it. Smiling mysteriously, he stepped to the side.

    And thus, time passed. Soon, it was the next day.

    Xu Qing felt a little disappointed. Perhaps gaining more enlightenment of the saber move was going to take more time. Perhaps months or even decades. As the morning sun grew brighter, he got to his feet.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was grinning broadly. ¡°Didn¡¯t work, did it? Well, that¡¯s to be expected. It would have been weird if it did work.¡±

    Xu Qing was shocked. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t take it any longer? Just had to ask? Can¡¯t hold it in any more?¡± The Captain seemed very pleased with himself.

    Xu Qing just looked at him, not saying anything further.

    The Captain blinked a few times and held his tongue.

    After a moment, Xu Qing sighed. ¡°Why, Elder Brother? Can you exin?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily, then cleared his throat.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll exin. However, don¡¯t forget that you owe me 50,000 spirit stones.

    ¡°The Supreme Vastness daoist temple has its origin in the Supreme Vastness epoch, in the Supreme Vastness Daoist Empire. Not much is left over from that daoist empire, just some random temples in various forbidden regions. The divine likenesses in those temples all look the same, and some years ago, people realized that they contain a very shocking legacy. It¡¯s an imperial-ss technique that can be acquired by any species.

    ¡°However, it¡¯s extremely difficult to gain enlightenment of it. Ites down to fate. The saber techniques in each temple are different, and nobody actually knows how many of those techniques any one person can master. As you have proven, it¡¯s possible to gain enlightenment of one. I¡¯ve heard of some people getting two or three, and supposedly it¡¯s possible to get six or seven.

    ¡°Regardless, there¡¯s no question it¡¯s a mighty technique. If you can gain enlightenment of three saber moves, then that¡¯s considered quasi-imperial-ss. If you get six or seven, that¡¯s true imperial-ss.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t the only Supreme Vastness daoist temple, of course. There are others. One of them is next to Seven Blood Eyes in Forbidden by the Phoenix. There are some ruins there with a temple in the middle. I even went there once hoping to gain enlightenment, but it didn¡¯t work. Once we¡¯re back in the sect, you should go check it out.¡±

    At this point, an odd expression appeared on the Captain¡¯s face, and he continued, ¡°Another thing. Once someone gains enlightenment in a Supreme Vastness daoist temple, the dao resonance in the statue disappears and doesn¡¯t return for half of a sixty-year-cycle. Only then can someone again seek enlightenment. There was no way you could have achieved any enlightenmentst night. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t tell you. You didn¡¯t ask! In fact, I was curious about what was going onst night!¡±

    A vein on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead suddenly started throbbing.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not that it¡¯s totally impossible. If you¡¯re in the presence of the statue and kill someone who gained enlightenment from it, then the dao resonance will reappear, and you can immediately seek enlightenment.¡±

    1. This is not the first time we were told that the nine zombie ancestor statues weren¡¯t the only ones. It was also mentioned in

 Chapter 223: Wonâ€™t Stay Dead

    Chapter 223: Won¡¯t Stay Dead

    As the Captain exined these things, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. After all this time, he finally had a bit of an exnation about the templeplex and the statue. Thinking back to when he originally saw the saber move, he felt like he understood it even better now.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was sighing in his heart. He knew that a matter of good fortune like this didn¡¯te down to simply taking a bite out of the statue. It required perception and fate. Of even greater significance was the fact that there was no dao resonance in the statue, plus there was no way he would even consider killing Xu Qing to get a chance at enlightenment.... And even if he would consider something like that, given how deeply deceptive Xu Qing was, there was no guarantee the Captain could defeat him inbat. In the end, the Captain was still interested in the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, but had no way to pursue it.

    As the light of dawn grew brighter, Xu Qing chose not to go deeper into the forbidden region. Based on the level of his current cultivation base, he was able to sense that further in, there was a concentration of malicious divine will.

    After staring for a time in that direction, he decided that the best thing was just to leave.

    The Captain could also sense that divine will, and after looking in that direction for a while, he began to exude a frigid aura as he said, ¡°Normally speaking, wherever you find a Supreme Vastness daoist temple, there will also be some vicious grues sealed nearby. Xu Qing, your home is next to a veryplicated forbidden region!¡±

    Without saying a word, Xu Qing stepped up into the air. He didn¡¯t n to leave via walking, and instead, flew away at top speed. The Captainughed heartily and flew up to follow him. When he was some distance away, he looked over his shoulder at the templeplex and the deep parts of the forbidden region.

    There, the clouds stirring in the sky almost resembled the long, ck hair of a woman. There was a strong rancorous aura in that part of the forbidden region, rising up and making that long hair even thicker. From a distance, the entire forbidden region actually resembled a woman¡¯s skull.

    I wonder what grue is sealed here. I really feel like going to take a look....

    After a moment of hesitation, he flew after Xu Qing. After catching up he stretchedzily, then got out an apple and took a bite. ¡°Say, Xu Qing, where are you going? Back to the sect?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to a ck market to sell some things.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°A ck market? Sell some things? Like what? Stolen goods?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him and nodded.

    ¡°Oooh, let me see! Maybe you can just sell them to me. I love stolen goods!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. It didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to sell defective magical devices to someone he knew personally. If they used such an item, only to have it break down in a dangerous situation, that person would obviouslye to him looking for answers and a reckoning.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather dispose of them through a ck market,¡± he said tactfully.

    ring, the Captain said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, I need to give you some constructive criticism. It¡¯s never good to be stingy! If you have good stuff to sell, it doesn¡¯t matter who buys it. You think I¡¯m not worthy or something? I have money!¡±

    An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face. He really didn¡¯t want to scam the Captain, so instead, he simply cleared his throat, ignored the ¡®advice,¡¯ and headed in the direction of Antlerville.

    His ultimate destination was a ck market that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had told him about earlier. It was in a city called Rimeshade near Church of Departure territory. It was surrounded by a wilderness even worse than the Crimson Wilds, and thus, none of the powerful groups in South Phoenix cared much about it. In turn, that meant that a lot of ruthless characters ended up there, and thus, a ck market came to be.

    The things he wanted to sell were the magical devices that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had absorbed seventy to eighty percent of, then smoothed over so they looked normal. Originally, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t nned on selling them at all. But given how many resources he had gone through while working on the ck beetles, he was running very low on spirit stones.

    I¡¯ll sell these things and then head back to the sect.

    Having made his decision, he prepared to head to Antlerville as quickly as possible. Moving at that speed, it would only take half an incense stick¡¯s worth of time to arrive. However, about halfway there, he stopped in midair and looked down.

    Down below was a caravan heading in the direction of Antlerville. There were over thirty carts, all of them pitch ck in color. And surrounding them were numerous guards, all d in ck robes. They seemed very somber and deste, and also, out of ce. Given the size of this caravan, there wasn¡¯t any group in the area who would dare to cause trouble for it.

    That was especially true considering that there were high-level Qi Condensation auras in the caravan, which would weigh down stiflingly on ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators.

    Xu Qing also noticed an old man on one of the carts who had a Foundation Establishment cultivation base. However, he had not yet ignited his first life me, and thus could not enter the profound radiance state. Given his cultivation base fluctuations, he probably had about 15 or 16 dharma apertures opened.

    Most people who looked at the caravan wouldn¡¯t be able to see what Xu Qing saw; there were cages in the carts, within which were locked numerous scavengers. Most of them were unconscious young boys and girls, though there were some older ones who were awake. However, the conscious ones all looked dispirited and despairing as they leaned up against the bars of the cages.

    ¡°Night Dove is really annoying,¡± the Captain said, looking down with revulsion at the caravan. ¡°It just won¡¯t stay dead. No matter how many of them you kill, there are always more.¡±

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s because there¡¯s always a demand for living treasures,¡± Xu Qing said coldly.

    ¡°Exactly. Here in South Phoenix, the demand is primarily from the Church of Departure and the Violet Lands. Overseas... well, in Revered Ancient, there¡¯s an even greater demand.

    ¡°After all... living treasures aren¡¯t just used to absorb mutagen from magical treasures. Some magical treasure fragments, and even high-level magical devices, need pure life force to cleanse them. Because of that, even some of the so-called chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition secretly dabble in the trade of living treasures.

    ¡°And living treasures are even more effective when used in groups. As a result, virtually all species use them. What¡¯s more, humans native to South Phoenix usually have a bit of the blood of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan in them. As a result, they make unusually good living treasures. That¡¯s why Night Dove is so active here.¡±

    Without a word, Xu Qing looked at the caravan as his ck iron skewer suddenly shot down toward it.

    The crackle of thunder filled the air as the Night Dove operatives below looked up in shock. The skewer was like a ck lightning bolt that rapidly pierced through the necks of one Night Dove operative after another.

    The Qi Condensation cultivators couldn¡¯t even see it moving, much less dodge out of its way. In the blink of an eye, they were killed. From a distance, it looked like a ck streak zipping about, leaving behind a spray of blood. Not even the Foundation Establishment cultivator could defend himself, and was pierced through.

    However, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t kill the man. Instead, he dragged him up in the air to Xu Qing.

    The old man trembled, his eyes shining with terror. He was clearly scared out of his mind. Though Xu Qing and the Captain were in disguise, they currently radiated terrifying fluctuations that caused the old man¡¯s vision to swim. He could sense that either of these two people could wipe him out of existence with the flick of a finger. Not all Foundation Establishment cultivators were the same.

    ¡°Seniors, I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Where were you heading with this caravan?¡± Xu Qing asked coldly.

    When Xu Qing saw the old man hesitating, an expression of impatience overtook his face, and he was about to resort to torture when the Captain grinned.

    ¡°Allow me,¡± he said. He waved his hand, and countless streams of frigid energy swept forth to form a needle. Then, the needle stabbed into the body of the shocked old man. As it moved about in him, the pain was so intense that the old man nearly passed out. Momentster, he was exining everything he knew.

    They weren¡¯t the only Night Dove operatives on the move. Members throughout South Phoenix had received orders to secretly take all of their current stock to Seven Blood Eyes. Apparently, it wouldn¡¯t be long before customers from afar showed up there, with very deep pockets. In other words, there were caravans just like this one all over South Phoenix, all of them figuring out ways to get into Seven Blood Eyes territory.

    When Xu Qing heard all of that, his eyes flickered with cold light. He absolutely hated Night Dove.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes were narrowed as he waved his hand, causing the old man to explode into a mass of frozen chunks.

    ¡°It looks like the Violent Crimes Division has its work cut out for it,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I¡¯m especially curious about who these customers are. And what does ¡®afar¡¯ mean? They¡¯re outsiders?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response, but the vicious look in his eye grew deeper. With that, he waved his hand, causing all of the cages to open up. The prisoners inside them were now free.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay them much attention. They were strangers met by chance, like patches of drifting duckweed, and would have to care for their own lives. He had attacked the caravan because of his loathing of Night Dove, nothing else. With that, Xu Qing and the Captain continued on to Antlerville, where they took the teleportation portal to Rimeshade.

    Rimeshade, located in the wilderness just on the border of Church of Departure territory, was small but bustling. There was no sense of order in the city, and the ce was full of criminals and ouws. There were quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivators present, and even a few Gold Core experts. Most of them were here to trade in items that they normally wouldn¡¯t want to be seen buying.

    Normally speaking, only very confident people woulde here to do business. That said, despite the general chaos in the city, it wasn¡¯t a ce where wanton ughter wasmon. It was a ce where profit ruled, and deals were made. Because of the prosperity to be had in Rimeshade, it was quite well-known throughout South Phoenix, and cultivators from just about every group could be found there.

    The main rule that governed it was: the weak are the prey of the strong.

    Therefore, when Xu Qing and the Captain stepped off the teleportation portal, they were met by suspicious eyes that kept an eye on everyone who came and went. Some were children native to Rimeshade, who were always on the lookout for neers who needed the service of a guide.

 Chapter 224: Weapons for Treacherous People

    <h4>Chapter 224: Weapons for Treacherous People</h4>

    Even in South Phoenix, ck markets wereces where dragons and snakes mingled. In other words, they were a mix of good people and scumbags.

    Considering that Seven Blood Eyes was an apex power in South Phoenix, it was no surprise that wicked people could be found in it. Given that, and also how cautious Xu Qing was in general, there was no way he would go into a ck market without being disguised. He now looked like a gaunt, middle-aged man, and he even made sure to conceal his aura.

    The Captain, being the smooth operator that he was, now looked like a hunch-backed old man. He seemed sickly, but at the same time, clearly wasn¡¯t the kind of person to casually trifle with. In fact, his disguise was actually better than Xu Qing¡¯s.

    ncing at him, Xu Qing realized that he still had a thing or two to learn about disguises.

    Looking around Rimeshade, the Captain cleared his throat and then, in a very raspy voice, said, ¡°What a nice ce. I have a few items to take care of. Once we¡¯re both done, let¡¯s meet back here.¡±

    Strolling over to the group of children, he chose a young boy to hire as his guide. The boy¡¯s eyes lit up as he raced to join the Captain.

    Xu Qing chose not to get a guide. He had Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who was very familiar with ck markets. As Xu Qing walked off, a number of malicious gazes followed him. Some of them shifted away from him, but others seemed to bepletely focused on him.

    ¡°Brilliant n, milord,¡± the patriarch said fawningly. ¡°As you know, ck markets are full of greedy people, and getting their attention early is good. That way, when ites time to sell your goods, you can make even more profit. I suggest that you take your time offering things for sale. That way you can avoid attracting the attention of Gold Core cultivators, and stick to the trashy Foundation Establishment people. Milord, these jackals all have very fat purses.¡±

    The patriarch had really been feeling uselesstely. One reason for that was that the Captain had been around the entire time, giving him few opportunities toe out. The other reason was that the bratty shadow had really been throwing its weight around. All of it left the patriarch feeling very wary. And thus, he decided that this ck market trip was the perfect opportunity to make the Fiendish Xu realize how important he was. Under no circumstances could he allow the Fiendish Xu to think that he was worthless.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Xu Qing said, looking around at the shops and crowds. Most people present were hiding their identity. The majority wore voluminous clothing, and some even had masks on their faces. The truth was that Xu Qing was more focused on his surroundings than the patriarch, and hadn¡¯t even been listening to him.

    However, his simple answer left the patriarch feeling iparably shaken.

    The Fiendish Xu only answered with a single word. That means he¡¯s not pleased. Don¡¯t tell me... I just said the wrong thing? Or does the Fiendish Xu not want to simply sell a few things? Maybe he¡¯s not satisfied with me personally! No. I can¡¯t let this stand. I have to think of something to do, otherwise I¡¯m going to be turned into cannon fodder!!

    As an intense sensation of crisis caused the patriarch to tremble, he said, ¡°Milord, I¡¯ve been thinking. If we just sell the magical devices outright, we might not get that much money. I have a better idea!¡±

    Xu Qing had been just about to enter a rather busy equipment shop. But upon hearing the patriarch¡¯s words, he stopped curiously.

    ¡°Honest people don¡¯t do underhanded things. So we shouldn¡¯t try to pass off defective wares. Instead, let¡¯s exin what they are when we sell them! I¡¯ve thought it all through. You see, this can be our specialty! This ce has all sorts of people, all working on their own plots and schemes. Some peoplee here, not to buy things for themselves, but in order toy treacherous traps for others! Our magical devices are exactly what people like that need! Therefore, we shouldn¡¯t sell our items to a shop. No, we should set up our own vendor stall!¡±

    Upon hearing this, Xu Qing thought about it for a bit and then came to the conclusion it wasn¡¯t a bad idea. As the saying went,the rarer something is, the greater its value. There were always people with unique needs looking for unique wares. Thus, Xu Qing epted the patriarch¡¯s advice and headed to Rimeshade¡¯s open market area, which was full of even more cultivators than the area he¡¯d just been in.

    Thankfully, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was very familiar with the process. With his help, Xu Qing rented a space in the market, where he erected arge wooden sign.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to write on the sign. The patriarch did so with the iron skewer, carving out four characters in calligraphyas mboyant as dancing dragons and swirling phoenixes.

    Weapons for Treacherous People!

    When Xu Qing saw the finished calligraphy, he raised his eyebrows but didn¡¯t say anything. Sitting down cross-legged, he waited. People came and went in the market, and the hubbub of shopping echoed out in all directions. Before long, people noticed his sign, but no one approached. Xu Qing was already starting to get impatient.

    ¡°Keep calm, milord. We can do this! I¡¯m very confident. Completely certain! Remember, I used to go to ck markets all the time, specifically to look for things like this. Items like this aren¡¯t verymon, so I¡¯m sure there are people here willing to buy them.¡±

    The patriarch was so wrapped up in the current situation that he didn¡¯t notice the shadow off the side, eying him like it was looking at its arch-nemesis. At the same time, it was studying the patriarch and learning a lot.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. He just closed his eyes. Time passed, and the patriarch started getting more and more anxious. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the patriarch¡¯s eyes glittered. Xu Qing noticed the same thing the patriarch had, and opened his eyes.

    A tall cultivator stood over him, wrapped in a ck cloak with a hood that made it impossible to see even a hint of the facial features within. The cultivator nced at the sign, then spoke in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°How treacherous?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a word. He just tossed the cultivator a jade slip and took out a fan-shaped magical device that he ced on the ground in front of him.

    The ck-cloaked cultivator took the jade slip and examined the contents.

    The patriarch had created the contents of the jade slip. It exined how the fan worked, notably how it was essentially an empty shell that looked normal, and even operated normally, but would explode at a critical moment of usage. The description was very vivid and lively. The jade slip made it seem like the device had been specifically created for this purpose, and was the perfect item for a treacherous person.

    ¡°The price is good. Not too expensive. What an interesting little device....¡± The ck-cloaked cultivator deliberated for a short time, then took out a spirit note and handed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing epted it, then flicked his sleeve, sending the fan flying to the ck-cloaked cultivator. When the cultivator reached out to take it, a single nce at her hand made it obvious she was a young woman. After examining the fan, she seemed pleased, and disappeared into the crowd.

    Xu Qing was pleased at the transaction, and off to the side, the patriarch breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, milord. I¡¯m an expert when ites to people like this. Our special magical devices might seem useless to some people, but to other people, they¡¯re perfect for treachery. They¡¯re notmon, and thus not easy to guard against. If you can figure out a way to get one of these things into the hands of an enemy, you can kill them before they realize what¡¯s happening.¡±

    ¡°Not bad,¡± Xu Qing said encouragingly.

    His words thrilled the patriarch.

    The Fiendish Xu actually upgraded to two words this time! He really thinks I¡¯m helpful!

    The patriarch¡¯s previous assessment waspletely correct. Not everyone who came to this ck market came to buy things for their own use. Each person had their own unique circumstances, and for many, things that could be used treacherously weren¡¯t verymon.

    It didn¡¯t take long before Xu Qing got a second customer, a nonhuman. After examining the jade slip Xu Qing provided, he unhesitatingly bought three items.

    And thus, the day passed. By the time evening fell, Xu Qing had sold all eight of the items he had prepared. After settling ounts for the vendor stall, he started walking through the market with the intention of finding the Captain and heading back to the sect.

    As the city got darker, more cultivators arrived in the market. And as Xu Qing walked along, he scanned some of the items for sale at various stalls. Suddenly, he noticed something and stopped walking.

    There were no items on disy, just a wooden sign with two characters on it.

    Soul Pills?he thought.

    The vendor wore a ck cloak that made it impossible to tell if they were male or female. Furthermore, a mask covered their face. Seeing Xu Qing approach, the cultivator looked at him coldly and said, ¡°100,000 spirit stones per pill.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. He knew that soul pills were expensive. They could be used in equipment forging, in special cultivation methods to open dharma apertures, as well as in other nefarious ways. That said, unless these pills were extremely high quality, they shouldn¡¯t be that expensive.

    Seemingly guessing what Xu Qing was thinking, the vendor coolly said, ¡°They¡¯re high quality. All were concocted using Foundation Establishment souls.¡±

    Xu Qing mulled it over. If the pills were made with Foundation Establishment souls, and there were enough of them, they could be helpful in opening dharma apertures. And right now, he only needed to open 11 apertures before he could ignite his third life me.

    Xu Qing had to admit that he was in a hurry to do that, so he tossed out a roll of spirit notes. The vendor scanned the notes, then handed him a jade box.

    Xu Qing examined them, and his pupils constricted.

    They were indeed Foundation Establishment souls, and what was more... they were Seazombie Foundation Establishment souls! There were some random Qi Condensation souls as well, but even those were also from Seazombies.

    Xu Qing looked more closely at the vendor. Whoever they were, he didn¡¯t detect any of the Captain¡¯s aura on them. But considering that this person had so many Seazombie soul pills, it seemed highly likely they were from Seven Blood Eyes. Only someone from Seven Blood Eyes could have so many Seazombie souls.

    ¡°How many more do you have?¡± Xu Qing asked. He remained casual, but kept the ck iron skewer ready in the fold of his robe.

    ¡°A lot,¡± the vendor replied, looking up at him with icy arrogance.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a bit longer. ¡°I want forty more!¡±

    The vendor was so surprised that the icy arrogance vanished, and they inhaled hesitantly. ¡°I don¡¯t have that many. But if you wait a moment, I have some friends nearby. If we pool our collections, we can give you that many.¡±

    ¡°Fine, but considering I¡¯m buying so many, you¡¯d better throw in a few for free,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    The vendor was clearly a straightforward person. Nodding in response to Xu Qing¡¯s words, the vendor took out a jade slip and used it to send a voice message. Before long, six simrly dressed individuals approached from different directions, all of whom took time to size up Xu Qing. Among them was a tall cultivator with powerful energy fluctuations, whose gaze lingered on Xu Qing the longest.

    Xu Qing looked back at them.

    After a short time, the tall cultivator chuckled quietly. ¡°Seventh Peak?¡±

    ¡°First Peak?¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    The tall cultivatorughed again. Not asking any more questions, he took out a bag of holding and handed it to Xu Qing.

    Forty pills!

    After inspecting them, Xu Qing handed over the spirit stones he had made from selling his magical devices, then turned and left.

    The ck-cloaked figures watched him leave, then squatted together to confer. The vendor quietly said, ¡°Second Elder Brother, who do you think that Seventh Peak fellow was? The sect hasn¡¯t handed out any rewards for the war, so how could he be so rich?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. Seventh Peak disciples are experts at deception.... After we¡¯re back, we can ask around. Someone with that much money surely needs dao protectors, right? Maybe we can get him to hire us for long-term work. There are less fat cats nowadays, which make them more of a target. He¡¯ll probably be happy to hire us.¡±

    ¡°Forget that for now. We need to sell the rest of our loot. The war is almost over, so after we get back, we probably won¡¯t even need to go to the battlefield again.¡±

 Chapter 225: A Tempest Builds

    Chapter 225: A Tempest Builds

    Leaving the public market area, Xu Qing walked through the night and thought back to the encounter with the other disciples.

    One of them was one of the First Peak¡¯s highnesses, though I¡¯m not sure which one.

    Though they had taken precautions to conceal their auras, Xu Qing had still been able to sense a sword energy on them that reminded him of Wu Jianwu. To any other person, that aura would have been difficult to identify. But Xu Qing had chased Wu Jianwu for days on end, and thanks to all the techniques he had used, was very familiar with his aura. That same sense hade across strongly just now, so Xu Qing was certain of his assessment.

    The war is still going on, but they¡¯re out here...?

    Xu Qing thought back to what the Captain had told him, and also the rumors he¡¯d heard earlier about the Seven Sect Coalition interfering with the war. He already had some spections of his own about what was going on.

    It seems the war really is about to end.

    He had been waiting for a long time for this. After all, he had a lot of battle aplishments that would earn him rewards after the official conclusion of the war.

    Truth be told, he felt poor right now. He had just earned a nice sum of spirit stones, only to spend them all on soul pills. Although his investment in Harbor 176 would earn him some profit, the development still wasn¡¯tplete, and he would have to wait for that.

    Money will being my way soon.

    Taking a deep breath, he hurried toward the teleportation portalplex. Along the way, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had something to say.

    ¡°I made a recording of the transaction just now,¡± he said excitedly. ¡°I got everything! Your humble servant thought milord might want evidence. I realized it the moment you tapped me.¡±

    Xu Qing was pleased. He¡¯d had no specific ns for the recording, but considering he had been dealing with some First Peak disciples acting furtively, having a recording of them might be usefulter. With that matter out of the way, Xu Qing continued on his way.

    It was nighttime, so other than certain specific locations, the streets had much fewer people on them than during the daytime. Meanwhile, gazes from the shadows locked onto Xu Qing as he walked. He ignored them, and as he made his way to the teleportation portalplex, no one caused any trouble for him. Xu Qing was actually a bit disappointed by that.

    People here aren¡¯t fools. Unless they¡¯repletely confident, they won¡¯t do anything.

    Upon arriving at the teleportation portal, Xu Qing shook his head when he didn¡¯t see the Captain. Taking out a jade slip, he sent a voice message asking where he was.

    ¡°Don¡¯t wait for me, little Ah Qing. You¡¯ll never guess who I ran into. Hahaha! Some of the highnesses from the First Peak! They¡¯re secretly fencing some stuff from the war. I¡¯m going to record some images of them and send them to Sect Granduncle and see what I can ckmail him out of.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. From what he could tell, both the Captain and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior were equally underhanded. Xu Qing himself would never act like that. He would never dirty himself in that way, and thus, always had a clean conscience.

    Entering the teleportation portal, he disappeared into the glowing light.

    ***

    It was night in Seven Blood Eyes, and as usual, the moon shone in the sky, and a cold wind blew. The capital city seemed quiet and peaceful at nighttime, but there were actually many people about. In some alleys, local gangs struggled for supremacy, and in other ces, disciples fought and killed each other. None of that had stopped because of the war.

    But that was of no concern to Xu Qing. He had risen above such struggles, having ughtered his way to his current high standing.

    Xu Qing walked along quickly, taking note of the Violent Crimes Division constables on patrol. He also happened to pass by nkspring Way. There, he stopped for a moment. The inn had been closed for quite a while. Looking at it, Xu Qing suddenly found himself thinking of that anaconda.

    After a moment, he cleared his mind and moved on. Back at his berth in Harbor 176, he took out his dharmaskiff, stepped aboard, and sat down cross-legged. Finally, he took out the soul pills he had just bought.

    He did one more inspection to make sure there was nothing unusual about the pills. Then he selected one and melted it with balefire. Within moments, the soul power from the pill was sweeping through his body toward his 80th dharma aperture.

    If one wasn¡¯t enough, he would use four. If two wasn¡¯t enough, he would use ten!

    Before long, rumbling sounds filled him, and dharma force fluctuations rolled out. His 80th dharma aperture was open!

    He didn¡¯t stop there. Over the course of the next two hours, he assimted forty-three soul pills, which enabled him to open up to his 83rd dharma aperture.

    He was only 7 dharma apertures away from this third life me.

    Sadly, these First Peak soul pills weren¡¯t even close to being as good as the pill Master Sixth gave me. It makes sense considering the souls were on a much lower level.

    Though Xu Qing was slightly disappointed, that disappointment was outweighed by anticipation.

    At this rate, it won¡¯t be long before I ignite my third life me. And when I do that....

    His heart pounded as he thought about the astonishing battle prowess he would attain with that third me.

    With the addition of my lifemp, that¡¯ll be power equivalent to four life mes. With Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, it¡¯ll jump to the equivalent of five mes. I¡¯ll be able to crush anyone else in Foundation Establishment... as long as they don¡¯t have a lifemp!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the two wish boxes in his bag of holding. After checking them, he continued to send dharma force into them.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be able to open them soon,¡± he murmured.

    He was now in a much better mood than before. However, that onlysted until he started thinking about the Night Dove caravan he¡¯d encountered. Then, killing intent flickered in his eyes.

    However, he was only the director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division. Furthermore, in doing work with his ck beetles, he had shed with some of the other Violent Crimes Divisions. Because of that, getting them to cooperate with him wasn¡¯t going to be easy.

    After thinking about the situation, he took out his identity medallion and sent a message to Master Sixth. After exining what he¡¯d learned from the Night Dove caravan, he awaited a response.

    It didn¡¯t take long.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I give youplete authority to deal with Night Dove. You may takemand of the forces of all the Violent Crimes Divisions from all of the mountain peaks. Get rid of Night Dove. If you run into any trouble, contact me immediately!¡±

    Master Sixth hade to really like Xu Qing, and treated requests from him as if they were from his own child.

    ¡°Many thanks, Master Sixth,¡± Xu Qing replied solemnly. He had sensed the approval in Master Sixth¡¯s message, and was very grateful.

    Over the course of the following days, Xu Qing was in constantmunication with the Violent Crimes Divisions from the other mountain peaks. He sent them documents, and requested help from their constables in inspecting all of the watercraft in the Seventh Peak¡¯s Port District.

    They also kept a close eye on everyone who teleported in.

    Night Dove and the Violent Crimes Division already had a history of animosity, and thus, the other divisions didn¡¯t have any reason not to cooperate. Besides, Night Dove was rich, which created an added incentive. And thus, constables from all of the various Violent Crimes Division were put to work.

    In the initial buzz of activity, quite a few Night Dove operatives were found and arrested. Night Dove was immediately forced to work harder at staying hidden, while at the same time, the Violent Crimes Division prisons filled back up with inmates.

    Meanwhile, big news hit that quickly spread, not just through the sect, but throughout the entire Forbidden Sea.

    The war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies was over!

    The reason for the end of the war was that the Seven Sect Coalition had stepped in to prevent Seven Blood Eyes from outright taking over the Seazombie ancestralnd. Though rumors had been spreading for a while about that subject, it still angered everyone in Seven Blood Eyes. Given how the war was going, it shouldn¡¯t have taken more than half a year topletely defeat the Seazombies.

    Yet right in that critical moment, the Seven Sect Coalition put an end to things. Although Sir Bloodsmelter was apparently furious at their heavy-handedness, he had no choice but to follow orders. After all, Seven Blood Eyes was still officially considered a subsidiary branch of the Seven Sect Coalition, and had to follow orders. Sir Bloodsmelter had no grounds to refuse.

    However, Seven Blood Eyes would not give up on the profit it was owed. Even as Xu Qing was taking stock of the rumors, Sir Bloodsmelter issued four stiptions to the Seazombies to end the war.

    First: Seven Blood Eyes would own all of the territory it had captured.

    Second: The Seazombies were required to pay war reparations totaling 100,000,000,000 spirit stones.

    Third: The Seazombies had to surrender eight of their zombie ancestor statues. The only one Seven Blood Eyes didn¡¯t want was the one without a nose.

    Fourth: All Seazombies in the Gold Core level or higher were prohibited from leaving their ancestralnd for a hundred years. In addition, all members of the Seazombie echelon were to be sent to Seven Blood Eyes as hostages.

    The Seazombies obviously didn¡¯t want to agree to those stiptions, and thus things remained at a deadlock for half a month. During that time, there were heated negotiations. And every time there were negotiations, the details would be leaked to the disciples in the sect.

    After all the negotiations wereplete, a final agreement was reached.

    The Seazombies would cede two of their fortified inds, and three districts in their ancestralnd. Instead of 100,000,000,000 spirit stones, they would pay 80,000,000,000. And cultivators in the Gold Core level or higher would be confined for a sixty-year-cycle. As for the zombie ancestor statues, they were the foundation of Seazombies in general, and simply too important. Therefore, the Seazombies would only give away two of them.

    After Seven Blood Eyes agreed to those terms, the war which had dragged on for over a year was finally over. When the patriarch and other high-level cultivators finally returned to the sect, a huge period of celebration began, and the entire sect bustled with noise and activity. Official orders were passed down that the period of rejoicing was tost for three months.

    During that time, various allies and nonhuman envoys coulde to offer congrattions. Of course, that would bring a big economic boost to the Seven Blood Eyes port, and would help things get back to normal even more quickly.

    In no time at all, the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ capital city was once again a bustling ce.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t take part in any of the festivities. When he wasn¡¯t working on his cultivation or researching his ck beetles, most of his attention was focused on directing the Violent Crimes Division activities against Night Dove. Xu Qing detested Night Dove, and since he knew that there were so many of theming to Seven Blood Eyes, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to feed his beetles and get souls for his cultivation.

    Several days passed, whereupon the first group of nonhuman envoys arrived to offer congrattions.

    Among the group was an old woman in a green robe. Her arrival caused a huge stir in Seven Blood Eyes, to the point that Sir Bloodsmelter himself went out to receive her.

    The smile in his voice was obvious as his words echoed through all heaven and earth. ¡°Wee to Seven Blood Eyes, esteemed Fellow Daoist Easher!¡±

    This old woman was the ruler of Easher Isle, also known as Guru Easher. And she was also the grandmother of ck-garbed Yanyan. [1]

    1. Yanyan was introduced in chapter 200 and wasst mentioned in chapter 205. ?

 Chapter 226: Dark Serenityâ€™s Ancient Road

    Chapter 226: Dark Serenity¡¯s Ancient Road

    Xu Qing knew the moment Guru Easher arrived. She didn¡¯te to Harbor 176, but thanks to his authority over all the Violent Crimes Divisions during the Night Dove crackdown, he was notified immediately.

    The Night Dove operation had eased the tension that arose between Xu Qing and the other six divisions because of how far out of his jurisdiction he had gone before. After all, credit was given for every arrest, and every Night Dove operative taken down brought in a good haul of spirit stones. More relevant than that was that the directors of the other Violent Crimes Divisions were all willing to follow Xu Qing¡¯s lead. If they weren¡¯t, then it wouldn¡¯t matter how much battle prowess or prestige Xu Qingmanded, if they didn¡¯t want to give him face, there were plenty of ways to do so. After all, they didn¡¯t owe him anything.

    True, Xu Qing was in the echelon. But there had been situations in the past in which echelon cultivators mysteriously died. And the other directors were all people who had struggled from the bottom through a sea of blood. They were intelligent people with many resources at their disposal. But as long as there was profit involved, everyone was happy to be friends. And thus, it was no surprise that Xu Qing was notified of the development right away.

    When Xu Qing got the news, his guard went up. That said, he had already analyzed the situation fully, and taken all precautionary measures, so nothing about his daily routine changed much.

    Meanwhile, Sir Bloodsmelter had invited Guru Easher to the Fourth Peak. Sir Bloodsmelter had started out on the Fourth Peak, and it was where he normally stayed when in the sect. After dismissing his attendants, the two of them discussed important matters.

    When that was done, Guru Easher said, ¡°I heard my granddaughter made a new friend here in Seven Blood Eyes. Someone named Xu Qing. This Xu Qing seems like a really nice kid, so I brought a gift for him.¡± A smile covered Guru Easher¡¯s wrinkled face as she produced a jade box and held it out to Sir Bloodsmelter.

    Sir Bloodsmelterughed heartily, and didn¡¯t even attempt to pretend that he didn¡¯t know what this was about. Given the extremely high level of their cultivation bases, people like Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher tended to handle matters very shrewdly. For example, in the matter at hand. Guru Easher didn¡¯t need to openly make any sort of request. She just offered a gift, and that was enough to make her stance clear.

    Continuing tough, Sir Bloodsmelter epted the gift and put it away. There was no need to see what he did with it. The two of them continued to chat for a while, until a sound like whistling wind could be heard.

    Yanyan, who had just been released from prison, burst into the room. All of the injuries she had sustained had healed, and she was nowpletely back to normal. She didn¡¯t look the least bit upset. In fact, when she saw her grandmother, her eyes glittered, and she rushed over to hug her arm.

    Pouting a bit, she said, ¡°Grandma, what are you doing here?¡± [1]

    When Guru Easher saw that her granddaughter looked fine, she smiled faintly. Though she was d her granddaughter hadn¡¯t been harmed, she felt bad for how she had suffered. And of course, she wasn¡¯t very pleased with Xu Qing. Stroking Yanyan¡¯s hair, she opened her mouth to speak. However, before she could, Yanyan jumped in to speak.

    ¡°Grandma, I want to marry Xu Qing!¡±

    Guru Easher was visibly stunned. She knew her granddaughter was an odd one, but to hear her suddenly say something like this took everything to an even more astounding level of oddness.

    Sir Bloodsmelter was simrly stunned. Not even he could have anticipated that something like this would happen. He knew his old friend had an unusual granddaughter. But who could have guessed that after Xu Qing beat that granddaughter up and imprisoned her for several months, that she would say something like this upon being released?

    Looking incredibly serious, Yanyan shook Guru Easher¡¯s arm and said, ¡°He¡¯s the only person in the entire world who¡¯s a good match for me, Grandma. I want to marry him! I have to marry him!¡±

    ¡°This is outrageous!¡± Guru Easher barked angrily. ¡°Don¡¯t act so scandalously in front of your elders!¡±

    Yanyan slumped visibly.

    Despite Guru Easher¡¯s harsh words, she was actually amazed. Turning to Sir Bloodsmelter, she said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Bloodsmelter, if you have the time, do you mind arranging for me to meet this child Xu Qing?¡± [2]

    Sir Bloodsmelter hesitated briefly. This whole thing was very bizarre. However, if Guru Easher really wanted to arrange a marriage, it could be a really good thing. Laughing heartily, he nodded his agreement. That said, he didn¡¯t go into any specific details about it.

    It was hard to say exactly how rumors started spreading, but in less than a day, everyone in the sect was talking about it. Ding Xue had the biggest reaction; she was incensed. On the other hand, Zhao Zhongheng was delighted. On the Second Peak, Gu Muqing was in her mansion grotto concocting some pills. After she heard the news, she ended up detonating several pill furnaces.

    As for Xu Qing, when the rumors reached him, he frowned at how absurd it seemed. As far as he was concerned, romance just took time away from cultivation. Besides, it didn¡¯t lead to any profit. When he was younger, one of his schr teachers had exined a bit about how things worked between men and women. But Xu Qing had never experienced it, and had no idea what it felt like. He had always lived alone, whether it was in the slums or the scavenger basecamp.

    ¡°Completely ridiculous,¡± he muttered.

    Over the course of the next few days, he refused multiple requests from Yanyan to meet up.

    Right now, he had the wish boxes to worry about, as well as the Night Dove operation. Time was precious, and he was in no mood to be dealing with unimportant matters.

    As time passed, more and more nonhuman envoys and allies came into the Seven Blood Eyes port. The sect bustled with more noise and excitement than ever. Then, for the first time, cultivators from Revered Ancient arrived!

    There were three of them, all women in green gowns with veils covering their faces. They were attractive, with a faint mist surrounding them that was obviously a fantastic technique unlike anything that Seven Blood Eyes cultivators used. Their long gowns were embroidered with immortal mountains, and the clouds drifting between their peaks seemed to contain a dao resonance. Because of that, these women appeared to exist on a higher level of being. Especially noteworthy was that they seemed to have very little mutagen in them. It wasn¡¯tpletelycking. But their mutagen levels were so low that unless you carefully examined them, you wouldn¡¯t notice it.

    All of that attracted a lot of attention from the Seven Blood Eyes disciples.

    For years on end, no one from Revered Ancient hade to Seven Blood Eyes. To the disciples here, the maind was an amazing and mysterious ce. And many people automatically assumed that cultivators from there were on a higher level. In some ways, that was true. Whether it was their spirit power, their techniques, their perception of the world, or their core teachings and doctrines, people from the Revered Ancient maind were generally on a different levelpared to those from Seven Blood Eyes, and by a wide margin. As a result, it was only natural that cultivators from there would seem superior.

    What was more, these three female cultivators didn¡¯t just look ethereal. They also exuded a fragrant aroma that made them seem unearthly. They also had astonishing cultivation bases. Of the group of three, two had opened roughly 100 dharma apertures, putting them just on the verge of having four life mes. The other was the superior of the group, and had 120 dazzling dharma apertures open. Even when she wasn¡¯t in the profound radiance state, anyone in her presence felt like they were in front of a burning star. The three women were like bright moons that made the other heavenly bodies seem dim inparison. Almost immediately, they were the talk of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Xu Qing was privy to the details about them thanks to the files he had ess to, though he didn¡¯t get a chance to see them in person and get first-hand information.

    What he did know was that the three women were chosen disciples from an organization on Revered Ancient called the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    Around this time, the sect suddenly sent out details to all Foundation Establishment disciples regarding some previously secret information about Revered Ancient.

    Normally speaking, the sect wouldn¡¯t casually reveal this information, and thus, most disciples didn¡¯t know much about Revered Ancient. But considering people from there were now showing up in the sect, it was necessary to reveal the details. As of now, the veil of secrecy regarding the maind was being lifted.

    The Revered Ancient maind was a sprawling ce that was generally divided up intorge regions. A region was divided up into counties, and counties were divided into prefectures. There were countless species and all sorts of other strange things on the maind. It was sorge that no human could ever walk the entire continent. In fact, its size defied imagination.

    The human species originated in the depths of the sprawling Revered Ancient maind, in a location iparably far away from Seven Blood Eyes in the Forbidden Sea. It was the same ce where thest of the human Ancient Emperors had established an imperial capital. Because of it, humans considered it a holynd.

    That Ancient Emperor was called Dark Serenity. He had conquered all other species during the epoch in which he lived, unifying Revered Ancient and establishing a road from his imperial capital all the way to the Forbidden Sea. That road passed through thirty-seven regions on its way to the shore.

    In those days, it was called Dark Serenity¡¯s Imperial Highway. However, as epochs came and went, itter came to be known as Dark Serenity¡¯s Ancient Road.

    Later, the human species declined, and innumerable other species rose to prominence. Also, countless forbidden regions had formed. Because of that, humans were no longer as glorious as they had once been, and had lost control of much of the territory they once owned. But they still maintained that ancient road.

    Furthermore, other species proliferated and developed the area surrounding the road.

    Over the years, the ancient road became home to seven human counties. Within those counties, human sects and organizations rose and fell. Though humans¡¯ overall strength and power deteriorated, the seven counties and the imperial city made humans one of the top species on Revered Ancient.

    As for the seven counties, they all existed in different regions. The seventh county upied the spot where the ancient road reached the Forbidden Sea, and was in the Holytide Region. It was called Sea-Sealing County. It was called a county, but in reality it was vastly more majestic than all of Seven Blood Eyes. It contained five prefectures, each of which was ten timesrger than the entire continent of South Phoenix.

    Within Sea-Sealing County, the prefecture closest to the Forbidden Sea was called Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. ording to the stories, after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity went out to sea to corroborate his dao, he returned to conquer Revered Ancient, and madendfall on that spot. That was the origin of the prefecture¡¯s name, and it was still used to this day.

    Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was full of powerful organizations that tended to bnce each other out. There were also nonhumans who had established camps and cities in the prefecture. Over the years, after countless wars and treaties, six powerful groups rose to the top.

    They were...

    A collection of numerous smaller sects and groups, with seven sects in charge. It was a colossal monster of an organization known as the Seven Sect Coalition.

    The Church of Departure was present in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture as well. They venerated Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and had carried out all sorts of insane plots, shedding blood left and right to make sacrifices to the Daoist Rite of Departure.

    Cultivators native to the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture had a secret legacy, which was essentially the dao of the prefecture. They were... the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society!

    The fourth group focused on collecting grues. They gave them food in the form of flesh and drink in the form of souls. They were a vicious lot that were known to strike despair into the hearts of all other cultivators. They controlled 137 human cities, all of which were littered with corpses and rotting flesh. Unfortunately, none of the other groups could do anything about them. They were Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    The fifth group considered themselves supreme. Their entire organization was centered around a relic that had been passed down for many epochs. The name of their organization was the same as the name of the relic they venerated: the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Supposedly, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was so tall it pierced the clouds, and no one knew the full extent of its height.

    The sixth and final group made their home on a 300,000-meter-tall mountain that resembled a vicious ghost. He sat cross-legged in the middle of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, wearing a suit of armor and holding a massive de in his hands. A world rested on each of his shoulders, making him seem like a god from ancient times. The two worlds on his shoulders were the sixth and final group. They were called South Tor Ghost Mountain. The vicious god upon whose shoulders they rested was called the South Tor Ghost Emperor.

    In addition to these groups, there were many nonhumans as well as plenty of forbidden regions, as well as two forbidden grounds that were kept under control, but were constantly expanding on a yearly basis.

    1. Yanyan uses the word for ¡®paternal grandmother¡¯ here. This is the same word my children use for my mother when speaking Chinese. ?

    2. Madam Deathde and I had a long and heated discussion about this part of the story. First let me tell you my perspective. I think this scene heavily implies that Guru Easher made a snap decision (or possibly a premediated decision based on intelligence reports) to try to arrange a marriage between Xu Qing and Yanyan. The first evidence is the gift. The exchanging of ¡®gifts¡¯ when arranging a marriage ismon in China. In modern times, one side of the family will usually provide a car, the other will provide a house. And there are often cash gifts involved as well (oftening from the bride¡¯s side of the family, depending on the circumstances and local customs). The fact that Guru Easher ¡°wasn¡¯t pleased¡± with Xu Qing doesn¡¯t inherently mean she wouldn¡¯t consider an arranged marriage. The second evidence is her asking to meet Xu Qing. In traditional Chinese culture, a young man "officially" meeting the parents of a girl (or the grandparents if the parents aren¡¯t around), is an informal sign that they are engaged. This ¡°meeting¡± is particrly important, and it¡¯s something that I saw cause problems for many foreign guys in China. If a girl invites a guy to her hometown to meet her parents, it¡¯s a very serious thing. Except, most foreign guys don¡¯t think much of it. Therefore, they don¡¯t hesitate to ¡°meet the parents,¡± not realizing that they are essentially getting engaged in the minds of the parents. In any case, Madam Deathde thinks I¡¯m reading too much into the scene, that the gift was casual, and the request to meet Xu Qing was not as important as I believed it to be. So¡­ you are wee to side with Madam Deathde on this matter, or me. Whichever makes more sense to you! ?

 Chapter 227: Master Shengyun

    Chapter 227: Master Shengyun

    All disciples in Seven Blood Eyes were stunned by the new information about the Revered Ancient maind. They felt as if a veil covering their eyes had been lifted away, expanding their minds and opening up the world to them.

    It was the same with Xu Qing. However, there was more to it than that for him. The fact that this information had been publicly revealed had deeper implications. To Xu Qing, it felt like the sect was preparing the disciples for things toe.

    Obviously, he wasn¡¯t the only one to be thinking that. The disciples of Seven Blood Eyes were like venomous bugs in a jar, and as a result, all had simr instincts. The truth was that he was absolutely right.

    Of particr note was that there were only general descriptions of five of the groups from the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, whereas one group had much more detailed information. And that group was... the Seven Sect Coalition.

    The Seven Sect Coalition was actually aposite organization made up of 137 other sects, some of themrge, some of them small. And there were seven of them that were the leaders of the group.

    That was the origin of the name Seven Sect Coalition.

    One reason those seven groups reign supreme was that their high-level cultivators had amazing battle prowess, they had a solid group of strong mid-level cultivators, and their low-level cultivators were numerous. However, there was a more important reason.

    And that was... of the 137 sects that made up the coalition, they were the only ones who had ¡®taboo treasures.¡¯

    Ordinary magical treasures weren¡¯t verymon, not even in Revered Ancient. Each and every one could be considered heaven-shaking and earth-shattering, beyond theprehension of ghosts and gods. However, they could only be used sparingly, as each use would cause it to be contaminated with mutagen to a certain degree. And if used too many times, they would be ¡®crippled treasures.¡¯

    As a result, anyone who possessed a magical treasure had to be careful about how many times it was used, and at the same time, constantly maintain it in an effort to cleanse it of the polluting mutagen.

    As for the ¡®taboo treasures¡¯... that was a term applied to magical treasures that reached a higher level of development. They were much rarer than ordinary magical treasures, and were so powerful that even one of them had the capacity to destroy an entire sect.

    In the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, only groups with a magical treasure capable of wiping out another sect would qualify to be in a leadership position. The taboo magical treasures were how the seven sects rose to prominence, and were how theymanded an apex level of battle prowess. Furthermore, it was how the Seven Sect Coalition came to be one of the six most powerful groups in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    With the taboo magical treasures, the Seven Sect Coalition had the capacity to inflict serious damage onto the core essence of the Daoist Rite of Departure or the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    That capacity was also rted to ranking.

    The seven strongest sects in the Seven Sect Coalition were... the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, Spiritgloam Valley, House of Grue Hunters, the Lunisr Dao Pce, the Heaven-Fate Pavilion, the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, and the Dark Serenity Sect!

    Almost immediately, this information became much more hotly discussed among Seven Blood Eyes disciples than the three female cultivators from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    Zhang San even had a long discussion with Xu Qing about it via voice message.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very interested in the subject. His attention was currently focused on the process of opening his wish boxes. He had two wish boxes, one that he had acquired from the young merman he¡¯d killed, which had already been infused with enough dharmaforce that it was halfway open. The other was from Horsefour, which had beenpletely untouched.

    As a result, it was going to take longer to open thetter. As for the former, it was now ny-nine percent ready, and all Xu Qing needed was another four or five days and he would be able to open it.

    I wonder what I¡¯ll find inside....

    Xu Qing was really looking forward to finding out. That was especially true when he thought about how Wu Jianwu had seemingly gone into a trance after opening that other wish box.

    What did Wu Jianwu find in that one?

    Though he was curious, he doubted the idiot would ever exin. [1]

    Time passed. Outside cultivators and members of other species showed up on a daily basis. Eventually, on the fifth day, just when Xu Qing was about to open his first wish box, seven enormous ships appeared outside of Seven Blood Eyes.

    They were luxurious ships, each of them fully 3,000 meters in length. They pulsed with dazzling energy, and if one looked closely, it became obvious that they had been constructed with sea beasts that were godly entities. Each ship looked different. One resembled a godly bluegreen dragon, another looked like a terrifying jellyfish. Another resembled a vicious turtle, while one... looked like a three-wed ck-scaled dragon.

    Their arrival brought a huge tempest into the Seven Blood Eyes port, causing countless watercraft to bob violently in the surging waves. It almost seemed like a tsunami had hit the sect.

    It was an iparably majestic event that led to widespread shock throughout the sect.

    In fact, the shipspletely ignored the Seven Blood Eyes Formation, sailing right into the port in shocking fashion. It was as if the formation wasn¡¯t effective against them at all. That made it clear that this new group of cultivators had a higher level of authority than the Seven Blood Eyes Formation. It was the first time in many years that any Seven Blood Eyes disciples had seen someone enter the sect without being announced. And in very rare fashion, the sect didn¡¯t do anything about it.

    The seven huge ships entered seven different harbors. Then cultivators disembarked from six of the ships, and they radiated such immense glory and radiance that all Seven Blood Eyes disciples were struck to the core.

    These huge ships came from the Seven Sect Coalition, and the people disembarking from them were envoys from the seven top sects. Specifically, they were chosen disciples. Among them were both men and women, and all of them were young. They wore extravagant clothing and imparted a sensation that surpassed anything mortal. What was more, their auras were dazzlingly mighty.

    Astonishingly, they were all four-me cultivators!

    Every single one had 120 dharma apertures, like glittering stars. Anyone who looked at them would be shaken deeply, and would feel like they were sordid and unworthy.

    These people really did seem like the children of gods descended to the mundane world.

    The six people stepping off of the six giant ships were obviously outstanding chosen. However, after they were on shore, the first thing they did was look toward the ship that resembled a three-wed ck-scaled dragon.

    A roar echoed out from that ship, like heavenly thunder that shook everything far and wide. And as the dragon roared, its head dropped down, and its forehead split open.

    Out walked a young man wearing golden formal court attire. Around his waist was a golden silk belt with a spider motif, and his ck hair was bound in a golden crown iid with jade. [2]

    He stood tall and straight, and his facial features were inherently noble-looking. The moment he strolled out into the open, the other six god-like chosen all bowed their heads. It was as if this young man¡¯s arrival made them all feel as inferior as dust.

    What was even more amazing was that seven-colored light swirled above his head into the form of a canopy. It was an umbre that also seemed to pulse with the chanting of wind. From a distance, it was actually possible to see a seven-colored wind-chantingmp in the umbre! Themp¡¯s seven colors were dazzling to the utmost degree, and emanated a mighty pressure that caused all onlookers to be bbergasted.

    ¡°Lifemp!¡±

    It was impossible to say who uttered the words first, but in only a moment, everyone was shouting it.

    That seven-colored wind-chantingmp was none other than... a legendary lifemp!

    This young man with the lifemp had opened 120 dharma apertures! What was more, behind him was the faint image of a strange bird with a green body and a red tail, and it also emanated crushing pressure. Shockingly, it was an image projected by an imperial-ss technique!

    All of these things created an absolutely astonishing moment. With his lifemp, he seemed like a person who could crush all the chosen disciples in an entire epoch.

    This person was the number one chosen of this generation in the Seven Sect Coalition. He was... Chu Shengyun from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Although he wasn¡¯t in the Gold Core level, he actually surpassed Gold Core! And his grandfather, the patriarch of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, had bestowed upon him the name Master Shengyun! [3]

    He was the pride of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, and was the dao child and highest-ranking member of their echelon, someone who they hoped would tread the path of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. He had an extremely high position in the Seven Sect Coalition, and had been groomed to be pitted against the dao children of the other five leading organizations in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Furthermore, among the countless disciples in the Seven Sect Coalition, he was the only one who had a lifemp and an imperial-ss technique. It wasn¡¯t just his cultivation base that was amazing. He had extraordinary facial features, with fair and radiant skin, angr features, and an otherworldliness that made him so extraordinary he wasparable to Xu Qing.

    However, he also radiated a sense of indifference when he looked at people, as if they were mere bugs to him. In that regard, he was very different from Xu Qing. Xu Qing was always calm, and the main thing he did when looking at other people was examine their throats.

    The figurative tsunami that hit the port, and the sudden crushing pressure that resulted, caused waves to reach Harbor 176.

    Xu Qing, who was working with his wish box, frowned. Standing, he walked out of the cabin and looked toward Harbor 1. Given the level of his cultivation, he could clearly see the newly arrived chosen, and of course, the young man with the seven-colored wind-chantingmp and the green-bodied, red-tailed bird. The moment he saw themp, his heart skipped a beat, and his eyes glowed with profound light. At the same time, the green-bodied red-tailed bird caused his golden crow tattoo to emanate intense heat, as if it wished to emerge and crush the bird.

    From that reaction alone, Xu Qing could tell that the strange bird was a projection created by an imperial-ss technique. This was his first time encountering someone else with either a lifemp or an imperial-ss technique. After taking a close look, he turned and went back into the cabin. It didn¡¯t really matter to Xu Qing who this person was, so long as he didn¡¯t exhibit any killing intent. As long as he didn¡¯t, the only thing Xu Qing was interested in focusing on... was opening the wish box!

    Sitting down cross-legged, he looked at the lump of metal, his eyes shining with intense anticipation. He didn¡¯t open the box in the strange way Wu Jianwu had. Instead, he just took a breath, closed his eyes, calmed himself, and then opened his eyes. Putting his hand on the box, he pushed.

    CRUNCH!

    A wish box left behind by someone in a previous epoch was now opening in front of Xu Qing! Looking down, his eyes began to shine, and he inhaled sharply. There were two things inside the wish box.

    A ck medicinal pill.

    And a jade slip that was covered with ck blotches!

    1. Here are all the main wish box references for those who are interested. Horsefour¡¯s box: chapter 11. Box acquired from young merman: chapter 76. Mermaids mention the actual term ¡°wish box¡±: chapter 77. Wu Jianwu wish box arc, including the exnation and revtion of his wish box loot: chapter 147 and 148. ?

    2. There is no specific picture I can share to convey what ¡°court attire¡± is, because it changes based on the time period in China. And of course, this is a fantasy setting, so that makes things even moreplicated. The implication, however, is that this garment is not a ¡°daoist robe,¡± but rather resembles something you would expect to see in an imperial/royal court. To most modern eyes, it would not be something that jumps out. But to the eyes of someone in the setting, that type of garment would look different from the normal clothes worn by eithermoners or cultivators, simr to the way a military or police uniform would make someone stand out nowadays. ?

    3. Chu Shengyun/Master Shengyun: Chu does not appear on the list of the 100 mostmon surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Chu Yuyan from ISSTH (I¡¯m not implying there¡¯s a connection, just letting you know it¡¯s the same name). Other than being a surname, it was also the name of one of the Warring States, and in addition, means ¡°distinct, clear, orderly, suffering, painful.¡± Sheng means ¡°holy, sacred, saint, sage¡± and Yun is a fancy and sort of rare character that means ¡°sunlight.¡± As for Master Shengyun, it¡¯s a daoist name, but it¡¯s simply a riff on his given name, so I¡¯m not going to trante it directly. As you can see, though, Shengyun essentially means something like ¡°holy sunlight.¡± Sheng rhymes with hung. Yun is a sound that doesn''t correspond directly to anything in English, but is essentially pronounced "yoon." Madam Deathde says this sounds like someone schrly and gentlemanly, but at the same time, a bit pretentious. ?

 Chapter 228: Poison to Shake All Life, Eradicate a Myriad Worlds

    Chapter 228: Poison to Shake All Life, Eradicate a Myriad Worlds

    Xu Qing stared into the wish box, his eyes glittering.

    As Wu Jianwu had exined, wish boxes could have anything in them. If you were lucky, it might be an imperial-ss legacy. On the other hand, you could also get nothing more than some dried-up leaves. It all came down to chance.

    Based on Xu Qing¡¯s understanding, the fact that the very first wish box he opened had a medicinal pill and a jade slip meant that he was very lucky.

    Settling his thoughts, he prepared to pick up the jade slip and examine it. However, before he did, his expression flickered, and he reached out and mmed the wish box shut. The aura from within the box was therefore cut off, yet his skin was already starting to turn dark.

    ¡°Poison?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    It wasn¡¯t just his flesh that was being affected. Even his internal organs were starting to rot. What was particrly shocking to Xu Qing was that he wasn¡¯t experiencing any sensation of pain. Whether externally or internally, the symptoms were unlike anything he had ever seen. It almost seemed like he was hallucinating. He got absolutely no sensation from the darkening of his skin or the withering of his organs, and couldn¡¯t detect any dharma force at work within him.

    Yet based on what his eyes were telling him, and his understanding of the dao of poison, he knew that he had been poisoned.

    What kind of poison is this¡­?

    Flesh was starting to peel off of his face and drop to the ground, causing him to bleed profusely. In fact, it wasn¡¯t just his face. It was happening to him all over. Yet even still, he felt absolutely no pain.

    Mulling the situation over, he observed what was happening for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Though the rot had filled his entire body, the violet crystal¡¯s powers of regeneration werebating the effects.

    Another incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, and the rotting had ceased. Yet another incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, and violet light had spread to fill him, and was working on regenerating him. After about an hour had passed, he was back to normal. Keeping his breathing steady, he looked down thoughtfully at the wish box.

    It¡¯s a poison pill! A poison pill that¡¯s been sealed away for countless years. And its mere aura is enough to kill someone in body and mind.

    After some thought, he carefully opened the wish box again.

    Even with his violet crystal, the poison was still shockingly effective against him, so he didn¡¯t dare to actually pick up the pill and look at it. He was worried that if he touched it, the violet crystal might not be able to keep up with the effects of the pill, in which case he would be in danger. That said, he was no amateur when it came to the dao of poison, and was aware of the general principles of how to deal with the situation. After opening the box for a short time, he closed it again while the rotting effects spread through him.

    Normally speaking, once you¡¯re exposed to a poison a few times, your body will naturally start to resist it.

    Ignoring the rotting that was spreading through his body, he took arge quantity of medicinal nts off of the rack next to him and started experimenting with a concoction to counter the symptoms. He had no idea what the primary ingredient in the poison was, so he had no way to even consider how to create an antidote. But he could counter the symptoms of rotting by creating a medicine focused on life force, energy, and blood.

    Before long, he had a medicinal liquid prepared. When he took a mouthful, the symptoms disappeared almost immediately. Following this pattern, he repeatedly opened the box to do tests. The night passed quickly, and by daybreak, he had begun to build a resistance to the effects of the poison.

    At that point, he put on a pair of gloves and then took out the jade slip. When he sent some dharma force into it, an ancient and weak voice spoke into his mind from the slip.

    ¡°What makes a great dao?

    ¡°Three thousand great daos, all may be holy. Might one of them be the dao of poison?

    ¡°People of the world disdain the treacherous and vicious. They disdain the poisonous and vile. How could those who mock it as a minor dao turn it into a great weapon?

    ¡°In the past, I did think the same, and spurned the vile methods of poison. One day, I cut down a nonhuman who emerged from a god domain. This cultivatormanded shocking battle prowess, and walked an incredibly treacherous dao. Before dying, his poisonous eyes red at me, causing my cultivation to drop by an entire realm in a single day. Ten dayster, I was a mortal. I lived for a sixty-year-cycle in the mundane world, experiencing endless torment and suffering. I wasted endless precious materials, but finally drove the poison from my body and collected it into a pill.

    ¡°Afterwards, I researched that pill until the apocalypse began. I never fully seeded, and thus, am leaving behind this partiallypleted pill.

    ¡°This pill is a poison, and it is also taboo! If you are a high-level cultivator, do not attempt to use it. You will be damned by myriad tribtions and will die beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seek a low-level Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce, then use this poison pill as their gold core. That person will be a poison core cultivator like no other in existence. [1]

    ¡°Only in this way can one transform the soul and truly walk the path of the taboo pill!

    ¡°Based on my calctions, the path of the taboo pill uses poison to shake all living beings. Use the taboo to eradicate myriad worlds. Ultimate dread and terror! Or perhaps, fathom the magic of god domains to be the archenemy of all peoples!¡±

    Waves of astonishment filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart and mind as he stared at the jade slip. At the same time, he once again filled with rot.

    As the power of the violet crystal worked within him against the poison, he closed his eyes and contemted the contents of the jade slip. By the time he opened his eyes again, day had passed, and it was night again.

    After repeatedly exposing himself to the strange poison in the wish box, he had slowly but surely improved his natural resistance by a small degree. And yet, it was still with extreme caution that he opened the wish box. As of now, he still didn¡¯t dare touch the pill, not even with a glove on.

    It¡¯s a consummate poison pill from a previous epoch, but it¡¯s not designed to be given to someone to consume. Instead, it can be assimted and turned into a Gold Core.

    His eyes sparkled as he looked at the pill for a time, then closed the box again. After he had recovered, he opened it again to continue his research.

    By the time it was light again, he had gone through numerous rounds of research, and was starting to get an idea of what he was working with. This poison pill seemed like it was a destined opportunity to achieve a great dao, and also a turning point in the Gold Core level. It was different from the Gold Core level in the current epoch; if someone really practiced cultivation with this pill, their killing power would be shocking. However, the process of doing so would be incredibly dangerous.

    As Xu Qing considered what the jade slip said, he thought about how he actually wasn¡¯t very far from the Gold Core level himself.

    Unfortunately, the pill isn¡¯tplete. It¡¯s also experienced the baptism of ancient time, to the point where it¡¯s in danger of crumbling into nothing....

    Based on Xu Qing¡¯s skill with poison, he could tell that the ck pill was itself beginning to decay, and using it properly would require reconcocting it. The process of reconcocting it would also be a step in researching and understanding it.

    To reconcoct the pill, to bring it to life... will require a massive amount of poison ingredients!

    Xu Qing closed the box again and carefully put it away. He took a deep breath as anticipation swirled in his heart. From what he could tell, this particr wish box contained very amazing contents. And that made him even more interested in finding out what was in the other wish box.

    I wonder when the wartime rewards will be distributed. If he wanted to reconcoct the pill, he would need a massive amount of spirit stones to buy all of the poisonous nts he would need. Given that he was embarrassingly short of money right now, he couldn¡¯t help but think of the rewards the sect had promised.

    The rewards for the Seazombie war had not been distributed, though, so there was currently nothing he could do on that front. Taking out his identity medallion, he checked the division files to see what had been going on in the past few days.

    Almost immediately, his eyes narrowed.

    During the time he had been researching the taboo poison pill, he hadn¡¯t paid any attention to anything else. Therefore, he had beenpletely unaware that there was a hugemotion among the sect disciples. It was a dramatic situation rted to the chosen visitors from the Seven Sect Coalition! Those chosen had been acting very overbearingly, and as a result, were the center of attention among all of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples.

    On the day after they arrived, the chosen from the seven sects, following certain missions and orders, began issuing dueling challenges to the highnesses from the various mountain peaks! It seemed they wanted to establish prestige!

    That was especially true of Master Shengyun from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, who was the number one chosen in the Seven Sect Coalition, highest ranking member of his sect¡¯s echelon, and whose cultivation base was so high he could crush any other cultivator in the same level as himself. He was incredibly famous, not just in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, but also in the other prefectures in Sea-Sealing County. As for his duel challenge, he had issued it to the First Peak.

    After all, the First Peak¡¯s supervisory sect was Master Shengyun¡¯s Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    On the day he issued the challenge, he went to the First Peak, offered formal greetings to the patriarch and peaklord, and had challenged the First Peak¡¯s grand highness to a duel.

    Unfortunately, the First Peak¡¯s grand highness was in seclusion trying to break through to the Gold Core level, and thus could not ept the challenge. As a result, the one to fight was the second highness, who was in the great circle of Foundation Establishment.

    Master Shengyun only made one move in the duel. Using that, he crushed the second highness¡¯ bones, nearly killing him, and leaving his cultivation base half-crippled. A Gold Core elder tried to interfere with the fight, but was unable to help the second highness. In fact, Master Shengyun mmed into him and knocked him back 300 meters.

    This event stunned Seven Blood Eyes, especially when Master Shengyun ignited all four of his life mes against a Gold Core expert. Given that he had a lifemp and an imperial-ss technique, it gave him the shocking and legendary battle prowess equivalent to six mes. That type of battle prowess was a thing of legend among Foundation Establishment cultivators, and was inessible to the vast majority of people. It was a level of strength fully deserving of being called ¡®the absolute peak¡¯ of Foundation Establishment.

    That was why it was said that Master Shengyun would probably be an Ancient Emperor one day. Stories of the duel spread throughout the continent of South Phoenix, and of course left the disciples of Seven Blood Eyes feeling very powerless. Master Shengyun was just too strong.

    At the same time, other chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition issued dueling challenges to other mountain peaks, though none of them could devastate their opponents like Master Shengyun.

    Though there were victories and defeats on both sides, overall, the Seven Sect Coalition chosen had the upper hand. That said, not all of the mountain peaks received dueling challenges. The Seventh Peak... did not receive a single challenge.

    Unfortunately, one mountain peak couldn¡¯t represent the entire sect. Therefore, as time passed, Seven Blood Eyes, despite havinge out victorious in the war against the Seazombies, began to fill with frustration.

    Furthermore, the challenges were witnessed by all of the visitors to the sect, enabling everyone to see first-hand how mighty the Seven Sect Coalition was. Everyone could tell that the Seven Sect Coalition hade to establish prestige and put Seven Blood Eyes in ce.

    This was not a contest between high-level cultivators. That was because the battle prowess of high-level cultivators didn¡¯t need to be tested. Sir Bloodsmelter had shocking aptitude and mysterious destined opportunities. Unexpectedly, he had recently broken through from the Spirit Trove level into the Void Returning level, just the same as the other patriarchs from the seven sects. However, he was only one person.

    What was more, the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s true battle prowess didn¡¯te just from those seven patriarchs, but most importantly, from their taboo magical treasures! There was no question that they possessed superior battle prowess. Therefore, the patriarchs didn¡¯t need toe. Instead, they sent their chosen disciples with the goal of... crushing the spirits of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples, and making them feel powerless down to the core of their being.

    That was obvious to Xu Qing. That said, it wasn¡¯t a concern to him. He wasn¡¯t one of the highnesses. Though he had aplished something amazing and thus been ced into the echelon, he wasn¡¯t the mastermind behind that event. Thus, with the highnesses around, there was no reason anyone would cause trouble for him.

    Days passed.

    The chosen from the seven sects continued to act aggressively, and the Seven Blood Eyes disciples got more frustrated. One evening when Xu Qing was researching his new poison pill, he looked up when his identity medallion vibrated. It was an urgent message from the Violent Crimes Division.

    ¡°Sir, there¡¯s arge gathering of Night Dove operatives in Harbor 79. There¡¯s some sort of deal going down. And the customer... is a chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s House of Grue Hunters. It¡¯s Sima Ling! How do we handle this, sir? Please advise!¡± [2] [3]

    1. It¡¯s worth noting that the character tranted as ¡®core¡¯ can also be tranted as ¡®pill.¡¯ This is why the ¡°Core¡± level of cultivation is often intertwined with pill concocting. ?

    2. Sima Ling: Sima is apound surname that does not appear on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. Compound surnames like this are archaic, and impart a sense of old-timeyness. That said, Sima is probably one of the mostmon of the ancientpound surnames, and there are still people nowadays who have this surname, though it¡¯s not seen often. It is not pronounced ¡°seemuh.¡± Instead, the first syble rhymes (roughly speaking) with the English word ¡°uh.¡± The second syble roughly rhymes with ¡°maw.¡± So together it¡¯s sort of like ¡°suh-maw.¡± To hear it pronounced by google, click here. Ling means ¡°mound, tomb, hill.¡± Madam Deathde says this sounds like a decent, respectable name. ?

    3. By way of reminder, Harbor 79 is where Xu Qing was originally assigned when he joined the sect in chapter 52. ?

 Chapter 229: Arrogant and Despotic

    Chapter 229: Arrogant and Despotic

    The message also contained details about this Sima Ling from the House of Grue Hunters. Xu Qing looked it over quickly.

    ¡°Sima Ling is a chosen disciple from the House of Grue Hunters. His cultivation base is in the great circle of Foundation Establishment, with four life mes. He has no lifemp and no imperial-ss technique. He cultivates the Nether-Sealing Grue Index.

    ¡°He¡¯s vicious and ruthless, and has numerous grues sealed within him. He¡¯s incredibly strong; he severely injured the third highness of the Third Peak in a duel, using vicious tactics. A few days ago, he fought the Third Peak¡¯s grand highness to a draw, and scheduled a follow-up match tomorrow morning at dawn.

    ¡°Investigation has revealed that Sima Ling is the big customer that caused so many Night Dove agents to converge on Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°Sir, how shall we handle this situation?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he coolly responded with a text message.

    ¡°Arrest them all, even if they resist. Bring them in alive or dead!¡±

    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡±

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s orders, all seven of the sect¡¯s Violent Crimes Divisions sprang into action. Thousands of constables went out into the night and headed straight toward Harbor 79. Two of the divisions sent their directors in as leaders, specifically, the directors from the First Peak and the Third Peak. As for the director from the Third Peak, he was personally dissatisfied with this chosen from the House of Grue Hunters.

    After issuing his orders, Xu Qing walked out of the cabin, collected up his dharmaskiff, and then flew up into the air toward Harbor 79.

    The moon hung bright in the air, so even though it was night, Harbor 79 was well-illuminated. In one particr berth was a veryrge ship, fully 3,000 meters long, making it seem like some hulking beast. Numerous horse carts were lined up to deliver goods to the ship.

    Standing on the shore was a young man in extravagant clothing, his hands sped behind his back as he coldly looked at the big ship. He appeared to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His eyes sparkled like stars, and his entire person exuded a gruish aura. In fact, the area around him seemed particrly strong with mutagen. What was more, his eyes didn¡¯t match in terms of color. His left eye was red, while his right eye was azure. Because of the two different colors, anyone who looked at him would realize he was extraordinary. Especially noteworthy was that, if you looked closely into his eyes, you would find yourself looking into two hells, each of them burning with either red or azure mes. And within those mes were a haze of countless grues, screaming in agony as they burned. The sound wasn¡¯t audible to the ear, but anyone who got close to him would feel their mind and heart trembling.

    The young man looked icily arrogant as he stood there. He wasn¡¯t hiding his identity in any way, as though he wasn¡¯t worried at all that someone might see him. He apparently believed that, even if someone did see him, they wouldn¡¯t do anything to him.

    This person was Sima Ling, chosen from the House of Grue Hunters.

    Standing in front of him were a few dozen people in ck garments, who were all Night Dove operatives. All of them had extraordinary cultivation bases, but at the same time, they looked nervous. They kept looking around, and urging the cart-drivers to work faster.

    Not too far away, atop a building, was an old man, also dressed in fine clothing, standing in the moonlight as he looked on, radiating the energy of a Gold Core cultivation base. His eyes were focused solely on Sima Ling. Obviously, he didn¡¯t care about anyone else. He was, of course, Sima Ling¡¯s dao protector during his time here in Seven Blood Eyes.

    As the night wind blew, it stirred Sima Ling¡¯s hair. In his hands, which were sped behind his back, he held a string of ck pearls that he fiddled with impatiently.

    ¡°This is it?¡± he said. ¡°I expected more goods from Night Dove.¡±

    The ck-garbed man who seemed to be the leader smiled bitterly and said, ¡°Your Highness Sima, there¡¯s really nothing we could do. You demanded that we bring our goods to Seven Blood Eyes, except this sect is extremely displeased with us. Over the past few years, there have been several very violent crackdowns on us. The reality is that we brought much more with us, only to have about thirty percent of it confiscated by Seven Blood Eyes. Their Violent Crimes Division has been a real problem.¡±

    ¡°Violent Crimes Division?¡± Sima Ling said. He snorted coldly. As a chosen from the House of Grue Hunters, and a cultivator from the Revered Ancient maind, he despised this backwater Seven Blood Eyes. That was especially true after he challenged the Third Peak¡¯s highnesses, and found them to be very weak. This wasn¡¯t his first time hearing of the Violent Crimes Division. He knew that the division had been causing problems for Night Dove, and that had him feeling very irritated.

    ¡°Your Highness Sima, I urge you... to cover your face, sir. The Violent Crimes Divisions here in Seven Blood Eyes are no joke. That¡¯s especially true after the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division got a new director named Xu Qing. He doesn¡¯t hesitate to shed blood, and is both brazen and bold....¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡± Sima Ling said coolly. ¡°He¡¯s a nobody. If they show up here, they¡¯ll find out what happens when a bunch of subsidiary sect disciples dare to interfere with the affairs of their superiors. That¡¯s not to mention that this Xu... what¡¯s his name? Xu Qing? He¡¯s not even one of the highnesses from the Seventh Peak. Not even Huang Yikun from the Seventh Peak¡¯s supervisory sect, the Dark Serenity Sect, would dare to stick his nose in my affairs! [1]

    The ck-garbed leader hesitated for a moment, and was about to say more when a piercing noise could be heard off in the distance. At the same time, a signal light shot up into the air and exploded, creating the words Violent Crimes! [2]

    Simultaneously, figures rushed in from all directions, apanied by a cold voice.

    ¡°The Violent Crimes Division is here to arrest all Night Dove operatives and aplices. Don¡¯t even think of fleeing!¡±

    The faces of the ck-garbed men fell, and they backed up as Violent Crimes Division constables raced toward them. However, Sima Ling simply chuckled coldly and took a step forward.

    ¡°How impudent!¡±

    The moment his footnded, his four life mes burned to life, causing a terrifying aura to ripple out in all directions. The burning of his four life mes was like an entire world on fire, creating pressure so mighty it was almost tangible. Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere, and the first wave of iing Violent Crimes Division constables coughed up blood and were sent tumbling backward.

    A massive tempest now raged on the shore, with Sima Ling at the center of it.

    ¡°Keep loading up the ship,¡± Sima Ling said, ring contemptuously at the Violent Crimes Division constables who didn¡¯t dare to get any closer.

    There were Foundation Establishment cultivators among the constables, and there were two who stood out among them. One of them had the aura of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect on him, and the other emanated the grue fluctuations of the House of Grue Hunters. Those two were the directors of the Violent Crimes Divisions from the First and Third Peaks. But not even they dared to get any closer, and simply stood, waiting. The cultivation techniques of Seven Blood Eyes were all derived from the techniques of the Seven Sect Coalition, but obviously existed on a different level.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t understand why my sect was worried about rabble-rousers like this.¡± Sima Ling had always been an arrogant person, even back in his own sect. Now that he was in Seven Blood Eyes, he was even worse.

    The surrounding Night Dove operatives were shaken. They were scared of the Violent Crimes Division, but seeing how easily the division had been cowed, they now breathed sighs of relief. They were now thinking that the Violent Crimes Division wasn¡¯t that impressive after all; once a supervisory sect showed up, they had no choice but to bow their heads.

    Stirring back into action, they sent cart after cart into the big ship. However, just as they were redoubling their efforts, a ck streak appeared noiselessly off in the distance, moving like a lightning bolt.

    Actually, in some ways, it was a lightning bolt.

    Streaking forth, it pierced through the necks of one of the ck-garbed Night Dove operatives. Before he could even scream, the ck lightning bolt pierced through the necks of seven additional ck-garbed men. As the ck iron skewer zipped back and forth, its lightning symbols red, creating something like a web of electricity that filled the area. As the screams rang out, the rest of the Night Dove operators looked around in shock.

    Sima Ling¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Ignoring the iron skewer, he looked off into the distance.

    What he saw was someone speeding in his direction over the water, standing atop a bluegreen dragon. This person wore a violet daoist robe, and his ck hair whipped behind him, revealing his fair face, with handsome features that would leave just about anyone breathless. He had cold, aloof eyes that were so calm and peaceful they almost looked bored. As his hair danced in the wind, he almost looked like an immortal. With him came a baleful aura that was so cold it caused Sima Ling¡¯s hair to stand on end, and only enhanced the cid look in his eyes. It was like this person could crush anything and everything in his path, as easily as dried weeds.

    Sima Ling¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Meanwhile, all of the Violent Crimes Division constables who had been holding back at a safe distance dropped to their knees and kowtowed. It didn¡¯t matter if they were from the Seventh Peak or not.

    ¡°Well met, Director!¡±

    Their voices echoed like thunder. As for the constables from the Seventh Peak, their eyes shone with fervor, and they shouted even louder than the others. All of the Night Dove operatives in the area were shaken.

    The directors from the First and Third Peaks all breathed sighs of relief as they sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°I advise you not to stick your nose in my business,¡± Sima Ling said slowly, his eyes burning with displeasure.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look at him. Turning to the other two directors, he coolly said, ¡°Start arresting people.¡±

    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡± Instantly, the surrounding constables rushed toward the Night Dove cultivators. Some of them also took the fighting right into the big ship.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival left the Night Dove operatives deeply shaken, and there were some who now just wanted to get away. Sadly for them, the Violent Crimes Division had the entire ce locked down. In the blink of an eye, the sounds of fighting and killing filled the air.

    ¡°Feeling suicidal, Xu Qing?¡± Sima Ling growled, his eyes lighting up with killing intent. His cultivation base then surged, and he became like a lightning bolt that shot right toward Xu Qing, his hands reaching toward his eyes to pluck them out.

    1. Huang Yikun. Huang is #7 on the list of 100 mostmon Chinese surnames, and it generally means ¡°yellow,¡± although the character has broader meanings and implications. Yi means ¡°one, solitary¡± and Kun is one of the eight trigrams, and though it has a lot of meaning, it is generally associated with yin things. To Madam Deathde, this name sounds ssy and impressive, like this person ¡®has the world in their grasp.¡¯ ?

    2. In the original text, it¡¯s only a single Chinese character in the air, but the implication is that it¡¯s identifying the Violent Crimes Division. ?

 Chapter 230: Crushing Sima Ling

    Chapter 230: Crushing Sima Ling

    The House of Grue Hunters was one of the lead organizations in the Seven Sect Coalition. Given that Sima Ling had been selected by his sect to represent them here, it was obvious he wasn¡¯t someone to be taken lightly. After all, he was responsible for maintaining face for the House of Grue Hunters. To a great sect, face was an extremely important thing, as it directly rted to both their current ranking and their prospects for future growth. The weak generally didn¡¯t qualify to survive in a brutal world.

    Thus, it made sense that the House of Grue Hunters¡¯ number one chosen in Foundation Establishment, Sima Ling, was outstanding in battle prowess, cultivation base, and fighting experience. With the help of the sect, he was abundantly prepared in all respects.

    His voice was icy cold, and his words were still echoing out as his fingers neared Xu Qing¡¯s face to pluck his eyes out. However, what was waiting for him was Xu Qing¡¯s cold gaze, as well as a fire raging from inside.

    Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess, cultivation base, and fighting experience all came from his experience as a venomous bug in a jar. He had risen through ughter. That was a stark contrast to Sima Ling. If Sima Ling lost a fight in the coalition, he wouldn¡¯t die. But every single fight Xu Qing had experienced had been a life-or-death struggle. Had he failed a single time, he would be dead.

    Therefore, his experience was carved in his bones and engraved in his heart!

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing entered the profound radiance state. All of his 82 dharma apertures lit up at once, like eighty-two massive furnaces. As the intense heat spread out, the golden crow materialized behind him, its heat also filling him, pushing his battle prowess to the level of four life mes. With his imperial-ss technique bolstering his fleshly body, his battle prowess reached a barbaric level. Compared to thest time he fought someone in the four-me level, the Seazombie dao child Vastworld, he now had nearly 20 additional dharma apertures. His dharma force was even more robust, and his life mes more astonishing. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he unleashed a devastating blow.

    His fistnded directly on Sima Ling¡¯s right hand. A massive boom rang out, causing the water in the harbor to seethe, and crushing the soil on the shore. A massive wave rolled out as Sima Ling¡¯s face fell, and he staggered backward with disbelief in his eyes.

    He hadn¡¯t even considered the possibility that Xu Qing would be able to power up so quickly. This was a level of strength that, as far as he was concerned, wasn¡¯tmon at all. Yet he wasn¡¯t able to pick up on any clues about how it was possible. All he could sense was Xu Qing¡¯s life mes. Everything else... was a blur.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    Before Sima Ling could say anything else, Xu Qing stepped toward him, eyes shing coldly. Within his right hand appeared a dagger of balefire which he shed viciously toward Sima Ling¡¯s throat.

    Sima Ling¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and pushed down on his chest. As Xu Qing¡¯s dagger neared, Sima Ling opened his mouth and let loose a roar.

    The roar contained a gruish power that caused a projected image to appear around Sima Ling. It was a partially dposed grue wearing a tattered ck robe, pulsing with a frigid aura as it lunged toward Xu Qing.

    In almost exactly the same instant, the shadow beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet twitched. Transforming into the shape of a tree that no one else could see, it opened its mouth and inhaled sharply. The grue projection instantly copsed! Then, a ck lightning bolt shot toward Sima Ling from off to the side.

    Frowning, Sima Ling flew backward and simultaneously threw a blue scale out toward the skewer to block its path. When the two items shed, the scale erupted with countless gray threads that wrapped around the skewer. However, it couldn¡¯t stop the skewer from exploding with numerous lightning bolts that continued onward to Sima Ling.

    Sima Ling was about to dodge out of the way when Xu Qing closed in, his right fist viciously rocketing forward surrounded by an intense sea of mes. A boom rang out as Sima Ling was once again shoved backward. Eyes gleaming viciously, he was about tounch a counter attack when the image of a golden crow looked at him and inhaled deeply.

    ¡°This technique...¡± blurted Sima Ling, his eyes widening with shock. He performed another incantation gesture, causing a host of long hairs to erupt from his chest, which rapidly surrounded him like a defensive shield. In the blink of an eye, intense rumbling sounds filled the air as Sima Ling, surrounded by the shield of hairs, was mmed by Xu Qing down onto the ground.

    With the initiative in his hands, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to unleash another blow.

    However, before his fist couldnd, the hair surrounding Sima Ling snapped out into the shape of countless arrows that shot toward Xu Qing. Thumping sounds could be heard as the arrows pierced Xu Qing. However, he didn¡¯t so much as frown. His expression was the same as ever as he reached up, grabbed the hairs, and yanked them violently.

    Sima Ling¡¯s face filled with shock as he realized he couldn¡¯t fall back. Instead, he was dragged toward Xu Qing. Expression turning vicious, he howled as the image of a green-skinned, long-fanged grue emerged from within him and lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Ignoring the grue, Xu Qing tilted his head back slightly, then, without uttering a single word, head-butted Sima Ling in the face. This was how Xu Qing fought. His style was to lead with ruthlessness, and it was something that even the crazy Captain was apprehensive of.

    A boom rang out as blood sshed all over Sima Ling¡¯s face. Meanwhile, the green-skinned, long-fanged grue was shoved back inside of him, and the countless hairs copsed. Sima Ling staggered backward. Inside, he was surprised, but outside, all he revealed was killing intent and a vicious smile.

    ¡°I underestimated you. Good thing I was just warming up.¡±

    Sima Ling shoved his hand to his forehead, causing rumbling sounds to fill him as all of the grues in the hells in his eyes vanished. Then, his entire body structure changed as the face of grue after grue appeared on his skin. The huge number of grues sealed inside of him were now bulging out of his skin, and as their auras spread out, it made it seem like he was an entire world engulfed in mes. The air around him rippled and distorted from the heat, and the nearby seawater evaporated.

    Cracks and crevices spread out on the ground. The sheer might created a tempest that swept everywhere, causing both Night Dove operatives and Violent Crimes Division constables to cough up blood as they staggered away in astonishment.

    Before, Sima Ling had taken a step forward and released some intimidating pressure. But this time he wasn¡¯t holding back, and as such, those who were hit by the pressure felt their souls burning. They were grievously injured! Everyone was bbergasted!

    As for the directors from the First and Third Peaks, they were two-me cultivators, and they knew exactly what was happening. In fact, they could sense that their life mes were teetering on the verge of being extinguished. Although both knew all along that they weren¡¯t on the same level as Sima Ling, they were still very surprised.

    Only Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever as he looked coldly at the explosive Sima Ling.

    ¡°I hate those eyes of yours!¡± Sima Ling shrieked like an evil ghost.

    Then, just as he was about to charge forward in attack, his expression flickered, and a tremor passed through him. All of a sudden, his skin was turning ck, and intense pain swept through him. It was being caused by the ck beetles! Innumerable ck beetles had been released by Xu Qing during his attacks, and they had just been waiting for the right opportunity to burrow into Sima Ling. They had found that chance when Xu Qing unleashed his barrage moments ago. As soon as they were inside, they started voraciously devouring Sima Ling¡¯s organs, while at the same time releasing massive amounts of mutagen and highly toxic poison.

    This poison had caused the Seastar chieftain to react with surprise, and Sima Ling wasn¡¯t even close to that level. As he reacted with shock, so did the faces of the grues. They screamed sharply, and almost seemed on the verge of being born again as they tried to break free from his fleshly body.

    Sima Ling was nearly driven mad by that. He knew exactly what was happening. The massive amounts of mutagen suddenly introduced into his body were weakening the seals on the grues, and causing him to lose control. Furthermore, the poison being released caused his vision to swim, and was rapidly weakening him. Shrieking, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. And at longst, terror appeared in his eyes as he backed away and prepared to flee.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to take a step forward and raise his right hand. His energy erupted, and a sea of mes spread out from behind him, rushing toward Sima Ling with crushing might.

    ¡°Help!!¡± shrieked Sima Ling in terror.

    Meanwhile, the surrounding Night Dove operatives and Violent Crimes constables were all staring at Xu Qing in abject astonishment. They all knew that Xu Qing was strong, and had guessed that he had a reason for confidence in issuing an order for Sima Ling to be arrested. But none of them could have guessed that he would be able to crush a four-me chosen with such apparent ease. After all, in recent days, many chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition had challenged the highnesses from various mountain peaks. And the result was that the Seven Blood Eyes disciples felt like they couldn¡¯t hold their heads up high. They had to admit that the Seven Sect Coalition disciples were outright terrifying.

    But today... things were changing.

    Just as Sima Ling cried for help, and right as Xu Qing was making his next move, a cold harrumph echoed out from nearby, apanied by waves of mighty pressure.

    ¡°What outrageous gall you have!¡± It was Sima Ling¡¯s dao protector, who had been waiting on a nearby rooftop this entire time. ring coldly at Xu Qing, he took a step forward. ¡°You good-for-nothing idiot. Be suppressed!¡±

    Xu Qing turned to look at him. He had sensed this man earlier, and had assumed he would step in. Lifting his hand and pointing to the sky, he spoke for the first time during the entire encounter.

    ¡°The Violent Crimes Division, operating under orders from Master Sixth to arrest all Night Dove operatives in the city, has caught the culprit red-handed. ording to Section 9 of Seven Blood Eyesw, and Section 3 of Violent Crimes Division regtions, any person who interferes with an officer of thew or assists a criminal shall be crushed. I hereby request the sect¡¯s spell formation to uphold thew and crush this interloper!¡±

    The visitors from the Seven Sect Coalition qualified to supersede the spell formation. However... they didn¡¯t qualify to vite thews of Seven Blood Eyes! When they simply passed through the spell formation upon arriving, that was the spell formation acknowledging them as friends and allies. But not even friends and allies could interfere with the carrying out of justice. In Seven Blood Eyes, sectw was the foundation of everything!

    This dao protector was different from a chosen disciple. He had a higher cultivation base, but his status was actually lower. He was not in any echelon, and didn¡¯t have a lot of authority. Using the Seven Blood Eyes Formation to deal with chosen might not work, but Xu Qing was confident it could handle a dao protector.

    What was more, the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s actions against Night Dove were approved by Master Sixth, and there was no way this dao protector¡¯s authority could surpass a peaklord.

    And thus... an emotionless voice rang out through the night.

    ¡°The judgment shall be executed!¡±

 Chapter 231: Xu Qingâ€™s Name

    Chapter 231: Xu Qing¡¯s Name

    The moment the voice rang out, an indescribable force swept down from the spell formation, creating a massive, invisible hand that shot toward Sima Ling¡¯s shocked dao protector. As rumbling sounds echoed out, the dao protector, who had moments ago been insufferably arrogant, was shoved by the hand right onto the ground. Given that he had a Gold Core cultivation base, he struggled mightily, but it was to no avail. As he was crushed into the ground, he howled, ¡°Is this a rebellion, Seven Blood Eyes? How dare¡ª¡±

    ¡°Pipe down!¡± Xu Qing said coolly. Next, the spell formation rumbled again, releasing not crushing might, but a force of expulsion.

    The old dao protector couldn¡¯t stand up to the force battering him. His heavenly pces trembled, and his expression became one of humiliation. He, a mighty Gold Core cultivator, was being crushed and expelled. It was infuriating, but he could do nothing as he was thrown outside of the sect.

    Ignoring the dao protector, Xu Qing shot toward the fleeing Sima Ling. Unleashing a palm strike, he sent Sima Ling screaming through the air until he mmed into a nearby building. As he did, one of his four life mes went out.

    ¡°Xu Qing!!¡± Sima Ling howled, his hair disheveled, and his entire person radiating madness. Thanks to the poison throwing his grues into chaos, he was, for the first time ever, starting to wonder if he was going to die.

    That said, Sima Ling was a ruthless person; as madness filled his eyes, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood at Xu Qing. In midair, the blood transformed into a host of imps, all of them radiating a vicious, gruish aura. Shrieking, they shot toward Xu Qing. As they moved through the air, they became a diamond-shape mark that pulsed with sealing power.

    ¡°Nether-Sealing Dao!¡± Sima Ling screamed viciously. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the imps to elerate. Even if Xu Qing suddenly fell back, there was no way he could avoid them. And so, the sealing mark surrounded him, and in the blink of an eye, duplicated itself over and over again, making a diamond-shaped shell around him.

    With Xu Qing inside, Sima Ling raised both of his hands and shouted, ¡°Detonate!¡±

    The shell started to copse, but only by about thirty percent. Then Xu Qing¡¯s hand stretched out and stopped the process. Eyes cold, he looked down at the raving Sima Ling, then flew down. Before Sima Ling could react, Xu Qing reached out and grabbed him by the neck, hoisted him up, then mmed him ruthlessly into the ground.

    The ground quaked, and cracks appeared. Sima Ling shivered, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. The rest of his life mes went out, and he went unconscious. The grues within him suddenly went out of control, and it looked like they were about to devour his body. But then a soft light radiated out from him, and they were quelled.

    Looking over Sima Ling coldly, Xu Qing said, ¡°Put twenty dharma shackles on him and lock him up.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir!¡±

    The surrounding Violent Crimes constables were clearly enlivened by what they had seen. Even the constables from the other peaks were looking at Xu Qing with utmost respect and admiration. The directors from the First and Third Peaks both breathed sighs of relief and bowed to Xu Qing.

    As a group of constables put shackles on Sima Ling, Xu Qing looked around and said, ¡°Arrest all Night Dove operatives here. If anyone resists, kill them.¡±

    The constables spread out, and soon screams and shrieks filled the night.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t participate in what happened next. As long as none of the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s chosen appeared, he didn¡¯t need to. The Violent Crimes Division was ustomed to dealing with Night Dove. It took them half the night to wrap everything up.

    The operation ended up spreading through the entire capital city. A vast number of Night Dove operatives were arrested, although many of them resisted and died fighting. By the time dawn came, Xu Qing was back in his dharmaskiff resting. At that time, he sent out a message to the Violent Crimes Division.

    ¡°Hang the heads of all in Night Dove operatives on the city walls.¡±

    That was how the Night Dove operation had ended back when he first joined the Violent Crimes Division. Now that he was a director, he felt like it was a good tradition to maintain.

    By the time it was light outside, the city wall had about a thousand Night Dove operative heads hanging from it. Everyone who saw the appalling sight was shaken. There was no hiding what happened the previous night. The story was already spreading through Seven Blood Eyes. All visiting species, all allies, all Seven Blood Eyes disciples, and everyone from the Seven Sect Coalition was filled with astonishment when they heard.

    Of course, what surprised them wasn¡¯t that the Violent Crimes Division had taken action against Night Dove, and hung over a thousand heads from the city wall. Rather, the shocking news was that... Sima Ling from the House of Grue Hunters had also been arrested and locked up.

    Not even his dao protector had been able to save him from that fate. The director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division had used the Seven Blood Eyes Formation to drive the dao protector away.

    The challenge that had been issued to the Third Peak was dropped. After all, Sima Ling couldn¡¯t show up to fight. It was a huge deal. After all, the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s challenges to Seven Blood Eyes had earned them massive prestige. The matter was like a massive p to the face.

    The first thing that happened was that Xu Qing¡¯s information was instantlypiled and sent to all of the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition. All of them wanted to know what this ¡®envoy disciple¡¯ from Seven Blood Eyes was like. He was the director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division, had been ced in the echelon but not appointed to the position of highness, and had somehow defeated Sima Ling, who was in the great circle and had four life mes.

    Actually, they weren¡¯t the only ones. Many Seven Blood Eyes disciples, and especially the highnesses from the various mountain peaks, were all astonished. Although Xu Qing had done some amazing things, they were all rtively minor when considering the overall state of affairs. But this time, he had done something absolutely sensational.

    And thus, everyone was scrambling to learn more about Xu Qing.

    The afternoon after the conflict between Xu Qing and Sima Ling yed out at Harbor 79, a person arrived to examine the aftermath.

    He wore a fancy golden garment, and had a silk belt with a spider motif. A seven-colored umbre floated above his head, casting brilliant light around him, making him seem like the child of a god.

    He was none other than the person who had defeated the First Peak¡¯s second highness with a single blow, and had stood toe-to-toe with a Gold Core elder. He was the number one chosen in the Seven Sect Coalition, Master Shengyun from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    After arriving at Harbor 79, he stood on the shore, closed his eyes, and cast his senses out. He stood in the sea breeze like a beautiful statue, radiating an extraordinary aura and scintiting light.

    Behind him stood three old men, all of whom were Gold Core experts that Patriarch Soaring Cloud had assigned as his dao protectors. They were delighted to have such an assignment, and were actually honored to apany him as he grew into his own. All of them had respectful expressions on their faces, and they kept their heads bowed.

    Eventually, Master Shengyun opened his eyes. ¡°Two life mes. Imperial-ss technique. A poison that can threaten Gold Core cultivators with heavenly pces. A magical device with a spirit automaton.... Interesting. With strength like that, it¡¯s no wonder he sent Sima Ling tumbling. Also, his imperial-ss technique seems somehow familiar....¡±

    After sensing his surroundings briefly, he had described the fight almost as if he had witnessed it personally. There was no way that he had some ability to look back in time. It was just that... his intuition and senses were so advanced that all he needed were tiny clues toe to correct conclusions. It was a terrifying level of skill.

    Behind him, a strange cry rang out as a green-bodied red-tailed bird appeared. As it cried out, a greedy look appeared in its eyes as it inhaled deeply as though it was looking for some aura in particr.

    ¡°Golden crow?¡± Master Shengyun turned to look in the direction of Harbor 176, his eyes gleaming.

    ¡°So, someone rtively interesting does exist in Seven Blood Eyes. Sadly, he¡¯s too weak. Don¡¯t be anxious, my little ravagemist bird. Let that golden crow grow up a little, and then you can eat it to grow stronger. It¡¯ll be yours sooner orter.¡± [1]

    Turning, Master Shengyun left the area.

    Throughout the afternoon, a lot of people came to Harbor 79. By evening, numerous people had investigated the area, hoping to dig up as much information about Xu Qing as they could.

    ¡°He joined Seven Blood Eyes three years ago, and existed like a venomous bug in a jar. In the Qi Condensation level, he ughtered all of the cultivators on an entire ind. It was a bloodbath!¡±

    ¡°During the war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies, hepleted a lot of missions. He ughtered numerous Qi Condensation Seazombies, assimted their souls, and opened lots of dharma apertures. He¡¯s now at the two-me level, and apparently, he cultivates Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits! Also, he has some shocking poisons!!¡±

    ¡°The Seazombie dao child Vastworld put out a bounty for him.... However, Vastworld never responded to any messages people sent him about that. People have their spections, but most people don¡¯t think Xu Qing could beat Vastworld. That said, it seems Vastworld was hit by Xu Qing¡¯s poison and his golden crow technique!¡±

    ¡°This Xu Qing... is probably one of the top disciples in Seven Blood Eyes. That said, he¡¯s not one of their highnesses, just an echelon cultivator!¡±

    ¡°The most important thing is that, before that incident with the zombie ancestor statue, no one had even heard of him. That includes most of the people in his sect. This guy really is a master of deception!!¡±

    The more information people dug up about Xu Qing, the more shaken they were. Almost overnight, Xu Qing¡¯s name spread like wildfire, both among the visiting nonhuman species, and all of the disciples from the various mountain peaks.

    Eventually, as the Seven Blood Eyes disciples realized that Xu Qing was from the Seventh Peak, they felt it made sense. Cultivators from the Seventh Peak were known for being deceptive. That was just how they operated....

    You just never know what freaks might be hiding out among the Seventh Peak disciples.

    1. The ¡°ravagemist bird¡± is from the ssic of Mountains and Seas. Transliterated into pinyin it¡¯s ¡°miemeng.¡± This is not a verymon bird, and though there is at least one other existing trantion of the name¡­ I don¡¯t really like it. Considering few people have ever heard of that trantion, I¡¯m going with my own version. The physical description of the bird in the ssic of Mountains and Seas is simr to the one in the story here; it has a green body and a red tail. Later in the story, further descriptions imply that it¡¯s very ugly.  of the bird from the Baidu wiki article about it. ?

 Chapter 232: God of Wealth from Revered Ancient

    <h4>Chapter 232: God of Wealth from Revered Ancient</h4>

    The chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition were even more deeply shaken. For one thing, most of them were jealous. After all... imperial-ss techniques could be encountered by chance but never searched for and found. And such techniques that were suitable for humans were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns. That wasn¡¯t even to mention... that this was Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits!

    Years ago, the president of the Seven Sect Coalition himself had acquired the legacy of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and therefore, all disciples in the Seven Sect Coalition were familiar with it. And the more familiar someone was with that technique, the more envious they would be of someone who had it. Thus, they elevated Xu Qing to be alongside the highnesses of the various mountain peaks in terms of his importance.

    However, not one other chosen stuck their head out to help out the House of Grue Hunters. All of them knew that there was no way the matter was over yet, and that things were probably going to get even moreplicated. No one was going to make a move until the House of Grue Hunters and the Dark Serenity Sect decided what to do. After all, the Seventh Peak¡¯s supervisory sect was the Dark Serenity Sect. Huang Yikun was the chosen from the Dark Serenity Sect, and he had an extraordinary cultivation base. What was more, he had not yet issued any challenges, as he was taking his time to find the best opportunity.

    As everyone was waiting to see what would happen, Huang Yikun happened to be reviewing Xu Qing¡¯s information on a jade slip. He smiled.

    I¡¯ve finally found my opportunity. Going around issuing challenges along with everyone else is no way to show off how amazing the Dark Serenity Sect is. I¡¯d originally been nning to wait until all other challenges had been settled, and then make a move. But now it seems I won¡¯t have to do that. This Xu Qing seems like he has potential. It¡¯d be a pity to destroy him. I¡¯d much rather recruit him. That said, if he refuses to cooperate, then I guess I¡¯ll have to end him.

    Chuckling, he took out a transmission jade slip to send messages to the other chosen.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to handle the situation with Xu Qing. The rest of you just wait and see how it ys out.¡±

    While the Seven Sect Coalition chosen, the Seven Blood Eyes disciples, and the members of the nonhuman species were all paying close attention to the matter, Xu Qing himself was sitting cross-legged in his dharmaskiff.

    His expression was the same as ever,pletely cid.

    He was well aware of what was going on outside. From the moment he chose to take action, he¡¯d known there would be ramifications. Though he didn¡¯t like to make himself the center of attention, given the circumstances, he¡¯d had no choice. His hand had been forced, and thus he revealed his imperial-ss technique and his special poison. He had a lot of secrets, and the reality was that not revealing them would cause people to specte about him, and would lead to further disadvantages.

    .

    By selectively revealing certain things intentionally, it made it easier to keep even deeper secrets hidden.

    My firstyer of secrets consists of my poison and the imperial-ss technique. The secondyer is my lifemp. The third is my shadow and its ability to absorb mutagen. The fourth is the violet crystal.

    Xu Qing took some time to think about the whole situation, then he extended his right hand, within which appeared a blue ring. There was a glittering green gemstone inset in the ring, making the thing look absolutely extraordinary.

    This was Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding. It was different from a bag of holding. Rings of holding were more valuable and had arger capacity. Furthermore, the fancy gem made it obvious that this ring was incredibly valuable.

    Sima Ling was now a prisoner of the Violent Crimes Division, and ording to the division¡¯s rules, all of his personal items could be confiscated and disposed of however the division saw fit. Of course, those rules had to be applied judiciously. For instance, though Yanyan had been arrested, Xu Qing didn¡¯t go to the extent of taking away her ring of holding. He simply put it into storage. Then, after she was released, she got it back.

    However... Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel that Sima Ling needed to be shown the same courtesy. Therefore, he was now studying the ring closely, and examining the sealing mark that kept it closed. This ring of holding was designed so that only the person connected to the sealing mark could open it. But that wasn¡¯t going to pose an obstacle for Xu Qing.

    ¡°Wipe the seal out for me,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    His shadow had simply been waiting for the word. It stretched out, and a momentter, the ring of holding was inundated with corrosive mutagen. It didn¡¯t take long for the sealing mark to start fading away. After it was wiped outpletely, it was easy for Xu Qing to send some dharma force inside to inspect the contents.

    Despite his experience and willpower, when Xu Qing saw what was inside, his eyes began to shine. It contained entire stacks of spirit notes! Upon taking inventory, Xu Qing inhaled sharply.

    ¡°9,300,000!!¡± he murmured.

    His eyes went wide and his heart started racing. This was a huge sum toe across, such that even Xu Qing, who was usually so calm and collected, instinctively looked around nervously.

    And Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who normally wasn¡¯t prone to outbursts, shouted, ¡°That¡¯s a freaking lot of money! This guy wasn¡¯t a chosen. He¡¯s obviously a nouveau riche yboy from Revered Ancient!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart wasn¡¯t just pounding because of the spirit stones. There was also a jade box with two pieces of flesh from a godly entity, each of them roughly the size of a head. Given the strong level of godliness, it seemed to Xu Qing that they were both from the great circle of Foundation Establishment.

    Those would make a great power source for my dharmaskiff!

    Xu Qing continued to examine the contents of the ring.

    He soon found that it contained four finger-sized crystals, all of which exuded powerful fluctuations. Sealed within them was some sort of mist. Taking them out to examine them, he realized that the swirling mist inside formed distinct images. One was a headless ox, one was a distorted ball of ck hair, and one was a hand. Sealed in the final crystal was an eye. Just looking at the collection, Xu Qing was shaken, as he could sense a strong grue aura.

    Disciples from the Third Peak make deals with grues, and it¡¯s the same with the House of Grue Hunters. These sealed items are actually grues....

    After some thought, Xu Qing realized why Sima Ling didn¡¯t use any of these things.

    He had been hit by Xu Qing¡¯s poison, causing the mutagen within him to rise rapidly. Because of that, the sealed grues became unusually aggressive. If Sima Ling had brought them out under those circumstances, he probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to use them against Xu Qing, and would instead have made things worse for himself.

    There were more things in Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding. There were five medicinal pills that Xu Qing, given his skill with nts and vegetation, was very excited to see. Simply inhaling their fragrance caused his dharma apertures to stir vigorously. What was more, it seemed like his 84th dharma aperture, which was unopened, seemed to quiver.

    A medicinal pill for opening dharma apertures?

    Xu Qing struggled to breathe steadily, and his eyes shone brightly.

    He currently had 83 dharma apertures open, putting him only 7 away from being able to ignite three life mes!

    Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding didn¡¯t just contain those items. It also had about seven or eight magical devices. However, after examining them, Xu Qing realized they were all designed for use in controlling grues, and needed to bebined with special techniques to work properly. There were some jade slips, but they were all protected by warding spells. From what Xu Qing could tell, those spells were ced by the sect to prevent their techniques from being revealed to outsiders. He tried breaking them with his shadow, but it didn¡¯t work well. There were a bunch of other random objects. After rifling through them, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he noticed a wooden box off in the corner of the ring¡¯s dimensional space. It was ck and exuded a strong mutagen aura. However, there was no sign of it containing a grue.

    Something dead??After some thought, he opened the box.

    The moment he did, spectacrly strong mutagen poured out. It vastly exceeded any mutagen from a forbidden region, such that any mortal who touched it would instantly experience mutation and then die. Even average cultivators who encountered it would immediately find their mutagen levels skyrocketing.

    In Xu Qing¡¯s case, his shadow just started devouring it madly. Eventually, the mutagening from the box was significantly reduced, whereupon the shadow burped and shrank back to its spot.

    There was still mutagening out of the box, but nothing like before.

    The object in the box that had previously been exuding such strong mutagen was a palm-sized chunk of metal. It was rusty and didn¡¯t look special at all. However, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered when he looked at it, as he could sense an astonishing will contained in the piece of metal, something that imparted the same feeling as staring up at the river of stars in the dome of heaven. It was as if something was imprisoned inside. And the force keeping it imprisoned was mutagen!

    Upon studying it more closely, Xu Qing found that this mutagen was different from the mutagen he was familiar with from the forbidden regions he¡¯d been in. In fact, this piece of metal actually resembled a very small forbidden region.

    The mutagen wasing from it!

    In other words, if this piece of metal were much, muchrger, it would turn into a region of its own. It would be a forbidden region!

    ¡°What is this thing?!¡± Xu Qing breathed, looking confused.

    Meanwhile, the shadow, sensing that there was still mutagening out of the piece of metal, stretched out. After covering the piece of metal, it shivered, then sent out strong emotional fluctuations filled with deep longing.

    ¡°Fragmented... piece....¡±

    Xu Qing mmed the lid of the box shut.

    After the mutagen was cut off, the shadow seemed almost frantic. However, because of the violet light in Xu Qing¡¯s chest, it didn¡¯t dare to act out of turn.

    ¡°What is it?¡± he said.

    ¡°Allow me, milord! I¡¯ll handle this!¡± Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior immediately manifested a projection of himself and squatted next to the shadow. This was the opportunity he¡¯d been waiting for.

    The shadow¡¯s eyes burned with animosity as it red at the patriarch. It had regained much of its intelligence, and thinking back to everything that had happened, it had long sincee to despise the patriarch. As far as it was concerned, the patriarch was its enemy. Furthermore, it needed to be very careful. Otherwise, it would do all the hard work, and the idiot patriarch would get all the credit.

    Meanwhile, the patriarch was chuckling coldly in his heart. However, he was careful to keep an amiable look on his face.

    ¡°Come, my beloved shadow. Come,e. Let¡¯s have a nice little chat.¡±

    The shadow seemed inclined to refuse, but without something to possess, it had no ability tomunicate properly. And considering how coldly Xu Qing was looking at it, it knew it had no choice. Though it wasn¡¯t happy about the situation, it had to start exining things to the patriarch.

    After the process was done, the patriarch looked incredulous. Voice trembling, he quietly said, ¡°Milord, I was wrong. This guy isn¡¯t a nouveau riche yboy. He¡¯s a freaking god of wealth! ording to Little Shadow, this thing... is a fragmented piece of a taboo treasure! The shadow is convinced that if it absorbs enough of it, then it can... unleash some of the power of the taboo treasure!¡±

 Chapter 233: You Canâ€™t Get Rich Without Ill-gotten Gains

    Chapter 233: You Can¡¯t Get Rich Without Ill-gotten Gains

    ¡°Taboo treasure?¡± Xu Qing said, looking stunned. He had never heard the term before and had no idea what it was.

    After some moremunication between the patriarch and the shadow, Xu Qing was able to get an idea that taboo treasures were things that existed on a higher levelpared to ordinary magical treasures. As for how the shadow knew this, the patriarch asked a series ofplicated questions, and came to the conclusion that the shadow wasn¡¯t sure how it knew. At the same time, the shadow continued to release strong emotional fluctuations of longing. It deeply desired to consume the item.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a bit, but in the end, decided not to grant the shadow¡¯s request. He wouldn¡¯t do that unless he was absolutely confident in the oue. For all he knew, the shadow might turn on him during the process. As the shadow looked on reluctantly, he put the wooden box away.

    After, he looked at the shadow and said, ¡°If you behave, I¡¯ll think about giving it to youter.¡±

    The shadow emitted fluctuations of excitement. Off to the side, the patriarch felt shaken, and realized he needed to be even more careful about dealing with the shadow. He also needed to take steps to make sure the pesky shadow didn¡¯t seed in earning favor.

    Ignoring the patriarch and the shadow, Xu Qing continued to go through Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding. However, after examining all the misceneous items, he didn¡¯t find anything valuable.

    Finally, he went back to the five medicinal pills. After smelling them again, his eyes filled with determination, and he put one in his mouth. It melted, and then a tremor passed through him. He could already sense that a very powerful and violent force was converging in him. It wasn¡¯t soul power, but rather some other high-level force specifically designed for opening dharma apertures. As it converged, his unopened 84th dharma aperture stirred even more dramatically than before. Then, all of a sudden, the violent force shot toward that dharma aperture, and it opened.

    Xu Qing shivered, and his eyes lit up with delight.

    A single pill actually opened one of my dharma apertures!

    This result was far superior to the soul pills he¡¯d purchased at the ck market. In fact, other than Bai Li¡¯s high-level soul pill, these were the most effective pills he had ever consumed. Without the slightest hesitation, he consumed the second pill. Momentster, he shivered again.

    His 85th dharma aperture had opened!

    ¡°The second was just as effective!¡± he murmured. Xu Qing could tell that these were some very precious pills, and it also gave him a good sense of how wealthy the Seven Sect Coalition chosen were.

    There are still three more.

    Eyes glittering, he consumed the third pill. Soon, his 86th dharma aperture opened. Not stopping there, he consumed the other two pills. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, his 88th dharma aperture opened. His dharma force now flowed through him like a fire dragon, fierce and burning.

    I only have two more dharma apertures to open before I get my third life me!

    His eyes shone with anticipation.

    Over the course of the following few days, he collected more soul pills from ces in Seven Blood Eyes, as he prepared for that breakthrough with the final two dharma apertures. Unfortunately, getting soul pills was something that took time, and he couldn¡¯t quite get enough.

    As far as the two chunks of flesh with godliness, Xu Qing did some experiments and decided that they weren¡¯t good enough for personal use, and that it was best to use them in his dharmaskiff.

    Right now, though, he left his berth and went to the nearest Violent Crimes Division cell block. There were a lot of Night Dove inmates, and though most of them had weak cultivation bases, there were many of them. With that many to work with, he could probably open one or both dharma apertures. Furthermore, during the process of refining souls, he would also be able to get used to the poisonous properties of the taboo poison pill. He could also see if he could get the poison pill to work with his ck beetles. It was a new conundrum, and if he wanted to make progress, it was going to take a lot of experimentation.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Seven Blood Eyes was still in a period of celebration. Nonhuman envoys arrived on a daily basis, and the entire port was bustling. However, the moods of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples continued to sink.

    Although Xu Qing¡¯s actions had changed things for a few days, the challenges from the Seven Sect Coalition soon continued. It seemed the Seven Sect Coalition wanted this state of affairs to continue for at least three months. As for Master Shengyun from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, he didn¡¯t issue any further challenges, and took up residence on the First Peak.

    His seven-colored wind-chantingmp that could shake heaven and earth kept the First Peak disciplespletely stifled, and also cowed all of the nonhuman envoys and allies.

    The Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s attitude was clear. This beat-down wasn¡¯t just a simple reminder, it was a clear warning. Seven Blood Eyes was not to harbor any thoughts of being independent. What was more, rumors were spreading that, after the period of celebration, the seven peaklords were going to be reced by the Seven Sect Coalition.

    On the one hand, Seven Blood Eyes had won a clear victory against the Seazombies. But now they were being crushed by the Seven Sect Coalition. And the Seven Blood Eyes patriarch didn¡¯t seem to be doing anything about it.

    Xu Qing could feel the pressure building in the sect. However, he got the feeling there was more going on than what was visible on the surface. That was especially true considering what the Captain had seen in the Sixth Peak. Xu Qing got the feeling the sect was waiting for something in particr. [1]

    It doesn¡¯t matter too much. The sect leadership will decide how to make the next move. Xu Qing shook his head and focused on his own cultivation. The Captain was back in the sect, and he had sent a voice message to Xu Qing asking what he was up to.

    Though Xu Qing had been refining souls nonstop, he hadn¡¯t been able to open the next dharma aperture. That said, he had made some progress in his research on the taboo poison pill. And he was building up enough of a tolerance that he was certain he would eventually be able to reconcoct it. He also attempted to force his ck beetles into the pill. However, the process was so difficult for the beetles that not one of them ever survived. Each and every one died.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t discouraged. As he sat there cross-legged in the cell block, he took out all of the bottles he used to store the ck beetles in.

    After his previous work with them, he had a total of eight.

    However, the attempt to get the beetles into the pill killed all of the beetles in the first bottle. Opening the second bottle, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. In response, the beetles flew out and surrounded him. If there had been onlookers, they would have been shocked. After all, these beetles were such a threat that even a Gold Core expert would be leery of them.

    Xu Qing still didn¡¯t think they were effective enough, though. Opening the wish box, he sent the beetles streaming toward it in a ck cloud. As the cloud neared, it began to copse as the beetles rotted and died. Frowning, Xu Qing continued experimenting. He soon went through the third bottle, then the fourth and fifth....

    The tiny beetles died one after another, until he reached his final bottle. Not a single beetle had survived. Xu Qing sighed. He didn¡¯t dare to continue experimenting with his final bottle, as he needed those beetles to breed more.

    With that, he arranged for more inmates to be brought to him to feed the beetles. As the beetles fed, Xu Qing continued working on getting used to the poison pill. Simultaneously, he added medicinal nts into the beetle¡¯s diets that counteracted poisons. He also put in some of his own blood. After all, he had already built up some resistance.

    Seven more days passed.

    Eventually, his work paid off. He was finally able to get eight ck beetles to survive the process. Though they came out weak, Xu Qing was still excited at the results. This first group of survivors would be the starting point to raise a new generation of even stronger beetles. What was more, even though the beetles were weak, they had transformed, and were now less dark than before.

    If I keep this going, I should be able to eventually raise some beetles that arepletely resistant to the taboo poison pill. And if I can get them to breed inside that pill, then they¡¯ll absorb the pill¡¯s qualities and be even more astonishing.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s heart filled with anticipation, it was evening outside. As the red glow in the sky deepened, an uninvited guest suddenly appeared outside the entrance of the Violent Crimes Division.

    He was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old, d in a violet daoist robe iid with gold. His sleeves were decorated with a gobblewock motif, and his right hand was covered with a red glove. [2]

    As he walked along, his daoist robe emanated powerful dharma force fluctuations that made his handsome features seem even more extraordinary. That said, though he was handsome, he had a ratherrge nose that disrupted the delicacy of his face, and made him seem unusually domineering. As he approached, the pebbles on the road outside the Violent Crimes Division began to float up and swirl around him, creating something like a tempest. Especially noteworthy was the fact that the glow of evening seemed to darken because of his presence. Within that growing darkness, the glove he wore seemed extremely bizarre and fiendish.

    The Violent Crimes Division disciples on duty at the entrance noticed him immediately, and their expression turned very serious, as if they were facing a big enemy. But as the young man neared, the tempest surrounding him reached the on-duty disciples, shoving them backward until they bumped into the gate itself.

    One of them, veins bulging on his forehead, shouted, ¡°Halt! Who goes there!?¡±

    The violet-robed young man lifted his hand, revealing a violet pearl that shivered and then shot toward the on-duty disciples.

    ¡°Calm down. Just give this pearl to Director Xu Qing. Tell him that I wanted to give him a destined opportunity.¡±

    1. To review the Captain¡¯s observations, check out chapter 221, which was entitled ¡°Seven Blood Eyes'' Big Secret¡±. ?

    2. My trantion of ¡°gobbelwock¡± is another creature from the ssic of Mountains and Seas. There are so many random creatures from that book that, when simply transliterated into pinyin, they be easily forgettable. I prefer using memorable English names to make them more vivid (which they inherently are in Chinese thanks to the nature of Chinese characters), and also more easy to remember. ?

 Chapter 234: Condescending

    <h4>Chapter 234: Condescending</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like being interrupted in the middle of cultivation or research. But when he looked down at the violet pearl the Violent Crimes Division constable had delivered to him, a serious look filled his eyes. Though he wasn¡¯t familiar with the aura the pearl emitted, it caused the golden crow on his back to stir abnormally. In fact, it soon manifested behind him, then gazed at the pearl with deep longing.

    Looking thoughtful, Xu Qing left the cell block and went to the reception hall, where he saw the young man in the violet robe.

    He stood with his back to Xu Qing, looking at a painting on the wall that depicted evil ghosts fighting over food. Though the young man wasn¡¯t in the profound radiance state, his 120 dharma apertures burned with intense heat.

    To the Qi Condensation disciples present, it looked like the surrounding air was rippling, as if this ce was the young man¡¯s home turf. Xu Qing, meanwhile, was unaffected. In fact, as he stepped into the reception hall, the ripples vanished.

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡± the young man said, turning and looking closely at him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like it when people looked at him this way, but he forced such feelings away and looked calmly at the visitor.

    ¡°The power of two mesbined with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, plus your deadly poison and that body of yours. Xu Qing... you¡¯re a big fish in a little pond here in Seven Blood Eyes. This ce doesn¡¯t suit you.¡± With that, the young man sat down in the seat of honor. His every movement was very natural, as if he believed it was a given that he should sit in that position.

    As he sat down, though, hepletely failed to notice that, right in the air behind him, an apple had suddenly appeared. And then, some invisible person noiselessly took a bite out of the apple. No sound could be heard.

    An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he noticed the apple. But he quickly looked away. Not saying a word, he waited to see what would happen next.

    ¡°You won¡¯t get far here,¡± the young man continued. ¡°You¡¯re in the echelon, but aren¡¯t one of the highnesses. And you only got into the echelon by performing an amazing service. There¡¯s really no need for you to have any fondness for a sect like this. I¡¯m sure you know who I am. I¡¯m Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect. You can address me as Eldest Brother.¡± As his words echoed about, he seemed to be scrutinizing Xu Qing even more closely.

    A bite mark appeared in the apple behind him, as though the invisible person had been about to take another mouthful, but then stopped in the middle. Apparently, this person wasn¡¯t very happy with what he¡¯d just heard.

    Xu Qing pretended to not see the apple. He knew exactly who this visitor was. Though he had neverid eyes on him personally, the sect¡¯s files contained an image of him.

    Huang Yikun put his gloved hand onto the table in front of him and leaned forward slightly. Looking Xu Qing in the eyes, he slowly said, ¡°Xu Qing, I appreciate you for who you are. And I¡¯d like to give you a chance to leave this sect and join a greater sect. Of course, the prerequisite is that you swear loyalty to me.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned.

    A chunk disappeared from the apple behind Huang Yikun, as the person eating it started viciously chewing.

    Huang Yikun noticed Xu Qing¡¯s frown, but didn¡¯t seem bothered by it. ¡°Xu Qing, you do know what a supervisory sect is, don¡¯t you? You cultivate an imperial-ss technique called Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Surely you¡¯re aware that the president of the Seven Sect Coalition also gained enlightenment of that very same imperial-ss technique. The venerable president gained a very thorough enlightenment. Whatever destined opportunity you ran across, it was obviously random chance, and there¡¯s no way you couldpare with the president¡¯s level of enlightenment. Am I right?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    .

    ¡°Therefore, if you join a supervisory sect, your Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits will rise to an even higher level. Remember, the presidentes from the Dark Serenity Sect. And the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture was actually modeled after Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits by the president.¡±

    An arrogant look appeared on Huang Yikun¡¯s face as he tilted his chin up and continued, ¡°Furthermore... the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture cultivated by your subsidiary sect is a low-level version.¡± As the words left his mouth, Huang Yikun lifted his right hand and slowly removed his glove.

    As he did, a shocking aura erupted from his hand. The five fingers of his right hand were all violet, and looked like they were made from raw crystal. They were marvelous in appearance and they emanated shocking fluctuations. All the light in the area seemed to dim, as though the five fingers were sucking it in.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He could sense how extraordinary those fingers were, and he also sensed that they caused the golden crow tattoo on his back to stir dramatically. At the same time, the balefire within him seemed like it was being pulled toward the fingers.

    That said, in Xu Qing¡¯s opinion, Huang Yikun... probably shouldn¡¯t be showing off his five fingers like this.

    Behind Huang Yikun, the floating apple trembled, as though the hand holding it were excited. At the same time, two shining eyes were revealed, and they were fixed on Huang Yikun¡¯s right hand.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s odd expression caused Huang Yikun to feel very pleased with himself. At the same time, he felt both disdain and envy deep in his heart. The pleased feeling came from the fact that he loved showing off the five fingers that he had created with a lifetime of wealth and cultivation. People were always amazed to see them. The disdain came because of the fact that Xu Qing was still just a fish in a pond. Even if he got some destined opportunity, he still didn¡¯t know enough about the world to make it worth it. And the envy came because of that destined opportunity.

    That said, Huang Yikun kept his true feelings hidden. Moving his dazzling fingers back and forth rhythmically in front of him, he said, ¡°See, Xu Qing? This is the result of my cultivation of an ancient Dark Serenity technique. It¡¯s called the Dark Serenity Fingers.

    ¡°Each of these five fingers was created with abination of my dark technique plus countless precious materials. All I have to do is touch someone with one of these fingers, and I¡¯ll be able to influence their soul and control their very life or death. This is what the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture really looks like.

    ¡°If you swear loyalty to me, then when we get back to the sect, I¡¯ll personally help you request assistance from the patriarch. With his help, you might be able to cultivate two fingers like this, maybe even more! Combined with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, this technique would be able to unleash true strength!¡±

    Xu Qing looked long and hard at the five fingers. He also noticed that no further bites had been taken from the apple. Whoever was holding the apple was obviouslypletely focused on Huang Yikun¡¯s five fingers. Finally, Xu Qing looked at Huang Yikun.

    Although the technique seemed useful, he didn¡¯t see any need tobine it with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits.

    The only reason Huang Yikun believed what he did was that the president of the Seven Sect Coalition only received a scrap of enlightenment of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Otherwise there would be no need tobine it with anything else. Based on what Xu Qing knew, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits was about being utterly domineering. Combining it with some other technique made itpletely soulless.

    Seeing that Xu Qing hadn¡¯t said a single word, Huang Yikunughed coldly in his heart.

    ¡°You¡¯re probably not convinced,¡± he said. ¡°You probably think I¡¯m not worthy of your loyalty. Well, I don¡¯t expect an answer from you immediately. In a few days, I¡¯m going to challenge all three highnesses from the Seventh Peak.¡±

    He stood, sped his hands behind his back, and slowly walked past Xu Qing as he continued, ¡°Remember, Xu Qing, it will only be a few more days before I issue that challenge. Once it¡¯s over, and you¡¯ve seen me defeat all three highnesses, I¡¯lle back. Then you can give me your answer. This is your destined opportunity. You¡¯re on your own now.¡±

    Without sparing a backward nce, Huang Yikun left the Violent Crimes Division and strolled off into the evening.

    After he was gone, the Captain¡¯s voice rang out, sounding very happy. ¡°Hahaha! Things are always the funnest around you, little Ah Qing. When I saw that guy chortling around on his way here, I had toe see the show. How could I ever have guessed that I would get to see such a lovely treasure! This is the first time I¡¯ve ever run into anyone that likes to show off so brazenly.... What an unexpected but pleasant surprise. I¡¯m really not used to this. It took a lot of effort not to break off one of those fingers right here and now.¡±

    ¡°I think you mean it took a lot of effort not to bite?one off, right?¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°Director Xu, as the grand highness of the Seventh Peak, I have to give you some constructive criticism. Is that really the way to talk to a grand highness?¡± Another bite disappeared from the apple.

    Xu Qing looked down at the Captain¡¯s shadow.

    It revealed a limp, hobbling figure, with a somewhat swollen head. It looked like the shadow of someone who had been beaten up violently.

    After a moment of silence, Xu Qing said, ¡°Captain, did you get into some trouble recently?¡±

    The apple went still. ¡°Are you kidding? No way! After I went invisible that one time, I just got used to it. Well, I think we¡¯re done here. Huang Yikun is going to challenge the Seventh Peak, huh? I need to go chat this over with Second Sib and Third Sib.¡±

    As he spoke, the apple floated toward the exit. But then it stopped. ¡°Oh right, little Ah Qing. I actually came to tell you something. As you know, the Seven Sect Coalition sent their chosen to challenge all the mountain peaks in Seven Blood Eyes. Though it seems like we¡¯re on the losing side, which is a bit humiliating, everything is going ording to the old codgers¡¯ ns.

    ¡°They want the ordinary disciples to feel animosity toward the Seven Sect Coalition, and at the same time, weed out disciples who aren¡¯t loyal. So don¡¯t even think of running off. Otherwise, when the timees for my big uing n, I¡¯d be forced to go out looking for you, and that would be far too annoying.¡±

    After the apple was a good distance away from the Violent Crimes Division, a flicker of surprise could be seen on the Captain¡¯s bruised and swollen face.

    Can he really see me? There¡¯s no way. The old man gave me this invisibility treasure, and throughout all the years, no one has ever seen through it other than a few sect uncles and the patriarch. It¡¯s impossible to see through it. Totally impossible....

    The Captain gritted his teeth in pain.

    Sixth Sect Uncle is too vicious, that rotten fogey. All I did was bite a statue! Does that really deserve a beating like this...? As soon as I got back, the first thing he did was drag me over and thrash me.

    Viciously taking a bite out of his apple, the Captain hurried on his way.

    Back in the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing was lost in thought. What the Captain had just told him fell right in line with his previous suppositions. Obviously, the sect was waiting for something.

    Are they just buying time??Eventually, he put such thoughts aside. It wasn¡¯t his ce to worry about those things. Going back into the cell block, he went back to work on his cultivation.

    Days passed. After the big Night Dove crackdown, the rest of the Night Dove forces in the city did their best to stay in hiding. At the same time, the Violent Crimes Division prepared for an even bigger crackdown. The purpose was to track down any Night Dove operatives that had slipped through the cracks. However, there were things that needed to happen first.

    And one of them was a curfew!

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes is instituting a curfew for one month. Any suspicious people found lurking around at night will be arrested.

    ¡°At the same time, the Violent Crimes Divisions from all the mountain peaks will raid any Night Dove safe houses in their jurisdictions.

    ¡°The time hase to get justice for all of our fallenrades. Night Dove is going to be destroyed! Constables can keep any loot they find. The divisions issue the order, the bureaus carry out themands, and the squads execute judgment. Let the final operation against Night Dove begin!¡±

    After Xu Qing issued the orders, all seven of the Violent Crimes Divisions fell upon the capital city like fiends. ughter spread, and blood sprayed left and right.

    Violent Crimes constables were everywhere on the streets. Following the orders from the division, they went to all Night Dove safehouses and either killed or arrested the operatives there. Miserable screams and agonized shrieks rang out. In some cases, the Night Dove operatives ran out onto the street, only to be chased down by Violent Crimes constables.

    asionally, constables would shoot signal fireworks up into the air to request backup. When that happened, the vice-directors would answer the call. If they couldn¡¯t handle the situation, theirmanding director would step in. If a director ran into trouble, he would send a request to Xu Qing, who would assume responsibility.

    However, during the night the operation was carried out, Xu Qing never had to step in. And that was because Yanyan had taken the initiative to join the operation. She had a huge octopus to help her, and it crushed anything in its path. Whenever a signal shot up into the air, she and her octopus would race to the scene. When she showed up, she would always offer the same exnation.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to bother Big Bro Xu Qing with something as trivial as this. When you have a chance, let him know that I came to help out.¡±

    On one asion in which she rescued the new vice-director from the Seventh Peak, who was a one-me cultivator, he sped hands to express his gratitude.

    ¡°Many thanks, Your Majesty Yanyan.¡±

    Upon hearing that, Yanyan¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°I¡¯m your director¡¯s fianc¨¦e! Call me Sister-in-Law!¡±

    The vice-director was absolutely stunned. sping hands hesitantly, he said, ¡°Many thanks, Sister-in-Law!¡±

    Yanyan smiled happily, then tossed him a precious medicinal pill.

    ¡°Rest up. My husband is the director of the Violent Crimes Division. Since I¡¯m thedy of the house, it¡¯s only natural that I take care of the underlings. It was no trouble at all.¡± Just then, Yanyan spotted another signal re, and raced off in that direction.[1]

    1. The word for ¡°husband¡± used by Yanyan is rather archaic. It¡¯s not used nowadays, and Madam Deathde says she¡¯s only ever heard it in period drama TV shows. That said, there is no other interpretation of the word other than ¡°husband.¡± ??

 Chapter 235: Amazing Developments

    <h4>Chapter 235: Amazing Developments</h4>

    The ughter was carried out through the night. It was a war between the Violent Crimes Division and Night Dove. All of the visiting nonhumans and allies were watching very closely.

    The reality was... because of the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s curfew, the ughter was even more dramatic. Meanwhile, word about ¡®Sister-in-Law Yanyan¡¯ quickly spread through Violent Crimes. Before long, everyone knew that if you simply addressed her as Sister-in-Law, she would give you medicinal pills and sometimes even spirit stones. Whenever true danger arose, she would be the first to show up on her octopus. Not even a Gold Core cultivator could stand up to her. Because of Yanyan helping, there were very few casualties in the Violent Crimes Division.

    The opposite was true for Night Dove. Their casualties were shocking. Over 4,000 Night Dove operatives from all over South Phoenix were snared in the crackdown, and virtually all of them were either captured or had their heads hung on the city wall.

    By dawn, the city was functioning as usual. However, there were many locations where blood was still sttered on the streets. Because of the ughter, the Violent Crimes Division became the talk of the sect.

    Most Night Dove operatives were Qi Condensation cultivators, but it was the same with Violent Crimes. However, to the visiting nonhumans, though the Seven Blood Eyes disciples were mostly low-level cultivators, they were also like venomous bugs in a jar, and were brutal down to their core.

    That brutality caused many of the nonhumans and allies to look more highly on Seven Blood Eyes. That was especially true when you considered that, if the low-level disciples like this climbed the ranks, then the high-level disciples would be even more impressive. After all, only the ultimate wolf could rise to the top of the pack. At the same time, many onlookers were nning on keeping a close eye on Xu Qing.

    However, Xu Qing was simply too skilled at maintaining a low profile. After his fight with Sima Ling, he never showed his face in public, and rarely even left the Violent Crimes Division cell block. Thus, people had a hard time observing him.

    What was more, thanks to Yanyan taking part in the night crackdown, Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to lift a finger.

    He wasn¡¯t sure what to make of the situation with her. She hade looking for him on numerous asions recently, but he had always refused to see her. Eventually, she¡¯d given up, and he¡¯d assumed she wouldn¡¯t bother him again. As such, it had been aplete surprise to find out she was suddenly helping with the fight against Night Dove. He obviously heard about what she was telling everyone. But considering how much help she was providing, he decided not to bicker over such things.

    Right now, he was waiting for his final two dharma apertures to open. Then he could ignite his third life me. He also wanted to see how powerful his next generation of ck beetles were.

    Furthermore, he wanted to wait for the Violent Crimes Division to continue tightening the on Night Dove, and eventually figure out where their main headquarters was. When that happened, he would finally take action.

    Thus, Xu Qing remained out of sight, working on improving his battle prowess and cultivation base.

    It wasn¡¯t possible to raid all of the Night Dove safe houses in a single night. The process continued over multiple nights.

    As that happened, the Seazombies finally paid their wartime reparations!

    Marquis An of the Seazombies, who had a Nascent Soul cultivation base, arrived in the city, where he would remain for a full sixty-year-cycle, with only one chance to ever go outside. Along with him came the Gold Core boy Ying Ling, as well as... Vastworld, who would serve as a royal hostage. [1]

    Vastworld had no desire toe to Seven Blood Eyes, but he had no choice, as only someone in the Seazombie echelon could serve as a royal hostage. His heart overflowed with humiliation and madness, but he had to endure it. At the same time, he hated Xu Qing down to his bones, but couldn¡¯t do anything about it.

    The arrival of the Seazombies sent the sect¡¯s celebration into a fever pitch. Bells filled the air, and Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s face appeared in the dome of heaven, looking down on everything below.

    The peaklords appeared, representing Seven Blood Eyes to receive the Seazombie procession. Countless nonhumans and Seven Blood Eyes disciples looked on as the humiliated Seazombie Marquis An handed over the official documents of surrender, as well as the reparations. He also provided a jade slip with the dao oaths of the Seazombies in the Gold Core level and higher.

    Finally, the Seazombies in their ancestralnd... began preparations to send their zombie ancestor divine likenesses to Seven Blood Eyes. There were still two peaklords stationed in the Seazombie ancestralnd, and they were taking the lead in the process. The primary work involved moving the statues from their original positions to a huge teleportation portal.

    The entire purpose of that portal was to send the statues to Seven Blood Eyes as battle trophies.

    Although it wasmon knowledge that removing the divine likenesses from Seazombie territory would cause them to lose their special properties, they were still precious to the Seazombies, and thus, it made sense that Seven Blood Eyes wanted them. Anyone else in their position would do the same thing.

    Because of the great distance involved, and because Seven Blood Eyes didn¡¯t want to make an intermediary stop in the Merfolk Isles, they were building a special teleportation portal to ensure that the statues would go directly to South Phoenix. When the actual teleportation itself urred, it would happen quickly. ording to calctions made by various individuals, the statues would arrive... right when the celebration was ending.

    The event became a spectacle that everyone was paying attention to. What was more, the challenges being issued by the Seven Sect Coalition temporarily stopped.

    Now that the Seazombies had paid their reparations, the wartime rewards were finally being distributed. With that reward, and the amount Xu Qing had received from Sima Ling, he was unprecedentedly rich.

    He felt much more happy than normal, and it wasn¡¯t just him. All the disciples who had taken part in the war got their rewards. As a result, everyone was buying cultivation resources and supplies to improve battle prowess.

    However, that joy onlysted for a few days, until the Seven Sect Coalition started issuing challenges again.

    This time, the challenges didn¡¯t juste from the chosen. With the exception of Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect, all of the other chosen hade with retinues that included dao protectors and other outstanding individuals from their sects. Such people weren¡¯t as famous as the chosen, and thus, they started issuing challenges to disciples who didn¡¯t rank among the highnesses. Though both sides had wins and losses, the Seven Sect Coalition usually came out on top.

    No one challenged Xu Qing.

    Because of all the Night Dove safe houses that were being raided, and how many operatives were being arrested, Xu Qing was getting close to opening his 89th dharma aperture. After buying a vast quantity of poisonous nts, he was starting to experiment with reconcocting the taboo poison pill. At the same time, he had sessfully produced a third generation of ck beetles. The third generation only had six beetles in it. They were so few in number it wasn¡¯t possible to see them. The only reason Xu Qing would sense them was the resonance between them and his blood. Furthermore, the third generation were very faintly colored, and were also much smaller than before. That said, the effects of their poison was more dramatic, and they had also picked up some of the characteristics of the taboo poison pill.

    Treating the six beetles like precious treasures, Xu Qing carefully inserted them into some Night Dove cultivators to feed. This time, he changed his feeding method by infusing the Night Dove operatives¡¯ bodies with all sorts of medicinal and poison nts for the benefit of the third generation. Xu Qing went about it all in a very academic fashion. He observed things carefully and kept careful notes. He was very pleased whenever he saw good results.

    That said, to the Night Dove cultivators in the cell block, life was like a living hell. All of them had done cruel things in the past, but as far as they were concerned, they couldn¡¯t hold a candle to Xu Qing. They had inflicted sadistic punishment on disobedient living treasures, and had even toyed with them in various perverted ways. Therefore what was happening... was just the cycle of karma.

    Bloodcurdling screams echoed out of the cell block, over and over again. Although the Violent Crimes constables had grown used to the situation, none of them dared to get too close.

    Furthermore, because Xu Qing was in charge of this Night Dove operation, and because of how he had crushed Sima Ling and set up the curfew, things were different. It wasn¡¯t like before, when the other Violent Crimes Divisions wouldn¡¯t give him prisoners after he ran out. The other Violent Crimes Divisions sent him new prisoners on a daily basis. Beyond all that, the capital city was currently locked down, so the Night Dove operatives couldn¡¯t flee. They could only hide and wait to be arrested.

    It was easy to imagine how stunning of a loss this was going to be for Night Dove¡¯s operations on South Phoenix.

    Xu Qing¡¯s research was bringing results. What was more, he wasn¡¯t wasting any of the Night Dove operatives¡¯ souls. Though the souls were weak, there were a lot of them, and he used every single one to help with his dharma apertures.

    Because of the screamsing out of the cell block, it wasn¡¯t long before people all through the city were talking about how vicious he was.

    ***

    Master Shengyun stood in the middle of a huge fighting arena on the First Peak. Voice cool, he said, ¡°You¡¯re all weak. Too weak.¡±

    He sounded disappointed. Shockingly, eight of the First Peak¡¯s highnesses were sprawled on the ground at his feet. Wu Jianwu was one of them. All had pale faces, and were coughing up blood. They looked shaken as they stared up at Master Shengyun, who looked spectacr bathed in the moonlight.

    His seven-colored umbre seemed to block out the sky, and the chanting of the wind echoed everywhere. Behind him was the green-bodied red-tailed ravagemist bird, its head thrown back as it let loose a piercing cry, dark winds sweeping left and right around it.

    Not too far away was the First Peak¡¯s grand highness, who had just emerged from seclusion. His face was pale, and there was blood at the corners of his mouth. He had just broken through to the Gold Core level, but before he had a chance to stabilize his heavenly pce, he had toe out and fight. There was no other option, as the stabilization process would take too long, and he had no basis upon which to ask for more time.

    The First Peak... had been routed by Master Shengyun.

    The grand highness lost, but what was even more humiliating was that Master Shengyun had demanded that all nine highnesses fight him at once. They all lost. It was just too difficult of a fight.

    ¡°This ce is boring,¡± Master Shengyun said, his face expressionless. For a moment, he looked over at the Seventh Peak, but then he shook his head. Turning, he flew off the First Peak and headed in the direction of Forbidden by the Phoenix. His three dao protectors followed him dutifully. ¡°The little sparrow knows not to stick his head out. He¡¯s not stupid after all. Well, I just hope he grows up soon. That way, he can make a delicious snack sooner rather thanter.¡±

    As Master Shengyun disappeared over the horizon, the moon shone down on the Seventh Peak, where Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect walked haughtily up the stairs.

    ¡°Today, I, Huang Yikun, hereby challenge the Seventh Peak!¡±

    1. Marquis An and Ying Lingst appeared in??

 Chapter 236: The Loving Seventh Peak

    <h4>Chapter 236: The Loving Seventh Peak</h4>

    At longst, a chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition hade to challenge the Seventh Peak, which up to this point, remained unchallenged.

    The person to do it was Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect! He wore his violet robe iid with gold, and as the moonlight shone on him, he looked unusually extravagant. His expression was haughty as all four of his life mes burned brightly, as though he had an entire world burning within him. Especially noteworthy was his red glove, which bent light toward it, such that all the moonlight in the area seemed to sweep toward his hand. All of it made him seem like the most dignified and imposing thing on the Seventh Peak.

    ¡°So this is the miserable Seventh Peak? Pitiful.¡±

    He slowly walked up the stairs, looking like he was merely going for a walk on a moonlit night. That said, he had an odd feeling. The Seventh Peak seemed too quiet and peaceful. There were nomps lighting the path, and he didn¡¯t detect any disciples about. It was as if the entire mountain was empty.

    It was very different from how the challenges had gone on other mountain peaks. From what he had been told, there had always been lots of disciples present to watch things y out. He had sent a formal letter of challenge earlier, and had expected crowds to show up to watch. But at the moment, not a single person could be seen.

    ¡°They must be sore losers who can¡¯t stand being beaten in public.¡± Huang Yikun sneered as he reached the halfway point up the mountain and slowly took off the glove. That was the location where his first challenge was supposed to be met.

    The Seventh Peak¡¯s third highness.

    Huang Yikun had nned things out carefully. He was going to start with the third highness, then go to the second, and finally end the night¡¯s fighting with the grand highness.

    And now, at longst, he saw someone.

    It was a young man on a boulder, leaning up against the bosom of a beautiful woman.

    He wore a violet daoist robe, and had a tall white hat, upon which was embroidered the character ¡®forbidden.¡¯ He looked unhealthily skinny, as though he was drained from enjoying too much wine and women. He was none other than Third Highness, surrounded by a handful of nonhuman handmaidens who were all massaging him, all the while giving him flirtatious looks and moaning softly....

    Upon noticing Huang Yikun, Third Highness looked up; the dark circles under his eyes were clearly visible as he smiled broadly. ¡°You¡¯re finally here. I¡¯ve been waiting for so long!¡±

    Huang Yikun stopped walking and looked at him. Something really seemed off here, and thus, a look of extreme caution appeared in Huang Yikun¡¯s eyes. He just now realized that he couldn¡¯t assess the third highness at all. The ¡®forbidden¡¯ character on his hat seemed to be a sealing mark, and for some reason, it caused a chill to run down Huang Yikun¡¯s back. He felt like he was being stared at by a viper. And that look imparted a sense of deadly crisis. He usually only got that feeling from dharma protectors, and it caused him to struggle to control his breathing. Then he nced at the handmaidens, and realized that he recognized the one upon whose bosom the third highnessy.

    His eyes widened. This girl... was a chosen cultivator from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society! She was one of the three who hade to visit Seven Blood Eyes recently, and she had a four-me cultivation base. However, she didn¡¯t seem icily arrogant when she looked at the third highness. Instead, she seemed cute and even adoring. [1]

    Huang Yikun inhaled sharply. He suddenly got the feeling that he had been negligent in issuing his challenge. Taking a few steps back, he chuckled dryly.

    ¡°I¡¯m actually not fully prepared tonight. Let¡¯s forgo the duel. I¡¯ll take my leave now.¡±

    He turned to leave. But then, Third Highness suddenly vanished from where he had beenying and appeared right in front of Huang Yikun, whose arm he grabbed.

    The speed with which he moved was so incredible that Huang Yikun¡¯s pupils constricted. And the fact that he had grabbed his arm caused Huang Yikun¡¯s face to fall. Most rming of all was that Huang Yikun was powerless to resist. He was a scrawny chickenpared to this person! Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± he said.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± Third Highness replied, smiling. ¡°How much money did you bring with you?¡±

    Huang Yikun¡¯s jaw dropped.

    Third Highness looked back at him, eyebrows dancing. ¡°You¡¯re quite the shifty character, aren¡¯t you? Okay, fine. Let me exin. I doubt you can beat me in a fight. But I know you¡¯ve worked hard over in the Dark Serenity Sect. Since we¡¯re all on the same side, we shouldn¡¯t give each other a hard time. Therefore, let¡¯s talk business. I¡¯m not going to try to scam you. The going rate is 10,000,000 spirit stones. Pay that, and I¡¯ll admit defeat. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make it look really good. You can go out and tell everyone I lost to you. You can even record some images for proof. Just like that, you¡¯ll be free to go. Sound good?¡±

    Huang Yikun¡¯s eyes went wide, and without even thinking about it, he shook his head.

    Third Highness was smiling as though he were in the middle of a business negotiation. Even upon seeing Huang Yikun shake his head, he continued to smile. However, the words he spoke next caused Huang Yikun to reel.

    ¡°You don¡¯t agree? That¡¯s fine, we can still negotiate. Those are some nice-looking fingers you have. You can pay your debt with one of those.¡±

    Before Huang Yikun could even struggle, a cracking sound rang out as Third Highness ripped off one of his fingers....

    A miserable shriek rang out of Huang Yikun¡¯s mouth. Then, Third Highness waved his hand, and a massive force mmed into Huang Yikun, sending him flying backward until he mmed down onto the stairs. When hended, blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his ashen face filled with astonishment. Just when he was about to look back over his shoulder, Third Highness¡¯s chuckling voice reached his ears.

    ¡°You win. Now, let me see you out.¡±

    Shivering, Huang Yikun looked down at his dazzling hand. Instead of five fingers, he now had four; intense humiliation swept through him.

    ¡°This is outright robbery!!¡± he blurted. He was so furious that his vision swam. And when he thought about how he had put a lifetime of work and resources into those five fingers, only to have lost one in an instant, his heart dripped with figurative blood. That said... he didn¡¯t dare demand it back. Third Highness was simply too terrifying.

    Boiling with rage, he was just about to fly off into the night when he remembered that flying was prohibited on the mountain peaks in Seven Blood Eyes. Feeling more forlorn than ever, he realized he would have to walk all the way down. He had no desire to stay on the Seventh Peak any longer....

    However, along the way, he ran into someone.

    Sitting cross-legged on a stone bench was a tall young woman. She wasn¡¯t just tall. She was so well-built that her muscles seemed to ripple with explosive power. It was even possible to see veins snaking across her skin. Stabbed into the ground next to her was a gigantic greatsword that was terrifying to behold. It was about three meters tall and a third of a meter wide. Pitch ck, it emanated a horrifyingly baleful aura. This was the second person Huang Yikun had written a formal letter of challenge to. The Seventh Peak¡¯s second highness.

    Seeing her sitting there, Huang Yikun¡¯s heart skipped a beat and he stopped walking. The moment he did, Second Highness opened her eyes, looked at him coldly, and then erupted with a towering power of energy and blood that formed a tempest around her.

    Her fleshly body is a half step into the Gold Core level!!!?When the wind brushed against him, his dharma apertures quivered. This second highness seemed exceptionally vicious. Huang Yikun was scared out of his mind. How could this be happening? Is she even human? Is this some freaking nonhuman innate ability? Some body cultivation thing? I didn¡¯t even think you could reach this level with the fleshly body. This isn¡¯t the power of a life me. She¡¯s not nourishing her fleshly body with her dharma apertures. This is straight body refinement!! I¡¯ve never even heard of someone in the Seven Sect Coalition doing something like this!

    Huang Yikun shivered as Second Highness approached, surrounded by a tempest of energy and blood. Already, Huang Yikun knew that there was no way he could beat her in a fight.

    ¡°Wait a second, I¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, she was upon him, her greatsword swinging through the air.

    Intense booms rang out. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Huang Yikun mmed into the ground some distance away, blood spraying from his mouth, his body covered with bruises. Though rage filled him, he didn¡¯t dare do anything but flee.

    His right hand was missing another finger. Now he only had three left.

    ***

    At the summit of the Seventh Peak, inside a building, two figures sat across from each other. It was Master Seventh and his servant, both of whom were watching events unfold.

    After a while, Master Seventh sighed. ¡°As usual, Third Sib is just trying to make some money. He¡¯s willing to debase himself just to get some stupid finger!

    ¡°And Second Sib. Well. All she knows how to do is be reckless... Ai. At least she¡¯s lucky. Last month she sent me a message. She said she ran into one of the Pengbird people, a Gold Core expert who specialized in fleshly body cultivation. He was just flying along when me Phoenix happened to be passing by and ran into him. The Pengbird fell out of the sky, dead. As a result, Second Sib just so happened to get his gold core and consume it before it exploded. Thus, she achieved a breakthrough.... She didn¡¯t suspect anything, but let me ask you. Do you?¡±

    The servant was shocked inside, but didn¡¯t say a word.

    ***

    Huang Yikun raced urgently down the stairs, coughing up blood. When he looked at his remaining three dazzling fingers, he wanted to weep.

    I shouldn¡¯t have issued those challenges. These people are vicious bullies! A fleshly body half a step into Gold Core? Even in the freaking Seven Sect Coalition nobody would dare to challenge someone like that. I admitted defeat, but she still beat me up!

    These Seventh Peak highnesses are all viins. And they¡¯re profoundly deceptive. I couldn¡¯t even assess that viper of a third highness. If you said he was in Gold Core, I¡¯d believe it. And that second highness is just downright terrifying. Each one ripped off one of my fingers!!!

    Enraged, bruised, and humiliated, Huang Yikun finally reached the foot of the mountain. He was just about to leave when he looked up and saw a young man on the path in front of him.

    The young man wore a gray robe and was eating an apple. Waving, he smiled. ¡°Yikun! What are you doing here? Oh, did Second Sib beat you up?¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Huang Yikun said, shivering as he realized that this person in front of him seemed even more terrifying than the third and second highnesses. In fact, when looking into his eyes, he almost didn¡¯t seem like a human, but rather, like a grue wearing human skin as clothing.

    The Captain looked in surprise at Huang Yikun. ¡°You don¡¯t recognize me? I¡¯m good friends with your older brother Huang Lingfei. He never mentioned me?¡±

    Seeing how nervous Huang Yikun was, the Captain sighed. Putting an expression on his face that made it seem like he wanted to join forces to fight amon enemy, he said, ¡°Calm down. You got beat up by both Second Sib and Third Sib, huh? Those two are out of control.¡±

    The Captain shook his head and took out a few medicinal pills.

    Huang Yikun cautiously epted them. He wanted to just keep walking, but at the same time, he didn¡¯t dare. He had already guessed who this person was.

    ¡°Grand Highness?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to call me that,¡± the Captain said with a brilliant smile. ¡°It¡¯s too formal. Just call me Eldest Brother. You see, I¡¯m very different from Second Sib, Third Sib, and that other guy.¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother...¡± Huang Yikun murmured hesitantly.

    ¡°That¡¯s better! Now, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll escort you down the mountain. Come on.¡±

    Trembling, Huang Yikun said, ¡°No, that¡¯s okay. I can see myself¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, sure thing. I won¡¯t?escort you down. But, one more thing. Those medicinal pills I just gave you are expensive. I hate to be a pain, Junior Brother, but can you give me one of your fingers topensate?¡±

    The Captain licked his lips, and a blue light shed in his eyes. Within his pupils it was just barely possible to see an image of his face, eyes closed, but expression iparably hungry.

    When Huang Yikun sensed the immense hungering from the Captain, he was filled with the profound urge to flee. As the Captain took a step forward, Huang Yikun took a step back. But before he could even begin fleeing, his vision swam, and then he heard a cracking sound. Now he had two fingers instead of three.

    The Captain had bitten a finger off.

    The pain prompted Huang Yikun to scream in agony and run for his life.

    Watching him go, the Captain chewed on the violet-gold finger. Smiling faintly, he murmured, ¡°That kid wasn¡¯t fun at all. Definitely not like our little Ah Qing.¡±

    ***

    Atop the mountain peak, Master Seventh watched everything y out, then nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Of all my apprentices, Big Sib is the most reasonable.¡±

    The servant wasn¡¯t sure what to say. How exactly had Grand Highness been reasonable...?

    ¡°That said,¡± Master Seventh continued, ¡°it¡¯s not exactly fair. Big Sib, Second Sib, and Third Sib all got fingers. But Fourth Sib didn¡¯t get anything.¡± He waved his hand.

    As the terrified Huang Yikun raced away from the Captain in terror, a wild wind suddenly swept him up. Scared witless, he could do nothing as he was tossed in the direction of Harbor 176. A momentter, he mmed onto the ground in front of the main entrance of the Violent Crimes Division there. As his head spun and his vision swam, and before he could even get his bearings, he heard the crisp, clear voice of a young woman speaking curiously.

    ¡°Who are you? Why¡¯d you jump out in front of me? Are you trying to ambush me? Hmph! People who sneak around are always up to no good. Crush him, Stinker!¡±

    All of a sudden, Huang Yikun was seeing things crystal clear, and a sense of extremely disturbing danger filled his mind. However, he had no time to flee.

    A huge tentacle appeared, backed by Gold Core might that could crush any obstacle. As the tentacle wrapped around him, the Gold Core aura caused blood to spray out of his mouth, and then hepsed into unconsciousness.

    In hisst moments of lucidity, he heard the voice of that young girl speaking into his ear.

    ¡°Not bad. Not bad at all. I¡¯ll give this guy to Big Bro Xu Qing to experiment on.¡±

    1. The cultivators from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society showed up in??

 Chapter 237: Having Eyes for Someone

    Chapter 237: Having Eyes for Someone

    In the Violent Crimes Division cell block, Xu Qing was hunched over a Night Dove cultivator, trying to figure out why a certain poisonous nt had caused such a change in color to his ck beetles.

    If I can figure out the reason, I should be able to counteract the medicinal effect, and then use that to make the beetles a bit tougher.

    Bloodcurdling screams rang out constantly, but that didn¡¯t influence Xu Qing¡¯s studying. He waspletely focused. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he extracted the dead cultivator¡¯s soul. He looked like he might have some inspiration, but only a momentter, he frowned and looked at the door.

    It opened, revealing the bashful face of a beautiful young woman. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, and wore a green jerkin. She had dimples when she smiled, and her fair hands were as delicate as jade. Wrapped around her right forearm was a little octopus. She was none other than Yanyan.

    The octopus red briefly at Xu Qing, then looked away, feigning as if it hadn¡¯t noticed him.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said happily in greeting. Rushing in, she nced at the opened-up corpse, and her eyes lit up. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I don¡¯t want to interrupt. I¡¯ll just watch from the side, okay?¡±

    Xu Qing frowned again, and opened his mouth to say no.

    Seeing that he was about to refuse her request, Yanyan quickly said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I just caught a criminal! I was hoping to learn a thing or two from you. Or maybe we could have fun together!¡±

    At the same time, the octopus blew out a bubble, which floated off to the side and rapidly expanded in size. Inside the bubble was Huang Yikun. As soon as he appeared, countless tiny ck beetles began to quietly swarm around the bubble. It seemed as though it would only take a word from Xu Qing, and they would immediately start burrowing into Huang Yikun¡¯s flesh.

    Xu Qing recognized Huang Yikun and also noticed all of his fresh wounds. Before, he had five dazzling fingers, but now only the thumb and pinky finger remained. The other three were gone, such that his hand now resembled the character Áù.

    An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face. Then he noticed the ck beetles seemed to be behaving oddly. An unusual gleam flickered in his eyes as he looked at Huang Yikun¡¯s hair.

    As for Huang Yikun, he was now regaining consciousness, and at first he looked confused. But then he looked around and saw Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t say anything. He thought back to the things he¡¯d said to Xu Qing only a few days ago, and then everything he¡¯d experienced this night. He suddenly felt an unprecedented sensation of grief and indignation. Of course, he wanted to struggle free and escape, but there was no way for him to do so. Huang Yikun had no desire to speak.

    But Xu Qing did. ¡°So, you went and challenged the Seventh Peak?¡±

    Huang Yikun shivered. He still didn¡¯t want to say anything, but then he looked around at the blood-soaked scene around him, and all the corpses with grotesque anguish on their faces. The mere thought of going through a night of torment caused his heart to weaken, and terror filled his eyes as he looked at Xu Qing and Yanyan.

    It got worse when Yanyan started talking again.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this is a really bad guy. He jumped out of midair and tried to ambush me. Oh, right. Forget about him, Big Bro Xu Qing. Howe you never invited me here? I¡¯ve been so boredtely. Anyway, after watching you have so much fun, I came up with some fun stuff of my own.¡±

    Yanyan waved her hand, causing arge number of medicinal pill bottles to appear in front of her, within which were all sorts of poisons. Along with them was a huge wooden rack, which thumped down onto the ground. Astonishingly, the rack was filled with all sorts of ded tools. Some were curved, some were straight. Some were long, some were short, and some had corkscrew shapes. There were dozens altogether, and they even included some metal hooks and various sawed instruments.

    Xu Qing looked at the collection.

    ¡°Look how prepared I am, Big Bro Xu Qing. Why don¡¯t we apply the poison first, then cut out his dharma apertures and see what they look like? Also, how do we make his screams sound really good? Like thest few hundred of your test subjects?¡±

    Yanyan¡¯s voice was so sweet and clear that one would expect her words to be equally charming. Instead, it was theplete opposite. What was more, her clear eyes, arching eyebrows, and fluttering eyshes made it seem like she was very, very happy.

    When Huang Yikun took all of that in, his heart started pounding. He looked at all the ded instruments, then at Yanyan, and finally at Xu Qing, who was standing there looking thoughtful, and he suddenly wondered if he was in hell on earth.

    ¡°What do you think, Big Bro Xu Qing? It¡¯s a good idea, right?¡± Reaching over, Yanyan started picking through the ded instruments as if looking for the perfect one. At the same time, she looked out of the corner of her eye and fawningly continued, ¡°Where do we start, Big Bro Xu Qing? What if we cut out his tongue first? I¡¯m thinking that might make his screams sound a bit better.¡±

    Huang Yikun was tightly restrained, yet he was still shaking violently, and the terror in his eyes was so intense it had reached the point of being in despair. He was absolutely convinced that Yanyan was just outright insane, and that there were no limits to what she would do. He suddenly looked at Xu Qing with an ingratiating expression. As of now, he was convinced that this ce was far more horrifying than the Seventh Peak.

    ¡°Where do we start, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    Yanyan bit her bottom lip and stared at Xu Qing. Her fair skin was a bit flushed, and her tender, rose petal lips were so delicate it seemed like they might start bleeding at any moment.

    Xu Qing looked at her cidly. When she had suddenly started helping out the Violent Crimes Division, she had been overstepping her bounds, but he had let it slide. As for how she¡¯d dragged Huang Yikun into the cell block, he was actually intrigued. Huang Yikun clearly had wounds from a very big sword, and he also had bite marks on his hand. That alone made it obvious he had challenged the Seventh Peak. He had heard the loud thump earlier, which seemed to indicate someone had thrown Huang Yikun over to the Violent Crimes Division. There had to be a reason that Huang Yikun had been able to leave the very pragmatic Seventh Peak with two of his fingers.

    Xu Qing had a guess as to why. For one thing, it didn¡¯t seem likely that the Captain and the others from the Seventh Peak would throw a poisoned Huang Yikun to him. There was no need for that. But Huang Yikun indeed had been poisoned. It was on his hair.

    Xu Qing had seen this type of poison before. It was basically the same kind that the young merfolk prince had used on him, except this one was designed to attract other poisonous creatures.

    Furthermore, this was a much higher level of poison. Anyone who got within nine meters of him would be infected by it.

    It was very hard to detect. In fact, it was only because of the strange behavior of the beetles that Xu Qing noticed it. At the moment, he couldn¡¯t even bepletely sure of the precise effects of the poison. But based on his skill with nts and vegetation, he was certain that the poison would make it possible to track down and observe whoever had been infected by it.

    Given all that, he now wanted to know who had put the poison on Huang Yikun. Obviously, Yanyan was the biggest suspect. Although Yanyan had seemingly surrendered, based on everything she¡¯d said, Xu Qing felt... that there was no way that the ck-garbed young woman who had attacked him so ruthlessly would be cowed so easily. Therefore, he didn¡¯t believe anything she said.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you saying anything, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± She was now biting her lip so hard that blood seeped out, though that only made her bewitching face even more beautiful.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as his hand suddenly shot out andtched onto her throat. The move was so sudden, and so forceful, that bruises immediately appeared on her fair skin.

    Pulling her close to him, he slowly said, ¡°The reason I didn¡¯t kill you isn¡¯t because you have a nice grandma, but rather because you haven¡¯t crossed my bottom line. If you keep this up, you will.¡±

    Yanyan shivered, and the little octopus looked like it was ready to peel off her arm. Before it could, she quickly projected a message to it with divine will. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything rash, Stinker.¡±

    Though Xu Qing was holding her tightly by the throat, she managed to force her head down, then stick out her tongue and lick Xu Qing¡¯s wrist.

    Xu Qing frowned and threw her off to the side. She mmed into the wall and fell to the ground, blood oozing out of the corners of her mouth. And as she looked at him, it was impossible to read the look in her eyes.

    ¡°Oooh, that¡¯s right, Big Bro Xu Qing. This is the version of you I like the most. You changed before, and I wasn¡¯t happy about that. And when I¡¯m not happy with you, then I want to kill you. I knew you¡¯d notice that poison, and knew how you¡¯d react. It¡¯s exactly what I wanted to see.¡±

    Off to the side, Huang Yikun saw all this and started trembling even harder.

    Yanyan was definitely off in the head. That had be clearly apparent to Xu Qing thanks to her zed eyes and everything else she¡¯d done had made it all clear. ring coldly at Yanyan for a moment, he then looked back at the trembling Huang Yikun and his two remaining fingers.

    Huang Yikun shivered in grief; he was certain he knew what was going to happen next.

    However, the person to take action wasn¡¯t Xu Qing. It was actually Yanyan. She flew across the room, and then two cracking sounds rang out as she ripped off Huang Yikun¡¯s thumb and pinky finger. Then she offered them obsequiously to Xu Qing.

    To Huang Yikun¡¯s sorrow, he was actually getting used to this process. It didn¡¯t hurt as much this time.

    Xu Qing took the fingers and looked coldly at Yanyan.

    She could read the look in his eyes. Quickly backing up to put distance between them, she put her finger into her mouth and bit down hard, causing blood to flow. Trembling, she extended her finger to Xu Qing, her eyes filled with anticipation.

    ¡°Have a taste, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    ¡°Not interested,¡± he replied coolly. He waved his hand, causing Huang Yikun to tumble into a nearby jail cell. At the same time, his ring of holding flew into Xu Qing¡¯s hands.

    Sima Ling wasn¡¯t imprisoned in this location, which meant that Huang Yikun was the only chosen here. He had obviously been sneaking around the sect, and the punishment for breaking curfew was imprisonment.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing went back to his beetle research. He really wanted to raise his current generation of beetles to a higher level.

    Meanwhile, Yanyan sat on the floor in a W position, sucking her finger and watching Xu Qing. Slowly, a happy smile spread across her face. [1]

    ***

    Unbeknownst to them, up in the building on the summit of the Seventh Peak, Master Seventh had been watching. He saw everything Yanyan did, as well as Xu Qing¡¯s reaction. Now, an approving smile covered his face.

    ¡°Fourth Sib did great. I like his style. He reminds me of me, back in the day.¡±

    Upon hearing this, the servant bowed his head and said nothing. Inside, he was musing that Master Seventh certainly didn¡¯t seem to be on par with the Kid in terms of style. After all, there were a lot of female disciples who seemed to really like the Kid, whereas Master Seventh.... Well, the patriarch¡¯s daughter was a vice-peaklord, and she had been back in the sect for days now, yet hadn¡¯t gone to see Master Seventh a single time. Deep conflict between daoist partners wasn¡¯t something that ¡®style¡¯ could remedy.

    1. W-sitting is the mostmon English term I could find to convey what is called in Chinese ¡°duck sitting.¡± It involves sitting with knees bent, feet tucked under, bottom resting on the floor between the legs, and legs out to either side. There is another word to describe this sitting position, but I¡¯m not sure if I would get in trouble for using it, whether in the main text or in a footnote (trantors have caused problems in the past for posting things in footnotes that could be considered ¡°problematic.¡±) Anyway,  for reference. ?

 Chapter 238: Life Flames Illuminate Heavenly Palaces!

    Chapter 238: Life mes Illuminate Heavenly Pces!

    It was early morning. After a night of experimentation, Xu Qing now had three bottles in front of him that he was very pleased with.

    He had done many, many tests to reach this point. It was the ninth generation of beetles. At this point, they definitely weren¡¯t ck. They were semitransparent. In terms of theparative reduction in size between the previous generation and this generation, it was like the difference between an egg and a peanut. Considering that the previous ck beetles hadn¡¯t been visible to the naked eye, it made it even more clear how hard it would be to detect the new versions. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Xu Qing¡¯s blood was connected to them, then even he would have a hard time spotting them, let alone other people.

    In addition to that, the beetles¡¯ poison was vastly stronger than before. That was the result of the immense amounts of money he had spent to buy poisonous nts. When these beetles entered the body of an enemy and started chewing away and releasing poison, the damage would be many times greater than before.

    It was the same with the mutagen. The beetles were very tough as well, thanks to the repeated exposure to the poison pill. In fact, that exposure ensured that the ninth generation of beetles had a very strong life force. It was so strong that they could survive inside of the taboo poison pill for several dozen breaths of time.

    It¡¯s too bad they¡¯re not very intelligent. Otherwise, I might be able to get them to feign death. That would be a really good ability. They still haven¡¯t reached the point I want them to reach.... I really need them to be able to reproduce inside the poison pill. Until that happens, I won¡¯t be satisfied.

    Sighing, Xu Qing quashed any feelings of satisfaction at his current progress. That said, he felt like his goal was attainable. After all, he had a lot of spirit stones, which meant he could still buy all sorts of expensive and rare poisonous nts. He just needed to keep doing more research.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with anticipation. Next, he took out the two fingers and examined them. Off to the side, Huang Yikun was unconscious and sealed in a jail cell. He and Xu Qing were the only living people in the cell block.

    Yanyan had finally taken note of Xu Qing¡¯s frown. And though she seemed reluctant to part with him, she had eventually left quietly. Once she was gone, Xu Qing had felt a lot more at ease. He didn¡¯t like strangers hovering around him.

    Since Huang Yikun was unconscious, Xu Qing took out his identity medallion and sent a voice message. Then he opened the door of the cell block. The Mute was already outside and offered him a respectful sping of hands.

    Xu Qing examined him briefly. The Mute¡¯s cultivation base was progressing quickly. He was already in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, and would soon be in the tenth. Xu Qing tossed a medicinal pill to him. Xu Qing had taken note of how sincere and hard-working the Mute had beentely.

    The Mute¡¯s eyes glittered as he epted the medicinal pill. Then he looked at Xu Qing, awaiting orders.

    Xu Qing pointed at Huang Yikun.

    ¡°Put twenty shackles on him and then toss him in with Sima Ling.¡±

    The Mute nodded. Hurrying over, he grabbed Huang Yikun by the neck then dragged him forcefully out of the cell block. Only when he reached the main entrance did he handle him with some more care.

    Xu Qing then looked back at the two dazzling fingers. They both emanated shocking fluctuations that caused his Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture to stir.

    I wonder how to use these things. I feel like I can¡¯t use them to open dharma apertures. They seem more appropriate for advancing my techniques.

    After mulling the matter over, he sent a voice message to the Captain asking for advice.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the Captain to respond.

    ¡°Hahaha! Oh, little Ah Qing. So that idiot went over to you, huh? Well, I figured that would happen, which is why I left two fingers for you.

    ¡°Let me tell you, these Dark Serenity Fingers are amazing things. Huang Yikun really was a chosen, and he had massive perseverance and determination to form five of them.

    ¡°You see, the old man told me that they can totally transform our techniques. I still haven¡¯t figured out exactly how, but it shouldn¡¯t be long before I do. They¡¯re going to be a transforming force for our echelon techniques here on the Seventh Peak.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing decided not to worry about the fingers. Instead, he took out Huang Yikun¡¯s ring of holding.

    Why do I get the feeling Huang Yikun is actually a bit poor?

    Like Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding, this one was sealed. Unlike Sima Ling¡¯s ring, this one had no jewel on it. It seemed much more standard.

    The shadow didn¡¯t need any instructions. It flew out, broke down the sealing mark, and then sent some fawning emotions out. Obviously it was still thinking about Xu Qing¡¯s promise to give it the fragmented piece of the taboo treasure if it behaved well.

    Suddenly, for the first time ever, Xu Qing gave an approving look to the shadow.

    The shadow was stunned, and began to tremble in excitement, causing splits and cracks to appear in it.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was not happy at all. His body of lightning was also trembling, but in this case, it was because of a sense of deep foreboding.

    Intentionally or otherwise, Xu Qing happened to look at the ck iron skewer for a moment, then sent dharma force into Huang Yikun¡¯s ring of holding.

    A momentter, an unsightly expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    ¡°Is this Huang Yikun a counterfeit chosen??¡± he murmured.

    He nced in the direction where the Mute had disappeared with Huang Yikun, his expression one of displeasure. All Huang Yikun had in his ring of holding were some random bottles, a few jade slips, and spirit notes worth less than 100,000. He had no magical devices, and nothing else simr to what Xu Qing had hoped to see.

    This level of poverty was incredible. Virtually any Foundation Establishment cultivator in Seven Blood Eyes probably had more money than Huang Yikun.

    Then Xu Qing looked back at the two fingers, and realized he had his answer.

    Did he really spend his entire life savings just to cultivate those five fingers...?

    Xu Qing thought back to when he¡¯d first met Huang Yikun, and how proud he had been of those fingers. It seemed that, in all likelihood, this was the exnation.

    I almost feel sorry for the guy. He just had to go and show off his fancy stuff in front of the Captain.

    Xu Qing shook his head and then went through all the random bottles in the ring of holding. After examining them, he looked a bit more pleased.

    Most of the medicinal pills were rted to healing, but there was one bottle that contained some pills Xu Qing recognized. They were the same ones that Sima Ling had, designed to open dharma apertures.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing inspected them for safety, then popped them into his mouth. He knew exactly how extraordinary these pills were; based on how he¡¯d found them, he could only guess that these chosen kept them around to use in critical moments. However, he figured it would be better to use them immediately rather than save them forter.

    The moment he swallowed the pills, rumbling filled his body, and his 89th dharma aperture, which he had already been battering away at with the souls he¡¯d extracted recently, opened up. More dharma force swept through him.

    There was still more power left from the pills, so he sent it to his 90th dharma aperture. The aperture shivered, and then a crack opened up on it. However, it was only about ten percent open.

    As the medicinal strength continued to explode, the crack opened wider. Twenty percent. Thirty percent. Forty percent....

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and beat at the dharma aperture with all of the force he could muster. Gradually, it was sixty percent open. At that point, the force of the medicine waned. He barely managed to reach seventy percent before the medicinal efficacy faded away.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot. He could sense astonishing dharma force within that 90th aperture. The 29.5 apertures that formed the group after his 60th were all burning like stars. That fire wanted to form his third life me, but the 90th aperture wasn¡¯tpletely opened, and thus the process couldn¡¯t bepleted. Xu Qing was already feeling very anxious. Being so close to his third life me only made him more anxious.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to open it today!¡±

    Gritting his teeth, he took out his identity medallion and issued some orders.

    ¡°Bring all the Night Dove operatives we arrested to me!¡±

    The constables of the Violent Crimes Division sprang into action, and began delivering numerous Night Dove prisoners to Harbor 176. The cell block there became like a ck hole, gobbling up one Night Dove operative after another.

    As evening came, brilliance spread out through the sky. Eventually, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and violet light glittered. All of the dharma apertures from his 61st to his 90th were now opened, and they burned like raging furnaces.

    Over the course of an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, his third life me took shape!

    The moment it appeared, he felt like heavenly thunder was raging within him, causing him to shake from head to toe. Terrifying me power swept out, incinerating the cell block around him, and turning the walls into ckened crystal. Of course, he had already put protective spell formations around, and the cell block had its own spell formation, so none of the fluctuations went out into the open.

    As his third life me burned, a heavenly pce started to be visible. It was only about ten percent of its full form, but it still looked magnificent, with dramatically beautiful architecture, decorated with auspicious beasts, and was partly illusory and partly corporeal.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guess was that heavenly pces... had to do with Gold Core!

    ¡®Life mes ignite to illuminate heavenly pces.¡¯

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know all of the details of what heavenly pces were, but he did know that ¡®life mes ignite to illuminate heavenly pces¡¯ was a description of the process of rising from Foundation Establishment to Gold Core.

    Three life mes....

    As Xu Qing looked up, the golden crow danced in the air behind him, crying out noiselessly, its ming tailbining with his life mes to cause a sea of mes to spread. Feather-shaped sparks swirled around him. If a painter were to create an artistic depiction of this moment, it would be immactely beautiful.

    And anyone present to observe would bepletely shocked by the fact that neither the mes nor the golden crow emitted any pressure. And yet the golden crow¡¯s mere gaze would be enough to shake a Foundation Establishment cultivator to the core.

    What was more, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was just as exceptional as that of Master Shengyun!

    He had three life mes, a lifemp, and an imperial-ss technique.

    That was... five-me battle prowess!

    When adding in his poison, it was possible a six-me cultivator might fall to him. It was only natural that such power would be considered exceptional.

 Chapter 239: Someone Comes from the Grue Hunters

    Chapter 239: Someone Comes from the Grue Hunters

    When the shadow saw how terrifying Xu Qing was, it trembled. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior in the skewer was trembling even more.

    ¡°Incredible,¡± the patriarch said to the shadow. ¡°If you live long enough, you¡¯ll see everything! The Fiendish Xu is definitely the real deal. This is how novels are supposed to be written. With exceptional talent like this, he¡¯s got to be the true main character. As for that Master Shengyun... he might also be. But probably from another novel. Of the two novels, which MC will be stronger?¡±

    ¡°... scared, scared, scared...¡± the shadow replied frantically.

    In rare form, the patriarch didn¡¯t respond sarcastically. In his opinion, the Fiendish Xu had only been making consistent progress and bing more terrifying since taking the patriarch in. Hunh. Does that mean that I have the ability to propel people to greatness? I mean, it was after he became my lord and master that he really started his rise to prominence.

    As the shadow and patriarch were marveling, they heard Xu Qing pondering his situation.

    ¡°I¡¯m still too weak.¡± His eyes narrowed to slits, cutting off the violet glow within them. ¡°I¡¯m not at the same level as Master Shengyun, who crushed the First Peak....¡± He shook his head at the realization of how much he still needed to improve. ¡°I have to take advantage of the time I have to ignite my fourth life me. Then maybe I can see what¡¯s beyond the level of 120 dharma apertures.¡±

    Xu Qing found it odd that the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition didn¡¯t just advance to Gold Core after reaching 120 dharma apertures. In the jade slips he had read, there wasn¡¯t much information about 120 dharma apertures. But now he realized that on the Revered Ancient maind, it wasn¡¯t that rare for people to reach that level. Although they were all chosen from top sects, the entire thing still seemed strange to him.

    Furthermore, I still need my poison to be stronger. I need more poisonous nts to feed to my beetles. I need them stronger, and I need them to be able to survive long-term in the poison pill. And then there¡¯s my Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber... I can¡¯t let that destined opportunity slip through my fingers. I need to find another Supreme Vastness daoist temple to seek enlightenment in.

    ¡°Given all that, I really am just too weak,¡± he murmured. Sighing, he crushed any sense of pride at having reached the level of five-me battle prowess.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was gaping. After analyzing Xu Qing¡¯s words, he came to the conclusion that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t being sarcastic. He was absolutely serious. The patriarch felt dumbfounded.

    This is too weak? This is freaking weak?? Then what¡¯s strong? Could it be that the Fiendish Xu doesn¡¯t exactly understand the meaning of the word weak?

    The shadow was equally stupefied.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, and his eyes shone with determination.

    Since I¡¯m not strong enough, I can¡¯t put myself too much out in the open.

    After mulling the matter over some more, he looked over at the stunned shadow and patriarch

    ¡°Shadow, cover my lifemp. Add anotheryer this time. After that, cover up ten of my dharma apertures.¡± Looking around, he waved his hand, causing the surrounding fire to whip toward him, where it gathered into his palm.

    There, it became a ck fireball, emanating a terrifying level of power.

    Xu Qing closed his hand into a fist, and the fire entered him. The surrounding cell block was no longer burning. There was nothing left behind but ash.

    Next, Xu Qing took out a number of spell formations from his bag of holding, which he used to fortify the ce again.

    Given how many spirit stones he now had, he hadn¡¯t been stingy in purchasing supplies. Next, he issued anothermand.

    ¡°Keep bringing me Night Dove prisoners!¡±

    Soon enough, the constables were yet again bringing prisoners to him. When they saw the wreckage of the cell block, they were shocked, but none of them dared to ask any questions.

    Time passed. Three days went by.

    The Seven Sect Coalition was still excitedly issuing challenges to Seven Blood Eyes. But the chosen from the seven sects were starting to get suspicious about something.

    Huang Yikun was missing.

    Before vanishing, he had told them two things. He¡¯d said he was going to handle Xu Qing, and had specifically told them to wait and see how it yed out. He¡¯d said the same thing about going to challenge the Seventh Peak. Now, dayster, nothing had happened on the Seventh Peak, and now Huang Yikun was nowhere to be found.

    It was a very unusual situation. And what was even more unusual was that the Dark Serenity Sect didn¡¯t seem to care about the matter....

    Now, the Seven Sect Coalition chosen kept ncing in the direction of the Seventh Peak and Harbor 176, their eyes full of misgivings. Oftentimes, when you don¡¯t have enough information, you can¡¯t reach any conclusion at all. These chosen weren¡¯t stupid, and they realized that. They felt that what happened on the Seventh Peak wasn¡¯t their business. And Xu Qing wasn¡¯t their concern. None of them wanted to get dragged into whatever was going on.

    However, the dragon had nine sons and each was different from the others. There were some people who, seeing what was happening, simply couldn¡¯t let the matter drop. It went against their interests. After all, Xu Qing¡¯s actions against Night Dove were irritating to other chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition.

    As it turned out, Sima Ling wasn¡¯t the only person from the Seven Sect Coalition who was involved in the trafficking of living treasures.

    Though those people weren¡¯t happy that their interests were being harmed, they also needed to wait to see what the House of Grue Hunters nned to do. The House of Grue Hunters wasn¡¯t the most powerful sect in the coalition, but they were far more feared than the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. The House of Grue Hunters was famous for two things: watching out for their own, and making deals with grues. Because of that, few people would take the risk of offending them. Besides, considering they were always working with grues, most people thought of them as being lunatics.

    The members of the Church of Departure were different types of lunatics. The Church of Departure had idealistic reasons for being so insane. But the House of Grue Hunters often behaved in a way that other members of the Seven Sect Coalition didn¡¯t understand. And disciples from there often thought in strange ways.

    Therefore, there was no way the House of Grue Hunters would just let Sima Ling get crushed, and not do anything about it.

    That was exactly how things yed out. Five dayster, a lone ship appeared on the Forbidden Sea beyond the Seven Blood Eyes port.

    It was a bone ship, not very big, only about thirty meters long. It was long and slender, and almost looked like the entire thing was crafted from the arm bone of a gigantic beast. Despite it being the middle of the day, it was possible to see numerous semitransparent ghost arms sticking out of each side of the ship and paddling the water like oars. There had to be thousands of them, and they were in constant motion, sending the bone boat drifting closer and closer to Seven Blood Eyes.

    Unlike the other ships that hade from the Seven Sect Coalition, the person piloting this boat was very polite, and stopped outside of the port. Then she stepped out into the open. She was a young woman in a long white gown. She looked young, and was very beautiful. However, her face was unusually pale, making a stark contrast with her ck hair. It almost seemed like she hadn¡¯t been out in the sun in years.

    She held an umbre, and if one looked closely, they would see that the umbre had countless grue faces on it. Some cried, someughed, some bared their teeth. It was iparably vicious looking.

    Anyone who looked at it would feel flustered. As the young woman in white gently spun the umbre, the faces on its surfaces trembled in fear.

    ¡°I¡¯m Sima Ru from the House of Grue Hunters,¡± she announced softly, ¡°here to visit Seven Blood Eyes.¡± Her voice was clear, like a frigid winter wind. [1]

    Almost instantly, the spell formation opened, and the bone boat floated directly in and toward Harbor 176.

    When it reached the shore, the young woman stepped lightly off the boat and then strolled... directly toward the Violent Crimes Division. Her hair was so long it brushed the ground behind her. And it writhed as if it were alive. Wherever it passed, tiny ck balls with ghost faces on them would pop out. Bouncing along as if they were dancing, they followed her and sang a bizarre nursery rhyme.

    ¡°One, one, break your thumb and two, two, blind you with a screw.

    ¡°Three, three, crack your skull with glee and four, four, pour your blood on the floor.

    ¡°Five, five, keep you alive to six, six, trample you with kicks.¡±

    It sounded like a bunch of kids singing, but the words were sinister to the extreme. As a result, as the young woman walked along, everyone backed away from her.

    And thus, she got closer and closer to the Violent Crimes Division.

    As soon as she arrived, the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition were notified, and all of them exhaled sharply. Immediately, the chosen started exchanging shocked voice messages.

    ¡°Sima Ru from the House of Grue Hunters is here! She¡¯s Sima Ling¡¯s blood sister. And she was the chosen dao child from the previous generation. I heard that after she reached Gold Core, she went into seclusion to try to break through to her second heavenly pce!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe she¡¯s here!¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s not actually her. It¡¯s her grue clone!¡±

    ¡°Oh, I heard about this clone. Back when Sima Ru was in Foundation Establishment, she used one of her own bones to fuse with a grue. Though it doesn¡¯t have Gold Core battle prowess, it¡¯s supposedly capable of crushing four-me power.¡±

    ¡°I doubt it¡¯s at the five-me level, though. It¡¯s more like battle prowess of four-and-a-half mes. But that extra half-me of power is enough to crush four-mes.¡±

    None of them dared to get close to Sima Ru. They all thought of the House of Grue Hunters as being full of lunatics. For all they knew, she might crush Xu Qing and then go on to crush them.

    Meanwhile, back on the street in Harbor 176, Sima Ru walked along with the ghost face balls dancing behind her, singing their sinister nursery rhyme. Eventually, she reached the entrance of the Violent Crimes Division. Above her was a dark mist that took the shape of a vicious ghost face that red at the entrance.

    No one was standing guard at the door. The door was open, revealing the reception hall. Seated in the position of honor was a good-looking young man who stared at her expressionlessly.

    Looking back at him, she smiled faintly. She carried herself very properly, making her seem like a girl from a wealthy, noble family.

    ¡°I¡¯m here to take my brother home.¡±

    1. Sima Ru. I already exined this surname. The Ru character means ¡°roots, vegetables.¡± Madam Deathde says the name ''sounds nice''. Like I mentioned before, the Sima surname imparts a sense of ancient royalty. ?

 Chapter 240: Nether-Sealing Blood

    Chapter 240: Nether-Sealing Blood

    It was noon. Not a cloud could be seen in the dome of heaven, yet Sima Ru had a dark cloud overhead, within which crackled bolts of lightning. Her cloud resembled a vicious ghost face, bursting with ferocity; it seemed like all it would take was a thought from Sima Ru, and the evil ghost would rush into the Violent Crimes Division and pounce on Xu Qing.

    There usually weren¡¯t many people on the street outside the Violent Crimes Division. Right now, there were literally none.

    As soon as Xu Qing got word that Sima Ru wasing, he¡¯d sent all the constables home. And thus, the inside of the Violent Crimes Division was just as empty as the outside. Except for Xu Qing. He sat in the reception hall in front of the painting of the evil ghosts fighting for food. Upon hearing Sima Ru¡¯s words, he looked up at her standing outside the main entrance. He didn¡¯t pay any attention at all to the ghost face above her, nor the singing balls. His eyes focused solely on Sima Ru, shing as though they could pierce into her and read her inner qualities.

    A clone?

    A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes as he fiddled with the jade slip the Intelligence Division had sent him with information about her. It had a lot of details about her and her background.

    ¡°The most orthodox cultivation method in the House of Grue Hunters is tied to the blood. Cultivation techniques are only supplementary. There are four main types of blood that disciples can infuse into themselves. Each type has unique properties, and a unique way of affecting grues. Opinions differ regarding the origin of the bloodlines.

    ¡°The Sima family is associated with the Nether-Sealing Blood. It provides shocking advantages when sealing grues. Of course, none of these four bloodlines are on par with one of the most mysterious and legendary species native to Revered Ancient, the Gruewalkers.

    ¡°Sima Ru has exceptional talent. After epting the Nether-Sealing Blood, she stood head and shoulders above her fellows. Years ago, she took a ce among the echelon highnesses of the House of Grue Hunters. Though she wasn¡¯t rated number one, the others above her were all in the Gold Core level. Later, after dominating the members of the other bloodlines for years, she eventually broke through to Gold Core herself.

    ¡°Since then, she¡¯s been in seclusion. She herself has note to Seven Blood Eyes. Instead, she¡¯s sent a peak Foundation Establishment clone, formed via bone cultivation. There are several grues sealed within the clone, and it has battle prowess that surpasses the four-me level but doesn¡¯t reach the five-me level.¡±

    While Xu Qing thought about everything he knew of Sima Ru, she looked at him in the reception hall.

    ¡°My little brother is naughty and mischievous,¡± she said lightly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for any trouble he caused, and I apologize for whatever he did wrong.¡±

    Behind her, the bouncing balls started imitating her.

    ¡°Apologize, apologize.¡±

    ¡°Trouble he caused, trouble he caused.¡±

    They sounded like a host of children moring for attention. If that wasn¡¯t bizarre enough, the faces on Sima Ru¡¯s umbre all started crying andughing at the same time.

    The Seven Sect Coalition chosen who were watching from a distance were all watching with bated breath. Truth be told, even in the coalition, the House of Grue Hunters was considered mysterious. Most of the time, the other sects tried to avoid them.

    Xu Qing just looked at Sima Ru. Since this was his first time dealing with her, he had no idea how she usually behaved. But she had been very polite. She hadn¡¯t charged in, hadn¡¯t made unreasonable demands, and had even apologized on behalf of her brother. She hadn¡¯t acted overbearing like Sima Ling. It was hard to feel hostility toward someone like that, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t any less on guard because of it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have to check with my superiors about it,¡± he said calmly. ¡°Give me a few days.¡±

    Sima Ru nodded. Looking very poised, she softly said, ¡°I can wait a few days. But my little brother can¡¯t. I¡¯ll providepensation on his behalf. That said, there¡¯s also the issue of you hitting him. How do you n to make amends? My little brother likes eyeballs. Maybe you can give him one of yours as an apology.¡±

    Sima Ru remained extremely polite in both her bearing and her tone of voice. She didn¡¯t seem angry at all, and seemed very heartfelt.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. At the same time, he looked away from Sima Ru. As of this moment he dispelled any thoughts of possibly freeing Sima Ling.

    Meanwhile, Sima Ru drifted forward, through the main entrance of the Violent Crimes Division and into the courtyard. Along with her came the cloud, which roiled out to cover everything.

    At the same time, the ghost-faced balls bounced along, moring as before, and yet again copying Sima Ru¡¯s words.

    ¡°Make amends, make amends.¡±

    ¡°Make amends, make... huh¡ª?¡±

    In the middle of chanting, one of the ghost-faced balls bounced into a shady section, where it suddenly fell down, then disappeared as if it had fallen into a chasm. Its voice ceased.

    At the same time as the ball vanished, the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s spell formation activated, cutting off the outside world, and sealing the ce so that no one could see inside. There was also a crushing force that weighed down.

    But then Sima Ru reached into her robe and pulled out a white identity medallion, whereupon the crushing weight disappeared. Her identity medallion was obviously nothing to sneer at. It came from a supervisory sect, and carried with it greater authority.

    However, the function to seal off the entire division remained in ce. Only the crushing weight that would normally hinder members of outside sects disappeared.

    The grand spell formation that protected Seven Blood Eyes had its crushing power negated by someone from an outside sect. Imagine if some other person had the right to use your belongings any time they wanted. Not just that, but they could take them away at will, even if you were right there in front of them. And you couldn¡¯t say a thing. For all intents and purposes, those things might as well belong to the other person.

    Inside, Xu Qing sighed. Now more than ever, he understood why the patriarch and the others were being so very secretive about their true n.

    There was no person in existence who would want to permanently be in such a passive position. Who would want someone else to be in control of their own disciples, or be able to give out identity medallions that would negate your greatest safeguards? In a chaotic world filled with people who acted like tigers, leopards, wolves, and jackals, who could possibly be willing to live in such ignominy?

    Xu Qing even had the suspicion that if the Seven Sect Coalition leadership arrived, then the Seven Blood Eyes Formation... would obey them to crush people from Seven Blood Eyes.

    Continuing to float toward Xu Qing, Sima Ru softly said, ¡°I guess you used this spell formation to brush off my little brother¡¯s dao protector. Right?¡±

    She was now right outside the reception hall. She didn¡¯t stop there. She floated inside. However, that was also when Xu Qing started moving.

    He stepped forward, putting himself right in front of Sima Ru. Then, his facepletely expressionless, heunched a punch at her. It was a blow that caused wild winds to spring up, and shook everything in the area. The explosive force was so intense that a sound like thunder boomed out.

    Simultaneously, numerous eyes opened up in the shadows of the courtyard beyond. Then they turned into mouths that lunged toward the ghost-faced balls. At the same time, a ck lightning bolt shot out from the periphery and headed straight toward the cloud above. In the blink of an eye, deafening booms rang out left and right.

    In the face of Xu Qing¡¯s attack, Sima Ru shot backward, flying out of the reception hall and into the courtyard.

    Now, a reaction could be seen on her previously expressionless face. Also, the eyes on the numerous grue faces on her umbre opened. And they weren¡¯t looking at Xu Qing, but rather, at the ground of the courtyard.

    The balls were nowhere to be seen. That caused Sima Ru¡¯s eyes to glitter with an unusual light. Then she looked back up at the person walking out of the reception hall.

    Along with him came burning mes that took the shape of a golden crow. Within all the fire was Xu Qing, walking forward one step at a time. The fiery golden crow made him seem like a lord of mes. Its tail was like an imperial robe, surrounding him with grandeur. And as his hair whipped about, a sea of mes became his cloak. As he approached, the fiery cloak billowed, and the golden crow settled onto his head like an imperial crown. Combined with his stunning facial features, this version of Xu Qing seemed to walk with the momentum and gait of an Ancient Emperor strolling through the world of humans.

    ¡°Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits!¡± Sima Ru blurted. Then she blurred into motion, appearing right in front of Xu Qing, where she raised her right hand toward his eyes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he lowered his head and head-butted her hand.

    It was an attack method that Sima Ru was obviously not expecting. A boom rang out, and her hand exploded. Expression one of shock, she shot backward.

    Xu Qing pressed the attack, moving with speed that surpassed hers. Upon reaching her, he reached out, grabbed a handful of her hair, and then mmed her down onto the ground. The ground cracked and shattered.

    As for Sima Ru, she copsed into a mass of mist that swept away from his hand. A shrill scream rang out as the mist then converged into a gruish shape that lunged back toward Xu Qing.

    At the same time, Sima Ru¡¯s ghostly umbre suddenly sent crushing weight toward him.

    But how could some puny umbre match up to the golden crow? The golden crow looked up, its eyes filled with disdain, then lunged forward.

 Chapter 241: The Deceptive Seventh Peak

    Chapter 241: The Deceptive Seventh Peak

    The golden crow raged with a sea of mes, causing the countless faces on the ghost umbre to scream in high-pitched tones. They tried to fight, but it was useless. In the blink of an eye, the golden crow was in their midst. The shrieking became more shrill, and then the entire umbre burst into mes. The grue faces inside fought among each other to flee, but were unable. In the blink of an eye, they were incinerated by the golden crow.

    At the same time, it looked like Sima Ru¡¯s mist form was about to be dispelled by the explosive fire. But Sima Ru was no ordinary person. Despite being shocked at what was happening, she swept toward Xu Qing from all directions, piercing through the fire and transforming into a host of grue faces that snapped at him with bared teeth. Sinister wind blew, hoping to extinguish his life mes.

    Eyebrows rising, Xu Qing let all his dharma apertures burn bright. There didn¡¯t seem any point in deception right now. It would be hard to defeat Sima Ru using the battle prowess of four mes. Therefore, 90 dharma apertures raged to life. Of course, Xu Qing¡¯s dharma apertures weren¡¯t like those of ordinary people. Each one contained a 1,500-meter spirit sea. Shocking spirit seas like that would create a terrifying dharma force. And with that dharma force under his control, his life mes would be iparably astonishing.

    As for the sinister wind... it could eradicate countless life mes that existed, but not Xu Qing¡¯s. As his life mes burned in shocking fashion, the iing grue faces were rendered powerless. That wasn¡¯t to mention Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body power, which, thanks to his cultivation of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, had caught up to his cultivation progress.

    His energy and blood surged, sending blood-colored light into the sea of mes, which spread out. Agonized shrieks erupted as the grue faces were wiped out of existence.

    Every single one vanished, turning into a mist that spun backward, where it converged into a ball. Then, a terrifying aura spread out from it, along with a howl. Shockingly, the mist then transformed into a three-headed beast. It looked like a tiger, with two heads in the front and one where the tail would normally be. Wild, freezing winds swept around the ghost tiger as it lunged toward Xu Qing.

    It moved so quickly that, in the shortest of moments, it was closing in on its target. What was more, hosts of souls spilled out of it, which transformed into tiger-assisting ghosts that joined the swirling whirlwind. [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone coldly as he took a step forward. Right in front of the ghost tiger, he waved his right hand, causing balefire to erupt out and cover his fist.

    As rumbling sounds echoed out, the ghost tiger suddenly dodged to the side, then lunged forward with its mouth open dramatically wide, as if it could devour anything and everything.

    Xu Qing cidly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then extended his finger. Fire roiled out of him to form a bluegreen dragon that was farrger than the ghost tiger. The dragon opened its mouth, then viciously chomped down on the tiger. A boom rang out as the tiger exploded with a scream.

    But Sima Ru was no ordinary opponent. After being destroyed by the bluegreen dragon, the tiger copsed into a mist, which then transformed into a third type of grue. It looked like a pitch-ck rakshasa with wings. After forming, it howled at Xu Qing and rushed toward him.

    However, a momentter a ck lightning bolt suddenly shot out from the cloud overhead. As it sped toward the rakshasa, a shadow spread out over the ground.

    Sima Ru in rakshasa form looked surprised. She managed to dodge the iron skewer, and even avoid the shadow. But she couldn¡¯t get away from Xu Qing. Moving forward with unstoppable momentum, he grabbed her rakshasa form by the neck and mmed it viciously into the wall.

    A boom rang out as the wall copsed. As the rakshasa reeled, massive amounts of balefire poured out of Xu Qing¡¯s hands. He was already starting to assimte her! In fact, as he did, his 91st dharma aperture started wriggling as though it might open soon.

    As Sima Ru in rakshasa form struggled, Xu Qing mmed her into the ground. The rakshasa copsed.

    As the mist spread out again, the golden crow let loose a cry and shot toward it, hoping to devour it.

    But that was when the mist converged, transforming into a fourth state! It was a bloated giant fully 300 meters tall. It looked massive, and incredibly heavy, as it tried to crush the golden crow by sitting on it.

    It didn¡¯t qualify to seed at such an effort. The golden crow¡¯s eyes shone as it started devouring it. At the same time, Xu Qing strode forward, his eyes shining as he looked at Sima Ru¡¯s fourth state.

    Even just absorbing a fraction of the rakshasa had almost opened one of his dharma apertures, and therefore, Sima Ru was a precious treasure as far as he was concerned. Upon nearing the struggling giant, he erupted with balefire and immediately began assimting it.

    Fear appeared in the eyes of Sima Ru¡¯s struggling giant form.

    As the golden crow absorbed it, the shadow shot forth, and the iron skewer closed in excitedly.

    A bewildered look appeared in Sima Ru¡¯s eyes, and then, without the slightest hesitation, she self-detonated. A massive boom rattled out. A self-detonation backed by the power of four and a half mes was immense as it swept everywhere.

    As the giant exploded, a ck arm bone appeared and shot toward the exit of the Violent Crimes Division!

    That bone was the nucleus of the clone Sima Ru had created. Now that she knew how terrifying Xu Qing truly was, she had no interest in continuing the fight. She only wanted to escape.

    She had chosen the right moment to do it. The shocking power of the explosion would make it difficult for anyone to pursue her. Sadly for her, shepletely underestimated Xu Qing¡¯s abilities.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow shot under the explosion and closed in on her with blinding speed.

    In thatst critical moment, Sima Ru¡¯s ck bone shone with dark light. Realizing that she couldn¡¯t escape, she spun in ce and sent her bone form shooting viciously toward Xu Qing¡¯s head. As she moved, the bizarre nursery rhyme echoed out around her.

    ¡°One, one, break your thumb and two, two, blind you with a screw.

    ¡°Three, three, crack your skull with glee and four, four, pour your blood on the floor.

    ¡°Five, five, keep you alive to six, six, trample you with kicks.¡±

    The iing attack surpassed the level of four mes, and as it neared, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Suppressing any thoughts of revealing how many mes he actually had, he took out a jade pendant. That jade pendant was the Nascent Soul defense shield Master Sixth had given him. He had almostpletely drained it during the battle with the Seastars, making it much less effective than then. There was no way it could stand up to a Nascent Soul attack. But it was still mighty, and there was a bit of power left in it.

    Sima Ru¡¯s grue attack mmed into the shield, and it was like an egg being thrown against a boulder. The arm bone cracked, and a scream rang out from inside. Then Xu Qing reached out, grabbed the arm, and sent balefire raging out to assimte it.

    Massive soul power surged out of the bone and into Xu Qing. Without hesitation, he sent it rushing toward his 91st dharma aperture, which instantly opened.

    While Xu Qing was absorbing the bone, the golden crow was also devouring it. The shadow helped itself, and the ck iron skewer also stabbed into it. Wild, piercing screams rang out. Then the bone shattered and turned into ash. Before it did, Xu Qing managed to open his 92nd dharma aperture!

    Then he looked back at the spot where the bone had turned into ash. The ash wasn¡¯t moving, but there was a scrap of divine will left in it. The divine will formed into a very faint, semitransparent version of Sima Ru in her white gown. It looked like she would flicker out of existence at any moment.

    As she looked at Xu Qing, she was visibly surprised.

    ¡°Your Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits is superb. You¡¯re not at all like the description the sect provided me! You tricked all of the cultivators who came here. And you don¡¯t have two life mes. You have three! Beyond that, your dharma apertures are astonishing. They¡¯re all 1,500 meters! That puts your battle prowess, not at the four-me level, but closer to five mes!

    ¡°If you ever ignite four life mes, you¡¯ll be like a second Master Shengyun, except that you don¡¯t have a lifemp! You¡¯re far too deceptive! You¡¯re... the number one chosen of this generation in Seven Blood Eyes!¡±

    Sima Ru hade here thinking she could crush Xu Qing, then take her little brother away. How could she have imagined how profoundly deceptive Xu Qing actually was? Obviously, if he had used his true five-me power, he could have crushed Sima Ling in an instant. Instead, he drew out the fight to give people the wrong impression.

    Don¡¯t tell me he was actually after me? Did he do all this on purpose to lure me here? That caused Sima Ru to think back to how he had instantly started absorbing her as soon as heid hands on her. It was the most humiliating thing she had ever experienced, and it caused killing intent to burn in her eyes.

    ¡°Now I know how deceptive you really are. My true form will be out of seclusion soon. Then I¡¯lle and crush¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing shoved his hand out, and Sima Ru¡¯s divine will copsed into nothing before she could finish speaking.

    Looking at the spot where she had disappeared, he thought, You¡¯re wrong. I¡¯m not the number one chosen in Seven Blood Eyes.

    He couldn¡¯t help but think back to the miserable state Huang Yikun was in after going to the Seventh Peak. Forget people from outside the sect. Even Xu Qing himself thought that people from the Seventh Peak were just too skilled at being deceptive. Take the Captain for instance. Though Xu Qing had his violet crystal that gave him powers of regeneration, the Captain obviously had some terrifying entity sealed within him.

    ***

    Little did Xu Qing know that Master Seventh was atop the Seventh Peak, looking down at the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176, feeling very exhrated. The Captain squatted behind him eating apples whole, one at a time. Off to the side, Third Highness held a fruit basket, and was giving one apple after another to the Captain.

    ¡°Hey, Third Sib,¡± the Captain said, ¡°how did you manage to seduce that girl from Supreme Arbiter? Give your Elder Brother some tips!¡±

    Third Highness grinned. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything special. I¡¯m just dashing, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°Like hell! Even if you were more dashing than you already are, you couldn¡¯t measure up to little Ah Qing. Hey, I just remembered something.¡± Grinning enigmatically, the Captain continued, ¡°A while back, the old man went to Revered Ancient. After he¡¯d barely been back a year, you stepped off of a ship onto a harbor here. And you had a white identity medallion. You were only about thirteen, but you were already at the one-me level. And all you wanted was revenge. Does that mean you originallye from Revered Ancient? Did you cause some trouble in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society back there...?¡±

    Third Highness¡¯ expression didn¡¯t change. Smiling, he said, ¡°Seems it¡¯s impossible to pull the wool over your eyes, Eldest Brother. That said, I¡¯m curious. Eldest Brother... how many times have you restarted your cultivation?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times, then smiled. ¡°Take a guess.¡±

    Third Highness smiled. Not saying anything further, he offered another apple to the Captain.

    The Captain took it and looked in the direction of Harbor 176. He sighed. ¡°Little Ah Qing really is good at being deceptive. He actually has three mes!! I think there¡¯s more he¡¯s being deceptive about, though. I don¡¯t even know if I could kill him if we ended up fighting each other. But if the thing inside me actually wakes up one day, then, oh Master, you can¡¯t save Xu Qing but ignore me! You need to treat everyone fairly! After all, I am your most favorite and beloved apprentice!¡±

    As for Second Highness, she wasn¡¯t paying attention to what was happening below, nor was she listening to her Elder Brother, Junior Brother, or Master. She was focused on sending messages through her identity medallion. She looked unusually bashful.

    Master Seventh nced at her. This girl! Fortune really does favor the fool!

    Then he looked at Big Sib and Third Sib. Though he tended to scold them relentlessly, he was actually very proud of his apprentices. After all, he had selected them after searching far and wide for the very best candidates. Only after carefully observing them, and weeding out any who weren¡¯t the best of the best, did he end up with the ultimate wolves among even the most ultimate wolves.

    Each and every one of his apprentices could surpass the highnesses from the other mountains by a wide margin. His apprentices could crush the others if they wanted, at any time. That was how he searched for apprentices. He didn¡¯t just want any old chosen cultivator.

    What made him even more proud was that his apprentices were all worthy of carrying on his traditions. Like him, they all excelled at deception. They would never reveal their secret weapons and big secrets. And when other people thought they had them figured out, the reality was that they were just falling for the deception.

    This Fourth Sib is a natural-born deceiver. I didn¡¯t have to teach him a thing. He¡¯s amazing. In a chaotic world with danger everywhere, and the future uncertain, it¡¯s only natural to be deceptive!

    Also... while chosen disciples weren¡¯tmon in the past, now they¡¯re being born all the time. And not just among us humans. Among the countless nonhuman species as well. It just goes to show that a great era is upon us. A great era. Great destined opportunities. And of course. Great danger!

    1. A tiger-assisting ghost is a specific kind of ghost from Chinese mythology. It is ¡°the ghost of a person who fell victim to a tiger, yet helps the tiger to devour others.¡± ?

 Chapter 242: Killing on a Moonless Night

    <h4>Chapter 242: Killing on a Moonless Night</h4>

    Everyone in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city had settled into silence. They breathed. They waited. And their eyes glittered with increasingly intense trepidation and rm. Everyone was wondering what exactly was happening in the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176.

    The Seven Blood Eyes Formation could not crush Sima Ru, but it could keep making it impossible for anyone to see what was happening inside the division.

    Normally speaking, the only people who could see through the formation were the high-ranking members of Seven Blood Eyes, as well as the echelon highnesses. Except... Master Seventh prevented them from doing so. The only people capable of observing events inside the division were those from the Seventh Peak.

    Therefore, the only thing non-Seventh Peak cultivators could see was Sima Ru entering. Then, not longter, the isting barrier faded away and everything went back to normal.

    ***

    The next day....

    In an unusual break from the norm, the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition stopped issuing challenges.

    The Violent Crimes Division constables returned to their positions, and operations began as usual. Just like always, they tracked down Night Dove operatives and sent prisoners to Xu Qing.

    Sima Ru was nowhere to be seen, and her little brother Sima Ling was still imprisoned.

    The bone ship in the harbor had lost whatever force was holding it together, and it copsed into nothing.

    The chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition were shaken so deeply that they lost any desire to challenge the other mountain peaks. What was the point? No matter what other challenges they won, the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176 was like a sharp spike piercing toward their hearts.

    Sima Ling had obviously been crushed by the Violent Crimes Division. Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect had challenged the Seventh Peak, only to go missing. And before going missing, he had told everyone he was going to take care of Xu Qing.

    All of these things... revolved around Xu Qing!

    To the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition, the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176 was as dangerous as a dragon¡¯s pool or a tiger¡¯s den. It was iparably mysterious, and at the same time, unimaginably perilous!

    The Seven Sect Coalition had arranged for them toe here and methodically issue challenges to crush the spirits of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. The goal was to make sure that all disciples in Seven Blood Eyes felt fear and reverence for the coalition.

    At first, the visiting chosen had done exactly that. Their constant challenges left the Seven Blood Eyes disciples morose and rmed. In fact, some of the disciples had even started trying to ingratiate themselves with the visiting chosen.

    But now, even as those chosen tried to intimidate the local disciples, they were being intimidated by the Violent Crimes Division!

    ¡°Just what is Xu Qing¡¯s real battle prowess level?¡±

    ¡°Sima Ru went in there and never came out. It wasn¡¯t her true form, but she still had four-me battle prowess. She could crush all of us as easily as turning over her hand. But she got crushed in the Violent Crimes Division!¡±

    ¡°Is the Seventh Peak... the real nucleus of Seven Blood Eyes?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s too bad our Elder Brother Master Shengyun left....¡±

    The Seven Sect Coalition chosen were shaking in their boots. At the same time, the Seven Blood Eyes disciples were getting very excited at how things were ying out. Xu Qing and the Seventh Peak were really in a league of their own.

    It was like a beam of light was suddenly shining down onto the darkness that had enveloped the hearts of the disciples from the various mountain peaks. Before, the maind chosen had seemed unstoppable. But now, things were different. At the same time, the local disciples were feeling increasing reverence for both the Seventh Peak and Master Seventh.

    What was more, rumors were starting to circte that Seven Blood Eyes was undergoing a big transformation, and that soon, there would be a sect leader in charge!

    Right now, Seven Blood Eyes had peaklords, but not a sect leader.

    The disciples of each mountain peak would follow the orders of their peaklord, and didn¡¯t ever pay much attention to the other mountain peaks. Everyone was independent and only worked together on special asions.

    But now... the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s visit had be like an iron hammer, striking Seven Blood Eyes from all directions. Furthermore, the visit made it seem like a storm of troubles was on the way. The disciples felt immense pressure from the outside. However, that pressure seemed to be forging Seven Blood Eyes into something different, getting rid of the dregs that had built up over years, and making the sect stronger.

    The visiting nonhumans and the Seven Blood Eyes allies were now able to see that with their own eyes, and were also seeing how popr the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ patriarch was. He was actually using the Seven Sect Coalition to refine and temper his own sect.

    The Seven Sect Coalition wasn¡¯t blind to this fact either, and as a result, they didn¡¯t urge their visiting chosen to issue more challenges. That said, a new series of instructions was sent by the coalition.

    ording to the new instructions, adjustments needed to be made to the peaklord arrangement, especially when it came to the Seventh Peak. Furthermore, all of the highnesses of the various mountain peaks, especially the Seventh Peak, were to be sent to the Revered Ancient maind for assigned duties.

    Sir Bloodsmelter ensured that all the new instructions were bogged up in formalities. However, the Seven Sect Coalition was very insistent. They continued to send more messages, which became increasingly threatening. Eventually, they outright stated that if their new instructions were not obeyed, the Seven Sect Coalition would enforce them with violence.

    In fact, the patriarch of the strongest group in the coalition, the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, powered up his sect¡¯s taboo magical treasure in an awesome disy of intimidating force.

    When the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect powered up their taboo magical treasure, some of the other sects followed suit. The Second Peak¡¯s supervisory sect, Spiritgloam Valley, and the Sixth Peak¡¯s supervisory sect, the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, also did the same.

    In addition to all that, more orders came down, demanding that Seven Blood Eyes send half of the Seazombie¡¯s wartime reparations to the Seven Sect Coalition, and set up Foreign Affairs Ministries on all of the inds that had been taken in the war.

    The department was called Foreign Affairs, but it might as well have been called the Supervision and Investigation Ministry. At the top level, it supervised the patriarch, and at the bottom level, it investigated disciples. Overnight, Seven Blood Eyes suddenly seemed extremely unstable.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying much attention to all that. For one thing, he knew that the leadership of Seven Blood Eyes had all started out like venomous bugs in a jar, and had carved out a bloody path to the top. There was no way they would be unable to deal with a crisis like this. In addition to that, he knew that when it came to inter-sect rtions, you couldn¡¯t just look at the surface. There was too much at stake to put much stock into whatever rumors were floating around.

    ¡°The Seven Sect Coalition is also made up of disparate parts,¡± Xu Qing murmured. His encounter with the House of Grue Hunters had made that clear to him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s attention was focused mostly on his beetle research and on tightening the around Night Dove.

    Thanks to the curfew and recent raids, Night Dove¡¯s operations were severely limited. The final big crackdown came a few dayster in the middle of the night.

    Night Dove¡¯s five main headquarters in Seven Blood Eyes had been identified.

    The most elite constables from all seven of the Violent Crimes Divisions would join forces, bing five sharp des that mercilessly attacked those five headquarters. At the same time, even more Violent Crimes constables would spread out into the capital city to enforce the curfew, and catch any Night Dove operatives who fled from the headquarters.

    As the night wind blew, Xu Qing emerged from the Violent Crimes Division in Harbor 176, followed by the shadowy forms of several thousand Seventh Peak constables. Then, Xu Qing issued his orders.

    ¡°The Violent Crimes Division shall go to war tonight!¡± he said, his voice ringing out, somber and deste. ¡°Afterward, there will be no Night Dove in Seven Blood Eyes!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the thousands of constables shouted. With that, Xu Qing¡¯s deputy directors led their teams out into the night.

    It was windy, and dark clouds made it a moonless night.

    All the businesses near the Violent Crimes Division were closed, even ces like inns that were usually open at night. Everyone huddled in rm as they looked out at the shadowy forms of the Violent Crimes constables racing through the night.

    Xu Qing led the way, his hair streaming behind him as he raced along. All of a sudden, he thought back to his second night in Seven Blood Eyes, back when he had first joined the sect.

    Back then, he had been carefully walking along when a group of Violent Crimes constables raced by. He remembered how he had been so on guard, but at the same time, envious of them. [1]

    Now, he was leading thousands of constables on a nighttime raid.

    Three years, he thought, speeding up.

    The constables he led all looked at Xu Qing with zeal and fervor. That was just how things worked in a chaotic world. The weak venerated the strong.

    At the same time... the things Xu Qing had done as he walked his path gave them something to imitate. Three years ago, Xu Qing had been just like them. An ordinary constable. Three yearster, he was now the director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division!

    The wind blew harder.

    Before long, Xu Qing spotted a mansion off in the distance. It had once been a business run by the Fourth Peak, but hadter been purchased by a private party and converted into a brothel. The curfew had put it out of business, and now it looked dark and empty.

    ¡°Attack!¡± Xu Qing said coolly. The thousands of constables behind him rushed toward the mansion, bursting with killing intent. Momentster, rumbling booms rang out as Night Dove operatives fled in all directions, only to be surrounded and attacked by Violent Crimes constables. In the blink of an eye, the sounds of ughter filled the night, apanied by the stench of gore.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything. He simply hovered in midair and watched coldly. At the same time, he kept an eye on the reportsing in from the attacks on the other Night Dove headquarters.

    ¡°Director Xu, things went smoothly at the third headquarters. We¡¯re doing a final sweep right now!¡±

    ¡°Things went well at the second headquarters. We killed the Foundation Establishment chief and are currently wiping out the remaining operatives.¡±

    ¡°The fifth headquarters is secure!¡±

    ¡°We need backup! A cultivator from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect is present in the fourth headquarters, along with a three-me Night Dove operative!!¡±

    Just as Xu Qing was reading thatst message, he saw a distress signal light up the sky in the distance. He burst into motion with explosive speed, heading in the direction of the distress signal. The golden crow manifested around him, its wings unfurling, and its tail leaving behind clouds of sparks.

    From a distance, it looked like Xu Qing was cloaked in mes as he shot forward with unstoppable force!

    1. He first encountered Violent Crimes constables in??

 Chapter 243: A Saber Takes Heads in the Night

    <h4>Chapter 243: A Saber Takes Heads in the Night</h4>

    Xu Qing moved with shocking momentum, apanied by the golden crow. He headed directly toward the distress signal, peerless, bewitching, leaving behind mes in the sky. As he closed in on his destination, iparable fire burned in heaven and earth, sending out intense waves of heat toward the fifth Night Dove headquarters. Rumbling echoed out left and right as a sea of mes covered everything. Fleeing Night Dove operatives screamed in agony as they were reduced to ash. Crashing sounds could be heard as entire buildings copsed.

    This area was in the district administered by the Fifth Peak. The headquarters itself was a huge, three-story tower that supposedly sold spell formations. Though it didn¡¯t maintain any official ties to the Fifth Peak, the reality was that it did have some business connections with the disciples there.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if the Fifth Peak knew that this ce also had ties to Night Dove. Nor did he care. After this night, the ce wouldn¡¯t exist.

    As he arrived, and the sea of mes he brought swept over everything, the Violent Crimes constables who had the ce surrounded excitedly bowed in greeting.

    Some distance away, the copsing buildings revealed two locations where fighting was ying out. In one of them, seven or eight deputy directors had used the sect¡¯s grand spell formation to trap a Night Dove operative. The operative was an old man in a fancy ck robe with age spots all over his face. His eyes radiated fury, and as he fought back, his three-me power was clearly extraordinary. Normally speaking, he could have easily ughtered the one-me deputy directors. But thanks to using the sect¡¯s spell formation, they were able to stay alive and also prevent him from fleeing.

    Unfortunately, there weren¡¯t many deputy directors to begin with, and the power of the spell formation that they could summon wasn¡¯t enough to fully crush the Night Dove operative. All of the deputy directors were injured. That said, Seven Blood Eyes disciples were born of ferocity, and wouldn¡¯t back down just because of some simple injuries.

    In the other location where fighting was ying out, a two-me Violent Crimes director, backed by the support of several hundred constables and the Fifth Peak spell formation, had trapped a single opponent. He wore a golden daoist robe, and looked to be about eighteen or neen years old. He was handsome, with eyes like stars and a very extraordinary disposition. Nine flying swords swirled around him, sending pulses of sword energy in all directions. Shockingly, he had the power of three life mes, and he looked very angry as he battered at the spell formation trapping him.

    The Seven Blood Eyes Formation wouldn¡¯t work on this person, and thus the director had to rely on the Fifth Peak itself. With hundreds of constables also helping to power the formation, they were just able to contain the young swordsman. However, given how pale they were in the face, it was obvious they wouldn¡¯t be able to sustain the effort much longer.

    Xu Qing arrived like a lightning bolt from heaven. As the sea of mes roiled around him, he looked over at the three-me old man in the ck robe, as well as the disciple from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    Thetter was stunned to see Xu Qing present, as he knew how terrifying he was. And he grew more rmed when he realized Xu Qing was ignoring the Night Dove operative and heading in his direction. The sword energying off of his flying swords suddenly grew unstable.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he blurted, ¡°I was just passing through! Your subordinates attacked Night Dove and then dragged me into this. I have nothing to do with Night Dove!¡±

    Meanwhile, the director of the Third Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division wiped blood from his mouth and said, ¡°Director Xu, when we showed up and surrounded the ce, this guy was in the middle of negotiating something with the Night Dove chief. I don¡¯t know what they were talking about, but he definitely wasn¡¯t just passing through!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and strode forward. He waved his hand, and the Violent Crimes constables restraining the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciple were pushed away by a gentle force. The spell formation also ceased functioning.

    The young man¡¯s face flickered dramatically as he said, ¡°Xu Qing, my Elder Brother is Master Shengyun! If you hurt me, he¡¯ll kill you! I¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless as he arrived right in front of the young man, ignoring the flying swords that swirled around him. Xu Qing moved so quickly that the sword disciple couldn¡¯t track his movements or react. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing reached out, grabbed the young man¡¯s throat, and smashed him into the ground.

    A boom echoed as cracks spread out on the ground. At the same time, the young sword disciple bled profusely from the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Two of his life mes instantly went out. In his shock, he tried to control his flying swords and send them shooting toward Xu Qing, but he was too slow.

    Xu Qing lifted him up and threw him backward. Cracking sounds rang out from inside the young man, and at the same time, he let loose a miserable shriek. Numerous bones within him were now shattered, and his final life me went out. As he flopped on the ground, coughing up blood, he was obviously seriously injured.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to issue orders. The Violent Crimes constables in the area immediately pounced on the young man and ced shackles on him to seal his cultivation base.

    Meanwhile, the old Night Dove operative surrounded by the deputy directors suddenly used some sort of life-saving technique. Booms rang out as a huge shockwave swept out, stunning everyone around him. Then he threw out an identity medallion, which shattered but somehow loosened the effects of the sect¡¯s grand spell formation.

    Using that opportunity, the ck-robed operative fled with terror in his eyes. Strangely, the direction to which he fled was none other than the sect¡¯s mountain peaks.

    Xu Qing turned and looked at him coldly. He had no idea who this person was, but he could sense the fluctuations of a disguise. What was more, he had obviously used an identity medallion to negate some of the effects of the spell formation.

    Though the formation was only being used by deputy directors, who couldn¡¯t unleash its full might, it was still something formidable. Because of that, it seemed to indicate that this person... was actually a Seven Blood Eyes disciple. There was no way that Night Dove could operate in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city without working with Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Xu Qing was fully aware of that, but at the same time, wasn¡¯t interested in uncovering every detail. There wasn¡¯t any point.

    After noting the direction in which the ¡®old man¡¯ fled, Xu Qing expressionlessly stepped up into mid-air. Then he lifted his right hand over his head, whereupon the shadowy image of a heavenly saber appeared. The saber was shockingly powerful, and as soon as it appeared in the open, wild winds screamed, and a deste aura spread out everywhere. Everyone who could see it was visibly shocked.

    In fact, there were some Seven Sect Coalition disciples who recognized what it was, and let loose exmations of surprise.

    ¡°Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber!¡±

    As those cries of shock rang out, Xu Qing sped up, heading directly toward the three-me ¡®old man¡¯ from Night Dove. Blinding light erupted from the saber as it shed down, moving with such incredible speed it could slice stars and sever moons. From a distance, the majestic might of that saber caused the dome of heaven to change color, and filled the night with the radiance of glittering heavenly bodies.

    One solitary saber descended, shaking everything in all directions.

    The fleeing ¡®old man¡¯ lookedpletely astonished as he tapped into all of the power his life mes could muster. However, none of that was enough for him to flee the saber. As the saber light glittered, his eyes lit up with despair.

    ¡°I had no idea you knew the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber....¡± he murmured. A blood-red line appeared on his forehead, then stretched down to his nose and his lips. It went through his chin, down his chest, and then the rest of his body. Blood sprayed everywhere as he was slicedpletely in half. Then the two halves of him flopped onto the ground, surrounded by gore.

    Given the current level of Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, his Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber was even more deadly than before. One strike was enough to kill a three-me opponent. Everyone who saw it was struck speechless.

    Meanwhile, not far away, there was a team of Violent Crimes constables stopping anyone on the street to make sure they weren¡¯t fleeing Night Dove operatives. Despite the curfew, there were still some people who, for various reasons, needed to be out and about.

    At the moment, one such person was standing near the Violent Crimes constables. He was a young man of about thirteen or fourteen years of age, and he was so nervous he was trembling. He had arrived in Seven Blood Eyes the day before, and had just passed his assessment earlier that day and been assigned to the Sixth Peak. He had his identity medallion in his hand, and it indicated he was to check in for duty with the Sixth Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division.

    On his way back from the assessment, he was stopped by some Violent Crimes constables. And as they inspected his identity medallion, he heard a scream and looked up to see that Night Dove operative being cut in half by a saber!

    He was shocked, but at the same time, the saber move filled him with a deep longing and an indescribable reverence.

    Seeing the look in his eye, one of the constables looked over his shoulder and then said, ¡°That¡¯s Director Xu Qing from the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division. He¡¯s the top figure in all of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Violent Crimes Divisions.¡± Then he waved at the other constables and continued, ¡°This kid¡¯s with us. Calm down, you¡¯ll scare him. We need to focus on catching the Night Dove fugitives. The exalted Xu Qing¡¯s orders are to wipe out everyst Night Dove operative before the sun rises! As for you, boy, hurry on your way. It¡¯s not safe out tonight.¡±

    The other constables raced off excitedly into the night. Meanwhile, the young man stood where he was, looking up at the heavenly saber slowly fading out of existence.

    I wonder when I¡¯ll be like that, he thought. Then he hurried on his way. A seed had been nted in his heart, a seed that would urge him to be a powerful expert as well.

    .

 Chapter 244: Dealing With Society

    Chapter 244: Dealing With Society

    One saber ughtered three mes!

    Of course, any of the chosen from the seven sects could unleash simr battle prowess. After all, the difference between three mes and four was so far that the four-me level could almost be considered a higher cultivation realm altogether. As long as a three-me cultivator didn¡¯t have an imperial-ss technique or lifemp, or some other technique that could span entire levels, then the two levels were poles apart. That included both speed and strength.

    And yet, Xu Qing¡¯s actions still caused waves of shock to fill the hearts of the Seven Sect Coalition disciples.

    For one thing, none of them had paid very close attention to him early on, only to have him gradually turn into a massive threat. A lot of that had to do with the way Sima Ru went missing. That incident caused everyone to pay very close attention to Xu Qing. In fact, though most of them were loath to admit it, his actions had, beyond the shadow of a doubt, made him a consummate cultivator second only to Master Shengyun.

    Another reason they were so shocked was that his use of that saber went to show how unbelievably deceptive Xu Qing was. It was the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber! Though it was only considered an imperial-ss technique after someone gained enlightenment of a specific number of moves, no one had any way of knowing exactly how many moves Xu Qing could unleash. Even if it was only one, it was still enough to strike fear in their hearts.

    After all, it was very difficult to force enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. It came down to one¡¯s perception andprehension, and that was the same no matter which sect you came from. In fact, there were some sects in the Revered Ancient maind who specialized in saber arts, and they would use a person¡¯s ability to gain enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber as a basis to judge their cultivation aptitude. In some ways, the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber was a standard used to define who was ¡®chosen¡¯ and who wasn¡¯t. None of the Seven Sect Coalition chosen could meet that standard other than Master Shengyun. All of them had attempted enlightenment of that saber technique in the past, but had failed.

    Therefore, seeing Xu Qing unleash the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber to ughter a three-me Night Dove operative left them with very mixed emotions.

    As for the various visitors and allies present, they learned something new about Xu Qing after seeing him use that saber. They found out that he was both decisive and intelligent.

    Night Dove had been present in Seven Blood Eyes for years, and they were like wild grass that would be incinerated in a wildfire, only to proliferate when spring came. But on this asion, the fact that the Violent Crimes Division spent two months focusedpletely on exterminating Night Dove revealed... that something different was happening. And it was no small thing.

    There were obviously people in Seven Blood Eyes who offered protection to Night Dove. After all, there were matters of profit to be considered. The only real question was how many people in Seven Blood Eyes were secretly helping Night Dove and making money as a result. No one knew. When truly attacking Night Dove, one had to have supreme confidence. The nonhuman cultivators knew that, and were now very curious to see if the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s actions against Night Dove would harm the sect¡¯s financial interests and cause internal chaos.

    Regardless, Xu Qing acted very decisively. He had obviously been aware that the three-me Night Dove operative was really a disciple of Seven Blood Eyes. But instead of digging to find out more details, he had simply killed him with a single saber strike. He never gave him the chance to reveal who he was. And given how badly mangled his corpse was, there was no way to deduce his true identity.

    That saber strike hadn¡¯t just killed the disciple in question. It had also served to sever his connection to whoever backed him.

    Xu Qing used that saber strike to send a message to whoever was still hiding in the shadows. And that message was: the Violent Crimes Division isn¡¯t going to dig further.

    In an ordinary, flourishing world, that would be the wrong thing to do. But in a chaotic world, it was the smart decision, and would result in the least amount of negative repercussions. In fact, it was essentially a favor to whoever remained in the shadows. Xu Qing had handled the matter expertly.

    Even Sir Bloodsmelter marveled in admiration. He wasn¡¯t worried about the sordid elements in the sect. He was fully aware that there was good and bad in everything in the world. When the sun shone the brightest, it cast the darkest shadow. And in many things, there wasn¡¯t just ck and white, there was also gray.

    Xu Qing had long sincee to understand that. After arriving at Seven Blood Eyes he had encountered many situations in which ruthless characters hid behind gentle dispositions. And he had also seen what happened when people didn¡¯t realize that. As a result, he had not wasted any time learning the proper way to act.

    After this incident, none of the nonhuman species would ever forget Xu Qing¡¯s name. And though they were struck by fear, they wouldn¡¯t reveal how they truly felt about him. Now they all knew that Xu Qing had impressive battle prowess, was ruthless, could be extremely deceptive, and was also very intelligent. Unless you struck like lightning to kill someone like that, you would fail, and then suffer as a result. Unless there was some amazing profit to be had, or some astounding enmity to address, no one would risk attacking someone like him. In fact, it would make more sense to make friends with him. Life wasplicated in that way sometimes.

    It was also for this same reason that, after the night of activity, when the had been fully tightened on Night Dove and Xu Qing got a name list, his request to the sect about what to do next was approved.

    That name list came in the form of an ount book for the sales of living treasures. Books like that were often the key to operations such as this one. But they didn¡¯t always serve as a way to keep records. They could also be viewed as a system of checks and bnces. After all, they could be left out for others to find¡­.

    To some extent, a book like this was almost like a ¡®taboo treasure.¡¯

    Xu Qing was fairly certain that it had been purposely left out for him, as it contained detailed records of everyone from the Seven Sect Coalition who had purchased living treasures. To Xu Qing¡¯s surprise, not every sect was on the list.

    The sects that had never purchased any treasures were: Spiritgloam Valley, the supervisory sect to the Second Peak; the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, supervisory sect to the Sixth Peak; the Dark Serenity Sect, supervisory sect to the Seventh Peak; and the Heaven-Fate Pavilion, supervisory sect to the Fifth Peak.

    The sects which had made plenty of purchases were the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect and House of Grue Hunters, as well as the Fourth Peak¡¯s supervisory sect, the Lunisr Dao Pce.

    Whatever chosen from the former two sects that remained in Seven Blood Eyes had already been arrested, which left only the chosen from the Lunisr Dao Pce.

    When Xu Qing thought about the wealth of resources he had acquired from Sima Ling¡¯s ring of holding, he felt the urge to immediately go out and arrest the chosen from the Lunisr Dao Pce. But he didn¡¯t want to act rashly, and therefore asked permission from the sect first. Unless there was a potential for incredible profit, he wasn¡¯t the type of person who would overstep his authority. He had no idea who this person was connected to, or their role in the Seven Sect Coalition, so it seemed smarter to deck himself out in a tiger skin before going to enforce thew.

    When he sent his request to the sect, the answer that came back was simple.

    ¡°Arrest him!¡±

    Having received that answer, Xu Qing left the Violent Crimes Division early in the morning.

    The ughter in the night had swept through the city like a fierce wind, driving away the forces of evil.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, there werews in ce to protect mortals. Therefore, the Violent Crimes Division¡¯s actions not only didn¡¯t harm the mortals, but actually helped them to feel safer.

    As Xu Qing walked down the street, he caught sight of the cart he used to frequent for breakfast. There, he got a bowl of soup and a few pastries to eat. At the urging of the proprietor, he got three eggs. Putting down a few spirit coins, he took his leave.

    That particr cart had never been very popr. It was just one of many ces to eat breakfast in the city. But it had changed in the past year. Violent Crimes Division constables on patrol often went there, and as a result, business had been good. Perhaps because of that, no one had ever dared to cause problems for the proprietor.

    The proprietor knew exactly why all of that was happening. After clearing the table, he looked at Xu Qing walking away in the distance, and sighed. He remembered the first time Xu Qing had shown up three years ago, looking cautious and on guard. And the proprietor remembered how satisfied Xu Qing had always looked after having a bowl of soup.

    It¡¯s been three years, and the young man has grown up. Not only that, he¡¯s be someone very important.

    Then he looked around at the other customers eating breakfast, all of whom reeked of blood yet were staring in awe and reverence at Xu Qing walking away. He smiled and shook his head.

    Xu Qing made his way down the street, walking neither too fast nor too slow. He had an extraordinary cultivation base, and much authority in the sect, yet as always, he preferred sticking to the side of the street in the shadows.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the sky was bright and there were a lot of pedestrians on the street. That was when Xu Qing arrived at arge, two-story mansion. All visiting sects had been given special lodgings for their stay in Seven Blood Eyes, and this was where the Lunisr Dao Pce was staying.

    The ce pulsed with the power of spell formations, and when Xu Qing sensed them, he calmly said, ¡°I hereby request that the sect¡¯s grand spell formation suppress this location.¡±

    Given that Xu Qing was on an officialw enforcement mission, the sect¡¯s grand formation instantly unleashed crushing power. As it rumbled in the area, all the spell formations protecting the Lunisr Dao Pce¡¯s mansion ceased functioning.

    Cries of rm rang out from inside.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cid as he pushed the main door open and saw dozens of rmed people rushing in his direction.

    Those in the lead were two men and a woman.

    The woman wore a long white gown, cut in the style of pce attire. However, it didn¡¯t have anyplicated designs on it. It was dyed to look like the setting sun, and had clouds embroidered on it. The woman emanated the aroma of medicine, and she had elegant good looks. Though her eyes glittered, and though she was moving with the crowd, she didn¡¯t look the least bit rmed.

    Next to her was a young man in a yellow jerkin. He was good-looking, with freckles, and bright, clear eyes that were currently fixed on Xu Qing.

    On the other side was another young man who wore a sky-blue daoist robe with red cloud designs on it. From the way the clouds seemed to float across the robe, it seemed to have a spell formation in it. This young man looked pale in the face, and was clearly rmed. And when he noticed Xu Qing, he started breathing heavily.

    Behind this group of three were ordinary disciples from the Lunisr Dao Pce, and all of them seemed very nervous.

    Further back, Xu Qing noticed three middle-aged cultivators. Though they weren¡¯t speaking, from the fluctuations they radiated, they were Gold Core cultivators.

    Xu Qing took the scene in, then looked at the young man in the blue robe and said, ¡°Are you Zhou Qifan from the Lunisr Dao Pce?¡± [1]

    1. Zhou Qifan: Zhou is #10 on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. In this context, it¡¯s just a surname; the character itself has many, many meanings. Qi means ¡°open, start, enlighten, awaken¡± and Fan means ¡°ordinary, mundane, mortal¡±. Madam Deathde says this name makes him sound like ¡°an intelligent person who can inspire others.¡± ?

 Chapter 245: Analyzing the Revered Ancient Game Board

    <h4>Chapter 245: Analyzing the Revered Ancient Game Board</h4>

    Struggling to control his breathing, the young man in the blue daoist robe grimly said, ¡°Xu Qing, this ce is a mobile headquarters of the Lunisr Dao Pce. And that means you¡¯re on our home turf! What business do you have here?¡±

    The truth was that ever since the destruction wreaked upon Night Dove the previous night, plus Xu Qing¡¯s ying of the ck-robed man with a heavenly saber, and the way he crushed the disciple from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, this young man had started feeling very nervous. He knew full well that he was the only person left who had done business with Night Dove. In his anxiety, he had asked some fellow daoists from Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect to apany him. Just in case.

    Seeing Xu Qing show up, and also call him out by name, left Zhou Qifan feeling very downcast.

    Xu Qing had read Zhou Qifan¡¯s file before leaving Violent Crimes and knew that he liked to keep a low profile. In fact, other than issuing a single challenge to the Fourth Peak, he hadn¡¯t done much. After hearing his identity confirmed, Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°On the authority of the sect, I¡¯m here to arrest Zhou Qifan for consorting with Night Dove.¡± As the words left his mouth, Xu Qing took a step forward with blinding speed and reached out to grab Zhou Qifan.

    Zhou Qifan¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as a rumbling sound echoed out, and the red clouds on his robe erupted, turning into numerous red threads. Flying out, they made a spell formation that viciously crushed down toward Xu Qing. At the same time, Zhou Qifan backed up.

    ¡°Dharma Protector Zhang. Fellow Daoists! Please help!¡±

    As Zhou Qifan yelled those things, Xu Qing¡¯s right hand made contact with the spell formation of red clouds. A boom rang out as the golden crow appeared behind him and smashed into the spell formation. It copsed, and the golden crow gobbled up the red clouds.

    The dharma protector behind him hesitated briefly, then sighed and started walking forward. But then Xu Qing waved his hand, and the sect¡¯s spell formation swept toward the man. He didn¡¯t resist at all, and thus, the formation shoved him a good distance away. He didn¡¯t want to end up like the dharma protector from the House of Grue Hunters. What was happening was no surprise to him. He knew that Seven Blood Eyes was out arresting people, and obviously, fighting back wouldn¡¯t do any good.

    Although being driven away would involve a loss of face on his part, he knew that Zhou Qifan would only be arrested, not hurt. There just wasn¡¯t any need to risk his life to prevent that from happening. In reality, he was actually happy to let the spell formation push him away.

    Meanwhile, the two chosen from Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect took one look at Xu Qing and backed away. None of them offered Zhou Qifan a bit of help. The reality was that they hadn¡¯te here with the intention of backing him up. The Seven Sect Coalition was an alliance, not a unified sect. They knew why Xu Qing was here, and also knew that interfering wouldn¡¯t change the end result. So why do something to get on Xu Qing¡¯s bad side?

    They had responded to Zhou Qifan¡¯s invitation simply to give him face. They had never had any intention of putting their lives on the line. Xu Qing was a rising star right now. Besides, conflicts between sects didn¡¯t necessarily affect personal rtionships. If they had a chance to sow some good will with Xu Qing, it made sense to take it. As they backed up, they sped hands politely to Xu Qing, making it obvious that they weren¡¯t taking Zhou Qifan¡¯s side.

    Seeing all this, Zhou Qifan¡¯s face fell, but he didn¡¯t say anything. None of this was much of a surprise to him. Truth be told, if the two people he¡¯d invited did jump in to help him, he would have been happy. But even if they didn¡¯t, it still aligned with his overall goal. After all, there would now be witnesses to spread word of his arrest.

    That way, once he was imprisoned, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry that his life was in danger. His sect would obviously lose face, and that would anger the leadership and hopefully prompt them to interfere sooner.

    Everyone present had their own goals and strategies at work.

    Xu Qing took a second step forward, his golden crow coalescing behind him. As Zhou Qifan red at him, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and prepared to deliver a crushing blow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go with you!¡± Zhou Qifan said loudly. He figured things had gone far enough. He didn¡¯t want to get beaten into the ground and then dragged away like a dead dog. That would have been far, far too embarrassing. At the same time, he couldn¡¯t simply give up instantly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up.

    Seeing that, Zhou Qifan¡¯s spirits lifted a bit. Keeping the stubborn angry look on his face, he took a deep breath and quickly said, ¡°I did buy some living treasures, Xu Qing. But not for myself. I don¡¯t do that type of thing. I purchased them for someone else in my sect. In fact, I already made arrangements for the living treasures to be integrated back into society. Furthermore, I created a name list to make things easy for you. Considering the hour, I think the delivery should be happening right now.¡±

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face as his identity medallion vibrated. Scanning it, he saw a new message from the Violent Crimes Division.

    ¡°Director, someone representing Zhou Qifan from the Lunisr Dao Pce arrived with a name list of living treasure purchasers, as well as amendation medal to be awarded to the Violent Crimes Division for taking care of Night Dove. In themendation medal are 2,000,000 spirit stones, as well as a medicinal pill that we were told is an aperture-opening pill.¡±

    Zhou Qifan sighed in relief as he watched Xu Qing checking his message. However, he made sure to look as angry as possible.

    Xu Qing looked up at Zhou Qifan for a long moment, then lowered the hand he had raised moments before.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he said, then turned and walked away.

    Snorting coldly, Zhou Qifan lifted his chin, looked around at the other disciples present, then hurried after Xu Qing.

    Eventually, they reached the cell block in the Violent Crimes Division. When Zhou Qifan saw Sima Ling in one of the jail cells, gasping for breath, he breathed a sigh of relief inside.

    It¡¯s a good thing I reacted quickly. Otherwise, things would have turned ugly for me.

    Then he noticed Huang Yikun in another cell, as well as Master Shengyun¡¯s Junior Brother. That caused his heart to pound. After all, though he had assumed Huang Yikun¡¯s disappearance had something to do with Xu Qing, the miserable state he was in made Zhou Qifan even more convinced that he had done the right thing. Finally, he noticed that he himself was being restrained with eighteen dharma shackles, whereas Sima Ling and Huang Yikun both had twenty.

    It seems this Xu Qing is actually pretty reasonable.

    Zhou Qifan was feeling very pleased at how he had managed to deescte the situation. He had done everything he could, both above board and otherwise, and in the end, he did manage to save some face as a result. Unlike Sima Ling, he hade of his own ord. He had cooperated. As a result, he didn¡¯t lose much personal face. His sect certainly lost face, but that was different.

    What was more, his amodations actually weren¡¯t very bad. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that Sima Ling and Huang Yikun were staring begrudgingly at the table, chair, and rug he had in his cell. He actually felt a bit smug.

    Meanwhile, Zhou Qifan¡¯s arrest ensured that absolutely no challenges were being issued anywhere in the sect. At the same time, Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ celebration at having won the war continued.

    As for Xu Qing, now that he had thoroughly taken care of Night Dove, he was preparing to take a trip outside the sect.

    His destination? Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    He had purchased just about every type of poisonous nt and poisonous medicine avable in the sect, yet had still reached a bottleneck in the evolution of his beetles. After the sixteenth generation, they weren¡¯t changing. And that affected his n with the taboo poison pill. His progress was at a standstill.

    Based on his analysis, it was because the poisonous nts he had ess to were just too weak. He needed more dangerous poisons for his beetles to absorb. That was the key to breaking through that bottleneck.

    And the most suitable ce in the area to look for poisonous nts and medicines was Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    Besides, he remembered the Captain mentioning there being a Supreme Vastness daoist temple somewhere in there, so he nned to go check it out. Having settled on a n, he spent a few days doing research into Forbidden by the Phoenix. Considering how close it was to the sect, and how the First Peak used it as a training ground, it was obvious that the First Peak knew more about it than anyone else. As a result, there was a lot of information to be had.

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t trust the people from the First Peak, and felt it was better to buy multiple sets of information, thenpare them to each other. What was more, he could tap into sect files and also reports from the Intelligence Division.

    After getting about a hundred different sets of information, he felt that he had a good overview.

    He had already identified several locations where poisons weremon, as well as some ces where poisonous items could be purchased from grues.

    Xu Qing went over the information a few times to make sure he understood everything. Then he started getting together all of the items he would need for his trip. In some cases, he purchased things secretly. Also, he went to the Night Dove prisoners he had locked up and extracted some heart-blood from all of them. Considering that there were several thousand prisoners, that blood ended up filling eleven bottles, which he then put into his bag of holding.

    Based on what he had read, there were gruish areas in Forbidden by the Phoenix where heart-blood was used like currency.

    As Xu Qing made his various preparations, visitors continued to show up in Seven Blood Eyes.

    People from different sects came and went, ensuring that the sect was a very bustling ce. In fact, a particrly powerful group of people arrived that instantly became a subject of discussion among the disciples. It was one of the big groups from the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the Revered Ancient maind. It was... the Daoist Rite of Departure!

    South Phoenix had the Church of Departure, but in reality they were actually just a branch of the Daoist Rite of Departure from the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Of course, the arrival of people from the daoist rite was a very important thing for the Church of Departure.

    The group from the Daoist Rite of Departure consisted of five people.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t personally go see them, but after looking through the file he saw that these five were all deacons in the Daoist Rite of Departure, which meant that they were roughly like the echelon highnesses.

    What was more, when examining the images of the five deacons, his hands suddenly trembled. Then, a strange look of reminiscence appeared on his face.

    .

    Her older brother?

    One of the five deacons from the Daoist Rite of Departure was a person Xu Qing had seen in the scavenger basecamp. It was none other than the older brother of that little girl with the scarred face. [1]

    I wonder how she¡¯s doing nowadays.

    He remembered the little girl, her face smudged and dirty, but always smiling in the wind and snow. In fact, he remembered the snowkes drifting about when she handed him a piece of candy.

    ¡°Big Bro Kid, whenever I¡¯m sad, my momma would always give me some candy. I just had to eat it, and I¡¯d feel better. This is thest piece of candy and... I want you to have it. Feel better, Big Bro Kid!¡±

    Xu Qing sat there silently thinking about thest thing Grandmaster Bai ever said to him.

    ¡°As long as we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again.¡±

    A few more days passed during which he made a few more preparations for Forbidden by the Phoenix. Then,te at night, Xu Qing left Harbor 176, taking the path past the First Peak toward Forbidden by the Phoenix!

    ***

    As Xu Qing made his way out of the sect, the moon shone down on a pavilion atop the Seventh Peak. There, a wrinkled old man wearing a ck robe, with strange light flowing in his eyes, sat across from Master Seventh. The two of them were ying Go.

    The old man was actually the patriarch of Seven Blood Eyes, Sir Bloodsmelter. That glittering light in his eyes was actually evidence of his immensely high cultivation level. He was in the first step of the Void Returning level, which was called Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos.

    Each stream of light flowing in his eyes was a great dao.

    There was someone else in the pavilion other than the two men ying Go. The third was a middle-aged woman dressed in pce attire. She seemed unusually elegant, but her face was expressionless as she served tea to the men. If Xu Qing was here, he would recognize that woman. She was Ding Xue¡¯s aunt. [2]

    Sir Bloodsmelter lifted his cup and took a sip of tea, all while looking at Master Seventh, who was staring thoughtfully at the board, trying to decide what to do next. Sir Bloodsmelter smiled.

    ¡°Little Seventh, if we think of the situation with the Seven Sect Coalition like a game of Go, then what¡¯s their next move? They made a big fuss that everyone could see. Their aggression toward us couldn¡¯t be more obvious. But what¡¯s their real goal?¡±

    stering a confused look onto his face, Master Seventh replied, ¡°I can tell you¡¯re testing me, Patriarch. Unfortunately, your humble son-inw is a bit of a dunce. So I¡¯m not sure how to answer.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter smiled and shook his head. ¡°Always the deceptive one, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Master Seventh also smiled. Apparently, he¡¯d figured out the best move, as he picked up a game piece and put it on the board.

    ¡°On the bottom half of the board,¡± Master Seventh said softly, ¡°I could take these seven pieces, but it wouldn¡¯t do much overall. But on the top half of the board, taking this one single piece would win me control of this entire area. It¡¯s simr to how the Seven Sect Coalition is making such a fuss in the south. The truth is that their real goal is in the north. For a long time now, the Seven Sect Coalition has been coveting the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. If it weren¡¯t for the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society keeping the seven sects in check and thwarting their every move, things wouldn¡¯t have reached this point. Everything is about toe to fruition. Pissing off Supreme Arbiter is going to make things much easier.¡±

    1. The scar-faced girl and her brother were previously ¡°on-screen¡± in??

    2. Ding Xue¡¯s auntst appeared in??

 Chapter 246: The Ghost Wards of Forbidden by the Phoenix (part 1)

    Chapter 246: The Ghost Wards of Forbidden by the Phoenix (part 1)

    There were many forbidden regions in the continent of South Phoenix, but there was only one forbidden ground. And that was Forbidden by the Phoenix. It covered more than half of South Phoenix, and it was only because of the Mountains of Truth and other special reasons that it didn¡¯t cover even more of the continent. Even still, it continued to expand year by year. In fact, many portions of it had already overtaken the Mountains of Truth. If things continued in this manner, then in a few thousand years, all of South Phoenix would be Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    One big difference between forbidden regions and forbidden grounds were the inhabitants. Forbidden regions usually contained beasts and grues. Sometimes they also had mysterious entities sealed in them. But forbidden regions didn¡¯t produce intelligent species. Only forbidden grounds could do so.

    One example of that was Forbidden by the Zombie in the Forbidden Sea. That was where the Seazombies hade to be, and it was why they lived so close to Forbidden by the Zombie. Simrly, there were species associated with Forbidden by the Phoenix. [1]

    However, because me Phoenix was friendly with humans, the species born within Forbidden by the Phoenix lived in harmony with them.

    At the same time, it wasn¡¯t unheard of for humans to explore Forbidden by the Phoenix, whether to acquire resources, hunt beasts, or the like. Humans would usually leave the intelligent species alone, but sometimes those species were willing to trade with humans.

    That was how the ghost wards came to be.

    As the name suggested, ghost wards were walled cities where ghosts and monsters would gather formerce.

    Truth be told, the inhabitants of the ghost wards weren¡¯t unique to Forbidden by the Phoenix. Many forbidden grounds had such beings. From the outside, the ghost wards didn¡¯t look much different from regr cities. But inside, the inhabitants were freakish and grotesque. And most of them were grues.

    Normally speaking, they traded goods that humans rarely encountered, and most of them were of the unhealthy yin variety.

    Xu Qing¡¯s first goal in Forbidden by the Phoenix was to find one of the ghost wards.

    Ghost wards don¡¯t have fixed locations in Forbidden by the Phoenix. They appear and disappear randomly. Finding one is going to require a bit of luck....

    Currently, Xu Qing was slipping through Forbidden by the Phoenix like a specter, moving at top speed.

    He would asionally leap into the air and asionally randomly shift directions. Sometimes he would fly to the top of a tree and take a look at his surroundings, and sometimes he would scatter poison powder on himself.

    If any disciples from the First Peak were here to observe Xu Qing, they would be astounded at how he moved with such practiced ease. The reason he would asionally leap into the air was to avoid beasts hiding on the ground. The reason he would change directions randomly was to avoid dangers like spider webs or beasts on the prowl. The reason he would fly to the treetops was to scout the way ahead and make sure he didn¡¯t get turned around in the jungle. And the reason he wasn¡¯t flying was that there was no cover in the sky, and he had no idea what dangers might be lurking unseen.

    Even given Xu Qing¡¯s current level of battle prowess, he was being just as vignt as he¡¯d always been when traveling in forbidden regions. That level of vignce was part of his blood now, and would never disappear.

    It doesn¡¯t matter what type of forbidden region you¡¯re in, you should never go around ughtering things randomly. The scent of blood will attract even bigger and fiercer beasts.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing suddenly shot his hand out and grabbed a strange looking bug that had just flown out from the dirt. It was about three inches long, and resembled a fish, except with a long stinger tail. It had flown out upside down, and had been preparing to use its stinger as a weapon to stab Xu Qing in the neck.

    It¡¯s a terrestrial stickleback.

    Crushing the fish-like bug¡¯s head, he tossed it into his bag of holding. Randomly ughtering things wasn¡¯t a good idea, but selectively killing and harvesting was different. The terrestrial stickleback¡¯s tail contained a powerful poison that could be very dangerous to cultivators without life mes.

    Even though this was Xu Qing¡¯s first time in Forbidden by the Phoenix, he was familiar with the various types of nts and vegetation that could be found here. He had also done a lot of research into the types of beasts present.

    The first humans to find ghost wards had to relypletely on luck. But after trade was established, the ghost wards started giving out ghost flutes.

    I need to find an empty area, then use three logs to create a triangle design and set up three candles in the corners. Finally, if I y the ghost flute at exactly fifteen minutes before midnight, a ghost ward should appear.

    He had read all about the process of finding ghost wards, and had made sure toe equipped with candles. Thankfully, ghost flutes could be purchased in the sect.

    Looking up at the sky to check the time, he eventually came to rest on arge tree. After looking around, he murmured, ¡°This ce should work.¡±

    Waving his hand, he sent the ck iron skewer out. It zipped back and forth like lightning to chop down three trees. Rumbling sounds echoed out as they fell to the ground. The tree he¡¯d been standing on was one of them, and as it fell, he floated up into the air. Then he waved his hand, causing the three resulting logs to form a triangle.

    Then the iron skewer flew back to him. Inside, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was looking around vigntly. Obviously he was working hard to demonstrate his loyalty.

    After making some adjustments to the triangle, Xu Qingnded in the middle. Taking out three white candles, he put them on the logs, then waved his hand to produce a flute made from a bone.

    With the flute in hand, he looked up to the sky and waited for the right time.

    Before long, it was fifteen minutes before midnight. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing lifted the ghost flute to his lips and gently blew on it.

    An ear-piercing sound erupted from the instrument, almost like the cry of an owl. As the sound filled heaven and earth, a sinister wind picked up. The wind blew the three candles, causing them to flicker, while simultaneously filling the area with frigid coldness. Frost appeared on the ground, covering dirt and nts alike. The candles¡¯ mes turned green, and at the same time, a sound rose up like faint whispering or muttering. It wasn¡¯t possible to hear words being spoken, but it was like countless individuals engaged in a muffled conversation. As the sound entered Xu Qing¡¯s mind, his heart pounded and... a fog built up.

    The fog came suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, billowing and roiling with such thickness that the trees in the surrounding jungle quickly disappeared.

    Shortly thereafter, a city appeared in the fog. The city walls were gray, as were all the buildings inside. The architecture seemed ancient, as if this city had been buried in the sands of time for ages.

    The city... was bustling. It was possible to see countless figures floating about inside of it, packing the ce. There were all types of creatures. Some were headless, some had the bodies of beasts, some were tall and burly, some were extremely thin, some had mouths so huge they had to hold their own chins up, and some seemed to pulse with evil. There were also countless shops lining the streets, the proprietors of which were all vicious grues.

    Any mortal who saw a ce like this would be scared witless. It was definitely a city of ghosts. Perhaps there were living beings inside, but if so, they were hiding their auras and instead made sure to pulse with mutagen.

    That rted to one of the rules for ghost wards. Though humans were allowed to go inside for business purposes, they were required to have very strong mutagen, to the point where they were like a human on the verge of experiencing mutation. Another rule was that the countless grues who filled this ghost city were supposed to stay quiet. Talking wasn¡¯t allowed.

    The most unusual thing about the city was that, in the very center of it, floating high overhead, was a gigantic head. It looked like the head of a middle-aged man, except with no hair on it. In that respect, it looked like the head of a monk. Its eyes were closed, and it didn¡¯t move at all. Surrounding it were countless chains that seemed to be keeping it suppressed and sealed. Shockingly, a close inspection of those chains would reveal that they were actually made from skinless arms!

    Furthermore, standing guard at each of the four city gates were enormous, burly figures with heads the size of babies, naked to the waist, with 15-meter-long ghostheaded greatsabers slung over their shoulders. Two such guards stood at the gate in front of Xu Qing. [2]

    As Xu Qing took all of this in, he kept his expression neutral. However, his heart was pounding. Although he had read about the ghost wards of Forbidden by the Phoenix, this was his first time seeing one in person, and it reminded him of the ghost cities he had seen at the bottom of the Forbidden Sea. [3]

    Well, this is obviously a ghost ward, right?

    Instead of rushing inside, he took a minute to look around. Off to the side, the candles were flickering wildly in the sinister wind.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a hurry. By the time he finished studying his surroundings to his satisfaction, the candles were about to blow out, and the city was starting to fade. At that point, he reached out to his shadow and drew on its mutagen.

    Instantly, mutagen filled him, causing his skin to turn ck, and bing so strong it seemed like he might mutate at any point. When he was virtually surrounded by a cloud of mutagen, he started walking toward the ghost ward.

    Each step took him some nine meters forward, and thus, within only a few breaths of time, he reached the city gate.

    When he arrived, the burly fellows with the sabers on their shoulders looked down at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stop walking. He just let them look at him as he entered the city.

    After he entered, they looked away. At the same time, the fog surrounding the city grew even denser, to the point where it was the only thing visible. Apparently, when outsiders came into the city for business, the outside world was cut off. The only thing visible was the moon, which was now an odd green color as it shone down. All of that was in line with what Xu Qing had expected. His expression was the same as ever as he started walking down the street amidst the crowds of grues. He was strolling along with ghosts.

    Around then, the nose of the huge monk¡¯s head twitched, as though it were sniffing out a scent. It almost seemed like it was about to open its eyes.

    1. I want to rify that ¡°by the¡± is a deviation from the Chinese, and is in there to make it pithy and work linguistically the way I wanted it to. The name of these ces in Chinese simplybines ¡°forbidden¡± with ¡°phoenix/zombie,¡± that¡¯s all. In other words, the name basically means ¡°zombie forbidden (ground)¡± and ¡°phoenix forbidden (ground).¡± It doesn¡¯t necessarily mean that those ces are literally forbidden ¡°by¡± some specific entity/being/item/group etc. ?

    2. A ¡®ghostheaded saber¡¯ is a real type of Chinese weapon. Basically it¡¯s a saber with a hilt that has a ghost carved on it. Here¡¯s a picture. The type described here is presumably a muchrger fantasy version of that kind of weapon. ?

    3. Xu Qing ran into some ghost cities in chapter 179. ?

 Chapter 246: The Ghost Wards of Forbidden by the Phoenix (part 2)

    Chapter 246: The Ghost Wards of Forbidden by the Phoenix (part 2)

    A momentter, the chains binding the huge monk¡¯s head glittered, and it went still.

    Xu Qing looked up at it, his pupils constricted. Then he looked away and studied his surroundings.

    Grues and ghosts filled the streets. He saw one that looked like it was made from paste, walking along and using a pen to apply eyeliner to its face. He saw another that dripped slimy fluid as it walked along apanied by a group of six-eyed ghost bugs. He saw what appeared to be a three-year-old child with bright red eyes, long ears, and reddish-ck skin, skipping along happily.

    Lounging on a distant rooftop was a hairless cat licking a blood-soaked, severed head that it held in its paws. The ck mist that surrounded it made it obvious it was a monster of some sort.

    There were all sorts of headless, beastly forms, usually made of either bones or mist. Some floated, some crawled, some sat on other ghostly beings, some flew in the air, and some existed as hosts of ghost faces, cackling noiselessly as they snapped at each other and moved down the street. All of them exuded vicious and baleful auras, as well as a sensation of deep hunger.

    Xu Qing felt more on guard than ever being in circumstances like this. As he moved along, he looked at the shops on either side of the street, hoping to spot what he was looking for. The streets were busy, and so were the shops, yet there was absolutely no sound.

    Xu Qing kept quiet as well as he floated along instead of walking. Suddenly, his eyes shed with cold light and he looked away from the shops.

    Up ahead of him was a ghost with a beastly face and a jaw so huge it had to hold it up with its own hands. It was pitch ck and its skin looked like it was rotting. And it was walking right toward Xu Qing.

    It exuded a vicious, baleful energy, and from the way it was moving, it seemed like it was going to run right into him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any reaction. His mutagen levels were so high right now that it created a mist around him, within which was a vicious ghost face that was currently grinning greedily.

    The ghost face was a manifestation of Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Ever since arriving, it had been hoping to devour something, but Xu Qing hadn¡¯t permitted that. It had been forced to restrain itself. But now that there was a vicious ghost walking right toward Xu Qing, the shadow looked delighted. Before Xu Qing could do a thing, the ghost face stretched toward the beastly ghost, opened its mouth, and devoured it. In the blink of an eye, the beastly ghost disappeared. The ghost face retracted to its previous position. Xu Qing looked at the shadow briefly, then ignored it and kept moving. That scene didn¡¯t cause any stir among the surrounding ghosts. None reacted.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to go much further before finding an appropriate shop. This ce sold all sorts of poisons crafted from unhealthy yin ingredients. These poisons weren¡¯t corporeal, but instead, were misty and in some casespletely illusory. Each type of poison was sealed inside of a green ghost head. There were over a hundred ghost heads of all sizes, and every single one of them was smiling.

    As Xu Qing browsed, he felt very satisfied. This was exactly what he hade here to shop for.

    Because most of these poisons weren¡¯t even corporeal, the ingredients they were made from could only be harvested using special techniques. That made them very hard to collect. In fact, only grues could do so.

    Xu Qing looked at the shopkeeper.

    The shopkeeper looked vaguely like a bear, plus he had cinnabar red lips, eyes like mirrors, a long, thin face, and green wings that would be more than three meters long when unfurled, and a tail like a leopard. It was looking at Xu Qing, and when he met its eyes, its mouth parted in what looked like a faint smile.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing thirteen of the ghost heads to float out between him and the shopkeeper. Then he took out a small bottle and pushed it forward.

    The shopkeeper¡¯s tail whizzed out, wrapped around the bottle, and then quietly crushed it. The aroma of gore spread out as a clump of blood appeared. This was the heart-blood Xu Qing had harvested from the Night Dove operatives, and the bottle contained about a hundred drops.The shopkeeper swept the blood into its mouth and then started chewing in delight.

    Xu Qing watched as, shockingly, the heart-blood then revealed numerous soul shadows. They were all Night Dove operatives.

    After chewing for a while, the shopkeeper nodded in satisfaction.

    Without saying a word, Xu Qing collected the ghost heads, put them in his bag of holding, then turned and left. With that, he made his way down the street through the crowds of grues, asionally stopping at shops to buy things.The night passed quickly and Xu Qing spent the entire time shopping. It took that long before he found the final thing he was looking for.

    The shop itself resembled an inn. Hanging from hooks on the walls were all sorts of bodies, including those of humans, beasts, nonhumans, and even noncorporeal beings. Unexpectedly, they were still alive.

    The bodies had candles burning beneath them, which unleashed a mysterious power that caused them to emit emotional fluctuations. Some seemed drunk, some seemed angry, some seemed sorrowful, and some seemed rapturous. It was almost like they were all in a dream world.

    What attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention weren¡¯t the bodies. Instead, it was the candles. This shop specialized in selling these types of candles. Back in Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing had read about them, and knew that they were a type of poison. They had a very nice-sounding name: drunk for three reincarnations. And they were very expensive.[1]</a>

    These candles were one of the main reasons Xu Qing hade here. Without any hesitation, he took out four bottles of heart-blood and put them down in front of the shopkeeper.

    The shopkeeper looked like an ordinary old man wearing yellow clothing. After looking down at the bottles, he shook his head. As he did, his facial features changed. He transformed into a handsome young man. But then, an instantter, he became a wrinkled old woman. Then his face turned into that of a naughty child. It was very strange.

    Xu Qing frowned. He had onlye with eleven bottles of heart-blood, and had already spent five of them.

    Based on the information he had read, four bottles should have been enough to buy a candle of ¡®drunk for three reincarnations.¡¯

    After considering the matter, he took out one more bottle and put it down in front of the shopkeeper.

    The shopkeeper looked deeply at Xu Qing and shook his head again.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face darkened within the cloud of mist that surrounded him, but after more thinking, he took out hisst bottle and put it down with the rest.

    And yet, the shopkeeper still shook his head. At this point, aftering to realize that Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any more bottles, his face changed again. It turnedpletely nk. Then, he pointed at Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.After calcting the time, Xu Qing realized that it was close to dawn. What was more, in all his wandering through the ghost ward, he had only found this one shop that sold these candles. He took a step forward and entered the profound radiance state. His life mes burned, and his lifemps emitted radiant light, as if an entire world was burning within him.

    His terrifying aura spread out, joining the energy and blood of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, creating pulses that rolled in all directions.

    The shopkeeper¡¯s nk face changed, bing an old man again. And he looked shocked. Seeing that Xu Qing was about to attack him, he quickly flicked his sleeve, causing seven candles to fly out and hover in front of Xu Qing.

    Then he stepped backward, an ingratiating look on his face.

    Frowning, Xu Qing collected the candles, took back his six bottles, then turned and left. As he moved, he kept his guard up, and also paid attention to the sky. Based on the information he¡¯d read back in the sect, once you entered a ghost ward, you had to stay inside for the entire night. It was only at dawn that you could blow the ghost flute and leave.

    Right now, it was close to dawn, so he kept moving down the street as he waited.

    Before long, the horizon started to turn bright. At that point, Xu Qing noticed that all the bizarre beings around him, and the entire city itself, were turning transparent.

    At the same time, the enormous, chained monk¡¯s head floating above the middle of the city was opening its eyes. Those eyes were as red as hell, and contained countless evil ghosts seething within them and releasing noiseless screams. The head exuded a sense of pure chaos, and from the expression on the face, it seemed almost befuddled. The head twitched a bit as if it were gaining lucidity, and as the sky grew bright, it started looking around the ghost ward.

    Within the city, there were a handful of figures that weren¡¯t turning transparent. All of them were cultivators who were waiting for dawn.The monk¡¯s eyes slid over them, and eventuallynded on Xu Qing. The head shivered, and the nose twitched as if it were smelling for something. Then, all of a sudden, its eyes turned bright.

    When Xu Qing noticed that, his expression flickered. At the same time, the monk¡¯s mouth opened and it spoke in a voice that boomed like heavenly thunder.

    ¡°Golden crow! A golden crow assimted my species!! All golden crows shall die!!!¡±

    As the voice boomed out, and as the sky grew bright, the entire ghost ward went still.

    It was the first noise Xu Qing had heard throughout the entire night. It contained some mysterious power that, when it entered Xu Qing¡¯s ears, caused his entire body to shiver. He felt like his soul was going to copse, but thankfully, the ck umbre from his lifemp spread out to protect him.Without any hesitation, he pulled out the ghost flute, put it to his lips, and blew. The piercing noise echoed out, and then everything around Xu Qing disappeared.

    One breath of time passed, whereupon Xu Qing reappeared in the jungle inside the triangle of logs.The ghost ward... was nowhere to be seen.

    Red light spread out from the horizon as the crimson sun rose into the sky.

    ***

    Meanwhile, in another location in the forbidden region, but very far away from Xu Qing, were the ruins of a city.

    This city was very different from a ghost ward. It was a real, corporeal city, except that it had turned into ruins years in the past. It was still dark here, making it difficult to see the crumbling walls and dust-covered streets.

    In the east part of the city, where the light of dawn was just bing visible, an old temple rose up from the darkness.

    A few dozen cultivators sat cross-legged outside of the temple. All of them wore different types of clothing, and they seemed wary of each other, indicating that they came from different ces. The dawn light revealed that their eyes contained both fear and reverence as they looked inside the temple.

    Inside the temple was a statue holding a saber. In front of that divine likeness was someone seated in meditation. He wore a golden robe and had a crown iid with jade. He was exceptionally good looking, but his expression was as cold as ice.

    He was none other than Master Shengyun!

 Chapter 247: Getting Tangled Up with an Evil Spirit

    <h4>Chapter 247: Getting Tangled Up with an Evil Spirit</h4>

    Somewhere in Forbidden by the Phoenix, Xu Qing stood in the middle of the triangle of logs, looking at the spot where the ghost ward had just disappeared. There was nothing left of the candles which had been burning on the logs, other than some candle wax which had seeped into the dry bark.

    He sent some dharma force into his bag of holding, and sure enough, the items he had purchased were still there.

    Items purchased from ghost wards can¡¯t be brought out into the day. You can only use them at night.

    That was something he had learned in his research of ghost wards. Thinking back to everything that happened in the ghost ward, he started to specte about the giant monk¡¯s head.

    ¡°It mentioned golden crows,¡± he murmured.

    He could only guess that the monk¡¯s head must be from some nonhuman species that the golden crow assimted in the past. After thinking about it for a while, he stepped out of the triangle of logs and started moving through the jungle.

    As for the details of the ghost ward and that giant head... he could alwayse backter to investigate further, when he was stronger. Putting the matter aside, he elerated through the trees.

    Finding a ghost ward was only one of the things he hade to Forbidden by the Phoenix to aplish. He was also hoping to harvest some specific poisonous beasts, nts, and vegetation.

    If everything goes smoothly, I might be able to get my beetles to break through their bottleneck in development. And if they experience some growth, it will help my n of reconcocting that taboo poison pill.

    As he sped through the jungle, he kept an eye out for the poisonous nts he needed.

    Just like that, a day went by.

    Forbidden by the Phoenix was a lot less dangerous during the day than the night. Xu Qing made sure to stay near the periphery. That, coupled with his battle prowess and cultivation base, ensured that though he did encounter some beasts, he was able to dispatch them easily.

    He found some of the medicinal nts he was looking for. Despite him staying in rtively safe surroundings, some of the nts he encountered were dangerous. As evening fell, he spotted a meadow full of bright red grass that filled him with a sense of danger.

    The red grass wiggled in gruish fashion, and as Xu Qing looked closer, he noticed that each stalk of grass had an eye on it, all staring at him maliciously.

    Xu Qing shivered. It felt like his skin was crawling. Backing up quickly, he lit his life mes and used his lifemp to block the malicious intent.

    After leaving that area, he looked down at himself and found that, unbeknownst to him, an eye had started growing on his forearm. Rather, it was half of an eye, as it hadn¡¯t finished growing yet. And it wasn¡¯t open. However, the eyelids were clearly visible, as were the eyshes. And it looked exactly like the eyes on those red des of grass.

    Unfortunately, not even balefire seemed enough to wipe the grue-like eye out of existence. By using his shadow, Xu Qing could remove the eye. But once his shadow went back to its normal position, the eye would grow back.

    It was still growing, and Xu Qing got the sense that it would only take a few more days before the eye could open. He had no idea what would happen when it did. After some consideration, he used Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits on the eye, and managed to assimte it.

    ¡°Forbidden by the Phoenix really is a dangerous ce,¡± he murmured. After finishing with his arm, he closely inspected the rest of himself and found a total of thirty eyes.

    None of them were close to beingpletely grown. In fact, most were little more than seeds. But what chilled Xu Qing to the bone was that the eyes weren¡¯t growing on his skin, but rather, in his internal organs. If he hadn¡¯t taken the time to inspect himself and find them, and they finished growing and opening, the result would surely have been horrific. Thankfully, he was able to expunge them the same way as the first.

    As evening fell and darkness spread, he grew more cautious. Eventually, he found a tree hollow that he could burrow into for safety.

    I found most of the poisonous nts I wanted. Now I just need to find the poisonous beasts....

    He had no intention of being out in the open at night. After all, the beasts he sought weren¡¯t nocturnal.

    While he waited for the midnight hour toe, he would feed some of the unhealthy yin poisons he had harvested to his beetles. At the same time, he set up some spell formations around the tree, and also scattered poison powder everywhere. Feeling secure, he closed his eyes to meditate. As the night grew dark, and he heard strange cries out in the jungle, he thought back to years ago when he had hid just like this in that ruined city.

    I wonder when I¡¯ll be strong enough... that I won¡¯t need to fear forbidden regions and forbidden grounds.

    Time passed and the midnight hour grew near. Frigid energy abounded in the area, and as Xu Qing exhaled, white steam emerged from his mouth. It had been a long time since he felt cold like this. Xu Qing had always hated the cold. Ever since reaching Foundation Establishment, his cultivation base and battle prowess were high enough that he rarely felt cold. But tonight... he experienced that feeling once again.

    Something¡¯s off here. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he realized that the temperatures in other parts of the forbidden ground weren¡¯t as low as right here.

    He ignited his life mes and entered the profound radiance state, then emerged from the hole in the tree to look around. Instantly, his face fell.

    Off in the distance in the jungle was a huge mass of fog, slowly spreading out. The same ghost ward he had visited the previous night was appearing right in front of him! Except, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t set up the logs or yed the ghost flute. Without hesitation, he started moving in the opposite direction.

    However, as the ghost ward took shape, the giant monk¡¯s head appeared, bound by chains made of arms. Turning to look at him, it again spoke in a voice that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°A golden crow assimted my species! All golden crows shall die!¡±

    The head lunged upward, causing the arm chains to stretch longer and longer. Yet they couldn¡¯t hold the head back.

    The head strained forward, flying out of the city and smashing into the surrounding jungle, crushing trees as it started rolling toward Xu Qing like a gigantic ball. It spun in a blur, smashing trees left and right, and causing the arm chains to twist and distort. Behind it, the entire ghost ward trembled and shook.

    The sight of it caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict, and filled his heart with a sense of impending crisis. With his life mes and lifemps burning brightly, and the golden crow pushing him from behind, he fled with lightning-like speed.

    Behind him, the mountain-like head continued to roll in his direction.

    Meanwhile, a piercing cry rang out from the depths of the ghost ward as countless ghost hands stretched out toward the head.

    From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing fleeing, chased by the giant head, with the chains stretching out taut, and the ghost hands chasing the head.

    ¡°All golden crows....¡± the giant head howled furiously.

    ¡°Shall...¡±

    ¡°DIE!!!¡±

    As it screamed the final words, it leaped into the air again, as if hoping to smash down onto Xu Qing and crush him. However, at this point, the chains couldn¡¯t stretch any further, and finally, the head slowed to a halt.

    Just as the ghost arms were about to arrive and grab the huge head, it let loose a monstrous cackle and then exploded. The st caused the huge head to transform into countless smaller heads, which rained down onto the ground and started chasing Xu Qing. Because the smaller heads weren¡¯t being restrained by the chains, they moved with incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, a few dozen of them were rolling toward Xu Qing with their mouths wide open.

    Xu Qing spun in ce, his eyes burning with killing intent. At the same time, the golden crow behind him shot forward, and his iron skewer sped toward the heads. The golden crow let out a piercing cry and then viciously absorbed the heads, while the iron skewer pierced through one after another, transforming them into ash.

    However, nothing corporeal resulted. It was as if the heads were mere illusions, and didn¡¯t really exist. In fact, moments after transforming into ash, the heads would form back together, unharmed. One of them even appeared right beneath Xu Qing, and before he could react, it bit deeply into his calf.

    His life me erupted, sending the head tumbling away from him, but it wasn¡¯t hurt. As it chewed, it said, ¡°Yummy, yummy, yummy! So weeaaaaaak!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face was grim. He knew that the golden crow wasn¡¯t weak. Rather, his cultivation base wasn¡¯t strong enough to release the golden crow¡¯s full potential.

    Looking down at his calf, he saw the missing chunk of flesh the head had bitten off.

    He was used to devouring others; this was his first time being in the reverse situation.

    As for the head which had bitten him, it licked its lips and then gave a bizarre grin. Then, just as it was about to rush back toward him, one of the ghost arms grabbed it and dragged it back to the ghost ward. Other heads were also being grabbed by ghost arms, but some managed to lunge toward Xu Qing and snap at him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was unsightly as he red at the nearest head. Though his life me power couldn¡¯t harm it, his eyes still shone with cold light. The shadow seemed to realize what he was thinking, and stretched out to absorb the mutagen from the head. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, not wanting to be outdone, stabbed right toward it. The head was so vicious that, without hesitation, it started snapping at the shadow and the patriarch.

    A momentter, the head copsed, and beetles poured out of its eyes. They were Xu Qing¡¯s beetles, which he had released in the chase earlier. However, they didn¡¯t do any good.

    When a head was destroyed, it would simply form back up again. And there were lots of heads in the area.

    Realizing that fighting wasn¡¯t doing anything, Xu Qing frowned in frustration and tapped into all the power of his cultivation base to simply flee.

    And thus, the night passed.

    The chase went on during that time. He never gave the pursuing heads a chance to surround him. And slowly but surely, the ghost arms did their work.

    As the light of dawn appeared on the horizon, Xu Qing exploded one of the heads, and it turned out to be thest one. All the other heads had been captured by the ghost arms. Then the sun came up, and everything disappeared.

    Xu Qing stood there in the jungle, his eyes gleaming with a vicious light as he looked back in the direction where the ghost ward had appeared. His clothes were in shreds, and though his flesh was mostly healed, bite marks were still visible everywhere.

    What is that giant monk head? Smashing the smaller heads didn¡¯t do any good. They just form back up again. Only the ghost arms can control it. It¡¯s like the ghost arms are its jailers, and the monk head is a prisoner that broke out of jail to chase me.

    ncing down at the bite marks, the vicious look in his eye grew more intense. I have to think of a way to kill it.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior snorted coldly. Biting me is one thing. But how dare that giant head bite the Fiendish Xu! It¡¯s done for!

 Chapter 248: Thereâ€™s Always a Reason a Wolf Looks Back

    Chapter 248: There¡¯s Always a Reason a Wolf Looks Back

    As the sky grew bright, the jungle became normal again. Xu Qing quickly found a tree which he ascended. There, he sat down cross-legged to meditate and recuperate. It waste in the morning when he finally opened his eyes and looked in the direction where the ghost ward had appeared the previous night. Eyes burning with animosity, he got to his feet and started moving through the jungle.

    He wasn¡¯t searching for the animals he¡¯d hoped to find. He was looking for something else. Eventually, about an hourter, he spotted a valley. Entering the profound radiance state, he searched the ce. From above, it was shaped like the character °¼, with only one way in and out.

    After confirming that the area was unupied, Xu Qing looked at the three sides of the valley, thenunched a fist strike at a nearby boulder. A boom rang out as the boulder exploded, leaving behind arge cave.

    Xu Qing looked around more, then did the same thing a few more times. Shortly thereafter, he had excavated a few dozen caves in the valley walls. Next, he did the same on the valley floor.

    After calcting the time, he entered one of the caves, then took out an iron box from his bag of holding. It was none other than the wish box with the taboo poison pill in it. Opening the wish box, he ced it down in the cave. Instantly, the aura of the poison pill began to spread out. Flying back, Xu Qing then started piling rubble from the destroyed boulders into the cave entrance, creating a wall.

    Although the rubble couldn¡¯tpletely seal the cave entrance, based on what Xu Qing knew of the pill, as long as there was no strong wind, the pill¡¯s aura would remain inside the cave for at least a day.

    Eventually, when there was only a small portion of the wall left toplete, Xu Qing waved his hand. The wish box flew out, and he quickly sealed the cave, then moved on to the next cave. His n was to fill each cave with the aura of the taboo poison pill, and thus, fill the entire valley. He continued working.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior watched Xu Qing, and his eyes slowly filled with a malicious glint. Inside, he mused that it was bad enough to provoke people, but what was really a bad idea was to provoke the Fiendish Xu....

    In that manner, time passed.

    Night fell, and it was around the time the midnight hour was approaching that Xu Qing finished his work. He had dug out about sixty caves, and now, all of them were filled with the aura of that poison pill. By extension, the valley itself was fully infected. Thankfully, Xu Qing had already built up some resistance to the poison. Even still, he had been forced to leave the valley a few times and let the violet crystal heal him.

    Now that the work was done, he looked at the valley and felt pleased.

    Even after all the work, the resistance he had built up would only sustain him for the time it took half an incense stick to burn. After that, he had to rely on the regeneration properties of the violet crystal. Anything else that got hit with that poison would be in very bad shape.

    Let¡¯s see how long that big head can take it!

    He left the valley and went some distance away, where he felled three trees and put the resulting logs into a triangle shape. Then he put three white candles on the logs. He was worried that the giant head from the ghost ward wouldn¡¯te looking for him this night, and thus, nned to bring it to him. All he had to do was wait for the right time. However, events quickly proved that Xu Qing had been overthinking things. Around fifteen minutes before midnight, but before he could light the candles, a frigid white fog started building up in the area.

    ¡°It¡¯s here,¡± he murmured, narrowing his eyes as he looked off into the distance.

    As fog spread through the jungle, the familiar ghost ward started to take shape. This time, there were a lot more chains binding the monk head than before. The ghost ward was obviously keeping it suppressed much more strongly. And yet, that didn¡¯t stop the ghost ward from appearing in the open due to the giant head. Clearly, the extra attempt to suppress it wasn¡¯t doing much good.

    The moment it appeared, the monk¡¯s eyes opened and locked onto Xu Qing.

    ¡°All golden crows shall die!¡±

    Just like the previous night, the giant head lunged forward in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, causing the arm chains to start stretching out.

    A momentter, it smashed down into the jungle, felling trees and causing cracks to spread out in the earth.

    Xu Qing entered the profound radiance state and started fleeing, making sure to ster a terrified look onto his face. Although it seemed unlikely the giant head could think clearly enough to realize it was being tricked, Xu Qing wanted to make sure he had really hooked the giant head, so he yelled, ¡°Why won¡¯t you just die? What do you want??¡±

    The giant head rolled toward him,ughing madly as it picked up speed. The ghost ward trembled, and then a host of ghost hands shot out in pursuit of the head.

    Things were ying out very simrly to the previous night as Xu Qing dashed into the valley. The giant head seemed supremely confident in being able to get at Xu Qing now that he was in the valley. Either that, or it just wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. Without pausing at all, it rolled right into the valley after him, howling along the way.

    But as soon as it was inside, the howling ceased.

    Rumbling sounds filled the valley as the rolling head spun off to the side. Instead of the half-witted expression on its face, it now looked terrified. Large portions of its skin were now rotting. However, no blood seeped out. After all, the head didn¡¯t have any blood in it, but rather, some other special substance. That said, it didn¡¯t matter how special that substance was, it couldn¡¯t stand up to the aura of a poison pill from a previous epoch.

    As the head tumbled to the side, Xu Qing¡¯s hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and then he shoved his hands out. In response, a huge bluegreen dragon appeared behind him, which smashed down onto the valley.

    RUMBLE!

    The valley copsed, and the aura of the poison spill exploded out in all directions.

    The giant head simply couldn¡¯t escape it. As it was infected, the terror on its face grew more intense. Finally, a popping sound rang out as the head exploded into numerous smaller heads which tried to race away from the poison.

    However, the power of that poison pill was terrifying. Just leaving the area of effect didn¡¯t mean that the poison would just go away. Although the poison wasn¡¯t necessarily very fast-acting, it was clearly potent. And though the giant head was bizarre, it obviously could be poisoned.

    Killing intent burned in Xu Qing as he flew forth, lifting his right hand to summon the heavenly saber, which he shed down toward the heads. Everything shook as the golden crow rose up as well, surrounded by ck mes that burned everything they touched.

    Neither the shadow nor Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior dared to do anything. Both were too scared of the poison. The beetles, on the other hand, were more used to the poison, and raced out to start devouring the heads.

    Xu Qing unleashed a second sh of his saber, causing intense rumbling sounds to echo out. Meanwhile, the heads screamed shrilly as they fled.

    The monk¡¯s head was really a strange thing, as the smaller versions it had broken into could actually break into even tinier versions, which was exactly what happened.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t keep attacking. Instead, he took out a magical device he had acquired from Sima Ling that specifically targeted grues.

    It was a beautiful crystal pagoda, and it was simple to operate. All you had to do was pour dharma force into it. Xu Qing activated it, then threw it toward one of the tiny heads. Having been split off twice, this head was clearly weak. As soon as the crystal pagoda reached it, the thing was sealed inside. Xu Qing waved his hand to collect it, then turned and started moving in the opposite direction.

    He knew that the poison pill was terrifying, but what he had used just now was simply the aura of the pill, not the actual pill itself. There was a big difference. As such, he wasn¡¯t sure exactly how strong it was.

    However, considering that the monk head had split itself into even smaller parts to flee, it seemed likely that it would survive. Therefore, after sessfully retaliating for the previous night, Xu Qing chose to leave. Having acquired a specimen, he could study itter and figure out a way to actually kill the monk¡¯s head.

    Maybe once I¡¯m finally able to study the inside of the taboo poison pill, I can use that to kill the thing!

    Suppressing his killing intent, he made his way off into the distance.

    A few days passed.

    He had no way of knowing how things ended up for that monk¡¯s head. But the ghost ward never appeared again. Nor did he use the ghost flute to check on it. Until he was sure he could kill that thing, he didn¡¯t see the point. However, he did take out his bamboo slip and carve ¡®Monk¡¯s Head¡¯ on it.

    At that point, he focused all of his energy on searching for the poisonous beasts he needed. The search method was simple. He had his shadow infect other beasts with shadow eyes, which allowed him to widen his search perimeter. As time passed, his search efforts yielded good results, and he found all of the poisonous beasts he needed.

    At the same time, he used the poisons he had bought, plus the ones he was harvesting, to constantly transform his beetles. Thanks to that, the beetles were getting stronger and stronger. That said, each transformation took more time, so Xu Qing was thinking of heading to the Supreme Vastness daoist temple in the ruins, to hopefully gain more enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber.

    Just as he was thinking that, his shadow sent him some joyful emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°... idiot... close... please praise....¡±

    ¡°Idiot?¡± Xu Qing said, surprised.

    ¡°Milord, milord,¡± the patriarch said, coalescing in the open, ¡°Little Shadow is trying to say one of its shadow eyes spotted the idiot from the First Peak somewhere close by. It looks like he¡¯s up to something.¡± The patriarch happened to leave out an exnation for what the shadow meant by ¡®please praise.¡¯ [1]

    You want Fiendish Xu to praise you? Oh, silly shadow. With me here to trante for you, don¡¯t even dream of it!

    1. The idiot from the First Peak is Wu Jianwu, whost appeared onscreen in chapter 197. He was also mentioned briefly in a relevant way in chapter 235. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    The title of the chapter is the first half of amon saying. In Chinese it rhymes, but basically the saying is ¡°there¡¯s always a reason a wolf looks back, if it¡¯s not to repay a kindness it¡¯s to exact revenge.¡±

 Chapter 249: Sorry to Disturb You

    <h4>Chapter 249: Sorry to Disturb You</h4>

    ¡°Wu Jianwu?¡± Xu Qing said, as he squatted at the top of a tree. His eyes glittered.

    Wu Jianwu had provoked Xu Qing out of nowhere out on the Forbidden Sea. Later, he had seemed absolutely terrified of Xu Qing, and didn¡¯t seem threatening at all. In fact, when Xu Qing killed Wu Jianwu¡¯s attendant, Wu Jianwu took the initiative to pay the fine. [1]

    After thinking about it, Xu Qing decided there was no need to go see Wu Jianwu. Instead, he would go directly to the Supreme Vastness daoist temple.

    Except then he asked, ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡±

    The shadow stretched out into a number of different shapes. Apparently, the scene visible to it through its shadow eye was tooplicated to convey easily, so finally it split itself apart into a handful of different images. There were about a dozen of them, and they all depicted beasts of some sort. Each beast was different, but they all had one thing inmon: they had swollen bellies. Then the shadow created an image of Wu Jianwu, sitting next to one of the beasts and rubbing its belly.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been particrly curious about what Wu Jianwu was up to, but upon seeing these images, he waspletely taken aback.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior gasped and said, ¡°What¡¯s this all about? What¡¯s the idiot doing? And what¡¯s going on with those beasts¡¯ bellies. Are they pregnant?¡± The patriarch¡¯s soul body shivered, and his expression was one ofplete incredulity. ¡°Milord, should we go take a closer look? I have the feeling that... the idiot is up to something big!!¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it. He wasn¡¯t an inherently curious person, but the images were so bizarre that he couldn¡¯t resist the urge to see with his own eyes.

    ¡°Lead the way.¡±

    The shadow excitedly pointed in the direction to go. Xu Qing followed immediately, and they disappeared into the jungle.

    Before long, Xu Qing found himself looking at a mountain. It was actually part of one of the branches of the Mountains of Truth that stretched into Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    Xu Qing studied it, then sped up the mountain and over it to the other side. There, hidden amidst lush nts and vegetation, was a crevice.

    It was only about three meters from top to bottom, and was naturally formed. Based on its location, it wasn¡¯t easy to spot. In fact, without the shadow leading the way, Xu Qing would never have found it.

    As he stood in front of the crevice, an odd expression appeared on his face. The fact that this ce was so well-hidden went to show how careful Wu Jianwu had been in selecting it. After considering the matter further, Xu Qing cautiously entered the crevice, still following the lead of his shadow. The crevice led deeper into the mountain than he¡¯d expected. As he got further in, the air turned more humid, making it seem like it led to a river inside the mountain. The path split numerous times, making the entire thing like a hugebyrinth. Without his shadow, Xu Qing would have had a very hard time finding his way.

    Before long he reached the end of the path. Astonishingly, it overlooked a huge cavern. Hanging from the ceiling just inside was a bat, which was the creature that the shadow had been viewing the area through.

    As Xu Qing neared, he looked down into the cavern at an iparably bizarre scene.

    There were over twenty beasts in the cavern. They included wolves, tigers, and other strange creatures, and all of them had been sealed in ce. Theyy there with their bellies swollen as if they were pregnant.

    A pond had been hewn out in the cave, within which was some sort of liquid that let off a strong medicinal liquid aroma.

    Wu Jianwu, his face battered and bruised, squatted next to the pond, filling a stone bowl with liquid. Then he walked over to a huge bear with a swollen belly, who he started to feed the liquid to. The bear looked furious, and seemed to want to struggle free. But it was sealed in ce and couldn¡¯t fight back. It couldn¡¯t even get to its feet.

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s expression was one of tender kindness as he fed the bear and simultaneously rubbed its belly.

    ¡°It¡¯s normal to have a bit of a reaction,¡± he said softly. ¡°Just hold on a bit longer. The rest of my life depends on you. The little ones will be born soon. Once the littles ones are out, I¡¯ll be a force to reckon with. Then I¡¯ll make sure Master Shengyun knows what a real chosen is like! Who is the greatest chosen of all time? Only the great and amazing Wu Jianwu!¡±

    The way Wu Jianwu was grinding his teeth seemed to scare the bear, and it started to struggle even harder to get free. Wu Jianwu patted it softly.

    .

    ¡°Be good now,¡± he said, making sure to keep his voice soothing. ¡°Don¡¯t wriggle around. It¡¯s not good for the little ones! Those little ones need to be born without a hitch. If you serve me well, I¡¯ll take good care of you.¡±

    Seeing all of this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes widened.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was suddenly struck with inspiration, and took out a jade slip to record what was happening. Perhaps because he was so astonished by what he was seeing, he made a noise.

    That, in turn, caused Wu Jianwu to realize someone else was present, and he spun around, a vicious look on his face.

    ¡°Heaven and earth are my bedside; I¡¯m on to you, don¡¯t think you can hide!¡±?Even as the words left his mouth, he saw Xu Qing standing there with a look of shock on his face. ¡°Xu Qing?¡±

    Wu Jianwu was absolutely shaken, and couldn¡¯t fathom how Xu Qing had found him despite all the effort he had put into finding a good hiding spot. Looking down at the animals with the swollen bellies, and then at the expression on Xu Qing¡¯s face, he gasped.

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, Xu Qing.¡±

    ¡°Sorry to disturb you,¡± Xu Qing said. Looking deeply at Wu Jianwu, he turned and walked away. There was no question in his mind that Wu Jianwu was off in the head.

    Seeing that reaction, Wu Jianwu was suddenly so nervous and scared that,pletely forgetting to speak in poetry, he ran after Xu Qing, shouting, ¡°Xu Qing, it¡¯s not what you think!¡±

    Wu Jianwu felt both anxious and humiliated. Ever since he got that bottle from the wish box, he had been depressed for a long time. But he had never been able to make himself throw it away. [2]

    After doing a lot of research, he had pieced together enough clues to determine the identity of the almighty being that had put that bottle in the wish box. It was a nonhuman cultivator who was a follower of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    When the First Peak suffered defeat at the hands of Master Shengyun, Wu Jianwu had sworn an oath that he would teach Master Shengyun a lesson. Therefore, he hade to Forbidden by the Phoenix in the hopes of reestablishing a bloodline from a previous epoch. The reason he didn¡¯t want to do it in the sect was because he needed to maintain face. And of course, he was worried that people in the sect would get the wrong idea about what was going on. He also had to guard against spying. Therefore, he hade to this secret location, a ce where he could never possibly have expected Xu Qing to find him.

    If Xu Qing went back to the sect and spread rumors about what he¡¯d seen, Wu Jianwu knew his reputation would be destroyed. He could just imagine everyone in the sect staring at him. The thought caused his scalp to tingle so hard it felt like it would explode.

    Seeing that he couldn¡¯t catch up to Xu Qing, he called, ¡°I¡¯ll pay money, Xu Qing! Don¡¯t tell anyone about this!¡±

    ¡°Everyone has their own way of living,¡± Xu Qing called back. ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s really not like that!!¡± Wu Jianwu¡¯s face was nearly purple as he screamed, ¡°I¡¯ll give you 300,000 spirit stones! Xu Qing!!¡±

    Xu Qing had just stepped out of the crevice and onto the mountain when he heard that. He stopped in ce.

    A momentter, Wu Jianwu rushed out of the crevice and shoved a pile of spirit notes in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Take them, Xu Qing. You have to take them. Otherwise I can never rest at ease. It¡¯s really not what you think. I... I... I....¡±

    Xu Qing took the spirit notes and nodded earnestly. ¡°I didn¡¯t see anything.¡±

    Yet Wu Jianwu still seemed worried. ¡°What are you doing in Forbidden by the Phoenix, Xu Qing? If you need any help, just say the word.¡±

    ¡°Looking for poisonous substances.¡±

    Hearing that, Wu Jianwu blurted, ¡°Poisonous substances? Hey, I know this area like the back of my hand. I can help!¡±

    ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary.¡± Xu Qing turned to leave.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go, Xu Qing! Just wait here for a minute. This mountain has a ce with exactly the kind of poison you¡¯re looking for. I¡¯ll go harvest it for you!!¡± With that, he rushed back into the crevice.

    He really was going to harvest some poison for Xu Qing. Without doing that, he wouldn¡¯t be able to rest at ease. In fact, he didn¡¯t even wait for a response from Xu Qing. In his rush, he didn¡¯t notice that an eye was now attached to his shadow, and was watching his every move.

    Xu Qing looked down at his shadow, which quickly created an image for him to look at. It depicted Wu Jianwu frantically rushing back to the cavern. Then it revealed Wu Jianwu diving into the pond there and swimming down into its depths to a tunnel. Into the tunnel he went, and then he popped out in arge open area. There was a hugeke there. However, the way the shadow depicted theke, it looked like a human face. And the way the liquid moved, it seemed viscous.

    After reaching theke, Wu Jianwu dug something out, put it in a stone bowl, and then turned around. The images portrayed by the shadow weren¡¯t veryprehensive, so Xu Qing wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of them. Eventually, Wu Jianwu returned.

    ¡°Is this the kind of thing you¡¯re looking for, Xu Qing?¡± Wu Jianwu handed him the stone bowl.

    Xu Qing looked at it, and his eyes narrowed. Inside of the bowl was something that looked frozen. It seemed liquid, yet not liquid. It was blue, and crystalline, and emitted a fragrant aroma.

    ¡°Immortal ice?¡± he murmured.

    He had read about immortal ice in the medicinal codex from Grandmaster Bai. It wasn¡¯t a poison medicine, but rather, a very rare substance usually used as a catalyst. Based on the description written by Grandmaster Bai, Xu Qing was certain that immortal ice was somehow connected to the ¡®immortal energy¡¯ mentioned in many ancient records.

    ¡°There¡¯s a strangeke beneath this mountain,¡± Wu Jianwu exined. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of this stuff in it. I took some of it away, but it usually melts within an hour or two. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any way to preserve it, so I could never bring it back to the sect. It¡¯s harmless to humans, but one time when I gave it to a beast, the thing rotted away and died instantly. That¡¯s why I was thinking it¡¯s probably some kind of poison.¡±

    ¡°Take me to thiske,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Wu Jianwu immediately led the way. Right now, he would agree to anything that Xu Qing asked for. Normally speaking, he wouldn¡¯t ever tell people details of this secret area he¡¯d found, but now he wasn¡¯t hesitating at all. Before long, the two of them reached theke.

 Chapter 250: Big Changes to Emperor-Receiving

    Chapter 250: Big Changes to Emperor-Receiving

    A massive blueke stretched out in front of Xu Qing. The water was extremely clear, but close examination revealed that it was actually frozen. A chaotic tangle of colorful nts grew on theke shore. Even the ceiling of the cave was covered in moss. There was clearly a lot of moisture in the air.

    Xu Qing looked around. Whether it was what he could see or what he could sense, nothing about the area seemed dangerous. However, he remained on guard as he carefully approached theke and looked down into it. When he saw whaty at the bottom of the frozen water, he frowned slightly. Theke floor was covered with an assortment of bones. There were bones of both men and women, all humans, and they were scattered everywhere, seemingly a reminder of some sort of tragic event.

    ¡°I found this ce by ident,¡± Wu Jianwu said. Seemingly worried Xu Qing might be getting the wrong idea about his intentions, he continued, ¡°I¡¯ve been here a few times and never ran into anything dangerous. The bones down there don¡¯t have any sort of mutagen in them.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. After looking more closely at theke, Xu Qing thought back to the description of immortal ice from Grandmaster Bai¡¯s medicinal codex and realized that the frozen substance here differed slightly from the description he was familiar with.

    It was more fragrant.

    That fragrant aroma was stronger the closer you got to the edge of theke. It was sweet, even unctuous; the longer the aroma stayed in your nostrils, the worse it smelled. That did not match what he had read about immortal ice.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guess was that years ago, before changing into its current form, this ce had been a normal pond infused with immortal energy. Most likely, thiske was indeed like the description from the medicinal codex, in that it had been formed by immortal energy. However, during the process of transforming into immortal ice, something different happened. Perhaps this was a mutated variety of immortal ice.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure of the exact details, but he was certain this stuff was worthy of further research.

    He was just about to start collecting some specimens when he noticed something at the bottom of theke and exhaled in surprise. His life mes ignited, and his cultivation base erupted with power, causing a sea of mes to spread out around him.

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes widened, and he backed up a few steps, unsure of what was going on. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing focused the power of his life mes on his eyes, causing them to glitter more brightly than stars as he stared at theke. Among the bones and rubble on theke floor was a stone that seemed very familiar to him.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, Wu Jianwu quickly said, ¡°What are you looking at? Is there something good down there? It¡¯s too bad thiske is so bizarre. I wouldn¡¯t dare go down inside. In the past I was thinking of trying to fish out the bones, but I wasn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    All of a sudden, the stone that Xu Qing found familiar wriggled, then shot out of theke as if it had been grabbed by an invisible hand. Dripping water, it shot toward him and then hovered right in front of him.

    Wu Jianwu gasped.

    After closely examining it, Xu Qing realized why it seemed familiar to him. It had the aura of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber.

    Astonishingly, this stone contained the divine resonance of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber! Intrigued, Xu Qing took the stone. Around the same time, his shadow returned to him. The shadow was what he had used to take the stone from theke.

    Looking back into theke, it was now possible to see that, buried in the ground beneath the spot where the stone had previouslyy, was a stone stele. As the water rippled, the silt atop the stone stele stirred, revealing some calligraphy and an image.

    Xu Qing looked more closely.

    ¡°Immortal Bathing Cistern of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan?¡± When Wu Jianwu read the calligraphy, he let loose a cry of surprise.

    Xu Qing was also stunned. Next, his gaze slid from the calligraphy to the image, which was actually a map of the continent of South Phoenix.

    The Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was identified. Of course, that area was now called the Violet Lands. The map also showed the location of the Immortal Bathing Cistern. And not too far away from it was another location: Crown Prince¡¯s Mansion.

    That was the same location as the ruins of the Supreme Vastness daoist temple that Xu Qing nned to go to next.

    The history of thiske was now clear. And the name Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan caused memories to stir in Xu Qing. The first ce he had heard about that kingdom was in the Violet Lands, when Chen Feiyuan exined the details of the eight great ns. That was when Xu Qing had learned the long history of the ce in South Phoenix, and how it had been ruled by a fantastic bloodline. [1]

    They can form symbiotic rtionships with magical treasures....

    It made him think of how Chen Feiyuan had seemed both strong and weak at the same time.

    At this point, Xu Qing harvested some of the mutated immortal ice. Then, without any hesitation he left the cave.

    Wu Jianwu escorted him back to the crevice. Once outside, Wu Jianwu stood there looking at him, rubbing his hands together anxiously. He looked like he wanted to stay something, but was hesitating to open his mouth.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell anyone,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Giving Wu Jianwu a long look, he turned and became a bright beam of light that shot off into the distance.

    ***

    Wu Jianwu remained standing there alone, looking depressed and wondering if he¡¯d handled everything correctly.

    After a long moment passed, he gritted his teeth.

    Stop overthinking things. Xu Qing is overbearing, but I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s the kind of person who keeps his word. Worst case scenario... I¡¯ll just stay away from the sect for a while. I¡¯m not going to give up until the little ones are born!

    Wu Jianwu had clearly been deeply affected by the defeat at the hands of Master Shengyun. Eyes bloodshot, he turned and went back into the cave to take care of the beasts with the swollen bellies.

    ***

    It waste. The moon hung high over Forbidden by the Phoenix, making the trees seem like evil ghosts. Strange howls mingled with the shrieking of beasts.

    Xu Qing sped through the pitch ck jungle, leaping through the trees at top speed. He had no intention of spreading rumors about Wu Jianwu.

    In this chaotic world, different people had their own way of living, and though Wu Jianwu apparently had some very strange hobbies, it wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s business. What was more, Wu Jianwu had taken him to that immortal ice. There were all kinds of weird things in the big, wide world.

    Wu Jianwu is definitely up to something big, though. Shaking his head, Xu Qing cleared his thoughts and eventually found a tree hollow he could stay in for the night. After checking the area for safety, he set up some defenses, then crawled inside.

    Once secure, he took out the immortal ice he¡¯d harvested.

    Enough time had passed that much of the immortal ice had melted. Based on what Wu Jianwu had said, it wouldn¡¯tst much more than about two hours.

    Taking out a bottle, he opened it and released the beetles onto the immortal ice. They immediately started feeding. As he observed them eating, he didn¡¯t see anything special happening. However, he let the beetles devour all of it.

    After it was gone, Xu Qing observed the beetles for a short time, then put them back into the bottle, then put a special mark on the bottle. Maybe after they had time to digest the immortal ice, something would happen.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing took out the stone he¡¯d acquired with the divine resonance of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. As he sought enlightenment from it, the image of a shing saber appeared to him.

    A tremor passed through him and he closed his eyes.

    And thus, the night passed.

    The next morning at dawn, he opened his eyes. The first thing he did was look down at the stone.

    This stone gave me a much deeper understanding of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. Xu Qing was very pleased at how much he¡¯d benefitted. Next he checked on the beetles that had consumed the immortal ice. Based on his blood connection to them, he could sense that the beetles were in a state simr to drunkenness. They weren¡¯t moving around very much. However, their auras were changing.

    Xu Qing was excited about that. However, he couldn¡¯t tell what specifically about them was changing. For now, he didn¡¯t want to disturb them. Putting the bottle away, he made sure to take note of the location of theke, then crawled out of the tree hollow and continued on his way.

    His n was to go to the ruins of the Supreme Vastness daoist temple and see if he could find a destined opportunity to gain enlightenment of a second saber move. If that didn¡¯t work, he would continue studying the stone he had found.

    The edge of the stone is sharp, simr to a saber. It must be connected to the Supreme Vastness daoist temple. Maybe it¡¯s part of a divine likeness!

    Ten days passed.

    Xu Qing kept traveling the entire time. asionally he would stop to harvest poisonous nts or other items. He kept a close eye on the beetles that had consumed the immortal ice. They still seemed to be in a dormant state.

    How long is it going tost? If he wasn¡¯t able to sense that they were alive, he probably would have assumed they were dead. I guess I¡¯ll just have to wait and see.

    Further ahead, past a downward slope, he spotted some ruins. It looked like an old city that had long since been sinking into oblivion.

    It was currently noon, and the bright sunlight shone through the leafy canopy, creating a mottled atmosphere as Xu Qing sped through the trees.

    As he looked at the ruined city, the dappled sunlight made the ce look incredibly ancient. From his current position, he was able to spot a magnificent temple in the middle of the city. He could only make out the basic shape of the structure, but could already tell that it was profoundly ancient.

    ¡°Finally here,¡± he murmured, then sped down toward the ruins.

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, he was in the ruins.

    ***

    A vast distance away, near the Forbidden Sea on the Revered Ancient maind, a shocking event yed out that shook heaven and earth. It was something so dramatic it caused astonishment among all of the powerful groups in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    For the first time in two hundred years, the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect of the Seven Sect Coalition activated their taboo magical treasure!

    Apparently, they were nning to absolutely exterminate Seven Blood Eyes!

    Seven days previous, the Seven Sect Coalition yet again sent orders to Seven Blood Eyes, only to have Sir Bloodsmelter drag things out and not follow instructions.

    One day previous, the highest authoritative body in the Seven Sect Coalition, their senate, passed a measure to deal with the situation. Then they sent an envoy to Seven Blood Eyes to exin.

    ording to the measure, Sir Bloodsmelter and the seven peaklords had one day to report to the coalition for punishment. If they didn¡¯tply, then Seven Blood Eyes would be destroyed, and all disciples from there would be executed.

    All nonhumans and visitors to Seven Blood Eyes had three days to leave, otherwise they would be punished along with the sect.

    It caused a huge stir. Many nonhuman visitors packed up and left, as did everyone who hade from the Seven Sect Coalition. As for Seven Blood Eyes, everything suddenly seemed very unstable, and everyone was trembling in anxiety.

    The next day, when Sir Bloodsmelter still refused to follow orders... the Seven Sect Coalition was enraged, and the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect unleashed their taboo magical treasure.

    A blood-red beam of light shot out of the Seven Sect Coalition, rising into midair to create a blood-colored seed. Then... it shot to the north!

    Except, Seven Blood Eyes was to the south, not the north!

    Within the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there was a mountain range and a river that intersected to divide the prefecture into east, west, south and north. The mountains were called the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, and the river was the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    The Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains connected the south and the north, while the Evesting Immortal Profundity River connected east and west. In the middle, where they met, which was also the very center of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there was a sect.

    That sect was the Young Arbiter Sect. The Young Arbiter Sect didn¡¯t have many direct dealings with the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. However, everyone knew that the Young Arbiter Sect had been set up by the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society to keep the Seven Sect Coalition in check, sort of like a henchman.

    The sect headquarters of the Young Arbiter Sect was a huge dam that impeded a tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River that should have eventually reached the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s port. That blockage caused problems for the Seven Sect Coalition when it came to purging mutagen from spirit energy, and had a big negative influence on the coalition.

    To the Seven Sect Coalition, the Young Arbiter Sect was like a fish bone stuck in the throat. They had repeatedly requested that the dam be opened, but the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society always intervened and made harsh demands.

    The Seven Sect Coalition couldn¡¯t target the Young Arbiter Sect militarily unless they were confident they could defeat them instantly. Otherwise, any such efforts would be foiled. Furthermore, because of the delicate bnce of power, it wasn¡¯t possible to power up a taboo magical treasure without everyone bing suspicious.

    Other groups in the area were more than happy to see humans fighting each other, and did everything they could to stir up trouble in that regard. When the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect powered up their taboo magical treasure, and used it to create a blood-colored seed, they were actually targeting... the Young Arbiter Sect! The blood-colored seed moved with incredible speed, piercing across a vast distance tond right in the middle of the Young Arbiter Sect.

    The Seven Sect Coalition had obviously been pretending to advance along one path while secretly going along another.

    Though it had seemed that tensions with Seven Blood Eyes had been growing, the reality was that it was a smokescreen! They had just needed an excuse to activate their taboo, and thus get rid of that fish bone stuck in the throat!

    As soon as the blood-colored seednded, a massive gruish blood tree sprouted up in the middle of the Young Arbiter Sect. The tree pulsed, causing a vast number of cultivators in the Young Arbiter Sect to die instantly. As their blood was sucked into the tree, the survivors were seriously injured, and blood sprayed out of their mouths. The tree pulsed again, sending out heaven-rending, earth-crushing power, crushing the ground, and causing countless structures to copse. That included the dam.

    Without the blockage of the dam, the waters of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River flowed through the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains without anything to stop them. The third pulse of the tree caused flowers to bloom all over it. At the same time, an ancient voice spoke from within.

    ¡°The Young Arbiter Sect killed disciples of our coalition. The evidence is clear. The Young Arbiter Sect shall be wiped out of existence!¡±

    Blood-colored light rose into the dome of heaven, creating a spell formation. Within it, over a hundred figures appeared, all of them bursting with astonishing auras and towering killing intent!

    All of it happened too quickly.

    In order to intimidate Seven Blood Eyes earlier, the Seven Sect Coalition had activated three of their sects¡¯ taboo magical treasures. At this moment, only the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect activated their taboo magical treasures. But then, an instantter, all six of the other sects also did the same. In the blink of an eye, the sky above the Seven Sect Coalitionpletely transformed.

    Everything under heaven shook violently!

    1. The Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was originally described in chapters 207 and 210. ?

 Chapter 251: Iâ€™ll Beat Him to the Punch

    <h4>Chapter 251: I¡¯ll Beat Him to the Punch</h4>

    As momentous events yed out in Revered Ancient, Xu Qing was making his way through the city ruins, with no idea about what was happening so far away. He did notice that the sky seemed a bit more red than normal, but other than that, it seemed like an ordinary day. That redness was so faint it would be hard for anyone to connect it with anything happening in Revered Ancient. After merely ncing up, Xu Qing looked back at the ruined buildings he was traveling through.

    The architectural style of these buildings was different from any of the other cities Xu Qing had been in. They were modr and orderly, and from above, theyout of the building structures generally resembled the character ¾®. There were big structures and small ones, tall ones and short ones. But they were all very neat and organized, making the entire ce seem like it had been nned out with much thought. Despite how the entire city had apparently existed since ancient times, it still seemed like a luxurious and fancy ce. The tiles on the ground all hadvish designs on them, and many buildings still had spirit stones set into the walls. The streets were paved with white jade, and the canals that existed in the city were lined with gold. That said, all of the beauty of the city was now marred by encroaching mutagen, and had lost much of its luster. Because of the erosion, there wasn¡¯t much value left. However, anyone who looked at it would be able to imagine the city¡¯s former grandeur. After all, with some imagination one could ignore the animal droppings, the silt, the creeping vermin, or the vicious-looking weeds everywhere.

    But in the end, this city was a shell of its former self, with only bits of evidence left to harken to its past. For instance, Xu Qing did see some crumbling steles with the words Violet Cyan on them.

    ording to the map I found in the Immortal Bathing Cistern, this ce was once the mansion of the crown prince of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. That means the crown prince himself lived here.

    Xu Qing walked along through the silt, leaving footsteps behind in the weeds, and keeping his eyes on everything around him. Eventually he spotted cultivators in some of the buildings.

    There weren¡¯t many. But based on the information he¡¯d read back in the sect, this ce was amon destination for cultivators who were out exploring. They came from all over South Phoenix. Some came from powerful sects, others were rogue cultivators. There were immense riches to be found in Forbidden by the Phoenix, and therefore, there were always people willing to brave the dangers to find them.

    In a chaotic world like this one, people fought over everything. And that was especially true of people from small sects and organizations, or rogue cultivators. The only way for them to improve their cultivation bases and battle prowess was by means of bloodshed. And to do that, they had to risk their lives.

    Cultivators from big sects had a simrly bitter life. But it was different for those in a weaker position.

    These ruins had been here for so long that they were rtively safe. And that was why it had be something of a rest stop for cultivators hunting in Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    Xu Qing attracted some attention when he arrived. However, most people just nced at him then looked away. Cultivators who came to this ce were a cautious lot, and kept their guard up against others. That fit in line perfectly with Xu Qing¡¯s personality. As he walked along, he kept an eye out for dangers from all sides. He also started moving faster and faster.

    Before long, he saw a familiar-looking temple up ahead. The architectural style was different from the other buildings. The Supreme Vastness daoist temple was circr. In fact, looking at it from directly above, it looked like a perfect circle in the middle of the ruins. It had obviously been an amazing structure in the past. [1]

    Xu Qing looked at it closely as he approached. From a distance, he could see a few dozen cultivators from various species gathered outside of it. Some of them gathered in groups of two or three. Others stuck to themselves. Though all were sitting cross-legged outside of the temple, they were able to see inside.

    Most of them were in the great circle of Qi Condensation, but a few were Foundation Establishment cultivators with no life me. There were two old men who appeared to be in the one-me level. Despite their rtively high level, it made sense for them to be here, as it was still possible that they could gain enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. If they did, they would reach heaven in a single bound?and make amazing progress.

    On the other hand, it seemed strange for people in the great circle of Qi Condensation to be here.

    However, after looking them over, Xu Qing realized the reality of the situation. When he arrived, many in the crowd looked over at him with greed and malevolence. However, after sensing his aura, they looked away in rm. At the same time, it was possible to see rotting and shriveled remains in the surrounding underbrush.

    This was a Supreme Vastness daoist temple, where one could gain enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. But this was also Forbidden by the Phoenix, where the weak were the prey of the strong, and unscrupulous and vicious people abounded.

    Given how famous the Supreme Vastness daoist temples were, it wasn¡¯t umon for cultivators toe visit. If they were strong enough, they would be fine. But if they weren¡¯t, then they would die here and lose everything. It didn¡¯t matter how the people outside the temple presented themselves, it was obvious to Xu Qing that they were there for nefarious purposes.

    Taking note of all that, he continued walking.

    Many of the people outside the temple exchanged nces, but none of them dared to make a move on him. People camping out at a location like this would obviouslye prepared, and all of them could tell that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t a person who should be trifled with.

    As Xu Qing neared the temple, he spotted statues inside that seemed both familiar and strange.

    Seated cross-legged in front of one of those divine likeness was Master Shengyun. His golden robe was dazzlingly eye-catching, as was the scintiting umbre that floated over his head. His eyes were closed, and he emanated a coldness that made it seem like he felt all emotions to be superfluous.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce, and his guard went up even further. He hadn¡¯t paid very close attention to Master Shengyun back in the sect, and was surprised to find him here seeking enlightenment.

    Though Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was high, he preferred to go into conflicts knowing he could crush his opponent. Unless he was sure of that, he would rather avoid fighting. Despite how enticing Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp was, after some thought, Xu Qing decided it wouldn¡¯t be good to try to take it with force. Furthermore, he decided that instead of going into the temple, he would find a spot outside where he could see the statue, and try to seek enlightenment from there.

    Unfortunately, the tree may wish for quiet, but the wind will not subside.

    Master Shengyun noticed him.

    He opened his eyes and stared emotionlessly at Xu Qing outside of the temple, his gaze like two des. Without saying a single word he waved his right hand. Instantly, the air in front of him rippled and distorted, sending out fluctuations in all directions. As dust swirled up, a stone sword took shape in front of him. The sword pulsed with astonishing energy, and spat out sparks of sword energy that hissed as theynded on the ground and dug out furrows.

    Outside the temple, the two one-me old men were visibly shocked, and started backing away.

    They knew full well that, given their own level of strength, there was no way they could fight someone capable of forming a sword out of nothing like that. A single blow would likely kill them. The other cultivators in the area also backed away as fast as they could.

    At the same time, the sword in the temple swiveled until its tip pointed at Xu Qing. Then it shot toward him. It pierced through the air with a high-pitched whine, leaving behind a wake of fluctuations as it headed in the direction of Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim as he reached out and flicked the sword with his right index finger. A pop rang out, and the stone sword copsed, the pieces falling to the ground in front of him. A shockwave sted out, ripping up weeds and sending dirt flying everywhere.

    Thankfully for the other cultivators in the area, they had reacted quickly enough that they managed to avoid being caught up in the st.

    As dirt rained down everywhere, Xu Qing looked coldly into the temple at Master Shengyun.

    ¡°What was that for?¡± Xu Qing said.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s expression was the same as ever, as if all of this was going exactly as he wished. If he wanted to do something, he would do it. If he wanted to kill someone, he would kill them. As far as he was concerned, humans from South Phoenix weren¡¯t even worth thinking about.

    Before, he hadn¡¯t known anything about Xu Qing. But after Xu Qing crushed Sima Ling, Master Shengyun took a slight interest in him. That said, he didn¡¯t know what he looked like, and had nned to let him get a bit stronger until it was convenient to make proper use of him. During the time in which he had been seeking enlightenment, he got messages from other disciples in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect warning him about Xu Qing. That was the first time he saw an image of what Xu Qing looked like.

    His attack right now had been casual, yet it was still surprising to him that it hadn¡¯t hurt Xu Qing at all. All of a sudden, he was thinking it might be a good idea to kill Xu Qing and absorb him.

    Then he considered that doing it right now might not result in the best vor, and thus he said, ¡°You¡¯re the one who took advantage of my absence to snatch my Junior Brother? Go back, kowtow to him three times, and then set him free. Let me make it clear, Xu Qing. For every hair on his head that you harm, I¡¯ll cut off one of your fingers. No exceptions.¡± [2]

    Having said this, he ignored Xu Qing and went back to meditating.

    Meanwhile, the crowd gathered outside the temple looked on with bated breath as they watched Xu Qing and Master Shengyun. All of them had long since identified who Master Shengyun was, and had even experienced some of his domineering ways. And now they knew how mighty he was when he took action. Thanks to what Master Shengyun had just said, they now knew who Xu Qing was.

    ¡°Xu Qing from the Seven Blood Eyes echelon?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a chosen from Seven Blood Eyes....¡±

    ¡°So what if he is? Even he has to bow his head in the presence of people from the Revered Ancient maind.¡±

    Xu Qing stood in the entrance of the temple studying Master Shengyun¡¯s throat, and then his lifemp. Cold light shone in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, as well as killing intent.

    Within the ck iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior felt the urge to gasp repeatedly, but suppressed the feeling. More than ever he felt like Master Shengyun was the real deal.

    In the books I¡¯ve read, what usually happens is that the enemy bullies the main character into a corner. Finally, the main character can¡¯t take it anymore and has no choice but to fight back with deadly force. Those scenes are awesome, though I admit they get old after a while.

    But the Fiendish Xu is different. With him, if an enemy simply shows a teeny bit of killing intent, he¡¯ll take it as a threat to his life. The enemy doesn¡¯t even have to attack him, and his own killing intent will skyrocket.

    Xu Qing had no way of knowing what the patriarch was thinking about. But he did know that he and Master Shengyun weren¡¯t on the same level in terms of battle prowess. Because of that, he didn¡¯t do anything impulsive. Turning, he found an appropriate position to sit down cross-legged, and without revealing what he was doing, startedcing the area with poison.

    He had already decided to kill Master Shengyun.

    After all, when he arrested that Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciple at that Night Dove headquarters, he hadn¡¯t just harmed some hairs on his head. He had smashed him into the ground and broken most of the bones in his body. Based on what Master Shengyun had said just now, if a hair was worth a finger, then a bunch of broken bones had to be worth a life.

    In that case, I¡¯ll kill you before you kill me!?Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as his killing intent built. However, he didn¡¯t reveal it in his eyes. After putting down his poison, he looked around to see if there were any dao protectors in the area.

    Seeing what was happening, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior thought, The Fiendish Xu iscing the area with poison. That¡¯s what he usually does when he gets ready to beat the enemy to the punch! This is going to be a battle between real deal main characters from two different novels!

    1. I¡¯ve been to a lot of temples in China, and in my experience, those with circr architecture are not verymon. Probably the most famous circr temple is the Temple of Heaven in Beijing which looks like this. I have no idea if that¡¯s what the author was thinking of in this case, but it¡¯s possible. ??

    2. Xu Qing arrested a disciple who imed to be Master Shengyun¡¯s Junior Brother during the Night Dove crackdown. That was in??

 Chapter 252: Blades Clash

    Chapter 252: des sh

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled, and not even he was sure if it was from fear or excitement. All he knew was that if Xu Qing was going to kill someone, then unless the opponent had some sort of absolutely astonishing technique, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t stop until they were dead. It was that way even with the strongest enemies Xu Qing had fought in the past.

    From within the iron skewer, the patriarch could sense how mighty Master Shengyun was. What was more, he had overheard the Violent Crimes Division constables talking about how amazing he was. However, he wasn¡¯t in the position to be contemting such things. There was only one thing that mattered to him....

    Given the Fiendish Xu¡¯s personality, if he died in this fight, he would make sure to blow up the iron skewer before he went out.

    Because of this Master Shengyun, the Fiendish Xu is in a killing mood. Because of this Master Shengyun, the Fiendish Xu might blow me up! Because of this Master Shengyun, my life is in danger! It¡¯s all because of Master Shengyun. Master Shengyun, you¡¯re going to get me killed!!

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the patriarch¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he red out of the skewer at Master Shengyun.

    The shadow could sense the fluctuationsing from Xu Qing and the patriarch. It had recovered much of its intelligence recently, and after sensing what was going on, was getting nervous.

    It was already evening, and Xu Qing had been surreptitiously cing poison everywhere around him. It was odorless and scentless, but it was still there, pulsing. The reality was that none of the poison he was putting around was very dangerous. However, by adding one specific primer, they would transform into something incredibly dangerous.

    Obviously, Xu Qing didn¡¯t think that would be enough to wipe out Master Shengyun. Back in Seven Blood Eyes, Master Shengyun had unleashed six-me battle prowess, which was so terrifying he had been able to fight with the elders of the First Peak. Most importantly, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if six-me battle prowess was all that Master Shengyun was capable of unleashing. What was more, he still wasn¡¯t sure where Master Shengyun¡¯s dao protectors were.

    Given Master Shengyun¡¯s personality, I doubt the dao protectors are in hiding. The most likely possibility is that he sent them away. They¡¯re probably out in Forbidden by the Phoenix on some task. But what?

    After more thought, Xu Qing decided it would be better to be safe than sorry. He would spend some more time assessing the situation, and wouldn¡¯t do anything rash. The best thing would be to keepcing the area with poison in the hopes of increasing his ultimate chances of sess.

    At the same time, he released five bottles of his beetles.

    However, what happened after that caused Xu Qing¡¯s guard to go up even further. The umbre over Master Shengyun¡¯s head had defensive properties that the beetles were incapable of prating. All they could do was gather around him.

    My lifemp protects my soul... Does Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp protect his fleshly body?

    Time passed. Evening went and night came. The moon appeared in the dome of heaven, casting moonlight down on thends below.

    After checking the poisons in the area, Xu Qing was trying to decide what other poisons to add when suddenly his expression flickered.

    The cultivators outside the temple were reacting to the fall of night. Their expressions were more serious, but at the same time, some of them seemed to be looking forward to something.

    Wondering what was going on, Xu Qing looked over at one of the one-me old men.

    When Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell on him, the old man shivered. After a moment of hesitation, he stood, bowed to Xu Qing, then quietly said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu, would you be interested in knowing more about the mysteries of the Supreme Vastness daoist temples?¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral. The information back in the sect wasn¡¯t very detailed regarding any so-called mysteries. He nodded to the old man.

    Without any hesitation, the old man went into a detailed exnation. ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu, for many years there wasn¡¯t anything special about this Supreme Vastness daoist temple. But four years ago, it changed. That¡¯s why there are more people here than normal.

    ¡°What¡¯s different is that, when night falls and the moonlight enters the temple, the statues will perform a saber dance. Anybody can watch it. But up to now, no one has gained any enlightenment from it, with the exception of that one almighty person....¡± The old man¡¯s eyes flitted to Master Shengyun.

    ¡°Virtually every night so far, he¡¯s benefited. The rest of us just fail over and over again, but we all still hope that we might have some sess. Even a little bit would make people like us a lot stronger.¡±

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully into the temple. Moonlight fell down, covering everything, and eventually reaching into the temple to shine on the divine likenesses there. As Xu Qing watched, one of the statues in the temple started moving.

    It started slowly. Then the statue moved with more fluidity. As it did, sabers appeared in the air around it, hardly discernible, as though they were illusions. It onlysted for a brief moment, and then everything in the temple went back to normal.

    Surprised, Xu Qing focused more closely on the statue, and before long, could see it moving again, and could sense the saber projections around it. To most people, the saber projections would be so blurry they couldn¡¯t see them, except for brief moments when they became clear.

    But because of Xu Qing¡¯s previous enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, he could see them quite clearly.

    The moment they became clear to him, an illusory heavenly saber suddenly appeared over his head. It was none other than the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber he had gained enlightenment of. As he watched the scene ying out in front of him, the heavenly saber formed, and then glittered brightly as though it were undergoing a transformation.

    Specifically, it was growing more corporeal. The original heavenly saber had been illusory, but now, starting with the hilt, it was glittering brightly and turning more solid. As the effect spread, it filled the body of the saber, and Xu Qing¡¯s Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber got closer to being true and real.

    The onlookers were all visibly stunned. At the same time, Master Shengyun, who sat cross-legged in the temple, also had a heavenly saber above his head, simr to Xu Qing¡¯s.

    The only difference was that his was green and Xu Qing¡¯s was violet!

    When the two heavenly sabers appeared, the onlookers let loose shocked exmations. Many of them started panting in astonishment.

    Truth be told, it had been the same with Master Shengyun every day recently, and the onlookers had be used to it. But for the same scene to repeat with Xu Qing was nothing short of astonishing. Everyone knew what it meant; both of these people had previously gained enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. And even more spectacr, both were gaining enlightenment of a second saber move.

    ¡°This Xu Qing... is just what you would expect of a chosen from Seven Blood Eyes!¡±

    ¡°Both of them are gaining enlightenment. It looks like their sabers are transforming from illusory to corporeal. The moment the processpletes, they¡¯ll have full enlightenment.¡±

    ¡°I wonder who will seed first. Whichever one does, then the other, no matter how far along they are in the process, will lose their chance to finish.¡±

    After being here days observing, the people in the crowd knew a bit about the Supreme Vastness daoist temple. Other than whispering a bit among themselves, none dared to do anything devious. Just because someone was gaining enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber didn¡¯t mean that they had lost their ability to stay on guard and kill enemies. Anyone who tried to disturb such a person would likely end up dead.

    The people outside the temple could tell that Master Shengyun¡¯s saber seemed more fully formed than Xu Qing¡¯s. In fact, his was about fifty percentplete.

    Xu Qing hadeter, and therefore hadn¡¯t had enough time to seek enlightenment. His was only at the ten percent level.

    Xu Qing also could tell that difference, and realized that he needed to speed up his enlightenment. That said, though he valued the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, there were other temples. Furthermore, you needed enlightenment of seven saber moves for it to count as an imperial-ss technique. In other words, if he didn¡¯t seed here, it wouldn¡¯t be too worrisome.

    What he was more concerned about was figuring out the best way to attack Master Shengyun while he was seeking enlightenment.

    He has four life mes, and the battle prowess of six mes. However... his biggest weakness is his 120th dharma aperture¡­.

    Xu Qing had been able to do some first-hand research into dharma apertures during his shes with the chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition.

    Ideally I should wait until I ce even more poison in the area. That way, when the poison finally takes effect, it¡¯ll be even stronger. Looking away from Master Shengyun, Xu Qing patiently continued waiting. Obviously, the process of enlightenment wasn¡¯t going to bepleted in only a few days. Also... his dao protectors aren¡¯t here. That means I have to watch out for attacks from all directions.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he stayed more on guard than ever.

    Meanwhile, Master Shengyun looked over at him from within the temple. His face was expressionless as he noted the saber image above Xu Qing¡¯s head, but his eyes became as cold as if he was looking at a dead person. How could a backyard chicken dare topare itself to a splendid phoenix!

    He no longer intended to let Xu Qing get any stronger. Since Xu Qing waspeting with him for the same destined opportunity, then he would kill him before continuing. It wouldn¡¯t take that much time.

    Master Shengyun didn¡¯t care at all that Xu Qing was in Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ echelon. He had also noticed the unusual redness in the sky earlier, and given his general understanding of things, he realized... that the coalition was making a move to the north.

    In a moment of glory for the Seven Sect Coalition, there was no way Seven Blood Eyes wouldin about one member of their echelon getting killed.

    Master Shengyun was the kind of person who acted on his impulses, so once his killing intent sparked to life, it was without the slightest hesitation that he stood and started walking out of the temple.

    His 120 dharma apertures roared to life like furnaces, and his life mes raged. A glittering, starlike umbre appeared overhead, sending seven-colored light out in all directions. And behind him, a green-bodied red-tailed ravagemist bird appeared, letting loose a piercing cry to heaven. Six-me battle prowess raged in all directions, causing wild winds to whip about, and resulting in loud rumbling like heavenly thunder.

    The onlookers didn¡¯t qualify to even react to what was happening, and couldn¡¯t see the speed that resulted from six-me power.

    However, Xu Qing looked up. He also couldn¡¯t see six-me speed; all in all, the difference between five and six mes was just as massive as the difference between three and four. However, Xu Qing was surrounded by poison. And Master Shengyun was surrounded by beetles. Because of that, Xu Qing could detect what was happening.

 Chapter 253: The Weakness of Four Flames

    <h4>Chapter 253: The Weakness of Four mes</h4>

    Xu Qing had no experience shing with the power of six mes. But he had a good idea what it would be like. He knew that with every additional me in Foundation Establishment, one¡¯s battle prowess would experience heaven-shaking, earth-toppling advances. In fact, in his experience, each additional me was like the difference between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment, an entire cultivation realm.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if there were other worlds beyond the starry sky that he could see, and if there were, if the species there practiced cultivation. If they did, was there still a Foundation Establishment level that involved cultivating life mes? Was there a monumental difference with each additional me?

    All he knew was that there were big differences between each stage of Foundation Establishment here. For example, four-me power could crush three-me power. Unless thetter had some astonishing treasure, they would die for sure. It wasn¡¯t even possible to overwhelm a higher level of power by using numbers, like it was with Qi Condensation.

    Simrly, six-me battle prowess could crush five-me power.

    Xu Qing knew that Master Shengyun was moving so quickly it wasn¡¯t even possible to see him clearly.

    With his own three life mes burning, and his lifemp, plus the blessing of the golden crow to his fleshly body, he was just barely able to make out a string of afterimages. Then Master Shengyun was right in front of him.

    Next, a terrifying wave of force hit him, something he couldn¡¯t possibly block. A huge boom rang out, and Xu Qing tumbled backward like a kite with its string cut, his face pale, blood spraying out of his mouth. That said, he had no major injuries.

    The moment Master Shengyununched his attack, a field of light appeared around Xu Qing, creating a defensive barrier that blocked the power of the six-me attack!

    ¡°So you have a Nascent Soul defensive item,¡± Master Shengyun said coolly as he pulled his hand back. ¡°I can tell it¡¯s weak, though. How much longer will itst?¡± [1]

    Arge furrow had been dug in the ground by Xu Qing as he flew backward. Several dozen meters away, he finally stopped moving, then looked up coldly at Master Shengyun. Now Xu Qing had experienced how strong Master Shengyun was. It actually felt simr to the Gold Core Seastar chieftain, before Bai Li had revealed himself. [2]

    It was the same level of speed, and the same type of explosive power. No wonder the First Peak highnesses had been defeated so easily. Obviously, if that fight had taken ce outside of Seven Blood Eyes, then those highnesses wouldn¡¯t just have been defeated. They would have been killed.

    Xu Qing knew that his own five-me battle prowess wasn¡¯t going to help. Once he lost the jade pendant given to him by Master Sixth, he would die for sure. The violet crystal would never be able to heal him fast enough.

    It wasn¡¯t just the six-me power that was terrifying. Xu Qing¡¯s beetles were still unable to get through Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp defenses to burrow into his body.

    Does that mean that six-me power... is basically the same as Gold Core power? The same as a single heavenly pce??Xu Qing thought back to the information about Sima Ru from the House of Grue Hunters, and how it had mentioned heavenly pces. [3]

    Right now, he didn¡¯t know very much about the Gold Core level, but he did know that it involved more than just one heavenly pce. For example, Sima Ru was in seclusion trying to form a second heavenly pce.

    In the Gold Core level, one pce is equivalent to six mes?

    If an observer could have been privy to Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts, they would be very surprised. Despite the circumstances, Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem worried at all, and was actually spending time thinking about Gold Core and heavenly pces.

    ¡°Very amusing. You¡¯re thinking about something? Well, let¡¯s see how long your defenses will hold out.¡± Expression cid, Master Shengyun strode forward, yet simultaneously moved with shocking speed. He was nothing but a blur as he arrived in front of Xu Qing and then thrust his palm out.

    This time, Xu Qing prepared to fight back. The moment the palm started moving, he tapped into all 92 of his dharma apertures, causing radiant light to ze. He also performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then pushed his hands out. As he did, a discarnate soul in one of his dharma apertures shot out in front of him and turned into a weapon.

    Rumbling sounds echoed. However, Master Shengyun was just too fast. He suddenly appeared next to Xu Qing, then calmly waved his hand. A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and the jade pendant from Master Sixth vibrated. At the same time, he was thrown backward again.

    However, the discarnate soul he had released seemed to move on instinct as it shot toward Master Shengyun with voracious madness.

    ¡°Too weak,¡± Master Shengyun said, shaking his head. He waved his hand again to wipe the discarnate soul out of existence.

    However, as soon as his hand made contact with the discarnate soul, the soul¡¯s voraciousness skyrocketed and it burrowed into the hand. That particr discarnate soul was the Gruegloom that Xu Qing had been tormenting ever since capturing it. That mysterious species had the ability to possess people. And Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp was protecting his physical body, not his soul. Because of that, the Gruegloom¡¯s soul was able to burrow right into him, where it then prepared to consume him.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡± Master Shengyun¡¯s facial expression still hadn¡¯t changed. However, the ravagemist bird behind him stretched its wings, looked scornfully at Master Shengyun, and then suddenly pecked at him viciously!

    Because it was illusory, that pecking attack went right into Master Shengyun. And then an agonized shriek rang out as the discarnate soul of the Gruegloom that Xu Qing had tormented for so long was instantly swallowed up by the ravagemist bird! It was now possible to see a ck hole inside the bird, which sucked the Gruegloom soul into it and trapped it there, all while it screamed piteously.

    During that entire time, Master Shengyun¡¯s expression remainedpletely neutral. It was as if the discarnate soul wasn¡¯t worth anything to him. Looking over at Xu Qing with blood dribbling down the sides of his chin, Master Shengyun shook his head.

    ¡°Anything else you want to try? If not, then all we¡¯re waiting for are your defenses to fall. After that, you¡¯re dead.¡±

    ¡°You talk a lot,¡± Xu Qing said, wiping the blood from his chin.

    Master Shengyun didn¡¯t respond. He lifted his right foot, then brought it down.

    However, right at that exact moment, a tremor passed through him. For the first time, his facial expression changed, and looked down to see that there was a dark shadow on thest of his 120 dharma apertures. The shadow seemed like it was alive. With maddening speed, it spread out topletely cover his 120th dharma aperture. And it seeded!!

    The moment that dharma aperture was covered, Master Shengyun¡¯s fourth life me suddenly began to dim. At the same time, the light surrounding him became a bit less bright. That darkening effect wasn¡¯t done. Over the space of three breaths of time, his fourth life mepletely went out!! When it came to the 120 dharma apertures, every set of 30 was used to light a life me. That was a standardw of magic in the Foundation Establishment level. There were no exceptions. If you only had 119 dharma apertures, you couldn¡¯t sustain four life mes!

    This was the entire reason for Xu Qing¡¯s confidence in not only being able to face Master Shengyun, but also spending time thinking about Gold Core and heavenly pces.

    After studying the four-me chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition for so long, he hade to the conclusion that this was their biggest weakness! All you had to do was get rid of a single dharma aperture, and their battle prowess would drop down by the level of an entire life me.

    His shadow could extinguish life mes, so even if Master Shengyun¡¯s cultivation base had been higher, there was no question as to whether it could extinguish one of his dharma apertures.

    This had been Xu Qing¡¯s n all along!

    As the shadow stuck to the dharma aperture like glue, making sure it was absolutely covered, Master Shengyun¡¯s four life mes became three.

    His expression instantly turned grim. It didn¡¯t matter if it was the ravagemist bird, or his burning lifemps, he simply could not drive away the shadowy grue. He already knew where the shadow came from. It had been concealed in the discarnate soul. That was how it entered him without him realizing it. And while the ravagemist bird got rid of the discarnate soul, the shadow remained.

    ¡°This trick...¡± Master Shengyun said, ring at Xu Qing with killing intent, ¡°is supposed to be impressive or something? You¡¯re weak! And you¡¯ll always be weak. Maybe I have one less me, but that¡¯s still the power of five! And that¡¯s enough to crush you!¡± Master Shengyun¡¯s five life mes burned hot as he shot toward Xu Qing.

    Now, however, Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother to mask the killing intent in his eyes. And that was because his opponent was now moving at the same speed he was. All of a sudden, Xu Qing burst into motion.

    He moved like a bolt of lightning, piercing through the air in the blink of an eye to m into Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes narrowed in surprise at how fast Xu Qing was. As his right palm descended, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold and he let loose a fist strike. As the two exchanged a blow, Master Shengyun snorted coldly, performed a quick incantation gesture, and then flicked his sleeve. Thrumming with strength, he shoved his index finger toward Xu Qing¡¯s eye.

    Xu Qing¡¯s left hand shed in an incantation gesture, and a dagger materialized in it, which he shed toward Master Shengyun¡¯s throat.

    Rumbling sounds rang out as the two fought.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s right foot swept through the air toward Xu Qing, but Xu Qing evaded it, then bent his knee andunched it toward Master Shengyun¡¯s chest. At the same time, he waved both hands in front of him, causing balefire to erupt out.

    Eyes glinting sharply, Master Shengyun threw both of his hands out in front of him and the two smashed into each other. Massive booms rang out in all directions, causing heaven and earth to shake violently!

    None of the observers were able to see exactly what Xu Qing and Master Shengyun were doing. All they could do was hear the terrifying rumbling of the fight, and watch as numerous buildings in the area were crushed into rubble. It was iparably intense.

    A momentter, Master Shengyun appeared in the air. Falling back several dozen meters, he red at Xu Qing with a suspicious look in his eye.

    ¡°There¡¯s something suspicious going on with you!¡±

    1. Master Sixth gave Xu Qing a Nascent Soul defensive item in??

    2. Xu Qing fought the Seastar chieftain in??

    3. The information about Sima Ru was in??

 Chapter 254: Fighting Like the Son of a God

    <h4>Chapter 254: Fighting Like the Son of a God</h4>

    At almost the same time that Master Shengyun opened his mouth, Xu Qing arrived with his fist flying. As rumbling sounds filled the air, Master Shengyun threw his hand out to block the attack. Flying backward, his eyes glowed even brighter.

    ¡°I want you to show me exactly what it is about you that¡¯s so suspicious!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Eyes burning with more killing intent than ever, he once again closed in on Master Shengyun. The two shed, and a boom echoed out.

    Using some unknown technique, Master Shengyun caused his entire body to glow with brilliant golden light, forming a sea around him that forced Xu Qing to back away. Within that sea of light were numerous glittering magical symbols that formed an attack against Xu Qing. The symbols alone were dangerous, but they linked together to create a power of sealing, casting a glow on the dome of heaven and making thends shake. As the sea of light spread out, a bit of excitement flickered in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes. He already had a guess about what was going on with Xu Qing, he just needed proof to confirm his theory.

    He performed an incantation gesture with his left hand while taking three steps forward, with each step making a different sign with his fingers. With his first step, an immense sinister wind kicked up around him, bringing frigid coldness with it. With his second step, streams of green light formed out of nowhere, rapidly forming an embryonic sword in front of him. With his third step, the embryonic sword grewrger. From the size of a palm, it rapidly extended, reaching a length of three meters, then 30 meters, and soon, 300 meters. It waspletely green, partly illusory and partly invisible, and radiated a stupefying energy that could shake one down to the soul.

    After those three steps wereplete, Master Shengyun¡¯s dharma force was as deep and resounding as ever. His eyes shone, and he raised his right hand and pointed at Xu Qing, while speaking in a voice that merged with the surrounding sinister wind.

    ¡°Jade Emperor Beheads Souls!¡±

    A sea of mes raged around Xu Qing, filled with massive waves that shattered the magical symbols. But seeing the huge green sword, his pupils constricted.

    The sword started moving as quickly as lighting, shing right toward him.

    He evaded, but the sword was locked onto his soul, making it impossible to dodge. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered sharply as he abandoned any attempt to evade. Hands shing in a double-handed incantation gesture, he tapped into the entire ming world inside him to send fire shooting upward.

    The sword arrived. Completely bypassing his fleshly body, it shot inside of him, shrinking down to a tiny size as it did. Then, it became a soul-beheading force that swept right toward his soul.

    At exactly the same moment, the lifemp inside Xu Qing created a ck umbre that spread out protectively in front of his sea of consciousness. Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother to try to hide what was happening. He knew that in an all-out fight with Master Shengyun, there was no way he could deceive his opponent into thinking he didn¡¯t have a lifemp. Unusual levels of strength couldn¡¯te out of nowhere, and also, his shadow was using all its strength to keep Master Shengyun¡¯s dharma aperture covered. Concealing his lifemp was pointless. It made more sense to simply reveal it, then think of a way to kill his opponent.

    When the soul-beheading sword hit the ck umbre, the green sword proved absolutely incapable of withstanding the force. It shattered like an egg hitting a boulder, bing innumerable green sparks that showered down. Xu Qing forced them out of his body.

    From a distance, it looked like countless green dots of light erupting from inside him, while at the same time, an umbre appeared over his head. The ck canopy radiated a gruish aura and was covered with ck fire that was currently dripping green at the edges. As Xu Qing hovered in the air in those circumstances, his violet robe swaying, it was almost impossible not to look at him.

    All of the surrounding cultivators were astounded. It wasn¡¯t just Master Shengyun who was witnessing what was happening. The other cultivators could see it very clearly.

    ¡°Lifemp!!!¡±

    Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes went wide, and waves of shock battered his heart. His heart pounded harder than ever before in his life, as he was overwhelmed with a sensation of wild ecstasy. He had realized there was something suspicious going on with Xu Qing, who clearly had three-me battle prowess. But even with an imperial-ss technique, he shouldn¡¯t have been able to stand up to Master Shengyun. Now that the ck umbre was in the open though, his suspicions were confirmed. Now he knew how Xu Qing managed to crush Sima Ling, and what gave Xu Qing the confidence to fight in this situation. He had his answer.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He didn¡¯t seem flustered at all. Publicly revealing that he had a lifemp was a big deal. But as far as he was concerned, it was trumped by the possibility of taking Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp. If Xu Qing got two lifemps, his battle prowess would reach the level of six life mes.

    Killing Master Shengyun will make it less likely to cause repercussions. But if word still gets out, then worst case scenario, I just leave Seven Blood Eyes, change my name, and fly off into the sunset! I¡¯ll lose out on the profit from my harbor investment, but an extra lifemp will be worth even more than that!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent as he prepared to attack.

    However, that was when Master Shengyun threw his head back andughed long and hard. Then he flicked his sleeve, sending out over a hundred streams of sword energy. The sword energy swept out over the surroundingnds. As for the cultivators outside of the temple, they had no way to evade it, and in the blink of an eye were stabbed through. Anguished screams rang out. However, the sword energy didn¡¯t disappear. It continued to sweep through the ruins, ughtering everything in its path!

    Any cultivator who Master Shengyun thought had seen Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp were ughtered. He didn¡¯t want any witnesses around! The existence of a new lifemp was simply too monumental.

    Master Shengyun already thought of Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp as his own. Once he got it, he would have seven-me battle prowess, and that mere thought had himpletely excited. As he well knew, lifemps were incredibly useful when it came to the heavenly pces of Gold Core cultivators. One lifemp could be used to create a heavenly pce hidden within the life mist! And twomps could create two such pces!

    That was also why he hadn¡¯t called his dao protectors back. He was worried that the three of them wouldn¡¯t be able to keep their greed in check. After all, his own lifemp was different from Xu Qing¡¯s. The reason he was so willing to reveal his own lifemp was that few people in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture could take it from him. After all, his ownmp didn¡¯t actually belong to him. He was just being allowed to use it. But he could sense that... Xu Qing¡¯s was different!

    It actually belongs to him!! How did he get it? The number one chosen in Seven Blood Eyes is so deceptive!

    The greed in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes grew deeper, and he startedughing loudly.

    ¡°I never thought my destined opportunity would show up here. Xu Qing, my personal lifemp is actually with you!¡±

    As he spoke those words, golden light erupted from Master Shengyun, and the ravagemist bird appeared behind him. It was 300 meters in size, with a green body and a red tail. It had a long beak, a huge abdomen, and looked iparably freakish and ugly. The ravagemist bird threw its head back and let loose a piercing cry, then looked at Xu Qing with vicious ferocity.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as ck fire erupted behind him, spreading out in all directions as the golden crow appeared, its tail bursting with fire.

    Eyes radiating killing intent, Xu Qing shot forward.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s expression was one of greed as he did the same thing.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing and Master Shengyun mmed into each other, this time with much more intensity than before. It was a battle of raw speed, strength, and defensive capabilities. They weren¡¯t using many magical techniques, and even their imperial-ss techniques weren¡¯t much help. For the moment, they were just trying to assess their opponent¡¯s weaknesses. Then, as the fighting intensified, they focused solely on unleashing killing moves.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s imperial technique was actually called Ravagemist Bird Consumes Heaven. As a result, his vicious ravagemist bird voraciously tried to consume the golden crow.

    Of course, Xu Qing¡¯s imperial technique was Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. As a result, his ferocious golden crow viciously tried to assimte the ravagemist bird.

    From a distance, the ravagemist bird emanated golden light, while the golden crow was wreathed in ck fire. One was consuming, one was assimting. One was snatching, one was absorbing. Energy surged and winds screamed!

    It was the same with Xu Qing and Master Shengyun. The two fought back and forth in midair. They matched each other move for move. asionally, Xu Qing was sent mming into the ground, only to stand up in the rubble and start fighting again. asionally Master Shengyun was knocked far into the distance, where he would smash into a building that would copse onto him. Then he would burst back out into the action.

    Their fight caused the air to ripple and distort. It shattered thend. Neither opponent seemed capable of getting the upper hand, and both had their lifemps on disy in the form of projected umbres.

    Xu Qing¡¯s was ck, and the ck mes covering it emanated a terrifying might. Master Shengyun¡¯s was seven-colored, and pulsed with a mysterious power. The two umbres crushed down on each other, causing a massive tempest. It was impossible to determine which was superior.

    Bothbatants¡¯ eyes were full of ferocity as they used their imperial-ss techniques and lifemps to viciously fight each other. Soon, they backed away from each other, coughing up blood. They were about 300 meters from each other in the air above the daoist temple.

    On one side was Master Shengyun, wearing a golden daoist robe, surrounded by golden light that illuminated thend below. He had a seven-colored umbre overhead, also radiating dazzling light, and a vicious ravagemist bird behind him, howling as it sought to devour heaven. Combined with his unusual good looks, Master Shengyun seemed like a young sovereign lord descended from above. He seemed insufferably arrogant!

    On the other side was Xu Qing, wearing a violet robe, surrounded by a ck sea of fire that burned the dome of heaven. He had a ck umbre overhead that made him seem profoundly grue-like, and a majestic golden crow with vicious eyes that longed to assimte the world. As the crow¡¯s tail draped over Xu Qing, it seemed like an imperial robe! Combined with Xu Qing¡¯s exceptionally attractive face, he seemed like an ancient emperor strolling through the mortal world. He was like a masterpiece of the ages!

    Master Shengyun stared at Xu Qing, his eyes shining and full of killing intent. At the same time, he was forced to admit that Xu Qing was truly strong, so much so that it was appropriate to say he could very well be an Ancient Emperor.

    In fact, in the small worlds beyond the Revered Ancient maind, battle prowess like this would be simr to the Nascent Soul level. Revered Ancient contained the most high-level cultivators imaginable. ording to the ancient records Master Shengyun had read, before the arrival of the broken face of the god, there were thousands of small worlds beyond the maind.

    And in those ces, cultivators were so weak that even a single life me counted as the great circle of Foundation Establishment.

    ces like that simply couldn¡¯tpare at all to Revered Ancient.

 Chapter 255: Sun and Moon Strive for Dominance

    <h4>Chapter 255: Sun and Moon Strive for Dominance</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at Master Shengyun. He knew he was dealing with a strong opponent. In fact, during his entire journey of cultivation, this was the strongest person he had ever fought. And that was even after he had used his shadow to cover a single dharma aperture and reduce his battle prowess by a life me. Were it not for that, Xu Qing knew he wouldn¡¯t be a match for Master Shengyun.

    Even missing one of his life mes, Master Shengyun had too many assets. He had his shocking imperial-ss technique, a host of divine abilities, and the defenses of his lifemp, which made Xu Qing¡¯s poisons almost useless.

    If I can get his lifemp, then I would have the same defenses. I would have aplete level of protection, both of my soul and my body!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he studied Master Shengyun¡¯s throat, as well as the lifemp umbre over his head.

    Master Shengyun was looking back and thinking that of all the opponents he had fought in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in recent years, Xu Qing definitely ranked in the top three. There was no way Master Shengyun could ever have imagined that he would encounter an opponent like this on the backwater continent of South Phoenix.

    Seems the patriarch was right. A great era is upon us. More chosen are appearing than ever before, and freakish hellions are gathering. But when great erase, so do amazing destined opportunities. For example, this Xu Qing.... If I can take his lifemp and make it my own, then my Foundation Establishment battle prowess will increase by the level of one life me. But even more relevant than that is how it will affect my heavenly pces.

    Lifemps aren¡¯t just beneficial to Foundation Establishment. They¡¯re actually more important to the heavenly pces of the Gold Core level! With his lifemp, I¡¯ll have a total of two. And then when I break into the Gold Core level, those lifemps instantly be heavenly pces. I¡¯ll have two heavenly pces in the life mist.

    One pce is worth six mes. Therefore, once I go through core formation, I¡¯ll start out with at least twelve-me power. After consolidating my power and fully forming my first ordinary heavenly pce, I¡¯ll have a total of eighteen mes¡¯ worth of power!

    That¡¯s not to mention that he has an imperial-ss technique. After I kill him today, I¡¯ll devour Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and my ravagemist bird will have a much better chance of reaching its second stage!

    From ancient times until now, no one, not even the offspring of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, was able to push an imperial-ss technique to the second stage while in Foundation Establishment. In fact, most people couldn¡¯t even do it in the Gold Core level. Advancing imperial-ss techniques is just too difficult. If I seed, then my imperial-ss technique won¡¯t add the battle prowess of a single life me. Just like a heavenly pce, it will have the power of six mes!

    If I seed, then once I reach Gold Core, I¡¯ll have eighteen mes¡¯ worth of power. And it won¡¯t be long after that before I reach the level of twenty-four. With battle prowess like that, I¡¯ll be the number one chosen in all of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Given my status, I¡¯ll be able to join the ranks of the swordsages. After that, I¡¯ll skyrocket to the highest heights in all of Sea-Sealing County.

    As Master Shengyun and Xu Qing faced off in midair, they split the sky in half. On Master Shengyun¡¯s side, seven-colored light radiated in heaven and earth. On Xu Qing¡¯s side, ck mes cast darkness everywhere.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the two of them red at each other with pulsing killing intent.

    Then both of them moved. Even from a distance, it was a shocking scene as the two different parts of the sky raced toward each other. The ravagemist bird and the golden crow, both of them divine birds of legend, let loose piercing cries as they tried to devour each other. Two umbres shone with divine light. A young sovereign lord and a young ancient emperor were fighting a battle to the death.

    The sound of the fighting echoed everywhere, stirring up wild winds and shocking both heaven and earth! They matched each other blow for blow as the fighting became increasingly intense. It seemed like the dome of heaven itself might explode. As Xu Qing and Master Shengyun attacked each other at full strength, both were forced to keep their distance from each other.

    st! If only I had my six-me battle prowess!?Master Shengyun¡¯s expression was grim as he sent internal me toward his 120th dharma aperture in the hopes of ridding it of the dark shadow.

    However, no matter how he battered it with me, the shadow relentlessly stayed in ce, covering the volcanic power of the dharma aperture. Because of that, there was no way for Master Shengyun to reignite his fourth life me.

    The killing intent in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes grew more intense as he looked at Xu Qing closing in on him with deadly force. Then determination flickered in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes. Biting the tip of his tongue, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

    ¡°Epassing Ghost Garment; Seal Body and Soul!¡±

    As his words rang out, the blood expanded. In an instant, it reached a size of 300 meters, bing a blood-colored garment that swept toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. The golden crow behind him erupted with ck fire that struck at the garment. And yet, the blood-colored garment ignored the damage and forced its way closer to Xu Qing. As it wrapped around him, sealing power surged out, forcing Xu Qing to a standstill in midair. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light as the golden crow cried out piercingly. His lifemp burned overhead as it tried to dispel the power of sealing.

    At that point, Master Shengyun¡¯s gaze grew even sharper, and he lifted his right hand over his head.

    ¡°Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword!¡±

    His right hand flickered in an incantation gesture, and his entire right arm turned crimson. Energy and blood surged within him, erupting in a golden beam out of the top of his head. As that beam rose into the sky, close examination revealed that it contained a flying sword!

    The dome of heaven vibrated as a blood-colored canopy stretched out, turning the entire sky crimson. Within that crimson sky, the tip of a huge sword appeared, fully 300 meters long. And from the tip, more of it became visible, until the entire majestic sword was revealed. It was covered in masses of magical sealing marks, and pulsed with the aura of endless severed arms and legs. As the sword appeared, winds screamed in the sky, and the blood-colored light became a rumbling sea of blood, like a massive, spinning vortex. A terrifying power surged out as the tip of the huge sword, rotated downward to point at Xu Qing! Then it started moving with incredible speed. Xu Qing might have been able to move out of the way, but he was bound by the blood-colored garment. It was currently being burned away, but still had him sealed!

    A sense of profound crisis filled Xu Qing as he looked up at the massive sword. Without the slightest hesitation, he utilized the blessing of protection Master Sixth had given him. As the huge sword was just about to stab into his head, Master Sixth¡¯s defensive pendant activated. A deafening boom rang out through the sky.

    A massive tremor ran through Xu Qing as the defensive shield was rapidly depleted. At the same time, Xu Qing himself was forced out of the air and onto the ground.

    Cold light glittered through Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes as he lifted his right hand again, then waved it straight out in front of him.

    ¡°Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword!¡±

    A second beam of blood-colored light shot out of the top of his head, forming another flying sword, which coalesced into the shape of a second blood-colored sword!

    It was exactly as big as the one which had fallen from the sky, and looked the same in every other aspect. But instead of falling down from above, this one appeared in front of Master Shengyun and then swept horizontally toward Xu Qing! It moved with shocking momentum, destroying all the buildings in its way, and creating huge crevices in the ground from its immense pressure.

    The massive force bearing down on Xu Qing caused his face to fall. Before he could do anything, the sword smashed into his defensive barrier.

    He already had one huge sword pressing down on him from above. Now the second sword hit him horizontally with terrifying force. Despite the protection keeping him safe, he still coughed up a mouthful of blood.

    Yet Master Shengyun¡¯s killing move wasn¡¯t finished yet. At almost the same moment that the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword and the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword were unleashed, he threw both hands out and put his palms together. Then, his expression full of vicious killing intent, he shoved his finger in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Northghost Heavenwondering Sword!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, a group of eight ghosts appeared in the blood-colored vortex up above. They were bizarre in appearance; none of them had faces, and they all had swords strapped to their backs. They pulsed with frigid coldness, as well as powerful sword energy. And as they appeared, the spinning vortex descended to surround Xu Qing.

    There were eight of them, and their backs were to Xu Qing. But then Master Shengyun let loose a shout, and all eight ghosts moved in unison, drawing the swords from their backs, turning around, and then shing their des toward Xu Qing! Sword energy surged forth like the sea, unfolding on a magnificent scale as eight swords shed toward Xu Qing from eight directions! The swords moved with incredible speed, appearing in a sh right in front of Xu Qing¡¯s defensive shield.

    There were now ten swords at y, and Master Sixth¡¯s defensive gift had already been drained significantly during the battle at Seastar Ind. It held strong for a short time, but then ran out of power and exploded.

    During that time, the power of the ten swords wasrgely drained, but there was still enough to send sword energy streaming into Xu Qing toward his life mes.

    Xu Qing looked grim as he borrowed power from the exploding defenses to finally incinerate thest of the blood garment sealing him. However, the sword energy still surged through him, filling him with pain and causing blood to spray out of his mouth.

    As Master Shengyun strode toward him, Xu Qing¡¯s energy teetered unstably. Without any hesitation, he turned and fled, his life mes burning as they resisted the crushing sword energy.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. When Xu Qing backed up, Master Shengyun shot toward him like lightning. In the blink of an eye, he had caught up to Xu Qing.

    However, that was when Xu Qing managed to rid himself of sword energy, and he spun in ce, a vicious look on his face. Reaching his right hand out toward Master Shengyun, he dropped it forcefully. A roar erupted from behind him as a bluegreen dragon appeared, emanating heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force as it lunged toward Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s expression flickered as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, his ravagemist bird also lunged forward, while at the same time, his lifemp defenses spread out in full effect.

    The bluegreen dragon exploded, but it still forced Master Shengyun backward, and ripples spread out over his lifemp defenses. That said, Xu Qing¡¯s counter attack wasn¡¯t finished. Just as the bluegreen dragon was destroyed...

    His dharmaskiff appeared.

    He didn¡¯t utilize an attack of godliness; an unfocused release of power like that wouldn¡¯t help in the current situation. Instead, Xu Qing sent the dharmaskiff racing directly toward Master Shengyun with ferocious momentum, the power of self-detonation building within it.

    Master Shengyun had just obliterated Xu Qing¡¯s bluegreen dragon. Immediately after, he had a dharmaskiff to deal with. There was no time to dodge out of the way, and thus the dharmaskiff mmed into him and then self-detonated. A deafening boom echoed out as the godliness in the dharmaskiff added to the detonation. Terrifying shockwaves sted out in all directions.

    Shaken, Master Shengyun had no choice but to fall back, his lifemp defenses rippling even more dramatically.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing a violet heavenly saber to form above him. However, he knew that wasn¡¯t enough. Finally, he activated all of the poisons he hadced in the area, sending all of their corroding effects right toward Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp defenses!

    The reason Xu Qing had allowed Master Sixth¡¯s defensive talisman to be destroyed was because he wanted to buy time. He needed to think of a way to get past Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp defenses! With those defenses in ce, it would be very difficult to defeat his opponent. He had wanted more time toce the area with more poison, and also get the right mixture in ce. And then he had waited for just the right moment to activate them!

    As the heavenly saber shed downward, poison exploded!

 Chapter 256: Fighting Back

    Chapter 256: Fighting Back

    The violet heavenly saber shed down, hitting Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp defenses, and sending out even more intense ripples. Then, Master Shengyun¡¯s heavenly saber also shed forth, and when it hit Xu Qing¡¯s, they both shattered.

    Master Shengyun was shoved backward by the force of the collision.

    But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t done yet. Everything up to this point was actually a smokescreen. Next, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior unleashed his most powerful attack from within the iron skewer. Sparks shot out from the shattered heavenly saber as the skewer emerged with blinding speed. The patriarch was obviously in control of the electricity dancing on the surface of the skewer as he pushed it to its top speed.

    The patriarch clearly knew how important his mission was. Furthermore, having seen how the shadow had been so critical to the fight so far, he was feeling very nervous. Fearful that he might fail, he went mad in his efforts, detonating lightning symbols to get a boost of speed and power. He became like a real bolt of heavenly lightning that pierced right through the lifemp defenses of the backpedaling Master Shengyun.

    A boom could be heard. The lifemp defenses were shocking, and thus they didn¡¯t copse. However, the iron skewer¡¯s speed and power allowed it to punch a tiny hole in them. Then the skewer was rebuffed. Spinning off to the side, it looked less bright than before, and agonized shrieking could be heard from the patriarch inside. The bacsh he had experienced was clearly significant. As for the hole, it rapidly filled in, and a momentter, the defenses were back to normal.

    Sneering, Master Shengyun said, ¡°You can¡¯t get through my lifemp defenses. Nothing you do will work.¡±

    Despite his words, the attack had sent him staggering backward. The whirlwind attacks from Xu Qing, one after another, were just that effective. First was the bluegreen dragon, then the dharmaskiff self-detonation, and after that the heavenly saber. None broke through the lifemp defenses, but the fact that they came one after another was astounding. However, with those defenses in ce, it wasn¡¯t possible to truly harm Master Shengyun, any more than his attacks had harmed Xu Qing. That said, it was obvious that Master Shengyun currently had the upper hand. He had more divine abilities to call on, and what was more, the gleam in his eye indicated that he had identified Xu Qing¡¯s weakness.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have enough magical techniques! And youck divine abilities that can unleash true might!¡±

    Hearing Master Shengyun¡¯s words, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold. He didn¡¯t respond.

    Master Shengyunughed, then performed a double-handed incantation gesture and prepared to target Xu Qing¡¯s weakness. However, just before he unleashed a new divine ability, his face suddenly fell. His lifemp defenses had just faded slightly, and ripples were flowing across them. Even more noteworthy was Master Shengyun had just sensed the defenses corroding around the spot where the iron skewer had poked a hole moments ago.

    That was when Master Shengyun recalled a time earlier in Seven Blood Eyes when someone mentioned Xu Qing using poison in his fight with Sima Ling.

    ¡°Poison is nothing! It can never be a great dao!¡±

    Master Shengyun snorted coldly. From when he was young, he had always had a unique constitution that caused him to look down on ordinary poisons. He waved his hand, and his lifemp glittered. As its light spread out, the corrosion on the defenses disappeared. Having aplished that, he again prepared to attack. But then his expression flickered even more dramatically than before. An intense pain had suddenly started to spread through his body, and greenish-ck blotches had appeared on his skin from mutagen. At the same time, his life mes were flickering.

    ¡°What¡¯s this??¡±

    Gasping, Master Shengyun sensed the powerful poison inside of him and realized it was spreading far too quickly. His vision blurred, and all of a sudden, he was filled with a sense of deadly crisis. The poison was, of course, the little beetles. They had been sticking to his lifemp defenses this entire time, incapable of getting inside. They had just been waiting for an opportunity.

    When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior poked a hole, that was all they needed. In that instant, a host of beetles poured inside.

    Master Shengyun was right. Xu Qingcked a lot of powerful divine abilities. However, Master Shengyun was also incorrect, because though Xu Qingcked amazing divine abilities, he did have his poisons!

    The moment the beetles attacked, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with killing intent, and he rushed forward. He had been waiting for this moment for the entire fight. As Master Shengyun dealt with the sudden poison re-up, Xu Qing closed in with his hand clenched in a fist.

    The golden crow appeared behind him, bursting with me. His lifemp manifested overhead as a shocking ck umbre. And his fist rocketed forward, backed by five-me battle prowess.

    In his poisoned state, Master Shengyun was incapable of evading the blow. He tried to fall back, but Xu Qing just pressed the attack. A boom rang out as the blownded on the lifemp defenses. A shockwave passed through Master Shengyun, and he was sent spinning off to the side like a kite with its string cut. Xu Qing followed up with another blow.

    Master Shengyun gasped for breath, and his eyes werepletely bloodshot. Relying on his defenses to keep him safe, he tapped into his imperial-ss technique. The piercing cry of the ravagemist bird rang out, sweeping through him to dispel the poison. At the same time, the seven-colored umbre above him radiated dazzling light to the same effect. However, Xu Qing then waved his hand, and his ck umbre spread out and put crushing pressure down onto Master Shengyun. Intense rumbling sounds echoed everywhere as blood sprayed from his mouth. The sensation of crisis welled up stronger in him. There was no time to deal with everything that was happening, and he felt more than ever that this was a life-or-death moment. Then Xu Qing¡¯s fist arrived.

    Master Shengyun backed up again, and Xu Qing shot forward like lightning to keep up the attack. He threw out fist after fist, and shed down with the heavenly saber over and over again. The golden crow used all its strength, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior once again went all-out to try to pierce through the enemy¡¯s defenses.

    As for the shadow, it took advantage of this moment in which Master Shengyun was forced to deal with the poisons. Stretching out, it covered a second dharma aperture.

    Xu Qing was going all out in every respect!

    Master Shengyun continued to fall back, blood spraying out of his mouth. Each mouthful of blood contained masses of poisons and when it fell, it melted the ground it touched. And his lifemp defenses glittered as Xu Qing shoved his hands against them. Then, a shocking boom rang out as the defenses finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore and shattered. Poison rushed in and blood sprayed out of Master Shengyun¡¯s mouth. He tumbled backward, his face filling with rage. And yet he couldn¡¯t even fight back. He just tried to get out of the ruins and into the forbidden region.

    ¡°What poison is this??¡± he howled. He refused to believe that this was really happening. Before, he had six life mes, and should have been able to crush this opponent easily. But because of that shadow, his battle prowess had dropped, and then his opponent used an iparably terrifying poison on him. He felt madness building within him. His hair was disheveled and he lookedpletely bedraggled. His once-dazzling golden robe was now pale and dull. Altogether, he looked to be in very bad shape.

    If any disciple from the Seven Sect Coalition could see him now, they would bepletely bbergasted. No one had ever witnessed Master Shengyun in a state like this before.

    Master Shengyun felt bitter and enraged. But Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent raged as he closed in again. Finally, Master Shengyun took out a jade slip and quickly sent a voice message, calling back the three dao protectors who he had sent out looking for various specific items.

    Unfortunately, his dao protectors had been away for quite a while, and none of them had even considered that Master Shengyun would face something truly dangerous. It was going to take time for them to arrive, and time was something Master Shengyun didn¡¯t have a lot of right now. The poison inside of him was erupting violently, and his battle prowess was dropping. In that critical moment, Xu Qing was pressing the attack, leading with the golden crow, which obviously wanted to assimte Master Shengyun alive.

    As the ravagemist bird appeared, Xu Qingunched a fist strike. Master Shengyun tried to defend, but blood sprayed out of his mouth as a result. Expression vicious, Xu Qing head-butted Master Shengyun in the face.

    Master Shengyun grunted. His face was covered in blood, and his eyes radiated madness. He wanted to extricate himself from this fight, but ck balefire spread out from Xu Qing, creating a gaping maw that surged toward Master Shengyun. His eyes burned with ferocity; he wanted to take Master Shengyun¡¯s soul and use it to open dharma apertures!

    The madness in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes grew more intense. Howling shrilly, he caused his golden daoist robe to suddenly expand until it exploded.

    The daoist robe was a treasure in its own right. Borrowing the force of the explosion, Master Shengyun shot backward. It was at that moment that his lifemp finally managed to expel all of the poison from within him. His life me flickered unstably, and he could tell it wouldn¡¯t stay strong for much longer. That, coupled with how viciously aggressive Xu Qing was being, ensured that Master Shengyun didn¡¯t hesitate at all about what to do next. Now that he wasn¡¯t being constantly injured, he shouted loudly and pulled something out from his ring of holding!

    It was a dpidated piece of wood that seemed to be a chunk taken from somethingrger, and the moment he took it out, it erupted with terrifying fluctuations.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered in response. He could sense that his life mes were about to be extinguished, and his dharma apertures vibrated so badly they seemed like they might pop out of him.

    The door even seemed to affect the dome of heaven, and the surroundingnds. nts and vegetation in all directions started withering. Streams of life force began madly rushing toward the piece of wood, causing it to quickly transform into a pitch-ck doorway covered with countless scratch marks from fingernails. A sinister, gruish aura emanated from it, especially from the scratch marks, which were ghastly, and seemed to be filled with dried blood. The scratch marks were all of different lengths and depths, which made it seem like different people at different times had desperately tried to w open the door. The sense of horror it imparted filled the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed and he backed up.

    Meanwhile, madness filled Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes as he pointed at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Open!¡±

    The pitch-ck door creaked open in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

 Chapter 257: Profoundly Vicious and Cruel

    <h4>Chapter 257: Profoundly Vicious and Cruel</h4>

    The ancient door was covered with the evidence of ancient time. It had obviously seen many, many things, like an old man who had lived for countless years and as a result could see deeply into the core of any person. The ck color of the door also contained rot, as if that same old man had grown numb due to the misery of the world around him.

    Stifling. Gruish. Sinister.

    Those were the things Xu Qing felt when looking at the door.

    As it opened, he also realized that everything around him was suddenly very quiet. There was no sound at all. The wind went still, and the clouds stopped moving. It even seemed like his own heart had stopped beating. It was the same with everything, even Master Shengyun, who currently stood atop the opening door.

    It was as if the power of this door was too boundless. Too bizarre. Neither the target nor the person using it was spared from its effects. All lost the ability to move.

    Xu Qing had experienced a sensation like this before. Four years earlier in the forbidden region outside the scavenger basecamp, he had encountered the Singing. On that asion, he saw a pair of women¡¯s boots walking through a blood fog. The feelings were the same. Back then as now, he felt immobile down to his soul, as if even his thoughts were frozen in ce by the opening of the door. [1]

    He wasn¡¯t breathing. Frost formed on his eyebrows and hair. Coldness built up within him. Everything in his field of vision disappeared except for the door. The long, slow creaking pierced into his ears.

    Inside the door was pure darkness and frigid coldness. In fact, steam was slowly rising from the edges of the door thanks to the intense cold.

    Atop the door, Master Shengyun had a ferocious facial expression, and eyes pulsing with killing intent. This door was called the Darkspirit Everwill Door, and Master Shengyun considered it a precious treasure. He had only used it once since acquiring it. It wasn¡¯t something he was doing lightly, as he knew that the effects would reach both his enemy and himself. Of even greater significance was that opening the door required draining his own soul.

    It was an iparably gruish door with a mysterious history. It was impossible to say what woulde out of the door once it was opened, and thus, its killing power and effects varied from person to person. This was information his grandfather had exined to him. [2]

    Thest time he used the door, targeting himself, what had emerged was a huge rotting tongue, which he had found very unsettling. After all, his grandfather had exined that what came out of the door was a materialization of what already existed in one¡¯s heart and mind. At the moment, Master Shengyun was very curious to see what woulde out of the door now that Xu Qing was the target.

    Hopefully it will be some sort of evil ghost. An evil ghost that rips him limb from limb!!

    Even as those thoughts ran through Master Shengyun¡¯s mind, from within the endless darkness in the ck wooden door... a beam of light appeared! It started out very weak, as little more than a speck. But it rapidly grewrger and brighter, until it was an immeasurably brilliant sea of light.

    As the light emerged, it turned into numerous shafts of brightness that spread out everywhere.

    Outside of the door, the sky turned from dark to light. Thends were illuminated, and all the nts and vegetation were bathed in brightness. As for Xu Qing, he was right in the middle of it all, with the light consuming even his shadow. Within that sea of light, Xu Qing felt immeasurable pain. It was like he was being burned alive, including his skin, muscles, blood, and his internal organs.

    The light pierced his body, stabbing into his soul, prating everything about him. Wherever it went, it brought pain. Green smoke began to rise up from him, almost as if he were being erased from existence. However, in addition to the pain, he found that he could move again, and started backing away. He moved at top speed, yet couldn¡¯t stop the light from burning him. It was like he was the night, and this light was dawn, bringing radiance and light to wipe away the darkness. His skin was so badly burned it was now ck. His muscles and blood were shedding all moisture. His hair had turned into ash. Not even his lifemp or his imperial-ss technique could resist this. He took out a jade slip and, despite the hesitant look on his face, crushed it. It gave him a boost of speed.

    As he fell back, hardly looking human, Master Shengyun remained atop the door. Seeing what was happening, there wasn¡¯t an ounce of satisfaction on his face. Instead, he looked incredulous. In fact, it almost looked like he couldn¡¯t believe what was happening.

    <i>Light? When the Darkspirit Everwill Door is opened on you, it produces light?? That should be impossible! You¡¯re just like me, a ruthless killer! You¡¯ve walked over countless bones to get where you are. You¡¯re a master of poison, a person who consumes souls to further your cultivation. You¡¯re surrounded by ck mes! Your soul fire is as dark as night. It¡¯s no exaggeration at all to say that you¡¯re an outright monster. But how could the materialization of your thoughts be... light?? Laughable. Outrageous! Ridiculous!! You¡¯re surrounded by darkness and gloom, but your heart is full of radiance and light?</i>

    Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes were bloodshot and his expression was pure ferocity. Then he startedughing, almost like he¡¯d lost his mind. He simply couldn¡¯t control himself after seeing lighting out from this door.

    That was because... he had always wanted this for himself!!

    He was Master Shengyun! The characters ¡®Sheng¡¯ and ¡®Yun¡¯ represented radiance and light. Yet when this door was opened on him, a revolting tongue emerged. All of it caused his killing intent to tower to new heights. [3]

    As Xu Qing backed up in the face of the brilliant light from the door, Master Shengyun quickly performed an incantation gesture, and the door mmed shut, then blurred momentarily as it shifted directions. Now it wasn¡¯t facing Xu Qing, it was facing Master Shengyun.

    He was still poisoned, and considering how critical of a moment this was, he actually had more than one goal in using this door. One was to kill Xu Qing, but the other was to remove the poison from himself. Thest time he¡¯d used the door, he had been in simr circumstances, and had used the door to remove a curse on himself.

    He gritted his teeth as the Darkspirit Everwill Door spun and opened in his direction. As before, the interior was pitch ck. Then, a revolting tongue appeared, which shot out at top speed and wrapped around Master Shengyun. He trembled and his face contorted with pain. Being wrapped up by the tongue, his entire body started to rot. His handsome features withered until he looked like a corpse, and his hair all fell out. And a noxious odor spread out from him.

    However, he was more than pleased to pay that price, considering the oue. The dangerous poison in him was mostly extruded, and the faint traces left behind seemed inactive. But what left Master Shengyunpletely overwhelmed with horror was that the shadow covering his 120th dharma aperture waspletely unfazed.

    Not only that, but an eye suddenly appeared in the shadow, which cast him a contemptuous nce.

    What is that thing????There was no time for Master Shengyun to think about the subject. With the poison in him suppressed, he put away the door. He didn¡¯t dare to continue to use it in this fight. He also took out some healing pills that he popped into his mouth. Then he charged back toward Xu Qing.

    Some distance away, Xu Qing finally looked up. He was in a very bedraggled state, but his killing intent was just as intense as ever. Though he had been seriously injured just now, the violet crystal was already healing him. During his retreat, he had also consumed quite a few healing pills.

    As Master Shengyun closed in, Xu Qing stamped his foot on the ground,unching himself up into the air, where he met the attack. Booms rang out everywhere, and nts everywhere were shredded to nothing. Trees copsed, and beasts in the area fled. The fighting between Xu Qing and Master Shengyun caused everything to shake violently.

    Even a Gold Core cultivator who showed up right now would be shocked. The two of them fought with incredible speed,unching blows, moving about over the terrain, and leaving destruction behind them wherever they went.

    As they fought back and forth, Xu Qing suddenly produced a crystal which he threw out. It exploded, releasing a cloud of ck fog, out of which charged a headless grue with the body of an ox. It immediately attacked Master Shengyun. There was more. Xu Qing threw out three more crystals, all of which exploded. Out flew a ball of tangled ck hair, a withered hand, and a white eyeball. These deathly items were things Xu Qing had taken from Sima Ling, the so-called god of wealth from Revered Ancient. Releasing them all at the same time caused boundless mutagen to fill the area. Then, Xu Qing gritted his teeth and tossed out a huge quantity of ck boluses. [4]

    Popping sounds rang out as more mutagen filled the area, which attracted the attention of other vile beings in the surrounding forbidden region.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s face fell. Backing up, he waved his hand to try to keep the mutagen away. As for the four grues, being in this mutagen made them like fish in water. Without any hesitation, they clumped together. The withered hand attached itself to the neck of the headless ox, and the eyeball connected to the palm of the hand. The hair attached itself to the ox as well. In the blink of an eye, the new grue¡¯s energy surged and itunched itself in Master Shengyun¡¯s direction.

    Master Shengyun prepared to dodge out of the way.

    However, that was when a decisive look flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and he pulled out a bunch of Sima Ling¡¯s grue-controlling magical devices from his bag of holding. He threw them, and they exploded, blocking Master Shengyun¡¯s path of escape. The charging grue mmed into him.

    The ravagemist bird howled. Unfortunately, given Master Shengyun¡¯s current state, it was also damaged. Then the golden crow red at it andunched forth in attack. The two started fighting fiercely.

    Xu Qing also closed in, a dagger appearing in his hand. Taking advantage of Master Shengyun¡¯s exhaustion, he aimed the dagger at his throat.

    Master Shengyun threw his head back, and the dagger whizzed right past him. Though he avoided being shed, the balefire still burned him. He was an extraordinary individual, and managed to defend himself by calling on his life mes. But that couldn¡¯t do anything about Xu Qing¡¯s wild style of fighting.

    Xu Qing instantlyunched into a head-butt.

    Eyes bloodshot, Master Shengyun did the same.

    A huge boom rang out as both of them staggered backward, stars swimming in their vision.

    Master Shengyun was really getting a taste of Xu Qing¡¯s ferocity. But that didn¡¯t reduce his killing intent. In fact, he now wanted more than ever to kill Xu Qing and take his lifemp.

    As he backed away, Master Shengyun pped his own forehead, causing a tremor to pass through his own body. Then, using some unknown secret magic, he shoved his hand into his forehead and grabbed something inside. The next moment, he wrenched a blood-soaked brush pen from inside himself! It started out small, but rapidly becamerger. Astonishingly, the tip of the brush was a head that looked exactly like Master Shengyun in every way!

    ¡°I was sleeping, big brother. Why¡¯d you wake me up? Is it time to y?¡±

    1. Xu Qing encountered the Singing in??

    2. Specifically, the word here is for ¡®paternal grandfather.¡¯ ??

    3. By way of reminder, Master Shengyun¡¯s real name is Chu Shengyun. Because his daoist name uses his original given name, I chose to transliterate it. Sheng means ¡°holy, sacred, saint, sage¡± and Yun is a fancy and sort of rare character that means ¡°sunlight.¡± If I didn¡¯t transliterate his given name, then his daoist name would be something like Master Holy Sunlight. ??

    4. Xu Qing looted the items from Sima Ling in??

 Chapter 258: Dharma Seas Crush an Evil Pen

    <h4>Chapter 258: Dharma Seas Crush an Evil Pen</h4>

    It was such a gruish pen that just looking at it caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict!

    It was as tall as an ordinary person; its shaft was made of a spine, the tip from a head, and the brush hairs were the head¡¯s hair. There was still bloody flesh on the spine, and though the head still had skin on it, that skin was green, making it look like an evil ghost. When it spoke, its voice was profoundly sinister, causing Xu Qing to frown.

    Master Shengyun ignored the words, grabbed the pen, and drew a red circle in the air. The instant the circle appeared, it became corporeal, and it began expanding rapidly, like a rushing wind.

    Xu Qing immediately fell back.

    Theposite grue was shaken. As the ox body fell back in retreat, it shivered and then exploded into four parts. The four parts then also exploded into bits.

    Master Shengyun gripped the pen as he looked with bloodshot eyes at Xu Qing.

    Master Shengyun had been bizarre from birth; he had been born with a conjoined twin attached to his waist. That wasn¡¯t necessarily a rarity on the Revered Ancient maind. Truth be told, things like that happened a lot because of the effects of mutagen, and how the properties of life force changed with the arrival of the god above. Even people who looked normal, and didn¡¯t seem like they had any mutagen in them... might have those changes built into their blood. It was only a matter of finding out which generation it would manifest in.

    Despite all that, Master Shengyun had been unwilling to ept his lot in life, and from the moment he realized how different he was from everyone else, had wanted to kill his brother. His younger brother had felt the same way. Eventually, Master Shengyun came out on top. He suppressed his conjoined twin, assimted him, and turned him into this treasure. The patriarch of his n knew about it, as did many people in his sect. That didn¡¯t matter. The patriarch tacitly approved of the situation, as long as one of them lived. Therefore, no one else had any say in the matter.

    The pen in Master Shengyun¡¯s hand looked at Xu Qing with a serene look in his eyes. Then, a long tongue emerged from his mouth. Licking his lips, the head said, ¡°Is he the one you want dead, big brother? He¡¯s so pretty. After we get him, why don¡¯t you do the same thing to him that you did to me? Assimte him, steal his natural aptitude, and create a second pen brush?¡±

    Master Shengyun snorted coldly. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Kill him, and I¡¯ll make it happen.¡±

    The little brother¡¯s eyes lit up, and he suddenly erupted with a shocking level of mutagen. His eyes turned ck, and his expression became one of greed. Then Master Shengyun waved his hand, and the gruish pen shed left and right to create an X.

    The X glittered with red light as it turned corporeal. The pen¡¯s ink was as red as blood, making the X seem like it was made from flesh. You could even see veins on its surface, wriggling horrifically.

    The X of flesh and blood then shot toward Xu Qing. As it neared, its gruish aura grew stronger, and winds screamed in the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim as he pulled out a jade slip, making sure Master Shengyun couldn¡¯t see it clearly. It looked like he was about to snap it, but in the end, decided not to.

    A boom rang out as the X of flesh and blood arrived and mmed into Xu Qing. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he staggered backward. Gruishughter rang out from the X as it prepared to chase Xu Qing. However, Xu Qing was very quick, and it couldn¡¯t catch up easily.

    At this point in the battle, both Xu Qing and Master Shengyun had sustained serious injuries. Furthermore, Xu Qing¡¯s weakness had be very apparent. Hecked divine abilities and magical techniques, especially whenpared to Master Shengyun.

    Truth be told, if his opponent was anyone other than Master Shengyun, then his techniques could be considered satisfactory. But Master Shengyun was a chosen from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, who they hoped to groom into walking the path of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. It was only natural that he would have a lot of techniques and magical devices.

    Ick divine abilities and magical techniques. And my magical devices aren¡¯t as gruish as his. But as the saying goes... overwhelming power can defeat someone even ten times as skilled!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as the power of the violet crystal surged within him. As this battle went on, it had be more and more obvious how impressive the crystal was in its ability to heal him.

    What was more, the 1,500-meter spirit seas in his dharma apertures ensured that he could stay in the profound radiance state for a very long time. In fact, his current n was to rely on that advantage to crush his opponent.

    .

    Therefore, as the X of flesh and blood closed in again, Xu Qing suddenly shot up into the air, raised his right hand, and pointed to the dome of heaven. Simultaneously, his 92 dharma apertures erupted, causing intense heat to sweep upward. Next, a 1,500-meter hand appeared above him in the sky! That hand was the manifestation of only one of the spirit seas in one of his dharma apertures. And thus, after the hand formed, a second one appeared, which superimposed over the first one, doubling its power. Things weren¡¯t over. As Xu Qing tapped into his dharma apertures, a third hand was added. Then a tenth. Then a thirtieth.... One hand after another superimposed, creating something almost impossible to describe. Intense winds swept through the area, and immense pressure built.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes went wide, and his heart pounded with astonishment. The spirit seas in Xu Qing¡¯s dharma apertures were absolutely shocking. In fact, in Master Shengyun¡¯s entire life, he had never seen spirit seas so terrifying.

    Even he only had spirit seas that were a bit over 600 meters!

    ¡°You....¡± he murmured, his face falling. He knew that the size of one¡¯s spirit seas corrted to the majesty of the dharma force onemanded. At lower levels, that didn¡¯t matter much. But as one¡¯s cultivation base got stronger, and one opened more and more dharma apertures, then it could lead to a very big difference between two people. And that¡¯s what was happening right now.

    In the shortest of moments, the hand above Xu Qing became aposite of ny-two!

    From a distance, it was possible to see a giant, ny-two level hand hovering in the air. Wind whipped across the tremblingnds, and massive pressure weighed down. Lightning crackled across the surface of the hand like dragons or snakes. A will surged that could devour heaven and end the earth!

    Even the X of flesh and blood quivered in midair as if from fear.

    Xu Qing was not like Master Shengyun with his three peerless swords and amazing gruish items. He couldn¡¯t summon a ck door, did not have a special treasure that could be a brush pen of flesh and blood.

    But he did have ny-two spirit seas, each of which were 1,500 meters in size!

    Regardless of how gruish you were, regardless of what magical techniques you had, and regardless of what special items you possessed, he had the power to crush you!

    Veins bulged on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead as massive pressure weighed down from the hand. Cracking sounds could be heard from within him as the tendons in his arms grew tight. Then, he shoved his hand in the direction of the X of flesh and blood... and Master Shengyun!

    The giant hand overhead, pulsing with might to crush mountains and seas, smashed into the gruish X. Rumbling sounds echoed into the sky as the X stood strong for five breaths of time. Then it couldn¡¯t take the force and exploded into bits.

    More rumbling sounds echoed out as the hand crushed everything in its path. Behind it, even Xu Qing had to work hard to stand up to the pressure of all the spirit seas.

    The ground quaked and trees crumbled into ash from the terrifying power on disy. A momentter, the hand was right in front of the pale-faced and astonished Master Shengyun. In that critical moment, his eyes flickered with determination. Howling, he thrust his gruish pen out in front of him like a sword, stabbing it toward the hand.

    All of his dharma apertures erupted, imbuing the gruish pen with dharma force. His brother¡¯s face looked ferocious, but simultaneously astonished. In fact, his expression made it seem like, in his madness, he sought death!

    Thunderous booms rang out one after another, shaking the surrounding forbidden ground.

    Xu Qing and Master Shengyun both coughed up blood, and both fought with all their might against the power, their expressions vicious.

    Blinding light shot out of Master Shengyun¡¯s gruish pen. Shockwaves rolled out in all directions as, in the blink of an eye, thirty-three of theyers of theposite hand were destroyed.

    That was when the light from the pen began to fade. A howl erupted from within as Master Shengyun¡¯s younger brother fought with madness. However, even if his madness were more intense, it wasn¡¯t enough. Forty-three moreyers of the hand copsed, and then the pen began to shatter and copse into ash.

    The madness in the eyes of Master Shengyun¡¯s brother changed. He seemed to experience a sudden release, and a fierce smile appeared on his face. With another surge of force, he destroyed thirteenyers of Xu Qing¡¯sposite hand. Then his head copsed. In the final moment before falling into ultimate destruction, he spoke his final words, shrill and full of venom.

    ¡°Chu Shengyun, do you remember how I cursed you when you assimted me? I said that you would suffer the same fate as me. You would be assimted by someone else. You would also have your life taken away. Maybe you erased the power of my curse with the fragment of that taboo magical item, but it seems that the curse is effective!¡±

    His words turned into a stream ofughter as Xu Qing¡¯s giant hand crushed into the body of the pen, absolutely destroying it. Then, with the final three that remained, the hand hit Master Shengyun. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as his life mes flickered on the verge of being extinguished. His hair was nowpletely disheveled, and he was bedraggled from head to toe. However, as he tumbled backward, the killing intent in his eyes flickered just as strongly as before.

    ¡°Curse me however you want. Your death was worth it!¡± He mmed both hands onto the ground in front of him and shouted, ¡°Flesh Curse: Myriad Blood Convergence!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face fell.

    Instantly, the shattered remnants of the gruish pen melded into the mud on the ground. Then, numerous bloody arms stretched up from the ground, thousands of them, all stretching with mad speed toward Xu Qing.

    At the same time, it was with bloodshot eyes that Master Shengyun threw his head back, and in a bizarre, vile voice shouted, ¡°I hereby summon a projection of the Soaring Cloud taboo treasure!¡±

 Chapter 259: Stabbing into the Sea of Consciousness

    <h4>Chapter 259: Stabbing into the Sea of Consciousness</h4>

    Taboo treasure!

    After Xu Qing became part of the echelon, he earned the right to summon a projection of the sect¡¯s magical treasure. Some chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition simrly had the ability to tap into the reserve powers of their sects. That said, such authority was only vested in a few people, and was usually given out as a special reward, and to be used for defensive purposes only. After all, the magical treasures of the Seven Sect Coalition were in the ¡®taboo¡¯ level. That meant they could only be used for short periods of time. And if their effectiveness was to be maximized, they were only supposed to be used at specific times.

    Master Shengyun had plentiful battle experience, and thus, he didn¡¯t immediately resort to summoning that projection. Instead, he made sure to create the perfect set of circumstances to unleash it. He knew that it wasn¡¯t going to be a simple matter to take Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp. For one thing, he would have to make sure Xu Qing didn¡¯t escape in a critical moment, for instance, by means of a teleportation jade slip.

    There had been two instances during the fight in which Xu Qing took out a jade slip and seemed about to crush it. Though Master Shengyun had pretended not to notice that, he had immediately guessed at what Xu Qing was thinking of doing.

    As far as he was concerned, this fight was like a fishing expedition. He needed to wear out his opponent and make sure he didn¡¯t have any special moves left. He also needed him grievously wounded. Only then could he bepletely confident in seeding.

    At this point, he was confident that it was time to actually make his move. It had started with taking out his pen of flesh and blood. Regardless of whether the pen injured Xu Qing or not, Master Shengyun had nned to destroy it and use the curse power within it to trap Xu Qing.

    Then he would unleash the taboo treasure. By creatings above and snares below, he would make sure Xu Qing couldn¡¯t escape, and would then be able to take away his lifemp.

    When Xu Qing heard his words, his expression flickered. The bloody arms surrounding him were extremely tough, and hadtched onto him with such force that he couldn¡¯t break free. Seemingly without hesitation, he had prepared to crush the jade slip he had been holding in his hand this whole time. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t time.

    The sky above suddenly turned bright red, making it look matchlessly bewitching and gruish. And that redness quickly became an entire world of blood with Xu Qing right in the middle. Spatial ripples flowed within it, ensuring that no teleportations were possible in its bounds. And then it began to shrink. The sealing power grew stronger, cutting off everything inside the world with that outside.

    Then, a red-colored seed appeared up in the dome of heaven. It was different from the seed that the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect had sent flying to the Young Arbiter Sect. It was illusory, not corporeal. But it still emanated a shocking might as it dropped to the ground and transformed into a huge, blood-colored tree.

    A deadly tempest sprang up around the tree which mmed into Xu Qing and sent blood spraying out of his mouth. It was like some massive force trying to wipe him out of existence.

    Master Shengyun threw his head back andughed uproariously, his eyes shining with greed. Tapping into the full extent of his cultivation base, he shot toward Xu Qing.

    The ravagemist bird cried out behind him, and his lifemp umbre radiated dazzling light above him. Now that he had locked down the area to prevent Xu Qing from escaping, it was time to go in for the kill and take his lifemp.

    ¡°This area is now sealed by the projection of my sect¡¯s taboo treasure. There are two of us inside, and only one will get out!¡±

    Master Shengyun closed in with deadly force, and blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he backed away. The pressure of the sealing power was so immense that his own life mes seemed to be on the verge of sputtering out.

    Looking at the strange, gruish tree, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light, and he growled, ¡°I hereby summon a projection of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ magical treasure!¡±

    Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ magical treasure was not at the taboo level, and Xu Qing had never summoned its projection before.

    The moment the words left his mouth, the surrounding world of blood vibrated, and the sky shook. A massive power descended that seemed capable of ripping the blood world apart, and then an eye appeared in the sky. It seemed calm and peaceful,cking any hint of emotion as it stared down at the projection of the taboo treasure.

    In response, the taboo treasure trembled even harder. However, there was clearly a disparity between the two treasures, as the taboo projection didn¡¯t copse. Xu Qing was unable to escape.

    That said, the eye was able to lock down the blood tree so it couldn¡¯t do anything. And thus, the pressure weighing down on Xu Qing was slightly alleviated.

    ¡°A measly magical treasure from a subsidiary sect couldn¡¯t possibly do anything to my sect¡¯s taboo treasure. This blood world is going to be your grave!¡± Continuing tough, Master Shengyun closed in on Xu Qing with another attack, his eyes gleaming with greed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened. Without a word, he sent the golden crow forth, and summoned the ck umbre of his lifemp. As ck fire raged around him, he and Master Shengyun started fighting back and forth within the world of blood.

    Xu Qing was obviously weakened because of the pressure of the blood world, and was soon on the defensive. Seeing that, Master Shengyun started pressing the attack even harder.

    Eventually, the blood world had shrunk down to a size of only 30 meters. The huge tree inside of it had also shrunk down. Rumbling echoed out left and right as Xu Qing staggered back, blood spilling from his mouth. Once again, he had a jade slip in his hand, and he was looking around.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother!¡± Master Shengyun said. ¡°You can¡¯t escape. Not even I can control the taboo treasure. I have to just wait until it dissipates. The only reason I used it was to prevent you from getting away. That teleportation talisman that you¡¯ve been hesitating about won¡¯t work. I¡¯ve blocked all your paths of escape!¡±

    Master Shengyun surged with energy as he grinned and stalked toward Xu Qing, looking at him as if he were already dead.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, we¡¯re sealed in here pretty tightly,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. Having confirmed that what Master Shengyun said was true, he tossed the jade slip aside and pulled out an iron box. Opening it, he spilled out the contents.

    The jade slip he had been holding was not a teleportation talisman. It was just an ordinary slip with random information in it.

    The iron box, however, was a wish box, and sealed within it was the poison pill that not even that monk¡¯s head had been able to resist. The moment the pill appeared, its aura spread out.

    Seeing this, Master Shengyun gaped, and his eyes narrowed. He had no idea what this pill was, but he instinctively got a bad feeling from it. Heunched an attack to destroy it, but Xu Qing blocked that attack, allowing the pill¡¯s aura to spread. Because the area waspletely sealed, there was nowhere for the aura to go to. It just gathered in the shrinking blood world, growing stronger and stronger.

    This had been Xu Qing¡¯s n all along. He didn¡¯t know what trump cards and secret weapons Master Shengyun would use, so he couldn¡¯t be on guard against them. He knew that the two of them were evenly matched, and it wouldn¡¯t be easy to kill him and take his lifemp in a short time. What was more, Xu Qing knew that his biggest disadvantage was that, if he was around when Master Shengyun¡¯s dao protector showed up, he would die. Therefore, there seemed to be only one way to finish the battle quickly. And that was to first trick Master Shengyun into thinking he was going to teleport away, and goad him into doing something to prevent that.

    He was using Master Shengyun¡¯s greed against him. If Master Shengyun wanted his lifemp, he would have to make sure Xu Qing couldn¡¯t teleport away. And Xu Qing knew he could use that as a way to control how the fight yed out.

    Step by step, he got Master Shengyun exactly where he wanted him. Bit by bit he got Master Shengyun to think he was setting things up perfectly for his own benefit, when in reality, he was setting things up perfectly for Xu Qing.

    And now, it came down to finding out one thing. Between Xu Qing and Master Shengyun... who could survive longest when surrounded by deadly poison?

    Of course, Master Shengyun was an intelligent person. He had no idea exactly how dangerous this poison pill was, but he could guess. Eyes still flickering with killing intent, he took out a handful of antidote pills, consumed them, and then prepared to continue fighting.

    But then his expression flickered as he suddenly noticed the skin on his right hand rotting and decaying. It was a terrifying sensation, as he hadn¡¯t experienced any pain at all. He quickly started checking the rest of his body. His pupils then constricted as he found that, without him being aware of it at all, there were many other areas where he was starting to rot! And his antidote pill wasn¡¯t doing anything to stop it!

    ¡°What poison is this?¡± he blurted. The skin on Xu Qing¡¯s face was also rotting, but the effects clearly weren¡¯t as pronounced. Not bothering to answer Master Shengyun¡¯s question, he raced forward and began his counter attack. He didn¡¯t n to give Master Shengyun any chance at all to recover or fight back against the poison.

    For the first time, fear appeared in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes. He wanted to try to take control of the taboo treasure projection, and undo the seal. But as he himself had just mentioned, it wasn¡¯t possible. What was more, the taboo treasure was also being tied up dealing with the projection of the Seven Blood Eyes magical treasure. Because of those two obstacles, there was simply no way he could do anything about the sealing. He could only wait until it dissipated naturally, which he expected to take no longer than two incense sticks¡¯ worth of time. Yet Master Shengyun¡¯s fear grew more obvious as the decay and rot spread. Even worse, the shadow covering his dharma apertures seemed to be twitching in anticipation, as if it nned to spread out further within him.

    Upon all that, Xu Qing attacked with brutal ferocity. He led with a fist strike, then converted it into a head-butt that Master Shengyun didn¡¯t dare to meet directly.

    Master Shengyun dodged to the side.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t holding anything back in terms of speed, and boldly pressed the attack. The golden crow exploded with the power of assimtion, and ck mes spread out in all directions. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t targeting Master Shengyun¡¯s throat. He was targeting his abdomen. Hitting the throat would be lethal. But the abdomen was where the lifemp was. Because Xu Qing had a lifemp of his own, he knew exactly where it was.

    Master Shengyun was in a frenzy. Howling shrilly, he consumed a mass of medicinal pills designed to bolster life force. His eyes were filled with terror and madness as a sensation of imminent death filled him. He was now fully aware that this was apetition of seeing who could stay alive for the longest.

    There was no escaping, and thus, it was with bloodshot eyes that he started fighting back. Booms rang out for a short time.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mouth was covered in blood, and his skin was rotting off. But he keptunching blows at Master Shengyun¡¯s abdomen.

    As Master Shengyun defended himself, he was shoved backward, all while his flesh rotted so badly it was dripping off of him in liquid form.

    Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness was fully on disy as he attacked again, mming his knee into Master Shengyun¡¯s belly.

    Master Shengyun howled hoarsely; his internal organs were starting to rot, and it was all he could do to block the attacks. Unfortunately, his arm had reached such a horrific state of rot that it copsed.

    That said, Xu Qing¡¯s knee was also rotting, and cracks spread out across it after hended the blow. He didn¡¯t care. Opening his mouth, he lunged forward, his teeth bared as he tried to bite Master Shengyun¡¯s throat.

    The madness in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes had already been reced by pure terror. He flew backward, except that his right leg was starting to melt, putting him off bnce. Then Xu Qing lunged forward again, and the two mmed into each other.

    Because of the poison, both of them were very weak and were almost at their limit. The battle was reaching a conclusion.

    Master Shengyun truly deserved to be called chosen. With his secret magics, his medicinal pills, and various other methods, he had alreadysted more than an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. But he couldn¡¯tst much longer. Despair filled his eyes.

    The ground was covered with rotting flesh and blood, but much of it was Xu Qing¡¯s; he was in such bad shape he hardly looked human. Yet his eyes still shone with utter ruthlessness. Jumping forward again, he saw the opening he had been looking for and buried his teeth into Master Shengyun¡¯s neck. Then he viciously ripped out a chunk of flesh.

    Blood sprayed out of Master Shengyun. His ravagemist bird tried to defend him, but Xu Qing¡¯s vicious attack affected it as well, and the golden crow pounced. The ravagemist bird shrieked as the golden crow started to assimte it.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Xu Qing was gasping for breath, as the rot had also reached his internal organs. But he was so close to Master Shengyun that he was able to punch him hard in the stomach.

    Master Shengyun let loose a gurgle of pain, and tried to get away. But Xu Qing viciously head-butted him, provoking another shriek. Blood flowed down Xu Qing¡¯s face, and he feltpletely weak. But, Master Shengyun was even weaker, and Xu Qing realized the time hade to make his move.

    Mustering all of his strength, he stabbed his hand into Master Shengyun¡¯s abdomen!

    Shifting his hand about inside, he found a dharma aperture. Then he started probing Master Shengyun¡¯s sea of consciousness for amp-shaped object. His eyes lit up. As Master Shengyun screamed in agony, Xu Qing grabbed the lifemp... and wrenched it out viciously!

    It was the ultimate disy of ruthlessness! Blood sprayed like a fountain! Two of Xu Qing¡¯s fingers had rotted away, but he still had three left, and that was enough!

    Seven-colored light spread out into the world of blood, illuminating Xu Qing¡¯s face. It was... a seven-colored ceramicmp!! It almost looked like crystal, and emanated a seven-colored glow. Within that glow, it was just possible to see the faint image of a dazzling seven-colored umbre. It was covered in blood and also emanated an ancient aura. Obviously, it had existed for countless years and had seen many, many things. It was an exceptionally unique item, covered with countless striations filled with the magicalws of heaven and earth, all of whichbined into the image of a person. One look at it would cause anyone¡¯s mind to tremble. Any lifemp was an absolutely precious treasure!

    ¡°Xu Qing!!¡± Master Shengyun screamed shrilly, despite how his throat was rotting away. The sensation of having his lifemp ripped out from inside him was driving him into utter insanity.

    However, that was when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light. The five fingers on his left hand had rotted away so badly that only bones were left behind. Without any hesitation, he stabbed those sharp bones right into Master Shengyun¡¯s throat!

    And they came out the other side!

 Chapter 260: It Was Worth It!

    Chapter 260: It Was Worth It!

    Master Shengyun¡¯s voice ceased as his life force faded.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t ready to rest at ease. Pulling his skeletal hand back, he prepared to rip Master Shengyun¡¯s throat fully open. Then he would tear the rest of his body to shreds. Thest thing he wanted was his opponent using some mysterious technique to resurrect himself. Before he could do anything else, the seven-colored lifemp he was holding emitted a bright beam of light. It happened with no warning whatsoever. Apparently, it was powered by the same force behind the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo projection, which didn¡¯t block it at all. Not even the Seven Blood Eyes magical treasure eye could do anything to stop it. It rose high into the dome of heaven, where it exploded like a firework.

    Then, it transformed into a massive blood-colored vortex. A terrifying, hair-raising aura then erupted from the vortex, along with an enraged shout.

    ¡°Who dares to harm my grandson??¡±

    The Seven Blood Eyes magical treasure projection copsed. The projection of the taboo treasure also faded away, unsealing the area and revealing Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as he realized the lifemp was struggling against him, trying to shoot up toward that vortex. He tightened his grip on it. He had worked hard to get this treasure, and now it was his!

    He had lost a lot of fingers, though, so he quickly bit down onto themp, his eyes bloodshot.

    As the sound of the enraged voice continued to echo about, a hand emerged from the vortex! It was a withered hand, covered with wrinkles, pulsing with a sensation of decay and ancientness. Furthermore, it was massive, blotting out the sky and causing all heaven and earth to grow still. An immense mightiness came with the hand, spreading out over everything.

    Master Shengyun, who was hovering on death¡¯s door, suddenly vanished, then reappeared below the vortex. A momentter, he disappeared into the vortex.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was quick enough to get out of Master Shengyun before he was gone.

    The massive hand ignored all of that, and began to stretch down toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing quivered from head to toe. Blood dripped from his mouth as he kept his teeth locked onto the lifemp. His vision swam. Creaking sounds echoed out from within him, and more blood sprayed from various wounds on him. He felt the shadow of death covering him. There was no way to dodge this. No way to flee. The massive hand brought destruction with it as it descended from the vortex. No level of cultivation base, no special n, no unique preparations could do anything right now. The difference in cultivation level left room for only despair.

    But then....

    Deep within Forbidden by the Phoenix, a cry rang out, piercing through the clouds. It sounded like the song of a bird, or perhaps the roar of a phoenix. Brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth as a huge rift opened up in the dome of heaven. A deafening noise erupted from the rift, shredding the blood-colored vortex to bits, and causing the enormous hand to shiver.

    A voice filled with infinite majesty spoke from the very depths of Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    ¡°I¡¯m the emperor of this forbidden ground, and Void Returning isn¡¯t wee here. Screw off!¡±

    The vortex ripped apart, and a muffled grunt rang out. All of a sudden, three fingers on that huge, ancient hand copsed.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing as the intense sensation of deadly crisis vanished. At the same time, the seven-colored ceramicmp between his teeth vibrated. The human-shaped striations formed from magicalws of heaven and earth suddenly grew blurry. Then, cracking sounds could be heard as the striations were wiped out of existence. With the image gone, the lifemp ceased struggling. Xu Qing could now sense that it was masterless.

    At the same time, a shout of rage came from the vortex. However, the huge hand seemed unwilling to press the issue, and slowly retracted. After it was gone, a voice echoed out.

    ¡°Dao protectors, you have failed and earned the death penalty. If you kill this child and bring back the lifemp, I¡¯ll pardon your error and spare your life!¡±

    Numerous rifts exploded across the sky, crisscrossing the remaining bits of the vortex like des. The vortex copsed and disappeared. Heaven and earth went back to normal.

    Xu Qing stood there gasping for breath. Picking up the wish box, he unhesitatingly turned and started fleeing as fast as he could. He had no time to sit arounding up with a n. The moment that vortex copsed, he had sensed three Gold Core auras heading in his direction, pulsing with madness and fury. There was no need to guess who those came from. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, they were Master Shengyun¡¯s dao protectors.

    The terrifying entity in the vortex was most likely the patriarch of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Though he had been forced to retreat by that voice from the depths of Forbidden by the Phoenix, he had somehow managed to teleport the three dao protectors to this location before leaving. The patriarch couldn¡¯t be here personally, but he still wanted Xu Qing dead because of the lifemp.

    There were other loose ends. Who was that voice from the depths of Forbidden by the Phoenix? Was Master Shengyun alive or dead? What was Xu Qing going to do next? There was no time to consider those things.

    As he fled, the violet crystal went to work, and he kept a tight grip on the seven-colored ceramicmp.

    At the same time, a crazy look appeared in his eyes. He had put everything on the line, and had very nearly died. It hade at great cost. But it had brought great gain. The value of a lifemp was simply beyond description!

    ¡°It was worth it!!¡± he murmured. Gritting his teeth, he started absorbing the seven-colored ceramicmp. He couldn¡¯t wait untilter to do it, given the danger he was in. There were three Gold Core enemies after him, and he would need every ounce of strength possible, as well as every bit of recovery power avable.

    Without taking time to study themp, he decided to just risk it. He lit his life mes.

    As the light of his life mes raged around him, he put the seven-coloredmp inside of himself. Themp shone so brightly it was nearly blinding. However, nothing stopped Xu Qing from cing fire inside themp and then branding it to himself!

    As themp burned, seven-colored light swirled around him, filling all of his pores. There was no pain involved; in contrast, it felt wonderful. Eventually, the light swirled into his dantian region, and into his sea of consciousness there. As it converged, the image of a seven-colored ceramicmp became visible, filled with the profound sensation of ancient time.

    It didn¡¯t look inferior in any way to the ck lifemp.

    Both were exquisite. Both had an ancient resonance. And as their radiancebined, it turned into something even more dazzling. The ck light and the seven-colored light interacted, casting out radiance that made Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly pces even more visible!

    From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing fleeing through the jungle, with seven-colored light surrounding him like a daoist robe. At the same time, two umbres were visible over his head. One was ck, surrounded with endless mes that could protect the soul. The other was seven-colored, and it spread out over his entire person, protecting his fleshly body.

    It was already as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns to have one umbre. Having two was the ultimate honor!

    Xu Qing was in bad shape from the fight, but at the same time, was clearly infinitely exceptional. As the lifemp became part of him, Xu Qing put one of his life mes atop it. Instantly, the light of his lifemp became even more astonishing.

    Rumblings like heavenly thunder echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind as his cultivation base rose rapidly. With two lifemps in him, his life mes were more amazing than ever. It no longer seemed like a world was burning within him. Instead, it seemed like an entire heaven and earth, burning like hell. With the addition of this lifemp, Xu Qing instantly went from the five-me level to the six-me level!

    With battle prowess like that, he would stand at the peak of Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Master Shengyun had once been considered the strongest, but now, that spot belonged to Xu Qing!

    ***

    As Xu Qing fled through the forbidden ground from three Gold Core experts, a shout of rage could be heard in the Revered Ancient maind, in the Seven Sect Coalition, specifically from the headquarters of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    ¡°What peasant dared to steal my sect¡¯s lifemp??¡±

    The ancient voice belonged to none other than Patriarch Soaring Cloud. At the same time, a beam of light shot up from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, speeding out over the Forbidden Sea and causing everything to shake violently. Within that beam of light was an old man in a golden robe. He had white hair, and radiated a sense of majesty and might. He was also furious. The wave of his hand caused numerous streams of sword energy to shoot up and apany him as he shot out over the water in the direction of South Phoenix and Seven Blood Eyes.

    The water seethed beneath Patriarch Soaring Cloud, while at the same time, flickering streams of light could be seen in his eyes. Astonishingly, his cultivation level was the same as Sir Bloodsmelter. He was in the first step of the Void Returning level. His rage alone was enough to boil the sea, and he pulsed with a boundless sword energy which caused countless sea beasts to tremble, and struck fear into the hearts of numerous species. The sky trembled, and space itself shattered as an almighty being went out to sea!

    ***

    Meanwhile, in Seven Blood Eyes, atop the Seventh Peak, Master Seventh sat in a building ying Go with his servant. However, he had been holding the same piece between his fingers for quite some time now. If you calcted the exact time, he had been holding the piece from the moment Xu Qing started fighting Master Shengyun.

    The servant wasn¡¯t in a hurry, and just sat there waiting.

    After some time passed, Master Seventh calmly got to his feet and said, ¡°I have to stop ying for now. I¡¯ll go get Fourth Sib, and make my move when I get back.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh sped his hands behind his back, stepped out into midair, and headed toward Forbidden by the Phoenix. His hair was white, and his eyes seemed to contain a starry sky. His robe was violet, and he stood as straight as a mountain peak. He was old, but he was hale and hearty, like an old steed that can still gallop a thousand miles.

 Chapter 261: He Arrives

    <h4>Chapter 261: He Arrives</h4>

    Xu Qing sped through the jungle of Forbidden by the Phoenix. He moved as quickly as he could, though it caused intense pain to fill him from head to toe. The aura of decay from the taboo poison pill was still eating away at him. Though his level of resistance was much greater than when he first opened the wish box, he had been stuck inside the blood world with the poison for too long. That, plus all the other serious injuries he had sustained, left Xu Qing feeling immeasurably weak, like antern sputtering out of oil.

    Thankfully, adding another lifemp gave him six-me power, which made him capable of astonishing levels of speed. Despite his injuries, he was still surrounded by fire, casting light all around him. He looked like a living torch as he sped along.

    Meanwhile, eyes suddenly appeared on his shadow, stretched out in front of him. They seemed curious as they looked at Xu Qing. Then a violet will erupted from Xu Qing, which violently suppressed the shadow. The shadow screamed in agony, then quickly tried to seem ingratiating.

    ¡°I might be hurt,¡± Xu Qing said grimly, ¡°but I can still suppress you to death if I have to. By the way... you should cherish the credit you earned in the fight.¡±

    The shadow quickly let loose fluctuations of subservience. Truth be told, some malicious thoughts had urred to it after seeing Xu Qing hurt so badly. However, it was still afraid of him. That was why, during the fight with Master Shengyun, the shadow hadn¡¯t dared to ignore the orders to cover the enemy¡¯s dharma aperture, nor had it considered trying to sabotage the battle. That wasn¡¯t how it normally operated given its personality. That was how it acted out of fear of Xu Qing. Fear was the way Xu Qing controlled the shadow, and within the curiosity it had just shown was a bit of maliciousness. How could it have known that Xu Qing would notice it?

    In contrast, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior understood how things worked. As he followed Xu Qing, he maintained a visage of ultimate loyalty. Xu Qing noticed that and nodded. Next, he had the shadow cover his two lifemps, while simultaneously extinguishing the fire around him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was gloomy. The three pursuers were still locked onto him, and if it weren¡¯t for his six-me speed, they would already have caught up.

    ".

    If I was in top shape, I could think about fighting them!

    Xu Qing stopped and looked down at himself. Waves of weakness and dizziness swept through him. He bit the tip of his tongue, using the burst of pain to clear his head. Then he started moving again. He had used all of his poisons on Master Shengyun. He hadn¡¯t held anything back, not even his beetles. The only beetles he had left were the ones that had gone dormant after devouring that immortal ice.

    It was still a long way from dawn. As Xu Qing sped along, he continued to bite his tongue every so often.

    I need to think of a way to shake these three dao protectors and get out of Forbidden by the Phoenix.... I¡¯m not sure what Seven Blood Eyes is going to think of all this. I¡¯ll need to take stock of the situation before I decide what to do next. Maybe leaving Forbidden by the Phoenix isn¡¯t the best idea. Should I think about settling down here?

    Although doing that woulde at a big cost, the fact that he had acquired another lifemp made his eyes shine with determination. In a brutal, chaotic world, one had to fight to survive. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he shifted directions and started heading deeper into Forbidden by the Phoenix. At the same time, he thought back to that voice which had spoken out in the moment of ultimate crisis.

    Was the branding mark on the seven-colored ceramicmp wiped out as a side-effect of that aura? Or did that voice do it on purpose?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he thought about it. For some reason, he just couldn¡¯t believe that it had been aplete coincidence. No, it seemed intentional.

    ¡°But why?¡± he murmured. He had no idea. He just kept speeding along, asionally reaching out to grab various medicinal nts that he would eat raw. Whenever he saw nts that could be beneficial, he did that. Unfortunately, without preparing them properly, the medicinal effects wouldn¡¯t be very strong. But it was better than nothing. Looking into his bag of holding, he realized he had a few ck boluses.

    It¡¯s best to use ck boluses at night, when the mutagen is strongest.

    Despite the danger he was in, he took a deep breath to calm himself down. After doing some calctions, he came to the conclusion it would be about five days before he was fully recovered.

    Five days.... That said, the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect is definitely going to do something. In fact, I probably don¡¯t have more than two days. I need to lose these three dao protectors before then.

    He sped up to the top of a nearby tree and checked the wind.

    My only option is to use the taboo poison pill!

    After once again checking the state of his injuries, he sighed. At the same time, his eyes glittered with ferocity as he took out the wish box and prepared to open it and let the wind carry the aura.

    ***

    Meanwhile, further back in the jungle, Master Shengyun¡¯s three dao protectors were speeding along with grim expressions on their faces. All of them wanted to kill Xu Qing. After all, Patriarch Soaring Cloud had made it clear that if they didn¡¯t, all of them would die.

    They were all shaken to the core, and could hardly believe that Master Shengyun had been defeated by Xu Qing, and his lifemp taken away. Because of that, they were being cautious in their pursuit. Furthermore, all of them had defensive magical devices at the ready, and were using wind techniques to constantly sweep the area around them. At a certain point, they ceased pursuit and huddled to confer.

    ¡°This brat is good with poisons. We have to be careful!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. He definitely fights dirty, so we can¡¯t be careless.¡±

    They were no fools. Xu Qing might be injured, but he had nearly killed Master Shengyun. Given that, they knew that they couldn¡¯t afford to make any mistakes.

    ***

    Xu Qing sensed that they had suddenly stopped moving. He breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, his eyes glittered.

    If the three pursuers split up, then his n was to try to ambush one of them, and take them out, even if he got hurt in the process. If they didn¡¯t split up, then he would use the aura of the taboo poison pill. Even if they used wind techniques to dispel the aura, the slightest mistake on their part would yield him some results. Either way, he was ready to act.

    Looking down at his hands, he saw flesh slowly starting to cover the bones. Bending into a crouch, he shot into motion.

    ***

    Eventually, when the sky was just starting to turn bright, one of the three pursuing Gold Core experts suddenly did a double take when he noticed a patch of rotting flesh on one of hispanion¡¯s faces.

    ¡°Your face!¡± he said, reflexively reaching up to his own face to check it for evidence of poison. When he found none, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± said the infected dao protector. Eyes flickering with cold light, he quickly tried to suppress the poison, but it did no good. Ultimately, he had to do the same thing as Master Shengyun, and pull out some medicinal pills designed to bolster life force.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this!¡± he said. ¡°This is a very gruish poison. Hard to suppress. We¡¯ve been so careful, but we still fell for his tricks!¡±

    The other two dao protectors¡¯ eyes shone with determination.

    ¡°If we¡¯re not careful, and he manages to keep poisoning us, we¡¯ll?fail where failure is least expected!¡±

    ¡°We have to hit him fast and hard!¡±

    After exchanging nces, they gritted their teeth and used various methods to elerate rapidly. Moving upwards of thirty percent faster than before, they became three beams of light that shot forward at top speed.

    ***

    When Xu Qing sensed what was happening, his eyes flickered coldly.

    He still had one trump card left. He could stimte the taboo poison pill, unleashing it dramatically to kill everything around him.

    It wouldn¡¯t be easy to do that, and he wasn¡¯t even sure he could. But with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits and his lifemps, even if he couldn¡¯t release the full potential of the pill, he should be able to unleash enough of it to be inimitably terrifying. In the destruction that would follow, he doubted the three pursuers would survive.

    Should I risk it...?

    It was a trump card that would probably end up killing him, so he couldn¡¯t help but calcte the chances of making it out alive.

    The odds aren¡¯t in my favor.

    He once again checked his injuries. His hands were close to being whole again. Though they still looked bad, they were at least usable.

    ¡°Gotta keep running!¡± He started moving. However, after only taking a few steps, he slowed down and stopped. Pupils constricting, he looked ahead of him in the jungle.

    He saw a shadowy figure there.

    An old man.

    He wore a violet robe, and though he had wrinkles on his face, his eyes shone brightly. He seemed schrly and refined. As he stood there in the jungle, he seemed out of harmony with the surrounding shadows. In fact, ripples spread out from him that seemed to draw the sunlight toward him.

    Between his fingers was a ck Go piece with which he fiddled. Looking at Xu Qing, he took in all of his injuries, then said, ¡°Put away the poison.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head and put away his poison. Though he was on guard, he didn¡¯t need to guess who this person was, and knew he had no option other than to do as instructed.

    This old man was none other than the seventh peaklord of the Seven Blood Eyes. He was Master Seventh.

    Despite having put away the wish box, Xu Qing kept a sliver of dharma force on it, just in case he needed to open it suddenly.

    When Xu Qing put away the poison, Master Seventh blurred, then reappeared right behind Xu Qing, between him and the approaching Gold Core experts.

    As they burst onto the scene, their expressions flickered, and they stopped in ce, panting for breath. All of a sudden, they seemed nervous, and they even edged backward. If they were in Seven Blood Eyes, they wouldn¡¯t have acted like this. They knew that Seven Blood Eyes wouldn¡¯t dare to act against them publicly. But they were in a forbidden ground now, and none of them dared to take any risks.

    After a moment of hesitation, the Gold Core expert in the middle sped hands, bowed, and said, ¡°Well met, Seventh Peaklord. This child instigated a huge cmity. He injured a chosen from our Soaring Cloud Sword Sect and stole our sect¡¯s lifemp. On orders from Patriarch Soaring Cloud himself, we¡¯re to arrest him. Please forgive us for any inconvenience, Master Seventh.¡±

    Master Seventh looked at the three of them, then waved his hand. In the blink of an eye, a shocking force swept out of nowhere, bing a huge mouth that bore down on the three dao protectors. As their faces fell, the mouth chomped down on them and consumed them!

    Brutal crunching sounds then echoed out into the silence of the forest.

    Xu Qing shivered and looked at Master Seventh. He opened his mouth to speak, except he couldn¡¯t think of what to say. Master Seventh sped his hands behind his back and started walking.

    ¡°What are you staring at? Let¡¯s get moving. I have a Go game to finish.¡±

 Chapter 262: Violet-Cyan History

    Chapter 262: Violet-Cyan History

    Xu Qing was somewhat in a daze as he walked with Master Seventh through the jungle.

    Even though Master Seventh said he had a Go game to finish, he didn¡¯t seem to be in a hurry as he led the way. Quite the opposite. That said, every step he took propelled him a vast distance. Of course, he pulled Xu Qing with him as he proceeded.

    As Xu Qing followed, he kept reying the scene of Master Seventh waving his hand and killing three Gold Core experts from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. It almost didn¡¯t seem real. He maintained silence.

    A short timeter, Master Seventh said, ¡°You did a good job handling the situation with Grandmaster Bai.¡±

    ¡°I just did what I had to do,¡± Xu Qing replied softly.

    ¡°You also performed well in that Seazombie incident.¡±

    ¡°The Cap¡ª er.¡± Xu Qing hesitated slightly. ¡°Grand Highness did all that.¡±

    ¡°The Night Dove matter went well.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head. ¡°I did my best, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°But you were really reckless in dealing with Master Shengyun.¡± As the words left Master Seventh¡¯s mouth, they stepped out into a section of city ruins. It was none other than the spot where Xu Qing had fought Master Shengyun.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°What you should have done,¡± Master Seventh continued, sounding less than pleased, ¡°was ask for help from Big Sib, Second Sib, and Third Sib. If the four of you killed him together, you wouldn¡¯t have ended up so badly injured.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and came to the conclusion that what he said made sense. He nodded.

    Master Seventh seemed to approve of Xu Qing¡¯s pleasant attitude. He turned, and his expression overflowed with praise. ¡°Step closer. I thought you weren¡¯t afraid of anything in heaven or earth. Why are you standing so far away?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitantly took a few steps closer to Master Seventh.

    Master Seventh looked him up and down, and there was a gleam of reminiscence in his eyes as he thought back to the scavenger basecamp, and how Xu Qing had changed clothes to make sure they didn¡¯t get dirty. He chuckled. [1]

    ¡°You¡¯re taller than back then.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t continue the conversation, though. He led the way further into the ruins, and Xu Qing followed without a word.

    From a distance, it was possible to see an old man and a young man, walking through the deste ruins as the evening sun shone down on them. It seemed almost like they were strolling through ancient times.

    ¡°This ce is both a testament to the past, and also a ce where a lot of history is buried.¡± As Master Seventh¡¯s voice echoed through the ruins of the old city, it seemed to drift like the song of a distant flute.

    Xu Qing looked at him and waited for him to continue.

    ¡°This city was once home to a person of legend. An outstanding figure who was said to be the most outstanding human to live after the broken face of the god arrived. He was the crown prince of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.

    ¡°Supposedly, that crown prince had exceptional aptitude. He had a bloodline legacy from the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, and dominated an entire generation.

    ¡°Some people im that he was born bearing the destiny aura of the human species, and that auspicious heavenly signs appeared on the day he was born, specifically, nine golden dragons that apanied him throughout his life. Others say that the world itself gathered all its resources so that he could be born, and that as a result, he saved the world.

    ¡°ording to the history books, when he was born, a howl of grief echoed out of all the forbidden grounds in Revered Ancient, and mutated blood flowed from within them. Yet others im that the eyes of the god gazed down on him five times during his life, yet he never died. Thus, he acquired the blessing of the god.

    ¡°Even the holynds were shocked by him, and tried to recruit him, though he refused their offers.

    ¡°Unfortunately, that most peerless of humans eventually died in battle in the territory of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. Reportedly, countless species joined forces and sent their most powerful representatives to cut him down.¡±

    Xu Qing was deeply moved by all of this information. It was a bit different from his previous understanding of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. The story he¡¯d heard was that eight ns rebelled and stripped away the bloodline power of the royal n. After, there was no more Violet and Cyan. Instead, there were the eight ns of the Violet Lands. [2]

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression caused Master Seventh to grin.

    ¡°I¡¯m not talking about the Violet and Cyan from South Phoenix,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m talking about the real Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, which existed after Dark Serenity, and most likely conquered all of Revered Ancient. Unfortunately, it would be easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn than to find people who know about such history. Whether intentionally or not, all the species in the world, including humans, have erased that history from their records.

    ¡°As for the eight ns of the Violet Lands, what they overthrew was nothing more than an enfeebled remnant of Violet and Cyan, which by that time was a tiny kingdom of little note.¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath.

    ¡°That said,¡± Master Seventh continued, ¡°it was an interesting coincidence that the spectacr crown prince of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan actually did die in battle on the continent of South Phoenix. Eventually, a city was built on the spot where he died. However, ten years ago when the god¡¯s eyes opened, that city vanished.

    ¡°Some people im the ce was cursed by the crown prince. That said, there¡¯s another story about this crown prince of Violet and Cyan. Supposedly, he had a cold personality, and could even be described as evil!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at nothing and didn''t speak. Eventually, they reached the daoist temple. The entire area was devastated thanks to the fighting that had taken ce. Xu Qing looked over at Master Seventh.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t someone mention that youck divine abilities and magical techniques?¡± Master Seventh said. He smacked Xu Qing gently on the head. ¡°Go seek enlightenment. And hurry up, I still have a game of Go to y.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped. The ¡®someone¡¯ Master Seventh had just mentioned was obviously Master Shengyun. Nodding, Xu Qing walked into the daoist temple and sat down cross-legged in front of the statue there. He stared at it for a while, then stood up and looked back at Master Seventh.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Master Seventh asked.

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then said, ¡°You can¡¯t get enlightenment during the day. You need moonlight.¡±

    Master Seventh muttered something that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t quite make out, then waved his hand. Instantly, dark clouds spread out over the sky above the temple, blocking out the sunlight, and casting the temple and everything around it into utter darkness. Then, a rotating mirror appeared in the dark clouds above. Unexpectedly, moonlight spilled out of the mirror, falling down from the sky and onto the divine likeness in the temple. Almost immediately, the image of a saber appeared.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts were in chaos because of what Master Seventh had just done. He had seen Master Sixth in action, and hadn¡¯t got the sense that he could simply wave his hand to transpose the sun and moon. And that got Xu Qing thinking about the traditions of the Seventh Peak.

    I bet Master Seventh is above the Nascent Soul level!

    However, Xu Qing knew time was of the essence, so he stowed such thoughts and concentrated on the image of the saber. As he did, a violet heavenly saber took form above his own head. He began seeking enlightenment.

    As he did, Master Seventh stood outside looking at the surrounding wreckage.

    He really doesck divine abilities and magical techniques.... And he¡¯s got a lot of really random assets. He has a lot to learn about the art of fighting, but given how young he is, he¡¯s not bad at all.

    In that manner, time passed.

    ***

    Out on the Forbidden Sea, sword light filled the sky.

    Numerous streams of sword energy sped toward Seven Blood Eyes, and in the middle of them all was the enraged Patriarch Soaring Cloud. Behind him were numerous disciples from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, and all of them pulsed with killing intent.

    ***

    In Forbidden by the Phoenix, things were quiet and peaceful.

    Night hade.

    Xu Qing was focused on seeking enlightenment. The moonlight Master Seventh had provided became even more brilliant at nighttime, and that made the image of the sword even clearer.

    Xu Qing¡¯s speed of enlightenment was astonishing, and the violet saber above his head grew solid faster and faster. It had previously been only ten percent corporeal, but soon that number climbed to fifty percent. Then sixty percent. Then seventy....

    The night passed and dawn neared. Just as sunlight drove away the darkness, a tremor passed through Xu Qing, and an incisive aura spread out from him in all directions. The violet saber above his head was nowpletely solid. No longer was it illusory. It was a true heavenly saber, radiating a terrifying sharpness.

    What was more, the extended period of rest, as well as the moonlight provided by Master Seventh, ensured that Xu Qing¡¯s wounds had all healed up. His missing fingers had grown back, and his aura was now at an all-time peak. As he stood, six-me battle prowess surged around him, causing winds to scream into a vortex.

    Master Seventh looked at him with approval in his eyes. ¡°Even outsiders know the truth. You don¡¯t have to be deceptive around me.¡±

    Without a word, Xu Qing allowed two halos of light to appear above his head. One was made of ck fire, the other radiated seven colors. Two umbres cast radiant light in all directions. Dawn had brought light, but Xu Qing was even brighter.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Given the time, I¡¯d say we can expect some visitors soon.¡± He flicked his sleeve, and the space around them transformed. It was like thick mists had suddenly sprang up around them, swirling about and causing everything around them to sway.

    Yet again, Xu Qing was struck by the level of Master Seventh¡¯s cultivation base. Only a momentter, everything around them went back to normal. Now, they weren¡¯t in Forbidden by the Phoenix anymore, but instead, were in a building at the summit of the Seventh Peak.

    The sea breeze blew, bringing with it a familiar humidity. The mor of the capital city drifted up with the breeze, the sound of innumerable people talking, shouting, engaged in business, all of it mixing together into a faint thrum. Feeling a bit dazzled, Xu Qing looked around. In addition to Master Seventh, there was another familiar face present.

    It was a middle-aged man in a gray robe, with a smile on his face. He had a Go piece held between his fingers. Xu Qing knew this man. He was the very same person who had given him that identity medallion back in the scavenger basecamp. [3]

    ¡°Master Seventh,¡± the servant said, sping hands respectfully in greeting. Then he looked at Xu Qing and nodded.

    ¡°Are the visitors here yet?¡± Master Seventh asked, looking down at the Go board. He ced the piece onto the board.

    ¡°They¡¯ll arrive soon,¡± the servant responded.

    ¡°Alright. Take the Kid to be bathed. He went and got himself all dirty.¡± Master Seventh flicked his sleeve and walked out.

    When Xu Qing heard Master Seventh call him ¡®the Kid,¡¯ it further confirmed his theories and spections.

    ¡°Kid,e with me,¡± the servant said. ¡°Let¡¯s get you cleaned up. Today¡¯s a big day for you, but it¡¯s also a big day for Master Seventh and Seven Blood Eyes.¡± With that, the servant offered Xu Qing a jade slip. ¡°After you bathe, you¡¯ll step out of the grand hall and walk up the stairs. As you do, look at the images in that jade slip.¡±

    Xu Qing took the jade slip, then sped hands respectfully and followed the servant. After thoroughly bathing, he put on a new daoist robe. That was when the handmaidens arrived with special incense.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t used to this sort of thing, but he didn¡¯t send them away.

    As a couple of the handmaidens stepped behind him and bound his hair into a topknot, the Captain peeked through the doorway and winked at Xu Qing. Next, the chambein arrived, carrying a violet daoist crown in both hands. The crown radiated light, and looked absolutely exquisite. It exuded terrifying pressure, and featured the image of a mutant beast. Looking closely, it was a nine-headed snake, the same type of fantastic creature that had appeared toward the end of the fighting with the Merfolk. If you looked at the image for long enough, you would be able to hear that fantastic creature howling! [4] [5]

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered as he watched the chambein put the crown on Xu Qing¡¯s head. ¡°Well, shoot. It¡¯s the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown, with half the soul of a Nascent Soul beast sealed inside. The old man is really being prejudiced here! I¡¯ve asked for that thing a bunch of times and he never once gave it to me!"

    Xu Qing now wore a violet daoist robe embroidered with gold. He had the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown on his head, and the faint image of an umbre stretched above him. All of that, coupled with his incredible good looks, made him seem absolutely extraordinary, and beyond anything you would expect to see in the mortal world.

    The handmaidens all looked at him with glittering eyes.

    Just as the Captain was about to say something, a stern voice spoke from outside.

    ¡°The dao is void, shapeless and nameless; without scriptures, one cannot grasp the dao; the dao exists in scripture, serene and hidden, subtle and delicate. Without a teacher, one cannot understand its truths.

    ¡°Today, a child from the Seventh Peak named Xu Qing will be taught of the dao, and pay formal respects to his sect ancestor!¡±

    The voice echoed from the Seventh Peak to fill the heavens.

    1. Master Seventh noted Xu Qing changing clothes way back in chapter 10. ?

    2. Xu Qing heard the story of the Violet Lands history in chapter 210. ?

    3. The servant gave him the medallion in chapter 30. ?

    4. The daoist crown would normally be put over the topknot and then secured with a hairpin. Here is a cool picture of a real-life daoist crown. ?

    5. The nine-headed snakes appeared in chapter 127. ?

 Chapter 263: Apprenticeship Ceremony

    <h4>Chapter 263: Apprenticeship Ceremony</h4>

    The voice was consummately solemn and respectful, and contained wording notmonly encountered in everyday speech. It was like an ode, uttered loudly in all heaven and earth! The words carried a sense of antiquity and beauty. For instance, the term ¡®pay formal respects.¡¯ It was like a rite, in which formal respects were paid to the terrestrial and the celestial!

    Even the Captain suddenly looked unprecedentedly serious. On this day, he didn¡¯t wear his usual gray daoist robe. Instead, he had the same type of robe Xu Qing wore, violet, with golden embroidery. At a nce, it was obvious that the robes were those of the Seventh Peak, but at the same time, they were nothing like the ordinary robes.

    As the Captain stood in the doorway looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, as the grand highness, it is my pleasure and honor to serve as your chief attendant today. Come with me.¡±

    The Captain never talked like this; the words he spoke matched his serious expression. sping his hands one atop the other, he bowed deeply at the waist in a very formal dao prostration.

    Xu Qing could sense the solemnity, and knew something very important was about to happen. Straightening his garments, he returned the Captain¡¯s bow and then walked to the door. It only took three steps to walk outside, and once he was there, his heart skipped a beat. The grand hall he had been in was at the very summit of the Seventh Peak. Astonishingly, a huge octagonal daoist altar spread out in front of him. Crafted from green te tiles, it pulsed with a godly resonance, and featured a statue at the far end.

    That statue depicted a middle-aged man with his hands sped behind his back, staring off into the distance. His face wasn¡¯t visible, but he wore an imperial robe embroidered with an ancestral dragon, and his hair was bound with an azure imperial crown. Nine imperial umbres hovered over his head, he pulsed with draconic energy, and was like a general who could topple all under heaven and consume mountains and rivers.

    The fact that a mere statue contained such a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering energy caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict. However, he quickly settled his thoughts and looked around.

    There were over a thousand Seven Blood Eyes disciples gathered around the daoist altar. There were men and women, young and old. Though all wore the same type of violet daoist robe, few seemed ustomed to such finery. All were very solemn and respectful.

    Leading up from the daoist altar was a staircase of white stone with a dragon motif and ny steps. At its top was a grand hall that glowed with violet light. It was... the highest location on the Seventh Peak.

    .

    Clouds swirled above in the dome of heaven, and within them was the dreadnaught dracolizard. It caused the clouds to seethe and sent bolts of lightning crashing left and right. It was possible to see six figures within those clouds, almost like statues. Among them were men and women, and it only took a moment for Xu Qing to realize that they were the peaklords. Master Sixth was in their number. All of them were looking down at Xu Qing. As for Master Sixth, he had an encouraging look in his eyes.

    After seeing all this, Xu Qing started to feel a bit nervous. Then he looked a bit further up and saw that, above the clouds was a blood-colored figure that seemed almost like a deity. It was the patriarch of Seven Blood Eyes, Sir Bloodsmelter.

    All of these people were here to observe the ceremony!

    The Captain stood next to Xu Qing, staring straight ahead at the statue. Raising his voice, he spoke in a very solemn tone as he announced, ¡°Seventh Peak disciple Xu Qing, this statue depicts the source of the Seventh Peak¡¯s core teachings and doctrines. It is Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. He was thest human emperor to conquer the Revered Ancient. Now, you will pay him your respects! Let the ceremony begin!¡±

    Xu Qing ducked his head, sped hands, and bowed very deeply to the statue of the Ancient Emperor. Off to the side, the Captain, as well as all of the Seventh Peak disciples who hade to observe the statue, also sped hands and bowed.

    Their unified action created a profound and moving scene.

    After the bowing, the atmosphere seemed even more dramatic. Xu Qing, his expression more serious than ever, followed the Captain across the daoist altar to the staircase.

    Stopping there, the Captain spoke in a voice that was almost like a chant, ¡°We who practice cultivation follow a path that defies heaven. We gaze upon the ancient world and observe the nine heavens and ten earths. Thus, our Seventh Peak has crafted these ny stairs of white stone. Climb the stairs to offer proof to the nine heavens. Reach the summit to swear your oath to the ten earths! Xu Qing, begin your ascent!¡±

    With utmost solemnity, Xu Qing walked forward and put his foot on the first step. The moment it touched the white stone, bells tolled in the Seventh Peak.

    BOOM!

    The sound of it caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth.

    At the same time, a jade slip flew out of Xu Qing¡¯s garment. It was the slip the servant had given him. As it floated in front of him, it radiated dazzling light, as if it were lighting his path. Within that glowing light were images that shone directly into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    He saw the beast arena in the scavenger basecamp, and the dirty young man in the animal skin jerkin dragging a huge snake away. Sitting off to the side were two people that no one could see. One was Master Seventh, the other was the servant. They were watching Xu Qing. Then Master Seventh spoke in a somewhat excited voice.

    <i>¡°What an interesting young man.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes widened. That young man in the beast arena was him. And at longst, he understood why he ended up in Seven Blood Eyes. He was so shaken that he didn¡¯t even notice that he had already ascended eight steps. When he reached the ninth, the Seventh Peak bells tolled deafeningly again a second time.

    Meanwhile, the dazzling light in the jade slip sent a second image into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    He saw a young man squatting in a dark alley. Then, a skinny scavenger walked past. The young man jumped out, mped his hand over the scavenger¡¯s mouth, and slit his throat. Also within that image was Master Seventh on a nearby rooftop, a look of admiration on his face.

    <i>¡°An interesting young man indeed.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing breathed deeply as he finally came to understand everything. The bells tolled a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time. With each tolling of the bells, he walked up nine steps. By the sixth bell toll, he was at the fifty-fourth step. Each toll of the bells was louder than the previous, and with each one came a new image.

    In the third image, Master Seventh wondered why he had changed out of his new clothing. The fourth image showed him killing Fatmountain, then stumbling away in the moonlight, wracked with poison. On the rooftop, Master Seventh smiled. Grandmaster Bai appeared in the fifth image. Master Seventh was walking out of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s tent when he stopped and looked back.

    <i>¡°Grandmaster Bai, if you really think the boy has potential, then teach him some more. Give him a chance. Maybe he can get to Seven Blood Eyes as an academic with a cultivation base.¡±</i>

    The sixth image was after Sergeant Thunder, Grandmaster Bai, and the little girl had left. Xu Qing was alone in the darkness of his room, and Master Seventh was outside.

    <i>¡°Give him the identity medallion.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing was trembling. He had long spected about these things, and now he knew all the details. Looking up toward the top of the mountain peak, he walked past the sixty-third step. The bell tolled a seventh time. Then an eighth and a ninth. As the sound of the bells rang, Xu Qing saw a seventh image.

    It was back when he first arrived at Seven Blood Eyes. Sitting on his dharmaboat one night as it bobbed in the harbor, he took out a jug of alcohol and drank to his parents, to Sergeant Thunder, and to his birthday. The eighth image depicted him being chased by Seazombies. The ninth was his fight with Master Shengyun at the daoist temple.

    Emotions swept through Xu Qing as the light of the jade slip faded. He put the jade slip back in his robe as he reached the nieth and final step. In front of him was a spectacr hall glowing with violet light. Seated inside was Master Seventh, who was looking at him.

    Next to Master Seventh were Second Highness and Third Highness.

    Master Seventh was dressed far more formally than usual. He wore a violet robe with swirling clouds on it. His hair was bound in a daoist crown decorated with nine four-wed dragons that were as blue as the sky. His eyes glittered like lightning, and even just sitting there, he was boundlessly majestic.

    ¡°Xu Qing.¡±

    The person to speak wasn¡¯t Master Seventh, but instead, the Captain, who was still by Xu Qing¡¯s side.

    ¡°You have proven yourself to the nine heavens and sworn your oath to the ten earths, thus showing your respect to the world. Now, the time hase to turn and pay respects thrice! Let the ceremony continue!¡±

    As the Captain¡¯s words continued to echo, Xu Qing turned atop the nieth stair and bowed three times to heaven and earth!

    After he straightened up, the Captain and all the surrounding disciples also bowed thrice to heaven and earth!

    There was deep meaning in everything that was happening. Every part of the ceremony had significance. It was a chaotic world, and cultivators usually lived simple lives. They put themselves first. But there were two things in which there had to be a level of ceremony: ancestral sacrifices and apprenticeship formalities.

    The Captain continued to speak in a voice that echoed through heaven and shook the earth. ¡°The dao is void; without scriptures, one cannot grasp the dao; the dao exists in scripture. Without a teacher, one cannot understand its truths.

    ¡°Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity is the great founder. All humans owe him a single bow of respect.

    ¡°Heaven, earth, celestial, terrestrial. They bear the weight of all. All humans owe them three bows of respect.

    ¡°And yet, however amazing the Ancient Emperor was, he did not show you favor. Heaven and earth, and all other living beings in this sea of suffering, have done nothing to save you. Only Master will ascend to heaven and descend to hell for you. Only he will show you favor. Only he will save you. Only he will expend all effort so that you can walk a great dao. Therefore, you owe him nine bows of respect!¡±

    Turning, Xu Qing bowed to Master Seventh nine times! One bow for the Ancient Emperor. Three bows for heaven and earth. Nine bows for the Master. As for the nine bows, only the Captain and Xu Qing participated. The host of other disciples simply averted their gazes. They didn¡¯t qualify to join. After the nine bows, the Captain produced a violet tea cup that he offered to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took it and walked into the violet hall.

    ¡°Offer the tea of gratitude!¡±

    Bowing his head, Xu Qing took three steps forward and held up the cup of tea with both hands.

    At almost exactly the same moment as he did that, a wind kicked up in the dome of heaven. Off in the distance, a towering sword energy pierced through the sky, bringing with it a blood-colored light that seemed like a giant hand rushing toward Seven Blood Eyes. The Soaring Cloud Sword Sect hade to inflict violent punishment! A voice spoke from within that sea of blood and sword energy. Thrumming with killing intent, it filled all of Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter, hand that cretin Xu Qing over to me this instant!¡±

 Chapter 264: If You Donâ€™t Leave Me, I Wonâ€™t Forsake You

    <h4>Chapter 264: If You Don¡¯t Leave Me, I Won¡¯t Forsake You</h4>

    Outside Seven Blood Eyes, killing intent roiled high into the sky.

    Inside Seven Blood Eyes the attitude was somber and respectful. Up above, the various peaklords all had tranquil expressions on their faces.

    Xu Qing heard the enraged shout from beyond the spell formation, but he didn¡¯t look over his shoulder. He kept his head bowed and held the cup of tea up in front of him.

    Master Seventh also ignored what was happening outside. It was as if he didn¡¯t care at all, and was only concerned about his new apprentice, who was still in the middle of the apprenticeship ceremony. He waved his hand, and the teacup in Xu Qing¡¯s hands flew over to him. However, Master Seventh didn¡¯t drink. He simply put it on the table next to him. It was the ¡®tea of gratitude,¡¯ which was not to be consumed.

    Meanwhile, Second Highness and Third Highness stood off to the side, looking very respectful. However, at one point, Third Highness caught Xu Qing¡¯s eye and winked.

    ¡°Offer the tea of the past!¡± the Captain said. He handed Xu Qing a second cup of tea, and Xu Qing took three steps forward and held it up in front of him. At the same time, shouting could be heard outside the sect.

    As the furious cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect arrived, they didn¡¯t slow down at all. Instead, they unleashed raging sword energy, creating dazzling beams of blinding light that shot right toward Seven Blood Eyes.

    The Seven Blood Eyes Formation activated and blocked the millions upon millions of streams of sword energy, and massive booms rang out, shaking the seven mountain peaks. Apparently, something about the spell formation was different than before. It seemed to be rejecting the authority of the Seven Sect Coalition, and treating the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect as an enemy.

    The peaklords ignored what was happening, and thanks to their cid expressions, the disciples from the other peaks remained calm, and focused on the ceremony taking ce on the Seventh Peak.

    Within the violet temple, Master Seventh continued to ignore what was happening outside. Waving his hand, he took the second cup of tea from Xu Qing. This was called the ¡®tea of the past,¡¯ and by taking a sip, it would indicate that the Master was willing to ept a new apprentice. Master Seventh held it up, put it to his lips and drank, then set it down on the table.

    ¡°Offer the tea of faith!¡± the Captain said, and he gave Xu Qing a third cup.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing took three steps forward, knelt, and held the cup up.

    Intense booms rang out from the formation, like heavenly thunder. A 30,000-meter blood-colored stream of sword energy mmed into the Seven Blood Eyes Formation. At this point, the formation couldn¡¯t stand up to the force, and it shattered.

    Then the sword energy turned into an old man in a golden robe. As he appeared above Seven Blood Eyes, the countless streams of sword light behind him resolved into the forms of Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciples. Every single one pulsed with killing intent. Every single one seemed arrogant and domineering.

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter, you....¡± The old man who had smashed the formation was none other than Patriarch Soaring Cloud. As he spoke, he sent his divine will streaming through the sect, which was when he caught sight of Xu Qing offering a cup of tea to Master Seventh atop the summit of the Seventh Peak. His words trailed off. He had lived for many years, and was the patriarch of an entire sect. He knew exactly what he was looking at.

    ¡°You¡¯re epting an apprentice?¡± The killing intent in his eyes was as cold as ice, as though everyone he was looking at was already dead. ¡°You injured my grandson, stole my sect¡¯s lifemp, and now you¡¯re holding an apprenticeship ceremony! Sir Bloodsmelter. I am very, very curious what gives you the courage to do something like this!¡±

    Smiling enigmatically, Sir Bloodsmelter replied, ¡°If there¡¯s something you¡¯d like to talk about, Soaring Cloud, please wait until after my son-inw finishes epting his new apprentice.¡±

    The six peaklords in the clouds didn¡¯t look rmed at all by what was happening.

    Seeing that, Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s pupils constricted, and his heart sank. The feeling he was getting from Seven Blood Eyes waspletely different than anything in the past!

    Inside the violet hall, Master Seventh wasn¡¯t paying attention to the drama outside.

    Xu Qing knelt and offered the third cup of tea. All eyes in the sect were on him.

    As the killing intent raged outside, Master Seventh calmly said, ¡°Let¡¯s forget about the ceremony for a moment, Kid. I want to ask you a simple question, and I¡¯d like your sincere answer. Deep in your heart, do you really want to be my apprentice?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up into Master Seventh¡¯s eyes, and quietly answered, ¡°Yes, Master.¡±

    Master Seventh smiled broadly. ¡°Good, my apprentice. If you don¡¯t leave me, I won¡¯t forsake you!¡±

    With that, he put his index finger and thumb into the tea, then flicked his fingers. As the tea sprayed out, the ceremony of apprenticeship waspleted! Bells tolled inside Seven Blood Eyes. But this time, the bells weren¡¯t just those from the Seventh Peak. The bells on all seven of the mountain peaks tolled, shaking everything.

    ¡°As of today, we have a Fourth Sib,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°It¡¯s truly a happy asion. Now, let¡¯s go outside and see what that moring is about. Apparently, someone has the gall to talk about taking away my apprentice.¡±

    In response to those words, Patriarch Soaring Cloud let loose an enragedugh. As he did, a middle-aged cultivator next to him stepped forward, his expression very unsightly. In appearance, he looked very much like Master Shengyun. Turning into a blood-colored sword, he shot with incredible speed toward the violet hall on the Seventh Peak. As he moved, he pulsed with the fluctuations of a Nascent Soul cultivation base. Though those fluctuations surpassed those of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, they obviously weren¡¯t at the peak of that level.

    In the blink of an eye, that blood sword reached the violet hall, and was about to pierce inside of it. However, that was when Master Seventh chuckled and stood. Taking a single step, he emerged from the hall, then casually waved his hand in the direction of the sword.

    The blood sword instantly shattered, and a bloodcurdling shriek echoed out from within. The middle-aged Nascent Soul cultivator was sent spinning off to the side like a kite with its string cut. Virtually every part of his body then exploded, turning into chunky, bloody mist that spread out into the air.

    Only his nascent soul survived. Flying out in rm, he looked in terror at the violet hall, where Xu Qing, the Captain, Second Highness, and Third Highness... walked out into the open with Master Seventh.

    The Nascent Soul cultivator that Master Seventh had so casually shredded to pieces had a very high rank in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. In fact, he was one of their grand elders. He was also the only son of Patriarch Soaring Cloud, and Master Shengyun¡¯s father. That was why he had charged in with such rage. But now he was in an incredibly pitiful state. In fact, his nascent soul was dull and dark, as though it might copse at any moment. He was astonished down to the core of his being. He knew without a doubt what kind of cultivation base was required to shatter his body with the wave of a hand. What was more... it obviously hadn¡¯t been a killing blow, otherwise it wouldn¡¯t have been so easy for him to escape in nascent soul form.

    ¡°You¡¯re not in Nascent Soul, you¡¯re in Spirit Trove!!¡± blurted Master Shengyun¡¯s father. As he backed away, the disciples of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect were visibly shaken.

    Only Patriarch Soaring Cloud didn¡¯t have a physical reaction. Looking closely at Master Seventh, he said, ¡°How very deceptive of you. Not even I noticed. And you¡¯re no ordinary Spirit Trove cultivator. You already have three secret troves! Even still, that¡¯s not enough. What else do you have, Sir Bloodsmelter? Put it all out in the open.¡±

    Master Seventh said nothing. Smiling, he stood outside of the violet hall and looked up at Sir Bloodsmelter.

    Sir Bloodsmelter looked back down, his eyes full of praise. Then he looked at Patriarch Soaring Cloud, and his eyes glittered with malice. ¡°Let¡¯s fight a bit before I do that!¡±

    All of a sudden, Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s gaze turned into a host of blood-red lines that shot toward Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud snorted coldly and waved his hand, sending sword energy raging toward Sir Bloodsmelter. When they shed, wild colors shed, and rifts spread out in the sky. As they rose higher and higher, booms rang out like heavenly thunder. At the same time, the dracolizard in the clouds roared at the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciples, and the six peaklords released the fluctuations of their cultivation bases, causing everything to shake violently.

    That, coupled with the image of Master Seventh standing with his hands sped behind his back atop the Seventh Peak, took a lot of air out of these disciples who had supposedlye to inflict violent punishment on Seven Blood Eyes. Among the group were some Nascent Soul cultivators, except now their skin was crawling as they looked fearfully at Master Seventh.

    The difference between Nascent Soul and Spirit Trove was like the difference between one-me power and six-me power. If Master Seventh wanted to, he could wipe them out of existence, and none of them would even have a chance to flee. That difference made all the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciples nervous. After all, though the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect did have a Spirit Trove cultivator, it was their sect leader. And since the patriarch had led this expedition, the sect leader had remained behind to watch over the sect.

    Never could any of them have guessed that Seven Blood Eyes wouldn¡¯t just have a Void Returning patriarch. They also had someone stronger than the Nascent Soul. A Spirit Trove expert!

    It wasn¡¯t just the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect disciples who were shaken. The disciples of Seven Blood Eyes were also astonished. That said, when they thought about the traditions of the Seventh Peak, they realized that this development wasn¡¯t that unusual after all. The peaklords had known all along, so they weren¡¯t surprised. As for the disciples gathered on the daoist altar, including Xu Qing and the other apprentices, they exchanged awkward nces.

    ¡°I have the feeling the old man is still being deceptive about something,¡± Third Elder Brother murmured.

    The Captain chuckled. ¡°He is, Third Sib. Believe it!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and then Third Elder Brother. Off to the side, Second Elder Sister had a jade slip that she was using to send voice messages to someone, excitedly exining what was happening. [1]

    Grinning, Third Elder Brother looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°What did I tell you, little Junior Brother? The first time Iid eyes on you I knew we were connected by destiny. And wouldn¡¯t you know it, I barely had time to snap my fingers, and here you are my Junior Brother. Although, I do admit I¡¯m surprised you took down Master Shengyun. When the Seven Sect Coalition started throwing challenges around, the grand highnesses from the other peaks threw most of their matches. The only exception was the First Peak.¡±

    1. Now that Xu Qing¡¯s status has changed, Third Highness and Second Highness will be referred to as Third Elder Brother and Second Elder Sister. ??

 Chapter 265: The Birth of a Taboo!

    Chapter 265: The Birth of a Taboo!

    Smiling, Third Elder Brother continued, ¡°That¡¯s another reason why I sent my beloved mermaid girlfriend to her ancestors right in front of you.¡±

    Off to the side, the Captain smiled enigmatically. He knew that Third Sib wasn¡¯t the kind of person who wasted words. The reason he was saying all this was in the hopes of warming Xu Qing up to him.

    Xu Qing looked at Third Elder Brother and thought back to that time in the harbor when he gently crushed the mermaid¡¯s head. Back then, he¡¯d been struck with how dangerous Third Elder Brother seemed. Even now, that sense of danger still remained. [1]

    But if I had to fight him to the death, I¡¯d probably survive. With those thoughts on his mind, he sped hands and bowed.

    Still smiling, Third Elder Brother took out a stack of spirit notes and offered them to Xu Qing. ¡°Here, take this. A gift to mark this day. Back at Sealizard Ind, you weren¡¯t my Junior Brother, so I messed with you a bit. I hope you don¡¯t mind. I guess I owe you for that.¡±

    Xu Qing nced at Third Elder Brother. He clearly remembered how there had been an aura that locked onto him when he fled Sealizard Ind. He had never identified who it was that was chasing him, butter on he¡¯d suspected it had something to do with Third Elder Brother. [2]

    He was actually surprised that Third Elder Brother had just admitted the truth so casually. He looked down at the spirit notes and realized that they were worth 500,000 spirit stones. That was certainly appropriate for a show of good faith. Nodding, he epted them.

    Third Elder Brother breathed a sigh of relief when Xu Qing epted the spirit notes. He enjoyed how things were on the Seventh Peak, and wanted to keep things as they were. What was more, he got the feeling that this new Junior Brother Xu Qing was the kind of person who would hold a grudge for life, and wouldn¡¯t rest until his enemies were dead. That was not the kind of person Third Elder Brother wanted to provoke. He was about to say something further when a roar of rage echoed through the sky, so loud that even the deaf could hear it. Lands shook and mountains rocked as shockwaves rolled out in all directions.

    ¡°Are you looking to die, Sir Bloodsmelter?¡±

    Everyone looked up.

    Sword energy swept through the sky as if to slice apart the dome of heaven. Numerous sword projections flew about with destructive force. Just looking at it all, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes stung. What was more, he also saw a very familiar withered hand appear. It was like the hand of a deity, filled with terrifying godliness, sending out fluctuations that transformed magicalws. As a result, numerous indistinct figures appeared around the hand, as if generations of sages and saints had been summoned to bless it. It seemed capable of plucking stars out of the sky, of destroying heaven and earth. Energy surged into the clouds as the hand stretched out.

    The air shattered, turning into a raging sea of blood, and the indistinct figures around the hand started chanting. Immense pressure began to build up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Meanwhile, the blood-red streams that Sir Bloodsmelter had produced were equally shocking. Each was like an undying devil. As the sages and saints descended and the sea of swords weighed down, those ferocious devils stood strong. Cacklingughter rang out as the blood-red streams swept about viciously, like snakes of blood. Wherever they passed, sword energy copsed, and sword projections shattered. Finally, they transformed into the vicious head of a draconic snake that attacked the withered hand.

    Heaven and earth trembled, and thunderous booms rang out as the hand copsed. Patriarch Soaring Cloud shot backward in the face of the gigantic blood-colored snake head. Then, that head transformed back into Sir Bloodsmelter, his eyes burning with killing intent. Laughing, he said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud, you¡¯re only a thousand years older than me.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re from a subsidiary sect, and you will be crushed, Sir Bloodsmelter! This is yourst chance. Hand over Xu Qing and return our lifemp. Follow the orders from the Seven Sect Coalition. If you do, then things can go back to normal, and Seven Blood Eyes can manage your own affairs without much interference from the coalition!¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he performed a right-handed incantation gesture then pointed out in front of him. Instantly, a sea of blood trembled in the sky, and it was barely possible to see the image of a huge blood tree inside of it.

    This was the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure. Though it wasn¡¯t the real thing, only a projection, it was still incredibly powerful.

    ¡°Without much interference?¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said. Heughed. ¡°For thousands of years, my sect has paid a sixty percent yearly tithe to the coalition. You conscript all of our top chosen disciples. You force them to either surrender and pay allegiance, or be sent on dangerous missions that lead to certain death.

    ¡°Our sect techniques are throwaways from the coalition, and they all contain fatal ws. If we somehow acquire new techniques, you take them away!

    ¡°You can override our sect¡¯s grand spell formation any time you wish. If our peaklords do something you don¡¯t like, you force them to ept assignments on the maind, where they disappear, perhaps into death.¡±

    As Sir Bloodsmelter spoke, the disciples of the seven mountain peaks listened anxiously, their gazes growing sharper and sharper.

    As for Patriarch Soaring Cloud, he frowned in response. ¡°When drinking water, don¡¯t forget who dug the well! Seven Blood Eyes was founded by coalition disciples and coalition funds. That¡¯s the only reason your sect was able to grow. What, now you want to just be free? Now you want to forget favors and vite justice?¡±

    Hearing this, Sir Bloodsmelter smiled broadly, though it was a smile that contained incredulity.

    ¡°Favors? Let¡¯s talk about favors. 3,000 years ago, the battle in Forbidden by the Zombie. 2,700 years ago, the War of Soulstream. 2,000 years ago, the battle with the Cloudpeople. 1,700 years ago, the big war with the Heartsouls.... To this day, Seven Blood Eyes has fought more than six hundred battles and wars for your Seven Sect Coalition!

    ¡°There have been countless deaths. Our bones litter thends! We give the wounded disciples medicinal pills, and the dead disciples burials. But have we ever askedpensation from the Seven Sect Coalition for that? Every time our sect is about to prosper, wares, and we decline. And whatever gains made from the war are meager!

    ¡°Over the past several thousand years, this sect has been brought to the brink of destruction seventy-nine times. Did your Seven Sect Coalition ever help us out on such asions? Sessive generations of patriarchs have requested aid. In fact, our third generation patriarch literally kowtowed to you and pleaded for help. Did you ever once pay attention?

    ¡°Every single time, the patriarchs of Seven Blood Eyes have to be cautious and conscientious. They lick their wounds and work hard to recover from the losses of war. Then, once things are starting to go well again, your coalition starts conscripting our best disciples again!

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that the lives of Seven Blood Eyes aren¡¯t worth anything! Do they exist just to die for you while you sit back and rx, Soaring Cloud? I, Sir Bloodsmelter, am asking this question to the Seven Sect Coalition. And I¡¯m asking it of all heaven and earth!

    ¡°Has Seven Blood Eyes repaid you well enough for these ¡®favors¡¯?

    ¡°Has Seven Blood Eyes wiped out the debt incurred by these ¡®favors¡¯?

    ¡°You bleed us dry, always citing the ¡®favor¡¯ of how you helped us get started, and then telling us we have to abide by things because we owe you. You sit there, high and mighty, and say that if we in Seven Blood Eyes don¡¯t die for you, that we¡¯re ¡®forgetting favors.¡¯ You say that if we don¡¯t pay our dues to you, that we¡¯re ¡®viting justice.¡¯

    ¡°Could it be that your ¡®favors¡¯ boil down to Seven Blood Eyes being enved to you for generation after generation? Will it just keep going like that until the epoch ends and the apocalypsees!?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s words rang out loud and clear, shaking all seven of the mountain peaks in Seven Blood Eyes.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s expression was grim. He was fully aware of the situation with Seven Blood Eyes. But in the end, profit determined one¡¯s position in life.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for speeches. People who forget favors alwayse up with plenty of excuses.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelterughed. ¡°Ah, what an impressive supervisory sect. How amazing you are to use ¡®favors¡¯ to enhance your own prestige and power. As it turns out, you are the ones who drink water, and forget who dug the well. Well, in that case, starting today... Seven Blood Eyes is going to be a supervisory sect!¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s eyes turned incredibly sharp. ¡°Your sect isn¡¯t worthy.¡±

    ¡°See what happens next before you decide.¡± Sir Bloodsmelter waved his right hand and pointed to the sky. ¡°Open the portal to the Seazombie ancestralnd!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, winds swept through the sky, and heaven and earth shook. At the same time, beyond Seastar Ind, the Merfolk Isles, and the various Seazombie fortified inds, was the Seazombie ancestralnd, which also trembled.

    Half of those ancestralnds had been ceded to Seven Blood Eyes. That was where the Seven Blood Eyes army still was, having not yet returned to the sect. That was where Seven Blood Eyes had built a huge teleportation portal to transport the zombie ancestor statues. In fact, those two statues had already been moved to the teleportation portal, and stood there tall and imposing. Now, the teleportation portal suddenly glowed with immense light. The clouds parted as if being dragged apart by invisible hands.

    As the light of teleportation glittered, intense rumbling sounds rolled out everywhere. The rumbling sounds didn¡¯te from the two zombie ancestor statues by the teleportation portal. Instead... they came from the sky as something was teleported in.

    Five beams of light became visible.

    They were so dazzling they were difficult to see. As they closed in, they attracted the attention of all the cultivators in the Seazombie ancestralnd. All of them were shaken, and looks of disbelief could be seen everywhere.

    And that was because, inside of those beams of light, astonishingly, were... five unfamiliar zombie ancestor statues! They were not from the nine statues that had originally existed with the Seazombies. They were different statues! The statues seemed incredibly ancient, as if they had seen many things from ancient times until now. They were covered with cracks, yet were obviously not made from ordinary stone. And it was only when in the Seazombiends that they would emit dazzling light. That was one of the marvelous properties of the Seazombie divine likenesses. They were only powerful in one specific location.

    When the five statues arrived, they mmed down, causing the earth to quake violently, and filling the Seazombiends with intense rumbling sounds.

    Now, it was possible to see that there were a total of fourteen zombie ancestor statues in the Seazombie ancestralnd. Seven were located in various parts of the ancestralnd, while the other seven were arrayed by the teleportation portal leading to Seven Blood Eyes.

    As the teleportation portal thrummed, the seven statues glowed brightly, then sent out powerful fluctuations. It was like they were seven massive power sources! At the same time, above each of the seven statues... seven blood-colored vortexes appeared. They were seven eyes! They were all closed, but as they appeared, they caused a violent tsunami to sweep out across the sea. All nonhumans, all sea beasts, and everything else trembled in absolute astonishment. And that was because... this was not the aura of an ordinary magical treasure. This was something approaching the level of a taboo treasure!

    As the matchlessly fierce aura became more intense, the air screamed above the closed eyes as something else appeared. It was an ancient bronze mirror, fully 30,000 meters in size! [3]

    It hovered vertically in the air, rotating slowly in a circle. It could face north to the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, south to Seven Blood Eyes, east to Forbidden by the Zombie, and west to the Sea of Endlessness. Everything was within its range!

    And wherever it pointed, people would feel struck down to their soul, and would shiver in terror! As the power sources that were the seven zombie ancestor statues fed into the mirror, it pulsed with a taboo aura. Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure had formed!

    1. The incident with the mermaid and Third Elder Brother was in chapter 98. ?

    2. There were clues in chapters 98 and 99 that pointed to Third Elder Brother being the person who chased Xu Qing after the Sealizard Ind incident. The actual chase part happened in chapter 93. ?

    3. Being a fantasy world, the mirror is likely very fancy and cool-looking. However, it¡¯s based on ancient Chinese bronze/copper mirrors, which were generally circr (but not always a perfect circle), with ornate designs on the back, with a highly polished metallic surface on the other side that served as the reflective part. This is the same style of mirror as the special mirror Meng Hao uses in . That said, there is no indication these mirrors are supposed to be connected, other than the fact that they are both mirrors and both made of bronze/copper.  with a few examples of what ancient Chinese mirrors looked like. ?

 Chapter 266: The Truth Revealed

    Chapter 266: The Truth Revealed

    In the blink of an eye, the Forbidden Sea was thrown into chaos. Everyone from the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was visibly stunned.

    The first to react was the group closest to the Seazombies, and that was the Seven Sect Coalition. Almost instantly, six immense figures appeared, projected above their headquarters. They included both men and women, and their faces were obscured. Only their eyes were visible, bright and radiant.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes....¡±

    ¡°They actually managed to create a taboo treasure.¡±

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter really is a man of rigorous schemes and deep foresight. He¡¯s not to be underestimated!¡±

    These six figures were patriarchs and matriarchs who were on the senate of the Seven Sect Coalition. As theymunicated with divine will, they rose high into the air. Then they began moving, taking steps forward before vanishing in the direction of the Seazombies. They appeared in the air over the Seazombie ancestralnd only a momentter. As the immense bronze mirror rotated, the terrifying power of a taboo treasure struck them to the core. When a magical treasure became a taboo treasure, it involved very unusual transformations. Gruish abilities would manifest, which would then determine the full extent and capabilities of the taboo treasure.

    ¡°Punishment.... I can¡¯t believe it! This thing has the power of capital punishment!¡±

    ¡°The Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure doesn¡¯t have the power to destroy a sect. Instead, it can do something even more unique. It can destroy an individual! Based on what I can sense, it has a destructive power that is¡­ absolutely terrifying!

    ¡°Once it locks onto someone, it has a ten percent chance of instantly detonating them! And because of the nature of that mirror, it can target people from a great distance!¡±

    ¡°Even though the sess rate is only ten percent, that¡¯s only for a single eye. This thing has seven eyes! For all intents and purposes, that means it has a seventy percent chance of seeding. Who would dare to take a chance against something like that?¡±

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter is in the first stage of Void Returning. With this taboo treasure and its ability to inflict capital punishment, he could definitely target someone in second stage Void Returning!¡±

    ¡°Second stage... that¡¯s the level the president of the Seven Sect Coalition is in.¡±

    The patriarchs and matriarchs of the Seven Sect Coalition fell into silence. Each had their own thoughts on the matter.

    A taboo treasure was the greatest threat a sect could unleash, and it wasn¡¯t something that just any sect could unleash. Of the 136 sects that made up the coalition, there were only seven that had taboo treasures. What was more, taboo treasures were things that other people couldn¡¯t just take away. They had spirit automatons, and could defend themselves. For example, if anyone attempted to take Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure, it was entirely possible that the treasure could be unleashed against them.

    Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure had other unique aspects. It was powered by seven zombie ancestor statues. Therefore, when any of its seven eyes opened, it would unleash terrifying power.

    After assessing the situation, the patriarchs and matriarchs of the coalition exchanged nces, then performed incantation gestures that instigated a long-distance teleportation. Then they vanished in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes.

    In a matter of moments, all of the various factions in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture on the Revered Ancient maind were using their own methods to observe what was happening above Seven Blood Eyes. And all of them realized... that the structure of the Seven Sect Coalition was going to change. By extension, that meant that the structure of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was also going to change.

    Storm clouds were on the horizon.

    All of the Seazombies in the Seazombie ancestralnd were trembling in despair. In contrast, the Seven Blood Eyes disciples who were stationed there all seemed incredibly excited.

    Of course, most astonished of all was the person currently having trouble breathing steadily, and that was... Patriarch Soaring Cloud, who hovered in the air above Seven Blood Eyes. Sweat had broken out on his forehead, and his eyes were narrowed. It was impossible for him to prevent his shock from showing on his face as he stared in the direction of the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    Although he couldn¡¯t actually see what was happening there, he could sense that something had locked onto him, and he knew that with a mere thought, Sir Bloodsmelter could bring deadly catastrophe to him. From the mere sensation of that force locking onto him, it was obvious that he was in an absolute crisis.

    Capital punishment... seven shots at capital punishment!

    Breathing unsteadily, he looked at Sir Bloodsmelter with bloodshot eyes.

    ¡°Now do you think Seven Blood Eyes is worthy to be a supervisory sect?¡± Sir Bloodsmelter asked coolly.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud opened his mouth to speak, but then realized he didn¡¯t know what to say. All of a sudden, it urred to him that everything Seven Blood Eyes had done was part of one unified strategy.

    It had only seemed that Seven Blood Eyes was targeting the Seazombies to absolutely destroy them. In reality, that wasn¡¯t their n at all.

    Seven Blood Eyes actually had two goals.

    The first had been to create a path to the Revered Ancient maind. Patriarch Soaring Cloud could envision that path in his mind. The starting point was Seven Blood Eyes. Second came the Merfolk Isles, third were the Seazombie fortified inds, and fourth was the Seazombie ancestralnd. The fourth location on the path was very close to the Seven Sect Coalition on the maind. That path was essentially a straight line from Seven Blood Eyes to the Seven Sect Coalition.

    However, Seven Blood Eyes'' strategy wasplex. They had attacked the Merfolk during the Seventh Peak¡¯s Grand Competition, all in order to draw out the Seazombies. Sir Bloodsmelter chose that moment for his breakthrough, in order to attack and injure the Seazombie patriarch.

    That was the main reason why the Seazombies were ultimately defeated.

    The next logical step was for them to attack the Seazombies, and slowly conquer their fortified inds before moving onto their ancestralnd. It was a clean operation, and during the entire time, Seven Blood Eyes didn¡¯t give any indication that they had the power to do anything beyond achieve this first goal of theirs.

    Of course, the Seven Sect Coalition had quickly realized what that first goal was.

    That was why they stepped in to prevent Seven Blood Eyes from taking over the Seazombie ancestralnd. The Seven Sect Coalition had taken advantage of the moment to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect and restore the flow of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. But that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t paying close attention to Seven Blood Eyes. Their action had been an act of shaking the mountain to frighten the tiger. In this case, the mountain was the Young Arbiter Sect and the tiger was Seven Blood Eyes. In that manner, they won a victory without expending much effort, and made sure that Seven Blood Eyes was put into ce.

    However, no one in the Seven Sect Coalition had even considered that Seven Blood Eyes actually had a second goal. And that second goal was cloaked in profound deception. In fact, it had been hidden so perfectly that, right now, Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s scalp tingled when he thought about it. Now he realized that Seven Blood Eyes had intentionally made their first goal obvious. And the reason was to prevent anyone from realizing what their second goal was.

    This was not Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s usual style.

    The second goal was to acquire the zombie ancestor divine likenesses, and then use them as a power source. By doing so, they could upgrade their sect¡¯s magical treasure to the point of bing a taboo treasure.

    The sess of the operation hinged on two premises. First, they needed a way to use the zombie ancestor statues as power sources. Second, they needed to locate several zombie ancestor statues that were floating around outside of the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    Clearly, Seven Blood Eyes had fulfilled both premises.

    Seven Blood Eyes had even calcted that the Seven Sect Coalition would interfere with their operation, and force them to end the war. All of their previous anger and defiance, as well as all their haggling, had been for a purpose. And that was... to make sure they could get the final two zombie ancestor statues they needed.

    Even after the negotiations wereplete, Seven Blood Eyes still showed restraint. Despite how the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s chosen came and issued dueling challenges, causing Seven Blood Eyes to lose a lot of face, they kept quiet and just waited for the spell formation construction to bepleted. Supposedly, that spell formation had been built to transport war reparations. It seemed like something any conquering force would do. But the reality was that it wasn¡¯t built to transport two statues to Seven Blood Eyes. It was built to transport five statues from Seven Blood Eyes.

    With that one teleportation, the number of statues around the formation reached a total of seven. What was more, upon being returned to the Seazombie ancestralnd, they awoke from their state of slumber.

    Gritting his teeth, Patriarch Soaring Cloud growled, ¡°So when our coalition disciples issued challenges to your disciples, you intentionally put on a weak front? All to trick us? In that case, what¡¯s your ultimate goal? You want to be an independent force on Revered Ancient?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter didn¡¯t answer the first question, as it wasn¡¯t important. He just smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m old. I want to enjoy a life of retirement on the maind. But at the same time, I hope to see a new seat added to the Seven Sect Coalition¡¯s senate.¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud didn¡¯t respond. He was incredibly frustrated and annoyed. His sect¡¯s lifemp had been taken, and his grandson had been seriously injured. However, those things were secondary to Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ sudden show of decisiveness and ambition.

    Seven Blood Eyes was very still and quiet. The ordinary disciples didn¡¯t know exactly what was going on, but they could sense that the atmosphere had changed. And when they heard their patriarch¡¯s words, their hearts started racing. They could guess what wasing.

    Xu Qing looked out at the sea. A moment ago, he had sensed something happening out there, and he could specte about what it was.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s what¡¯s going on here,¡± the Captain said quietly, but loud enough for his fellow apprentices to hear. ¡°The old man really is a cunning old fox. Now I get what the secret weapon is.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at him. So did Third Elder Brother. Second Elder Sister, on the other hand, was still sending voice messages.

    ¡°You really know what¡¯s going on, Eldest Brother?¡± asked Third Elder Brother. ¡°Is it a taboo treasure? Does Seven Blood Eyes finally have a taboo treasure?¡± Third Eldest Brother seemed hesitant about that assessment.

    As for Xu Qing, he kept his eyes on the Captain. He was also hesitant.

    The Captain sighed deeply. ¡°Something like this is worth about 1,000 spirit stones. Whoever wants to know, just pay up, and I¡¯ll tell you.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know squat!¡± Master Seventh said.

    Looking embarrassed, the Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°I worked a hundred years to n this thing for the patriarch,¡± Master Seventh continued. ¡°Step by step, we¡¯ve carried out the operation to this point.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for you four to specte about the details. I¡¯ll tell you. Out in the Seazombie ancestralnd, we created a taboo treasure that belongs to Seven Blood Eyes. It will be the eighth taboo treasure to exist in the Seven Sect Coalition. With it, we can control everything around us, and also ensure safe passage to the Revered Ancient maind.

    ¡°After this, the Seven Sect Coalition is going to have to change its name.¡± Looking back at his four apprentices, Master Seventh smiled. ¡°What do you think? Does ¡®Eight Sect Coalition¡¯ sound good? I think it does.¡±

    As the words left Master Seventh¡¯s mouth, the sky above shimmered as powerful auras suddenly spread out everywhere. Six god-like beings appeared in the dome of heaven around Sir Bloodsmelter and Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    These were the patriarchs and matriarchs from the senate of the Seven Sect Coalition.

    In almost the exact same instant that they arrived, an old woman walked out of Seven Blood Eyes and flew up into the air. Arriving next to Sir Bloodsmelter, she looked at the people from the Seven Sect Coalition and smiled.

    ¡°Hey everyone. Long time no see. I was napping earlier when I heard someone mention handing over Xu Qing. My granddaughter really likes that kid, and I¡¯m thinking of marrying them. If you kill him, my granddaughter wouldn¡¯t be very happy. And that means I wouldn¡¯t be happy either. I don¡¯t have much in my old age, but I do have my granddaughter. Therefore, if I¡¯m not happy, I¡¯ll make sure the lot of you are very unhappy!¡±

 Chapter 267: Eight Sect Coalition

    <h4>Chapter 267: Eight Sect Coalition</h4>

    The words spoken by Yanyan¡¯s grandmother echoed to fill the entire sect.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. The Captain and Third Elder Brother both looked at him. Second Elder Sister even stopped sending voice messages to do the same.

    Master Seventh looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing, a look of praise on his face. ¡°Well done. You¡¯re just like me back in the day.¡±

    Then he looked at his other three apprentices, frowning in frustration at how they continuously failed to live up to his expectations. That said, his gaze quickly omitted Second Sib, and focused mainly on Big Sib and Third Sib. After thinking about Third Sib for a moment, he ignored him and stared straight at the Captain.

    ¡°You could learn a thing or two from your Junior Brother!¡±

    ¡°If I looked like him, I¡¯d be doing fine!¡± the Captain said gloomily. ¡°Not even magical techniques can replicate little Ah Qing¡¯s face!¡±

    Far gloomier than the Captain, however, was Patriarch Soaring Cloud. As he hovered in the air above the sect, he red at Guru Easher, his expression immeasurably unsightly. It was bad enough that Sir Bloodsmelter was protecting the scum who had harmed the interests of his sect. But it waspletely unthinkable that Guru Easher, who had long ignored the outside world and never made alliances, was also doing the same thing.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud thought about how his grandson was injured, and might not even survive. He thought about the stolen lifemp, and he thought about how everything had gone wrongtely. Seven Blood Eyes now qualified to be a supervisory sect, and was clearly no weaker than any of the other top seven sects. All of it caused his eyes to bepletely bloodshot. He knew that he couldn¡¯t stop Seven Blood Eyes from bing a supervisory sect.

    After all, the Seven Sect Coalition was not run by any one particr sect. There were eight people on the senate: the president plus seven patriarchs and matriarchs. Although they hadmon interests, there was also friction between various members. Seven Blood Eyes was powerful, and now they had a taboo treasure. They didn¡¯t just qualify to join the coalition, they would obviously be a force to be reckoned with.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud knew that the other members of the senate would approve of the change. In fact, thinking about everything Seven Blood Eyes had done to reach this point, he was convinced that they must have already made contact with people in the coalition, and earned their secret support.

    Grinding his teeth, he said, ¡°If you give us back our lifemp, then the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect will support you joining the coalition! If you don¡¯t, then you¡¯re responsible for the consequences! You have the power, Sir Bloodsmelter. You decide whether you¡¯re our enemy or our friend!¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud raised his hand and pointed toward the sky. The sea of blood in the dome of heaven rumbled as it began to form a blood tree that could descend on Seven Blood Eyes in an instant. Great pressure suddenly weighed down on Seven Blood Eyes.

    Sir Bloodsmelter chuckled darkly. ¡°How amusing, Soaring Cloud. And how very sinister of you. You think I¡¯m going to sacrifice one of my disciples¡¯ interests to join the Seven Sect Coalition? If I did that, what would the other disciples think?

    ¡°Might they not wonder if I would sacrifice themter on, just to get ahead? And what would allies think? Might they not wonder if I would sacrifice them?to get ahead? How much face would I lose by doing that?

    ¡°Soaring Cloud, you vermin, such words are deplorable even for you. It seems to me you don¡¯t believe that I really have a taboo treasure.¡±

    Eyes hardening, Sir Bloodsmelter shoved out his right hand. As heaven and earth trembled, the patriarchs and matriarchs from the Seven Sect Coalition watched closely. In the Seazombie ancestralnd, the huge bronze mirror rotated until it was facing Seven Blood Eyes. As itpletely locked down onto Patriarch Soaring Cloud, one of the seven eyes hovering above the seven zombie ancestor statues snapped open.

    The blood-red eye had no pupil. As soon as it opened, a sinister wind sprang up that seemed cold enough to freeze the nine heavens. As it enveloped Seven Blood Eyes, an image of Patriarch Soaring Cloud appeared within the mirror.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s face fell as an intense sensation of deadly crisis overwhelmed him. It had been many years since he had experienced any feeling like this. His flesh and blood quivered, his mind shook, and his life force screamed. It was like he was facing a deadly predator who held his life in its hand, and could easily rip out his soul. Sensing that death wasing for him, Patriarch Soaring Cloud unleashed the power of his cultivation base to fight back.

    Simultaneously, a cold voice rang out from the bronze mirror.

    ¡°Capital punishment!¡±

    In the mirror, the image of Patriarch Soaring Cloud twisted and distorted. A vicious expression appeared on his face, as though the image itself were a unique entity, and not the patriarch himself. A momentter it exploded.

    The eye closed.

    Meanwhile, back in Seven Blood Eyes, blood sprayed out of Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s mouth. He shook violently, and his facial expression matched the image of himself in the mist. Then he exploded in a cloud of blood.

    Some distance away, he formed back again. This time, his face was pale, and his eyes seemed dull. His expression was one ofplete disbelief.

    The cold voice from the mirror echoed out again.

    ¡°Capital punishment failed. Initiating second capital punishment.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter snarled and was about to make a move when the other six patriarchs and matriarchs from the Seven Sect Coalition moved to interfere. Before they could, Sir Bloodsmelter grinned viciously and shouted, ¡°Taboo activate!¡±

    Instantly, the seven zombie ancestor statues beneath the bronze mirror unleashed unrivaled energy and blood, causing the six eyes that had not yet opened, as well as the seventh eye that had just closed... to all open!!

    The seven eyes released seven gazes that crossed the Forbidden Sea, entered Seven Blood Eyes, and locked onto the seven patriarchs and matriarchs! All of them trembled, and their faces fell.

    All of a sudden, they realized that Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure was a lot more gruish than they¡¯d realized. It wasn¡¯t the case that each eye could unleash capital punishment. Even if one of the eyes¡¯ capital punishment failed, it would unleash another attack immediately. Clearly, the attacks could build on each other. In other words, even if someone got incredibly lucky and survived seven capital punishments, they would end up so injured they would be hovering on the brink of death. Even more relevant was that Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure had ample power, such that no one knew how many times it could be used. It was a terrifying thing considering that the other sects¡¯ taboo items could only be used once in a specified period of time. Although it was likely that Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure also had some sort of cooldown period, none of them wanted to take a risk considering they didn¡¯t know for sure.

    All of these patriarchs and matriarchs had a sense of propriety, and thus, in that moment, the representatives from Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect spoke.

    ¡°We propose to let Seven Blood Eyes join the coalition!¡±

    ¡°We second the motion!¡±

    Although it seemed like their decision was made in the heat of the moment, Patriarch Soaring Cloud wasn¡¯t convinced that was the case. He was thinking about back when he had activated his own taboo treasure to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect and intimidate Seven Blood Eyes.

    During the middle of that event, Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect had also activated their taboo treasures. After the event was over, he¡¯de to the conclusion it made sense given the circumstances. But now he realized that those two sects must have activated their taboo treasures just in case he didn¡¯t follow the n, and actually attacked Seven Blood Eyes. [1]

    They¡¯ve been working together all along!?Patriarch Soaring Cloud thought, his face turned even paler.

    The action taken by Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect seemed to sway the other four.

    Seeing that, Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s heart filled with grief. He wanted to do something, but the sensation of imminent death that filled him prevented him. Right now, maintaining face was more important than a lifemp. As the saying goes, if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off.

    Around this time, a calm, ancient voice suddenly spoke from the dome of heaven.

    ¡°We¡¯re all on the same side here. There¡¯s no point in making such a big fuss over a simple misunderstanding.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud, please return to headquarters. And the rest of you Fellow Daoists do the same. Fellow Daoist Bloodsmelter, we wee you to join the senate, and we are pleased to have Seven Blood Eyes as part of the coalition. Pleasee so that we can discuss the particrs of transporting your sect here.

    ¡°I hereby swear an oath, witnessed by all Revered Ancient, that the Seven Sect Coalition will be renamed the Eight Sect Coalition. What do you think, Fellow Daoist Bloodsmelter?¡±

    High in the dome of heaven a face appeared, pulsing with spectacr energy, and causing crushing pressure to weigh down on the nine of the first stage Void Returning patriarchs. It didn¡¯t affect any of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. The face belonged to that of a middle-aged cultivator. He seemed schrly, andcked any sort of perverse energy. As he looked down at Sir Bloodsmelter, a second, slightlyrger version of his face appeared and superimposed upon the first. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth face appeared. Each one wasrger than the one before it. More and more appeared, until they were impossible to count, and seemed to fill the entire sky above the continent of South Phoenix.

    ¡°Well met, President!¡±

    ].

    ¡°Well met, President!¡± All of the Seven Sect Coalition patriarchs and matriarchs looked sober as they sped hands respectfully.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing, while the Captain stood next to him, his eyes shining. Further ahead, Master Seventh looked up and murmured, ¡°This is the second stage of Void Returning. Transform 10,000 Veracities....¡±

    Xu Qing gazed into the dome of heaven, his heart pounding, his eyes burning with a thirst to be stronger.

    Meanwhile, Sir Bloodsmelter took a deep breath and sped hands respectfully to show his agreement.

    A momentter, the faces in the sky vanished. Looking very frustrated, Patriarch Soaring Cloud flicked his sleeve, picking up all of the trembling disciples of his sect, then bing a bright beam of light that shot off into the distance.

    The other sect patriarchs and matriarchs sped hands to Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher, and then some of them departed. One of them, a woman from the Dark Serenity Sect whose face it wasn¡¯t possible to see clearly, smiled faintly as she looked down at the summit of the Seventh Peak. Then she left.

    The matriarch and patriarch from Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect chose not to leave. She was tender and delicate, he was burly with a big beard. Whether in terms of appearance or aura, both surpassed anything ordinary. Their eyes glittered, and they smiled as they looked at Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher. Apparently, all of them were well-acquainted with each other. Now that everything had yed out, there was no need for any of them to maintain appearances.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be waiting for you in the coalition.¡±

    ¡°Wee to the coalition, Bloodsmelter, old pal!¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelterughed heartily, and Guru Easher gave a faint smile. After reminiscing for a short time, the coalition representatives said their farewells and headed back to the maind.

    The outsiders were gone. Master Seventh had epted a new apprentice. And now, Sir Bloodsmelter publicly announced the result of everything that had happened. Seven Blood Eyes was to join the Seven Sect Coalition, which would be the Eight Sect Coalition. They would move to the maind in a matter of days.

    All Seven Blood Eyes disciples were filled with excitement. And that excitementsted for the seven or eight days that came after. The entire sect was bubbling with joy, and everyone was talking about things toe.

    As for Xu Qing, things quickly calmed down. Though he was now the fourth highness from the Seventh Peak, he still had work to do limating to his second lifemp. The sect did not officially ask him any questions about that secondmp.

    A few more days went by, and then another announcement was made.

    In three days, a delegation led by Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh would go to the Seven Sect Coalition in the Revered Ancient maind. There, they would negotiate details about the uing move.

    Moving an entire sect was no small affair, and would require a lot of give and take on both sides. Though Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t participate in the actual negotiations, he was going to be part of the delegation. Alsoing along were the Captain and Third Elder Brother. There were also highnesses from the other mountain peaks. The Seven Sect Coalition wasn¡¯t going to act arrogant and overbearing. They would treat Seven Blood Eyes as equals, and would follow all of the prescribed formalities to wee them.

    ***

    In thest few years, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t dreamed very much, but the day before leaving, he did.

    He dreamed of being a child, back with his mother and father in the city where he was born. Back then, he wasn¡¯t a street urchin. Back then, he had a happy family life. Back then, he had no idea how evil the world really was. In the dream, his parents¡¯ faces were blurry. He tried hard to remember what they looked like, but their faces seemed lost in time. It had nothing to do with his cultivation base. It was just how life worked. That said, his older brother¡¯s face was very clear.

    He did have a brother. In the dream, he and his brother got along well. They grew older together, ying in the dirt, giggling andughing, going to school together, and whispering to each other after lights out. However, in the dream, his brother¡¯s face suddenly split apart in a very gruish fashion, revealing another face underneath. It was a cold face, with nefarious, evil eyes.

    1. Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect activated their taboo treasures in ??

 Chapter 268: Eat the Whole Thing by Yourself?

    Chapter 268: Eat the Whole Thing by Yourself?

    It was the tenth month. Fall.

    In the north of South Phoenix, in the capital city and sect headquarters of Seven Blood Eyes, the sky was blue and sunny. A few wispy clouds drifted overhead. They almost looked like clouds painted casually onto a canvas by a schr.

    Things below looked just as picturesque. The capital city thrummed with life and everyone seemed to be smiling. They were real smiles, as Seven Blood Eyes had recently announced the ns for moving. Anyone who had been paying taxes in the city for ten years or more could apply to move to the Revered Ancient maind. Of course, they would have to cover their own moving expenses. Countless cultivators in South Phoenix longed for such an opportunity, and that wasn¡¯t to mention the numerous mortals who lived in Seven Blood Eyes.

    As the city bubbled with excitement, seven enormous watercraft were moored outside Harbor 1. They all looked identical. They were violet, and were massive, being fully 3,000 meters long. They were extravagantly decorated, covered with spirit jade, and gilded with gold. Each one had a huge, vicious eye as the figurehead. At the stern of each ship were nine terrifying tails that filled one with a ghastly sensation upon looking at them.

    Complicated spell formations were built into all of the giant ships. People who knew spell formations would gasp upon seeing them. That was because the formations were soplex that, upon being activated, they would turn each ship into a war fortress.

    There were already Seven Blood Eyes disciples boarding the ships. Based on the clothing of the disciples, it was clear that each mountain peak had one ship. All of the disciples were extraordinary, and had powerful cultivation base fluctuations. Because of that, other disciples had gathered to watch, and were excitedly discussing what was happening.

    ¡°I saw the second highness from the First Peak! I heard that after he lost to Master Shengyun, he went into seclusion. He¡¯s definitely a lot stronger now!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not the only one. Look over there, everyone! Those are the grand highnesses from the Third and Fourth Peak.¡±

    ¡°The highnesses from the Second and Fifth Peak are here too!¡±

    As the crowds of disciples chattered, the Captain stood on the deck of the seventh huge ship, his lips pursed in thought. ¡°I guess they¡¯re out for revenge, huh? Before, everyone was throwing their fights, but that doesn¡¯t mean they really gave up. I guess they want to take advantage of the big negotiation to wipe away their humiliation. Say, little Ah Qing, do you think we should go track down Little Kunkun to get revenge? He has an older brother, you know. Maybe he has some Dark Serenity Fingers also!¡± [1]

    Taking a bite of an apple, the Captain looked over at Xu Qing, who was seated cross-legged in meditation.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. The images from the dream the night before were still floating in his mind, but he shoved them away.

    Most of the people joining the delegation had been selected by Master Seventh because of their familiarity with the people from Revered Ancient. Xu Qing himself wasn¡¯t the only one with such experience. All of the mountain peaks had people like that. For the most part, they were the top highnesses. As for the Seventh Peak, all of the highnesses were going except for Second Elder Sister.

    In response to the Captain¡¯s question, Xu Qing thought for a moment. Given that Seven Blood Eyes was joining the coalition, he hadn¡¯t seen any need to keep their chosen locked up, and had thus freed Huang Yikun and the others. He nodded.

    ¡°When he left,¡± Xu Qing exined, ¡°he didn¡¯t pay his incarceration fee. He just wrote an IOU. I supposed I ought to go find him and collect.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up and he tossed an apple to Xu Qing. ¡°Good thinking. We¡¯re not going over there to cause trouble, just to settle some debts. Speaking of which, what about everyone else, little Ah Qing. Did they pay up?¡±

    ¡°They all wrote IOUs,¡± Xu Qing replied, his expression the same as ever.

    ¡°Hahaha! I have to offer you some praise, little Ah Qing. You alwayse up with good reasons to do what you do. In that sense, you¡¯re like me. You and I are both very reasonable. Unlike Third Sib, who goes around forcing people to cooperate. That¡¯s just ridiculous. Wait. Hold on¡­ where¡¯d Third Sib get off to?¡± Eyebrows dancing up and down, he looked around. ¡°I bet he went to brownnose Master. Or maybe chat with girls from the other peaks. Let me tell you, from the moment he joined the sect, I never really liked him. At first, I was thinking I should hook him up with Second Sib. But then I realized she¡¯d probably just beat him up every day.¡±

    The Captain sighed regretfully.

    Xu Qing looked at him and didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Before long, the people from the other mountain peaks had boarded their ships. All seven of the huge watercraft rumbled to life, then slowly started moving out of the port, out to the Forbidden Sea, and in the direction of Revered Ancient.

    Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh were leading the delegation going to the maind. The other peaklords wouldn¡¯t go, and would instead remain behind to handle preparations for the big move.

    South Phoenix was so far from Revered Ancient that traveling by ship would take too long. Therefore, once the seven huge ships were out of the port, they blurred as they tapped into the power of the sect¡¯s spell formation to activate teleportation formations built into them. Loud rumbling sounds echoed out, and then the ships vanished.

    When they appeared, they were near the Merfolk Isles.

    They didn¡¯t stop to rest. Using the spell formations there, they performed another greater teleportation, which took them to the Seazombies¡¯ fortified inds.

    Tapping into the spell formations there, they quickly traveled to the Seazombie ancestralnd. From there, only a single teleportation would get them to their destination. Even if they didn¡¯t use such a teleportation, it would only have taken three days at sea for them to arrive.

    That meant that the Seven Blood Eyes disciples had one day of free time to disembark.

    This voyage was being made on official sect business. That said, everyone was curious about the taboo treasure. What was more, the top figures from the various mountain peaks were certain to be important people in the future. Therefore, it was important that they understood their own sect¡¯s taboo treasure.

    After the seven ships dropped anchor, numerous figures flew out of them and shot toward the taboo treasure. From a distance, Xu Qing could see the huge bronze mirror. All fourteen of the zombie ancestor statues were now arrayed in the area, and they pulsed with an ancient aura. Most gruish of all, however, were the seven closed eyes.

    After Seven Blood Eyes revealed its taboo treasure, what territory the Seazombies had retained was naturally ceded. From that point on, there was no autonomous Seazombie culture. They were now a subsidiary species attached to Seven Blood Eyes. As long as Seven Blood Eyes had its taboo treasure, their fate would never change.

    Vastworld had been allowed to leave the sect headquarters, but it didn¡¯t matter. Nobody cared about Seazombies anymore. In the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, all eyes were on the first sect to have truly risen to prominence in thest ten thousand years. Seven Blood Eyes.

    The Captain looked around and, seeing that everyone else had left to look at the taboo treasure, said, ¡°I have a personal matter to attend to, little Ah Qing. There¡¯s an old friend I need to see. Ai. She¡¯s the only reason I managed to get out of this ce back then. You probably already guessed who I¡¯m talking about, right? That¡¯s why it¡¯s not exactly going to be convenient to bring you along. I¡¯ll head off now, little Ah Qing. Your Elder Brother trusts that you won¡¯t tell anybody about this.¡±

    Seeming very serious, he flew off into the distance.

    Looking after him for a moment, Xu Qing got to his feet and followed.

    Sensing Xu Qing behind him, the Captain suddenly looked very much on guard. ¡°What the hell are you following me for?¡±

    ¡°I also have a personal matter to attend to,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then stered a look of sudden understanding onto his face.

    ¡°You want to go take care of Vastworld, don¡¯t you? I already know where he is. Just head in the direction indicated on this jade slip.¡± The Captain tossed a jade slip to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing put the jade slip into his robe and continued after the Captain.

    ¡°Why are you still following me, Xu Qing?¡± the Captain blurted. He sounded quite anxious.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. After looking around, he flew into a shadowy canyon. The Captain followed.

    ¡°Take it out, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°We only have a day. Let¡¯s eat it together.¡±

    ¡°Eat what?¡± the Captain said, ring as he backed away a few steps.

    ¡°The nose! I went to the museum yesterday, and it was gone. You took it, right? What, you thought you were going to eat the whole thing by yourself?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times, thenughed heartily. ¡°Hahaha! I really can¡¯t slip anything past you, little Junior Brother. Well done. Very well done. I¡¯d nned all along for the two of us to eat it together. I was joking around just now, that¡¯s all.¡±

    Clearing his throat, the Captain looked around, then grimaced and took something out of his bag of holding.

    With a thump, itnded on the ground. It was, of course, the nose from the zombie ancestor divine likeness. Back in Seven Blood Eyes, it was nothing more than ordinary stone. But here, it emanated shocking fluctuations, and contained a divine resonance.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he sat down cross-legged and circted his cultivation base. Two umbres appeared above him, and the golden crow manifested and began viciously assimting the nose.

    Seeing this, the Captain instantly got anxious. The main thing he had been worried about was the possibility of Xu Qing devouring the nose too quickly. That was why he¡¯d attempted to sneak out, absorb most of it, and give some leftovers to Xu Qing.

    Obviously, Xu Qing had seen through his n, and was now voraciously devouring the nose. All the Captain could do was rush forward, throw his arms around the nose, and start doing his own absorbing.

    While the highnesses from the other peaks were sighing in admiration at the sect¡¯s taboo treasure, Xu Qing and the Captain were secretly having a feast.

    Inside Xu Qing, a massive, terrifying force was building up. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow also rushed out to join in absorbing the nose.

    ¡°Outrageous!¡± the Captain growled. ¡°Ridiculous! This is beyond the pale!¡±

    Baring his teeth, he bit a huge chunk out of the nose. However, that wasn¡¯t enough for him, so he utilized some unknown technique to cause himself to suddenly grow multiple mouths all over his body, all of which he used to bite the nose.

    Crunching sounds echoed out as the two of them used various means to absorb the nose.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing opened his 93rd dharma aperture. And there was more. He soon opened his 94th and 95th. Right now, he needed many times more power to open dharma apertures than he did before. And yet, just as in situations past, he was opening one after another thanks to the terrifying power in the nose.

    Time passed. Before long, the day was up. The highnesses from the other peaks returned to their ships. By that time, Xu Qing had opened his 101st dharma aperture!

    The zombie ancestor nose was now forty percent smaller. The divine resonance inside had been greatly reduced. Absorbing more of the nose would require a high cultivation base, otherwise, the Captain would have devoured the entire thing.

    Xu Qing hesitated, as he had the feeling he couldn¡¯t digest any more. After some hesitation, he waited until the Captain had devoured half of the nose. Then Xu Qing waved his hand to put the nose away.

    The Captain burped and rubbed his swollen stomach as hey sprawled on the ground. He looked very weak.

    ¡°I¡¯m totally stuffed.... Help me up, little Ah Qing. I can¡¯t stand on my own.¡±

    1. Little Kunkun refers to Huang Yikun, who challenged the Seventh Peak in chapter 236. ?

 Chapter 269: Just Like Reincarnation

    <h4>Chapter 269: Just Like Reincarnation</h4>

    Seeing the Captain like this caused Xu Qing to sigh.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you have to go and eat so much?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t! You took most of it. You and your friends!¡± Inside, the Captain was grumbling, I wanted to eat it by myself, didn¡¯t I? That¡¯s a normal thing! Xu Qing, you treacherous thief! I can¡¯t believe you caught on to me.

    ¡°Wait a second,¡± the Captain said, looking warily at Xu Qing. ¡°You wanted to eat it by yourself, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    Xu Qing looked the Captain in the eyes and shook his head very seriously.

    The Captain continued to eye Xu Qing suspiciously as Xu Qing helped him along.

    ¡°It¡¯s all the fault of the old man and his ¡®raising wolves¡¯ philosophy. Where else in the world is there a Master who doesn¡¯t give a bunch of resources to his apprentices, huh? Look at all the other mountain peaks! Whatever those apprentices want, their Masters get. But not us....¡± The Captain sighed.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He was already familiar with Master Seventh¡¯s style. He would give his apprentices techniques, protective items, and even safe asylum. The only thing he didn¡¯t give them were dao protectors and resources. On that front, his apprentices were on their own. That was the only way for an apprentice to be the ultimate lone wolf. The alternative was to be a housedog. The result was obvious when you looked at the Captain and Third Elder Brother, both of whom went to great lengths to acquire cultivation resources.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s that Master Shengyun,¡± the Captain continued impatiently. ¡°Next time you run into a gem like that, make sure to let me know. We can handle him together, and both get rich in the process.¡±

    Xu Qing quickly nodded as he helped the Captain out of the canyon and back to the ship.

    Before long, the ship rumbled to life. This time, it wasn¡¯t a teleportation. Instead, they sailed out across the water toward the Revered Ancient maind.

    Shortly before dawn, it became obvious that the Captain really had stuffed himself too much and was having digestive problems, as he went into convulsions. Master Seventh, not wanting to be bothered, knocked the Captain unconscious. Then he took Xu Qing out to look at the sunrise.

    Third Elder Brother was staying with some Second Peak girls, and wasn¡¯t onboard. Other than some ordinary disciples, the only people on the Seventh Peak ship were Xu Qing and Master Seventh.

    As Master Seventh stood at the prow, the sea breeze carried ck froth up from the water, but an invisible force dispersed it before it touched either of them.

    Xu Qing stood next to Master Seventh looking out at the dark sky.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, do you know much about Revered Ancient?¡± Master Seventh asked coolly.

    ¡°Not much,¡± Xu Qing replied with a shake of his head. He still didn¡¯t feelpletelyfortable in the presence of Master Seventh.

    ¡°The Revered Ancient maind is a massive ce. The Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is only a small corner of it. That said, even though it¡¯s only a corner, it¡¯s still about ten times asrge as South Phoenix.

    ¡°The Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is basically a penins. It has the sea on three sides. Going from north to south are the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. From east to west is the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. They meet in the middle. The mountain range is made up of about 100,000 individual mountains, all of them steep and treacherous. They¡¯re filled with countless sects, mutant species, grues, and the like.

    ¡°The river is amazing. It¡¯s filled with immortal energy, and its waters can purge mutagen. As you can imagine, people constantly fight over control of it. It enters from another province to the east and is controlled by the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, who holds about thirty percent of the territory in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Upon leaving their territory, it goes through the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains and into a forbidden ground called Spiritsound. Then it runs its course to the west, where it empties into the sea.

    ¡°In the spot where the river intersects the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, there¡¯s a tributary of the river that long flowed into the Seven Sect Coalition. However, years ago, the Young Arbiter Sect created a dam to block it off. Recently, that dam was destroyed, and the river once again started to flow into coalition territory.

    ¡°The Seven Sect Coalition is located to the south of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, near the Forbidden Sea. On the other side of the mountains is the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    ¡°As for the Church of Departure and the South Tor Ghost Mountain, they¡¯re in the west, on either side of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. When the river goes through the Spiritsound forbidden ground, it turns ck, and the river transforms into something vile. Honestly, that makes it a good match for the vile godly power of the South Tor Ghost Mountain. And the Daoist Rite of Departure is a very bizarre organization, and they don¡¯t really care.

    ¡°Finally, there¡¯s the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, which is located in the snowy tundra to the north, just on the border of the prefecture beyond.¡±

    As Master Seventh exined these things, the sky turned bright, as if a sea of fire were spreading from the horizon. Xu Qing watched as the red sun rose into the sky like a fireball.

    ¡°Rest up,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°We¡¯ll arrive in two days. After we makendfall, crush the coalition cultivators that need crushing. When necessary, be deceptive. When necessary, show off.¡± With that, Master Seventh vanished.

    Xu Qing watched the sunrise, then sat down cross-legged to meditate.

    The two days passed rtively quickly. Eventually,nd rose up on the horizon. The Captain¡¯s belly was back to normal, and he was bouncing up and down in excitement. Third Elder Brother had returned. The highnesses from the other mountain peaks were cracking their knuckles, their eyes shining as they contemted the revenge that they were about to get.

    As the huge ships got closer to the maind, Xu Qing spotted a huge city. It was so big it seemed to stretch on and on forever. Compared to it, Seven Blood Eyes could well be called a vige. The ce excelled in the size, poption, and luxury on disy. The architectural style was very different, and reminded Xu Qing of the buildings he¡¯d seen in the Violet Lands. They exuded a sense of grandeur and antiquity, but at the same time, were exquisite and refined.

    Even from a distance, Xu Qing could see seven mountains rising up in the middle of the city, all with unique shapes. The mountains were located quite a distance from each other, and with the surrounding city linking them all. Each and every mountain exuded a shocking pressure, and had a statue at its summit. Some were human, some were sea beasts, and others were simply immense towers. One of them was a massive sword that rose into the heavens.

    The moment the seven ships from Seven Blood Eyes sailed into the port, the sound of bells rang through the mighty capital city of the Seven Sect Coalition.

    They tolled twelve times.

    It was obviously ceremonial. Two people in the patriarch level were there to receive them, those being the representatives of the coalition¡¯s second and sixth peaks. Also present were the sect leaders from those two sects.

    In addition, numerous coalition disciples waited on the shore. Though they stood there solemnly and respectfully, there was also vignce and even displeasure in their eyes.

    That was especially true of the disciples from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, whose eyes were cold as ice. And many of them, after looking over everyone from Seven Blood Eyes, stared at Xu Qing. They weren¡¯t the only ones. Other sect disciples eventually fixed their gazes on Xu Qing. As for the male disciples, most of them hadplicated expressions, while the female disciples seemed delightfully taken aback.

    Meanwhile, the highnesses from the various mountain peaks all emerged onto the decks of their respective ships. Each of them released the power of their cultivation bases, opening their dharma apertures and even igniting their life mes and entering the profound radiance state. Although none of them had four mes, all of them were unique and stunning. Some had ways to improve their battle prowess, pushing it past the ordinary limits.

    Seven Blood Eyes had been preparing for a long time to be a supervisory sect. And of course, part of that n had been helping the current generation of disciples reach their potential. It was even possible to say that these disciples were the best these mountain peaks had ever been able to offer.

    Although the Seven Sect Coalition was also capable of doing something like this, it wasn¡¯t something that could be repeated over and over again. Thus, when it happened, it was profoundly impressive. Some disciples had howling grues around them. Some had all sorts of high-level magical devices. Some created ripples with each footstep. Some looked ordinary, but were covered with beastly totem tattoos.

    Almost instantly, the disciples on the ships and the disciples on the shore were all itching to fight each other.

    Of course, the coalition disciples were all from supervisory sects, and were amazing in their own right. All of them exuded impressive auras as they all took a threatening step forward.

    As the auras from the two sides vied with each other, Xu Qing looked around, his expression the same as ever. After looking at all the disciples on shore, he didn¡¯t see any he recognized. None of the chosen who had previouslye to Seven Blood Eyes hade. Obviously, they realized that most of the highnesses from Seven Blood Eyes had intentionally lost their matches earlier, and were now out for revenge.

    As for Xu Qing, he usually didn¡¯t like to make a scene. However, his Master had asked him to do just that, and so, when the coalition disciples all stepped forward threateningly, he did the same. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. A tempestuous aura erupted from Xu Qing, shaking everything around him and causing a stiff wind to scream in the area. Even the sunlight seemed to bend in his direction, much less the gazes of everyone present. Xu Qing wore his violet robe with gold embroidery, plus the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown. He had two umbres overhead. One was covered in flowing ck mes that could shake one¡¯s soul. The other was dazzling and seven-colored, and thrummed with a chanting like a song from the highest heavens. Behind him, a piercing cry rang out into the sky as a golden crow appeared, ring at the disciples on the shore. All of this,bined with Xu Qing''s spectacr good looks, made him like an imperial prince walking through the mortal world.

    The coalition disciples on shore reacted visibly. It was like they had been struck with heavenly thunder, and had no choice but to take a step back.

    Xu Qing took another step forward, and his six-me battle prowess erupted with terrifying pressure. It became a shockwave that could crush anything in its path, and it caused sweat to break out on the foreheads of the coalition disciples. Expressions flickering with terror, they took another step back.

    Just one person was exerting crushing pressure onto everyone on the shore! It was just like reincarnation, as this was what had urred when Master Shengyun arrived at Seven Blood Eyes! That said, at this moment, Xu Qing was even more fear-inspiring than Master Shengyun had been.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the number one chosen from Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°He arrested a bunch of highnesses from various sects, and also defeated Master Shengyun. He has terrifying six-me battle prowess, and what¡¯s even crazier is that six isn¡¯t his limit!¡±

    ¡°He has an imperial-ss technique, the blessing of two lifemps, and is peerlessly talented!¡±

 Chapter 270: Visitors in a Foreign Land

    Chapter 270: Visitors in a Foreign Land

    Xu Qing stepped out and exerted crushing pressure on everyone! Then he stood there, the center of attention. The bearing and manner which had once belonged to Master Shengyun was now embodied in Xu Qing. When you added in his amazing good looks, he was like a shooting star that gave the coalition disciples no choice but to bow their heads. As for the female disciples, their eyes shone brightly.

    High above in the sky, Sir Bloodsmelter looked down with an expression of satisfaction. Master Seventh was next to him, smiling. As for the patriarch and matriarch from Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, they smiled and shook their heads as they nced at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Things seem to be going well.¡±

    ¡°Ahh, kids. Always getting so worked up. They¡¯re definitely not like us.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelterughed heartily, and then followed his two friends to fly off into the distance. After the older generation left, the mood on the shore remained tense. However, with Xu Qing there, the male coalition disciples eventually just sighed and backed down.

    The Seven Sect Coalition actually had a much more rxed atmosphere than in Seven Blood Eyes. Therefore, the female disciples openly ogled Xu Qing, which he didn¡¯t exactly like.

    After stepping out and crushing the opposition, Xu Qing led the way to a ceremonial flying boat that had been set up to take them into the sect. The coalition disciples parted to make way for them.

    The Captain ran to catch up with Xu Qing.

    Third Elder Brother joined them on the flying boat. Clicking his tongue, he said, ¡°Nice job, little Junior Brother. Later on I¡¯ll teach you a few things that¡¯ll make you unbeatably attractive to the female disciples here.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Third Elder Brother but didn¡¯t say anything.

    As for the Captain, he bit a chunk out of an apple and then sneered. ¡°That¡¯s more than enough from you, Third Sib, you pervert. Little Ah Qing and I prefer to y it cool. We don¡¯t do things like you.¡±

    Third Elder Brother chuckled as he looked at the surrounding crowd.

    After the Seven Blood Eyes delegation was on the ceremonial flying boat, the disciples that had been assigned to escort them led the way into the city. Almost immediately, Xu Qing was overwhelmed with the sensation of being in a foreignnd. Though many of the buildings reminded him of the architecture in the Violet Lands, there were also a lot of small buildings with domed roofs and white ster walls. It made the ce seem very neat and orderly.

    The vegetation here was different from South Phoenix. The nts were much less leafy, and the leaves they did have were very big and thick. Some of them emitted a fragrant aroma that would stick to you when you walked past them. Xu Qing could tell that they weren¡¯t poisonous. Instead, the aroma contained medicinal properties that, over time, would improve one¡¯s constitution and cultivation base.

    As they proceeded along their way, Xu Qing noticed numerous streams meandering through the city, the waters of which contained spirit energy that would nourish the popce. The temperature here was different than back in Seven Blood Eyes. It was warmer, and as a result, people wore more revealing clothing. Many people would look at them curiously as they passed. Xu Qing noticed that most people had smooth skin with few wrinkles, and their eyes shone brightly. Even small details like that revealed what it was like to be in a supervisory sect.

    This was only one tiny part of the city; from his position on the flying boat, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t even see where the city ended. It was truly a spectacr ce.

    Eventually, the Seven Blood Eyes delegation arrived at the location where they would be staying. It was a mansionplex filled with buildingsrge and small, all of them richly ornamented and beautiful.

    The coalition disciples said their farewells, after which the Seven Blood Eyes delegates took some time to rest before going their separate ways. After all, this was everyone¡¯s first time in the Seven Sect Coalition, and they were all very curious to explore the city.

    The older generation would spend the day reminiscing, and would get down to business the following day.

    It wasn¡¯t long before the various highnesses were spreading out into the city to explore. As for Xu Qing, he inspected the building he had been assigned to, then set up some spell formations and scattered poison powder everywhere. As he was finishing up, the Captain and Third Elder Brother came looking for him.

    ¡°Come, little Junior Brother. Your Elder Brothers are here to take you for a stroll.¡± The Captain was obviously eager to show Xu Qing some of the sights.

    Xu Qing looked back at him suspiciously.

    Standing next to the Captain was Third Elder Brother, who blinked a few times, then smiled and said, ¡°I asked some of my old coalition friends about what to do around here. They strongly rmended one of the nearby immortal hot springs.¡±

    ¡°Before the Evesting Immortal Profundity River flowed into coalition territory,¡± the Captain exined, ¡°there weren¡¯t many immortal hot springs. But now that the river is flowing again, quite a few have opened up. We should go try one out.¡± His eyes glittered as he looked around, then lowered his voice and said, ¡°I heard that some of the immortal hot springs allow for co-ed bathing. It¡¯s ridiculous! I just can¡¯t believe something like that would be allowed right out in the open. We should definitely go take a look and offer some constructive criticism!¡±

    Xu Qing had originally been nning to decline their offer, and simply stay in theplex to work on his cultivation. But the Captain and Third Elder Brother were just too insistent, so eventually he forced a nod out and let them pull him along.

    It didn¡¯t take long before they had changed clothes and were out on the street. The shops lining the way were busy, and there was a lot of foot traffic. People were talking everywhere, and they had different ents than back in South Phoenix, which only entuated the sensation of being in a foreignnd.

    The Captain bought a bunch of fruit that he¡¯d never seen before, and tossed a few to Xu Qing and Third Elder Brother. Munching on fruit, they walked around looking at the sights.

    ¡°This ce is huge,¡± the Captain said. ¡°It¡¯s probably ten times bigger than the capital city back home. Third Sib, you¡¯re originally from Revered Ancient, right? You must know your way around here.¡±

    Third Elder Brother grinned. ¡°The coalition doesn¡¯t just have one capital city. Each of the seven sects has one. But they¡¯ve expanded over the years to be one megacity. The district we¡¯re in right now is part of the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect. There are also many ces controlled by small kingdoms, as well as 130 of the sects that make up the coalition. One of the big reasons our delegation hase here is to discuss where exactly Seven Blood Eyes will end up in the city.¡±

    Xu Qing listened carefully as Third Elder Brother exined things. He also noticed that the Captain seemed to be looking left and right in a very suspicious manner.

    ¡°Another unique thing about the Seven Sect Coalition,¡± continued Third Elder Brother, ¡°is that it¡¯s not just made up of seven huge cities. The seven sects¡¯ headquarters are also located here. What¡¯s more, each sect offers techniques, reserve power locations, and areas of good fortune that anyone can visit.¡± He pointed at a huge white mountain off in the distance. ¡°That¡¯s the headquarters of the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect. Anyone can go to those ces to study and seek enlightenment, although it¡¯s not free. They charge high prices for admission. I suppose Seven Blood Eyes has something like that now. The Seazombie ancestralnd is an area of good fortune that we control.¡±

    With Third Elder Brother exining things along the way, they walked through the city until they reached a very fancy looking building constructed next to a stream. It was pentagonal in shape and veryrge. The stream flowed right into the building, and came out the other side having been split into several smaller streams that fed into other parts of the city. It was obviously a very popr ce. Both male and female disciples came in and out, all of them wearing different clothing, which went to show that cultivators from all over the coalition came here, not just the seven sects.

    ¡°This is the ce,¡± the Captain said, his eyes glittering. Pulling Xu Qing and Third Elder Brother along, he headed inside. Third Elder Brother paid for all of them, and soon enough, they were standing next to one of the hot spring pools inside. Steam curled up from the surface, but it was still possible to see male and female cultivators here and there. None of them wore very much clothing. Some carried on whispered conversations, others just kept their eyes closed and worked on cultivation.

    Because of the steam, it wasn¡¯t possible to see very clearly.

    Xu Qing could sense the strong spirit energy in the pool, and could also tell how pure the water was. Unexpectedly, it didn¡¯t contain even a scrap of mutagen. Cultivators who soaked here and did breathing exercises could purge themselves of mutagen.

    Of course, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any mutagen to begin with, but practicing cultivation here would be half the work, twice the effect.

    ¡°It really is co-ed!¡± the Captain murmured. Clearing his throat, he stripped down to his undergarments and waded in. Third Elder Brother did the same.

    After some hesitation, Xu Qing took off his outer garment and then picked a ce to sit cross-legged in the water. The water wasn¡¯t too hot, and it felt wonderful. Xu Qing felt veryfortable as the spirit energy seeped into his pores and caused his cultivation base to stir.

    The three of them were in one corner of the pool, and had all taken measures to disguise their appearance so they looked like ordinary coalition cultivators. Because of that, no one had any idea who they were. Time passed. Cultivators came and went. About two hourster, conversation swelled in the hot spring in response to some big event that had just taken ce outside.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes is so fierce!¡±

    ¡°I just heard some news. The grand highness from Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Third Peak challenged a group of chosen from the House of Grue Hunters. He fought three in a row, beat two, and then ended up fighting to a draw with Chen Yunhua, who¡¯s considered on the same level as Sima Ling. After that, Sima Ling refused to fight him!¡±

    ¡°The same thing happened in the Lunisr Dao Pce. The grand highness from Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Fourth Peak is over there right now. I heard that he fights really fiercely. He also swore that he would fight anyone from the Lunisr Dao Pce who¡¯s under Gold Core.¡±

    ¡°Back when our coalition chosen went to Seven Blood Eyes, they made a big deal about how good they were. Apparently, Seven Blood Eyes was actually being very deceptive. And now that they¡¯re here, they¡¯re determined to show how strong they really are!¡±

    Upon hearing this talk, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Third Elder Brother opened their eyes and exchanged nces. Lowering his voice, the Captain said, ¡°It¡¯s the perfect opportunity to get rich.¡±

    He looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, Eldest Brother,¡± said Third Elder Brother. ¡°If we work together, we should be able to make out like bandits.¡± He also looked calmly over at Xu Qing.

    After a moment of silence, Xu Qing said, ¡°What¡¯s the split?¡±

 Chapter 271: Crafty from Top to Bottom

    <h4>Chapter 271: Crafty from Top to Bottom</h4>

    ¡°Third Sib, you¡¯ll be in charge of spreading the word,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I¡¯ll handle anyone that responds to the call, and Xu Qing, you be the public face of the operation. You get forty percent, Third Sib and I will get thirty each.¡±

    ¡°Good idea,¡± Third Elder Brother said with a grin. ¡°I¡¯ll spread the word that Xu Qing is challenging the coalition chosen.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°But say that he¡¯s not challenging everyone. He¡¯s picking specific people for duels to the death!¡± The Captain produced an apple from somewhere and took a bite.

    After some thought, Xu Qing said, ¡°Except, the name list isn¡¯t set. I¡¯m still trying to decide who to fight.¡±

    The three of them exchanged nces.

    The Captain was smiling enigmatically, Third Elder Brother looked innocent, and Xu Qing seemed as calm as ever.

    ¡°Then it¡¯s settled,¡± the Captain said. ¡°These coalition people aren¡¯t idiots. Anyone with a brain will think to send a gift our way.¡± Clearing his throat, he looked around. ¡°You two carry on. I¡¯m going to check out the rest of the hot spring. There aren¡¯t enough girls in this part.¡± With that, the Captain got out of the pool and left to find another. Third Elder Brother stretched, said goodbye to Xu Qing, and then headed toward some of the other disciples in the pool, looking as innocent as amb.

    Xu Qing simply closed his eyes and started doing some breathing exercises. However, only a momentter he opened his eyes to find that a female disciple from the coalition was drifting carefully toward him, her face a bit flushed.

    Xu Qing nced in the direction of Third Elder Brother and found that he was already in the middle of a whole group of girls. From the way they were smiling andughing, it seemed they were all getting along great.

    After considering the situation, Xu Qing realized that the strong spirit energy in the water was washing away his disguise. It wasn¡¯t all gone. Only someone who knew him well would be able to recognize him. Yet revealing even just part of his good looks still left him bewitchingly attractive.

    Closing his eyes, he meditated for a short time, then opened his eyes again.

    There were now three female disciples nearby him. They were whispering to each other about his physical appearance. One of them, who was a bit more outgoing than the others, noticed that he¡¯d opened his eyes. Laughing softly, she said, ¡°Hello there, Junior Brother. Which sect are you from? I don¡¯t recognize you.¡±

    Xu Qing declined to respond, and simply closed his eyes.

    More time passed. About two hourster, the Captain returned, eating an apple and humming a little tune. The pool he¡¯d gone off to had started to get boring, as the female disciples slowly disappeared. Thus, he returned looking for Xu Qing and Third Elder Brother.

    However, when he got close, his eyes went wide, and he suddenly stopped humming. Forgetting to take a bite of his apple, he stared at the spot he had left earlier, which had previously been mostly empty.

    As of now... there were a lot of cultivators there, and most were female disciples.

    Third Elder Brother was on one side, a girl under each arm, and three more in the vicinity, all talking andughing with each other.

    On the other side, there was no sign of Xu Qing, but the entire area was all girls.

    The Captain inhaled sharply as he realized why there had been fewer and fewer female disciples on his side of the hot spring. Not quite willing to ept the reality of the situation, he marched over to get back into the now-crowded pool.

    However, before he could get in, a female disciple with a round face and a lot of freckles red up at him. ¡°There¡¯s no room here for a big fellow like you. Can¡¯t you go to one of the other pools?¡±

    Upon seeing the Captain being berated, Third Elder Brother grinned, patted the girls on either side of him on the head, and then got out of the pool. Grabbing the depressed Captain, he pulled him away.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± the Captain said, looking back at the pool. ¡°Where¡¯s Fourth Sib?¡±

    ¡°He left a while ago. As for what¡¯s going on, well, can¡¯t you guess?¡±

    The Captain sighed. ¡°He got driven off by hot girls?¡±

    Xu Qing was already back in his room, seated cross-legged in meditation. Given how much spirit energy he¡¯d absorbed, he had to admit that the Evesting Immortal Profundity River really was amazing. From what he could tell, if you practiced cultivation here long-term, then even someone with a lot of mutagen would find their mutagen levels dropping quickly. Although it wouldn¡¯t be possible topletely purge it, the cumtive effects would be very beneficial for cultivation.

    No wonder the coalition used their taboo treasure to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect¡¯s dam and restore the flow of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. Xu Qing looked up and to the east.

    That was where the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was located, and was also where the Evesting Immortal Profundity River flowed from. Considering that the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society controlled a third of the prefecture, it made sense that they would be able to benefit most from the river.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to meditation.

    The night passed.

    The following morning at dawn, the official negotiations began between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seven Sect Coalition. They needed to discuss all the details of where Seven Blood Eyes would end up. As could be imagined, discussions like that would take a long time, as they touched on a host ofplicated things, for example, spell formations, business interests, rules and regtions, et cetera.

    As one of the delegates, Xu Qing was able to join the negotiations. However, he found everything very boring, and eventually went back to his room to work on cultivation. By now, he had fully integrated the seven-colored wind-chantingmp into himself, and had full control of it. In doing so, he had discovered something very interesting. And that was... his two lifemps actuallyplemented each other! It was very exciting, and he spent a lot of effort probing and testing.

    There were other highnesses who chose not to join the discussions. Most of them found reasons to slip away, and then went out to issue more dueling challenges. Before long, all of the coalition disciples were very riled up. The Seven Blood Eyes highnesses were being very domineering, and word spread fast. In fact, the second highness from the First Peak went to challenge the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. The other mountain peaks were the same. While the bigwigs negotiated, the disciples¡¯ desire to do battle heated up. Before long, everyone in the coalition was talking about it.

    Three dayster, the negotiations were still going on, and Seven Blood Eyes disciples were still issuing challenges left and right. Although there were victories and defeats on both sides, Seven Blood Eyes obviously had the upper hand.

    What was more... one particr rumor started spreading that caused a huge stir among the coalition disciples. That rumor had to do with Xu Qing, and imed that he was trying to decide who he wanted to challenge to a duel. As soon as word started to spread, the chosen from the various parts of the coalition were struck with fear. They knew that Xu Qing was like Master Shengyun used to be. He had six-me battle prowess that put him on par with a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce. With a terrifying cultivation base like that, nobody wanted to fight him. What was even worse was that, ording to the rumors, he wanted to fight to the death. Everyone was shaken.

    Of course, refusing a challenge would be a huge loss of face. Therefore, smart people such as Zhou Qifan secretly got in touch with the Captain, and sent over gifts as a show of goodwill. [1]

    News about that quickly spread, and before long, chosen from all over the coalition were sending gifts.

    Eventually, word of the matter reached the ears of the bigwigs in the coalition. By that point, the negotiations with Seven Blood Eyes were mostly over, and both sides were happy with the result. However, one of the coalition delegates, who was meeting with Master Seventh, didn¡¯t seem very happy about the situation with Xu Qing.

    ¡°If your Seven Blood Eyes disciples want to challenge our coalition disciples, that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s a good thing for them to learn from each other. But that Xu Qing has six-me battle prowess! For him to go around challenging people is obviously bullying, don¡¯t you think? Before you were part of the coalition, it was a different story. But now we¡¯re all on the same side!¡±

    ¡°Did he actually challenge anyone yet?¡± Master Seventh asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s the most outrageous part! Ol¡¯ Seventh, those apprentices of yours are just running a scam! In fact, your senior apprentice is apparently telling people that whoever gives the least will be put onto the challenge list for Xu Qing! It¡¯s absolutely outrageous, and is simply bad manners. I wonder where they learned this behavior from!¡±

    Master Seventh cleared his throat. ¡°I agree it¡¯s bad manners. But they¡¯re just kids having fun, that¡¯s all. Besides, how could your disciples be so gullible? Say, I have a few questions about our measure of authority with spell formations after we arrive. Come,e. Let¡¯s hash out all the details.¡±

    The coalition delegate wasn¡¯t sure what to say in response. What kind of people are these??he thought, and couldn¡¯t help but worry what things would be like in the new Eight Sect Coalition. As far as he could tell, the Seven Blood Eyes people might as well be gangsters. It was never like this before....

    The coalition delegate sighed, then put the matter aside and focused on the negotiations. Meanwhile, Master Seventh smiled and earnestly delved into the topic at hand.

    Two more days passed. The negotiations wereplete, and an official announcement was made in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, notifying all of the other groups of the change to the sect¡¯s name. And now, all the other groups would be paying close attention to see what this Eight Sect Coalition was like.

    In South Phoenix, the patriarch issued orders in the capital city that everyone was to prepare to move. Within one month, the sect would be transported to the maind.

    Back in the coalition, the other sects would set up a host of teleportation portals to make the move as smooth as possible. The highnesses from the various peaks continued to challenge the coalition disciples. However, not as many people were paying attention to the results. Everyone was more interested in Xu Qing, and were wondering who exactly he would challenge.

    A lot of disciples had sent him gifts, and everyone wanted to see what the final result would be. However, Master Seventh picked a day to publicly call his three apprentices to him and severely scold them. He said that as members of the coalition, it wasn¡¯t proper for them to issue challenges for life-or-death duels. What was more, he said that considering Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess, it wasn¡¯t appropriate for him to bully other people in the coalition.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Third Elder Brother all looked abashed. Their Master¡¯s fierce berating had apparently brought them to their senses, as they loudly proimed that they understood the error of their ways, and would refrain from issuing any challenges....

    That put an end to the matter. All of the coalition disciples who had sent gifts, including Huang Yikun and Zhou Qifan, could only smile bitterly. They knew full well that this Master and his three apprentices had just put on a show.

    ¡°So crafty!¡±

    .

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe a mighty Spirit Trove expert would do something like this with his apprentices....¡±

    ¡°And there¡¯s nothing we can do about it! Everything he said makes perfect sense.¡±

    As most of the other coalition disciples came to the realization that they¡¯d been scammed, a rumbling sound echoed out from within the House of Grue Hunters. Sima Ru had emerged from her secluded meditation facilities. She had not sessfully achieved her breakthrough, and thus, did not yet have a second heavenly pce. But because of what happened to her poor little brother, and because her clone had been wiped out of existence, she decided toe out early. [2]

    The first thing she did was send a formal letter of challenge to Seven Blood Eyes.

    She was going to fight Xu Qing!

    It created an instant uproar. Sima Ru was a Gold Core cultivator with a heavenly pce! For her to challenge someone in a lower cultivation realm seemed like bullying. And yet... no one seemed to think it really was. In fact, everyone was of the opinion that the two of them were evenly matched.

    There was no question that Xu Qing had superseded Master Shengyun as the number one chosen in the Eight Sect Coalition, and was someone who could crush heavenly pces. As the most prominent disciple in Seven Blood Eyes, it wasn¡¯t really an option for Xu Qing to decline the challenge. Therefore, Master Seventh offered him some advice.

    ¡°Be as deceptive as you can, but fight well. You¡¯re fighting for the prestige of our sect. By the way, that girl Sima Ru has two hearts. The one on her right side could be of big help to you in the future¡­.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about the situation, and killing intent glittered in his eyes. After considering what he had aplishedtely with the seven-colored wind-chantingmp, he sent a reply to Sima Ru in the form of a single sentence.

    ¡°I agree, but only if it¡¯s a fight to the death.¡±

    1. Zhou Qifanst appeared in ??

    2. Xu Qing¡¯s fight with Sima Ru began in ??

 Chapter 272: Crushing Sima Ru!

    Chapter 272: Crushing Sima Ru!

    Disciples from the House of Grue Hunters would absorb special blood that allowed them to control grues. The result was that they either became gloomy and grim, or they became wild and erratic. Either way, they were always extremely hostile. Sometimes they looked normal on the outside, but on the inside, they were twisted. There were no exceptions. They didn¡¯t get bothered by brutal injuries. The reason was that their coexistence with grues involved endless torment. They had no choice but to transcend physical pain, as they always had to deal with unimaginable suffering and bacsh from the grues.

    For years, the House of Grue Hunters had struggled with ways to deal with this. And they had experimented with many methods, though none of them were particrly effective. Grues were inherently cruel and vicious, and it was made worse by the influence of the broken face of the god. The only way to lessen the effects was to suppress the grues with a higher cultivation base.

    However, the higher your cultivation base, the more terrifying the grues you could control. And few people could resist the temptation to rapidly get stronger by doing that. It was an endless cycle. The more progress one made, the more grues they would take into themselves, until they became grim and sinister from top to bottom and from inside to outside.

    Disciples from the House of Grue Hunters endured constant torment, and it didn¡¯t just give them twisted and vicious personalities. It also made them brutal inbat. What was more, their insane ways made them a big headache for the other sects to deal with.

    When Sima Ru received Xu Qing¡¯s reply, she almost couldn¡¯t control the perverse ferocity within her. Apparently ignoring the advice from her superiors, and also the fact that the sect leader had exined she would probably lose this fight, she charged out of the House of Grue Hunters, bing a bright beam of light that shot toward Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ temporary headquarters in the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect.

    Of course, plenty of cultivators noticed what was happening, as Sima Ru was not making any attempt to keep a low profile.

    As she hovered in the air above thepound, her long white robe rippled in the wind, and her ck hair drifted around her. Shockingly, the faint image of a majestic heavenly pce could be seen above her head. She emanated terrifying fluctuations, and within the image of the heavenly pce, it was possible to see a withered, decaying dwarf, suppressed into the form of a grue core. Countless suppressed grues surrounded the heavenly pce, all of them howling in grief and anguish.

    Behind her was a huge ball of flesh that resembled the dancing balls that had been with her clone in Seven Blood Eyes. The difference was that this one was dramaticallyrger. It was also singing in a high-pitched voice.

    ¡°One, two, three, up to ten little friends;

    ¡°Paddy-cake paddy-cake with a sweetheart¡­ rip out the lungs and dig out the heart;

    ¡°Leave only the head, it¡¯s not horrible¡­ dance in a circle, it¡¯s so adorable!¡±

    As the piercing voice echoed out everywhere, Sima Ru hovered above the Seven Blood Eyespound, her face as pale as death, but her features incredibly stunning.

    Smiling faintly, she said, ¡°I¡¯m here, Xu Qing.¡±

    Though her voice was soft, her eyes were bloodshot, and she radiated terrifying pressure that caused vicious clouds to gather above her in the shape of a head. As winds screamed around her, the ball of flesh behind her shrieked and dropped down toward thepound.

    But then a massive force hit the ball of flesh and sent it spinning in the opposite direction, shrieking loudly, a big chunk missing from it.

    Xu Qing appeared, and with a single step, he rose from thepound up into the sky. Two umbres could be seen over his head. One was seven-colored and radiant, and surrounded by chanting wind. The other was ck and covered with deadly fire.

    The golden crow materialized behind him, letting loose a piercing cry into the sky, its mes covering Xu Qing like an imperial robe, and its wings showering sparks everywhere.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at Sima Ru. Back in Seven Blood Eyes, he had killed her clone, therefore, he didn¡¯t see any need for words. Unleashing his six-me battle prowess, heunched a fist strike at her.

    Master Seventh had requested that he fight for prestige, and therefore, he decided to go all out.

    That fist contained the power of all of his 101 dharma apertures, the golden crow techniques, his three life mes, and his two lifemps. That was the very peak of the six-me level.

    The dome of heaven seemed to cave in slightly as the head of clouds above Sima Ru exploded. Sima Ru then waved her hand, causing the heavenly pce overhead to crush toward Xu Qing. One heavenly pce was equivalent to six-me battle prowess, and in the blink of an eye, it met Xu Qing¡¯s fist strike. A deafening boom echoed out in all directions.

    Sima Ru¡¯s heavenly pce trembled, and then tumbled back because of the full extent of Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess. A tremor passed through Sima Ru as she was flung backward by about 300 meters.

    Xu Qing remained in ce, unharmed. The seven-colored umbre protected his fleshly body, and the ck umbre protected his soul. Nothing under the level of six mes could pierce such defenses.

    Back when Master Shengyun had the seven-colored wind-chantingmp, it had been a big headache for Xu Qing to deal with. It had taken a whole series of clever traps to break it open. And now, the amazing defenses of thatmp were benefiting Xu Qing.

    However, this lifemp didn¡¯t just have defensive powers. It also had a bacsh attack. After Xu Qing¡¯s study and experimentation, he had found that using the twomps together came with added benefits.

    And now, the seven-colored wind-chantingmp¡¯s bacsh attack actually surpassed what Master Shengyun had been able to unleash. That was why Xu Qing had led with a fist attack, and why he had forced Sima Ru into retreat. It was also why he was fairly certain that he could kill her. With a six-me bacsh attack, Xu Qing was no weaker than the seven-me level.

    Sima Ru obviously didn¡¯t know that, which made sense considering she didn¡¯t even have a single lifemp. Not even Master Shengyun had any idea what was possible with two lifemps. It wasn¡¯t just a simple matter of one plus one equals two.

    Blood sprayed out of Sima Ru¡¯s mouth, and her eyes shone with absolute incredulity.

    All of the observers from the Eight Sect Coalition were also shaken to the core. After all, since Xu Qing was now the top chosen in the coalition, many people wanted to see what he was like.

    ¡°That¡¯s seven-me battle prowess!¡±

    ¡°Sima Ru was careless! One heavenly pce isn¡¯t going to be enough to defeat Xu Qing!¡±

    Everyone in thepound was also stunned, including all of the highnesses from the various mountain peaks.

    The Captain was eating an apple as he watched. Looking very moved, he thought, Thankfully I ate half of that nose, otherwise, I really wouldn¡¯t be able to beat him. That said, I have the feeling that little Ah Qing... is still being deceptive. He has more secret weapons that he hasn¡¯t revealed.

    While everyone looked on in astonishment, Xu Qing blurred into motion toward the stunned Sima Ru,unching another fist strike.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as Sima Ru tried to fight back. She unleashed all sorts of magical devices, and released a host of grues. In fact, it seemed like all of the projected grues around her shot toward Xu Qing. However, none of them could get through the defenses of his two lifemps to harm either his body or his soul.

    Simu Ru was shoved back again, her heavenly pce shaking. Then Xu Qing closed in for another fist strike.

    No matter how Sima Ru fought back, and no matter how her grues snapped and shed, it didn¡¯t do any good. Her battle prowess wasn¡¯t high enough. The only way she could be effective was if she had two heavenly pces, and could thus seal grues that would be a threat to Xu Qing.

    As Xu Qing attacked explosively, her heavenly pce trembled violently. He struck with fist after fist, shoving Simu Ru higher and higher into the air. Madness filled her eyes as she performed an incantation gesture and took out a blood-colored sealing crystal. It was obviously an extraordinary item, but she didn¡¯t hesitate to crush it.

    Instantly, the withered dwarf in her heavenly pce opened its eyes, and they radiated bloodthirsty brutality.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. Instead ofunching another fist strike, he lifted his hand over his head. Instantly, winds kicked up, and wild colors shed in the sky. It was as if some unspeakable will had begun to gather, which transformed into a violet heavenly saber. This saber wasn¡¯t illusory, but rather, corporeal. What was more to the shock of all onlookers, it wasn¡¯t just a single saber that appeared. There were... seven! Seven heavenly sabers appeared, causing everything to shake. Then Xu Qing dropped his hand, and the sabers shed forth like heavenly punishment. They came from seven directions, making it impossible to evade them. With horrifying might, they shed into the terrified Sima Ru and her heavenly pce.

    Sima Ru shrieked as the sabersnded, shaking her heavenly pce and causing cracking sounds to ring out from within it as seven huge rifts were cut into its surface.

    The dwarf inside was shaken, but seemed about to fight back. However, Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow materialized and greedily locked eyes onto it. The dwarf shrank back into a sitting position.

    Sima Ru was seriously injured and was coughing up blood. Her energy was unstable. But Xu Qing pressed the attack, and moved with even greater speed than before to arrive right in front of Sima Ru. Lifting his right hand, he stabbed it deep into her chest.

    Sima Ru had two hearts, and he grabbed the one on the right-hand side. As she screamed, he ripped it out of her chest.

    Blood sprayed everywhere as a heart-shaped ck stone emerged. Sima Ru¡¯s energy crumbled, and her heavenly pce seemed like it was about to shatter. That was when a sinister wind suddenly sprang up. The power of the wind wrapped up Sima Ru and whisked her away. She disappeared in an instant, and then a harsh voice rang out.

    ¡°I¡¯m stopping this battle to the death. To make up for it, I¡¯m giving you that Gruegloom heart as a gift.¡±

    Xu Qing backed up by about 300 meters and looked up with a frown. It seemed to him that this fight had gone too smoothly for him. Something about it seemed off.

    Master Seventh suddenly appeared next to him. ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it, Fourth Sib. All grievances are wiped out at this point. If that Sima Ru girl has any sense, she¡¯ll thank you in the future. Now hurry up and thank Sect Leader Grue Hunter for the gift.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands in the direction of the House of Grue Hunters and bowed. ¡°Many thanks, Sect Leader Grue Hunter!¡±

    Meanwhile, in the senate of the Eight Sect Coalition, eight figures retracted their divine will.

    Sir Bloodsmelter smiled.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I believe this means I won the bet. Although it was ultimately a deal struck between my son-inw and the Sima n from the House of Grue Hunters, I think all of you saw how outstanding my apprentice¡¯s apprentice is. Now, I hope you can think long and hard about my suggestion for coalition fund allocation. After all, he clearly has the potential to be an Ancient Emperor. We don¡¯t need the ¡®dao child¡¯ title, but thepensation should surpass that of an ordinary dao child. That¡¯s not excessive, is it?¡±

    None of the other seven individuals present said anything. All of them sent a stream of light to Sir Bloodsmelter. Then Patriarch Soaring Cloud snorted coldly and walked off.

 Chapter 273: Not a Nice Place

    <h4>Chapter 273: Not a Nice ce</h4>

    The fight was over, and Xu Qing¡¯s name resounded in the Eight Sect Coalition and the 137 sects that made it up.

    Master Shengyun had been capable of fighting a Gold Core cultivator with a heavenly pce, and had even managed to crush the grand highness from the First Peak in Seven Blood Eyes. However, that was because that grand highness had just broken through, and hade out of seclusion before stabilizing his first heavenly pce.

    Xu Qing waspletely different. He had actually crushed a Gold Core expert with a fully formed heavenly pce. For something like that to happen in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns.

    That was especially true... considering Xu Qing still hadn¡¯t ignited his fourth life me.

    Because of that, the attitudes of the coalition disciples began to change. Though some people were still hostile toward Xu Qing, many hade to revere him. Of that group... the female disciples made the majority. After all, as the Captain had mentioned, Xu Qing¡¯s good looks were a trump card that surpassed his cultivation base.

    Despite all that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t leave thepound after the fight. He spent his time working on cultivation, and making sure both of his lifemps were fully integrated.

    Master Seventh eventually told Xu Qing that the fight was the result of a deal between Seven Blood Eyes and the Sima n.

    Meanwhile, the negotiations with the coalition wereplete, and a final determination had been made about where Seven Blood Eyes would be located. The results were a secret, though, and not even the ordinary delegates knew the details unless Master Seventh chose to tell them.

    Therefore... the Captain, Xu Qing and Third Elder Brother were naturally the first to find out.

    Xu Qing was actually working on an important mission during this, his first visit to the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Before leaving, Zhang San had approached him with eyebrows dancing up and down, and had made Xu Qing promise to get details about where the sect would be located. That information directly rted to the possibility of enormous profit.

    Zhang San wanted Xu Qing to find out the borders of the new sect territory, theyout of what would be inside the borders, and also specifics about what was on the other side of the borders. As Zhang San had said, an event like this only happened once in a blue moon. Zhang San felt that the Captain wasn¡¯t very reliable, and had thus entrusted this mission to Xu Qing. He had also repeatedly warned Xu Qing not to forget about it during the trip.

    After Xu Qing got all the details, the first thing he did was transmit them to Zhang San. Then Zhang San, being the resourceful person he was, held nothing back to purchase teleportation passage to the maind, where he barely had time to say hello to Xu Qing and the Captain before he was busy at work.

    Also busy at work was Third Elder Brother. Without batting an eyelid, he started making various preparations based on the inside information.

    The news soon reached the highnesses from the other mountain peaks. They knew how important news like this was, so they immediately stopped issuing dueling challenges and began doing various things to capitalize on what was happening.

    Considering that, it was no surprise that the news leaked to the public fairly quickly. Once everyone knew where Seven Blood Eyes would end up, things got really crazy. People from all of the various sects in the coalition were at work. One of the results of the negotiations was a stiption that the coalition, to show good faith, was paying for all of the costs for moving Seven Blood Eyes. It really just came down to good manners and not pushing things too far. After all, if any of the other sects found themselves in a simr negotiation, and had been too stingy in the past, they would suffer for it. Beyond that, people in the know from the various coalitions sects were able to profit handsomely because of their inside knowledge. In fact, shortly after the word started to spread, the coalition put a moratorium on real estate transactions.

    At that point, the first wave of teleportations from Seven Blood Eyes began.

    It started with arge group of Sixth Peak disciples. That said, South Phoenix was still the foundation of the sect, and wasn¡¯t going to be abandoned. So only about sixty percent of the disciples came, along with Master Sixth. With them came the Sixth Peak itself.

    The n was to build an entire new city on the spot that had been set aside. It was a major undertaking, and wouldn¡¯t just require cultivators, but also would rely on the help of mortals. Work began immediately.

    Soon the second and third waves of teleportations came. On a daily basis, both disciples and mortals from Seven Blood Eyes arrived to take residence in the new city.

    Seven Blood Eyes was to be located on the other side of a fork in the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. It was connected to what had once been the Seven Sect Coalition by means of eight enormous bridges, each of which was wide enough for a hundred horse carts to cross at the same time.

    Beyond that location was wilderness, from which point you could see the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    The generalyout of the city was already determined. Instead of being a square like the capital city in South Phoenix, from high above, it resembled a huge eye. One end of the city touched the Forbidden Sea, and the other was the part with the bridges connecting to the other coalition cities. A canal was dug out so that the waters of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River made their way through Seven Blood Eyes to the sea.

    The pupil of the enormous eye was where the seven mountain peaks were to be located. As before, the Seventh Peak would administer the Port District.

    Because of all the construction work, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to immerse himself fully in cultivation. As one of the highnesses of the Seventh Peak, there were too many responsibilities to tend to.

    After the preliminary work was done creating the city, preparations began for therge-scale teleportation move, in which the majority of themon citizens and disciples woulde to the city. It was such a huge undertaking that even just making the adjustments to the spell formations took an entire day. By evening, most of the teleportation portals were ready. The sect disciples who were present were keeping a close eye on everything. After all, there would soon be a vast number of mortalsing into the city. They were the foundation of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ economy, and as always, the sect went to great lengths to keep them safe.

    In fact, that was one of Xu Qing¡¯s main responsibilities. Working with him were the Captain and Third Elder Brother. The three of them hovered in midair, with Seven Blood Eyes on the one side with its teleportation portals in a constant state of activity, and a vast wilderness on the other side.

    The massive city walls, as well as the sect¡¯s spell formation, created a barrier between the coalition and the wilderness. However, from a high vantage point, it was possible to see that,pared to the continent of South Phoenix, the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was actually a much more brutal ce.

    Furthermore, because Seven Blood Eyes was so close to the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, Xu Qing had a clear view of those mountains. They looked like the corpse of some massive beast. Dark mountain peaks rose up everywhere, and they were covered with sinister trees. The Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains eventually ran all the way into the sea, although that spot was so far away it wasn¡¯t visible.

    The Captain was next to Xu Qing, munching an apple. ¡°The other end of the mountain range is where you can find the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. As he studied the mountains and the horizon, the teleportation portals in the city behind him rumbled to life, and the light of teleportation shone brightly, illuminating the dome of heaven. Winds blew hard and strong, and the ground trembled. Figures emerged, fully a hundred thousand of them. From high in the sky, they almost looked like ants streaming out into the city. All sorts of facial expressions could be seen, from excitement to apprehension. To them, this was a strange newnd, but it was also a ce to make a new beginning.

    The disciples in the crowd floated up into the air to look around. At the same time, there were already disciples assigned to keep things orderly and direct people where to go. Everyone present was from Seven Blood Eyes.

    As Xu Qing was keeping a close eye on things, the sky over the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains changed colors. Pink clouds suddenly roiled out, apanied by immense pressure that caused lightning bolts to shoot down.

    The high-level cultivators in Seven Blood Eyes immediately noticed it, and Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s face appeared in the sky, gazing in that direction.

    When Xu Qing did the same, he saw something absolutely shocking and ghastly!

    There were thousands ofmon citizens, apparently nonhumans from a small nation in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, who were frantically running away from something. They looked skinny and emaciated, and they had looks of terror and despair on their faces.

    The pink clouds swept over them. That pinkness was very gruish, like a mixture between rouge and ground meat. Transforming into the shape of a mouth, the clouds shot toward the ground. In the blink of an eye, the thousands ofmoners were gobbled up. Then, crunching sounds rang out as blood rained down to the ground. It was really an appalling sight.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as the pink clouds seethed again, and a huge figure became visible within them.

    It was a woman, fully 3,000 meters tall. She was very beautiful, with exquisite facial features, a prominent nose, sculpted cheekbones, and eyes that glittering with scintiting light. Given how close the woman was to Seven Blood Eyes, it was possible to see that her skin was covered with dark spots like that of a leopard. Her waist was very narrow, her teeth were gleaming white, and hanging from her ears were two jade stone earrings that tinkled melodiously when they moved.

    Her gown was made from jade thread, and was covered with over ten thousand spirit pearls, each of which glowed brightly and emanated a powerful spirit energy. As for the jade thread, its fragrant aroma spread out for dozens of kilometers in all directions.

    What was even more astonishing was that on the front of her garment was a totemic phoenix feather embroidered with hair, that glittered brightly and pulsed with a shocking godliness. As she flew along, she held out a mirror which she used to check her skin after her meal.

    As she neared Seven Blood Eyes, Sir Bloodsmelter grimly said, ¡°Halt!¡±

    His voice echoed like thunder through the heavens, and caused the woman in the pink cloud to look up. Seeing the new Seven Blood Eyes city, she looked at Sir Bloodsmelter and sneered.

    ¡°Seven Blood Eyes? So you have a taboo treasure now? How amusing.¡± After stretchingzily, she turned and flew back toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    The entire scene caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict. The woman¡¯s brutality was shocking and her cultivation base terrifying.

    ¡°That,¡± said Third Elder Brother, ¡°was August Spirit Nethersprite from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, where they keep 137 nations around just to devour their citizens, creating a living hell on earth.

    ¡°The second-highest ranking spirit from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain is August Spirit Sunughter. The highest-ranking is August Spirit Sporelight. All three of them are in the Void Returning level, and are considered one of the top six powers in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. They¡¯re unfathomably powerful. She must havee to intimidate us.¡±

    Hearing Third Elder Brother¡¯s words, Xu Qing looked at the distant mountains. He could already sense how brutal of a ce the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was. Although there was happiness and prosperity in the coalition, the outside world was very different. It was a vicious and ruthless ce. It wasn¡¯t a kill-or-be-killed world, but rather a kill-or-be-eaten world.

    It was at this point that Xu Qing suddenly heard a gulp from off to the side. The Captain was looking in the direction August Spirit Nethersprite had disappeared, his eyes glittering.

    ¡°Those were millennium spirit resonance pearls. And that jade cloth was created using the divine ability from the extremely rare Immortal Jade Scripture. That immortal jade cloth is filled with shocking immortal energy. Eating it would lead to untold benefits. And then there¡¯s that phoenix feather embroidered from hair. That godliness was incredible! An amazing set of clothing. My set of clothing!!¡±

 Chapter 274: Brutal Lands

    Chapter 274: Brutal Lands

    Beforeing to the coalition, Xu Qing had read about the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain in the sect files.

    ¡°For 500,000 kilometers around the Dao-Suppressing Mountain, skeletons litter thendscape, and bones stick up out of the ground like a forest. yed skin and melted hair cover everything underfoot, turning it ck.

    ¡°As far as the eye can see, blood and gore cover thends, creating a horrendous atmosphere. Bones can be seen piled up everywhere and instead of fruit hanging from trees, you will see severed heads, still alive, and howling in endless pain and torment as blood drips from them to the ground.

    ¡°There are mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The stench is horrendous in this hell on earth. Within the territory of the Dao-Suppressing Mountain are 137 nations, made up of both humans and nonhumans that are kept for food. When a nation is devoured, another is put in its ce.¡±

    That was the description of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain found in the files of Seven Blood Eyes.

    Those brutalnds bordered the Eight Sect Coalition, and were also near the sea, separated only by the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    Xu Qing knew why the sect had picked this spot to upy. For one thing, it was connected to the coalition as a whole. Though it was near the Dao-Suppressing Mountain, the coalition was also one of the top forces in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. If the Dao-Suppressing Mountain invaded, it would lead to full-scale war.

    Another reason the sect had chosen this spot was that it was close to the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, and the spirit energy was strong. That, in turn, would help Seven Blood Eyes to purge the mutagen from within them.

    Most relevant was the canal that now made its way through the city, which would provide strong immortal energy to both sides of the canal. The tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River belonged to the coalition, but ording to the negotiated agreement, the canal belonged to Seven Blood Eyes. Although the area upied by Seven Blood Eyes was now wildly valuable, before the Evesting Immortal Profundity River tributary filled up, it had been worthless.

    At least, those were Xu Qing¡¯s spections. He hadn¡¯t been present at all the meetings, nor had he even qualified to participate in the discussions between the sect leaders and patriarchs, so he couldn¡¯t be sure.

    But he was already wary about the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain. And it reinforced the fact that the coalition was no paradise. Things seemed very nice here, but it was all built on strength. Nothing was truly certain, but one thing was for sure: if you weren¡¯t strong, then your paradise would disappear, and you would be food for someone else.

    The sunrise and sunset can be changed dramatically, much less the nice conditions here. Xu Qing looked away from the direction where the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountainy, and contemted how weak he was. Once the construction isplete, I¡¯ll ask Master to give me some new divine abilities to study. I need to get stronger!

    Eyes shining with determination, he took a deep breath and continued to keep an eye on the surrounding area.

    Days passed. Construction work went on constantly. Roads were paved, buildings went up, and spell formations were put into ce. The hard work of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples and mortal citizens ensured that the city was rapidly taking shape.

    More and more disciples and mortals arrived on a daily basis. The previously empty city was already starting to thrum with life.

    The seven mountain peaks were brought in and set up in the city center. Of course, Seven Blood Eyes wasn¡¯t going to abandon South Phoenix. They brought in seven new mountain peaks from the nearby Mountains of Truth, which ensured that the grand spell formation continuously functioned. Although there weren¡¯t as many disciples in the old capital city as before, now that Seven Blood Eyes was a supervisory sect, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to recruit more cultivators from South Phoenix and the Forbidden Sea.

    Life went on.

    Now that Seven Blood Eyes was a member of the Eight Sect Coalition, they needed to make sure that their leadership positions matched those of the other sects. For instance, all coalition sects had a sect leader, a position that Seven Blood Eyes never had. Now it did.

    There was no debate over Master Seventh bing the new sect leader. As for the position of Seventh Peak peaklord, it was taken by Master Seventh¡¯s daoist partner, who was Ding Xue¡¯s aunt. [1]

    The current elders were given the new title of dharma protector. Going forward, only Nascent Soul cultivators could be elders. At the moment, only the peaklords were in that level. From that it was obvious that Seven Blood Eyes wanted its peaklords to all be in the Spirit Trove level.

    After the matter of titles and positions was handled, Seven Blood Eyes was officially a member of the coalition. That said, there were sundry other matters to handle, and everyone in the sect was incredibly busy.

    Everyone had at least one or two different responsibilities.

    The sect didn¡¯t want disciples to feel pressure regarding their cultivation, so they distributed a lot of resources, and also issued missions with enticing rewards. Because they weren¡¯t deadly missions, people were very excited to ept them and earn the rewards.

    Xu Qing¡¯s second assignment was to work with some fellow disciples to shove as much mutagen-filled water out of the port and back into the Forbidden Sea. That, in turn, made it possible for other disciples to start building the harbors in the port. Xu Qing had never gone back to South Phoenix after being part of the delegation. He had made a big scene when they debarked, and had then defeated Sima Ru in battle. Everyone felt shaken because of that. As a result, he was exactly like Master Shengyun back in the day, a shining beacon that attracted attention.

    Though no official announcement had been made in the coalition, everyone knew that he was now the number one chosen. Of course, many people were curious about him. Because of that, as Xu Qing worked with the other disciples, implementing the technique to drive out the mutagen from the port, quite a few coalition disciples from other sects were present, watching. To them, the fact that Seven Blood Eyes was joining the coalition was a huge deal, so it was only natural that they would want to take a look at the top disciple from there.

    Many of them were female disciples, and as soon as they caught a glimpse of Xu Qing, their eyes lit up, and they began whispering amongst themselves.

    The Seven Blood Eyes disciples took it as a matter of course. This kind of thing had been happening a lottely. They just carried on, sighing and asionally looking up at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing ignored all that, and focused on the technique to keep the water out of the port. He wasing to discover that his assignments in the sect all came with opportunities to refine his cultivation techniques. For instance, pushing the seawater out required using the Seaforming Scripture, and also allowed him to feel the full pressure of the Forbidden Sea pushing against him. It took full concentration, otherwise he would be sent tumbling backward.

    The effort touched on maintaining stability and forcefulness with dharma force. The pressure of the seawater was like an enormous grindstone constantly polishing him. As Xu Qing came to realize how he was benefiting, he focused even more on doing a good job.

    As he was in the middle of this type of cultivation, Ding Xue arrived.

    She wore a simple blue garment decorated with floating clouds. Her hair was bound in a ponytail, and she had a sword strapped to her back that was decorated with flying phoenixes, and inset with jade. She looked valiant and formidable as she walked through the sea breeze. However, her slightly flushed face andpletely innocent gaze made her seem unusually charming. [2]

    She looked curiously at the female disciples gazing at Xu Qing. And then, after he finished his work and settled down cross-legged to catch his breath, she approached and said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    He opened his eyes, noted her presence, and nodded.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I learned some new things about nts and vegetationtely. I concocted a bottle of hundred-spirits immortal grass serum, and when I took a sip, I thought it tasted great. But... the medicinal efficacy doesn¡¯t seem very high....¡± Upon seeing Xu Qing frown in response to her words, she quickly added, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, my uncle is so busy nowadays, and so is my aunt. And my grandpa never sees anybody. You¡¯re the only one who can help me, Big Bro Xu Qing. If you just have a minute, could you please give even a tip or two to little old Xue¡¯er?¡±

    Ding Xue was charming, and she had a lovely voice that currently sounded a bit coquettish.

    When she mentioned those the three people, Xu Qing really had no choice but to nod in agreement. [3]

    Ding Xue¡¯s eyes brightened, and she took out a bottle along with a healthy stack of spirit notes.

    Upon seeing the spirit notes, Xu Qing felt a bit less irritated at having his cultivation interrupted. Taking the bottle, he examined it briefly. Given his understanding of nts and vegetation, he could tell immediately that it wasn¡¯t poison. He took a sip.

    ¡°Not bad.¡±

    Ding Xue¡¯s face brightened even more. Being very circumspect, she asked a few more questions, then turned to leave. As she did, she nced at all the nearby female disciples from the other sects in the coalition, and she snorted inwardly.

    Those damn floozies. How dare they try to steal Big Bro Xu Qing from me. They were too far away to hear what we were talking about, so all they saw was me giving Big Bro Xu Qing a medicinal serum, and then him drinking it.

    This is the way to show who¡¯s the boss! Although, these people aren¡¯t worth worrying about. I already took care of Gu Muqing; she¡¯s in seclusion trying to reach Foundation Establishment. My biggest enemy right now is Yanyan!

    The mere thought of Yanyan caused Ding Xue to grind her teeth. As she tried to think of a way to get rid of Yanyan, Zhao Zhongheng was stomping toward her from a short distance away.

    He was an important person too, though not on the same level as Xu Qing. He hadn¡¯t given up on Ding Xue, and was convinced that one day she would turn around and realize that the person she was waiting for had been there behind her all along. The mere thought of that caused him to shiver, and then look even more determined than ever.

    Xu Qing noticed what was going on. He was no longer a foolish kid, new to the sect and ignorant of the things that happened between men and women. He knew what the feathered tents in the scavenger basecamps were, and knew why many people frequented them. He had grown up, and along the way, had learned a lot from Huang Yan and Third Elder Brother. That said, such matters still didn¡¯t interest him much.

    Ignoring the scene between Zhao Zongheng and Ding Xue, he focused on cultivation and pushing the seawater out of the port.

    Days passed. After the port construction wasplete, Xu Qing didn¡¯t get any new assignments. Therefore, he sent a voice message to Master Seventh.

    ¡°Master, I want to know more about the coalition chosen. Why do they stay at the four me level and not move on to Gold Core? Also... I feel like I don¡¯t have enough magical techniques. I¡¯m hoping you can help me understand more about all that.¡±

    Only a momentter, Master Seventh replied. ¡°Come see me.¡±

    Eyes lighting up with anticipation, Xu Qing hurried to the Seventh Peak. Master Seventh was now the sect leader, but he still chose to put Sect Leader Pce there. After arriving at the summit, Xu Qing saw Ding Xue¡¯s aunt, who was Master Seventh¡¯s daoist partner. She was angrily storming out of Sect Leader Pce.

    ¡°Well met, Mistress,¡± he said, sping hands.

    She stopped and looked at him, her expression softening. ¡°Hello, Little Fourth. Ding Xue told me how seriously you¡¯ve been taking your cultivation, and what good character you have. I know that you always take good care of her, even when she¡¯s stubborn. And you never refuse her requests. You¡¯re a really good kid.¡± Raising her voice, she continued, ¡°Unlike someone who¡¯s lived for so long yet hasn¡¯t said a single kind or gentle thing ever! He deserves to be alone!¡± She was obviously still angry. However, she still took out a violet bottle and handed it to Xu Qing. ¡°This is a myriad-spirits recuperation pill. Give it to your Master when you head in. I¡¯m not in the mood.¡±

    With that, she left.

    Xu Qing looked curiously at the medicine bottle, then walked into Sect Leader Pce. Master Seventh was there, looking very tired as he worked at painting the wall. He was creating a map of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. There was one spot on the map that attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention. It was on the mainstem of the Eternal Millennium, some distance away from the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, where the river reached the sea.

    In that spot, Master Seventh was painting a person seated in meditation!

    1. We saw Ding Xue¡¯s aunt very briefly in chapter 245, and before that, she had a speaking role in a scene in chapter 166. ?

    2. Ding Xue was previously mentioned in chapter 226, and herst onscreen appearance was in 199. ?

    3. I probably don¡¯t need to remind you, but Ding Xue¡¯s aunt is the new peaklord of the Seventh Peak. Her uncle is Master Seventh, and her grandfather is Sir Bloodsmelter. ?

 Chapter 275: Master Seventh Imparts Techniques

    <h4>Chapter 275: Master Seventh Imparts Techniques</h4>

    There was no one in the spacious interior of the pce other than Master Seventh, working on the painting, and Xu Qing. The servant was nowhere to be seen.

    Looking over his shoulder at Xu Qing, Master Seventh asked, ¡°Are you curious why I¡¯m painting a meditating person by South Tor Ghost Mountain?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°It¡¯s a very important ce in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Once you reach the four-me level, I¡¯ll take you there. Who knows, you might find some good fortune.¡±

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t exin any further. Seeing the medicine bottle in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, he waved his hand. The bottle flew over to him. Opening it, he took a sip, then put it away and sat down at a Go board.

    ¡°Sit across from me,¡± he said, beckoning at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing obediently approached and sat on the other side of the Go board.

    ¡°Do you know how to y?¡± Master Seventh asked.

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you.¡± He picked up a piece and put it onto the corner of the board. Xu Qing thought for a moment, then put a piece in the opposite corner.

    ¡°Go is like life. And it¡¯s also a perfect way to understand a person¡¯s personality. I¡¯ve never lost a game. Ever. Want to know why?¡± Master Seventh put down another piece.

    Xu Qing nodded and, imitating his Master, put down another piece.

    ¡°I don¡¯t y pieces based on the current circumstances, but rather, the situation as a whole. Most people understand how to do that, but often, they have neither the circumstances nor the aptitude to actually pull it off. In the end, they¡¯re left with only regrets.

    ¡°It¡¯s the same with those coalition chosen with 120 dharma apertures. The reason why they stop at four mes without advancing to Gold Core is that they¡¯re thinking about the situation as a whole. They all hope to open a 121st dharma aperture!¡±

    Master Seventh yed a piece.

    A thoughtful look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Back when he was researching Foundation Establishment, he hade to suspect that there was something beyond 120 dharma apertures. An additional dharma aperture. [1]

    Seeing the look on his face, Master Seventh chuckled. ¡°There¡¯s one more dharma aperture after 120. It¡¯s the 121st. And that one aperture ignites an additional life me. That said, the difficulty level of seeding is unimaginable, and requires a spectacr destined opportunity. No one can help you do it; it alles down to you. What¡¯s more, the difficulty doesn¡¯te in opening it, but rather, in finding it.

    ¡°Throughout the history of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, every person who has seeded in opening the 121st dharma aperture found themselves in a spot between life and death. They find destined opportunities in the midst of deadly crises, locate their 121st dharma aperture, and then open it. ording to records and spection, every person has that dharma aperture in a different location, so getting information from people who have seeded is pointless.¡±

    After some thinking, Xu Qing put down a Go piece. ¡°Master, what¡¯s the specific benefit of having five life mes, other than just being stronger?¡±

    ¡°The benefites when you reach the Gold Core level.¡± Master Seventh smiled. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard the phrase ¡®ignite life mes, illuminate heavenly pces.¡¯ The heavenly pces mentioned... are critical in the Gold Core level.

    ¡°Gold Core cultivators with heavenly pces have inherent limitations. And those limitations are rted to life mes. If you have three mes, you can illuminate six pces. That¡¯s as far as most disciples can go, even the good ones.

    ¡°What that means is that someone with three life mes who steps into Gold Core will reach the peak of that level when they illuminate six heavenly pces. But the reality is that six heavenly pces are just the start.¡± Master Seventh stopped talking at that point to let things sink in a bit for Xu Qing.

    After thinking the matter over some, Xu Qing asked, ¡°That would equal thirty-six-me battle prowess?¡±

    Master Seventh nodded. ¡°You can think of it that way. I said it¡¯s just a start because above the six heavenly pces is the life mist. There are heavenly pces in the mist, but the mist makes them difficult to illuminate. It¡¯s only with a fourth life me that you can illuminate the seventh pce.

    ¡°However, don¡¯t think of it as ¡®just another pce.¡¯ Seven pces can crush six pces, just the same as you can easily crush a five-me cultivator with your six-me power. That¡¯s why cultivators with four life mes all want to find that 121st dharma aperture, ignite a fifth life me, and then use it to illuminate their eighth heavenly pce. The further they push their limits, the greater the gain will beter!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s words echoed in Xu Qing''s ears as he thought about what it all meant. He nodded.

    ¡°You obviously have experience with lifemps. However, only some of their usefulness manifests in Foundation Establishment. It¡¯s in Gold Core, when dealing with heavenly pces, that they can be truly useful.

    ¡°When someone with a lifemp breaks into the Gold Core level and begins illuminating heavenly pces, the lifemp will instantly illuminate one of the pces in the life mist. There¡¯s no waiting. No work involved. It happens instantly. The lifemp is itself like a gold core. A ¡®life core,¡¯ if you will. Given your aptitude, if you¡¯re able to find that 121st dharma aperture, then you should ultimately have ten heavenly pces!¡± Master Seventh looked closely at Xu Qing. ¡°Now do you understand why lifemps are so valuable to Gold Core cultivators?¡± [2]

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered. It was the first time during the entire conversation that it happened. Some of the information corroborated his previous spections, and overall, it left him shaken. A sense of danger sparked to life within him, not because of Master Seventh, but rather, because of all the malicious Gold Core cultivators he was likely to run into in the future.

    ¡°Feeling scared?¡± Master Seventh smiled.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing replied honestly.

    ¡°So, what are you going to do about it?¡± Master Seventh asked, seemingly very interested in hearing the answer.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and calmed himself. He couldn¡¯t change anything about the situation, and frankly, didn¡¯t even feel like talking about it. The only thing he could think to do was ignite his fourth life me as soon as possible, and then start working on the fifth. And if that didn¡¯t work, then he needed to break through to Gold Core as quickly as he could. Once he reached Gold Core, then his two lifemps would instantly illuminate two heavenly pces. That,bined with his poisons, would at least give him a measure of safety.

    However, Xu Qing then realized that those were all things that would happen in the long-term. After some more thinking, he nced at Master Seventh out of the corner of his eye. He hadn¡¯t forgotten what Master Seventh mentioned after the fight with Master Shengyun, that he should have worked together with Big Sib, Second Sib, and Third Sib.

    ¡°Help me, Master,¡± he said quietly.

    Hearing this, Master Seventhughed heartily. He seemed pleased with the response. Pointing at Xu Qing¡¯s head, he continued, ¡°You need to wear that Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown I gave you. It¡¯ll protect you against the Nascent Soul level!¡±

    Then Master Seventh waved his hand, and five balls of light flew out of his sleeve. He flicked his finger at one of them, and it became a jade slip that flew to Xu Qing. ¡°The instructions for the crown are in there. Study themter.¡±

    Xu Qing took the jade slip, then looked at the other four balls of light, his heart racing.

    Master Seventh flicked his finger again, and the second ball of light approached Xu Qing. When Xu Qing reached out to take it, it transformed into a palm-sized cloth doll. It looked very lifelike. Its eyes even moved, locking onto Xu Qing, and it bared its teeth, revealing a host of fangs. From the way it struggled in his grip, it didn¡¯t seem to like people holding it.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lifeswapping ghost doll. It¡¯s essentially a high-level grue item. It naturally has three lives, and once you form a blood bond with it, it will die in your ce up to three times. You should be safe in the sect, but when you go out, take it with you.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped as he kept a tight grip on the lifeswapping ghost doll. Perhaps because he was holding it so tightly, the ghost doll let loose an anguished cry, and struggled even more fiercely. He ignored it and looked at the remaining three balls of light. It was hard to tell what glittered more brightly, them or his eyes.

    Looking pleased, Master Seventh continued, ¡°Imperial-ss techniques aren¡¯t easy to pass on to others, so I can¡¯t help you with that. You¡¯ll have to experiment on your own. But I can tell you that once your imperial-ss technique reaches a higher level, it will be incredibly terrifying. And the fastest way for it to improve is for you to devour the imperial-ss techniques of others. Of course... if it¡¯s the exact same technique, the result will be better.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as certain implications urred to him.

    ¡°You¡¯re too weak right now,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Besides, the president isn¡¯t a fool. He knows that doing something to you would harm the rtionship with Seven Blood Eyes, and the detriments would far outweigh the benefits. So you don¡¯t need to worry about him being a threat.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, thinking about Master Shengyun and his ravagemist bird. He suddenly really wanted to run into Master Shengyun again. Next, he looked at the third ball of light.

    ¡°Master Shengyun said that your weakness is that youck magical techniques. That¡¯s because you had no Master before. All of my apprentices have different techniques and divine abilities. And all of them were carefully selected, curated, and passed out by me, tailored to the needs of each individual.¡±

    With another flick of his finger, Master Seventh sent the third ball of light to Xu Qing.

    There was no physical item within the ball of light. Instead, it was a sealing mark that settled on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead and filled his mind with intense rumbling sounds.

    At the same time, Master Seventh provided information. ¡°The first technique I¡¯m giving you is a magical technique called Ninefold Tsunami. With this technique, you summon a huge sea, and then use the power of nine waves to create tsunamis backed by the devastating crushing power of the sea.¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as various images depicting the technique appeared in his mind. He could see that, with the wave of his hand, he could summon a huge sea. As the waves rolled out, the fury of the sea could crush anything in its path.

    ¡°The second technique I¡¯m giving you is a grue technique. It¡¯s called... the Dark Serenity Curse!¡± Master Seventh flicked his finger, and the fourth ball of light moved forward, and the sealing mark fused into Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    Instead of rumbling sounds, his mind filled with a sinister wind that filled every inch of his flesh and blood. And as he exhaled, his breath came out as a white mist. Xu Qing felt like he could see an incredibly withered finger, pulsing with a very gruish aura, stretching out from a ck vortex to crush everything with ghastly might.

    ¡°This Dark Serenity Curse is something I personally created with knowledge I gained from studying the Dark Serenity Fingers. [3]

    ¡°The final thing I¡¯m going to teach you... isn¡¯t a magical technique or a grue technique, but rather, a secret technique!

    ¡°I¡¯ve noticed you like using your fists when fighting, so this secret technique should suit you well. It¡¯s called the Within the Nine Springs. [4]

    ¡°When using this technique, you need to firstnd eight fist strikes on your opponent. After that, your ninth blow will destroy one of their dharma apertures. Even Gold Core cultivators with heavenly pces rely on life mes and dharma apertures as their ultimate foundation! This is a very domineering technique, and also very treacherous. Use it with care. If you use it on someone to damage their foundation, but they survive to tell the tale, then it will make it much more difficult for you to use the move on others.¡±

    Master Seventh flicked his finger, and the sealing mark from the fifth ball of light fused into Xu Qing.

    ¡°Up to now, I¡¯ve never revealed to anyone that I have this technique. You¡¯re the only one. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m being partial. Rather, it doesn¡¯t fit the style of your Elder Brothers and Elder Sister. Again, use it with care.¡±

    1. It was in???

    2. Some of these concepts, such as the life mist and the role of lifemps in Gold Core, were mentioned previously in???

    3. The Dark Serenity Fingers were introduced by Huang Yikun in???

    4. The Nine Springs is another of the many Chinese terms for hell or the underworld. The name of this technique is also an idiom which means something along the lines of ¡°in theherworld, in hell, after death.¡± ??

 Chapter 276: Swordsages

    Chapter 276: Swordsages

    As soon as Xu Qing left Sect Leader Pce, he took the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown out of his bag of holding and put it on his head. He had known before it was an extraordinary item, that much was obvious given how envious the Captain had been. Now that he knew what it could do, he wanted it on his head before he left the Seventh Peak. As soon as it was on, he performed an incantation gesture that made the crown fade away until it wasn¡¯t visible to the naked eye. In fact, it would even be invisible to divine sense. Xu Qing was very pleased.

    As a highness of the Seventh Peak, he had the right to reside in a mansion grotto. But he was used to being on the water. Unfortunately, he had no dharmaskiff right now, but he would still rather be close to the sea, so he got lodgings in the Port District. Right now, he would just have to wait for Zhang San to make him a new watercraft.

    Back in the room he had rented, he checked all of his spell formations and other preparations to make sure no one had been inside while he was away. Then he sat down cross-legged to review the new techniques Master Seventh had given him.

    The magical technique is quite formidable, but I¡¯ll need to get familiar with it before I can unleash its full potential. It¡¯s the same with the grue technique. I¡¯ll need to find a ce where I can experiment with it in private. As for the secret technique....

    The sensation he got from the sealing mark in his mind caused his eyes to glitter. This technique was terrifying. Truth be told, he had never even been aware that secret techniques even existed.

    I wonder if some of the things Master Shengyun used in our fight were secret techniques.

    Thinking back, his guess was that none of them were ssified in that manner. And even if they were, none couldpare to Within the Nine Springs.

    With nine fist strikes, I can destroy a dharma aperture. In a fight with someone I¡¯m evenly matched with, this technique will be my greatest asset.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he began working hard at familiarizing himself with the technique as it existed in the sealing mark in his mind. A whole day passed.

    Next, he took a drop of his blood and put it onto the forehead of the lifeswapping ghost doll. As soon as he did that, the doll¡¯s eyes went ck, it yawned, and then it fell asleep. Xu Qing carefully put it inside his robe. Feeling very pleased with all thetest developments, he did some thinking.

    The protection provided by the Supreme-Limitless Crown will keep me safe in most deadly crises. However, that will only be my first line of defense. If I run into something so dangerous it can destroy the crown, then the lifeswapping ghost doll will be my second line of defense. But that¡¯s really not enough.

    After some more thought, he disguised himself in some ordinary clothing and went out into the city to look for something specific. Soon, he was in the neighboring district, which was the territory of the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect. After searching for a short time, he found a shop that sold the items he wanted. Entropic teleportation talismans.

    Things like this couldn¡¯t be purchased in Seven Blood Eyes, but in the big shops in a ce like the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, they were definitely avable. That said, they were very expensive.

    Though it pained Xu Qing to spend so much money, he bought three.

    First line of defense, the Supreme-Limitless Crown. Second line of defense, the lifeswapping ghost doll. And if I run into something so dangerous that the ghost doll has to swap its life for my own, then I¡¯ll use an entropic teleportation talisman to get to safety.

    With that taken care of, Xu Qing went back to the Seven Blood Eyes district. Walking the streets, he could see all sorts of huge construction projects going on. The building work was going along at high speed. As he strolled, he got a voice message from Zhang San.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I just finished my assignment from the sect. If you¡¯re free,e over. The Captain and Huang Yan are here. Also, someone gave me a letter to pass to you.¡±

    Curious, Xu Qing changed directions and headed to the new Transportation Division where Zhang San was. Upon arriving, he saw well over a hundred huge warehouses. Compared to the old Transportation Division, this ce was farrger.

    As usual, Zhang San was squatting on a pile of cargo. The Captain squatted nearby eating an apple. And in front of them was Huang Yan, who was giving some very thorough instructions to Zhang San. Huang Yan also happened to be holding the very same Spirit Breath Lamp that Xu Qing had sold him. [1]

    Everyone here was someone he knew well. As he approached, the three of them called out greetings. The Captain chuckled, Zhang San looked at him with shining eyes, and Huang Yan patted his belly, looked Xu Qing up and down, and smiled broadly.

    ¡°I heard you got two lifemps, Xu Qing,¡± Huang Yan said. ¡°Hahaha! Congrattions! Congrattions!¡±

    Clearing his throat, the Captain said, ¡°It¡¯s been a few days since you went to see Master. I bet you got some good stuff, didn¡¯t you? Comee, little Ah Qing. Give us a look. I¡¯ll help you assess everything. Don¡¯t let the old man hoodwink you.¡±

    Ignoring the Captain, Xu Qing gave Huang Yan a grin and then looked at Zhang San and exined what he needed done in terms of his dharmaskiff.

    ¡°You blew it up again? Did you notice the Participation Effect that I installed?¡± Zhang San didn¡¯t seem very surprised at all that Xu Qing had blown up another dharmaskiff, and actually seemed more excited to hear about the Participation Effect. [2]

    Thinking back, Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°No way!¡± Zhang San said, sounding very disappointed. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me I installed it incorrectly.¡± The only thing Zhang San could think to do was make sure that the Participation Effect was easier to activate next time. Taking out a letter, he offered it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Do you remember that girl who joined the sect at the same time as you? Her name was Li Zimei. I eventually got her transferred to the Transportation Division. She¡¯s a hardworking girl.¡± Zhang San sighed. ¡°It just so happened that the three chosen from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society noticed her. I guess there was some discussion between the two sects, because they ended up taking her away. They said her constitution is perfectly suited for the techniques of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.¡± [3]

    The Captain looked very curious, and even Huang Yan was eying the letter, but Xu Qing just put it into his bag of holding without reading it. He remembered Li Zimei, and how embarrassed she¡¯d looked outside the restaurant that time she went back to get the leftovers, only to be scolded by the waiter.

    Seeing that it was gettingte, Huang Yan went back to what he had been saying earlier to Zhang San.

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San, you absolutely must help me make this thing properly. We¡¯re right around the corner from me and Elder Sister¡¯s 3,344th day anniversary. I don¡¯t want to get her anything too expensive, because then she¡¯ll take it the wrong way. But I have to give her something. That¡¯s why I want you to turn the me from thismp into a hairpin. That¡¯s going to be my gift for her.¡± [4]

    Hearing this, Zhang San pped himself on the chest and said, ¡°Of course. I can do that, no problem.¡±

    Huang Yan sighed. ¡°Ai. Why did Seven Blood Eyes have to move to this crappy ce? South Phoenix is way, way better. Don¡¯t you think, Xu Qing? Why not head back there? I¡¯ve been trying to persuade Elder Sister to go back.¡±

    While Xu Qing thought seriously about the suggestion, the Captain also sighed. Finishing his apple, he took out a pear and said, ¡°Just hearing about South Phoenix makes me wistful. I had this really amazing n. I¡¯d thought the whole thing through. I even got all the details from the Intelligence Division, and was just about to go through with it. Ai. Well, whatever. I guess you can say that me Phoenix got lucky.¡±

    Huang Yan had been just about to leave, but hearing the Captain¡¯s words, he stopped and curiously asked, ¡°You had a n rting to me Phoenix? What were you going to do?¡±

    Xu Qing also looked over at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°I was nning to sneak into me Phoenix¡¯s nest and take something. What a pity. Thankfully, I already have a new n ready to go.¡±

    Huang Yan stared fixedly, clearly waiting to hear more about the new n.

    The Captain nced around, then lowered his voice. ¡°Do you guys know about the swordsages?¡± [5]

    Zhang San seemed mystified, as did Xu Qing. Huang Yan just stood there blinking and looking simrly curious.

    The Captain nced suspiciously at Huang Yan. Something seems off about this fatty....

    However, after a moment, he continued, ¡°A swordsage is a member of the Swordsage Division, one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humankind. Their headquarters is in the imperial capital. The division is divided into seven pces that govern the seven counties. Every pce has courts. In other words, the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture has a Swordsage Court.

    ¡°If you join a Swordsage Court, then you be a swordsage, and then no sect can tell you what to do. As long as you don¡¯t betray humankind, you can basically do anything you want. Put frankly, if you can be a swordsage, then you be a top figure among all humans. You¡¯re an official part of the imperial bureaucracy, and get to live off the government. Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity might have gone off to the holynds, but the imperial bureaucracy still exists, and the banner of humankind still strikes fear into the hearts of nonhumans.

    ¡°As a swordsage, you can arrest anyone who even looks at you the wrong way. If you¡¯re not stronger than them, you can issue an arrest warrant. That¡¯s totally different from a sect bounty list. It¡¯s like a bounty list for all humankind.

    ¡°Have a problem with Patriarch Soaring Cloud? You can just have him arrested! As for nonhumans, you can crush them on a whim. And of course, no one would dare to cause problems for you. identally bump into a swordsage and you¡¯ll head to the chopping block to be beheaded.

    ¡°Beyond that, swordsages can cultivate Dark Serenity secret magics. I¡¯ve heard they¡¯re really amazing. In fact, once there was someone who cultivated a secret magic like that, and they very nearly killed me Phoenix with a single sword move!¡±

    Huang Yan¡¯s jaw dropped.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever, as he was used to the Captain and his deliberately mystifying hyperbole.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯sck of expression, the Captain raised his eyebrows. ¡°Little Ah Qing, I heard that Master Shengyun survived that fight with you. Patriarch Soaring Cloud used some sort of secret magic to heal him. It was very, very expensive, and the president of the coalition even had to help. It¡¯s hard to say whether that¡¯s a potential cmity, but what I do know is that people are saying he didn¡¯t take the defeat to heart. In fact, he went into seclusion to break through to the five-me level!¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid, but his eyes flickered with cold light.

    ¡°However, if you became a swordsage, then all it would take would be a word from you, and Master Shengyun would be shaking in his boots! That¡¯s why my n... is to be a swordsage!¡± The Captain finished his pear and took out an orange, peeled it, then continued, ¡°That way, it won¡¯t matter what other grand ns I hatch in the future, no one will dare to mess with me. If they try to, I¡¯ll punish them with the full authority of all humankind!¡±

    ¡°How do you be a swordsage?¡± Zhang San asked excitedly.

    ¡°They have a very rigorous screening and testing process. They only pick the best of the best; every ten years, they let in five new people. Based on my calctions, the examination isn¡¯t very far away. The local Swordsage Court is near the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and I¡¯m getting everything ready to participate. When ites time to head over there, I¡¯ll let all of you know.¡± With that, the Captain stood, wiped the dust from his rear end, and then waved goodbye and left.

    Huang Yan also departed. By the time Xu Qing and Zhang San finished discussing all the details of his dharmaskiff, the sun was setting. Finally, Xu Qing left.

    ***

    Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Eight Sect Coalition, specifically in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, there was a secret location where countless spell formations had been set up in ndestine fashion around a huge blood cistern.

    Inhuman screams of agony echoed out constantly from that blood cistern, both day and night.

    Eight ancient swords rose up from the blood, and atop each of them a person sat cross-legged. There were men and women, and most were young. All of them radiated Nascent Soul cultivation base fluctuations.

    Thebined power of the swords released streams of sword energy, creating a web that weighed down on the blood cistern. Atop that web was an enormous golden crow, looking down and absorbing the blood.

    An old man hovered in the air off to the side. He was none other than Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    As he looked down into the blood cistern, his expression was very unsightly.

    ¡°Grandson,¡± he murmured sadly, ¡°just hang in there a bit longer. The poison that scumbag hit you with is unique and powerful, and none of my healing methods can purge it. I don¡¯t know how to heal you. Even just keeping you alive is hard enough. The only thing keeping you going is the projection of the president¡¯s imperial-ss technique with its powerful life force, which keeps the poison stable.

    ¡°You can tell that scumbag hase across some good fortune. Grandson, your name, Shengyun, means ¡®radiance and light.¡¯ The omens that appeared when you were born indicate that you can walk the path of the Ancient Emperors. You can¡¯t give up! Hang in there! You will wrest back the glory that belongs to you. All of his assets belong to you!¡± [6]

    Within the blood cistern was a skeletal figure that only retained about thirty percent of its flesh and blood. Expression vicious, he screamed manically, ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you, Xu Qing!¡±

    1. Xu Qing got the Spirit Breath Lamp in chapter 117, and sold it to Huang Yan in chapter 149. It is not a lifemp. I saw a lot ofments from readers who mistakenly thought the Spirit Breath Lamp was a lifemp. The Captain stated very clearly in 117 that the Spirit Breath Lamp is not a lifemp, but rather a knockoff that doesn¡¯tpare to an actual lifemp. ?

    2. The Participation Effect was mentioned in chapter 195. ?

    3. Li Zimei was with Xu Qing on his first trip up the Seventh Peak in chapter 51. He gave her some words of encouragement in chapter 68, and thest we saw her was when he greeted her in the Transportation Division in chapter 79. The chosen from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society appeared in chapter 226 and one of them also showed up in chapter 236. ?

    4. 3,344 is about nine years. The reason this number is relevant is that it sounds simr to a Chinese expression that means ¡°generation after generation¡± or ¡°incarnation after incarnation.¡± When used in romantic contexts, it¡¯s like saying ¡°your entire life¡± or ¡°all your lives.¡± In other words, a couple will be together for ¡°incarnation after incarnation¡± i.e. forever. ?

    5. In Chinese, the swordsages are literally ¡°sword graspers¡± or ¡°sword wielders.¡± It sounds pretty cool in Chinese. In this case I¡¯m taking a bit of a liberty with the trantion to have something that sounds more impressive. The swordsages were previously mentioned by Master Shengyun in chapter 255, though it was in his thoughts, which is why Xu Qing has never heard of them. This point is emphasized by the author. ?

    6. As mentioned in chapter 277, Master Shengyun¡¯s daoist name is based on his real name, Chu Shengyun. Sheng means ¡°holy, sacred, saint, sage¡± and Yun is a fancy and sort of rare character that means ¡°sunlight.¡± The direct trantion of the name would be something like ¡°holy sunlight.¡± ?

 Chapter 277: A Young Man with a Mask

    <h4>Chapter 277: A Young Man with a Mask</h4>

    The construction was finished on the new Seven Blood Eyes capital city. After numerous teleportations, the poption hadn¡¯t reached the same level as back on the continent of South Phoenix. Of course, the coalition was made up of a total of 137 sects, so there was no shortage of other people interested in the new city. Visitors came to do business, go shopping, or sometimes just make friends. Regardless, the new city bustled with noise and excitement.

    Adjustments had to be made to the various official departments of the sect, as well as the people that made them up. As before, Huang Yan was in Pilot Assistance. His beloved Second Elder Sister was the deputymander of the Department of Patrol and Investigation, which fit her personality perfectly. Her mere presence struck fear into the hearts of petty criminals.

    New departments were created, including ones to handle rtions with other sects in the coalition. For example, there was the Department of Commerce. When it came to determining if an organization was strong or weak, there was more to it than just high-level cultivators and taboo treasures. Another very important factor was wealth. That was a universal truth that applied to any location where people gathered inrge numbers. It was only to be expected that a Department of Commerce was required. It oversaw all Seven Blood Eyesmercial interests, whether externally or internally. The deputymander of that department was selected directly by Master Seventh, and it was none other than Third Elder Brother.

    Master Seventh knew that Xu Qing and the Captain got along well, so he arranged for them to work together in the most important department.

    The Special Security Division.

    The name of the division didn¡¯t fit the style of South Phoenix. But it sounded appropriate for a government department in a big coalition. It was tasked with special operations rting to safety and security. Seven Blood Eyes wasn¡¯t the only ce to have a Special Security Division. All seven of the major sects had one. They were really a unified body overseen by a centralmand, and they had authority both internally and externally.

    The director of the division was Master Sixth.

    There were two deputy directors: the Captain and Xu Qing.

    Master Sixth didn¡¯t intend to watch over daily operations, so he delegated authority to the Captain and Xu Qing to handle most affairs.

    The locations of the various departments were adjusted. Offices were built near the eight bridges that led to the main part of the megacity. It was roughly triangr inyout, with over a hundred structures, each of which had its own courtyard. Though the structures were all standalone, together, they created one unified area.

    There were a host of smaller departments. Over 3,000 disciples from the various mountain peaks were assigned to positions, with about half of them being former constables from the Violent Crimes Division. One of them was the Mute.

    After Xu Qing received his assignment and was heading over to check in for the first time, he thought about how he would be working in the same division as the Captain again, and decided to pick up some apples from a cart along the way. After purchasing the apples, he walked a bit further and noticed a newly opened immortal hot spring, where he saw a familiar face.

    It was none other than Xu Xiaohui. [1]

    When Xu Xiaohui caught sight of him, she called out a greeting and then held out a jade slip for him to take. ¡°Elder Brother Xu, a girlfriend of mine and I started this new immortal hot spring. If you have time,e try it out. With that jade slip you can get in for free.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing nodded, then noticed a young woman standing behind Xu Xiaohui. It was his informant. As it turned out, Xu Xiaohui had started a new business with Xu Qing¡¯s informant.

    As far as Xu Qing was concerned, there weren¡¯t enough people in this world like Xu Xiaohui, who knew how to repay kindnesses. She didn¡¯t have a very amazing cultivation base, but she was a good person. Therefore, he would do his best to help her. After taking the jade slip, he continued on his way to the main entrance of the Special Security Division.

    ¡°Well met, Director!¡± said the officer on duty, offering a respectful salute. From the passionate look in his eyes, he had obviously been a constable in the Violent Crimes Division.

    Xu Qing nodded and went inside. He recognized almost everyone present, including Ding Xiaohai. He was the same one who had worked so hard to be a conve disciple. After his gains in the Merfolk Isles, he reached Foundation Establishment. But now, he looked at Xu Qing with aplicated expression.

    Averting his gaze, he sped hands and bowed deeply. ¡°Well met, Director.¡±

    Xu Qing took a look at him and saw that he did have extraordinary aptitude. He already had a life me, and had opened about 40 dharma apertures. For most people, achieving that in only a few years wasn¡¯t easy.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like him, as the mere sight of him brought up thoughts of Zhou Qingpeng. That said, everyone had their own way of living, and thus, he looked away and continued walking.

    Ding Xiaohai watched him go and sighed deeply. He knew that Xu Qing still remembered the Zhou Qingpeng incident, and yet Ding Xiaohai still didn¡¯t think he had done anything wrong. In a chaotic world, everyone had to think about themselves before anyone else. [3]

    When Xu Qing reached the heart of the Special Security Division, he finally found the Captain.

    The Captain was studying a heap of files and asionally issuing new orders to consolidate the various branches of the division. He looked like he was very busy.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing mused that the Captain really was suited to work like this. Taking out one of the apples he¡¯d bought along the way, he ced it on the Captain¡¯s desk, then sat down off to the side and closed his eyes to meditate.

    Shortly after, the Captain looked up, grabbed the apple, and took a bite. Then he noticed Xu Qing meditating off to the side and instantly felt a bit irritated. In fact, he decided that the best thing would be for Xu Qing to take over the most difficult assignments. He cleared his throat.

    ¡°Deputy Director Xu!¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. ¡°Hey, Eldest Brother. Want more apples?¡±

    Xu Qing took out two more apples and ced them on the desk.

    The Captain looked at the apples, then back at Xu Qing. His expression became very grave. ¡°Cut it with this mrkey. You¡¯ve picked up some very bad habits, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing considered his words for a moment, then took out a jade slip and put it on the desk.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± the Captain asked, sounding surprised.

    Looking the Captain straight in the eyes, Xu Qing said, ¡°Along the way here I noticed a new immortal hot spring that opened around the corner. I figured you might like the ce, so I arranged for this jade slip that can get you in for twenty percent off.¡±

    Hearing this, the Captain immediately smiled, and his irritation from before vanished. Though he still felt that Xu Qing had some bad habits, at least he had a sense of propriety, and knew how to suck up to his Elder Brother. Realizing that he shouldn¡¯t be petty, the Captain changed his mind and decided not to hand over the most difficult responsibilities to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Ah, whatever,¡± he said. ¡°The old man gave me too many things to handle in this new Special Security Division. I was thinking of assigning you the job of smoothing out all the problems with the other coalition sects. But given your personality, you¡¯d probably think it was too much trouble to talk things out, and would just start killing people. So I¡¯ll handle it. How about instead, you take care of something rted to the splitting of profits and privileges between our sect and the coalition. That¡¯ll be a breeze.¡±

    The Captain flipped through the files until he found one in particr that he handed to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Specifically,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°the coalition¡¯s Spell Formation Department has been dragging their feet on finalizing the transfer papers for our Seven Blood Eyes Formation.¡±

    Xu Qing took the file. The truth was that he really didn¡¯t want to waste time on something like this. He had been preparing to clear his schedule to research some poisons and work on his cultivation. Apparently, he had no choice, though. Taking the file, he turned to leave.

    ¡°Also,¡± the Captain said, ¡°the coalition headquarters notified us that we¡¯ll be in the rotation to do river inspection tours. The eight sects take turns handling that. When the timees, the two of us can go do some sightseeing, assuming you have nothing better to do.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and left. He headed toward the Spell Formation Division¡¯s headquarters in the Lunisr Dao Pce district, taking with him about a hundred disciples from the Third Peak who specialized in spell formations. Along the way, he asked them why they thought the headquarters seemed to be dragging their feet.

    The Third Peak disciple in charge of the group sighed and answered, ¡°Elder Brother Xu, the higher-ups have already negotiated the business side of things. It¡¯s the underlings that are causing problems. Especially the people from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Every time we have a meeting to handle something, they don¡¯t show up. It makes it impossible to get anything done.¡±

    ¡°Soaring Cloud Sword Sect?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Not saying anything further, he hurried along to the Spell Formation Division.

    Upon arriving, he delivered the file. After waiting for some time, the people in charge of the project showed up. As they neared, and realized it was Xu Qing that was waiting for them, they hurried over.

    ¡°Well met, Elder Brother Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, we¡¯re so sorry to keep you waiting. If we¡¯d known it was you that wasing, we would havee over at once.¡±

    People throughout the Eight Sect Coalition were already intimidated by Xu Qing¡¯s name. That said, he didn¡¯t do anything to amplify the effect. Looking over the disciples that hade, he didn¡¯t notice anyone from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Transferring control of the spell formation required people from all seven of the other sects to be present. If even one was missing, it wouldn¡¯t work.

    Because the patriarch and matriarch of Spiritgloam Valley and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect were already friends with Sir Bloodsmelter, the three sects got along well.

    As it happened, the person in charge of this project was a female disciple from Spiritgloam Valley. Eyes glittering, she softly said, ¡°Elder Brother Xu, if the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect doesn¡¯te, then I¡¯m afraid we won¡¯t be able to transfer the spell formation....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Then he handed a jade slip to one of the other disciples. ¡°Take this to Chu Yunfeng in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Tell him to handle the matter immediately. If it¡¯s not done today, I¡¯ll go over there to settle ounts with him personally.¡±

    Chu Yunfeng was the disciple Xu Qing had crushed in Seven Blood Eyes who had identified himself as a Junior Brother of Master Shengyun. [4]

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged to wait. Everyone else exchanged nces and stood by. It didn¡¯t take long for the jade slip to reach the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Chu Yunfeng was himself sitting cross-legged in meditation when it arrived. After reading it, his eyes turned bloodshot.

    ¡°Poison Demon Xu Qing! This guy is such a bully! He thinks an IOU jade slip will get me to help him out? Quit dreaming, buddy!¡±

    Snorting coldly, he tossed the jade slip off to the side. A few hourster, he opened his eyes and looked out at the sky and realized... the day was almost over. Grumbling the entire time, he sent a message to the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s Spell Formation Department and angrily barked some orders. As a chosen of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, his words carried some weight, and it didn¡¯t take long before the Spell Formation Department disciples returned, dejected and depressed. The spell formation transfer wasplete.

    By the time the work was done, it was evening. This evening was different from most other evenings. The sky was as crimson as fire, very beautiful, but at the same time, reminiscent of blood. It was almost like someone had used blood to paint the sky for the benefit of the god above.

    As Xu Qing walked back toward the Seven Blood Eyes capital city, he looked up at the red glow and thought back to what he had dreamed just beforeing to the Revered Ancient maind. [5]

    ***

    In a location in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture a great distance away from the Eight Sect Coalition, close to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, there was swamnd. It wasn¡¯t a forbidden region, but the mutagen levels were high, and it was a deadly ce. The swamp was located in a low-lying section ofnd where water gathered easily. There was also a forest of jagged, ck boulders that jutted up out of the water.

    As the crimson light of evening spread out over the water of the swamp, it made it look like blood.

    Within that bloody glow were two figures.

    One of them was prostrated in worship. The other sat atop one of thoserge boulders, one foot resting on the rock, the other leg hanging free, leaning back on one arm as he looked up into the crimson sky.

    Both of these figures wore masks. Shockingly, the masks were decorated to look like the half-face of a god up in the sky. The only difference was that the eyes of the mask were open, not closed. And those opened eyes revealed the eyes of the people who wore the masks.

    The prostrating individual said, ¡°Lord, the Night Dove operatives in the continent of South Phoenix have been abandoned, as per your instructions. I sent them to Seven Blood Eyes, and used that sect to get rid of most of them. Bai Li is dead, also at the hands of Seven Blood Eyes. He was killed by the peaklord of their Sixth Peak.¡±

    His voice was respectful and his eyes were full of fanaticism. He was the leader of Night Dove, and bore the same name as the organization he led. But one word from the person on the boulder, and he would forsake all Night Dove operatives and Night Dove interests. In short, he would go so far as to die for this other person.

    Continuing, he said, ¡°There were two other people of little note that participated in Bai Li¡¯s death. I mentioned them in the official report. Seven Blood Eyes joined the coalition, which changed its name to the Eight Sect Coalition. I have a contact there who wishes to join Torchlight. He invited us to observe his uing Blood-Soaked Performance. He said that we would very much enjoy it.¡± [6]

    His words were met with silence.

    After some time passed, the person looking at the sky turned to gaze in the direction of the Forbidden Sea. Then heughed enigmatically. ¡°Let¡¯s go watch. While we¡¯re there, I can give Seven Blood Eyes a blood-soaked gift.¡±

    Based on this person¡¯s voice, he was a young man.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Night Dove said, and then faded from existence.

    Sometime after Night Dove left, the crimson color in the sky faded, and the moon appeared. The young man, who was still looking up into the sky, gazed at the moon and whispered, ¡°The sect my lil¡¯ bro is in... I haven¡¯t seen it for eleven years. Another hindrance in this particr life of mine.¡± [7][8]

    The young man smiled in a very meaningful way.

    1. Xu Xiaohui joined the sect at the same time as Xu Qing back in???

    2. I feel like I probably don¡¯t need to include this footnote, but I¡¯m going to just in case. In both Chinese and English, when she says ¡®girlfriend,¡¯ it doesn¡¯t imply a romantic rtionship. It doesn¡¯t preclude it either. It just means ¡®close female friend.¡¯ ??

    3. Ding Xiaohai won the Grand Competition in???

    4. Chu Yunfeng appeared in???

    5. Xu Qing¡¯s dream was the final scene at the end of Volume 2, back in???

    6. Bai Li, Torchlight, and the Blood-Soaked Performance were all mentioned in???

    7. The ¡°lil¡¯ bro¡± here is a form of address for a younger blood brother. It¡¯s not verymon in North China, but is verymon in Southern parts, especially ces where Wu, Southern Min, and Cantonese dialects are spoken. Fujian and Taiwan would be key locations like this, as well as Guangdong. The point is that the use of this specific terms makes it seem like the person speaking has some sort of ent. It would be like if a character in an English novel said ¡°g¡¯day mate.¡± Of course, using a dialect word doesn¡¯t guarantee that the person has an ent. I¡¯m American and I can go around saying ¡°g¡¯day mate¡± in an American ent if I feel like it. So there¡¯s no guarantee this character is supposed to have an ent. That¡¯s just my impression. ??

    8. When the character says ¡°this particr life,¡± he¡¯s using a word that heavily hints/implies that he¡¯s been reincarnated or reborn. ??

 Chapter 278: Arch-Immortal Plumdark

    <h4>Chapter 278: Arch-Immortal Plumdark</h4>

    As Xu Qing walked across one of the eight bridges that led to Seven Blood Eyes, immortal energy bubbled in the waters that flowed below. Overhead, the sky was a faint crimson color. As darkness spread and the moon came out, he headed into the city toward Zhang San.

    Along the way, Zhang San sent him a voice message telling him that his dharmaskiff was finished.

    Xu Qing had felt out of sorts without a dharmaskiff. Therefore, he made haste to find Zhang San.

    Once in the Transportation Division, Zhang San was waiting in a courtyard with his dharmaskiff.

    The dharmaskiff was over 600 meters long and was absolutely shocking in appearance. It looked simr to the old version, but at the same time, was different. That was especially true when it came to the prow and the stern.?The prow no longer resembled a sealizard. Instead, it was a huge, featureless face with a ck iron mask covering it.?Clearly, Zhang San had taken inspiration from the huge ships used by the delegation, as he had installed nine tails onto the stern. Though they were smaller than the originals, they were obviously packed full of spell formations of all sorts. Instead of eight sails, the dharmaskiff now had sixteen of them, and they were bigger than before.

    Zhang San was standing atop the ship looking exhausted but also very proud. ¡°Xu Qing, this dharmaskiff has already reached the limits of what dharmaskiffs are capable of. It¡¯s basically half a step into the dharmaship category. I tapped into every skill and ability I have to make this thing. Not only can it both fly and move underwater, but also, it can transform into a mask for easy storage and transport.¡±

    Looking very serious, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°The cost for this thing is astronomical,¡± Zhang San continued, ¡°but thankfully, the harbor in South Phoenix is profitable enough to cover it. Incidentally, I added a self-detonation mechanism. Truth be told, I actually focused on making it stronger after the self-detonation. In other words, I specifically designed it to be able to self-detonate three times in a row. The structure of the craft has threeyers for that purpose.¡±

    Zhang San looked seriously at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him attentively.

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of godliness in it,¡± Zhang San continued, ¡°and the power source is strong. Unless someone attacks it with at least three-me battle prowess, it¡¯ll be untouchable. Its biggest weakness is when ites to souls, which is why I included the mask at the prow.

    ¡°Speaking of souls, I know you cultivate the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. So do I. Presumably you remember how the description of the technique mentions that when you cultivate it to the level of ultimate sess, you can suppress souls within your dharma apertures.

    ¡°After you reach ultimate sess, you can take those imprisoned souls, merge them together, and put them into your dharmaskiff to be its soul. That¡¯s when you can upgrade it to a dharmaship!¡± [1]

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°This is the first craft I¡¯ve built that gets close to the dharmaship level. Xu Qing, when you inevitably use the self-detonation function, make sure not to leave all the piecesying around afterward. Collect as many as you can and bring them back, so I can figure out ways to improve.¡±

    Xu Qing was deeply shaken by the work Zhang San had done, and therefore, nodded solemnly in agreement. What Zhang San had requested made sense. After talking a bit more about the details of the new dharmaskiff, he bid farewell.

    ***

    After watching Xu Qing leave, Zhang San yawned. He felt more exhausted than ever, having spent so much time working on the dharmaskiff that he hadn¡¯t even rested. For one thing, he wanted to do Xu Qing a favor. But also, he was really hoping that the next time Xu Qing got into a big fight and detonated the dharmaskiff, it would finally reveal the Participation Effect he had installed.

    ¡°Last time, my skills werecking. But not this time!¡± Feeling very pleased with himself, he lit his pipe and strolled away to get some sleep.

    ***

    Xu Qing left feeling perfectly satisfied. At the same time, he felt like Zhang San¡¯s skills were being wasted in the Transportation Division. He was just too good at what he did. That said, Zhang San preferred this kind of life. His cultivation progress was slow, but Xu Qing could tell that Zhang San didn¡¯t mind. It seemed that, to Zhang San, the key to peace of mindy with seeing Xu Qing and the Captain get stronger and stronger.

    ¡°I have to figure out a way to pay him back!¡± Xu Qing murmured as he headed toward the port.

    During the early phases of the construction, he had already selected a berth for himself. When his dharmaskiff sshed down into the water, he leaped aboard, activated the defenses, and went into the cabin. Looking around, he saw that the interior wasn¡¯t very different from his old dharmaskiff. As he sat down cross-legged, he felt the familiar motion of the ship swaying in the water. At longst, his heart began to calm down after recalling that strange dream.

    He opened his eyes from meditation when it waste in the night. After checking on the beetles that had eaten the immortal ice, and seeing that they were still dormant, he started working on the magical technique Master Seventh had given him.

    When it came to cultivation, Xu Qing always focused well and worked very hard. Three days passed by in a sh. During that time, he never left his dharmaskiff. He didn¡¯t go to the Special Security Division. Instead, he stayedpletely focused on his cultivation and research of techniques. His 102nd dharma aperture was starting to loosen up.

    ].

    In the evening of the third night, he opened his eyes from meditation and walked out onto the deck.

    Squatting on the shore was the Captain. Not seeing Xu Qing, he tossed an apple toward the dharmaskiff. The defenses were up, but the Captain had certain skills, so when the apple hit the shield, it didn¡¯t st into a paste. Instead, it bounced right back to him. He caught it, took a bite, and then tossed it toward the shield again. It almost seemed like he was ying a little game.

    When he finally noticed Xu Qing, he waved. ¡°Busy tonight, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s half-eaten apple and nodded in the affirmative. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m busy.¡±

    ¡°Not busy? Great! Come with me to handle a little something. I¡¯m short on cash these days, so I¡¯m nning to sell that idiot Huang¡¯s finger back to him. I already handled all the negotiations, now I just need to go extract the cash. The deal goes down tonight.¡± Eyes glittering, the Captain lowered his voice and continued, ¡°Come along, won¡¯t you? Remember, I went with you on your trip home.¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat.

    Without responding, Xu Qing stepped off his dharmaskiff. ¡°Where¡¯s the deal going down?¡±

    ¡°At the foot of the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s mountain headquarters,¡± the Captain said, getting happily to his feet. Giving Xu Qing an apple, he threw an arm over his shoulder and continued furtively, ¡°Little Ah Qing, you and I have a very close rtionship, right? Not like that jerk Third Sib. As soon as I asked him for help, he ran for the hills. Anyway, don¡¯t worry. I love you, Junior Brother, and therefore, I¡¯m definitely going to include you in the huge n I¡¯m working on.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not worried this meeting is a trap?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered excitedly. ¡°I¡¯m hoping it is. Since we¡¯re going together, if anything unusual happens, the old man will definitely show up and help. If it was just me, he wouldn¡¯t bother.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing looked at him deeply for a moment, then nodded.

    Under the cover of night, the two of them left the port and went in the direction of the Dark Serenity Sect. They moved quickly. Before long, they were at the foot of the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s mountain headquarters, at the spot the Captain had arranged to meet Huang Yikun, an open-air pagoda with a good view of the mountain.

    The mountain itself rose high into the scattered clouds. Bits ofmplight glittered on it like stars, but overall, it was dark. At the summit was a huge statue framed in moonlight. It depicted Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, gazing out at the Forbidden Sea. Despite how far away it was, Xu Qing could feel the terrifying pressure radiating off the statue. The mountain headquarters gave Xu Qing a sense of profound mystery.

    After all, the Seventh Peak had started out as a subsidiary of the Dark Serenity Sect, and their techniques shared amon basis. What was more, the current president of the coalition started out in the Dark Serenity Sect, and was the Elder Brother of the current matriarch. That very same matriarch had once nced at Xu Qing back in Seven Blood Eyes, though her facial features hadn¡¯t been visible. [2]

    As Xu Qing looked in that direction, the Captain squatted off to the side and said, ¡°It¡¯s about time. That idiot Huang should be here soon.¡±

    Xu Qing looked away from the mountain and waited.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, and Huang Yikun still wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen, the Captain raised his eyebrows and sent a voice message via jade slip. Meanwhile, neither Xu Qing nor the Captain had noticed that a person was approaching the coalition, high in the sky.

    This person moved with incredible speed, entering the coalition¡¯s spell formation without a sound. A momentter, they were at the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s mountain headquarters, and were about to step onto the summit when they noticed Xu Qing and the Captain down below. The figure stopped in midair.

    A momentter, the person¡¯s facial features were revealed.?She was a seductive-looking woman, with long hair streaming down her back and bound loosely with a pink ribbon. Her violet garment was decorated with stars and glowed faintly. Surrounding her was a faint haze that made her truly seem like an immortal that didn¡¯t belong in the mundane world.

    She had skin as fair as a white peach blossom, and a waist as lithe as a willow tree. Her arching eyebrows almost seemed to be gathered in a frown, except they weren¡¯t, and her eyes were both joyful and not. In terms of age, she seemed to be a youngdy not past her teens, but if you looked into her eyes, she seemed much more mature than that. She was the type of person who seemed very worldly-wise, and could see into your heart after only a moment. If you had done something, she had likely done it as well. And whatever you had yet to experience, she was already familiar with. [3]

    Looking down from the dome of heaven, she saw Xu Qing down below, and smiled. With one step, she was halfway down the mountain. With another, she arrived, sending out an indescribable pressure that caused both Xu Qing and the Captain to react with visible surprise, and prepare to fall back.

    ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± she said, her words spoken like amand. The Captain shivered as he recognized who this was. She was the matriarch of the Dark Serenity Sect, and her daoist name was Arch-Immortal Plumdark. [4]

    Xu Qing, on the other hand, had no idea who she was. However, his mind was spinning as he realized that he couldn¡¯t move a muscle. He could only stare at the seductive woman in front of him as she walked in his direction.

    Completely ignoring the Captain, she came to a stop right in front of Xu Qing. Her skin seemed so fair it might shatter in the wind, and she was shockingly beautiful in a mature way. Her eyes seemed to thrum with dao lineaments, and at the same time, looked like the eyes of a hunter staring at prey.

    As Xu Qing stood there nervously, the woman¡¯s gaze slowly traveled from his eyes to his mouth, then his corbone, his chest, and finally his abdomen. It almost seemed like she was brushing him with her gaze.

    Finally, she reached out, put her finger underneath his chin, and tilted his face up. Exhaling softly, she said, ¡°We meet again, child. What are you doing here at the Dark Serenity Sect sote at night? Are you lost?¡±

    1. The point about imprisoning souls in the dharma aperture was in?<u>chapter 136</u>, while the part about them being used in conjunction with the dharmaskiff was in <u>chapter 137</u>.

    2. The Dark Serenity Sect matriarch looked at Xu Qing in?<u>chapter 267</u>.

    3. The author uses two different words for women to describe this person. The first is generally applied to young unmarried young women who are no older than 19. The second is usually applied to young married women who are no older than 35. Given the other wording, it¡¯s obvious he¡¯s describing a mature female cultivator who only looks young.

    4. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s daoist name consists of a title and a name. For the name part, the first character is literally ¡°violet/purple.¡± I¡¯m using ¡°plum¡± to have something that rolls off the tongue more smoothly. In the case of this name, the ¡°plum¡± is supposed to be the color plum, not the flower or fruit. The second character in her name ¡°dark¡± matches with the same character in the name of the sect. This could theoretically be a situation like Master Shengyun in which her daoist name is based on her real given name. However, for a variety of reasons, I''m tranting it as if it''s a full-on invented daoist name.<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">1</button>

 Chapter 279: Seductive

    <h4>Chapter 279: Seductive</h4>

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice was both flirtatious and bewitching. It was like the song of an oriole or the cry of a phoenix, being both clear, strong, soft, and gentle all at the same time. What was more, it was deeply alluring.

    Xu Qing shivered and his scalp tingled as he stood in ce,pletely unmoving. He did nothing to stop her from lifting his chin, and in fact, simply looked into her yful, glittering eyes. Feeling somewhat in a daze, but at the same time nervous, he noted the unusual fragrance suddenly filling the area. It came from Arch-Immortal Plumdark, and it caused his heart to race.

    This was his first time experiencing anything like this in his entire life. It was like a sense of deadly crisis that made it impossible for him to speak or express himself. He felt like he was a tasty snack that someone else was about to take a bite out of. That was especially true considering this woman¡¯s cultivation base, and the way her gaze also seemed like that of a predator looking at prey.

    Off to the side, the Captain gasped. <i>Huang Yikun, you bastard! It¡¯s just a Dark Serenity Finger! Did you really have to freaking bring your matriarch in for backup??</i>

    Even as the Captain reeled, he also realized that something about his assessment didn¡¯t make sense. Huang Yikun was a chosen, but that didn¡¯t mean he should be able to get his sect¡¯s matriarch to deal with two low-level people such as the Captain and Xu Qing. The only way he might have that pull was if he was like Master Shengyun and was the grandson of a leadership figure in the sect.

    Based on what the Captain knew, Huang Yikun wasn¡¯t like that. Suddenly calming down, he measured up Arch-Immortal Plumdark. He noted the way she held herself, and then thought back to the words she¡¯d just spoken. Then his eyes went wide as a wild possibility struck him like a bolt of lightning.

    <i>Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!</i> The Captain immediately shut his eyes and pretended that he hadn¡¯t seen anything. Waves of shock battered him inwardly. <i>Little Ah Qing¡¯s face... has dealt a winning blow!</i>

    Meanwhile, two people were flying along at the base of the mountain. One was Huang Yikun, and another was a person who looked very simr to him, just a bit older. They moved like shooting stars across thend.

    Gritting his teeth, Huang Yikun said, ¡°Big brother, you have to make sure I get justice today. Those people arepletely out of line. They literally ripped my fingers off my hand! It was brutal! Actions like that will <i>enrage both men and gods!</i> It really makes your hair stand up in anger!!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, lil¡¯ bro. As your big brother, I¡¯m¡ª huh?¡±

    The older young man was Huang Lingfei, Huang Yikun¡¯s big brother, a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce. As they closed in on the meeting location, he had been about to say something when he suddenly cut himself off. His eyes went wide. [1]<button ss="MuiButtonBase-root MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways ww-nw4feq" tabindex="0" type="button">1</button>

    Stopping in ce, he looked at the scene ying off in the distance, his expression one of utter disbelief. Clearly visible just up ahead was his sect¡¯s matriarch, flirtatiously lifting Xu Qing¡¯s chin in her hand. Standing next to Xu Qing was the grand highness from the Seventh Peak, obviously closing his eyes because he didn¡¯t dare to look at the matriarch and the object of her flirtation, Xu Qing. However, the astonishment on the grand highnesses¡¯ face was clear, and it was exactly what Huang Lingfei was also feeling.

    Though Huang Lingfei stopped in ce and gasped, Huang Yikun was slower on the uptake.

    ¡°That¡¯s Xu Qing!¡± he shouted. ¡°Big brother, help me go over there and¡ª¡±

    Their arrival attracted the attention of the Captain, who opened his eyes and looked over at them. Simultaneously, the alluring Arch-Immortal Plumdark slowly dropped her hand and looked over at Huang Lingfei and Huang Yikun.

    The moment she looked at Huang Lingfei, his heart pounded, and he instantly spun and pped his brother on top of the head, cutting off his words and knocking him out.

    <i>Like hell I¡¯m going to help you!</i> Huang Lingfei howled inwardly. His younger brother had always been off in the head. Not very quick-thinking. That was one reason why he¡¯d been assigned to the Seven Blood Eyes mission. Not one other person from the Dark Serenity Sect had gone on that mission. But Huang Yikun had foolishly, and very excitedly, rushed to join. That was bad enough, but if he lost some fingers, so be it. Yet after returning he had allowed himself to be scammed in the most ridiculous fashion¡­.

    Huang Lingfei¡¯s heart pounded as he thought back to what he had just seen, and he cursed Huang Yikun viciously. Of all the people in the world to provoke, why did he have to provoke someone the matriarch had taken a liking to?

    .

    ¡°What are you two doing here?¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark asked.

    Huang Lingfei was a quick-thinking person, and therefore, it was without the slightest hesitation that he grabbed the unconscious Huang Yikun, flew over, and threw him on the ground. Dropping into a kowtow, he loudly said, ¡°Matriarch, I arranged a meeting with this, er... F-Fellow Daoist Xu Qing! My insensible little brother actually provoked Fellow Daoist Xu, so I brought him here for the punishment he deserves.¡±

    In his nervousness, Huang Lingfei had stumbled over his words. In the heat of the moment, he forgot whether he should call Xu Qing ¡®Junior Brother¡¯ or ¡®Elder Brother.¡¯ Neither had sounded quite right, and worrying that the matriarch would misunderstand, had used the only form of address that urred to him right then: fellow daoist.

    Looking up at Xu Qing with a very sincere expression, he continued, ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu Qing, my little brother isn¡¯t a very quick thinker. In fact, he¡¯s an idiot.¡±

    Off to the side, Huang Yikun¡¯s eyes fluttered open, and he looked around, confused. Then he heard his brother talking. However, before he could fully regain his senses, Huang Lingfei quickly pped him again, yet again rendering him unconscious.

    ¡°Please, take no offense, Fellow Daoist Xu Qing.¡± Huang Lingfei was sweating, and his heart was pounding. He didn¡¯t dare get to his feet.

    The alluring Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled. Without saying a word in response, she took a step forward and floated up into the air. As the moonlight cascaded down her alluring form and fair snow-white skin, she looked like a beautiful, violet flower. [2]

    She had a mature beauty to her, but at the same time was incredibly charming and graceful. As she hovered in midair, she slowly turned, looked down, and smiled.

    ¡°Come visit the Dark Serenity Sect any time, child.¡±

    The moon framed her, enhancing her splendor, entuating her slim waist, and making her seem like an immortal from the highest heavens, her smileparable to starlight. Before her words had even echoed out, she was gone.

    After the matriarch of the Dark Serenity Sect left, Xu Qing could move again. He staggered backward a few paces, gasping for breath. Thinking about the words she had spoken, and her terrifying status, his mind reeled. He simply couldn¡¯t calm himself down.

    Off to the side, the Captain was reacting simrly.

    It was the same with Huang Lingfei.

    The three of them stood in silence for a very long moment. Not a sound could be heard from Huang Yikun.

    Finally, the Captain cleared his throat. ¡°So... is the deal still on?¡±

    Huang Lingfei breathed deeply as he slowly regained his senses. Shaking his head, he sped hands to Xu Qing and the Captain, then grabbed his brother and hurried away. Huang Lingfei was feeling very worried. He was sure he had seen something he shouldn¡¯t have seen, and had interrupted the matriarch in a pleasing moment.... That thought made him very anxious.

    As Xu Qing watched Huang Lingfei leaving, he still felt jittery. Then the Captain said they should leave. After they were back in Seven Blood Eyes, the Captain breathed a long sigh.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe we ran into the matriarch of the Dark Serenity Sect. Arch-Immortal Plumdark!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He was thinking back to what had just happened, especially Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes. The mere thought got him breathing heavily. It was his first time experiencing such a sensation.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, I have to thank you for today,¡± the Captain said with another sigh. ¡°I know a bit about Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Back when she was young, her name rocked all of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Countless people wooed her, but even to this day, she¡¯s never had a single daoist partner. Of course, there are a lot of stories about her, and it¡¯s hard to say which are true and which aren¡¯t.

    ¡°My guess is that she sensed the both of us, but took a liking to me. She probably lifted your chin to get my attention. You really endured a lot of humiliation just now, little Ah Qing.¡± Without even a hint of a blush, the Captain pped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°Elder Brother, you should eat more grapefruit going forward!¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡± The Captain looked stunned.

    Without any further exnation, Xu Qing left for his berth in the port district. A momentter, he hopped onto his dharmaskiff. [3]

    The Captain sighed as he watched Xu Qing leave. Then he started thinking about what Xu Qing meant by what he said. <i>Why should I eat more grapefruit?</i>

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing scattered more poison around his dharmaskiff, and also activated severalyers of defense. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Sitting down cross-legged, he analyzed the event which had just yed out. It was very bizarre, and was unlike anything he had ever gone through before or even thought about. His first inclination was to think that there must have been some sort of sorcery involved.

    <i>Someone with cultivation of that level definitely doesn¡¯t do things without a reason. Did Arch-Immortal Plumdark notice something wrong with me? She and Master are from the same generation, right? Maybe it had something to do with that?</i>

    After thinking about it for some time, he couldn¡¯te up with even a single good theory. Finally, he took out his identity medallion and sent a voice message to his Master to ask for input. It took a while to get a response.

    When Master Seventh finally sent a message back, he said, <i>¡°Years ago Arch-Immortal Plumdark wooed me stubbornly. I refused her over three hundred times. Perhaps seeing you made her think of me. It makes sense. In any case, don¡¯t spread word about this. All of that is in the past. I¡¯m in the middle of something now, so I can¡¯t go into any more details. Talk to youter.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Master¡¯s response seemed... very simr to the Captain¡¯s assessment from before.

    ***

    Meanwhile, on the summit of the Dark Serenity Sect mountain headquarters, in a grand hall, Arch-Immortal Plumdark sat on a reed mat, stretching. Her servant, an old woman, had just served ¡®cloudsnow lotus seed soup¡¯ brewed from the morning dew of a hundred lotus flowers. Just as the matriarch was daintily taking a sip, she frowned and looked off to the side. [4]

    Her old servant wasn¡¯t moving at all, as if she was frozen in ce, her expression like stone. Behind her, a figure materialized out of thin air.

    He was a middle-aged man in a green robe, with hair flowing past his shoulders. He looked schrly and refined, with eyes that sparkled, making it seem like there wereyer afteryer of stars within them. In fact, his gaze alone seemed to contain immense power, as if anyone who looked at it would be dragged in. He was the president of the Eight Sect Coalition.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have much time left, Junior Sister,¡± he said. ¡°Have you decided how to respond to my proposal?¡±

    Frowning, Arch-Immortal Plumdark replied, ¡°You inquire every month, and every month I say no. Won¡¯t you ever give up?¡±

    ¡°Why do you always say no? You¡¯re still looking for someone with ¡®light in their heart¡¯? People like that don¡¯t exist in this chaotic world. And even if they did, once they realized how truly vicious people can be, the brutality of the world would change them. That light would fade, and it wouldn¡¯t be what you¡¯re looking for. All you have to do is agree to ept some of my divine will. Borrow my power to make up for the final thread of magicalw that you¡¯re missing. When you reach the great circle of Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos, you¡¯ll finally have hope of breaking through into the second stage.¡±

    ¡°Go find someone else if you want a pill cauldron,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said calmly, not backing down an inch. ¡°Others might not know what you¡¯re like inside, but I do.¡±

    The president looked deeply at her, then smiled faintly. ¡°You don¡¯t have much longevity left, Junior Sister. I¡¯ll be back next month to ask again.¡±

    The president transformed into countless specks of starlight that faded into nothing.

    After he was gone, the old woman started moving again. She clearly had no idea of what had just happened.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked down into the broth and frowned slightly.

    1. The Captain mentioned Huang Lingfei by name in <u>chapter 236</u>.

    2. Specifically the flower mentioned here is Matthi incana, which is also known by themon names: Brompton stock,mon stock, hoary stock, ten-week stock, and gilly-flower. <u>It looks like this</u> (note the color). Is this specific flower important? Not really. But I went to the trouble of looking up all the details so I figured I¡¯d share.

    3. The joke about the grapefruit (which could also be tranted as pomelo, but grapefruits are moremon where Ie from, so I chose to go with that trantion), is never exined. Based on thements in Chinese, and on input from Madam Deathde, I think the joke is rted to the thick skin of a grapefruit/pomelo. In Chinese, saying that someone has ¡°thick skin" or especially "thick facial skin¡± means that they are shameless/brazen. It''s not the same thing as saying someone is "thick-skinned" in English.

    4. Using lotus seeds as an ingredient in soup or congee is amon thing in China. In fact, Madam Deathde has lotus seeds in the pantry which she uses for that very purpose. Supposedly, such broth has health benefits, and usually it would contain some other ingredients like various beans, legumes, etc. It usually <u>looks something like this</u>. That said, the fancy description of this soup, such as it being made with the morning dew of a hundred lotus flowers, makes it sound very high-ss. Madam Deathde said, ¡°she sounds fancy, like she¡¯s drinking something really luxurious that people would drink before they had coffee or boba tea.¡± Take that for what you will lol.

 Chapter 280: The Misery of the World

    Chapter 280: The Misery of the World

    Xu Qing was still suspicious about Master Seventh¡¯s response, and felt that there was something very odd about it. However, he had no idea what the truth of the matter was. That said, he got the feeling that he should keep his distance from Arch-Immortal Plumdark from the Dark Serenity Sect. In fact, he had already decided not to go anywhere near that sect in the future.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he closed his eyes and started meditating. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t maintain concentration. Eventually, he opened his eyes and took out the medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had given him. After reading through it for about an hour, he felt a lot calmer.

    It was in simr fashion that day after day passed, until half a month had gone by.

    During that half-month, Xu Qing worked on cultivation. Also, he got some of the water of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River and used it to wash the fragment of the taboo treasure that he¡¯d acquired from Sima Ling. Unfortunately, the taboo treasure fragment exuded a lot of mutagen, so the effects of the water were minimal.

    After some thought, Xu Qing decided that he still had too many reservations about his shadow. Therefore, he just kept using the river water. Even though the results weren¡¯t very spectacr, they were better than nothing.

    Things in the new capital city had fallen into a new rhythm. It was at this point that the Special Security Division finally got assigned a mission outside the sect. It was an inspection tour of the tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River that ran from the former Young Arbiter Sect all the way to the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The long, winding course of the tributary took it through nearly half of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    The inspection team would travel upriver, checking on mutagen levels, intimidating small-time criminals, and getting rid of any diversion channels created to illegally tap into the river water. Given how long the tributary was, they would be passing numerous sects and small nations. If such ces weren¡¯t inspected, and were simply allowed to siphon away the water, then by the time it reached the Eight Sect Coalition, there wouldn¡¯t be much left.

    That was the entire purpose of the inspection tour, and was one of the primary responsibilities of the eight Special Security Divisions in the eight sects of the coalition. There was a rotating schedule for the inspections, and the time hade for Seven Blood Eyes to take the lead.

    Xu Qing wanted to see more of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, although being as cautious as he was, he didn¡¯t immediately make the decision. Instead, he consulted Master Seventh.

    Master Seventh agreed that he should go on the mission, and gave Xu Qing a special jade slip to hide his identity.

    With that jade slip, Xu Qing felt a lot less nervous. He changed his appearance, put on new clothing, and then used a magical device to alter his aura. Then, when the morning came to set out, he and the Captain led a group of seven or eight hundred disciples onto twenty huge ships.

    They left the Eight Sect Coalition with great fanfare, then headed up the river.

    The tributary was huge, and it only got bigger the further upriver you went. Out in front of Xu Qing stretched a massive body of water, the water bubbling and frothing as it flowed rapidly downstream. The immortal energy was strong. Given how early it was in the morning, immortal mist covered the surface of the river, and even a single breath of it would expand one¡¯s mind. The tributary was about 30,000 meters wide, making it seem almost like a sea. The ten huge boats traveled single file, keeping a distance of about 3,000 meters between each of them, allowing all the boats to have a clear view of each side of the river.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was very pleased about the circumstances, and after expressing his desire to Xu Qing, received approval to fly out in ck skewer form and work on his cultivation, which proceeded much more smoothly given the surroundings.

    There were no negative influences on Xu Qing¡¯s gruish shadow. In fact, given how stark the shadows were because of the sun overhead, it sent part of itself stretching down into the water. asionally, spirit fish would swim by the shadow, and it would absorb them in the blink of an eye. Before long, the shadow was sending fluctuations of contentment back to Xu Qing.

    It can absorb immortal energy? Xu Qing realized. This Evesting Immortal Profundity River is amazing!

    Meanwhile, the Captain looked off into the distance. Sighing ruefully, he said, ¡°It¡¯s no wonder the Eight Sect Coalition went to great lengths to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect and their dam. They even risked provoking the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. All to get this river flowing into the sect. It makes you wonder how amazing the source of the river is. Cultivators like us should make it a point of visiting that source at least once in our life. The scenery must be amazing. If I ever be a swordsage, I¡¯ll finally be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Everything will be worth it.¡±

    The Captain stood there, hands sped behind his back, his hair streaming in the wind.

    Xu Qing looked quizzically at the Captain. He had just realized that, despite being on the river for about half a day already, he hadn¡¯t seen the Captain eat a single apple. Beyond that, the words he had just spoken seemed a bit unusual. The Captain normally didn¡¯t go on in such a way.

    Xu Qing produced an apple, took a bite, and nodded. Now that Xu Qing thought about it, the incident at the Dark Serenity Sect had seemed to light a fire under the Captain. Whenever the two of them met up after that, the Captain had reminded Xu Qing a lot of Wu Jianwu. Except for the poetry-reciting thing. This morning, the effect seemed even more obvious than before.

    ¡°Want an apple, Eldest Brother?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    As the breeze blew, the Captain looked over his shoulder piercingly. ¡°Is that what you think of your Eldest Brother? That all he cares about is eating things?¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing produced another apple and tossed it to the Captain.

    The Captain instinctively caught it.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The Captain stood there silently.

    A momentter, the two were squatting together on the prow eating.

    After taking several bites, the Captain sighed. ¡°Why do you think Arch-Immortal Plumdark is so interested in you? What¡¯s so wrong with me? I¡¯m pretty much the same as you.... You know, after that incident I did some research. When Arch-Immortal Plumdark was young, she was famous throughout all of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. She was more morous than you can describe with words. The only bad things said about her were rumors spread by the people who wooed her unsessfully.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Looking at the two banks of the river, he thought back to the files he had read in the sect about the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    On one side were the hundreds of thousands of mountains that made up the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, as dark as night, like the spine of some immense beast that went on without end. There were demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters there, as well as grues, rogue cultivators, and countless sects. It was a ce where you could find both good people and viins, but overall, it was a brutal hell on earth.

    On the other side of the river was a vast wastnd with strong mutagen and forests of dead trees. There were also innumerable small nations, most of whom only survived because they were run by cultivators.

    As Xu Qing thought about the contents of the files, the Captain finished his apple, then took out another and started eating. Just as it looked like he was about to say something, he suddenly looked off into the distance. Xu Qing also looked in the same direction.

    At the same time, a voice message came in from the disciples on one of the ships ahead.

    ¡°Mortals spotted ahead, on the bank of the river.¡±

    It was far enough away that the disciples on the boats further back couldn¡¯t see. However, Xu Qing and the Captain had a perfect view. Upon seeing the nation mentioned in the message, both Xu Qing and the Captain reacted with mixed emotions.

    Xu Qing saw arge number of mortal citizens, some old, some young. There were both men and women, and all of them had greenish-ck coloration on their skin from mutagen. In fact, many were getting very close to mutation. Most were emaciated, their eyes listless, and many had trouble walking and had to be supported by rtives as they slowly made their way along.

    There were a few hundred of them, and they were stretched out on the shore, washing themselves with the river water. Thanks to the immortal energy in the river, they were able to provide a bit of stability to their rapidly deteriorating bodies. Some who were in especially bad conditiony on the bank and used stone bowls to gather water to drink. There were some children in the group, wailing loudly. Apparently, being bathed in the river caused them intense pain.

    In the end, this miserable scene was only a tiny fraction of what happened in the world on a daily basis.

    As the coalition ships neared, the mortals trembled and gazed at them with terror in their eyes.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°Give them some medicinal pills.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

    Some of the nearby Special Security Division officers took out some very low-level medicinal pills that had been prepared in advance and sent them to the miserable mortals.

    The Captain sighed. ¡°There¡¯s not much we can do. That¡¯s just how the world works. Besides, we humans are always fighting amongst ourselves, as disunited as a dish of loose sand.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡± Xu Qing looked away from the riverbank. ¡°If we can help, we help. That¡¯s all.¡±

    The Captain looked deeply at Xu Qing for a moment. Then he waved his hand, which caused a few dozen spirit fish to fly out of the water andnd on the shore. Spirit fish were like medicinal pills; they could cleanse mutagen. In fact, they were a lot more effective than the water.

    The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I think this is why the old man likes you, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s also why I like being around you.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    Time passed. In a sh, a month of travel went by.

    During that time, they saw miserable scenes on the river banks over and over again. Xu Qing saw mortals, rogue cultivators, and even entire nations. Such groups gathered at the river to cleanse themselves of mutagen. They were bitter and miserable, and most were in such bad shape they were virtually crippled. Many hovered right on the brink of mutation.

    Although opening up this tributary had provided immense benefit to the Eight Sect Coalition, it also brought relief to the countless nations and peoples who suffered in the area. It gave them a little hope. The Eight Sect Coalition allowed it to happen. As long as no one tried to redirect the flow of the water, they wouldn¡¯t interfere. As a result, the suffering popce had a slightly better chance of surviving.

    Along the way, Xu Qing and others in the inspection team would hand out low-level medicinal pills. It was something other sects didn¡¯t do, and had been encouraged by Master Seventh.

    Given how long the journey was, Xu Qing spent time working on his cultivation. The Captain, on the other hand, couldn¡¯t sit still, and would often go fishing, or even go ashore to hunt for animals.

    One day, the ship in the lead position sent a message indicating they¡¯d encountered a situation they didn¡¯t know how to deal with.

    Xu Qing emerged from his session of cultivation and walked out of the cabin to find the Captain at the prow of the ship, staring off into the distance.

    ¡°It¡¯s our first time encountering something like this,¡± the Captain said. ¡°If they were cultivators, we could just ughter them. But they¡¯re not. There¡¯s a small nation up ahead with a poption of about 40,000-50,000. They¡¯re taking away the river water... and they¡¯re trying to build a canal....¡±

    Hearing the Captain¡¯s words, Xu Qing stepped to the prow and looked off into the distance.

    He saw several thousand people pushing wooden carts filled with buckets of water. The people doing the actual work were emaciated and malnourished. Overseeing the operation were mortal warriors who shouted at the ordinary citizens and used whips to keep them moving. There were also some citizens digging into the soil to try to divert the river water. The carts were trundling in the direction of a small nation some distance away.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Then he looked at the emaciated and malnourished citizens. Their shadows stretched long and far underneath the setting sun. Though the shadows looked ordinary, when Xu Qing studied them, he realized... they were all missing an ear.

    The left ear.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

 Chapter 281: Something Strange is Definitely Going On

    Chapter 281: Something Strange is Definitely Going On

    Few people would have picked up on the detail rted to the shadow. It was only because of Xu Qing¡¯s experience with his own gruish shadow that he often paid close attention to the shadows of others. In fact, as Xu Qing looked off into the distance, his own shadow sent out excited fluctuations.

    ¡°Same... type... consume....¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t need any trantion from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to understand what the shadow was saying. His eyes narrowed. A momentter, he said, ¡°Something strange is definitely going on here. Especially when ites to that canal. It doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯re really trying to divert the water. More like they¡¯re trying to attract our attention.¡±

    Seeing the situation, the Captain smiled. ¡°Is it a cry for help? Interesting. Men, bring the king of that small nation in for questioning. Something¡¯s off here. They know the rules set forth by the coalition.¡±

    Before long, a streak of light approached as officers from Seven Blood Eyes approached with a fat old man in a yellow robe. Trembling, the old man plopped onto the deck into a kneeling position.

    ¡°Higher Immortal, I beg of you, rescue my nation!¡±

    Wailing, the king went on to exin the situation to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    His nation was called the State of Chiruo. One of his ancestors had been a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a small sect. Because of having no hope of breaking through to Gold Core, he settled down in this area, started a family, and eventually gathered enough citizens under his banner to found a small nation. Life was hard, but because they paid fealty to a small sect in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, they had enough protection to stay safe on a daily basis. Despite the mutagen that filled their food, they managed to survive.

    Though mortals here had short lifespans, there was nothing they could do about it. However, everything changed when the Evesting Immortal Profundity River tributary appeared. The reason for that changey in the constantly vicious infighting between groups in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. And the situation with the river made things even more dramatic. About a month ago, the small sect that the State of Chiruo had paid fealty to was wiped out by three nonhuman rogue cultivators.

    They killed everyone and then took over the sect headquarters. Because they revered the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, they called themselves the Minor Three Spirits. And they required all nearby nations to pay them fealty in the form of river water. If a nation didn¡¯t give them the required amount of water in time, they would eat 1,000 citizens from that nation. At that rate, it wouldn¡¯t take long for a nation to bepletely wiped out if they didn¡¯t deliver the water.

    The Minor Three Spirits were obviously taking advantage of the way the Eight Sect Coalition treated other humans. After all, the coalition didn¡¯t stop mortals from taking water from the river. Given how much water the Minor Three Spirits needed, and the fact that they were prohibited from directly diverting the tributary, they hade up with this clever n.

    The king was a cultivator himself, though he was only in the Qi Condensation level. Voice trembling, he said, ¡°We missed the deadline, and the Minor Three Spirits came and devoured a thousand of our citizens. They left earlier this morning. If we don¡¯t give them enough water next time, they¡¯lle back. There¡¯s nothing I can do. My idea was to start digging that canal to attract the attention of you higher immortals.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s spection had been correct. Their act of diverting the river water had been a call for help. Looking down, he studied the king¡¯s shadow, cast by the sun onto the deck. The shadow¡¯s left ear was missing. However, because of the angle, it wasn¡¯t immediately noticeable. And whether intentionally or not, the king kept his head tilted to the side, making it difficult to spot that detail. Only someone paying close attention would notice it when he kowtowed.

    ¡°Minor Three Spirits?¡± The Captain narrowed his eyes. The Captain was very perceptive, and as a result, was able to identify which things the king said were true, and which were not.

    Simrly, Xu Qing had enough experience to tell that some of what the king was saying was true, while there were other things he was keeping hidden.

    Before making any final decisions, they sent some officers over to the area controlled by the Minor Three Spirits. A few hourster, when the officers returned with a report, the Captain chuckled. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°The strongest among them are three cultivators with two-me power?¡±

    The Captain ced his right hand onto the deck, activating the spell formation. Instantly, an invisible pulse spread out in all directions. It had a very wide range, but the Captain focused on one specific area. Using the power of the spell formation, he was able to confirm that there were no Gold Core cultivators in the area. All of the information conformed to the report provided by the officers.

    ¡°The coalition spell formations are very urate. Xu Qing, what do you say we send some people to wipe out these Minor Three Spirits?¡± With that, he prepared to give orders to some of the nearby officers to go handle the matter.

    However, that was when Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ll go with them, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain smiled enigmatically at Xu Qing, then nodded without asking any questions. ¡°Want me toe along?¡±

    After thinking about it, Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°That would make things tooplicated.¡±

    After all, there were things he still wanted to keep secret. Even if the Captain didn¡¯t notice anything suspicious in the heat of the moment, he would be able to think about the matterter and pick up on some of the clues. Ultimately, it was never a good idea to underestimate anyone. In fact, it would make more sense to simply tell the Captain his secret rather than risk himing to the wrong conclusionter.

    In any case, after hearing Xu Qing¡¯s words, the Captain¡¯s smile deepened, but he said nothing further.

    Flying up into midair, Xu Qing beckoned at the roughly one hundred Seven Blood Eyes officers to follow him as he raced in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Even after triple checking that the information was correct, Xu Qing was the kind of person who still preferred to bring a lot of people with him for something like this.

    As the Captain watched Xu Qing go, his eyes glittered with approval. Little Ah Qing doesn¡¯t treat me like a stranger. Given that, I¡¯m not going to get overly curious. Everybody has their secrets.

    The Captain took out an apple and looked at the trembling king and his missing left ear. Smiling, he ordered the procession of ships to all stop and wait for Xu Qing¡¯s return.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and over a hundred Seven Blood Eyes officers from various mountain peaks were flying at top speed toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    About thirty percent of the officers were in the great circle of Qi Condensation, but the rest were in Foundation Establishment. It was a given that anyone assigned to the Special Security Division would be a uniquely qualified person who could be described as being the best of the best. Only a few of the Foundation Establishment officers had ignited a life me. There were twenty with one me, six with two mes, and one with three mes. The Mute was in the group. He was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, and was incredibly ruthless. When he fought, it seemed without regard for his own life, and was considered outstanding among Qi Condensation disciples in the same level as him. A group as formidable as this could crush anyone they faced other than a Gold Core cultivator with two heavenly pces.

    As the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains grew more and more clear in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he saw how many countless mountains made it up. They were covered with dense, sinister vegetation, and in the light of dusk, seemed like they must surely be full of demonic monsters.

    The sunlight had a hard time making it through the canopy, ensuring that the forest floor was as dark as night. The muddy ground had many crevices in it, and was full of all sorts of gruish dangers.

    As Xu Qing got closer, he sensed gruish fluctuationsing from a location not very far away in the dense forest. Those fluctuations were not his target, but upon merely looking in that direction, he sensed an evil will rapidly stretching out to envelop him and those with him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. Meanwhile, his shadow beneath him opened its mouth. In the blink of an eye, that evil, gruish will vanished without a trace.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay any attention to the matter. He kept flying, taking note of the noxious smelling from below. Further down, he saw the bloody skulls of both humans, nonhumans, and animals hanging from the trees. They dripped with blood thatnded on rotting corpses below. The mud itself was like a mass of gore.

    Everything seemed like it was an imitation of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain. Frowning, Xu Qing looked at a specific spot ahead in the mountains, specifically, a huge cave, out of which emerged a cacophony of sound. Vicious nonhumans tromped inside, carrying the charred corpses of both humans and animals on their shoulders.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold. ¡°ughter your way in. Kill the ringleaders. Don¡¯t leave any survivors!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

    The Special Security Division officers became beams of bright light that shot directly into the mouth of the cave.

    The nonhumans carrying the food were shocked, and didn¡¯t even have time to cry out for help before their own heads were flying off their shoulders.

    The Mute was in the lead, wielding a dagger. After licking the blood off the de, he shot into motion deeper into the cave. The others followed, and soon, howls of rage echoed out, along with screams of agony.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing strode inside, his iron skewer hovering next to him, his shadow stretching out from his feet.

    Inside the cave mouth was nothing but corpses.

    Laughing viciously, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the skewer stabbing into one corpse after another to make sure they were dead. Many were actually just pretending to be dead, and screamed before dying.

    The shadow ignored the corpses and those faking death, and instead stretched into the deeper parts of the cave. Xu Qing followed, moving quickly. Around the time that the sounds of fighting started dying out, he reached the deepest part of the cave. It was a beautiful cavern with a roughly 3-meter wide hole in the top, through which was visible the evening sky. A bunch of tables were randomly scattered about, and the foodid out on them consisted of a variety of corpses.

    The Special Security Division officers were all here, having captured over twenty nonhumans, who were now kneeling on the ground, bound. They were clearly terrified. Among them were three who had two life mes each, and they were covered with fresh wounds. Eyes full of horror, they looked at Xu Qing as he walked in.

    The one with the highest cultivation base was covered with scales, and had his life mes burning. ¡°If the supervisory sect would just listen to our¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother waiting for his exnation, and simply waved his hand. The nonhuman¡¯s head flew off his shoulder.

    The other nonhumans gasped in terror, and none of them dared to speak.

    Xu Qing still hadn¡¯t said a word. Looking at all of the shadows of the various nonhumans, he then focused his gaze on a nonhuman with wings on his back.

    He was the second-highest ranking member of the Minor Three Spirits. He shivered as he looked at Xu Qing. Then, just as it seemed he might speak, his face distorted. Somehow managing to slip out of his bonds, he burst into motion, fleeing toward the entrance of the cave.

    He moved with blinding speed. What was more, the astonishment in his eyes made it clear that his body was no longer under his own control. And he wasn¡¯t being controlled by Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Instead, the nonhuman was being controlled by his own shadow!

 Chapter 282: Master... Iâ€™m Obedient....

    Chapter 282: Master... I¡¯m Obedient....

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he raced in pursuit, and his shadow stretched out in front of him, its mouth open. No one perceived what was happening as the shadow bore down on its nonhuman counterpart, gaping maw full of madness and anticipation.

    The nonhuman tried to fight back, but the disparity with Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was so immense that it was powerless. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing had caught up, and had his hand around the nonhuman¡¯s neck. Struggling did no good. All he could do was sense the burning fireing from Xu Qing¡¯s hand madly enveloping his entire body. At the same time, it was with utmost ferocity and longing that Xu Qing¡¯s shadow pounced on the nonhuman¡¯s shadow.

    A howl that no one else could hear echoed out from the shadow.

    ¡°Kill everyone here, then go back to the ship and wait for my return.¡±

    Leaving behind those words, Xu Qing shot out of the cave through the hole overhead, taking the nonhuman with him. Below him, the sounds of ughter rang out.

    It was dark outside. Moving with shocking speed, Xu Qing dragged the nonhuman off to a nearby mountaintop. Once there, he looked down at the trembling, despairing shadow cast by the nonhuman.

    The shadow twisted and distorted as it struggled. Xu Qing could see that his own shadow was inside the nonhuman¡¯s shadow, and they were snapping and biting at each other in a battle to the death.

    Fluctuations of vile insanity rolled off of the nonhuman¡¯s shadow, something that reminded Xu Qing of back when he first acquired the shadow in the jungle outside the scavenger basecamp. It had overflowed with wild savagery. It was only after Xu Qing had crushed his shadow over and over again that it finally lost some of that savage nature, and started obeying him. That said, Xu Qing knew that its rebellious nature was still there.

    As it turns out, grues like my shadow are exceedingly rare, but others do exist.

    Meanwhile, he looked at the nonhuman cultivator to whom the shadow was attached. Most likely, this cultivator was like himself. In some situations in the past, the shadow had attacked him, then taken him over as the host.

    If I didn¡¯t have the violet crystal, then the same thing would have happened to me back in that jungle. It wouldn¡¯t be me anymore. After all, Xu Qing could tell that, unlike himself, this nonhuman cultivator had normal mutagen levels.

    Apparently that was the difference between someone controlled by such a shadow, and someone who controlled the shadow. If you couldn¡¯t suppress the shadow, then it would take you over, wearing you like a set of clothing.

    Xu Qing looked at the nonhuman¡¯s shadow fighting with his own shadow, and unleashed the violet light of suppression.

    Of course, he wasn¡¯t targeting his own shadow, but rather, the nonhuman¡¯s shadow. The violet crystal obviously had immense power over grues like this. As rumbling sounds echoed out, the nonhuman¡¯s shadow let loose a scream of agony that only Xu Qing and the nonhuman could hear.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s shadow got excited, the nonhuman¡¯s shadow went wild, eventually lunging toward Xu Qing as if to devour him. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cold as he sent violet light crushing onto the nonhuman¡¯s shadow seventeen times in a row.

    Over and over, the nonhuman¡¯s shadow shrieked in agony, until it reached the point where it was absolutely terrified. Then, looking very weak, it tried to escape. Before it could, Xu Qing sent violet light over and crushed it down in suppression. The violet light of suppression didn¡¯t fade quickly. And because the shadow couldn¡¯t flee, it simply struggled, shrieking and pleading for mercy.

    Off to the side, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was, for the first time, finally seeing its own torment unleashed onto another. It was a very fantastic feeling, and it caused it to look at Xu Qing and send out fawning fluctuations.

    Xu Qing squatted down and looked at the nonhuman¡¯s shadow in the moonlight. It was basically the same shape as his own shadow, having taken on the form of a tree full of eyes. At the moment, every single one of those eyes shone with terror.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, considering whether or not he wanted to add a second shadow to his collection, perhaps by sealing it within the violet crystal. But... he couldn¡¯t. When he put his hand into the nonhuman¡¯s shadow, he felt icy coldness. But when he tried to unleash the violet crystal, it didn¡¯t work. Finally, he waved his hand, and the iron skewer pierced through the nonhuman¡¯s throat, killing him instantly.

    Xu Qing thought to back when the ck-scaled wolf died, and the shadow pounced on him. He had hoped that killing the nonhuman would give him a simr chance to subjugate the second shadow. It didn¡¯t work.

    His own shadow had no idea that the n wasn¡¯t working, and sent some anxious fluctuations in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Milord... I¡¯m obedient... right...?¡±

    Inside the iron skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw this happening and resisted the urge to trante.

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow for a moment, then coolly said, ¡°Given how well you¡¯ve performed recently, I won¡¯t rece you with this second shadow. But take note: all your previous service doesn¡¯t count for anything now. Going forward, if you don¡¯t perform well, then next time... I¡¯ll rece you.¡±

    The little shadow trembled in response, and wildly shook its head.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw all of this and was pleased to the core.

    Xu Qing frowned.

    The shadow reacted instantly, shaking its head with even more vigor. Obviously it was very nervous, as it was reverting to what the patriarch had taught it about how tomunicate. Thankfully, it could also send out fluctuations, which enabled it to solemnly acknowledge Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing finally nodded.

    ¡°You can devour it.¡± Xu Qing got to his feet. However, he kept the force of suppression going. As the nonhuman shadow shrieked, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow opened its mouth wide and started eating.

    The process took an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. Eventually, Xu Qing¡¯s shadowpletely devoured the nonhuman¡¯s shadow, after which it burped and sent fawning emotions to Xu Qing. It was clearly stronger than before, and now had many more eyes than before, though they weren¡¯t open. What was more, the shadowy tree now had flower buds on it.

    ¡°Time... absorb... stronger....¡±

    Seeing Xu Qing looking at it, the shadow sent forth some more fluctuations.

    Xu Qing looked away and focused on the Minor Three Spirits mountain. He was pleased with what he had gained out of this incident. Turning into a beam of light, he shot off into the distance.

    Before long, Xu Qing was back at the Evesting Immortal Profundity River tributary, on the ship with the Captain. The king of the small nation was gone, and the officers Xu Qing had led away were already back.

    ¡°Is it over?¡± the Captain asked with a mysterious smile.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good,¡± the Captain said. He didn¡¯t ask any further questions. Stretching, he put his hands behind his head,y down on the deck, and looked up into the night sky.

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged to do breathing exercises.

    The evening wind blew, stirring their hair as the ships moved upstream. The sound of the water was like a natural symphony, swirling around them as they drifted off into the distance.

    Time passed. Before long, they had been traveling for a month. The Special Security Division¡¯s ships were about half done with their inspection tour. The reason they were able to do it so quickly was that the coalition ships were amazing. Not only did they have incredible offensive and defensive capabilities, but also, they were very fast. Beyond that, few sects or nations would dare to try to divert the river water. In addition, this wasn¡¯t the coalition¡¯s first inspection tour. Therefore, everything was rtively peaceful, and they could move quickly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation also progressed rapidly. He finally opened his 102nd dharma aperture, giving him even more powerful dharma force.

    The Captain, after eating a few spirit fish half a month before, fell in love with the vor, and spent every day eating all different types of fish. After sampling some, Xu Qing found that they tasted quite good. After that, everyone on board started fishing for food.

    At the moment, the Captain sat next to Xu Qing, winking. ¡°Little Ah Qing....¡±

    Xu Qing begrudgingly opened his eyes, waved, and sent out a ball of balefire. The Captain expertly started grilling the fish atop it.

    ¡°My cultivation technique has nothing to do with fire,¡± he said excitedly. ¡°And even if I did manage to summon some fire, the vor is just different. Little Ah Qing, your balefire is just the best! It really brings out the unique vor of these spirit fish.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him and was about to go back to meditating when his expression flickered. Simrly, the Captain looked up, and together, they stared at the distant sky.

    Two beams of light shot through the dome of heaven, one after the other. Apparently, there was a chase going on. In front was an old man with red hair. His chest was torn and bleeding; apparently he was wounded. He had a sinister face covered with wrinkles. Coupled with his vile eyes, he looked very vicious. Hovering above his head were two pitch-ck heavenly pces which exuded a very shocking aura. He happened to be flying right over a small nation of nonhumans. Waving his hand, he caused nearly 10,000 of them to fly up into the air, all of them bleeding from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Despair covered their faces as their blood flowed into the sky,nded in the sinister old man¡¯s palm, and then transformed into a blood pill that he consumed. A momentter, his wounds were visibly less severe.

    He was just about to continue taking blood from the nonhumans when a stream of sword energy arrived. The devilish old man shrieked as he was forced to flee instead of continuing to heal himself.

    As for the nonhumans, they dropped back down to the ground, some dead, some merely wounded.

    The person who had unleashed the sword energy was a young man in a long white robe. He had twenty-seven swords circting endlessly behind him, from which shot streams of sword energy as he continued to attack the old man. He was handsome, with eyebrows like sharp swords, eyes that sparkled like stars, and hair that swirled around him as he moved. However, what was most noticeable was the fiery design embroidered on his robe!

    ¡°Look at his robe! That guy¡¯s a swordsage!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he immediately got very excited. [1]

    1. I¡¯ve edited the details about the swordsage¡¯s robe to matchter continuity, but I¡¯m keeping the original details in this footnote for archival purposes. In the original Chinese, the Captain notices that the swordsage has a ¡°bauhinia flower¡± design on his robe, marking him as a swordsage. However,ter on, their robes arepletely different, and the bauhinia flower is never mentioned again (at least in rtion to swordsages). The bauhinia is well-known in China, as it¡¯s the prominent image on the regional emblem of Hong Kong (starting in 1997), which looks like this. Many Chinese readers mentioned this aspect. If itter turns out that I was wrong and bauhinia flowers really do identify swordsages, I will humbly apologize and adjust the text. That said, I¡¯ve read far enough ahead that I¡¯m pretty confident the detail in this chapter was either forgotten, or changed and the author never came back to adjust it. ?

 Chapter 283: Have a Death Wish?

    <h4>Chapter 283: Have a Death Wish?</h4>

    Xu Qing had heard about the swordsages from the Captain. They were one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humans. Each of the seven counties had a Swordsage Pce, and all of the prefectures had a Swordsage Court.

    However, Xu Qing had never seen any swordsages with his own eyes. Upon hearing the Captain¡¯s exmation, he looked more closely. Both figures flying through the sky had terrifying battle prowess and shocking fluctuations. Either of them could, with a single palm strike, kill Xu Qing without the shadow of a doubt, assuming he didn¡¯t have Master Seventh¡¯s defensive blessing.

    ¡°Two heavenly pces...¡± Xu Qing murmured. As the two flew through the sky, it became evident that the devilish old man wanted to cross the Evesting Immortal Profundity River and make his escape into the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. But then he looked down and saw the coalition ships on the river, and his eyes grew more ferocious.

    Given how wounded he was, he needed to consume energy and blood to recover. Obviously, he didn¡¯t care at all that the people on the ships were from the Eight Sect Coalition. Eyes radiating ferocity, he suddenly blurred, transforming into a few dozen clones. A dark wind kicked up as his clones then shot down toward the ships to devour those on board.

    However, as soon as the old devil closed in, the Seven Blood Eyes ships thrummed, and their spell formations activated, releasing astonishing force into defensive shields. As the rumbling sounds echoed out, the clones dropped down, smashing into the shields, causing them to ripple and distort. Inside, the faces of the officers flickered as they all coughed up blood.

    What was more, when the officers looked at the red-haired old devil, he seemed like a ck vortex that caused their view of the world to spin.

    Only Xu Qing and the Captain had cultivation bases strong enough to resist the pressure. As the clones unleashed palm strikes onto the ships, they sprang into action.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing unleashed some poison catalyst. In recent days, he had taken tocing the air around all the ships with poison. Without the proper catalyst, it wouldn¡¯t do anything harmful, and in fact, would stimte the energy and blood of everyone onboard. If the poison was never activated, it would dissipate harmlessly half a monthter. Up to this point, Xu Qing had used about 170-180 different types of poison, just in case a dangerous situation like this arose. All it would take was the right catalyst, and those poisons would turn into something extremely deadly.

    Without hesitation, Xu Qingunched a fist strike, which also served to unleash the poison catalyst. Thanks to the force of the blow, it would spread that catalyst far and wide. At the same time, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed to the sky. ck clouds appeared, and a withered, immeasurably gruish hand stretched down toward the old devil.

    Meanwhile, the Captain also performed an incantation gesture, then waved his hand. An ice spear appeared, which he then threw, causing it to pierce up with unstoppable force toward the old devil.

    The withered hand dropped down and the ice spear pierced up. One of the old devil¡¯s clones exploded, transforming into a ball of mist that tumbled off to the side.

    The other clones were unable to get through the shields in quick fashion, and quickly fell back unhurt. Only the one closest to Xu Qing and the Captain had been destroyed.

    In the blink of an eye, the mist and the other clones merged together, once again forming the old devil. Turning, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain with roiling killing intent. However, the swordsage was closing in, so he snorted coldly and shot onward toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    But then a sudden eruption of frigid energy caused cracking sounds to ring out as a host of ice mirrors appeared, within each of which was the reflection of a grue, howling noiselessly.

    The red-haired old devil reacted with surprise. At the same time, his soul itself suddenly blurred, and the heavenly pce above his head fell. That affected his speed, and the swordsage behind him closed in.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± the old devil cursed. The people from the coalition had caused his trouble, but there was nothing he could do about them. Instead, he tried to speed up. That was when his sinister face grew even grimmer.

    ¡°Poison?¡± He coughed up a great glob of ck blood, and his face flickered. Although the poison wasn¡¯t strong enough to be fatal to him, it obviously had many negative properties. His energy and blood were nowpletely unstable, his cultivation base wasn¡¯t responding properly, and he felt itchy and painful all over. That included his throat; he immediately started coughing uncontrobly. He was now moving even more slowly than before.

    Then a stream of sword energy arrived, and the old devil couldn¡¯t move quickly enough to dodge it. It stabbed through his chest, provoking a bitter howl as he madly fled toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    The swordsage didn¡¯t hesitate to give chase, disappearing into the mountains after the old devil.

    A short timeter, a stream of sword light shot back out of the mountains. It was none other than the swordsage. He was holding a severed head as he hovered to a stop above the coalition ships. Looking down at Xu Qing and the Captain, he nodded. Then, in a seemingly casual move that could have been intentional or not, he nced back at the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Then he left.

    Back in those mountains, a headless corpse had fallen in the spot where the swordsage and the old devil fought. And the fingers on that corpse were twitching. Unbeknownst to the old devil, there was an eye in his shadow.

    At the same time, back on the tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as his shadow conveyed to him the reality that the red-haired old devil had only been feigning death. Given how he had attacked earlier, it was obvious he was a vicious fellow, and if he recovered fully, would be a potential cmity down the road.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, and the Captain looked back at him. The two of them spoke at exactly the same time.

    ¡°He¡¯s a potential cmity.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s got treasure on him.¡±

    The two stood, then became two beams of light that shot right toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. As they neared, the Captain¡¯s nose twitched as he smelled the area, looking for traces of the old devil. However, Xu Qing took the lead, as his sense of direction was far more urate.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced as he followed. Soon enough, the two of them were speeding through the dense jungle in the mountains. Eventually, they spotted a valley. In that valley was a headless corpse that was struggling into a seated position. He was obviously very weak, and was shaking as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture.

    Astonishingly, the flesh on the stump of his neck wriggled as it began to spread out into the shape of a new head. Then an eye popped out of that mass of flesh, which looked in terror toward the two figures entering the valley.

    They were none other than Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°You could have just run away. Instead, you just had to provoke us. We didn¡¯t attack you. Was there really a need for that?¡± The Captain grinned, and his eyes shone with a mysterious light. Within his pupils were the image of a face identical to his own, also grinning viciously. At the same time, the fluctuations that pulsed out of him caused the headless old devil to shiver.

    Then there was Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless, looking at the old devil as if he were already dead. Xu Qing¡¯s fluctuations were only that of the three-me level, but the old devil somehow felt weak with his one heavenly pce. That caused him to shiver even more. He was now iparably weak, and his heavenly pce was on the verge of copse. Though his gold core still existed, his battle prowess had dropped significantly. His bag of holding and magical devices were gone, taken away with his head by the swordsage.

    He thought he had pulled a fast one on that swordsage, but now it seemed the swordsage just hadn¡¯t felt like expending the effort to kill him, and had instead let these two punkse get their revenge. He was about to send out some divine will tomunicate with them, but before he could, Xu Qing and the Captain pounced.

    The old devil jumped up and tried to flee, only to find a host of ice walls blocking his path. Behind the ice walls was a huge sea with raging waves, like a tsunami heading right toward him. It wasn¡¯t just a single attack, but nine in a row, that mmed into the injured old devil. In addition to the Ninefold Tsunami attack, a hand of ice stretched out and viciously grabbed the old devil. Within that ice hand was the Captain¡¯s face, eyes closed, but mouth voraciously open.

    The old devil trembled as he was shoved backward again. The eye that had popped out on his neck looked terrified as he anxiously sent out a message via divine will.

    ¡°Young friends, it was my mistake earlier, I¡ª¡± Before he could finish speaking, Xu Qing lunged forward with shocking speed, his right hand clenched into a fist. It mmed into the old devil, ripping much of the old man to shreds as he was flung backward. Then Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, and ck clouds filled the sky as the withered hand again stretched down, this time tond on the bloody flesh of the old devil¡¯s neck.

    The old devil screamed via divine will. As his body continued to copse, a vortex sprang into being behind him, turning into a huge mouth that snapped him up. Crunching sounds rang out as half of the old devil¡¯s body was devoured. Then the huge mouth spat him out. The old devil was in agony. His body was severed at the waist and his divine will was extremely weak, having been half devoured.

    Xu Qing looked at the vortex and remembered Master Seventh using the same technique to devour three Gold Core experts. [1]

    ¡°Disgusting!¡± the Captain said as the vortex vanished, and he walked away spitting repeatedly. ¡°Too sour! I prefer a milder vor. Ai. I was hoping for a good snack. Truly disgusting!¡± He quickly took out a pear and started devouring it. Apparently, that fruit was the only thing that could sate his desire for a snack.

    Ignoring the Captain, Xu Qing walked up to the old devil, who was struggling to breathe. Extending his right hand, he touched the old devil¡¯s forehead and sent balefire exploding out. As the old devil was immted, soul power converged in Xu Qing, and cracking sounds rang out as his 103rd, 104th, and 105th dharma apertures opened.

    It didn¡¯t stop there, though. His 106th and 107th were next. Finally, his 108th dharma aperture opened. Then, the golden crow appeared and began absorbing the trembling old devil. Having lost his divine will, the old devil could do nothing as his fleshly body and blood were consumed. In the end, he became nothing but drifting ash that vanished with the wind.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing stood. The Captain looked at the spot where the old devil had disappeared, and then he smiled at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you think he?was the old devil, or are we two the old devils? He¡¯s... justpletely gone!¡±

    Xu Qing seriously considered the question, and was about to answer it when, all of a sudden... a fog sprang up around them in the jungle!

    Sinister winds were pulsing!

    1. Master Seventh used this same technique in??

    .

 Chapter 284: Dark Serenity Grave

    <h4>Chapter 284: Dark Serenity Grave</h4>

    Thick fog spread out through the dense jungle on the mountains, rapidly reaching Xu Qing and the Captain. Within moments, they were enveloped. It was so dense that they couldn¡¯t see even half a meter around them. Everything was hazy and indistinct. Not even the sky was visible overhead.

    It came so quickly, and was so cold, that there was no way it was naturally urring. In all likelihood it was summoned by a grue. What was even more telling was that when Xu Qing touched it, he could tell that there were countless minutely small entities in the fog, trying to bore into his body through his pores. Thankfully, with the defenses of his lifemp, the attack of the gruish fog didn¡¯t do anything.

    This reminds me of the Fog of Confusion back in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp. However, there¡¯s a clear difference in level between the two. As Xu Qing looked around, he realized that the fog was making it impossible to sense the Captain¡¯s aura. A moment ago he had been right next to Xu Qing, but now Xu Qing had no idea where he was.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about the Captain. Though Xu Qing might have an advantage in forbidden regions and grounds, even he wasn¡¯t sure who was fiercer, he or the Captain....

    That was especially true considering that his shadow, which had just devoured something simr to itself, emanated a sense of thirst with the arrival of the ghostly fog. In fact, it immediately began absorbing streams of icy water vapor. It reminded Xu Qing of wanting to have some water after eating a big meal, and then having someone pass you a big cup of water. That was how excited the shadow was right now.

    As the shadow devoured the fog, it thinned in front of Xu Qing. Looking calm, he proceeded forward, hoping to find the source of the fog. He was very curious to see what kind of grue would maliciously target him in this way. The further along he went, the more of the fog his shadow devoured, revealing more and more of the surrounding trees. They were vile in appearance, like demonic monsters, and the atmosphere was even more eerie given the sinisterughter which echoed faintly through the jungle. It was impossible to say if theughter came from male or female lips. Perhaps it was both. It weaved left and right, surrounding Xu Qing but also seeminglying from nowhere.

    Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and reined his shadow in, worried that its devouring of the fog would scare whatever grue was responsible for it. After all, he currently nned to find the malicious grue and kill it! With his shadow in check, Xu Qing concealed his killing intent and proceeded onward through the jungle.

    Eventually, he found himself climbing a slope. About an hourter, a vague shape appeared ahead of him in the fog. Soon, it resolved into a log cabin. As he got closer, he was able to see it more and more clearly. It was a very old structure. The logs that made it up were rotting, and in many ces had crumbled away, leaving gaping holes in the walls. It was in such bad shape that it looked like it might copse at any time.

    An old rocking chair rested in front of the door, facing it, and it looked like it might fall to pieces at any moment as well.

    There had once been a little courtyard and a garden in front of the cabin, but the courtyard was full of weeds and the garden had long since sumbed to the elements. The ce seemed to have seen a lot of changes through many years, and at the same time, appeared a bit strange. He was halfway up a mountain in the middle of the jungle. Yet here was this random log cabin.

    As Xu Qing approached, a sinister wind blew, causing the rustle of the leaves to sound like countless people whispering to each other. He took in the scene, then focused on the rocking chair.

    There was obviously no one sitting in the chair, yet it was moving. It rocked back and forth, not dramatically, just a bit, almost like it might be moving in the wind. Or it could have been rocking back and forth as a dying old man sat in it, thinking back over the many years that he had lived.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face was expressionless as he looked at the rocking chair. He was certain that the chair had beenpletely motionless when he approached the cabin. But then he blinked, the wind kicked in, and the chair started rocking.

    He blinked again.

    All of a sudden, a noose appeared, hanging in the door of the cabin.

    Xu Qing blinked a few more times, and ripples appeared around the noose. Then he saw a corpse.

    It was the corpse of an old man, hanging from the noose. It had obviously been hanging there a long time, as the corpse was withered up, with its long white hair hanging dry and brittle down from its head. The face was skeletal, with its eye sockets nothing but dark holes. And its mouth was open, as though it had been instinctively gasping for breath in the moments before death.

    Xu Qing blinked a few more times.

    The rocking chair stopped moving as a blurry figure stood from it, then approached the corpse of the old man. As it got closer, it became easier to see. It was a hunch-backed old woman. She had a stone bowl in her hand, within which was something like a congee, made from blood. She took a spoonful of the blood congee and put it into the mouth of the corpse. Then another. Then another.

    The cold, sinister wind seemed tough and cry at the same time as it swept through the area. The weeds swayed like waves, making the atmosphere even more eerie. Both the corpse of the old man, and the old woman feeding congee, had very pale faces. Yet both of their lips were bright red.

    As Xu Qing watched, the olddy fed about half of the bowl of blood congee to the old man. Then, without any warning, the olddy suddenly reached up and snapped the old man¡¯s skull off his neck.

    ¡°It¡¯s time for you to feed me, hubby!¡± The olddy¡¯s voice was immeasurably hoarse and grating, like two rocks rubbing against each other.

    The corpse floated in ce. Above it was the noose, and above that was nothing. Though it had no head, it didn¡¯t fall down.

    Meanwhile, the olddy put the old man¡¯s head off to the side, then reached up and snapped off her own head and put it in ce on the noose. Reaching down, she found the old man¡¯s head and put it onto her own neck. After switching heads, the old man¡¯s eyes started glowing. Picking up the bowl, he started feeding the olddy. They truly seemed bound by love. In fact, the old man seemed worried that the congee was too hot, and would carefully blow each spoonful before putting it in the olddy¡¯s mouth.

    It was an incredibly bizarre and gruish scene.

    Xu Qing watched, his face expressionless. He didn¡¯t interrupt as they fed each other congee. After all, they weren¡¯t making any move against him. Finally, he decided he might as well just leave.

    However, after he turned and took a few steps, the old man suddenly turned and looked at him. The log cabin shifted positions, and was now right in front of Xu Qing.

    The old man grinned in a very sinister fashion, revealing sharp, crooked teeth. Then he spoke in a very chilling voice.

    ¡°You¡¯re back, son! Want some congee?¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing looked at the gruish couple, then started walking forward. At the same time, a gulping sound could be heard from his feet. A sticky fluid oozed out from his shadow, which started melting everything it touched. Obviously, his shadow couldn¡¯t stop itself from salivating, no matter how hard it tried.

    Seeing this, both the old man and the old woman reacted with visible shock.

    ¡°Go ahead and eat,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    The shadow, which had pushed its patience to the limit, suddenly rose up behind Xu Qing in the shape of a huge, ck tree.

    It had over a thousand eyes, all of them open and staring at the old man and woman. What was more, it had an enormous, ghastly mouth that opened and exhaled a sinister wind.

    The old man and woman shivered, and fear appeared in their eyes. All of a sudden, the log cabin turned blurry, as if they were trying to flee. It was toote. The shadow shot forward, and in the blink of an eye, had be a vast swath of ck shadow that covered the entire cabin. Only the sound of chewing and screaming could be heard. After some time passed, the shadow shrank down and returned to Xu Qing¡¯s feet, exuding fluctuations of delight.

    ¡°Very... delicious....¡±

    With the death of the gruish couple, the surrounding fog faded away. After only a few breaths of time passed, there was no trace it had even existed. Xu Qing continued onward until he spotted the Captain up ahead.

    The Captain strolled along eating a ck apple.

    There was clearly a grue sealed in the apple, and it looked simr to the old man and woman Xu Qing had just encountered. It screamed in agony as the Captain ate the apple bite by bite.

    Upon noticing Xu Qing behind him, the Captain took another bite, waved in greeting, and walked over. By the time they were in front of each other, the Captain had finished the apple. Licking his lips in satisfaction, he said, ¡°That was a nice appetizer. Now I¡¯m really hungry. What do you say we keep looking around?¡±

    Hearing the Captain¡¯s words, Xu Qing¡¯s shadows sent him fluctuations of longing. In fact, they almost seemed like the pleas of a little child.... It was still hungry and thirsty.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    That put Patriarch Golden Vajra Warriorpletely on guard. He could see that the shadow had really honed its fawning behavior to a high level of skill. The patriarch suddenly felt a deep sense of crisis.

    It¡¯s still acting like a spoiled child? Outrageous! Disgusting!

    As the patriarch fumed in anxiety, Xu Qing and the Captain strolled through the jungle looking for grues. Unfortunately, grues usually showed up when you didn¡¯t want them to. And since they were actively searching for them, they didn¡¯t find any.

    However, after some time passed, they did find an area where some immortal type of grass was growing. It was strange considering the high mutagen levels in the area.

    ¡°This ce actually has spirit grass?¡± the Captain eximed.

    Normally speaking, spirit grass couldn¡¯t grow in a ce like the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Usually, it only grew where there was no mutagen. Powerful groups would then fortify those areas, using spell formations to keep the mutagen out and keep the grass growing. To find an area like this was very unusual. It was noteworthy that the leaves were very small, almost stunted. That was understandable. But what was really strange was that the area with the grass formed a straight line, with one section going deep into the mountains, and the other heading in the direction of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    Xu Qing squatted down and plucked a de of grass. He probed at the dirt, then looked in the direction of the river.

    ¡°There¡¯s water running underground here.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked down. However, only a momentter, they lit up, as if he could see what was underneath. He smiled.

    ¡°What gall! Someone is actually siphoning water from the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. Underground!¡± Looking up, he peered into the depths of the mountains, then started moving in that direction.

    Xu Qing frowned. It didn¡¯t seem like investigating this way was the best idea, but considering the Captain was already on the move, he decided to follow. Before long, the two of them found the ce where the water was running to.

    It was... a huge grave!

    And written on the gravestone were three, sinister, blood-colored characters.

    Dark Serenity Sect.

 Chapter 285: Another Dark Serenity Sect

    Chapter 285: Another Dark Serenity Sect

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered brightly.

    Both looked at the huge tomb, which was pitch ck and seemed extremely sinister. At the same time, it pulsed with an ancient feeling, as if it had seen countless years of time pass by. It was shaped like a household altar, with two pirs on either side that had once been inscribed with calligraphy. However, the writing had long since faded to the point of being illegible. Within the shrine was a stone statue of someone seated cross-legged. The statue¡¯s facial features had long since been erased by the wind. The facelessness of the statue seemed incredibly gruish. [1]

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce. Both werepletely on guard, and neither was inclined to do anything rash. In fact, they both started backing up. Instead of exploring this area, they both knew it would be best to report the matter to the sect.

    Not only was the grave very strange, but also, the three characters written on the top of the gravestone were very odd and mysterious. The Dark Serenity Sect was one of the supervisory sects in the Eight Sect Coalition. However, there seemed to be another Dark Serenity Sect right here. Thinking of the Dark Serenity Sect made Xu Qing suddenly recall Arch-Immortal Plumdark and her eyes. And that was a somewhat unsettling feeling.

    However, before they could leave, the area behind the grave suddenly blurred as more graves appeared behind it, rising up out of the ground. It appeared to be an entire graveyard, filled with hundreds of graves. The eerie atmosphere grew even stronger.

    Xu Qing and the Captain immediately started backing up even faster, but then the first grave rumbled loudly and split open. Out from the crevice walked a boy wearing fancy, ancient clothing. His skin was pale white, and he had a red dot on his forehead. His clothing definitely made it seem like he hailed from distant antiquity. Once out in the open, he sped hands to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, gentlemen. My Master has invited you in to see him.¡±

    Before Xu Qing and the Captain could reply, everything around them changed again, blurring. When the surroundings were clear again, they were no longer in a graveyard in the jungle. Instead, they were inside of a vast, pitch-ck temple. All of the building materials were ck, and though there weremps letting off faint light, the entire ce seemed very sinister.

    What was more, a hair-raising pressure weighed down on them from all directions. The source of the pressure was seated cross-legged in the position of honor. It was a shadowy figure cloaked in such thick darkness it was impossible to make out any details of their features.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, as did the Captain¡¯s. They exchanged a nce, and both could see how rmed the other was.

    The Captain inhaled sharply. ¡°Form Discement Transposition? Greater Void Teleportation? Earth Contracting Maniption?¡±

    Meanwhile, the shadowy figure seated cross-legged at the other end of the hall spoke in a raspy voice. ¡°You two young friends must be here because of the diversion channel from the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Instead, he sent his senses out to try to determine where exactly he was. He also checked to see if teleportations were locked down in the area. After determining that they weren¡¯t, he breathed an inward sigh of relief. That said, he still kept his guard up.

    Remaining calm and collected, the Captain attempted to send a message to the Special Security Division, while simultaneously chuckling and saying, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t dare to be dishonest with you, Senior. We¡¯re disciples from the Eight Sect Coalition. And yes, that¡¯s why we¡¯re here. It¡¯s our job. Please, don¡¯t take offense, Senior.¡±

    The pressure in the hall suddenly got more intense. ¡°In recent days, I¡¯ve been concocting a darher good fortune pill, and I need to cleanse it with water from the river. I only need five more days, and I¡¯ll be done. After that, I¡¯ll get rid of the diversion channel.¡±

    ¡°Senior, that¡¯s absolutely no problem at all!¡± the Captain said with a smile. ¡°We don¡¯t even need to report the matter to the Eight Sect Coalition. In fact, don¡¯t feel the need to finish after five days. Take as long as you want, then get rid of the diversion channel when you¡¯re done.¡± The Captain was being very respectful and friendly. However, he had been keeping an eye on the surrounding darkness, and had also ced his right hand behind his back and made a signal to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nced at the Captain¡¯s signal, then casually looked at his shadow beneath him. The shadow had formed an image of an old man eating bugs. The shadow had obviously improved its skills, as the image was very lifelike, and even included a cringing expression on the old man¡¯s face. The bugs he was eating were thumb-sized, and as the old man¡¯s anxiety increased, he ate the bugs faster and faster. He was seated on a boulder, and the more bugs he ate, the more solid the boulder became.

    At the same time, the old man emitted bubbles that floated into the air toward Xu Qing and the Captain to surround them. Beyond that, the shadow¡¯s image made it clear that, beyond the range of the bubbles were seven or eight shadowy figures, all of them looking very nervous.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes wide and looked straight at the cross-legged figure, cloaked in shadows and emanating a terrifying pressure.

    ¡°That¡¯s wonderful,¡± the cross-legged figure said. ¡°The two of you have no reason to be nervous. Given that your coalition also has a Dark Serenity Sect, I won¡¯t cause any trouble for you. You can just turn around and leave. You¡¯ll be out of here after walking a hundred paces. Just remember... don¡¯t look back. I¡¯m worried that I might lose control and identally eat the two of you.¡±

    The figure spoke in a very sinister voice, and entuated his final words with a loud gulp, as though he were working very hard to control himself. Overall, it came across as very terrifying.

    ¡°Get out of here!¡± he snapped, and themp light in the temple flickered dramatically. The atmosphere suddenly became much more tense.

    As for the Captain, he blinked rapidly as he looked at the other figures in the darkness.

    ¡°What are you waiting for? Leave!¡± This time, the shadowy figure¡¯s voice seemed to tremble slightly.

    ¡°Son of a bitch,¡± the Captain said. ¡°You put on a good show. You almost got us to leave!¡±

    He suddenly stood up and rushed to the darkness off to the side. A cry of rm rang out from that spot as the Captain reached toward it.

    Xu Qing also took action, sending balefire rumbling out. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding temple vanished, as did the graveyard. They were still in the jungle in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, and they were still in front of the same grave. But all the other graves were gone, and in their ce was a small sect that consisted of seven or eight log cabins. Beyond the cabins were crumbling ruins. It waspletely different from what Xu Qing and the Captain had seen before.

    But not everything they had seen was an illusion. Just outside the sect¡¯s main gate was a stone stele upon which were written the characters Dark Serenity Sect.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were just outside of the sect. And in front of them was a disheveled old man, a look of astonishment on his face, and a stone bowl of bugs held in his hand. He was currently backing away from them. There were seven or eight disciples surrounding them. They were all sallow and emaciated, and their eyes shone with terror.

    When the old man saw the vicious look in the Captain¡¯s eyes, he cried, ¡°Show us mercy, Elder Brothers! We¡¯re all humans here! Please, don¡¯t judge us too harshly!¡±

    The Captain ignored the old man¡¯s pleas, and instead headed directly toward him.

    Xu Qing scanned the area and confirmed that the emaciated disciples were real. What was more, using his shadow, he made sure that their surroundings weren''t an illusion. He also identified the boulder the old man had previously been seated cross-legged on. It was a grayish blue color, and was clearly extraordinary in some way.

    As Xu Qing examined it through narrowed eyes, the Captaintched his hand onto the old man¡¯s neck and then mmed him onto the ground.

    The old man was clearly not on the same level as the Captain; he appeared to have two life mes.

    With the old man on the ground, the Captain stomped his foot onto his dantian region. Then he grinned viciously. ¡°How dare you try to scam us, you old codger! You wanted to eat me? How about I eat you instead!¡±

    The surrounding disciples were visibly distraught, and one of them, a middle-aged man, blurted, ¡°Please calm down, sir! We had no choice. Can you please let us go considering you¡¯re from a supervisory sect, and we¡¯re all humans? Our Master had no other option than to do things this way.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid, but he was fully on guard. He didn¡¯t showpassion to enemies, no matter how difficult it was to tell how malicious they were.

    ¡°Spare me, Elder Brother!¡± the old man said, trembling as blood oozed out of his mouth. ¡°We also fear the power of supervisory sects. My n was never to hurt anyone. I just wanted the two of you to leave!¡±

    ¡°How did you create that illusion?¡± Xu Qing suddenly asked.

    ¡°Elder Brother, my sect has a treasure that has the ability to create an illusory region. It can¡¯t be moved away from this spot, though, which is why our sect moved to this location.¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t dare to hide any of the truth, and thus, he pointed out the boulder off in the distance.

    ¡°We¡¯re a small sect, so to earn enough to survive, and keep on living, we had to create a diversion channel from the river. Please, we beg you not to vent your fury on us!¡±

    The Captain nced at the boulder, his eyes glittering.

    Xu Qing walked over, inspected the boulder, then looked back at the old man. ¡°Why are you called the Dark Serenity Sect?¡±

    The old man looked stunned, as did the surrounding disciples. ¡°Elder... Elder Brother, we¡¯re just called the Dark Serenity Sect, that¡¯s all¡­ ohhhhhh. I get it. Elder Brother, you must be new to the Revered Ancient maind. Are you from Seven Blood Eyes?¡± The old man clearly knew about the recent changes to the coalition.

    The Captain pushed his foot down harder onto the old man. ¡°Tell us what you know.¡±

    The old man shivered and tried to act even more respectful. ¡°Elder Brothers, in Revered Ancient, if there aren¡¯t 10,000 Dark Serenity Sects, then there are at least 8,000. Any sect with even the slightest connection to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity will take the name Dark Serenity Sect. We all follow the same basic teachings.¡±

    Xu Qing was a bit surprised by that exnation. As for the Captain, he focused on one specific aspect, and it wasn¡¯t the name Dark Serenity Sect. Instead, it was...

    ¡°What ¡®slight connection¡¯ do you have to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity? A technique? A treasure? A legacy?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes were shining, and he seemed to be salivating, as if he were having trouble not just devouring the old man.

    The light in his eyes caused more terror to well up in the old man, and he shouted, ¡°Disciples, bring out the sect¡¯s precious treasure!¡±

    1. Household shrinese in a variety of shapes, styles, etc. However, given the description,  of what this one is probably supposed to look like. ?

 Chapter 286: A Heavenly Spike to Crush a Demon Snake

    Chapter 286: A Heavenly Spike to Crush a Demon Snake

    This Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s precious treasure was an engraving on a big rock. At first nce, it was obvious that it was an ordinary engraving on an ordinary rock. What was extraordinary wasn¡¯t the engraving or rock, but rather, what the engraving depicted. It showed an enormous dragon-like snake, with a long, serpentine body, six leathery wings, and a vicious crocodilian head. Despite being nothing more than an artistic depiction, it seemed to radiate viciousness.

    In the engraving, the snake had a massive spike impaled through its tail section. Connected to the spike was a chain that had been inserted into the creature¡¯s skull.

    In that manner, the snake¡¯s head and tail were both locked in ce. However, a creature like that couldn¡¯t die so easily. It was covered with numerous gaping wounds that revealed both muscles and bones, all of which were covered with countless appalling restrictive spells.

    The engraving made it very obvious that the snake was experiencing immeasurable suffering. All it could do was howl in helpless anguish. Obviously... whoever had impaled this draconic snake hated it immensely. After all, the impaler could have killed the creature, but instead chose to torment and watch it suffer.

    What was most astonishing to Xu Qing and the Captain was that the engraving depicted stars swirling in the snake¡¯s eyes. Close examination revealed that there were over 10,000yers of stars. That meant... that it was in the second stage of the Void-Returning level!

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The Captain looked back at him, then shifted his gaze to the old man.

    ¡°What is this thing?¡± the Captain asked.

    ¡°This is our Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s connection to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Countless years in the past, before Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity conquered Revered Ancient, he came here on a mission that turned him into a legend.

    ¡°The ce where he arrived on the maind is what we now call Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. When he madendfall, there was a demon snake in the area that caused constant problems. It refused to surrender to the Ancient Emperor, and was actually so stubborn that it bit him.

    ¡°Although the Ancient Emperor had not yet fully achieved his great dao, he had no trouble crushing some paltry demon snake. Then he used a heavenly spike to impale the demon snake on the shore of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, after which he inscribed its muscles and bones with warding spells to torment it. When the process was done, he mocked the demon snake in front of hispanions, saying that to punish it for taking that one bite, he would suppress the demon snake for a hundred thousand years.

    ¡°In addition to that, the Ancient Emperorposed a poem about the event.

    ¡°A heavenly spike to crush a demon snake; 10,000 magics assimte the cosmos!¡±

    When talking about Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the old man seemed to forget that the Captain was stepping on his chest, and a look of immense pride filled his face.

    ¡°In response to one single bite,¡± the Captain said, ¡°the Ancient Emperor sliced open the snake, filled it with warding spells, and tormented it for a hundred thousand years? He was that petty?¡± He turned to Xu Qing, an odd expression on his face as he transmitted a message to him via divine will. ¡°I used to think you were the most petty person ever, little Ah Qing. It seems you might have to work harder in that regard.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. With strangers present, there was no way the Captain would reveal Xu Qing¡¯s identity by speaking. That was why he projected the message instead of speaking it out loud.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he replied with a single sentence. ¡°Captain, were you that snake in a past life?¡±

    The Captain chuckled sarcastically. Looking back down, he shot a fierce expression at the old man and said, ¡°Your sect¡¯s precious treasure is this engraving? That¡¯s it? Since you have the engraving does that mean you know where the snake was impaled? Was it right here?¡±

    The Captain looked around, but didn¡¯t see anything to indicate that this location was where the snake was impaled.

    The old man looked a bit embarrassed, like he didn¡¯t want to answer the question. But then he considered that these two people from a supervisory sect didn¡¯t seem very friendly, and thus he decided not to hide anything. He sighed.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t here.¡±

    ¡°Then where?¡± Xu Qing asked, though he already had a guess as to the answer.

    ¡°In the Dark Serenity Sect in your Eight Sect Coalition,¡± the old man said.

    The Captainughed. ¡°Your sect¡¯s precious treasure is an engraving of the the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket realm in the Eight Sect Coalition?¡±

    The old man gave a wry, embarrassed smile. ¡°Actually, we¡¯re the most authentic Dark Serenity Sect in all of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Years ago, our founder was given a mission by the Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself, to guard over the demon snake and increase its torment on a yearly basis.

    ¡°As time passed, that legacy was passed down with few interruptions, until my own Master took over.... Some years ago, he ran into Immortal Fairy Plumdark from your coalition. Nowadays she¡¯s called Arch-Immortal Plumdark. In any case, as soon as my Masterid eyes on her, he knew that she had limitless opportunities for the future.

    ¡°Because of that, my Master was more than happy to give the ancestralnd to her, and also pass on the legacy of our sect to her. Afterward, he had nothing holding him back, so he took us here to live in seclusion and enjoy life, aloof from worldly affairs. About thirty years ago, he flew on a crane to the Western Paradise, and passed away peacefully....¡±

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the surrounding emaciated disciples, and then at the cowering old man.

    An odd expression could be seen on the Captain¡¯s face as he stared at the old man. The old man looked back awkwardly, not sure what to say next.

    After a moment, the Captain cleared his throat and said, ¡°Was your Master surnamed Zhao? Zhao Zhongheng?¡±

    The old man gaped. ¡°Huh? No, my Master wasn¡¯t surnamed Zhao.¡±

    The Captain shook his head and took his foot off the old man¡¯s chest. After everything, he didn¡¯t feel good bullying these people. If anything, he pitied them. Instead, he asked for some more details about the snake.

    The old man quicklyplied. ¡°That pocket realm is now a reserve power of the Dark Serenity Sect in the Eight Sect Coalition. I¡¯ve never been there, but I heard my Master say that it¡¯s full of terrifying soul power. Strong soul power like that can be very useful for cultivation. Even inhaling a single mouthful can bring immense benefits.

    ¡°The demon snake¡¯s fleshly body died, leaving behind only a skeleton. However, my Master said it¡¯s not truly dead. Its soul still exists, though it¡¯s extremely weak. Sleeping, really. So the soul power in the ancestralnd is really just emanating off of the demon snake¡¯s soul.

    ¡°The Ancient Emperor¡¯s spike didn¡¯t just seal the demon snake¡¯s fleshly body, it also sealed its soul. Thus, even after all of the countless years which have passed, the snake still hates Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity down to the core of its being!¡±

    Thanks to this old man, Xu Qing and the Captain knew a lot more about the pocket realm belonging to the coalition¡¯s Dark Serenity Sect. Shortly thereafter, they made their way out of the sect.

    They didn¡¯t bother looking into the diversion channel. However, they emphasized to the old man that he couldn¡¯t go overboard using the river water. What was more, they checked the huge stone at the entrance of the sect, and found that it truly was impossible to move. It was a permanent part of thendscape.

    The Captain, however, wasn¡¯t willing to give up that easily, and managed to take a bite out of it. However, that was the limit of what he was capable of. Finally, as the members of this Dark Serenity Sect trembled in anxiety, Xu Qing and the Captain finally left.

    On the way back, the Captain sighed and said, ¡°I felt like we got really unlucky. We didn¡¯t get anything.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. They really hadn¡¯t benefited much on this outing.

    Suddenly, they exchanged a nce.

    Lowering his voice, the Captain said, ¡°Say, once we¡¯re back, why don¡¯t we figure out a way to get into the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket realm, and absorb some of that soul power?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, all the while thinking about Arch-Immortal Plumdark. On an instinctual level, he didn¡¯t want to go anywhere near her. Given that, it didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to trespass on the Dark Serenity Sect just to absorb some soul power.

    ¡°Then again,¡± the Captain continued, his eyes glittering, ¡°absorbing some soul power isn¡¯t exactly something amazing. But if we could wake up that demon snake, and take a bite out of it... that would be amazing!¡±

    That got Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumping. Forgetting all about Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he started considering how they could pull something like that off. The Captain was also lost in thought.

    Eventually, they flew out of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains and spotted the coalition ships off in the distance.

    That was when Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°That demon snake hates Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity to the core of its being, right. So¡­ if it sees someone that reminds it of the Ancient Emperor, would it get so irritated it might wake up?¡±

    Hearing this, the Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That might be a way to solve the problem. Are you talking about Little Jianjian...?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, and the Captain chuckled darkly. The two of them started discussing the details. The ships were moving up the river again by the time they finalized their n.

    ¡°But Wu Jianwu didn¡¯te to the maind,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s still back on South Phoenix, most likely somewhere in Forbidden by the Phoenix.¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The key to the whole n would be to convince Wu Jianwu to agree to work with them.

    ¡°That¡¯ll be simple,¡± the Captain said. ¡°That little punk is absolutely crazy about Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. I¡¯ll just send some people to Forbidden by the Phoenix to find him and deliver a message. I¡¯ll say something like... ¡®we found one of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s old stomping grounds. Guess what, there¡¯s a poem there hand-written by the Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself!¡¯

    ¡°Believe you me, little Ah Qing, stomping grounds plus a poem will be too much for Little Jianjian to resist. Especially thetter!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he used the assets on the Special Security Division ship to send a message back to the sect and set things in motion.

    Time passed. They continued upriver on the inspection for a few months. Everything went smoothly, and before long they reached the end of the tributary.

    This was where the mainstem of the river intersected with the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, where the headquarters of the Young Arbiter Sect used to exist. As they neared, Xu Qing could see the ruins of the sect, as well as the crumbled remains of the dam. Even the smallest chunks of the dam were hundreds of meters in length, and the big ones were thousands of meters. From that, it was possible to imagine how shockingly immense the dam had been.

    Beyond the ruins of the dam and the sect, Xu Qing and the Captain spotted a massive flow of turbulent water that might as well have been a sea.

    It was... the mainstem of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River!

    The immortal energy there was incredibly strong, such that the Seven Blood Eyes disciples couldn¡¯t get too close without feeling intoxicated and dizzy. Even Xu Qing felt unsteady. He looked to the east, where the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was, and then to the west, where, beyond the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains was... Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s primary forbidden ground.

    The river flowed right into that forbidden ground, where it becamepletely ck and full of shocking mutagen. It was easy to imagine how terrifying that forbidden ground was, considering it could transform immortal energy into mutagen!

 Chapter 287: The Last From Li Zimei

    Chapter 287: The Last From Li Zimei

    There was something else at the end of the tributary besides the Young Arbiter Sect. There was a fleet from the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect. They had twelve ships, upon which Xu Qing spotted cultivators from the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect, seated cross-legged in cultivation. They were all Special Security Division officers, and they had been stationed here waiting for Seven Blood Eyes to relieve them.

    The Captain went out to handle the formalities. After the official handover, which included transferring the coalition g, the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect officers saluted those from Seven Blood Eyes and sailed back downriver. The day they arrived back at the coalition, the Special Security Division from the next sect would start the journey upriver to relieve Seven Blood Eyes.

    In the meantime, the Seven Blood Eyes Special Security Division would be garrisoned here, and would keep the coalition g flying on the shore.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were in charge.

    Although it might seem like a lengthy mission, both the time spent on the river and the time spent at the final destination came with plenty of benefits for cultivation. That said, cultivation wasn¡¯t easy at the end of the tributary. Most disciples actually couldn¡¯t quickly limate to the surroundings because of the very strong immortal energy.

    As for the low-level disciples of the old Young Arbiter Sect, they were only able to practice cultivation here thanks to the protection of the sect¡¯s spell formation.

    Even Xu Qing felt dizzy, and after disembarking onto the shore next to the mainstem, could only stand there and try to catch his breath. The immortal energy buffeted his face, streamed into his nose and pores alike. After gritting his teeth and forcing himself to limate, he sat down cross-legged to start cultivating.

    The Captain did the same. As for the other Seven Blood Eyes disciples, they also disembarked, checked the area for safety, then used their own various ways to limate and start meditating.

    Time passed. A monthter, Xu Qing opened his 109th dharma aperture. He didn¡¯t use soul power, but instead, relied on the strong immortal energy and the Life Nurturing Incantation. It would have been very difficult to do that on the continent of South Phoenix, but here, it was a much easier task.

    Xu Qing was excited.

    I only have 11 dharma apertures left before I can ignite my fourth life me!

    With that fourth life me, he would have battle prowess truly capable of crushing everything in Foundation Establishment.

    Without any additional assets, he would have six-me battle prowess. When adding his imperial-ss technique, he would reach the seven-me level. Thebination of his two lifemps wouldn¡¯t push himpletely to the eight-me level, but he would definitely be at the limit of seven mes.

    Another mission came in during that month, and it was to hunt down stragglers from the Young Arbiter Sect. The search itself wasn¡¯t important. Rather, this announcement alone was intended to send a message to the rest of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And that message was... the Eight Sect Coalition would not permit another dam to be built.

    If someone tried, they would incur a death grudge! And the Special Security Division was responsible for making sure that message came through loud and clear.

    Xu Qing had no idea what secret deal had been made between the coalition and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, but for whatever reason, thetter had remained silent on the entire issue.

    The survivors of the Young Arbiter Sect apparently realized there was no way they could ever rebuild their sect in the area, and had evacuated. When the Seven Blood Eyes disciples returned from the search, they reported that there was no sign that any Young Arbiter Sect cultivators remained. It was the same results as when previous sects from the coalition had scoured the area.

    Xu Qing continued working on his cultivation. When it got too difficult for him to be near the water, he would back away from the shore, wait for his body to limate again, then return and begin again.

    The Captain disappeared for a while. Before leaving, he¡¯d told Xu Qing that he was going to explore the area. Xu Qing could tell that there was more going on that the Captain didn¡¯t want to exin, and thus didn¡¯t ask any questions. The Captain respected Xu Qing¡¯s desire to keep secrets, and Xu Qing did the same with the Captain.

    Days passed. Truth be told, most disciples found it too dull and boring to literally sit around all day working on cultivation. So few people spent all their time doing breathing exercises and meditating. Most of them took opportunities to explore the area, or go entertain themselves in a nearby nation.

    Xu Qing let them do what they wanted, while he took advantage of every possible moment to further his cultivation. There were a few others who did the same as him, including the Mute.

    Three months passed. Xu Qing¡¯s diligent work resulted in him opening his 110th dharma aperture, which gave him more abundant dharma force.

    Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder. There were currently only thirty other disciples who were still in the area working on cultivation. After looking at them, Xu Qing was about to close his eyes again when suddenly his expression flickered and he looked in the direction of the mainstem.

    It was evening, and the colorful clouds in the sky were exceptionally beautiful. Beneath them, a fleet of ships sailed across the water.

    There were several of them, and they were clearly different from Seven Blood Eyes ships, as they were shaped like willow leaves. They looked to be made of crystal or spirit stone, making them bright, glittering, and translucent. They wereing from the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and a host of disciples could be seen on them, many of whom wore long white gowns. [1]

    Females were in the majority, and all of them wore veils. Extraordinary fluctuations rolled off of them in all directions.

    Xu Qing knew exactly who these people were.

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    As the ships got closer, the disciples on the ships and the disciples on the shore were separated only by water, giving them both a very clear view of each other.

    As the two groups examined each other, Xu Qing noticed the three female disciples who had visited Seven Blood Eyes not very long ago. Though all of the disciples from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society were dressed identically, and had veils on, they all had unique auras. Xu Qing had keen powers of observation, and having seen these three disciples from a distance back in Seven Blood Eyes, they stood out to him. [2]

    There was another familiar person on one of the ships. She had the same white gown and veil that the others wore. She carried herself in such a different way from before that she almost seemed like a different person, and in fact, if it wasn¡¯t for the stubborn determination in her eyes, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have recognized her.

    She was... Li Zimei!

    Zhang San had previously mentioned that she was taken to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and had even given Xu Qing a letter from her. The letter hadn¡¯t said much other than some general words of appreciation. [3]

    Xu Qing recognized her, but thanks to the jade slip Master Seventh had given him, he looked like a stranger to her. Their gazes met briefly, and then the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society ships were gone, heading in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Xu Qing watched them disappear in the distance, then looked away.

    Four of us climbed the Seventh Peak that day. As of now, Zhou Qingpeng is dead, Xu Xiaohui has given up on cultivation, and Li Zimei is with the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    He sighed inwardly. Four years had passed, but he remembered everything clearly.

    Closing his eyes, he went back to cultivation. However, before long, one of the ships from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society fleet returned. As it approached the shore, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked vigntly at the neers.

    It was one of the female disciples that had visited Seven Blood Eyes. Li Zimei was with her. They didn¡¯t disembark. However, as Li Zimei stood further back, the female disciple looked at Xu Qing and asked, ¡°You¡¯re from Seven Blood Eyes?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    She waved her hand, causing two jade slips to fly toward him, one violet and one blue.

    Expression calm, he caught them, simultaneously stering a look of surprise onto his face and pretending to stagger backward about ten paces. He didn¡¯t want small details to give clues about his real identity.

    ¡°Give the blue jade slip to your sect leader¡¯s third apprentice. The violet one is for a Seven Blood Eyes disciple named Xu Qing.¡± With that, she turned the ship around and then left with Li Zimei. During the entire time, Li Zimei didn¡¯t say a single thing. However, after they were on their way, she looked over her shoulder briefly at Xu Qing.

    After they were gone, Xu Qing looked down at the two jade slips. Putting away the one for Third Elder Brother, he looked at the violet slip.

    It¡¯s for me?

    After some thought, he cast his senses into the jade slip, whereupon the message within entered his mind.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, it¡¯s me, Li Zimei. Do you remember the veryst thing you ever said to me?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. This jade slip wasn¡¯t an ordinary item. It was locked, and he needed to answer this question to see the full contents. If someone tried to unlock it with force, it would self-destruct.

    ¡°Keep up the good work. I look forward to the day when you can get that dharmaboat.¡±

    He sent those words into the sealing mark on the jade slip.

    Instantly, a detailed message appeared.

    Elder Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯ve been doing well in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. I¡¯m sending you this message because I started studying a new technique from my sect. It¡¯spletely different from the cultivation methods from back at Seven Blood Eyes.

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society believes that cultivation base is cultivation base, while domain realms are domain realms. And they put less of an emphasis on cultivation base, and primary emphasis on domain realms.

    The domain realm doesn¡¯t have anything to do with Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Gold Core, and the like. Instead, it¡¯s about... the will domain!

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society believes that the will domain is the true ¡®great dao.¡¯ That said, will domains require enlightenment, and that¡¯s something very difficult....

    That¡¯s all I understand so far, Elder Brother. I know it¡¯s not much. I just hope it can be of some help to you. Perhaps you can spend more time working on enlightenment. I¡¯m not fully convinced that the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society is correct, but their beliefs do have redeeming qualities.

    What¡¯s more... I¡¯m not going to disappoint you, Elder Brother Xu Qing. I¡¯m going to participate in one of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s ceremonies of enlightenment. They told me that it¡¯s very difficult. If I fail, I¡¯ll die. And even if I seed, it¡¯s possible that my personality will change.

    That itself isn¡¯t a big deal. I¡¯ve never liked my personality anyway. Sometimes I¡¯m too weak. Sometimes I¡¯m too proud. A change would be good. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll seed, and if I do, I have no idea how I¡¯ll transform. By the time you get this message, I may already be dead. Or who knows, maybe I¡¯ll have seeded.

    Either way, this is my choice, and I¡¯m going all the way. I n to work hard. I know I can do it! I just hope my personality doesn¡¯t change too much.

    Maybe I¡¯m being too forward with this message. But this is thest letter I¡¯ll write before my personality changes. I have no other rtives. For years now, I¡¯ve only had you and Elder Brother Zhang San. I know that Elder Brother Zhang San looked after me for your sake. I hope you can forgive me for any trouble I caused you.

    Finally, Elder Brother, I want to offer you my sincere well wishes. I hope you do really well in life. Forever. Always.

    ¡ªLi Zimei.

    1. In case you aren¡¯t familiar with what willow leaves look like, here¡¯s a picture of one. They¡¯re long and slender. ?

    2. As mentioned in another recent footnote, the three Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society disciples arrived in Seven Blood Eyes in chapter 226, and one of them was ¡°on-screen¡± briefly in chapter 236. As far as I recall, there was never a scene in which Xu Qing actuallyid eyes on them, but considering how much time passed during that part of the story, it doesn¡¯t seem beyond the realm of possibility that he would have seen them. ?

    3. Li Zimei was with Xu Qing on his first trip up the Seventh Peak in chapter 51. He gave her some words of encouragement in chapter 68, and thest we saw her was when he greeted her in the Transportation Division in chapter 79. Zhang San gave Xu Qing her letter in chapter 276. ?

 Chapter 288: Earnest Pondering

    Chapter 288: Earnest Pondering

    ¡°Will domain?¡± Xu Qing murmured thoughtfully. He looked at the mainstem of the river and could just barely make out the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society ships off in the distance.

    It wasn¡¯t his first time hearing the word. He remembered Third Princess, daughter of the Seazombie king, who had cultivated a technique rted to such things. [1]

    ¡°Enlightenment, huh?¡± Hemitted the information to heart, and at the same time, wished Li Zimei luck.

    Things went smoothly after that. Xu Qing worked on his cultivation for more than a month, whereupon the Special Security Division from Spiritgloam Valley arrived to relieve them.

    The Captain came back, and he looked very pleased. He had obviously benefited a lot while he was out. What was more, Xu Qing noticed that his skin looked especially healthy. It was almost like... he had molted. What was more, the Captain¡¯s aura seemed stronger than before.

    ¡°Finished?¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    ¡°Finished!¡± the Captain repliedcently. ¡°Hahaha! Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, if you and I got into a fight, it¡¯s hard to say who woulde out on top. I opened another seal.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. The Captain was about to say something else when the officers from Spiritgloam Valley approached.

    The Captain knew that Xu Qing didn¡¯t like dealing with formalities, so he handled everything. Soon enough, the Spiritgloam Valley officers were taking over. The Seven Blood Eyes officers transferred the sect¡¯s g, boarded their boats, and sailed away.

    The return trip went faster. For one thing, it wasn¡¯t necessary to closely inspect the river banks. Also, the flow of the river added speed, so the ships could move more quickly. Before long, the mighty walls of the Eight Sect Coalition rose up in the distance. The officers of the Special Security Division all looked excited.

    Because of the length of the mission, they hadn¡¯t been back to the sect in a while. Everyone had benefited greatly, not only by increasing their cultivation bases, but also by reducing their mutagen levels. Most importantly was that they were now getting more familiar with Revered Ancient.

    Upon seeing the familiar sight of Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. The first thing he did was go to his berth to work on his cultivation and inspect the beetles that had consumed the immortal ice. They were still dormant, but were finally showing signs that they might wake up soon. Xu Qing was very much looking forward to that, as the beetles¡¯ aura already seemed a lot stronger than before, but at the same time, more difficult to detect.

    Xu Qing worked hard on his 111th dharma aperture, and also tried to track down as many soul pills as he could. Unfortunately, his dharma apertures had reached the point that the soul power he required wasn¡¯t something that soul pills could provide. There were pills designed specifically for opening apertures, but even after shopping around a lot, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t find any for sale.

    One day the Captain showed up with some news. Sitting down on the deck of Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, I got in touch with Wu Jianwu. He¡¯s on his way back from Forbidden by the Phoenix. Given his personality, I bet the first thing he does when he gets back is pay through the nose to teleport to us here.

    ¡°I got some more detailed information about the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket realm. It¡¯s exactly like what we learned from that engraving. Also, it¡¯s open to disciples from all sects! The downside is it¡¯s really expensive. You have to pay 5,000,000 spirit stones to get inside for three days!

    ¡°To people who cultivate with souls, it¡¯s an extremely beneficial ce. That means it¡¯s especially useful for Dark Serenity Sect cultivators. Most who go in are chosen with three or four life mes, and they usually go in for breakthroughs.¡± Rubbing his hands together and looking very crafty, he continued, ¡°Say, little Ah Qing, can you do your Elder Brother a favor? I really can¡¯t afford to pay 5,000,000 spirit stones. It¡¯s just too expensive. So... why don¡¯t you go talk to Arch-Immortal Plumdark? You know, pout a bit. You never know, she might feel bad enough to just let you into the ce for free.¡±

    Xu Qing always got nervous when thinking about Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Looking at the Captain, he said, ¡°Senior Plumdark wasn¡¯t looking at me that day we met. She was looking at you, Eldest Brother. Remember? You should go.¡±

    ¡°Aiyaaaa,¡± the Captain said, sounding anxious. ¡°You big dork. This is 10,000,000 spirit stones we¡¯re talking about here! You think I don¡¯t want to be the one to do it? I do! Come on, little Ah Qing, you¡¯ve got an advantage here. Why not use it? You¡¯re only young once, ya dummy!¡±

    The Captain went on to make some very persuasive arguments, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a word in response to any of them. He had no intention of agreeing to the Captain¡¯s request. Though he also cared about spirit stones, he just couldn¡¯t go along with the idea.

    ¡°Everything in this worldes down to cultivation base,¡± the Captain said. ¡°No one will talk bad about you as long as you get stronger. Come on, little Ah Qing. People in this world look down on the weak, not the flirtatious!¡±

    The way the Captain pped his thigh to emphasize his words, while simultaneously moaning and groaning, made it seem like, if he was in Xu Qing¡¯s shoes, he would absolutely do exactly as he was requesting.

    ¡°How can you not understand this, little Ah Qing? If I was you, I would already be in Nascent Soul, believe me. The sect would be full of my grandchildren, and in a few hundred years, the entire coalition would be mine. You need to learn a thing or two from Third Sib!¡±

    ¡°If it has to be done, then you do it.¡± Xu Qing was getting tired of the conversation.

    Looking absolutely crestfallen, the Captain sighed. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to do it, fine. In that case, just lend me the spirit stones. No, wait. You already owe me money! You owe me 5,000,000!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, assessed his battle prowess, and then closed his eyes to meditate.

    Feeling helpless, the Captain made a few more arguments. But when he realized that Xu Qing was in a meditative trance, he finally left, his heart twinging at the thought of paying 5,000,000 spirit stones. The next day, he was still in mental anguish over the matter as he and Xu Qing went to meet Wu Jianwu, who had arrived even sooner than they expected.

    When Seven Blood Eyes moved their headquarters, the only one of the various highnesses who didn¡¯te along was Wu Jianwu. He had remained in Forbidden by the Phoenix. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that the Captain had a very extensive informationwork, it might have been impossible to get in touch with him. When he stepped off of the teleportation portal, it caused an immediate stir in Seven Blood Eyes. That wasn¡¯t because he was wearing a long, silver robe and was reciting poetry. Rather, it was because of his two-me cultivation base fluctuations.

    Even more astonishing was that... he had two baby animals following him around.

    They were little bears, norger than small dogs. They were golden in color, and the moment they followed him off the teleportation portal, they emanated powerful fluctuations of godliness. Those godly fluctuations were full of an auraparable to the great circle of Qi Condensation. These were juveniles who weren¡¯t fully intelligent yet, so it was only possible to imagine what they would be like when they reached Foundation Establishment.

    The matter attracted the attention of the entire sect. And considering that both little bears had ancient bloodlines, the beast-tamers from the Fourth Peak werepletely bbergasted.

    Normally speaking, Wu Jianwu wouldn¡¯t miss out on an opportunity to look down his nose at other people. But there was something more important to him at the moment, so as soon as he teleported in, he sent a voice message to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Where are the ruins of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity that you talked about. Where? WHERE? And what about the poetry. Are you serious about it? Is it real???¡±

    Even just listening to the message on his identity medallion, Xu Qing could sense how excited Wu Jianwu was.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s real!¡± the Captain replied immediately.

    However, Wu Jianwu wasn¡¯t convinced. Apparently, he didn¡¯t trust the Captain very much. It was only after Xu Qing made simr assurances that he finally believed them. He was so excited that he was trembling, and didn¡¯t need any urging from Xu Qing or the Captain to want to immediately get to work.

    When they told him he needed to pay 5,000,000 spirit stones, he frowned for a moment, then immediately agreed.

    That shut the Captain up for a bit.

    In fact, Wu Jianwu was so insistent that, the very day he arrived, the three of them went to the Dark Serenity Sect.

    Xu Qing braced himself inwardly and reminded himself that this was all for the purpose of igniting his fourth life me. As they made their way at top speed toward the pocket realm, his expression was very serious, and he tried to do everything possible to avoid attracting attention.

    Wu Jianwu was also moving at top speed, but it was because he was so excited.

    In contrast, the Captain didn¡¯t seem to be in very much of a hurry. The thought of losing all those spirit stones was really keeping him down. However, Xu Qing and Wu Jianwu dragged him along until they arrived at the entrance.

    There, they found a huge rock with an old man sitting atop it. He was in charge of the area.

    He had six heavenly pces, causing immense energy to roll out in all directions. When Xu Qing, the Captain, and Wu Jianwu arrived, he didn¡¯t even crack an eyelid open, much less say anything to them.

    Considering how smoothly things were going, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief and quickly paid his spirit stones. Wu Jianwu did the same. As for the Captain... he heaved a sigh, then stared hesitantly up into the sky as if he was looking for something. Xu Qing and Wu Jianwu stared at him until he finally trudged forward and begrudgingly paid the spirit stones.

    Only when they had all paid did the old man open his eyes and wave his hands. A vortex sprang into being in front of the three of them, emanating powerful soul power fluctuations.

    Xu Qing and Wu Jianwu said nothing, and were just about to jump inside when... the old man suddenly got to his feet and sped hands toward the sky.

    ¡°Greetings, Matriarch.¡±

    Shivering, Xu Qing rushed toward the vortex. However, he acted too slowly, as a gentle, friendly voice echoed from above.

    ¡°Don¡¯t move, child. Turn around.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s foot stopped before it could touch the ground. He couldn¡¯t move it. All he could do was slowly turn and look at the supremely elegant Arch-Immortal Plumdark descending from above.

    She wore very different clothingpared tost time. She wore a bluegreen dress of woven silk and had a hairpin that resembled a flying phoenix. Her hair tumbled down her back like a cloak, and she smelled as fragrant as if she had just stepped out of a bath. There was a slight flush to her soul-stirring face, which made her look immactely beautiful. The smile in her eyes seemed capable of melting anything she looked at.

    Just like thatst time they met at night, she walked right up to Xu Qing, except this time, from the side.

    Off to the side, Wu Jianwu was so stunned he just stood there watching.

    The Captain, on the other hand, blinked a few times. What¡¯s she doing here? Don¡¯t tell me she intentionally waited for us to pay the spirit stones before showing her face!

    With Wu Jianwu looking dazed and the Captain feeling suspicious, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stopped next to Xu Qing and looked at him with eyes like bottomless pools of water. Her beautiful lips were slightly parted, and she had a faint smile on her face.

    ¡°Why are you so adept at pleasing women, child? I got the gift you sent me. I loved it.¡± [2]

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice was as crisp as the waters of a spring, and could pierce into the depths of the soul. It was both maic and tender, like a whirlpool that pulled the listener closer and closer to her.

    Upon hearing her words, Xu Qing nced at the Captain.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then looked left and right, as if this situation had absolutely nothing to do with him.

    1. The Seazombie king¡¯s technique was described in chapter 184, which was where will domains were first mentioned. ?

    2. Arch-Immortal Plumdark refers to herself in the third person as ¡°big sister.¡± I generally leave out third-person forms of address when tranting, unless it¡¯s absolutely necessary. In a romantic/dating context, it¡¯smon for older women to be called ¡°big sister¡± (or for them to call themselves that). For instance, on asions when my brother-inw (Madam Deathde¡¯s brother), dated older women, that¡¯s what she and my mother-inw would call the woman. When a woman uses it as a third-person form of address for herself, it can sound a bit flirty/seductive, although not necessarily. ?

 Chapter 289: Jianwu in the Spotlight

    Chapter 289: Jianwu in the Spotlight

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark seemed amused at how Xu Qing was acting. She had seen a lot of people in her life, including ones as good-looking and bashful as this child. However, when she was younger, she had never paid much attention to people like that. Yet now, for some reason, she just felt the urge to toy with him a bit. She took a step closer.

    Xu Qing was as stiff as a board and was having trouble breathing steadily. Not only was he immobile, but also, the pressure caused his soul to shiver.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark had now approached so closely that her face was right next to his. She smelled like she had just finished bathing, and considering how close she was, Xu Qing was surrounded by that fragrant aroma, and had no choice but to inhale it deeply. He was so nervous that his face was pale white, and his heart was pounding so loudly you could almost hear it from the outside. He had never behaved like this in the presence of any female disciple he had ever met in the past.

    Watching the scene y out, Wu Jianwu was in aplete daze. He even wondered if Chen Erniu and Xu Qing had invited him here from afar just to witness this event. Then he started to feel a bit irritated considering he just wanted to see Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    As for the old man with six heavenly pces, he stood by, respectfully averting his gaze.

    Only the Captain was feeling wonderful. I had no choice, little Ah Qing. I had to do this. And that hairpin was so expensive. It was all for your own good. You know what they say... ginger gets spicier the older it is. As I expected, she came here with the hairpin I sent....

    The Captain blinked a few times when he thought about how much he had spent on the hairpin.

    If only she¡¯de a bit sooner....

    While the Captain sighed, Xu Qing stood there, his mind nk. And then, Arch-Immortal Plumdark leaned closer and exhaled softly into his ear. Her warm breath hit him like a bolt of lightning, causing a tremor to pass through him. For the first time in his life, he waspletely at a loss about what to do.

    Seeing his reaction pleased Arch-Immortal Plumdark so much that sheughed. It was a soft, beautifulugh, like the cry of an oriole, so wonderful that anyone who heard it would feel intoxicated. As sheughed, she spun gracefully until she was right in front of him. Along the way, she leaned in such a way that her hip just barely brushed against him.

    Apparently, enticing him was exactly what she needed to improve her mood, and now she was finished. Amand medallion appeared in her hand, which she ced onto his chest. Patting it gently, she said, ¡°With this medallion, you can go... much deeper into the pocket realm.¡±

    Laughing softly again, she turned and floated up into the sky, like an immortal returning to the pce of heaven. Though no one could see it, she was actually shaking her head.

    Every time I see that kid, I can¡¯t help but tantalize him. I really should get out of that habit. Unfortunately... the smell of blood on him has seeped down to his bones. He¡¯s cute, but beneath that is a boundlessly baleful aura. I suppose he¡¯s not a person with ¡®light in their heart.¡¯

    It was only after Arch-Immortal Plumdark left that Xu Qing felt he could move again. Gulping in a huge breath of air, he looked over at the Captain.

    The Captain felt a shiver of fear run through him. Clearing his throat, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go inside. We spent good money, and time is already ticking!¡±

    Without waiting for a response, he hurried forward and jumped into the vortex. Apparently he was worried Xu Qing might do something to him.

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu was still standing there in a daze. He looked at Xu Qing, then looked in the direction Arch-Immortal Plumdark had vanished. Finally, he swallowed.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to Wu Jianwu. Instead, he was looking at the vortex into which the Captain had disappeared. Grinding his teeth, he vowed to remember what had just yed out, then entered the vortex. With the two of them gone, Wu Jianwu finally took a breath.

    We cultivators must never fall for feminine wiles. They won¡¯t do us any good. Women will only distract and confuse us. Cultivators should focus only on cultivation. That¡¯s the way to aplish amazing things. Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself once said that....

    In the past, Wu Jianwu had been fully convinced that Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s philosophy was absolutely correct. But now, he was starting to wonder.... In the end, his dao heart was strong, so he quickly cleared his thoughts. Eyes shining with determination, he entered the vortex.

    Beyond the vortex they found themselves in a different heaven and earth. It was a huge ce filled with concentric rings of mountain ranges. The sky was a rippling spell formation barrier, and thend was made from warding spells. In terms of size, the ce was roughly the same as the old Seven Blood Eyes capital city on the continent of South Phoenix. In the middle of the rings of mountain ranges was a hugeke. The waters of theke were the color of blood, so dark and thick it seemed like theke itself was actually made from blood.

    A huge spike emerged from theke, so massive it seemed like it could prop up heaven and earth. It was pitch ck, and lightning snaked across its surface. It was shocking and ghastly, and emanated an aura that seemed profoundly ancient. It was as if this spike had witnessed innumerable events going back into ancient time. At the top of the spike was a thick chain covered with spell formation markings, which emanated terrifying fluctuations. Shockingly, the chain was attached to an enormous, skeletal snake!

    The massive snake was coiled in a loop, with the spike in the middle of it. It was so big it seemed like it was the final mountain range in the middle of all the other mountain ranges. The snake¡¯s head rested on top of the massive spike. It had no flesh on it, and consisted only of pitch-ck bone, but seemed just as defiant as the snake had been before death. Within the snake¡¯s long jaw were row upon row of razor-sharp teeth. And one tooth near the front was stained with dried, golden blood.

    It was that golden blood that emanated a heaven-shaking, earth-quaking energy. It was both domineering and noble, and was something that could shake the soul of anyone who looked at it.

    The scene looked exactly like the engraving Xu Qing and the Captain had seen. The only difference was the feeling. Seeing this in person was vastly different from a mere artistic rendition. That was especially true of the terrifying energy in the spike, as well as the pressureing off of the skeletal snake. Xu Qing, the Captain, and Wu Jianwu were all visibly shocked, and their hearts were racing.

    As for the Captain, he was staring at the dried, golden blood on the snake¡¯s teeth. ¡°I¡¯m such an idiot! Why was I so focused on outside treasures? I can¡¯t believe there¡¯s such amazing stuff inside the sect!! Could that actually be the blood of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity??¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the teeth. As he scanned their surroundings, he sensed the very strong soul power in the area. In fact, it was so strong it was like a soul sea that caused his Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture to stir of its own ord and start absorbing the soul power.

    This is and of good fortune for opening dharma apertures! Xu Qing thought, yet he didn¡¯t do anything impulsive. Hovering in midair, he continued to closely inspect their surroundings.

    Most importantly, there were other cultivators present, not just the three of them. And all disciples, whether from the Dark Serenity Sect or not, had to pay spirit stones to get inside. Of course, those from the Dark Serenity Sect had different qualifications, and had more ways to secure entry. From what Xu Qing could see, the majority of the several dozen cultivators present were from the Dark Serenity Sect. All of them sat cross-legged in cultivation, and most were in the outer ring of mountains. Few were close to the center.

    That made Xu Qing think of the identity medallion Arch-Immortal Plumdark had given him.

    The closer one got to the center of this ce, the stronger the soul power got. Unfortunately, based on what Xu Qing could sense, even if he went deeper inside, three days wouldn¡¯t be enough to open 10 dharma apertures. If he wanted that level of progress, he would need to be inside for about a month. And if the soul power requirement for subsequent dharma apertures increased even more dramatically, a month might not even be enough.

    I don¡¯t have nearly enough spirit stones.... Xu Qing turned to look at Wu Jianwu. The Captain, taking in a deep breath, did the same thing.

    If the two of them wanted to seed at their own endeavors, it would alle down to how much this demon snake affected Wu Jianwu.

    At the moment, Wu Jianwu was trembling. The moment he stepped out of the vortex and onto solid ground, he was simply too excited to remain calm. His eyes shone with unprecedented brightness as he stared at that massive spike. Carved onto that spike... was a poem.

    Xu Qing had noticed that the poem was different from what they¡¯d seen on the engraving, but he didn¡¯t pay much attention to it.

    To Wu Jianwu, in contrast, that poem was like the object of his desire. He didn¡¯t need any prompting from Xu Qing or the Captain. Trembling from head to toe, he floated up into the air, stared at the poem, and read the first line in an undertone.

    ¡°A heavenly spike to crush a demon snake; an emperor¡¯s blood assimtes the cosmos!¡± [1]

    Xu Qing and the Captain were paying very close attention to the surroundings, yet nothing was happening.

    It¡¯s not working? Xu Qing sighed and wondered if he and the Captain had overestimated Wu Jianwu. The snake¡¯s soul had been sleeping for countless years, did it really make sense to expect it to notice Wu Jianwu?

    However, the Captain obviously wasn¡¯t willing to give up so easily. Shifting his attention from the surroundings to Wu Jianwu, who was hovering there focused on the poem, the Captain said, ¡°Can you just imagine, Little Jianjian? Think of the magnificent Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, d in his imperial robe, his imperial crown on his head, an umbre of nineyers overhead, and his entire person radiating the light of myriad daos. As he leaves the Sea of Endlessness, his first step sinks into the water. He takes a second step, and the water itself offers obeisance.¡±

    As the Captain spoke, Wu Jianwu began to tremble even more dramatically.

    ¡°With his third step, he arrives on the Revered Ancient maind,¡± the Captain continued. ¡°Back then, this area wasn¡¯t called Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Instead, a demon snake controlled thesends, and the countless human kingdoms that filled it were nothing but food for it. Seeing that, the Ancient Emperor was furious beyond belief. But what was even more outrageous was that this measly sea snake had the gall to bite the Ancient Emperor! Right on his leg!¡±

    Wu Jianwu was panting now as he visualized the scene the Captain was describing.

    ¡°The Ancient Emperor looks down in disdain,¡± the Captain went on. ¡°With the wave of his hands, he causes the five elements to form a heavenly spike, with which he impales that demon snake. Before leaving, he then writes that very poem onto the spike! Can you see all that in your mind¡¯s eyes, Wu Jianwu??¡±

    Wu Jianwu was having trouble controlling his breathing, and was shaking even harder than before. In his mind, he could see the Ancient Emperor walking out of the sea, and as a result of that visualization, he gradually held himself in the same manner. In fact, for some reason, even his aura somehow began to change. Wu Jianwu loved imitating Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and had been doing it for so many years that such behavior was part of him now.

    As the Captain described the scene, he instinctively imitated it. His facial expression became somber. His eyes filled with disdain. As he hovered in midair, he looked around casually, flicked his sleeve, and read the next line of the poem. ¡°How dare you bite me, you puny little snake; careful, you might get sick and your teeth might break!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, everything around them trembled. It was like a howl of rage had erupted from the most ancient past, filled with hatred, brutality and madness!!

    ***

    In a restricted area in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, another howl of rage erupted out, filled with both agony and hatred.

    ¡°I should thank you, Xu Qing! If you hadn¡¯t forced me into a spot between life and death, if you hadn¡¯t filled me with endless pain and torment, then I, Master Shengyun, would never have been able to open my 121st dharma aperture!¡±

    Master Shengyun had previously looked like little more than a skeleton, but now he was flying up out of the blood cistern. Blood showered down off of him, revealing an impressive physique, as well as extremely handsome facial features. However, he had no hair on his head. What was more, his right eye was now pitch ck, and a golden crow lurked in its depths. That golden crow¡¯s astonishing life force was counteracting the poison within him.

    In the moment when he stabilized, Master Shengyun found himself in a spot between life and death, and had thus found his 121st dharma aperture. And that meant that... he now had five life mes!

    1. It¡¯s only been a couple chapters, but if you want to check the other version of the poem on the engraving, it was in chapter 286. ?

 Chapter 290: Itâ€™s Been a Few Years, Little Demon Snake; If You Hadnâ€™t Bitten Me, You Might Be Awake!

    Chapter 290: It¡¯s Been a Few Years, Little Demon Snake; If You Hadn¡¯t Bitten Me, You Might Be Awake!

    When Master Shengyun ignited all five of his life mes, it shook heaven and earth. It was like he had an entire starry sky inside of him in the form of a sea of mes, shocking and ghastly, providing him with immense battle prowess.

    Surrounding him were eight Nascent Soul cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. It was with their help that Master Shengyun had suppressed the poison within him, and it had been extremely draining on them. The poison was too unique, and as a result, all of them were extremely leery of it.

    Even Patriarch Soaring Cloud looked tired. He had expended immense effort inserting the president¡¯s golden crow into his grandson. However, now that his grandson had finally recovered, he looked very pleased.

    ¡°Yun¡¯er, what are you nning to do now? Step directly into Gold Core?¡±

    As Master Shengyun hovered in midair, he calmly replied, ¡°Grandfather, I want to go challenge Xu Qing to a duel. I want to take back what I lost to him! With the president¡¯s golden crow, I don¡¯t need to fear his poisons. Furthermore, it provides me with terrifying life force, taking my battle prowess to an even higher level. And how could the president ever bear to see me die....¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud thought about it briefly, then sighed. ¡°Yun¡¯er, there really isn¡¯t a point to doing that.¡±

    ¡°Given my current state, there¡¯s no harm. Also, Grandfather, could you please seal my dharma apertures so they can¡¯t be extinguished? Without his special poisons, Xu Qing only has three life mes and two lifemps. There¡¯s nothing else special about him. I can definitely kill him! All of the pain I endured... will be revisited many times over on him!!¡±

    Momentster, a written duel challenge shot out of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect toward Seven Blood Eyes!

    ¡°Master Shengyun hereby challenges Xu Qing to a duel to the death!¡±

    The duel challenge shook Seven Blood Eyes, and in fact, all of the Eight Sect Coalition.

    ***

    Xu Qing was currently in the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket realm, so he had no idea what was happening. His eyes were fixed on Wu Jianwu, whose poetry recitation was causing everything around them to start shaking.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun. At the same time the Captain gasped; not even he had really been convinced that their n would work.

    The soul of the ancient snake was actually starting to wake up. Though it was only partially awake, it caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth, and screaming winds to whip left and right. In the blink of an eye, the boundless soul power in the area increased exponentially.

    The other cultivators present opened their eyes and looked around with visible shock. They immediately saw Wu Jianwu with the haughty look on his face, and they sensed the dramatic change to the soul power. Though they were taken aback, none of them did anything to interfere, and in fact, they all quickly started working on breathing exercises.

    Xu Qing did the same thing. Not daring to get any deeper into the pocket realm, he sat down cross-legged and started absorbing soul power. The Captain joined him, and as he settled down, he shouted, ¡°Mine emperor beeth mighty! Mine emperor ruleth all!¡±

    Wu Jianwu seemed fully immersed in his act, and upon hearing the Captain¡¯s words, somehow seemed even loftier as he hovered in midair. sping his hands behind his back and sticking his chest out, he red disdainfully at the demon snake¡¯s skull and said, ¡°I do as I please both far and near; this silly snake is worth only a sneer!¡±

    As Wu Jianwu¡¯s words echoed about, the howling from before suddenly became vastly more intense. The surrounding mountains were now shaking violently!

    ¡°I crushed you here for millennia on end; you deserve no pity for being condemned!¡±

    Wu Jianwu emphasized his ringing words with a flick of his sleeve, making him seem more impressive than he ever had in his entire life. In fact, the snake¡¯s skull started wriggling, and the soul power surged to many dozens of times beyond anything from before.

    Xu Qing was actually starting to get worried that the demon snake¡¯s soul would fully wake up, and then swallow Wu Jianwu up in a single bite.

    The Captain was also taken aback. And it wasn¡¯t lost on him that, if the demon snake really did awake, it would definitely take out Wu Jianwu first. But beyond that, he wasn¡¯t prepared yet to extract that tooth. Therefore, he quickly said, ¡°Okay, Little Jianjian, that¡¯s good enough. You can stop reading.¡±

    Hearing that, Wu Jianwu frowned and red coldly at the Captain. ¡°How dare rabblerousers interrupt in this way, and vie with the emperor for glory today!¡±

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s gaze was currently thirty percent disdain, fifty percent haughtiness, and twenty percent domineering. He really hadpletely slipped into the role of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. All in all, this was his life¡¯s dream, and he was working hard to fulfill it. His words shook the entire pocket realm even more dramatically than before. Right now, Wu Jianwu¡¯s words were causing unprecedented stimtion to the sleeping soul of the demon snake.

    The Captain realized how immersed Wu Jianwu was in the act, and he sighed. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Can you handle this, Xu Qing? I¡¯m worried this idiot is going to push things too far and get himself killed.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at Wu Jianwu, his eyes cold. He wasn¡¯t under the impression that Wu Jianwu had just slipped too deeply into his act. Xu Qing was convinced he was doing all of this on purpose. In fact, as Xu Qing looked at him, Wu Jianwu seemed about to open his mouth and say something. That was when Xu Qing quickly took out a jade slip with some images recorded on it.

    When Wu Jianwu saw that jade slip, he suddenly shivered, and his expression became very fawning. His previous demeanor was gone, and he even dropped down out of the air.

    ¡°Hahaha! If you have something to say, Elder Brother Xu, we can just talk things over! No problem!¡±

    Xu Qing slowly put the jade slip away. At that point, Wu Jianwu breathed a sigh of relief. He had no need to examine the jade slip to know what was recorded in it. It was almost certainly images of him rubbing a bear¡¯s belly in a cave. Thinking back to his moment of glory shortly before, he couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Well, that was fun!!¡±

    Now that Wu Jianwu wasn¡¯t pretending to be Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the demon snake¡¯s soul was starting to calm down. However, its previous struggle to awaken had brought immensely strong soul power into the area, and therefore, Xu Qing ignored Wu Jianwu and started working on breathing exercises.

    As the soul power rushed into him, his dharma apertures trembled, and almost immediately, his 111th opened.

    Xu Qing¡¯s spirits lifted. Rising, he used the medallion from Arch-Immortal Plumdark to move toward the center of the pocket realm. Upon reaching the bloodke, he found that the soul power was even stronger. He sat down cross-legged and started absorbing it without hesitation.

    Time slipped by. Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a moment in his cultivation, and focused everything on his dharma apertures. Meanwhile, the Captain had no way to get to the center of the pocket realm, so he focused on breathing exercises. However, given the look in his eyes, he still hadn¡¯t given up on getting that golden drop of blood from that tooth.

    That thing is amazing. Completely and utterly amazing! The Captain swallowed hard as he absorbed soul power but kept his eyes fixed on that tooth.

    Later on I need to think of a way to break off that tooth. It¡¯s connected to me by destiny! With that thing, I¡¯ll be able to get my hands on any item I take a fancy to.

    As the Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed with longing, Xu Qing managed to open his 114th dharma aperture.

    And he kept going. It was only after he opened his 116th aperture that the soul power in the area started waning. At that point he opened his eyes and looked at Wu Jianwu some distance away.

    Wu Jianwu had been waiting for this exact moment. There was no need for an exchange of words. Wu Jianwu simply floated up into the air, gazed disdainfully at the bones of the demon serpent, then sped his hands behind his back.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a few years, little demon snake; if you hadn¡¯t bitten me, you might be awake!

    ¡°This ce is where you eat, sleep and nap; that also means your skull is covered in crap!¡±

    The demon snake¡¯s soul, which had only just settled down, suddenly erupted with another howl. This time, it was many times more intense than before, and it was almost possible to hear the sound of grinding teeth along with it.

    ¡°Dark Serenity!!¡±

    Some of the snake¡¯s body that formed the outer mountains shifted, causing boulders to tumble down them. The earth quaked, with the soil rolling like waves.

    Inhaling sharply, Xu Qing barked, ¡°Enough!¡±

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s lips snapped shut, though he was clearly ready to keep talking. Truth be told, even he was stunned by the reaction he¡¯d provoked. And yet, it was so exciting that he had already be slightly addicted to the process. What was more, he now had a slight suspicion deep in his heart that perhaps he was the reincarnation of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Otherwise, how could he be doing what he was doing?

    Off to the side, the Captain was looking at Wu Jianwu as if he were a divine being. When he and Xu Qing hade up with this idea, they¡¯d originally decided to just try it out briefly to see if it would work.

    Never could the Captain have guessed that it would go so well. In fact, he got the feeling that if Wu Jianwu kept reading the poem all the way to the end, the demon snake probably would wake up all the way.

    It works this well?? Next time maybe I¡¯ll actually try waking it up!

    As the soul power in the area increased dramatically, Xu Qing absorbed it nonstop. Actually, it was so strong that he had no choice in the matter; he was absorbing it automatically through his very pores.

    Thus, after only an hour passed, his 117th dharma aperture opened. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with immeasurable anticipation. He inhaled deeply, and soul power rushed into him. After reaching a certain watershed point, it became a majestic force that smashed into his 118th dharma aperture. Instantly, that aperture opened!

    ¡°Only two more to go!¡± he murmured. Without the slightest hesitation, he continued.

    More time passed. Two hourster, rumbling sounds filled him as his 119th dharma aperture opened!

    ¡°Thest one!¡±

    His mind trembled with matchless anticipation. However, he needed an incredible amount of soul power for thatst dharma aperture. Seeing no reason not to, he tapped into his balefire as well. ck mes covered him, bing a fiery vortex that rumbled loudly as it dragged all the surrounding soul power toward it.

    Despite how strong the soul power was, the force dragging it toward Xu Qing was so immense that no one else in the area could tap into the soul power. All they could do was watch in astonishment as it madly rushed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing inhaled deeply as the boundless soul power converged within him. Gradually, it coalesced into the vague image of a serpentine dragon, which then smashed unstoppably toward his 120th dharma aperture.

    Instantly, cracking sounds rang out loudly inside Xu Qing¡¯s mind as his 120th aperture smoothly opened!

    That said, no one present had any idea it was happening! That was because, in the instant it started to open, Xu Qing had his shadow cover the dharma aperture, cutting it off from outside view! He had no desire to reveal to everyone his true level of strength. Meanwhile, his fourth life me was also covered by the shadow, preventing anyone from seeing it. Only Xu Qing himself could sense the intense convergence within him that led to the fourth life me! With his eyes closed, he could feel something like a massive world burning inside of him.

    At the same time, two umbres appeared overhead. One was ck, iparably gruish, with waterfalls of me pouring down the sides that could scorch the dome of heaven. The other was seven-colored, so radiant it created a sea of light that illuminated all thends.

    Behind him, the golden crow¡¯s wings stretched as it looked around with brutal eyes, ready to assimte the entire world. As its mes covered Xu Qing, they resembled imperial robes, making him look like a youthful Ancient Emperor, ready to lead his army to the ends of the earth. A momentter, all of that vanished, and in its ce, a look of regret appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    ¡°Almost got there, but not quite,¡± he murmured loudly.

    When the other disciples heard his words, they came to the conclusion that Xu Qing hade close to seeding in his breakthrough, but had ultimately failed.

    Wu Jianwu sighed. If he had personally witnessed Xu Qing ignite a fourth life me, he probably wouldn¡¯t have been very happy. But to see him fail left him feeling a bit better.

    Only the Captain reacted differently. Shifting his gaze from the snake tooth to Xu Qing, he blinked a few times. Something¡¯s off here. The deceptive little punk is hiding something!!

    With such thoughts on his mind, the Captain decided that he needed to consider opening another one of his seals.

    Having a Junior Brother like this really puts me under a lot of pressure!

 Chapter 291: Who Will Fight?

    Chapter 291: Who Will Fight?

    Xu Qing sat in ce quietly for about an hour. For one thing, he wanted to make sure it really seemed like he had failed to open that final dharma aperture. Also, he could sense that he was changing after igniting his fourth life me. His battle prowess was obviously advancing by leaps and bounds. What was more, he could now tell that 120 definitely wasn¡¯t the final limit for his dharma apertures. He had not reached the ultimate level, and was actually missing one aperture.

    It¡¯s the 121st dharma aperture that Master mentioned. That final dharma aperture that four-me cultivators all seek to open. And it can only be opened when in a spot between life and death.

    Given what Master Seventh had said about the 121st aperture, he only spent a moment searching for it. There wasn¡¯t any point in being anxious about it right now. [1]

    Only by pushing the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture to the great circle... can you unleash its true potential, and imprison souls in the dharma apertures. I have 120 dharma apertures, so I can imprison the same amount of souls! If I do that, then not only can my dharma apertures be even more powerful, but also, I can unleash a magical technique from the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. And that is... the Stygian me!

    Xu Qing knew that once he imprisoned a hundred and twenty souls in his dharma apertures, he could use them to create something like a spiritual soul that would elevate his dharmaskiff into the dharmaship category. That would be a highly formidable level of power.

    If I do all that, but still can¡¯t open my 121st dharma aperture, then I¡¯m not going to hold back. I¡¯ll just go right into the Gold Core level.

    Having made that decision, Xu Qing was about to get up and leave when something caught his attention. His gaze shifted to theke of blood, and the huge demon snake skull and the heavenly spike there.

    He could sense a faint but terrifying power pulsing in the spike. Based on what he knew about the history of this ce, that spike had been created by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity by using the five elements. He couldn¡¯t evenprehend what kind of cultivation base would be required to create something like that with the mere wave of a hand. It defied imagination. And what almighty being could crush a second stage Void-Returning demon snake for a hundred thousand years?

    What was more, though that demon snake had withered up, it still existed.

    I wonder when I¡¯ll be able to do something like that. Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded just looking at the heavenly spike. It was the same feeling as when he had first gazed upon the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. Slowly but surely, his eyes began to shine as he struggled tomit the image of the spike to memory.

    It was exactly what he had done in the daoist temple in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp. Unfortunately, the heavenly spike existed on far too high of a level. Xu Qing couldn¡¯tmit the image to memory, almost as if a dao resonance were interfering with the process.

    By now, the end of his time limit in the pocket realm approached, Xu Qing had only managed to memorize a vague outline of the spike. However he would still be able to copy it. Perhaps if he worked hard in the same way he had worked at the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, he would make some progress.

    As for whether or not he would ultimately seed in copying it fully, he had no idea. All he knew was that the heavenly spike contained a terrifying will that, if he could unleash it, would be absolutely deadly.

    It¡¯s too bad I¡¯m not able toe here every day to study it. That would up my chances a lot.

    Feeling a bit regretful, he got to his feet, whereupon a vortex appeared in front of him.

    Refusing to enter the vortex wasn¡¯t an option. It exuded a gravitational force that wrapped him up and then whisked him away. The same thing happened to the Captain, who had never stopped staring at that tooth, as well as the mncholy Wu Jianwu.

    The three of them vanished, then reappeared outside in the Dark Serenity Sect.

    When they had entered the ce, the three of them had all been in different states. Xu Qing had felt mixed emotions thanks to Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Wu Jianwu had been filled with anticipation at the chance to admire a historical relic rted to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And the Captain had been frustrated at Arch-Immortal Plumdark showing upte.

    Upon leaving the ce, they were all in the same state. They were all disappointed. Xu Qing was disappointed that he didn¡¯t have more time to spend inside studying that spike. Wu Jianwu was disappointed at not being able to immerse himself fully in the experience, and also at the fact that there was no way he coulde back with enough spirit stones to fulfill his desire. And the Captain was disappointed that he hadn¡¯t managed to take that snake tooth. Thus, the three of them left the Dark Serenity Sect feeling disappointed.

    However, as they descended the mountain, Xu Qing¡¯s transmission jade slip vibrated as a whole host of messages started pouring. Surprised, he started checking the messages, whereupon his expression darkened, and a somber and deste aura spread out around him.

    All of the messages were about Master Shengyuning out of seclusion and challenging him to a duel. The challenge had been issued two days earlier. And the location wasn¡¯t in either the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect or Seven Blood Eyes, but rather, in another ce not very far away.

    It was on Mount Dark Dao, which was in the area controlled by the Dark Serenity Sect, and was one of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s four main daoist rite centers. Normally speaking, powerful experts would go there to give lectures on the dao.

    As Xu Qing looked at the jade slip, his eyes turned as cold as ice, and his killing intent started to bubble. Master Shengyun was the most formidable enemy he had faced since he started walking the path of cultivation.

    The Captain had also received a lot of messages, and as he checked them, a smile appeared on his face. ¡°Say, Little Ah Qing, do you think Master Shengyun broke through to the five-me level? Do you need some help from Elder Brother?¡±

    ¡°Many thanks, Elder Brother,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly, ¡°but no. I beat him once, and I can beat him again.¡± Looking up at the sky to assess the time, he thought for a moment, then changed directions and started moving toward Mount Dark Dao.

    Master Shengyun wanted to fight a battle to the death with Xu Qing, and that was fine as far as Xu Qing was concerned. Now he knew what was required to push an imperial-ss technique to a higher level; he had to devour the quintessence blood of another person with an imperial-ss technique. [2]

    With his mind focused on Master Shengyun¡¯s ravagemist bird, Xu Qing headed straight toward Mount Dark Dao with the Captain in tow.

    Wu Jianwu wasn¡¯t going to give up a chance to see something as important as this happen, so he followed as well.

    Mount Dark Dao was a low-lying mountain with a daoist rite center at its summit. The roof tiles were light-green jade, and the stone work was pure white. The area was full of spell formations and warding spells, and in the middle of the huge rite center was arge daoist altar, with three massive pirs that represented heaven, earth, and man. Incense burned atop those pirs day and night, with smoke rising high into the sky.

    By the time Xu Qing arrived, it was evening, and the glow of sunset caused the daoist rite center to brim with a sense of profound mystery. It wasmon for people toe here to meditate. When experts from the coalition weren¡¯t giving lectures about the dao, disciples would often gather to exchange knowledge about cultivation.

    When Xu Qing appeared, it immediately caused a stir. Obviously, news had spread that Master Shengyun had issued a dueling challenge two days ago that Xu Qing had not responded to. A lot of people in the sect had been talking about the matter.

    Upon arriving, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and looked in the direction of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Focusing his dharma force on his throat, he spoke in a voice that echoed like thunder.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to wait for tomorrow, Master Shengyun. If you want to fight, thene fight!¡±

    His voice pierced through the sect and into the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    Almost immediately, a blood-red beam of light shot out of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, staining the sky crimson. At the same time, Master Shengyun appeared, wearing a long, golden robe, his hands sped behind his back as he shot toward Mount Dark Dao.

    His hair fluttered behind him, and his golden robe reflected the red light. He pulsed with a baleful aura, and his previous good looks were now slightly bizarre thanks to his pitch-ck right eye. Instead of being beautiful, there was something very gruish about him now.

    That was especially true given the rancorous energy that filled him. As his aura spread out, it filled the area with sinister coldness, as well as colorful light that looked like a huge mouth ready to devour everything around it. His five life mes manifested outside of him, swirling around him, their fire matching the redness in the sky, causing everything to ripple from their scorching heat.

    The moment Master Shengyun appeared, countless coalition disciples rushed out in shock, and then started making their way toward Mount Dark Dao. For the disciples of the Eight Sect Coalition, the fight which was about to y out was unprecedented, and just about everyone wanted to catch a glimpse. It was a fight between the two most prominent chosen, and what was more, everyone knew about the matter of Xu Qing taking away Master Shengyun¡¯s lifemp and almost killing him. By doing that, Xu Qing had trampled on Master Shengyun¡¯s name and then reached heaven in a single bound.

    It was only natural that this fight was going to be the center of all attention. Even the patriarchs and other top experts from the various sects were now looking in the direction of Mount Dark Dao.

    Xu Qing looked at the raging mes approaching from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, and though his eyes were calm, they also pulsed with killing intent.

    The sky pulsed with colors, and the wind whipped like dancing phoenixes and soaring dragons. Fire raged with overwhelming force as a golden figurended on Mount Dark Dao... right in front of Xu Qing!

    The two of them stood on either side of the daoist altar with its incense pirs dedicated to heaven, earth, and man. Smoke swirled as their eyes locked onto each other. Neither seemed to be in the inferior position, and both of their gazes were sharp and incisive. Countless people were already watching, and as more beams of light brought more spectators, none dared to step onto the mountain itself, and instead merely hovered in midair to watch.

    The cultivators who had been meditating on the mountain flew away, as did the Captain and Wu Jianwu. Soon, only Xu Qing and Master Shengyun stood there.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡± Master Shengyun growled.

    He was staring at Xu Qing, all the while thinking about the pain and torment he had experienced. His expression already began to twist with madness, and his eyes burned with the longing for vengeance.

    Xu Qing looked back at him coldly, then nced at all the onlookers. He didn¡¯t say anything, but instead, began analyzing how the surroundings could be used to his advantage.

    There are a lot of people around, so I can¡¯t use Within the Nine Springs to its full effect. Patriarch Soaring Cloud is obviously going to be watching, so it¡¯s going to be difficult to actually kill Master Shengyun. And it¡¯ll be hard to devour the ravagemist bird.

    I have a lot of secrets to keep. The question is going to be how many I can afford to reveal.... That said, having so many spectators isn¡¯t all bad. I can factor Master Shengyun¡¯s personality traits into my strategy. If I weaken him step by step, then I can increase my chances of devouring the ravagemist bird!

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind worked on overdrive toe up with a n. That was just how he operated. Before making a move in a fight, he wouldn¡¯t start talking. And if he did, it would be part of his n. And that was why, finally, he said, ¡°Master Shengyun. I only have two life-saving items on me. Here they are.¡±

    He took out two entropic teleportation talismans and tossed them to the ground, then kicked them out of the daoist rite center.

    His action caused an immediate buzz among the spectators. It wasn¡¯t any sort of dramatic action, but it carried profound implications. In fact, Master Shengyun hadn¡¯t even considered that Xu Qing would do something like that.

    As everyone looked on closely, Master Shengyun chuckled coldly, took out his own jade slip, and tossed it to the side. From the glowing light and power that emanated from it, it was obviously a life-saving item.

    With that, the two of them shot toward each other. Rumbling sounds immediately echoed out. What grand momentum! What an unstoppable force!

    1. Master Seventh described the 121st dharma aperture in chapter 275. ?

    2. The ¡°quintessence blood¡± mentioned here is referring to the ¡°Three Treasures¡± of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Daoism, Buddhism, and other Chinese traditions. The three characters used to describe these Three Treasures can be tranted in a variety of ways, but are generally: ¡°essence, breath, and spirit.¡± I¡¯m distilling those three things into ¡°quintessence¡± for the sake of pithiness and English flow. Another reason I¡¯m using ¡°quintessence¡± is that this concept isn¡¯t used extensively in the plot or the cultivation system. If it was, I might use a moreplicated term to convey the three concepts that make it up. But... the threeponents aren¡¯t particrly relevant in this story, so I¡¯ll stick with a one-word trantion in this instance. There is another Chinese term I sometimes trante as "quintessence," but it''s never mentioned in the same context as this term, or even anywhere near it in the story, or even that often, so I don''t foresee any confusion that the two are rted. ?

 Chapter 292: Things Have Changed

    Chapter 292: Things Have Changed

    From the perspective of an outsider, this was a fight between three life mes and five. The former also had two lifemps, and as a result, shocking energy. Thetter was in the extremely rare great circle of five mes, and was thus imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. Both had imperial-ss techniques and, as result, battle prowess that was roughly equivalent to each other.

    The difference was that Xu Qing¡¯s two lifempsplemented each other. After his fight with Sima Ru, quite a few cultivators hade to specte about that aspect, and had done research on it. Though it seemed that Xu Qing had a slight edge, it was a given that Master Shengyun had taken that into consideration before challenging him. Everyone present was watching closely to see how it would y out.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing and Master Shengyun shed atop Mount Dark Dao. It was like a shocking fight between a tiger and a dragon, with mes towering into heaven as they exchanged rapid blows. Both had immense battle prowess and shocking speed, resulting in booms like metal striking stone. In the shortest of moments, they exchanged over a hundred blows. Neither of them dodged or evaded. Mount Dark Dao shook as thunderous booms rang out and streaks of silver lightning crashed left and right.

    Xu Qing utilized Within the Nine Springs, but only unleashed eight fists. He would only do that if the perfect opportunity arose.

    After a short time, Master Shengyun backed up unharmed.

    Xu Qing hovered in midair, his hair whipping around him and his eyes narrowed. He was still deceptively hiding his additional life me. After all, the key to this whole thing wasn¡¯t just to crush and kill Master Shengyun. Rather, it was to make sure that whoever stepped into the fight at that point couldn¡¯t save his opponent. At the very least, he hoped to buy enough time to devour Master Shengyun¡¯s ravagemist bird. To do that, he needed to catch Master Shengyunpletely off guard. There was no way he would be able to do that at the very beginning of the fight. Almost certainly, someone would step in to save Master Shengyun as well as the ravagemist bird.

    Therefore, Xu Qing nned to keep a close eye on Master Shengyun and whatever secret weapons he ultimately brought out. He also was observing the surrounding areas in case any rescuers showed up. He had no idea what secret weapons Master Shengyun would reveal. But he could sense the aura of a golden crow on him, and had taken note of his pitch-ck right eye.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was out, and his poisons were ready. What was more, in their interchanges so far, Xu Qing hade to the realization that Master Shengyun was a lot faster than before.

    However, there was no time to think about the matter at the moment. Master Shengyun suddenly stopped in ce and then burst back in Xu Qing¡¯s direction with incredible speed. The green body and red tail of the ravagemist bird appeared behind him, howling. Master Shengyun used all of the battle prowess he could muster as he closed in.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim as the golden crow appeared behind him. As the two forces shed, Xu Qing¡¯s umbres appeared overhead, providing a defensive augmentation. As a result, every blow Master Shengyunnded provoked an astonishing bacsh attack.

    And to Master Shengyun, those weren¡¯t just bacsh attacks, they were utter torment. After all, this was what people had usually experienced when fighting him in the past. Now Xu Qing had his lifemp, and it caused Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes to bepletely bloodshot.

    Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he howled, ¡°Epassing Ghost Garment; Seal Body and Soul; Convert the Heart to a Sword; Exterminate the Cosmos!¡±

    The blood transformed into a crimson garment, which was the same technique he had used against Xu Qing in their previous fight. However, this time, it had transformed, and instead of wrapping around Xu Qing, it exploded into countless fragments. Each of those fragments was a blood-colored flying sword, which became a dense wind of blood that shot toward Xu Qing. [1]

    Being the previous owner of the seven-colored wind-chantingmp, Master Shengyun was very familiar with its weaknesses. That was why he attacked it en masse. Ripples and distortions spread across the defensive barrier created by themp. He had never revealed this weak aspect to anyone, and had never imagined that he would be the one to take advantage of it.

    Booms rang out as the flying swords were blocked. However, there were so many of them that, slowly but surely, some managed to get through.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he evaded the swords. Clenching his right hand into a fist, heunched a punch filled with killing intent. While still keeping the full extent of Within the Nine Springs a secret, he kept a sliver of attention focused on the surroundings. When he noticed fluctuationsing from beyond Mount Dark Dao, he unhesitatingly released the power of Within the Nine Springs.

    In turn, Master Shengyun relied on his shocking speed to evade the blow.

    Meanwhile, Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s face suddenly appeared in the dome of heaven. Looking into a different direction in the sky, he snorted coldly. In the spot where he looked, Patriarch Soaring Cloud appeared. Neither of them seemed very pleased.

    ¡°Rules are rules,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said. ¡°Anyone who breaks them will be punished.¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud didn¡¯t reply.

    Xu Qing saw what was happening and was pleased to know that his spections had been correct.

    As for Master Shengyun, he backed up, sneered, and then waved his right hand, causing three beams of sword light to shoot out. One of them flew into the sky, bing the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword, which dropped from above toward the top of Xu Qing¡¯s head.

    Xu Qing looked up with eyes shing. He had seen this move before, but again, it was different thanst time. At the same time, he had new magical techniques as well. Hands shing in an incantation gesture, he shoved his arms out. The water vapor around him suddenly grew much stronger, making it hard to see anything clearly. A massive, blue sea appeared around him so immense that it rivaled Mount Dark Dao itself in size. Andpared to it, he and Master Shengyun seemed like ants. It was the Ninefold Tsunami! The majestic sea had white-capped waves on it, which converged into one enormous tsunami wave that rushed forth to meet the Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword. The wave smashed into the sword, devastating it.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. There was a second beam of sword light. It swept horizontally as it turned into the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword, chopping toward Xu Qing like a stiff autumn breeze.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hands blurred as another enormous wave formed, crushing the Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing sword, and causing intense rumbling sounds to echo into the sky.

    Only a momentter, Master Shengyun¡¯s third sword attack appeared. Eight ghostly figures with swords on their backs rushed toward Xu Qing. This was none other than the Northghost Heavenasking Sword.

    Xu Qing shoved one hand in front of him and one hand behind him, then spun in ce, almost as if practicing Tai Chi. Instantly, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth tsunami waves surged forth. There were four waves, and each contained terrifying force as they smashed into the eight sword-wielding ghosts. Booms rang out as the sword ghosts copsed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained the same, his eyes cold as he looked at the grim, retreating Master Shengyun. Xu Qing¡¯s arms continued to move, seemingly slow, but in reality, gracefully quick. He took five steps forward. With each step, another tsunami wave rose up. After the five steps were taken, the five waves surged forth sessively with shocking force, smashing toward Master Shengyun. From a distance, it looked like Mount Dark Dao was covered with water.

    Master Shengyun struggled to control his breathing. This battle feltpletely different than the previous one. Before, Xu Qing¡¯s magical techniques had been weak. Now, he had made up for that weakness, and was fighting with extraordinary strength. However, Master Shengyun wasn¡¯t ready to give up yet. As the five tsunami waves closed in, he howled in rage and produced a special item. It was a withered finger!

    It was impossible to tell its origin, but it had a bizarre, gruish aura, and seemed to be filled with countless magical symbols of a very vile nature.

    It was... a curse!

    Specifically, it was the curseid upon him by his younger brother. During the process of getting rid of Xu Qing¡¯s poison, Master Shengyun had also used the power of the golden crow to extrude the curse and imbue it into this finger to use as a weapon.

    At this stage of the fight, he didn¡¯t hesitate to throw it out with full force. When the finger hit the water, the finger copsed, turning into a ck liquid that rapidly spread out and turned all of the water ck. A noxious odor filled the area as the previously blue water became like a rotting sludge. Then, countless ghost faces appeared inside of it, as well as a host of arms. The entire sea immediately shivered like it might copse. In fact, the spray of the waves swirled back to unleash a bacsh attack.

    However, it was obvious that Master Shengyun had primarily been concerned about the way Xu Qing extinguished his dharma aperture in the previous fight. Because of that, he had mostly prepared to deal with that move, as well as Xu Qing¡¯s poisons. What was more, his grandfather¡¯s help had been focused on those areas as well. As a result, he really had no idea what Xu Qing¡¯s shadow was truly capable of.

    That was the benefit of being as deceptive as Xu Qing.

    Just as the grues in the water were about to start fighting, Xu Qing looked at them coldly and they shivered. Then they let loose piercing shrieks as they started stumbling over each other to get out of the sea water.

    Even as they seeded, Xu Qing snorted coldly and waved his right hand. Instantly, a heavenly saber appeared, its violet de fully corporeal. Then another appeared, and another. Given the level of Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, it was no surprise that seven sabers appeared. Though he had only gained enlightenment of two moves from the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber, which limited the power he could unleash, he was still able to form multiple sabers. This was the same thing he had done in the fight against Sima Ru. [2]

    When the heavenly sabers appeared, he dropped his hand, and they shot toward Master Shengyun. Rumbling booms rang out, the clouds swirled in the sky, and baleful energy pulsed as the swords hit their target. Master Shengyun couldn¡¯t jump out of the way in time. He was sent spinning off to the side as one saber after another smashed into him, shing open gaping wounds that revealed bone. One of them was so deep it nearly cut him in half at the waist.

    But then, something very gruish happened. The image of a golden crow emerged from Master Shengyun¡¯s pitch-ck right eye. As it cried out, an astonishing life force erupted, filling Master Shengyun, and causing his wounds to heal rapidly. That included the wound at his waist.

    Seeing this, everyone in the crowd was shocked to the core. This fight almost didn¡¯t look like a fight between two Foundation Establishment cultivators, but rather, two Gold Core experts.

    After backing away a short distance, Master Shengyun stopped in ce. He lookedpletely unharmed at this point. Grinning viciously at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°I have to thank you, Xu Qing. You¡¯re the only reason I have this indestructible body. I¡¯ll make sure to pay you back for the favor!¡±

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing spoke. ¡°You¡¯re still long-winded. Won¡¯t you ever shut up?¡±

    It was the first thing he had said during the entire fight. Truth be told, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very surprised at how things were ying out. Some things had happened that were slightly unusual, but nothing that didn¡¯t fall into the realm of what he had expected. Obviously, the golden crow was one of Master Shengyun¡¯s secret weapons.

    Meanwhile, many of the onlookers were now focused on Xu Qing. Thanks to this fight, they were nowing to understand his personality a lot better. He had hardly said anything during the entire fight. As a result, everyone could sense how ruthless he was.

    ***

    At the summit of the Dark Serenity Sect sat Arch-Immortal Plumdark, who was sipping some cloudsnow lotus seed soup. When she heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, sheughed softly.

    Given his baleful aura, he can¡¯t be someone with light in his heart. He¡¯s not the person I seek. But all in all, he¡¯s a very interesting young man. And most importantly, he¡¯s good-looking. Not like Master Shengyun, that freak. When he was young, he devoured his own twin. Just looking at him makes me sick.

    1. The previous fight in which the crimson garment appeared was in chapter 255. ?

    2. The fight with Sima Ru was in chapter 272. ?

 Chapter 293: Light!

    Chapter 293: Light!

    Xu Qing¡¯s words, and the look on his face, provoked a very unsightly expression on Master Shengyun. Killing intent burned in his eyes. His hatred and revulsion for Xu Qing had reached the ultimate level. Specifically, he hated people like this who had killed countless enemies, and also used lowdown methods like poisons, or extinguishing dharma apertures.

    How could someone like that possibly provoke brilliant light from the Darkspirit Everwill Door?

    That fact alone was a huge blow to Master Shengyun, and left him trembling inside. He had always thought of himself as the supetive example of radiance and light. After all, that was the meaning behind his given name Shengyun. Yet ironically, the Darkspirit Everwill Door produced a noxious, thering tongue when used on him.

    Back when he saw the door produce that incredible light, it had seemed so absurd that he could hardly believe it. It had also caused deep hatred for Xu Qing to form in his heart.[1]

    And thus, Xu Qing¡¯s words filled him with revulsion, and caused his eyes to burn with killing intent. His five life mes raged, and the ravagemist bird behind him let out a piercing cry. Six-me battle prowess raged as the golden crow flickered in his right eye, giving him boundless life force. All of his assets put him very close to the level of seven life mes, and also made him absolutely confident in being able to kill Xu Qing.

    What was more, his grandfather had ced a sealing mark in him, making it impossible for anyone to trifle with his dharma apertures. And thanks to the golden crow, he didn¡¯t have to worry about that dangerous poison Xu Qing had used. All of his advance preparation made Master Shengyun sure that nothing could possibly go wrong. Though losing a lifemp had reduced his battle prowess, he was still stronger than his opponent.

    With a cold harrumph, he raised his right hand, palm toward the sky, and loudly said, ¡°Five me Radiant Divine Canopy!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, five blood-colored swords emerged from within him. Each of them seemed sharper than the one before it, and each radiated a brilliant blood-colored glow. Astonishingly, close examination revealed that those five streams of sword energy were Master Shengyun¡¯s five life mes!

    The sword energy stained the sky the color of blood, causing the clouds to roil for 3,000 meters in all directions.

    Eventually, the five beams of light formed five fingers, which began to fall from above the clouds. First the nails pierced through the clouds, then the skin, and then the knuckles. Eventually, all five fingers could be seen, rumbling toward Xu Qing on Mount Dark Dao!

    The disciples gathered around the mountain to watch the fight were all visibly shocked. All of them could sense the terrifying power of the fingers. It was a pressure that would weigh down on any Foundation Establishment cultivator. This was the great circle of five life mes, and the intense fluctuations and killing spirit were all focused directly on Xu Qing.

    For the first time, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered slightly. However, it wasn¡¯t because of Master Shengyun¡¯s battle prowess. Instead, it was because of the fact that he could sense another aura in the clouds above, something different from the five fingers. That aura didn¡¯t seem to have anything to do with cultivation base, and it was hard for him to identify exactly what it was. It seemed to be some sort of will.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one to react with surprise. The old-timers and top experts in the various sects all reacted with shining eyes. And Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s eyes positively glowed as heughed uproariously.

    ¡°So, my grandson really does qualify to be an Ancient Emperor. This is the killing domain that results when you gain enlightenment of the great circle of five life mes! Though it¡¯s still slightlycking, it still contains a great will. It¡¯s very close to being a will domain. And it¡¯s certainly enough to destabilize everything around him. Excellent. Most excellent!¡±

    In the Dark Serenity Sect, Arch-Immortal Plumdark had just taken another sip of her lotus seed soup when her eyes shed.

    Master Shengyun really does have amazing aptitude. No wonder Ol¡¯ Soaring Cloud paid so much to get a golden crow clone for him. And no wonder my profit-obsessed Elder Brother agreed to do it.

    Everything shook violently as the five fingers of life me sword energy, filled with Master Shengyun¡¯s will and killing intent, got closer to Mount Dark Dao.

    Xu Qing looked up. He had to admit that, whether in this fight or the previous one, Master Shengyun was a formidable opponent who had terrifying aptitude. Of even greater significance was the fact that he hadn¡¯t given up after losing his lifemp. Instead, he actually got stronger. That wasn¡¯t something ordinary people could aplish.

    Xu Qing looked up silently at the five fingers. Then he threw his hand up into the air, and a ck fog started spreading out beneath his feet.

    It quickly covered all of Mount Dark Dao, spreading relentlessly to create a dense sea. It soon covered an area of 3,000 meters.

    Up above were blood-colored clouds. Down below was a ck sea of fog.

    Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then pointed toward the dome of heaven. The ck fog suddenly surged as a withered finger appeared and started moving upward! Rumbling sounds echoed out with deafening loudness. This was Xu Qing¡¯s grue art, the Dark Serenity Curse.

    What was more, the finger had a scrap of the enlightenment Xu Qing had acquired from the heavenly spike. Though that enlightenment wasn¡¯tplete, even just a bit of it made the Dark Serenity Curse technique even more dangerous. That increased level of danger was minute, such that an ordinary cultivator wouldn¡¯t detect it. But people in the patriarch level would notice the clues. Instantly, Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s expression turned unsightly. In contrast, Sir Bloodsmelter threw his head back andughed.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said, smiling faintly as she took a sip of broth.

    Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out as Xu Qing¡¯s Dark Serenity Curse shed with Master Shengyun¡¯s Five me Divine Radiance Canopy. Even from a distance, it was a shocking sight. Massive, 3,000-meter-long fingers of blood descended, while 3,000 meters of ck fog rose from below.

    Master Shengyun shivered as his Five me Divine Radiance Canopy copsed. As the blood-colored light shattered, blood sprayed out of his mouth.

    Xu Qing also gasped for breath as his Dark Serenity Curse copsed, sending ck fog spilling out everywhere. Eyes narrowing to conceal a sinister coldness, he bit the tip of his tongue, spat out some blood, and shot backward.

    As for Master Shengyun, his right eye zed with the light of the golden crow, which healed all of his wounds. Shooting in pursuit of Xu Qing, he raised his right hand and pushed down on his chest. Unexpectedly, a long, blood-colored sword emerged from within him. It was a dark red color, and it pulsed with energy and blood. At the same time, it had an acrid aroma, and clearly contained something poisonous.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with that poison; it had the aura of his own poison pills. This sword had been created with the help of Master Shengyun¡¯s grandfather, during the time in which he suffered in agony thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s poison. During the entire process, he had visualized himself using that sword to cut down Xu Qing.

    Now that the blood sword was in the open, Master Shengyun¡¯s expression twisted viciously. The ravagemist bird appeared behind him, and the golden crow flickered in his right eye. Then, with speed that surpassed anything from before, he shot toward Xu Qing with the sword outstretched.

    In the blink of an eye, the sword was about to stab into Xu Qing¡¯s chest.

    Xu Qing put an unsightly expression onto his face as he raced toward the edge of Mount Dark Dao, as if he were trying to make an escape.

    However, Master Shengyun aggressively closed the gap between them.

    Based on Xu Qing¡¯s calctions, it didn¡¯t seem like it was the right moment to reveal his true strength and try to devour the ravagemist bird, much less try to kill Master Shengyun. He still needed to wait for the right opportunity. Therefore, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, resulting in balefire exploding out. Spirit seas erupted from 119 dharma of his apertures, creating a shocking and terrifying force. At the same time, his lifemps also offered protection.

    Booms rang out as Xu Qing¡¯s defensive barriers copsed one after another. Again, he was forced back. However, Master Shengyun had trouble dealing with the bacsh, and was also forced in the opposite direction.

    In fact, as Master Shungyun backed up, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and he waved his hand to scatter some poison powder! He had alreadyced the area with over a hundred types of poison. All of that had been in preparation to release the poison catalyst. As soon as he did, poison exploded in the area. Even with Master Shengyun¡¯s terrifying ability to restore life force, he was still infected. Though it wasn¡¯t fatal, all of the negative side effects hit at the same time, causing Master Shengyun¡¯s face to fall. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as his skin turned greenish-ck, and his mutagen levels skyrocketed.

    Then Xu Qing blurred into motion, racing toward Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun immediately raised his defenses, threw his blood sword through the air, and performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. The sword detonated, creating a sea of blood that swept toward Xu Qing.

    It was a dying tactic that allowed Master Shengyun to put some distance between himself and Xu Qing. During that time, he realized that the negative effects of the poison weren¡¯t going to be dispelled by the life force within him. Looking grimmer than ever, he waved his hand again, causing dense mist to surround the area, making outsiders incapable of seeing what was happening.

    Then he took out a ck piece of wood. This was the same piece of wood he had used back on the continent of South Phoenix to summon the Darkspirit Everwill Door. However, the piece of wood seemed a bit bigger than before.

    When he threw it down, the piece of wood wriggled, and then the same pitch-ck wooden door appeared in front of him.

    The gruish ck door emanated a sinister aura, and yet, no one on the outside could see exactly what was happening. Master Shengyun had intentionally prevented people from observing, as he didn¡¯t want to reveal that disgusting tongue. The door cracked open, and the noxious-smelling tongue appeared, dripping with disgusting fluid as it wrapped around Master Shengyun. Instantly, all of the poison within him sprayed out of his mouth in a cloud of blood.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing burst into motion, heading right toward Master Shengyun. He raised his right hand, and his cultivation base erupted as wave after wave appeared, pulsing with terrifying might.

    Nine tsunami waves converged and smashed toward Master Shengyun. Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes narrowed, and the unsightly expression that had covered his face transformed into something sinister.

    Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°I finally fooled you, Xu Qing. None of what I did before was important. I went all out to ensorcell my Darkspirit Everwill Door, allowing it to unleash a second ability! Be sealed!¡±

    Eyes shining with greed, heughed and waved his hand. Instantly, the massive pitch-ck door shifted to face Xu Qing, and then... it opened!

    As it did, a beam of light erupted from within!

    ***

    In the Dark Serenity Sect, a bowl of lotus seed soup slipped out of a hand as fair as jade, andnded onto the white tile floor below.[2]

    1. It was in chapter 257 that Master Shengyun used the Darkspirit Everwill Door on Xu Qing. ?

    2. If you¡¯re confused about thisst line, you might want to re-read thest line of the previous chapter, or for more details, the ending scene of chapter 279. ?

 Chapter 294: The Golden Crow Devours the Ravagemist

    Chapter 294: The Golden Crow Devours the Ravagemist

    The bowl shattered. As lotus seeds tumbled out across the white jade tiles, Arch-Immortal Plumdark inhaled sharply. Her beautiful eyes filled with incredulity as her heart began to race.

    ¡°Was that light I just saw?¡±

    ***

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark was correct. For a fleeting moment, she had indeed seen light.

    The door atop Mount Dark Dao had shimmered briefly, in a way that was different from what had urred in the crown prince¡¯s mansion back in South Phoenix. During that fight, the light had spilled out in all directions, burning everything, and seriously injuring Xu Qing due to its immting heat. Were it not for the violet crystal¡¯s healing powers, and the blessing to his fleshly body provided by the golden crow, the light of that door would have scorched him into ashes.

    It made sense considering it was a fragment of a magical treasure. Not only did it reflect what was in a person¡¯s heart, but also, it contained deadly, harmful power. Of course, due to its gruish nature, it had a different deadly power for each person it was used on.

    But that wasn¡¯t what happened this time. Master Shengyun had performed a twofold ensorcelling on the door, and therefore, the light didn¡¯t shine out in a sustained manner. Instead, it became momentary. And its might manifested in a different way.

    The light shed, then vanished.

    It happened so quickly that anyone who could observe it might think they were seeing things. That was especially true considering that Master Shengyun had covered the area to prevent people from seeing what was happening. Only someone observing from the right vantage point, with a very high cultivation base, would notice it.

    As for its power, it wasn¡¯t something that burned, but rather... something that sealed with ice! That brief sh of light was immeasurably cold, and when it hit Xu Qing, it became ayer of ice that rapidly spread over him. Based on what Xu Qing was feeling, the light cast by the door was some sort of indescribable divine ability rted to frigid coldness. Almost instantly, he was frozen in ce.

    His body. His soul. Everything about him was frozen.

    Except for the fact that he had been sealed while using only three-me power. His eyes narrowed as he prepared to ignite his fourth life me. With that me lit, he would have battle prowess at the peak of the seven-me level, and he was confident he could break the surrounding ice.

    However, before Xu Qing could ignite the life me, he noticed something very odd. The icy sealing didn¡¯t seem to have much effect on his shadow. It made sense. The shadow was also iparably frigid, and devoured other grues as food.

    To Xu Qing, this level of cold was unusual, but to the shadow, it seemedfortable, even pleasurable. In fact, the moment it appeared, the shadow was so excited it started carefully absorbing the cold. As a result, Xu Qing wasn¡¯tpletely immobilized. Although it looked like he was frozen in ce, all it would take was a thought on his part, and the shadow would absorb all of the ice, freeing Xu Qing.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t issue any such order. Nor did he move. He could tell that the opportunity he had been waiting for wasing soon.

    ¡°You had thising, Xu Qing!¡± Master Shengyun said, and then he burst outughing. He made no effort to conceal the vicious excitement on his face as he rushed toward Xu Qing. This had been his n all along. Everything he had done up to this point had been in the hopes of dispelling any suspicion about him summoning the Darkspirit Everwill Door.

    He had also hoped to prevent someone from interfering when he used this move. After all, Patriarch Soaring Cloud wasn¡¯t the only one ready to jump in and stop the fight. Sir Bloodsmelter could do the same thing.

    Master Shengyun didn¡¯t believe for a minute that Seven Blood Eyes would respect the rules of the fight, just as Xu Qing didn¡¯t think the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect would do so. And the truth was that both of them were right. As soon as Master Shengyun started moving toward Xu Qing, the huge projected face of Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes flickered imperceptibly before he started moving in the direction of Mount Dark Dao.

    His countenance was one ofplete disregard, as if no set of rules were more important than his apprentice¡¯s apprentice.

    However, as he neared, a stream of sword light shot out to block his path, resolving into Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    ¡°Rules are rules, Sir Bloodsmelter!¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud wasn¡¯t convinced that Xu Qing was actually frozen in ce, but before he could check thoroughly, Sir Bloodsmelter took action. All he could do was rush to block Sir Bloodsmelter, and prevent him from saving Xu Qing.

    Sir Bloodsmelter appeared to be furious, and even seemed to be thinking of forcing his way past Patriarch Soaring Cloud. Patriarch Soaring Cloud prepared to stop him with full force. Rumbling sounds echoed out as their cultivation bases got close to each other. Although Patriarch Soaring Cloud was actually a bit weaker, he could definitely buy time if necessary.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, and he let out a shout as he prepared to rush forward. However, that was when a beam of sword light shot in front of him as one of the Gold Core cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect blocked his way.

    At the same time, Master Seventh stepped out from Seven Blood Eyes, moving with blinding speed toward Mount Dark Dao. In response, the sect leader of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect rushed to impede him.

    As everyone from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect moved to interfere, Master Shengyun closed in on Xu Qing, his eyes glittering with greed. His ravagemist bird appeared behind him, crying loudly as it dove toward Xu Qing. Master Shengyun was so close to Xu Qing that he was able to reach out and grab his shoulders. At the same time, the ravagemist bird snapped at the golden crow.

    ¡°Nobody¡¯s going to save you today, Xu Qing!¡±

    The greed in Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t have been more profound. Just as he was about to devour the golden crow, Xu Qing suddenly looked up. And his eyes were scorching hot!

    Master Shengyun¡¯s face fell. Based on all of his ns and calctions, Xu Qing shouldn¡¯t be able to move a muscle. The sealing power of the Darkspirit Everwill Door should have been able to immobilize someone with three life mes for at least ten breaths of time, even if they did have lifemps. That was enlightenment he had gained after ensorcelling the door. But so far, only five breaths of time had passed.

    He had nned this all out very meticulously. But then Xu suddenly looked up and shattered all those ns.

    ¡°You!!¡± An intense sensation of deadly crisis filled him, and having no time to consider the matter, he prepared to fall back. Except, that was when Xu Qing¡¯s hands shot up and grabbed Master Shengyun. At the same time, his fourth life me ignited.

    Four-me power raged, sending intense mes out everywhere. Two shining umbres appeared overhead, adding to the heat. And the golden crow the ravagemist bird had been about to bite suddenly red with more me. The intense heat was absolutely shocking.

    ¡°Looks like you¡¯re the one who got fooled,¡± Xu Qing said softly. Baring his teeth, he bit deeply into Master Shengyun¡¯s neck. Then he inhaled, and balefire erupted from his 120th dharma aperture, spreading out rapidly to cover Master Shengyun.

    The golden crow also opened its beak wide, and as the ravagemist cried out in terror, it bit its head and started absorbing it!

    Xu Qing had been waiting for this moment for a long time. He wanted to kill Master Shengyun, or at the very least devour his ravagemist bird to improve his own imperial-ss technique. He had been suppressing his battle prowess for this entire time, just to wait for this opportunity.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes zed as balefire covered Master Shengyun. The golden crow¡¯s expression was also one of deep longing as it absorbed the ravagemist bird. Master Shengyun let loose an agonizing scream that rose into the sky.

    The sudden turn of events caused many in the surrounding crowd to gasp.

    The Captain chuckled darkly, and smoothly switched ces with the Gold Core cultivator from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, preventing him from interfering. Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, wrapping up the sect leader from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. And Sir Bloodsmelterughed heartily as, instead of trying to rush forward, he blocked the astonished Patriarch Soaring Cloud. All of those three things happened so smoothly they almost seemed rehearsed, as if they had known ahead of time what was going to happen.

    As howls of rage echoed out from the outside, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and he focused fully on absorbing Master Shengyun. Master Shengyun screamed as his quintessence blood flowed out of him. The ravagemist was also screaming in unprecedented agony as the golden crow savagely devoured it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness was now on disy for everyone to see. All of the coalition disciples present were astonished, and looked at Xu Qing with intense dread in their eyes.

    ¡°Xu Qing!!¡± screamed Master Shengyun. Being absorbed in this manner, having his aura weakened so rapidly, caused him to struggle. But he didn¡¯t quite have seven-me power, so there was no way he could do anything against Xu Qing, who was at the peak of the seven-me level. He could only watch as his ravagemist bird shrank and shrank. Then, golden light suddenly erupted from Master Shengyun.

    It was a jade slip with Nascent Soul defensive power. Obviously, the life-saving item he had thrown away earlier had been just for show, and he had saved the real item to use in a moment like this. But then the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown atop Xu Qing¡¯s head erupted with power, and the Nascent Soul protection power was driven away.

    Master Shengyun was stuck in ce, and Xu Qing continued to absorb him. In the shortest of moments, Master Shengyun shrank down into little more than skin and bones. And the ravagemist bird was so weak and transparent it was almost impossible to see it.

    The golden crow in Master Shengyun¡¯s eye flickered a few times, but wasn¡¯t able to do much.

    Xu Qing was still holding back from using Within the Nine Springs. He hadn¡¯t forgotten what his Master had instructed, that he wasn¡¯t to use the killing move when people could see it. However, he could still put more effort into absorbing Master Shengyun. Burying his teeth further into Master Shengyun¡¯s neck, he yanked to the side. It wouldn¡¯t be long before he ripped Master Shengyun¡¯s neck apart!

    Master Shengyun screamed in agony as massive amounts of blood flowed out of him and into Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Intense brutality was on disy!

    However, that was when a figure in a green robe appeared out of nowhere. Wherever he stepped, ripples spread out, like the fluctuations of heavenly daos and magicalws. Taking advantage of the fact that Sir Bloodsmelter and Patriarch Soaring Cloud were keeping each other locked down, he stepped onto Mount Dark Dao,nding right next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re very vicious for someone so young,¡± he said coldly. ¡°Given how ruthlessly you attacked a fellow disciple, I herebymand you to spit out what you just devoured!¡±

    He waved his hand, and a boom rang out as Xu Qing and Master Shengyun were thrown apart. Then, the green-robed figure waved his hand again, this time directly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun, and his eyes becamepletely bloodshot. He couldn¡¯t see this person¡¯s face clearly, but he could sense that the level of power was like that of the patriarchs. There was no way he could fight back against something like this. His mind went nk, and the quintessence blood he had swallowed suddenly surged up into his throat, as if it were about to be forcibly extracted!

    However, that was when a violet beam of light descended,nding in front of him, bringing with it a fragrant aroma. Arch-Immortal Plumdark appeared. She waved her hand, and the power from the man in green vanished.

    The man in green didn¡¯t say anything. He just grabbed Master Shengyun and backed up a few paces without causing any more trouble for Xu Qing.

    ¡°Given your age, I¡¯m shocked that you would act like this,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said coolly. ¡°The younger generation should fight their own fights. Since when did the Lunisr Dao Pce start doing things this way?¡±

    The cultivator in green backed up until he was outside of the bounds of Mount Dark Dao. Only then did he reveal his face. He was a middle-aged man who was none other than the patriarch from the Lunisr Dao Pce. Looking deeply at Arch-Immortal Plumdark for a moment, he then turned his attention to Patriarch Soaring Cloud and Sir Bloodsmelter, who had by now backed away from each other.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s expression was unsightly as he red at Patriarch Lunisr. Next to him, Patriarch Soaring Cloud had a very odd expression on his face for a moment, which then turned into one of faint realization. Finally, it became a bitter smile.

    ¡°Cloudsoaring, old pal, you once saved my life, so it¡¯s only natural that I would save your grandson. Of course, you¡¯llpensate me for the punishment I¡¯ll receive for breaking the rules. Isn¡¯t that right?¡±

    Patriarch Lunisr kept his grip tight on the gasping and shriveled Master Shengyun, who had already lost his imperial-ss technique.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes glittered, while Patriarch Soaring Cloud suddenly seemed a lot older. Thetter nodded.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was also unsightly, and his narrowed eyes glittered with killing intent as he stared at Patriarch Lunisr. He could tell that there were things going on that he didn¡¯t understand. However he wasn¡¯t going to forget this. Without any hesitation, he shot over to the Darkspirit Everwill Door, and not even paying attention to any of the coalition experts in the area, took it for his own.

    Then he waved his hand, collecting up the two entropic teleportation talismans and the jade slip Master Shengyun had thrown to the side. Finally, he gulped back down all of the quintessence blood! He didn¡¯t spit a single drop back out!

 Chapter 295: Come See Me, Child

    Chapter 295: Come See Me, Child

    The atmosphere on Mount Dark Dao had turned very, very bizarre. However, it was then that a tranquil voice echoed down from above.

    ¡°You¡¯re all coalition senators. There¡¯s no need to offend each other over the affairs of the younger ones.¡±

    All the cultivators present were struck to the core by the voice.

    Patriarch Lunisr was the first to react. Inclining his head, he sped hands and said, ¡°Well met, President.¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s expression was neutral as he also bowed in greeting. Sir Bloodsmelter looked at the two other patriarchs with an unreadable expression, then followed suit. As for Arch-Immortal Plumdark, she frowned slightly, gave a quick bow, and then turned and left, vanishing after taking only a few steps.

    As everyone bowed in greeting, the voice spoke again.

    ¡°However, rules are rules. If people were allowed to break them at will, how could we maintain order in the coalition? Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud, for your impulsiveness, you will lose ten years of your coalition profit bonus. Fellow Daoist Lunisr, when exactly did you start doing things this way? I suppose I can understand given the history between you and Patriarch Soaring Cloud. But the rules can¡¯t be changed. You¡¯ll also lose ten years of your coalition profit bonus. As for you, Fellow Daoist Bloodsmelter, your temper has earned you the same punishment.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you performed well. In line with Fellow Daoist Bloodsmelter¡¯s previous suggestion, starting today, you will receive the same remuneration as a dao child, specifically, 8,000,000 spirit stones per year. The mountains of all eight sects will be open to you, and you¡¯ll have the right to visit all of the coalition¡¯snds of good fortune ten times per year. All sect defenses will offer you safeguard, and your new status will be publicly announced in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. In addition, you now have the right to use projections of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s taboo treasures.

    ¡°As for you, Master Shengyun, you¡¯ve always had a lot of potential. Fellow Daoist Soaring Cloud will take you back and see to your recovery. My golden crow can help you rebuild your fleshly body. You should step into Gold Core as quickly as possible. I look forward to seeing that.

    ¡°And now, this matter is over. We¡¯re all members of a coalition, so the most important thing is for us to maintain unity.¡±

    With that, the tranquil voice faded away.

    Patriarch Lunisr tossed Master Shengyun like a sack of potatoes to Patriarch Soaring Cloud. Turning to Sir Bloodsmelter, he shed a meaningful smile, then turned and left.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud looked down at his unconscious grandson, and his eyes seemed to contain pain and regret. After ncing at Sir Bloodsmelter, he left for the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    Sir Bloodsmelter said nothing, but he nodded approvingly at Xu Qing before also leaving.

    Master Seventh was the only one who stayed behind. Walking up to Xu Qing, he waved his hand, sending out dazzling light that healed all of his wounds. Then he smiled.

    ¡°You handled that beautifully. Let¡¯s head back now.¡± He cast a re at the Captain. ¡°You¡¯reing, too.¡±

    The Captain sighed. Since when did you be so openly biased, old man? Aren¡¯t you worried about hurting my precious little feelings? I¡¯m your apprentice too, aren¡¯t I? And I¡¯m the highest ranking one!

    Sighing more, he joined the tight-lipped Xu Qing as they headed back to Seven Blood Eyes. Master Seventh led the way, and Xu Qing and the Captain followed side by side. At a certain point, the Captain nudged Xu Qing with his shoulder.

    ¡°Why so quiet?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him but continued to maintain his silence.

    ¡°If he opens his mouth,¡± Master Seventh said coolly, ¡°he¡¯ll cough up blood. The little punk couldn¡¯t bear to lose any of that quintessence blood, so he swallowed it all and still hasn¡¯t finished assimting it.¡±

    Xu Qing once again forced the blood down his throat and continued to work on assimting it.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered and rubbed his hands together. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be so greedy, Little Junior Brother.¡±

    Xu Qing stared incredulously at him.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± the Captain went on, eyes glittering even more brightly. ¡°Eldest Brother won¡¯t hold it against you. So... you can just part with one mouthful, right?¡±

    Xu Qing sped up, getting closer to Master Seventh and leaving the Captain a few paces behind.

    The Captain¡¯s face was full of regret.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh cast a hard re at his highest-ranking apprentice, then turned to look at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Did you pick up on what was happening just now?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then shook his head.

    ¡°Our president is ying a game of Go, and he just put down another piece.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Master Seventh smiled. ¡°Unfortunately, though he¡¯s skilled at cultivation, he could learn a thing or two when ites to ying Go. Long story short, you¡¯re safe for the time being. But remember... when ites to people in the Void Returning level, like the patriarch from the Lunisr Dao Pce and the other patriarchs, they never have just one goal they¡¯re working toward.

    ¡°Their goals change. Theye and go. And if you don¡¯t keep tabs on those goals, you can lose out permanently.

    ¡°This coalition has a lot of sects, and they all want one thing: profit. Granted, the higher your cultivation level, the less important profit is. But the fact remains that if you stay on the losing end of things, then eventually, you won¡¯t just lose profit, you¡¯ll be swallowed up entirely.

    ¡°It¡¯s a dog-eat-dog world, and what I can tell you is that people with high cultivation ¡®eat¡¯ things a lot differently than the normal way. In the end, ites down to this: we¡¯re still too weak.¡±

    Master Seventh shook his head.

    Further back, the Captain also sighed. ¡°That¡¯s right, we¡¯re just too weak.¡±

    Xu Qing forced the blood back down his throat, then nodded and said, ¡°Yeah. We¡¯re too weak.¡±

    When they finally reached Seven Blood Eyes, they stopped before parting ways. Master Seventh seemed to be hesitating about saying something. Finally, he said, ¡°About Arch-Immortal Plumdark....¡±

    The Captain¡¯s ears twitched, and he took a few steps closer. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Fourth Sib... make sure to get along with her.¡± Looking a bit mncholy, Master Seventh sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder briefly, then turned and left.

    The Captain noticed that mncholy look, and his eyes went wide. All of a sudden, an explosive realization hit him. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me....¡±

    Ignoring the Captain, Xu Qing turned into a beam of light that shot toward his berth in Seven Blood Eyes. As for the Captain, he was so wrapped up in analyzing his explosive new thought that he didn¡¯t follow.

    Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s berth was uncharacteristically quiet when he arrived. After taking out his dharmaskiff, he stepped aboard, entered the cabin, and sat down cross-legged. He had consumed too much quintessence blood, and he felt the same as if he had stuffed himself on too much food. It was an ufortable feeling, and for now, he wanted to focus fully on digesting it. The totem tattoo on his back emanated a burning sensation as the golden crow did the same thing.

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled out from the tattoo as the golden crow got stronger and stronger. It really emphasized to Xu Qing how imperial-ss techniques could benefit by devouring another technique.

    Devouring another imperial-ss technique leads to really shocking results.

    Previously, the golden crow had nine phoenix-like tails, and though it had looked mighty, it had also seemed like a juvenile. But now, the totem tattoo had ten tails, and an eleventh was forming. It was also bulkier than before, and its eyes shone like stars. In addition, its aura seemed slightly more primordial than previously. It emanated more heat than before, to the point where Xu Qing felt like his entire body was affected by it. In fact, as he sat there cross-legged, steam rose off of him. It caused everything around him to ripple and distort, but simultaneously, filled him with anticipation about what was happening with the golden crow.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Three days passed by in a sh.

    Xu Qing had fully assimted about half of the ravagemist bird¡¯s quintessence blood. No longer did he feel ufortably stuffed. Rather, he felt very, very full.

    The golden crow now had thirteen tails, and the tattoo had spread beyond just his back, giving him a very bewitching and even demonic air. It was simr with the heat. His fleshly body was now absolutely astonishing.

    Having reached this point in his work, he breathed a sigh of relief. With only half of the ravagemist bird¡¯s blood left, all he needed was a bit more time.

    Feeling a bit more at ease, he took something out of his bag of holding. It was a ck chunk of wood that was none other than Master Shengyun¡¯s magical treasure fragment. Looking at it closely, Xu Qing realized that it definitely looked different from the first time he¡¯d seen it. It was longer overall, as if a bigger piece had been added on to the previous smaller piece. Unlike Xu Qing¡¯s fragment of that taboo treasure with its strong mutagen, this piece of wood, though possessing mutagen, only had it in faint quantities. Clearly, it hadn¡¯t been used very often, and had been well-cared for.

    After studying it for a time, Xu Qing branded it to himself and then activated it.

    The ck, gruish door appeared, like a portal to the Yellow Springs, or the source of all evil. Being very cautious, Xu Qing opened the door. As it creaked open, a frigid iciness rapidly built up in the cabin. The same sh of light appeared, bing an icy sealing power thatnded on Xu Qing. He shivered, and the golden crow on his back stirred, sending out massive heat that melted the ice. And yet, just as before, he felt like his life force was locked in ce by the sealing.

    I remember Master Shengyun saying that this thing is called the Darkspirit Everwill Door. And he said something about ensorcelling it. What¡¯s ensorcelling...?

    After some thought he sent a message to his Master asking for details.

    Master Seventh responded quickly, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupil to constrict.

    ¡°So, he actually found two pieces of a magical treasure. Putting them together is called ensorcelling. If you put two pieces together, it¡¯s a twofold ensorcelling. Put three pieces together, that¡¯s a threefold ensorcelling. After ensorcelling the item, it transforms. I wonder what the door will produce when opened on another person.¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand, dispelling the icy sealing power and the door.

    One thing was for sure. If Master Shengyun had performed a twofold ensorcelling on this item before their fight in the continent of South Phoenix, Xu Qing would have had a hard time dealing with the icy sealing power.

    ¡°It actually seals one¡¯s life force...¡± he murmured. All of a sudden he was very curious what would happen if the door was used on the Captain.

    In the middle of his study of the Darkspirit Everwill Door, a voice message arrived in his transmission jade slip.

    ¡°Come see me, child. There¡¯s something I want to ask you.¡±

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply. Arch-Immortal Plumdark was very high on the list of people he didn¡¯t want to see. But considering she had saved him, he knew he had no choice but toply. Standing, he walked out of the cabin.

    However, that was when he realized it was getting dark, so he sent a message in reply. ¡°It¡¯s getting a bit toote at night to visit you, Senior.... Er, I¡¯ll head over there tomorrow.¡±

    He turned to go back in the cabin. However, that was when another message reached his transmission jade slip. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice sounded flirtatious and bewitching, like a whispering stream or the flute of an immortal.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Juste now.¡±

 Chapter 296: Separated by Gauze

    <h4>Chapter 296: Separated by Gauze</h4>

    Xu Qing looked quietly into the night sky for a long moment. Then he inhaled deeply, put away his dharmaskiff, and headed in the direction of the Dark Serenity Sect.

    He took his time.

    As he walked, he thought about all the secrets about himself that he had revealed during his fight with Master Shengyun. Although Master Seventh had assured him he was safe, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but think that he had slipped up more than once recently.

    <i>The president has a golden crow, and so do I. That makes him an antagonist. The fact I¡¯m so much weaker does mean I¡¯m rtively safe, though. Beyond that, Master Shengyun obviously has the president¡¯s golden crow in his right eye, which means he won¡¯t die easily. But as time goes on, will he remain Master Shengyun, or will he change into something else?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    <i>It really is a dog-eat-dog world.</i>

    As the darkness of night covered the coalition, a breeze blew along the path, stirring Xu Qing¡¯s garment and long hair. He stared up into the sky again.

    ¡°Master was right,¡± he murmured. ¡°I¡¯m too weak.¡± He really didn¡¯t want to see the day in which he was the one eaten up. But if that day dide, he wouldn¡¯t go down without a fight.

    <i>I¡¯ll give it my all. And if that day doese, I¡¯ll make sure that whoever eats me regrets it!</i>

    The truth was that the world hadn¡¯t changed at all since his days in the slums and the scavenger basecamp. What had changed for Xu Qing were the way people thought and the level of their ruthlessness.

    Back in the scavenger basecamp, things were simple. To get what they wanted, people resorted to a simple tactic: killing. But as your cultivation base grew, and you encountered increasingly powerful people, you couldn¡¯t just resort to the simple tactic of killing. You had to use other methods. In the past, Xu Qing didn¡¯t understand that. But now he did, and he knew that he had to work hard to grow up and master those skills.

    He was wrapped up in such thoughts as he made his way to the Dark Serenity Sect. It waste in the night by the time he arrived. Though the Dark Serenity Sect was pitch ck, there was light at the summit.

    Looking up at it from the foot of the mountain, Xu Qing took a deep breath and was about to start walking up the stairs when his eyes widened. From the darkness above, a figure descended, step by step.

    The moonlight revealed the face of an old woman.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed very politely.

    Snorting coldly, the old woman said, ¡°You really don¡¯t understand how things work, do you, Xu Qing? Do you know how long ago the matriarch summoned you? You really took your time. If this happens again, I¡¯ll have to punish you!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. Sizing up her throat, he followed her as she turned and started back up the steps.

    Without looking back, the old woman coldly said, ¡°Keep your eyes off my neck, otherwise I¡¯ll dig them out. Believe it!¡±

    Xu Qing maintained silence. He didn¡¯t see any point in engaging in banter, especially when dealing with people stronger than himself. Based on the terrifying cultivation base fluctuationsing from this old woman, he could tell that she was roughly on the same level as Master Sixth. Keeping his expression neutral, he followed.

    Upon realizing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t saying anything, the old woman looked over her shoulder at him, but kept walking. It was inplete silence that they climbed to the summit, where they reached a manorplex made from plum-colored jade, with a pagoda in the middle of it. Themplight was shining from that pagoda.

    Inside the main entrance of the manorplex was a limestone path lined with rich decorations. There were small pavilions here and there, and handmaidens hustling about on various tasks. All of them were young and attractive, even seductive, with skin as fair as snow. As Xu Qing walked the path, many of the handmaidens looked at him curiously. Noticing his good looks, they smiled and whispered among themselves.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to any of that.

    As for the old woman, she red viciously at the handmaidens, who then hurried away.

    There were also some colorful boulders that seemed to have been ced in a specific pattern that made the interior of the mansion seem incredibly elegant. A small stream had been hewn out. It wasn¡¯t possible to identify its source, but it gurgled out of the mansion and down the mountain. Within the water were numerous golden fish with long whiskers. At a mere nce it was obvious they were extraordinary creatures.

    Xu Qing spotted snakes in the trees. There were many, some climbing into the trees from the path, some wrapped around the branches, and some coiled in the shadows. Regardless of what the snakes were doing, though, when they noticed Xu Qing, they bowed their heads in subservience.

    When the old woman noticed that, her eyes went wide, and she looked back at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless, but inside he was actually wondering what was going on.

    His curiosity grew as he realized he was being led into a side-room in the mansion where there was an immortal hot spring. From a distance, it was possible to see steam rising up into the air where it formed auspicious clouds. Surrounding the hot spring was a curtain of white gauze, where a few dozen handmaidens stood, their heads bowed and their backs to the hot spring.

    The handmaidens all held jade trays, upon which were pieces of jewelry, clothing, and fruit. The jewelry was all extremely beautiful, the clothing was neatly folded, and the fruits were all varieties of immortal spirit fruit.

    A fragrant aroma filled the air. As Xu Qing neared, he realized that the drifting steam, the sound of the water, and the fragrant aroma made the ce seem like a celestial paradise. Also as he neared... his anxiety increased. And that was because he could just barely make out a lithe figure beyond the white gauze, bathing in the immortal hot spring.

    He quickly averted his gaze and stopped walking.

    As for the old woman, she ignored Xu Qing, walked up to the white gauze curtain, and bowed at the waist.

    ¡°He¡¯s here, Matriarch.¡±

    From beyond the white gauze curtain, Arch-Immortal Plumdark spoke in a tender voice. ¡°For being rude to the child I invited here, go ahead and p yourself three times on the face.¡±

    The old woman¡¯s expression was the same as ever as she unhesitatingly pped herself viciously three times in a row. She used such force that her face immediately started to swell, and some blood seeped out of the corner of her mouth. Afterward, her eyes contained no resentment, and she quietly kept her head inclined.

    That put Xu Qing even more on guard. However, all he could do was stand in ce, sp hands, and bow.

    ¡°Disciple Xu Qing is here to offer greetings to Senior Plumdark.¡±

    Laughter drifted out from the hot spring.

    ¡°Why are you being so formal, child? In the note that came with the gift you sent, you didn¡¯t address me as Senior.¡± Combined with the sound of the water, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice was profoundly enticing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding, and he vowed that he wouldn¡¯t forget what the Captain had obviously done. Given the Captain¡¯s personality, Xu Qing could only imagine what form of address he had used in that letter.

    Having no way of knowing, he could only brace himself inwardly as he said, ¡°Many thanks for saving my life, Senior.¡±

    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s why you¡¯re being so formal,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said. ¡°Truth be told, if I hadn¡¯t stepped in, Sir Bloodsmelter would have.¡± Her tone was so casual, songuid, that anyone who heard it would feel their innards stirring.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to say in response. He had never been in a situation like this, talking to someone from the other side of a white gauze curtain. He was truly at a loss for words. The sound of the water was like pearls dropping onto white jade, and it pierced him to the depths of his heart.

    ¡°In any case, it¡¯s true that I helped you. Therefore, child, would you mind doing me a favor?¡± The sound of rippling water could be heard, as though Arch-Immortal Plumdark were rising to her feet.

    Xu Qing averted his gaze even more.

    As he did, a shadow appeared on the white gauze curtain, revealing the spectacr figure of a beautiful woman. It was almost as if heaven on high had shown her unusual favor, and had blessed her with every aspect of beauty a woman could have. Her shadow alone was astonishingly alluring, and would leave anyone who gazed upon her, be they male or female, palpitating with longing.

    Her long, slender leg left the immortal hot spring, and the white gauze swirled, forming a garment around her. Long, ck hair draped down her back like a cloak, and the slight flush to her skin made her oval face delicately exquisite. [1]

    The surrounding handmaidens respectfully kneeled and held the jade trays up.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled, reached out, and took a skewer of immortal spirit grapes. As she approached Xu Qing, her enticing aroma reached him before she did.

    Xu Qing looked at her. She wore white gauze and had long, ck hair. She walked with grace, like a supremely elegant immortal beauty descended from the highest heavens. As she neared, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he took a few steps back. Then she blurred and appeared right in front of him, where she took a grape off the skewer and put it in his mouth. Xu Qing¡¯s mind was aplete nk.

    ¡°Why do you always call me matriarch, child? Am I really that old? Next time, why don¡¯t you just call me Plum?¡± Sheughed softly, and there was something indescribably charming about it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing, and he felt an anxiety that surpassed anything he had felt from even the most terrifying beasts in the forbidden regions he¡¯d been into over the years.

    Seeing him react in that way, Arch-Immortal Plumdarkughed again, and this time, it sounded sweet and carefree. Forgoing any further enticing behavior, she turned and began to walk off.

    ¡°Why are you so scared of me, child? Are you worried I¡¯m going to eat you or something? I heard that on your recent river patrol you encountered another Dark Serenity Sect. That sect was founded by an old friend of mine. Considering you ran into it, I¡¯d like to go there with you in a few days. To look around.¡±

    With that, she left, nked by her handmaidens and the old woman. Amidst the other women, Arch-Immortal Plumdark seemed like a peony in full bloom: beautiful but not coquettish, gorgeous but not vulgar, bewitchingly charming and absolutely iparable.

    Xu Qing stood in ce breathing heavily for a long moment. Then he left the Dark Serenity Sect, not really sure what he was feeling inside.

    ***

    In the tall pagoda in the middle of the mansion atop the Dark Serenity Sect, Arch-Immortal Plumdark sat eating grapes andughing softly.

    .

    <i>He really has no idea what¡¯s going on. Someone wrapped a slip of life essence love around his right wrist. That¡¯s not a human technique. Whatever silly girl did that, I wonder what species she¡¯s from. She actually parted with a slip of her own life essence love. Unterally. Given that, if the child dies, she¡¯ll probably die too.</i> [2]

    1. Chinese has a number of interesting terms to describe facial structure. In this case, Arch-Immortal Plumdark is said to have a ¡°melon seed¡± face. Most dictionaries list this as ¡°oval¡± but one key aspect is that a ¡°melon seed¡± face has a delicately pointed chin. <u>Here¡¯s a picture</u> depicting that type of face. ??

    2. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s final words got me thinking. Considering other evidence in this very chapter, it made me recall something that happened in ??

 Chapter 297: The Wind and the Moon

    <h4>Chapter 297: The Wind and the Moon</h4>

    Xu Qing quietly descended the mountain. He chose not to fly, but instead walked through the moonlight back toward Seven Blood Eyes. He felt very strange inside after everything that had just happened. Given how much he had grown up in the past few years, it wasn¡¯t often that he felt so deeply shaken in this way. It was ufortable, and he wasn¡¯t used to it.

    As he walked, he started mentally reviewing his old medicinal codex. As the names and information of various medicinal nts passed through his mind, he slowly calmed down. His expression was the same as ever as he started walking faster and faster.

    Eventually he reached his berth, where he stood on the shore and looked back in the direction of the Dark Serenity Sect. He felt both suspicious and vignt. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s flirty behavior wasn¡¯t what he was focused on; he wasn¡¯t the ignorant child he had once been. He just refused to believe that someone with a cultivation base as high as hers would be so banal. There had to be more to her actions. After all... in this world, people didn¡¯t just blindly fall in love at first sight. There were always reasons behind everything.

    Unfortunately, he just couldn¡¯t fathom what was really going on. Waving his hand, he produced his dharmaskiff, stepped aboard and into the cabin, and settled down cross-legged. Eventually the sky was bright, yet Xu Qing still didn¡¯t have any good ideas. Burying the matter in his heart, he started to work on some meditation.

    It had been a long time since he had needed to attend to his work at the Special Security Division. The Captain had been using the discount jade slip for the immortal hot spring on a daily basis, and thus handled matters for him.

    ording to the information Xu Qing¡¯s informant had sent him, the Captain actually brought Wu Jianwu with him to the hot spring almost every day. The two of them furtively chatted with each other constantly, and the informant suggested that the Captain seemed to be trying to convince Wu Jianwu to do something. Wu Jianwu, meanwhile, seemed to be getting more and more excited.

    Xu Qing was curious about that, but not curious enough to dig into the matter. Instead, he focused on assimting all of the blood from the ravagemist bird.

    A few days passed.

    One morning when the zing sun overtook the darkness of night, sunlight shone onto the featureless face that was the figurehead of Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff. That was when Xu Qing¡¯s transmission jade slip received a message.

    <i>¡°Pack your things, child. I¡¯m taking you on a little trip.¡±</i>

    When Xu Qing saw the message, he thought about it for a short time, then sent a message to Master Seventh, exining the situation and asking if he should agree.

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t respond immediately. And when he did, he asked a question.

    <i>¡°Fourth Sib, is this your first time going on a date?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Date?¡±</i> Xu Qing replied, surprised.

    When Master Seventh got that reaction from Xu Qing, heughed, then said that there was no need to worry and that he should keep his chin up when apanying her.

    Xu Qing stewed in suspicion for a short time until he heard the maic yet gentle voice of Arch-Immortal Plumdarking from outside.

    ¡°It¡¯s time to head out, child.¡±

    He quietly walked out and saw Arch-Immortal Plumdark sitting on the railing of his dharmaskiff, sipping from a gon of alcohol, her long hair dancing in the sea breeze. [1]

    She wore the white robes of a schr that didn¡¯t have even a single speck of dust on it, and her beautiful face was as exquisite as a pear blossom. She was like a gorgeous image from a painting, her eyes as deep as autumn waters and her skin fairer than the faintest breeze. [2]

    Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s presence, she lowered the gon and turned to look at him. Right at that moment, a shaft of sunlight passed through her hair, refracting into a seven-colored halo that made her even more beautiful. Especially noteworthy was the profound charm and grace in her pupils as her gaze fell on Xu Qing. Her lips curled up into a faint smile. It was different from the way she had smiled in the past, which to Xu Qing had seemed like the grin of a predator hunting prey. Instead, it was soft and tender.

    If anyone had been present to see this scene, they would be taken aback. There were two people on the skiff: one was a woman as beautiful as a gemstone, the other was a man as dazzling as a shining star. They were so eye-catching that even the sunlight seemed to rush to apany them.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    There was something different about Arch-Immortal Plumdark. She seemed less seductive and more heroic. Less domineering and more tender. It almost seemed contradictory, and in the end, it only made her more beautiful. Her style had changed, and it prompted Xu Qing to take a closer look at her.

    ¡°Do you like it?¡± she said, blinking a few times.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    She seemed pleased with his response, as sheughed softly. Then she tapped the railing and said, ¡°You have a nice ship, child. Why don¡¯t we use it on our trip? I really want to go see that Dark Serenity Sect you found.¡±

    She turned, took a deep breath of the bright, morning air, and then took another sip of alcohol.

    As Xu Qing looked at her sitting on the railing, he hesitated. He hadced his dharmaskiff with a lot of poison. At the very least, there were about two hundred varieties scattered about. That included the deck, the railings, and just about every other inch of the ship. That said, considering the level of Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s cultivation base, he doubted his poisons were much to worry about. His hands shed in an incantation gesture, and a tremor passed through the ship. Rising out of the water, it turned and started moving in the direction of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    In the first rays of dawn, the dharmaskiff¡¯s billowing sails seemed incredibly majestic. Xu Qing piloted the dharmaskiff from a position at the very front, his violet daoist robe pping in the wind.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark remained on the railing, her legs swaying as she looked off into the distance, sipped from the gon of alcohol, and enjoyed the breeze. Her hair swayed with the same rhythm as Xu Qing¡¯s robe. If someone could paint a picture of the scene, it would be beautiful beyond words.

    Meanwhile, down in the harbor, the Captain stuck his head from around a random corner and used a jade slip to record what was happening.

    <i>I absolutely have to have some pictures of little Ah Qing¡¯s first date. They might be worth a lot of money one day</i>. He seemed very pleased with himself.

    Little did he know that, not far away from where he was, Master Seventh stood in a building watching the ship leave. Master Seventh sighed.

    <i>Is that really the same Immortal Fairy Plumdark who captivated countless elite cultivators all those years ago? Fourth Sib really is dashing.... He¡¯s almost on par with me, back in the day.</i>

    Under the eyes of both his Master and a fellow apprentice, Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff left Seven Blood Eyes and started speeding up the tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    The sunny blue sky didn¡¯t have a single cloud in it, creating a carefree and rxed atmosphere. At the prow, Xu Qing kept his eyes straight ahead as he piloted the ship. Truth be told, he was very nervous being alone with Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Not only did she have a terrifying cultivation base, but also, his previous interactions with her left him feeling very unsettled. The only thing he could think to do was staypletely focused on operating the dharmaskiff.

    The day passed.

    Although Xu Qing still felt nervous, he was finally starting to rx slightly. Arch-Immortal Plumdark hadn¡¯t said a single thing the entire day. Apparently, she just enjoyed sitting on the railing, drinking, and looking off into the distance as she enjoyed the breeze.

    Perhaps because of how clear the sky was, as night fell, there were more stars out than usual. And somehow, the starlight seemed to gather around Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Before, she had seemed beautiful. But being wreathed in starlight made her seem wlessly charming, and at the same time, gorgeously pure. She was like an immortal fairy from the moon, strolling through the human world.

    Except, this immortal fairy suddenly seemed tock any sort of charm or warmth. In fact, she seemed as cold as ice as she looked in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    Xu Qing noticed that, and followed her gaze. There was a sect off in the distance, not too far away, but far enough that he couldn¡¯t make out details about it. However, he did hear the faint sound of screaming on the breeze.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go see what¡¯s happening,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s first time seeing her with such a cold demeanor. And he had never heard her speak in such an icy tone. Heart thumping, he turned the dharmaskiff in the direction of the mountains.

    As they got closer, Xu Qing realized that what he had seen earlier wasn¡¯t a sect, but rather, a mountain stockade. There were about a hundred rogue cultivators there, including both humans and nonhumans. All were vicious and emanated the stench of blood. In fact, the stockade itself was sttered with gore, and in the middle of it was a spell formation. Corpses were piled on the formation, apparently as sacrificial offerings. And there was some sort of evil ritual being carried out. As the ritual went on, an indescribably vile aura spread out from the formation. It was apanied by disgusting chewing sounds. Meanwhile, looks of ecstasy covered the faces of the sinister cultivators who prostrated themselves to the formation.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted at the sight of it, and his heart pounded. But what caused his heart to pound wasn¡¯t the cultivators. These cultivators counted for little, as even the strongest among them was only a Gold Core cultivator with a single heavenly pce. No, his heart pounded because of that evil aura.

    ¡°The swordsages have ouwed sacrificing living beings to evil spirits,¡± said Arch-Immortal Plumdark, her voice calm but powerful as it echoed through the night. ¡°The Eight Sect Coalition has simrws. You people have a lot of gall.¡±

    The evil aura suddenly pulsed fearfully, and it began to retract as if trying to escape. The cultivators were visibly shocked. Yet before any of them saw the dharmaskiff or raised their voices in rm, Arch-Immortal Plumdark waved her hand.

    The movement of her hand carried a divine resonance that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t clearly perceive. However, he could sense that it corresponded to naturalws governing the operation of heaven and earth. There was no divine ability at y. No magical technique. However....

    The cultivators in the stockade began to shrink. The spell formation also shrank, as did the evil aura. In fact, the entire mountain shrank. In the blink of an eye, everything in front of Xu Qing disappeared.

    To Xu Qing¡¯s utter shock, a grain of sand then flew up andnded between Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s thumb and forefinger. When he looked closely, he realized that the grain of sand was actually shaped like a mountain. It was none other than the mountain from moments ago. The cultivators and the formation were there, in the same proportion as before, just shrunk down by many times over. All of the cultivators were overwhelmed with terror and despair.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark squeezed her fingers together. A cracking sound rang out as the grain of sand copsed into nothing. She sat on the railing, looking at Xu Qing with a smile. ¡°What are you gaping at, child? Let¡¯s move on. Stick to the mountains. I want to enjoy the scenery.¡±

    Her smile could melt even the coldest ice, and contained a divine resonance that surpassed the moonlight.

    1. The Chinese term I¡¯m tranting as ¡°gon¡± can be used to cover a variety of drinking containers. This termes up all the time in wuxia/xianxia, and I usually trante it as either jug, gon, gourd, or pot, depending on the circumstances. I created <u>an image gallery</u> of a variety of styles of drinking vessels. The type Arch-Immortal Plumdark is using could be any of them, but in my imagination it¡¯s the type listedst in the photo gallery, which is a bit fancier. ??

    2. In Ancient China, women usually couldn¡¯t be schrs, and even in xianxia I think it¡¯s rare for women to wear schr clothing. That said, schrs would generally wear utilitarian robes that weren¡¯t fancy and decadent. And definitely not revealing. When I asked Madam Deathde about this part, she confirmed that Arch-Immortal Plumdark is obviously <i>not</i> ¡°dressing up¡± for this date, but rather, ¡°dressing down.¡± As for why she¡¯s doing that¡­ you cane to your own conclusion. In searching for ¡°female schr outfit¡± on Baidu, I found <u>this image</u> which seems like a good reference. As you can see, there is no jewelry, fancy embellishments or revealing aspects. ??

 Chapter 298: Music for the Mortal World

    Chapter 298: Music for the Mortal World

    Xu Qing watched the grain of sand vanish. He didn¡¯t care about the people who had died. Rather, he was shaken by what Void Returning cultivators were capable of. What Arch-Immortal Plumdark had done seemed simple, but was filled with profundity that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t even grasp. Inhaling deeply, he looked down into the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains where that specific mountain had once existed. That spot was now a level in.

    Maintaining silence, he piloted the dharmaskiff forward. As the moon shone down, Arch-Immortal Plumdark seemed to be in a good mood. asionally, she would lift the gon of alcohol to her lips and take a sip or two. As she drank, she seemed less flirtatious than usual, and a bit more bold and heroic. At the same time, she was no less morous than before. In fact, she emanated the air of those ancient jianghu wanderers who would sip unfiltered rice wine as they roamed thends. All-in-all it made her even more attractive than before. [1]

    Xu Qing found himself repeatedly ncing at Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s alcohol gon. Given the level of her cultivation base, she could probably drink a lot without getting drunk.

    Noticing his gaze, she smiled brightly and held the gon in his direction. Rocking it back and forth, she asked, ¡°Would you like a drink?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°You seem a bit stiff right now, child.¡± Sheughed softly then took another drink. As she did, a bit of alcohol sshed out and was picked up by the breeze.

    By chance, one drop happened to fly over andnd on Xu Qing¡¯s chin. He could smell the fragrance of the alcohol. Meanwhile, as Arch-Immortal Plumdark sat on the railing, she took out a green willow flute and started ying some music. It sounded wonderful.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really understand music, but he could tell that the song was bold and inspiring. It made him think of a woman dressed in a woven rush raincoat, holding a sword in her arms as she told stories about her years wandering the jianghu. The song also seemedced with regret. As he listened, he slowly rxed, and eventually lost himself in the music.

    In that manner, time passed.

    The moonlight shone down. Arch-Immortal Plumdark was dressed in white and looked like an immortal fairy descended to the human world. She was beautiful, but her eyes contained an unreadable look as her flute music drifted about. The mountains and the wind made goodpanions for the song.

    The Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains were usually a brutal ce, but this night, with the flute music filling them, they seemed inimitably peaceful. It was as if heaven and earth contained only Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Gradually, the regret in her song turned into profound loneliness. When Xu Qing sensed that loneliness, he couldn¡¯t help but look over at her sitting on the railing.

    She seemed empty, even deste, like a lone orchid at the bottom of a dark valley. She didn¡¯t need anyone to admire her youthful beauty. She didn¡¯t need anyone to witness her elegance. She bloomed for herself, and for the hope that she clung to.

    As Xu Qing looked at her, he suddenly understood what the Captain meant when he said that, in her youth, countless cultivators had been obsessed with her.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t obsessed. But he was enjoying the bold and inspiring song, as well as the regret within it, and the loneliness. He closed his eyes and thought back to when he was younger. He remembered how he had struggled to survive. And then he thought about Sergeant Thunder and Grandmaster Bai.

    He suddenly felt like drinking.

    Sometimeter, dawn broke. The flute music faded into nothing. As light filled the sky, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stood at the prow, her back to Xu Qing, looking at the rising sun.

    ¡°Do you like watching the sunrise, Xu Qing?¡±

    He thought for a moment. ¡°Not usually.¡±

    ¡°I like to,¡± she replied softly. ¡°The light is most beautiful at sunrise.¡±

    Xu Qing looked into the sky.

    They didn¡¯t speak. The crimson sun climbed up, turning the clouds red and casting out light to fill all thends. Before long, the night was gone, and darkness was removed from the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Everything was bright.

    A new day hade. Along with it came a vile gaze that rose from the mountains below and locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff. The gaze seemed to be corporeal, causing the air to twist and distort, and covering the light from the sky.

    A flicker of displeasure appeared in Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes.

    Then the gaze reached her, and it suddenly filled with astonishment and terror. It immediately fled.

    Unfortunately, there were consequences for disturbing Arch-Immortal Plumdark. She waved her fair hand, and a distant low-lying mountain burst into mes and quickly transformed into ashes. It all happened in the blink of an eye. There wasn¡¯t even a scream. The mountain, and everything on it, simply ceased to exist.

    Having aplished that, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stretchedzily, then turned and walked toward Xu Qing. His anxiety immediately spiked. She stopped in front of him and looked at him with a deep gaze that would entrance just about anyone.

    Xu Qing instinctively stepped aside.

    She smiled faintly, and without a word, entered the cabin.

    Rxing, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since leaving the sect, time seemed to be moving at a crawl. Sending his cultivation base power into the dharmaskiff, he tapped into the ship¡¯s godliness, giving it more speed as it moved onward.

    The day passed and night fell.

    As before, Arch-Immortal Plumdark sat on the railing drinking from her gon and ying her flute. The music added to the jianghu atmosphere, and as the unhurried tune entered Xu Qing¡¯s ears, he realized that, even though it was the same song he had listened to for so long the previous night, he really enjoyed it.

    It was cloudy that night, and there was no moon. Muffled thunder could be heard asionally. It seemed like it might start raining. Arch-Immortal Plumdark eventually stopped ying and took a drink.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hold back from asking, ¡°Senior, does that song have a name?¡±

    ¡°You like it?¡± she asked, putting down the gon. She looked at him, her eyes filled with a faint divine resonance.

    He nodded.

    ¡°Can you y the flute?¡±

    He shook his head.

    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you.¡± She hopped off the rail and walked up to him, and before he could even react, she was there, holding the willow flute out.

    He took it hesitantly. Then she stepped behind him, put her arms around him, and ced her hands on his. When her skin touched his, he shivered from head to toe. As they stood together, he smelled her perfume, and it caused beads of sweat to break out on his forehead. All of a sudden, he wished he hadn¡¯t asked about the name of the song.

    ¡°The flute has twelve holes. Put your hands on either side and hold it to your left.¡± Her sweet, alluring voice rippled through his mind, and he could feel her breath on his neck as she helped him lift the flute. [2]

    She paid very close attention to his posture and the angle of the flute, until he felt so stiff he couldn¡¯t move. Once everything was perfect, she put the flute to his lips.

    ¡°Pay attention, child. Don¡¯t get distracted. Now, I want you to... blow, just like this.¡± He felt her warm breath as she whispered into his ear.

    He went even more stiff, and was so anxious his heart was pounding like mad. After a few breaths worth of time in which he did nothing, he forced himself to rx slightly. Then, just as she instructed, he gently exhaled.

    An ear-splitting sound erupted from the flute.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdarkughed. Walking out from behind him, she extended a fair finger and ced it over one of the finger-holes.

    ¡°Like that,¡± she said, looking at Xu Qing with her red lips curved into a slight smile. Her skin was so fair it seemed it might be damaged by the wind, and she was so beautiful that, being this close to her, Xu Qing, for the first time in his life, felt his mind gopletely nk.

    All of a sudden, a peal of thunder rang out, and rain started falling. As it hit the dharmaskiff¡¯s defenses, it made a loud pattering sound that caused Xu Qing to shiver and then back up a few steps.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior. I understand now. Going forward I think I¡¯ll just figure it out on my own.¡±

    Sheughed softly. It seemed like she enjoyed seeing Xu Qing this nervous. Setting to the side, she sat down, put her chin in her cupped palm, and looked at him.

    Taking a deep breath, he sat down cross-legged with the flute. Closing his eyes, he mentally reviewed what she had taught him. Then he opened his eyes and tried again. This time, the sound that came out of the flute wasn¡¯t ear-piercing. Instead, it sounded more like a whimper. It definitely didn¡¯t sound beautiful.

    She smiled. ¡°Take your time, child. There¡¯s no rush.¡±

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. It rained heavily and there was asional thunder.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s gaze remained fixed on Xu Qing, and over time, it grew more and more tender. asionally, she would give him some advice about the flute.

    Xu Qing calmed down, and eventually immersed himself in the flute. Around dawn, the rain stopped. He wasn¡¯t very familiar with the song, and when he yed it sounded forced. But by sunrise, his music echoed out in all directions.

    As the dharmaskiff flew through the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, the song drifted to the banks of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. There, as the various mortals wiped the rainwater off of their mutagen-ravaged bodies, something stirred in their nk eyes, and they looked to the sky.

    For the whole night, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s gaze had remained fixed on Xu Qing. But now, she suddenly looked away from him toward the riverbank and the mortals.

    ¡°Wait a moment,¡± she said softly. She stood, hopped off the dharmaskiff, then floated to the bank.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark was the most beautiful thing any of the mortals had ever seen. When they looked at her, they couldn¡¯t help but tremble in shame of their inferiority. This clearly wasn¡¯t the first time Arch-Immortal Plumdark had done something like this, and she knew how to react. Her smile became incredibly warm and tender, quickly dispelling the unease of the mortals.

    Stepping onto the riverbank, she stopped in front of a little girl who was gasping for breath. The girl¡¯s body was half rotten thanks to the mutagen that filled her, and she exuded a noxious smell. The light of youth still flickered in her eyes, but it was slowly fading into darkness.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark in her pure white garment knelt next to the girl. Without even a hint of revulsion, she gently put her hand on the girl¡¯s forehead. Gradually, the rot that had filled the girl disappeared.

    ¡°We live in a bitter world,¡± she said softly. ¡°But don¡¯t ever give up hope.¡± A piece of candy appeared in her fingers, which she ced in the little girl¡¯s mouth.

    The little girl¡¯s eyes began to shine brightly once again.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled. However, when she looked around at the other mortals, she sighed. She was powerful enough to change the fate of an entire sect. But she couldn¡¯t change the world.

    Xu Qing stood at the prow of the dharmaship, watching silently.

    1. The term ¡®jianghu¡¯ has different meanings, but in the context of Chinese fantasy novels, it creates a very wuxia atmosphere. It essentially refers to the underworld society that revolves around martial arts. It¡¯s not the same ¡®cultivation world¡¯ that exists in xianxia novels. PLEASE NOTE: there is a difference between wuxia and xianxia!!! Even in thements of this novel, I see people throwing around the term ¡®wuxia¡¯ in a way that¡¯s not totally urate. Anyway, mentioning the jianghu imparts a very unique vor to this scene, and to Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s appearance.  talking about what the jianghu is, and the same information can be found in my non-fiction book Understanding Chinese Fantasy Genres. Tangentially rted is the fact that I co-authored a tabletop roleying game in which the jianghu is a very key element. The above are affiliate links, so I¡¯ll earn a microscopic bonus if you purchase through them. ?

    2. The type of flute described here is, when transliterated, a ¡°dizi.¡± You can find all sorts of details about it in the . As far as I¡¯m aware, these types of flutes usually have no more than nine finger-holes. So the version here is presumably some sort of fantasy xianxia type, or maybe there¡¯s just something I don¡¯t understand about how these flutes are structured. I¡¯m sure most of you know what this type of music sounds like, but for reference, here¡¯s a  with a great rendition of a pretty famous song. Now that I think about it, it makes great background music for this chapter. ?

 Chapter 299: Parting with Sorrow

    <h4>Chapter 299: Parting with Sorrow</h4>

    Time passed.

    They were still about two days away from the Dark Serenity Sect Xu Qing had discovered. The starry sky overhead cast down dazzling light, and the moonlight added to it. Soft light shone down for as far as the eye could see. Thends were quiet and peaceful.

    Flute music drifted out from the dharmaskiff. It was no longer a whimper. It had a cadence to it, and a distinct melody. What was more, there was something violent and deadly about it that differed from Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s music. Some of it came from the fast-paced tempo of the song. It seemed like an army on the move. Then the song changed, as if the war had ended. Now thends were littered with bones, and the survivors were staring up into the dome of heaven, trying to understand what it all meant. The song seemed filled with bewilderment, seemingly reflecting the mood of the person ying the song.

    However, someone familiar with music would be able to tell that this song was being yed by an amateur. The musician was someone new to performing. The musician seemed devoted to the song, though, and would eventually master what they had been taught.

    At the very least, that¡¯s what it seemed like with Xu Qing.

    He wore his gold-embroidered violet daoist robe, and held the emerald green willow flute as he sat cross-legged on the deck. His ck hair drifted in the wind and moonlight. His sharply angled eyebrows, thoughtful eyes, and somber expression, coupled with the way his lips hovered just above the flute, made him seem bewitching. And his long, slender fingers manipting the flute would prompt any observer to sigh at how good-looking he was.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark reclined on a divan crafted from thousand-year-old rosecloud wood. Her head rested in her hand as she looked at Xu Qing immersed in his flute music. He seemed incredibly dashing, but as he continued to y, an unusual look appeared in her eyes. That look grew stronger as his song grew erratic.

    He closed his eyes and stopped ying. To Xu Qing, the study of the flute was like an indescribably difficult grindstone. He had never done anything like it, and wasn¡¯t sure exactly how to deal with it all. Other than spending some time in meditation, he focused fully on studying and practice. Xu Qing had always valued learning. For example, after Master Seventh taught him how to y Go, he had often taken time to mentally review what he had learned. Already, he had developed a deep appreciation for what Arch-Immortal Plumdark had taught him about flute music. Since he wasn¡¯t a person inclined to words, music was a great way for him to express his thoughts and feelings.

    That said, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s gaze continued to leave him feeling confused and awkward. He didn¡¯t understand this matriarch of the Dark Serenity Sect, and couldn¡¯t figure out why she was toying with him.

    It seemed to him that carnal desire shouldn¡¯t be important to someone with such a high cultivation base. Beyond that, over their time traveling, he had seen her resort to violence seven times. Her actions almost seemed casual, and after she was finished, there was nothing left behind. Those who died by her hand didn¡¯t shed a drop of blood. Sometimes, those she killed had been courting death by acting maliciously. But other times, it seemed to be Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s whims that dictated her actions. On the previous day, a nonhuman cultivator flying nearby had looked too closely at her. A momentter, he transformed into ashes that quickly dissipated in the wind.

    When things like that happened, Xu Qing could only watch regretfully as the souls vanished into nothing. He needed souls to imprison in all 120 of his dharma apertures! However, he didn¡¯t dare to open his mouth about it.

    Xu Qing also noticed some things about Arch-Immortal Plumdark that were different from anyone else he knew. She showed goodwill toward the impoverished nations that asionally appeared on the riverbank. With the wave of her hand, she would resolve random problems that the mortals had.

    A few days previous, they passed a small nation that had been gued with bandits recently, and couldn¡¯t root them out of the countryside. Things like that happened all the time in the world, and most cultivators wouldn¡¯t even pay attention to them. But Arch-Immortal Plumdark captured the bandits and wiped them out of existence.

    The more Xu Qing got to know Arch-Immortal Plumdark, the less he understood her. Her very personality seemed to change at random. Sometimes she acted like a youngdy whose face would light up when seeing a pretty flower. Other times she seemed like a valiant hero, sipping alcohol, her hair swaying in the breeze under the moonlight. On other asions, she was colder than ice, and would carry out ughter with the wave of a hand. And then there were times when she seemed profoundly attractive, with her every smile or frown exuding charm and grace. Of course, there were also times when she was warm and kind. Whenever Xu Qing made a mistake when ying the flute, she seemed to exude tenderness as she gently corrected him.

    She was innocent, cold, heroic, seductive, warm, and seemed like she came from the jianghu.... Xu Qing had never met one person who had so many conflicting qualities.

    Two dayster, Xu Qing discovered yet another personality trait.

    It was when they finallyid eyes on the Dark Serenity Sect he had discovered. The entire sect only had a few dozen members, and they all came out looking shocked and terrified, but at the same time, acting unsurpassably respectful. Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at them, and her eyes filled with reminiscence.

    ¡°Are you Master Littlecloud?¡± she asked the old man who had once tried to pull a fast one on Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Y-yes, Arch-Immortal Plumdark. I¡¯m... I¡¯m Master Littlecloud.¡± In his bitterness, the old man realized that Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked exactly as she hadst time he saw her. A host of thoughts and emotions filled him. He remembered all those years ago when he was just a child, and how his Master had been so infatuated with her. But sadly, <i>the falling flowers yearned for love, but the heartless brook rippled on</i>. Back then, not one single person had ever won Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s heart.

    There was no sign of the passage of years on her. And yet, in the presence of this old man, it was possible to sense how much time had passed.

    ¡°Take me to your Master¡¯s grave.¡±

    Xu Qing quietly followed as the old man led them into the rear courtyard of this Dark Serenity Sect. There was a lone grave there. A willow tree grew over it, and the leaves rustled in the wind, as if they were excited by Plumdark¡¯s presence.

    She stopped in front of the grave and looked at it. Sighing softly, she spoke to Xu Qing. ¡°He was an old friend of mine. And a good person.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to the story he¡¯d been told about this man. He said nothing.

    The old man stood off to the side, wrapped up in sorrow and regret.

    .

    Soon it was time to leave.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark asked if the sect was willing to join the coalition. The old man seemed excited at first, but then he looked at the grave and shook his head. Then he asked permission to continue tapping into the tributary. Arch-Immortal Plumdark agreed. She even set up some spell formations to help. Finally, she boarded Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff again, and they sailed off into the distance.

    On the way back, Xu Qing continued to improve with the flute. Soon, they were getting close to the Eight Sect Coalition. It was evening, and they were only about an hour away. It was even possible to see the Forbidden Sea off in the distance. Arch-Immortal Plumdark sat on the railing looking at the evening clouds.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± she said quietly, ¡°y that song for me again. I want to hear it.¡±

    As he sat there cross-legged, he closed his eyes to gather his thoughts. Then he put the flute to his lips and started to y.

    The song contained the spirit of the jianghu. It described the joys and sorrows of life, and ended in a gon of unfiltered rice wine. Alone, one drank.

    They arrived at the coalition.

    ¡°The name of the song is <i>Parting with Sorrow</i>. Iposed it a few years ago.¡± In the glow of sunset, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stood at the prow, looking off into the distance. The wind blew her hair, and her robes fluttered. She seemed like she herself was ready to fly away with the wind. The loneliness she normally kept hidden now permeated her, seemingly drawn out by the wind, filling even the depths of her pupils.

    She looked over her shoulder at Xu Qing, and her eyes seemed like mysterious pools of water. She seemed like she was trying to fix Xu Qing¡¯s image into her mind. Finally, she smiled.

    He looked back at her.

    ¡°A lot of people have given me gifts over the years,¡± she said. ¡°I probably have over a hundred flutes. I don¡¯t even remember who gave me that one, but I know I like it. You keep it, child. A gift to thank you foring with me on this little trip.¡±

    She lifted her gon and took a drink, then turned her head, causing her hair to swish. Finally, looking immensely heroic and carefree, she stepped off the deck and flew off into the distance.

    Xu Qing looked down at the flute he held in his hands, and then at Arch-Immortal Plumdark disappearing in the distance. Right now, he had no way to describe what he was feeling. Eventually, he took a deep breath, sped hands and bowed. Then he piloted his dharmaskiff back to Seven Blood Eyes.

    ***

    Back in the Dark Serenity Sect, Arch-Immortal Plumdark was still dressed in her white garment. Her mood was mixed. Thirty percent of her was happy. Fifty percent was rxed. And twenty percent felt as if she were parting with sorrow. Back in the pagoda atop the mountain, she looked in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes and murmured, ¡°If only you were born a hundred years earlier....¡±

    ¡°So what if he was?¡± a man said gently. Arch-Immortal Plumdark turned to see the president of the coalition walking out of thin air, d in a blue jerkin. Coming to a stop next to her, he looked toward Seven Blood Eyes. ¡°If he was born a hundred years ago, Junior Sister, he would already be dead. Believe it. What¡¯s more¡­ he could end up dead in the present.¡±

    The president turned to look at Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°Would you dare?¡± she said coldly.

    He looked at her for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. ¡°How could I possibly hurt a chosen disciple from my own coalition? That being said, Junior Sister, don¡¯t forget that though I fear the life soul Master left to you¡­ you¡¯re running out of longevity. If you find the ¡®light¡¯ you¡¯re looking for now¡­ it would actually be a bit tragic.

    ¡°Half of a sixty-year-cycle will be gone before you know it. If he doesn¡¯t reach the Spirit Trove level, then you won¡¯t be able to practice cultivation together with him and mend your dao. And that means that, in the end... you¡¯ll have to make a choice between life and death.

    ¡°I¡¯lle back next month to ask you again.¡± With a smile, the president of the Eight Sect Coalition vanished.

 Chapter 300: Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pillar

    <h4>Chapter 300: Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir</h4>

    As the afterglow of dusk faded, Xu Qing pulled his dharmaskiff into his berth. Before he could even get settled, a voice message came in from the Captain.

    <i>¡°How was your date, little Ah Qing? Why don¡¯t youe over here to that immortal hot spring you got me the discount for? Have a soak and tell me everything that happened. Based on my extensive experience, I can give you a few tips for next time.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Later,¡±</i> Xu Qing replied. He was about to put away the transmission jade slip when the Captain sent another message.

    <i>¡°Ahem. Master¡¯s also here....¡±</i>

    <i>¡°....¡±</i> Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    Not long thereafter, he arrived at Xu Xiaohui¡¯s immortal hot spring. The Captain and Master Seventh were waiting for him in a small private pool that overlooked therger pool area below.

    Xu Qing looked at them with a strange expression.

    Master Seventh cleared his throat and red at the Captain. ¡°I was in the middle of meditating when you begged me toe over here. What¡¯s going on?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times.

    Master Seventh snorted coldly.

    The Captain sighed and cast a rueful expression at Xu Qing. ¡°Little Ah Qing, you were just out with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, right? So how... ahem... how far did things go?¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change at all, and in fact, he looked a bit bored.

    Xu Qing nced briefly at his Master, then thought about the question before answering. ¡°Senior Plumdark taught me how to y the flute.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s ears twitched.

    The Captain immediately followed up with another question. ¡°And then...?¡±

    ¡°And then she paid respects at the grave of an old friend. It was the Master of that old man we met in the Dark Serenity Sect in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.¡± Not hiding anything, Xu Qing told them about the journey. Truth be told, there wasn¡¯t really anything to hide.

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± the Captain said, looking obviously distrustful.

    ¡°Yeah. On the way back, she gave me the flute as a gift.¡±

    ¡°What kind of flute?¡± the Captain asked curiously.

    ¡°Let me think,¡± Xu Qing replied. ¡°Oh, right. It¡¯s called a ¡®willow¡¯ flute.¡±

    Master Seventh suddenly inhaled sharply. ¡°A willowmoon spiritcharm flute?¡±

    The name didn¡¯t sound familiar to Xu Qing, so he simply took out the flute.

    The moment Master Seventhid eyes on the flute, he looked stunned. A long moment passed, and then he expressionlessly stood up. ring at the Captain he said, ¡°Next time you disturb me when I¡¯m meditating I¡¯ll break your legs!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he looked very hurt. <i>I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re being so unreasonable, old man! You shouldn¡¯t be yelling at me, you should be yelling at Xu Qing!</i>

    Master Seventh cleared his throat. ¡°Fine, you were right about what you said before.¡± As he put his clothes back on, he looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Fourth Sib, you¡¯re at the four-me level now. The time is about right. I have a few more things to take care of, and then I¡¯m taking you somewhere.¡±

    sping his hands behind his back, he slowly walked off.

    After Master Seventh was gone, the Captain¡¯s facial expression returned to normal, and he didn¡¯t look upset at all. Instead, he smiled knowingly at Xu Qing. ¡°Did you learn something just now, little Junior Brother? <i>That¡¯s </i>how you deal with the old man. When he loses his temper then admits his mistake, he gets soft. Therefore, I asionally let myself be wronged to get him topromise.

    ¡°That said, this time the old man seemed really embarrassed. Considering how he knew the actual name of that flute, I¡¯d say there¡¯s an eighty to ny percent chance <i>he</i> gave it as a gift to her years ago.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times as he thought back to what Arch-Immortal Plumdark had told him. She said she didn¡¯t even remember who gave her the flute. Considering how his Master had reacted just now... it seemed likely the Captain was right.

    After soaking in the hot spring for a bit, Xu Qing got out and prepared to leave. As he did, the Captainzedfortably in the water. ¡°Little Ah Qing, if you have a chance, can you try and get me another jade slip for twenty percent off? Those things are pretty rare, and they give VIP service. I¡¯m sure you can pull it off.¡±

    ¡°What happened to the one I gave you?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°I gave it to Wu Jianwu.¡± The Captain looked around furtively, then lowered his voice and continued, ¡°I need Wu Jianwu¡¯s help with something. You¡¯ll understand soon enough. Trust me, it¡¯s going to be incredible. Afterward, though, I¡¯ll have to lie low until the fuss dies down. I¡¯ll also need you to help me smooth things over.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in response. He wasn¡¯t surprised to hear this. Thanks to his informant, he knew all about the Captain and Wu Jianwu frequenting this ce. It wasn¡¯t anything new for the Captain to need to ¡®lie low,¡¯ and Xu Qing already had a general idea of what was going to happen.

    <i>Odds are he¡¯s after that snake tooth</i>. With a final look at the Captain, Xu Qing left the immortal hot spring. By the time he got back to his berth, it was nighttime. Sitting down cross-legged, he closed his eyes to meditate.

    During his time spent with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he hadn¡¯t had time to focus on meditation. Therefore, he wanted to make up for the time he had lost.

    Three days passed.

    When night fell on the third day, he opened his eyes, and they shone with anticipation as he sensed certain fluctuations in his bag of holding. The beetles that had fed on the immortal ice were stirring. Taking out the bottle, he opened it. There wasn¡¯t anything inside. Casting his senses about, he couldn¡¯t detect the presence of anything.

    .

    However, he was picking up on faint fluctuations of hunger. Expression neutral, he used his left index finger to cut his right palm. Blood oozed out for only a moment before the wound healed, but that much blood was enough. The air stirred as a host of invisible beetlesnded on the blood in his palm. As Xu Qing watched, the blood slowly shrank and then vanished.

    Once the beetles digested the blood, he was finally able to detect them. After eating that immortal ice, they were so good at hiding their presence that they were virtually impossible to notice. That said, they had been raised on Xu Qing¡¯s blood, and were filled with his poisons. Though they hadn¡¯t consumed his blood in a long time, the connection was still there. After feasting on his blood again, that connection grew strong.

    ¡°I have a total of 371,¡± he murmured, feeling very pleased. However, he knew that this was just the beginning. Going forward, he needed to keep feeding them. Given how long it had been since they fed on any poison, they were famished.

    The next day Xu Qing left his berth and scoured all the medicine shops in the Eight Sect Coalition, buying all sorts of poisons and poisonous nts. Given his dao child remuneration of 8,000,000 spirit stones per year, he didn¡¯t have to worry so much about finances.

    After buying a huge amount of poisonous materials, including many precious and rare items, even pills, Xu Qing felt that he had plenty for his beetles to eat.

    He had originally nned to take things slow. However, the beetles were obviously starving. Worried that they might overfeed, he was careful to feed them only a little at a time. But eventually, he just let them free in the poisonous materials he had purchased. They ate ravenously.

    Seven days passed. The beetles feasted on countless poisonous nts, and Xu Qing bled spirit stones. However, perhaps because of the immortal ice they had eaten, the poisonous nature of the beetles rapidly grew more intense. If these beetles bit into a Gold Core cultivator with a single heavenly pce, that person would quickly experience an explosively violent death.

    Eventually, Xu Qing took out the taboo poison pill to continue working on the project he had started in South Phoenix, that of getting the beetles to be able to survive long term inside the pill. Things didn¡¯t go very well. Although the beetles had mutated into something even more powerful than before, the taboo poison pill was still too terrifying. The beetles could onlyst for a short time inside.

    That said, Xu Qing was still pleased, as he came to find that the beetles were able to consume some of the poison elements of the taboo pill and keep them in their bodies.

    They couldn¡¯t keep them inside for very long before needing to vomit them out. Otherwise, they would be liquefied from the inside out, then turn into ashes. And yet... even that was enough to boost Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess. It meant that he could use the taboo poison pill in a limited way, and not just as a way to end a fight in mutual death.

    Excited, Xu Qing went on another shopping spree. This time, he didn¡¯t buy poisonous nts and medicine but rather, living beasts. Back in South Phoenix, he had been able to use prisoners from the Violent Crimes Division as incubators to breed his beetles. But the equivalent division in the Eight Sect Coalition didn¡¯t have cell blocks or prisons. That said, the Eight Sect Coalition had plenty of beasts. Though Xu Qing found that the results weren¡¯t as good as working prisoners, they were eptable. As time passed, the beastly howls that rang out on his dharmaskiff didn¡¯t pass through the barrier of the ship¡¯s defenses.

    A month passed.

    Xu Qing had started out with a little over 300 beetles, but now he had over 3,000, split between three little bottles. That was when he got a voice message from Master Seventh.

    <i>¡°I noticed you¡¯ve been buying a lot of poisonous nts and also beasts. I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re concocting poisons. Are things going well? If you have the time, I¡¯d like to take you somewhere to teach you a Gold Core technique. Also, I want to go on a little fishing trip. A lot of people know that you have two lifemps. Whether it¡¯s the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect or others, plenty of people have malicious intentions in that regard. Let¡¯s see if we can lure them out and destroy them. That will make things safer for you going forward.¡±</i>

    Master Seventh had brought this up earlier, so as soon as Xu Qing got the message, he responded that he was ready to leave.

    ***

    In the north of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, toward the far end of the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, there was a tundra of wind and snow filled with bone-chilling coldness. The mountains there were covered with snow year-round, as was thend itself. It was a vile ce to live, such that mortals couldn¡¯t survive there. There were a few mortal nations, but they were only on the fringes of the tundra. Deep inside, there were no signs of life.

    The only thing there was a massive pir that stretched from earth to heaven, far in the north. It was pitch ck, and neither wind nor snow seemed capable of touching it. Standing below it and looking up, one couldn¡¯t see its end. If you looked at it closely, though, you would see that it was about 3,000 meters wide. Its surface was carved with magical symbols and totems, imparting a grand feeling that was difficult to put into words. Anyone whoid eyes on it would be filled with the desire to drop down in obeisance. The pir emanated a will of battle, and seemed filled with iparable savagery that could destroy anything and everything.

    This was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that the pir was surrounded by innumerable circr tents that made a unique city. It was no mortal city, but rather, a gathering of cultivators from all parts. They hade here to practice cultivation at the base of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    Because of the bizarre nature of the pir, people who absorbed its fluctuations for long periods of time would gain enlightenment of magical symbols. By using those symbols to hone their willpower, they could strengthen their cultivation base. Beyond that... the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir contained countless rewards that anyone had a chance to acquire. The higher one got when climbing the pir, the more amazing rewards there were. As such, this ce was considered the sixth great power in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    There was another reason though. This ce was... the headquarters of the swordsages.

    The Swordsage Court was located at the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, high above the clouds in the dome of heaven, in a magnificent pce. It was a pce that differed from other pces. It wasn¡¯t made from bricks or jade. Instead, it was made purely of swords. Countless, countless swords, all put together into a sword pce.

    When it came to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and the pce, it seemed like the former held up thetter. Either that, or... thetter suppressed the former.

    That wasn¡¯t easy to tell from thends below. But when you reached the top of the pir, you could see it trembling. It was almost like someone was calling to it, trying to get it to pull itself out of thends below. But with that sword pce in ce, all it could do was tremble in ce.

    There was currently a meeting of important people happening in the Swordsage Court.

    There were nine cultivators present. They all wore white robes, and it wasn¡¯t possible to see their facial features clearly. However, they all emitted terrifying fluctuations, and it was asionally possible to see their eyes, which contained paragonic dignity. These were people who could decide the fate of entire sects.

    They were the nine highest ranking swordsages in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court, the elders. Generally speaking, even an organization as strong as the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had to listen to their orders and cooperate with their demands. That was because they represented the force of order among all humans. They were part of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humankind, and they were assigned to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    They represented the ancient imperial dynasty left behind by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Though humans had declined, and only held sway over seven counties instead of ruling all of Revered Ancient, they were still one of the great species.

    What was more... there was still a human emperor.

    A voice echoed out in the Swordsage Court.

    ¡°We have two matters to discuss. The first matter rtes to our recruitment event. Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Swordsage Pce has sent down orders. A new age is upon us. Chosen cultivators are appearing among countless species. This is a great danger, but at the same time, a destined opportunity. The Swordsage Courts in all prefectures need to raise the standards for the entry examination. We only want the absolute elite among all chosen to be swordsages.

    ¡°The second matter rtes to the increase in fluctuations from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. We received a response to our previous formal request. After extensive analysis, our superiors agree with us. The Ghost Emperor of the Eternal Millennium is starting to awaken. Our prefectural superiors have ordered us to take care of the matter as soon as possible.

    ¡°The Ghost Emperor¡¯s three spiritual souls and seven physical souls were transformed into the three spirits of the Dao-Suppressing Mountain and the seven fiends of the South Tor, respectively. Because the Ghost Emperor is now awakening, their cultivation bases are advancing by leaps and bounds.

    ¡°Just as we discussed before, awakening the Ghost Emperor will require that all three spiritual souls and all seven physical souls be gathered. Therefore, suppressing a single physical soul won¡¯t help much. We need to suppress one of his spiritual souls and imprison it here.

    ¡°By doing so, we can prevent the Ghost Emperor from bingplete, and thus, prevent him from awakening.¡±

 Chapter 301: A Gruish Item

    <h4>Chapter 301: A Gruish Item</h4>

    Around dawn, Xu Qing piloted his disguised dharmaskiff out of the Eight Sect Coalition. Moving at a high rate of speed, he left the megacity behind. Though he started out heading in the direction of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, he eventually changed directions and headed toward the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Specifically, he was moving in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    Ding Xue stood on the deck, blushing a bit. Her long eyshes quivered as she blinked and charmingly said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this is my first time going out of the sect since we arrived in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. If I do anything wrong, just tell me right away.¡±

    Taking out a stack of what appeared to be twenty or thirty spirit notes, she slid them over to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing instinctively took them and looked at her.

    Ding Xue stuck her chest out slightly. She wore a violet muslin dress with a band of streamcloud silk that perfectly entuated her slim waist. Her long hair streamed down her back, and the ancient sword strapped there. Although she wasn¡¯t as shockingly enticing as Arch-Immortal Plumdark, her youthful energy and the flush on her face made her seem extremely pretty. She had a charming attitude, and emphasized her love of knowledge by offering spirit stones, just like she always had. Because of that, Xu Qing had no issue with her tagging along.

    Master Seventh wasn¡¯t with them on the dharmaskiff. Considering this was a fishing expedition, he was following in secret. That was the best way to hook a fish.

    In order to make the scenario seem more realistic, and also because Ding Xue¡¯s aunt had praised her so highly... the trip had turned into a ¡®mission¡¯ for Ding Xue and Xu Qing. They were tasked with inspecting a small nation that adhered to Seven Blood Eyes, yet had experienced some gruish phenomenately.

    It wasn¡¯t lost on Xu Qing that Master Seventh had another reason for sending Ding Xue along. It was a chaotic world, and though she had broken through to Foundation Establishment, she still didn¡¯t have a life me. Some hard training would do her a lot of good. And of course, the best kind of ¡®hard training¡¯ would involve seeing some of the true bitterness that existed in the world.

    What was really a surprise to Xu Qing was that Zhao Zhongheng was nowhere to be seen. He didn¡¯t ask about that, though. Taking the spirit notes and looking Ding Xue up and down, he calmly said, ¡°Emperor-Receiving Prefecture surpasses South Phoenix in every way. Once outside the sect, there¡¯s extreme danger everywhere. You need to be careful. Don¡¯t touch anything you see off the ship, it could be poisonous.¡±

    Xu Qing felt veryfortable around Ding Xue. After he was done speaking, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes. Xu Qing had disguised both his face and his aura. Master Seventh wanted a fishing expedition, so going out without a disguise would have been too obvious.

    Ding Xue nodded. Inside, she was bursting with excitement. She had begged her aunt over and over again to be allowed to go on this trip, and it took a lot of convincing to make it happen. Seeing that Xu Qing was meditating, she was careful not to disturb him. Sitting cross-legged next to him, she looked at the scenery and asionally gazed at Xu Qing. Though he was in disguise, she knew exactly what he really looked like. Every time she thought about his delicately beautiful, almost bewitching face, she blushed. She had seen a lot of people after arriving in the Eight Sect Coalition megacity, but none of them were remotely as attractive as Xu Qing. And that just made her more determined to win his affections.

    Three days passed.

    For the most part, it was quiet on the dharmaskiff. Xu Qing meditated and Ding Xue watched him. Whenever he opened his eyes, she would take out some medicinal pills she had concocted to ask questions, and would apany them with spirit notes.

    Xu Qing was very happy with how they got along. With a very small sample of each medicinal pill, he could use hismand of medicinal knowledge to provide her with useful pointers.

    She always listened very carefully and would pay attention with adoring eyes. When she spoke, her voice was soft and pleasing to the ear, in such a way that those who heard her speak would instinctively want her to keep talking. That was something new, and when Xu Qing noticed it, it caused him to look at her a bit more closely.

    Ding Xue was secretly delighted; her aunt had taught her how to talk like that. Meanwhile, she kept looking at the sky, as if seeking some sort of opportunity. Another seven days went by.

    Eventually, the weather Ding Xue had been waiting for arrived. Thunder rumbled in the night, and lightning crackled. Rain started falling in buckets, turning everything outside of the dharmaskiff into a haze. Ding Xue¡¯s face went pale as she sat there. She wasn¡¯t very far from Xu Qing, yet also wasn¡¯t very close. Every time the thunder boomed, she would shiver.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at her.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, my daddy and momma were never around, so when storms came during the night, I would just huddle in the corner. I know I¡¯m a cultivator now, but hearing thunder always makes me scared. And rainy nights are so cold. But, I guess it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll handle it. Keep working on your cultivation, Big Bro Xu Qing. Don¡¯t pay any attention to me.¡± Ding Xue started out talking softly, and by the time she finished, her voice was little more than a tremulous whisper. ¡°I guess I¡¯m used to it.¡±

    She huddled into the corner looking incredibly pitiable.

    After some thought, Xu Qing took out a gourd of alcohol and handed it to her.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Ding Xue said, stunned.

    ¡°Take a drink. It¡¯ll warm you up.¡±

    Ding Xue hesitantly epted the alcohol. She looked at it for a moment, then looked back at Xu Qing. Finally, she gritted her teeth and took a big swig. She immediately started coughing.

    Xu Qing quickly whipped out a medicinal pill. ¡°This¡¯ll suppress the coughing.¡±

    Her expression nk, Ding Xue took the medicinal pill and looked back at Xu Qing. Thunder crashed, and she shivered.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he looked out at the lightning and listened to the thunder and rain. For some reason, he found himself thinking about another rainy night about a month ago, on this very same boat, and a figure that sat valiantly on the railing. Eventually, he took out his willow flute, put it to his lips, and exhaled softly. The song drifted out onto the dharmaskiff and into the night. The crashing thunder was like a drum beat apanying the flute.

    The song contained the spirit of the jianghu, and at the same time, perfectly encapsted Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts and feelings. As the music yed, Ding Xue¡¯s eyes went wide with fascination. She stared at Xu Qing in his violet daoist robe, and the emerald flute beneath his sharply angled eyebrows and glittering eyes. Everything around her seemed to freeze in time. Before she knew it, the song had ended, dawn hade, and the rain had stopped.

    Taking a deep breath to clear her thoughts, she quietly asked, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, what¡¯s the name of that song?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer. Standing, he looked out as the dawn light illuminated the surroundingnds. Specifically, he was looking at a small nation off in the distance. This was the destination they had been heading to.

    The name of the nation was Thinking of Eyes. It was a human nation that had long been independent. But things changed when Seven Blood Eyes arrived.

    A few generations ago, the founder of this nation had been an elder in Seven Blood Eyes. Because of his aptitude, he had been forced to serve in the coalition, and had not been allowed to return. When he grew old, he chose to settle down and found a nation. Eventually, he passed away in meditation, never having seen Seven Blood Eyes again. Because of all that, Seven Blood Eyes was naturally interested in the affairs of the nation he had founded.

    Originally, the mission had been intended for a two-me disciple. But given that Master Seventh wanted Xu Qing to travel alone outside the sect, he had seen to it that the mission was assigned to him.

    As the first rays of the morning sun lit the small nation, themoners were already awake and working. Smoke spiraled into the air from homes here and there. From the peace and quiet, it seemed this was a rare nation that managed to keep itself safe. Of course, much of that had to do with the way that the Seven Blood Eyes elder had set up protective spell formations in the area. Because of that, not even a Gold Core cultivator could enter without permission.

    Unfortunately, the spell formations were clearly starting to malfunction, allowing grues to slip inside.

    Xu Qing had already read the file and knew the basic details. Twenty days ago, ny-nine people had been viciously murdered, after which they turned into walking corpses that wreaked havoc in the area.

    Because this nation was attached to Seven Blood Eyes, the sect had sent a Sixth Peak disciple to investigate. Though the disciple didn¡¯t have a life me, he was far beyond thepare of any rogue cultivators. Thanks to his decisive actions, the culprit was quickly identified and executed.

    Ten days ago, the exact same event happened again, and the culprit was again identified. He looked exactly the same as the person who had been executed.

    That was when the Sixth Peak disciple realized that grues were involved. He had reported the matter to the sect, requesting that backup be sent before another ten days passed. ording to his analysis, the event would ur in another ten days.

    Xu Qing arrived on that very tenth day.

    When he arrived, he didn¡¯t notify the Sixth Peak disciple or the king of the nation. He sent his dharmaskiff well away from the nation¡¯s borders and then disembarked with Ding Xue. Covering their tracks, they returned to the nation¡¯s capital city.

    All of the citizens were mortal. However, thanks to the spell formations, they looked a lot more hale and healthy than other mortals Xu Qing had seen. They all had mutagen in them, but none of them had so much that their bodies were starting to rot away. People walking the streets even smiled andughed.

    Ding Xue looked around curiously. She had never been to a human nation like this, but at the same time, she wasn¡¯t stupid. She had read about the outside world, and knew that they were dealing with a grue. Because of that, she simply followed Xu Qing¡¯s lead and didn¡¯t disturb him.

    Xu Qing had brought a low-level invisibility talisman with him, so no one under the Foundation Establishment level could see him or detect the fluctuations of the talisman. Two hours passed in which Xu Qing walked around and observed. Eventually, he stopped outside one particr mansion. He looked down at his shadow, which responded with fluctuations indicating that there was a grue inside the mansion.

    To other people, this would be a difficult mission. But to Xu Qing, it was simple. Without hesitation, he strode inside the mansion. He was met with a sinister wind. Xu Qing didn¡¯t even need to issue orders. His shadow spread out and devoured the sinister wind. A momentter, chewing sounds could be heard, and the grue was gone.

    Xu Qing stood there waiting. A short timeter, his shadow sent him information indicating that there was another grue in the area.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me we¡¯re dealing with another Gruegloom,¡± Xu Qing murmured. Taking Ding Xue with him, he followed the shadow to the location of the next grue. The shadow devoured it, then sent Xu Qing more information.

    ¡°... not... single... treasure... simullll...¡±

    As Xu Qing frowned, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out to help.

    ¡°Milord, what Little Shadow means is that it didn¡¯t just eat a single grue. There were two. And the vor was different from that Gruegloom, so these are most likely not Grueglooms. More likely, we¡¯re dealing with an item. An item that creates grue simcres.¡±

 Chapter 302: The Patriarch Earns Credit

    Chapter 302: The Patriarch Earns Credit

    ¡°An item?¡± As Xu Qing thought about the situation, the shadow sent some more specific fluctuations.

    ¡°Milord... wait... earn credit....¡±

    There was no need for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to trante. Xu Qing knew what the shadow meant. It was telling him to wait, that it could handle the situation and earn some credit for itself.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The patriarch immediately felt a sense of crisis filling him, so he anxiously said, ¡°Milord, the shadow is young and naive. I should probably go along to keep an eye on things.¡±

    Xu Qing agreed with his assessment. A momentter, his shadow vanished into the ground, and the patriarch sent the ck skewer flying off out of sight.

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged on the roof of the building and waited. Ding Xue blinked a few times. She couldn¡¯t see his shadow, and the skewer could move at speedsparable to the two-me level, so she couldn¡¯t see it either. However, given that Xu Qing was sitting down, she sat down next to him and took out a box of pastries. [1]

    Xu Qing looked at her.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I made all these snacks personally. I¡¯m not sure how good they are. I probably need some practice. Before I make them for my aunt, uncle, and grandpa, do you mind helping me try them? Maybe you can give me some advice to make them better.¡± [2]

    Out of habit, Ding Xue produced a spirit note.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing sent his senses out into the area. Though he couldn¡¯t find any trace of his Master, he had the sense that his Master was watching him. Declining to ept the spirit note, he tried one of the pastries.

    ¡°Not bad.¡±

    Ding Xue seemed happy to hear that. Sitting there, she looked around, lowered her voice, and said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, when are we going to go capture that grue? Based on the file I read, it¡¯s going to kill more people soon....¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s being captured right now,¡± Xu Qing replied, looking off into the distance.

    In another part of the city, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had been following the shadow. However, the shadow obviously didn¡¯t like the patriarch, and had hidden itself from him.

    ¡°You crappy shadow! Do you really think I¡¯m going to let you get any more credit? You just watch and see how awesome I am!¡± Snorting coldly in his heart, the patriarch changed directions, then took human form. He changed his clothing, though, making him look exactly like the localmoners. Then he disappeared into the crowd.

    Time passed. The shadow moved quickly, uncovering one grue after another. Every one it found, it quickly devoured. However, for every grue that died, a new one popped up. There didn¡¯t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way they appeared. They came out of nowhere, and seemed impossible to get rid of.

    However, there was an upside to it all. By the time evening came, the ughter which had been expected didn¡¯te to pass.

    As the moon rose, more and more grues appeared. It almost seemed as if they wouldn¡¯t rest until the ughter had been aplished. Eventually, Xu Qing, who still sat on the roof of the building, had a very serious look in his eyes. Now that it was nighttime, the city around him seemed increasingly sinister. The shadow was busier than ever, zipping around devouring grues left and right.

    My interference has caused a change in the grues¡¯ behavior....

    Next to him, Ding Xue could sense a change in the atmosphere, and felt nervous.

    Suddenly, a ck light shot out of nowhere and came to hover in front of Xu Qing. It was a ck iron skewer. A stream of divine will emerged from it to transmit speech to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord, I found the source. As expected, the immature Little Shadow only understands violence and extermination. It doesn¡¯t realize that these grue simcre only get more worked up when they¡¯re stimted. If you really want to destroy them, you have to find their source.

    ¡°That source is extremely mysterious and strange. The clues don''t have anything to do with what¡¯s going on right now. You have to go back to a few random incidents in the past to figure out the truth.

    ¡°Your humble servant took human form and did some investigating in the city. I changed identities and forms a few times to find the information I needed. Two years ago, a very skilled traveling physician passed through. His treatment method was very unique. He would give a mirror to the patient and have them ce it on their nightstand.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°How long was he here, and how many people did he treat with the mirror?¡±

    ¡°Milord, your humble servant investigated everything very thoroughly. The physician was here for three months. At that time, Seven Blood Eyes had not yet joined the coalition, so the coalition disciples stationed here had no idea what was going on.

    ¡°Your humble servant went to a few of the houses where the mirror was used in treatment. Believe it or not, even a cultivator who looks at one of those mirrors wouldn¡¯t notice anything unusual about it. But for you, milord, it would be a very different story.

    ¡°And being at your side for so many years, I¡¯ve also learned a thing or two. Therefore, I noticed the evidence of a spirit automaton.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him.

    ¡°Your humble servant knows exactly what you mean. Following the evidence, I eventually found a mirror hanging from the eaves in the mansion of a local noble. That¡¯s the source of the problem.

    ¡°If I¡¯m correct, that physician was actually an evil cultivator, and he chose this ce to feed and grow his mirror. Given that the mirror is here, he has to be close by in hiding. That way he¡¯ll be able to react if anyone tries to take away his treasure.¡±

    Hearing all this, Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak.

    Before he could say anything, the patriarch quickly said, ¡°Your humble servant knows exactly what you mean. I went out of the city to look for possible hiding spots, and found a low-lying mountain that has a perfect view of the city. I detected cultivation base fluctuationsing from that mountain, which indicates there¡¯s a cultivator present there. However, he¡¯s in a state of slumber, probably because of the side effects of the technique he practices. Not wanting to beat the grass and startle the snake, your humble servant didn¡¯t get too close.¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t make any mention of earning credit for what he had done. As a result, Xu Qing was very pleased with everything he had done. He didn¡¯t let one drop of water leak out. At the same time, though the shadow was indeed working hard, its actions had thrown the city into chaos with grues.

    ¡°You¡¯ve earned credit!¡± Xu Qing transmitted.

    The patriarch was so excited the iron skewer trembled. For a long time now, he hadn¡¯t dared to say a thing. The shadow had very unique capabilities which had allowed it to shine, and slowly but surely became a rising star with his lord and master. He had worried that, if he said the wrong thing, the Fiendish Xu wouldn¡¯t hesitate to turn him into cannon fodder. Now that he had earned some credit for his work, he felt a bit more at ease.

    ¡°Lead the way,¡± Xu Qing transmitted. The iron skewer thrummed as it shot off in one particr direction.

    Xu Qing immediately followed, and though Ding Xue had no idea what was going on, she could see how serious he looked, so she quickly packed up the box of pastries and hurried after him.

    Xu Qing soon arrived at the noble¡¯s mansion. Sending out his senses, he found no fluctuations to indicate a cultivator was present. Making sure not to disturb anyone present, he quickly located the mirror. At a nce, he could tell it was very unique.

    It didn¡¯t have any mutagen on it. But when the wind blew, it swayed slightly, Xu Qing found his eyes hurting. He tapped into his lifemps, and the umbres provided protection. His eyes returned to normal.

    Xu Qing was surprised that, given his battle prowess and the level of his fleshly body, he still felt pain from the mirror. It made it obvious that the thing was very extraordinary. He reached out and grabbed the mirror. But then the mirror suddenly fought back violently, slipping out of Xu Qing¡¯s grasp, and then flying up into the air.

    A momentter, Xu Qing appeared in midair, his four life mes burning, his two lifemps active, and his imperial-ss technique ready. He had the battle prowess of seven life mes as he reached out toward the flying mirror.

    Given that level of battle prowess, the mirror couldn¡¯t fight back. Xu Qing grabbed it, then sent his divine will inside to seal it. At exactly the same moment, in the houses of hundreds of families in the city, mirrors on their nightstands shattered.

    As for all of the random grues in the city, they shivered and vanished into nothing.

    Meanwhile, in the low-lying mountain outside the city, a beam of light shot out of a hidden mansion grotto. Within that light was a white-haired old man, his expression vicious. Strangely, his skin seemed to be king off, as if he were in the middle of molting.

    He radiated the powerful fluctuations of a Gold Core cultivation base with one heavenly pce. Looking over at the city, he roared, ¡°What good-for-nothing fool dared to meddle with my affairs?¡±

    As his voice echoed like thunder, causing the entire city to shake, Xu Qing appeared. After eyeing the old man coldly, he shot in the direction of the mountain. He moved so quickly that the Gold Core old man¡¯s face flickered, and his heart started pounding.

    Xu Qing arrived, mming into him with and-shaking, mountain-rocking force. Blood sprayed out of the old man¡¯s mouth as he was flung backward to smash into the low-lying mountain. As the mountain copsed, rock and debris crumbled everywhere, the old man¡¯s face filled with shock and disbelief.

    ¡°This battle prowess....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cid, but his eyes were as cold as ice. Only a cultivator with two heavenly pces could possibly be a match for him. Given that he had seven-me battle prowess, defeating someone with only one heavenly pce would be as easy as turning over his hand.

    The old man could sense that. Still coughing up blood, he unhesitatingly fled, tapping into an evil technique to be a blood-colored shadow that elerated dramatically.

    However, that was when the golden crow manifested behind Xu Qing. Its piercing cry caused the old man¡¯s pupils to constrict as Xu Qing closed in on him.

    ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing from the Eight Sect Coalition!!¡±

    The old man¡¯s scalp tingled when he saw the golden crow and realized who Xu Qing was. It was toote for him to escape. Xu Qing caught up and unleashed a fist strike, and the old man had no choice but to block it with his heavenly pce.

    The pce shattered, revealing a shriveled gold core. Letting lose a piercing cry, the golden crow devoured it. The old man screamed as he coughed up blood like mad. Xu Qing¡¯s hand, wreathed in balefire,tched onto the top of his head. And then balefire spread out to cover his entire body. His screams echoed high into the sky!

    Rogue cultivators simply couldn¡¯tpare to cultivators from a powerful sect. And that wasn¡¯t to mention that the old man only had three life mes when he stepped into Gold Core. From his foundation to his aptitude to his techniques, he simply didn¡¯t exist on the same level as Xu Qing. As balefire consumed him, his soul was extracted and sucked into Xu Qing, where Xu Qing imprisoned it in his first dharma aperture.

    However, as Xu Qing did that, his expression flickered. Thunderous rumbling suddenly filled the area as seven figures descended from the clouds above. All of them had greedy expressions on their faces as they closed in on Xu Qing.

    Another majestic figure appeared, behind whom glittered three heavenly pces, surrounding their face with a bright, holy aura.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯ve been waiting for you to leave the Eight Sect Coalition.¡±

    1. The word ¡®pastries¡¯ here is ¡°dim2 sam1¡± in Cantonese. In other words, it¡¯s the same word for ¡°dim sum.¡± However, the dim sum that most Westerners know is not really a thing in the northern parts of China, where the author is from. In the city where the Deathde n hails from in North China, when you go to get ¡®dim sum,¡¯ the restaurant doesn¡¯t use that word. It¡¯s just called ¡°Cantonese cuisine.¡± In fact, in the North ¡°dim sum¡± generally just means snacks, usually some kind of pastry or dessert-like item . ?

    2. Ding Xue specifically mentions her maternal grandfather. Remember, she¡¯s not blood-rted to Master Seventh. So the grandfather she¡¯s mentioning is Sir Bloodsmelter. ?

 Chapter 303: Master, Help!

    Chapter 303: Master, Help!

    Xu Qing had no idea if these people were at all connected to the old man he had just killed. Their clothing didn¡¯t provide any clues. Whether it was the seven people rushing toward him, or the middle-aged man with the three pces, he didn¡¯t recognize any of them. That said, he didn¡¯t get the sense that they were working with the old man. It seemed more like they had just been lying in wait for him here. Most likely, they had been waiting to make sure he didn¡¯t have any dao protectors before finally making a move. To do that, they must have had a way to keep tabs on him. And only people from the coalition would be capable of getting information like that. Given his disguise, there was no way any outsider would know about his mission and destination.

    <em>Did the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect sell information about me?</em>he thought as he backed up.

    Though he was fast enough to keep distance between himself and the seven pursuers, there was no way he could move faster than someone in the three-pce level.

    ¡°Think you can get away?¡± the three-pce cultivator said in a sinister voice. Then he moved so quickly Xu Qing could hardly track his movement. Bursting with killing intent, he appeared right in front of Xu Qing.

    In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing¡¯s Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown appeared, creating a protective power that formed a barrier between him and the three-pce cultivator. A boom rang out, and blood oozed out of the corners of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Though he could at least defend himself against three-pce power, he would sustain injuries doing so.

    The difference between the levels of power was just too great. Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as, without the slightest hesitation, he started fleeing at top speed.

    The three-pce cultivator hovered in ce, coldly watching him retreat. He made no attempt to give chase, and instead scanned the area to confirm whether or not Xu Qing had a dao protector.

    The others, in contrast, chased after him with avarice in their eyes. The pursuers all had extraordinary cultivation bases, all of them being Gold Core experts with heavenly pces. Five of them had one pce, and the remaining two had two pces. The power of their magical techniques caused the ground to quake, and the noise caused ripples and distortions in the air. The shockwaves caused the surrounding mountainousndscape to crumble.

    Being beset by so many attacks, Xu Qing¡¯s hands flew into incantation gestures, which caused streams of water vapor to transform into roaring sea beasts. As the booms rang out, Xu Qing coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his eyes filled with killing intent. He was facing a lot of opponents, and each one of them was extraordinary. There was obviously no way he could fight back against all of them at the same time.

    All he could do was defend himself and try to get away as quickly as possible. Already, he looked a bit broken-down. The defenses provided by the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown were quivering under the assault of so many magical techniques.

    From a distance, it was possible to see terrifying fluctuations spreading out, the power of the Gold Core level creating a deadly encirclement that slowly surrounded Xu Qing. His expression was very unsightly as he unleashed the Ninefold Tsumani, creating massive wave after wave that spread out in all directions.

    Except, right then, a piercing sound shot forth from the three-pce Gold Core cultivator.

    He approached Xu Qing, radiating a threatening air, surrounded by dazzling light that made him seem almost holy. And yet, his eyes still flickered with suspicion.

    ¡°You really don¡¯t have a dao protector?¡±

    Just then, Xu Qing looked up, his eyes wild, and shouted, ¡°Master! Master, help!!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, his enemies¡¯ faces fell, and they turned to look in the direction he had just shouted. Xu Qing took advantage of that moment to push his cultivation base as hard as he could, and burst away at top speed. He also produced his dharmaskiff, giving him an even bigger boost. Tapping into its godliness, he became a bright beam of light.

    ¡°Are you kidding me?¡± the three-pce cultivator sneered. And yet, he still didn¡¯t give chase.

    All of a sudden, ripples erupted in front of the fleeing Xu Qing, and a massive illusory hand appeared, which smashed into his dharmaskiff.

    A boom rang out as the dharmaskiff self-detonated. And yet, it didn¡¯tpletely explode. Xu Qing quickly shifted directions and started fleeing again.

    The giant hand disappeared, and in its ce appeared a ruddy-faced daoist priest in a ck robe. Shockingly, he was also a three-pce cultivator. He also hovered there, suspiciously looking around, and didn¡¯t chase Xu Qing.

    Yet again, ripples appeared in front of Xu Qing. This time a huge face appeared. It had no hair, and its eyes werepletely bloodshot as it viciously opened its mouth and tried to bite Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaskiff.

    A boom rang out as the dharmaskiff yet again unleashed the power of self-detonation. Heart sinking with regret, Xu Qing put it away, gritted his teeth, and started fleeing in a new direction.

    Another enemy showed his face. This time it was a burly, middle-aged man who appeared right in his path. Grinning viciously, he released the power of three heavenly pces to crush down on Xu Qing.

    Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as the Supreme-Limitless Crown¡¯s defenses rippled violently. Now that Xu Qing was incapable of fleeing, the original three-pce middle-aged man approached him.

    At the moment, Xu Qing was surrounded by four cultivators who were all in the three-pce level.

    Meanwhile, dozens of rogue cultivators flew toward him from various areas nearby. Astonishingly, all of them had been hiding in the nation of Thinking of Eyes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face turned grim as he looked around. Suddenly, he produced an entropic teleportation talisman and crushed it. Instantly, the power of teleportation surged out, and Xu Qing vanished.

    Surprisingly, none of the Gold Core experts rushed away to try to find him. The greed and killing intent on their faces disappeared, and then, in an even more shocking development, they began to turn blurry from head to toe. Only a momentter, they disappeared as if they had been erased from existence.

    Everything went silent. About an hourter, one area of the ground suddenly started to ripple. Then, a pock-faced old man appeared in that spot, d in a green daoist robe. After studying his surroundings carefully, his eyes began to shine.

    <em>It was all an illusion, but those attacks were real. Based on everything that happened, it seems that Xu Qing really doesn¡¯t have a dao protector following him around. But why is he so brazen as to go around alone without protection? That said, he did leave under disguise. If I hadn¡¯t known he wasing here, it would have been difficult to lock onto his position.</em>

    After some more thought, the old man vanished.

    Meanwhile, in the wilderness some distance away, Xu Qing materialized. As soon as he appeared, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, then took out a jade slip to send a voice message to the sect.

    Before he could, the ground beneath him sank down, revealing a massive mouth that opened to devour him.

    Face falling, he flew up into the sky. Rumbling sounds echoed beneath him as the gigantic mouth started moving up, revealing a huge giant, fully 3,000 meters tall.

    Xu Qing backed up at top speed. However, in the blink of an eye, the air behind him rippled as the pock-faced old man appeared. As he took a step forward, five heavenly pces materialized behind him, creating an immense force of pressure that weighed down on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shivered as blood erupted from his mouth and his defenses vibrated wildly. Without any hesitation, he pulled out another entropic teleportation talisman and prepared to crush it.

    But then, a calm voice echoed out from behind him.

    ¡°Be sealed!¡±

    Instantly, a huge golden spell formation appeared in the dome of heaven, which crushed down violently on everything in the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s teleportation failed, suppressed out of existence by that force from above. He had no way to fly either, and thus began sinking down toward the ground. Face pale, he looked up at the golden formation to see a red-robed boy sitting cross-legged atop it. Shockingly, five heavenly pces hovered above him.

    As the formation rotated, cracking sounds rang out from inside Xu Qing. The defenses from the Supreme-Limitless Crown wavered, and he dropped closer to the ground. Then, a boom echoed out as hended down below.

    Suddenly, innumerable strands of ck hair appeared around him, wrapping him up. At the same time, a corrosive force began to seep into the defenses of the Supreme-Limitless Crown.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s defenses dissolved, the boy looked at the green-robed man and the giant, and said, ¡°There really isn¡¯t a dao protector. The rest of you were being too cautious. Besides, even if he did have a dao protector, we¡¯re all just here in clone form. Worst case scenario, we lose our clones. Who cares? Ah, whatever. In the end, it doesn¡¯t matter. We¡¯re going to aplish our mission no matter what happens. Even if Seven Blood Eyes is on a little fishing expedition, we¡¯re ready for that.¡±

    He performed an incantation gesture, and majestic power erupted from him, creating an exterminating force that descended directly toward Xu Qing.

    Right during that moment of extreme crisis, an irritated voice echoed out.

    ¡°Three people? That¡¯s it? And you¡¯re all clones? Talk about boring!¡±

    Master Seventh stepped out of nowhere right in front of Xu Qing. He flicked his sleeve, and the hair surrounding Xu Qing disintegrated. He turned to look at the giant, whose face fell. Then the giant¡¯s body trembled, and before it could even try to fight back, it exploded. Next, Master Seventh looked at the pock-faced old man. The old man shivered, and a momentter, copsed into ashes. Finally was the boy, whose eyes were as wide as saucers. When Master Seventh looked at him, he vibrated for a moment before exploding into a blood rain. All of them were wiped out of existence by Master Seventh¡¯s mere gaze.

    Xu Qing no longer looked grim-faced like before. His expression was back to normal, and his wounds vanished. As he looked up into the sky, he heard Master Seventh continuing to speak.

    ¡°I can understand it, though,¡± he said coolly. ¡°We¡¯re not dealing with idiots, after all. But even though they came as clones, do they really think that means they can get away scot-free?¡±

    He made a grasping motion in the direction where the giant had exploded. The air there distorted, as though time itself were flowing differently. The chunks of flesh and blood flew back together, once again forming into the shape of a giant, whose eyes shone with terror and disbelief.

    ¡°You....¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, Master Seventh chopped his hand down!

    A twang rang out like the sound of a taut thread being severed. Then, shockingly, an actual thread appeared on the giant¡¯s head, almost like silk. The thread was copsing, starting from the giant¡¯s head, and moving in a specific direction. As the giant stood there agape, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from nowhere. Then the giant slumped. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and he screamed miserably as his body copsed into pieces.

    This time, the body vanished into nothing. What was more, the true body of the clone, wherever it was hiding, had also been wiped out of existence by Master Seventh¡¯s secret magic.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide. If a clone had five heavenly pces, he had to wonder about the cultivation base of the true body. Presumably, it had to be in the Nascent Soul level.

    As Xu Qing wondered about that, Master Seventh turned his attention to the pock-faced old man. The same thing happened.

    When the old man formed anew, his face fell and he screamed, ¡°Forgive me, Master Seventh! I can¡ª¡±

    Before he could say anything more, Master Seventh waved his hand sharply to collect the man¡¯s soul.

    As Xu Qing watched that happen with regret, he tentatively said, ¡°Master, is there any chance you could give me some of those souls to imprison in my dharma apertures?¡±

    ¡°Hunters hunt for themselves. I¡¯m not responsible for giving you prey. I¡¯ll give you weapons and abilities. Nothing more.¡±

    He pinched his fingers together, and a thread appeared,ing out of the old man¡¯s head. As it copsed, another miserable scream rang out. The true form and the clone copsed together, and were then gathered up by Master Seventh. Next, Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, and the blood where the boy had exploded gathered together. The boy appeared, his face full of extreme terror.

    ¡°How could someone in Spirit Trove do something like this? How could you trace a clone back to its true form? W-what... what is your real cultivation base?¡±

    He backed up and waved his hands out in front of him, causing a host of flowing spell formations to spring up. Then he fled. However, Master Seventh just waved his hand, causing the boy¡¯s true form to copse. His clone also vanished, collected up by Master Seventh.

    When Xu Qing realized he wasn¡¯t going to get a single one of the souls, he thought back to what the Captain had said back at that immortal hot spring, about Master being soft-hearted. Trying to sound wronged like the Captain had, Xu Qing said, ¡°Master, my dharmaskiff self-detonated twice in a row! I also used two entropic teleportation talismans!¡±

    Master Seventh smiled mysteriously at him, then nodded. ¡°Since you put it that way, I suppose I should make it up to you.¡±

    He waved his hand, and the vanishing clone of the boy shivered, and a discarnate soul flew out. Master Seventh grabbed it, crushed it into fifty-nine fragments of soul power, and then pushed it into Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shivered as the fifty-nine fragments of soul power, which were equivalent to the soul of a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce, rushed to dozens of his dharma apertures, causing their mes to burn even brighter.

 Chapter 304: A Good Study Method

    Chapter 304: A Good Study Method

    Fifty-nine portions of soul power swept through Xu Qing, causing 59 dharma apertures to erupt with power to suppress the power. Because there was so much, it would take time to fully assimte. Therefore, Xu Qing dropped into a cross-legged position and began working.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh nced around and puckered his lips.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it was shrimps like this that came. How boring.¡± He flicked his sleeve, causing what appeared to be an ordinary dharmaskiff to appear. In shape and size, it looked very simr to Xu Qing¡¯s, except it was slightly more dpidated. That said, it had very strong godliness flowing through it.

    Ding Xuey on the deck of the dharmaskiff. Obviously, Master Seventh took her away before Xu Qing started fighting with the old man. Having just regained consciousness, she sat up with a dazed look on her face. Then she noticed Master Seventh down below, and her jaw nearly dropped.

    ¡°Uncle?¡± Then she noticed Xu Qing, sweat dripping down his face as he sat cross-legged in meditation next to Master Seventh. Seeing the invisible heat radiating off of him, she hesitated. ¡°What happened, Uncle? W-what... what are you doing here? And what happened to Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    She blinked a few times, and suddenly had a very bad feeling which manifested in a bright red blush.

    No way. Don¡¯t tell me that Uncle was following us the whole time. Does that mean he saw everything I did...?

    Ding Xue¡¯s blush grew even deeper and redder. The idea of an adult in her family seeing her act so coquettishly was absolutely mortifying to her.

    When Master Seventh saw the look on her face, and her blush, heughed heartily. He had, of course, seen everything.

    ¡°Uncle!¡± she snapped, stamping her foot and pouting.

    Master Seventh cleared his throat. ¡°I saw nothing! Nothing at all!¡±

    Considering that Master Seventh had no male heir, it was no surprise that he loved spoiling his niece. Still chuckling, he flicked his sleeve to wrap up Xu Qing, then flew up to the boat. Once aboard, he tossed Xu Qing off to one side of the dharmaskiff. Then he waved his hand, causing a soul pearl to appear on his palm. Just as he was about to devour it, he noticed Ding Xue looking worriedly at Xu Qing. Obviously she was concerned with how Master Seventh had roughly tossed Xu Qing to the side.

    ¡°He¡¯s tough,¡± Master Seventh said, trying to hide the sinking feeling in his heart. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡±

    Stepping to Master Seventh and grabbing his arm, Ding Xue pouted again and said, ¡°Uncle, don¡¯t forget that Xu Qing is still young. He¡¯s still growing! Can¡¯t you be a little less rough? Okayyyy? Once we¡¯re back, I¡¯ll make sure to say a lot of good things about you to Aunt.¡±

    Master Seventh looked at Ding Xue, then at Xu Qing, who hadn¡¯t reacted at all, and was still assimting the soul power. Finally, he sighed and mused that now he was finally starting to understand what his highest-ranking apprentice had to deal with all the time. Nodding helplessly, he took the soul pearl and pressed it into Ding Xue¡¯s forehead, then patted her gently.

    ¡°Alright, alright. You go and work on your cultivation. That soul pearl should keep you going all the way until you reach the one-me level.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Uncle.¡± Looking very happy, Ding Xue sat down cross-legged next to Xu Qing, closed her eyes, and started meditating.

    Master Seventh looked at the two of them and sighed a few more times. Then he walked to the prow and stood there, hands sped behind his back. After scanning the area, he snorted coldly and then piloted the ship off into the distance.

    Sometime after he left, the air distorted and two figures appeared, d in long, golden robes. Both had fantastic sword energy swirling around them, but also bitter expressions on their faces.

    ¡°That was the sect leader of Seven Blood Eyes....¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way we could defend ourselves against someone like him. Yet he didn¡¯t make a move on us. Presumably it was for the sake of the coalition. And he also wants us to take a warning back with us.¡±

    Both of these people were from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    ¡°Xu Qing is already extraordinary on his own. But with backing like this.... It¡¯s only going to get harder and harder to deal with him. Besides, after this, you¡¯ll never be able to tell if he¡¯s really alone. You¡¯ll always wonder if there¡¯s some powerful expert hiding out ready to help him.¡±

    After exchanging a nce, the two shook their heads and departed.

    Sometime after they left, another area rippled, and more auras spread out. There were several figures that appeared, and all of them exchanged nces and sighed.

    Unlike the previous two cultivators who had appeared, these were not members of the coalition. Instead, they were rogue cultivators native to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. They had been given information that the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s twomp disciple Xu Qing was going outside of the sect, and had hurried over in the hopes of taking advantage of the situation. However, now that they knew the details of Xu Qing¡¯s background, none of them would ever dare to casually make a move on him. What they had seen had frightened them to the core, and they were thinking the exact same thing as the two cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    ¡°So this is how Seven Blood Eyes does things....¡±

    ¡°They were sending a warning to everyone secretly watching.¡±

    ¡°Besides, the Eight Sect Coalition recently announced to all of their protectorates that... if anyone kills Xu Qing, they¡¯ll pay an astonishing price.¡±

    ¡°Lifemps are great. But when ites to your actual life, you only have one.¡±

    With such thoughts on their minds, they dispersed. And of course, it wouldn¡¯t be long before they started spreading stories about what just happened. This was the protection that Master Seventh was giving to Xu Qing. And it was also a warning to everyone.

    Time passed. Seven dayster, in the evening, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He was still on the dharmaskiff. The moment his eyes opened, 60 of his dharma apertures surged with fire, and rumbling like thunder filled his mind.

    Right now he had souls packed into half of his 120 dharma apertures. As a result, his cultivation base had advanced. What was more, that fire had changed. His balefire now had something mournful in it, which was the agony and rancor of the souls that were constantly burning. It was none other than the Stygian me, a mighty fire that contained emotions. Once it began to burn an enemy, it would affect their emotions, causing fluctuations and potentially destabilizing their soul.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Master Seventh said coolly from the prow, looking over his shoulder at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Many thanks, Master!¡± Xu Qing said, getting to his feet and bowing with sped hands.

    ¡°Going forward, you¡¯ll be a lot safer when you go out. And now, there¡¯s somewhere else I want to take you, which is the real purpose of this outing. I¡¯m going to give you... a Gold Core technique.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned very serious.

    ¡°Unfortunately it¡¯s notpletely ready yet, so don¡¯t get anxious. I still need to put some finishing touches on it.¡± With that, Master Seventh nced at Ding Xue, who was still meditating off to the side. Waving his hand, he created an extra level of protection around her, then stepped off the dharmaskiff. ¡°Come with me.¡±

    Xu Qing followed, and the two of them descended toward the mountainous forest below.

    They weren¡¯t in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, but thend was still rugged, and given that evening was falling, everything seemed particrly sinister.

    From above, it was just possible to see a sect within the trees. It wasn¡¯t arge sect, but it still had three mountain peaks within its borders. There were currently a variety of disciples hurrying about from peak to peak.

    ¡°This is the Heaven Spirit Sect,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°They¡¯re not part of the coalition. They¡¯re just an average sect, not too strong, not too weak. That said, they have some very unique techniques.¡± Master Seventh led Xu Qing toward the sect.

    A curious expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as his Master led him right through the sect¡¯s defensive spell formation. Once inside, they would asionally pass some of the sect disciples, except none of them reacted. It was as if the disciples couldn¡¯t see them.

    Master Seventh led Xu Qing to the sect¡¯s Scripture Pavilion. There were two Gold Core cultivators standing guard, who seemed oblivious to the two people who walked right past them. Once inside, Master Seventh went straight to the high-level section that ordinary disciples weren¡¯t allowed to enter. None of the warding spells in this ce seemed to work on him. Apparently, they couldn¡¯t even detect him. Master Seventh seemed very at-home in the pavilion as he waved his hand, causing jade slips to float out from the shelf. One by one, he examined their contents.

    Xu Qing watched quietly, not saying a word.

    Master Seventh turned and red at him. ¡°What are you staring at? I created an entire magical technique myself, years ago, just to help me study!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then quickly grabbed a jade slip and started going through the information on it.

    Thus, Master and apprentice immersed themselves in study on the top floor of the Heaven Spirit Sect¡¯s Scripture Pavilion. Master Seventh studied hard. Xu Qing studied even harder. In fact, when Xu Qing found some jade slips that pertained to nts and vegetation native to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he becamepletely immersed in knowledge.

    A few dayster, Master Seventh finished with the final jade slip he wanted to examine. He sighed. ¡°Not bad. Not bad at all. As it turns out, this Heaven Spirit Sect has some marvelous ways of controlling dharma force. It¡¯s too bad they¡¯re so horrible at everything else.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in agreement. He had found a lot of information about nts and vegetation, but unfortunately, none of it was very clear or detailed.

    ¡°It¡¯s the same with the medicinal codices here,¡± he said. ¡°It seems that some years ago, they had some cultivators skilled in the dao of medicine. But after that time, few people cared to expand on their knowledge. There are almost no supplementary notes in any of the codices. That said, at least I know a bit more about the local nts and vegetation.¡±

    Master Seventh nodded, his eyes shining in admiration. ¡°A love of knowledge is a good thing to have.¡±

    sping his hands behind his back, he led Xu Qing out of the Scripture Pavilion.

    On the way back, Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then asked, ¡°Master, I really do love knowledge and learning. Is there any chance you could teach me that magical technique rted to study?¡±

    Master Seventh nced at him, and the admiration in his eyes grew even stronger. He nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Yes, but your cultivation base isn¡¯t high enough yet. Once you¡¯re in Nascent Soul, I¡¯ll teach it to you. Now, let¡¯s hurry back. There are some more sects I want to take you to visit. I¡¯ve been doing a lot of research about your Gold Core technique. The n is to go to all of these sects andbine various ideas into something solely for you. Going forward, I want to see you really work hard!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. With that, he followed Master Seventh out of the sect, then up in the air and back onto the dharmaskiff.

    Once back at the prow, Master Seventh beckoned at Xu Qing. ¡°However much we cultivators learn and study, we should never forget to be grateful. Remember that. Now,e. Let¡¯s offer respect to this sect for the help they¡¯ve provided by means of their Scripture Pavilion. This way, if we ever be enemies in the future, we can kill them with a clean conscience.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh sped hands and bowed deeply to the sect below.

    Xu Qing was struck by how seriously his Master took these matters. Taking his words to heart, he also sped hands and bowed deeply.

    With that, they left.

    When they arrived, no one noticed them. When they left, it was without a trace.

    The dharmaskiff zipped through the sky and disappeared over the horizon. A few dayster, they stopped at another sect. Master Seventh yet again took Xu Qing down to the sect¡¯s Scripture Pavilion, where they focusedpletely on studying.

    Time passed. Bit by bit, the dharmaskiff headed east, eventually entering the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.

    Along the way, they stopped at one sect after another.

    When they were in the forty-seventh Scripture Pavilion, Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing immersed in study, and couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°To people like us, there is no horizon on the sea of learning. You¡¯re doing excellent, Fourth Sib. Back when I took your Third Elder Brother on a trip like this, that ignoramus proved that he hates studying. And your Eldest Brother is the same. All he did was keep a record of all the treasures in the sects we visited. Only you, Fourth Sib, have proven to be like your Master!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t one to react excitedly to praise. Upon hearing his Master¡¯s words, he put down the jade slip he had been looking at. After a moment of thought, he quietly said, ¡°Master, do you know of any sects in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture that specialize in the dao of poison? I¡¯m very interested in studying more about that.¡±

 Chapter 305: Gruegloom Daoseizing

    <h4>Chapter 305: Gruegloom Daoseizing</h4>

    When Xu Qing asked to study the dao of poison without the slightest nervousness or apprehension, Master Seventh¡¯s admiration grew. Throwing his head back, heughed heartily.

    ¡°Of course there are such ces. Come on, I¡¯ll take you.¡± With that, he led Xu Qing out of the sect and back to the dharmaskiff.

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t need to say anything this time. Xu Qing somberly turned to the sect below and bowed deeply. Master Seventh looked pleased as he did the same thing.

    Meanwhile, Ding Xue was still working on her cultivation. Apparently, her aptitude was nothing out of the ordinary, so even with the help of that soul pearl, she was still having difficulty opening her dharma apertures.

    Time passed in which Master Seventh and Xu Qing focused on study. A monthter, after the dharmaskiff was deep into the eastern part of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, Master Seventh felt he had reached the point where he could create a technique for Xu Qing. That was when the session of study reached its end.

    Xu Qing had benefited a lot when it came to nts and vegetation, as well as the dao of poison. They had been to several evil poison sects, wherein Xu Qing had experienced some major breakthroughs thanks to their poison codices. One area where he had benefited most was understanding of nning and developing new poisons. He had learned a technique in which ¡®<i>the fleshly body is the pill furnace and the blood is a curse</i>.¡¯ It was a method that could be used to concoct very deadly concoctions.

    However, all of that was secondary as far as Xu Qing was concerned. What really caused his eyes to light up was a small ck sphere that currently rested on Master Seventh¡¯s palm.

    It was made of innumerable magical symbols that pulsed with terrifying fluctuations. What was even more amazing was that, when merely looking at it, it seemed to contain immense amounts of information, ready to pour into the mind. [1]

    ¡°Fourth Sib,¡± Master Seventh said solemnly, ¡°give me the Gruegloom heart from that girl Sima Ru.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned serious. He remembered his Master telling him that the heart would be useful to him. Taking it out of his bag of holding, he handed it to his Master.

    Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, sending the Gruegloom heart into the ck sphere. Instantly, the ck sphere started pulsing rapidly, almost like it was alive. At the same time, it emitted hair-raising howls.

    ¡°This is the technique I¡¯ve created for you, Fourth Sib. It perfectly corresponds to your personality. It will brand itself into your mind. It¡¯s a legacy transmission method that I picked up by studying imperial-ss techniques!¡±

    The howling from the ck sphere ceased as it transformed into a ck liquid. Master Seventh waved his hand, sending it toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°Lift your head!¡±

    As Master Seventh¡¯s words echoed out, Xu Qing lifted his head and looked at the ck liquid. As soon as the liquid reached his forehead, it bored into him painfully, piercing through his skull. At the same time, it released pulses of bizarre power that converged in his mind, transforming into a ck sealing mark!

    Instantly, Xu Qing¡¯s mind filled with rumblings like thunder, which spread through his entire body. He became like a tiny rowboat, rocking up and down on a violent sea.

    That sealing mark wasn¡¯t an inanimate thing. It was moving as if alive! It resembled a heart, and it beat in unison with Xu Qing¡¯s actual heart. As the <i>thump-thump</i> sound rang out, massive amounts of information poured from the magical sealing symbol into his sea of consciousness. Closing his eyes, he immersed himself in enlightenment.

    At the same time, Master Seventh¡¯s voice reached him.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, each of my apprentices cultivates different techniques. All of them were custom created by me, after much research!

    ¡°This Gold Core technique of yours was devised around that Gruegloom heart, after doing research into hundreds of different Gold Core techniques. I took special note of numerous legacy techniques passed down from Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    ¡°It¡¯s very domineering, which suits your fighting methods. It¡¯s very sinister, which suits your personal style. And it¡¯s very brutal, which suits your killer¡¯s mentality.

    ¡°This technique is called... the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art!

    ¡°This art will turn one of your hands from corporeal to illusory. Using that Gruegloom hand, you can reach into one of your enemy¡¯s heavenly pces in their sea of consciousness, seize the gold core inside, and then rip it out. After, you can assimte its essence and add it into one of your own heavenly pces, thus making it your own!

    ¡°In that manner, once you reach the Gold Core level, you can be stronger and more deadly! Your future path is going to focus on killing as your method of cultivation. It will be a blood-drenched road!

    ¡°As your cultivation reaches the highest level you will be able to transform into a Gruegloom state, and tap into a portion of the Grueglooms¡¯ natural characteristics. Although the undying possession arts of the Grueglooms are an innate ability, and thus very hard to acquire, you will be able to ignore the power of certain magical techniques and enter a state which transposes reality and illusion!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s each word boomed like thunder in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. As the magical symbol radiated immense brightness, masses of information from the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art filled Xu Qing.

    It was simr to when he had learned the imperial-ss technique Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. The details were being imprinted directly into him. The symbol was like a legacy seed, ensuring that no one could ever rip the technique away from him. Though it wasn¡¯t an imperial-ss technique, it was simrly shocking.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and he struggled to control his breathing. Looking at his Master with shining eyes, he got to his feet, sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Many thanks, Master!¡±

    Xu Qing could already tell that this technique was matchlessly shocking, especially considering how perfectly it suited him. He wouldn¡¯t need to change his normal fighting style. He could just continue to build on the foundation he already had.

    Once he stepped into Gold Core, he would instantly be able to use the technique.

    It waste at night, and as the wind blew Master Seventh¡¯s white hair back, he stood there looking at Xu Qing, a faint smile on his face.

    ¡°Don¡¯t rush to be happy,¡± he said coolly. ¡°The technique is incredibly domineering, and you could easily lose yourself in it. The divine will from numerous gold cores could dispel <i>your </i>mind, causing you to transform into a psychotic murderer.

    ¡°If you want to cultivate this technique, you¡¯ll need something else to serve as a support. You¡¯ll need something to prop up your soul, to make sure that the wills of the gold cores you seize won¡¯t affect you negatively. And that¡¯s why our next stop is a ce I mentioned to you before. It¡¯s... the South Tor Ghost Mountain!¡±

    Xu Qing immediately thought back to the time he¡¯d seen his Master painting a map, with a person near the South Tor Ghost Mountain meditating. His Master had mentioned that the South Tor Ghost Mountain could possibly be and of good fortune for Xu Qing. Back then, Master Seventh had only just begun nning Xu Qing¡¯s personal technique. [3]

    Realizing that, Xu Qing felt even more grateful than before.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°When we get to the South Tor Ghost Mountain... you¡¯ll imnt a god into your heart!¡±

    There were obviously deep implications in Master Seventh¡¯s words. Before Xu Qing could ask any questions, he flicked his sleeve, and the dharmaskiff rumbled to life. Considering they had already been traveling east, the South Tor Ghost Mountain wasn¡¯t very far.

    Along the way, Ding Xue opened her eyes. She had finally opened her 30th dharma aperture and ignited her first life me. It was with much excitement that she rushed to the prow and entered the profound radiance state.

    Looking at her, Xu Qing sighed and thought back to how difficult it had been for him to open his first life me. In contrast, the doting Master Seventh had given a soul pearl to Ding Xue without any fanfare at all. All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized what it must feel like to be the Captain.

    Master Seventh red at him. ¡°Girls should get love. Boys should get tough love!¡±

    Hearing that, Ding Xue covered her mouth andughed softly. Producing her snack box, she opened it and handed a pastry to Master Seventh, who took it in delight. Then Ding Xue surreptitiously handed arger pastry to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took it, then nced at Master Seventh.

    Master Seventh red back at him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Taking a bite, he closed his eyes to meditate. On the one hand, he took time to get used to the new technique, while also contemting his 121st dharma aperture.

    Perhaps because of Master Seventh¡¯s presence, Ding Xue seemed more aloof when it came to Xu Qing. She didn¡¯t offer him spirit notes in exchange for answers to her questions. But she still seemed lively, and the dharmaskiff frequently resounded with her melodious voice and Master Seventh¡¯s heartyughter.

    The closer they got to the South Tor Ghost Mountain, however, the less Ding Xue talked. Master Seventh¡¯sughter eventually ceased. And that was because... thends turned bleak and miserable.

    Crumbling ruins and dead vegetation stretched out as far as the eye could see. Carrion birds picked at rotting corpses, and a sinister, gruish air filled the ce. The sensation of pain and suffering was stifling as it weighed down everywhere, even on the little dharmaskiff.

    Eventually, Xu Qing caught sight of a huge mountain off in the distance. It was massive, reaching high into the sky. Looking closely at it, it resembled a gargantuan human form, seated cross-legged in meditation! Its facial features were hard to make out considering how much dirt covered it. But it seemed vicious. It wore a suit of armor, and had a huge ded weapon in its hands. A world rested on each of its shoulders.

    It looked like a vicious god.

    Seeing it, Xu Qing was deeply shaken as he was overwhelmed with the sensation that he wasn¡¯t looking at a mountain, but rather, at a massive ghostly figure. That sensation would be stronger the higher one¡¯s cultivation base. And mortals who looked at it wouldn¡¯t see anything other than a mountain, and would certainly not be deeply shaken.

    To Xu Qing, that figure radiated terrifying pressure, and the armor seemed to contain deadly, destructive power.

    The two worlds on his shoulders were very lifelike, and seemed to contain innumerable demonic devils, all of them shocking and ghastly.

    This was Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s South Tor Ghost Mountain.

    As for the evil god, he was also known as the South Tor Ghost Emperor.

    The two worlds on his shoulders might have once been glorious and radiant. But now they were home to countless vicious beings. The Ghost Mountain worshiped seven fiends, and was one of the six great powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    ¡°Your task, Fourth Sib, is to put this god into your heart, to be the protector against all extraneous thoughts from the gold cores you¡¯ll absorb in the future. If you can do that, then you can cultivate the technique I gave you. If you cannot, then I¡¯ll have to give you a different Gold Core technique.¡±

    1. The ¡®information¡¯ here is more than just random information. There¡¯s a magical element to it. I follow a guy on Twitter (er¡­ X?) who¡¯s a Westerner that has actually studied deeply into real-life Daoist magic. Here is <u>a link to a tweet</u> from him exining what this ¡®information¡¯ is. And just in case that tweet goes down, <u>here is a screenshot</u> of it. This is something cool to keep in mind whenever you¡¯re reading xianxia stuff that talks about ¡°information¡± being imparted (as it rtes to magical techniques and whatnot.) ??

    2. Xu Qing ripped out the heart in ??

    3. Master Seventh mentioned the South Tor Ghost Mountain in ??

 Chapter 306: Spirit Trove, Void Returning, Smoldering God

    Chapter 306: Spirit Trove, Void Returning, Smoldering God

    Master Seventh¡¯s words echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s ears. As he listened, he looked at the distant mountain that was actually the South Tor Ghost Emperor. Waves of shock rolled endlessly through his mind, growingrger andrger with each passing moment.

    Even just looking at the mountain caused his eyes to sting, yet he looked closely and with great intent. Just what cultivation level had this god been in before dying that he would transform into a mountain? And how could a mere corpse contain such boundless majesty?

    This was obviously the most powerful entity Xu Qing had ever been in the presence of. Not even Joine couldpare, and from what he could tell, that sealizard patriarch wasn¡¯t even on the same level as the South Tor Ghost Emperor. Only the god Meegah that Xu Qing saw on the mural in the Merfolk Isles could possiblypare. That was also where Xu Qing got his first lifemp. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten that Meegah also had two worlds on his shoulders. He wasn¡¯t sure if that was some special feature of a specific cultivation level, but the memory had never left him. [1]

    And then... Master Seventh continued talking.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, the time hase for me to pull back the curtain regarding how cultivation works in the Revered Ancient maind. You need to have a clear understanding.

    ¡°After the Gold Core level with its heavenly pces, cultivators proceed to the Nascent Soul level. Nascent Soul is broken up into sub-levels, which you¡¯ll be familiar withter on. What I want to focus on is whates after Nascent Soul!

    ¡°Beyond Nascent Soul are levels that differ as greatly from each other as heaven differs from earth. Of course, the difficulty in progress is also just as dramatic. In fact, each level is like apletely different realm.

    ¡°After Nascent Soul is the Spirit Trove level!

    ¡°Spirit Trove is divided into the five secrets. After the fifth secret is the Void Returning realm!

    ¡°Void Returning is divided into four stages. After the fourth stage... is the Smoldering God realm!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as Master Seventh made this exnation and then pointed at the South Tor Ghost Emperor mountain.

    ¡°The two worlds he carries signify that he¡¯s a second stage Smoldering God expert!

    ¡°Our patriarch, Sir Bloodsmelter, is in the first stage of the Void Returning level, the Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos. The president is in the second stage of the Void Returning level, which is Transform 10,000 Veracities. After those first two stages are a third and a fourth stage. Given that, you can imagine the vast difference between those stages and the level of the South Tor Ghost Emperor.

    "If our patriarch secures an amazing destined opportunity, then he¡¯ll have a slim chance of stepping into the second stage of Void Returning. As for the third stage... it¡¯s as difficult to reach as it is to ascend to heaven. In other words, it¡¯s almost impossible. Given that, there¡¯s no need to even mention the fourth stage.

    ¡°As for the Smoldering God level... let¡¯s put it this way. Based on my personal research, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a single living Smoldering God in all of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. In fact, there isn¡¯t a single one in all of Sea-Sealing County!

    ¡°The only one we have is the half-dead Ghost Emperor, who¡¯s in the second stage of the Smoldering God level!

    ¡°What¡¯s more, he¡¯s not even originally from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture; he just perished here. Any being that reaches this monumental level of cultivation deserves to be called a god.¡±

    After hearing all this, Xu Qing waspletely and utterly stunned. At the same time, he now had a much more clear understanding of the cultivation levels in Revered Ancient.

    ¡°Before the Ghost Emperor perished here, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was a barren and infertile ce. Though there were cultivation sects, they existed in a state of utter chaos. Very few experts rose to prominence. But after the death of the Ghost Emperor, his life force became nutrients that caused all sorts of living beings to flourish. You could even say that almost all of the six major powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture are connected to him in some way.

    ¡°Forget what outsiders say about the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. The reality is that they exist because they have some of the Ghost Emperor¡¯s legacy. That¡¯s why they¡¯re so strong.

    ¡°The three spirits from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain are actually manifestations of the Ghost Emperor¡¯s three spiritual souls. Nethersprite is his human soul, Sunughter is his earthly soul, and Sporelight is his heavenly soul!

    ¡°The two worlds that exist on the Ghost Emperor¡¯s shoulders contain seven fiends, which are manifestations of his seven physical souls!

    ¡°The swordsages control the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in the far north. The reality is that the pir¡­ is the Ghost Emperor¡¯s weapon, which he plunged into the ground just before he died!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s words struck Xu Qing¡¯s mind like bolts of lightning, especially the final part. He was only now starting to realize how terrifying and powerful the Smoldering God realm was. The death of a Smoldering Godpletely transformed an entire prefecture, and paved the way for it to eventually be a ce full of powerful experts. It really did seem appropriate to call such an individual a god.

    It was also quite enlightening for Xu Qing to find out that the Merfolk¡¯s fallen god Meegah was in that level.

    ¡°What¡¯s above the Smoldering God realm?¡± Xu Qing asked hesitantly.

    Master Seventh looked up into the dome of heaven, not at the broken face of the god there, but at the starry sky.

    ¡°There may be information about that in the holynds created by the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, or in the histories written by the great species.¡± He flicked his sleeve, and the dharmaskiff vanished. Taking Xu Qing and Ding Xue with him, he floated to the ground.

    Though Ding Xue had heard everything, her mind wasn¡¯t capable of retaining all of the information. Her cultivation base wasn¡¯t high enough, and even if she had been able to remember it all, it would do more harm than good.

    As theynded on the vile ground below, Xu Qing still felt shaken.

    Master Seventh could tell that he was still digesting all of the new information, and thus led him toward a small town. This was the ce that Master Seventh had specially selected for the next part of the journey. It could be considered part of the South Tor Ghost Mountain, though it was quite a distance from the actual mountain itself. However, given how big the mountain was, this vige had a perfect view of it.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to stay in this vige for a while,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Xu Qing, I want you to observe the Ghost Emperor as closely as possible. Every day. You need to create an outline of the image in your mind.¡±

    With his hands sped behind his back, Master Seventh led Xu Qing into the vige, as well as Ding Xue, who didn¡¯t dare to utter a word.

    The vige wasn¡¯t very big. The paths crisscrossing the ce were dirty, and the cold autumn wind blew leaves into big piles in the corners of all the buildings. It seemed like a very bleak ce. However, there was something about the vige that was unusual. And that was... there were just as many old people as there were young people....

    That stuck out to Xu Qing.

    Ding Xue had no idea what it signified. But Xu Qing knew. At the moment though, he wasn¡¯t inclined to look more into the situation. Observing the South Tor Ghost Emperor was far more important.

    The arrival of three neers caught the attention of the vigers. It wasn¡¯tmon for outsiders toe to a ce like this. That said, the fact that the group was made up of a young man and woman, plus an older man, made a great cover story. They seemed like a family of three. As a result, they didn¡¯t stick out too much. That said, given the dog-eat-dog nature of the world, the vigers were inherently a bit hostile toward outsiders, and kept their guard up. Even after Master Seventh bought a house for the three of them to live in, that hostility remained.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about all that. He spent his time seated cross-legged in the house, looking at the distant mountain. It was simr to when he had sought enlightenment of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. He worked hard to force the image to remain in his mind.

    Unfortunately, it was a difficult process. The level of difficulty involved far surpassed that of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. Thankfully, Xu Qing had never been an impatient person. Day after day, he simply gazed at the mountain, gradually bing calmer and calmer. Slowly but surely, his mind became nk.

    Each morning, Master Seventh would take Ding Xue for a walk in the vige. He smiled a lot, and made a habit of chatting with the vigers. Gradually, the neighbors started to get used to him. Whenever people asked where they were from, Master Seventh would smile bitterly, but not give any details. People would nod thoughtfully, and soon enough, the locals hade up with their own story about this old man¡¯s bitter past.

    When people asked about the girl who apanied him, he always brightened up. He would tell them that she was his daughter, and that the young man who stayed indoors all the time was his son-inw who had married into the family. [2]

    When Ding Xue heard Master Seventh saying such things, she was very pleased, and often blushed wildly.

    In that manner, the three of them settled down into the vige.

    Days passed in peace and quiet. Xu Qing sought enlightenment on a daily basis, and Master Seventh took Ding Xue out and about. As the vigers got used to the situation, they gradually let their guard down. As that happened, their curiosity about the neers grew more obvious.

    Though the vigers lived hard lives, they were close to each other. As their hostility toward the neers faded, it came to be reced with kindness and even warmth. It was something that didn¡¯t happen a lot considering the state of the world.

    There were a lot of old people and also a lot of young people. That indicated... that it had been many years since any true danger threatened this vige. That was the only way so many defenseless elderly and young ones could survive.

    There was a schoolhouse in one corner of the vige, where the local teacher taught the children to read and write. Every day it was possible to hear the young voices joining together to read passages during ss, and that brought smiles to the faces of the vigers. There was one child among the group that Master Seventh took a liking to. He appeared to be eight or nine, and was good-looking. He was different from the other children in that he was very clean, from his clothing to his face. He had a small leather bag that he carried his books in, and was always extremely polite.

    When Master Seventh and Ding Xue asionally ran into him after school was out, the boy would look bashfully at Ding Xue, and would cower a bit when he looked at Master Seventh. That said, he would always offer a respectful bow, after which he would run home. He lived right next to the house Master Seventh had purchased. His father was a carpenter and his mother made a living mending clothes. Every morning, they would watch as their son ran off to school, and in the evening, they would wait at the door for him to return. Every night, they would light amp and eat dinner by the window. The sight of their shadows cast on the window made a very homely scene.

    Everything looked very normal. However, Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered when he took it all in. In fact, at one point when he sat next to Xu Qing looking at the Ghost Emperor, he smiled and said, ¡°Fourth Sib, what would you and your Elder Brothers and Sister say if I added a Fifth Sib to the mix?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying very close attention to Master Seventh. He was focused on the mountain, his eyes somewhat nk. In fact, when he closed his eyes, the image of the Ghost Emperor started to take form in his mind. The process wasn¡¯tplete, but when he visualized the mountain, bits of divine resonance would start to form.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Master Seventh said, suddenly turning to look at Xu Qing, his eyes flickering with surprise.

    That fast? It hasn¡¯t even been a month yet. Not bad at all! It¡¯s almost on the same level as me, back in the day. When I¡ª Master Seventh suddenly stopped talking, and his eyes went wide. What¡¯s the little punk doing? I told him to visualize the mountain. Just knowing its basic shape is enough. But he¡¯s... actually trying to make an exact copy??

    1. The sealizard ¡®patriarch¡¯ was revealed in chapter 93 and also mentioned in chapter 165. And of course Joine showed up in the chapter which bears her name, chapter 121. The Meegah mural arc started in chapter 123. ?

    2. In traditional Chinese culture, the wife usually marries into the husband¡¯s family, and ¡®leaves¡¯ her family to live with them. But that isn¡¯t a hard and fast rule. Historically and even in modern times, it¡¯s possible for the husband to marry into the wife¡¯s family, rare though it may be. It¡¯s that sort of arrangement that¡¯s mentioned here. Fun fact: back before Madam Deathde and I got married, I suggested to her that I marry into her family. Her mom didn¡¯t approve lol. It¡¯s aplicated situation and I won¡¯t go into the details. What¡¯s more, now that I look back at the overall circumstances back then, I kind of facepalm when I think about how I pushed for that. Again¡­ it¡¯splicated. ?

 Chapter 307: Faceless Ghost Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 307: Faceless Ghost Mountain</h4>

    <i>Ah, whatever. Fourth Sib is young. It¡¯s not going to hurt to let him hit his head against the wall a bit. There¡¯s no way he¡¯ll perfectly copy the Ghost Emperor¡¯s resonance. Ahhhh, this Fourth Sib... has too much ambition</i>.

    After eyeing Xu Qing once more, Master Seventh stood, sped his hands behind his back, and left.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, wasn¡¯t even aware of what was going on around him. He had lost track of the passage of time, and waspletely focused on making a full copy of the Ghost Emperor. As his Master had exined, that was the only way for him to cultivate the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art, which was a technique that Xu Qing felt truly fit him well. He really wanted to have it avable the moment he stepped into Gold Core. And therefore... he needed to work hard at his current task.

    Worried that a mere outline of the mountain wouldn¡¯t be enough, he was deeply focused on getting a very detailed image.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know what ¡®resonance¡¯ was, but his way of thinking wasn¡¯tplicated. He just wanted to have a very detailed and lifelike image of this god in his mind. He wanted it to be as close to the real thing as possible.

    It was simr to copying a painting, except he was doing it mentally. Therefore, after seeding at creating a general outline, he went in to add all the specific details. And that process was very, very difficult. If you asked someone with no artistic training to make an outline of something, they probably could. But if you asked them to fill in realistic details, it would be a lot harder.

    In fact, Xu Qing had just now noticed a mistake in his copy. He had filled in the details in the wrong way, making the image look strange. Acting on instinct, he erased the image and started over.

    An outsider wouldn¡¯t have any idea the level of enlightenment he was attaining through that process. However... Master Seventh could see the clues. In fact, those clues were what caused Master Seventh, who had just walked out, to suddenly stop in ce and turn back to look at Xu Qing.

    <i>What¡¯s going on? Howe I just sensed a bit of resonance??</i>

    Master Seventh looked more closely.

    <i>Now it¡¯s gone? Howe the outline he had already fixed in his mind is gone? What¡¯s Fourth Sib doing??</i>

    After observing Xu Qing for a while longer and realizing that he was in a state of deep calm, Master Seventh finally left. That day, he had a nice walk with Ding Xue, but couldn¡¯t stop wondering about Xu Qing. When they got back that evening, he hurried over to check what was happening. When he saw Xu Qing, he was stunned.

    <i>The outline is back? That fast? And that resonance is also there. It¡¯s... hey, wait. It¡¯s gone again!</i>

    Master Seventh was so surprised he considered smacking Xu Qing to break him out of his trance. In the end, he held back.

    Days went by until the second month passed.

    Eventually, Master Seventh resigned himself to the strange things that were happening with Xu Qing. Just about every day he sensed that Xu Qing had dispelled the image within him and started over. Eventually, he realized what was happening.

    <i>I told him to copy an outline, that¡¯s all. Fourth Sib, you... really don¡¯t need to do this! What are you up to? Showing off your powers of understanding?</i> Master Seventh chuckled wryly. Truth be told, over thest month, his admiration for Xu Qing had grown even more, and he was starting to gain a new appreciation for his powers of understanding.

    <i>This brat... is actually a great fit for the daoist magic of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. Their true legacyes from the Ghost Emperor. In some respects, the little punk is perfectly suited for the dao of the South Tor Ghost Emperor. In fact, maybe that¡¯s why he¡¯s such a beast when ites to enlightenment.</i>

    As Master Seventh contemted those things, Xu Qing reached a critical point in the enlightenment process. He treated his sea of consciousness like a canvas, and his powers of understanding as a brush. Over and over again, he painted the Ghost Emperor mountain. Over and over again, he erased it and started over.

    As a result, the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness grew more and more lifelike. As he made adjustments to the various details, and as he started over repeatedly, the image grew more detailed andplex. However... the Ghost Emperor in the image didn¡¯t have a face.

    Every time he tried to do the face, it just didn¡¯t seem right. Truth be told, he actually wasn¡¯t happy with the image as a whole. However, if any outsider could see it, they would be absolutely astonished. After all, it was rare for someone in Foundation Establishment to be capable of something like this. It required incredible powers of understanding.

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing felt like he was far, far from a satisfactory result. Though the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness was extremely lifelike, to him, it felt like an empty shell. At the very most, it was a pretty shell.

    In terms of creating a perfect copy, Xu Qing felt like he had only reached a level of 1/1,000,000. Furthermore, no matter how hard he worked, he couldn¡¯t do any better. After the image formed in his sea of consciousness, he couldn¡¯t do anything further with it.

    Finally, on the sixty-seventh day, he opened his eyes, and within them swirled a mysterious resonance.

    Yet, Xu Qing sighed. After looking around, he found that Master Seventh was sitting calmly off to the side.

    ¡°Master, I can¡¯t continue to seek enlightenment.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be discouraged,¡± Master Seventh said coolly. ¡°Although you weren¡¯t able to seed in three days like I did years ago, I know you¡¯ve done all that you can do.¡±

    Though Master Seventh looked like he was trying to be encouraging, the truth was that he was inwardly astonished to find that Xu Qing really did have some of the resonance of the Ghost Emperor mountain. It was only a sliver, but if word spread about that, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society would be thrown into a frenzy.

    ¡°Master, my powers of understanding have limits. And... I¡¯ve reached them.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head and mused that he really couldn¡¯tpare to his Master. In his mind, his Master was like a profoundly deep pool whose bottom was impossible to see. And he felt regret that he had to stop seeking enlightenment after barely more than sixty days. Though his mental image of the Ghost Emperor mountain emanated a ck glow and shocking fluctuations, it was far, far from being the perfect version he wanted. All he could do was summon the outline version.

    Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing and sighed inwardly. The bit of resonance he had noticed after Xu Qing opened his eyes wasn¡¯t the only change. There was also a big difference to his aura, as it now contained a bit of ghost energy. Ghost energy had nothing to do with death. It was something mysterious that, given Master Seventh¡¯s cultivation base, wasn¡¯t incredibly noteworthy. However, to people on a lower level of cultivation base, it would be very meaningful.

    What was more, it would be very threatening to grues. If Xu Qing looked a grue straight on, then unless that grue had incredible willpower, it would be deeply shaken.

    Master Seventh sensed that, and so did Xu Qing¡¯s shadow. Of course, with Master Seventh present, the shadow didn¡¯t dare to reveal itself. All it could do was stew in its terror. As of now, the shadow knew that Xu Qing... could devour it if he wished.

    Master Seventh¡¯s cheek twitched briefly, but he quickly smoothed out his face. Chuckling, he said, ¡°<i>The person not satisfied with their progress at least knows the right direction to pursue</i>. Fourth Sib, maybe your powers of understanding aren¡¯t on the same level as mine, but considering humankind as a whole, they¡¯re not bad at all.¡±

    Feeling a bit nervous, Xu Qing looked at Master Seventh and asked, ¡°Master, is there any chance my current level of enlightenment is enough to cultivate the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art?¡±

    Master Seventh looked back at him and could see how nervous he was. All of a sudden, he felt very tired inside, and didn¡¯t really feel like talking. He stood. ¡°It¡¯ll suffice. Barely.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. That said, he was still determined to focus constantly on making progress with the Ghost Emperor mountain. Hopefully, one day he would have enough enlightenment to make a perfect copy of it.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he got to his feet and was about to walk outside when Ding Xue entered with some pastries. Seeing Xu Qing, her eyes lit up.

    ¡°You¡¯re finally awake, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    Hurrying over to him, she held out the pastries.

    Looking at them, Xu Qing felt hungry. Though his cultivation base had reached the point where he didn¡¯t need food, he still enjoyed the sensation. Eating made him feel content. To someone who had grown up cold and hungry in the slums, it was an instinct that was part of him. Taking a pastry, he ate it. After some thought, he took another.

    Seeing that, Ding Xue¡¯s smile widened, and she felt more wonderful than ever. Taking out a bottle of medicinal liquid brewed from fruit and other medicinal nts, she offered it to him.

    Eyeing her, he smiled. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Those words filled her with excitement, and she was about to say something else when Master Seventh snorted coldly from outside.

    ¡°Since you failed at your enlightenment, we need to go.¡±

    Ding Xue pouted but didn¡¯t dare say anything in response. Xu Qing was in the same position. Together, they walked outside. It was evening, and as the light of the setting sun shone on Master Seventh, standing there in the courtyard with his hands sped behind his back, he didn¡¯t seem very happy.

    Blinking a few times, Ding Xue hurried over to him and held out the snack box, all the while pouting visibly. Seeing that, Master Seventh rxed a bit, and even looked pleased.

    It was an expression that Xu Qing had seen before. It reminded him of the old innkeeper from nkspring Way.... And that made him think of that white anaconda back at the inn.

    As Xu Qing reminisced, Master Seventh ate a pastry. Then he took out a white identity medallion and tossed it to Xu Qing. ¡°Give that to the kid next door who¡¯s about to get off of school. I don¡¯t get out often, so since we¡¯re traveling, I want to spread the, so to speak. Let¡¯s see if we can find a Fifth Sib somewhere in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. I¡¯ll wait for you outside the vige.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh took Ding Xue with him out of the vige, though she seemed loath to part with Xu Qing.

    Tangerine-colored light filtered onto the vige from above as Xu Qing sat down on a nearby stone fence. Watching the sunset, he waited. The spot he had picked was right on the road leading to the neighbor¡¯s house.

    Before long, he saw a boy skipping down the path, a leather bag slung over his shoulder. He seemed very clean. Whenever he saw any of the other neighbors, he bowed politely, always smiling and always happy. When he got close to home and saw Xu Qing sitting on the stone fence, he stopped.

    ¡°Hello, Big Brother.¡± His smile seemed a bit forced, and even slightly scared.

    Xu Qing could sense that the fear was real, but he also realized that, deep within this boy was a profound ferocity that seemed just on the verge of exploding out.

 Chapter 308: Just Like Reincarnation

    Chapter 308: Just Like Reincarnation

    At almost exactly the same time as the boy opened his mouth, the door of the house behind him silently opened. The boy¡¯s parents stepped out, faces expressionless but eyes cold as they looked at Xu Qing.

    Dark clouds rolled out to cover the evening sky, and raindrops began to fall. Thunder rumbled and lightning bolts crashed off in the distance. As the rain fell, vigers scurried home. The breeze kicked up the dirt and leaves in the street. To any casual observer, it would look like nothing more than an everyday storm. But Xu Qing could see that it was all happening because of the boy in front of him.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    Turning, he examined the boy¡¯s parents. As he did, the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness glittered, and his pupils suddenly shone.

    The boy¡¯s parents shivered, and the coldness in their eyes suddenly changed to astonishment and terror. The exact same expression appeared in the eyes of the boy.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t exert any pressure. After looking at them, he reined in the image of the Ghost Emperor mountain, then looked away from the parents. They weren¡¯t of any concern to him. What he was interested in was the boy with the forced smile on his face. Xu Qing hopped off the fence and stepped forward.

    The boy¡¯s face fell, and he backed away.

    Xu Qing tossed the whitemand medallion in his direction. ¡°That qualifies you to join Seven Blood Eyes in the Eight Sect Coalition.¡±

    The boy didn¡¯t catch the medallion, and itnded on the ground with a thump.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. He started to walk, and as he passed the boy, he said, ¡°Do you want to be human?¡±

    He walked out of the vige.

    After he was gone, the rain fell heavily. The pitter-patter of the water mixed with the crash of thunder as the ground, and the vige itself, was washed clean.

    Within that rain, the boy stood where he was, as did his parents. They didn¡¯t move. All of them were looking at the whitemand medallion sitting there being rained upon.

    Eventually, the boy spoke. ¡°What do you think? Should I go check it out?¡±

    The boy¡¯s parents didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°Right,¡± the boy murmured, ¡°I forgot. I created you. You have simple minds, and couldn¡¯t possibly answer that question.¡±

    He looked at themand medallion, his heart starting to pound.

    The boy wasn¡¯t human. Nor was he nonhuman. He was actually a grue, and a very special kind of grue at that. He didn¡¯t have amazing battle prowess, but could think as clearly as any of the countless other intelligent species that inhabited the world. And yet, for some unknown reason, he had a very deep-seated desire to live as a human.

    Years ago, after finding this vige, he had taken human form. He had also created these two parents. Every day he happily attended ss at school. Over and over again. After a number of years passed, he would erase the vigers¡¯ memories of him and start over. And thus, he lived endless happy days as a young student.

    Truth be told, he had already forgotten how long he had been doing this. Maybe years. Maybe generations. He¡¯d watched his schoolmates grow up, get old, and die. Yet he had always remained the same. Throughout all those years, he had always kept the vige safe. That was why it was such a peaceful ce, and why it had so many elderly people and young ones.

    Xu Qing had seen all of that thanks to the Ghost Emperor mountain. And he had also realized why Master Seventh wanted the boy to have an identity medallion. As for whether or not the boy would make it to Seven Blood Eyes, that wasn¡¯t something Xu Qing needed to worry about. He just knew that this grue was definitely different from the others.

    As the rain fell, Xu Qing floated up to the dharmaskiff and stepped aboard. Master Seventh didn¡¯t ask any questions. He just flicked his sleeve, sending the dharmaskiff shooting off into the distance.

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t seem to be in a hurry to get back. He took his time traveling.

    On one asion, he took Xu Qing and Ding Xue into a big city. Crouching in a tree outside the mansion of a rich family, he observed a young prince.

    Another time, they went to a small nation, where he watched some sufferingmoners. Xu Qing had no idea what Master Seventh was thinking at that point.

    On another asion, they went to a ce simr to a scavenger basecamp. Master Seventh seemed amused by everything that was going on, and would asionally ask Xu Qing and Ding Xue what they thought of one particr person.

    When Master Seventh saw someone he approved of, he would have Xu Qing deliver a whitemand medallion. All those who got such a medallion were young men and women in their teens. They included a rich prince, a destitute schr, a beggar girl, and an emaciated child.

    As all of this yed out, Xu Qing gradually thought back to his time in the scavenger basecamp, and Master Seventh¡¯s servant. On this particr outing, Master Seventh hadn¡¯t seen fit to bring the servant along, so the work was left to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing eventually came to realize that everyone Master Seventh gave a medallion to had some unique quality.

    For example, the prince¡¯s soul and fleshly body weren¡¯t very well connected. No ordinary person would be able to spot that, but now that Xu Qing¡¯s vision was augmented by the Ghost Emperor mountain, he saw it right away. That indicated that the prince had been possessed.

    The silly beggar girl in the impoverished nation seemed happy to beg for food, yet her body was ravaged by rot. What was more, anyone who bullied her during the day would suffer nightmares when they slept. The nightmares came from the girl. During the evenings, she would scrape off the rotting parts of her body and use them to create a curse of some sort. It wasn¡¯t any sort of magical technique, but rather, some sort of innate ability. She hid it so well that no one had any idea what she was doing. What was more, the people who suffered from the nightmares didn¡¯t die from them. However, their chances of suffering from fatal idents dramatically increased.

    In one of the scavenger-like locations, there was a boy who worked at a medicine shop. Every evening, the owner of the shop would force the boy to eat sludge, after which the boy would bleed profusely. The shop owner would carefully collect the blood, then put it into bottles and sell it the next day as a healing tonic.

    Tightly kept secrets like this were things that Master Seventh was adept at noticing. As a result, Xu Qing learned a lot. What was more, each person he gave a medallion to had immense potential.

    After passing out more than twenty identity medallions, Master Seventh stopped his search. Looking at Xu Qing, he sighed.

    ¡°A new grand era ising. Last time I searched Emperor-Receiving Prefecture like this, people with potential were hard to find. In the end, the only one I found was your Third Elder Brother. But nowadays, there are a lot more people with potential. This time, as before, I n to select one out of fifty. Let¡¯s see whether you end up with a new Junior Brother or a new Junior Sister.¡±

    Master Seventh seemed pleased with the results so far.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Xue¡¯er. Of all the potential apprentices we gavemand medallions to, which ones do you think will reach me in the end?¡±

    Ding Xue thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Uncle, I think the girl who can curse people will do great!¡±

    Master Seventh smiled and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought back to all the people he had seen, and in the end, his thoughts focused on the rich prince. ¡°I think the possessed one has the highest chances.¡±

    Master Seventh seemed surprised by that. ¡°Why do you say that? I thought you would pick the very first one, that boy.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s not cautious enough. Of the entire group, only that prince is truly cautious.¡±

    ¡°Very interesting.¡± Master Seventh threw his head back andughed. With that, he took control of the dharmaskiff and piloted it back in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes. The trip was over.

    On the way back, Xu Qing had some spare time, which was rare. He spent it continuing the search for his 121st dharma aperture. He was starting to form a n for what to do next, but wasn¡¯tpletely sure about some of the details. Finally, he asked Master Seventh, who confirmed his suspicion. The Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure might help him to find the 121st dharma aperture, but he would have to find the right opportunity to make the attempt.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing remembered the little mirror he had found some time back. Taking it out, he studied it.

    Master Seventh nced at it but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any more questions. As days passed, and he continued his study and contemtion, his n solidified.

    The mirror was a fragment of a magical treasure, and it seemed likely it was simr to the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure. Of course, the powers of this mirror were different. This mirror seemed capable of stimting the soul. If someone looked at their reflection in the mirror, their soul would be dazed, and they would feel intense pain. If they died, then the mirror would produce a gruish copy of them that the mirror could control.

    It seemed useful in terms of what it could do. However, the mirror had not been ensorcelled. Therefore, though it would be terribly effective on mortals, to cultivators with a cultivation base, the results wouldn¡¯t be very amazing. And definitely not fatal.

    If I could catch someone off guard with this thing, it might be effective. Xu Qing remembered that when he had first acquired the mirror, looking at it had stung his eyes, and distracted him momentarily. A moment of distraction like that could be fatal if used in the right moment. After some thought, he put the mirror away with the n of testing it outter.

    A few more days went by before the Eight Sect Coalition appeared in the distance.

    Ding Xue seemed very reluctant to part with Xu Qing. However, that didn¡¯t stop him from disembarking and heading toward Zhang San in the Transportation Division. He had been gone for a long time, and had used his dharmaskiff¡¯s self-detonation feature twice in a row. The dharmaskiff has served splendidly, but now it needed to be repaired.

    It was currently noon, and as he sped through Seven Blood Eyes, his expression suddenly flickered, and he looked down.

    On the street below was the Mute. Unlike all the asions before, the Mute wasn¡¯t wearing a dog skin jerkin beneath his daoist robe. He only had on the daoist robe. He was walking in an unusual manner. Instead of sticking to the shadows, he was brazenly strutting down the middle of the street. Though he still seemed to have his guard up, he looked very differentpared to what Xu Qing was used to. His vignce seemed to contain excitement and even curiosity as well. And his curiosity seemed to be focused on the living people around him, as if he might try to devour one of them at any moment. Most relevant of all, the Mute seemed very weak. Not his body, but rather, his soul.

    Xu Qing had seen something like that before. It reminded him of that rich prince who had been possessed. Using the Ghost Emperor mountain in his eyes, Xu Qing looked at the Mute. His eyes narrowed. Striding forward, hended right in front of the Mute.

    His sudden arrival caused the Mute¡¯s expression to flicker, and he instinctively backed up. Then, seeing who Xu Qing was, he quickly bowed his head and dropped to kowtow.

    Before he could drop to the ground, Xu Qing reached out and grabbed him by the neck. Lifting the terrified Mute up to his face, he looked at him with extremely cold eyes and said, ¡°Who are you?¡±

 Chapter 309: The Wind Sweeping Through the Tower Heralds a Rising Storm in the Mountains

    <h4>Chapter 309: The Wind Sweeping Through the Tower Heralds a Rising Storm in the Mountains</h4>

    The Mute¡¯s eyes shone with terror, and he was trembling from head to toe. He wanted to fight back, but Xu Qing¡¯s hand was mped onto his neck like an iron vice. Struggling wouldn¡¯t do any good. Due to the vast difference in their cultivation bases, he wasn¡¯t remotely capable of fighting back against Xu Qing. After all... he was only close to being in Foundation Establishment.

    There was something strange about the Mute¡¯s cultivation base. He was somewhere between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment, almost as if he had started the breakthrough process but notpleted it.

    There were a lot of pedestrians on the street, including disciples from both Seven Blood Eyes and other sects. Those who saw what was happening with Xu Qing and the Mute were visibly surprised. The mortals present all hurried away, while the cultivators sped hands and bowed.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s status in the Eight Sect Coalition, no one would bat an eye if he grabbed a disciple by the neck. He could ughter people on the street and nobody would react. At most, he might get reprimanded for doing something like that. In fact, if he had a good exnation, then he wouldn¡¯t even get reprimanded. In some respects, he represented all the disciples in his generation in the coalition.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the Mute and thought back to when they had both been on the river inspection tour. The Mute had been in the great circle of Qi Condensation, just on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment. Given Xu Qing¡¯s current state, and with the added asset of what he could see with his Ghost Emperor mountain eyes, the exnation suddenly urred to him. The person in front of him was nothing more than a shell. The dominant soul inside was not that of the Mute.

    Without a word, Xu Qing flew back to his berth, bringing the Mute with him.

    Taking out his dharmaskiff, he stepped aboard. Once in the cabin, he activated his Stygian me, and sent fire into the Mute through his neck. A mournful scream erupted from the Mute¡¯s mouth. As his body twitched and shivered, Xu Qing extracted a soul from inside of him.

    This soul did not resemble the Mute. It was a conglomeration of pulsating ck mist that emanated an evil aura and strong mutagen. Thanks to the Stygian me, the soul could do nothing more than spasm. A momentter, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow stretched out, its open eyes filled with hunger. The soul started spasming even more violently.

    In the end, Xu Qing inhaled, sucking the soul into him and imprisoning it in his 61st dharma aperture. His dharma force surged as he began the assimtion process. Meanwhile, the Mute shivered, and his eyes finally flickered with a familiar look.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing released the Mute.

    The Mute dropped to the deck of the dharmaskiff, breathing heavily, his eyes vacant. However, as memories flooded back into him, his expression turned grim, and his eyes filled with a baleful aura. Then he dropped to his knees in front of Xu Qing and kowtowed, hitting his head three times. His eyes shone with gratitude.

    Xu Qing examined him, then coolly said, ¡°What happened?¡±

    The Mute took out a jade slip, quickly inscribed some information on it, and respectfully offered it to Xu Qing. Xu Qing took it and looked at the details. Looking back at the Mute and seeing how ufortable he was without his dog skin jerkin, he said, ¡°Go ahead and change.¡±

    The Mute immediately produced a dog skin jerkin from his bag of holding. After putting it on, he looked a lot morefortable. Squatting on the deck, he silently waited for orders from Xu Qing.

    The jade slip made everything clear.

    It all had to do with the Mute¡¯s attempt to reach Foundation Establishment. When cultivators tried to reach Foundation Establishment, they would face terrifying grues. That was why many used ces of refuge in the sect. Themps there would offer a measure of protection.

    The Mute had done that. But there was something unique about him. During the process of searching for his dharma apertures, things had gone normally. At first. Then things went terribly wrong. The Mute had extremely acute senses, which were normally an asset. For instance, those senses were how he was able to detect Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    However... during his Foundation Establishment breakthrough, they became his greatest weakness. His acute senses were like a zing torch that attracted the attention of unknown entities, and also made it easier for them to possess him. When the terrifying grues came for him, a shadowy figure from another world pounced on him, took control of his body, and suppressed his soul.

    If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t noticed, then it wouldn¡¯t have been long before the Mute¡¯s soul waspletely devoured. And at that point... it would have been difficult for anyone to see what had happened.

    Xu Qing looked down quietly at the incredibly weak but also very calm Mute. He thought back to everything that the Mute had been through, and how he himself had been involved with it all, and somehow felt like the Mute was now rted to him. After all, from the very beginning, the Mute had repeatedly disyed his desire to follow Xu Qing. And he had worked very hard in Violent Crimes.

    Looking away from him, Xu Qing said, ¡°You can break through to Foundation Establishment right here.¡±

    The Mute¡¯s eyes lit up, and without the slightest hesitation, he settled down cross-legged. He knew how terrifying the Foundation Establishment breakthrough could be, but with Xu Qing here, he wasn¡¯t afraid. He began regting his breathing, and then tapped into his cultivation base. Gradually, evening came.

    Xu Qing also meditated. Late in the night, he opened his eyes and looked at the Mute.

    Something like a tideflow rolled off of the Mute as he searched for his dharma apertures. A sinister wind kicked up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as a ck umbre flickered into being overhead. Xu Qing sent the umbre over the Mute, where it spread its protection over him. As soon as that protective power spread out, inaudible screams echoed out in all directions. Beneath the fire of that ck umbre, countless shadows fled.

    Before they could escape, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow snapped out, forming a huge mouth that devoured them rapidly. Crunching sounds rang out as the shadow consumed most of them.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing waved his hand, and the other shadowy forms were helpless to fight against him as he gathered them and imprisoned them in his 61st dharma aperture.

    Almost instantly, the 61st aperture reached the point of being full.

    <i>That works too?</i> As Xu Qing¡¯s eyes brightened, the shadow wilted a bit. It was obviously frustrated at the Fiendish Xu taking away its food, but at the same time, didn¡¯t dare toin.

    .

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing removed the umbre and its protection.

    Without the lifemp to harm the shadowy grues, they swarmed again. As sinister winds pulsed, they tried to rush toward the Mute to possess him.

    The only thing that awaited them was Xu Qing¡¯s Stygian me. Fire swept out in all directions, gathering up the shadowy figures. In the blink of an eye, they were brought into Xu Qing, filling his 62nd dharma aperture.

    Xu Qing was delighted. He never could have guessed that this method would work, much less be so effective. It was definitely a lot more efficient than going around fighting and killing people. And it was only possible thanks to the endless shadowy figures that the Mute¡¯s breakthrough attempt attracted.

    In that manner, time passed.

    The night passed, and to Xu Qing¡¯s great pleasure, during that time he filled everything from his 62nd to his 73rd dharma aperture. Given that speed, Xu Qing was very pleased as he looked at the Mute.

    The Mute wasn¡¯t finished, and seemed like he would keep going for a few more days. Given Xu Qing¡¯s analysis, it seemed likely that he would be able to imprison souls in all 120 of his dharma apertures. When the truly terrifying grues came, Xu Qing would direct his Ghost Emperor mountain eyes at them and be able to see them clearly. The truly terrifying grues were vastlyrger than any of the ordinary ones he was capturing. They weren¡¯t just balls of mist, they were fully-formed grues.

    For example, right now Xu Qing was looking at one that resembled a huge ck fish. It was several hundred meters long, and it circled the area in terrifying fashion before preparing to close in. Before it could, Xu Qing stepped to the Mute¡¯s side, lifted his hand, and pushed out. The ck fish shivered and made to flee. Before it could, Stygian me whipped out, creating something like a huge that wrapped up the giant fish, then shrank down, destroying the fish and causing soul power to surge into Xu Qing.

    After imprisoning it in his 74th dharma aperture, that aperture wasplete. Feeling very pleased, Xu Qing sat down to meditate and wait.

    Because the Mute had previously gone through some of the Foundation Establishment breakthrough process, the rest didn¡¯t take long. His search for dharma apertures only took seven days.

    Even still, the Mute was like a bright torch on a dark night, which gave Xu Qing plenty of opportunities to go fishing. It didn¡¯t take long for him to blow past 80 dharma apertures. Then 90. And by the sixth day, he had filled all of his 120 dharma apertures with imprisoned souls! However, he wasn¡¯t finished yet, as it was possible to rece the existing souls with better ones. Therefore, on the seventh day, Xu Qing waited patiently, and thus managed to snare three of the extremely powerful grues.

    At that point, the Mute was done searching for dharma apertures, and was able to start the true breakthrough. The encroaching shadowy figures vanished and didn¡¯t return.

    Xu Qing was a bit disappointed at that, but overall, was very pleased.

    On the ninth day, as a light rain fell, the Mute opened his eyes. He had just opened his 1st dharma aperture, and from the dharma force fluctuations, it was obvious he had seeded in reaching Foundation Establishment! After sensing his cultivation base, he excitedly kowtowed to Xu Qing, knocking his head against the deck of the dharmaskiff.

    Xu Qing eyed him and calmly said, ¡°You should study the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. Ignite your first life me as quickly as possible. After all... without the profound radiance state, you¡¯re like a wild chicken. Only with the profound radiance state can you truly be considered a Foundation Establishment cultivator.¡±

    The Mute continued to kowtow loudly, his eyes shining with determination.

    ***

    Outside of the Eight Sect Coalition in the not-too-distant Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, there was a lonely grave. Two figures walked through the rain toward that grave.

    It was a silent night with no sound whatsoever, as if the arrival of these two figures ensured that the living beings in the area remained quiet. Only the fall of the rain could be heard, bleak and cold.

    Both figures wore voluminous ck cloaks with hoods that hid their heads. The only thing visible... were masks resembling the broken face of the god. The masks emanated a terrifying and unsettling aura that filled the area and made the air around the two figures ripple and distort.

    From a distance, it almost seemed like these two figures were gods walking through the rain. However, no beings they encountered, regardless of their cultivation base, would notice them. That was because their life level waspletely different.

    These two were Night Dove and his master.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be at the Eight Sect Coalition soon,¡± said the person in the lead position. He sounded like a young man. ¡°Is the person who invited us to see his performance ready?¡±

    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s ready, Lord.¡±

 Chapter 310: Blood-Soaked Performance - Prelude

    Chapter 310: Blood-Soaked Performance - Prelude

    Master Seventh had given Xu Qing a path to follow, which led to him copying the image of a god, although without the face.

    Xu Qing had given the Mute a path to follow, to study the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, which was a path of ughter. He felt that it was fitting for the Mute. Xu Qing could tell that his life up to this point had been one of killing and brutality. In acting as dharma protector for him these past days, Xu Qing had felt like he was looking at the old version of himself. The world was a fickle ce, and only by means of cultivation could one find safety and stability. The Mute was a killer, and people like that, people like Xu Qing, were suited to the cultivation of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. The Mute took Xu Qing¡¯s advice to heart. He had always been a willing follower; it was an instinct of his to revere the powerful.

    After seeing the Mute off, Xu Qing didn¡¯t rest. He immediately headed toward the Transportation Division. However, when he arrived... it was evening, and the first thing he saw was a blushing female disciple next to Zhang San. Zhang San, meanwhile, was contently smoking his pipe.

    Xu Qing recognized the female disciple. She was an alchemy cultivator from the Second Peak, and Xu Qing remembered seeing her with Gu Muqing when they came to ask Zhang San about bodyguard services. She wasn¡¯t unusually pretty, but was good-looking. Seeing Xu Qing approaching, she blushed even harder, then quickly sped hands and left. [1]

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to pry into Zhang San¡¯s affairs, and was just about to ask about something else when Zhang San proudly lifted his chin. ¡°Well, what do you think? I¡¯m dashing enough, right?¡±

    ¡°Incredible!¡± Xu Qing said, nodding earnestly. He knew that this specific reaction tended to please others. Whether it was the Captain or his Master, everyone seemed to like it.

    When Zhang San saw his facial expression, he looked very happy. Lifting his hand, he pointed at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Hand it over. You blew up your dharmaskiff, right? Did you finally see the Participation Effect?¡±

    Xu Qing thought back, then shook his head. He took out the dharmaskiff.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see it? Impossible!¡± Zhang San anxiously examined the dharmaskiff. After a moment, he seemed to be hit with understanding. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s what¡¯s going on. You didn¡¯t use all of the self-detonations. That said, Xu Qing, this is the first time you actually brought this thing back in one piece. I¡¯m sure it wasn¡¯t easy. Keep it up!¡± Zhang Sanughed heartily. ¡°Three days. I¡¯ll have it done by then, and it¡¯ll be exactly the same as before. You need to get moving, Xu Qing. Fill those dharma apertures with souls, that way you can form a spirit automaton and upgrade this thing.¡±

    ¡°I already did,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Zhang San was stunned. He also cultivated the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, and knew how much effort and ughter it would take to fill 120 dharma apertures with souls. And he hadn¡¯t forgotten that Xu Qing actually had four life mes. ¡°That fast?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then ignited all 120 of his dharma apertures. Countless screams rang out from the numerous souls imprisoned within him.

    It turned into a rancorous energy that swept out in all directions with tempestuous force. Seeing it, Zhang San gasped.

    ¡°In that case, three days won¡¯t be enough. I¡¯ll need seven. After that, you can fuse those souls with the ship, and you¡¯ll have a dharmaship!¡±

    Zhang San looked very excited, to the point where he ignored Xu Qing and took the dharmaskiff away to immediately start working on it.

    Watching him go, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply. Then he left for the Special Security Division headquarters, which was where he nned to stay for the next seven days.

    The Special Security Division in Seven Blood Eyes had been busy recently. They had been focused on working with other departments in the sect, as well as handling various coalition-rted missions. Seven Blood Eyes had now settled into its role as part of the coalition. Sect disciples regrly went out on coalition missions, and Xu Qing saw a lot more disciples from other sects in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

    Seven Blood Eyes disciples didn¡¯t just stick to Seven Blood Eyes. They often went out to other cities to go shopping, do business, and even open up shops. As a matter of fact, the addition of Seven Blood Eyes to the coalition had livened things up.

    Right now, there were many missions focused on the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain. After checking through the files, Xu Qing saw that the ce was more activetely. The poption in their 137 subsidiary nations had dropped significantly, and cultivators were spreading out wider and wider, hunting for new people to make up for the loss. Their hunting expeditions were bing so frequent that the coalition had started watching the situation closely. asionally, friction arose between the two organizations as a result.

    The Captain was nowhere to be found. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what he was up to, but when he realized Wu Jianwu was also seemingly missing, he had to wonder what the two of them were nning. Xu Qing looked suspiciously in the direction of the Dark Serenity Sect for a moment, then looked away.

    Some of the officers from the Special Security Division had recently left for a second inspection tour of the tributary. Xu Qing and the Captain weren¡¯t going along this time. Instead, there were some two-me Foundation Establishment officers from the Fifth Peak who would take charge. Because of all that, the Special Security Division seemed a lot emptier than usual.

    Xu Qing liked peace and quiet, so he was perfectly happy with things in the Special Security Division. Sitting down cross-legged in his office, he focused again on his 121st dharma aperture.

    I can open it in a spot between life and death.... On the way back from the recent outing, he hade up with a n for how to open that 121st aperture. It was still just a fledgling n, and would require a lot of flexibility and adjustment.

    I might need the help of the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure....

    Xu Qing thought back to what Master Seventh had said about that subject. And now, he just wanted to wait seven days until his dharmaskiff was upgraded to a dharmaship, then he would go to visit the taboo treasure and do some tests.

    That said, he knew that this n of his would be dangerous. He was even a bit hesitant as to whether or not he should really try it.

    I don¡¯t need to worry about that for now. In seven days, I can just go there and check things out.

    That was his decision. As far as he was concerned, it would be great to open that 121st dharma aperture, but if he couldn¡¯t do it, he wouldn¡¯t worry about it.

    For the following days, he remained calm and focused on refining all of the various aspects of his n. On the evening of the seventh day, he got a voice message from Zhang San letting him know that his dharmaskiff was finished. Putting away the transmission jade slip, Xu Qing stood and left the Special Security Division.

    Tomorrow I¡¯ll go visit the sect¡¯s taboo treasure. He looked up at the sky to check the time. It was evening, and the red sky reminded him of one particr day in the past. The red clouds that spread out cast red light onto the face of the broken god above. Everything seemed like the color of blood.

    Xu Qing looked away.

    For some unknown reason, he felt jittery. It was a feeling he wasn¡¯t used to, and it made him very uneasy. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t pinpoint why he felt that way.

    Mulling the matter over, he made haste to the Transportation Division. Before long, he was looking at his old faceless dharmaskiff. It didn¡¯t look any different from before. But close examination revealed that it had stronger godliness, and also, it had many more unique spell formations and magical symbols.

    ¡°Those are for the spirit automaton you¡¯ll form soon,¡± Zhang San exined. ¡°That will make it easier for you to control the dharmaship. I won¡¯t waste time exining. Xu Qing, take those imprisoned souls and use the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture method to insert them into the dharmaskiff!¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and then, without the slightest hesitation, activated all 120 of his dharma apertures, like a hundred and twenty volcanoes all erupting. Dharma force surged and mes seethed. Intense heat rolled out. Within the fire, everything around Xu Qing twisted and distorted. The ground dried up and cracked, and Zhang San inhaled sharply and backed up.

    Xu Qing was emitting so much pressure that Zhang San almost couldn¡¯t take it. His eyes hurt!

    ¡°So strong!!¡± he murmured.

    Xu Qing quickly began performing incantation gestures with both hands, his fingers bing a blur.

    By using the techniques of the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, he took about half of the imprisoned souls and sent them out of him into an enormous soul shadow with a vicious facial expression. Xu Qing¡¯s incantation gestures changed, and he sent out Stygian me, enveloping the soul shadow and creating something like a suit of armor. With the armor, the soul shadow¡¯s pulsing ferocity and rancorous energy was suppressed. Then Xu Qing guided it into the dharmaskiff.

    Zhang San helped, activating the power of the dharmaskiff and causing it to vibrate. When the soul shadow entered, the dazzling light shone out. Even Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was taken aback as he watched from within the iron skewer.

    After all, this was the Fiendish Xu¡¯s second spirit automaton, and he had to pay very close attention to see if it would be a threat.

    When the soul shadow fully entered the dharmaskiff, it trembled visibly, and then the faceless prow suddenly changed. All of a sudden, it had a vicious face on it! It was the same face as the soul shadow!

    A new sensation filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind, something different from the dharmaskiff. It was as if this thing were now a part of his own senses. Based on his understanding, his dharmaskiff was nowplete, and his control over it was vastly superiorpared to before.

    Forgetting the soul shadow, even just the spell formation would surpass the Foundation Establishment level, and could threaten Gold Core experts.

    As of now, this was no longer a dharmaskiff. This was a dharmaship!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered, and Zhang San looked iparably excited.

    ¡°It worked!¡±

    ***

    As the sky turned redder, two figures walked along the street in the capital city of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect in the Eight Sect Coalition.

    One walked in front, the other behind, like a servant and master. Both wore ck cloaks, with masks resembling the broken face of the god, which emanated terrifying auras.

    ¡°What a bustling city,¡± said the person in the front. He sounded like he was young, and also sounded like he was smiling. ¡°Will the performance begin soon, Night Dove?¡±

    ¡°Lord, I received a response to the inquiry. The performance will begin shortly.¡±

    At almost exactly the same moment that Night Dove responded... the water in the Evesting Immortal Profundity River tributary outside of the Eight Sect Coalition changed.

    It turned pitch ck!

    1. The scene with Zhang San and the Second Peak disciples was in chapter 94, though this girl wasn¡¯t specifically mentioned there. ?

 Chapter 311: The Performance Starts

    <h4>Chapter 311: The Performance Starts</h4>

    After the Eight Sect Coalition used their taboo treasure to destroy the Young Arbiter Sect and their dam, the Evesting Immortal Profundity River had rushed from the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains across thends to the Eight Sect Coalition. That river nourished countless small nations, and ensured that the mortal poption flourished.

    As a result, the coalition guarded the river closely, constantly sending inspection patrols up and down it to keep it safe. But today, something unexpected happened.

    And the part where it happened wasn¡¯t very far from the Eight Sect Coalition.

    In fact, it counted as an area controlled directly by the Eight Sect Coalition. For some reason there, the water went from being very clear to being pitch ck. From a distance, the river upstream still seemed to have strong immortal energy, but as the water flowed into this area, it released an incredibly strong stench, and was clearly full of mutagen.

    The mutagen in it was very strong. In fact, this was reminiscent of what happened to the Evesting Immortal Profundity River when it emerged from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s forbidden ground. ck mist rose up from the water, so dense that it was corporeal. It turned into a mutagen fog that billowed onto the shores, corroding what it touched, turning nts a ckish purple color. Living things struggled to survive in it!

    Most terrifying of all was that the mutagen fog seemed to be devouring spirit energy. The spirit energy in the area was rapidly diminishing. The river was now turning into a source of mutagen. Every single drop of water overflowed with stupefying levels of mutagen. In the blink of an eye, it became fatal to living things. It took only a moment for the fog to affect the dome of heaven itself. ck clouds filled the sky, making it look deeply sinister. Nearly invisible pulses began to spread out from the river water. Wherever they passed, they changed the life level of what they touched. Life copsed as it was corrupted dramatically.

    There was more. The river water also became incredibly poisonous. As that poison spread, the river becamepletely polluted and corrosive. Innumerable spirit fish died, and those that didn¡¯t die started mutating. They became vicious beasts that howled ferociously. Smaller streams connected to the river were also affected, and things there also started mutating.

    Finally, hosts of resentful souls rose up from the water, too many to count, making the river haunted and evil. These resentful souls were not like ordinary souls. Instead of emanating a frigid, sinister energy, they radiated scorching heat, which caused the water to bubble and boil.

    If some almighty being were present, they would be able to see the source of this event. It was an altar that had been set up at the bottom of the river. It was protected by a concealing magic that couldn¡¯t easily be prated. There was a small, ck bottle on the altar, from which flowed a ck liquid that merged into the river water.

    And thus, this tributary of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River suddenly became supetively deadly as it flowed into the Eight Sect Coalition.

    Because it happened so close to the coalition, almost as soon as the water became terrifying and full of mutagen, it was flowing into the megacity. Though the coalition had long since put in measures to deal with such situations, the effect seemed to specifically target those defenses, making them almostpletely ineffective. Spell formations copsed, dams crumbled, magical barriers fell to pieces. Freezing power was released that was intended to stop the flow of water, but the incredibly hot souls melted the ice, stopping the effect. In an instant, the Eight Sect Coalition was shaken deeply. Bells rang out, and disciples rushed onto the streets. Everyone was absolutely shocked as they looked in the direction of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River.

    They knew full well that they couldn¡¯t let the mutagen-polluted waters flood the city. If they did, it would be a grievous blow to the coalition.

    The coalition was one of the six great powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and had profound reserve powers. Though the frontline defenses were failing, there were many other steps that could be taken in such a situation that ordinary disciples didn¡¯t know about. Only the patriarchs and sect leaders had that knowledge.

    It didn¡¯t take long before those leaders appeared, whereupon a massive earthen embankment rose up beyond the city wall to block the progress of the water. Streams of incisive sword energy shed into the water, killing the evil entities in it. Massive amounts of medicinal pills streamed forth to negate the poison and mutagen.

    Patriarchs took direct action, blocking the dangerous fog. The entire city trembled as an enormous channel appeared around the city, diverting the iing water into the Forbidden Sea.

    Because of these steps, the disastrous effects werergely mitigated. The quick reaction and amazing defenses went to show that the Eight Sect Coalition did belong among the six great powers. However, the mutagen and the poison still had some effects, and therefore, ordinary disciples were already hard at work dispelling it.

    Besides, the iing river water was only part of the problem. More important than that was the origin of the pollution. The top experts from the various sects, including the patriarchs, rushed out to find the source of the problem. As the disciples hastened to deal with the situation, circumstances were obviously urgent, but everyone moved with efficiency and in orderly fashion.

    Xu Qing was in the Transportation Division, having just received his dharmaship when his transmission jade slip vibrated as instructions came in from the sect.

    Zhang San¡¯s face fell as he saw information and ordersing in for him as well. The two of them exchanged a nce, and both could see how concerned the other was. Without a word, they flew off to their various assignments.

    <i>Something strange is going on!</i> Xu Qing thought, looking up at the red clouds that were barely visible through the ck fog. The mixture of red and ck created something that looked almost violet. When he saw that violet color, he thought back to how unsettled he had felt earlier. That sensation still remained within him.

    It was obvious to anyone that the situation with the river water... was likely just the beginning of arger problem. The river water had to be dealt with, both in terms of the mutagen and the poison. And obviously, the patriarch-level figures were the ones who had to find the source of the problem. But taking in the Eight Sect Coalition as a whole, the problem wasn¡¯t that severe, and wouldn¡¯t take long to solve. The real question was what wasing next.

    Xu Qing knew that if he could see what was really going on, there was no way that the high-level leaders in the coalition hadn¡¯t alreadye to the same conclusion. He sped up as he headed toward the Seven Blood Eyes main headquarters. As he raced through the city, he saw countless mortals looking around in shock, as well as numerous disciples with anxious expressions on their faces. Although everyone was busy with their respective responsibilities, all of them were worried.

    The sects activated their taboo treasures to ward off any potential invaders, causing beams of scintiting light to shine out. However, as the light of those taboo treasures shone out, the red glow from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect surged more brightly than the others. The red light shook heaven and earth, and attracted the attention of countless eyes. Almost instantly, everyone was looking at it. Though none of the disciples truly knew what was happening, all of them had spections.

    Meanwhile, Patriarch Soaring Cloud, who was one of three patriarchs who had rushed out to deal with the source of the river problem, looked back at the sect, and his face fell. The reason for that was... the taboo treasure was not being controlled by him!

    The bright light emanating from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure was as red as blood, and as it rose into the dome of heaven, it took the shape of an enormous, blood-colored tree! As the massive tree spread up, its trunk filled with countless vicious faces all howling in grief. The tree had too many leaves to count, and all of them emanated an unstoppable sword energy that caused the sky to tremble. The sword energy then became a massive vortex that sent sword projections whipping left and right. The vortex was so huge that it covered the entire Eight Sect Coalition.

    Xu Qing was closing in on the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters when he looked up and saw what was happening. His expression flickered as he felt a terrifying pressure weighing down. It was almost like the dome of heaven itself had turned into a blood-colored sea of swords.

    Next, a figure appeared atop the massive tree. He wore a golden robe that was dark at the bottom and slowly became light as it went up. On his head was a blue crown inset with violet gems, and beneath his feet was an ancient bronze sword decorated with swirling clouds. His face was pale but incredibly handsome, except that his right eye socket was empty, and his left eye radiated ferocity and even evil. The moment he appeared, everyone who saw him felt shaken to the core.

    He was none other than... Master Shengyun!

    He stood on the ancient bronze sword as it floated above the blood tree, looking down at everything below and smiling. It was a smile that contained sorrow, but at the same time, intense madness.

    ¡°This,¡± he said softly, ¡°is my Blood-Soaked Performance.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the massive blood tree suddenly erupted, sending a massive red sea out into the sky and then down... toward the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters! It moved with such incredible speed that, a momentter, it had spread out to cover all of the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters!

    And then, another massive tree sprouted up from within the headquarters. The mountain shook. Heaven and earth trembled. And Master Shengyun slowly extended his arms to either side and looked up at the broken face of the god in the sky.

    ¡°Torchlight, please watch carefully!¡±

    As the Eight Sect Coalition trembled, including the capital city of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, two ck-cloaked figures could be seen on the top of a building there. Both wore masks resembling the broken face of the god. One of them stood, the other sat.

    The sitting one fiddled with an ancient wooden box as he looked at Master Shengyun. Though this person was on the ground and Master Shengyun was in the air, the sitting young man seemed like he was looking at a bug.

    Smiling, he said, ¡°Night Dove, is that the person putting on the performance?¡±

    ¡°No, Lord, it¡¯s not him,¡± Night Dove replied respectfully. His eyes, which glittered with numerous streams of starlight, turned in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes. ¡°Lord, please enjoy the show while I go give a little gift to Seven Blood Eyes. After today, everyone in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture will once again recognize Torchlight. And you, Lord. Up to now, they¡¯ve only thought of Torchlight as a fledgling organization. But with you here, Lord, Torchlight is different.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead,¡± said the young man, smiling. As he toyed with the wooden box, he turned to look... at Seven Blood Eyes. ¡°Lil¡¯ bro is going to start crying again.¡±

 Chapter 312: Dramatic Upheavals!!

    Chapter 312: Dramatic Upheavals!!

    The sudden, shocking development caused faces to fall throughout the various sects that made up the coalition.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud immediately turned and left the river behind as he rushed back to the city. He looked at Master Shengyun hovering in the sky, arms outstretched as he looked up at the broken face of the god. Expression very unsightly, the patriarch then looked down at the blood tree growing up from within Seven Blood Eyes. There were only three people who could control the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure. He was one of them. Another was the sect leader. And third was his own son, who had already been appointed to serve as the next sect leader.

    That was Master Shengyun¡¯s father!

    ¡°Chu Tianqun!¡± growled Patriarch Soaring Cloud as he looked in the direction of his sect¡¯s headquarters. [1]

    ¡°Father.¡± A middle-aged man stepped out from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect headquarters. Floating up into the sky to stand next to Master Shengyun, he looked in the direction of Patriarch Soaring Cloud and bowed respectfully. This was the very same person whose fleshly body had been destroyed by Master Seventh back in Seven Blood Eyes in South Phoenix. [2]

    ¡°Why are you doing this?¡± Patriarch Soaring Cloud asked.

    ¡°You really don¡¯t know, father?¡± Chu Tianqun smiled mysteriously, his eyes full of venom as he looked at Patriarch Soaring Cloud. ¡°My son did nothing wrong to deserve being born a conjoined twin. They were supposed to be ordinary twins. You did something, oh exalted father, to ensure that one would devour the other. You made them venomous bugs in a jar.

    ¡°You were nning to possess my son all along, weren¡¯t you? You wanted him to be your next reincarnation. The lifemp seemed like it was good fortune for him, but the truth was that it contained some of your divine resonance. You could have killed him with a mere thought. I was actually delighted to see that lifemp taken away from him. But if I didn¡¯t pretend to be furious, you wouldn¡¯t have been happy. So I yed along.

    ¡°I thought that, given how things ended up, you would abandon your thoughts of taking my son. Instead, you did just what you would expect of an old patriarch. You traded my son to the president. Since you couldn¡¯t possess him, you gave him over to be used as a clone.

    ¡°How could I not be furious at the coalition after that? How could I not hate a father like you down to my marrow? What other choice did I have but to rebel?

    ¡°Truth be told, I should thank Seven Blood Eyes. But they did injure my son, so at the same time, I hate them with a passion. Therefore, though I had originally nned to put on my Blood-Soaked Performance in the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, in the end, I agreed to my son¡¯s request and decided to do it in Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t get away with this,¡± Patriarch Soaring Cloud said, ring at his son. And then he noticed something unusual happening to his son¡¯s face, and his expression turned more unsightly.

    As Chu Tianqun smiled, his face wriggled, and a mask appeared. It depicted the broken face of the god, sinister and awe-inspiring, pulsing with boundless fluctuations. Those fluctuations weren¡¯t Chu Tianqun¡¯s own energy, but rather a divine ability in the mask itself, which created a defensive barrier around him. With such defenses, he wasn¡¯t exactly a match for his father, but he would be able to hold his own safely for the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    ¡°Someone¡¯sing to get me,¡± Chu Tianqun said. ¡°I just need an incense stick¡¯s worth of time.¡±

    Meanwhile, in Seven Blood Eyes, the blood tree emanated a shocking aura in all directions, causing wild colors to sh in heaven and earth, and sending winds screaming everywhere. The mountain headquarters trembled, causing massive rock slides, and shaking the entire area. The sect-destroying power of the taboo treasure erupted, making it seem like the mountain would end uppletely destroyed. What was more, blood-colored shadows erupted from the trees, vicious expressions on their faces as they swarmed down.

    From a distance, Seven Blood Eyes looked like a blur. Countless disciples were going crazy with anxiety.

    However... there was no way that Seven Blood Eyes would join this coalition without being ready to defend themselves. That was especially true considering that Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter were both known for their rigorous schemes and deep foresight.

    As soon as the blood tree appeared, Sir Bloodsmelter appeared, bing a stream of blood-colored threads that shot greedily toward the tree. Master Seventh was right behind him, ready to work together to keep the tree in check.

    At the same time, in the Seazombie ancestralnd, the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure appeared. Seven eyes opened, and the massive mirror turned in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes. As soon as the mirror locked onto the tree, the tree trembled violently. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out, and then an eye could be seen on the tree. Then a second eye and a third. Those eyes were manifestations of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure.

    The moment the eyes appeared, a unique power erupted. A power... of stealing!

    Unexpectedly... Seven Blood Eyes was using this opportunity to steal the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure! It was a development no one could ever have predicted.

    Participation in what was happening required a certain level of cultivation base. As a result, in all of Seven Blood Eyes, only Master Seventh, Sir Bloodsmelter, and the taboo treasure could react to crush the tree.

    Meanwhile, all disciples were stunned at what was happening. However, the peaklords had already issued orders about what to do, and thus, action was immediately taken to deal with the blood shades that were invading the sect. Though Seven Blood Eyes seemed like it was in chaos, the reality was... the sect was reacting in a very orderly fashion.

    It was easy to imagine what would happen if Seven Blood Eyes actually took control of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo item. If that happened, and Seven Blood Eyes controlled two taboo treasures, they would instantly be vastly more powerful.

    The patriarchs and matriarchs of the other sects were paying very close attention to what was happening. Yet they seemed just as confident and rxed as Master Shengyun and his father, Chu Tianqun. They didn¡¯t seem worried at all, presumably because they already understood exactly what was happening.

    Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun were betraying the sect and putting on a Blood-Soaked Performance. That was why the river water had been polluted, to attract the attention of the coalition leadership and force them to activate their taboo treasures. As such, it was a given that people from Torchlight were watching. After all, Torchlight was the only organization that had rules rting to a Blood-Soaked Performance. And that meant that the Torchlight members who were watching the performance had to be in the coalition somewhere.

    Given that, and considering that the coalition was one of the six great powers, with Void Returning experts in it, there was no reason tock confidence that they could defeat Torchlight, which had already been scattered and listed as wanted in the past.

    As for Seven Blood Eyes, though the sect seemed to be in turmoil, things weren¡¯t as bad as they seemed.

    It was the same with the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. The source of the pollution had already been removed, and the river was already starting to turn pure again. The deadly fog was dissipating.

    Events so far were still within the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s power to control.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing sped on his way to the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters. He saw the huge blood tree, he saw the mountain headquarters trembling, and he saw the disciples fighting against the blood shades. He also spotted Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh dealing with the huge tree.

    Things didn¡¯t seem too bad. Yet for some reason Xu Qing still felt profoundly uneasy. What was more, the ck fog and red sky had mixed, making violet light spread everywhere.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and took out an entropic teleportation talisman. Pushing down his unease, he flew into the mountain headquarters and joined the disciples fighting the blood shades. With his life mes burning, his battle prowess was sufficient to crush them with ease. Because the tree was being suppressed, there was only so much the blood shades could do. At first they had been ferocious, but with disciples surrounding them, they were copsing. The only thing they had on their side was numbers.

    As Xu Qing sped through the headquarters, he spotted the peaklords and elders fighting in midair. When he saw that, the anxiety in his heart eased a bit. However, that was when...

    An indistinct figure flew through the sky into Seven Blood Eyes.

    It was Night Dove, d in a voluminous robe, a thousand threads swirling in his eyes. Fixing his eyes on the peaklords, he strode forward. As he passed Xu Qing, he looked over and exhaled softly. Then he blurred into motion as he shot toward the fighting.

    Down below, Xu Qing had no time to react. In fact, he didn¡¯t even see anything. He just heard a rumbling sound in his head.

    At that moment... his Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown appeared and its defenses snapped into ce. However, they were like wet paper, and copsed immediately. The Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown exploded.

    Xu Qing¡¯s vision grew dark, and he felt a sense of deadly crisis erupt within him.

    The next thing he heard was something like a child screaming. The lifeswapping ghost doll appeared in front of him, and it onlysted for a moment before crumbling as it lost a life.

    That indicated that, a moment ago, Xu Qing should have just died!

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. There was a second life within the lifeswapping ghost doll. However, that single breath from Night Dove was so terrifying that the second life onlysted for a moment before it was also destroyed!

    All of that happened in the shortest of moments. Then, it seemed like the doll¡¯s third life might also be lost. The two lives it had lost before were lifelines for Xu Qing. Now, despite his shock, he instinctively crushed the entropic teleportation talisman.

    In the blink of an eye, he began to ripple and distort. However, that was when another scream rang out as the lifeswapping ghost doll¡¯s third life expired!

    That was when Xu Qing vanished, leaving behind only the fluctuations of a teleportation and the shattered remnants of the lifeswapping ghost doll.

    ¡°Oh?¡± a soft voice said. ¡°Three extra lives? And an entropic teleportation talisman...?¡±

    Off in the distance, Night Dove wasn¡¯t paying attention. After all, he had just casually exhaled a moment ago, little more. Right now, he was fully focused on the battlefield. Looking around, he focused on the spot where the peaklords were helping crush the blood shades.

    Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter had both noticed what just happened with Xu Qing. Other patriarchs also noticed, and their expressions flickered.

    ¡°Void Returning expert!!¡±

    It didn¡¯t matter how shocked everyone was, or what they did. They couldn¡¯t stop Night Dove from approaching the peaks of Seven Blood Eyes. He stopped right in front of Master Sixth! His move against Xu Qing had been beating the grass to startle the snake. He had wanted to hide his true reason foring to the field of battle. That was why he had only exhaled softly.

    Now, his eyes flickered with killing intent as the full power of his Void Returning cultivation base erupted. Not even Sir Bloodsmelter or Master Seventh could do anything to stop him now....

    He reached out his index finger toward Master Sixth¡¯s forehead.

    ¡°The forehead is the bridge between heaven and earth. ughter the past, the future, the present. Lock down all teleportations, life-saving items, and divine wardings. EXTERMINATE!¡±

    A stream of blood-colored light shot into Master Sixth¡¯s forehead. A tremor passed through him, and his eyes turned nk, even confused. Then they turned dim, and he fell. A Nascent Soul cultivator... had fallen!

    Piercing cries of disbelief, pain, and heartbreak erupted from Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter.

    Winds screamed. The sky turned dark.

    Grief overwhelmed Seven Blood Eyes!

    1. Chu Tianqun: Chu does not appear on the list of the 100 mostmon surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Chu Shengyun (Master Shengyun). Tian means ¡°heaven/sky¡± and qun means ¡°group.¡± Tian basically rhymes with ¡°then¡± except it starts with TY sound. It¡¯s like tyen. Qun is hard to pronounce, as it¡¯s made up of sounds that basically don''t exist in English. I rmend pronouncing it like ¡°chun¡± or ¡°choon.¡± Madam Deathde says that when she sees this name, it conjures the image of a man hovering in the sky looking down at a group of countless followers. ?

    2. Master Seventh crushed Chu Tianqun in chapter 264. ?

 Chapter 313: A Beam of Light!

    <h4>Chapter 313: A Beam of Light!</h4>

    Master Sixth had been a pitiable person. He started out like Master Seventh, as a shining star in Seven Blood Eyes. Normally speaking, he should have progressed beyond the Nascent Soul level.

    But at a key point in his life, he lost his true love. She was his daoist partner and also his Junior Sister, but she died in an ident. What was more, she perished saving his life. Master Sixth, who had been a very romantic and idealistic person, was quickly overwhelmed with sorrow and regret. In fact, he nearly went insane with grief and indignation.

    However, he wed his way out of that mental state, and eventually ced all of his hopes and dreams in the child of his dead wife. His own son. His son was a hard worker and an assiduous cultivator. He was naturally talented, and his growth and progress drove Master Sixth¡¯s grief away.

    But fate can be cruel. One day when his son went out for training, he never came back. His life slip shattered, indicating that he had perished. It was a worse blow to Master Sixth than when his daoist partner perished. It created an unrelenting pressure that forced him out to sea looking for his son. However, even after all the years that passed he found no clues. Eventually, Master Sixth sank into sorrow, and spent his days drinking. Sometimes, he would weep to the moon, his heart overwhelmed with pain. The people in Seven Blood Eyes who knew him wished they could do something, but in the end, could only sigh in regret.

    That was why, after Xu Qing found the clue leading to the killer, Master Sixth had gone absolutely crazy. It didn¡¯t matter that Sir Bloodsmelter had dered war on the Seazombies, Master Sixth <i>had </i>to take action.

    It was also why Master Sixth had treated Xu Qing differently.

    After that event, Master Sixth had worked hard to further the interests of Seven Blood Eyes. When Seven Blood Eyes reached a higher level and joined the coalition, it moved to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Master Sixth already felt his pain easing, and had thus focused all his energy on Seven Blood Eyes. He had also quietly kept an eye on Xu Qing, and was waiting for an opportunity to pay him back for the great favor he had bestowed. To this day, he was still ready and waiting for that moment to arrive. Unfortunately... it all went up in smoke.

    Master Sixth had perished.

    His death was a massive shock to all of Seven Blood Eyes.

    During the war two years before with the Seazombies, though Seven Blood Eyes had suffered casualties, not a single Nascent Soul peaklord had fallen. In fact during thest two hundred years in which Sir Bloodsmelter led the sect, and especially after Master Seventh started working with him, the sect had been on a constant rise to prominence. They had never experienced the death of a Nascent Soul expert.

    Thest time a Nascent Soul expert died was two hundred years before, and it led to the first vicious war with the Seazombies.

    During that war, the Seazombies nearly managed to invade Seven Blood Eyes itself. The first generation patriarch had been wounded, and half of the peaklords died. Sir Bloodsmelter had been out of the sect traveling for so many years that many people had forgotten about him. Upon his return, he unleashed a cultivation base power that few people could have expected to see. It was the great circle of the Spirit Trove level. During that critical time, he saved Seven Blood Eyes. From that moment on, he became the nominal leader of the sect.

    After that, Seven Blood Eyes made a lot of progress. Nascent Soul experts popped up like <i>bamboo after a spring rain</i>. Of course, to most cultivators, reaching that level was an incredibly difficult process, so there weren¡¯t a huge number. The current First Peaklord and Fourth Peaklord were original members of the peaklords, while the others were new. Master Seventh and Master Sixth had joined the sect together, and had once been rivals among chosen.

    When Master Seventh watched as Master Sixth¡¯s corpse fell from the sky, copsing into pieces, bing a blood rain that fell onto the sect below, his eyes turned uncharacteristically bloodshot. He was no god that could turn a blind eye to such things. Neither was Sir Bloodsmelter. They had viewed the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect as a potential cmity, and also had an idea of where the president stood on the matter. They had predicted that a dangerous threat to the sect could arise. They had even considered that traitors could rise up. They had even factored in the possibility that such traitors might be rted to Torchlight.

    Master Seventh had thought of all that. He had devised many contingencies, even ns if the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect activated their taboo treasure. As a result, they had followed through with those ns, and even taken advantage of the situation to try to steal the other sect¡¯s taboo treasure and add it to their own reserve power.

    But... they had not considered that Torchlight would actually be far stronger than they had anticipated.

    Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter weren¡¯t to me. The great powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture had mostly forgotten about Torchlight. Little did anyone know that, because of the arrival of one specific person, Torchlight had changed.

    When that shadowy figure struck down Master Sixth, the battle prowess on disy was that of Void Returning. That was something that not one single intelligence report from any of the great powers had mentioned.

    It indicated that this entire event had been nned out in detail. It had been set up specifically to kill Master Sixth. Steps had been taken to assure that Master Sixth¡¯s defenses and lifesaving items would be negated so that he could be killed.

    That shadowy figure hadn¡¯t truly been trying to kill Xu Qing. He wasn¡¯t the target of the mission. When you killed a chicken, you didn¡¯t need to use a giant saber. It didn¡¯t matter if Xu Qing fled or not. The whole point had been to kill Master Sixth, and that mission had been aplished. Everything else was secondary.

    Master Seventh trembled as he looked at the shadowy figure. His eyes were so bloodshot everything around him looked red, and the whole world reeled. The reason for his reaction was that there was nothing he could do. He had to stay with the patriarch to keep the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure in check. If he abandoned the n, it would fail, and the taboo treasure would inflict serious damage on Seven Blood Eyes.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes were also filled with grief, and he shouted in rage as he suppressed the taboo treasure. The other peaklords also trembled, but could only watch in disbelief as Master Sixth¡¯s corpse transformed into a blood rain. The Gold Core elders and the disciples from the various peaks were silent. That was especially true of the highnesses from the Sixth Peak, who trembled and howled inwardly. Unfortunately, no one could do anything.

    The patriarchs and matriarchs of the other sects looked on with very serious expressions. Some of them performed incantation gestures, causing the coalition¡¯s grand spell formation to lock down the area. Up in the air, the president¡¯s face looked iparably grim as he looked first at Seven Blood Eyes, and then the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.

    Eventually, his gaze came to rest on the eaves of one particr building.

    The air there rippled and distorted as Sir Bloodsmelter and the other coalition patriarchs and matriarchs also looked in that direction, causing immense pressure to weigh down there. Their intense killing intent was all focused on the same area. The air suddenly cracked and split, and then copsed.

    Revealed on the eaves of the roof was a person in a ck cloak, with a mask that resembled the broken face of the god. Hey back with his hands behind his head, looking up at Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun.

    A momentter, the air next to him rippled as Night Dove appeared.

    ¡°Lord,¡± Night Dove said respectfully, ¡°I gave the gift to Seven Blood Eyes.¡± It didn¡¯t matter that the coalition patriarchs and matriarchs had locked down that area with their killing intent. Night Dove¡¯s voice didn¡¯t quaver at all. It was as if he didn¡¯t even notice what was happening. All he cared about was his lord and master.

    ¡°This performance was middling at best,¡± the young man said, sounding a bit bored.

    ¡°Yes, Lord. Shall I take back the mask?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need. The performance wasn¡¯t amazing, but it was at least a bit entertaining.¡± The young man sat up, looked in the direction of Seven Blood Eyes, and smiled. Then he stood. ¡°I¡¯m done watching. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    With that, he hopped off the roof and onto the street below.

    As the gazes of the patriarchs and matriarchs focused on the area, the air shattered, and the ground crumbled and sank down. Killing intent proliferated, making it so cold that snowkes started falling. The pressure weighing down grew greater and greater, making the air so thick it seemed like it would be impossible to walk through.

    However, the young man in the mask just strolled forward. It didn¡¯t matter to him that powerful experts had locked down the area. Just like the coalition president up above, he was in the second stage of Void Returning, so such things didn¡¯t affect him. They were so meaningless that, wherever he wanted to go, he would go. No one could stop him.

    Night Dove followed quietly.

    In that moment in which <i>the swords were drawn and the arrows were nocked</i>, the young man in the mask happened to walk past a vendor stand selling candied fruit. The mortals had long since scattered, leaving the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s city mostly emptied. However, they had left many things behind. The young man looked at the candied fruit, and then his eyes seemed to flicker with reminiscence. He picked up a skewer. ¡°Lil¡¯ bro likes these.¡± [1]

    Everyone watched with very serious expressions.

    This event had already escted to the very highest of levels.

    At this point, Seven Blood Eyes had finally managed to fully suppress the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure. When that happened, Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter instantly shot out of Seven Blood Eyes.

    The president of the Eight Sect Coalition had cold eyes as he said, ¡°Torchlight, are you trying to dere outright war on the Eight Sect Coalition?¡±

    The young man heard him and looked up. His eyes were visible through the broken god face mask. He smiled.

    ¡°Night Dove.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Night Dove took out a simple wooden box that was currently closed. Being very gentle, he opened the lid.

    Then... a beam of light shot out from the box! It had no specific color or shape, and in fact, it couldn¡¯t be seen. It could only be felt. But as soon as it appeared, something changed in the dome of heaven. An intense rumbling sound echoed out. The Forbidden Sea screamed, and the sun and moon went dark!

    Everyone in Seven Blood Eyes, from mortals, to disciples, to the leaders, all reacted with shock.

    That was because, that light...

    Was the same light that came when the eyes of the broken god face opened!!

    1. Callback reference to ??

 Chapter 314: Moonlight Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 314: Moonlight Meeting</h4>

    No magical treasure in the world, not even a taboo treasure, could possibly measure up to the light unleashed by the broken face of the god. After all, it was the gaze of a god. No matter what almighty cultivation base someone had, even if they had divine abilities and daoist magics that could transform heaven and earth, none of them... could possiblypare to the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven. It came down to a pressure by a greater level of life, and it hung over the heads of the countless species on Revered Ancient, like a death sentence.0

    As the wooden box opened, and the shapeless, colorless light emerged, the dome of heaven transformed. The clouds seethed, bing a sea of fury. Thends below blurred in unprecedented fashion, to the point where nothing could be seen clearly. At the same time, something like chanting could be heard, a sound that could shake the soul, filling heaven and earth, destabilizing the bodies of all beings. It was impossible to say if the chanting was what made the world blur, or if the world twisted and distorted because of the light. Either way, the Eight Sect Coalition was surrounded by the effect; everything blurred and everything distorted.2

    Then, a strong mutagen like that from a forbidden region suddenly swept forth. It came from the ground, from the river, from even the dust. Every brick and tile, every food item, everything that existed suddenly erupted with streams of dark fog. The clouds above churned as they turned pitch ck. Crimson lightning crackled within them, and then drops of blood began to fall as rain.1

    This was just as if the eyes of the god above had opened and were gazing at the Eight Sect Coalition!0

    It was unimaginable.0

    It defied contemtion!0

    It waspletely terrifying!!0

    Just like the little city Xu Qing had been in back in South Phoenix, the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s megacity could do nothing as the blood rain fell. The power of a god was majestic, and could change the life course of any and all living beings. They had absolutely no say in the matter. The entire Eight Sect Coalition was rapidly turning into a forbidden region!0

    All of the sects and groups in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were shocked to the core when they realized what was happening. The fluctuations emanating from that area were astonishing.0

    Within the coalition, it didn¡¯t matter if someone was a mortal or a patriarch. They couldn¡¯t flee. In that moment, everything had transformed into despair!0

    Buildings in the coalition crumbled into ruins. Life force was polluted, and mutation blotches blossomed on the skin of countless people. It didn¡¯t matter how high someone¡¯s cultivation base was, or what they normally did to keep the mutagen within them under control. Right now, that mutagen was raging wildly. It happened to the mortals, and the cultivators couldn¡¯t escape. Not even heaven and earth were spared. The fate of everyone and everything was now being affected.0

    The megacity turned pitch ck, and howls of grief rose up far and wide. It was so shrill and despairing that anyone who heard would feel chills running down their spine, and both their gazes and their souls inside their body went dim.0

    Some disciples who had high levels of mutagen but kept them under control... suddenly lost control, and either exploded into clouds of gore or turned into ckish violet corpses. Mutations also urred. Numerous cultivators¡¯ skin cracked, blood oozing out as they transformed into vicious beasts. At the same time, grues popped out of nowhere.0

    The mere opening of that wooden box threw the entire Eight Sect Coalition into utter chaos. It was like a hell on earth.2

    Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh both reacted with intense shock, and it was the same with the other patriarchs and matriarchs of the coalition. None of them could possibly have imagined this ever happening; it wildly surpassed anything they could have predicted.0

    Normally speaking, the patriarchs and matriarchs were incredibly powerful, but right now, they also had seemingly unending mutagen pouring into them, causing them to bleed profusely. They wanted to do something, but when under the gaze of a god, they lost control of their own functions. Mutagen went wild within them, and if they wanted to control it, they had to focusplete attention inward.0

    Only the coalition president seemed able to deal with the situation. However, he was also trembling, mutagen going wild within him as he looked down at the ground below. His eyes contained a terror that had not been visible there for many years.0

    ¡°The gaze of the god above? Who... who are you??¡±0

    As the blood rain fell down onto the eight shocked sects, the young man in the mask looked up. Drops of the rain fell onto his mask, flowed downward, and then dropped to the ground. His eyes contained reminiscence, and even a bit of regret as he walked through the blood rain.0

    If one looked closely, it would be possible to see that despite the pouring blood rain and the shocking mutagen, the candied fruit he held didn¡¯t have a speck of contamination. He was protecting it carefully.0

    As he walked, Night Dove followed, eyes burning with fanaticism and worship. Carrying the box reverently, he hurried along.0

    The two of them walked the street, and the young man¡¯s gaze dropped to the patriarchs and matriarchs. It eventually stopped on Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh.0

    ¡°It was reasonable for you people to kill Bai Li. It was also reasonable for me to take the head of his killer, and also watch the performance.¡±5

    It was the first time he said anything to anyone in the Eight Sect Coalition. And having said that one thing, he flew up into the sky with Night Dove.0

    He waved his hand, causing Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun to tremble. Eyes full of reverence, they approached the young man and followed him.0

    No one in the Eight Sect Coalition could do anything other than look on. None could interfere. From beginning to end, the young man seemedpletely calm and casual. Just like when he had walked on the street, he would go wherever he wanted, and no one could stop him.0

    Just before going over the horizon, the young man spoke again, his voice soft. Yet it echoed into the ears of the ring president.0

    ¡°You just call h¨©m a god. We call h¨©m a living god.¡±[1]</a>2

    The young man disappeared with Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun, taking with him the gaze of that god. Without that gaze on the Eight Sect Coalition, the mutagen had no source. The transformation into a forbidden region was halted. That was, of course, the optimal conclusion of this event for the Eight Sect Coalition. If the megacity turned into a forbidden region, the results would have been catastrophic. Because the transformation wasn¡¯tplete, its effects could be reversed.0

    The blood clouds in the dome of heaven faded, and the patriarchs and matriarchs exchangedplicated, silent nces. Now wasn¡¯t the time to discuss what had happened. They knew that the most important thing was to recover from the event. Without the slightest hesitation, they flew back into the sect and began the work of purging the mutagen and healing the injured.0

    The Eight Sect Coalition had suffered a grievous blow, and the worst of it had been focused on... Seven Blood Eyes.0

    At the same time, the name Torchlight was now bound to spread far and wide in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. All of the great powers would now be aware of it, and even fear it. All of it was because of that box!0

    It could well be imagined that stories of this event in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture would spread to the other prefectures, until everyone in the county knew. In fact, word might spread even farther. After all... the light in that box was shocking beyond measure.3

    All people. All species. All organizations. All of them were going to be aware of Torchlight!0

    There had always been stories about Torchlight. For instance, rumors had circted that people who joined them couldmand the power of gods....[2]</a>0

    The term Torchlight itself had been the subject of a lot of analysis. An unlit torch was essentially a stick. Like kindlingying on the ground. Only when grasped in the hand would it be a torch. The word ¡®torch¡¯ itself implied fire, but also conveyed an element of control. Whenbined with the word ¡®light¡¯, it added a sense of brightness. And thus... they were called Torchlight!0

    ***0

    As the young man who represented Torchlight took Night Dove, Master Shengyun, and Chu Tianqun away, and as the Eight Sect Coalition immediately began the repair and healing process, Xu Qing was traveling through the wilderness some distance away from the coalition.0

    He had no idea what was happening back in the coalition. Thest thing he remembered was his Supreme-Limitless Crown exploding, and the lifeswapping ghost doll dying three times in a row. Then he teleported away.0

    When he materialized out in the wilderness, his face was ashen, and his heart was pounding like mad. He knew full well that if someone attacked him at that moment, he would almost certainly die. Though he didn¡¯t see any enemies present, he could sense dangerous auras everywhere.0

    As fear lingered in his heart, he felt the instinct to rush back to Seven Blood Eyes to help. However, he knew that he was too weak to do anything. His cultivation base wasn¡¯t high enough to matter. Therefore, he didn¡¯t rush back. Instead, he masked his cultivation base fluctuations and put on a disguise. Only then did he start moving back toward the coalition. As he moved, he tried to figure out why all of this was happening. Unfortunately, his transmission jade slip didn¡¯t seem to be working.0

    He felt very unsettled about that. Days passed. When he was only about a week out from the coalition, he was about to speed out of a forested area when, all of a sudden, he dropped to his haunches and narrowed his eyes.0

    He saw people up ahead, moving through the moonlight.0

    In the lead was a cloaked figure wearing a mask that resembled the broken face of the god. He walked casually, almost gracefully, and in his hand he held a skewer of candied fruit that didn¡¯t have a speck of dust or dirt on it. In the darkness of night, the red fruits were very conspicuous.[3]</a>0

    Next in line were three people. And two of them were Master Shengyun and his father, Chu Tianqun.

 Chapter 315: Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan

    <h4>Chapter 315: Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan</h4>

    A cold wind blew from the north, seemingly indifferent to life, filling heaven with frost. That wind drifted through the forest seven days away from the Eight Sect Coalition. Winter had finallye. Dead leaves fell, taking what little moisture remained in them and adding it to the mud in which theynded. The mud grew thicker. It was nighttime, so the cold was particrly harsh.

    Xu Qing crouched down, a dagger in his hand, ready to take action. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could stay hidden from these people. All he could do was remain calm and quiet and hope not to disturb them. Of course, he couldn¡¯t help wondering what it meant about the sect that Master Shengyun and his father were here, safe and sound.

    The other two people in the group, those with the ck cloaks, emanated terrifying pressure, and made Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and blood quiver with a sense of deadly crisis. That was especially true of the one in the lead position. Even just the air around him rippled and distorted as he passed. The second cloaked figure made Xu Qing¡¯s heart sink. He recognized that person¡¯s aura; it was the very same person who had attacked him back in Seven Blood Eyes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up even further.

    Just then, the group stopped walking. As the cold wind blew, the cloaked figures, as well as Master Shengyun and his father, all turned to look toward Xu Qing¡¯s hiding spot.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He knew that he had been spotted, but before he could decide what to do, the lead figureughed softly, then kept walking.

    However, the candied fruit shot out of his hand toward Xu Qing, along with a jade slip. Theynded in the vegetation in front of him.

    Xu Qing watched as the group disappeared into the darkness. He frowned. He had obviously been spotted, yet the group hadn¡¯t done anything to him. Instead, they dropped two items. The entire thing seemed absolutely bizarre. After a very long moment of thought, he looked down at the skewer of candied fruit and the jade slip. He studied them closely.

    He ignored the candied fruit and instead studied the jade slip. After confirming that it seemed safe, he slipped a glove onto his hand before picking it up.

    After examining it further, his eyes shone with determination. However strange this whole situation seemed, he got the feeling the exnation was in the jade slip. He cast his senses inside and heard a message.

    <i>¡°Long time no see, lil¡¯ bro.¡±</i>

    Those six words struck Xu Qing to the core, causing his eyes to fill with disbelief. Heart thumping, he continued listening to the message.

    <i>¡°You probably know who I am. Truth be told, I really cherish the memories of our youth together.</i>

    <i>¡°In my previous life, I had a lot of brothers and sisters, but I never really experienced much love and warmth. Everyone was cold and calcting. Whether it was my father the emperor, or all my brothers and sisters. They were all like that.</i>

    <i>¡°But in this life, I cherish memories of dad and mom. And of course, you.... I especially love the memories of your cute little sniveling.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing was shaking, and he could hardly control his breathing. His fingers tightened around the jade slip, and his ears buzzed. He looked up in the direction where the group of people had disappeared, and thought about that cloaked person with the mask that resembled the broken face of the god. The message from the jade slip continued to pour into his mind.

    <i>¡°But then I awakened the memories of my previous life. I knew immediately that I had to sacrifice everything. If I didn¡¯tplete the ceremony to the living god, then I couldn¡¯t truly be born again. I would wither away into death.</i>

    <i>¡°Back then, I stood in the blood rain and looked at you sitting in the bloody sludge and the corpses, weeping helplessly, crying out for dad and mom. Truth be told, I was d you were lucky enough to survive. I wanted to walk over to you, pat your head and say, ¡®Don¡¯t cry, lil¡¯ bro.¡¯</i>

    <i>¡°I saw that candied fruit while I was walking along earlier, and remember how much you liked it, so I bought it for you. Seven Blood Eyes is fine. The peaklord from the Sixth Peak killed Bai Li, so I had Night Dove take his life. A life for a life. It¡¯spletely reasonable.</i>

    <i>¡°I left this message for you to let you know that I buried dad and mom on Mount Daybreak in Sea-Sealing County. If you have time, you can go pay them a visit.</i>

    <i>¡°Goodbye, Xu Qing. I won¡¯t be seeing you again.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun and his chest heaved as his mind went nk.

    ¡°Dad. Mom.... Master Sixth....¡±

    The information in the jade slip came too suddenly, and didn¡¯t seem real. Waves of shock battered his mind relentlessly. At the same time, a pain bored into his heart that was difficult to put into words. Slowly but surely, it filled him.

    He didn¡¯t want to believe that it was true. But the contents seemed real. As for Master Sixth, he would know the truth about his life or death upon returning to the sect. As for matters rting to his dad and mom, he had never spoken about that to anyone. The truth was that he knew full well that there was no way his parents could have survived the catastrophe which struck thirteen years ago. He had always held hope that he was wrong about that. But now he couldn¡¯t fool himself any longer.

    When Xu Qing thought about Master Sixth... he could envision the old man hefting his jug of alcohol. His son and wife had both died, dashing his hopes and dreams. And yet, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t forget how the man had watched out for him. Master Sixth had cared for Xu Qing just as Master Seventh had.

    Master Seventh had made a huge deal about Xu Qing bing his apprentice. That itself was a threat to anyone in the world who had it out for Xu Qing. It made Master Seventh like a long, sharp spear.

    But Master Sixth¡¯s personality and experiences were different. He had helped out quietly and without fanfare, like a sturdy shield protecting Xu Qing from behind. In such a cold and brutal world, quiet help like that was something Xu Qing valued greatly.

    There weren¡¯t very many people who had helped him out during cold nights, who had cared about him, provided him warmth and protection. And he cherished each and every one of those people. Sadly, Sergeant Thunder was gone. Grandmaster Bai was gone. And now Master Sixth was gone.

    Thinking about his dad and mom filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart with pain, so much so that he trembled physically. The icy cold chilled him inside and out, from his soul to his skin. The jade slip in his hand shattered, and the sharp edges pierced into his palm, drawing blood. Drops of crimson and shards of jade dropped onto the dried grass at his feet. The wind blew again, and snowkes drifted onto him, filling him with even more coldness. Then a lightning bolt crashed down, illuminating him as he stood there shaking. When the lightning bolt vanished, everything went dark again. Xu Qing stood there in the gloom. After some more time passed, another lightning bolt illuminated the area, revealing him.

    He coughed up a mouthful of blood, which mixed with the snowkes to fall to the ground. Unable to remain standing, he dropped to his knees. Rain and snow fell onto his hair, his shoulders, his face, making it impossible to tell that the liquid that fell to the ground was tears.

    Xu Qing again looked in the direction where the ck-cloaked figures had disappeared. A long time passed. Finally, he opened his bag of holding and took out a bamboo slip. It was covered with a host of names, most of them scratched out.

    Every scratched-out name indicated someone that was dead.

    As the cold raindrops fell like pearls, smashing into the ground, Xu Qing took out his iron skewer and carved another name onto the slip.

    Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

 Chapter 316: Xu Qingâ€™s Background

    Chapter 316: Xu Qing¡¯s Background

    He inscribed the words onto his bamboo slip with extreme care, as well as a lot of force. Each stroke of each character contained boundless killing intent. Blood dripped from his palm, down the length of the iron skewer, and onto the bamboo, filling the name with blood. Perhaps it was the blood that caused Xu Qing to think about events from the past.

    Thirteen years ago.

    Back then, he had a home, but it all came crashing to an end on one fateful day.

    The eyes of the broken god face opened, high in the dome of heaven. That gazended on the city where Xu Qing lived, and in an instant... heaven and earth blurred, all living things twisted and distorted, and the city disappeared.

    The only thing left behind were ruins and a blood rain falling from the sky. He was the only survivor, and at first, all he could do was wallow in the blood-soaked mire, weeping.

    He was only six or seven years old at that time, but even after all the years that had passed, he had never forgotten how he managed to escape that city. He had not forgotten the bitter struggle to survive, and how many things he had stuffed into his mouth that weren¡¯t really food. Back then, he had lived on the razor¡¯s edge between life and death. [1]

    He ended up as a street urchin, covered in grime. Living that way, he saw the worst humanity had to offer. Over and over again. He learned to fight over food like a wild dog. He learned to bare his teeth. He learned how to be patient and vignt. And he became ustomed to sticking to the shadows.

    Eventually, he learned to kill. One winter in the slums, a burly man tried to kill him and eat him. Instead, he killed that man and stuck his head outside to mark his territory. [2]

    He started to envy the people who lived in the city, with their clean clothes. He longed to be a cultivator, knowing that it would make his life better. In the end, the only thing he thought about on a daily basis was how to survive and keep on living. That was why he was so ruthless and brutal to his enemies. That was why he would seek revenge over the smallest grievance. That was also why he was so grateful when people helped him.

    That was also why, when the eyes of the god opened again and looked down on the slums and the city he lived in, he wasn¡¯t afraid. For one thing, his life was already so rough that he didn¡¯t fear dying. What about it was worth being scared of?

    Another thing rted to... his previous experience.

    After everything he had been through, he was no longer a sniveling child. That said, he had always clung to the hope that his dad and mom weren¡¯t dead. That they were looking for him.

    That story was Xu Qing¡¯s secret, and it was something he had never revealed to anyone.

    Thunder crashed and lightning streaked across the sky, casting Xu Qing¡¯s shadow onto the road. Xu Qing looked down at the four blood-soaked characters on his bamboo slip.

    A momentter he added ¡®Master Shengyun¡¯s father¡¯ and ¡®Night Dove.¡¯

    ¡°They all must die!¡± he murmured as he stood in the rain.

    The extreme bitterness he had endured over the years had ended up forging an invulnerable core within him. There was nothing that could truly break him. Even the worst tragedies would just stoke his killing intent. He knew of only one way to offer sacrifices to his dead loved ones. And that was spilling blood for blood. That was what he had done for both Sergeant Thunder and Grandmaster Bai.

    Looking off into the distance, he started walking. He looked incredibly fierce, like a lone wolf. But at the same time, his experiences had matured him.

    He didn¡¯t look back.

    It was cold and windy, but he didn¡¯t fear those things anymore.

    He suddenly thought back to something Sergeant Thunder had told him. ¡°When a person buries enough sadness in their heart, that¡¯s when they grow up.¡±

    Xu Qing felt that, as of this moment, he had grown up.

    His n was to go back to the sect and get stronger. Then he would leave Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and go find Mount Daybreak. Along the way, he would kill everyone whose name he had just carved. And not just them. He would eradicate the entire Torchlight organization.

    ¡°Every member of Torchlight must die!¡± he growled hoarsely. Taking out his dharmaship, he stepped aboard and became a bright beam of light that shot through the thunder and lightning toward the Eight Sect Coalition.

    In the cabin, he sat down cross-legged to meditate.

    Time passed slowly but surely.

    Three dayster, he opened his eyes.

    Facepletely expressionless, he looked down at his bag of holding for a moment before taking a gon of alcohol out of it. Putting it to his lips, he drank. As the hot liquid entered his stomach, he thought back to the first time he had tasted alcohol. [3]

    Sergeant Thunder hadughed at his reaction and said, ¡°You¡¯re too young to appreciate the vor of liquor. You¡¯ll like it when you¡¯re older.¡±

    It was in Seven Blood Eyes that he learned to appreciate that vor. And right now, he felt like the alcohol wasn¡¯t strong enough. Taking another big drink, he walked out onto the deck and looked up at the night sky. He felt the wind on his face. He looked away from the sky and out at thends around him.

    Then he took out a flute and put it to his lips.

    Eventually... a bleak and deste song echoed out from the dharmaship.

    The song drifted out unhurriedly, recounting stories of the past.

    The name of the song was Parting with Sorrow. [4]

    ***

    Meanwhile, out in the wilderness of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the Torchlight procession proceeded along silently. The young man in the lead seemed indifferent to those behind him.

    Eventually, Night Dove looked up and hesitantly said, ¡°Lord, that young man....¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s my younger brother in this life.¡±

    Night Dove inhaled, then hesitated again. ¡°Sir, is he like you? Does he have a past life?¡±

    The young man shook his head. ¡°Xu Qing has no past life. He¡¯s just an ordinary kid from an ordinary family. That said, the brotherly affection I experienced before awakening the memories of my previous life... became a hindrance.¡±

    Night Dove thought for a bit more, then asked, ¡°Lord, what would have happened back in Seven Blood Eyes if... I identally killed him?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d be dead.¡± the young man replied calmly without looking back.

    Night Dove thought some more beforeing to an understanding. His lord didn¡¯t actually care if Xu Qing lived or died. Running into him on this asion had been pure chance. Back when Night Dove attacked him, his lord didn¡¯t interfere. That was because he really didn¡¯t care if he died. It didn¡¯t matter who tried to kill Xu Qing, he would just look on. But because of the hindrance created by brotherly affection, anyone who killed Xu Qing would also have to die. It was just a matter of course.

    In the final analysis, his lord wasn¡¯t really Xu Qing¡¯s older brother. From beginning to end, he was the stunning individual who even people from the holynd had repeatedly tried to recruit, the person who, before he had died, pledged himself to the living god and was thus granted a second life. He was the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    Bowing his head, Night Dove said, ¡°Lord, if cutting down your hindrance will further perfect your dao heart, then I, Night Dove, will ept the responsibility!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t cultivate the dao, so I don¡¯t need a dao heart. What I cultivate is... godliness.¡± Eyes tranquil, the young man continued off into the distance.

    1. Believe it or not, Xu Qing¡¯s backstory was actually foreshadowed over 300 chapters ago. Don¡¯t believe me? Go back to and read thest few paragraphs of chapter 4, and you¡¯ll see what I mean. ?

    2. The incident of killing someone who was trying to eat him was mentioned previously in chapters 53 and 100. ?

    3. Xu Qing first drank alcohol in chapter 19. ?

    4. He learned Parting with Sorrow in chapter 299. Well, that chapter was when he learned the name of the song. He had been practicing in the chapters before that. ?

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter is unusually short. Instead of the usual 3,000 Chinese characters it was actually a bit less than 2,000 characters long. Thest chapter and this chapter are outliers. Starting with the next chapter, the length goes back to normal (and will actually start creeping up, with the chapters getting longer and longer especially once we get into the 400s.)

 Chapter 317: Taboo Treasure

    <h4>Chapter 317: Taboo Treasure</h4>

    Flute music floated with the wind.

    Dayster, Xu Qing finally caught sight of the Eight Sect Coalition. The afterglow of dusk highlighted the dpidated megacity. The river water was no longer ck. Once again, it pulsed with strong immortal energy. But the gaping wounds left behind by the catastrophic event could not be erased in a matter of days. Even from a distance it was possible to see construction work everywhere. It almost looked like a human body being patched up by a surgeon. Mutagen-filled smoke still curled up into the sky. It created a picture of grief that bore testament to the catastrophe which had struck.

    Although the mutagen levels had dropped since the light of the god¡¯s gaze emerged from the wooden box, it still hadn¡¯t been fully dispelled. Thankfully, it was being dealt with. Sadly, though, the mental pain and anguish that resulted could not be easily removed.

    Catastrophe had not just struck Seven Blood Eyes. Though the other sects had not experienced many casualties, they were still deeply affected.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship dropped out of the sky, he took everything in, including the listless eyes of the citizens. And then he retracted his gaze and headed to the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters. Upon arriving, he saw the grieving highnesses of the Sixth Peak. He saw the dejected cultivators from the other peaks, and he saw the extensive damage to everything. Keeping silent, he joined the recovery effort.

    In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. During that time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t meet with Sir Bloodsmelter or Master Seventh. He did see the Captain, as well as Second Elder Sister and Third Elder Brother. Each one had mixed emotions in their eyes. That was especially true of the Captain, who knew of Xu Qing¡¯s special connection to Master Sixth. sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, he sighed.

    Xu Qing kept his silence.

    After half a month, eighty to ny percent of the mutagen had been purged from the Eight Sect Coalition. The rest would slowly be removed in theing days. Despite the sorrow the various sects had experienced, spirits were slowly lifting. In terms of how to deal with the overall situation, a decision had been reached.

    The Eight Sect Coalition submitted a formal petition to the Swordsage Court, asking them to treat the Torchlight threat as a top priority. They also asked the Swordsage Court to step up their efforts to hunt down Torchlight criminals.

    In addition to that, the Eight Sect Coalition publicly announced that they would not rest until Torchlight was wiped out. Though they had witnessed the terror of that wooden box, if they didn¡¯t express their intent to get revenge, the coalition wouldn¡¯t need to wait for Torchlight to wipe them out. They would fall apart naturally.

    Internally, there was more.... Patriarch Soaring Cloud was ousted from the senate, and though the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect was still allowed to remain as a member of the coalition, for the following century they would receive the lowest percentage of resources. The sect leader was also punished severely along with the sect. And the only way for the sect to restore its previous standing was to see Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun dead.

    The Soaring Cloud Sword Sect¡¯s taboo treasure was only half as effective as before. That was because the tree which had been ced in Seven Blood Eyes had been sessfully suppressed by Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter. As a result, Seven Blood Eyes now controlled half of the taboo treasure.

    Going forward, all 137 sects that made up the coalition would put all of their resources into searching for Torchlight operatives. As for that wooden box, all of the important people and organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were concerned about it.

    After further analysis, it became clear that the wooden box... didn¡¯t actually contain the gaze of the broken face of the god. It just <i>resembled</i> that gaze. As for the details about how it worked, not enough time had passed to gather enough clues. But one thing was certain; that item was a huge threat, and no one had any idea how to defend against it. There was obviously some mysterious exnation, except, theck of information just made the thing seem even more terrifying.

    Torchlight... really didmand some of the power of a god.

    Now that the coalition was back on its feet, Xu Qing decided it was time to leave Seven Blood Eyes and take a trip to the Seazombie ancestralnd to see the taboo treasure, where he hoped he could open his 121st dharma aperture. Before, he had not been dead set on opening that 121st dharma aperture. But now, things were different. He would stick to his n that he hade up with. He needed to get stronger, and to reach every limit he could reach.

    Before leaving, he went to Master Sixth¡¯s grave, which was where he saw Master Seventh, who stood there with a jug of alcohol in his hand.

    To Xu Qing, Master Seventh had always seemed calm and leisurely. His eyes were sharp and intelligent, as though he always had everything under control. But this Master Seventh looked different. His hair was disheveled and his eyes bloodshot. His face seemed full of guilt. Chaotic fluctuations rolled off of him, as if he were trying to achieve a breakthrough, except the process wasn¡¯t going well.

    When Master Seventh heard Xu Qing approaching, he looked over his shoulder. A new Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown appeared in his hands, which he handed to Xu Qing, along with a piece of ink-ck jade. The jade looked like a chunk of dried blood, and it emanated a very gruish aura. It seemed to be something simr to the lifeswapping ghost doll.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, I¡¯m not going to make any dramatic demands of you. But I hope that you and your Elder Brothers and Elder Sister... can stay safe. I can¡¯t stand parting with Master Sixth, and I don¡¯t ever, ever want any of you to leave me. The world is fickle. Oh so fickle. I thought I¡¯d nned for everything, but I had no way to n for this. How could things have ended up this way....?¡±

    Master Seventh sighed. Then he handed another jade slip to Xu Qing. It was an authentication device for the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, which included all the details of how to operate it.

    Xu Qing took it quietly, then bowed to Master Seventh. Finally, he looked at Master Sixth¡¯s grave. After a moment, he bowed deeply to the grave, then turned to his guilt-ridden Master.

    ¡°Master,¡± he said softly, ¡°we <i>will </i>avenge Master Sixth.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s gaze suddenly grew deep and meaningful. Then he looked off into the distance, his expression fierce.

    ¡°Definitely!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Ding Xue and her aunt appeared in the distance, both of them looking concerned. Not wanting to cause any further disturbance, Xu Qing sped hands, then became a bright beam of light that shot in the direction of the Forbidden Sea, and beyond, the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    Because of the mutagen influx, the coalition¡¯s teleportation formations weren¡¯t stable, and thus Xu Qing decided that traveling by dharmaship was the best option.

    Just as he reached the shore, he saw someone floating high in the sky up ahead.

    She wore a plum-colored gown, and was wlessly beautiful. She was none other than Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Hovering there, she looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing ducked his head and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    She didn¡¯t say anything in response. He waited for a long moment, then sped hands again before continuing on his way. However he only got about 300 meters before Arch-Immortal Plumdark spoke.

    ¡°Everything happened too quickly. I didn¡¯t have a chance to interfere.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce, then turned.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said softly. He didn¡¯t address her as Senior.

    With that, he shot off into the distance. Arch-Immortal Plumdark watched him go, her expression loving and tender. Then she sighed, and her eyes became incredibly cold.

    ¡°Torchlight!¡± she growled.

    Days passed in the blink of an eye.

    As Xu Qing sped across the Forbidden Sea on his dharmaship, he eventually caught sight of the Seazombie ancestralnd on the horizon. As he got closer he saw the enormous statues, above which floated the enormous bronze mirror. As it slowly rotated, it emanated a terrifying divine will that anyone who got close enough could sense.

    After this location became the home of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure, the entire ind became affected by it. The Seazombies still lived there, but their every move and action was overseen by the treasure, so there was no chance they could even think about being disloyal. Seven Blood Eyes had arranged for disciples from all the peaks to serve here in rotation. Peaklords woulde as well. In that manner, the taboo treasure was constantly guarded. Right now, Master Third was on duty.

    As Xu Qing neared, the spirit automaton in the mirror sent out divine will to scan him. Coldness swept over him as he produced his identity medallion. Thend on which the taboo treasure stood wasn¡¯t a ce that anyone could visit. Even the highnesses of Seven Blood Eyes couldn¡¯te close without permission. And of course, that permission could only be given by Master Seventh or Sir Bloodsmelter.

    After the divine will scanned the identity medallion, Xu Qing was approved. Instantly, the sea ahead of him surged, rising up on either side to create a path. Xu Qing proceeded forward on his dharmaship, 30-meter-tall walls of water on either side of him. All of this gave Xu Qing an even greater sense of how terrifying the taboo treasure was. Of course, it couldn¡¯tpare to what he had heard from other disciples about the beam of light that wreaked havoc on the sect.

    Upon reaching the shore, Xu Qing put away his dharmaship and stepped onto what had once been the home turf of the Seazombies. The ground was violet, and covered with all sorts of strange nts. The gigantic mushrooms were still everywhere, and the air was full of glowing dandelion wisps. It was very beautiful. He saw huge jellyfish floating in the air, one of which extended its tentacles down invitingly. Atop the jellyfish were a few dozen Seven Blood Eyes disciples, all of them in Foundation Establishment. When theyid eyes on Xu Qing, they all bowed respectfully.

    ¡°Master Third received the orders from the sect, and has already arranged for dharma protectors. They¡¯re waiting by the taboo treasure. But there¡¯s no hurry, Your Highness. We¡¯re here to escort you there at your leisure.¡±

    Because Master Seventh was now the sect leader, Xu Qing counted as a highness of the Seventh Peak, and also a highness of Seven Blood Eyes in general. Add in the prestige he had earned in the coalition, and all of these fellow disciples were being extremely respectful.

    Xu Qing somberly returned their salute, then walked up the jellyfish tentacle to stand atop it. Then it moved in the direction of the taboo treasure.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s third timeing to this ce. The first time was when he and the Captain went on that daring escapade. The second time was when he passed through. This third time was an official visit.

    Looking around curiously, Xu Qing suddenly thought back to the Seazombies¡¯ Third Princess. It had been so long since those days that he¡¯d almost forgotten about her, and hadn¡¯t thought to ask the Captain what happened to her.

    ¡°What have the Seazombies been up to recently?¡±

    ¡°Your Highness, the Seazombies are fully loyal to Seven Blood Eyes now. The souls of their patriarch and top leaders were sealed by the sect, and their zombification techniques are now under our control. Although they¡¯re allowed to continue to grow as a people, their souls must all be sealed.

    ¡°Other than that, we don¡¯t interfere with their daily affairs. They still have full autonomy in terms of their government and general society.

    ¡°That said, their royal session hinges on sect approval. What¡¯s more, their previous king and patriarchs were taken away by Sir Bloodsmelter, and a new king and royal n were put in ce.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any more questions. Before long, they reached the location of the taboo treasure.

    Fourteen enormous zombie statues rose high into the sky, emanating an aura that could shake heaven and earth. They also seemed to thrum with a sensation of ancient time. Compared to the statues, cultivators seemed like tiny ants. And that was especially true of five of the statues, which were so big it was hard to see the tops of them. At the base of the statues were buildings constructed by Seven Blood Eyes, which was where the disciples on guard duty stayed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival attracted a lot of attention, and everyone bowed in greeting.

    ¡°Your Highness, do you want to rest first? Or would you like to begin right away?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the statues and the mirror. Taking a deep breath, he said, ¡°If it¡¯s no trouble, I¡¯d like to start immediately!¡±

 Chapter 318: Life Reversal

    Chapter 318: Life Reversal

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to wait. In response to his words, the disciples immediately led the way forward. Before long, Xu Qing was right in the middle of the fourteen zombie ancestor statues.

    There were numerousyers of defenses that kept the entire areapletely under control. Plus, the powerful divine will fluctuations from the taboo treasure swept out, ensuring that anything suspicious would be quickly noticed. There were also spell formations set up everywhere, as well as innumerable magical devices. As a result, everything waspletely locked down. Aftering to realize all of that, Xu Qing was shaken.

    In the very middle of all the statues, and right beneath the enormous mirror, Xu Qing saw a huge eight-sided altar.

    A cultivator sat on each of the eight sides, and based on what Xu Qing sensed, they all had at least two heavenly pces. As he neared, they opened their eyes. Their eyes shone brightly, and instead of arrogantly remaining seated because they were dharma protectors, they instead stood and bowed politely to Xu Qing. They knew full well who he was, and were aware that once he stepped into the Gold Core level, which could be at any moment, he would definitely surpass the two-pce level like them. As a result, there was no way they would fail to treat him with respect.

    Xu Qing courteously returned their greeting, then stepped onto the altar.

    Along the way, he had taken time to study the jade slip Master Seventh gave him, which exined how to use the taboo treasure. Xu Qing could do everything himself. However, that was only as it rted to his own purpose for the treasure. In order to fully activate it would require assistance.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing walked to the very center of the altar and sat down cross-legged. After looking up briefly at the majestic mirror, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then pushed his hands down onto the altar on either side of him.

    The surrounding Gold Core dharma protectors knew what was required of them, and did the same thing.

    The altar trembled as a beam of light rose from Xu Qing, so bright that it made him blur indistinctly within it. As the dharma protectors went through their incantation gestures, light rose up from the eight sides of the altar. That light was crimson, and it merged with Xu Qing¡¯s light, creating a blood-colored beam that entered the mirror above. The mirror vibrated, stopped rotating, and then slowly turned on its side so it was facing down toward Xu Qing. [1]

    As the crimson light entered the mirror, it was reflected back out, shining down on thends below and superimposing over the light that still shot upward. When it hit Xu Qing, he trembled as a shocking power weighed down on him. He turned almostpletely transparent as a result, causing all of his 120 shining dharma apertures to be visible.

    That made it much easier for him to search for the 121st aperture. Focusing his divine will inward, he began looking.

    He did not meet with immediate sess. After twenty breaths of time passed, the light faded away. Xu Qing opened his eyes and they shone with regret. He had not seeded.

    Remaining very courteous, Xu Qing said, ¡°If it¡¯s not too much trouble, dharma protectors, let¡¯s try again.¡±

    The eight dharma protectors smiled and nodded, then went into more incantation gestures. More light shot up, reflected back from the mirror, and shone down on Xu Qing, who again began looking for the new dharma aperture.

    He failed again.

    A frown appeared on his face as the light faded. Then he thought back to what his Master had previously said about the 121st dharma aperture opening in a spot between life and death.

    I suppose that¡¯s what I¡¯m missing.

    He thought back to the n he hade up with. It was an absolutely crazy n that would put him in a very deadly crisis. But it was without hesitation that he stood, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°Master Third, I hereby request... to experience the death-to-life Seazombie zombification process!¡±

    Upon hearing his words, the eight dharma protectors reacted with visible shock.

    The Seazombie zombification process could bring a dead person back to life. However, that resurrected person would no longer be the same species. Their memories would be hazy, and they would be iparably ruthless. Their cultivation base would be unbnced, and they would have to exercise immense willpower and work hard at cultivation to achieve bnce.

    However, that was only the normal zombification process. There was another, even more heaven-defying process that was usually reserved for the Seazombie royal n, or people with immense potential.

    And that was called... life reversal!

    It was very painful, but it preserved the memories perfectly, and also didn¡¯te with a dramatic loss in cultivation base. However, it did require a willing participant, and what was more, the rate of failure was high. There were extreme pros and cons, and as a result, not every member of the royal n attempted it.

    Xu Qing had studied a lot about Seazombies in the sect files. And considering Seven Blood Eyes had long been a mortal enemy of the Seazombies, it made sense that they had done thorough research into them.

    This was the n that Xu Qing hade up with. He wanted to fabricate a moment that he could control, but would still put him in a spot between life and death. He would allow himself to be zombified, and use that moment to tap into the taboo treasure to search for his final dharma aperture. The n was extremely dangerous. If he failed, then he would either be an actual Seazombie, or simply die.

    ¡°Have you thought this through, Xu Qing?¡± replied the calm voice of the schrly looking Master Third. He looked down from above, his expression serious.

    ¡°I have,¡± Xu Qing replied, keeping his head bowed.

    Master Third looked down at him for a moment, then sighed. He could see some of the injuries in Xu Qing that had still not healed, and knew about his close ties to Master Sixth. He shook his head.

    ¡°I can¡¯t approve this without contacting your Master first.¡± Master Third took out a violet jade slip and sent a message to Master Seventh back in the coalition.

    The reply came back very quickly. Master Seventh¡¯s gruff voice echoed out, saying, ¡°Are you sure, Xu Qing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure!¡± Xu Qing replied with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron.

    The violet jade slip was silent for a moment, and then Master Seventh sighed. ¡°Help out my apprentice, Ol¡¯ Third.¡±

    ¡°Orders received, Sect Leader,¡± Master Third said respectfully. Putting the jade slip away, he looked deeply at Xu Qing. ¡°What exactly do you want me to do?¡±

    ¡°Peaklord,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°please clear and seal the area, then converge the Seazombies¡¯ zombification power on me.¡±

    Master Third nodded. Shortly thereafter, the eight dharma protectors were gone, and the area waspletely empty. Spell formations glittered as a sealing barrier went up. Then Xu Qing took out a ck piece of wood and put it onto the altar in front of him.

    Master Third waved his hand, and seven figures descended from above, all of them pulsing with strong mutagen. They were all Seazombie cultivators.

    Each had a Nascent Soul cultivation base, and all of them inclined their heads to Master Third.

    ¡°Tap into the zombification power of one of the statues,¡± Master Third said. ¡°Send it to the altar and zombify this person.¡±

    Seazombie zombification required the use of special powers that only Seazombies had. It was an innate ability that other species couldn¡¯t replicate. The seven Seazombie cultivators were shocked, and all looked down at the altar. However, none of them asked any questions, and they immediately went into incantation gestures. Master Third watched as, only a momentter, one of the fourteen zombie ancestor statues began thrumming loudly.

    It was the seventh statue, thergest of them all, and as it vibrated, blue light spilled out. It started with the statue¡¯s legs, then went to its torso, its arms, and finally its head, until the entire thing was bright blue. Then that blue light shot toward Xu Qing.

    The light spread out over both Xu Qing and the altar, causing a tremor to pass through him. It was painful, butpared to things he had experienced in the past, it wasn¡¯t anything he couldn¡¯t deal with.

    Whether it was the time he got the lifemp from the Merfolk, or the destined opportunity from the dragon chariot and the giant, he had experienced pain that far surpassed this. Ignoring the pain, he kept a tranquil expression on his face. Slowly but surely, his skin started turning blue. The same thing happened with his muscles, bones, and veins. Even his dharma apertures began to transform.

    His lifemp couldn¡¯t do anything. As for the violet crystal, it trembled as if it wanted to reverse the process, but Xu Qing keptplete control over it to prevent that from happening.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled, and the shadow felt overwhelmed with terror.

    Xu Qing¡¯s aura was rapidly vanishing, and he was rapidly approaching the point of passing from life to death.

    On an instinctual level, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to die. And the violet crystal, despite how he was suppressing it, did its best to fight back against the zombification. His body was almost like a battle ground.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glowed blue, and when he spoke, his voice seemed more sinister. ¡°Master Third, add in another zombie ancestor statue!¡±

    The seven Seazombie cultivators reacted with shock to his words, and peered more closely at Xu Qing. It was very rare for anything like this to happen, to the point where only their original king had experienced something simr.

    After a moment of grim silence, Master Third nodded. ¡°Add another!¡±

    The seven Seazombie cultivators immediatelyplied. The second zombie ancestor statue thrummed and emanated blue light that descended onto Xu Qing.

    Time passed. Before long, three days had gone by.

    Now, blue light glittered, not from two statues, but from five!

    And yet, Xu Qing had not yet reached the point of passing from life to death. That said, he was getting closer and closer to that point. Just looking at Xu Qing, he seemed to abound with death energy, to the point where he looked no different from any other Seazombie. The only thing about him that wasn¡¯t blue was the me of his life force.

    The seven Seazombie cultivators were visibly surprised. None of them had ever seen a zombification take so long, not even for their former king. And he hadn¡¯t needed the power of five statues. Such a long process, and so many statues, indicated that if the process seeded, this person would be the most outstanding Seazombie to havee along in many years.

    ¡°What is Seven Blood Eyes nning to do with a chosen disciple like this?¡±

    ¡°Are they creating a new king for us Seazombies?¡±

    1. Since it¡¯s been a while, here is another link to the photo gallery</a> of what ancient Chinese bronze/copper mirrors looked like. ?

 Chapter 319: Gold Core Heavenly Palaces

    <h4>Chapter 319: Gold Core Heavenly Pces</h4>

    Within the Seazombie ancestralnd, at the spot where the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure existed, blue light surged. As the process continued, it attracted more and more attention from the Seazombies and the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. That was especially true of the former, who were absolutely stunned by what was happening. As the days passed, and the Seazombies saw the blue lighting from the altar, they knew exactly what it signified.

    It was because they knew that they were so shocked. It was simr with the Seven Blood Eyes disciples stationed in the area.

    Master Third looked down at Xu Qing surrounded by blue light, and could sense the strong aura of death in it. It caused his heart to pound.

    If it wasn¡¯t for the fact he knew Xu Qing was doing this for the sake of his 121st dharma aperture, and that there was virtually no chance Xu Qing would betray the sect, Master Third would probably think he was really trying to be a Seazombie.

    As the power of multiple zombie ancestor statues poured into Xu Qing, his life force shrank, and the death aura around him grew stronger.

    Six more hours passed. It was dusk and the moon had alreadye out. A tremor passed through Xu Qing as he reached his absolute limit. He was suppressing the violet crystal as much as possible, and thanks to the encroachment of the zombie ancestor statues, his body was on the very verge of being zombified.

    On the one side of him was life. On the other side was death. This was that spot between life and death. Unfortunately, it was a very unstable state. The slightest variation would push him from that spot between life and death into... being a real zombified Seazombie.

    At that critical moment, Xu Qing opened his eyes. They shone with blue light, and seemed devoid of even a scrap of emotion. Raising his right, zombified hand, he slowly pointed at the ck piece of wood in front of him.

    In response, powerful fluctuations rolled off of it.

    All of a sudden, the Darkspirit Everwill Door appeared in front of Xu Qing. Rumbling loudly, it opened. A dazzling sh of white light appeared,pletely different from the blue light. And it enveloped Xu Qing!

    Compared to before... the light was even more dazzling and bright. It didn¡¯t contain even a hint of the darkness of the brutal world around it. That said, it was colder, with its previous warmth hidden inside. The light from this ck door was what Xu Qing had nned to use to stabilize his position in that spot between life and death. Thanks to his encounter with Master Shengyun, as well as his subsequent research, he hade to the conclusion that the twofold ensorcellment on the door gave it a power to seal one¡¯s life force. It was a sealing power that, within the blink of an eye, would freeze him in ce.

    That said, there was also a golden light that appeared, which briefly attracted Xu Qing''s notice. However, then he shivered from head to toe as the instability of that spot between life and death was suddenly stabilized. His life force was locked in ce.

    Master Third, who was overseeing the entire situation, saw what was happening and immediately dispelled the blue light from the zombie ancestor statues. Then he performed an incantation gesture, causing the giant mirror to rotate and then sent light shooting down onto Xu Qing.

    Yet again, Xu Qing was wrapped up within the light of the mirror. He shivered, but was thinking with absolute rity, and immediately sent his senses into himself to look for the 121st dharma aperture.

    Master Seventh had said that each individual had dharma apertures in different ces, and it was the same with the 121st. In that spot between life and death, with the help of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, Xu Qing searched and searched... and finally found the 121st dharma aperture!

    Astonishingly, it was located right in the middle of his sea of consciousness. Furthermore, it didn¡¯t exist in a state of reality, but instead, was somewhat illusory.

    After finding it, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to send all of the soul power within him shooting toward his sea of consciousness. Instantly, he started shaking.

    It was harder to open the 121st dharma aperture than any of the other apertures. But Xu Qing was ready for the process. Dharma force flowed out of all of his other dharma apertures, converging into a stream of soul fire that shot toward the 121st.

    A few breaths of time passed. Cracking sounds rang out within him, and he shook even harder. And then, the illusory 121st dharma aperture within his sea of consciousness... opened!

    The moment it did, unrivaled dharma force fluctuations erupted from it. Those fluctuations were boundlessly violent, and could shake heaven and earth! That lone dharma aperture released power equivalent to 30 of his other dharma apertures. The majestic nature of that dharma force was why that single aperture could ignite a life me.

    Xu Qing¡¯s existing four life mes, despite having changed color thanks to the zombification process, all converged. And then Xu Qing¡¯s fifth life me ignited.

    As for its color... it was the ordinary red of me.

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled out from the fire, filling Xu Qing, and instantly shattering that state of existence between life and death. In the blink of an eye, the aura of death surrounding him vanished.

    Because the process had not beenpleted, the zombification Xu Qing had experienced could be reversed. What was more, the power of the violet crystal was unleashed. Though Xu Qing hid the crystal itself using his shadow, it still did a good job of rapidly restoring his life force.

    Gradually, another of the life mes turned red, then another.... When all five of his life mes were back to their normal color, intense life force surged through him. His skin returned to its previous condition, and his hair no longer looked dry and withered. The entire process took about eight hours. At that point, he opened his eyes. He waspletely back to normal!

    He had sessfully returned from the point between life and death. He had opened his 121st dharma aperture! Seeing what had happened, the seven Seazombie cultivators up above seemed both regretful and respectful.

    No one would dare to look down on someone who had opened 121 dharma apertures. That person would reach the ultimate limits of the Gold Core level. And of course, the Seazombies knew who Xu Qing was, and that he had lifemps.

    Master Third breathed a sigh of relief, and his eyes shone with admiration. However, he didn¡¯t say anything to interrupt. He knew that next... Xu Qing was going to try to reach the Gold Core level. He waved his hand to send away the Seazombie cultivators. After sealing the area even more tightly, he chose to act as dharma protector.

    Master Seventh himself had asked him to do that. And whether it was because of the favor to Master Seventh, or for the sake of the sect in general, Master Third was going to take the responsibility seriously. He wouldn¡¯t let any idents happen during Xu Qing¡¯s breakthrough. Truth be told, it would be unlikely for any idents to happen in this ce. It would be hard to find somewhere safer in all of Seven Blood Eyes.

    A momentter, Xu Qing opened his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He could sense that Master Third had secured the area, so he closed his eyes and started the breakthrough!

    For all intents and purposes, there was nothing to do after you reached five mes, other than break through.

    Rising from Foundation Establishment to Gold Core involved burning life mes to the limit, and using them to illuminate the heavenly pces.

    Illuminated heavenly pces, though illusory, would never go away.

    What cultivators had to do was, in the years after the breakthrough, turn the illuminated but illusory heavenly pces into corporeal pces. By adding the might of a gold core to them, they would be true heavenly pces.

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts, his five life mes burned high and bright.

    121 dharma apertures were like a hundred and twenty-one furnaces. And that was especially true of the final aperture. Countless ming strands became five life mes, which radiated incredibly dazzling light that filled Xu Qing.

    Within his sea of consciousness, above the life mes, the faint corner of his first illusory heavenly pce had been visible before. But now, it was revealed, as though a curtain had been pulled aside. A momentter, it was bathed in light. It resembled an enormous ptial mansion, bursting with holiness and dignity. It was the most basic and simplistic appearance for a heavenly pce. All humans had illusory heavenly pces that looked like this.

    Such matters were determined by the bloodline of a species. As for how it looked when it became corporeal, that would depend on the techniques practiced by the cultivator.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s five life mes burned high and bright... a second illusory heavenly pce appeared above the first.

    After that was a third and a fourth....

    Massive rumbling sounds echoed out in his sea of consciousness. Lightning crashed. Then his fifth illusory heavenly pce appeared.

    From bottom to top, the five heavenly pces looked majestic. What was more, the light of the life mes was still going. A sixth heavenly pce was revealed within his sea of consciousness.

    Above the sixth heavenly pce was a thick mist that blocked any further progress of the light. Six heavenly pces was the limit for cultivators with three life mes. That was because the pces beyond that existed in the life mist, which was imprable to the light of life mes.

    But Xu Qing was an exception. As his five life mes burned brightly, a seventh illusory heavenly pce appeared within the mist.

    After that, as the dazzling light pierced into the mist, an eighth became visible. Eight illusory heavenly pces caused his sea of consciousness to tremble, and at the same time, caused him to emanate shocking fluctuations that kicked up a raging vortex around him. Boundless amounts of spirit energy were sucked in.

    /p>

    ¡°Next,¡± he murmured, ¡°my lifemps will be life pces!¡±

    With that, he hoisted up the seven-colored wind-chantingmp within his sea of consciousness. Themp shot past the six illusory heavenly pces and into the life mist. After passing the seventh and eighth pces, it reached the highest point, where it unleashed shocking might.

    Consummately brilliant light emanated out, causing a ninth heavenly pce to appear around themp. This pce was not illusory. It was corporeal!

    The process took about an hour. After that, Xu Qing¡¯s ninth heavenly pce was there in the life mist.

    The seven-colored wind-chantingmp had be like a gold core of its own, suppressing the ninth heavenly pce and...pleting it!

    The power of a single heavenly pce instantly erupted from Xu Qing as he sat cross-legged on the altar. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and a deafening rumbling sound echoed out. However, things weren¡¯t over yet. Next, he took the ck umbre-shaped lifemp and hoisted it high!

 Chapter 320: Advancing by Leaps and Bounds

    Chapter 320: Advancing by Leaps and Bounds

    Three mes illuminated six pces. Four mes illuminated seven pces. Five mes illuminated eight pces!

    Right now, the six illusory heavenly pces that existed below the life mist radiated splendor. The power of their united structure pushed the cultivation base from Foundation Establishment firmly into the Gold Core level.

    Within the life mist were the seventh and eighth heavenly pces. Though they were surrounded by mist, they were also radiant. However, the ninth pce was more amazing and majestic than the eighth below it.

    That ninth pce had been formed from the seven-colored wind-chantingmp, and its blinding radiance pierced through the life mist and shone on everything around it. With the seven-colored wind-chantingmp in ce, terrifying fluctuations rolled out, creating a shocking pressure. After all, a single pce contained the power of six mes.

    Then Xu Qing lifted up his second lifemp, and thunderous rumbling sounds filled his sea of consciousness. It sounded like the howl of a godly being, with all living things shouting in response. The ck umbre pierced through everything, flying above the ninth heavenly pce. There, it released dazzling light like a sea, sweeping over everything. At that point, a heavenly pce took shape around the ck lifemp.

    This pce was not illusory. It was corporeal!

    It was... the tenth pce!

    It was different from the ninth pce formed from the seven-coloredmp. This tenth pce was pitch ck and covered with ck mes. It looked almost like a necropolis from the underworld. It seemed shocking and ghastly, but at the same time, it surged with intense power. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess instantly advanced by leaps and bounds, soaring past its previous level!

    He hadn¡¯t just reached the Gold Core level, he had instantly formed two full heavenly pces!

    On the Revered Ancient maind, the Gold Core level with its heavenly pces was a watershed point. Cultivators under Gold Core were considered low-level, and were all considered to be building a foundation. But once you stepped into Gold Core, your foundation wasplete, and your cultivation took a huge leap forward.

    What was more, Xu Qing¡¯s breakthrough was far superior to most of the Gold Core experts in the coalition. For example, even after many years had passed, Sima Ru still had not yetpleted her second heavenly pce. That just went to show how valuable lifemps were.

    Of course, Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess wasn¡¯t just improved by his breakthrough, it also benefited by his constantly transforming imperial-ss technique. Comprehensively speaking, his battle prowess already surpassed that of an ordinary cultivator with two heavenly pces. And that wasn¡¯t even bringing his poisons into the picture.

    Right now, he was already on the verge ofpleting his third heavenly pce, and if he put a poison core in it, his battle prowess would be even more astonishing.

    Then, as he slowly transformed his remaining heavenly pces from illusory to corporeal, and eventually had a total of ten of them, his battle prowess would reach an absolutely astonishing levelpared to others in the same level as him. It wouldn¡¯t be a drawn-out process, simply because his Gold Core technique was very unique.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and within his mind swirled the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art his Master had imparted to him. As it spread out and became part of his heart and mind, his right hand slowly became transparent. It was almost like it existed between illusory and corporeal. Xu Qing looked down at his hand and could sense a terrifying aura in it, something boundlessly gruish.

    If he shoved that hand into the sea of consciousness of an enemy, he could break open their heavenly pces and take the gold core therein. But there was more. Xu Qing could sense that his right hand could create a very powerful threat to grues.

    Master said that when I cultivate this art topletion, my whole body can enter that same state between illusory and corporeal, allowing me to evade all sorts of dangers.

    His eyes shone with determination. He now felt more anxious than ever to progress with his cultivation and get even stronger.

    Shortly after, he took a deep breath; he knew that he had to work even harder than before. With that, his hand returned to normal.

    Looking calm, he stood and bowed with deep respect to Master Third, who had acted as dharma protector for him.

    ¡°Thank you for your trouble, Master Third.¡±

    Xu Qing knew that Master Third had been watching over him for the sake of his own Master, but that didn¡¯t make him any less grateful.

    Up above, Master Third¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he looked at Xu Qing. He did nothing to mask the praise in his expression. As far as he was concerned, Xu Qing was the most spectacr disciple to rise up in Seven Blood Eyes for years.

    ¡°Keep on living, and you¡¯ll y an important role in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the future,¡± he said.

    Xu Qing again sped hands and bowed.

    Master Third waved his hand, and the surrounding spell formation deactivated. Then he vanished.

    Xu Qing looked at the spot where he had vanished, then nced at the huge bronze mirror overhead. Then he took out his dharmaship and reached out to it mentally. The spirit automaton inside let out a howl, and powerparable to Gold Core erupted out. The ship shot off into the distance.

    Moving at top speed, Xu Qing reached the harbor, then continued on to the Forbidden Sea without stopping.

    When he came, he was a four-me Foundation Establishment cultivator. When he left, he was a two-pce Gold Core expert.

    The difference in battle prowess between those two levels was like the difference between the sky and thend.

    After shooting off into the distance, Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°Master Freespirit.¡±

    ¡°Milord!¡± The ck iron skewer appeared next to Xu Qing, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior came out as an illusory projection. He looked fearful and a bit apprehensive as he dropped to his knees.

    ¡°Your battle prowess is weak. If you aren¡¯t able to keep pace with me¡ª¡± Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to finish his sentence.

    The patriarch shivered, then threw his head back and smacked his chest forcefully.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, milord! Your humble servant has long prepared for this moment. I was just preparing to give you an update, milord. It won¡¯t take me any longer than six months¡ª no, wait. Three months!! At that point, your humble servant¡¯s lightning spirit body can be upgraded and will change from spirit to soul!¡±

    The patriarch¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, and he looked ready to go all out.

    The truth was that he was actually a long way from a breakthrough point. But he had no choice right now. If he didn¡¯t start working a lot harder, then given Xu Qing¡¯s current state, the patriarch knew he would end up as cannon fodder.

    That said, if he wanted to break through in three months, he needed resources. After a bit of hesitation, he cautiously said, ¡°Milord, just so you know, I can also absorb souls. In the past, I needed to absorb magical devices to form my lightning spirit body. But to be a lightning soul, I need a lot of souls....¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Xu Qing nced at the patriarch. Earlier, he had been nning to say that if the patriarch couldn¡¯t keep pace, he would set him free. After all, Xu Qing was pleased with how hard the patriarch had worked in recent years. But after hearing what the patriarch just said, Xu Qing thought for a moment and then decided not to mention what he had been about to say.

    Meanwhile, the shadow saw all of this happening and immediately released some fluctuations.

    ¡°Three... also!!

    ¡°Pieces... I... three... breakthrough!¡±

    There was no need for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to trante. Xu Qing understood enough just from listening. The shadow was talking about the taboo treasure fragment he had taken from Sima Ling. In the past, Xu Qing had always hesitated toply, fearful of the shadow¡¯s instinctive drive to fight back. [1]

    But now that he was in the Gold Core level, things were different. Therefore, he nodded and waved his hand. The fragmentnded on the deck atop the shadow. The shadow reacted with delight. Instantly spreading out to cover the fragment, it greedily started absorbing it.

    A few dayster, Xu Qing saw the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s port up ahead. He had been gone for the better part of the month, which wasn¡¯t very long. But thanks to the hard work of everyone in the coalition, there were almost no signs remaining of the catastrophe which had struck.

    The mutagen had been almostpletely driven out, and whatever remained was so faint that the immortal energy from the Evesting Immortal Profundity River made it impossible to detect. What was more, the coalition had set up a lot of new formations to drive out mutagen. Most of the buildings had been repaired. The main thing that remained was the mental pressure and grim attitude which had taken hold among the people.

    Xu Qing sent a message to his Master notifying him of his return, but didn¡¯t contact anyone else.

    Back at his berth, he settled down cross-legged to familiarize himself more with being in the Gold Core level and having heavenly pces. He also started doing more research into the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. In addition to that, he spent some time improving his magical techniques. Whether it was the Dark Serenity Curse, the Ninefold Tsunami, or Within the Nine Springs, they all needed deep examination.

    What was more, his bluegreen dragon could also be transformed. The bluegreen dragon came from his life essence and his dharma apertures. In fact, if he didn¡¯t have that poison pill or his lifemps, then the dragon would have be his first gold core, which he would ce in his first heavenly pce.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t nning to abandon it. He nned to work on the poison pill and his life essence gold core at the same time.

    Closing his eyes, he cast his senses out to his imperial-ss technique. As for Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, I need to devour something else to get it to the second stage.

    Days passed as Xu Qing familiarized himself with his new cultivation level. As the coalition got back to normal, intelligence reports began to pour in about Torchlight.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, it was Master Seventh who handled the reports, and began to personally coordinate the search for more clues. Both Seven Blood Eyes and the Eight Sect Coalition as a whole needed to vent their frustrations in the form of ughter. And Xu Qing was in exactly the same position. However, a thorough investigation was something that would take time. And nobody was willing to underestimate Torchlight. Everything had to be done safely.

    Before the intelligence reports could alle in and be verified, a visitor came to Seven Blood Eyes. It was a delegation from Easher Isle in the Forbidden Sea, and it was made up of a group of several hundred cultivators.

    Leading the group was Guru Easher along with her granddaughter Yanyan.

    As close allies of Seven Blood Eyes, they had obviously been concerned with what recently happened. And they hade to confer with Seven Blood Eyes, and create a n to deal with Torchlight and get revenge.

    Almost as soon as Sir Bloodsmelter and Master Seventh sat down with Guru Easher to start discussing matters, Yanyan secretly slipped away.

    She obviously cared a lot about Seven Blood Eyes, and knew a lot about it. And that was especially true of Xu Qing. She didn¡¯t even need to ask anyone where Xu Qing was. Before long, she had found his berth.

    Standing outside of his dharmaship, she softly said, ¡°Oh, Big Bro Xu Qing, I¡¯ve missed you so much!¡±

    1. Xu Qing got the fragment of the taboo treasure in chapter 232. ?

 Chapter 321: Yanyanâ€™s Gift

    <h4>Chapter 321: Yanyan¡¯s Gift</h4>

    Inside the cabin, Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    Yanyan actually wasn¡¯t the first person to havee to visit him. Both Ding Xue and Gu Muqing had been by. Xu Qing had been acting just the same as always, not giving any indication anything was different. If anything, he was a bit quieter than before.

    Upon hearing Yanyan¡¯s voice, he stood, walked out of the cabin, and looked calmly at the girl on the shore.

    Seeing him, her face broke out into a wide, happy smile. At the same time, she leaped gracefully off of the shore toward his dharmaship. All she aplished, though, was smacking into its defenses. A thump rang out, then she fell back to the shore. Climbing into a sitting position, she looked at Xu Qing with discouraged eyes that welled with tears.

    Gripping her garments tightly, she said, ¡°You don¡¯t like me, Big Bro Xu Qing? Did I do something wrong? Just tell me, I can change....¡±

    ¡°Cut the act,¡± Xu Qing said quietly. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    The tears in her eyes vanished and a sly grin appeared on her face. Sticking her finger in her mouth, she bit it hard enough to draw blood. Something strange could be seen in her eyes as she sucked the blood. ¡°I guess I can¡¯t fool you, Big Bro Xu Qing. But I actually love it when you look at me like that. I came to bring you a little gift.¡±

    Eyes zing over a bit, she chuckled and waved her hand, causing seven ck water barrels to appear. Each was roughly as tall as a person, and they were all tightly sealed with lids. However, sticking out of each lid was a human head. [1]

    Each water barrel had a cultivator inside, and most seemed to have three-me cultivation bases. There was one who emanated Gold Core fluctuations and had a single heavenly pce. They had all obviously been tortured, yet weren¡¯t dead. And now they were nted like flowers into pots. In response to the barrels thumping onto the ground, they opened their eyes. Upon catching sight of Yanyan, they lookedpletely terrified and despairing. Among the group were both men and women, and they were as pale as death. Some were missing eyes, ears, or noses, and one of them had their lips sewn shut.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± Yanyan said happily, ¡°when I got back to Easher Isle I started arresting all the Night Dove operatives. Thanks to some clues I got, I was able to track down these seven. They¡¯re mid-level leaders from South Phoenix who were fleeing to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Thankfully, Stinker was able to catch all of them.¡±

    With that she looked at Xu Qing, her eyes shining with anticipation.

    Xu Qing looked over the group of seven. It didn¡¯t take any close examination for him to confirm that they were Night Dove operatives. He had killed so many people from Night Dove that he could tell who they were from the mere rancorous energy they exuded. Beyond that, the Violent Crimes Division had issued arrest warrants for all seven of these people. It was only their extreme caution that had enabled them to evade arrest in Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°Very good,¡± Xu Qing said, nodding at Yanyan.

    That got her even more excited, to the point where she was panting slightly. Her nose red, and her eyes zed further as she softly said, ¡°So, Big Bro Xu Qing, should we... get started?¡±

    Xu Qing stepped off his dharmaship and onto the shore. Once again looking over the seven trembling figures, he eventually focused on the Gold Core cultivator.

    This cultivator was a middle-aged man with a ghastly scar on his face and very intense rancorous energy. Xu Qing recognized him from the files back in Seven Blood Eyes. He was one of the top Night Dove leaders back in South Phoenix. He was a cruel and ruthless killer who was responsible for the deaths of many living treasures. And however many had died, he had trafficked countless more. This was the person with the lips sewn together, and when Xu Qing looked at him, the man made a muffled attempt to speak. His eyes pleaded for mercy. However, that plea for mercy was something this very man had seen countless times, yet had never once responded to.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture, and the water barrel around the man exploded.

    Water burst out everywhere, and the man tumbled to the ground. His limbs had all been removed. As he struggled, he felt a powerful force wrap around him and drag him in front of Xu Qing.

    As Yanyan watched excitedly, Xu Qing reached out toward the man. As he did, his hand turned illusory and passed into the man¡¯s chest without inflicting any injury.

    That said, the man could feel what was happening, and the terror within him soared higher than anything he had experienced at Yanyan¡¯s hands back on Easher Isle. As he trembled, his expression became one of utter incredulity mixed with intense terror that bordered on madness. He felt the ice-cold hand entering his body, piercing into his sea of consciousness, and then groping around for his heavenly pce....

    Next, that hand stabbed into the heavenly pce and wrapped around the gold core therein. Finally, the hand wrenched out the gold core!

    Unimaginable pain pierced through the man, causing him to writhe in madness. Whimpering sounds made it past his sewn lips. Compared to this, the torture he had experienced on Easher Isle was mere child¡¯s y. This was pain that couldpletely break a person. Finally, his sewn lips ripped apart, and a brutal scream erupted from his mouth. Around then, Xu Qing¡¯s hand emerged from his chest, and gripped in it... was a gold core.

    There were countless slender threads still attached to the core, but as Xu Qing pulled, they snapped.

    The middle-aged cultivator spasmed violently and screamed as his heavenly pce copsed, causing massive amounts of blood to spray out of his chest, nose, eyes, ears, and even his pores. But what caused this evil, depraved cultivator to feel even more hopeless was that, despite the blood filling his eyes, he could just barely make out Xu Qing holding his own gold core. And then the core vanished into Xu Qing.

    Anyone who could see this would be absolutely terrified. That was especially true considering that Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression hadn¡¯t changed the entire time, not even when he became soaked in the spray of blood.

    Yanyan¡¯s eyes shone brightly as she stared at Xu Qing. Seeing his methods, she realized that they were far more stimting and fun than what she had used. Panting even more dramatically, she couldn¡¯t stop herself from putting her finger into her mouth, biting it, and sucking even more blood. That was apparently the only way that she could calm herself down.

    Xu Qing nced briefly at Yanyan, then waved his hand at the middle-aged cultivator. The rancorous energy that had surrounded the man erupted, transforming into countless illusory faces that pounced on the cultivator and started devouring him. Screams echoed out for several breaths of time before they faded away. He was thoroughly dead.

    The cultivators in the other water barrels were all trembling, their faces masks of despair and terror. Before, they had thought Yanyan was a nightmare, but now they realized that there was a far, far worse fate to be had.

    Given that they were in Foundation Establishment, they weren¡¯t much use to Xu Qing, so he sent out some divine will, causing the ck iron skewer to fly out. It flew toward the remaining six cultivators in a blur, stabbing into their foreheads and extracting their souls.

    It didn¡¯t spare the dead Gold Core cultivator either, as his body still contained a fading discarnate soul.

    Yanyan smiled as she sucked her finger and looked at Xu Qing. It was as if the whole world around her was a blur except for Xu Qing. He was the only thing she could see clearly.

    ¡°Do you feel a bit better, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Yanyan and her fingers, all of which were covered with bite scars.

    ¡°Don¡¯t hurt yourself like that anymore,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s unsightly.¡±

    If anyone else said that to Yanyan, she would dig their eyes out or perhaps rip out their tongue. She wouldn¡¯t even listen to what her grandmother told her. But in response to Xu Qing, she just nodded vigorously.

    ¡°Okay, Big Bro Xu Qing. From now on, I¡¯ll only bite one finger. And I won¡¯t bite it again until after it¡¯s healed. That way there won¡¯t be scars and it won¡¯t look bad. Big Bro Xu Qing, can I... can Ie onto your ship?¡±

    ¡°Next time,¡± he replied calmly. ¡°I need to work on my cultivation right now.¡±

    Turning, he walked into the cabin.

    As the glow of evening covered the shore, Yanyan watched Xu Qing go back into the cabin and felt disappointed. When she hade earlier, she had felt both happy and sad. She had been happy to finally see Big Bro Xu Qing again, but sad because of what her grandmother had exined about what happened to Seven Blood Eyes. That was why she had begged her grandmother to give her enough dharma protectors to allow her to track down these seven Night Dove fugitives. Bringing them here and giving them to Big Bro Xu Qing had lifted her spirits a bit.

    She just wasn¡¯t sure what to do to make Xu Qing happy. All she knew was that if someone had given her a gift like this, she would be happy. And thus, she felt disappointed.

    After Xu Qing disappeared, she sat alone on the shore, gnawing on her lip. Then, she couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and lifted her hand to bite her finger.

    In the end, though, she held back.

    After all, Big Bro Xu Qing didn¡¯t like that.

    As the moments ticked by, she struggled, her hand trembling. Eventually, a perverse energy began to build up in her. That perverse energy had always been strong in her, but her unstable emotions were now making it even stronger.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s calm voice drifted out of the dharmaship.

    ¡°Sit down.¡±

    Stunned, Yanyan obediently sat down and looked at the dharmaship. A momentter, flute music drifted slowly out of the ship. It was melodious and peaceful, and just listening to it would cause one''s thoughts to be tranquil.

    Eventually, it was past dusk and the moon was out. The perverse energy in Yanyan slowly dissipated, and a smile appeared on her face.

    Finally, the music stopped. She stood up.

    ¡°Thank you, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡± Then she skipped away, happily humming the tune she had just heard.

    Days passed. One morning when Xu Qing was seated cross-legged in meditation, his eyes opened, and he looked at his transmission jade slip.

    Picking it up, he heard Master Seventh¡¯s stern voice speaking to him.

    <i>¡°I found some clues about Torchlight, and they led me to Master Shengyun. I confirmed it¡¯s not a trap. The coalition has authorized full use of force, and has posted a kill mission. Xu Qing, are you willing toe along?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked up, his expression as cold as ice. Without hesitation, he replied, <i>¡°I¡¯m willing!¡±</i>

    1. Presumably, these water barrels would look something like traditional Chinese water barrels made from y or a simr substance. <u>Like this</u>. ??

 Chapter 322: Moonfall Gorge

    Chapter 322: Moonfall Gorge

    There wasn¡¯t a cloud to be seen in the big, blue sky. The rays of dawn spread out, illuminating the entire Eight Sect Coalition megacity.

    A roar echoed out and terrifying shockwaves rolled through the sky as a huge ck dracolizard flew out from the headquarters of Seven Blood Eyes. It had massive wings that sent gale force winds out in all directions and seemed capable of obscuring the sky. It started out only 300 meters in length, but as it flew into the dome of heaven, it rapidly grewrger. In the blink of an eye, it was 3,000 meters long, but it kept growing after that until it was over 6,000 meters! On the dracolizard¡¯s back were an array of numerous buildings, within which were a host of figures.

    Xu Qing was among them.

    This dracolizard was one of Master Seventh¡¯s three dreadnaughts. The other people gathered on it were the other Seven Blood Eyes disciples who had epted the kill mission. Most of them weren¡¯t going on the mission because of any sense of camaraderie or friendship. Rather, it was for the very sizable mission reward.

    That was just how Seven Blood Eyes worked; everything came down to matters of profit versus risk. In a chaotic world, risk could be ignored as long as there was enough profit to be had.

    On the tallest of the buildings, in the very front, Xu Qing stood with two other individuals. They were none other than Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter. The wind whipped their robes and their eyes shone with frigid killing intent. The two of them were personally leading the Seven Blood Eyes forces on this mission.

    Flying through the air behind the dracolizard was the Sixth Peak in its fortress form. The massive mountain emanated a grim pressure that weighed down on the hearts and minds of anyone whoid eyes on it. Whether it was because of profit or because of feelings for Master Sixth, most disciples from the Sixth Peak had chosen toe.

    There were more coalition sectsing along. They included the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect, the Dark Serenity Sect, and the House of Grue Hunters. The patriarchs and matriarchs of those sects were also present. Beyond that, all eight sects had their taboo treasures ready to use.

    As the taboo fluctuations rolled out, nine enormous bronze swords flew out from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect. Patriarch Soaring Cloud and the sect leader led the way, bristling with killing intent.

    From the House of Grue Hunters came a 24,000-meter grue eye that seemed to contain the cosmos within its gaze. Also within it were countless cultivators from the House of Grue Hunters.

    Even more impressive was the massive gravestone that rose up from the Dark Serenity Sect. Blood-colored calligraphy on the gravestone made magical symbols that emanated a profound sensation of ancient time. Arch-Immortal Plumdark stood atop the gravestone, nked by numerous disciples.

    As the four sects rose up into the air, a massive face appeared in the air, filling the sky as it looked off into the distance. It was none other than the president of the coalition.

    ¡°Our investigation has borne fruit. Torchlight has numerous secret sanctuaries in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Most are mere facades, but we¡¯ve identified four that are not. Today, the coalition will send one sect to each of those sanctuaries to kill all Torchlight cultivators there. Today, we avenge our fallen coalitionrades! All coalition taboo treasures are active and can be used in the fighting!

    ¡°The Swordsage Court has given us their full endorsement for this mission, and will be monitoring the situation. If Night Dove¡¯s superior appears again like he did before, then he will have a hard time avoiding catastrophe!

    ¡°What¡¯s more, the Swordsage Court has a way to counteract the light he produced with that box. With those things in mind, let the operation begin!¡±

    As the president¡¯s words echoed out, the four sects sprang into motion, heading straight toward various teleportation portals that appeared in midair.

    Seven Blood Eyes was going to the location where Master Shengyun had been spotted. Given Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s current status in the senate, he had been able to pressure the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect into giving Seven Blood Eyes the right to handle their former disciple.

    The persons responsible for Master Sixth¡¯s death were ultimately Night Dove and his lord. However, Master Shengyun and his father, Chu Tianqun, were also dangerous threats, and thus Seven Blood Eyes wanted to focus on them.

    Master Shengyun had been tracked down to... the Young Arbiter Sect.

    After the Young Arbiter Sect and their dam were destroyed by the coalition, a secret deal had been brokered between the coalition and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. That was why the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had never made a big fuss over the matter, and by extension, had tacitly approved. The Young Arbiter Sect had been forced to swallow a bitter pill, and in the end, had no choice but to move to another location and try to rebuild their organization.

    In the end, though, the Young Arbiter Sect was essentially a subsidiary branch of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. And thus, in order to cate the Young Arbiter Sect, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had increased their yearly disciple promotion quota. That meant the Young Arbiter Sect was allowed to promote more disciples to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society than in the past.

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was different from most other sects. They didn¡¯t recruit disciples from the poption atrge, but rather, approved disciples based on predestined affinity. That was why Li Zimei had ultimately joined their numbers. Most of their new disciples came from the over one hundred subsidiary branches that adhered to their sect. The number of disciples that could be promoted every year was based on how strong the subsidiary branch was.

    In the past, the Young Arbiter Sect had been allowed to promote four disciples per year. But now, they could promote eight. That was a big change for the Young Arbiter Sect. Countless mortals and cultivators in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture longed to end up in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. The best starting point for such people would be one of the subsidiary branches such as the Young Arbiter Sect. After all, in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the most powerful organization other than the Swordsage Court, the group that was the face of humankind, was of course the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    For unknown reasons, after Master Shengyun betrayed his sect, he was secretly recruited by the Young Arbiter Sect. He changed his appearance as well as his name, and became one of their ordinary disciples. It seemed most likely that he wanted to use the Young Arbiter Sect to ultimately enter the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    Thanks to the intelligence-gathering operations carried out by the coalition and Seven Blood Eyes, Master Seventh had somehow dug up all the information about the situation. And he didn¡¯t just know that Master Shengyun was now in the Young Arbiter Sect. He had also identified other Torchlight field agents there, plus some of their conve agents.

    The only thing Seven Blood Eyes wasn¡¯t sure about was whether or not Night Dove and his lord would show up. Part of the purpose of the operation was to draw them out into the open. If they took action against any of the four coalition sects, then the coalition as a whole, plus the Swordsage Court, would step in.

    Of course, the coalition was the open threat, and the Swordsage Court was the hidden threat. The Swordsage Court was obviously very interested in Night Dove and his lord.

    Xu Qing was aware of all of this. Killing intent swirled in his eyes as the dracolizard and the Sixth Peak shot toward the huge teleportation portal.

    Teleportation light glittered and the sky-shattering roar of the dracolizard echoed out. A momentter, the dracolizard appeared above the Moonfall in.

    Moonfall in was in the far northeast of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, between the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and the northeastern tundra. It was a cold ce, but the spirit energy was more than enough to sustain sects both small andrge. In fact, there were several thousand sects there.

    On the edge of Moonfall in was a huge canyon called Moonfall Gorge. That was the location of the Young Arbiter Sect. It had once been a mid-level sect. But after the destruction of their dam and headquarters, they ended up with less than 10,000 disciples.

    It was currently afternoon, and the sun shone brightly. At the moment, most of the disciples were busy working on their cultivation. Therefore, when the huge dracolizard appeared, ck clouds rolling around it as it howled, the Young Arbiter Sect was instantly thrown into chaos.

    Before the Young Arbiter Sect disciples could even react, the dracolizard closed in, gale force winds sweeping about it. The Sixth Peak also descended, unleashing terrifying pulses of might.

    Meanwhile, within the Seazombie ancestralnd, the enormous bronze mirror hovering above the fourteen zombie ancestor statues swiveled so that it was facing the general direction of Moonfall Gorge. The zombie ancestor statues rumbled as massive power surged. Then, the seven blood-colored eyes above seven of the statues all opened. Their gazes were fixed on the distant Moonfall Gorge. All of a sudden, blood-colored light filled the canyon.

    To the shock and astonishment of the Young Arbiter Sect, and especially their high-level leaders, as that blood-colored light spread out, about a thousand of their disciples started exuding a clearly-visible ck energy.

    The affected disciples¡¯ facial features and physical appearance started to change. As the others looked on, shocked, their true features were revealed. Many of them were ordinary Young Arbiter Sect disciples. However... there were seven or eight Gold Core disciples who were also affected. And most dramatic of all was that one of the sect¡¯s Nascent Soul grand elders also experienced the same effect, and his facial features changed to that of a stranger.

    Everyone in the Young Arbiter Sect was astonished.

    As for the sect leader, his face turned very grim. Everyone else was taken by surprise by what was happening, but he wasn¡¯t. Given his close rtionship with the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, there was no way he could be a traitor. In fact, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had warned him that Torchlight was infiltrating the Young Arbiter Sect. As a result, as soon as he saw what was happening, he issued orders.

    ¡°Disciples, kill any cultivator with ck energying off them. They¡¯re evil Torchlight agents!¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to do anything!¡± Almost as soon as the sect leader issued those orders, Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s vicious voice echoed out. Sir Bloodsmelter flicked his sleeve, and the power of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure surged, sealing the area.

    Next, Master Seventh issued his own orders, and the Seven Blood Eyes disciples became streams of light that shot off of the dracolizard and toward the Young Arbiter Sect. They did nothing to the ordinary Young Arbiter Sect disciples. They only targeted the cultivators exuding the ck energy.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze had locked onto one of the seemingly ordinary disciples.

    Thanks to the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, that disciple¡¯s true facial features had already been revealed. He was very handsome, and exuded the fluctuations of the Gold Core level. He was none other than... Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s face fell. He was absolutely stupefied that Seven Blood Eyes had already managed to track him down. That said, his cultivation base was not the same as thest time he¡¯d fought Xu Qing. For one thing, he now emitted Gold Core fluctuations. Beyond that, the golden crow in his right eye had been fully sealed. It was now dimmer. Furthermore, its effects had been reversed. Instead of leeching off of him, it was now fully under his control. It was now his own golden crow eye.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was fully focused on Master Shengyun. And as soon as Master Seventh¡¯s orders rang out, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes surged with killing intent. He flew down into the Young Arbiter Sect and headed... straight toward Master Shengyun.

    This time he was going to kill him!

 Chapter 323: Within the Nine Springs

    <h4>Chapter 323: Within the Nine Springs</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun looked back at Xu Qing.

    At almost the exact same instant that Xu Qing sprang into motion, Master Shengyun suddenly shot backward at top speed. As he surged with Gold Core power, a golden crow projection emerged from his right eye, letting loose a piercing cry as it did. The golden crow was bound by countless fetters of illusory magical symbols, which stretched from the crow''s body all the way back into Master Shengyun¡¯s eye. It was a very mysterious method which allowed Master Shengyun tomand an imperial-ss technique, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and thus be blessed by added speed from the golden crow.

    .

    However, Xu Qing was also astoundingly fast. In the blink of an eye, he was in the Young Arbiter Sect and heading right toward Master Shengyun.

    As the Seven Blood Eyes disciples charged with deadly force into the sect, intense rumbling sounds suddenly filled Moonfall Gorge. The ground shook violently, causing it to crack open. Fiery shafts of light shot up from the cracks as a massive hand erupted from the ground and stretched high into the Young Arbiter Sect. It was fully 300 meters in size and was madepletely of rock. The skin of the arm connected to the hand was covered with fiery magical symbols, and the blood that ran through its veins wasva.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the ground shattered and a cloud of rubble rained down.

    The hand stretched up, then mmed down onto the ground, creating another huge earthquake. It pushed down, and a massive stone giant rose high, covered in fire. Thousands of meters tall, it stood up and released a mad howl as fluctuations that far surpassed the Nascent Soul level erupted from it, sending out shockwaves everywhere.

    Shockingly, a pitch-ck coffin was inly visible on the giant¡¯s chest.

    And on its head were two people.

    Both wore ck cloaks and had masks that resembled the broken face of the god. One stood and one squatted. They were not Night Dove and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, but both emanated terrifying fluctuations, and the eyes visible beneath their masks were cold and indifferent.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe they found us.¡±

    ¡°Our lord and master was right. Before he left, he emphasized not to underestimate any of these people.¡±

    ¡°Given what¡¯s happening here, it seems highly possible the Eight Sect Coalition has sent people to our other three sanctuaries as well.¡±

    Torchlight was arge organization that had many more members besides Night Dove and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Their conve agents were all illustrious people, although the vast majority of their membership was made up of field agents like Master Shengyun. The field agents of Torchlight didn¡¯t qualify to be in the conve, and thus couldn¡¯t wear the special masks. To qualify, one had to put on a Blood-Soaked Performance and possess a Nascent Soul cultivation base at the minimum.

    These two were obviously Torchlight conve agents assigned to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The moment they appeared in the open, Master Seventh¡¯s gaze locked onto them. The primary goal on this trip to root out Torchlight from the Young Arbiter Sect had already been met. It had been to force the conve agents into the open.

    Master Seventh strode forward through the air directly toward the stone giant. As it red back at him with eyes of madness, the two figures atop its head blurred as theyunched attacks. When the two parties shed, a massive boom rang out, and a tremor passed through the giant. Then its entire right arm copsed and it staggered backward. Grim expressions appeared on the faces of the two masked agents. Master Seventh had single-handedly struck a blow so severe that it knocked three Spirit Trove enemies backward.

    Meanwhile, the shockwaves of the fight were destroying thend and the canyon, sending Young Arbiter Sect disciples flying this way and that. They looked extremely rmed, but in reality, they weren¡¯t in a lot of danger. The Seven Blood Eyes disciples werepletely focused on the Torchlight field agents, who were clearly visible because of the ck energy they exuded.

    The onlyplication was that, in the chaos, the Torchlight agents were doing their best to flee.

    Even the field agents of Torchlight were both ruthless and extraordinary individuals. And given that there were more than a thousand of them present, it wasn¡¯t an easy task for Seven Blood Eyes to simply wipe them out. That said, the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure had a huge range, and therefore, the Torchlight agents couldn¡¯t get away that easily.

    Meanwhile, in the other three sanctuaries, the Dark Serenity Sect, House of Grue Hunters, and Soaring Cloud Sword Sect were also fighting conve agents.

    In all four locations, intense fighting was going on. However, all of this... was a fishing expedition. The real purpose was to see if Night Dove and his lord would appear, and if so, where! This operation wasn¡¯t some clever trap. It was open baiting!

    There were <is above and snares below</i>, because all of the great powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were keeping a close eye on all four of the sanctuaries. The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was cooperating, and even the Church of Departure had joined in. Everyone was following the lead of the Swordsage Court. And right now, everyone was waiting to see what would happen.

    At the same time, everyone was on guard against Torchlight <i>making a feint to the east and attacking in the west</i>, and popping up in one of the headquarters of the sects.

    Xu Qing had already started to unleash ughter. His eyes radiated killing intent as he attacked. He wore his violet embroidered robe and had on his Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown. His two heavenly pces had manifested as two umbres above him, one with seven colors, the other pitch ck. His Gold Core cultivation base fluctuations were on full disy. Behind him was a golden crow letting loose a piercing cry and surrounded by a sea of mes. Xu Qing looked absolutely ruthless.

    A Gold Core Torchlight agent popped up in front of him, pulsing with the aura of a single heavenly pce. Xu Qing ignored his attack, and instead thrust out his hand, which was already illusory thanks to the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. His hand pierced right into the man¡¯s sea of consciousness, through his heavenly pce, to his gold core. With one vicious move, Xu Qing ripped it out.

    After crushing and absorbing it, he moved on to a nonhuman chosen cultivator with four life mes. That chosen cultivator was famous among his people, but when Xu Qing hit him, he copsed under a single blow, his body being shredded so badly he was unrecognizable.

    Not even looking at him, Xu Qing had the golden crow devour him, then shot forward. In his right hand was a dagger of balefire which he thrust toward a burly Gold Core cultivator with a single heavenly pce. As he neared, the burly man¡¯s face fell, and he backed up. Meanwhile, a two-pce cultivator some distance away closed in at high speed.

    Xu Qing elerated, reaching a speed even faster than before. In the blink of an eye, he was on top of the burly man. He shed his dagger viciously through the air, and the burly man¡¯s head flew off!

    A momentter, the two-pce cultivator arrived and let loose an attack. Xu Qing looked up, his eyes flickering with killing intent as his Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown released fluctuations of defense, blocking the attack. Then he clenched his hand into a fist andunched a punch!

    Blood sprayed out of the two-pce cultivator¡¯s mouth. His cultivation base was in the same level as Xu Qing, but his fleshly body wasn¡¯t close to being the same. As the golden crow let loose a piercing cry, the man tried to back up. He was toote.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cold as he grabbed the two-pce cultivator. In that moment of intense crisis, the two-pce cultivator whipped out a life-saving item to defend himself. However, Xu Qingpletely ignored that andunched a vicious attack with his head.

    One head-butt. Two. Three!

    He also released poisons, including his beetles, which had some of the power of the taboo poison pill. Almost instantly, the two-pce cultivator¡¯s skin started to melt. And then Xu Qing¡¯s head mmed into him again. Blood sprayed everywhere along with a bloodcurdling scream.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand pierced into the two-pce cultivator¡¯s sea of consciousness, and the heavenly pces therein. He grabbed the man¡¯s gold cores, ripped them out, and then decapitated him. Then he continued across the battlefield at high speed. Any Torchlight agents that got close to him died, regardless of the level of their cultivation base. After all, no one higher than the three-pce level was there to stop him.

    Blood sprayed as his dagger lopped off heads. Before long, there were dozens of heads rolling on the ground behind him, with headless corpses toppling down next to them. It was very shocking and ghastly.

    Xu Qing radiated energy, blood, and a baleful aura that shocked anyone who saw him. Next in line was a three-me Foundation Establishment cultivator. When Xu Qing mmed into him, he exploded into a mist of gore. Xu Qing emerged from the gore like an asura, not slowing down for even a moment as he cut down all Torchlight field agents who got in his way.

    When Xu Qing spotted Gold Core enemies with three heavenly pces, he avoided them. After all, there were Seven Blood Eyes elders present to handle them.

    The battlefield was full of chaos, but Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was devoid of chaos, and was fixed solely on Master Shengyun. Every move he made was ruthlessly efficient, and thus he pierced across the field of battle and closed in relentlessly. His killing intent grew even stronger.

    Meanwhile, Master Shengyun¡¯s expression was unsightly as he continued to flee.

    Xu Qing closed in, his eyes wild, the golden crow behind him crying out loudly. As he neared, the golden crow suddenly seemedrger and more majestic. Rising high, it looked at everything below, then dove down. Xu Qing elerated until he was only about 600 meters from Master Shengyun. To a Gold Core cultivator, 600 meters was a distance that could be crossed in the shortest of moments. Xu Qing was little more than a string of afterimages as he sped across that distance and appeared right in front of Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s face turned vicious. Knowing that flight wasn¡¯t an option, he tapped into the power of his heavenly pce. The golden crow behind him cried out as he performed an incantation gesture and shoved his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Countless beams of sword light shot out, creating a sea of swords.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother looking at them. His fist sted through the sea of swords andnded right on Master Shengyun¡¯s chest.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s defenses popped up to block the blow.

    As that happened, Xu Qing thought about Master Sixth dying. He thought about what happened in the rain that night. And though the person in front of him wasn¡¯t the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, it caused his killing intent to burn to new heights. And it needed an outlet. Eyes bloodshot, Xu Qingunched a second punch, then a third, a fourth, and a fifth.... Each punch was stronger than thest. Each punch was backed by all of the power of his fleshly body and cultivation base. And they all contained some of his ck beetles.

    Booms echoed out as Master Shengyun staggered backward. He had defenses, but Xu Qing¡¯s sessive fist strikes caused them to ripple and distort. The physical resonance created by the attacks still caused problems for him, and soon he was uncontrobly coughing up mouthfuls of blood.

    Xu Qing attacked like an unstoppable tempest, not giving any pause for rest. He summoned his heavenly saber and shed it down. He tapped into the Ninefold Tsunami, sending wild walls of sea water forth.

    Master Shengyun was visibly stunned.

    Finally, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he threw a final fist strike. At that point, the beetles had corroded Master Shengyun¡¯s defenses enough that they were done for.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fistnded. The defenses exploded, and Xu Qing¡¯s fist hit Master Shengyun¡¯s chest. It was the final fist strike of Within the Nine Springs!

    A tremor passed through Master Shengyun, and blood sprayed out of his mouth along with a frenzied shriek. Then a series of booms rang out inside of him.

    His 121st dharma aperture exploded!

    His eighth heavenly pce, still in its illusory state, shattered!

    One fist had struck a mighty blow!

 Chapter 324: Master Shengyun. Dead!

    Chapter 324: Master Shengyun. Dead!

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were crimson and full of mad killing intent as he pressed the attack.

    Meanwhile, booms rang out in the sky as Master Seventh, his expression grim and his killing intent raging, also fought fiercely to release the guilt in his heart. He had been wracked with self-me recently, frustrated that he hadn¡¯t calcted all of the possible oues that had ultimately led to Master Sixth¡¯s death.

    The only reason the tragedy had urred was because he wasn¡¯t capable enough. The only reason things had turned out the way they had was that his battle prowess wasn¡¯t sufficient. He couldn¡¯t ept that. He couldn¡¯t allow it. And he most definitely could never allow something like that to happen again to someone he cared about.

    Therefore, his attacks burst with killing intent. And he didn¡¯t resort to any daoist magics, as he didn¡¯t have the rity of mind to focus on them.

    He used his fists to smash everything in his path. His every attack caused rumbling sounds to fill heaven and earth. The wind screamed and the air shattered. Every fist strike contained deceptive power, strength that could crush everything. His relentless attacks shocked the stone giant, who could do nothing but stagger backward and howl. The giant¡¯s eyes filled with pure terror at the terrifying nature of Master Seventh¡¯s battle prowess.

    As Master Seventh battered the giant, cracks spread out across its body. Its left arm shattered, and then both of its legs. Its torso crumbled... causing countless boulders to rain down onto thend below.

    The two conve agents from Torchlight were visibly shocked, and their eyes radiated terror as blood oozed from their mouths. The masks covering their faces shattered, and they were already covered with serious wounds. Previously, most of the attack power had been absorbed by the giant, but with the giant gone, there was no question that these two were about to die.

    ¡°This is the great circle of Spirit Trove!!¡±

    They howled in panic as the giant copsed, and then they simply turned and fled.

    Higher in the air was Sir Bloodsmelter, who looked down coldly at everything that was happening. With him in control, the battle was fairly one-sided. Right now, he was waiting to see if other Torchlight agents woulde to the rescue, or if the agents present would somehow tap into even greater power than they had already.

    There was fighting going on, both in the air and on the ground.

    ***

    Moments before¡­.

    Killing intent raged in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as he chased Master Shengyun, who was coughing up blood like mad. Master Shengyun¡¯s 121st dharma aperture had exploded, and the eighth heavenly pce he had created was now gone, provoking a bitterugh from him. His eyes were full of madness and malice as he red at Xu Qing.

    He hated Xu Qing down to his bones! What was more, he was jealous! Completely and utterly jealous!

    In the past, he had been the number one chosen in the coalition, and had enjoyed ultimate glory. His future prospects had been boundless. Outside of the sect, he shone like the sun, and inside the sect, he dominated an entire generation. But fate had not been fair to him. Despite his chosen status, despite his incredible good looks, instead of being born basking in the light, he had been cursed with a vile conjoined twin.

    He hadn¡¯t given up because of that, though. Despite the constant looks of contempt thrown at him during that time, he worked hard at his cultivation, struggling and fighting to progress. And in the end, he devoured his younger brother to be a whole person.

    After that, he fought hard to surpass all of his peers and reached the ultimate peak. It had been a long, bitter, and torturous struggle that only he could fully appreciate. During that time, he hade to realize that his grandfather¡¯s gaze contained, not just anticipation, but also greed. However, there was no way for Master Shengyun to refuse the lifemp which had been given him, half of it being a blessing, but half of it being a curse.

    What happened after that made him convinced that fate was heartless.

    He had reached dazzling heights of sess in the coalition. As a result, he had believed that his fate would turn out good. Except, he only saw increased greed in the eyes of his grandfather.

    Master Shengyun was no fool, but he had been forced to silently endure the situation. Except then his lifemp was stolen by Xu Qing, and he had been seriously injured. To some extent, that had been a relief. Except never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that, in order to keep on living, he would have to be parasitized by the president¡¯s golden crow.

    In the end, it drove him closer and closer to the point of true madness.

    He had no way to defy his grandfather. So he could only hate Xu Qing. He had no way to defy the president. So he could only resent Xu Qing.

    What gives you the right to have light in your heart, Xu Qing? What gives you the right... to live a life free of despair? We should die together!

    The thought filled him with rancorous malice. When all was said and done, he hated Xu Qing with the ultimate venom, and it was all due to envy! He envied the fact that Xu Qing ultimately did have light in his heart. He envied Xu Qing¡¯s two lifemps that belonged solely to him. He envied that Xu Qing didn¡¯t have to live in torment, yet had achieved the same results as he had. More than all of that, he envied that Xu Qing had a Master who would go to great lengths to keep him safe, plus a patriarch who wasn¡¯t greedily plotting to use him. And most of all, he envied that scene which yed out in the rain, and how Xu Qing had stood tall despite everything. That envy, in turn, became venomous malice.

    Master Shengyun didn¡¯t care about his 121st dharma aperture. He didn¡¯t care that he had reached the Gold Core level and formed that eighth heavenly pce. He didn¡¯t care that he was able to use the golden crow. Had any of that changed anything?

    The only way toe out on top is to be a god! Master Shengyun¡¯s eyes zed with madness as that thought filled his mind. All of his hopes had rested with Torchlight. And though Seven Blood Eyes hadunched this surprise attack, forcing Master Shengyun to cut many of his ns short, he still refused to lose his faith. Even though his 121st dharma aperture had copsed and he had lost that heavenly pce, he was still convinced that he was on the path to ultimate glory.

    But then Xu Qing closed in like a bolt of lightning, his fist clenched. Master Shengyun smiled, and the madness in his eyes turned fiercer as he howled and met the iing punch with his own fist.

    There was such a vast difference in battle prowess between the two that Master Shengyun wasn¡¯t even close to being a match for Xu Qing. A tremor passed through him as his right arm exploded. Screaming, he tumbled backward. Yet he still fought back. Performing an incantation gesture with his left hand, he sent streams of sword light out.

    The first sword fell from above. The Darkheaven Bloodfiend Sword.

    The second sword swept horizontally. The Soul-Sweeping Devil-Crushing Sword.

    The third sword became ghosts with swords strapped to their backs. The Northghost Heavenwondering Sword.

    This time, Xu Qing ignored them. Waving his hand, he crushed the sword falling from above. He destroyed the sword sweeping from the side. And before the eight ghosts could draw the swords from their backs, they screamed as Xu Qing¡¯s energy smashed into them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes raged with killing intent as he continued onward at the same speed and caught up with Master Shengyun. Not giving his opponent any time to even think, he ignored all of his defenses and reached out with the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art.

    His hand became illusory and stabbed into Master Shengyun¡¯s body!

    Master Shengyun had already seen this happen once. He trembled as he tried to fight back, but it didn¡¯t do any good. Eyes wide with madness, he tried to head-butt Xu Qing. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s hand found the other heavenly pce in Master Shengyun¡¯s sea of consciousness.

    When Gold Core cultivators formed their first heavenly pce, it started out illusory. What was more, the heavenly pces they illuminated on their breakthrough determined the ultimate limit of their strength. As for their true battle prowess, it was actually formed by making the heavenly pces corporeal.

    As for Master Shengyun, his limit had been eight, but he had only managed to turn one of them corporeal.

    When Xu Qing¡¯s hand reached into him, it grabbed the only gold core he had in his single heavenly pce! He ripped it out!

    That gold core contained immeasurable rancorous energy, and it emanated extraordinary fluctuations. As soon as Xu Qing ripped it out, Master Shengyun screamed in agony. The gold core came out into the open, trailing streams of blood. Master Shengyun shook violently, howling in grief.

    Eyes filled with killing intent, Xu Qing crushed it. A thump rang out as the gold core turned into countless particles that swept into Xu Qing. At the same time, he ruthlessly head-butted Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyun trembled as his face was smashed into a bloody pulp. And yet, he still raged with madness and aggression.

    All the blood sttered on Xu Qing¡¯s face came from Master Shengyun. As for his eyes, they also contained a madness unique to him. The golden crow behind Xu Qing let loose a piercing cry as it viciously absorbed Master Shengyun.

    Master Shengyunughed as a golden crow materialized behind him as well, only to be set upon by Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow.

    As the two crows snapped back and forth at each other, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold, and the killing intent in his heart reached the point where it had to be released. Grabbing Master Shengyun by the hair, Xu Qing pulled his right hand back into a fist and punched him repeatedly in the chest.

    Each blow caused Master Shengyun¡¯s body to copse more and more. His soul crumpled, whereupon Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior greedily started absorbing it. On the third punch, half of Master Shengyun¡¯s body copsed. When the fourth punch hit, Master Shengyun screamed endlessly. Everything beneath his neck exploded into a cloud of blood, bones, and flesh that showered out in all directions. His soul was simrly destroyed.

    Only his head remained. Defiance, rage, and madness gleamed in his eyes. However, there was nothing to sustain him anymore, so his eyes faded. Master Shengyun was dead!

    The ground was covered with gore.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s golden crow had nothing to sustain it, and was incredibly weak. Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow devoured it in a single gulp. When that happened, Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow suddenly erupted with endless fire that swept over everything in the area. Its tenth tail finished forming, and then an eleventh, twelfth, and finally a thirteenth tail appeared!

    Xu Qing¡¯s imperial-ss technique, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, had finally broken through to the second stage!

 Chapter 325: Experimental God Body

    <h4>Chapter 325: Experimental God Body</h4>

    Upon breaking through, the golden crow grew to twice its previous size. Its pitch-ck body made it look like some paragonic wild beast from antiquity. The mes that covered it were hot enough to immte the earth, and it exuded ck smoke that crystallized the dirt below. Just looking at it from a distance, it was obviously intensely hot. In fact, the air around it distorted, and the mere sparks that floated off of it contained shocking heat. Its eyes werepletely lifelike, and also exuded iparable ferocity and aggression. It was as if anyone the crow looked at, whether they existed in the nine heavens or the ten earths, would find it impossible to escape being devoured.

    Although that was only the feeling it imparted, it was enough that the golden crow was a shocking sight to everyone on the battlefield. That was especially true when it stretched out its wings and pped them gracefully, causing the sea of mes on the ground to expand dramatically.

    Within that sea of mes was Xu Qing, his hair whipping around him. His bewitchingly beautiful face would cause anyone who looked at him to feel stunned. And the fire around him created the perfect contrast for his fierce aggression.

    Of course, there was more to the golden crow¡¯s breakthrough than external appearance. Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess was improved. Now, the crow didn¡¯t provide a one-me boost. Instead, it blessed his fleshly body with the equivalent of six-me power. That six-me blessing caused cracking sounds to ring out within him, and though it didn¡¯t change him in a way that was physically obvious, itpletely transformed his bones, blood, and muscles.

    He was rising to a new life level!

    The flying golden crow cried out, then looked down at Xu Qing, its thirteen tails streams of me swirling around him like wings of fire. The golden crow¡¯s gaze caused all the fire to sweep toward Xu Qing, surrounding him, with the crow itself like an imperial crown on his head.

    With his two heavenly pces, he was very eye-catching on the battlefield. Whether it was Seven Blood Eyes disciples or the Torchlight field agents, all of them were taken aback, and didn¡¯t dare get close to him.

    Xu Qing stood there silently. He looked down at Master Shengyun¡¯s head in his own hands, whose eyes remained unclosed and staring out nkly.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing got the sensation that something was off. Master Shengyun was definitely dead. And his death made sense, considering the vast difference between one heavenly pce and two. However, Master Shengyun¡¯s father was nowhere to be seen. That was what didn¡¯t make sense. After all, the Blood-Soaked Performance had been orchestrated by Chu Tianqun for the sake of Master Shengyun. Yet now, when Master Shengyun died, the father wasn¡¯t here. There was something unusual about the situation.

    What was more... Master Shengyun had acted very strangely. He hadn¡¯t said a single thing during the entire fight, and his shouts and screams had seemed different than before. They were less piercing. That was not how Xu Qing remembered Master Shengyun acting.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing lifted Master Shengyun¡¯s mangled and bloody head, then grabbed his jaw and ripped it off.

    Looking at it, his eyes suddenly glittered.

    There was no tongue in Master Shengyun¡¯s mouth!

    The event which had struck Xu Qing most deeply about Master Shengyun was when the Darkspirit Everwill Door had opened and a huge, noxious tongue had emerged. It waster that Xu Qing came to realize that when the door opened, it revealed what was in a person¡¯s heart. [1]

    Master Shengyun¡¯s heart had contained that tongue. He had no idea if it was coincidence or not, but here was Master Shengyun, dead and without a tongue.

    .

    Suddenly, an intense rumbling sound filled the dome of heaven, apanied by terrifying fluctuations. The sound came from the giant. It was at that moment that it couldn¡¯t stand up to Master Sevenths¡¯ assault, andpletely copsed, sending boulders falling to the ground like rain and creating huge craters.

    Meanwhile, the ck coffin which had been in the giant¡¯s chest was now fully revealed. As the sun shone down on the coffin, it seemed incredibly gruish. And then, the appalling sound of nails scraping the interior of the coffin reached the ears of everyone present.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    The two Torchlight conve agents were breathing unsteadily as they backed up. But hearing that sound, their eyes filled with determination and they rapidly performed incantation gestures.

    In response, the ck coffin started shaking. Animalistic howls rang out from inside the coffin. The howls were so intense that many Seven Blood Eyes disciples were physically shaken, and blood oozed out of the corners of their mouths. All of them backed away from the coffin as quickly as possible. The sound contained some indescribable power that could shake the mind and intimidate the soul. It was a higher level of life that provoked instant terror and astonishment. Rumbling sounds spread out everywhere as whatever entity was inside the coffin started banging loudly on the lid, as if trying to break free.

    All Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the area were backing away. Master Seventh¡¯s eyes narrowed, and Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s gaze shone brightly.

    As everyone watched, the banging on the lid grew louder and louder until the lid finally exploded. Debris showered down as shocking waves of godliness rolled out from the coffin. A terrifying pressure weighed down on everyone, while at the same time, winds screamed into the shape of a huge vortex. In virtually a single instant, the sky went from being cloudless to dark and overcast. Bolts of lightning danced and thunder boomed.

    Two withered arms stretched out of the coffin, seemingly human. The hands grabbed the side of the coffin, and pulled. A terrifying body appeared. It was extremely dpidated, with so much damage to the skin that bones were visible everywhere. It looked like a male corpse that had been dead for a very long time. He had no hair, and the skin of his face was rotting and falling off. He had two empty eye sockets, and an open mouth... with a bright red tongue.

    The tongue was lustrous, which didn¡¯t match the corpse at all. It was almost as if it had been taken from a live person and added into the mouth. As the corpse rose, thunder crashed and lightning danced like silver snakes, creating stark illumination below.

    Terrifying fluctuations spread out from the corpse. Within his empty eye sockets burned mysterious mes. However, what really caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to narrow was the tongue.

    It appeared that the red tongue in the mouth of the corpse was the same tongue that was missing from Master Shengyun. The corpse radiated horrific levels of godliness, such that the mysterious mes in his eyes had a golden tinge.

    That light and the eruption of godliness caused the mutagen in the area to surge wildly, influencing the sky. ck rain started to fall. This was like the presence of a god! The key was the word ¡®like,¡¯ as this <i>wasn¡¯t </i>a true god. He just had godliness, that was all.

    The godliness on disy was astounding, but this corpse was as different from a real god as fog was from ice! What was more, the fluctuationsing from the corpse were unstable, as if he might explode at any moment. Clearly, this corpse wasn¡¯t capable of sustaining that level of godliness.

    Xu Qing got the sensation that the corpse had been pieced together violently, creating a new, heretofore unheard-of type of life.

    Just looking at him caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to sting. It was as if the corpse simply couldn¡¯t be looked at. He was very gruish.

    ¡°So this is what Torchlight can do,¡± Master Seventh murmured. ¡°The power of a god? I¡¯ve been investigating this matter for a while now. Very impressive, Torchlight. You <i>are </i>trying to fabricate a god¡­ just as I suspected. You still have a long way to go, though.

    ¡°Patriarch, Torchlight isn¡¯t going to be sending anyone else here today. We can carry out the rest of the n. Let¡¯s capture this experimental god body and use it as a reserve power for our sect!¡±

    At the same time as the words left Master Seventh¡¯s mouth, the corpse threw his head back and howled. Godliness erupted, causing the mutagen levels to soar. The power of the corpse¡¯s life level erupted, and he took a step forward, ignoring the threat of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure. In the blink of an eye, the corpse was up in midair.

    However, Sir Bloodsmelter appeared right in front of the corpse. Innumerable blood-colored streams shot out from him, turning into a huge fist that smashed toward the corpse.

    Golden light red in the eyes of the corpse, causing the air to ripple and distort. Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s fist looked like it was about to hit the corpse. Except, it passed right through him, almost as if the corpse and Sir Bloodsmelter didn¡¯t exist in the same dimensional space.

    In the blink of an eye, Guru Easher appeared in midair. Obviously, she had been invisible and waiting this entire time. Right now, her eyes shone with disbelief.

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter, your son-inw is right. Torchlight... is trying to fabricate a god. But they haven¡¯t seeded yet. This thing they¡¯ve created isn¡¯t strong enough, and they can¡¯t control it. Its mind has already been melted by the godliness!¡± Eyes glittering, she extended her right hand and pushed down with great force.

    As countless streams flowed through her eyes, the area around the corpse copsed. At the same time, the blood threads from Sir Bloodsmelter spun wildly, boring into the air toward the dimensional space upied by the corpse.

    Booms shook everything as Guru Easher and Sir Bloodsmelter worked together to fight the corpse. At the same time, Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered and he performed an incantation gesture that caused the dome of heaven to blur. A huge blood tree appeared, dropping down into the middle of the battlefield and locking down everything around it.

    Meanwhile, in the Seazombie ancestralnd, the fourteen zombie ancestor statues that made up the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure all erupted with full force. The ancient mirror turned as red as blood, and even more astonishing, an additional seven eyes appeared behind the existing seven eyes.

    Fourteen eyes all opened, locking down onto the corpse on the battlefield. Then a red beam shot from the mirror, piercing through everything tond on the battlefield and once again seal itpletely.

    The power of two taboo treasures violently shook the Torchlight field agents and the two conve agents. Blood sprayed out of their mouths as they were crushed on the spot. They were incapable of fighting back!

    This had been Master Seventh¡¯s n all along!

    He didn¡¯t have just one goal for this fight. All of the time and painstaking effort he had spent investigating Torchlight had yielded clues. Based on those clues, he had guessed what Torchlight was nning to do in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And that had led to this mission.

    If Torchlight showed up, then the Swordsage Court would step in. But Master Seventh hade to the conclusion that if Torchlight didn¡¯t send backup to this location, it would be because they left behind something very powerful that rted to godliness. Getting that item would be a big help in understanding more about Torchlight. Going forward, it was obvious that Torchlight was going to be a mortal enemy. And thus, in the same manner that he had taken so much time to study the Seazombies, he would take plenty of time to understand more about Torchlight.

    As Master Seventh had once said to Xu Qing, a great era wasing, and chosen cultivators were proliferating. However... great eras didn¡¯t just pop into being overnight. It took hundreds of years for them to arrive. In fact, Master Seventh himself was one of the chosen cultivators.

    There wouldn¡¯t only be a handful of individuals who rose to spectacr heights.

    1. The tongue emerged from the door in ??

 Chapter 326: Godly Power

    Chapter 326: Godly Power

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven. Few people would notice the clues, but given what Xu Qing knew of the Seventh Peak and Master Seventh, he had long sincee to the realization that everything happening this day was ying out ording to aplicated n devised by his Master. He had seen with his own eyes how much Master Seventh med himself for the death of Master Sixth. And thus, Xu Qing knew that what was happening today... was simply his Master probing Torchlight for more information.

    As Xu Qing was thinking about that, Master Seventh took action. Rocketing up into the sky, he joined Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher. Using the power of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure and the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect blood tree, they created a massive sealing power that settled down onto the corpse with his godliness.

    Master Seventh¡¯s goal was to capture this thing Torchlight had made, and use it as a research subject. With it, they could learn more about Torchlight, and also prepare a way to destroy the organization.

    As Master Seventh took action, Sir Bloodsmelter looked up and sped hands to the sky.

    ¡°Thank you for your trouble, Swordsage Court. Seven Blood Eyes requests permission to handle this corpse on our own. After the fighting is over, we¡¯ll send sixty percent of its flesh and blood to you. Furthermore, we¡¯ll wait to hear back from you before doing our research.¡±

    In response, a voice boomed like thunder.

    ¡°Request granted!¡±

    Because the Swordsage Court had joined the mission along with the Eight Sect Coalition to provide assistance, it was required to get their permission before acting alone. Clearly, Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ actions, especially the way their n had been carried out, had won the approval of the unseen watchers from the Swordsage Court. It wasn¡¯t just the Swordsage Court that approved. Seven Blood Eyes, despite being a rtive neer to this part of the world, was acting admirably in the eyes of the major powers.

    Simr scenes were ying out in the other three sanctuaries. All of them had been simr to the corpse in the Young Arbiter Sect. All released explosive fluctuations of godliness, and all were the outworking of Torchlight¡¯s attempt to fabricate a god. Obviously, all of them had been pieced together and then left to mature. Unfortunately for them, the attack carried out by the Eight Sect Coalition interrupted that maturation process.

    Before the godly power could reach its potential, the chaos of battle erupted.

    The people from Seven Blood Eyes had no idea what items had been used to create the corpses the other three sects were dealing with. But when it came to the corpse they were dealing with, it was obvious that the foundation of his intelligence was that tongue.

    ¡°It¡¯s Master Shengyun¡¯s tongue!¡± Xu Qing called to the sky.

    When Master Seventh heard those words, his final bit of supposition was confirmed.

    Just as I thought. The corpse was pieced together from different parts. The torso is from an ancient corpse. The arms and legs are from nonhumans. The head is from some nt-based species. The blood within it is from a godly entity. It has no internal organs, only powerful mutagen. And there¡¯s a concave spot on its skull where something was supposed to grow....

    It must rte to some rite or ceremony. The tongue was a way to give the godly corpse intelligence. Later, Torchlight could have taken Master Shengyun¡¯s will and inserted it inside. And in that way... Master Shengyun would have had a new life. Was this an experiment of how to turn someone into a god? Sadly, its intelligence was its weakness. They failed in that regard, as the intelligence was destroyed by the godliness. And because of that, it lost any sense of will or identity.

    As Master Seventh contemted these things, the suppressed corpse released terrifying howls. He sensed that he was being restrained, and thus, the godliness within him erupted, creating wild, chaotic fluctuations that rolled out everywhere. This corpse was no god, but the powerful godly fluctuations had pushed him to a higher level of life. Because of that, this corpse was capable of unbelievable levels of strength.

    For example, though all he could do was howl, those howls caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth, and distorted everything around him.

    It wasn¡¯t just the physical space around him that was affected. The surrounding Seven Blood Eyes disciples trembled visibly, and felt the impulse to drop to their knees in worship. They were unable to control themselves or resist the urge. They were like mortals who had run into some terrifying being, and couldn¡¯t control their own bodies.

    All the Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the canyon, as well as all the Young Arbiter Sect disciples, collectively dropped to their knees, trembling. It was as if that was the only action that could allow them to think clearly. Even still, after they were on their knees, they still shook violently. What was more, mutations began to appear within the disciples. And those mutations... made them start to look like the corpse. The corpse was the source of the mutation, as if it could force all living beings to transform into its own image.

    The only ones not forced to drop to their knees were Sir Bloodsmelter, Guru Easher, and Master Seventh.

    And Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing also trembled, but he didn¡¯t drop down. He kept his chin up, and he stared at the corpse with raw killing intent.

    He had looked into the eyes of the broken face of the god. Twice. To him, some paltry being pieced together with some bits of godliness wasn¡¯t something that could force him to bow his head. As for the mutations, they appeared on him, causing fleshy tentacles to start growing from his skin.

    But then the violet crystal within him glittered, and his shadow greedily began absorbing the mutagen. As a result, the mutations on Xu Qing quickly faded away.

    However, the effects of the corpse¡¯s godliness weren¡¯t limited to all that. As the godliness erupted and everyone struggled to resist it, the corpse threw his head back and howled. Trembling, he sloughed off the restraints binding him and shot up into the air.

    There, he looked down at everything below, extended his right hand, and pushed it down. That movement caused the ground to shake. Also, everyone present, including Master Seventh, Sir Bloodsmelter, and Guru Easher, suddenly saw numerous images of themselves, superimposed on their bodies.

    They appeared to be images of those individuals¡¯ past and future. Collectively, they were like a book that a person could flip through to see everything about someone. It was bizarre to the extreme. In those image books, the scenes from the past were very clear, whereas the scenes from the future were blurry, as if the numerous possibilities they contained led to countless variations.

    However, those countless variations were now mixing together to form one image. And that image showed everyone in the valley dying! In every single image and every single book of images, everyone was dead. Including Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun and he trembled from head to toe. He could see his own past, and the countless futures stretching ahead of him. And one of those future images was being extracted by some indescribable force, and forced to be made a reality. It was an image of him dying. Of the corpse¡¯s power filling him and causing him to experience mutation and die. This was a power that surpassed Xu Qing¡¯s level ofprehension.

    However, he knew it was a moment of deadly crisis. Gritting his teeth viciously, he forced his right hand up and then waved it. Instantly, beetles flew out, thrumming with the power of the taboo poison pill. The moment they flew out, theynded on Xu Qing and started tearing into his skin.

    Xu Qing shivered as he began to rot away. Suddenly, the future image of him rotting to death started to interfere with the image of him dying from the power of the godliness. It created a force of resistance. The two images fought back and forth, changing position over and over again.

    ¡°So this is godliness!¡± Master Seventh said, his eyes flickering with understanding. He also had to deal with the images of the future, and hade up with a simr method as Xu Qing to deal with them. By using another possible death, he reced the future extracted by the godliness of the corpse. ¡°Patriarch, I have the godliness I needed toplete the first step of my n. You may now continue with the sealing!¡±

    The Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure and the blood tree caused crushing power to fall onto the corpse.

    Master Seventh¡¯s hand shed in an incantation gesture, causing clouds to spring forth. They took the shape of various wild beasts, each of which contained crushing power. More than a thousand appeared, and as they superimposed with each other, they transformed into an astonishing ck cat. This cat had no past or future, and was so huge it contained the corpse within its mass.

    Meanwhile, Sir Bloodsmelter sent out countless blood threads, each of which thrummed with terrifying fluctuations as it wrapped up the corpse. Those blood threads alsocked any past or future.

    As for Guru Easher, her eyes glittered as she waved her hand... causing a huge g to appear in the sky. It was none other than... the War Banner of Humankind! Most outsiders would assume that this item belonged to the coalition. But the truth was that it was Guru Easher¡¯s. She had only loaned it to Seven Blood Eyes to use in their various conflicts. The banner caused bright colors to sh and the wind to scream. [1]

    Among the numerous drops of blood that stained the War Banner of Humankind, there was one golden drop that shone with scintiting light. And then a finger emerged which pointed toward the corpse.

    The corpse trembled and howled, and his extended right hand couldn¡¯t stand up to the force. He wanted to escape, but was powerless to do so. He could only release his godliness. He was being suppressed by Master Seventh¡¯s ck cat, wrapped up by Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s blood threads, sealed by the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, locked down by the blood tree, and... crushed by the godliness from the War Banner of Humankind.

    He was being fully sealed.

    Momentster, the sealing was aplished and everything went back to normal. The disciples below coughed up mouthfuls of blood. They had been seriously hurt, but weren¡¯t dead. The images of their past and future vanished. That said, the mental blow they had sustained was significant.

    The images around Xu Qing vanished. As for the poison from the beetles, the power of the violet crystal quickly dealt with them. Looking at the corpse, Xu Qing felt battered by waves of shock.

    ¡°Is this... a god?¡±

    1. The War Banner of Humankind previously appeared in chapters 122 and 219. ?

 Chapter 327: Slowly Walking a Long Road

    <h4>Chapter 327: Slowly Walking a Long Road</h4>

    Simr fighting was going on in the other three sanctuaries. None of the other three sects had put as much nning into the mission as Seven Blood Eyes, but the Swordsage Court was watching over everything and could step in if things got out of control. None of the other three corpses were sealed. After being suppressed, the godliness and mutagen within them built up to such intense levels that the other corpses dissolved into ashes.

    ***

    The Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s mission was wrapping up. Meanwhile, in another prefecture in Sea-Sealing County, on the main road that led in to the heart of the prefecture, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan walked along, d in a ck cloak, wearing a mask that resembled the broken face of the god. Beneath the mask, his eyes didn¡¯t contain even a scrap of emotion. He didn¡¯t miss Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the least bit, not any more than he¡¯d missed the continent of South Phoenix after leaving it.

    Walking respectfully behind him was Night Dove. ¡°Lord, of the five subjects who volunteered to join the godification experiment, four were already discovered. One remains in hiding.¡±

    ¡°No surprise there.¡±

    ¡°I kept thorough notes regarding the powers used by the four experimental bodies, as well as their deficiencies. And I already sent that information to the fifth experiment subject. That should help with the next round of godification. Unfortunately... there was an unexpected turn of events.¡± Night Dove hesitated to continue.

    ¡°Go on,¡± said the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, his voice just as calm as ever.

    ¡°It happened in the Young Arbiter Sect sanctuary. Seven Blood Eyes realized what we¡¯re attempting to aplish. Analyzing the situation as a whole, it seems that they nned everything to capture the experimental body. The body¡¯s self-destruct function failed and it was sealed. The mastermind behind the plot was that Master Seventh.¡±

    By this point, Night Dove was sweating a bit. He was the one who had made all the arrangements in the four sanctuaries. Although he had not expected the sanctuaries to be discovered so soon, he could ept how things turned out. At first. But for one of the experimental god bodies to have been sealed was not within the realm of what was eptable.

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan stopped walking. A long moment passed, and then he turned around and looked in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Beneath his mask, his eyes were no longer calm. Instead, they glittered.

    ¡°My lil¡¯ bro¡¯s Master, huh? He caught my attentionst time. And now it seems more than ever... that there¡¯s more to him than meets the eye. Sadly, we¡¯re done with Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Otherwise I might go have a chat with him.¡± After another long moment passed, he looked away from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and continued on his way. ¡°If they got it, they got it. Consider it a gift to him for taking care of my lil¡¯ bro. Besides... godliness isn¡¯t something that mortals can easily study or control.¡±

    Night Dove breathed a sigh of relief as he hurried along after the crown prince.

    ¡°Lord, what exactly is godliness?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s something from a different level of life,¡± the crown prince replied calmly, ¡°so I can¡¯t exin it. You wouldn¡¯t be able to understand it any more than an ant could understand <i>your </i>thoughts. That¡¯s how vast the difference is between human qualities and godliness.

    ¡°Think of it this way. Let¡¯s say a single one of your thoughts contains 3,000 elements. In that case, godly entities seek to reach a state in which one thought contains infinite elements, and each of those elements is so profound that a human like you couldn¡¯t understand them.

    ¡°By reaching that level, or at least a certain point along the way, h¨¥ woulde to see you, not as a single entity, but as countless entities. Everything about you would be in to see. Both your past and your future would exist in h¨©s eyes.¡±

    The crown prince waved his hand, and countless images sprang into being around Night Dove. They included his past and his future, and there were so many that they blurred together to create something that would shatter the mind of a mortal who looked at it.

    The crown prince waved his hand again, and seven or eight of the images sprang to the forefront. They depicted Night Dove dying at the hands of different people.

    ¡°H¨¥ can change anything and everything about you. And h¨¥ can change the images of your fate with only one element of thought.¡± He pinched his fingers together, and the images faded into nothing. Then he looked up at the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven. He sighed. ¡°That¡¯s why, ever since h¨¥ appeared, we had no choice. We had to call h¨©m a living god.¡±

    When the images around Night Dove disappeared, he shivered. Then he joined his lord and master in looking up, and his eyes shone with zeal.

    As the sun set, the two of them continued to walk deeper into Sea-Sealing County.

    ***

    Far, far away in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, a massive dreadnaught soared through the sky, carrying everyone from Seven Blood Eyes back toward the coalition. The mission was over. Teleportation fluctuations built up, and then wild colors shed in heaven and earth as the Seven Blood Eyes force vanished.

    They materialized above the headquarters of Seven Blood Eyes. The afterglow of evening spread out over thends, touching the faces of the returning disciples. Many of those faces still contained traces of lingering fear.

    All of them knew that the power of a god was something majestic. It could transform heaven and earth. It could change anything and everything. But those descriptions were vague and rtively meaningless. Few people knew the details of what a god could do. They just knew that the aura of a god could infect living beings, and that the gaze of a god could create forbidden regions. But now, these disciples knew more. And that little bit that they had learned... was absolutely terrifying.

    That said, not all of them were fearful. Some of the cultivators, even after experiencing what they had, felt the desire to do battle burning within them.

    Xu Qing was one of them. He had looked into the eyes of a god twice in the past, and had experienced more misfortune than most people. He had also experienced more good fortune as well, first, in that he had survived, and second, in that he had seen more than most people had seen.

    The first thing Xu Qing did upon returning was go back to Master Sixth¡¯s grave. After putting Master Shengyun¡¯s severed head in front of the grave, he sat down quietly.

    As the sky turned dark, he produced a jug of alcohol, took a sip, and then whispered, ¡°It¡¯s not over yet.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely not over!¡± came the reply. It was Master Seventh. Walking up, he put his hand on Xu Qing''s shoulder, indicating that there was no need for him to rise and sp hands in greeting. He looked at the severed head in front of the grave and continued, ¡°Torchlight is trying to aplish something that no species in the world can tolerate. And they¡¯ve only just begun. I¡¯ve already gathered some clues about Night Dove¡¯s lord. I have an idea who he is, and I also know... that hees from a god domain. A great era is upon us, and as such, several god domains have already entered the world.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    A short time passed, and then Master Seventh patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°He¡¯s not your brother.¡±

    Xu Qing shivered. With that, Master Seventh turned and left.

    Xu Qing looked over his shoulder and watched him go. He hadn¡¯t done anything to hide the truth, yet he hadn¡¯t been eager to talk about it. Regardless, it was obvious that such matters couldn¡¯t be hidden from his Master, who had spent so much effort digging up information about Torchlight recently.

    As it grew dark, Xu Qing stood, bowed to Master Sixth¡¯s grave, and then left. He walked down the mountain, out of the headquarters, and into the night. Alone.

    It was the tenth month, and the wind that blew off of the sea was cold.

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel cold. Walking through the crowded,mp-lit streets, he eventually spotted a vendor stall whose proprietor he recognized. This was the same proprietor whose stall he used to frequent back in South Phoenix. After moving to Revered Ancient, this stall didn¡¯t just serve breakfast. It stayed open all day. Perhaps because of the economic slump in the coalition in recent days, they were closing early today.

    However, the proprietor noticed Xu Qing approaching, and recognized him. ¡°Want something to eat?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Entering, he sat down. A momentter, the proprietor happily served him a bowl of beef broth along with three eggs. When Xu Qing took his first sip, the familiar vor brought a smile to his face.

    The cold wind blew, but he didn¡¯t care.

    The broth was delicious, and he took his time enjoying it. Once the bowl was empty, he peeled the eggs and ate them. He wasn¡¯t a fan of peeling eggs, but it brought a sense of satisfaction, so he took his time doing it right. After finishing the eggs, he handed over a few spirit coins and then sped hands and bowed to the proprietor. The proprietor saw him out.

    Xu Qing headed back to his berth.<i> Life goes on. There¡¯s no need to get anxious. Master Shengyun... was only the first.</i>

    He looked up at the bright moon, his eyes shining. Then he entered the cabin of his dharmaship and sat down to meditate.

    He had killed Master Shengyun and devoured the other golden crow. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow rose to the second stage, giving him battle prowess equivalent to an additional heavenly pce. Because of that, though he only had two pces which were corporeal, he actually could unleash three-pce battle prowess.

    If you included all of his other assets, he would count as totally dominant among three-pce cultivators. And if he used the power of the taboo poison pill, and the defensive abilities of the Supreme-Limitless Crown, then he would be able to hold his own for a good amount of time against a four-pce enemy, probably long enough for the enemy to sumb to the poison.

    <i>I still need to work harder, though. I have to turn my third heavenly pce corporeal</i>.

    Inspecting himself, he found that after using the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to take the gold cores of so many enemies, his third heavenly pce was now about halfway to being corporeal.

    Although that didn¡¯t seem like very fast progress,pared to other Gold Core cultivators, he was making rapid headway. Obviously, Master Shengyun had also benefited from some destined opportunity that gave him simr rapid progress.

    Thankfully, the scraps of will left behind in the gold cores Xu Qing had taken weren¡¯t able to do anything to him, thanks to the image of the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Eventually, a month had gone by.

    During that time, the coalition was finally able to put all the chaos of the catastrophe behind them. They also intensified recruitment efforts to replenish all of the sects.

    Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ position grew stronger during that time. The reason was rted to Easher Isle. It was not that Guru Easher had agreed to join the coalition. Rather, she had epted Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s invitation for her to ept the title of ¡®honorary matriarch¡¯ in Seven Blood Eyes. With her, Seven Blood Eyes was far stronger than before. Add in the blood tree taboo treasure, and it meant that Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ position in the coalition was much higher. [1]

    Everything was going well. Xu Qing had pushed his third heavenly pce to the point of being eighty percent corporeal. He had stabilized his emotions as well, having thought through all the matters he had to deal with.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow were pushing themselves to the limit to reach breakthroughs.

    Around this time... something big happened in the coalition! And it happened in the Dark Serenity Sect. Specifically, it was in the pocket dimension where the demon snake was impaled.

    It happened early one morning. With no warning whatsoever, a shocking howl rocked the entire coalition as the demon snake¡¯s soul woke up. One reason it woke up was because of pure irritation. The other reason was that one of the teeth in the skeletal snake¡¯s mouth was somehow broken off.

    The culprit was caught red-handed, and it was none other than Wu Jianwu from Seven Blood Eyes. Reportedly, at the moment he was arrested, he was right in front of the demon snake, reciting some poetry.... Even though the culprit was apprehended, the stolen item was never recovered¡­.

    Xu Qing was having some soup at the vendor stall when he heard the news. Yanyan sat next to him, looking very much like his wife as she peeled an egg for him. [2]

    Momentster, Xu Qing put down the soup spoon and looked up to find someone hurrying toward him.

    It was the Captain. After sitting down, his gaze darted back and forth guiltily as he scanned the area.

    Taking another sip of soup, Xu Qing said, ¡°What¡¯s with the facial expression, Captain? Have you been up to more misdeeds?¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat somberly. ¡°Watch your tongue, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s cold today, so I got a bit of a chill, that¡¯s all. Say, do you happen to remember me mentioning a really big n I was working on? I¡¯m getting ready to head out of the sect for that very n. Do you two feel likeing along?¡±

    1. The word patriarch/matriarch in Chinese is actually gender neutral, so this doesn¡¯t imply any sort of romantic rtionship or marriage arrangement. It just means she has a very high honorary position in the sect. In Chinese, the word I¡¯m tranting as ¡°honorary¡± has a moreplicated meaning. Here are some more detailed dictionary definitions: ¡°a person from one feudal state serving in the court of another¡± and ¡°person assigned work at a ce on a temporary basis or as a guest.¡± ??

    2. The egg-peeling thing strikes a chord with me. Both Madam Deathde and I love quail eggs, especially hard-boiled and served in hotpot. However¡­ I don¡¯t love them enough to want to go to the trouble of peeling them at home. So what happens a lot is that MDB will say something like ¡°Do you want some quail eggs?¡± and my response will be, ¡°Sure, as long as I don¡¯t have to peel them¡­.¡± That said I don¡¯t mind peeling my own chicken eggs (assuming they¡¯ve been boiled properly and the shellse off easily¡­. Come to think of it, I feel like I peel the chicken eggs for her and she peels the quail eggs for me. hm...) ??

 Chapter 328: My Precious Garments

    <h4>Chapter 328: My Precious Garments</h4>

    ¡°Come along, little Ah Qing. Elder Brother is going to take you to do something <i>really </i>big.¡± As the Captain talked, he kept looking around furtively.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not going.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why?¡± The Captain looked very anxious.

    ¡°You stirred up trouble in the Dark Serenity Sect,¡± Xu Qing replied, ¡°and now you want to drag me into it too. You think being around me will keep you safe.¡±

    He thought back to how the Captain had looked with such longing at the demon snake¡¯s tooth back when they went into the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket realm together. Then he thought about how the Captain and Wu Jianwu had been meeting up recently. Clearly, Wu Jianwu had foolishly let himself be duped by the Captain, who ended up making a clean getaway.

    The Captain cleared his throat as he tried to think of what to do. He knew full well that he had pushed things too far, and was worried that if he didn¡¯t get Xu Qing involved, he might get pped to death by Arch-Immortal Plumdark. However, if he <i>could </i>get Xu Qing on his side before Arch-Immortal Plumdark showed up... then Xu Qing¡¯s presence would be the Captain¡¯s key to staying safe.

    pping himself on the chest to make himself seem like the spitting image of sincerity, the Captain nced at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, you really need to trust your Eldest Brother! Don¡¯t worry, I have a really amazing n ready to go. You need to work on your heavenly pces, right? If youe with me, you¡¯llplete <i>multiple </i>pces!¡±

    Then he grabbed an egg and started peeling it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he continued to sip his broth. Off to the side, Yanyan had a curious look on her face as she looked at the Captain. However, she didn¡¯t forget about the egg she was peeling. After it was done, she put it in Xu Qing¡¯s bowl and shed a sweet smile.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t very happy to see that. Looking down at the egg in his own hands, he thought about how great it would be to have someone peel <i>his </i>eggs for him. ¡°Little Ah Qing, sometimes I wonder if you¡¯re even human.¡±

    Xu Qing sipped some more soup. ¡°Captain, people from the Dark Serenity Sect are going to show up soon, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°There¡¯s no human who looks like you. Not one. Haven¡¯t you noticed? The older you get, the more demonic you look. I remember hearing about some mysterious species that¡¯s like that. I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly likely you¡¯re actually a lost member of that species. As it turns out, little Ah Qing, I¡¯m actually a bit of an expert on that species. Want to hear more about them?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Xu Qing finished his soup and ate another egg. He actually felt great at the moment, and wasn¡¯t affected at all by the Captain¡¯s nonsense.

    The Captain was getting very anxious by now. Given how stubborn Xu Qing was being, he decided to resort to a trump card. ¡°Deputy Director Xu, you owe me 2,000,000 spirit stones!¡±

    ¡°Actually, Elder Brother, I have a few jade slips here that are probably worth that much.¡± With that, he took out a jade slip that had images of the Captain dressed as Third Princess.

    ¡°Yanyan,¡± the Captain said, ¡°I really don¡¯t think you should join Seven Blood Eyes. You listen to me. Join the Dark Serenity Sect. Based on what I know of little Ah Qing, he has deep feelings for that ce.¡±

    Yanyan¡¯s eyes glittered.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing sighed inside. It was bing obvious that the Captain¡¯s guilty conscience was troubling him so deeply that he would stop at nothing to get Xu Qing¡¯s help.

    Looking profoundly wronged, the Captain said, ¡°I know you¡¯ve grown up, little Ah Qing, but have you really forgotten about everything your Elder Brother has done for you? I¡¯m your superior officer! I¡¯m your Eldest Brother. For your sake, I angrily rebuked Master! I even told you about Master¡¯s weaknesses! I¡¯ve spilled blood for you! I¡¯ve been your fall guy! I visited your hometown! We¡¯ve bathed together! We¡¯ve hung out together. We¡¯ve....¡±

    As the Captain went on and on, Yanyan¡¯s eyes went wide, and she looked dubiously back and forth between him and Xu Qing.

    Finally, Xu Qing reached into his robe and took out an apple which he handed to the Captain.

    As the Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up, Xu Qing took out a discount card for the immortal hot spring and slid it over.

    The Captain hesitated.

    ¡°Thirty percent off!¡± Xu Qing said, looking at the Captain.

    The Captain looked at the card but didn¡¯t take it. ¡°Are youing or not?¡±

    Xu Qing sighed. He really didn¡¯t want to go with the Captain, but given all the arguments he had made... Xu Qing finally nodded.

    A smile broke out on the Captain¡¯s face. Quickly taking the apple and the discount card, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Good decision, Junior Brother. Now, this time I¡¯m beingpletely serious. I have a major n. Yanyan, you¡¯reing with us.¡±

    Yanyan¡¯s eyes lit up and she nodded.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get out of here. If it gets toote, we won¡¯t have a chance. We¡¯ll take your dharmaship, little Ah Qing.¡± Rising, the Captain urged them out of the vendor stall.

    Xu Qing produced his dharmaship, and the Captain immediately jumped onto the deck. Xu Qing joined him. Yanyan was about to follow when Xu Qing looked back at her.

    Yanyan immediately pointed at the Captain. ¡°He said for me toe along.¡±

    ¡°We need Yanyan,¡± the Captain exined. ¡°She understands women, and that will make this big n go a lot smoother.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned but didn¡¯t say anything. Yanyan jumped onto the dharmaship. With the Captain urging him, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture that caused the dharmaship to rumble to life. Then they shot out of Seven Blood Eyes.

    About thirty breaths of time after they left, Arch-Immortal Plumdark appeared in midair, her expression cold. She took a step in the direction of the vanishing dharmaship, but then stopped and thought back to how morose Xu Qing had been actingtely.

    ¡°If you need to blow off some steam, fine. In any case, the little punk might be gone, but the old codger is still around!¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark let out a cold harrumph and then stormed into the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters.

    Shortly thereafter, the enraged voice of Master Seventh echoed out from the mountain.

    ¡°Chen Erniu! You think you¡¯re hot stuff? Don¡¯t show your face back here again! If you do, I¡¯ll break your legs!¡±

    His voice was so loud that, despite being so far away, Xu Qing heard him. He looked over at the Captain.

    The Captain was looking very pleased with himself, but when Xu Qing looked at him, he cleared his throat. ¡°The old man is secretly telling me to stay away for a while. Ai. Master really does love me.¡±

    ¡°He seems pretty serious this time,¡± Xu Qing replied. Looking down at his transmission jade slip, he realized there was a voice message.

    It was Master Seventh, and it sounded like he was grinding his teeth as he said, <i>¡°Is your Eldest Brother with you? That little brat used a treasure I gave him as a gift to split himself up into two clones and do something really bad! He¡¯s got a lot of nerve doing what he did. And then he actually turned off his jade slip so I couldn¡¯t send him messages! You tell your Eldest Brother that the patriarch is so pissed off that he suggested your Eldest Brother¡¯s legs be broken. And I fully support the idea!¡±</i>

    The Captain couldn¡¯t hear the message, as it was sent directly into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    Smiling proudly, the Captain said, ¡°You don¡¯t understand. The person who <i>really </i>cares about me isn¡¯t Master. It¡¯s the patriarch. Worst case scenario, I just go plead my case with him. It¡¯s something you just couldn¡¯t pull off, little Ah Qing. Only I, the patriarch¡¯s most cherished junior apprentice, could do so. But I wouldn¡¯t worry about it. There¡¯s nothing you can do anyway. I simply know how to please the old-timers more than you do. You see, they like my energetic spirit.¡±

    Xu Qing put away the jade slip and decided not to convey the message to the Captain.

    As the dharmaship flew onward, the Captain started to exin his n. ¡°We¡¯re going to pull off something <i>really </i>big this time!¡± ncing back one more time in the direction of the sect, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Our destination this time is the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious, and he prepared to turn the dharmaship around. Thest thing he wanted to do was go on a suicide mission.

    ¡°Hey, stop!¡± the Captain said. ¡°This n will go off without a hitch, I guarantee it. I have good information this time. Our mark is the third of the Three Spirits. August Spirit Nethersprite. Remember the clothes she was wearingst time we saw her? She was acting all high and mighty, but what I was focused on were those precious garments of mine.

    ¡°Most important of all is that I got an intelligence report indicating the Swordsage Court is going to target the Three Spirits. They¡¯ll take action soon, so what we¡¯re going to do is sneak in ahead of time. Then, when the Swordsage Court finally makes their move, we¡¯ll take advantage of the chaos to get ahold of my precious garments.

    ¡°Every one of those pieces of clothing is a precious treasure. Little Ah Qing, all you have to do is absorb some of that treasure, and you¡¯ll be able toplete multiple heavenly pces!¡± The Captain was almost breathless with excitement. Clearly he had been thinking about that clothing for a long time. [1]

    ¡°Besides, why do you think I went to all the trouble of getting that snake tooth from the Dark Serenity Sect? Because it can cut clothing! Without the tooth, it would have been too hard. But <i>with </i>the tooth, it¡¯ll be a breeze.¡±

    When Yanyan heard this absolutely crazy n, even she couldn¡¯t hold back from gasping. She was a bit insane herself, being sometimespelled to suck her own blood, but that didn¡¯t mean she was tired of living. The Captain seemed absolutely crazy to her. After all, he was talking about targeting a cultivator as powerful as Yanyan¡¯s own grandmother.

    .

    And he was nning to steal her clothes.... It was obviously going to be an incredibly daring operation, and getting caught would equate to instant death. After all, they would be dealing with <i>three </i>Void Returning experts, not just one.

    Even if the swordsages really didunch an assault, the whole thing would still be extremely dangerous. Yanyan did understand women, and she knew that they often loved their own clothing more than anything else. Touching a woman¡¯s clothing could truly enrage her.

    But then Yanyan noticed the thoughtful look on Xu Qing¡¯s face, and she blinked a few times and held her tongue.

    After some thought and analysis, Xu Qing decided that it wasn¡¯t a bad idea. However, he still had some reservations, so he said, ¡°I¡¯m willing to give it a shot. But those clothes looked like some sort of battle getup. If August Spirit Nethersprite is out fighting, won¡¯t she be wearing that same clothing?¡±

    A disdainful look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. ¡°No matter what else she is, she¡¯s still a woman! And she¡¯s obviously obsessed with looking beautiful. Don¡¯t forget that when we saw herst, she checked herself out in a mirror as she flew along.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated.

    Seeing that he didn¡¯t understand the point, the Captain felt even more superior than before. Clearing his throat, he looked at Yanyan. ¡°Yanyan, how many outfits do you have?¡±

    ¡°Not many...¡± she replied, blinking a few times. Then she added, ¡°Only enough to fill a single mountain. But anybody who touches my clothes will die! Except Big Bro Xu Qing, of course.¡±

    Looking down his nose even more arrogantly, the Captain gave Xu Qing a meaningful nce. ¡°Understand now? August Spirit Nethersprite doesn¡¯t have just one single set of clothes. Who do you think she is? YOU? And even if she does wear that same outfit, who cares? There¡¯ll be other simr stuff there for the taking. Heh. A woman doesn¡¯t just have one single set of nice clothes. Obviously, little Ah Qing, I know a lot more about women than you do. Therefore, we¡¯re definitely going to make out like bandits!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°By the way, the Swordsage Court is going to have their recruiting event soon. After the n is seen through, we can go over there and check it out. I¡¯ve already thought everything through. If we can do something impressive at Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, and make a good impression on the top swordsages, then it might improve our chances of doing well in the recruitment event.

    ¡°Trust me, little Junior Brother. Everything I¡¯m doing is all to make it easier for us to get into the Swordsage Court!¡±

    1. August Spirit Nethersprite (and her clothing) appeared in ??

 Chapter 329: Three Spiritual Souls, Seven Physical Souls

    <h4>Chapter 329: Three Spiritual Souls, Seven Physical Souls</h4>

    The Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain was simr to the Eight Sect Coalition in that it was located in the south of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, next to the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. Those mountains were massive, and were rife with pestilential energy. There were all sorts of evil, viinous groups there, and of course, there was no end to the grues. In some respects, it was almost the same as a forbidden region.

    The mountain range split the southern part of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture into two halves. One half was almost a paradise, or at least, was a ce whereughter could be heard. The other half was like a hell, where weeping was a luxury, and numbness was the mostmon thing.

    That other half was controlled by the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, and was the most vicious ce in the mortal world other than the forbidden grounds. It was nearly half asrge as all of the continent of South Phoenix, and was filled with 137 nations of both humans and nonhumans.

    Whether it was day or night, those 137 nations were almostpletely silent. It wasn¡¯t that they were unupied, but rather, the people there lived in neverending torment, as they were basically animals waiting to be ughtered and eaten. And food didn¡¯t have the right to talk. That was why the inhabitants of those 137 nations never spoke, and the only sounds they made were agonized shrieks.

    The sky was quiet as well. At the moment, it was nighttime, and the thick clouds blocked the moonlight.

    Skeletons were piled everywhere, and their marrow was fuel for the underworld fire that provided the only light. The skeletons had no flesh on them; they were pure bone. Some had obviously been in ce for a long time, while others had only recently been tossed into piles.

    Such piles were everywhere, and they wererge enough that they were almost like mountains. They could be found roughly every 250 kilometers. It was only possible to imagine how many countless mortals had died through the years to make those mountains of bones. Because of all that death, the aura of death in this ce was particrly intense. The ground was stained by the blood, and was a dark violet color that was absolutely horrendous in appearance. A noxious odor filled the air that would cause most ordinary people to vomit until they had nothing left to spit out but bile.

    The trees were red from having absorbed the blood in the soil. They were iparably gruish in appearance, and most of them had naked, desated corpses impaled on them. The corpses swayed in the wind, like meat hanging from the roof of a butcher shop. Looking closely, it was obvious that the corpses had been painted with a substance that stimted their auras. Those auras then attracted vicious birds and grues that could then be hunted and killed.

    In addition to the trees, there were also bloodkes. Suchkes bubbled and boiled, and any passing disciples from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain would drink from them and look very satisfied.

    As the dharmaship sailed through the air, Xu Qing quietly took in the sights. The Captain seemed equally speechless, and even Yanyan, who herself had quite a bit of perverse energy, was takenpletely aback.

    On a previous asion, Xu Qing and the Captain had run into a group called the Minor Three Spirits, butpared to this, it seemed like they didn¡¯t even deserve to use the word ¡®minor¡¯ to describe themselves. There was nothing that couldpare to this. [1]

    ¡°People talk about the 137 nations here,¡± the Captain said, ¡°but the truth is that there aren¡¯t even a hundred nowadays. And that¡¯s why the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain has been going outside of their borders more often to capture small nations. The number 137 has special meaning to the Three Spirits, which is why they generally try to rece every lost nation with a new one.¡±

    ¡°Given how advanced the Three Spirits¡¯ cultivation is,¡± Yanyan said, ¡°why do they need to consume the flesh and blood of mortal species? It seems like it wouldn¡¯t be of any use to them.¡±

    ¡°The Three Spirits are the manifestation of the three spiritual souls of the South Tor Ghost Emperor,¡± Xu Qing said. He went on to convey to the Captain and Yanyan all the things his Master had exined to him. At the same time, he noted inwardly that the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness seemed differentpared to before. It was as if it hade more alive upon entering this ce. That was intriguing to Xu Qing, and he already had some theories about why it was happening.

    The Captain listened to his exnation and then nodded. ¡°It makes sense. 137 nations. 1 body. 3 spiritual souls. 7 physical souls. Everything conforms to some rule that they abide by.¡±

    As Xu Qing sensed the changes to the Ghost Emperor mountain within him, he looked down at a bloodke and noted the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain disciples drinking from it. ¡°ording to what Master said, after the Ghost Emperor perished, he brought nourishment to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Doesn¡¯t that mean that all the locals have some of his blood in them? If so, then it sort of makes sense why the Three Spirits would devour people.... It¡¯s basically a way for them to get stronger.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± the Captain said, his eyes glittering. ¡°It seems highly likely that¡¯s the case. That said, we don¡¯t know for sure, and I don¡¯t think we should push too hard to find out more details.¡±

    The dharmaship passed over the bloodke silently. Though it was a massive ship, the disciples below didn¡¯t notice it. Upon entering Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain territory, the Captain had produced an object that couldpletely cloak the dharmaship.

    Xu Qing looked once more at the disciples below, then abandoned any ideas of capturing some to study. The most important thing was to stay out of sight, and therefore, it didn¡¯t make sense to get distracted and do something that might reveal their presence.

    Half a month flew by.

    During that time, the dharmaship got closer and closer to the headquarters of Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain territory. They saw more and more brutality, and also noticed quite a few nations that had beenpletely emptied out. Such ces were cities of death, filled with darkness and wandering grues. They were miserable ces. However, Xu Qing could tell that the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness was growing more true and real. In fact, it was also starting to emit glowing light, which made Xu Qing more cautious in dealing with it.

    After another three days passed, Xu Qing and the Captain both agreed that they shouldn¡¯t go any further in the dharmaship. It was just too big, and even with the Captain¡¯s cloaking device, they weren¡¯t confident it could go further without being noticed.

    Yanyan had been behaving perfectly during the journey. What she had seen on the ground below left her quiet and reserved. Her perverse energy was stronger, but she wasn¡¯t a purely evil person. asionally, Xu Qing spotted traces of empathy and indignation in her eyes.

    Xu Qing put his dharmaship away and the three of them dropped to the ground. At that point, the Captain produced a handful of magical devices.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been preparing for a long time to retrieve my precious garments,¡± he said. ¡°And thus, I gathered all these things, which we can use to conceal ourselves and our auras. If one isn¡¯t sufficient, use five. If five don¡¯t work, use ten!¡± With that, he distributed them between himself, Xu Qing, and Yanyan.

    After activating them, the three of them sped on their way deeper into the territory of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    They didn¡¯t stop along the way. Another half a month went by. That was when they caught sight of a massive mountain off in the distance, as dark as night, with three towering peaks that pierced the clouds. The three peaks seemed boundless, so imposing that they could shake the dome of heaven. Any who looked at them would be shaken deeply, both because of the grandeur of the mountain, and also because of the powerful cultivators who resided there. It was as if those mountain peaks contained spirits that made people instinctively drop and pay obeisance.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan all stopped in ce as soon as they saw the mountain.

    This huge dark mountain with its three peaks was none other than the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain! Above the cloudy peak of each mountain was a massive illusory image that resembled a funnel absorbing dark mist from the dome of heaven. Within that mist it was possible to see three outstandinglyrge thrones.

    On the third mountain was a throne of crystal. It was extremely extravagant and dazzling, and atop it sat a stunningly beautiful woman. She was gargantuan, but at the same time, beautifully proportioned. She was enchanting, and her eyes were so flirtatious that any man who looked at her would feel his insides stirring with desire. In fact, someone who looked at her long enough would bepletely entranced with her. This woman was the same one Xu Qing and the Captain had previously seen.

    She was the human soul of the Ghost Emperor. August Spirit Nethersprite.

    As she sat there, she held a mirror that she used to admire her own beauty. asionally, she would wave her hand, and countless screaming mortals would fly up and swirl in the air around her. She seemed to think of them as tasty snacks. One by one, she would grab them in her fingers and put them into her mouth. She would chew, then swallow. As she did, her skin grew fairer and better-looking.

    The second throne was even more terrifying. It was constructed from pitch-ck beast bones, and looked like a massive skull. It was surrounded by countless deceased souls, all of whom howled in agony. Sitting on that throne was a massive cultivator. He was huge, but also incredibly skinny, almost to the point of looking skeletal. He had no hair. The only thing about him that wasn¡¯t incredibly bony was his back, which was hunched and looked almost like a small mountain.

    That ¡®mountain¡¯ was actually some sort of cancerous growth, covered with horrid, greenish-red veins. It almost looked like that growth had absorbed all of the other flesh and blood on his body. It pulsed rhythmically, and emanated a sound like pounding war drums. That growth seemed to weigh down heavily on him, causing him to gasp for breath. Every so often, he would open his mouth, and a vortex would appear nearby, out of which hundreds of living beings would fly. Into his mouth they went, and he chewed them up.

    Because of eating too many in one bite, blood flowed down his chin. Yet that only made him seem more vicious. This skeletal cultivator on the second mountain was the second-ranking member of the Three Spirits.

    He was the earthly soul, August Spirit Sunughter!

    Those two images were shocking to Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan. But they almost couldn¡¯tpare to the first mountain!

    The throne on the first mountain was hard to see clearly. But it was shockingly terrifying nheless. In fact, the second and third mountain couldn¡¯t evenpare to it. Only this mountain could be called consummately brutal! That was because the spirit on this mountain was the manifestation of the strongest of all souls, the heavenly soul!

    August Spirit Sporelight!

    1. Xu Qing and the Captain ran into the Minor Three Spirits in ??

 Chapter 330: The Afterglow Remains

    Chapter 330: The Afterglow Remains

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan all reacted with shock. They hade to this ce with a basic understanding of what it was like, and had already seen much on their travels. But seeing the brutality on disy on these three mountains filled their hearts with waves of astonishment.

    However, that astonishment had different results among the three of them. It caused Yanyan to tremble. It caused Xu Qing to activate all of the cloaking treasures he had. And it caused the Captain... to stare at the three thrones with his eyes glittering brightly.

    ¡°Treasures. They¡¯re precious treasures!!¡±

    Yanyan looked over at the Captain as if she were looking at a ghost.

    Xu Qing, on the other hand, was used to his behavior and ignored him. After some further thought, he passed a handful of cloaking treasures to Yanyan. That finally shifted Yanyan¡¯s attention away from the mountains. Eyes shining, she took the treasures, then couldn¡¯t stop herself from slowly biting her finger.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze dropped from the mountains to thends below them. They were currently lying on a boulder atop a low-lying mountain, looking over the edge at everything below. The low-lying mountain was part of a mountain range that was dwarfed by the three-peaked mountain, but it was high enough to give them a good view.

    From a distance, the dark three-peaked mountain was surrounded by swirling mists that took the shape of huge ghost heads that flew here and there moaning.

    Thends beneath the huge mountain were dotted with dark cities. They were bustling ces filled with bizarre screams and bloodthirsty cackling. The cities were inhabited by Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain disciples, as well as countless mortals who served as ves, servants, and food. All of them lived lives worse than death.

    The Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain disciples came from just about every species imaginable, but they were all vicious and ruthless individuals. They had ultimately found their way here and, benefiting from the protection of the Three Spirits, became disciples. There were low-level cultivators as well, either people who had been conscripted forcibly, or who had somehow climbed from the ranks of the mortals. All of them had lost any shred of humanity, and were vicious to the core. That was the only way to survive in a ce like this.

    Xu Qing took it all in. There were innumerable vicious and monstrous enemies that were the first barrier to deal with in reaching the actual Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain. Many of them were powerful experts. Even just looking at them casually, Xu Qing could sense numerous powerful auras.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain were concealing their own auras. As long as they didn¡¯t do anything to stand out, they wouldn¡¯t attract any attention. However, that was only because they hadn¡¯t approached close enough to be detected by the sect¡¯s spell formation. This situation was different from the time they had infiltrated Seazombie territory. They couldn¡¯t just brazenly strut in. They needed the right opportunity toe along.

    ¡°It¡¯s not going to be easy to get in there,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Eldest Brother, when did you say the Swordsage Court is going to arrive?¡±

    ¡°Soon,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°Rx, we¡¯re not in a hurry. We¡¯re in a good hiding spot here. Let¡¯s just stay put and wait.¡± The Captain licked his lips and suppressed his anticipation.

    Xu Qing nodded and continued toy there silently. Yanyan, meanwhile, kept a close grip on the treasures Xu Qing had given her. Blushing a bit, she scooted a bit closer to Xu Qing so that her left hand brushed against him. That caused her to shiver as if she¡¯d received an electric shock, and her eyes zed over.

    Xu Qing was about to move away from her when, out of nowhere, a ripple passed through the air toward them. Xu Qing froze.

    The ripple passed their position and then disappeared.

    ¡°That¡¯s the Three-Spirits peripheral scanning formation,¡± the Captain exined quietly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. As long as we don¡¯t jump out into the open and make a scene, it¡¯ll ignore us. It¡¯s only looking for Nascent Soul cultivators and higher. As far as the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain is concerned, anyone under the Nascent Soul level is a bug.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. Taking out a few more cloaking treasures and activating them, he then gave a signal to Yanyan, and the two of them moved a short distance away from the Captain. After all these years, Xu Qing knew that the Captain was sometimes unreliable.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up in displeasure. ¡°You¡¯ve changed, little Ah Qing! What are you doing way over there?¡±

    Xu Qing looked back at the Captain, who was now a good distance away. ¡°Eldest Brother, did Master happen to give you a new treasure recently?¡±

    ¡°Are you kidding me? No way! The old man¡¯s way too stingy. By the way, little Ah Qing, any chance you have any apples on you? I¡¯m a bit hungry.¡± The Captain¡¯s expression was so smooth there wasn¡¯t even a hint he was lying.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He took out some apples and threw them over, then sprinkled poison powder in the area around himself.

    The Captain blinked a few times and then sighed.

    Yanyan was confused by their behavior, but didn¡¯t ask any questions.

    Thus, three days passed.

    ¡°Captain,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°if the Swordsage Court doesn¡¯t show up, we can¡¯t just sit around waiting forever. Do you have a n B ready?¡±

    ¡°The Swordsage Court is definitely going to show up!¡± the Captain said firmly.

    ¡°You¡¯re that sure?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely. I paid a lot of money for that intelligence report!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered as though he were reviewing hisplex n of action.

    Xu Qing considered his words and chose not to say anything further.

    A few days passed.

    Xu Qing looked over at the Captain.

    The Captain took a deep breath and nodded as confidently as before. ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡±

    About a week passed.

    During that time, a few dangerous incidents urred.

    Three-Spirits disciples flew by a few times on patrol, and nearly spotted them. The worst situation was when some of those disciples sensed something unusual, and actually searched the mountain where they were hiding.

    Xu Qing kept his cloaking treasures activated, and also had his shadow assist. Yanyan obviously had treasures of her own, and therefore, neither of them were spotted.

    The Captain activated his cloaking treasures at thest minute, vanishing from sight. When he did, Xu Qing looked down at his shadow. It was night, so no one could see the shadow as it stretched toward a boulder not too far away.

    Xu Qing stared expressionlessly at that exact spot. In the location the shadow was pointing to, at the base of the boulder, was a barely opened eye.

    Something¡¯s not right here. How did little Ah Qing spot me? Don¡¯t tell me Master told him about the treasure that can create a clone and transform my true form? This little brat is too smart for his own good. He¡¯s no fun at all.

    That boulder was the Captain¡¯s hiding spot. That was his true form, while off in the distance¡­ he had a much more easily visible clone. His original n had been to wait until the Swordsage Court showed up, and in the resulting chaos, have his clone lead the way for Xu Qing and Yanyan, while his true form followed behind secretly. That would be a lot safer in general, and would also give him opportunities to surreptitiously get more loot.

    He had tried to use simr tactics both in the Merfolk Isles and in the Seazombie restricted area, although on both those asions his efforts failed. When following Xu Qing in the Merfolk Isles, he had ended up getting poisoned. And in the Seazombie restricted area, he ended up taking the me for the entire nose-explosion incident. He had never been happy about that, and had hoped that with this new treasure from his Master, he would finallye out on top.

    Sadly, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze from moments ago made him feel a bit guilty. After the Three-Spirits disciples were gone, he shifted positions.

    Three more days passed. They had now been waiting for about a month. As evening fell, a lightning bolt suddenly pierced through the dark clouds in the sky. The massive lightning bolt was 30,000 meters in length, and seemed topletely split apart the dome of heaven. Thunder ripped through the sky, shaking everything.

    After the main lightning bolt struck, countless smaller lightning bolts spread out, turning the area into a chaotic city of lightning.

    Then the clouds parted and the pounding of war drums echoed out. Simultaneously, a beam of sword light descended from on high. It was massive, and was surrounded by thousands of dao lineaments that gave it the power to sunder heaven. It emanated boundless might, making it seem like heavenly tribtion as it shot... toward the first peak of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain!

    A sword descended, causing the first mountain peak to shake violently.

    At the same time, a ck mist erupted to resist the sword light. Heaven and earth shook as they fought. Meanwhile, a voice that could shake the mind echoed out from the mist.

    ¡°Elders from the Swordsage Court??¡±

    The response from within the sword light made things very clear.

    ¡°The Swordsage Court is here on order from the county itself to suppress the Three Spirits!¡±

    The sudden turn of events was shocking even to the Three Spirits, and it threw the surroundingnds into an instant uproar.

    But before anything else could happen, two hands stretched down from the sky and viciously ripped apart the dark cloud cover. Numerous swordsages appeared, wearing the formal attire of the Swordsage Court. In the blink of an eye, they transformed into beams of sword light that shot downward. At the same time, the giant that had ripped apart the cloud cover threw his head back and howled, then charged toward the second mountain peak. Clenching his hand into a fist, he unleashed a strike that shook the entire mountain, causing cracks to appear on its surface.

    Three figures stood atop the giant¡¯s head, all of them pulsing with astonishing auras. Their eyes all contained countless streams of light. In unison, they stepped forth toward the third mountain peak.

    Before they even arrived, their sword energy mmed into the mountain! Intense cracking sounds rang out from the third mountain peak as defenses and warding spells copsed. Half of the mountain directly copsed, and the remaining part tilted precariously to the side. The intense pressure it had previously radiated was already dissipating.

    Thanks to the damage, an immense cave temple became visible inside, within which was the mansion grotto of August Spirit Nethersprite. Up above in the sky, August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s face suddenly turned iparably vicious.

    The skeletal giant on the second mountain peak stood. ¡°Swordsage Court,¡± he shouted furiously, ¡°aren¡¯t you aware of the consequences you¡¯ll face for attacking us? We¡¯ve yed our assigned role and haven¡¯t overstepped our bounds. And we haven¡¯t responded to the call of the Ghost Emperor. Are you trying to force our hand? Do you want us to merge into the Ghost Emperor and wake him up?¡±

    ¡°Back in the age of the Ancient Emperors,¡± came the response, ¡°you measly spirits wouldn¡¯t count as anything more than backwater bandits. It¡¯s only now that humankind is in decline that you dare to utter such threats.¡±

    The words were spoken by a middle-aged man hovering high in the sky. He wore a government uniform and an official hat decorated with dao lineaments. He seemed calm and at ease, and carried an ancient sword strapped to his back. His garments pped in the wind, and sword energy swirled around him. Shockingly, he was nked by innumerable projections that resembled himself. Each wasrger than the one before it, and it made it seem like he was connected to the dome of heaven.

    This indicated he was in the second stage of Void Returning.

    The clouds behind him were ripped to shreds, revealing the evening sun that hadn¡¯t shone onto these miserablends for years on end.

    Although it was only an afterglow, it was still dazzling!

    Just like humankind.

 Chapter 331: Taking Teeth from the Tigerâ€™s Mouth

    Chapter 331: Taking Teeth from the Tiger¡¯s Mouth

    Thest Ancient Emperor of humankind was Dark Serenity, who conquered Revered Ancient. The countless other species that existed at that time had been unable to do anything other than acknowledge allegiance to him. That was the final glory offered to humankind before the broken face of the god arrived.

    The other species didn¡¯t dare to be disrespectful at that time, less they face the wrath of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions. The number of nonhumans and evil cultivators who fell to the Five Greater Celestial Divisions couldn¡¯t even be numbered. Even just one of those five divisions could shake heaven and earth, and cause countless species to tremble in fear.

    The Swordsage Division was, of course, one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions.

    However, everything fell apart after the broken face of the god arrived. That god¡¯s aura infected everything, dramatically transforming heaven and earth. And Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity could do nothing about it.

    In fact, there were many Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns from the past who awoke from states of dormancy when that happened. Yet they were also powerless to fight back, and could only watch and sigh. Eventually, they were forced to abandon Revered Ancient, taking with them whatever suitable humans that were willing to follow them. Some other species left as well, departing Revered Ancient to create independent locations called holy grounds.

    Moremonly, species banded together to create what was now something legendary in the Revered Ancient maind.... The holynds.

    These holy grounds and holynds existed beyond the dome of heaven. However, though they seemed far away, they actually weren¡¯t an infinite distance from Revered Ancient. They took advantage of the fact that the broken face of the god was fixated on Revered Ancient to live for many years in peace, and even grow and expand. In other words, they had benefited from the pain and suffering of the people who had been left behind.

    The countless species of Revered Ancient continued on, living and dying, rebuilding their cities and reestablishing society. And though the modern species did trace their origin to the species of the ancient past, they were now different enough to be considered unique.

    Mutagen was integral to all of that.

    Although Xu Qing¡¯s journey made it seem like mutagen wasn¡¯t a big factor that cultivators had to consider, the truth was that it was extremely influential to all sects. The bigger a sect or group was, the harder they had to work to deal with mutagen. And when it came to small sects, or the mortals in the world, mutagen was one of the elements that yed into either their survival or their death. Not even huge sects and organizations couldpletely negate issues rting to mutagen. They had to rely on constant cultivation progress to suppress its effects. They couldn¡¯t do anything to get rid of the root cause.

    Mutagen was an enormous potential cmity on an individual level. The slightest misstep could cause it to re up and push a cultivator into mutation. Over the years, humans hade up with all sorts of ways of dealing with mutagen, some more effective than others. Although they couldn¡¯t get rid of it entirely, the big sects and organizations usually didn¡¯t have to deal with full mutation situations.

    Yet all cultivators knew that in the end... it was a possibility. And if a cultivator could provoke an explosion of mutagen in someone else, then all others would be weak inparison.

    That was one reason why Torchlight had caused such a sensation in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The god above obviously had the power to rapidly push mutagen levels in a cultivator past the sustainable limit, which would cause them to mutate into a freakish monster. Unfortunately, that was just how things were. It was how the path of cultivation worked in the modern era, and there was no other road to follow.

    It was only in the holynds, or perhaps in the legendary imperial capital, where true purity could be found. Either that, or by using certain extremely special techniques that could purify the body. After all, even if someone did attain purity, as long as they breathed air or absorbed spirit power, they would be contaminated again.

    That was why cultivators from countless species all dreamed about being taken to the holynds. But the holynds were far, far away. Only the great species in Revered Ancient had ways of contacting them. And that connection was why the great species¡¯ societies and institutions had never copsed.

    For example, humans, and their Five Greater Celestial Divisions.

    As the afterglow of evening shone down onto the miserablends below, the Swordsage Court took action.

    ¡°Humans still stand strong!¡± said the middle-aged man, and that was when the true battle began.

    Numerous figures of glittering light descended on the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, pulsing with killing energy. Only the most elite and skilled individuals could be swordsages, and thus, as the ughter began, the disciples of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain were instantly thrown into chaos.

    The Three Spirits were in bad shape as well. Sword light swept across the first mountain peak. The roaring giant battered at the second mountain peak. And three swords sliced at the third mountain peak.

    Heaven and earth shook. Booms rang out right and left. Roars of rage, shrieks of anguish, and the thrum of magical techniques. The sound rose into the sky, causing the clouds above to grow even thinner, and allowing more of the evening afterglow to shine down.

    The middle-aged man, who held a leadership position in the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, strode toward the first mountain peak.

    The Three Spirits were manifestations of the ghost emperor¡¯s three spiritual souls. The third- and second-ranking spirits were both in the first stage of Void Returning. The highest-ranking spirit, August Spirit Sporelight, had reached the second stage years ago. However, as the sword light closed in on him, the ck mist surrounding him didn¡¯t seem capable of blocking it.

    Then the middle-aged cultivator arrived, bursting with energy like a river of stars.

    Fighting yed out high above.

    Fighting yed out down below.

    The battle raged!

    ***

    ¡°Now¡¯s our chance!¡± the Captain said, jumping up, his eyes shining brightly.

    He immediately started racing down the mountain and in the direction of August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s third mountain peak. In fact, he was apparently in such a rush he forgot to turn around and tell Xu Qing and Yanyan to hurry and follow.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go!¡± Yanyan said.

    However, before she could start moving, Xu Qing casually walked up to a withered tree a short distance away. Standing in front of it, he calmly said, ¡°Ready to go, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The ¡®Captain¡¯ off in the distance stopped in ce, a strange expression on his face. ¡°I¡¯m over here, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him. After looking at the tree for a long moment, he turned to Yanyan. ¡°Would you like to see some very interesting images I have stored on this jade slip?¡±

    Before she could answer, heartyughter erupted from the tree. Then it blurred as the Captain stepped out into the open, smiling broadly and without a hint of embarrassment. ¡°Hahaha, I was just joking around with you, little Junior Brother. You rascal! Howe you¡¯re always so serious? Comee. There¡¯s no time to lose. We need to go get some treasure!¡±

    The Captain burst into motion, and when he passed his clone, he waved his hand. The clone disappeared.

    Yanyan¡¯s eyes widened into a re as she realized that the Captain had been trying to get her and Xu Qing to lead the way. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything as he followed the Captain. Yanyan finally snorted coldly, and keeping her re fixed on the Captain, followed Xu Qing.

    Thus, the three of them sped along at top speed. After descending the mountain, they took advantage of the chaos to slip across the battlefield unnoticed.

    Along the way, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned colder and colder. Because of the chaos of battle, the cities were crumbling, and that allowed him to see more details of what was inside them. There were huge pots used to cook people. There were bs of bloody flesh hanging from hooks. The ground was purple with gore. And there was an ever-present noxious odor. There were skulls scraped clean of flesh piled up everywhere. And there were also endless cages filled with mortals from all species, just waiting to be turned into food.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t seen this kind of thing very often when dealing with cultivators. But here... they were everywhere.

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing and then, voice grim, said, ¡°Kill whoever you want to kill.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. However, a momentter he appeared in front of a Three-Spirits Gold Core cultivator with two heavenly pces, who was just backing away from his swordsage opponent. A dagger appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, which shed through the throat of the Gold Core cultivator.

    A scream rang out and then the head flew into the air. Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless, continued onward. A momentter, he appeared behind another Three-Spirits cultivator, whose throat he viciously sliced open.

    As blood sprayed everywhere, Yanyan took action, the perverse energy within her erupting out. She wasn¡¯t in Gold Core, so she targeted people she knew she could kill, ripping them apart and slicing them open.

    Seeing that, the Captain didn¡¯t say anything. But as he flew onward, he passed a Three-Spirits disciple who suddenly shivered and froze solid.

    Because the three of them were cloaked, they were like assassins on the battlefield. Wherever they passed, death followed. Unfortunately, due to therge numbers of swordsages involved in the fighting, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t resort to using poisons. If he had, the ughter would have been even more brutal. Before the swordsages arrived, such actions would have attracted immediate attention. But the chaos of the fighting ensured that the screams of those they targeted, and the corpses they left behind, weren¡¯t really noticed.

    Xu Qing was the kind of person who kept a clear head at virtually all times, so despite the ughter he was unleashing, he kept heading straight toward the third mountain peak. An hour passed, and they were getting closer and closer to that peak. As they neared, they were able to see the fight ying out in the air above it.

    The shockwavesing from the first mountain peak were the strongest. The sounds echoing out from the second mountain peak were the loudest. But the third mountain peak was where the most fighting was going on.

    August Spirit Nethersprite had split into three versions of herself, each of which was fighting one of the swordsage elders. Shockwaves spread out, causing whipping winds and cracking thends.

    It was in those circumstances that Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain slowly got closer and closer to the mountain peak. As they did, the fighting got even more chaotic. asionally, the Captain would stop moving and drop down to the ground to avoid attracting attention. Then he would crawl forward on hands and knees, elerating or decelerating depending on the circumstances.

    Xu Qing reacted in the same manner, as if on instinct. Yanyan didn¡¯t have the same instincts, so she reacted slower. However, she was a quick learner.

    Using various methods, the three of them continued to make their way through the fighting.

    asionally they would encounter swordsages who, though they couldn¡¯t see the three of them, noticed clues that they were present. Thankfully the Captain hade prepared, and was able to produce a certain identity medallion. With that medallion, the other swordsages did nothing more than react curiously to their presence.

    As the Captain crawled forward, he looked back at Xu Qing with a pleased expression. ¡°Well, what do you think? I told you I came prepared. You know what this is? It¡¯s a swordsage informant¡¯s medallion. I spent a lot to get this thing. In most circumstances it would be useless, but on this battlefield it provides us with the perfect cover.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times then stered an amazed look onto his face. The Captain seemed very pleased with that.

    They faced danger on several asions, but thanks to the caution of Xu Qing and the Captain, nothing came of any of it.

    Another hour passed, whereupon they finally managed to crawl to the base of the third mountain peak. High above in the air, August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s three clones were locked in viciousbat. From this vantage point it was possible to tell that none of the three clones wore the same outfit she had worn the day she showed up outside Seven Blood Eyes.

    ¡°This shrew has so many outfits! We¡¯re about to get rich, little Ah Qing. Rich!!¡± Eyes gleaming with avarice, the Captain leaped up, no longer cloaked, and bolted toward the mountain.

    Xu Qing followed, and Yanyan trailed right behind them. Though Yanyan was slower, she had plenty of magical treasures that boosted her speed and strength. She couldn¡¯t keep up, but was close behind.

    From high above, it was just barely possible to make out three figures whizzing through the chaos of battle toward the mansion grotto in the mountain. The Captain¡¯s eyes burned with a crazy look. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    ¡°This is totally crazy....¡± murmured Yanyan, whose heart was pounding.

    As she looked at Xu Qing and the Captain, and thought about how they wanted to extract teeth from a tiger¡¯s mouth, she realized... that no ordinary person could possibly do this!

    ¡°And it¡¯s so exciting!¡± Eyes zing over a bit, she trembled with excitement and pressed onward.

 Chapter 332: Donâ€™t Leave Valuables Out In The Open

    Chapter 332: Don¡¯t Leave Valuables Out In The Open

    The mass ughter taking ce on the battlefield didn¡¯t pose any hindrance to Xu Qing or the Captain. Despite being surrounded left and right by danger, they got closer and closer to the mansion grotto. As they did, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and the Captain¡¯s gaze became one of fanaticism.

    It was a given that the Captain had picked a perfect opportunity. Normally speaking, there was no way that any circumstance would allow Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan to get anywhere near August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto. Before even getting close, they would have been forced to deal with all the countless Three-Spirits disciples. After that, they would have faced the warding spells protecting the huge mountain itself. And of course, the final obstacle would have been the terrifying August Spirit Nethersprite herself. Any single one of those would have led to theplete failure of the n, and also the almost certain death of everyone involved.

    But now, all of those obstacles disappeared like wisps of smoke. The Three-Spirits disciples were all locked in battle with the swordsages, allowing the three intruders easy ess to the foot of the mountain. As for all the warding spells, and the pressure normally exuded by the mountain, they were almostpletely destroyed by the swordsages. Though some remnants remained, they were like nothingpared to before. Beyond that, the copse of the mountain had revealed the cave inside.

    The terrain beneath their feet was rough and broken. What was more, through the cracks in the sides of the mountains, it was possible to see bolts of lightning streaking back and forth, as well as hosts of damaged magical symbols.

    In a few ces, smoke poured out. The mountain was badly damaged, to the point where all the trees on its surface were now withered. Boulders were smashed and cracked. The entire mountain seemed like it might copse at any moment. There were corpses everywhere, as well as living Three-Spirits cultivators. Thetter were scrambling to get out of the mountain, and those that did notice Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain didn¡¯t bother them, and just continued fleeing.

    Further up the mountain, inside the cave, it was possible to see the mansion grotto. All sorts of things were scattered on the floor.

    When the Captain saw them, his eyes shone brightly. Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to race. They saw the glittering light of treasures, as well as numerous items that seemed to be crafted from immortal jade. There were many other precious items; every piece of furniture seemed to be a high-level magical device.

    The ce was a total mess, and thanks to the attacks of the swordsage elders, there were even the corpses of nonhuman servantsying here and there.

    The mess didn¡¯t deter the Captain in the least. In fact, he elerated. As for Xu Qing, though he was also captivated by the treasure, he noted the Captain¡¯s sudden burst of speed.

    Xu Qing already had three-pce battle prowess. And while the Captain didn¡¯t seem to be in the Gold Core level yet, given his burst of speed, Xu Qing got the feeling he was roughly equivalent to that level. It wasn¡¯t a surprise. In fact, it was almost predictable. Deciding not to worry about it, Xu Qing also elerated, sticking close to the Captain as they closed in on the mansion grotto.

    Though the warding spells protecting the ce were mostly destroyed, they still contained deadly power. At a certain point, Xu Qing suddenly stopped and backed up. A ck thread appeared in front of him, whipping through the air and carrying with it a strong mutagen aura.

    Despite how quickly he had reacted, the ck thread still managed to slice off a strand of his hair.

    The Captain was moving too fast to dodge out of the way, and his right hand was cut clean off. He was a vicious fellow, though, and all he did was grab the severed hand and shove back into ce on the stump. A momentter, he was back to normal.

    ¡°You think some crappy warding spell is going to stop me?¡± he shouted. However, a momentter, light glittered in front of them as over a hundred additional threads appeared, forming a huge that raced toward them.

    Intense mutagen spread out in all directions. The threads were obviously made from raw mutagen, and were clearly the handiwork of August Spirit Nethersprite. Most cultivators viewed mutagen as something to avoid, but she had used it to create a powerful warding item.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as the web of mutagen threads closed in. Without any hesitation, he sent his shadow out to stop it.

    An instantter, the web hit the shadow.

    The shadow shivered, then emitted emotional fluctuations of casual amusement. The web shivered, and then the section in front of Xu Qing vanished and he proceeded on his way. Yanyan followed in his tracks.

    However, the Captain had been moving too quickly to dodge out of the way. That said, he had his own way of dealing with the situation. He just let the threads hit him and slice him into dozens of chunks. After they passed through him, the flesh and blood rapidly stitched back together. An instantter, the Captain was whole again.

    ¡°Hahaha! What do you think, little Ah Qing? My methods are so superior to yours that¡ª¡± Then he noticed Xu Qing and Yanyan standing therepletely unharmed. His jaw nearly dropped. ¡°How¡¯d you do that?¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, looked the Captain in the eyes, and shrugged. ¡°The threads just broke. Maybe the warding spell was too badly damaged or something.¡±

    The Captain looked at him silently, then nced down at the red lines crisscrossing his own body. Suddenly feeling very tired, he walked over to stand next to Yanyan, behind Xu Qing. Clearing his throat, he said, ¡°Shall we continue, little Junior Brother?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The Captain looked back at him.

    Without another word, Xu Qing continued toward the mansion grotto. This time, the Captain didn¡¯tpete to be first inside. Instead, he obediently followed along with Yanyan.

    And thus, the three of them moved rapidly, but also cautiously, toward the mansion grotto.

    They ran into more warding spells, but managed to go around most of them. Those that they couldn¡¯t go around were full of powerful mutagen. Therefore... the shadow was able to just consume them.

    Before long, the three of them were right in front of the cave. From that position, they could already smell the fragrant aroma of perfumeing from the mansion grotto.

    The battle high in the sky had reached a fever pitch. Howls of rage echoed out from the first mountain peak. The skeletal spirit on the second mountain peak was evenly matched with his opponent. As for August Spirit Nethersprite, her three clones were suffering setback after setback, provoking desperate shrieks.

    ¡°We have to hurry,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°If we¡¯re still here after they¡¯re done fighting, we¡ª¡± Before he could finish speaking, the Captain rushed past him into the cave with eyes shining.

    Xu Qing could only watch as the Captain zipped toward a statue of an immortal crane in the corner, carved from pure jade. It was glittering and resplendent, making it obvious it was no ordinary item. Opening his mouth, the Captain bit off the crane¡¯s head and swallowed it.

    ¡°This thingy is made from immortal jade! So extravagant! You couldn¡¯t buy it for 1,000,000 spirit stones!¡± The Captain excitedly stuffed the headless immortal crane into his bag of holding.

    Xu Qing rushed into the mansion grotto as well. Waving his hand, he caused all of themps to fly toward him. All of them were clearly extraordinary, and emanated powerful fluctuations. They weren¡¯t lifemps, but they were still precious items.

    It was no surprise to Xu Qing that the mansion grotto of a Void Returning cultivator would contain so many treasures. However, time was limited, and he didn¡¯t have time to go around examining everything. Therefore, he just grabbed what he could. After taking all themps, he started snatching pieces of furniture.

    Meanwhile, the Captain went around prying out all of the pearls that were inset into the walls. Upon seeing what Xu Qing was doing with the furniture, he grinned proudly. Xu Qing didn¡¯t measure up to him in understanding the value of things, as the items inset into the walls were clearly more valuable than the furniture.

    Eyebrows shooting up, Xu Qing rushed into one of the nearby sitting rooms and took the divan from against the wall. Then he started snatching all the other random things he saw and putting them into his bag of holding.

    Normally speaking, the owner of a house would put their nicest things in the sitting room, so Xu Qing was convinced that he was getting some good things.

    The Captain blinked a few times and then went to another of the sitting rooms. He also had a clone start grabbing things, putting his overall looting speed above Xu Qing¡¯s.

    The mansion grotto was so huge that it seemed unlikely they could go through the whole thing in such a short time. Therefore, they just grabbed whatever they found. Even still, the Captain was very pleased.

    Ohhhh, little Ah Qing. Back in Seazombie territory, you absorbed that elixir much faster than me. This time, I¡¯m going toe out on top!

    The Captain was in a great mood. Ever since the Seazombie heist, he had been forced to think repeatedly about how Xu Qing had absorbed more of that elixir than him. But now he was obviously going much faster than Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing noticed how fast the Captain was going, but he remained calm and collected. Looking around, he noticed Yanyan, who had just arrived.

    Yanyan took in the empty space in front of her, and the Captain busy at work, and she hesitated, not really sure of what to grab.

    That was when Xu Qing approached.

    ¡°Yanyan, what part of a mansion grotto would be the most important to a female cultivator?¡±

    ¡°Her makeup table,¡± Yanyan replied immediately.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked around, then rushed toward one of the side rooms.

    After bursting inside, his willpower evaded him and he gasped loudly.

    The side room was full of an assortment of mirrors,rge and small. Each of them emanated powerful fluctuations that pegged them as amazing items. What was more, there were countless small bottles and containers, all of which emanated the fragrance of medicinal items and immortal energy. Further inside, there was a wardrobe full of precious garments that all emanated terrifying auras. Any single one of those garments there was enough to make Xu Qing have trouble breathing steadily. All in all, it made his illusory heavenly pces tremble, giving him the distinct impression that these items could help him rapidly turn heavenly pces corporeal.

    On the floor beneath him, his shadow stared excitedly at the bottles and containers; apparently they contained things that would be very useful to the shadow as well.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was staring at the mirrors. His intuition was telling him that the mirrors had spirit automatons sealed in them, and that if he devoured them, his own cultivation base would rise. It would be even more effective than devouring souls.

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply and, without another word, waved his hand, causing mirrors, bottles, and containers to fly over to him. Yanyan helped.

    Unfortunately, the strange garments were toorge and couldn¡¯t fit into his bag of holding.

    That was when the Captain suddenly sensed something and rushed in. Before he could assess the situation, Xu Qing pointed at the wardrobe.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, the precious garments are right there!¡±

 Chapter 333: A Cow Chewing a Peony

    <h4>Chapter 333: A Cow Chewing a Peony</h4>

    The moment the words left Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, the Captain turned and saw the wardrobe and all the glittering clothing. His eyes went wide.

    There were dozens of garments, each one hanging neatly in ce, folded and unwrinkled. They were hanging in such orderly fashion that not one garment touched another. Merely looking at the wardrobe, it was obvious that the owner was very fond of these outfits.

    The majority of them were dresses. One of them was an emerald green muslin gown embroidered with rough silk crafted from immortal jade. It featured arge peony flower and was decorated with immortal gold that draped all the way to the floor. The hem was decorated with a pink narcissus flower motif, and overall, the garment was stunning. It was paired with a gauzy green and gold veil that, even if it were to be worn by an ordinary woman, would bepletely dazzling.

    There was also a cyan court garment, a sleeveless blouse with violet and blue butterflies embroidered on it. asionally, extremely life-like illusory projections of the butterflies would flutter around the dress. Beneath the blouse was a pleated skirt decorated with flowers and mist, with sea grass at the bottom hem. It was obviously intended to be form-fitting, and was clearly a shockingly precious item.

    There was a in white qipao spun from an unusual nt fiber. It was embroidered with branches full of blooming plum blossoms that emanated a faint impression of spirit energy. The garment also created the faint, illusory image of a strange beast.

    There were dozens of precious garments, and each one was both unique and spectacr. They were obviously extremely expensive, but also emanated auras that caused the cultivation base to stir.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t the only one whose eyes went wide. Yanyan had been staring at them from the moment she noticed them. That said, all the Captain cared about was how much he could sell them for, or what they would be like if he ate them. Yanyan was just entranced by their beauty.

    ¡°It was worth it!¡± the Captain said. Swallowing hard, he rushed toward the wardrobe, grabbed one of the garments, and tried to stuff it into his bag of holding. The strange garment was incredibly resilient, and was difficult to get inside. ¡°I knew this was going to happen. Little Ah Qing, once we get back, you need to smooth things out with the Dark Serenity Sect. I did that for the sake of this mission. I needed this snake tooth!¡±

    With a flourish, he produced a huge snake tooth the size of a person!

    Some parts of the tooth were stained the color gold, which emanated shocking fluctuations. All it took was a nce and Xu Qing knew it was the tooth of the demon snake. Yanyan had never seen the tooth before, but it was so incredible-looking that it caused her to inhale sharply.

    Holding the tooth in his hands, the Captain smiled proudly.

    As Yanyan winced painfully, the Captain shed the tooth into the emerald green muslin gown. A loud ripping sound rang out, and the garment immediately became less brilliant. At the same time, a horrendous sh mark opened on the front of it.

    The Captain seemed to enjoy the sound of the garment ripping, as he went on to sh the thing to pieces. However, he didn¡¯t damage any of the decorations or the primary materials. Seeing how effective the snake tooth was made the Captain even more excited.

    ¡°Back when I first saw that shrew Nethersprite¡¯s clothes, I wondered how I would rip them apart if I ever got my hands on them. With this tooth, I, Chen Erniu, will be able to rip apart any treasure in existence!¡± The Captain threw his head back andughed long and hard. ¡°Even if the Dark Serenity Sect wants to skin me alive, I could ept it!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, making himself look suitably moved. The Captain seemed very pleased by that. Meanwhile, Xu Qing took advantage of the moment to walk over and join the Captain in collecting the ripped-up items. There wasn¡¯t any need for discussion; the two of them both knew that they had to work together.

    After that, Xu Qing grabbed the clothes, opened them up, and revealed the most valuable parts. Then the Captain would use his snake tooth to rip those parts off.

    Before long, loud ripping and tearing sounds filled the room. Off to the side, Yanyan looked like she was physically in pain. Though these clothes didn¡¯t belong to her, she could imagine how violently August Spirit Nethersprite was going to react when she discovered what had happened to her clothing collection.

    As she watched Xu Qing and the Captain working so hard, she quietly said, ¡°August Spirit Nethersprite messed up by leaving her valuables out in the open for you to find. But when she finds out what happened, she¡¯s going to be pissed.... Ripping up a woman¡¯s clothing? You two are just too nasty!¡±

    Hearing that, the Captainughed sarcastically. ¡°This is nothing! You should see me and little Ah Qing¡¯s Master. Now <i>he¡¯s</i> nasty! Back when the old man was young, I personally saw him get into a big fight with Mistress. She was so mad that she destroyed some of his favorite ancient records and jade slips.¡± Hefting the snake tooth, the Captain continued ripping apart clothing as he continued, ¡°After that, Master casually pulled out a big pair of scissors and started slicing Mistress¡¯ favorite dress apart. Right in front of her! When Mistress saw that, she was dumbstruck. But then she flipped her lid. After that, the two of them separated for three years.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. He didn¡¯t say anything, but he had noted that the Captain mentioned seeing something Master did ¡®when he was young.¡¯ Master was already no youngster. And that seemed to indicate that the Captain must have restarted his cultivation quite a few times.

    Meanwhile, Yanyan was thinking about what that event must have felt like. After all, men usually analyzed things logically, while women would consider feelings. As a result, Yanyan could easily imagine how Xu Qing¡¯s Master¡¯s wife must have blown her top all those years ago.

    ¡°So nasty....¡± Yanyan muttered. Then she rushed inside and started helping out.

    Working together, they gradually ripped apart dozens of garments. That said, the material the clothing was made of was spectacr and full of immortal energy. Plus, August Spirit Nethersprite was physically huge. As a result, each destroyed garment created a massive pile of items.

    They couldn¡¯t take everything, so they had to pick and choose between the best things. Before long, there were random bits of cloth everywhere. Some looked like nk curtains, others were full of holes and looked like the clothing of a beggar.

    Around then, the booms from outside grew more intense, and the ground started shaking violently.

    Noticing that, Xu Qing said, ¡°We need to get out of here. If we don¡¯t, we¡¯re going to be in danger!¡±

    Suppressing his greed, he turned to leave. Yanyan hesitated briefly, then made to join him.

    The Captain had originally not been ready to give up, and had been nning to do another pass, or maybe start prying up some of the spirit jade tiles from the floor. But seeing that Xu Qing and Yanyan were about to leave, he thought back to the Seazombie incident and how he had ended up taking the me for everything. Taking a deep breath, he gritted his teeth and rushed after Xu Qing and Yanyan as they left the mansion grotto.

    <i>Quit while you¡¯re ahead. Quit while you¡¯re ahead! I have to get out of the habit of being too greedy. I can¡¯t push things too far this time!</i>

    Before long, they were out of the cave. Cloaking themselves again, they hurried down the mountain.

    ***

    Shortly after they left, a red shadow blurred toward the mansion grotto.

    It was a lithe young woman in a red garment with a white mask on her face that covered her facial features. Resting across her shoulders was an enormous, ck-colored, evil ghost sickle that exuded gruish fluctuations.

    As she neared the mansion grotto, she sized up the area, then chuckled.

    <i>The Church elders said that of the Three Spirits, August Spirit Nethersprite has the biggest collection of treasure. I need to take this opportunity to see what exactly they were talking about!</i>

    She entered the cave, stepped into the mansion grotto, then looked around. All she saw was empty space.

    <i>There¡¯s a big battle going on outside, and half the mountain copsed. But strangely enough, this ce seems neat and tidy</i>.

    Then she looked more closely at the walls, and was stunned. There were numerous empty notches in the wall that seemed like they had once contained pearls. After a moment of hesitation, she went further into the mansion grotto. As she searched the various rooms, her expression turned increasingly unsightly. Even most of the furniture was gone.

    Finally she found the location with all the shredded clothing, and she inhaled sharply.

    /p>

    <i>Someone beat me here! Whoever they were, did they shapechange into a rat? Or maybe they have a personal grudge against August Spirit Nethersprite? I can¡¯t believe they destroyed her clothing</i>.

    Turning, she raced away with her guard up.

    ***

    Further down the mountain, Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain were racing away, cloaked and invisible.

    Their bags of holding were full, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to stick around. That was especially true when he thought about all the loot they had. He didn¡¯t want to re-experience what had urred in Seazombie territory.

    As for the Captain, he looked regretful, as if he wasn¡¯t satisfied yet.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t get into any trouble this time, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain said.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like the sound of that. Keeping his guard up, he pulled Yanyan along and hurried forward.

    The Captaingged a bit. Sighing, he looked up at the second mountain peak. Then he licked his lips.

    ¡°Maybe we should just go <i>look </i>at the second mountain peak.¡±

    Xu Qing was about to respond when, all of a sudden, a shocking boom rang out from up in the dome of heaven.

    The sound was so intense that Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain, despite not being very close to it, were shaken to the core. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, several defensive jade slips on Yanyan shattered, and she also coughed up blood. A tremor passed through the Captain and blood sprayed out of his mouth. All three of them looked up in shock.

    They saw Nethersprite¡¯s three clones fighting the three swordsages. One of the clones had just been stabbed in the chest by her swordsage opponent, then punched in the abdomen, and finally, hit with a huge sealing mark that emanated terrifying fluctuations. The clone¡¯s abdomen and chest exploded, and she screamed in agony. Then the sealing mark mmed into her. Obviously the sealing mark was something that had been prepared in advance specifically to deal with Nethersprite. Though it wasn¡¯t a fatal blow, it did sever her connection with the clone.

    As a result, the clone tumbled out of the sky, mmed into the side of the third mountain peak, then toppled onto the ground below with a rumbling boom. There, the cloney, apparently unconscious. The open wounds on her didn¡¯t reveal flesh and blood underneath. Instead, her innards were pure immortal energy.

    As the dust settled, Xu Qing looked surprised and Yanyan seemed jumpy. The Captain, however, had a very crazy look in his eyes.

    1. After years of avoiding ¡°Mistress¡± as the obvious trantion for themon word that means ¡°wife of Master¡± ¡­ I¡¯m just done. I¡¯m using it. Henceforth in my trantions the capitalized Mistress means the wife of someone¡¯s Master. ??

 Chapter 334: A Strange Perfume Assails the Nostrils

    <h4>Chapter 334: A Strange Perfume Assails the Nostrils</h4>

    What drove the Captain crazy was the auraing out of the clone¡¯s wound, and the fact that the clone in general exuded a sensation of immortal energy. That was because the clone wasn¡¯t made from flesh and blood, but rather, had been created using a spirit nt. Although it was impossible to say exactly what nt it was, for it to grow sorge showed that August Spirit Nethersprite must have spent a lot of effort on it. This clone¡¯s body was itself a precious material.

    At the same time, it was also astonishingly dangerous. The moment itnded on the ground, it caused the air around it to distort. It also let off terrifying fluctuations that created a powerful pressure around it. The pressure and its aura created something almost like an attack that reduced all nearby rocks and nts to ash. Even the ground started corroding. It was easy to imagine how life-threateningly dangerous it would be to approach it.

    But none of that could stop the passionate and crazy look from appearing in the Captain¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°That thing is amazing! Totally amazing! It¡¯s not a flesh-and-blood clone. It was built from a spirit nt. It¡¯s a precious material! I wonder where August Spirit Nethersprite found a human-shaped nt like that!¡±

    As the Captain trembled in excitement, Yanyan looked at him as if he were a ghost. She hade to the conclusion that he wasn¡¯t a lunatic. No, he was a suicidal psycho.

    August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone seemed great and all, but even at this distance, Yanyan felt a sense of deadly crisis just looking at it. Every fiber of her being was screaming at her to get away as quickly as possible. Just the invisible fluctuationsing off of the clone had destroyed everything around it. Yanyan was literally shaking. She was about to open her mouth to give her opinion when she noticed Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression. His eyes were glittering just as brightly as the Captain¡¯s.

    After a moment of thought, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, should we go take a bite?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding. His craziness was different from the Captain¡¯s. Precisely speaking, Xu Qing preferred to assess the danger of a situation.

    Though the Captain often assessed situations before going in, it wasn¡¯t unusual for him to forget that step. As far as the Captain was concerned, if the treasure was precious enough, it didn¡¯t matter if he had to risk his life to get it. Years ago when he went after Joine¡¯s flesh, he had lost half his body for one piece, and hadn¡¯tined. And back when he took a bite out of the zombie ancestor statue, it was because he just couldn¡¯t live without doing exciting things. Then, on Seastar Ind, he ended up losing everything except his head, and had even asked Xu Qing to throw his head back into the fray. And that was just to get a bite of Bai Li¡¯s savory flesh. In this moment, the Captain wasn¡¯t worried about danger, or pressure, or anything else. All he knew... was that there was a precious treasure right in front of him!

    But Xu Qing was different. He could tell that August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone was no ordinary item. He knew full well that it wasn¡¯t made from flesh and blood, but rather, had been created using a spirit nt. A precious material like that could be extremely helpful to his cultivation. That was why he was excited. Up above in midair, August Spirit Nethersprite was suffering setback after setback at the hands of three swordsages. In other words, this was a perfect opportunity. And thus, the crazy look appeared in his eyes as he decided to take a risk.

    The main thing to consider was the immense pressure the clone radiated. Even Xu Qing felt a bit nervous about dealing with it, and could sense how it made him instinctively want to flee. Obviously, getting close to the clone wasn¡¯t going to be easy.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The Captain looked back at him. Both could see the fervor in each other¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°We need magical devices that can resist the pressure,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°I have some!¡± the Captain replied. Struggling to breathe steadily, he pulled out a handful of about twenty magical devices.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but feel surprised at how well-prepared the Captain was.

    ¡°I actually got these before I knew we were moving to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. I¡¯d been nning to use them to get into me Phoenix¡¯s nest. I figured the pressure there would be intense. Sadly, we ended uping here to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, so I had to give up on my me Phoenix n. They¡¯ll work perfectly here. But you¡¯re going to owe me, Xu Qing. I¡¯m broke right now.¡±

    The Captain handed some of the magical devices to Xu Qing.

    As for Yanyan, her cultivation base wasn¡¯t strong enough even with the magical devices, so after a brief discussion, Xu Qing and the Captain agreed that she shouldn¡¯t participate.

    After making the final preparations, the two of them gritted their teeth, and as Yanyan watched nervously, they started running toward Nethersprite¡¯s corpse. They moved with such speed that, in the blink of an eye, they had flown several dozen meters forward. As they closed in, the pressure from the clone grew iparably intense.

    The air around them seemed to solidify, and the clone¡¯s aura pulsed with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    Xu Qing and the Captain could feel the effects. Their faces turned pale, and blood oozed out of the corners of their mouths. The magical devices were operating at full st, but even with their help, the pressure was intense.

    The air around the clone was visibly rippling, and that friction caused ck lightning bolts to crackle here and there. It was a terrifying sight that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone who saw it.

    But the idea of giving up hadn¡¯t even urred to Xu Qing and the Captain. Dropping to the ground, they started crawling forward as fast as they could. After all, if they were standing up, it could attract lightning. But crawling would enable them to get closer much more easily. They didn¡¯t even need to talk to each other about it beforehand. They just did it in unison.

    Time passed as the fighting continued up above, and massive rumbling sounds echoed out. Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the Captain got closer and closer to the clone. The pressure built. The aura grew stronger. Lightning crackled. But none of that could stop them.

    As they got closer, their magical devices started having trouble. One by one they started crumbling. Even though the Captain had prepared a lot of magical devices for this specific purpose, now it seemed like he might not have prepared enough. Soon they were about 300 meters away, and the pressure got so intense that it started trying to shove them in the opposite direction. It was almost like countless hands were grabbing onto them and pushing them away from the clone.

    Trembling, Xu Qing and the Captain took out some cloth strips that they had taken from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto and wrapped themselves up in them. The cloth strips managed to reduce the pressure a bit, but the force of resistance still pushed against them.

    Gritting their teeth, they kept crawling forward.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he looked to the side. The Captain noticed the same thing and also looked in that same direction. Instantly, the Captain¡¯s expression became like that of a wild dog ready to fight over its food. Xu Qing¡¯s guard also went up.

    Both of them were looking at a distant figure crawling across the ground toward the clone. It was a person in a red robe and ponytail. They had a mask covering their face, but from the way the cloth of the garment shifted over their body, this person was obviously a young woman. Her weapon was a bit ridiculous; it was an evil ghost sickle that was absolutely massive. The top of the sickle looked like a vicious ghost head, with the de emerging from the mouth. And the shaft was pitch ck and looked like it was made from pure bone. The gruish weapon emanated astonishing fluctuations; just looking at it, it was obviously a spectacr item. Especially noteworthy was that it emanated a soft glow that surrounded the young woman and protected her from the pressure.

    Right when Xu Qing and the Captain noticed the red-garbed young woman, she noticed them. They were only a few hundred meters apart, lying on the ground, looking at each other.

    ¡°Well this is weird,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Someone¡¯s actually trying to steal <i>our </i>stuff!¡± The Captain¡¯s gaze was not exactly friendly, and Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice.

    Off in the distance, the girl in red frowned beneath her mask as she looked at Xu Qing and the Captain. When she saw the strips of cloth they were wrapped in, she instantly realized that these were the people who had ransacked the mansion grotto. Her expression turned icy.

    After a brief moment in which the three of them sized each other up, they all started crawling forward at top speed, fierce expressions in their eyes.

    After getting within 300 meters of the clone, the lightning, the fluctuations, and the pressure all grew more intense. Thankfully for Xu Qing and the Captain, their magical devicesbined with the strips of cloth ensured that they weren¡¯t slowed down at all.

    The most difficult thing to deal with was the force of expulsion created by the clone¡¯s aura. It was so strong that, if they rxed for even a fraction of a moment, they would be shoved backward. In fact, that force of expulsion created screaming winds that whipped their hair and clothes into a frenzy. And they couldn¡¯t even keep their eyes fully open. Eventually, they were forced to slow down a bit.

    Meanwhile, the young woman in red had such amazing protection from her weapon that she didn¡¯t slow down at all. She was already about 120 meters from the clone¡¯s head.

    Seeing that, the Captain started to get very anxious. Biting the tip of his tongue, he spat out some blood. As a result, a sleeping face appeared in the pupil of his eye that resembled him, except nefarious and bizarre.

    At the same time, the Captain¡¯s aura changed, bing cold and frigid. Simultaneously, he shot forward with a burst of speed, passing Xu Qing and getting within 90 meters of the clone.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was only about 150 meters away. Eyes narrowing, he sent some fluctuations to his shadow, which responded by rapidly stretching forward ahead of him.

    The pressure didn¡¯t seem to affect the shadow at all, which made sense considering what happened back in the Merfolk Isles, when the shadow ignored the pressure in the mural to get amp for Xu Qing. The pressure here was actually far inferior to that pressure.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the shadow to reach the clone, wrap around its ear, and then start pulling Xu Qing forward. Instantly, Xu Qing elerated, virtually ignoring the force of expulsion as he got closer and closer to the clone¡¯s head.

    120 meters. 90 meters. 60 meters. 30 meters.

    He was moving faster than both the Captain and the red-garbed girl. A momentter, he was right in front of the clone¡¯s neck! After reaching that spot, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment. Instead of being stingy, he turned back toward the Captain, who was about 30 meters away, and made a grasping gesture. With his help, the Captain elerated, getting closer and closer until he was right next to Xu Qing. However, his eyes were fixed on the seemingly fair skin of August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone.

    ¡°The nose. The nose! Absorb the nose! That¡¯s the highest spot. That¡¯s where the energy converges!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the very prominent nose.

    All of a sudden, he thought back to when people had been teleporting into Seven Blood Eyes and he saw August Spirit Nethersprite for the first time. Back then, she had been looking at herself in a mirror, and had seemed very pleased with her nose.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he lunged toward the clone¡¯s nose. Eyes burning with fanaticism, the Captain also lunged in the same direction.

 Chapter 335: Girl from the Church of Departure

    <h4>Chapter 335: Girl from the Church of Departure</h4>

    Rumbling filled the sky, echoing back and forth as August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s two remaining clones fought the three swordsage elders. The shockwaves rose high into the sky, higher than it was even possible to see. Thanks to the intense fighting, they had no attention to spare on what was happening on the ground below.

    As one of the three spiritual souls of the Ghost Emperor, August Spirit Nethersprite was in the first stage of Void Returning, but was actually able to fight with powerparable to the peak of the first stage. Even more amazing than that was that she had an undying ability. Unless all three of the spiritual souls and all seven of the physical souls were all killed, she essentially had endless life force.

    This was one of the reasons the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture had gone for many years without making a move on the Three Spirits. They were just that hard to deal with.

    But now the Swordsage Court hade, dead set oning out victorious. Because of that, the three swordsage elders continued to fight with full force against August Spirit Nethersprite, and weren¡¯t paying attention to anything else.

    Down below, Xu Qing and the Captain lunged at the nose, oneing from the left, the other from the right.

    A few dozen meters away, the red-garbed young woman gritted her teeth and kept climbing forward. When she saw her twopetitors about to beat her to the punch, her heart filled with irritation. Truth be told, she hadn¡¯t benefited much after leaving that mansion grotto, and had been nning to go to some other locations to look around. That was when August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone fell from above. After seeing that strange sight, she had unhesitatingly hurried in the direction of the clone¡¯s head. Based on the information she was privy to, August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clones were types of spirit nts whose quintessence was located in their head.

    <i>These two are wearing disguises, so I can¡¯t tell what group they¡¯re from</i>. The young woman¡¯s eyes shed with cold light, and as she gritted her teeth, her evil ghost sickle radiated a ck glow. The evil ghost¡¯s eyes were open, and they pulsed with a mysterious glow. With the augmentation it gave, the young woman in red suddenly elerated. Yet she was still too slow.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had forced their way through the pressure to arrive right in front of the clone¡¯s nose.

    The clone was enormous;pared to its face, Xu Qing and the Captain were like tiny worms. Each one stood in front of one massive nostril, focusing fully on absorbing the clone.

    The Captain absorbed like mad, gripping the nostril with both arms as an image of himself appeared in his pupils. It looked very gruish. Thanks to his vicious efforts, that particr side of the nose quickly started turning gray, unlike the rest of the skin.

    Xu Qing, not willing to be outdone, extended his right hand, which turned illusory as he used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art on the nose. Although he couldn¡¯t shove his hand all the way in, he was able to have a measure of sess.

    .

    As boundless immortal power rushed into him, the shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw what was happening and excitedly got to work. The shadow directly spread to the skin of the clone, while the patriarch... having boasted so openly to Xu Qing that he could achieve a breakthrough in three months, was now feeling very nervous, and went all out, piercing right into August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s nostril.

    When Xu Qing saw that, a strange expression appeared in his eyes. However, he didn¡¯t pay much attention. What was more, beneath his clothing, his skin started to burn as the Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits totem tattoo stirred. The crow opened its eyes. However, Xu Qing kept it under control and prevented it from spreading out on its own. Instead, it extended through his arm, into the nose, whereupon it began its own absorption.

    As the cry of the golden crow echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, the tattoo beneath his clothing rippled, not with thirteen tails, but with seventeen. Back when the golden crow devoured the ravagemist bird, it had developed a total of thirteen tails. After the battle with Master Shengyun, it ascended to the second stage of its development, at which time there were no changes to the tails. Instead, its general physical appearance and inner constitution transformed.

    After upgrading to the second stage, it had grown rapidly. Now, seventeen tails covered most of the skin on Xu Qing¡¯s upper half. Though his clothing covered most of that, it still emanated intense heat. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered in response to the golden crow¡¯s advancement, and had it work all-out to absorb more of the clone.

    In a very short period of time, Xu Qing¡¯s side of the nose also turned gray. At the same time, the majestic power that poured into him caused his third heavenly pce to rapidly be more corporeal.

    Previously, his third heavenly pce had been more than half corporeal. Now, with this immortal energy rushing into him, it quickly passed the level of ny percent. It was now very close to beingplete! However, that was the limit. In order to finish the process, the pce needed a gold core inside it. Each gold core required study and preparation before making it.

    In many cases, cultivators would acquire them externally. Usually, Gold Core cultivators would have multiple such cores. In other words, they would use some item as a core, put it into the heavenly pce, and thus make it their life essence treasure.

    Xu Qing¡¯s lifemps had worked in just that way.

    Forming one¡¯s own gold cores was another option. Usually that relied on some sort of magical technique, and would require immense amounts of power. That was why different Gold Core cultivators chose to advance in different ways.

    Xu Qing eventually wanted to take the taboo poison pill from the wish box and, just like his lifemps, turn it into one of his gold cores, which he would then use to control his third heavenly pce.

    However, given how many people could see him here, he didn¡¯t want to take out the taboo pill. After thinking the matter over, Xu Qing decided to send more immortal energy into his fourth heavenly pce. Except he quickly realized that was a bad idea. The fourth heavenly pce couldn¡¯t ept any immortal energy, as if there were something blocking the way to it. The immortal energy converged around his fourth heavenly pce, piling up but unable to enter it. Apparently, advancement had to be made in increments, and one heavenly pce had to beplete before a second could be worked on. Until then, it waspletely illusory.

    That was fine with Xu Qing. If he couldn¡¯t put the energy into his next pce, he would just store it in his sea of consciousness. After he put the taboo poison pill into his third pce, then he would have all that energy ready for the fourth. Without hesitation, he began absorbing even more energy, sending it rushing into his sea of consciousness.

    However, that was when something unexpected happened. As the immortal energy grew in his sea of consciousness, the Ghost Emperor mountain therein suddenly twitched. And then it exuded a massive gravitational force, and started sucking in the immortal energy like mad. As that happened, the Ghost Emperor mountain started shining even more brightly, while at the same time, the previously empty face began to fill with vague details.

    And those details... were immediately recognizable to Xu Qing. They were his own facial features!

    At least, that was what it seemed at this stage when the features were notpletely clear. Either way, it was startling. That said, he didn¡¯t put too much thought to it at the moment, and instead kept absorbing the energy.

    Eventually, the spot where his hand had prated the nose waspletely gray, and that effect was spreading as more immortal energy rushed into the Ghost Emperor mountain.

    There was something unusual about this Ghost Emperor mountain. From what Xu Qing could sense, it was somewhat different from the actual Ghost Emperor mountain that he had observed. Though it originated from the real mountain, the version in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, after being developed by him, was an independent thing.... Most importantly, it was bing corporeal, and was linked to him in countless ways.

    That was a big shock, and he immediately decided that he would have to ask his Master about what was happening.

    While Xu Qing was wrapped up in such thoughts, the Captain was madly absorbing immortal energy, causing the gray color to quickly spread over the entire nose.

    That was when the young woman in red arrived. ring coldly at Xu Qing and the Captain, she climbed over to the clone¡¯s forehead and started her own absorbing efforts. She took the immortal energy in a very ferocious manner. And a projection of the evil ghost emerged from her scythe, and also started absorbing energy. Meanwhile, a strange image appeared behind her.

    Shockingly, it looked like ake of blood! It emanated a boundless killing intent and an intensely baleful aura, as if theke contained vicious evil that was difficult to put into words.

    The moment theke appeared, Xu Qing looked at it. The golden crow within him also looked straight at theke of blood. The golden crow¡¯s reaction was very telling to Xu Qing.

    <i>That¡¯s an imperial-ss technique. And from the fluctuations, it¡¯s not first stage, it¡¯s second stage!</i>

    Meanwhile, the Captain looked over, eyes shining, and quietly said, ¡°Legend has it that, countless years ago, the Arbiter of Destiny, leader of the Church of Departure, came from the holynds and gave an imperial-ss technique to each of the nine factions of the church, which has adherents among all species and who worship different Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns.

    ¡°Gaining enlightenment is a very demanding process, and thus only a small number of people ever seed. Among the faction who adhere to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the technique is called the Serenity-Hell Blood-Sea Dao. One characteristic of the technique is that you make sacrifices to the holynds. That¡¯s not necessarily unique. But what is unique is that each sacrifice bes more dangerous and likely to kill you!¡±

    The young woman in red red icily at the Captain, but didn¡¯t say anything as she continued absorbing energy. The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed and he sped up his absorption efforts. Xu Qing did the same. In that manner, the three of them went crazy on August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone. Before long, the entire nose and all of the forehead were gray. Then the patches of gray met and spread to the rest of the face, until it looked like the face of a dead person. In fact, it was even possible to see ck patches popping up here and there.

    When that happened, Xu Qing pulled his hand out. It seemed like the right time to go. The fact that the clone¡¯s face was turning pitch ck was just too eye-catching.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and gave him a look indicating that they should leave.

    The Captain saw Xu Qing¡¯s look, then nced at the young woman in red, and was d that there was someone here to take the me for this instead of him. The Captain released his grip on the nose, and the force of expulsion immediately sent him tumbling away. Xu Qing was about to do the same when...

    All of a sudden, a golden light erupted from the clone¡¯s nose, and a gold drop of liquid appeared.

    ¡°Void Returning dao blood!!¡± the Captain shrieked. He instantly went crazy trying to fight his way back to the nose, but there was no way he could do that in a short time.

    Shaken, Xu Qing noticed that the Ghost Emperor mountain inside of him was trembling in response to the golden drop of blood.

    The young woman in red breathed heavily, and her eyes shone with light as she jumped in the direction of the blood. She moved quickly.

    But Xu Qing moved even more quickly.

 Chapter 336: Run, Buddy!

    Chapter 336: Run, Buddy!

    The young woman in red was obviously an extraordinary individual. As her eyes shed, the bloodke behind her seethed, and an eye floated up from its depths. The eye had a vertical pupil and seemed intensely malevolent. It also created crushing pressure that formed a world of blood in the area.

    The eye... looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡­pletely ignored the eye!

    This young woman was only in the one-pce level. Her imperial-ss technique was also in the second stage, making her battle prowess equivalent to the two-pce level. Combined with her decisive attack methods, she was the kind of person who would generally be able to easily overwhelm any opponent.

    But she didn¡¯t understand how strong Xu Qing really was. He had two pces, but made it a practice of keeping them covered, which made it hard to tell his true level. He also didn¡¯tmonly reveal his second-stage imperial-ss technique. Without taking time to examine him very closely, it wasn¡¯t possible to tell how strong he actually was.

    Therefore, it didn¡¯t matter how the girl in red struggled, it didn¡¯t do her any good.

    Everything happened in an instant. Xu Qing rose to the three-pce level of battle prowess, and his cultivation base erupted. Ignoring the attack of the young woman in red, he reached out and grabbed the golden drop of blood. With it in hand, he shot backward, taking advantage of the force of repulsion to get further speed.

    It was over in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. The young woman¡¯s face fell as the drop of blood was whisked out from under her nose. Eyes filling with killing intent, she waved her hand, causing her evil ghost scythe¡¯s eyes to turn bright red again.

    ¡°You¡¯re very deceptive. But I can also pull off three-pce strength!¡± The young woman bit the tip of her tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the evil ghost scythe. At the same time, her eyes glowed just as red as the evil ghost¡¯s.

    ¡°Acknowledge the call of Departure, dao lineaments are evasive; The Emperor, Dark Serenity, blesses this individual; Let the battle soul descend, bring help to adherents who show faith; Let the departure begin!¡±

    It sounded like some chant in an ancient cadence. As the words echoed out, heaven and earth was affected, and a sinister wind began to blow. The wind ignored any pressure in the area, swirling rapidly to gather around the young woman, or more specifically, the evil ghost scythe. Thanks to the wind, the evil ghost¡¯s eyes grew even redder, as did those of the young woman. When they couldn¡¯t be any more red, the evil ghost¡¯s mouth suddenly opened, and it lunged toward the young woman and bit into her arm.

    The young woman shivered as though she were being blessed by great force. Then she looked up, and her eyes contained intense aggression. Raising her right hand, she looked at the fleeing Xu Qing and made a beckoning gesture. Then she spoke, her voice gritty and hoarse.

    ¡°Get back here!¡±

    It reverberated as though her voice had been mixed with the voice of an old woman, and it sounded incredibly vile. This seemed like a secret magic in which this young woman allowed herself to be possessed by the ancient soul of a fallen warrior, thus immensely boosting her battle prowess and strength.

    The moment she spoke, Xu Qing shivered as an invisible force closed in around him, binding him in ce and then dragging him toward the young woman.

    Seeing what was happening, the Captain shouted, ¡°Watch out, buddy! That shrew is using a Church of Departure secret magic to fuse herself with a battle soul!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. As he sensed the strange, gruish nature of the power within him, the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness glittered brightly, and the power binding him copsed. Xu Qing blurred into motion, once again heading away from the clone.

    However, the young woman in red hadn¡¯t actually been trying to drag Xu Qing back to her, and had operated under the assumption it wouldn¡¯t work. She was actually just trying to dy him a bit so that she could chase him down. A fraction of a second after making the beckoning gesture, she rocketed in his direction.

    Even as Xu Qing dispelled the binding power around him, the young woman closed in, bursting with three-pce battle prowess. Moving with shocking momentum, she brandished her scythe and swept it right toward Xu Qing. The weapon was as long as a person was tall, and though it looked corporeal, it was actually illusory. Because of that, it moved with unbelievable speed. It created a ck, moon-shaped string of afterimages that split through the air and sliced right at Xu Qing¡¯s neck!

    The scythe moved with incredible speed, and she followed, her eyes filled with both killing intent and confidence.

    She had also killed three-pce cultivators.

    The evil ghost scythe was considered a holy item in the church, and was one-of-a-kind. It had a very unique history, and based on church teachings, was connected to the holynds. It could bypass any and all defenses; nothing that an opponent had prepared in advance for defensive purposes would do any good.

    Suddenly, the Captain shouted again. ¡°Watch out, buddy! The shrew fights dirty! I just remembered what that scythe is. It¡¯s a holy relic from the Church of Departure. I heard that it¡¯s not corporeal, so it can bypass all defenses!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He could sense that the ck scythe was extraordinary, and that the young woman¡¯s secret magic was astonishing. With a burst of speed, he dodged right out of the way of the iing de. Unfortunately, despite avoiding the blow, the pressure radiating from the scythe caused Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base to teeter unstably. It was the first time he had experienced anything like that.

    The young woman twirled the scythe around and brought it back for a second blow, yet again targeting his neck.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he dodged backward again, while simultaneously trying to stabilize his cultivation base. As she pressed the attack further, he kept a close eye on the scythe, which allowed him to confirm that it wasn¡¯t corporeal. It was actually formed from a magical technique.

    After making a fifth scythe attack and bringing it swinging around for a sixth time, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with understanding, and he suddenly threw out his right hand to block the weapon.

    As the weapon neared, his hand suddenly went from being flesh and blood to being transparent.

    It was none other than his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. With his hand in the Gruegloom state, he could ignore the power of magical techniques. That was one of the innate abilities of Grueglooms, and was something very rare. As a result, the young woman¡¯s scythe went right through his hand.

    As she reacted with shock, his eyes flickered with killing intent and he used the Gruegloom hand to grab the back end of the scythe. Gripping it hard, he pulled himself forward with a yank. Now, the only thing separating them was a distance equivalent to the length of the scythe.

    It all happened so quickly that all the young woman could do was look shocked as Xu Qing viciously smashed his forehead into her mask.

    A pop rang out, and she uttered a muffled grunt as a huge crack appeared down the length of her mask. Then Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, causing a massive sea to spring up around him. The power of the Ninefold Tsunami erupted, causing a huge wave to appear. As Xu Qing pushed out, the first wave screamed past him and raged toward the young woman.

    She shivered as a defensive glow appeared around her, blocking the first wave.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised. This young woman was obviously someone important in the Church of Departure, so it was a given she would have amazing defenses. Feeling no sense of urgency, he sent the second, third, and fourth waves smashing into her defenses one after another.

    Because the young woman¡¯s attention was focused on the waves and Xu Qing¡¯s hand gripping her scythe, she didn¡¯t notice that a host of tiny beetles had begun congregating on her defenses, and were spitting out corrosive poison.

    She didn¡¯t know Xu Qing, and thus wasn¡¯t aware of his fighting style and how ruthless he was. However, she could tell that there was something slightly different about him nowpared to before. His hand was mped onto her scythe like an iron vise, and no matter how she struggled, she couldn¡¯t wrench her weapon free.

    That, plus the mere fact that he had been able to ignore the attack of her scythe, had her mentally reeling with shock. From the time she had won the approval and legacy of the scythe in her church until now, it was impossible to count how many viinous figures in the church she had in. The Church of Departure was no virtuous organization, and in fact, it was rife with innumerable fanatics and lunatics.

    Even though she had a family member in a position of power in the church, she couldn¡¯t rely on that person to watch over her at every moment, and therefore, had been forced to rely on herself to survive. By hard work and ughter, she had slowly wed her own way into a position of power, and had thus earned the freedom to go out on her own. Though she was still a long way from achieving her dream, there was one thing that was certain; this scythe had been an extremely important asset. Because of all that, no matter what happened in this situation, she couldn¡¯t just let go of her weapon.

    As the beetles corroded her defensive shields, the ninth tsunami wave mmed into the defenses. As they crumbled into pieces, the killing intent in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered. He extended his right hand, causing a ck dagger of me to appear there, which he shed viciously into the young woman¡¯s snow-white neck. Blood sprayed everywhere, but her head did not fly off.

    In fact, a sensation of intense deadly crisis suddenly erupted within Xu Qing, causing every inch of his flesh to shiver.

    Off in the distance, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he suddenly shouted, ¡°Holy crap!! Run, buddy! There¡¯s something off with this shrew. That¡¯s the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s incredibly-difficult-to-master Supreme Arbiter Blood Will Domain! Even a slight measure of sess with that technique is incredibly difficult. I heard that in order to gain enlightenment of the Blood Will Domain, you have to have at least two distinct personalities!

    ¡°With every additional personality, your eyes lose some of their color. And when you get ten personalities, the only thing left is the color of blood. That¡¯s considered the ultimate level of sess!

    ¡°Is this person from the Church of Departure or the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society? This is too weird!!¡±

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing released the scythe and flew backward.

    As he did, a boundless red light erupted from the young woman. As it spread out, it seemed to transform into a hell of blood. A gruish, horrific cackle rang out from the young woman¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Heh heh heh.¡± The young woman looked up. Though blood poured down her neck, the wound wasn¡¯t fatal. Reaching up, she touched it, then looked at the blood on her hands. Eyes glittering, she shifted her gaze to Xu Qing. ¡°Are you the one who hurt me?¡±

 Chapter 337: Nethersprite Goes Mad

    <h4>Chapter 337: Nethersprite Goes Mad</h4>

    Xu Qing erupted with speed, using the force of expulsion to elerate even more dramatically. By the time a single sound came out of the mouth of the young woman in red, he was already more than 150 meters away, right next to the Captain. Even from there, it was possible to see the young woman¡¯s eyes shing. Xu Qing felt very unsettled. However, that was when the Captain reached out and grabbed his arm.0

    ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡±0

    Xu Qing froze in ce. With the Captain¡¯s words in mind, he looked thoughtfully at the young woman in red.0

    She stood in ce, seemingly in a daze as she looked at the blood on her hands. Then she waved those hands, and the blood turned into a mist that spread out in all directions. The mist grew increasingly dense, ultimately transforming into numerous streams of blood that swirled around the young woman. More and more appeared. In the blink of an eye, there were hundreds, like snakes of blood, emanating terrifying pressure, but at the same time, a sweet fragrance.0

    It was extremely bizarre! And more and more kept springing into being.0

    As the dazed look in the young woman¡¯s eyes grew stronger, the blood streams split into two main sections, but at the same time, continued to proliferate. Soon, the hundreds of streams were over a thousand in number, and they began forming ring after ring around her.0

    Anyone who saw this would be shocked to the core. What was more, a sinister wind blew around her, eventually touching Xu Qing, causing his hair to stand on end and his eyes to narrow.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s years of engaging in both ughter and battle had imparted to him an instinct rted to danger. That instinct, plus the Captain¡¯s words, left him with absolutely no uncertainty; he shouldn¡¯t do anything right now.0

    Anything he did would almost certainly result in his own death.1

    It was a strange feeling that he didn¡¯t fullyprehend. After all, this young woman in red clearly did not surpass the three-pce level. But Xu Qing still sensed incredible danger from her.0

    The Captain also remained motionless, his expression serious as he stared at the young woman in red.0

    <em>¡°Don¡¯t do anything,¡±</em>he said via projection.<em>¡°She has a holy relic from the Church of Departure plus an imperial-ss technique. Beyond that, she also cultivates the most difficult blood will domain from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.</em>0

    <em>¡°That blood will domain is something that, from ancient times until now, only a handful of people in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society have ever seeded at. I¡¯ve heard that someone with that blood will domain can easily kill someone in the same cultivation level as their own. Maybe that¡¯s notpletely urate, but I don¡¯t think we should stay to find out.</em>0

    <em>¡°Beyond all of that, the blood will domain has a feature that may or may not be a w. And that is... that the person¡¯s eyes can easily track the movement of living beings!¡±</em>0

    Xu Qing could sense the increasing urgency in the Captain¡¯s voice.0

    Meanwhile, his own eyes narrowed as he stared at the young woman in red.0

    There was no sound being uttered anywhere nearby. There was only the whimper of the wind, along with cracking soundsing from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone. Also faintly audible were the sounds of corrosioning from the clone¡¯s face, like blisters forming and popping. From a distance, it was possible to see that, having taken that dao blood, the face was starting to rot.0

    With the golden drop of blood having been taken away by Xu Qing, the clone of August Spirit Nethersprite started transforming into something very ugly and strange.0

    The gray skin on the face started to turn pitch ck.0

    However, Xu Qing and the Captain weren¡¯t paying very close attention to that, as they were focused on the young woman in red.0

    Meanwhile, the young woman still seemed to be in just as much of a daze as before. She was looking in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain, yet at the same time didn¡¯t seem to be looking at them at all.0

    ¡°Was it you two?¡± she asked softly.0

    Her gaze, plus her repeated words, caused the vignce in Xu Qing¡¯s heart to increase. The golden crow tattoo began to heat up, and the Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown on his head started glowing brightly. His heavenly pces trembled, and the beetles in the area started converging on each other, as if they were getting ready to fight.0

    The Captain was reacting simrly. He was emanating an intense coldness, and both of his pupils had faces in them, and they seemed very unstable.0

    As the two parties faced off, the young woman in red lifted her right foot. Screaming sounds rang out as the streams of blood that surrounded her proliferated and simultaneously shot toward Xu Qing and the Captain.0

    Right at that time, a fierce voice rang out from above.0

    ¡°What are you people doing??¡±2

    It crashed like a thousand thunderps, creating a shockwave that caused Xu Qing and the Captain to tumble backward, trembling and coughing mouthfuls of blood.0

    The streams of blood surrounding the young woman whipped wildly left and right, then smashed back into her. Her face twisted and distorted, while at the same time, the nkness in her eyes turned into something fierce and aggressive. Without any hesitation, she turned and fled off into the distance.0

    Xu Qing and the Captain had no time to pay any attention to her, and also fled.0

    Meanwhile, one of August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s other clones dropped down, rage in her eyes, blood seeping out of the corners of her mouth, her clothes damaged and torn. Because of being locked in battle high above, she hadn¡¯t been paying attention to everything below. But at a certain point, she noticed the three little humans near her clone, and had sensed that something was off. Heart pounding, she¡¯d ignored any injuries she sustained to back away from the fighting and look down. What she saw caused her to tremble with disbelief.0

    Her clone¡¯s face was turning pitch ck! She saw the melting facial features. She saw the incredible ugliness. Considering how beautiful of a woman she was, all of those things turned into a wave of heaven-shaking, earth-shattering irritation.0

    August Spirit Nethersprite started trembling and panting. Her mind filled with rage that could incinerate heaven and destroy anything in existence.0

    ¡°You people!! You people... are looking to DIE!!!¡± As she howled madly, she shoved one hand in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain, and the other hand in the direction of the young woman in red.0

    However, that was when two swordsage elders dropped down from the dome of heaven.0

    They could see the corrosion on the face of the downed clone, and in their shock, also noticed Xu Qing, the Captain, and the young woman in red, all fleeing the area.0

    Although all were in disguise, the two elders could see them clearly. They could tell they were human, and could also guess that they were members of the major human powers in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Given that, it was likely they were connected to the Swordsage Court in some ways. If they weren¡¯t, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to determine when the Swordsage Court would carry out this n of theirs, and thus take advantage of the moment.0

    As for their actions, and what it did to the clone¡¯s face, they<em>weren¡¯t sure whether tough or cry</em>.0

    Regardless, considering these three were humans, the elders felt a responsibility to help keep them safe. Waving their hands, they sent out powerful divine abilities to block the path of August Spirit Nethersprite.0

    August Spirit Nethersprite shrieked in rage. However, because of the deadly crisis, she had no choice but to abandon her attack on Xu Qing and the others.0

    Her clothes were so damaged that they had lost their defensive capabilities. She was forced to wave her hand in the direction of her mansion grotto to produce recement clothing for use in the fighting.5

    In response to her gesture, the mansion grotto rumbled, and numerous sets of clothing flew in her direction.0

    A momentter, August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s eyes went wide with shock. Lurching through the air toward her were numerous sets of dpidated garments. In fact, calling them dpidated was somewhat charitable. Any bits of decoration that adorned them were long gone. In fact, they were in such a different state than before that they were basically just strips of extremely damaged cloth.0

    August Spirit Nethersprite wasn¡¯t the only one to be stunned by the sight. The two swordsage elders were equally shocked. Seeing the horrifically damaged state of the clothing, they suddenly nced at the three young people down below. Then they transmitted messages to each other.0

    <em>¡°Where are these kids from? They¡¯repletely and utterly vicious!¡±</em>2

    As for August Spirit Nethersprite... seeing the damaged clothing made her face turn pale. Every single one of those garments were special to her in some way, and the sight of them made her tremble. Her heart felt like it was being ripped apart and she let loose a howl of grief.0

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take all three of you and shred your bones to dust! I¡¯ll destroy you in body and soul!!¡±0

    Her piercing voice echoed high into the sky, full of anger and hatred.0

    August Spirit Nethersprite was so frenzied that she seemed to lose her mind, and shot toward Xu Qing and the Captain with profound killing intent. Her third clone, high above, also shrieked in anger and raced toward the young woman in red. She was absolutely dead set on killing these three interlopers no matter the cost! Unfortunately for her, this sudden action created a perfect opportunity for the three swordsage elders.0

    As Nethersprite seemed to lose her mind, they tapped into the full power of their cultivation bases to block her way. Thanks to their interference, there was no way for August Spirit Nethersprite to reach the culprits. That, in turn, drove her further into madness, and forced the three swordsage elders to fight even harder. Everyone down below could see what was happening.0

    The Captain and Xu Qing were numb with shock as they tried to pick up speed. The young woman in red, was still furious, but also extremely resentful considering she didn¡¯t have anything to do with the mansion grotto situation.0

    Of course, offering exnations wouldn¡¯t do any good, so all she could do was grit her teeth and keep racing away.0

    The three of them moved at top speed. Thus, Xu Qing and the Captain quickly reached Yanyan, who looked terrified and confused. None of them spoke a word. Xu Qing grabbed Yanyan and pulled out his dharmaship. The Captain was right behind him.0

    Instantly, the dharmaship turned into a stream of light that shot off into the distance, leaving the central part of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.1

    Behind them, August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s howls grew more intense, shrill, painful, and full of madness. To her, this day was truly a great catastrophe. Not only did the Swordsage Court show up to crush her. Not only did she lose a clone. Not only did she lose a drop of golden blood. Beyond all that, her most precious clothing was ripped to shreds. To a woman as beautiful as her, it wouldn¡¯t matter if she had an even higher cultivation base than she did. Never before had she been so insulted.1

    In fact, she hated those three thieves far more than she hated the entire Swordsage Court!

 Chapter 338: Letâ€™s Travel the World Together

    <h4>Chapter 338: Let¡¯s Travel the World Together</h4>

    ¡°It was worth it. It was worth it!!¡± As Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship sped away from the central part of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain territory, the fighting behind them got even more intense.

    The Captainy sprawled on the deck, recovering and catching his breath, but lookingpletely and utterly content. He even burped a few times. ¡°Hahaha! Doing big things with you is the best, little Ah Qing. I can¡¯t believe I got awaypletely in one piece this time! That¡¯s unheard-of!¡± Looking extremely pleased with himself, the Captain sat up and pped his hands onto the deck on either side of him. Sighing, he continued, ¡°You have no idea, little Ah Qing. Whenever Zhang San and I worked together in the past, I¡¯d always lose an arm or a leg! And it¡¯s worse when I operate alone. Sometimes I almost lost everything including my head. And Zhang San would always end up with the best loot.¡±

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the deck, still in disguise. Truth be told, he didn¡¯tpletely believe the Captain.

    Seeing the way Xu Qing was looking at him, the Captain blinked a few times. He could tell what Xu Qing was thinking. However, instead of giving any indication of that, he sighed. ¡°I know, I know. When ites to talk of things like the spirit of loyalty and self-sacrifice¡­ friendship¡­. Well, Zhang San is a true bro. He has all of that. Not even I¡¯m shameless enough to deny that.

    ¡°Usually, I just let him have the lion¡¯s share, and I take the leftovers. Whatever scraps there may be. Ai. It¡¯s just not like working with you, little Junior Brother. We always split everything 50/50. That¡¯s the way it¡¯s always been, and it¡¯s only fair.¡±

    The Captain could clearly lie without his heart rate increasing by an iota. He didn¡¯t blush either. He seemed absolutely sincere.

    Xu Qing¡¯s guard was already up, and he could guess that the Captain was trying to pull a fast one.

    ¡°What are you looking at me like that for, little Junior Brother? Ohhhhhhhh. I get it. You want me to be a good example. No problem! We¡¯re fellow apprentices, right? Bros! 50/50 is a really good way to split things up. And as your Eldest Brother, I should set a good example. Therefore, I¡¯m going to give you a 50% discount on the 3,000,000 spirit stones you owe me.¡±

    The Captain pped his chest and opened his mouth even wider to speak. Unfortunately, as a result, some of the immortal energy he had absorbed from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clone started seeping out.

    He snapped his mouth shut. There was no way he was willing to lose what he had worked so hard to gain.

    Xu Qing looked at him. He knew exactly what the Captain was getting at. ¡°Captain, I¡¯m nning to go into seclusion.¡±

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, eating by yourself isn¡¯t a good habit to get into!¡± After speaking that single sentence, the immortal energy started seeping out of his mouth again.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. As his shadow secretly absorbed the immortal energy which was spilling out, Xu Qing expressionlessly produced an apple and tossed it to the Captain.

    The Captain instinctively caught it, then looked back in confusion at Xu Qing. ¡°Can¡¯t you just be a good person for once, little Junior Brother?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Xu Qing replied with a nod. Closing his eyes, he tapped into his third heavenly pce and prepared to put the taboo poison pill into it.

    The process would be dangerous, but Xu Qing had worked hard studying that pill. It wasn¡¯t aplete pill, and was also extremely old, such that its spirit nature was extremely deteriorated. After being exposed to the outside world, that deterioration had continued until the pill was almostpletely dead. It was like a pool of water with no source to refill it. Therefore, using it as soon as possible seemed like the best way to take advantage of it.

    Xu Qing had benefited dramatically in this event. His bag of holding was packed, including many nourishing treasures. At the same time, the mirrors and bottles he had taken would be very beneficial to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow. In fact, there were too many things for him to audit in a short time.

    Most importantly of all was how he had packed his sea of consciousness with immortal energy, and how the ghost emperor mountain there had benefited. Xu Qing had taken control of the ghost emperor mountain to stop it from devouring the immortal energy. As a result, the vague outline of the face on it only resembled Xu Qing by about twenty to thirty percent. He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if he continued the process, and wanted to consult his Master first.

    Beyond all that was the drop of blood he had snatched out of the grasp of the young woman in red. He wasn¡¯t sure how that blood woulde in useful, but he could tell how it caused the Ghost Emperor mountain to tremble. What was more, it emanated an intense sensation of life force, and even more notable, a dao resonance.

    Based on his previous observations and analysis, he was fairly certain it was something August Spirit Nethersprite had used to control her clone.

    As Xu Qing thought about these matters, the Captain looked at him impatiently, thinking enviously about that final item he had acquired. The drop of blood.

    It was Xu Qing who hadid hands on it, so the Captain couldn¡¯t go so far as to openly ask for it. However, he had made it very clear by implication that he was interested. The pain on his face grew more apparent, and then his expression turned bleak. Taking out a jug of alcohol, he looked up into the sky and took a drink. ¡°Life is so hard. I lost over twenty magical devices that defend against crushing pressure. I lost more than forty magical devices used for disguise. And most importantly of all, the potential cmity hidden within me could erupt at any time. Little Junior Brother, it¡¯s entirely possible that, one day, you might not have me around.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, looked at the Captain, and then tossed him a little bottle. Inside of it was thirty percent of the blood.

    ¡°Is that enough?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain snatched it, and the pained look in his eyes vanished. Eyebrows shooting up, heughed heartily. ¡°Enough. Definitely enough! You¡¯re a true delight, little Junior Brother. From now on, if there¡¯s anything you need, your Eldest Brother will be here for you! No questions asked!¡± The Captain then drank the entire bottle. After, a tremor passed through him, and he sighed excitedly. ¡°I can open another seal! Little Ah Qing, your Eldest Brother isn¡¯t stingy. Take this!¡±

    With that, he pulled a box out of his robe and tossed it to Xu Qing. ¡°I found that thing in some ruins once. Seeing that red-garbed shrew bullying you earlier made me think of it. It¡¯s yours now. When we¡¯re back home, I¡¯ll have a hilt made for it.¡±

    Xu Qing caught the box and opened it. Inside was a ck de with no hilt attached. Glittering with cold light, it was obviously very sharp. There were natural striations on its surface that formed the shape of a strange, gruish eye.

    Xu Qing liked it immediately. The truth was it had been a long time since he had a personal dagger. Although he had his balefire dagger, there was something different about a weapon that you could actually hold in your hand.

    With a sincere look in his eyes, he turned to the Captain and said, ¡°Thank you, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°Thanks? For what? Going forward we¡¯re going to do a lot of big stuff together. I¡¯m already working on the next n. Although, the most important thing right now is to take advantage of everything we looted to get stronger. Then we can go to the Swordsage Court and be swordsages!¡± From the way the Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed, it was obvious he was dead set on bing a swordsage. ¡°Trust me, my little Junior Brother. Bing a swordsage is our path to the core of humankind! Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is too small, after all. In the big wide world we live in, there are countless beautiful possibilities for the future. And they¡¯re just waiting for us to get to them!

    ¡°I want to get to the imperial capital. I want to cultivate a human imperial-ss technique. I want to travel across Revered Ancient. I want to do big things. I want to go check out the so-called holynds! There are a lot of things I want, and that¡¯s why I do crazy things. Little Junior Brother, let¡¯s travel the world together!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he listened, and when the Captain finished talking, he nodded. He was going to remember those words.

    Let¡¯s travel the world together!

    Off to the side, Yanyan blinked a few times and said, ¡°You can take me too.¡±

    ***

    As the dharmaship carried them away, the fighting in the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain grew more intense. The swordsages had trulye prepared to achieve their goals.

    It reached the point where the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain prepared to unleash their taboo treasure. However, that was when an enormous pce appeared and suppressed it.

    The Seven Fiends, who were the manifestation of the ghost emperor¡¯s seven physical souls, sensed what was happening and tried to provide assistance. However, the Swordsage Court had already put contingencies in ce to prevent them from helping.

    There was no way to change the ultimate course of this battle. In the end, August Spirit Nethersprite was captured by the Swordsage Court. She had been the true goal of the mission. The reason was that she was the weakest, and thus, the easiest to capture.

    All they needed to do was get control of one of the three spiritual souls, and it would make it impossible for the ghost emperor to awaken. With that goal having been met, it was time for the swordsages to fall back. Even if they were stronger than they were, continuing the fight past that point would have been troublesome. Those were the orders from their superiors in the county. If things got tooplicated, and the county forces had to step in, it would indicate that the prefectural forces weren¡¯t capable of handling things on their own.

    And thus, after capturing August Spirit Nethersprite, the Swordsage Court departed.

    The other two spirits watched them go. Both of them were individuals who had lived for many, many years, and they had suspected from the beginning that something like this was going to happen. They knew that Nethersprite wasn¡¯t going to die. Instead, she would serve as something of a hostage. The Swordsage Court obviously knew that killing her would be too risky.

    And thus, the battle ended.

    ***

    Some distance away from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, on top of another random mountain, the crimson evening light shone down as a mountain breeze stirred a red garment.

    The red-garbed young woman had her evil ghost scythe slung over her shoulder as she stood looking in the direction of the Three Spirits¡¯ territory.

    On her neck was a freshly healed scar.

    The scar was ghastly; clearly if it had been any deeper it would have severed major blood vessels, and maybe cut through her windpipe.

    After a long moment passed, the young woman shifted her gaze to the direction in which Xu Qing and the Captain had disappeared. Her gaze sharpened. Then, beneath her cracked white mask, a smile appeared.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to remember their names!¡± she murmured.

    The evil ghost¡¯s eyes opened, and the ghost transmitted a question to her via divine will. <i>¡°What are their names?¡±</i>

    ¡°Mad Dog and Ghost Hand!¡± she replied quietly.

    The evil ghost nodded andmitted the two names to memory, that way it would notice if they ever showed up nearby again.

    ¡°Say,¡± she continued, ¡°do you mind reminding me of the names of everyone I¡¯ve taken out? I don¡¯t want to forget any of them.¡±

    <i>¡°Jabbering Hound. Fossil. Nursemaid. Six-Fingers. Donkey Head....¡±</i> The evil ghost scythe started reciting the names. One after another, soon passing a hundred. The young woman in red listened as she walked along. At a certain point, a strange-looking crystal appeared in her hand, which she used to rub at the scar on her neck. Strangely, as she rubbed, the scar slowly vanished. [1]

    ¡°All I need to do is finish a few more missions, and I¡¯ll be promoted. Then I can finally leave Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Then maybe I can finally take a trip back to that scavenger basecamp.¡±

    The wind blew, and the evening sun shone down on her red garment.

    ***

    Far, far away from her, Xu Qing sat on the dharmaship deck and pulled out a bamboo slip. Thinking back to the killing intent in the eyes of the red-garbed girl, he added a name to the list.

    ¡®Girl in Red.¡¯

    1. Just a random chapter reference here for kicks and giggles: ??

 Chapter 339: The Transformation Begins

    <h4>Chapter 339: The Transformation Begins</h4>

    Many of the names on the bamboo slip had been scratched out. But there was one name that was very prominent. The characters were a magenta color, thanks to the blood that had previously run into them butter dried up.

    Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    As Xu Qing looked at the name, his expression was seemingly calm and emotionless. But the hand with which he held his iron skewer tightened imperceptibly. He eventually put the bamboo slip away and looked up into the crimson evening sky. Some time passed, and he turned to the Captain and Yanyan.

    ¡°I¡¯m going into seclusion for a while,¡± he said quietly.

    Yanyan could tell that his mood had dipped, so she just nodded.

    Meanwhile, the Captainughed heartily. ¡°Go ahead, little Ah Qing. With your Elder Brother here, you can safely break through to the three-pce level.¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°it¡¯s possible that some poison might seep out from the cabin. I wouldn¡¯t get too close. In case something dramatic happens... the two of you should get as far away as possible. Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    The Captain had been nning to brag a bit more, but hearing that, he thought for a moment and then went to the other side of the dharmaship. Having dealt with Xu Qing¡¯s poisons on a few asions, he knew how vicious they could be.

    Yanyan also backed away, her eyes wide. She couldn¡¯t help but think to all of the Night Dove operatives she¡¯d seen poisoned back in the Violent Crimes Division cellblock.

    Seeing the two of them back away made Xu Qing feel a bit better. After all, he was nning to try to put the taboo poison pill into one of his heavenly pces. Though he¡¯d had this n for a while, it had always seemed too dangerous, and besides, there were certain aspects he wasn¡¯t sure about.

    Not knowing how long he would be in seclusion, he passed control of the dharmaship to the Captain, then walked to the cabin. Just before going inside, he suddenly thought of something and turned to look over his shoulder at the Captain.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, howe I¡¯ve never seen <i>your </i>dharmaboat?¡±

    Hearing that question caused a pleased look to appear on the Captain¡¯s face. ¡°It¡¯s hidden in a secret location,¡± he said proudly. ¡°Powering up. It¡¯ll be done soon. Once it¡¯s done and I reveal it, I guarantee you the old man is going to be totally shocked.¡±

    Xu Qing was used to the Captain¡¯s hyperbole, so he merely nodded and walked into the cabin. Once inside, he closed the door and sat down cross-legged. Hands shing in a double-handed incantation gesture, he tapped into the spell formation to seal the cabin and prevent any energy or auras from seeping outside. Then he took out some magical devices which he set up around him.

    Having done that, he took a deep breath, opened his bag of holding, and started arranging everything else. Taking out all of the mirrors and bottles from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto, he carefully inspected them and put them in order, setting aside everything that rted to life force. After all, life force was the only thing that would help in resisting the effects of the taboo poison pill.

    Continuing to go through everything in his bag of holding, he made all of his final preparations, and after a short time contemting what he was about to do, took out the wish box. He didn¡¯t open it at first. Instead, he took out the old jade slip that had been inside.

    The jade slip was still infected by traces of poison, but Xu Qing¡¯s resistance had reached the point where it didn¡¯t affect him. And with the regenerative powers of the violet crystal in him, though his hands turned ck when touching it, they didn¡¯t start to rot. He sent some divine will into the jade slip, whereupon an ancient voice reverberated in his mind like thunder.

    <i>¡°What makes a great dao?</i>

    <i>¡°Three thousand great daos, all may be holy. Might one of them be the dao of poison?</i>

    <i>¡°People of the world disdain the treacherous and vicious. They disdain the poisonous and vile. How could those who mock it as a minor dao turn it into a great weapon?</i>

    <i>¡°In the past, I did think the same, and spurned the vile methods of poison. One day, I cut down a nonhuman who emerged from a god domain. This cultivatormanded shocking battle prowess, and walked an incredibly treacherous dao. Before dying, his poisonous eyes red at me, causing my cultivation to drop by an entire realm in a single day. Ten dayster, I was a mortal. I lived for a sixty-year-cycle in the mundane world, experiencing endless torment and suffering. I wasted endless precious materials, but finally drove the poison from my body and collected it into a pill.</i>

    <i>¡°Afterwards, I researched that pill until the apocalypse began. I never fully seeded, and thus, am leaving behind this partiallypleted pill.</i>

    <i>¡°This pill is a poison, and it is also taboo! If you are a high-level cultivator, do not attempt to use it. You will be damned by myriad tribtions and will die beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seek a low-level Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce, then use this poison pill as their gold core. That person will be a poison core cultivator like no other in existence.</i>

    <i>¡°Only in this way can one transform the soul and truly walk the path of the taboo pill!</i>

    <i>¡°Based on my calctions, the path of the taboo pill uses poison to shake all living beings. Use the taboo to eradicate myriad worlds. Ultimate dread and terror! Or perhaps, fathom the magic of god domains to be the archenemy of all peoples!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with determination.

    <i>The n is to take the taboo poison pill and put it into my heavenly pce.... Based on what this Senior said, he wanted to do the same thing. I refuse to believe that he didn¡¯t do tests regarding that process.</i>

    Obviously, no such tests seeded.

    <i>Regardless of anything, this is going to be dangerous. I have no idea what transformations might ur. Everything is unknown.</i>

    And yet, he seemed no less decisive than before.

    <i>I¡¯ve been constantly working at getting used to the poison. I definitely have a certain level of resistance. Plus, my beetles can stay inside the pill for short periods of time. Though my resistance hasn¡¯t reached the ultimate level, I think it¡¯s gone as far as it can go. It¡¯ll be hard to improve it any further.</i>

    <i>What¡¯s more, the taboo poison pill has lost most of its spirit nature, and will soon be a dead pill. And it wasn¡¯t even aplete pill to begin with. It seems like a big waste to let it just waste away and eventually be dead and useless. Why not absorb it and see if I can restore it? There¡¯s no way to know what will happen if it dies, but maintaining the status quo isn¡¯t going to help me reach my goal. I need to get stronger, regardless of how dangerous the process.</i>

    Taking a deep breath, he reached inside to his third heavenly pce, which was already ny-nine percent materialized. All itcked was a gold core to make itplete.

    ¡°On the path of cultivation, the only way to seed is to take big risks!¡±

    Reaching out, he opened the wish box. Inside was a ck poison pill. Even before, the pill had been shriveled, having lost much of the life it once contained. After Xu Qing opened the wish box, and the pill was exposed to the outside world, it began to shrivel even more dramatically. Xu Qing had long sincee to realize that if things proceeded in that way, the pill would be empty and useless. Upon opening the wish box, a poisonous energy erupted out, causing Xu Qing to tremble.

    Though he had built a resistance to the pill, and also had his violet crystal, the effects of the taboo poison pill still caused his entire body to turn ck. He wasn¡¯t worried about that. Eyes flickering with determination, he reached out and took the pill from the box. Next, his hand became transparent like a Gruegloom¡¯s. However, the poison pill was so shocking that, even though Xu Qing¡¯s hand was in that state, it was still filled with ck streaks. Not even being in that state could spare his hand the effects of the pill¡¯s poison.

    Xu Qing ignored that. Using his Gruegloom hand to control the pill, he inserted it into his dantian region. It entered his sea of consciousness, and then touched the heavenly pce. Xu Qing had used the Gruegloom hand on many asions, but this was his first time using it on himself. [1]

    This was the method he hade up with to make his n seed.

    If he consumed the pill, he didn¡¯t think his fleshly body would survive. But if he used the Gruegloom hand to directly insert it into his heavenly pce, then he was confident he would have good chances of seeding. Without the slightest hesitation, he pushed the pill against his third heavenly pce.

    The process was painful by itself, and the poison effects made it worse. Xu Qing was shaking. However, he gritted his teeth and didn¡¯t pause for a moment. He knew that the more quickly he finished, the better. Relying on his great perseverance, he pushed the pill inside the third heavenly pce, then carefully released it. After that, he quickly pulled his hand out. Despite the speed with which he worked, the pain was so intense that he shivered and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

    His internal organs were affected, and pulsed with pain. Then, before Xu Qing could limate, his third heavenly pce suddenly erupted with wild fluctuations. The poison pill therein erupted with poison power, causing the heavenly pce to surge with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Those fluctuations rapidly filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, then spread to influence his soul and the rest of his body.

    Xu Qing shivered as rot spread through him. His sea of consciousness began to shrivel, and his soul started fading.

    The taboo poison pill was terrifyingly strong. At the same time, streams of light shot out from every brick and tile of the third pce, which swirled around the pulsing poison pill. It was both a fusion and a transformation.

    Any external gold core that a cultivator put into one of their heavenly pces would take time to be integrated. And when the integration process wasplete, that item would have changed into a life essence treasure for that cultivator.

    Previously, the third heavenly pce had been golden in color. But as the streams of light wrapped up the pill, ckness spread to the pce, and it slowly started changing color.

    It was a slow process. Xu Qing could sense that when the third heavenly pce turnedpletely ck, it would mean that the poison pill had been fully integrated, and it would be connected to him. Then he would be able to fully control the heavenly pce, and retract all of the poison that had seeped into the rest of his body.

    The time that passed would be a deadly test for Xu Qing. If he failed to integrate the poison pill, then that failure would result in him being killed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing shivered as intense poison spread to every inch of him. The pain grew so intense and piercing that eventually he couldn¡¯t hold back from letting loose an agonized shriek. This pain was worse than anything he had experienced when risking his life in the past. Whether it was in the temple in the Merfolk Isles, or the incident with the dragon chariot, this surpassed everything. The difference was that those past situations had involved external pain, and this was internal. [2]

    Because of that pain being external, he had been able to fight back against it. But in this case, the pain came from inside.

    That said, he wasn¡¯tpletely unfamiliar with this feeling. On that one particr night in the rain when his heart was ripped apart, and when the walls protecting his mind had crumbled. That was the worst pain he had ever experienced. Compared to that, this didn¡¯t count as much. [3]

    Because of that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to cry out. Eyes bloodshot, he gritted his teeth and transformed his scream into the sound of teeth grinding against each other.

    Meanwhile, the violet crystal in his chest sent violet light streaming through him to help him resist. The golden crow appeared, sending out mes that augmented his fleshly body. And within his sea of consciousness, the immortal energy he¡¯d stockpiled was also present to aid. The two lifemps in his other heavenly pces manifested as umbres, providing blessings. And then there was ck light emanating out from the ghost emperor mountain.

    Time passed.

    1. I know I¡¯ve mentioned this before, and I¡¯m sure many of you readers are already very familiar with this, but ¡°core¡± and ¡°pill¡± are the same character in Chinese. ??

    2. The Merfolk Isles event was in ??

    3. The reference to ¡°that one particr night¡± is vague, but I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s referring to the event in ??

 Chapter 340: Golden Light on the Wrist!

    Chapter 340: Golden Light on the Wrist!

    Three days passed. During that time, the taboo poison pill slowly began to integrate with his third pce.

    Ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty percent....

    Much of Xu Qing¡¯s body was rotting, but he simply sat in ce and focused on fighting against it. Over the past three days, he hadn¡¯t just relied on his violet crystal, the lifemps, and the ghost emperor mountain. He had also released all of his beetles. Under his control, the beetles had bored into him and begun feeding on the poison that filled his flesh and blood.

    Those were the various methods Xu Qing had prepared as his first line of defense.

    However, the poison power of the pill was so intense that even all of those preparations weren¡¯t enough. As a result, his body was visibly rotting. All he could do now was focus fully on the integration process and hopefully step past the point of death.

    Four more days passed, and the taboo poison pill was seventy percent integrated into the third heavenly pce. Those four days had been full of pain and torment for Xu Qing. By the end of them, he was left feeling weak and powerless, with no option left other than to endure.

    The spot upon which he sat was covered with ck gore, which was his own rotten flesh and blood. His clothing hung limp over his shriveled, rotten frame. Not much flesh could be seen on his hands; they were mostly ck bone. The poison from the taboo pill was wreaking havoc on him, to the point where his sea of consciousness was dpidated and his soul was iparably dim. It looked like he was heading straight toward death.

    Just being able to hold out for this long showed how deeply prepared Xu Qing was. Not even the almighty figure who had put the pill into the wish box had ever done something like this. After all, if he had, then he wouldn¡¯t have put the pill into the wish box to begin with. If someone as almighty as that person had been unable to seed, it went to show how difficult this effort was.

    Everything Xu Qing was doing was based on theory. Even though he had two lifemps, the Ghost Emperor mountain, natural resistance, and the ck beetles, he was still like an oilmp flickering on the verge of being extinguished. The violet crystal continued to pump life force into him, forestalling death, but... he would eventually reach a limit.

    The shadow was emitting constant fluctuations of emotion, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked extremely nervous. Both could sense the aura of death building up around Xu Qing, and it filled them with mixed emotions.

    That said, Xu Qing¡¯s awe-inspiring veins of steel ensured that neither of them dared to think about betraying him in the moment. And even if such thoughts did ur to them, they wouldn¡¯t act on them.

    Another half a day went by. Xu Qing¡¯s legs were now only ck bones, and his hair was gone. His face was once bewitchingly attractive, but now it looked skeletal. The floor beneath his feet was covered with rotten flesh and ck blood. His eyelids were gone, and the eyes in the socket seemed lifeless. His life force was rapidly draining away. The violet crystal couldn¡¯t do any more. It looked like Xu Qing was about to fail.

    But then, at the veryst moment, his eyes suddenly glittered. The sight caused Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow to shiver inwardly.

    Ignoring them, Xu Qing looked down, a motion which caused popping sounds to ring out. It seemed like the slightest amount of force applied to his head would knock it off his shoulders.

    After looking down, Xu Qing expended great effort to reach out with a hand that had only a few scraps of flesh on it. With that hand, he picked up a tiny bottle in front of him. He crushed the bottle, and the drop of Void Returning dao blood inside shot into his body.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s second line of defense.

    The blood entered him, and caused life force to spread through him. It nourished his flesh and blood, and also caused the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness to shine brightly.

    That said, though there was life force in the blood, what was more relevant was the dao resonance it contained. Though the pure life force was useful, it had limitations. But to the Ghost Emperor mountain, the dao resonance was very useful. As soon as the Ghost Emperor mountain absorbed the dao resonance, it instantly became more corporeal.

    It emanated a stronger resonance of its own, and what was more, it looked even more simr to Xu Qing. In fact, it seemed to be only one step away from being a perfect materialization of him. That materialization would be such a fundamental change that, without the dao blood, it wouldn¡¯t be possible. The role of dao blood was like the bestowal of soul seeds or spirit roots.

    Under normal circumstances, Xu Qing would have taken more time to observe the mountain. But he couldn¡¯t spare the attention right now. Relying on the life force from the dao blood, he endured another day. His third heavenly pce had gone from being seventy percent ck to eighty percent. After that, the rotting effects on his body grew even more intense. Shivering, he took out a piece of wood and put it down in front of him.

    This was his third line of defense.

    The ck wood glittered, and then arge ck door appeared, which slowly opened, releasing white light that could lock one¡¯s life force in ce.

    The moment the light appeared from within the Darkspirit Everwill Door, it became a sealing force that froze his life force. Back when he had gone through the Seazombies¡¯ zombification process, that sealing light had worked perfectly. But right now... it couldn¡¯t stop the process that was ying out, only slow it down. The poison from this taboo poison pill was too formidable. Only raw life force could fight back against it; no other methods would bepletely sessful. That said, at least the light helped. [1]

    With the time Xu Qing had bought, his violet crystal was able to fight back against the poison pill, which bought him additional time.

    Another day passed. The third heavenly pce within him was now ny percent ck. However, that was when the sealing power of the door ceased being effective.

    Ny percent, huh...?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were dull and he couldn¡¯t see clearly. But he wasn¡¯t in a state of panic. Despite everything, he was still fully in control. He was just severely weakened, and that was as he had anticipated.

    Xu Qing looked down at all the bottles and jars that he¡¯d taken from August Spirit Nethersprite. They all had medicinal pills in them, and though they were a mixed and varied lot, Xu Qing had analyzed them all and set out the ones that contained varying amounts of life force.

    These were going to be his fourth line of defense.

    Without hesitation, he smashed the bottles, causing a host of multicolored medicinal pills to fly into him. As they melted, they released waves of life force to nourish him. The individual effects were only middling, but given how many of them there were, the cumtive effects were sufficient.

    It was at this time that Xu Qing¡¯s gaze suddenly shifted to his right wrist. There was no flesh or blood there, only ckened bone. Looking at the bone of his wrist, Xu Qing¡¯s dim eyes suddenly flickered with confusion.

    There was something there, glowing a faint golden color. It was so weak that, normally speaking, it would have been impossible to spot. And with flesh covering it, it would be even more difficult to notice. Not even divine will would be able to find it, much less the physical sense organs. It appeared very briefly, shing for a moment before disappearing. [2]

    After it was gone, Xu Qing didn¡¯t get any sense it had done something. There had been no change to his situation.

    As he pondered that briefly, life force surged out even faster from the medicinal pills. As it filled him, nourishing his body, the poison power from within his third heavenly pce waned slightly.

    At the same time, the integration of the taboo pill sped up. The third pce went from being ny percent ck in color¡­ all the way to a hundred percent! The moment the pill fully integrated, Xu Qing suddenly sensed a connection to it in his mind. A tremor passed through him, and the poison within him retracted back into the third heavenly pce.

    The violet crystal started to heal his extremely weak body, though this time it seemed to be happening a bit faster than it normally did in the past. His flesh started growing back. His sea of consciousness was restored. His soul began to shine brightly. Beneath his garment, his muscles filled in. Though he still looked much thinner than before, he was already much improved.

    Eventually, the powers of the violet crystal went back to normal.

    There was something unusual about all of that, and it caused him to think back to that sudden sh of golden light on his wrist. If he hadn¡¯t noticed that golden sh, then he might not have thought anything about how things turned out. He might have just been too excited about the result to think about the sequence of events. But analyzing it now, he was convinced that it was simply too coincidental. Something unusual had happened.

    What really happened?

    Rising to his feet, he looked down at his right wrist.

    Meanwhile, now that the taboo poison pill was fully integrated into his third heavenly pce, and also connected to his own life force, it began to show signs of reviving. It was just as Xu Qing had predicted.

    Those signs of reviving manifested in ravenous hunger. Xu Qing shivered as the flesh that had just recovered instantly started to wither again. Though there was no rotting like before, the consistent withering made him feel incredibly hungry.

    The sensation caused his eyes to turn bloodshot. It was simr to what happened back when he cultivated Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. [3]

    Breathing unsteadily, he turned to look at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow. The patriarch and shadow nearly screamed in response, and could only tremble and look at him in terror.

    Xu Qing seemed to struggle to control himself as saliva dripped down his chin.

    ***

    Far out in the Forbidden Sea, a great distance away from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, were the sprawling ruins of a city deep beneath the surface of the water. Precisely speaking, those ruins had sunk down into the darkness and gloom of the sea.

    Someone with eyes that could pierce the darkness would be able to see countless ancient structures there. They had copsed innumerable years in the ancient past, and had been interred in the sea since then. The ruins were decayed and dead, but it was still possible to see asional dpidated statues within the city. Without exception, all of those statues depicted women in ck suits of armor. All of them were extraordinarily beautiful and majestic. Each of them had a white snake coiling around them.

    Deep beneath the ruins of that city was an enormous cave temple that the mutagen-filled seawater had not encroached upon. Within the temple were two things: a teleportation portal and an eminently majestic altar.

    Atop the altar was a skeleton.

    Looking at the skeleton, it was obvious it had been a woman in the past. She had obviously been tall in life. Surrounding her were two skeletons, one of a snake, the other of a dragon. The way they were coiled allowed her to sit on the head of the dragon, while the snake¡¯s head was next to her. It seemed like they had been standing as dharma protectors for her, and had ultimately died with her.

    Seated in front of the skeleton of the woman, right in the middle of the altar, was a person. She was a spectacrly beautiful young woman with skin as fair as snow. She wore a white dress as she sat there cross-legged. Her long eyshes fluttered slightly, and her face was a bit flush. Suddenly, she coughed up a mouthful of blood which sshed onto the ground as well as her white dress.

    The moment that happened, a shout of rage echoed from off in the distance.

    ¡°Damnation! DAMNATION! How many times is this going to happen? Just what did you do? Don¡¯t you want to live?? I can¡¯t believe you secretly took a slip of your life essence and attached it to that Xu bastard! ARRGGGHHHH!!¡±

    The enraged shouting came from the innkeeper from nkspring Way. Though he was shouting curses, his face was full of tenderness as he rushed over and put a medicinal pill into the mouth of the teetering young woman.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er! You shouldn¡¯t use your innate abilities that way. That little bastard is going to die young. You can¡¯t just casually bless him with your destiny aura whenever you feel like it!¡±

    The young woman¡¯s eyshes fluttered as she opened her eyes. Her gaze was innocent and pure as she timidly said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing won¡¯t die young.¡±

    The innkeeper was so mad he nearly coughed up blood. Looking down at Ling¡¯er, he stamped his foot and sighed.

    ¡°Damnation! I should never have gone to Seven Blood Eyes to sell that grue. And why didn¡¯t I just kill that little bastard the first time I saw him? If I had known things would turn out like this, I would have put him to death the moment Iid eyes on him. I just don¡¯t get it. You¡¯ve only been around him a few times? Nothing happened! What do you even like about him??¡±

    Hearing this, Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes zed over slightly. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just know I love him. And when I¡¯m close to him, I feel happy. My heart beats faster, and I feel worried he might not like me. As long as Big Bro Xu Qing is happy, I¡¯m happy.¡±

    ¡°You! You¡¯re just too young, that¡¯s all. You don¡¯t understand anything about love, so how could you say you love him? Just wait until you¡¯re a bit older and know what you really want. Then you¡¯ll understand what love is!¡± The innkeeper was speaking from his heart.

    As for Ling¡¯er, her eyes seemed to further ze over. Then she looked up at the old innkeeper. ¡°Papa, I don¡¯t understand what you grown-ups mean when you talk about love. Do you mean loving someone is about wanting to get something from them? Is that really loving them? Or is it loving yourself?¡±

    The innkeeper¡¯s jaw nearly dropped. Then he opened his mouth to say something. However, after seeing the innocent look in Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes, he decided not to say anything at all.

    1. Xu Qing used the Darkspirit Everwill Door during the zombification process in chapter 319. ?

    2. This is not the first time something odd was observed regarding Xu Qing¡¯s wrist. Simr things happened in chapter 296 and chapter 319. ?

    3. Xu Qing¡¯s ravenous hunger after the golden crow breakthrough was in chapter 178. ?

 Chapter 341: Being Patient

    <h4>Chapter 341: Being Patient</h4>

    Beyond the borders of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, a dpidated dharmaship flew through the sky. From the way it wobbled, it seemed like it might fall out of the sky at any moment. It looked to be in very bad shape. From its hull to its deck, it was so full of holes it seemed just on the verge of copsing. It gave off the sensation that whoever was flying it had no money to fix it, and had no choice but to keep using it as-is. Even more ridiculous was that every so often, random parts would fall off of the dharmaship and drop to the ground below.

    It was, of course, Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship.

    Yanyan looked over the railing at the Captain, who was busy working on the side of the ship. Frowning, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing gave control of the dharmaship to you because he trusts you. When he sees what you¡¯ve done, he¡¯s going to be pissed.¡±

    As the Captain used a paintbrush to paint what appeared to be a crack on the dharmaship, he replied to Yanyan without even looking up. ¡°Yanyan, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. Howe you¡¯re so impolite? Everything is about you, you, you. You really don¡¯t have any manners, do you?¡±

    Yanyan red coldly at him, and the perverse energy within her started to build. She knew full well that the Captain¡¯s cultivation base was so high he could easily crush her. But only someone with a cultivation base that surpassed her grandmother¡¯s would strike fear into her heart. From the time she was small, she had made it a practice of skinning alive anyone who criticized her. Other than her Big Bro Xu Qing.

    ¡°What are you ring at?¡± the Captain said. Looking annoyed, he returned her re and continued to criticize her. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, silly girl, it¡¯s important to understand manners. Got it? Xu Qing calls me Eldest Brother. But what about you? Since Xu Qing calls me that, so should you. That¡¯s the most appropriate form of address to be used by any femalepanion of Xu Qing. Right now, only you have that honor, right? Now, admit your mistake.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Yanyan was taken aback, but after blinking a few times, her face suddenly turned red, and the perverse energy vanished. Sounding very meek, she said, ¡°My mistake, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s better!¡± the Captain said, smiling broadly. Looking very pleased with himself, he waved the brush around a few more times to add some more details. ¡°Now, you start painting the other side. That little punk Ah Qing was keeping his dharmaship too pristine. It¡¯s not befitting of the traditions of the Seventh Peak. We need to help him out in that regard.¡± From a distance, the paint job on the dharmaship really made it seem like it was on the verge of falling apart. ¡°Dharmaships are most effective when they look a bit beat up.¡±

    After a bit of hesitation, Yanyan took a paintbrush and started working. ¡°I don¡¯t understand, Eldest Brother. Why are you randomly throwing mechanical parts overboard every so often? And what¡¯s with the smoke?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called ¡®fishing,¡¯¡± the Captain exined somberly. ¡°We¡¯ve spent a lot of spirit stones keeping this thing flying. And since we¡¯re not on official sect business, <i>we</i> have to pay for all that. Therefore, we need to do some ¡®fishing¡¯ to make up for it. Yanyan, I have to offer some further constructive criticism. Xu Qing is always throwing money away, but you shouldn¡¯t be like that. You need to be frugal! Got it? I¡¯m just helping Xu Qing save money!¡±

    Yanyan nodded thoughtfully andmitted the advice to heart.

    ¡°Besides,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°we¡¯re heading toward the northern tundra. Along the way we¡¯ll pass through Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s forbidden ground. And we¡¯ll also have to pass the mainstem of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. It¡¯s going to be dangerous. Disguising the dharmaship like this will make it less attractive to any powerful experts who notice it.¡±

    The Captain applied a few final details, then vaulted onto the deck and looked around in satisfaction at his masterpiece. ¡°Not bad. Not bad at all! It looks great like this!¡±

    Yanyan took in the dpidated dharmaship and still didn¡¯t lookpletely convinced. She was about to ask more questions when all of a sudden, the Captain¡¯s expression flickered and he looked in the direction of the cabin. His expression became extremely somber, and an icy coldness suddenly swelled within him. Faces appeared in his pupils, and in the blink of an eye, he started emanating a terrifying aura.

    A momentter, the door to the cabin exploded, sending shrapnel out in all directions. Along with it came a roar like that of a wild beast, filled with madness and hunger. A wizened, skeletal hand suddenlytched onto the doorframe, and then a skeletal body lurched forward. It was Xu Qing. His clothing was now pitch ck, and was covered with rotten flesh and ckened blood. Because of that, he stank. What was more, his sunken face made him look like an evil ghost.

    The crazed look in his eyes caused Yanyan to shiver.

    Meanwhile, the Captain could tell exactly what was going on. When he got really hungry, this was what he was like.

    ¡°All you did was reach the three-pce level. Did you really have to go all out like this?¡± The Captain rushed forward and offered a supporting arm to Xu Qing.

    Yanyan was about toe to help as well.

    ].

    However, the Captain said, ¡°Stay back, Yanyan. His mind is unstable now. He obviously ate something he wasn¡¯t supposed to eat, and is now extremely low on life force. He¡¯s totally starving.¡±

    Looking like he knew exactly what he was doing, he kept supporting Xu Qing with one arm, and used the other to take a chunk of flesh out of his bag of holding. He shoved the flesh into Xu Qing¡¯s mouth.

    Xu Qing swallowed it and closed his eyes. After a few breaths of time passed, he opened his eyes. Though they were still bloodshot, the crazed look was gone, and had been reced by rity.

    ¡°Thanks, Eldest Brother,¡± he said in a raspy voice. ¡°Got any more?¡±

    ¡°Nope. That was myst snack.... What you need to do now is go kill a bunch of living things and absorb their life force. How¡¯d you end up like this?¡±

    ¡°I ate a little thingy,¡± Xu Qing replied. The sensation of intense hunger was rising again, causing him to pant for breath. The taboo poison pill that he had inserted into his third pce had been socking in spirit nature that, upon awakening, he had turned into a virtual ck hole, swallowing everything around it.

    Though Xu Qing had anticipated something like that would happen, and had prepared for it, what was unexpected was that he would lose so much life force during the integration process. As a result, he just wasn¡¯t ready for what happened when the pill awoke.

    It wasn¡¯t all bad, and in some ways, could be considered a destined opportunity for him. It meant that as long as he could give enough life force to the pill, then he could truly restore the pill. Once restored, it wouldn¡¯t be empty. Rather, it would have a boundless foundation that would cause Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess to soar.

    This third pce of his was different from all the various other types of pces that had been seen from ancient times until modern. It would be incredibly powerful, and abounding in mystery. All it required was life force.

    Except that Xu Qing could tell there was more to the story. Fully restoring the pill didn¡¯t just require life force. It also required a lot of mutagen. That left him feeling shaken, as it made him realize... that he could absorb mutagen! Technically it was the third pce and the poison pill that would do the absorbing, but for all intents and purposes it was him.

    After the broken face of the god arrived, it was only mutated life forms, and some of the new species, who could do such a thing. Ordinary cultivators didn¡¯t have that ability. That was because mutagen was actually the aura of a god. In fact, some people even called it ¡®god power.¡¯

    Voice hoarse, Xu Qing said, ¡°Eldest Brother, how far away are we from the nearest forbidden region?¡±

    Seeing how nervous Yanyan looked, he gave her an encouraging nod. He had no intention of disregarding the people close to him.

    ¡°We¡¯re about half a month from Forbidden by the Sword here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. But if you can¡¯t wait that long, we could find some nonhuman sect or nation....¡± The Captain was obviously worried, and his words made it clear how little he cared about nonhumans. To the Captain, Xu Qing was far more important than any nonhumans. If they had to be eaten, then they would be eaten.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°I canst for half a month.¡±

    Though nonhumans would have life force and a bit of mutagen, the mutagen within them couldn¡¯t possiblypare to those in the forbidden regions and forbidden grounds. Based on what he could sense within himself, he felt that the best option was a forbidden ground.

    ¡°In that case, let¡¯s go to Forbidden by the Sword. That¡¯s the only forbidden ground in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and it¡¯s just as famous as Forbidden by the Phoenix in South Phoenix, and also Forbidden by the Zombie. ording to the intelligence reports I¡¯ve seen in the coalition, the emperor in Forbidden by the Sword has been dormant for many years. However, there have been indications that the emperor might awaken. We¡¯ll need to be careful and not do anything to stick out too much.¡±

    As he offered his exnation, the Captain tapped into his cultivation base and took control of the dharmaship. It instantly pulsed with a frigid energy, then started to elerate, turning into a beam of light that shot off into the distance. The wind blew past the dharmaship¡¯s defenses, causing a whistling noise to echo out around it.

    As they moved along, Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the deck, working hard to control his hunger. At the same time, he worked on limating himself to the new poison core in his third heavenly pce. He could tell that though he wasn¡¯t in an optimal state, his battle prowess was much higher. In fact, if he added in his imperial-ss technique, he could already unleash four-pce power. For most Gold Core cultivators, the absolute limit they could reach was six pces.

    <i>Now I just need to wait for my poison core to fully awaken, and then I can start thinking about how to finish my fourth pce.</i>

    Soon, the hunger within him started to get so intense that his eyes became bloodshot, and he had trouble breathing steadily. Abandoning thoughts of his cultivation base, he focused on maintaining control.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow had long since gone into hiding, fearful of attracting Xu Qing¡¯s attention. Right now, Xu Qing was like some ravenous beast that struck terror into them.

    At first, Yanyan was terrified of Xu Qing¡¯s aura and his skeletal appearance. But gradually she couldn¡¯t hold back from approaching him. When she got close, Xu Qing looked up, his bloodshot eyes scanning her throat before he forced himself to look away.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, you... can take a bite if you want. I¡¯m not scared of pain.¡± She bit her finger and, trembling, held it out to him, her eyes shining with anticipation.

    He looked at her for a moment, then just closed his eyes.

    Looking a bit disappointed, she pulled her hand back then walked off to the side and sat down.

    The Captain looked over his shoulder as he piloted the dharmaship. He saw her offer her finger, and he saw Xu Qing ignore her. He also saw the disappointment in her eyes and couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit jealous.

    <i>Back when I got hungry like that, there was never a girl who offered her finger to me. What gives? Little Ah Qing doesn¡¯t have a romantic bone in his body. If it was me, I would have taken a nice big bite.</i>

    As time passed, Xu Qing endured, and Forbidden by the Sword got closer. Eventually, Xu Qing started to shake physically, and could tell that he was about to lose control of the deep hunger within him. That was when the pitch-ck forest of Forbidden by the Sword appeared up ahead.

    Before they were even inside, Xu Qing¡¯s sharp senses detected the very strong mutagen. He opened his eyes, and they shone with crimson light.

 Chapter 342: The Key to Pursuing Godhood

    Chapter 342: The Key to Pursuing Godhood

    Forbidden by the Sword was the only forbidden ground in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. It was west of the center of the prefecture, and ovepped one section of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. Before the river entered Forbidden by the Sword, the water was full of immortal energy. Upon entering the forbidden ground, it turned pitch ck. The forbidden ground was filled with drifting fog that the sunlight couldn¡¯t prate. From high above it was possible to see the dark stain that was the river, but nothing more detailed than that. The fog covered everything. Though the river split Forbidden by the Sword into two sections, the fog united them.

    As the Captain looked out into the pitch-ck jungle, he said, ¡°ording to what I read in the coalition, Forbidden by the Sword produced a huge catastrophe 3,000 years ago. Emperor Sword awoke, causing a huge stir in Sea-Sealing County. Eventually, countless species in the county joined forces to fight and seal the emperor.

    ¡°Emperor me. Emperor Zombie. Emperor Sword. Those are the three emperors of those forbidden grounds, and each one is mysterious and unpredictable.¡± By the time he finished speaking, Xu Qing had already leaped off of the dharmaship, and was a streak of prismatic light that shot into Forbidden by the Sword.

    Yanyan looked worried. ¡°Eldest Brother....¡±

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing and smiled faintly. ¡°It¡¯s fine. With me standing guard, I guarantee that Xu Qing will bepletely safe. That said, Yanyan, I¡¯m running a bit low on funds nowadays. Any chance....¡±

    Yanyan tossed him a bag of holding.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. Scanning the bag of holding, he suddenly looked very happy. Thumping his chest, he loudly said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry at all, Sister-in-Law. I¡¯ll go through hell and high water if necessary to keep your husband safe!¡± [1]

    After finishing speaking, the Captain nced somewhat expectantly at Yanyan.

    When Yanyan heard him use the term ¡®sister-inw¡¯ she blushed slightly, then happily took out another bag of holding.

    ¡°Well, shoot!¡± the Captain said. ¡°Yanyan, going forward, you¡¯re the only ¡®sister-inw¡¯ I formally recognize!¡± The Captain grabbed the bag of holding, then shot off of the dharmaship in pursuit of Xu Qing.

    Yanyan blushed even harder.

    Little did she know that the Captain was even more ted than her, and his eyes shone with the happiness of someone who had just unearthed new treasure.

    I¡¯m so dumb! I shouldn¡¯t be envious of little Ah Qing. I should just make sure we always bring a girl with us! That way I¡¯ll never run low on cash! Of course, that sugar momma Ding Xue has the deepest pockets of all!

    Then the Captain started imagining traveling with Xu Qing and Arch-Immortal Plumdark. He could just think about her calling him Elder Brother, and that was really exciting.

    When we get back, I need to send gifts to all of them in Xu Qing¡¯s name. I have to make sure they all stay close to him. Ah Qing, oh Ah Qing. You must¡¯ve been really blessed in your previous life to end up with an Elder Brother like me!

    Truth be told, this wasn¡¯t the first time the Captain had done something like this. After his and Xu Qing¡¯s big escapade in Seazombie territory, when the two of them became envoy disciples, he was the one who made sure that both Ding Xue and Gu Muqing were assigned to work with Xu Qing. The reality was that the sect had originally assigned Gu Muqing alone. As for Ding Xue, the Captain had secretly reached out to her and sold her the second spot. [2]

    Feeling very pleased with himself, he shot after Xu Qing into the depths of Forbidden by the Sword.

    As Xu Qing sped along in the jungle, mutagen poured toward him. He absorbed it all and sent it right into his third pce. He didn¡¯t slow down for an instant. At a certain point, his hand shot out and he grabbed a huge snake off of a tree. The serpent let out an agonized hiss as its body withered up. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a skeleton as all of its life force vanished.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. Without a word, he continued on until he spotted a red creature that resembled a qilin. The beast had an extraordinary aura and a strong baleful energy, and had a long face that looked somewhat human. It was facing off against a pack of eight-legged wolves, each of which looked almost like two wolves put together, except with only one head. However, their heads were huge, being about asrge as their bodies. They exuded vicious auras, and yet once the qilin-like beast stomped its hooves, they backed away with their tails between their legs.

    When Xu Qing appeared between the two parties, the qilin-like beast stopped in ce and erupted with a baleful aura. Xu Qing simply reached out toward it. The beast shivered, and before it could either flee or defend itself, Xu Qing¡¯s handnded on its head. A pop rang out, and the beast withered into a skeleton over the course of only a few breaths of time.

    The eight-legged wolves trembled in fear as they fled. However, Xu Qing just licked his lips and transformed into a series of afterimages as he pursued them. Momentster, he left the corpses behind as he disappeared deeper into the jungle.

    Ten breaths of timeter, the Captain appeared. Looking around at the corpses, he sighed in relief.

    ¡°Looks like he¡¯s doing just fine.¡±

    With that, he prepared to continue chasing after Xu Qing. Except then his eyes narrowed and his nose twitched, causing him to turn and look in a different direction in the forbidden ground. After a moment of observation, his eyes lit up.

    I can¡¯t believe there¡¯s a treasure like that here! He licked his lips. Little Junior Brother should be fine. It makes more sense for me to go check out this treasure.

    Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, the Captain shifted directions and disappeared into the jungle.

    Half a month flew by.

    During that time, Xu Qing ughtered with abandon. He killed any beasts he ran into and absorbed their life force to nourish his poison core. He did the same with any grues he encountered. He lost track of how many beasts he killed. Now that he had four-pce battle prowess, he could easily cut down just about everything in the periphery of the forbidden ground.

    Eventually, he started working his way deeper into the forbidden ground. As he did, he found even more beasts, and the ughter continued. He began to regain his senses. His eyes grew less zed, and his skeletal form was filling in with flesh. His hair also grew out again.

    With the additional benefit of the violet crystal, he gradually started to look the same as he had before. At most, he was a bit thinner.

    Finally, he changed into a new set of clothing. The poison core in his third pce thrummed with both life force and mutagen, but was still not totally restored.

    However, that wasn¡¯t a hard problem to fix. Xu Qing¡¯s hand shot out toward a swarm of huge jellyfish flying in the sky. It emanated intense coldness that caused the jungle floor to ice over, and prompted all beasts in the area to flee. There were dozens of jellyfish in the group. Within their semitransparent forms it was possible to see rotting corpses. Xu Qing had seen jellyfish like this in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp all those years ago.

    From the look of it, these jellyfish weremon in forbidden regions and forbidden grounds. Of course, he no longer felt the intense pressure they had exuded on him so long ago. The sight of them reminded Xu Qing of how easily such creatures had ughtered low-level cultivators from the basecamp. In fact, he had personally buried one of them himself. Ol¡¯ Stony. [3]

    Eyes glittering brightly, Xu Qing shot forward into the midst of the jellyfish. Booms rang out, and then lifeless jellyfish husks started dropping into the jungle below. A short timeter, Xu Qing descended onto the crown of a tree, his eyes shining brightly, and thunderous rumbling sounds echoing out from within him.

    Within his third pce, the poison core was now fully connected to his life essence. It was restored, as if the me of its life force had once again been ignited. And it emitted powerful fluctuations.

    It even pulsed, almost like it was a beating heart. Xu Qing could feel it, making it truly seem like it was part of him. His heart filled with excitement. Taking out his beetles, he inhaled them, and they burrowed into the depths of his body, then took up positions around the poison core.

    Finally, Xu Qing looked up. Off in the distance, he could see another swarm of jellyfish heading toward him. This was an evenrger swarm, and they had been attracted by his ughter of the previous group. From the look of it, this group had hundreds of jellyfish in it. Three of them were several hundred meters in size, and radiated fluctuations equivalent to a Gold Core cultivator with two or three heavenly pces.

    I haven¡¯t even gone very deeply into this forbidden ground, and I¡¯m already running into really powerful beasts. Well, that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s the perfect chance to see how impressive my poison core is.

    Eyes shing, he released the power of all three of his heavenly pces, including that of the taboo poison core. A boundless poison aura erupted from him, odorless and invisible, but surging with mountain-toppling, sea-draining power. Down below, countless trees instantly started rotting. nts crumbled into ash, and nearby beasts were so powerless they hardly had a chance to shriek in agony before they dissolved into pools of blood.

    The jellyfish had no way to escape. They all started turning ck, and emitted sounds of torment as they rotted and fell to the ground. Even the ground was affected. Countless bugs were infected and subterranean creatures were killed. The fog in the area vanished, and the dirt melted. Soon, outside moonlight spilled down into the area.

    Everything for 1,500 meters around Xu Qing was bare and empty! Nothing existed there! There was only ck soil. It was a truly appalling sight.

    As Xu Qing hovered there, his shadow appeared. Turning into the shape of a tree, it bent in his direction in a bow. The tree was almost like a cape, and the surrounding devastated area created a perfect contrast for Xu Qing¡¯s bewitching good looks. In fact, he looked even more bewitching.

    The ck iron skewer flew out, trembling, and the image of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared, bowing and scraping.

    The patriarch couldn¡¯t have been more shocked, and when he looked around, he found himself mumbling, ¡°Is he a god...?¡±

    His reason for that thought was the strong mutagen seeping out of the ground! It was a mutagen that didn¡¯te from the forbidden ground itself. Rather, it came into being because of Xu Qing¡¯s poison! Most bizarre of all was that the mutagen seemed connected to Xu Qing. As if he had birthed it. As a result, it was different from the surrounding mutagen.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing. Even he was having a hard time believing what was happening. After all this... was the power of a god!

    1. You might remember back in chapters 234 and 235 how Yanyan got everyone in Violent Crimes to address her as Sister-in-Law. That¡¯s actually a different word in Chinese than the word used here by the Captain. They have the same meaning. However, the word used here is a bit more specific and intimate. It¡¯s the form of address an older brother will use for his younger brother¡¯s wife. What¡¯s more, the word for ¡®husband¡¯ here is somewhat formal and archaic. ?

    2. Ding Xue and Gu Muqing worked with Xu Qing in chapter 199. ?

    3. Xu Qing first saw one of the flying jellyfish in chapter 14 and a second time in chapter 22. He met Ol¡¯ Stony in chapter 30. Ol¡¯ Stony was killed by jellyfish in chapter 33 and Xu Qing buried him in chapter 34. ?

 Chapter 343: VERY Anxious Patriarch

    <h4>Chapter 343: VERY Anxious Patriarch</h4>

    Xu Qing hovered in midair looking down at everything, his heart pounding. A long moment passed, then he took a deep breath and extended his right hand. He closed his hand into a fist, and all of the mutagen being produced in the area rushed toward him, creating a ck cloud around his hand. Xu Qing still almost couldn¡¯t believe it. Thispletely surpassed anything he had expected would happen. However, it did make sense.

    The taboo poison pill had been put into a wish box by an almighty cultivator who fought a mysterious entity from a god domain. Despite killing that mysterious entity, the almighty cultivator ended up poisoned, and only after experiencing intense torment did he manage to extrude the poison.

    In other words, the taboo poison pill must have been concocted in a god domain. And god domains....

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven. ck clouds covered the area, except for the 1,500-meter area around him. Now there was a gap in those clouds. Through that gap, Xu Qing could see the moon, as well as one corner of the broken face of the god.

    <i>When the god¡¯s eyes open and gaze down, that area bes a forbidden region. The second time that gaze hits the same ce, it bes a forbidden ground. The third time, it bes a god domain!</i>

    The Revered Ancient maind was a huge ce, but there were still very few ces that the god had gazed upon three times.

    <i>God domains contain the power of gods. And Torchlight¡¯s experimental god bodies are also being used to explore that power.</i>

    As Xu Qing contemted that, he realized that his taboo poison core wasn¡¯t just mighty. It was also a key. A key that could open the door to godhood.

    <i>I wonder if that almighty cultivator realized that.</i>

    Although there were still things Xu Qing didn¡¯t understand about the situation, and without all the proper clues, he could only specte so much. Regardless, one thing he did know was that his poison core was spectacrly valuable. And he also knew that considering it contained some of the power of a god, he would have a hard time staying safe if people found out about it. Xu Qing had no desire to test human nature, and therefore, the poison core and its godly power would need to be a secret he kept as safe as the violet crystal.

    <i>I¡¯m considered an expert in the dao of poison, so killing people with poison won¡¯t attract attention. That¡¯s the obvious way to exin the effects of my poison core.</i>

    After thinking the matter over more, he decided to assess his battle prowess. He now had three heavenly pces, plus an imperial-ss technique. Overall, that meant he had four-pce battle prowess. If he used poisons, then he was confident he could surpass that level. And if he used the godly power in that poison, then.... After more thought, he decided he wouldn¡¯t do that unless it was absolutely necessary.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, he took out a handful of ck boluses and tossed them around. The ck boluses exploded and began sucking in all the mutagen, which thus cleared the area of any traces of Xu Qing¡¯s unique mutagen. Up above, the ck clouds rolled over to cover the part that had been opened, and soon, it was as if nothing had happened at all. Ordinary mutagen was already filling the area, and the only evidence left behind was the bareness of the earth.

    Despite that, Xu Qing was still nervous, so he threw out some more ck boluses. Only after he was absolutely certain there were no traces of his own mutagen did he turn and leave.

    As he moved, he once again checked on his shadow and the ck iron skewer. His gaze caused both the shadow and the patriarch to tremble.

    The former could sense danger on an instinctual level, while thetter... was a person with extensive life experience. How could he not understand what was going on? Therefore, after Xu Qing nced at him a seventh time, the patriarch appeared in projected form.

    Flopping into a prostrated position, he said, ¡°Milord, your humble servant must plead for your help, sir.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He just looked back coldly.

    Lookingpletely honest and considerate, the patriarch met Xu Qing¡¯s gaze with eyes full of zeal. Actually, it was a gaze he had secretly learned when observing Night Dove.

    ¡°Milord, your humble servant is very worried about the possibility of being captured one day. If that happens, I¡¯d die before revealing any of your secrets. However, it¡¯s possible an enemy could use some special soulsearch method on me. In that case, my intentions wouldn¡¯t mean much. If I revealed even the tiniest detail, well, your humble servant would hardly be able to deal with the guilt. My death wouldn¡¯t matter. But I absolutely, positively cannot reveal any of your secrets, milord.

    ¡°Therefore, I would like to humbly request that you ce an eradication seal on me. The more vicious the better. I don¡¯t care. That way, if I ever get in a situation where an enemy is about to soulsearch me, I can self-detonate with a mere thought, and make sure the enemy gets nothing.

    ¡°In that manner, your humble servant could travel to the Nine Springs with a smile on his face, confident that he loyally kept his lord and master safe!¡±

    The patriarch was feeling very clever in how he was handling this. He was very familiar with Xu Qing¡¯s personality, and knew that promises and oaths didn¡¯t mean anything to him. After all, if the patriarch himself didn¡¯t trust such things, there was no way the Fiendish Xu would. By directly pointing out what he had, he managed to surreptitiously highlight his own loyalty. This was his n, which he hoped would do something to alleviate some of the Fiendish Xu¡¯s misgivings.

    It seemed unlikely to him that the Fiendish Xu would actually ce such a seal on him, otherwise he already would have. Also, he harbored a bit of hope that this might actually be an opportunity to get more freedom. That dangerous thought caused him to shiver a bit.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked deeply at the patriarch. ¡°There¡¯s no need for a seal like that,¡± he said coolly. ¡°I trust you. Worst case scenario, if you get captured, I¡¯ll personally make sure you maintainplete and utter loyalty¡­. By the way, your current battle prowess is only at the three-me level. That¡¯s too weak.¡±

    The patriarch trembled in rm. The dangerous thought from moments ago vanished like smoke. Xu Qing¡¯s gaze made it obvious he knew exactly what the patriarch was thinking, and that filled the patriarch with both extreme anxiety and deep regret.

    All of a sudden, the patriarch realized he hadn¡¯t thought things through all the way, and that he shouldn¡¯t have asked the Fiendish Xu to ce a sealing mark on him. As a spirit automaton, he shouldn¡¯t just point out problems without providing true,plete solutions. A spirit automaton who did that wasn¡¯t a good spirit automaton. He should have thought to do the sealing on himself to begin with to show true loyalty.

    <i>I was careless. Too careless! The Fiendish Xu has clearly be a lot sharper than before. Next time I have to think through everything much moreprehensively.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, the patriarch realized he had to do something to fix the situation.

    ¡°Milord, I... I think I¡¯m about to experience a breakthrough!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up. He didn¡¯t see anything to indicate the patriarch was on the verge of a breakthrough. However, that was when the shadow started sending out urgent emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°I... live and... die with you... also breakthrough!¡±

    p>

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow and nodded. Then he shifted directions, and instead of heading out of the forbidden ground, went looking for a suitable location for a breakthrough.

    It didn¡¯t take long for him to find a secluded valley. It was filled with strange nts with huge sawtooth leaves. Some drooped down, others twitched and wriggled as they slowly digested small animals they had snagged.

    When Xu Qing arrived, all of the nts in the valley shrank away from him. He frowned. He wasn¡¯t happy with being so eye-catching.

    After some thought, he reined in the poison from his third heavenly pce. As a result, the nts thirty meters away from him and farther all rxed. Those closer than that still shrank away from him. That was the limit of his control over the poison core for now. After he got more familiar with it, his control would improve.

    Once in the valley, Xu Qing waved his hand, and the iron skewer flew to the valley wall and quickly carved out a tunnel. It went deep underground. After checking around thoroughly to make sure everything was safe, Xu Qing entered the tunnel.

    With the wave of his hand, he sent countless rocks to block the entrance, then he went to the end of the tunnel. After making various preparations in the area, he sat down and produced an oilmp, which he lit.

    As the me illuminated his face, he said, ¡°Who¡¯s going first?¡±

    ¡°Me... first....¡± the shadow said, sliding away from Xu Qing and onto the cave wall.

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow. It resembled a huge tree, covered with over a hundred opened eyes looking mysteriously at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord... pills... consume....¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand and a host of bottles and jars flew out, which were from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto. None of them were the type that contained life force. Not any more. Checking through them, Xu Qing found a handful that would be helpful to the shadow. They were the same ones the shadow had longed for back in the mansion grotto.

    The shadow was clearly excited at the sight of them. Once they were out, the bottles all exploded, as did the medicinal pills inside. They turned into a turbid, misty cloud that shot toward the shadow on the wall. The shadow sucked it in, and then instantly began to tremble. At the same time,rge amounts of mutagen in the area rushed toward the shadow. As it sucked the mutagen in, more and more rushed in.

    Considering they were in a forbidden ground, the mutagen was incredibly strong, and it quickly formed a whirlpool around the shadow. As the whirlpool spun, the shadow blurred, until itpletely vanished into the whirlpool. Then, terrifying fluctuations started rolling out of the whirlpool.

    The fluctuations soon rose higher and higher, heading from the Foundation Establishment level toward the Gold Core level. Thumping sounds rang out, almost like a heartbeat. Anyone who heard them would be very unsettled, and would get the sensation a new form of life wasing into existence inside the whirlpool.

    Xu Qing watched, thinking back to what happened thest time the shadow rose to a higher level, and wondering if it would again try to rebel. If it did, he was ready to crush it.

    Meanwhile, the patriarch looked on, feeling very, VERY anxious. In fact, he felt a sensation of deadly crisis.

    <i>That aura.... Little Shadow, oh Little Shadow, why do you have to do this? What am I supposed to do??</i>

 Chapter 344: Shadow Fusion Secret Magic

    Chapter 344: Shadow Fusion Secret Magic

    As Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior got more and more nervous, he happened to notice Xu Qing looking at the whirlpool. Within Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were keen anticipation.

    As far as the patriarch could remember, Xu Qing had never looked at him in that way. That caused the patriarch to grow even more flustered inwardly. Lightning started flickering in his eyes, as he apparently pushed himself to the limit. Madness swelled within him as he looked at Xu Qing and spoke via divine will, ¡°Milord, please produce those mirrors for me.¡±

    Despite being spoken with divine will, it was still possible for Xu Qing to sense the determination and madness in the words. ncing at the patriarch, he waved his hand, sending out the collection of mirrors from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto.

    Without another word, the patriarch sent the skewer flying toward the mirrors. He stabbed into the nearest one, and a scream rang out as the spirit automaton within it was devoured by the patriarch.

    Xu Qing had previously inspected that so-called spirit automaton, and knew that it wasn¡¯tplete. It was more like a sliver of will, and was a long way from bing a true spirit automaton.

    Next the patriarch went on to the second, the third, and the fourth mirror.... In the blink of an eye he devoured the will of seventy percent of the mirrors. Lightning crackled around him, and it almost looked like he wouldpletely transform into lightning. A mad howl escaped his lips.

    Xu Qing was a little surprised at what was happening, as he could sense that the patriarch was putting everything on the line.

    The truth was that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was already at his limit. Devouring more wouldn¡¯t necessarily guarantee that he would be able to break through. However, seeing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, he felt that it was all worth it.

    Around then, the whirlpool the shadow was in began emanating even more intense fluctuations. Along with them came a howl that could shake one down to the soul.

    Xu Qing looked over with a serious expression.

    The patriarch didn¡¯t say anything, but he eyed the mirrors with bloodshot eyes and then howled and raced toward the next one. He would devour them even if he wasn¡¯t capable of devouring them! If he failed to break through, but the shadow seeded, then he would cease to be important. What was more, the shadow would certainly bully him, and he would have no way to fight back.

    If he was that powerless, it would be easy for the shadow to find a way to secretly kill him. If he didn¡¯t end up killed, the Fiendish Xu would probably use him as cannon fodder. And even if he wasn¡¯t used as cannon fodder, he would be so weak that he would either be harmed or stolen, whereupon the Fiendish Xu would kill him with a thought.

    Failure meant death. Sess meant life. With those thoughts running through his head, the patriarch wentpletely mad.

    Meanwhile, the shadow was doing the same thing. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out of the whirlpool, and the howling grew more intense. Soon, it became possible to see a ck, shadowy mass rising from within the whirlpool.

    It looked like arge, rectangr box. As it inched its way out of the whirlpool, its howls grew more intense. At the same time, the mutagen flowing toward the whirlpool grew stronger. The shadow was clearly struggling mightily.

    This state of affairs went on for about eight hours. Then, all of a sudden, an intense rumbling sound echoed out from the whirlpool as it faded into nothing.

    Left behind was a huge shadow on the wall, extremely clear and visible.

    Xu Qing was openly moved. He was looking at something rectangr and wrapped up with strips of gray cloth, all of which were stained with ck blood that emanated an inauspicious, gruish air. Although the shadowy t on the wall, Xu Qing got the sense that it was actually three-dimensional. It made it seem like he was looking at a coffin! He had never sensed anything like that from the shadow before, not even the previous time the shadow rose to another level, in which it took on the shape of a tree. If you described the previous shadow as a painting, then this shadow was something that had walked out of a painting. Xu Qing could sense it very clearly.

    What was more, extraordinary fluctuations pulsed off of the ck coffin, simr to the Gold Core level.

    What caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to sparkle even more was that a host of eyes snapped open on the surface of the coffin. There were too many to count, and they all had vertical pupils. The eyes all looked at Xu Qing very coldly, and it reminded him of looking into the eyes of the god above. They were eyes that seemed to look down on all other beings as being inferior forms of life. The aloof and arrogant nature of the eyes caused Xu Qing¡¯s own eyes to suddenly grow incredibly cold.

    ¡°Looking to get killed?¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    The shadow shivered in response as though it were suddenly remembering everything that had happened to it in the past. The arrogant attitude disappeared, and the eyes suddenly seemed like they were fawning on Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord... I¡¯m... obedient....¡±

    ¡°You broke through, but you still can¡¯t talk inplete sentences? What good are you?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned icier, and he suddenly radiated a violet light. Inside his third heavenly pce, his poison core vibrated.

    The shadow¡¯s trembling grew more intense, and the eyes seemed to radiate terror. In its anxiety, it released stuttering fluctuations.

    ¡°I¡¯m... strong... useful....¡±

    ¡°Useful? How?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The strips of cloth loosened, revealing that it was actually one long cloth. It floated over toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing simply looked on.

    ¡°Taboo... absorb all....¡±

    Xu Qing frowned and instinctively looked at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. However, the patriarch was in the middle of devouring a mirror, and couldn¡¯t help trante.

    Voice cool, Xu Qing said, ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    The shadow seemed to get even more anxious. Trembling, it created an image that depicted Xu Qing handing something to a kowtowing sapling.

    Looking at the image, Xu Qing recalled something. Sometime back he had given a fragment of a taboo treasure to the shadow. He looked at the strip of cloth again, and an expression of surprise appeared on his face. [1]

    ¡°After you absorbed the mutagen from it, the fragment turned into this?¡±

    The coffin-shaped shadow rocked back and forth as if it were shaking its head.

    Xu Qing frowned again. Then the shadow suddenly blinked vigorously.

    ¡°Forgot... damned Golden Vajra... yes....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the gray strip of cloth and the ck blood that stained it, then suddenly realized it looked very much like a funeral shroud. However, it didn¡¯t stink, but instead, pulsed with immortal energy. Curious, he reached out and took hold of the cloth. Then his eyes narrowed and he released it. Looking down at his hand, he saw numerous tiny incisions, as if his palm had been stabbed with thorns or needles. As for exactly how it worked, he would study itter. He looked back at the shadow.

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡±

    Seeing that Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem very pleased, the nervous shadow quickly sent out some more fluctuations.

    ¡°Merge... transform... ultimate....¡±

    The lid of the coffin suddenly opened, causing a loud creaking sound to echo out. Inside of it was pitch darkness.

    ¡°Milord... enter....¡± the shadow said fawningly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed and he peered at the shadow. After considering the matter, he chuckled inwardly. The shadow had reached a higher level, but he could still crush it. If it rebelled against him, he wouldn¡¯t keep it around any longer.

    Walking forward he stepped inside the coffin. The lid closed over him.

    The moment the lid sealed, the shadow shivered, and the countless eyes on the surface of the coffin closed. Then it seemed to melt like a liquid, revealing Xu Qing. However, the shadow now covered his entire body.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they revealed incredible astonishment.

    After looking himself up and down, he burst into motion, moving much faster than before as he smashed his fist into the wall. The entire wall crumbled into ash, and the remaining force carved a 3,000-meter tunnel in that direction. What was even more shocking to Xu Qing was that he hadn¡¯t punched with full force. He had been holding back. This was something that he could never have done given the previous level of his fleshly body.

    Panting a bit, Xu Qing inspected himself. Clearly, he had reached an astonishing levelpared to before, both in his defenses, speed, and strength. Because of the darkness that covered him, he couldn¡¯t see his heavenly pces, his cultivation base, his dharma force, or anything else.

    In exchange for losing those things, he received stupefying fleshly body power.

    After sending out a thought, the darkness retracted, and his skin returned to his previous state. Meanwhile, the shadow converged on his forehead in the shape of a pitch ck eye.

    This must be a secret magic the shadow developed after upgrading. It can fuse with me.

    He performed an incantation gesture, but nothing happened.

    After fusing, virtually all of my magical techniques go away, and I be a pure body cultivator. That said, I can still use my poisons. The strength involved seems to surpass the four-pce level, and is probably around five-pce level. Pure five-pce fleshly body power ispletely terrifying.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but feel astonished by the heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformations he had gone through thanks to his trip to the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    Good preparation is the key to sess, and this was the result of everything Xu Qing had worked on up to this point.

    After doing a few more tests, he exercised another thought, and the ck eye on his forehead left him and turned back into the shape of a coffin. The lid opened, and Xu Qing stepped out.

    Waving his hand, he produced a stream of ck balefire. His heavenly pces were back to normal. That confirmed his theory about the technique. It was a secret fusion magic.

    ¡°Not bad at all!¡± he said with a nod, his eyes shining with approval.

    Seeing how pleased Xu Qing was, the shadow got excited.

    ¡°Milord... I¡¯m... obedient....¡±

    The shadow had been learning from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. It was now pleased and relieved. Then, it looked over at the patriarch with disdain and provocation.

    1. Xu Qing gave the shadow the fragment of the taboo treasure in chapter 320. ?

 Chapter 345: Tribulation Incites Awesomeness

    <h4>Chapter 345: Tribtion Incites Awesomeness</h4>

    Xu Qing was very pleased with the shadow¡¯s breakthrough. And the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic was definitely shocking. It could definitely be considered a trump card, and though it differed from the secret magic utilized by the red-garbed young woman, it led to a very simr result.

    The difference was that the young woman summoned a battle soul to fuse with, while Xu Qing transformed into the pure, ultimate body cultivator.

    <i>Nowadays my lifemps and poisons aren¡¯t any sort of secret. Therefore, my firstyer of secrets is the shadow. The weapon wielded by the girl in red shows how effective it is to hide your assets openly. If the shadow¡¯s revealed, I can do something like that.</i>

    <i>My secondyer of secrets is Within the Nine Springs and the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic. The first isn¡¯t too difficult to keep secret. As for the second, I need toe up with some sort of mnemonic to say out loud so people don¡¯t realize what¡¯s really going on, and also catch people off guard when I use it. My thirdyer of secrets is my ability to produce mutagen. My fourth and finalyer of secrets is, as always, the violet crystal.</i>

    Having organized his thoughts, Xu Qing looked at his coffin-shaped shadow.

    <i>I wonder if it will change form again next time it achieves a breakthrough.</i>

    He had the feeling it would. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to ask for details, especially considering how difficult it was tomunicate with the shadow.

    At that point, Xu Qing remembered Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and turned to look at him.

    The patriarch was truly in agony. He twitched as countless lightning bolts coursed over him and asionally pierced through his body. It was so painful he couldn¡¯t hold back from letting loose some screams now and then.

    However, the patriarch had a sense of self-respect. When he saw the shadow looking at him scornfully, and then noticed Xu Qing looking in his direction, his eyes suddenly burned with madness. He was currently a lightning spirit, and would normally have needed some more time before building his way up to the point of transforming into a soul and provoking heavenly tribtion. That was when he should have attempted the baptism of tribtion.

    But he didn¡¯t have time to worry about all that now. By devouring the other spirit automatons, he was able to advance by leaps and bounds, thus activating all of the power of lightning within them. Throwing his head back and howling, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then pointed upward.

    ¡°Bring on the tribtion!¡±

    Innumerable lightning bolts emerged from the patriarch, creating a blinding disy as they shot up into the ceiling of the cave. They burrowed up through the soil, then shot out of the valley, converging into a huge river that rose into the dome of heaven.

    Rumbling filled the ck clouds overhead as the river of lightning pierced through them. Then, thunderous booming rang out as they exploded above the cloud cover. As the booms echoed out, red lightning bolts began to dance through the clouds, slowly gathering to form one gigantic band of red.

    It even seemed to contain a will of its own as it suddenly shot down. It descended to thends below, into the valley, and into the cave.

    ***

    Somewhere else in Forbidden by the Sword, not too far away from the valley, the Captain fled madly through the jungle. Everywhere he passed froze over, leaving pure ice behind him. His face was flushed, his eyes shone, and he cackled madly as he sped along, taking asional bites from a crimson fruit he held in his hand.

    <i>This thing is amazing! Totally amazing!! A truly holy fruit that grew out of the ultimate evil and the strongest mutagen. This thingy was born out of pure adversity. It¡¯s definitely extraordinary. I could smell it from a mile away. Hahahahaha¡ª oh crap!</i>

    A mysterious light suddenly rose up behind him, then became something like a sharp de that shed through all the trees in its path.

    It closed in rapidly until it seemed like it was just on the verge of slicing into the Captain. He twisted in a bizarre fashion, leaping out of the way at thest moment. In that manner he dodged the blow, though a few hairs were severed in the process. Inhaling sharply, he threw the fruit into his mouth, and without looking back, fled even faster than before. That was when he saw some lightning in the distance, and heard the rumble of thunder. His eyes lit up.

    <i>Another precious treasure? Should I go check it out? My pursuers are dangerous, and I think I woke up their chieftain. I can¡¯t believe they¡¯re being so stingy.</i>

    The Captain hesitated for a long moment. If he didn¡¯t take advantage of this situation, he would regret itter. Thus, it made sense to go have a look. Given the levels of speed he was capable of, it was entirely possible he could <i>kill two birds with one arrow</i>.

    Gritting his teeth, he changed directions.

    Besides, based on what he had sensed earlier, the chieftain of the species he had just encountered was suffering from an old injury, and couldn¡¯t easily be awakened. What was more, there were warding spells in the area ced by numerous species. It seemed possible they had been put in ce specifically for that chieftain.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s actually the subordinate of this forbidden ground¡¯s emperor? If so, maybe he was also defeated in the fighting with the countless species of Sea-Sealing County. Maybe he managed to flee back here to heal, only to be chased and sealed. With those warding spells in ce, he¡¯s basically a prisoner here. This ce is called Forbidden by the Sword, but is it more appropriate to call it Imprisoned by the Sword?</i> [1]

    The Captain recalled that this forbidden ground had actually been called by a different name in the past. As he continued running, he took out another crimson fruit and took a bite.

    Behind him, loud rumbling sounds echoed out as a huge tree fell, knocked down by a group of six-armed giants that were angrily chasing him. The giants were all roughly 30 meters tall, with green skin and veryrge ears. What was most eye-catching about them, though, were their earlobes. They all had bells in their earlobes, which made melodious chiming sounds when they moved. The bells seemed to be a natural part of their body. What was more, the mysterious light from earlier actually came from the bells. These people were a species unique to this forbidden ground. Their eyes radiated madness and killing intent as they pursued the Captain.

    Among their number were a few dozen who were in the Gold Core level. Most shocking of all was that, behind them in their ancestralnd, which was where the Captain had fled from, there was a faint aura of awakening. Apparently, some very powerful cultivator was waking up there.

    ***

    While that wild pursuit yed out, Xu Qing was back in the valley paying very close attention to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    He watched as countless red lightning bolts, filled with the ultimate expression of will, shot through the soil and toward the patriarch. The patriarch shivered and screamed in agony. Red lightning bolts assailed him, piercing into his spirit body, and creating a bright red glow. This was the process of him transforming from a spirit automaton into a soul automaton.

    Within that blinding light, the patriarch¡¯s body was already riddled with damage, making him look very bedraggled. He was even gasping for breath.

    Meanwhile, the red lightning caused the shadow¡¯s narrowed eyes to fill with a very serious expression. However, it quickly realized that reacting in that way wasn¡¯t ideal, and it went back to looking smug and derisive.

    Xu Qing could tell that this was no ordinary lightning, and his eyes glittered.

    Eventually, the lightning started to fade, and the patriarch¡¯s shrieks of anguish turned into roars of rage. At the same time, the madness in his eyes grew more intense. He had sessfully passed the first round of tribtion, and thus he dropped into a cross-legged position and began circting the red light within him. He needed to prepare for the second round of tribtion. At the moment, he was incredibly weak, to the point where he was having trouble not falling over. In that state, it was going to be very difficult to pass the second round.

    Xu Qing looked on thoughtfully. Meanwhile, more rumbling sounds echoed out from the sky, almost like shouts of rage. Then more red streaks filled the clouds as the second round began. Countless red lightning bolts created a blood-colored river that shot down through everything tond on the patriarch.

    The patriarch opened his eyes, and they were filled with despair. That was when Xu Qing took action.

    Stepping forward to the patriarch, he shoved his right hand up into the air. Instantly, two umbres appeared, which then transformed into heavenly pces. When they blocked the lightning, rumbling sounds echoed out, and Xu Qing shivered. He could sense the powerful will of destruction in the lightning, and as his defenses fought back against it, both opposing forces began to diminish. He tried to absorb the lightning, but was unable.

    ¡°This heavenly tribtion has red lightning that can destroy both the soul and the body. What an interesting breakthrough, Master Freespirit.¡± Xu Qing had never seen anything like this before. Looking down at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and seeing that he hadrgely recovered, Xu Qing asked, ¡°Ready to continue?¡±

    ¡°Milord, I¡ª¡±

    The patriarch had been just about to say that he couldn¡¯t go on. But then he noticed the disdain and hostility in the eyes of the shadow.

    Gritting his teeth, he howled, ¡°I can do it!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and stepped back, allowing the lightning, which had been reduced by about half, to continue falling. In the blink of an eye, it mmed into the patriarch.

    The patriarch gritted his teeth and faced it. As red lightning pierced into him, he trembled violently. His body dimmed, to the point where it looked like it might disappear. Apparently, he just couldn¡¯t deal with the tribtion.

    The sensation of imminent death filled the patriarch. He smiled bitterly. He had always been a careful person who nned things out. If he provoked an enemy, he would pay any price to wipe them out. If he wasn¡¯t able to wipe them out, he would move his entire sect somewhere safe. And if that didn¡¯t work, and he faced death, he would always have a backup n to survive. He wouldn¡¯t even balk at offering himself as a ve, as long as he kept on living.

    Now he was inplete despair. As the lightning engulfed him, he began tough with bitter madness. He couldn¡¯t ept this result, and yet, had no choice but to feel deep regret. He didn¡¯t regret attempting the breakthrough. Instead, he regretted not taking more risks when he was young. Because he had been so focused on staying alive, he had never dared to risk his life to seize resources. Because of that, he never managed to ignite his life me.

    When he read books, he would always imagine himself in the shoes of the main character. In fact, he would fantasize about <i>being </i>the main character. He would dream of starting as a mortal and eventually rising to the highest heights.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked up at Xu Qing and bitterly shouted, ¡°Get it in your head that Master Freespirit <i>also </i>has natural aptitude! Get it in your head, Fiendish Xu, that Master Freespirit is <i>also </i>a person with destined opportunities! Get it in your head, Ol¡¯ Devil Xu, that Master Freespirit <i>wasn¡¯t born to be a ve!!!"</i>

    <i>So why... did things end up like this...?</i> As he thought back on his life, he just couldn¡¯t ept what was happening. His emotions stirred, filling him with despair, madness, and regret. It was especially bad because, being on the verge of death, there was so much he wanted to say, yet couldn¡¯t. It didn¡¯t matter.

    With death imminent, his despair reached the pinnacle. It was the same with his madness and regret.

    Xu Qing looked at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and sighed inwardly as he prepared to step in and save him.

    But then, as the patriarch¡¯s emotions reached the most extreme level, the red lightning bolts within him suddenly lurched to a halt. Apparently, they had reached a sudden sympathetic resonance with the patriarch. It was as if... the requirements for them to be a part of him had been met.

    Instantly, the lightning converged within him, circted once, and then caused the vanishing parts of the patriarch¡¯s body to appear once again.

    And now they were red!

    The patriarch¡¯s body was seventy percent red, with thirty percent remaining the same as before. It indicated that his breakthrough was seventy percentplete. Thirty percent of him was spirit, seventy percent was soul. The heavenly tribtion vanished. His breakthrough had been both a failure and a sess. Stunned, the patriarch looked down at his body.

    First he felt confused, but then that confusion turned into tion. Then he thought back to what he had yelled moments ago, and his face turned pale. Feeling iparably nervous, he slowly turned to Xu Qing, an expression on his face that looked more unsightly than if he were crying.

    ¡°Er... milord, I was just saying that because I had to. For a special technique I was using. In the key moment of a breakthrough, the technique requires you to say things like that.... Truth be told, your humble servant¡¯s time following you, milord, has been the happiest time of my life! Seriously, milord... you really can¡¯t take anything I said seriously.¡±

    Off to the side, the shadow grinned maliciously and shook its head.

    1. In Chinese, the two different names he¡¯s thinking about are very simr in Chinese. The pronunciation is almost the same, with the difference only being in the tone. The characters are totally different though. ??

 Chapter 346: Hey, What Are You Doing Here?

    <h4>Chapter 346: Hey, What Are You Doing Here?</h4>

    When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior saw the shadow shaking its head, he got even more nervous. He began trembling, and his expression was one ofplete despair. He looked at Xu Qing and wondered if he was really done for this time.

    ¡°Milord...¡±

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Xu Qing asked quietly, even caringly.

    To the patriarch, his tone of voice was like a spring breeze. His eyes widened, and he started breathing heavily. He could never have imagined that the Fiendish Xu would ask, not about the words he had spoken, but rather, about his wellbeing. Waves of emotions swept through him, and they were more intense because of how close he hade to death. His heart raced with joy and exultation, filling him with an indescribable feeling. All he knew was that his heart was racing because of Xu Qing.

    Then he thought back to all of the novels he¡¯d read throughout his life, especially scenes where things like this happened. Usually the person in his situation would say something akin to ¡°together we something-or-other on the same year, month, and day¡± and ¡°oh great god, something, yada yada,¡± and then would conclude with ¡°I¡¯ll apany you loyally through life¡± or ¡°let history bear witness that fate has changed your loyal servant¡¯s life forever.¡±

    Based on what usually happened in novels, Xu Qing must have been his lord and master in a previous life, which meant that it was actually foreordained that he would go through countless trials and tribtions with him.

    <i>That¡¯s got to be it!</i> the patriarch thought excitedly.

    He had never felt this way before, not ever. Feeling overwhelmed with gratitude, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, milord. Your humble servant is fine. I¡¯m just very excited that time itself can bear witness as I once again wage war in your name. In this life, milord, I am devoted to your service!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the patriarch quizzically. The patriarch seemed to be acting a bit strangely, but given his history, Xu Qing just epted the words and nodded.

    Off to the side, the shadow was stunned. Looking deeply at the patriarch, itmitted the words he had just spoken to memory so that it could use them one day.

    ¡°Your breakthrough wasn¡¯t aplete sess, I take it?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Milord, though your humble servant didn¡¯tpletely seed, I can tell that I¡¯m different from before.¡± The patriarch lifted his right hand, and a tremor passed through him as a red lightning bolt appeared. It looked very weak, but on a substructural level, Xu Qing could tell that it was exactly the same as the tribtion lightning.

    Looking at the somewhat pathetic lightning bolt, the patriarch felt a bit guilty, so he said, ¡°It¡¯s not much... but I¡¯m mostly a soul automaton now. Once I¡¯m back in the iron skewer, it¡¯ll be beyond amazing!¡± Then he blurred into motion as he shot back toward the skewer to prove his point.

    The moment he entered, the ck skewer started shaking. Cracking sounds rang out from inside, and red magical symbols appeared on its surface. As the skewer transformed, it emanated a terrifying aura. Red sparks danced on its surface, causing its pitch-ck color to change into something more violet.

    When Xu Qing saw the skewer that had been at his side for so long transforming in such an extraordinary way, he looked more closely at it. However, that was when the patriarch screamed, while at the same time, threerge cracks appeared on the surface of the skewer. The cracks were very deep, and it looked like if they grew anyrger, the skewer would crumble to pieces.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered. Quickly grabbing the skewer, he scanned it with divine will, whereupon his expression became even more unsightly.

    The patriarch then appeared. Choosing his words very carefully, he said, ¡°Milord, upon trying to take possession of this treasure, I found that its level is actually too low.... It¡¯s suitable for anything below Gold Core. But now that I¡¯m seventy percent a soul automaton, I¡¯ve gone past that limit. And the power of the red tribtion lightning is more than the skewer can bear.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the skewer in his hand for a long moment. He¡¯d been using this item since he was a child. Whether it was before his time in the slums, or after. Whether it was in the scavenger basecamp or his early days in Seven Blood Eyes. He had always used this weapon to kill enemies. Whether it was day or night, he always had that skewer ready to use, even when he slept.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case,¡± he said, ¡°there¡¯s nothing we can do for now. Once we¡¯re back in the sect, I¡¯ll figure out a way to reforge the skewer and hopefully raise it to a higher level.¡± He put the skewer away and took out a magical treasure he¡¯d acquired in a small nation while traveling. That would serve as the patriarch¡¯s temporary abode.

    With that done, he flicked his sleeve, sending both the patriarch and the shadow back into a state of concealment.

    ¡°Time to get out of here.¡±

    With both the shadow and the patriarch at a higher level, his battle prowess had improved a bit. As for the changes he had personally experienced, he nned to contemte them after he was back on his dharmaship. After all, this was a forbidden ground, not a ce to leave one¡¯s guard down. The tribtion he had provoked had been sizable, and it was entirely likely that it had attracted the attention of unknown entities.

    With that, he started moving. Upon reaching the blocked entrance of the tunnel, he waved his hand, causing the opening to st open.

    Before he could leave, his expression flickered, and he turned to look in a different direction.

    Some distance away in the jungle was a group of 30-meter-tall giants, howling as they ran along. All of them emanated powerful fluctuations, with a dozen or so who were in the Gold Core level. And there were two or three who gave Xu Qing the sensation that they had five or six heavenly pces. His eyes narrowed.

    What also caused him to inhale sharply was a thunderous rumbling off in the distance, a sound that could shake the mind, bringing with it incredible, terrifying pressure. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, winds screamed, and the earth quaked. It seemed like some immense entity was struggling to free itself in that distant location.

    The giants nearby were chasing... the Captain.

    All it took was a single nce to realize that the Captain must have done something to anger them.

    They were all running right in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Sighing, he turned and fled.

    The Captain spotted Xu Qing and was delighted.

    ¡°Hey, what are you doing here?¡± the Captain shouted. ¡°Did you find some treasure or something? Lemme see! Don¡¯t worry, that big fellow isn¡¯t going to have an easy time getting free. Maybe he¡¯s awake, but the ce where he was sleeping is a quagmire, and only half of his head was visible. Also there were warding spells from all sorts of species there.¡±

    Off in the distance, a boom rang out, and then crevices snaked out through the ground. A violent aura raged out into the open, along with a gale force wind. From the look of it, some of the warding spells had shattered.

    The wild wind slowed down both Xu Qing and the Captain, but actually helped the giants to speed up.

    As a result, the distance between the two parties closed.

    ¡°Shoot, don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re actually going to catch up.¡± The Captain elerated rapidly as he tried to catch up to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look over his shoulder, but he did wave his hand behind him to help the Captain.

    The Captain felt himself pulled forward until he was right behind Xu Qing.

    However, the wind was really causing problems. It wasn¡¯t long before Xu Qing could actually smell the breath of the giants behind him. Feeling annoyed, he asked, ¡°What exactly did you do, Captain?¡±

    ¡°Nothing! I was following you earlier to make sure you didn¡¯t get into any trouble. Then I smelled something good, and went to take a look. Want to guess what I found? I saw a bunch of these oafs worshiping some kind of fruit. I simply couldn¡¯t let them continue to do something so idiotic and uncivilized, so I took the fruit.¡±

    ¡°Then what?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Nothing at all!¡± the Captain said, looking as though he couldn¡¯t understand at all why people would get so angry at him for simply taking some fruit.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t believe him, and took a moment to look at the Captain¡¯s mouth.

    The Captain blinked a few times. Lowering his voice as he ran, he said, ¡°I¡¯m serious. Nothing happened. It¡¯s just that when I was leaving... I saw their chieftain¡¯s head sticking out of that quagmire, and he happened to have a wooden sword stuck in his head. It looked good, so I took a bite. It was disgusting. Disgusting!¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Aiya, fine,¡± the Captain said guiltily. ¡°Two bites. I took two bites, that¡¯s all!¡± As he ran madly, perhaps it was his speed or perhaps the fact that he¡¯d eaten too much, but either way, he let loose a big burp.

    Xu Qing sighed. He got the feeling the Captain never took just one or two bites of anything, but wasn¡¯t inclined to press him. Tapping into his cultivation base, he kept moving forward. Unfortunately, the giants were still closing in.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he performed an incantation gesture and shoved his hand behind him. Blue light shot out, creating a huge sea that spread out and froze everything solid. Xu Qing released some poison from his heavenly pce, which drifted behind them and started melting everything. Instantly, screams of agony rang out. Some of the giants had been frozen in ce, and others had been poisoned. As a result, they had no choice but to slow down in their pursuit.

    All of a sudden, a roar of rage echoed out in the distance, and the shockwaves of struggle grew more intense. A dense mist rolled out, almost like someone breathing, and it was heading straight toward Xu Qing and the Captain. When it mmed into them, Xu Qing¡¯s Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown glittered brightly, yet he still coughed up blood like mad, and his bones made cracking sounds. Blood also sprayed out of the Captain¡¯s mouth, and his body became riddled with wounds. Both looked shocked as they elerated as dramatically as possible.

    Thankfully, they weren¡¯t close to the center of Forbidden by the Sword, but rather, just past the periphery. After moving at top speed for about six hours, they finally burst out of the forbidden ground.

    They didn¡¯t dare to slow down for a moment. Moving as fast as their cultivation bases would allow, they continued to flee. Meanwhile, behind them in the depths of Forbidden by the Sword, a roar echoed into the sky as a huge figure slowly rose up. It was so gargantuan that, despite being so far away, they could still see it. Its head seemed to touch the sky, and it emanated an absolutely terrifying aura. It was just barely possible to see the figure¡¯s nose... which was so badly damaged it might as well not have a nose.

    As the giant roared, it took a step in the direction of the Captain and Xu Qing.

    Their faces fell.

    However, that was when numerous streams of light appeared, thrumming with a dao resonance. They created a sealing mark thatnded on the giant, locking it in ce so that it could do nothing but roar.

    Despite how far away Xu Qing and the Captain were, that roaring still caused blood to spray from their mouths, and cracks to spread out on their skin. Charging away from Forbidden by the Sword, they reached the dharmaship. Once on board, Xu Qing panted for breath as he looked at the distant giant¡¯s nose. Then he turned and looked deeply at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat and changed the subject. ¡°Well, shoot. He really did get free. He must have been one of the subordinates of Emperor Sword. What a tough fellow.¡±

    Meanwhile, Yanyan looked on, her eyes wide and her mind nk. She really just couldn¡¯t understand how Xu Qing and the Captain could have caused such a huge ruckus on their short trip into Forbidden by the Sword.

 Chapter 347: Life is So Hard

    <h4>Chapter 347: Life is So Hard</h4>

    The moment they were on the dharmaship, they sent it speeding off into the distance.1

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain were feeling very jumpy as they asionally looked back in the direction of the forbidden ground. They saw the giant struggling, causing the clouds to churn and lightning to crash as he fought back against the web of restriction.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded with lingering fear.0

    Off to the side, the Captain sighed ruefully. ¡°It¡¯s just as I suspected. Forbidden by the Sword is actually Imprisoned by the Sword! Actually, in the past, this forbidden ground was called Spiritsound. Later, after the species of Sea-Sealing County suppressed it, it changed from Spiritsound to Imprisoned by the Sword.¡±0

    Xu Qing listened thoughtfully. He had been curious about that as well, as he remembered Master Seventh saying that the forbidden ground was called Spiritsound, whereas the Captain had called it Forbidden by the Sword.[1]</a>0

    As the dharmaship sped along, Yanyan looked at the bedraggled Xu Qing and Captain. After hesitating a moment, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, didn¡¯t you go to recover your life force? And Eldest Brother, didn¡¯t you go to stand guard over Big Bro Xu Qing? How... did you end up causing such a big stir?¡±0

    Yanyan was also feeling lingering fear. She¡¯d seen that huge giant, and had been so terrified she felt shaken to the core.0

    Upon hearing her words, Xu Qing expressionlessly looked at the Captain, specifically, his nose.0

    The Captain blinked a few times. Not looking embarrassed at all, he tossed a half-eaten fruit to Xu Qing.0

    ¡°I saved that for you, little Junior Brother. It took effort not to eat the whole thing. Ai. That¡¯s just how I am as a person. Whenever I run into nice things, I always think of my little Junior Brother.¡±0

    Xu Qing caught the fruit, whereupon his expression flickered. He looked at it.0

    Within that half-eaten fruit was some sort of unique aura. It didn¡¯t seem to have much effect on the fleshly body. However, after inhaling its aroma, Xu Qing felt his mind stirring. That was all he needed to realize that this fruit had a nourishing effect on the soul.0

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about that thingy,¡± the Captain said, his eyebrows dancing up and down as he recalled his escapade. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it before. I just saw those oafs worshiping it, so I stole it and took a bite. It¡¯s definitely a big help to the soul.¡±0

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t mind that the Captain had already taken some bites out of the fruit. Having grown up in the slums, he had even stolen half-eaten food from dogs. Given that, eating after the Captain wasn¡¯t a big deal at all. He put it in his mouth and swallowed it. He felt something cool and refreshing flowing through him, settling in his sea of consciousness and causing it to tremble. Then it expanded slightly and grew more solid. Those were signs of the soul growing stronger. Xu Qing licked his lips, then looked at the Captain and prepared to ask some questions about that giant in the forbidden ground.0

    ¡°Captain¡ª¡±0

    ¡°Nope, I don¡¯t have any more!¡± the Captain interrupted. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he probably shouldn¡¯t have snapped. Blinking a few times, he cleared his throat and said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, we need to head to the Swordsage Court next. You listen to me. That ce is amazing.¡±0

    Xu Qing eyed the Captain suspiciously. There definitely seemed to be something strange going on here. Eyes narrowing he quietly said, ¡°Eldest Brother, if I hadn¡¯t given you thirty percent of that dao blood, then my breakthrough would have been a lot safer. But you are my Eldest Brother after all....¡±1

    The Captain sighed, then tossed another fruit to Xu Qing.0

    Xu Qing caught it. ¡°Life is so hard sometimes. Eldest Brother, the world is a fickle ce, so the day might eventuallye when you don¡¯t have a little Junior Brother like me around. If I¡¯m not able to travel the world with you, I hope that when you reach the peak of everything, and stand in the dome of heaven, you can take a moment to look down at everything below... for my sake.¡±1

    <em>Sheesh, little Ah Qing really is a fast learner</em>. Sighing again, the Captain took out a branch from his bag of holding and tossed it to Xu Qing.1

    The branch had nine fruits on it.0

    Xu Qing nearly gasped at the sight of the branch. He had previously assumed the Captain probably took six or seven fruits. It was aplete surprise to have him hand over an entire branch.0

    ¡°Eldest Brother, you didn¡¯t take their entire fruit tree, did you?¡±0

    The Captain cleared his throat and vigorously shook his head.0

    Yanyan blinked a few times and said, ¡°Life is so hard....¡±0

    ¡°Fine, fine, FINE!¡± Looking supremely helpless, the Captain took out three fruits and gave them to Yanyan.0

    Yanyan smiled happily, rushed over to Xu Qing, and handed him the fruits. ¡°Here you go, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±0

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he felt more depressed than ever. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t even asked Yanyan for those fruits!0

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care how many total fruits the Captain had. After eating all the ones he had, he felt some dramatic transformations to his sea of consciousness. His soul also seemed much stronger. He suddenly felt stuffed.0

    That meant that his soul had reached its limit. As they continued to travel, he sat down cross-legged and began stabilizing himself after the breakthrough.0

    Before long, half a month had passed. That was when they heard running water beneath the dharmaship. Looking over the edge, they saw the mighty mainstem of the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, where it intersected with the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. The water raged as loudly as the sea as it rushed through a huge gorge that split the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains in two. There were many waterfalls in that spot, making it as beautiful as a painting.0

    It was Yanyan¡¯s first time seeing anything as beautiful as that, and she waspletely entranced.0

    Xu Qing had seen this ce on their previous river patrol, so after ncing at it, he took out the shroud, which pulsed with immortal energy. It was really a fragment of a taboo treasure, so one could only imagine what the full treasure must have been like. The gray cloth was stained with ck blood, making it impossible to even imagine what it looked like as a whole, but the powerful immortal energy was something Xu Qing simply couldn¡¯t ignore.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed. Fragments of taboo treasures had all sorts of uses. But perhaps because of their dpidated nature, it wasn¡¯t possible to determine such usages by means of divine will. One had to experiment. It had been fairly obvious what to do with the ck piece of wood, or the little mirror. But this strip of cloth was moreplicated.0

    After studying it, Xu Qing activated the defenses of his Supreme-Limitless Crown, then once again touched the strip of cloth. Despite the defenses being in ce, the countless needles still stabbed into his skin.0

    <em>It can bypass defenses?</em>Shaken, he thought back to the red-garbed young woman and her evil ghost scythe.0

    After some thought, Xu Qing took out the embryonic dagger the Captain had given him, which emanated a ck glow and was covered with gruish decorations.0

    Previously, Xu Qing had been thinking of waiting until he got back to the sect, then finding an appropriate object to serve as the hilt of the de. But this strip of cloth gave him a new idea.0

    He thought about it some more, then decided to do an experiment. By wrapping the cloth around the end of the de, he created a simple hilt. Having aplished these things, he gripped the dagger properly. He immediately felt pain, but he had good recovery capability and a high pain tolerance. Therefore, his facial expression didn¡¯t change.0

    With his right hand, he held the hilt as tightly as possible.0

    Then he gently pushed the tip of the de against his left hand. As soon as it touched his skin, he felt a stabbing sensation. Apparently, the effect of the shroud passed into the de itself.0

    ¡°As expected!¡± he said. ¡°Yanyan, activate your defenses.¡±0

    She had been observing him the entire time, so when she heard his words, she didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment toply. She took out a jade slip her grandmother had given her and activated it, causing a defensive shield to appear around her.0

    Xu Qing immediately thrust the dagger forward. It passed right through Yanyan¡¯s defensive shield, then stopped at her throat.0

    Yanyan didn¡¯t flinch at all. Obviously shepletely trusted Xu Qing.0

    Xu Qing pulled the dagger back, looking very pleased.0

    The Captain had also been watching, and he eximed, ¡°That¡¯s no ordinary piece of cloth!¡±0

    Xu Qing nodded. He did some more experiments to confirm that the two different items really did have amazing effects whenbined. He had the feeling that the secret of his shadow was going to be revealed eventually, and when that happened, he needed to be ready.0

    He sent out some divine will, and the shadow, without revealing itself physically, sent a stream of itself to form an eye on the dagger. The eye looked normal at first, but if you looked at it closely, you would find that it seemed alive. If you looked at it, it would look back at you.0

    <em>I need to think of a code phrase I can use to indicate I¡¯m going to use the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic.</em>0

    The only problem was thating up with rhymes and mnemonics wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s forte. Therefore, he asked Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to help. It didn¡¯t take long for the well-read patriarch toe up with something.0

    <em>¡°The shadow bans, the ghostmands; the immortal declines, the world is mine.¡±</em>2

    Xu Qing repeated the lines inwardly. They seemed a bit odd, but at the moment he couldn¡¯t think of anything better, so he decided not to use them for now. That left the patriarch feeling a bit disappointed.0

    The four lines were actually a little scheme in disguise.0

    <em>Ohhh, Little Shadow. You want to fight me? Hmmmphh! It wasn¡¯t for nothing that I read novels for years. You just wait and see what I have in store for you!</em>0

    Meanwhile, the dharmaship left the Evesting Immortal Profundity River behind and kept going north. Gradually, the color of the surrounding terrain changed from ck to white. As the temperature dropped and days passed, their surroundings became full of snow and wind. Snowkes fluttered everywhere, piling in heaps atop the dharmaship¡¯s defenses, almost like a white nket. It became difficult to see their surroundings clearly. The snow fell harder, until it was clearly a storm. The wind screamed, and everything was cold and icy.0

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with snow. In his early years, winter had been a deadly challenge. That said, he hadn¡¯t seen many big snowstorms like this.0

    ¡°We¡¯re finally in the northern tundra,¡± the Captain said, his voice rising above the wind. ¡°At this speed, it should only take about two more months until we reach the border of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. That¡¯s where the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir is. And that¡¯s where we¡¯ll find the main headquarters of the Swordsage Court.¡±

 Chapter 348: Supreme Arbiter Life Lamp

    <h4>Chapter 348: Supreme Arbiter Life Lamp</h4>

    Hearing the Captain¡¯s words, Xu Qing looked off toward the distant, hazy horizon.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir is actually the weapon of the South Tor Ghost Emperor. A lot of people in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture know that, but based on the intelligence reports I saw in the coalition, the truth is that many years back, the Ghost Emperor actually threw that weapon there of his own volition before he died.

    ¡°ording to the legends, the Ghost Emperor put the weapon there to suppress something very mysterious.

    ¡°In recent years, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir has been stirring, and some people have theorized that it¡¯s being caused by whatever the pir is suppressing. Others specte that it¡¯s actually because the Ghost Emperor is about to awaken. Given that the Swordsage Court attacked the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, I guess we¡¯ll find out the truth soon enough.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. ¡°Eldest Brother, did Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court choose that spot for their headquarters because of that suppression situation?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the big question. After all, the Ghost Emperor... is just too strong. The Swordsage Court can¡¯t evenpare. Of course, that doesn¡¯t really matter to us personally. Our main concern is how to be a swordsage.¡± The Captain¡¯s face was full of anticipation. ¡°The swordsage¡¯s recruitment event ising up soon, and I already asked around to get the details. Basically, anyone can participate as long as they¡¯re human and under the age of twenty-six. There¡¯s no requirement or limitation in terms of cultivation base.

    ¡°Once we reach the borders of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, we won¡¯t need to disguise ourselves. The Swordsage Court prohibits nonhumans from entering the city. Also, humans are forbidden from killing each other in the area surrounding the pir, although fighting is permitted.

    ¡°I found a file in the coalition that describes the recruitment test process, so I basically know how the whole thing goes. This year, the recruits will be tested in two phases. The first phase involves simply getting a spot as a potential swordsage recruit. Normally speaking, only ten percent of the participants get a spot, so thepetition is very fierce. The second phase is the actual recruitment test. Normally speaking, ten people at the most pass that test, and sometimes it¡¯s as few as three to five. The end result is that each and every swordsage is an extraordinary individual.¡±

    ¡°That few?¡± Xu Qing said in surprise. Back at the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, he had seen arge number of swordsages, and as it turned out, all of them had gone through that testing process.

    The Captain could tell what Xu Qing was thinking. ¡°Most swordsages in a prefecture are actually from other prefectures. Only a handful are locals. That¡¯s one of the rules they have.

    ¡°If we do well in the test and be swordsages, then we¡¯ll probably be assigned to another prefecture. But that will actually happen a lotter. New swordsages are always sent to the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County to learn swordsage secret magics and legacies.

    ¡°Later we¡¯ll be given official assignments based on the current state of affairs. Once you¡¯re a swordsage, you have the right to travel on the human ferries. The seven counties inhabited by humans are so huge that ordinary people could never travel through all of them, unless they¡¯re an almighty cultivator. Otherwise, the only way to get from ce to ce is to take one of those ferries. Disciples from the sects rarely get that chance.¡±

    As Xu Qing listened attentively, he realized that bing a swordsage would be instrumental in being able to travel the outside world.

    Yanyan also listened very carefully. She also wanted to be a swordsage now, as that meant she would be able to be with her Big Bro Xu Qing.

    A month passed.

    The dharmaship shot through the air northward, getting closer and closer to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    During the month that passed, Xu Qing finally gained a clear understanding of the powers Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow had gained from their respective breakthroughs.

    Given what the patriarch was capable of, he was roughly equivalent to a Gold Core cultivator with a single heavenly pce. Because the breakthrough wasn¡¯tplete, Xu Qing got the sense that after he became a full soul automaton, he would be stronger and have more abilities. That said, the patriarch had greater control of lightning. Unlike before, he could tap into lightning to increase his speed to a limit that far surpassed anything from before.

    He had another trump card as well, and that was the red tribtion lightning. That specific lightning contained a will of destruction that was absolutely frightening. When unleashed, it could surpass the strength of a heavenly pce, and would have the potential to kill an enemy with a single strike.

    With the patriarch interpreting, Xu Qing got a good understanding of what the shadow was capable of now. It now had the secret magic to fuse with Xu Qing and boost his body cultivation power. It also had all its old abilities. However, it could now consume someone else¡¯s shadow much more quickly. In addition to that, its shadow eyes now had a new ability.

    It was the ability of extermination.

    The truth was that the shadow had always had that ability, except it was too weak, so Xu Qing had never paid much attention to it. But after its recent breakthrough, the extermination magic became almost ridiculously strong. When the shadow used multiple eyes together, the power of extermination it could unleash was enough that Xu Qing now took it seriously.

    All things considered, Xu Qing¡¯s current battle prowess was as different from his previous battle prowess as heaven was from earth. He also had more tools at his disposal when fighting. With a host of strategies avable to him, it would make it a lot easier to deal withplicated situations and cunning enemies.

    <i>Without my poisons and the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, I can definitely kill anyone under the five-pce level! With the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, I can crush anyone under the six-pce level. Add in poison... and I should be able to fight a six-pce enemy. Although the differences between pces in Gold Core is vast, and I would probably end up seriously injured, I should be able to kill such an opponent! If I use all of my secrets together</i>....

    He hoped that he never had to try that, because if he did, it would mean he was fighting an iparably powerful enemy.

    .

    Eventually, the heavy snowfall ceased, and the winds died down. Things became clear again, and they could see the countless stars glittering in the dome of heaven. Surrounding them were endless fields of ice and towering, snowy mountains. There were tiny ck spots on the mountains, which were scattered boulders sticking up.

    The wind was so frigid that when Xu Qing stuck his hand out into it, it felt like his flesh would freeze in a matter of moments. There were no mortal kingdoms here. The climate was so horrible that they literally couldn¡¯t survive. Only cultivators could handle the cold.

    ¡°This feels amazing!¡± cried the Captain from the front of the dharmaship.

    Xu Qing looked in his direction.

    The Captain stood at the prow, outside of the defensive shield. He faced the wind, his arms outstretched, his face a mask of contentment. Apparently, he didn¡¯t think anything of the frigid cold. After all, his magical techniques created intense coldness, and in an environment like this, that effect would be enhanced.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking abouting here for a long time, little Ah Qing. This ce is much morefortable than the sect.¡±

    The Captainughed heartily. But then, his expression of contentment changed, and his eyes narrowed as he turned to look off into the distance.

    Xu Qing noticed the same thing, and also turned to look.

    Yanyan had not noticed what they had, but seeing their reaction, she also turned. Her eyes were not sharp enough to spot what was on the horizon. However, Xu Qing and the Captain could see that, far off in the distance was a group of dozens of flying ships, whizzing in their general direction.

    The ships looked like elongated willow leaves, with the prow and the stern curved upward. Even more unique, they were made from crystal or spirit stone. When the sunlight struck them, they dazzled with blinding light. The ships came in all sizes, but as they neared, it became obvious that there was one main ship being guarded by all the other ships. The main ship was a different color than the other ships, being deep blue. It had long banners attached to it that snapped in the wind. Embroidered on those banners were the characters Supreme Arbiter.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had seen ships like this before back on the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. They belonged to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. [1]

    Standing atop the various ships were disciples in white robes. There were both men and women, and they all seemed profound and unearthly. What was more, the mist that swirled around the ships made them seem like immortals.

    Standing on the blue ship was a young man who was dressed differently than his fellow disciples. His robe was blue, and the way it flowed down his lean frame made him seem like a lone pine tree. He had skin as fair as jade, sword-like eyebrows, and a generally majestic appearance. His hands were sped behind his back as he stood at the prow, his expression tranquil and indifferent, as though he were so noble that he existed at the ultimate peak of all humanity. There were few things in this world that could surprise him. [2]

    As the convoy approached Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship, it didn¡¯t slow down an iota.

    They represented the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and forgetting the Swordsage Court, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was considered the top human sect in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. When the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society traveled, it was only natural that people from all the other sects would make way for them.

    The ships created airwaves as they passed which hit Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship and caused it to wobble backward.

    Xu Qing and the Captain looked on with eyes narrowed.

    Not one disciple on any of the flying ships turned their heads to look at them. Their cold indifference was palpable as they sped off into the distance.

    Obviously, they were also heading toward the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    ¡°Now <i>that¡¯s</i> impressive!¡± the Captain said, his eyebrows dancing up and down as he watched the ships disappearing over the horizon. ¡°Once we¡¯re back in the sect, I¡¯ll have to check the intelligence reports to see what good stuff the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society has.¡±

    ¡°That one guy was obviously really strong,¡± Xu Qing said, referring to the young man in blue. From the young man¡¯s fluctuations, Xu Qing could tell that he had a lifemp. This was the only person he had ever encountered who had a lifemp, other than Master Shengyun.

    ¡°That¡¯s the dao child of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, Zhang Siyun. For years, he managed to outdo Master Shengyun here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He¡¯s basically considered the top chosen in the current generation of disciples. [3]

    ¡°He surpassed Master Shengyun even in Foundation Establishment, and when he reached Gold Core, he left Master Shengyun in the dust. I heard he has a lifemp and an imperial-ss technique. What¡¯s more, he has nine Supreme Vastness Solitary Sabers, which makes it an imperial-ss seed. ording to the coalition intelligence reports, Zhang Siyun only has four heavenly pces, but has battle prowess equivalent to six pces. In fact, it might even be higher.

    ¡°Say, little Ah Qing, don¡¯t tell me you were eying his lifemp? Should we find an opportunity to ¡®meet¡¯ him?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    The Captain blinked a few times and then chuckled darkly. ¡°He¡¯s not like Master Shengyun. If he dies, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society would be enraged, and I doubt even the old man could smooth things out for us.¡±

    1. We saw the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society ships in ??

    2. The pine tree is significant in Chinese culture and art. You¡¯ve probably seen Chinese paintings <u>like this one</u> that feature the pine tree. I found an article on the Chinese web which describes pine trees. Here¡¯s a rough trantion of a key section:<i> ¡°The green pine symbolizes a tenacious and indomitable spirit. It implies a positive attitude towards life, and ack of fear of hardships. The pine tree, plum tree, and bamboo are known as the ¡®three friends of winter.¡¯ Their tall and straight posture in the severe cold provides encouragement.¡±</i> ??

    3. Zhang Siyun: Zhang is #3 on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Zhang San. Si is a verymon character that has many meanings. In this case, it¡¯s the same character that I¡¯m tranting as ¡°arbiter¡± in the name of the sect. Yun means ¡°fortune, luck, fate.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds like ¡°an old-school government official.¡± ??

 Chapter 349: Netherflight City

    <h4>Chapter 349: Netherflight City</h4>

    The Captain¡¯s words contained a reminder. Any person who didn¡¯t know the Captain would assume he was warning Xu Qing that if he impulsively took that lifemp, it would cause big problems.

    But Xu Qing instantly picked up on the hidden meaning in the Captain¡¯s words. What he was actually saying was that taking the lifemp would be fine as long as Xu Qing didn¡¯t leave behind any evidence that he was responsible. Also, the Captain wanted toe along.

    That said, Xu Qing had no ns to go after the lifemp. It wasn¡¯t because of Zhang Siyun¡¯s amazing background. Rather, he had never interacted with Zhang Siyun, and didn¡¯t have any reason to want him dead.

    Xu Qing shook his head again. ¡°I¡¯m not going to bother him.¡±

    The Captain raised his eyebrows and smiled enigmatically. ¡°Being deceptive with me too? Come on, little Ah Qing. You already have battle prowess that surpasses the five-pce level, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question. He just kept looking north, toward the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and the border of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, do you know where Mount Daybreak is?¡± he asked. [1]

    Looking surprised, the Captain said, ¡°Mount Daybreak? Let me think....¡± A momentter he continued, ¡°I think I saw that ce on a map of Sea-Sealing County I saw once. That¡¯s actually not very far away. Supposedly, in antiquity, there was a sun pce there.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing nodded but didn¡¯t ask any further questions.

    Time passed. The journey went smoothly. asionally they would run into other strange flying ships. They all flew different gs, but they were all heading in the same direction.

    Most of the ships carried young cultivators with extraordinary cultivation bases. The Swordsage Court¡¯s recruitment announcement was a big deal among the human organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Chosen members from sectsrge and small were all heading to join the event. After all, bing a swordsage would elevate one¡¯s status both within the sect and without it, and would bring a better future and more destined opportunities.

    After another month went by, Xu Qing finally spotted an astonishing pir off in the distance. It was fully 3,000 meters thick, pitch-ck, and had countless magical symbols and totems carved onto its surface. This was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and it filled one with an indescribable feeling.

    Closer examination would reveal that the magical symbols all contained a naturally-urring dao resonance. It was the same with the totems. They depicted countless bizarre creatures, each of which exuded terrifying pressure. Anyone who saw the huge pir would feel the urge to drop down and do obeisance.

    It pierced the clouds and rose so high it wasn''t possible to see exactly where it ended. However, through the clouds, it was just barely possible to see the vague image of a pce. It was a pce that suppressed the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and suppressed everything else in the world. However, not even that suppressing force could stop the shocking battle spirit that emanated from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. It was obviously a powerful weapon that had ended the lives of countless living beings in the past, and as a result, was filled with a terrifying rancorous energy. However, the battle spirit ensured that the rancorous energy didn¡¯t seep out. The only thing that could escape were howls of grief that echoed into the minds of those who looked at the pir.

    Xu Qing felt shaken. But what was even more shocking to him was that the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness was stirring. It was almost as if the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir were calling out to it. And at the same time... the pir also seemed to be trembling slightly.

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply. That said, it wasn¡¯tpletely unexpected. Back at the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, the Ghost Emperor¡¯s image within him had reacted simrly. The difference was that the reaction this time was stronger.

    ¡°Whenter generations studied the Ghost Emperor,¡± the Captain said, ¡°they spected that the pir was his most important weapon, and that he always carried it with him into battle. The Ghost Emperor¡¯s origin has always been a mystery. Nobody knows what species he was. We just know that he was born at an inauspicious time, and only achieved his dao after the broken face of the god arrived.

    ¡°We also don¡¯t know who his main enemy was. We just know that, when he was just about to die, he threw his weapon into the tundra, then sat down next to the sea, closed his eyes, and passed away into meditation. Some people say that when he died, he was facing the sea to the south, as if he were waiting for something.¡±

    As the Captain talked, his voice grew softer and softer until it was almost a whisper.

    Xu Qing could sense the Ghost Emperor mountain within his sea of consciousness. Though the face was somewhat blurry, it still resembled his own face.

    Maintaining silence, Xu Qing looked at thends surrounding the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    The ground was brilliant white, covered with countless domed tents. There had to be hundreds of thousands of them, creating a very unique city around the pir. There were no mortals anywhere. These people were cultivators from far and wide. Most were rogue cultivators, and all were humans. There wasn¡¯t a single nonhuman to be seen.

    There was only one requirement to either live or practice cultivation around the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. And that was... you had to be human.

    The unique thing about the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was that after seeking enlightenment from its battle spirit for a certain amount of time, it would cause sealing marks to appear in one¡¯s mind which would be very beneficial in cultivation.

    What was more, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir had legacies. Humans who climbed the pir, and if they had the right destined opportunities, could gain enlightenment of these legacies. That was why a lot of rogue human cultivators would gather here. As a result, the ce bustled with noise and excitement.

    Of course, there were also sects who flew their g there, and had entire tented garrisons set up. Sects from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were the mostmon. The Eight Sect Coalition was no exception.

    From a distance, Netherflight City looked like a forest filled with moring crowds. Gathered at the base of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was a group of several thousand, all of them looking up and chatting amongst themselves.

    Upon noticing that, Xu Qing looked closer and realized that there were people on the surface of the pir. There were over a hundred, and they had all ascended to different heights. Some were climbing. Others were meditating on portions of the magical symbols or totems that stuck out of the surface of the pir. Many were looking up to a figure who was higher up on the pir than anyone else. It was a young man wearing the daoist robe of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He wasn¡¯t the dao child of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He was another chosen who ranked lower than the dao child. Xu Qing recognized him from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society convoy they¡¯d seen a month before.

    He was currently at about 1,500 meters, which seemed his limit. In fact, after some struggle, he lost his grip and fell. As he descended, a blue light emerged from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and shot toward him. The ted chosen reached out, whereupon the blue light turned into a misty blue energy that he grabbed.

    Xu Qing had no idea what it was, but he could hear the crowd cheering below.

    ¡°So, he was bestowed with secondary springstart energy. That can provide a big boost to life force!¡±

    ¡°The higher you get, the better chance you have at good rewards!¡±

    ¡°That might not be a technique legacy, but secondary springstart energy is still pretty good.¡±

    Hearing the discussion, Xu Qing looked curiously at the misty blue energy in the hand of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society disciple.

    ¡°That¡¯s how the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir works,¡± the Captain said, his eyes shining with anticipation. ¡°The higher you climb, the better chance you have at getting something good.

    ¡°Based on the intelligence reports I¡¯ve read, the good fortune bestowed by the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pires in the form of legacies, but also, it gives out special types of energy. For example, the secondary springstart energy rtes to life force. The tenstem relighting energy rtes to alchemy. The septenary metallic energy is good for equipment forging. [3]

    ¡°And then there¡¯s the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir itself. By seeking enlightenment of its battle spirit, you can get very special and helpful sealing marks on your sea of consciousness that give you extraordinary killing power. That option isn¡¯t very difficult. I mean, just looking at the pir, I can sense enlightenment. Doing so will get you credit during the swordsage recruitment test.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, having already decided he would seek enlightenment.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing look so serious, the Captain felt very pleased. The truth was that gaining enlightenment of that sealing mark was very difficult. However, in order to emphasize his superiority as the Eldest Brother, he had made it sound very simple. Therefore, when Xu Qing took a long time, it would make him, Chen Erniu, seem that much more formidable.

    It was in this manner that Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan got closer and closer to Netherflight City. Eventually, Xu Qing put his dharmaship away. Dropping down into the tents, they moved in the direction of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s garrison. The city was crowded now, and it was expensive to rent amodations, so to save money, it was only natural they would head to their own sect¡¯s area.

    They soon arrived. The Eight Sect Coalition garrison was set up not very far from the pir itself, and had over a hundred tents set up. Once inside, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan dropped their disguises. When their true faces were revealed, the other coalition disciples immediately noticed them.

    The Captain and Yanyan didn¡¯t attract much attention, but Xu Qing did. Given that he had dao child remuneration, and was very well-known in the coalition, it caused numerous coalition disciples to immediately sp hands and bow in his direction. There were a bit over a hundred disciples present, most of them in Foundation Establishment, with only a few in Gold Core. Few of them qualified to be swordsages, as they didn¡¯t meet the age requirement. Rather, they had been sent here by the sect for training purposes.

    There weren¡¯t many from Seven Blood Eyes. The Mute was there, and when he saw Xu Qing and the Captain, he bowed reverentially. Then he hurried over to Xu Qing¡¯s side and started looking around vigntly.

    .

    After settling in, Xu Qing learned from the Seven Blood Eyes disciples that this group had been led here by Sir Bloodsmelter and Yanyan¡¯s grandmother. Also present were the sect leaders of the House of Grue Hunters and the Heavenmirror Treasure Sect.

    Master Seventh hadn¡¯te.

    However, upon arriving, the patriarch and the other top cultivators had apparently gone directly to the Swordsage Court to discuss some unknown matter. Because of that, Xu Qing decided he wouldn¡¯t immediately go offer formal greetings.

    Yanyan felt a bit guilty, as she had secretly left Seven Blood Eyes without telling anyone. When she heard her grandmother was present, she was about to say something to Xu Qing when her transmission jade slip vibrated. Looking at it, she sighed.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, my grandma knows I¡¯m here. I have to go see her and smooth things over. Otherwise, she¡¯ll never let me out of her sight again.¡±

    Meanwhile, the Captain was breathing a sigh of relief that Arch-Immortal Plumdark hadn¡¯te. ¡°I wonder why the patriarch is here. Probably because of me. He always seems very serious, but the truth is that he really likes me. He probably wants to encourage me to go back to the sect. Sadly, you¡¯re not on the same level as me, little Ah Qing. You¡¯re just not well-spoken! Remember, when we get back, as long as you pay me what you owe, I can give you a few tips on how to suck up to the old-timers.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him, blinking. ¡°You¡¯re right, Eldest Brother. In fact, I suggest you go right now to offer greetings to the patriarch. He might even have some advice about the recruitment test. You might learn some things that will help both of us.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good point!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up, and he took a few steps before stopping and looking suspiciously at Xu Qing. ¡°Hold on, little Ah Qing. You don¡¯t usually say things like that. Something¡¯s off here....¡±

    Xu Qing simply looked curiously at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back suspiciously. However, before he could say anything, a cold, booming snort rang out from above, causing everything to tremble.

    ¡°The Swordsage Court is off-limits to all nonhumans! Any nonhuman who encroaches will be ughtered!¡±

    1. Mount Daybreak was mentioned in ??

    2. There are many, many words that can be tranted ¡®pce¡¯ in Chinese. And there are many types of pces. In this case, it¡¯s specifically referring to a location where an emperor (and/or empress) would sleep during the night. This same type of pce is mentioned in ??

    3. All of the types of energy here have names rting to the <u>ten Heavenly Stems</u>. ??

 Chapter 350: A Message From Plumdark

    Chapter 350: A Message From Plumdark

    As the voice echoed through the city, the countless humans therein looked up into the dome of heaven.

    A figure was descending from the cloudy apex of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. He was middle-aged and looked very intimidating in his government uniform. His head was adorned with a sky-blue cap iid with silver, and his hands were covered in violet scale gloves. On his back was a greatsword wrapped in ck cloth, with only the hilt visible.

    Shockingly, three massive abyssal vortexes appeared along with him. The abyssal vortexes looked like natural phenomena, and caused everything around them to shake. The feeling they imparted made it seem like each one contained a secret trove within it. Anguished howls, enraged roars, and terrifying fluctuations emerged from the three secret troves, almost as if enormous, fiendish entities were imprisoned within them.

    Wild colors shed everywhere, and the wind swept back and forth as he clenched his right hand into a fist andunched a strike toward a distant spot in the sky. His action caused the three secret troves behind him to erupt with dazzling light. Countless flying swords appeared, filling the space between heaven and earth with something like a flood.

    Every individual sword radiated hair-raising power, as if it could split apart the dome of heaven and pulverize space itself. And all of them were shooting off into the distance.

    At the same time, a howl echoed through the sky as a blurry figure appeared. Previously, that figure had been in concealment, but it could no longer hide its fluctuations, and was forced to reveal itself.

    It was an extremely ugly beast. Precisely speaking, it was an enormous maggot with ovepping ps of skin covering it. It was 3,000 meters long, was covered with viscous fluid, and it reeked. Sticking out from its head were two feelers. Each feeler had a head on the end, one male, one female. They had green skin, red eyes, and vicious facial expressions. Shockingly, the maggot also had a head on its tail. It was an old man who was currently belching out ck mist. As the mist billowed out, the enormous maggot shot backward at high speed.

    However, it was too slow. Countless flying swords shot down, stabbing into its repulsive body. None of its defenses were useful in any way. In the shortest of moments, the swords shed it to pieces in grisly fashion.

    Only the three heads managed to survive, and they started fleeing in the ck mist. Of course, the idea that they would escape was pure fantasy. After the beast¡¯s massive body copsed, the man in the government uniform took a step forward. Moving with incredible speed, he lifted his right hand, causing countless swords to converge there and take the shape of a massive green sword.

    He swept the sword down, and the female head exploded. His second sword attack destroyed the male head. For his third attack, he threw the sword, causing a green flood dragon to surge out and devour the old man¡¯s head in a single bite.

    After those things were aplished, heaven and earth went still. All the cultivators below were deeply shaken.

    Voice cool, the middle-aged man said, ¡°Recently, the Swordsage Court operated on orders to crush the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain and take August Spirit Nethersprite captive. Because of that, these demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters are on the move. That¡¯s what this was about. Let me reiterate the rules of the Swordsage Court. This area is off-limits to nonhumans. Only humans can set foot here!¡±

    The man performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. In response, the pir vibrated, and the battle spirit within it erupted out. It contained deadly extermination, as well as a baleful, tyrannical energy that spread out in all directions.

    Shockwaves filled an area of 5,000 kilometers,pletely unstoppable. The battle spirit seemed conscious as it swept through all the cultivators present. Apparently, it was screening them. asionally, popping sounds rang out here and there as several hundred individuals in the city exploded. Seven or eight flew up into the air, only to scream in agony as they died.

    A momentter, everything went back to normal.

    With that done, the middle-aged man vanished back up into the clouds.

    After a long moment of silence, gasps and cries of astonishment could be heard. Xu Qing took a deep breath, as did the Captain. They had also been scanned by that battle spirit. Even though both were human, and knew that there wouldn¡¯t be any problems, the feeling they had experienced left them both feeling jumpy. It also went to show how domineering the Swordsage Court was.

    Obviously, the man in the government uniform had been in the Spirit Trove level, not Void Returning. However, once he showed his face, all of the patriarchs in the various sects werepletely cowed, not by his cultivation base, but by his identity.

    He represented the true orthodoxy of humanity, one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, the Swordsage Court!

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the city was back to normal. That said, the eyes of all the cultivators shone brightly, and many of them couldn¡¯t help but look toward the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, where Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court was headquartered.

    The actions taken by the Swordsage Court just now ensured that the vast majority of disciples present were very enlivened. The Captain was included. In fact, he was already dreaming about what it would be like for him to be a swordsage.

    Though Xu Qing also wanted to be a swordsage, what was more impressive to him was what happened with the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. When the pir vibrated earlier, he had clearly sensed a simr vibration in the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness. What was more, a few dozen magical symbols had appeared on the mountain. Those symbols contained a very powerful battle spirit that was very thought-provoking to him.

    Are they the battle spirit symbols the Captain was talking about? I guess they really are easy to get.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t absolutely sure of that assessment.

    Regardless, he could tell that it was possible to extract the symbols. He waved his hand and exercised a thought, whereupon one of the symbols disappeared from his sea of consciousness and reappeared on his palm. It glittered with bright light and a tremendous battle spirit. Xu Qing could already sense that the symbol could be used as a magical technique to unleash deadly killing power.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, is this the battle spi¡ª¡±

    ¡°Battle spirit symbol?¡± the Captain said, looking stunned. However, he quickly regained hisposure. Sounding rxed, he continued, ¡°That thingy... isn¡¯t anything to take lightly. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now you have a shot at some bonus points! So... when did you gain enlightenment?¡±

    ¡°When the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir vibrated. They just appeared in my sea of consciousness.¡± Something strange seemed to be going on with the Captain, though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure of the details.

    Meanwhile, the Captain cleared his throat and, ignoring the disappointment he felt in his heart,ughed heartily. ¡°You have good powers of understanding, little Ah Qing. That said, you¡¯re not quite on my level. You see, I also gained enlightenment just now. So remember not to get cocky. One symbol doesn¡¯t really count for much. After all, I got five, but I didn¡¯t say anything. And that¡¯s because you have to get nine to get any bonus points.¡±

    Xu Qing sensed the dozens of battle spirit symbols in his sea of consciousness, but didn¡¯t say anything. He was getting the sense that gaining enlightenment of those symbols wasn¡¯t as easy as the Captain made it out to be.

    ¡°Alright, you keep working on that enlightenment! I¡¯m going to go see the patriarch.¡± With that, the Captain prepared to leave and seek enlightenment of the symbols somewhere else. After seeing how easily Xu Qing seeded, he was now feeling a lot of pressure. That was especially true considering how he¡¯d previously made a big deal about how easy it was. If he couldn¡¯t seed soon, it would be a case of picking up a rock only to drop it on one¡¯s own foot.

    Seeing the Captain leaving, Xu Qing decided to do some more work with the symbols, and turned to head to his amodations.

    However, the two of them had only taken a few steps when the Captain suddenly stopped in ce. It was only at this point that he realized that, moments ago, Xu Qing had used the word ¡®they.¡¯

    Eyes widening, he turned in ce. ¡°Hold on, Xu Qing. Did you just say ¡®they¡¯?¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    ¡°How.... how many did you gain enlightenment of?¡± the Captain asked carefully.

    Xu Qing looked at him, then waved his hand, causing thirty symbols to fly out and swirl around his hand, pulsing with an intense battle spirit.

    The Captain slumped visibly. ¡°You got all of those just now?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. You were right, Captain. It wasn¡¯t hard at all.¡± Xu Qing blinked a few times.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t sure what to say. He just knew he suddenly felt very tired.

    Turning, he hurried away and didn¡¯t look back. Inside he was fuming, and had already decided that he was going to sit in front of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and work nonstop until he had forty symbols.

    No, forty isn¡¯t enough. I¡¯ll get sixty!

    Xu Qing grinned inwardly, then turned and went into his residence. Once inside, he set up his various defenses, then sat down cross-legged to study the symbols. He knew why all of those symbols had appeared at the same time. It was obviously rted to the Ghost Emperor mountain. After all, both things had the same origin.

    Xu Qing lost himself in study. Three days passed in a sh.

    On the third day, Huang Yikun showed up. Clearly he hadn¡¯te of his own ord. All he did was toss a jade slip to Xu Qing and say, ¡°The matriarch said to give this to you.¡± Then he left. [1]

    When Huang Yikun said ¡®matriarch,¡¯ he was referring to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then picked up the jade slip and sent some divine will into it. Instantly, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯snguid, enticing voice filled his mind.

    ¡°Do you miss me, child?¡±

    Xu Qing sat there in silence.

    ¡°I really liked the gifts you sent me before you left.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up in the direction of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, to where he assumed the Captain was.

    ¡°I also read your letter. Oh, you! I would never have guessed that a quiet person like you would write such audacious things.... You said you wanted to focus on getting stronger, and wanted to avoid gossip. And since it¡¯s not easy for us to meet in public very often, you decidedmunicating by letter would be best. Since you asked for a reply, I sent it to you with Huang Yikun.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide.

    ¡°I saw your request about Chen Erniu. Considering all the things you promised, I can just forget about the situation with him. For the time being, I won¡¯t bother him. But don¡¯t you forget about all those promises you made!¡±

    Xu Qing was having trouble controlling his breathing.

    ¡°I heard you were going to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Can you make sure things go smoothly for the Dark Serenity Sect disciples there? Then hurry back. By the way, regarding the way you wanted me to address you. Oh, child, you really are something else. For now, that can¡¯t happen. I need to see how you behave going forward.¡±

    Veins bulged on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead. For quite a while, he sat in ce trying to calm down. Then he took out his bamboo slip, found the Captain¡¯s name, and forcefully scratched out the question mark behind it.

    1. Huang Yikun most recently appeared in chapters 278-279. ?

 Chapter 351: Like the Return of an Old Friend

    Chapter 351: Like the Return of an Old Friend

    The Captain was currently threading his way through the crowd near the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, trying to find a good spot to seek enlightenment. During the past three days, his efforts had all met with failure, and he was convinced it was because he had been in a bad spot. He needed to get closer. Before he could find the right spot, he suddenly got a very bad premonition.

    I have really good intuition. Something is off....

    The Captain then started thinking back to all the things he¡¯d done recently.

    Did the eye I left at the Ghost Emperor mountain get discovered? Were my informants in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society discovered? Did the clone I left behind at the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain get found out? Did my agent in the Church of Departure turn on me? Could me Phoenix have found out that I nned to raid his nest? Did my archenemy in Forbidden by the Zombie finally wake up?

    After a lot of thought, something urred to him.

    Did Arch-Immortal Plumdark respond?

    All of a sudden, the Captain felt a headacheing on. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what the problem was, but the lingering fear within him kept getting stronger. Finally, he cautiously left the crowd. Even after changing his aura and disguising his physical appearance, though, he still felt uneasy. Therefore, he made his way further from the pir and found a rather remote tent to rent. Inside, he cautiously continued to seek enlightenment. Yet he still felt strange, so he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and used a secret magic to make his disguise even better.

    Eventually, Xu Qing appeared. He searched near the pir, but found no traces of the Captain. His shadow could aid to an extent, but there was a lot of area to cover. Unless Xu Qing actually went through the entire city, he would have a hard time seeding.

    After finding nothing, Xu Qing left.

    A few days passed in which nothing happened. Seeing that, the Captain calmed down a bit. Although he kept his disguise up, he began to focus more deeply on seeking enlightenment.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t give up, though. He also continued to seek enlightenment, causing more of the battle spirit symbols to appear in his sea of consciousness. But he also spent time exploring all of the countless tents that made up the city. Because there were so many cultivators here, there were all sorts of markets that sold just about everything. Having seen many such markets during his time searching for the Captain, Xu Qing had an opportunity to buy some poisonous nts.

    Every time he went out, he made sure to do so in disguise. In the days that had passed, he had received dueling challenges sent by chosen disciples from all over Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. News of his presence here had spread already. As the only person in the Eight Sect Coalition with dao child remuneration, his name was well known in a lot of sects. After all, he had two lifemps, an imperial-ss technique, and he had killed Master Shengyun. Because of that, he was considered a force to be reckoned with among this generation of disciples.

    The Swordsage Court¡¯s recruiting event was about to begin, and many people thought that they could attract attention by crushing chosen disciples from the big sects. Because of that, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one to receive dueling challenges. All of the coalition chosen were dealing with the same thing, as were disciples from the other major sects.

    There was only one person who didn¡¯t receive a single challenge, and that was the dao child Zhang Siyun from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He was considered the top disciple of the generation in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Everyone was saying that he already had six-pce battle prowess. For him to have aplished that at such a young age ensured that everyone feared him and no one dared to fight him. That said, he wasn¡¯t even in the city. He had gone out to the tundra, reportedly to take advantage of the harsh environment to train.

    Given that most people thought Xu Qing had three- or four-pce battle prowess, he was the obvious second choice to challenge. Even people from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society issued challenges. However, Xu Qing had no interest in epting any such pointless brawls.

    At the moment, he was in a ratherrge market, browsing the stalls in the hopes of finding some special poisonous nts. There were a lot of people present, including local rogue cultivators as well as disciples from all sorts of sects. It was a bustling ce.

    At a certain point, Xu Qing stopped walking and looked at one particr stall. It specialized in materials for pill concocting and equipment forging, and they had some unusual medicinal nts.

    That included one stalk of fivecord goldbug fungus. In Xu Qing¡¯s medicinal codex, that nt was described as being perfect for mixing poisons with other medicines. What was more, it had a unique property in that, after being harvested, it required golden energy to survive. [1]

    As he approached the vendor stall, he heard someone mention his name in conversation.

    ¡°Did you hear? Li Ziliang from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society epted nine challenges. And he came out victorious in all nine! With a four-pce cultivation base, he¡¯s the most prominent person in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society other than their dao child.¡± [2]

    ¡°He¡¯s an extraordinary person. Not too long ago, he climbed to the 1,500-meter mark on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, but apparently that¡¯s not his limit.¡±

    ¡°He was just born at the wrong time. If Zhang Siyun wasn¡¯t around, Li Ziliang would definitely be the current dao child of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.¡±

    ¡°I heard that he already sent three dueling challenges to the quasi-dao child Xu Qing from the Eight Sect Coalition. That Xu Qing is obviously afraid of him. Most people from backwater ces are like that. They don¡¯t dare show their face and actually fight. People from just about every sect areughing about it.¡±

    Xu Qing expressionlessly looked over his shoulder to see three disciples from one of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s subsidiary sects. The strongest among them was in the Foundation Establishment level.

    Xu Qing had seen a lot of disciples like this. They only had middling cultivation bases, but they liked to go aroundmentating about the top experts. It was only by sarcastically critiquing superiors that they could feel a sense of self.

    Looking at all three of their faces, Xu Qing then turned back to the vendor stall and the fivecord goldbug fungus.

    The proprietor was a bald cultivator with one missing eye. His remaining eye pulsed with a cold light as he sized up Xu Qing. After wrapping up the medicinal nt, he said, ¡°That¡¯ll be 2,000 spirit stones.¡±

    Xu Qing inspected the bug fungus, then nodded and handed over the spirit stones. ¡°Got any more?¡±

    ¡°Sure!¡± the proprietor replied, his single eye lighting up. With that, he produced a y bottle that he carefully opened. Inside were three additional goldbug fungi that he gave to Xu Qing.

    However, what attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention even more than the medicinal nts was the y bottle. Mostmonly, cultivators would use bottles made from jade, metal, or sometimes even wood. y bottles weren¡¯t exactlymon. Given that fivecord goldbug fungus required golden energy to stay fresh, Xu Qing was somewhat surprised. After studying the bottles, he noticed an incisive auraing off of it.

    ¡°That has golden energy in it?¡± he asked, pointing at the bottle.

    The bald cultivator grinned. ¡°What¡¯s inside this bottle, Fellow Daoist, is no ordinary golden energy. It¡¯s septenary goldmetal energy from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. I just happened to strike it lucky when I was climbing the pir.

    ¡°You can only store that kind of energy in a bottle like this. Normally speaking, it¡¯s considered a disposable material used in equipment forging. However, I don¡¯t have any equipment I need forged at the moment, so for the time being I was using it to keep the bug fungus fresh. Interested in buying it? It¡¯s expensive. 500,000 spirit stones!¡±

    The bald cultivator licked his lips. He was convinced that Xu Qing was a cultivator from a big sect. After all, he had purchased the bug fungus for a hefty sum, so he obviously had money.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment. The Captain had exined a bit about the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir¡¯s energies to him, and he remembered one called the septenary goldmetal energy. It made him think of his iron skewer. After mulling the matter over, he took out a jade slip and pretended to send and receive some voice messages.

    Then he said, ¡°After asking around, I confirmed that this kind of energy isn¡¯t exactly rare. I can give 50,000. Take it or leave it.¡±

    The bald cultivator really wanted to get his hands on some spirit stones to buy the medicinal pills he needed to break through from the three-me Foundation Establishment level into Gold Core. Having assumed that Xu Qing had a lot of money, he¡¯d named a very high price.

    That said, the price Xu Qing came back with seemedughable. Before he could say anything in response, though, Xu Qing continued speaking.

    ¡°I also have a pce-forming pill.¡± As the words left his mouth, he took out a medicinal pill bottle, which contained one of the pills he¡¯d purchased before attempting his Gold Core breakthrough. He ended up never needing that pill, which was worth about 300,000 spirit stones. It would be very helpful to someone trying to reach the Gold Core level and form heavenly pces, and was the type of thing you could normally only get in a big sect. To rogue cultivators, it was virtually priceless.

    The bald cultivator¡¯s expression turned serious. Opening the bottle, he inhaled, and then his eyes lit up. Nodding enthusiastically, he said, ¡°Deal!¡±

    After handing the y bottle to Xu Qing, he closed his shop.

    Xu Qing put the bottle away and turned to head back to the garrison and see if the energy would be useful for his iron skewer. Along the way, he noticed a hubbubing from the direction of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    Looking over he saw that the crowds were all focused on someone who had climbed past the 1,500-meter spot on the pir.

    It was the very same chosen from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society who he had previously seen climbing in that position. And it was the same person the other cultivators had been talking about earlier, Li Ziliang, who had challenged Xu Qing several times, only to be ignored. He had passed his previous limit, and was now at the 1,800-meter mark. That, of course, caused the cultivators below to buzz with conversation.

    As for Huang Yikun and the chosen from Seven Blood Eyes, none of them had passed 600 meters. Whether it was disciples from the Eight Sect Coalition or other sects, Li Ziliang had surpassed them all, and earned himself a lot of recognition in the process.

    Xu Qing looked away without batting an eyelid. He couldn¡¯t care less what was happening with Li Ziliang. Leaving the market, he was nearing the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s garrison when he noticed a daoist altar.

    There were many such altars around the Supreme Beginning Netherflight City. They were locations set up by the Swordsage Court where swordsages would asionally give lectures on various subjects. The lectures weren¡¯t technically free, as it was customary to give a spirit stone tip to the lecturer. At the moment, there were a few dozen rogue cultivators gathered around the altar, listening to a lecture, not about cultivation, but rather, about the dao of nts and vegetation.

    Xu Qing could hear an old, grizzled voice.

    ¡°Blue lotus flower syrup, also known as blue lotus syrup, is derived from the flowering buds of water lilies. It is an aromatic liquid created by a unique heating technique. It can stabilize the lungs, help control bloody coughing from fire-rted techniques....

    ¡°Golden twistgrass, also known as....¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. The descriptions of the two nts were very familiar to him. In fact, they were the same as the description in his own ssic of nts and Vegetation. Word for word. [3]

    Shaken, he turned.

    The sight that met his eyes caused a tremor to pass through him, and his eyes to light up.

    He was looking at an emaciated old man in a gray robe. His face was very wrinkled, but his eyes glittered. There was something profoundly wise in his gaze, and his voice was gentle and kind. He looked very simr to Grandmaster Bai, although he was obviously a different person.

    The light in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes faded a bit. Standing there, he listened to the lecture for a short time, then left.

    1. The ¡®fivecord goldbug fungus¡¯ is based on a real-life fungus called cordyceps, which is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Among other things, this fungus is known for being able to parasitically grow on insects and bugs. I created a gallery showing the fungus both harvested and while growing parasitically. Be warned, it¡¯s nightmare fuel! Click here to see it</a>. Also, remember that the version in this story is a fantasy version. ?

    2. Li Ziliang: Li is listed #2 on the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡°plum.¡± The Zi character is a verymon character that has no real meaning in the name. Liang is the name of a few different important states and dynasties in ancient Chinese history. It also means ¡°bridge, roof beam, handle.¡± Madam Deathde says it sounds like a name a mom would give a kid who she hopes will be an extraordinary person when he grows up. Also, this name is very close to the name of Xu Qing¡¯s old sectpanion Li Zimei, who ended up joining the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and whose parting letter to Xu Qing was in chapter 287. The first two characters are the same. The third is different. When I was reading this for the first time, I read Li Ziliang as Li Zimei, which led to some confusion on my part. They are two different names. ?

    3. Blue lotus flower syrup was originally described in chapter 23. Golden twistgrass was mentioned in chapter 21 and 207. ?

 Chapter 352: Things Turn Unusual

    <h4>Chapter 352: Things Turn Unusual</h4>

    Darkness arrived earlier in the north than in the south. Evening came and went quickly, giving way to night. The reason was that the snow didn¡¯t like the sun, and the dome of heaven didn¡¯t like dusk. As a result, the sky turned pitch ck very quickly. And the night was long.

    Xu Qing stood outside his tent in the garrison, looking into the night in the direction of South Phoenix. The continent was very, very far away.

    <i>I wonder how Chen Feiyuan is doing. And Tingyu. With them around, Teacher¡¯s grave will be well-attended to</i>. [1]

    Xu Qing stepped into his tent. Sitting down cross-legged, he sighed and closed his eyes. After calming his heart, he took out the y bottle.

    <i>I hope this works</i>. cing the bottle to the side, he took out the ck iron skewer that had been with him for so long. He was intimately familiar with every angle and line of the skewer.

    Back in the slums, one of his schr teachers had said, <i>¡°The older people get, the more sentimental they are.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯tpletely agree with that. After all, he wasn¡¯t very old, yet he was very sentimental. Whether it was people or things, as long as they lent him a helping hand, he would never forget them. Feeling a bit emotional, he put the iron skewer into the y bottle. Then he cast his senses into the bottle as well, to keep tabs on what was happening.

    Almost immediately, he sensed a stream of golden energy stirring in the bottle. It was like a mist that swirled around the iron skewer, some of it entering the skewer, but most of it flowing on its surface, making it stronger. It was a slow process. The night had passed, and the haze of dawn filled the sky by the time the energy disappeared. All of it had entered into the skewer.

    Xu Qing took the skewer out of the bottle and held it in his hand to examine it. He looked closely at every square inch of it, and afterward, he smiled. Therge cracks which had appeared on the skewer were mostly gone. Of even greater significance was that the overall quality of the skewer was better than before. It was almost like it had been reforged.

    Of course, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had more authority on the subject than anyone, so after Xu Qing summoned him, he took a long moment to inspect it.

    .

    ¡°Milord,¡± he said confidently, ¡°I can tell the quality of the skewer has changed. It¡¯s simr to when a cultivator achieves a breakthrough. The same type of thing has happened to the skewer. Going forward, it should transform from being a prized treasure into a magical device. Furthermore, thanks to the way I augmented it, once it¡¯s a magical device, then it will be as powerful as any spirit weapon! In fact, you might as well just say that it already is a spirit weapon! All it needs is some time to mature.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded thoughtfully.

    The septenary goldmetal energy had been expensive, but getting more would obviously be the fastest way toplete the process. That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure that he¡¯d even be able to find enough of that specific type of energy to buy.

    <i>I might as well take a look around. Also, I can take a shot at climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Maybe I can get some of that septenary goldmetal energy on my own.</i>

    Having made that decision, he put the skewer away and closed his eyes to meditate. When the sky was bright, he opened his eyes and went out into the city to scour the markets for septenary goldmetal energy.

    It was just as he had expected. The unique energies from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir did exist, just not in great quantity. After shopping for an entire day, he only managed to buy three streams of energy. Based on his calctions, if he wanted to elevate the ck iron skewer to a higher level, he would need at least thirty streams.

    With such matters on his mind, he headed back to the garrison. Along the way, he went to the same daoist altar as before. Just like the previous day, that old man was there lecturing about the dao of nts and vegetation.

    ¡°Nightcorpse morning glory, also known as poisonous mountain rootmottle, refers to the stalk and root of feverfew veined turtledove chrysanthemums. It is a woody vine-type nt found in ravines of shady yin-type mountains, usually in chilly streams or jungle thickets...¡± [2]

    His voice sounded ancient and wise. However, there were fewer rogue cultivators gathered by the altar todaypared to yesterday. There were only a dozen or so this time. Xu Qing listened to the lecture for a while, then left. This time, he left a spirit stone behind.

    Time passed. Half a month.

    During that time, more and more human disciples from various sects arrived at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. As a result, the city grew more crowded and energetic. More and more cultivators were climbing the pir on a daily basis.

    However, the person who continued to remain in first ce was Li Ziliang from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He would soon surpass 2,400 meters. Of course, the higher one climbed, the more difficult it became to get higher.

    He had issued three more dueling challenges to the coalition, all of them addressed to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing ignored them. Other than shopping for septenary goldmetal energy, he spent most of his time at that daoist altar before returning to the garrison. That was his routine for the time being.

    Eventually, the old man started giving lectures about pill concocting, whereupon Xu Qing took to sitting down for entire lectures. Grandmaster Bai had focused on nts and vegetation, and didn¡¯t instruct Xu Qing much in pill concocting. For the most part, Xu Qing was self-taught in that regard, by means of trial and error. Though he had a measure of sess, generally speaking, he felt that pill concocting was a weak spot for him. He listened carefully to the lectures. Nowadays, he was fairly clear-headed, but asionally he found himself daydreaming about past times in the scavenger basecamp.

    He felt more than ever that the unprepossessing old man had a high level of skill in the dao of alchemy. After all, it usually took only a single statement of his to suddenly give Xu Qing immense new insights.

    ¡°Using the principles of yin-yang prity in alchemy is only the start. The dao of alchemy is deep and profound; to date, humans have amassed 6,000 pill concocting techniques.

    ¡°I don¡¯t hold any of those techniques on high. The reason is that they¡¯re only external manifestations of alchemy. In other words, all they can do is teach you skill in the principles of yin-yang prity. Real skill is not about concocting and refining, but rather, about using nts and vegetation.

    ¡°All of you remember this: there are myriads upon myriads of paths. But there is only one dao. Therefore, skill in the dao of alchemyes down to your foundation. With that foundation, you can experiment to find what methods are most suitable to you. In the final analysis, it¡¯s best to take the simplest methods and mix them into something effective.

    ¡°In my opinion ¡®concocting¡¯ and ¡®refining¡¯ are simply ways of bringing out the best medicinal aspects andbinations of nts and vegetation. All of the concocting methods are matters of skill when ites to pill concocting. But what I hope is that cultivators who study my alchemy techniques can understand what¡¯s under the surface. That is the true way to achievesting sess.¡±

    Xu Qing listened in a daze, and for a brief moment, that old man actually became Grandmaster Bai in his eyes. He sat straight and listened carefully. As he did, he came to a much deeper understanding of the dao of alchemy as well as nts and vegetation. There was no question that his skill in those things was improving as a result.

    What was more, he now realized he had a system upon which to build. His foundation had been forged by Grandmaster Bai, and it was incredibly sound. After that, he waspletely self-taught. Through the chaos of trial and error, he had built on his foundation, focusing primarily on the dao of poison. Because of that, his overall system of the dao of alchemy had not copsed.

    Listening to this old man¡¯s lectures had helped him to <i>get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers</i>. Now, he had a clear direction to pursue.

    It was simr to what Master Seventh had told him upon taking him to seek enlightenment from the Ghost Emperor mountain. Now, Xu Qing had another ¡®god¡¯ in his heart, shining light on the dao of alchemy.

    Xu Qing felt happy. More happy than he had been in a long time. He felt like he was filling up with rich and meaningful knowledge. However, unexpected events can easily catch someone off guard, and that was what happened with Xu Qing¡¯s studies.

    There was something he needed to handle.

    It boiled down to certain conflicts that weren¡¯t incredibly serious, but still had to be addressed. There was friction between disciples from the Eight Sect Coalition, specifically the Dark Serenity Sect and Seven Blood Eyes, and disciples from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. And it rted to Xu Qing. Rumors had been spreading like wildfire regarding how Xu Qing was ignoring Li Ziliang¡¯s challenges. And of course, those rumors weren¡¯t sitting well with the coalition disciples. As a result, it was only natural that friction resulted.

    At a certain point, some disciples from the Dark Serenity Sect and Seven Blood Eyes actually got in a tussle with some disciples from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. Li Ziliang ended up stepping in to stop the fight, and unceremoniously arrested the coalition disciples, roughing them up in the process.

    Then he sent a message to the coalition saying that before he would release the arrested disciples, Xu Qing had toe and apologize to him in person.

    This was obviously an attempt to force Xu Qing out into the open.

    News traveled fast. As disciples from other sects became aware of the situation, it quickly became the biggest news of the day. After all, Xu Qing had refused all of Li Ziliang¡¯s challenges up to this point. People who didn¡¯t know Xu Qing assumed it was a show of weakness on his part. And now everyone was wondering what Xu Qing would do in response to Li Ziliang¡¯s actions. Would he flee?

    ¡°How annoying,¡± Xu Qing murmured, frowning. Of course, he wasn¡¯t annoyed at the coalition disciples, but rather, at Li Ziliang. It was obvious that Li Ziliang was throwing his weight around in the hopes of standing out to the swordsages. It wasn¡¯t a bad n. However, arresting people and roughing them up was a bit excessive. And when people went overboard in matters like this, it meant that something unusual was happening.

    Xu Qing thought long and hard about what that unusual aspect might be. For example, did Li Ziliang challenge him so many times because he had some ulterior motive? Based on hisckadaisical attitude, it didn¡¯t seem like he had someplicated n underway. He was just trying to force Xu Qing to fight. And considering it wasn¡¯t a fight to the death, Xu Qing could only surmise that Li Ziliang wanted to test him out and see what he was capable of.

    Whether it was in the slums or the scavenger basecamp, or even when he was first starting out in Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing had only ever had one way of dealing with threats. And that was to make sure his opponents never got a second chance to threaten him. He would always kill them the first time around.

    One of the things he hated most was being forced to end a fight without killing his opponent. After all, it only made sense that an opponent who survived a fight with him would hate him more than before, thus creating a big grudge. And if that person kept getting stronger, then they would be a potential cmity.

    Therefore, Xu Qing took out his transmission jade slip and sent a message to Sir Bloodsmelter.

    <i>¡°Patriarch, it¡¯s prohibited to kill other cultivators in the area surrounding the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Does ¡®the area surrounding¡¯ the pir mean everything? Or just Netherflight City?¡±</i>

    There was a moment of silence before the patriarch responded.

    <i>¡°Just the city. Look, boy, you... ah, whatever. Do what you have to do.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded. He sped hands respectfully to the old man lecturing on the daoist altar, though he knew the old man wouldn¡¯t notice. All the old man did was lecture, and he never paid attention to what was going on around him. That said, Xu Qing valued etiquette. After offering his respects, he flew up into the sky like a bolt of lightning. Once he was out of the city, he hovered in midair and spoke in a voice that echoed into the city.

    ¡°Li Ziliang, I challenge you to a fight to the death. Do you ept?¡±

    In response to his words, the cultivators in the city erupted into chaos.

    1. Xu Qingst spoke to Chen Feiyuan in ??

    2. Nightcorpse morning glory was a key part of one of the most pivotal events in the early part of the story. Do you remember what it was? If you forgot, you can check ??

 Chapter 353: Will Implantation

    <h4>Chapter 353: Will Imntation</h4>

    Xu Qing''s words rumbled like thunder through the city.

    All cultivators who heard him trembled, especially the disciples from all the other random sects. It had been a very long time since a duel to the death had been fought here. Dueling challenges weremon, and were generally tolerated. After all, when human chosen gathered, it was hard to avoid conflicts and hierarchical friction. Add in the rules of the Swordsage Court, and it ensured that duels were actuallymon. Virtually every sect present had either issued dueling challenges or been given them.

    But on the eve of the Swordsage Court¡¯s recruiting event, there hadn¡¯t been any duels to the death. Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s words were a big shock. Never could anyone have imagined that Xu Qing, who had refused so many challenges, causing everyone to think he was weak, would be the one to utter such murderous words. It surpassed everyone¡¯s expectations.

    ¡°He¡¯s so ruthless!¡±

    ¡°Is he the kind of person who doesn¡¯t do much when he¡¯s not fighting, but when he does fight, he goes for the kill?¡±

    ¡°I was wondering why a quasi-dao child like this Xu Qing would be so weak. Turns out he¡¯s actually got what it takes!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say at this point. Hopefully Xu Qing isn¡¯t just suicidal. Li Ziliang isn¡¯t an ordinary opponent!¡±

    The city was already abuzz with conversation as numerous cultivators flew up into the air and looked in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s garrison. Everyone wanted to see how Li Ziliang would respond to the challenge. That included coalition disciples. They knew Xu Qing a lot better than the other random cultivators, and weren¡¯t worried at all about the situation. That was even truer of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. More and more people turned their attention to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. Everyone was waiting for Li Ziliang¡¯s response.

    Even people climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir stopped to see what would happen. It was no exaggeration to say that, in the shortest of moments, Xu Qing¡¯s words drew the attention of everyone present.

    Xu Qing was the only person in the Eight Sect Coalition with dao child remuneration, and thus, he had a very unique standing.

    Li Ziliang was the same. Though he wasn¡¯t the Supreme Arbiter dao child, he was very well known. What was more, he had caused a big stir recently by issuing over ten challenges and winning all of them easily. He had four-pce battle prowess, and had consistently stayed at the head of the pack of the people climbing the pir.

    Some of the swordsages were paying close attention to him. It was no surprise that a fight between him and Xu Qing was going to be a big deal.

    As more and more people focused on the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society garrison, Li Ziliang was there, his expression cid, but his eyes cold. At the moment, he was hesitating. The average person didn¡¯t know much about Xu Qing, but Li Ziliang had looked into him and knew that he wasn¡¯t as simple as he seemed. If it wasn¡¯t a duel to the death, he wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to ept. Without death on the line, he would have been fine putting his all into the fight.

    What was more, he was confident he would win. He knew that fighting Xu Qing would attract a lot of attention. Considering Xu Qing¡¯s standing in the Eight Sect Coalition, if Li Ziliang won, it would be a big blow to Xu Qing. And Li Ziliang¡¯s reputation would get a big boost. Beyond that, showing off how talented he was would attract the attention of the Swordsage Court, and could potentially get him some bonus points in the standings.

    Most importantly of all, a certain person had promised him big rewards if he took advantage of this opportunity to probe Xu Qing and get a sense of his limitations. He knew full well that person was eying Xu Qing¡¯s lifemps. Also, that person was very meticulous in fighting opponents, and only did so whenpletely confident of gaining victory.

    Truth be told, Li Ziliang was also interested in Xu Qing¡¯s lifemps. That said, he wasn¡¯tpletely prepared for a duel to the death... and thus he hesitated.

    He wasn¡¯t back at home in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society headquarters. And if he epted this duel, the result would be death for one participant. And given the circumstances, neither the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society nor the Eight Sect Coalition would be able to interfere and stop the fight.

    However, Li Ziliang had four heavenly pces, and very impressive battle prowess. Based on the intelligence reports he had read, Xu Qing only had three heavenly pces. Even if he did have an imperial-ss technique, there was no way he was on the same level as Li Ziliang.

    <i>A duel to the death.... If I kill him and take his lifemps, the Eight Sect Coalition won¡¯t be able to do anything about it. But the fact that Xu Qing is the one who issued the dueling challenge, he¡¯s obviously confident in winning. It¡¯s hard to say how this fight will turn out....</i>

    Li Ziliang was no idiot, and had already analyzed the situation from all angles. However, it was a situation of <i>if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off</i>. He was the one who had already issued multiple challenges. If he didn¡¯t ept this duel to the death, he would lose all face, and all the prestige he had earnedtely would evaporate.

    <i>Although there¡¯s some risk involved, this is also a good opportunity. Besides, I have a trump card. Other than that devious psychopath Zhang Siyun, no one has ever countered my trump card.</i>

    Li Ziliang was taking his time making a decision, and thus the chatter out in the city grew louder. Eventually, the wind brought some of the voices to Li Ziliang, and it caused killing intent to flicker in his eyes.

    He couldn¡¯t hesitate any longer. Laughing coldly, he said, ¡°You¡¯re looking to get killed, Xu Qing. Don¡¯t me me for what happens!¡±

    He flew up into the sky, bing the center of attention of the countless cultivators in the city. As the crowd watched, Li Ziliang became a stream of bright light that shot toward Xu Qing outside the city.

    Xu Qing was dressed in violet. He had long hair and bewitchingly attractive features. His eyes were as cold as ice, but his expression was cid.

    Seeing that, Li Ziliang¡¯s eyes narrowed. However, he didn¡¯t slow down. Then, just as he was about to pass out of the city limits, he suddenly elerated to double the speed as before. He had already been moving quickly; doubling his speed was a tactic to catch his opponent off guard. What was more, he had never tapped into this level of speed during any of his previous duels.

    He transformed into a series of afterimages that shot out of the city and toward Xu Qing. As he closed in, he extended his right hand.

    Four heavenly pces appeared behind him. The pces all looked simr to each other, and were different from ordinary heavenly pces. Collectively, they resembled adder made from crystal, covered with glittering magical symbols.

    When Li Ziliang extended his right hand, his four pces vibrated and then shifted position to hover directly above Xu Qing. Then they superimposed over each other, turning into what appeared to be a crystal pagoda that dropped down toward Xu Qing. It all happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Coupled with Li Ziliang¡¯s speed, this was definitely a trump card of an attack.

    As the heavenly pces dropped, Li Ziliang projected a message to Xu Qing via divine will, something that only Xu Qing could hear.

    <i>¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you for a long time, Xu Qing. Do you remember the grudge we have with each other...?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react to the words. He didn¡¯t recognize this person, and was certain they¡¯d never met. Anyone who he actually had a grudge with would be on his bamboo slip. Instead, he focused on the four heavenly pces which were currently dropping down on him with full force.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as theposite pagoda swept over Xu Qing. Lightning bolts crackled on its surface, connected it to the ground and pulled it downward at a rapid rate. However, before it could move very far, it suddenly lurched to a stop, vibrating and emanating a deafening rumbling. Then the pagoda began to copse, crumbling into chunks that fell down toward the ground.

    Xu Qing appeared, surrounded by a huge sea and nine sessive tsunami waves. As the waves swept outward, they made Xu Qing seem like a sea god in the middle of all the water. Then a piercing cry rang out as a golden crow rose out of the sea behind him, sending down dazzling golden light. Within the golden light, the crow was ck, and it had neen multi-colored tails that spread out like a burning fan.

    Li Ziliang¡¯s expression flickered. He knew that Xu Qing was strong, but it was only when heunched his attack just now that he got a sense of the explosive power Xu Qing had at his disposal. In fact, it didn¡¯t feel like four-pce battle prowess to him, but rather, something akin to five-pce power.

    <i>Dammit, why didn¡¯t my Will Imntation work on him?</i>

    Even as he assessed Xu Qing, Xu Qing took action. Tsunami waves rushed toward Li Ziliang, and the golden crow followed, its wings spread wide.

    Li Ziliang¡¯s pupils constricted. Dashing backward, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture.

    ¡°Immortal Magic: True-Spirit Ice Spears!¡±

    Numerous ice spears materialized around him, all of them shining with crystalline light. They shot toward Xu Qing, blocking his path. However, the golden crow quickly wiped them out of existence.

    ¡°Immortal Magic: Inmmatory Omen!¡±

    Instantly, a huge sea of mes appeared around him, which transformed into a fiery palm. It shot toward Xu Qing to stop his progress, but was quickly destroyed by the furious tsunami waves.

    ¡°Immortal Magic: Four Pces Divination Trigram!¡±

    The shattered fragments of the heavenly pces blurred, then coalesced back into the form of four pces. This time, they were arranged with two in front and two behind. It looked like a partial divination trigram which blocked Xu Qing¡¯s forward path and seemed to be in the process of analyzing him and divining information about him.

    That wasn¡¯t the end of it, though. Li Ziliang waved his hand, causing a huge mirror to appear below Xu Qing. It was illusory, and was filled with countless shadowy forms that were impossible to see clearly. It contained a bizarre power that prompted the gaze to focus on it. And the less clear the figures in the mirror were, the more one wanted to see them.

    Next, Li Ziliang¡¯s right hand shed in an incantation gesture, almost as if he were performing a divination to find out information about Xu Qing.

    All of a sudden, the shadowy, indistinct forms in the mirror becamepletely clear.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing battered his way through the heavenly pces. As he did, Li Ziliang¡¯s face fell, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. A look of disbelief covered his face as he gasped and projected, <i>¡°I know why you don¡¯t recognize me! I can¡¯t believe they did THAT to you....¡±</i>

    Looking like he¡¯d seen a ghost, he spun in ce and fled at top speed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained calm as he suddenly grabbed something.

    Shockingly, he didn¡¯t reach out in the direction of the fleeing Li Ziliang, but rather, he reached behind his back!

 Chapter 354: One Battle Earns Renown

    Chapter 354: One Battle Earns Renown

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes swirled with icy coldness as he reached back to a shadowy figure behind him, grabbed it by the throat, and dragged it out into the open. It struggled, but that didn¡¯t do any good.

    When its features became clear, it was... Li Ziliang! However, his face was turning pitch ck, as he had been poisoned. The moment Xu Qing touched him, the poison took effect and he started rotting.

    Meanwhile, the fleeing Li Ziliang blurred and then disappeared.

    As Li Ziliang struggled, his face was a mask of incredulity. ¡°How did you know I was here? That should be impossible! What¡¯s more, your mind hasn¡¯t shown even a hint of misgivings. What... what did you experience to give you such incredible willpower??¡±

    All past opponents that Li Ziliang had used this tactic on did the same thing. They rushed after the fleeing version of himself to kill him. After all, everyone had secrets that they wanted to keep. All of his words had been designed to arouse suspicions and doubts. Usually, people who heard them ended up distracted, and would thus chase after the fake version of Li Ziliang.

    That was the whole point!

    Li Ziliang had no special ability to divine information. He had no divination magic. That said, the secret magical techniques of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society focused on will domains. Though he had not fully cultivated a will domain, he had reached the point of forming a ¡®will convergence¡¯.

    Will convergence wasn¡¯t just about general willpower. The word ¡®will¡¯ epassed many emotional aspects. Specifically, Li Ziliang cultivated a will of suspicion. Duringbat, he would sow suspicion into the heart of his opponent. Tapping into that will of suspicion became a trump card that could cause his opponent¡¯s soul to destroy itself. He had used this method to kill a lot of enemies, and it had worked on everyone with the exception of the dao child Zhang Siyun.

    He had assumed it would work in this fight as well. All he had to do was create distracting thoughts in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, then use a killing move on him. Once Xu Qing chased after his clone, he could strike from hiding and wipe him out.

    However, on this day, he experienced failure a second time. The first time it happened, he had lived through it. The second time, he would not.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t a fan of exining himself to his enemies. As Li Ziliang rotted, Xu Qing¡¯s hand turned transparent, and he shoved it into Li Ziliang¡¯s heavenly pces. His hand closed, and then he ripped out four crystalline gold cores.

    Bloodcurdling screams rang out, and in that life-or-death moment, despair filled Li Ziliang¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Someone wanted me to test you out!¡± he blurted. ¡°That¡¯s why I challenged you! Don¡¯t kill me, Xu Qing. If you let me go, I can tell you who¡ª¡±

    A dagger appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s left hand. He shed it through Li Ziliang¡¯s throat. Steaming blood sprayed everywhere, sttering over his garments and onto the snowy ground below.

    Li Ziliang¡¯s hands shot to his neck wound as he looked at Xu Qing in disbelief. He really didn¡¯t understand why Xu Qing didn¡¯t hold back just now. Any other person would have at least asked him a question or two.

    The reality was that Li Ziliang had no intention of revealing the identity of that mysterious person. But he could be deliberately mystifying, and imply that it was someone like Master Shengyun¡¯s father or some member of Xu Qing¡¯s sect. Regardless of whether his strategy worked, it would at least sow some doubts and hopefully ensure that he managed to survive this situation.

    But Xu Qing had no interest, and thus, Li Ziliang¡¯s strategy waspletely negated.

    Deep, bitter resentment appeared in Li Ziliang¡¯s eyes. As he toppled down, that resentment turned into regret. He truly regretted his actions. He regretted being so greedy for the rewards he had been offered by that mysterious person. He regretted probing Xu Qing by challenging him so many times and even capturing his fellow disciples to force his hand. He regretted his own avarice, and his belief that he could win this fight. And even more so, he regretted epting the challenge simply because he thought he might lose face if he didn¡¯t.

    Yet none of that could surpass his confusion at why Xu Qing had not developed any will of suspicion.

    And then, all of it, including his bitter resentment, became a thing of the past. Heaven and earth turned dark, as if he had been covered with a shroud. Everything outside the city was peaceful and silent. Snowkes drifted, falling onto the corpse and the blood. Soon... the blood wasn¡¯t visible; only the unmoving corpse of Li Ziliang could be seen.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cid. He had heard everything Li Ziliang said before he died. But he knew that in a moment like that, such words would contain both truth and untruth. Most likely, it was true that there was someone else who had urged Li Ziliang to issue those challenges. That fit in with Xu Qing¡¯s previous suppositions. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t believe that Li Ziliang would have told the truth about who it was.

    When all was said and done, Xu Qing didn¡¯t tend to trust other people. He only trusted himself.

    Most likely, whoever had tasked Li Ziliang with issuing the challenges was someone that Li Ziliang couldn¡¯t say no to. And that meant that, even if Li Ziliang revealed the truth to Xu Qing, he would still have ended up dead, and probably in a very miserable fashion. Instead, Li Ziliang would have thrown out another name, one that was fake.

    As far as Xu Qing was concerned, a fake name wasn¡¯t of equal value to a life. That was just how Xu Qing was. And that was how he operated. If he was in danger, but couldn¡¯t find the true source of that danger, then viciously ughtering the minions who had been sent against him was a good way to send a threatening message.

    The truth was that the question Li Ziliang had died wondering about had a very simple answer. Xu Qing didn¡¯t trust Li Ziliang. He trusted himself, his sense of judgment, and his memory.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you for a long time, Xu Qing. Do you remember the grudge we have with each other...?¡±

    That was what Li Ziliang had said. Little did Li Ziliang know that Xu Qing kept a record of his grudges on a bamboo slip. As a result, it was impossible that he could forget about someone he had a grudge with.

    ¡°I know why you don¡¯t recognize me! I can¡¯t believe they did THAT to you....¡± The second thing Li Ziliang had said was even less likely to do anything to Xu Qing. After all, he was already very skilled at being deceptive regarding his true capabilities. Because of that, he was very confident about his secrets. Unless an opponent directly stated something very specific, he wouldn¡¯t be fazed.

    In the end, it wasn¡¯t that Li Ziliang¡¯s Will Imntation technique was deficient. Rather, he just didn¡¯t understand Xu Qing, and therefore couldn¡¯t do anything to get in his head.

    ¡°All sh, no substance,¡± Xu Qing murmured. It was the first thing he said since the start of the fight.

    Meanwhile, after a temporary moment of silence, the city erupted into shouts of astonishment and excited chatter.

    ¡°Dead?¡±

    ¡°Th-that... that fast? He crushed his heavenly pces and then slit his throat! He¡¯s so decisive!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe he actually did it!!¡±

    ¡°This Xu Qing is someone you cannot provoke! He¡¯s vicious and merciless. When he fights, he kills. That was brutal! So, so brutal! No wonder he¡¯s the only person in the Eight Sect Coalition with dao child remuneration!¡±

    Gasps and conversation filled the city as sect disciples and rogue cultivators felt deeply apprehensive.

    They were apprehensive of Xu Qing¡¯s speed and ruthlessness. They couldn¡¯t see the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art at work, but they could see Li Ziliang¡¯s shriveled corpse, and the agony he had experienced before dying. They could only imagine the pain Li Ziliang must have experienced at that moment. The thought of that cold dagger de shing his throat made them shiver. To them, Xu Qing seemed like a vicious fiend or monster.

    The Gold Core cultivators with heavenly pces were particrly fearful when they looked at Xu Qing.

    What was more, top experts from many sects were now looking very seriously in the direction of the garrisons of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and the Eight Sect Coalition.

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society waspletely calm and quiet.

    It was the same with the Eight Sect Coalition.

    They were also waiting to see the ramifications of what had just happened. Though there was a precedent for this sort of thing, in the end, the Swordsage Court held supreme, and they would make the final judgment.

    They didn¡¯t have to wait long.

    ¡°You¡¯re a daredevil, boy, and also a decisive killer! In a time of peace, you wouldn¡¯tst long. But right now... the Swordsage Court needs wolf pups like you! Seven Blood Eyes has produced someone with real potential! When the time for testinges, I truly look forward to seeing how you do!¡±

    As the words finished echoing through the city, Sir Bloodsmelterughed. ¡°Xu Qing, hurry up and offer thanks to your superiors!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure he liked the term ¡®daredevil.¡¯ What was more, he had some ideas about what was really going on. Nheless, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Many thanks, Sir!¡±

    The response from the Swordsage Court made everything clear. After all, though there hadn¡¯t been any deaths outside the city in recent days, they had urred in the past. The Swordsage Court had never tacitly approved, much less encouraged the matter. But obviously, it didn¡¯t constitute a rules vition.

    Sir Bloodsmelter knew that, and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society knew that.

    Of course, powerful sects didn¡¯t telegraph their true intentions. It didn¡¯t take long before cultivators from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society showed up to take away Li Ziliang¡¯s corpse.

    Xu Qing returned to the city. This time, it went very differently from thest time. Before, he hadn¡¯t attracted any attention. At the very most, some people had been talking about how he wasn¡¯t epting dueling challenges. But now, people looked at him with reverence and quickly got out of his way. Now, nobody talked about him avoiding challenges. Now they knew why he had previously done so. It was for the same reason that a big eagle would refuse a challenge from a sparrow.

    ***

    High atop the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, in front of the main pce entrance of the Swordsage Court, two swordsages stood together. One was an old man, the other was middle-aged dressed in a government uniform. Both were looking down at Xu Qing.

    If Xu Qing were present, he would recognize both of them.

    The old man was one of the three swordsages who had fought August Spirit Nethersprite. The middle-aged man had also been there during the battle; he was the second-stage Void Returning cultivator who had faced off against August Spirit Sporelight.

    ¡°So he¡¯s the one you mentioned?¡± said the middle-aged man.

 Chapter 355: Ghost Emperor Devastates Rancorous Will

    Chapter 355: Ghost Emperor Devastates Rancorous Will

    ¡°Yes, exalted one,¡± the old man replied. ¡°His name is Xu Qing. He was working with someone named Chen Erniu, who, upon investigation, turns out to be his Elder Brother. The third person involved in the incident is a holy daughter from the Church of Departure in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Her name is Qing Qiu. She¡¯s on her way and should arrive soon.¡± [1]

    An odd expression appeared on the old man¡¯s face as he continued, ¡°Their actions really drove Nethersprite crazy. Based on that, I get the feeling Nethersprite hates them more than anyone else in existence.¡±

    The middle-aged man nodded. ¡°There¡¯s no rush. Let¡¯s do the testing as normal. If we can¡¯t destabilize Nethersprite¡¯s mind on our own and perform the soulsearch, then we can consider using the three of them to rile her up. This Xu Qing isn¡¯t bad at all. He has a good temperament. He¡¯ll have good potential if he bes a swordsage. Our county superiors are getting ready to open the ancient Forbidden by the Immortal, presumably because of the awakenings that are urring in all the prefectures. This time, our recruitment test needs to be a bit bloodier. We¡¯re in a different era now. We need wolf pups, not pet dogs.¡± [2]

    When the old man heard the words Forbidden by the Immortal, his expression flickered. ¡°They¡¯re opening Forbidden by the Immortal? Isn¡¯t there supposed to be some unknown god sleeping in there?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. Most people think that the catastrophe which befell the Revered Ancient maind was solely due to the broken face of the god that we see in the sky. What they don¡¯t know is that¡­ historical records indicate the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns weren¡¯t forced to leave solely because the broken face showed up. There are other gods. Hidden. We don¡¯t know what th¨¥y¡¯re waiting for. Presumably, our county superiors have their own orders to open the ce and investigate.¡±

    The middle-aged cultivator turned and left.

    The old man stayed in ce, aplicated expression on his face. Finally, he sighed, then faded from view.

    ***

    Seven days passed. During that time, Xu Qing went back to his previous routine. He would go to the daoist altar to listen to the old man¡¯s lecture and learn more about nts and vegetation. No one sent him any dueling challenges. As a result, Xu Qing became the second person that no one dared to fight.

    Also during those seven days, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s dao child returned. He attracted a lot of attention; apparently he had just made advancement with one of his magical techniques, and wasn¡¯t able to keep it hidden. Xu Qing joined the crowds in looking up into the sky at him.

    Xu Qing could sense an immense pressure in the scintiting light that radiated off of the dao child.

    The dao child¡¯s return didn¡¯t change anything in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He didn¡¯t do anything because of Li Ziliang¡¯s death. To him, Li Ziliang was irrelevant.

    Was it him? Xu Qing thought. There was no way to be sure if he was the one Li Ziliang had been working for. Either way, he didn¡¯t drop his guard in the least.

    Another important thing that happened during those seven days was that Xu Qing¡¯s dao of alchemy improved significantly.

    It was a concept the old man mentioned, something that rted to assessing unknown medicinal nts. He said it wasn¡¯t a fully fleshed-out method, just something that could be used as a supplementary aid.

    By studying the vascr system of the nt, you could determine its basic category. If you knew its basic category, you could determine its characteristics. If you knew its characteristics, you could determine its medicinal properties. And if you knew its medicinal properties, you could understand it as a whole. It was an identification method that opened a whole realm of possibilities to Xu Qing.

    Given his current mastery of nts and vegetation, he felt that though this new identification method wasn¡¯t one hundred percent urate, it was at least eighty percent urate. In the dao of alchemy that was a gap in difference simr to that between heaven and earth. However, to alchemy cultivators, even a slight advantage in being able to identify new nts could make a big difference.

    In addition, Xu Qing learned a new term from the old lecturer: ¡®godly nts and vegetation¡¯. He felt both familiar and unfamiliar with such nts. The reason he felt unfamiliar was that Grandmaster Bai¡¯s medicinal codex did not mention that specific term. The reason he felt familiar was that, though he didn¡¯t know the term, he had actually learned about such nts from the very beginning. In fact, he had long been searching for one.

    From the time Sergeant Thunder passed away until now, he had never encountered it. It was a nt that could change one¡¯s fate for a lifetime.

    ¡°Lifespan flower,¡± the old man said, ¡°also known as life-extending me and god-spirit weed, is a mutated variety of a god-type vegetation known as regeneration tree. There are actually seventy-three known mutations, but only the first type can be used in medicines. They grow randomly in forbidden regions, without any specific habitat pattern. They¡¯re extremely rare. They can be used to regrow severed limbs, reinvigorate life force, and treat any injury other than those inflicted by the god above.¡± [3]

    There were only seven or eight people gathered to listen to his lecture.

    To this old man, knowledge about the dao of alchemy, and nts and vegetation, belonged to everyone. It didn¡¯t matter if he had a big audience or a small one. He would still share his knowledge.

    Years ago, he had taken to wandering thends and finding ces where humans gathered. There, he would share what he knew. But as the man grew older, and his lifespan grew shorter, he found himself growing weaker and unable to travel. Now he was here beneath the Swordsage Court, sharing his knowledge of nts and vegetation with rogue cultivators. He¡¯d had many students over the years. Therefore, he didn¡¯t pay much attention to the cultivators who came and went.

    ¡°So-called godly nts and vegetation are, at their root, things that can change one¡¯s life level. It¡¯s a subject I¡¯ve been researching for years now. Specifically, I want to know why these nts seem so much better able to adapt to the arrival of the god than flesh-and-blood creatures. It¡¯s also led me to wondering if godly nts and vegetation are being used by other species to research gods.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that, he suddenly thought about Torchlight and Bai Li. Bai Li had used a spirit nt, and had even fused with it to release godly fluctuations. Then Xu Qing thought about Master Shengyun. He wasn¡¯t sure if the experimental god body in that battle in the Young Arbiter Sect had started out as some sort of spirit nt. But now he wanted to ask his Master about it. After all, the experimental god body was now in Seven Blood Eyes, where his Master was studying it. [4]

    With such thoughts on his mind, he continued listening to the old man¡¯s lecture. asionally, the old man would describe something particrly profound. Given that there was no question-and-answer option in the lecture, Xu Qing would take out his medicinal codex and take some notes for future reference. Most of the other cultivators present did the same. In that manner, another half a month went by.

    Xu Qing was immersed in study. Eventually, the old man finished sharing everything he knew. That evening, he looked up at the handful of cultivators sitting around him, including Xu Qing.

    ¡°That concludes my lecture series, so don¡¯te back expecting to hear more. When your dao of alchemy breaks through to greater heights,e back and I¡¯ll give you more advanced instruction. By the way, I don¡¯t ept apprentices. I don¡¯t keep anything secret, therefore, among those who listen to my lectures, there¡¯s no difference between apprentice or not. Furthermore, we aren¡¯t connected by karma, and I prefer to keep it that way.¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t appear to be interested in any of the other cultivators. However, he seemed to be eying Xu Qing¡¯s medicinal codex.

    Everyone present got to their feet and bowed respectfully to the old man. Although they weren¡¯t truly apprentices, they were all deeply grateful for what they had learned over the past weeks.

    There were three cultivators who looked regretful. Clearly, they had hoped that their earnest attitudes would win them the opportunity to be apprentices to the old man. Everyone who had listened to his entire lecture series was obviously a serious student of nts and vegetation. All of them could tell that this old man had reached the absolute pinnacle in knowledge of nts, vegetation, and alchemy. And considering that the old man was a swordsage, he obviously was a very extraordinary individual. This wasn¡¯t just the case at this particr daoist altar. In the other altars throughout the city, whether the lectures were on magical techniques, cultivation methods, equipment forging, or anything else, those who listened to the lectures were all simr. But now these cultivators realized that their hopes were unfounded.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior.¡±

    Everyone said the same thing, bowed three times, then departed.

    Xu Qing also bowed three times and left.

    ***

    When everyone was gone, the air next to the old man rippled, and a swordsage stepped out. He had an extraordinary cultivation base that thrummed with Nascent Soul fluctuations. His expression was reverential as he bowed to the old man.

    ¡°Exalted one, I¡¯m here to escort you back.¡±

    The old man nodded and stood. Then, just before leaving, he looked in the direction where Xu Qing had disappeared. Thinking back to the medicinal codex he¡¯d held, he pointed in that direction.

    ¡°Where is that kid from?¡±

    The swordsage looked surprised. Taking out a jade slip, he looked up the information.

    ¡°His name is Xu Qing,¡± he said quietly. ¡°He¡¯s from Seven Blood Eyes in the Eight Sect Coalition, their quasi-dao child. He¡¯s the one who killed the chosen from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society outside the city.¡±

    A look of reminiscence appeared in the old man¡¯s eyes. ¡°Seven Blood Eyes? That¡¯s a small sect originally from the continent of South Phoenix, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, South Phoenix,¡± the swordsage replied respectfully.

    ¡°South Phoenix, huh? No wonder he has that specific medicinal codex.¡±

    He didn¡¯t know Xu Qing, but he knew that medicinal codex. Years ago, this old man had traveled to the continent of South Phoenix to teach about nts and vegetation. In the Violet Lands, he had met a young man. The young man was a fast learner, and was immensely talented, to the point where the old man had been tempted to take him as an apprentice. But when he asked the young man if he was willing to leave his home, the young man refused. He said he wanted to stay in the Violet Lands. He hadn¡¯t forced the young man to be an apprentice. Instead, he rewarded him with a medicinal codex. A sixty-year-cycle had passed since then. But seeing that medicinal codex in Xu Qing¡¯s hand brought up old memories of the past.

    The old man felt a bit of sorrow, but had no intention of asking Xu Qing about the matter. The past was the past. Shaking his head, he headed back to the Swordsage Court.

    ***

    Xu Qing returned to the garrison to review all the new information about the dao of alchemy, and make sure he had it allmitted to memory. At dawn, he opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    ¡°Time to try climbing.¡±

    During the past month, he had learned a bit about the qualifications for the uing test, as well as how the test worked. For instance, there were many ways to earn bonus points for the first phase of the test. Among them were gaining enlightenment of battle spirit symbols or climbing to a certain height on the pir.

    Xu Qing had found markets where you could buy septenary goldmetal energy, but the prices were ridiculous, and he couldn¡¯t bring himself to pay that much. As a result, he had plenty of reasons to try climbing the pir. With the exception of the Captain, all of the coalition disciples had made attempts.

    Where did the Captain disappear to this time?

    Leaving the garrison, he headed toward the pir. It had been quite a while since he had seen any trace of the Captain. Since the Captain wasn¡¯t showing his face, Xu Qing decided to give up on the idea of tracking him down. Eventually, he reached the pir.

    His arrival attracted a lot of attention.

    ¡°It¡¯s Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°He finally showed up!¡±

    ¡°I wonder how high Xu Qing will make it?¡±

    As people discussed the matter, they cleared a path for him, and he calmly walked up to the pir. Compared to the massive pir, the surrounding cultivators were as insignificant as ants.

    Xu Qing looked up and thought about the rules rted to climbing the pir. There were two main things for climbing cultivators to consider.

    The first was the rancorous will attacks. The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was a weapon that the Ghost Emperor had used to kill countless living beings. Because of that, it contained the rancorous energy of countless dead beings. The battle spirit of the pir suppressed the rancorous energy. However, when you touched the pir, you could suffer rancorous will attacks. The higher you got, the more intense those rancorous will attacks became.

    When they got strong enough, they turned into the rancorous soul of one of the ancient cultivators that the Ghost Emperor had killed, which would assail a cultivator¡¯s sea of consciousness. That was the second thing to consider.

    A cultivator had to drive such attacks out of their sea of consciousness before they could continue climbing. If they failed, they would be possessed, and would be removed from the pir, thus ending their climbing effort. The higher one got, the more threatening those rancorous souls became. What was more, they were essentially born from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir itself. Being part of it, they were said to be indestructible. Cultivators who wasted too much time dealing with them would inevitably fail in their effort.

    With that information in mind, Xu Qing looked up at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and took a deep breath. He could clearly sense the immense pressure weighing down on him from the pir. As it did, the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness began to glitter.

    A momentter, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone as, under the eyes of all present, he started running up the pir. His first step took him 30 meters up. He immediately sensed an attack of rancorous will, but it was so weak that it wasn¡¯t worth worrying about. He didn¡¯t stop.

    120 meters. 240 meters. 390 meters.

    In only four or five breaths of time, Xu Qing had already surpassed the 600-meter level. That was where he paused.

    His mind had already filled with rancorous will from the pir, and it was coalescing into a shadowy figure in his mind. An ancient, mad, and voracious energy caused a terrifying howl to echo in his sea of consciousness.

    The shadowy figure was just about to finish forming.

    A momentter... the Ghost Emperor mountain in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness vibrated. In response, the shadow figure shivered and then copsed. A miserable shriek echoed out as the rancorous soul was wiped out before it could even form.

    ¡°Ghost Emperor??¡±

    1. Qing Qiu: Qing does not appear on the list of the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It means ¡°green, blue, cyan, ck.¡± It¡¯s the same Qing from Xu Qing. Qiu means ¡°autumn.¡± Qing is pronounced ¡°cheeng.¡± Qiu rhymes with ¡°glow¡± and basically starts with a CH sound, followed by a Y sound. To hear it pronounced by google, go here and click the listen button. Madam Deathde says, ¡°This sounds like the name of a cold beauty. Someone beautiful but distant.¡± ?

    2. A quick reminder of what I previously mentioned about the naming structure of the forbidden grounds. In Chinese, there is no ¡°by the.¡± I added that for stylistic and linguistic convenience. Point being, it doesn¡¯t inherently imply that the forbidden grounds are forbidden ¡°by¡± some entity/group/etc. ?

    3. The lifespan flower was mentioned many times. In the early chapters it came up a lot, including chapters 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 28. It was mentioned a few other times,ter, including chapters 174, 206, and 222. ?

    4. Xu Qing fought Bai Li starting in chapter 218. The final fight with Master Shengyun started in chapter 322. ?

 Chapter 356: Excelling From the Beginning

    Chapter 356: Excelling From the Beginning

    The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir rose to immense heights above the northern tundra. It was 3,000 meters wide and rose high above the clouds, making it seem like it propped up heaven. There were all sorts of magical symbols and totems carved on its surface, some of them protruding as much as 30 meters, some only a few meters. Because of that, the cultivators climbing the pir seemed very small.

    Xu Qing was already at the 600-meter spot. Grabbing the edge of one of the totem carvings, he pulled himself up and stood.

    The totem depicted a fierce ghost face with a very baleful aura. Understanding flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes when he noted the ghost face. After all, it closely resembled the face of the figure that had been coalescing moments before in his sea of consciousness.

    Not even he could have guessed that when the rancorous will formed a soul within him, the Ghost Emperor mountain would crush it. That went beyond what he understood about how the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir worked. Normally speaking, when cultivators sustained attacks from the rancorous will, they wouldn¡¯t be able to destroy the invading soul. Instead, they had to eject it from their sea of consciousness. Only after that could they continue climbing. Then, when the next attack of rancorous will began, they would repeat the process. The higher one got, the more difficult it became.

    Ejecting the souls came with additional rewards, though they weren¡¯t bestowed immediately, but rather, when the participant ended their climb. Xu Qing had witnessed Li Ziliang getting a reward, and others had received simr rewards since. However, the probability of getting a reward wasn¡¯t very high. If you reached 600 meters and drove out a rancorous soul, your chances of getting a reward were roughly 1/10,000. The higher you got, the more likely you were to be rewarded.

    If you failed, you would be shoved off the pir and would fall to the ground. There was no chance of a permanent possession. The rancorous souls were part of the pir itself, and were suppressed by its battle spirit. Thus, they couldn¡¯t actually leave the pir.

    But at the same time, they were said to be impossible to destroy. And yet, Xu Qing had definitely sensed that rancorous soulpletely disappear. In fact, it was correct to say that the Ghost Emperor mountain... devoured it.

    After all, when that rancorous soul screamed itsst, Xu Qing had sensed the Ghost Emperor mountain bing a bit more true and real. What was more, the ghost face totem he currently stood atop seemed slightly worn downpared to before.

    It was so faint that no observer would notice it. But since Xu Qing was actually touching it, he could tell. This discovery caused his eyes to glitter. For the moment, he decided to wait and see if he had done anything to break the rules.

    Shortly thereafter, he could sense a faint stream of divine will emerge from the pir. It was emotionless and numb, but after it made contact with him, he realized that he was being assigned a reward. He didn¡¯t know exactly what the reward was, but it was there.

    Meanwhile, the fact that Xu Qing had stopped was noticed by the crowd below. After his fight with Li Ziliang, everyone was paying attention to him, and that was especially true now that he was making an attempt at climbing the pir. Whether it was the rogue cultivator or the sect disciples, everyone was paying attention.

    ¡°He stopped? He¡¯s only at 600 meters!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s probably getting used to the rancorous souls. That said, he has been standing there for quite a while.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he has a strong fleshly body and some astonishing magical techniques, but has a weak soul? Is that his weakness?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way. I heard that this Xu Qing has an Elder Brother named Chen Erniu who¡¯s incredibly handsome and has a dashing personality. People call him the number one phnthropist in the Eight Sect Coalition. Hepletely surpasses Xu Qing. Under his tutge, there¡¯s no way that Xu Qing has a weakness like that!¡±

    While the crowd spected below, Xu Qing waited for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn. When nothing else happened, and no one came to punish him for breaking the rules, he started moving again.

    He moved up at top speed, and every step he took caused stronger rancorous energy to assail him. This so-called rancorous energy was different from death energy. Death energy was usually frigid, and caused living beings to feel cold. For example, the sinister cold in forbidden regions was often made of death energy. But rancorous energy contained a coldness of emotion, especially hatred. Thus, it affected the minds of cultivators. That influence was the attack.

    Xu Qing heard endless screaming, formed from the wild cries and curses of the countless living beings that had been killed by the pir. Trying to block the sound wouldn¡¯t do any good, as it would echo into one¡¯s soul.

    He climbed higher, and the rancorous energy grew stronger, building up in his mind. As it built up in his sea of consciousness, he reached the 1,200-meter spot, whereupon the rancorous will began to coalesce.

    The second rancorous soul was forming.

    Xu Qing was actually looking forward to it. He wanted to see if what happened the first time was just a coincidence, therefore, he did nothing to stop the second soul from forming. This second soul looked different from the first. It had two curved horns, a hulking body, and a long tail. What was more, it emanated powerful fluctuations and an ancient aura. It was like it had swum out from the River of Time. Hoarseughter rang out from its mouth, and its eyes shone with brutality and greed.

    Xu Qing waited calmly. After three breaths of time passed, the second rancorous soul was fully formed. Eyes burning with madness, it threw its head back and roared, then stretched its arms out as if ready to kill.

    Meanwhile, the Ghost Emperor mountain in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness again vibrated. The second rancorous soul shivered, and the look in its eyes became one of incredulity.

    ¡°W-what... the Ghost Emperor?!?!¡±

    A miserable shriek erupted from the soul¡¯s mouth as light from the Ghost Emperor mountain shone out. The soul shattered into pieces, and ck energy from it streamed into the Ghost Emperor mountain. The entire process took ten breaths of time, then it was over.

    Xu Qing watched as the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s face came to more closely resemble his own. His misgivings in that regard grew deeper. That said, everything that was happening seemed to be to his benefit as, yet again, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir sent out divine will to assign him a reward. Xu Qing waited a bit before starting to move again.

    Before long, he was at the 1,500-meter spot. Then 1,800 meters. Some of the magical symbols and totems he passed seemed worn down, which seemed to indicate that other people had also found ways of destroying the rancorous souls.

    Before long, a third rancorous soul appeared in his sea of consciousness.

    ¡°Be suppressed!¡±

    Before it could even fully form, Xu Qing exercised a thought, and the Ghost Emperor mountain vibrated and crushed the soul. Xu Qing continued on his way.

    2,100 meters. 2,400 meters. 2,700 meters. 3,000 meters!

    The higher he got, the stronger the rancorous will grew. As a result, more and more rancorous souls appeared in his sea of consciousness. From what he could tell, a new one would appear every 90-150 meters or so.

    However, after going past 2,700 meters, they appeared every 60-90 meters. That increased rate made the climb much more difficult for most cultivators. But to Xu Qing, it was different.

    ¡°Be suppressed!¡±

    ¡°Be suppressed!!¡±

    ¡°Be suppressed!!!¡±

    As Xu Qing sped along, the Ghost Emperor mountain glittered brightly and crushed one soul after another. The destroyed souls would scream, but only Xu Qing could hear them.

    As the Ghost Emperor mountain continued to devour the souls, it grew more and more clear. Xu Qing¡¯s face on the mountain was more distinct, and it seemed to pulse with something somber and deste. That grim expression, and the stifling pressure from the Ghost Emperor mountain, resulted in a godly resonance building within him.

    At the same time, the mountain¡¯s connection to Xu Qing grew stronger, to the point where he got the strong sensation that, eventually, the Ghost Emperor mountain would be able to manifest outside of him.

    What was even more shocking to him was that at a certain point he noticed that the Ghost Emperor mountain held something in its hands that vaguely resembled a staff! It was only an outline right now, not very clear. But even from just the shape, he could tell that the staff... looked very much like the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. That caused waves of shock to sweep through Xu Qing. At the same time, cracks were showing up on the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s body. It almost seemed like it was developing too quickly, and wasn¡¯t being given enough time to stabilize.

    When he reached 3,000 meters, the crowd below roared.

    Before, the highest anyone had climbed was Li Ziliang, who got just past 2,400 meters. Though there were chosen from some sects who, for various reasons, had not yet participated, the reality was that Li Ziliang had reached an astonishing height. But his record had been casually smashed by Xu Qing.

    ¡°3,000 meters! I couldn¡¯t even dream of climbing that high!¡±

    ¡°Hmph. If the Eight Sect Coalition gave me dao child remuneration, then I could also climb 3,000 meters. That Xu Qing is just luckier than us, that¡¯s all. I bet he has family in high ces in Seven Blood Eyes. He¡¯s not like us from the Frigid School. We have to fight for everything we get.¡±

    ¡°I heard that Xu Qing grew up in some slums....¡±

    ¡°You believe that too? This guy kills everyone he fights. That¡¯s the kind of thing you expect from a silkpants.¡± [1]

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong about that. Based on the intelligence reports I¡¯ve read, Xu Qing is no silkpants. No, he¡¯s the kind of person who knows how to repay his debts. What¡¯s more, he shows extreme respect for his Elder Brother Chen Erniu. I even heard that he once said he would live and die together with Chen Erniu!¡±

    ¡°Who cares about that? I just want to see how high Xu Qing climbs and what reward he gets!¡±

    As the crowd discussed what was happening, Xu Qing stood at a spot 3,000 meters up the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. The wind at that height was fierce. However, the truth was that he was far, far away from the clouds. And the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir went higher past the clouds.

    I think I¡¯m done climbing for now. Thanks to the close connection he had with his Ghost Emperor mountain, he knew that he had reached the point where he shouldn¡¯t absorb any more rancorous souls. He needed to give the cracks on the mountain time to close up before he continued. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he was just getting ready to drop off the pir when, all of a sudden, his eyes narrowed.

    He had just spotted a ck cloud speeding over the horizon. And within that cloud was a giant.

    It was over 9,000 meters tall, green, and it emanated fluctuations of godliness. Shockingly, this was a godly entity. As it sped along in the cloud, it was possible to see over a hundred ck-robed figures standing atop it. Each had indescribably cold expressions, as if they didn¡¯t even have emotions at all.

    On the giant¡¯s head, there was a person wearing red. This person had an evil ghost scythe and seemed boundlessly heroic.

    When Xu Qing saw that figure, his eyes narrowed even further.

    It was the girl in red.

    1. This is the first time ¡®silkpants¡¯ has actually appeared in this trantion. Those who have read my previous Er Gen trantions are probably familiar with the term. For anyone not familiar, it basically refers to entitled rich young people. The idea is that they wear silk clothing, which was a sign of wealth in ancient Chinese culture. ?

 Chapter 357: Chosen Fighting it Out

    Chapter 357: Chosen Fighting it Out

    Xu Qing recognized that girl in red.

    As for her, she had already spotted him on the pir, but the eyes beneath her mask didn¡¯t betray any sort of reaction. She knew who he was, and didn¡¯t care at all about his unusually good looks. From a young age, she had experienced the ugliest side of humanity, and knew that physical appearances were a shell, nothing more. Even someone with incredible good looks who provoked her would end up as a rotting corpse. It was the same end result for people who were ugly. There was no difference.

    In fact, a momentter her evil ghost scythe sent her a message via divine will, and it caused her eyes to turn icy cold. ¡°Ghost Hand and Mad Dog are here. Ghost Hand is on the pir, and Mad Dog is in the crowd below.¡±

    Chuckling silently, she stared at Xu Qing on the pir for a moment before looking away. Killing was prohibited in this ce, so she was already devising a n to secretly put them to death.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were just as cold as hers as he released his grip on the pir and began his descent. The moment he lost contact with the pir, numerous beams of light shot out. There were so many that the people in the crowd below instantly started shouting out exmations of astonishment.

    ¡°Look at all those light beams!¡±

    ¡°Oh my god!!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s totally absurd!!¡±

    ¡°No wonder that guy is known as the Junior Brother of Chen Erniu. Awesome! Maybe we should all start calling him Xu San¡¯niu!¡± [1]

    Back when Xu Qing climbed to 3,000 meters and became the first ce participant in the event, the crowd below had discussed the matter, but not cried out in shock. But now they couldn¡¯t contain their astonishment.

    After all, to see so many beams of lighting off the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir really was absurd. Other people who climbed the pir would be lucky to get three beams of light. And if they were unlucky, they might not get any. After all, there was a fixed probability of getting rewards. The higher you climbed, the more rancorous souls you had to deal with, and your chances of getting a reward increased. But it was still ridiculous that Xu Qing got a total of sixteen beams of light. Each of those beams was dazzling and glittering, and attracted the attention of all onlookers. Everyone was shaken.

    Xu Qing, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t surprised. As he had alreadye to find out, as long as he actually destroyed a rancorous soul in his sea of consciousness, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir would connect to him via divine will to assign a reward. And he had crushed a total of sixteen rancorous souls.

    Therefore, he had been prepared for this, and had already nned for how to react. After all, it would be difficult to exin what happened by iming he¡¯d just gotten lucky. The people in the city weren¡¯t fools, and would obviously start specting about how he¡¯d aplished it. And Xu Qing felt it was better to guide those spections instead of letting them run rampant.

    Therefore, he sent out over seventy battle spirit symbols, which swirled around him, pulsing with a shocking battle spirit. The sight of those battle spirit symbols caused an immediate uproar. Within the crowd was a pock-faced middle-aged man who, upon seeing Xu Qing¡¯s battle spirit symbols, suddenly felt a bit disappointed at the forty that he had collected.

    As the crowd cried out in surprise, and the battle spirit symbols swirled, the sixteen beams of light from the pir swept toward Xu Qing, surrounding him with a host of colorful energy streams that settled onto his palm. He could sense three streams of septenary goldmetal energy, with the rest being things like secondary springstart energy and tenstem relighting energy.

    Sadly, there were no technique legacies. That was understandable, as techniques were the rarest reward from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Among all the sessive generations of cultivators who had climbed the ancient weapon, only about three hundred had ever received technique legacies. Besides, such destined opportunities only came on when you climbed higher than 3,000 meters.

    That said, Xu Qing was pleased with the sixteen streams of energy he¡¯d acquired, especially the septenary goldmetal energy. As for the others, he could sell or trade them to other people.

    As the crowd looked on in amazement and envy, Xu Qingnded on the ground and left the area. His use of the battle spirit symbols might have fooled the cultivators in the crowd, but he knew there was no way he had fooled the Swordsage Court. That said, if they dug into the matter and learned the truth, he wasn¡¯t worried. He had acquired his Ghost Emperor mountain in an aboveboard manner. What was more, during his climb, he had sensed that other magical symbols and totems on the pir were already worn down before he got there, indicating that other people had done simr things in the past.

    Because of that, he wasn¡¯t very worried. Under the reverential gazes of the surrounding disciples of various sects, he returned to the garrison.

    Once he was back, he summoned the Mute and had him go out into the city to look for people interested in trading septenary goldmetal energy for the extra streams of energy he¡¯d acquired. The Mute couldn¡¯t speak, but he had other ways tomunicate, and immediately set about looking for trading partners.

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and started refining the Ghost Emperor mountain, easing it out of the ¡®stuffed¡¯ state it was in. At the same time, he continued ensorcelling his iron skewer.

    In that manner, ten days flew by.

    During that time, rumors about Xu Qing flew through the city. Many cultivators hade to the conclusion that the seventy battle spirit symbols were the reason why he had been rewarded so handsomely. There were other spections as well. However, none of the other theories had much weight to them. Therefore, most people agreed that the battle spirit symbols were the key to getting rewards. Everyone was talking about it.

    Coincidentally, someone found a passage in one of the ancient records which mentioned a simr event seven hundred years in the past. In that instance, a Gold Core cultivator climbed to a height of more than 4,500 meters and got a reward of over twenty beams of light. At that time, that person had disyed over sixty battle spirit symbols. That personter went on to pass the recruitment test and be a swordsage. Later, he climbed the pir a few more times, and got even higher, but didn¡¯t get any more spectacr rewards. The ancient record didn¡¯t contain details about that person¡¯s identity. Regardless, this passage convinced a lot of people that enlightenment of the battle spirit symbol was integral to the pir rewards.

    On the tenth day after Xu Qing had finished his climb, the girl in red appeared and started her own climb. That event attracted a lot of attention, as she had a very high status.

    She was Qing Qiu, a holy daughter of the Church of Departure. She was a fast climber, and on her first run she quickly went past the 3,000-meter spot, surpassing Xu Qing. That itself caused a bigmotion, yet she wasn¡¯t done. She eventually climbed to 4,500 meters, securing the first ce spot in the rankings. After that, she released her grip and dropped down, earning two rewards.

    The fact that Qing Qiu and Xu Qing had taken the first and second ce spots lit a fire under disciples from many other sects who had refrained from climbing the pir up to this point. In the following days, disciples who had been keeping their battle prowess hidden emerged like bamboo after a spring rain. Quite a few climbed to 1,800 meters, with some surpassing 2,400 meters. There were even seven or eight who climbed past 3,000 meters.

    Of that group, three were from small sects, but the others were from major sects like the Church of Departure, the Eight Sect Coalition, and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    The contender from the Church of Departure was a young man. The contender from the Eight Sect Coalition was actually a bit of a surprise to Xu Qing. It was Sima Ru from the House of Grue Hunters, who had been in seclusion in the garrison up to this point. Upon finally showing her face, she climbed to 3,000 meters on her first try. [2]

    One of the contenders from one of the small sects was a young man of about sixteen or seventeen years of age. He climbed to a height of 4,200 meters, almost surpassing Qing Qiu, but not quite.

    That said, Qing Qiu was no longer in first ce. That spot was upied by a middle-aged cultivator from another small sect. He was nothing special to look at, and had previously spent most of his time talking to people in the crowd. He had been especially fond of emphasizing how Xu Qing was very close with his Elder Brother Chen Erniu. Because of that, most peopleughed at him when he started climbing. However, thatughter quickly faded away. When he passed the 3,000-meter mark, those who had beenughing felt shaken. And when he reached 4,500 meters, they were dumbstruck. He only stopped when he reached 5,700 meters.

    The onlookers were astonished. What was more, people began specting about his age and cultivation base. After all, he looked like a middle-aged man. However, ording to the rules for the Swordsage Court recruitment event, you couldn¡¯t be older than twenty-five to participate.

    When Qing Qiu found out she¡¯d been surpassed, she made her second climb, and this time she climbed past 5,400 meters. All the other contenders made new climbing attempts as well. In no time at all, the hosts of chosen had the entire city abuzz.

    Around that time, Xu Qing fully refined the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness. The cracks in its surface were gone, and it was more true and real than ever. As for its facial features, they were about seventy percent simr to Xu Qing¡¯s. It emanated a dao resonance which filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, nourishing his soul, strengthening it and causing its eyes to shine more brightly.

    The ensorcelling of the iron skewer was going well. Although the Mute didn¡¯t manage to trade away all of Xu Qing¡¯s excess streams of energy, he did manage to get seven streams of septenary goldmetal energy. All of the damage to the skewer was gone, and it was well on its way to bing a magical device.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone. Then... he prepared to climb the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir again.

    I need to get enough septenary goldmetal energy this time!

    With such thoughts in mind, he headed toward the pir. People noticed him immediately. After all, everyone had been waiting for Xu Qing¡¯s next climb. They wanted to see if he would take back the first ce slot. It wasn¡¯t just ordinary disciples who were watching. The other chosen who had taken spots in the standings were also paying very close attention.

    When Xu Qing arrived and leaped onto the pir, many other chosen took action. Qing Qiu was the first. She rushed toward the pir with the mindset of fighting Xu Qing, just in a different way than before. Other chosen felt the same. In fact, everyone who had previously passed the 3,000-meter mark started climbing again. One of them was the middle-aged cultivator, who blinked a few times before starting his climb. The scene grabbed the attention of virtually all the cultivators in the city, and even the patriarchs of the sects. What was more, the Swordsage Court was now paying attention.

    The chosen were fighting it out!

    1. Er means ¡°two.¡± San means ¡°three.¡± So San¡¯niu is basically the same as Erniu, except with a lower-ranking number. Lol. ?

    2. Sima Ru¡¯s clone showed up at Seven Blood Eyes in chapter 239. Xu Qing beat her in a fight in chapter 272. She has been mentioned in passing in a handful of chapters, notably in 305. ?

 Chapter 358: Driven by Rewards

    Chapter 358: Driven by Rewards

    Everyone was watching thepetition, from the crowds below, to the patriarchs, to the elders from the Swordsage Court.

    The swordsage elders were paying especially close attention as they sat there looking down. They were very interested in knowing who would w their way to first ce. Taking first ce wasn¡¯t a requirement to advance to the next phase, and the rankings didn¡¯t necessarily corrte directly to battle prowess. However, the candidates¡¯ performance when climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir would give a clue as to how they would performter. Furthermore, it would reveal who had stable souls and strong minds.

    Anyone who performed well at the pir would be monitored by the swordsages even after the recruitment event. In fact, someone who did really well, but eventually failed during the second phase, might still have opportunities to work with the Swordsage Court in other capacities. Everyone knew that, including both spectators and participants.

    To all disciples of human sects, climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was a very important opportunity to show what they were capable of. In fact, just about all disciples present would take a shot at climbing the pir and submitting their results.

    Not many people were able to climb past 3,000 meters. In fact, the majority couldn¡¯t. Furthermore, it was very easy to judge how high the various participants were able to climb. Being able to climb past 1,500 meters but not surpass 3,000 meters was considered average, and constituted a passing score.

    What really interested the Swordsage Court were those candidates who were able to climb past 3,000 meters. They were also looking to see if anyone could surpass 6,000 meters. And they were especially interested in finding out if anyone could break the record which had stood for many years: 8,100 meters.

    In fact, the elders were chatting amongst themselves about the proceedings.

    ¡°Very interesting. This Xu Qing is doing well. He¡¯s made enough of an impression that it¡¯s set a good benchmark for others to try to surpass.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that Qing Qiu from the Church of Departure will climb past the 6,000-meter point. She¡¯s quite the young woman. Unless something unexpected happens, I think she¡¯ll make it into the second phase. That said, it seems she has it out for Xu Qing. If she can turn that grudge into fuel for thepetition, it¡¯ll do her a lot of good.¡±

    ¡°And then there¡¯s that kid from the small sect. He seems to have an unusual bloodline, and is apparently on the verge of some sort of ancestral awakening. Xu Qing also lit a fire under him. I bet he¡¯ll climb past 6,000 meters also.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s also that shifty-eyed freak in the group, the one who just had to go and disguise himself as a middle-aged man. He¡¯s got all sorts of weird stuff hidden in his body. In fact, when I firstid eyes on him, I thought he was a nonhuman and almost killed him.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m actually intrigued by Seven Blood Eyes. They have two disciples with a lot of potential. That Xu Qing obviously has his own way of destroying the rancorous souls. The fact that he killed Li Ziliang, and then got praised by us as a result, has really whipped the other candidates into a frenzy.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all because of him that they¡¯re all working so hard. He was the perfect catalyst to get thepetition going hard and strong!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget the dao child from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He¡¯s definitely worth keeping an eye on.¡±

    As they looked on, thepetition on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was really heating up.

    Over ten individuals were speeding up the pir rapidly.

    Xu Qing was not in the first ce position. The reason was that he didn¡¯t care about the rankings, but rather, the rewards. Therefore, he took every opportunity to bring in as much rancorous will into his sea of consciousness as possible. In contrast, the other participants were doing the opposite in the hopes of getting up the pir faster. As a result of that, Xu Qing was falling farther and farther behind in the rankings.

    The first person to surpass him was Qing Qiu. Beneath her mask, her eyes were cold. She moved quickly, leaping 30 meters with each movement. It was almost as if she didn¡¯t care about the attacks of rancorous will.

    Next was the young man from the small sect. He wasn¡¯t very tall, and was rather emaciated, with disheveled and bright, sparkling eyes. Most eye-catching about the young man was the fact that he had a prominent nose ring. That nose ring emanated a red glow that looked unusually bizarre and fantastic.

    As that young man flew up the pir and past Xu Qing, another young woman was also ascending rapidly. She was from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and had cold eyes and a white daoist robe. She looked almost like a crane, beautiful and holy as she ascended. She also surpassed Xu Qing. She had never done much to make a name for herself in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, so few people had ever heard of her. But now here she was, climbing higher than anyone else in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society other than their dao child.

    Other than her, no one from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was able to climb higher than 3,000 meters. At the most, some of them made it to somewhere between 2,400 to 2,700.

    Li Ziliang probably would have reached 3,000 meters, were it not for him dying unexpectedly.

    Of course, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was the top organization in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture other than the Swordsage Court, so it was only natural that they had profound resources. As a result, they had more disciples who got to the 2,400-2,700-meter area than any other group.

    After them was the Church of Departure, and finally, weakest of all among therge organizations, the Eight Sect Coalition.

    When Xu Qing saw so many people passing him, his expression remained the same as ever. He didn¡¯t seem like he cared at all. He just kept moving up bit by bit. With every movement, he sustained attacks of rancorous will, causing the rancorous souls to form in his sea of consciousness.

    The Ghost Emperor mountain crushed them all, causing it to grow increasingly true and real, and making its facial features more distinct. Xu Qing could sense that, after absorbing the dao blood from August Spirit Nethersprite, his Ghost Emperor mountain was vastly different than before. And the staff that was gradually taking form in its hands caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to fill with anticipation.

    In fact, he was moving slowly on purpose, trying to get more rancorous will. Because of how much time he was taking, Sima Ru soon appeared behind him. Without so much as ncing at him, she passed him.

    There were a few other cultivators from small sects who had previously climbed past 3,000 meters who did the same.

    There was also the pock-faced middle-aged man. As the saying goes, he who hasn¡¯t made a ssh yet will often make the biggest ssh of all.

    Upon speeding by Xu Qing, he nced over out of the corner of his eye and looked very pleased with himself. Given that he had recently taken first ce, he was being watched by the crowd just as much as Xu Qing was.

    Xu Qing nced at the man passing him, then sent a divine will message to his shadow. After getting an affirmative response from the shadow, he stared deeply at the middle-aged man.

    The fact that so many people were passing Xu Qing caused quite a lot of discussion in the crowd. However, Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he slowly and steadily kept climbing. By the time he reached the 3,000-meter spot, he had already destroyed neen rancorous souls. He was very pleased with how things were going.

    I got more this time thanst time.

    Although Xu Qing was feeling pleased, the Swordsage Court elders weren¡¯t very pleased.

    ¡°Xu Qing is going slowly on purpose! He doesn¡¯t care at all that he¡¯s been surpassed by so many people. That¡¯s not how thispetition is supposed to work!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Given his reputation, if he doesn¡¯t take the event seriously, then it could harm the spirit ofpetition among the other participants. He¡¯s climbing too slowly.¡±

    ¡°The only way for these people to show their true potential is to have livelypetition. It seems to me we need to stop rewarding him. That¡¯s how the 8,100-meter record was set years ago, right? It¡¯s just too bad no one ever reached 9,000 meters.¡±

    ¡°Forbidden by the Immortal is going to open soon, which means we need more people with strong wills and durable souls. Given that, I don¡¯t think we need to follow every single rule down to the letter. As long as the rewards are appropriate, that¡¯s fine!¡±

    ¡°Besides, I¡¯m very much looking forward to seeing if anyone will reach 9,000 meters this time.¡±

    ¡°9,000 meters?? If I recall, that magical symbol is the manifestation of the only god domain cultivator the Ghost Emperor ever killed.¡±

    Before long, just as Xu Qing was preparing to continue moving, a majestic voice echoed out from the Swordsage Court atop the pir.

    ¡°Whoever climbs the highest on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in the next six hours will be rewarded with an initial round of enlightenment of a human imperial-ss technique!¡±

    The announcement caused an immediate uproar among the crowds in Netherflight City.

    ¡°Human imperial-ss technique??¡±

    ¡°Normally speaking, that kind of reward is only given to swordsages who perform some meritorious service. An imperial-ss technique! And it¡¯s specifically for humans!¡±

    ¡°Human imperial-ss techniques are considered most orthodox when used by humans. Most sects in the seven counties and one region controlled by us humans actually use imperial-ss techniques designed for nonhumans. The best imperial-ss techniques for humans are the ones designed for us! They provide the greatest likelihood of unlocking innate abilities rted to bloodline!¡±

    ¡°It looks like they want thispetition to heat up! That¡¯s why they¡¯re offering this reward!¡±

    The crowd was in an uproar, and the candidates on the pir were equally shaken.

    Qing Qiu¡¯s eyes shone with an unusual light. The pock-faced middle-aged man¡¯s eyebrows shot up. The young man from the small sect started breathing heavily. And everyone else had simr reactions. They weren¡¯t the only ones who were moved. The dao child Zhang Siyun, who was currently seated in meditation, suddenly opened his phoenix-like eyes and looked in the direction of the pir. Xu Qing also looked up. Even he was moved by the prospect of an imperial-ss technique.

    Xu Qing thought about the situation. There¡¯s a six-hour time limit. That means I can¡¯t go slow and steady. Nor can I spend time destroying rancorous souls. I guess now... I really do have to fight to get first ce!

    Having made his decision, it was without the slightest hesitation that he burst into motion. Moving at top speed, he started ascending the pir. He wasn¡¯t the only one. All the other participants also started moving up with blinding speed. In the shortest of moments, thepetition on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir reached a fever pitch.

    At the moment, there were seven people higher than Xu Qing.

    Red-garbed Qing Qiu was in first ce. The young man from the small sect was in second. And the pock-faced middle-aged man was the dark horse in third ce. The young woman from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society with the cold demeanor was in fourth. In fifth was Sima Ru. Sixth ce was upied by a young man from the Church of Departure, who wore a ck robe and emanated icy coldness. In seventh was another cultivator from a small sect. He was actually struggling to get any higher; apparently 3,900 meters was his limit. In fact, his struggles seemed in vain. In the space of about ten breaths of time, Xu Qing sted past him from below.

    Xu Qing was now in seventh!

    Things didn¡¯t stop there. Now that Xu Qing had a goal, he wasn¡¯t holding anything back. Rancorous will assailed him, bing rancorous souls that howled into his sea of consciousness. However, it didn¡¯t do anything.

    He ignored their cries, crushed them, and kept moving. His actions immediately drew the attention of the cultivators below. What was more, the cultivators below him on the pir gritted their teeth and focused on climbing higher and faster.

    Up above, the swordsage elders seemed very pleased.

    ¡°That¡¯s better!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the drive you expect from young people! Now, let¡¯s see who ends up in first ce!¡±

 Chapter 359: The Youths Compete

    <h4>Chapter 359: The Youths Compete</h4>

    Xu Qing sped along, moving dozens of meters with each step, quickly leaving behind the young man who had previously been in seventh ce.

    That young man watched him go, feeling both anxious and powerless.

    <i>The disparity between us... is just too great.</i>

    He knew that Xu Qing was strong. After all, Xu Qing had been the first to reach 3,000 meters. He also knew he couldn¡¯tpare to Xu Qing. But he had never imagined that Xu Qing would be so terrifyingly beyond him. As far as he was concerned, being able to move so quickly while at such a great height was outrageous and nearly unbelievable. Thanks to the rancorous will attacks from the pir, he was trembling in both body and soul. And his sea of consciousness felt like it was being ripped apart.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was moving upward without any trouble at all. After having refined his Ghost Emperor mountain, its capacity increased significantly. Eventually, the rancorous souls appeared in his sea of consciousness every thirty meters. They took all sorts of shapes and forms, but Xu Qing could tell that most were nonhuman. The humans among them were the minority.

    Before, he had taken his time studying them before crushing them. But now, his eyes glittered with cold light as he crushed them with impunity! The Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness shone with bright light, and rocked back and forth, bing almost like a god that wiped the rancorous souls out of existence.

    Moving up at top speed, Xu Qing soon reached 4,200 meters. Before long, he was at 4,500 meters.

    That was where the ck-garbed young man from the Church of Departure was. The young man was going all out as he climbed higher and higher. His eyes were even bloodshot. However,pared to Xu Qing, he was moving very slow.

    Xu Qing whizzed up from behind him and then passed him.

    The young man looked over as he passed, and his eyes turned cold. Letting loose a shout, he quickly moved up by several dozen meters in an attempt to pass Xu Qing. But then his sea of consciousness shivered, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. He couldn¡¯t move any further, and was forced to tightly grip the protruding totem, then simply watch bitterly as Xu Qing kept moving higher.

    Before he joined the Church of Departure, he was considered a chosen cultivator in his hometown. He had surpassed many of his peers, and had done the same after joining the church. He had long believed that he was a true chosen, and that he qualified to be one of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns. It was for his own future that he had joined the Church of Departure. It was only after joining a sect that he came to realize<i> there are always more talented people out there, just as there are always higher heavens out there</i>.

    It had been a big blow to him. He had hoped to take advantage of his young age to join the Swordsage Court. Unfortunately for him, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture as a whole was vastlyrger than the Church of Departure, and that meant that there were even more chosen cultivators to deal with. All he could do now was watch as Xu Qing climbed higher and higher.

    4,500 meters. 4,650 meters. 4,800 meters!

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the people he passed. He was now in sixth ce, and just ahead of him was Sima Ru.

    She was panting for breath as she ascended one meter after another. Her eyes shone with determination, and she had a tenacious expression on her face. She didn¡¯t spare a single nce for Xu Qing as he approached.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t speak any more than she did. He just passed her and took fifth ce.

    Behind him, Sima Ru gripped the totem, her hand trembling and her teeth gritted.

    Xu Qing still had not slowed down. Having passed Sima Ru, he soon reached 5,100 meters. There was someone there; it was the young woman with a cold demeanor from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. She was currently in fourth ce.

    Her jaw was clenched and both of her hands were slick with blood. Determination filled her eyes as she slowly crawled up. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she kept going slower and slower. She was obviously very close to her limit.

    She saw Xu Qing. Xu Qing saw her.

    In her bedraggled state, the speed Xu Qing was capable of made her breathe unsteadily. And she could do nothing but re as he raced past her to reach 5,400 meters.

    That was the first location where Xu Qing sustained a berserk attack of rancorous will that pushed his Ghost Emperor mountain toward the point of being full. Normally speaking, he would have stopped right then and there. But he chose not to. Instead, he continued.

    Ahead of him were three people. There was the young man with the nose ring, the pock-faced fellow whose identity Xu Qing had already deduced, and... red-garbed Qing Qiu who had already passed 5,700 meters and was about to reach 6,000.

    Upon spotting Xu Qing, she leaped into motion, bing the first to reach 6,000 meters. That caused the crowd to burst into cheering.

    That said, she was too high to really hear the crowd. And she was surrounded by whipping winds that drove away all such sounds. Of even greater significance was the intense rancorous will that screamed into her mind and forced her to maintain full concentration. She was feeling a lot of pressure because of Xu Qing. The fact that he was now only 600 meters away caused her to grind her teeth. Meanwhile, her evil ghost scythe glowed with a red light that surrounded her. Blue veins bulged out on her forehead as she moved up with another burst of speed.

    However, there was someone else who suddenly elerated dramatically, and that was... the pock-faced middle-aged man. He was surrounded by frigid coldness that caused ice to form around him on the pir. Thanks to his burst of speed, he became the second person to reach 6,000 meters.

    The third was the young man with the nose ring, and the fourth was Xu Qing.

    Though the Ghost Emperor mountain was close to being full, Xu Qing didn¡¯t slow down. Actually, being able to rely on the mountain had made his mind and soul more resilient, which itself allowed him to keep climbing.

    Although it seemed like he had seeded because of the mountain, the truth was that cultivators who could climb this high had to have their own special methods of sess.

    Xu Qing sailed past the young man with the nose ring. As he did, the young man red at him defiantly, then gritted his teeth, performed an incantation gesture and pointed in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. It seemed to be a transference technique of some sort, as vast quantities of rancorous will poured out of him and headed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. In the entire time he had been climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, this was the first time someone had made a move against him.

    The young man¡¯s strange transference technique caused the shrill howling in Xu Qing¡¯s ears to grow louder. Then, rancorous will surged into his sea of consciousness, quickly turning into a massive winged nonhuman with the head of an eagle and the body of a human. It was pitch-ck and emanated terrifying fluctuations as it let loose a destructive howl into Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness.

    Because of how full the Ghost Emperor mountain was, it couldn¡¯t emit blinding light. Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness began vibrating, but thatsted for only a moment, until he snorted coldly and tapped into his poison core in his third heavenly pce.

    The howling rancorous spirit suddenly did a double take, then blurted, ¡°God domain!¡±

    Before Xu Qing could even crush the soul, it copsed and burrowed out of him. Apparently, it was fleeing, as it rushed right back toward the young man with the nose ring.

    As it bored into the young man, he shivered. In the blink of an eye, his sea of consciousness was thrown into chaos. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and before he could do more than blink, he was shoved off of the pir.

    He was injured, but wouldn¡¯t die. However, he realized he had done something potentially fatal, and thus, he didn¡¯t dare to look in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, and just flew away, his face pale.

    Xu Qing nced at him coldly before continuing his climb. Taking first ce was more important; he could deal with the young manter.

    Moving quickly, Xu Qing passed 6,000 meters. 150 meters ahead of him was the pock-faced man, and 300 meters away was Qing Qiu.

    Just as Xu Qing was assessing what was above him, the pock-faced man looked over his shoulder. Their eyes met.

    ¡°Long time no see, Captain,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. During the past month, every time he saw a disciple from the Dark Serenity Sect it made him think of that letter, and filled him with the desire to give the Captain a good thrashing.

    The Captain cleared his throat and then chuckled. ¡°Want to have anotherpetition, little Ah Qing? If you win, I¡¯ll let you beat me up. But if you lose, then you have to pay me the money you owe and then obediently take me with you to see Arch-Immortal Plumdark and settle things. Otherwise, I won¡¯t dare return to the sect or see the patriarch. Without a freaking home to go back to, my life is going to turn into pure suffering.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. He could tell that the Captain was being serious, so he gave him a serious nod in return.

    Their firstpetition had been back in the Forbidden Sea. The loser had been forced to dress up like a woman, specifically, a Seazombie princess. [1]

    This was their secondpetition.

    As the two of them came to an agreement, Qing Qiu, who was much higher up, was listening to a divine will message from her evil ghost scythe.

    <i>¡°That¡¯s them. Mad Dog and Ghost Hand are both right behind you. I just heard them talking aboutpeting to see which of them would take first ce. It¡¯s absolutely ridiculous andpletely presumptuous. It¡¯s like you don¡¯t even exist to them! How can you hold back? Why don¡¯t you just turn around and take them down with you in mutual destruction?¡±</i>

    ¡°You¡¯re always going on and on about mutual destruction!¡± Qing Qiu growled. ¡°Can you just shut up for once?¡± Her eyes shone crimson, and red light surrounded her as she elerated, quickly reaching the 6,600 meter point.

    However, that was when the Captain started moving. Blue light erupted from him, illuminating the dome of heaven and everything around him. What was more, it was just barely possible to see the veins beneath his skin. In fact, if you could pierce through his skin and look directly at his blood, you would see that it wasn¡¯t red, but rather, blue. Within his pupils were faces. And within the pupils of those faces¡¯ eyes were more faces. Layer afteryer, they made a deeply nefarious feeling that came with incredible speed.

    In one leap, he went 300 meters! With three leaps, he passed Qing Qiu and reached 6,900 meters!

    Up above, the swordsage elders seemed shocked as they looked at the Captain.

    ¡°A forbidden nightmare magic! A dao of spirit-sealing!¡±

    ¡°Some almighty being sealed an unknown entity in that kid! Whoever that almighty being was, they were so powerful! And the daoist magic was concealed, making it impossible to see what¡¯s sealed inside!¡±

    1. Their firstpetition was in ??

 Chapter 360: A Figure Seated on a Moon

    <h4>Chapter 360: A Figure Seated on a Moon</h4>

    When the Captain suddenly elerated dramatically, Qing Qiu¡¯s expression flickered with defiance. The red glow surrounding her grew stronger, spreading out in all directions until it became like a sea of blood. With that sea of blood bolstering her, she also started moving much more quickly, passing the 6,600-meter point. However, she was still a good distance from the Captain, and obviously wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up easily.

    As her eyes shone crimson, she suddenly felt an astonishing aura approaching from behind her. Turning to look over her shoulder, her eyes suddenly stung as though she were looking directly into the sun.

    It was none other than Xu Qing. The golden crow waspletely manifest behind him, its full 300-meter size on full disy. Not only did it radiate a majestic might, but also, it shone with dazzling light. Its neen, multicolored tails created a sea of mes that swept out in all directions around the pir. Within the fire was Xu Qing, moving rapidly. With one movement, he reached the 6,300-meter point.

    As for the resentful souls that formed in his sea of consciousness, he waspletely ignoring them. Then he extended his right hand, and two umbres appeared overhead. One was pitch ck and dripped with dark mes. It made him seem mysterious and enigmatic, and it also posed an obstacle to the rancorous will, which became dramatically weakened when trying to pass it. The other umbre was like a glittering treasure with a seven-colored glow, surrounded by a sound like chanting wind. As it purified Xu Qing, whatever rancorous will tried to enter him simply crumbled. His third heavenly pce was also active, and every vibration sent out destructive power to the rancorous souls.

    With all of those blessings, Xu Qing¡¯s aura was so strong it shook the dome of heaven, and caused wild winds to sweep about. Then he took another step, taking him to 6,600 meters, exactly as high as Qing Qiu. However, he wasn¡¯t anywhere close to being done. His glittering eyes didn¡¯t pause for a moment to shift to Qing Qiu, but instead were fixed on the Captain.

    They were bros, and also fellow daoists. Beyond that, they were the rare type ofpanions who were able to keep pace with each other on their path of cultivation. It actually didn¡¯t matter who was first and who wasn¡¯t. What was important was that both of them had their own goals, and were working hard to reach them. Both of them were following their own path and their own dreams. They could progress together, and they could even make sacrifices for the sake of their friendship. But one thing they couldn¡¯t do was take it easy on each other.

    If they were going topete, they wouldn¡¯t hold anything back! That was the way Xu Qing thought of it. And that was how the Captain thought of it too.

    Xu Qing was moving again. The golden crow let loose a piercing cry, then merged into Xu Qing, bing like a yellow robe around him, and bringing out the full potential of his fleshly body power.

    It seemed to fill him with boundless energy, causing his energy and blood to surge. It wasn¡¯t something that caused his body to bulk up, yet anyone that couldy eyes on him would be able to sense something like an entire burning heaven and earth within him.

    With that terrifying fleshly body power, Xu Qing took a third step.

    When his footnded, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir vibrated. Then he moved again, surpassing Qing Qiu and appearing at the 6,900 meter spot. He appeared... right next to the Captain.

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing with glittering eyes. However, his forehead was dotted with sweat; clearly, his astonishing burst of speed hadn¡¯t been easy. There was no way he would admit that, though. Instead, heughed heartily.

    ¡°Nice job, little Junior Brother! Sadly for you, I¡¯m just warming up!¡± With that, the Captain moved forward to the 6,990 mark, surpassing Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing also leaped forward, passing the Captain to reach 7,110 meters. Though he wasn¡¯t sweating, he was panting a bit. Raising his eyebrows, he quietly said, ¡°So am I, Eldest Brother.¡±

    Suddenly, a howl from behind reached their ears, and they saw a bright red glow that surpassed 300 meters. Qing Qiu¡¯s uniqueughter echoed out from within that red glow, along with a very dangerous aura.

    ¡°Heh heh... you two are very amusing.¡±

    Suddenly, she elerated dramatically, heading right toward Xu Qing and the Captain. Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother looking back. He just continued. The Captain did the same. All three moved with shocking speed up the pir.

    7,200 meters. 7,500 meters. 7,800 meters!

    At that point, the limitations of Qing Qiu¡¯s cultivation base became evident. She had reached the end of her explosive advance, and began to slow down. However, Xu Qing and the Captain were still moving at top speed.

    Both passed 7,800 meters. As they sped up, each would asionally nce at the other. One was gasping for breath, the other was covered with sweat.

    All the while, they were exchanging words.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going tost, little Junior Brother. And what¡¯s with all the huffing and puffing? It¡¯s so loud I bet the people down on the ground can hear you. Ai, it¡¯s just like I told you before. You¡¯re too young. Not physically capable of this kind of thing.¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother, you¡¯re leaving a river of sweat behind you on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Why don¡¯t you stop and rest for a bit? I¡¯m worried you¡¯ll get dehydrated.¡±

    Even as they bantered, they secretly elerated, each of them trying to shake the other. Both were climbing higher and higher, trying to take the first ce spot.

    All Qing Qiu could do was look at them and grind her teeth. ¡°Howe I always have to run into those two damned idiots?¡±

    Even worse, she could hear their banter, and it made it impossible for her to keep her cool. It was worse given the terrifying attacks by the rancorous will. It was much harder than before to drive out or possibly destroy the rancorous souls in her sea of consciousness. She had no concentration left to think about talking, yet Xu Qing and the Captain had the energy to exchange sarcasticments.

    ¡°Those two have serious mental problems!¡± she growled.

    Meanwhile, the evil ghost scythe was sending her thoughts via divine will. <i>¡°Go for it! Go for broke! Let¡¯s end things with them in mutual destruction!¡±</i>

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the Captain passed 8,100 meters and reached 8,400 meters. From that height, everything below looked like tiny miniatures. The people in the crowd were too small to see clearly. In fact, all of Netherflight City could be obscured with a single hand.

    Surrounding them were swirling mists and strong winds. That said, they were still very far away from the top of the pir. The attacks of rancorous will were incredibly strong. And they didn¡¯t limit themselves to the sea of consciousness, but rather, the entire body.

    Every square inch of their flesh and blood was filled with rancorous will. Xu Qing, even with his third heavenly pce helping to fight back, was finding it difficult to get rid of the rancorous will. Even his lifemps were unstable. It wasn¡¯t that they weren¡¯t strong enough, but rather, the fact that his cultivation base was limited. It was the same with Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, which seemed very weary.

    After all, this height surpassed all of the various records that the Swordsage Court kept during their recruitment events. From ancient times until modern, though there had been people who climbed this high, their cultivation bases were much higher, meaning that they didn¡¯t qualify to be recruits.

    Xu Qing and the Captain weren¡¯t bantering as much as before. But they were still bantering.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going tost, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain said, sweat dripping down him. Even he was starting to pant for breath. However, he was 15 meters higher than Xu Qing.

    ¡°I still have poisons I can use, Captain,¡± Xu Qing said. He pushed off with both legs, flying past the Captain and grabbing onto the edge of one of the totems. Pulling himself up, he went farther than the 15 meters separating him and the Captain.

    The mention of poison caused the Captain¡¯s expression to flicker. Then he saw Xu Qing surpass him, and his eyes flickered with a crazy light. ¡°I have trump cards left too!¡±

    Suddenly, he leaned over and bit into one of the magical symbols. A crunching sound rang out. Though he didn¡¯t manage to actually take a bite out of the symbol, he did leave some teeth marks in it. What was more, close examination would reveal that there was a lot more rancorous will in that particr symbol. Unexpectedly, the Captain hadn¡¯t been taking a bite, but rather, vomiting up rancorous will! All of the rancorous energy that had built up in him had been sent into that magical symbol.

    Looking suddenly much more rxed, he elerated with shocking speed, directly passing 8,400 meters to reach 8,700. And then he continued to 9,000 meters.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. As for Qing Qiu, she couldn¡¯t have been more shocked. At the same time, her evil ghost scythe eximed, <i>¡°That¡¯s Mad Dog for you!¡±</i>

    When Xu Qing saw the Captain reach 9,000 meters, his eyes also glittered with a crazy look. Suddenly, his poison core in his third heavenly pce erupted with boundless poison, spreading out to cover him. None of it seeped out into the open; every bit entered his flesh and blood. His taboo poison core could poison all living things. And rancorous energy counted as a living thing!

    It was something Xu Qing had learned firsthand when dealing with that giant monk¡¯s head from the ghost ward back in Forbidden by the Phoenix. [1]

    As the poison spread through him, whatever rancorous will was left behind in his flesh, blood, and sea of consciousness... all let loose howls of grief as it was eradicated.

    The Captain used vomiting. Xu Qing used extermination. They were <i>different approaches with equally satisfactory oues</i>.

    Xu Qing elerated, quickly reaching 8,700 meters. And then, just as the Captain reached 9,000 meters, Xu Qing caught up!

    At that location, there was a special totem design. It was a humanoid shape covering its face as it sat atop a moon. The moment the two of them reached that spot, the totem flickered, sending out two ripples of rancorous will that pulsed with godliness. Those ripples went right toward Xu Qing and the Captain, and then pierced into them.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing. The same thing happened to the Captain.

    They stopped in ce there at 9,000 meters as a figure appeared in each of their seas of consciousness.

    ***

    High above in the Swordsage Court, the elders¡¯ eyes glittered brightly.

    ¡°Finally... some candidates reached 9,000 meters!¡±

    ¡°Based on our analysis, the magical symbol there... depictes one of the handful of surviving moons of the group of thirty-seven that once existed in the Revered Ancient maind.¡±

    1. Xu Qing dealt with the monk¡¯s head in ??

 Chapter 361: A God in the Moon!

    <h4>Chapter 361: A God in the Moon!</h4>

    There was a special totem 9,000 meters up the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. It was a figure covering its face with its hands, seated on a moon. Not very many people knew about this totem, yet it wasn¡¯t top secret. It was just that the totem represented something considered taboo, and therefore, the people who knew of it weren¡¯t inclined to talk about it.

    After taking control of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, the swordsages had studied the totem and came to realize that it depicted one of the moons of the Revered Ancient maind.

    Revered Ancient was a massive ce that didn¡¯t just have a single moon. Nor did it have only a single sun. From ancient times until modern, the number of suns and moons had never been fixed. Generally, they had increased over time. In fact, when the broken face of the god arrived, there were thirty-seven suns and thirty-seven moons. They were scattered in different parts of Revered Ancient, and would all shine in the sky at the same time. What was more, every few thousand years, they would adjust their position to ensure that their light was more widely distributed.

    Even still, the Revered Ancient maind was so vast that many areas didn¡¯t benefit from sunlight. There were some species who were used to living in darkness. At the same time, there were other species who never even saw darkness.

    When the broken face of the god arrived, the suns and moons suffered heavy casualties. Right now, the Revered Ancient maind only had seventeen suns left. There were fewer moons, with only twelve remaining.

    The totem 9,000 meters up the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir depicted one of those twelve surviving moons. Based on extensive research, it was determined that the totem formed after the death of a god domain cultivator. In other words, the moon in the carving obviously had some deep connections to that in cultivator.

    After making inquiries from the imperial capital, the Swordsage Court developed a theory that many species hade to believe in over the years. And that was... that the seventeen suns and twelve moons of Revered Ancient... had gods sleeping inside of them. It was a monumental matter. The countless species in existence didn¡¯t have any hard evidence to prove the theory was true, only little bits of evidence here and there. As a result, it could only be considered spection.

    But there was one thing that the species had confirmed using a special method, and that was... god domains did have gods in them.

    To the innumerable species on the Revered Ancient maind, god domains were ces full of mystery, the unknown, and... terror.

    All high-level entities from various species knew where the god domains were. That was because they were fixed locations that never changed. However, it wasn¡¯t easy to get inside of them. Even just getting close to them would cause one to tremble violently. And trying to force one¡¯s way in would result in certain death.

    For years on end, it was known that bizarre entities would asionally emerge from god domains. However, they were extremely rare, to the point where they were only mentioned in passing in a few records here and there. In most cases, there was one word used to describe them: godchildren.

    Given all that, it was no wonder that the swordsages paid a lot of attention to that one particr totem. Though it was only a manifestation of rancorous will, to the Swordsage Court, it was a potential source of immense gain. Unfortunately, the totem didn¡¯t activate every time someone reached it.

    Thankfully... today it did activate.

    What was more, it released two streams of rancorous will, one into the Captain¡¯s sea of consciousness, and the other into Xu Qing¡¯s.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what exactly was happening with the Captain. All he knew was that the soul shadow of a young man was forming in his sea of consciousness. He was blurry and indistinct, as if he might disappear at any moment. Yet it was still possible to make out the features of a handsome young man who seemed inherently luxurious. In fact, he seemed wless to the point where he wasn¡¯t real. He seemed... bewitching.

    He was covered with countless red sealing marks, and on his forehead was a moon totem. After appearing in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, his face waspletely expressionless and his eyes were empty. Looking up into heaven, he bowed deeply and began to speak in anguage Xu Qing had never heard before, yet could instinctively understand.

    ¡°Mdy, the shimmering moon; lead the way to Revered Ancient; all living beings suffer in bitterness; live in ease andfort in paradise.¡±

    As his words echoed out, the moon totem on his forehead glittered with red light. As it spread out, Xu Qing realized that he could see the image of a moon behind the young man.

    A red moon.

    As it floated in his sea of consciousness, it shone down, casting everything in crimson. At the same time, it emanated a boundless mutagen, which raged out to invade every corner of Xu Qing¡¯s body. His mind spun.

    He saw a figure on the moon, female, with long hair, her hands covering her face as she sat there unmoving. The moment Xu Qingid eyes on her, an astonishing pressure erupted from the moon, causing his sea of consciousness to tremble, and shaking his soul. Everything turned blurry, while at the same time, the sound of vague, indistinct murmuring rose up. It was as if countless living beings were all speaking at the same time, creating an indescribable force that battered at Xu Qing¡¯s soul.

    Immense pressure built up as the surrounding mutagen grew stronger. From Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly pces to the depths of his soul. From his fleshly body to his spirit seas, to his dharma apertures. Mutagen filled everything.

    It was as if he himself had be an entire world, and the moon was the broken face of the god. As that god¡¯s eyes opened, all living things experienced the Awakening of Insects, as if their very foundation was being forced to change. [1]

    At the same time, a powerful divine will shot out from the moon, pressing down on Xu Qing¡¯s soul as if forcing him to surrender and offer obeisance.

    ¡°All respect to the Lady; thou shalt have evesting life;e to the Lady¡¯s god domain; thou shalt have paradise.¡±

    The figure in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness trembled as if in anguish. Clearly it wanted him to also submit to that divine will.

    However, Xu Qing justughed, killing intent building in his heart and mind.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want evesting life from anybody! As for god domains... the broken face of the god creates god domains by looking at them thrice. Therefore, if he looks three times at a person and they don¡¯t die, then what? I really want to know! No, you don¡¯t deserve to be in charge of me!¡± [2]

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing fought back with all the strength he had. The golden crow appeared in his sea of consciousness, letting loose its piercing cry and releasing blinding light. The Ghost Emperor mountain trembled as it released crushing pressure.

    In response, the moon and the figure on it erupted with even stronger divine will, and also added even more mutagen to assail Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing felt that, he quietly added, ¡°By the way, you have mutagen? Well... so do I!¡±

    The taboo poison core in his third heavenly pce erupted with a boundless ck cloud of poison that instantly filled his sea of consciousness and then headed right toward the moon! At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s mutagen seeped out into his sea of consciousness, more and more as it attacked the moon.

    As a result, the sides of the moon started to change color. As darkness filled the red, it turned into something violet.

    This matter was absolutely unprecedented!

    In the years the Swordsage Court had studied that totem, things always yed out as they had at first with Xu Qing. The soul shadow of the young man in by the Ghost Emperor would appear. He had no mind of his own, nor many memories. All he had were some scraps of instinct. That instinct would automatically reveal the red moon, and then release something like the power of a god to crush anything and everything in his presence.

    Of course, the godly power was illusory, and based on what the Swordsage Court could determine, it was actually a materialization of what few memories the young man retained.

    It was <i>as unrealistic as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water</i>, and couldn¡¯t actuallypare to the real power of a god. That was why experts from the Swordsage Court could suppress it. And when cultivators reached that point but failed, they wouldn¡¯t suffer any ill consequences. The worst that would happen was that they would be weakened mentally. However, there was no danger of being possessed.

    As for the mutagen, it could easily be extruded, so there was no real danger to one¡¯s life. After all, it wasn¡¯t very strong, and was illusory in nature.

    But now things were going differently. Xu Qing¡¯s mutagen was actually making a counter invasion!

    Invasion was the main way mutagen manifested. For instance, when the broken face of the god arrived, the resulting aura invaded all living things. It didn¡¯t matter if they were real or illusory, they were all invaded.

    As for what happened when mutagen invaded mutagen, that wasn¡¯t something that modern cultivators could even know about. Inside Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, the red moon trembled. As it did, a sigh echoed out from within, like something from far in the distance, from far out in the void, from ancient time.

    It was no spokennguage, but rather, like a breath.

    However, the moment it happened, rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness. Within his body, explosive vibrations caused him to shake, and filled his soul with pain, as though it might copse. His heavenly pces were also trembling, and cracks started spreading out on them, as though they might fall to pieces. His sea of consciousness trembled, and his body shook. His organs started to fall apart. The Ghost Emperor mountain shook, and the golden crow let loose a piercing cry.

    Because of all of that, as Xu Qing stood at the spot 9,000 meters up the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, blood erupted from his mouth. At the same time, blood sprayed out of his pores, creating a blood mist around him. Intense pain filled him, and the signs of copse grew stronger in his sea of consciousness. His vision started to fade, and he couldn¡¯t stay on his feet.

    As everyone below looked on, he suddenly tumbled off the pir.

    Countless gasps rang out. Then, a blood-colored figure shot up toward him at top speed.

    It was none other than Sir Bloodsmelter.

    He caught Xu Qing, and then, his expression very serious, produced a golden medicinal pill that he put into his mouth. Before he could observe him to see the results, another agonized shriek rang out from the 9,000-meter spot on the pir.

    The Captain fell, blood spraying out of his mouth and blood mist appearing around him. More dramatic than that was the fact that his lower body, everything from his belly down, exploded. It almost seemed like he had eaten something that he shouldn¡¯t have eaten.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes narrowed as he reached out to catch the Captain with his other arm.

    Xu Qing, after eating the golden medicinal pill, had already regained consciousness. He looked weak, and his sea of consciousness was damaged. But when he saw what was now in his sea of consciousness, his breath caught in his throat and his eyes started to shine.

    It was a very, very small violet moon. Despite how small it was, it pulsed with hair-raising power, and was clearly in the process of maturing.

    The Captain opened his eyes a momentter, and they burned with passion.

    ***

    Meanwhile, a great distance away from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, in the far west where humans rarely encroached, red light glittered in the night sky. No sun shone on thosends, and therefore, they were in perpetual night. Other than the broken face of the god in the sky, there was only one other thing: a red moon.

    Bewitching moonlight glittered bright red, shining down ontonds... that were full of bones. They were scraped dry by the wind, and they filled thendscape as far as the eye could see. There were all sorts of species represented, heaped into piles. If you started digging down, it was hard to say how long it would take before you reached soil. No one knew how long ago these nonhumans had died. Maybe a thousand years in the past. Maybe longer ago than that. But before death, all had been covering their faces.

    All of a sudden, a whisper rang out from the red moon in the sky.

    ¡°Two of my godly breaths vanished. I can replenish them. For years, that¡¯s the way it¡¯s been. I shouldn¡¯t wake up just because of something like this, should I? Wait, hold on. Someone... stole some of my godsource? Who was it?¡±

    Along with the voice came a surge of mutagen in thends below, causing everything to twist and distort.

    1. Don¡¯t forget the first volume of the novel was called Awakening of Insects, and the effects of the broken face of the god were likened to that specific sr term. See ??

    2. In the narrative, gods (including the broken face) are almost always referred to with the divine pronoun, which I convey with that special diacritical mark (for instance h¨¥, h¨©m, th¨¥y, etc.). In this passage, Xu Qing does not use the divine pronoun. He almost certainly knows of its existence and how to use it, as the legend of the golden crow features that same divine pronoun (see ??

 Chapter 362: Who Was It? Oh, It Was You!

    Chapter 362: Who Was It? Oh, It Was You!

    In the northern tundra in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, next to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, Sir Bloodsmelter was about to take away Xu Qing and the Captain. Before he could, the pir suddenly erupted with over a hundred beams of light that shot right toward him. The suddenness of it provoked numerous gasps from the crowd below.

    Sir Bloodsmelter reacted quickly. Flicking his sleeve, he gathered the beams of light before they could even arrive, then turned and flew away.

    With Xu Qing and the Captain falling one after the other, thepetition over ranking was on the verge of ending. Although the others climbing the pir could continue struggling, there was no way any of them would take first ce.

    The most likely contender was Qing Qiu, who was currently just past 8,700 meters, her teeth gritted as she slowly moved up.

    As for the elders from the Swordsage Court who had been watching the proceedings, their eyes all glittered as they watched Sir Bloodsmelter take Xu Qing and Chen Erniu away.

    ¡°Those two little punks must have both taken a bit of the totem¡¯s aura.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve done a lot of research into that totem¡¯s aura over the years, and it¡¯s very mysterious. Unfortunately, it¡¯s never been possible to absorb it, only use it externally.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s something they definitely can¡¯t control. In ordance with our rules and systems, we can send someone to just take the aura back, andpensate them with military credits. That said, if they don¡¯t agree, there¡¯s no need to force them.¡±

    While the elders put forth a resolution regarding the matter, Qing Qiu eventually stopped at 8,790 meters. That was her personal limit, and she couldn¡¯t go any farther. If she tried, she might seed, but it could destabilize her foundation. And besides, there was no way she would ever make it to 9,000 meters. To Qing Qiu¡¯s regret, she had to release her grip and drop down.

    With Qing Qiu¡¯s run ended, it seemed to signal the end of thepetition. However, only half of the six-hour time limit had passed. And that was when someone walked out of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    He was tall and handsome, his expression calm as his long, blue robe swirled around him like flowing water. His eyes were especially noteworthy, as they glittered brightly. What was more, there were magical symbols in his pupils. As he walked along, the air around him twisted and distorted as if in response to some technique he cultivated. In fact, it made it seem like he was piercing through space itself. It was something rarely seen among Gold Core cultivators.

    His arrival on the scene attracted immediate attention. Many people inhaled sharply, and looks of reverence could be seen on faces everywhere as people stepped aside to make a path for him.

    He was the dao child from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, Zhang Siyun. His face was tranquil as he strolled forward. He didn¡¯t like being in the presence of bugs, so he hadn¡¯t been interested in climbing the pir with Xu Qing and the others. He waited until everyone gave up before he arrived.

    As everyone looked on, he reached the pir and started moving up. He took one step, a leap that propelled him seemingly without stop all the way to 3,000 meters.

    The eyes of the onlookers glowed, but there was no chatter or cheering. It was as if everyone had expected that he would do something like that. After all, he was the top disciple in this generation among humans in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture!

    Meanwhile, the swordsage elders turned their attention to him.

    ¡°This Zhang Siyun isn¡¯t bad at all. You might as well consider him a quasi-swordsage.¡±

    ¡°His Sect Grandfather is none other than Daoist South Arbiter, who is one of the four honor guards in the county¡¯s Swordsage Pce. Though his rank is technically the same as our own, the fact that he works at the pce means that we have to address him as ¡®exalted¡¯ whenever we see him.¡±

    ¡°I heard a rumor that Daoist South Arbiter asked Zhang Siyun if he wanted to skip the selection process. But the kid refused and said he wanted to participate. He wanted to be a swordsage the normal way. Only afterward would he take advantage of his Sect Grandfather¡¯s authority to bolster his standings among us swordsages.¡±

    ¡°That just shows how confident he is. There are only three spots avable, but in his mind, he already has one of them.¡±

    ¡°There are more outstanding individuals this time than expected. We¡¯ll have to wait and see who those three spots go to.¡±

    As the swordsage elders discussed the matter, Zhang Siyun didn¡¯t slow down at all. From the 3,000-meter spot, he ascended to 5,100 meters. And then, with seemingly no effort at all, he reached 6,000 meters. It was only then that he slowed down a bit. However, all he did was pause for a moment. Then he kept moving at top speed. 6,600 meters. 7,200 meters. 7,800 meters.

    If you looked very closely, you would see that he was actually panting a bit. After all, the attacks of rancorous will at that height were very intense. But then an umbre suddenly appeared, covering him with dazzling white light.

    It was his lifemp. It was different from Xu Qing¡¯s two umbres, which were ck and seven-colored respectively. This umbre was pure white, and it gave off a holy sensation as it burned with white mes. It looked almost like an inverted mountain, bursting with divine, holy sensations. It was a white-mountain holy-memp! Massive amounts of white fire surrounded the mountain, flowing along it, burning the air that was near it.

    And beneath it, Zhang Siyun was also surrounded by white fire. It emanated a white glow that created a perfect contrast to his blue robe. He seemed extraordinarily handsome, and his calm eyes abounded with a divine and holy look.

    What was more, a piercing cry rang out from behind him. The air behind him shattered as a huge white dragon emerged from within him, then circled around him. It had two long dragon whiskers which undted on either side of him. The smaller whiskers growing on its neck also rippled in the wind. It made Zhang Siyun seem like he was an otherworldly immortal that even an azure dragon would yield to.

    Looking down at the ground, he thought, Those bugs from before don¡¯t deserve to stand higher than me. Now they can watch as I crush their records.

    With that, he moved again, effortlessly going higher and higher. 8,100 meters. 8,400 meters. 8,700 meters. Passing the spot where Qing Qiu had been forced to give up, he reached 9,000 meters. His intention was to keep moving, but just like before, the bizarre moon totem released a sh of light. The third!

    A tremor passed through Zhang Siyun.

    ***

    Far from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the distant west of Revered Ancient, in and of endless night where a red moon hung in the sky, a vague, indistinct voice rang out.

    ¡°Who stole some godsource from... huh? Oh, it was you.¡±

    ***

    The moment that voice spoke, Zhang Siyun, who was 9,000 meters up the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, suddenly experienced a change in facial expression. Now, he lookedpletely astonished.

    The calm in his eyes vanished, to be reced with horror. Disbelief and utter incredulity swept through him as he sensed an indescribable, shocking power inundating him. It was like a god had descended, bursting with rage and extermination! It was so sudden that he was like a bug beneath the finger of a giant, incapable of fighting back. Iparably weak.

    A bloodcurdling scream escaped his lips, along with a mouthful of blood. Popping sounds rang out of him as blood sprayed from his pores. His lifemp umbre dimmed as if it might be extinguished. The white dragon behind him let loose an agonized shriek as half of it exploded, staining the rest of it bright red with blood. Zhang Siyun experienced the same thing. His legs exploded, while the rest of his body, including his arms and torso, became a mass of mangled gore. As the effects of eradication spread, despair appeared on his face, as well as deep confusion. He really had no idea what was happening. It was all too sudden.

    A figure shot out from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, and at the same time, several of the swordsage elders took action.

    The elders weren¡¯t showing partiality. Though Xu Qing and Chen Erniu had been seriously hurt, it obviously hadn¡¯t been so serious, and didn¡¯t border on being fatal. But for some reason, it seemed that Zhang Siyun was about to be wiped out of existence. They couldn¡¯t just stand idly by while a chosen died in that manner.

    In the blink of an eye, the figure from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society arrived. Including the swordsage elders, that made a total of four Void Returning cultivators who had arrived to save Zhang Siyun.

    The person from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was an old man. Without any hesitation he produced a huge quantity of precious materials, including an iparably valuable ¡®supreme arbiter pill.¡¯ That pill had previously been intended for Zhang Siyun to use during a critical breakthrough moment. But there wasn¡¯t time to worry about that now. The terrifying life force in that pill,bined with countless other medicinal pills, was the only thing that kept Zhang Siyun¡¯s injuries in check.

    Having done that, the old man from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society took the weak and unconscious Zhang Siyun into his arms. Looking at the swordsage elders, he said, ¡°Exalted elders, what happened?¡±

    The three elders were also puzzled. Looking at the totem on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, they smiled wryly and shook their heads.

    ¡°We¡¯ll look into it right away.¡±

    The old man from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society sighed and took Zhang Siyun away.

    The event was now over. The Swordsage Court quickly sealed the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and prohibited further climbing attempts. Then they got to work studying the pir.

    Under the shocked eyes of the crowd, Zhang Siyun was taken back to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society garrison, where no expense was spared to heal him. Zhang Siyun was an extraordinary individual, so it only took two days for him to recover.

    However, neither he, nor the old man from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, nor the Swordsage Court ever noticed... the real reason why he didn¡¯t end up dead.

    Deeply hidden in a corner of Zhang Siyun¡¯s sea of consciousness... was a red moon. Seated atop that moon was a figure with both hands covering its face. That was particrly strange considering that the figure didn¡¯t have any facial features. Instead, its face was covered with countless tiny holes that wriggled and writhed, all while fresh blood flowed out of them.... It was very, very inauspicious.

    ***

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t him. The thief must be simr to me.... After I return, I¡¯ll find the thief and consume him. This body is weak. It needs time to get stronger. Until then... I¡¯ll continue sleeping.¡±

    The whisper from the moon grew fainter and fainter.

    ***

    Zhang Siyun didn¡¯t have the ability to know what was happening. He thought everything had gone back to normal. But the truth was that there was only one reason he wasn¡¯t dead.

    Back in the Eight Sect Coalition garrison, Xu Qing, who was seated cross-legged in meditation trying to recover, suddenly opened his eyes. They were filled with lingering fear and also astonishment as he looked in the direction of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society garrison.

 Chapter 363: Realizing the Truth

    Chapter 363: Realizing the Truth

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel anything specific. It was just a palpitating fear that popped up mysteriously in his heart.

    ¡°Over there...¡± he murmured, vignce rising within him.

    He had been very seriously injured, so the past few days had been spent solely on recovery. He was now mostly better, so he took out a transmission jade slip and sent a message to find out what had gone on recently, especially as it rted to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    The person he asked was none other than Sir Bloodsmelter. Xu Qing knew that simply thanking the patriarch would be meaningless. The patriarch had been the first to react when Xu Qing started falling from the 9,000-meter spot on the pir. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to forget that. Nor would he forget all of the medicinal pills the patriarch had given him to aid in his recovery. When people treated him well, even a little bit, Xu Qingmitted that to memory. Of course, it was the same with people who treated him poorly.

    Xu Qing received an answer within moments. The patriarch exined everything that happened with the totem, including the story about the suns and moons perishing. He also told Xu Qing the secret about there being more gods than just the broken face in the sky.

    After hearing all that, Xu Qing was shocked, to say the least. The information was outright sensational, but even more astonishing was that the details perfectly conformed to what he had experienced.

    He suddenly thought back to Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, and the images in the dragon chariot pulled by the giant. He had always thought it strange that, carved on the chariot was the story of the sun perishing, and yet, there was still a sun in the sky. [1]

    Now he had his answer. The young man who¡¯d once sat in that dragon chariot was one of the fallen suns.

    The patriarch said that the totem on the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir depicts one of the surviving twelve moons of the Revered Ancient. It lies in the extreme west of the maind, iparably far from here. What¡¯s more, most species believe that the suns and moons have gods sleeping within them. I could sense breathing from the moon that appeared in my sea of consciousness.... And then there are the words spoken by that young man¡¯s soul....

    The answer was right there.

    A god. I used a mutagen invasion to steal that violet moon. Is it actually part of that god¡¯s power?

    Xu Qing cast his senses to the violet moon within his sea of consciousness. The violet moon seemed to represent only 1/1,000,000th of the red moon, yet it was still incredibly terrifying. In fact, just observing it, Xu Qing felt his hair standing on end. It was the same sensation he would get when looking at the closed eyes of the broken face of the god in the sky.

    That said, though he felt shaken, he didn¡¯t sense any imminent danger. The violet moon was now deeply connected to him, and he had a measure of control over it. That control was very, very minimal. At the moment, doing anything with it would be incredibly difficult. At most, he could cause some of its aura to seep out.

    The mutagen came from me. Therefore, whatever the mutagen invades bes part of me.

    Feeling absolutely certain of that assessment, he looked up into the sky.

    Does that mean that when the god above sends mutagen down, whatever it infects is within his control? After pondering the matter for a time, his eyes flickered as he suddenly thought about the Captain.

    The Captain got the same thing I did. Except his belly exploded. That must mean he tried to eat it. Definitely not the same as me. Taking out a jade slip, he sent a message to the Captain and told him about the conclusions he¡¯d reached.

    ¡°Captain, if you absorbed some of that energy, it could be really dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry about it. I ate too much, that¡¯s all. If it was true that a god could take control of me that way, then there would already be a bunch of gods all fighting over who I belong to. Little Ah Qing, there¡¯s no need to get jealous. Girls fight over you, and it¡¯s the same in my case, except with gods.¡± The Captainughed heartily. ¡°Besides, it¡¯s also possible that what¡¯s sealed inside of me isn¡¯t just a grue. You never know. Maybe I have a god sealed inside me. So maybe you should actually help me! Give me your portion as well. I¡¯ll help you deal with the pain!¡±

    ¡°No thanks, Captain.¡±

    Xu Qing turned off the jade slip. Based on what he knew about his Eldest Brother, the fact that he¡¯d said such things just meant that he was able to deal with the situation. As for all the talk of him having a god sealed inside him, Xu Qing didn¡¯t believe it.

    After taking some time to settle his thoughts, he started analyzing the sensation of fear he¡¯d experienced that came from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s dao child fell from the 9,000-meter spot, and was nearly killed in body and soul. Whatever went wrong, it happened because he was the third person to climb 9,000 meters.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, certain possibilities urred to him.

    Is it possible that when the Captain and I stole some of that god¡¯s energy, it woke up? And then, when it saw Zhang Siyun...?

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes widened as he came to the conclusion that this possibility was very likely. That would exin why Zhang Siyun nearly died.

    But that doesn''t make sense. If that god really woke up, there¡¯s no way that Zhang Siyun, a mere Gold Core cultivator, could have survived. He¡¯d be dead beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    The more he thought about it, the more trepidatious he felt.

    Given that Zhang Siyun survived, why am I sensing fear and danger?

    After more thought, his heart began to pound as a terrifying possibility urred to him.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s near-death experience was rted to that red moon. And the fact that he didn¡¯t die also rtes to that moon....

    His guard went up even more than before. He couldn¡¯t be absolutely sure that his assessment was correct, but stayingpletely on guard still seemed like the best thing to do.

    Seven days passed, and it was nearly time for the true fighting to begin for the swordsage recruitment qualifications.

    Quite a few notable things happened in those seven days.

    For example, the inspection of the pir didn¡¯t end, which meant that no one was allowed to climb it. Xu Qing was a bit disappointed about that.

    The Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness was growing increasingly true and real, and the face was now about ny percent simr to his own. As for the staff that was taking shape in the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s hands, it was no longer mostly transparent. Instead, it was bing very clear.

    A decision had been made about the final rankings. Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, and Zhang Siyun all reached 9,000 meters, and thus they tied for first ce. All of them would have one chance to gain enlightenment of that imperial-ss technique.

    However, that chance wouldn¡¯te immediately. It would happen after the recruitment event was over.

    The patriarch had already sent the pir rewards to Xu Qing. Unfortunately, because they all came at once, it wasn¡¯t possible to tell which reward belonged to who. So the patriarch made the decision that, based on Xu Qing¡¯s performance, he would get seventy percent of the reward items, while Chen Erniu would get thirty.

    The Captain was very happy about that. As for Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t feel like bickering.

    One of the rewards was a legacy technique. It was called the Goldughter Secret, and cultivating it provided a measure of control over golden, metallic energy. It could even be turned into a deadly weapon. After cultivating it, Xu Qing gave it to the Captain. The Captain knew about Xu Qing trying to collect septenary goldmetal energy, so he gave all of that energy from his rewards to Xu Qing in exchange for energy that he needed. Xu Qing was originally nning to sell everything else. However, the Captain pointed out that after they went to the capital city of Sea-Sealing County, they could be useful. Given that, Xu Qing put everything away forter use.

    The Captain and Xu Qing talked about whether the Swordsage Court would ask them questions about them taking the energy from the totem.

    The Captain suggested that it was a good opportunity for them toe clean, and that they should just return the energy to the swordsages. Xu Qing had to admit what the Captain said made sense. Unfortunately, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t actually do that. The energy he had wasn¡¯t from that red moon, but instead, a violet moon.

    The Captain produced his stream of energy anyway, and handed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was obviously surprised by the Captain¡¯s generosity.

    ¡°It¡¯s because I have something much bigger in the works. Heh heh. It¡¯s currently in the nning stages. When the timees, I¡¯ll need your help. This time, I¡¯m nning to eat something really satisfying.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    As of now, he had enough of the septenary goldmetal energy topletely transform the iron skewer into a spirit weapon. When the process was done, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior would be able to enter it again. It only took a moment. The ck iron skewer instantly grew mightier. Then, whenbined with the red tribtion lightning from the patriarch, it had the killing power of three heavenly pces.

    Xu Qing hefted it and looked very pleased.

    The shadow didn¡¯t look happy to be ying second fiddle, yet didn¡¯t have any options at hand. All it could do was send Xu Qing emotional fluctuations via divine will, emphasizing that it would be obedient. It also expressed that it was both terrified and hopeful regarding the violet moon.

    Xu Qing felt a bit sorry for the shadow, so he let it get closer to the moon. The shadow cautiously approached, and then bowed down in obeisance, like a wolf bowing to the moon. Then it carefully began doing cultivation exercises. It was an odd sight to Xu Qing, but it also gave him a deeper understanding of the violet moon.

    Maybe the violet moon can be the core for my fifth heavenly pce.

    He had finished his third heavenly pce, and had already nned things out for his fourth. The core would be his bluegreen dragon, and it would be his life essence pce.

    Normally speaking, his life essence heavenly pce, which woulde from the enlightenment he had gained in Qi Condensation from his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale, would have been his first heavenly pce. However, Xu Qing¡¯s path of cultivation was different from most other people. His two lifemps became heavenly pces, and then he made another with the taboo poison pill. Therefore, it meant that his life essence pce had to be the fourth.

    When he took Li Ziliang¡¯s four gold cores from his crystalline heavenly pces, they became a part of Xu Qing¡¯s fourth pce. Based on what he could tell, it wouldn¡¯t be very long before that fourth heavenly pce wasplete.

    During the seven days that passed, the swordsages came looking for Xu Qing and the Captain. They exined that they knew about the god domain totem and its energy, and exined that if he returned the energy to them, he would be given military credits. To a certain extent, military credits were required for promotions among the swordsages. And even if he didn¡¯t be a swordsage, military credits could be exchanged for unique cultivation items that only the Swordsage Court had.

    Xu Qing and the Captain talked it over. After putting on a show of hesitating, they finally returned one energy stream.

    At the end of the seven days, the event that all of the cultivators had been waiting for was finally about to start. It was the recruitment qualificationpetition. There would be thousands of people who participated, but only the top ten would pass! Only those ten people would qualify to participate in the true assessment. Only they could be real swordsages!

    1. The story of the sun perishing was revealed in chapter 82. The story was recounted in chapter 173, and Xu Qing made some spections in that chapter. The engravings in the chariot are most fully described in chapter 171. In chapter 175, Xu Qing gets on the chariot and gets a closer look. Although 175 doesn¡¯t go into detail about what he saw, it does mention rows of scribbled text written by someone about to die, presumably the dying words (and legacy) of that sun. ?

 Chapter 364: Ghast Hollow

    Chapter 364: Ghast Hollow

    The swordsages wanted the best of the best, and their process was different than when sects recruited disciples. The qualifications were stricter. What was more, the process was divided into two phases.

    In the first phase, the participants fought for the mere right to join the event. That section eliminated the vast majority of disciples, limiting how many people made it to the second phase. At the moment, there were 2,793 disciples from various sects who hade from all over Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the hopes of taking advantage of this once-a-decade opportunity.

    In order to proceed to the next phase, they had to get into the top ten. Only ten people would participate in the second phase, and that was because only very special people were wanted.

    The finale was like a pilgrimage that all current swordsages would participate in. As per tradition, only a few people would seed, to maintain the solemnity of the event. These recruitment assessments happened every ten years, and in the end, five people were selected. Three of them would be official swordsages, two would be adjunct swordsages.

    The official swordsages were full swordsages, who wielded amand sword and were blessed by a Grand Emperor. They were true swordsages, recognized as orthodox by all heaven and earth.

    The adjunct swordsages did not receivemand swords, but did receive a blessing. They would proceed to the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County, where they would be reassessed. It was a deputy position, not recognized by heaven and earth, and was subject to the oversight and assessment of the swordsage elders.

    Before the second phase began, there were chances to earn bonus points. That could be done by gaining enlightenment of the battle spirit symbols and by earning a rank in climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    ***

    The sky was deep blue, with scattered white clouds. The afternoon sun shone down onto thends, filling them with brightness. Light shone from the sky above, and then reflected off the icy snow on the ground. The juxtaposition made everything seem cold. The wind blew from the north, scattering snowkes everywhere, and chilling the crowds of people present.

    The thrum of a sword echoed out from the Swordsage Court atop the pir, a summons to the 2,793 sect disciples and rogue cultivators who had gathered in Netherflight City.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were there, standing together and looking up into the dome of heaven. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was calm, while the Captain¡¯s was one of keen anticipation.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all that the Captain qualified to participate. After all, he had long been preparing for this event. What Xu Qing was particrly interested in was the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society dao child Zhang Siyun, who was a short distance away.

    ¡°You¡¯re keeping an eye on him?¡± the Captain said.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and nodded.

    The Captain chuckled. ¡°You sense it too?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed and he was about to ask the Captain some questions when the thrum of a sword once again rang out from above. Three figures appeared, descending from the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    Two were old men, one was middle-aged.

    They all wore government uniforms, and were so majestic it seemed like heaven and earth shook in response to their presence. They were somber beyondpare. The two old men each had a thousand dao lineaments in their eyes, and as for the middle-aged cultivator, he was even more terrifying. Countless projections swirled behind him, one after another, seemingly connected to the dome of heaven. And it seemed like his gaze could transform everything he looked at. As the pressure from him weighed down on the cultivators below, their expressions became that of reverence.

    Then a voice reached the 2,793 cultivators, crashing like thunder.

    ¡°In the past, death was unlikely for participants in our recruitment events here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. However, this day of selection will be different from the past. The Swordsage Court has agreed that thepetition will take ce in a ghast hollow.¡±

    The mostmon response to his words was confusion. After all, few people knew what ghast hollows were, so only a few disciples and dao protectors from important sects reacted with knowing surprise.

    Xu Qing was among those who reacted with confusion, and he turned to see if the Captain knew what was going on. The Captain¡¯s pupils constricted in response to the words. Then he noticed Xu Qing looking at him, and he pointed down at the ground. Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    The majestic voice paused briefly, then continued speaking. ¡°Perhaps some of you have heard about ghast hollows. Presumably, though, most have not.¡±

    Everyone was paying very close attention, as they knew this information could rte directly to either their sess or their failure. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was solemn.

    ¡°All of you know the history of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. The ghast hollow I refer to... is beneath the pir!¡±

    The crowd was clearly surprised. Xu Qing narrowed his eyes.

    ¡°Beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir is a deep tunnel that leads to parts unknown. It is filled with countless ghasts. Take note, grues and ghasts are not the same thing.¡± The man looked the crowd over and then continued, ¡°Grues are illusory. Ghasts are corporeal. Grues are vicious and sinister. Ghasts are brutal and tyrannical. [1]

    ¡°There are many ghast hollows in the Revered Ancient maind. They are all mysterious and dangerous ces. However, as long as you don¡¯t delve too deeply into them, you can keep the danger from getting out of control. The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir is suppressing this particr ghast hollow, and it has been for countless years.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the spot where the pir entered the ground, and thought back to the stories the Captain had told about the pir being a weapon thrown into this spot by the Ghost Emperor for a specific reason. Apparently the reason was to suppress the ghast hollow.

    But why did the Ghost Emperor do that? Is there something in the ghast hollow that the Ghost Emperor wanted to suppress?

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure of the answer to that question, but he had the feeling the Swordsage Court knew.

    Looking just as majestic and dignified as before, the middle-aged man in the government uniform continued, ¡°The portion of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir that rests directly atop the ghast hollow has, over the years, been corroded by the energy of the hollow. As a result, cracks have started to spread through it.

    ¡°The damage has be particrly bad in recent years, to the point where fragments of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir have fallen into the ghast hollow. Some have fallen to the very bottom, but others have stuck into the walls of the tunnel. Swordsages have been going in to collect the pieces and return them to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    ¡°Now it¡¯s your turn to participate in the effort. You have three days to collect as many pieces as possible. The ten people who collect the most will advance to the second phase of the assessment.¡±

    Everyone had serious expressions as they listened to all the details.

    ¡°Furthermore, I would like to remind everyone that ghast hollows contain deadly danger. This is yourst chance to back out. Assuming you go forward you¡¯ll be given a special teleportation jade slip. If you encounter a deadly situation, you can use it to teleport to safety. That said, there¡¯s no guarantee the teleportation talisman will work, as unexpected situations can always arise.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, a host of jade slips appeared which flew out to hover in front of all the participants.

    There was no way that weak-hearted people would participate in an event like this to be a swordsage, so it was no surprise that not a single person backed out. They all took the teleportation jade slips. Some people had questions.

    ¡°Exalted one, what happens if two people get the same number of fragments? How do you pick between the two?¡±

    Voice cool, the middle-aged cultivator replied, ¡°The rank they achieved climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir will be the determining factor. Finally, I need to warn you that the rules of the Swordsage Court still apply in the ghast hollow. Fighting is permitted, but no killing! And now, let the swordsage recruitment event begin!¡±

    The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir shone with blinding light, and then it began to tremble. After that, it shrank down slightly and then rose up, revealing the part that was normally underground.

    Now, everyone could see that the portion of the pir that was normally hidden actually had a mottled and damaged surface. It looked severely corroded. In fact, it was so badly damaged it could be considered in disastrous condition.

    As the pir rose, it revealed a gaping hole, out of which emanated vile ck mist, along with inhuman howls. Those howls seemed full of mourning and grief, and at the same time, unending bitterness and madness. It was like... they were howls drifting up from theherworld of the Yellow Springs. Everyone looked surprised, and some candidates even seemed hesitant about proceeding.

    ¡°What are you waiting for? Get in there!¡± The middle-aged cultivator¡¯s voice boomed like thunder.

    In response, the sect disciples and rogue cultivators gritted their teeth and shot into the gaping hole.

    Red-garbed Qing Qiu was among them, and was in the first group to make it inside. Zhang Siyun and the young man with the nose ring from the small sect followed, along with chosen from numerous other sects. Xu Qing and the Captain also followed.

    It only took a moment for about ny percent of the cultivators to enter. As the remainder stood there hesitantly, an intense rumbling sound echoed out as the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir dropped back down and once again expanded to its normal size.

    The tunnel was now blocked again!

    The ck mist vanished, and the anguished howls faded into nothing. Everything went back to normal.

    ***

    Inside the tunnel, everything was pitch ck.

    Once inside, Xu Qing moved to the side to find the hard-packed dirt wall. Then, keeping his guard up, he looked around. It was a bizarre ce, as not even focusing one¡¯s cultivation base on the eyes would make everything visible. At the same time, the howling from before was gone. Now, the only thing to be heard was people breathing. The darkness and ustrophobic nature of the surroundings was enough to make anyone feel pressured. A cold aura rose from below, carrying with it the noxious aroma of rotting flesh. It was enough to cause one¡¯s hair to stand on end.

    After some time, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes adjusted, whether it was naturally or due to his cultivation base, he wasn¡¯t sure.

    He saw a huge tunnel leading down. The dirt walls were dotted with ck nts, the leaves of which had ghost faces on them. The faces all seemed to be looking at the cultivators and grinning.

    Of the over 2,000 people present, only about half were near the walls. The other half were already dropping down into the tunnel.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Looking around, he spotted the Captain only about nine meters away. The Captain looked back at him and then pointed down. Xu Qing nodded, and the two of them prepared to release their grips and drop down. But then...

    A shrill, operatic voice echoed out everywhere.

    The voice seemed soft and feminine, but at the same time, piercing. The contradictory natures of the voice blended into an unspeakable song.

    ¡°In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....¡±

    It was impossible to tell if the singer was male or female. But those who heard the song felt their scalps tingling, and the skin on their back crawling. It was like a freezing autumn rain falling on one¡¯s face. [2]

    1. These are not Lovecraft ghasts, Minecraft ghasts, D&D ghasts, or ghasts from any other media. I¡¯m just borrowing the name. In Chinese, ¡°grue¡± and ¡°ghast¡± sound very simr, with the pronunciation of the first and second character being transposed (though only one of the characters is the same between the two names). What¡¯s more, ¡°ghast¡± contains the character for ¡°ghost¡± in Chinese. It is not amon creature from fiction or mythology, but rather, something unique to this novel. ?

    2. It specifically likens the singing to opera. Obviously this would be Chinese opera, not Western opera. There are different varieties of Chinese opera, the mostmon and popr being the style from Beijing. If you¡¯ve never heard it, here¡¯s an example (This particr example is a bit more upbeat than I imagine the song in this chapter, but you¡¯ll get the general idea). I have to be honest, despite how much I like Chinese culture and whatnot, I could never really get into opera. When ites to the performance that goes along with opera, the Sichuan variety is more to my liking. But the raw singing itself is just... not my thing. That said, you will often hear opera ying on the radio in China, mostmonly among older people. It¡¯s not exactly super popr among the more modern generations. I sent a message to Madam Deathde asking if she likes to listen to Beijing Opera. Her response: ¡°Hell no!¡± ?

 Chapter 365: Ghasts

    Chapter 365: Ghasts

    The rain in autumn is inherently cold. When itnds on your face, your chest, and your arms, it fills you with an indescribable coldness that¡¯s somehow very difficult to get rid of. It makes you shiver, and freezes you down to your bones.

    The song imparted that same feeling. Xu Qing felt himself shivering uncontrobly, and suddenly found himself thinking back to that time in the forbidden region when he and Sergeant Thunder had encountered that blood mist and the women¡¯s boots. [1]

    Back then he was a rogue cultivator in the Qi Condensation level, yet the cold he felt now was the same as back then. It felt like it would freeze his soul and ice over his body. Even with his extraordinary cultivation base, the sensation felt the same.

    The soft, feminine voice seemed to grow more substantive, and the song became like a funeral dirge tugging at the soul. Of the more than 1,000 cultivators clinging to the walls, a few dozen went limp and started falling down. Within moments, the darkness below swallowed them up.

    Those who remained were shaken, and couldn¡¯t stop the horror and amazement from showing on their faces. And that was because the voice seemed to be profoundly tremulous. Every word sung seemed to contain infinite trembling, as though the singer was full of fear and foreboding. Almost as if the song were being sung to a dead person.

    As the song echoed about in the massive, pit-like tunnel, not even blocking one''s ears could prevent one from hearing it. It filled the listener¡¯s souls, bing pure mutagen that flourished in their hearts. In fact, the mutagen levels in the tunnel were soaring, and at the same time, the singing faded, until it was little more than a murmured hum.

    But then, numerous cultivators gasped when another voice started singing.

    ¡°In past lives you¡¯re forlorn, I¡¯m always reborn, who severs lovesickness and who endlessly mourns¡­?¡±

    It was obviously a different singer. This voice was not as disturbing, and did not contain that shrill coldness. And yet, somehow, this singer seemed even more eerie. Shaken, everyone looked in Xu Qing¡¯s general direction. And that was because the singing wasing from there.

    Xu Qing turned to look at the Captain. The Captain looked back at him with wide eyes.

    Xu Qing could see that, right behind the Captain... floated a figure in a white garment.

    That was the person who was singing.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, and his expression turned vicious. A face appeared within his pupils, and a cold aura suddenly erupted from within him. Opening his mouth wide to bare his teeth, he turned and viciously took a bite out of the figure behind him. The sound of teeth snapping against teeth bore evidence of how viciously he had bitten down.

    However, the singing continued.

    This time, though, it came from behind a different cultivator. That cultivator shivered as he experienced a sudden sensation of deadly crisis. Before he could snap the teleportation jade slip in his hand... his eyes went nk and he started singing. Then his expression turned vicious.

    All of a sudden, mutagen exploded within him, so violently that he instantly mutated! Fleshy tumors rose up on his back. His arms grew many times thicker than before. Bone spikes stabbed out of his skin and through his clothing, ripping it. His legs also grew thicker, until his thighs exploded and eight blood-soaked tentacles writhed out. The biggest change, however, was to his head. His head... turned into a gigantic blue eyeball.

    The eye blinked, and the cultivator vanished. He reappeared an instantter in front of a cultivator from a small sect. That cultivator was an extraordinary individual, and immediately performed an incantation gesture, causing mes to spring up around him. It didn¡¯t do any good. One of the tentacles snaked through the mes, and burrowed into his mouth.

    The cultivator whimpered chokingly as he was lifted up, his neck swelling rapidly until it exploded. The tentacle emerged from the exploded section, whipping back and forth, spraying gore everywhere. The sight caused numerous surrounding disciples to gasp.

    Next, the mutated cultivator blurred into motion, heading toward another person at blinding speed.

    A momentter, more shrill screaming echoed out.

    A few breaths of time passed during which the mutated cultivator moved from victim to victim. Then he appeared right in front of Xu Qing.

    The mutated cultivator threw his arms out to grab Xu Qing, and at the same time, a gaping maw appeared on his belly.

    Meanwhile, the selfish nature of humanity was on disy. It wouldn¡¯t even require all 1,000 of the cultivators present to deal with the mutated cultivator. If even seven or eight of them joined forces, he wouldn¡¯t be fast enough to escape them. But no one did that. Some people took advantage of the chaos to drop further down into the tunnel. Some of them, a few hundred, took out their jade slips and snapped them. Obviously they didn¡¯t want to continue.

    Everything was pure chaos.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying any attention to that, though. As the vicious, mutated cultivator closed in, his eyes shed with cold light. Instead of falling back, he elerated, heading right toward the mutated cultivator. Clenching his hand into a fist, he unleashed the power of three heavenly pces and his golden crow. The fistnded, and the mutated cultivator shrieked in agony as he was thrown backward.

    Before he could move very far, a cold aura erupted behind him, and the Captain silently appeared. Grabbing the mutated cultivator, the Captain took a huge bite out of his blue eyeball. Another agonized shriek erupted from the mouth on the mutated cultivator¡¯s abdomen.

    That was when Xu Qing arrived with another fist strike. With a boom, the mutated cultivator exploded into pieces that fell down into the depths of the pit.

    There weren¡¯t many cultivators left in this area, only a few dozen. The others had either teleported away or gone deeper down into the tunnel.

    The Captain spat off to the side, as if he¡¯d eaten something nasty. ¡°Okay, little Ah Qing. Let¡¯s split up and make the best of our time.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, and the two of them started moving downward.

    Before long, Xu Qing spotted some of the disciples who had been the first to leave the area above. They were engaged in fierce fighting. Some fought the same white-garbed figure who had appeared above, and others fought mutated cultivators. Everyone who hade to this event came prepared, so it was no surprise to Xu Qing that in the majority of cases, the human cultivators wereing out victorious. However, there were still some disciples who ended up dead before they could teleport to safety. The fight to reach the second phase was obviously going to be a very dangerous one.

    Xu Qing flew down, avoiding the fighting. The further down he got, the colder it became, and the stifling sensation of pressure grew stronger. Soon, he was panting for breath, and his heart was pounding so hard he could hear it.

    Even his vision was starting to dim a bit.

    However, after a bit of time passed, he limated. Looking around, he saw that there were openings in the walls leading to passageways that went in different directions. It seemed like some sort ofbyrinth. The odor of rotten flesh was not growing any fainter. Instead, it was growing stronger.

    So far, he hadn¡¯t spotted a single one of the pir fragments that were required to move onto the second phase. Given how many people had gone on ahead, it made sense that they would have taken any they spotted on the way.

    After mulling the matter over, he looked around and spotted an area where the soil protruded from the wall to create a ledge. Moving over, he stood on it and looked up.

    He could hear the sound of fighting, and asionally some blood would fall down. Meanwhile, the area below seemed just as cold as before, and the strange singing was still present.

    The Captain was nowhere to be seen, but that was fine. It made more sense to split up and look for pir fragments separately.

    I¡¯m not going to take any side paths. I¡¯m just going to keep going deeper and see what¡¯s there.

    Taking a look further down, he jumped and started moving again. As he got deeper, it got darker and darker. The sense of ustrophobia grew more intense. Eventually, Xu Qing stopped in ce, then backed up a bit.

    Right below him was an area where smaller tunnels branched out. And standing in one of the openings was an old man in a ck robe. He didn¡¯t emanate any aura whatsoever, as if he were part of the surrounding darkness. Because of that, he would be easy to miss. His hands rested at his side, and if you looked closely, he had ck fingernails so long and sharp they were like ws. His back was to Xu Qing, making it impossible to see his face.

    Xu Qing could see the old man trembling, almost as if he were carefully listening to the singinging from deeper in the tunnel.

    Of course, this was a ghast hollow, so Xu Qing was going to remain on guard no matter what he ran into. What attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention was that, just past the eerie old man, there were three pir fragments stuck in the soil.

    Xu Qing thought the matter over. It seemedpletely impossible that nobody had encountered this already. Yet the pir fragments were still right there. That meant that the disciples who had seen them were either dead, hadn¡¯t tried to take them, or had tried and failed. After more consideration, Xu Qing inspected the area to make sure it wasn¡¯t an ambush, then sent a message to his shadow via divine will. The shadow surreptitiously stretched out, passed the old man, and wrapped around one of the fragments.

    Right then, the old man suddenly reached out and put his hand on the fragment, moving so fast that the soil vibrated. Then he looked expressionlessly over his shoulder and right into Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. He looked like a zombie. His eye sockets were empty, and glowed with red light. And his lips curved into a smile, revealing a host of sharp teeth. Without any warning, he burst into motion, heading right toward Xu Qing. His hands reached out, and he seemed to pierce through space, causing a shrieking whistle as he wed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as a foul wind brushed against him ahead of the iing old zombie.

    As the old zombie¡¯s right hand closed in, Xu Qing suddenly flipped backward, his right foot flying up, backed by all the power of his fleshly body and cultivation base. It smashed right into the zombie¡¯s chin!

    CRACK!

    The zombie¡¯s head snapped back at an unnatural angle, and he tumbled backward about thirty meters.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow grabbed all three pir fragments and then raced back toward Xu Qing.

    The old zombie¡¯s head twisted back into ce. His eye sockets glowed bright red, and he pulsed with a perverse energy as well as explosive mutagen. Then he howled like an animal as he raced back in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, his face a mask of ferocity. As he closed in, he lunged toward Xu Qing¡¯s neck, his mouth opened wide.

    1. The incident with the Singing was in chapter 16. ?

 Chapter 366: Ghost Faces on Paper Money

    Chapter 366: Ghost Faces on Paper Money

    A noxious odor swept over Xu Qing. Eyes shining with cold light, he flew backward. He wasn¡¯t interested in wasting time with this old zombie. He had the pir fragments, so now he just wanted to move on.

    However, the zombie moved very quickly. From his vicious aura and perverse energy, it was obvious he wasn¡¯t going to give up until his opponent was dead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he sized up the zombie. The thing reminded him of the Seazombie race. His joints were clearly a bit stiff. What was more, he had ridiculous toughness, powers of regeneration, and even more noteworthy, undying characteristics.

    He has no heartbeat. No blood. Hecks intelligence. He seems more like a wild animal or a mutated cultivator. That said, he¡¯s covered with the evidence of ancient time. He has no magical techniques, and both his aura and the air that surround him contain poison. It actually seems like zombie poison, with its primary function being to cause rot and decay. His fleshly body is strong, and he has battle prowess surpassing the four-pce level. Combined with his recovery powers and undying characteristics, he¡¯s actually very close to the five-pce level.

    Xu Qing moved to the side to avoid another attack as he finished analyzing his opponent

    He¡¯s a bit slower than me, and I bet if I used my poison core I could kill him. But that would be a waste of time. After all, he has formidable poison too. And his fingernails look like they would make great materials for use in equipment forging. If I could figure out the source of his regeneration powers, that would also be very valuable. Then at least it wouldn¡¯t be so much of a time waster.

    During the time it took Xu Qing to analyze the situation, the old zombieunched several more attacks. He also seemed to be getting more and more frustrated. Suddenly he opened his mouth and spat out a ck mist that shot toward Xu Qing.

    I suppose I¡¯ll crush him and take all of those things away from him.

    Xu Qing had made his decision. Though he was currently surrounded by poison mist, a momentter, that poison mist suddenly exploded in all directions.

    A shocking aura erupted out, sweeping away all the poison. Then a blur of afterimages moved toward the old zombie, faster than his eyes could track. All the zombie knew was that the mist exploded. Then, a thud rang out as an explosive force mmed into him and sent him tumbling backward.

    He mmed into the dirt sides of the tunnel 300 meters away. The wall vibrated as the old zombie struggled to wrench himself free from where he had been embedded into the wall. Before he could, a ck palm arrived and mmed into his face. Another boom rang out as his head was shoved into the wall. Struggling to free himself did no good.

    That was when the owner of that ck hand became visible to the old zombie. It was a pitch-ck figure. Its clothes, its skin. Everything about it was as dark as night. However, that darkness was currently converging onto the forehead of the figure, where it became an eye. Then the figure''s facial features became clear. It was none other than Xu Qing.

    When using the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, Xu Qing lost his magical techniques, but gained the ultimate body cultivation powers. His fleshly body battle prowess surpassed the four-pce level, and reached the peak of the five-pce level. In that state, the old zombie seemed slow. Xu Qing expressionlessly lifted his right hand, grabbed one of the old zombie¡¯s fingers, and snapped off the ck nail.

    After a moment of thought, he put the nail up to the zombie¡¯s neck and moved it slowly down as if looking for something, then stabbed it into his heart. There, he found a fist-sized conglomeration of ck mist. It was a powerful convergence of zombie poison.

    With that, he continued looking, hoping to find the source of the zombie¡¯s regenerative powers. However, after losing that ck mist, the zombie trembled and started melting into a ck liquid that dripped down into the tunnel below.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing let the eye on his forehead spread out to cover him again. Then it transformed into a coffin, out of which he stepped.

    I guess this ck mist isn¡¯t just poison. It must also be the source of that zombie¡¯s strange powers.

    After some thought, he put the fingernail and the mist away, then continued on his way. Things got even darker, and the noxious odor became stronger. It also got intensely cold. There was no sound other than the singing.

    It seemed resentful, despairing, empty, and mournful. As the sound assailed Xu Qing, he felt increasingly out of sorts. He just couldn¡¯t get the sound out of his ears.

    Eventually he stopped on an outcropping and looked down into the darkness.

    Just how deep does it go? After thinking about it, he continued going down. About an hourter, his pupils suddenly constricted. A few dozen meters down, he saw some corpses hovering in the middle of the air. Dozens of them.

    One of them was the cultivator from the small sect that Xu Qing had passed while climbing the pir. It wasn¡¯t the one who had attacked him, but rather the one from the Church of Departure. Among the other cultivators, Xu Qing saw disciples from both the Eight Sect Coalition and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. All had died here, and bizarrely... all of them had yellow pieces of paper ritual money stuck to their faces. [1]

    Beneath the paper, their faces were green and twisted ferociously, as though they had experienced intense pain before dying. Some had teleportation jade slips in their hands, but obviously had been too slow to activate them.

    Stuck into the surrounding dirt walls were a host of glittering pir fragments. Xu Qing could only imagine how many fragments existed within the corpses¡¯ bags of holding. All in all, these were among the first people to start moving down after the trial began.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything rash. For one thing, he was worried that this could be a trap. In addition to that, he noticed that there were strips of yellow paper money fluttering about in the air around the corpses. They flew back and forth almost like butterflies, drifting in the wind that was present in the tunnel.

    As Xu Qing studied the scene, some of the yellow money suddenly stopped in ce, then slowly turned, revealing ghost faces on them, all of them looking at Xu Qing. The mere sight of that happening with so many pieces of paper would cause anyone¡¯s blood to run cold.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as the pieces of paper money started flying toward him rapidly, emitting sounds of delight. It was like bizarreughter, filled with greed and the longing for flesh, blood, and souls.

    As they closed in, Xu Qing extended his right hand and pushed out. Three-pce power erupted, and the golden crow appeared behind him. The crow let loose a piercing cry, then spread its wings, causing mes to sweep out in all directions.

    The paper money was swept away from Xu Qing. However, the bizarreughter didn¡¯t go away. If anything, it grew clearer. In fact, some of the pieces of paper near him started clumping together, and as he watched, they transformed into a huge cicada. It even had wings made of paper money. The cicada spread those wings and started flying. A buzz filled the air, and at the same time, theughter turned into speech.

    ¡°Hey you. Are you hungry? Want to eat me?¡±

    The voice was strange, grating, and even ear-piercing. It was like an attack on Xu Qing¡¯s ears that also sent the mes around him scattering. The paper cicada took that opportunity to race toward Xu Qing. Meanwhile, all the ghost faces seemed full of greed and longing.

    ¡°Eat me, eat me, eat me....¡±

    The words ovepped on each other, echoing out into a painful buzz that pierced Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Eyes turning cold, he was just about tounch an attack when his face sank and he shot backward.

    As he did, one section of the dirt wall blurred, and then a 30-meter-wide centipede burst out into the open. However, it didn¡¯t target Xu Qing, but instead... went after the paper cicada.

    The vicious-looking centipede exuded a noxious scent, and was semitransparent, as if it were partly illusory. It moved with incredible speed, snapping up the cicada with its mandibles and thennding on the opposite wall. On the back of the centipede was a young woman. Her lower half was fused with the centipede itself, as if she were permanently attached to it. She wore no clothing on her upper torso, but her long, ck hair covered her. Stroking her hair with a brush she held, she burped, causing an undigested piece of paper money to float out. Grabbing it, she looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction and smiled.

    ¡°Delicious. Don¡¯t you want a taste?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s guard was up. This was a very bizarre situation. For one thing, he was fairly certain the young woman wasn¡¯t actually talking to him, but rather, someone behind him.

    A ck coffin suddenly appeared behind him, pulsing with an inauspicious aura. It was the shadow, who had been provoked into appearing by the young woman. A host of eyes appeared on it, all of them staring at the paper money in her hand. The eyes blinked.

    ¡°Does that blink mean something? Are you looking at this?¡± She held up the paper money.

    Right then, something strange happened. A ghost face appeared on the paper money, and it chuckled at her.

    ¡°Are you full?¡± the ghost face asked.

    As the words echoed out, the centipede shivered, revealing that it was being transformed into countless pieces of paper money. In fact, it would soon be a paper centipede. All of the pieces of paper money that made it up had ghost faces on them, and they were allughing and saying the same thing.

    ¡°Are you full?¡±

    1. This type of paper money is usually burned in some sort of ritual and offering, usually to the dead. Here is a gallery of a few types of paper money. ?

 Chapter 367: Heart of a Jackal or Fox

    Chapter 367: Heart of a Jackal or Fox

    The young woman atop the centipede screamed shrilly. At her urging, the centipede writhed on the dirt wall, trying but failing to fling the paper money off of it. The paper money wasing from inside the centipede, spilling out and covering it. In fact, it was getting very close to the young woman.

    The ghastly voices again spoke from the ghost faces on the paper money.

    ¡°Are you full?¡±

    The voices were countless piercing cries all ovepping on each other.

    The woman¡¯s eyes red malevolently at the paper money which she seemed helpless to do anything about. Then she sent her centipede body burrowing into the wall. As dirt sprayed everywhere, she vanished without a trace.

    At the same time, the paper money on the faces of all the corpses flew up and flew toward that spot. The ghost facesughed as the paper hit the wall and started digging in to chase the centipede. From the look of it, this ce really was a big trap. But it hadn¡¯t beenid for Xu Qing. Instead... it wasid for the bizarre centipede. Or perhaps the centipede had attracted the attention of the paper money, causing a shift in targets. Xu Qing had no way of knowing which was the case.

    He looked at the spot where the centipede had disappeared, all the while staying fully on guard. Both the paper money and the centipede imparted a sense of extreme danger to him. It was something that had nothing to do with his cultivation base. Rather, that centipede seemed to have some sort of mysterious power that he could just innately sense.

    It¡¯s simr to that red moon.... I think my taboo poison core could probably kill that centipede, and maybe the violet moon too.

    That said, he didn¡¯t want to reveal his major secrets here. Keeping his guard up, he cautiously approached the corpses and took all the pir fragments and bags of holding he could find. Continuing to move down the tunnel, he opened the bags of holding one by one to find more pir fragments. In fact, there were over a hundred in total. Putting them all together in his own bag of holding, he continued downward.

    At this depth, the noxious stench grew even more intense, and the singing became clearer. Both the frigid cold and the mutagen were more intense than ever. At the same time, he found more pir fragments. He took every one he saw.

    In that manner, time passed. An entire day went by.

    During that time, Xu Qing spotted more corpses, most of them rotting so badly it was hard to tell if they were even trial participants. All of them were being slowly devoured by ravenous, ghostly figures. None of those corpses had bags of holding.

    Xu Qing¡¯s caution grew, to the point where he slowed down a bit as he descended. He encountered quite a few ghasts. He saw a giant made of mounds of raw flesh, with a huge opening on its belly that consumed and vomited dirt. He saw a nt growing out of the wall that looked like a giant eye, which stared at him. He also spotted dancers in stunning dresses that looked like immortal fairies. They floated out from the mud walls, twirling and spinning. At first, they seemed beautiful, but then he realized they had no faces.

    Most ordinary people would be struck with fear so badly their legs would go weak and they would flee. The darkness, the ustrophobia, the stench, along with the ghasts and the singing, would cause one¡¯s soul to tremble and one¡¯s hair to stand on end.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t doing so badly. He had seen a lot of horror in his life, including things more terrifying than this.

    As the second day slipped by, Xu Qing got deeper and deeper. He now had over two hundred pir fragments, which was definitely quite a lot.

    He was starting to wonder if he should stop going down, when all of a sudden, his shadow turned into a coffin of its own volition. All of its eyes were open, and it was staring at the nearby wall. At the same time, it sent urgent fluctuations to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at the wall and sent the iron skewer flying out. The skewer shot forth and stabbed into the wall, excavating arge hole.

    Eventually, a young woman on a centipede was revealed, gasping for breath. Her centipede body was nowpletely made of paper, and looked severely shriveled, as though its inner aspects had been sucked out, leaving only a husk behind. It was the same with the young woman¡¯s human torso, from her eyes down. And her eyes looked empty, as though she were just waiting to pass away into nothing.

    Xu Qing took a look, then turned to leave. Except, then he sensed pleading fluctuations from the shadow.

    ¡°You want to save her?¡± Xu Qing asked in amazement. It was his first time sensing any emotional fluctuations like this from the shadow.

    ¡°Aura... familiar.... Want....¡±

    After thinking the matter over, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I can try. Worst case scenario, I fail, and she still dies.¡±

    The coffin-form shadow shook back and forth. Xu Qing eyed it curiously, but had long since grown used to the way Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had skewed the shadow¡¯smunication ability.

    He approached the centipede in the dirt wall.

    The woman¡¯s eyes shifted to him, and they rippled with recognition. However, everything beneath her eyes had turned to paper, and she couldn¡¯t speak.

    Xu Qing looked down at her, then tapped into his third heavenly pce. The power of taboo poison roiled out and seeped toward the centipede woman. In the blink of an eye, it invaded her form. Her eyes shone with terror. Meanwhile, the ghost faces on the pieces of paper that made up her body turned to re at Xu Qing, then opened their mouths wide. However, instead of the ghastly voices that had previouslye out, the only thing they did was scream in agony.

    Xu Qing¡¯s poison spread rapidly through the paper money, turning it ck and causing it to melt. The process took some time, but eventually all the paper money was a sticky fluid that flowed down into the mud.

    After the paper money was gone, Xu Qing¡¯s poison started invading the centipede.

    Everything beneath the young woman¡¯s eyes rotted, and her eyes turned emptier. Then Xu Qing¡¯s third heavenly pce vibrated, and all of the poison outside his body, including that in the centipede woman, swirled back into Xu Qing.

    When it was over, the centipede woman shivered, then struggled to lift her head and look at Xu Qing. Finally, she turned and burrowed back into the wall.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay any attention to her after that. Standing at the edge of the pit he¡¯d just excavated, he decided that, in order to ensure he got into the top ten, he needed to find some more pir fragments.

    Hopping back into the tunnel, he started his descent again. Another half a day went by, during which time his search brought his total fragment count up to 243.

    There was now only half a day left until the time limit was up. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in searching for more fragments, and was getting ready to leave. However, just as he picked up what he¡¯d determined would be hisst fragment, his pupils suddenly constricted. He had just spotted a living person. It was the first actual person he had encountered for over a day and a half.

    It was the dao child of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, Zhang Siyun!

    He was further down in the tunnel. He had just barreled out of one of the cross-tunnels, all the while fighting with a ghast. They both moved with incredible speed, and the booms from the blows they exchanged were quickly absorbed by the mud, ensuring that the sound of theirbat didn¡¯t go very far.

    The ghast was very tough and vicious. It was humanoid, but had no skin. Its entire body was wizened and cracked, like a corpse that had been burned to death. Yet it was very agile and fast. In fact, Zhang Siyun was having a hard timending any meaningful blows.

    Every time the ghast attacked, it would send ck mes sweeping out in all directions. Based on its aura, Xu Qing could tell this was the most powerful thing he¡¯d encountered in the tunnel.

    It was at the six-pce level. Especially noteworthy was the fact that the ck mes didn¡¯t emanate heat, but rather, cold. It washerme, something that could severely harm souls.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression was unsightly. He had been locked inbat with this immted zombie ghast for a long time now. He had used secret magics to destroy it, only to find that it would reform momentster, seemingly unharmed. He had even used a soul-ughtering trump card, only to find it useless. The ghast seemed undying and indestructible, and would asionally release bizarre power that even he found terrifying.

    Dammit. I¡¯m so close! Why did this five elements zombie have to jump out all of a sudden? Don¡¯t tell me that Sect Grandfather calcted wrong? Did something change down below?

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression was profoundly grim. The reason he had refused his Sect Grandfather¡¯s suggestion to let him skip the recruitment event was that he specifically wanted to explore the ghast hollow. He had known from the beginning that the trial would happen here. And his Sect Grandfather had made it clear to him that the upper levels of the ghast hollow had an item that, if he could acquire it, would bring incredible good fortune. His Sect Grandfather had also exined all of the details about what was in the ghast hollow. Because of that, he had immediatelye to this spot.

    However, his path had been blocked by this ghast, and it was fighting so fiercely he couldn¡¯t proceed. If he tried to simply get past it, it would suddenly reveal even more astonishing magics. He could tell that this terrifying zombie wasn¡¯t anything that could be considered ordinary. In fact, he knew its origin.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t going to work....¡± he murmured, his expression turning grimmer. As he tried toe up with a solution, he backed away, only to find that the zombie rushed right toward him.

    His eyes glittered, and he was about to release another attack when he noticed Xu Qing, who had just arrived.

    There was only about 600 meters between the two of them. Though the surroundings were dark, they could both see each other, and even caught each other¡¯s eyes. Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Looking into the depths of the tunnel beyond, he backed up a bit. He had no interest in getting involved in this fight, and instead decided to just leave.

    ¡°It¡¯s you!¡± Zhang Siyun said, his eyes shining with strange light.

    Without any hesitation, and even ignoring the iing zombie, he quickly performed an incantation gesture with both hands.

    His entire body then rippled, and spatial fluctuations rolled out of him in all directions. He then smacked his forehead with his right hand, causing it to split open. Inside the opening appeared a hand-sized, ck-colored goat. It stuck its head out, looking at Xu Qing, and then opened its mouth.

    ¡°BLEAT!¡±

    Xu Qing was backing away when it happened. But then his mind spun, and he heard cracking sounds all around him, as if the space around him was shattering. Two of the shattered pieces shifted position and then stitched back together. Then more. The world around him spun and began to get clear again. When he looked around, his face turned grim as he realized that he was now in the spot previously upied by Zhang Siyun.

    Meanwhile, Zhang Siyun was now in the spot he had just upied. Unexpectedly, they had been transposed!

    And now, that immted zombie was rushing right toward Xu Qing!

    Zhang Siyun chuckled. Then, taking advantage of the fact that the zombie was now focused on Xu Qing, he sped down deeper into the tunnel.

    Xu Qing watched him go, his eyes turning as cold as ice.

 Chapter 368: In a Life of Hesitation, In a Future of Frustration

    Chapter 368: In a Life of Hesitation, In a Future of Frustration

    The dao child Zhang Siyun from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had a secret transposition technique that could be used to switch positions with an opponent. The first time it was used, it was virtually impossible to counter.

    Xu Qing heard Zhang Siyun chuckle, andmitted the sound to memory. However, now was not the time to think about such things, as the immted zombie was right on top of him.

    Xu Qing knew that if this zombie had caused problems for Zhang Siyun, it was obviously very strong. Not being careless at all, he backed up, performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and sent tsunami waves crashing into the fierce zombie. His shadow formed a coffin, and Xu Qing ducked inside.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the magical tsunami waves swept the zombie backward.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing finished fusing with his shadow, causing him to turn pitch ck. Eyes glittering with incisive light, he chose not to attack. Instead, he backed away again. He was much faster than before considering his fleshly body was nowparable to the peak of the five-pce level. As he backed up, heunched a fist strike.

    At almost the exact same instant that the fistnded, the magically-formed tsunami waters exploded, and the burning zombie shot out. It moved so quickly Xu Qing had a hard time tracking its motion. It was a blur that sped through the spray of water to arrive right in front of him.

    A piercing shriek reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears as the zombie met his fist strike with its own fist. A tremor passed through Xu Qing as immense force hit him. Even with his current fleshly body power, he couldn¡¯t match up to this level of strength.

    Rumbling sounds filled him as he staggered backward until he mmed into the muddy wall.

    That¡¯s definitely six-pce battle prowess! Yet this thing didn¡¯t chase Zhang Siyun, so it¡¯s obviously not very intelligent. It has instincts like an animal. But actually, as long as it has instincts, that makes this whole thing easier! It¡¯s watching me closely, and it only sped up when I sped up. And the fact it met my fist with its own fist proves that it¡¯s not very intelligent.

    He could sense how terrifying the zombie was. Its magical techniques were so-so, with its most astonishing aspect being its fleshly body. Its fleshly body power was at the six-pce level.

    When Xu Qing fused with his shadow, he could reach the peak of the five-pce level in terms of fleshly body power, but not even that was enough to fight back. He couldn¡¯t track his opponent¡¯s movements, and wasn¡¯t as strong as it. However, the surroundings limited the advantages of speed, as they were confined by the walls of the tunnel. As long as he kept his opponent attacking him straight on, Xu Qing had ways to negate the speed advantage.

    That was why he wasn¡¯t trying to dodge out of the way. That would open him up to attacks from all sides.

    Instead, he backed straight up until he mmed into the wall. That meant that behind him was nothing but the wall. The wall was also to his left and right, and the only open space was right in front of him. Meanwhile, the taboo poison core in his third pce was vibrating rapidly as poison emerged from it to gather in front of him.

    As Xu Qing mmed into the wall, the zombie howled. Red mes erupted around it, turning into a host of mouths that lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t evade, as he was stuck in the wall. Therefore, he just shrank in on himself like a hedgehog.

    mes went wild, and the zombie¡¯s aura swept everywhere. It became a streak of afterimage as it shot forward,unching another fist strike right at Xu Qing in the wall.

    A boom rang out, and Xu Qing¡¯s face went ashen. The wall behind him crumbled as he was shoved deeper in. However, the zombie also backed up, and instead of pure madness in its eyes, there was, for the first time, a trace of dread. And that was because its right arm was rotting!

    Then a bolt of red lightning erupted out from inside it, provoking another howl. Red lightning crackled inside its body, crystallizing its flesh and blood and causing it to emanate frigid energy. After, the red lightning shot back toward the wall, revealing a ck iron skewer within it, which came to hover in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing coughed up blood as the darkness that covered his body converged on his forehead in the shape of an eye. The shadow in eye form red at the zombie. Beneath that eye was Xu Qing¡¯s calm face, his eyes cold as he stared at the zombie. He knew that his fleshly body couldn¡¯tpare to his opponent. He also couldn¡¯t match up in terms of magical techniques. Nor was he an equal in speed. But by embedding himself in the wall, he forced the battleground to be right in front of him.

    He was limiting the spots where his opponent could attack from. That was because he could tell that this immted zombie didn¡¯t have the same level of intelligence as a cultivator. In other words, it had no way to createplicated battle strategies.

    What was more, Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison core vastly surpassed his fleshly body in terms of being a trump card. It ensured that every time his opponent attacked him, they would get poisoned. Then all he had to do was buy time and wait for the poison to take effect.

    The tunnel went silent as the zombie red at Xu Qing, its expression a mix of irritation and fear as its right arm continued to rot away. Finally, it howled, violently suppressed its fear, and raced toward Xu Qing again, bursting with six-pce battle prowess.

    A huge boom rang out, mixed into which was a howl. A momentter, the immted zombie shot backward with astonishing speed.

    Its right arm had melted into nothing, and the taboo poison was spreading into its torso, which was now rotting dramatically. The zombie¡¯s expression was one of madness, but the fear was now even more obvious. In fact, it seemed to border on terror.

    In front of it, Xu Qing was stuck in the wall, blood oozing out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Thankfully, the violet crystal within him was constantly at work healing him, allowing him to endure. The area in front of Xu Qing was full of strong poison, which corroded everything and even exuded mutagen. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t looking at that, though. His eyes were fixed on the zombie, and they burned with killing intent. However, he didn¡¯t make a move. Instead, he extended his hand toward the zombie and then made a beckoning gesture.

    ¡°Come. Let¡¯s keep fighting.¡±

    The zombie erupted with a furious howl, and yet its expression contained more hesitation and dread than ever. Seeing that, Xu Qing ced his hands down into the wall on either side and pulled himself out. As he stood, taboo poison power swirled around him.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure why Zhang Siyun got wrapped up in such a long fight with this zombie considering the dao child had six-pce power. But Xu Qing knew how wild animals behaved, and he knew that there was no better time than this moment to scare his opponent into fleeing.

    That was even more the case when you got an animal to react instinctively. Therefore, rather than getting involved in a drawn-out fight, Xu Qing hoped to get his opponent to simply leave.

    And that was exactly what happened. As Xu Qing sent taboo poison power swirling around him as if he were preparing for a huge attack, the fear in the zombie¡¯s eyes grew so intense that it started backing up.

    Then, it let loose a few more howls before shooting up into the tunnel, leaving Xu Qing alone.

    Xu Qing coughed up some blood as he looked up into the tunnel. Then he looked down, and his eyes grew colder than ever. He knew that Zhang Siyun was strong. Before, when he hade to the conclusion Zhang Siyun was connected to that red moon, he had known he was dangerous. However, he couldn¡¯t let the matter stand as it was.

    We¡¯re under the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, which is controlled by the Swordsage Court. Zhang Siyun might have some bizarre abilities, but if he tries something underhanded, someone should step in. It will be dangerous to go after him, but... if I¡¯m not willing to at least go check it out and see if there are some good opportunities, then I might as well just go back to South Phoenix!

    The time limit for this phase was rapidly approaching, therefore, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination as he sped down through the tunnel as fast as he could. Along the way, he tapped into his taboo poison core and surrounded himself with poison. If nothing else, it might keep away things like that immted zombie.

    As he descended, he once again caught sight of some paper money. There were numerous pieces floating about.

    Upon spotting them, Xu Qing decided to climb down the wall itself.

    Time passed. It was now only about an hour until time was up. At this point, most disciples chose to activate their jade slips and teleport away.

    There were few cultivators left. And when it came to the depths of the tunnel, there were only two: Zhang Siyun and Xu Qing.

    There was more and more paper money, and the noxious stench grew stronger. It was cold, and the mutagen was more abundant. The singing was clearer than ever.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing lurched to a halt. Remaining motionless on the wall, he narrowed his eyes, concealed his presence, and looked to a spot about 300 meters down.

    There he saw a very strange building; it was a log cabin. It looked very dpidated, as if it had existed for countless years of time, to the point where the wood was starting to decay. The structure was pentagonal, and each corner had a gray iron chain attached to it that stretched out to the wall of the tunnel.

    Actually, the chains were suspending the cabin in midair.

    There was a faint red light shining out from the cabin window, seemingly cast by amp. Through the window of the cabin, and also through the various decayed parts of the walls, Xu could see a person inside. It was a woman wearing a red opera costume. She sat at the window, her fair hand extended as she tossed out paper money. The paper money scattered, caught up in a cold wind as it flowed outward and upward. In addition to the paper money and the hand with skin as fair as jade, Xu Qing saw a redmp inside the window. [1]

    Obviously, this was the source of the paper money he¡¯d seen. As for that hand, the moment heid eyes on it, his heart filled with dread.

    Then he looked more closely at themp, and his heart flip-flopped. That oilmp... was none other than a lifemp!

    The singing that he had been hearing this whole time came from within that log cabin, and it echoed out into the ustrophobic darkness more clearly than ever.

    ¡°In a life of hesitation, in a future of frustration, who is it that waits for me in reincarnation¡­?¡±

    The voice was beautiful, sinister, and as cold as ice. It was impossible to say who the song was being sung for. Perhaps it was Xu Qing. Perhaps it was Zhang Siyun. Or perhaps it was for some other entity that lurked deeper in the darkness of the tunnel.

    1. There are obviously a variety of costumes associated with Chinese opera. But there is something distinctive about an opera costume. If you watched the opera video from a few chapters ago, you probably saw some. Here¡¯s a picture example. ?

 Chapter 369: The Third God!

    Chapter 369: The Third God!

    The singing apanied the fluttering paper money as it swirled around the log cabin. The song was intensely mournful and the surroundings were bizarre. It seemed as if some ceremony or rite was underway, something that had been going on for an indeterminable period of time.

    In Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, the pentagonal log cabin almost seemed to be some sort of altar. That was because, on the corners of the pentagonal cabin, where the chains connected, sat three terrifying zombies.

    The first zombie was dripping wet and so severely decayed that it was impossible to tell if it was male or female. It faced the log cabin, a tattered ck robe draped over its frame, making it seem like it had been ravaged by time. The fluids of death which dripped down it seemed to contain some unimaginable power that preserved an image of the moment in which the zombie died. Despite how much time had passed, it was obvious.

    It was a drowned zombie.

    The second zombie also wore a tattered ck robe, and was also facing the cabin. Its hands were at its own abdomen, and were in the middle of ripping apart its own belly, revealing the abdominal cavity beneath. There were no organs inside. It had been emptied out, although there was still something within the cavity, not quite visible. That was because, in life, this zombie had apparently seen something that prompted it to bend over in prostration.

    It was a dissected zombie.

    The third zombie was a little different from the other two. It had a red vine wrapped around its waist, the thorns of which pierced its belly. The vine continued upward to wrap around its throat. The ends of the vine were held in the zombie¡¯s hands, as if it had tied the vine around itself and pulled it tight to end its own life.

    It was a strangled zombie. [1]

    All three zombies were bizarre through and through, and they were why Xu Qing got the impression this was some sort of rite or ceremony.

    On the cabin¡¯s fourth corner, there was no zombie. Instead, there was an unmarked gravestone. Normally speaking, a gravestone was ced atop a grave. Except, there was no grave here. Yet, the ce clearly seemed like some sort of tomb.

    Xu Qing looked at the second zombie, the dissected one, and examined it more closely. That was when he noticed that there was some dirt inside the dissected zombie¡¯s abdominal cavity. And in that dirt was a very small grave, within which was the partially buried zombie of a baby. That was the fourth zombie.

    Seeing all that, Xu Qing shifted his attention to the fifth corner of the cabin. There, he saw scorch marks surrounding the spot where a zombie had once sat.

    It immediately made him think of the immted zombie he had just fought.

    ¡°Metal to dissect. Wood to strangle. Water to drown. Fire to immte. Earth to bury.¡±

    Xu Qing had no idea what this ceremony was about, but he knew that these four zombies and the log cabin they surrounded were absolutely terrifying. The atmosphere was stifling, and his hair stood on end thanks to the singing, as well as the aura and the mutagen from deeper in the tunnel. The aura caused his mind and heart to tremble. It was a feeling he hadst experienced in the presence of the red moon. Xu Qing knew that, deeper in the darkness, there was definitely some unimaginable entity.

    It was clear that Zhang Siyun knew about this as well. Xu Qing had already spotted him several hundred meters further down, carefully climbing down the wall. He was moving quickly but carefully, clearly fearful of disturbing the woman in the cabin or the zombies. Right now, he was only about thirty meters away from one of the iron chains connecting to the cabin.

    Xu Qing watched Zhang Siyun, his eyes cold. As he did, he carefully took out a mirror, a ck piece of wood, and a bag full of medicinal pills. The pills were ck boluses, which would explode and then suck in the surrounding mutagen. In this sinister and mutagen-filled tunnel, there was no better pill than a ck bolus to attract attention.

    Xu Qing extended the bag in his left hand, and then dumped it upside down right above the unsuspecting Zhang Siyun. Hundreds of ck boluses tumbled out. [2]

    As Zhang Siyun carefully crawled along, his expression suddenly flickered, and he looked up to see Xu Qing and the medicinal pills. rmed, he was about to do something to block the pills when Xu Qing quietly spoke.

    ¡°Detonate!¡±

    The ck boluses exploded, creating a deafening boom. At the same time, massive amounts of mutagen surged into motion.

    In the blink of an eye, a massive vortex appeared, creating a tideflow power and a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering noise. The flow of mutagen was so intense that, if you likened it to water, then it created a massive tidal wave. Everything below blurred. The pentagonal log cabin trembled, and the singing abruptly stopped.

    The four zombies seated cross-legged around the cabin all opened their eyes, which radiated astonishing madness and brutality. Howling in rage, they all looked in the direction of Zhang Siyun! Fiendish rage erupted violently.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s face fell, and his heart filled with indescribable astonishment and fury. For one thing, it was obvious that Xu Qing had somehow dealt with the immted zombie that he himself couldn¡¯t deal with. Not only that, Xu Qing was doing something to specifically target him and cause problems. All of that caused Zhang Siyun¡¯s rage to boil. Not only was his n spoiled, but also, he was now facing immense danger. Eyes bloodshot, he started an incantation gesture with the goal of switching positions with Xu Qing.

    This time, Xu Qing was ready. He had experienced that technique before, and thus, it was only natural that he would be prepared to deal with it. As soon as Zhang Siyun made his move, Xu Qing held up the small mirror. The mirror glittered, shining light directly into Zhang Siyun¡¯s eyes. Zhang Siyun¡¯s heart thumped as his soul was suddenly locked in ce, negating his technique. [3]

    And then Xu Qing activated the ck piece of wood. The Darkspirit Everwill Door popped into being, faced Zhang Siyun, and opened.

    What emerged was a rotting heart. The moment it appeared, Zhang Siyun shivered, and an expression of confusion overtook his face. The Darkspirit Everwill Door had received a twofold ensorcellment, allowing it to lock one¡¯s life force in ce. And now... Zhang Siyun¡¯s life force was frozen solid. There was no way for him to continue with his magical technique. Taking advantage of the moment, Xu Qing backed away from him and then flew higher into the air.

    However, what he¡¯d done so far wasn¡¯t enough to abate his killing intent. Therefore, he sent his shadow stretching out toward Zhang Siyun. Given that Zhang Siyun was locked in ce, it was easy for the shadow to grab him and throw him in the direction of the zombies by the cabin.

    The rules stated that you couldn¡¯t kill someone, and Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t break those rules. Given that the swordsages had repeatedly emphasized that aspect, it seemed obvious that they would have a way to monitor such things. In all likelihood, they were using the teleportation jade slips for that purpose. However, there were no rules about lending someone a knife and having them do your dirty work for you.

    With that done, the shadow slid back to Xu Qing, who shot 3,000 meters up in an instant.

    From his vantage point, he could see everything below. He saw the snarling zombies, and Zhang Siyun howling in anguish now that he was free to move again.

    He still has a lifemp! Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing was just waiting for Zhang Siyun to die so that he could go in and take his lifemp. But then, a sense of deadly crisis filled him that caused all his hair to stand on end, and filled his heart with waves of astonishment. And that was because, in what had previously been inky darkness below, he saw light.

    He looked down, and instantly his head spun. Everything in his view twisted and distorted, turning blurry. His soul, his flesh, and his blood all felt like they might be ripped to shreds.

    Below him, he didn¡¯t just see five chains and a log cabin. Beneath the cabin, down in the pitch ck, something else had appeared....

    It was an eye!

    A huge, golden eye!

    It was massive, being just asrge as the tunnel itself. It was as if some unimaginable entity was sleeping at the very bottom of the tunnel, and that the tunnel was merely an eye hole to look up.

    Now, it had awakened, and was looking up through that eye hole. The gaze was cold, as if all living beings were bugs to it, as if the only way to coexist with it was to transfer life force directly to it. This was the pressure created by a disparity in life level!

    A single nce at it caused Xu Qing¡¯s hair, eyes, fingers, flesh, and blood all seem to gain their own consciousness. It was like they weren¡¯t part of him, and were about to rip away from him. Immense mutagen inundated him, to the point where he was just about to mutate. Indescribable pain ripped through every corner of his body.

    Xu Qing thought to teleport away, but couldn¡¯t do it. He could only wait as that immense will sought to rip him apart. Within him, the violet moon glittered and his taboo poison core erupted, dispelling the pressure and forcing him to move upward. However, the aura from the golden eye was too terrifying, and thus, Xu Qing gradually slowed down. Seeing that, he was about to summon his shadow to cover himself.

    That was when a centipede burst out of the wall and rushed toward him. The woman atop the centipede grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s arm, then flew madly back toward the wall with him in tow. Her cultivation base wasn¡¯t on the same level as Xu Qing¡¯s, but the gaze from below didn¡¯t seem to affect her. Moving at top speed, she climbed up the wall, quickly moving 3,000 meters. Meanwhile, the tremulous singing once again echoed out from below.

    ¡°In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....

    ¡°In a life of hesitation, in a future of frustration, who is it that waits for me in reincarnation....¡±

    It was sad and beautiful as it echoed through the tunnel. All of a sudden, the golden eye closed as if the song had special significance to h¨©m.

    Because of the intense mutagen, ghasts appeared everywhere, all of them howling with shrill brutality.

    Shaken, Xu Qing looked down.

    Everything about this ghast hollow was extremely bizarre. The ceremony with the log cabin was apparently specifically here... to keep whatever was in the depths of the tunnel asleep.

    As for this centipede woman, she was different from the other ghasts Xu Qing had encountered. She had saved him in a critical moment, most likely because Xu Qing had saved her. The act of repaying kindnesses was not something Xu Qing had seen in any kind of grue or ghast. He looked at her with mixed emotions in his eyes, but she wasn¡¯t looking back.

    She was just speeding upward. After they went another 3,000 meters up, she stopped. There, she nodded at him, then spat out a collection of pir fragments. There were at least 107 or 108 of them. With that, she burrowed back into the wall and disappeared.

    Xu Qing grabbed the fragments and looked around at the danger surrounding him in the form of countless ghasts. Then he took out the teleportation jade slip. It was already shining with bright light.

    The first phase was over. Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to crush the jade slip. It automatically began the teleportation. He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, didn¡¯t toss it away from him. Bright light rose up and surrounded him. In thest moment before he teleported away, he looked down into the dark tunnel.

    What secrets are hidden here...? Who set up that altar? Was that woman in the log cabin dead or alive? Why can her song cause that god to sleep?

    This was the third god Xu Qing had encountered.

    The first was the broken face.

    The second was the red moon.

    1. In Chinese the ¡®strangled¡¯ here is a specific word used to describe strangling or hanging oneself, presumably as a form of suicide. ?

    2. ck boluses?? What a callback! Thest mention of ck boluses was in chapter 261, except they weren¡¯t used in that chapter. Thest use was in chapter 257. And of course, Xu Qing came up with the name way back in chapter 33. ?

    3. The mirror is the one he acquired in chapter 302. ?

 Chapter 370: Swordsage Mission Statement

    Chapter 370: Swordsage Mission Statement

    Outside the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, it was a clear day, and the sky was as blue as ever. The winter wind asionally blew snow through Netherflight City and onto the crowds therein.

    Only about 2,000 people had joined the recruitment event. Of those, most had teleported out before the conclusion, and now stood there with lingering fear visible on their faces. Their experiences in the ghast hollow had been profoundly frightening. Just as the middle-aged man in the government uniform had mentioned three days before, the dangers inside could indeed be deadly.

    Xu Qing stood in the crowd. He was in thest group of people to be teleported out. The moment he had materialized, he¡¯d looked around to see who else came out with him.

    The Captain was there, covered with wounds. However, he still had all four of his limbs. That said, he was missing an eye and both his ears, plus he had a huge gash on his belly which he held together with one arm. Seeing Xu Qing, he shed a grin. Even though he only had one eye left, he still looked very pleased with himself. Clearly, he was happy with how he had benefited in the tunnel. Xu Qing had seen a god, but there were many side tunnels that others had entered, and they had surely seen other strange things.

    Xu Qing also spotted red-garbed Qing Qiu. She hade out in the same group as Xu Qing, which meant she stuck it out to the very end. Her mask was covered with blood, as was the rest of her body. And her evil ghost scythe seemed to be chewing something, while at the same time struggling to breathe.

    There was someone else that Xu Qing had hoped not to see.

    It was Zhang Siyun. He clearly had life-saving strategies that had kept him from dying. That said, he was in a very weak state. He had incredibly high mutagen levels, and was popping pills like mad in the hopes of cleansing himself. He had a wound stretching from his forehead down to his chest, a very deep scratch mark that revealed bone. Were it any deeper, it probably would have sliced him in half.

    Xu Qing looked at Zhang Siyun. Zhang Siyun looked back, his expression grim and his eyes cold. Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless as he looked away.

    There was no way the Swordsage Court didn¡¯t know about the god in the ghast hollow. And given that, it seemed possible that the swordsages were the one who had set up that pentagonal log cabin to keep that god asleep.

    Of course, that was all spection. Maybe the log cabin had existed before the Swordsage Court showed up. Either way, it didn¡¯t change the final result. And that was... the red lifemp in the log cabin couldn¡¯t be taken away. If the Swordsage Court set the whole thing up, then they naturally wouldn¡¯t let anyone just take it. If it existed before them, and the swordsages hadn¡¯t been able to take it, then there was no way a candidate in the recruitment event would be able to.

    Then what exactly was Zhang Siyun doing there?

    Without more information, Xu Qing couldn¡¯te up with any good theories.

    However, when he thought back to the song the woman in the log cabin had been singing, he was struck with a sudden sensation. From the very beginning, it seemed as if the singer were using two lines of song to exin the story of the ghast hollow. In frustration, someone had cut their lovesickness into countless flower petals. Those petals were like paper money that floated endlessly in mourning. Each petal contained longing. And whether in a past life or the current one, that someone was waiting. They were waiting for all of that lovesickness to gather together into a whole, and reveal the subject of longing. The only question was whether the individual in waiting was the woman in the log cabin, or the god at the bottom of the ghast hollow.

    Xu Qing sat there in silence. The more he learned about the world he lived in, the moreplicated and mysterious it seemed.

    Looking over, he noticed another cultivator who had teleported out at the same time as him. He was trembling. And then, a beam of light shot out from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and wiped him out of existence. The man¡¯s death instantly dispelled Xu Qing¡¯s spections about the ghast hollow. As his pupils constricted, an emotionless voice echoed out from the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    ¡°Inspection revealed he killed a fellow human. Punishment: eradication.¡±

    Xu Qing had previously spected that the teleportation jade slips were also able to check whether or not they were following the rules. Now it seemed he was right. What was more, after checking, he noticed that he didn¡¯t have any pir fragments. The fragments must have been taken away when he teleported out, and then added back into the pir. Clearly, the swordsages had their ways of checking the records.

    As the cold wind blew, and the candidates all stood there waiting, brilliant light appeared in the dome of heaven. Numerous figures descended, all of them d in government uniforms. At first there were a few dozen that came to hover overhead, but more and more appeared, until there were hundreds. The pressure they emanated weighed down everywhere as more continued to arrive. The candidates were all shaken, while the observers in the crowd, as well as the dao protectors from the various sects, all looked on somberly.

    Before long, there were several thousand figures hovering in the air above. All of them emanated extraordinary cultivation base fluctuations, with the weakest being the Gold Core level. There were also Nascent Soul and Spirit Trove experts present. Each and every individual had the exact same type of greatsword strapped to their back.

    It was green and inscribed with the character ¡®yuan.¡¯ [1]

    With that and their government uniforms, they seemed like members of a well-oiled machine. Their auras mixed, creating a massive force that could crush all enemies and destroy foes from any and all species!

    What a majestic disy!

    These were all of the swordsages who were members of the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. They were arrayed in two formations, almost like huge wings.

    Netherflight City waspletely silent. Not a single person in any of the tents spoke. Everyone held their breath as they looked up into the sky. They all knew that in a moment... a grand swordsage ceremony would take ce! This was what always happened before the second phase of the swordsage recruitment event. It was a very important ceremony with very specific formalities.

    After all, the swordsages represented one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions of humankind. As a result, this ceremony represented the dignity of all humans.

    As everyone looked on reverently, the clouds parted and an intense rumbling sound echoed out. As it grew louder, a seven-colored vortex appeared high above. Nine massive beams of light emerged from the vortex. They were Void Returning experts, any of whom could be the patriarch of a major sect in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Instead, they were... the nine highest-ranking elders of the Swordsage Court!

    Their expressions were somber as they emerged. Four moved to the left and four to the right, taking up positions by the two wings. And in the middle was one person. This person was the grand elder of the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and as such, was the highest ranking swordsage.

    When Xu Qingid eyes on him, his jaw nearly dropped. The grand elder was the very same old man whose alchemy lectures he had attended, the one who reminded him so much of Grandmaster Bai. Xu Qing had assumed all along that the old man ranked high in the Swordsage Court. But it had never even urred to him that he could possibly be the leader!

    As Xu Qing reeled in shock, a middle-aged man stepped out from the left wing. His expression was grave as he looked at the grand elder, sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°The Swordsage Court of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture has a total of 4,311 swordsages. Today, all 4,311 are present. Not a single one is missing. We humbly submit to your scrutiny, Grand Elder.¡±

    The grand elder nodded. ¡°Reveal the name list.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Grand Elder!¡± said the middle-aged cultivator. Expression solemn, he looked down at the ground and spoke in a resonant voice. ¡°After being reviewed by the Swordsage Court, the following name list has been reported to the Swordsage Pce. Based on the number of fragments collected, ten humans have been selected to qualify for an imperial audience as swordsages!

    ¡°The name list is as follows.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Chen Erniu. Qing Qiu. Zhang Siyun. Ning Yan....¡± [2]

    Every name that was spoken was apanied by gasps from the crowd. Eventually, all ten names had been listed out. ¡°The ten of you... step forward!¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and stepped out of the crowd. The Captain did the same, as well as all the others. They stood in front of the group of other candidates, about 30 meters apart from each other. They were theplete center of attention.

    At that point, the middle-aged swordsage bowed to the grand elder and then returned to his spot.

    The grand elder looked down at Xu Qing and the others for a moment. Then he solemnly turned toward the seven-colored vortex, sped hands and bowed. When he spoke, his ancient voice was hoarse and filled with iparable solemnity.

    ¡°We hereby request that Yuan Zaiji, Grand Emperor of Immortal Ultrabrilliance, Uniter of Humanity and Exalted Celestial of Swordsages, deign to visit our court.¡±

    As soon as he finished speaking, all of the other swordsages in both wings, including the eight elders, all bowed deeply to the vortex and joined their voices to say the same thing.

    ¡°We hereby request that Yuan Zaiji, Grand Emperor of Immortal Ultrabrilliance, Uniter of Humanity and Exalted Celestial of Swordsages, deign to visit our court.¡±

    It was a ceremony carried out with utmost formality, and it put the orthodox traditions of humanity on full disy. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was somber and dignified.

    As the voices of the swordsages echoed into the vortex, brilliant light shone out. Scintiting shafts of multi-colored sunlight filled the sky, illuminating thends and lighting up the clouds. [3]

    Then, a divine likeness appeared within the vortex, a statue that could cause anyone who looked at it to feel shaken down to the soul. It was a statue so majestic it seemed capable of propping up heaven and earth. It bore the likeness of a middle-aged man whose expression was threatening without being angry. His eyes glittered with bright light, and he wore a flowing imperial robe with nine dragons on it. He had a heavenly imperial crown, and strapped to his back was a green greatsword with the character ¡°yuan¡± carved on it, just like the swords worn by all the swordsages!

    The arrival of this divine likeness caused everything in the dome of heaven to tremble. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and winds screamed!

    All the humans below were deeply shaken, and they felt their energy and blood surging beyond their control. It was like a connection built into their bloodline that caused their minds to reel.

    This was the Grand Emperor of humankind! This was the founder of the Swordsage Division!

    Without thinking about it consciously, everyone bowed their heads, even Sir Bloodsmelter and the other sect patriarchs. They willingly, and with the utmost respect, offered obeisance to the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor of humanity.

    Xu Qing did the same, his heart pounding.

    All of a sudden, he found himself thinking of the Ghost Emperor. Clearly,pared to the Grand Emperor of humanity, the Ghost Emperor was somewhat deficient. Looking at the Grand Emperor¡¯s facial features, Xu Qing realized that it was about seventy percent simr to the statues he had seen of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    As everyone offered obeisance, the swordsage grand elder spoke in a solemn tone.

    ¡°In ordance with the orders set forth by that most Ancient of Emperors, Dark Serenity of the fourth stage of the Heavenly Dao, our Swordsage Pce wields the sword for the sake of humanity, severs any vile destiny from themoners, and spreads sunlight into heaven and earth. Therefore, Grand Emperor, by way of corroboration of our mission, please disseminate the light of sunrise throughout thends!¡±

    His voice echoed like thunder through the dome of heaven, into the hearts of all the swordsages, and into the minds of all the onlookers. They were especially moving to Xu Qing and the other candidates. They were like bells ringing throughout all heaven and earth with deafening loudness! That was because... this was the mission statement of the swordsages!

    Sever vile destiny from themoners, spread light through heaven and earth!

    That¡­ was what it meant to be a swordsage!

    1. Yuan is a character that has many meanings. Because it¡¯s associated with a name (as exinedter in this chapter), I¡¯m transliterating it. However, in the context, ites across as carrying the meaning of ¡°origin, original, first.¡± ?

    2. Ning Yan: Ning does not appear on the list of the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It¡¯s a surname that also means ¡°peaceful, tranquil.¡± Yan means ¡°me, zing, power, etc.¡± Madam Deathde said that thises across as a nice-sounding, but generally ordinary, name to her. When I pressed her, she said that considering Yan means ¡°me,¡± perhaps he has a fiery personality. Yan is also aponent in amon idiom that rtes to the sun, so she also spected that maybe his parents hoped that he would ¡°shine like the sun.¡± But again, those are just random spections based only on the name itself. As with many things, Chinese naming conventions aren¡¯t always deeply meaningful. ?

    3. There is a fairly specific word for light used throughout this and the next couple chapters. It refers to ¡°gorgeous, multi-colored rays of morning or evening sunlight.¡± To make things simple, I¡¯m going to trante it as ¡°sunlight.¡± So, as this ceremony/event ys out, every time you see ¡°sunlight,¡± you will know that it¡¯s the moreplex definition listed above. ?

 Chapter 371: Ancient Traditions of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture

    Chapter 371: Ancient Traditions of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture

    Everything was quiet. No one spoke. Only emotional breathing could be heard. The words that had just been spoken caused all the humans present to feel deeply moved.

    Everyone had their own life story and their own experience. Whether they were mighty and grand, or low and humble, they all lived in a brutal, dog-eat-dog world. One¡¯s status couldn¡¯t change the circumstances of the world. Everyone dealt with misfortune and bitterness. And thus, all could understand the gravity of the mission statement.

    As the words were spoken by a voice that cracked like thunder, Xu Qing suddenly came to truly realize what the swordsages were all about. Whether or not the swordsages lived up to the mission statement wasn¡¯t important. At the very least, it existed.

    This element was the most important element of this swordsage ceremony. The atmosphere was solemn. The words spoken were dignified. Holy sunlight shone while the mission statement was uttered so loudly even the deaf could hear it. All of that ensured that the swordsages¡¯ mission would continue.

    At that moment, the hearts of all humans were lifted. Brilliant sunlight shone in the dome of heaven, streaming through thends, illuminating everything until itnded on Xu Qing and the other candidates.

    There, bringing with it all the honor and glory of the swordsage mission, it created a massive staircase! It was fully 30,000 meters wide and it started right in the middle of Netherflight City. However, of all the countless humans that were looking on, only ten people qualified to climb it.

    For them, it was a path that led to heaven.

    It began on the surface of the earth and ended at the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor. From a distance, it was possible to see that by simply walking up those stairs, one could eventually stand in front of the Grand Emperor. The holy atmosphere in the area grew stronger. The stairs glittered with seven-colored light, and if you counted them, you would find that there were a total of 9,999.

    As Xu Qing studied the situation, the voice of the grand elder echoed in his ears.

    ¡°Being a swordsage is the greatest honor possible for a human. We strive to create peace and prosperity for 30,000 generations. Thus, the stairs are 30,000 meters wide.

    ¡°An emperor represents 10,000 citizens. But an emperor is only one person. Thus, there are only 9,999 steps. That illustrates why the Swordsage Division can execute judgment on anyone except the emperor!¡±

    As his voice echoed out, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly. If the grand elder¡¯s previous words represented the soul of the swordsages, then the words he had spoken just now were its bones! The soul represented the mission. The bones represented the spine! The spine of the swordsages was epitomized in how they could execute judgment on anyone but the emperor! The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation. Qing Qiu was reacting simrly, as her eyes beneath her mask shone brightly.

    Next, the grand elder looked up at the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor. sping hands, he bowed deeply and spoke with even more respect than before.

    ¡°Grand Emperor, please present the swords.¡±

    The two wings of swordsages all sped hands in unison, then bowed toward the sky.

    The divine likeness responded by sending out a light as red as the early morning sun spreading out over the sea. It was a light that could dispel the darkness of night, and as it shone, three even brighter beams of light emerged from the massive sword on the back of the huge statue. Moving with shocking speed, they flew down toward the 30,000-meter-wide staircase, right to the top of the 9,999 stairs. A thump rang out as they sank into the tform there. Each was 3,000 meters away from the next, and they emanated green light that flowed like water. Just looking at them, they were obviously extraordinary items.

    Those three swords were not just swords. They represented authority. They were also the symbol of the swordsages. They were themand swords that swordsages wielded!

    ¡°Swordsages are champions of authority. The sword represents authority, used to safeguard themon people.¡±

    The words were spoken like a litany by the gathered swordsages above. Their voices resounded through heaven and earth, shaking everything. As the sound of their voices faded, the old grand elder once again spoke.

    ¡°The ten of you below must win a sword to achieve victory. Listen to my orders!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up with his eyes shing. As of this moment, he was absolutely determined to be a swordsage.

    It was the same with everyone else. That included the Captain and Qing Qiu, as well as Zhang Siyun and the young man Ning Yan, who had provoked Xu Qing earlier by attacking him. All of them stood there with eyes glittering. [1]

    As they stood there raptly, the grand elder continued, ¡°Qing Qiu, you have 40 battle spirit symbols. You may ascend 400 stairs!¡±

    Under the eyes of all present, Qing Qiu immediately raced up to the 400th stair.

    ¡°Chen Erniu, you have 127 battle spirit symbols. You may ascend 1,270 stairs!¡±

    The Captain sped up to the 1,270th step.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun, you have 63 battle spirit symbols. You may ascend 630 stairs.¡±

    ¡°Ning Yan....¡±

    As his voice echoed out, everyone solemnly climbed as many stairs as permitted based on the number of battle spirit symbols they had collected.

    Finally it was Xu Qing¡¯s turn.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you have 279 battle spirit symbols. You may ascend 2,790 stairs.¡±

    Despite the solemnity of the asion, there was a buzz from the crowd. Previously, the Captain¡¯s result had been a shock to them, but they had been able to stay silent. Xu Qing¡¯s result... was unprecedented andpletely unimaginable.

    Countless gazes shifted to focus on him. Whether it was the crowd in Netherflight City or the other nine candidates, everyone was deeply shaken.

    Xu Qing looked up, his expression cid, and began to walk. Everyone watched as he ascended step by step. He looked like a young prince, walking up into the sky toward the Grand Emperor. He passed Ning Yan. He passed Qing Qiu, whose eyes flickered with mixed emotions. He passed the grim-faced Zhang Siyun. And he also passed the Captain, whose expression was unreadable.

    After passing everyone, he kept going, walking up and up to the 2,790th stair. He was in front of everyone else. He was clearly the front runner! And he was only 7,209 stairs away from the Grand Emperor! There were nine people directly behind him, and behind them were crowds of human cultivators.

    Standing in this position, Xu Qing finally realized how important it was to get extra points early in the selection process. He wasn¡¯t sure if every event worked this way. But it was certain how the event worked this time. The assessment had actually begun very early.

    After Xu Qing reached his position, the grand elder above spoke again.

    ¡°Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, Zhang Siyun, you three took first ce when climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. Because you climbed 9,000 meters, you may ascend another 3,000 stairs.¡± [2]

    As the names were called out, the candidates all climbed higher. Xu Qing was still in first ce by a longshot. From his position, he had a better view of the statue of the Grand Emperor, as well as the scintiting swords at the top of the staircase. At the moment... he was only 4,209 stairs from the top!

    Next, the booming voice spoke again.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun, you collected 48 fragments in the ghast hollow. You may ascend 480 stairs!

    ¡°Qing Qiu, you collected 213 fragments in the ghast hollow. You may ascend 2,130 stairs!

    ¡°Chen Erniu, you collected 301 fragments in the ghast hollow. You may ascend 3,010 stairs!

    ¡°Xu Qing, you collected 421 fragments in the ghast hollow. You may ascend 4,210 stairs!¡±

    As the voice boomed, the ten candidates climbed further. With the exception of the Captain, all of them were looking at Xu Qing with mixed emotions.

    That was especially true of Zhang Siyun, whose expression was iparably grim. His killing intent toward Xu Qing was intense; after all, if Xu Qing hadn¡¯t attacked him earlier, he most definitely wouldn¡¯t havee in ninth ce. In order to save his own life, he had been forced to use a secret magic, sacrificing his fleshly body to slip out of a predicament like a cicada sloughing its skin. As a result, he had lost his bag of holding and all the fragments within it.

    Now, it wasn¡¯t just Xu Qing and Chen Erniu who were ahead of him on the stairs. Qing Qiu had also passed him, although not by much.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother to pay attention to the fuming Zhang Siyun. He just kept climbing higher and higher. So far, no one was even close to passing him. He just kept walking higher and higher. And then, the crowd started cheering, as all eyes were focused on him. That was because... based on the stair he had previously been standing on, 4,209 was all he needed to reach the top!

    As he walked, he passed the 8,000th stair, and reached the 9,000th. Then he reached 9,990. And finally... he reached 9,999! At that point, he was right in front of the centermostmand sword.

    The closest to him was the Captain, who was past the 7,000th stair, and after that, Qing Qiu who was at about 5,000. Right behind her was Zhang Siyun, who had just passed 3,000.

    Xu Qing had climbed as high as he could, but there was still another step to take.

    At that point, it wasn¡¯t just the crowds below who were focused on Xu Qing. The swordsages above were all looking down at him. It wasn¡¯t that something like this had never happened in history. But in thest several thousand years, it had never happened in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. It was the first time here! Even the nine swordsage elders were all looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cid as he stood at the top of the stairs, right below the statue of the Grand Emperor. Then he took his final step. He sped hands and bowed.

    All of the swordsages watched.

    The grand elder nodded. ¡°Now, everyone, be on your best behavior as you¡­ take a sword!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the people on the stairs started racing up as fast as they could. They didn¡¯t even hesitate to use secret magics to shoot up toward the 9,999th stair.

    Xu Qing, who stood as high as possible on the staircase, reached out, took themand sword, then turned and looked down at everyone. As he stood there, themand sword glittered brilliantly, illuminating him. At the same time, sunlight from the divine likeness behind him shone down.

    To everyone below, it seemed like, at that moment, he and the Grand Emperor were superimposed. In that moment of brilliance, with his face as fair as jade, the brilliant light made him seem like he was a Grand Emperor returned to life.

    1. Ning Yan attacked Xu Qing during the pir-climbing event in chapter 359. We did not know his name at that time. He was originally introduced without a name in chapter 357. In the original introduction, he was said to have a nose ring. ?

    2. Now that I think about it, I took it for granted that most readers would realize I convert the traditional Chinese measuring unit ¡°zhang¡± into meters. To make things simple, I convert one zhang into three meters. In this case, they climbed 3,000 zhang, so they ascended 3,000 stairs. This is the first time in the trantion where there has been a directparison between ¡°zhang¡± and some other concrete number. It rarely happens. And in terms of numerology, converting zhang to meters usually doesn¡¯t matter. If I ever notice a spot where it matters what the original ¡°zhang¡± measurement is, I¡¯ll put a footnote in. ?

 Chapter 372: The Consequences of Provoking Xu Qing

    Chapter 372: The Consequences of Provoking Xu Qing

    The swordsage recruitment trial was an event full of holiness and dignity. It was the most orthodox of human ceremonies, and was something that no sect could match. The swordsages had resources that other organizations simply couldn¡¯t tap into. Because of that, the ceremony and rules were naturally unique.

    In a chaotic world, ceremonies were very important. The darker it got, and the colder it got, the more important it became to have fire. And that fire... could fuel the legacy of all humanity. That fire was the human bloodline, and it represented the very spirit of all humankind. Ceremonies represented the spirit of legacy. The more formal a ceremony, and the more holy it was, the deeper impression that legacy would give. It could be branded onto the soul itself, never to be dispersed. This was a swordsage ceremony, but at the same time, it was a ceremony for all humanity.

    In the dome of heaven, the swordsages were organized by rank into two wings. The wing-like shape of their formation had significance; it was a symbol of how they offered protection. With their wings, they would offer shelter to humanity. Beyond that, they were willing to spread their wings wide and fly to the highest heights, all for the sake of humankind.

    The nine swordsage elders had solemn expressions on their faces as they bore witness to the events ying out. That itself was part of the ceremony. There were four on each side, and one in the middle. Arrayed at different heights, they resembled a mountain or a sword. They represented the cutting edge of the swordsages. They represented themand sword. The sunrise glow illuminated them from behind. Combined with the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor, h¨©s gaze epassing all heaven and earth, meant they were the protectors of the legacy of humankind.

    Beneath the gaze of that god, standing 30,000 meters in the sky, was Xu Qing, his hand gripping themand sword. His clothes rippled in the wind, and his hair swayed around him. However, he stood unmoving. There was no need to use the words ¡®energy¡¯ or ¡®aura¡¯ to describe his grandeur. The look in his eyes, and the position upon which he stood, were more than enough.

    That was because only one person stood in that paramount position on the staircase. Xu Qing.

    His grandeur was profound. It was profound because of how the statue of the Grand Emperor seemed to superimpose over him. And it was profound because of the swordsage mission.

    Normally speaking, this swordsage ceremony was not supposed to focus profound grandeur on a single person. After all, in the end, it was merely an entry ceremony for new recruits. True grandeur was supposed toeter, when a swordsage rose through the ranks and was promoted.

    But then Xu Qing came along.

    During the assessment process, he climbed higher on the staircase than anyone in history. The other candidates had to scramble to the top, but he was already there.

    All he had to do was pick up one of themand swords. The moment he did so, he stopped being a participant and turned into a witness. He bore witness to what was happening on the stairs below, and all of the figures rushing up. There were now only twomand swords left, which meant that only two people would seed.

    Xu Qing, of course, was the type of person who would seek revenge over the smallest grievance. He absolutely did not want Zhang Siyun to seed. And the rules didn¡¯t prohibit him from interfering. As long as he didn¡¯t do anything too excessive, it seemed likely he could take action.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen,¡± he said calmly, ¡°be careful of Zhang Siyun. He has a transposition magic that only requires line of sight to activate. In the ghast hollow, he used it on me in a very underhanded way.¡±

    In response to his words, the expressions of the other candidates on the staircase flickered.

    The Captain didn¡¯t slow down an iota. Blue light flickered around him, and suddenly he blurred, making it difficult for anyone to be able to see him clearly. Then he elerated dramatically, leaping 3,000 meters in a single bound. After that, he continued speeding upward.

    His goal was themand sword 3,000 meters to the left of Xu Qing.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s face remained expressionless. Because of his losses in the ghast hollow, he had fallen severely behind in thepetition. He had also been badly hurt. As a result, he had nned to use his transposition technique to switch ces with either Chen Erniu or Qing Qiu. After all, Xu Qing had already found a way to deal with his transposition technique, and beyond that, had taken the lead in the event. Then there was the fact that the grand elder had just said to ¡®be on your best behavior.¡¯ And finally, considering that holding amand sword meant that you were a swordsage, it seemed very dangerous to try to switch ces with Xu Qing.

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing had spoken so quickly that Zhang Siyun couldn¡¯t possibly have been prepared. Before he could even use his transposition technique, Xu Qing interfered. Zhang Siyun was understandably shocked, but didn¡¯t give up. Instead, he shifted targets to Qing Qiu.

    Meanwhile, the Captain shot forward with blinding speed, seemingly ignoring the immense pressure weighing down on the staircase. In the blink of an eye, he reached themand sword and grabbed it excitedly. Then he turned to look at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him.

    They each grinned.

    It wasn¡¯t lost on Xu Qing that the swordsages above hadn¡¯t done anything to interfere when he spoke moments ago. Therefore, he decided to speak again.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun, you coveted that pentagonal log cabin in the ghast hollow, and even nned to destroy it. What¡¯s more, you know the ghast hollow like the back of your own hand. You might im to be unaware of whaty down there, and you might want us to believe you didn¡¯t have ulterior motives, except... no one believes you! Your plots, your schemes, and your very actions are all extremely suspicious! As a swordsage, I, Xu Qing, hereby request that the various elders of the Swordsage Court inspect Zhang Siyun!¡±

    Zhang Siyun was currently speeding past the 7,000th stair. At the same time, he was targeting Qing Qiu, who was around the 9,000th stair. When he heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, it struck him deeply. Not even Li Ziliang¡¯s Will Imntation techniques worked on him, mostly because they were based on lies. That made the technique easy to resist.

    But... Xu Qing didn¡¯t just openly reveal his own secrets. Beyond that, he actually requested that the elders inspect him! This was no Will Imntation. This was outright humiliation!

    Zhang Siyun knew that he didn¡¯t have time for a lengthy exnation. But at the same time, he had no idea how to smooth things over in the heat of the moment. But he couldn¡¯t say nothing!

    Therefore, he tried to stay calm. ¡°That¡¯s absolute nonsense!¡±

    Then he kept working on his transposition technique. Unfortunately, what had just yed out caused big problems for his ability to focus mentally.

    Exactly as his transposition technique locked onto Qing Qiu and activated, her eyes glittered, and she shot backward at high speed.

    The further one got up the stairs, the greater the pressure, and the slower one moved. But moving backward was easy. Considering that she was actually attempting to elerate backward, that made it so that, in the shortest of moments, she was able to drop back down to roughly the 3,000th stair.

    The transposition technique worked!

    Zhang Siyun sessfully moved from the 7,000th stair to roughly the 3,000th. Meanwhile, Qing Qiu switched to the 7,000th!

    Before, they had only been about 2,000 stairs apart. Now they were about 4,000 stairs apart!

    In the blink of an eye, an evil ghost suddenly appeared above Qing Qiu. It had previously been building up power, and now it looked back at Zhang Siyun, opened its mouth, then snapped it shut.

    A tremor passed through Zhang Siyun as his defenses automatically fought back against the attack. At the same time, the bacsh from his own technique hit him, forcing him to stop in ce. Qing Qiu¡¯s method of dealing with his transposition technique was simple. But the simpler such methods were, the more difficult they were to anticipate.

    Meanwhile, Qing Qiu took advantage of the moment to employ a secret magic. Red light glowed around her as numerous shadowy projections of herself appeared. Then she spat out seven mouthfuls of blood to achieve a dramatic eleration. Using that boost, she shot to the top of the stairs and grabbed the thirdmand sword.

    The moment she grabbed it, she coughed up a huge mouthful of blood which contained chunks of internal organs. Obviously that secret magic hade with a huge price, and a dangerous bacsh. She sagged in ce so unstably it seemed like she might copse. However, by leaning against her evil ghost scythe, she was able to remain standing. Though she was very weak at that moment, her eyes shone with determination.

    For some reason, Xu Qing felt like he had seen that exact same look before, though he wasn¡¯t sure where.

    As Xu Qing searched through his memories, Zhang Siyun stood there in defeat. Fury burned in his heart as he red at Xu Qing. Looking up to the swordsages in the dome of heaven, he cried, ¡°Xu Qing ndered me! He interfered with the assessment! This matter¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll step in to exin things for my little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain interrupted, sounding very serious. ¡°Sorry about all this, Zhang Siyun. It was all just a misunderstanding. You¡¯re really a good person!¡± The Captain blinked a few times, then looked over at Qing Qiu who was currently gasping for breath. ¡°What do you think, Fellow Daoist Qing Qiu?¡±

    Qing Qiu hated Mad Dog and Ghost Hand, but she also knew that this matter rted to her own position in the final standings.

    ¡°I agree that it was a misunderstanding,¡± she said coldly. ¡°Sorry about that, Zhang Siyun. You¡¯re a good person.¡±

    Both had openly called Zhang Siyun a good person. However, that didn¡¯t do anything to dispel the rage in Zhang Siyun¡¯s heart. In fact, it made it worse. He was just about to say something further when a middle-aged man stepped out from the left wing. It was the same man who had previously read out the name list.

    He sped hands and bowed to the grand elder. Obviously, he had noted that the grand elder didn¡¯t say anything regarding what was going on. Given how long he had served with this grand elder, he could tell what the man was thinking. In fact, he was the very same person who, that day at the altar, the grand elder had asked for more information about Xu Qing. Even back then he had been able to discern from the look in the grand elder¡¯s eyes what he thought about Xu Qing. [1]

    Turning to the staircase, he spoke in a solemn voice that echoed through heaven and earth.

    ¡°The swordsage recruitment event is now over.¡±

    The other candidates on the 9,999-step staircase all vanished and reappeared down below. Including Zhang Siyun. He stood there with his hands balled into fists, his eyes bloodshot, and his heart bursting with rancorous energy. Next to him was Ning Yan from the small sect, who had previously tried to attack Xu Qing on the pir. Ning Yan¡¯s face was ashen, and his expression one of disappointment. However, deep within his eyes, there was still a bit of hope.

    It was the same with all the other candidates. They were all sad but hopeful. After all, they still had a chance. That said, no matter how defiant and emotional they were, nobody was paying any attention to them right now. All eyes were on the figures atop the holy staircase.

    There stood Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu.

    ¡°On this day, three people have been selected as swordsages. Xu Qing. Chen Erniu. Qing Qiu. Congrattions to all of you.¡±

    As he spoke their names, he looked from one to the other, though his gaze lingered longest on Xu Qing. Then he sped hands and bowed to them.

    The rest of the swordsages did the same. Expressions solemn, they bowed. It was a weing bow that did not rte to matters of seniority. All new swordsages were treated with the same respect.

    Looking very solemn, Xu Qing and the others returned the bow.

    ¡°Henceforth, the three of you are officially swordsages.¡± the middle-aged man continued. ¡°Furthermore, by resolution of the Swordsage Court, disciple Ning Yan, you are hereby dered a runner-up, and are now an adjunct swordsage. You will be sent to the Swordsage Pce in the county above for your appointment and further training. There, you¡¯ll have another chance to acquire amand sword and possibly be an official swordsage.

    ¡°By further resolution of the Swordsage Court, disciple Zhang Siyun, you are hereby appointed as a swordsage despite not passing the assessment. However, there are only threemand swords in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Therefore, you will be sent to the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County to request yourmand sword.

    ¡°Now, the two of you approach.¡±

    Ning Yan hurried out and started climbing the stairs. As he ran up, his eyes shone brightly, and he was trembling.

    Everyone in the audience looked, moved.

    Meanwhile, the other candidates sighed with regret. All of them had been hoping to be dered a runner-up. After all, there were always runners-up in swordsage recruitment events. Although not every adjunct swordsage who was sent to the county above would end up receiving an appointment, at least it was an opportunity.

    Zhang Siyun was the only one who looked just as angry as before. Walking forward, he climbed up the stairs along with Ning Yan. When he reached the top, he stood off to the side.

    Xu Qing looked over calmly at Ning Yan.

    When Ning Yan noticed that, he shrank back a bit. He had been excited, but now he suddenly felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured on his head. He didn¡¯t even dare to meet Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    Xu Qing then turned to look at Zhang Siyun, and noted the coldness in his eyes. Xu Qing, meanwhile, lookedpletely expressionless. Finally, he turned his attention to the dome of heaven as he waited for the ceremony to finish.

    Somehow, the middle-aged man¡¯s voice grew even more somber as he continued, ¡°And now, as all swordsages here bear witness, the five of you will approach the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor. There, your heart will be assessed and you will make your pledge. After, you will receive a blessing from the Grand Emperor.¡±

    Apparently, this part of the ceremony was of utmost importance to the swordsages.

    ¡°This is the final and most critical aspect of bing a swordsage. The Grand Emperor will observe you closely, therefore, all of you must answer with utmost sincerity and from your heart. None of us will be privy to what you say in response. Only you and the Grand Emperor will know. The divine likeness of the Grand Emperor will shine light based on your answer.

    ¡°However high the light shines, that will represent how much the Grand Emperor approves of your answer. From ancient times until now in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, new swordsages usually provoke light from between 180 to about 3,000 meters.¡±

    The Captain leaned over to Xu Qing and blinked a few times. Given the solemnity of the asion, he didn¡¯t dare to speak out loud, so instead, he projected a message to Xu Qing via divine will.

    ¡°Hey, little Ah Qing. Guess what? It¡¯s a total sham when they say you get a blessing.

    ¡°You listen to me. There are two purposes to this part of the event. The first is to make sure that you¡¯re actually human. The other is to serve as a swearing-in ceremony. Trust me, all you need to do in response to the Grand Emperor¡¯s question is make yourself look as good as possible.

    ¡°The results don¡¯t affect your status as a swordsage, and there¡¯s no actual reward. At most, you might gain some face.

    ¡°That said, you have to think carefully about how you brag. Even though it won¡¯t affect your status, I¡¯ve heard that they record the results in your official record, and that it can affect further promotions and whatnot. So think long and hard before you answer.

    ¡°As you might imagine, though, I don¡¯t need to do anything like that. I¡¯ve been preparing for his moment for a very, very long time. After we got here to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, I spent a lot of money to get a list of all the questions the Grand Emperor has asked over the past several thousand years. I even got some of the questions from other prefectures. In total, I got ess to 1,789monly asked questions.

    ¡°With those questions, I, your Eldest Brother, was able to spend time thinking about the absolute best answer to all of them. Then, I memorized those answers. I can recite each one perfectly!

    ¡°Hmmmphh! You might have taken first ce just now, but in the next section, I can tell you ahead of time that my light will shine the highest!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he looked at Xu Qing, seemingly extremely pleased with how far-reaching and all-epassing his strategic skills were.

    Xu Qing ignored him. He didn¡¯t care how high that light ended up shining. If it didn¡¯t affect his status as a swordsage, and there was no reward, then it was essentially meaningless. Therefore, he would just answer from his heart.

    As Xu Qing pondered that, the middle-aged cultivator¡¯s somber voice echoed from above.

    ¡°All of you advance 300 meters!¡±

    Xu Qing began to walk, as did the others, until they were all getting very close to the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor.

    1. In chapter 355 the grand elder asked about Xu Qing. Note that there are actually two instances in that chapter of one person telling another about Xu Qing. The grand elder is in the second scene. ?

 Chapter 373: Body of a God

    Chapter 373: Body of a God

    Just as the Captain had said, this ¡®assessment of the heart¡¯ was essentially just a swearing-in ceremony. When the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor asked a question, and the answer given, it was a method to confirm that the candidate was human, and also assess their temperament. It wasn¡¯t very important in the sense that, even if onepletely failed, they would still be a swordsage.

    It was important in the sense that the results could affect future promotions and assignments. Generally speaking, when matters rting to humankind itself were involved, the light emitted during the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment would be a very important factor. Though cheating was possible, the only way to seed at that would be to have the power to swindle the divine likeness.

    Though the statue was not actually the fallen remains of the Grand Emperor, it was connected to the statue in the imperial capital, by means of a fragment of the Grand Emperor¡¯s soul. And because all of the various statues had been worshiped by humans for many years, they had developed shocking abilities. That was why the statues were the epitome of holiness among humans, and now watched over the swordsages.

    As Xu Qing and the others approached, the pressure of the statue weighed down on them, and the heart assessment began.

    The first to be questioned wasn¡¯t Xu Qing, it was Qing Qiu. A seven-colored glow emerged from the statue¡¯s forehead, which shone down on her. Everyone down below watched solemnly, and the swordsages above bore witness with their gazes.

    Qing Qiu shivered, and her evil ghost scythe trembled and closed its eyes, not daring to even move. The scythe could sense the divine will sweeping over it and then converging on Qing Qiu. None of the observers could sense that divine will and how majestic it was, but the scythe could.

    What Qing Qiu saw was a vast starry sky stretching out in front of her. Up above her was a dazzling sea of light. It was so eye-catching to her that she didn¡¯t even bother looking down. Within that majestic light, she could just barely make out a holy figure. Compared to that figure, she felt miniscule. Confusion flickered in her eyes, but then a staunch faith reced it.

    A voice spoke to her, soft andnguid. ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous, little girl. Let¡¯s talk about the broken face of the god. Tell me. What is that god?¡± [1]

    Qing Qiu was visibly surprised at the kindness she heard in the voice. That wasn¡¯t what she had been expecting. Given how grand and magnificent the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness was, she had assumed the voice would boom with godly might. Instead, it sounded intimate.

    She hesitated for a moment. Then her mind cleared, and she saw an image. Looking at that image caused her eyes to ze a bit. But then, the answer to the question appeared, and she feltpelled to speak it out. There was nothing that could stop it. The kind voice which had spoken to her made her realize that there was no reason for her not to answer.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that god is,¡± she said softly. ¡°And it doesn¡¯t matter. If I have the chance, I¡¯ll end things in mutual destruction with it!¡±

    The response to her words was a benevolent chuckle. ¡°You deserve praise for your courage.¡±

    As the chuckle echoed in her ears, the starry sky faded away, and she found herself back in reality. As she stood in front of the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor, the statue suddenly erupted with bright light.

    In the shortest of moments, it climbed to 1,500 meters. Then it reached 3,000 meters. Finally, it stopped at 3,300 meters.

    A 3,300-meter pir of light illuminated the dome of heaven, in for everyone to see.

    The swordsages above all exchanged nces. As for the middle-aged man who was officiating, his eyes glittered with praise. The nine elders were all looking closely at Qing Qiu. She was the first to be assessed, and her light rose past 3,000 meters. That was not a record in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, but it was also notmonly seen. It showed that she had answered the question correctly!

    ¡°Thess is incredible!¡±

    ¡°She obviously has lots of potential. We shouldn¡¯t hold back Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s resources to help her grow. Given how high that light is, she has a high likelihood of standing out in the county above us.¡±

    Xu Qing also took note of Qing Qiu.

    Next to him, the Captain seemed shaken. But then he thought about the answers he had memorized, and he forced himself to calm down.

    Next, the second assessment began. The seven-colored lighting from the statue¡¯s forehead shifted, moving away from Qing Qiu andnded on Ning Yan. Apparently, the order of assessments was random.

    The same starry sky appeared to Ning Yan. Though he was nervous, he was also excited as he looked up into the bright light.

    ¡°Okay, kiddo,¡± the gentle voice said. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the broken face of the god. How would you describe that god?¡±

    Unlike Qing Qiu who had murmured her answer, Ning Yan didn¡¯t hesitate at all. Eyes burning with passion, he opened his mouth and loudly said, ¡°That god is the greatest enemy of humankind, and is reviled by all species. That god is the source of all misery, suffering, and hatred.¡±

    His sinct answer reflected what he had been taught growing up. Though there was nothing wrong about it, it also couldn¡¯t be considered amazing. What was more, they weren¡¯t really original thoughts.

    As he returned to reality, the divine likeness shone with light that rose to 180 meters. He didn¡¯t evene close toparing to Qing Qiu.

    Ning Yan was stunned, and had no idea what was wrong with his answer. He was sure that he had answered properly and yet the light obviously didn¡¯t go very high. He couldn¡¯t help but look over at Qing Qiu and wonder how she had answered her question.

    Up above, the swordsages didn¡¯t look very surprised. Truth be told, 180 meters was average, and was considered a passing score.

    In contrast to the swordsages, the Captain was chuckling sarcastically in his heart. 180 meters? I¡¯m definitely going to get at least a few thousand meters.

    With that he looked up at the statue with keen anticipation.

    Next, the lightnded on the Captain. He shivered, and his eyes glittered with excitement. The process didn¡¯tst very long. After only two breaths of time passed, the seven-colored light faded away. There he stood in front of the statue, unmoving. No light emerged from the divine likeness.

    The Captain was visibly stunned.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and looked over in surprise at the Captain. Qing Qiu nced at him suspiciously, and Ning Yan seemed taken aback. It wasn¡¯t just them. The swordsages above were all stunned. And as for the nine elders, their expressions suddenly turned aggressive.

    ¡°No light?¡± said the grand elder, looking down. ¡°That means he¡¯s not human!¡±

    Suddenly, massive killing intent erupted everywhere, and yet, none of the swordsages took action. That was because, in the past, there had been situations in which somehow a nonhuman managed to reach this point without being detected. However, in all previous instances when no light appeared, the divine likeness would immediately wipe that person out of existence.

    And yet, Chen Erniu stood there just as before. ¡°No way! I¡¯m human! I gave a really good answer! The Grand Emperor liked me and even called me a little rascal!¡± The Captain was clearly very nervous as he looked up at the divine likeness.

    Xu Qing was also starting to feel nervous.

    But then, as the tension mounted, a bit of light appeared from the statue. It went up a single meter.

    One meter....

    The Captain stared nkly.

    Xu Qing almost couldn¡¯t believe it. It was as if the statue wasn¡¯t pleased at all with the Captain¡¯s answer, but reluctantly emitted some light just to confirm that he was human.

    The killing intent faded away, and all the swordsages looked down with odd expressions on their faces. It was the same with the nine elders. None of them had ever seen a mere one-meter-high pir of light.

    ¡°Just what did the little punk say in response to the question?¡±

    ¡°If word of this spreads, it¡¯s going to bepletely humiliating. I can¡¯t believe that we Emperor-Receiving Prefecture swordsages have someone who only got one meter of light.¡±

    ¡°Can wee up with a reason to strip him of his qualifications...?¡±

    The Captain wasn¡¯t sure how to react. Looking at that one-meter light, he felt very embarrassed, but at the same time, extremely relieved. The killing intent which had appeared moments before had convinced him he was about to die. As more time passed, though, he started to feel that it was all very unfair. It was even worse when the seven-colored light reached Zhang Siyun, who took several dozen breaths of time to give his answer. Afterwards, the statue emitted a 1,500-meter pir of light.

    That was impressive, though not as impressive as Qing Qiu.

    Unnoticed by anyone present was the fact that, when Zhang Siyun was being questioned, the grand elder was touched by divine will from the statue. When it happened, his eyes narrowed, and then glowed with cold light. After closely examining Zhang Siyun briefly, his expression returned to normal, and the coldness faded.

    Zhang Siyun stood there, also unaware of what had just happened. He was simply ring at Xu Qing.

    Of the group of five, Xu Qing was now the only one who hadn¡¯t been questioned.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and calmly looked away from the Captain. He faced the statue as the seven-colored light enveloped him.

    A starry sky appeared in front of him. As he hovered there, he noticed the brilliant sea of light overhead, and yet instead of looking up, he looked down. That was his habit, as he liked to be aware of his surroundings. When he did that, his pupils constricted. What he saw was a huge continent. It was a gigantd mass that seemed about half asrge as the starry sky itself. Above thatnd mass, he saw the broken face of the god.

    The god¡¯s hair flowed free, drooping down, hanging over half of the continent. Behind the broken face, there was a golden spine. It was very long, stretching past the borders of the continent, almost wrapping around it. At the same time, it seemed to be shrinking.... It had no arms and no body. No legs. Just that spine made of seemingly innumerable vertebrae. Every bone seemed incredibly majestic, and radiated with boundless godliness. And half of the head formed the broken face of the god, which existed on the most paramount of life levels.

    Just looking at it, Xu Qing felt like he might copse. His mind trembled violently. However, he could also sense that he was in a state of protection. What was more, this was illusory. Otherwise he wouldn¡¯t be able to endure, and would be destroyed in body and soul.

    Then a gentle voice spoke to him.

    ¡°All the others looked at me. None of the others looked down like you. I feel like you wanted to see the world below, so I let you. None of the others saw that. And now, I¡¯d like to ask you a question. How would you describe that god?¡±

    1. The original Chinese does not actually mention the ¡®broken face¡¯. However, the broader context makes it clear that the conversation is specifically about the ¡®broken face of the god in the sky,¡¯ so I¡¯m adding a bit of English to rify and make it more understandable. ?

 Chapter 374: You Never Change

    Chapter 374: You Never Change

    How would you describe that god?

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if this was the same question the others had been asked. Even if it was, he had no idea how they answered. As he hovered there in the starry sky, he looked down at the terrifying broken face of the god. He saw the golden spine wrapping around the continent, almost as if the continent were food to it.

    He felt nk.

    He suddenly envisioned himself, much younger, staring up into the sky as the eyes of that unsurpassable god opened. After that, his family was gone. Everything good in his life vanished. He was left alone in the blood rain, scared, hesitant, weeping, and powerless.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    He thought of his years as a kid on the streets. Back then, he would eat anything, whether it was food or not. Just to survive. There had only been one line he wouldn¡¯t cross, and that was cannibalism. He¡¯d smelled the aroma of human flesh being cooked. He had also watched people being eaten alive, or boiled into stew. There had been times when he was starving. But when he looked at the cannibalistic scavengers, and then the broken face of the god in the sky, he¡¯d decided that it would be better to die than live like that.

    There were two things he feared the most: being hungry and being cold. That was why winters had always been life-or-death struggles. He had seen a lot of people freeze to death. He had stripped dead people of their clothes to stay warm. In fact, back then, all of his clothes had been taken from dead bodies. That was one reason he had always prized new clothing.

    And then there was mutagen. It was a slow torment that slowly burned away your bones down to the marrow, filling you with extreme agony. Back when he had been the lowest of the low, he had seen endless misery. And he had seen the most dismal aspects of humanity.

    There were many people like that, people who lived in torment without any hope for the future. When he had hovered on the brink of death, he would look up at that broken face of the god, which seemed both majestic and cruel. Its face was clean, and its expression cid.

    Xu Qing maintained silence.

    He thought back to the time when he¡¯d finally settled down in the slums of that small city. When the god¡¯s eyes opened that second time, it was different. The city didn¡¯t vanish. He saw numerous greenish-ck corpses. He saw people mutated into vicious fiends. He saw people ripped to shreds. He saw rotting, stinking flesh.

    He thought about the red moon, and that breathing entity atop it. He thought about how vicious that entity was.

    Finally, he thought about the golden eye in the ghast hollow, and the young woman in red, seated in the log cabin and singing catingly.

    He thought about all of those things.

    And they superimposed with the broken face of the god outside the Revered Ancient maind. Then he thought back to the things he would say when he was younger.

    How would he describe that god?

    ¡°A son of a bitch!¡± he said, looking up at the bright light and the figure just barely visible within it.

    His words caused the light to tremble slightly.

    ¡°What did you just say?¡± asked the gentle voice.

    ¡°I said. That god is a son of a bitch!¡± He spoke the word earnestly. And then he followed them up with more words. ¡°When I was young, I called that god a rat bastard!¡± Xu Qing pointed at the broken face of the god below. ¡°And a damned asshat!¡± Xu Qing thought for another moment, then continued, ¡°And a dog-fucker!¡±

    With that, Xu Qing looked down at the god below and spat.

    When he was young, he would usually curse the god and then spit to emphasize his words. Usually, his spit wouldnd on the ground, so the idea that the spit might actuallynd on the god¡¯s face made him happy.

    As the spit dropped down, down, down, the light above pulsed dramatically, and then the gentle voiceughed uproariously.

    ¡°A god that¡¯s a son of a bitch. And a dog-fucker!¡±

    Theughter sounded profoundly carefree, and it grew louder and louder until the entire starry sky shook. As everything turned blurry to Xu Qing, he heard words of praise amidst theughter.

    ¡°A lot of people curse that god. But not many people will do it like that in front of me. Little does anyone know that, back in the day, I uttered simr curses. But not even I can match up to you. Because I didn¡¯t spit! Kid, you¡¯ve got some ws, but your pros outweigh your cons. I¡¯m blessing you with a 30,000-meter pir of light. I hope that no matter what happens... you never change!¡±

    As theughter boomed, Xu Qing¡¯s vision swam. Then he found himself atop the staircase again, in front of the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness. The moment he looked up, the statue erupted with a huge pir of light.

    In the blink of an eye, it shot past 6,000 meters. Then it hit 12,000 meters, but it didn¡¯t stop there. It went to 18,000 meters. 24,000 meters. Finally, it reached the ultimate height of 30,000 meters!

    Brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth and winds screamed. The dome of heaven was illuminated with incredible brightness that was visible even from a great distance.

    This was absolutely unprecedented!

    Everyone in Netherflight City was so shocked that, despite it being such a solemn asion, they couldn¡¯t hold back from shouting out exmations of surprise.

    ¡°30,000.... 30,000 meters??¡±

    Everyone was absolutely astonished and incredulous. Countless people gasped and cheered. Meanwhile, the swordsages up above were shaken to the core. First they looked at the Grand Emperor statue, and then at Xu Qing. They actually didn¡¯t know if a 30,000-meter light had ever appeared in any of the other counties. But they did know that it was a first for Sea-Sealing County. It went beyond what any of them could possibly have anticipated.

    Down below, Sir Bloodsmelter was stunned. ¡°Seventh Sib... got an apprentice this ferocious?¡±

    They weren¡¯t the only ones to react in that way. The swordsage elders up above were deeply moved, and were looking at Xu Qing as if he were a precious treasure. That was especially true of the grand elder, who had noticed Xu Qing much earlier. His eyes were glittering brightly.

    The swordsages all knew that this heart assessment and swearing-in hade to be called a ¡®blessing¡¯ by people who participated in the event. But the reality was that it was really just a test that would have an effect onter promotions. It was only if the light reached a certain height that it could be considered a true blessing. For instance, Qing Qiu had immediately be important to the Swordsage Court thanks to her result.

    But... for a light to reach the unprecedented height of 30,000 meters was something that the word ¡®blessing¡¯ couldn¡¯t even cover. That was more like veneration from the Grand Emperor! Nothing like this had ever happened.

    For a person like this to appear was a big win for the Swordsage Court of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Everyone above and below was shaken to the core.

    Qing Qiu was stunned, and her feelings were impossible to describe as she stared at Xu Qing, her eyes shining.

    In her mind, the evil ghost scythe said, ¡°No. Let¡¯s not end in mutual destruction with him.... He scares me.¡±

    Off to the side, Ning Yan trembled, and his eyes shone with deep fear. After all, he had previously attacked Xu Qing, and that made him so nervous he was sweating.

    The Captain was also dumbstruck. All he could do was stare at that 30,000-meter light and wonder what was going on.

    But why? Why did I only get one meter? I gave a good answer. I wonder what answer little Ah Qing gave?

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing and felt incredibly curious. Of course, he wasn¡¯t the only one. Everyone wanted to know how Xu Qing had answered his question.

    Furthest off to the side was Zhang Siyun, whose head was bowed as he clenched his hands tightly into fists inside the sleeves of his robe.

    As for Xu Qing, he stood there quietly, the center of all attention. He looked at the 30,000-meter light shining from the statue, and noted themotion it caused among the onlookers. As far as he was concerned, his answer hadn¡¯t been anything special. He¡¯d just uttered some curse words that he¡¯d heard people use even when he was young. When life got hard, even people who feared that god would vehemently utter curses. It was the courage of a nobody, and also, the sorrow of a nobody.

    Then Xu Qing thought about what the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness had said. It made him think of his time in the slums, and how people who were about to die would be fearless enough to sarcastically mock the city magistrate. Of course, when they had enough to eat, then they would act just like the rich people, and would be polite and respectful to the magistrate.

    In the heat of the moment, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been sure if his answer was correct. Until the divine likeness responded to him.

    I hope that no matter what happens... you never change!

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ***

    Meanwhile, outside of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, in the distant capital of Sea-Sealing County, in the Swordsage Pce, the Dao Bell tolled.

    The Dao Bell of the Swordsage Pce was a gift from the imperial capital, and it would only toll when something momentous happened.

    Today, it unexpectedly rang.

    Although it only tolled once, it provoked a visible reaction of surprise from everyone in the Swordsage Pce. All were shocked. And soon, people found out why.

    ¡°In Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, a new swordsage by the name of Xu Qing was blessed with a 30,000-meter pir of light by the Grand Emperor. As a result, our Dao Bell tolled a single time!¡±

    That information was a big shock to all the swordsages in the pce, and it fixed one name in their minds.

    Xu Qing!

    At the same time, numerous irritated auras red within the Swordsage Pce. They came from the current generation of chosen there. They were people who came from prefectures all over Sea-Sealing County, and who hade to report for duty after bing swordsages. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was far away, near the sea, and was thus the final location to host a swordsage recruitment event. Since the new swordsages from there had just been selected, it would be some time before they checked in at the Swordsage Pce. Now, before Xu Qing even arrived, people there knew his name.

    ***

    In a mountain behind the Swordsage Pce, a woman in white strolled through a sword forest. She was gorgeous, with cinnabar lips, an alluring body, and a stylish demeanor. Especially noteworthy was that, just beneath her right eye she had a tear-shaped birthmark. However, her expression was as cold as autumn frost. She was the devastating type of beauty who could lead to the downfall of an entire city or state.

    As she strolled through the sword forest, she turned to look in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. When she spoke, her voice was as crisp as the flowing waters of a spring.

    ¡°Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.... Yun¡¯er should being back soon. Mom¡¯s waiting for you.¡± [1]

    1. She uses the ¡°Yun¡± character from Zhang Siyun, making it clear she¡¯s referring to him. ?

 Chapter 375: The Emperorâ€™s Sword

    Chapter 375: The Emperor¡¯s Sword

    As the toll of the Dao Bell continued to echo in Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Swordsage Pce, back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, Zhang Siyun stood atop the staircase over Netherflight City, his face grim and his heart filled with indescribable, fiery emotions.

    He had been widely known as the top figure among the younger generation in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He had grown used to being the center of attention. And yet on this day, he experienced the rare sensation of being an actor ying a supporting role, with no choice but to watch someone else shine brilliantly. His heart filled with even moreplex emotions when he thought about how his mother and Sect Grandfather were waiting for news in Sea-Sealing County. Xu Qing had ruined everything for him, and as a result, hatred took root in his very bones.

    If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t pulled a fast one on him, he would have achieved his goal. After all, he hadn¡¯t been after the lifemp in that log cabin, but rather, something else inside. But his hopes had gone up in smoke. He would just have to wait until the next time the Swordsage Court lifted the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and there was no telling how many years would have to pass before that happened.

    Mother is going to be so disappointed.

    The truth was that he didn¡¯t care much about his Sect Grandfather. But he did care a lot about his mother. His father had passed away when he was young, and his mother had always been very strict with him, instilling within him a fear of her. As a result, he had worked hard on his cultivation in order to avoid disappointing her. In his heart, he longed for his mother to say she was proud of him. Such thoughts caused his insides to burn as if with fire as he red at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing ignored Zhang Siyun¡¯s gaze. Focusing on the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    The swordsages above and the cultivators below all looked on.

    Though everyone was shaken, they were also curious. Everyone wanted to know what the Grand Emperor had asked, and how Xu Qing had answered.

    That was especially true of the Captain, who was so curious he felt like an infinitude of cats were wing around inside of him. On the one hand, he felt embarrassed. But also, he really couldn¡¯t think of what Xu Qing might have said.

    It was in that manner that the swordsage recruitment event ended. The Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness disappeared, and the seven-colored staircase vanished into the light. Everything went back to normal.

    Xu Qing and the others were notified that they had one year to report to the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County. There, they would receive their swordsage legacies and assignments, as well as boundless destined opportunities. Such things were very important to new swordsages. The former represented the chance to boost their battle prowess, while thetter represented the traditions of humankind.

    What was more, the county capital of Sea-Sealing County was in the middle of the county, and was a ce where human chosen from all over would gather. There were chosen from other species there as well. Someone who could rise to prominence in the capital city would truly make a name, and would truly stand at the ultimate peak.

    Many chosen from various sects thought in that way, and believed that if they wanted to be like the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, then they needed to crush all thepetition starting from when they were young. By getting more destined opportunities, and more good fortune, they could lead the pack and eventually crush everyone. After all, that was what all of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns had done in the past.

    Compared to the county capital, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was considered remote. It was many prefectures away from the capital, and though it was possible to teleport there, the Swordsage Court wouldn¡¯t throw away money on new recruits just for that.

    It didn¡¯t matter how important a new recruit was, unless they somehow surpassed the Swordsage Court, then they would make their own way to the capital city. The Swordsage Court wasn¡¯t in the practice of ¡®growing greenhouse flowers,¡¯ and thus, the recruits would make the long journey as a form of training.

    ***

    With the recruitment event over, Sir Bloodsmelter had called for a celebratory banquet for Xu Qing and the Captain in the Eight Sect Coalition garrison.

    As the festivities yed out, the Captain pulled Xu Qing outside and said, ¡°We need to n ahead wisely. As your Eldest Brother, I¡¯ve done all the thinking. By using public teleportation portals in various prefectures, we can make the trip in about eight months. Assuming we hurry.

    ¡°In terms of the exact route, we don¡¯t need to worry about it too much. There have been other swordsages from the Eight Sect Coalition in years past, so there have long since been subsidiary sects set up along the path to Sea-Sealing County. We can rest in those ces on the way.

    ¡°Besides, once we¡¯re back in the coalition, someone will be assigned to help us. After all, our status will be very different then.¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Look, little Ah Qing, you¡¯re only on this amazing path because your Eldest Brother brought you along. Therefore, it¡¯s appropriate for you to offer some thanks, don¡¯t you think? Bros like us don¡¯t need to quibble about spirit stones. Why not just tell me what your answer was to the statue?¡±

    Xu Qing had been drinking during the banquet, and was currently looking up into the night sky. As the cold wind blew snowkes past him, he felt unusuallyfortable. Turning to the Captain, he said, ¡°Eldest Brother, look. Your eye and ears grew back.¡±

    The Captain looked very pleased with himself. ¡°Well, that¡¯s a given. If I want them to grow back, they grow back. Amazing, huh? By the way, little Ah Qing, you¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing took out an apple and handed it to the Captain. ¡°Captain, congrattions on bing a swordsage.¡±

    The Captain reflexively epted it, took a bite, and was about to ask another question. But then, Xu Qing dropped down onto a snowbank and looked up into the starry sky, where it was just possible to see the broken face of the god. He took a drink from the gon of alcohol he had in his hand.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, what exactly is a god?¡±

    The Captain also looked up into the sky. After thinking for a moment, he sat down next to Xu Qing on the pile of snow and took another bite from his apple.

    ¡°Gods. Heh. Do you think they taste good?¡±

    Xu Qingughed softly. There was no way the Captain had answered in that way to the Grand Emperor. Otherwise, his pir of light wouldn¡¯t have been only one meter.

    More snow blew in the wind. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything further. He justy there letting the snowkes gather on his face while he thought back to what the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness had said. Laughing, he got up from the snow, walked over to the side, and spat onto the ground a few times.

    The Captain waspletely taken aback, but joined Xu Qing in spitting a few times. Although Xu Qing wasn¡¯t offering any exnation, the Captain was nning to be patient. Suppressing his curiosity, he finished the apple, then took out an ice pear that was native to Netherflight City. He started eating.

    It was quiet outside, and as snowkes drifted through the sky, it seemed very peaceful. They could hear the sound of the bonfires and theughtering from the tents a short distance away.

    At some point, Yanyan showed up. Seeing Xu Qing and the Captain sitting in the snow, she scooted over to sit next to Xu Qing, theny down at his side.

    ***

    High in the sky were Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher. As they hovered there, they looked down on Xu Qing, the Captain, and Yanyan.

    ¡°How nice to be young,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said with a sigh. Looking curiously at Guru Easher, he continued, ¡°How do you think that little punk answered the question? Some people from the Swordsage Court came today and hinted that they wanted to know.¡±

    Guru Easher looked back at him coldly.

    Sir Bloodsmelter blinked a few times, then cleared his throat and used a different word to describe Xu Qing. ¡°How do you think that grandson-inw of yours answered the question?¡±

    A smile broke out on Guru Easher¡¯s wrinkled face. She nodded. ¡°When we get back to the coalition, you can have your son-inw ask his apprentice for the details. There¡¯s still plenty of time. The Swordsage Court asked us to stay for a few more days. For one thing, Xu Qing and Chen Erniu still need to seek enlightenment of that imperial-ss technique. Also, the court has a matter they want the two of us to help out with.¡±

    ***

    Time passed.

    Most of the cultivators who had previously gathered in Netherflight City were now gone. What had once been a bustling city was now mostly empty. There were only some rogue cultivators left behind who were still hoping to gain enlightenment of the battle spirit symbols from the pir.

    The people from the Eight Sect Coalition had not yet left. Nor had those from the Church of Departure or the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. That was because the first ce prize for climbing the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was just now being given out. Enlightenment of an imperial-ss technique meant for humans was not easy to get. The spot where they were to seek enlightenment was at the top of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, past the clouds, and inside the Swordsage Court.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time going there. Upon arriving, he caught sight of Qing Qiu. However, she wasn¡¯t going to be seeking enlightenment at his side. She was seated in a grand hall, apparently waiting for something. When she saw him and the Captain, she looked away with a harrumph.

    Xu Qing showed no reaction, but the Captain responded with a simr harrumph. Then the two of them were being led away by swordsages into arge open square.

    Red liquid ran along the ground to form arge spell formation that glowed with a blood-colored light. In the middle of the formation was a huge ck boulder wrapped up in gray iron chains. Through all the chains, it was possible to see a sword carved onto the boulder. It looked like any ordinary sword.

    And yet, when Xu Qing and the Captain looked at it, their minds spun. Both could sense a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering pressure emanating out from that sword. They exchanged a nce, and both could see the surprise and anticipation in each other¡¯s eyes.

    This had to be the ce where they would seek enlightenment of the imperial-ss technique.

    The golden crow on Xu Qing¡¯s back shivered, and for the first time, it didn¡¯t manifest in response to encountering another imperial-ss technique. Instead, it seemed afraid.

    Around this time, Xu Qing saw Zhang Siyun. He had arrived before them, and was sitting near the boulder with his eyes closed.

    The person that had led them here was the same middle-aged swordsage who had officiated earlier. Along the way, he had nced at Xu Qing a few times. ¡°Go ahead and start,¡± he said, ¡°You have six hours to seek enlightenment. After that, the spell formation will automatically remove you.

    ¡°Treat this opportunity as something precious. Normally speaking, only swordsages with a lot of military credits are able to seek enlightenment here. That¡¯s because the name of this imperial-ss technique is... The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    ¡°The Emperor¡¯s Sword, also called Sword of the Swordsage, was created by the Grand Emperor. It¡¯s a rare technique that can beprehended by many people at the same time. It belongs solely to humankind, and is in the care of us swordsages.

    ¡°You could say that the reason why the swordsages of the past were able to dominate countless other species, and also why we manage to hold on to the afterglow of that glory now, isrgely because of The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    ¡°After you gain some enlightenment, you¡¯ll understand why.¡±

    With that, the middle-aged swordsage turned and left.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing and the Captain rushed forward, picked spots in which to sit down cross-legged, and began seeking enlightenment.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized that the Captain was actually sitting a bit closer to the boulder than he was. Feeling suddenly rmed, he sent a message via divine will.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, if you take a bite, then I have the feeling... I¡¯ll be going to Sea-Sealing County alone.¡±

    The Captain turned and looked begrudgingly at Xu Qing.

 Chapter 376: Erniuâ€™s Answer

    Chapter 376: Erniu¡¯s Answer

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and cast his senses into the ck boulder. The moment he made contact, something like a fog appeared in his mind. Faintly discernible murmuring came from within the fog, seemingly near, seemingly distant.

    ¡°The sword of an emperor... should not be casually unsheathed.... But once unsheathed, it can destroy the heavens and crush the earth.¡±

    Shaken, Xu Qing listened carefully. Gradually, the murmuring turned into streams of information within his very soul.

    Each bit of information told him something about The Emperor¡¯s Sword. The Emperor¡¯s Sword, also known as Sword of the Swordsage, was one of the orthodox imperial-ss techniques of humankind, and was the creation of Yuan Zaiji, Grand Emperor of Immortal Ultrabrilliance. It was designed to kill, was filled with formidable power, and could ughter endlessly. In the past, it had been used to cut down countless species, and in the ancient past, had even been used by the Grand Emperor to fell gods.

    Years ago, even Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had once sighed in admiration for the Grand Emperor¡¯s sword technique. Later, when the members of the Sword Pce turned into the swordsages, the Grand Emperor took all of his imperial-ss techniques and imparted them to the Swordsage Division, breaking them up into smaller sections that the swordsages could seek enlightenment of. As for The Emperor¡¯s Sword, the Grand Emperor generously made it possible for even brand new swordsages to learn. That said, it was only the first instance that was free. Later on, military credits were required to seek enlightenment.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword was difficult to gain enlightenment of. From ancient times until modern, no one had ever seeded fully in one session. Instead, it required multiple sessions of enlightenment to brand the technique onto the soul in the form of a sword seed.

    The sword could be both powerful and flexible. The cultivation base of the cultivator was one factor that determined how mighty the sword was. But even more relevant was the factor of time. The Emperor¡¯s Sword needed time to gather power, and wasn¡¯t to be casually unsheathed. What was more, the more time it was given to gather power, the more terrifying it would be when unsheathed. After being unsheathed, the sword would return to its ordinary state. However, the power that could be unleashed was shocking.

    In the past, there was a swordsage who didn¡¯t unsheathe his sword for 2,000 years. Then, when he did unsheathe it, his peak Nascent Soul cultivation base actually surpassed the power of the Spirit Trove realm, allowing him to easily ughter a Void Returning opponent.

    Of course, that happened before the arrival of the broken face of the god, back when the spirit energy of heaven and earth was abundant, and living beings had shocking longevity.

    The modern world couldn¡¯tpare to the ancient world. And yet, The Emperor¡¯s Sword was still something that caused countless species to deeply fear the Swordsage Division. After all, it was impossible to know how many old-timers in the division had lived for many years without unsheathing their swords.

    Anyone could imagine how a group with a technique like that could assign certain members to stay in seclusion for a long time without fighting, just to power up their swords. If those swords were used in the right moment, they would be virtually unstoppable.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword was one of the Swordsage Division¡¯s main reserve powers, and its deadly nature was one of the reasons why the Grand Emperor had made it avable for all swordsages to learn. He wanted to give the Swordsage Division a solid foundation that wouldst through the ages.

    That said, it wasn¡¯t easy to gain enlightenment of the technique, so not every swordsage was able to use it. Furthermore, multiple sessions of enlightenment were usually required. And Xu Qing, the Captain, and Zhang Siyun had all been rewarded with a single session.

    Xu Qing had no idea how much time was passing. He simply tried as hard as possible to clear the fog. Unfortunately, as he sought enlightenment, the fog just seemed to get thicker, and no matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t drive it away. All he could do was try to push through the fog to see what was beyond it.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Eventually, the fog in front of Xu Qing started to clear, and he saw a sword. The moment heid eyes on it, it became the only thing in existence from his perspective. Heaven-shaking, earth-toppling rumbling sounds filled his mind. Although the sword seemedpletely ordinary in appearance, it contained pure ughter. The baleful aura within the sword was difficult to put into words, and it could cause the mind to tremble. It seemed like it wanted to burst up into the sky and cut down anything and everything. It was as if the ck boulder couldn¡¯t constrain the sword, and it was only the chains that managed to keep it in ce.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. His mind was a nk, except for the image of the sword beyond the fog, which grew clearer and clearer as the moments passed. He was almost in a daze as the outline of a sword developed in his sea of consciousness.

    Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding had shocked even Master Seventh, and they were no less amazing right now. Suddenly, a deep desire rose within Xu Qing, and he prepared topletely drive away the fog and imprint the image of the sword into his heart and mind.

    However, right then...

    A terrifying gravitational force erupted behind him, dragging him away. Everything spun, and he shivered. Looking up, he realized he wasn¡¯t in the hall anymore.

    He was outside.

    Zhang Siyun was also there, his eyes bloodshot as he struggled to control the desire within himself.

    Qing Qiu was off in the distance, looking at them coldly. She was aware that the others had been seeking enlightenment of an imperial-ss technique. Though she hadn¡¯t qualified, the Swordsage Court had arranged for her to wait here.

    Wait, wait, wait! What exactly am I waiting for? she thought impatiently.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to Zhang Siyun or Qing Qiu. Looking back into the hall where he had been seeking enlightenment, he wrestled with the intense desire within himself. Especially noteworthy was the outline that had appeared in his sea of consciousness. It wasn¡¯t very clear, but it was obviously the iplete image of a sword. And it was fading, although it seemed like it would take at least two years to vanishpletely. Xu Qing had the feeling that he hade very close to seeing the true image of the sword. The feeling of being interrupted and dragged away left him deeply disappointed.

    Meanwhile, the Captain appeared out of nowhere, looking simrly disappointed. Getting to his feet, he looked back into the hall.

    What the hell? I was just about to seed! I even had my mouth open!

    ¡°Calm down, all of you!¡± a voice said. The same middle-aged swordsage appeared in front of them. The pressure radiating off of him caused Xu Qing to inhale sharply and suppress any feelings of disappointment. ¡°I bet you feel like you were just about to seed, right? Like you just needed one more moment. That¡¯s what everyone feels. But the truth is... that you weren¡¯t anywhere close to gaining enlightenment.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, there¡¯s a reason you were limited to six hours. From ancient times until now, all swordsages who sought enlightenment for more than six hours would instantly experience mutation and die. Not a single one survived.¡±

    The man¡¯s words caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to sink a bit.

    ¡°The reason is that the Grand Emperor once killed a god. However, that god also cursed the sword. As a result, anyone who seeks enlightenment for more than six hours will mutate and die. There¡¯s no need to feel anxious. You¡¯re all very fortunate, as your reward actually includes one additional session of enlightenment. Once you reach the county capital, you¡¯ll be able to take advantage of that opportunity. And now it¡¯s time to handle another matter. The exalted ones have been waiting long enough.¡±

    Zhang Siyun looked suspicious about what was toe.

    However, before anything else could happen, the middle-aged swordsage waved his hand, and Zhang Siyun disappeared.

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t have anything to do with him. Just you three.¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked at the Captain, then Qing Qiu. Then something urred to him.

    Qing Qiu frowned as she also realized what seemed to be going on. That said, it only irritated her more.

    The Captain came to his own conclusion, and it caused his eyes to shine with excitement. ¡°Exalted one, does this have something to do with the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain?¡±

    The middle-aged swordsage ignored him. As far as he was concerned, Chen Erniu, who had only received one meter of light from the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness, was an embarrassment to all swordsages. He wasn¡¯t the only one. Quite a few other swordsages felt the same. After all... his result seemed to indicate that he was mentally unfit.

    Not feeling inclined to answer the Captain, the middle-aged swordsage looked at Xu Qing and Qing Qiu.

    ¡°The three of you were present to see what our Swordsage Court did to August Spirit Nethersprite from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    ¡°August Spirit Nethersprite is currently imprisoned in the Swordsage Court and undergoing interrogation. The exalted ones want the three of you to provoke her. At the moment she¡¯s impervious to any form of instigation. That needs to change. If you can rile her up, then the exalted ones will have an easier time getting secrets out of her.¡±

    With that, the swordsage turned and started walking off.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu followed. Along the way, the Captain assessed the situation.

    It seems they aren¡¯t very happy with my one-meter light. This isn¡¯t going to work. I definitely need to be on my best behavior. I need the old fogey swordsages to actually like me. Otherwise, I¡¯m going to have a hard time getting promoted.

    The Captain was both vignt and depressed as he thought about that one-meter light.

    My answer was great! Although the question the Grand Emperor asked wasn¡¯t among the thousand I was ready for, there were 47 that were simr.

    By reciting all of those answers together, I definitely exceeded the standard for sess. Each answer should have gotten me a few hundred meters, and when you add them all together, it should have easily reached 30,000 meters! There¡¯s no way all those spirit stones I spent were aplete and utter waste.

    Besides, I even threw in some brown-nosing by repeating each answer! And to top it all off, I finished with, ¡°Grand Emperor, YOU are a god!¡± What¡¯s wrong with that? Given how violently the Grand Emperor¡¯s light trembled when I said that, you could tell that he was very pleased.

    The more the Captain thought about his performance, the more frustrated he got.

    I just don¡¯t get why I only got one meter!

    The Captain nced at Xu Qing and felt even more pressure than ever. As he stewed in such thoughts, the middle-aged swordsage led them to the Swordsage Court¡¯s prison. It was a dark and gloomy ce filled with countless warding spells. Every person who entered the prison was closely tracked by divine will.

    After they were scanned, they entered the prison and walked down a narrow, torch-lit staircase. As they reached the bottom, they heard August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s graceful voice.

    ¡°Footsteps? So you¡¯re bringing more people? It won¡¯t do any good. I know you want to soulsearch me. I know you want to rile me up. It won¡¯t happen. I¡¯m the manifestation of the Ghost Emperor¡¯s soul. My emotions can¡¯t be stirred. And even if they could, it wouldn¡¯t be possible for Void Returning cultivators like you to do it. My true form is a Smoldering God. You people... don¡¯t even count as bugs.¡±

 Chapter 377: Visiting Nethersprite

    <h4>Chapter 377: Visiting Nethersprite</h4>

    Nethersprite¡¯s voice made her seem elegant, like a rich, upper-ss woman sitting properly in a chair. Her every word was spoken properly and with icy arrogance, making here across as profoundly aristocratic.0

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react visibly.0

    As for Qing Qiu, she clearly wasn¡¯t very happy. This entire situation made her think back to her bitter experience that day, and how she¡¯de awaypletely empty-handed. Yet despite that, she was being lumped in with the Captain and Xu Qing.0

    Only the Captain seemed visibly excited. Thanks to that one-meter light, every time he went out, he felt like people were looking at him strangely. He also got the feeling the swordsages were watching him. It was very humiliating, and also had him feeling very anxious. He was a swordsage now, yet everyone was looking at him like he was some sort of spy.1

    <em>The swordsage elders are definitely paying close attention to what happens here. It¡¯s a very rare opportunity, and it¡¯s my chance to turn things around after that one-meter light situation. I need those elders to see my good side.</em>0

    The Captain took a deep breath as he walked along with firm, measured steps.0

    In the lead was the middle-aged swordsage. He nced back at the Captain, pursed his lips, and maintained silence.0

    Seeing that, the Captain felt even more strongly about his assessment.0

    Thus, the three of them were led down the stairs and to arge, red prison cell. The bars were the color of blood, and stretched between them was a thin, crimson membrane upon which flowed countless magical symbols. It was only possible to imagine the terrifying level of power in those flickering symbols.0

    Inside the red prison cell, a woman sat cross-legged. She wore a qipao and had a phoenix crown on her head. Her skin was fair, and her facial features were immactely beautiful. A single look at her would cause just about anyone to palpitate with desire. She held a bowl of lotus seed soup in her hands, from which she asionally sipped. She was, of course, August Spirit Nethersprite.0

    Because of being suppressed by the cage, she wasn¡¯t enormous like before. Instead, she was the size of an average person. Her wless good looks made it hard to imagine her on the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, casually devouring mortals for pleasure, with seas of blood filling her mouth.0

    When Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu arrived, she looked over at them. She didn¡¯t react in any way, and just kept casually drinking her lotus seed soup.2

    ¡°I brought some people to see you, Nethersprite.¡± the middle-aged swordsage said.0

    August Spirit Netherspriteughed softly as she looked at Xu Qing and the others. ¡°Oh, so you brought these three bugs here to try to rile me up. It won¡¯t work. Sooner orter I¡¯ll get out of here and kill all three of them. In fact, I should thank you. Now I know what they look like.¡±2

    August Spirit Nethersprite smiled as she looked over them carefully, as ifmitting their features to memory.0

    The middle-aged man said nothing. He just backed up and looked at Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu. His job was simply to bring them here and then wait to see if they could sessfully provoke August Spirit Nethersprite.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He had no interest in provoking Nethersprite, and truth be told, he had no idea how to do it. Qing Qiu seemed to be in the same position. As far as she was concerned, this matter didn¡¯t have anything to do with her, so she felt no need to expend any effort on it.0

    In contrast, the Captain approached the cage and looked at Nethersprite as she sipped her soup. Smiling, he said, ¡°Hey, Granny Nethersprite. Is the soup good?¡±1

    ¡°Screw off,¡± she replied coolly.0

    Eyebrows shooting up, he sat down in front of the cage and studied August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s clothing. He frowned. ¡°Granny, howe I didn¡¯t see this outfit when I was in your mansion grotto? How long have you been wearing it?¡±0

    August Spirit Nethersprite finished her soup and then closed her eyes to meditate.0

    Seeing that, the middle-aged swordsage shook his head. He was already convinced that nothing was going to happen.0

    The Captain cleared his throat and smacked his bag of holding. Instantly, a tattered garment appeared which he waved in front of him.0

    ¡°Take a look at this, Granny!¡±0

    Nethersprite¡¯s eyes remained closed.0

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem daunted by her icy silence, and continued to produce tattered garments from his bag of holding, until they were piled up off to the side like a little mountain.0

    ¡°I have lots of them here. I even have this big bodice....¡±0

    The middle-aged swordsage looked on, somewhat shocked as he looked at the pile of clothes, and then the Captain. Qing Qiu, meanwhile, felt disgusted, and Xu Qing had an odd expression on his face. Xu Qing could guess why the Captain seemed to be working so hard.0

    When Nethersprite heard the Captain mention ¡®bodice¡¯ her eyes opened and she nced at the pile of familiar clothing. Noting the bad condition of the garments, she looked at the Captain.0

    Chuckling darkly, the Captain said, ¡°My n is to rip these garments into strips, one at a time. I¡¯m not exactly sure what I¡¯ll do with them after that. But at the moment, Granny, I have a big problem. You see, my bag of holding is too small to hold so many garments, and I need a ce to store them. Besides, they actually smell bad. Say, Big Sis, are you really Nethersprite? Or should we call you Netherskunk?0

    ¡°I mean, that smell is horrendous! That¡¯s why I asked how long you¡¯ve been wearing that outfit. I figured you might want to change.¡±0

    August Spirit Nethersprite inhaled deeply. The bug¡¯s words were causing her heart to pound, especially considering that she was actually a very clean person. Normally speaking, she would use a special magical technique every day to keep clean. Given the level of her cultivation base, it was impossible for her to actually get dirty, but that was the routine she was used to. After being locked up and having her cultivation base suppressed, she hadn¡¯t been able to clean herself like usual. Though her cultivation level ensured that she wasn¡¯t dirty, she still felt out of sorts.0

    However, nothing the Captain had said so far was enough to truly stir her emotions. As she steadied her breathing, she regained her sense of calm, all the while maintaining the same cold facial expression.0

    The Captain blinked a few times. He could tell the middle-aged swordsage was watching him closely, and that got him even more excited.<em>Oh, little Nethersprite, you just wait and see how I provoke you!</em>1

    Chuckling, he said, ¡°Granny, I know of a sound that you¡¯ll really like. Take a listen!¡±0

    With that he took out the demon snake¡¯s tooth and looked at Xu Qing.0

    Xu Qing knew exactly what the Captain was up to. Quietly walking forward, he startedying out the various garments neatly on the ground.0

    ¡°Let¡¯s start with that big bodice!¡± the Captain said, looking down his nose.0

    Xu Qing flicked his sleeve, sending the bodice flying over.0

    The Captain then slowly ran the tooth down the bodice, causing a loud ripping sound to echo out. The bodice was already in bad shape, but after being sliced by the tooth, it looked even worse. The Captain then moved on to the next garment.0

    ¡°This is exactly how I tore up all the clothes back in your mansion grotto. Isn¡¯t the sound just lovely?¡±0

    Nethersprite forced herself to remain calm, but the sound was so upsetting that she struggled to breathe steadily. She could only re at the Captain as he destroyed her beloved clothing. It was almost like he was shing her very heart with that snake tooth.4

    As the middle-aged swordsage watched all of this, his eyes began to shine with surprise.0

    The Captain was feeling very pleased with himself, but at the same time, could tell he needed to work harder. After ripping up a few more garments, he took out a jade slip used to store images.0

    Walking up to Nethersprite, he turned the slip on, causing an image to appear. It showed a massive body, with three people madly absorbing energy from its face. Xu Qing and the Captain were focused on the nose while Qing Qiu was focused on the forehead.1

    ¡°Look at that snow-white nose. It¡¯s so prominent! Whoa! Why is it turning ck? Whoops! Look, it¡¯s vanishing!¡±1

    ¡°You!¡± snapped Nethersprite. Panting, she stared at the image, and as she saw her nose turning ck, her eyes became bloodshot, and she started trembling.0

    The Captain was provoking her on multiple fronts. First he talked about her smelling bad, then he loudly sliced up her clothing, and then showed her that image.0

    It was a provocation of both smell, sound, and sight. As she watched her nose disappearing, it all became a wave of fury and frustration that battered her from the inside. That said, she was still in full possession of all her faculties, and was able to stay in control. Taking in deep breaths, she suppressed the rage in her heart.0

    Seeing all this, Xu Qing had to admire the Captain¡¯s ability to provoke hostility.0

    Qing Qiu was fully on guard as she came to realize that Mad Dog was obviously a much bigger threat than Ghost Hand.1

    As for the middle-aged swordsage, as he watched the giggling Chen Erniu, he had to admit that he was a genius. That was especially true of thest thing he said, which was just profoundly low-down.0

    <em>No wonder the Grand Emperor¡¯s divine likeness only gave him one meter of light. How sleazy!</em>0

    August Spirit Nethersprite gritted her teeth and red at the Captain. Then she spoke, and this time she didn¡¯t sound elegant at all. Voice hoarse, she said, ¡°You want to piss me off? Impossible! A bug like you couldn¡¯t dream of making me mad.¡±1

    The Captain looked back at her, bbergasted. ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m doing! I just want to give you a little gift!¡±0

    With that, the Captain slowly pulled out a very thick hair from his bag of holding, which he ced in front of the cage.0

    Both Xu Qing and Qing Qiu were shocked to see that hair, as was the middle-aged swordsage. Nethersprite was simrly astonished, and without even thinking about it, looked closely at it.0

    When the Captain saw everyone so focused on the hair, he shed an exultant smile and then cleared his throat.0

    ¡°Come on. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t recognize your own nose hair? It¡¯s so big. And thick too. So very, very long. Back when we broke into your house and ripped up all your clothes and took your treasures and absorbed your nose and ruined your dao blood and threw you into a mindless rage... well, that was wrong of us. Given that you don¡¯t have that nose anymore, this nose hair can serve as a keepsake. In the future, whenever you think about your nose, you can take it out and have a look.3

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me! There¡¯s honor even among thieves!¡±0

    The Captain finished his speech sounding like he was the absolute paragon of holy generosity.1

    The prison was silent but for the echo of the Captain¡¯s words.1

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were wide. Qing Qiu¡¯s jaw had dropped. The swordsage looked absolutely stunned.2

    And Nethersprite... shot to her feet and howled, ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!! Swordsages, if you kill him, I¡¯ll agree to be soulsearched. Soulsearch me any time! Search whatever you want. Just kill him and let me eat him!!¡±

 Chapter 378: Heavenfate Reduced by Half

    Chapter 378: Heavenfate Reduced by Half

    The emotions raging in Nethersprite caused the entire prison to tremble, and the cell to shine with blinding light. Inside the cell, Nethersprite¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as she shouted and howled madly. Never before had she hated humans so much. All of the anger and frustration she had been keeping pent up was now exploding out.

    ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!!¡±

    The Captain sighed, then sneered. ¡°Turns out you can¡¯t curse. I mean, you¡¯re just repeating the same thing over and over. Do you need me to help you out?¡±

    Nethersprite had devolved intoplete madness.

    Seeing that, the Captain cleared his throatcently. He obviously wasn¡¯t worried that the swordsages might kill him to appease Nethersprite. If they were the kind of people who did that, they couldn¡¯t possibly represent the most orthodox side of humanity. To the Swordsage Court, rules were rules, and they had to be respected. What made him even more pleased was the open astonishment on the face of the middle-aged swordsage. Even his little Junior Brother was visibly surprised, which was rare.

    The Captain was feeling iparably happy at this win-win situation.

    I¡¯ll be able to brag about this to little Ah Qing for the next decade. And now the old swordsage fogies know what Chen Erniu is really capable of. This will definitely change how they treat me.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he collected all the clothing back up. Of course, he was the kind of person who stuck to his word, so... he left the nose hair in front of the cage.

    After organizing everything, he walked back to Xu Qing. Eyebrows dancing up and down, he said, ¡°What do you think of your Elder Brother now?¡±

    ¡°Incredible!¡± Xu Qing replied sincerely. In fact, after a moment of thought, he gave the Captain a big thumbs-up.

    The Captainughed heartily. Then, feeling absolutely wonderful, he looked at Qing Qiu.

    She rolled her eyes, all the while keeping fully on guard.

    Meanwhile, the middle-aged swordsage looked at him with mixed emotions. He had to admit that this Chen Erniu had some skills, but at the same time, was worried that he might harm the reputation of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court. After all, he was profoundly underhanded and sleazy. And when the swordsage thought about the look on Chen Erniu¡¯s face moments ago, he had to hold back from walking over and pping him.

    Meanwhile, in a grand hall elsewhere in the Swordsage Court, several of the elders had strange expressions on their faces as they looked at an image of the prison on a screen of light. They had been watching everything y out with the Captain, including everything he said. For a short time, they were all struck speechless.

    Eventually, one of the elders shook his head and said, ¡°So sleazy.¡±

    At the same time, Nethersprite¡¯s distraught state was just the opening the Swordsage Court had been looking for to start a soulsearch. Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu weren¡¯t needed for that, so the middle-aged swordsage ushered them out. In terms of the reward for their service, the Captain got the majority.

    After they were gone, the middle-aged swordsage sighed. ¡°The disciples this time from the Eight Sect Coalition. They¡¯re....¡±

    He shook his head, not really sure of what word to use.

    ***

    Once outside the Swordsage Court, Qing Qiu was the first to leave. She headed for the Church of Departure, clearly not interested in staying behind for a moment longer than necessary.

    The next day, the Eight Sect Coalition packed up to leave. Before the huge flying ship left, though, something happened.

    The Captain went missing. He just didn¡¯t have the guts to go home. Obviously, he was worried about Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s fury and his Master¡¯s rage. What was more, he never found out what Arch-Immortal Plumdark had written in her response.

    However, there was a patriarch present, so the Captain¡¯s escape attempt failed. About an hour before the flying ship was set to leave, Sir Bloodsmelter left and came back dragging the Captain with him.

    The Captain looked very bored, and was sighing endlessly. After Sir Bloodsmelter threw him onto the ship, he gave the orders and the ship shot through the air back toward the Eight Sect Coalition.

    The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir grew smaller and smaller in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, until it eventually disappeared. He could only stare at the spot where he knew it existed, and think back to all the momentous events that had yed out.

    He hade as a simple disciple from the Eight Sect Coalition. Although he essentially counted as a dao child, he wasn¡¯t necessarily very well known... But now he was a swordsage for whom an unprecedented 30,000-meter beam of light appeared. He reached the highest heights possible during the recruitment event. His status and reputation were nowpletely different than before. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that all of the other coalition disciples had taken to looking at him out of the corners of their eyes.

    Before, most coalition disciples had been envious of him. But now they revered him. Their gazes were different. Some of it was because of how strong he was, but more of it was because of his new status.

    He was now a cultivator from one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, who represented the orthodoxy of humankind. He had amand sword, which proved that, as long as he was strong enough, he had the right to execute anyone but the emperor. That identity was also a protection for him. If anyone tried to kill him, they would be making themselves the enemy of the Swordsage Division.

    Along with those benefits came responsibilities. Now Xu Qing wielded a sword for the sake of humankind, and was tasked with protecting all life.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but muse that the swordsage mission was so monumental that he wasn¡¯t even sure what to do going forward.

    I guess I¡¯ll just follow my heart. Settling his thoughts, he turned to see the Captain hobbling over to him.

    ¡°Hey, little Junior Brother. You know, there¡¯s something I really regret.¡±

    ¡°Running away toote?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the Captain¡¯s legs.

    Full of grief and indignation, the Captain continued, ¡°Not that. I regret waiting so long to join the swordsages. Otherwise I would have gained enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword a lot sooner. If I¡¯d been powering it up this entire time, then even a Void Returning cultivator would have to treat me very politely.¡±

    ¡°Except,¡± Xu Qing reminded him, ¡°you¡¯d have to be at the peak of Nascent Soul and also live for 2,000 years.¡±

    ¡°Well I....¡± The Captain trailed off. He sighed. ¡°In the Revered Ancient maind, the peak of Nascent Soul is the end of the line for most cultivators. Most people get stuck there, unable to break through, until eventually their longevity runs out....

    ¡°In minor worlds, that level is actually considered the ultimate peak. When cultivators in minor worlds reach that level, their next step is to break out into the void to start searching for their secret troves. That wouldn¡¯t be the issue. But living for 2,000 years. Yeesh.

    ¡°Things nowadays can¡¯tpare to before the arrival of the god. Back then there was no mutagen, and here on the Revered Ancient maind, they also called the Nascent Soul level the Heavenfate level. One pce created one nascent soul. One nascent soul provided six sixty-year-cycles of longevity. But now, all longevity has been cut in half. Unless you have some precious materials to work with, there¡¯s no way someone in the peak of Nascent Soul could ever power up a sword to kill someone in Void Returning.¡±

    Xu Qing took all the information in. This was his first time gaining a bit of understanding about the Nascent Soul level.

    ¡°Forget about all that, little Junior Brother. Say, after we¡¯re back, why don¡¯t you just give in to Arch-Immortal Plumdark? Close your eyes and it¡¯ll be over before you know it. I mean, if you don¡¯t, your Eldest Brother won¡¯t be going to Sea-Sealing County with you. Arch-Immortal Plumdark will almost certainly p me to death.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and then took out a pouch which he handed to the Captain. ¡°Inside that pouch is something that should help you survive theing tribtion.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± the Captain asked, his eyes glittered as he prepared to open the pouch.

    ¡°Healing medicine,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    The Captain red back at him.

    Xu Qing figured that since the Captain was the kind of person who liked extreme danger and was used to risking his life, he was obviously used to suffering a bit. Therefore, adding a bit more suffering on top wouldn¡¯t do much harm. Besides, if the Captain lost body parts, he could grow them back in a matter of days. Even when he lost everything but his head, he would be back to normal within a month. Worst case scenario, he could always just take the Captain¡¯s head with him to Sea-Sealing County. Before they even arrived, the Captain would be hale and hearty again.

    The Captain sighed. Putting away the medicine, he took out an apple to eat. At least he could sell the medicine, and he was definitely running very low on fundstely. He had spent almost everything he had on getting the answers to the Grand Emperor¡¯s questions. The mere thought that he had spent so many spirit stones to get a one-meter pir of light was almost too much to take.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to help me work things out with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, fine. But can you at least tell me how you answered the Grand Emperor¡¯s question? I¡¯ve thought about it a lot. Constantly, actually. Look. My hair is even starting to fall out because of it.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times as he looked at Xu Qing. The truth was that everything he had said before was all a smokescreen to deflect from his real question, which he had just asked. He hade to a realization recently. Back when hey in the snow with Xu Qing, he shouldn¡¯t have directly asked about what he wanted to know. He should have said some other random things first, for example about Heavenfate Nascent Soul, to distract Xu Qing. Only then, when the moment was right, could he ask his question and have a good chance of getting an answer.

    As soon as he asked the question, something happened in a secret room in the flying ship. The ears of Sir Bloodsmelter, who was seated cross-legged in meditation, suddenly twitched. Next to him was Guru Easher. Both of them opened their eyes and looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    At the same time, back on the distant Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, the swordsage grand elder also looked in the direction of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s flying ship.

    As all of those old-timers paid very close attention to what was happening, Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s hair.

    The Captain looked back pleadingly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I already told you, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing replied quietly. ¡°Back when we wereying in the snow together.¡±

    The Captain looked stunned, and immediately thought back to that night. Sir Bloodsmelter frowned as he did the same thing, and the swordsage grand elder also looked surprised.

    All of a sudden, the Captain realized something. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t said a word. He¡¯d just spit a few times.

    ¡°You... you spat?¡± the Captain asked hesitantly.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I spat on the god.¡±

    The Captain stood there in a daze. ¡°That¡¯s all? The mere act of spitting got you 30,000 meters?¡±

    ¡°I also called him a son of a bitch,¡± Xu Qing said, pointing up at the broken face of the god.

    Sir Bloodsmelter was visibly stunned, and the swordsage grand elder had a very unusual look on his face.

    Meanwhile, the Captain said, ¡°You... you called the broken face of the god a son of a bitch?¡±

    ¡°There was more,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious. ¡°I cursed him a few different ways. Other than calling him a son of a bitch, I said that he was a rat bastard and a damned asshat. And finally, I called him a dog-fucker.¡±

    Then Xu Qing spat over the edge of the rail.

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing, his eyes glittering.

    Meanwhile, back in the Swordsage Court, the swordsage grand elder thought for a moment. Then he smiled. And then that smile grew wider and wider until he startedughing. It was a carefreeughter that echoed through the Swordsage Court, causing all of the swordsages to turn their heads in surprise. As far as they could remember, the grand elder always acted very seriously. Whether it was in the court or when he lectured on nts and vegetation, he was always like that. Very rarely did he everugh.

    As heughed, the grand elder even used some obscenenguage. ¡°A son of a bitch!¡±

    Back on the flying ship, Sir Bloodsmelter wasughing so hard his eyes were bloodshot. He could remember days past when he would cuss. However, it had been quite some time since he stopped.

    On the deck of the ship, the Captain inhaled deeply. Looking up at the broken face of the god, he yelled, ¡°You dog-fucker!¡±

    Then he hawked a loogie and spat over the railing. Finally he burst outughing. Xu Qing joined him.

    But high above in the dome of heaven, the broken face of the god seemed as imposing as ever, as if the people below didn¡¯t even count as bugs.

    ***

    Time passed. The flying ship left the northern tundra, crossed the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, and followed the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains south. One afternoon about half a monthter, as the bright sun shone down, the majestic walls of the Eight Sect Coalition became visible on the southern horizon.

    As they neared, the sound of bells filled the coalition.

    They were weing bells.

    Bells weing the arrival of swordsages!

 Chapter 379: Thereâ€™s No Escape from Fate

    Chapter 379: There¡¯s No Escape from Fate

    The bells tolled three times.

    ¡°Only three times?¡± the Captain said haughtily as he stood on the deck of the flying ship, d in his swordsage government uniform. He had his hands sped behind his back and he looked immeasurably pleased with himself. That said, there was a bit of guilt and anxiety lurking deep within his eyes.

    Xu Qing had also been asked to wear his swordsage uniform. At the moment, he wasn¡¯t paying attention to the bells. Rather, he was looking down at his clothing.

    The government uniform worn by swordsages was different from a daoist robe. It had a high cor that went up to the ears and wide sleeves gathered at the wrist. It was white, with a fiery red design. The red design was not very prominent, and in fact, was only visible when the sun shone on it. It went from the end of the sleeves all the way to the cor, and resembled fire. When the wind hit the uniform, the variousyers would ripple, making it look like a living me. It had a cape, affixed to the cor with a crimson string, which would flutter in the wind.

    At first nce, the uniform seemed simple and in. However, the truth was that it contained a raging fire. It was an elegant uniform that also looked quite heroic, especially when worn by Xu Qing. In fact, the female disciples on the flying ship couldn¡¯t seem to keep their eyes off him.

    Yanyan stood proudly next to him, smiling so broadly her eyes were like crescent moons.

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®only three times¡¯?¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said from behind them. ¡°Those bells don¡¯t even ring for me. Sounds to me like you could use a good thrashing.¡±

    Shivering, the Captain turned around, a fawning expression on his face as he rushed over to Sir Bloodsmelter. ¡°Greetings, oh wise Patriarch!¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter snorted coldly and walked past the Captain. He stopped next to Xu Qing, his eyes full of praise.

    Xu Qing respectfully sped hands and bowed at the waist.

    ¡°Ignore your Eldest Brother¡¯s nonsense, Ah Qing,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said. ¡°Human etiquette dictates that the ringing of bellses with a variety of meanings. Don¡¯t put too much thought into it. And by the way, the sect¡¯s bells will never toll more than twenty-one times.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± the Captain asked curiously.

    Ignoring him, Sir Bloodsmelter said, ¡°Ah Qing, once we¡¯re back in the sect, you¡¯ll have three months to rest and recuperate. After that, you¡¯ll be going on a very long trip. Before you leave, I¡¯ll give you a precious gift.¡±

    Before the Captain could say anything else, Sir Bloodsmelter red at him and barked, ¡°As for you, you¡¯re not a kid anymore. You¡¯d do well to learn a thing or two from your Junior Brother. Enough with the melodrama all the time! The trouble you get into in the sect is bad enough. If you go to Sea-Sealing County and get beaten up so bad all your seals open, then if they don¡¯t kill you, you can just go ahead and kill yourself!¡±

    Sighing, the Captain looked pleadingly at the patriarch. ¡°Patriarch, forget about Sea-Sealing County. I have a tribtioning right here and now! I don¡¯t know how I¡¯ll survive it....¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter snorted coldly and was about to say something further when a host of figures flew out from the Eight Sect Coalition and toward the ship.

    They included people from Seven Blood Eyes as well as the other sects in the coalition. After all, the delegation had included disciples from all of the sects. Though none of the others had be swordsages, they had still gone through serious training and had learned a lot about the world. The journey had been anything but ordinary.

    Master Seventh was the highest-ranking person who hade, as the representatives from all the other sects were merely elders.

    Even still, it was a solemn asion.

    A banquet had been prepared in Seven Blood Eyes to congratte Xu Qing and the Captain, and thus, as the sound of the bells still lingered in the coalition, they headed to Seven Blood Eyes. Virtually all of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the sect were already gathered. sping hands to the sky, they offered respectful greetings.

    The Captain nced around warily, and seeing that Arch-Immortal Plumdark wasn¡¯t present, breathed a sigh of relief.

    The president of the coalition appeared up above, a kind smile on his face. ¡°Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, the two of you are hereby named dao children of the Eight Sect Coalition!¡±

    That was no surprise. They were swordsages now, and would now be watched closely by the coalition. After all, of the three swordsage appointments, two were in the coalition. Something like this had never happened before in the coalition. It went without saying that the president would appoint them as dao children.

    It was important for Seven Blood Eyes, the Swordsage Court, and all future swordsages who would rise up in the coalition. It had nothing to do with ying favorite or anything like that. As the president of the coalition, few people could ever tell what he was thinking, but he always acted in the most reasonable way possible.

    After the dao child announcement was made, the festivities in Seven Blood Eyes really took off. Disciples from other sects wereing to offer gifts, and the eventsted the entire day.

    During that time, the Captain circted in the crowd and chatted glibly with everyone. ¡°You listen to me, people. Back in Netherflight City, both Ah Qing and I responded in the most unprecedented way you can imagine. The two of usbined created a light that surpassed 30,000 meters!¡±

    Xu Qing heard that but didn¡¯t mind. At the moment, he was talking to Huang Yan.

    ¡°Xu Qing, time really has flown by. I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re a swordsage now! Ai, I really just can¡¯t get used to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. I¡¯ve already talked things out with my Elder Sister, and we¡¯re going back to South Phoenix. Thankfully, she was just assigned to head back there for official duties. Next time we meet again, it¡¯ll be in South Phoenix!¡±

    It wasn¡¯t the first time Xu Qing had heard Huang Yan talk about how he didn¡¯t like Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Knowing that he couldn¡¯t convince him otherwise, Xu Qing just nodded. Then he told him about what happened in the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    Huang Yan seemed very interested in the story.

    Time passed. Eventually, evening fell, and the banquet came to an end. Xu Qing was just getting ready to return to the back of the mountain to pay his respects to Master Sixth when something unusual happened.

    Plum-colored light glittered in the sky, creating an interesting contrast with the evening afterglow. Xu Qing looked up. At the same time, the Captain, who had been bragging to Zhang San, also looked up, and his face fell. The plum-colored light up above converged into a single spot, revealing a woman.

    She had extremely fair skin, a slender physique, and beauty like that of an immortal from heaven. She was elegant, but also had a terrifying cultivation base. Altogether, she seemed like a peerless beauty from a painting. She was none other than Arch-Immortal Plumdark. She had chosen toe after the official celebration was over. That timing might seem trivial, but it was a show of respect.

    Xu Qing immediately got nervous. And then he thought about the letter she¡¯d sent him, and he suddenly felt the urge to get away as quickly as possible. He started quietly backing up.

    The Captain reacted simrly. In fact, the moment that plum-colored light appeared, he was fleeing. Unfortunately, little did he know that Master Seventh had been keeping an eye on him the entire time.

    The moment the Captain tried to get away, Master Seventh reached out and grabbed him.

    The Captain iled his arms and legs, but it didn¡¯t do the least bit good. Finally, he just looked haplessly at Master Seventh.

    ¡°Master....¡±

    Ignoring his highest-ranking apprentice, Master Seventh stered a smile onto his face as he looked at the descending Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Plumdark, this disaster of an apprentice caused you a lot of trouble. I think the punishment you suggested a while back would be perfectly appropriate.¡±

    Chen Erniu let loose a yelp as Master Seventh threw him up into the air toward Arch-Immortal Plumdark. His limbs were immobilized, but his neck wasn¡¯t. As he looked down, he could see Xu Qing slipping away in the crowd.

    ¡°Help me, little Junior Brother! Exin everything to Arch-Immortal Plumdark! Hurry! Or at least stick by my side....¡±

    Xu Qing looked up furiously. Great, Chen Erniu. You just had to drag me into this, didn¡¯t you??

    At that point, he sped up, except sadly, it was toote.

    The Captain¡¯s words caused Arch-Immortal Plumdark to look down. As her beautiful eyes locked onto Xu Qing, she smiled enigmatically.

    ¡°Come with me, child. There¡¯s something I need to talk to you about.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was already pounding. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to refuse her.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered, and he was about to say something, except Arch-Immortal Plumdark waved her hand and sealed his mouth shut. All he could do was madly blink his eyes at Xu Qing to try to get a message across.

    Xu Qing ignored him and was about to say something when Master Seventh cleared his throat.

    ¡°Go along, Fourth Sib.¡±

    Xu Qing shot a meaningful look to his Master. However, Master Seventh pretended not to notice.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled, and Xu Qing felt himself rising up into the air. The moment he got close to her, he smelled that familiar perfume. And then she spoke, her voice like a trickling stream that could pierce all the way to his soul.

    ¡°Did you get my message, child?¡±

    Xu Qing immediately shook his head.

    She chuckled, then flicked her sleeve. She, Xu Qing, and the Captain all disappeared. When they reappeared, they were in the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s demon snake pocket realm.

    Right in front of Xu Qing was that massive coiled snake skeleton.

    There was also a person present.

    It was Wu Jianwu. He had a scrubbing brush in his hand, and his mouth was taped shut. Looking bored, he used the brush to clean the skeleton. When he noticed the three people up above, his eyes lit up. [1]

    When the Captain saw that, his heart sank.

    ¡°Chen Erniu, you stole that snake¡¯s tooth,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said. ¡°If anyone else had done that, I¡¯d rip their tendons out and break all their bones. But after talking the matter over with your Master, and also taking into consideration your Junior Brother, I decided not to bicker with you over the situation.

    ¡°If you wanted to use that tooth, you could have juste to me and asked to borrow it. Why did you feel the need to steal it? I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. Feel free to keep the tooth if you need it. But your punishment is that you¡¯ll spend the next three months in here making sure that snake skeleton is absolutely spotless.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    She waved her hand, and the Captain fell down to the skeleton, right next to Wu Jianwu.

    Wu Jianwu looked very pleased. Excitedly giving the Captain a scrubber brush, he then pointed at a spot off in the distance. Some of the skeleton was already clean, but the majority of it wasn¡¯t. Clearly, Wu Jianwu had left some of it untouched on purpose. Now hispanion had arrived.

    The Captain sighed. However, he was secretly relieved. He had been ready to beg and plead to reduce his punishment, but as it turned out, the punishment wasn¡¯t really that bad.

    Looks like that letter I wrote worked after all! I should write more letters in the future!

    The Captain blinked a few times and then tried to make himself look as despondent as possible as he started scrubbing the snake skeleton. It didn¡¯t take long before his face fell as he realized that the skeleton was very unique, and definitely not easy to clean. In fact, tapping into the cultivation base didn¡¯t even seem to help. Looking up at the mountainous snake skeleton, he suddenly seemed very bleak.

    Xu Qing looked on feeling wonderful.

    Having tossed Chen Erniu down, Arch-Immortal Plumdark led Xu Qing to the highest point in the pocket realm. It was the snake¡¯s skull, which seemed to be howling to the dome of heaven.

    Settling down, she smiled at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Sit.¡±

    Bracing himself, he sat next to her. From here, he had a good view of the Captain hard at work. Normally speaking, he would have enjoyed that view a lot, but with Arch-Immortal Plumdark looking at him, he felt nothing but anxiety. And it got worse when she spoke.

    ¡°Child, in the letter you wrote me, you promised me three things. Today, I want you to keep that first promise.¡±

    Xu Qing immediately felt panic set in.

    1. If you forgot why Wu Jianwu is here, you might want to pop back and scan chapter 327. ?

 Chapter 380: Xu Qingâ€™s Fairy Tale

    Chapter 380: Xu Qing¡¯s Fairy Tale

    ¡°What¡¯s with the look on your face, child? Does that mean you didn¡¯t get my letter? Or does it mean... that the letter I received wasn¡¯t written by you?¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at him, her face wlessly beautiful, her eyebrows arched gracefully. She was smiling as if she found the situation humorous.

    ¡°Senior, I....¡± Xu Qing steeled himself and prepared to offer a full exnation.

    ¡°If you didn¡¯t write the letter, then that means someone¡¯s toying with you. You should look into that. Find out who in the Eight Sect Coalition would dare to deceive me. After you find out who it was, I¡¯ll bury them here. Not even that person¡¯s Master would speak up for someone so outrageously disrespectful.¡±

    Her smile was as beautiful as a flower, but from the look in her eyes, she was very serious. Xu Qing got the feeling she wasn¡¯t joking at all.

    He nced down at the Captain.

    The Captain had heard Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s words, and it caused him to shiver. Looking very embarrassed, he nced up at Xu Qing. He had also been able to tell how serious she was, and wanted to offer a warning to Xu Qing. Unfortunately, his mouth was still sealed, as was his divine sense. All he could do tomunicate was blink.

    Xu Qing looked down at him and sighed inwardly. He was absolutely unconvinced that Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn¡¯t know what was going on. And there was no way she didn¡¯t know who really wrote that letter. After all, she was a Void Returning expert, on the same level as the patriarch. People like that, with all they had experienced in life, were skilled schemers. In fact, if Xu Qing was right, she probably knew from the moment sheid eyes on the letter that it wasn¡¯t from him.

    All he could do was turn and look calmly at her.

    Her smile was so beautiful it would entrance most people. ¡°Anyway, in your letter you promised that, after you got back from traveling, you would tell me about your past.¡±

    From the look in her eyes, she seemed very serious.

    Down below, the Captain was blinking like mad as he tried to pass a message to Xu Qing. He was worried that the blunt and forthright Xu Qing would reveal the truth of the matter. After all, if Arch-Immortal Plumdark knew the truth, but was pretending she didn¡¯t, then Xu Qing could ruin everything.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    As the Captain waited anxiously, seven or eight breaths of time passed.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing noted how serious Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked.

    ¡°My past? I was just an ordinary mortal, born in a little ce in the continent of South Phoenix. It was called Peerless City. My family ran a postal station. Most of the time we sent messages with birds. Because of that, we raised lots and lots of them. We had a crow. A sparrow. Also a pigeon. They were nice-looking birds, and they were nice to me. One day the crow attracted the attention of an eagle. When the eagle came, the birds scattered. Having no idea where they went, I left Peerless City to look for them.¡±

    ¡°Did you find them?¡± she asked softly.

    ¡°I found out where the sparrow and the pigeon are. Later on, I¡¯ll go get them and take them home.¡±

    ¡°I hope that works out for you. What else happened after you left the city?¡±

    ¡°Not much,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°I saw some vultures. They were very fierce. I also saw some turtledoves, which were equally fierce and nearly impossible tomunicate with. Oh, right. I saw some cuckoo birds, which were very crafty, but they ended up being eaten by the vultures.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at him without saying a word.

    Down below, the Captain was standing there quietly.

    Xu Qing kept talking, his voice calm.

    ¡°I kept going until I saw a tree with a woodpecker in it. I rested there for a bit. That was when the storm started. Lightning hit the tree and killed the woodpecker. That was also where I saw a white egret for the first time in my life.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded. ¡°They¡¯re beautiful. Pure and holy.¡±

    ¡°Except it also died. Its partner had been eaten by a falcon some years back. It lingered for a long time there until it grew old. I buried it there. Next I ended up in a forest the color of blood, the kind of ce where the weak are the prey of the strong. It was a very dangerous ce. That was where I saw the third white egret, plus a skrk, a parrot, and a yellow oriole. Lots and lots of birds. Oh, there was also a wild dog in that forest. And that¡¯s my story.¡± Smiling, he looked at Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°What about the second white egret?¡± she asked.

    A sh of reminiscence appeared in his eyes.

    ¡°The second white egret,¡± he said softly, ¡°also died. It was killed by a bat. After that happened, I put the bat to death.¡±

    The pocket realm wentpletely silent. The Captain looked down, making it impossible to see his facial expression. Wu Jianwu looked confused. Clearly, he didn¡¯t understand the story. As far as he was concerned, it sounded like Xu Qing came from a very interesting family that raised a lot of birds.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at him, her eyes were full of concern and pity. ¡°What about your future?¡±

    ¡°I really wanted to find that crow,¡± Xu Qing said. He smiled. ¡°And kill it. After I kill it, I want to find a way to kill that eagle too.¡± As he told his story, his previous nervousness at being in the presence of Arch-Immortal Plumdark faded away. He even looked rxed, and smiled through most of the story. ¡°Senior, what¡¯s your story?¡±

    ¡°Mine?¡± Her long legs were crossed, and she had her hands on her knees, making her curves even more prominent. She nced at Xu Qing, and her eyes flickered with memories.

    ¡°I have a simple past. I don¡¯t remember much about my father and mother. The person I remember the most is my Master. He raised me. He taught me my magical techniques. Back then, our Dark Serenity Sect wasn¡¯t part of the coalition, and it wasn¡¯t very big.

    ¡°A lot of things happened. Eventually, the sect grew to the size it is today. It joined the coalition. Much of that was thanks to the work done by me and my Elder Brother, who... I hate. But let¡¯s not get into all that. Your question actually made me think of something that I wanted to tell you.¡±

    As she smiled, her cheeks were a bit flush, and her eyes were like crescent moons.

    ¡°There¡¯s a dream I have asionally. Years ago, I used to have it every night. Then it was every year. Nowadays, it¡¯s every ten years....

    ¡°In the dream, the world is pitch dark. I can¡¯t see anything except for amp, which is right in front of me. I think themp is violet, but honestly that¡¯s just a guess. Themp is extinguished. It has no light. That makes it almost impossible to see. Nor can I touch it. It¡¯s as if it¡¯s too far away, but at the same time, incredibly close to me.

    ¡°In my imagination, it looks like a blooming bauhinia flower. And living on it is a little violet phoenix with its wings spread. [1]

    ¡°Thatmp has always appeared in my dreams, and it¡¯s always extinguished. And there is never any light in that world. Perhaps that¡¯s why I¡¯ve always been looking for light.¡± Her voice got softer and softer as she spoke, until she was whispering. ¡°I¡¯m not sure why, but the dream is very realistic. So is themp.¡±

    Xu Qing was taken aback, and didn¡¯t know what to say.

    Time passed in which neither Xu Qing nor Arch-Immortal Plumdark said anything. They just sat there quietly.

    Finally, Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled. ¡°Xu Qing, do you mind lending me that piece of the Darkspirit Everwill Door you have?¡±

    He took the ck chunk of wood out of his bag of holding and put it down between them.

    She picked it up and waved it through the air. Instantly, ck light erupted from the wood, spreading out and turning into an ancient wooden door. It pulsed with a cold, sinister aura that filled the area. And it seemed to be filled with a sensation of ancient time.

    As Xu Qing watched, she reached out with her delicate hand and touched the door.

    It slowly opened in her direction. It contained nothing but darkness. Like that of a bottomless chasm. That was the world that existed in her heart. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t that it contained nothing. Instead, it contained infinite ck. There was no light inside, and no light could shine into it. It needed light. It needed something shining.

    Xu Qing suddenly came to an understanding. After all, when he opened that door, it erupted with light.

    The door faded away and turned back into a piece of wood, which dropped onto Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s palm. She rolled it between her fingers briefly, then handed it back to Xu Qing and stood up. Her hair cascaded down like a dazzling waterfall, and the elegant way she stood made Xu Qing think about the story she had just told. He sighed inwardly.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you remember Parting with Sorrow?¡±

    He nodded. Taking out the willow flute she¡¯d given him, he put it to his mouth and started to y.

    The flute music drifted about like the wind.

    At some point, the music stopped. At some point, Arch-Immortal Plumdark vanished.

    Apparently, she¡¯d brought him here to listen to a story of his past, and also to hear Parting with Sorrow. Before leaving, she offered an assessment of the music.

    ¡°Not very good.¡±

    Her words echoed in his ears.

    After thinking a bit, he looked at the Captain and Wu Jianwu.

    Both were shaking their heads. Apparently, the music really didn¡¯t sound very good.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing stood and left the pocket realm.

    It was early morning outside. Unbeknownst to him, he had spent an entire night with that snake skeleton. As light spread, Xu Qing headed to pay respects to Master Sixth.

    Along the way, his transmission jade slip vibrated as he received a voice message from Huang Yan.

    ¡°Xu Qing, like I told you yesterday, Elder Sister and I are going back to South Phoenix. We¡¯re leaving now, and we just wanted to say goodbye.¡±

    Xu Qing responded, ¡°You¡¯re leaving now? Are you at the teleportation portal? Or the port?¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re not teleporting. We want to take an ocean voyage, just the two of us. We¡¯re about to board the ship.¡±

    Xu Qing could hear the smile in Huang Yan¡¯s voice. He was obviously very happy about going back to South Phoenix. Xu Qing hurried to the port, and before long, he caught sight of Second Elder Sister¡¯s dharmaship. Huang Yan was there.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing, Huang Yan¡¯s face lit up with a smile. Rushing forward, he gave him a big hug.

    Second Elder Sister walked out of the cabin and also smiled at Xu Qing. ¡°Little Junior Brother, I just got back from a missionst night, that¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t at the banquet. Congrattions on bing a swordsage!¡±

    Xu Qing politely sped his hands. He wasn¡¯t very familiar with Second Elder Sister, but he would never forget what she¡¯d done for him back in that Sixth Peak shop back in Seven Blood Eyes. Granted, she¡¯d done it for Huang Yan, but even still, she¡¯d saved him a lot of trouble. [2]

    With another smile, Second Elder Sister started her dharmaship.

    As they sailed toward the open sea, Huang Yan waved and shouted, ¡°Xu Qing, I have a good friend in the county capital. I mentioned you to him and asked him to watch out for you. Remember, if you find things dull out there, you can alwayse back to South Phoenix! It doesn¡¯t matter what trouble you get into, as long as you¡¯re in South Phoenix, you¡¯ll be safe!¡±

    Huang Yan emphasized his words by thumping his chest proudly.

    Xu Qing grinned and nodded. As the sea breeze drifted past, he sped hands and bowed.

    1. Real-life bauhinia flowers have the character ¡®violet¡¯ in them (and remember Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s name also contains that same character). The flowers are purple when they bloom. Here¡¯s an image. ?

    2. The Sixth Peak shop incident was in chapters 72 and 73. ?

 Chapter 381: The Living Must Move On

    Chapter 381: The Living Must Move On

    The first light of dawn hit the ck Forbidden Sea, creating a ck halo in the mists on the surface. Up above was a deep blue sky, and a dharmaship flying off into it.

    Xu Qing watched the dharmaship until it disappeared over the horizon. Huang Yan had never limated to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, so it made sense that he was leaving. Xu Qing would respect his decision, and hope that both he and Second Elder Sister would find happiness in South Phoenix.

    ¡°I wish you well in everything,¡± he murmured. Turning, he left the port and went back to the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters.

    It was time to pay respects to Master Sixth.

    He¡¯d intended to go the day before, only to be taken by Arch-Immortal Plumdark to the demon snake skeleton in thend of good fortune. As he ascended the stairs leading up the mountain headquarters of the sect, the wind blew through the trees, causing the leaves to rustle. Xu Qing felt very calm at heart.

    Even at dawn, there were a lot of disciples out working on early morning cultivation. It was possible to hear the sound of chanting; that was something that Seven Blood Eyes had adopted only after joining the coalition. The disciples were cultivating their hearts. Xu Qing had been informed about this new custom at the banquet the previous night. Cultivation of the heart was something Master Seventh had suggested, as a way to begin transforming the sect as a whole. At first, many disciples found it strange. After all, the sect had previously focused on magical techniques, and had not bothered with any sort of spiritual cultivation.

    Upon pondering the matter, Xu Qing got the feeling that the timing of his Master making this suggestion seemed to line up with the study of the experimental god body. Wrapped up in such thoughts, Xu Qing followed the winding staircase to the back of the mountain. Any disciples he encountered along the way were extremely respectful, and would sp hands and bow, even from a great distance away.

    On the rear of the mountain was a bamboo forest, and a grave, in front of which was a random assortment of objects. Smoke spiraled up from incense sticks that had been ced there.

    Two middle-aged cultivators stood there silently.

    Xu Qing recognized them; they were apprentices of Master Sixth.

    When they noticed Xu Qing approaching, they turned and sped hands. It wasn¡¯t possible for them to hide the emotion in their eyes.

    ¡°Congrattions on bing a swordsage, Junior Brother Xu.¡±

    Xu Qing quietly returned their salute.

    ¡°The two of us have been assigned a mission outside. Before leaving, we wanted to pay respects to Master. Ai. There¡¯s nothing stable in this world. It¡¯s hard to believe it¡¯s already been a year.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll leave you alone, Junior Brother Xu. Farewell.¡±

    Bowing again, Xu Qing said, ¡°Please, Elder Brothers, have a safe journey.¡±

    Looking somewhat mncholy, the two of them flew up into the air and left.

    ording to the old saying the dead are dead, the living must move on. Unfortunately, there are always times when the heart has trouble finding calm.

    As Xu Qing sat down in front of Master Sixth¡¯s grave, he took out two jars of alcohol. After putting one down in front of the grave, he took a drink from the other. He didn¡¯t talk. He just drank. The wind blew through the trees. There were no clouds in the sky, just light. It grew brighter and brighter, filling the world. Two hourster, Xu Qing stood up.

    ¡°Master Sixth, the next time Ie back, I¡¯ll bring some Torchlight heads along with the alcohol.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing bowed deeply to the grave, and prayed that all would be well going forward. Turning, he left the rear part of the mountain. However, he didn¡¯t leave the headquarters. His n was to go see his Master.

    It had been a long time since he had a good talk, and there were things to discuss. For instance, the changes to the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness, or the things he had learned from the swordsage grand elder about nts and vegetation being the path to godhood.

    As he walked the mountain path, he sent a voice message to Master Seventh asking if he coulde pay a visit. Master Seventh replied that he was in the building at the mountain summit. Xu Qing knew the ce. As he started walking faster, his expression flickered and he looked toward one of the side paths on the mountain.

    A familiar voice had caught his ear. ¡°You¡¯re lucky to have run into me, kiddo. Your Sect Uncle Ding Xiaohai has a bad temper. You really think you can argue with him ande out on top? If I hadn¡¯te along, he probably would have beaten you silly. From now on, you stick close to me, okay?¡±

    In response to Ding Xue, a somewhat bashful voice responded, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll do everything you say, Sect Aunt Ding.¡±

    A momentter, Xu Qing caught sight of Ding Xue. Her hair was in a ponytail and she seemed quite heroic with her ancient sword strapped to her back. She looked like someone from the Senior generation as she walked along with a boy of about ten years of age.

    The boy was very clean and tidy, especially his face. He was nodding politely in response to Ding Xue. However, as soon as he noticed Xu Qing, his expression flickered. He looked afraid. Even terrified. He suddenly stopped in ce, instinctively shrank back, and half hid behind Ding Xue.

    Ding Xue looked surprised, but then she noticed Xu Qing. Eyes lighting up, she gently pushed the boy away from her and hurried over to Xu Qing. What had been an air of heroism that surrounded her was now just pure joy.

    Eyes glittering, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I was just nning to go looking for you. When you got back yesterday I was in seclusion. Look! I¡¯m about to open my 60th dharma aperture! Soon I¡¯ll have two life mes! And I haven¡¯t forgotten about studying nts and vegetation. In fact, I¡¯m working even harder at that. What are you doing here on the mountain, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing smiled. He was actually surprised at her fast progress. After all, only a year before on the trip to the Ghost Emperor mountain, Ding Xue had just ignited her first life me. That said, given how Master Seventh doted on her, it made sense.

    ¡°You¡¯ve done well,¡± Xu Qing said sincerely. ¡°I¡¯m going to pay a visit to my Master.¡±

    Ding Xue¡¯s heart raced in response to Xu Qing¡¯s praise, and she blushed slightly.

    Xu Qing looked at the boy behind her, who still looked nervous.

    He stood in ce, neither walking forward nor fleeing. He looked nervous. The truth was that he was really scared of Xu Qing. Though he hade to the sect with the identity medallion Master Seventh had provided, it was actually Xu Qing who had given it to him. And the words Xu Qing had spoken to him revealed that Xu Qing knew the truth about him.

    He could still feel the pressure of Xu Qing¡¯s strength, and could also tell that it was much stronger than thest time they¡¯d met. Most people wouldn¡¯t be able to sense that, but this boy was different. He knew full well that the pressure came from the Ghost Emperor mountain. This was the same boy that Master Seventh had identified when they traveled to the Ghost Emperor mountain. He was actually a grue in human form. [1]

    Seeing Xu Qing looking at the boy, Ding Xue said, ¡°Do you remember him, Big Bro Xu Qing? He¡¯s that boy from the vige.¡± Turning to re at the boy, Ding Xue said, ¡°Wang Ling, hurry up and offer greetings to your Sect Uncle Xu!¡± [2]

    The boy stifled his terror, took a few steps forward, and bowed to Xu Qing with sped hands. Voice trembling a bit, he said, ¡°Hello, Sect Uncle Xu.¡±

    After that, Ding Xue exined the circumstances. Wang Ling had arrived in the sect a few months ago, but had spent all that time in the Offpeak environment. He hade to the mountain peak to purchase a dharmaboat. Then he had somehow attracted the ire of Ding Xiaohai. Ding Xue had happened across them at that moment and had stepped in.

    Keeping the smile on her face, Ding Xue secretly projected a message to Xu Qing. ¡°I noticed a while back that Ding Xiaohai was watching him. There was a weird look in his eye, like he wanted to devour the boy. I¡¯m not really sure what¡¯s going on, but I had to help.¡±

    Although Ding Xue always acted cute and virtuous in front of Xu Qing, the truth was that she was very spirited and had a strong heart. What was more, she was an adept schemer and had sharp eyes. ¡°You go on ahead and pay respects to your Master, Big Bro Xu Qing. I¡¯lle visit youter. For now I need to take little Wang Ling down the mountain.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and continued on his way.

    Meanwhile, Wang Ling looked over at Xu Qing, and his eyes glittered with admiration. Thinking back to what Xu Qing had said to him that day, he suddenly said, ¡°Big Bro... er, Sect Uncle Xu. About what you told me that day....¡±

    Xu Qing turned, looked at him, and nodded. ¡°Work hard, and it¡¯ll happen.¡±

    Wang Ling took a deep breath, then nodded back.

    Smiling, Ding Xue led him away.

    He wanted to be human. A real human. That was the main reason he¡¯de to Seven Blood Eyes.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing reached the building at the summit of the headquarters. There he saw his Master, looking very somber as he yed a game of Go with his servant.

    In contrast to Master Seventh¡¯s grave demeanor, the middle-aged servant seemed very rxed.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing, the servant was about to get to his feet and sp hands in greeting. Before he could, Xu Qing hurried forward, ducked his head, and bowed with sped hands.

    The servant smiled, stood, and returned the greeting. [3]

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, scattering the pieces on the Go board.

    ¡°You¡¯re a horrible Go yer. I gave up a lot of pieces, yet you still lost. Fourth Sib, youe y with me.¡±

    Smiling wryly, the servant stepped off to the side.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he sat down on the other side of the board, cleaned up the scattered pieces, and then made his first move. That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t actually very good at ying Go, so as they went back and forth cing pieces, Master Seventh eventually started smiling.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, your heart isn¡¯t calm. You see, Go is affected by your thoughts. From the way you¡¯re ying, I can tell you have something you want to talk about.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t hide anything from you, Master,¡± Xu Qing said, looking Master Seventh straight in the eyes. Naturally, he didn¡¯t mention the voice message he¡¯d just sent in which he directly stated that he needed some advice.

    Upon hearing the conversation, the servant backed up a few steps and then waved his hand to seal the area. Then he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Master Seventh said, picking up a game piece and fiddling with it.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing somberly said, ¡°Master, the Ghost Emperor mountain inside of me has changed.¡±

    ¡°What kind of change?¡± Master Seventh replied casually, extending his hand to ce the piece on the board.

    ¡°It looks like me now.¡±

    The Go piece Master Seventh had been about to ce slipped out of his fingers and ttered across the board. He looked up nkly at Xu Qing. ¡°What¡¯d you just say?¡±

    1. Xu Qing gave the boy the identity medallion in chapter 307. The boy was introduced a few chapters before that, but the truth about him wasn¡¯t revealed until 307. ?

    2. Wang Ling. Wang is listed first on the 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Wang Lin from Renegade Immortal. It also means ¡°king.¡± Ling means a variety of things including ¡°thick ice, intimidate, insult, confront, brave.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds intimidating and cool. In English this name is very close to Wang Lin, but in Chinese the two characters Lin and Ling arepletely different and don¡¯t contain any simr elements, though they are pronounced simrly. There were somements from Chinese readers noting the vague simrity, but no one seemed to think there was any actual connection between the two characters. Onement was, ¡°did Wang Lin have a missing son somewhere¡± and another was ¡°Er Gen, did you run out of ideas for names?¡± lol. ?

    3. It¡¯s probably fairly obvious, but I should point out that Xu Qing rushing to bow first is a clear disy of respect. Given Xu Qing¡¯s status as a swordsage and dao child, it wouldn¡¯t be inappropriate to expect the servant to bow first, despite the servant being older. Instead, Xu Qing humbly takes the initiative, giving a lot of face to the servant. ?

 Chapter 382: Lingâ€™er Out At Sea

    Chapter 382: Ling¡¯er Out At Sea

    Xu Qing quietly picked up the Go piece his Master had dropped and put back into the correct ce on the board. He looked up.

    ¡°The Ghost Emperor mountain looks like me now.¡±

    Master Seventh closed his eyes and muttered to himself for a short time. Truth be told, he waspletely astonished. He knew his apprentice had shocking powers of understanding. That much had been evident to him when they were at the Ghost Emperor mountain. He had also heard about everything that happened with Xu Qing in Netherflight City, for instance, him gaining enlightenment of nearly 300 battle spirit symbols. Despite that, he was stillpletely shaken by what Xu Qing just said.

    He had originally wanted Xu Qing to just have a god in his sea of consciousness to control the random bits of will that would result from using the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to seize gold cores. But this result was akin to him expecting Xu Qing to build a log cabin, only to have him end up building an entire city.

    And then hees and asks me what¡¯s going on??

    Master Seventh suddenly felt very tired. After a long moment in quiet contemtion, he cleared his throat.

    ¡°Ites down to your heart and mind,¡± he said casually. ¡°They¡¯re very strong, and thus, that exerts an influence on what is essentially an addition to yourself. Because of that, you have increased control. That¡¯s why it¡¯s changed. You don¡¯t need to worry about it.

    ¡°Think of it in terms of levels. The first level is just getting that thing inside of you. The next level is building it up and turning it into your own personal object. That said, you still have to work hard. You can¡¯t getcent! After all, this first step is the simplest.

    ¡°From ancient times until now there have been a lot of almighty individuals who did simr things. They also were able to visualize but not personalize. Thus, they got possessed. Their dao was taken away. This whole thing is a very difficult process, and for you, it might be a fantasy to think it would actually happen.

    ¡°And that¡¯s because the Ghost Emperor actually isn¡¯tplete. His dao was never fully realized. Therefore, you would actually have to give the Ghost Emperor mountain another external item to make itplete. Only in that manner¡ª¡±

    ¡°Master,¡± Xu Qing interrupted, ¡°the mountain has a staff now. That¡¯s an external item, right? It looks like the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s jaw dropped as he was assailed by massive waves of astonishment.

    Xu Qing suddenly felt nervous. A long moment passed.

    ¡°Fourth Sib,¡± Master Seventh said in a hoarse voice, ¡°you have a very bad habit. Next time, exin the whole situation up front!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and then nodded.

    ¡°Are there any other changes?¡± Master Seventh asked impatiently.

    ¡°No...¡± Xu Qing replied. He hesitated. ¡°Oh, by the way, Master, I get the feeling that under the right circumstances I could get the Ghost Emperor mountain to do something. I¡¯m not at that point yet, though. Master, what should I do?¡±

    Master Seventh stood, his eyes glittering as he closely examined Xu Qing. At this point, he wasn¡¯t just astonished. He was absolutely bbergasted.

    Could this kid possibly be the reincarnation of the Ghost Emperor? There¡¯s no way. He¡¯s not from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He was born in South Phoenix, so he doesn¡¯t have any Ghost Emperor blood in him. I confirmed that already. Can a person¡¯s powers of understanding really be pushed to this extent? What kind of an apprentice did I take in? Or is it that he has an innate human ability rted to enlightenment?

    Noting Xu Qing¡¯s hesitant expression, Master Seventh cleared his throat again. Trying to look extremely casual and rxed, he walked to the window and looked out at the clouds.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, look at the clouds in the dome of heaven.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at them.

    ¡°You can see the shape of each cloud, right? Except the reality is that clouds don¡¯t really look like that. They¡¯re made of water vapor. In other words, they¡¯re countless droplets of water stuck together. Their external appearance is more rted to dust in the air, which causes the droplets to stick together.

    ¡°The same principle applies to the Ghost Emperor mountain in your sea of consciousness. Don¡¯t try toplete it in one big rush. And don¡¯t pay too much attention to the shape and appearance of the mountain. That¡¯s the wrong way to go about things.

    ¡°You actually need to open up the Ghost Emperor mountain. Release the energy within it. Just like you would with a cloud. Release the water droplets. Then you can observe them and figure out a way to bring them to life.

    ¡°Later, you can use mutagen toplete the job. Find a ce where both spirit energy and mutagen are strong, and then form the image of the Ghost Emperor. Also, I suggest you try to change what that image looks like. Anything will do, as long as it¡¯s not you. That way people won¡¯t recognize it, and will assume it¡¯s just some sort of divine ability.¡±

    Xu Qing was already reeling. His Master¡¯s words had made everything very clear. Looking out at the clouds, he realized that he understood it all. He had achieved sudden understanding. His thoughts were clear. His eyes suddenly glittered with enlightenment and admiration. It was like the ringing of a bell. He stood and bowed at the waist with sped hands. His attitude and expression caused Master Seventh to suddenly feel a lot better. Laughing heartily, he sat back down and picked up another game piece.

    Xu Qing happily sat back down as well, and they started ying again. Then Xu Qing asked his second question, which was about how godliness rted to nts and vegetation.

    The question caused Master Seventh¡¯s eyes to gleam. After thinking for a moment, he gave his answer.

    ¡°Spirit nts adapted quickly to the arrival of the broken face of the god. They adjust much faster than flesh and blood creatures.... As for that experimental god body, my research corresponds perfectly to your supposition. Godly nts are definitely something worth studying further. Studying gods, or rather, godly nts, is definitely a key.¡±

    Both Master and apprentice benefited greatly by the conversation. Xu Qing felt very happy, and Master Seventh was also in a great mood. Eventually, they started talking about the swordsage recruitment event. Master Seventh was obviously very curious about the answer Xu Qing gave to get a 30,000-meter-tall pir of light.

    ¡°A son of a bitch!¡± Master Seventh roared withughter, and his eyes overflowed with admiration when he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I just wonder what Eldest Brother said to get only one meter,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding puzzled.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to guess about that,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°He definitely did some reckless boot-licking. Except, even ordinary boot-licking shouldn¡¯t have resulted in a one-meter light.¡± His lip curled up in disgust. ¡°Based on how well I know him, I bet he called the Grand Emperor a god. Taking your 30,000-meter beam of light into consideration, that means your Eldest Brother essentially insulted the Grand Emperor.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. It seemed highly likely that Master Seventh was correct.

    ¡°In three months, you¡¯ll head to Sea-Sealing County, where the coalition has a subsidiary sect. The capital city there is the core of the entire county. The Eight Sect Coalition is an apex power in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, but considering the county as a whole, it doesn¡¯t count for much. As usual, you¡¯ll need to rely on your own talent to make a name for yourself there.

    ¡°Though the subsidiary sect there doesn¡¯t have a very high standing, they¡¯ll be able to take care of you. Because of that, the patriarch and I havee up with a n. You¡¯ll be heading to the county capital with a delegation. You¡¯ll be temporarily assigned to the subsidiary sect there, with a patriarch-level figure overseeing everything. As for which one it will be, that hasn¡¯t been decided yet.

    ¡°The peaklord of the Fifth Peak will be going as well. Both coalition swordsages are from Seven Blood Eyes this time, and we need to handle the details of getting our level of control over the spell formations and teleportation portals there.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. The Captain had talked a bit about what was toe, but hadn¡¯t been privy to many details. Now Xu Qing had a better understanding of what would happen.

    ¡°Also...¡± Master Seventh said, picking up a Go piece. After thinking for a moment, he continued, ¡°I got some information. The capital city of Sea-Sealing County is actually the manifestation of a high-tier taboo treasure.¡±

    ¡°High tier?¡± Xu Qing asked, his eyes narrowing.

    ¡°Taboo treasures are divided into levels,¡± Master Seventh said coolly. ¡°In Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, all taboo treasures are low-tier. As you can imagine, low-tier treasures are far less dangerous than the high-tier variety. That said, their function and operation are basically the same. If you go to the capital without an understanding of the principles governing the operation of taboo treasures, you¡¯ll have an automatic weakness.

    ¡°Remember this, Fourth Sib. Even the smallest details can have a dramatic effect on your future. Don¡¯t be careless. You must n carefully in advance to prevent others from seeing your most powerful hidden assets. Preparation is the key to being truly, truly deceptive. And that¡¯s also how you canunch fatal blows when it really counts.

    ¡°Don¡¯t ever forget the true spirit of the Seventh Peak.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded gravely.

    ¡°Considering you have three months before you leave, don¡¯t spend time dawdling in the sect. I want you to go to the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure and serve as the treasure custodian there. That¡¯ll give you a good chance to see how the taboo treasure works. That way, when you get to the county capital, understanding of taboo treasures won¡¯t be a weakness for you. By the way, given how close you are to your Eldest Brother, I don¡¯t think I need to remind you to keep an eye on him.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said respectfully. He stood.

    ¡°I also need to offer you a warning. During your time as the treasure custodian, do not use the taboo treasure to look at the broken face of the god. Simrly, do not use it to look at the sun or moon. No one in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is powerful enough to do that. Also, do not look into the depths of any of the forbidden grounds. That said, feel free to look at the Forbidden Sea or any of the forbidden regions, though don¡¯t let your gaze linger too long.¡±

    Xu Qing was slightly confused about those instructions, and figured they must have something to do with the structure of the taboo treasure.

    ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°You¡¯ll understand in due time.¡± With that, he ced a piece on the board and smiled. ¡°You¡¯ve improved at Go, Fourth Sib. But you¡¯re still not as good as your Master.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the board and stered a look of admiration onto his face. ¡°You¡¯re as formidable as ever, Master.¡±

    Master Seventhughed heartily.

    ***

    Far away from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, somewhere on the Forbidden Sea, a green-skinned, long-fanged ghost soared through the clouds. It was 3,000 meters tall, with red eyes and scales covering its body. It was also wrapped up in chains, and it howled as it sped along. Wherever it passed, massive waves rolled out on the water below.

    Two people stood atop the ghost¡¯s head.

    One was an old man wearing a gray robe. His back was a bit hunched, and he had age spots on his face. His skin was sallow, and he looked sickly and weak.

    Next to him was a young woman in a white gown. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, and was wlessly beautiful in a simple and pure way. She was as fair as fine jade, and glowed like a fine pearl. At the same time, there was something childish about her. There was innocence in her eyes, and apleteck of impurity. They were like clear waters that would cause anyone who looked into them to feel tender affection.

    The old man was currently giving some hard advice to the young woman, who looked impatient and didn¡¯t want to listen.

    ¡°Papa, I still want to go to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture!¡±

    The innkeeper from nkspring Way cleared his throat and decided to change tactics. ¡°I never said we couldn¡¯t go there, silly girl. But we need to go to the county capital first. You have to ept the legacy there. After that we can go to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. That way Xu... er, your Big Bro Xu Qing will like you even more when he sees you. After all, once you ept that legacy, you¡¯ll be very powerful.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Ling¡¯er said, looking stunned. The idea of Big Bro Xu Qing liking her even more got her heart racing.

    ¡°Of course!¡± the innkeeper said, thumping his chest. ¡°Papa would never trick you!¡±

    Ling¡¯er looked at him suspiciously. Then she turned and looked in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. A momentter, she nodded.

    The innkeeper breathed a secret sigh of relief. Silly girl! Papa has severed all outside connections for your sake. All because I¡¯m worried about people tracking you down. I absolutely, positively cannot allow you to go to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And I have to keep you away from that little bastard!

    I broke my own heart for your sake, little girl. Later on, you¡¯ll understand that I¡¯m doing this for your own good.

    As for that little bastard, I¡¯ll make sure to never go to the same ce as him. There¡¯s no way that punk will ever make it to the county capital. Hmph! Since I can¡¯t afford to provoke him, I¡¯ll just hide from him!

 Chapter 383: Treasure Custodian

    Chapter 383: Treasure Custodian

    It was evening by the time Xu Qing left the summit. He had stayed the whole day, ying a few games of Go with his Master. Every time he lost, Master Seventhughed heartily. Xu Qing would always spend time thoughtfully looking at the board. asionally he would instinctively reach out and grab one of the nearby pastries to eat. As he chewed, he would stare intently at the board.

    The pastries were delicious. Xu Qing had never had anything like them. What was especially noteworthy was that, after eating them, they would stir his dharma force. There were clearly some extraordinary medicinal ingredients in them.

    Master Seventh really seemed to enjoy Xu Qing¡¯s thoughtful expression.

    For the entire day, no one disturbed them. When the servant came for the ninth time with more pastries, Xu Qing ate one and then sighed.

    ¡°Master, I forfeit.¡± He stood, a look of admiration on his face as he sped hands and bowed to Master Seventh. Master Seventh looked very pleased. Looking outside at how dark it was getting, Xu Qing bid farewell and left.

    Master Seventh watched him go, then looked at the tray of pastries off to the side.

    ¡°He ate nine trays...¡± the servant said.

    Master Seventh sighed. ¡°Ai. The older I get, the more I enjoy spending time with the young ones. Sadly, if you directly invite them, they don¡¯t want toe.... The pastries were a good idea. Going forward, let¡¯s make sure to have lots of them on hand. I bet that¡¯ll get theming around all the time.¡±

    Chuckling, Master Seventh looked in the direction of South Phoenix. He sighed. ¡°Second Sib and... Huang Yan went back to South Phoenix. I could hardly bear to see her go. But I suppose it¡¯s a good thing. Nothing bad will happen to her there. Besides, with her in South Phoenix, her Elder and Junior Brothers will have a safe haven if they run into trouble in that area.

    ¡°Given Big Sib¡¯s personality, you never know when he¡¯ll gnaw his way into a big catastrophe. And you always have to worry about the consequences of Third Sib¡¯s love affairs.¡±

    The servant had an odd expression on his face as he quietly said, ¡°Third Highness has been missing for a while now. Quite a few people have asked about him. The Zhao n from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. The Spirityear Sect. The Manyeyes people. The Scaled Ones.¡±

    Master Seventh flicked his sleeve in irritation. ¡°He fooled around too much, and everyone was trying to force him into a marriage. Who knows where he ran off to. Fourth Sib is the one who puts my heart at ease. He¡¯s the kind of person that, if he provokes someone, he always kills them. He never leaves behind potential cmities. That said, he¡¯s sometimes too quick to resort to lethal force. Now that he¡¯s going to Sea-Sealing County... I have to wonder whether things will get better or worse in that regard.¡±

    Master Seventh suddenly looked a bit hesitant.

    The servant nodded. ¡°The county capital seems like a thriving ce, but the reality is it¡¯s a den of vipers. Everyone there has secret motives of some sort. Furthermore, I heard the governor is hesitant and indecisive....¡±

    ¡°No. He just likes to keep the status quo. He knows that he can¡¯t possibly be like the glorious generals of old, when humans were in their heyday. Besides, maintaining the status quo requires a lot ofpromising.¡± Master Seventh shook his head.

    ***

    As Xu Qing headed down the mountain, he kept burping and licking his lips. ¡°Master¡¯s pastries are amazing!¡±

    With the vor still in his mouth, he went back to his berth in the port.

    A few days passed. During that time, he went to see Zhang San to get some work done on his dharmaship. After all, he was going to do some extensive traveling going forward.

    Ding Xue came to visit.

    As for Yanyan, after returning to the coalition, Guru Easher forced her to go into seclusion as punishment, and said she couldn¡¯te out until she achieved a breakthrough.

    Gu Muqing never showed up. She had been given a permanent assignment in South Phoenix.

    Xu Qing waited until Zhang San was finished working on the dharmaship. It was on the sixth day after returning that he made preparations to head to Seazombie territory to serve as a treasure custodian for the rest of the three months.

    Something of concern to Xu Qing was the fact that, in recent days, a number of coalition disciples had gone missing while on missions. Specifically, they were disciples who had been out on the Forbidden Sea near Forbidden by the Zombie. Based on the clues avable, it seemed that, for unknown reasons, they had actually entered the forbidden ground. Because a forbidden ground was involved, coalition protocol was followed, and a group of disciples from various factions was sent to investigate.

    The matter didn¡¯t cause huge waves in the coalition. After all, it wasn¡¯t unheard of for people to go missing in forbidden grounds. It happened on a yearly basis. And it wasn¡¯t just something that happened with coalition disciples. Cultivators from all sects and species, especially those who operated on the Forbidden Sea, would experience the same thing.

    Xu Qing heard about the matter, but it didn¡¯t affect his ns to go to the Seazombiends. At the very most, he would be extra cautious. Besides, he wasn''t nning to make the trip via dharmaship. Instead, he would use the coalition¡¯s teleportation portals.

    At the moment, he stood atop just such a portal, glittering light swirling around him. He disappeared, and then reappeared a momentter in Seazombie territory.

    Cultivators who teleported such a great distance without taking special precautionary measures would often feel their soul and fleshly body being tugged away from each other. But Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body was so powerful that all he experienced was a bit of a shiver. Then everything was back to normal.

    When he appeared on the Seven Blood Eyes portal, there were over a thousand disciples waiting to meet him. They were all disciples who had been assigned to duty here. sping hands, they bowed in greeting.

    ¡°Well met, Dao Child.¡±

    Xu Qing returned the salute, then bowed to Master Third. Then he went to the taboo treasure and sat down cross-legged atop the huge bronze mirror. The mirror was high in the sky, so seated atop it, he felt like he was atop a massive, wind-swept te. Looking down, he saw the Forbidden Sea, like ink beneath him. It stretched as far as the eye could see.

    Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and sent his divine will into the taboo treasure. Almost instantly, a shocking divine will responded, sweeping over him,pletelycking any emotion. After confirming his identity, the divine will created a defensive shield around him. Then a cold voice spoke into his mind.

    ¡°Spirit Automaton Blood Eyes, awaiting yourmand.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    With the mirror¡¯s divine will covering him, it almost felt like his body didn¡¯t exist. His senses were gone. By sending divine will out, it was almost like he had be a soul body.

    ¡°What are my options?¡± Xu Qing transmitted.

    ¡°First, you can choose soul fusion. You canbine with me, in which state you will be indestructible as long as I exist.

    ¡°Second, you can observe anything that exists within range.

    ¡°Third, you can create a treasure custodian projection in any location that you can see. It willst for one hour, and will have the same capabilities as your true form.

    ¡°Fourth, you can target any individual living being with the power of capital punishment. However, you¡¯ll need approval from a total of three treasure custodians to do so.¡±

    Now Xu Qing understood why his Master had prohibited him from looking at certain areas. After some thought, he chose to start with the soul fusion option. He sent out his divine will, and his soul seemed to scatter. Then it felt like he had a new body. Specifically... it was the bronze mirror. He hadpletely fused with it, making the two of them one. He suddenly felt like his field of view had expanded in an unprecedented way.

    It was now possible to see much farther than he could with his own eyes. From where he was located, he could see north to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, south to South Phoenix, east to the deep sea, and west to Forbidden by the Zombie. It was possible to see anything within those bounds.

    It was unsettling at first, but Xu Qing quickly settled his thoughts. The first ce he chose to focus his gaze was the scavenger basecamp. Specifically, he looked at the adjoining forbidden region, where Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave was located.

    The huge mirror thrummed as it shifted to face South Phoenix.

    A momentter, the familiar scavenger basecamp became clear in front of him. It was just as dirty and dpidated as before. Xu Qing even saw his house, which had long since been taken over by someone else. Given how much time had passed, the ughter Xu Qing had carried out there had long since be little more than an old story that many people didn¡¯t even believe.

    Xu Qing shifted his gaze to the forbidden region. There he found Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave, which was still in good condition. There weren¡¯t many rules that scavengers followed. But one thing they all did was respect the graves of other scavengers. They wouldn¡¯t touch them, much less deface or destroy them. After all, every scavenger hoped that they might one day have someone to bury them. [1]

    Eventually, Xu Qing sighed and was about to retract his gaze. But then something urred to him.

    Master said not to look at forbidden grounds. But forbidden regions aren¡¯t forbidden grounds. His divine will stirred, and then his gaze shifted again, passing the templeplex and heading into the depths of the forbidden region.

    What he saw was a big shock.

    In the deepest part of the forbidden region there was a huge chasm. And at the bottom of the chasm was the indistinct figure of a woman, bowing in front of arge zither. [2]

    Xu Qing had never seen this woman before. However, he had seen the boots she wore. They were the same boots worn by Sergeant Thunder¡¯s beloved partner when they heard the Singing. [3]

    The zither was mottled with age and half decayed. The strings were ying of their own ord, and singing also echoed out from it. The music filled the chasm, covering the countless corpses there that also prostrated to the zither. Mutagen poured out of the corpses, but if you looked closely, it was obvious that its real source was the zither.

    After looking at the scene briefly, Xu Qing retracted his gaze.

    Shortly after, he looked in the direction of the Violet Lands.

    His vision swam, and then he was looking at the graveyard, and one specific grave with fresh flowers gathered in front of it.

    It was Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. The flowers looked like they must have been ced there just the day before, as they weren¡¯t wilting at all. All of a sudden, Xu Qing felt like he could see Grandmaster Bai himself, surrounded by flowers. Xu Qing looked at the grave for a long time. Eventually, two familiar people appeared. It was a young man and woman, and they were none other than Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu. They approached the grave, reced the flowers with fresher flowers, and then left the graveyard.

    Xu Qing watched them go. One thing of note was that inside of Chen Feiyuan was a ghost-faced gyroscope, spinning endlessly and drawing his energy and blood into a whirlpool that emanated terrifying pressure. Seeing that, Xu Qing thought back to what Chen Feiyuan had told him about the blood of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, and the innate abilities it contained. He now had a magical treasure that was part of him. [4]

    Xu Qing retracted his gaze and looked in another direction. This time, he looked toward the Forbidden Sea. Master Seventh had warned him not to focus his gaze there for too long, so he merely took a short look.

    As he did, he spotted Huang Yan and Second Elder Sister, who had only just left the coalition. They both rested on the deck of the dharmaship, where Huang Yan looked excited as he gave her a leg massage.

    Xu Qing smiled. He was just about to look away, when Huang Yan suddenly looked suspiciously up into the sky.

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile froze in ce, and his eyes widened in shock. He can sense me?

    1. As was emphasized in chapter 39, most scavengers die without being buried. Having someone to bury them is considered a big honor. ?

    2. There are a couple of traditional Chinese instruments often tranted as zither. Guzheng and guqin are two of the mostmon that I know about. In this case, it¡¯s a guzheng, which is therger type. Usually it¡¯s rested on a stand, with the musician sitting behind it. This image will give you a good idea of what it looks like and howrge it usually is in rtion to a person. ?

    3. Sergeant Thunder and Xu Qing encountered the Singing in chapter 16. ?

    4. Chen Feiyuan exined about his special situation in chapter 210. ?

 Chapter 384: No Staring

    Chapter 384: No Staring

    Something unusual was happening as far as Xu Qing could tell. Everywhere else he had focused his gaze, even the depths of the forbidden region, he had beenpletely undetectable. Not even the entity in the forbidden region noticed him. After all, he was currently fused with the taboo treasure. Put precisely, he wasn¡¯t looking at things, rather, the mirror was.

    Taboo treasures were reserve powers for great sects, and were terrifyingly powerful. That was why not even grues in forbidden regions could sense them, much less ordinary people. During the time he had spent looking around, he hadn¡¯t encountered any anomalies.

    Except for Huang Yan.

    Huang Yan was there on the dharmaship, looking up into the sky. He blinked a few times, then cleared his throat and suddenly appeared to be checking out the scenery. Then, behaving just as naturally as before, he continued with Second Elder Sister¡¯s leg massage.

    His behavior seemed very suspicious to Xu Qing, so he retracted his gaze. Huang Yan obviously had some big secrets, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in prying into them. Everyone in the world had their secrets, whether it was Huang Yan, the Captain, or Master Seventh. As long as such secrets weren¡¯t dangerous, there was no reason to try to unearth them.

    Calming himself, Xu Qing shifted his gaze again. This time, he looked in the direction of Forbidden by the Zombie. It was a unique ce, and it was different from Forbidden by the Phoenix. Both were forbidden grounds. But one was above the surface, the other was beneath it.

    As for Forbidden by the Zombie, the water above it was covered with ck mist that made it impossible to see if there were inds on the water. Regardless, the mutagen was iparably strong. Because of Forbidden by the Zombie, the surrounding seawater was often gued with spirits of the dead and corpses. Gruish phenomena weremon there. For the most part, no seagoing vessels would get anywhere close to Forbidden by the Zombie. At the most, they mighte to the Seazombie ancestralnd.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t look into the depths of Forbidden by the Zombie, but he did scan the borders. Then he looked in the direction of the Revered Ancient maind. Following the same rules as before, he didn¡¯t focus his gaze on any of the major powers. If he did look at them, and was noticed, it would lead to misgivings and possible catastrophe.

    He now realized more than ever why his Master had warned him to be careful in how he used the taboo treasure. If he looked at something he wasn¡¯t supposed to see... he could very well end up dying a violent death. For example, when scanning the Forbidden Sea, he had sensed terrifying fluctuationsing from certain underwater areas. He had kept a tight rein on his curiosity, and refrained from looking up at the sun or the broken face of the god.

    Retracting his gaze from the maind, he thought about the situation.

    I wonder what would happen if someone used the taboo treasure to look at me.

    Once the thought urred to him, he decided to do a test.

    Shifting his gaze, he saw the Seazombie ancestralnds, and the huge mirror floating there. He also saw himself sitting there cross-legged. Whenever the mirror shifted positions, he would remain exactly in the same spot on its surface.

    It was a strange feeling to be looking at himself in this way. It wasn¡¯t like looking in an ordinary mirror. It was more like his soul had flown out of his body and was looking back at itself from above.

    With that, he focused closely on his body. At first nce, he saw his own bewitchingly attractive face. Ignoring that, he looked more closely until his fleshly body turned transparent.

    He could see his meridians, as well as shimmering dharma apertures. Even his sea of consciousness. He saw his three heavenly pces in the sea of consciousness, even the two hidden in the life mist. The Ghost Emperor mountain was also there. The violet moon wasn¡¯t visible, but the spot where it rested was obviously upied. The sea of consciousness beneath it had the very faint outline of a moon. Anyone who looked closely at that spot would probably be able to guess there was something there. Within his third heavenly pce was his taboo poison core, which was currently blurred. It wasn¡¯t possible to see it clearly, but it was possible to see that something was there.

    Only his shadow and the violet crystal remainedpletely undetectable, as if they didn¡¯t exist at all.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then continued his observation.

    Also present was the golden crow, swirling around him invisibly. What was more, his sea of consciousness had the iplete image of a sword in it. That was obviously the portion of the Emperor¡¯s Sword that he had gained enlightenment of.

    Having seen all that, Xu Qing mulled the situation over and then tried to use his shadow to cover up some of those things.

    He didn¡¯t feelfortable revealing so much about himself. With the view he had via the bronze mirror, it was the perfect time to make some adjustments. Using the powers of his shadow, he started by covering up the heavenly pces in the life mist. After concealing them, not even the powers of the bronze mirror enabled him to see them.

    Next, he used the shadow to create a screen to cover the Ghost Emperor mountain. A momentter, it vanished from view.

    Though the violet moon and the taboo poison core weren¡¯t clearly visible, it was possible to deduce that they existed. After more consideration, he used the shadow topletely cover them.

    Having aplished these things, he checked himself again and confirmed that all of those things were no longer visible. A momentter, the Xu Qing who sat atop the mirror opened his eyes.

    ¡°So that¡¯s what a taboo treasure can do,¡± he murmured.

    He could tell that his Master was right. He needed some time to get used to how taboo treasures worked. If he didn¡¯t, or just came to an understanding based on secondhand information, it would be difficult to truly understand what taboo treasures were capable of.

    Although I can¡¯t be certain of exactly what the taboo treasure in Sea-Sealing County can do, and whether or not it can see things as clearly as this mirror, I do know that deceiving its divine will would be very difficult.

    After pondering the matter further, he closed his eyes and once again tapped into the taboo treasure.

    Before long, a month had passed. During that time, Xu Qing spent time every day working with the taboo treasure. On many asions, he examined himself and made various adjustments until he waspletely happy with what he saw.

    At this point, he was confident that when he went to the county capital, the divine will of the taboo treasure¡¯s spirit automaton there would not be able to reveal any of his secrets. It would only see what he wanted it to see.

    Another benefit was that, given his familiarity with the taboo treasure¡¯s divine will, he could now easily tell if he was being scanned with divine will from a person or a magical treasure. Furthermore, he now realized why taboo treasures would form mutagen. The truth was that taboo treasures were so powerful that they would automatically gather massive amounts of spirit power from their surroundings. Spirit power contained mutagen, and therefore, it was only natural that taboo treasures would umte mutagen. It was difficult to extrude, and once it passed a certain limit, the taboo treasure would be a crippled treasure.

    That was why the great sects and species wouldn¡¯t use taboo treasures very often, or for sustained periods of time.

    That was also why taboo treasures generally had two states. One was the fully powered-up state, and the other was the state designed for general daily use. The first was the most dangerous of the two. In most situations, even just thetter could be used to fend off ordinary enemy invasions or attacks. That said, the weaker of the two states also came with a period of instability on the part of the treasure. Each treasure was different, and one had to be familiar with it to use it properly.

    Aftering to understand those things, Xu Qing became more familiar with the work of a treasure custodian. He focused his gaze on more and more locations, always making sure to avoid the areas he¡¯d been told to avoid.

    Despite his caution, it was impossible to avoid some dangerous situations.

    On one asion when observing the deep sea, he spotted a massive ghost city full of grues. It was almost like a world unto itself. [1]

    He once saw a six-legged giant wielding a massive trident on the seafloor, pulsing with shocking godliness. The giant seemed almost like it was on patrol, and caused huge waves to roll out on the surface of the water above.

    He saw the sealizard patriarch, and realized how every scale on his massive frame radiated shocking might. The patriarch swam through the water like an enormous dragon, boundlessly mighty. [2]

    He also saw eyes growing on the seafloor. Many of them. On most asions, those eyes were closed, but sometimes they opened. When they did, they created huge whirlpools on the surface, and massive waves.

    The Forbidden Sea was a ce full of danger and the unknown.

    In addition to living entities, Xu Qing also saw incredibly deep chasms. Some existed on the seafloor, others were in the forbidden regions in South Phoenix. Such chasms exuded ck mist, and seemed bottomless. What was more, they emanated strange howls like those from the ghast hollow Xu Qing had visited.

    Late one night, Xu Qing saw a group of countless souls drifting up from South Phoenix and into the dome of heaven. Leading them was a horned figure holding a whip. The figure used that whip to drive the souls into a huge door up above. After they entered, disgusting chewing sounds rang out. When Xu Qing looked at the door, his mind spun and he felt like he was about to be destroyed in body and soul. His connection with the bronze mirror was instantly severed, and he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.

    After that happened, he needed to rest for nearly a week, and afterward, still felt lingering fear whenever he fused with the mirror.

    Despite being more careful than ever, about half a monthter he saw a templeplex on a remote, foggy ind. It wasn¡¯t a Supreme Vastness daoist templeplex. Instead, it was a temple of worship devoted to some god. Just looking at it, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes started to sting painfully. He looked away.

    All of these things gave him a much deeper understanding of the world, and also reinforced the gravity of his Master¡¯s warnings regarding the usage of the taboo treasure. Bing the treasure custodian of this taboo treasure could be very dangerous if you weren¡¯t extremely careful.

    In the following days, Xu Qing avoided looking at any dangerous areas. He spent most of his time researching the behavior and functionality of the taboo treasure itself, and kept his observations to the immediate area. About half a month before it was time to leave for Sea-Sealing County, he was observing things as normal when he noticed something at the border of Forbidden by the Zombie.

    Specifically it was Zhao Zhongheng and Ding Xiaohai. [3]

    They were very close to Forbidden by the Zombie, atop a dharmaskiff, moving at top speed through the ck mists as they tried to make their way to freedom. The mist behind them roiled, and from within a whirlpool on the water stretched countless withered hands. There was also a host of ck hair stretching out to entangle them. They were clearly heading right for a major crisis.

    1. The undersea ghost cities were previously mentioned in chapters 79 and 246. ?

    2. The sealizard patriarch first appeared in chapter 93 and was also mentioned in chapters 165 and 306. ?

    3. Zhao Zhonghengst mentioned in chapter 301. Although he¡¯s been mentioned a few other times in passing, thest time he was on screen was in chapter 168. ?

 Chapter 385: Emperor Zombie is Dead

    Chapter 385: Emperor Zombie is Dead

    Xu Qing carefully ensured that his vision wasn¡¯t focused on Forbidden by the Zombie itself, but kept observing the situation. At the border of the forbidden ground, he saw a dozen or so disciples from the Eight Sect Coalition, all fleeing in different directions. They were clearly terrified as the countless corpse-like arms reached out to grab them.

    It made Xu Qing think about the news he had heard on the eve ofing to the Seazombie ancestralnd. Some disciples had gone missing near the borders of Forbidden by the Zombie, whereupon a team had been dispatched to investigate. The people Xu Qing was looking at now... was that very team.

    The first thing Xu Qing did was use the taboo treasure to notify the sect of what was happening. As he did, something happened with Zhao Zhongheng and Ding Xiaohai. The masses of hair behind them surged, growing more numerous as they closed in on the two disciples.

    As they were just about to be overwhelmed, a vicious gleam appeared in Ding Xiaohai¡¯s eyes, and he suddenlyunched a palm strike at Zhao Zhongheng.

    Both disciples were in Foundation Establishment, but Ding Xiaohai was at the impressive two-me level. Zhao Zhongheng was still a few dharma apertures away from the two-me level, so despite the fact that he had been fully on guard, there was no way he could evade the attack. When it hit him, blood sprayed out of his mouth. His ostentatious dharmaskiff The Phoenix trembled, and cracks appeared all over its surface as it lurched to a halt. In the blink of an eye, the pursuing hairs wrapped around it.

    ¡°Ding Xiaohai!¡± shrieked Zhao Zhongheng furiously as he red at Ding Xiaohai fleeing madly without even looking over his shoulder.

    Given that his dharmaskiff waspletely entangled by the hair, Zhao Zhongheng had no choice but to jump off of it. Unfortunately, once he was off his dharmaskiff, he was a lot slower. More hair shot up from the water toward him, along with a host of corpse-like arms.

    In that moment of deadly crisis and despair, Zhao Zhongheng howled and whipped out a life-saving item his grandfather had given him. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t very effective given the surroundings. Though it cut open a path to freedom, he didn¡¯t get very far before the hair and arms were closing in again on him.

    Off in the distance, Ding Xiaohai was barely visible. Zhao Zhongheng had attracted all the grues, thus giving Ding Xiaohai his opportunity to escape. Though he heard Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s screams, hepletely ignored them. This wasn¡¯t the first time he had left a fellow disciple to die for his own benefit. As long as he came out on top, he didn¡¯t care about anyone.

    Sheltered idiots like you always boss me around in the sect. Who do you think Ding Xiaohai is, huh? So what if you have an impressive grandpa? That won¡¯t do you any good here! Morons like you never live long in this world. You¡¯re destined to be killed. At least this way you¡¯ll have aplished something valuable in life! Me staying alive is the most important thing!

    Ding Xiaohai elerated through the mists. Sadly for him, there were many things Ding Xiaohai didn¡¯t know. For example, he had no idea what the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure was capable of. Furthermore, he had no clue that Xu Qing was using that taboo treasure to watch what was happening.

    Truth be told, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have a strong opinion about what was happening. If he was in Ding Xiaohai¡¯s position, he might do something simr if it meant saving his own life. That said, if he was in Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s position, he would react simrly. But when it came down to these two specific people, the one he liked the least was Ding Xiaohai. Furthermore, he could clearly see the despair on Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s face.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qingmunicated to the spirit automaton with divine will.

    ¡°Create a projected body for me. Put it there.¡±

    The moment his divine will sent the message, the bronze mirror thrummed. Bright light flickered, and one of the taboo treasure¡¯s eyes opened. A blinding beam of light shot out from the mirror, piercing all the way to the border of Forbidden by the Zombie, through the mists, right to Zhao Zhongheng. To Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s utter incredulity, countless light motes appeared in front of him, quickly converging into Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡± he said, his eyes growing wide with delight. ¡°Help me, Xu Qing. Help me!!¡±

    A host of hands had already grabbed onto Zhao Zhongheng, and ck hair was wrapping around him. He¡¯d already been dragged halfway down to the water.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s first time appearing as a clone projected by the mirror. However, he could sense that, though he was only illusory, the clone was roughly as strong as his true form, at least fundamentally speaking. He didn¡¯t have his shadow, the Ghost Emperor mountain, taboo poison core, violet moon, or his bag of holding. But he did have three illusory heavenly pces, making him as strong as an ordinary three-pce cultivator.

    Seems the clone projection isn¡¯t a perfect copy. With that, he pushed out with his right hand.

    The ck seawater rose up, creating huge waves that rolled toward Zhao Zhongheng. Wherever they passed, the corpse-like hands copsed, and the hair shattered. Although this level of battle prowess was not the same as his true form, the cultivation base of a three-pce cultivator was nothing to scoff at. As long as he didn¡¯t enter Forbidden by the Zombie, then he wouldn¡¯t have any trouble dealing with grues like this.

    As the tsunami power rolled out, Zhao Zhongheng was freed. Then Xu Qing made a grasping gesture toward his dharmaskiff.

    The hair wrapped around it snapped.

    Seeing all this, Zhao Zhongheng felt like he had just barely survived a huge catastrophe. He was deeply shocked. Although he had known that Xu Qing was strong, he simply couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around the fact that Xu Qing had shown up today to save him. Given how close he hade to dying, his emotions were anything but settled.

    ¡°Xu¡ª¡±

    ¡°Get out of here,¡± Xu Qing interrupted. ¡°I¡¯m going to go check on the other coalition disciples.¡±

    Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s dharmaskiffnded in the water below.

    Zhao Zhongheng nodded, his eyes full of gratitude. Stepping onto his dharmaskiff, he prepared to leave. That was when Xu Qing flicked his sleeve, causing a burst of power tond on Zhao Zhongheng¡¯s dharmaskiff. It trembled and, bolstered by Xu Qing¡¯s blessing, sped away from Forbidden by the Zombie.

    Xu Qing prepared to check on some of the other disciples when his expression flickered, and he turned to look in a different direction.

    He instantly shot backward.

    As he did, the spot upon which he looked trembled with wild fluctuations. A terrifying aura swept out, apanied by a piercing howl that caused the surrounding seawater to seethe. At the same time, piercing streams of light shot through the mists. That light contained a dao resonance, which made Xu Qing think of the dao lineaments he¡¯d seen in the eyes of Void Returning cultivators!

    ¡°Void Returning!¡± he murmured. That said, he remained calm. After all, he was here as a projected clone.

    Even as he watched, a miserableughter echoed out from within the mist.

    ¡°Dead. All dead. Every single one eaten up.... Hahaha! All eaten! All chewed to bits!¡±

    The voice contained mania and madness, as if the speaker had seen something so horrific it destabilized his mind. A figure appeared in the mist, rushing, fleeing, and at the same time howling withughter. He was definitely not human; he was a nonhuman covered with rotting scales and half his head missing. His body seemed on the verge of copse, and he pulsed with astonishing mutagen. As he moved, waves surged beneath him. Eventually, he mmed into one of the waves, and when he came out the other side, he seemed unable to keep his internal injuries stable. A great spray of blood emerged from his mouth, and then he threw his head back and wailed in grief.

    The mere sight caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict. What was more, just the pressure radiating off of this nonhuman cultivator was so intense that his clone was about to copse.

    Right then, though, the wailing nonhuman cultivator turned and looked right at him. Then it reached out and made a grasping gesture.

    Xu Qing¡¯s copsing clone shot through the air toward the nonhuman, who then grabbed him.

    ¡°A clone!? They¡¯re dead. All dead....¡± The nonhuman devolved intoughter.

    Xu Qing remained calm as his clone crumbled. He knew it wouldn¡¯t take long for the clone to bepletely destroyed. The entire time, he just quietly studied this mutagen-wracked nonhuman.

    The raving nonhuman suddenly pulled Xu Qing right up to him, until their faces were almost touching. ¡°Did you see?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll show you. Then you can go tell everyone that h¨¥¡¯s awake¡­ and the emperor of Forbidden by the Zombie is dead!¡±

    His words caused Xu Qing¡¯s expression to flicker. Before he could say anything, the nonhuman smashed his forehead into Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    When they made contact, memories flooded into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. He saw the central region of Forbidden by the Zombie, deep on the seafloor. Normally it would bepletely dark, but apparently the nonhuman was able to see in that environment, as the seafloor was very clear.

    Further down, he could see a huge bronze door. It was impossible to say how long it had existed, but it was covered with the vestiges of time. It was in and ancient in appearance.

    In front of the door knelt a massive figure. It appeared to be made of countless zombies formed together into a hugeposite zombie. Each of those zombies emanated a terrifying aura, and theybined in this giant to make something even more terrifying. What was more, the giant had a crown made of violet bones, which emanated terrifying fluctuations. It was obviously a precious treasure of some sort.

    Xu Qing could barely look at the giant zombie, and that was the sensation he got from the Void Returning nonhuman, not his own eyes.

    The bronze door slowly opened, and a massive golden arm reached out from inside. It had a golden hand, golden bones, and apparently, even golden blood. And it also had seven fingers, as well as curved bony spikes sticking out like ws. The hand stretched toward the giant.

    The giant trembled, but didn¡¯t dare to move out of the way or even look up. The huge hand stabbed into the giant, wrenching this way and that, causing the smaller zombies to shift and fall. Finally, the huge hand pulled a lump of ck flesh out from within, which emanated intensely powerful fluctuations of godliness.

    The hand held the flesh as it pulled back inside the ancient door. Then chewing sounds echoed out from inside.

    The giant formed from countless zombies seemed to have lost its soul. It fell, and its body copsed. Zombies drifted left and right, rotting as they formed a pile of corpses.

    The vision stopped there.

    Xu Qing¡¯s clone crumbled, transforming into countless motes of light that disappeared into the seething mist.

    The nonhuman remained behind,ughing bitterly as the mist surrounded him. Then chewing sounds echoed out for a time before silence once again filled the area.

 Chapter 386: The Eagle Spreads His Wings

    Chapter 386: The Eagle Spreads His Wings

    In the Seazombiends, on the bronze mirror, Xu Qing opened his eyes. Power surged through him that could dry up rivers and drain seas, and his organs twinged with intense pain. Sweet blood sprayed out of his mouth, sshing onto the mirror and turning into rivulets that ran down its surface.

    Xu Qing looked up and was visibly shaken.

    That giantposite zombie... was the emperor of Forbidden by the Zombie? And it was devoured by the entity in that bronze door!

    Xu Qing thought back to that golden arm stretching out of the door, and the godly sensation that surrounded it, making it seem to him like he couldn¡¯t even look at it. Even now, his heart raced with astonishment. What was more, he knew that the vision came from the memories of the nonhuman cultivator. He hadn¡¯t even seen it directly. That meant that whatever he had seen had already urred. Despite that, his clone had literally exploded, and even his true form ended up injured.

    It went without saying that whoever that arm belonged to was an extremely high-level entity.

    He didn¡¯t have to sit around guessing what he had witnessed. It was another god....

    He couldn¡¯t help but wonder exactly how many gods there were in existence.

    It took a long moment before Xu Qing calmed himself. Then he used the taboo treasure to contact his Master and exin everything that just happened. After he submitted the report, bells tolled in the Eight Sect Coalition, urgently calling the patriarch-level figures to a senate meeting to discuss the matter.

    Xu Qing had no idea what the coalition would do about the situation. However, he did receive orders from Master Seventh not to cast his vision any deeper into the forbidden ground, but at the same time, to keep a close eye on its periphery. He also said that if Xu Qing noticed anything particrly unusual, he should retract his vision immediately.

    Xu Qing could tell from his Master¡¯s tone of voice how serious the situation was, so he immediately voiced his eptance of the orders.

    As his wounds healed, he used Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure to keep close watch on the border of Forbidden by the Zombie. The coalition¡¯s response came quickly. Two dayster, all of the sects activated their taboo treasures. What was more, they notified the other powers in the Eight Sect Coalition that something might be happening with Forbidden by the Zombie.

    A flurry of activity hit the prefecture.

    Something like this had once urred in the Spiritsound forbidden ground, and it had led to a great catastrophe. Though that event happened long in the past, information about it could still be found in various ancient records. That event had been intense, shocking, and ghastly. [1]

    The Eight Sect Coalition dispatched a team of top experts to carry out a final investigation of Forbidden by the Zombie, including the patriarchs from the first and third sects.

    The coalition also sent a message to the Swordsage Court asking for them to bear witness to the investigation. The situation was too big to involve only the Eight Sect Coalition. The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and the Church of Departure also got involved. The fact that something strange was going on with Forbidden by the Zombie ensured that none of the major prefectural powers could stand idly by.

    The Swordsage Court ended up sending one of their elders to help.

    Xu Qing was able to watch with the taboo treasure as they entered Forbidden by the Zombie. Shortly thereafter, shockwaves started rolling out from the forbidden ground.

    The operation didn¡¯tst very long. Only half a month. After that, the coalition-led team emerged. All of them had serious expressions on their faces, even the swordsage elder.

    Before long, the results of the operation were announced publicly in the prefecture. There had been a great change to the forbidden ground. The Zombie Door had been opened, and Emperor Zombie had perished. That said, the ramifications wouldn¡¯t be too dramatic, as they had quickly sealed the door. All of the smaller sects and organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture breathed sighs of relief. But that wasn¡¯t the case with the big sects. Instead, they were more on guard than ever, and restricted sect operations for the sake of safety.

    Although the announcement was in no way fake, there was one bit of evidence unearthed in the operation that wasn¡¯t made public. The Zombie Door hadn¡¯t opened by itself. And it hadn¡¯t been opened from inside. It had been opened from outside. Because of that, sealing the door could only be considered a nominally effective solution. [2]

    Further cmity was going to strike Forbidden by the Zombie. That said, it wouldn¡¯t be anytime in the near future. And thanks to the quick action taken by the Eight Sect Coalition, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was now prepared.

    As for who exactly opened the door, that was the question that all the big organizations in the prefecture were pondering. Obviously, only some extremely powerful entity could do such a thing. Some people suspected Torchlight. However, various clues seemed to indicate they weren¡¯t involved. Instead, it was some other terrifying organization.

    All of these things happened in half a month.

    As the figurative storm clouds gathered, Xu Qing finished his three-month stint as a treasure custodian.

    Thanks to what happened with Forbidden by the Zombie, the Eight Sect Coalition was more ready for action than ever. However, they maintained a calm face, and kept their anxiety hidden. After all, there was other important business to handle. For instance, it was time for a changing of the guard in the subsidiary sect in the county capital.

    By the time Xu Qing returned to the coalition, the final roster for the trip had already beenpiled.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark would be leading the delegation to the capital. She would be overseeing the subsidiary sect for the next ten years. Meanwhile, the peaklord of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Fifth Peak would be the new sect leader of the subsidiary sect. Her term would alsost for ten years. [3]

    In addition to that, chosen from all of the sects were being sent along for training purposes. That included Huang Yikun and Huang Lingfei from the Dark Serenity Sect, as well as Sima Ru from the House of Grue Hunters, who had failed to be a swordsage in the recruitment event. [4]

    At the request of the peaklord of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ First Peak, Wu Jianwu¡¯s name was added to the list. Apparently, he wasn¡¯t very pleased with that particr apprentice of his, and wanted him far, far away where he would be ¡®out of sight, out of mind.¡¯

    In addition to them, there were a few dozen disciples from various sects, some in Foundation Establishment but most in Gold Core. Many were people Xu Qing had never seen before.

    After the roster was finalized, on the third day after Xu Qing returned, a huge flying ship rose up into the air over the Eight Sect Coalition. It didn¡¯t immediately take flight. It just hovered in the air as disciples from the various sects flew up and boarded.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark was leading the expedition, yet she wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen.

    Xu Qing stood on the deck looking out at heaven and earth. In his hand was a sealing stamp. That was the treasure the patriarch had promised to give him before he left. [5]

    As he fiddled with the stamp, he heard someone sighing. ¡°Do you know how rough it¡¯s been not being able to eat for three months, little Ah Qing? Going forward I don¡¯t even want to think about anything from the Dark Serenity Sect. That was rough. Too rough. Thank goodness my cultivation base is as high as it is!¡±

    The Captain trudged up, followed by Wu Jianwu, whose facial expression made it seem like he had just barely survived a huge disaster. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t seen either of them in three months. Both seemed to have lost a lot of weight.

    That said, Wu Jianwu¡¯s cultivation base has progressed. He was now close to the four-me level, a cultivation speed that was surprising to Xu Qing. Considering what he had gone through in the demon snake pocket realm, it made sense. After all, that ce was generally used by the sect to help disciples open dharma apertures. It seemed that Wu Jianwu had actually turned misfortune into a blessing.

    A thought suddenly urred to Xu Qing. Did Arch-Immortal Plumdark do this on purpose?

    ¡°Three months without being able to speak a line of poetry. A hundred days of unspeakable torment!¡± Wu Jianwu sped his hands behind his back, looked out at heaven and earth, and let loose a rueful sigh. ¡°One day my sovereignty will be undisputed; then those who insult me will be executed!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, a cold snort echoed out, and Wu Jianwu¡¯s face fell. Trembling, he stered a fawning expression on his face.

    The Captain did the same thing, and also instinctually edged closer to Xu Qing.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark had arrived. She was joined by Master Fifth from Seven Blood Eyes, who respectfully floated a pace behind. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s plum colored gown made her seem like a blooming bauhinia flower. Touching down onto the deck of the ship, she smiled at Xu Qing but didn¡¯t say anything. Together with Master Fifth, she walked toward the cabin.

    Master Fifth was not a male cultivator. She was an old woman. However, the peaklords in Seven Blood Eyes had always addressed her as ¡®master.¡¯ [6]

    On the way into the cabin, she shed a smile at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Wu Jianwu shrank in on himself and breathed a sigh of relief.

    Meanwhile, the Captain looked contemptuously at Wu Jianwu and said, ¡°Look at you. Shaking in your boots. What are you scared of?¡±

    ring at the Captain, Wu Jianwu said, ¡°Thou feareth her so much you near fell apart; with every scrub I howled in my heart!¡±

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry was not exactly up to snuff. Apparently the three months without practice had resulted in him getting a bit rusty.

    Xu Qing eyed the two of them and sidled away to keep some distance.

    More and more people were arriving to board the ship. They looked excited, but at the same time, very wary. For most of the disciples, this would be the longest journey of their life. They had no idea what would happen on the way, and even less idea what the county capital would be like.

    Hearts filled with uncertainty, they couldn¡¯t help but eye Xu Qing and the Captain respectfully. Xu Qing and the Captain were going to be in a very different position than them. Most of the disciples were going to the subsidiary sect, while those two were going to ept an amazing new assignment. In reality, the disciples¡¯ main responsibility was to serve the sect¡¯s swordsages. And if they got into any trouble in the county capital, it would require swordsage intervention. Because of that, Xu Qing and the Captain already had very different roles than before.

    There were always idiots in the world, but not so much in this group. Everyone knew what role they would have to y going forward.

    Before long, everyone was gathered. As all the cultivators below watched, the flying ship took over a hundred people flying over the horizon.

    ***

    Down below, Master Seventh watched them go. ¡°I hope everything goes well.¡±

    ¡°What, can¡¯t stand to see them leave?¡± asked Sir Bloodsmelter, who was standing next to Master Seventh.

    Master Seventh smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a long journey. That said, it¡¯s good for young people to get experience. Besides, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture isn¡¯t exactly going to be calm going forward. It¡¯ll be good for them to be away for a time.¡±

    ¡°Forbidden by the Zombie...¡± Sir Bloodsmelter murmured. His expression turned serious. ¡°Did the investigation turn up a name?¡±

    ¡°There are quite a few clues pointing to... the Holytide people from the Holytide region! The betrayers of humankind who left to form a ¡®new¡¯ species and even started working for the Nightshades. The conquerors of the Holytide region, a people far more vicious than humans.¡±

    1. Presumably the catastrophe mentioned here is the same one mentioned briefly by the Captain in chapter 342. Don¡¯t forget that Spiritsound is also known as Forbidden by the Sword. ?

    2. The inside/outside part was slightly confusing to me, so allow me to recap very quickly. The arm came from inside the door. In other words, whoever opened it did it from the side of Revered Ancient/Forbidden by the Zombie/Forbidden Sea. ?

    3. The peaklord of the Fifth Peak was actually seen on screen very briefly in chapter 152. ?

    4. Huang Yikun and Huang Lingfei werest seen together in chapter 279. Huang Yikun also appeared briefly in chapter 350. Sima Ru first appeared in the story in chapter 239 andst appeared in chapter 359. ?

    5. Sealing stamps are a ubiquitous item even in modern China. Virtually all official contracts in China, as well as government documents, need to be stamped with an official sealing stamp to make them official. Of course, they have a history going back thousands of years. Here¡¯s a very special gallery with some images. The first image is of a collection of stamps of various designs and sizes. The rest of the images are of a sealing stamp set gifted to me by Beerde a.k.a. Alcohol Sword Immortal, the trantor of Lord of All Realms here on Wuxiaworld. He¡¯s a good buddy of mine that lived in the same city as me in China. He gave the stamp to me as a goodbye gift when the Deatde n moved out of China and back to the U.S. ?

    6. The ¡®master¡¯ title used by the peaklords could be tranted a few different ways, but it¡¯s specifically a male title, which is why this point is being emphasized by the author. ?

 Chapter 387: Lady Fivefingers

    Chapter 387: Lady Fivefingers

    The Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains stretched through Emperor-Receiving Prefecture far into the north, where dark clouds covered the sky. As lightning crackled in the clouds, it made heaven and earth seem the same color. The atmosphere was oppressive, like a prison cell. All living beings were trapped in that prison cell, unable to escape, forced to simply sit in ce and endure. Great fat drops of rain pounded thends, creating water vapor that turned into mist, which spread out to envelop everything.

    A 9,000-meter flying ship flew through the storm at top speed. It moved at such great speed that it left behind sonic booms and thick contrails. From a distance, it looked almost like a mighty azure dragon flying through heaven. In fact, the flying ship was actually crafted to look like a dragon. It had two long whiskersing out of the prow which rippled as the ship flew. Glittering light spread out in all directions, scanning the area constantly.

    Inside the ship, Xu Qing stood wearing a violet daoist robe embroidered with gold. His hair was tied back with a white band trimmed in red. Gripping the rail with both hands, he looked out into the endless rain. Everything was hazy, almost like the formless mass that was said to exist before the creation of all things. It was a never-ending vast expanse.

    It was the type of scene that would cause one¡¯s heart to connect to the grandeur of heaven and earth. It made him think back to the bronze door he¡¯d seen in Forbidden by the Zombie by means of the taboo treasure. Back then, he had glimpsed one of those entities that normally could not be looked upon. They were apparently born in another world, and viewed all other living beings as little more than food or nutrients. Any person would find them detestable.

    Xu Qing sighed and settled his thoughts.

    Half a month had passed since they left the Eight Sect Coalition.

    During that time, Xu Qing spent most of his time working on cultivation. When he wasn¡¯t doing that, he took in the view like he was doing right now. He felt strangely emotional being on such a long journey.

    He felt anticipation, mncholy, and a mix of confusion.

    The anticipation came because he would soon be able to see newnds and new people. It was a new phase of life. He had started in the continent of South Phoenix and then ended up in Seven Blood Eyes. From there he went to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And now he was going to a ce where most mortals would never be able to go. The county capital.

    The mncholy came because of... Mount Daybreak. He wanted to go there, but at the same time, was nervous about the idea of seeing the graves there.

    The confusion came because of the mixture of the previous two emotions.

    Xu Qing stood there in silence.

    After a while, he looked down at the sealing stamp, which was only the size of a fingernail. Pitch ck, it was finely carved with totemic beast designs. He had spent time over the past half month studying the stamp. It was actually a weapon designed to unleash ughter. Once activated, there was no obstacle that could block its power. That said, it wasn¡¯t easy to use with only a Gold Core cultivation base. And it needed time to power up in order to release its full potential.

    Xu Qing had powered it up as much as he could over the past half month. After fiddling with it a bit, he put it away. Around then, someone emerged from the cabin and approached him.

    ¡°Well met, Master Fifth,¡± he said, sping hands in greeting.

    The peaklord of Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Fifth Peak wore a green robe, and though she had a face wrinkled with age and grayish-white hair, her eyes sparkled. As she stood near the prow with him, she smiled.

    She knew that this was a disciple who would bring much glory to Seven Blood Eyes. In fact, when looking at him, she felt like she was looking at the future of the sect. Because of that, she was trying hard to seem gentle and kind. However, the fact was that she had spent many years studying all sorts of vicious and grim spell formations. Because of that, a sinister coldness had seeped deep into her bones, and that meant that her smiles also seemed cold and grim.

    ¡°Something¡¯s bothering you,¡± she said. She could tell that he was wrestling with some issues.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Life is full of goodbyes and long journeys,¡± she said, and her grimness seemed more intense than ever. ¡°It¡¯s also full of emotion. No one can help you control those emotions. You just have to think things through. You¡¯re still young, though, so just consider this journey a chance to see things you¡¯ve never seen before.

    ¡°Sea-Sealing County has thirteen prefectures. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is the furthest to the south. We¡¯ll be going through four more prefectures on the way to the county capital. Each prefecture is different. Though humans make up the majority of the poption everywhere, there are still a lot of nonhumans here and there.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Master Fifth,¡± he said, sping his hands in thanks. Then he quietly asked, ¡°Master Fifth, is the trip really going to take eight months?¡±

    ¡°Yes. In fact, I came here to exin a bit about that. Along the way, we¡¯ll use seven public teleportation portals. We¡¯ll pass along three strange highways and spend three months flying through desert terrain. Only then will we arrive at our destination. All told, it should take almost exactly eight months. For safety purposes, the specific route is being kept secret, but it¡¯s fine for you to know some of the details.¡±

    She sped his shoulder. ¡°Xu Qing, before we left, the patriarch and your Master told me to take good care of you. Once we get to the county capital, if there¡¯s anything you need, just say the word. Just remember that I¡¯m not necessarily a good fighter, but I¡¯m great with deadly formations.¡±

    The grimness in her smile became even more readily apparent, and her voice seemed to drip with blood.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by that. That was just how things were in Seven Blood Eyes. Spell formations could be helpful or harmful, and obviously Master Fifth specialized in the vicious and deadly type.

    ¡°Many thanks, Master Fifth,¡± he said, sping hands respectfully.

    ***

    As the storm pounded the world, a person in a woven rush raincoat stood next to a grave somewhere in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. It was as if he didn¡¯t even notice the raindrops sshing down around him. As the rain seemingly connected heaven with earth, he looked up and saw the flying ship streaking through the dome of heaven.

    Beneath his wide, conical hat, his eyes glittered with a bit of gold. That was a sign of godliness.

    Killing intent bubbled in his heart, yet like his aura, it didn¡¯t spread out around him. Not one single fluctuation of any type emanated from him. He seemed like a part of the environment, so much so that no one could possibly sense his presence.

    Looking down at the gravestone, he quietly said, ¡°Yun¡¯er, my son, it won¡¯t be long before I can kill the person you most wanted to kill when you were alive. I¡¯ll fulfill that wish of yours.¡± [1]

    Though the rain flowed down the gravestone, making it difficult to read, the characters carved into it were still clear.

    Here lies my beloved son Shengyun.

    There was no body in this grave. It was a cenotaph. [2]

    Eventually, the man in the woven rush raincoat started walking in the same direction as the flying ship....

    ***

    Time passed, slowly but surely.

    The flying ship flew over the Evesting Immortal Profundity River, crossed the northern tundra, and beyond the borders of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture into Injustice Prefecture.

    Unlike Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, Injustice Prefecture wasndlocked and had no ess to the sea. Because of that, it was hotter and less humid. In fact, cultivators from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture who went there would often feel dehydrated. That said, after a period of limation, such feelings would go away. Injustice Prefecture was mountainous, and also was the home to more nonhumans than Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Just as Master Fifth had said, Xu Qing saw a lot of things he¡¯d never seen before. There were all sorts of strange nonhumans, the sight of whom alone gave Xu Qing a much better understanding of how many species existed in the world.

    At the moment, the ship was flying over endless, multicolored fields. The fields were very unique, as each one seemed to be a different color. Looking down, it almost resembled a huge puzzle. It was a very strange sight. Then one massive section, which was the color green... suddenly blurred.

    Xu Qing peered down, his eyes narrowing. Only a momentter, his expression became one of surprise.

    That blurred section of green rose into a sitting position!

    It wasn¡¯t a field at all. Shockingly, it was an enormous, green robe that had beenid onto the ground. Any passerby who didn¡¯t know what it was would look down and think it was a field. But the reality was that it was an enormous piece of clothing.

    The moment it sat up, it seemed to attract the attention of the other colorful ¡®fields.¡¯ One by one, they all sat up. Some flew off the ground and neared the flying ship.

    Each ¡®field¡¯ was actually some item of clothing. There were shirts, pants, hats, and even gloves.

    Looking at the scene as a whole, it was possible to see that there were clothing items of all sizes, and in terms of numbers, there had to be no fewer than a million of them. Only a small portion flew up into the air, but they gathered around the ship and flew along with it.

    The items of clothing seemed to be organized by rank. Some were luxurious and stern. Others seemed more likemoners serving as guards. The strangest thing was that none of these pieces of clothing were being worn by anyone. It was just clothing, by itself.

    As they circled the ship, Xu Qing looked around with a serious expression. At the same time, the Captain rushed out of the lower deck, an expression of surprise on his face.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s another Nethersprite around here!¡±

    At this point, others were rushing to the rails to look out at the scene, though all remained vignt and on guard.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark made an uncharacteristic public appearance. Walking out from the lower deck, she looked at the clothing, smiled, then waved cheerily to a princess garment flying directly in front of the ship. The princess garment swished both sleeves as if it was curtseying, thenpletely ignored the ships defenses and floated right onto the deck. Approaching Arch-Immortal Plumdark, it reached out and embraced her.

    Then they beganmunicating via divine will. Apparently, they were acquainted.

    Xu Qing found the entire thing very strange, and couldn¡¯t help but wonder what the two of them were talking about. At one point, the princess garment turned in his direction as if to look at him.

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully.

    Soon enough, more items of clothing flew up from the ground. Some were handmaiden garments who bypassed the flying ship¡¯s defenses and then began serving spirit fruit to everyone.

    Given their actions and the atmosphere they brought with them, they didn¡¯t seem to have any ill intentions.

    A host of fine-looking women¡¯s gloves swirled around Xu Qing, but when he didn¡¯t pay them much attention, they flew over to the Captain. The Captain looked at them curiously and even extended his hand to poke at one experimentally.

    Before long, Arch-Immortal Plumdark and the princess garment finished their conversation. The princess garment flicked its sleeves, and all the garments flew off the ship and took positions outside. They seemed like they were offering an escort. Eventually, when the ship was about to leave the ¡®fields¡¯ behind, the various garments made gestures of farewell.

    When the ship left them behind, all the disciples aboard breathed sighs of relief.

    Master Fifth sighed. ¡°The Garmentfolk are one of the great powers in Injustice Prefecture. I never could have imagined that you would be acquainted with them, Arch-Immortal.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled faintly. ¡°I¡¯m acquainted with their senior princess. We once went traveling together for training purposes. She kept trying to get me to wear her, but I always refused.¡±

    Heart pounding, the Captain ced his hand behind his back and asked, ¡°Senior, w-what... what would happen if you wore it?¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. Moments ago he had noticed a very fine ck glove on the Captain¡¯s hand. It was one of the gloves that had been swirling around him moments ago.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked deeply at the Captain.

    ¡°Once worn, an ancient covenant is enforced. That garment will be attached to whatever flesh it covers, and will own it for all time.¡±

    The Captain breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled his hand out from behind his back and looked at the glove. ¡°That¡¯s it? Well that¡¯s not a big deal. Since this is a good friend of yours, Arch-Immortal Plumdark ma¡¯am, I suppose I¡¯ll just let it free.¡± With that, he dug his teeth into his wrist.

    As everyone on the ship watched with strange expressions, the Captain ripped his hand off at the wrist. His expression didn¡¯t so much as flicker, as if this were something he did all the time. He then threw the severed hand over the railing and waved to it with his remaining hand.

    ¡°Bye-bye! If you have time,e find me and we can hang out!¡±

    The glove, with hand inside, waved goodbye, looking a bit sad as the ship left it behind.

    ¡°Did you ever think you would see my own right hand waving goodbye to me?¡± the Captain said, sighing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. Neither did anyone else present. No one knew what to say.

    Except for Wu Jianwu. Eyes shining, he spoke some poetry.

    ¡°An ancient snake bit its own tail off, it swallowed it down then took the day off;

    ¡°Erniu bit off his hand for a dame, Lady Fivefingers is her fair name.¡±

    1. The Yun character here is very unique. It¡¯s from Master Shengyun¡¯s name. ?

    2. In case any of you are unfamiliar with the word cenotaph, it is: a monument erected to honor the dead whose bodies lie elsewhere. ?

 Chapter 388: Netherworld Harbor

    Chapter 388: Netherworld Harbor

    Three dayster, the Captain¡¯s hand had already grown back, and it looked as good as new. Xu Qing took note of that. It gave him a much better idea of how quickly the Captain could grow back his body parts.

    Severed limbs seem to take a few days. If he loses everything from the waist down, it takes half a month. And if he loses everything beneath his head, it¡¯s a full month.

    That information would make it a lot easier to n battle strategies when he and the Captain went on big escapades in the future.

    The incident got the Captain a lot more interested in nonhumans. In fact, he took to joining Xu Qing in looking over the railing at thends they passed. As for Wu Jianwu, it was hard to say exactly what he was thinking. Perhaps he wanted to improve his poetry. Either way, he joined them.

    Time passed. After two teleportations, they left Injustice Prefecture.

    Xu Qing had already seen many things he¡¯d never seen before. The Captain learned a lot about various nonhumans.

    Wu Jianwu had also benefited a lot. His poetry was just as good as it had been before, and had even improved a bit.

    ¡°In my eyes life evolves endlessly; grasp the world and cultivate the heart of the sword!¡±

    As the wind blew past Wu Jianwu, he threw his head back andughed heartily.

    ¡°Moron,¡± the Captain muttered disdainfully.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the deranged Wu Jianwu. Instead, he was looking down at a raging tempest below. Great trees bent under the force of the wind, so dramatically it looked like they might snap in half.

    That was the unique climate of Cloudywind Prefecture.

    It was different from both Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture. There were almost always strong winds in Cloudywind Prefecture. Because of that, the sects and ns here were generally known for speed, and usually favored body cultivation.

    In addition to the wind, the prefecture was known for its dramatic difference between day and night. During the daytime, the winds were explosive. At nighttime, they turned cold and sinister. What was more, grues came out inrge numbers.

    Though there were nonhumans present, they were outnumbered by the mutant beasts. For example, as Xu Qing looked down at the windsweptndscape, he saw a few hundred giants, all of whom were several hundred meters tall. They wore no clothing, and emanated a stench that not even the wind could dissipate. Their skin was gray, their eyes red, and their teeth ckish yellow. They didn¡¯t seem to be very intelligent. Some moved about, others sat in ce. Still others fought amongst each other like wild animals.

    Many of the giants had baskets on their backs woven from tree bark. Within those baskets were countless living beings from a variety of species, all gasping for breath. They were food for the giants. In fact, some of the giants sat in front of huge stone bowls, into which they would toss their victims, then crush them into a paste with giant stone pestles. Afterwards, they would drink the sludge.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized Arch-Immortal Plumdark was standing next to him.

    ¡°Those,¡± she said, ¡°are the cloud trolls of Cloudywind Prefecture. They¡¯re not very intelligent. In fact, they¡¯re almost like animals. No matter how many of them you kill, you can never rid the world of them. They just pop back into being. They eat anything alive.¡±

    As the familiar aroma of her perfume surrounded him, he didn¡¯t flinch or move away from her. He was used to her presence.

    She had spent most of the journey belowdecks, and rarely came out. At the moment, she wasn¡¯t acting the way she acted when they were in private. She stood off to the side in a very proper fashion.

    Xu Qing quickly sped hands in greeting.

    The Captain and Wu Jianwu ducked their heads. That said, the two of them had very different reasons for doing so.

    Wu Jianwu bowed his head out of reverence.

    The Captain was thinking something else entirely. You¡¯re such a yer, Arch-Immortal Plumdark! Sometimes flirtatious, sometimes tantalizing, sometimes dignified. Who could possibly deal with this? Okay, little Ah Qing. You¡¯ve got this! Keep up the good work!

    With such thoughts on his mind, he gave Xu Qing an encouraging look.

    Xu Qing ignored him. He wasn¡¯t putting as much thought into the situation as the Captain was.

    ¡°The cloud trolls¡¯ flesh has unique properties,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said. ¡°For one thing, we¡¯ll need their flesh to serve as a ticketter. Why don¡¯t the two of you go down and kill one or two?¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing immediately jumped over the rail and flew downward.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then followed. As he caught up to Xu Qing, he projected a message. ¡°Little Ah Qing, I really think you need to reconsider my original suggestion!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him suspiciously.

    ¡°You know. Give in to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.¡±

    The Captain zoomed past Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing watched him go without saying a word.

    The two of them dropped down to the ground.

    The cloud trolls weren¡¯t exactly very strong. They relied only on fleshly body power, and most were roughlyparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator with one or two life mes. Only four or five had energy and blood fluctuationsparable to the Gold Core level. To Xu Qing and the Captain, hunting and killing beasts like that was a simple thing. With a burst of astonishing speed, Xu Qing appeared in front of one of the cloud trolls that had Gold Core battle prowess.

    The troll was viciously pounding at his mortar when he noticed Xu Qing. Opening his mouth, he let loose a roar that came with a noxious stench. Then he reached out to grab Xu Qing.

    Compared to the gigantic troll, Xu Qing was the size of a bug.

    However, in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, the gigantic troll was actually the bug. He didn¡¯t even dodge out of the way. As soon as the troll¡¯s handnded, it screamed as its hand exploded.

    Xu Qing emerged from the gore, shooting straight up toward the troll¡¯s forehead. He shoved his right hand out, and terrifying power smashed into the troll, spreading from its forehead to the rest of its body. It copsed, its life force having been exterminated. The cloud troll thumped to the ground. A short distance away, the Captain had just killed another Gold Core troll.

    However, before they could collect the corpses, both of them turned to look in the same direction, their eyes shining.

    Off in the distance, two swords screamed through the wind.

    Their target wasn¡¯t Xu Qing and the Captain, but rather, the other cloud trolls. In the blink of an eye, three trolls screamed as flying swords pierced through their chests, killing them instantly.

    At the same time, two figures flew through the wind.

    One was a man, the other was a woman, but both were d in white garments, with capes fluttering behind them. Beneath the overcast sky, those white robes seemed to have hidden mes within them.

    Xu Qing instantly recognized them by their outfits. They were swordsages. What was more, Xu Qing had previously encountered the man. The Captain also recognized him. He was the same swordsage the two of them had encountered on their river patrol, the one who had chased an old devil in the Gold Core level. After fighting that old devil, he¡¯d left him wounded for Xu Qing and the Captain to handle. [1]

    The two swordsages shot through the wind toward the cloud trolls. After collecting up the corpses, they turned to look at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    There were no words exchanged. The swordsages just nodded, then turned and flew back into the storm.

    Xu Qing had never seen the female swordsage before. However, as she left, he noticed that she was carrying a little girl of seven or eight years old on her back.

    The girl wasn¡¯t human. She had two wriggling antennae on her forehead and a singlerge eye that was covered with a thick ck band of cloth. The girl looked to be asleep.

    As they watched the two swordsages leaving, the Captain said, ¡°They¡¯re not from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.¡±

    Xu Qing had alsoe to the same conclusion. Back during the recruitment event, all of the swordsages from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture had been in attendance, and these two had not been among them.

    ¡°I guess they must be out on a mission,¡± Xu Qing said, collecting up the cloud troll he¡¯d killed. The other cloud trolls had already fled.

    With that, the two of them flew back up to the ship. After they were back on board, the ship started moving through the storm again.

    One evening half a monthter, they reached the first major travel hub on their trip through Cloudywind Prefecture.

    Xu Qing knew the general overview of their itinerary, but not the fine details. Only Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Master Fifth were privy to the entire n. For safety¡¯s sake, the detailed itinerary was being kept secret.

    From up above, the travel hub looked like a big, chaotic city. There were many buildings of y brick designed to provide shelter from the wind, as well as numerous cultivators from a variety of species.

    Prominent in the city were ck-garbed figures with many earrings, and evil ghosts tattooed on their faces. Visiting cultivators were always leery of them, and avoided them as much as possible.

    ¡°This ce is controlled by the Ghost Tattoo Sect, which is one of the major powers in Cloudywind Prefecture. They raise evil ghosts and have vile magical techniques.¡±

    The information came from Arch-Immortal Plumdark, who projected her words solely into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    Upon hearing that, Xu Qing studied the ck-garbed figures more closely. He could see faint fluctuationsing off of their facial tattoos which reminded him of the ghasts he had seen in the ghast hollow.

    Their arrival attracted the attention of cultivators below.

    However, when Arch-Immortal Plumdark disembarked, the city went silent. Her Void Returning pressure caused the ck-garbed cultivators to react with surprise. A few of the ck-garbed cultivators approached to receive her formally, then led them to a tavern in the city.

    Once inside the tavern, Arch-Immortal Plumdark said, ¡°Rest for the night. Tomorrow morning when the darkness of night transforms into the light of dawn, a ghost galleon wille here to Netherworld Harbor. The next leg of our trip will be taken on the ghost galleon. At nighttime this city bes a ghost ward, so unless you really know what you¡¯re doing, don¡¯t go wandering around.¡±

    With that, she entered her room. The other disciples went into their own respective rooms, wondering about what she¡¯d said about ghost wards and ghost galleons.

    ¡°Netherworld Harbor?¡± the Captain said curiously. ¡°Ghost galleon? What are they?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. He wasn¡¯t as curious as the Captain. That said, he was interested in the ghost ward Arch-Immortal Plumdark had mentioned. It made him think of the ce he¡¯d visited back in Forbidden by the Phoenix. [2]

    When night fell, as the wind whimpered outside, Xu Qing, who was seated cross-legged in meditation inside the tavern, opened his eyes. He could sense the aura changing outside. Yin and yang were switching. Life and death were transposing. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with this sensation.

    Standing, he walked to the window. Cracking it open, he looked outside.

    The city lookedpletely different. Innumerable ghosts drifted in the street, vicious in appearance. It reminded him of ¡®countless ghosts haunting the night.¡¯ There were all sorts of vendor stalls visible now, all of them containing items belonging to the dead. Off in the distance, in the very middle of the city, he saw a gigantic foot hovering in the air, bound with seemingly endless chains.

    The foot was green and seemed very sinister. When Xu Qing saw it, his eyes narrowed. He was getting the sensation that this green foot had the same origin as that monk¡¯s head he¡¯d seen in the Forbidden by the Phoenix ghost ward. [3]

    That thing was cut into pieces and sent out to different ghost wards? After some thought, Xu Qing pushed the window fully open and slipped out into the night.

    He had seen a lot of interesting things for sale on hisst visit to a ghost ward, except he hadn¡¯t been able to afford them. But during his time in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he had done a lot of killing. Though he hadn¡¯t been meticulously collecting heart-blood, he did have quite a few souls, which could also be used as currency in ces like this.

    In order to avoid the same annoying situation asst time, he didn¡¯t disguise himself with his shadow. Instead, he let the aura of his three heavenly pces and his taboo poison core seep out around him. In that manner, he started making his way through the crowds of ghosts.

    Time passed. Things went well for Xu Qing, and he bought a lot of ghost poison items.

    As dawn was approaching, he prepared to head back to the tavern. Before he could go far, though, he passed a vendor stall from which opera singing emerged. The ghost ward waspletely silent, but this singing could be heard very clearly. It didn¡¯t seem out of ce at all, and in fact, seemed to perfectly suit the atmosphere.

    ¡°In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....¡± [4]

    The moment Xu Qing heard the song, he stopped in ce and looked over.

    1. The incident with the ¡®old devil¡¯ happened in chapters 282-283 ?

    2. Xu Qing visited a ghost ward in Forbidden by the Phoenix in chapter 246. ?

    3. The monk¡¯s head was first seen in chapter 246.2, but the whole chase scene started in chapter 247. ?

    4. This song first appeared in chapter 364. It was repeated in a few subsequent chapters. ?

 Chapter 389: Hitching a Ride Through the Netherworld

    Chapter 389: Hitching a Ride Through the Netherworld

    The opera singing drifted out from a shadowy vendor stall. The proprietor was a floating ghost made up entirely of eyes. When the many-eyed ghost noticed Xu Qing looking over, about half of its eyes shifted to look at him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. Walking over, he noticed a small bronze bottle among the items for sale.

    He immediately recognized what it was.

    It¡¯s a recording bottle.

    He had once acquired a recording bottle that he used to capture the sound of countless ghosts haunting the night, which he used when summoning the giant and the sun¡¯s imperial carriage. That was how he had acquired Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Unfortunately, because of the immense pressure exuded by the giant, that bottle was destroyed. [1]

    The opera singing wasing from this bottle. After mulling the matter over, Xu Qing pointed at the bottle, then tossed a bag of discarnate souls to the many-eyed ghost.

    The many-eyed ghost took the bag and examined it. Then all of its eyes closed as if in thought. A momentter, it shook its head.

    Xu Qing looked at the ghost. He knew that the inhabitants of ghost wards were greedy, therefore, he handed over yet another bag. At the same time, his eyes shed with a grim coldness that the many-eyed ghost couldn¡¯t miss. Whether it was because there were now enough souls, or whether it was because of Xu Qing¡¯s grim expression, this time the many-eyed ghost nodded.

    Xu Qing took the bottle and closed it, causing the singing to stop. Then he turned and left. Back at the tavern, as he waited for dawn to arrive, Xu Qing looked suspiciously at the little bronze bottle.

    The voice is definitely the same as that woman in the pentagonal log cabin in the ghast hollow. Someone obviously collected that sound in this recording bottle. [2]

    Xu Qing thought back to that incident in the ghast hollow. He remembered the woman¡¯s singing, as well as the eye of the god in the depths of the chasm, slowly opening. He wasn¡¯t sure if the song was specifically being sung for that god, or if it just contained some unknown power to keep the god¡¯s eye closed. Regardless, Xu Qing was convinced it was a good decision to buy the bottle.

    Not long thereafter, he heard the sound of footsteps outside. Putting the bottle away and straightening his clothes, he opened the door and walked out.

    The disciples of the Eight Sect Coalition had gathered in the main room of the tavern, except that the Captain was nowhere to be seen.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised. The other disciples might have been hesitant to explore a ghost ward, there was no way the Captain would be able to resist the chance. However, the Captain was apparently still focused on getting to the county capital; just when it seemed like he would run out of time, he dashed in from outside.

    Rushing over to Xu Qing, he excitedly said, ¡°Did you explore the ghost ward, little Ah Qing? Let me tell you, there was some great stuff for sale.¡±

    Xu Qing was about to respond when his expression suddenly flickered. The same thing happened to the other disciples present. An astonishing pressure had suddenly weighed down on the tavern from outside. It was indescribably grim and fierce, making it feel like the inn was suddenly submerged in an ancient, icy river. At the same time, a sudden feeling of incredible terror rose unbidden in the hearts and minds of all the disciples.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with the sensation. It was just like the first time he had ever run into a grue. What was more, he had experienced that same feeling when looking into the depths of various forbidden regions during his time working as a treasure custodian for three months.

    As everyone shivered, Arch-Immortal Plumdark emerged from her room, walked to the front door of the tavern, and gently pushed it open.

    When the outside was revealed... it lookedpletely different than when Xu Qing had been out earlier. The ghost ward was still there, but so was the regr city. It was as if light and darkness, yin and yang, both existed at the same time. They were transposed over each other, creating something indistinct and blurry.

    And in that indistinct blurriness, high in the dome of heaven... was a ck ship some 3,000 meters long, floating silently. It was pitch ck and very dpidated. The sails were ripped and torn, as though they had existed for countless years. And the entire thing pulsed with a strong death aura. That ship was the source of the frigid pressure which was weighing down on the tavern. It was a ghost galleon.

    As it hovered there in the sky, it made it seem like the city below was a harbor, and it was waiting for people to get on board....

    ¡°Board the ship!¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said calmly. Stepping forward, she floated up toward the extremely sinister ghost galleon.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce, then simultaneously flew up into the sky. The other disciples braced themselves and also followed. Just like that, the Eight Sect Coalition delegation boarded the ghost galleon.

    Once aboard, the grim coldness seemed even more apparent. To Xu Qing, the ghost galleon¡¯s dpidated state was even more obvious when close up. The deck was half rotted away, and there were holes in many other locations. The stern was so decayed it looked like it might copse at any moment. That said, there didn¡¯t seem to be any ghosts on the ship.

    Xu Qing soon noticed that there were others boarding the ship besides coalition cultivators. There were a few dozen people from the city who also chose to get on the ship. Among them were the two swordsages they had encountered on the road. They noticed Xu Qing and the Captain, and didn¡¯t seem surprised at all. They nodded in greeting, then went belowdecks.

    Down below, it was just as dpidated as above. Xu Qing found that there were seats for everyone. Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Master Fifth sat alone some distance away.

    Finding an appropriate corner, he sat down. The Captain looked around for a bit before sitting next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Where there are ghost wards, there are ghost galleons.¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn¡¯t just project her words to Xu Qing, but also to the Captain and all the other coalition disciples. ¡°Ghost galleons are one of the mostmon supernatural phenomena in the Revered Ancient maind. They can take you great distances, and move much more quickly than ordinary flying ships. After all, flying ships move through space, but ghost galleons slip through theherworld.

    ¡°In any ce where death exists, ghost galleons can lock onto the threads of death and travel there. For the next month, we will travel across thends on this ghost galleon. During that time, as long as the ghost galleon is moving, you must not open your eyes under any circumstances.

    ¡°That is forbidden on ghost galleons.¡±

    Everyone nodded in response

    ¡°Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, bring out the flesh of the cloud trolls you killed and ce it on the deck above. That flesh serves as our ticket.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Together with the Captain, they went up to the main deck, took out the corpses of the cloud trolls they¡¯d killed, and ced them down. The two swordsages did the same. So did the other passengers.

    Xu Qing went back inside, which was when he noticed the Captain wasn¡¯t with him.

    ¡°Go drag him back down here, Xu Qing,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said coolly. During the entire journey, this was how she had spoken to him. Only when they were alone would her eyes glitter when she looked at him.

    He was used to it. Turning, he went back up to the main deck. After looking around a bit, he found the captain at the entrance to one of the ship¡¯s holds.

    The Captain squatted there with a curious look on his face. It seemed like he was nning to go in and look around. Noticing Xu Qing, he whispered, ¡°Little Ah Qing, this ghost galleon definitely has some treasure in it we can use to speed up our cultivation. I just heard a voice calling to me! It said it wanted to trade!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce for a moment, then squatted down next to the Captain and cocked his ear. A moment passed. ¡°Probably a scam.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d say there¡¯s an eighty to ny percent chance that it wants to lure me down there. I¡¯m just trying to decide if I should take a chance and find out.¡± The Captain grinned. This was one reason why he liked Xu Qing so much. He didn¡¯t need to offer lengthy exnations about things. Xu Qing always understood what he meant immediately.

    ¡°Not now,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Maybe you can try when we get to our destination.¡±

    The Captain nodded. ¡°Alright. I guess if something went wrong right now, the ghost galleon might not let us stay on board. And that would be problematic.¡±

    With that, the two of them went back belowdecks.

    Upon seeing them, Arch-Immortal Plumdark cast a vicious re in the Captain¡¯s direction. ¡°Ghost galleons have Void Returning ghosts sealed in them. Are you looking to get yourself killed?¡±

    Looking hurt, the Captain nced begrudgingly at Xu Qing, as if the whole thing had been his idea....

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and pretended not to notice.

    Before long, the sun appeared on the horizon, and the ghost galleon vibrated and started to fade from view.

    Thest thing the disciples heard was Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice in their minds.

    ¡°Close your eyes!¡±

    Everyoneplied.

    Xu Qing felt the ghost galleon vibrating beneath him. It seemed to be on the move.

    As the sun rose, the ghost galleon vanished from view in the dome of heaven. The ghost ward below faded awaypletely, leaving behind only the ordinary city. Meanwhile, a grim and sinister will swept back and forth on the ghost galleon, Everything was quiet except for the creaking of the ship.

    Xu Qing had his eyes closed, but thanks to his shadow, he could see everything around him.

    They were in the passenger hold of the ship. Everyone had their eyes closed, except for the Captain.... Underneath his clothes on his chest was an open eye. It was a very gruish eye, bright blue and extremely fierce and sinister-looking. In fact, it perfectly matched the atmosphere, as if it were some sort of ghost eye.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by that. Sending his shadow above deck to the troll flesh, he saw a host of shadowy figures, all of them with bright red eyes, ravenously devouring the corpses. asionally they would snap at each other, or look greedily at the people in the passenger hold. They were clearly brutal and vicious fiends, yet there was something restricting them from entering the passenger hold.

    A few of them, after finishing their meal, seemed like they couldn¡¯t restrain themselves, and rushed toward the passengers.

    Upon passing Arch-Immortal Plumdark, one of them vanished. Upon reaching Master Fifth, another vanished.

    One appeared near Xu Qing. It looked at him sitting there with his eyes closed, and it opened its mouth. But then Xu Qing inhaled, and the shadowy ghost shivered and was absorbed into one of his heavenly pces.

    Another ghostly shadow appeared in front of the Captain and was looking at his ghost eye. But then it noticed itspanions disappearing, and in its rm, turned to leave. However, that was when the ghost eye on the Captain turned into a gaping mouth. It devoured the shadowy ghost, then transformed back into an eye. The eye looked at Xu Qing and blinked.

    Out on the main deck, none of the other ghostly shadows noticed theirpanions were dead. Eventually, when thest of the flesh was eaten, the ghosts drifted to various parts of the ghost galleon, and took up various positions like sailors. Before long, the ship was picking up speed.

    Surrounding it was a pitch darkherworld, through which it flew.

 Chapter 390: Eyes of the Lightborn

    Chapter 390: Eyes of the Lightborn

    Everything outside the ghost galleon was pitch ck. There was no light, only unending cold and grim darkness.

    By means of his shadow, Xu Qing kept an eye on theherworld void that existed outside of the galleon. It made him think about the terrifying entities that countless cultivators feared when entering Foundation Establishment. When a cultivator ignited their lifemp for the first time, it would attract entities from another world. The Mute had failed during that part of his breakthrough, and had been partially possessed. If it hadn¡¯t been for Xu Qing, the Mute would already have ceased to exist.

    From what Xu Qing could sense, theherworld void outside the ghost galleon was that world.

    It wasn¡¯t easy for him to track the passage of time. It was as if each momentsted for a very long time. Then, out of nowhere, light appeared in the darkness. It was scorching hot, and stretched for 30,000 meters from one end to another, ripping apart the darkness. There in theherworld was a huge, blindingly bright desert.

    The ghost galleon shot into that desert and... disappeared.

    Everyone aboard the ship suddenly felt their stomachs lurch as if they were falling.

    ¡°You can open your eyes,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said. The coalition disciples did so. Astonishingly, they were now in a scorching desert.

    Heatwaves shimmered everywhere, and the sky itself rippled and distorted. The desert was an endless sea of fire, with stupefying heat radiating down from a red sun in the sky. That sun was much clearer than the sun in the sky over Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And it wasrger. It was almost as if the sun hung directly above the desert they were in. Either that, or the desert... existed very close to the sun itself.

    The ghost galleon couldn¡¯t survive in this ce, so it faded away, allowing the passengers to drop down.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark waved her hand, and her dragon-shaped flying ship appeared beneath them. Theynded on the ship, which then shot through the heat of that sun off into the distance.

    The other passengers who had been on the ghost galleon went their separate ways. As for the two swordsages, they produced magical devices which resembled hats, and used them, not to fly off into the distance, but to burrow into the ground. A momentter, they were gone.

    ¡°This is thest leg of the journey,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said. ¡°After traveling for three months through this desert, we¡¯ll reach the borders of the county capital.¡±

    Within that burning heat, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice was like clear water that eased the hearts of the disciples.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, and his eyes glittered. Though this journey was turning out to be rtively short, he had still seen many fantastic things. His eyes had been opened in a way that would never have been possible in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And it seemed like he still had only seen a tiny fraction of what the world had to offer.

    Half a monthter the flying ship reached a ce where the fires below started to go out. Soon, they saw patches of hazy smoke. Before long, it was possible to see that the smoke resembled humanoid forms. Though they couldn¡¯t be seen clearly, it was obvious that there were men and women, old and young. It looked like some unique nonhuman species that lived here permanently. The ce where the smoke was thickest seemed to be a city of some sort.

    Xu Qing almost couldn¡¯t believe his eyes, and most of the other disciples reacted simrly. The Captain was the only one who didn¡¯t seem surprised.

    As they passed over the smoky nonhumans, many of them looked up into the sky at the flying ship.

    A very serious expression could be seen on Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s face. Then, for the first time on the journey, she floated up off the ship and bowed with sped hands toward the city of smoke.

    ¡°We are human cultivators from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, escorting swordsages from our sect to the county capital. We¡¯re only passing through, and hope that you Fellow Daoists of the Smokewight people don¡¯t take any offense.¡±

    Xu Qing and the other disciples all followed suit, bowing with hands sped.

    The countless smoky figures below looked at the ship thoughtfully, then returned the salute. Obviously they didn¡¯t n to cause any problems.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°The Smokewights are the mostplex of the species we¡¯ve run into so far,¡± she exined. ¡°They couldn¡¯t care less about most human sects. However, they do fear the swordsages. Living as they do underneath this burning sun, they¡¯re natural-born assassins. They can merge with any type of energy and are iparably gruish. If you ever run into them again, be very careful. Avoid doing business with them and getting wrapped up in their karma.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking down at the city of smoke below, hemitted all the details to memory. As the journey continued, they ran into more unusual species.

    About a monthter, the color of the surrounding desert terrain changed. Instead of being dominated by yellow and red, it slowly turned crystalline....

    Because of that, it both reflected and refracted light, creating a dazzlingly beautiful scene. In fact, anyone whose cultivation base wasn¡¯t high enough would eventually be blinded by it.

    Now it seemed like the flying boat was flying through a sea of light.

    Around this time, Xu Qing yet again caught sight of those two swordsages.

    Apparently, this was their main destination. The two of them were on the crystallizednd below, within the sea of light, fighting fiercely with invisible foes that surrounded them. Astonishing sword light spread in all directions around them, along with the fluctuations of magical techniques. Standing next to them was the nonhuman girl who had previously been on the back of the female swordsage. The ck band covering the girl¡¯s solitary eye had been removed, and she was staring up at the burning sun.

    Her eye shone brightly, and she seemed curious. It almost seemed like she was absorbing the sunlight, and as a result, her eye was getting brighter. The two antennaeing off her forehead swayed back and forth creating magical symbols that flowed into her eye. Obviously it was important that the process not be interrupted, as the two swordsages were vigntly guarding over her.

    There were unseen entities that were trying to stop the girl from absorbing sunlight. They seemed to be part of the light, and the only evidence of their presence was the way other streams of light bent and rippled around them.

    ¡°They¡¯re lightscrags!¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark exined. ¡°Light itself is intelligent, and can manifest as lightscrags. They usually appear in extremely hot environments, and leave almost no trace of their existence. In reality, they¡¯re made from light, which makes them difficult to fight and kill. And they only fade from existence when night falls.¡±

    Down below, the two swordsages were clearly having trouble holding the line. Both of them were wounded.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Senior,¡± Xu Qing said, sping his hands, ¡°one of those swordsages helped the two of us in the past. Can we go down to assist?¡±

    ¡°Do you need any help from me?¡± she asked softly.

    ¡°Eldest Brother and I will be fine. If it turns out we¡¯re not a match for them, then perhaps we can trouble you for assistance?¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded. Xu Qing immediately flew off the ship.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Actually, Senior, it would be fine if you interfered....¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark red at him. Shrinking back, he quickly flew after Xu Qing.

    When the two swordsages saw Xu Qing and the Captain flying down, looks of gratitude appeared in their eyes. That was especially true of the male swordsage who had helped them back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    ¡°Many thanks, Fellow Daoists,¡± he said. ¡°There are a lot more lightscrags this time than in the past. Thank you for helping us to protect this Lightborn girl.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. The moment hended next to the swordsages, he could sense a strong killing intent rushing toward him from within the surrounding sea of light. Eyes glittering, he tapped into the poison core in this third heavenly pce, causing taboo poison to spread out. A momentter, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the sea of light. Then it was possible to see a shaft of light suddenly turn dark, then disappear.

    The two swordsages¡¯ eyes lit up. Meanwhile, the Captain arrived, glowing blue as he sent a boundless frigid will out in all directions. That frigid coldness was terrifying; wherever it went, it brought lightlessness with it, as if it were freezing the light itself. After the light was frozen, it couldn¡¯t move, and therefore, everything around it would turn dark.

    It went without saying that the Captain¡¯s terrifying powers of coldness allowed him to surpass Xu Qing in these circumstances.

    Their arrival instantly eased the two swordsage¡¯s burden. Before long, the danger had passed. The lightscrags could sense that this fight was too much for them, and they scattered.

    ¡°Many thanks to you, Fellow Daoists!¡±

    The two swordsages both seemed to be Gold Core cultivators with three heavenly pces. Of course, though they were obviously thankful, they were also remaining on guard. That came as pure instinct. In the world in which they lived, people without such an instinct would quickly end up dead.

    As for the swordsage who had previously run into them in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he was deeply shaken. He had seen many chosen cultivators throughout the years, but he clearly remembered that these two were in Foundation Establishment thest time he saw them. But now they were on the same level as he was. What was more, having seen them fight just now, he knew that they had incredible battle prowess.

    sping hands formally, Xu Qing said, ¡°We never had the chance to thank you for gifting us that treasure. It was a simple thing for us to help out today.¡±

    The Captainughed heartily. ¡°That¡¯s right. And considering me and my Junior Brother are also swordsages, how could we not help you?¡± The Captain was obviously highlighting his and Xu Qing¡¯s status.

    Hearing that, the two swordsages were visibly surprised. Both of them produced theirmand swords, which Xu Qing and the Captain also did. The fourmand swords glittered with dazzling light. Upon seeing that, the two swordsages rxed a bit.

    ¡°I¡¯m Chen Tinghao,¡± the male swordsage said. ¡°This is my wife Sun Liying. We really owe you thanks for this. It was obviously careless of us to ept a mission like this.¡± [1]

    Chen Tinghao produced a jade slip which he handed to Xu Qing. ¡°Please take half of the military credits for this mission. Don¡¯t refuse! This is customary among swordsages. We¡¯re all fellow warriors, so consider this a sincere expression of friendship!¡±

    Given his wording, Xu Qing and the Captain couldn¡¯t refuse. After exchanging the jade slip, the four of them chatted a bit while they waited for the Lightborn girl to finish absorbing the sunlight.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exined that they were on the way to the county capital to report for duty, while Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying exined some of the information about their mission.

    The Lightborn were one of the rare benevolent species that were allies of humankind. They had the innate ability to absorb sunlight with their eyes. Once their eyes were full, they would go to areas with no sun, where they would sell their eyes. Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying had epted a mission to escort this girl somewhere to absorb sunlight, and had chosen this location as the most suitable.

    Eventually, the girl finished with her task, closed her eye, and wrapped the ck band back around her head. She seemed to be in a very weak state as she climbed onto Sun Liying¡¯s back.

    Because the two swordsages also needed to go to the county capital, Xu Qing and the Captain invited them to board the flying ship.

    Once aboard, they offered respectful greetings to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    She was very weing. After all, she would much rather Xu Qing get to the county capital with friends already. Of course, her cultivation base was so high that it wasn¡¯t appropriate for her to entertain Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying. Therefore, she told Xu Qing to take charge, then went below deck.

    As the flying ship proceeded on its way, Chen Tinghao continued to show favor by exining some things about the city to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°The capital is in the very middle of Sea-Sealing County. All the big powers from the various prefectures have subsidiary sects there. However, in the overall structure of the city, they aren¡¯t very important. In fact, you could think of them as being sixth-tier. The tier above them, the fifth, are the various yamens that govern daily affairs in the city. [2]

    ¡°Above the yamens are the three great sects and one great n of Sea-Sealing County. They are the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order, the Blood Chill Society and the Daoist Mansion of Marquis Yao!

    ¡°The Daoist Mansion of Marquis Yao, sometimes called Yao Mansion, is the most unique of the group. The patriarch of the founding n was once one of the thirty-six heavenly marquises, who were blessed with the ¡®dao¡¯ character on their uniform by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. That¡¯s why, over the years, that n has always been described using the term ¡®dao mansion.¡¯¡± [3]

    As Chen Tinghao went on with his exnation, the flying ship got closer and closer to the county capital.

    1. Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying. Chen is #5 on the list of the 100mon Chinese surnames. Ting means ¡°pce, courtyard, court¡± and Hao means, among other things, ¡°fine (usually to describe long hair)¡±. Sun is #12 on the list of 100 surnames. Li means many things, including ¡°to stand, to establish, toy down, at once, immediately¡± and ying means ¡°cluster of gems¡±. Madam Deathde says that Chen Tinghao sounds like aplex name filled withyered meaning. Sun Liying is a typical nice-sounding name for a girl. The word I¡¯m tranting as ¡°wife¡± here is actually a term of endearment used for couples that are romantically connected. When I was in China, I would typically hear this word spoken by people from the older generation referring to their spouse (younger people tend to use a different, more ¡°cool¡± word that means the same thing). Technically the term could also be used for a lover. Chen Tinghao also uses the word ¡°daoist partner¡± to describe the two of them. Given the genre and culture implications (plus the way it depicts them here andter), I think they¡¯re supposed to be married, not just lovers. ?

    2. A yamen can be a physical building or something more akin to a department. Either way, it¡¯s associated with the government bureaucracy and/orw enforcement. Here¡¯s the wiki article</a> if you want to learn about real-life historical yamens. ?

    3. Yao is #51 on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡°handsome, good-looking, beautiful.¡± ?

 Chapter 391: The Great Bird Qingqin

    Chapter 391: The Great Bird Qingqin

    Earlier on the trip, Master Fifth had told Xu Qing a few things about the county capital. However, Chen Tinghao knew about all of these things first-hand, so his description was much more detailed. Thanks to Chen Tinghao, Xu Qing was getting a much better understanding of the major forces operating in the capital.

    Groups like the Eight Sect Coalition all had subsidiary sects there. In their respective prefectures, they were the dominant force. But in the capital, they had to bow their heads in subservience. That was because, above them all, there were three even more powerful sects. It could well be said that those three sects were the most powerful in the entire county, which was why their headquarters could be found in the capital itself.

    ¡°Those three sects have a lot of disciples who are members of the Swordsage Pce,¡± Chen Tinghao went on to exin. ¡°In some respects, you could say that those three sects are part of the Swordsage Pce, and will stand by any decisions made by the pce. That rtionship is one of the main reasons those three sects have survived for so long in Sea-Sealing County. The two of us are actually disciples of the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order.¡±

    Chen Tinghao then went on to exin more about Yao Mansion. As an aristocratic n of chosen cultivators, they truly were like high-ss nobles.

    ¡°Although Heavenly Marquis Yao perished years ago, the reserve powers he had gathered ensured that the Yao n was able to survive long after being sent out of the imperial capital. As a result, that n has long stood tall and proud in Sea-Sealing County alongside the three great sects. However, considering the capital as a whole, the three great sects and the Yao n only count as fourth-tier. Above them are two nonhuman species that count as the third tier.¡±

    Chen Tinghao was clearly a straightforward person. And once he found out that Xu Qing and the Captain were fellow swordsages, he let his guard down a bit toward them. It was very different from what Xu Qing was used to dealing with in the sect.

    ¡°Those two nonhuman species are the Saintfiends and the Demi-Immortals!¡± [1]

    Upon mentioning those two species, Chen Tinghao¡¯s expression turned slightly grim.

    Xu Qing and the Captain both had serious expressions on their faces. As for Master Fifth, who stood off to the side, it was obvious that she was aware of most of these things. That said, none of the other coalition disciples onboard were privy to such details, as none of them had any way of getting information like this.

    Sun Liying tucked a stray hair behind her ear and softly said, ¡°Fellow Daoists, once the two of you are in the capital city, you need to be very wary of those two species. The Saintfiends have two faces, one in front and one behind. They look bizarre, but beyond that, are known for their deep thinking abilities.

    ¡°As for the Demi-Immortals, they look very simr to humans, except that their hair, eyebrows, and eyes are pure white. They¡¯re extremely arrogant and have astonishing battle prowess.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and took note of the features of the two nonhuman species.

    Chen Tinghao sighed. ¡°Those two species are the strongest in Sea-Sealing County next to humans. They coexist with us thanks to the treaties and agreements brokered by our governor. That said, things can be tense between species, and the conflicts only seem to grow more dramatic over time.

    ¡°Regardless, the situation with them is still under control. After all, though Sea-Sealing County is part of the Holytide region, it¡¯s stillpletely autonomous. Unfortunately, the Holytide species has long been eying us like tigers eying prey.¡±

    ¡°So we¡¯re dealing with internal strife and external aggression!¡± the Captain eximed.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Chen Tinghao replied, thumping his thigh with his fist. ¡°Internal strife and external aggression. That¡¯s the perfect idiom to describe it.

    ¡°Inside Sea-Sealing County, we have two nonhuman species with wild ambitions. Outside the county, we have the Holytide species wanting to either annex or destroy us. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the afterglow of glory still lingers on humankind, we would long since have been swallowed up. For now, we humans have one region and seven counties, and we can¡¯t afford to lose any of them.¡±

    It had been some time since Xu Qing learned that humankind was in a state of decline. However, this was his first time hearing firsthand what that meant.

    ¡°But let¡¯s not dwell on that,¡± Chen Tinghao said. ¡°Once you¡¯re in the capital, you¡¯ll be able to see the situation with your own eyes.

    ¡°Let me keep exining the power structure of the capital. Next up are the second-tier powers, which are the three pces. They are the Swordsage Pce, the Administration Pce, and the Justice Pce.

    ¡°Our Swordsage Pce is in charge of everything rted to battle. Whether it¡¯s war with nonhumans to the arresting of dangerous criminals, it¡¯s all the responsibility of the Swordsage Pce.

    ¡°The Administration Pce is in charge of overseeing rites, ceremonies, education, the reading of imperial edicts, and audits. It¡¯s also responsible for keeping a record of the history of humankind.

    ¡°Then there¡¯s the Justice Pce, which is responsible for enforcing thew locally and trying criminals. They have their ownw enforcement cultivators who have broad investigatory authority.

    ¡°We humans have the Five Greater Celestial Divisions and the Nine Minor Terrestrial Divisions. Considering that Sea-Sealing County is only a county-level area, for years now, we¡¯ve only worked with three of the Greater Celestial Divisions. Those three pces are associated with those specific divisions.¡±

    Xu Qing had known all along that the Swordsage Pce was important in the capital city. However, now that he was hearing they only counted as a second-tier power in the capital, and there was another tier above the three pces, he had an idea who that first-tier power was.

    ¡°The first-tier power is the governor!¡± said Chen Tinghao solemnly. ¡°Outside the capital, you might hear people iming that the governor is indecisive and weak. That he¡¯s alwayspromising. But the truth of the matter is that... we swordsages respect the governor more than anyone other than our pce lord.

    ¡°The governor has led Sea-Sealing County for eight hundred years. Though he hasn¡¯t expanded our borders, he has maintained stability. He¡¯s cautious and conscientious, and has thus ensured that we humans continued to hold thirteen prefectures. That¡¯s a rare thing considering that in the other six counties, they¡¯re constantly dealing with the loss of prefectural territory.¡± Chen Tinghao took a deep breath, lowered his voice, then continued, ¡°Over the past eight hundred years, the governor has survived forty-seven assassination attempts....¡±

    Xu Qing reacted with visible surprise, and the Captain gasped.

    Chen Tinghao let loose a soft sigh and went on to say that Xu Qing and the Captain would have plenty of time to learn more once they were in the capital.

    Time continued to pass. The half-month went by quickly. The desert gradually gave way to greenernds. Below the flying ship they saw rolling ins without many mountains. What was more, the mutagen was faint and the spirit energy seemed much stronger than other areas they¡¯d passed through.

    The sky was bright blue, without a cloud in sight. Xu Qing stood at the prow looking out at heaven and earth. Everything seemed clear from up here, especially given the view of all the cities below.

    For example, the city they were just passing over was filled with smiling people who seemed full of hope regarding life. In other prefectures, where mortals faced a daily struggle just to survive, you rarely saw smiles like that.

    ¡°We¡¯re approaching the border of the county capital,¡± Chen Tinghao said. ¡°Soon we¡¯ll be able to take any of the teleportation portals directly into the city. There¡¯s a public portalplex just up ahead.¡±

    Chen Tinghao pointed, and Xu Qing looked in that direction. A momentter, his eyes shone brightly.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows rose, and the other disciples suddenly had very serious looks on their faces.

    In the direction Chen Tinghao had pointed, there were gray clouds that spread out wide enough to cover an entire city. As the clouds rippled, it was possible to see a huge bird within them.

    It was very strange-looking. It had three heads, each of which looked incredibly vicious. Its abdomen wasrge while its wings were small. Its feathers were in aplete mess, and yet, astonishing godly fluctuations rolled out from it in all directions. The bird held something in its ws, though it was hard to see clearly what it was. It was flying right toward the flying ship, kicking up intense whirlwinds around it along the way.

    ¡°It¡¯s Senior Qingqin!¡± Chen Tinghao said, looking surprised. ¡°Senior Qingqin was a friend of the previous governor. Eight hundred years ago, when that governor returned to the imperial capital, he invited Senior Qingqin to go along. He didn¡¯t, and instead stayed behind in Sea-Sealing County. You¡¯ll asionally see him flying around. He¡¯s an ancient mutant beast with a bloodline that traces back to the era of the Ancient Emperors. In fact, some people say that one of his ancestors was actually a follower of one of the Ancient Emperors.¡± [2]

    As Chen Tinghao offered this exnation, the great bird got closer and closer, whereupon screaming could be hearding from the direction of its ws.

    ¡°Help! Help me! I¡¯m a swordsage! The Grand Emperor gave me a 180-meter beam of light!¡±

    The shrill, terrified voice actually sounded familiar to Xu Qing.

    Simrly, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°Is that Ning Yan? Is that bird trying to eat him?¡± [3]

    Given that Ning Yan had previously attacked Xu Qing, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to pay much attention to him.

    However, when Chen Tinghao heard Ning Yan¡¯s words, he sped hands toward the great bird Qingqin. ¡°Exalted Qingqin, please, quell your anger! Would it be possible to check if this person is really a swordsage? If he is, then I would like to humbly request that you spare him....¡±

    Xu Qing looked oddly at Chen Tinghao, as did the Captain. Then the Captain gave Xu Qing a look that said, ¡°He doesn¡¯t know him at all, but once he hears he¡¯s a swordsage, he offers to help him?¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly looked thoughtful.

    Sun Liying could guess what the two of them were thinking and softly said, ¡°You¡¯ll be treated the same way.¡±

    Then she hurried over to Chen Tinghao¡¯s side and also offered greetings to the bird.

    The Captain was on guard. Perhaps all swordsages acted like this. But considering he only received a one-meter light, he was skeptical that anyone would save him like this. That was why he hadn¡¯t said much on the journey, as he was worried it might somehow cause the topic of conversation to shift to that light of his.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark stepped out onto the main deck and walked over to Xu Qing¡¯s side, where she looked out vigntly.

    After Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying offered greetings, the great bird soared in a circle, looking down at the flying ship with its three heads and six eyes. It seemed to be looking at something in particr. Then it opened its ws.

    Ning Yan screamed shrilly as he fell. Chen Tinghao flew out and caught him, then brought him back onto the flying ship. Meanwhile, the great bird let loose an unpleasant squawk, then pped its little wings and headed back into the clouds.

    Why did I get the sensation it was looking at me? the Captain thought.

    Off to the side, Wu Jianwu nodded vigorously, and he seemed somewhat dazzled. It was looking at me! Could it be... that it recognized the aura of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity?

    Xu Qing stood there without saying a word.

    Chen Tinghao kept a firm grip on Ning Yan as he prepared to ask him about his identity. The terrified Ning Yan, meanwhile, had noticed Xu Qing and the Captain. Instantly, his eyes went wide, and a tremor passed through them. Then he dramatically struggled briefly as if he thought he might somehow free himself.

    Surprised, Chen Tinghao looked at Xu Qing and the Captain. ¡°You know him?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°This fellow is from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture as well. He¡¯s our adjunct swordsage.¡± The Captain managed to put special emphasis on the word ¡®adjunct.¡¯

    With a smile, Chen Tinghao released Ning Yan onto the deck of the ship.

    Xu Qing looked at him coldly.

    Ning Yan started shivering even more dramatically. Inside, he was full of grief and indignation. It hadn¡¯t been easy making the journey to this ce. Then, immediately upon arriving, he was suddenly snatched up by that unreasonable bird. Now he was free, yet somehow things had be infinitely worse as he was now face-to-face with someone who would seek revenge over the smallest grievance. Xu Qing.

    As profound anxiety gripped his heart, he looked over and saw Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Eyes suddenly lighting up, he ran over and flopped to the ground in front of her.

    ¡°Matriarch! Ma¡¯am, I¡¯ve finally found you!¡±

    1. I haven¡¯t mentioned it up to this point because it wasn¡¯t really relevant, but most of the nonhuman species have the literal character for ¡°race/species/people¡± in their name. In this case, the ¡°Demi-Immortals¡± follow that same pattern. So don¡¯t think of their species name as a cultivation level. ?

    2. Qingqin: This doesn¡¯te across as a surname/given namebo, which is why I¡¯m tranting it as a single ¡®word.¡¯ Qing is the same character from Xu Qing¡¯s name, and it means ¡°green, blue, cyan.¡± Qin generally refers to a reed nt called Phragmites japonica, or more broadly, reeds in general. When asking Madam Deathde about this name, she initially thought it sounded like ¡°the name of a servant or concubine.¡± Then I showed her the context and her reaction was: ¡°ITS A BIRD??!!¡± So¡­ yeah. Given the physical description of the bird plus its name, ites across a bitical. ?

    3. Ning Yan was named the adjunct swordsage in chapter 372. He was originally introduced without a name in chapter 359, when he attacked Xu Qing. Ever since then, Xu Qing disliked him. He was originally described as having a prominent nose ring. ?

 Chapter 392: Jailers

    Chapter 392: Jailers

    It was quite unexpected for Ning Yan to rush over and drop to his knees.

    However, Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at him coolly, as though she were ustomed to his actions. ¡°Dark Serenity Sect?¡±

    ¡°Brilliant, Matriarch! I am indeed a disciple from a Dark Serenity Sect. And back when I was in my sect, I always admired the matriarch who presides over all 3,700 of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Dark Serenity Sects!¡±

    The Captain had an odd expression on his face, and Xu Qing¡¯s brow was furrowed. Both of them were thinking of the unique characteristics of the Dark Serenity Sects. Because of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself, there were many versions of the Dark Serenity Sect. Some were big, some were small. But as long as they had some connection to the Ancient Emperor, they would call themselves Dark Serenity Sect. Back in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, the Captain and Xu Qing had run into one such sect. [1]

    Obviously, Ning Yan was from a sect like that. All it would take was a nce from Arch-Immortal Plumdark to know that he cultivated Dark Serenity Sect techniques. As a result, he was essentially a fellow adherent.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded. ¡°You¡¯lle with us the rest of the way.¡±

    Ning Yan suddenly looked a lot more flustered. He didn¡¯t want toe along, but at the same time, couldn¡¯t refuse. All he could do was shrink off to the side and avert his gaze from Xu Qing. He was so nervous he looked like a frightened bird.

    Xu Qing looked him up and down and decided to find a time when the two of them were alone to settle ounts.

    However, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered excitedly as he slowly circled Ning Yan. ¡°Something¡¯s off about you, ya little punk. You got snatched up by that big bird, yet didn¡¯t die. What¡¯s more, you¡¯re not even wounded.¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Chen,¡± Ning Yan quickly exined, ¡°I achieved ancestral awakening when I was much younger, so my bloodline provides automatic defenses in situations like that.¡±

    When the Captain heard that, he licked his lips, then threw his head back andughed heartily. Throwing his arm around Ning Yan¡¯s neck, he lowered his voice.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be scared of Xu Qing. I¡¯m his Eldest Brother. Back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, you probably heard the rumors about how much Xu Qing respects me. Well, guess what? Those rumors couldn¡¯t be more true. Going forward, you just do what I say and you¡¯ll be fine. If you¡¯re my bro, then that means Xu Qing is your bro too! And what¡¯s the most important thing between bros? Camaraderie! Am I right? Am I?¡±

    Not daring to disagree, Ning Yan nodded.

    Xu Qing watched what was going on and got a sudden sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, as if he had witnessed this very scene y out before in the past. He looked over at Wu Jianwu.

    Wu Jianwu was visibly stunned, and seemed to be recalling his own past misfortunes. He also seemed to feel bad for Ning Yan.

    The Captain continued to work his magic on Ning Yan as the flying ship got closer and closer to the teleportationplex Chen Tinghao had mentioned earlier.

    As it turned out, that specific location was the final point on the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s itinerary.

    ¡°After this teleportation we¡¯ll be in the county capital,¡± Chen Tinghao said. ¡°Xu Qing, I just got some details from a friend of mine in the pce.... And thanks to that, I just found out... that you got a 30,000-meter pir of light!¡±

    Chen Tinghao looked visibly taken aback. He had been out on a mission for so long, and had been so far away from the capital, that his transmission jade slip didn¡¯t connect. Because of that, he wasn¡¯t up-to-date on thetest news.

    ¡°There are still a lot of things about the capital I don¡¯t understand,¡± Xu Qing said sincerely. ¡°If I mess up in any way, I hope that you can give me some tips, Big Bro Chen.¡± He sped hands respectfully.

    ¡°That goes without saying! Xu Qing, that 30,000-meter pir of light is unprecedented in Sea-Sealing County. Do you know what that means?¡± Chen Tinghao¡¯s eyes shone with a healthy envy.

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°It means that you¡¯repletely trustworthy and have a righteous heart. That¡¯s going to have a big effect on your post assignment.¡± Chen Tinghao sighed.

    ¡°Post assignment?¡± Xu Qing said. He was aware that he would be assigned to hold a post when he arrived, but he wasn¡¯t sure about the details.

    ¡°The rules state that all new swordsages must hold a post for three years before they can go on important missions. After you arrive, all of you will swear oaths of office and then be assigned posts. All assignments are different, and the military credits you can earn with them varies widely. That¡¯s why your post assignment is so important.

    ¡°When all is said and done, we swordsages are inextricably tied to military credit! There are some departments such as Patrol or Inspection where it¡¯s really easy to earn military credits. Intelligence and Law Enforcement are also great ces. But there are some departments focused on internal affairs where there aren¡¯t many chances for military credits.

    ¡°There¡¯s one specific post where the military credits are even easier to earn. Usually they don¡¯t assign new recruits to that post, only old-timers. And the post is only given out by official dharmic decree from the pce lord.¡± Chen Tinghao¡¯s eyes gleamed with fascination. ¡°That assignment required an absolutely clean background as well as a pure heart.¡±

    Xu Qing looked curiously at Chen Tinghao.

    ¡°I¡¯m talking about the jailers!¡± Chen Tinghao said.

    ¡°Jailers?¡± Xu Qing asked, not sure what he meant.

    ¡°Yeah, jailers. The jailers of the Corrections Division. Once you¡¯re at the capital, you¡¯ll understand. One of the biggest unique features of the capital is the Corrections Division¡¯s massive prison!¡± Chen Tinghao smiled proudly. ¡°The people the Corrections Division have locked up include the vilest fiends from all species imaginable. They also have grues in there. It¡¯s Sea-Sealing County¡¯srgest prison, and all the inmates are cruel, murderous viins. Yet the mere mention of the jailers will make their faces fall.

    ¡°You see, the people from the Corrections Division have a saying. ¡®We¡¯re only jailers.¡¯ That¡¯s why people took to calling them that. Their name strikes fear into the hearts of all viins.¡± At this point, the look in Chen Tinghao¡¯s eyes became one of pure anticipation. ¡°One of the patriarchs from my sect was once appointed by the pce lord to be a jailer. Sadly, a number of years ago the old man died in the line of duty.¡± [2]

    Chen Tinghao shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no way you¡¯ll be assigned to the Corrections Division, Xu Qing. Though the jailers are special, you¡¯re even more special than that. As a swordsage who provoked a 30,000-meter pir of light, people are going to have high expectations for you. When I see you in the future, I¡¯ll definitely have to hold my sword up in salute.¡±

    Xu Qing looked off into the distance. He didn¡¯t care much about posts and assignments. Now that he was on the verge of entering the capital,plex emotions tugged at his heart.

    ¡°Big Bro Chen,¡± he asked, ¡°where is Mount Daybreak?¡±

    ¡°Mount Daybreak?¡± Chen Tinghao looked at Xu Qing. ¡°It¡¯s in Daybreak Prefecture, which is only one prefecture away from the county capital. That mountain has long been one of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s training grounds, a ce outsiders aren¡¯t allowed to enter. And even swordsages who want to go there have to pay a good amount of military credit.

    ¡°The reason is that it¡¯s also the location of a pce belonging to one of the ancient suns. That sun also perished there. As a result, streams of light from the final moments before the sun perished will asionally emerge there from the River of Ancient Time. [3]

    ¡°Those streams of light contain dao resonances, and are inherently high-level ingredients for equipment forging and pill concocting. They¡¯re not verymon, and each time they do emerge, the information about them is recorded.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. Though he maintained a calm exterior, his heart was racing as he got the first concrete information about Mount Daybreak.

    Chen Tinghao didn¡¯t ask Xu Qing why he was interested in Mount Daybreak. However, he did offer a reminder. ¡°If you want to visit Mount Daybreak, you need to build up a lot of military credit.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    As they continued to chat, the flying ship reached the teleportation portal. Arch-Immortal Plumdark emerged again. Putting away the flying ship, she led the group of over a hundred cultivators down to the ground. There, they found an ancient teleportation portal that was shaped like an altar. It was huge, colored dark gray, and covered with a mesh of designs that glowed brightly.

    The swordsages on duty were familiar with Chen Tinghao, and called out cheerful greetings when they saw him. A few of them even stepped over to embrace him. This disy of affection gave Xu Qing a deeper understanding of what the swordsages were about.

    Before long, all the arrangements were made and the coalition delegation stepped onto the portal. Bright light shone up, and the final teleportation of the journey began.

    When they materialized, they were right outside of the capital itself!

    The first thing they saw was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering statue. It depicted Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, boundlessly spectacr, andrge enough to prop up heaven and earth. In fact, the statue was so massive that they seemed like specks of dust in front of it. And any mortal who tried to take in the statue as a whole wouldn¡¯t be able to; they wouldn¡¯t be able to see to the top. Its feet were nted firmly on the ground and its head was in the dome of heaven. The clouds floated around its waist, requiring the eyes of cultivators to take in its full glory. The statue¡¯s arms were outstretched as if to embrace heaven and earth. Astonishingly, between the two hands floated a massive city. It was the county capital. The city was sorge that it could fit the entire Eight Sect Coalition within it several times over. And it glowed so brightly that it created a sea of light around it.

    Floating in positions around the city were three pces. Though they weren¡¯t asrge as the capital city itself, if they were ced anywhere else, they would be considered monumentally colossal.

    When Xu Qing saw the city and the three pces, he was shaken deeply.

    What was even more shocking, though, were thends below. Beneath the floating city, surrounding the feet of the statue, thend itself was smooth and reflective, almost like a mirror. And beneath that mirror... was a gargantuan subterranean prison. The prison was beneath the partially transparent mirror, so that anyone floating above would be able to see the prison, which had multiple levels, and sank down into the earth like a chasm.

    That was the very same Corrections Division Chen Tinghao had just mentioned, which served as the number one prison in Sea-Sealing County!

    Floating in between the prison and the city was an enormous bronze sword. It was majestic and world-shaking, with dazzling sword light that shone in all directions.

    Carved on the sword was the character ¡®yuan.¡¯ Astonishingly, this was a swordsage sword. As the massive sword rotated in the air above the prison and below the city, it emanated terrifying pressure. [4]

    There was more. There were also buildings on the ground which were equally eye-catching. They were pentagonal sword pavilions which were set up around the prison! The sword pavilions were arranged in concentric circles, in a very precise fashion. As for their height, they varied greatly. The tallest of the sword pavilions came close to touching the city itself, while the smallest were only a few dozen meters in height.

    There were hundreds of thousands of them, each a few thousand meters away from the next, creating several dozen rings around the prison.

    ¡°Those are sword pavilions,¡± Chen Tinghao exined. ¡°When new swordsages from various ces in Sea-Sealing Countye here to check in, they usually stab theirmand sword into the ground there to create a sword pavilion. That¡¯s also where we swordsages usually reside!

    ¡°As long as a swordsage lives, their sword pavilion will stand. But if a swordsage dies in battle, then a special ceremony is carried out, and an honor guard will give a special speech. After that, the sword pavilion will fade away.

    ¡°Wee, all of you, to the capital city of Sea-Sealing County, and the headquarters of the swordsages!¡±

    Chen Tinghaoughed heartily, offered a salute, and was about to leave when he realized that the Eight Sect Coalition seemed to be waiting for someone. Specifically, they were waiting for people from the subsidiary sect toe receive them. For one thing, Arch-Immortal Plumdark was present, and decorum required an escort for her. But beyond that, it wasn¡¯t permitted to simplye and go in the capital. New arrivals needed to be escorted in.

    Based on the earlier arrangements that had been made, the subsidiary sect should have sent someone in advance to meet them. But even after they waited for a time, they didn¡¯t see anyone.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes shone with a mysterious light. Not even sending a message via transmission jade slip got any response.

    ¡°Something must have gone wrong,¡± Master Fifth said grimly.

    The current leader of the subsidiary sect wasn¡¯t at the patriarch level, and thus wouldn¡¯t possibly dare to slight Arch-Immortal Plumdark. There was only one exnation. Something had indeed gone wrong in the subsidiary sect.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He had only just arrived, and things were already going wrong. It couldn¡¯t be a coincidence.

    Is someone targeting us?

    A cold, grim look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes as he looked over at Xu Qing. Xu Qing looked back, his eyes narrowing further.

    1. Xu Qing and the Captain ran into another Dark Serenity Sect in chapter 285. ?

    2. The Chinese character for ¡®jailer¡¯ here is unique, and by itself means ¡°soldier¡± or ¡°pawn (in the Chess sense).¡± By itself, this character is one of the pieces in Chinese chess. In case you weren¡¯t aware, Chinese chess (which is not Go, incidentally), is a unique game yedmonly in China. If you want to learn more about it, here¡¯s the wiki entry</a>. The ¡°soldier¡± piece in Chinese chess is roughly equivalent to the pawn in Western chess. That said, when you take that character andbine it with the word for jail or prison, it is an archaic word for a prison guard or ¡°jailer.¡± In some instances, the author uses this character by itself, and in other cases hebines it with jail/prison for the full term. ?

    3. Back in chapter 349, the Captain actually mentioned that there was a sun pce at Mount Daybreak. As mentioned in the footnote of that chapter, all of these references to sun pces use the same specific word for ¡®pce,¡¯ which is ¡®the sleeping quarters of the emperor (and/or empress).¡¯ ?

    4. As described in chapter 370, the swordsage swords have the character ¡®yuan¡¯ on them. ?

 Chapter 393: Showing Off Meager Skill to an Expert

    Chapter 393: Showing Off Meager Skill to an Expert

    To be certain about something requires more than just spection and intuition. It was technically possible there was some other reason the subsidiary sect hadn¡¯t sent people to receive the delegation. There was one simple way to find out the truth, and that would be to go check in person.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked up at the floating capital city. Because the subsidiary sect was nowhere to be seen, they had no escort, and thus couldn¡¯t go up to the city. That said, such a matter could be easily resolved by someone like Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Off to the side, Master Fifth¡¯s eyes glittered with grim light. The other disciples present also had simr looks, and many of them were ncing out of the corners of their eyes at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    When Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying realized something unusual was going on, they inquired about the details. After hearing about the situation, Chen Tinghao said, ¡°Senior Plumdark, Fellow Daoist Xu Qing, Fellow Daoist Erniu, I can make some inquiries and find out if something happened in your subsidiary sect. In the meantime, if all you need is an escort, we can help.¡±

    He quickly took out a transmission jade slip.

    As he did, Xu Qing and the Captain sped hands and bowed thankfully.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded. She would rather not call on her contacts in the city on the very first day, especially not for the sake of merely entering. Most importantly, the county capital was home to countless powerful experts. That meant that she couldn¡¯t be as casual as she was back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    In this ce, caution had to be maintained at all times. That was especially true when having just arrived. Therefore, the first order of business was to find out what exactly was going on with the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect.

    Thanks to Chen Tinghao, it didn¡¯t take long before three beams of light shot down from the city above.

    They resolved into three people, all wearing dark brown uniforms, with lightning circling around them. They didn¡¯t seem like swordsages, and were clearly fellow members of Chen Tinghao¡¯s sect. Chen Tinghao helped with the introductions, confirming that they were from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order, and exining that they were on patrol duty at the moment.

    When the three neers learned that Xu Qing and the Captain were new swordsages, they became even more polite. Looking very respectful, they led the coalition delegation up into the city.

    To the always-observant Xu Qing, this interaction gave him yet further understanding of the status of swordsages.

    At the same time, he kept his eyes on the city, which drew closer and closer. It was roughly circr inyout, with huge walls around the edges, all of which glittered with countless magical symbols. As they got closer, the pressure radiating from the wall weighed down on them as their identities were confirmed.

    With Chen Tinghao and the three Patrol cultivators there to vouch for them, there were no problems. In no time, they were inside the city.

    Although the city was massive, everything was orderly. The streets and buildings alike were generally constructed from green jade bricks. Magenta rooftops were the mostmon. Every single building was impressive, from the big ones with huge outer courtyards, to the small ones that looked like single-room residences. Whether it was in terms of the size or style of the city, it was something the Eight Sect Coalition couldn¡¯tpare to. There was just something fundamentally different about them. The ce seemed magnificent, but at the same time, naturally solemn and serene. At the same time, thanks to the spirit trees that decorated the streets, the atmosphere was also elegant and refined. Every brick, tile, leaf, and nt emanated strong spirit energy that filled the city. There were both mortals and cultivators present, and the streets were bubbling and full of life.

    There were two things about the city that Xu Qing found particrly surprising.

    The first was that, because the city floated roughly at the level of the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s chest, when he looked up, he didn¡¯t see the broken face of the god. Nor did he see the sun or moon. Instead, he saw the statue¡¯s face. The statue seemed holy, with eyes that took in all living things. His expression seemed to be one of pity, as if he could look into the hearts of all the people in the city.

    The second thing Xu Qing found surprising was that as soon as he was in the city, he could sense that he was at the apex of Sea-Sealing County. His body, his soul, and everything else about him seemed somehow connected to Sea-Sealing County. It was an inimitably strange feeling that was different from anything he had felt in any other city. What was more, he wasn¡¯t even at the highest spot in the county.

    ¡°It¡¯s the power of destiny aura,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said quietly. ¡°As a capital city, and the core of Sea-Sealing County, this ce is a convergence spot for the destiny aura of the county. Some people think ¡®destiny aura¡¯ isn¡¯t real, the fact of the matter is that it really exists. That said, it usually converges only for the most orthodox representations of a species. Normally speaking, ordinary sects can¡¯t use it.¡±

    Xu Qing listened thoughtfully.

    As they proceeded on their way, Chen Tinghao exined a few more things. ¡°The capital is divided into nine rings and seventy-seven districts. You¡¯ll figure it all out pretty quickly, so I won¡¯t go into detail.¡±

    As they hurried on their way to the subsidiary sect, Chen Tinghao refrained from any further exnations. After confirming the location of the subsidiary sect, he led them in that direction as quickly as possible.

    The Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect was located in the southwestern part of the county capital, in District 59. It was a somewhat remote location rtively far away from the city center. From the outside, it looked impressive, with arge courtyard filled with decorative rocks and flowing streams. That said, there were no disciples present, and the front gate was sealed with sealing strips of ck paper. [1]

    When the coalition disciples saw the sealing strips, their expressions turned unsightly. Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at them, and without any change to her facial expression took out a jade slip to contact people she knew in the city.

    Those sealing strips exined everything. Something had indeed gone wrong with the subsidiary sect.

    Zhang Siyun? thought Xu Qing. He looked at the Captain, and the Captain looked back at him. Their eyes continued to narrow.

    Both he and Xu Qing had started out in the Violent Crimes Division, and they had seen and used sealing strips on many asions. Generally speaking, when a ce was sealed by the authorities, it indicated that there was an ongoing investigation and no one was allowed inside. To encounter such a situation on their first day in the capital made it seem highly likely someone was targeting them. As for who it was... after some thought, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that Zhang Siyun definitely had the motive and power.

    After all, the unusual way in which Zhang Siyun had been recruited went to show that he had powerful connections in the capital city.

    Upon seeing the sealing strip, Chen Tinghao frowned and started sending messages with his jade slip. His three fellow disciples did the same.

    The county capital was a massive ce, such that most people only knew what was happening in their own administrative district. That said, big cities always had underworld figures who brokered information. Therefore, it didn¡¯t take long for the details toe to light.

    Eyebrows shooting up, Chen Tinghao said, ¡°Seven days ago, the Justice Pce used your subsidiary sect of the crime of ¡®overstepping authority.¡¯ They were all taken in for interrogation.¡±

    A momentter, Arch-Immortal Plumdark got even more detailed information from her contacts. ¡°The orders came down from Yao Yunhui, director of the Justice Pce¡¯s Division 3. The charge of ¡®overstepping authority¡¯ is vague and can be applied in many situations. Obviously, they''re doing this for a reason. Xu Qing, what¡¯s the surname of the new swordsage from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society?¡± [2]

    ¡°Zhang,¡± Xu Qing growled. ¡°Zhang Siyun!¡±

    ¡°Is there friction between the two of you?¡± she asked.

    He nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s likely behind this. A good friend of mine looked into it and confirmed that Yao Yunhui is from the Yao n. The fact that she married someone from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society caused a big stir a while back. Her daoist partner was named Zhang, and not too long ago the two of them had a son.¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light.

    Master Fifth spoke, her voice hoarse. ¡°This usation of overstepping authority isn¡¯t about the subsidiary sect. It¡¯s about Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°It seems to me this whole thing was arranged in a rush,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Seven days isn¡¯t enough time for a thorough interrogation. Little Ah Qing, back when we were in Violent Crimes, how would we handle a situation like this?¡±

    ¡°n everything out in secret. Then attack with deadly force.¡±

    ¡°Exactly. With strength on our side, we didn¡¯t need to makeplicated schemes. We would just go in and arrest the culprit. The only reason someone would y things like this would be that they¡¯re scared. Otherwise, it would make more sense to take things slow. Make more preparations and contingencies. Don¡¯t beat the grass to startle the snake. Wait for the perfect moment to strike a mortal blow. Don¡¯t give your opponent the chance to fight back. Rip them up by the roots.¡± The Captain licked his lips. ¡°Given how anxious they seem, I bet their true purpose is good old mud-slinging. They arrest the first group and wait for the true target to arrive. Then they tell the true target that if they don¡¯t submit to questioning they¡¯ll be interfering with the investigation. They¡¯ll act very domineering in the hopes that the target will get angry and resist arrest. Back in the Violent Crimes Division, we rarely resorted to such crude tactics.¡±

    ¡°Why go to all that trouble?¡± Wu Jianwu asked, looking confused.

    Off to the side, Ning Yan rolled his eyes contemptuously.

    ¡°To get the target close and hopefully turn a minor matter into a big deal,¡± the Captain said. ¡°By embellishing a bit, they can justify arresting the target. The only alternative is to take things slowly.¡± Voice turning cold, he looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, how do you n to handle this?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be simple,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°Right. Handling it won¡¯t beplicated. The question is how to strike back.¡±

    ¡°How about a modified version of the Pilot Assistance Division event?¡± [3]

    The Captain grinned. ¡°Interesting. I can¡¯t believe anyone would dare to plot against Violent Crimes veterans like you and me!¡±

    Upon hearing their words, the surrounding disciples inhaled sharply. Chen Tinghao did the same, then cast a deep look at Xu Qing and the Captain. Meanwhile, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes shone with praise, and Master Fifth smiled.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother should be sending people here at any moment,¡± Xu Qing said. He looked off into the distance.

    Sure enough, two people were rushing toward them from the nearby intersection. Before they even arrived, their somber aura settled over the area.

    ¡°Here they are,¡± the Captain said, his eyes shining.

    The two new arrivals wore blue uniforms with ck capes. They were obviously the uniforms of the Swordsage Pce, but were designed to make those wearing them look like officers of thew. Their expressions were grim as theypletely ignored Arch-Immortal Plumdark and focused solely on Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing?¡± said one.

    ¡°We¡¯re officers from the Justice Pce,¡± the other continued, ¡°in charge of interrogating the subsidiary sect of the Eight Sect Coalition. Xu Qing, you are suspected of being involved in the overstepping of authority, and we hereby serve you with a subpoena. You wille to the Justice Pce for questioning.¡±

    ¡°If you resist,¡± the first one went on, ¡°we have the authority to use lethal force. If you refuse to answer our questions, we will bring the full weight of Justice Pcew against you. If anyone interferes with his matter, they will be crushed ording to thew.¡±

    Both of these people were in the Gold Core level with six heavenly pces. And they were intentionally projecting their voices so all the passersby could hear.

    However, after speaking, they didn¡¯t immediately try toy hands on Xu Qing. Instead, they looked around at the other coalition disciples, and especially Arch-Immortal Plumdark, as if waiting for them to react in some way.

    Chen Tinghao and all the coalition disciples, meanwhile, were looking at Xu Qing and the Captain. As it turned out... things were ying out exactly as they had predicted.

    Xu Qing had served in the Violent Crimes for three years. He had started out as an ordinary constable, then ended up as the director of the Seventh Peak¡¯s Violent Crimes Division. He was therefore familiar with all theplicated formalities involved in a situation like this. The Captain had been in Violent Crimes for even longer.

    Xu Qing turned to Arch-Immortal Plumdark and sped hands. ¡°Senior, I can handle this matter. Don¡¯t worry.¡±

    After then sping hands to Master Fifth and Chen Tinghao, and casting a nce in the Captain¡¯s direction, he walked toward the Justice Pce officers.

    1. Using paper strips to seal doors is amon thing even nowadays in China. Usually the sealing papers have the Chinese character ¡°seal¡± on them. It looks like this ·â. At thepany I worked at in China, the day before we went on vacation for the Spring Festival period (Chinese New Year), we would thoroughly clean the office and seal each room, and ultimately the entire office, with paper. Of course, sealing strips have a wide variety of other applications. For example, if a ce is a crime scene, the police might seal the area that way. Any time someone wants to officially dere a ce as ¡°closed,¡± those strips can be ced onto the door to ¡°prevent¡± it from opening. Here¡¯s a picture. ?

    2. Yao Yunhui. This is the same Yao from the Yao n in the county capital. It¡¯s #51 on the list of the 100 mostmon surnames, and also means ¡°handsome, good-looking, etc.¡± Yun means ¡°cloud¡± and Hui means ¡°intelligent, rational, wisdom.¡± Yun is pronounced simr to ¡°yoon¡± and Hui rhymes with way, with an H sound at the beginning. Hway. Madam Deathde says this name sounds like a beautiful and intelligent woman. ?

    3. The Pilot Assistance event was in chapter 69. ?

 Chapter 394: Xu Qing Strikes Back

    Chapter 394: Xu Qing Strikes Back

    ¡°Lead the way,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    His actions caused the Justice Pce officers¡¯ eyes to narrow. They looked him up and down suspiciously, then looked around with gritted teeth. Finally, they produced a set of vicious-looking restraints and walked toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing simply stood there thoughtfully.

    Meanwhile, the Captain observed with raised eyebrows. Based on how unreasonable these two officers were being, it was obvious to Xu Qing and the Captain what they were trying to do. The Captain smiled faintly.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t resist in any way. He let the officers ce the restraints on him, and then he started walking. Because he wasn¡¯t walking fast enough, one of the officers yelled at him to speed up. Xu Qing turned, looked him deeply in the eyes, but didn¡¯t say anything. Then he left with them.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark watched all this happening, and chose to trust that Xu Qing could handle the situation. However, she also sent messages to some friends of hers, and used her own methods to provide an added measure of protection.

    Chen Tinghao did the same. Though he wasn¡¯t a very warm-hearted person in general, he was warm-hearted toward other swordsages. And because this matter now involved the Swordsage Pce, he needed to report it.

    ¡°Everybody stay calm,¡± the Captain said. ¡°They¡¯re obviously trying to smear little Ah Qing. The evidence is too obvious, and their methods are simply clumsy. If their crude tactics actually work on little Junior Brother, then our years in Violent Crimes will have been a total waste. I¡¯d say things will be cleared up in three to five days. When the timees, just trust me and follow my lead.¡±

    The Captain watched Xu Qing go, and a fire burned in his heart. This was the first time he had ever been forced to watch his own Junior Brother being arrested and taken away in front of his own eyes.

    ***

    Outside the county capital, in one of the three floating pces that was the Justice Pce, Zhang Siyun nervously waited in the side chamber of a pce hall in Division 3. He was standing off to the side looking visibly anxious. It was a side of him that no outsider had ever seen. Normally he was grim, cold, and calcting. There was only one person who could get him to act this way, and that was his mother, Yao Yunhui.

    She currently sat at a table leafing through some of the Justice Pce¡¯s files. [1]

    Though she was obviously a human woman, her long ck hair, skin as fair as snow, and beautiful face made her seem like an immortal fairy from a painting. She was so stunningly attractive that she didn¡¯t seem to have any traces of mortality on her. In fact, she didn¡¯t look so much like Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother as his sister. She sat with her waist slightly bent, entuating her ample bosom and stunning curves.

    Zhang Siyun hardly dared to breathe as he stood there waiting.

    Some time passed. Eventually, someone knocked at the door.

    ¡°Enter,¡± said Yao Yunhui.

    The two cultivators who had left to get Xu Qing respectfully entered and dropped to their knees in front of her.

    ¡°Our respects, exalted one.¡±

    ¡°Exalted one, we brought Xu Qing and locked him up. Unfortunately, no one from his sect interfered. Nor did Xu Qing resist arrest.... As of now we¡¯re not really sure what to do next.¡±

    Putting down the file she had been reading, she looked up and said, ¡°This little sect isn¡¯t brainless after all. Well, there¡¯s nothing to do for now. Just keep him locked up.¡±

    When she looked at them, the two cultivators felt their hearts pounding. Though they often had a chance to see their superior, every time they did, they couldn¡¯t help but react this way. Her fatal beauty was just too enticing. That said, they were fully aware of how ruthless she was. Shivering, they voiced their consent and quickly left.

    When Zhang Siyun saw his mother¡¯s subordinates leave, he couldn¡¯t control his emotions and looked at her with eager expectation. Everything that was happening resulted from his exnation to his mother about why he had failed so spectacrly in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. That was why the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect had been brought in. His mother had made all the arrangements. The n had been to first seize everyone from the subsidiary sect on trumped up charges, all with the goal of getting to Xu Qing.

    Now that Xu Qing had been brought in, Zhang Siyun¡¯s mind was racing. ¡°Mother, don¡¯t forget that Xu Qing has two lifemps. He¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± she said coolly.

    Zhang Siyun was stricken to the core and didn¡¯t dare speak any further.

    ¡°Your father was pathetic, and I¡¯d hoped you would be better than him. Come to find, you¡¯re just as pathetic. You couldn¡¯t even take a swordsagemand sword? You just had to rely on special help from your Sect Grandfather?¡±

    Zhang Siyun bowed his head bitterly.

    Yao Yunhui looked at her son and sighed. She truly was disappointed with him. ¡°Yun¡¯er, you need to do things one step at a time. That Xu Qing got a 30,000-meter pir of light. He earned the veneration of the Grand Emperor, and the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Dao Bell tolled for him. Everyone saw it. His actions earned face for all of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Do you really think you can just casually make a move on him?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re on a fishing expedition?¡± Zhang Siyun asked thoughtfully.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re not aplete idiot. Yes. The first purpose of locking him up is to see who interferes to help him, and who just looks on coldly. After all, I refuse to believe that everyone was happy about that 30,000-meter pir of light.

    ¡°This Xu Qing is the type of person you need to take care of right away, when he first starts out. Once he officially joins the swordsages, he¡¯ll be difficult to deal with.

    ¡°Matters like these can¡¯t be handled with undue haste. Furthermore, in circumstances like these, you can''t just use him of a crime. The second reason why I had him locked up has nothing to do with crimes. No more than three days from now, I¡¯ll let him go, stating that the matter needs to be investigated further. I¡¯ll also release everyone from the subsidiary sect.

    ¡°However, because the investigation is ¡®ongoing,¡¯ his permanent record will have a blemish. People will be suspicious of him. It will cast a shadow on that 30,000-meter pir of light. Of course, that won¡¯t be enough. Going forward, we¡¯ll continue to besmirch him, creating so many blemishes on his record that the 30,000-meter light will be less and less important. And then, we can finally make arrangements for him to experience a little ident.

    ¡°By then, no one will say a thing about it. As for his lifemps, there¡¯s no way you can just directly take them. Figure out another way. After they¡¯ve been handed over officially, you can use military credits to get them. That¡¯s the most aboveboard way to handle it. Sess isn¡¯t about going around fighting and killing all the time. You have a lot to learn in this regard.¡±

    Yao Yunhui''s soft voice sounded like water from a deep, clear spring. However, it was a pitch-ck spring full of poison.

    Hearing her words, Zhang Siyun inhaled deeply, then sped hands and bowed.

    ***

    Somewhere in the Justice Pce¡¯s prison, Xu Qing sat cross-legged in a cell, looking around calmly. This ce was nothing like the Corrections Division. In fact, this prison was a lot more like the cell blocks back in the Violent Crimes Division. There weren¡¯t many prisoners, but because of theck of air cirction, the ce stank. It was also cold and humid.

    Because of Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, the restraints that had been ced upon him didn¡¯tpletely suppress him. What was more, he had plenty of ways topletely restore his cultivation base if he wanted. Among them were his shadow, his taboo poison, or the power of the violet moon.

    But he wasn¡¯t in a hurry. Having seen how everything was ying out, he was absolutely convinced that this matter was targeting him specifically. It also went to show how important the 30,000-meter pir of light was. All he had to do was put himself in his enemy¡¯s shoes, and everything made sense.

    They¡¯re trying to smear me. And they¡¯re doing it in a way that doesn¡¯t seem obvious. But in the end, they¡¯re trying to erode the protection I have from that 30,000-meter pir of light. It¡¯s not a bad n. It¡¯s just being badly executed.

    Xu Qing shook his head. If he was right, then it would only be a few more days until he was released as part of an ¡®ongoing investigation.¡¯ However, because the matter wasn¡¯t fully resolved, it would leave a blemish on his official record. In an orthodox organization that represented all of humanity, one¡¯s background needed to be spotless. But now, he would have two things on his record: a 30,000-meter pir of light, and a tiny blemish.

    Though some people might not think a blemish like that mattered, it would definitely have repercussionster. And that was what his enemy was trying to do. Although it seemed like an ingenious n, the person perpetrating itcked true finesse.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with cold light. It wouldn¡¯t be hard to deal with the situation. But he wasn¡¯t the type of person who just ¡®dealt¡¯ with things. He was the kind who struck back. Even back in the slums, if someone was openly hostile, then he would either kill them immediately, or figure out a way to make them hurt.

    One good example was when Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had been chasing him. He could have simply fled. Instead, he razed the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect to the ground. That was how Xu Qing operated. [2]

    Of course, different circumstances warranted different ways of striking back.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing closed his eyes. He had already decided how he would strike back.

    Three days passed by in a sh.

    The subsidiary sect disciples who had been locked up for ten days were in foul moods as they were released. During that time, they had been interrogated. However, the questions had all been very vague. In fact, even now, they didn¡¯t have any idea why they had really been brought in for questioning. Upon emerging from the Justice Pce, they found that Arch-Immortal Plumdark was waiting for them, along with a small retinue of others.

    ¡°Greetings, Arch-Immortal!¡± said the subsidiary sect leader, who was originally from the coalition¡¯s eighth sect. Feeling profoundly embarrassed, he hurried forward, sped hands and bowed.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded in response, and took note of the fact that Xu Qing was not in the group that had been released. It was the same with Master Fifth.

    Only the Captain seemed extremely nervous, although he managed to secretly wink at Wu Jianwu. Wu Jianwu quickly took out a jade slip to record images.

    Chen Tinghao was also present, but he wasn¡¯t alone. He had brought nearly a dozen swordsages with whom he was friendly.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Xu Qing?¡±

    That was what everyone was wondering. However, they didn¡¯t have to wait long. A momentter, the two Justice Pce officers who had arrested him appeared, shoving Xu Qing between the two of them as they emerged.

    ¡°A 30,000-meter pir of light, yet you¡¯re still suspected of overstepping authority?¡± one of them said coldly. ¡°I¡¯d say you got off lucky this time.¡±

    ¡°Going forward,¡± the other said, his voice equally cold, ¡°I really hope you think things through. This matter is over for now, but the case isn¡¯t closed.¡±

    With that, they prepared to remove Xu Qing¡¯s restraints.

    However, before they could, Xu Qing shivered, his eyes went ck, and he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. As the blood sshed onto the ground in shocking fashion, a cloud of blood erupted from Xu Qing as countless wounds opened up all over him. Every single wound was absolutely horrific, and cut all the way down to the bone. It looked like someone had tried to cover them up with a magical technique. But now they were visible for everyone to see. There were wounds all over his face, his neck, and every visible patch of skin. It was only possible to imagine how many more wounds were underneath his clothes. In fact, there was so much blood that his clothing was instantly soaked.

    The obvious impression that anyone would get was that Xu Qing had been sadistically tortured during his three days in confinement. Whoever had done the torturing was obviouslypletely devoid of conscience, and had nearly skinned him alive.

    What was worse, he clearly had injuries to his internal organs. Many of his bones were broken, so much so that he couldn¡¯t stand, and immediately fell to the ground. He was obviously gasping for breath, and very close to being dead!

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s method of striking back. It was just like the saying when striking a snake, hit it in a vital spot. When he struck back, he wanted his enemy to suffer so badly they wouldn¡¯t ever consider trying to turn a small matter into a big one. It was simr to the Pilot Assistance Division incident, back when he had secretly helped Huang Yan by using a pebble to deflect a dagger. Back then, Huang Yan¡¯s melodrama, and willingness to take a beating, had brought a lot of attention to the situation. That was what Xu Qing was doing here. Of course, he needed help from the Captain. But Xu Qing had no worries at all about whether or not the Captain woulde through.

    ¡°Xu Qing!!¡± the Captain howled. Rushing forward, he dropped to his knees and scooped Xu Qing up into his arms.

    Xu Qing looked faint as he again coughed up blood. More blood oozed out of his wounds. He lookedpletely listless, as though he were barely hanging onto consciousness.

    Those wounds were all real. There was nothing fake about them. Whether the wounds to his flesh, or those to his organs, they werepletely authentic. What was more, there were cracks in his heavenly pces. Even worse, the restraints that had been ced on him sealed the power of his cultivation base. With those restraints on him, there was no way he could have inflicted these wounds on himself. And that meant there was only one exnation....

    Tugging his hair into disarray in a show of anguish, the Captain howled, ¡°Justice Pce! What horrific crime did my Junior Brother Xu Qingmit for you to punish him so cruelly, for you to discipline him so maliciously, for you tomit such atrocities?

    ¡°Justice Pce! Tell me! What crime did my Junior Brothermit?

    ¡°He¡¯s nothing but a new swordsage, here to report for duty. It was his first day here, and you took him away, right in front of us. You even used your vicious restraints to seal his cultivation base. Three days! Three days!!! That was all it took for you to disfigure him until he doesn¡¯t look human!!¡±

    The Captain was obviously furious, but so was Arch-Immortal Plumdark. It was the same with all the other disciples from the Eight Sect Coalition. Chen Tinghao and the other swordsages were ring furiously.

    The scene caused an instantmotion in the Justice Pce. The two officers who had brought Xu Qing out werepletely bbergasted, and had no idea what was going on. Neither of them had even touched Xu Qing during the past three days, nor had anyone else. And yet all of the wounds were absolutely, positively real.

    As everyone reacted with open fury and rage, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow twitched a bit....

    Meanwhile, veins bulged on the Captain¡¯s neck as he held Xu Qing, and his eyes were crimson. Laughing bitterly, he cried, ¡°Little Junior Brother, you¡¯re barely breathing! We were supposed to defend humanity together! We were supposed to be swordsages of humankind. Our light was to shine in heaven and earth!

    ¡°Oh, little Junior Brother, who exactly was it that viciously tortured you? And what did they want? Don¡¯t tell me they were jealous of your 30,000-meter pir of light! Or was it that you offended Zhang Siyun?

    ¡°How could you have been so foolish? Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother actually works for the Justice Pce! I told you not toe here! But you said that you trust in the justice and fairness of humankind! You said you trusted the light of the swordsages!

    ¡°It took us eight months to get here, only to fall to the old trick of nted evidence! What use is that 30,000-meter light now, little Junior Brother? Can it protect you against vicious schemes hatched by small-minded people? What use is the Grand Emperor¡¯s veneration? Can that protect you against the machinations of viins?? Is this how people bully swordsages?

    ¡°Oh, little Junior Brother, I, your Eldest Brother, might just have to risk giving up my status as a swordsage if that¡¯s what it takes to get true justice for you!

    ¡°Justice Pce, if my little Junior Brother reallymitted a crime, then bring out the evidence. That¡¯s fine with me. But if my little Junior Brother is actually innocent, yet you still cruelly mistreated him, then... I won¡¯t let this matter drop!

    ¡°Heaven¡¯sw won¡¯t permit it!

    ¡°30,000 meters of light won¡¯t permit it!

    ¡°The Grand Emperor won¡¯t permit it!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as his voice got louder and louder until it was a howl that filled the Justice Pce.

    Furthermore, someone somehow tapped into a technique that caused thunder to rumble in the sky, shaking everything. Lightning crashed, illuminating the face of the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. The dome of heaven was furious, and the Ancient Emperor was enraged.

    1. The specific type of table here does not have amon trantion, nor is there a detailed description. However, if you¡¯ve seen any Chinese period drama show, you have likely seen a traditional table like this. Presumably it¡¯s a variation on that type of table. ?

    2. Xu Qing razed the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect to the ground in the chapter entitled such, chapter 46. ?

 Chapter 395: Seven Words from the Swordsage Palace

    Chapter 395: Seven Words from the Swordsage Pce

    The two Justice Pce officers who had brought Xu Qing out were absolutely stunned. At the same time, they were furious, as they hadn¡¯t tortured Xu Qing at all. Nor had anyone else in Division 3. In fact, no one had even so much as looked at Xu Qing during the three days he was locked up.

    ¡°This is impossible!¡± one of them shouted furiously. ¡°We never tortured him!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re obviously making all of this up!¡± the other yelled. ¡°Do you know what kind of ce the Justice Pce is? How dare you try to defraud this ce!¡±

    Seeing how worked up the Captain was, Arch-Immortal Plumdark knew that it was time for her to step in. She strode forward, her Void Returning cultivation base ring to life. A thousand dao lineaments swirled in her eyes as terrifying fluctuations rolled out in all directions, causing wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. This was the county capital, but Void Returning was Void Returning. Her facial expression was grim and full of anger as she ignored the bbering footsoldiers and instead looked into the depths of the Justice Pce itself.

    ¡°I am Arch-Immortal Plumdark, a human cultivator from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. I came here to escort the new swordsage Xu Qing to the capital, the same one who earned the veneration of the Grand Emperor and was given a 30,000-meter pir of light. I hereby request that the Justice Pce provide an exnation of what happened to our dao child, Xu Qing. Are the charges true, or was he framed?¡±

    The Justice Pce was a huge organization, and Division 3 was only a small cog in therger wheel. And yet, both the Captain and Arch-Immortal Plumdark had spoken loudly enough that everyone could hear them. Quite a few Justice Pce cultivators were now looking outside.

    At first, the Captain¡¯s yelling had made enough people displeased that they had been considering going out and shutting him up. After all, for a scene like this to y out could really harm the reputation of the Justice Pce. But when they heard him mention that the incident was because of jealousy, they hesitated. The word jealousy inherently rted to private, selfish affairs, not the public interest. And it naturally didn¡¯t make sense that members of the Justice Pce should meddle in the affairs of others because of personal interest. Despite that, some people in the Justice Pce were still inclined to shut the Captain up.

    Then they heard him mention the 30,000-meter pir of light and the veneration of the Grand Emperor. At that point, they decided not to get involved. After all, people who had what it took to work in the Justice Pce weren¡¯t idiots. Although they considered Yao Yunhui, the director of Division 3, to be a colleague, when they saw Arch-Immortal Plumdark they couldn¡¯t help but hesitate.

    But there was more.

    They were also hesitant when they saw the righteous indignation on the faces of the dozens of swordsages who hade along. At that point, no one from the Justice Pce stepped in. In fact, the matter had escted to the point where the swordsages were preparing to call for backup.

    Finally, seeing all that, Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother Yao Yunhui couldn¡¯t hold back any longer.

    Having already experienced how difficult it was to deal with Xu Qing, she knew that she couldn¡¯t let the matter drag out any longer. She had to resolve it immediately, lest it lead to further trouble. All in all, she knew full well that she was in the wrong. If things had gone ording to her previous n, it wouldn¡¯t have mattered. But Xu Qing had struck back quickly and efficiently, and with ruthless uracy.

    Looking very grim, she emerged from her office, walked to the gate outside the Division 3 prison, and stepped out into the open.

    The two Justice Pce officers breathed sighs of relief and rushed over to offer greetings.

    Meanwhile, all of the coalition disciples and swordsages turned their attention to her. Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s energy fluctuations still caused the area to tremble, and her phoenix-like eyes were cold as she looked at this other woman whose beauty was on the same level as her own.

    Yao Yunhui stood there silently for a moment. She wasn¡¯t in Void Returning. She was only in Spirit Trove. If she had been facing Arch-Immortal Plumdark alone, she would have been terrified, but considering this was the Justice Pce, she wasn¡¯t afraid. That said, she hade here to smooth things over, so she took a deep breath and bowed to Arch-Immortal Plumdark with sped hands.

    Then she turned to Xu Qing. Looking very apologetic, she said, ¡°Xu Qing, this was a big mistake on the part of my Division 3. As the director, I¡¯ll look into the matter, figure out what happened, and give an exnation. Right now, I can confirm that Xu Qing, as well as all of your people from the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect, only came here to cooperate with an investigation. As of now, the investigation is over, and a determination has been made. You are not guilty of overstepping authority.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I issued the orders to release you. However, something unusual has clearly urred. As for what exactly it was, that isn¡¯t important. This matter won¡¯t be recorded in the official prison records, and I take full responsibility for the mistake.¡±

    With that, she took out a jade slip which she examined, as if to confirm certain details of the investigation. There were deepyers of meaning to her words. On the surface, they seemed like an apology. Yet she made that apology as the director of Division 3. In other words, she was implying that everything that happened was the result of bad behavior on the part of her subordinates. As a result, she didn¡¯t implicate herself personally. What was more, she said that everything was rted to an investigation, and that Xu Qing and the others had been freed because of that. That made it seem like it wasn¡¯t a personal issue. That was another way she distanced herself from it personally. Finally, there was the hint of a threat in her words.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. As for the Captain, he looked closely at Yao Yunhui. Though the initial scenario had been handled clumsily, the resolution wasn¡¯t that bad.

    ¡°I¡¯ve already started looking into the reason why this all happened,¡± she continued, ¡°and I¡¯ll have an answer soon. In the meantime, I can see that Xu Qing¡¯s injuries are serious. Please take this spirit-gathering pill to help with the healing.¡± Looking very apologetic, Yao Yunhui took out a medicinal pill that shone with dazzling light, making it obvious it was extraordinary. ¡°Rest at ease, all of you. Forget about the 30,000-meter light and the veneration of the Grand Emperor. Even ordinary mortal citizens are treated the same in the Justice Pce. We enforce thew in a fair and impartial manner. That¡¯s our duty.¡±

    With that, she ced the pill off to the side. Around then, her jade slip red with light. After looking at it, her expression turned grave and she looked at the two officers. ¡°As it turns out, it was you two! You took it upon yourselves to torture him!¡±

    Before the two officers could open their mouths, Yao Yunhui suddenly waved her hand. The two of them screamed, then tumbled backward, blood spraying out of their mouths. When they flopped to the ground some distance away, it was impossible to tell if they were dead or alive.

    ¡°Lock them up.¡±

    Some other Division 3 officers flew out and took away the two officers.

    Yao Yunhui had handled the matter quickly and efficiently. Little did anyone know that the message she had received confirmed that the surveince jade slips in the prison had been disabled, meaning that there was no evidence of what had really happened.

    Having handled the two subordinates, she looked at Xu Qing and Arch-Immortal Plumdark. sping hands in embarrassment, she said, ¡°I was negligent in my management, and as a result, Xu Qing endured humiliation. Considering how hurt you are, Xu Qing, I suggest you go back and get some rest. Now that I understand the details of what happened, I¡¯ll prepare a report and send it to you right away. Later I¡¯lle pay you a visit in person.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. It was impressive that Yao Yunhui could resolve matters so quickly. He could tell that if he kept pressing the issue of being wounded, the situation could change, and he woulde across as overbearing.

    On the one hand, it was good to know that this incident wasn¡¯t going to harm his record. That said, he didn¡¯t think he had struck back viciously enough. Therefore, he opened his mouth as if to say something.

    Unfortunately, his wounds were so severe, and he was so weak, that he couldn¡¯t speak or send out divine will. The Captain quickly leaned over and put his ear to Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. A momentter, his anger turned to outright disbelief.

    ¡°WHAT?¡± he shouted. ¡°Little Junior Brother, are you telling me that the two swine who nearly killed you also stole 30,000,000 spirit stones from you?¡±

    Yao Yunhui¡¯s eyes narrowed and her heart started to race a bit. Yet again she wasing to understand how difficult it was to deal with Xu Qing. Although she thought she had already negated his ability to strike back at her, all it took was a fraction of a moment for him to shift tactics and once again start causing problems.

    30,000,000 spirit stones was no small amount even to her. To be extorted in such a manner made her feel like she was being forced to swallow a big pile of dog excrement. Yet she couldn¡¯t reveal anger publicly. All she could do was inhale deeply, force herself to calm down, then smile and nod.

    ¡°I¡¯ll look into the matter. If I find¡ª¡±

    Before she could finish speaking, Xu Qing coughed up another huge mouthful of blood, and his aura became even weaker than before. Rage filled the Captain¡¯s face as he fed medicine to Xu Qing andughed bitterly.

    ¡°Is this really the Justice Pce?¡± he mused in a very loud voice. ¡°They beat people up at random and even steal from them! Oh, little Junior Brother, did we really end up at the county capital of humankind? The dao of heaven won¡¯t permit this! The¡ª¡±

    When Yao Yunhui saw that the same routine was starting again, veins bulged on her forehead, and her fury spiked. However, she knew that she couldn¡¯t let things continue to y out. Gritting her teeth, she interrupted the Captain.

    ¡°It will take time to investigate, but in the meantime, Division 3 will make an advance payment of 30,000,000 spirit stones!¡±

    As she spoke the words, she felt like her heart was bleeding.

    When the Captain heard her words, his heart started beating faster. Licking his lips, he leaned closer to Xu Qing again, but this time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    However, the Captain then clenched his right hand into a fist and mmed it onto the floor tile next to him. The floor tile shattered. Eyes bloodshot, he howled, ¡°WHAT? You mean that they also took away the seventeen deadly spell formations and fifty-seven magical devices I gave you as a gift?¡±

    The Captain looked so full of grief he might have a heart attack.

    Xu Qing looked at him and could tell how passionate the Captain was at the moment, so he nodded.

    Yao Yunhui was panting for breath at this point, and her emotions were almost out of control. As she red at the Captain, she started to realize that he was actually a lot more annoying than Xu Qing. She was just about to say something when a stream of terrifying divine will emerged from the Justice Pce and scanned the area. When she felt that divine will, Yao Yunhui shivered as she realized that her actions had attracted the displeasure of her superiors. Gritting her teeth, she forced a calm look onto her face.

    And yet, she had underestimated the Captain. When he saw the calm look on her face, the Captain howled in grief.

    ¡°The three magical treasure fragments that Master gave you were also taken? And they didn¡¯t even let you keep the more than 10,000 spirit stones our swordsage friends gave us to purchase local specialty products for them from Seven Blood Eyes? Those swordsages worked hard for that money!

    ¡°Huh? Are you telling me that the three heavenly pce pills Arch-Immortal Plumdark gave you were also seized?¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s face darkened as she looked coldly at Yao Yunhui. As for all the swordsages, including Chen Tinghao, they had odd looks on their faces as they looked at the Captain. But they also nodded.

    Seeing all that, Yao Yunhui could hardly suppress her fury. Her eyes pulsed with rage. This wasn¡¯t just extortion, it was group extortion, and she almost couldn¡¯t maintain control.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s fingers twitched as if to say ¡°alright, good enough, quit while you¡¯re ahead.¡± He had the feeling that if they pushed things any further, they would make fools of themselves in trying to be clever.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t quite ready to give up, though, and was about to continue when Xu Qing coughed up yet another mouthful of blood.

    Finally, the Captain closed his mouth. Looking furious, he put Xu Qing onto his back and walked over to Arch-Immortal Plumdark. As Yao Yunhui glowered at them, they left.

    ***

    After they were gone, the area was silent for a moment. Then a voice spoke from the divine will that hade from the Justice Pce.

    ¡°Director Yao, this is the Justice Pce, the judicial center of humankind. You have the right to seek justice for humankind, not resolve personal vendettas. You have overstepped your authority here.¡±

    Yao Yunhui shivered and bowed her head.

    ¡°We just received an official inquiry from the Swordsage Pce. That inquiry contains one sentence with seven words.

    ¡°Do you have a death wish, Yao Yunhui?¡±

    Yao Yunhui inhaled deeply. A moment passed, and then she quietly said, ¡°Pce Lord, your humble servant admits her error.¡±

    ¡°Shape up.¡± Having said that, the divine will from inside the Justice Pce vanished.

    Yao Yunhui stood there for a long moment, then turned expressionlessly and walked back to her office.

    Upon entering, she saw Zhang Siyun waiting for her, concern on his face. ¡°Mother¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yun¡¯er,¡± she interrupted, ¡°those two colleagues of yours are no simpletons.¡±

    Zhang Siyun shivered and wasn¡¯t sure what to say. Before he could do anything, Yao Yunhui pulled her hand back and pped him hard. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as he was thrown off his feet to m into the wall. His internal organs trembled, and more blood sprayed out of his mouth as half his face swelled up.

    ¡°Pathetic!¡± she growled through gritted teeth. ¡°Your father was pathetic, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society is pathetic, and you¡¯re just as pathetic!¡±

    Only now was she able to vent her fury by means of that p.

    Zhang Siyun didn¡¯t dare to offer a single retort to his mother. He didn¡¯t even dare to wipe the blood off his face. He just kept his head bowed. He had experienced this kind of thing many times growing up.

    After cursing Zhang Siyun, Yao Yunhui walked around and sat behind her desk. Taking a deep breath to settle her emotions, she took a bowl of silver fungus soup from off to the side and took a sip. [1]

    Her face was absolutely wless, and her eyes were like jewels as she looked in the direction of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect. Then she smiled faintly.

    ¡°Warning? Me? I guess that just makes things more interesting.¡±

    1. Silver fungus, also known as snow fungus, snow ear, white jelly mushroom, and white cloud ears, is a species of fungusmonly eaten in China. I actually love it, along with the thicker and ck-colored ¡®wood ear fungus.¡¯ When growing, it looks quite beautiful</a>. However, when put into soup (or hotpot) it quickly turns into a gtinous, shapeless mass, so I¡¯m not going to share a picture of that lol. ?

 Chapter 396: Violet Moon Heavenly Palace

    Chapter 396: Violet Moon Heavenly Pce

    The Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s situation was resolved sessfully.

    In the main courtyard of the garrison, the subsidiary sect held a weing banquet for Xu Qing and everyone else. The Captain looked immeasurably pleased with himself. He went around exchanging toasts with everyone, and already seemed to be friends with all the swordsages. [1]

    Just about all of them had heard that, among the group of neers from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there was one who had provoked a mere one-meter light. Based on the Captain¡¯s performance today, they could already guess the identity of that individual. But they were all worldly-wise individuals. Given the spirit stones involved, and Chen Tinghao¡¯s enthusiastic introduction, no one embarrassingly called the Captain out. In fact, they were getting along great.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn¡¯t participate in the banquet. But she did have some medicinal pills sent to Xu Qing. They were pills that personally belonged to her, which made them particrly valuable.

    Xu Qing epted the pills. He wasn¡¯t sure what to say in response, but felt very moved. Not having a way with words, he simply sent her a voice message saying thanks.

    ¡°Since when did you start worrying so much about etiquette, child?¡± she replied, sounding as seductive as always. ¡°I¡¯m in Suite A-1. If you have any cultivation issues, you can just sneak over here and I¡¯ll help you.¡±

    Her closing remark caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to start racing. Putting the jade slip away, he took a moment to calm himself.

    Though the injuries he had inflicted on himself with his shadow were serious, they healed quickly. After all, he had inflicted them with care. What was more, he had been in many deadly situations before, andpared to some of the wounds he had sustained in the past, these could be considered minor.

    It was only natural that he would attend the banquet. As he watched the Captain going around toasting everyone, he turned to Chen Tinghao and asked about Yao Yunhui. Chen Tinghao was happy to provide a detailed exnation.

    ¡°In the past, human nobility would inherit their titles. But when the current emperor ascended the throne, inherited titles were done away with. That¡¯s why the n lord of Yao Mansion isn¡¯t an actual heavenly marquis.

    ¡°But because his ancestor did so much for humankind, both the governor and the pce lords still refer to the n lord as the Noble Marquis. The Noble Marquis had three children, two sons and a daughter. Yao Yunhui is the Noble Marquis¡¯s daughter.

    ¡°She used to be a very influential figure here in the capital. Years ago, she married someone from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society in your Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, which caused a big stir. As far as Yao Mansion was concerned, they were too far apart in status. Later, her daoist partner died, so she left her son in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and came back here to Yao Mansion.

    ¡°She has a hugework of connections in the capital, an extraordinary background, and incredible good looks. Furthermore, I heard that she¡¯s close with Honor Guard Sima from the Swordsage Pce, who originated in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. And beyond all that, she¡¯s now the director of Division 3 in the Justice Pce.

    ¡°That said, the Swordsage Pce doesn¡¯t fear the Justice Pce. Also, Honor Guard Sima isn¡¯t the kind of person who practices favoritism and engages in cronyism. So you don¡¯t need to worry. Furthermore... nobody really likes Yao Mansion.¡±

    Chen Tinghao was about to raise his cup to toast Xu Qing when Sun Liying cast him a meaningful nce. He suddenly looked embarrassed, as if he wanted to drink, yet didn¡¯t dare to. Clearing his throat, he continued, ¡°The Swordsage Pce and Yao Mansion don¡¯t see eye to eye.

    ¡°The Swordsage Pce has always advocated for a stronger stance against the two nonhuman species in our county, plus the Holytide species as well. We¡¯d fight them if we had to. The pce lord has suggested multiple times that we purge the county and crush the Saintfiends and Demi-Immortals.

    ¡°The Yao n is staunchly opposed to that. They think that using lethal force will just cause more problems, and advocate for a closer rtionship with the nonhumans. So in the county as a whole, it¡¯s the Yao n who have the most dealings with the Saintfiends and Demi-Immortals. In fact, they even intermarry. They also cozy up with the Holytides, like flunkies.¡± Chen Tinghao looked visibly disdainful. ¡°If the old heavenly marquis knew what they were up to, he¡¯d probably crawl out of his coffin and p those spineless descendants of his to death.¡±

    At this point, Chen Tinghao couldn¡¯t hold back from raising his alcohol gon and taking a big drink. Sun Liying helplessly shook her head, yet the warmth remained in her eyes.[2]

    The banquet didn¡¯tst for very long. By the time the moon hung high in the sky, it was over. Xu Qing and the Captain escorted the guests out of the subsidiary sect, then returned to the main courtyard. Bright moonlight lit the path in front of them, and a faint breeze blew, stirring their hair and spreading the aroma of alcohol in all directions.

    ¡°We¡¯re finally in the county capital, little Ah Qing!¡± The Captain was obviously in a very good mood. Producing an apple, he took a big bite.

    Xu Qing looked up into the sky at the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. He nodded.

    ¡°Remember what I said to you back in the day?¡± the Captain continued. ¡°Let¡¯s travel the world together! The county capital isn¡¯t our final destination. No, it¡¯s our starting point. Next, we need to solidify our ce in the Swordsage Pce. And then, little Junior Brother, after I¡¯ve familiarized myself with this ce, I¡¯ll take you with me to aplish some really big things! [3]

    ¡°We¡¯re really going to shake things up in Sea-Sealing County. Because of us, maybe they¡¯ll have to change the county¡¯s name. It¡¯ll be the Crazytide County!¡± As the Captain uncharacteristically talked about such lofty aspirations, he wolfed down the rest of the apple in a single bite and then took out a tangerine.

    Xu Qing suddenly went on guard as he looked at the Captain, who was acting a bit differentpared to normal.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to make sure everyone knows that the two of us can shine brighter than 30,000 meters! We¡¯re going to make sure everyone understands that the two of us are bros, through and through. In fact, we¡¯re the type of steadfast bros who would give our lives for each other!¡± As the Captain said these things, he surreptitiously nced at Xu Qing.

    Without batting an eyelid, Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°And that is why the moment we report for duty in half a month is so important. It rtes to our post! Different postse with different military credits, and of course, different responsibilities. If we¡¯re going to change the Holytide Region one day, and if we¡¯re going to make sure humankind rises to prominence, then we have to hit the ground running.¡±

    The more the Captain talked, the more hyperbolic it got. He was making it sound like their post assignment would affect the fate of all humanity.

    ¡°Then what?¡± Xu Qing asked calmly.

    ¡°Then what? Well, then there are a lot of things to do, little Junior Brother. Of course, it¡¯s going to take money. What¡¯s more, if we want to aplish something really big, then we need to buy intelligence reports. That also costs money. Therefore... whenever the old shrew finally doles out thepensation, ahem, we should definitely split it 50/50.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what this is about?¡± Xu Qing said, surprised. He had assumed it was something more important. ¡°No problem.¡±

    When the Captain saw Xu Qing agree so quickly, almost as if it was the smallest of concerns, his guard went up. For some reason, it now seemed that Xu Qing was a bit higher than him on the socialdder, which was worrisome.

    He waved his hand. ¡°Little Junior Brother, how about I give you a 10% discount on the 8,000,000 spirit stones you owe me?¡±

    Ignoring him, Xu Qing walked to his residence.

    The Captainughed happily as he bid farewell and went to his own residence. It was a unique location that he had picked with careful consideration. Thanks to the decorative rocks, a tree cover, it was a ce that the sunlight didn¡¯t reach very often. The Captain felt that only a location that the sun couldn¡¯t peer at was fitting of his status as a swordsage.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that sort of thing. After entering his residence, he went through his normal routine of scattering poison and setting up defenses. Then he sat down cross-legged and mentally reviewed everything that had happened over the past few days.

    Next he took out his bamboo slip and carved Yao Yunhui¡¯s name right next to Zhang Siyun¡¯s name. Then he spent some time trying to think of some ways to quietly get rid of them.

    I can¡¯t forget about Girl in Red and Ning Yan, he thought, studying the bamboo slip. I have too many names on here that aren¡¯t crossed out.

    That thought left him feeling unsettled. Looking out into the night, he mulled the matter over.

    I need to improve my cultivation base right away. Then I can start getting rid of them, one by one.

    Closing his eyes, he started working on his cultivation.

    Time passed. Four dayster, the Justice Pce sent the spirit stones, medicinal pills, three magical treasures, as well as some spell formations and magical devices. With that, the matter was officially concluded.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t stingy. He split everything with the Captain as well as the disciples who hade to get him at the Justice Pce. He also sent some to Master Fifth and Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    The rest he kept. The only thing he didn¡¯t split with others were the heavenly pce pills. They were extraordinary pills; if he consumed all three, he should be able toplete his fourth heavenly pce.

    Upon consuming them, rumbling sounds filled him. Then, brilliant light erupted from the fourth heavenly pce in his sea of consciousness.

    Should I go with the bluegreen dragon... or the violet moon? After some thought, his eyes shone with determination. I think I¡¯ll push the bluegreen dragon back in line again.

    Having made up his mind, he focusedpletely on the violet moon in his sea of consciousness. Slowly but surely, he pulled it into ce in the heavenly pce. When that happened, he suddenly felt immeasurably close to the violet moon, in a way he hadn¡¯t before. Previously, he had only had a limited bit of control over it. After all, it was simply too mighty, making it as easy for him to control as it was for a child to push a massive war chariot. But now that it was fused with his fourth heavenly pce, that control came much easier. He didn¡¯t attempt to do so immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes to gather strength.

    Ten dayster, when his fourth heavenly pce waspletely stable, he opened his eyes. The moment he did, violet light erupted from them, creating a violet sea around him. His fourth heavenly pce now glittered with dazzling violet light. The violet moon therein flickered constantly. Xu Qing got the feeling that if he fully unleashed its power, then he would instantly erupt with the aura of a god.

    In other words... mutagen!

    Of course, that mutagen would instantly start invading other cultivators.

    If you added in the bolstering effect of his taboo poison core, then it would make him an even more powerful source of mutagen. And its ability to invade other living things would be even more astonishing.

    Right now, do I cultivate the dao, or do I cultivate godliness¡­? After studying his third and fourth heavenly pces, he nced at his life essence bluegreen dragon.

    With my imperial-ss technique, I currently have five-pce battle prowess. With Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, I can unleash the pure six-pce fleshly body power! If you add in the taboo poison core and the violet moon, then I can stand toe-to-toe with seven-pce power, and might evene out on top!

    Right now, his battle prowess was equivalent to what was normally considered the absolute peak of Gold Core.

    It doesn¡¯t matter what you cultivate. Battle prowess is the most important thing to consider!

    After calcting the date, he realized that it was the night before he needed to report for duty with the swordsages.

    I wonder what post I¡¯ll be assigned to.

    Then he thought about Mount Daybreak, and what Chen Tinghao had said about how it required military credits to visit.

    ¡°Military credits!¡± he murmured, his eyes shining brightly. Then he settled down to wait.

    The night passed quickly.

    At dawn, as the sun was just climbing over the horizon, he stood and changed into his white swordsage uniform,plete with the cape. Standing in front of the door of his residence, he took a deep breath. Then he pushed the door open. The light from outside shone down, surrounding him, filtering through his hair, making it seem like he was fused with the light. From a distance, he looked like a living me as he stood there.

    Quite a few passing disciples looked over at him.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark could see him from the balcony of her second-floor residence, and was looking at him closely.

    In another corner of the subsidiary sect¡¯s main courtyard, not far from Xu Qing, in a spot that was blocked from the sun by decorative rocks and trees, the Captain opened the door of his residence. As he stretchedzily, he was about to step out into the open when he spotted Xu Qing.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize you could do that!¡± He looked at his own residence, then at Xu Qing, and suddenly realized that he hadn¡¯t picked a spot befitting a swordsage.

    1. The practice of ¡®exchanging toasts¡¯ with people at a banquet or meal is a very important part of Chinese culture. Normally speaking, if you offer a toast to someone, they should offer a toast in return. Usually the toast will involve some kind words along the lines of ¡°I wish you health and prosperity.¡± ?

    2. The interaction between Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying regarding alcohol seems to imply that she she¡¯s forbidden him from drinking, or at least, that she discourages it. Although heavy drinking, drunkenness, and alcoholism aren¡¯t heavily stigmatized in maind Chinese culture, it doesn¡¯t mean that all wives are happy with their husbands drinking a lot. In Madam Deathde¡¯s extended family, there are some of the men who have the reputation of being extremely heavy drinkers to the point where it disrupts their lives, and in their case, they have a bad reputation in the family. What¡¯s more, there was one fateful event in which I drank too much and Madam Deathde subsequently forbade me from drinking when we went back to her hometown during the Spring Festival time (Chinese New Year). Drinking and toasting is especially important during that time, so the situation was simr to what¡¯s happening with Sun Liying and Chen Tinghao. Madam Deathde was constantly ring at me and reminding me I wasn¡¯t allowed to drink. ?

    3. The Captain talked about ¡®traveling the world together¡¯ in chapter 338. ?

 Chapter 397: The Strongest Battle Prowess in the Current Generation

    Chapter 397: The Strongest Battle Prowess in the Current Generation

    At dawn, the county capital was covered with the warmth of sunlight. It was different from Seven Blood Eyes in that people smiled a lot more. It was different from the Eight Sect Coalition in that mutagen was very scarce. There was no cool humidity in the air, and it wasn¡¯t possible to smell the Forbidden Sea.

    People dressed ordingly. Even themoners and shopkeepers wore fine clothing. The most outstanding feature was that the garments were colorful. In the cities of South Phoenix, the garments mortals wore were usually simple. It was the same in the Eight Sect Coalition, though the clothing tended to be slightly higher quality. But here in the county capital, you could find every color imaginable, and it made the entire city lively and full of life.

    Because it was still not yet time to report for duty, Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t fly to their destination. Instead, they strolled through the city.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been out of seclusion for the entire half-month that had passed, so this was really his first chance to get familiar with their new surroundings. He looked around at the crowds on the streets, and asionally nced up into the air.

    There were quite a few swordsages out and about. They all wore the same uniform, making it impossible to tell who was a new recruit. That said, all of them emitted extraordinary fluctuations. It wasn¡¯t a surprise to Xu Qing. After all, this was the county capital, where the best of the best from all the provinces would end up.

    ¡°Master said a great era ising,¡± the Captain said as he munched an apple and looked up into the sky. ¡°That¡¯s why there are so many chosen nowadays. There are a lot more swordsage recruits this time around than there usually are.

    ¡°However, little Ah Qing, you don¡¯t need to worry about sticking out as a newbie. Your Eldest Brother doesn¡¯t go into new ces unprepared, and therefore, I spent a huge amount of money on some intelligence reports. As a result, I know the chosen from the various prefectures like the back of my hand. In fact, I also know a lot about the three big sects here, as well as the two nonhuman species.¡±

    The Captain looked very smug, as if he had spent his spirit stones in a very clever way.

    Xu Qing nodded. While Xu Qing preferred to take time observing new surroundings, the Captain liked to spend money buying intelligence reports.

    ¡°Sadly, the Swordsage Pce doesn¡¯t sell information about the post assignments.¡± The Captain sighed in discouragement.

    Xu Qing looked at him and didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Seemingly depressed, the Captain took a vicious bite out of his apple. ¡°This Swordsage Pce is really full of goody-two-shoes. If only they could be a bit more reasonable.¡±

    Considering that the Captain only got a one-meter light, he was really feeling down about his post assignment. While Xu Qing had been working on his cultivation, the Captain had repeatedly gone to Chen Tinghao and others to ask for help. His hope had been that by giving gifts to the right people, he might secure a good post. However, all of that asking around just confirmed that it was impossible to pay for an assignment. The Swordsage Pce wasn¡¯t like other ces. They were very strict, and only filled posts based on decisions made by the leadership. What was more, they had strict assessments to govern post assignments.

    Seeing how depressed the Captain was, Xu Qing was nning to change the subject when something in the distance caught his attention. His expression flickered.

    The Captain also looked over.

    Some distance away in the sky was a group of cultivators flying in their direction. They wore a very different type of outfitpared to what most humans wore. Although they were daoist robes, they were form-fitting instead of loose. They featured an outer garment of woven gold thread, and an inner garment of silver.

    Though their outfits seemed strange, the fluctuations they emitted were astonishing and also unique. They included both men and women, yet all of them had skin as fair as snow. Their hair and eyebrows were just as white, as were their eyes. It made them look very holy. As they flew through midair, the sunlight hit their golden daoist robes and created light refractions that made them seem even more dazzling and proud.

    ¡°Are they Demi-Immortals?¡± the Captain murmured curiously. Despite how many times he had gone out in thest half-month, this was his first time seeing cultivators from this species.

    Xu Qing studied them intently.

    These cultivators definitely were not human. In addition to the white hair and eyes, they also had white wings. And they conformed perfectly to Chen Tinghao¡¯s description of one of the two most powerful nonhuman species in Sea-Sealing County, the Demi-Immortals.

    What was even more noteworthy to Xu Qing was that the Demi-Immortal cultivators had another very unique entity with them. It was a figure d in a ck suit of armor. This figure had ck wings and wore a ck mask that obscured its facial features. Its unbound hair was equally as ck. Its aura clearly surpassed that of the surrounding Demi-Immortals. And what was of even greater significance was that it emanated mutagen. Its eyes seemed topletelyck life, as if it were a puppet.

    ¡°That ck thing is probably one of the immortal puppets that the Demi-Immortals are famous for,¡± the Captain said. Apparently the intelligence reports he¡¯d purchased were actually useful.

    ¡°Immortal puppets?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. The Demi-Immortals are very skilled in the puppetry arts. That¡¯s especially true of the pitch-ck ones. Those are their battle puppets. Nobody knows exactly how they make them, but they¡¯re supposedly very difficult to deal with.¡±

    Xu Qing looked on thoughtfully as the group of Demi-Immortals flew toward the city center and gradually disappeared.

    He got a simr sensation from the immortal puppet as he had from the ghasts he¡¯d seen, though not exactly the same. As for the specifics, he was too far away to make any determination.

    With that, the two of them continued on their way, keeping an eye on their surroundings. As they walked, they saw disciples from the three great sects, as well as asional Saintfiends.

    The Saintfiends were very different from the Demi-Immortals. The Demi-Immortals preferred to stay in the county capital, and rarely traveled outside to have dealings with other species. But the Saintfiends were merchants. They had shops just about everywhere in the city.

    The Saintfiends were tall and burly. They were generally about 6 meters tall or more, making them look almost like giants. They had faces in the normal spot, but also faces on the backs of their heads. When talking, they would asionally swivel their heads and start speaking out of the other face. To people unfamiliar with them, it could be somewhat unsettling. What was more, Saintfiends always had two male heads. However, sometimes their bodies might not seem obviously male or female, making it very difficult to determine their gender. They were such an unusual species that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but stare a bit when he saw them.

    Soon it was approaching the time to report for duty, so Xu Qing and the Captain flew the rest of the way to the Swordsage Pce.

    When they arrived, there were already people lined up and waiting. They were new swordsage recruits from various prefectures. There were men and women, but all were young. Apparently, most had been in the county capital for some time.

    In the various prefectures of Sea-Sealing County, the number of new recruits that came out of a recruiting event varied, but not by much. At the most, there might be seven or eight recruits. On the lower end, for ces like Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there might only be three.

    There were already about thirty people gathered. Some stood alone, others in groups of between three to five.

    Xu Qing spotted Qing Qiu in the crowd. She wasn¡¯t alone. Standing next to her was a seemingly ordinary, but simultaneously strange-looking young woman.

    ¡°She¡¯s not wearing red,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I almost didn¡¯t recognize her. But that¡¯s Qing Qiu, alright. She might as well just wear her red clothes underneath her main outfit. That would befit that big scythe of hers.¡±

    Grinning, the Captain called out a greeting. He also sized up Qing Qiu¡¯s femalepanion, ncing more than a few times at the item she held in her hands.

    Qing Qiu had obviously arrived in the county capital much earlier than the delegation from the Eight Sect Coalition. With a few months¡¯ lead time, she had gotten to know some people. The young woman standing next to her was one of them. They seemed to match each other well. One of them emanated an aura that warned other living things to stay away, and beneath her mask, her eyes were cold. The other held some melon seeds in her hands that emanated godly fluctuations. If you looked closely, it looked like they were actually formed from flesh. As she ate from her stockpile, her mouth filled with blood, and she looked around coldly.

    Upon noticing the Captain looking their way, she studied him for a moment. ¡°Big Sis Qing Qiu, do you know them? Isn¡¯t that one Xu Qing?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Two fools.¡± Meanwhile, the evil ghost scythe she had slung over her shoulder was talking to her via divine will.

    ¡°Mad Dog is here. He¡¯s talking like normal this time, but I still feel like smacking him. Everyone else is a swordsage, but he¡¯s a swordslut! We can definitely find an opportunity to end things with him in mutual destruction. Get rid of him for the swordsages! End in mutual destruction!

    ¡°As for Ghost Hand, we should leave him alone. He¡¯s not going to be easy to deal with. Trying to end things in mutual destruction with him wouldn¡¯t be a good idea.... You absolutely, positively must not make a move on him!¡±

    Qing Qiu seemed used to the chattering of the evil ghost, as she kept her face expressionless and just let him talk.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was talking to Xu Qing via divine will.

    ¡°See that person next to Qing Qiu? She¡¯s no simple individual. She has no name, so everyone just calls her Duskspirit. Those melon seeds in her hand are supposedly made from all kinds of godly flesh. Not only are they very good for the fleshly body, but also, they never run out! Some people suspect that they¡¯re actually a part of her body!

    ¡°I got a lot of information about her in my intelligence reports. She grew up in an abyss in a forbidden region somewhere. Years ago, a patriarch from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect ran across her and brought her back to the sect. She has a cold personality, and ording to the rumors, can actually demonize herself into a greater demon!¡±

    As Xu Qing listened to the Captain, he looked at the young woman with the melon seeds of flesh. Then he shifted his attention to a young man sitting off to the side meditating. Upon arriving he had noticed the young man sitting there. Other than Duskspirit with her extremely gruish aura, this young man was the one who seemed the most dangerous.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, the Captain said, ¡°That¡¯s Sir Mountain-River. He¡¯s also a very impressive chosen. He¡¯s from one of the three great sects, the Blood Chill Society. And his n is a major force within that sect. In other words, he has an amazing background. He had a very unusual birth. Supposedly, he has a birthmark that looks like a painting of mountains and rivers. That¡¯s why Patriarch Blood Chill gave him the daoist name Mountain-River. He has shocking natural talent, and two imperial-ss techniques!¡± [1]

    As the Captain made this exnation, Sir Mountain-River¡¯s eyes opened, and he looked coldly at Xu Qing.

    Obviously, all of the people that Xu Qing studied could sense the pressure of his gaze on them.

    A momentter, their gazes separated as something flew toward them from above.

    It was a ck coffin made of wood. Lounging atop it was a young man wearing a swordsage uniform. Somehow his swordsage uniform was very wrinkled. The young man also kept yawning as though he had just woken up. His arrival caused all of the swordsages present to suddenly go on guard. Xu Qing knew why; he immediately got a sense of profound danger from this person.

    ¡°That¡¯s most likely Wang Chen from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order, who¡¯se closer than anyone else from this generation in attaining the Supreme Ancient Lightning Body. Interesting. I can sense the aura of some sealing marks on him. Little Ah Qing, I bet that what you see on the outside isn¡¯t his true form. His true form is inside the coffin.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing nodded. From inside the coffin, he could sense the fluctuations of a lifemp. He had started on the continent of South Phoenix, then gone to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and was now in the county capital. Along the way, he had learned and experienced a lot. And he had seen lifemps. Lifemps might not bemon, but that was only rtively speaking. When you brushed shoulders with powerful experts and top organizations, it was impossible to not encounter lifemps.

    ¡°So many experts,¡± Xu Qing murmured. Whether it was Duskspirit, Sir Mountain-River, or Wang Chen, they all gave Xu Qing the impression that they were incredibly strong.

    As for the other new recruits, none had auras as impressive as those three, but they were still extraordinary.

    Xu Qing knew that even though their auras seemed weak inparison to his own, he couldn¡¯t afford to underestimate them. After all, he wasn¡¯t the only person in the world who knew how to keep trump cards hidden to use in a key moment to strike a fatal blow. Any person who had experienced as many life-or-death situations as he had would have trump cards. And they wouldn¡¯t reveal them unless necessary.

    ¡°Those three are strong, little Ah Qing. But in this group of new recruits, there¡¯s someone I¡¯d consider a true monster.¡± The Captain sighed.

    Xu Qing looked at him in surprise. For the Captain to call someone a monster indicated... that the person in question was no one to take lightly. He was just about to inquire further when a terrifying aura suddenly weighed down on the area.

    It was such a powerful aura that everyone present reacted with visible surprise. Duskspirit stopped eating melon seeds. Wiping blood from her lips, her expression turned from cold to pleasant. Even adoring. Sir Mountain-River stood up, a reverent expression on his face. Wang Chen climbed to his feet, arranged his clothes, and suddenly looked ingratiating.

    As the aura filled the area, a booming voice echoed from above.

    ¡°Which one of you is Xu Qing?¡±

    1. Putting the character for mountain and river together creates a unique word. It can literally just mean ¡°mountains and rivers,¡± or it can figuratively mean nd (of a country), general topography, territory, country.¡± ?

    2. Wang Chen: Wang is #1 on the list of the 100mon surnames. It also means ¡°king.¡± Chen means morning, dawn, daybreak.¡± Madam Deathde says this name makes him sound like ¡°a handsome young guy, bubbly maybe.¡± I think her impression is pretty funny considering the dude flies around on a coffin. ?

 Chapter 398: Supremely Honorable and Righteous

    Chapter 398: Supremely Honorable and Righteous

    As the voice echoed through the air, a young man descended from the dome of heaven,ughing heartily. He looked to be about twenty-four or twenty-five years old. Instead of being burly and tall, he had an average physique. His facial features were not delicate and attractive. Rather, he had thick eyebrows and big eyes. His arms seemed longer than a normal person¡¯s, and his eyes sparkled brightly, as if they were filled with stars. Because of all this, he came across as being extremely heroic. He seemed almost like a dragon or tiger descending into the realm of humankind.

    He did not intentionally release the power of his cultivation base. However the pressure he naturally exuded seemed capable of crushing anything and everything. Even Xu Qing was shaken to the core, and his golden crow tattoo emanated intense heat.

    Upon encountering Sir Mountain-River, Duskspirit, and Wang Chen, the golden crow had heated up. But that was nothingpared to this.

    This young man also had an imperial-ss technique, and as he neared, the air behind him split apart; a golden dragon emerged, roaring as it swirled around in circles. Every scale on the dragon shone with bright light, and even its draconic whiskers seemed divine. What was more, the dragon¡¯s eyes were incredibly fierce, as if it were a monarch looking down on everything under heaven. Additionally, the golden dragon had a sword in its mouth.

    It was¡­ The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    Astonishingly, this young man had sessfully gained enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    If that were all there was to it, it might not be so impressive. But to Xu Qing¡¯s astonishment, he could sense lifemps on this young man. Not one lifemp, or two. No, he had three! The young man¡¯s three dazzling lifemps might not be easily noticed by others. But considering that Xu Qing himself had lifemps, he could sense them clearly.

    This young man was strong. Very strong! That was what Xu Qing sensed just looking at him. He had sensed danger from Sir Mountain-River, Duskspirit, and Wang Chen. But he still felt confident he could fight them. In contrast, this young man who had just arrived made Xu Qing feel like he was staring up at an immovable mountain. His aura was profoundly shocking and beyondparison.

    As he arrived, all the other swordsages in the area sped hands respectfully. And yet, all of them were smiling.

    ¡°Big Bro Kong!¡±

    ¡°Well met, Big Bro Kong!¡±

    ¡°Long time no see, Big Bro Kong. Your cultivation base has advanced yet again!¡±

    The young manughed heartily as he saluted everyone in return. Duskspirit, who had previously been devouring blood, now seemed like a charming ¡®girl next door.¡¯ Apparently summoning her courage, she hurried over to the newly arrived young man and opened her mouth to speak.

    Before she could, he reached out and gently pinched her cheek. ¡°It¡¯s been a year, little Duskspirit! You¡¯ve grown taller!¡±

    Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen also hurried over and offered greetings with sped hands.

    ¡®Big Bro Kong¡¯ chuckled. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t go around looking so gloomy all the time, little River. Come on, smile a bit! As for you, mister ¡®sleeps in a coffin,¡¯ why don¡¯t youe out drinking with me more often?¡±

    As the young man loudly reunited with his friends, the Captain sent Xu Qing an exnation via divine will.

    ¡°See that? That¡¯s the very same monster I mentioned earlier. Kong Xianglong. He was the number one figure in his generation among all of the sects in Sea-Sealing County. He reached the ten-pce level by age twenty-four, which hasn¡¯t been done in the past thousand years! [1]

    ¡°There are lots of details about this guy in the intelligence reports I got. He has three lifemps and two imperial-ss techniques. One is the Emperor¡¯s Sword, and the other is called the Golden-Dragon Heaven-Patrolling Scripture. What¡¯s more, one of the intelligence reports said that he has a taboo treasure fragment with a fivefold ensorcelling. Last year, he used his nine-pce battle prowess to kill a Nascent Soul Holytide cultivator!¡±

    Xu Qing could pick up on the faint hints of admiration in the Captain¡¯s exnation, and he felt simrly.

    ¡°Kong Xianglong has a bold and heroic personality. He¡¯s straightforward, upright, and makes friends easily. In fact, most of the human enemies he makes end up bing his friends. But he¡¯s brutal when dealing with nonhumans. Supposedly, it¡¯s not umon for him to literally rip them to shreds! However, none of that is what I really wanted to emphasize.¡±

    As the Captain watched Kong Xianglong chatting with the others, his eyes glittered with open admiration. ¡°Little Ah Qing, some people seem nice, but are really stuck-up. Other people practice what they preach. Based on Kong Xianglong¡¯s intelligence reports, I had a hard time believing that he¡¯s really that straightforward and upright. Therefore, I tapped into my skills to dig deeper. And guess what? As it turns out, he really is one of those people who practices what they preach!

    ¡°His lifemps weren¡¯t gifts from members of the Senior generation. He got them all on his own. And though he¡¯s a brand new swordsage, I heard that he lived his whole life in the Swordsage Pce. Supposedly, he was born a servant. Later on, he risked his life and almost died to earn some military credits. After being allowed to use those military credits to practice cultivation, he ughtered his way to the top. He crushed countless nonhumans along the way, winning every fight, and braving death to rise to prominence.

    ¡°He has one lifemp and one imperial-ss technique that he purchased with military credits. As for The Emperor¡¯s Sword, he seeded after seeking enlightenment only twice! His second lifemp was given to him by his best friend, who had been dealt a mortal blow and couldn¡¯t survive. In front of countless witnesses, his best friend handed over the lifemp and made Kong Xianglong promise to represent him on his journey to the top. He took his third lifemp from the Holytides!

    ¡°Even I, your Eldest Brother, have no choice but to greatly respect someone like that!¡±

    The Captain rarely talked like this. Given that, Xu Qing felt deeply moved as he studied Kong Xianglong.

    As he was looking in that direction, Kong Xianglong finished catching up with his friends. Looking in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, heughed heartily and walked over.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, little brother, you must be Xu Qing from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, who got the 30,000-meter pir of light!¡±

    ¡°Well met, Elder Brother Kong,¡± Xu Qing said, sping hands respectfully.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I heard about what happened between you and the Justice Pce. I¡¯ve never much liked that shrew from the Yao n. I just know she¡¯s always lurking around scheming this and that, trying to use rules and regtions like amand sword to do all the low-down, scum-sucking shit she wouldn¡¯t dare do out in the open. You handled everything beautifully! Let¡¯s find some time to have a few drinks together. My treat!¡±

    As Kong Xianglongughed heartily again, someone else arrived.

    It was none other than Zhang Siyun. His expression was grim. Having heard what Kong Xianglong just said, he red at him coldly.

    However, exactly at the same time, Duskspirit¡¯s expression turned hostile. Sir Mountain-River narrowed his eyes, and Wang Chen, despite smiling, seemed to thrum with killing intent. And all of them were ring at Zhang Siyun.

    Stunned, Zhang Siyun quickly looked away and walked off to the side.

    Kong Xianglong turned and looked at him briefly, his eyes flickering with displeasure. Obviously, he was fully aware that Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother was Yao Yunhui from the Justice Pce. He also knew that Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother had done what she did for her son¡¯s sake. But Kong Xianglong couldn¡¯t bear it, nheless. He had grown up in the Swordsage Pce, working as a servant, and had thus been deeply influenced by their stated mission to defend humanity. He didn¡¯t mind a bit of stiffpetition between swordsages. But he absolutely hated underhanded infighting. And what he abhorred more than anything were tactics the likes of which Zhang Siyun employed.

    On the other hand, he already had a good opinion of Xu Qing. That said, he also knew that considering they weren¡¯t friends, saying too much could create a misunderstanding. Therefore, after shing another smile to Xu Qing, he walked away.

    During the entire time, he didn¡¯t spare a single nce for the Captain. As far as Kong Xianglong was concerned, a one-meter pir of light was a good indication that the Captain wasn¡¯t a good person.

    As he walked away, his friends clustered around him. Qing Qiu wasn¡¯tfortable being with a lot of strangers, so she declined Duskspirit¡¯s invitation to join them, and walked off to stand by herself.

    After she was gone, Sir Mountain-River curiously asked, ¡°Big Bro Kong, why are you being so friendly with that Xu Qing?¡±

    Wang Chen and Duskspirit looked simrly curious. Although none of them had any reason to dislike Xu Qing, none of them necessarily got a good feeling from him. That was especially true considering that he had supposedly earned the veneration of the Grand Emperor. None of them were very happy about that.

    Grinning, Kong Xianglong said, ¡°You listen to me. If you want to be hostile to other people, that¡¯s fine. But don¡¯t dare be hostile toward Xu Qing. The thing about the veneration of the Grand Emperor is a sham. Forget about that. But what is important is that his answer to the Grand Emperor¡¯s question got him a 30,000-meter pir of light. And that means you couldn¡¯t find a more trustworthy fighting partner than him.¡±

    ¡°But Big Bro Kong,¡± Duskspirit said softly, her eyes shining with clear admiration, ¡°you got 26,100 meters! You¡¯re equally trustworthy!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly my point. I know more than anyone what a 30,000-meter pir of light indicates regarding one¡¯s inner qualities. Trust me, all of you, I¡¯m a good judge of character. If you make friends with him, you¡¯ll have a friend for life! That said, I do need to find an opportunity to tell Xu Qing to be careful about that Eldest Brother of his with the one-meter light. All it took was one nce at him to know that he¡¯s an unsavory character.¡±

    While Kong Xianglong was conferring with his friends, the Captain was giving advice to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, I take back what I said. I get the feeling that although Kong Xianglong looks nice, we probably shouldn¡¯t get very close with him.¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Just remember who your Eldest Brother is. Me!¡±

    The Captain had noticed how friendly Kong Xianglong was with Xu Qing. People as friendly as that were easy to start treating as an Eldest Brother, and therefore, the Captain was now on guard.

    Xu Qing grinned, took an apple out of his bag of holding, and handed it to the Captain. ¡°Have an apple, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain immediately brightened up. After taking a big bite and realizing how sweet the apple was, he waved his hand magnanimously. ¡°Ah, whatever. You still owe me all those spirit stones, but... uh, I¡¯ll give thirty percent off!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile faded and he turned to look in the direction of Kong Xianglong.

    The Captain sighed.

    ¡°Fine. 70% off!¡±

    Xu Qing was about to reply when his face suddenly turned somber. The Captain stood straighter. All the surrounding swordsages reacted simrly. Everyone looked in the direction of the Swordsage Pce.

    The massive pce looked like one huge building, but the reality was that it contained a maze of smaller pces. As for the new swordsages, they were outside, directly in front of the pce and in front of its External Hall. The hall had a gold-ted roof, green tiles, and red columns. It was grand and magnificent, with dramatically sloping eaves. It had another name, and that was Oath Hall.

    As the crowd went silent, footsteps rang out from inside the pce. Then, five figures appeared, walking out into the brilliant sunlight.

    One person led, four followed behind. The one in front was middle-aged. He stood tall and straight in his government uniform, looking threatening without being angry. There seemed to be numerous versions of himself superimposed over each other, as if he contained 10,000 daos. He even seemed to thrum with the sensation that he might soon reach the level of 100,000,000.

    The four people behind him were all elderly. All of them also had countless superimposed versions of themselves. They were some distance away from 100,000,000 but they still emanated heaven-shaking, earth-shattering auras.

    ¡°I am Master Fullspirit,¡± said the middle-aged man, ¡°a deputy pce lord of the Swordsage Pce here in Sea-Sealing County. Behind me are the four honor guards of the Swordsage Pce here. We will preside over the oaths and ceremonies today. We will bear witness to your vows and announce your posts. Now, read the decree.¡±

    One of the honor guards stepped forward and spoke in a loud voice. ¡°Title 1 of swordsagew is....¡±

    The ceremony actually wasn¡¯t veryplex. As the honor guard exined the rules, all the swordsages present listened intently.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was somber. It was the same with everyone else, including Kong Xianglong and his friends. Before long, the rules had been read.

    ¡°Swordsagew is divided into three titles, seven subtitles, and sixty-nine chapters. You mustmit all of that to memory. You swordsages are all from different prefectures. Each prefecture has its ownws based on the local character and customs.

    ¡°As new arrivals, it¡¯s normal for you toe in with lofty ambitions and proud attitudes. That¡¯s fine. But that¡¯s only eptable at first. And there¡¯s something you need to keep in mind. Swordsages are fellowbatants who must be able to fully trust each other!

    ¡°In that respect, we¡¯re different from the sects youe from. Sects prioritize profit above all else. But the Swordsage Pce prioritizes responsibility. We prioritize humankind. And we prioritize trust in each other. That is the first thing about yourself that you must change after bing a swordsage!

    ¡°Starting today you¡¯ll undergo seven days of special training. Afterward, you should be able to master some special secret magics avable only to swordsages. You¡¯ll also learn about various histories and traditions of humankind, as well as the customs and characteristics of other species.

    ¡°If you pass the test at the end of the training, you¡¯ll be assigned a post. If any of you fail to pass the test, then you won¡¯t be given a post.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Take nine steps forward!¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. As all of the surrounding swordsages looked on, he walked forward.

    1. Kong Xianglong: Kong is listed #99 on the top 100 surnames list. Xiang means ¡°auspicious, propitious¡± and Long means ¡°dragon.¡± Kong has a long O sound, so it does NOT sound like ¡®kong¡¯ from King Kong. Xiang sort of rhymes with the English word ¡°song¡±, except that the first sound is halfway between S and SH. Long also has a long O sound. It rhymes with the first syble ¡°kong¡± but does not sound like the English word ¡°long.¡± To hear it pronounced by google, go here and click the ¡°listen¡± button. Madam Deathde says this name makes him sound like ¡°an old school nerd.¡± Given the description of his character in this chapter, I think the name matches him perfectly. ?

 Chapter 399: A Legacy from Ancient Time

    Chapter 399: A Legacy from Ancient Time

    Noon had passed, and the sun had shifted. Sunlight no longer streamed down onto the Oath Hall. Instead, it was focused directly on Xu Qing. As he stepped out from the group of swordsages, he looked particrly eye-catching.

    The Captain looked at him, sighing inwardly and feeling very pleased that this was his little Junior Brother.

    Qing Qiu was in the crowd, and though she betrayed no reaction even underneath her mask, in her heart she felt a swell of dislike. Turning, she looked off in the direction of South Phoenix. She didn¡¯t like sunny days; she preferred when it was snowing. That was because every time it snowed, she would look off into the distance and think back to a scrawny figure who would approach her in the shadows of the buildings and nod in greeting.

    Big Bro Kid¡­ It won¡¯t be long before I can go back to South Phoenix and find you. None of these chosen canpare to you. If you could be here, you would be stronger than any of them!

    As for all of Kong Xianglong¡¯s friends, they looked at Xu Qing begrudgingly, as if they weren¡¯t convinced he was worth any attention at all. Kong Xianglong was different, though. He smiled in approval and support. That wasn¡¯t just his attitude toward Xu Qing. That was his attitude toward all his friends.

    As everyone watched, Xu Qing walked forward nine steps. Then he sped hands and bowed respectfully to the five people in front of him.

    ¡°Greetings, exalted ones.¡±

    The deputy pce lord and the four honor guards were all looking at Xu Qing. Before he had stepped forward, they knew him by name only. After all, when the Dao Bell rang, it shocked the entire Swordsage Pce, and had prompted the governor himself to inquire about the situation. Now, seeing him standing there in the sunlight, d in his white uniform with the red me design, they all inwardly nodded in approval.

    The deputy pce lord¡¯s eyes glimmered with approval, and his facial expression softened.

    ¡°Xu Qing, during the assessment of the heart, you received a 30,000-meter pir of light and the veneration of the Grand Emperor. That¡¯s a first here in Sea-Sealing County. By the order of the pce lord, you are hereby appointed as the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general! You will closely apany the pce lord as he carries out his duties. This will be good training for you. Please do not fail to live up to the Grand Emperor¡¯s praise, or the tolling of the Dao Bell!¡± [1]

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Xu Qing said somberly, once again sping hands and bowing. This turn of events wasn¡¯t a big surprise, but at the same time, it was somewhat disappointing. He didn¡¯t really want to be a secretary-general. He would much rather be assigned to a department simr to the Violent Crimes Division.

    However, the deputy pce lord¡¯s words left many of the other new swordsages feeling very surprised, and they looked at Xu Qing with deep envy.

    A secretary-general was essentially an administrative position attached directly to the pce lord. upying a post like that didn¡¯te with any direct authority. However, a secretary-general was a representative of the pce lord, and would be treated with utmost respect by everyone. What was more, there had never been a secretary-general in the Swordsage Pce before. Xu Qing was the first. This went to show how much the pce lord valued Xu Qing. Beyond that, it was a public announcement showing how significant it was to receive a 30,000-meter light in the assessment of the heart, and also the veneration of the Grand Emperor. Going forward, it was a given that all new swordsages would ce much more importance on the assessment of the heart.

    Although Xu Qing¡¯s post came with a lot of glory, there were still swordsages who weren¡¯t convinced he was deserving.

    For example, Zhang Siyun. He red at Xu Qing, revulsion filling his heart. The left side of his face was no longer swollen, but he could still feel the pain of his mother¡¯s palm pping him.

    I¡¯m not pathetic! he howled inwardly, grinding his teeth.

    The deputy pce lord and the honor guards weren¡¯t even paying attention to the reaction of the others outside the Oath Hall. Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather was one of them, and not even he had spared a nce for Zhang Siyun.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± continued the deputy pce lord, ¡°though you were given a post by the pce lord, and thus don¡¯t need to take the test, you still need to attend all seven days of training.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said. He stepped back into the assembled swordsages. His professional manner earned him even more approval from the deputy pce lord and honor guards.

    ¡°Listen up, everyone,¡± the deputy pce lord said, looking over the group of new swordsages. ¡°Themand swords you received back in your respective Swordsage Courts are alsomunication devices. They keep track of your battle credits, and will also serve as the foundation of your sword pavilion. In a moment, you can go below the city and erect a sword pavilion. That pavilion will be with you for your entire life, even when you receive your outside assignment.

    ¡°The higher a sword pavilion is, the greater glory it represents. I truly hope that one day, one of you will have a 30,000-meter-tall sword pavilion. It will only disappear if you end up sacrificing your life in the line of duty. But even if that happens, your name will remain in the Oath Hall for future generations of swordsages to see when they swear their oaths.¡±

    With that, the deputy pce lord flicked his sleeve, and the hall behind him glowed with brilliant light as the door opened.

    The hall had a dimensional space inside that was muchrger than the exterior. Inside of it were innumerablemand swords. Some were intact. Others were severely damaged. Some were only fragments. Apparently some of themand swords had beenpletely destroyed when their wielders died, and were represented by memorial tablets. A brave and heroic aura surged out from inside the hall. There were simply too many memorial tablets andmand swords to take in. They were everywhere. They represented all of the swordsages who had fallen in battle throughout the countless years that had passed in Sea-Sealing County. All of them had been top chosen among humankind, and each one had their own soul-stirring story to tell. [2]

    When Xu Qing looked at themand swords and memorial tablets, his heart swelled. All of a sudden, astonishing soul fluctuations surged out of the hall, sweeping over Xu Qing.

    He could hear countless swordsages crying out in the moment before their death, and he could see innumerable white-d figures. They stood in front of humankind, prepared to die in battle rather than fall into retreat. It was absolutely stunning. Even as they died, they smiled and shouted at their enemies, reciting their oath without any regrets.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, loyal to my post, not afraid to sacrifice my life.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, never to betray humankind, always ready to fight.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, to fight for humanity, to defend my people.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, to sever the doom of dawn, to cause the light of heaven and earth to blossom.¡±

    As the swordsages spoke, their words grew louder and clearer, like a natural music that could shake the universe. At the same time, the new swordsages standing outside of the hall began instinctively reciting the same words. Gradually, all of the voicesbined until they were one united voice. It almost seemed like whatever lofty ambitions and heroic goals these fallen swordsages had left behind in death were now being transmitted through time and space in the form of a legacy. This was the oath sworn by new swordsages.

    At some point, Xu Qing left the Swordsage Pce, hardly aware of what he was doing, considering the words and images that continued to fill his mind. This waspletely different than when he had joined Seven Blood Eyes.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one having his experience. It was the same with the Captain and all the other new swordsages. Even Zhang Siyun. Everyone looked like they were in a daze.

    Xu Qing returned to the subsidiary sect and entered his residence. Only then did he start to recover. Looking out into the night sky in the direction of the Swordsage Pce, he took a deep breath.

    He knew why he was reacting in this way. The Oath Hall had been emanating astonishing soul fluctuations. There were too many heroic souls inside, and they didn¡¯t bear even a scrap of ill will toward the new swordsages. Some had given voice to their regrets, or goals they had never aplished. By doing so, they were telling the new swordsages... what it meant to be a swordsage!

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding. On the journey here, Chen Tinghao had already given him a taste of how different the swordsages were from sect cultivators.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly, thinking about it. He wasn¡¯t inclined to instantly feel connected to any organization, whether it was his sect or the Swordsage Pce. Wherever he went, he always kept his guard up. He needed time to observe things before making a decision about anything.

    Eventually, Xu Qing took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. Then he took out his swordsagemand sword.

    After reporting for duty and swearing his oath, themand sword was different. Its internal functions had been activated. After inspecting it, he sent divine will into it, which was when he saw all the details about military credit.

    Military credits were very important to swordsages. Anything they wanted to get from the Swordsage Pce had to be purchased with military credits. Xu Qing even saw lifemps and imperial-ss technique legacies. However, the military credit cost for those things was immense. What was more, some of them required battle credits.

    Military credits and battle credits were different.

    The former could be earned through all sorts of missions, whereas thetter... could only be awarded. What was more, there were five grades of battle credits.

    Grade one battle credits were the rarest. Grade fives were the mostmon.

    Xu Qing scanned the basic information, then looked at the legacies that were avable. Eventually, he found Mount Daybreak.

    To get into Mount Daybreak I¡¯ll need 3,000,000 military credits and a grade three battle credit.

    Seeing that, his eyes filled with determination.

    I have to think of a way to start building up a lot of military credits.

    ***

    A simr scene was ying out with the Captain, who was currently in his own residence. As he studied the information in themand sword, his eyes started to shine.

    So much good stuff!

    Breathing unsteadily, he looked through all of the imperial-ss techniques and simr things, until eventually he saw something that caused his eyes to light up with intense desire.

    A fragment of the Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edict! I looked around forever for this technique. I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s here in Sea-Sealing County!

    As his eyes glittered, faces appeared in his pupils, their eyes just as wild as his. Eventually, heposed himself, took a deep breath, and looked in the direction of Xu Qing¡¯s residence.

    Little Ah Qing, your Eldest Brother said he would travel the world with you, and I¡¯m going to do everything I can to make it happen. As long as I can get this Righteous Bestowal, then I really can... travel the world with you.

    ***

    Three days after the swearing of the oath, the seven-day period of training began. It was held in the Swordsage Pce in a study hall and started at dawn. All fifty-one of the new swordsages were there waiting. No one waste.

    The study hall was different from an ordinary hall. It was filled with tables and looked like a ssroom.

    Xu Qing sat on the right-hand side, behind the Captain. To his left was Qing Qiu, and to his right was Kong Xianglong.

    As always, Qing Qiu pretended Xu Qing didn¡¯t exist, while Kong Xianglong chatted with him amiably.

    ¡°Back when I was a servant,¡± he said, ¡°I studied a lot of the things that they¡¯ll talk about in this training. They¡¯vee in handy on many of my missions throughout the years. If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand, Xu Qing, just ask me and I can help.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands gratefully.

    The Captain turned around and eyed Xu Qing. ¡°You can ask me, too, little Junior Brother.¡±

    Kong Xianglong chuckled but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and nodded.

    The Captain seemed pleased and was about to say more. Instead, he quickly swiveled and faced the front, as did all the other swordsages. Someone had entered the study hall.

    It was a middle-aged man in a ck daoist robe. He was thin, with sallow skin that made him almost seem sickly. Though he had a Nascent Soul cultivation base, he coughed as he trudged along. Walking through the desks, he reached the front where he sat down and looked out at the assembled swordsages.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like being interrupted when I lecture,¡± he said. ¡°So if there¡¯s something you don¡¯t understand... it means your powers of understanding are weak. Anyone who interrupts me will be asked to leave. Oh, right. You can call me Ailing Ghost. I¡¯m responsible for teaching you a swordsage secret magic used for storing items.¡±

    Ailing Ghost coughed again, and this time, his blood sprayed out. There was a poison hidden in the blood... that surreptitiously spread through the hall.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    1. The title assigned to Xu Qing is a made-up title that essentially conjures the image of a high-ranking attendant of some sort. It literally means something like ¡°follow along to keep a record of (and give) orders.¡± ?

    2. Memorial tablets are fairly self-exnatory, but if you haven¡¯t seen what they look like, here¡¯s an image</a>. They¡¯re usually ?small enough to fit on a table in front of an altar. ?

 Chapter 400: Poison Fiend in Action

    Chapter 400: Poison Fiend in Action

    The poison was colorless and odorless, making it very difficult to detect. Even someone with a bit of knowledge about nts and vegetation wouldn¡¯t easily notice it. Only someone who had specifically studied the dao of poison would have the instincts necessary to detect it.

    For example, Xu Qing. He noticed the poison instantly, and frowned imperceptibly. It was a type of poison he¡¯d never seen before, and he couldn¡¯t deduce the ingredients from the aroma alone. However, he could tell that the poison was contained in tiny globules, and that it was aplex mixture that wouldn¡¯t do much on its own.

    It needs to bebined with another poison to be effective.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever, but inside, his guard was up. Though he didn¡¯t fear poisons, and also had plenty of his own poisons on hand, he was a cautious person in general. Therefore, he flicked his finger casually to scatter some of his own poison around him. It was just a precaution. Just in case this poison had some unusual properties, Xu Qing needed to be ready. With that done, he focused on the teacher.

    The other swordsages exchanged awkward nces in response to Ailing Ghost coughing up blood. However, Kong Xianglong sat up straight in his chair, a respectful look on his face. Being familiar with Ailing Ghost, he secretly circted his energy and blood in a way that activated certain internal defenses.

    There were a few others who reacted simrly, but not many.

    Meanwhile, Ailing Ghost coughed over and over again. Looking very weak, he wiped the blood from his mouth.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± he said. ¡°Years ago I was on an undercover mission in Holytide territory when my cover was blown. Those bastards left me with a recurring injury, but that¡¯s all. It won¡¯t kill me.

    ¡°Now, about that swordsage secret storage magic I mentioned. It has many uses. Later on, you¡¯ll be going on missions, fighting battles, and participating in other activities that will require intelligence gathering and the transportation of important items.

    ¡°Whether you¡¯re undercover in an enemy camp or killed in action, you need a way to make sure that whatever items you¡¯re carrying don¡¯t get discovered. This secret magic will enable you to create a small dimensional space that belongs solely to you.¡±

    Though Ailing Ghost¡¯s voice seemed weak, he spoke in such a way that everyone could hear him very clearly.

    ¡°The dimensional space will require a secret key to open. Every person¡¯s secret key will be different and unique. You¡¯ll be the one to decide what it is. By the way, remember to make a backup key. Don¡¯t worry, in all of the Swordsage Pce, only the pce lord is qualified to know the details about each swordsage¡¯s secret key. Others will only be given that information if it¡¯s relevant to a particr mission.¡±

    Xu Qing was intrigued by what he was hearing. This way of secretly storing items was different than anything he was used to.

    Sitting in front of him was the Captain, whose eyes were shining. Only the pce lord will know my secret key? Hm. What if I make the key a catchphrase like ¡®defend humankind!¡¯ That might be a quick way to make a good impression!

    As the Captain pondered such matters, Ailing Ghost continued speaking.

    ¡°The backup key is to be used in case you die in the line of duty. That way, other swordsages will have a way to open your dimensional space and ess your final will and testament, as well as anything else you have stored there.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. Havinge to the conclusion his previous idea wasn¡¯t a very good one, he cast it aside.

    The general description was now done, so Ailing Ghost went on to exin the details of the technique. Though he didn¡¯t permit anyone to ask questions, his exnation was extremely detailed. He meticulously went through every step. Throughout his lecture, he continued to asionally cough up blood, and even sway back and forth in his chair. By the time the ss was over, it was alreadyte in the morning. Some of the new swordsages were already testing out the technique.

    ¡°You¡¯re dismissed,¡± Ailing Ghost said. ¡°You can go back and work on your cultivation now.¡± With that, he stood. However, he had apparently stood too quickly, as blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. Wiping it off casually, he walked to the door. Just before he was about to leave, he suddenly turned and looked back at the ss. He smiled.

    ¡°Oh, right. This ss wasn¡¯t just about teaching you that secret magic. I also wanted to teach you an object lesson. You need to learn quickly that, as swordsages, you always have to keep your guard up. Didn¡¯t any of you notice that I¡¯m not wearing a swordsage uniform? Have you noticed anyone walking around the Swordsage Pce without swordsage uniforms on? Given that, wouldn¡¯t you expect this ss to be taught by a swordsage? Were you on guard? Were you ready? Have you forgotten three titles, six subtitles, and sixty-nine chapters of swordsagew you learned about before swearing your oath?

    ¡°Whenever you encounter inclothes swordsages, the standard procedure is for that swordsage to state their identity. It was a simple test. And that simple test has proven... that some of you are still very inexperienced.¡±

    With that, Ailing Ghost waved his hand.

    Instantly, about a dozen of the fifty-one swordsages flopped to the ground unconscious. The rest of them remained in ce, looking at Ailing Ghost. The Captain, Qing Qiu, and Kong Xianglong were among them.

    Ailing Ghost looked at those who had not fallen. He smiled. ¡°If I really was an enemy infiltrator, then those people would be dead. This round of swordsage training really is different from usual. That said, none of you seemed to notice my unusual clothing, and therefore, none of you are up to standard either.

    ¡°Those who fell unconscious earn a score of ¡®substandard.¡¯ The rest of you earn a score of ¡®average.¡¯ Those are your test results.¡±

    Ailing Ghost flicked his sleeve, and his clothing changed, transforming into a swordsage uniform. Then he took out some medicinal pills which he distributed to the unconscious swordsages. Finally he looked at Xu Qing and the others with an enigmatic smile.

    ¡°Hmm. Apparently a few of you do meet the standard. Whose eye is this?¡± Ailing Ghost reached behind his back and pulled his hand back out with an eyeball in it.

    The Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°And whose melon seed is this?¡±

    ¡°And who does this strand of evil ghost wille from?¡±

    ¡°And where did this hair suddenly appear from?¡±

    ¡°And what about this strand of smoke? Did one of you little punks actually enve a Smokewight?¡±

    Ailing Ghost looked at the Captain, Duskspirit, Qing Qiu, Sir Mountain-River, and Wang Chen one after another.

    ¡°All five of you earn a score of ¡®above average¡¯!¡±

    Around that time, footsteps echoed into the study hall from outside, and four individuals appeared, pulsing with somber, killing auras. Their swordsage uniforms were slightly different from the normal type, as they had ck swords embroidered on their cors. They were obviously from the Law Enforcement Department.

    One of them, a middle-aged man, coolly said, ¡°Ailing Ghost, someone saw through your ruse. They contacted Law Enforcement and called us here to arrest you!¡±

    ¡°Oh? Who was it?¡±

    As Ailing Ghost looked over the swordsages with a smile, Kong Xianglong stood and sped hands.

    ¡°Well done, boy. Despite being familiar with me, you cast aside personal feelings to determine what was really going on. The test was harder for you considering you knew me. Your score is ¡®excellent¡¯!¡±

    Ailing Ghost nodded approvingly at Kong Xianglong, then turned to leave.

    Before he could, the Captain cleared his throat apologetically. ¡°Exalted one, I still have one more eye left....¡±

    Stunned, Ailing Ghost looked over at the Captain.

    ¡°In your bag of holding.¡± The Captain blinked a few times.

    Ailing Ghost looked down, checked his bag of holding, and then pulled out an eyeball. He examined it with glittering eyes, then sized up the Captain.

    ¡°Very well done. The fact that you got that in there without me noticing is impressive. It¡¯s a somewhat cheap trick, but still effective. You also earn a score of ¡®excellent¡¯. By the way, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Chen Erniu...¡± the Captain replied cautiously.

    Ailing Ghost looked at him deeply but didn¡¯t say anything further. He had obviously heard the name. Shaking his head, he turned again to leave.

    Xu Qing hesitated as he looked at the feeble Ailing Ghost, surrounded by poison. It seemed obvious that Ailing Ghost was skilled in the dao of poison. Presumably, his internal injury produced a poisonous energy that he had turned into a weapon of sorts. Back when he had been coughing up blood, Xu Qing had taken precautions by scattering his own poison. However, he wasn¡¯t sure if there might be any unexpected reactions between his poison and that created by Ailing Ghost¡¯s injury.

    Not wanting to take any chances, Xu Qing stood. ¡°Exalted one.¡±

    Ailing Ghost yet again stopped in ce and turned to look at Xu Qing. He had been paying attention to Xu Qing the entire time, assuming that someone with a 30,000-meter pir of light would be impressive. In the end, he had been a bit disappointed. Although it was good that Xu Qing didn¡¯t fall for the poison trick, it was a big negative that he didn¡¯t notice the situation with the incorrect clothing, and also didn¡¯t unleash any secret moves. That indicated to him that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t adaptable and quick-witted.

    However, now that Xu Qing had called out to him, he suddenly felt anticipation. ¡°Did you manage to secretly put something on me, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°What exactly is it?¡± Ailing Ghost asked, curiously checking himself up and down, even his bag of holding.

    ¡°Poison...¡± Xu Qing said apologetically.

    Ailing Ghost¡¯s jaw nearly dropped.

    ¡°A lot of poison. All mixed together. I¡¯m not sure if it will cause a problem for your injury, exalted one. What¡¯s more, I don¡¯t know what interactions could result from those poisons mixing with yours.¡±

    Ailing Ghost was visibly stunned.

    ¡°Exalted one, I think... you should go find someone to purge the poison. Also, I should probably mention to my fellow colleagues that they¡¯ve also been poisoned. I apologize. That said, none of them have internal injuries, and since the poison hasn¡¯t been activated, it can be removed easily.¡±

    With that, he took out arge number of antidote pills and handed them out to the shocked swordsages. Then he sped hands and bowed in apology to the astonished Ailing Ghost.

    ¡°Exalted one, my poisons have already been activated in your body by your own poisons, so I have no antidote that can treat them. You should really hurry up and find someone skilled in the dao of alchemy to help you....¡±

    Silence reigned. Everyone was looking at Xu Qing, astonished. That included Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and even Kong Xianglong. Everyone. Only the Captain didn¡¯t look the least bit surprised, and simply popped antidote pills into his mouth one after another.

    Then Ailing Ghost opened his mouth to speak, only to vomit up a huge glob of ck blood. Then his face started turning greenish-ck. The fourw enforcement swordsages rushed over to support him as he left to find one of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s alchemists.

    The hall went silent again.

    Then the sound of people swallowing pills could be heard. Slowly but surely, the swordsages who had passed out regained consciousness. When they were told the situation, they quickly began consuming antidote pills. Next, scraping sounds could be heard as everyone near Xu Qing dragged their desk away from him. Even Kong Xianglong did so, although not as quickly as Qing Qiu did.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly. He was used to being alone. Besides, at least he still had his Eldest Brother.

    The Captain seemed to be taking it all in stride. Ever since getting to know Xu Qing, he had made it a practice of keeping a lot of antidote pills in his bag of holding. Popping them like candy, he nced over at Kong Xianglong.

    What¡¯s the big deal? These people clearly need a few lessons on strategy.

    When Kong Xianglong saw the Captain looking at him, he grinned wryly. Bracing himself, he dragged his table back to its previous spot. Laughing heartily for Xu Qing¡¯s benefit, he took out some antidote pills and started consuming them.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The atmosphere in the study hall was quiet but also strange. Many of the swordsages were ncing at Xu Qing out of the corners of their eyes. It was easy to imagine how quickly rumors about this event would spread in the Swordsage Pce....

    Before long, they heard more footsteps outside the study hall. Then another swordsage entered.

    He was an old man, but not Ailing Ghost. He gave off an impression of immense strength, but at the same time, seemed grim and sinister. As he walked, his loud footsteps made it obvious how explosively powerful his energy and blood was.

    Upon entering, he turned and looked coldly at everyone seated at the desks. Finally, his gaze came to rest on Xu Qing.

    ¡°Are you the one who poisoned Ailing Ghost?¡±

 Chapter 401: The Emperors of Humankind!

    Chapter 401: The Emperors of Humankind!

    The old man¡¯s voice was cold, and contained something grave and deste in it. He pulsed with a baleful aura that,bined with his grave facial expression, made him look fierce and malevolent. Xu Qing could sense that this man also had a Nascent Soul cultivation base. However, his aura was stronger than Ailing Ghost¡¯s.

    Xu Qing nodded in response to the man¡¯s questions.

    ¡°Very good,¡± the old man said, chuckling coldly. ¡°Ailing Ghost has a sort of symbiotic rtionship with the poison the Holytides hit him with. Because of that, it¡¯s a simple thing for him to utilize poison. However, his understanding of the dao of poison is minimal. This group of swordsages isn¡¯t bad at all! You¡¯re Xu Qing, right? Step forward. As a reward for poisoning Ailing Ghost, I¡¯ll have you assist me in my lecture about nonhuman species.¡±

    Xu Qing stepped over and stood somberly next to the old man.

    At this point, the old man looked at the other swordsages in the study hall. ¡°You can call me Ghost Hand. Today I¡¯ll be teaching you about some of the defining characteristics of the mostmon nonhuman species. Also, their fatal weaknesses.¡±

    Qing Qiu instinctively nced at Xu Qing. [1]

    Being so close to Ghost Hand, Xu Qing could sense a strong odor of blood on him. He also noticed that Kong Xianglong seemed to revere Ghost Hand even more than he did Ailing Ghost.

    As he pondered that, Kong Xianglong projected a message to him.

    ¡°Jailer.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed in focus. He knew what ¡®jailers¡¯ were. And that indicated this man came from the Corrections Division. That made Xu Qing all the more interested in the contents of the lecture.

    Back when he worked in the Violent Crimes Division in Seven Blood Eyes, he¡¯d had dealings with some of the nonhumans who lived on the Forbidden Sea, and thus knew that many of them had different body structures than humans. Because of that, their fatal weaknesses were different. Grueglooms and Seastars were good examples.

    ¡°Smokewights are born in direct sunlight, and exist in a state of energy. It might seem like they have no weaknesses, but the truth is that their fatal weakness is right in front of you. All you need is a wind-based magical technique to take advantage of it.... Take this, Xu Qing.¡±

    Ghost Hand thrust his hand out, causing a lump of ice to appear, which then floated over to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing extended his hand to catch it. Being closer than the others, he had a much better view of the ice. It was transparent, and inside of it was a clump of smoke.

    ¡°Dealing with Smokewights is actually quite simple. You can simply freeze them, like I¡¯ve done here.¡±

    Ghost Hand flicked his sleeve, causing the ice to fly back to him. Then he went on to talk about other species.

    ¡°The Clothmakers are a species with the innate ability to turn enemies into cloth dolls. Their weakness is that within the third finger of each hand, they have a vital meridian.¡±

    Ghost Hand waved his hand, causing an emaciated corpse to fly over and hover in front of Xu Qing. Xu Qing took control of it. The unclothed corpse had wrinkled green skin and a horn growing out of its forehead.

    ¡°Xu Qing, find the third finger.¡±

    As instructed, Xu Qing rotated the corpse and then found the right hand, the third finger of which was clearly broken. He pulled the hand out so the other swordsages could see it.

    ¡°Next we have the Dualfaces, who are close rtives of the Saintfiends. Because we¡¯re allies with the Saintfiends, killing them is prohibited. But it¡¯s not the same with the Dualfaces. Simr to the Saintfiends, they have incredibly strong fleshly bodies. Their fatal weakness can be found when their two faces rotate. In that moment, you can strike a fatal blow in the spot between their eyebrows.¡±

    Ghost Hand waved his hand again, causing a 6-meter-tall Dualface corpse to appear, with a bloody wound visible between its eyebrows.

    Being close up, Xu Qing was able to see the wound clearly. Also, he could see that it was a sword wound that pierced to the same spot on the opposite face.

    The other swordsages in the ss were paying very close attention to everything.

    Ghost Hand¡¯s lecture included details of over a hundred nonhumans. Each time, he would bring out a specimen, none of which seemed to have been dead for very long. Some were still alive, which gave Ghost Hand the opportunity to teach about their fatal weaknesses by killing them. Before long, the study hall filled with the smell of blood.

    Xu Qing benefited greatly. He could see everything very clearly, and sense things that the others couldn¡¯t. He was also privy to many small details the others weren¡¯t.

    ¡°Last we have a Demi-Immortal.¡± Grinning as if pleased from all the killing he¡¯d done, Ghost Hand pulled out a gourd of alcohol and took a long drink. ¡°All of the previous specimens were personally gathered by me, just for this lecture. Each and every one had engaged in ruthless ughter of human cultivators. Some were even guilty of killing swordsages, and were on the Swordsage Pce¡¯s wanted list. I¡¯m pleased that not a single one of you is the pedantic type who feltpassion for them. Believe it or not, we have had some idiots like that throughout the years.

    ¡°Demi-Immortals are easy to deal with. I dragged this one out of the Corrections Division. Unfortunately, just like the Saintfiends, we can¡¯t kill them.¡± With that, he waved his hand, causing a Demi-Immortal to appear in front of everyone, hovering there unconscious.

    ¡°Take a close look. Demi-Immortals are very simr to humans in appearance. However, they have five hearts. That¡¯s one of the reasons they¡¯re so strong. They also have incredible powers of regeneration, and few fatal weaknesses. In my opinion, if you want to kill them, it¡¯s much better to aim for their kidneys than their hearts. What¡¯s more, if you encounter them in the future, you should make sure to dismember their bodies to ensure they don¡¯t regenerate.

    ¡°Keep in mind, this lecture rtes only to the physical weaknesses of these species. Obviously, cultivators from these species will have all sorts of different magical techniques. When you end up fighting them, you¡¯ll have to be flexible and make adjustments ordingly.

    ¡°As for Demi-Immortals, there¡¯s one more thing I need to remind you about. The Demi-Immortals¡¯ immortal puppets areparatively stronger than we humans. They are vile killing machines designed specifically forbat. Even the weakest immortal puppet is at the Nascent Soul level. We don¡¯t know exactly how they make them, but we do know that they¡¯re made from living Demi-Immortals. You can imagine how brutal the process must be. The purpose of the procedure is to unlock resentment and madness, then use a special mutagen infusion to tap into immense power.¡±

    With that, Ghost Hand put away the Demi-Immortal cultivator and then took another drink of alcohol before standing up.

    ¡°Unfortunately, I can¡¯t dismember a Demi-Immortal in front of you. The three-species peace treaty specifies that if one species arrests another, the worst punishment that can be given is ten years in prison. After that, they have to be returned to their species. That applies to Saintfiends, Demi-Immortals, and humans.¡±

    Shaking his head, Ghost Hand walked out.

    Xu Qing went back to his desk and sat down.

    ***

    It waste in the afternoon and evening was approaching. As the sunset clouds gathered, a figure entered the Swordsage Pce. It was an old man wearing a green robe, with long white hair and sparkling eyes. He looked schrly and refined.

    All swordsages who saw him sped hands and bowed respectfully.

    ¡°Well met, Lieutenant Governor!¡±

    The three pces in the county capital were second only to the office of the governor. And just beneath the pces in the hierarchy was the office of the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor smiled as he walked in the direction of the study hall. Along the way, he nced at the various pces and halls as he conversed with the swordsage who apanied him.

    ¡°I think thest time I was here was ten years ago,¡± he said. ¡°Yesterday, the governor mentioned that this group of new swordsages is particrly outstanding. I suppose teaching this ss will be a good chance to see what talented individuals will be representing humankind going forward.¡±

    Apanying the lieutenant governor was the highest ranking honor guard from the Swordsage Pce. ¡°The little punks still need a lot of training,¡± he said. ¡°Given how well-studied you are, Lieutenant Governor, any tips you can give them would be considered good fortune.¡±

    The lieutenant governor nodded as he and the honor guard entered the study hall.

    All the swordsages inside stood and offered greetings with sped hands, including Xu Qing.

    ¡°This is the exalted lieutenant governor of our Sea-Sealing County,¡± said the honor guard. ¡°In a moment, the lieutenant governor will teach you about the history of humankind, as well as a special method he developed for dealing with impasses when working with nts and vegetation.

    ¡°The lieutenant governor is the epitome of benevolence and morality, and there is no end to his virtuous achievements. Six years ago, he improved the white bolus form and invented the pallid bolus. Pallid boluses are doubly effective at purging mutagen, and thus, this virtuous achievement by the lieutenant governor ensures that themoners in our county do not suffer as greatly from the effects of mutagen.¡±

    Having said that, the honor guard sped hands and bowed deeply to the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor returned the bow, then sighed. ¡°I think it¡¯s a bit of an exaggeration to say that there¡¯s ¡®no end to my virtuous achievements.¡¯ As for the pallid bolus, the medicinal nts required to concoct them take a long time to grow. Because of that, we can only provide them to themoners in the county capital. If we could distribute them to all the humans in the thirteen prefectures, that would be a truly virtuous achievement.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re too humble, exalted one,¡± the honor guard said. With that, he said his farewells and left the study hall.

    The lieutenant governor walked to the front of the ss and sat down. ¡°Sit, everyone. Your honor guard went a bit overboard with his praise. The truth is that I¡¯m just a student myself.¡±

    Everyone sped hands respectfully and then sat down and waited for the lieutenant governor to begin his lecture.

    Being toward the front of the ss, Xu Qing could sense that the lieutenant governor was simr to Grandmaster Bai and the grand elder from the Swordsage Court. He instinctively liked the man. That was especially true when it came to that pallid bolus. The mere mention of that pill sparked his interest, and he had already decided to purchase one and study it.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s lecture was very interesting. He talked about the history of humankind, starting with the glory days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, when he conquered Revered Ancient and was venerated by all species. Eventually, he reached the point when the broken face of the god arrived, and Revered Ancient was struck by catastrophe. Then he spoke about the emperors that had led humanity in the years after the broken face of the god arrived. [2]

    Some had been like enlightened sages. Some had tried to lead humankind back into glory. Some had been happy to keep things as they were.

    ¡°In the year 37,938 of the Eastglory calendar, Emperor Eastglory sought to aplish extraordinary things. Ignoring the advice of his counselors, he marshaled all humans to wage war against the Firemoon Darkheaven species. The war ended in a resounding defeat. The resources we humans had stockpiled for tens of thousands of years were lost forever. Countless brave young men died and were buried in foreignnds. It was such a blow to our imperial might that we never recovered. In fact, that war was a turning point that led to the decline of humanity. That event waster called the Darkheaven Rebellion.

    ¡°In the year 21,435 of the Sageheaven calendar, the consequences of the Darkheaven Rebellion became fully manifest. Over a period of ten thousand years, humans lost a total of thirty-nine regions. Billions upon billions ofmoners were disced and left homeless, and were ultimately either enved by nonhumans or forced to scatter to various parts of Revered Ancient. As the generations passed, many of thosemoners didn¡¯t even know what species they belonged to, and died not knowing where to truly call home. Sometimes they would band together to form small nations, but such ces were almost always enved or destroyed.

    ¡°Many years into the Mirrorcloud calendar, we humans finally had a chance to rise to new heights. Emperor Mirrorcloud was wise and capable. Furthermore, a small kingdom in the Violet and Cyan Region rose to prominence, eventually taking over the entire region. That kingdom was named Violet and Cyan. Its king was exceptional, but its crown prince was outstanding beyond belief, and eventually came to be known as the most prominent human to rise up since the arrival of the broken face of the god. He was conceived at the behest of the destiny aura of humankind. When he was born, a howl of grief echoed out of all the forbidden grounds in Revered Ancient, and mutated blood flowed from within them. [3]

    ¡°Later generations believed that he was sent by this great world of Revered Ancient to save itself. They believed that he was a convergence of the power of the world, and that he was sent down with the mission of uniting Revered Ancient.

    ¡°This Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, who crushed an entire generation, saw eye to eye with Emperor Mirrorcloud, so the two of them agreed to join forces. They were the ones who turned things around for humankind. After endless failures, they brought stability. At that time, humans controlled three regions and twenty-seven counties. Among them was the Violet and Cyan Region, upon which we stand right now! It is now called the Holytide Region!

    ¡°Eventually, that most consummate of chosen humans perished. He fell in the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. The nonhumans who attacked him were astonishing individuals. Even gods sleeping in the earth joined in the effort. Emperor Mirrorcloud wasn¡¯t in time to save him. And thus... there is no Violet and Cyan in the world anymore. That most incredible of chosen finally died overseas on a distant continent.

    ¡°The day he died, the mountain ranges in Revered Ancient all howled in anguish. The rivers flowed backwards as they wept, and the eyes of the broken face of the god opened.

    ¡°Years after Violet and Cyan vanished for good, in the year 12,578 of the Dao Life calendar, Grand Duke Holytide was named chancellor of the region. During that time, Emperor Dao Life was enlightened and benevolent, yet things changed again. That was when the Nightshades rose to prominence andunched their attack against humankind!

    ¡°Emperor Dao Life personally led the troops into battle. All humans fought back, and eventually drove away the Nightshades. Except, in a critical moment, Grand Duke Holytide betrayed us, handing over the entire region to the Nightshades. He even mixed his own blood with that of the Nightshades, thus turningpletely against humankind!

    ¡°After that war, humans lost two regions and twenty counties.... The event came to be known as the Holytide Betrayal. That was also when the name of the Violet and Cyan Region was changed. From then on, it was the Holytide Region.¡±

    The lieutenant governor''s voice seemed to carry everyone through the River of Time to see all of those events from the history of humankind. As it echoed out, it contained both pride and grief.

    ¡°And that is how humans went from controlling all of Revered Ancient to the current state of having one region and seven counties. We are now in the year 2,931 of the Dark War calendar, and we can only hope that Emperor Dark War once again brings light and holiness to humankind.¡±

    Having finished his lecture, the lieutenant governor sighed. ¡°Much of it will be up to all of you. I hope that you can bring back some of that ancient glory. I hope that you be true protectors of humanity, and not just swordsages out for personal gain!¡±

    The study hall wentpletely silent.

    As for Xu Qing, his head was bowed. At some point, his hands had clenched so tightly into fists that they had gone numb and turned pure white.

    1. Just to rify, yes this swordsage¡¯s name, Ghost Hand, is exactly the same as the nickname Qing Qiu has mentally assigned to Xu Qing. ?

    2. There is a somewhat unique and specific term used to describe these ¡®emperors.¡¯ Specifically they¡¯re called ¡®human emperors.¡¯ For the sake of pithiness, I¡¯m generally just going to call them emperors. If the ¡®human¡¯ emperor aspect is ever relevant, I¡¯ll adjust the wordage to make the same point, or possibly use a footnote if necessary. I also want to point out that certain characters like ¡®emperor¡¯ and ¡®imperial¡¯ often rte to cultivation levels in these novels as well. Usually I capitalize the cultivation stuff to make it stand out. That said, I also need to capitalize them when used as part of a title. Just because you see the words emperor/imperial, it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean it¡¯s rted to cultivation level. ?

    3. Compare this story of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan with what Master Seventh said back in chapter 262. ?

 Chapter 402: Living Things Adapt to Their Environment

    Chapter 402: Living Things Adapt to Their Environment

    Unexpected things can inherently catch a person by surprise and throw their emotions into chaos. Xu Qing had been engrossed in the lieutenant governor¡¯s lecture about the history of humankind. It was his first time hearing about such things, so it was only natural that he was deeply interested. Perhaps because of that, he was caughtpletely off guard when that one particr name came up.

    Based on what the lieutenant governor was saying, that person... had once done amazing things for humankind. But Xu Qing was not so great of a person that he could just forget about the past. His way of thinking was simple: he still wanted to find the crow and kill it. [1]

    It didn¡¯t matter to Xu Qing if that person¡¯s past aplishments were truly as the lieutenant governor had recounted. And Xu Qing didn¡¯t think he needed to sit around wondering about the truth.

    Maybe it was true that the world could be described in terms as simple as good and evil. But Xu Qing knew that things between people were never simple. No, they were deeplyplex. Very rarely were things simply ¡®good¡¯ or ¡®evil.¡¯ Virtually everything came down to one¡¯s perspective.

    Perhaps one person, in order to keep living, would steal another person¡¯s final white bolus, thus causing that other person to experience mutation and die. Maybe that thief would go on to do the same thing over and over again, just to keep living. Every person who died because of that thief would call him ¡®evil.¡¯ But perhaps that thief would use the life he had earned to help people, perhaps even save the lives of others. In that case, all those other people would call him ¡®good.¡¯

    In the end, was he evil, or good? Such matters areplicated, as there was a bad side to either decision. Any judgment about a situation like that would be informed by one¡¯s personal situation. The ¡®correct¡¯ answer would differ from person to person.

    Xu Qing had learned that truth from a young age, and had seen it y out in front of him many times. Now, though he still didn¡¯tpletely understand it, he felt like he was close. Sticking to one¡¯s heart was the best option.

    If I want to kill you, I kill you.

    If I want to rob you, I kill you.

    If you hurt me, I kill you.

    If you kill my parents, then I¡¯ll definitely kill you!

    Xu Qing looked up at the lieutenant governor. By chance, it was the exact moment when the lieutenant governor finished his history lecture, and he happened to be looking at Xu Qing. They shared a nce. The lieutenant governor nodded.

    ¡°Next, I¡¯m going to exin how to deal with an impasse when dealing with nts and vegetation. Truth be told, that kind of situation isn¡¯t rare. There are nts everywhere in Revered Ancient. In fact, there are far more varieties than there are intelligent species. If you could observe Revered Ancient as a whole, and then remove all intelligent species, nothing much would change. But if you took away all the nts and vegetation, it would change very dramatically.¡±

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s hoarse voice matched his physical appearance, making it seem like his words echoed out from the ancient past into the minds of those attending the ss.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to teach you a specific method or technique. Instead, I¡¯m going to give you a pattern to follow, something that you can build on in the years toe.

    ¡°After you leave this ss, I want you to take time thinking about... how to change the fundamental characteristics of a nt. For example, how to change an ordinary nt into a medicinal nt. Or how to take a spirit nt and turn it into a poisonous nt. Or, conversely, how to change a poisonous nt into a spirit nt. In a potentially deadly situation, that ability could be your means of salvation.¡±

    Xu Qing had previously pondered this very subject. Based on what Grandmaster Bai had taught him, it was possible to use yin-yang prity techniques along with various medicinal theories tobine different medicinal nts to effect transformations. However, it wasn¡¯t a perfect method, as not all nts could be changed by alterations to yin-yang prity.

    Xu Qing and all the other swordsages were already pondering the lieutenant governor¡¯s words. Although most people in attendance only had average skill when it came to nts and vegetation, all of them were at least partially educated. After all, it wasn¡¯t possible to get through life without at least some knowledge of medicinal pills.

    Smiling, the lieutenant governor waved his hand to produce a flower pot, within which was growing a small flower. The flower¡¯s stalk was green, and it had three red petals that looked almost like fish scales. Altogether, there was something very strange about the nt.

    Redscale lily. Xu Qing recognized it immediately. It was a type of rare poisonous flower that couldn¡¯t be transformed with yin-yang prity techniques.

    ¡°Watch carefully.¡± The lieutenant governor took out a small bottle. Opening it, he poured the liquid from inside onto the soil in the pot. After observing what was happening to the redscale lily, he added a different medicinal liquid. Having done that, he threw both of his hands out to each side and released the power of his cultivation base. Sending it into the pot, he made sure the redscale lily absorbed all of the liquid.

    Gradually, something marvelous happened. The redscale lily¡¯s petals turned white. Momentster, a fragrant aroma filled the air.

    Everyone watching was amazed, especially Xu Qing.

    Although it might not have seemed impressive, the more someone understood about nts and vegetation, the more shocking it would be. Xu Qing knew yin-yang prity couldn¡¯t be used on redscale lilies, yet the lieutenant governor was able to effect such a change. It caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter.

    ¡°Do you understand?¡± the lieutenant governor asked. ¡°If you want to affect a medicinal nt, you can''t be bold and decisive. You don¡¯t need to make yin-yang adjustments to transform it. You just water it quietly.

    ¡°If you gradually change its environment, as well as its diet, you can exert a huge influence on the nt without it even realizing it. To put it inly, you¡¯re not actually transforming the nt. The nt is using its own power to transform itself. All you¡¯re doing is giving it the proper environment in which to change.¡±

    The lieutenant governor smiled encouragingly as he looked at the thoughtful swordsages in the study hall.

    ¡°And that is the pattern I wanted to impart to you. With that foundation, you can now look at nts and vegetation in a different way. Perhaps it can help you to do half the work, with twice the effect. Over the course of the rest of your seven-day training, I¡¯ll exin more about this subject on a daily basis. If you can¡¯t master it by the seventh day, you can always spend military credits toe to the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion to study further.¡±

    With that, the lieutenant governor left. Everyone bid him farewell with respectful bows. Xu Qing did the same. This particr ss had been very enlightening to him.

    That marked the end of the training for the day, and everyone went their separate ways.

    It was already evening, and the moon had risen. There were no clouds, so the beautiful moonlight spilled down like a silver river.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were getting ready to head back to the subsidiary sect when Kong Xianglong called out to them from behind.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped and looked back. Kong Xianglong had a sincere smile on his face, as he hurried over, followed by Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit.

    ¡°We¡¯re all going to berades-in-arms soon,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Let me buy you a drink! I don¡¯t want to beat around the bush, so I¡¯ll just say it in and simple. I want to be friends with you! Besides, my other friends are curious about you too. And since you just got to the county capital, you¡¯re probably not very familiar with the Swordsage Pce. I¡¯d be happy to exin a few things. What do you think?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. It seemed like a sincere invitation, and he did want to learn a bit more about the swordsages. However, he got the impression these people didn¡¯t like the Captain very much.

    Kong Xianglong came across as a bit boorish. But that was just his general personality, and the fact that he didn¡¯t like spending a lot of time thinking about things. It didn¡¯t mean that he was a fool. Obviously, he could tell why Xu Qing was hesitating. Suppressing his reservations about Chen Erniu, he said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Chen, if you¡¯re busy....¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not busy!¡± the Captain said, feeling very pleased with the way Xu Qing was watching out for him.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t care if an additional person came along or not. Hearing Xu Qing¡¯s response, heughed heartily, and then they all headed off. Along the way, Duskspirit snagged Qing Qiu, who had been about to head off on her own. Qing Qiu really had no choice but to go along.

    And thus, the seven of them left the Swordsage Pce.

    Right about then, Zhang Siyun walked out of the study hall. Seeing them all leaving together, he snorted coldly and left on his own.

    Kong Xianglong had grown up in the county capital, so it was only natural that he knew all the best restaurants and drinking spots. Instead of picking a fancy restaurant, he led them to an ordinary wine shop. There weren¡¯t many customers there. The proprietors were an old husband and wife who were obviously well-acquainted with Kong Xianglong and his friends. When the old couple came out bearing dishes for another table, they immediately noticed Kong Xianglong and smiled.

    ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t little Kong! And you brought new friends?¡±

    ¡°Uncle Zhou! Aunt Zhou!¡± Kong Xianglong hurried over and helped them with the dishes, taking them to the other table. The guest there didn¡¯t seem nervous at all in the presence of so many swordsages. [3]

    In fact, he said, ¡°Helping out again, little Kong?¡±

    ¡°Of course! I can work and drink at the same time!¡± Kong Xianglongughed, put down the food, then went and grabbed some alcohol for his own table.

    ¡°What are you doing standing around?¡± he said. ¡°Sit, sit! I brew the alcohol here, so I can guarantee you it isn¡¯t watered down.¡± After making sure everyone had a ce to sit, Kong Xianglong served the alcohol. It really did seem like he owned the ce.

    Qing Qiu found it very odd, and Xu Qing eyed Kong Xianglong a few times during the process. The Captain seemed as if he knew exactly what was going on.

    Kong Xianglong opened his mouth to speak, except that another customer yelled for the bill. Standing, he hurried over and took care of it. He seemed like apletely different person from that menacing individual who had arrived at the Swordsage Pce.

    When Duskspirit saw the reaction of Xu Qing and the others, she exined, ¡°Big Bro Kong grew up in poverty. When he was small, he worked days in the Swordsage Pce, and then did odd jobs in the city at night to earn some extra spirit coins. He worked as a waiter at this particr wine shop for three years. He only quit after he had to start going on missions all the time. But whenever we have a reunion dinner, wee here. After all, his Uncle Zhou and Aunt Zhou treat him very well. Big Bro Kong is the kind of person who cherishes old friendships.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Kong Xianglong hurrying around the restaurant. In his entire life, he had never encountered anyone like this.

    Eventually, Kong Xianglong came back to the table. After sitting, he lifted his alcohol gon and gave a heartyugh. ¡°Any day that I make so many new friends is a good day! Come, brothers. Drink!¡±

    Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit raised their alcohol gons. Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu did the same. Then everyone drank together.

    They were young, so they drank quickly. Alcohol didn¡¯t affect cultivators easily, but it could liven up the atmosphere. And Kong Xianglong¡¯s friendlyughter made things even better. Thanks to his efforts, the mood quickly grew much more rxed than before. Kong Xianglong¡¯s open-minded personality was even more obvious when he was drinking. Clearly, he was a big drinker, as he downed gon after gon.

    Eventually, even Xu Qing and Qing Qiu loosened up. That said, the two of them clearly didn¡¯t like each other, and hardly exchanged a single nce.

    The Captain, of course, was affable by nature, and didn¡¯t hold back in drinking with Sir Mountain-River and the others.

    ¡°Little River, Duskspirit, Wang Chen,¡± said Kong Xianglong, ¡°I know full well the three of you aren¡¯t convinced that Xu Qing actually earned the veneration of the Grand Emperor. But let me tell you, one of the things we human chosen need to avoid at all costs is jealousy. We all listened to the same history lesson today. Remember how strong humankind used to be? If it wasn¡¯t for infighting, we would still be just as amazing. I can¡¯t speak for the rest of you, but I¡¯mpletely convinced by Xu Qing. 30,000 meters is 30,000 meters!¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s heartfelt expressions eventually caused Sir Mountain-River and the others to rx somewhat, and they even started chatting a bit with Xu Qing. That said, they were still very wary of the Captain, and that wasn¡¯t something that would go away quickly.

    After three rounds of drinking, the food was served. Smiling at Xu Qing, Kong Xianglong said, ¡°Xu Qing, you probably haven¡¯t sought enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, have you? You either, little Duskspirit. I seededst year, so let me share some of my experience with you.¡±

    Xu Qing was moved. He knew that such enlightenment sessions were rare, and that people usually didn¡¯t want to talk about the details. The Captain was also surprised, and even Qing Qiu suddenly looked up.

    Kong Xianglongughed. ¡°What¡¯s with all the weird expressions? It¡¯s just enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, that¡¯s all!¡±

    Up to this point, Wang Chen had said the least. He was the one who quietly said, ¡°This is just how Big Bro Kong is. He gave me my lifemp.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t give you that lifemp. We stole it together!¡± Kong Xianglong went to sp Wang Chen on the shoulder, except his hand went right through him.

    ¡°Big Bro Kong, my true form is in a key cultivation juncture....¡±

    Kong Xianglongughed again, then looked back at Xu Qing and went on to exin his experience with The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Thus, time passed. They continued to drink, until eventually the Captain took out some special spirit alcohol from Seven Blood Eyes. It was so strong that mortals who drank it would die. To cultivators, it was considered fine liquor. That improved Kong Xianglong¡¯s impression of the Captain a bit.

    Eventually, despite being cultivators, they were all starting to get a bit tipsy. After all, none of them were using their cultivation base to dispel the alcohol from within them.

    Of course, that made them more talkative. Sir Mountain-River became less gloomy, and even started loudly cursing the Yao n. Clearly, he was not happy about how close the Yao n was with nonhumans.

    Eventually, conversation shifted to the governor and the lieutenant governor. When it came to the former, they sighed, but at the same time, talked about him with understanding and admiration. As for thetter, he was widely regarded as a very intelligent and talented administrator who did a lot of good for the county capital.

    Eventually the Captain and Kong Xianglong got into a drinking match, and the atmosphere got even more excited.

    As midnight approached, they finally left the wine shop. Although this one gathering wasn¡¯t enough for them all to be fast friends, at least they now knew each other a bit better.

    On the way back to the subsidiary sect, the Captain threw his arm over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders and pointed out with his other hand as if he were looking down at all heaven and earth. ¡°Let me tell you, little Ah Qing. Those people simply do not have a very high alcohol tolerance. Your Eldest Brother, on the other hand, has got some skill. Kong Xianglong really was subpar. He couldn¡¯te close to out-drinking me!¡±

    Xu Qing smiled and nodded in agreement.

    The night passed without incident.

    The following days, sses continued in the study hall. As new swordsages, they learned more swordsage secret magics, and were taught many other things.

    Eventually, the Swordsage Pce arranged for them to break up into smaller groups that generally met in separate locations. Because of constantly being put into different groups, the new swordsages gradually got to know each other.

    On one asion, Xu Qing ended up in a group with Qing Qiu, where they went through a course on dealing with ambushes. Although Qing Qiu¡¯s face was as cold as ever, they cooperated well enough that, inside, she was starting to feel conflicted.

    Another time, Kong Xianglong and the Captain worked together on a search mission. They failed, the reason being that when they found the item they were looking for, the Captain couldn¡¯t hold back and took a bite out of it.

    After that, Kong Xianglong took the opportunity to secretly tell Sir Mountain-River and his other friends to be careful around Chen Erniu.

    ¡°That fellow has a nose like a dog¡¯s. He¡¯s incredibly skilled at searching for things. But he also likes to bite stuff. If you¡¯re on a mission with him in the future, you have to be very careful about your belongings!¡±

    In that manner, the seven days of training passed in a sh.

    Not only had they benefited greatly from the training, but also, the new batch of swordsages wasn¡¯t filled with a bunch of strangers. Everyone knew each other, and there were also some budding friendships. They weren¡¯t deep friendships, but they were a start. The start of bingrades-in-arms. The only exception was Zhang Siyun.

    When it came time for the final assessment, Xu Qing was told he didn¡¯t need to participate, and that he was being assigned a post with the pce lord.

    The pce lord didn¡¯t stay in the Swordsage Pce. He stayed in the Corrections Division. That was a tradition among pce lords in the Swordsage Pce. They always led the Corrections Division.

    After Xu Qing left the study hall with his post assignment, he headed to Sea-Sealing County¡¯s number one prison!

    1. The crow is a reference to Xu Qing¡¯s metaphorical life story in chapter 380. Pleasemit this to memory¡­. ?

    2. As I¡¯m sure most of you know, women don¡¯t formally change their surname when they marry in China. However, there are various forms of address in which the woman could be referred to by her husband¡¯s surname. That seems to be what¡¯s going on here. The wife is likely not surnamed Zhou, but is being addressed as such for some reason that¡¯s not exined. At least, that¡¯s the conclusion Madam Deathde and I came to. ?

 Chapter 403: Sea-Sealingâ€™s Number One Prison

    Chapter 403: Sea-Sealing¡¯s Number One Prison

    The number one prison in Sea-Sealing County was the Corrections Division. Operated by the Swordsage Pce, it was known far and wide. The vilest cultivators from countless species were locked up there, including Saintfiends and Demi-Immortals. There were even some Holytides as well. Of course, humans who had been convicted of heinous crimes were also incarcerated there.

    From ancient times until now, the peace treaty between humans, Saintfiends, and Demi-Immortals ensured that representatives of that species could survive easily in the prison. It wasn¡¯t the same with other species. The reason members of other species weren¡¯t executed on the spot for their crimes was that it would be a big waste. Instead, their cultivation bases were turned into a power source for the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure.

    As long as they didn¡¯t all die at once, and as long as there were more to rece those who did die, then it wouldn¡¯t matter if thousands or even tens of thousands perished. To a certain degree, the lives of the prisoners were fully in the control of the Corrections Division. As a result, the prison abounded with an aura of death, and was a very sinister and gloomy ce. Thus, it was no wonder that the jailers who served there were terrifying and fierce.

    A good example was Ghost Hand, who had previously taught one of Xu Qing¡¯s sses. He was one of the jailers, and he had a baleful aura that Xu Qing had been able to sense quite clearly.

    Based on what Xu Qing had learned in the sses during his training, the Corrections Division had been around since Sea-Sealing County was first formed. And the very first pce lord of the Swordsage Pce had been in charge.

    It contained a hundred and seventy-seven levels, all of which contained dimensional spaces, unending warding spells, countless spell formations, shocking defensive precautions, and other secrets. Even a Void Returning expert who forced their way into the prison would end up trapped and unable to flee.

    A lot of that was due to the tradition of having the pce lord stay there. That tradition had been in ce from the moment the prison was built, and had been started at the suggestion of the first pce lord himself. Sessive generations of pce lords had always honored the tradition, and kept both their offices and residences in the prison itself.

    In addition to housing prisoners and powering the taboo treasure, the prison served another function. Intimidation. It was one way that humans struck fear into the hearts of all of the nonhumans that lived in Sea-Sealing County.

    Over the years, no one other than the Corrections Division knew exactly how many cultivators had been imprisoned. People who attempted to estimate or make calctions would say that the number... was the same as the number of stars in the sky.

    Xu Qing thought about all of that as he left the Swordsage Pce and headed to the Corrections Division.

    From up above, the ground above the prison looked transparent, making it possible to look down toward the very depths of the prison. However, though the dozens of levels at the top were clearly visible, everything in the chasm below was so dark that it seemed like a sinister ghast hollow.

    The closer one got, the more profound that sinister atmosphere grew. In fact, when Xu Qing arrived and stood at the very edge of the Corrections Division, he could sense immense pressureing from the prison depths. He also felt faint vibrations through his feet, making it seem like some massive, subterranean monster was struggling deep below. There was also a boundless baleful aura that rose up from below, apanied by faint howls and screams.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing kept his assignment medallion gripped firmly in his hand as he proceeded. Soon, he sensed that he had run into an invisible membrane blocking his path. Next, a terrifying wave of divine will weighed down on him. It contained brutal power as well as a force of expulsion. It was as if some invisible giant had waved its hand to swat him away.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled, but he didn¡¯t back up. He held up his assignment medallion and said, ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing here, reporting for duty.¡±

    As soon as the words left his mouth, the terrifying divine will focused on the assignment medallion. Shortly thereafter, the divine will faded away. The invisible membrane glowed with red light, and then materialized in front of Xu Qing in the form of a door made of flowing blood, set into a wall.

    The door seemed simple and archaic, and overflowed with the sensation of time. It was covered with countless magical symbols, each of which pulsed with immense power. Together, they formed the image of a huge beast which red at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at it expressionlessly.

    A moment passed, then the door creaked open and an unprepossessing middle-aged cultivator walked out. He wore a swordsage uniform that looked very simr to Xu Qing¡¯s. The difference was that instead of the design manifesting as a red me, it was pure ck. He had some scars on his face that were obviously injuries inflicted by magical techniques that couldn¡¯t be removed. The skin around them was withered, making him look unusually fierce.

    He also had triangr eyes. Looking at Xu Qing through those eyes, he shed an eerie grin.

    ¡°Wee to the Corrections Division.¡±

    With that, he turned and walked in the other direction.

    Xu Qing followed, stepping through the door and thus passing to the other side of the wall.

    He was now able to look down into the chasm of the prison, and could also see the staircase winding down around the edges. Xu Qing followed the jailer down the staircase into the Corrections Division.

    He sensed a cold and sinister aura from below, and the howls echoed around him, like those of wild animals. At the same time, darkness was everywhere. Not even the sunlight from above could prate the sinister haze which filled the ce.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay close attention to all of that. As he reached the first level of the prison, he looked around at the various cell blocks built into the wall. Every cell block was massive, and contained countless cells inside. Within them were innumerable inmates from all sorts of species. The smell of blood and gore pervaded, creating a very noxious aroma.

    Xu Qing took it all in calmly and without any reaction.

    The jailer leading the way would asionally look back at him, and soon seemed intrigued by Xu Qing¡¯s calm expression.

    As they went further down into the depths of the prison, Xu Qing finally spotted other jailers. Most were older in years, and thanks to the sinister atmosphere of the prison, all of them abounded with cold, baleful auras. Some dragged corpses dripping with blood.

    Their brutal nature caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to narrow. He also noticed that the jailers who looked at him seemed either cold, cheerfully ruthless, or suspicious. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about the gazes. He could sense that every single jailer had a very powerful cultivation base, such that each one would definitely be a famous person outside the prison.

    To Xu Qing, they seemed like a pack of wolves.

    The people in the Swordsage Pce also seemed like wolves, but here, everyone was far more brutal and blood-soaked. They rejected anyone who wasn¡¯t a jailer, as if they had been here so long that the only people they recognized as important were the jailers and inmates.

    As for Xu Qing, he was currently neither an inmate nor a jailer. Because of his physical appearance, and his penchant for disguising his true nature, he stuck out to the jailers like a bright torch on a dark night. Like a littlemb led into the den of wolves.

    Despite how everyone was looking at him, Xu Qing remained calm and silent as he followed the jailer down to Level 89. That was the exact middle of the prison. Above it were eighty-eight levels and below it were eighty-eight. This level had no cell block. Instead, it had a pitch-ck hall with twenty-one pirs in it, going from floor to ceiling. Coiling around each pir were numerous ck dracolizards that red at Xu Qing in sinister fashion. At the same time, the torchlight in the hall was so dim it didn¡¯t illuminate much. All Xu Qing could see was a person seated cross-legged at the far end of the hall.

    Looking very respectful, the jailer said, ¡°He¡¯s here, Pce Lord.¡±

    The jailer then backed up, going all the way to the stairs, where he waited.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed to the figure at the far end of the hall.

    ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing, here to offer greetings, Pce Lord.¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, a huge eye opened in the darkness of the hall. It seemed to be several dozen meters tall, with a vertical pupil amidst yellow. Within the eye floated numerous ck motes, almost like a smoke or mist within the eye.

    Beneath the eye sat a burly middle-aged man in a ck suit of armor, with flowing ck hair. A long spear rested in front of him as he sat in front of the huge eye, pulsing with terrifying fluctuations.

    Looking at him, Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun, and he suddenly felt like he was looking at a god. This person had no mutagen, but he emanated such incredible pressure that he truly seemed like the god of this prison. This man was the current pce lord of the Swordsage Pce!

    Opening his eyes, he looked coldly at Xu Qing. His gaze was like lightning, causing Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and blood to tremble. His soul almost seemed incapable of standing up to the force, as though it might explode.

    Then the gaze retracted, and Xu Qing stood there with his face ashen, trembling. The pce lord then spoke in a deep voice.

    ¡°Every swordsage is a sharp sword wielded for humankind as a whole. They should be ready to sacrifice their lives at any moment, all for humanity¡¯s sake.¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s voice resonated with power as he spoke those twenty-seven words, all of which echoed like heavenly thunder in Xu Qing¡¯s ears. [1]

    ¡°Though swordsages differ in terms of cultivation base and rank, it doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re talking about you or me, we¡¯re all sharp swords that defend humankind! I normally don¡¯t like showing favor to anyone. But you earned the veneration of the Grand Emperor, something borne witness to by many outsiders. Therefore, I issued a dharmic decree that you should be appointed as my secretary-general.

    ¡°However, the entire purpose of that was to show respect to the Grand Emperor. You, Xu Qing, are simply a new swordsage who hasn¡¯t aplished anything. Therefore, you don¡¯t deserve anything special.

    ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, there¡¯s no difference between you and any of the other new swordsages. And you obviously can¡¯tpare to those who have already performed amazing services.¡±

    The pce lord spoke calmly, yet the pressure that came with his words caused all of Level 89 to tremble.

    ¡°Do you understand?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. What the pce lord said made sense to him. Besides, he wasn¡¯t exactly thrilled to be working as a secretary-general.

    ¡°In the Swordsage Pce,¡± the pce lord continued coolly, ¡°we don¡¯t raise greenhouse flowers. If you thought you could skate by because of the Grand Emperor¡¯s veneration, perhaps by taking it easy here, then you can screw off back to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and enjoy the glory of your 30,000-meter light there!¡±

    After a moment of silence in which Xu Qing limated to the pressure, he looked up and said, ¡°Pce Lord, is there really anywhere in this world where one can ¡®take it easy¡¯?¡±

    The pce lord looked back at him.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know the answer myself,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°I do know that some people ¡®take it easy¡¯ after others endure extremely difficult circumstances on their behalf. But there¡¯s another way to ¡®take it easy.¡¯ And that¡¯s to kill every single enemy that threatens you. I don¡¯t like owing people things, so I don¡¯t want to be the former. I want to be thetter, and always have been.¡±

    Xu Qing rarely talked so much, so after saying those things, he bowed deeply and didn¡¯t say anything further.

    The pce lord looked at him, his eyes shining brightly. ¡°You can keep the title of secretary-general. However, I don¡¯t have any need for you to follow me around doing that type of work. I¡¯m going to have you work as a jailer. I want to see exactly how you behave as the second type of person you just described.¡±

    Having received his orders, Xu Qing bowed again to the pce lord, then turned and left.

    After watching Xu Qing disappear, the pce lord coolly said, ¡°What do you think of him?¡±

    ¡°He speaks sincerely,¡± came the response, a voice that rumbled through Level 89 like the roar of a wild beast.

    The dracolizards coiled around the twenty-one pirs all trembled and bowed their heads.

    ¡°My thoughts exactly.¡± With that, the pce lord produced a jade slip which contained information from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court. It had all of the details about Xu Qing. It even mentioned that he had started out at Peerless City, a city that had vanished when the god¡¯s eyes opened.

    ¡°The god¡¯s eyes opened on him twice, yet he survived, then ughtered his way to prominence. I suppose he deserves some mentoring.¡± The pce lord closed his eyes.

    1. In Chinese he spoke twenty-seven characters, and I managed to match that same number (27) in terms of how many English words. Woot! ?

 Chapter 404: He IS Hell

    Chapter 404: He IS Hell

    Xu Qing currently stood just outside of Level 89, looking at the jailer who had led him down here.

    The scar-faced jailer had already received instructions about Xu Qing¡¯s post, and what to do next. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, he looked Xu Qing up and down. He had looked at Xu Qing before, but had been assessing him as an outsider. Now, things were different.

    ¡°Considering how good-looking you are, boy, you¡¯re not going to have an easy time down here. To the brutal viins that call this ce home, you¡¯re simply not going to be very intimidating. They¡¯re going to have a lot of fun with you.¡±

    The jailer grinned maliciously.

    Xu Qing said nothing in response, and merely looked at the man.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s calmness, the jailer chuckled. ¡°Interesting. Come with me.¡±

    Pushing away from the wall, he started climbing the stairs back up. As he passed the dark cell blocks, he would inspect them and bark a few curses. It didn¡¯t matter how the inmates were moring, when they heard the jailor¡¯s curses, they went quiet.

    Xu Qing noted that thoughtfully. Each cell block contained arge dimensional space, within which were hundreds of cells. Imprisoned in those cells were all sorts of prisoners from every imaginable species. Many were bizarre in appearance, with the majority not even being humanoid. Xu Qing even spotted a few Seazombies.

    After looking around, Xu Qing retracted his gaze and then peered into the darkness below. A chill, sinister wind rose up from there, along with asional howls and screams.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even bother looking,¡± the jailer said coolly. ¡°Everything below Level 89 is Unit C. You¡¯re not allowed to go there. Not even I¡¯m qualified for that.¡±

    ¡°Was this ce once a ghast hollow?¡± Xu Qing suddenly asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re very well-informed. Yes. This ce was indeed a ghast hollow. Back when the Corrections Division was established, the emperor himself sent people here to take control. Hold on, what was that?¡±

    The jailer¡¯s facial expression darkened. Turning, he kicked open one of the cell block entrances. As he stepped inside, the door smacked shut behind him, then turned blurry, making it impossible to see inside.

    Xu Qing stood patiently waiting outside.

    Shortly thereafter, the cell block door opened, and the jailer emerged, grinning cruelly as he wiped his mouth free of blood.

    ¡°One of the inmates is a Hornmerchant who used to be in the same little sect as me. After I became a jailer, I requested time off specifically to go arrest him. He never behaves well. Whenever I get a chance, I go in and show him a thing or two. Of course, I have to be careful. Can¡¯t kill him. Otherwise all the fun wille to an end.¡±

    The jailer seemed a lot more rxed now. He even whistled a bit as he led Xu Qing onward.

    ncing into the cell block, Xu Qing saw that it was absolutely still and quiet, with a faint blood mist slowly settling down. Obviously, when the jailer mentioned ¡®showing him a thing or two,¡¯ it was moreplicated than it seemed on the surface. That said, this was roughly how things worked in the Violent Crimes Division, so Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised.

    As Xu Qing followed along, he saw more and more jailers. Most were in the cell blocks standing guard. However, things were differentpared to when the jailer led him down. This time, the jailer called out greetings to whoever he saw.

    ¡°We got a newbie here!¡±

    The jailers they encountered, all of whom pulsed with bloody and baleful auras, seemed intrigued, and some of them even started following along. In short order, there were over thirty jailers in their little group. Many were urging the first jailer to ¡®hurry up.¡¯

    ¡°Come on, Ol¡¯ Li, this is far enough,¡± one of them said. ¡°We¡¯re already at D-170. There¡¯s nothing interesting past this point. We¡¯ve all got things to do and just want to enjoy the show. Enough with the dys!¡±

    The middle-aged jailer grinned and stopped in front of one particr cell block. ¡°Alright. This is the spot.¡±

    He kicked the door open, then beckoned at Xu Qing to follow him as he stomped inside.

    Xu Qing looked over his shoulder at the more than thirty jailers behind him. All of them looked at him with gleaming eyes, like a pack of wolves.

    ¡°Wanna bet on the oue?¡± he asked suddenly.

    The jailersughed.

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet on myself,¡± Xu Qing said. With that, he took out a small sack that had about a hundred spirit stones in it. He tossed it to Ol¡¯ Li. Without saying another word, he turned and entered the cell block.

    ¡°Very interesting.¡± The jailers outside the cell block exchanged even more curious nces, then followed.

    The moment Xu Qing stepped inside, his vision blurred briefly, and then he found himself in another spatial dimension, surrounded by over a hundred cells. There were all types of prisoners. Some looked vicious, some looked grim, and some grinned wildly. None of them spoke. They just watched as Xu Qing entered with the jailers.

    The middle-aged jailer the others had called Ol¡¯ Li nced around then called, ¡°It¡¯s y time, fes. It¡¯s your lucky day. The same rules apply as always. For every chunk of flesh you rip off, you get one month cell-free. You¡¯ll be free to roam D-170 as you wish, and won¡¯t face any reprisals. Same as ever.¡±

    The inmates were already breathing heavily, and their brutal and wild gazes were fixed on Xu Qing, as if they wished to rip him limb from limb with their eyes only.

    To them, Xu Qing looked dainty and tender, like a pastry that could be consumed in a single bite. Vicious cruelty rose in their hearts. After all, a month of freedom without being locked in a cell was something each and every one of them longed for. Though they all knew that the people assigned to work here as jailers weren¡¯t ordinary individuals, they all still felt confident. Any criminal sentenced to serve time here was someone who had ughtered numerous human beings. Being locked up constantly only caused the perverse energy within them to build higher and higher. Not only did Xu Qing himself pique their interest, but also, they detested swordsages. Because of that, the ominous atmosphere in the cell block grew more intense.

    Seeing all that, Ol¡¯ Li looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Alright, ya little punk. This is how we do things in the Corrections Division. Every new jailer has to quell a cell block riot. If you fail, you¡¯ll end up as someone else¡¯s assistant, and won¡¯t qualify to do real jailer work. If you seed, then you¡¯ll qualify to be in charge of an entire cell block. Have fun. And make sure to kill a few for us.¡±

    With that, Ol¡¯ Li strolled back to the main entrance where he stood with the other jailers. There, he waved his hand, and nging sounds rang out as all of the cells in the cell block opened up.

    At the same time, the restraints constricting the inmates¡¯ cultivation bases were removed. Gold Core auras instantly sprang up everywhere. In Unit D, most inmates were Gold Core cultivators.

    Because of being locked up, their spirit energy was weak. But there were over a hundred of them, all with various skills and abilities. What was more, they all had brutal auras that only the most resolute, high-level swordsages would be able to face without shying away.

    Beyond that, there were some species present who had extremely impressive fleshly bodies. Obviously, this wasn¡¯t going to be any sort of conventional fight.

    The inmates were already moving toward Xu Qing, some of them cackling madly, others stoic, others howling in rage. Some moved quickly, others took their time. Some seemed to advance with wild abandon, others were clearly nning things out. And while some had terrifying fleshly body power, others were clearly using astonishing magical techniques. They were like a horde of devils or a pack of wild beasts, pouring out of the cells and converging on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood there looking like a helplessmb just waiting to be ripped to pieces.

    The observing jailers already seemed to be having fun. All of them had gone through this process, so they all looked forward to watching other newbies go through it. Of course, if it got to the point where it looked like Xu Qing might die, they would interfere. This really was a tradition, not bullying or harassment.

    ¡°Remember, kid,¡± Ol¡¯ Li called, ¡°you need to ask for mercy if things get too rough. Don¡¯t get yourself killed before we can save you.¡±

    Nodding, Xu Qing strode forward toward the first inmate, who was a nonhuman covered with scales that resembled armor.

    As the nonhuman closed in, grinning viciously, Xu Qing lunged forward.

    A boom rang out. The vicious grin remained on the nonhuman¡¯s face. All he felt was something like a strong wind hit him. Then a tremor passed through him and blood sprayed out of his mouth. A look of shock filled his face as a dagger appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, which then shed through his throat. The blow was delivered with such force that the nonhuman¡¯s head flew off his shoulders within a geyser of blood.

    Xu Qing shot backward, mming into another nonhuman. Before the nonhuman could react, Xu Qing thrust his dagger backward, stabbing into him. The dagger pierced the nonhuman¡¯s abdomen, and then Xu Qing ripped it up all the way to his forehead.

    Next, Xu Qing dropped to his knees, avoiding a magical technique, then jumped forward with the agility of a cat tond right in front of a third nonhuman. Bending his leg, he mmed a knee into the nonhuman¡¯s face. The nonhuman managed to utter an agonized shriek before his head exploded.

    Everyone could hear the sound of blood sttering onto the ground, as well as the thump of bodies hitting the ground. It almost seemed like the gates of hell had been opened, and a fiend of ughter had emerged.

    Xu Qing had moved so quickly that none of the other inmates had yet reacted. And before any of them could, Xu Qing blurred into motion, arriving in front of a four-armed nonhuman with a gemstone growing out of his forehead. This nonhuman clearly had a very strong fleshly body. All four of his hands were clenched into fists as heunched an attack at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was too fast. Grabbing one of the nonhumans¡¯ arms, he tapped into his own explosive fleshly body power and pulled hard. The nonhuman¡¯s face fell as he felt an immense force yanking him toward Xu Qing.

    As blood erupted everywhere, Xu Qing¡¯s right hand turned semitransparent, and he stabbed it into the nonhuman¡¯s chest and grabbed his four heavenly pces. As everyone watched in shock, Xu Qing ripped four dull gold cores out in a haze of blood, crushed them, and absorbed them. The nonhuman screamed as Xu Qing tossed him over his shoulder, and then blurred toward the next nonhuman. His index and middle fingers were like a needle that stabbed into the nonhuman¡¯s throat. At the same time, Xu Qing crushed his gold cores.

    Simr things happened to eight inmates. Twelve. Seventeen.

    The inmates were nowing to realize how terrifying Xu Qing was, and how difficult he was to deal with. They exchanged grim nces, and then some continued to approach him, while others prepared magical attacks from a distance. They hoped to uses above and snares below to see him dead.

    But Xu Qing was just too fast, and his fleshly body was beyond astonishing. Magical techniques red around him, and the golden crow appeared behind him. The crow¡¯s piercing cry rang out as its power fought back against the magical techniques unleashed by the dozens of inmates.

    Surrounded by shing, multicolored light, Xu Qing closed in on one of the nonhumans using a magical technique. This nonhuman had a pair of wings. He wasn¡¯t a Demi-Immortal, but rather, looked like some sort of birdman. Upon seeing Xu Qing close in, the birdman¡¯s pupils constricted, and he backed up. However, he was too slow. Xu Qing grabbed his neck, then mmed him into the nearby wall. The wall trembled as the birdman¡¯s neck and head exploded.

    ¡°What a pity,¡± Xu Qing said, realizing he hadn¡¯t left himself an opening to take his opponent¡¯s gold cores.

    He threw the corpse off to the side. Looking around at the vicious nonhuman inmates, he licked his lips and burst into motion again. He didn¡¯t use any poison. It seemed like a waste to resort to trump cards in a situation like this. In fact, he didn¡¯t even use many magical techniques.

    He suddenly appeared behind a shocked inmate, who tried to flee but wasn¡¯t fast enough. Xu Qing¡¯s right hand pierced into his back, grabbed his heart, and crushed it. Then he wrenched his hand to the side, destroyed the nonhuman¡¯s heavenly pces, and pulled out four dim gold cores.

    In this manner, bloodcurdling screams filled the D-170 cell block. The screams never stopped. They just echoed out, shriller and more miserable with each moment that passed.

    Thirty inmates. Forty. Fifty....

    Xu Qing killed with increasing speed and efficiency. Leaving behind a string of blood-colored afterimages, he grabbed a nonhuman by the neck and, as he screamed, ripped out his gold cores.

    An inmate tried to ambush him, but before getting close, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow twitched. A momentter... half of the nonhuman¡¯s body was gone, having been devoured by some invisible force.

    The ughter continued. An incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, which wasn¡¯t much. The stench of gore filled the cell block. Bodies littered the floor. Most of them had no more heavenly pces or gold cores. They were desated corpses, their energy and blood having been absorbed by Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow. Some corpses were headless. Others were dismembered. It was a grisly scene.

    There were a couple unique species whose skin Xu Qing had ripped off. There were only a few dozen nonhuman inmates left. Their innate ferocity had now been crushed, and they felt nothing but pure terror. They hadn¡¯t seen Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression change one time, and yet to them, he looked so different from before that they almost couldn¡¯t process it mentally.

    Xu Qing had looked like a helplessmb to them. But now it seemed like he had ripped off his sheep¡¯s clothing to reveal that he was really a vicious wolf. In fact, ¡®wolf¡¯ wasn¡¯t even the right term. He was like a walking, living hell!

    Their hearts swelled with astonishment and fear, and they trembled physically as they backed away from him.

    ¡°He¡¯s not a Unit D jailer!¡±

    ¡°Unit D jailers release emotional fluctuations when they attack. This guy... has none!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a fiendish killer! He¡¯s obviously been wounded, but he hasn¡¯t so much as batted an eyelid this entire time. This kind of person... I FORFEIT! Exalted jailers, we give up!!¡±

    It was true that Xu Qing had been wounded. There was no way he could fight so many enemies without using trump cards, ande outpletely unscathed. However, the more he got wounded, the more viciously he fought. Even as the terrified inmates backed away from him, he shot toward one and head-butted his face, causing his entire head to explode.

    The surviving inmates¡¯ hearts went cold. They were brutal individuals, but their eyes were full of terror as they looked at Xu Qing. He was obviously capable of a lot more brutality than them. In fact, when the blood-drenched Xu Qing turned to look at some of the inmates, they couldn¡¯t control their fear. Trembling madly, they ran in the direction of the jailers.

    That said, the jailers by the cell block door were also deeply shaken by the unforgettable scene they had just witnessed. They looked at the bodies and the blood. They saw the terrified inmates. And there was Xu Qing, looking iparably calm. Some of the jailers gasped. All were shocked. They had witnessed ughters before. They themselves were killers to the core. So what shocked them wasn¡¯t the mere act of killing. Rather, it was Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression while he did it. They were vicious individuals, but none of them could match Xu Qing, who ughtered his enemies without the slightest change in facial expression.

    Whether one was carrying out the ughter, or facing the prospect of being ughtered, it wasmon to get riled up emotionally. People about to be ughtered would feel terrified and despairing. Those carrying out a ughter would reveal excitement or anger. They were all emotions that couldn¡¯t be faked. And they would all be revealed on the face.

    It was the same with all the jailers in Unit D.

    Only people who had carried out endless ughter might not have any emotional reaction at all. Either that, or people who had experienced hell on earth, and had developed the instinctive ability to be able topletely control their emotions.

    These jailers had seen people like that before, but they were all in Unit C, below Level 89, which meant they were much higher-ranking jailers. All of the jailers in that ce were like that!

    ¡°Unit C!¡± the jailers murmured, exchanging nces. All of a sudden, their expressions weren¡¯t amused as they looked at Xu Qing. Instead, their eyes shone with respect.

 Chapter 405: A Mysterious Cellblock

    Chapter 405: A Mysterious Cellblock

    Xu Qing was still carrying out the ughter. Hell personified was still on the move.

    Truth be told, the Unit D jailers were both correct and incorrect. They were correct in that Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression hadn¡¯t changed at all during the ughter. They were incorrect... that Xu Qing was controlling his emotions. In his life, he had climbed through piles of corpses. He had flirted with death. Twice had he faced the gaze of a god. Therefore, he didn¡¯t need to control his emotions. To him, killing was an instinct.

    If you hurt me, I kill you.

    The inmates¡¯ brutal ferocity had set their fate from the beginning. It didn¡¯t matter if the setting was a prison or outside. Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t hold back because the inmates suddenly lost courage. And he wouldn¡¯t stop because of their anguished screams.

    He continued moving. Continued attacking. He chased down one fleeing inmate after another, attacking them in vital spots. Using what he had learned in his training, he killed them one by one. Of course, he still needed more gold cores. And thus, many miserable shrieks rang out during the process.

    Enough time passed for another half an incense stick to burn. At that point, Xu Qing stood amidst a host of corpses, holding the severed head of a Dualface cultivator in his left hand. The stench of gore filled the cellblock. Expression calm, Xu Qing looked toward the door and the jailers standing there with grave expressions on their faces.

    ¡°All done,¡± Xu Qing said, tossing the head down.

    Looking very serious, the jailers all sped hands and bowed deeply to Xu Qing.

    In the front of the group was Ol¡¯ Li. ¡°Wee to the Corrections Division, Brother Xu Qing!¡±

    The jailers behind him echoed his words. ¡°Wee to the Corrections Division, Brother Xu Qing!¡±

    The strong always received respect, wherever they went. It was the same in the Corrections Division. However, the jailers needed to see something beyond strength. They needed to see someone that was simr to them. If they saw that, they would give their approval. And if someone surpassed that, it would earn respect.

    That was exactly what had happened with Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing sped hands and returned their salute. Inside, he could sense that his fifth heavenly pce was rapidly materializing.

    ¡°Can I do the same thing in another cell block?¡± he asked.

    Hearing that, the Unit D jailers all looked back at him ruefully.

    With a wry grin, Ol¡¯ Li said, ¡°Xu Qing, though we can deal with the inmates as we see fit, the reality is... we can¡¯t just go around killing them all the time. In fact, you just reached this month¡¯s quota for all of us here,bined. That said, don¡¯t worry. We get new inmates all the time. And customarily, we¡¯re allowed to dispose of the same amount that they bring in on a monthly basis.¡±

    Ol¡¯ Li opened the door and everyone went out. Along the way, Xu Qing spotted his bag of spirit stones.

    The other jailers cleared their throats, exchanged nces, then took out spirit stones and handed them to Ol¡¯ Li.

    epting them, he sighed. ¡°I went to all the trouble of bringing a newbie here, thinking I¡¯d get rich. Who would have thought....?¡± Shaking his head, Ol¡¯ Li distributed some of the spirit stones to five of the other jailers.

    Chuckling happily, the other jailers took the spirit stones. They were the only ones who had bet on Xu Qing. Ol¡¯ Li then gave the rest of the spirit stones to Xu Qing. Xu Qing had made a good decision about the bet, as had those five others. Most of the other jailers had bet that Xu Qing wouldst for a certain period of time. Ol¡¯ Li served as the bookie. Clearly, though some people had bet on him winning, Xu Qing himself came out with the most profit. After all, he had bet the most.

    He felt very pleased taking his spirit stones.

    The other jailers all had cell blocks to manage, so they sped hands and left. Then Ol Li¡¯ took Xu Qing to register.

    Along the way, his attitude was very differentpared to before.

    ¡°Brother Xu Qing, I¡¯m normally in charge of Level 35. If you have trouble with anything, juste find me. I can help out. Right now I¡¯ll take you to register. You¡¯ll get your own cell block and a jailer¡¯s uniform. We¡¯ll also keep a record of your aura so you cane and go as you please.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. As he passed the various cell blocks, he felt a bit of regret.

    Ol¡¯ Li noticed his expression and grinned. ¡°There¡¯s something you should consider. If you can dominate eighty-eight levels of Unit D, then you can get a promotion and be a Unit C jailer.¡± Ol¡¯ Li¡¯s grin wasn¡¯t fake, it was very sincere. ¡°If you be a Unit C jailer, then you can deal with prisoners however you want. No limitations. Furthermore, you can earn a lot more military credits.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re talking about the levels below 89?¡± Xu Qing asked. He had noted the talk about Unit C.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. The Corrections Division is divided into Units A, B, C, and D. Level 88 and above are Unit D. Below Level 89 is Unit C. As for Units A and B, well, that¡¯s beyond the scope of our authority. Truth be told, even just Unit C is mysterious enough. I¡¯ve never been there, and I don¡¯t know how many levels are in it.

    ¡°I just know that even the weakest inmates there are at the Nascent Soul level. And they¡¯re far more brutal and ferocious than anyone in Unit D.¡±

    Ol¡¯ Li led Xu Qing to the registration office on Level 9. There, Xu Qing got his Corrections Division uniform with its ck mes, and also left a record of his aura. He also got his cell block assignment.

    ¡°D-132.¡±

    When Ol¡¯ Li saw Xu Qing¡¯s assigned cell block, he was shocked, and looked Xu Qing up and down a few times.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. ¡°Is something wrong?¡±

    ¡°D-132. Well, how to exin this¡­? It¡¯s both very lucky and very unlucky, all at the same time. It¡¯s on Level 57.¡± Ol¡¯ Li¡¯s expression was impossible to read.

    Xu Qing frowned slightly.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t have anything to do with the inmates,¡± Ol¡¯ Li went on. ¡°Though the inmates there have a slightly stronger perverse energy than average, they¡¯re still just Unit D inmates. The reason I say it¡¯s unlucky is that about half of the jailers who get assigned this specific cell block eventually die on the outside under mysterious circumstances. Because of that, the cell block is considered inauspicious.

    ¡°Of course, not everyone assigned there dies. Some have no trouble at all. As for why it¡¯s a lucky assignment, the reason is that our pce lord was in charge of D-132 back when he was a Gold Core cultivator. Furthermore, D-132 hasn¡¯t had anyone formally in charge of it for nearly a hundred years.¡±

    Xu Qing paid very close attention to all the information.

    Hefting the jade slip that contained all the details about the D-132 inmates, he scanned it with divine will. There actually weren¡¯t very many prisoners in D-132. Upon ncing over the basic information, Xu Qing didn¡¯t notice anything unusual that stuck out. That said, he nned to do further digging once he got to D-132.

    Xu Qing asked a few more questions about how things worked in the Corrections Division, and then finally left.

    It was already evening outside.

    It had been an eventful day as far as Xu Qing was concerned. He had been able to offer greetings to the pce lord, had been appointed as a jailer, had killed a bunch of inmates, and had pushed his fifth heavenly pce closer to full materialization.

    Now I need to go build my sword pavilion. After examining all of the various sword pavilions of different heights and sizes, he went to the outermost ring, then made sure he was about 3,000 meters from thest sword pavilion in line. There, he stabbed hismand sword into the ground.

    Themand sword erupted with dazzling light, then rumbling sounds echoed out as a 30-meter-tall sword pavilion rose up in front of him. Its general shape and structure was the same as the other sword pavilions.

    30 meters was the standard starting height.

    After forming the sword pavilion, Xu Qing retrieved hismand sword and then entered the pavilion. Though it was only 30 meters on the outside, the inside wasrger. It wasid out like an ordinary mansion grotto, with several rooms including a pill concocting chamber, an equipment forging alcove, a sleeping room, and a reception hall. There was also an energy convergence formation which ensured that the spirit energy was strong inside the pavilion. Doing breathing exercises inside would be very useful.

    Because of all that, Xu Qing chose not to return to the subsidiary sect, and instead rested in the pavilion. Of course, he set up various defenses, including spell formations and poisons. Although the sword pavilion had formidable built-in defenses, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to change his habits.

    Sitting down cross-legged, he began meditating.

    Time passed.

    Sometimeter he got a voice message from the Captain. The testing was done for the new swordsages, and the Captain untingly exined that he had a new post.

    ¡°The Swordsage Pce obviously values your Eldest Brother quite a bit, as they assigned me work in the Credit Auditing Branch!

    ¡°That chick Qing Qiu got assigned to Inspections. Kong Xianglong is in the Field Operations Office, where he¡¯s in charge of tracking down criminals. Of all the new swordsages, only five, including you, were assigned to civil posts. Oh right, me too.¡±

    The Captain was very pleased with himself, and Xu Qing even heard him munching on an apple as he sent his voice message.

    ¡°What about you, Xu Qing? How are things as the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general? Busy?¡±

    ¡°Not bad,¡± Xu Qing replied. He was actually a bit surprised that the Captain seemed so happy with his assignment.

    ¡°I bet you don¡¯t get it, do you, little Ah Qing? Fine, let me exin. When the others heard about my post, they turned up their noses in disdain. But they¡¯re the idiots. Unlike me. As soon as I saw that assignment, I knew it was moreplicated than it seemed.

    ¡°Ah, the Credit Auditing Branch! That¡¯s where they track everyone¡¯s military credits! Taking advantage of that position will bring incredible benefits.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, I¡¯ll be able to see who is earning the most military credits. By cross-referencing that with swordsage military credits in general, as well as the specific mission and cultivation base involved, I¡¯ll be able to see which missions provide the most military credits with the least effort. As long as my calctions are correct, I can also tell which locations are most ideal to earn military credits. I have such a critical position now! In fact, if I do my research carefully, I should even be able to get my hands on some intelligence reports.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s excited tone of voice made it clear how pleased he was with his post assignment.

    However, as Xu Qing listened to the voice messages, a strange expression appeared on his face. He was starting to think that the Swordsage Pce hadn¡¯t put enough thought into what kind of position they were giving the Captain....

    ¡°Anyway, enough about that. I still have a lot more digging around to do in the Credit Auditing Branch. Trust me, little Ah Qing, you won¡¯t have to wait very long before I find out the best ways and best ces to get military credit. And then I¡¯ll take you with me! The military credits will be ours for the taking!¡±

    Having finished his message, the Captain went back to his research.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation.

    ¡°Military credits!¡± Turning, he looked in the general direction of Daybreak Prefecture, and within it, Mount Daybreak.

    There¡¯s also The Emperor¡¯s Sword. I still have one more shot to seek enlightenment. I should do that sooner rather thanter.

    Taking a deep breath, he produced hismand sword. It was necessary to make arrangements ahead of time to seek enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. After all, there were a lot of swordsages, and thus limited daily slots. Using hismand sword, Xu Qing made a reservation for evening of the next day.

    At that point, he devoted some thought to D-132. Taking out the jade slip with the information about the inmates, he started studying.

    There were only fourteen inmates in D-132, all of whom had been locked up there for five hundred years or more. There were some who had been imprisoned for a thousand years. No new inmates had been locked up in that time, and none had died. But because no one had been in charge of the cell block for a hundred years, it hadn¡¯t been inspected. Nor had anyonee out of the cell block during that time. The only maintenance was to asionally send spirit energy into the cell block to keep the inmates alive.

    After going over all the information thoroughly, Xu Qing still didn¡¯t see anything particrly noteworthy. If there was anything that could be considered unusual, it was that the inmates in D-132 seemed much more long-lived than those in other cell blocks.

    Finally, Xu Qing decided he just needed to see the situation with his own eyes.

    The next day at dawn, he went to the Corrections Division, going directly to Level 57. Soon, he found himself standing in front of the door of D-132.

    It was pitch ck, and had a simplistic, ancient feel to it. After standing there for a moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with determination, and he slowly pushed the door open....

    The odor of decay wafted out from inside, filling the area.

    Meanwhile, many of the jailers on other levels looked toward the stairs, and the general direction of Xu Qing.

    ¡°D-132 is open again.¡±

 Chapter 406: The Fourteen Prisoners in 132

    Chapter 406: The Fourteen Prisoners in 132

    D-132 only housed fourteen inmates. Considering that most other Unit D cell blocks had over a hundred prisoners, that was obviously a very low number. In fact, it was such a low number that it didn¡¯t take any effort for Xu Qing to memorize the details of every single prisoner.

    When the door of D-132 opened and the smell of decay emerged, Xu Qing looked quietly at the entrance, observing. Beyond the door, it was pitch ck.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing stepped inside. Once he was in the darkness, the cell block door mmed shut behind him. The sound echoed into the ears of the jailers, filling their hearts with astonishment.

    Inside the darkness of D-132, the only sounds to be heard were Xu Qing¡¯s footsteps. He didn¡¯t use his jailer¡¯s authority to light themps in the cell block. That was because he preferred this darkness to light. It suited him more. After all, he preferred moving about in the shadows.

    When he adjusted to the darkness, everything was murky, but he was able to see. Just like the cell block where he had ughtered all the inmates, D-132 had arge open area in the middle surrounded by cells. Xu Qing walked the pathway that led past the cells. It was only when he reached the neenth cell that he stopped.

    There was an inmate in the cell. It was a figure seated cross-legged, back to Xu Qing, so tall that its head nearly touched the ceiling. It wore no clothing, but was covered with countless tentacles, some long, some short, all of which swayed back and forth and covered it like a garment.

    The giant seemed to bepletely ignoring Xu Qing. It was also apparently eating something, as chewing sounds echoed out from its head, which slowly bobbed up and down.

    Xu Qing stood outside the cell, watching coldly. By means of his shadow, he could see exactly what this prisoner was eating. It was feeding on its own tentacles, slowly ripping them off one by one and consuming them. Xu Qing was also able to get an overall picture of the prisoner.

    As the information in his records had revealed, this prisoner was a cloud troll. On the trip to the county capital, Xu Qing had seen some cloud trolls in Cloudywind Prefecture. They weren¡¯t intelligent, and tended to be about 300 meters tall. This prisoner was much smaller than that, and also looked somewhat different from the cloud trolls Xu Qing had seen. [1]

    Looking away, he continued walking past all the cells. About seven or eight cellster, he saw the second inmate.

    It was a woman, and she was human. She was filthy, and seemed to be covered with bite-shaped scars. Despite her dirty state, she was pretty, and also had an attractive figure. She was currently crouched in a corner of the cell, her arms wrapped gently around a scarecrow. She seemed to be trying to get it to sleep. When she sensed Xu Qing¡¯s presence, she raised her index finger to her lips and quietly shhh-ed. It was almost like she was trying to prevent him from awakening a child. The floor of her cell was covered with straw. If you looked closely, you would just be able to make out the shapes of countless more scarecrows, all tattered and damaged.

    Xu Qing observed coldly. Based on this woman¡¯s information, she had once been a chosen disciple from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. In a fortuitous encounter, she ended up acquiring some precious materials that were simr to longevity beans. As a result, her sect had high hopes for her. However,ter on it came to light that she was brutally murdering and eating human babies. The matter caused a huge stir. She had been sentenced to death, except that the family members of her victims demanded that she live out her days in endless torment. Thus, she ended up locked up in here.

    As Xu Qing looked on, all of the tattered scarecrows on the floor of the cell suddenly opened their eyes. ring at the woman, they howled and lunged. The scarecrow in her arms did the same thing, shrieking as it snapped viciously at her. The woman shivered and allowed the scarecrows to viciously bite her. At the same time, she looked up at Xu Qing and smiled. It was a strange smile, almost like a greeting.

    Looking away, Xu Qing continued on to the next prisoner.

    In that manner, he walked around the entire cell block, familiarizing himself with all the prisoners based on the information he had. He also looked for anything suspicious.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very curious about D-132¡¯s reputation for being unlucky. Considering that he had been put in charge of this cell block, he wanted to make sure he had the entire ce in control.

    After his initial inspection, Xu Qing got the feeling that the inmates in D-132 were a lot more freakish than the inmates he had killed the day before.

    In fact, the seventh prisoner wasn¡¯t even a living thing with flesh and blood. It was a rotating stone disc, like a millstone. It turned and turned endlessly, pulsing with a gravitational force that seemed capable of sucking in and crushing anything else in the cell. That disc was a species that Ghost Hand hadn¡¯t talked about in his lecture. ording to the information, it was a Rockdevil.

    Many strange and unusual species hade to be after the arrival of the broken face of the god. Another example was in the two hundred thirty-seventh cell, within which was the thirteenth inmate.

    This inmate had no body. It was only a head that rolled this way and that inside the cell. When it noticed Xu Qing, it stopped and stared at him with crimson eyes. Then it smiled.

    ¡°This is so fun! You¡¯re already dead, yet you don¡¯t know it. So fun! Next time you¡¯re going to die at the hand of someone wearing a straw hat. Except, you¡¯re already dead! How can you die again? You died horribly. Your whole body exploded, leaving behind only a head. And the killer promised to take your head somewhere. Tragic. So tragic! Everyone¡¯s looking for you, except they can¡¯t find you.... Hahaha! They have no idea where you¡¯re buried. But I know. I saw.

    ¡°You want to resolve this situation? Just throw me into the cell with that cloud troll. Stick me there, and I¡¯ll help you figure it all out. How about it? You¡¯ve just got to trust me. That¡¯s all I¡¯m here for. To help you run this ce. You know, the people who survived as guards here only did it with my help.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response. After sizing up the head, he moved on to thest cell and thest inmate.

    This one was special.

    There was no cultivator inside the cell. Only a painting, hovering in the air. It depicted arge family with the elderly and young ones all living together under one roof. There were a total of twenty-three family members, and all seemed to be smiling. Among them was a burly man with children clustered around him. He was smiling the most broadly, and the artist had clearly spent time capturing his facial expression perfectly.

    Looking at the painting, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. This was one of the new species that hade into being after the broken face of the god arrived. They were called the Paintedfolk. They were a species that didn¡¯t exist in corporeal form. Rather, they lived their whole lives inside of paintings. To them, everyone in the outside world existed in a painting, while they did not.

    Eventually, Xu Qing had walked in a full circle, and was back to the cell with the first inmate. The cloud troll there had stopped chewing, and was now muttering to itself.

    ¡°Don¡¯t trust 237. Doesn¡¯t matter what it says. Don¡¯t trust it.¡±

    237 was the cell-number of that jabbering head.

    Ignoring the cloud troll, Xu Qing went to the cell block door, sat down cross-legged, and stared out into the darkness. He found all of these inmates very interesting.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. The cell block wasparatively quiet.

    He saw nothing suspicious or fantastic. He just sat there, not interacting or talking. And whether it was during his short tour earlier, or just sitting there cross-legged, he kept poison swirling around him at all times. He didn¡¯t let it spread out far. He kept it close, separating himself from everything else.

    This was his normal cautious routine.

    So far, he had not seen anything that made D-132 seem unlucky. That said, he was ready to take his time finding out the details. Seeing that the day was over and it was time to end his shift, Xu Qing stood to leave. He had already registered for a slot to seek enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, and it was almost that time.

    However, as Xu Qing got to his feet, he looked over at the cell with the human woman in it and noticed something.

    A young boy stood there, in front of the cell, seemingly talking with the woman inside.

    Eyes shing, Xu Qing waved his hand, sending his ck iron skewer flying out. It glittered with red lightning as it shot to the cell and mmed into the ground right in front of it.

    The boy vanished.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing walked over. As he neared, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior projected a message to him.

    ¡°Milord, there wasn¡¯t anything there!¡±

    Xu Qing looked into the cell and saw the woman in the corner, smiling at him. After looking at her for a moment, he turned and walked back to the main door. Exiting, he closed the door behind him, then projected a message to the patriarch via divine will.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see anything?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Milord, there wasn¡¯t anything there. I couldn¡¯t see or sense anything.¡± The patriarch was being cautious in his response, and was feeling quite anxious. He felt like he was on Xu Qing¡¯s bad side right now... therefore he cherished every opportunity to shine. But he really hadn¡¯t noticed anything.

    Xu Qing frowned and looked at his shadow.

    ¡°... milord... n-nothing....¡± the shadow stammered. Just like the patriarch, the shadow felt like it was also in Xu Qing¡¯s disfavor.

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing looked back at D-132. However, right now he needed to keep his appointment to seek enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Stowing his curiosity, he left the Corrections Division.

    Evening was already approaching. Dark clouds filled the sky; it seemed it would be a rainy night.

    As Xu Qing flew up toward the Swordsage Pce, he suddenly noticed a 300-meter sword pavilion shining with dazzling light. As it rumbled, dozens of beams of sword light erupted from it.

    An old man wearing a swordsage uniform rushed out from that sword pavilion, his hands shing double-handed incantation gestures as he tried to stop the sword light. Unfortunately, he failed, and one of the beams of light shot straight toward Xu Qing. It moved with such speed, and with such power, that it obviously surpassed the Gold Core level. It was more like a Nascent Soul attack.

    Face turning grim, Xu Qing shot backward. At the same time, his Violet-Heaven Supreme-Limitless Crown glittered brightly, helping him to dodge.

    Sword light screamed past him.

    ¡°My apologies, young friend. I¡¯m so sorry!!¡± The old man managed to stop all the other sword energy, then looked over apologetically at Xu Qing. ¡°I was just researching a new technique, and made a bit of a mistake.¡±

    The old man smiled wryly. Despite being a Nascent Soul cultivator, he was still being very apologetic as he approached and sped hands.

    Xu Qing studied the old man with a frown. He didn¡¯t get a sense that the incident had been intentional. After all, a single stream of Nascent Soul sword energy wouldn¡¯t be enough to kill him. Besides, this was the county capital, and he had juste out of the Corrections Division. Killing someone here would requireunching a single deadly blow that wouldn¡¯t miss.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing nodded.

    It seemed most likely the whole thing was an ident. That said, he kept his guard up as he proceeded to the Swordsage Pce.

    Before long he arrived. After spending his enlightenment credits, the spell formation was activated and Xu Qing disappeared. When he reappeared, he was inside the location to seek enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    The location was roughly the same as the one back in the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. There was arge boulder, upon which was chained a sword. The ground was filled with arge spell formation.

    When Xu Qing arrived, there were seven or eight other individuals seeking enlightenment. Three of them were new swordsages that Xu Qing recognized. All had their eyes closed and their defenses up.

    Xu Qing found a ce to sit down. Back on his first attempt, he had nearly seeded. The swordsage back then had imed everyone felt that way, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t convinced. The reason was that he already had an illusory version of The Emperor¡¯s Sword in his sea of consciousness. Although it had been fading ever since then, the majority of it was still there.

    Besides, given what Kong Xianglong had told him about his own experience, Xu Qing was very confident that he could seed this time around. Filled with anticipation, he closed his eyes and cast his senses into the huge rock.

    The moment he made contact, he saw the same blurry scene as before. This time he didn¡¯t need to waste as much time as before. Pushing through the mist, he eventually caught sight of the image of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Focusing on the sword, he got closer and closer. As he did, it became more and more clear. He could also hear the thrum of a sword, and even saw illusory figures surrounding it.

    Those figures weren¡¯t possible to make out clearly, but they were moving in unison. They were drawing a sword and then chopping down with it!

    in and simple.

    That said, when looking at the move, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel that it was simple at all. The image of those figures striking with the sword filled his heart and mind with intense rumbling. As that internal storm grew stronger, he noticed one of the figures chopping down with the sword and splitting a sea apart so deeply it hewed a ravine into the sea floor. He saw another figure shing the ground, turning the earth of half a prefecture into dust. He saw another person shing a sword into a forbidden region, transforming it into rubble. Many of the figures shed their swords toward nonhumans, who screamed before they died.

    Finally, he saw a figure whose face wasn¡¯t visible. This person wore an emperor¡¯s robe, and was very noble and mighty. He hovered in the sky, facing a gigantic entity rising from the deep sea that was covered in tentacles and exuding boundless mutagen. He shed down with his sword, and a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering howl erupted from the deep sea as the gigantic creature was shed into bits.

    That figure in the emperor¡¯s robe was the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Grand Emperor.

    As for the entity in the deep sea... it was a god.

    All of those scenes seemed fixed in the River of Ancient Time, and as they appeared to Xu Qing, his mind spun. Then, all of those sword strikes superimposed.

    They became one single sword!

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    Xu Qing felt himself shaken to the core.

    Six hourster, he vanished from the spell formation. When he opened his eyes, they glittered like swords. Calming himself, he took a deep breath and cast his vision into his sea of consciousness.

    There inside was a dazzling Emperor¡¯s Sword. He had sessfully gained enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    1. Xu Qing saw the cloud trolls in chapter 388. ?

 Chapter 407: So Close, Yet So Far; She Just Doesnâ€™t Recognize Him

    Chapter 407: So Close, Yet So Far; She Just Doesn¡¯t Recognize Him

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he sensed The Emperor¡¯s Sword in his sea of consciousness. As of now, he could already feel that the sword was fully fused with him. It was an inseparable part of him. It was a sensation that would lead anyone to feel immensely mighty. That was one of the blessings of imperial-ss techniques, and was also a result of now being far more familiar with the sword. As Xu Qing experienced those sensations, he checked to see what transformations the enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword had wrought.

    He could sense every tiny bit of the sword¡¯s structure. He could sense every inch of the de¡¯s sharp edge. And he could sense every mote of light glittering on the weapon¡¯s surface.

    That said, those seemingly familiar sensations were also illusory, like flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water. He would still need further contemtion and practice before he could make them a reality, and infuse the technique into his soul, to the point where using it came as an instinct.

    ¡°Upgrade it to the second stage, and it will give me additional battle prowess equivalent to a full heavenly pce,¡± he murmured.

    After a bit more contemtion, he looked down at his right hand. He sent out a thought, whereupon dazzling light shone up from the creases in his palm. Swirling around, it eventually converged into the shape of a sword. It felt like it was so sharp it could slice through any and all living beings. And it was mighty enough to cause all gods and devils in the universe to tremble.

    Xu Qing could tell that this imperial-ss technique belonging to humans and swordsages was definitely not designed for defensive purposes. It was meant for killing, and it pulsed with a baleful aura. It was a sword that would defend humanity by means of killing.

    As he came to that understanding, his eyes shone brightly, linking him further to the sword. Just barely, he could hear the thrum of the sword, and it sounded intimate and familiar to him. At the same time, he could almost see the countless figures he had witnessed earlier using the sword strike. All of them held The Emperor¡¯s Sword, and all of them smiled as they bore witness to a sessor pursuing the same great dao as they.

    Xu Qing stood and bowed deeply. He was bowing to the sword, and bowing to those who also pursued that dao.

    As of this moment, he truly did wield two imperial-ss techniques. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits could devour countless living beings in heaven and earth. The Emperor¡¯s Sword could ughter anyone who ranked lower than the emperor.

    Thetter could unleash power that surpassed that of the wielder¡¯s cultivation level, but to do so required that it power up for years. But now that Xu Qing had gained enlightenment, that moment was certain to happen sooner orter.

    Seeing The Emperor¡¯s Sword form from sword energy caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to pound. However, after a moment, he calmed himself. A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

    I can¡¯t just wait for years before using The Emperor¡¯s Sword. I need it to be avable as a possible trump card in every battle I fight. Therefore, my goal should be to familiarize myself with the sword as quickly as possible, and then get it to the second stage. That way, it will count as additional battle prowess equivalent to an entire heavenly pce. If I want to familiarize myself with it, I¡¯ll need to use an actual sword....

    Suddenly, something clicked, and he looked down at his swordsagemand sword. Looking at it, he felt a bit stunned as he realized that it had an additional function.

    Other than its everyday functions used by swordsages, and the fact that it could be used to build a sword pavilion, it had another hidden feature. And that feature was its function in aiding the user in bing more familiar with The Emperor¡¯s Sword. After all, its physical appearance... was exactly the same as The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Just what I would expect of a legacy belonging to humankind and kept in the Swordsage Division. Every single step of the way involves deep meaning and reserve powers. Considering how long the Swordsage Division has considered this technique a reserve power, there must have been countless swordsages who seeded in gaining enlightenment. And though people who seeded in one shot are probably rare, people who seeded in two shots are surely not so unusual.

    Xu Qing had to remind himself that he couldn¡¯t getcent just because he seeded in two attempts. After all, Kong Xianglong had also seeded after only two attempts.

    With that thought on his mind, he took a deep breath and left.

    ***

    Unbeknownst to him, the moment he seeded in gaining enlightenment, down in the Corrections Division on Level 89, the pce lord opened his eyes.

    Behind him, the enormous eye with the vertical pupil also opened. ¡°Yet again someone has gained enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword in only two attempts. His name is Xu Qing.¡±

    The voice caused great storm-like winds to sweep through Level 89. It was the very same voice that had spoken to the pce lord when Xu Qing departed previously.

    After some thought, the pce lord said, ¡°How are things in D-132?¡±

    ¡°That ce is unique,¡± replied the thunderous voice. ¡°I might be the spirit automaton of the Corrections Division, but not even I qualify to peer in there. That said, Xu Qing is already wrapped up in misfortune. Furthermore, only you know the true secret of D-132. Why not just tell him the truth? Actually, even I¡¯m curious about what other secrets might be buried there.¡±

    ¡°D-132...¡± the pce lord said, his eyes flickering with reminiscence. ¡°There¡¯s not just one secret buried there, that¡¯s for sure. That said, I don¡¯t cater to personal whims. Everything wille down to destined opportunities. If he¡¯s still wrapped in misfortune seven days from now, then I¡¯ll remove him from D-132 guard duty and assign him to another cell block. That will just prove that he has no predestined good fortune.¡±

    The pce lord closed his eyes.

    ***

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing walked through the Swordsage Pce.

    Since I¡¯m already here, I might as well go see what kind of poisonous nts are avable for sale in the county capital. I can¡¯t give up on the dao of poison. What¡¯s more, I need to find one of those pallid boluses to study.

    With that, he flew toward the city. It was alreadyte in the night, and clouds covered the sky. Thunder rumbled above; a big rainstorm was obviouslying. That said, the business in the county capital stayed open both day and night. After all, visiting cultivators didn¡¯t just go shopping at one specific time.

    However, just as soon as he flew away from the Swordsage Pce, and right before he reached the city, a boom rang out from above, and a lightning bolt appeared, shooting right down toward Xu Qing.

    It looked like an upside down tree, splitting apart as it dropped. It moved with shocking speed, making it almost seem like heavenly tribtion.

    The suddenness was unexpected. However, Xu Qing¡¯s vignce was something that was part of his soul, and therefore, as soon as the lightning bolt dropped, he stepped out of the way. It sliced through the air right in front of him and then mmed into the ground below. Expression unsightly, Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven. As he hovered there, the lighting up above reflected in his eyes. Clouds filled the sky, and the thunder rumbled constantly. It seemed just like any ordinary storm, except for that strange bolt of lightning.

    Something¡¯s off!

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened. Whether it was that stray beam of sword light from the old swordsage earlier, or this random bolt of lightning, both seemed too coincidental. All of a sudden, he thought back to the rumors about D-132, and what Ol¡¯ Li had mentioned.

    Half the people assigned to guard duty there end up dying violently.

    Expression grim, he continued to the edge of the city. There, he looked down from the sky and to thends below. Though it was a dark, cloud-covered sky, the asional streaks of lightning coupled with Xu Qing¡¯s own cultivation base power enabled him to see all the way down to the Corrections Division.

    The two coincidences had him thinking. Upon reaching the city, he cast his senses out in all directions.

    Not everyone assigned to D-132 ended up dying. Only some did. The pce lord must know what¡¯s really going on. In that case, why did he assign me there...? Is it a test, or is it something else?

    As he pondered the situation, he started looking around for the nearest medicine shop.

    Thunder crashed above, and it seemed like the rain must be building up in preparation for a huge downpour. Not many mortal citizens were out and about; most people on the street were cultivators.

    It took about an hour to find a shop. As he neared, a frown broke out on his face. There were seven or eight cultivators shopping for medicinal nts and pills. One of them was a young woman in a swordsage uniform. Xu Qing recognized her.

    It was none other than the scythe-wielding Qing Qiu.

    Qing Qiu had just got off work in the Inspections Division, and hade here to purchase some medicinal pills. Upon seeing Xu Qing, she frowned behind her mask. Meanwhile, the evil ghost¡¯s voice echoed in her mind.

    ¡°We just can¡¯t get rid of this Xu Qing! I bet he¡¯s following us. From now on, let¡¯s not go this way after you get off work. I feel like Xu Qing is just too, too dangerous. We need to avoid him. Otherwise, you might not be able to hold back from ending things in mutual destruction with him! It wouldn¡¯t be worth it to do that. We should end things in mutual destruction with someone else. For example, Mad Dog!¡±

    Xu Qing nced at Qing Qiu briefly, but that was all. As he headed to the counter, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior projected a message to him.

    ¡°Milord, your humble servant, er... has a small matter to report.¡±

    Expression the same as ever, Xu Qing told the shopkeeper what medicinal nts he wanted. Inside, he said, ¡°Talk.¡±

    ¡°Milord, did you know that Girl in Red¡¯s scythe has a spirit automaton? It hasn¡¯t detected me, so it has no idea that, because I¡¯m a high-level lightning soul, I can hear what it¡¯s saying. Every time the spirit automaton sees you, it curses you viciously.¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had long since been able to overhear Qing Qiu and the evil ghost when they spoke via divine will. However, he had never said anything, as he wanted to find exactly the right moment to reveal the details. Because he had failed to do anything impressive earlier in the cell block, he had decided that now was the time to make his move.

    ¡°Based on the things I¡¯ve heard that little rascal saying, I think the two of them have some special way of ending a fight in mutual destruction. Milord, whenever the timees to get rid of Girl in Red, you need to be careful.¡±

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at Qing Qiu¡¯s scythe.

    ¡°He¡¯s looking at me!¡± the evil ghost shrieked. ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with his eyes. Something very wrong! We need to get out of here. I have a really bad premonition. Xu Qing¡¯s noticed something. And he did earn the veneration of the Grand Emperor. He also became the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general. We can¡¯t afford to provoke him. There¡¯s definitely something off about him. I have a really bad feeling right now!¡±

    As the evil ghost shrieked to Qing Qiu, the voice of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Milord, you¡¯re incredible! By merely looking at that wimpy spirit automaton, you got it terrified! Don¡¯t worry, milord. Going forward, I¡¯ll help you keep an eye on that little rascal. Hmph! How dare that thing have evil thoughts about Master Freespirit¡¯s lord and master! Is it looking to die? With me here, there¡¯s no way any malicious spirit will ever harm my most beloved lord. It¡¯ll have to deal with me first!

    ¡°By the way, milord, it probably wouldn¡¯t hurt to asionally show off how domineering you are. Err... all the books I¡¯ve read say that. The majesty of a king! The aggression of a tyrant! Milord, you have those things, so you can easily scare that upstart spirit automaton half to death!

    ¡°Later on, your humble servant will figure out a n to work against it. That way, when the timees to kill Girl in Red, we won¡¯t have any unexpected setbacks.¡±

    The patriarch was clearly going into overdrive trying to prove his worth.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. Having purchased all of the medicinal nts he wanted, he suddenly recalled the pallid bolus.

    ¡°Do you have any pallid boluses?¡± he asked.

    The shopkeeper smiled and nodded. Pulling out a bottle of pills from behind the counter, he ced it in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Ten pallid bolus for one spirit coin.¡±

    Xu Qing was shocked at the seemingly incredibly low price. After all, even back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, white boluses cost far more than that.

    ¡°Our exalted lieutenant governor is the epitome of benevolence and morality,¡± the shopkeeper exined. ¡°He¡¯s the one who invented this pill. There really is no end to his virtuous achievements. In order to ensure that themon folk in the county capital don¡¯t have to deal with the encroaching effects of mutagen, he¡¯s set the price for the pill at all shops in the city. For all intents and purposes, they¡¯re basically free.¡±

    Xu Qing felt admiration in his heart as he paid for the bottle. Later, he would research it and see if he could learn from the lieutenant governor¡¯s pill concocting technique. With that, he turned and left.

    ***

    Qing Qiu watched all of this, and suddenly found herself thinking back to the scavenger basecamp in South Phoenix. She remembered when she worked as a clerk at a general store, and a scrawny, grubby young man would cautiously approach and buy white boluses.

    Qing Qiu frowned. She had no idea why seeing the detestable Ghost Hand buy medicinal pills would dredge up the memory of her most cherished Big Bro Kid. It was almost pure sphemy. Feeling more revulsion at the sight of Xu Qing than ever, she quickly purchased the medicinal pills she wanted and then left the county capital, flying down toward the ground. She wasn¡¯t staying in the Church of Departure¡¯s subsidiary congregation in the city. She didn¡¯t have much in the way of fond feelings for the church, and much preferred her own sword pavilion.

    However, before she could reach her pavilion, she suddenly frowned again.

    Inside her head, the evil ghost shrieked. ¡°It¡¯s Ghost Hand again! We really just can¡¯t get rid of him! Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s out to get us! Wait, I know what¡¯s going on. He was looking at me earlier, which means he must know about my existence! He must being to end things in mutual destruction!¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Qing Qiu said, grinding her teeth. Turning, she looked maliciously in the direction of Xu Qing, who was flying toward her.

 Chapter 408: A Very Mysterious Clue

    Chapter 408: A Very Mysterious Clue

    Xu Qing had also chosen to return to his sword pavilion, and along the way he had kept his guard up, so it was only natural that he noticed Qing Qiu. Knowing that they were simply both going in the same direction, his eyes shed with cold light as he continued on his way.

    Qing Qiu also understood that they were simply heading toward the same destination. However, in her mind, the evil ghost was screaming and howling like it usually did.

    Gritting her teeth, she interrupted, ¡°You¡¯re such a chatterbox! How about I end things with YOU in mutual destruction?¡±

    The evil ghost suddenly went silent.

    And thus Qing Qiu and Xu Qing arrived at the sword pavilions one after the other. When they bothnded only 3,000 meters apart, they exchanged a nce. Both frowned. As it turned out, they were sword pavilion neighbors.

    It wasn¡¯t exactly a random coincidence. There had been fifty-one new swordsages who all established sword pavilions at roughly the same time, and were all in roughly the same area. That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t like crowds and lots of activity, so he had waited a few days in the hopes that the other swordsages would all build their sword pavilions first. As it turned out, Qing Qiu was also somewhat antisocial, which had increased the chances of them ending up next to each other.

    All told, it wasn¡¯t a huge deal to Xu Qing. After entering his sword pavilion, he checked the area for safety, then sat down cross-legged and started familiarizing himself with what he had learned of The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Now that he had gained full enlightenment, the sword within him had changed. With the proper foundation, instead of being dazzlingly bright, it seemed dignified and weighty. It also emanated faint streams of sword energy. That sword energy didn¡¯t spread out around Xu Qing. Instead, it circted around The Emperor¡¯s Sword, slowly forming concentric rings around it

    Currently, it had 11 rings. Though the 12th ring existed, it was only about halfplete. Obviously it wouldplete itself as long as enough time went by.

    That¡¯s obviously the sign of The Emperor¡¯s Sword¡¯s powering up.

    After determining the time since he had seeded at enlightenment, then doing some simple calctions, he came to the conclusion that the sword would generate over a hundred rings of sword energy per day. The more sword energy, the more devastating the attack when unleashed.

    In one year, it can form 30-40,000 rings. In ten years, 300-400,000. And after a hundred years.... He started to calcte, but then realized it was so far off in the future he might as well forget about it. Even if I only power it up for a short time, The Emperor¡¯s Sword will still be impressive.

    As he sensed the might of The Emperor¡¯s Sword in his sea of consciousness, he thought about the golden dragon Kong Xianglong had revealed, which was also an imperial-ss technique.

    That golden dragon had been keeping The Emperor¡¯s Sword in its mouth.

    After some thought, he stimted the totem tattoo on his back, causing intense heat and bright light to fill his sword pavilion. The golden crow appeared behind him, and then circled in the air around him. Burning phoenix-like feathers drifted down, making an incredibly beautiful scene. But Xu Qing¡¯s focus was on drawing The Emperor¡¯s Sword out of his sea of consciousness and up through the top of his head.

    Once it waspletely out in the open, the golden crow let loose an exultant cry, then flew over and mped its beak down onto the sword. A tremor passed through it, and it transformed. For one thing, it now pulsed with sword energy. That was even more the case with its tail. And it was generally much stronger than before.

    So, as it turns out, you can actuallybine imperial-ss techniques in this way....

    At least, that was Xu Qing¡¯s guess. It also seemed highly likely that it had something to do with the special qualities of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. After further examination, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be totally sure. But he did know that the golden crow was more impressive now. What was more, this change didn¡¯t affect the power-up function of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Settling his thoughts regarding that matter, he took out a pallid bolus and started studying it.

    Time passed. Eventually, the rain started, and as the pitter-patter filled the outside world, Xu Qing immersed himself in pill research. After dissecting several of them, he started to get an idea of the concocting method.

    It¡¯s a very ingenious method. But that¡¯s not the key to the pill. The reason it¡¯s so effective in purging mutagen is that it has some very unique medicinal nt ingredients.

    He couldn¡¯t tell what those ingredients were. But then he thought back to what the lieutenant governor had mentioned in his lecture about how living things would adapt to their environment. Considering that, it seemed highly likely the lieutenant governor had used that method to get the ingredients he wanted.

    Finally, Xu Qing took one and swallowed it, then paid close attention to the effects. It was indeed impressive. However, by closely examining what happened, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that the pill actually had some ws. It wasn¡¯t perfect. That said, he had no way to make any changes. In some respects, this pill seemed to be somethingpletely new in the dao of medicine.

    He sighed. Looking outside, he saw that it was hazy and still a bit rainy. Given the dusky environment, it was hard to say if it was dawn or evening.

    Xu Qing spent a bit of time meditating, then left the sword pavilion and headed through the rain toward the Corrections Division. Along the way, he thought about the two idents that had nearly befell him, and his eyes glittered with incisive light.

    Today I¡¯m going to figure out what¡¯s going on in D-132! If the prisoners refuse to cooperate... I¡¯ll kill them all!

    As he walked through the puddles, the rainwater sshed like blossoming flowers. Eventually, he reached the Corrections Division and passed right through the defensive barrier. Because of those defenses, the rainwater didn¡¯t fall into the prison. That said, the sense of humidity that the rain brought was still present.

    Expression calm, Xu Qing walked through that humidity down the stairs that ringed the walls of the prison. Along the way, he spotted a few jailers he recognized, and exchanged greetings with them. He didn¡¯t immediately go to D-132. Instead, he went to Level 35, to the cell block where he had passed his initiation hazing. There, Ol¡¯ Li was still cleaning up all the corpses.

    sping hands to Ol¡¯ Li, Xu Qing said, ¡°Senior, there¡¯s something I wanted to ask you about.¡±

    Ol¡¯ Li was more than happy to make friends with a neer like this, so after tossing the corpse he was holding into the pit outside, he smiled. ¡°How can I help you?¡±

    Xu Qing mulled it over for a moment, then asked, ¡°Is there anyone that still works in the Corrections Division who survived guard work in D-132?¡±

    Ol¡¯ Li thought for a moment, then nodded. ¡°There are! Chen Boli was thest person stationed there, about a hundred years ago. He held the station for three years before transferring to Level 77. Although, after his stint at D-132, Chen Boli¡¯s personality changed. He became entric, and will rarely interact with anyone else. If you want him to talk, you¡¯ll have to ply him with gifts. Do you happen to have anything really tough that can be used to sharpen ded weapons?¡±

    Xu Qing rummaged through his bag of holding and found a table-and-chair set from August Spirit Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto that seemed like it was quite hard. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Ol¡¯ Li smiled. ¡°In that case, this¡¯ll be easy. Follow me.¡±

    He led Xu Qing to Level 77, where they found a pock-faced old man.

    He squatted in the corner with his back to the wall, as he felt that was the safest position. Given how the shadows fell around him, he seemed very ferocious. He was in the middle of sharpening a dagger. As he slid the de back and forth across the sharpening stone, it caused an unsettling, ear-piercing noise to fill the area.

    Seeing Xu Qing and Ol¡¯ Li, the old man looked up with grim eyes that seemed to warn other living people to stay away.

    ¡°Brother Chen! I¡¯d like you to meet Xu Qing. He¡¯s new here, and he got assigned to D-132. He wanted to ask you some questions about that.¡± After making the initial introduction, Ol¡¯ Li was apparently not inclined to stick around, and he left.

    Chen Boli didn¡¯t say anything, and looked as grim as before. After watching Ol¡¯ Li leave, he shifted his gaze to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed, then took out Nethersprite¡¯s chair-and-desk set and put it off to the side.

    ¡°Senior, these items are very hard.¡±

    He could sense that this man had a very profound cultivation base.

    Chen Boli nced at the furniture, then reached out and rubbed his hand along the material. After that, he made some experimental swipes to sharpen his dagger. When he saw the results, he looked pleased.

    ¡°What do you want to know? How to avoid dying on the outside?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Already he could tell that he was on the right track. sping hands, he bowed again. ¡°I hope you can clear up my confusion, Senior.¡±

    ¡°Have you already experienced some misfortune?¡± Chen Boli asked, looking Xu Qing up and down.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Chen Boli¡¯s expression flickered and he put his dagger onto the ground next to him. ¡°It seems to me the unknowable has already gathered to a sufficiently high level to manifest. That was very fast. Avoiding death on the outside is simple. Just don¡¯t leave the Corrections Division. Either that or have a very strong life force. I¡¯m not thetter, so when I had that post I never left. That¡¯s what the person assigned to the post before me said to do.¡± Chen Boli was looking at Xu Qing like he was already dead. ¡°You need to be careful. When that unknowable misfortune locks onto someone, they usually don¡¯t survive a month.¡±

    Xu Qing considered everything for a moment, then asked, ¡°Senior, this ¡®unknowable¡¯ you mentioned, does ite from the inmates in D-132? Do they have some special characteristics? Although, I suppose if they did, they wouldn¡¯t be locked up in Unit D, but rather, somewhere deeper.¡±

    Chen Boli both nodded and then shook his head. ¡°The inmates in D-132 are indeed special. After being locked up and managing to survive, they became inherently unknowable. At least, that¡¯s what I think. My sense is that all of them contribute a bit to the unknowable.

    ¡°Or maybe D-132 itself is unknowable. Or it¡¯s even possible that one of the inmates has turned the tables and taken charge in there. That said, the pce lord doesn¡¯t pay much attention to D-132, so I¡¯d say my first guess is probably the correct one.

    ¡°Did that head in 237 beg for you to put it in with the cloud troll? Ignore it. Someone tried that once, and it didn¡¯t do anything.¡±

    With that, Chen Boli went on to give Xu Qing some details about the various inmates in D-132. ¡°The thirteenth inmate, that head, really does have some skills. But not many. Again, don¡¯t take any of its advice, or it could affect you negatively.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s the Paintedfolk. All twenty-two figures in that painting are part of it. That¡¯s the inmate who¡¯s been locked up the longest, but at the same time, causes the least problems. During the entire time I was assigned there, I never once saw it out in the open.¡±

    Hearing all that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. ¡°Senior, doesn¡¯t that Paintedfolk painting have a family with twenty-three members?¡±

    Chen Boli¡¯s eyes also narrowed. ¡°Twenty-three? No, definitely not. It¡¯s twenty-two.¡±

    After some thought, Xu Qing nodded. Then he asked a few more followup questions, and finally ced some spirit stones off to the side before bidding farewell.

    Just before Xu Qing left, Chen Boli suddenly said, ¡°Xu Qing, everyone who gets assigned to D-132 is someone the pce lord believes to be important. It¡¯s a test. ording to the rumors, there aren¡¯t just secrets buried there. There¡¯s also incredible good fortune. Unfortunately, I never found it.

    ¡°If you really want to avoid dying, go to Level 9 and request to be transferred. Every new jailer has that right. After you transfer, you¡¯ll be fine. The only consequence is that your name will be removed from the list of people who¡¯ve been assigned to D-132.

    ¡°Finally, let me tell you something that one of the other jailers told me about the secrets of D-132. When you think you know everything, you¡¯ll find there¡¯s only more to discover.¡±

 Chapter 409: The Shadow Explodes

    Chapter 409: The Shadow Explodes

    In response to Chen Boli¡¯s information, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed.

    Chen Boli didn¡¯t say anything further. He just kept sharpening his knife.

    The loud scraping sound apanied Xu Qing as he walked away. Eventually, he was back on Level 57 and D-132. Stopping out front, he examined the pitch ck door briefly before pushing it open and entering.

    The first thing he heard was the head in 237, calling out to him.

    ¡°Jailer! Jailer! Is that you? Well, how did it go? Did you get unlucky when you went out? Hurry up and throw me in with the cloud troll. I¡¯ll help you resolve the situation. You can trust me. Really!

    ¡°If you don¡¯t, then it means you¡¯re well and truly finished. I can already see you dying very horrifically. Yet you never see iting. Over and over again, you never see it. What¡¯s more... do you really think you¡¯re the first person to ever serve in D-132? Can¡¯t say. I really can¡¯t say! Hurry up and throw me in with the cloud troll. If you do, I¡¯ll tell you more of the truth.¡±

    Xu Qing calmly walked the path next to the cells, looking at each one of the prisoners as he passed. Then he stopped in front of the cell with the head in it. Opening the cell, he reached in and grabbed the excited head.

    ¡°Oh yeah, that¡¯s right! Hahaha! I¡¯ming, little Cloudy!¡±

    As the head jabbered excitedly, Xu Qing walked over to the cell with the Rockdevil in it, then tossed the head inside.

    The giant millstone vibrated in surprise. And then fluctuations of happiness rolled out from him.

    Meanwhile, the excitement on the head¡¯s face turned into terror. It screamed. ¡°Let me out! I don¡¯t wanna be in here! My mistake, exalted Jailer! I¡¯ll talk! It¡¯s a curse. D-132 is cursed. But I can help you get rid of the curse. Everything I said before was true. I wasn¡¯t lying. I really can see you dying over and over again. It¡¯s not a trick!¡±

    Ignoring the head, Xu Qing turned and walked to the cell with the final inmate, the floating painting. Looking at the twenty-three figures inside, Xu Qing looked at his shadow and said, ¡°Eat it.¡±

    Fluctuations of greed rolled off the shadow as it stretched away from Xu Qing¡¯s feet and into the cell.

    At the same time, a vile aura began to build on the shadow, spreading out to fill the cellblock. D-132 suddenly wentpletely quiet. The head wasn¡¯t screaming. The Rockdevil didn¡¯t move. The cloud troll stopped chewing. The scarecrows stopped howling....

    But the Paintedfolk painting trembled. As the shadow neared, that trembling grew more intense, until the shadow was only about three inches away. That was when the voice of an old man spoke from the painting.

    ¡°Exalted Jailer, the one on the far bottom right isn¡¯t a member of my species.¡±

    Xu Qing shifted his gaze to the bottom right of the painting.

    A boy stood there, smiling. He looked no different from any of the other figures, as if he belonged in the family. But as soon as the voice of the old man spoke out, the boy frowned. The shadow blurred toward the boy, and then a snapping sound rang out, like jaws suddenly closing.

    After, the shadow slid back to Xu Qing. The painting wasn¡¯t harmed at all. However, there was no more boy inside. He had been devoured by the shadow.

    Except, as soon as the shadow was out of the painting, something extraordinary happened. The shadow suddenly started trembling violently. As Xu Qing looked down, it suddenly let loose an anguished scream and then exploded. A blurry figure shot out from the fragments of the shadow, and thenughter rang out in the darkness. At almost the exact same time, the ck iron skewer shot out at high speed, but the boy had vanished without a trace. Of course, the shadow couldn¡¯t be killed so easily. Though it had exploded into bits, it didn¡¯t take long for it to piece itself back together. That said, it was visibly weak. Looking anxiously at Xu Qing, it sent out a surge of emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°Destiny aura... devoured... boooooom....¡±

    Apparently fearful that Xu Qing would find it to be useless, it had exined things fairly clearly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the spot where the boy had disappeared.

    ¡°Destiny aura?¡± he murmured.

    The iron skewer circled back around, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior materialized. After looking at the weak state of the shadow, he turned to Xu Qing nervously. This was twice in a row that he had failed. Granted, the shadow had also failed, but then it had concocted some story about destiny aura.

    ¡°You¡¯ve learned some bad habits, you bratty shadow! Detestable!¡±

    The patriarch snorted coldly inwardly. As far as he was concerned, it was eighty percent likely the shadow was making things up to avoiding across as useless. You want to tell stories? You couldn¡¯t possiblypare to me in that regard, you bratty shadow! Since you want to run your mouth, I¡¯ll add fuel to the fire. That way when the deadly killer figures out what¡¯s really going on, you¡¯ll be in major trouble. As long as I keep myself out of it, I¡¯lle off scot free.

    He had read a lot of books that talked about destiny aura. In most cases, destiny aura was something the main character absolutely required. In fact, in novels, it seemed that everyone was always after ¡®destiny aura.¡¯

    ¡°Destiny aura?¡± he said smoothly. ¡°Milord, I can¡¯t see destiny aura, and apparently don¡¯t know as much about it as the erudite Little Shadow. But since the shadow mentioned it¡­ Congrattions, milord. Congrattions! You¡¯ve clearly been favored by fate to find destiny aura here!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the patriarch and frowned.

    Shivering inwardly, the patriarch quickly went into a description based on things he¡¯d read in various printed novels. ¡°Milord, based on what Little Shadow has indicated, and assuming it¡¯s correct, then your humble servant can guess about why people assigned to D-132 end up perishing on the outside. If Little Shadow is right, then I think I already know the secret of D-132.

    ¡°Obviously this ce has some destiny aura. In all likelihood, it¡¯s a portion of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura. Who knows how it ended up here, or why it took a specific form. The reason other people stationed here died is that destiny aura can only be taken by extremely extraordinary people. As the old saying goes, too much is worse than not enough. The resulting bacsh caused the misfortune and suspicious events.¡±

    After making his exnation, the patriarch was actually stunned. After all, what he had just said... made perfect sense. Don¡¯t tell me the bratty shadow was telling the truth?

    As the patriarch reeled inwardly, Xu Qing¡¯s frown deepened. The first time he heard about destiny aura was when his Master told him the story of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He¡¯d said that some stories imed that the crown prince was born bearing the destiny aura of the entire human species. [1]

    As Xu Qing contemted that, his expression flickered and he looked to the right-hand side of the cell block off in the distance. Floating out of the shadows there was the very same boy from moments ago. He was looking curiously at Xu Qing.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior immediately shot toward him, but the boy vanished again. This time, he appeared in a different part of the cell block, still looking curiously at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing could sense that the boy¡¯s gaze was specifically drawn to his own right wrist! Surprised, he lifted his right hand.

    The boy¡¯s line of sight followed along with his movement.

    Xu Qing¡¯s right wrist didn¡¯t seem unusual in any way. But he knew about the thread of golden light hiding there. Back when he risked his life to form his poison core, that golden light had flickered and gave him a series of very strange sensations. [2]

    ¡°What is this?¡± he asked, looking at the boy.

    In response to his question, all of the inmates in D-132 remainedpletely and utterly silent. The cloud troll turned in ce. The woman climbed to the bars of her cell. The decorations carved on the Rockdevil turned into an eye. The head in the corner of that very same cell seemed to be looking off into the distance. As for the Paintedfolk scroll painting, it blurred, and then turned into the illusory image of an old man, leaning up against the bars of his cell.

    Xu Qing ignored the inmates and kept his gaze fixed on the boy. He waved his right hand.

    The boy¡¯s eyes followed the movement of his hand, as if Xu Qing¡¯s hand was the only thing that mattered to him in the world. His expression was an odd mixture between confusion and nkness. He had obviously heard Xu Qing¡¯s words. A momentter, his gaze left Xu Qing¡¯s wrist and locked onto his eyes.

    Then he opened his mouth as if he were speaking. However, no sound came out, nor any divine will. Nor did his lips move.

    Xu Qing frowned.

    The boy¡¯s curious look remained. Then he finished ¡®speaking,¡¯ and cocked his ear as if listening to something. When he finished listening, his eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth again. After that, he listened again. Eventually he seemed to hear an answer he liked. Looking to be in very high spirits, he looked at Xu Qing, thumped his own chest, then backed up and melded into the shadows.

    ***

    Within the administrative district of the county capital, about a month away from the city itself, near Netherworld Prefecture, there was a sprawling mountain range. One end stretched deep into Netherworld Prefecture, the other ended near the county capital.

    These mountains were unique, as both the soil and stone that made them up were all violet. It was unusual to see that color in natural geological formations, and thus, the name of this ce was the Violet Spirit Mountain Range. Somewhere in the Violet Spirit Mountain Range, rtively close to the county capital, there was a massive abyss. It was incredibly deep and dark, with its depths impossible to see clearly. The only thing visible was some violet fog that rose up from the bottom of the abyss.

    Two figures approached the abyss. It was an old person and a young one. The old one was none other than the innkeeper from nkspring Way. The young one was the wlessly beautiful Ling¡¯er, dressed in white.

    Based on the agreement they had reached with the flying giant, they had flown close to the county capital, then dropped off the giant to the ground and walked the rest of the way to the Violet Spirit Mountain Range.

    At longst, they were nearing their destination.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er, the Wood Spirits will be here soon. Based on the ancient treaty, you can get part of your legacy here. That said, it¡¯ll be dangerous. Right now you need to rest and build your strength. Stabilize your bloodline. Then you can give it a try. For the time being, don¡¯t get greedy. You....¡± The innkeeper trailed off as he realized that Ling¡¯er didn¡¯t seem to be paying attention.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Papa,¡± she replied, her eyes glittering joyfully, ¡°there¡¯s a boy talking to me.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Surprised, the innkeeper looked around. ¡°What boy? What¡¯s he saying?¡±

    ¡°Oh nothing,¡± Ling¡¯er said, blinking a few times. ¡°He¡¯s gone now. Maybe he was one of the Wood Spirits.¡± It was the first time Ling¡¯er had ever lied to her papa. She knew he didn¡¯t like Xu Qing, and therefore, felt like it made more sense to keep the truth from him. Meanwhile, she quickly replied to the voice of the boy that had suddenly echoed into her mind. [3]

    ¡°That¡¯s totally right! I was the one that put that life essence destiny aura there. Who are you? Did you see my Big Bro Xu Qing? Where are you two?¡±

    A moment passed.

    ¡°The county capital??¡± Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Ohhh. You mean you don¡¯t have even a single friend? Okay fine, we can be friends. But you have to help me take care of Big Bro Xu Qing. In a little bit I¡¯ll go find both of you.¡±

    The innkeeper looked at Ling¡¯er suspiciously.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Papa,¡± she said with a smile. Inside she was happy, and outside, she looked as pure and beautiful as always.

    That only made the innkeeper more suspicious. But he couldn¡¯t figure out what might be going on, so finally he just shook his head and went back to his usual admonitions.

    ¡°You absolutely, positively must not start daydreaming. This particr legacy is very important. You cannot afford to fail, as it¡¯s a matter of life or death. Now, when the Wood Spirits get here, you need to go into seclusion to stabilize your blood. While you do, I¡¯ll go to the county capital to buy a few of the things we¡¯ll need.¡±

    ¡°Got it, Papa,¡± Ling¡¯er said, keeping her arm wrapped around the innkeeper¡¯s arm. The mountain breeze blew, lifting her hair and tenderly caressing the fair skin of her face. Ling¡¯er reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. While her hand was blocking her eyes, she nced in the direction of the county capital. Her smile deepened.

    1. Master Seventh told Xu Qing the story of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan in chapter 262. ?

    2. Xu Qing noticed the golden light in chapter 340. ?

    3. ¡°Wood Spirit¡± is the name of a species, so it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean that they¡¯re ¡°spirits¡± or ¡°spirit creatures¡± as you might initially imagine. Of course, there¡¯s no saying that they aren¡¯t. The point is just that Wood Spirit is a species name. ?

 Chapter 410: Mountains and Clouds Obscure the Sky

    Chapter 410: Mountains and Clouds Obscure the Sky

    Back in the county capital¡¯s Corrections Division, in D-132, Xu Qing frowned as the boy vanished. Then he walked toward the Paintedfolk¡¯s cell.

    Perhaps because of the threat of the shadow, the old Paintedfolk man didn¡¯t hide away. Instead, as Xu Qing approached, he quickly sped hands and bowed in greeting.

    ¡°I am Sir Inkwell of the Paintedfolk. Well met, exalted Jailer.¡±

    ¡°What was that thing?¡± Xu Qing asked the old man.

    ¡°Sir, that boy was destiny aura!¡± Sir Inkwell responded immediately.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze became sharper.

    In response, Sir Inkwell shivered. For some reason, he was getting the feeling that this jailer was different from the others. Generally speaking, Sir Inkwell didn¡¯t care about the guards in the prison. Because of the unique qualities of his species, it wouldn¡¯t even bother him if the people in the painting ripped the painting to shreds. After all, they were illusory. However, when this particr guard sent his shadow into the cell, Sir Inkwell had felt an intense sensation of deadly crisis. It had seemed to him that the shadow really could devour him. That got him nervous, as he had the feeling being eaten would be painful.

    When he saw Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flicker, Sir Inkwell said, ¡°With all due respect, exalted Jailer, I have no idea what that destiny aura is doing here. It was here when I got locked up. In fact, I have you to thank, exalted Jailer. That destiny aura loved to stay in the Paintedfolk world, and because of that, I never dared to show myself in the open. I always had the feeling it wanted to eat me. That was why I could never warn you of the situation. I truly hope you can forgive me, exalted Jailer.¡±

    Sir Inkwell knew that it was unlikely this jailer would believe him. After all, he had never made any indication he wanted to offer a warning. But he still had to say the words. Sometimes providing an exnation and not providing an exnation could lead to very different results. At the very least, it went to show what his attitude was.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at Sir Inkwell. He didn¡¯t believe much of what the man said, and wasn¡¯t inclined to question him. So he turned and went back to the door. There, he sent his shadow out with orders to stand guard. It was a bit of a reward.

    The shadow was very excited, and let out happy fluctuations that made it seem like it had just been given a new toy. Quickly separating into fourteen parts, it went over to the fourteen cells. The cloud troll wasn¡¯t eating anything, as the curious shadow was doing the eating instead. The woman trembled and ceased trying to coax the scarecrows to sleep. Because of the shadow, the scarecrows trembled and rose to their feet, ready to ept orders. In fact, shortly after, they were arrayed around the woman, ring at her aggressively. The Rockdevil was turning, but not of its own ord. The head was pushing it. Both inmates were terrified, as a shadowy whip had appeared in the cell, which repeatedlyshed in their direction. The over twenty figures inside the Paintedfolk scroll painting were no longer smiling. They looked terrified. And that was because the shadow wasying atop the painting, licking its lips.

    All of the prisoners seemed demure and quiet.

    However, the boy would asionally appear and look at Xu Qing, and his gaze always seemed focused on the right wrist. He seemed extremely curious. Eventually, he sat down cross-legged in front of Xu Qing and cupped his chin with his palm.

    Xu Qing looked at him. He knew that this boy was the secret of D-132.

    Time passed. Half a month.

    During that time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t experience any further strange incidents when he left the Corrections Division. Under his management, nothing unusual happened in D-132.

    However, whenever the inmates there saw Xu Qing, their eyes shone with terror. And that was because they were always missing body parts. It was the work of the shadow. The shadow couldn¡¯t control its curiosity, and would asionally take a bite here or there. Thankfully for the inmates... their gruish nature ensured that the bitten spot would grow back by the next day.

    The head didn¡¯t chatter anymore. When Xu Qing passed by, it would sigh.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stomp me to death! Don¡¯t kill me! OW!¡±

    The boy had gotten used to Xu Qing. Whenever he came for duty, the boy would manifest and sit next to him. He almost seemed like a follower who had been tasked with bodyguard work. On some asions, the boy would run over and watch the shadow striking fear into the hearts of the inmates.

    As for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior... he looked miserable. Xu Qing didn¡¯t put him away into his bag of holding. Instead, he gave him work simr to the shadow. As of now, there were two additional jailers in D-132.

    The patriarch seemed very interested in the Rockdevil. Then, he and the shadow apparently came to some sort of agreement, after which the patriarch took over management duty of that specific cell.

    The shadow was most interested in the Paintedfolk. It lovedying atop the painting and licking its lips. Eventually, the painting turned blurry.

    Seeing all that, Xu Qing did some calctions. Based on what the other jailers had told him, every month, their quota would reset, allowing them to deal with inmates however they saw fit. That said, the quota was based on how many inmates were in each cell block. Because of that, Xu Qing only had the right to get rid of two prisoners. That was a bit disappointing.

    ¡°There just aren¡¯t enough inmates in D-132,¡± he murmured.

    As he pondered ways to get more inmates into the cell block, Sir Inkwell tremulously called out to him. ¡°Exalted Jailer. I have a secret I want to tell you. I don¡¯t want anything else in return other than... if you think the secret is worth it, please get rid of the shadow.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him.

    Voice trembling, Sir Inkwell said, ¡°Exalted Jailer... do you know how many people are actually locked up in D-132?¡±

    He sounded absolutely terrified, as if he had no choice but to reveal this secret to Xu Qing.

    Hearing that, Xu Qing frowned and looked over coldly. There were fourteen inmates in the cell block. He¡¯d known that from the beginning, and had checked on them as soon as he arrived. Besides, he had already discovered the secret of D-132.

    Beyond that, it seemed like Sir Inkwell was being deliberately mystifying, which was suspicious.

    Xu Qing was about to look away when, all of a sudden, his expression flickered as he remembered something.

    ¡°Exalted Jailer, you just sensed it, didn¡¯t you...?¡± Sir Inkwell asked, voice trembling. ¡°Exalted Jailer, do we really have fourteen inmates here? Think back. Scour your memories. When you do so, can you determine... how many prisoners there actually are? Did you really figure out D-132¡¯s secret?¡±

    Sir Inkwell¡¯s voice grew fainter and fainter until it vanished. Xu Qing looked at Sir Inkwell¡¯s cell, his eyes glittering. Sir Inkwell was obviously trying to lead him to a conclusion, that much was obvious.

    Regardless, he searched his memories to confirm the information. On his first day here, he had carefully checked all the inmates. There were fourteen. The first was the cloud troll. The second was the human woman. The third was the Rockdevil.... The thirteenth was the head, and the fourteenth was Sir Inkwell.

    ¡°Fourteen. For sure.¡± He even took out the jade slip and reviewed all the information, confirming that there were fourteen inmates.

    And yet, for some reason, Xu Qing felt like his memories contained different information. That said, he wasn¡¯t sure what it could be. Standing, he walked over to the cloud troll¡¯s cell.

    After examining it, he started strolling the path, looking into all the cells until he finally reached Sir Inkwell. Along the way, he yet again counted fourteen.

    As he stood outside Sir Inkwell¡¯s cell, he looked grimly at the blurry painting. Then, he mentally sent a message to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Instantly, the ck iron skewer shot out, circling around the entire cell block, entering into each cell to inspect it. Afterward, he informed Xu Qing that there wasn¡¯t anything out of the ordinary.

    After that, Xu Qing had his shadow inspect everything. When it was done, it sent him fluctuations via divine will. Just as before, there was nothing unusual.

    There really were fourteen inmates.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face darkened further, and he had the shadow send a section of itself to the painting.

    Sir Inkwell appeared, looking extremely nervous as he wailed, ¡°Exalted one, I really had no choice but to say that stuff. That shadow was about to eat me! I had to do it to buy some time! Otherwise I¡¯d be done for. Exalted one, please forgive me! Forgive me. Just this one time!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. His eyes grew colder.

    Sir Inkwell trembled even more violently as his anxiety turned into terror.

    Finally, he blurted, ¡°I¡¯ll just say. The real secret, exalted Jailer, is that the Corrections Division is really only worried about one inmate. And it¡¯s... a god!¡±

    ¡°Exin,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°Exalted Jailer, I¡¯m not actually sure of every detail. I just once heard a prisoner older than me exining that the Corrections Division was built on top of the sealed clone of a god. That... is why the pce lords always stay here.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to his first timeing to the prison, and how he had heard howling from the depths of the chasm. Then he thought about the vibrations he had sensed from deep down. What was more, dead inmates were thrown into the bottom of the chasm, as if they were food. As those thoughts coalesced, and he realized the implications, he realized why Sir Inkwell had been acting deliberately mystifying.

    A momentter, Xu Qing looked at Sir Inkwell and called the shadow away. The shadow seemed disappointed, but couldn¡¯t disobey. All it could do was focus on having fun with the other inmates. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior did the same, and returned to his spot watching over the Rockdevil. D-132 was back to normal. Everything was normal.

    The boy formed of destiny aura appeared again. He always showed up close to Xu Qing, as if he wanted to stay close to him.

    Several days passed.

    Everything was going normal for Xu Qing. However, he was putting a lot of thought into what Sir Inkwell had told him. For some reason, he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it.

    Eventually, one day when he was about to get off work and head back to his sword pavilion, he saw a familiar face in the Corrections Division.

    It was Kong Xianglong.

 Chapter 411: Trees, Frost, and Water, Swaying in the Wind

    Chapter 411: Trees, Frost, and Water, Swaying in the Wind

    Kong Xianglong had been assigned to the Field Operations Office, where he was tasked with tracking down criminals. Today, he hade with a criminal he had arrested. When Xu Qing spotted him, he was chatting with one of the jailers he knew on Level 9.

    Lying on the ground next to him was a Dualface, gasping for breath. The Dualface had an impressive cultivation base. Despite being hurt and reclining, it still pulsed with the fluctuations of seven heavenly pces. It was clearly an impressive representation of its species. That said, it was in bad condition. It had been beaten up so badly it was missing a leg, and from the wound, it had apparently been ripped off.

    Kong Xianglong was also hurt, but he didn¡¯t seem worried about the injuries. Seeing Xu Qing, his eyes lit up.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°Big Bro Kong,¡± Xu Qing replied, saluting him in return.

    The other jailers called out greetings. Quite a few of them had heard that Xu Qing never requested a transfer after being assigned to D-132. What was more, he always went home after work, and had not yet died under mysterious circumstances. That had earned him the admiration of the jailers.

    Xu Qing smiled at Kong Xianglong and looked closely at his injuries.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really. Flesh wounds. Xu Qing, are you actually a jailer now? Hahaha! I should have expected that.¡± Kong Xianglong had obviously noted his uniform with its dark me markings, and also the way the other jailers treated him. He didn¡¯t seem surprised at all that Xu Qing was a jailer. ¡°Actually, back when I heard you were assigned to be the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general, I totally knew that¡ª¡±

    ¡°What exactly did you ¡®totally know¡¯?¡± a cold voice said, interrupting Kong Xianglong before he could finish. It wasing from the staircase leading up to Level 9.

    As the voice echoed out, the pce lord¡¯s cold visage appeared as he reached the top of the stairs and walked over to the group.

    The jailers all sped hands and bowed formally.

    ¡°Well met, Pce Lord.¡±

    Xu Qing did the same, while Kong Xianglong shivered, quickly sped hands, and bowed.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized that Kong Xianglong looked terrified. He was even sweating.

    The pressureing off of the pce lord was immense, filling all of Level 9. Absolute silence reigned as he looked around at everyone. He looked at the Dualface criminal lying on the ground, then looked at Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°Given your cultivation base,¡± he said coldly, ¡°you could have captured this cultivator with a single sword attack. Why did you use two attacks? People ther on about you being the top chosen of this generation. Is that why you¡¯re so smug all the time? You might not have mastered anything else, but you¡¯ve mastered how to be arrogant.¡± He turned to Xu Qing. ¡°As for you,¡± he went on, his tone just as cold as before, ¡°shouldn¡¯t you be back home working on your cultivation already? You got things under control in D-132, do you? Well, if you¡¯re that skilled, maybe I should promote you to Unit C!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. He was aware that the pce lord had a temper. After getting to know some of the other jailers, he had heard some stories about how strict he was. Combined with how the pce lord had scolded him on their first meeting, he knew that responding wouldn¡¯t do any good.

    As for Kong Xianglong, he had his head bowed and he wasn¡¯t saying anything. The pce lord shifted his gaze from Xu Qing back to Kong Xianglong. ¡°Well, speak up! I asked you a question!¡±

    Kong Xianglong hesitated then said, ¡°This Dualface cultivator had a handful of half-blood handmaidens, the poor things. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t control my attacks well and harmed the innocent. That¡¯s why it ended up like this....¡±

    Half-bloods were children born to humans and nonhumans. Oftentimes, their fates were much worse because of their status.

    The pce lord took in the information and then said, ¡°Even still, all you did was fight a seven-pce cultivator, yet you still ended up hurt. What else happened? Were you using your official authority to handle personal matters?¡±

    Kong Xianglong was sweating, but given that the pce lord was directly asking him questions, he had no choice but to answer. ¡°The criminal had some friends. They ran away, and though they weren¡¯t on the wanted list, they¡¯d done some really unconscionable things. I couldn¡¯t hold back, so I chased them down and put them to death. Later, another tough opponent showed up, and I killed him too, which is how I got wounded.¡±

    The pce lord looked coldly at Kong Xianglong, then turned and walked back toward the stairs. As he did, his cold voice rang out. ¡°That¡¯s understandable. However, you didn¡¯t follow mission protocol, and as a result, side problems kept cropping up. As your punishment, you¡¯ll be locked up here for seven days. Take him away!¡±

    With that, the pce lord disappeared.

    Xu Qing looked sympathetically at Kong Xianglong. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, the pce lord was being a bit unreasonable.

    But Kong Xianglong just sighed and then smiled bitterly at Xu Qing. ¡°If I¡¯d known this would happen, I would have just dropped off the prisoner and left. How unlucky!¡±

    Two jailers approached, bound the Dualface prisoner, and then walked up to Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong resigned himself to his fate and held out his hands. They put manacles on them, and then led him down into the prison. Just before disappearing down the stairs, he turned and waved to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing watched him go, then left for his sword pavilion. Settling down cross-legged, he looked out into the night and thought about Kong Xianglong being rebuked and taken into custody. It just went to emphasize how much the pce lord emphasized following the rules. He had rebuked Xu Qing and had done the same to Kong Xianglong, who was a famous chosen.

    So this is what the Swordsage Pce is like....

    The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. The rules were simple, and though strength was important, the fact remained that meritorious service and following the rules was also important.

    Back when Big Bro Chen mentioned that Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather was one of the four honor guards, he made a point to say that he didn¡¯t practice favoritism and engage in cronyism. With a pce lord like this, there¡¯s no way anybody will be allowed to do that.

    After all of the things Xu Qing had experienced so far in the Swordsage Pce, including all the seemingly trivial matters, he felt like he was really starting to understand the ce.

    He also hadn¡¯t forgotten what Sir Inkwell said.

    There¡¯s the clone of a god locked up in the prison depths??

    Xu Qing shook his head. As far as he was concerned, knowing that information wasn¡¯t going to do much. It wasn¡¯t as if he could look into it and confirm the truth. Therefore, he tucked the information away, closed his eyes, and focused on his fifth heavenly pce.

    That heavenly pce was just on the verge of forming, and based on what he could tell, he would only need five or six more days toplete the materialization.

    The more progress I make, the longer it takes for the materialization.

    Lately he had been putting a lot of thought into whether he should actually put his bluegreen dragon into a heavenly pce....

    For one thing, he felt like his four current heavenly pces were pretty amazing, and that the bluegreen dragon was only average. When forming gold cores for your heavenly pces you could add an outside item or a technique. Because of that, Xu Qing had been contemting using an imperial-ss technique. Theoretically speaking, it was possible, but Xu Qingcked detailed information about how to do it. After some thought, he finally braced himself, took out a transmission jade slip, and sent a voice message to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°Senior, are you there?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Her reply came almost instantly. Xu Qing sat there quietly for a moment, but no further message came. Something about Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s tone had seemed off, but he had no idea what it meant. Had he somehow done something to offend her? Next, he sent a message to Master Fifth asking her about using imperial-ss techniques along with heavenly pces.

    ¡°What? Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn¡¯t exin that to you? Before we came here to the county capital, your Master specifically asked her to exin how your imperial-ss technique can be used to make a gold core.

    ¡°A few days ago, I even saw Arch-Immortal Plumdark talking with some of her friends about that exact subject. After all, imperial-ss techniques are all different, so you need to put a lot of emphasis on the specific method you use. Arch-Immortal Plumdark visited the three great sects, and even paid a lot of money to browse through their Halls of Scriptures and Magic looking for details.

    ¡°If you just randomly do it, you won¡¯t get hurt, but at the same time you won¡¯t seed.¡±

    After some more thought, Xu Qing still couldn¡¯t figure out why Arch-Immortal Plumdark would do so much for him. Feeling confused and nervous, he sent her another voice message.

    ¡°Senior...?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Who are you?¡± she replied through the jade slip.

    ¡°It¡¯s me, Xu Qing.¡±

    ¡°Oh. You mean the one who¡¯s been hiding out from me all the time in his sword pavilion and hasn¡¯te to see me even once?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how to respond. Finally, he quietly said, ¡°Master Fifth exined everything. So¡­ I offer profound thanks, Senior!¡±

    The response came in the form of a cold harrumph. Then she said, ¡°Your fifth heavenly pce is almost done, right? On the day you finish it,e see me. By the way, I really like the osmanthus cakes from the south part of the city.¡± [1]

    ¡°Okay.¡± Feeling a bit relieved, Xu Qing put away the jade slip and made sure tomit ¡®osmanthus cakes¡¯ to memory.

    I need to find an opportunity to pay her back. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very good at expressing his feelings, so he took out his bamboo slip, flipped it to the side with benefactors, and carved ¡®Plumdark¡¯ on it.

    Now, I still need to figure out how to make a lot of military credits. The thought of military credits made him frown. After bing a jailer, he got a much better idea of how military credits were earned. For one thing, jailers got a certain amount per month. It wasn¡¯t much, and didn¡¯te anywhere close to putting a dent in what he needed. If he wanted to earn more, he would have to go out on missions. Except, there weren¡¯t many missions avable. And those with good rewards were generally designed for either groups or Nascent Soul cultivators. That said, as long as he kept saving up, he would eventually reach his goal. Therefore, he decided that he should just ept some missions near the county capital. With that decision made, he closed his eyes and started meditating.

    Time passed. When it was bright outside, he opened his eyes.

    Why do I feel like I¡¯ve forgotten something...?

    He frowned thoughtfully.

    Will today be the day the pce lord asks me if I have D-132 under control?

    Something about that thought seemed unusual. And what was most unusual of all was that he seemed to be having memory problems.

    What¡¯s going on? He had always been able to fully trust his memory. And he rarely forgot things.

    Since when did my memory start going bad? After thinking back to recent events, his pupils constricted. I¡¯ve been forgetting things rted to D-132, but nothing else. That means the problem must have started when I was assigned there!

    His mind spun. All of a sudden, he thought back to what Chen Boli had told him.

    ¡°When you think you know everything, you¡¯ll find there¡¯s only more to find out.¡±

    After some more thought, his eyes glittered coldly.

    ¡°D-132 is really affecting me somehow.¡±

    It was light outside, but it wasn¡¯t a sunny and dazzling day. It was hazy and rainy. The rainy season in the county capital wouldst for months. Xu Qing stood, his eyes cold as he pushed open the door of the sword pavilion and walked through the wind and rain toward the Corrections Division.

    Once inside, he projected messages to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow.

    ¡°Starting now, I want both of you to record everything that happens.¡±

    The patriarch and shadow were both surprised, but they both voiced their acknowledgment.

    ¡°Milord, what¡¯s going on?¡± the patriarch asked cautiously.

    ¡±I suspect that some outside power is tampering with my mind. Interfering with my memories.¡±

    Eyes growing increasingly cold, he walked down to Level 57 and then... into D-132!

    At some point, D-132 had stopped being so dark and cold. The head had stopped talking so much, the cloud troll didn¡¯t eat its own tentacles. The Rockdevil trembled as it rotated in ce, and Sir Inkwell started showing his face more often. Perhaps some of that was because of the hard work of the shadow and patriarch.

    Upon entering D-132 and looking around, Xu Qing came up with an idea.

    The boy appeared, standing not too far away, looking slightly ufortable. Xu Qing nced at him briefly, then started walking down the path like he often did, checking on all the cells.

    When he reached the Rockdevil, he saw the chattering head. Instead of rolling around on the ground like usual, it was atop the millstone, staring at Xu Qing with an odd expression.

    It looked at Xu Qing. He looked back.

    The head didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Why so quiet today?¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to get stomped. Besides, have you ever seen a living person talking to a dead one?¡± The head grinned very gruishly.

    ¡°I have,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    The head was visibly surprised.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t just seen it, I¡¯ve talked about it,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    The head looked back quizzically, then shivered and turned around so it was facing away from Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing kept walking until he was in front of the Paintedfolk cell. Looking at Sir Inkwell, he said, ¡°Repeat to me everything you¡¯ve ever said to me. In full. Leave out one word and I¡¯ll put you to death.¡±

    The old man gaped.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing his shadow to stretch into the cell.

    Sir Inkwell immediately started talking. Obviously, he had a very sharp memory, as he managed to repeat every single thing he had ever said since Xu Qing was assigned to D-132.

    Hearing it, Xu Qing nodded, then went back to the door and sat down to meditate. The day passed, and nothing unusual happened. It was just like any other day. In fact, when his shift was over, he simply walked out. He went all the way back to his sword pavilion without stopping anywhere along the way.

    Once seated cross-legged, he said, ¡°You first, Master Freespirit.¡±

    The ck iron skewer flew out and the patriarch created a projection of himself. Looking very somber, he waved his hand, causing an image to appear.

    It was Xu Qing.

    The recording showed everything he did that day from the moment he stepped into the Corrections Division until he left D-132. Everything was recorded in detail, without anything missing. It also contained everything that Sir Inkwell had said. After watching the recording and not spotting anything unusual, Xu Qing had the shadow show its recording. Just like the first recording, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

    As Xu Qing thought about it, a possibility suddenly urred to him.

    Am I just thinking too much into this?

    Eventually he squashed the thought and once again examined the recording in the jade slip. His eyes glittered as he focused on Sir Inkwell.

    Voice trembling, Sir Inkwell said, ¡°Exalted Jailer... do you know how many people are actually locked up in D-132? When you think back, can you determine... how many prisoners there actually are?

    ¡°Exalted one, I really had no choice but to say that stuff. That shadow was about to eat me! I had to do it to buy some time! Otherwise I¡¯d be done for. Exalted one, please forgive me! Forgive me. Just this one time!¡±

    Xu Qing listened to that part of the recording a few times, then finally performed an incantation gesture, causing the part where Sir Inkwell asked for forgiveness to y in a loop over and over again.

    ¡°Master Freespirit, Little Shadow,¡± he said quietly. ¡°Listen to what he¡¯s saying, and tell me, is Sir Inkwell... actually talking to me?¡±

    1. Osmanthus cake is a real-life Chinese pastry. It even has a wikipedia articleplete with a picture. ?

 Chapter 412: Only Forgetting Can Sever Karma

    Chapter 412: Only Forgetting Can Sever Karma

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was visibly stunned. A host of eyes suddenly popped open on the shadow. ¡°Or,¡± Xu Qing continued calmly, ¡°is it possible those words were being spoken to some other entity that I just didn¡¯t notice...? You see, Sir Inkwell has always addressed me as ¡®exalted Jailer.¡¯ However, in the portion just now, he used the simpler address ¡®exalted one.¡¯ It¡¯s a somewhat obvious discrepancy, and yet strangely, I never noticed it.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice. ¡°And now I¡¯m wondering how many inmates are actually housed in D-132.¡±

    Eyes narrowing, he searched his memory.

    ¡°First, the cloud troll. Second, the human woman. Third, the Rockdevil. Thirteenth¡ª¡± Xu Qing suddenly stopped talking. ¡°Wait, what about the fourth? Who¡¯s the fourth?¡±

    His pupils slowly constricted.

    To the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior opened his mouth to speak, only to find himself dumbstruck. He couldn¡¯t think of the answer. Then he started trembling, and a look of terror appeared in his eyes.

    The shadow was simrly in a daze.

    ¡°And who¡¯s the fifth?¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°More precisely, who are the fourth through thirteenth? And howe I can¡¯t remember who they are?¡± Taking out the jade slip with the information about the inmates, he checked the roster, and sure enough, there were fourteen inmates. And yet, he simply couldn¡¯t remember the nine in the middle. It was extremely bizarre.

    Even after carefully reading through the jade slip, he found that he couldn¡¯t remember the details.

    ¡°Chen Boli talked about the inmates, and yet... he didn¡¯t mention any of the nine in the middle. At the time, I didn¡¯t think anything of it. How interesting.¡±

    Eyes shing, he opened his bag of holding with the intention of making a personal record of what he¡¯d juste to realize. After a moment of consideration, he decided not to use a jade slip, and instead, took out an empty bamboo slip. He had a lot of bamboo slips in his bag of holding.

    Being very careful and precise, he recorded everything he had just discovered onto the slip. On the final line, he wrote five words followed by a question mark.

    The power of a god?

    With that aplished, Xu Qing stood and walked out of his sword pavilion and into the night. As the rain continued to fall, he walked through the puddles to the Corrections Division.

    Then his footsteps echoed about as he walked down the stairs. It was the first time he¡¯de to the Corrections Division at night. Everything was dark, except for the asionalmps on the wall that cast flickering, shadowy light. That light definitely wasn¡¯t enough to fully prate the darkness.

    That said, to Xu Qing, day and night were virtually the same, and he didn¡¯t want to wait until the next day. What was more, the longer he waited, the more he was worried about his memories fading. He wanted to see for himself who the fourth through twelfth inmates were. Everything was dark and quiet when he reached Level 57, and the dark door of D-132. He pushed it open.

    Do the fourth through twelfth prisoners even exist?

    As the door creaked, Xu Qing walked inside, his facepletely expressionless. Then he shut the door behind him.

    D-132 was as dark as usual.

    The moment he entered, he could sense gazes locking onto him from within the cells. At almost the same time, the boy appeared next to him, looking somewhat helpless and concerned.

    Noticing that, Xu Qing frowned. The gazes that had locked onto him were why he was here! Back when he checked the jade slip, he hadn¡¯t seen the boy. Yet he clearly remembered the boy¡¯s helpless facial expression. That was why he hade here in the middle of the night. He wanted to find out why the boy¡¯s gaze was like that.

    That was his only goal at the moment.

    ¡°What is this?¡± Xu Qing asked, holding up his right wrist and looking at the boy.

    The boy opened his mouth and began to speak. And yet, no matter how Xu Qing strained, he couldn¡¯t hear a thing. It was almost as if the two of them existed in a different part of space and time. He tried other methods, for instance writing. But no matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t establish a method ofmunication with the boy. Eventually, when he could sense that it was getting light outside, he sighed and gave up.

    He looked around at D-132 and the fourteen prisoners there. Everything seemed normal.

    He turned to leave. However, just when he was about to push the door open, a look of confusion suddenly appeared on his face.

    I came in the middle of the night just to try tomunicate with some destiny aura? That doesn¡¯t sound like me! That¡¯s something I could do in the middle of the day just as well as at night. So why did Ie here at nighttime? I... think I forgot some things.

    Turning, he once again looked at D-132. It looked exactly the same as he remembered it looking.

    ¡°Wait. No!¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    My memory isn¡¯t that bad, yet somehow I can¡¯t remember.... Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s some power influencing me? On the way here, I wasn¡¯t affected. But as soon as I stepped inside, I forgot why I came.... In that case, it means I must have uncovered some clues.

    After looking around one more time, he opened his bag of holding, rummaged around, and eventually pulled out a bamboo slip.

    Written on the bamboo slip were numerous lines of text.

    He frowned. The bamboo slip seemed familiar, but he didn¡¯t remember there being anything written on it before. After carefully reading the bamboo slip, his expression flickered.

    What¡¯s in the fourth through thirteenth cells?

    The power of a god?

    Shock filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind. The writing was familiar. He knew it was his own. Yet the contents were unfamiliar. Finally, he looked up.

    Something¡¯s messing with my memories?? His eyes flickered with killing intent as his third heavenly pce vibrated. The aura of the taboo poison swept out, covering him. Then he took a deep breath and, for the first time, called on the power of his fourth heavenly pce.

    That was his violet moon heavenly pce. In response to his thoughts, the fourth pce trembled, and then a stream of violet moonlight erupted from his sea of consciousness. As it surrounded him, every single part of him was augmented. His expression became infinitely cold, and his eyes turned empty. Though his physical appearance hadn¡¯t changed, he suddenly gave off the sensation that he wasn¡¯t a human anymore. Instead of being filled with ordinary emotions, he was a god that looked down on all living beings. While in that state, he once again examined D-132.

    This time, the cellblock lookedpletely different.

    It wasn¡¯t ck anymore, but instead, red. It was like blood. The floor was covered in gore, as were the walls and the cells.

    There was only one spot where brilliant light shone out, and that was from right next to him, where the boy stood. Because the boy was standing so close to him, the light he cast enveloped Xu Qing. He stood in the light, while beyond the light, everything was the color of blood. There was even a blood mist that sought to invade him, only to be blocked by the light.

    Shaken, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the cloud troll, and saw... that there was no cloud troll! Instead, it was a headless stone lion! It was greenish-ck and exuded something unknowable.

    Next, Xu Qing looked at the cell with the human woman. She looked different as well. It was as if a veil had been lifted; instead of her being tender and beautiful, she was actually just a skeleton. Inside the cell there was a huge, blood-colored scarecrow, rocking back and forth. Straw fell off of it, which then turned into smaller scarecrows which would bite off chunks of the woman¡¯s skeleton. After chewing a bit, they would spit out the pieces and put them back in ce. It was as if this woman was condemned to be eaten over and over again, through all her reincarnations. Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, the huge scarecrow turned, looked at him, and then smiled.

    The cell with the Rockdevil and the head was also different. The Rockdevil was gone, and in its ce was a huge water bucket that emanated an ancient aura. Within the bucket was a turbid liquid, out of which grew a ck lotus, as well as countless vine-like branches which filled the cell. Quite a few of them had stabbed into the head, which looked like it was enduring intense pain. When the head noticed Xu Qing looking in its direction, a curious and helpless expression appeared on its face.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t change,¡± it said weakly. ¡°I told you. I¡¯m one of the good ones....¡±

    Not responding, Xu Qing looked at the other cells, and what he saw filled him with waves of astonishment.

    He did not see the fourth through twelfth inmates.

    Instead, he saw a huge finger that filled over a hundred cells. It emanated a godly might that was difficult to put into words, and the blood which oozed out of it made the surrounding cells bright red. In fact, the blood mist and the gore on the floor were all brought forth by h¨©m. This was... the finger of a god!

    In the final cell was Sir Inkwell. He looked emaciated as he stood there naked from the waist up, his torso covered with bite marks. And his expression was ferocious as he used his finger to paint something. His cell was filled with countless scroll paintings, too many to count. The ground was covered with discarded paintings, and if you looked at them closely, each one depicted Xu Qing!

    When he noticed Xu Qing looking his way, he smiled. ¡°Good morning, exalted Jailer.¡±

    This was what D-132 really looked like. There weren¡¯t fourteen inmates. There were six.

    Looking very grim, Xu Qing took in everything, then turned his attention to the cell with the stone lion. He waved his hand, activating the spell formation in the cell. The lion exploded. Next was the scarecrow. The spell formation ripped it to shreds. After that was the water bucket with the ck lotus, and then the head.

    Xu Qing personally stomped the head to death with his foot. In the moment before it was gone, it sighed.

    ¡°Why do you still refuse to trust me?¡±

    Last was Sir Inkwell. As the old man smiled gruishly, Xu Qing flicked his sleeve, sending a fireball into the cell which burned everything. Having done that, he looked at the finger of the god for a long moment, then turned to leave.

    That finger was the true secret of D-132. What was really being locked up in this cellblock was the finger of a god. And yet, Xu Qing didn¡¯t understand why something like that would be in Unit D.

    He looked at the boy, and the light shining off of him that counteracted the blood from the god¡¯s finger. Suddenly, everything made sense.

    ¡°Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was wrong,¡± Xu Qing whispered. ¡°The misfortune wasn¡¯t caused by my inability to withstand the destiny aura. Rather, it¡¯s from a curse. The curse of a god. And the destiny aura is here to keep that curse under control. That¡¯s why any jailer assigned to this cell block will be affected by the curse, and will suffer misfortune. It¡¯s a cognitive curse, which means that breaking it is simple. You just need to see through it. And what that all means, is that you are the real guard here.¡±

    The boy nodded.

    Reaching the door, Xu Qing took onest look at the bamboo slip and then crushed it. He didn¡¯t need it any more. He had already decided to step down from his position as the guard of D-132. The ce was too gruish. Even though he had already seen through to what was really going on, he didn¡¯t see any reason to stick around.

    Retracting the power of the violet moon and the taboo poison, he pushed the door open. Once he was outside, with the door closed behind him, he took a deep breath and frowned.

    Even though I couldn¡¯tmunicate with that boy, it didn¡¯t seem like he had any evil intentions. He just seemed curious. Ah, whatever. D-132 only has fourteen prisoners. That¡¯s a really low number.

    It seemed to him that he should figure out a way to get some more prisoners for D-132. With such thoughts on his mind, he went off to find Kong Xianglong.

    ***

    After Xu Qing left, everything went back to normal in D-132.

    The cloud troll sat there chewing like before. The human woman kept trying to get the scarecrows to go to sleep. The Rockdevil rotated endlessly. The Paintedfolk painting was still there, as was Sir Inkwell.

    Sighing, he said, ¡°Why¡¯d we have to get such a terrifying fellow? He wakes up every day. When will it end? Warning him doesn¡¯t do any good. Once he wakes up, he just kills us. Not warning him results in the same thing. Every time he analyzes things, he wakes up.¡±

    ¡°I got it way worse than you!¡± shrieked the head atop the Rockdevil. ¡°The first time he came around, everything was fine. But the second time he came, he woke up. And every day after that he always wakes up, and every single time he stomps me to death. It never changes! Am I that stompable? I¡¯ve told him over and over again not to stomp me to death. Dammit! I¡¯m gonna kill him! No, wait. Straw-hat will kill him. He¡¯s doomed to die!¡±

    Amidst all the mor, the image of the boy appeared by the door of the cellblock. Kneeling, he picked up the broken pieces of the bamboo slip, then took them over to a dark corner of the cell block and tossed them... onto arge pile of broken bamboo slips. Every single piece was covered with Xu Qing¡¯s handwriting. If you counted how many bamboo slips there were, you would find that they equaled the number of days Xu Qing had been on duty, less one. And every day he was here, a new slip would get added.

    The boy sighed, then blurred and vanished. When he reappeared... he was outside of D-132, right behind Xu Qing.

    No one could see him, not even Xu Qing.

    He followed Xu Qing quietly, an ord with the agreement to protect him that the boy had made with that nice girl who agreed to be his friend. It was a formal agreement.

    What was frustrating to him was that, starting with the second day, this person who he had been tasked with protecting actually didn¡¯t need any protection. That was the day he realized what was going on in D-132, and how the boy was involved. He had resolved the misfortune on his own, without any help from the boy.

    Because of that, he would wake up every day, and once he realized what was happening, would kill everyone in the cellblock. And then, because of the god and the inherent power of the Corrections Division, he would forget everything.

    It was an endless cycle.

    This was D-132, and it was the core of the Corrections Division. The misfortune didn¡¯te from the destiny aura, but rather from a curse. The curse of a god.

    No one could deal with it, except by forgetting, which would sever the karma.

 Chapter 413: The Most Tragic God in History

    Chapter 413: The Most Tragic God in History

    Kong Xianglong was being treated well. He was currently locked up in D-003 on Level 1, which meant it was very bright and there were no other prisoners nearby.

    After asking around, Xu Qing learned that the first ten levels were set aside for swordsages guilty of rules vitions. In the end, Kong Xianglong was being treated like a guest.

    Currently, Kong Xianglong sat in the middle of his cell, looking piteously at Xu Qing. ¡°It¡¯s too bad this happened so suddenly,¡± he said, licking his lips, ¡°otherwise I would have brought along some alcohol....¡±

    Obviously he was really in the mood to drink.

    Xu Qing looked around to confirm that Kong Xianglong was the only one in the cell block, then took out a jug of alcohol from his bag of holding and passed it through the bars.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes lit up. He quickly guzzled some alcohol, then burped. Finally, heughed heartily. ¡°Simply amazing! Normally speaking, drinking isn¡¯t this good. But go for a bit of time without drinking, and then you start to miss it. Come on, Xu Qing, drink with me.¡± He hoisted up the jug in a toast to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture, closing and locking the door to D-003. Then he took out another jug of alcohol and drank with Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong looked even happier. They drank together for a time, and Xu Qing even took out a few apples for Kong Xianglong to eat.

    However, after taking a bite of one of the apples, Kong Xianglong said they didn¡¯t have any vor. After that, he stuck to drinking.

    Xu Qing thought the apples were fine, so he ate and drank at the same time. The more Kong Xianglong drank, the more he talked. Soon, he was chattering endlessly.

    ¡°I¡¯ve spent time in all the cell blocks on Level 1. Sometimes I get lucky and nobody catches me when I go off protocol. But asionally I get unlucky and somebody reports me. This time I got really unlucky thanks to running into the pce lord.¡± Upon mentioning the pce lord, Kong Xianglong sighed heavily. ¡°By the way, Xu Qing, what have you been up totely? It looks like your cultivation base is on the verge of a breakthrough. Why haven¡¯t you taken the next step? Once you break through, the two of us can go on some missions together and get some military credits.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it. Considering that Kong Xianglong also had imperial-ss techniques, as well as ten heavenly pces, it made sense to ask him for help. So Xu Qing gave a quick overview of what he was thinking regarding his fifth heavenly pce, then asked for advice.

    ¡°Well, I definitely have relevant experience,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Using an imperial-ss technique for your heavenly pce is different from using ordinary techniques. There¡¯s always a special ritual involved, plus you need to have a dharma protector. Back when I did it, I purchased my imperial-ss technique with military credits, and I also paid for one of the honor guards to be my dharma protector. Hmm. You know, this is all kind of abstract, isn¡¯t it? How about I just show you?¡±

    With that, he waved his hand, causing his body to turn transparent and reveal his ten heavenly pces.

    Beneath the life mist, he had six. Above the life mist, he had four. Of the four on top, three were made from lifemps, and glittered dazzlingly. They all had strange, unique appearances, and all of them emanated astonishing fluctuations. The other six heavenly pces were also extraordinary, especially two of them, which seemed particrly unique. One of them had a golden dragon coiled around it, which emanated dazzling golden light. When Xu Qing looked at it, the dragon suddenly lifted its head and focused its gaze on him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow materialized behind him, then glided through the air in D-003, looking at the golden dragon.

    The crow and the dragon seemed drawn to each other because of their energies, and were closely studying each other.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s other unique pce was a sword pce. It looked very simr to the halls in the Swordsage Pce, and it emanated an incisive, sword-like energy.

    Looking at it caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to spin. He had merely been asking for some advice, only to have Kong Xianglong directly show him all of his heavenly pces. Most people considered their heavenly pces to be their biggest secrets, and generally wouldn¡¯t reveal them except to people they deeply trusted. Yet Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t seem to have any such misgivings.

    ¡°What are you staring like that for? You¡¯re not the only one who¡¯s seen them. I showed them to little River and little Chen as well. See those there? Those are my two heavenly pces made with imperial-ss techniques.¡± Kong Xianglong made some adjustments so that those two pces became even clearer. ¡°You probably gained enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, right? I sensed the energy fluctuations earlier. Once you get that technique to the second stage, you can use it to make a sword pce.¡±

    Having personally seen Kong Xianglong¡¯s heavenly pces, Xu Qing felt moved. Looking very serious, he stood and bowed deeply to Kong Xianglong. ¡°Many thanks, Big Bro Kong.¡±

    ¡°Thanks aren¡¯t necessary between bros,¡± Kong Xianglong said. His heavenly pces disappeared, and he took another long swig of alcohol. ¡°Once you use that imperial-ss technique for your fifth heavenly pce, I¡¯ll check and see if there are any missions we can go on. If so, I¡¯ll give you a shout. We actually have lots of missions like that in the Field Operations Office. Little River and little Chen asked me to help them find missions as well. Both of them need a lot of military credits so they can buy legacies.¡±

    Xu Qing offered sincere thanks again. He and Kong Xianglong drank for a bit more until Xu Qing¡¯s shift was over. Then, instead of going back to his sword pavilion, he went to the south part of the city to look for osmanthus cakes.

    Tonight he nned to return to the subsidiary sect and visit Arch-Immortal Plumdark. His fifth heavenly pce was already materialized, so now all he had to do was insert Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits into it, and he would have his fifth imperial-ss heavenly pce.

    My life essence bluegreen dragon... will have to get pushed off again. I¡¯ll use it next time!

    Xu Qing took a moment to cast his gaze inward and look at the bluegreen dragon swirling amidst his dharma apertures. The dragon looked up at him.

    ¡°Next time. Promise!¡± Arriving in the south of the city, he found a shop that sold osmanthus cakes.

    ***

    Around the time Xu Qing left the Corrections Division, down on Level 89, the pce lord¡¯s eyes opened and he looked up. Frowning, he snorted coldly.

    Then the huge eye behind the pce lord opened, and a deep voice echoed out. ¡°A jailer and an inmate drinking together in the cell block? Downright outrageous! When those two were drinking, you were just pretending not to notice? They finished already; one left, and the other¡¯s asleep. Only now do you open your eyes and snort? Who are you doing that for, me?¡±

    The eye¡¯s pupil burned like fire, and caused winds to whip around the pce lord.

    The pce lord didn¡¯t seem to care that the spirit automaton was being snippy with him. Eyes cold, he said, ¡°The two of them agreed to go on a mission together.... I want you to send a message to the Yao n in my name.¡±

    ¡°Same content asst time? Do you have a death wish, Yao Yunhui?¡± The voice rumbled like bells in the wind.

    ¡°No, ten words this time,¡± the pce lord replied coldly. ¡°Xu Qing is my personal secretary-general. Don¡¯t you forget it.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it a vition of your own personal rules to send a dharmic decree twice for the same swordsage? Is it because Xu Qing has no more misfortune on him? Wait, hold on a second. The misfortune actually left him quite a while ago. Let me think. It was actually the second time he went to D-132 that it vanished.

    ¡°Weird. The misfortune left, just like that? It¡¯s been about a month since Xu Qing¡¯s second visit to D-132. So what happened? Sadly, I don¡¯t have the authority to see what went on. Aiya. So annoying! As a spirit automaton, I just don¡¯t have the authority to look into D-132!¡± The rumbling voice in the wind sounded disappointed.

    ¡°Yao Yunhui won¡¯t understand if I don¡¯t spell it out to her,¡± the pce lord said coolly, ignoring the spirit automaton¡¯s pontificating about Xu Qing, the misfortune, and D-132. ¡°Swordsages can die at the hands of enemies. Endings like that can be considered honorable. But they can¡¯t die at the hands of vile simpletons. That would be a disgrace. I simply cannot let such a thing happen to any of my swordsages.¡±

    The rumbling wind ceased momentarily. Then the voice boomed, ¡°Does that include Zhang Siyun? ording to the secret report from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he¡¯s been parasitized by a god. Even the emperor himself wanted to talk with the divine likeness of the Grand Emperor to get details. There are some people who are very interested in this Zhang Siyun.¡±

    The pce lord was quiet for a long moment. Then he shook his head. ¡°As long as he¡¯s a swordsage, I won¡¯t allow him to be used as bait. And I¡¯ll figure out a way to deal with that god inside him.¡±

    ¡°What about Chen Erniu?¡± asked the voice, suddenly more intense than before. ¡°I refuse to believe you don¡¯t see what¡¯s going on with him. And if I¡¯m not mistaken, I actually saw him in his previous life. Except I can¡¯t remember the details. Weird. Why can¡¯t I remember the details?¡±

    The voice in the wind sounded more and more irritated as it talked, until it unleashed a howl. In response, a howl echoed back from the very depths of the Corrections Division, a response that seemed to ovep with the spirit automaton¡¯s voice. ¡°I can¡¯t remember. Can¡¯t remember. I¡¯ve forgotten.... Who am I? I need to think this through to figure out who I am. I¡¯m....¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he slowly lifted his right hand and pushed out. That movement caused all one hundred and seventy-seven levels of the Corrections Division to tremble. Brilliant light then converged in the middle of each level, right above the center of the prison depths. The light turned into a hundred and seventy-seven magical symbols that slowly dropped down.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out, and then the howling from below grew weaker until it faded away. Back on Level 89, the howl was no more, and the eye behind the pce lord started to close. Just before it did, a nk look appeared in the eye, and it spoke in a faint voice.

    ¡°Who am I...?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the spirit automaton of the Corrections Division!¡± the pce lord replied.

    A look of understanding shed within the eye. ¡°That¡¯s right. I remember now. I¡¯m a spirit automaton. The spirit automaton of the Corrections Division. My mission is to keep control of all the inmates.¡±

    The eye closed.

    The pce lord looked at the closed eye and frowned.

    H¨¥¡¯s beening to his senses more frequently in recent years....

    If anyone could see the pce lord¡¯s thoughts, and noticed him use the word h¨¥, they would be absolutely shocked.

    That was the form of address for gods.

    As it turned out, that eye absolutely was not just the spirit automaton of the Corrections Division. The eye thought it was a spirit automaton. But the truth was that h¨¥ was the main reason why the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce always remained on duty in the Corrections Division. H¨¥ was actually a clone of the god of unknown origins that slept in Forbidden by the Immortal!

    Continuing to look at the closed eye, the pce lord thought back to the words from earlier.

    H¨¥ recognizes Chen Erniu. That¡¯s problematic. But the Grand Emperor endorsed him, and let him be a swordsage. And that means he¡¯s a swordsage. Since he¡¯s a swordsage, he¡¯s my subordinate. And my subordinates die in zes of glory. Not at the hands of despicable viins!

    That was the pce lord¡¯s personal rule.

 Chapter 414: Golden Crow Descends Into Heavenly Palace

    Chapter 414: Golden Crow Descends Into Heavenly Pce

    In the county capital, osmanthus cakes weren¡¯t cheap. One package with five cakes cost a whole spirit note. The reason was that the osmanthus cakes contained various spirit nts. And ording to the proprietor, the osmanthus flowers used to make the cakes were imported from Tidefall Prefecture.

    Xu Qing bought three packages.

    As he walked back toward the subsidiary sect, he opened one of the packages to see how they tasted. It went without saying that, given the cakes were for sale here in the county capital, they were absolutely delicious. By the time he got to the subsidiary sect, he had already finished the entire package. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the subsidiary sect.

    He encountered a few coalition disciples, all of whom offered respectful greetings. Even Huang Yikun had no choice but to sp hands and bow in greeting.

    As Xu Qing neared the A Wing, he started getting nervous. Every time he thought about Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he felt strange. Whether it was because of her cultivation base or her moodiness, he just didn¡¯t know how to deal with her. But he had no choice but to see her.

    Taking another breath, he entered the A Wing, walked past a few courtyards, and eventually stopped at therge courtyard in front of Suite A-1. It was filled with decorative rocks, verdant nts, and numerous handmaidens. Even in the county capital, Arch-Immortal Plumdark maintained the same living standards as before.

    When the handmaidens spotted Xu Qing, their eyes glittered curiously. They offered curtseying bows as Xu Qing walked past, and after he was gone, they whispered and giggled furtively amongst themselves. Neither the handmaidens nor Xu Qing noticed that, as he entered the courtyard, he was being followed by the boy. Curious, the boy stopped by the handmaidens to listen to their chatter.

    As for Xu Qing, he was now right in front of Suite A-1. Looking very somber, he sped hands and said,

    ¡°Disciple Xu Qing here to seek an audience with Arch-Immortal Plumdark.¡±

    The door slowly opened, and Arch-Immortal Plumdark stepped out. She wore plum-colored court attire, with her long hair cascading past her shoulders. She seemed noble, refined, and elegant, like an immortal from heaven descended into the mortal world. However, there was a touch of irritation in her phoenix-like eyes, a bit of emotion that made her beautiful face even more full of expression. Because of her presence, the evening seemed a bit brighter.

    She walked right up to Xu Qing and stopped in front of him. When she noticed the packages he was carrying, the irritation in her eyes transformed into pleasure. ¡°I was wondering why you came sote to see me, child. As it turns out, you remembered what I told you before.¡±

    ¡°Senior, I would never dare to forget anything you said to me.¡± Trying very hard not to be so nervous, Xu Qing handed her the osmanthus cakes.

    She took them and opened her mouth to continue speaking. Before she could say anything, Xu Qing brought out more gifts. He gave her mung bean cakes, immortal dew biscuits, pineapple tarts, sweet pea pudding, almond biscuits, nineyered cakes, and more.... Altogether, he had over fifty different kinds of desserts, and at least two of each kind.

    A nearby handmaiden hurried over with trays to put the desserts onto, until they were piled up like small mountains.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark was visibly surprised, as was the handmaiden.

    After handing over all the desserts, Xu Qing looked at Arch-Immortal Plumdark and said, ¡°Senior, I wasn¡¯t sure if you liked things other than osmanthus cakes, so I decided to just buy everything.¡±

    Xu Qing was being very sincere. For one thing, he had always valued knowledge. Also, he knew that Arch-Immortal Plumdark was about to tell him how to use his imperial-ss technique to form a heavenly pce, and was also going to stand as dharma protector for him. It was a kindness that he would engrave deep in his heart. Therefore, he had spent a bit of time buying arge collection of desserts. That was another reason why he came sote in the evening.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark could see the sincerity in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. A moment passed, and all the displeasure she had been feelingtely vanished. Turning to the handmaiden, she said, ¡°Put the desserts in my room. Be careful. I want them all in perfect condition.¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± the handmaiden said. Looking at Xu Qing and Arch-Immortal Plumdark, she blinked a few times and then hurried away to handle the desserts. She knew that it wasn¡¯t appropriate for her to stay.

    Ignoring the handmaiden, Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled warmly and waved her hand. The limestone tiles then transformed into a grassy field. The decorative rocks turned into mountains. The flowers became a forest. And an open-air stone pavilion appeared next to them. [1]

    ¡°Come, Xu Qing.¡± She stepped into the pavilion and sat down on one of the stone benches. As she did, the wind stirred her hair, and her garments tugged against her body, making her curves even more prominent. She was truly beautiful.

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then stepped into the pavilion and sat down at a stone bench across from her. From this position, he could see her even more clearly, and also could smell her familiar perfume. It smelled wonderful.

    Resting her elbow on the stone railing, she put her chin into her hand, looked at Xu Qing, and said, ¡°Tell me how things have been going in the Corrections Division over the past month.¡±

    All of a sudden, she didn¡¯t seem refined and elegant like she had when she walked out of her room. Nor did she seem gentle and tender like when she saw the osmanthus cakes. She was acting more like a teenage girl. Meanwhile, her facial features were so beautiful that it was impossible to tell how old she was.

    It wasn¡¯t the first time Xu Qing had seen her suddenly change in that way, yet this time she seemed unusually hard to resist. He had to admit... that Arch-Immortal Plumdark really was spectacrly attractive. In fact, she was so attractive that not even the tiniest scrap of negative emotion was able to rise up in him. Everything she did just seemed good.

    Forcing himself to remain calm, he quietly exined everything about the Corrections Division, including his friendship with Kong Xianglong and the unreasonable pce lord. It wasn¡¯t anything veryplicated.

    Neither Xu Qing nor Arch-Immortal Plumdark noticed that, a short distance away from the pavilion, a young boy stood there looking curiously at them. His head was tilted slightly and he looked a bit confused. But after sizing up Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he came to the conclusion that she bore no ill will. That said, he also got the impression she was somewhat possessive, so he decided not to get any closer. Feeling a bit anxious, he sat down and looked in a different direction.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark listened to every word he said. Eventually, when the moon hung high above them, Xu Qing finished his story about his post.

    ¡°I can tell,¡± she said, her voice soft and warm, ¡°that you¡¯re... not quite sure what to make of the swordsages.¡±

    He looked up at her.

    ¡°It¡¯s hard for you to ept that a group like this really exists. After all, you¡¯ve never encountered anything like them before. Therefore, you¡¯re suspicious. You doubt. Your instincts are telling you to run. Because you don¡¯t want to be tied down.¡± Sheughed softly. ¡°Follow your heart. But at the same time, don¡¯t overthink things. Keep calm-headed and just observe things. Maybe when you develop a bit of admiration for the organization and the people in it, you¡¯ll eventually turn that admiration into respect. And when that happens, you¡¯ll have figured things out.¡±

    Feeling a bit shaken, Xu Qing stood, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°Now, close your eyes, child.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then sat back down and closed his eyes.

    As soon as he did, Arch-Immortal Plumdark slid closer to him.

    He struggled to breathe steadily as he realized that her perfume was much stronger than before. He could almost feel her breath on his face. Just when he was about to open his eyes, she reached out and gently touched his forehead.

    Her voice, seemingly full of insight and also enticement, echoed in his ears. ¡°Calm your heart, child. Then, imagine your fifth heavenly pce,plete. Perhaps you¡¯ve done so before, but I have the feeling you might not have truly seen it clearly....¡±

    Along with her words, an image appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. It was a dragon chariot! Deep in the sea, a dragon chariot was being pulled along by a giant. Seated in the chariot was a sun.

    ¡°This is how you can use your imperial-ss technique to make a heavenly pce. The method to do so is different for each technique. For Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits... you need that dragon chariot.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled as he suddenly understood. Within his mind, he could clearly see the dragon chariot. That said, when all was said and done, it wascking.

    And that was because Xu Qing had actually been on that dragon chariot. What was more, he had stayed on the chariot longer than wasmon. That was how he had acquired the full legacy of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. The image in his mind was still effective, though, as it neatly ovepped with the image of the dragon chariot from his memories. And because of that, his memories became clearer, and the dragon chariot became clearer.

    A momentter, Xu Qing shivered. The stone bench he was sitting on turned into a rush cushion, and the open-air pavilion around him became a towering walled pagoda, surrounding him and protecting him. The grassy in became a crowd of tiny people, their expressions somber as they stood protectively with their backs to Xu Qing, eyes scanning the surroundings vigntly. The mountains became giants that rose high above thendscape, emanating majestic might. The trees transformed simrly. [2]

    Everything transformed ording to Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s design, bing the perfect safe location for Xu Qing. However, though it was highly unlikely anything unusual would happen, she still wasn¡¯t ready to rest at ease.

    Therefore, she sat down cross-legged next to him to guard over him.

    And thus, Xu Qing¡¯s breakthrough began.

    It started with his fifth heavenly pce changing appearance, graduallying to look like the dragon chariot. Then, the image in his mind thatbined his memories with the dragon chariot that Arch-Immortal Plumdark had meticulously created... started to be useful. When the fifth heavenly pce looked even more realistic than the representational image, it began to emit an astonishing aura.

    Sensing his fifth heavenly pce, Xu Qing softly said, ¡°As the golden crow returns to the chariot, let the moonfall begin!¡±

    The golden crow tattoo on his back red with light, and the golden crow emerged above him. Spreading its wings, it let loose a cry of joy as it circled around a few times, then dove toward Xu Qing. It pierced into the top of his head, flying into his sea of consciousness and the dragon chariot that was his fifth heavenly pce. Once inside, it shimmered with dazzling light and then transformed into the blurry image of a young man.

    Astonishingly, that young man looked exactly like Xu Qing. He wore an emperor¡¯s robe of ck gold, had an imperial crown of the same color, and seemed like the epitome of noble grandeur as he sat mightily in the dragon chariot that was the fifth heavenly pce.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fifth heavenly pce then erupted with multi-colored fire which transformed into a projection of the golden crow. Rumbling sounds rolled out in all directions as the power of Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits erupted. Now, instead of neen tails, the crow had a total of twenty-two.

    Looking at those tails, Xu Qing was suddenly struck with understanding. Once he passed a hundred, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits would reach the third stage!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open and everything around him vanished. The pagoda, the people, the giants, everything went away.

    He was in the courtyard outside Suite A-1, seated cross-legged on the ground. Just ahead of him, standing at the door of the suite, was Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Turning, she smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s daytime already. Don¡¯t you have to go to work?¡±

    The dome of heaven was indeed starting to turn bright. An entire night had passed.

    Eyes filling with gratitude, Xu Qing scrambled to his feet, sped hands, and bowed deeply. ¡°Many thanks¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me Senior,¡± she said softly. ¡°Use my name.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. ¡°Many thanks, Plumdark.¡±

    ¡°That does sound strange, doesn¡¯t it?¡± she murmured, shaking her head. ¡°Alright, let me teach you how to do it. Repeat after me. ¡®Thank you, Plumdark.¡¯ Keep your voice soft.¡± She looked at him in anticipation.

    After a moment of silence, Xu Qing softly said, ¡°Thank you, Plumdark.¡±

    Her eyes lit up and she smiled radiantly. Nodding, she said, ¡°You¡¯re wee, Xu Qing.¡±

    All of a sudden, the atmosphere outside of Suite A-1 seemed different from before.

    A moment passed, then Xu Qing took a deep breath and bowed again. ¡°I¡¯ll take my leave now.¡±

    With that he turned to leave. Just when he was about to walk out of the courtyard, Arch-Immortal Plumdark spoke in anguid, enticing voice.

    ¡°I want you toe with me to visit my best friends here in the county capital. That¡¯s the second thing you promised me.¡± Her voice was delicate but enchanting, soft but enticing. It was like the cry of a hawk or phoenix, but at the same time was iparably sweet and gentle. Its mysterious power could seep into the heart and turn it warm.

    1. The ¡°pavilion¡± here could also be tranted as ¡°pagoda.¡± The one described here probably looks something like this. ?

    2. The ¡°pagoda¡± here would probably look something like this. ?

 Chapter 415: Think Better of Him, Yao Yunhui

    Chapter 415: Think Better of Him, Yao Yunhui

    As the sun rose over the horizon, light spilled out, covering thends and driving away the darkness. The streets of the county capital were already bustling.

    As Xu Qing walked along, he could sense his fifth heavenly pce within him. The totem tattoo of his imperial-ss technique was still there on his back, and his battle prowess had not dropped because of putting Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits into his fifth heavenly pce. His imperial-ss technique still provided the battle prowess of a single heavenly pce. However, it was now more threatening. And the same could be said of his fifth heavenly pce.

    In fact, if he ran into someone else with five heavenly pces, then as long as techniques and magical treasures weren¡¯t a factor, then fundamentally speaking, he would stand on the same level as the most elite members of the countless species that existed. And when you looked at people who weren¡¯t the elites, then on a foundational level, his five heavenly pces would be considered above and beyond.

    After all, every single one of his heavenly pces was astonishing and unique. Though they might not be considered literally unrivaled, they were close. Two of his heavenly pces were made from lifemps. One was from a taboo poison pill. One was the violet moon. And now he had a golden crow dragon chariot pce.

    Those were the reserve powers Xu Qing had built as he walked his path. All of them came as a result of him putting everything on the line. Most people wouldn¡¯t get strong overnight. They had to take their time and build up that strength. It was the same with Xu Qing. That was why he could fight people with more pces than him.

    Xu Qing was in a very good mood. As he walked along, the smell of fried dough sticksing from the breakfast vendors made him think about Seven Blood Eyes. [1]

    ¡°I wonder when I¡¯ll be able to go back,¡± he murmured, looking in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He missed Master Seventh and Sir Bloodsmelter, as well as the breakfast vendors he¡¯d visited in both Seven Blood Eyes and the Eight Sect Coalition.

    Picking a vendor, he sat down and ordered breakfast. Although the vor wasn¡¯t exactly the same as back at home, it was still good.

    ***

    As Xu Qing ate, the boy squatted impatiently off in the distance, watching him. He seemed bored, to the point where he kept looking around at the crowds bustling down the streets. Eventually, something caught his attention on the second floor of a nearby building. In the window there, a figure had appeared briefly in the window, and seemed to be looking venomously in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Curious, the boy vanished.

    When he reappeared in that building, he saw a pretty woman cursing a young man.

    ¡°Pathetic! That Xu Qing is not only a secretary-general, but also, he¡¯s a jailer in the Corrections Division! Meanwhile, you got a mere civilian post as a clerk? And you just epted that?? Where¡¯s your sense of pride? Aren¡¯t you the top person in your generation in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture? Why didn¡¯t you go ask help from your Sect Grandfather?¡±

    Of course, the person being berated was Zhang Siyun, while the person doing the berating was his mother, Yao Yunhui. Because of the sensitive nature of her position in the Justice Pce, she couldn¡¯tmunicate such words via a jade slip. Therefore, she had arranged for Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather toe for a visit. Unfortunately, on the way she received a message from her n, within which were the details of the pce lord¡¯s warning. In turn, the n had strictly warned her not to provoke the Swordsage Pce.

    Yao Yunhui was not pleased about that. And then she happened to spot Xu Qing on the street, and her feelings of revulsion red. Because of that, just looking at her son made her angry.

    Zhang Siyun kept his head bowed. Inside, he absolutely hated Xu Qing. Every time his motherpared him to Xu Qing, the perverse energy in his heart grew stronger and stronger. The truth was that he had gone to see his Sect Grandfather, only to have been met with a strange look. That said, considering how angry his mother was, he didn¡¯t offer any exnation. He just silently endured her cursing. Besides, he didn¡¯t think that his job as a clerk was useless. At the very least, during the month he had been working at that post, he had found a number of clerical errors that had earned him the praise of his superiors. Of course, he couldn¡¯t mention that to his mother.

    Actually, I was a lot better off in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    She went on cursing for a while until her transmission jade slip vibrated. Taking it out, she checked thetest message, whereupon her expression turned very dark. A crack rang out as she snapped the jade slip in half.

    ¡°He¡¯s busy with official work? I arranged this meeting days ago, and he¡¯s only now backing out? I bet this is because of that dharmic decree issued by the pce lord! Nobody from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society has any backbone. They¡¯re all imbeciles!¡±

    Yao Yunhui only seemed to be getting angrier and angrier.

    Sighing inwardly, Zhang Siyun said, ¡°Mother¡ª¡±

    ¡°Get the hell out of my sight!¡± Yao Yunhui said coldly.

    Zhang Siyun didn¡¯t say anything. He stood, bowed to his mother, and left. His expression seemed lonelier than usual, and his hatred for Xu Qing burned hotter than ever. After walking down the street some distance, a tremor suddenly passed through him, and his vision spun. He reached out and put his hand on the wall to steady himself. The image of a red moon flickered in his eyes, and a vicious expression filled his face. It onlysted a minute, and then he was back to normal.

    Is something wrong with the technique? This is the seventh time I¡¯ve gotten dizzy like that.

    Expression unsightly, Zhang Siyun went on his way.

    Back in the building, the boy hadn¡¯t paid any attention at all to Zhang Siyun. He was now standing next to Yao Yunhui, a curious expression on his face as he tried to determine if this woman had malicious intentions regarding Xu Qing.

    As Yao Yunhui sat there, the anger slowly left her face. Eventually, she took a sip of the lotus seed soup that was sitting on her desk. Her movements were refined. She seemed like apletely different person than the one who had just angrily cursed Zhang Siyun.

    Yun¡¯er, I¡¯m being hard on you to bring out your determination and backbone. I want you to seed. Years ago, your father never had enough courage, and he never realized that my intentions were good.

    A cold light appeared in her eyes.

    Xu Qing, you stole my Yun¡¯er¡¯s good fortune, and ruined his prospects for the future. I¡¯m not going to just let that go. I can¡¯t do anything to you in the county capital. But once you¡¯re outside, I¡¯ll figure out a way to make you pay for your crimes. I won¡¯t kill you. I¡¯ll just make sure Yun¡¯er can bear witness to your final fate, and maybe gain some confidence as a result.

    The boy could sense what Yao Yunhui was thinking. He suddenly looked worried. He had promised that girl that he would protect Xu Qing. However, he couldn¡¯t kill anyone. After some thought, he faced Yao Yunhui and exhaled gently. His breathnded right on her face.

    Yao Yunhui¡¯s spoon stopped moving through the bowl of soup. For some reason, she found herself thinking differently than before. It was as if, all of a sudden, she wanted to focus on the positive aspects of other people.

    ¡°That Xu Qing isn¡¯t so bad,¡± she murmured. After the words left her mouth, her eyes widened. Looking around suspiciously, she rose from her chair.

    Something¡¯s off! She quickly performed an incantation gesture to scan the area, but didn¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary.

    The boy, looking a bit annoyed that his idea hadn¡¯t worked very well, again exhaled.

    Yao Yunhui shivered, and then a thoughtful expression appeared in her eyes.

    ¡°Xu Qing isn¡¯t that out of line.¡± Yao Yunhui¡¯s eyes went wide at the downright outrageous nature of her words. Without any hesitation, she performed another incantation gesture, causing defenses to spring up around her. At the same time, she scanned her mind and soul. Everything seemed normal. Even still, she immediately left the building, appearing a momentter in an alley outside. As she walked along, she thought back to what just happened.

    Although Xu Qing isn¡¯tpletely loathsome, I still need to punish him a bit.

    The moment the thought urred to her, the boy, who had been following her, looked angry. This time, he exhaled nine times in a row.

    Yao Yunhui shook from head to toe and started breathing heavily as the revulsion for Xu Qing inside of her faded, to be reced by a good feeling.

    A moment passed.

    Xu Qing is mostly innocent in all of this. And Yun¡¯er has done some things that aren¡¯t exactly appropriate....

    Looking pleased, the boy brushed his hands off and walked away with a skip in his step.

    ***

    By now, Xu Qing had finished his breakfast and was back in the Corrections Division. Just like always, he walked down the stairs to Level 57 and entered D-132. It was pitch-ck inside, but the moment he entered, it got a bit brighter. Other than that, there was no changepared to before. The cloud troll still had its back to him. The human woman was still coaxing the scarecrows to sleep. And the Rockdevil rotated. As for the head, it looked helplessly at him and repeated the same things it always said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t stomp on me. I don¡¯t like being stomped....¡±

    Xu Qing walked the path around the cells, examining all the inmates. After passing thirteen of them, he reached Sir Inkwell.

    Sir Inkwell respectfully sped hands in greeting. ¡°Good morning, exalted Jailer.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless. After looking around coldly, he went back to sit by the door. The shadow and the patriarch emerged to have their daily dose of fun.

    The boy appeared as well, sitting off to the side so Xu Qing could see him. There was some helplessness in his eyes, as he knew it would only be a short time before Xu Qing woke up.

    He was right. After Xu Qing meditated for a while, he looked around suspiciously.

    It seems I¡¯ve forgotten some things. Why do things seem unusually peaceful...? Why do I get the feeling this ce should be red? What did the pce lord tell me? Why does the boy seem so helpless? And why is the head always telling me not to stomp it? Why is my memory so bad all of a sudden? Is it because I¡¯m stationed here...? Don¡¯t tell me something¡¯s secretly influencing me?

    He opened his bag of holding and rummaged around. Everything seemed normal. Frowning, he looked at the cell block, his expression turning more and more unsightly. He suddenly had the very strong sensation that there was a veil blocking his sight. Eyes turning cold, he unleashed the power of his taboo poison core, and his violet moon heavenly pce. His aura changed, and every part of him grew stronger.

    Meanwhile, the head started howling. ¡°He¡¯s waking up again! He¡¯s waking up! Please, please don¡¯t stomp on me! Can¡¯t you do things differently for once?¡±

    Sir Inkwell sighed, closed his eyes, and waited to be burned to death again.

    Expression grim, Xu Qing stood up and walked forward.

    A momentter, everything was quiet. Other than the finger of the god, Xu Qing had destroyed everything. Looking at the finger, he could sense terrifying fluctuations that made it clear he couldn¡¯t do anything to it. They were so far apart from each other, that he knew even touching it would kill him.

    A moment passed and he took out a bamboo slip. After recording details of everything, he walked to the door, where he stood for a long moment. Without turning around, he calmly asked, ¡°I wake up every day, don¡¯t I? Every single day Ie in here and figure out that there aren¡¯t fourteen inmates, but six. And five of the inmates are undying, no matter how many times I ¡®kill¡¯ them.¡±

    The boy appeared and nodded.

    ¡°Previously, I recorded reminders for myself, and took other measures to help me remember. But whenever I leave, the power of that god wipes those things out of existence. And any object I use to record information ultimately vanishes.¡±

    The boy nodded.

    ¡°Once I open this door, I¡¯ll forget everything, right? The pce lords knows about all this, right? This is both good fortune and a test, right?¡±

    The boy just continued nodding.

    It was obvious to Xu Qing that Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow were also having their memories tampered with.

    A momentter, he smiled. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s keep going. I just hope that one day when I open the door, I won¡¯t forget everything. And that¡¯s when I¡¯ll get true good fortune.¡±

    The boy nodded helplessly.

    ¡°I bet I¡¯ve said this same thing over and over again, haven¡¯t I?¡±

    Xu Qing smiled again as he looked down at the information he¡¯d recorded on the bamboo slip. At that point, his eyes glittered.

    There might be another way. I could sow karma here, and wait for it to develop....

    After some more thought, he crushed the bamboo slip and tossed it onto the ground.

    ¡°Could I ask you for a favor?¡± he said. ¡°Keep this broken bamboo slip for me. Put the pieces with the others. I probably carved up a lot of them.¡±

    Nodding, the boy held up some of his fingers as if to tell Xu Qing how many bamboo slips he had.

    Xu Qing smiled, took a deep breath, then pushed the door open and walked out. Out on the stairs, he started walking up, all the while thinking about military credit.

    There are fourteen inmates in D-132. Always the same. I really need to start thinking of a way to get some military credits.

    A few days passed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s routine changed. He spent days on guard duty at D-132, while at nighttime, he would go on various missions to earn military credits. He would capture criminals, go on search-and-rescue missions, or help other departments. There was always something to do.

    The third day after Kong Xianglong was released, Xu Qing got a message from him when he was getting off of his shift.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I got a big job that¡¯ll pay lots of military credits. You in?¡±

    1. Fried dough sticks (youtiao) are a quintessential breakfast item in China. Although the story never mentioned them specifically on previous asions when Xu Qing got street food, it makes sense that he would have eaten them. They even offer these things at McDonald¡¯s in China. They¡¯re sort of like doughnuts, except not sweet, and they¡¯re usually eaten along with congee or something else to dip them into. Here¡¯s a tiny gallery of images that includes a street vendor making them, plus the McDonald¡¯s version. ?

 Chapter 416: The Black Guard!

    Chapter 416: The ck Guard!

    Xu Qing agreed to join.

    The job that Kong Xianglong mentioned was actually a secret mission assigned to him by the Field Operations Office. Normally speaking, people from other departments wouldn¡¯t be allowed to go on such secret missions. However, Kong Xianglong knew that Xu Qing needed military credits, as did his other friends. Therefore, after a lot of coaxing and pestering his superiors, he received approval to allow swordsages from other departments to help. The main reason was that he agreed to act as their guarantor.

    The participants included other Field Operations Office swordsages, plus Xu Qing, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit.

    As for the task at hand....

    ¡°It¡¯s an extraction mission.¡±

    It was in the middle of the night when the team met in the Field Operations Office headquarters. There were a total of seventeen swordsages present. Kong Xianglong stood in front of them, looking very serious.

    ¡°We¡¯ll get moving first. Along the way, I¡¯ll exin how the mission is going to work. As per standard operating procedure, all transmission jade slips need to be sealed. During the entire duration of the mission, you cannot contact anyone for any reason. The only person who can do so is the mission leader, who is me.¡±

    With that, he waved his hand, and someone from the Field Operations Office stepped forward, sped hands officially, then started sealing all the jade slips. It was a simple seal involving a warding spell. The Field Operations swordsage performed an incantation gesture, and the sealing marks flew out into the crowd.

    Xu Qing looked around and noted that everyone seemed fine with having their jade slips sealed. At the same time, he knew it was one of the mission requirements. After the sealing was done, he checked his transmission jade slip and confirmed that it wouldn¡¯t work. The warding spell only had that one single function, and wouldn¡¯t do anything else.

    Beforeing, he had sent a message to Arch-Immortal Plumdark letting her know he was going on a mission. He had also requested time off from the Corrections Division.

    After the sealing marks were all in ce, Kong Xianglong waved his hand again, and the group went to the Swordsage Pce¡¯s teleportationplex.

    Before long, glittering light covered the seventeen of them, and they vanished.

    When they reappeared, they were a great distance away from the county capital, near the border of Heavencloud Prefecture.

    Lowering his voice, Kong Xianglong said, ¡°In three days, we¡¯ll reach another teleportation portal. We¡¯ll travel covertly, so change out of your swordsage uniforms.¡±

    Xu Qing could already tell that this was an unusual mission. It made sense considering how many military credits were being given. It was definitely going to be dangerous. He quickly changed out of his swordsage uniform.

    No one spoke as they moved along through the night at top speed, with Kong Xianglong leading the way.

    ¡°Now I¡¯ll exin the mission in detail. We¡¯re tasked with extracting one of our agents who has been on a deep cover assignment in the Holytides for years. Their assignment is nowplete, and our job is to go to meet them at the border and escort them safely back to the Swordsage Pce. They have an important intelligence report to deliver.

    ¡°You probably have some questions. Was the spy¡¯s cover blown? Was the information uncovered by the spy somehow urgent? Why can¡¯t the spy just sneak out? I suggest you not dwell on such questions, as they aren¡¯t within the realm of what we need to know.¡±

    From the way Kong Xianglong eyed Xu Qing, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit, it was obvious that thest statement was meant for them, the non-Field Operations Office swordsages.

    Xu Qing nodded. Given how long he had worked in the Violent Crimes Division, he knew how operations like this worked. Sir Mountain-River and the others also indicated that they understood.

    Lowering his voice, Kong Xianglong gave some further details to Xu Qing, Sir Mountain-River, and the others.

    ¡°All of you can rest assured that, considering this agent was willing to participate in a deep cover operation in Holytide territory, there¡¯s absolutely no question about their loyalty. There is no chance they could betray the Swordsage Pce. Furthermore, based on my personal analysis, I believe that this agent probably has multiple exit strategies nned. In all likelihood, the person we¡¯re going to meet is a decoy, and not the real agent.

    ¡°There are almost certainly other teams involved in this mission, all heading to different extraction points. Our superiors have probably assigned extremely powerful experts to go along on the mission. In fact, maybe one of them is on our team.¡±

    ¡°Big Bro Kong,¡± said Sir Mountain-River, ¡°you really don¡¯t need to go into such extreme detail.¡±

    His eyes flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Duskspirit frowned as she also looked at Xu Qing. The truth was that all of them were a bit hesitant about having Xu Qing along. It wasn¡¯t that they disliked him. They just weren¡¯t used to him. Their group had worked together for a long time, and had never asked anyone to join them. Xu Qing was the first ¡®outsider¡¯ to work with them in many years. Wang Chen was the only one who didn¡¯t look like he cared. He just yawned as he flew along on his coffin.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever, and he didn¡¯t say anything.

    Kong Xianglong smiled. ¡°Since this is Xu Qing¡¯s first timeing on a mission with us, I just want to make sure we don¡¯t have any misunderstandings. So I¡¯m exining everything upfront.¡±

    Duskspirit and Sir Mountain-River said nothing further.

    The other Field Operations swordsages pretended not to have heard any of that. They were already familiar with Sir Mountain-River and the others, as Kong Xianglong had already brought them on missions before.

    As the group sped through the night, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Xu Qing felt like he wasn¡¯t moving very fast, yet also wasn¡¯t moving slow. While they traveled, he reviewed the mission details, and also thought back to the lieutenant governor¡¯s history lecture.

    The Holytide people were a species that formed when Grand Duke Holytide rebelled against humankind. Considering they were outright rebels, it was no wonder that their rtionship with humans was like that between fire and water. They were mortal enemies.

    The Holytides were very close with the Nightshades. In fact, they had intermingled with the Nightshades so deeply over the generations that the red blood which ran through the Holytide¡¯s veins was streaked with ck. [1]

    Over the years in which Holytides and humans had shed, the Holytides had be even more ferocious than the Nightshades. It was as if the more viciously they treated humans, the more they could prove their own worth.

    Of course, Sea-Sealing County was the only county in the Holytide region that wasn¡¯t under the control of the Holytides, so they had long eyed it like tigers eying prey. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that they feared the human imperial capital, they would have long since swallowed up Sea-Sealing County.

    That said, humankind in general, and specifically Sea-Sealing County, knew that it was only a matter of time before war broke out. Right now, the bnce of power seemed very precarious, and could be broken very easily. The truth was that the situation wasn¡¯t just like that in Sea-Sealing County. In his training, Xu Qing had learned that the other six county capitals were in simr circumstances. In fact, all of the other counties had lost prefectures to other forces.

    ¡°Tossed about by wind and rain. A great mansion teetering on the verge of copse.¡± Those were the idioms the lieutenant governor had used to describe the situation.

    Xu Qing was wrapped up in such thoughts for their three days of travel. At one point, Kong Xianglong asked Xu Qing what code name he would like to use on the mission. Normally speaking, they didn¡¯t use real names when out on missions.

    ¡°Call me the Kid,¡± Xu Qing said softly. He nned to use that code name both on this mission and in general, going forward.

    ¡°Nice. On this mission, you can all call me Dragon Bro! Hahaha!¡± [2]

    Soon they reached the second teleportation portal. After teleporting to another location, they traveled for a few more days before reaching Tidefall Prefecture, which was on the border between Sea-Sealing County and Holytide territory.

    ¡°We have one more teleportation,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Then we¡¯ll be right on the border.¡±

    Everyone was more on guard than ever. After all, though they were still in Sea-Sealing County, they were also very close to where the Holytides operated. Though there was a peace treaty between the two species, ensuring that anyone in the Nascent Soul level or higher who uwfully crossed the border would be instantly killed by taboo treasures... it was still important to be ready at all times. After all, high-level Gold Core cultivators with dangerous weapons could be very deadly.

    It was currentlyte at night, and dark clouds covered the moon. The only illumination came from asional bolts of lightning that snapped through the clouds. It was raining. Seventeen shadowy figures sped through the rain toward the teleportation portal. As the rain fell harder and harder, they eventually spotted a simple stone fort up ahead. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he detected the odor of blood.

    At around the same time, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all noticed the same thing.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he raised his right hand in a signal. Everyone dropped to the ground and crouched, looking very serious.

    ¡°They don¡¯t have the secret signal up,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Something¡¯s gone wrong. Kid, Demongirl, Sunspirit, Riverbed. Each of you take three people. I¡¯ll go alone. We¡¯ll split up and approach from five directions. If you see any nonhumans, kill them on sight! If you run into anyone with more heavenly pces than you, wait for me.¡± [3]

    With that, he sped off toward the fort. Sir Mountain-River and the others quickly picked the swordsages they wanted on their teams. The remaining three looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get too close to me, Fellow Daoists,¡± Xu Qing said, taking out three bottles of antidote pills and passing them out. After what happened in the ssroom during his initial training, Xu Qing had decided to carry around a small stockpile of antidote pills that would be effective against his ordinary poisons. Of course, his poison mixtures were so dangerous that if they were inhaled directly, not even the antidote would help very much. Therefore, keeping a good distance away from him was the safest thing.

    After giving the three swordsages antidote pills, Xu Qing started moving. The three swordsages exchanged nces, then followed.

    Before long, seventeen swordsages were approaching the fort from five different directions.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause or slow down. He charged forth, his taboo poison core pulsing. Though he didn¡¯t send that poison outside of him, he kept it ready for defensive purposes. And he did scatter poison powder around him.

    When he reached the fort, he could already detect the sound of magical techniques nearby. Then, as he stepped inside the fort, he heard a cold snort as a shadowy figure rushed toward him in an ambush.

    It was a middle-aged man in a ck robe embroidered with gingko leaves. He didn¡¯t look very different from a human, except that he had a ck mark on his forehead. He pulsed with the power of five heavenly pces, and yet, before he could even get close to Xu Qing, his face fell and his eyes went wide with astonishment. Then he coughed up a mouthful of ck blood.

    ¡°What poison is this?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t that he was surprised by the use of poison. Rather, he was surprised at how strong the poison was. After inhaling it only once, his organs were on fire and his vision was dimming. A momentter, he couldn¡¯t even move. Meanwhile, Xu Qing sped forward. In his hand appeared the dagger the Captain had given him as a gift, with the shroud wrapped around it to form a hilt. With that weapon in hand, Xu Qing sped past the middle-aged cultivator. The dagger removed the cultivator¡¯s head, causing it to fly off his shoulders! [4]

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he crouched down and sped deeper into the fort. He had instantly turned from prey into predator. Sticking to the shadows, he picked up speed, keeping his dagger at the ready.

    A cultivator leaped out, but before anything could happen, Xu Qing removed his head.

    Not sparing the enemy a single nce, he blurred into motion, vanishing.

    Another Holytide cultivator lurked in the shadows, keeping an eye out for someone to ambush. Suddenly, his expression flickered, but he was already toote to react. Xu Qing appeared behind him, his dagger shing. The weapon shed right through the cultivator¡¯s neck.

    Next, Xu Qing frowned as a whistling sound rose up from behind him. But then red lightning shed, and numerous eyes opened up within his shadow. A momentter, the cultivator that had been ambushing him from behind fell, an iron skewer stabbed into his forehead.

    Rumbling booms filled the fort, apanied by the sounds of ughter.

    Meanwhile, Kong Xianglong howled furiously in the air above the castle as he fought four eight-pce Holytide cultivators. The fact that these Holytides had eight-pce battle prowess showed how incredible they were. In fact, all of them had imperial-ss techniques. That said, all of them had the exact same imperial-ss technique. It manifested as the pitch-ck hand of a devilish monster. Combined, the four hands released stupefying might, and formed something like a spell formation. In addition, all four of the cultivators had fragments of magical treasures. They weren¡¯t actually trying to kill Kong Xianglong, as that was too difficult of a task. Instead, they were trying to trap him. At the same time, lightning was gathering up above. That was what they hoped would kill Kong Xianglong.

    Seeing all that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned even colder. However, instead of rushing to help, he turned to look into the nearby shadows.

    A figure slowly walked into the open from that spot. ¡°Interesting. You human swordsages are a bit different from the type we from the ck Guard usually face.¡±

    The Holytides had a department simr to the Swordsage Pce. It was called the ck Guard. [5]

    Meanwhile, the three swordsages from the Field Operations Office approached from behind Xu Qing. Having sensed how much poison Xu Qing had used along the way, they had been constantly consuming antidote pills.

    Xu Qing had tried to retract as much poison as possible after killing each enemy, otherwise not even the antidote pills would have done much.

    The three swordsages had seen all the headless Holytide corpses along the way, and could tell that each one had five-pce battle prowess. All of them were deeply shaken at how strong Xu Qing was. They had heard that thetest group of new swordsages was a bit different, and that there were several freakish hellions among them. Xu Qing was one of them, but up to this point, none of them had seen him in action. Now, Xu Qing¡¯s terrifying nature had already struck them to the core. That said, all three of these people were extraordinary individuals, all of whom had been on many dangerous missions on their own.

    ¡°Three more, huh?¡± said the Holytide cultivator. He wore a ck daoist robe embroidered with golden mes. In the dead of night, those mes seemed to burn like holy fire, and they pulsed with extraordinary fluctuations. Behind him, was a huge pitch-ck hand from his imperial-ss technique. Combined with his six heavenly pces, he emanated nothing short of seven-pce battle prowess.

    1. In Chinese, ¡®Nightshade¡¯ has the character ¡®ck¡¯ in it. ?

    2. Remember, the ¡°long¡± in Kong Xianglong¡¯s name means ¡°dragon.¡± ?

    3. Code names. Demongirl: Although we don¡¯t know Duskspirit¡¯s real name, we do know she¡¯s from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, and that she can demonize herself into a demon. Sunspirit: As exined in the footnote of chapter 397, Wang Chen¡¯s given name Chen means ¡°morning, dawn, daybreak.¡± So his code name is based on the ¡°sun¡± element to his name. ?

    4. The Captain gave him the dagger in chapter 338. He used the shroud to make a hilt for it in 347. ?

    5. The name of the ck Guard also contains the word for ¡°clothing,¡± implying that they wear ck garments. This is not an unusual naming convention in Chinese culture. If you¡¯ve seen the 2014 wuxia film Brotherhood of des (which is amazing, by the way), the lead characters are members of the historical Embroidered Uniform Guard, which was an elite group of imperial secret police. In the movie subtitles, I¡¯m pretty sure they tranted that department as ¡°imperial assassins.¡± Anyway, the point is that, historically speaking, it¡¯s not strange for government agencies to be named after the type of uniform/clothing they wear. That said, trantors often opt for something that flows a bit better in English, and in this case, that¡¯s what I¡¯m doing. ?

 Chapter 417: A Show of Force From a Generationâ€™s Strongest

    Chapter 417: A Show of Force From a Generation¡¯s Strongest

    Noticing the three swordsages approaching from behind, Xu Qing decided he should finish this fight quickly.

    The three swordsages following him all had five heavenly pces, and of course had their various techniques and abilities. However, this Holytide ck Guard cultivator had seven-pce battle prowess, and as such, they weren¡¯t a match for him. They took note of the ck Guard cultivator emerging from the shadows, and their expressions turned very serious. Because of the honor and code of the swordsages, they didn¡¯t turn tail and run. In fact, they closed in, their cultivation bases at the ready.

    ¡°Kid, let¡¯s work together to hold this guy up for a bit.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t,¡± said the Holytide ck Guard cultivator, his expression one of disdain and brutality. Then, just as he was about tounch an attack, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with ferocity.

    ¡°The shadow bans, the ghostmands; the immortal declines, the world is mine.¡±

    Xu Qing had tasked Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior with creating that code phrase so that he could use Shadow Fusion Secret Magic without his enemies realizing the truth about what he was doing. [1]

    As the words left his mouth, he exercised a thought, and his shadow sprang from the dagger in his hand, formed a coffin, and then closed around Xu Qing. Instantly, Xu Qing became covered in shadow and began to pulse with mutagen. Although it was the middle of the night, there was faint illumination from the lightning above, and that made it possible to see the air around Xu Qing distorting.

    A sense of terror rose up in the hearts of everyone present, as if their very life level was being shaken.

    However, because of the code phrase Xu Qing had used, everyone assumed that it was just some unusual technique. That belief was further reinforced because of the mutagen, which all cultivators were leery of.

    As the three swordsages¡¯ hearts pounded with fear, Xu Qing looked up, and explosive fleshly body power erupted from within him. The Shadow Fusion Secret Magic required sacrificing magical techniques and cultivation base power in exchange for an apex level of fleshly body might.

    Even when Xu Qing only had four heavenly pces, he could use that secret magic to unleash six-pce fleshly body power. But now that he had five heavenly pces, he could use it to reach seven-pce fleshly body battle prowess. That level of fleshly body battle prowess was actually superior to magical techniques of the same level, and could be astonishingly deadly. As soon as he unleashed the secret magic, his aura skyrocketed, causing a wild wind to kick up in the area. Invisible shockwaves rolled out, causing the three shocked swordsages from the Field Operations Office to back away, their faces filled with astonishment.

    Even the Holytide cultivator looked surprised.

    Before anything else could happen, Xu Qing took action. He struck like lightning, moving so fast it was hard to track his movement. Intense rumbling echoed out as Xu Qing appeared right in front of the seven-pce ck Guard cultivator, where heunched a fist strike. His first blow contained the convergence of all his fleshly body power.

    The Holytide cultivator¡¯s pupils constricted. The change to this human cultivator was beyond dramatic, especially considering the overflowing mutagen. Heart sinking, the Holytide cultivator activated his external defenses and pulled out a magical device to fight back.

    In the blink of an eye, the two of them shed. Shocking rumbling echoed out as a tremor passed through the Holytide cultivator. Feeling like his internal organs were shaking violently, he staggered backward.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stop. Striding forward, he unleashed more fist strikes.

    Two blows. Three.

    Not daring to be careless, the Holytide cultivator performed another incantation gesture. Instantly, the monstrous ck hand behind him thrust forward, pulsing with terrifying fluctuations as it met Xu Qing¡¯s attack.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t shirk away, he just kept going with full force.

    Four fist strikes. Five. Six.

    Booms rang out as the Holytide cultivator staggered backward repeatedly, his face turning ashen. His external defenses were crumbling, and the huge ck hand simply couldn¡¯t do anything about Xu Qing¡¯s onught.

    Xu Qing elerated,unching a seventh fist strike. Then an eighth. And finally, he unleashed a ninth fist strike.

    A huge cracking sound rang out. Blood sprayed out of the mouth of the Holytide cultivator as one of his dharma apertures exploded, and one of his heavenly pces copsed. As he tumbled backward, his face was a mask of terror.

    ¡°What technique is that?¡± he shrieked.

    It was none other than Within the Nine Springs. Although it seemed like a magical technique, the reality was that it relied on fleshly body secrets! In Foundation Establishment, it could destroy dharma apertures. In Gold Core it could destroy heavenly pces!

    When his heavenly pce copsed, the Holytide cultivator finally started to realize how terrifying Xu Qing was. As an intense sensation of deadly crisis swept through him, he decided to flee. His mission had been to prevent any swordsages from passing this point, or at the very least, to dy them. But no mission was more important than life itself.

    He was now fleeing, except... he made that decision toote. Even as he backed away, a group of countless beetles that had filled his body without him even being aware... exploded into action, devouring him from the inside out. His face fell, and he screamed. ck blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his face turned greenish-ck. Terror overwhelmed him.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing approached like a soldier from hell. He didn¡¯t hold back from inflicting mortal blows in the hopes of taking his opponent¡¯s gold core. That wasn¡¯t his style. Without a moment of hesitation, he thrust his dagger right toward the Holytide cultivator¡¯s chest.

    However, Holytide ck Guard cultivators were extraordinary. He managed to throw himself backward while simultaneously performing a double-handed incantation gesture and produced a magical treasure fragment, which created a defensive barrier around him like a turtle¡¯s shell. At the same time, the ck mark on his forehead erupted with ck threads that shot toward Xu Qing like needles.

    Xu Qing¡¯s opponent evaded too quickly. As a result, Xu Qing lost his momentum and couldn¡¯t attack with his dagger again. However, he reacted quickly to the counterattack, flipping forward and thenunching himself up with his hands to kick toward the ck Guard cultivator¡¯s chest.

    The turtle shell defense glittered brightly and held strong, bending under the force, and even cracking a bit, but not breaking. However, because of the force behind Xu Qing¡¯s kick, the ck Guard cultivator wasunched into the air, and the ck threadsing from his forehead were thrown into chaos.

    Xu Qing took advantage of the moment to leap up, closing the distance between them and once again stabbed with his dagger, this time toward the weakened part of the turtle shell defenses. Coupled with the shroud¡¯s ability to bypass defenses, the dagger pierced right through.

    The ck Guard cultivator screamed shrilly, wishing he could escape, but being incapable of doing so. Xu Qing¡¯s dagger stabbed upward. It hit the Holytide cultivator right into his abdomen, then up past his neck to his jaw, and finally, out through his forehead! Blood erupted as the seven-pce cultivator was shed in two!

    All of the attacks, and the ruthless speed Xu Qing was capable of, made it clear what his fighting style was like.

    Xu Qing looked at the corpse and his expression flickered. There was an aura inside the Holytide¡¯s corpse that seemed familiar. It was something that caused the violet moon in his fifth heavenly pce to shiver.

    The aura of that red moon?

    A curious expression appeared in his eyes momentarily, but he quickly dispelled it. Now wasn¡¯t the time to be thinking about such things. Taking the ck Guard cultivator¡¯s bag of holding and the turtle shell fragment, he checked the corpse¡¯s fading heavenly pces.

    Because I was using the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, I couldn¡¯t use the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. After a cultivator dies, their sea of consciousness copses, their heavenly pces crumble, their gold cores fade into nothing. None of them can be used.

    Xu Qing felt a bit disappointed. If there hadn¡¯t been anyone else present, and he wasn¡¯t on a mission, then he could have used his taboo poison as well as other methods to drag the fight out a bit longer and create an opportunity to rip out those gold cores.

    Except, he had three other swordsages to think about. If he had wasted time trying to get those gold cores, it was entirely possible other ck guard cultivators would have arrived to provide backup. Not only would the swordsages have been in danger, but Xu Qing himself might have been in trouble. All things considered, it made more sense to end the fight quickly. There would always be other chances to get more gold cores.

    The shadow on Xu Qing converged onto his forehead, bing an eye. Then he nced at the shaken swordsages, nodded, and disappeared into the darkness.

    The three swordsages looked at the dead Holytide cultivator, then the direction in which Xu Qing had disappeared. Finally, they exchanged nces. They were all top chosen from their respective prefectures. However, aftering to the county capital, they had discovered that there are always people more important than you, and there is always a heaven beyond heaven. There were definitely people stronger and better equipped than they were.

    Whether it was Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Duskspirit, or Wang Chen, and now this Xu Qing, these three were left sighing inwardly.

    ¡°Everybody¡¯s been talking about how this new group of swordsages is different from anything before. They say they¡¯re a bunch of freakish hellions, and that¡¯s no exaggeration!¡±

    That said, these realizations didn¡¯t make them lose confidence. Instead, their eyes gleamed with fierce light as they pressed on. That said, instead of following Xu Qing, they went in a different direction.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had raced to the middle of the fort. The fighting there was equally intense.

    The Holytide ck Guards had set up a sizable ambush, and right now Riverbed, who was of course Sir Mountain-River, had unleashed an astonishing wave of blood energy, along with a frigid aura. The results were deadly. The more he ughtered, the more the will of blood intensified, and the higher his battle prowess. This was a secret magic from the Blood Chill Society that involved cultivating killing energy. As long as that energy wasn¡¯t released, the more one killed, the stronger it got.

    Sir Mountain-Riverughed maniacally as he fought, making him very different from his usual gloomy self.

    Demongirl was Duskspirit, and she was also extraordinary. Being from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, she had transformed into a nine-meter-tall, green-skinned demon surrounded by a green-colored mist. Her body was actually partially transparent, allowing her to pass through just about any physical matter. Her fighting style was brutal, as she would take the hearts and heads of enemies. The special technique she employed allowed her to ignore physical attacks and attack with extreme brutality. She would asionally swallow enemies whole. Any opponent who fought her would end up covered with melon seeds made of flesh.

    Sunspirit was the code name for Wang Chen, and he was just as fierce. He never came out of his coffin, but instead controlled a Smokewight doppelg?nger. Smokewights were natural-born assassins, as they could merge with any type of energy, allowing them to appear and disappear unpredictably. asionally, Wang Chen¡¯s Smokewight doppelg?nger would disappear, materialize inside an enemy¡¯s body, then rip them apart from within. After shedding the resulting blood, the doppelg?nger would then proceed to its next victim. In addition to that, asional bolts of lightning would fall from above. Because Wang Chen was from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order, lightning made him about thirty percent stronger than normal.

    When Xu Qing saw the three of them fighting, he could immediately sense how strong they were.

    Around the same time, the three of them noticed Xu Qing arriving. When they saw the gruish eye on his forehead, and the fact that he emanated fleshly body fluctuations of the seven-pce level, they were all astonished.

    What shocked Xu Qing most of all was Kong Xianglong, fighting high up above.

    Despite being surrounded by four Holytide ck Guard cultivators with eight-pce battle prowess, plus imperial-ss techniques and magical treasure fragments, Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t seem to be in a bad position at all. In fact, when he saw hispanions unleashing all sorts of deadly moves, he felt like he was losing a bit of face. ring, he let loose a mighty cry. As a result, his ten heavenly pces erupted, and the cry of a golden dragon pierced the dome of heaven, causing the clouds to part. Kong Xianglong pped his forehead, and an illusory blood-colored garment flew out of the top of his head, then draped over his shoulders. With that blood robe on him, a blood mist erupted around him, turning the pitch-ck night into a blood-red night. Kong Xianglong¡¯s battle prowess instantly skyrocketed, and an intense baleful aura erupted from him.

    The four ck Guard cultivators coughed up blood, and the monstrous hands from their imperial-ss technique copsed. Their magical treasure fragments were knocked to the side, and one by one, they backed away.

    Unfortunately for them, they fled toote. Kong Xianglong blurred into motion, appearing in front of one of them. Expression ferocious, he mmed his palm into their head, and a boom rang out as the cultivator exploded from the top of their head to their waist.

    Kong Xianglong blurred into motion again, appearing in front of the second ck Guard cultivator. Before his shocked opponent could react, Kong Xianglong plunged both of his hands into the cultivator¡¯s chest. As the ck Guard cultivator screamed, Kong Xianglong literally ripped him in two. The other two ck Guard cultivators had no hope of getting away. One was gobbled up by the golden dragon, and the other was surrounded by the blood mist. As he screamed, he was melted into blood that became part of the blood mist.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing recalled the Captain mentioning how brutal Kong Xianglong was in dealing with nonhumans. As for his blood robe, Xu Qing could sense the fluctuations of the Garmentfolking from it.

    Wang Chen¡¯s Smokewight doppelg?nger looked over at Xu Qing, his eyes glittering with mysterious light. ¡°That¡¯s Dragonbro¡¯s taboo treasure fragment, which has a fivefold ensorcelling. Kid, that fleshly body trick of yours... is strong! If we have timeter on, can you give me some tips?¡±

    ¡°You should probably stay a bit further away from me,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°And if I don¡¯t?¡± Wang Chen said, raising his eyebrows.

    ¡°Then I won¡¯t be able to control my poison, and you might need to get a new doppelg?nger.¡±

    Wang Chen vanished, reappearing a short distance away. Looking at Xu Qing, he cleared his throat awkwardly.

    Around then, Kong Xianglong dropped down andnded on the ground with a thud. Looking around, he saw that the other swordsages from the Field Operations Office were all present. Though some were injured, none had died.

    He nodded at Xu Qing, then turned his attention to Wang Chen.

    ¡°Sunspirit!¡± he yelled. ¡°So, you think you¡¯re hot stuff because you can make a Smokewight doppelg?nger? You might not have learned anything else, but at least you learned how to be arrogant. Maybe you should try fighting me and see how tough you are, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°My apologies, Dragonbro,¡± Wang Chen said.

    ¡°Hurry up and fix the spell formation!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Wang Chen hurried over and started working on the spell formation.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing was suddenly struck by how much Kong Xianglong was acting like the pce lord had when he criticized the two of them.

    1. The patriarch made up the code phrase in chapter 347. ?

 Chapter 418: A Dream That Never Fades

    Chapter 418: A Dream That Never Fades

    The rain fell just as before, soaking the ground and falling onto the fort. The teleportation portal was in an open-air section of the fortress, so the rain was already washing away the blood that had been spilled.

    Surrounded by crackling electricity and rumbling booms, Wang Chen¡¯s Smokewight doppelg?nger quickly made repairs to the teleportation portal. At the same time, he made adjustments to change the destination they would teleport to. Considering that Holytide ck Guard cultivators had been stationed here in an ambush, it was entirely likely that the mission had beenpromised. The safest option seemed to be teleporting to a different location.

    As Wang Chen worked, Kong Xianglong looked in the direction of the border of Holytide territory, his expression unreadable.

    ¡°This ambush couldn¡¯t have been set for us specifically. There¡¯s no way they could have known our group would be the onesing here. And if they were here for us specifically, they wouldn¡¯t have sent so few people.¡±

    Keeping his voice low, Xu Qing said, ¡°It seems more likely they were here to lock down this teleportation portal in general. This must not be the only fort where something like this is going on.¡±

    ¡°What if the Holytides are already at our target destination, searching for the agent?¡± asked Sir Mountain-River.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± Duskspirit said, looking surprised. ¡°Could it be that we were assigned to extract the actual agent?¡± She looked around suspiciously. As they had already spected, whichever group was assigned to actually extract the agent would likely have an extremely powerful expert nted secretly among the operatives.

    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Kong Xianglong said, his eyes glittering. ¡°Most likely it proves that the Holytides don¡¯t know where the agent is going to be. They must be searching all along the prefectural border.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    They had all known from the beginning that their mission was likely just a distraction to draw attention away from the real extraction team. In all likelihood, there would be nine decoy mission groups and a single real one. That would make it much more difficult for the Holytides to determine where to strike. It was a given that there were Holytide agents in Sea-Sealing County, which meant that if only one mission group were sent, they would easily be able to report about it. That was why multiple teams had been sent.

    In fact, Xu Qing had the feeling that all of the teams which had been openly sent on the mission were probably decoys. It wouldn¡¯t surprise him at all if there was also a secret team no one knew about. It was also possible that the returning agent didn¡¯t even need a team to escort them.

    This entire thing was aplex game. That said, it also emphasized to him how much humankind was in decline. Even though Nascent Soul cultivators couldn¡¯t cross the border, the fact remained that lower-level Holytide cultivators could cross it. And that showed just how weak Sea-Sealing County was. Everyone else understood the same principle.

    Eventually, after a series of thunderous rumbling sounds, the teleportation portal was repaired.

    Regardless of whether their mission was a distraction or real, they still had work to do. They flew onto the teleportation portal, light red, and as the rain continued to fall, they disappeared. When they reappeared, they were near the border of Tidefall Prefecture, in a location hidden in a ravine.

    ¡°Stay on guard, everyone,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°It¡¯s not likely there will berge numbers of Holytide infiltrators here. Let¡¯s go check the rendezvous spot. Hopefully, the agent we¡¯re extracting is still alive, whether it¡¯s a decoy or not.¡±

    With that, Kong Xianglong pulled out a geomanticpass. The swordsages had a number of secret ways to establishmunication with each other, and on missions like this, only the mission leader would know which one to use. For example, this geomanticpass was a special magical device prepared just for this mission, and would lead them directly to the location of the agent. The mission protocol was to use the geomanticpass to find the agent, then leave as quickly as possible. [1]

    Xu Qing was familiar with the generalities, as they had been exined during his training.

    Kong Xianglong performed an incantation gesture and pointed at thepass, the needle of which spun briefly, then settled on a fixed direction. A simple map appeared in the air above. There was a faint, flickering red dot on the map not too far away from their current position.

    When they saw the red dot, all of them breathed sighs of relief. That indicated that the agent they were meeting was alive.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s face lit up, and he immediately assigned everyone what to do next.

    Extraction missions couldn¡¯t be handled impulsively. If they weren¡¯t careful, it was possible they could reveal the agent¡¯s position to the enemy. The n was to lure any nearby Holytide cultivators into the open, make sure the area was clear, and then swoop in to extract the agent.

    Xu Qing was responsible for making sure the area was clear, and he would be working with Duskspirit. Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen would be drawing the Holytide cultivators into the open. Kong Xianglong would actually extract the agent.

    When Kong Xianglong exined everything, Xu Qing nodded. Kong Xianglong was doing everything by the book, which was to be expected. After the exnations, they split into three groups.

    Xu Qing quickly stole out into the night to start searching for any enemies. Duskspirit did the same, as did the Field Operations Office swordsages who were working with them.

    Time passed. About an hourter, rumbling sounds filled the air, along with the fluctuations of magical techniques.

    Looking over, Xu Qing saw that it came from the direction of Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen, who were trying to draw the attention of any Holytide cultivators that were nearby.

    However, Xu Qing quickly frowned. For one thing, Xu Qing himself had not encountered any signs of Holytide cultivators this entire time. It seemed almost like there weren¡¯t any in the area. It didn¡¯t make sense, considering their previous assumption that the Holytides were scouring the border looking for the agent.

    Something¡¯s not right! Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up even further than before.

    Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen hade to a simr conclusion. Their work to draw out Holytide cultivators hadn¡¯t resulted in anything. It was a very bizarre situation, and they both had a bad feeling about it.

    A short whileter, a bright light shot up into the sky. It was a magical technique used to create a signal. Specifically, the signal called for the mission team to regroup urgently.

    When Xu Qing saw that signal, his heart sank as he realized that something must have gone wrong. The reason was that the signal wasing from the direction where Kong Xianglong had gone to extract the agent. If things had proceeded ording to n, Kong Xianglong would never have needed to send up that signal. He would have taken the agent away and notified the rest of the team when he was safe.

    Xu Qing shifted directions and headed toward the spot where the signal hade from. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he could see Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, and the others off in the distance.

    They were in the middle of a sprawling in. Shockingly, only a few hundred meters in front of them, a persony on the ground, gasping for breath.

    It was a young man of about fifteen or sixteen years of age. He was covered in countless wounds that cut down to the bone and left him covered in blood. In fact, if you looked closely, you would realize that other than his face, which seemed normal, he didn¡¯t have any skin on the rest of his body! It had been sliced off!

    It was only possible to imagine the pain and suffering he was experiencing. Most of his bones were broken, and all of his dharma apertures had been destroyed. Before they were destroyed, there had been a hundred and twenty of them, indicating that this young man was a chosen cultivator of some sort. One of his eyes was missing, having been dug out of his skull, and both of his ears were gone. He had also been poisoned, causing much of him to start rotting. There was no way he would survive, and he clearly had only moments to live. He looked extremely ghastly.

    Xu Qing looked on with a grave expression and coldly glittering eyes. As he approached, he noticed that the area for 300 meters surrounding the young man was actually a spell formation. Xu Qing was no expert when it came to spell formations, but he could sense a towering killing intent within this one. Clearly, this extraordinary spell formation was extremely deadly. As for the young man, he had been ced right in the middle of that formation.

    ¡°He¡¯s not the agent,¡± Kong Xianglong growled through gritted teeth. His eyes were bloodshot. ¡°But he must be connected to the agent. He was like this when I got here. And the Holytides left this jade slip behind!¡±

    He activated the jade slip, and a cold, brutal voice spoke.

    ¡°Hello, swordsages. Sadly, I can¡¯t be there to talk to you in person. The ck Guard just wanted to leave you a little gift. Hope you like it. Enjoy!¡±

    The message ended with coldughter.

    Duskspirit and the rest of the swordsages had just hurried over. They, along with Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen, all heard the message. Afterward, their eyes burned with rage.

    The situation was clear. They didn¡¯t need to spend a lot of time analyzing it. Everyone knew what was going on. The Holytides created a diversion at the fort to dy the team. With the time bought, they managed to find this young man. The young man wasn¡¯t the actual agent, therefore, they had brutally tortured him until he was on death¡¯s door, then left him in this deadly spell formation.

    The Holytide ck Guard wanted the swordsages to personally witness his death.

    If anyone entered the formation, the young man would die. So would every person who stepped into the formation. In fact, it was possible it would do more than that. Perhaps the spell formation would detonate and kill people outside of it. Regardless of whether or not the spell formation exploded, the young man would die. He was already about to breathe hisst.

    This was the vicious manner in which the Holytides operated.

    Everyone stood there silently.

    Wang Chen, who knew the most about spell formations, knelt and examined the formation. A momentter, he looked up at Kong Xianglong with a bitter expression.

    ¡°This is the ck Guard¡¯s signature Spirit-Heart Fatality Formation. Supposedly they learned it from the Nightshades. It uses a person as the heart of the formation. That young man is fused with the formation now, so any attempt to get to him will activate it. Not even sending a grue in will do anything. The lieutenant governor is still researching the details of this formation, so at the moment there¡¯s literally nothing we can do. It¡¯s a single-use formation, so once it¡¯s activated, that¡¯s it. As for the young man... he¡¯s at the end of the line.¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot and he was breathing heavily.

    Keeping his eyes on the unconscious young man, Xu Qing walked to the edge of the formation. He wasn¡¯t sure if his shadow could do anything, so he said, ¡°I can try something. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯ll work....¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s hands were balled into fists as he opened his mouth to speak. However, before he could, the young man in the formation slowly opened his eyes. Pain flickered in his eyes as he looked nkly in the direction of Xu Qing and the others.

    ¡°Are you... swordsages?¡± His voice was weak, but even still, it was possible to detect the distrust in his words.

    Xu Qing drew hismand sword. Kong Xianglong and everyone else did the same. The glittering light of their swords pierced through the darkness to illuminate the young man¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Thanks to the seal my father ced on my soul, I can sense that you¡¯re swordsages.... I¡¯m sorry that you had to see me like this.¡± The young man clearly thought highly of swordsages, and wanted to maintain his dignity. Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t able to. ¡°My father is human. My mother is a Holytide.... So no, I¡¯m not a swordsage. But I mastered one of your secret magics. My father taught me. I didn¡¯t tell anything to the ck Guard. No matter what they did to me, I didn¡¯t say a thing!¡±

    The young man tried to muster his strength. He forced a smile onto his face, but the pain he was in robbed that smile of any beauty.

    ¡°Father wanted me to bring something here to give to you swordsages. He told me I mustn¡¯t break it. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t be able to take it with you after I died. Looks like I aplished my mission.¡±

    The young man was still smiling. Apparently aplishing that final mission was thest bit of dignity he had. Eventually, his smile became one of true contentment. But his torment ensured that the smile was already fading. He was growing weaker. Because of the agony he was in, his voice trembled when he talked.

    ¡°My father was a swordsage, and he always talked about their glory. I wanted to be a swordsage too. I¡¯m not human, but he said if I could aplish this mission that I might be able to stay in Sea-Sealing County, and maybe I could be a swordsage after all! I aplished my mission, but it doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯ll be a swordsage....¡±

    His words struck Xu Qing¡¯s heart. Kong Xianglong and the others were simrly moved.

    ¡°I wish... that I could be a swordsage like my father....¡±

    The young man was so weak that he couldn¡¯t keep his eyes open. As they slowly fluttered shut, he performed an incantation gesture, causing his personal dimensional space to open. A bag appeared next to him. Everyone present was shaken to the core. River-drying, sea-draining waves of emotion filled them.

    ¡°You are a swordsage!¡± Kong Xianglong said loudly. Then he lifted hismand sword. ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, loyal to my post, not afraid to sacrifice my life.¡±

    As he recited the oath of the swordsages, the others present joined him, including Xu Qing. The young man shivered, and his closed eyes opened. As he looked at them, he recited the same words.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, never to betray humankind, always ready to fight.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, to fight for humanity, to defend my people.

    ¡°I am willing to be a swordsage, to sever the doom of dawn, to cause the light of heaven and earth to blossom.¡±

    The young man¡¯s voice became one with the others. Then his eyes closed, and his smile became fixed for all eternity. When he died, the formation activated. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering boom rang out as the formation exploded. As the shock wave rolled out, whipping the clothing and hair of everyone present... the young man¡¯s corpse was ripped to shreds and scattered in the wind.

    The only thing left behind was a box, sitting on the spot where he had died. It was a wish box, which was the delivery container for the intelligence report. It was open.

    1. I believe this is the first time geomanticpasses have been mentioned in this novel. Also called a Feng Shuipass (or luopan if transliterated), they have a bunch of concentric rings plus a needle that, in real life, points to the maic south pole. Here is a small gallery showing a few different versions of what they can look like. ?

 Chapter 419: Black Guard Nightmare

    Chapter 419: ck Guard Nightmare

    What are the swordsages? Xu Qing thought.

    In the past, he didn¡¯t really understand. In fact, the reason he originally wanted to join the swordsages had nothing to do with some grand aspiration to defending humankind. There was no way someone with a childhood as bitter as his could naturally develop patriotic feelings for humanity.

    Xu Qing¡¯s main goals in life were: to try to stay alive; to improve his life a bit if possible; to live long enough to kill the crow and the eagle.

    And there were three reasons why he had be a swordsage: because the Captain wanted to be a swordsage; because bing a swordsage would provide him with a measure of safety; because his authority as a swordsage would aid in his search for the crow. Most important was how his status as a swordsage became a weapon in his toolbox against the crow.

    All of those reasons were ultimately selfish in nature. That said, it wasn¡¯t as if Xu Qing was the only person with such motives. In reality, new swordsages from prefectures far and wide generally started out thinking that way. Other than people who were raised in the Swordsage Pce hearing stories about the swordsages and their mission, there were very few cultivators in the outside prefectures who cared at all about the goal of defending humankind.

    For Xu Qing, the ceremony in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, including the assessment of the heart by the Grand Emperor, had changed things. That change had been almost imperceptible. But it made it so that Xu Qing understood the swordsage way of thinking.

    Then he arrived at the county capital and encountered people who were different from those he had known before. For instance, Kong Xianglong. He had met chosen cultivators who were a bit hostile but not malicious. And the pce lord, who was strict, but only because he wanted to safeguard the ideals of the swordsages.

    Then Xu Qing had participated in the swearing of the oath, and had also learned of the history of humankind. It would be impossible for all of those things to have no effect on him. The influence, small at first, slowly sank into his mind and heart.

    And now he had witnessed something else that left him deeply shaken.

    A young human with 120 dharma apertures who had long dreamed of bing a swordsage ended up tortured to death by the Holytides. Yet he hadn¡¯t revealed even a bit of information to them. When he recited the swordsage oath with them, he smiled and closed his eyes. Then he disappeared in the exploding spell formation.

    Xu Qing had never met that young man before. What was more, he had seen a lot of death in his life. Perhaps too much. So what shook him to the core wasn¡¯t the young man¡¯s death. Rather, it was his dream and his decision. He obviously had a bright future ahead of him, yet he decided to walk a path that ended in death.

    It was somewhat confusing to Xu Qing, but deep down, he understood. Because Xu Qing kept his heart closed tight, it wasn¡¯t easy for him to ept strangers or new organizations. It was even harder for him to truly approve of them, or make them a part of himself. That was the case even now.

    Despite that, he wasing to realize that, without him even noticing, his feelings for the swordsages seemed different from before. He felt more respect. Though he did not yet have a sense of belonging, he respected Kong Xianglong¡¯s sincerity, the pce lord¡¯s strictness, and the oath of the swordsage. What was more, he respected this young man who had just met his death.

    Therefore, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply to the spot where he had died.

    The wind blew, scattering the dust and rubble, and dispersing the young man¡¯s ashes. It also carried the aura from inside the wish box all the way to the gathered swordsages. It was a very unique aura, mixed with the aroma of osmanthus flowers.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s expression was one of grief and indignation as he strode forward, gathered what remained of the young man¡¯s ashes, and put them into a bottle. Then he picked up the opened wish box.

    ¡°This mission is over,¡± he said softly, his back to them as he held the wish box.

    Xu Qing said nothing. Neither did any of the other swordsages.

    The extraction mission was a failure. However, they did acquire the delivery container for the intelligence report. Whether that aspect of the mission would be considered a sess or a failure wasn¡¯t certain.

    ¡°Kid, head back to the county capital and deliver this to the Field Operations Office.¡± Kong Xianglong waved his hand, sending the wish box flying over to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it, and the fragrance of osmanthus grew stronger.

    Without turning around, Kong Xianglong calmly said, ¡°The rest of you go back with Kid. I¡¯m in a bad mood now. I¡¯m going to travel a bit to clear my head.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing, Dragonbro,¡± Sir Mountain-River said, sping hands. Veins bulged on his face as he continued, ¡°You head off on your own. Kid, take the others back. I have a personal matter to attend to, so I can¡¯te along.¡±

    ¡°What a coincidence,¡± Wang Chen said grimly. ¡°Me too. I need to pay a visit to my hometown, so I can¡¯t go back either.¡± As the words left his mouth, he looked off to the distant horizon.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go with Dragonbro,¡± Duskspirit said firmly.

    Xu Qing looked at them for a moment. Then he handed the wish box to one of the swordsages from the Field Operations Office. The swordsage took it, and it looked like he wanted to say something, but instead held back.

    ¡°I also have a personal matter to deal with,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°You head back without me.¡±

    His words caused Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit to look at him with expressions of masked surprise.

    Kong Xianglong finally turned around. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to do this, Kid.¡±

    ¡°I need to pay someone back for a gift they gave,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    Kong Xianglong simply stood there for a long moment. Then he nodded, turned, and flew off into the distance. Sir Mountain-River, Duskspirit, and Wang Chen followed. They were heading toward the border of Sea-Sealing County. Holytide territory.

    Xu Qing took a step forward, then shot after them like an arrow loosed from a bow. He knew exactly what they were going to do. It wasn¡¯t an unusual thing for Kong Xianglong to ignore mission protocol. Considering he had personally seen how the ck Guard had brutally tortured that young man, given his personality, there was no way he could simply stand by and do nothing in response. Besides, even Xu Qing could still hear the message left by that ck Guard cultivator ringing in his mind.

    Since the ck Guard had made a point about giving a gift to the swordsages, it was only natural that they return the favor.

    As the five of them flew away, the remaining swordsages from the Field Operations Office watched them go. They seemed slightly envious, but in the end, they sped hands in salute and then turned to start the return journey to the county capital. Not all swordsages were so willing to disrespect mission protocol.

    What was more, they had a more important task at hand. They needed to get the intelligence report safely back to the county capital. That was the true heart of the mission.

    They disappeared into the darkness.

    ***

    It was a cold night, and the wind was like an ambassador of death itself, wielding a sickle to harvest the lives of mortal beings. Xu Qing and the others sped through that wind, their garments fluttering, their hair streaming behind them. And yet, when the coldness touched their skin and sank into their hearts, it couldn¡¯t possiblypare to the deste iciness that already existed within them.

    Killing intent was already bubbling inside them. The faster they flew, the more intense it became. Given theck of moonlight and the strong wind, it was a good night for killing.

    They were already moving as fast as they could. They were holding nothing back. Ever since Xu Qing made hisment about paying back a gift, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all looked at him differently. Their approval deepened.

    Sir Mountain-River exuded a blood mist that surrounded him and made him seem like a blood shade from the Yellow Springs. Duskspirit had once again demonized herself. Instead of the green-skinned evil ghost, she was now a death bird made of pure bone, covered with mes. Wang Chen had put away his Smokewight doppelg?nger. Now, his doppelg?nger was a dwarf wearing luxurious robes. He shed a smile at Xu Qing and then licked his lips. The intense coldness surrounding him caused the ground below to ice up. Kong Xianglong had a golden dragon circting around him, causing him to pulse with terrifying fluctuations as he sped along.

    Given the circumstances, Xu Qing felt no need to let them outdo him. His shadow covered him, causing him to pulse with seven-pce fleshly body power. He shot through the night with lightning-like speed, like a disturbing spirit.

    The five of them were like vicious rakshasas out to take lives, and with every moment that passed, they got closer and closer to the Holytide ck Guard cultivators, who were still not yet out of Tidefall Prefecture.

    As they flew, theymunicated with each other, devising a simple battle n. Although they didn¡¯t know how many enemies they would be facing, based on experience and intuition, they coulde up with a general strategy.

    Eventually, just before the break of dawn when the night was deepest, and when they were only about an incense stick¡¯s worth of time from the border, they saw a group of few dozen figures speeding along ahead of them. All of them wore ck robes, and there were over sixty in total! They weren¡¯t moving very fast. Clearly, they were in a great mood after their mission, and were even chatting andughing amongst themselves.

    That said, they hadn¡¯t let their guard down, so as soon as Xu Qing and the others closed in, the ck Guard cultivators noticed them. Turning, their expressions flickered. Noticing their pursuers did them no good.

    Kong Xianglong was in the lead, and he howled a battle cry as he smashed into the enemy forces.

    Xu Qing came second, like a ck lightning bolt that mmed into a five-pce ck Guard cultivator. The ck Guard cultivator screamed briefly, until his entire body copsed into a haze of blood, and his cry was cut short.

    Blood was already spraying by the time Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit arrived.

    ughter erupted.

    The ck Guard cultivators howled furiously as they fought back. Considering that they had infiltrated Sea-Sealing County, it went without saying that they had immense battle prowess and extensive experience. Forty of them had five-pce battle prowess, and there were twelve at the seven-pce level. The seven-pce members all had special ck Guard imperial-ss techniques. There were two with eight-pce strength. Those two had not illuminated heavenly pces with five life mes. They had used four mes to illuminate seven pces. But thanks to their imperial-ss techniques, they had extraordinary eight-pce battle prowess. In addition to them, there were three officers leading the group. All were halfway into the Nascent Soul level.

    A group this powerful could be the core of a sect. But to the Holytide people, who controlled the entire Holytide region, it was only a small squad. And when you added this group together with the group that had ambushed Xu Qing and the others earlier, it made it clear that ¡®small squads¡¯ from the Holytides would still be ratherrge, and would contain extremely powerful experts.

    After all... the Holytides were the sovereigns of the Holytide region. And any species that controlled an entire region would have to have many powerful experts in reserve. Comparatively speaking, the reserve powers of a single county couldn¡¯t possiblypare.

    That said, the swordsage squad they were facing was very different from anything they had encountered before!

    When the two sides shed, fierce fighting instantly broke out. The three half-Nascent Soul experts all shot toward Kong Xianglong. The two eight-pce cultivators tried to join them, except a coffin dropped down out of nowhere and blocked their path. The dwarf-form Wang Chen grinned viciously, and at the same time, his Smokewight doppelg?nger appeared next to him. Duskspirit was off to the side, and Sir Mountain-River was there as well. The three of them faced off against the two eight-pce cultivators, buying time for both Kong Xianglong and Xu Qing.

    The former was fighting the strongest opponents, the three half Nascent Soul experts. Thetter was taking care of everyone else. That was the n they had settled on along the way. It had been decided when Xu Qing said one simple thing.

    ¡°I¡¯m good at fightingrge groups.¡±

    Right now, Xu Qing hefted his dagger and tapped into his taboo poison core in his third heavenly pce. As the poison spread out, countless beetles swarmed out from him as well, bing a ck cloud pulsing with terrifying energy and fatal poison. As screams rang out from the ck Guard cultivators, Xu Qing remained expressionless, and he charged into the thick of the fighting.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the ck iron skewer shooting out in the form of a red lightning bolt. And Xu Qing¡¯s shadow stretched out from the eye on his forehead, piercing into the shadows of the ck Guard cultivators and devouring them.

    As of this moment...

    A nightmare had arrived.

 Chapter 420: An Acrid Odor Overwhelms; A Sea of Poison Spreads

    Chapter 420: An Acrid Odor Overwhelms; A Sea of Poison Spreads

    Xu Qing was right. He was good at fighting groups. Once he unleashed the poison from his third heavenly pce, shocking death would result. In fact, from the moment Xu Qing had acquired that taboo poison core until now, he had never tapped into its full potential. Even now, he was keeping control of it carefully.

    After all, that poison did not distinguish between enemies and allies. It wouldn¡¯t hurt Xu Qing, but it could be deadly even to Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and his shadow.

    Despite keeping it under a level of control, it was still absolutely astonishing to the Holytide ck Guard cultivators. In the shortest of moments, three of the five-pce cultivators screamed in terror as their bodies disintegrated. The skin of their face melted, their bodies turned into blood, and their eyeballs fell out of their eye sockets. Despite all of that, they didn¡¯t feel any pain. That was the terrifying thing about the poison of Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison core. It caused the body to rot away without the victim being able to sense anything. By the time any pain hit them, the poison was deep in the marrow.

    As those screams of terror echoed out, Xu Qing was like a wind of death. He appeared in front of a six-pce cultivator, and his dagger shed a throat. A swishing sound could be heard, and then blood sprayed. As the head tumbled down, Xu Qing kicked it, turning it into a string of afterimages that sped toward another Holytide ck Guard cultivator. There it exploded, sending out poisoned blood in all directions.

    The cultivator backed up, shocked, but he wasn¡¯t fast enough to escape death.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing took a step forward, exploding with the full fleshly body power of seven pces. Violent winds erupted all around him such that, from a distance, it resembled a hurricane.

    Xu Qing himself was like a weapon that mmed into the ck Guard cultivator. Blood exploded in all directions.

    At the same time, poison continued to infect surrounding cultivators. Another three ck Guard cultivators screamed as their bodies started rotting. In the shortest of moments, their bodies became bloody liquid that sshed onto the ground below.

    The other surrounding enemies were shaking with unmitigated terror.

    ¡°This poison is too strong!¡±

    ¡°Everybody run!¡±

    It wasn¡¯t just the ck Guard cultivators who were scattering. Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit were visibly taken aback. They and the people they were fighting all subconsciously put more distance between themselves and Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. The more he spent time with this poison, the more he felt like he could control it. Next, he appeared like a phantom right in front of the ninth Holytide cultivator he had faced so far, one with seven heavenly pces. Without hesitation, he threw his dagger out with full force. However, this particr ck Guard cultivator was extraordinary, erupting with fleshly body power, he grabbed the dagger to stop its momentum.

    However, the moment he touched it, needles shot out from the shroud that made the hilt. The ck Guard cultivator¡¯s face fell as intense pain swept up his arm and all the way to his heart, mind, and soul. Unable to release the dagger, he could only watch as it stabbed into his throat and then jerked to the side.

    That ability was a secret power of the dagger that Xu Qing had never needed to use before. The downside to it was that whenever he used the dagger, he had to endure the stabbing pain that resulted from holding it. Thankfully he had long since grown used to that sensation, and hardly noticed it.

    Pulling the dagger out of the cultivator¡¯s throat, Xu Qing was about to continue fighting when his expression flickered and he stepped to the side just in time to avoid a flying sword. Turning, he saw a seven-pce enemy unleashing an imperial-ss technique. A huge ck hand stretched out from behind him, heading with deadly momentum toward Xu Qing.

    This time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to do anything. Two six-pce cultivators grinned gruishly, then lunged toward their seven-pcerade. As they did, each shouted the same thing.

    ¡°My lord and master says hello!¡±

    Then they self-detonated. The gruish scene caused all of the other Holytide ck Guard cultivators¡¯ faces to fall.

    The massive explosion caused by the two self-detonating six-pce cultivators smashed into the seven-pce cultivator, causing blood to spray out of his mouth. Then he looked visibly shocked as he reached out to grab a ck iron skewer that had shot toward him out of nowhere. However, though he grabbed it, he simply couldn¡¯t control the skewer with its endless red lightning. It stabbed right into his head, sending a tremor through his entire body.

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s dagger flew through the air and stabbed into his heart. Pulling out of him, it then stabbed back into him, seven times in a row, each blow extremely brutal.

    As the screams echoed out, Xu Qing came to the conclusion he¡¯d done enough with his poison. The surrounding ck Guard cultivators were all melting, terror on their faces as they realized their cultivation bases were powerless to help them.

    That should do it. The shadow eye on his forehead transformed back into a coffin. It opened, and Xu Qing stepped out. At the same time, he made sure to loudly use the code phrase so as not to reveal his Shadow Fusion Secret Magic.

    Next, Xu Qing used his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. Bursting into motion, he turned his right hand semitransparent and stabbed it into the chest of a six-pce enemy.

    The cultivator struggled, but it didn¡¯t do any good. Xu Qing ripped his gold cores out of him. As he absorbed them, blood droplets rained down everywhere. As miserable screams rang out, the golden crow appeared behind him. It now had forty-two ming tails that brought brilliance to the predawn darkness. The golden crow¡¯s eyes shone brightly as Xu Qing, still absorbing the gold cores, sent it to the ck hand formed by the ck Guard¡¯s imperial-ss technique. Not to be outdone, his shadow stretched out.

    The cultivator was being absorbed in three ways.

    A momentter, his imperial-ss technique copsed, his body withered up, and his heavenly pces werepletely destroyed. Anyone watching this would be astonished to the core; Xu Qing¡¯s method of fighting was iparably ferocious.

    That said, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit weren¡¯t far behind him. Duskspirit had transformed into a gigantic cyclops with green fur. This was a greater demon unique to the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, and its single eye burned with dark soul fire. Her torso was very demonic, as she had four fleshy growths that looked like giant fingers. At the end of each finger was a vicious face that would devour enemies. And if any of the fingers were destroyed, they would grow back momentster.

    Sir Mountain-River was surrounded by a mist of blood. He was wounded all over, except it was because he specialized in taking injuries for hispanions. His technique was bloodline-rted, and it ensured that the more wounds he received, the stronger he got. Right now, he seemed to ignore any injuries. As he devolved into madness, his eyes filled with killing intent and nothing else.

    Wang Chen¡¯s dwarf was also going all out. It was covered with lightning, and even had a lifemp of lightning over its head, giving it incredible speed. Then he suddenly changed shape. Instead of being a dwarf, he looked like a tall young man. However, his entire body was covered with ck totem tattoos that resembled sealing marks. One by one, they began releasing terrifying auras and fluctuations.

    With every tattoo sealing mark he opened, a nonhuman doppelg?nger would appear. Lightborn. Rockdevils. Garmentfolk. The Smokewight was also there. With all of those doppelg?ngers, he was fighting to the death with the two eight-pce ck Guard cultivators. They all had magical treasure fragments as well, so though they weren¡¯t truly a match for the eight-pce cultivators, they could at least buy time at the expense of being wounded.

    Kong Xianglong was making an even bigger scene. The gold dragon behind him roared, making him look like a god from heaven descended into the mortal world. He was also surrounded by the garment of blood. As he fought the three half-Nascent Soul cultivators, heaven shook, and the earth quaked violently. He was a mere Gold Core cultivator, yet was surrounded by half-Nascent Soul enemies. Even still, he didn¡¯t seem to be at a disadvantage, and instead, was iparably mighty.

    ¡°This is the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Hell Squad for this generation!¡± one of the ck Guard cultivators shouted. Terrified, the enemies scattered.

    Before they could get very far, they started toppling over, blood spraying out of their mouths as their bodies rotted into bloody sludge.

    Xu Qing continued attacking. The golden crow let loose a joyful cry as it continued devouring the enemy. And Xu Qing¡¯s Gruegloom hand extracted one gold core after another. Unfortunately, his attack rate couldn¡¯t match the speed of his poison. By the time he personally killed his neenth ck Guard cultivator, there were only seven left.

    Three were fighting Kong Xianglong. Two were fighting Sir Mountain-River and the others.

    The remaining two... were almostpletely rotted away. Together, they staggered over to Xu Qing, flopped to their knees, and looked up at him, their eyes filled with despair and terror. Then, they spoke the same thing in fanatical voices.

    ¡°Milord, please take these as gifts for you exalted swordsages!¡±

    With that, they stabbed their hands into their own heavenly pces, ripped out their gold cores, and held them high overhead. Xu Qing used his Gruegloom hand to absorb them. Then he reached out, put his hands onto the heads of the terrified ck Guard cultivators, and twisted forcefully. Cracks rang out as their heads turned to face the opposite directions. Then their bodies sagged down, dead. Until the moment they died, their mouths were twisted in gruish smiles.

    Everyone present was a killer who couldn¡¯t possibly be afraid of the act of killing itself. But whether it was the way the enemy despaired as they rotted away, or their terror as they apparently killed themselves, this was far more terrifying and gruish than anything they had ever seen.

    Every single person present, whether a friend or a foe, was shaken by the sight of Xu Qing. He currently stood in the middle of a gory sludge. There were no corpses around him, as they had all melted into liquid. The golden crow glittered behind him, crying out loudly, its phoenix-like feathers trailing mes as it soared. The wind stirred Xu Qing¡¯s long hair, revealing eyes that were unsurpassably calm.

    As he stood in the gore, Xu Qing looked up at Sir Mountain-River and the others, who were still stalling the two eight-pce cultivators. Then he moved in their direction, elerating rapidly. At the same time, his third heavenly pce erupted with a gravitational force that caused all of the taboo poison in the area to rapidly reconverge directly around him. Everything around him turned ck, like a dense mist filled with innumerable beetles.

    Sir Mountain-River and the others were visibly shaken, and the two eight-pce cultivators were appalled. Surrounded by the ck mist, Xu Qing approached.

    His arrival split the battlefield, and before anyone could do anything, he descended on one of the eight-pce ck Guard cultivators. The mist surrounded them, so dense that no one could see inside. But they could hear shouting, and they could sense astonishing shockwaves.

    All of a sudden, Sir Mountain-River and the others weren¡¯t facing two eight-pce cultivators, but instead, one. The tide of battle had turned.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the vicious Kong Xianglong finally managed to rip one of the half-Nascent Soul enemies to shreds. Sir Mountain-River and the others had also felled their opponent. Thetter could be described as freakish hellions. Though they weren¡¯t on the same level as Kong Xianglong, they still had peak seven-pce battle prowess. Bybining their efforts and pulling out their trump cards, they ughtered an eight-pce Holytide ck Guard cultivator, and survived with only injuries.

    Around that time, an anguished scream rang out from Xu Qing¡¯s ck mist. Then footsteps could be heard before Xu Qing strode out into the open.

    His eyes shone with a strange, thoughtful light. Wounds criss-crossed his entire body. His chest was a mangled mass of flesh and blood. He had a huge chunk cut out of his waist. His legs trembled. His neck bled profusely from a wound that looked like a bite mark. His mouth was covered with blood, and the hand that held his dagger hung limply at an unnatural angle.

    As he walked, he spat some blood onto the ground and tossed down an eyeball that he had been holding. The poison mist behind him then flowed toward him and merged into his body.

    As it disappeared, it revealed the battleground behind him, and a figure standing there. It was the ck Guard cultivator he had been fighting. His body was mostly dissolved. His belly had been ripped open and his gold cores extracted. His heavenly pces were destroyed. He only had one eyeball left, and it revealed the incredulity he had experienced before death.

    Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit looked at him, their eyes shining.

    Xu Qing looked up at them, spat out another mouthful of blood, and then quietly said, ¡°Sorry to keep you waiting. Killing that one was hard.¡±

    Behind him, the ck Guard cultivator fell onto his face.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s current battle prowess, killing an eight-pce cultivator like that was indeed difficult. During that life-or-death battle, he had used every tool he had at his disposal. Even still, his opponent had viciously bit a chunk out of his neck.

    That said, he had benefited a lot. What was more, he had indeed sensed the aura of the red moon on his opponent, which was why he had a thoughtful look on his face when the fighting was over. Now wasn¡¯t the time to contemte that, though, as an anguished cry rang out from the dome of heaven.

    The second half-Nascent Soul cultivator¡¯s neck had just been snapped by Kong Xianglong.

    The lone remaining half-Nascent Soul cultivator looked absolutely terrified. It wasn¡¯t just Kong Xianglong he feared. All of these swordsages were ferocious. Therefore, it was without any hesitation that he turned and fled.

    Grinning viciously, Kong Xianglong gave chase. Meanwhile, Xu Qing calmly mmed his fist onto his broken leg. A crack rang out as the bone set. Then he joined the chase.

    Because of that, the approval in the eyes of Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit grew even deeper. All of them had even more serious injuries, yet they ignored them as they joined the chase as well, their killing intent burning.

    If they were going to return the favor of a gift to the ck Guard, then they were going to kill everyone. They weren¡¯t far from the border, and the half-Nascent Soul expert had actuallyid eyes on it when the swordsages caught up.

    All five of them attacked at the same time. With Kong Xianglong there to keep things in control, there was no question how it would y out. A massive boom rang out as the half-Nascent Soul cultivator exploded into bloody chunks that rained down onto the border itself. The moment he died, an explosive aura erupted on the other side of the border, and a figure blurred in their direction.

    ¡°Swordsages!¡± a voice howled angrily.

    In response, Kong Xianglong shouted back, ¡°Hey you, bozo! We¡¯re standing in Sea-Sealing County. Any nonhuman Nascent Soul cultivator who crosses this border will be instantly killed by Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure! Feel free toe on over, bitch!¡±

    Then Kong Xianglong turned and sped in the opposite direction. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit were already fleeing. Xu Qing fled even faster.

    A momentter, a middle-aged Holytide cultivator wearing the ck uniform of the ck Guard appeared on the border. His face was extremely unsightly as he gritted his teeth and looked at the fleeing Kong Xianglong and the others. Killing intent boiled in his eyes, and yet, he didn¡¯t dare to step across that border!

 Chapter 421: Drinking Unfiltered Rice Wine, Forging Bonds

    Chapter 421: Drinking Unfiltered Rice Wine, Forging Bonds

    The moment Xu Qing sensed that aura closing in on the border, he turned and fled at top speed. It was an instinct he had picked up after so many big jobs with the Captain. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit were no less slow. Clearly they had some instincts as well. Only Kong Xianglonggged behind briefly to say those parting words.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing came to the realization that Kong Xianglong and the Captain were simr in some ways. The difference was that the Captain tended to be slow because of greed, while Kong Xianglong was slow because of posturing. Xu Qing sighed inwardly, thinking that it would have been great to have the Captain along on this mission. Unfortunately, that just wasn¡¯t possible, as this little group clearly didn¡¯t trust the Captain.

    And thus, they sped through the night until dawn. By that point, they were far, far away from the border, and could be certain that no enemy was risking death to follow them. Exhausted, they found a grassy hill where they all dropped down to catch their breath.

    It had been a very busy night. And the final battle with the ck Guard had very nearly drained them to the core. Once they allid down in the grass, they felt limp andpletely unwilling to stand back up.

    That included Xu Qing. Though his injuries had already healed up, he was absolutely spent mentally.

    Sir Mountain-River cursed a bit as his blood energy faded away, leaving him feelingpletely empty. Duskspirit was no longer in her demonized form, andy there looking like she was too tired to even breathe. Wang Chen moaned a bit as he painted sealing marks all over himself. It looked like if he went any slower with the sealing marks, he would be in big trouble.

    Kong Xianglong was also having trouble catching his breath. That said, he looked to be in slightly better shape than the others. Looking over at them, he suddenly startedughing.

    Sir Mountain-River, Duskspirit, and Wang Chen exchanged nces, and then they startedughing as well. They suddenly feltpletely carefree. But then theirughing started opening wounds, and they cursed a bit, then keptughing even more. Xu Qingughed with them.

    ¡°That was awesome!¡± Kong Xianglong eximed. Waving his hand, he produced five bottles of alcohol. After distributing bottles to everyone, he held his bottle high.

    Xu Qing raised his bottle. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all followed suit. The three of them no longer looked at him like he was a stranger. Quite the opposite.

    ¡°Cheers!¡±

    They drank deeply, theny back down andughed some more. As they drank and drank, they thought back to the young man who had dreamed of bing a swordsage, and theirughter turned into emotional sighing. In that manner, time passed. The alcohol, theughter, and the sighing drew them together. It¡¯s often the case that friendships form when people go through a dramatic event together. Especially an event that was fundamentally the wrong thing to do....

    Eventually, Kong Xianglong got to his feet. ¡°When we get back, we¡¯re done for. The pce lord is definitely going to lock us up. And the pro-Holytide factions in the city will be badmouthing us, especially the Yao n. Ai. I think all of us need toy low for a while.¡± Looking at Xu Qing specifically, he continued, ¡°Xu Qing, you¡¯re going to have it rougher than the rest of us. Trust me, I know the ol¡¯ pce lord. Since you¡¯re a jailer in the Corrections Division, he¡¯s definitely going to punish you even harder.¡± Kong Xianglong blinked a few times.

    ¡°He¡¯s right, Xu Qing,¡± said Sir Mountain-River. ¡°You¡¯re really going to be in for it.¡±

    Wang Chen sighed dramatically. ¡°Ai. That said, Xu Qing, you can always think of it this way: as a jailer, being locked up in the Corrections Division is going to be a great experience.¡±

    Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit kept joking around a bit, all the while keeping an eye on Xu Qing to see how he would react. They bore no ill will. This was actually an expression of approval. It was how friends got along.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°The Unit D jailers are my colleagues. You could even say we¡¯re close. So if we really get locked up....¡± Xu Qing looked at the four of them one by one then solemnly continued, ¡°Then I¡¯ll just be going home. I hereby wee all of you to be locked up at home with me.¡±

    Kong Xianglong raised his alcohol and took a drink. Sir Mountain-River and the others smiled wryly and sighed heavily. That said, the way they looked at Xu Qing was different from before. More amiable.

    In fact, Sir Mountain-River even cleared his throat and said, ¡°In that case, Xu Qing, is there any chance you could arrange for me to be locked up in a cell block with a female jailer who¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, Wang Chen kicked him.

    ¡°Ignore him,¡± Wang Chen said. ¡°He¡¯s sick in the head. As if he¡¯s going to get anything out of any female jailers. Xu Qing... when the timees, is there any chance you could get me into a cell block with a lot of female prisoners?¡±

    His eyes glittered with anticipation.

    Sir Mountain-River immediately offered a heated retort, and the two of them were soon arguing back and forth.

    Xu Qing had never seen this group acting like this before. That said, it wasn¡¯t a surprise. Most people will act differently in front of their friendspared to strangers.

    Duskspirit looked at Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen with cold despisal. Taking out some flesh and blood melon seeds, she started eating.

    Kong Xianglong looked at Xu Qing and chuckled. Then he asked Xu Qing about his divine abilities. ¡°Xu Qing, that poison of yours is incredible. But what really caught my eye was how you turned your hand transparent, then ripped out your enemies¡¯ gold cores. That technique... is totally gruish!¡±

    Sir Mountain-River and the others also looked at Xu Qing curiously.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel the need to be too secretive, so he held his hand out in front of him and turned it transparent for them to see.

    ¡°It¡¯s a technique my Master created for me. It¡¯s rted to the Gruegloom species.¡±

    Kong Xianglong could sense a bit of what the technique was about, and he sighed in admiration. ¡°I bet when you cultivate that technique to its full potential, you¡¯ll be able to turn your whole body into that same state.¡± He cocked his head in thought. ¡°Grueglooms, huh? After we get back, I have a gift I want to give you. I killed a Gruegloom a few years ago, and still have some things left over from it.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak, but Kong Xianglong waved his hand dismissively and said, ¡°You can¡¯t refuse a gift from a bro!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him for a moment, then nodded. After that, Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen joined the discussion about divine abilities. They didn¡¯t feel the need to be secretive either, and went so far as to show some of their techniques to Xu Qing. It gave him a lot of inspiration, and also a greater understanding of the magical techniques associated with the three great sects. That was especially true of Duskspirit¡¯s demonization technique. Xu Qing was very interested in that.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s interest, Duskspirit continued to munch flesh and blood melon seeds as she said, ¡°The Demonization Art is my sect¡¯s special magic. People say it has an extremely long history. Because of our sect¡¯s rules, I can¡¯t say much more than that. However, you can study it on your own if you want. The basic cultivation method isn¡¯t difficult. What¡¯s difficult is gaining enlightenment of the sect¡¯s demonization symbols. You have to imprint them into your sea of consciousness. Once you seed to a certain level, then you can use the Demonization Art to summon it outside and transform yourself into a greater demon.¡±

    With that, Duskspirit gave a quick demonstration.

    Shaken, Xu Qing thought of his Ghost Emperor mountain. From a certain perspective, that mountain could be considered a greater demon. It got him wondering what would happen if he mastered the Demonization Art. Could he possibly use it to summon it outside of himself? That seemed a lot simpler than the method his Master had described. Xu Qing suddenly felt his heart beating a bit faster.

    ¡°If it sounds like something you¡¯d like, go study it!¡± Kong Xianglong said with a smile. ¡°Remember, the three great sects are all deeply tied to the Swordsage Pce. There¡¯s long been an agreement in ce that allows a swordsage to spend military credits to study any of the techniques from the three great sects.¡±

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing about anything like that. Nodding, he decided that after he got back, he probably would take a shot at learning the Demonization Art.

    Eventually, when it was about noon, and the group all felt rested, they started traveling again.

    The trip back went smoothly, and there were no twists and turns. What was more, Xu Qing felt even closer with Kong Xianglong and the others thanks to the time on the road. Before the final major teleportation, Kong Xianglong lowered his voice and said, ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m not trying to stir up trouble, but... I feel like I need to offer some friendly advice. Be careful about that Eldest Brother of yours. He doesn¡¯t seem like a good person to me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Sir Mountain-River said. ¡°Chen Erniu always goes around looking very shifty. Given that one-meter light, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me at all if he turns traitor one day.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing calmly replied, ¡°My Eldest Brother and I have gone through many life-or-death situations together. There¡¯s no one I trust more than him.¡±

    Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t say anything further. Giving Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder a squeeze, he stepped onto the teleportation portal. A momentter, bright light glittered, and they vanished.

    When they reappeared, they weren¡¯t in the Swordsage Pce. Instead, they were in a valley a short distance away from the county capital. In that valley was a short-range teleportation portal set up in a secret hideout Kong Xianglong had set up. Using this smaller portal was Kong Xianglong¡¯s idea based on his extensive experience. ording to him, if they teleported into the city using one of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s portals, there would be a record of it. But the smaller portal would allow them to return secretly. It would be a lot safer that way. Then they could hide out for a few days, and when they made a public appearance, could truthfully say that they had been back for a while.

    ¡°I set up this ce in secret,¡± Kong Xianglong said with a chuckle. ¡°And to this day¡ª¡± Before he could finish, his face fell as the portal activated of its own ord.

    A momentter, all five of them vanished, then reappeared on a teleportation portal in the middle of the Swordsage Pce. When they materialized their hearts dropped as they saw the pce lord standing just outside the portal, his eyes cold and his expression grim.

    The pce lord had long known about the teleportation portal that Kong Xianglong thought was a secret. And he had stationed himself here waiting for them.

    Kong Xianglong started trembling. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all looked very guilty. Xu Qing looked down and prepared to be thoroughly chastised. As swordsages, it was no small matter for them to have deviated so dramatically from mission protocol.

    As the moments ticked by, and the pce lord didn¡¯t say anything, Xu Qing looked up slightly and saw the pce lord studying them. In fact, it almost looked like he was checking to see if they were injured.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one to notice that. The others, to their surprise, saw the same thing.

    Seeing the five of them looking at him, the pce lord snorted coldly. ¡°What are you standing there for? You¡¯re preventing other people from teleporting in! Get out of here!¡±

    With that, the pce lord coldly turned and walked away. It seemed as if he hade only to check if they were seriously hurt or not. And he was apparently relieved to find them hale and healthy.

    ¡°Weird!¡±

    ¡°He actually didn¡¯t punish us?¡±

    ¡°He cares about us?¡±

    The five swordsages exchanged delighted nces, then hurried off the teleportation portal and went their separate ways.

    Breathing a sigh of relief, Xu Qing looked in the direction the pce lord had disappeared. All of a sudden, the pce lord didn¡¯t seem as unreasonable as before. With that thought on his mind, he left the Swordsage Pce.

    ***

    Around the same time, Yao Yunhui and Zhang Siyun were also leaving the Swordsage Pce.

    Yao Yunhui wasn¡¯t happy with the post her son had been assigned to, and had repeatedly made appointments with Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather to talk about the situation. However, his Sect Grandfather, Honor Guard Sima, just kept pushing off the meeting.

    Therefore, she had decided to personallye to the Swordsage Pce to talk to him. After the discussion, she and Zhang Siyun were leaving when they spotted Xu Qing.

    When Zhang Siyun saw Xu Qing, malice glittered in his eyes. However, unnoticed by him, his mother suddenly seemed a bit absent-minded when she spotted Xu Qing. She stopped walking. For some reason, whenever she thought about Xu Qing in recent days, she found herself pondering his good sides. As such thoughts persisted in her, they slowly intertwined with her revulsion of him, and gradually created some veryplicated emotions.

    When Zhang Siyun realized his mother had stopped walking, he turned to look at her. Noticing her facial expression fluctuation between different emotions, he felt worried.

    ¡°Mother¡­?¡±

    Yao Yunhui was wearing a ck gauze dress that created a perfect contrast with her fair skin, and really brought out her beauty. The cut of the dress entuated her ample bosom and long legs, making her seem especially tall. In fact, even though she was standing there motionless, she seemed indescribably attractive. Normally speaking, her face was colder than ice, but it also contained something warm and bewitching.

    As she looked at Xu Qing some distance away, the mixed emotions in her heart caused her to inexplicably murmur, ¡°Yun¡¯er, did you ever notice that Xu Qing looks a lot like your father?¡±

    A tremor passed through Zhang Siyun, and his expression flickered wildly. His eyes went wide as waves of indescribable astonishment ran through him. It felt like his mind was being struck by millions of lightning bolts.

    ¡°What did you just say?¡± he blurted.

    Yao Yunhui started. Realizing she¡¯d said something strange, her face turned cold again.

    ¡°Pathetic. All pathetic.¡± Snorting coldly, she stalked off, a malicious expression filling her face. As her dress clung to her curves and swished as she walked, she attracted the attention of quite a few surrounding swordsages.

    Seeing her react that way caused Zhang Siyun to breathe a big sigh of relief. It was the first time in his life that hearing his mother curse his father actually made him feel relieved.

    ***

    Meanwhile, high in the air above the county capital, another person noticed Xu Qing leaving the Swordsage Pce. It was an old man. His jaw dropped when he spotted Xu Qing, and he rubbed his eyes. Then his heart started pounding.

    Th-that¡¯s... that¡¯s.... Just how damn unlucky could I possibly be? What is that little bastard doing here??

    It was the innkeeper from nkspring Way. He hade to the county capital to buy some things Ling¡¯er needed for her legacy. He hadn¡¯t done much other than buy the necessary items, and was now on his way out, only to spot Xu Qing off in the distance. In addition to his disbelief, he also felt incredible happiness.

    It¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t bring Ling¡¯er along! I definitely can¡¯t let her know that vile Xu kid is here!

    Grinding his teeth, he suddenly realized Xu Qing might be able to see him, so he quickly hurried on his way.

    I¡¯m nevering to the county capital again!

 Chapter 422: Gruegloom Transformation

    Chapter 422: Gruegloom Transformation

    The first thing Xu Qing did after returning was send a voice message to let Arch-Immortal Plumdark know he was back. Back when the coalition was on the way to the county capital, she had told him and Chen Erniu that they were required to do that. After all, whenever they left the city, they would be facing unending dangers. And because Arch-Immortal Plumdark was ultimately in charge of the subsidiary sect, that meant she was one of the main lines of defense for the coalition swordsages.

    Back at his sword pavilion, he took time to study the surroundings before going inside. He just wanted to make sure there were no signs that anyone had been snooping around or setting up some sort of trap. It was a habit that had long since be an instinct.

    Once inside, he took a deep breath and thought back to everything that happened on the mission. He analyzed all the areas where he was deficient, and thought about how he could have done better. By the time he was finished, it was evening, and he settled down cross-legged to focus on rest and recovery.

    However, he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about that young man in the middle of that spell formation, gasping for breath.

    I bet his father was the agent....

    And if that was the case, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the father had just abandoned his son, or perhaps even used him as a distraction. Had there been other people who ended up just like that young man? Or had the agent made himself the distraction, and secretly given the intelligence report to someone else? There was no way for Xu Qing to know for certain. After thinking about it for a while, he shook his head. Then he thought back to the eight-pce ck Guard cultivator he¡¯d killed.

    Given my current battle prowess, I was able to kill an eight-pce cultivator by pulling out all the stops. But if it was a nine-pce cultivator... that would be a lot harder. Eight pces was the limit for most four-me cultivators.

    Of course, it was also the case that some freakish hellions who didn¡¯t open their 121st dharma aperture could get two imperial-ss techniques and possibly have lifemps. And therefore, it was possible for people like that to eventually get nine-pce battle prowess.

    But other than them, most cultivators who reach their limit with heavenly pces will then try to step into the Nascent Soul level. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered thoughtfully.

    It wasn¡¯t exactly easy to break into the Nascent Soul level, and that was why most Gold Core cultivators who reached their limit would then start trying to form a nascent soul. It was a very mysterious and profound process, and because it was somon for people to stay in that state for an extended time, cultivators used a special name for that level. They would either call it half-Nascent Soul or pseudo-Nascent Soul.

    Thanks to the fight he had just experienced, Xu Qing now had first-hand knowledge about the pseudo-Nascent Soul level.

    It¡¯s stronger than the eight- or nine-pce level. It¡¯s actually much closer to ten pces! I¡¯m still too weak. I need to speed up my cultivation progress. What¡¯s more, I probably should take a trip to the Supreme Void Demonization Sect and try to learn their Demonization Art.

    If Xu Qing¡¯s analysis was correct, the Demonization Art would help him materialize the Ghost Emperor in his sea of consciousness.

    I wonder how much of a boost I¡¯ll get when the Ghost Emperor is fully materialized. The mere thought filled him with anticipation.

    Hopefully it all goes smoothly. If it does, then maybe I can make one of my heavenly pces into... a Ghost Emperor pce! My limit is ten heavenly pces, and I¡¯ve alreadypleted five of them. That means that the remaining five... should include a sword pce and the Ghost Emperor pce. That leaves three.

    Oh right, there¡¯s also my life essence bluegreen dragon.

    In any case, the most urgent thing to think about right now is military credits. I previously asked for half a month off, which means I still have a week left. There¡¯s no point in going back to work early.

    His eyes glittered as he thought about the military credits he needed both to study the Demonization Art and to visit Mount Daybreak. Everything was rted to military credits.

    I should earn a good amount of military credits from the mission, but it¡¯s still not going to be enough.... Xu Qing took out hismand sword and started looking through the missions. Before long he found some bounty missions in the city. After checking his injuries to make sure they were stable, he left his sword pavilion, he left to try and gather some military credits.

    Days passed. He never heard anyone talking about the big mission he¡¯d gone on earlier. He had no idea who the real agent was, and had no idea if that agent had been sessfully extracted and returned to the city. But apparently, the mission was concluded.

    A week after his return, when he was out working hard to earn military credits, he got an urgent message from the Corrections Division. His vacation was over. Now he couldn¡¯t spend his days doing missions. Instead he checked in with the Corrections Division at dawn.

    When he walked down the stairs inside the division, he sensed the familiar coldness. The asional Unit D jailer called out greetings to him as he passed. His mind was still focused mostly on missions and military credits.

    Back at D-132, he pushed open the door and stepped inside. The inmates looked just as they had half a month before. The cloud troll was still eating its own tentacles. The human woman was still trying to coax the scarecrows to sleep. Sir Inkwell said good morning in a very cordial fashion. The Rockdevil rotated endlessly.

    The head blinked, sighed, and said, ¡°Things were calm for a whole half a month. Why¡¯d you have toe back?¡±

    Just as before, Xu Qing checked on all the inmates, then went back to his spot by the door and sat down. As he did, his expression flickered. He hadn¡¯t seen the boy. That seemed unusual. Based on his memories, he knew that the boy was always the first one to show up when he stepped inside.

    ¡°Where¡¯s the destiny aura?¡± he asked, looking over at Sir Inkwell¡¯s cell.

    Sir Inkwell sped hands and quietly replied, ¡°There¡¯s... something wrong with the destiny aura. I haven¡¯t seen it for a few days.¡±

    Frowning, Xu Qing walked past all the cells again to check them more closely. He eventually stopped walking in front of one specific cell. Inside was the boy, who seemed to be having trouble breathing. He was covered in grime, with his face all smudged up. At the same time, he seemed unprecedentedly weak. He was clearly not in a good state, as he was trembling painfully.

    Upon noticing Xu Qing, he struggled to lift his head. However, he was in such a listless state that he couldn¡¯t even open his eyes. Despite that, he shed a smile, then tried to stand up. Apparently, he wanted to resume his usual routine of following Xu Qing around and keeping him safe. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have the strength. All he could do was look at Xu Qing and open his mouth as if to speak. No words came out. Given how lively and active he had always been in the past, his current state was very pitiable.

    Concerned, Xu Qing squatted down and closely examined the boy. He could sense that the boy was in pain, and also noticed a ck energy swirling inside of him. That ck energy seemed to be transforming the boy in some way.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow both appeared, and curiously assessed the boy.

    Shortly after, the patriarch¡¯s face filled with a very somber expression. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Milord, given what I¡¯ve read in books, I can specte about what¡¯s going on here.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over.

    ¡°It¡¯s a contamination. I¡¯d say the boy probably went to some specific location and encountered an unclean thing.¡±

    Hearing that, the boy nodded weakly.

    When the patriarch saw his spection confirmed, he knew that it was his moment to shine. Looking more somber than ever, he sped hands to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord, based on my experience, most vile, unclean things can be dealt with using lightning. If you permit, milord, your humble servant can attempt to use my own heavenly tribtion lightning to purify the boy of the contamination.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a time. He didn¡¯t know much about destiny aura, and had no idea if the patriarch¡¯s idea would help. Then he thought about the pce lord.

    ¡°Does the pce lord know about you?¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    The boy nodded.

    ¡°Does he know about your current state?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The boy lifted a hand and gestured, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what it meant.

    At that point, the shadow spoke.

    ¡°Looks like... says pce lord knows... and helped it... said to rest up... be fine.¡±

    Apparently the shadow had some experience with situations like this.

    The boy nodded, then seemed to be hit by a wave of weakness, and closed his eyes.

    Seeing how much pain the boy was obviously in, Xu Qing had Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior try out his idea.

    The moment the patriarch had the go-ahead, he waved his hand, causing red lightning to appear. Carefully approaching the boy, he released one small bolt of heavenly tribtion lightning. When the lightning entered the boy, he shivered from head to toe. At the same time, the ck energy within him faded a bit. Seeing that it was effective, the patriarch added more lightning. Before long, the ck energy was disappearing rapidly, and the boy¡¯s weakness was transforming back into strength.

    It wasn¡¯t aplete cure; in the end, there was still a little bit of the ck energy in him. But its effects were greatly reduced.

    Also, it did a lot to mitigate the pain. Eventually, the boy was back on his feet, walking a circle around Xu Qing and smiling happily. Considering there was still a bit of the ck energy inside the boy, Xu Qing got the sense there was a lot more to the situation than he understood. But since the pce lord was aware of the situation, Xu Qing knew it surpassed his ability to truly handle.

    He was right. The next morning when he showed up at D-132, the boy waspletely back to normal. The ck energy was gone, and he was in just as high spirits as usual.

    With everything back to normal, Xu Qing spent his days at work and his nights doing missions to get military credits. Though his military credit bnce was growing, he didn¡¯t have nearly enough for what he wanted to do. But then one evening when he was out on missions, he got a voice message from Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°Xu Qing, are you at your sword pavilion? If you are, I can swing by. Our military credits for the mission came in.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s spirits lifted.

    Before long, he was at the entrance of his sword pavilion, watching Kong Xianglong fly over.

    Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, Kong Xianglongughed heartily. Tossing him a bag of holding, he said, ¡°There are two things inside. One is the military credit receipt. I already had it verified. All you have to do is add it to yourmand sword.

    ¡°The other thing is that gift I mentioned. Over the past few days I thought about your fighting style. I have the feeling that if you put some more mutagen into that Gruegloom hand of yours, it would probably be a lot more effective. Grueglooms also count as a nonhuman race, so if you do that, you¡¯ll need to bnce the mutagen properly. It¡¯s just a suggestion. Give it a try if you think it might work. Anyway, enough of that. I have to take a trip to the Corrections Division now. Ai. The pce lord summoned me, so I have no choice but to go.¡±

    Sighing, Kong Xianglong sped hands to leave. Xu Qing tried to get him to stay a bit longer, but regardless of how he pressed, Kong Xianglong hurried away.

    As he left, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply, feeling deeply thankful in his heart.

    Back inside his sword pavilion, he opened the bag of holding to find that there were indeed two items there. One was the military credit verification jade slip. The other was a blue chunk of ice. The ice was the manifestation of a magical technique, and inside of it was sealed a heart! The heart was semitransparent, and looking at it closely, it was obviously notpletely dead. There were bits of life force in it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as came to the realization it was a Gruegloom heart. Xu Qing was by no means unfamiliar with Grueglooms. He had once captured one alive, and had ultimately assimted it.

    In fact, that foundation was what gave Master Seventh the initial inspiration for the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. Assimting that Gruegloom was what gave Xu Qing a solid foundation upon which to cultivate the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art.

    Master Seventh had then taken inspiration from the fingers cultivated by Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect. Add in a Gruegloom heart from Sima Ru of the House of Grue Hunters, as well as dao-seizing techniques from numerous smaller sects, and Master Seventh had collected everything he needed to create the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art.

    Theoretically speaking, another Gruegloom heart should make the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art even stronger.

    Unfortunately, Grueglooms were a rare species. And by this point, Foundation Establishment Grueglooms wouldn¡¯t be of much use to Xu Qing. He needed a Gold Core Gruegloom heart. As for the heart in the blue ice, it did indeede from a Gruegloom in the Gold Core level. Looking up, Xu Qing gazed in the direction of the Corrections Division, where Kong Xianglong had just gone to. To Xu Qing, this was a really amazing gift.

    Eventually, he looked back at the ice. Eyes shining with determination, he activated the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art, causing his right hand to turn semitransparent. Without any hesitation, he reached out with that transparent hand and stuck it into the ice. A momentter, he had extracted the Gruegloom heart from inside!

    The moment he touched it, a tremor passed through him.

    The Gruegloom heart emitted fluctuations of struggle, and then a howl of rage echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. But Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered and he fiercely suppressed the struggling heart. The Gruegloom heart faded away as Xu Qing absorbed it using his technique. All of a sudden, a host of memory fragments appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, whipping about like a tempest.

    They were scattered memories from whoever this Gruegloom heart had previously belonged to.

    They contained madness and defiance, and they battered at Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness. However, Xu Qing snorted coldly, and the Ghost Emperor in his sea of consciousness red with brilliance. A momentter, the memory fragments shattered into a cloud that then slowly dispersed into nothing. Xu Qing kept his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art active the whole time.

    Gradually, the semitransparency of the technique wasn¡¯t just limited to his right hand. His left hand... was also transforming. After about an hour passed, he took a deep breath and lifted both his hands. Both of them were now semitransparent.

    Next time he used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art on an enemy, it would be a lot easier, and he would be able to take gold cores with much more ease. Looking at his two hands in satisfaction, he thought back to what Kong Xianglong had said about mutagen.

    ¡°I suppose I could try it out,¡± he murmured. ¡°That said, it seems inappropriate. It would be like telling all my enemies I¡¯m skilled in the dao of poison and that I¡¯m most effective when I have poison scattered everywhere.... It¡¯s probably fine to do asionally, maybe just as a distraction. If people are focused on my hands, then they might not notice my poison as quickly.¡±

    Just as Xu Qing was thinking about what to do, his transmission jade slip vibrated as a voice message came in. It started with a long sigh, and then he heard the bitter voice of the Captain.

    ¡°Oh, how fickle you are, Little Ah Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing was very taken aback.

    ¡°I know you like to seduce women and then kick them to the curb. But I¡¯m your Eldest Brother! You can¡¯t treat me like that! We already made an agreement between bros. We¡¯re supposed to travel the world together. But in the end, you leave all the hard work to me....¡±

    The Captain¡¯s bitterness really came through on the jade slip, filling Xu Qing¡¯s sword pavilion.

    ¡°Eldest Brother....¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, and was about to keep talking when yet another sigh came from the Captain.

    ¡°If it weren¡¯t the fact that I work in the Merit Records Branch, and just happened to see that you earned a huge batch of military credits, then I would never have been the wiser.... It¡¯s fine, little Junior Brother. As your Eldest Brother, I should offer congrattions. I hope that you and Kong Xianglong live a long and happy life together....¡± [1]

    Xu Qing could sense that his Eldest Brother was reallyying on the nonsense. And when that happened, it usually meant that he wanted something.

    ¡°Running low on spirit stones, Eldest Brother?¡± he asked coolly.

    The Captain snorted coldly. ¡°Is that what you think of your Eldest Brother, little Ah Qing? Is that the kind of person you think I am?¡±

    ¡°Fine, Eldest Brother. Since you don¡¯t need spirit stones, forget I mentioned it.¡±

    ¡°Ahem... hey, hey, hey. Don¡¯t be like that. Okay, fine. I actually do need just a few spirit stones.¡±

    1. The Captain¡¯s ¡®live a long and happy life together¡¯ is something usually said to a bride and groom on their wedding day lol. ?

 Chapter 423: The Mysterious Supreme Void World

    Chapter 423: The Mysterious Supreme Void World

    ¡°The thing is¡­ it takes a lot of money to buy intelligence reports. But don¡¯t worry, little Ah Qing, that money was spent wisely!¡± The Captain gave an embarrassed chuckle. ¡°You listen to me. Once I make all the final arrangements, you and I are going to hit it big. You could go outside and risk your life on missions for ten years and not benefit as much as you will from this job! And that... is why I need your support, little Junior Brother.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s voice was filled both withcency and longing for the future.

    Xu Qing was actually a bit curious. Knowing the Captain as he did, he got the feeling that the job would probably be just as amazing as the Captain was making it out to be. But it would also be incredibly risky.

    After mulling it over, he decided to support the Captain with spirit stones. After all, he had plenty to spare nowadays; what hecked was military credit. He exchanged a few more messages, and tried to arrange to either go meet the Captain to transfer the funds, or have the Captaine over. But the Captain was busy with something and said he didn¡¯t have time at the moment. The two of them agreed to meet up at the Supreme Void Demonization Sect the next day.

    At the same time, Xu Qing let the Captain know about how swordsages could use military credit to learn the techniques of the three great sects. The Captain was immediately intrigued.

    ¡°You can do that? Howe I haven¡¯t heard about that? Oh, I get it. The three great sects are really crafty, aren¡¯t they? From the perspective of the Swordsage Pce, the idea is that they don¡¯t want all their membersing from the three great sects. If that happened, then over a long period of time, it would create a lot of potential cmities. So they don¡¯t make a point of publicly announcing this study arrangement.

    ¡°The stance of the three sects is the opposite. They want more of their members to be swordsages, and that¡¯s why they instituted the arrangement.

    ¡°That said, overall, the Swordsage Pce has the dominant position, and the three sects are inextricably tied to it. That¡¯s probably the reason why the three sects have existed for so long.¡±

    After hearing the Captain¡¯s analysis, Xu Qing nodded in agreement. What the Captain said made sense.

    Once the arrangements were made to meet up the next day, the Captain ended the conversation.

    Xu Qing put down his transmission jade slip and went back to thinking about how to use the two hands of his upgraded Gruegloom Daoseizing Art.

    About imbuing it with mutagen.... The reality is that I¡¯m not limited to only mutagen or poison.

    After some more thought, he tapped into his third heavenly pce, causing taboo poison power to spread into both of his hands. Almost instantly, his hands pulsed with poison. Then he changed tactics and filled his hands with mutagen. Next, he tapped into his fourth heavenly pce, whereupon his two hands became violet as the power of the violet moon filled them.

    Using my hands in this way will make it very difficult for an enemy to defend against me in a fight. It could allow me to strike a fatal blow.

    Xu Qing had always tried to keep his assets hidden and catch his enemies off guard. It was a practice that had started when he was young, and at the same time, conformed to the customs of the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ Seventh Peak.

    As the night passed, Xu Qing spent more time bing familiar with the upgrades to his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. The next day, he requested three additional days off from the Corrections Division to go visit the Supreme Void Demonization Sect.

    As one of the three great sects of Sea-Sealing County, the Supreme Void Demonization Sect had long upied arge section of the southwestern part of the capital. They had teleportation portals active year-round to connect them to their main sect headquarters.

    As for their subsidiary sect, it had one mission: to serve the swordsages. Upon arriving, Xu Qing saw a lot of swordsagesing and going. The Captain was already there waiting, squatting nearby and eating an apple. When he saw Xu Qing, he waved.

    ¡°Over here, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing walked over.

    The Captain tossed him an apple.

    Xu Qing caught it and took a bite. Then he handed some spirit notes to the Captain.

    The Captain got visibly excited when he saw the spirit notes. Taking one more big bite of his apple, he nced around and then said, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry, little Junior Brother. Based on my n, it won¡¯t be long before we aplish something really big.¡±

    ¡°How dangerous will it be?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Dangerous? It won¡¯t be dangerous!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Clearly, the n was going to be iparably dangerous.

    ¡°Forget about that,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I need to go find Wu Jianwu. Can you believe he spent a bunch of spirit stones to tap into my personal connections, all to get a chance at qualifying to be a swordsage? Today he¡¯ll go through the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart. Last night we had a cram session based on all the information I previously bought. At least that way, my investment won¡¯t be totally wasted.¡± The Captain stood. ¡°I want to go see how he performs. Will he also get a one-meter light?¡±

    Eyes shining with anticipation, the Captain hurried away.

    Xu Qing watched him go, musing that the Captain must really have a big grudge with Wu Jianwu, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t be scamming him over and over again.

    After the Captain was gone, Xu Qing entered the subsidiary sect of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect.

    The sect was constructed from concentric rings of buildings that formed the sect¡¯s unique Supreme Void Formation. Every building was adorned with carvings of strange and bizarre animals. Some were vicious and cruel, others were calm and auspicious. Most were mutant beasts from forbidden regions, and some were even nonhuman species. Based on the understanding of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, all of them could be subjects of demonization.

    One of the halls here was where one could study the Demonization Art. It didn¡¯t look like an ordinary hall. Instead, it was made up of countless stone alcoves that allowed people to work on cultivation without disturbing the others present. There were well over a hundred such alcoves.

    After paying the required military credit, Xu Qing was led inside by a very polite sect disciple, whereupon he was allowed to enter one of the alcoves.

    Inside, Xu Qing saw that there was a spell formation carved on the floor, at the head of which was a stone stele. The stele wasn¡¯t some ancient artifact pulsing with a sensation of ancient time. It was new. That said, it was covered with deeply meaningful magical symbols. Obviously, the marks on the stone stele weren¡¯t original, but had been transferred there. It seemed most likely that this stele was a copy of an original maintained by the sect. The fact that it was a copy wouldn¡¯t influence the enlightenment gained from it, so Xu Qing sat down cross-legged, took a deep breath, and looked at the stele with determination flickering in his eyes.

    It took a lot of military credits to get in here. I have three days to seek enlightenment. Hopefully I can make it work on the first shot! And I hope this Demonization Art really can help my Ghost Emperor mountain to fully materialize!

    Without the slightest hesitation, he closed his eyes and cast his senses into the stone stele. The moment he made contact, he could hear what sounded like a roar from ancient times. The roar grew more intense, until it was like a wind sweeping over him. Then a tremor passed through him as he sensed something like the power of teleportation.

    This was different from any previous instance in which he sought enlightenment. Eyes opening, he found that he was now in an astonishing void.

    He was no longer in an alcove in the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. Instead, he had been teleported into the inside of a semitransparent fish. The fish was about thirty meters long. In some locations on its body it had ck magical symbols that resembled crying faces. The sound of weeping echoed out into the void as the fish swam along. In front of the fish was a greenishntern that emanatedherworldly fire into the void. It was like flickering ghostfire leading the way forward.

    Xu Qing was shaken. This turn of events went beyond what he had anticipated. Expression flickering, he kept his guard up as he remained within the fish. A momentter, an ancient-sounding voice echoed into his ears.

    ¡°Greetings, trial-taker.

    ¡°You are currently on your way to the location where you will seek enlightenment of the Demonization Art.

    ¡°That ce is... the Supreme Void World, a fragment of a profound and mysterious world discovered by our sect¡¯s founder. While in the Supreme Void World, you will form a pact that will allow you to use the demonization ability.

    ¡°The Demonization Art actually does not require any enlightenment. It requires the pact. That pact is what requires enlightenment. Once you seed, then the image of a demon will be transported into your sea of consciousness. The basic principle of demonization is to borrow the power of the Supreme Void World to materialize the demon in your sea of consciousness. That is why... the pact is so important.

    ¡°There is no guarantee that you will formalize the pact. The chances of failure are high. Furthermore, the Supreme Void World is crafty. Whether or not you seed with the pact will depend on your personal good fortune. Remember, this is a secret of our sect, and cannot be revealed to outsiders. Any who vite that rule will be punished!

    ¡°Regardless of whether you seed, you can always call upon this fish to return from the Supreme Void World. And with that, I wish you good luck.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He could tell that the voice wasn¡¯t speaking to him specifically. Rather, it was a standardized message that everyone received. As he pondered the situation, his eyes narrowed. Off in the distant void, he saw what appeared to be a massive stone statue of a cyclops. In the statue''s chest was a cavity that went through its entire torso. The statue¡¯s facial features weren¡¯t clear, but its mouth was open wide and it looked like the entrance to another world.

    The fish Xu Qing was inside was moving rapidly toward that statue. Once in front of it, the semitransparent fish twitched as it spat out a bubble. Inside of that bubble was Xu Qing. When the bubble entered the statue¡¯s mouth, Xu Qing saw another world that surpassed anything he could have imagined.

    It was filled with mist, and within that mist were whispering voices that gave the ce a sinister, gruish air. Floating up right in front of Xu Qing was a veryrge white object. As Xu Qing took the white object in, he saw that it was covered with many folds that looked almost like waves. Eventually, it was revealed in its entirety.

    Astonishingly, it was a gigantic brain! Not only was it covered with numerous folds, but also, it had a central sulcus separating the front part of the brain from the back. And it had a dark brainstem which split into two sections, at each of which was a smaller brown-colored brain. It waspletely horrid in appearance. As it floated in the mist, Xu Qing saw that, beneath the brain, there was awork of nerves and blood vessels. They almost looked like a chaotic mass of tree branches.

    There wasn¡¯t just one such ¡®brain tree¡¯ floating in this world of mist.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he looked around and saw many, many more of them out there. There had to be hundreds of them just in his vicinity, with more further in the distance. There were simply too many to count them urately.

    All the brain trees around him were shivering, and he could hear them whispering to each other.

    ¡°Another one¡¯s here.¡±

    ¡°Sssh! Keep it down! You¡¯ll scare him away.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another one off in the distance. I wonder if they know each other.¡±

    ¡°Hard to say. But this one looks quite delicious. I heard the Voidlings are going to war. We have to be careful.¡±

    ¡°Come over here. Pick me! Let¡¯s enter a pact!¡±

    ¡°You want to learn demonization? I can help make it happen. All you have to do... is give me some of your memories.¡±

    ¡°You can sacrifice any of your memories to me. As long as they¡¯re good enough, I¡¯ll enter a pact with you.¡±

    Numerous voices echoed into his ears. It was very gruish.

    His expression was grim; this was his first time participating in any enlightenment like this. As he looked around coldly, one of the brain trees floated over to him.

    ¡°They¡¯re lying. They just want to eat you. So why not enter a pact with me? Just reach out and touch me. I only want a small, minor memory. Give it to me. I¡¯m hungry! Hurry up. Hurry up and give it to me....¡±

    As it spoke with clear greed and longing, it wriggled in a very disgusting manner.

    ¡°Don¡¯t trust it! It¡¯s fooled a lot of people. Last time it ate one of yourpanions alive. People who lose their memories forget to enter pacts.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s very cunning. Pick me! I only want to eat a little bit. Give it to me! To me!¡±

    ¡°Pick me... I¡¯m so hungry. I want to eat! If you don¡¯t give it to me, I won¡¯t let you leave!¡±

    The voices built up as dozens of brains floated toward Xu Qing, surrounding him, all of them expressing longing mixed with open malice and greed.

    Xu Qing thought back to what the voice had told him before he entered this ce. This ce was the fragment of a world, and you needed to enter a pact to use the Demonization Art. Apparently, formalizing that pact involved giving one of these brain trees some memories to eat. If the brain was satisfied, the pact would be entered.

    Of course, what exactly ¡®satisfied¡¯ meant was up to the crafty brain.

    ¡°Memories, huh...?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he identified thergest and most malicious of the brains.

    ¡°I pick you,¡± he said, extending his hand.

    The wriggling brain approached and touched his hand.

    ¡°So, which memory are you going to give me...?¡± As the words echoed out, a malicious and greedy will reached out to Xu Qing¡¯s mind. However, it couldn¡¯t just take whatever it wanted; it needed Xu Qing to give the memory freely.

    Eyes cold, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a memory from when I woke up in D-132. I can¡¯t remember that, so let¡¯s see if you¡¯re able to. Enjoy!¡±

    A momentter, Xu Qing could feel through his hand that the brain was trembling.

 Chapter 424: The Ghost Emperor Arrives!

    Chapter 424: The Ghost Emperor Arrives!

    It was a gruish world, but something even more gruish was ying out.

    Within that boundless mist, the malicious and greedy tree-like brain that wanted to devour Xu Qing¡¯s memories was currently feeding on the memory he had given it of D-132....

    The giant brain spasmed. It was seeing something it shouldn¡¯t be able to see. The suppressing power of the Corrections Division wasn¡¯t present, so maybe that was why it couldn¡¯t forget what it was seeing. It was a unique entity that specialized in devouring memories. As a result, the brain tree suddenly felt immeasurable pain that caused it to suddenly let loose an agonized shriek.

    Because the other brain trees in the area rarely saw anything like this, or perhaps because it had been so long since they had, curious fluctuations immediately began to fill the area.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening? Is something wrong?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s that delicious?¡±

    ¡°I want to have a try!¡±

    From those words, Xu Qing suddenly realized that the brains in this Supreme Void World were actually quite na?ve.

    As the brains expressed their curiosity, the screams of the brain in front of him turned shriller. Therge central brain as well as the two smaller auxiliary brains were all wriggling and twitching. And then they started struggling as if to pull away from Xu Qing.

    Instead, Xu Qing gripped down hard with his hand, his fingers sinking into the brain so that it couldn¡¯t escape. Then he calmly asked, ¡°Taste good?¡±

    ¡°I....¡± The brain¡¯s screams grew in intensity, filling the area until there was a massive boom. Countless chunks of mucus-covered brain chunks exploded in all directions. It had been destroyed in body and soul.

    Everything wentpletely silent. Even if the other surrounding brains were more naive than they were, they could see what had just happened. One by one, they started backing away.

    ¡°How could it have exploded?¡±

    ¡°What memory did it eat?¡±

    ¡°What did he feed it?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he flicked his hand free of some mucus.

    This was the n he hade up with, partly as a test regarding D-132. The truth was that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t as ignorant regarding D-132 as he had been in the past. Although he didn¡¯t know all the details, he had noticed his supply of bamboo slips dwindling. He had also been paying attention to the specific things the head told him. As a result, he had long sincee to a general realization of what was going on.

    There was something terrifying in D-132, and he had woken up to its existence many times already. He just couldn¡¯t remember any of the details.

    It must have something to do with a god. Or perhaps it¡¯s just some entity that casts a death curse on anyone who sees it and remembers. Maybe the Corrections Division itself is ensuring that whoever sees that entity forgets about it as a way to sever karma? Is that why I can¡¯t remember anything about it?

    He couldn¡¯t help but remember what Chen Boli had told him. ¡°When you think you know everything, you¡¯ll find there¡¯s only more to discover.¡±

    It was very thought-provoking.

    Does it mean that I¡¯ve actually uncovered the truth already? But after I do, I forget it? Or maybe there¡¯s some even deeper secret that I don¡¯t know about? How much, if any, of my spections are correct?

    With such thoughts on his mind, he looked at the other brain trees in the area.

    He found this gruish Supreme Void World to be very interesting. Not only could he possibly get the Demonization Art here, but also, he might be able to dig into the truth about D-132.

    He decided to do some more experimentation. Striding forward to another of the brain trees, which was currently shivering and inching away from him, he reached out his right hand.

    ¡°It¡¯s delicious. Come have a taste.¡±

    The brain trembled. However, its longing for memories ensured that it cautiously approached Xu Qing and touched his hand. The other brains in the area watched to see what would happen.

    A momentter, the brain Xu Qing had touched started to shiver. Then it screamed and writhed dramatically. Just before it exploded, Xu Qing said, ¡°What do you see?¡±

    ¡°I see¡ª¡±

    Before it could finish speaking, it exploded.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was unsightly as he looked around at the other brains. Without exception, they were madly backing away in terror. However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t ready to give up quite yet. Chasing one down as it screamed, he reached out and touched it.

    ¡°Come on. It¡¯s delicious.¡±

    Things continued in that manner for three days. Soon his time limit was up, and the big fish came to the statue and sucked him out. Once he was inside, the fish turned and zipped off in the other direction. Xu Qing looked over his shoulder at the statue and sighed inwardly.

    Sadly I didn¡¯t get a full answer. Only bits and pieces. If only I had a bit more time in there....

    He got the feeling that this ce was going to be the key to figuring out D-132.

    It just takes so many military credits to get in here.

    Shaking his head, he lifted his hand, above which floated a magical symbol that greatly resembled the brains in the Supreme Void World.

    That magical symbol was a pact.

    Every trial-taker who could satisfy one of the brains with their memories would be given a demonization symbol like this to formalize the pact. As a result, they could then utilize the Demonization Art. Demonization was draining. Though the cultivator who used it would bear some of that burden, the rest of the burden was taken by the Supreme Void World. The exact ratio was different for each person, and was determined by the specific pact with the specific brain.

    Stifling his disappointment, Xu Qing waved his hand, producing a second pact, then a third and a fourth...

    In total, he had thirty-two demonization symbols. Each and every one of them was a pact that would help bear the burden of demonization. Xu Qing had quite a few, and he knew why. They were an expression of approval from the brain trees in the Supreme Void World. The fact he had so many went to show how much he was approved.

    Sighing, he flicked his sleeve to gather up all thirty-two symbols, then he closed his eyes to meditate.

    Time passed. At a certain point, he shivered as he sensed himself being teleported. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the alcove in the subsidiary sect of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect.

    Thinking back to what he had experienced during the past three days, he took a deep breath and walked out. His n was to go back to the cultivation chamber in his sword pavilion and see if the Demonization Art would help him materialize the Ghost Emperor as per his n.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he flew out of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect¡¯s subsidiary sect and back to his sword pavilion. Once inside, he activated the spell formation defenses, sealing himself inside.

    Inside the cultivation chamber, he looked around. It was a self-contained dimensional space that was very roomy. After ensuring that it wasrge enough to amodate a projection of the Ghost Emperor, Xu Qing took out one of the demonization symbols and sent it toward the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness. As the symbol got close, it started shining with dazzling light. The light grew brighter, eventually fully covering the Ghost Emperor mountain.

    Meanwhile, outside of Xu Qing¡¯s body, a vague mountain was now visible, gradually taking his ce.

    Although it was vastly smaller than the real Ghost Emperor mountain, it was still astounding. What was more, it eventually looked like a person seated cross-legged in meditation. Though it was semitransparent, it still looked profoundly menacing. Furthermore, it was soon clear that the meditating figure wore ck armor and had a huge ded weapon. And there were two worlds on its shoulders.

    It looked like the spirit of some sort of wretched god sitting there meditating. Each bit of its suit of armor contained incredible destructive power, and the weapon looked like it could slice worlds in half. Astonishing fluctuations rolled off of it, full of brutal madness, as though it were furious at heaven and earth. What was more, there was a staff materializing on its knees, and it also pulsed with terrifying might.

    The figure was none other than the Ghost Emperor! And his facial features were about eighty percent simr to Xu Qing¡¯s. That said, those facial features were only about ten percent materialized. Meanwhile, the sword pavilion was having a hard time sustaining this Ghost Emperor, and it was rumbling as if it might copse.

    Loud cracking sounds rang out, and eventually, the demonization symbol in his sea of consciousness shattered.

    The sea of light from the pact vanished, and the projection of the Ghost Emperor vanished as if it had never existed.

    Shivering, Xu Qing opened his eyes and coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. However, his eyes were shining brightly.

    ¡°It works!¡±

    He¡¯d hoped to keep the Ghost Emperor mountain projected outside of himself for longer, but had been unable. However, he finally had some hope that he could eventually pull it off. The end failure had really been a result of the demonization symbol reaching its limit.

    Ten symbols should be for a full materialization! Excited, he took a deep breath and suppressed any thoughts of doing further experiments. He only had thirty-one symbols left, and he just couldn¡¯t bear to waste them for testing purposes.

    This will be a trump card. And that means I basically have the ability to use a projection of the Ghost Emperor three times.

    Eyes glittering, he started to contemte more ways to umte military credits. That way, he would have enough for another trip to the Supreme Void World after he used those three chances he already had.

    As he was thinking about that, his transmission jade slip vibrated as a voice message came in from the Captain. He sounded confused.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother....¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing lifted his jade slip. ¡°What is it now?¡±

    ¡°Why does it have to be like this, little Junior Brother. Why? WHY?¡± The Captain sounded miserable, but at the same time, deeply confused. ¡°When that idiot Wu Jianwu went through the heart assessment, he used the answers I gave him! Do you know the incredible price I paid for that information? I made sure he memorized all of it. And just to make sure he didn¡¯t forget, I personally quizzed him several times. Then, when he went through the assessment of the heart, he actually got... a dazzling 15,000-meter pir of light!

    ¡°15,000 meters!! Same question! Same answer! Why did I only get one meter? I was hoping Wu Jianwu would also get one. That way I would at least have somepany....¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then decided to tryforting the Captain. ¡°There¡¯s a good side, though. You¡¯re still the only one with a one-meter light!¡±

    A very long moment passed before the Captain replied, sounding very depressed. ¡°You¡¯re not very good atforting people, little Junior Brother. Say, maybe Wu Jianwu did another Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity impression. Maybe he started reciting some poetry! No. This can¡¯t stand! I have to ask him the details!¡±

    Xu Qing did feel bad for the Captain. Therefore, out of respect for their friendship, he observed a brief moment of silence....

    After that he quickly put his jade slip away and then went out to start more missions and get more military credits.

    Time passed. Xu Qing never found out if the Captain got the answer he was looking for from Wu Jianwu. All of his focus was on military credits.

    He did a lot of patrol, search, arrest, and backup missions. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit offered a lot of help. Being in different departments, whenever they had a good mission, they would call him to join. Sometimes Kong Xianglong came along as well, and they would all do missions together. Though they had to split the military credits, it ensured that they were aplishing missions constantly.

    Eventually Arch-Immortal Plumdark came to find out that Xu Qing wanted military credits, so using her authority as the administrator of the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect, she called upon all the swordsages who had originallye from the coalition to help out. Xu Qing was the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general, and was known for his 30,000-meter pir of light. That made it easy for him to make new acquaintances. And that wasn¡¯t to mention that they came from the same coalition. In the past, Xu Qing had kept such a low profile that people rarely had a chance to interact with him. But thanks to Arch-Immortal Plumdark, a lot of people were willing to lend a hand and establish good karma as a result. Few people said no.

    It reached the point where Xu Qing was able to finish six or seven missions a night. His military credits were rapidly piling up, which was a very good feeling. What was more, the fact that he was going crazy on a mission ensured that his name was spreading in the county capital.

    He spent his days in the Corrections Division, where everything went on like usual. The boy never developed any further problems.

    One day about half a monthter, when Xu Qing had just walked out of D-132 to start working on missions again, an order came in on hismand sword.

    ¡°Xu Qing,e to the Swordsage Pce immediately!¡±

    The voice was cold, somber, and full of authority.

 Chapter 425: Coming With Ill Intentions

    Chapter 425: Coming With Ill Intentions

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked down somewhat suspiciously at hismand sword. The order came out of nowhere, and it didn¡¯t exin what it was about. The voice sounded familiar, though. After thinking about it, he realized it was Honor Guard Sima who was originally from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. That, in turn, made Xu Qing think of Zhang Siyun and the Yao n. His guard went up.

    What does Honor Guard Sima want with me?

    Even as he pondered the situation, hismand sword vibrated again. This time it was a voice message from Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°Xu Qing, did you just receive some orders?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing replied. Already he was getting an idea of what was going on.

    ¡°I knew it. It¡¯s the same with both little River and little Chen. Ai. I bet this is the aftermath of killing those Holytides.¡±

    Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t say anything more, as he was currently on his way to the Swordsage Pce.

    After one final bit of thought, Xu Qing left the Corrections Division.

    It was evening, and the dome of heaven was lit with red. And as the light shone down, it made thends below seem like they were covered with blood. Xu Qing nced down, then headed in the direction of the Swordsage Pce.

    The honor guard position was a very important one in the Swordsage Pce, and it came with a lot of authority. Honor Guard Sima had responsibilities rted tow enforcement, especially as it rted to swordsage rules. Therefore, no one would dare to ignore his orders, neither Kong Xianglong nor Xu Qing.

    Before long, Xu Qingnded outside the Swordsage Pce. Kong Xianglong and Duskspirit arrived at the same time.

    ¡°We die before telling the truth!¡± Kong Xianglong said quietly.

    Xu Qing nodded. Soon enough Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen were there as well, both of them looking very grim. Afternding next to Kong Xianglong and Xu Qing, Sir Mountain-River started cursing.

    ¡°Big Bro Kong. Xu Qing. What the hell is the Swordsage Pce up to? What exactly did we do wrong?¡±

    ¡°Little River!¡± Kong Xianglong snapped, ring at him.

    Sir Mountain-River gave a cold harrumph but didn¡¯t say anything further.

    ¡°Maybe there¡¯s more to the situation than urred to us,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We don¡¯t want to keep Honor Guard Sima waiting.¡± He walked in.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked at the furious Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen in his Smokewight doppelg?nger.

    ¡°We should make sure there are more witnesses around to see what happens,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen immediately knew what he meant, and took out jade slips. Duskspirit did the same.

    Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t stop them. That said, he slowed his walking pace a bit. Thus, the group entered the main gate of the Swordsage Pce. After walking for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, they eventually arrived at the Hall of Regtions.

    There were currently a few dozen people already gathered there. All had cold facial expressions and powerful cultivation bases. None of them wore Swordsage Pce uniforms. Instead, their garments were the color yellow, and had the character ¡®dao¡¯ embroidered on them. [1]

    As Xu Qing and the others approached, the gathered individuals looked over at them.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyebrows shot up, but he held back from saying anything about them. Stopping in front of the Hall of Regtions, he sped hands.

    ¡°Your humble servant Kong Xianglong hase at the behest of Honor Guard Sima.¡±

    Meanwhile, Wang Chen¡¯s Smokewight doppelg?nger leaned over to Xu Qing and whispered, ¡°They¡¯re Yao n cultivators.¡±

    Then he did the same as Kong Xianglong, sping hands and introducing himself. Xu Qing, Sir Mountain-River, and Duskspirit all followed suit.

    Afterward, a cold voice echoed out from within the Hall of Regtions, whereupon three people emerged.

    In the middle was Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather, who was Honor Guard Sima. To his left was an old man wearing the daoist robes of the Yao n. He emanated clear Spirit Trove fluctuations, and his eyes glittered as if with lightning as he expressionlessly sized up Xu Qing and the others.

    On Honor Guard Sima¡¯s right-hand side was an individual that caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict the moment he saw them. This person was not human. He was a Holytide. In fact, it was the very same middle-aged ck Guard cultivator that had shouted angrily at them when they fled the border. He was obviously an important person among the Holytides. His cultivation base was also in the Spirit Trove level, and from the fluctuations he emanated, he already had four secret troves. As he stood there, he coldly looked at Xu Qing and the others.

    To Xu Qing, it almost seemed like a cruel, ironic joke to see a Holytide here in the Swordsage Pce. Meanwhile, Kong Xianglong and the others were breathing heavily.

    Around this time, Honor Guard Sima looked at the old man from the Yao n and said, ¡°Steward Sun, they¡¯re here. You can go ahead and ask.¡±

    Steward Sun nodded, then sped hands and bowed to Honor Guard Sima. Next, he turned and looked coldly at Xu Qing and the others. Expression grim, he sternly said, ¡°You five have got a lot of gall! You haphazardly ignored right and wrong to, without any reason whatsoever, cold-bloodedly and brutally murder the emissaries sent to Sea-Sealing County by the Holytide people! The punishment for brazenly viting the agreement between our two species is the death penalty!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned slightly. There was something off about this man¡¯s wording. It wasn¡¯t about the killing, but rather how he mentioned ¡®haphazardly ignoring right and wrong¡¯ and ¡®without any reason whatsoever.¡¯

    That wording led Xu Qing to suspect that he was waiting for Xu Qing and the others to exin the reason for what they did. However... based on Xu Qing¡¯s training and understanding, he knew that they couldn¡¯t very well speak about the agent they had been sent to extract. Both species had agents in each other¡¯s territory. It was a tacit mutual understanding. But if you talked about it openly, that would change everything, and would make things very difficult. What was more, however they responded to this, it would reveal clues that needed to remain hidden.

    As Xu Qing thought about this, he assumed that Sir Mountain-River and the others wereing to a simr conclusion. They weren¡¯t fools. Therefore, nobody said anything.

    Looking confused, Kong Xianglong said, ¡°You think we murdered the Holytide emissaries? That¡¯s not even possible. We¡¯ve been working on our cultivation this whole time. You can go check the logs.¡±

    Steward Sun from the Yao n snorted coldly. Not wanting to get in an argument with a nobody like Kong Xianglong, he turned to the Holytide cultivator and respectfully sped hands.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Chen, see what I mean, sir?¡±

    The ck Guard cultivator looked at Xu Qing and the others, then suddenly smiled. Turning to Honor Guard Sima, he said, ¡°Honor Guard Sima. All of this started because, on the way here, the emissary delegation realized that they had a mole in their midst who was nning to steal Holytide relics. Because of that, the emissary issued orders for him to be arrested. Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t find him. It was in those circumstances that the delegation was ambushed and viciously ughtered by your Swordsage Pce.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that mole who was stealing from us was actually someone dispatched by your Swordsage Pce. Did you assign him to steal from us? Our two species have got along for many generations. Did the Swordsage Pce put you up to this, or perhaps it was Sea-Sealing County. Or is it something humans in general are doing?¡±

    The ck Guard cultivator¡¯s eyes glittered and he waved a hand to produce a jade slip. Instantly, it projected an image. Within that image, Xu Qing and the others were killing the fleeing half-Nascent Soul cultivator. The things Kong Xianglong said before fleeing were also clearly audible. Kong Xianglong stood there with his eyes glittering coldly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless, but his eyes were also ice cold.

    Honor Guard Sima didn¡¯t react visibly. After looking at the image projected by the jade slip, he shook his head. ¡°This was not done at the behest of the Swordsage Pce. We don¡¯t even have any agents in your territory.¡±

    Steward Sun from the Yao n coldly said, ¡°No agent? And they weren¡¯t on an extraction mission? That means that this was some sort of personal vendetta. Maybe they wanted to murder Holytide cultivators to start a war between the two species. These five havemitted an unforgivable crime! Men, arrest them and hand them over to the Holytides! Only in that manner can we pay homage to the dead heroes of our allies here!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the dozens of Yao n cultivators unleashed the power of their cultivation base as they started walking toward Xu Qing and the others.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shed with cold light. Kong Xianglong suddenly looked up, his eyes brimming with a vicious look.

    But then, a host of bright lights appeared behind them, speeding in their direction. Piercing sounds filled the public square as a host of figures descended. They were all swordsages. Specifically, they were swordsages who started out as cultivators in the Eight Sect Coalition. Over the years, most of those swordsages had been assigned to work in other prefectures, but today they were here in the county capital. Xu Qing had sent messages to all of them on the way here. They all burst with baleful auras as they took up positions around Xu Qing and the others. Then they cast malicious, contemptuous grins at the Yao n people.

    ¡°Interesting. Do you really think you¡¯re going to arrest swordsages right in the middle of the Swordsage Pce?¡±

    ¡°Come on, bitches. You want to deliver someone to the Holytides? Take me!¡±

    ¡°You want to ¡®pay homage¡¯ to dead Holytide ¡®heroes¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Ya bunch of bloody wankers!¡± [2]

    The swordsages unleashed their cultivation base power, causing their energy to surge, and filling the area with a killing air.

    The Yao n cultivators stopped in ce.

    Steward Sun opened his mouth to speak, but then a whistling sound rose up in the distance.

    Another group of swordsages was flying at top speed in their direction. There were over a hundred, all of them bursting with baleful auras. They were people who originated in the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order, and they hade at the behest of Wang Chen. As they neared, rumbling sounds echoed out, shaking heaven and earth.

    Chen Tinghao was in the group, and heughed coldly as he called out, ¡°How dare you make a move on one of us swordsages!¡± [3]

    The other Supreme Ancient Lightning Order swordsages shouted simr things.

    ¡°Who cares if a few damn Holytide cultivators died? Is that a big deal or something? I¡¯ve even eaten a few of them in the past!¡±

    ¡°Do you have any face at all, Yao n?¡±

    The Yao n looked around, feeling deeply shaken.

    But things weren¡¯t over yet. A momentter, more swordsages showed up. They were from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect and the Blood Chill Society. Altogether there were hundreds of them. The swordsages from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect had already been demonized, and were in the form of a host of greater demons. The mere sight of them was shocking to the core. The cultivators from the Blood Chill Society emanated a towering blood energy that kicked up powerful winds in the area. Their cold voices echoed out to fill the area.

    ¡°Maybe you can¡¯t act human, but does that mean you have to act like dogs?¡±

    ¡°Calling them dogs is an insult to dogs!¡±

    ¡°You scum are worse than dogs!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re very interested to see who would dare make a move on a swordsage!¡±

    Other simr curses echoed out.

    Thebined aura of so many swordsages shook the area, while countless cold, bloody, fiendish gazes locked onto the Yao n cultivators and the Holytide expert. Killing intent roiled, shaking everything. It seemed that the slightest move on the part of the Yao n would prompt the swordsages to crush all of them out of existence. Facing such an intense baleful aura caused the Yao n cultivators to shift in ce nervously. What was more, there were even more swordsages approaching as the moments ticked by, all of them pulsing with killing intent.

    Steward Sun saw all of that and was deeply shaken. He couldn¡¯t help but pant a bit as his pupils constricted. As far as he was concerned, this was a potential rebellion.

    ¡°Honor Guard Sima!¡± he said, turning to look at the honor guard. The Holytide ck Guard cultivator looked simrly grim.

    Meanwhile, Honor Guard Sima didn¡¯t betray any reaction at all. Smiling woodenly, he said, ¡°Steward Sun, I called these five here to give some face to the Yao Mansion. You got to ask your question, and you heard their answer. The situation isn¡¯tplicated. We didn¡¯t dispatch any so-called agents. And we obviously didn¡¯t kill the Holytide emissaries. As for that silly jade slip of yours, they¡¯re easy to make. If you¡¯d like, I can have a few more made and sent to youter.¡±

    Stroking his beard gently, Honor Guard Sima smiled faintly. ¡°The Swordsage Pce has done what etiquette requires. But you Yao n cultivators have foolishly gone and run your mouth here in the Swordsage Pce. The inuracies in your statement have provoked the wrath of these swordsages, and sadly, there¡¯s nothing I can do about that!¡±

    1. We learned in chapter 390 that cultivators from the Yao n have the character ¡®dao¡¯ on their uniform. ?

    2. In Chinese, this line of dialogue is a bit of dialectical cussing that makes it seem as if the speaker has a strong ent or is speaking in a non-standard dialect. ?

    3. West saw Chen Tinghao ¡°onscreen¡± in chapter 396, though he was mentioned a few times after that. ?

 Chapter 426: Walking Alone in a Dark Alley

    Chapter 426: Walking Alone in a Dark Alley

    ¡°You!¡± growled Steward Sun from the Yao Mansion. His expression was very unsightly as the baleful auras of hundreds of swordsages made them seem like a pack of wolves ring at him and the Holytide emissary.

    Inside, he was weeping bitterly. The truth was thating here this day wasn¡¯t his idea. Frankly speaking, it seemedpletely absurd for a Holytide toe to the Swordsage Pce and arrest some swordsages. Unfortunately, the Noble Marquis had given him clear orders to keep the Holytide emissary happy. Therefore, at this moment, he had no choice but to viciously grit his teeth.

    ring aggressively, he said, ¡°The Noble Marquis has issued clear orders. Take Kong Xianglong and his fourpanions into custody!¡±

    Honor Guard Sima frowned slightly. Meanwhile, a dour smile appeared on the Holytide ck Guard emissary, while an imperceptible glimmer passed through his eyes. The truth was that causing trouble for Kong Xianglong wasn¡¯t the real reason the emissary was here. His real mission was to assess the Yao n. During this entire time, he had been keeping a close eye on the facial expression of each member of the Yao n. What was more, he had been using a secret magic to determine whether or not their attitude was genuine or fake.

    When the dozens of Yao n cultivators heard the emissary¡¯s orders, they secretly groaned. However, because the orders had been given, they had no choice but to take action. As their cultivation bases red to life, they charged toward Xu Qing and the others. Just when it seemed open fighting was about to break out, a cold harrumph echoed out from the dome of heaven.

    ¡°What madness is this??¡±

    Mountain-toppling, sea-draining energy weighed down from above, crushing onto everyone present. The entire Hall of Regtions trembled, and everyone present reeled in heart and mind. That was especially true of the Yao n cultivators, who were suddenly as immobile as if a massive mountain were right on top of them.

    A figure descended from above. It was an old man with a thousand daos streaming in his eyes. That indicated that he was in the first stage of the Void Returning level, Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos.

    He wore a swordsage uniform, and the sky behind him rippled and distorted as countless illusory versions of himself stretched back upward, causing the entire Swordsage Pce to tremble. That was the sign of the second stage of the Void Returning level, Transform 10,000 Veracities.

    But there was more. As he descended, the space around him seemed to split apart. It was almost as if his every movement forward caused new worlds to be born, except they were like bubbles that existed for only a moment before popping. That was... the sign of the third stage of the Void Returning level, 100,000,000 Thoughts Split Heaven.

    That said, there weren¡¯t very many worlds around the old man, which indicated that he hadn¡¯t fully stepped into that third stage. He was only about halfway there. Even so, he was still immeasurably mighty, and his mere presence caused the entire Swordsage Pce to go silent.

    Xu Qing instantly recognized him. This man was the very same person who had appeared when he swore his swordsage oath. He was one of Swordsage Pce¡¯s deputy pce lords.

    Honor Guard Sima was the first to react. sping hands, he bowed and said, ¡°Well met, Deputy Pce Lord!¡±

    Xu Qing, Kong Xianglong, and the others quickly joined him, along with all of the surrounding swordsages.

    ¡°Well met, Deputy Pce Lord!¡±

    The deputy pce lord¡¯s face was expressionless as he looked at the clearly shocked Steward Sun.

    ¡°Screw off!¡±

    Steward Sun shivered from head to toe. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn¡¯t dare to. Instead, he bowed his head, sped hands to the ck Guard cultivator, then quickly led the Yao n cultivators away.

    Ignoring the Yao n, the deputy pce lord looked at the Holytide cultivator. ¡°As for you, you¡¯re an emissary, so I¡¯ll give you the time it takes an incense stick to burn to flee for your life. And that¡¯s only because we humans value etiquette. If you aren¡¯t back in Holytide territory by then, I¡¯ll personally cut you down.¡±

    Expression flickering, the ck Guard cultivator turned and raced toward the teleportationplex.

    When all that was done, the deputy pce lord turned to Xu Qing and the others. Snorting coldly, he said, ¡°You five sure have guts, don¡¯t you? Well, at the behest of the pce lord himself, I¡¯m sentencing all of you to a month in the Corrections Division! Honor Guard Sima, I want you to personally take them there!¡±

    Xu Qing kept his head bowed. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all sighed inwardly as they also kept their heads bowed. Only Kong Xianglong stood there tall and straight. He would only show fear in front of the pce lord himself. That said, he was a bit disappointed. He had worked very hard to avoid repercussions from their deviation from mission protocol, but in the end, still ended up getting thrown in jail.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Honor Guard Sima said somberly.

    Obviously, the deputy pce lord wanted him to escort Xu Qing and the others as a protector, just in case there were repercussions from the Holytides or the Yao n.

    ¡°What are the rest of you standing around gawking for? Get out of here. And remember, you¡¯re all swordsages!¡± With that, the deputy pce lord turned coldly and disappeared.

    Honor Guard Sima approached Kong Xianglong and the others. Looking them over, he eventually focused on Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯m a swordsage honor guard first,¡± he said, ¡°and a Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society cultivator second.¡±

    Perhaps an outsider might not understand what he meant by that. But given Xu Qing¡¯s background, he knew exactly what message was being sent. sping hands, he bowed deeply. That said, he wasn¡¯t quick to believe words. He would need more evidence before he was convinced.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll escort you to the Corrections Division.¡± Honor Guard Sima then led the way.

    Kong Xianglong looked at Xu Qing and breathed a sigh of relief. Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen blinked a few times, then edged closer to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± Sir Mountain-River said, ¡°since we¡¯re visiting your home, we¡¯ll stick close to you.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. All of them seemed relieved as they left with Honor Guard Sima toward the Corrections Division.

    ***

    In the city center of the county capital there was a round building that resembled an altar. It was veryrge, and had an open center. Inside of that open area were three ptial halls. One was ck, one was red, and one was white. There were many smaller side chambers attached to each hall, a wholework of majestic buildings and towers. Each of the three main pces had roof tiles of a different color and style. It was a very impressive sight.

    There was something very unique and unusual about this area. Though it seemed like the ptialplex existed within the altar, it actually didn¡¯t. If you stood within theplex and looked out, you wouldn¡¯t see the county capital. Instead, you would see an endless void with nothing in it. The ptialplex was the only thing that existed in that void.

    Within the white ptial hall were three people. Two of them sat opposite of each other ying Go. The third stood next to the board watching them y.

    One of the people ying Go was the pce lord. The person sitting opposite of him was a middle-aged schr in an embroidered robe. The schr had fair skin and seemed somewhat soft and feminine. Smiling faintly, he took a ck game piece, put it onto the board, and slid it into ce with his finger.

    ¡°Pce Lord, your gamey is very aggressive. If you¡¯re not careful, you¡¯ll be an arrogant dragon that flies so far over the horizon it can never return.¡± [1]

    Not looking up from the Go board, the pce lord said, ¡°I heard something I liked over in the Swordsage Pce just now.¡±

    The schr in the embroidered robe smiled. ¡°Oh, what was that?¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, the pce lord looked up at the schr. ¡°The Noble Marquis is a goddamn motherfucker!¡±

    This schr in his embroidered robe was actually the n lord of the Yao n. He was this generation¡¯s Marquis Yao, and thus, the person the governor and pce lords referred to with the respectful address ¡®Noble Marquis.¡¯

    The pce lord¡¯s words didn¡¯t seem to anger the Noble Marquis. In fact, he was still smiling. Standing, he turned to the person who had been watching the game. sping hands, he bowed. ¡°Governor, the game has been decided at this point. There¡¯s no point in continuing to y. I have Holytide guests to amodate, so I¡¯d like to take my leave and go receive them.¡±

    With that, Marquis Yao left, his garment swishing as he entered the dark void beyond the ptial hall. He seemed very lonely.

    The person who had been standing to the side and watching the Go game was an old man in a rough hemp jerkin. He looked like a very ordinary person, with kind eyes and not a hint of might or grandeur. He had even smiled and nodded in response to Marquis Yao¡¯s words a moment ago. This man was none other than the governor of Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°Exalted Governor,¡± the pce lord said, ¡°I still don¡¯t trust him.¡±

    The governor chuckled and sat down across from the pce lord. As he cleaned up the board, he quietly said, ¡°Brother Liangxiu, I¡¯m aware that you were intentionally ying the part of the ¡®arrogant dragon¡¯ in your gamey just now. You wanted to remind Yao Tianyan not to turn the ruse into reality, and thus make himself the arrogant dragon. [2]

    ¡°But remember, your role is to be the aggressive killer, while Brother Tianyan¡¯s job is to form alliances and friendships. The two of you are supposed to be as opposed as fire and water. That¡¯s the secret n the three of us devised years ago.

    ¡°For years now, people everywhere have been cursing the Yao n. They curse them for being shameless. They curse them as brainless. They curse them for being traitors. They curse them for intermarrying with nonhumans. They curse them for being arrogant and despotic. They call them worse than pigs or dogs.

    ¡°There are very few people in the Yao n who are privy to our n. And those who do know the truth are required to keep it a secret. They can only bitterly endure all of that hardship. Yao Tianyan... was an outstandingly gifted schr who shook the imperial city to the core. He was an amazing chosen cultivator. But now he bears the curses of all humanity on his shoulders. Things are a lot worse for him than you.

    ¡°All of that is thanks to my own uselessness. Because of me, Sea-Sealing County is unstable. Because of me, humankind continuously declines. Thus, we have no choice but to y out this strategy.¡±

    The pce lord didn¡¯t reply for a while. He just looked off into the distance. Then he said, ¡°Governor, there¡¯s no need for you to be so self-deprecating. Without your painstaking efforts, our Sea-Sealing County, which is so far away from the core of humankind here in the Holytide Region, would long since have been devoured by the Holytides.

    ¡°I understand everything you just said, and I also understand that he has a harder lot than me. I understand his sacrifice. But I¡¯m worried that there are people in the Yao n who are going to push things far enough that they really be a bunch of arrogant dragons.¡±

    The governor thought for a moment, then quietly said, ¡°He¡¯s a leader who has the interests of all humankind at heart. He has no choice but to move forward and forget about all his previous ambitions. Just like the Grand Duke Holytide of old. If you know the truth, yet still distrust him, then that means he¡¯s done a good enough job that the Holytides will likely never suspect him.¡±

    ***

    Evening was gone and the dome of heaven was dark. Thankfully, a bright moon hung above, casting light onto the world below, including the area round the Corrections Division.

    After escorting Xu Qing and the others there, Honor Guard Sima left.

    Kong Xianglong looked at the familiar prison and sighed. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit all looked crestfallen. Xu Qing led the way, calling out greetings to the jailers that met them. Then he watched as the cold-faced jailers got out the manacles.

    However... they didn¡¯t put manacles on Xu Qing. In fact, one of the jailers who Xu Qing was familiar with actually handed him a pair and asked him to help with the others.

    Xu Qing was the one to lock the manacles onto Kong Xianglong.

    It wasn¡¯t lost on Kong Xianglong and the others that the jailers smiled and chatted with Xu Qing, but hardly looked at them. They were already feeling a bit envious.

    He really does get special treatment...

    That was what they were all thinking

    Ol¡¯ Li was among the jailers. Eyeing Kong Xianglong and the others, he lowered his voice and said to Xu Qing, ¡°I heard about what happened today at the Hall of Regtions. Come on, we already have the cell block ready.¡±

    Winking, he led the way inside.

    And thus, Xu Qing and the other jailers led the chained-up Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit into the Corrections Division.

    They went to D-010, and when the door opened and Xu Qing looked inside, he smiled faintly. Although D-010 was a cell block, it had about thirty big jugs of alcohol stacked up inside, as well as stacks of food that surely cost a lot of spirit stones. Five cages had been specially prepared; inside of them were nice rush cushions perfect for use in meditation. It was all very simple, but definitely vastly nicer than what the normal inmates got.

    Kong Xianglong and the others were happily surprised, and looked at the cold-faced jailers.

    ¡°We heard what happened,¡± Ol¡¯ Li said coolly. ¡°Since you¡¯re being locked up as a punishment, we have to do our duty as jailers. But as swordsages, we think you did exactly what you should have done. You killed those who needed killing!

    ¡°We want you to feel at home here for the next month. Rest well. If you need anything, talk to Xu Qing. Xu Qing, you can¡¯t bex in tending to D-132, so feel free to go there as you please. Just make sure toe back here after your shift is over.¡± With that, Ol¡¯ Li and the other jailers gave them a long hard look. ¡°Finally, we want to say it one more time. You killed those who needed killing!!¡±

    With that, the jailers all took out theirmand swords and saluted Xu Qing and the others. After that, they turned and left.

    D-010 was quiet.

    Xu Qing walked over to the jugs of alcohol. Waving his hand, he sent a jug each flying to the others. With jugs in hand, they exchanged nces thenughed.

    ¡°Bottoms up!¡± Kong Xianglong said loudly, then he took a big swig.

    Chuckling, Xu Qing also drank.

    Everyone took off their manacles, as they weren¡¯t necessary inside the prison.

    And then, time passed. Being locked up together made the five of them think back to the time after they ughtered the ck Guard cultivators and fled. Laying in the grass, they had suddenly felt less like strangers, and had chatted extensively.

    Sir Mountain-River and Wang Chen frequently got into verbal sparring matches. Duskspirit spent all her time next to Kong Xianglong. Even a blind person could tell that she was in love with him. [3]

    As for Xu Qing, he would asionally leave for D-132. Other than the fact he couldn¡¯t leave the Corrections Division or do missions, things weren¡¯t very different for Xu Qing. Whenever he left D-010, he would go to D-132. After all, he was in charge of D-132, so if he didn¡¯t go there, it would be dereliction of duty. Xu Qing was not the kind of person who would ever be derelict in duty.

    Half a month flew by in the briefest of moments.

    To mortals, being locked up for half a month would be mind-numbing. But to cultivators, it wasn¡¯t very much different than going into seclusion for cultivation purposes. What was more, they had alcohol to drink and nice food to snack on. And they could chat with each other. In the end, the days were passed infort.

    However, one day when Xu Qing¡¯s shift ended and he stepped back into D-010, he could sense that something was off. Things were too quiet.

    1. The arrogant dragon is a reference to an idiom that, directly tranted, means an arrogant dragon with regrets and essentially corrtes to the English expression pride goes before a fall. ?

    2. Yao Tianyan: Yao is the surname of the Yao n. As mentioned before it¡¯s #51 on the list of 100mon surnames, and also means ¡°handsome, good-looking.¡± Tian means ¡°heaven, sky¡± and Yan means ¡°feast, banquet.¡± I included this name in a list of a handful of names to get reactions from Madam Deathde, and she initially responded, ¡°They¡¯re weird names that no sane parents would give their children.¡± Then about Yao Tianyan specifically, she continued, ¡°It means ¡®feast in heaven.¡¯ I mean¡­ his parents expected him to be the Monkey King and be part of the heaven realm?¡± So... lol. Anyway, I think you get the picture for Yao Tianyan. It¡¯s a sort of over-the-top, ostentatious, and fancy-sounding name. And incidentally, ¡°Liangxiu¡± is the given name of the pce lord. Later on when we find out his full name including surname, I¡¯ll exin what it means. ?

    3. Incidentally, the first hint that Duskspirit had a romantic interest in Kong Xianglong was actually in chapter 397. ?

 Chapter 427: Meeting the Best Friends

    Chapter 427: Meeting the Best Friends

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started racing. Normally speaking, when his shift ended and he returned to D-010, things would be lively.

    But instead of bantering with Wang Chen, Sir Mountain-River was seated cross-legged in the open area between the cages. He was working on cultivation. His facial expression was serious and determined, as if he were trying to make it very clear to any onlooker that he, Sir Mountain-River, was a person with staunch discipline. Maybe he was in jail, but he wasn¡¯t going to forget about cultivation. Any location could be a ce for Sir Mountain-River to hone his temperament.

    As for Wang Chen, his true form had emerged from his coffin. He sat cross-legged in his cage, his facial expression incredibly solemn. His hands were clenched into fists as if he regretted a huge mistake. Under his control, his Smokewight doppelg?nger was currently writing some sort of essay onto the wall of the cell. It was a very, very long article, and it appeared to be all about Wang Chen¡¯s faults. From the expression on his face, it really seemed that he was determined to criticize himself. Anyone who saw him would feel deeply moved.

    And then there was Kong Xianglong. His situation was more dramatically exaggerated than any of the others. He sat cross-legged in his cell, facing the wall, with his back to the door as he loudly gave voice to his regrets.

    ¡°I really messed up big this time, Duskspirit. The pce lord only locked us up for a month, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s enough. I need more punishment. I can¡¯t let the old man down. Come, Duskspirit. You stand in for the pce lord to beat me. Only if you do that on a daily basis will I feel slightly better.¡±

    As he spoke, Kong Xianglong¡¯s facial expression went from being regretful, to angry, to wistful, to proud. He seemed to be putting all of his inner distress and other emotions on full disy.

    Duskspirit stood behind Kong Xianglong, holding a rod in her hands. Nodding gravely, she said, ¡°The fact that you can admit your error shows that you¡¯ve grown up some, Big Bro Kong. You used to be too impulsive. But then again, I have my own faults. I think we need to keep each other in check.¡±

    As Duskspirit spoke, she viciously hit Kong Xianglong on the back with the rod, causing loud smacking sounds to echo out.

    After seeing all of this, Xu Qing bowed his head and quietly entered his own cell. Sitting down, he took out a bamboo slip and his iron skewer, then slipped manacles onto his wrists. His motions seemed smooth, almost rehearsed, as if he always did this whening back from his shift. With the manacles on, Xu Qing solemnly began using the iron skewer to carve all the swordsages rules onto the bamboo slip. Line after line, he wrote, as if he had done this day after day as a way to admit his faults. It really looked like he was pouring his thoughts onto the bamboo slip. What was more, the fact that he had put the manacles on himself made it seem like he was truly being strict with himself.

    Time ticked by. About an hourter, a cold harrumph filled the cell block.

    ¡°You¡¯re like a bunch of wolf pups. Very clever.¡±

    As the voice filled the cell block, the pce lord appeared. Sir Mountain-River looked up and, seeing the pce lord, quickly scrambled to his feet, sped hands and bowed, his face a mask of regret. Wang Chen also stood and bowed to the pce lord from within his cell. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it and averted his eyes, his facial expression full of regret. Kong Xianglong and Duskspirit did the same thing, as did Xu Qing.

    As they bowed in greeting, the pce lord sped his hands behind his back and walked around to inspect them.

    ¡°You five have got some skills. After your extraction mission, you actually chased the ck Guard cultivators all the way to the border! Since you obviously have so much energy to burn, I think I¡¯ll add to your burden. Sir Mountain-River, after you leave custody, you¡¯ll add a part time shift to your schedule at the Law Enforcement Office. You can spend time there catching criminals.

    ¡°Wang Chen, since you love sleeping in a coffin, you¡¯ll start working part time during the night shift with Patrol.

    ¡°You¡¯re adding a night shift too, Duskspirit. I happen to know that the Inspections Division is short-staffed. You can start working part time there.

    ¡°Kong Xianglong, you seem to have a hard time remembering swordsage rules. Therefore, your part time assignment will be in the Hall of Regtions. Your main responsibility will be lecturing people who break the rules.

    ¡°And as for you, Xu Qing, since you¡¯re so energetic, in addition to working as a guard in Unit D, you can start working part time as a Unit C jailer.¡±

    Everyone kept their heads bowed and looked as apologetic as possible.

    ¡°In addition, I¡¯m giving all of you a mission. I want you to run a secret investigation. We¡¯ve received reports from spies indicating that a lot of immortal puppets have appeared among the Holytides. We have the feeling the Demi-Immortals have brokered a secret weapons deal with the Holytides. It¡¯s a very sensitive matter, so I want all of you to use every skill and ability at your disposal to get to the bottom of it here in the county capital. Whoever can dig up hard evidence will receive a grade-two battle credit along with 500,000 military credits.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up, and the other four reacted simrly.

    500,000 military credits was a big sum, and that wasn¡¯t to mention a battle credit! Battle credits were very difficult to earn. In fact, for all intents and purposes you couldn¡¯t earn it. It was only given out when you went on an extremely dangerous and potentially deadly mission.

    To date, only Kong Xianglong had earned one battle credit, and it was only grade three. He had earned that previously when he epted a mission to go into deep cover in Holytide territory, at the risk of his life. But now they had a chance to earn a grade-two battle credit, merely by finding evidence that the Demi-Immortal and Holytides were working together.

    When the pce lord saw their eyes glittering, he nodded. Without another word, he turned and left. After he was gone, the cell block went quiet for a moment.

    Everyone exchanged nces, and they could all see how much they longed to earn that battle credit. Finally, they took deep breaths and went back to what they had been doing before.

    Two hours went by.

    Finally, Kong Xianglong cleared his throat. ¡°He¡¯s gone.¡±

    Sir Mountain-River exhaled and flopped onto his back.

    Wang Chen¡¯s Smokewight doppelg?nger disappeared, and his true form sighed. He had been putting on his act for so long he felt like his face was stiff.

    Duskspirit put away the rod and started tenderly applying medicine to Kong Xianglong¡¯s back. Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t seem worried about such minor injuries. He actually looked very pleased as he hefted a jug of alcohol.

    ¡°It¡¯s a good thing I reacted quickly, otherwise we would have been in big trouble. I just knew the pce lord was going to make a surprise inspection. Xu Qing, you did a wicked job of adapting. The pce lord knows what we¡¯re really like, but he¡¯s just too straightced. Everythinges down to the rules with him. Showing him what he wants to see is the real key.¡±

    Kong Xianglong looked around a bit nervously; whenever he mentioned the pce lord, he felt a bit antsy.

    Xu Qing took off his manacles and walked out of the cage, all the while thinking about the situation with the Demi-Immortals.

    Walking over, Wang Chen kept his voice low as he said, ¡°Big Bro Kong, how did you know the pce lord wasing?¡±

    Kong Xianglongughed heartily. ¡°I have my ways. And they¡¯re top secret!¡±

    ¡°Top secret? Well, never mind then. Oh, by the way, Big Bro Kong, are you very familiar with the Demi-Immortals?¡±

    Kong Xianglong shook his head. ¡°Not very. But I¡¯m confident I can get to the bottom of this immortal puppet situation. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡±

    Sitting back up, Sir Mountain-River said, ¡°Does this have something to do with ourst mission? Don¡¯t tell me that the intelligence report from that extraction mission was about this situation?¡±

    ¡°I doubt it¡¯s that simple,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Duskspirit¡¯s eyes shed. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter either way; the Demi-Immortals have crossed the line. Immortal puppets are essentially weapons of war. I can¡¯t believe they would dare to sell them to the Holytides!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no point in overthinking things, especially right now,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°Once we¡¯re out of here, we can all use our various methods of investigating the situation.¡±

    They continued to discuss the matter until it was time to rest.

    The remainder of the month flew by.

    ***

    One cloudy, rain-swept afternoon, the time came for them to be released.

    When the doors of the prison opened, Sir Mountain-River was the first to rush out into freedom. Wang Chen was right behind him. Kong Xianglong and Duskspirit weren¡¯t in as much of a hurry, and Xu Qing was more rxed. For Xu Qing, thest month hadn¡¯t been much of a deviation from his normal life.

    ¡°I hope we can all be together the next time we¡¯re all locked up,¡± Kong Xianglong said, sighing.

    Xu Qing was going to reply when something caught his attention in the distance.

    A woman approached, walking beneath an oil paper umbre, nked by a group of handmaidens. Her long, plum-colored garment swayed as she walked, making her look like a blooming violet in the rain. She was elegant, refined, and gentle as she waved at Xu Qing. She was none other than Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    When Kong Xianglong saw that someone hade to meet Xu Qing, he and Duskspirit turned to leave. ncing at Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he then looked at Xu Qing and winked. He looked like he was even going to say something, but then Duskspirit dragged him away.

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then approached Arch-Immortal Plumdark. As he neared, a handmaiden hurried forward, opened an umbre for him, and led him to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°Arch-Immortal,¡± he said by way of greeting, sping his hands and bowing. He knew she didn¡¯t like being addressed as ¡®Senior,¡¯ but just using her name didn¡¯t seem right, so he stuck with her title.

    She stood beneath her umbre smiling gracefully. Then she handed her umbre to him. He took it, and she stepped next to him so they were standing together beneath the same umbre. She had obviously spent time on her makeup, and her hair was coiled atop her head. Her face was absolutely wless, and though her eyes were always beautiful, there was something even more dazzling about them today. She looked natural, unrestrained, valiant, and formidable.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± she said with a smile.

    Considering she was so close to him they were nearly touching, Xu Qing felt very stiff. Looking up at the dark sky, he wondered where she nned to take him.

    Seeing his hesitation, she smiled softly and said, ¡°I¡¯m taking you to meet two of my friends. We talked about this before. Did you forget?¡±

    Her eyes shone in a way that would cause anyone she looked at to feel their heart racing.

    Xu Qing bowed his head in acknowledgement and let her lead the way.

    Together they walked, under the umbre. One wore a violet gown. The other wore a white robe. The colors created an obvious contrast, and when you added the rain into the picture, it made a lovely scene.

    Floating up into the air, they headed toward the city, specifically, a ce called the Apricot Flower Pavilion. It wasn¡¯t a restaurant. Rather, it was more like a private resort filled with small pagodas and kiosks, ponds, and waterside pavilions. Rising above the buildings were green pine trees and emerald cedar trees. Given the rainy weather, it looked very charming. There were ornamental rocks, flower arrangements, bonsai trees, vine formations and bamboo. All of it was immactely cared for.

    In the middle of it all was a four-sided pavilion where a few dozen handmaidens waited on call. Each of them was incredibly good-looking and youthfully exuberant. However, they were mere foils for the three women inside the pavilion. Just like the plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, these three women were all spectacrly beautiful, yet were unique in their own right. [1]

    One of the women wore a bluish-green daoist robe. She had bright eyes and pearly teeth and was currently ying a song on a flute. Her music drifted amidst the wind and rain, sounding very free and beautiful. [2]

    Another woman wore a dark blue gown tied with a green sash, which created the perfect contrast to her snow-white skin. She sat there very properly, and from her bearing, she seemed like someone from the Senior generation. Her fingers danced on the strings of a zither, which she yed inpany with the flute. The two instruments harmonized perfectly. [3]

    There was another woman present. She wore exquisite court attire, and had a face as pure as a lotus flower. Her expression was tranquil and indifferent, as though the impurities of the mortal world couldn¡¯t affect her.

    While the other two women sat, she stood. Her face was curved in faint smile, and as she looked up at Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Xu Qing approaching under the umbre, she spoke in a soft voice.

    ¡°Long time no see, Big Sis Plumdark.¡±

    When the woman in court attire spoke, the other two women stopped ying their instruments. The one with the flute and the daoist robe looked over and smiled amiably at Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    As for the woman in the blue gown with the zither, she looked like someone from the younger generation. When she saw who was approaching, especially Xu Qing, her fingers froze in ce, and aplicated expression appeared on her face.

    That woman was Yao Yunhui.

    1. The plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum are known as the ¡°four gentlemen (among flowers).¡± They convey pride, quietness, firmness, and brightness. Don¡¯t forget that ¡°Plumdark¡± is not a 100% direct trantion of her name, and the plum is referring to the color, not the fruit or flower. ?

    2. The type of flute mentioned here is a Western transverse flute, or a concert flute. In other words, it¡¯s themon type of flute from the West (as opposed to the ¡°dizi¡± flute that Arch-Immortal Plumdark taught Xu Qing to y). ?

    3. The Chinese text doesn¡¯t actually say what instrument she¡¯s ying. It emphasizes the act of ying the music on strings, rather than the instrument itself. However, based on the context and the word, it¡¯s fairly obvious she¡¯s ying a zither. In this case, it¡¯s a ¡®guqin¡¯ zither, which is much smaller than the ¡®guzheng¡¯ zither I mentioned a while back in the footnote. While the guzheng zither is usually ced on a stand, the guqin zither can just be put on a table. Here¡¯s what it looks like.</a> ?

 Chapter 428: Erniu! Yes? No?

    Chapter 428: Erniu! Yes? No?

    When Xu Qing saw Yao Yunhui, he frowned ever so slightly. Considering he hade here with Arch-Immortal Plumdark, he couldn¡¯t do anything more than that.

    As they approached the pavilion, the woman in court attire and the female cultivator in the daoist robe simultaneously looked at Xu Qing. When they realized that the two of them were sharing an umbre, their expressions turned slightly more curious. Looking Xu Qing up and down, their expressions flickered a bit, and they smiled.

    Xu Qing remained silent as he sensed the cultivation base pressureing from Yao Yunhui and the two other women.

    Those two were simr to Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Each one had a thousand streams of starlight in their eyes, indicating they were in the first stage of Void Returning.

    As Xu Qing took in his surroundings, Arch-Immortal Plumdark stepped into the pavilion and smiled.

    ¡°Long time no see, Big Sis Feihe, Little Sis Shitao.¡±

    The two women smiled in response. As for the woman in court attire, she¡¯d shifted her attention back to Arch-Immortal Plumdark, while the woman in the daoist robe was still looking at Xu Qing, her cheeks a bit flush.

    ¡°Big Sis Plum, who is this child?¡± asked the woman in the daoist robe.

    ¡°He¡¯s Xu Qing, whom I¡¯ve fallen in love with.¡± [1]

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s extremely bold words left Xu Qing at something of a loss. He had never imagined that she would be so direct with her wording. For the moment, he had no idea what to do. He wasn¡¯t the only one to be surprised. The woman in the court attire and the woman in the daoist robe were both visibly surprised. Then their eyes lit up.

    Only Yao Yunhui seemed to lose spirit.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes shifted away from her best friends. Indicating that he should sit, she gestured at the woman in the daoist robe and said, ¡°Xu Qing, this is Li Shitao, your Big Sis Li. She¡¯s one of the honor guards in the Administration Pce. And this is Yao Feihe, your Big Sis Yao. She¡¯s the younger sister of Marquis Yao.¡± [2]

    During the entire time, Arch-Immortal Plumdark hadn¡¯t spared a single nce for Yao Yunhui. She seemed to bepletely ignoring her.

    Xu Qing felt very out of sorts, but he kept his expression somber as he sped hands formally in greeting.

    Li Shitao blinked and covered her mouth as sheughed softly. ¡°So, you¡¯re Xu Qing,¡± she said yfully. ¡°Did you know that you¡¯re the first person Big Sis Plumdark has ever introduced to me like this? Now, you just have to tell us how you managed to get her so worked up about you!¡±

    Yao Feihe in her court attire was obviously a much more serious-minded person than Li Shitao. Instead of joking around with Xu Qing, she gently said, ¡°We heard that an outstanding chosen disciple had appeared in Big Sis Plumdark¡¯s sect. But seeing you in person is much better than simply hearing about you.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s straightforward manner of introducing Xu Qing ensured that these two women were very interested in him. Instead of acting like high-level cultivators, they seemed more like people his age. Because of that, a bit of joking around was inevitable.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been trying to meet up with Big Sis Plumdark for days now, but she kept putting us off. Now we know the reason. She had a little surprise in store for us.¡±

    ¡°And now it makes sense why she asked us about imperial-ss techniques and heavenly pcesst month. She must have been getting ready for you, Xu Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded seriously. There was simply no way he could rx in a situation like this, and was sitting there on pins and needles.

    Plumdark herself made him nervous, but now she was with her best friends and they were all bantering. To Xu Qing, who wasn¡¯t a wordy person, and had never done anything like this, it was simply too much to handle. However, the more he acted like that, the more Li Shitao wanted to tease him.

    ¡°What gives, Little Bro? Why so silent? Aiya, Big Sis Plumdark. This Xu Qing of yours is so shy!¡±

    Seeing that Xu Qing was at a loss for words, Arch-Immortal Plumdark smoothly turned the conversation topic around on her friends.

    ¡°How have things been the past few years? How are things going with you and Elder Brother Chen from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t even mention him!¡± Li Shitao said, sighing. She looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°Little Bro, do you happen to have any friends you could introduce me to?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment then nodded. ¡°I have an Elder Brother....¡±

    When Arch-Immortal Plumdark heard that, she cleared her throat to change the conversation topic. Looking at Yao Yunhui, she said, ¡°Who might this be?¡±

    Under normal circumstances, Yao Yunhui wouldn¡¯t have been so quiet. But today her aunt had forced her toe along for some reason. Truth be told, she¡¯d had no idea that her aunt, whom even her father had to treat respectfully, would actually turn out to be a close friend of Arch-Immortal Plumdark. [3]

    Sighing inwardly, and suppressing her mixed emotions, she rose to her feet and gave a curtseying bow to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°I¡¯m Yunhui. Well met, Arch-Immortal Plumdark.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark nodded slightly then looked at Yao Feihe. ¡°What exactly is going on here, Big Sis Yao?¡±

    ¡°Yunhui tends to be a bit rash. She made some mistakes in the past, so I brought her here with me so she could apologize to you and Xu Qing.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t lost on Yao Feihe that Arch-Immortal Plumdark had addressed her differently than before, which went to show how displeased she was. [4]

    Yao Feihe had originally simply nned to have her niece apologize to Plumdark. But after being introduced to Xu Qing, she realized what was really going on, and therefore she added him into the apology exnation. Yao Feihe was very different from Li Shitao. Li Shitao was energetic and yful, and would make friends with just about anybody, regardless of their social standing. But as the younger sister of Marquis Yao, things were different for Yao Feihe. She was very choosy about who she befriended.

    For example, Plumdark was from a distant sect that wasn¡¯t considered very powerful. But in terms of intelligence and aptitude, Plumdark was among the best of the best. You never knew where people like that might end up, and most definitely should not look down on them because they had humble beginnings. In fact, people like that could, seemingly in the blink of an eye, rise to much higher heights than her.

    What was more, Yao Feihe was one of the few people who knew the sacrifice her older brother was making on behalf of Sea-Sealing County. And thus, she knew more than anyone that though the Yao n seemed like an incredibly powerful n, it was really in a very precarious position. Of course, she couldn¡¯t reveal the truth to anyone. Because of that, she didn¡¯t want the Yao n making any more enemies than necessary. That was why she wanted to turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk.

    Her assessment of Xu Qing was simr. That said, he had a long way to go before he grew up, and she nned to keep a close eye on him going forward. After giving her exnation, she turned and looked sharply at Yao Yunhui.

    Yao Yunhui bowed her head and sped hands to Plumdark and Xu Qing.

    ¡°Yunhui has had a rough life,¡± Yao Feihe said softly. ¡°Her husband passed away young, and being a single mother isn¡¯t easy.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change, making it impossible to see if she agreed with Yao Feihe¡¯s assessment or not. Instead, she just started chatting with her two friends. Before long, the three of them wereughing merrily.

    Yao Yunhui continued to follow her aunt¡¯s previous instructions, and went back to ying the zither. As the music mixed with the sound of the wind and rain, it created a very pleasant atmosphere.

    For the entire time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a single thing. Now that he knew Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Marquis Yao¡¯s sister had a close friendship, he didn¡¯t feelfortable reacting at all to what just happened. Besides, whether or not the apology was real didn¡¯t have any bearing on his choices. He still nned to find an opportunity to put that mother-and-son team down for good. As the saying went, death solves all problems.

    With such thoughts on his mind, his cold eyes shifted to look at Yao Yunhui. As it happened, she had just looked up at him. Their eyes locked briefly, then Yao Yunhui instinctively looked away. At the same time, her zither twanged.

    Frowning in surprise, Xu Qing made sure to keep his guard fully up. He was convinced that Yao Yunhui was plotting against him, which caused killing intent to fill his heart. However, he kept it under control so it didn¡¯t show in his eyes.

    Thus, time passed. When evening fell, Arch-Immortal Plumdark said her goodbyes to her two best friends.

    Just before leaving, Li Shitaoughed softly and poked fun at Xu Qing a bit more. ¡°Little Bro, don¡¯t forget about that Elder Brother you said you¡¯d introduce.¡±

    Xu Qing looked back at her and nodded earnestly.

    Feeling very pleased, Li Shitao waved goodbye to Arch-Immortal Plumdark and then walked away.

    The rain had stopped. Arch-Immortal Plumdark and Xu Qing walked side by side back toward the subsidiary sect.

    ¡°Those two are good friends of mine here in the county capital. Li Shitao seems a bit frivolous, but the truth is that she¡¯s a very profound schemer. That said, she¡¯s a responsible person, so when things get tricky, you know you can trust her. As for Yao Feihe, she has grand ambitions that reach far beyond Sea-Sealing County. Unfortunately, she has few friends. Although she¡¯s cold and calcting, she lives by principle. For example, no one asked her to bring Yao Yunhui out to apologize. By the way, don¡¯t change your ns about Yao Yunhui based on that. Do what you believe needs to be done.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded thoughtfully.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark didn¡¯t say anything further. She led the way back, clearly in a very good mood.

    Xu Qing walked with her beneath the moon. By the time they reached the subsidiary sect, the wind had picked up.

    It carried the chill of winter with it.

    ¡°Winter is on the way. The autumn rains will pass soon....¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark turned to Xu Qing, and as the moon glittered in her eyes, she looked unusually beautiful. Reaching out, she gently adjusted his garment. As he stiffened, she smiled warmly.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± she said softly, ¡°can you speed up your cultivation...?¡±

    Giving him a deep look, she turned and entered the subsidiary sect. Her handmaidens curtseyed to Xu Qing and followed her. Soon, she and her plum-colored gown were nowhere to be seen, but the smell of her perfume remained.

    Xu Qing stood at the entrance of the subsidiary sect for a while, thinking about what she¡¯d just said. Finally he nodded, sped hands and bowed. Then he turned and left.

    Back at his sword pavilion, he found some new missions to earn military credits.

    In the following days, he worked nonstop to get military credits. Most of the missions he epted involved tracking down and arresting criminals. Because of that, he became familiar with the criminals in the city. That was especially true of one criminal who left a deep impression on him.

    That criminal had the same nickname as he did. He was called the Kid.

    Seven dayster when he had enough military credit built up, Xu Qing went to Level 9 in the Corrections Division. There, he spent a lot of military credits to apply for the D-001 guard assessment.

    Taking that test was the only way a jailer from Unit D could get promoted to Unit C.

    The test was to quell a prison riot in D-001. Doing so would qualify the applicant to be promoted to Unit C, and earn the qualification to visit the levels below Level 89.

    As far as the Corrections Division was concerned, Unit D and Unit C werepletely different. Thetter was very profound and mysterious, and the jailers there were brutal. They were all Nascent Soul cultivators, and any single one of them had a status that vastly surpassed any of the Unit D jailers. That was why all Unit D jailers dreamed of eventually being promoted to Unit C.

    The fact that Xu Qing was applying to take the test raised the notice of all the Unit D jailers. As they gathered to watch, Xu Qing stepped into D-001 on Level 88!

    Two hourster, the D-001 door opened and a figure staggered out, dripping blood. It was none other than Xu Qing. He was gasping for breath and wasme in one leg. Every step he took left behind a trail of blood. His arm was dislocated, and he had numerous grievous injuries all over him. Many of them went down to the bone. He had a wound on his back that went from the top of his head down to his waist. It was absolutely ghastly looking. What was more, he had a gash that went from his forehead to his right cheek, a wound so horrid the flesh hung down and it dripped blood.

    The prisoners in D-001 were from a variety of species, but all of them had nine-pce battle prowess.

    Their years of imprisonment had weakened them, but all were outstanding chosen from their respective species. Xu Qing had even used his taboo poison to defeat them, and still had paid a very high price to do so.

    The moment he stepped out, he coughed up a mouthful of chunky blood. Then he looked up at the jailers and smiled.

    ¡°All dead,¡± he said. Behind him, D-001 was ake of blood. There wasn¡¯t a single corpse visible.

    His taboo poison core had melted every single one of them. He could hardly have looked more ghastly.

    1. To forestall any questions about this passage, I want to state right here that the words spoken by Arch-Immortal Plumdark are as I¡¯ve tranted. She very directly says that she¡¯s in love with Xu Qing. The wording is slightly more fancy and romantic than themon Chinese term ¡®fall in love with,¡¯ but the meaning could not be more clearly stated. While there are many alternative ways to say ¡°fall in love with¡± in English, they all carry varying nuances, implications, and alternative meanings that I felt distract from the point. I wanted something that very simply conveys the meaning. As you can see from the way the others in the scene react to her words, it¡¯s borderline shocking that she would say something like this so directly. ?

    2. Li Shitao: Li is listed #2 on the 100mon surnames. Shi means ¡°poem, poetry¡± and Tao means ¡°peach.¡± Don¡¯t forget about that ¡°peach¡± part¡­. Incidentally, the ¡°shi¡± is not pronounced ¡°shee,¡± but rather, almost exactly like the English word ¡°sure.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds romantic and poetic. Yao Feihe: This is the Yao from the Yao n. Fei means ¡°fly, flying,¡± and He means ¡°lotus.¡± The ¡°He¡± is not pronounced like the English word ¡°he¡± but rather like ¡°huh.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds like a somewhat antiquated name for someone in the older generation. ?

    3. Just pointing out that the familial forms of address all coincide with the information we¡¯ve been given in previous chapters. Specifically, the word for ¡°paternal aunt¡± is used, indicating that Yao Feihe is the sister of Yao Yunhui¡¯s father. Back in 396 we learned that Yao Yunhui is the daughter of Marquis Yao, who appeared two chapters ago. ?

    4. Upon greeting Yao Feihe, Arch-Immortal Plumdark addressed her as Big Sis Feihe (using her given name). Just now, she switched to Big Sis Yao (using her surname). Using the given name is a sign of familiarity and intimacy, whereas using the surname makes things a bit more formal and distant. ?

 Chapter 429: A World in a Mural

    Chapter 429: A World in a Mural

    Usually, the only thing separating winter from autumn was a good snowfall.

    In the fifth month after Xu Qing arrived in the county capital, winter arrived along with the first blizzard. White snowkes filled the sky, falling to cover all the buildings and streets, and even the hair of the pedestrians. It painted the world silver, and made it seem like everyone in the city had white hair.

    The snow fell fast and hard. Outside of the Corrections Division, all the sword pavilions were quickly covered in snow.

    In the middle of the snowstorm, Xu Qing emerged in his swordsage uniform and made his way to the Corrections Division. Today was his first shift in Unit C.

    A few days after he passed the test by quelling the riot in D-001, he was officially no longer a Unit D jailer. Instead he was a Unit C jailer. That said, he wasn¡¯t nning to abandon his duties in D-132. He would still work part time as the guard of that cell block.

    The uniforms worn by the Unit C jailers were no different than those of the Unit D jailers. However, they had a ck badge on the cor, shaped like a tree branch. If you likened the Corrections Division to a tree, then the Unit D jailers were the leaves, while those from Unit C were the branches.

    As Xu Qing walked down the stairs, he could already sense the glory that came along with that badge. Everywhere he passed, the Unit D jailers sped hands and bowed, their expressions full of reverence. Xu Qing returned their salutes. Eventually, he reached Level 88. Then he passed Level 89. And finally he reached the stairs that led down to Level 90. There, he took a deep breath, his expression very somber.

    Level 90.... Taking a step forward, he continued.

    Clicking sounds rang out with each step he took; his footfalls were the only sound to pierce the quiet surroundings. The light that came into the Corrections Division couldn¡¯t reach Level 90, so everything around him was increasingly dark.

    Eventually, he reached the final step. There he stopped, looking around at Level 90. Things were different herepared to Unit D.

    The humidity ensured that the floor was covered with moss. It really felt like a different world, especially when he looked up. For one thing, though this floor was circr like those above, there were no cell blocks and no doors!

    There was only a mural that circled around the entire floor. The mural went from floor to ceiling, and depicted a sun, moon, clouds, rivers, mountains, buildings, and even living things! It looked like an entire world! However, the colors were very drab, making the mural seem dark.

    Shaken, Xu Qing suddenly found himself thinking about Sir Inkwell in D-132.

    A moment passed, and then Xu Qing stepped closer to the mural to examine it. When he did, his pupils constricted. The mural was so realistic that everything inside of it, including the clouds and rivers, seemed to be moving. It was like there really was a dark world inside the mural, and Xu Qing was standing outside of it, observing.

    ¡°Level 90 only has one cell block,¡± a cold, familiar voice said from behind Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing turned and saw a figure emerging from the shadows.

    It was a tall, burly old man who pulsed with incredible might. He had cold eyes and emanated a baleful aura that, if you focused on it long enough, would cause the sound of weeping ghosts and howling wolves to fill your mind. It was as if this man had killed too many living things to count, and their resentful souls swirled around him constantly.

    ¡°Greetings, Senior Ghost Hand!¡± Xu Qing said. This was the very same swordsage who had given the training lecture about the mostmon nonhuman species and their lethal weaknesses. Xu Qing had been his assistant in that lecture, giving him a close-up view of many of the corpses, as well as Ghost Hand killing a few of them personally. [1]

    He remembered Kong Xianglong mentioning that Ghost Hand was a jailer. However, in all the months Xu Qing had worked in the Corrections Division, he hadn¡¯t seen him once, which had led him to believe that Ghost Hand must work further down in the prison. As such, seeing him here wasn¡¯t a huge surprise.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s respectful bow caused Ghost Hand to look at him with even more approval.

    ¡°I remember you. You¡¯re the one who turned the tables on Ailing Ghost by poisoning him. You¡¯ve already been promoted to Unit C? Well done.¡±

    Though Ghost Hand was smiling, his baleful aura was so strong that the smile came across as very sinister. Most ordinary people would be scared witless by him. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t find it unusual. In fact, it seemed normal to him.

    When Ghost Hand saw Xu Qing wasn¡¯t reacting much, he liked him even more. Truth be told, the reason he had picked Xu Qing as his assistant during that training lecture was because he had already taken a liking to him.

    Walking up to stand next to Xu Qing, he looked at the mural and coolly said, ¡°Unit C jailers are all in the Nascent Soul level. Do you know why?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then answered, ¡°Because the Unit D inmates are kept under control in a different way than in Unit C?¡±

    ¡°I thought you were going to say it was because the inmates have stronger cultivation bases.¡± Ghost Hand grinned. ¡°Unit C convicts do have higher cultivation bases. There are both Nascent Soul and Spirit Trove inmates here. But that¡¯s not the main point. The main point... is that only Nascent Soul jailers can bear the weight of the natural and magicalws that govern the minor worlds here.¡±

    ¡°Laws of minor worlds?¡± Xu Qing asked, still studying the mural.

    ¡°Unit C consists of Level 90 to Level 122. There are thirty-three levels in total. The cell blocks are not like they are in Unit D. Instead, every level has a mural like this. And every mural is a minor world! There are thirty-three minor worlds that form the cell blocks of Unit C!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he realized that his spection about the mural was correct. After experiencing the Supreme Void World, he knew a thing or two about how minor worlds worked. That said, he was still deeply shaken by what the Corrections Division had done here.

    Thirty-three minor worlds make up the cell blocks of Unit C. What about Units B and A? What are they like...?

    Xu Qing took a deep breath.

    ¡°I¡¯m in charge of World 1,¡± Ghost Hand continued, ¡°and thus manage the jailers who do the guard work there! Your new assignment is to be a jailer in World 1. However, given that your cultivation base isn¡¯t in the Nascent Soul level yet, you couldn¡¯t sustain thews of the world. So for now, I¡¯ll take you on a little tour so you know what the ce is like.¡±

    Ghost Hand exhaled, sending a stream of ck mist to the mural. As the mist spread out, the mural suddenly became very colorful. Instead of being dark and muted, it was now full of life.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Ghost Hand sped his hands behind his back and stepped toward the colorful mural.

    Xu Qing followed Ghost Hand into the mural, in other words, into World 1.

    What he saw first was a vast, endless void. Then he noticed a graynd mass off in the distance, covered with what looked like a crimson dome of light. It looked almost like a shell filled with countless spell formation and warding spells. There were millions upon millions of magical symbols that made them up, and altogether they formed an astonishing sealing power that kept the entirendmass tightly shut off.

    The magical symbols glittered brightly in a special pattern, making it clear they were inpliance with some sort of specialws.

    In addition to the magical symbols, there were four illusory statues situated around thendmass. They were enormous, and were clearly not shaped like humans. Instead, they looked like wild beasts. The head of each statue was just asrge as thendmass itself, and were located to the east, south, west, and north. All of them were looking down at thend mass itself. Their gazes converged to make the sun and moon. And as the spell formations and magical symbols glittered, the statues rotated, creating the cycle of night and day.

    It was an astonishing scene that left Xu Qing deeply shaken.

    ¡°This is World 1,¡± Ghost Hand said. ¡°The void you see was personally extracted by the first pce lord, and brought here to mask the aura of World 1. You can think of the magical symbols on the dome as the natural and magicalws that govern the world. They were created by the Swordsage Pce. As for the four statues, they are the embodiments of this world¡¯s heavenly dao. And now, leave your personal mark in the spell formation, that way you can go in without being crushed by thews.¡±

    Ghost Hand stepped forward, passing through the spell formations and sealing marks, and floating down toward thend mass.

    Xu Qing quickly performed an incantation gesture and ced his personal mark on the dome, then followed.

    As thend mass filled his field of vision, he descended, moving through the clouds. Below, the minor world stretched out in all directions, filled with all sorts of terrain features.

    ¡°This world was created in ordance with the firstw put in ce when the prison was built. Outside living beings are not allowed to reproduce here.¡±

    Xu Qing followed as Ghost Hand led the way down. Looking around the minor world, he saw that it was rtivelyrge, and that the immediate area featured a desertndscape. There wasn¡¯t much spirit energy, to the point that he initially felt like he was suffocating. It was as if his entire body was being restricted by some invisible force. Given the mountainous weight crushing down on him, he doubted that he could use ten percent or even one percent of his full strength.

    Thankfully, the spell formations in the dome adjusted quickly, allowing him to rx a bit. That alone gave him a new understanding of how the prison worked.

    The climate in the minor world was horrid. From a vantage point high in the sky, it was possible to see sandstorms here and there, all of them filled with the power to scrape flesh from bones. In some ces, acid rain fell, and the living beings beneath it howled in grief. In some ces maic tempests raged, causing heavenly lightning to fall with deadly force.

    ¡°There are so many nonhumans and grues imprisoned in the thirty-three worlds that you could never count them. They live in torment in the minor worlds, unable to control their own life or death. After all, the naturalws here are all controlled by the Corrections Division.¡±

    He waved his hand, and the desertndscape changed. Mountains suddenly rose up, and great rivers spread out across thends. However, he wasn¡¯t finished. He waved his hand again, and the mountains instantly disappeared. Water vapor began to gather, and seawater bubbled up from thend until they were in a huge sea. Mountain-hurling, sea-draining force could be unleashed with the wave of a hand.

    Xu Qing looked at it all with a very serious expression.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you know why the prison is so fear-inspiring?¡± He looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Because of what it takes away,¡± Xu Qing replied somberly.

    ¡°Exactly. We take away what used to belong to the prisoners. Things that they took for granted be things they can only dream about. And that creates a torment that gnaws at the heart. The principle behind the thirty-three worlds is to use magicalws as prison cells. All Nascent Soul cultivators imprisoned in World 1 are subject to how the world works. They¡¯re still in the Nascent Soul level; we don¡¯t limit their cultivation base. But they are Nascent Soul cultivators from a minor world.

    ¡°In the Revered Ancient maind, a four-me Foundation Establishment cultivator is roughly equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator from a minor world. And a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly pce is about the same as someone in the mid Nascent Soul level.

    ¡°The inmates here are used to being able to call the wind and summon the rain with their techniques in Revered Ancient. But here, they¡¯re much weaker. They¡¯re restrained by heaven and earth, and they can feel it. Because of that, the outside world is a beautiful ce they can only dream of seeing. And that is their torment!

    ¡°What they once had has been taken away. What they once took to be simple has turned into a longing for extravagance. This is how Unit C works.¡±

    1. Ghost Hand¡¯s lecture was in chapter 401. ?

 Chapter 430: Jailers Supreme

    Chapter 430: Jailers Supreme

    In World 1 of the thirty-three worlds in the Corrections Division, the sun hung high in the sky, emanating intense heat that baked thends below.

    There was no broken face of a god in the sky, yet the mutagen in the world was very strong. Mutagen was ubiquitous in the Revered Ancient maind, and it didn¡¯t just affect the continent itself, but also any minor worlds connected to it.

    Neither the sun nor the moon here was the resting ce of a god. Instead, the light came from the eyes of the heavenly daos, which were creations of the Swordsage Pce. As the sunlight of their gaze shone down through the clouds, an old man and a young one appeared in the sky.

    The old man was, of course, Ghost Hand, and the young one was Xu Qing.

    ¡°Unit C jailers have simple work,¡± Ghost Hand said as he led the way down. ¡°They patrol this world. You¡¯re not the only jailer assigned here. Including you, there are a total of sixty-seven. In terms of the patrol route and the scheduling, that will all be arranged before you arrive for duty. For now, I¡¯ll take you around to let you start getting familiar with the ce.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said respectfully.

    ¡°Also, Xu Qing, as a Unit C jailer, you get two big perks.¡± Grinning, Ghost Hand took out a gon of alcohol and drank a mouthful. ¡°The first perk is that you have no limit on the number of prisoners you can kill per month. That said, don¡¯t go overboard.

    ¡°The second perk is the one that Unit C jailers care the most about. And that¡¯s rted to enlightenment opportunities in the minor worlds. The natural and magicalws here are under the control of the jailers. As a result, you can seek enlightenment of the operations of heaven and earth, and can even do research into the formation of the dao of heaven.

    ¡°Those things will be critical when you break into the Spirit Trove level. The secret troves of the Spirit Trove cultivators are all governed by a heavenly dao.

    ¡°Right now you aren¡¯t even in Nascent Soul. That said, the earlier you start seeking enlightenment, the better it will be for you. Once your cultivation base is high enough to go on patrol, your senses will lead you to the spots where you can benefit. As for how much you benefit, that will be up to your personal good fortune.¡±

    Xu Qingmitted that to memory. It was his first time hearing much at all about Spirit Trove. Though he could obviously ask questions of his Master or Arch-Immortal Plumdark whenever he wanted, just this offhand remark from Ghost Hand had given him new insight. sping hands, he bowed thankfully.

    Ghost Hand grinned and took another swig of alcohol. As they passed through a vast wilderness, Ghost Hand looked down and chuckled.

    ¡°Right. I forgot to mention that, as a jailer, you should asionally scatter some provisions when you go on patrol.¡±

    He waved his hand to toss out some shriveled medicinal pills that contained vast amounts of mutagen and only scraps of spirit energy.

    Licking his lips, he said, ¡°Watch. The fun¡¯s about to start.¡±

    Ghost Hand looked off into the distance, and Xu Qing followed his gaze. Suddenly, the wilderness ground in that direction exploded as a host of scrawny figures burst out into the open. Some of them were human, but the vast majority were nonhumans in all shapes and sizes. There were even some spirit nts among them. They rushed forward with madness and longing in their eyes. And as they closed in on the shriveled pills, they began unleashing brutal attacks on each other. To them, even those shriveled pills could be considered treasures, and it had already driven them into a state of madness.

    Xu Qing saw a nonhuman with six arms and blue scales who grabbed one of the pills only to lose half an arm in the process. He didn¡¯t seem to care. After throwing the pill into his mouth, a look of contentment filled his face. Then he turned to flee. He wasn¡¯t fast enough. A group of several nonhumans fell on him and ripped him to shreds, all to get some of the lingering effects of the medicine.

    In another area, a group of about a hundred inmates with bloodshot eyes were fighting fiercely among themselves. In the end, one of them came out victorious and covered with blood. The pill was also covered in gore, but he consumed it without hesitation.

    Simr scenes yed out everywhere. Every single pill resulted in fierce and violent fighting.

    Before long, the surrounding wilderness was littered with corpses. The survivors noticed Xu Qing and Ghost Hand up in the sky, and reverently dropped to their knees to kowtow. It was almost as if they were bowing to gods.

    ¡°This is where we¡¯ve been putting the liveliest prisoners over thest hundred years or so, which is why things got so spirited.

    ¡°That Sixarm that got ripped to shreds was once a seven-soul cultivator who murdered a cultivator from the Administration Pce. On the outside, he had quite a fierce reputation. But in here, it doesn¡¯t matter that he was in the Nascent Soul level. Once part of a minor world, he was incredibly weak.¡± [1]

    ¡°See that Wingflyer? The one with the wings on his back? I arrested that one personally. He was really incredible on the outside. As an eight-soul cultivator, he terrorized Daybreak Prefecture. What do you think it¡¯s like for them to think back to when they could call the wind and summon the rain, all while being weak and powerless in here?¡±

    Ghost Hand grinned.

    Xu Qing looked around and noted how all the inmates had such weak cultivation bases. Clearly, some of them were in the Nascent Soul level, and yet they seemed weak enough that he could kill them as easily as turning over his hand.

    ¡°They all covet those shriveled pills because they live in a ce almostpletely bereft of spirit energy. If they want to keep on living, then they need to keep their cultivation base intact. Therefore, they have to be willing to die at least once to get those pills.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. What Ghost Hand said seemed strange. In order to avoid dying, they had to be willing to die? It seemed contradictory.

    Ghost Hand chuckled and said nothing further as he led Xu Qing onward.

    They passed mountains and deserts until they eventually reached a sprawling in.

    Looking around, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. As far as the eye could see, there were figures seated cross-legged in meditation. Just about every species imaginable could be seen, and all of them sat perfectly motionless with their eyes closed. They all had very weak life force. And the in upon which they sat had a shocking spell formation built into it that slowly extracted their life energy and cultivation base.

    ¡°The main rule that governs this ce is something we call the Reset. Other than the inmates killed by jailers, everyone who dies here experiences the Reset on a monthly basis. When that happens, they get resurrected, missing some of their memories, and their record wiped clean.

    ¡°After dying enough times, they eventually be like the walking dead,pletely bereft of any memories. Then they wander mindlessly here, where they be a power source for the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure.

    ¡°Xu Qing, most inmates consider losing memories to be the most painful thing imaginable. That¡¯s because their memories remind them of what it was like outside, and how much better it was than here.

    ¡°At the same time, their memories make them an individual, so they view them as priceless. Losing memories means losing themselves as a person. Therefore, the idea of slowly losing their memories fills most of them with terror.

    ¡°If they don¡¯t fight for those pills, then they can¡¯t replenish their spirit energy, and they¡¯ll die sooner. That¡¯s why most of them are willing to die trying to get a pill, just in the hopes of ultimately dying less. It¡¯s a case of drinking poison in the hope of quenching one¡¯s thirst. Wonderful, eh?¡±

    Ghost Handughed maliciously.

    Xu Qing nodded. He had alreadye to a good understanding of Ghost Hand¡¯s personality during that training lecture. As he studied the area, he noticed one section that looked different. The ground there was crimson red, something that was particrly noticeable from up in the air. Seated cross-legged there was a group of over forty Demi-Immortals.

    Xu Qing recognized one of them.

    It was the very same one Ghost Hand had brought along during his lecture on the fatal weaknesses of various species.

    Noticing where Xu Qing was looking, Ghost Hand took a swig of alcohol and said, ¡°Due to the three-species treaty, there¡¯s nothing we can do about them. Demi-Immortals can only be locked up for ten years before we have to hand them back to their people.

    ¡°Though you can¡¯t erase many memories in that short a time span, you can do a bit. That said, about three hundred years ago the governor showed mercy. In the interests of continuing our friendship with the Demi-Immortals, he issued orders prohibiting us from tampering with Demi-Immortal memories. From that point onward, Demi-Immortals get thrown directly to this spot to serve as temporary spirit stones.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Then he thought back to the secret mission to find out more about the immortal puppets that the Demi-Immortals could create.

    ¡°Senior Ghost Hand, have you ever fought any of the Demi-Immortal¡¯s immortal puppets?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Immortal puppets? Of course I¡¯ve fought them. But those things are vile. They¡¯re full of mutagen and very difficult to defeat. They can also repair themselves on the spot.¡± Ghost Hand looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Are you interested in immortal puppets?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°I suggest you ask the lieutenant governor for guidance. He¡¯s extremely knowledgeable about many things, and I know he¡¯s done some deep research into immortal puppets. Anyway, let¡¯s not waste time talking about that now. We need to keep going. There¡¯s more I need to show you.¡±

    Ghost Hand continued onward and Xu Qing kept pace.

    The two of them flew across the astonishing in until they saw a vast sea and a withering jungle. asionally Ghost Hand would throw out some medicinal pills, which would lead to vicious life-or-death struggles like the one Xu Qing had already witnessed. They sometimes ran into other Unit C jailers, all of whom were in charge of different areas. When they saw Ghost Hand, they would sp hands respectfully. Ghost Hand would introduce Xu Qing, and the Unit C jailers would study him and nod. That said, most of them treated him fairly coldly.

    ¡°Once you can sustain the natural and magicalws of this ce, and start going on patrol, they¡¯ll warm up to you. Right now, though... you¡¯re not good enough.

    ¡°By the way, do you know why they treat me with respect? It¡¯s not because I¡¯m in charge of this world. Every single one of these jailers is a proud person, and many have cultivation bases superior to my own.¡±

    Ghost Hand looked very pleased with himself as he took another drink of alcohol. It wasn¡¯t an expression hemonly wore on his face.

    Xu Qing looked at him curiously, wondering about the answer to the question.

    Ghost Handughed heartily and pointed at his own head. ¡°I¡¯m old and have average talent. I reached Nascent Soul eight hundred years ago, but have never been able to break into Spirit Trove. But during my entire life, I¡¯ve never used The Emperor¡¯s Sword! Mine has been powering up for eight hundred years! Once I unleash it, the results will be heaven-shaking and earth-shattering!¡±

    ¡°Eight hundred years?¡± Xu Qing said, looking surprised. The Emperor¡¯s Sword became more mighty the longer it was powered up. He hadn¡¯t forgotten the story of a Nascent Soul cultivator who powered up The Emperor¡¯s Sword for two thousand years, and then used it to kill a Void Returning expert. Of course, that was just what he had read in the description; he had never seen it actually used that way.

    Today was the first time he had encountered someone who had actually been powering up the sword for nearly a thousand years. It was no small task. When cultivators fought to the death, you couldn¡¯t just hold back from using the sword if you reached a critical moment in which your life was on the line. Being able to power the sword up for that long would obviously require luck and destined opportunities.

    When Ghost Hand noticed the look on Xu Qing¡¯s face, he looked even more pleased than before.

    ¡°Since I¡¯m a jailer, I think of The Emperor¡¯s Sword as a tool to use when watching over this world.

    ¡°I¡¯ve already thought everything through. One day when my longevity is running out and I can¡¯t be a jailer anymore, I¡¯ll go look for the strongest nonhuman I can find that I don¡¯t like, and kill them. If I can eliminate something that might be harmful to humankind, then my life will not have been in vain, and my death will be worthwhile.¡±

    Hearing that caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter with admiration. Yet again, he sped hands respectfully to Ghost Hand.

    Clearly, Ghost Hand was very proud of the sword that he had been powering up for eight hundred years. Seeing the show of respect from Xu Qing, heughed heartily, took another long swig of alcohol, then led the way forward.

    In that manner, a number of hours passed quickly. Ghost Hand led Xu Qing around, allowing him to get familiar with the world. Eventually, they prepared to return to the Corrections Division.

    Just before leaving, Ghost Hand looked over his shoulder at something, and his expression turned grim. His gazended on a withered forest. Among all the dead trees was one towering tree that, despite being as wilted as the others, still seemed mighty. On the side of the tree was an ancient face. The eyes of that face slowly opened, revealing two green eyes that looked up fearfully at Xu Qing and Ghost Hand.

    ¡°Greetings, exalted Ghost Hand.¡±

    Expression dour, Ghost Hand coldly said, ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you not to leave your spot? And yet you disobeyed my orders and came here.¡± Turning to Xu Qing, he exined, ¡°Remember this fellow. He¡¯s not an ordinary treant. He¡¯s actually the only Wood Spirit in the entire Corrections Division. Though his species isn¡¯t much to talk about nowadays, in the past... they were incredible.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down at the Wood Spirit.

    ¡°Before Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the ruler of Revered Ancient was Emperor Ancient Spirit, who was a member of the Ancient Spirit species. Back then, the Ancient Spirits were the top species in Revered Ancient, and were asionally called the Heavenfates. Emperor Ancient Spirit had five generals associated with the five elements, and each one started one of the species¡¯ main bloodlines. [2]

    ¡°After he perished, the Ancient Spirits¡¯ bloodlines slowly ceased to exist, and the five generals were all killed. Eventually, only the Wood Spirit branch remained here in Sea-Sealing County. They¡¯re generally peaceful and live in harmony with those around them. But this one has a different personalitypared to other members of his species. He¡¯s bloodthirsty. Three hundred years ago, he caused great turmoil before I finally managed to quell him and imprison him here.¡±

    1. As you can see in this paragraph, Nascent Soul cultivators are categorized by how many nascent souls they have (just as we categorized Foundation Establishment with mesmps and Gold Core with heavenly pces). For ease of reading, I will generally say ¡°one-soul cultivator, two-soul cultivator¡± etc. That said, I have to mention yet again that the ¡°soul¡± in ¡°nascent soul¡± is different from the general word for soul. I have an entire chapter in my book Understanding Chinese Fantasy Genres about nascent souls. Suffice it to say, the character in that term has literally nothing to do with souls. This specific trantion choice is one I regret a lot, but ¡°nascent soul¡± has already be part of themon xianxia nomenture. ?

    2. Simr to the Demi-Immortals and Woe-Immortals, the Ancient Spirits are a species. The ¡®spirit¡¯ in the name of their species doesn¡¯t necessarily imply that they are actual ¡®spirits¡¯ of some sort. ?

 Chapter 431: A Bamboo Skewer for Qing Qiu

    Chapter 431: A Bamboo Skewer for Qing Qiu

    Ghost Hand flicked his sleeve, causing numerous bolts of heavenly lightning to form. As they smashed down, he snorted coldly and left.

    Xu Qing looked down at the Wood Spirit with his ravaged body. Then he turned away to leave.

    Down below, the huge tree trembled and looked up with a bitter expression. Then his gaze locked onto Xu Qing. His right wrist has a spirit aura thread on it....

    A few hourster, at the far end of the minor world, Ghost Hand finished the tour.

    Before they left the world, Xu Qing begged Ghost Hand to let him experience what it was like to directly sustain the natural and magicalws. After all, he would need to do that eventually or else he would never be able to do patrol work, in which case, being a Unit C jailer would be meaningless.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Ghost Hand asked, eying him. ¡°Sustaining the weight of a world¡¯sws is something only Nascent Soul cultivators can do. Though a Gold Core cultivator mightst for a while, perhaps four or five breaths of time, they¡¯ll ultimately copse under the weight.¡±

    After some thinking, Xu Qing sped hands and nodded in the affirmative.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Without another word, Ghost Hand ceased to bear the weight for Xu Qing.

    Instantly, rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing, and he felt like countless mountains were crushing down on him. Cracking sounds rang out, and his soul trembled. He felt like he might soon be ripped to shreds.

    Ghost Hand shook his head and was about to retract the power when Xu Qing unleashed Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. His fleshly body power skyrocketed, and he began to fight back. It was obviously very hard, as he was trembling from head to toe. Yet as each breath of time passed, Ghost Hand¡¯s expression grew more and more surprised.

    After a hundred breaths of time passed, Xu Qing looked up at Ghost Hand. ¡°Senior, I can sustain the naturalws for this long.¡±

    Ghost Hand¡¯s eyes slowly began to shine. ¡°Not bad, boy. You¡¯ve got an impressive fleshly body as well as an amazing soul. Most cultivators with a simr cultivation base aren¡¯t able to do that.¡±

    Ghost Hand flicked his sleeve, and the pressure on Xu Qing faded as Ghost Hand once again assumed the burden.

    Xu Qing shivered. He could sense that in that short one hundred breaths of time, his fleshly body power had improved slightly. It felt like a re-tempering. His spirits lifted.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky, though. Although not a lot of Gold Core cultivators can do that, you aren¡¯t the only one.¡± Ghost Hand grinned, and without another word performed an incantation gesture to pull himself and Xu Qing out of the minor world.

    Soon they were outside in the void.

    On the return trip, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel any cockiness because of the hundred breaths of time. At the same time, he found himself wondering about the Ancient Spirit species, so he asked Ghost Hand for more details.

    ¡°The Ancient Spirits?¡± Ghost Hand thought for a moment. ¡°They were a fantastic species. Historically speaking, I think it makes a lot of sense that they used to be called the Heavenfates.

    ¡°Supposedly, they had innate abilities that were absolutely shocking. I guess they¡¯re rted to destiny auras. They could use them to bless themselves, but could also use them to bless outsiders. I¡¯m not really sure of all the details.

    ¡°ording to the stories, Emperor Ancient Spirit tried to use the destiny aura of Revered Ancient to break past the Ancient Emperor level and into a higher realm. He failed, thus wasting the destiny aura. In a single night, ny percent of his bloodline was wiped out of existence, and that ended the era of the Ancient Spirits.¡±

    Around that time, the two of them emerged from the mural back onto Level 90.

    ¡°We¡¯ll stop here for today. Since you can sustain thews for a time, then going forward you should be able to slowly limate. We¡¯ll have to see how far you can take it before we can determine if you have what it takes to go on patrol.¡±

    After offering a few more words of encouragement, Ghost Hand turned and left, sipping alcohol along the way.

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully. Feeling mentally drained, he left the Corrections Division and went back to his sword pavilion. Along the way, he thought back to everything he had seen and learned in the minor world. The methods employed by the Swordsage Pce were nothing short of astonishing. He also found himself thinking about those Demi-Immortals he¡¯d seen.

    Demi-Immortals.... If I want to investigate the immortal puppet situation, I¡¯m going to have to get close to some Demi-Immortals or Holytides. Otherwise, I¡¯ll never get any information.

    He really wanted to run a thorough investigation, no matter how many difficult obstacles he had to ovee. After all, there were 500,000 military credits on the line, as well as a chance at a grade-two battle credit. Going to Mount Daybreak wasn¡¯t going to just require military credits, he also needed battle credits. After analyzing the situation, his heart started pounding.

    There¡¯s another option. If I can get my hands on an actual immortal puppet, then maybe I could figure out how the Demi-Immortals make them.

    Then he thought about what Ghost Hand mentioned, that the lieutenant governor had done research into immortal puppets. Taking out his swordsagemand sword, he paid the military credits to get a consultation with the lieutenant governor.

    Everyone in the county capital talked about how knowledgeable the lieutenant governor was. Because of that, he was usually someone people sought for advice. Normally speaking, though, the lieutenant governor had plenty of administrative work to do to help the governor. Therefore, you had to submit an application if you hoped to spend any time asking him questions.

    As it turned out, Xu Qing got lucky. About an hour after he got back to his sword pavilion, the lieutenant governor responded to his application.

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡±

    Taking out his jade slip, he respectfully replied, ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor.¡±

    ¡°How can I help you?¡± The lieutenant governor sounded tired, like he had just finished a heap of official business.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to disturb him unnecessarily, so he sent a very sinct message asking for information about immortal puppets.

    ¡°Immortal puppets, huh? I actually have time right now. If you don¡¯t minding over here, I can show you personally.¡±

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s response enlivened Xu Qing, and he immediately left his sword pavilion for the city.

    It waste at night, but the county capital was well lit. Most shops were still open, and even a lot of mortals were out and about. Street food carts were on every street corner, and swordsages were on patrol.

    Xu Qing went to the east part of the city where the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion was located. When he exined himself to the guards there, one of them led him inside to the study.

    Expression somber, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing here to request a meeting with the exalted Lieutenant Governor.¡±

    ¡°Come in,¡± the lieutenant governor said from inside. He still sounded tired.

    Xu Qing respectfully pushed the door open and entered. The first thing he saw was the lieutenant governor nked by a handful of assistants. All of them were working on various medicinal liquid mixtures. Among the assistants was at least one of the swordsages who had joined at the same time as him. That swordsage made eye contact and nodded, then continued to work on the medicinal liquid.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t interrupt. He stood off to the side, taking everything in. Further inside, he noticed an array of potted medicinal nts, many of which had unusual and fantastic flowers.

    The lieutenant governor looked exhausted, but his eyes glittered brightly. Clearly, he was at a critical moment in the mixing process. Keeping his attention focused, he added one bottle of medicinal liquid after another into the mix. After finishing, he took the mixture to a pot with a climbing osmanthus nt in it. Very carefully, he poured the mixture into the pot. There was something wrong with the mixture, though, as the nt quickly withered and died.

    ¡°Ai.¡± The lieutenant governor sighed. Massaging the bridge of his nose, he turned to Xu Qing and was about to say something when his transmission jade slip vibrated. Taking it out, he looked at it for a moment, whereupon his expression turned serious. ¡°Xu Qing, the governor just requested my presence. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to talk with you about immortal puppets after all. But I can give you this.¡± He took out a jade slip. ¡°This contains some of my research notes. Take some time to study it, thenter on you can ask me about any parts you don¡¯t understand.¡±

    After handing the jade slip to Xu Qing, he straightened up his robe. Then he gave some more instructions to his assistants regarding the medicinal mixtures. Finally, he gave another apology to Xu Qing before hurrying away.

    Xu Qing sped hands gratefully and watched him go.

    The assistants were already hard at work on a new medicinal mixture. Knowing it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for him to stand around watching, Xu Qing said farewell and left the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion.

    On the way back through the bustling city, the shops were all open, but many of the street food carts were starting to pack up for the night. As Xu Qing walked along, he noticed one vendor selling candied fruit on a stick that was about to close. The colorful candied fruit caught his eye, so after a moment of consideration, he bought a skewer.

    When he took a bite, his eyebrows shot up, and he looked more closely at the candied fruit. The vor was amazing, and was definitely superior to the candied fruit back in Seven Blood Eyes. The sweetness and tartness was perfectly bnced. Coupled with the icy cold of the fruit, it made Xu Qing think back to his youth in Peerless City. He turned back to look at the vendor, but he had already packed up and left. [1]

    ¡°I should have bought a few more,¡± he murmured, taking another bite.

    The vor really was good.

    And thus, Xu Qing walked along enjoying the candied fruit beneath the moonlight, and scanning the information about immortal puppets from the lieutenant governor¡¯s jade slip. The information was very detailed, and included images. Clearly, the lieutenant governor had done very deep research. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but admire the lieutenant governor¡¯s breadth of knowledge. As he walked along the street, his expression suddenly flickered.

    Turning, he saw a middle-aged cultivator in a ck robe barreling around the corner of a nearby building. As he ran, he scattered poison powder around him.

    The poison was so strong it caused the surrounding nts to wilt. It also filled the area with a noxious odor.

    Someone was chasing the ck-robed cultivator.

    It was a young woman in a swordsage uniform. She wore a mask on her face, and had a massive evil ghost scythe slung over her shoulders. It was none other than Qing Qiu. Her eyes burned with killing intent, and a baleful aura surrounded her as she chased the ck-robed cultivator.

    However, this man was just like her in that he had five-pce battle prowess. That, coupled with his poison, made it impossible for Qing Qiu to close the distance.

    Considering how much work Xu Qing had done on missions recently, it only took a nce for him to identify the ck-garbed man as someone from the wanted list. In fact, Xu Qing even knew his nickname. This man was called the Kid.

    Because Qing Qiu was already chasing him, Xu Qing had no intention of interfering. Instead, he prepared to turn and leave.

    However, that was when a gust of wind sent some poison floating toward him.

    That poison couldn¡¯t possibly bother Xu Qing himself. However, when itnded on his candied fruit, the fruit turned ck and started emanating a noxious stench.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned dark, and he looked up coldly at the fleeing ck-garbed man. Then his right hand shed, and the bamboo skewer from the candied fruit flew forth.

    It whistled loudly through the air toward the man in ck. Then a thump rang out as the skewer stabbed into the man¡¯s head and came out the other side. As the ck, stinking candied fruits popped off the skewer, the ck-garbed man¡¯s eyes went wide, and then he flopped to his face, dead.

    1. Mostmonly, these candied fruit vendors will have the skewers stuck into a pole that they carry around. That said, they might sell from a cart, or even a bike. I created a gallery of some images of different types of vendors. You might have noticed that he mentioned them being cold. The name of this thing in Chinese sometimes includes the character for ¡°ice.¡± They¡¯re usually served cold because otherwise the sugary coating melts. They¡¯re particrlymon in the winter, at least in terms of being sold on the street. ?

 Chapter 432: Those Who Use the Name of the Kid in Vain, Die!

    Chapter 432: Those Who Use the Name of the Kid in Vain, Die!

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very happy. That candied fruit was delicious, and it really brought back good memories from Peerless City. That was why he had been eating slowly, to savor the vor. But then that poison wind came along and destroyed the entire skewer of fruit. [1]

    With the kill done, Xu Qing looked coldly at Qing Qiu as she rushed up. He still didn¡¯t have a good impression of her, but considering this was her mission, he coldly said, ¡°I¡¯m not trying to take your military credits.¡±

    Then he turned to leave. Before he could, Qing Qiu spoke in a voice as cold as ice.

    ¡°Who cares about military credits??¡±

    Striding forward, shepletely ignored Xu Qing and stopped to loom over the ck-garbed man. She didn¡¯t take his bag of holding. Instead, she stomped her foot down onto his head. The bamboo skewer had already stabbed through it, yet she stomped down with such force that the head exploded with a pop.

    When the sound reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears, he stopped and looked back.

    Qing Qiu clearly wasn¡¯t satiated, as she kept stomping down on the corpse, grinding the entire thing into a paste. The brutality of it was a surprise even to Xu Qing, and he could only specte that this person had deeply offended Qing Qiu in some way. Looking away, he continued on his way back to his sword pavilion.

    During the entire time, Qing Qiu didn¡¯t even look at Xu Qing. After she stomped the ck-garbed man to a pulp, she finally pulled his bag of holding out of the gore. Then she nced down in disgust at the pulverized flesh.

    You think you deserve to be called the Kid? You besmirch the name! Thus, I kill you and don¡¯t even leave a corpse behind!

    She hadn¡¯t been on a mission to track down this criminal. Instead, she had simply noticed that there was someone called the Kid on the bounty list. That had been more than enough to make her want to kill him. In Qing Qiu¡¯s heart, the term ¡®Kid¡¯ was unsurpassably holy. To her, it represented beauty and happiness. She couldn¡¯t ever let anyone sully that specific name.

    After the evil ghost was absolutely sure Xu Qing was gone, he shouted into Qing Qiu¡¯s mind, ¡°Yeah! Oh yeah! Kill him! End things in mutual destruction!!¡±

    ¡°Enough,¡± Qing Qiu replied coldly. ¡°Did you find out the details of that matter I asked you to look into?¡±

    The evil ghost immediately responded, ¡°Absolutely. In four months, the Holytides will be here to purchase cloudmother stones. Chances are, the caravan will go through Skymoon Ravine on their way back to their people. However, that¡¯s not an ideal location for an ambush. Are you really sure you want to take the risk?¡± [2]

    Qing Qiu didn¡¯t say anything. She just turned and walked away under the moonlight.

    Sounding a bit hesitant, the evil ghost continued, ¡°If you¡¯re dead set on doing this, then I think we really need to be prepared to end things in mutual destruction with them. Although I¡¯ve personally been waiting a long time for that day toe, I think you should give it some serious thought.¡±

    ¡°I need more military credits if I want more time off from my post,¡± Qing Qiu said. ¡°I have to steal those resources to get military credits!¡±

    ¡°Is it really worth it? We¡¯re talking about three years, that¡¯s not so long is it? It¡¯s already been half a year!¡± The evil ghost sighed. It wanted to end things in mutual destruction with an enemy, but not some random, meaningless enemy. ¡°Actually, the one most worthy of an end in mutual destruction is Mad Dog....¡±

    Qing Qiu ignored the evil ghost and continued, ¡°I can¡¯t wait three years. I need to get back to South Phoenix as quickly as possible.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you should stop worrying about it. Three years isn¡¯t a big deal. Considering how much time has already passed, who cares if another three years go by?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not! Don¡¯t you realize how I¡¯m constantly worrying about this? Big Bro Kid could be in grave danger back in South Phoenix. I can¡¯t wait any longer. Now that I¡¯m strong enough to protect him, I absolutely have to go find him. I owe him my life!¡±

    As she walked through the night, she rubbed the tiny crystal she kept under her garment. Her eyes gleamed with determination.

    ***

    Xu Qing was already back in his sword pavilion.

    After sitting down cross-legged, he started carefully studying the jade slip from the lieutenant governor. Time passed. Just as the light of dawn was starting to spread through the sky, Xu Qing looked up, and his eyes flickered thoughtfully.

    Immortal puppets are made from living subjects. And they have to be willing participants....

    He had already gone through all of the information several times over, and now felt that he knew quite a bit about how the Demi-Immortals created their immortal puppets. Unfortunately, the creation process was considered top secret by the Demi-Immortals, so there was no way that even the lieutenant governor could uncover the most profound aspects. That said, the information in the jade slip was good enough for Xu Qing.

    Whether it¡¯s a secret magic or some transformation technique, or the ¡®Demi-Immortal Nine Refinements¡¯ it mentions... none of that is really important. The important thing is that they require willing participants from their own species.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing thought back to the Demi-Immortals he¡¯d seen in the prison world.

    Is it possible that the Demi-Immortals have an ulterior motive for wanting that ten-year imprisonment use in the three-species treaty? For example¡­ what if the inmates get turned into immortal puppets after they¡¯re released?

    Normally speaking, the inmates in the prison world end up dying over and over again until their memories are wiped out. Maybe that¡¯s part of what makes the subjects willing to be immortal puppets.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he thought about what Ghost Hand mentioned about the governor¡¯s order from three hundred years ago.

    Senior Ghost Hand said that, in the interests of continuing our friendship with the Demi-Immortals, the governor issued orders prohibiting us from tampering with Demi-Immortal memories. This whole thing....

    Although it seemed like it was the governor showing mercy, if Xu Qing¡¯s spection was right, then it meant that the governor likely knew how immortal puppets were created. That seemed like the more likely reason for him to issue such orders. Because he had publicly said it was for the sake of friendship with the Demi-Immortals, they couldn¡¯t protest openly.

    You can never judge a situation based on external factors.

    That was something he had learned in Seven Blood Eyes, and had learned even more in the Eight Sect Coalition. Now that he was in the county capital, it was even more relevant.

    If all of this is true, then what if I figure out a way to nt something onto the Demi-Immortal inmates? Something that will stay on them after they¡¯re released...?

    He continued to think about how he might do that until the sun rose. Eyes glittering, he went to the Corrections Division. However, he didn¡¯t go to D-132 or Unit C. Instead he went to Level 9.

    Given his authority as a Unit C jailer, he could now browse the information for all the Unit D inmates. He was hoping doing that might give him some more clues to work with. After all, not all Demi-Immortal inmates were in Unit C. In fact, there were about three hundred Demi-Immortals locked up in Unit D. Of that group, about seventeen were reaching the end of their ten-year sentence, meaning they would soon be returned to their people.

    Some of that group of forty I saw in Unit C must also be nearing the end of their sentence.

    Supposedly the minimum cultivation base for making an immortal puppet is Nascent Soul. That means the ones locked up in Unit D aren¡¯t strong enough. In turn, it¡¯s really hard to say what will happen to them after they¡¯re released.

    After browsing the inmate files, Xu Qing left and went to D-027. He offered greetings to the jailer on duty, then asked if he could do some interrogations. Whether it was his status as a Unit C jailer, or the reputation he had earned in Unit D, it resulted in immediate agreement from the jailer. Momentster, the jailer led him into the cell block to the Demi-Immortal imprisoned inside.

    The Demi-Immortal was middle-aged and pure white from head to toe. Despite being imprisoned, he seemed incredibly holy as he sat there cross-legged in meditation. Upon sensing that there were jailers nearing, his face remained expressionless, and he exuded a haughtiness that seemed toe from deep in his bones.

    This jailer had been there to witness the bloodbath in D-001, so he said, ¡°He¡¯s yours, Xu Qing. Just make sure not to kill him....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and sped hands thankfully.

    ¡°Have fun.¡± With a grin and a return salute, the jailer turned and left.

    Xu Qing opened the cell door and stepped inside. The Demi-Immortal looked up, his eyes full of scorn.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    Before the Demi-Immortal could say anything else, Xu Qing stepped over and mped his hand down onto the Demi-Immortal¡¯s head. Then he unleashed the power of his cultivation base, causing blood to spray out of the Demi-Immortal¡¯s face. He copsed, unconscious.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like to waste words, and wasn¡¯t interested in talking with this Demi-Immortal. Therefore he had just knocked him out.

    With that, Xu Qing crouched and started studying the Demi-Immortal¡¯s body structure. Soon, a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes as he contemted exactly how to do what he wanted to do. At the same time, he asionally used a scalpel to slice open the Demi-Immortal¡¯s flesh.

    Eventually, as Xu Qing was still studying the Demi-Immortal, it shivered as the pain began to drag it back to consciousness. Just before it opened its eyes, though, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°The person you killed was a good friend of mine!¡±

    He pped the Demi-Immortal unconscious again. A thump rang out as the Demi-Immortal, who had been just about to open its eyes, went out cold.

    Time passed in that manner. On about twelve asions the Demi-Immortal nearly regained consciousness, but every single time, Xu Qing would knock it out again. The Demi-Immortal¡¯s fury built until Xu Qing was finally done with his research. When it was over, the Demi-Immortal was covered with cuts and bruises.

    I think the best strategy will be to put some of my mutagen in him. I doubt it will be discovered. My beetles... nah, forget about that. I can¡¯t afford to underestimate the Demi-Immortals. Mutagen will work perfectly, and probably won¡¯t attract any attention.

    Having reached that decision, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a concealing mist to build in the area. Then he tapped into his third heavenly pce and released, not poison, but a tiny scrap of his personal mutagen. That mutagen could invade any living thing, with Xu Qing as its source.

    He very carefully sent the mutagen into the Demi-Immortal¡¯s body, hiding it in a location inside his kidney. He chose not to put in a heart. Demi-Immortals had five hearts, plus a very powerful regeneration ability that ensured you couldn¡¯t kill them even by destroying four of their hearts. As Ghost Hand had mentioned in his lecture, the kidneys were the Demi-Immortals¡¯ weak spot. [3]

    After concealing the mutagen in the Demi-Immortal¡¯s kidney, Xu Qing dispersed the concealing mist around him, then left to find the second Demi-Immortal he wanted to study.

    After he was gone, the battered and wounded Demi-Immortal woke up. His eyes burned with fury as he examined himself. After making sure his injuries were all superficial, he gritted his teeth. Thinking back to what the jailer said, he came to the conclusion this had been a bit of personal reprisal.

    I¡¯ve killed a lot of people, how am I supposed to know which one was your friend? I guess it¡¯s not important. I¡¯m going to be released soon. Once I¡¯m free, I¡¯ll make sure to revisit this torment back on you many times over!

    As that initial Demi-Immortal¡¯s fury simmered, Xu Qing spent time in the following days doing the same thing with all of the Demi-Immortals in Unit D who were on the verge of being released.

    He made sure to change his appearance each time, and alsoe up with a cover story suited to each inmate¡¯s specific crimes. Everything was done in a way to make sure the Demi-Immortals didn¡¯t realize what he was actually doing. Given that the inmates didn¡¯t have any ess to outside information, he wanted them to think that they were just the victims of revenge.

    After he was done, he left Unit D and went to Unit C.

    There were two Demi-Immortals here that met his needs. However, though he could sustain thews of the minor world for a short time, it was difficult. Doing so left him very limited, and there was a time limit involved.

    For the time being, those two Demi-Immortals were going to get off.

    That meant that the best thing to do was focus his attention on getting used to the natural and magicalws. Every time he entered the minor world, he would take time to limate to the intense pain. He couldn¡¯tst more than about three hundred breaths of time, which definitely wasn¡¯t long enough to insert some mutagen into those Demi-Immortals.

    I would need to be able tost for 2,000 breaths of time to do that.

    All he could do was work harder.

    Every time he visited, he would bring a gon of alcohol for Ghost Hand, since he knew the jailer liked to drink.

    After having done that several times, he took advantage of a moment in which Ghost Hand was drinking to ask if there was some trick to being able to stand up to thews of the minor worlds. He figured there must be something like that. At first, Ghost Hand didn¡¯t even answer the question. But after Xu Qing had plied him with alcohol so many times, causing his approval of him to deepen, he finally revealed the secret.

    Xu Qing listened carefully. After that, he did more tests in the minor world. More training. He started making better progress after that. The amount of time he could stand up to thews was increased. A monthter, he went from three hundred breaths of time to a thousand.

    During that time, something big happened in Sea-Sealing County.

    Nightshade cultivators were spotted in the county. The Swordsage Pce dispatched some top experts who tracked down the Nightshades and arrested them, then brought them back to Unit C for questioning. The matter was kept top secret from the public. However, being a Unit C jailer, Xu Qing learned about it.

    The day the Nightshades were brought in, he was reporting in for his shift. He had just arrived at Level 90 when he saw Ghost Hand and a group of other World 1 jailers handling the prisoner transfer.

    That was Xu Qing¡¯s first time seeing Nightshades.

    If there was one moment in time that could be pointed to as the moment when humanity began to decline, it was the war with the Firemoon Darkheaven people. However, the Nightshades were the vicious killers who took advantage of humanity¡¯s moment of weakness to brutally cut them down further. [4]

    It was around that same time that the Holytide people chose to join forces with the Nightshades. From a historical standpoint, the betrayal of Grand Duke Holytide was a shocking twist. However, perspectives change with the passing of time. Nowadays, few people knew the truth of what happened.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know very much about those matters. But he had learned a bit about history during his swordsage training, and the lesson had been taught by the lieutenant governor. He knew that the Nightshades didn¡¯t like sunlight. Because of that, they destroyed the sun which shone over theirnds, causing it to perish.

    After that, the Nightshade people only had a moon overhead.

    1. Peerless City was mentioned back in chapter 380. Clearly, the story Xu Qing told in that chapter had some grounded basis. ?

    2. The Chinese characters that make up ¡®cloudmother stones¡¯ are also used to describe muscovite, also known asmon mica, isinss, or potash mica, which is a hydrated phyllosilicate mineral of aluminum and potassium with form KAl2(AlSi3O10)(F,OH)2, or (KF)2(Al2O3)3(SiO2)6(H2O). I think ¡®cloudmother stones¡¯ sounds a lot more appropriate for a xianxia setting. ?

    3. Ghost Hand mentioned the five hearts and the kidney weakness in chapter 401. ?

    4. The war with the Firemoon Darkheaven people was mentioned in the big history lecture in chapter 401. ?

 Chapter 433: The Biggest Meat Shield Ever!

    Chapter 433: The Biggest Meat Shield Ever!

    That alone went to show how formidable the Nightshades were.

    And now, Xu Qing finally got a chance to see a Nightshade in person. There were a total of four who were being sent into Unit C.

    They didn¡¯t look at all like humans. Nightshades were thin and small. In most cases they were about the same height and size as a twelve- or thirteen-year-old human. Their skin was gray, and they hadrge heads withrge, lidless eyes that were as ck as night. Their hair came in the form of spikes that stuck out of their heads like weapons. In the darkness of Level 90, the spikes emanated a faint glow. They were heavily bound and looked weak and dispirited. They bore the scars of the heavy interrogation they had endured, many wounds being so deep they revealed bone. Each one had a long, ck needle stabbed into its head that was covered with countless tiny magical symbols.

    As Xu Qing took in the scene, Ghost Hand made some final arrangements with the swordsages who had brought the Nightshades in. Seeing Xu Qing looking on, he nced at the four Nightshades, his eyes flickering with killing intent.

    ¡°You don¡¯t see Nightshades in Sea-Sealing County very often,¡± he said.

    With that, he had the Unit C jailers take three of the Nightshades into the minor world.

    The grim smiles on the faces of the Unit C jailers made it clear that they were going to have some fun with these rarely seen inmates.

    ¡°Remember not to kill them,¡± Ghost Hand said harshly. ¡°Leave them alive so everybody can have a chance to train on them. Don¡¯t just keep them to yourselves.¡± The Unit C jailers didn¡¯t mind Ghost Hand¡¯s harsh tone. Grinning, they took away the three other Nightshades.

    Soon enough, only Xu Qing, Ghost Hand and that one Nightshade were left behind on Level 90.

    ¡°Come, Xu Qing. We didn¡¯t have a specimen during my training lecture. So now we¡¯re going to have a little makeshift ss.¡±

    Ghost Hand licked his lips as he red at the Nightshade gasping for breath. Walking over, he picked it up.

    ¡°Nightshades don¡¯t like sunlight. That¡¯s their fatal weakness. However, don¡¯t be fooled by thatmon assessment. It doesn¡¯t mean that they¡¯ll literally die if light touches them. After all, Nightshadends have a moon. The reality is that if you want to kill them, you need to have very strong, very pure sunlight. Otherwise all that happens is you make them ufortable.¡±

    Eyes glitter maliciously, Ghost Hand continued, ¡°Note the Nightshade¡¯s eyes. Countless sealing marks converge in those eyes, as their eyes are important to their cultivation method. Their signature cultivation art rtes to envement.¡±

    As Xu Qing watched, Ghost Hand jabbed his fingers into the Nightshade cultivator¡¯s eye and ripped it out of its socket.

    As the Nightshade screamed, ck blood sshed everywhere. Ghost Hand tossed the eyeball to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he caught the eyeball and examined it. Sure enough, he could see innumerable magical symbols in the eye, densely packed into what appeared to be a spell formation.

    ¡°That thing can be considered a weapon. Keep it as a souvenir.¡±

    Realizing that it was a precious item, Xu Qing put it away and then sped hands thankfully.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s continue with the ss,¡± Ghost Hand said, roughly shaking the Nightshade he held in his hand. ¡°Because of the Nightshade¡¯s cultivation and also their innate abilities, they have some of the best divine sense of all the species. In fact, their divine sense is so strong they can use it to kill someone without leaving behind any evidence. They can use it to control all physical matter, and it¡¯s one of the ways they¡¯ve enved so many countless species.

    ¡°The strongest Nightshade experts can ¡®create something from nothing,¡¯ and materialize corporeal objects out of thin air. Inside of each Nightshade¡¯s head is a growth we call a brain crystal. It¡¯s very valuable. Brain crystals are key to this species¡¯ ability to absorb mutagen and use it in cultivation. In the past, there were humans who tried to take them, absorb them, and use them in cultivation. Such efforts failed.

    ¡°What I¡¯ve exined so far are the most basic features of this species. Nightshades are a prolific species, so as you might expect, they have all sorts of sects, ns, factions, and the like. And of course, their magical techniques are just as varied andplex.

    ¡°By the way, their hair is their most basic weapon. It contains a poison capable of wiping out souls. If you ever run into Nightshades, be wary of their hair.¡±

    Ghost Hand was about to continue when Xu Qing hesitantly said, ¡°Senior, can I keep one of those hairs as a souvenir?¡±

    Hearing that, Ghost Handughed heartily. Plucking out three of the spike-like hairs, he tossed them to Xu Qing. Then he went on to exin more details about the Nightshades, being very explicit andprehensive.

    Toward the end, he cut open the Nightshade to reveal its internal workings. It was very brutal.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression never changed, and he watched until the very end. He had no sympathy for this Nightshade. He knew that if he was captured by their species, he would go through simr torment. The animosity between the two species was well-known throughout Revered Ancient.

    That said, Xu Qing started to get the feeling that Ghost Hand wasn¡¯t just teaching a ss. It was more like he was using the pretext of a ss to indulge in his own hobbies.

    Pretending not to have realized that, Xu Qing just paid close attention.

    About two hourster, Ghost Hand was done, and he wrapped up the lecture. ¡°It¡¯s too bad we don¡¯t have more specimens to work with. Hopefully next time we can go into much further detail.¡±

    Licking his lips, he took a big swig of alcohol, then hummed a little tune as he entered the minor world.

    As of now, there weren¡¯t four Nightshades in Unit C. There were three.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed as he left.

    The arrival of the Nightshade inmates didn¡¯t change his day-to-day life. Everything remained the same as usual. During the days, he would check in at D-132 and then spend time getting used to the naturalws in the prison world. Eventually, his hard work ensured that he went from a limit of 1,000 breaths of time to 1,500 breaths of time. He was rapidly approaching the goal he had set for himself.

    One day after what seemed like a very long period without anymunication, the Captain messaged him.

    ¡°Hey hey, little Junior Brother. You at your sword pavilion?¡±

    Xu Qing had just ended his shift and returned to his sword pavilion. Considering the form of address the Captain used, one of two things was obvious: either the Captain was with someone else, or he had something very important to talk about.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m here,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the Captain showed up with a decidedly ufortable Ning Yan. [1]

    As soon as they were inside, the Captain shoved Ning Yan forward, and then gave a meaningful look to Xu Qing as heughed heartily.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, this fellow wanted to ask for something, but didn¡¯t daree here and thus begged me to act as the middle-man.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands in greeting to the Captain, then just looked coldly at Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan shivered and his face turned a bit ashen. The truth was that he had no other option than to ask Chen Erniu for help getting in touch with Xu Qing.

    ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing...¡± Ning Yan said, sping hands in greeting.

    Xu Qing ignored him and looked back at the Captain.

    Inwardly, the Captain was delighted, and couldn¡¯t have been happier to be back around Xu Qing. All it took was a single word, and Xu Qing knew what he was thinking. Clearly, the way he had sped hands in greeting had been intended to give the Captain face.

    ¡°Remember how this brat didn¡¯t actually be a full swordsage back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture? He had to take the test again here in the county capital. Well guess what? He passed! However, the final segment requires a personal endorsement from another new swordsage from the same prefecture. Sadly, Ning Yan doesn¡¯t know a lot of people. Qing Qiu ignored his requests, and though I offered to step in, he refused. Therefore, what do you think about stepping in as the one to help him?¡±

    The Captain looked at him and blinked a few times.

    All it took was a nce for Xu Qing to realize that the Captain was either taking advantage of Ning Yan, or needed him for some n of his. After all, there was no way the Captain would go to all this trouble if it didn¡¯t benefit him.

    Xu Qing thought about it. If Ning Yan hade with this request, he would have refused. But since it came from his Elder Brother, he mulled it over for a bit and then nodded in agreement.

    Seeing that, Ning Yan¡¯s face lit up with joy. A lot of people had told him that Chen Erniu wasn¡¯t reliable, but now he could see the rumors weren¡¯t true. Chen Erniu had insisted that he could get Xu Qing to agree to help, and now it was actually happening. Ning Yan was very impressed. He quickly offered profound thanks. Then Xu Qing agreed to meet up in seven days at the Archives Branch to go through the formalities. sping hands, Ning Yan left.

    The Captain stayed. Once they were alone, he sat down across from Xu Qing, pulled out an apple to eat, and chuckled. ¡°Little Ah Qing, this Ning Yan isn¡¯t a bad person for the most part. Don¡¯t worry about rmending him.¡±

    ¡°What do you need him for, Captain?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°He has some special techniques. Remember how Qingqin had captured him yet he didn¡¯t get hurt...?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered, and he lowered his voice as he continued, ¡°I secretly tried to take a bite out of him, and turns out it didn¡¯t work! No matter how hard I tried to bite down, nothing happened! Something is seriously off about him.¡±

    Xu Qing gave the Captain an odd look. The Captain pretended not to notice.

    ¡°He said something about a bloodline ancestral awakening, but I don¡¯t believe him. Ning Yan is definitely keeping some big secrets. As for what exactly they are, I don¡¯t think it matters. The point is he has some very tough skin that will be a massive advantage to us when we aplish our next big job.

    ¡°Think about it. In all previous scenarios, whenever we faced danger, we had to flee for our lives. When some serious magical technique was about to st into us, not only would we be forced to risk death, but also, all the good loot around us would get destroyed. But Ning Yan... can totally resolve that issue!¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. Xu Qing blinked back at him.

    ¡°Trust me, my little Ah Qing. I¡¯m not wrong about this. Ning Yan is obviously a genius, so I¡¯m just setting the stage early. If we wait until we actually need him, we won¡¯t have time to subtly get him on our side.¡±

    As the Captain sat there looking very much like a master strategist, Xu Qing asked a single question.

    ¡°Is Wu Jianwu also a genius?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t even mention him...¡± the Captain said, taking a vicious yet depressed bite out of his apple. Then he suddenly looked somehow wily and mysterious as he changed the subject. ¡°Little Ah Qing, is it true that they brought some Nightshades to the Corrections Division recently?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone as he waited in anticipation for Xu Qing¡¯s answer.

    Xu Qing knew that the Captain excelled at being in the know about things. But the Nightshade situation was supposed to top secret. Xu Qing only knew because of his status as a jailer. As a result, the Captain¡¯s questions caused a look of surprise to appear on his face.

    That expression told the Captain everything he needed to know. Eyes glittering victoriously, he licked his lips and said, ¡°You need to think of a way toy eyes on those Nightshades. Ideally, take some image recordings. Make sure you note their way of speech, mannerisms, and physical appearance. Everything. The more detailed the information, the better. Once you have everything written down, get it to me. I can make very good use of it! Trust me, little Ah Qing, the time is almost here to go on our next really big job!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. He was really dying to get more military credits. And though the Captain¡¯s ns never really went as he said they would go, the results... usually made them worth it. They tended to involve great danger. But as far as Xu Qing was concerned, life in this world involved danger anyway. In that case... if the rewards were worth it, then the danger was worth it. That was especially true considering he had already invested some spirit stones in this endeavor.

    After some more thought, he looked at the Captain and asked, ¡°The n has to do with the Nightshades?¡±

    The Captain stered a very mysterious look onto his face. Taking a bite out of his apple, he smiledcently at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Like I said before, little Ah Qing, the Swordsage Pce obviously values me a lot, otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have assigned such an important post in the Credit Auditing Branch.

    ¡°In the time that¡¯s passed so far, I¡¯vee to a thorough and exhaustive understanding of the Credit Auditing Branch. I know the activities and arrangements made by every single swordsage in the Swordsage Pce, from the most important to the least important.

    ¡°Unless someone doesn¡¯t keep a record of their military credits, then this pair of extremely sharp eyes of mine will be able to see everything about them.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s proud tone of voice made it seem like he was exining some of the mostplex societal issues.

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly, and couldn¡¯t help but feel some deep admiration for the Captain. After all... he was able to take a very unremarkable assignment and do some amazing things with it. That seemed to indicate without a doubt that the Captain was much more of a genius than Ning Yan.

    ¡°And therefore, little Ah Qing, I think it goes to show that you stillck experience. You need to learn a thing or two from me, don¡¯t you see? Don¡¯t go charging around like random with those spoiled brats. What the hell good will that do? Going on outside missions all the time will wear you out, and you won¡¯t even get much military credits.

    ¡°Speaking of which, I really have to offer you some constructive criticism. This whole time, I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s been taking care of business!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. He could tell the Captain was a bit peeved about something, as this was the third time he had mentioned something along these lines. Xu Qing quickly decided to make sure the admiration he felt showed prominently on his face. He also took out a veryrge apple and gave it to the Captain.

    The Captain instinctively felt that he shouldn¡¯t take it, but at the same time, instinctively took it. ncing at Xu Qing, he prepared to continue speaking, except Xu Qing beat him to the punch.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± he said softly, ¡°not too long ago Arch-Immortal Plumdark took me to meet her best friends here in the county capital. One of them is named Li Shitao....¡±

    1. Ning Yan was introduced without a name in chapter 359, when he attacked Xu Qing. After that incident, Xu Qing never liked him. He was named the adjunct swordsage in 372, and wasst seen in a major way in chapter 391. ?

 Chapter 434: I Will Sacrifice Myself to Hell

    Chapter 434: I Will Sacrifice Myself to Hell

    ¡°Hmm?¡± The Captain was so taken aback he didn¡¯t really understand what Xu Qing was getting at. ¡°What does that have to do with me? Are you trying to show off, little Ah Qing? If it weren¡¯t for that letter of mine....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for that letter of yours....¡± The Captain suddenly looked very serious. ¡°Speaking of that, I have to give you some more constructive criticism. Truth be told, I¡¯ve been telling you this same thing for a long time. We cultivators should live alone in the world. That¡¯s the only way for us to develop an iron will. That¡¯s the only way for us to develop true self-confidence. That¡¯s the only way for us to confidently face life¡¯s difficulties! Women? Hah! Could they possibly be as good as apples?¡± The Captain viciously took a bite of his apple, his eyes glittering with scorn.

    ¡°Women are like boulders blocking our path forward. Mountains! They¡¯re like fetters preventing us from wielding our swords. No, they¡¯re like hells! You really need to be careful in this matter. Don¡¯t be like Third Sib. I mean,e on. All my advice earlier about Arch-Immortal Plumdark was mostly just harmless banter.¡±

    Xu Qing listened thoughtfully to the Captain¡¯s assessment, and had to admit that what he said made sense. Finally, he nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right, Eldest Brother. In that case, I guess I won¡¯t introduce you to Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s friend.¡±

    The Captain was so stunned his eyes went wide and he stopped eating his apple. ¡°What¡¯d you just say? Introduce me?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded apologetically. ¡°That was my mistake, Eldest Brother. Not long ago, Senior Li, in other words Li Shitao from the Administration Pce, wanted me to introduce a male friend to her. Due to myck of experience in life, I almost introduced you. It¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t do anything to influence your iron will and self-confidence.¡±

    ¡°Li Shitao? That¡¯s a nice-sounding name. Um... is she hot?¡±

    Looking surprised, Xu Qing nodded and said, ¡°She¡¯s alright.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up, but he quickly got them under control. Standing, he sped his hands behind his back and sighed. ¡°Little Junior Brother... as your Eldest Brother, I¡¯ve already lived alone in the world for twenty-six years now, which is a bit excessive.¡± He turned and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing hesitated. ¡°We cultivators really should live alone in the world.¡±

    Sounding very somber, the Captain said, ¡°We cultivators should live ording to the following maxim: between love,w, wealth, andnd, the wise view love as supremely grand!¡±

    Xu Qing was doubtful. ¡°Not a boulder blocking our path forward? A mountain?¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t understand that mountain, how can you ever scale it?¡± the Captain replied confidently.

    ¡°Not a fetter preventing us from wielding our sword? A hell?¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    Looking very wistful, the Captain gazed through the window of the sword pavilion at the world outside. He sighed softly. ¡°I will sacrifice myself to hell to spare everyone else that torment.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and noted hispleteck of embarrassment.

    A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing sighed and nodded.

    ¡°Captain, you really do need to start eating more grapefruit.¡± [1]

    The Captain¡¯s face lit up. Seemingly unconcerned at all about Xu Qing yet again mentioning grapefruit, he hurried to Xu Qing¡¯s side. Eyebrows dancing up and down, he handed him three big apples.

    ¡°My love for you has not been in vain, little Junior Brother. Ahem. So, I¡¯ll wait for an update.¡± With that, the Captain hurried away looking thrilled.

    Xu Qing watched thoughtfully as he left. Though the Captain ended uppletely contradicting himself, Xu Qing actually thought that his initial assessment had a lot of merit.

    ¡°Only with a calm heart can one be truly strong.¡± Closing his eyes, hepletely cleared his heart of extraneous thoughts and started meditating.

    In the blink of an eye, four days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing worked hard to purify his thoughts. He purged himself of anything that would disturb his calmness, and got himself back into the same mindset as when he first arrived in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He also immersed himself in getting used to the natural and magicalws of the minor world. Late at night on the fourth day, he sessfully reached the point of being able tost for 2,000 breaths of time.

    Now I can give it a shot.

    He didn¡¯t end his shift and go home. Instead, he rested for a short time on Level 90, then once again entered the world in the mural. Once in the void, he followed the familiar path to the dome, then passed through it to appear above the clouds in the minor world. Immense pressure weighed down on him, like an entire mountain range crushing down from above.

    He shivered as cracking and popping sounds echoed out from inside. However, his facial expression didn¡¯t change. This was exactly the same way he normally trained here. He was alreadypletely familiar with the mountain-like weight of the naturalws. He moved forward without hesitation, carrying the weight of mountains with him. With every step he took, intense rumbling sounds echoed out, like boulders falling down a mountain. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and intense winds swept back and forth.

    It was a shocking scene. The reason for it was that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to lift something heavy as if it were light. Because he bore thews of the world, his every movement would cause dramatic transformations around him.

    When he passed, lightning crashed and the clouds seethed in dramatic fashion. As he proceeded, the nonhumans hidden in the area looked out in shock.

    Though they knew that it was because he couldn¡¯t lift something heavy as if it were light, that just illustrated how exceedingly dangerous he was. After all, considering he couldn¡¯t control thews, it meant their effects would spread uncontrobly....

    That was exactly what was happening. The moment he appeared in the air, the weather around him fluctuated dramatically. Sometimes there was acid rain, sometimes lightning, sometimes tempests.... The earth beneath his feet was also affected. Sometimes ins became mountains, or mountains became rivers. Everything waspletely unstable, and only went back to normal after he was gone. The inmates who got caught up in it all... were very unlucky.

    Looking down, Xu Qing noticed hordes of inmates pouring out of hiding ces, terror on their faces as they fled this way and that.

    Some, who had already lost too many memories by dying too many times, actually ran in his direction in the hope of being killed directly by the naturalws. If they were killed in that way, they wouldn¡¯t experience the Reset. Because of that, they thought of that type of death as a release.

    Frowning, Xu Qing waved his hand and coolly said, ¡°I hereby lock down thend and airspace in this part of the world.¡±

    In response, thews he was sustaining shivered, and then cracking sounds filled heaven and earth around him. Then, streams of naturalws swept out from the living things in the area, and then stitched together around Xu Qing as they created new naturalws.

    The people who had been rushing in his direction to kill themselves were repelled, and had no chance to run or fly closer.

    When Xu Qing left the area, everything went back to normal. Having done that, Xu Qing calcted the time. Realizing he couldn¡¯t afford any unnecessary dys, he gritted his teeth and rushed forward. As he moved, more cracking sounds emanated from within him. Also, thews around him caused the ground below to seemingly shrink, allowing him to move even faster.

    Before long, he reached the vast in where the Demi-Immortals were located.

    This was the first task he had nned for this trip into the minor world.

    Upon arriving, he immediately changed the naturalws in the area. Then he made a grasping gesture, causing two of the Nascent Soul Demi-Immortals to fly up into the air to him. Then he sped off into the distance.

    After finding a location with no one else present, he used the same tactics he used on the Unit D Demi-Immortal inmates. After he¡¯d inserted mutagen into both of them, he paused for thought.

    If their memories aren¡¯t erased, then it means their chances of being turned into immortal puppets are reduced.... That said, Demi-Immortals aren¡¯t idiots. If some of their people suddenly show up with no memories after three hundred years of that never happening, they¡¯ll be suspicious. I can¡¯t push it too far, or be too dramatic.

    After some more thought, he took one of the unconscious Demi-Immortals back to the in. The other, he tossed into the wilderness some distance away.

    I¡¯lle back frequently to keep an eye on them. If the Demi-Immortal in the other location ends up losing memories, I can bring him back. That way he¡¯ll only experience a bit of memory loss.

    He was just about to move on to the second task he had in mind when, all of a sudden, he looked over his shoulder.

    Someone had suddenly appeared about 1,500 meters behind him! From his uniform, he was obviously a Unit C jailer. He looked coldly at Xu Qing, and then at the Demi-Immortal down in the wilderness. His eyes shone with mysterious light.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    Based on the cultivation base fluctuationsing from this Unit C jailer, Xu Qing could tell that he was in the Nascent Soul level. He remembered seeing this jailer before, though he¡¯d never spoken to him. In response to the question, Xu Qing looked down at the wilderness below, then put an apologetic look onto his face.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little experiment.¡±

    The jailer looked coldly at Xu Qing for a long moment, then back down at the Demi-Immortal, who was about to regain consciousness.

    ¡°I¡¯m in charge of thisnd here. You should have said something to me ahead of time. The governor¡¯s orders state that Demi-Immortals are exempt from the pain of memory loss.... this has to be a one-time thing.¡±

    With that, he turned and left. He did nothing to interfere.

    He and Xu Qing were both jailers. And though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in the Nascent Soul level, he had the same level of authority. What he was doing was something of a rules vition, but he wasn¡¯t doing anything excessive, and even went to the trouble of being visibly apologetic. As a result, the other jailer wasn¡¯t inclined to do anything further.

    Xu Qing knew he had been careless, and that he really had no justification for his actions. Normally speaking, he would never have made such a mistake. After all, he had never slipped up in Unit D. But this was his first time on patrol, and he was working on a severe time limit. Because of that, it had skipped his mind to check who was in charge of this part of the minor world.

    ¡°Guilty as charged,¡± Xu Qing said to the jailer, sping his hands respectfully.

    The jailer didn¡¯t look back, but he waved his hand dismissively. He obviously wasn¡¯t as annoyed as he was before.

    When he was gone, Xu Qing also left. The second task he had in mind was to find the three Nightshades, both to observe them and also leave his mark on them. However, now he had something else in mind. Flying back up into the sky, he left the minor world.

    After he was free from thews, he breathed a long sigh of relief. Then he went back into the Corrections Division. The first thing he did was go find Ghost Hand, to report about how he¡¯d dealt with the naturalws and gone on patrol.

    In one corner of Level 90, Ghost Hand sat in a rocking chair, a jug of alcohol in hand. When he heard Xu Qing¡¯s report he looked up and said, ¡°That fast?¡±

    Ghost Hand didn¡¯t hide his surprise. He quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing the mural to shine with soft light. Then the images shifted, changing to Xu Qing on patrol. It was in the moment he had just arrived, and not when he was dealing with the Demi-Immortals.

    ¡°Not bad, boy. Good job!¡± Ghost Hand waved his hand and the mural went back to normal. Then he tossed an identity medallion to Xu Qing. ¡°You¡¯ll be in charge of East District 13.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said. After a moment of thought, he quietly continued, ¡°Your humble servant needs to report something. I moved one of the Demi-Immortals to a different location in the minor world. It¡¯s an experiment I need to run....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a big deal,¡± Ghost Hand said, chuckling sarcastically. Obviously, Ghost Hand was already aware of the situation. Being in charge, he knew exactly what happened in the minor world. What was more, he knew that the jailers under hismand weren¡¯t naive fools, and would asionally engage in personal projects and matters. But when all was said and done, they were all swordsages, and they wouldn¡¯t do anything outright evil. As a result, he would usually look the other way in such circumstances.

    After all, even he was no exception. What was more, he was clearly pleased that Xu Qing had taken the initiative to exin himself.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing knew he had made the right decision. There were some things that weren¡¯t worth trying to hide, and if you did, would result in more unwanted scrutiny. With that thought in mind, he said one more thing.

    ¡°Senior, I really want to observe those other Nightshades.¡±

    Ghost Handughed heartily. Pointing to the identity medallion he¡¯d just given, he said, ¡°Back during the lecture, I could tell you were interested. You can feel free to observe anything in the area you oversee.¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply to Ghost Hand. Then he left.

    Ghost Hand sipped some alcohol as he watched Xu Qing leaving. He really did approve of Xu Qing. Whether it was the way he¡¯d poisoned Ailing Ghost, the extent of his powers of understanding, or his politeness, all were unusual. What was more, he was only in the Gold Core level, yet qualified to go on patrol alone. All of that went to show how extraordinary Xu Qing was.

    Beyond all that, there was his 30,000-meter pir of light and the fact that he was assigned to D-132. Thetter... was the most significant of all. That was why Ghost Hand put the Nightshades into the area that Xu Qing was in charge of. If he¡¯d put the Nightshades in with another jailer, all the other jailers would have started specting about his choice. After all, Nightshades were rare enough that everyone was interested in them.

    But giving them to someone with a 30,000-meter pir of light would forestall much of that spection. What was more, it would help ensure that Xu Qing became well-known among the other jailers.

    You need to work hard, boy. East District 13 really got lucky today. Taking a swig of alcohol, he rocked in the chair and hummed a little tune.

    1. Thest grapefruitment was in chapter 279. ?

 Chapter 435: The Original Saber of Supreme Vastness

    Chapter 435: The Original Saber of Supreme Vastness

    Xu Qing once again entered the world inside the mural. As thews weighed down on him, he took a deep breath and used themand medallion to find the way to East District 13. It was a ratherrge district that Ghost Hand had taken him through on his first tour. It didn¡¯t take long to find. The terrain was volcanic, withva flows crisscrossing thends.

    The three Nightshades were imprisoned in three different volcanoes. The light cast by the fiery volcanoes was simr enough to sunlight that the Nightshades experienced the same torment they would from being outside during the day.

    Xu Qing flew past all three of them to get they of thend, then took one of the Nightshades out of the volcano to study. After about five hundred breaths of time had passed, his eyes glittered.

    The aura of the red moon is much stronger on thempared to the Holytides....

    As a matter of fact, back when Ghost Hand had given him private instruction on the Nightshades, Xu Qing had noticed that red moon aura in them. It came from their ck blood. Today, he was finally able to confirm his previous observations.

    That¡¯s why the Holytides have the same aura. It¡¯s because they have some of the Nightshades¡¯ ck blood flowing in their veins. Given this, I guess it means that the Nightshades worship that evil god with the hands covering the eyes, the same one I saw in the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    He felt more on guard than ever, especially considering that the violet moon in his fourth heavenly pce had been formed by some of the aura he had stolen from that red moon.

    ¡°Nightshades....¡± he murmured. He felt confident in his suppositions so far, especially given what he knew about the Nightshades living in and with no sun and only a moon.

    Eventually, he settled his thoughts. Sending a divine willmand to his shadow, he had it leave some shadow eyes on them for observation. At the same time, he also took some images and stored them on a jade slip. After some more thought, he decided it would be best if he allowed the Nightshades tomunicate with each other. That might give him the chance to get more details from them. Therefore, he deposited all three Nightshades into the same volcano.

    Next, he found a nonhuman inmate to test his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art on. He wanted to see if devouring nonhumans could improve his cultivation base. Unfortunately, though Xu Qing had more than enough battle prowess, because his fundamental cultivation base level was different, the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art wasn¡¯t very effective.

    In his mind, he realized it made sense to liken gold cores to candied fruits. It didn¡¯t matter if the candied fruits were hard, because the outeryer was just crystallized sugar. Once that external coating melted, he could digest the fruit inside. But nascent souls were like fruits coated in iron. Obviously, that iron coating would make them much more difficult to digest.

    It made sense to Xu Qing. After all, no matter how weak a Nascent Soul cultivator was, they were on a fundamentally higher level. A Gold Core technique simply wasn¡¯t going to work very well under those circumstances.

    It wasn¡¯t as if there was literally no way to make it work. But theplications made it so that devouring gold cores just made more sense considering how convenient and fast the process was. Another possibility was that he was doing it the wrong way. Therefore, he decided that after he was able to stay in the minor world for longer, he would do some tests and see if changing his specific methods would yield better results.

    At the moment, he had already reached his time limit and was preparing to leave. This was his second time in the minor world today, and he could only bear the massive weight of the naturalws for so long. Just as he was about to leave, wild colors shed in heaven and earth off in the distance. The clouds transformed, bing dark and oppressive. Thunder boomed, making it seem like there was a heavenly tribtion underway. A series of lightning bolts smashed into the ground, exploding the dirt and rock in a wide area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, as he didn¡¯t see any naturalws at work.

    Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s the work of one of the other jailers.

    He started moving, heading in the direction of the affected area.

    From a distance, it looked like a massive storm swirling in the sky. As he got closer, he saw a figure in motion beneath the heavenly tribtion. It was a tall, burly nonhuman with blue skin and a solitary horn. He had one eye, and massive arms with nine fingers on each hand. His expression was one of anxiety and madness as he flew up toward the tribtion clouds. He really was trying to pass a tribtion!

    All it took was a nce for Xu Qing to understand what was going on. There were no other jailers in the area, which meant that this dramatic event was being caused by the nonhuman.

    He was obviously an extraordinary individual who had managed to push his cultivation base to the breakthrough point even while in this minor world. As a result, the naturalws of the minor world transformed into a crushing heavenly tribtion. It wasn¡¯t somethingmonly seen in a minor world like this. What was more, based on everything he understood about this prison world, he was certain... that this nonhuman wouldn¡¯t pass the tribtion.

    If thews of this ce weren¡¯t under the control of the Swordsage Pce, then he might have had a chance. But though Xu Qing had never personally witnessed a heavenly tribtion here, he knew that it would be mighty enough to shake heaven and earth. It seemed likely the nonhuman had picked this location because of theck of any guards. And the inmate had obviously not anticipated Xu Qing showing up.

    Senior Ghost Hand sent me here, so surely he knows what¡¯s going on, right? As he pondered the situation, intense rumbling echoed out from the tribtion clouds.

    Then, numerous bolts of lightning gathered, and instead of dropping onto the nonhuman, they converged above him. There beneath the clouds, the lightning bolts merged together into the shape of a saber. The de of lightning flickered dazzlingly, and emitted rumbling sounds that filled heaven and earth.

    A consummately mighty force appeared, filled with the naturalws of the minor world, the magicalws of heaven and earth, and the power of the dao of heaven. It was pulsing with a visible dao resonance!

    A de nimbus shimmered around it with blinding brightness, causing the rest of the world to grow dark, as if only this de light existed in heaven and earth! A boundless might erupted, apanied by an intense sound that pierced through the air, as the saber dropped toward the nonhuman. This was a true heavenly saber!

    And it was shing, not the body, but the dao!

    The saber descended, shing right through the nonhuman.

    The blue-skinned nonhuman trembled, then let loose a howl of grief and anguish. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, as his Nascent Soul cultivation base couldn¡¯t sustain the force, and directly exploded! His nascent soul was reduced to ashes. His heavenly pces shattered. His life mes went out. His dao foundation crumbled. Every aspect of his cultivation base was destroyed!

    ¡°I refuse to ept this!!¡± he howled. Sadly, this was a minor world where the natural and magicalws limited his power. All he could do was fall to the ground as a mortal, having lost all of his cultivation.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the nonhuman or his howl of defiance. Instead, hended on a nearby mountaintop and looked up into the heavenly lightning, his mind reeling. What he was staring at was the convergence of countless lightning bolts, shaped like a heavenly saber. The sight of that saber caused his mind to focus on one specific thing.

    ¡°That saber... that saber...¡± he murmured, shivering down to his core.

    The change to his mental state caused transformations to the surroundings because of the naturalws. Clouds sprang into being above him, dropping acid rain, maic fields, and lightning bolts. It was the same in all the surrounding mountains. Everything beyond the mountains blurred as the surrounding terrain shifted between seas, ins, deserts, and volcanoes.

    As for the nonhuman cultivator who had failed the tribtion, he was gone, whether dead or run away, it was impossible to say.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to that. His full attention was focused on the saber formed by the heavenly tribtion. Though the saber had already faded from existence, Xu Qing could still see it clearly in his mind¡¯s eye. That saber left him with the same feeling he experienced when he watched that statue in the Supreme Vastness daoist temple outside the scavenger basecamp in South Phoenix. The thought made him shiver from head to toe.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me....¡±

    It madeplete sense to him that whatever consummate expert had originally created the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber... might have done so after personally witnessing a dao-severing heavenly saber.

    Of course, there were some differences.

    The Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber was something cultivators could use. The saber he had just seen was a saber from a heavenly tribtion. On the one hand, they seemed like they had a shared origin. On the other hand, the tribtion saber had a dao resonance, and furthermore, had a different function. One could kill the body, the other could sever the dao.

    If I could gain enlightenment of it, thenbine it with my Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber....

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    He instinctively raised his right hand and mentally conjured the image he had just seen. Then he waved his right hand in the hopes of copying the dao-severing saber he had just seen formed from the naturalws of this minor world.

    Unfortunately, even though Xu Qing had spectacr powers of understanding, there was no way he could seed at something like that having only witnessed the event one time.

    After a few dozen breaths of time passed, and the saber of lightning waspletely gone, Xu Qing found the image of the saber in his mind fading away. Eventually, no matter how much he resisted the effects, the image vanished. He tried using his limited level of control to get the saber to appear again, but it didn¡¯t work. Obviously that heavenly tribtion was beyond his authority and control.

    However, Xu Qing was not the type of person to give up easily, so he closed his eyes to think deeply about the situation. It was simr to the time when he sought enlightenment of the Ghost Emperor mountain. He slowly tried to form the image of the saber in his mind andmit it to memory.

    A few hundred breaths of time passed.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. They were bloodshot as he looked up to the clouds in what was now an ordinary sky. He sighed.

    He had sought enlightenment... and had failed. One reason was that the heavenly saber only appeared for a moment. Another had to do with the effects of the minor world, which created a less-than-ideal environment. And then there was the high-level personhood of the heavenly saber. In some respects, it was like the original version of the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. Because of all those reasons, it just wasn¡¯t possible for Xu Qing to seed.

    I was also rushing it too much.

    After analyzing all the reasons for his failure, he had no choice but to sigh and leave the minor world.

    Once outside, he slumped as a feeling of exhaustion swept over him. He always experienced that feeling when leaving the minor world. The reason was that his cultivation base really wasn¡¯t up to task, and thus, sustaining the naturalws was a huge burden. He wasn¡¯t thinking about that, though. Instead, his eyes glittered as he continued to analyze the situation.

    If I want to gain enlightenment of that saber, I¡¯m going to need to see it a few more times.... And I¡¯ll need to do it in a more rxed, but alsopletely focused, state. That¡¯s the only way I¡¯ll have a shot at gaining enlightenment.

    He looked back down thoughtfully at the minor world.

    I¡¯ve currently mastered two saber moves from the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. If I can seed with that dao-severing heavenly saber, then it could count as my third saber move.

    Xu Qing thought about how he hadn¡¯t really left the county capital since he arrived. He had not gone to search for any Supreme Vastness daoist temples, and thus, had not improved his Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. As he knew, the vast majority of Supreme Vastness daoist temples actually wouldn¡¯t help with enlightenment. After all, once someone seeded in gaining enlightenment, the temple would need to sit idle for half of a sixty-year-cycle before new enlightenment could be gained from it.

    That ensured that it was very difficult to build up multiple saber moves. You needed the right destined opportunity to find a time to gain enlightenment, either that, or find a temple where someone who had already gained enlightenment was dying.

    Xu Qing thought about the matter all the way back to the Corrections Division.

    I¡¯m not going back to my sword pavilion yet!

    Emerging from the mural, he looked back at the image of the minor world. Eyes flickering thoughtfully, he went into a far corner of Level 90 to do some breathing exercises.

    Four hourster, after a number of jailers hade and gone in the minor world, Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal got him back to normal. Without any hesitation, he went back into the minor world yet again.

 Chapter 436: Acquiring the Dao; Bluegreen Dragon Rises (part 1)

    Chapter 436: Acquiring the Dao; Bluegreen Dragon Rises (part 1)

    As thews settled over him, Xu Qing flew to his assigned district and looked for appropriate inmates by filtering through the name list on his jade slip. Specifically, he was looking for cultivators who were in the great circle of the Nascent Soul level, just on the verge of provoking heavenly tribtion. He soon identified four.

    Performing an incantation gesture to tap into the naturalws, he found the first on the list, who was a Wingflyer. Currently, he was hiding in a subterranean cave, seated cross-legged in meditation. A momentter, the ground around him copsed, opening up his hiding spot. The Wingflyer looked up in shock. Though he reacted quickly, the power weighing down on him made his resistance useless. A massive force locked on to him and dragged him up into the air. There was no point in trying to refuse or fight back.

    With thews at Xu Qing¡¯smand, plus his cultivation base and battle prowess, he could easily smash any inmate.

    Outside of the prison world, this Wingflyer could crush Xu Qing to death with one swat of his hand. But now, Xu Qing had him by the neck.

    ¡°Exalted one.¡±

    Inwardly, the Wingflyer cultivator felt deeply vexed. However, he was careful to ster a fawning expression onto his face.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Eyes as cold as ice, he inspected the Wingflyer, then tossed him down. Next, he tossed some medicinal pills onto the ground in front of him. Those medicinal pills all contained immense amounts of spirit energy. On the outside, they would be considered good pills. But in the prison world, they were vastly more precious. When the Wingflyer saw them, he was stunned. That said, his eyes flickered with a mixture of pleasure and hesitancy. He knew full well that when unexpected things happened, there was usually a catch. He looked nervously at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Exalted one, this....¡±

    ¡°Either you eat them,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°or I beat you to a pulp and force them down your throat.¡±

    Perverse energy surged within the Wingflyer, yet he forced it under control. He knew what would happen if he didn¡¯t obey orders. Gritting his teeth, he picked up the pills and put them in his mouth. That said, he tried to y things safe by consuming them slowly, one at a time.

    Frowning, Xu Qing thrust out his palm, causing a rumbling sound. When the force hit the Wingflyer, he screamed as his body nearly copsed, and he fell to the ground, panting.

    That was just a weakness on the part of his fleshly body. When the spirit energy from the pills poured into him, he quickly recovered. However, Xu Qing could tell it wasn¡¯t enough, so he threw a few more pills into his mouth.

    As the pills dissolved, powerful fluctuations started rolling off of the Wingflyer.

    This inmate had been convicted when he was already at the limit of Nascent Soul. In the years since then, he had hovered on the brink of a breakthrough. Unfortunately, reaching the Spirit Trove level required a heavenly dao, which he did not have ess to, and therefore, could not achieve a breakthrough.

    However... whether one was going to seed or fail, the naturalws of heaven and earth would still form a heavenly tribtion.

    The Wingflyer cultivator was surprised at the fluctuations, and by now, he could guess what Xu Qing was doing. He was about to open his mouth to speak when winds screamed in the dome of heaven, and tribtion clouds began to build up. The Wingflyer shrieked, jumped to his feet, and fled, all the while viciously trying to suppress his cultivation base in the hopes of getting rid of the heavenly tribtion. Before he could do much, a tremor passed through him and he stopped moving. His facial expression became one of exaggerated devotion, while his eyes glittered with terror.

    Lurching around, he dropped down and kowtowed to Xu Qing. ¡°Milord... I¡¯m willing... to... die!¡±

    Theck of smooth speech confirmed that the shadow didn¡¯t haveplete control over him. The Wingflyer was obviously fighting back, until that look of devotion faded away. As his expression twisted and distorted, and looked like he was about to break free.

    That was when booming thunder filled the sky as countless lightning bolts formed a dao-severing heavenly saber that dropped toward the nonhuman.

    The moment before it hit, the shadow fled. The Wingflyer went back to normal, but by this time, there was no way it could evade the tribtion. A scream escaped its mouth as the heavenly saber chopped down. A huge boom echoed out.

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged where he stood. Ignoring the Wingflyer, he focused on seeking enlightenment of the heavenly saber.

    After three hundred breaths of time passed, it was over. The tribtion clouds dispersed, the heavenly saber faded away, and a thoughtful look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. A short timeter, he got to his feet and went to a different part of the district to find the next cultivator on his list.

    In that manner, days passed.

    Xu Qing sought enlightenment over and over again until he finally reached the day when he had his appointment with Ning Yan.

    ***

    It was evening outside, and the dome of heaven shone with orange light that flowed like water onto the rooftops and open squares of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Archives Branch. There were quite a few swordsages lined up there. All of them were adjunct swordsages from various prefectures.

    Each and every one looked very nervous as they waited, including Ning Yan. He kept looking off into the distance, clearly worried about how everything would turn out. He had been waiting for quite a long time already.

    Behind a wide table at the front of the line was a middle-aged swordsage with a somber expression on his face. He had a Gold Core cultivation base, and eyes that shone like lightning, revealing that he was originally from the Supreme Ancient Lightning Order. After looking over the eight adjunct swordsages, he said, ¡°The other adjunct swordsages already filed their rmendations. You¡¯re the only ones left. Do the lot of you actually have people from your home prefecture willing to vouch for you?¡±

    The adjunct swordsages all had bitter expressions on their faces. Some seemed like they wanted to speak, others held their tongue.

    As for Ning Yan, he anxiously nodded, sped hands to the middle-aged swordsage, and said, ¡°If possible, could you wait just a moment? My guarantor should be here shortly.¡±

    The middle-aged swordsage frowned. ¡°Oh? Who is it?¡±

    Ning Yan held back from saying Xu Qing¡¯s name. All of a sudden, he was wondering if Xu Qing had been serious. If he mentioned Xu Qing¡¯s name, but then he didn¡¯t show up, Ning Yan would definitely be aughingstock. During the event to fill the vacant swordsage spots, he had beenpeting with other adjunct swordsages from other prefectures. Of course, there had been some fiercepetition to take the first ce spot, which had resulted in some friction.

    Gathered alongside Ning Yan were three young men who he¡¯d had problems with. When they saw him holding back from mentioning his guarantor¡¯s name, their eyes flickered with scorn. Though it wasn¡¯t very obvious, Ning Yan could see it. It was something he couldn¡¯t easily ept.

    One of that group of young men even chuckled under his breath and quietly said, ¡°He took first ce, yet nobody will vouch for him. That alone tells you what kind of person he is.¡±

    Ning Yan said nothing.

    The middle-aged swordsage didn¡¯t react. Impetuous talk among youngsters wasn¡¯t anything surprising. After all, all sorts of personalities could be found among new swordsages, including the silent type and the direct type. After they became swordsages, their personalities would change some.

    Flipping through Ning Yan¡¯s paperwork, he noticed that he was from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, which caused him to look up.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you from the same prefecture as Xu Qing?¡±

    Ning Yan nodded.

    The three swordsages who had it out for Ning Yang heard that andughed softly.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing got a 30,000-meter pir of light, so if he won¡¯t vouch for this guy, it just shows he¡¯s got some major problems.¡±

    ¡°He worked so hard to take first ce. For what?¡±

    ¡°Do you people have a death wish?¡± Ning Yan growled. The provocation from these three, coupled with the anxiety of the situation in general, made it difficult to suppress the perverse energy building within him.

    ¡°What, you want to have a duel right here and now?¡± one of them said. The three young men clearly bore some ill will as they red at Ning Yan. They were obviously trying to get a rise out of him.

    Ning Yan gritted his teeth as that perverse energy started to pulse in his eyes.

    The middle-aged swordsage from the Archives Branch just looked at them. Whenever the adjunct swordsages got their assignments, things like this happened. It was only natural for events like this to ur in ces where lots of humans gathered.

    ¡°If you have a problem with each other,¡± he said coolly, ¡°you can get the hell out of here and note back till you¡¯ve solved it.¡±

    The three young men immediately flew up into the air. One of them pointed down at Ning Yan and said, ¡°You won the top spot, didn¡¯t you? What, scared to fight?

    ¡°That¡¯s not it,¡± another of them said. ¡°Ning Yan wouldn¡¯t dare to back down from a fight. He¡¯s just waiting for his guarantor to show up. That¡¯s why he won¡¯t fight us. Isn¡¯t that right, Ning Yan? See, I already came up with a good excuse for you.¡±

    Ning Yan¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light, and he was just about to fly up into the air when a calm voice echoed out.

    ¡°I got wrapped up in something, Ning Yan. Sorry for beingte.¡±

    Along with the voice, a figure appeared above, flying toward them at high speed. The evening sun shone down on long, flowing hair and a white uniform that perfectlyplimented his good looks, making everyone present look at him. It was none other than Xu Qing. Xu Qing didn¡¯t make promises lightly, and when he made one, he would follow through. Since he had agreed to vouch for Ning Yan, he would vouch for him. And he hadn¡¯t intentionally dyed things. The truth was that he had been so focused on gaining enlightenment of that dao-severing saber that he identally camete.

    There were some things about Ning Yan that he didn¡¯t like very much. However, since the Captain needed Ning Yan, then Xu Qing was to give him another shot based on how he acted going forward.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival caused the other adjunct swordsages to shiver. Eyes glittering with respect and admiration, they sped hands and bowed in greeting. The three young men who had been causing trouble for Ning Yan simrly bowed their heads and didn¡¯t dare run their mouths any further. The truth was that Xu Qing was already quite well-known in the Swordsage Pce. People said he was one of the freakish hellions of thetest batch of new swordsages. What was more, he was friends with all the other people who were also considered freakish hellions. Provoking one member of that group would be the same as provoking the entire group.

    Considering that all of them had been assigned important posts, there wasn¡¯t anybody who would dare to offend them.

    Meanwhile, the swordsage from the Archives Branchughed heartily and rose to his feet to wee Xu Qing.

    This man had been present when Xu Qing, Kong Xianglong, and the others went to lock horns with the Yao n at the Swordsage Pce. Given the connection he had to Xu Qing, and also based on other things he had heard about Xu Qing and his friends, he admired him greatly.

    Ning Yan was fairly bursting with excitement as he stepped forward. Nothing could have sounded more beautiful to Ning Yan in that moment than Xu Qing¡¯s voice. His heart overflowed with gratitude.

    Xu Qing looked at Ning Yan and nodded. Then he turned to the middle-aged swordsage and sped hands respectfully.

    ¡°Sorry for any trouble I caused, Big Bro Zhou. I¡¯m here to vouch for Ning Yan.¡±

    The swordsage surnamed Zhou noted that Xu Qing had called him by his surname, and it caused his eyes to shine brightly. There¡¯s more than one reason Kong Xianglong and his friends epted Xu Qing. One factor is the 30,000-meter pir of light. The other factor is the way he conducts himself.

    After all, there had been quite a few swordsages who showed up at the Hall of Regtions that day. Though this swordsage had run into Xu Qing on a subsequent asion, and had also been introduced to the entire group, there hadn¡¯t been much time. The fact that Xu Qing remembered his surname despite all that was very impressive.

    Laughing heartily, he said, ¡°Brother Xu Qing¡¯s rmendation confirms that Ning Yan has an upright temperament and good moral character.¡± With that, he formally approved Ning Yan¡¯s application. Eyes shing, he looked at Ning Yan. ¡°Ning Yan, I hope that after you be a true swordsage, you show loyalty to the very end. Do not do anything to lose face for Brother Xu Qing.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Ning Yan said.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stay for long. He exchanged a few more words with the swordsage surnamed Zhou, then took his leave. He was going back to the Corrections Division to continue seeking enlightenment.

    When he was back, it was as he was passing Level 9 that he heard the voice of the pce lord some distance away.

    ¡°Just because people call you an amazing chosen doesn¡¯t mean you have the right to get cocky. As far as I¡¯m concerned, Kong Xianglong, you¡¯re nothing but a new swordsage, still wet behind the ears!¡±

 Chapter 437: Bluegreen Dragon Becomes Heavenly Dao!

    Chapter 437: Bluegreen Dragon Bes Heavenly Dao!

    Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, it was without any hesitation that Xu Qing once again entered the minor world and found a volcano in East District 13.

    After sitting down cross-legged, he looked up into the sky, then closed his eyes and sensed his life essence bluegreen dragon. Drawn out by the energy fluctuations, the bluegreen dragon appeared in his mind, looking at him.

    Xu Qing had formed this life essence bluegreen dragon back when he was in the eighth level of Qi Condensation. Originally it was called a Forbidden Sea dragonwhale. Butter, as he gained further understanding of the living things in the Forbidden Sea, its form had changed. In the end, it came to look like a bluegreen dragon. [1]

    When in Foundation Establishment, the dragon became part of his dharma apertures. Later when forming heavenly pces, he had pushed off using the bluegreen dragon in favor of the taboo poison pill, the violet moon, and then his imperial-ss technique.

    But today....

    I guess my life essence bluegreen dragon is going to bear the weight of the dao-severing magicalws!

    Expression shining with determination, he waved his hand, causing a distant mountain to rumble as a nonhuman was ripped out into the open. This was the veryst inmate he had acquired in trade from one of the other jailers. Furthermore... the other jailers had indicated they didn¡¯t want to do any more trading.

    ¡°Should be enough,¡± he murmured.

    The trembling inmate looked at Xu Qing with eyes full of terror. Knowing the fate that wasing, he said, ¡°Exalted one, I can willingly face that saber of heavenly tribtion. Given my crimes, I know that I¡¯ll never be set free. I just hope that, once you finish, exalted one, you wipe me out of existence. I don¡¯t want to experience utter loss of memory.¡±

    Xu Qing said nothing as he put the inmate down and tossed him some medicinal pills.

    The inmate gritted his teeth, took the medicinal pills, and then flew a short distance away. Eyes shining with determination, he swallowed the pills, tapped into his cultivation base, and started the breakthrough process.

    A momentter, rumbling filled the sky and clouds gathered. Lightning converged, and soon enough countless lightning bolts had formed a dao-severing heavenly saber of magicalws. All of it was inly visible to Xu Qing. Saber light glittered, shining into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Expression somber, he began the process of imprinting it onto himself.

    This time, he didn¡¯t n to put the image of the saber into his sea of consciousness. Instead, he nned to put it into his life essence bluegreen dragon. A momentter, a roar echoed out from inside of him, then the bluegreen dragon suddenly appeared outside of his body.

    Remainingpletely focused, he lifted his right hand and started painting.

    Using the bluegreen dragon as the canvas, his memories as the paint, and his senses as the paint brush, he began to draw the dao-severing saber onto the bluegreen dragon, stroke by stroke.

    As time passed, the saber fell from the sky. The nonhuman inmateughed bitterly as his cultivation base exploded, and he was flung to the ground panting for breath.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stop drawing. He wasn¡¯t finished yet. However... the canvas that was his bluegreen dragon was having trouble sustaining all the magicalws, and was starting to tremble on the verge of copse. Cracks spread out across it, to the point where it looked like it might fall apart at any moment.

    A mournful wail drifted out of the dragon¡¯s mouth. Xu Qing frowned and looked at it. Clearly the problem was that the bluegreen dragon¡¯s level was too low. And yet, nothing else would work for Xu Qing¡¯s purposes. After some thought, he sent out his two lifemp umbres and sent them crushing down onto the dragon. The dragon shivered, but with the lifemps protecting it, it seemed more stable. Yet that still wasn¡¯t enough.

    After more thought, Xu Qing tapped into his third heavenly pce. Mutagen erupted from his taboo poison core, entering the bluegreen dragon and bolstering it. Because of Xu Qing controlling it properly, the mutagen didn¡¯t fully invade the bluegreen dragon.

    A day passed. Two days. Three days....

    Xu Qing was fully immersed in the process, to the point where he had almost forgotten himself. His attention waspletely focused on the dao-severing saber. Two thousand breaths of time had long since passed, but he wasn¡¯t paying attention to that.

    Yet at the same time, the weight of the natural and magicalws wasn¡¯t crushing him out of existence. And that was because... as Xu Qing continued painting, the magical and naturalws continued to be branded onto his bluegreen dragon. The bluegreen dragon was bearing the burden.

    Now, those two months of consistent failures were actually bringing some benefits. They were like nutrients that made the branding process smoother. Whenever it seemed like the bluegreen dragon was about to copse, Xu Qing would bless it with his imperial-ss techniques.

    Seven days. Ten days....

    The bluegreen dragon trembled and howled. Every brush stroke made it turn blurry, but at the same time, bolstered it. It was now at its limit.

    Xu Qing knew that if he allowed the life essence bluegreen dragon to be destroyed, the harm would extend to him as well. But Xu Qing was a vicious person in general. Eyes shining, he tapped into his fourth heavenly pce, and the power of the violet moon emerged. This time, he was adding godly power into the bluegreen dragon. The dragon shivered, and Xu Qing made another brush stroke.

    Eventually, half a month had passed. The bluegreen dragon had really reached its limit. But that was when Xu Qing finished with the final brush stroke.

    The moment he finished, he spat out a huge mouthful of blood onto the bluegreen dragon. It was just like the idiom bringing a painted dragon to life by adding the eyes. A tremor passed through the dragon, and then it glowed with the color of blood, as if it had been enchanted.

    Xu Qing immediately sagged in ce, looking very weak. The half month had been unprecedentedly draining to Xu Qing. However, his eyes were shining brightly.

    The dragon had changed quite a bit. It now had countless glittering designs running up and down its body like threads. And the way they glittered made it seem like they contained naturalws. With every breath it took, those countless threads would glitter. In addition, it had a host of magical symbols branded onto it, which emanated ancient auras. There were big ones and small ones, bright ones and dark ones. They were all different.

    Because of all that, the bluegreen dragon... now emanated the same type of aura as the four heavenly daos outside the minor world. Though it was only a bit, anyone who sensed it would be absolutely shocked.

    Finally got it to work!

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. There were simply too many magicalws packed into that dao-severing saber. Even though he had astonishing powers of understanding, the reality was his cultivation base was still too low. As a result, he could only brand about ten percent of the saber.

    But even that ten percent vastly surpassed any of his other divine abilities and magical techniques. After all, it was made from magicalws.

    This is my third Supreme Vastness saber move. And it¡¯s also my heavenly dao saber. Supporting himself on a boulder, he pushed himself into a standing position and then pointed at his life essence bluegreen dragon.

    The bluegreen dragon threw its head back and roared, then shot up into the sky. As it undted overhead, its mere passing caused countless lightning bolts to form around it, making its magicalws very evident. Transformations to heaven and earth were also visible, as a sun and moon appeared overhead.

    The four heavenly daos outside the minor world were looking on. And they were looking at the bluegreen dragon. They were almost like elderly folk looking at a baby.

    The dragon could sense it. Looking up, it let loose another roar.

    The world trembled. Auspicious clouds appeared in the sky as evening sunlight spread out. Those things happening in the sky attracted the attention of the other jailers in the minor world, as well as many inmates.

    ¡°An auspicious omen!¡±

    ¡°The naturalws are changing!¡±

    ¡°What exactly happened?¡±

    Nearby Xu Qing was that nonhuman inmate who had lost his cultivation base. He had stayed the entire time, watching the astonishing events y out in almostplete disbelief. He looked at the dragon, then at Xu Qing, and he felt like he was being struck by heavenly lightning bolts.

    A Gold Core cultivation base... can create an embryonic heavenly dao?? It¡¯s only a bit, but it¡¯s still there! A heavenly dao!!

    He wasn¡¯t the only one to react in such a way. The other jailers were being battered by waves of shock, and many of them rushed over to see what was happening.

    Outside of the minor world on Level 90 of the Corrections Division, Ghost Hand sat in his spot drinking alcohol. Just when he was about to take a swig, his eyes opened wide and he looked over at the minor world.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    I told him to go to East District 13 because a saber of heavenly tribtion was about to appear there. I thought he might gain a bit of enlightenment, and thus understand how to use a heavenly saber to sever body and soul. But he... he....

    Ghost Hand looked shaken to the core, to the point where alcohol was spilling out of his gon and onto the ground.

    He actually created an embryonic heavenly dao?? How is that even possible? How can someone with a Gold Core cultivation base make an embryonic heavenly dao? And what the hell is that bluegreen dragon??

    Back in the minor world, people were gathering in East District 13 because of the auspicious clouds in the sky. Looking around vigntly, Xu Qing waved his hand and withdrew his bluegreen dragon. Once it was gone, everything went back to normal.

    Xu Qing then looked at the inmate nearby, who was looking at him with pleading eyes. Of course, he wasn¡¯t pleading to be spared, but rather, to be killed.

    Xu Qing nodded. Waving his hand, he used the naturalws to wipe the inmate out of existence. Then he flew over to where the Nightshades were imprisoned. Taking away the shadow eyes and jade slips, he flew up into the sky, left the minor world, and went back to the Corrections Division.

    As soon as he was out on Level 90, he saw Ghost Hand.

    Ghost Hand was no longer in his rocking chair. Instead he was right in front of the mural, and was now peering at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What happened in there?¡± Ghost Hand asked with a smile, forcing his astonishment down into his heart.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. There was probably no need to hide the truth. However, there were also never any absolutes. Therefore... even though it was likely people would be able to guess what happened, he still felt the need for caution.

    stering a confused look onto his face, he shook his head.

    Ghost Hand looked at him, smiled enigmatically, then said, ¡°Not bad, ya little punk. It¡¯s good to be so vignt.¡±

    Ghost Hand lifted his gon and took a big drink. Humming a little tune, he went back to his rocking chair and sat down. Obviously he was in a good mood. ¡°But you¡¯re being too obvious. If something like this happens again in the future, you can¡¯t just outright deny that something happened. You have to give some sort of exnation. For example, you could im that you gained enlightenment of a saber move that can sever body from soul.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and realized that what Ghost Hand said made sense. Hemitted the advice to heart, then sped hands respectfully and left.

    As he was leaving the Corrections Division, he sent a voice message to the Captain.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, I have some images of the Nightshades. By the way, I have some free time now... when are we going to set out?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s response started with a resentful sigh. ¡°So you¡¯re finally getting back to me. Little Ah Qing, it¡¯s been two months! What happened to my Taotao?¡±

    ¡°Taotao?¡± Xu Qing said, surprised.

    ¡°Yeah. Weren¡¯t you going to introduce me to Li Taotao?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond at first. What was more, her name was Li Shitao....

    The Captain again sighed bitterly. ¡°You¡¯ve really picked up some bad habits. You went and made a huge deal about this, then made me stew for two months!¡±

    Hearing the Captain¡¯s bitterness reminded Xu Qing of the matter of making that introduction. He¡¯dpletely forgotten about it. ¡°I¡¯ve been busy....¡±

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, all the happiness in your Eldest Brother¡¯s life is now in your hands. I managed to infiltrate the Administration Pce recently to sneak a peek at my Taotao. Ahem. Not bad at all.¡± The Captain cleared his throat.

    Xu Qing took the words to heart. ¡°Alright. Once we¡¯re done with our big job, I¡¯ll make the introduction. Eldest Brother, you cane over and get the Nightshade recordings whenever you want.¡±

    Having acquired that promise from Xu Qing, the Captain was already shivering with anticipation. However, he knew that their big job was more important. So on that very night, he hurried over to get the recordings. Before leaving, he said one thing.

    ¡°Get ready, little Ah Qing. This is the only missing piece. In three days, I¡¯lle get you and exin the whole n!¡±

    1. He formed the Forbidden Sea dragonwhale in chapter 77. It changed into the bluegreen dragon form in chapter 179. Incidentally, quick reminder that ¡°bluegreen¡± is a pretty direct trantion of the characters in this dragon¡¯s name. Its name is the same as a ¡°mosasaurs.¡± ?

 Chapter 438: Ten Entrails of the True Immortal

    Chapter 438: Ten Entrails of the True Immortal

    Xu Qing quietly watched the Captain leave.

    Although he wasn¡¯t sure about the details of the Captain¡¯s next big n, he was confident he knew the general idea. And that led him to the conclusion that this wasn¡¯t going to be a quick job.

    Therefore, he requested a leave of absence from his post, effective immediately. For the next three days, he spent time in the county capital shopping for various items he would need. After all the shopping was done, he spent time in his sword pavilion studying the Nightshade eye that Ghost Hand gave to him. It was a truly miraculous object that had the ability to boost psychic powers. And when he tapped into the power of his violet moon heavenly pce, he could purge it, causing it to transform in unusual ways.

    The three days passed in a sh.

    The evening sky over the county capital looked different for those three days, perhaps because of the change of seasons. Instead of the evening sky being a deep yellow color, it was crimson. That color spread out to cover everything, making it as bright red as blood. It was hard to say whether it was an auspicious omen or an ill one. The sky was the same for all three days.

    On thest day, Xu Qing stood in his sword pavilion looking out at the sky, and a strange feeling filled him. It was a sudden feeling of unease. He quickly dispelled it. His eyes flickered with suspicion. He had never experienced anything like that before, and after some consideration, he could only conclude that it had something to do with his life essence bluegreen dragon. As he thought about it, someone approached within the red of evening.

    It was none other than the Captain.

    He looked to be in very high spirits as he rushed over. Upon seeing Xu Qing, he chuckled and performed an incantation gesture to put a spell formation in ce. Then he had Xu Qing activate the sword pavilion¡¯s formations as well, ensuring that they hadplete and utter privacy.

    ¡°Everything¡¯s ready, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s just going to be you and me this time. Nobody else. I originally wanted Ning Yan toe along, but once that little brat passed his assessment, he vanished. I looked everywhere but couldn¡¯t find him. I wonder if he realized I wanted to use him as a meat shield.¡±

    The Captain sighed as thoroughly as if he¡¯d seen a roasted pigeon suddenly fly off into the night.

    Xu Qing was actually surprised by the development. After some thought, he asked, ¡°Is it going to change things now that he¡¯s noting along?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll definitely change things,¡± the Captain replied, eyes glittering. ¡°Thankfully, you gave me that Nightshade jade slip, therefore, it won¡¯t be a huge deal that we don¡¯t have Ning Yan. This time around, little Ah Qing, we¡¯re not going to be rushing into things impulsively. We have to rely on our smarts. And that¡¯s because I¡¯m taking you... into Holytide territory!¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. ¡°And we¡¯re going in disguised as Nightshades?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily, his eyebrows dancing up and down. ¡°You¡¯re the only person who truly understands me, little Ah Qing. You¡¯repletely right. We¡¯re going to disguise ourselves as Nightshades and sneak into Holytide territory. Think about it! The Holytides are enved to the Nightshades. If we disguise ourselves as their masters, then we¡¯ll basically be able to do anything we want.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Of course, there were many details that needed to be handled, but the Captain was innately skilled at disguise, so Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about all that. Given the general idea of what they were going to do, he was confident that they could seed.

    ¡°What do you mean when you say Holytide territory?¡± Xu Qing asked. ¡°Where, exactly?¡±

    ¡°Eastern Wastnd County!¡± the Captain replied, keeping his voice low. ¡°There are fourteen counties in the Holytide region. Eastern Wastnd County actually borders Sea-Sealing County, and it has a very strange area within it called Ten Entrails of the True Immortal!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. He didn¡¯t know a lot about the Holytides, but that name seemed extremely unusual, and didn¡¯t leave him with a good feeling.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, the Captain continued, ¡°It¡¯s a bizarre name, right? Ten Entrails of the True Immortal. The name refers to a tree with ten trunks that resemble entrails as they twist and turn their way up into the sky.

    ¡°The Ten Entrails Tree actually has a very long history. Before the arrival of the broken face of the god, it grew over more than half of the entire region, and was worshiped by countless species.

    ¡°People say that, back then, all eyes were drawn to the branches of the tree, which were festooned with countless corpses, all of which were sacrificed to h¨©m. Supposedly, such sacrifices would bring blessings, and not even Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity did anything to stop the custom. And that¡¯s because there¡¯s another legend associated with the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone brightly.

    ¡°Legend has it that the Ten Entrails Tree is the embodiment of thest member of the Woe-Immortal species who, countless years in the past, actually became an immortal!¡± [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    The Captain took out an apple and a peach. After tossing the apple to Xu Qing, he took a bite from the peach and continued, ¡°The Woe-Immortal species is mysterious and unfathomable. They believed that the entrails were like a wheel that was integral to one¡¯s life force. They viewed the entrails as the source of everything. To them, immortal ascension involved cutting open one¡¯s body and using it as the vehicle to be an immortal. By extracting their ¡®spirit entrails¡¯ and nting them into the ground, they could absorb the nutrients of the world itself.

    ¡°ording to the story, this one particr Woe-Immortal seeded, bing the only true immortal in the Revered Ancient maind. As for Ten Entrails Tree, that¡¯s the original body of that immortal. However... when the broken face of the god arrived, that immortal was imprisoned and is still asleep.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what a true immortal is like?¡± Xu Qing asked. The Captain¡¯s description definitely didn¡¯t match up to what he imagined an immortal to be like.

    ¡°Never thought it would be like that, did ya?¡± the Captain said, looking very pleased with himself. He took another bite of his peach. ¡°But yeah, that¡¯s what true immortals are like, little Ah Qing. You see, you just don¡¯t know enough about the world we live in. Later on, you really need to learn a thing or two from your Eldest Brother.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and came to the conclusion that what the Captain said was right, so he nodded earnestly.

    Looking even more pleased than before, the Captain quietly went on. ¡°What did you think immortals were like? We humans use various expressions to describe them, such as: the demeanor of a transcendent being; surpassing the world and transcending the mortal; as unrestrained as wind and mist.

    ¡°But the truth is that different species have different understandings of immortals. The Woe-Immortals thought of the ten entrails as being an immortal. And other nonhuman species have their own myths and legends describing what immortals are like. In the future, we¡¯re going to travel to all sorts of interesting ces with their own strange stories. What a fun and interesting world.¡±

    The Captain smiled.

    Xu Qing felt a bit dazed.

    ¡°Surrounding the Ten Entrails Tree is an endless jungle. And that¡¯s where we¡¯re going! Every hundred years, that jungle produces a huge crop of ¡®true immortal dao fruits.¡¯ As you can imagine, the fruits are extremely gruish in appearance. They look like eyes.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, you can¡¯t eat them. If you do, you go insane and develop multiple personalities. I mean, even people from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, whose techniques require them to have multiple personalities, wouldn¡¯t dare to eat them.

    ¡°That said, the true immortal dao fruits are a rare material that can be used in equipment forging. They can be used to make all sorts of magical devices and treasures. They¡¯re very formidable, and as you can imagine, very valuable. Because of the official trade embargo with the Holytides, the county capital will often put out missions to get those dao fruits. And guess, what? A single one is worth 10,000 military credits!

    ¡°If we can get a few hundred dao fruits, then we would have a few million military credits, right?

    ¡°And thus, little Ah Qing, we see how absolutely incredible your Eldest Brother is. I dug around in the Credit Auditing Branch for a long time before I uncovered this extremely profitable opportunity. Of course, the dao fruits are only the first goal of the mission. There¡¯s moreter....¡±

    Grinningcently, the Captain finished his peach, then took out another one. He took a bite.

    Xu Qing instinctively stered a look of admiration onto his face, but his eyes flickered with a thoughtful look.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, could you please be a little more sincere? Your facial expression is too forced. Do I need to give you a lesson...?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then opened his eyes very wide to make himself look incredulous. ¡°Eldest Brother, does Ten Entrails of the True Immortal have anything dangerous other than the tree itself? Furthermore, considering how valuable those dao fruits are, won¡¯t the Holytides also be harvesting them?¡±

    It was a bit hard for the Captain to ept Xu Qing¡¯s new facial expression, but he did. Continuing to eat his peach, he went on to further exin his n.

    ¡°Ten Entrails of the True Immortal is an inherently dangerous ce. However, h¨¥ is sleeping, after all.

    ¡°The jungle surrounding the Ten Entrails Tree has grown dao fruits for countless years, and as a result, a number of city-states have popped up there. Those city-states all pay fealty to one of the four great royal dynasties of the Holytide region. Whenever the dao fruits ripen, those city-states are responsible for harvesting them and offering them as tribute to the dynasties.

    ¡°There will be danger there, of course. But since we¡¯ll be there as Nightshades, then as long as we handle ourselves with care, we won¡¯t run into any trouble!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips as his eyes glittered with a crazy look.

    ¡°I think the biggest question is how we¡¯ll get there,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°We can¡¯t just show up as Nightshades. That would be too suspicious.¡±

    The Captain had apparently already nned out that part of the job.

    ¡°When the dao fruits ripen, they need to be fertilized with a special object called a cloudmother stone. Cloudmother stones are verymon in other ces, but guess where they grow in great numbers? In Daybreak Prefecture of Sea-Sealing County!

    ¡°Whenever the dao fruit harvest approaches, Holytide caravans will sneak in to smuggle cloudmother stones out. And though there¡¯s technically a trade embargo with the Holytides, as we all know, the Yao n are actually pro-Holytide. This whole event is a huge source of ie for the Yao n.¡± The Captain looked over at Xu Qing. ¡°Get what I mean, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with a strange light. ¡°We¡¯re going to use one of those caravans to get us into Holytide territory?¡±

    The Captain burst outughing. ¡°Exactly! I¡¯ve nned it all out down to thest detail. That¡¯s why I asked you for recordings of those Nightshades. With those recordings, I¡¯m confident that I can perfectly disguise us.

    ¡°Although it¡¯s not public knowledge that the Swordsage Pce captured some Nightshades, I secretly leaked the information to the caravan we¡¯ll be targeting. They know the general situation, although they don¡¯t know how many Nightshades were arrested.

    ¡°Therefore, we¡¯re going to have to put on a little show. And to do that, we¡¯ll need the help of some swordsages.... You¡¯re close with Kong Xianglong, right? Maybe he can handle it.¡±

    Xu Qing considered it, then nodded.

    ¡°Well then, everything¡¯s set. We¡¯ll head out tomorrow!¡± The Captain took a deep breath, and his eyes shone with anticipation. Gulping down the rest of his peach, he said, ¡°We¡¯re going to get rich, little Ah Qing. And we won¡¯t run into any dangerous situations. We¡¯re going into this scenario disguised as the masters!¡±

    Xu Qing understoodpletely. The job would be extremely dangerous. That said, he was prepared. Besides, there was an astonishing amount of military credits up for grabs, and it caused his eyes to shine with anticipation.

    The one thing Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask about was how they were supposed to get back to the county capital once the job was done. That said, he and the Captain had worked on enough jobs together that he wasn¡¯t worried about a detail like that. In all likelihood, it woulde down to luck.

    After seeing the Captain off, Xu Qing took out his transmission jade slip and sent Kong Xianglong a voice message. After exining the situation, he asked for help.

    Kong Xianglongughed heartily. ¡°A Nightshade disguise? That¡¯s smart! How about I join you?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. ¡°Well, my Eldest Brother and I....¡±

    ¡°Oh, got it. Well... maybe I won¡¯t join you after all. Xu Qing, I know you don¡¯t want to hear this, but I really need to remind you to be careful around that Eldest Brother of yours. That one-meter light of his is very worrisome. Don¡¯t get scammed by him.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled bitterly, then went on to exchange a few more messages with Kong Xianglong, ending with an agreement to meet first thing in the morning.

    Seeing howte it was, Xu Qing organized his bag of holding. Then, after thinking about the fact that he had no idea exactly how long he would be gone, he sent a message to Arch-Immortal Plumdark letting her know that he was going out for a bit. Having done that, he sat down cross-legged to meditate until the morning.

    However... before light could fill the sky, someone appeared outside of his sword pavilion.

    It was none other than Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    When she stepped inside, the fragrance of her perfume filled the sword pavilion. Looking tenderly at Xu Qing, she said, ¡°I¡¯m not going to stop you from leaving. But you don¡¯t have enough protective items, so I¡¯m going to give you one.¡±

    As she stood in the doorway, the moonlight behind her cascaded down, causing her beautiful gown to glitter like silver. She seemed like she was standing in a river of moonlight, and her graceful expression and warm eyes were like lotuses floating on the river.

    1. Just as with the Demi-Immortals, the ¡°Woe-Immortals¡± are a specific species. Their species name is not inherently rted to cultivation levels. ?

 Chapter 439: â€œIâ€™m Blind,â€ said Chen Erniu

    Chapter 439: ¡°I¡¯m Blind,¡± said Chen Erniu

    Xu Qing looked at Arch-Immortal Plumdark and hesitated, all the while thinking back to what the Captain had said about mountains and fetters. Back then, what the Captain said had made a lot of sense. What was more, he had been so focused on seeking enlightenment that all he¡¯d managed was to send Arch-Immortal Plumdark a few questions via voice message. He hadn¡¯t had any chance to chat or visit in person. Seeing her at his door, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    Upon hearing the way he addressed her, Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Looking him up and down briefly, she suddenly started wondering what exactly was going on. Something seemed off to her. Two months ago, she¡¯d sensed that his mood was unstable. That seemed even more obvious to her now. After all, women are generally much more sensitive to such things than men.

    Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s that nitwit Chen Erniu, up to more shenanigans.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark quickly came to the conclusion that her spection was correct. However, she didn¡¯t reveal that via her facial expression. Stepping into the sword pavilion, she waved her hand, causing the door to m shut behind her.

    A man and a woman together, with the door closed. In those circumstances, Arch-Immortal Plumdark gracefully sat down cross-legged and took out a medicinal bottle.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this trip you messaged me about, does it involve leaving Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Looking straight at him, she said, ¡°In that case, you really don¡¯t have enough in the way of defenses. Sit down.¡±

    Her gaze caused him to sigh inwardly. Walking over, he sat down opposite her. He was so close that her perfume sweptpletely over him, filling his nose and swirling around his heart and mind.

    ¡°Presumably you have some defensive items given to you by your Master. Given that you¡¯re leaving Sea-Sealing County, what you really need are some concealment magics.¡± She carefully put the medicinal bottle off to the side.

    ¡°In that bottle is some blood. I collected it years ago when the emperor of the Spiritsound forbidden ground caused chaos in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. During that event, the prefectural sects joined with the Swordsage Court to crush Emperor Sword. And I managed to get some of his blood.

    ¡°I¡¯ve gained a lot of enlightenment from that blood over the years. Today, I¡¯ll use what little is left, along with my personal dao, to paint some concealment symbols on your body.

    ¡°Because the paint itself will be the blood of Emperor Sword, it will temporarily increase your personhood and also hide all auras associated with you, ensuring that no one will have any idea who you are or what you really look like.¡±

    Shaken, Xu Qing looked at the bottle sitting next to Arch-Immortal Plumdark. He knew full well how valuable that blood was, and given what she was about to do, he was deeply moved.

    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine unless you tangle with someone in the fourth stage of Void Returning or higher. Entities like that usually upy extremely high positions, so it¡¯s unlikely you would ever encounter one of them. That said, keep in mind that the blood symbols won¡¯tst long. At the very most, they¡¯ll be effective for three months.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth but wasn¡¯t sure what to say. Before he could speak, Arch-Immortal Plumdark smiled.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to say all the polite things required by etiquette. Now, take your robe off.¡±

    Xu Qing was very taken aback.

    ¡°What are you staring at? If I¡¯m going to paint symbols on you, you have to take your uniform off.¡± She blinked yfully a few times.

    Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have hesitated if it was someone else. But he always felt nervous around Arch-Immortal Plumdark. That said, he knew how important these concealment symbols were going to be, so he took a deep breath and removed his swordsage uniform robe, leaving himpletely bare-chested. [1]

    A faint flush appeared on Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s face as she looked at him. Then she reached out and tapped his shoulder, causing him to spin around in ce so his back was to her.

    ¡°Calm yourself,¡± she said, her voice as delicate as a feather drifting through his mind and heart, sending out faint ripples.

    Xu Qing was deeply nervous. Never in his entire life had he done anything like this, and his heart was absolutely racing. As he sat there, he felt as stiff as a board. Behind him, Arch-Immortal Plumdark picked up the medicinal bottle, opened it, and poured out a single drop of golden blood. Her expression turned very serious.

    ¡°Xu Qing, these symbols areplicated. And they need to bepleted without pausing.¡±

    The skin of her hand was as fair as snow as she put it into the blood of Emperor Sword from the Spiritsound forbidden ground. Then she ced her finger onto the skin of his back and began gently painting the first magical symbol. Sometimes her finger slid slowly across his back. Other times, she moved it quickly. As the golden lines of blood created a pattern on his skin, he shivered.

    All of the fine hairs on his body seemed to be standing on end.

    The sensation of her finger on his back caused the hair on his head to feel like it was curling up. The feeling seeped from his skin to the depths of his heart, where it rippled through the rest of him until his scalp tingled. His heart beat faster and faster, and he couldn¡¯t stop himself from breathing heavily.

    Finally, he gritted his teeth, took a few deep breaths, and then started mentally reciting the ssic of nts and Vegetation.

    That method seemed to work, as his heart began to calm.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    By the time he¡¯d mentally recited the ssic of nts and Vegetation three times, it was dawn outside. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. At this point, Arch-Immortal Plumdark hadpleted the majority of the concealment symbols.

    ¡°Now your front,¡± she said, and this time her voice didn¡¯t sound the same as before. Before Xu Qing could even think about what that meant, she tapped him again, causing him to turn a half circle.

    Now they were facing each other.

    As her breath caressed his face, he noticed her eyshes fluttering slightly, and saw a faint red flush creeping up her neck.

    She¡¯s nervous too?

    Xu Qing was very taken aback.

    He¡¯d never seen a facial expression like this on Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s face. As that thought urred to him, she cleared her throat. Though she was blushing and her eyshes were fluttering, her eyes shone brightly as she put her finger onto his chest.

    As she started painting, Xu Qing felt so shaken he had to close his eyes to settle his energy and mind. Then he started reciting the ssic of nts and Vegetation again.

    Her finger slid like water across his chest, making it very difficult to recite the text properly. As the golden lines appeared on him, the sensation sent waves of shock mming into his mind.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, it was bright outside. Arch-Immortal Plumdark suddenly stopped moving her hand, leaving her finger touching his chest.

    ¡°Your heart¡¯s racing, Xu Qing,¡± she said softly. The sword pavilion was so quiet that it felt like she was speaking right into his ear.

    He inhaled deeply and opened his eyes to look at the blushing Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Their eyes met, and when she spoke next, her voice trembled a bit. ¡°Stay still. I¡¯m almost done.¡±

    Her finger moved again, sliding up his chest to his neck. Then it reached his chin, and finally his ear. That required her to lean a bit closer to him.

    Xu Qing was so stiff he couldn¡¯t move, and couldn¡¯t even focus enough to remember a single word from the ssic of nts and Vegetation. His eyes were nk and even zed.

    As Arch-Immortal Plumdark leaned closer to him, he suddenly heard the excited voice of the Captain outside the sword pavilion.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing! What¡¯s going on? Are youing out? We need to get moving. Our big job starts today! Hey, why do you have an extrayer of defenses up? What are you up to in there, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark retracted her finger and got to her feet, looking a little bit unsettled. Normally she liked to tease Xu Qing. Toy with him a bit. However, this current situation was one that neither she nor Xu Qing had been in before. Face still flushed, she straightened her hair and forced herself to look calm.

    Clearing her throat, she didn¡¯t dare to look at Xu Qing as she said, ¡°Have a safe journey, Xu Qing.¡±

    Turning, she walked elegantly, yet at the same time a bit hurriedly, to the door of the sword pavilion. Pushing it open, she found herself right in front of the Captain, who had a quizzical expression on his face.

    All it took was a moment for the Captain¡¯s quizzical expression to turn into one of outright shock. Eyes wide, he stared at Arch-Immortal Plumdark, then looked past her at Xu Qing, who was putting his robe back on.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see anything!¡± he blurted, backing up a few paces. ¡°I saw nothing. Absolutely nothing!¡±

    Waves of astonishment smashed his heart. There¡¯s no way the two of them actually¡ª

    ¡°Chen Erniu,¡± Arch-Immortal Plumdark said coolly, before the Captain¡¯s thoughts could run too wild.

    ¡°Here, ma¡¯am!¡± the Captain replied, squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as possible.

    ¡°Last month I got a message from the Eight Sect Coalition. Apparently, the ancient snake skeleton has gotten a bit dirty.¡±

    The Captain shivered as the implications of her words hit him. He tried to think of what mistake he¡¯d made, and it didn¡¯t take long for him toe to a realization. He had interrupted a good moment... and he had seen something he shouldn¡¯t have seen.

    ¡°Arch-Immortal,¡± he said quickly, st night I experienced some problems in my daily cultivation. As a result, I suddenly went blind.¡±

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark snorted coldly then continued, ¡°Also, I have a very good friend by the name of Li Shitao. A few days ago she mentioned seeing a very shifty character sneaking around the Administration Pce, spying on her while eating peaches. Any chance that was you?¡± [2]

    ¡°It was definitely not me,¡± the Captain said somberly. ¡°I would never spy on anyone. Besides, I prefer apples!¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± After a few more perfunctory words of farewell, she left, her heart racing.

    When the Captain was sure she was gone, he opened his eyes, looked around to confirm they were alone, then sauntered into the sword pavilion. Still looking surprised, he said, ¡°What was going on just now?¡±

    Xu Qing already had his uniform back on. Expression the same as ever, he said, ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Huh??¡± Stunned, the Captain looked Xu Qing up and down, then sidled a bit closer to him and quietly said, ¡°Did you and Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s about time to leave, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said, walking out of the sword pavilion.

    The Captain looked in the direction Arch-Immortal Plumdark had left, and then back at Xu Qing. Then he pulled out a peach and took a bite. Chuckling, he hurried after Xu Qing.

    There was no snow, but it was quite windy. It was also a very clear day, without a cloud in the sky. Because of that, the light of sunrise was particrly bright, illuminating the two of them and causing their shadows to stretch out.

    The wind carried with it sarcastic chuckles. However, as the two of them made their way into the distance, the chuckles turned into quiet conversation.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you can tell the truth to your Eldest Brother. Last night, did you finally... grow up?¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you saying anything, little Junior Brother? Feeling a bit bashful, eh?¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    ¡°Aiya. Fine, fine, fine. I¡¯m not going to tease you. However, my most dearest little Junior Brother, once we¡¯re back, you have to introduce me to my Taotao. I also want to... grow up.¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    1. I feel like most of you probably know this, and it¡¯s also obvious from context, but just to make things very clear, the ¡°robe¡± element of ancient Chinese garments was generally worn over an inner garment, which could simply be a pair of trousers, or might include other more borate articles of clothing. ?

    2. Don¡¯t forget that the ¡°tao¡± in Li Shitao is the character for ¡°peach.¡± Please keep this in mind going forward¡­. ?

 Chapter 440: This is a Big Job. Take it Seriously!

    Chapter 440: This is a Big Job. Take it Seriously!

    It was afternoon, the time when the winter sun was most dazzling as it fell on the Inkpaint Mountains, which were a short distance from the county capital. The name of the mountains came from the monochromendscape. Everything was either ck or white. There was no vegetation here, and the only animal life came in the form of a snake called an inkpaint viper. The monochrome mountains, and the boulders that dotted them, really looked like an ink painting.

    Atop a mountain in that ¡®ink painting¡¯ sat six people.

    They had split up in a very clear manner. One sat alone up front. One sat in the middle. Four sat in the back. The person sitting up front was the Captain. He looked very pleased with himself as he looked back at Xu Qing, then the four other people further back. Those four were Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit. They seemed to be mostly ignoring the Captain, and were focusing primarily on Xu Qing. All had curious expressions on their faces.

    This was the spot where Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong had agreed to meet. Thetter was going to help out with the ¡®show¡¯ that Xu Qing and the Captain needed to put on.

    ¡°Alright, everybody ready to get started?¡± the Captain said coolly.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The Captain tilted his chin up proudly as he produced two medicinal pill bottles. He gave one to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Each bottle has a single shadeheaven demonmoon tablet in it. After we consume them, our body structure will change, and even our flesh and blood will transform. Once we be Nightshades, it will be very difficult for anyone to see through the disguise.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s words caused Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. Next to him, Sir Mountain-River inhaled sharply.

    ¡°Shadeheaven demonmoon tablets? Those are top-secret pills from the Garmentfolk. They¡¯re very expensive and extremely rare. I¡¯ve heard that the primary ingredient for each pill is actually a Garmentfolk!¡±

    Wang Chen and Duskspirit also looked in shock at Chen Erniu.

    The Captain looked extremely casual as he said, ¡°They¡¯re alright. I had something better in mind, but I happen to know a Garmentfolk who owes me a favor. Upon finding out what I needed, that Garmentfolk raced across multiple prefectures to meet me here in the county capital. After seven days and seven nights of pleading.... Ai. It¡¯s difficult to refuse generosity, so in the end, I agreed.¡±

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he took the medicinal pill bottle. ncing at Kong Xianglong and the others, he could tell that none of them believed the Captain¡¯s story.

    The Captain shook his head and sighed, as if he wasn¡¯t inclined to go into further details. Then he took the pill out of the bottle. It emanated a dazzling, blinding redness, and emitted a fragrant aroma. Even just smelling the pill, Xu Qing felt like his flesh and blood was wriggling. This pill was clearly amazing.

    As everyone watched, the Captain consumed the pill. A momentter, he shook from head to toe. At the same time, a garment spread out to cover him. It waspletely gray, and it covered every inch of him. Then it shrank down tight over him, whereupon the Captain started to transform. His limbs became skinnier, he became shorter overall, his head gotrger, his eyelids vanished, and his eyes grew bigger. His hair changed too, bing a host of spines almost like a hedgehog.

    A momentter, a Nightshade stood in front of the others.

    The marvelous scene caused Kong Xianglong and the others to look on with shining eyes. Although they had all heard about that special Garmentfolk pill, it was absolutely astonishing to see it in action.

    After Xu Qing was sure the Captain¡¯s transformation wasplete, he consumed his own medicinal pill. Afterward, he felt his flesh and blood change rapidly, as if some of it had been extracted from within him and put on the outside like a garment that resembled a Nightshade.

    To the eyes of Kong Xianglong and the others, Xu Qing simply transformed into a Nightshade. He had gray skin, a slim frame, arge head, and spiky hair. His clothes had also changed. Instead of his swordsage uniform, he wore a dark red suit of armor that covered him from head to toe.

    After seeing Xu Qing and Chen Erniu transform into Nightshades, Kong Xianglong had to suppress his desire to join them. ¡°Nightshade blood is ck,¡± he reminded them. ¡°And though your auras seem wless, don¡¯t forget that Nightshades speak and act differently from humans. Furthermore, they have unique magical techniques.¡±

    ¡°It goes without saying that I considered that in my preparations,¡± the Captain said with a haughty smile. With that, he tossed a ck rock to Xu Qing.

    ¡°That¡¯s a ckblood stone,¡± he said. ¡°Absorb that, and your blood will change color temporarily.¡±

    The Captain tossed a ckblood stone into his mouth, then took a bite out of his arm. The blood that flowed out was ck. Combined with his aura, it made him seem exactly like a Nightshade.

    ¡°In terms of magical techniques....¡± The Captain¡¯s ck eyes shed as the air in front of him rippled and distorted. A long spear took shape. Grabbing it, he twirled it with a flourish. Instantly, a tremor passed through him, causing countless inkpaint vipers to crawl out into the open. As they gathered, they looked in the Captain¡¯s direction and bowed their heads, as if waiting for orders.

    Sir Mountain-River shot to his feet. Wang Chen and Duskspirit gasped in shock. And Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. Truth be told... all of this was exactly what they knew Nightshades to be like. They could enve countless species, and were known for being able to create something from nothing. In fact, if they hadn¡¯t personally witnessed the transformation just now, they would assume that Chen Erniu really was a Nightshade.

    Xu Qing was simrly taken aback.

    When the Captain saw their reaction, he shed a profoundly enigmatic smile. Then he waved his hand to disperse the snakes and send the spear away.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, this time, your Eldest Brother is taking you on a really, really big job. Going forward, don¡¯t just randomly go on missions with anyone who invites you. Missions like that don¡¯t give much military credits. When you ept missions, you really need to take note of who¡¯s in charge.¡±

    Kong Xianglong snorted coldly.

    Smiling wryly, Xu Qing absorbed the ckblood stone, causing his blood to transform. He was curious about how the Captain had managed to employ Nightshade magical techniques. But then he thought about some of the Captain¡¯s big secrets, and he realized it wasn¡¯t so surprising after all.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m good to go,¡± Xu Qing said, thinking about the research he had done on the Nightshade¡¯s eye.

    With a final nce at Kong Xianglong and the others, the Captain looked at Xu Qing and licked his lips. ¡°Alright, little Junior Brother. Same old same old?¡±

    Xu Qing knew exactly what he meant. Though his ck eyes shone with a bit of hesitation, he finally nodded.

    Meanwhile, Kong Xianglong and the others were confused, as they had no idea what Xu Qing and the Captain meant by ¡®same old same old.¡¯

    Even as they puzzled about it, the Captain strode forward and produced an ice spear which he stabbed directly into Xu Qing¡¯s chest. The spear exploded, creating countless ice des that shed into Xu Qing.

    Instantly, ck blood burst out of Xu Qing. And the Captain wasn¡¯t done. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he punched Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, causing the crack of breaking bone to ring out. As Xu Qing gasped, the Captain lunged forward to bite him.

    Eyes widening, Xu Qing backed up. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s my turn!¡±

    The Captainughed ufortably and said, ¡°My bad, I just fell into old habits. Go ahead, it''s your turn.¡±

    Ignoring the pain, and eyes shining malevolently, Xu Qing stalked up to the Captain and produced a ck dagger. He immediately plunged it into the Captain¡¯s abdomen.

    The Captain screamed in pain.

    Despite how the blood sprayed, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a moment. He pulled the dagger out, picked another spot, and plunged it in. After stabbing the Captain about seven or eight times, he looked up and shed the de through the Captain¡¯s neck.

    The wound was so deep the Captain¡¯s head nearly fell off.

    Eyes widening, the Captain backed up a bit.

    ¡°The swordsages chased us for long enough that we should definitely have some sword wounds!¡± The Captain pulled out hismand sword and stabbed Xu Qing seven or eight times.

    Gritting his teeth against the pain and ignoring the blood streaming down him, Xu Qing growled, ¡°Considering how long they chased us, and the fact we couldn¡¯t rest, the wounds must be decaying!¡± He quickly scattered some poison, provoking an agonized shriek from the Captain as his wounds started rotting.

    ¡°Living a life on the run in a ce without much spirit energy should leave us very weak!¡± The Captainunched some more blows.

    ¡°The Nightshades don¡¯t like sunlight. That just means the wounds will rot even worse!¡± Xu Qing unleashed a few more attacks.

    And thus, the two of them went back and forth, tit for tat. Off to the side, Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit watched with ck jaws and wide eyes. Eventually, they inhaled sharply and exchanged nces.

    ¡°They take it that seriously?¡± Duskspirit said.

    ¡°Xu Qing mentioned that he and his Eldest Brother had gone through some life-or-death situations...¡± Sir Mountain-River said in a low tone.

    Everyone was fully convinced of that now.

    Sometimeter, the Captain grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s wrist before he could stab him again with his dagger.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing,¡± he said weakly, ¡°we¡¯ve... probably gone far enough. If we go much further we¡¯ll be done for.¡±

    Panting for breath, Xu Qing kept his hand on the Captain¡¯s wrist, preventing his ice de from going any further. ¡°Yeah, good enough I suppose.¡±

    They dropped their hands. The Captain looked up at the sky to check the time. It was already evening, and the red color spread out like blood. Meanwhile, it was possible to see a cloud of dust off in the distance. The ground trembled faintly, and they could pick up the sound of beasts.

    ¡°That¡¯s our caravan. Little Junior Brother, it¡¯s time for our show. Although we¡¯ve nned things out, be ready to make adjustments as necessary!¡± With that, the Captain rose to his feet, clutched his abdomen, and started running.

    Expression grave, Xu Qing looked at Kong Xianglong and the others. After sping hands, he started running as fast as he could.

    Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit were all in high spirits now. After personally witnessing the methods of Xu Qing and the Captain, they were moved, and felt deep admiration. That was especially true considering how the two of them didn¡¯t hold back in wounding each other. It really went to show how seriously Xu Qing and Chen Erniu were taking this, and that made them want to take it more seriously as well.

    Expressions turning fierce, and baleful auras ring, they started chasing after Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Humankind rules thesends! Where do you think you can escape to?¡±

    ¡°Your wounds are too serious! You won¡¯tst for much longer!¡±

    ¡°Be careful, everyone. The Nightshades excel at envement arts. There must be a reason they¡¯re fleeing in this direction!¡±

    All four of them were working hard to make the situation as realistic as possible. At a certain point, Duskspirit pulled out a jade slip and crushed it, causing light to rocket up into the sky and explode to form the shape of a sword.

    That was obviously a swordsage signal.

    Meanwhile, about fifty kilometers away, a caravan was speeding along. It was made up of several hundred carts, each of which was at least three hundred meters long. They were covered with pitch ck canvases and were being pulled along by enormous beasts of burden with red skin called ¡®fourleggers.¡¯

    Atop each fourlegger was a Holytide cultivator. There were none in the Nascent Soul level, with the majority being in Foundation Establishment, and only a dozen or so in Gold Core. The Gold Core cultivators all seemed to have two or three heavenly pces. There were only three who had four pces, with the strongest being a young man in a fancy, brocaded robe. The ck mark on his forehead was especially clear, revealing that he had an extraordinary bloodline. He had six-pce battle prowess.

    This caravan was from the duchy of Heaven Zenith, which was one of the thirty-six city-states that surrounded Ten Entrails of the True Immortal in Eastern Wastnd County of the Holytide Region. [1]

    They were in Sea-Sealing County because they¡¯d been given a travel permit by the Yao n, and they were handling a shipment of cloudmother stones. The special nature of those stones made them impossible to put into bags of holding, thus, they needed to be transported by cart. The travel permit from the Yao n ensured that they would have safe passage through Sea-Sealing County. That said, because of the friction between the Holytides and humans, they couldn¡¯t send very powerful cultivators lest they attract too much attention. In contrast, a less powerful group would be less of a threat.

    Besides, their job was to transport goods, not do any fighting and killing. After they got the shipment of cloudmother stones, they would make haste to the border without pausing along the way.

    As the caravan neared the Inkpaint Mountains and the swordsage signal lit up the sky, it caused a stir.

    The good-looking young man with the extraordinary cultivation base looked coldly up into the sky.

    ¡°Swordsages?¡±

    1. Extremely astute readers might remember that the Holytide species got its start when the ¡°Grand Duke of Holytide¡± rebelled. The ruler of a ¡°duchy¡± would be a ¡°duke,¡± but, in the case of the ¡°grand duke,¡± it¡¯s a different title rted to an imperial system, whereas this ¡°duchy of Heaven Zenith¡± exists in a royal system. In other words, the ruler of this duchy, who would be called a duke, has apletely different rank/titlepared to the ¡°grand duke.¡± ?

 Chapter 441: The Young Cow Runs Like Crazy

    Chapter 441: The Young Cow Runs Like Crazy

    Xu Qing and the Captain were currently fleeing madly through the Inkpaint Mountains.

    Their dark red armor was falling apart, and they had ghastly wounds all over their bodies. Many of those wounds were already rotting, and emitted very weak auras. Some of their injuries seemed potentially fatal. One of Xu Qing¡¯s arms wasn¡¯t working, and his belly had a gaping gash in it. The spot over his heart was a mass of mangled flesh, as if something had exploded there. He seemed to be barely clinging to life. The Captain was in simr shape. His worst injury other than the ragged hole near his kidney was a sh to his neck that looked like it hade close to severing his head.

    Clearly, these Nightshades had strong life force; despite their injuries, they were running at top speed. As ck blood sshed here and there, their eyes shone with cold determination. It was as if death didn¡¯t mean much to them.

    They were being chased by Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit.

    Kong Xianglong had sped around in a different direction, so it would seem like he hade in response to the signal.

    As Sir Mountain-River and the others gave chase, they pulsed with baleful auras and killing intent. asionally they would perform an incantation gesture, causing the fluctuations of magical techniques to roll out.

    Booms rang out constantly. However, Xu Qing and the Captain were extraordinary in their own ways. The Captain¡¯s eyes suddenly flickered with cold light, and a plethora of spears appeared behind him, which shot backward.

    That wasn¡¯t a human magical technique, but rather, a shocking Nightshade art.

    Xu Qing fought back even more incisively. He looked over his shoulder, and his ck eyes gleamed brightly. Suddenly, arge area behind him turned ck, as if it had been blotted out from the sun. And then the darkness turned into the shape of a huge hand that shot toward Sir Mountain-River and the others. It was so dark it seemed capable of devouring sunlight. In the blink of an eye it was several hundred meters in size, and absolutely astonishing to behold.

    Sir Mountain-River and the others were almost convinced they were dealing with real Nightshades.

    The Captain was just as shaken. Truth be told, what Xu Qing was doing looked almost exactly like a real Nightshade technique.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as Sir Mountain-River and the others scattered, then tapped into all their strength to dispel the darkness. However, before they could recover their wits, Xu Qing pressed the attack.

    Spinning, he nced at Sir Mountain-River and the others, and then his ck eyes glittered even more dazzlingly.

    The huge ck hand then shot toward the three swordsages. As the fingers closed, powerful psychic fluctuations rolled out. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s simple move contained massive strength. What was more, this was not like the ck hand from before. Instead, its goal was... to take control of the enemy!

    All of a sudden, Sir Mountain-River shivered, and a look of struggle appeared in his eyes. However, that struggle quickly faded away, and then Sir Mountain-River turned to look at Wang Chen with a grim look.

    As his blood energy erupted, he seemed to have lost control of his own body as he lunged toward Wang Chen and attacked him.

    It happened so quickly that Wang Chen could only react with a shocked look. Duskspirit was simrly shaken.

    With no time to do anything else, they rushed to intercept Sir Mountain-River. Duskspirit in her demonized form spat up a mouthful of blood, which transformed into a blood sword that she shed down in front of Sir Mountain-River. It was a move specifically designed to deal with psychic control techniques. Duskspirit was currently thinking back to what Kong Xianglong had exined about Nightshade innate abilities. As the blood sword shed down, rumbling sounds erupted as if numerous invisible strings had snapped.

    Sir Mountain-River shivered as he recovered his wits. His expression was listless, though his eyes glittered with shock.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s head spun as he coughed up a mouthful of blood, then fled looking extremely exhausted.

    As he neared the Holytide caravan, he didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment to coldly reach his hand out and make a grasping gesture.

    One of the fourleggers shivered as it was yanked into the air. Then it was seemingly crumpled into nothing. It copsed into a haze of blood, whereupon its life force was extracted and flew over to Xu Qing.

    As he absorbed it, the life force entered him and the exhaustion in his expression disappeared. Just as he was going to continue fleeing, Sir Mountain-River and the others arrived.

    Snorting coldly, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a few dozen shocked Holytide cultivators to rise into the air along with about seven fourleggers. Then Xu Qing flung all of them toward Sir Mountain-River. Their eyes shone with animosity, as though they couldn¡¯t stand to live as long as Sir Mountain-River and the others were alive.

    Xu Qing, having aplished that, sped onward.

    The Captain was a bit taken aback. Xu Qing¡¯s performance had caught him by surprise, and didn¡¯t exactly fit with his n. However, he recovered quickly from his surprise. Quelling his shock, he chased after Xu Qing. The two of them fled into the distance.

    Meanwhile, the furious Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit fiercely unleashed attacks onto the Holytides that had been thrown in their directions. The Holytides fell like dry weeds. Strangely, though, none of them screamed, and their eyes glittered with hatred before they died.

    Down below, the caravan had been thrown into chaos by Xu Qing. The Holytide cultivators were astonished, and even the Gold Core cultivators were clearly very anxious.

    The young man with six-pce battle prowess suddenly floated up into the air.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen from the Swordsage Pce, we¡¯re a Holytide caravan from the duchy of Heaven Zenith. We have a travel permit from Marquis Yao in Sea-Sealing County!¡± The young man pulled out a jade slip and snapped it in two, causing a magical symbol to appear. It was the symbol of the Yao n, and it represented protection from them!

    Having done that, the young man looked grimly at Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit.

    The three swordsages looked at the symbol with unsightly expressions. Then they snorted coldly and, ignoring the caravan, continued their pursuit of Xu Qing and the Captain. After passing the caravan, the three of them exchanged nces. All three could see how confused and surprised the others were.

    Chen Erniu¡¯s performance had been in line with their expectations, but Xu Qing... had caught them by surprise. His two attacks really did seem like the work of a Nightshade, and were so terrifying that he seemed like someone extraordinary even among Nightshades. Yet again, if they hadn¡¯t seen Xu Qing transform, and didn¡¯t know about his 30,000-meter pir of light, they might think that he was actually a Nightshade.

    What was most shocking was that although it seemed like Sir Mountain-River was only being controlled in terms of his fleshly body, the reality was that both Duskspirit and Wang Chen could see that it wasn¡¯t just his body that had been taken over. It was his mind as well.

    It was the same with the Holytides. They couldn¡¯t be sure of how exactly it worked, but based on their limited understanding of Nightshades, it left them feeling very fearful.

    ¡°This is just an act, but why does it feel so real...¡± Sir Mountain-River murmured with a bitter smile.

    Duskspirit and Wang Chen wore simr smiles as they disappeared after Xu Qing and the Captain. Momentster, Kong Xianglong showed up, his expression grim as he started looking for clues.

    Time passed and soon it waste in the night.

    ***

    Somewhere in a cave in the Inkpaint Mountains, Xu Qing sat cross-legged in meditation, asionally coughing up ck blood thanks to his injuries.

    The Captain sat next to him, unspeaking, his expression dour.

    Some time passed, and then Xu Qing¡¯s ck eyes glittered. Looking up at the moon, he said, ¡°There is no spirit in the moon here in the Holytide Region.¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t say anything for a moment. He just looked at the moon and sighed.

    ¡°Exalted one, I miss home too,¡± he said softly.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The use of the term ¡®exalted one¡¯ wasn¡¯t part of their original n, but he didn¡¯t betray any surprise to hear it.

    ¡°Do you still have that contact in the Garmentfolk? We need to get a shadeheaven demonmoon pill as quickly as possible so that we can change into human form.¡±

    ¡°The Garmentfolk¡ªhey, what¡¯s that?¡± Expression flickering, the Captain looked coldly toward the mouth of the cave.

    All of a sudden, an anxious-sounding voice reached their ears.

    ¡°I¡¯m a nobody from the inferior species¡¯ Heaven Zenith duchy. I hereby request an audience with the two exalted members of the superior species.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and he was about tounch an attack when Xu Qing waved his right hand.

    ¡°Come in,¡± he said coolly. As the words left his mouth, a figure cautiously entered the cave. It was none other than the young Holytide man from the caravan with the six-pce battle prowess.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he quickly edged closer to Xu Qing, putting himself between Xu Qing and the young man.

    When the young Holytide manid eyes on Xu Qing and the captain, he inhaled deeply and then dropped to his knees to kowtow.

    ¡°Greetings, oh members of the superior species!¡±

    ¡°How did you find us?¡± the Captain said, his ck eyes glittering with cold light.

    ¡°Sir,¡± he said quietly, ¡°your humble servant happens to have a rare spirit pet that can track the aura of someone¡¯s blood.... After seeing the two of you, then finding some of your blood sttered on the ground, I was able to find you.¡±

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just looked calmly at the young man.

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± the Captain said gruffly.

    ¡°Sirs, that group of swordsages is still out there looking for you. Whatever you have nned, it¡¯s not going to be easy to carry it out. So how about... the two of you let us escort you back to Holytide territory? And if you have any other needs, the duchy of Heaven Zenith will hold nothing back to fulfill them.

    ¡°If you¡¯re pleased with my service, I only hope that you can bestow upon me a Nightshade blessing!¡± The young Holytide¡¯s eyes shone with fanaticism as he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ***

    The night passed without incident.

    The following morning at dawn, the hooves of the red-skinned fourleggers caused thunderous rumbling as they sped away from the Inkpaint Mountains. The carts they pulled were allden with cloudmother stones. Not one was missing. However, it was only the curses and whips of the Holytide cultivators that got the fourleggers moving.

    As the caravan moved along, it kicked up dust that the wind blew this way and that. From a distance, the dust almost looked like a tempest, making the caravan difficult to see clearly. Even at around noon, when the sun was the strongest, the sunlight couldn¡¯t quite prate the dust.

    However... before long, the sound of cracking whips rang out, and the cries of the beasts grew louder as they slowed to a halt.

    Slowly, the tempest of dust settled. Gradually, the hundreds of fourleggers were revealed, as well as the vignt Holytide cultivators atop them.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, human swordsages?¡± The angry voice came from atop the ninth fourlegger in the caravan train.

    It was the young man with six-pce battle prowess and an extraordinary bloodline. As he looked ahead of the caravan, the air there rippled and distorted, and four figures became visible.

    In the lead position was Kong Xianglong, his expression grim and his eyes shining with ferocity as he scanned the various fourleggers. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit scattered and started inspecting the fourleggers.

    ¡°We have a travel permit from Marquis Yao!¡± the young Holytide said, his expression flickering.

    ¡°Pipe down!¡± Kong Xianglong said. His hand flew out, smacking the young Holytide in the side of the face. Blood sprayed from the young man¡¯s mouth as he flew several hundred meters to the side, until he mmed into a boulder.

    ¡°Inspect everything!¡± Kong Xianglong said calmly, not sparing a nce for the young Holytide.

    Sir Mountain-River and the others quickly started moving through the caravan, inspecting all of the fourleggers, as well as the individual cultivators. In the end, they found nothing.

    Kong Xianglong snorted coldly and flew off to search another area. Sir Mountain-River and the others followed him.

    When they were gone, the young Holytide got back up and returned to the ninth fourlegger. Wiping the blood from his mouth, he said, ¡°Keep moving.¡±

    Before long, the rumbling and the dust was back as the caravan proceeded on its way.

    About two hourster, the young man stood atop the fourlegger and performed an incantation gesture with his right hand. Instantly, he started shrinking, until he became so small he disappeared.

    Meanwhile, the red-furred fourlegger grewrger before his eyes, until it became like a huge rednd mass around him.

    The wrinkles in the beast¡¯s skin were ravines, and its countless semitransparent hairs were like enormous trees or pirs, except flexible.

    One of those enormous hairs was bent to provide shade from the sun. And in that shade sat Xu Qing and the Captain, doing breathing exercises.

    Hurrying over, the young man knelt in front of Xu Qing and the Captain. Eyes burning with zealous fanaticism, he said, ¡°Greetings, oh members of the superior species. You can rest easy, exalted ones. The swordsages are gone.¡±

 Chapter 442: A Chance Encounter

    Chapter 442: A Chance Encounter

    Xu Qing looked at the young man for a moment, then gave a curt nod.

    The previous night, he and the Captain had rebuffed the young Holytide¡¯s pleadings. For a time. In the end, they agreed to his proposal. The n was to slip through the swordsage dra by hiding in the Holytide caravan.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask whether or not the caravan would actually end up in the duchy of Heaven Zenith.

    Their hiding spot in the caravan was on the surface of one of the fourleggers. It was a clever technique that masked auras; clearly the Holytides were skilled in such concealment arts.

    ¡°Your humble servant is here to handle all your needs. Now that we¡¯ve sessfully slipped past the swordsages, the rest of the journey should be much less eventful. In a month, we¡¯ll reach Holytide territory.¡±

    With that, the young Holytide took out two lotus leaves from his bag of holding, which he respectfully lifted over his head.

    ¡°Your humble servant has only seen members of the supervisory species twice before. In both cases it was from a distance. My father has told me a lot about your customs and way of life, but truth be told I¡¯m mostly ignorant. That said, I¡¯ve heard you enjoy moonlight-touched dew harvested just before the break of dawn. So I sent a few of my people out to collect some.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever, but inside, his heart skipped a beat. Though he knew a bit about Nightshades, that knowledge was very superficial. For instance, he had never heard anything about them liking moonlight-touched dew.

    The young Holytide¡¯s tone of voice seemed a touch ambiguous. On the surface, he appeared to be speaking casually, but at the same time, Xu Qing got the sense he was probing them a bit. That was one reason why he wasn¡¯t yet convinced that Nightshades actually liked moonlight-touched dew.

    As a result, he said nothing.

    Meanwhile, the Captain chuckled and waved his right hand, causing the two lotus leaves to fly over to him. Without hesitation, he drank some of the dew. Then he dipped his fingers into it and wiped the dew onto his ck eyes.

    The dew immediately caused a thin film to appear on the Captain¡¯s eyes, covering them. He sighed contentedly.

    ¡°Very considerate of you. You¡¯re dismissed.¡±

    The young Holytide¡¯s expression didn¡¯t reveal any suspicion, only fanaticism. He bowed low and respectfully backed up nine paces, then straightened and left. After flying off of the fourlegger, he returned to his usual size. When he sat atop the beast, his expression seemedpletely normal.

    Half a month passed.

    During that time, the young Holytide was very circumspect. For the most part, he left Xu Qing and the Captain alone. Only asionally would he request an audience. When he did, he would stay a good distance away, and would only approach when he had permission.

    None of his words or actions betrayed any sense of suspicion. It seemed that he really was just acting like the subsidiary species, and was escorting them down the road.

    However, he would asionally ask some very delicately worded and clever questions about Nightshade customs. Whenever he did, his expression was one of rapt attention.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know much about that topic, so he never said anything. The Captain handled it all. The Captain had obviously taken the responsibility seriously. He knew far more about Nightshades than Xu Qing, so much so that on two asions he pointed out mistakes in what the young man said.

    ¡°Who told you Nightshade Mountain is all about sacrifices? Moonfall orchids bloom there, and a god once set foot on that spot, which is where the temple exists to this day.¡±

    ¡°The city of Crowscale? At the foot of the mountain? Sadly, the broken face of the god looked at it about a sixty-year-cycle ago. It¡¯s gone, though few outsiders know about that.¡±

    The Captain seemed authentic in every facial expression and choice of words. To Xu Qing, it almost seemed like the Captain had actually lived as a Nightshade for a good period of time.

    Meanwhile, the zeal in the young Holytide¡¯s face grew more evident. That said, he never ceased with the probing. Then one day, when the noon sun was at its brightest, the canopy of hair overhead shifted, allowing sunlight tond on Xu Qing.

    Frowning, Xu Qing waved his hand, which caused the hairs overhead to shift back into ce and block the sun.

    Small things like that happened with enough regrity to be concerning. But Xu Qing and the Captain handled them all smoothly. Toward the end of the half-month period of travel, they ceased.

    One day, after they had crossed the border into Tidefall Prefecture, the Holytide caravan approached Skymoon Ravine.

    Skymoon Ravine was so huge that, given the caravan¡¯s rate of travel, it would take three days to pass through it. Aftering out the other side of the ravine, it would take another week to reach the border.

    Because Tidefall Prefecture bordered Holytide territory, once the caravan reached the ravine, the Holytide cultivators breathed sighs of relief, and finally started to rx. They spent the first night uneventfully in the ravine, then woke at dawn to continue speeding on their way. The next day passed quickly.

    By evening, they were about halfway through the ravine. On either side of them, craggy boulders rose high, blocking the sunlight and filling the ravine with shadows.

    ***

    Some distance away, hidden in a cliff side cave, was a young woman dressed in red, sitting in meditation. When she opened her eyes, they glittered coldly. The young woman wore a mask and had an evil ghost scythe lying next to her. She was none other than Qing Qiu. She had been camping in this spot for about half a month, specifically waiting for this caravan returning with cloudmother stones.

    There were big caravans and small ones. In order to avoid beating the grass and startling the snake, she had already let several smaller caravans pass, all to make sure she had a shot at this, thergest of them all.

    ¡°It¡¯s here. It¡¯s here!!¡± the evil ghost said into her mind. ¡°This is the caravan you wanted me to look into. They¡¯re from the duchy of Heaven Zenith in Eastern Wastnd County. It¡¯s a small nation, but they always get the biggest haul of cloudmother stones. I just scanned them and found over a hundred Holytide cultivators. There aren¡¯t many in Gold Core, and the strongest among those has six pces. But that¡¯s more than enough. A six-pce cultivator would be perfect for us to end things in mutual destruction!

    In response to the evil ghost, Qing Qiu¡¯s eyes glittered coldly and her cultivation base stirred. Red light glowed all around her as she tapped into a secret magic, as well as six-pce battle prowess. Over the past few months, her cultivation base had advanced dramatically. With her four heavenly pces, her imperial-ss technique, and her secret magic, she had already reached the level of six-pce battle prowess.

    ¡°Given their speed, they¡¯ll be here in the time it takes an incense stick to burn!¡±

    The excited evil ghost clearly hadn¡¯t detected Xu Qing and the Captain. And there was no way Qing Qiu could have possibly anticipated running into them in this caravan. A momentter, she licked her lips, and her eyes shone with even greater coldness.

    ***

    Around that time, Xu Qing looked off into the distance. Only a moment ago, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had projected a message to him.

    ¡°Milord, I just sensed the divine will of a spirit automaton. It¡¯s that girl in red with the evil ghost scythe.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up.

    Off to the side, the Captain suddenly looked off in the same direction, seemingly surprised. Obviously he had simr means of detecting such things.

    ¡°Very interesting,¡± he said with a smile. He looked at Xu Qing. ¡°You sense it, too?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all at the Captain¡¯s ability. After a moment of thought, he replied, ¡°If she¡¯s not after the caravan, we should just ignore her and keep moving.¡±

    ¡°And if she is after the caravan?¡± the Captain asked with a mysterious smile.

    ¡°If we killed her in Sea-Sealing County,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°people would find out. So we take her captive into Holytide territory and put her to death there.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re really going to put her to death? Hahaha! Alright. Before she dies we should take that mask off and see what she really looks like. Why¡¯s she always wearing that thing?¡± The Captain grinned humorously at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him with a surprised frown.

    That evening when the afterglow of the sun was still spread out over thends, the depths of the ravine were already as dark as night.

    As the several hundred fourleggers caused intense rumbling sounds to fill the ravine, the area in front of the caravan suddenly exploded. Rocks and pebbles erupted in all directions while magical symbols descended from above, creating a spell formation like a huge. A blood-colored glow spread out, like a blood sea, filling the ravine with crimson.

    As the caravan was thrown into chaos, a petite figure flew out of the evening sky, d in red, with a white mask and a huge evil ghost scythe.

    The moment the figure appeared, an ancient voice echoed out into heaven and earth.

    ¡°Acknowledge the call of Departure; Dao lineaments are evasive; I am the Emperor, Dark Serenity; I bless this individual; let the battle soul descend on them; help the adherents who show faith in me; let the departure begin!¡±

    The power of the voice instantly affected the surroundings, causing a vile wind to spring up in the ravine. As it swept about, the Holytide cultivators it touched shivered as they felt frigid coldness piercing into them.

    The wind converged on the young woman in red with her evil ghost scythe. The evil ghost¡¯s eyes glittered with scarlet light as it opened its mouth in the direction of the young woman¡¯s arm, then took a bite. A tremor passed through her, and then another image superimposed over her, almost as if she had fused with a battle soul.

    Standing just behind the girl in red was a semitransparent female general in a suit of armor that gave her additional cultivation base power. It made this young woman in red seem like the ambassador of death, out to harvest the lives of all living things.

    But there was more. A red glow pulsed out from her, making her the source of the blood-colored light that filled the valley. It was the blood will domain from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society!

    When that happened, another personality would take over Qing Qiu. A gruish smile suddenly appeared on her face.

    ¡°Heh heh heh.¡±

    Herughter seemed to contain boundless insanity as she suddenly burst into motion, bringing the blood-colored light with her as she charged the Holytide caravan. Her evil ghost scythe shed through the air, its sharp edge slicing through everything it encountered. There was no one here who could stop this.

    When the extraordinary young man shot out to defend the caravan, not even his six-pce battle prowess gave him the speed to match Qing Qiu. After all, they were just caravan operators, not the ck Guard who lived for ughter.

    Qing Qiu easily evaded him, then erupted with gruishughter and killing intent.

    ¡°Heh heh heh heh.¡±

    The Holytide cultivators had no way to escape her. Her scythe shed, instantly cutting them to pieces.

    Qing Qiu attacked ruthlessly, and nothing could stand in her way. She was obviously ready to ughter everyone present. Blood sprayed everywhere, getting onto her clothes and her face. That just made the blood-colored light in her eyes grow stronger. And when she licked the blood off her lips, the insanity in her eyes skyrocketed.

    This version of Qing Qiu was just like the one Xu Qing had faced when he first met her. This was why he had taken to calling her Girl in Red.

    If Xu Qing and the Captain weren¡¯t around, and the caravan didn¡¯t have some powerful trump card to use, then Qing Qiu¡¯s ambush would have worked.

    And even if the caravan did have a secret trump card, given Qing Qiu¡¯s current speed and battle prowess, she still would have been able to take the cloudmother stones.

    Except... Xu Qing and the Captain couldn¡¯t just stand by while Qing Qiu ughtered the caravan. It wasn¡¯t that they cared about the Holytide cultivators. Rather, they couldn¡¯t just let them all be killed.

    As the six-pce Holytide backed away, Qing Qiu¡¯s scythe sliced another Gold Core cultivator in half. As she closed in, cutting down three of the fourleggers, she pulled her scythe back to make another attack. That was when the Captain made his move.

    He flew out from the ninth fourlegger, suddenly reverting to his normal size. However, he still looked like a Nightshade. Eyes glittering, he gave a cold harrumph.

    ¡°Impudent human!¡±

 Chapter 443: Scratched Off of the Bamboo Slip

    Chapter 443: Scratched Off of the Bamboo Slip

    ¡°Humans!¡± the Captain said, scorn in his eyes as he lifted his slender gray hand and pushed toward Qing Qiu.

    The air around Qing Qiu rippled, then sank down to crush her.

    ¡°Nightshade!¡± Qing Qiu murmured, her eyes narrowing as she lurched in the opposite direction. She was too slow.

    The Captain¡¯s move caused the battle soul she¡¯d summoned to distort as if it might copse.

    Of course, Qing Qiu was also an extraordinary individual. In that moment of crisis, her eyes glittered with red light as she hurled her scythe at the Captain.

    The scythe screamed through the air, spinning like a wheel, moving with shocking speed and unstoppable momentum toward the Captain. Simultaneously, Qing Qiu¡¯s hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and her eyes shone with insanity. Then she shrieked in the Captain¡¯s direction, causing the copsing battle soul to lunge toward the Captain with its mouth wide open and teeth bared.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t make an evasive move. The evil ghost scythe sliced into his forehead, causing ck blood to spray everywhere as his entire body was cut in half.

    Then the scythe continued shing into the fourlegger he¡¯d been standing on. At the same time, the two halves of the Captain¡¯s body gruishly stitched back together.

    He also opened his mouth and lunged toward the iing battle soul as if to devour it.

    Then a cracking sound rang out as a 300-meter Nightshade mouth appeared in front of the Captain. Opening wide, it easily devoured the battle soul like a chunk of fresh meat. As the Captain chewed, he continued advancing until he was right in front of the visibly surprised Qing Qiu. He waved his right hand, and over a hundred spears popped out of nowhere and stabbed toward her.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s voice finally echoed out.

    ¡°I want that one alive.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the Captain called back. Of course, this was all going ording to the n they¡¯d devised earlier. With another wave of his hand, the Captain turned all of the spears into long hairs which shot forward, wrapped around Qing Qiu, and bound her securely.

    She struggled, her eyes burning with defiance. She even tried to use a secret magic. But then the Captain¡¯s fist mmed into her mask, and shepsed into unconsciousness.

    Because of the force of the blow, her mask cracked, and one piece fell off, revealing part of a delicate, pretty face.

    Ignoring her facial features, the Captain grabbed Qing Qiu by her restraints and then red around with cold displeasure at the surrounding Holytides.

    The young Holytide hurried over, an appreciative expression on his face as he dropped to his knees to kowtow.

    ¡°Many thanks for stepping in, sir.¡±

    ¡°Start moving immediately,¡± the Captain said coldly. ¡°We need to be out of Sea-Sealing County within three days!¡± Then he returned to the ninth fourlegger, shrinking down until he was out of sight.

    The young Holytide watched him disappear, his face full of gratitude and fervor. Then he started barking orders at his fearful and uncertain subordinates.

    Shortly after, the caravan was moving again, this time a lot faster than before.

    Back in concealment on the fourlegger, the Captain tossed the unconscious Qing Qiu off to the side. More of her mask fell off, revealing more of her face.

    ¡°Since you don¡¯t like her much, I¡¯ll leave her to you,¡± the Captain said. Then he sat off to the side fiddling with the scythe. The scythe trembled, and the evil ghost face on it had a fawning expression.

    Xu Qing nodded, then looked coldly at Qing Qiu, especially her face.

    She was extremely pretty, with fair skin, a small cute nose, and lips like a cherry blossom. She appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen. She seemed very much like a ¡®girl next door,¡¯ especially as shey there unconscious and defenseless. There was no malice or ferocity on her face, just a natural delicacy. It made Qing Qiu look very different than she normally did. In a brutal world, delicacy like that was bound to lead to vicious bullying.

    Xu Qing looked her over, then was about to turn away when he realized something about her seemed familiar. He studied her closer, then frowned. Standing, he walked up to her.

    The Captain smiled enigmatically as he looked on, all the while fiddling with the scythe. Suddenly, the evil ghost shrieked and passed out.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the Captain. Standing over Qing Qiu, he examined her again, and a sudden expression of confused nostalgia flickered in his eyes. However, he still wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, so he grabbed her bag of holding and rummaged through it. Then he noticed a small crystal she had on a ne.

    When Xu Qing saw that stone, his heart flip-flopped, and he suddenly felt like he was in a daze.

    Memories rose up within his mind.

    He was in a townhouse, and there was a little girl with a scar on her face, huddled in the corner, shivering and looking around vigntly. The scene changed. The girl stood outside a beast arena, clutching a bamboo stick, upon which were the words ¡®giant horned anaconda.¡¯ The despair in the girl¡¯s eyes was clear. The scene shifted again. Moonlight shone down onto a door. The girl stubbornly said that she would repay him one day. Then she staggered off into the night. There were more scenes. He saw her selling him white boluses, sweeping snow outside the shop, and running after him to give him some candy. The memories ended with a sunset scene in which the girl¡¯s big brother took her hand, and they walked off into the distance, her looking over her shoulder the whole time. In some of those scenes, he heard the girl¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Whenever I¡¯m sad, my momma would always give me some candy. I just had to eat it, and I¡¯d feel better. This is thest piece of candy and... I want you to have it. Feel better, Big Bro Kid!¡±

    ¡°My big brother came to get me!¡± she said. Anticipation gleaming in her eyes, she continued, ¡°Big Bro Kid, do you want toe with us?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s okay. When I grow up, I¡¯lle back and see you. I told you I was going to pay you back for saving my life, Big Bro Kid. And I will.¡±

    ¡°I have to go now... Big Bro Kid.¡±

    As that voice echoed in his mind... Xu Qing finally sighed. It was a sigh that contained reminiscence, sorrow, and resignation. He looked down at Qing Qiu¡¯s face, and her good looks slowly merged with his memories of that young girl from the scavenger basecamp.

    Of course. She¡¯s from the Church of Departure. And she had no way of recognizing me. After all... I¡¯ve changed almostpletely.

    He sighed. Back when he knew the girl in the scavenger basecamp, he hadn¡¯t washed his face for years. Beyond that, he¡¯d grown a lot in the past few years. He was no longer that scrawny boy from years ago. He¡¯d matured.

    Still reeling a bit, Xu Qing looked at the scar-removing crystal and noted how worn it was. Obviously it had seen a lot of use.

    After a moment, he put the crystal back where he¡¯d found it, but kept the bag of holding. Then he sat down cross-legged next to her.

    It didn¡¯t make sense to reveal himself to her while he was disguised as a Nightshade. Besides, he had no idea of knowing if she was even really the same person after all these years. For now, he would keep his true identity a secret.

    Whether she remembered him or not didn¡¯t matter to him. In fact, he found himself thinking back to thest words he¡¯d spoken when they parted. ¡°Please. Stay safe.¡±

    ¡°As long as she¡¯s safe, that¡¯s all that matters,¡± he murmured quietly. Taking out his bamboo slip, he scratched out the name Girl in Red. He looked over at the Captain, and then thought about the Captain¡¯s odd look from before. Obviously, the Captain already knew Qing Qiu¡¯s true identity.

    ¡°The old man told me,¡± the Captain exined. ¡°I did some of my own investigation as well, heh heh. I found out just before we left. I was hoping to surprise youter.¡± The Captain cleared his throat and blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes.

    The next day, Qing Qiu regained consciousness.

    However, she didn¡¯t immediately open her eyes. Instead, she regted her heartbeat and aura to make it seem like she was still unconscious. Then she studied her surroundings. She could tell that her cultivation base was sealed, and that she had no hope of unsealing it. That caused her heart to sink. Worse, there was no evil ghost voice in her head, which meant her scythe had been taken away. Either that or it was sealed just like she was. She also couldn¡¯t find her bag of holding.

    Those realizations emphasized to her the direness of her situation. The upside was that she wasn¡¯t injured. Nor was she bound. At least the little crystal stilly against her chest, a slight blessing amidst so much misfortune. Just as Qing Qiu was going to start trying to unseal her cultivation base, Xu Qing¡¯s cold voice reached her ears.

    ¡°You¡¯re awake. There¡¯s no need to pretend you¡¯re not.¡±

    Qing Qiu remained calm and on guard.

    Xu Qing looked at her, but didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Off to the side, the Captain perked up and looked at them with a yful grin.

    The next day, Qing Qiu had no choice other than to open her eyes. She could sense from the astonishing nature of the seal on her cultivation base that it wasn¡¯t the work of humans. It was a psychic sealing that was most likely put in ce by a Nightshade. Given her current level of strength, there was no way she could dispel it. By now, she had alsoe to the realization that she had been shrunk down, and was now on the back of one of the fourleggers.

    Seeing no reason to pretend to be unconscious, she opened her eyes and stood up, her eyes as cold as ice as she looked at the two Nightshades. It was her first time being around Nightshades, and she understood full well that their presence in this Holytide caravan was a huge deal.

    Feeling very anxious, she looked around and saw her evil ghost scythe in the hands of the very same Nightshade that had knocked her out. The evil ghost seemed to be asleep.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you kill me?¡± she asked.

    The Captain smiled enigmatically at her, but didn¡¯t say anything. As for Xu Qing, he held his tongue for a short time, then coolly said, ¡°Keep quiet and I¡¯ll let you go in three months.¡±

    Qing Qiuughed coldly. She didn¡¯t believe this Nightshade at all.

    Xu Qing was about to continue speaking, but before he could, the Captain jumped into the conversation. ¡°I¡¯ve had some dealings with your Church of Departure. That¡¯s why you¡¯re not dead.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    So did Qing Qiu. She knew that talking back wasn¡¯t going to do any good, so she decided she would just pretend to cooperate. Then, as time passed, she would find an opportunity to escape.

    Voice cold, the Captain continued, ¡°You care a lot about that crystal, don¡¯t you? That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t take it.¡± There was a bit of a threat in his words.

    Hearing that, Xu Qing frowned slightly.

    Qing Qiu¡¯s expression remained the same as ever, but her heart was pounding. Though it took effort, she didn¡¯t let her consternation show on her face. That would simply help her enemies.

    ¡°We¡¯ll let you go in three months,¡± the Captain went on. ¡°We¡¯ll also return your scythe to you. But if you try to pull any tricks, I¡¯ll smash that little crystal of yours. One bit at a time.¡± The Captain¡¯s raspy voice truly made him seem viinous. Then he reached out and slowly tapped on the shaft of the scythe.

    The sleeping evil ghost shivered.

    Qing Qiu red at the Captain, but finally gritted her teeth and nodded.

    Time passed. The next day the caravan reached the border of Tidefall Prefecture, thus entering the Holytide-controlled Eastern Wastnd County. At that point, the young Holytide leading the caravan finally breathed a sigh of relief. So did all of the other Holytides. As of now, there was very little chance of them facing any danger from humans.

    At the invitation of the young man, Xu Qing and the Captain finally came out of hiding.

    Qing Qiu looked at the strangends around them, then nced back in the direction of Sea-Sealing County. She had a deep sense of foreboding within her, as she knew that there was no hope of her making an escape anytime soon.

    ¡°Sirs, now that we¡¯re here, you¡¯re safe,¡± said the young Holytide, sping hands to Xu Qing and the Captain, his expression just as zealous and fanatical as ever.

 Chapter 444: A Shocking Kowtow

    Chapter 444: A Shocking Kowtow

    It was noon, and the sun was very bright. A north wind blew, stirring the hair of everyone present.

    As Xu Qing stood on the unfamiliar soil, he did the same as Qing Qiu and nced back at Sea-Sealing County. After a moment, he looked away and studied his surroundings. It was an instinct for him now. Whenever he ended up in an unfamiliar setting, he would always familiarize himself with his surroundings as quickly as possible.

    The soil was made of brown sand, and there were mountains in the distance. There wasn¡¯t much in the way of greenery, with melting white snow visible in many ces. Truth be told, there wasn¡¯t much differencepared to what Xu Qing was used to. After all, Holytides and humans were fundamentally very simr, with the main difference being the Nightshade blood in the Holytides.

    As Xu Qing scanned the surroundings, the Captain nodded in response to the young Holytide.

    The young Holytide looked more fanatical than ever. With a very serious facial expression, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain and said, ¡°It was a true honor to be of some help to the two of you. Without you, I wouldn¡¯t have survived the return trip. Your humble servant can only beg that the two of you deign toe with me to the duchy of Heaven Zenith and let me show you the true hospitality of a lesser species.

    ¡°My hometown is by the Ten Entrails Tree, which is about to bear dao fruit. Theing months are going to be very exciting, full of supernatural phenomena. Granted, it can¡¯tpare to anything from your superior species, but it¡¯s still one of the most fantastic events in the Holytide Region. Whatever things you need once we reach Heaven Zenith, our duke can definitely arrange to get them for you.¡±

    With that, the young Holytide stepped back a few paces, then sped hands and bowed.

    Xu Qing seemed to be mulling over the proposition, as was the Captain. The Captain narrowed his eyes and looked deeply at the young Holytide.

    Xu Qing did the same, then coolly said, ¡°Alright.¡±

    The young Holytide looked absolutely delighted, and quickly yelled out for the caravan to start moving again. Soon the sounds of cracking whips filled the air as the caravan sped along.

    Now that Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t need to stay in hiding, they rode on the fourleggers. In order to stay out of the sunlight, they both put on voluminous ck robes. Qing Qiu was like their servant, behind them, her head bowed as she struggled to keep her killing intent buried in her heart.

    In humannds, the Holytides weren¡¯t allowed to use teleportation portals, which meant that journeys there took a long time. But in their ownnds, things were different. Before long, they had reached a public teleportation portalplex.

    There, the Heaven Zenith caravan began teleporting to its next destination. It took about an hour for the entire caravan to reach the western part of Eastern Wastnd County. This was the location of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, and also the thirty-six city-states.

    Once they materialized, Xu Qing looked to the west. It was dark there.

    He could just barely make out a huge tree with trunk-like branches that resembled entrails, stretching high into the sky. The branches intertwined, creating a huge canopy over thends that resembled an umbre. It filled the greater part of the sky, and was boundlessly majestic. That canopy was so thick the sunlight couldn¡¯t prate it, therefore, there were humanoid-shapednterns beneath it that cast light. It was a very astonishing scene.

    The area lit by thenterns was massive. It contained a vast jungle, at the edge of which were numerous walled cities built in a roughly circr configuration around the massive tree. Every city had its own color scheme. Some were monochrome, others were multicolored. It created a very exotic atmosphere. At the same time, astonishing pressure from the giant tree weighed down everywhere.

    ¡°Exalted ones, this is Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, where the duchy of Heaven Zenith lies. See the pure white city up ahead? That¡¯s Heaven Zenith. I¡¯ve already notified the duke of your impending arrival, and he was delighted. They should already be preparing a weing banquet. After you, exalted ones.¡±

    The fanaticism in the Holytide¡¯s eyes hadn¡¯t changed one bit. As he led Xu Qing and the Captain along, he enthusiastically offered a more detailed introduction.

    ¡°Exalted ones, the Ten Entrails Tree is said to be the embodiment of thest pureblooded Woe-Immortal to reach immortal ascension. It was a very, very long time ago.... Every hundred years, the tree will produce a huge crop of fruit. That¡¯s why we had to bring this shipment of cloudmother stones here. The fruits are amazing, and they¡¯re considered one of the most marvelous materials you can use in equipment forging....¡±

    As he went on with the introduction, the caravan got closer and closer to the white city.

    Though it was only considered a small nation, the city itself was quiterge, simr in scale to the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

    There were quite a few cultivators waiting outside of the city. They numbered in the hundreds, with Gold Core cultivators present and even Nascent Soul experts as well. Toward the front there was even a middle-aged man in a royal robe who had three secret troves on disy, as well as shocking cultivation base fluctuations.

    Qing Qiu struggled to breathe steadily as her mood got worse and worse. She knew that, as of now, she had almost no hope of escaping.

    Xu Qing and the Captain showed no visible reaction. As for the young Holytide, he looked at his hometown with a mix of sorrow and familiarity. As he led the way, he continued to offer introductions.

    ¡°Exalted ones, because the dao fruits of my hometown are so valuable, we usually get a lot of foreign rats who try to sneak in here around this time. Of course, humans make up the majority of such infiltrators. Sometimes they just sneak in. Other times they disguise themselves as nonhumans. They¡¯ve even been known toe in looking like Holytides.

    ¡°The thirty-six city-states here keep records about such things. Over the years, there have been more than nine hundred asions in which our enemies disguised themselves as Holytides. And there have been over seven hundred instances in which they just snuck inside. Foreigners will use just about any means necessary to try to steal those fruits.

    ¡°By the way, exalted ones, I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯re aware of it, but there have been more than thirty times when a foreigner has snuck into one of the city-states here disguised as a Nightshade.¡±

    All of a sudden, the young Holytide snapped a jade slip. He vanished, only to reappear a momentter just outside the duchy of Heaven Zenith, right in front of the Spirit Trove duke.

    He was still smiling, but instead of reverence, his expression was one of derision. Grinning at Xu Qing and the Captain, he said, ¡°Oh two exalted members of the greater species, I wee you to our kingdom of Heaven Zenith. So... are you humans dressed up as Nightshades? Or are you from some other species?

    ¡°I could tell there was something wrong about you two from the first moment I saw you. It was too coincidental. As it happened, I was aware that there were Nightshades operating in human territory. Then lo-and-behold, we ¡®just so happened¡¯ to run into two Nightshades being chased by swordsages.

    ¡°You wanted to trick us into bringing you into Holytide territory. As a humble member of a lesser species, it was only natural that I would volunteer to help. And despite a few unexpected situations, I managed topletely fool you. It was not in vain that an earl like myself went on this journey. Father, would you say this counts as a big service on my part?¡±

    The young Holytide earl was grinning from ear to ear. Many of the other surrounding Holytides from Heaven Zenith were also looking at Xu Qing and the Captain with mocking grins. The Spirit Trove duke gave a heartyugh and shot a look of praise in his son¡¯s direction.

    The sudden development caught Qing Qiu by surprise. Eyes narrowing, she looked suspiciously at the two ¡®Nightshades¡¯ in front of her. She had assumed all along that the two of them were real Nightshades. But now everything had turned around, and it was beyond her ability to predict. And yet, she quickly came to realize that the two Nightshades hadn¡¯t reacted at all to the development. That was yet another shock.

    Qing Qiu¡¯s observation was astute. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t reacted in even the slightest way.

    The Captain¡¯s expression was steely, yet he also hadn¡¯t reacted at all. Looking coldly at the duchy of Heaven Zenith, he said, ¡°You Holytides have really got some gall. Bring your ducal preceptor out right now to be sacrificed!¡±

    In response, the Holytides continued to smile coldly. The duke narrowed his eyes.

    As for the young earl, he grinned and said, ¡°Exalted ones, the two of you are apparently a bit forgetful. Don¡¯t you remember what I just told you? From ancient times until now, our thirty-six city-states have recorded over thirty instances in which we caught enemies disguised as Nightshades. Did you really think we wouldn¡¯t be able to tell? Since you¡¯re refusing to admit to the truth, I guess I¡¯ll just force you to reveal your true form! I¡¯d originally nned to give you a bit of face due to the friendship we struck up on the road. But now, I take that back!¡±

    Looking like he was having the time of his life, the earl waved his hand, instantly causing the white city behind him to vibrate.

    A huge ck statue rose up from the middle of the city. It was more than ny meters tall, and looked exactly like a Nightshade. It wore a suit of armor, had its arms crossed over its chest, and had a moon tattoo on its forehead. What was more, it emanated stupefying fluctuations. After it rose into the air above the city, it floated past the walls, pulsing with immense pressure.

    ¡°Please, oh great Nightshade divine likeness, check the identity of this individual!¡± The earl of Heaven Zenith grinned viciously as he pointed at the Captain.

    In response, the huge statue emanated dazzling ck light, as it shifted to look coldly at the Captain.

    Its gaze caused the Captain to shiver. Then the statue spoke in a voice that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°Weak faith. Mixed bloodline. Not a Nightshade!¡±

    All of the Holytide cultivators erupted with killing intent. Then, the earl cackledcently.

    ¡°Still not going to admit it?¡± he asked scornfully. ¡°And you! Please, oh great Nightshade divine likeness, please check this individual!¡± He pointed contemptuously at Xu Qing.

    The huge Nightshade statue solemnly looked down at Xu Qing. And then... to the shock of everyone present, it started trembling. The trembling grew more intense, until it affected the ck light shining off the statue. It made it more intense! In the shortest of moments, the ck light expanded so dramatically that it became a pitch ck sea. Heaven and earth distorted in all directions.

    Next, the consummately majestic statue suddenly dropped to the ground.

    To the shock of the surrounding Holytides, the statue strode over to Xu Qing, fell to its knees, and kowtowed. Eyes filled with iparable fanaticism, it cried out, ¡°My respects, Your Majesty!!¡±

 Chapter 445: The Personhood of a God

    Chapter 445: The Personhood of a God

    Outside the main gate of the duchy of Heaven Zenith, everything was absolutely silent. The Holytide cultivators all stared with eyes that were initially nk with confusion, then wide with shock. It didn¡¯t matter what level of cultivation base was involved. It didn¡¯t matter how much they had suspected Xu Qing and Chen Erniu. All of them could see their Nightshade divine likeness on its knees trembling, and they all heard what it called out. Massive waves of shock smashed into their minds, causing many jaws to drop.

    The Spirit Trove duke stood there with his head spinning. He felt like he had a tempest in his heart, sweeping over his sea of consciousness, and even causing his three secret troves to twist and distort.

    Most bbergasted of all was the young Holytide who had escorted Xu Qing and Chen Erniu on their journey. As an earl of the duchy of Heaven Zenith, he had always taken pride in his own wisdom, and had intentionally pretended to be foolish while on the road. He had been very proud of how he turned the tables on these two scam artists. But then everything got switched around, and he still didn¡¯t know how to react. His eyes were the widest of all, and his brain felt like it was being struck by millions of bolts of lightning.

    ¡°Th-that... that.... That¡¯s not possible! That¡¯s our... Nightshade divine likeness!¡±

    As he stood there trembling, he was struck with the intense sensation that none of what was happening was real.

    Not every one of the thirty-six city-states qualified to be sent a divine likeness from the royal dynasty above. There were only four who had statues like that, and each was a representative of one of the four royal dynasties of the Holytides that administered this region. As such, it was a given that this young earl knew exactly what the Nightshade divine likeness represented. It represented the Nightshade species as a whole! And if a divine likeness that represented the Nightshades actually dropped to its knees, that alone would have been outrageously shocking, much less the title used by the statue....

    Titles like that were simr to magicalws or heavenly daos. And as the sound of the statue¡¯s voice continued to echo out, it seemed like all heaven and earth would transform as a result.

    Qing Qiu was also deeply shaken as her previous line of thinking was thrown into chaos. At first, having the two Nightshades exposed seemed to indicate that they were humans in disguise. That would have exined with about eighty to ny percent uracy why they didn¡¯t kill her. Yet before she could even wrap her mind around that theory, everything changed again. And it wasn¡¯t some minor shift in the situation. It was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering transformation that changed everything.

    The words ¡°Your Majesty¡± were deeply meaningful, and just thinking about them would cause someone to reel in shock.

    All eyes hade to focus on Xu Qing, who stood there expressionlessly. Those eyes abounded with amazement, confusion, astonishment, andplete disbelief.

    Even the Captain, who had nned things out in a fair amount of detail with Xu Qing while they were traveling, waspletely taken aback by the seemingly outrageous development.

    Only Xu Qing remainedpletely unfazed. Of course, no one present had any idea what was going on in his heart and mind. After all, he had long since developed the ability to keep a calm facial expression no matter what happened.

    It didn¡¯t take much time on the road for him and the Captain to realize that something was going on with the young Holytide. Considering how weak his cultivation base was, it seemed strange that he would be so willing to probe them for information. After all, even if he managed to expose them as imposters, it would have ultimately resulted in his death. Even more so, the fact that he came from a ¡®lesser species¡¯ just further emphasized how unreasonable his actions were. On the other hand, if he had just immediately believed their story, that would also have seemed fake.

    That was why the young Holytide had dug for information. It wasn¡¯t because he wanted to find out the truth, but rather, because he was worried it would be strange if he didn¡¯t. It was essentially reverse psychology.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had picked up the clues and realized what he was doing. Xu Qing was the one who came up with a contingency n.

    During the three days in which he studied that Nightshade eyeball, he didn¡¯t just learn about Nightshade magical techniques. He also saw the influence his violet moon heavenly pce had on the eyeball. That was when he came to the realization that after he disguised himself as a Nightshade, he had something that even real Nightshades would show great respect to. That was because the Nightshades exercised faith in the red moon. And the violet moon in Xu Qing¡¯s fourth heavenly pce was originally an embodiment of the power of the red moon. In other words, it had the personhood of a god in it. In some respects, Xu Qing and the red moon were the same.

    That was why this Nightshade divine likeness addressed him as ¡®Your Majesty.¡¯

    Even cultivators who were very pious in their devotion to the red moon would have a hard time noticing any difference. The reason was that the source of Xu Qing¡¯s power really did have the personhood of a god in it. Only the red moon itself would be able to tell the difference.

    As everyone reeled in shocked silence, anger crept onto the Captain¡¯s face. Voice cold, he said, ¡°You Holytides really have a lot of gall! Who do you people think you are? What makes you think you qualify to test a godchild of the Nightshades? If you end up spoiling the ns of our greater species, then not even death will be a sufficient punishment!¡± [1]

    In response to the Captain¡¯s words, the kneeling Nightshade statue erupted with ck light, as well as a shocking baleful aura. Turning, it looked at the people from the duchy of Heaven Zenith.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly as he realized that he could actually give orders to this statue, and it would obey.

    As the Captain spoke and the statue emitted its baleful aura, gasps rang out from the duchy of Heaven Zenith. Then the duke hurried forward, sped hands, and bowed deeply to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Oh greater species, please ept the greetings of a lesser species cultivator!¡±

    Still reeling with shock, the other cultivators gathered at the main gate also sped hands and bowed. ¡°Greetings, oh members of the greater species!¡±

    The young earl flopped to the ground, trembling. ¡°Greetings, oh members of the greater species!¡±

    He was so bbergasted he wondered if he was dreaming.

    When Qing Qiu saw all of this happening, she was also left reeling. At the same time, intense killing intent filled her heart as she realized how important this specific Nightshade was that stood in front of her.

    If I could kill him.... She bowed her head so that no killing intent could be revealed in her eyes.

    Xu Qing strode forward to the divine likeness. Hopping onto its head, he sat down cross-legged.

    ¡°You guessed correctly. I really am in disguise.¡±

    As his words echoed out, the gathered cultivators bowed their heads.

    ¡°I¡¯m disguised as¡­ an ordinary Nightshade.¡±

    As he spoke, his fourth heavenly pce pulsed, causing the divine likeness to rise from its kneeling position. As it emanated shocking might and a ck glow, winds screamed in the area.

    The Captain also stepped forward and then flew onto the statue¡¯s head, where he stood behind Xu Qing, ring down.

    Next, the statue flew into the air, where it stared down at everything below with a tyrannical re. It became hard to see Xu Qing and the Captain clearly, as if they were part of the night darkness beneath the giant overhead canopy.

    Down below, the Holytide cultivators were all shaken. As for the duke, he was slightly hesitant, but at the same time, knew he had no choice but to offer obeisance.

    ¡°Greetings, Godchild!¡±

    All of the Holytides bowed in unison.

    Loudest of all was the young earl, whose eyes shone with fanaticism. He was a Holytide, a species that had once been human. Because of that, this young earl of Heaven Zenith had some bit of humanity left in him. And it was amon human trait to transform negated suspicion into deep faith.

    Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t leave Heaven Zenith. The duke invited them to stay. They didn¡¯t feel the need to go into detail about the ¡®misunderstanding,¡¯ and the Holytides didn¡¯t dare to ask them about it.

    On the way into the city, the Captain asked some questions about Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, which was when they found out there were nine more days until the harvest began.

    Eventually they reached the ducal pceplex, where Xu Qing and the Captain were given residences. The divine likeness didn¡¯t leave. Instead, it hovered in the air above Xu Qing¡¯s pce residence, obviously standing guard.

    The Captain demanded that Qing Qiu dress like a handmaiden and serve in that role. Qing Qiu gritted her teeth but had no choice other than toply.

    There was no way to hide the fact that a Nightshade godchild hade. It was too momentous of a situation. The other city-states soon caught wind of what was going on, and though they were shocked, they couldn¡¯t help but be a bit suspicious.

    Thus, three days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing focused his energy on studying the divine likeness. Of course, the Captain couldn¡¯t hold back from asking what exactly was going on with the statue kowtowing to Xu Qing. When they were nning things along the way, Xu Qing had mentioned something about the aura of the red moon, but had not exined about his violet moon.

    ¡°Hey, I have some of that red moon aura,¡± the Captain said, sounding a bit disgruntled. ¡°Hold on, why didn¡¯t that thing kowtow to me? It even said my faith is weak and I have a mixed bloodline. What nonsense!¡±

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing exined about the symbol Arch-Immortal Plumdark had given him.

    The Captain sighed enviously, then reflexively pulled out a peach and started eating it.

    Qing Qiu couldn¡¯t hear what the two of them were talking about, but she could see the peach, and it caused her eyes to go wide. Before she could look any closer, the peach vanished, and the Captain looked somberly toward the outside of the hall.

    The duke hade with his son to pay a formal visit.

    ¡°Oh exalted Godchild, the thirty-six city-states would like to invite you to a banquet.¡±

    ¡°The exalted godchild isn¡¯t interested!¡± the Captain replied coolly as Xu Qing sat cross-legged next to him, not saying a word.

    Hearing that, Duke Heaven Zenith bowed his head to hide his reaction. Then he respectfully continued, ¡°Your humble servant shouldn¡¯t have been so rash as to presume you would be interested. I¡¯ll notify the other city-states. Incidentally, the ducal preceptor has returned and has requested an audience.¡±

    ¡°Request denied,¡± the Captain said.

    The duke kept his head bowed as he stood there for a long moment. Then he spoke again. ¡°My wayward son Mu Ye offended you, oh exalted one. Your humble servant has already punished him, but what further orders might you have, exalted one?¡± [2]

    Inside the hall, the Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed at the hidden meaning in the words. He looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained calm as he looked outside the hall toward the kneeling duke, and his son the earl, who had kept his head bowed the entire time.

    ¡°Mu Ye,¡± said Xu Qing, ¡°didn¡¯t you mention wanting a Nightshade blessing?¡±

    The young earl looked up, his eyes burning with zeal. Then he quickly kowtowed. Duke Heaven Zenith kept his head bowed so as not to reveal any reaction.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel like beating around the bush, so he just directly stated his demands. ¡°Topensate for my blessing, I want two shadeheaven demonmoon pills and 10,000 dao fruits from the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Tree.¡±

    He knew he had to maintain his act perfectly. If he pushed things too far, it could be bad. That said, there were always going to be twists and turns to deal with. One thing was certain: he couldn¡¯t afford to underestimate anyone. This young earl had already shown he was a schemer. And there was little need to mention the duke or the other cultivators from the duchy of Heaven Zenith.

    Xu Qing knew that directly telling these people what he wanted, coupled with his outright rejection of the banquet invitation, would result in a lot of spection. And that was exactly what he wanted. As Ghost Hand had taught him, all matters had to be handled with nuance. Intentionally leading people to the wrong conclusion would sometimes make your story a lot more believable.

    Thus, as the duke frowned very slightly, Xu Qing continued speaking. ¡°Mu Ye, step forward.¡±

    The duke was shocked. As for Mu Ye himself, he struggled to control his breathing. Eyes shining with zeal, he humbly stepped into the hall and knelt in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Godchild!¡± he said loudly.

    Xu Qing extended his hand, and his fourth heavenly pce trembled as a stream of unique mutagen from his violet moon converged on his index finger. Then he touched the young earl¡¯s forehead.

    A tremor passed through Mu Ye, and his cultivation base surged. A violet glimmer appeared in his eyes, and an aura that was extremely simr to that of the red moon erupted around him.

    There was also something holy about it. As a result, Mu Ye no longer looked at Xu Qing with fanaticism. Instead, there was raw piety in his eyes as he prostrated himself on the ground.

    ¡°Your Majesty!¡±

    The sight of this happening filled the duke with shock, and his expression flickered wildly.

    Given the level of his cultivation base, he wasn¡¯t able to see deeply into Xu Qing. But he could see into his own son. And when he sensed that his son had been filled with a Nightshade aura, his spirits lifted. When that aura entered the flesh and became part of the cultivation base, it would bless the subject with a portion of Nightshade innate abilities. He had heard of some members of the nobility receiving such blessings in the royal dynasty above. Except, this blessing... seemed superior!

    Among the Holytides, who had a caste-based society, the blessing of that aura indicated a massive rise in status and position!

    As the duke looked at Xu Qing in absolute astonishment, Xu Qing looked back at him.

    Xu Qing said nothing, but his actions spoke volumes. His refusal of the invitation showed what he wanted. And his request for those items had been an order! This was how the Nightshades did things. The act had not been pushed too far.

    1. This isn¡¯t the first time ¡®godchildren¡¯ were mentioned. They also came up in chapter 361. ?

    2. Mu Ye: Mu is a surname which also means ¡°tree, wood.¡± Considering this is a noble family that lives beneath a giant tree, it seems likely the surname is supposed to be at least reminiscent of that tree. Ye means ¡°business, upation, job.¡± Ye does not rhyme with the English words ¡°he, bee, tree.¡± It¡¯s more akin (in rhyme) to ¡°heh, bleh.¡± To hear it pronounced by Google, go here. When I asked Madam Deathde for her reaction to this name, I didn¡¯t give her any context, and she said it sounded like the name given to the son of a ¡°lumber industry executive¡± who wanted his son to achieve great things. Considering the local culture is all centered around the gigantic tree, her guess seems spot on. ?

 Chapter 446: Meeting An Old Friend in a Distant Land

    Chapter 446: Meeting An Old Friend in a Distant Land

    The Holytide species got its start when Grand Duke Holytide rebelled against humankind. But they retained many aspects of humanity, including the human way of thinking, and their custom of living ording to hierarchies. [1]

    Whether it was Sea-Sealing County or other counties, they were simply administrative satellites, and thus, their hierarchical systems weren¡¯t as clear cut. But in the imperial capital, things were different.

    As for the Holytide species, they were rtively united, and maintained the same hierarchies wherever they ruled. And such things were ingrained into the very fabric of Holytide being.

    Holytide society operated in a caste system with six levels. The top two levels were the nobility, the middle two levels were the warriors, and the bottom two levels were the ves.

    Duke Heaven Zenith was in the fourth level, meaning he was in the warrior caste. It was the same with his son.

    One¡¯s ce in the caste system was very important to Holytides. Only people with absolutely heaven-defying cultivation bases could ever change their ce. After all, people in the noble caste had better bloodlines and more opportunities, resources, and the like. Most of the top experts among Holytides came from that caste.

    To have the power to change the castes of others involved having power over the very heart of the Holytide species. And the only ones with that power... were from the Nightshade Cathedral.

    Every Holytide royal dynasty had a Nightshade Cathedral in it. The Nightshade divine likenesses were bestowed by those cathedrals. And the ability to change caste level was a blessing from the Nightshades. Someone who had been blessed in that way would have an aura that was much closer to that of the Nightshades.

    Over countless years, it was thanks to the secret influence of the Nightshades that the Holytides as a species had be obsessed with the idea of rising through the caste system.

    It was for that reason that Duke Heaven Zenith was currently reeling from shock. Up to this point, he had still had secret reservations about these two Nightshades. But when he saw his own son receiving that blessing, he couldn¡¯t have been more astonished.

    That aura was true and authentic. And as the duke knew, not every Nightshade was capable of bestowing such a blessing. Only top experts among the Nightshades could do so. Either that or... cultivators from the Nightshade Cathedral.

    Nightshades had a god of their own, that much the Holytides knew for certain. And though other species also knew the truth, most were unwilling to admit to it. But that was the reality of the situation. The Nightshades¡¯ god slept in the red moon, and had been worshiped by them for generations upon generations. Because of the protection of that god, a group of godly custodians hade to exist among the Nightshades. They were the Nightshade Cathedral. They were the true imperial lords of the Nightshade species, and upied the highest tier of power. [2]

    As thoughts about those things shed through Duke Heaven Zenith¡¯s mind, he took a deep breath and bowed even more deeply. After leaving, he immediately passed down orders to find some shadeheaven demonmoon pills. And he sent words to the other city-states topile detailed information about the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal dao fruits.

    Unfortunately, things didn¡¯t go very smoothly. There were four or five city-states who weren¡¯t convinced of his story. After all, it was a very difficult story to believe. For countless years, this location had been forced to deal with many fake Nightshades, and never once had a real Nightshade ever visited.

    In fact, it was for that reason that Duke Heaven Zenith didn¡¯t immediately report the matter to the royal dynasty above him. He wanted to get input from the other city-states beforehand.

    After all... though he was ny-nine percent certain that these Nightshades were real, there was still that one percent bit of doubt. If it turned out that there really was something fishy with these Nightshades, and he never reported it, then he would deal with the situation however he saw fit. But once he reported it, he would be implicated in anything that happened.

    And thus, seven days passed slowly but surely.

    Although there were still two more days left until the dao fruits were ripe, the reality was that there were already fruits being harvested on the edges of the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Jungle. Various foreign species were already using a variety of methods to sneak in and take some of the dao fruits. Some seeded. Some failed. On a daily basis, the thirty-six city-states sent people out on patrol to look for infiltrators. Those who were caught suffered different fates. Some were killed, and their corpses hung from the tree canopy as a warning. Others were rebuked and sent away. Yet others were locked up. Because of how incredibly valuable the dao fruits were, there was no shortage of cultivators trying to sneak in.

    When the Captain realized that some of the dao fruits were already ripe, he couldn¡¯t suppress his anticipation. After talking things over with Xu Qing, he decided to take action.

    Xu Qing agreed with the n.

    Although they seemed to be in a safe position in the ducal pce, the reality was that they were in extreme danger. Although Xu Qing was certain his disguise had not been prated, he knew that if someone strong enough came along, they would be able to see the truth. After all, nothing is absolute. Besides, his magical symbol of concealment was already starting to fade. Time was going to be a very important factor on this job.

    On the morning of the eighth day, Xu Qing and the Captain left the pceplex and had the young earl Mu Ye lead them to the periphery of the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Jungle, apanied by a contingent of guards.

    Standing outside the jungle, Mu Ye¡¯s eyes glittered piously as he said, ¡°Your Majesty, this is the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Jungle. The fruits in the depths are not ripe, so we can¡¯t go there. The jungle is filled with terrifying pressure that makes it difficult to traverse. The only time that pressure is reduced is when the fruits be ripe.¡±

    Mu Ye had taken to visiting Xu Qing¡¯s pce on a daily basis, and was always ready to exin anything necessary. As of right now, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have a more devoted follower in Heaven Zenith than Mu Ye.

    One reason was the blessing Xu Qing had given him. Another was that the mutagen in him came from Xu Qing. As such, it was appropriate for him to use the address Your Majesty.

    Sensing the familiar mutagen in him, Xu Qing nodded, then looked out at the dark, endless jungle. Then he looked up and noted the massive tree with the ten branches that wriggled up like entrails.

    Even now he found it hard to imagine that the tree was actually the embodiment of the entrails of a Woe-Immortal who achieved immortal ascension.

    ¡°Your Majesty, over the course of the following days, you should avoid casting your senses out during the night. In the time period after the dao fruits be ripe, there¡¯s a very special aura here. If you make contact with it, it will invade you and harm you.¡±

    Upon hearing that, the Captain curiously asked, ¡°What kind of harm?¡±

    ¡°It will cause powerful hallucinations, exalted one,¡± Mu Ye replied respectfully. ¡°In the past, someone was able to see the Woe-Immortal reaching immortal ascension. That person subsequently went insane, and ended up disemboweling themselves in imitation of what they saw. They ultimately died.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with interest. Noticing a fruit hanging from a nearby tree that resembled an eyeball, he plucked it off and put it in his bag of holding.

    They were currently on the outskirts of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, and there were quite a few fruits hanging from the trees. They all resembled eyes, though some were open and others were closed.

    ¡°The fruits with the eyes opened are ready to be harvested,¡± Mu Ye continued.

    As the Captain continued to pick the fruits, Xu Qing sped his hands behind his back and asked, ¡°How many dao fruits usually get harvested?¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty, when the dao fruits ripen every hundred years, there are usually about 300,000 that get harvested.¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing did some calctions. After all, only one fruit was worth 10,000 military credits. Qing Qiu was with them, and she was simrly astonished at how much wealth was avable.

    ¡°Mu Ye, have your people harvest some of the fruits for me,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Mu Ye replied, and he immediately yelled at some of his attendants to go start plucking off the fruits that were fully opened. Though he didn¡¯t have a lot of attendants, they were very spirited, and before long, had harvested a few dozen fruits. Just looking at them, Xu Qing felt his heart racing. He was essentially looking at hundreds of thousands of military credits!

    Noticing the longing in Qing Qiu¡¯s eyes, Xu Qing suppressed his excitement and coolly said, ¡°You go harvest some too.¡±

    Qing Qiu immediately rushed toward the fruits.

    Xu Qing had unsealed her cultivation base a few days ago. However, concerned she might do something drastic, he hadn¡¯t returned her bag of holding. Instead he gave her an empty bag to use temporarily.

    The sight of Qing Qiu rushing off caused a smile to appear on Xu Qing¡¯s face, but he quickly wiped it away and looked at the Captain.

    The Captain couldn¡¯t stop his eyes from glittering as he quickly worked to harvest one dao fruit after another, all the while muttering something indecipherable.

    Xu Qing could tell what he was doing. He was tallying his military credit.

    Eldest Brother doesn¡¯t have enough willpower. What¡¯s the point in counting things up now? He shook his head inwardly.

    Before going much further into the jungle, Mu Ye brought over twenty-five dao fruits that had been harvested. He offered them to Xu Qing, who took them and put them into his bag of holding.

    250,000 military credits!

    Then he watched as Mu Ye went back to continue the harvest with the other Holytide cultivators.

    ¡°Twenty-six. Twenty-eight. Thirty-one....¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying much attention to the Captain and whether he was working hard enough to keep their cover intact. About an hourter, they had cleared the area of fruit.

    They had harvested over a hundred, and were just considering moving to another part of the jungle when they heard amotion nearby.

    Mu Ye instantly went on guard, and was the first to stand protectively in front of Xu Qing. Meanwhile, his subordinate guards went ahead to see what was going on. Shortly after, one of them returned with a report.

    ¡°Exalted ones, it¡¯s a patrol from the duchy of Cloudsquire. They caught a few foreign infiltrators, one of whom ims to be a descendant of the Woe-Immortals. The patrol had to surround them before taking them captive.¡±

    ¡°A descendant of the Woe-Immortals?¡± Xu Qing clearly remembered what he had heard from the Captain and others, that the Ten Entrails Tree was the embodiment of thest Woe-Immortal who achieved immortal ascension.

    ¡°Your Majesty, no one in existence has a pure Woe-Immortal bloodline. But there are plenty of descendants in Holytide territory who have bits of that bloodline. Cultivators like that are difficult to kill. And in most cases, they¡¯re imprisoned until after the fruit harvest is over.¡±

    Around this time, they heard footsteps and a lot of yelling.

    ¡°How dare you take me captive! I¡¯m a descendant of the Woe-Immortals! This is where my patriarch achieved immortal ascension! I just came here to get some of my patriarch¡¯s dao fruits. What right do you have to stop me? I wasn¡¯t going to take very many. Only about thirty! What gall you have to touch me! If I die, then you¡¯ll see. If my blood is spilled on my patriarch, then he¡¯ll definitely awaken and vent his fury on you!¡±

    As the voice reached them, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and Xu Qing¡¯s pupils glittered.

    A momentter, a group of Holytide cultivators arrived who obviously weren¡¯t from Heaven Zenith. They had seven or eight infiltrating cultivators captive.

    When the Holytide cultivators saw Xu Qing and the Captain, their expressions flickered wildly. Obviously they had heard stories about these two. They quickly sped hands and bowed.

    Among the group of cultivators they had taken captive was one young man whose aura was different from the others. Especially noteworthy was the totem tattoo on his forehead, which resembled a wriggling snake that almost looked like an intestine. This was the person who had been yelling, and he looked very indignant. However, when he saw Xu Qing and the Captain, his eyes widened. Then he noticed Qing Qiu, and a tremor passed through him. He recovered quickly, whereupon he went back to cursing. However he walked a bit more quickly now.

    Qing Qiu looked away from him, her expression indifferent, as though she didn¡¯t know him.

    The Captain snorted coldly in his heart, and his eyes narrowed.

    Xu Qing meanwhile, was thinking,

    How did you end up here, Ning Yan?

    1. To reiterate, the ¡®grand duke¡¯ title is different from the ¡®duke/duchy of Heaven Zenith¡¯. ?

    2. Red moon reference links: chapter 361, 362, 363. There are other references but those are probably the most relevant and important. ?

 Chapter 447: The Act Snowballs (part 1)

    Chapter 447: The Act Snowballs (part 1)

    The person iming to be a descendant of the Woe-Immortals was none other than Ning Yan. Xu Qing remembered the Captain mentioning that after passing his assessment, Ning Yan had seemingly vanished. The Captain hadn¡¯t been able to track him down anywhere. And originally, the Captain had intended to bring Ning Yan on this job, primarily to use him as a meat shield in dangerous circumstances. But now, it was obvious the little punk had actually snuck his way into Ten Entrails of the True Immortal....

    Could it be that the bloodline he awakened was that of the Woe-Immortal species? Or is that just a disguise he¡¯s using? Though Xu Qing¡¯s mind was racing, he didn¡¯t reveal that via his facial expression. He just coldly examined Ning Yan.

    Meanwhile, Chen Erniu was smiling broadly, while Qing Qiu pretended not to recognize Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan... was deeply shaken. He didn¡¯t recognize the two Nightshades, but they caused a chill to run down his spine. That was especially true when he saw one of them smiling at him. He suddenly felt very rmed.

    What¡¯s that one smiling at me for? he thought nervously. Then he looked at Qing Qiu. They were both from the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and had participated in the same recruitment event, giving him plenty of time to get familiar with her. Though she didn¡¯t have her mask on, and was also wearing different clothing, her aura was the same, so all it took was a nce for him to recognize her.

    At the moment, he didn¡¯t even want to know what Qing Qiu was doing here. Instead, he was inwardly cursing at how he hadn¡¯t done anything to change his appearance.

    That said, it wasn¡¯t how he¡¯d hoped to do things. Because of some unique circumstances, he actually couldn¡¯t do anything to change his appearance and aura. He had been forced to use a magical device to aplish that, except that when he was captured, that device was taken away from him. Right now, the main thing he wanted to do was get away from here. After all, he was getting a very unsettling feeling.

    As the other Holytides led Ning Yan and the others away, the Captain suddenly said, ¡°Woe-Immortals? Sounds interesting. I want that one.¡±

    The Captain pointed at Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan felt like his scalp was about to explode, and his heart suddenly started racing.

    Don¡¯t tell me he realized who I am? That¡¯s impossible! Ning Yan was suddenly terrified at the thought of all the stories he¡¯d heard about the Nightshades. Of course, he had no say in the matter. The Holytides immediately acknowledged the orders, then dragged Ning Yan over to the Captain. Then they respectfully offered up the rope that bound Ning Yan.

    The Captain gave a slight nod and took the rope. Then he pulled it, forcing Ning Yan to take a few steps closer to him.

    Upon seeing the Captain¡¯s horrifying smile up close, Ning Yan quickly stered a deferential expression onto his face.

    ¡°Your humble servant pays respects, oh exalted one.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m very curious what Woe-Immortal entrails taste like,¡± the Captain said, shing his teeth and then licking his lips.

    Ning Yan¡¯s heart pounded and his face fell, and he tried to back away only for the Captain to yank on the rope again. Beingpletely unable to free himself from the rope, Ning Yan shivered and said, ¡°Exalted one, please, don¡¯t toy with me.... Your humble servant stinks from head to toe. I really wouldn¡¯t taste good.¡±

    When Qing Qiu saw all of this, she sighed inwardly. Before, she had neither liked nor disliked Ning Yan. He was a passerby, nothing more. But considering they were in a strange, distantnd, the fact that he was in such distress, and in danger of being eaten, caused her heart to swell with pity. A look of sorrow even flickered across her face.

    Noticing Qing Qiu¡¯s expression, Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°What do you want the Woe-Immortal for? You¡¯re interested in his entrails?¡±

    ¡°Of course not, oh exalted Godchild,¡± the Captain said, sping his hands respectfully.

    Ning Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Except, then the Captain kept talking.

    ¡°Sir, I¡¯ve been experimentingtely with bloodline pills,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I¡¯ve done experiments with just about every species imaginable, but not Woe-Immortals. I¡¯m hoping to take him back and concoct a pill with his living flesh.¡±

    He looked Ning Yan up and down, even lifting his chin and checking his teeth. Then the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation, as if he could already imagine Ning Yan as a medicinal pill. He licked his lips.

    Ning Yan¡¯s mind was spinning. Moments ago he had felt relieved, but now he was trembling even harder. In fact, he was so terrified that tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes.

    ¡°Exalted one, I... I know where you can find a lot of other people from my species. Many of them have even stronger bloodlines than me! How about you switch me out for one of them?¡±

    The Captain rubbed his chin and smiled enigmatically. However, he didn¡¯t respond in any way. He just kept examining Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan¡¯s terror mounted, and grief filled his eyes.

    Xu Qing looked away from the Captain and Ning Yan. Seeing that it was gettingte, he continued deeper into the jungle while time was on their side. He soon realized that unripe fruits made up more than ny percent of what was avable in this area. And many were so small that it seemed unlikely they would be ripe within a day.

    Turning to the obsequious Mu Ye, he said, ¡°Will all the fruits be ripe tomorrow?¡±

    Mu Ye hesitated for a moment, then replied, ¡°Your Majesty, for the most part, they¡¯ll be ready tomorrow. But based on some of our ancient records, I¡¯m fairly certain that the harvesting time for the dao fruits is an approximation. It¡¯s not supposed to bepletely urate. But even if the fruits aren¡¯t ripe tomorrow, they should be within the next week or so.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned slightly. He didn¡¯t want to stay in Holytide territory for any longer than necessary, with his main concern being his physical appearance. That said, he wasn¡¯t willing to leave just yet.

    I can wait another seven days if necessary! Turning, he went back in the direction of Heaven Zenith.

    Mu Ye hurried after him, followed by the rest of their group.

    The Captain¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he tugged Ning Yan along with the rope. Ning Yan followed, feeling a mixture of numbness, grief, anger, terror, and regret. Absolutely nothing had gone ording to n for him. Originally, he had assumed that even if his n failed, he wouldn¡¯t be in much danger. People with Woe-Immortal blood who got captured trying to steal dao fruits would usually just be imprisoned for a time, then released.

    After all, thest Woe-Immortal reached immortal ascension here. And considering the Holytides lived innds that had once belonged to the Woe-Immortals, there were actually a lot of people with Woe-Immortal blood in them. The Holytides were the neers, and therefore, they tried to avoid ratcheting up tension whenever possible. In fact, even if he got caught, he¡¯d been fairly certain he would be sent on his way with one or two dao fruits. Given how much he could sell them for, even that would have been worth it. But how could he ever have guessed that he would run into some Nightshades....

    As Ning Yan was dragged along in his indignation, he managed to look over at Qing Qiu and noticed that she seemed to have a facial expression remarkably simr to his own. And so the two of them sullenly followed Xu Qing and the Captain back to the pceplex in Heaven Zenith.

    Once back, Xu Qing followed his usual routine of meditation in his pce residence. Qing Qiu sat next to him, grinding her teeth. She had not simply epted that she needed to be a handmaiden, and was instead constantly looking for opportunities to escape.

    In contrast, the Captain didn¡¯t follow his usual routine, and instead dragged Ning Yan into his own pce residence. Ning Yan was powerless to resist. His expression was one of deepening terror, and he was constantly begging for mercy.

    Before long, the sound of Ning Yan¡¯s anguished cries rang out from the pce.

    ¡°Exalted one, w-w-what... what are you doing? Agggghhhhh!¡±

    The howls of grief quickly turned into screams of agony.

    Qing Qiu shivered. She had no idea what was going on in there, and had no way of investigating. But she could sense from the anguish in the screams that something extremely disturbing was happening.

    Looking over at Xu Qing and noticing hispleteck of expression, she suddenly felt like she understood a lot more about these brutal Nightshades.

    You Nightshades all deserve to die. Especially you two!

    Qing Qiu¡¯s heart and mind were in full turmoil.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to Qing Qiu. When the screaming started, it seemed obvious to him that the Captain had bitten Ning Yan.

    Before, the Captain was a swordsage and couldn¡¯t just go around biting whatever he wanted. But now he has a different identity. Given his personality, he definitely wants to take this opportunity to learn something about Ning Yan¡¯s flesh and blood.

    With that, Xu Qing cast his senses to the Nightshade divine likeness that hovered above his pce. That was what interested him most during this time of extended waiting.

    If I could take this thing back to Sea-Sealing County with me....

    The mere thought filled him with anticipation.

    The statue wasn¡¯t ordinary in any way. It had the power of the red moon in abundance, and was constantly emitting mutagen. Though Xu Qing could give it orders, taking it away from this ce didn¡¯t seem very usible.

    For one, he couldn¡¯t put it into a bag of holding. What was more, it was too eye-catching. Beyond that, if he ever came face to face with that red moon, then the statue would instantly turn against him. In other words, if he took it with him, it would just be a matter of time before it exploded out of control.

    What if I could rece the power of the red moon with the power of my violet moon?

    That was the direction of research he was now pursuing.

    Eventually, evening fell, and the sky beyond the tree canopy went dark. Soon, the floating, human-shapednterns appeared everywhere.

    ***

    Outside the pceplex in Heaven Zenith, on the altar where the Nightshade divine likeness had previously stood, a group of a few dozen Holytide cultivators had gathered. This ce had long since been locked down, with spell formations set up to prevent anyone from sensing what was going on inside. There were a few dozen individuals present, most of whom were in the great circle of the Nascent Soul level. There were only five Spirit Trove experts.

    One of them was Duke Heaven Zenith.

    In front of the group was an old man in a ck robe. He had red skin that made him look very unusual, and he pulsed with the terrifying pressure of four secret troves. This man was the ducal preceptor of the duchy of Heaven Zenith. Looking in the direction of the pceplex, then the cultivators gathered around him, he snorted coldly.

    ¡°This is absolutely preposterous! The lot of you are all dukes, yet you got fooled this easily? Don¡¯t have even an ounce ofmon sense? You think some high-ranking Nightshades are going to show up on a caravan? And, by random chance, they happen to show up right during dao fruit harvesting season? Plus, one of them was said to have weak faith and a mixed bloodline? How could they possibly be real Nightshades?

    ¡°And think about that handmaiden. She¡¯s not just human, she¡¯s also one of the new crop of swordsages. Her name is Qing Qiu. Even after learning that, didn¡¯t any of you feel even slightly suspicious?¡±

 Chapter 447: The Act Snowballs (part 2)

    Chapter 447: The Act Snowballs (part 2)

    The assembled cultivators kept their heads bowed in the face of the preceptor¡¯s criticism. However, many of them looked in the direction of Duke Heaven Zenith. Truth be told, none of these cultivators were convinced that Xu Qing and the Captain were really Nightshades. However, the divine likeness had indeed kowtowed, and the aura blessings were real. Because of that, none of them were really sure what to believe.

    ¡°Furthermore, Duke, regarding that blessing given to your son, I did some checking, and I believe it to be a diversionary tactic, nothing more. I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s even real. In fact, we should send your son to the royal dynasty above and have him checked.¡± The preceptor once again looked in the direction of the pceplex.

    ¡°Mostughable of all is that though their methods fooled you people, the biggest hole in their story... is the ridiculous im about being a godchild. Hmph! I¡¯ve studied the Nightshades for years, and have many fellow daoists among them. Yet I¡¯ve never heard anything about some sort of godchild!

    ¡°Remember, that Nightshade divine likeness isn¡¯t alive. Given that none of you have ever been to Nightshadends, you probably haven¡¯t heard that things like this have happened with these statues in the past. It all has to do with the way the godly power within them is affected by the tidal cycle. These two imposters clearly know a lot about Nightshades, and thus took advantage of this moment to do something very clever.¡±

    The old man¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light.

    ¡°However, in the end, they miscalcted. And that¡¯s because, years ago when I lived among the Nightshades, the Nightshade Cathedral bestowed upon me a Nightshade spiritghost! The spiritghosts of the Nightshade Cathedral are intelligent. And when ites to unliving objects like that divine likeness, they can ascertain the details about it almost instantly!¡±

    With that, the preceptor touched his finger to his forehead, causing a tremor to pass through him. Then he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood as his forehead split open and a dark, shadowy figure flew out from within.

    Instantly, sinister winds blew in the area. What was more, the Holytides¡¯ minds shivered as the Nightshade blood within them stirred, causing the ck marks on their foreheads to be even more distinct.

    ¡°Please perform your inspection, spiritghost!¡± the preceptor said respectfully.

    The spiritghost cackled as it flew up into the air and then headed toward the pceplex. Meanwhile, the grim-faced preceptor continued speaking to the assembled cultivators.

    ¡°Once the spiritghost has finished its inspection, then Duke Heaven Zenith, you will personally go arrest those two reckless imposters. As for me, I¡¯m prepared to¡ª¡±

    Before the preceptor could finish his exnation, the spiritghost shivered. ck light erupted from it, sweeping out like a sea of light. And its eyes shone with unprecedented brightness. A momentter, it screamed as its eyes exploded. It tumbled down, mming into the altar, where it then prostrated in the direction of the pceplex.

    ¡°It¡¯s His Majesty! That¡¯s His Majesty¡¯s aura! We mere mortals cannot look at it directly!!¡± The blinded spiritghost was now trembling violently, and its voice thrummed with both excitement and fervor. The sight of it caused the surrounding Holytide cultivators to be deeply shaken.

    Duke Heaven Zenith was breathing heavily; even though he still had suspicions before, now he had no choice but to believe. The other dukes all felt their scalps tingling, and they didn¡¯t dare to feel even the slightest bit of suspicion. Their eyes filled with expressions of fanaticism. As for the preceptor who had unleashed the spiritghost, he was also shaking, and his eyes were wide with incredulity.

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    As the group was battered by waves of shock, the Nightshade divine likeness floated high over the pceplex. Uncrossing its arms, it stretched them wide and looked in the direction of the altar, its eyes pulsing with ck light.

    Atop its head, it was just barely possible to make out Xu Qing and the Captain. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were cold with displeasure. The Captain looked furious at the insult to the godchild. He spoke, his cold voice echoing furiously in all directions.

    ¡°You¡¯re a very suspicious lot. That¡¯s not necessarily a weakness, but push it too far and it¡¯ll turn into disrespect.¡±

    Right then, a moon-shaped totem appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead. And it emanated personality fluctuations from his violet moon heavenly pce, whichpletely surpassed anything mortal.

    Instantly, the blood of all the Heaven Zenith Holytides reacted, and the Nightshade blood within them suddenly surged. The thirty-six dukes were all shaking as they bowed their heads to the divine likeness. Meanwhile, the ducal preceptor was reeling. The sight of his Nightshade spiritghost prostrating and kowtowing caused him to breathe raggedly. Finally, he bowed his head and sped hands in the direction of the dome of heaven.

    Each of these Holytide cultivators had a higher cultivation base than Xu Qing. If he was just an ordinary Nightshade, then they probably could have used their cultivation bases to reach a roughly equal social status. But when they sensed their blood reacting to the pressure from this ¡®godchild,¡¯ they were shocked to the core.

    That said, there was nothing humiliating about what was happening. From the very beginning, these two Nightshades hadn¡¯t abused their authority, but instead seemed to be taking their time feeling out the Holytides.

    ¡°This is thest time, all of you,¡± Xu Qing said. He looked deeply at the gathered cultivators, then waved his hand and disappeared.

    The divine likeness floated down to its previous position just above the pce, where it closed its eyes.

    The entire city was quiet.

    By the altar, the preceptor was breathing heavily, and he felt his mind and heart trembling from the pressure. He turned to look at the duke.

    ¡°Send a secret message to the royal dynasty informing them of the situation. Tell them we have Nightshade guests here at Ten Entrails of the True Immortal. They seem to have a very high bloodline, and we don¡¯t qualify to do anything that could be considered rude. Also, send your son to the royal dynasty as well! Regardless of whether they¡¯re imposters or not... this is a major event! And if they¡¯re not imposters¡ª¡± the preceptor took a deep breath¡ª ¡°then all four of the Nightshade Cathedrals in the four royal Holytide dynasties will be shaken, and your son¡¯s future position will be beyondparison!¡±

    As the ducal preceptor spoke, a wind picked up, causing the leaves of the Ten Entrails Tree to rustle softly.

    As the night deepened, the wind grew stronger. The canopy over Ten Entrails of the True Immortal swayed back and forth, and the wind kicked up dust as it swept through the buildings of the duchy of Heaven Zenith. The bells attached to the eaves of the buildings tinkled. It was the same in the pceplex.

    Hearing the sound, Xu Qing shifted his gaze from the dark night to the Captain.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± he said, keeping his voice low, ¡°we can¡¯t stick around here much longer. Two days at the most. If the dao fruits in Ten Entrails of the True Immortal aren¡¯t ripe by then, we¡¯ll just have to leave.¡±

    The Captain sighed, feeling a bit annoyed. Although they had managed to find a way out of being discovered earlier, he knew that the situation would only get harder and harder to keep under control.

    ¡°I think we¡¯re fine so far,¡± the Captain said. He looked at Xu Qing. No matter how the Captain studied Xu Qing, or scanned him with his senses, he didn¡¯t get any sense that he was anything other than a real Nightshade. The divine likeness had kowtowed. He had blessed a Holytide. And even an intelligent Nightshade spiritghost had knelt to him.... Given those three things, the Captain¡¯s thoughts were already going wild.

    Finally, the Captain couldn¡¯t contain his curiosity any longer, and asked, ¡°How are you doing it, little Ah Qing? That can¡¯t really be the aura of the red moon, can it?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then decided he didn¡¯t need to keep hiding the truth. ¡°The Nightshades worship that god, right? Well, back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, I actually stole a bit of that god¡¯s authority. So they mistakenly think that I¡¯m the red moon.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide and he gasped. Although he had suspected it was something like this, to hear Xu Qing say it out loud left him astonished.

    A momentter, he stood and walked a few circles around Xu Qing. ¡°Say, little Junior Brother, what do you say we do something reaaaalllly big?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes burned with a crazy look.

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply. He could guess where the Captain was heading with this, and it was one of the main reasons he¡¯d hidden the violet moon in the past.

    ¡°Your disguise is so good it¡¯s basically not even a disguise. Why don¡¯t we go to the Nightshade Cathedral, and from there, have them send us to Nightshade territory....

    Xu Qing shook his head firmly. ¡°I only have about half a month left before my concealment symbol fades. Once it¡¯s gone, I¡¯ll still have a good disguise, but people will have ways of seeing through it. That¡¯s especially true... if you¡¯re talking about the god in the red moon. If that god looks at me even once, I¡¯m done for.¡±

    The Captain was a bit depressed to hear that. However, he also knew that the n he had just suggested wasn¡¯t crazy. It was suicidal. After mulling the matter over, he gritted his teeth.

    ¡°Tomorrow we¡¯ll keep harvesting dao fruits. Although the majority aren¡¯t ripe yet, at least there are some we can harvest. And we can also start searching in other areas.

    ¡°A few days after that, little Ah Qing, we can start working toward our true goal. The dao fruits are only part of the job. The really good stuff is on the Ten Entrails Tree! We have an amazing opportunity on our hands!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, then gritted his teeth and said, ¡°Three days. No more than that!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with a crazy look, and he nodded. ¡°Fine. Five days. No more than that! By the way, tomorrow I¡¯m going to go out and get some fresh air. Since our ns are set already, who cares if they get suspicious? Besides, you¡¯re the real deal. So I¡¯m going make sure all those city-states know that when we give blessings, ites at a price. Treasure!¡±

    Two dayster, Xu Qing and the Captain split up. One went to gather dao fruit. The other went to the other city-states to get some fresh air and offer blessings.

    ***

    Around this time, a delegation arrived at the capital city of the Heavengale Dynasty, which was one of the four great royal dynasties of the Holytides. The delegation came from Heaven Zenith, and was led by the ducal preceptor. Mu Ye was in the delegation, and the very first thing they did was formally report the matter of the Nightshades.

    Originally, the situation hadn¡¯t caused any sort of big stir in the Heavengale Dynasty. After all, the aristocracy of the four dynasties didn¡¯t care much about ordinary Nightshades. But after the report from Heaven Zenith was delivered, and Mu Ye went to the appropriate government department to be inspected and tested, the result was deep shock. In fact, the matter sent ripples through the entire dynasty.

    ¡°The Nightshade aura given to Mu Ye is equivalent to the first caste level! Maybe even higher than that!¡±

    ¡°All of his blood vessels were thoroughly scanned. He really, truly got blessed!¡±

    ¡°Not even the Nightshade Cathedral could advance someone from the fourth caste to the first!¡±

    ¡°This wasn¡¯t just some ordinary blessing. It was a godly blessing!¡±

    After the results were reported up the chain ofmand, no one had any idea of the reaction of the leadership of the dynasty, and the royal n as well. However, two dharmic decrees were quickly issued.

    The first dharmic decree stated that Mu Ye was to be immediately escorted to the Nightshade Cathedral for further testing.

    The second dharmic decree arranged for a contingent of the ck Guard to be sent to the duchy of Heaven Zenith. Their stated mission was to act as bodyguards. Their secret mission was to observe and surveil. No slip ups would be tolerated.

 Chapter 448: Seizing!

    Chapter 448: Seizing!

    Xu Qing was feeling very nervous. Four days had passed since the spiritghost inspection. During that time, Xu Qing had collected a bit over a thousand dao fruits. And word had spread about the Captain going out and about to provide blessings that improved caste status. Thanks to the way the Captain operated, he had amassed quite a bit of valuable treasure.

    But their true goal was the Ten Entrails Tree, which had not yet bloomed.

    The more time that passed, the more uneasy Xu Qing felt. It was the same type of uneasy feeling he had experienced when he first arrived in the county capital. Both feelings came from his ¡®heavenly dao bluegreen dragon.¡¯

    Another factor was that he hadn¡¯t seen Mu Ye for quite some time. Based on what he could sense, Mu Ye was in a distant location.

    They probably sent him to one of the royal dynasties.... Xu Qing checked the dao fruit he had harvested and calcted how much it would be worth in military credit. At that point, his desire to leave grew even stronger. But the Captain wasn¡¯t ready to give up yet.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just stay one more day, little Ah Qing! Tomorrow I have a big customering to get blessed. Besides, I heard that people have sensed fluctuations of changeing from the Ten Entrails Tree. I bet it¡¯ll bloom tomorrow.

    ¡°If we wait just a bit longer, our big opportunity will definitelye along. Once we get into the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, this job will really pay off. I¡¯ve been waiting for this day for a really long time.¡± The Captain looked at him with a crazy look in his eyes, licking his lips in anticipation.

    ¡°The dao fruits on the periphery can¡¯t be eaten. But based on my research, little Ah Qing, the Ten Entrails Tree can be eaten. And believe me, it¡¯s anything but ordinary. Every single bite contains an explosion of spirit energy. You want to speed up your cultivation too, right? Well I guarantee you¡¯ll be able to.

    "Most importantly, little Ah Qing... your Eldest Brother is preparing to give you a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering, absolutely consummate and spectacr bit of amazing good fortune! I can¡¯t exin the details right now, as it¡¯s too miraculous. You¡¯ll have to see it to believe it. Trust me!

    ¡°Now, about making our getaway, I have it all nned out. I have a very amazing treasure that can teleport us all the way back to Sea-Sealing County. It¡¯s ridiculously expensive to use, and that¡¯s why I need to get to the Ten Entrails Tree before I can use it.¡±

    Xu Qing took a moment to think about everything that had yed out so far. Then he gritted his teeth and agreed to wait another day.

    Eventually, night fell on the fourth day.

    Late in that night, as Xu Qing was studying the Nightshade divine likeness, his expression flickered as he sensed something. He had vaguely felt something from the direction of the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Tree. It was something sudden, like a burning me that had just been ignited. By the time he looked in the direction of the tree, it was gone.

    His eyes glittered brightly.

    Was that what Mu Ye and the Captain mentioned? The supernatural phenomenon caused by the Ten Entrails Tree?

    After peering out into the darkness for a short time, he closed his eyes.

    Shortly thereafter, he again sensed that burning me. This time, when Xu Qing looked over, he felt like he could see a figure in a white robe, undting rhythmically as it rose up into the sky in the midst of the fire. No, it wasn¡¯t a figure. There were many figures, all of them, rising into the sky as if dancing. Their movements were bizarre and full of mystery, as if this was some ceremony or rite designed to please heaven on high. As they danced, the mes climbed higher. They grew stronger.

    Xu Qing heard pulsing sounds in his mind, sounds that seemed like they wanted to rece the thump of his heartbeat. There was chanting as ancient incantations were spoken in a tone of voice Xu Qing had never encountered before. Gradually, the sky in this vision split open. A huge rift appeared, within which was an unspeakable entity looking down at thends below, as if waiting.

    After some indeterminable period of time passed, an excited voice spoke,ing from the dancing figure in the middle of all the other figures. He shoved his right hand down, ripping open his belly and pulling out his own entrails, which writhed like snakes as he lifted them overhead. As he danced, and as the sound of drums thrummed, his entrails twisted and distorted. The other figures around him, all tore open their bellies, and more entrails whipped in the breeze. It was a horrendous sight.

    The vision contained a bizarre power that influenced Xu Qing¡¯s senses, and filled him with an unstoppable impulse to join them in ripping open his belly.

    Just when he was about to do that, his third and fourth heavenly pces vibrated. His poison core and the violet moon pulsed, causing his mind to shiver. Then the impulse to rip open his belly weakened.

    Then he sensed that, in the direction of the Ten Entrails Tree, the sea of fire had expanded, bing like a sea of blood that filled the world. Xu Qing shivered and opened his eyes. The vision was over.

    It was light outside. As the sky beyond the canopy lit up, so did the human-shapednterns hanging beneath the canopy. At the same time, a burning smell swept out from the Ten Entrails Tree, filling everything underneath the canopy. Xu Qing could smell it. It reminded him of cooked flesh. It was pungent and acrid, at least when he smelled it. Then he took another breath, and it became sweet like incense.

    Xu Qing¡¯s sixth heavenly pce was more than halfplete thanks to the ughter in Unit C. But now, thanks to this incense, he could sense it progressing more towardpletion.

    His eyes lit up.

    The Captain also sensed the same thing, and he rushed out of his pce residence, his eyes shining with craziness and longing.

    ¡°The Ten Entrails Tree is blooming!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, an intense boom echoed out from the direction of the huge tree. Then another, and another, until there had been twelve of them, each louder than the other.

    Everything trembled.

    Next, Xu Qing watched as the massive canopy overhead seemed to shrink, allowing sunlight to fall onto the area beneath, which had been hidden in shadow for a hundred years.

    However, closer inspection revealed that the canopy wasn¡¯t actually shrinking. Instead, the twisting branches of the tree were separating from each other.

    The process took about an hour. As the sky grew brighter outside, and more sunlight filtered down, the canopy... disappeared.

    The ten tree branches all spread out in different directions, making them visible for all to see. Ten branches like ten entrails, swaying between heaven and earth! Countless fruits appeared on them, like innumerable eyes looking out.

    Xu Qing stood. This was the moment they had been waiting for. He and the Captain looked at each other, and both could see the excitement in the other¡¯s eyes. Then, without the slightest hesitation, they burst into motion. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan were also stunned by the huge tree, but before either of them could do much, Xu Qing waved his hand for them to follow. The entire group was just about to fly up into the sky over Heaven Zenith when, all of a sudden, the duchy¡¯s teleportation portal shone with bright light. A host of figures in ck garments appeared.

    In the lead was a middle-aged man who, like Duke Heaven Zenith, had a Spirit Trove cultivation base. After stepping off the teleportation portal, he spotted Xu Qing and the Captain and flew straight toward them.

    The other ck-robed individuals flew in tight formation behind him, their expressions somber and deste. There were a total of three hundred, with the weakest of them in the four-pce level. There were about forty who had seven- or eight-pce battle prowess, and there were ten in the Nascent Soul level.

    The moment they appeared, Xu Qing and the Captain felt their hearts sink. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan inhaled sharply.

    Their garments made them seem even more harsh and austere. After all, the ck robes had ginkgo leaves embroidered on them, which all swordsages would recognize. They pegged these people as the swordsages¡¯ deadly counterpart in the Holytides. They were from... the ck Guard. Considering that their uniforms were all exactly the same, they were obviously a single unit.

    Though the Captain had never encountered the middle-aged man in the Spirit Trove level, Xu Qing had.

    The first time was when he and Kong Xianglong had killed that quasi-Nascent Soul ck Guard cultivator. This man had been there, enraged and unable to do anything. The second time was at the Swordsage Pce when the Yao n brought in Xu Qing and the others for questioning. Today was the third encounter! [1]

    I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s him! Killing intent flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s heart as the man led his ck Guard subordinates in their direction.

    As they neared, Xu Qing was able to get a close look at the entire group. As he scanned them, one person stood out. He was a young, handsome man with a spectacr cultivation base. He wasn¡¯t in the Nascent Soul, but he did have nine-pce battle prowess. His ck Guard robe had two silver gingko leaves on it, which was one more than all the other Gold Core cultivators, and the same number as the ten Nascent Soul experts. What jumped out to Xu Qing was that this young man had a lifemp in him. Because it had been turned into a heavenly pce, most people wouldn¡¯t notice it. But Xu Qing could tell that it was a blue stonemp carved into the shape of antern.

    As Xu Qing examined the young man, the middle-aged leader approached and sped hands in greeting.

    ¡°I am Commandant Zhou Xingwu of the Heavengale ck Guard, here to receive you and provide an escort to the Heavengale Kingdom!¡± [2]

    After Zhou Xingwu¡¯s introduction, the other ck Guard cultivators fanned out into an arc formation and also sped hands in greeting.

    Qing Qiu and Ning Yan looked on nervously.

    As for Xu Qing, he remained calm and refrained from speaking. The Captain, meanwhile, lifted his chin and frowned slightly.

    ¡°You¡¯re dismissed. You don¡¯t get to decide whether or not we go to the kingdom of Heavengale.¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Zhou Xingwu ignored the Captain and looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Ie with royal authority and have been given a responsibility. Exalted one, I hope you don¡¯t make things difficult for me.¡±

    He was aware that Xu Qing was the one who was supposedly a godchild with an amazing bloodline. But he had his orders, and of course, as a ck Guard cultivator, he had his own ways of getting things done when necessary.

    As such, he lifted his right hand. In response, the other ck Guard cultivators spread out, forming aplete circle. That said, they didn¡¯t unleash baleful auras. Instead, they kept their heads bowed respectfully and didn¡¯t even tap into their cultivation bases.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak. Except, that was when Xu Qing unexpectedly spoke.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. Following Xu Qing¡¯s line of sight, he realized that he was speaking to the son of the provincial governor, who was one of the cultivators under hismand.

    The young man stepped forward, his expression cold as he sped his hands and said, ¡°Exalted one, I am your humble servant Lin Yuandong.¡± [3]

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Zhou Xingwu, extract his lifemp. I want it.¡±

    1. The first time Xu Qing saw this person was in chapter 420. The second time was in chapter 425. ?

    2. Zhou Xingwu. Zhou is #10 on the list of 100mon surnames. Xing is a character with many definitions. In this context, it gives the feeling of movement or action. Wu means ¡°witch, wizard, shaman.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds cool and unique. Somewhat dark. Also not a name an ordinary real-life parent would give their kid. ?

    3. Lin Yuandong: Lin is #18 on the list of 100mon surnames. It also means ¡°forest, woods.¡± Yuan means ¡°far, distant¡± and Dong means ¡°east.¡± Together ¡®yuandong¡¯ is actually a loan word that means ¡°Far East.¡± Madam Deathde¡¯s impression of this name is that it sounds a bit rustic and ordinary. ?

 Chapter 449: Godchild on the Move

    Chapter 449: Godchild on the Move

    Xu Qing¡¯s words were spoken very naturally. And they didn¡¯te across like a mere order spoken by an officer to a subordinate. Rather, they were like a casually utteredmand from a superior species to a lesser species, in which there wasn¡¯t even the slightest consideration offered to allow for refusal.

    When the Captain heard those words, his heart swelled with surprise. He was extremely pleased with how Xu Qing was putting these ck Guard cultivators on challenge.

    The ck Guard¡¯s previous attempt to force Xu Qing into a passive position had been a challenge. But Xu Qing¡¯s response was also a challenge.

    The moment the words left Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, the surrounding ck Guard cultivators¡¯ expressions flickered dramatically.

    Lin Yuandong shivered from head to toe, and despite his best efforts, began breathing heavily. His lifemp had already been turned into a heavenly pce, and was an integral part of him. If it was extracted now... one of his heavenly pces would be destroyed and he would be left with a near-fatal wound. In fact, it was an injury he might never be able to recover from. In any other circumstance, he would have fought to the death before allowing that to happen. After all, from the time he was very young, Lin Yuandong had been a top chosen cultivator with spectacr natural talent, whether before he joined the ck Guard or after. His father was also extremely powerful. Because of all that, he had been rapidly rising through the ranks of the ck Guard. Being from the second caste, he was considered to have noble Holytide blood. That made him above most other Holytides, and filled him with a sense of superiority that seeped deep into his bones.

    But now he felt like little more than a stray dog. He was overwhelmed with a sense of humiliation, and what made it all worse was how casually the words were spoken. Truth be told, it made sense for them to sound natural. It didn¡¯t matter what Lin Yuandong¡¯s status was among the Holytides. That wasn¡¯t relevant when dealing with Nightshades. Though the royal n had some freedom of speech when dealing with Nightshades, if it was true that this particr Nightshade was a godchild, then not even someone from the royal n could do anything to defy them.

    After all, the Holytides existed because of the Nightshades. It was not a rtionship of equals, it was a master-ve rtionship!

    There was someone else whose facial expression flickered dramatically, and that was Zhou Xingwu. No longer could he maintain the cold expression he had started out with. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Xu Qing, and a thousand thoughts spun in his mind.

    The truth was that the royal edict hadn¡¯t specifically mentioned that the two Nightshades had to be brought back to the capital city. That had been his idea.

    It just didn¡¯t ur to him that the response would be like this. In the blink of an eye, he was put into a lose-lose situation. He couldn¡¯t just follow amand to extract Lin Yuandong¡¯s lifemp. If he did that, his position in the ck Guard would instantly be untenable, and worse, it would involve deeply offending the provincial governor. After all, the governor wouldn¡¯t dare do anything to anger the Nightshades, but he could still punish Zhou Xingwu.

    Unfortunately for Zhou Xingwu, if he didn¡¯t obey themand... then there was no way he could follow through with his threat disguised as an invitation.

    Just as he was feeling like he had no options to pick from, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s brow was furrowed with anxiety, and the other ck Guard cultivators were looking at him nervously. They knew that if theirmandant really followed through and extracted Lin Yuandong¡¯s lifemp, then all of their lives would be in the hands of the Nightshades.

    Lin Yuandong¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he looked at Zhou Xingwu.

    In that heated moment, a gentle voice reached them from a short distance away.

    ¡°Exalted Godchild.¡±

    It was Duke Heaven Zenith, who hurried over and bowed respectfully to Xu Qing. Then he looked coldly at Zhou Xingwu. As far as he was concerned, this Nightshade godchild was authentic. He needed to be authentic. He had to be authentic. After all, if he was authentic, then it meant the duke¡¯s son really had been blessed into the first caste. Therefore... regardless of anything, until the Nightshade Cathedral made a final decision, he was treating the Nightshades as authentic.

    Because of that, he was very displeased with Zhou Xingwu¡¯s actions. That said, because they were both members of the government, he had to do his best to smooth things over.

    ¡°Exalted Godchild, unfortunately, that lifemp has been sullied by the child. It¡¯s dirty. That said, the kingdom of Heavengale has other lifemps, unsullied ones, that would probably work well for you. What if you took one of those instead?¡±

    Zhou Xingwu immediately nodded and sped hands to Xu Qing. ¡°Exalted one, I can get in touch with my superiors right away. The moment you arrive in Heavengale, themp can be presented to you.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained very calm. He seemed neither happy nor angry. And yet, that just made the atmosphere tenser.

    Off to the side, the Captain looked extremely furious as he barked, ¡°You impudent fools! You think our godchild is going to go on some big journey just for a trifling lifemp?¡±

    Xu Qing had to marvel. The Captain¡¯s words had already crushed any notion about them going to the kingdom of Heavengale.

    As for Duke Heaven Zenith, he looked at Zhou Xingwu and intentionally revealed the irritation he was feeling inside.

    Zhou Xingwu sighed inwardly. It was now obvious that there was no way he would be able to force the Nightshades to go to the kingdom of Heavengale. At least, not unless he extracted Lin Yuandong¡¯s lifemp right then and there. If he pushed the issue, he would definitely offend the Nightshades. What was more, he could tell that Duke Heaven Zenith wasn¡¯t going to let him do that. That said, he was also a bit puzzled as to why the two Nightshades refused to go to Heavengale. It seemed a bit suspicious.

    But in the end, it wasn¡¯t something he needed to worry about. If these Nightshades were imposters, his own superiors could decide what to do. And if they were authentic, then pushing things too far wouldn¡¯t end well for him.

    Therefore, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Your humble servant wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. I¡¯ll send word about the lifemp to my superiors.¡±

    Xu Qing nced at Lin Yuandong, then shook his head.

    ¡°I have a lot of lifemps, and not just from Holytides like you people. It¡¯s just that I really want this specific blue lifemp.¡±

    Lin Yuandong shivered, and his expression became one of grief and indignation. He clenched his hands into fists as feelings of anxiety and fury filled him. However, he didn¡¯t dare to vent such feelings. He didn¡¯t even dare to talk back. After all, he was fully aware that if he said something even slightly disrespectful, he would lose a lot more than his lifemp. The feeling of being humiliated by a superior species filled him with burning anger that only got more and more intense as the moments ticked by.

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s brows were furrowed, and his expression was extremely dour.

    The Captain swallowed hard, musing that Xu Qing really was going absolutely crazy. If they pushed these people so far that they actually made a move, both of them would be done for.

    Zhang San was absolutely right! Little Ah Qing... is way crazier than I am!

    Everyone seemed to be standing there, minds reeling, as Xu Qing slowly walked toward Lin Yuandong. As he neared, the might and prestige imparted by the simple word ¡®Nightshade¡¯ filled the hearts of all the Holytide cultivators present. When Xu Qing stopped in front of Lin Yuandong, all that Zhou Xingwu could do was look on with eyes glittering coldly. It was impossible for anyone to tell what he was thinking.

    Lin Yuandong stood there shivering, sweat dripping down his forehead. He felt fury, but also despair. And then... Xu Qing suddenlyughed.

    It was aughter that instantly cut through all the pressure that had built up.

    Xu Qing reached out and gently patted Lin Yuandong¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Fear not. I was just joking.¡±

    Lin Yuandong stood there, trembling slightly, his face a mask of nk surprise.

    Xu Qing shook his head,ughed again, then turned and headed in the direction of the Ten Entrails Tree.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then followed Xu Qing. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan were still reeling mentally, but they also followed. The ck Guard cultivators, who had essentially been blocking their way, parted and respectfully bowed as Xu Qing passed.

    Once he was gone, the ck Guard cultivators all breathed sighs of relief. Mixed emotions could be seen on their faces. That was especially true of Lin Yuandong, who was still trying to breathe steadily. Moments before, he had felt intense fury and despair. But now everything had been turned around, and his disbelief was turning into gratitude. And within that gratitude was a bit of admiration for Xu Qing¡¯s unpredictable temperament.

    What were important people like? They definitely changed from person to person. But in the final analysis, all were people who could effortlessly wrench your mood between happiness and fury. When they were happy, you breathed a sigh of relief. When they were angry, you were terrified. With a word, they could determine both your mood, and your very life or death. That was what important people were like.

    The ck Guard cultivators watched Xu Qing leaving, and they couldn¡¯t help but think back to the lessons they had been taught from childhood, that Nightshades should never be spoken to disrespectfully. Previously, that had been head knowledge to them. Now they had experienced it personally. The simplest way to understand the Nightshade Cathedral was that it was so lofty they would never have dealings with it. As they looked at Xu Qing, their eyes filled with the same kind of reverence Lin Yuandong was feeling.

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed back to them.

    ¡°Zhou Xingwu, I expect to see a lifemp in front of me by day¡¯s end. By the way, what are the rest of you all standing around for? Come with me into the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal. Duke Heaven Zenith, youe too.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Duke Heaven Zenith said. He was absolutely convinced about the authenticity of these Nightshades, and was certain that it meant plenty of glory for his son in the future.

    Xu Qing obviously realized that. It was one reason why he had given that blessing. Sometimes, both honor and humiliation could be used to blind people¡¯s loyalties.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed,¡± Zhou Xingwu said, keeping his head bowed. He obviously felt a massive amount of pressure. After all, he could send a request to his superiors, but that didn¡¯t mean that they were guaranteed to just provide a lifemp.

    Regardless, he was deeply struck by the way Nightshades handled things. Therefore, he immediately took out a jade slip and recorded a message onto it. He gave it to one of his subordinates to teleport back to the kingdom of Heavengale to deliver it. Then he led the ck Guard cultivators after Xu Qing and the others, where they took up guard positions. Lin Yuandong worked harder than any of the others, and personally took responsibility for Xu Qing¡¯s immediate area.

    The Captain was feeling quite invigorated, and would asionally nce back and forth between the ck Guard cultivators and the expressionless Xu Qing. As far as he was concerned, this event had been immensely satisfying. A swordsage had actually forced a group of ck Guard cultivators to lead the way and act as personal bodyguards.

    Once we¡¯re in Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, any subsequent crises will be a lot easier to handle. Now that the first crisis is out of the way, and we have ck Guard cultivators escorting us, things should be much easier.

    And thus, they slowly approached the Ten Entrails of the True Immortal Tree Jungle. It looked differentpared to before. All of the ¡®eye¡¯ fruits were opened. And as the sunlight shone down, they glowed with mysterious light as they looked coldly at the people approaching.

    From a distance, those ten dark-brown branches twisted and wound high into the sky, emanating a terrifying aura that made everyone below feel like ants. The imposing tree influenced the energy, blood, minds, and hearts of everyone who got close to it, filling their hearts with absolute dread.

    Looking into the depths of the jungle, the duke said, ¡°Exalted Godchild, when the Ten Entrails Tree blooms, there are many bizarre phenomena. Sir, you really shouldn¡¯t put yourself in danger. Please, safeguard your most godly self by refraining from going in too deep. If necessary, your humble servant and Commandant Zhou Xingwu can help you harvest fruits.¡±

    ¡°What kind of bizarre phenomena?¡± Xu Qing asked calmly. ¡°Tell me about them.¡±

    Duke Heaven Zenith sped hands and respectfully replied, ¡°Exalted Godchild, based on the records kept by the thirty-six city-states, when the tree blooms every hundred years, and the fruits ripen, the space-time in the depths of the tree is thrown into chaos.

    ¡°Most people who go in there disappear and rarely return. asionally, some people who escape will tell about entering a different space and time where they personally witness that Woe-Immortal reaching immortal ascension.¡±

    The duke could understand why the godchild wouldn¡¯t know about these things. After all, to Nightshades, the Eastern Wastnd County of the Holytide Region was a backward and insignificant ce. Even if this Nightshade was well-educated and extremely knowledgeable, it made sense that he wouldn¡¯t know small details about ces like this.

    ¡°In addition, the deeper you go in, the more you have to deal with the curse there. The records indicate that there have even been Void Returning experts who died there.¡± Open fear could be seen on the duke¡¯s face.

 Chapter 450: Exalted One, Hereâ€™s Your Life Lamp!

    Chapter 450: Exalted One, Here¡¯s Your Life Lamp!

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Meanwhile, Duke Heaven Zenith continued with his exnation. ¡°At the same time, in the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, there exists a power that can drive people insane. Anyone assailed by that power goespletely mad. They can¡¯t tell the difference between enemies and allies, and their personality changes so that they think they¡¯re a Woe-Immortal.

    ¡°Most bizarre of all, ording to the records of the thirty-six city states, is that people who go into the depths and return alive never live long. What¡¯s more, they all die after their bellies are ripped open and their entrails fly out and dance around.

    ¡°In some cases, they rip open their own bellies. But sometimes... their entrails explode out from inside. Because of that, people say that the depths of the jungle contains a power that can cause a living being''s entrails toe to life. Other times when people go into the depths, different things happen. Every time the tree blooms, new and different gruish phenomena appear. Because there¡¯s no set pattern, it makes it even more dangerous.

    ¡°That¡¯s why our thirty-six city-states don¡¯t go into the depths. We harvest dao fruits around the perimeter. Oh, right. There¡¯s actually another legend about True Immortal....¡±

    Duke Heaven Zenith looked at Xu Qing, lowered his voice, and continued, ¡°The descendants of the Woe-Immortals have a legend that all the dangers are designed to keep outsiders away. If you think of this ce as a tomb, then all of these things are here to keep tomb raiders away.

    ¡°The reason why people die trying to go inside is that nobody knows the proper way to enter. The dangerous things fit together like a puzzle, therefore, the only way to get inside safely is to follow the right path. Even if that¡¯s true, the local people who descended from the Woe-Immortals don¡¯t know the correct way to enter. Therefore, the legend became nothing more than that: a true legend.¡±

    Xu Qing nced casually at the Captain and thought about what he¡¯d said earlier about the ¡®heaven-shaking, earth-shattering, absolutely consummate and spectacr bit of amazing good fortune.¡¯

    Eldest Brother knows so much about this ce that I have to wonder if he really got all his information from intelligence reports back in the county capital.

    Xu Qing mulled everything over as they proceeded.

    Time passed until the day was over and the sky started to turn dark. As evening fell, Xu Qing led the group from the periphery of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal to the spot that marked the border of its depths. It was a literal border that had been artificially created. Paint had been used to mark the ground at a certain distance around all of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.

    They stopped there.

    As far as Xu Qing was concerned, he had benefited a lot on this day. Thanks to Duke Heaven Zenith leading the way, and having the ck Guard cultivators to harvest fruit, Xu Qing now had over 3,000 dao fruits in his collection. They had encountered quite a few dangerous situations, but the ck Guard cultivators had easily resolved them all. Especially noteworthy was Lin Yuandong, who loyally stood guard in front of Xu Qing. All it took was a nod from Xu Qing to get him even more roused up.

    Xu Qing stood on the border, looking off into the distance. Duke Heaven Zenith stood next to him.

    ¡°Exalted Godchild, this is probably far enough. This line has been maintained by the thirty-six city-states for generation after generation. It marks the spot where the true dangers begin.

    ¡°Your humble servant has already acquired the shadeheaven demonmoon pills you asked for. They¡¯re currently being transported here from Heaven Zenith. As for the dao fruits you require, I¡¯ve talked things over with the other city-states. In half a month, the city-states will pool their harvests to provide you what you need.¡±

    Xu Qing exchanged a nce with the Captain, then calmly said, ¡°Where¡¯s my lifemp, Zhou Xingwu?¡±

    Lin Yuandong heard that and shivered. Meanwhile, Zhou Xingwu grimly said, ¡°Exalted one, voice messages here aren¡¯t working well, so your humble servant has no way of knowing how things turned out. I imagine we¡¯ll have an answer when we get back.¡±

    Sitting down cross-legged, Xu Qing said, ¡°You go back and check. Bring the lifemp back with you. I¡¯ll wait here.¡±

    Zhou Xingwu frowned slightly. Based on Xu Qing¡¯s wording, it seemed clear that he wasn¡¯t nning on returning to the duchy of Heaven Zenith, and was instead nning to enter the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.

    Why does this godchild want a lifemp so badly? His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to decide what to do.

    Meanwhile, Duke Heaven Zenith looked deeply at Xu Qing and said, ¡°Exalted Godchild, could it be that you have a secret magic which can tap into the bloodline in a lifemp to dispel some of the curses in Ten Entrails of the True Immortal? Is that how you n to enter its depths?¡±

    Xu Qing was somewhat surprised to hear that, and looked over at the duke.

    However, the duke wasn¡¯t looking at him, and was instead leaning over and whispering to Zhou Xingwu. ¡°Exalted Zhou, the godchild issued amand! Why are you standing around?¡±

    Zhou Xingwu thought it over for a moment, then suppressed any suspicions he had. This entire matter didn¡¯t really have much to do with him personally, as long as he did his job. Therefore, he left some of the ck Guard cultivators behind, and took the rest with him as he went back toward Heaven Zenith.

    After they were gone, things got quiet. The red of the evening sun slowly turned into deep darkness. Duke Heaven Zenith stood in ce, asionally looking back in the direction of his duchy, and asionally looking beyond it, toward the kingdom of Heavengale and his son. As a result, his expression contained mixed emotions.

    The Captain nced at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, had cast his senses out into the evening, and could sense some pressure that came from the Nightshade divine likeness. There was no way Xu Qing would just go into Ten Entrails of the True Immortal without being fully prepared. Although he hadn¡¯t fully supnted the divine likeness with the power of the violet moon, he was still able to send it orders.

    A momentter, as all the ck Guard cultivators were meditating, the duke turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Exalted godchild,¡± he said softly, ¡°how are my son¡¯s natural talents?¡±

    ¡°Mu Ye is extraordinarily wise,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°He had excellent talent. The Holytide caste system was doing nothing but holding him back from a good future.¡±

    The afterglow of sunset made it impossible for anyone to read the duke¡¯s facial expression.

    ¡°I¡¯m in the fourth level,¡± he said quietly. ¡°The warrior caste. Unless a heaven-defying cultivator appeared among my descendants, they would all be in the same caste.... Luckily, you took a liking to Mu Ye, oh exalted Godchild. And you raised him to the highest caste level of all, the first.

    ¡°Exalted godchild, your true goal has always been to enter the depths of the jungle. Am I right? Sir, as a godchild of the Nightshades, it makes sense that the cathedral would send some Holytides to help you. Or perhaps since you¡¯re going into such a dangerous location, they would arrange for a dao protector....¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly felt a sinking feeling. Meanwhile, the Captain edged a bit closer to him. And yet, they quickly realized that the surrounding ck Guard cultivators all had their eyes closed. It seemed they had unwittingly lost consciousness.

    ¡°I understand,¡± the duke murmured. ¡°Exalted Godchild, you likely have an enemy among the Nightshades, someone with a lot of power. Besides, you¡¯re not the only godchild, right? There must be fiercepetition to deal with. That¡¯s why you came here alone, to acquire some unknown good fortune. It¡¯s simr to the session wars that happen in the Heavengale Dynasty. That said, though you have enemies to deal with, dealing with nobodies like us, even changing our caste level, is hardly worth mentioning. At least, that¡¯s what makes the most logical sense.¡±

    The duke turned to look at Xu Qing with a profound expression on his face. ¡°Exalted one, after you go into the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal... will you return? Sir... you¡¯re noting back, are you?¡±

    The duke¡¯s murmurings moments ago had seemed more like self-constion. After all, even though he was only in charge of a rtively small duchy, he was obviously an extraordinary individual. At this point, it didn¡¯t matter whether he was still suspicious of Xu Qing or not. The issue of changing Mu Ye¡¯s caste level had bound them together.

    ¡°I have other things to take care of,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°So no, I won¡¯t be returning.¡± He was actually being truthful, although there was nothing inherently dangerous about that.

    Hearing the answer to his question, Duke Heaven Zenith had nothing further to say, so he sat down cross-legged and maintained silence.

    At the same time, the surrounding ck Guard cultivators opened their eyes and looked around. Clearly, they had no idea that they had just been unconscious.

    Thus, time passed. Late in the night, a piercing sound echoed out from the distant jungle. Duke Heaven Zenith¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as Zhou Xingwu and his subordinates flew in their direction.

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s expression was the same as ever, but his heart was pounding. And the reason for that was the lifemp he had brought with him! The Heavengale Dynasty really did have lifemps to dole out. The fact they had given one further cemented Xu Qing¡¯s identity into his heart. Upon arriving, he sped hands and held out a crimson lifemp toward Xu Qing.

    Despite Xu Qing¡¯s level of control over his reactions, when he saw that lifemp, he couldn¡¯t stop his heart from pounding. He extended his hand, and the red lifemp flew over to him. It resembled a red wing. Not a pair of wings. A single wing. It was carved to be extremely lifelike, and it emanated a bloody, baleful aura. One look at it made it obvious it was a life centered on ughter. And its fluctuations were astonishingly extraordinary.

    Xu Qing felt a bit dazed holding it. Truth be told, not even he had been convinced that his ruse would work. But this was a lifemp, just like the two lifemps he had already risked his life to acquire.

    A third lifemp! Xu Qing suppressed his excitement. He couldn¡¯t just put a lifemp in his bag of holding, but at the same time, now wasn¡¯t a convenient moment to absorb it. After examining it carefully, he put it into the fold of his robe.

    Qing Qiu and Ning Yan looked at that lifemp, and their minds spun.

    Gritting her teeth, Qing Qiu cursed him inwardly. That dog-fucking Nightshade! I¡¯ve worked myself to the bone but never managed to get even one lifemp. But this Nightshade just asks for one and gets it...?

    Ning Yan was equally shaken.

    sping hands respectfully, the duke said, ¡°Exalted godchild, now that you have your lifemp, what do we do next?¡±

    ¡°Enter the depths!¡± Xu Qing replied. With that, he stepped over the border line.

    The Captain followed close behind, his eyes glittering. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan had no choice but to also follow.

    Zhou Xingwu, meanwhile, hesitated.

    ¡°Exalted Zhou,¡± the duke said solemnly, ¡°I¡¯m responsible for guarding the godchild. The road forward will be very dangerous, so the two of us need to cooperate to make sure no harmes to the godchild.¡± With that, he strode over the border.

    Zhou Xingwu frowned, but didn¡¯t say anything. He just led the ck Guard cultivators over the border. The moment they stepped across that border, something dramatic happened.

    The very same dancing figure that had appeared in a vision to Xu Qing... now appeared again. The figure was surrounded by an illusory sea of mes that swayed and writhed along with the dancing. Gradually, more such figures appeared, and along with them came that ancient chanting.

    The sight caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to sink a bit.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered, and though no one was able to tell, deep in his eyes appeared faces that resembled his own. The faces opened their mouths and spoke, but no sound came out. However, based on the shape of the lips... they were chanting the same thing as that ancient voice.

    A momentter, those faces vanished. The Captain blinked a few times, and then his mouth twitched into a strange smile.

    Meanwhile, the surrounding ck Guard cultivators as well as Duke Heaven Zenith were looking into the depths of the jungle, serious expressions on their faces.

    ¡°Exalted Godchild, please be careful. Something seems off here. This isn¡¯t how this ce usually is. Whether based on my personal experience or the historical records I¡¯ve read, I can say confidently that this phenomenon is supposed to happen in the very depths, not right here!¡±

 Chapter 451: Shaabiiâ€™s Zombies and Aallohâ€™s Nightmare

    Chapter 451: Shaabii¡¯s Zombies and Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare

    Xu Qing nodded slightly, his eyes shining mysteriously as he nced at the Captain and then scanned the surrounding area.

    In addition to the literal painted border marking the separation between the periphery and the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, there were visible differences between the two sections. In the depths, the jungle was thick, with long branches crisscrossing each other. In the dark night, it looked like the ce was full of demonic monsters. It was even possible to hear faint whispers floating here and there, making the ce seem iparably bizarre.

    Another clear difference was that in the depths, there were more dao fruits. And the eyes that made the fruits weren¡¯t just open and staring. Instead, they blinked as they shifted their gaze back and forth in different directions.

    A third difference was that in the depths, there were no leaves on the ground, nor any fallen twigs or any other such debris. The ground was dirt and nothing else.

    Xu Qing waited until the other ck Guard cultivators had inspected the area ahead, then he let Lin Yuandong escort him forward.

    As they walked further in, the countless eyes around them began to shift to look at them. They were malevolent gazes that seemed to pierce into the hearts and minds of those they touched. Everyone stopped walking, keeping their guard up and their cultivation bases active. After a short time passed in which they confirmed nothing further would happen with the eyes, they continued moving. The dao fruits here weren¡¯t possible to harvest. Upon being touched, they would instantly copse into a rotting, stinking sludge.

    They encountered some dangerous things along the way, but Zhou Xingwu and Duke Heaven Zenith with their Spirit Trove cultivation bases were immensely helpful in that regard. In addition to them, there were all the ck Guard cultivators. As a result, Xu Qing never faced any real danger.

    About two hourster, when they were far past the border, one of the ck Guard cultivators suddenly let loose a bloodcurdling scream. A shadowy form wrapped around him and pulled him up into the air. Before anyone could even attempt to save him, blood showered out of his body and his flesh withered. In the blink of an eye, he became a desated corpse. At the same time, dozens of egg-sized boils appeared on his skin, which then burst, sending out sshes of yellow liquid as they revealed eyes underneath. And the malevolent eyes were all looking at the people below.

    The cultivators¡¯ expressions were deeply serious as they realized that, further in the jungle were even more corpses suspended in midair! There were no less than 10,000 of them, as far as the eye could see.

    Just about every tree had a corpse, or in some cases, multiple corpses all stuck together. It was a horrendous sight. Most of the corpses were rotten and wizened, with only scraps of tattered clothing remaining on them. From the clothing that did remain, it was possible to tell that these corpses represented a host of different species. The corpses all had egg-sized boils on their skin, in some cases dozens, in other cases, well over a hundred. As the wind blew, the countless corpses swayed back and forth.

    As they swayed, some of the boils burst, causing yellow liquid to ssh out as eyes opened, which red viciously at the people on the ground. Then the breeze picked up, and the swaying corpses began to drop from the trees like ripe fruit. One after another, theynded below, until the ground was littered with corpses.

    Duke Heaven Zenith¡¯s expression flickered; he had never read anything about this phenomenon in the records kept by the thirty-six city-states.

    Something really unusual is going on here. Eyes narrowing, he nced at Xu Qing and the ck Guard cultivators, but didn¡¯t give any warning out loud.

    Xu Qing looked at the corpses with hard eyes as he backed up a few paces.

    Suddenly, one of the corpses twitched. Its head moved, almost mechanically. Then it turned its neck, and as it did, countless eyes focused on Xu Qing and the others. The zombie burst into motion, running toward them like a wild beast.

    One of the ck Guard cultivators in the front attacked, chopping the zombie in two. But then, a few dozen additional zombies rose to their feet and rushed toward them. Then hundreds of them. In the shortest of moments, all the zombies were on their feet, rushing forth with inaudible howls. The wind blew harder, and more corpses up above twitched and wriggled, breaking free tond on the ground and join the zombie charge.

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s expression was grim as he waved his hand, causing several zombies to explode. The other ck Guard cultivators also attacked, and soon booming sounds and shockwaves spread out through the trees.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t do a thing. He just watched coldly. The Captain stood next to him, his eyes narrowed.

    There was more to the danger than just that. Before long, more zombies appeared, rushing out from the deeper parts of the jungle. Some of them were formed from numerous zombies stuck together to make arger body, and they emanated Gold Core battle prowess as they rushed forth. More and more suchposite zombies appeared. Things were devolving into chaos.

    Before long, hair-raising howls echoed from even deeper in the jungle. Then, dozens of zombies appeared that pulsed with Nascent Soul fluctuations.

    As rumbling sounds shook the ground, a massive beast appeared that was aposite of over a hundred zombies. The Spirit Trove fluctuations that rolled off of it caused expressions of shock to appear on the faces of everyone present.

    But what was even more shocking was the realization that there wasn¡¯t just a single Spirit Trove zombie beast. There were several.

    Expression flickering, Xu Qing backed up.

    As for the Captain, his eyes glittered brightly as he projected a message to Xu Qing.

    ¡°You know what this is? It¡¯s Shaabii¡¯s Zombie Tribtion! Little Ah Qing, remember how I told you there was some astonishing good fortune here? Well, this time it¡¯s really going to happen!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been here before, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain looked off at the towering tree and frowned. ¡°Not in this life.¡±

    A thoughtful look appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face, and he was about to ask a follow-up question when the Captain¡¯s expression flickered. Reaching out, he grabbed Ning Yan, who was staring nkly at the zombies, and started running.

    ¡°Follow me, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing reached out and grabbed the stunned Qing Qiu by the shoulder, then raced after the Captain.

    As they flew along, Zhou Xingwu was in the middle of fighting zombies. Turning, he noticed them leaving, and was about to pursue.

    But then Duke Heaven Zenith, who was in the middle of fighting two Spirit Trove zombies, coughed up some blood and backed up. Without him in the way, the two zombies rushed toward Zhou Xingwu. Then the duke unleashed his own attack to block Zhou Xingwu¡¯s path.

    Zhou Xingwu¡¯s face fell as he was forced to give up any thoughts of chasing after Xu Qing. As he fell back, he turned and red at Duke Heaven Zenith.

    ¡°My apologies, exalted Zhou,¡± the duke said coolly. ¡°The godchild has a personal Nightshade matter to handle. It wouldn¡¯t be convenient for them to take us along, so please don¡¯t try to force the matter.¡±

    Looking very dour, Zhou Xingwu said, ¡°Are you sure they¡¯re actually Nightshades? They rushed off and prohibited us from following? Something suspicious is obviously going on!¡±

    ¡°Let me ask you, exalted Zhou. Are you sure they¡¯re not Nightshades? Regardless, your mission wasn¡¯t to determine if they¡¯re authentic or not. Our superiors can make that call. Why should you take responsibility for it?¡±

    Zhou Xingwu didn¡¯t say anything further. He understood basic reasoning principles. In fact, he had been hoping that the duke would say something like this. Considering he had, if anything really did go wrong, Zhou Xingwu would have a better exnation for his actions.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the others were taking advantage of the distraction provided by the zombies to leave the ck Guard cultivators behind. The Captain took the lead, moving at top speed and dragging along the terrified and trembling Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan was on the verge of tears. He had no idea why this Nightshade had grabbed him, but he knew it couldn¡¯t be for a good reason.

    Qing Qiu was thinking the same thing. She was in Xu Qing¡¯s grasp as he flew along after the Captain. She was indignant, and wanted to fight back, but also knew it didn¡¯t make sense to do so.

    As they fled, Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any questions. He just kept his eyes on the surroundings and the Captain. He had decided that, since he had chosen to trust his Eldest Brother, then there was no reason to go around asking for details. That said, what the Captain mentioned earlier had cleared up a lot of Xu Qing¡¯s suspicions.

    He hasn¡¯t been here ¡®in this life.¡¯ And that means he must havee here in a previous life....

    Ducking past a tree branch, he followed the Captain deeper into the jungle. He could already see that the Captain wasn¡¯t moving in a straight line. He was zig-zagging in a specific pattern.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, what are you looking for?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered, but not with a crazy look. Instead, it was unprecedented longing.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare! Why hasn¡¯t it shown up? My calctions can¡¯t be wrong! It starts with Shaabii¡¯s Zombie Tribtion. After that is Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare Tribtion...¡± [1]

    At almost that exact same moment, they heard a sound from off in the distance.

    Thunk!

    Thunk-thunk!

    Thunk-thunk-thunk!

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain noticed it immediately, and looked over to see a roughly one-meter-tall bird in a tree. The bird had no feathers at all; all its muscles were visible, and it was covered with blood that slowly dripped to the ground below. It had no eyes, only vacant ck holes. And its entire body rocked back and forth as it pecked at the tree. A freakish vibe filled the area. If this area was a painting, then it would be a painting full of holes. Left and right, there were pieces missing, making the entire ce seem riddled with damage. In the empty spots there was nothing but darkness, like a void.

    As Xu Qing took in the bizarre scene, the thumping of the woodpecker echoed out. Then his pupils constricted as he realized that the very soundsing from the woodpecker were materializing and fusing into a huge musical symbol that drifted about and devoured whatever it touched. It didn¡¯t matter if it touched the ground, or trees, or anything else. Whatever it touched vanished and turned into ck, empty holes.

    ¡°It¡¯s here!¡± the Captain said, his voice thrumming with joy. As the sound of the woodpecker continued, causing the musical symbol to drift everywhere, he turned and nodded at Xu Qing. Then he hoisted Ning Yan in front of him and continued toward the musical symbol.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, gripped Qing Qiu tight, and pressed onward.

    In the blink of an eye, the four of them reached the musical symbol. When they did, they smashed into it, and the symbol exploded. The four of them disappeared, along with everything for about a meter around them. Left behind was nothing but a dark hole.

    The woodpecker was still on the tree, pecking away. Everything in the area continued to disappear, until eventually the woodpecker looked up. Stretching its featherless wings, it let loose an ear-piercing cry, then flew off in a different direction.

    Eventually, it found a new tree, where it settled down and started to peck again. A new musical symbol appeared, which began floating around and causing everything to disappear.

    ***

    Beneath a blood-colored sky, violet mountain ranges stretched this way and that. There was no moon; the blood-colored light rose from thends below to illuminate the dome of heaven.

    This was the ce where Xu Qing and the others appeared after mming into the musical symbol. There were no flowers, nts, or trees anywhere. Ground and mountains alike were made from rock and soil. The ground was firm, yet it sank slightly underfoot. To Xu Qing, it felt like walking on flesh.

    As the red light shone, Qing Qiu breathed heavily and studied her surroundings just as Xu Qing was. Ning Yan trembled, and when he felt the ground beneath his feet, he let loose a moan of grief.

    ¡°Finished! We¡¯ve been devoured by the nightmare of the Woe-Immortals! There¡¯s no way to get out this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± the Captain said, ring at Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan closed his mouth. He appeared to be on the verge of tears as he smiled fawningly at the terrifying Nightshade that held him.

 Chapter 452: Itâ€™s Fine? Itâ€™s Fine!

    Chapter 452: It¡¯s Fine? It¡¯s Fine!

    ¡°Say, you¡¯re really in the know, aren¡¯t you?¡± the Captain said, looking intrigued. ¡°Alright, speak up. What¡¯s the nightmare of the Woe-Immortals?¡±

    Ning Yan shrank in on himself a bit, yet didn¡¯t dare to refrain from answering the question. Voice trembling, he said, ¡°Legend has it that after a pure-blooded Woe-Immortal died, the woe in their body would turn into a nightmare. Anyone who then disturbed their corpse would be trapped in that nightmare forever, unable to escape. Their flesh would gradually rot away until only their heart remained. And then their heart would be part of the nightmare.¡±

    As Ning Yan spoke, Qing Qiu looked around with narrowed eyes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he also scanned the area.

    Meanwhile, the Captainughed softly. ¡°So, you really are a descendant of the Woe-Immortals. You even know about Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare Tribtion. Not bad. Not bad at all.¡±

    Right then, a thumping sound reached them, like a heartbeat. Thends quivered and the mountains trembled, as if blood were pumping through them. They even started to glow with red light. As the sky grew increasingly red, Xu Qing and the others were covered with blood-colored light. Then, Xu Qing frowned as he realized that parts of his body were starting to disappear.

    It started with a fist-sized chunk of flesh on his right leg. No blood flowed from that spot, nor was there any sensation of rotting. The flesh just disappeared. Xu Qing didn¡¯t get flustered. After examining the wound, he activated his third heavenly pce, filling himself with taboo poison.

    The others quickly discovered that they were also missing chunks of flesh. Qing Qiu had lost half of a hand. Ning Yan¡¯s right ear and part of his face were gone.

    ¡°We¡¯re finished!¡± Ning Yan wailed. ¡°Done for!¡±

    His eyes were full of terror and despair. And yet, as he cried out, the Captain pulled out something and stuffed it into Ning Yan¡¯s mouth.

    Then he smacked Ning Yan¡¯s belly. Ning Yan¡¯s eyes went wide as he involuntarily swallowed whatever was in his mouth.

    Shocked, he said, ¡°W-w-what... what¡¯d you give me?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good boy,¡± the Captain said with a mysterious grin. ¡°You¡¯ll find out soon enough.¡±

    He looked at Xu Qing. Xu Qing looked back at him. The Captain¡¯s behavior so far had only confirmed Xu Qing¡¯s spections about what was going on.

    ¡°Do you trust me, little Junior Brother?¡± the Captain projected.

    Xu Qing nodded. He waved his hand, causing his violet moon heavenly pce to activate, which sent the aura of the violet moon into Qing Qiu. It wasn¡¯t a full invasion. It just flowed through her and helped her to dispel the power of this location. Afterward, Qing Qiu¡¯s expression was a mix of confusion and other emotions. Xu Qing looked back at the Captain.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, we need to stay here for a bit of time before leaving, right? How long?¡±

    The Captain chuckled. Obviously Xu Qing understood the meaning behind his simple statement. Feeling very pleased, he replied, ¡°I know you have a lot of questions, Little Junior Brother. Unfortunately, now¡¯s not the time for the answers. You¡¯ve just got to trust me. Suffice it to say Duke Heaven Zenith was right. Getting into Ten Entrails of the True Immortal is like putting together a puzzle. You can¡¯t rush it. Shaabii¡¯s Zombies were one of the puzzle pieces. Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare is the second. Right now we need to wait about an hour. Two hours at the most. Then we¡¯ll be out of here.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then sat down cross-legged and continued sending the power of the violet moon into Qing Qiu.

    Qing Qiu had very mixed emotions. This was not the first moment in which she had noticed this Nightshade treating her differently than before.

    This evil Nightshade definitely has some sort of hidden agenda!

    Time crept by. Pieces of the Captain¡¯s body went missing, but he obviously had a way to deal with it, as the speed with which it happened was even slower than for Xu Qing and Qing Qiu.

    No one provided any further help to Ning Yan, yet strangely, he didn¡¯t seem affected.

    That said, Ning Yan wasn¡¯t happy. Instead, he was trembling with fear as he realized that, though he didn¡¯t have parts of his body disappearing, something else was wrong. His abdomen was starting to expand. It was almost as if something was growing inside of him....

    When he realized that, his face turned ashen. Eyes wide, he looked at the Captain and moaned, ¡°Exalted one, what did you feed me? My belly feels really weird....¡±

    Even as the words left his mouth, his abdomen expanded again, quite dramatically. Ning Yan looked extremely anxious.

    Qing Qiu inhaled sharply, and Xu Qing had a strange look on his face as he suddenly found himself thinking about Wu Jianwu¡¯s beloved animals.

    The Captain hurried over to Ning Yan, his eyes glittering with anticipation. ¡°What does it feel like?¡±

    ¡°Like there¡¯s something kicking me from the inside,¡± Ning Yan replied, looking like he was about to start crying.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Just keep calm and let the little one keep growing.¡±

    Ning Yan wanted to start cursing but didn¡¯t dare. Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead. Then he realized that his abdomen seemed to be moving, as if something was trying to pop out of his belly button.

    ¡°Exalted one, it-it-it....¡±

    To Ning Yan''s shock, something sharp was poking his daoist robe from the inside, at that exact spot.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Qing Qiu were all watching closely. The Captain was clearly wrapped up in anticipation. Xu Qing seemed curious. Qing Qiu, meanwhile, shivered as she thought about how vicious these Nightshades were.

    Ning Yan was nearly overwhelmed with terror as his daoist robe ripped, and something emerged from that spot. It was a thin green vine. Then another and another. The vines writhed as they expanded, growing longer and longer until they were fully nine meters in length. They were all green, and they all emanated an ancient aura.

    ¡°Winespirit vines?¡± Ning Yan blurted in rm.

    The Captain looked surprised. ¡°Interesting. Turns out you know a lot of things, you little punk. Seriously, a lot!¡±

    Meanwhile, once the vines reached nine meters in length, they curved around. Over the course of about ten breaths of time, they circled back to their starting point. There, they connected to each other, creating arge circle that resembled a door.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± the Captain said, and he dove into the circle.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate. Keeping his grip on Qing Qiu, he jumped into the circle. When they disappeared, Ning Yan looked extremely nervous. As he stood there, a hand stretched back in through the circle, grabbed the vines where they connected to Ning Yan, then yanked hard. Thus, Ning Yan was also pulled into the circr door. After Ning Yan was gone, the vines shrank down and down until they vanished without a trace.

    The location the four had traveled to was still within the jungle of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal. However, they were nowhere near the woodpecker. Instead... they were in the very depths of the jungle. In fact, they were right beneath the Ten Entrails Tree.

    Upon emerging, Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to pound when he realized how close he was to the tree. Each of the branching trunks of the tree were fully three hundred meters wide, and together, they upied a space of about 3,000 meters. Several hundred meters above the surface of the ground, they stretched out in different directions. High in the clouds, they swayed back and forth.

    Countless leaves grew on the tree, the veins of which contained magicalws and pulsed with spirit energy fluctuations. Each and every one of those leaves was likely extremely valuable.

    There were also innumerable smaller branches that grew off of the tree and were obviously far more valuable than the leaves. They glowed like treasures, and contained not only the power of magicalws, but also, dao resonance. Obviously, each branch was a treasure of its own.

    The bark of the tree was a dark green color, and every spot that did not have branches or leaves growing off of it was covered with bulging eyes. All of those eyes were looking at Xu Qing and the others. Meanwhile, a noxious odor filled the area, along with an astonishing pressure.

    Anyone would get the sensation that the Ten Entrails Tree... was alive! Or perhaps this was a living ¡®true immortal.¡¯

    The pressure was so intense that Xu Qing¡¯s vision blurred. It was almost as if the Ten Entrails Tree had turned into a dancing figure surrounded by a sea of mes and a host of dancing cultivators. Xu Qing felt profoundly ufortable as his view of the world shifted back and forth between the tree and the vision.

    Then he felt himself twitching, as if his own entrails were about to emerge from within him. Breathing heavily, he activated his third and fourth heavenly pces, while simultaneously sending some power into Qing Qiu to drive away the vision. Qing Qiu¡¯s face was ashen and her eyes bloodshot. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to stay standing.

    The Captain had also tapped into his cultivation, causing those faces to appear in his eyes, which helped him resist the pressure of the tree.

    Only Ning Yan seemed to be suffering no ill effects. A metallic glow emanated off of him, and the vines attached to his belly swayed, seemingly in unison with the Ten Entrails Tree. He wanted to run, but the Captain had a firm grip on the vines. What was more, nothing he did seemed capable of severing the vines. All he could do was stand there scowling on the verge of tears.

    Once Xu Qing cleared his thoughts, he surveyed his surroundings.

    The soil underneath the tree was red. There were no leaves or branches lying around. Xu Qing shifted his gaze to the leaves and branches on the tree.

    ¡°There are so many branches and leaves! It should be fine to break off one or two.¡± Xu Qing licked his lips and looked at the Captain. The Captain looked back. Both could see the excitement in each other¡¯s eyes.

    Xu Qing burst into motion.

    The Captain did the same, carrying the unwilling Ning Yan with him. It was hard to say who reached the tree first.

    The Captain ripped off three leaves and stuffed them in his mouth.

    Xu Qing tore off a branch and put it into his robe.

    After that, they looked at each other again.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine!¡±

    Meanwhile, the Ten Entrails Tree started swaying forcefully, and it pulsed with fluctuations that made it seem like it might be waking up.

    Ning Yan gasped and looked at Xu Qing and the Captain as if they were dead people. It was his first timeing to understand exactly how crazy these two were.

    That was when Qing Qiu took action. Reaching out, she ripped off a leaf and ate it.

    As the Ten Entrails Tree swayed with increasing vigor, Ning Yan¡¯s eyes filled with terror. ¡°Well shoot! You¡¯re just like them!¡±

 Chapter 453: The Godchild Shocks the Cathedral

    Chapter 453: The Godchild Shocks the Cathedral

    After eating the leaf, Qing Qiu felt even more misgivings than before, and she looked suspiciously at Xu Qing and the Captain. For some reason, this entire situation felt vaguely familiar, and she suddenly found herself thinking about the detestable Ghost Hand and Mad Dog. But then she thought about how the Nightshade godchild had been treating her and decided there was no way he could be Ghost Hand. After all, she and Ghost Hand had never gotten along, and if he had the chance to kill her, he definitely wouldn¡¯t hold back.

    As Qing Qiu pondered the subject, Xu Qing was off to the side looking at the leaves and licking his lips. He was about to go grab one when the Ten Entrails Tree trembled even more intensely than before. The branches that extended into the sky swayed, creating a strong wind that swept through the area.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing changed his mind.

    Meanwhile, the Captain looked at Qing Qiu and chuckled. ¡°You want some of this good fortune? Fine. Considering that you¡¯re... ahem. Anyway, let¡¯s just count you in for now.¡±

    With that, the Captain waved his hand, and the evil ghost scythe appeared, which he tossed to Qing Qiu.

    Stunned, Qing Qiu caught the scythe. Instantly, the evil ghost started wailing usingly in her mind. She looked at the Captain and Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing also waved his hand, sending her bag of holding flying out to her.

    Breathing heavily, she caught it. The first thing she did was take out a new mask and put it on. Now she felt more suspicious than ever about Xu Qing and the Captain. In fact, she even reached out to the evil ghost in her mind, only to get no answer.

    Finally, she just said, ¡°Just who exactly are you two?¡±

    The Captain red at her. ¡°How dare you speak to our godchild like that!¡±

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, cleared his throat to remind the Captain not to hassle Qing Qiu.

    The Captain chuckled darkly. Saying nothing further, he leaped onto the Ten Entrails Tree, then looked back and waved at Xu Qing for him to follow.

    Ning Yan was visibly stunned, and was also starting to get suspicious about the situation. He looked at Xu Qing and the Captain thoughtfully. However, before much else could happen, the vines attached to him yanked him into the air after the Captain. Grief and indignation swept the suspicion out of Ning Yan¡¯s mind.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he flew onto the Ten Entrails Tree and started moving up.

    Qing Qiu gritted her teeth and flew after them.

    The Ten Entrails Tree seemed to get closer and closer to waking. As it swayed violently, the four of them flew up one of the main branches until they were about three hundred meters up. From that point, it was possible to look down at the jungle. However, they weren¡¯t high enough to be able to see the treeline itself.

    Even as he was looking out at the jungle, Xu Qing suddenly felt the back of his right hand itching. When he looked down at it, his pupils constricted. Right on the back of his hand was a blister with a slit down the middle of it. And right when Xu Qing looked at it, it opened.

    It was an eye! And it was looking right at him!

    Right behind him, Qing Qiu was experiencing something simr as an eye appeared on her arm. It was the same with the Captain, as an eye appeared on the back of his head beneath his hair. Ning Yan seemed to have it better off in some respects. He just had small bumps on him that seemed like they would only eventually be eyes.

    ¡°Perfect!¡± the Captain said with a heartyugh. ¡°We¡¯re finally experiencing Beesah¡¯s Eye Tribtion!¡±

    He looked back excitedly at Xu Qing. ¡°Little Ah Qing, the amazing good fortune your Eldest Brother mentioned is about to appear!¡±

    The Captain lifted his arm and bit off an eyeball that had just popped into ce there. After a few chews, he swallowed, then continued moving up.

    Ning Yan felt sick to his stomach at the sight of it, and was apparently recalling some bad memories. His anger intensified.

    Looking at the eyeball on his hand, Xu Qing sent some taboo poison out. The eyeball immediately turned ck. Next, he expressionlessly pulled out a dagger and started cutting into the rotten eye. With a few deft swishes of the dagger, he cut it out of his hand. Instead of tossing it to the side, he put it into his bag of holding. As he continued moving, more eyes appeared, and he used the same method to get rid of them. Considering how rapidly the eyes appeared, he was soon covered with wounds. He frowned as he realized the effect was only speeding up. A momentter, over a hundred bumps covered him, all of them turning into eyes. After about seven or eight breaths of time passed, his arms, legs, chest, neck, and even face had eyes on them.

    As the eyes appeared, his sea of consciousness was thrown into chaos. It was as if mysterious and unknown souls had appeared inside of him. They looked like him, but were not part of him. However, they all had different facial expressions. Some were vicious, some wept. Someughed, while others howled in grief. A few seemed decisive, while a few were cowardly.

    When Xu Qing sensed the souls inside of him, his expression turned somber. As it turned out, each of the eyes rted to one of the souls in his sea of consciousness. They weren¡¯t able to possess him, and each had a different personality. It was as if they were independent entities that wanted to enter his own soul and influence him. If they seeded, then he would transform into a person with multiple insane personalities.

    Meanwhile, the Captain had a host of eyes all over him, as did Qing Qiu.

    Only Ning Yan looked normal. He still didn¡¯t have any eyes on him, only bumps. The bumps had slits, yet apparently his skin was too tough, and thus they couldn¡¯t open and reveal the eyes beneath. Eventually, after the countless bumps realized they couldn¡¯t open, they disappeared on their own.

    When Xu Qing sensed the unique nature of the souls, it was without the slightest hesitation that he called on the Ghost Emperor mountain to crush them. Xu Qing¡¯s Gruegloom Daoseizing Art was used to extract gold cores from enemies, which would bring along with them the impurities of those enemies¡¯ souls. The entire purpose of having the Ghost Emperor mountain was to crush those things.

    Light glittered as the souls in his sea of consciousness copsed one by one. As they copsed, they actually provided some nice benefits to Xu Qing by nourishing and strengthening his own soul. That realization caused his eyes to light up, and instead of immediately attacking the eyes with poison, he let them grow a bit first.

    The others were dealing with the eyes in their own ingenious ways.

    The Captain started by plucking them out and eating them. But as the eyes proliferated, he used some unknown method to cause mouths to appear all over his body. They would slide across his skin, find the eyes, and then devour them.

    Ning Yan was still in the same position. The bumps on his skin would eventually copse on themselves in fury, and wouldn¡¯t even be able to turn into personality souls. Intrigued, the Captain used the vines to yank Ning Yan over to and look at him closely.

    As for Qing Qiu... she actually didn¡¯t need to get rid of the souls. Personalities were good fortune for her. Her blood will domain required numerous personalities, and thus her eyes shone as she came to realize how much she was benefiting. At a certain point, she started pulsing with an aura that even Xu Qing found astonishing.

    However, the eyes eventually reached a certain threshold. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, and they had climbed to a height of about 2,400 meters, the eyes stopped forming.

    Feeling a bit disappointed, Xu Qing sent out his poison. Hundreds of eyes rotted, and ck blood flowed down him.

    It was around that time that the Captain stopped in ce. While looking around he performed some calctions with his fingers. Then, to the surprise of everyone else, he shoved his hand into his belly, pulled out a rope-like intestine, then ripped off a piece and threw it onto the branch he was standing on.

    As the entrails were sucked into the tree, the Captain looked back at Xu Qing, his eyes shining.

    Xu Qing spent a few moments in thought, then sliced open his belly and calmly ripped out a chunk of his entrails to throw onto the tree.

    As the tree absorbed the entrails, the Captain looked at Qing Qiu, anticipation in his eyes.

    Now that she had her mask on, no one could tell if her facial expression was changing. However, after a moment, she looked away. Clearly she wasn¡¯t going to cut out her intestines.

    The Captain seemed a bit disappointed.

    Meanwhile, Ning Yan inhaled sharply. Though he had already experienced a lot of strange things, as of this moment, he was starting to think that these two Nightshades really were crazy. And that was because, as they continued on their way, the Nightshades would stop every few hundred meters and rip out more of their entrails. Considering that it wasn¡¯t even possible to see the top of the tree, an absurd thought suddenly urred to Ning Yan.

    Do they even have enough entrails? And if they run out, will they start ripping out mine? I should be fine. They won¡¯t be able to rip me open.... Wait! That Nightshade is obviously extremely dangerous. What if he actually does have a way to rip out my intestines?

    The thought threw his mind into chaos and filled him with sorrow.

    Thus, the four of them continued to climb higher and higher on the Ten Entrails Tree. It was hard to say how much time passed. Eventually, dawn broke, and the morning sun spread out like an endless burning fire.

    ***

    Far over the horizon, a great distance away in the Holytide¡¯s kingdom of Heavengale, a cold wind blew across thends. There was no sun in the dome of heaven, only a red glow like evening.

    A ck beam of light shot up from the center of the capital city, rising high into that red sky. The ck light contained boundless power; it could devour all brightness, devour all magicalw, and assimte all radiance and light. What had once been a bright sky now turned into something pitch ck. From a distance, the sky looked mottled; it was mostly ck with only a few bits of red left behind.

    Beneath that darkness was a temple. It was the Nightshade Cathedral!

    Bells tolled in the cathedral, a sound like something from the most ancient past. At the same time, the mottled darkness up above turned into the massive face of a Nightshade. It was an old member of that species, with white hair and extremely wrinkled skin. Whatever redness remained in the sky was absorbed and became his eyelids.

    All Holytides in the Heavengale capital city were shaken to the core, and quickly prostrated themselves reverently.

    In the royal pce, the king and his ministers all bowed their heads and dropped to their knees. As they kowtowed, the face in the sky opened its eyes. The eyes were profound and contained countless dao lineaments. At the same time, the mottled darkness grew blurry, as if countless motes from different points in time were converging on the face.

    In the surrounding sky, countless minor worlds formed and then spread out. Then the minor worlds turned into trillions of streams of ck energy that swirled about, devouring all the light around them. They were like rivers,nds, and even living beings. From a distance, it looked like they were forming a major world. However, it was only a major world in embryonic form, notplete. That said, it was easy to imagine how, once that major world formed, it could rest on one¡¯s shoulders. Once that happened, this individual wouldn¡¯t be in Void Returning. Rather, he would be... a living Smoldering God!

    Everything went absolutely silent as all the people in the city bowed their heads. Shortly after, an ancient voice filled the city.

    ¡°Master Heavengale.¡±

    ¡°Here!¡± the king responded.

    ¡°Bring the godchild here!¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡±

    The wind... grew stronger.

 Chapter 454: An Offering to Heaven!

    Chapter 454: An Offering to Heaven!

    Meanwhile, in Eastern Wastnd County, on the Ten Entrails Tree¡­.

    As the morning sun spilled light out everywhere, Xu Qing and the others were moving up the tree. The Captain continued to rip off chunks of his intestines and throw them onto the tree, his face a mixture of determination and madness.

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth as he did the same. Although he wasn¡¯t exactly sure why the Captain was doing this, given everything he had experienced so far along his path of cultivation, he had long sincee to realize that the Captain¡¯s actions after starting to climb the Ten Entrails Tree conformed to some sort of ritual. What was more, even after reaching their current height, they had not run into the dangers Duke Heaven Zenith had mentioned, those which involved space-time chaos, curses, and the like. It made Xu Qing think about the stories he had heard about the descendants of the Woe-Immortals.

    Ten Entrails of the True Immortal contain endless dangers, like pieces of a puzzle. You can¡¯t just charge straight in. You have to know the right method to sessfully enter.

    Eyes narrowing, he looked at the Captain up ahead.

    When we first entered the depths of this ce, the Captain must have secretly employed some method to provoke the so-called Shaabii¡¯s Zombie Tribtion. That was probably the first puzzle piece. After the first puzzle piece came the second. That featherless woodpecker. Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare Tribtion. Then we reached the tree, which was when we encountered the third puzzle piece, just moments ago. Beesah¡¯s Eye Tribtion. After the third tribtion, the Captain started ripping out his intestines and putting them into the tree. In that case, I wonder if there¡¯s another tribtioning.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing struggled onward, while simultaneously looking at thends below.

    They were already at a height of over 6,000 meters. The wind was very strong, and everything below looked miniature. It was possible to see the edges of the jungle, as well as the multi-colored cities of the thirty-six city-states.

    What is this good fortune that the Captain mentioned?

    Before he had a chance to put any more thought into the subject, his expression flickered and he shifted his gaze from thends below to what was up above him on the tree. He wasn¡¯t the only one to react that way. The Captain stopped moving and looked further up the tree.

    The dark green bark of the tree was wriggling. Then, only a momentter, the bark rose up in the form of fleshy sprouts.

    The fleshy sprouts were each a bit more than a meter in length, and about a third of that in width. They were almost like snakesing out of the tree. They were the same color as the tree, and their heads were like blooming flowers with five petals, except inside, there was blood-colored flesh and sharp fangs. What was more, viscous fluid dripped out of their opened mouths. They looked extremely ghastly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened at the sight of the extraordinary fleshy sprouts. Ning Yan and Qing Qiu both had serious expressions on their faces. Only the Captain looked different. The craziness in his eyes grew stronger as heughed heartily.

    ¡°We went in the right direction. This is the spot! Heaven¡¯s about to open!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the more than 100,000 fleshy sprouts on the tree all opened their mouths. Swaying in unison, they pointed up toward the dome of heaven and began to tremble. They seemed to be joining forces to cry out to the sky. Except, no sound could be heard. Their voices did not exist on the same auditory spectrum that cultivators could hear.

    The scene wasn¡¯t just ying out on the tree trunk they were climbing. The same thing was happening on the other nine trunks. It was an extremely bizarre and gruish scene. Most gruish of all was the transformation to the sky that resulted from the howling of the over 1,000,000 fleshy sprouts.

    High in the sky, a rift was forming.

    Xu Qing felt shaken as he realized that he had seen this before in his vision. The rift in the sky was exactly the same. And he remembered the sensation he had experienced in the vision. It was the feeling that there was some unimaginable entity beyond that rift.

    As he struggled to control his breathing, everything in the surroundings started twisting and distorting. Then the Captain shivered from head to toe, as if some invisible force had mmed into him. He staggered back several paces. He wasn¡¯t the only one affected. Ning Yan also shivered, and the evil ghost on Qing Qiu¡¯s scythe let loose a scream.

    Then Xu Qing felt that invisible force. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but it felt like something had mmed into him. His mind buzzed, and pulses of pain shot through him. In the blink of an eye, he went numb, and he felt like a destructive force was trying to wipe out his life force.

    ¡°Lightning tribtion?¡± It only took a moment for Xu Qing to realize what was going on. He felt like he had just been struck by lightning!

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior confirmed that. ¡°Milord, it¡¯s lightning!¡± he shrieked. ¡°It¡¯s really lightning! Strangely, though, it¡¯s not visible, and you can¡¯t sense it. What kind of lightning tribtion is this?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as the same sensation struck him again, like he had been hit by invisible tribtion lightning. Even though he couldn¡¯t see or even sense it, it was blocking his path.

    As everyone was forced to back up, the Captainughed wildly.

    ¡°It¡¯s Tohjaah¡¯s Voice Tribtion! The Woe-Immortals believed that immortal ascension involved ripping open your belly and using your entrails to connect to heaven and earth.

    ¡°Simrly, their understanding of tribtion lightning was different from most other species. They believed that when heaven and earth were first born, an entity named Tohjaah wished to topple the dao of heaven. He ultimately failed, and was imprisoned in the void outside the world, to ensure that the people of the world forgot him and could never remember anything about him. From the perspective of the world, he was erased from existence.

    ¡°But Tohjaah wasn¡¯t willing to be erased, and therefore, he asionally howls in anger out in the void. That sound is actually... Tohjaah¡¯s voice, and it can be found in every corner of heaven and earth.

    ¡°And that is how the Woe-Immortals understood electricity and lightning tribtions. In order to hide the truth, the dao of heaven attached Tohjaah¡¯s voice to the magicalw of light, so that it was visible instead of invisible. After that, it was described with terms like lightning tribtion, lightning bolt, thunderbolt, or thunderp. As a result, most species think they know what lightning is, while only the Woe-Immortals realized that it was actually the voice of Tohjaah.¡±

    Xu Qing was more than a little surprised to hear this exnation of lightning. He was about to ask a question when the Captain tugged on the vines he was holding, causing Ning Yan to yelp and fly over to him. There, the Captain held him up in front of him like a shield.

    Ning Yan was cursing up a storm in his heart, but didn¡¯t dare to utter a peep. Grief and rage simmered in him as the Captain hoisted him up and charged forward.

    As a result, all of the invisible lightning hit Ning Yan instead of the Captain. Ning Yan yelped and howled. However, the toughness and durability of his skin was so impressive that Xu Qing was visibly moved. Despite the pummeling he was taking, he didn¡¯t seem truly hurt at all.

    Eldest Brother waspletely right! Ning Yan is fine!

    Using Ning Yan as a shield, the Captain advanced past the area with the fleshy sprouts.

    On the other side, he shouted, ¡°Catch!¡±

    Then he tossed Ning Yan down. Ning Yan plummeted until Xu Qing grabbed him.

    Tears welled in Ning Yan¡¯s eyes as he looked pleadingly at Xu Qing. ¡°Exalted Godchild, I¡ª¡±

    Before he could say anything else, Xu Qing followed the Captain¡¯s example, held Ning Yan like a shield, and rushed forward.

    Ning Yan howled.

    Soon, Xu Qing was across with the Captain. Marveling at Ning Yan¡¯s toughness, he tossed him down to Qing Qiu.

    ¡°Nooo! It hurts!¡± As of this moment, Ning Yan deeply regretted his personal defenses.

    Meanwhile, Qing Qiu¡¯s eyes glittered as she grabbed the vinesing out of Ning Yan¡¯s belly, then held him aloft as she charged through the fleshy sprouts.

    Thus, a few dozen breaths of timeter, Qing Qiu reached Xu Qing and the Captain. There, she offered Ning Yan back to the Captain.

    ¡°Don¡¯t need him anymore,¡± the Captain said, shaking his head.

    Ning Yan felt like he had a new lease on life. But then, only a momentter, his heart sank with a very bad feeling.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain said, ¡°the good fortune I mentioned earlier is right there.¡± The Captain pointed at the rift in the sky.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly.

    They were now more than 9,000 meters up the tree, and were still a good distance from the dome of heaven. However, by simply looking up, they could clearly see the rift.

    ¡°It¡¯s still not the time for exnations,¡± the Captain said. ¡°You¡¯ll understand everything soon enough!¡±

    The Captain stepped forward, and his ck clothing suddenly became white. It didn¡¯t look like a daoist robe, but rather, some unique godly robe. As the wind blew, he took nine steps forward, then threw both of his hands out and began to dance on the tree trunk.

    It was a strange-looking dance, but it was very simr to what Xu Qing had seen in his vision. As Xu Qing watched, the Captain began to sing. Unlike the indistinct voice from the vision, the Captain¡¯s voice was very clear.

    ¡°Oh Supreme Heaven Above; Gaze Ye Down Upon Us; Gather All the Ancient Spirits; Summon Tribtion to Please the Ancestors.

    ¡°Shaabii¡¯s Corpse Tribtion; Bring Past and Present to Downfall.

    ¡°Aalloh¡¯s Nightmare Tribtion; Destion for a Long Lonely Haul.

    ¡°Beesah¡¯s Eye Tribtion; Stand Aside in a Solemn Pall.

    ¡°Tohjaah¡¯s Voice Tribtion; a Secret to Bring Death to All.¡±

    Rumbling sounds filled the area, and illusory mes sprang up. Images of countless dancing figures then appeared all over the Ten Entrails Tree. From a distance, it was a grand scene, like hundreds of thousands of Woe-Immortals all dancing to please heaven on high. It was like a joint offering to heaven! Winds screamed, and thunder crashed!

    The Captain¡¯s dance unfolded, the rhythm of his movements bizarre. The singing became more impassioned, until he bowed to the sky and spoke in a voice that echoed out in all directions.

    ¡°The Tribtion Sacrifice Completes, the Line in Heaven is Opened; Revered Ancient Heavenly Dao, ept This Offering as I Prostrate!¡±

    The hundreds of thousands of surrounding Woe-Immortal figures all bowed in unison.

    RUMBLE!

    RUMBLE!!

    RUMBLE!!!

    A heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling sound echoed out, reaching deafening proportions as the rift in the dome of heaven slowly opened!

 Chapter 455: Consummate Amazing Good Fortune!!

    <h4>Chapter 455: Consummate Amazing Good Fortune!!</h4>

    A rift was opening in the dome of heaven, like a distant, heavenly eye! What was inside the rift was blurry and difficult to see clearly. But out of it leaked the heaven-shaking, earth-shattering power of magicalws.1

    As a jailer from Unit C, Xu Qing had experienced months of the magicalws in the minor world there. As a result, he was very sensitive to magicalws. Beyond that, his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon was trembling and emitted a sensation of familiarity.[1]</a>1

    It was as if the dragon and that heavenly eye had the same origin!1

    Mind reeling, Xu Qing looked at the dancing Captain. Though his white robe covered himpletely, his dancing posture made Xu Qing feel like he was looking at an actual Woe-Immortal.0

    <em>Don¡¯t tell me Eldest Brother was a Woe-Immortal in a past life? Ten Entrails of the True Immortal... is proving to be a totally different job than anything else Eldest Brother has nned!</em>5

    Numerous thoughts were running through Xu Qing¡¯s mind.0

    Off to the side, Qing Qiu was absolutely stupefied as she watched everything ying out. What was happening now surpassed just about anything she could remember in all the years she had lived. She had been captured by Nightshades and forced to serve as a handmaiden. But then the two Nightshades slowly started to view her with less suspicion, until they treated her more like an honored guest. Then she watched them enter the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, until¡­ they offered a sacrifice to heaven right in front of her. Sacrifices to heaven were not something that just anybody was capable of. What was especially noteworthy were that the numerous Woe-Immortal projections were all centered on the Nightshades.5

    Meanwhile, Ning Yan waspletely bbergasted.5

    As the Captain danced, the surrounding hundreds of thousands of Woe-Immortals apanied him, and the Ten Entrails Tree swayed vigorously. Then, at a certain point, an anguished howl echoed out from the very top of the tree.1

    ¡°Cover me, little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain said.5

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing flew past the Captain and took a position in front of him. Expression serious, he sent out a mentalmand to the Nightshade divine likeness, which started speeding toward him.2

    ¡°His eyes are his weakness,¡± the Captain said anxiously. ¡°Target the eyes!¡±0

    A figure descended from the very top of the tree, moving with stupefying speed.0

    As it approached, and Xu Qing got a glimpse of it, rumblings of shock filled his mind.0

    This was no living being. It was a Woe-Immortal zombie, and it didn¡¯t look like a human. Woe-Immortals had a totemic mark on their forehead that resembled writhing entrails or perhaps a snake. Taken in as a whole, the mark also resembled an eye.0

    However, that wasn¡¯t the most relevant thing. What really caused Xu Qing to reel was the general appearance of the Woe-Immortal. The zombie¡¯s body was shriveled and emaciated, and emanated a strong aura of death. Its belly had been ripped open, and rotting entrails draped out of it. But based on how well Xu Qing knew the Captain, he could tell... that this Woe-Immortal¡¯s facial features were very simr to the Captain¡¯s! Especially noteworthy was the intense frigid energy that pulsed out from it in all directions. Xu Qing was also familiar with that coldness; it bore about an eighty percent simrity to the Captain¡¯s.29

    Though Xu Qing was stunned, there was no time to think about the situation. As the zombie raced toward him, its lower half vanished, bing like a spinning wind that helped it elerate even faster.7

    As an intense sensation of crisis filled Xu Qing, the Nightshade divine likeness arrived and took a defensive position in front of him. A massive boom echoed out in all directions, followed by an intense shockwave.0

    Xu Qing shook from head to toe and coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. As he tumbled backward, he saw the huge statue blocking the path of the zombie. The zombie attacked it with devastating force.0

    However, the Nightshade divine likeness stood in ce as solid as a mountain.0

    The zombie howled as it fought, pulsing with Spirit Trove fluctuations as it tried to force its way past the Nightshade divine likeness. However, the giant statue flickered with ck light as it used both hands to stave off the zombie. It didn¡¯t move an inch.5

    There was a temporary deadlock, but that didn¡¯t mean Xu Qing had time to catch his breath. Simr howls erupted from the other nine main trunks as figures appeared atop them as well. All started moving in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered and his hands blurred in an incantation gesture. All of a sudden, a second, third, and fourth Nightshade divine likeness flew toward him. They came from three of the other thirty-six city-states, which had connections to the other three royal dynasties. Though Xu Qing had never visited those other city-states, thanks to his connection to the statue from Heaven Zenith, he had expanded his ability to issuemands.4

    These four statues were his trump card for this job in Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.0

    The other three statues went all out to defend him. However, it was obvious they wouldn¡¯tst for very long. Thankfully, the Captain¡¯s offering was nearly over.0

    As the crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eyes grew extremely intense, a scene yed out that got Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounding.1

    The Captain waved his hand, causing numerous chunks of flesh to appear, all of them different sizes and colors. However, every single one of those chunks of flesh emanated shocking fluctuations of godliness. Xu Qing recognized one of those chunks of flesh. It was from Joine of the Merfolk.[2]</a>9

    There were a total of thirty-three chunks of flesh, all with different auras that indicated they came from different godly entities. However, there was more.3

    Next, the Captain took out nine ck bottles which he smashed, causing nine drops of godly blood to fly out. Xu Qing recognized one of those blood drops. It had the aura of August Spirit Nethersprite.[3]</a>4

    After that, the Captain smacked his forehead, causing himself to vomit up a clump of ck y. The y rapidly swirled into the shape of a palm-sized statue. It resembled... a zombie ancestor divine likeness from the Seazombies! Things still weren¡¯t over though. The Captain continued to vomit, until there were eight additional small statues present. All of them looked different, and none had the aura of the Seazombies.9

    Thirty-three chunks of godly flesh. Nine drops of godly blood. Nine astonishing divine likenesses.14

    After aplishing all of that, the Captain¡¯s eyes radiated a fanatical look as he shouted, ¡°Wake up, son! Time to eat!¡±23

    He waved his hand again, and all of the items he had just produced rose up and converged on each other, forming into a huge sphere of flesh that shot toward the rift in the sky.0

    The Captain bowed deeply at the waist, as did the hundreds of thousands of Woe-Immortals around him.1

    The sphere of flesh disappeared into the rift.0

    Chewing sounds echoed out, and then a heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling emerged from the rift. It was opening further! This time, the rift opened until it was thousands of meters across!! And now it revealed more of whaty beyond.0

    Inside the rift was a void, and inside that void was some colossally monstrous entity. It wasn¡¯t possible to see its entirety, but it was possible to see a vaguely humanoid shape. What was more, that humanoid shape¡¯s belly had been ripped open.0

    Just looking at it caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to sting so badly he feared they might copse. Only by infusing them with the power of his taboo poison and violet moon did he prevent them from being destroyed. That said, they still leaked blood.0

    Next, the zombies that were fighting the Nightshade divine likenesses all turned and bowed toward the dome of heaven.0

    Xu Qing simply watched, stunned. At the same time, the prostrating Captain looked up and saw the figure stirring beyond the rift, and his eyes filled with an absolutely crazy look. Heughed.0

    ¡°This is the biggest thing I¡¯ve done in this life, little Junior Brother! And it¡¯s all thanks to you! Without you, I would never have reached this point. The Holytides guard this ce too tightly. I definitely would have failed, and then it would have taken another hundred years to get things ready again.4

    ¡°Now, I can finally tell you everything! Do you know what that is?¡± He pointed up into the sky. ¡°It¡¯s a heavenly dao! The Revered Ancient maind has 100,000 heavenly daos, and every single one hasplete power over a certain area. Above those heavenly daos are 99 ancient heavenly daos from remote antiquity!3

    ¡°What you¡¯re looking at isn¡¯t one of the 100,000 ordinary heavenly daos, nor one of the 99 ancient heavenly daos.0

    ¡°The Woe-Immortals are an amazing species that existed since the dawn of time. Their method of immortal ascension involved removing their entrails, and there¡¯s a reason for that. They were one of the original 3,173 species of Revered Ancient. Each one of those species existed in a different time, but they all had the same mission!0

    ¡°And that was... to create heavenly daos!1

    ¡°Over 3,000 species, all scattered in different time periods, and all of them attempting to create a total of 100 ancient heavenly daos for Revered Ancient!0

    ¡°No one even knows how many epochs passed during which that was the state of affairs. Among the more than 3,000 species that existed before the Woe-Immortals, there was another species called the Ancient Spirits. Emperor Ancient Spirit came close to seeding in that task, but ultimately failed, and the resulting bacsh nearly wiped out his entire species.[4]</a>0

    ¡°Later, the broken face of the god arrived, and cmity struck. The mission those more than 3,000 species had been working on for so many years faced an unexpected twist. The Woe-Immortals were the most recent sessors of the mission, and had been building atop the failure of the Ancient Spirits. They were very, very close to seeding!4

    ¡°The final step was to take the ten entrails of the final pureblooded member of their species who reached immortal ascension and put it into the body of that heavenly dao. They would be the entrails of the heavenly dao, connecting it permanently to the Revered Ancient maind. Once that connection was made, the heavenly dao would awaken!0

    ¡°That final missing step that the Woe-Immortals couldn¡¯tplete is what I¡¯m going to finish today!3

    ¡°The 99 ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient don¡¯t have senses. They don¡¯t have an objective consciousness. They exist in a state of chaos. This 100th ancient heavenly dao is the same. However, once it awakens, its consciousness will be in the control of whoever created it!11

    ¡°From ancient times until now, the more than 3,000 species involved in the mission are all considered fathers. Unfortunately, most have ceased to exist. As for us... since we put our own entrails into the Ten Entrails Tree, once the heavenly dao puts that tree into its body to be whole, then we will have aplished that final step. As investors in that heavenly dao, we will be fathers to it!25

    ¡°What do you think, little Junior Brother? Does this count as heaven-shaking, earth-shattering consummate amazing good fortune?¡±8

    The Captain threw his head back andughed maniacally.4

    Xu Qing was still reeling.2

    Meanwhile, a deafening rumbling erupted from above, a hand as pure as snow-white jade emerged, emanating a shockingly fragrant aroma. Innumerable magicalws swept out from the hand, spreading far and wide. In the blink of an eye, they covered all of Eastern Wastnd County. Mountains, rivers, nts, vegetation, terrain features, all living beings. Everything was within it. The hearts of countless living beings raced as the massive hand descended, then grabbed the Ten Entrails Tree and wrenched it up!0

    As the tree rocked, Xu Qing and the others staggered. That said, the trembling of the tree couldn¡¯tpare to how much Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding.0

    The Captain¡¯s words were still echoing in his mind.0

    <em>Investors in a heavenly dao? Be fathers of a heavenly dao?</em>0

    Xu Qing could hardly control his breathing.6

    Off to the side, Qing Qiu and Ning Yan were equally astonished. Then, in almost the same moment, they moved to rip open their bellies and ce their entrails on the tree.1

    ¡°Toote!¡± the Captain said. Heughed heartily. ¡°You should have listened to me before. It¡¯s toote now.¡± The Captain looked very excited. ¡°<em>Little Junior Brother, although this 100th ancient heavenly dao is finally awake, it still needs more time. Probably years. But in the meantime, we¡¯ll still benefit from being the fathers of a heavenly dao!</em>4

    <em>¡°Compared to this, that sissy Kong Xianglong¡¯s jobs don¡¯t count for squat! He went scrounging around for days just to get a few military credits. They could go around doing that for a lifetime and never match up to this!¡±</em>38

    The Captain¡¯s words resonated with pride andcency.7

    <hr>

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s bluegreen dragon became an ¡®embryonic heavenly dao¡¯ in<u>chapter 437</u></a>. Interestingly, that was the very same chapter in which the Captain teased the details of this entire big n.?</a>

    2. The Captain got a chunk of Joine¡¯s flesh in<u>chapter 125</u></a>.?</a>

    3. The Captain got Nethersprite¡¯s blood in<u>chapter 338</u></a>.?</a>

    4. The Ancient Spirits were previously mentioned in both<u>chapter 430</u></a>and<u>431</u></a>. Emperor Ancient Spirit was mentioned in 431. The story in those chapters differs slightly from the story here. There are many ways to reconcile how the stories are different. That said, this is a good spot to remind everyone that the author is not averse to seeding the story with misinformation, especially when ites to ¡®ancient history,¡¯ and especially when random characters are talking about lore. Just because some character recounts a story of ancient history doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s canonically urate. I¡¯m not saying that ALL dialogue by characters is wed. I¡¯m just saying that you need to take everything with a grain of salt. I cannot even count how many times I¡¯ve seenments in ISSTH, AWE, and now this story where readers obviously took every word written in every chapter as absolute canon, when that¡¯s definitely not the case.?</a>

 Chapter 456: Heavenly Dao Birth Certificate

    Chapter 456: Heavenly Dao Birth Certificate

    A heavenly dao hade! From within that opened rift, a snow-white hand extended. The mere friction caused by its movement created a deafening sound that could shake heaven and earth. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. The earth was also affected. As the hand of the heavenly dao grabbed the Ten Entrails Tree and yanked it up, power from the heavenly dao spread out into the surroundingnd.

    The earth quaked, sending maroon soil erupting in all directions. Cracks snaked out in all directions, as if subterranean dragons were burrowing through the ground. The quaking was so violent that distant mountains began to crumble one after another.

    Cracking sounds rang out from the jungle surrounding the Ten Entrails Tree. Trees fell, and soil copsed as the roots of the giant tree were wrenched out from the ground. Deafening booms rang out everywhere. The affected area wasn¡¯t limited to the jungle surrounding the massive tree.

    The thirty-six city-states were also affected. To those cities, this event was unprecedentedly apocalyptic. The Holytide cultivators in the city-states were all shocked to the core, yet none of them dared to do anything to interfere. The reason for that was because of the status of the Nightshades. And they didn¡¯t dare to approach the epicenter. The arrival of the heavenly dao¡¯s hand made thatpletely impossible, as the magicalws of heaven and earth were in absolute chaos.

    Bolts of lightning smashed down randomly. Acid rain fell. Clouds of poisonous gas drifted about. Electromaic pulses erupted. Lands shook, and mountains rocked. Blustery, galeforce winds screamed everywhere.

    Duke Heaven Zenith and Zhou Xingwu, as well as the hundreds of ck Guard cultivators, were all scared witless.

    ¡°Heavenly... heavenly dao!!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he really is a Nightshade godchild?¡±

    The scene was simply too shocking, and seemed to be something that only a Nightshade godchild could do.

    Zhou Xingwu was struck with intense incredulity.

    Off to the side, Lin Yuandong¡¯s eyes shone with intense fervor. In fact, if the godchild suddenly appeared and demanded his lifemp, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate or feel angry at all toply. The only thought that filled his mind was that if that exalted figure wanted his lifemp, it wouldn¡¯t be harmful. After all... that Nightshade was someone extremely important!

    The shockwaves weren¡¯t limited to that specific area. They rolled out through the whole Holytide Region, and when they reached the various descendants of the Woe-Immortals, their blood surged. Though they were all located in different areas, they all turned in the direction of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal and bowed.

    A series of explosive popping sounds rang out, and countless clumps of soil fell like rain from the boundless roots of the Ten Entrails Tree. At longst, the heavenly dao¡¯s hand had ripped up the entire tree. As the ground continued to quake, the huge tree rose into the air. From a distance, the tangled roots, some of which were thick, some of which were narrow, seemed like a massive web of magicalws, any one of which contained a dao resonance.

    As the tree rose high into the sky, Qing Qiu gripped the bark of the tree as tightly as she could. At the same time, she felt like her mind was being struck by a million bolts of lightning. Even though she was personally experiencing and witnessing everything happening, she still felt like she couldn¡¯t believe it.

    As for Ning Yan, he was so dumbstruck he couldn¡¯t move. After realizing it was pointless to rip open his belly, he had failed to hold onto the tree, and thus slipped off of it.

    Thankfully for him, the Captain still held the vines attached to his belly, so his fall was halted and he swung back and forth in midair.

    Xu Qing was also in a daze. Acting on instinct, he grabbed a tree branch, and as the massive Ten Entrails Tree swung back and forth, he looked at the Captain, who was stillughing crazily.

    It was obvious that the Captain had done something major here. Back in the Merfolk Isles, he had lost half of his body to get Joine¡¯s flesh. In the Seazombie ancestralnd, he had risked everything to absorb the elixir and get close enough to take a bite out of that statue. And then there was the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.... Every single thing he did was massive. Butpared to this, those things seemed like child¡¯s y to Xu Qing.

    Be the father of a heavenly dao!

    As Xu Qing reeled, the heavenly dao¡¯s hand inserted the very top of the tree into the rift, where it entered the belly.

    The hand released the top of the tree and then dropped to grab the portion further down. A thump rang out, and the Ten Entrails Tree quivered as the heavenly dao¡¯s hand grabbed onto it and kept pushing it into its belly. As the tree merged into the heavenly dao¡¯s belly, it glittered brightly and transformed, changing from a tree shape into something that resembled entrails.

    The Captain againughed heartily. ¡°Little Junior Brother, the upside to being fathers of a heavenly dao is about toe!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with longing as two beams of prismatic light emerged from the rift. One of them shot toward the Captain, the other toward Xu Qing. They arrived at the same time, andpletely enveloped both of them.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure exactly what that prismatic light was, but he sensed that it contained magicalws of heaven and earth, as well as a boundless dao resonance and some unidentifiable will.

    ¡°This is the proof of our investment. Hahaha! Or you could call it our son¡¯s birth certificate! It¡¯s imprinted with our aura. I guess you could even say it¡¯s a fatherhood credential.¡±

    The Captain was virtually jumping up and down as everything around them shook. Then a boundless spirit energy rushed wildly toward them. The spirit energy was incredibly pure, without even a scrap of mutagen, and it poured directly into Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°A heavenly dao benefaction!¡± Ning Yan blurted. A bitter expression overtook his face, and his heart filled with indescribable regret. If he could just go back to before, he wouldn¡¯t just rip out his intestines. He would rip out every organ in his body. As long as he could stay alive, he would sacrifice anything to be the father of a heavenly dao.

    Who could ever have imagined that these two Nightshades would do something as absolutely crazy as this??

    He felt like he was going mad from the sense of having missed such an amazing opportunity. Then, it was with bloodshot eyes that he opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. His hope was that, even though he wasn¡¯t the one being rewarded, he might still benefit some. After all, he was very, very close, and figured he could still get some scraps of energy.

    Qing Qiu wasn¡¯t sure what the prismatic light was, but she could sense the incredible spirit energy. And after hearing Ning Yan¡¯s exmation, she also tried to absorb some of the surrounding energy.

    However, those who benefited the most were obviously the Captain and Xu Qing.

    The Captain trembled as he madly absorbed the energy of heaven and earth, turning it into power to remove seals within him. Soon, his aura was climbing to incredible heights.

    It was the same with Xu Qing. Using this unprecedentedly powerful energy of heaven and earth, it only took about ten breaths of time for his sixth heavenly pce to fully materialize. Rumbling sounds filled his mind, but there wasn¡¯t time to sit around thinking about what was going on. His thoughts immediately focused on the branch he had taken earlier. The branches of the Ten Entrails Tree were precious treasures on their own. But now that the tree was being absorbed by a heavenly dao, they naturally rose to a higher level. The first thing Xu Qing thought of was to put that Ten Entrails Tree branch into his sixth heavenly pce.

    However, just before he was about to do it, he paused and looked up at the huge handing out of the rift. Then he nced at the surrounding Ten Entrails Tree, and his eyes glittered.

    Bluegreen dragon! he shouted inwardly.

    He had been waiting for this moment so long that the sensation of longing from his bluegreen dragon was incredibly intense. It let loose a long, clear cry as it emerged from within him.

    Without hesitation, he waved his hand and threw the branch toward the dragon. The bluegreen dragon¡¯s eyes glittered brightly as it devoured the branch. Immediately upon swallowing it, the dragon started trembling, then it unexpectedly shot high into the sky!

    Off to the side, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and for the first time since they arrived at the Ten Entrails Tree, he uttered an exmation of astonishment.

    ¡°An embryonic heavenly dao! H-h-how... how¡¯d you do that? I¡¯ve been trying to do that for years but never managed to pull it off! An embryonic heavenly dao running into an ancient heavenly dao... this, this... is something I could only dream about!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s heart pounded as he stared at something that he had long dreamed about.

    Meanwhile, the bluegreen dragon let loose a roar as it flew into the rift and shot toward the ancient heavenly dao.

    The heavenly dao suddenly stopped pulling the Ten Entrails Tree into it.

    Then it was as if two heavenly daos were looking at each other inside the rift. A momentter, the ancient heavenly dao shivered, then sent a stream of golden energy into the bluegreen dragon.

    ¡°Heavenly dao essence?¡± the Captain blurted loudly. ¡°Did it just freaking adopt that embryonic heavenly dao as a son?¡±

    The bluegreen dragon let loose a roar as it rapidly grewrger. Then, the heavenly dao fluctuationsing off it grew stronger.

    After absorbing all of the golden energy, the bluegreen dragon glittered with golden light, and its eyes seemed extremely full of life. After offering a respectful nod to the ancient heavenly dao, it swished its tail and then shot out of the rift and back toward Xu Qing.

    As the golden light shone out, the Captain¡¯s eyes filled with intense envy. Then the dragon shot into Xu Qing and entered his sixth heavenly pce! A momentter, that heavenly pce glittered with golden light. It was the light of a heavenly dao! It was a heavenly dao pce!

    Xu Qing shivered as his cultivation base expanded. Unexpectedly, he also began to pulse with something like a dao resonance, something that connected with heaven and earth and shook everything in the area.

    At the same time, the materialization of heavenly pces within him continued. His seventh heavenly pce was now taking shape.

    ¡°We¡¯re fathers of an ancient heavenly dao,¡± the Captain muttered bitterly. ¡°And your bluegreen dragon is the adopted son of a heavenly dao. So does that make it your grandson or my grandson?¡±

 Chapter 457: Hellspirit Bloodwing Lamp

    <h4>Chapter 457: Hellspirit Bloodwing Lamp</h4>

    Intense energy of heaven and earth surged like the tide. The sky rippled and distorted as if it were a sea of spirit energy. The ancient heavenly dao inside the rift again began pulling the Ten Entrails Tree and absorbing it.1

    Xu Qing, the Captain, Qing Qiu, and Ning Yan were all getting closer and closer to the rift.0

    Xu Qing and the Captain weren¡¯t the only ones to benefit. Thanks to the overflow of energy, Ning Yan and Qing Qiu also felt their cultivation bases stirring.0

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing just kept experiencing one astonishing situation after another. Right now, his senses were focused on his sixth heavenly pce. It was golden, and stationed within it was a heavenly dao. It was in the form of a huge sea, with the bluegreen dragon swimming within it, pulsing with fluctuations of a dao resonance. It waspletely extraordinary.0

    As the power of heaven and earth rushed toward Xu Qing, his heart raced. Longing filled him as he absorbed that power and used it to work on his seventh heavenly pce. After about a dozen breaths of time passed, he looked up, and his eyes shone with scintiting light. His seventh heavenly pce was more than halfplete.0

    Seventy percent. Eighty percent. Ny percent....0

    A momentter, he took a deep breath as his seventh heavenly pce reached a state of ny-nine percent materialization.0

    <em>In this heavenly pce will be stationed</em>.... Xu Qing¡¯s mind raced. He briefly considered The Emperor¡¯s Sword, but he still had a lot of work to do on that, so it didn¡¯t seem appropriate. The Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber didn¡¯t qualify either. The Gruegloom Daoseizing Art was very unique. Though it was a technique, it was more like a divine ability, and was different from Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. It wasn¡¯t appropriate either.0

    The ck iron skewer and his shadow shed through his mind before he dismissed them. Although both of them behaved perfectly well when he used them, he still didn¡¯t fully trust either one. There was simply no way he could station either one in a heavenly pce. He had magical treasure fragments in his bag of holding, but it didn¡¯t seem a good idea to station outside items in a heavenly pce.2

    <em>My violet crystal would work. But that¡¯s the most fundamental part of me. Besides, there¡¯s still too much about it I don¡¯t understand. I can¡¯t just use it that way casually. Other than that, there¡¯s one thing that would work well stationed in a heavenly pce!</em>4

    Without hesitation, he reached out to the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness, grabbed it, and put it in his seventh heavenly pce. The moment it entered, the heavenly pce started shaking violently. As it turned out, the seventh heavenly pce was actually rejecting the Ghost Emperor mountain.0

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened; this was not the first time he had experienced a rejection like this.3

    Something simr happened with the taboo poison pill. The poison from that pill actually ravaged his body, and took a good amount of time to handle. He¡¯d just needed to find ways to keep himself alive during the process. It was only after a lot of torment and bitterness that he managed to get the taboo poison pill to be part of his heavenly pce.0

    That said, the violet moon, golden crow, and bluegreen dragon hadn¡¯t experienced rejection.0

    Xu Qing knew that though the violet moon existed on a very high level, after he had plundered it, it became fully his own. The golden crow and bluegreen dragon were simr, which was why they weren¡¯t rejected.0

    As for the Ghost Emperor mountain, though he had gained enlightenment of it, when all was said and done, it was an imitation. In many respects, it was an outside item, and not thoroughly his own. Therefore, if he wanted to make it part of his heavenly pce, it was no surprise it got rejected. Eyes glittering coldly, Xu Qing inhaled deeply, bringing in massive amounts of spirit energy into himself. He immediately sent it to the seventh heavenly pce and used it to speed up the fusion with the Ghost Emperor mountain.0

    The mountain trembled as it slowly superimposed with the seventh heavenly pce.0

    The process wasn¡¯t quick. But it wasn¡¯t extremely slow like the taboo poison pill had been. That was especially true considering the power of heaven and earth avable. It flowed into him without any end in sight.1

    Time passed. As the Ten Entrails Tree slowly entered the crevice, the Ghost Emperor mountain fusion process continued.0

    Thirty percent. Fifty percent. Seventy percent....0

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and gripped the tree tightly. Once he was firmly in ce, he opened all the pores on his body and absorbed every ounce of spirit energy around him. After about thirty breaths of time passed, the Ghost Emperor mountain was fully fused with the heavenly pce. As rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing, hepleted his seventh heavenly pce. The exterior looked less like a pce and more like a temple. Within that temple, the Ghost Emperor sat cross-legged, two sabers at his back, and the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir resting on his knees. He emanated a shocking godly resonance, and though his eyes were closed, he resembled Xu Qing in every way!7

    The moment his seventh heavenly pce wasplete, Xu Qing erupted with powerful fluctuations. His aura climbed to a higher level, and Xu Qing could sense himself getting stronger. This version of himself was poles apart from the version that had first arrived at Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.0

    <em>This good fortune really is amazing! However... things aren¡¯t over yet!</em>0

    He opened his eyes. He could sense that the power of heaven and earth wouldn¡¯tst much longer, and that the assistance that came frompleting the heavenly dao wouldn¡¯t continue forever.0

    He extended his right hand, and within it appeared a lifemp shaped like a blood-colored wing. He performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, and the surrounding spirit power rushed into him and toward the lifemp. He was going to take advantage of the power of heaven and earth in the area to cleanse themp.0

    Considering it had been given to him by the Holytides, there was no way he could just trust that it was safe to use. If there were some blemishes in themp, or some cleverly hidden traps, then using the power of heaven and earth to remove them seemedpletely appropriate. In the blink of an eye, spirit energy flooded into themp, causing the blood-colored glow to increase in intensity, until it was almost blinding.0

    Xu Qing cleansed it over and over again. Eyes narrowing, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and tapped into his seventh heavenly pce. Then, he used the power of the Ghost Emperor to cleanse it yet again. Next he used the power of the golden crow to do the same, then the violet moon, and then the taboo poison. Finally, the bluegreen dragon exhaled golden light to do the same. Using all of those various methods, he cleansed the lifemp. Only then did he feel safe inserting it into himself.12

    It vanished from his hand, and then, within the life mist in his sea of consciousness, where his other two lifemp heavenly pces were... another heavenly pce appeared. The life mist roiled, and his sea of consciousness seethed. Blood-colored light pierced through the mist as his third lifemp turned into a heavenly pce. Instantly, he gained enlightenment of the details of that thirdmp.0

    It was a hellspirit bloodwingmp. The blessing it provided was different from the other two lifemps. It did not boost defenses, nor did it focus on ughter. Instead, this lifemp provided increased speed!6

    Whoever had this lifemp could reach astonishing speeds that were many times faster than what they were previously capable of. It was part of a pair ofmps, and when used as a pair, the results would be even more terrifying, and would provide deadly assault power as well. But Xu Qing was pleased with even just this one wing. The sensation of speed he got made his heart swell.33

    The gains he had made this time were beyondpare. Whether it was the military credits or the heavenly dao fatherhood, they were enough to make anyone¡¯s eyespletely bloodshot. Beyond that, he had gone from five heavenly pces to eight.4

    His eighth pce was made from a lifemp, and that meant that his total pce limit had increased. In the past, his top limit was ten pces, but now it was eleven.5

    What was more, as the energy of heaven and earth swirled around him, his ninth heavenly pce reached a state of about half materialization. By that point, their spot on the Ten Entrails Tree was only about 3,000 meters from the rift.0

    Seeing that, Xu Qing realized it was time to leave. He looked at the Captain. The Captain¡¯s aura was obviously vastly superior to before. And even despite how much Xu Qing had advanced, he still couldn¡¯t assess the Captain. That said, Xu Qing was used to that.1

    ¡°We should leave, Eldest Brother.¡±0

    When Qing Qiu and Ning Yan heard his voice, they opened their eyes.0

    Ning Yan looked nervous. As for Qing Qiu, she was much more in-the-know than Ning Yan, and had alreadye to a conclusion about who Xu Qing and the Captain really were. Beneath her mask, her face was filled with mixed emotions.4

    Licking his lips, the Captain pointed at the heavenly dao above. ¡°Hold on one second.¡±6

    Xu Qing followed the Captain¡¯s gaze to the snow-white hand of the heavenly dao. Based on how well he knew the Captain, he had a good idea about what was going to happen next. It was no surprise. Whenever the Captain did something really big, he couldn¡¯t leave without taking a bite out of something.19

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s expression, the Captain blinked a few times.0

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, this whole thing is going to cause a major stir. In the past, we¡¯ve always had trouble making our getaway. But like I said before, I brought along a treasure this time.0

    ¡°Once I activate it, I can¡¯t really control it. Regardless of that, it¡¯ll perform a long-range teleportation in one general direction. I¡¯ve already calibrated it to send us back toward Sea-Sealing County.3

    ¡°Unfortunately, using this treasure requires a massive power source. Therefore, I really have no choice. If we want to get out of here, I have to go say goodbye to my son.¡±2

    ¡°Oh.¡± Xu Qing nodded.1

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Ahem. If anything goes wrong, little Junior Brother, remember to give me a good kick into the range of the teleportation.¡±2

    The Captain¡¯s words caused Qing Qiu to look over at him silently.3

    Ning Yan¡¯s expression flickered. Upon hearing Sea-Sealing County mentioned, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain. Earlier, he had beenpletely ignorant of what was happening. However, he had eventually started to get suspicious about who Xu Qing and the Captain really were. But then events unfolded so quickly, and in such an astonishing fashion, that he had no time for contemtion. Now that things had calmed down, those suspicions were growing deeper. Then, just as he looked over at Xu Qing and the Captain, an absolutely crazy look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes.0

    As the heavenly dao¡¯s hand rxed and moved to the part of the tree only about three meters away from them, the Captain lunged forward like a hyena.0

    ¡°I wonder... what a heavenly dao tastes like.¡±17

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he shot toward the snow white hand of his ¡®son.¡¯ Wrapping his arm around one finger, he leaned his head back, opened his mouth as wide as he could, and then plunged his teeth into the finger.21

    <em>CRUNCH!</em>

 Chapter 458: Emperor of Heavengale

    Chapter 458: Emperor of Heavengale

    The heavenly dao¡¯s snow white hand emitted a strange, fragrant aroma that was somewhat simr to a fine cut of premium meat.

    As Xu Qing looked at the huge hand, he licked his lips, then focused on the Captain.

    The craziness in the Captain¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t have been more intense, and at the same time, he moved with practiced fluidity. As he wrapped all four limbs around the finger, he sank his teeth in and took a vicious bite. Perhaps because he was a father to this heavenly dao, and also because of the blessing from moments before, he managed to sessfully bite a mouthful and swallow it down. Then he startedughing uproariously.

    ¡°It was wor¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, it was to the shock of Qing Qiu and Ning Yan that the Captain¡¯s voice suddenly turned into a wail of anguish.

    It was as if he had eaten some type of food that he couldn¡¯t digest, as his belly started swelling. Then, an instantter it exploded. Blood and gore sprayed everywhere, while the aura of a heavenly dao erupted along with his abdomen. And within all of that gore, there was a bit of golden skin.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide as he reached out to try to grab it. He wasn¡¯t fast enough. The destructive power hadn¡¯t abated yet, and was spreading through the rest of his body.

    In the blink of an eye, his hands copsed into nothing. His lower half was destroyed, including his entrails. His legs copsed into pieces. Blood sprayed everywhere as his upper half also suffered. It exploded. His upper torso copsed, his chest was ripped to shreds, all of his internal organs were eviscerated. Eventually, only his head was left intact.

    For some reason, the Captain¡¯s head was unusually tough, and it managed to stay in one piece. What was more, despite the howl of anguish, the Captain somehow managed to get his head flying in the direction of that golden skin. Then he gobbled it up.

    Instead of swallowing it, he kept it in his mouth. Eyes shining with craziness, he flicked his head so that his hair wrapped around a nearby tree branch. Then, as he chewed, he finished his sentence from before.

    ¡°¡ªworth it!¡±

    Qing Qiu inhaled sharply.

    Ning Yan looked on, stunned. Ning Yan had seen people who courted death. But rarely had he seen anyone as suicidal as this. All of a sudden, he realized that the few bites he had sustained didn¡¯t count for much at all.

    The heavenly dao apparently sensed the bite. The hand stopped moving, and a gaze emerged from the rift, and it seemed confused about what that head was doing. The hand itself was not injured. After all, what the Captain had bitten off was just some surface skin. Seemingly after a moment of thought, the heavenly dao kept pulling the Ten Entrails Tree into its belly cavity.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing gave up any notions about taking a bite of his own. At the same time, the Captain¡¯s wildughter rang out in all directions.

    ¡°Hahaha! I finally got to taste a heavenly dao! Alright, time to make our escape. I don¡¯t know where we¡¯ll all be teleported to, little Junior Brother. But the general destination is set. Alright everyone... good luck and stay safe!¡±

    The Captainughed as golden light appeared on his forehead. As it spread, it created a host of magical symbols that rapidly reached a number in the hundreds of thousands. As they spread out, they created four huge teleportation portals. The four portals were semitransparent and about 3,000 meters wide each. All pulsed with the aura of a heavenly dao. Apparently, the piece of skin the Captain munched down had done its job.

    The moment the four teleportation portals took shape, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering teleportation power surged within them. It turned into four beams of light. The two strongest beams focused on the Captain and Xu Qing.

    The other two beamsnded on Ning Yan and Qing Qiu.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing realized he didn¡¯t need to do any kicking to ensure the Captain was on the portal.

    As Qing Qiu and Ning Yan panted for breath, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Intense winds screamed left and right. Shocking fluctuations rolled out as the teleportations began!

    A momentter, all four of them disappeared from the Ten Entrails Tree. After they were gone, the huge handing from the rift continued to pull the Ten Entrails Tree to it. Before long, thest 3,000 meters were inside the rift, roots and all. When thest root disappeared, the rift closed up, vanishing as if it had never been there.

    Everything went back to normal.

    Of course... thends in the area werepletely ravaged. Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, which had existed for countless years, was no longer there. The only thing left behind was a gaping hole, with numerous ravines stretching out from it. It looked almost like a huge spiderweb. It was a really shocking sight.

    The thirty-six city-states werergely destroyed. The Holytides within them were deeply shaken.

    Duke Heaven Zenith looked up into the sky, his heart pounding, and struggled to keep his right hand clenched into a fist instead of reaching out.

    Next to him, Zhou Xingwu was shaken to the core, and just stood there quietly. It was Lin Yuandong who spoke first.

    ¡°How mighty the godchild!¡±

    Zhou Xingwu seemed like he wanted to respond, but in the end, said nothing.

    Duke Heaven Zenith finally rxed his right hand. Eyes shining with determination, he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Safe journeys, Godchild!¡±

    In response to his words, all Heaven Zenith cultivators sped hands and bowed to the dome of heaven.

    Finally, Zhou Xingwu inclined his head.

    Then, just as it seemed everything would go back to normal, something else happened. A dazzling sea of light appeared overhead, spreading out far and wide.

    A man wearing an imperial robe appeared. The golden robe emanated a holy might, and was embroidered with nine dragons that lookedpletely lifelike, as if they were real dragons that had been sealed inside the robe. They moved like flowing water across its surface, imparting a sense of incredible majesty.

    He wore an emperor¡¯s crown that was as red as the sun, and behind him was a bright-red halo. Most eye-catching of all were the tassels hanging from the front and back of his crown. There were a total of twenty-four of them, each of which was decorated with twelve pearls. Those tassels obscured his face, and the glow of the pearls made it even more impossible to make out his features. [1]

    The only thing it was possible to determine was that the person in the imperial robe was a middle-aged man. The moment he appeared, the sky filled with strange colors, and the earth quaked. He emanated a power that could topple mountains and drain seas.

    Zhou Xingwu immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Emperor!¡±

    Duke Heaven Zenith shivered and also dropped to his knees. The ck Guard cultivators and all the Holytides in the thirty-six city-states also kowtowed.

    ¡°Emperor!¡±

    The so-called emperor of the Heavengale Dynasty was actually more like a king. What was more, the imperial dynasty that oversaw the four royal dynasties was ruled by a single ¡®ancestral emperor.¡¯

    Obviously, this middle-aged man wasn¡¯t the ancestral emperor, who hadn¡¯t shown his face for ten thousand years. Instead, he was the ¡®emperor¡¯ of the royal Heavengale Dynasty, who had received orders from the Nightshade Cathedral to provide an escort for the godchild.

    As he hovered in midair, his face expressionless, he looked at the crater where Ten Entrails of the True Immortal used to exist. Then he looked at the spot where the rift had just disappeared. A long moment passed.

    ¡°Mu Tianzheng.¡±

    ¡°Here, sir!¡± Duke Heaven Zenith said in a loud voice.

    ¡°Due to the service performed by your son Mu Ye in weing the godchild, he has been appointed by the cathedral as a godservant.¡±

    The duke¡¯s heart leapt, and he started trembling as he repeatedly kowtowed. ¡°Your servant Mu Tianzheng offers thanks for your heavenly grace, Emperor!¡±

    Emperor Heavengale looked at the duke and noted his expression of thanks. Then he looked off into the distance.

    ¡°Since the venerable godchild does not wish to see me, I¡¯ll rely on you to track him down. Notify the godchild that the Nightshade Cathedral has summoned him.¡±

    With that, Emperor Heavengale turned and took a step to leave. But then he paused, reached out in the direction where Xu Qing and the others had just teleported away, and closed his hand. Instantly, that area copsed, and anything left behind was crushed, thus making it impossible to track those who had left, or even find any evidence of their departure.

    With that, Emperor Heavengale expressionlessly vanished.

    Down below, a thoughtful look appeared on Zhou Xingwu¡¯s face.

    The emperor really has good timing....

    Duke Heaven Zenith¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he watched what happened above. Then he stood and issued orders to his subordinates to scatter and look for the godchild. The search wouldn¡¯t just be carried out in the immediate area. All government departments in the Heavengale Dynasty would participate. As the orders from Emperor Heavengale spread out, the search for the godchild began.

    That said, to give time for the orders to reach everyone, the official start of the search was set for three dayster.

    It wasn¡¯t just the Nightshade Cathedral in the Heavengale Dynasty that wanted the godchild found. The other three cathedrals in the other three Holytide royal dynasties also joined in the search.

    Most spirited were the Redspirit Dynasty and the Moonmist Dynasty. They poured the entire resources of their respective nations into the search. And the forces of the Nightshade Cathedrals from those ces, which had never even left the royal capital for many years, also joined. There were also countless species who were subservient to the Nightshades and Holytides who heard about the situation and also started searching.

    And thus, the search for the godchild became a massive affair in the entire Holytide Region. In fact, martialw was imposed on the border regions. Things really started heating up.

    ***

    As expected, the frenzy of activity was noticed in Sea-Sealing County. Many people there took advantage of their informationworks to find out what was going on, and soon enough, the county capital was abuzz. The Swordsage Pce, as well as the other two pces from the Celestial Division, were all in a bit of amotion.

    ¡°Nightshade godchild?¡±

    ¡°The Ten Entrails Tree, which has stood for countless years, is gone? One of the Holytide¡¯s most miraculous areas is no more?¡±

    ¡°The Nightshade Cathedrals from all four royal dynasties issued dharmic decrees?¡±

    ¡°The high priests from the Nightshade Cathedrals in the Redspirit Dynasty and the Moonmist Dynasty personally went out to help?¡±

    ¡°But why did the high priest from the Heavengale Dynasty¡¯s cathedral issue orders but not actually join the search effort? And why did the high priest tacitly endorse Emperor Heavengale¡¯s imposition of a three-day dy?¡±

    The leadership in Sea-Sealing County convened an emergency legitive assembly. At the same time,rge numbers of swordsages epted missions to go to the border and keep order. Thest thing they wanted was a Holytide uprising there.

    Kong Xianglong and his friends took just such a mission. After they were out of the county capital, they exchanged nces. All could see the suspicious looks in each other¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way it could be them...¡± Sir Mountain-River said quietly.

    Shivering, Wang Chen shook his head and said, ¡°It¡¯s impossible. They¡¯re saying it¡¯s a ¡®godchild,¡¯ but that¡¯s probably just bullcrap to scare people.¡±

    ¡°Right. Hahaha!¡± Though Sir Mountain-Riverughed, it sounded somewhat forced. ¡°I¡¯m just thinking into it too much. How could those two do something to rile up the entire Holytide species?¡±

    Duskspirit hesitated for a moment, then said, ¡°But don¡¯t you remember what Xu Qing and Chen Erniu said before they left? They mentioned they were going to Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, and that they were going to do something really big....¡±

    Everyone stood there silently.

    A moment passed, and then Kong Xianglong forced himself to calm down.

    ¡°It was probably a different pair of Nightshades,¡± he said solemnly.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Sir Mountain-River said. ¡°That¡¯s got to be it.¡± They all nodded. But then they didn¡¯t say much else as they absent-mindedly continued on their journey.

    1. I¡¯m sure most of you know what a Chinese emperor¡¯s crown looks like. If you don¡¯t, here¡¯s a picture</a>. ?

 Chapter 459: Straw-Hat Appears!

    Chapter 459: Straw-Hat Appears!

    In Injustice Prefecture in Sea-Sealing County, the sun shone brightly in the azure sky. Down below, multicolored fields covered thends, making it look like a beautiful painting. If you looked closely, you would find that the patchwork fields were actually articles of clothing. There was clothing designed for men and women, young and old. There were also many essories such as hats and gloves. These were thends of the Garmentfolk. asionally, articles of children¡¯s clothing would fly up into the air and frolic with each other. It was a beautiful, peaceful scene.

    But then a rift opened up over that lovely scene.

    A loud mor emerged from the rift, and then a head, which tumbled down andnded with a thump on the ground. It tumbled a few times beforeing to a stop with the face on the bottom.

    A host of garments flew into the air and floated curiously over. The head struggled to rise to an upright position, but was too weak. However, this head was the father of a heavenly dao, and couldn¡¯t be bested by a simple difficulty like that. It eventually stuck out its tongue and pushed hard against the ground, tipping it upright. Once in that position, it looked around.

    ¡°Garmentfolk?¡± The head was, of course, the Captain. He immediately felt excited upon realizing that he was, indeed, back in Sea-Sealing County. ¡°Hey, I have a good friend who''s a Garmentfolk!¡±

    His energy fluctuations had already caught the attention of ady¡¯s glove, which flew over and danced happily in front of him. It was none other than Lady Fivefingers.

    The Captainughed heartily upon recognizing her. He was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a group of hats flew in his direction, struggling with each other to be first in line to reach him. The Captain¡¯s expression flickered.

    Thankfully, he had a good friend here. She flew over to the hats and, using whatever unknown means ofmunication the Garmentfolk favored, exined something to the hats. They ended up flying a few circles around the Captain before reluctantly leaving.

    The Captain breathed a sigh of relief. Next, the glove grabbed him by the hair and flew up into the air so he could get a better look around. A pleased expression filled the Captain¡¯s face.

    Ha HA! Things really went well this time. I wonder how little Ah Qing is doing. The brat¡¯s no simpleton, so he should be fine. Right now I need to focus on growing my body back. Then I can worry about other things.

    It took some effort, but he managed to twist around and look at Lady Fivefingers. Licking his lips, he quietly said, ¡°Say, little Righty, do you Garmentfolk have any food around here? I¡¯d love to try it.... Also, is there anything fun to do in this ce? I¡¯d also love to expand my horizons a bit.¡±

    One of the glove¡¯s fingers bent down a few times in a row as if nodding, then flew off into the distance with the Captain, whose eyes shone brightly.

    ***

    A few provinces away was the very same desert the Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ flying ship had flown over on their way to the county capital. It was a ce of scorching sun and burning mes. There was no vegetation anywhere, just rippling heat waves as far as the eye could see. There were no humans in this desert. There was only asional patches of smoke that indicated the presence of lightscrags or Smokewights.

    At a certain point, a 300-meter-long dharmaship appeared in that desert, flying along. It was roughly oval-shaped, and had a very unique design; it had a dozen or so semitransparent sails that resembled both sabers and wings at the same time, and glittered with cold light. The ship itself was dark violet, and at the prow was an evil ghost totem. That was the soul body created by dharma aperture souls which had been suppressed with balefire. Because of all that, the dharmaship radiated the aura of the Gold Core level.

    In the cabin of the dharmaship, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, recuperating. He was back in human form.

    Three days had passed since he had been teleported into this desert. Despite the vile climate, and the incredible heat that even cultivators couldn¡¯t endure for very long, he hadn¡¯t run into any dangers here, which had been a relief. He had immediately taken out his dharmaship and used it to escape the heat. And he had taken advantage of the past three days to assess how he had benefited recently.

    My cultivation base rose from the five-pce level to the eight-pce level. And I even made some progress with my ninth heavenly pce. Big Bro Kong has ten-pce battle prowess and can kill early Nascent Soul cultivators. I could probably do the same thing if I went all-out....

    His eyes glittered.

    And even ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn¡¯t be beyond the realm of possibility! Now, I only have my ninth, tenth, and eleventh heavenly pces toplete. That¡¯s only three. Once they¡¯re all materialized, then I can make an attempt at a Nascent Soul breakthrough!

    Then he started thinking about the other things he had acquired.

    3,142 dao fruits! A lifemp! All sorts of pill concocting and equipment forging ingredients, all of them bursting with spirit resonance! And I invested in a heavenly dao!

    Feeling very pleased, he took some time to organize everything.

    I wonder how Qing Qiu is doing.

    He thought back to the teleportation event, and felt a bit anxious about her safety. That said, she wasn¡¯t some weak little girl. Only remarkable people could survive the opening of the god¡¯s eyes. After some consideration, he decided there was no reason to be worried.

    He didn¡¯t spend any time thinking about Ning Yan.

    As for the Captain.... Xu Qing had the feeling that even if he himself died, the Captain probably wouldn¡¯t. Even though the Captain only had his head left, he would surely be hopping and skipping soon enough.

    I don¡¯t need to worry at all about Eldest Brother. He won¡¯t have any trouble getting back to the county capital. What I need to do is make haste there myself.

    He looked down at the symbols Arch-Immortal Plumdark had painted onto him. They were ratherrge, and they had started out being bright red. But now they were pale and dull, so much so that they weren¡¯t easy to see unless you looked closely.

    The three-month period isn¡¯t even up yet.... He sighed. Though the symbols seemed like they would expire early, it made sense. When that heavenly dao appeared, and he was infused with so much of the energy of heaven and earth, the symbols had eroded significantly. They obviously wouldn¡¯tst much longer.

    I need to get back as quickly as possible! Xu Qing looked out at thends outside the dharmaship and mused that the events in Holytide territory had been nothing short of monumental. The Holytides would definitely be looking for them.

    Though he was back in Sea-Sealing County, it wouldn¡¯t be long before the concealment effect vanished, and that made Xu Qing feel very uneasy. The feeling came from his sixth heavenly pce. It made him frown. Due to the distance from the county capital as well as the environment, he couldn¡¯t send messages with hismand sword. Therefore, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and pushed down onto the dharmaship, causing it to elerate. It also became partially invisible as it raced through the sky.

    Feeling slightly more at ease, he closed his eyes and focused on regting his breathing.

    In that manner, three more days went by. At that point, thest of the concealment symbols vanished.

    It was dark outside when it happened. Though there was no sun, it was still incredibly hot, and that heat even reached the interior of the dharmaship. Opening his eyes, he scanned himself, then rose and walked out of the cabin.

    Once outside, the heat caused beads of sweat to appear on his forehead. In fact, he was quickly sweating from head to toe. Ignoring that, he examined the dharmaship¡¯s surroundings, his expression dour.

    Something''s off. The uneasy feeling I¡¯ve had isn¡¯t going away. It¡¯s actually getting stronger. And once the concealment symbols wore off, I started feeling even more jumpy.

    Within his sixth heavenly pce, his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon swam back and forth anxiously, a nervous look on its face.

    This wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d experienced an early warning sign from his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. He clearly remembered the day he and the Captain had left the county capital for their big job. He¡¯d experienced the same sensation back then.

    It had stayed with him, though the feeling wasn¡¯t very intense. But just now, that uneasiness had skyrocketed.

    He looked in the direction of the county capital. It was still quite a distance away, such that at his current speed, he would need about a month to get there. That said, he could actually move faster without the dharmaship. If he did that, the travel time would be reduced significantly.

    ¡°Ten days,¡± he murmured. Then he looked in a different direction in the vast desert.

    Thinking back to his swordsage training, he remembered that the desert filled this entire prefecture. Because the high heat made it unsuitable for humans, there were few human organizations here. There was a Swordsage Court, but it was located on the distant prefectural border. If he just kept traveling in a straight line, it would take days to reach the county capital.

    Eyes narrowing, he stepped off his dharmaship, put the dharmaship away, and then started moving in a different direction.

    The nearest human teleportation portal was too far away to be useful. But the uneasy feeling within him was getting so intense that he didn¡¯t want to just fly the rest of the way to the capital. He would go by a different route. He would do something unexpected and attempt to use a nonhuman teleportation portal.

    After all, he was still in Sea-Sealing County, which was human territory. Therefore, it seemed unlikely that the inhabitants of this desert, the Smokewights, would cause unexpected trouble.

    With that n in mind, he sped across the desert.

    He searched until dawn was nearing. Around then, he found a Smokewight city. When he neared, smoke rose up from within the city, and numerous streams of hostile divine sense locked onto him.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing took out his swordsagemand sword and sped hands politely.

    ¡°Your humble servant is a human swordsage from the Corrections Division. I¡¯m on an important military mission, and I can¡¯t afford any dys on the next leg of my journey. Therefore, I humbly request permission to use your Smokewight teleportation portal. I¡¯ll pay whatever fee is required, and will of course take note of the favor and inscribe the details in the Swordsage Pce records. I hope the Smokewights can be amodating!¡±

    The streams of Smokewight divine sense scanned hismand sword. A momentter, a voice spoke.

    ¡°Wait!¡±

    Xu Qing respectfully bowed his head and waited.

    After a bit more than two hours passed, and light was seeping over the horizon. Being very respectful, he inquired about his request.

    ¡°Keep waiting!¡± was the cold response.

    ¡°Might I ask how much longer it will be?¡± he said politely. ¡°I¡¯m really in a big hurry. I can¡¯t afford any dys.¡±

    ¡°Unknown.¡±

    At that point, Xu Qing decided he couldn¡¯t wait any longer. Turning, he sped off feeling very irritated. It wouldn¡¯t have been surprising for them to refuse his request, and he would have understood. But to make him stand there waiting actually made him wonder if they had malicious intentions.

    Taking a deep breath, he tapped into all the speed his cultivation base was capable of. The boost of speed from the red lifemp caused a red glow to spread around him. elerating dramatically, he became a beam of light that disappeared over the horizon.

    Six days passed.

    He used the hellspirit bloodwingmp and didn¡¯t hold back from burning the spirit energy within him. As a result, he now only needed four more days until he reached the border of the county capital.

    That six days of travel revealed how deep his reserves were, as he was still in top condition. The only exception was that he felt mentally fatigued because of the deep sense of unease. On a few asions he considered finding a ce to hide, thinking that the uneasiness might pass. But whenever he thought about that, the bluegreen dragon caused him to feel even more intensely uneasy.

    When he was only about two hours away from the prefectural border, that uneasiness had not declined in the least bit. As he elerated, he suddenly saw a figure pop up in front of him.

    Someone was blocking his path!

    It was a figure in a woven rush raincoat and a straw hat, with an icy cold aura.

    ¡°If you got any further you might have escaped,¡± a voice said, deep and full of strong killing intent.

 Chapter 460: Stress

    Chapter 460: Stress

    Xu Qing reacted the moment he heard the cultivator in the straw hat speaking. Moving so fluidly it seemed like he had already nned to do so, he crushed the entropic teleportation talisman he had been holding in his hand for the past six days.

    No teleportation fluctuations rolled out. Apparently, all of the surrounding heaven and earth was sealed, making teleportations impossible!

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t buy cheap entropic teleportation talismans. Normally speaking, they would be able to break through any sealing magics. Unfortunately... this cultivator in the straw hat had spared no expense purchasing intelligence reports with the specific purpose of negating even the best entropic teleportation talismans.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t get flustered because the teleportation failed. Without a moment of hesitation, he fell back.

    At the same time, all eight of his heavenly pces red to life. Three umbres appeared overhead. A seven-colored chanting wind surrounded him, protecting his fleshly body. A pitch-ck canopy protected his soul. And a blood-red wing from hell boosted his speed.

    Because of all that, he rocketed backward at incredible speed. At the same time, a violet moon appeared in his pupils, taboo poison spread out around him, and the Ghost Emperor mountain appeared, pulsing with incredible might. His heavenly dao bluegreen dragon appeared in the dome of heaven, swirling in flight as it howled. That howl caused the power of a heavenly dao to spread out andbat the sealing effect in the area.

    Xu Qing reacted very quickly. From the moment he detected an enemy until now, only enough time had passed for a spark to fly off a piece of flint. He was moving quickly backward and up, hoping to take advantage of the bluegreen dragon¡¯s help to get free of the sealed area.

    The cultivator in the straw hat snorted coldly, then shot up into the sky and performed an incantation gesture with his right hand.

    When he shoved his hand down, countless symbols streamed down, locking down the dome of heaven and making it impossible for Xu Qing to flee.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim as he switched directions, hoping to be able to force a teleportation through the lockdown.

    The cultivator in the straw hat threw out a handful of sand, which strengthened the sealing effect and blocked the teleportation.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. The cultivator in the straw hat had been preparing a long time for this moment. Killing intent rising, he took further steps to make sure nothing unexpected happened. Biting the tip of his tongue, he spat out a drop of golden blood. The blood rose into the air and turned into a shimmering barrier that spread out through the sky. Rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven, and any loosening effect on the sealing done by the bluegreen dragon was reversed.

    Having done that, the cultivator turned to face Xu Qing.

    ¡°Long time no see, Xu Qing,¡± he said in a raspy voice. ¡°As of now, you can¡¯t get away. And for the time being, no one is going to bother us.¡±

    He removed his straw hat, revealing the weathered face of a middle-aged man. His most noteworthy feature was his eyes, which were a faint golden color, including pupil, iris, and sclera. Those two golden eyes made him seem somehow holy. What was more, he actually pulsed with fluctuations of godliness!

    He was none other than Master Shengyun¡¯s father, Chu Tianqun!

    And he was using the final experimental god body that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had left behind in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture! [1]

    Back when Xu Qing left the Eight Sect Coalition, Chu Tianqun had stood at his beloved son¡¯s cenotaph and sworn to offer Xu Qing as a sacrifice there. [2]

    However, because Xu Qing had mostly stayed in the county capital, Chu Tianqun had never had a chance to make a move against him. The Swordsage Pce posed too much of a risk.

    As a result, he had waited outside of the borders of the county capital. On the asion when Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong left, he had nned to make his move. However, for some unknown reason he ended up running into the terrifying bird Qingqin, an encounter that left him seriously injured. [3]

    Though he escaped that situation with his life, he still hadn¡¯t fully recovered. That setback didn¡¯t reduce his resolve. He had spared no expense to keep track of Xu Qing¡¯s whereabouts. Recently, uponing to realize that Xu Qing had left the county capital again, he had tapped into all of his godliness, as well as his god magics, coupled with Xu Qing¡¯s name, plus some of his blood and hair, to divine Xu Qing¡¯s position. Unless Xu Qing permanently used a method to conceal his aura, those divination methods would eventually reveal his location.

    Chu Tianqun stared at Xu Qing with deep malice and loathing. His killing intent couldn¡¯t be matched. Although Chu Tianqun partly med himself for Master Shengyun¡¯s miserable fate, the biggest other factor was Xu Qing. And of even greater significance was the fact that Xu Qing had been the one to kill his son. The desire for revenge burned in his heart day and night, and thus, as he looked at Xu Qing, heughed maliciously.

    The idea of avenging his son¡¯s death, and of brutally ughtering the damnable Xu Qing, made him very pleased.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as he looked at Chu Tianqun. He obviously recognized him, and what was more, noticed the golden light and the aura of godliness that surrounded him.

    Xu Qing had not forgotten Master Shengyun¡¯s experimental god body, and the immense power it had. Therefore, he didn¡¯t hesitate to continue to fall back, all the while performing a double-handed incantation gesture and tapping into all of his heavenly pces.

    When Chu Tianqun saw Xu Qing fleeing, heughed. ¡°You¡¯re a measly Gold Core cultivator! You think you can flee my godly sealing?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Chu Tianqun thrust his hands out and tapped into his cultivation base. Instantly, early Nascent Soul stage fluctuations rolled out in all directions. Rumbling sounds echoed out, causing the sandy ground to vibrate. Then he shot toward Xu Qing like an eagle, moving at incredible speed.

    Xu Qing grimaced. That said, when he sensed Chu Tianqun¡¯s cultivation, especially as itpared to the Unit C jailers, he was surprised.

    Early Nascent Soul?

    It seemed suspicious, causing his guard to go up further. It seemed to him that it must be some sort of trick. There was no way Chu Tianqun was only in the early Nascent Soul stage.

    Master Shengyun¡¯s experimental god body had only been partiallyplete, yet had unleashed astonishing power. Chu Tianqun was Master Shengyun¡¯s father, so logically speaking, he should be a lot stronger. From what Xu Qing remembered, he had been at the peak of Nascent Soul.

    A crazy look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    My heavenly dao bluegreen dragon can break the sealing eventually, it just needs time. I might not be a match for him... but I can go for broke!

    At this point, he knew he had no other chance than to put everything on the line. He needed to buy time. Therefore, as Chu Tianqun closed in, Xu Qing¡¯s energy and blood surged. His eight heavenly pces erupted, and with his golden crow, he was able to unleash nine-pce battle prowess. In fact, it was very close to the ten-pce level.

    Chu Tianqun arrived, and the two of them mmed into each other. A huge boom echoed out, shaking the surroundings. Xu Qing staggered backward several paces, but so did Chu Tianqun, who lookedpletely incredulous.

    He¡¯s still faking it! Feeling more vignt than ever, Xu Qing unveiled one of his trump cards. The poison from his third heavenly pce swept forth, filling the area and even causing the dome of heaven to ripple and distort. In addition to the taboo poison power, the area also surged with Xu Qing¡¯s personal mutagen, which created an even more deadly effect.

    Chu Tianqun met the attack head on, and instantly started rotting thanks to the poison and mutagen. His expression flickered, and he quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture. His eyes glittered with golden light, and godly fluctuations rolled out of him to fight back.

    Even now, he¡¯s still faking it! Xu Qing was convinced that Chu Tianqun must have some astonishing techniques, and was probably just toying with him. Eyes glittering coldly, he gritted his teeth and continued unleashing trump cards. The wave of his hand caused the golden crow to appear, dozens of tails fanning out to send fire sweeping everywhere. The golden crow attacked with abandon, letting loose a sharp cry as it rushed madly toward Chu Tianqun.

    That wasn¡¯t it. The ck iron skewer flew out, controlled by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, whose eyes glittered with devotion. He could sense the madness within Xu Qing, and was determined to put everything on the line. Unleashing all of the red tribtion lightning he could, he shot toward Chu Tianqun.

    The shadow was also going all out. It stretched out from Xu Qing¡¯s feet, filling a 1,500-meter area, merging with the poison to create a huge shadowy domain. Countless eyes opened up within the darkness, and they glowed red as they stared at Chu Tianqun.

    ¡°Die! Die! Die!!¡±

    Innumerable voices howled the same thing from within the shadowy domain, bing like a curse that enveloped Chu Tianqun.

    All of these things were like a wild tempest that swept over Chu Tianqun.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s face fell and he quickly performed an incantation gesture to unleash some divine abilities to defend himself. However, the poison was too strong, and Xu Qing just had too many other assets. Chu Tianqun was backing up!

    There¡¯s no way. He¡¯s so strong, yet he¡¯s falling back? Maybe he¡¯s about to unleash some trump card!

    Stayingpletely on guard, Xu Qing gritted his teeth and lifted his hand, putting it over his shoulder and behind his back. It was as if he were reaching back to grab the hilt of an invisible sword. Then he chopped that invisible sword down right toward the bedraggled Chu Tianqun.

    That shing movement caused bright light to fill the sky. A dazzling beam of sword light erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s hand, heading right toward Chu Tianqun with the power to destroy anything in its path.

    From a distance, that sword light looked like a spectacr sword that emanated an imperial energy. It was domineering and tyrannical, like an emperor descended from above to ughter all evil things in heaven and earth.

    It was The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Before The Emperor¡¯s Sword could even fall, Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon heavenly pce trembled, causing violet moons to appear in his pupils. They became a beam of violet light that locked onto the fleeing Chu Tianqun¡¯s face. It created the image of a moon!

    Xu Qing was ready for his opponent to unleash a trump card, and thus blue veins bulged out on his forehead. His hands both pointed out, and as the violet moon power reached Chu Tianqun¡¯s face, The Emperor¡¯s Sword unleashed its power.

    Chu Tianqun shrieked as his body started to copse.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he fused with his shadow to tap into peak fleshly body power.

    With a terrifying fleshly body equivalent to ten pces, he became like a lightning bolt that shot toward Chu Tianqun. A dagger appeared in his hand. All while waiting for a trump card to be released, he blurred past Chu Tianqun.

    Along the way, his dagger shed through Chu Tianqun¡¯s throat and came out the back of his neck. Chu Tianqun¡¯s head flew into the air, and his body, which couldn¡¯t sustain the force of everything else, exploded.

    Gasping for breath, Xu Qing spun in ce and looked back. His jaw nearly dropped.

    ¡°He¡¯s dead?¡±

    1. There were originally four experimental god bodies. We found out in chapter 327 that there was a fifth test subject. ?

    2. The scene with Chu Tianqun at Master Shengyun¡¯s cenotaph was in chapter 387. ?

    3. Qingqin was introduced in chapter 391. ?

 Chapter 461: Godly Power of Infinite Resurrection!

    Chapter 461: Godly Power of Infinite Resurrection!

    After initially being stunned, Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned somber. Something strange was definitely going on. The reason he had been going all out a moment ago was that the uneasy feeling from the bluegreen dragon had only been getting more intense, to the point where he felt like his heart was full of trepidation.

    He just didn¡¯t believe that he could resolve such a deadly situation so quickly. Waving his right hand, he sent all the poison in the area toward Chu Tianqun¡¯s corpse. It gathered around both the head and the body, which began to rot. After barely more than ten breaths of time passed, they became a ck sludge that soaked the sand beneath it.

    However, the sealing in the dome of heaven was still there. What was more, his feeling of unease also remained. Expression unsightly, he flew straight up into the sky and unleashed a powerful attack, hoping that he might be able to just break free. Just as he unleashed the attack, a sense of deadly crisis erupted in his heart.

    Swiveling, he looked back down at the ground.

    Golden light shone brightly in the area where Chu Tianqun had died. It rippled and distorted, seemingly changing the magicalws in the area. Apparently it was influencing time itself, as something unbelievable was happening.

    It was as if time... was flowing in reverse!

    As Xu Qing watched, the ck sludge seeped out of the sand and formed Chu Tianqun¡¯s head and body. Then, the head flipped back up onto the neck. All of the wounds Chu Tianqun had sustained vanished. His eyes opened, and he looked grimly at Xu Qing up in the sky.

    ¡°I underestimated you,¡± he said in a raspy voice, golden light swirling around him. ¡°I never would have guessed that you also have god power....¡±

    Chu Tianqun rolled his shoulders and took a step forward. At the same time, his cultivation base power surged. This time, it wasn¡¯t in the early Nascent Soul stage. It went directly to mid Nascent Soul.

    Although that was an increase in one section of arger realm, Xu Qing knew that after Foundation Establishment, every such upgrade created a massive difference. Usually, someone in a higher level could easily kill someone a single level below them. The sensation of deadly crisis continued to bubble within him. He knew he had to be wary of this power of resurrection. It was not some ordinary magical technique or divine ability. Nor was it a magical technique that could substitute for someone in death. Xu Qing got the sense... that this really did contain the power of a god!

    ¡°This experimental god body of mine is different from the other ones,¡± Chu Tianqun said coolly. ¡°And it¡¯s even more different from Yun¡¯er¡¯s. My godly power is that of resurrection. Infinite resurrection.¡±

    The truth was that if Chu Tianqun hadn¡¯t run into the great bird Qingqin, who had miraculously injured him, then his cultivation base would have been immeasurably close to peak Nascent Soul. Qingqin was an ancient mutant beast that possessed godliness. In other words, he was a high-level godly entity. His life force god light couldn¡¯t interrupt Chu Tianqun¡¯s godly resurrection, but the injuries inflicted had forced his cultivation base to a lower level. And the effects lingered even after he resurrected. The recovery process was slow, and the effect on his cultivation base was massive. That was why he normally revealed an early Nascent Soul cultivation base.

    Looking at Xu Qing, he narrowed his eyes. ¡°I was kind enough to exin some things to you. Now... why don¡¯t you tell me what your god power is?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. Eyes glittering with killing intent, he tapped into the fleshly body power provided by the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic to shoot with incredible speed toward Chu Tianqun.

    He arrived in an instant.

    However, Chu Tianqun was also a lot faster than before. In one movement, he was 300 meters away, his expression calm as he lifted his right hand, then pushed it toward the ground.

    ¡°Yun¡¯er used some sword moves on you,¡± he said coolly. ¡°But they weren¡¯tplete, thanks to his low cultivation base. Since we have plenty of time on our hands, allow me to show you a secret magic of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect... it¡¯s the Twelve Swords of Heaven and Earth!¡±

    The sand below him for 3,000 meters in all directions rose and fell, and the ground trembled, as if subterranean dragons were stirring beneath. It almost looked like it was a sea with waves rolling across it. As the fluctuations grew more intense, the sand floated into the air, blotting out the evening sun and making it seem like night had fallen.

    Then, a host of enormous swords appeared around Chu Tianqun. There were twelve in all. Each sword was fully 3,000 meters long, and emanated terrifying power. They caused the air to vibrate and crack, and the sword energy that pulsed out had killing intent that made the burning desert seem icy cold.

    Then the swords shed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. Those twelve swords surpassed anything he had faced when dealing with Master Shengyun. It wasn¡¯t just the might they exuded. They were different on a substructural level. However, there was no time to think about it right now. Just as he was preparing to dodge, the twelve enormous swords shifted directions, closing off all avenues of escape. They shed into him, causing blood to ooze out of the corners of his mouth. Dazzling light glittered atop his head, creating a protective barrier in all directions. That was the Supreme-Limitless Crown. Then, the hellspirit bloodwingmp boosted his speed, causing a single wing to appear on his back.

    With his current fleshly body power and the boost to speed, he could pierce through the air in what was almost a teleportation. As he dodged out of the way, heunched a fist strike that hit one of the swords. Backed with the fleshly body power of ten heavenly pces, he was capable of devastating power. This secret magic backed by a Nascent Soul cultivator was extraordinary, but when hit by Xu Qing¡¯s fist, it cracked.

    There were few things in existence that had fleshly body power like that.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he extended his right index finger.

    ¡°Wind!¡±

    Before Xu Qing could proceed to destroy the twelve swords, they copsed on their own, turning into innumerable grains of sand that swirled around Xu Qing in the form of a tempest. From a distance, that tempest actually resembled a sword in shape. It swirled around with astonishing speed, shing and cutting, all while slowly shrinking around Xu Qing. Numerous small wounds opened up on Xu Qing, like tiny cuts from des. Seeing the danger, Xu Qing shot straight up. The wing on his back pped, giving him a boost of shocking speed that got him out of the tempest. The countless grains of sand pursued him, but they weren¡¯t quite as fast.

    Chu Tianqun frowned, then thrust his right arm to the side.

    ¡°Assimte!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the grains of sand spread out in all directions, filling a 3,000-meter area over Xu Qing. There, they formed into a giant bottle gourd made from swords!

    As for Xu Qing, he was inside the bottle gourd.

    The power of assimtion erupted inside the gourd. mes burst out, covering Xu Qing. But then, the cry of a golden crow rang out, reaching to the highest heaven. The image of the golden crow appeared, growingrger andrger. 300 meters. 1,500 meters. 3,000 meters. 9,000 meters.... Eventually it reached 15,000 meters.

    It seemed to overshadow everything else. And as the golden crow grew, Xu Qing appeared atop it, still using the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic.

    He was covered in blood, and his eyes radiated killing intent. He looked like a killing machine, and when he burst into action, the golden crow cried out, causing a 3,000-meter sea of mes to spread out as it dove toward Chu Tianqun from above. Taboo poison power erupted, along with intense mutagen. At the same time, the shadow also rose up, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior came in with the iron skewer. The Emperor¡¯s Sword appeared in the golden crow¡¯s mouth as it shot toward Chu Tianqun.

    A rumbling like heavenly thunder echoed out everywhere. The ground shook, and the sky changed color as a golden beam of light appeared around Chu Tianqun. It expanded rapidly, bing a covering that surrounded Chu Tianqun protectively.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing shivered, coughed up blood, and kept backing up.

    The golden crow howled in anguish. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior nearly copsed into pieces, and the shadow grew dim. The Emperor¡¯s Sword also faded. However, at the same time, that golden covering surrounding Chu Tianqun trembled, and cracking sounds rang out as it began to break up.

    Taboo poison power covered everything, and Xu Qing made sure that it seeped in through those cracks. Chu Tianqun frowned as his body again started to rot. He had godliness, as well as god power, which meant that though he was difficult to injure with poison, he wasn¡¯t impervious to it!

    ¡°This is the same type of god curse that you infected Yun¡¯er with.... Now that I¡¯ve personally felt it, I can tell how terrifying it is! Sadly for you, you don¡¯t have perfect control of it. You can only use its external shell of power. Therefore, the methods I¡¯ve prepared to deal with it are sufficient!¡± Chu Tianqun stared at Xu Qing as the golden light around him copsed. Then he performed an incantation gesture and pointed up with his right index and middle finger.

    ¡°Cmity!¡±

    The air above him distorted as nine vortexes appeared. As they spun, ck coffins emerged from all of them.

    Nine coffins dropped from above and mmed into the ground.

    There, they split open to reveal nine zombies. All of them looked mangled in some way, but they had all died in different ways. One had been drowned, one had burned to death, one had been disemboweled, one had bled to death, and one had died after their blood vessels all exploded.... All had died grisly deaths of torment. And if you looked closely at their faces, it became obvious that they were all Chu Tianqun.

    Especially noteworthy was the fact that all nine of the grisly zombies were surrounded by countless souls. They howled in grief, their voices spreading out everywhere. They were the souls of men and women, young and old. They came from nine small human nations that Chu Tianqun had exterminated. Then he assimted their souls and put them into nine ¡®cmity zombies.¡¯

    The nine zombies slowly looked at Chu Tianqun, then inhaled, causing the taboo poison in him to sweep out and into them.

    ¡°I nourished these zombies with the blood of countless of your fellow humans. I filled them with innumerable souls of your fellow humans. Coupled with a prayer to my god, they can share the cmity of an external god curse. Xu Qing, you have no idea the extent to which I prepared to kill you.¡±

    Chu Tianqun looked at Xu Qing as he performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and pointed up with two fingers. At the same time he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and pointed down. Finally, he pushed both hands in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Attack!¡±

    The nine cmity zombies turned to look at Xu Qing, then became nine blurs that raced toward him!

 Chapter 462: Embodied as a God

    Chapter 462: Embodied as a God

    Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, and his expression was unsightly as he continued to fall back. It was the first time anyone had ever dispelled his taboo poison power, or at the very least, dyed it significantly. If it wasn¡¯t for Chu Tianqun¡¯s powers of infinite resurrection, then the poison would have been effective eventually.

    Regardless, Xu Qing could sense... that his poison was still at work. Although Chu Tianqun could reverse time and resurrect himself, the poison had still seeped deep into his bones. That was one terrifying aspect of Xu Qing¡¯s poison. It had only been dyed. That said, if things kept going as they were, he wouldn¡¯t have time to wait for the poison to take effect. What was more, the nine zombies had undying bodies. Whatever blows Xu Qingnded on them seemed to have no effect. From the look of it, the souls absorbed the force of the attacks.

    This was Chu Tianqun¡¯s method of dying the poison. He sent the poison from himself into the zombies, and from the zombies into the countless souls. Although the souls wept and howled, Xu Qing could sense that they were pleased with what was happening.

    It was as if Chu Tianqun was what they put their faith in. It was as if Chu Tianqun was their god! In fact, that was one of the powers of a god!

    The nine zombies were not only eternally indestructible, they also pulsed with early Nascent Soul fluctuations. One wouldn¡¯t have been too difficult to deal with, but nine was pushing Xu Qing to a deadly limit.

    Seeing the danger he was in, his eyes flickered with cold light. He still had two trump cards he hadn¡¯t used. Both were most effective when they were first used. What was more, he would only have one chance to use the projection of the Ghost Emperor mountain.

    The most important thing to deal with are those souls. Simply suppressing them won¡¯t do any good. I need to either destroy them... or subjugate them!

    With such thoughts on his mind, his eyes shone with determination as he reached out with his right hand and activated his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. His hand immediately became semitransparent as he shoved it deep into the pit of his own stomach. The icy hand entered him and stretched to his sea of consciousness, where he found his fourth heavenly pce, and within it... the violet moon!

    He could use the power of the violet moon by activating his heavenly pce. But that was like a small pony pulling a big chariot. Though the violet moon was a part of him, his power and control over it was limited. If he wanted to release its true potential, he had to do so directly. He had to take it out!

    As Xu Qing gripped the violet moon, veins bulged on his forehead, and pain filled his body. However, he didn¡¯t frown. Cool calmness filled his eyes, along with killing intent, as he pulled it out.

    As his fourth heavenly pce trembled, he extracted the violet moon and held it aloft. Boundless violet light spilled out from his hand, bing like a sea of violet that spread in all directions. Wherever it went, everything turned violet, making it seem like the area had been separated from the rest of the world. In fact, it made it seem... almost like a god domain. Within that god domain, violet light was god power, and the source of it, the violet moon, was the god!

    As the violet light erupted, Chu Tianqun¡¯s expression flickered. His heart started pounding.

    ¡°Godly authority! That''s impossible!¡±

    Golden blood sprayed out of his mouth, and tears of blood poured out of his eyes, which bulged like they might fall out of his skull. He began to shake violently, and his hands dropped to his sides. It looked like he was just on the verge of averting his face and dropping to his knees to prostrate.

    At the same time, he twitched and convulsed, as if his flesh and blood had their own will, and wanted to detach from him. However, he was an experimental god body, and the god power within him exerted a suppressing force that forced his body back into equilibrium.

    Given how Chu Tianqun reacted, it almost wasn¡¯t necessary to mention the cmity zombies. The zombies¡¯ eyes exploded, and they dropped to their knees, trembling. Howls of grief erupted from their mouths, and the mutagen within them soared to such heights it looked like they might mutate at any moment.

    At the same time, the mutagen invaded the souls attached to them, causing them to cease their shrieking and wailing. Instead, their expressions became that of unprecedented piety, filled with fanaticism and even faith. One by one, they began leaving the zombies and flying toward the violet moon in Xu Qing¡¯s hand. As the souls flew into the violet moon, the nine zombies lost their main support, and began shaking so hard it looked like they might copse.

    Chu Tianqun didn¡¯t seem like he could hold out against the taboo poison much longer. As the poison surged within him, he started rotting again.

    Killing intent filled Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. However, even as he prepared to continue with his current strategy, ripples spread through the dome of heaven, and a sensation of deadly crisis filled him. This sensation surpassed anything from before, filling him with an extremely disturbing sensation of inauspicious terror.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face fell.

    Up above, his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon emitted an anxious shriek. It was as if an indescribable entity had taken note of the aura of the violet moon, and was waking up toe search for it. The sky then began to change color, gradually bing red. An image of a red moon appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, along with a terrifying statue of a god. He also heard the same breathing he had heard back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. This was what Xu Qing had always worried about. After all, he was well aware of the origin of his violet moon.

    As the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon wailed, he unhesitatingly put the violet moon back into his heavenly pce. He also retracted his taboo poison pill power and used it to cover up any traces of god power.

    Having done that, he burst into motion, heading with stupefying speed toward Chu Tianqun. In the blink of an eye, he arrived, and the dagger in his right hand shed toward Chu Tianqun¡¯s notpletely healed neck.

    A momentter, blinding golden light erupted from Chu Tianqun¡¯s skin to block the dagger. It also created a bacsh attack that sent Xu Qing flying backward, trembling and coughing up blood. At the same time, the rotting Chu Tianqun opened his eyes, looked at Xu Qing, then reached up and smashed his palm into his own forehead. A thump rang out as his head exploded and he died.

    Xu Qing scowled as he backed up, all the while looking up into the sky.

    The red light above was fading, and the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon was no longer wailing in anxiety. That caused Xu Qing to breathe a sigh of relief, as it was now obvious this taboo poison power had effectively concealed the aura of the violet moon.

    Next he flew up into the air, reached out, and directly ripped open the sealing barrier. The barrier was immensely powerful, but his bluegreen dragon existed at a higher level and had finally worn down the barrier. It ripped apart.

    However, the result didn¡¯t leave Xu Qing feeling very pleased. If his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon was as amazing as it was supposed to be, why had it taken such a long time to break through the barrier? Even though the barrier contained god power from Chu Tianqun, the process had still taken much too long.

    The bluegreen dragon seemed a bit embarrassed.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to that. After ripping open a section of the barrier, he was about to try another teleportation when he looked outside. That was when his heart dropped.

    The outside world... did not look like a desert! The area beyond the barrier was a world of ever-present mist.

    The bluegreen dragon let loose a cry that seemed to be an exnation, as if it were telling Xu Qing that this was why the process took so long.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Down below, time flowed backward and Chu Tianqun appeared again, just like before. That said, there were some portions of his face that hadn¡¯t recovered after his resurrection, and were still rotting. Other areas glowed with violet light. That was the result of the god power Xu Qing wielded. Even after being resurrected, Chu Tianqun couldn¡¯t wipe out those things. That said, all it did was make this resurrected Chu Tianqun look more vicious.

    ¡°You actually broke through the barrier,¡± he said. ¡°Sadly... I prepared for that too. You really thought you were still on the Revered Ancient maind? This ce is the Smoke World, a ce fully controlled by the Smokewights. It¡¯s not a minor world. Rather, it¡¯s a chunk of a major world from antiquity that was second only to Revered Ancient. The Smokewights made it their own.

    ¡°It¡¯s a precious treasure that surpasses even taboo treasures! I paid a hundred drops of god blood to earn the right to enter it. And only one of us will exit. Either I die and you get out, or the other way around.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down at Chu Tianqun. ¡°In that case, I have no choice but to kill you!¡±

    He blurred down toward Chu Tianqun.

    ¡°Kill me?¡± Chu Tianqun chuckled viciously, then dropped to a cross-legged position and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Golden light sprang up around him, and at the same time, golden light shone from his eyes. Everything about him seemed golden, even his hair.

    A holy sensation emanated from him, and his expression was no longer vicious. It seemed apathetic, as if he had risen to a higher level of life, and no longer needed any emotions. Then he closed his eyes, faced Xu Qing, and started chanting something that sounded like a sutra.

    ¡°Follows the dark reversal dao underworld surpasses god first period until supreme spirit darkness yang hop¡­.¡±

    As he chanted, the surrounding world started to tremble. This was no sutra. This was the chanting of a god!

    Chu Tianqun existed as an experimental god body, therefore, he could take words he had heard chanted, then use his god power to imitate them and transmit them to the world. Everything around him rippled and distorted, and then erupted with boundless mutagen. It invaded everything, mutated everything, and even created something from nothing by causing mutant beasts to appear.

    Xu Qing reeled as he was also affected; a mutagen that was not his own flowed through him.

    ¡°Yin conceals yang heights essence virtue suppress pennant yellow watchtower....¡±

    Rumbling sounds echoed out of Xu Qing as he fell from the sky, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the chanting Chu Tianqun. Chu Tianqun already seemed blurry, as if numerous variants of himself were superimposed on each other. It made him seem like a god being embodied, that couldn¡¯t be seen properly. Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled, and he gasped for breath. His body wasn¡¯t under his control. It was as if his enemy¡¯s voice had be corporeal. It was in his sea of consciousness, his mind, his dharma force, his flesh. Everywhere.

    Splitting pain filled him. It was the exact same sensation he had experienced in the ghast hollow beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, when that god¡¯s eye opened.

 Chapter 463: A Box in a Heart

    Chapter 463: A Box in a Heart

    There was a big difference between this situation and the ghast hollow!

    Back in the ghast hollow, when Xu Qing saw a real god, the invasion created by that eye affected the entire ghast hollow. That type of might was impossible to resist, impossible to sustain, and impossible to fathom. It didn¡¯t just break apart the fleshly body, it also affected the internal dharma force as well as one¡¯s thoughts. It was as if it broke apart the entire living being. During that event, Xu Qing had felt like his entire being was copsing. If it weren¡¯t for that centipededy appearing and saving him, then he would have been in an unimaginable crisis. Even if he had somehow managed to get into that pentagonal log cabin to gain protection from the song that pacified the god, the time it would have taken would have involved severe injury to Xu Qing. And even if he survived, he would have experienced mutation and be like the ghasts that inhabited the ghast hollow. [1]

    However, this situation with Chu Tianqun, though simr in some ways, was actually poles apart. Chu Tianqun¡¯s chanting was being channeled through his god body, and thus it resembled the chanting of a god. But in the final analysis, he was not a true god, only an imitation. Even though the illusory projection of a god existed behind him, based on what Xu Qing had experienced in the ghast hollow, the situation was fundamentally different.

    Beyond all that, Xu Qing was a very different person than he was back in the ghast hollow.

    Xu Qing looked up, his eyes bloodshot but shining with a strange light. He looked at Chu Tianqun sitting cross-legged and emanating golden light. He ignored the way his body was distorting, with fleshy appendages sprouting out from him everywhere, swaying back and forth. His thoughts were clear. He had ways of fighting back against the god power of Chu Tianqun.

    They included his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon and the Ghost Emperor mountain, as well as that bottle he had purchased in the ghost ward with the voice of the singing woman inside. All were tools he could use. And of course, he still had his taboo poison and violet moon. [2]

    That said, killing intent flickered in Xu Qing''s eyes; he wasn¡¯t interested in fighting back against this opponent. He wanted to devastate him! He would use god power to crush god power! Or at the very least, he would try. And that was because seeing Chu Tianqun use the power of a god had given him some inspiration.

    Can I do the same thing?

    Although this fragmented world of the Smokewight seemed like a ce full of danger, it was also a destined opportunity.

    The power of the red moon had sought him earlier, making it clear to Xu Qing that if he used the power of the violet moon out in the open, he would be discovered.

    What if I just use a little bit, and keep it concealed within my taboo poison? If you add in the fact that I¡¯m in this Smokewight world fragment.... Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up with determination as he struggled to look up at the rift in the sky.

    He exercised a thought, and his bluegreen dragon, which was still able to move freely despite Chu Tianqun¡¯s chanting, swished its tail and hit the rift. A boom rang out as the section that Xu Qing had ripped open subsequently closed, returning the barrier to its original state.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted back to Chu Tianqun, and he activated his third and fourth heavenly pces at the same time.

    The mysterious and unfathomable taboo poison, which had originallye from a god domain, swept through Xu Qing, reaching every bit of his blood and flesh. All of the appendages which had started growing out of him rotted, turning into ck gore that sttered on the ground. The sounds which had been boring into his flesh were also poisoned out of existence. They had no way to flee. They vanished, any resistance on their part absolutely pointless.

    Then the poison seeped out of him, flowing through the air and making the area surrounding him even more turbid and distorted. What was more, because the taboo poison power also contained his own mutagen, that mutagen flourished around him, spiraling out and making him seem like he had the very same type of unique life force as a god.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Next, Xu Qing sent the power of the violet moon spreading through his body. Where it passed, his flesh turned violet, until he was that exact color from head to toe.

    As a result, he began to glitter with scintiting violet light. With that violet light radiating out, another type of mutagen unique to Xu Qing was born. It was formed by the violet moon, and after invading living things, they became linked to Xu Qing.

    As all of these things swirled endlessly around Xu Qing, they became like a tempest that connected to the dome of heaven and devastated everything around him.

    Within that tempest, it was just possible to see the projection of a violet moon hanging in the sky. That was the embodiment of godly authority; it was the true power of a god. Behind the violet moon, within the violet world that now existed, there was a pair of ck eyes that could not be invaded by any mutagen. The pupils of those eyes contained boundless taboo poison.

    There were two types of godly authority erupting from within Xu Qing. Though they weren¡¯t fused together, neither were they separated. Though they resisted each other, they also coexisted. And right now, both were emanating godly might that was uniquely th¨¥ir own.

    As Xu Qing emanated godly might, his expression was indifferent, and he exuded a supreme level of majesty, every aspect of which caused heaven and earth to shake violently.

    Eventually, thanks to the blessing of those two types of godly authority, he rose to an astonishing level. It was as if... he had be the embryonic form of some new god.

    His shadow trembled, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered. Without any hesitation, both of them appeared in the open and prostrated in front of Xu Qing. The patriarch seemed profoundly reverent, while the shadow was filled with iparable piety and fanaticism.

    Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes, which now glittered with golden light that spread around him and made him seem truly holy.

    ¡°The shadow bans, the ghostmands; the immortal declines, the world is mine.¡±

    This was the fake mnemonic created by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to disguise Xu Qing¡¯s use of the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic. Right now, it didn¡¯t have any specific meaning or function; Xu Qing just said it because he felt like it.

    The shadow was briefly stunned, and then extremely excited.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s voice imparted the vague and indistinct sensation that the words spoken contained vast amounts of profound information and blessings. They had another, deeper meaning, and as they echoed out, winds swirled and strange colors flickered everywhere.

    The surroundings began to ripple and distort as the transformations caused by the chanting of a god appeared thanks to Xu Qing.

    The ground shook, causing even the sand to vibrate and copse. All sorts of supernatural phenomena sprang up around Xu Qing, and howling echoed out that seemed to originate from countless years in the past. Cracks spread out on the ground, and gory tentacles rose up. The entire world was changing, transforming, turning into something gruish and inauspicious. All living things were invaded, thrown into chaos, causing everything to shake and distort.

    The source of it all was none other than Xu Qing.

    The blessing of the two types of godly authority was notplete, only embryonic. But at that moment, Xu Qing had truly reached an astonishing level down to every fiber of his being. That was why, to some extent, his voice was actually a godly voice.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s chanting was an imitation. But on a substructural level, what Xu Qing was saying was the real chanting of a god.

    Although it was not on the level of other gods, it was more than enough to crush Chu Tianqun.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s chanting suddenly faltered, and what had previously been iprehensible suddenly became easy to understand.

    ¡°The god first follows the dark path; the underworld surpasses the supreme spirit... yang virtue conceals yin essence....¡± [3]

    As he inhaled, his eyes opened and he looked in shock at Xu Qing. Although he had continued speaking, the golden light around him had already copsed.

    Because of that, a boundless mutagen suddenly erupted within him. His body started to copse and his thoughts became isted. Thanks to the wordsing from Xu Qing, and the mutagen, his chanting suddenly turned into a bloodcurdling scream. In that moment of crisis, Chu Tianqun reached up and stabbed his fingers into one of his eyes, then wrenched it out of the socket. Golden blood sprayed out in a mist, spreading out around him to stave off Xu Qing¡¯s godly voice.

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing was also in bad condition. The sudden influx of shocking power was more than his fleshly body could sustain, and even as his voice rang out, his body started to copse.

    That said, the experiment he had just carried out had given Xu Qing a clear understanding that the two types of godly power within him had much more to unveil. At the same time, th¨¥y were extremely dangerous. Unless he became a lot stronger, then when he used them, the slightest misunderstanding on his part could lead to him perishing.

    Therefore, after crushing Chu Tianqun¡¯s chanting, Xu Qing unhesitatingly retracted the violet moon and the taboo poison. The violent tempest vanished, and heaven and earth returned to normal.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s golden blood faded away along with his scream. As he struggled to get the mutagen within him under control, his expression turned vicious. Floating up into the air, he shouted, ¡°You¡¯re obviously just a cultivator. A cultivator! How did you do that? How did you ovee me?? I refuse to believe this!¡±

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s face was sttered with golden blood. His expression was one of insanity as he red at Xu Qing. Then he suddenly jabbed his right hand into his chest, grabbed his own heart, and ripped it out.

    Blood sprayed everywhere as he held the golden heart aloft and then crushed it. As the blood and flesh spurted out, a box was revealed in the middle of the heart!

    If Master Seventh were here, he would recognize it immediately. It was very simr to the box that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had revealed, although close examination would reveal that it was much cruder. [4]

    As soon as Chu Tianqun had it in his hands, he crushed it, causing a beam of light to appear!

    It was the gaze of a god! [5]

    When Xu Qing felt that gaze, a tremor passed through him, and he immediately felt his taboo poison and violet moon being suppressed.

    The beam of light didn¡¯t spread out in all directions. Instead, it materialized in Chu Tianqun¡¯s right hand, causing that hand to glitter with dazzling light. Then he shoved that hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction and bellowed, ¡°God Magic: Leave Emptiness in the Future!¡±

    During this fight, Xu Qing had always been acutely aware that he was dealing with an experimental god body that surely had mysterious abilities. For example, Master Shengyun¡¯s experimental god body had released an astonishing magic that, though it was ultimately defeated, had left asting impression on Xu Qing.

    The moment words left Chu Tianqun¡¯s mouth, Xu Qing felt his surroundings transforming. Images sprang up around him, hundreds if not thousands of them. And every single one depicted him. In some, he sat quietly in meditation. In others, he was fleeing for his life. He saw himself taking hisst breath or wailing in anguish¡­ The images seemed never-ending.

    They were...Xu Qing¡¯s current future.

    As the images gathered, they formed something like a picture book. Chu Tianqun waved his hand, and the pages of the book blurred by. He seemed to be looking for an image of Xu Qing¡¯s future death, which he would then pluck out into the open and make a reality.

    This was ¡®God Magic: Leave Emptiness in the Future.¡¯

    It was a very simr scene to what Xu Qing had experienced with Master Shengyun. [6]

    The way he had dealt with that situation was to interfere with the future by taking his fate into his own hands.

    That said, Master Shengyun¡¯s experimental god body had been iplete, and therefore, that god magic hadn¡¯t been sessfully employed. Furthermore, no box appeared at that time.

    Chu Tianqun was obviously holding nothing back. He had taken out the box and fused his hand with the gaze within, to Xu Qing¡¯s utter shock.

    However, there were two sides to every coin. Although thisplete god magic was fully terrifying, to Xu Qing, it was also something of a benefit. At the very least, he was now able to sense what a god magic could do. And right now, boundless information was flowing into his mind.

    1. The situation with the ghast hallow, the god, and the centipede woman were in chapter 369. ?

    2. The scene where he got the bottle in the ghost ward started in chapter 388. ?

    3. Compare Chu Tianqun¡¯s words now to his words in thest chapter and you will see the connections/differences/simrities. ?

    4. The box was actually mentioned a few times, but it was revealed publicly in chapter 313, and was used in chapter 314. ?

    5. The word I¡¯m tranting ¡°gaze¡± is a fairlymon word that also means things like ¡°sight, vision, look, expression (in one¡¯s eyes)¡± etc. It also contains the word for ¡°light.¡± If you literally tranted each character, it would be ¡°eye light.¡± So when the gaze of a god is described as a ¡°beam of light¡± it makes even more sense in Chinese than it does in English. ?

    6. The final fight with Master Shengyun¡¯s experimental god body was in chapter 326. ?

 Chapter 464: The Ghost Emperor Arrives

    Chapter 464: The Ghost Emperor Arrives

    It wasn¡¯t that he wanted to absorb the information. It began pouring into his mind because of the beam of light and the god magic. It was as if the bits of information were contained in the god magic and the gaze of the god. Xu Qing had no choice but to ept the information, and thus veins bulged on his forehead, and his head filled with intense pain. His eyes turned bloodshot, and then bulged as if they might explode. As Xu Qing was wracked with pain, and as the information filled his mind, he suddenly came to understand something about the world.

    To the eyes of gods, the lives of all living things were like a picture book open for perusal. What happened when th¨¥y looked at you was that your past, future, and everything about you were like countless pictures that could be flipped through,bined, or changed. Your every action, including the tiniest step forward, eleration, or pause in movement, could affect the future by creating countless branching possibilities.

    Because of that, the pictures of the future contained countless variations. They were like a majestic river that formed the picture book of life. That picture book was so massive that mortals couldn¡¯t even sense its existence. Not even cultivators could do that, unless their cultivation base reached an extremely high level.

    And only someone at an apex level could possibly see the entire thing. That was because even just the pictures of one life contained information that most existing entities couldn¡¯t sustain, much less the collective picture book.

    When considering all of the living things in an entire world, and the world itself, it was simply too ¡®weighty¡¯ to even imagine. The nearly infinite amount of information that would erupt out every single instant would create different levels of destruction based on the level of the cultivation base involved. That was one reason why gods couldn¡¯t be looked straight in the eyes.

    Gods had such picture books which contained, not just the future, but countless other pieces of indescribable information. The more information, the greater the weight. In some cases, a god might not even have any destructive intentions, but if a living thing looked at th¨¥m, the unbounded information would be too much to sustain. It would affect that living thing¡¯s body, causing mutation and, ultimately, death.

    But as for the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven... h¨¥ was different. When h¨©s eyes were closed, it was possible to look at h¨©m. Only when those eyes opened did an explosion ur.

    Perhapspared to other gods that would seem like a weakness. But when h¨©s eyes opened, that gaze epassed all of the Revered Ancient maind, and could invade anything and everything. In fact, even other gods could be invaded. After all, when h¨¥ gazed at something three times, it was called a god domain. It was very contradictory, and was seemingly iprehensible.

    Such information inundated Xu Qing¡¯s mind, and that contradictory nature caused blood to spill out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He shook from head to toe, and his blood vessels started copsing.

    The hand fused with that light was absolutely terrifying. This was a godly authority that waspletely different from that of the taboo poison and the violet moon. It was purer.

    A sense of deadly crisis sprang up within Xu Qing. He gasped for breath as he sent the power of the taboo poison and violet moon through himself, both to sustain himself and also resist the terrifying god magic.

    The surrounding pictures blurred, with some of them turning dark. It looked like the flipping of pages was slowing down. But the pictures didn¡¯t disappear. There was a deadlock between the two types of power, as they contended with each other.

    Up in the sky, Chu Tianqun looked down, his expression turning more vicious. He was putting his life on the line in his attempt to kill Xu Qing. And he was tapping into his very core essence to do so.

    The gaze within that box came from the heart of his experimental god body. And that body had been specifically designed for that box. Based on what he knew, the other four experimental bodies had been crafted simrly, yet none of them had boxes in their hearts. His was the only one. And that was also why he had been able to maintain his faculties in the experimental god body.

    Furthermore, when his essence exploded out in this manner, it would influence his resurrection ability. But he didn¡¯t care about that right now. What he cared about was that the picture book he had paid such a price to unleash was now turning blurry. Worse, it was bing much more difficult to flip the pages. That was what he cared about the most, and it was also causing him to devolve into madness.

    He couldn¡¯t ept an oue like this, and thus, he inhaled deeply. In doing so, he caused everything beneath his waist to wither up. All of the flesh and blood there disappeared. The bones melted. In the shortest of moments, his lower half turned into ash.

    As they vanished, the god power essence within them swept up into the top half of Chu Tianqun¡¯s body, converging in his throat, where it turned into a second beam of light that erupted from his mouth and fused into the god magic in his right hand.

    Instantly, his hand shone with blinding, dazzling light. At the same time, it surged with unprecedentedly powerful godly might. It was so bright it made everything else seem dim, and made him the only source of light in heaven and earth. The ground quaked. The world blurred. Everything twisted and distorted. And at the same time, Chu Tianqun extended his hand toward Xu Qing and then slowly clenched it into a fist.

    ¡°Die! Die! Die!¡±

    Xu Qing had just stabilized himself, only to suddenly feel himself reeling out of control. Countless pictures appeared around him, and instead of being blurry, they were extremely clear.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s expression turned into one of wild hatred, and he let loose a hoarse howl. Swishing his right hand, he caused the pictures around Xu Qing to start flipping rapidly. He wanted to quickly find the perfect image.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as his organs, his flesh, his blood, his bones, and even his soul filled with indescribable pain. It was as if a red-hot poker had been plunged directly into his abdomen and then maliciously wrenched back and forth. Xu Qing spasmed. Blood sprayed out of his mouth. And his face turned pale white as he staggered backward. He felt death looming over him as he looked at the pictures around him and saw innumerable futures, all of them turning clearer and clearer. It looked like, within moments, one of them would be extracted.

    It was a picture of him shattering into pieces, losing everything, leaving behind only a head and bitter grievance. Then Chu Tianqun took that head to a grave in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains. There, he ced the head as a sacrifice in front of the grave. There was a name on the gravestone, clearly visible.

    Master Shengyun.

    There were some other branches of possibility attached to this future. In some of them, Chu Tianqun died. In some cases, he was killed by Arch-Immortal Plumdark. In others, it was Sir Bloodsmelter. In yet others, he died at the hand of Master Seventh. Sometimes he died at his own hand, and in other cases, he was killed by the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned bloodshot. The gaze contained in that shattered box was full of boundless godly might. Beyond that, Chu Tianqun was obviously going all out. It was a deadly scenario. The only thing Xu Qing could think to do to resolve the situation was to crush his own future, and thus make it impossible for his enemy to change those pictures.

    Taboo poison and the violet moon aren¡¯t enough. In that case, let¡¯s see how you tamper with my future when I show you a Smoldering God shouldering two major worlds!

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth and lifted his right hand. Instantly, thirty pact symbols from the Supreme Void World appeared in front of him. As they burned, an enormous mountain suddenly manifested behind Xu Qing. It started out blurry, but as the demonization symbols burned, it became clear. As it superimposed over Xu Qing, the mountain gradually came to resemble a humanoid form seated cross-legged in meditation.

    H¨¥ wore a pitch-ck suit of armor, and had an enormous de resting in his hands. In front of h¨©m was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and two major worlds were on h¨©s shoulders. It was an image that seemed like nothing other than a wretched god. Every bit of the armor pulsed with destructive power, and the de looked like something that could slice worlds apart. Endless animosity spread out from the mountain, creating spectacrly brutal fluctuations. They contained mad fury as they spread out to devour everything.

    The entire world trembled. The desert started to copse, and even the air seemed to shatter.

    What was more, the facial features of the Ghost Emperor were about eighty percent simr to Xu Qing!

    Xu Qing was no longer visible. He had fused with the Ghost Emperor. And as that Ghost Emperor floated up into the air, a pair of eyes opened and locked onto Chu Tianqun. That godly gaze was like that of the sun or moon. It was dazzlingly brilliant, making the world brighter, and also causing waves of incredulity to batter at the shocked Chu Tianqun.

    Th-this... this.... This is freaking Gold Core?? Chu Tianqun was in a state of madness, but he was so astonished that he suddenly gained a bit of rity. He lookedpletely bbergasted. Never could he have possibly imagined that Xu Qing would be able to produce something as terrifying as this. Two types of godly authority... plus the projection of a Smoldering God with two worlds? Is that the Ghost Emperor??

    As Chu Tianqun reeled, the Ghost Emperor Xu Qing had summoned descended with crushing power toward the ground, and Chu Tianqun!

    A disdainful aura erupted from h¨©m, sweeping out everywhere, causing the ground to shatter. A miserable shriek erupted from Chu Tianqun¡¯s mouth, along with a spray of blood, as he was shoved downward.

    As the Ghost Emperor descended and blood erupted from Chu Tianqun¡¯s mouth, the countless pictures that had appeared around Xu Qing went from clear back to blurry. They went from bright to dark. And then they started vanishing.

    Winds screamed, picking up the rubble in the world around them. Chu Tianqunughed bitterly as he looked up at the shocking figure dropping toward him. Sensing Xu Qing inside, he said, ¡°You¡¯re using two types of godly authority plus a projection of the Ghost Emperor to crush me.... Very, very impressive! Xu Qing, I might not be able to do anything about your future, but what about your past? If I erase your past, then the world will forget you!¡±

    Chu Tianqun had already burned half of his body into ashes. And now he could sense that if he wanted to continue to use his god power essence, he would have to lose his power of infinite resurrection. But he was ready to use his god power to kill Xu Qing.

    Pointing downward with his hand that radiated godly light, he said, ¡°God Magic: Leave Nothing of the Past!¡±

 Chapter 465: What Did I Just See...?

    Chapter 465: What Did I Just See...?

    The future exists in the imagination. But the past exists in memories. Therefore, if all vestiges of a person¡¯s past were to be wiped out, and if those who cared about that person chose to forget them, then it would be the same as if that person never existed. There would be nothing left behind. At that point, would that person even have existed? And even if they did exist, what would it mean if no one knew about them and no one remembered them? Perhaps they would really disappear. They would have no name, no past, no future, no anything.

    That was another ability of gods. The power over the past.

    Forgetting.

    As Chu Tianqun yet again burned his essence, the ancient world fragment of the Smokewights went absolutely still, like it had been paused. Chu Tianqun¡¯s fleshly body also stopped moving, as did the descending Ghost Emperor mountain.

    Everything went quiet, as if it had frozen in ce. Only Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul, which was surrounded by godly light, could do anything. It flew out of his forehead, bing the only moving entity in the world. In that form, he looked up at everything, his expression one of reverence.

    ¡°This... is ¡®leaving nothing behind¡¯?¡±

    Chu Tianqun murmured. This was his first time using the apex-level god magic. In his view, this version of heaven and earth looked different from the real version. The dome of heaven didn¡¯t exist. Thend didn¡¯t exist. Nothing existed. Even the Ghost Emperor mountain was nothing. Not even his fleshly body seemed like it really existed.

    There was only a wisp of fog, floating there... which was Xu Qing¡¯s previously held location.

    When Chu Tianqun saw that wisp of fog, he knew that was where he needed to go. All he had to do was find the ¡®memory doors¡¯ of people there that remembered Xu Qing, and close them. Then this god magic of ¡®Leave Nothing of the Past¡¯ would be a sess.

    Without any hesitation, Chu Tianqun in soul form rushed toward that fog and then entered it.

    Within that boundless fog, he found innumerable doors. Some wererge, some were small. Some were round, some were square. There were all types. Some were new, some were old. They all seemed to be made from different materials. They were densely packed, and almost resembled a long tunnel.

    ¡°This is the ce!¡± Chu Tianqun threw out both his hands, and his soul erupted with godly light that became numerous sealing marks. Those sealing marks then flew toward the doors to close them.

    Most of the doors started to fade beneath the sealing marks. They blurred. But other doors weren¡¯t willing to be sealed. After fading briefly, they became clear. But the godly power was so immense that they had no choice but to darken.

    Every single one of these doors represented memories of Xu Qing rted to some living being. As they blurred, Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul flew faster, following the tunnel of doors, emanating godly light to seal them. The process seemed to be going smoothly, causing visible excitement to appear in Chu Tianqun¡¯s eyes.

    But then, Chu Tianqun encountered one particr door that was round. As the sealing mark of godly light reached that door, it didn¡¯t blur at all. In fact, when the godly light touched it, the door slowly opened wider.

    Inside was a blood-red eye that, once the door was open, stared at Chu Tianqun.

    At the same time, the entire path rippled and distorted. Godly power erupted out, causing Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul to let loose an agonized shriek. In that critical moment, his soul¡¯s right hand exploded, causing scintiting godlight to defend him as he shot backward.

    When he reached safety, his eyes flickered with lingering dread.

    He knew full well that the eye... was that of a god.

    This was one reason why he had waited until the most critical juncture to use God Magic: Leave Nothing of the Past. The effects of the magic were far-reaching; some people might be more than willing to forget what they knew about that person, while others would be unwilling. Thetter... would be obstacles to Chu Tianqun.

    At the same time, it made him susceptible to notice from the outside world, which could cause big problems. Furthermore, it was also possible to provoke heaven-shaking, earth-shattering misfortune. After all, he knew quite a bit about Xu Qing, and he knew that if he encountered some terrifying entity by using the magic, it could cause a major bacsh to him. He had to put all his trust in his godly essence, and hope that if Xu Qing did exist in the memories of some terrifying entity, that it wouldn¡¯t influence his own god power.

    After all, he didn¡¯t need the effects to be permanent. He just needed the world to be temporarily bereft of anyone who remembered Xu Qing. That would give him the opportunity he needed to cut Xu Qing down permanently.

    Xu Qing does have god magic, so it would make sense for his memory doors to link to a god. Thankfully, my godly light... helped me deal with it. Besides, I don¡¯t need to seal all the doors. As long as I don¡¯t fail with more than ten of them, my god magic will beplete, and I can inflict a grievous blow.

    Eyes shining with determination, he continued on his way, sending out seals of godly light in all directions. But this time, he hadn¡¯t even sealed thirty doors when, all of a sudden... he reached another door that mmed open.

    Chewing sounds echoed out from inside.

    The sound was nightmarish, to the point where those who heard it might turn insane, as if they were hearing themselves being devoured. An agonized shriek erupted from Chu Tianqun, and he instantly detonated one of his soul¡¯s legs, turning it into dazzling godly light.

    It¡¯s fine! He has two types of godly authority, so it only makes sense that two of his memory doors would lead to gods!

    Chu Tianqun trembled, but managed to break free. However... fifty doorster, there was another door, the color of blood, that mmed open.

    Boundless redness erupted from inside.

    How could there be another??

    Astonished, Chu Tianqun detonated another of his soul¡¯s legs. He was now starting to wonder if he should continue. Then, just up ahead, another door mmed open.

    Breathing sounds echoed from within, causing Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul to tremble. His eyes widened as he noticed something unimaginablyrge inside the door. It radiated might, and provoked a shrill scream from Chu Tianqun as he considered detonating his arm to defend himself.

    H-heavenly... heavenly dao!

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul was now half gone. It had no limbs. In his terror, he looked at the tunnel and realized that he had barely progressed down ten percent of it. The portion beyond that almost seemed endless. It was hard to see whaty in the depths, but he was fairly certain he could see a huge chair.

    What¡¯s a chair doing there??

    Trembling, Chu Tianqun decided he couldn¡¯t continue onward.

    Something¡¯s off about this Xu Qing. Something¡¯s very off!

    Even as Chu Tianqun reeled in intense shock, another door up ahead opened of its own ord, and a gory hand stretched out, surrounded by blurry distortions. Chu Tianqun screamed as he detonated more of himself to flee. But then, something happened that filled his mind with a heavenly tempest of astonishment. Banging sounds echoed within the tunnel ahead, and they wereing from countless doors. They were...ing from the insides of those doors! It was as if there were terrifying entities behind those doors who had smelled something delicious, and were now going mad with the desire to emerge into the open.

    Th-this... this....

    Chu Tianqun in soul form trembled violently, and he looked over his shoulder, contemting if he should flee or not. He reacted slightly too slowly, as... those countless doors mmed open. An agonized scream echoed from Chu Tianqun¡¯s soul as he instantly exploded!

    A momentter, Chu Tianqun returned to reality. A bloodcurdling scream escaped his lips as the other half of his body copsed. The godly light couldn¡¯t stop it from happening, and a momentter, all that was left behind was his head, which tumbled to the ground.

    His expression was one of terror, shock, and disbelief as he screamed and screamed.

    At the same time, everything that he had paused before... went back to normal.

    Xu Qing shivered as he recovered, and then his face turned dour. He wasn¡¯t sure what had just yed out, but the sight of Chu Tianqun¡¯s screaming head caused his eyes to turn icy. Then he sent the Ghost Emperor mountain smashing down toward Chu Tianqun again.

    Chu Tianqun began tough bitterly. He knew he¡¯d been defeated. He had lost his resurrection powers. He had lost his life. He had lost everything. All of the doors he had sealed with his god magic had been restored. His previous actions had done nothing.

    I can¡¯t fight back? I can¡¯t win...? As Chu Tianqun¡¯s vision began to blur, he yet againughed bitterly. Then he cried out, ¡°Xu Qing, you should know that I¡¯m actually... just a vessel. When h¨¥ appears, you¡¯ll still end up dead!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, but the Ghost Emperor mountain continued to descend, rumbling loudly. But then, Chu Tianqun¡¯s withered forehead suddenly split open, and a semitransparent hand stretched out that did not belong to him.

    The hand was as white as snow, and had no hairs on it. It almost looked like it was carved from white jade. It abounded with holiness, but was alsopletely gruish. That sensation of two things mixed together caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth, and make the entire world tremble.

    The hand waved toward Xu Qing three times, causing three gusts of wind to appear.

    ¡°God Magic: Always Cherish This Life!¡±

    It was a calm yet unfamiliar voice. It contained boundless might, and it echoed from Chu Tianqun¡¯s forehead. And after the hand waved three times, it dissolved into ashes.

    Chu Tianqun¡¯s head listed to the side, leaving him gasping. As for the three waves of the hand, they unleashed a devastating might that was difficult to put into words.

    The first gust of wind noiselessly brushed against Xu Qing¡¯s Ghost Emperor mountain. The Ghost Emperor mountain rumbled, and its energy consumption skyrocketed. In the blink of an eye, the demonization symbol was drained, and the mountain vanished, revealing Xu Qing sitting there cross-legged.

    The second gust of wind caused Xu Qing to shiver. Inside of him, the taboo poison and the violet moon slowed down, and all of the color of life faded from him. He became only ck and white. It wasn¡¯t just him. Everything in the area lost its color, and turnedpletely ck and white. It was like a painting. And Xu Qing himself looked like he was part of that painting.

    An intense sensation of deadly crisis erupted in him, leaving him feeling extremely rmed, as if death were approaching him. After bing a part of that painting he began to wither. In the blink of an eye, he became skin and bones, as if his life force were about to be eradicated.

    He couldn¡¯t form the Ghost Emperor mountain. He couldn¡¯t release taboo poison or the violet moon. His lifemps and everything else about him were part of that painting. The only thing that remained was his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon, which anxiously rose into the sky and transformed into a falling saber. Unfortunately, it was too small to do much, and was shoved away, screaming.

    The third gust of windnded on Xu Qing in the painting. And it began to spread through him like water spreading through canvas.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t move. His thoughts moved slowly. With great effort, he looked down and saw that the third gust of wind was spreading out, slowly turning him into nothing but a blotch of random ink. The piece of life-saving jade his Master had given him shattered. Yet it couldn¡¯t stop him from slowly dissolving. The feeling of death filled him.

    Xu Qing was absolutely silent. He had used all the tools at his disposal. The current situation didn¡¯t seem overly desperate. Yet he had exhausted his god magic. His other divine abilities were simply too weak to deal with something of this level. Taking everything into consideration, the fact that he could end things in mutual destruction with this enemy went to show how deep Xu Qing¡¯s assets were.

    Am I going to die now?

    He was losing consciousness. His body was fading into nothing. Except right then, in that ck and white painting, a thread of golden light flickered on his wrist. The golden light glittered as it grew brighter and brighter. Normally speaking, it wouldn¡¯t have been so dazzling. It was hidden too deeply. But the painting contained only ck and white, so it became extremely prominent. It was the third color in the painting.

    The painting suddenly trembled. Golden light spread out over Xu Qing¡¯s right arm, and in the blink of an eye, had covered his entire body. During that moment of extreme crisis, it dispelled the third gust of wind from him.

    Then there was a dull thud. The golden light darkened. The painting ripped open, and an emaciated figure stumbled out, coughing up blood. The golden light faded as it returned to his wrist. Eventually, it disappeared from sight. However, just before it was gone, if you looked very closely at it, you would see that there were innumerable cracks in the golden thread.

    Xu Qing gasped for breath. He had been severely injured. He was incredibly weak. But he still forced his head up and looked at his right wrist. His heart was pounding, and his face was a mask ofplete confusion.

    A moment passed, and his expression became extremely cold. He looked at Chu Tianqun.

    Chu Tianqun was like antern flickering with itsst bits of oil. As death neared, he forced his eyes open.

    ¡°You¡¯re not dead yet?¡±

    Xu Qing strode up to him. Standing over him, he sensed that Chu Tianqun had lost his ability of infinite resurrection. Looking very tired, Xu Qing lifted his foot high, then let it drop!

 Chapter 467: Lingâ€™erâ€™s Life Essence Thread (part 1)

    Chapter 467: Ling¡¯er¡¯s Life Essence Thread (part 1)

    In Sea-Sealing County, in a location not too far from the county capital, there was a teleportation portal that red with dazzling light as Xu Qing emerged.

    His face was pale white. He was dangerously weak, but without a moment of hesitation, he raced off into the distance. Once away from any prying eyes, he found a random cave in some remote mountains. Inside the cave, he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. He was having trouble seeing as he sat down cross-legged and gasped for breath. Yet that didn¡¯t stop him from clenching his jaw and performing an incantation gesture to lock down the area.

    Based on his past experiences, a single day should have been enough to recover by half. Unfortunately, he was currently only about ten percent recovered.

    As his internal organs pulsed with intense pain, he sent his senses inside himself to look at the reason why he was recovering so slowly. His internal organs were all cracked and on the verge of falling apart. His flesh was extremely withered. And his bones were all deeply fractured. That was the source of the pain he felt.

    As for why he felt so dispirited, it was because his sea of consciousness was dim and his soul wasn¡¯t glittering brightly like usual.

    That said, such things didn¡¯t count for much for Xu Qing. This wasn¡¯t his first time sustaining grievous injuries. Instead, what captured his attention was that, in addition to all those other injuries, he could see innumerable hair-thin needles inside of him!

    The needles actually didn¡¯t have a corporeal form. They were made of countless shattered bits of light that had spread throughout Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body and skeleton. They glittered brightly. It was the needles that were impeding Xu Qing¡¯s recovery.

    Thankfully, the needles were only in a handful of locations on his bones, with most parts of his skeleton free of their effects.

    ¡°The power of a god...¡± he murmured. His expression turned steely, and his eyes glittered with ferocity.

    As a matter of fact, he had spent some of his travel time trying to extrude the needles. Although he¡¯d had a measure of sess, the process was extremely slow. He didn¡¯t have time to do it the slow way.

    The reason was that the feeling of unease from his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon hadn¡¯t ceased after Chu Tianqun¡¯s death. In fact, it was getting stronger! Because of that, he just kept getting more and more anxious as he journeyed back toward the county capital. What was most telling of all was that as he got closer to the capital, the sense of crisis was reaching truly astonishing levels. That led Xu Qing to the conclusion that the sense of crisis... was rted to the county capital!

    Thinking back, he remembered that the first time he¡¯d experienced that sensation was when he was in the capital. The next time was after he¡¯d left the Holytidends. That second time, the sensation was more intense. And it kept getting stronger the closer he got to his destination.

    Given that, it seems that the sense of crisis I experienced in the desert wasn¡¯t rted to Chu Tianqun. Instead, it was because I was getting closer to the county capital.... But why?

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯te up with any ideas. And regardless of the reason why, he needed to recover as quickly as possible, and get his battle prowess back to peak condition. Waiting wasn¡¯t an option. This entire situation was one reason why he hadn¡¯t just immediately rushed back into the county capital.

    If I want to recover quickly, I have to resort to special tactics!

    He took a deep breath and his eyes shone with determination as he activated his third heavenly pce. The power of taboo poison erupted, filling every fiber of flesh in his body.

    He wasn¡¯t trying to fight back against the needles that had resulted from Chu Tianqun¡¯s god power. Instead, he was using the power of the poison to cause his flesh to rot.

    Without any hesitation, he pulled out a dagger, sliced it into his arm, and began carving the rotten flesh off. After revealing the needles of light beneath, he used the dagger to scrape them off his bones. The sound of the de scraping against bone echoed in the cave, and the pain increased by several times over.

    Xu Qing shivered, and sweat began rolling off of him.

    This was the best method he coulde up with. The reason was that the needles were continuing to spread, though slowly. Therefore, by using the poison to rot his flesh, it made it easier to scrape off the flesh and cleanse it. It also slowed down the needles.

    Xu Qing was a vicious person. He was vicious to his enemies, and even more vicious to himself.

    Time passed. Xu Qing worked without pausing for a moment. As he scraped flesh off bit by bit, he eventually reached his right wrist. That was where the golden light was. He didn¡¯t want to activate the power of that golden light again, which meant he had to avoid reaching a state of near-death. After confirming the golden light wasn¡¯t being affected by the light needles, he made sure the power of the violet crystal was restoring the flesh in that area before he moved on to other parts of his body.

    Using this process, he took four days to remove all of the light needles. During that time, he used both medicinal pills and the power of the violet crystal to make sure he was constantly recovering.

    There were light needles in his sea of consciousness as well. For those, he gritted his teeth and used thebined power of the violet moon and the taboo poison to force them out into his flesh. Then he dug them out with the dagger.

    When it was all done, he opened his eyes. The process had involved unimaginable pain, but the result was that he was now recovering fully. After another three days passed, he felt that he was back to normal.

    He emerged from the cave and looked up to see it was evening. Taking a deep breath, he mulled over the current situation. Finally, his expression became one of determination. He blurred into motion toward the same teleportation portal he had used previously. He still nned to go back to the county capital. For one thing, he wanted to trade the dao fruits in for military credit. Also, he needed to collect more demonization symbols from the Supreme Void World.

    Later that very night, he stepped out of a teleportation portal in the county capital. He looked around the familiar city, including the huge statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and suppressed the jumpiness in his heart.

    Hurrying back to his sword pavilion, he settled down cross-legged and sent a message to the Captain. He got no response. Obviously the Captain wasn¡¯t back yet.

    Next, he messaged Arch-Immortal Plumdark to let her know he was safe. She responded immediately, sounding concerned. Then, shortly after, she appeared outside his sword pavilion. Moonlight framed her as she stood there in a blue gown looking at him. She seemed worried.

    ¡°Why were you gone for such a long time?¡± She examined him head to toe, and finding no injuries, she breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°I ran into an issue on the way back,¡± Xu Qing said softly, sping hands respectfully. ¡°It caused some dys.¡±

    She nodded. She had other matters to attend to, and given that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in trouble, she offered a few parting words before turning to leave.

    Before she could take more than a few steps, Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°Arch-Immortal, I¡¯ve been feeling extremely uneasy recently. Please take care of yourself.¡±

    She stopped and looked back at him. She smiled and nodded. Then she left.

    Once alone in his sword pavilion again, Xu Qing messaged Kong Xianglong and asked if anything unusual was going on in the county capital. Kong Xianglong responded that everything was as normal, with the exception of the Nightshade godchild situation with the Holytides. Kong Xianglong actually wasn¡¯t in the capital at the moment; he was out on a mission. But now that he was in touch with Xu Qing, he asked about what happened in Holytide territory.

    ¡°Oh, that. Right. There were some other Nightshades there too....¡± Xu Qing cleared his throat and didn¡¯t go into any more detail about that. That said, he didn¡¯t feel the need to be too secretive with Kong Xianglong, so he continued. ¡°I ended up getting a few thousand dao fruits though....¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s gasp echoed out from themand sword to fill Xu Qing¡¯s sword pavilion. ¡°A few thousand?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ and some of them are your share,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s what I call a bro!! Xu Qing, don¡¯t go and sell those dao fruits. With the Ten Entrails Tree gone, those things are going to skyrocket in value. Heh heh. Swordsages are all on the same side, but... sometimes you just have to fleece the flock!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by Kong Xianglong¡¯s suggestion. Although Kong Xianglong waspletely loyal to the swordsages, there wasn¡¯t anybody who didn¡¯t need more military credits. The two of them chatted briefly then ended the conversation.

    Xu Qing put down hismand sword. Everything¡¯s normal here in the county capital, but this is definitely the source of my unease. Does that mean there¡¯s someone here who¡¯s targeting me?

    He was convinced that he wasn¡¯t overthinking things, so he didn¡¯t let his guard down by an iota.

    The night passed uneventfully. The next day at dawn, Xu Qing took extra precautions to remain safe as he left his sword pavilion and went up to the city to replenish his supply of medicinal pills. Then he went to the subsidiary sect of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect.

    After paying the required military credits, he entered the Supreme Void World. Regardless of the sense of crisis he felt, he needed to have the Ghost Emperor mountain ready as a trump card. And though the mountain was already set into his heavenly pce, he still needed demonization symbols if he wanted to summon it externally. The upside was that having the Ghost Emperor mountain in his heavenly pce made it much easier to control.

    Since Xu Qing was a familiar face in the eerie Supreme Void World now, his presence caused quite a stir among the whispering brain trees there. Wherever he went, the brain trees trembled and fled from him. Thest time, Xu Qing had been nothing short of vicious. Though it had been a while since he was herest, clearly word about him had spread among the brain trees. That said, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was far more advanced thanst time. No matter how the brain trees fled, he could catch up to them. And thus, it wasn¡¯t long before he left the Supreme Void World feeling very pleased.

    Seventy-five!

    Patting his bag of holding, he left the subsidiary sect and went to the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Library Hall. His hope was that he could find some information about that golden light, and where it might havee from.

    Unfortunately, there seemed to be no end to the books and scrolls in the Library Hall, and even after browsingte into the night, he didn¡¯t find anything helpful. Finally, he went back to his sword pavilion.

    I¡¯ll go back to the library tomorrow to keep looking. There has to be an answer there! If I can¡¯t find it, though, I guess I¡¯ll report for duty at the Corrections Division and ask the pce lord for help. Worst case scenario, I can just stay in the Corrections Division for a while until I figure out what¡¯s going on.

    Although he might be in danger in the county capital, if there was one safe haven for him, it had to be the Corrections Division. After all, the pce lord was in charge there.

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing settled down cross-legged and closed his eyes. It was a dark night with clouds and fog that obscured everything. After doing some breathing exercises, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at his right wrist. A moment passed. He rubbed his wrist with this other hand.

    Just what exactly is that golden thread?

    Xu Qing heard a peal of thunder off in the distance, and then the sound of rushing wind, which almost resembled weeping.

    A storm wasing. That was why it had been so dark throughout the day. It wasn¡¯t possible to see the moon outside, as it was covered by seemingly endless clouds. More thunder crashed, like the cry of gods. asionally, bolts of lightning would illuminate the county capital.

 Chapter 467: Lingâ€™erâ€™s Life Essence Thread (part 2)

    Chapter 467: Ling¡¯er¡¯s Life Essence Thread (part 2)

    Lightning also illuminated the mountainous jungle habitat of the Wood Spirits. The wind raced through the trees, causing them to sway back and forth. Then the rain started falling, pattering onto the leaves in the huge basin.

    Within that wind and rain, an anguished howl echoed out, piercing through the sky, causing anyone who heard it to feel their scalp tingling. It was a cry of deep anguish and heart-rending grief. As it rose from within the Wood Spirit¡¯s basin, neither the thunder, nor the wind, nor the rain could stifle it.

    A bolt of lightning fell, revealing a figure with disheveled hair racing frenziedly out of Wood Spirit territory.

    It was an old man. His eyes were bloodshot and tears streamed down his cheeks. A bitter smile twisted his face, and he struggled to stop himself from trembling as he sped toward the county capital with all the speed he could muster.

    ***

    The rain fell in torrents all night. Around dawn, it let up a bit. A haze of water vapor obscured everything. It was almost as if the light of dawn was sick, making it seem more like evening than morning.

    Some distance from the Corrections Division was Xu Qing¡¯s sword pavilion. Inside, he opened his eyes and ended his nighttime session of cultivation. Getting to his feet, he walked out of the sword pavilion and into the rain.

    I¡¯ll go to the Library Hall first and see if I can find out anything about the golden light. It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯tmunicate with that boy from D-132. I bet he could give me some clues. Although, if I can at least get some clues in the Library Hall, maybe I can ask him for confirmation.

    Floating up into the air, he headed toward the Swordsage Pce. Before long, hended on the soaked limestone tiles of the Swordsage Pce. Just as he was about to head into the Library Hall, his expression flickered, and he looked off into the distance.

    An anguished old man with bloodshot eyes was currently racing toward the Swordsage Pce. As he flew, he shouted in a mournful voice.

    ¡°Xu Qing, Xu Qing, Xu Qing!¡±

    Not only was he shouting as loud as he could manage, he was boosting his voice with his cultivation base.

    He was none other than the innkeeper from nkspring Way. He didn¡¯t know exactly where Xu Qing was, but he did know that Xu Qing was a swordsage. Therefore, as soon as he got close enough, he just started shouting at the top of his lungs. His heart and mind were in such chaos that he had lost control, and was hardly himself. Before he could get very close to the Swordsage Pce, numerous beams of divine will locked onto him and prevented him from moving forward.

    The disheveled innkeeper hadn¡¯t spotted Xu Qing off in the distance. As he hovered in midair, he looked around at the unfamiliar county capital and screamed in a voice that mixed rage with desperation and sorrow.

    ¡°Xu Qing! Get out here, right now!¡±

    His cries echoed out so loudly that quite a few swordsages looked over and frowned. What was more, some of the swordsages on patrol flew in his direction. Arriving in front of the innkeeper, they noticed the crazed look in his eyes, and kept their guard up as they stood in his path.

    ¡°Exin this ruckus!¡± one of them said.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for Xu Qing! Please, I beg of you, help me find him! I have an extremely urgent matter to discuss with Xu Qing!!¡±

    ¡°Calm down. Wait there for a moment and we¡¯ll forward your request.¡±

    Inside the Swordsage Pce, Xu Qing looked at the old man being blocked by the guards. He recognized him immediately. His sudden arrival was unexpected, and beyond that, he and Xu Qing had something of aplicated history.

    As Xu Qing tried to decide what to do, the innkeeper shrieked, ¡°There¡¯s no time! We don¡¯t have time for this!¡± The old man seemed to be losing his mind. ¡°Xu Qing. Xu Qing! Where are you? You have to help! You really have to help!!! That golden thread on you¡ª¡±

    The innkeeper was shaking, and he looked like he might begin to weep tears of blood at any moment. However, before he could rave any further, the sound of a rushing wind emerged from the Swordsage Pce.

    A momentter, Xu Qing was there in front of the old innkeeper. He waved his hands to tell the guards to back up.

    The surrounding swordsages sped hands respectfully and made way for him. Xu Qing had no time to return their salutes. Eyeing the innkeeper, he said, ¡°What did you say about a golden thread?¡±

    The innkeeper rushed forward as if to grab Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing! Xu Qing, you have toe with me. You have to save Ling¡¯er!¡±

    Xu Qing avoided his grasp and looked at him coldly. ¡°Exin yourself!¡±

    The innkeeper looked haggard and extremely stressed, but he managed to pull himself together. He was aware that Xu Qing had no idea what was going on with Ling¡¯er. What was more, given how cautious Xu Qing was, there was no way he was just going to run off because the innkeeper asked him to.

    ¡°Xu Qing, that golden thread on you is some of Ling¡¯er¡¯s life essence! She¡¯s almost dead now, just because she wanted to save your life! There¡¯s no time to spare. You have toe with me. I¡¯ll exin along the way!¡±

    The innkeeper turned and started racing away.

    Xu Qing just stood there, stunned.

    The golden thread on his wrist was a secret that only he knew about. It was an incredible gift that he had never exined to anyone. All of a sudden, he was having trouble breathing steadily. He wasn¡¯t sure how the innkeeper knew about the golden thread, or what other elements to the story there were. But right now, Xu Qing just couldn¡¯t keep calm.

    He took a step forward and then shot after the innkeeper. As he sped along, he asked, ¡°Ling¡¯er¡¯s life essence? Ling¡¯er? The girl from the Merfolk Isles?¡±

    The name Ling¡¯er was vaguely familiar to Xu Qing. He remembered that incident in the Merfolk Isles in which a young woman had given him some living mutagen. However, after that one chance meeting, he¡¯d never seen her again. [1]

    ¡°You don¡¯t even know who Ling¡¯er is...¡± the innkeeper said bitterly. Sorrow filled his eyes, and incredulity in his heart. ¡°You foolish girl. Silly, foolish girl. How could a girl as foolish as you exist in this world¡­?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure why, but the innkeeper¡¯s words caused his own heart to sting. He was about to ask more questions when the innkeeper turned and red at him. His eyes were so bloodshot that they glowed red.

    Gritting his teeth, he said, ¡°Ling¡¯er is my daughter! She¡¯s that white snake you saw with me. You met her when she took human form the first time in the Merfolk Isles! That golden thread on you is some of her life essence. She blessed you with destiny aura, to help you forestall cmity. If you die, she dies! But if she dies... nothing happens to you!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er already suffered injuries three times because of you! Three times! If you don¡¯t believe me, search your memories. The first time was over two years ago! The second time wasn¡¯t very long after the first time!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled under a barrage of astonishment, and he found himself breathing heavily. He remembered all of it. The first time that golden light appeared was two years ago when he was in the Seazombie ancestralnd, and used Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ taboo treasure to find a spot between life and death. That was when he¡¯d found his 121st dharma aperture. During that moment of life-or-death crisis, he¡¯d noticed a sh of golden light. [2]

    Not long after that, after he and the Captain went to the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, he¡¯d inserted the taboo poison pill into his third heavenly pce. During that near-death experience, golden light had again shed on his wrist, giving him a new lease on life. These were all seemingly random destined opportunities that had resolved dangerous situations. [3]

    ¡°And there was a third time!¡± the innkeeper shouted, his eyes shining with grief. ¡°It was only a few days ago. I don¡¯t know what happened to you, but you must have been in some sort of deadly crisis. How do you think you survived all those things? Well? It was Ling¡¯er! And now, in the middle of trying to ept her legacy, she gave her life for you!! Last night... she failed at her legacy!¡±

    The innkeeper started sobbing.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was trembling from head to toe, and was reeling mentally. It felt like he was being hit by hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts. No, millions or possibly even billions.

    As a youth, his life had been one of bitterness, and he had struggled to survive in a brutal world. That was why he never felt safe until his enemies were dead, and it was also why he sought revenge over the smallest grievance.

    But at the same time, he never forgot the kindness shown to him. That was why he cared so deeply about Sergeant Thunder, Grandmaster Bai, Master Seventh, and also Master Sixth. And now, out of nowhere, he was suddenlying to realize that he owed a massive debt.

    ¡°She... gave her life for me...?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded harder than he ever remembered as he turned and looked at the innkeeper. Grabbing the weeping old man, he said, ¡°What happened to her?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s grip was so forceful the innkeeper¡¯s arm emitted cracking sounds. However, the old man didn¡¯t seem to notice the pain. In fact, it seemed to give him a bit of hope that Xu Qing might agree to help. After all, it seemed to show... that Xu Qing cared.

    ¡°Her legacy failed, so her soul fell into the abyss....¡±

    Umbres suddenly appeared above Xu Qing¡¯s head. The hellspirit bloodwingmp manifested on his back. His heavenly dao bluegreen dragon roared beneath his feet. His shadow spread out to cover him, causing him to pulse with fleshly body power that surpassed the ten-pce level.

    ¡°Point the way!¡± Xu Qing said in a hoarse voice. Keeping a firm grip on the innkeeper, he shot off at top speed.

    He moved so quickly it was almost like a teleportation. An ear-piercing boom filled the air as Xu Qing moved as fast as he possibly could. As he passed, the sky trembled, the ground quaked, and shockwaves rolled out.

    Because the Wood Spirits isted themselves from the rest of the world, they did not build teleportation portals. That said, they didn¡¯t live very far from the county capital. That was why it only took the innkeeper about half a night of travel to reach the capital.

    But Xu Qing was capable of much greater speed than the innkeeper. Less than an hourter, the Wood Spirit¡¯s basin... was just ahead!

 Chapter 468: A Major World on Emperor Ancient Spiritâ€™s Corpse (part 1)

    Chapter 468: A Major World on Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s Corpse (part 1)

    Within the basin, the tree-form Wood Spirits opened their eyes and looked at Xu Qing. On countless tree leaves were the young Wood Spirits, who looked sorrowful as the rain fell everywhere. They didn¡¯t block Xu Qing¡¯s path. They just allowed him to proceed to the enormous tree in the middle of the basin, carrying the innkeeper with him.

    The temple door there was open. Inside, Xu Qing nced at the statue but didn¡¯t study it closely.

    The innkeeper led him to the secret tunnel, and they started down the stairs. In the dark tunnel, the innkeeper¡¯sbored breath echoed out. The innkeeper was racing as fast as he could, but it seemed slow to Xu Qing. Xu Qing shoved him forward, adding a burst of speed so that they soon reached the end of the stairs, and the altar above the abyss.

    As soon as Xu Qing was on the altar, he looked around and spotted the cave 3,000 meters away, and the cross-legged figure in white.

    She was a beautiful young woman with a wless face. She seemed peaceful and innocent, except at this moment, her face was pale and she wasn¡¯t moving. Dried blood was caked on her mouth, chin, and garment. The sight caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to flip-flop, and filled his face with mixed emotions. He recognized her immediately. This was indeed the naive, innocent young woman he¡¯d met in the Merfolk Isles. He remembered how she¡¯d skipped up to him and asked a very strange question.

    ¡°Elder Brother, do you A) like snakes in general, or B) like eating snake galldders?¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to what the innkeeper had told him along the way. This young woman was that very same white snake.... He could still remember thest time he saw her, back at that inn in Seven Blood Eyes. That little white snake had wrapped around his wrist. [1]

    ¡°Right wrist¡­¡± he murmured. ¡°Golden thread¡­. Life essence¡­.¡± He looked at the young woman in white, whocked any sort of life essence. He thought about the price she had paid for him, and suddenly felt guilt deep in his heart. This was too great of a kindness. And yet, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t understand why she would do something like this for him, considering she had only been in his presence a few times.

    He had experienced wonderful things in his life, but they all had a reason. For example, Sergeant Thunder had seen him gathering corpses to cremate them, and had felt it represented warmth in a chaotic world. Later, after Xu Qing saved his life, Sergeant Thunder treated him like a son. Grandmaster Bai had noticed how much Xu Qing was interested in nts and vegetation, and how he thirsted for knowledge. Thus, he had passed on his own wisdom to him. Master Seventh had admired how Xu Qing acted, and thus gave him a chance to prove himself. He had watched as Xu Qing walked the long path to stand in front of him. That was how Xu Qing had won Master Seventh¡¯s approval.

    But there was no exnation for Ling¡¯er¡¯s actions. Xu Qing had never once met a person like this before.

    ¡°Why?¡± he whispered as he looked at her.

    The innkeeper stood next to him, his eyes full of sorrow as he looked at Ling¡¯er.

    ¡°Because she loves you.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The innkeeper sighed, and his face full of wrinkles made him seem even more bitter.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he continued softly, ¡°there are some things in life that you can¡¯t exin in just one way. There are things you can¡¯t judge by a single standard. I know you don¡¯t understand what I mean, but believe me, if you think that all good things in life need a logical reason to back them up... well then, Xu Qing, you¡¯re locked into a very dead-end way of thinking.

    ¡°There are many types of love; there¡¯s not just one uniform way it happens. Sometimes love is about being devoted to someone. Sometimes it¡¯s about cherishing someone. It can be about admiration or sometimes mutual pain and sorrow. asionally love is about being attracted to someone, while other times it¡¯s about chasing the past.

    ¡°There are all types of people in this world, and all types of things. Thinking that your way of living is the only correct one, well, that¡¯s narrow-minded. Only when you can ept other ways of living can you really grow up.¡±

    The innkeeper was deeply anxious, but at the same time, felt he needed to exin things clearly. He needed Xu Qing to understand that there were things in the world that didn¡¯t have a good exnation. They happened without a sound reason to back them up. After all, that understanding would be critical to rescuing Ling¡¯er from the Spirit Abyss.

    Xu Qing listened to the innkeeper, and it struck a chord deep within him. He started trembling with emotion.

    Looking at Ling¡¯er, he said, ¡°How do I save her?¡±

    ¡°She has to be saved within seven days!¡± the innkeeper said, trying to remain calm despite his anxiety. He looked at Xu Qing. ¡°After Ling¡¯er¡¯s legacy failed, her soul fell into the Spirit Abyss below. Soon, her flesh and blood will start to wither until she¡¯s nothing but a corpse. Using my sealing abilities, I¡¯ve locked her flesh and blood in ce, but it won¡¯tst more than seven days. And one day has already passed! You have to bring Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul back from the Spirit Abyss before the time limit is up.¡±

    The innkeeper looked at the abyss beneath the altar. ¡°Outsiders can¡¯t enter the Spirit Abyss without a spirit abyss talisman. Unfortunately, thest known talisman was used years ago, and the person who went inside with it never came out.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, I¡¯m not Ling¡¯er¡¯s birth father. I¡¯m not even an Ancient Spirit. That¡¯s why I can¡¯t go inside. The only people who can enter are Ancient Spirits or people whose life force is connected to one. That¡¯s why you¡¯re the only one who can go find her.¡±

    ¡°Ancient Spirits? Spirit Abyss?¡± Xu Qing had heard about the Ancient Spirit species before, but knew that now wasn¡¯t the time to ask for details about them. [2]

    There was a seven-day time limit, and one day had already passed. Xu Qing looked at the innkeeper. ¡°Do you have jade slips with information about the abyss? If so, give them to me. I¡¯ll study them shortly.¡±

    The innkeeper took out a handful of jade slips and handed them to Xu Qing. Indicating one in particr he said, ¡°That will get you back here.¡± He went on to exin briefly how to use it. Then, it was with pleading eyes that he said, ¡°Please. Ling¡¯er gave her life for you, so... you must save her.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at Ling¡¯er and thought back to the three times she had saved his life. He nodded. Then he walked to the edge of the altar and, without the slightest hesitation, jumped off. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the abyss. Cold air swirled past him, into him, making him feel like his flesh and soul would be frozen solid.

    Looking down into the abyss, Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base, sent his shadow stretching out in all directions, and released the power of his taboo poison. Only then did he examine the information the innkeeper had given him.

    Information poured into his mind as he dropped down, giving him a clear understanding of everything rted to Ling¡¯er and the Spirit Abyss.

    Countless years in the past, long before the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, there was another species that conquered the Revered Ancient maind.

    They were the Ancient Spirits. In hister years, Emperor Ancient Spirit gathered the collective power of his species as well as destiny aura to do something that shook all of Revered Ancient. It was rted to heavenly daos.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit was unlike theter Woe-Immortals, or any of the more than 3,000 species that came earlier. Instead of trying to create a heavenly dao, he wanted to be one. And the way he did it was to try to possess an existing heavenly dao.

    Creation was a virtue. Possession was a rebellion.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit failed, and thus the Revered Ancient maind suffered a bacsh from the heavenly dao. The bloodline of his species was cursed. In the final critical moment, Emperor Ancient Spirit used his terrifying cultivation base power to transport most of his people to another major world, in an attempt to avoidplete catastrophe for his species as a whole. Despite his efforts, his people failed to avoid the curse.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit perished. His major world withered, bing a world of death. The Ancient Spirits within it all died. However, there was more to the curse than just simple death. The power of the curse caused all of the dead Ancient Spirits to be transformed into deceased souls that howled in anguish day and night. That withered world of death became the deceased Ancient Spirit world, where the effects of that curse caused endless torment. And that kingdom was forever buried in the depths of Revered Ancient.

    The Spirit Abyss in the Wood Spiritnds was only one entrance that led to the major world originally created by Emperor Ancient Spirit. There were other entrances in other locations.

    Although the Ancient Spirit species as a whole was cursed, their bloodline still existed in scattered ces in Revered Ancient. And thus, descendants of Emperor Ancient Spirit would asionally pop up.

    As Xu Qing descended into the abyss, he asionally spotted skeletons stuck in the walls, other descendants of the Ancient Spirits who had attempted and failed at seizing their legacy. There was a good reason for such descendants to make such attempts. After the Ancient Spirit species was transformed into snakes, the curse to their bloodline made life difficult. They lived in a state in which their blood vessels could copse at any moment.

    Thus, they would eventually go to the nearest entrance to the deceased Ancient Spirit world, where they would attempt to use the power from that world to suppress the curse in their blood. Only then could they assume human form. Sadly, the Ancient Spirit species were a pitiable lot. Throughout their lives, they would have toe back to the Ancient Spirit world to renew the suppression of the curse. Every single time they did that, they faced great danger.

    Those who failed would have their souls devoured by the Ancient Spirit world, and they would be deceased souls there.

    After studying the information, Xu Qing looked at his right wrist and sighed. Then his eyes glittered with determination, and he elerated downward.

    He was like a shooting star that picked up speed as he entered the icy depths of the abyss. He felt a force of expulsion pushing against him, but because that life essence thread was from an Ancient Spirit, it didn¡¯t affect him. He held nothing back as he sped to the bottom of the abyss.

    Eventually, he noticed some colossal creature below, surrounded by mists. It was a gargantuan, dposing snake that pulsed with a strong aura of death. Resting atop the head of that dead snake was a major world. It wasn¡¯t possible to see the world clearly, but howls of grief echoed from it. As those howls pierced through the mist and reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears, he felt a powerful gravitational forcetch onto him and drag him toward the major world.

    The closer he got, therger the snake became, until it was so big he couldn¡¯t even tell it was a snake. All he saw was that world, filled with screams of anguish that got clearer and clearer.

    Eventually, he mmed into the greater world, causing a rumbling sound to echo out in all directions. A crater appeared on the ground. A momentter, Xu Qing strode out of it and looked around.

    1. Ling¡¯er asked him the question in chapter 127. Hest saw her in snake form in chapter 168. ?

    2. The Ancient Spirits were mentioned in chapters 430, 431, and 455. ?

 Chapter 468: A Major World on Emperor Ancient Spiritâ€™s Corpse (part 2)

    Chapter 468: A Major World on Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s Corpse (part 2)

    Mist floated everywhere. There was no sun or moon, only ghost fire that resembled starlight. Because of the faintness of the light, everything was murky. The ground resembled rotting flesh, with no mountains, rivers, forests, or anything like that. It was endlessly deste and filled with an aura of death. The aura was cold, and it constantly tried to invade Xu Qing¡¯s body and cause his flesh and blood to rot. Apparently, it was endlessly malicious toward living beings. Within moments, ck blotches sprang up all over Xu Qing¡¯s body.

    A major world created by Emperor Ancient Spirit. Xu Qing activated the power of the taboo poison within him.

    Sizzling sounds could be heard as maggot-like entities with ghost faces were forced out of the ck blotches on his skin. When theynded on the ground, they transformed into ck mist that dissipated quickly. Eventually, the blotches were gone, and Xu Qing¡¯s skin was back to normal.

    How am I supposed to find her? He could sense the malevolent nature of the major world around him. A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes, and then he looked at his right wrist.

    The Ancient Spirit species and destiny auras are rted....

    Xu Qing exercised a thought, and his sixth heavenly pce shivered as the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon sent some of its aura to his wrist. Nothing happened.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t give up. He continued to send his heavenly dao aura to his wrist, until it got hotter and hotter. Then, the golden thread that was connected to his bones finally appeared through his skin. Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted at the realization of how deeply cracked the thread was. He sighed and felt guiltier than ever.

    Lifting his hand, he paid close attention, swiveled, and then pointed straight ahead. He could sense his wrist getting hotter when it shifted in that specific direction.

    She¡¯s that way! Eyes glittering with determination, he started moving. He knew this major world was filled with dangers, but he couldn¡¯t spend time worrying about that now.

    Tapping into his cultivation base, he started moving as fast as he could, all while keeping taboo poison power swirling around him. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing suddenly extended his left hand and pushed it down in front of him. Instantly, the golden crow appeared behind him. It released its piercing cry, and raged with fire as it dove downward.

    At the same time, an enormous ghost hand appeared below. Previously, it had been about to grab Xu Qing, but instead, the golden crow mmed into it. The ghost hand was greenish-ck and covered with disgusting pustules, each of which contained countless screaming souls that stared at Xu Qing with greedy hunger. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the golden crow mmed into the ghost hand. The ghost hand immediately copsed, causing the souls to scatter. Only a momentter, though, they reconverged and rushed toward Xu Qing.

    Before they could get close, the golden crow sent mes sweeping out, and the screams of the souls intensified as they rushed into the mes and disappeared.

    Xu Qing was already back to focusing on the tug of the golden thread. He moved onward. However, not much time had passed when a vicious ghost face appeared in front of him, lunging forward with mouth wide open.

    Xu Qing¡¯s concern was finding Ling¡¯er, so he dodged past it and sent his shadow back to deal with it. The shadow appeared next to the ghost face, opened its mouth, and devoured it. However, only a momentter, the shadow shivered and started vomiting. Xu Qing frowned. The reason for the shadow¡¯s reaction was that the deceased souls here contained a curse. Right now, there wasn¡¯t time to ponder that, so Xu Qing just kept speeding on his way.

    About an hourter, when the heat from the golden thread was getting particrly intense, the situation Xu Qing had been fearing would happen urred.

    He heard a loud crack from his wrist! Face falling, he looked down. The golden thread was crumbling off of his wrist. A sense of deep disappointment filled him. That feeling changed into one of uneasiness, and then piercing pain.

    He anxiously reached out to try to keep hold of the crumbling golden fragments, but they were already fading into nothing. There was no way to preserve them.

    It suddenly felt like a blurry figure in his memories was getting further away....

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with an aggressive light. The bluegreen dragon in his sixth heavenly pce suddenly emerged from his head, exhaling heavenly dao power in the direction of the crumbling golden thread. The bluegreen dragon could sense Xu Qing¡¯s anxiety, and was going all out with its heavenly dao power.

    It wasn¡¯t a bad idea. However, not all things can be reversed in such a simple manner. With the addition of the heavenly dao power, the golden threads stopped disappearing so quickly. But it was obvious the process couldn¡¯t bepletely halted. The power of the bluegreen dragon wasn¡¯t sufficient to stop the golden thread from disappearing.

    Xu Qing felt even more stinging pain as he saw the golden thread vanishing. He closed his eyes for three breaths of time, then opened them. His left eye was now violet, and in his pupil was a powerful violet moon. His right eye had also changed. It was now ck, and it contained boundless poison. At the same time, a violet moon manifested behind him, and behind the moon were two indifferent ck eyes. The surroundings blurred as godly authority erupted within Xu Qing, spreading out everywhere.

    Staring at the dissipating golden thread, he said, ¡°Stop!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, everything around him shook.

    After Xu Qing¡¯s battle with Chu Tianqun, he¡¯de to a basic understanding of how to use godly powers. By using his two types of godly authority, he himself was like a new god, and his words were like that of a godly voice. Xu Qing hoped that, if his bluegreen dragon wasn¡¯t strong enough, maybe adding in a godly voice would tip the scales....

    The moment his voice echoed out, the crumbling golden thread shivered. And then, underneath thebined power of the bluegreen dragon and the godly voice, it stopped dissipating!

    It was about half gone, but there was still some of it left behind.

    Xu Qing nervously clenched his hand into a fist. Sensing the heat within it, he suppressed his anxiety and followed the direction indicated.

    The main thing he was focused on now was finding Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul. As for how to leave this ce, the keyy in the jade slip the innkeeper had given him. If he crushed that jade slip, the innkeeper could borrow power from the Wood Spirits to employ a special magical technique to extract him.

    I still have six days left.

    As Xu Qing sped along, rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere. To this world of the dead, and the deceased souls therein, he was like a bright, shining torch. As he moved, deceased souls emerged everywhere and lunged at him viciously. Then the ground erupted, and withered hands reached out toward him. Rotting zombies lurched in his direction with madness and avarice.

    ¡°Screw the hell off!¡± Xu Qing would speak in a godly voice, causing rippling distortions to spread out that dissipated the deceased souls.

    Because those dead souls contained a curse, all a mutagen invasion could do was destroy them. It couldn¡¯t force them into subservience. What was more, they seemed to form without ceasing.

    Xu Qing continued until he found himself in front of a sea of souls.

    He glowered as he realized he couldn¡¯t sustain two types of godly authority for very long. Therefore, he temporarily dispelled the violet moon and focused on unleashing the full might of his taboo poison core. This time, the poison he released was even more intense than what he had sent against Chu Tianqun. What was more... this ce was a sealed major world, which was a perfectly suitable ce for Xu Qing to use his taboo poison in.

    A momentter, the release of poison caused a tempest to spring up around Xu Qing. It rumbled out, reaching 30 meters, 300 meters, 1,500 meters and finally 3,000 meters!

    Within that area, Xu Qing¡¯s poison power covered everything. Any deceased souls and evil ghosts that appeared screamed shrilly as they rotted into nothing. It was the same with the zombies that burst out of the ground. It didn¡¯t matter that they weren¡¯t alive; Xu Qing¡¯s poison reduced them to ashes anyway.

    After all, this was power from a god domain, which made it like the curse of a god!

    Killing intent swirled in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. He didn¡¯t have to slow down a bit; he just kept his poison spread out around him. He sped forward, leaving behind screams of agony and flourishing mutagen that made the poison even stronger.

    Eventually, the extent of the poison moved past 3,000 meters to 3,900 meters.

    However, there seemed no end to the deceased souls. They just kept popping up nonstop. At the moment, this dead world actually seemed alive!

    Although an individual soul didn¡¯t have much killing power, with so many together, they formed a terrifying force.

    When Xu Qing saw the obstacle he was facing, he gritted his teeth and once again released the power of the violet moon. Boundless violet mist spread out from him. Then he shoved his hands down, and the mist clung to the ground, spreading out and turning everything violet! The zombies climbing out of the ground shivered as the violet mist washed over them, crumbling them into ashes.

    As Xu Qing moved onward, the golden crow appeared again. He stepped onto its back, and it threw its head back and let loose a piercing cry. Its tails of mes spread out and it flew onward.

    From a distance, it was a very shocking scene.

    As Xu Qing moved, the violet mist on the ground crumbled countless zombies into nothing. However, there were still endless zombies beyond that violet mist. The air was full of evil souls, and though they crumbled into nothing when reaching his poison tempest, there were always more behind them.

    There was no end.

    In that dark world, the golden crow was the only thing that brought light with its sea of mes. It was like a pir of light. That pir of light was surrounded by evil souls and zombies that howled endlessly. Filled with madness and greed, as well as hatred for life, they tried to extinguish the fire by covering it.

    Time passed.

    That pir of light rose high above the world.

    A dayter, blood oozed out of the corners of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, and his clothing was soaked with gore. He was riddled with wounds, but had finally passed through the sea of souls. Eyes bloodshot, he looked ahead to find a great ck river.

    It was mighty and bubbling, like the fabled Underworld River.

    Floating within it were endless skeletons who wept as they were swept along by the waves.

    At the far end of the river, Xu Qing noticed a red pnquin with eight carriers. [1]

    Atop each of the carrying poles, front and back, was a jug. Each jug was a different color, and they swayed with the motion of the pnquin¡¯s movement.

    Soul shadows escorted the pnquin. Most had serpentine heads and humanoid bodies, and wore red clothing.

    The piercing music of a suona horn apanied the procession as it moved along. [2]

    A sinister wind blew over the Underworld River, causing more waves to form. The same wind lifted the screen of the pnquin, revealing a young woman in a bridal gown sitting there, her face pale white.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious. However, what he was looking at wasn¡¯t the young woman in the pnquin. Instead, he was looking at one of the four jugs, which was the color white. The golden thread on his hand was now unprecedentedly hot!

    1. The pnquin, or sedan chair, with eight carriers is usually something a high official would be carried in, or possibly a bride. Here¡¯s a gallery of four images with different variations on what it might look like. Given that there¡¯s an emphasis on it being red, it seems likely it¡¯s supposed to be a wedding procession. As I¡¯m sure most of you know, red is the auspicious color of choice for weddings in China, while white is the color mostmonly associated with death and funerals. ?

    2. The ¡®suona¡¯ is a Chinese reed instrumentmonly used with processions. Here¡¯s the Wikipedia article about it, and here¡¯s a YouTube video with an example of what it sounds like. When it describes this instrument as being ¡°piercing,¡± it¡¯s no joke. I remember asionally encountering street musicians in China ying the suona, and it can be quite ear-piercing. I worked on the fourth floor of an office building on a busy street, but when the suona yers would pass on the sidewalk outside, I could hear them clearly even with the windows closed. ?

 Chapter 469: Coo. Coooo.

    Chapter 469: Coo. Coooo.

    The bridal procession moved along the Underworld River, apanied by the piercing suona music, which sounded like a dirge of the dead. The four jugs on the pnquin rods were each a different color. They were blue, ck, red, and white respectively. They appeared to be some sort of tribute.

    Xu Qing hovered in midair taking in the scene, his eyes glittering coldly. Then, he moved toward the pnquin.

    His arrival immediately attracted the attention of the line of escorts. Eight of the snake-headed humanoid soul shadows turned in his direction, their gazes full of malice.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change at all, and his eyes were fixed on the pnquin alone. As he neared, the Underworld River rumbled, its aura spreading out like countless sharp des to sh at him.

    The eight soul shadows flew toward him, yet as they neared, the wind blew taboo poison over them, and they screamed as they started melting. However, before they couldpletely dissolve, they merged together, turning into a gigantic three-meter-tall soul shadow. Stretching its arms wide, it lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Then a rumbling boom echoed out as the soul shadow lurched to a stop in front of him. Cracks spread out rapidly over its form, and then it exploded. Chunks of countless soul bodies rained down onto the Underworld River.

    Xu Qing expressionlessly retracted his fist and continued on his way.

    However, just as he was about to reach the bridal procession, it suddenly popped like a bubble,pletely disappearing. A momentter, it reappeared in the distance, where it continued onward without a pause. However, a fair hand reached out and pulled aside the pnquin curtain. Then the young woman inside looked out, her eyes as cold as a viper¡¯s as she stared at Xu Qing.

    This was the first entity Xu Qing had encountered that didn¡¯t seem crazed. That said, the young woman was clearly off in some way. Her expression was pure coldness as she looked at Xu Qing. Meanwhile, a few dozen of the snake-headed soul shadows turned and rushed maliciously toward Xu Qing.

    He ignored them. Keeping his eyes on the pnquin, he lifted his right hand and pointed toward the sky. Rumbling echoed out as a tempest of poison descended,nding right in front of the pnquin, blocking its path.

    Xu Qing stepped onto the Underworld River, and a violet mist spread out from him, seeping into the river and changing its color. At the same time, it locked down everything it touched.

    The wedding procession blurred as if it might vanish again, but thanks to the taboo poison and the violet moon, its teleportation failed. A shrill cry echoed out, and the procession stopped in ce. All of the soul shadows then turned, red at Xu Qing, and charged toward him. The Underworld River seethed as a horde of zombies climbed to the surface, as well as a host of malicious souls.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that. Instead of slowing down, he continued onward. The ck iron skewer appeared next to him, glittering with lightning as it shot toward the souls. It closed in on one, pierced it through the forehead, and sent lightning exploding out. The soul detonated. The shadow also spread out in vicious fashion and devoured the nearest souls. Because of the patriarch and the shadows, the souls that were rushing toward Xu Qing let loose piercing screams as they were either exploded, destroyed by poison, or devoured.

    At no point did Xu Qing stop or slow down. As masses of souls were destroyed, he got closer to the pnquin. asionally he would reach out and grab a nearby soul, then crush it. As he proceeded, his aura became increasingly terrifying.

    All the while, the piercing suona song continued, bing a prating soul power that formed an attack against Xu Qing.

    However, a power like that counted for little to Xu Qing considering he could chant like a god. As his ck umbre appeared overhead, he ignored the suona and continued forward. The suona music then changed, shattering. An agonized shriek rang out.

    Souls were being destroyed constantly around him as he proceeded forward like a fiendish god,pletely unstoppable.

    Finally, the pnquin curtain flipped open as the young woman in the wedding dress flew out, her expression cold. She pulsed with fluctuations very close to the Nascent Soul level as she flexed her fingers, which had long, sharp nails almost like talons. Her eyes were fixed on Xu Qing. But then patches of ck appeared on her face, which became like rotting snake scales. She moved with incredible speed, and was surrounded by a powerful aura of death. [1]

    However, as she closed in on Xu Qing, he suddenly disappeared from in front of her. Before the snake woman could react, a hand shot toward her from the side,tching onto her neck like a vice.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s hand.

    The snake woman shivered as the hand unleashed astonishing strength. A loud cracking rang out as her neck was shattered.

    Xu Qing tossed the snake woman off to the side. She didn¡¯t vanish. She just screamed as she flew through the air, struggling. Before she couldnd, the taboo poison tempest swept her up. At the same time, the violet mist wrapped around her, locking her in ce, sealing her. All of this takes some time to describe, but it happened at the exact moment the snake woman neared Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had no time to pay attention to the screaming snake woman. As he strode up to the pnquin, and specifically the white jar, the crumbling golden thread in his palm emitted incredibly intense heat.

    Xu Qing carefully reached out and took the white jar into his hands. He opened it.

    A soul floated out of the jar, like mist, which swirled into the shape of a tiny white snake. It was somewhat blurry, as if it wasn¡¯tplete.

    Xu Qing looked at the white snake and could envision the young woman in the white gown, seated in meditation in the cave by the altar.

    The little white snake looked very weak. She struggled to open her eyes, but didn¡¯t have the strength. Xu Qing carefully reached out.

    The little white snake sensed him. Though she couldn¡¯t open her eyes, she shivered and instinctively settled onto his palm. She rubbed his hand amiably.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart softened. He carefully closed his hand over the snake, then looked at the other three jars. They also had souls in them, just not Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul. He could only assume that they were other Ancient Spirits who, like Ling¡¯er, had experienced legacy failure and had fallen through the spirit abyss into this major world.

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to leave anything to chance. He waved his hand to open the three jars, and saw souls of three different colors emerge. After closely examining them, he confirmed that none of them were parts of Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul. Finally, he looked toward the area that was locked down by the violet mist and his poison.

    Then he thought back to what he had seen with the snake woman and the pnquin.

    She must have been absorbing the souls....

    That was one reason why Xu Qing hadn¡¯t just wiped the snake woman out of existence. He¡¯d had the distinct feeling that the jugs on the pnquin were some sort of offering.

    Eyes radiating icy cold, he walked toward the snake woman. His shadow spread out behind him, and the ck iron skewer followed at his side. Taboo poison rolled to the side to create a path for him, and the violet mist did the same.

    The snake woman¡¯s soul body was in a state of copse, but her expression was still one of cold indifference. It was as if she only had a bit of emotion in her, and nothing resembling thinking ability.

    As Xu Qing looked her up and down coldly, the golden crow appeared. mes raged as the golden crow looked at the snake woman and inhaled deeply. Her soul body shivered, then copsed and turned into a soul mist.

    Within that soul mist were a few soul strands of various colors. One of them was white.

    Xu Qing used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to turn his hand transparent. Then he reached into the soul mist and carefully extracted the white soul strand. He put it onto the little white snake.

    The white snake shivered and became a little less transparent. Then she slowly opened her eyes. Looking confused, she said, ¡°Coo. Coooo....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart stung with pain as he realized that Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes were filled with nothing but confusion. She clearly was still iplete, and it looked like she was about to fall asleep again.

    Xu Qing focused his senses on the golden thread, and quickly realized that it was pointing toward the depths of the Underworld River.

    That was where he would find the next piece of Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul.

    Xu Qing looked toward the depths of the river. He heard a deep, rumbling growl from that direction, something that caused his soul to shiver. It also caused the entire Underworld River to vibrate, making it seem almost like there was a god deep in the river, breathing. He felt a sensation of endless danger within him, growing stronger by the moment. It caused him to tremble. It was almost as if every inch of his flesh was warning him... that there was something very dangerous there. The sensation became like a haze surrounding his heart and mind.

    Xu Qing looked down at the little white snake sleeping in his hand, and then looked back into the depths of the Underworld River.

    After a long moment, he used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to gently put his right hand into his own chest. When he reached his sea of consciousness, he opened his hand, depositing Ling¡¯er¡¯s sleeping soul there. That was currently the safest ce for her. Having done that, he started moving further down the river. Maybe there was danger there, but he would face it. He would never let down anyone who had treated him with kindness.

    As he proceeded, the growl from the river echoed around him. After listening carefully for a while, he raised his hand and pointed to the dome of heaven. Suddenly... a violet moon appeared in the darkness above the major world. It was surrounded by a mist of poison.

    As it shone, violet filled thends below. This was the first time for countless years that any moonlight had shone onto this major world!

    1. Obviously traditional red wedding dresses cane in all sorts of styles, just like traditional white wedding dresses can. However, they do conform to a sort of general style. Here¡¯s a small gallery showing a few examples. ?

 Chapter 470: An Eye Hidden in the Canopy of Heaven

    Chapter 470: An Eye Hidden in the Canopy of Heaven

    The Underworld River water was pitch ck. As it flowed, countless faces could be seen floating within it, letting loose eternal howls of grief. In life, they had been members of the Ancient Spirit species. But they had been cursed, thus making it impossible for them to rest in peace after death. Instead, they wallowed in endless anguish. They had long since lost any form of intelligence, and only had their instincts left. That was their tormented existence.

    Their cries were piercing and mournful. Most who heard that cry would feel extremely ufortable, to the point where it would eventually destabilize their mind. But Xu Qing got used to it after about a day.

    Right now, he was on the river looking up at the dome of heaven. In the misty, evening-like sky, his violet moon sent out violet moonlight. Surrounding the moon like a veil was a cloud of poison. As he looked at the moon, the corresponding heavenly pce within him operated at full force, causing a violet light to glimmer in his eyes that was like a reflection of the moon.

    Eventually, he looked back toward the depths of the Underworld River, which pulsed with terrifying fluctuations. Although the source was far away, he still felt deep apprehension. Only gods could create a feeling like this within Xu Qing.

    Is Emperor Ancient Spirit... actually not dead? Xu Qing thought back to when he¡¯d descended to this major world, and the gargantuan snake he¡¯d seen.

    There had only been a single major world on that snake, which made it very clear that it was in only the first stage of the Smoldering God level. There was no way someone in that level could have conquered all of Revered Ancient.

    Such doubts didn¡¯t cause Xu Qing to slow down. Instead, he elerated.

    Three days passed.

    During that time, roughly ten percent of the sky over this world had be violet. As a result, thends below looked increasingly violet. And as Xu Qing continued on his way, his own mutagen built up around him. Gradually, a violet mist surrounded him, spreading out continuously. From a distance, it looked like an inauspicious entity was arriving surrounded by an insidious cloud.

    This was the first time Xu Qing had used the violet power in this way. Because of the violet moon, the deceased souls in this major world began to behave differently. They were increasingly crazed.

    The invasion of the violet moon was provoking the curse within them.

    During the three days that passed, Xu Qing encountered many strong zombies and vicious souls. The souls in the Underworld River were different from the ones he had encountered on his journey through the wastnds before.

    They had personal territories, and as long as they didn¡¯t leave them, they werepletely undying. But what that meant was that as long as Xu Qing kept his distance, they wouldn¡¯t chase him. Aftering to realize that, he didn¡¯t waste time tangling with them. He just avoided them.

    Thus, he got closer and closer to the true depths of the Underworld River.

    On the eve of the fourth day, Xu Qing¡¯s expression suddenly flickered.

    The river water ahead of him suddenly seethed as a Nascent Soul aura erupted from within. As the water sprayed everywhere, an enormous face rose from the river. It was fully thirty meters in size. Many parts of it were rotting, and those that weren¡¯t were covered with gray scales. As the water poured off of it, the face¡¯s eyes locked onto Xu Qing as if examining him. Apparently, it sensed something it was looking for, as the face distorted, letting loose a howl of grief and indignation that caused the water to explode.

    A foul wind swept across Xu Qing, causing his swordsage uniform to ripple loudly. Frowning, he turned to avoid the area, except that a second face emerged from the river, just to the left of the first face. It was also thirty meters in size, and looked very simr to the first face, and was connected to it by a thin stream of ck mist. As it rose from the river, it blocked Xu Qing¡¯s path. Things weren¡¯t over yet. A third face appeared, then a fourth.... Eventually eleven faces had risen from the Underworld River, creating an arc thatpletely blocked Xu Qing.

    The howls of the eleven faces shook heaven and earth, and also sent Xu Qing tumbling backward a few dozen meters. Then, the water beneath him exploded as the massive head of a dposing bird appeared. Next came its wings, stretched out on either side, dripping water.

    After flying up into the air, it shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he took in the zombie bird. Its body alone was 300 meters long, and it vaguely resembled a phoenix. It was in a state of deep dposition, and was stabbed through with all sorts of nasty weapons. As for the eleven faces, they were its tail feathers. What Xu Qing took the most seriously was that hanging around the huge bird¡¯s neck was a ne of ck flesh, holding up a humanoid zombie. Apparently, this phoenix was a physical manifestation created by the zombie.

    The zombie wore a dpidated red robe, and though his face was dposing in many ces, he had obviously been a young man. He was ring at Xu Qing, his face twisted with rage.

    He let loose a howl as he blurred into motion. Appearing right in front of Xu Qing, he waved his hand, causing his cultivation base to re to life. Instantly, a cloud of ck snowkes shot toward Xu Qing.

    At the same time, the phoenix released a piercing cry. Opening its mouth, it released a noxious aroma as it lunged forward to devour Xu Qing. The eleven faces that made its tail belched out a poison mist filled with horrendous maggots.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Backing up, heunched a fist strike with his right hand, creating a wild wind that sted apart the snowkes. Simultaneously, a sea of mes formed above him. The golden crow appeared in those mes, which thenunched toward the phoenix. Xu Qing¡¯s shadow appeared behind him in the form of a massive tree with many eyes, all of them focused on the faces belching poison.

    In the blink of an eye, the two parties shed, causing a string of deafening booms to fill the air. Over the course of the next few moments, they mmed into each other dozens of times.

    As that happened, Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison spread. However, the zombie noticed, reached toward the Underworld River, and caused the water there to spiral up and surround him. The countless souls within the water then fought back against Xu Qing¡¯s poison.

    It was simr to the method Chu Tianqun employed, except inparison, there were far more Underworld River souls. What was more, the river water was also the source of the zombie. Again, the zombie waved his hand, and the water formed a ck python which swept toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing staggered backward several dozen meters, his pupils constricting. There was something extremely gruish about this zombie. He seemed capable of drawing power from the Underworld River. From what Xu Qing could sense, he had the strength of the early Nascent Soul stage, simr to Chu Tianqun.

    As Xu Qing fell back, the hellspirit bloodwing appeared behind him. With its dramatic boost of speed he tried to circle around the zombie. Considering the zombie¡¯s immense strength and gruish abilities, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to waste time fighting him. Besides, he had the feeling he would need the power of the violet moonter, and didn¡¯t want to waste it too soon.

    However, as Xu Qing tried to speed past, the zombie turned and looked at him. The phoenix pped its wings, giving it a burst of astonishing speed. It shot directly in front of Xu Qing like a lightning bolt.

    Xu Qing frowned as he again circled around and then sped on his way. However, the zombie wasn¡¯t ready to give up, and chased after him, howling as he prepared a deadly attack.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered coldly. He waved his hand, causing thirty demonization symbols to fly out. He also activated his seventh heavenly pce. The symbols burned, and the Ghost Emperor rumbled into existence. The mere presence of the Ghost Emperor caused everything to tremble in the area. Water exploded and massive pressure weighed down.

    ¡°Screw off!¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes as cold as ice. He really didn¡¯t want to be entangled with this opponent, but it looked like he would have to waste some time to destroy him.

    The zombie sensed danger and suddenly stopped in ce. Then it dropped down into the Underworld River, where it red up at Xu Qing. The water seethed around the zombie.

    Xu Qing looked at it coldly, then turned and sped off.

    The zombie watched Xu Qing go, hesitated for a moment, then sank back down into the water.

    That zombie must have been a top chosen when he was alive! Xu Qing put away the Ghost Emperor mountain, then blurred further along toward the depths of the Underworld River.

    A dayter, which was his fifth in this major world, he finally reached the end of the river. There, he saw an enormous ck pce. It was bigger than the county capital! Despite being dpidated and falling apart, it emanated shocking pressure. Xu Qing got the sense that it was something from the profoundly ancient past. It was like some imperial pce that had existed in forgotten times.

    Boundless soul fluctuations emerged from within it, and it pulsed with an incredibly strong aura of death. What was more, in the depths of the pce there were mounds of ck flesh that formed something like a mountain. Atop that mountain of flesh hovered a group of a few hundred souls, which were apparently some sort of offering.

    Beyond the souls, on the horizon, was a rift some several thousand meters wide. From the look of it... it was an eye hidden in the canopy of heaven. Though the eye was closed, it emanated godly might that caused everything in the area to ripple and distort.

    Waves of shock filled Xu Qing as he looked at the mountain of flesh in the imperial pce, as well as the hundreds of souls. He was still a great distance away, but from the tug of the golden thread, he knew for a certainty... that Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul was right there!

 Chapter 471: Crazy Xu Qing

    Chapter 471: Crazy Xu Qing

    In a sky as dark as evening, clouds seethed as the might of a god pulsed down onto Xu Qing in mountainous waves. Rumbling sounds filled his mind as he trembled from head to toe. He could no longer fly, and was forced down onto the ground of rotten flesh.

    When hended, his organs wrenched with pain inside of him, and he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. Blood seeped out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and his body, unable to sustain the force, started cracking apart. Blood oozed out everywhere. In the blink of an eye, his white swordsage uniform became as red as blood. Intense pain filled him, and he struggled to lift his head and look off toward the horizon. He saw the sacrificial offering of hundreds of souls, and in addition, there were a dozen streams of green energy that looked like snakes or dragons.

    It definitely appeared to be a rite or ceremony.

    A sacrificial offering to a god....

    This wasn¡¯t his first time seeing a god. And yet, he still felt himself trembling from facing a higher level of life.

    It was a paramount level of will that couldn¡¯t be resisted. A godly might. It crushed down onto Xu Qing¡¯s mind and caused splitting pain to fill his soul. Not even being surrounded by the power of his taboo poison core did anything.

    This was different from the type he saw with that god¡¯s eye in the ghast hollow, or when he dealt with Chu Tianqun¡¯s god power. In those two situations, he had felt pressure that caused everything to twist and ripple. The world had grown blurry, and his flesh and blood had almost seemed toe alive, as if it wanted to rip away from him.

    But the mighty power from this eye filled him with intense pain that made it seem like his soul was about to be shattered.

    It¡¯s simr to a god, but also dissimr....

    As the godly might weighed down, countless screams rose up from the imperial pce beneath the mountain of flesh. It sounded like a host of howling demons and devils.

    A host of deceased souls erupted from the pce, all of them pulsing with a terrifying aura. They were immeasurably vicious, with the smallest being dozens of meters tall and thergest hundreds. Some had the bodies of snakes, others had humanoid bodies. Each and every one emanated fluctuations that surpassed the phoenix Xu Qing had faced earlier. Obviously, the entities that qualified toe to this imperial pce and offer sacrifices to this god were people who, in life, had terrifying cultivation bases. Then thend churned as vicious zombies wed their way into the open, pulsing with godliness. There were far too many to count!

    This ce was a major world belonging to Emperor Ancient Spirit. It was the burial ce of his entire species. However, Xu Qing got the feeling that this wasn¡¯t the only imperial pce in this world. There were more.

    As the countless evil ghosts and zombies started approaching, a crazy look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    His hand became semitransparent, and without the slightest hesitation he plunged it into his chest, to his fourth heavenly pce, where he grabbed the godsource of the violet moon. Then he yanked it out! Violet light erupted from his chest, just like it had in his fight with Chu Tianqun.

    Xu Qing held the violet moon godsource aloft, then shouted, ¡°Back down!!¡±

    He wasn¡¯t using the power of the violet moon to resist the godly might. Instead, he was holding the godsource high and unleashing it, thoroughly andpletely. Deafening winds screamed, and blinding violet light erupted. The light shot up, creating a pir of violet that connected to the dome of heaven, sending out ripples through the clouds.

    As the ripples spread, a violet moon was revealed. Combining, they shone brilliantly! Boundless violet mist formed around Xu Qing, creating a tornado that linked heaven and earth.

    Normally speaking, when Xu Qing used the power of the violet moon, he did so cautiously. Under those circumstances, you could say he released fluctuations at level 1. During his fight with Chu Tianqun, the fluctuations had reached level 10. Right now, they were at level 100! He was holding nothing back to release a signal! And it had one purpose: to attract the attention of the red moon!

    In the blink of an eye, a boundless godly might erupted from the major world, sweeping through the void. Wherever it passed, the air shattered, and one minor world after another started to crumble.

    The major world of Emperor Ancient Spirit also trembled, and a hair-raising red color filled the sky. A paramount will that waspletely indifferent to life seemed to be on the way. It would arrive at any moment.

    As a result of that, the evil ghosts and zombies that had been rushing toward Xu Qing stopped in ce. Their expressions, instead of being malicious, were now that of terror. The imperial pce and the mountain of flesh both trembled. Up above, rifts opened up in the dome of heaven.

    When Xu Qing saw all of that, the crazy look in his eyes intensified. Lifting up the godsource, he watched the dome of heaven crack, and then growled, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re really Emperor Ancient Spirit. But I¡¯m going to assume you are. Given that you¡¯re epting sacrificial offerings, and that you gathered these mindless souls here to worship you, I refuse to believe that you have no will. Therefore, you must know what I¡¯m holding right now!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, a series of thunderps rang out, and lightning fell in droves, illuminating the surroundingnds. Godly might was about to descend.

    ¡°If I die, or if I exercise a thought, then my godmother wille to this ce.¡± The godly might caused Xu Qing to tremble, but the crazy look in his eyes didn¡¯t lessen. ¡°Sh¨¥¡¯ll be very happy to look upon something like you. When that timees, you¡¯ll be food!¡±

    As Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out loudly, the godly might grew more intense. Heaven and earth trembled, and the zombies and evil ghosts around Xu Qing howled piercingly.

    ¡°Begone! If you dare take even half a step forward, my godmother wille to this ce!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he red at the rift in the dome of heaven. He kept a tight grip on his godsource. Combined with the shining violet moon above, the signal it cast grew stronger.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s trump card! This was what he had determined to do in order to get the other half of Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul. This was why he had sent the power of his violet moon into the sky. This was why he had constantly stimted the violet moon along his journey, making sure it grew stronger and stronger. Everything had been done in preparation for this moment!

    He was summoning the red moon to threaten Emperor Ancient Spirit!

    Even from a distance, it was a terrifying scene. Xu Qing was surrounded by endless zombies and evil ghosts. Ahead of him, the ck pce looked like the skull of some evil god. And up above was that rift in the dome of heaven, which was the source of the godly might!

    As Xu Qing¡¯s words echoed out, and the violet moon sent out the signal, a bellow of rage erupted from the rift. It was different from the thunderous howl from before. It was the first true cry uttered by the eye since Xu Qing¡¯s arrival.

    Because of that cry, the zombies and ghosts around Xu Qing parted to form a path that led toward the imperial pce and the mountain of flesh.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing held the violet moon godsource aloft as he strode down the path. On either side of him were hosts of vicious, snarling zombies and ghosts. He ignored them. Godly might retreated in front of him until he reached the dpidated imperial pce. After a moment of consideration, he entered the pce and walked to the staircase that led up the mountain of flesh.

    He didn¡¯t lower his hand at all the entire time. Nor did the crazy look ever leave his eyes. He climbed the steps until he was at the peak of the mountain of flesh. From there, he could see everything clearly.

    The dome of heaven was split between two colors.

    One was the original dark evening color that belonged to the major world. It filled about ny percent of the sky. And within the churning clouds were numerous vicious ghost faces. Their continuous howls crackled like thunder. asionally, lightning bolts would fall, illuminating the mountain of flesh and the endless sea of zombies and souls. Rotting birds flew circles in the sky, ring malevolently at Xu Qing. Their dark gray eyes were clearly full of death, and yet their decaying bodies emitted fluctuations of godliness. All of them had been holy beasts when alive.

    There were dragons and snakes as well. The dragons soared in the clouds, and the snakes slithered on the ground. All were rotting. The distant Underworld River seethed as ancient entities within the water awoke and rose from the water. There were mist giants and zombie generals....

    Further past all that, there were countless chariots and banners, pulsing with baleful auras that obfuscated the sky and enshrouded thend.

    It was a shocking and ghastly sight.

    All of this was just for one sacrifice in this major world. One could only imagine how intimidating and mighty the Ancient Spirits must have been in the past.

    The other color in the sky was violet. It upied only a small section of the sky, but it was very strong. It was like a nail stuck in the sky, and it continuously cast its brilliance out.

    And that light was converging on the peak of the mountain of flesh, where Xu Qing stood with his right hand held high. At the moment, he waspletely calm. Although he had that crazy look in his bloodshot eyes, he wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with insane situations like this. Having aplished so many big things with the Captain, he was used to it.

    And right now, he was looking at that closed eye in the dome of heaven. That huge eye was mostly hidden, and it emanated a most ancient aura.

    In front of that eye, hovering above the mountain peak, were hundreds of souls, and one of them looked like a young woman. It was Ling¡¯er!

    Surrounded by ck soul light, she had her hands on her knees, and her head was bowed as she trembled. She seemed terrified and unwilling to look around. And because of the soul light surrounding her, she was apparently unable to sense what was happening around her.

    When Xu Qing spotted the trembling Ling¡¯er, the hand that held the violet moon tensed.

 Chapter 472: Donâ€™t Be Scared, Lingâ€™er. Iâ€™m Taking You Home

    Chapter 472: Don¡¯t Be Scared, Ling¡¯er. I¡¯m Taking You Home

    Beneath that evening sky, atop the mountain of flesh, beneath the weight of godly might, Xu Qing stood looking into the sky. When he spotted Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul body, the little white snake in his sea of consciousness sensed it and opened her eyes.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo....¡±

    Sensing the call from a soul fragment of the same source, the Ling¡¯er in the sky shivered and looked up.

    However, the eighteen dragons made of green mist that glided in the sky emitted powerful flows of destiny aura, creating a power of confinement that cut Ling¡¯er off from the sensation.

    When that destiny aura flowed out, the little white snake in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness suddenly pulsed with longing. Those dragons were formed from the destiny aura of the Ancient Spirits. They were very realistic, down to their lifelike scales. Though the Ancient Spirit species had been cursed by a heavenly dao, they were still the legendary species also known as the Heavenfates, who were a convergence of the destiny aura of all of Revered Ancient. Even to this day, that was still their heavenly fate.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered fiercely. Considering that it wasn¡¯t possible to summon Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul to him, he leaped off the mountain of flesh to go get her. The dragons formed from green destiny aura howled threateningly. Apparently, all it would take was an order from the Ancient Emperor, and they would lunge forward and devour Xu Qing. Unmoved by the disy, Xu Qing flew toward Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul, radiating the power of the violet moon.

    The destiny aura dragons stirred, yet had no choice but to back away from him. As they yielded, the force of confinement faded away. Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul body shivered again, and as she again sensed that strong call, Xu Qing appeared in front of her. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out with his left hand and took her soul.

    The moment his hand made contact with her, the ck light around her faded away. At the same time, the little white snake in his sea of consciousness flew out of him and shot into the soul body¡¯s forehead.

    A tremor passed through Ling¡¯er. Her eyshes fluttered, and she looked up. The first thing she saw was Xu Qing.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing... is this a dream...?¡± she murmured, looking confused. Her soul body seemed profoundly weak. Clearly, she had been away from her fleshly body for too long.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, Ling¡¯er,¡± Xu Qing said softly. ¡°I¡¯m taking you home.¡±

    Taking her into his arms, he backed away at top speed. At the same time, he crushed the jade slip the old innkeeper had given him.

    ***

    Outside Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s major world, in the Wood Spirit territory in Sea-Sealing County, the innkeeper had been anxiously waiting for days at the altar above the Spirit Abyss. When Xu Qing crushed that jade slip, the innkeeper shivered.

    His haggard, wrinkled face trembled as the power of hope surged within him. His bloodshot eyes snapped open, and they shone with unprecedented brightness. Without any hesitation, he performed an incantation gesture. A tremor passed through him, and his heart rate increased. As his blood pumped through him, a bloodline sealing power erupted from within him.

    The spirit energy of the Wood Spirits streamed out from the altar, and roots from the huge tree in the basin above extended down toward the innkeeper. The innkeeper shivered from head to toe as his blood vessels swelled. Then his forehead split open, and a mass of writhing tentacles snaked out! Blood sprayed off the tentacles, gathering in front of the innkeeper to create a writhing nine-meter-wide sphere of blood in front of him.

    ¡°Open!¡±

    The blood sphere started rotating faster and faster, locking onto the location of the jade slip. Then a tiny crevice opened up! It was a link to the spot where the jade slip had been crushed!

    As a boundless death energy erupted from the crevice, the innkeeper excitedly looked inside. The first thing he saw was Xu Qing carrying Ling¡¯er in his arms!

    The crevice was unstable, and would only stay open a short time before it closed.

    On the other side of the crevice, where Xu Qing was, the dome of heaven trembled as Emperor Ancient Spirit prepared to open his eye.

    Atop the mountain of flesh, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered. He could sense that a terrifying godly might was about to emerge, something that surpassed everything from before. Everything around him blurred and distorted as destructive power from Emperor Ancient Spirit built up. Fluctuations of awakening rolled out over everything. The evil souls and zombies all kowtowed. Xu Qing felt unimaginable pain, but still kept fighting back with the power of the violet moon.

    All of that happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. As Xu Qing trembled, he backed up, getting closer to the crevice the innkeeper had opened. The crevice¡¯s instability seemed to be building, making it clear the entire thing could disappear at any moment.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er!!¡± the innkeeper cried.

    There was no time to ponder the situation. Xu Qing immediately put Ling¡¯er¡¯s unconscious soul into the crevice. Then he turned and stood there protectively, making sure that the astonishing might from Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t affect her. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the ripping, tearing sensations within him grew more intense. Wounds opened up all over him, staining his uniform. Yet he just stood there.

    Behind him, the innkeeper¡¯s handstched onto Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul. He also seemed to be trying to grab Xu Qing, but wasn¡¯t fast enough. He had no choice but to yank his hand back as the crevice snapped shut and copsed.

    ***

    Xu Qing smiled. It was the first smile to appear on his ashen face sinceing into this major world of death. He had known from the beginning that the crevice was too small for him to fit through. He didn¡¯t care. He had seeded. He had seen Ling¡¯er¡¯s soul away, safe and sound.

    And now, the rift in the dome of heaven was fully open!

    He saw an inimitably massive yellow eye with a vertical pupil, staring at him.

    The endless hordes of zombies and deceased souls all madly howled the same thing.

    ¡°Emperor!¡±

    Their voices were deafeningly loud.

    They weren¡¯t the only ones. The dragons in the clouds, the snakes in the soil, the terrifying entities in the Underworld River, and the hosts of chariots and troops, were all screaming the same thing.

    ¡°Emperor!!¡±

    The eye above seemedpletely indifferent to everything. Surrounding the vertical pupil were ck mes, and a godly might that filled the major world.

    Xu Qing immediately lost control of his injuries, and they exploded with blood. The power of Emperor Ancient Spirit made all injuries vastly worse. It was one of the effects of facing h¨©m. In the blink of an eye, that strange power would make minor injuries into severe ones. And the ripping sensationpounded upon itself.

    It was only possible to imagine how terrifying Emperor Ancient Spirit must have been in his prime. Any enemy who faced him would have had a very difficult time, because even the slightest injury would have quickly be extremely deadly.

    As Xu Qing endured that ripping and destruction, chunks of flesh fell off him, yet he still kept the power of the violet moon held aloft. Waves of pain assailed him, and the sensation of his wounds worsening caused him to shiver. But he held firm. He looked up and met the gaze of Emperor Ancient Spirit!

    For a moment, boundless information poured into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. A flood. An explosion. They were fragmented pieces of information. They contained cruelty and madness that made Xu Qing feel like his head might explode. And there was a terrifying will that swept through him, shaking his sea of consciousness, crushing down on his soul. The taboo poison power fought back.

    His bluegreen dragon howled as it rose from his sixth heavenly pce to resist. When that happened, the incredibly powerful will trembled, as if it recognized the heavenly dao on the bluegreen dragon.

    A thunderous divine will then spoke coldly into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    ¡°You hold the godsource of Crimson Mother. You must have stolen it.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were so bloodshot they started bleeding. As the blood dripped down his chin, he looked up at the massive eye and growled, ¡°So what if I did?¡±

    Violet light exploded from Xu Qing¡¯s hand, and his fourth heavenly pce vibrated violently. The violet moon in the dome of heaven glittered with moonlight, and along its edges... it was turning red.

    That redness continued to expand. It seemed like there was something the color of blood behind the violet moon, outside of the world, but slowly enveloping it.

    ¡°Either you let me go, or we die together!¡± Xu Qing said, enunciating each word slowly and clearly.

    Xu Qing had absorbed a lot of information by facing off with this huge eye. Though it almost made his head explode, he had learned some things. Gods could devour one another. If that red moon came, then given Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s current state, he would definitely be nothing but food. That made Xu Qing confident that his threat would be effective.

    He had reached the point where he couldn¡¯t endure any longer. The splitting pain that filled him, and the countless bits of random information filling his mind, caused the world to spin. If it weren¡¯t for the tension created by the violet moon¡¯s summons, he would already have been destroyed in body and soul.

    And yet, as the huge eye looked at him with full intensity, Xu Qing steeled himself. ¡°Red moon, red moon....¡±

    As his voice rang out, red spots filled the dome of heaven. They were starting to create a shape. More and more appeared, spreading out, connecting together.

    Xu Qing was taking the initiative to summon the red moon! In the past, it happened passively. But this time it waspletely different.

    The sky was turning red.

    The pupil of the huge eye constricted, and something likebored breathing could be heard. Even more terrifying, though, was the emotional shout that followed.

    ¡°Screw off!¡±

 Chapter 473: The Wind Sweeping Through the Tower Heralds a Rising Storm in the Mountains

    Chapter 473: The Wind Sweeping Through the Tower Heralds a Rising Storm in the Mountains

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s voice shook heaven and earth. Yet the emperor seemed worried that the fluctuations might actually kill Xu Qing, and thus constrained the godly might and ripping power.

    Xu Qing, who had been at his very limit, breathed a sigh of relief. After staggering backward a few paces, he turned to leave. Right before he did, he nced at the green dragons made from destiny aura, and then thought about that sense of longing he¡¯d detected from Ling¡¯er when she saw them. Feeling a twinge of nervousness, he pointed at the nearest one.

    ¡°Oh illustrious Ancient Emperor, please lend me some destiny aura. Later on, I¡¯ll offer repayment with something of equal value.¡±

    The Ancient Spirit¡¯s godly might, which had just been retracting, suddenly shivered, and the huge eye stared down coldly at Xu Qing with increasing majesty.

    ¡°I¡¯m asking for a loan, not a gift,¡± Xu Qing noted.

    The gigantic eye looked at the red spots in the sky, then back at Xu Qing, and finally at his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. A moment passed, and then a green dragon of destiny shivered and shot toward Xu Qing. Xu Qing grabbed it, whereupon the dragon turned into a green crystal. It was delicate and beautiful, making it obvious it was a precious treasure.

    Next, a low-pitched roar erupted from the gigantic eye.

    ¡°Screw off, NOW!¡±

    With that, the eye closed and ceased looking at Xu Qing.

    Without hesitation, Xu Qing sped off the mountain of flesh and out of the imperial pce. The wing on his back pped, and he became a beam of light that shot off at incredible speed.

    In order to prevent any unexpected situations, he did not return the violet moon to his fourth heavenly pce, but he did cover the signal with a poison mist. asionally, he checked the situation above. He was worried about the red mooning, but also worried that Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye would open again.

    With those two concerns constantly on his mind, he maintained top speed as he returned along the same path he had originally followed to the pce.

    During the days that followed, he didn¡¯t run into any evil souls. Eventually, he found the spot where he hadnded. Perhaps because he had covered up the signal, or perhaps because of efforts made by Emperor Ancient Spirit, the violet moon in the sky had faded significantly, and the red spots had blurred to the point where they were hardly visible.

    Without a pause, Xu Qing started flying upward.

    As thends beneath him grew smaller and smaller, he felt an increasingly strong gravitational force pulling on him. But with a lot of effort, he broke free. At that point, he returned the violet moon to his heavenly pce, and retracted the taboo poison. After waiting for a long, nervous moment to see if anything would happen, he shot up into the Spirit Abyss and grabbed onto the cliff-like wall. It pulsed with a frigid cold as he started climbing up. Meanwhile, the violet crystal worked hard to heal his injuries.

    The trip down had been easy. But going up, he had to deal with the constant downward tug. And not only was he injured, but also he didn¡¯t dare use the violet moon to resist that tug. Therefore, he had to just struggle up along the wall.

    In that manner, time passed.

    He would asionally stop to rest. About six hourster, he saw the altar above him, as well as the innkeeper from nkspring Way, sitting on the edge and constantly working through incantation gestures in an attempt to open a path to Xu Qing.

    After only ncing for a moment at the innkeeper, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted to the cave, where he saw Ling¡¯er in her white garments, sitting there cross-legged. He breathed a sigh of relief.

    She no longer looked as pale as death. She was breathing steadily, and her face was flush with life force. That said, her soul had been out of her body for a significant time, so at the moment, she was gathering her strength. It would take time before she would regain consciousness. Surrounding her were various magical defenses erected by the innkeeper to keep her safe.

    Even as Xu Qing was studying Ling¡¯er, the innkeeper failed at his attempt to open a path. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he looked over the edge of the altar into the spirit abyss. There he saw Xu Qing crawling slowly up the wall.

    ¡°Y-you... you came back on your own?¡± The innkeeper looked like he¡¯d seen a ghost. Truth be told, he had repeatedly attempted to use his magic to get to Xu Qing, and had even asked for help from the Wood Spirits, only to fail over and over again. What was more, he knew deep in his heart that even if he seeded, he probably wouldn¡¯t be able to save Xu Qing, not considering that Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye had opened.

    Because of that, he had been fretting this entire time. For one thing, he was worried that he had sent Xu Qing to his death to save Ling¡¯er, and that left him with deeply conflicted emotions. Beyond that, he was worried about what Ling¡¯er would do after she woke up and found out that Xu Qing wasn¡¯ting back. But even as he had stewed in deep anxiety, he suddenly saw Xu Qing crawling out of the Spirit Abyss.

    ¡°But that was Emperor Ancient Spirit...!¡± he murmured, looking visibly stunned.

    Xu Qing hopped onto the altar. The innkeeper inhaled sharply, and was about to say something when Xu Qing waved his hand dismissively. Still gasping for breath, Xu Qing took out the green crystal of destiny aura and handed it to the innkeeper.

    ¡°That¡¯s for Ling¡¯er.¡±

    The innkeeper instinctively caught it. When he looked down and saw what it was, his eyes went wide, and his head spun.

    ¡°Ancestral emperor destiny aura!!¡± he blurted. He gripped it tightly, his heart racing as he contemted how valuable that crystal was. In fact, to descendants of the Ancient Spirits, it was priceless. If Ling¡¯er absorbed that ancestral emperor destiny aura, not only would it make her bloodline stronger, but also, it would suppress the curse within her to a much greater extent. Back in the era of the Ancient Spirits, only the imperial n had ess to personalized destiny auras like this. With it, Ling¡¯er¡¯s cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds.

    When Xu Qing saw the innkeeper¡¯s reaction he rxed a bit. Looking over at Ling¡¯er seated in meditation, he thought about everything that just happened beneath the Spirit Abyss.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er¡¯s bloodline essence was damaged,¡± the innkeeper exined. ¡°It will take her at least a month before she can awaken. But with this ancestral emperor destiny aura, her bloodline won¡¯t just recover. It will reach a higher level.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. As waves of exhaustion rose within him, he took out a talisman of ck iron. ¡°Do you recognize this?¡±

    The talisman was round and covered withplex magical symbols. It radiated ck light and frigid coldness, as well as teleportation fluctuations. Xu Qing had acquired it from one of the zombies he¡¯d killed. Sensing that it was something amazing, he¡¯d kept it.

    ¡°That¡¯s a spirit abyss talisman!¡± the innkeeper said. ¡°I mentioned that kind of talisman before. They¡¯re very rare. When you activate it by infusing it with your dharma force, you¡¯ll be teleported back into the Spirit Abyss. Even more amazing is that, in the moment of teleportation, you can set your destination by merely visualizing it.¡±

    As far as the innkeeper was concerned, this Xu Qing was apletely different person than before. Even now, he had no idea how he¡¯d managed to escape such a deadly situation.

    Xu Qing nodded and put the spirit abyss talisman away. Looking one final time at Ling¡¯er, he turned to leave.

    ¡°Y-you¡¯re... you¡¯re not going to wait for Ling¡¯er?¡± the innkeeper asked hesitantly.

    ¡°I¡¯m not in good shape,¡± Xu Qing answered quietly. ¡°I can¡¯t stay. We¡¯ll see each other againter on.¡± With that, he started climbing the stairs up.

    The innkeeper watched him go, all the while thinking back to what he¡¯d seen after opening that crevice. Xu Qing had stood there, protecting Ling¡¯er from godly might.

    The bratty punk has a lot of faults and isn¡¯t exactly charming. But... he knows the difference between gratitude and grudges. Plus, he¡¯s obviously sentimental and has a sense of justice!

    ***

    It was evening outside, and the red sky of evening looked like blood.

    When Xu Qing flew up into the air, the wind caused his clothing to p. With a bit of anxiety in his eyes, he looked in the direction of the county capital.

    One reason he¡¯d left the altar so quickly was that he had no idea if there would be further ramifications because of how he¡¯d summoned the red moon. Another reason... was that the sense of unease and crisis had be iparably intense after he left the Spirit Abyss.

    Don¡¯t tell me it has something to do with the red moon.

    With a thousand thoughts running through his head, he started on his way back. However, he had only traveled a short distance out of the basin when the ground suddenly heaved!

    Countless trees swayed as something like an invisible shockwave swept through the area. Cracking sounds rang out from distant mountains and crevices opened up on them. Colors shed in the sky, and a boom rang out that echoed through half of Sea-Sealing County. And it came from the direction of the county capital, as if... something there had exploded.

    The residual echoes were like heavenly thunder that smashed through the red evening sky. ck clouds sprang into being in the sky, spreading out like ripples in a pond. In the shortest of moments, the evening vanished, to be reced by the darkness of night!

    Xu Qing felt immense shock as he sensed and saw all of those things. Being in midair, he was shoved backward by the shockwave. As that happened, he looked in the direction of the distant county capital, and saw a massive, glowing white figure.

    It looked like an old man, so enormous he could prop up heaven and earth. He radiated terrifying power, and was surrounded by countless minor worlds that were constantly forming and copsing. Although he couldn¡¯tpare to a god, based on what Xu Qing could sense, he obviously surpassed the pce lord.

    The old man¡¯s eyes seemed filled with a reluctance to say farewell as he looked down at Sea-Sealing County. ck spots appeared on his body, more and more of them, growing and clumping together. Eventually, they spread out to cover him. The old man opened his mouth as if to speak...

    But he wasn¡¯t able to. The darkness of night consumed him, and he slowly vanished. Without a sound... he perished!

    Thunder crashed deafeningly. Then rain started to fall, pelting the basin, the mountains, the soil, the nts, and all of the living beings in Sea-Sealing County. The rain also hit Xu Qing. As he hovered there in the wind and rain, his mind was in chaos.

    He had seen that old man from a distance a few times in the county capital.

    ¡°The governor...¡± he murmured, his expression one ofplete incredulity.

 Chapter 474: A Once-in-Many-Millennia Spectacle

    Chapter 474: A Once-in-Many-Millennia Spectacle

    The canopy of heaven was pitch ck. Thunder boomed and asional bolts of lightning ripped through the darkness. Ice-cold rain fell, soaking Sea-Sealing County.

    Xu Qing stared in the direction of the county capital, his heart pounding with astonishment.

    ¡°The governor perished...?¡±

    Xu Qing had glimpsed the governor from afar on a few asions in the Swordsage Pce, but had never interacted with him. That said, he had heard a lot about him. He knew that it was only because of the governor that Sea-Sealing County remained whole, and that the Holytides had never managed to devour it or rip it apart.

    This governor had served in Sea-Sealing County for eight hundred years. Though he hadn¡¯t done anything to expand his territory, he did maintain a bnce. He was cautious and conscientious, and had kept Sea-Sealing County in human control the entire time. It had always had thirteen prefectures, which was a rare thing. Over the past thousand years, the other six counties controlled by humans had all lost prefectures.

    Today, the governor perished.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know the details of what happened, nor did he have any idea what was happening in the county capital. But as various emotions swept through him, he thought about Arch-Immortal Plumdark, Kong Xianglong, and the others he knew there.

    He quickly took out hismand sword and transmission jade slip. Before he could even send messages to inquire about what was happening, both devices started vibrating as messages poured in.

    ¡°Xu Qing, are you at the Corrections Division? Are you okay??¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing, the governor just died! There was no sign it was going to happen. He just died, out of nowhere!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing, where are you? The Corrections Division copsed!!¡±

    ¡°Countless prisoners have broken free! The county capital is in chaos!¡±

    Messages were flooding in from Kong Xianglong, Sir Mountain-River, and many others Xu Qing considered to be friends, as well as from other swordsages he knew, and of course jailers from the Corrections Division.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing, starting in the depths of his heart, rapidly spreading to his extremities, and turning into a rumbling sound in his mind.

    The Corrections Division copsed? Xu Qing almost couldn¡¯t believe it. Hefting hismand sword, he sent an inquiry to Kong Xianglong.

    The response came almost immediately. Kong Xianglong¡¯s voice was tinged with grief and indignation as he said, ¡°Xu Qing, the Corrections Division exploded! The prisoners are currently fleeing. They¡¯re everywhere. Tons of them. Unit D. Unit C. Unit B. The pce lord, the deputy pce lord, and the honor guards are currently using the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure to fight with the clone of a god that was imprisoned in the Corrections Division.¡±

    Xu Qing was about to ask some follow-up questions when his transmission jade slip vibrated and a voice message came in from Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± she asked, her voice quavering, ¡°where... where are you? Are you well...? I¡¯m at the Corrections Division and you¡¯re not here....¡±

    Given how shaken she sounded, Xu Qing immediately responded and let her know he was fine. Hearing that, she breathed a sigh of relief and seemed about to ask him some more details.

    However, he was so flustered he ended the conversation and then sent a voice message to Kong Xianglong. ¡°Kong Xianglong, you need to know that¡ª¡±

    Before he could even finish the message, Kong Xianglong sent his own urgent message.

    ¡°Xu Qing, if you¡¯re not here in the county capital, then find a hiding spot and stay away. Don¡¯te back, at least for a few days. Prisoners are fleeing from the Corrections Division, and you¡¯re a jailer. There are going to be viins on the roads, so be careful. By the way... something even bigger has happened! I just got news that a huge Holytide army just showed up on the border of Sea-Sealing County. This entire thing was premeditated! Xu Qing, war¡¯s about to start!¡±

    Kong Xianglong sounded anxious, but by the end of his message, his voice was decisive.

    Xu Qing was still reeling. This turn of events waspletely unexpected. All he could do was try to calm down. He took a deep breath, dropped to the ground, and found an underground area to hide. There, he took steps to conceal his aura.

    He wasn¡¯t very far from the county capital. Given the level of his cultivation base, he could make the trip in about an hour. And that meant that it wouldn¡¯t be long before prisoners from the Corrections Division could arrive. Although the prisoners were all in a very weak state, when those from Unit C were back in the open, without the heavenly daos of the minor world suppressing them, their battle prowess would quickly return. Kong Xianglong was right. He needed to stay hidden and wait for a few days before going back.

    Sea-Sealing County is going to be thrown into chaos.

    Next he took out his transmission jade slip and sent a voice message to the innkeeper to let him know what was happening, and also to have the Wood Spirits be on guard. Next he sent a message to the Captain.

    The Captain didn¡¯t respond. Xu Qing frowned. After some thought, he messaged Qing Qiu. She didn¡¯t respond either. Sighing, he put away the jade slip and sat down cross-legged to try to settle his thoughts.

    In that manner, a day passed.

    At a certain point, hismand sword vibrated, and the exhausted voice of the pce lord echoed out.

    ¡°All swordsages in the vicinity of the county capital are hereby given notice to return at once. Report by this evening! Furthermore, I have three important updates.

    ¡°One: the governor is dead.

    ¡°Two: the prisoners in the Corrections Division have all escaped. On your way back, take extra precautions to avoid any dangerous situations.

    ¡°Three: the Holytides have invaded Sea-Sealing County with arge army. ording to our intelligence reports, the Holytides¡¯ ancestral emperor has awakened and given orders to wage war.

    ¡°Swordsages... war is upon us.¡±

    Xu Qing put away themand sword, organized his bag of holding, and did a quick check to make sure he was in condition to travel. Then, his eyes gleamed with cold light as he flew up into the air and started traveling.

    It was currently noontime. The dome of heaven looked different than it had the previous day. Something like a seemed to be spreading across the sky. It glittered like gold as it expanded to cover the canopy of heaven. It emanated pulsing pressure, and as soon as Xu Qing was out in the open, it flickered as if noting his presence and making a record of it.

    Looking thoughtful, Xu Qing shot toward the county capital.

    Along the way, he kept his guard up. Before long, he was near the capital, which was when he got another message from Kong Xianglong.

    ording to Kong Xianglong, the chaos in the county capital had been temporarily quelled by the lieutenant governor and pce lords of the three Greater Celestial Divisions. Because war wasing, and the Swordsage Pce held primary responsibilities for matters of war, the pce lord had been appointed as the acting governor.

    Two dharmic decrees had been issued earlier in the day.

    The first was the one summoning all swordsages back to the capital. The second was that the entire county was being locked down and the capital¡¯s taboo treasure activated. The huge in the sky was the manifestation of that taboo treasure.

    Xu Qing looked up at the golden, put hismand sword away, and then continued on his way. Shortly after... the county capital became visible up ahead.

    It lookedpletely different than before.

    The floating city was full of cracks and crevices. It looked heavily damaged. What was more, the three pces of the Greater Celestial Divisions were also in extremely bad shape. Most shocking of all was the situation on the ground. The gaping pit where the Corrections Division existed had copsed in on itself, and the opening was now plugged with rocks and debris. Numerous massive fissures snaked out from it in all directions. For all intents and purposes, the Corrections Division didn¡¯t exist anymore.

    There were many more swordsages present on patrol duty, as well as guards from the county capital. They were keeping a close eye on everything, looking somber and deste, but at the same time, full of grief and anger.

    There was mutagen present, as well as the lingering fluctuations of magical techniques. Because such things had not yet been purged, the air rippled around them.

    Xu Qing was in a grim mood as he entered the county capital. More than a few swordsages noticed him and put their guard up. Some even scanned him with divine will. When they realized who he was, they made way for him.

    Xu Qing headed to the Corrections Division first.

    Some of the jailers had already carved out a narrow pathway leading down inside. Upon noticing Xu Qing, they nodded in greeting. None spoke. They looked like wild beasts on the lookout to devour someone, who then spotted one of their own kind.

    Xu Qing quietly walked past them and went through the narrow passage. Once inside, he saw that the cell blocks were all in ruins.

    Eyes turning colder and colder, he eventually found his way to D-132. The door was busted open, and the inside was full of rubble. The cells were all destroyed, and the prisoners were gone. The boy was also missing. Xu Qing inspected the area and eventually found a spot in the back corner where there was a pile of broken bamboo slips. Every single bamboo slip contained the same basic information¡­. Xu Qing collected the fragments, then continued down to Level 89.

    There, he looked at the mural. The minor world... had been destroyed.

    ¡°You¡¯re here,¡± a hoarse voice said from some nearby rubble.

    Xu Qing spotted Ghost Hand sitting there, his body riddled with wounds. He was surrounded by empty alcohol jugs. He had one remaining jug in his hand as he looked at Xu Qing. He chuckled bitterly.

    ¡°They escaped. Every single one of them. Well, I killed a few. But not enough....¡±

    Xu Qing approached and studied Ghost Hand¡¯s injuries. They were serious. His cultivation base was even fractured. Sensing the strong aura of death on him, Xu Qing took out some medicinal pills and put them off to the side.

    ¡°I¡¯m not dead yet, Xu Qing. Say, have any alcohol?¡± Ghost Hand tossed the empty alcohol jug to the side, where it ttered off into the darkness.

    Xu Qing nodded. Taking out a jug from his bag of holding, he handed it over.

    Ghost Hand epted it with a trembling hand. Opening it, he took a long drink. Afterwards, he coughed hard, and his face flushed in an unhealthy way. Taking a few gasping breaths, he looked at the shattered mural.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not going to die this easily,¡± he said. ¡°Remember, Xu Qing, I¡¯ve been powering up my sword for hundreds of years now, and I still haven¡¯t used it.... There were just too many of them escaping. My sword is meant take down a single enemy. So I wasn¡¯t going to waste it on something like this.

    ¡°I¡¯m saving it for the sake of Unit C. I¡¯m going to use it on the cretin that destroyed the Corrections Division.... Until I do that, I¡¯m not going to die.¡± His voice became increasingly filled with determination.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. Then, feeling very conflicted, he left.

    ***

    Far from Sea-Sealing County, in the depths of the Holytide Region, there was a very special in that wasn¡¯t part of any county. It was in the very middle of the Holytide Region, and was considered a holynd to the Holytide species.

    It was pure white, not because there was snow there, but because there was sand. Each grain contained powerful spirit energy.

    There were countless statues present, humanoid in shape, and pulsing with ancient auras. They were the personal guard of Grand Duke Holytide, who had betrayed humankind years in the past. In the years since that event, the cultivators of the guard legion had turned into statues that stood over that white in. Ironically, the entire ce seemed like sacred ground.

    The source of that sacredness was a temple in the middle of the in, which was also pure white. It was the Holytide¡¯s ancestral temple, which was where their ancestral emperor slept.

    There were currently four hulking figures outside the temple, prostrated and unmoving.

    All four of them wore imperial robes and had imperial crowns on their heads. They were the four emperors of the Holytides¡¯ four royal dynasties. Emperor Heavengale was one of them. [1]

    ¡°Your Ancestral Highness,¡± he said respectfully, ¡°we¡¯ve done everything ording to n.¡±

    Next to Emperor Heavengale was Emperor Redspirit, who said, ¡°Your Ancestral Highness, the Redspirit Army has entered Sea-Sealing County. Regarding the matter of the Nightshade godchild, we¡¯ve uncovered as many clues as we can, and await your decision.¡±

    After a long moment of silence from the temple, an ancient voice echoed out from inside.

    ¡°Shelve the godchild matter for the time being. Focus on important things!¡±

    ¡°Your decree shall be obeyed, Ancestral Emperor!¡± The four emperors ducked their heads and kowtowed.

    1. Emperor Heavengale appeared ¡°onscreen¡± in chapter 458. ?

 Chapter 475: Secretary-General

    <h4>Chapter 475: Secretary-General</h4>

    Xu Qing emerged from the copsed Corrections Division looking very somber. ncing up at the ruined city above, he took to flight and made his way toward the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect.

    Along the way, he passed countless devastated buildings. The dramatic events of the previous day had clearly had a huge effect on the city. Previously, the streets had been crowded with pedestrians. Now, there were few people out and about. Those who were on the streets hurried about their business. On their faces, Xu Qing saw hesitancy, confusion, anxiety, and even terror. The unusual circumstances surrounding the governor¡¯s death would have been enough to cause panic. But then the Corrections Division copsed, and that made things much worse. Finally, news of the Holytide invasion was spreading, and that pushed people into a state of shock. There were even cultivators who seemed overwhelmed with fear. After all, not everyone was a swordsage. Eventually, Xu Qing stopped looking around.

    He was soon at the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s subsidiary sect.

    With Arch-Immortal Plumdark in charge, the subsidiary sect was in fairly good condition. However, the coalition forces inside were all packing for travel.

    Xu Qing took in the scene and, without pausing for a moment, went to Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s residence. Arch-Immortal Plumdark was there with her friend Li Shitao. The two of them looked like they were having a very serious discussion. When Arch-Immortal Plumdark saw Xu Qing, she smiled warmly.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I was just going to go looking for you. We received an urgent summons from the sect. Our contingent can¡¯t stay here any longer. We¡¯re teleporting back. Forbidden by the Zombie wentpletely out of control. The Swordsage Pce has already issued orders to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture; all human sects are required to mobilize and deal with the situation.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank. He had been present to witness the first inklings of unrest in Forbidden by the Zombie, and he had a good idea what was probably happening there.

    ¡°The truth is that the Eight Sect Coalition and the Swordsage Court knew all along that the Holytides were behind that initial incident in Forbidden by the Zombie. They instigated the current re-up as well. Given the circumstances, it seems they want to bog down the major sects in the other prefectures in Sea-Sealing County. We¡¯re entering troubling times, Xu Qing. Given how close you are to the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce, you should be safe. That¡¯s why I¡¯m not asking you toe back with us. You¡¯ll stay here. But... you still need to keep your guard up.¡±

    Looking concerned, she gave three jade slips to him. ¡°The first contains a concealment magic simr to the symbols I painted on you. The second is a long-range teleportation talisman. You can use it in the heat of the moment to escape a dangerous situation. Thest one contains a slip of my divine will. It will help you absorb one deadly attack.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was anything but calm as he epted the jade slips. Then he took out some of the dao fruits he¡¯d acquired from the Ten Entrails Tree, which were miraculous ingredients when used in equipment forging and pill concocting. Considering the plentiful resources at the disposal of the Swordsage Pce, it made more sense to give them to the Eight Sect Coalition. They would surely find a good use for them. When Arch-Immortal Plumdark saw them, her expression flickered. Instead of politely refusing them, she simply took them.

    About two hourster, things were in order in the subsidiary sect. As Xu Qing watched, the Eight Sect Coalition forces left. At thest possible moment, Arch-Immortal Plumdark turned and looked at him. Their gazes met, and then the light of teleportation red, and she disappeared along with the rest of the coalition disciples.

    Li Shitao clearly had a lot on her mind. After Arch-Immortal Plumdark was gone, she nodded to Xu Qing and hurried away.

    Looking at the empty teleportation portal, Xu Qing felt numb. It was actually a familiar feeling. It brought him back to the years he had spent in the slums.

    <i>I should report for duty at the Swordsage Pce</i>. Turning, he walked in that direction. In the evening sun, his swordsage uniform shone like blood, and his shadow stretched out long behind him.

    It was dark by the time he got to the Swordsage Pce. Upon arriving, he sent a message to Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong flew out to meet him. When he caught sight of Xu Qing, he looked visibly surprised. He could tell that Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base had advanced significantly. Kong Xianglong actually felt like he was standing in the presence of a Nascent Soul cultivator. Under normal circumstances, he would have curiously inquired about the details. But considering what was happening, he wasn¡¯t in the mood for that.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he said, keeping his voice low, ¡°I just got news from the outside. The taboo treasure isn¡¯t strong enough to keep out the Holytide army. It¡¯s only slowing them down a bit.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go. All the other swordsages areing back, and we¡¯re supposed to have an assembly with the pce lord tonight to talk about our battle strategy. As of now, Xu Qing... you really are going to start working as a secretary-general.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded calmly. He¡¯d known all along that even though he¡¯d been appointed as a jailer, his true post was as the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general.

    Just as Kong Xianglong had suggested, it was shortly after Xu Qing arrived at the Swordsage Pce that he received a summons from the pce lord. He made his way without dy to the Grand Hall of Swordsages deep in the Swordsage Pce. When he arrived, he saw the pce lord standing in front of a huge projected map, his expression somber and his eyes bloodshot.

    The pce lord smelled of blood and lookedpletely exhausted. Clearly, he hadn¡¯t had any rest since the dramatic events began.

    There were seven or eight other swordsages with him, plus the four honor guards and the deputy pce lords. All of them had injuries of some sort, with the most seriously injured being the two deputy pce lords. They¡¯d been hurt the previous day when they joined the pce lord in dealing with the god from the Corrections Division. There was no time now to focus on recovery. Now, they were getting new orders from the pce lord.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± said the four honor guards and two deputy pce lords. Looking somber, they left, passing Xu Qing along the way and giving him a nod.

    After that, the hall was empty, and the pce lord looked away from the map and looked at Xu Qing, his expression stern.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed gravely. ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing, reporting for duty.¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing, I want you to audit the swordsage personnel list. Determine who hasn¡¯te back and why. I also want you to handle the preparations for the assembly tonight. Can you do that?¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed,¡± Xu Qing said.

    The pce lord nodded, then turned away and paid no further heed to Xu Qing. He had many things to handle. Sea-Sealing County was dealing with <i>internal trouble and outside aggression</i>, and now that the governor was gone, the pce lord was responsible for everything.

    Xu Qing knew his ce, and quickly left the hall. Taking out hismand sword, he got busy following orders. He was now the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general, not in name only, but in reality. He had the authority to check all the swordsage records, and all swordsages would have to cooperate with his arrangements. That said, there was too much work for him to handle alone, so after mulling the matter over, he sent a message to Kong Xianglong.

    Shortly thereafter, Kong Xianglong arrived along with Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit. With their help, he began the audit of the swordsage personnel list, including details about those who had not returned.

    Before long, it was only about two hours until the assembly was to start. The time and ce had been set, so Xu Qing prepared the notification to be sent out.

    <i>¡°As per the orders of the pce lord, all swordsages will assemble an hour before midnight in Square #1 of the East Wing.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out frommand swords far and wide. It was his first time speaking publicly with his authority as a secretary-general.

    Before long, it was time for the meeting.

    Square #1 in the East Wing soon filled with swordsages. There was no need to issue orders exining how to assemble. Swordsages were a disciplined lot, and before long, all 100,000 swordsages were standing in ranks ording to their cultivation base.

    No one spoke. The atmosphere was somber, and it was clear that everyone had a lot on their mind. Their eyes flickered with a mix of fury and determination.

    The governor was dead. The Corrections Division had copsed. War was on the horizon. Those things didn¡¯t make the swordsages afraid. Instead, it stoked their killing intent. Their aurasbined, spreading out and causing a vortex to spin in the dome of heaven above. The four honor guards were present, as well as the deputy pce lords. And then, the pce lord appeared in front of everyone, his expression grave. He seemed threatening without being angry. Right behind him was Xu Qing.

    All gazes were fixed on the stage, so of course everyone saw Xu Qing. His face remained expressionless as he came to a stop nine meters behind the pce lord.

    The pce lord looked out at the crowd for a moment. Then he spoke in a grim voice that echoed out in all directions.

    ¡°Swordsages, war is here.

    ¡°The Holytides have long coveted Sea-Sealing County. But this county belongs to us humans. This isn¡¯t the first time war has broken out. And every time it did in the past, they suffered defeat! There have been no exceptions! For nearly a thousand years, thete governor and I, as well as the other leaders in the county capital, have prepared for this moment.

    ¡°The Holytides have sent in the Redspirit Dynasty and the Moonmist Dynasty as their vanguard. They¡¯ve already entered Sea-Sealing County. Yet I feel very confident.

    ¡°As long as everyone remains loyal and responsible, nothing unexpected will go wrong. Everything has been nned out in detail. Just like all the great martyrs of the past here in Sea-Sealing County, we¡¯ll prove that we can defend ournds. When the winds of war blow, we wille out victorious. We will stand strong against this Holytide threat.

    ¡°We have the assistance of the Administration Pce, as well as 379 allied species including the Saintfiends. They, too, will join the fighting. As of this morning, I personally conferred with the Demi-Immortals. They have chosen to retreat into their ancestralnd and seal themselves therein. They will note out under any circumstances. Therefore, we are not in a weak position in this war.¡±

    As the pce lord spoke, he did not get impassioned or worked up. He spoke slowly and analytically.

    ¡°However, there¡¯s one thing all of you need to know. Today, two things happened in the distant imperial capital.

    ¡°First. Our emperor dispatched a new governor along with an army in our direction via cross-region teleportation. They should have arrived tomorrow. However, earlier this afternoon, they were ambushed by Nightshades. We have no idea if they¡¯re alive or dead.

    ¡°Second. A Nightshade army is advancing on the imperial capital.

    ¡°Hard times areing. For the time being, we here in Sea-Sealing County are solely responsible for defending against the enemy invasion. In all likelihood, this is going to be a prolonged war. In all likelihood, this will be a bitter fight without any backup on the horizon. Regardless, we have to deal with the situation at hand. Do not let this influence your determination to follow through with your pledge. The fact remains: there is nowhere for us to retreat to.

    ¡°Of the thirteen prefectures in our county, three have already been upied by the Holytides. Thankfully, our taboo treasures have been fully activated, slowing their advance. That has bought us a bit of time.

    ¡°During that time, we have a few issues we need to resolve.

    ¡°Great chaos has broken out in two forbidden grounds. Forbidden by the Zombie and Forbidden by the Garment. It¡¯s a Holytide strategy to distract and weaken our prefectural forces.

    ¡°The Corrections Division copsed, and the prisoners escaped. That is going to cause a lot of chaos in Sea-Sealing County. As a result, we are facing <i>internal trouble and outside aggression</i>. That is yet another Holytide strategy.¡±

    The 100,000 swordsages were clearly getting a bit worked up, including Xu Qing. The pce lord¡¯s words were hammering home how much danger Sea-Sealing County was in. However, the pce lord¡¯s voice remained calm, and was a stabilizing force. As a result, the somber and deste resolve in the hearts of the swordsages didn¡¯t lessen.

    The pce lord stopped speaking for a moment as he looked at the crowd. Then he said, ¡°Fear not. If heaven copses, I will hold it up!¡±

    1. Xu Qing saw the dramatic event in Forbidden by the Zombie in . In the subsequent aftermath in , there was a clue dropped that we now can realize was pointing to the Holytides.

    2. Xu Qing was appointed as secretary-general in .

    3. It''s worth noting that in contexts of war, national disaster/conflict, etc., ''heaven'' can metaphorically refer to the country, or sometimes the leadership of the country.

 Chapter 476: Matters of War in Sea-Sealing

    <h4>Chapter 476: Matters of War in Sea-Sealing</h4>

    The <i>iron-willed and unyielding</i> pce lord didn¡¯t need to say a lot. His short speech was more than enough. The swordsages looked up at him, their eyes shining with determination, respect, and faith.

    ¡°All of you remember the oath you took when you became swordsages. <i>Defend humanity. Sever the doom of dawn. Cause the light of heaven and earth to blossom</i>.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just a slogan or a catchphrase. You spoke those words. I spoke them. And now... we will live them. Going forward, we must love each other like family, have each other¡¯s backs, never waver, and never give in to defeat!

    ¡°We will either live or die with Sea-Sealing County. We will fight to the end! Regardless of what chaoses to grip our county... we will lead the armies of humankind into battle for the sake of our emperor. And when the timees, we will take the me of the Holytide¡¯s legacy... and extinguish it!¡±

    The pce lord looked out at the 100,000 swordsages and continued, ¡°And now, prepare to receive your orders! Xu Qing, keep a record of this.¡±

    Xu Qing took three steps forward, produced a jade slip, and somberly prepared to record information.

    ¡°Notify all human sects from outside Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture that they are hereby conscripted to quell the unrest in Forbidden by the Zombie and Forbidden by the Garment!

    ¡°Notify all sects that we requireplete loyalty. The Holytides have invaded us with the goal of exterminating the human species. Any sect who does not follow orders, or refuses to die fighting the Holytides, will be considered traitors against humanity.

    ¡°Notify the Swordsage Courts in all prefectures to rally all other human cultivators. Form new armies, head to the west, and meet the invading foes on the field of battle.

    ¡°Notify the Administration Pce that they shall lead a new army of allied nonhuman species. The Yao n is hereby ordered to participate in this effort. They will be stationed on the northern front.

    ¡°Notify the Justice Pce that they shall lead the three great sects from the county capital to be the link between the northern and western armies. They will be responsible for logistics and transportation!

    ¡°Notify the lieutenant governor that he shall be responsible for defending the county capital, and maintainingw and order throughout the Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°Furthermore... notify all remaining nonhumans and other organizations in the Sea-Sealing County who have not been assigned to the war effort, even if they are evil cultivators or grues, that in order to prevent unrest during this period of war, they¡¯re to send all of their Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators to war. Any who refuse to cooperate will be exterminated!

    ¡°Notify all human organizations to hand over control of their taboo treasures to the county capital. The only exceptions are the sects in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture.

    ¡°Honor guards!¡±

    Daoist Sima, the highest ranking of the four honor guards in the Swordsage Pce, stepped forward and saluted.

    ¡°The four of you are responsible for seeing these orders carried out. Any who refuse to cooperate should be executed on the spot!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the four honor guards said, their expression grave.

    Xu Qing kept a careful record of each order. His responsibility would be to process and send out the orders after they were uttered, and also keep track of their progress.

    ¡°Brother Yunshan, Brother Shentu!¡± the pce lord said, turning to look at the two deputy pce lords of the Swordsage Pce. They stepped forward with respectful looks on their faces.

    ¡°The situation with the prisoners who escaped from the Corrections Division needs to be resolved as soon as possible. One third of all swordsages will remain in the county capital to take care of things here. The remaining seventy percent will be divided into 700panies. Eachpany will have 100 swordsages in it. Split them up into squads as necessary. We want at least 7,000 squads. Each squad will be assigned to a different area, and will cooperate with the jailers to track down the escaped prisoners! If you can arrest them, arrest them. If it¡¯s not convenient to arrest them, kill them. Don¡¯t let any escape. You two deputy pce lords will take the lead in this matter. I want the entire thing handled in ten days or less. Ten days from now, regroup here to advance to the battlefield!¡±

    The two deputy pce lords nodded, and the 100,000 swordsages all bristled with killing intent. The jailers among them all had cold expressions, and unusually strong killing intent. After all, they were the ones responsible for the prisoners, and knew them well. With other swordsages helping them, they would be able to work very efficiently. The truth was that even if the pce lord hadn¡¯t issued orders like this, the jailers would have decided on their own... to track down the prisoners that they were responsible for.

    With the orders given, the swordsages spread out into the night to start working. Most of them followed the leadership of the two deputy pce lords and headed out of the county capital.

    Xu Qing did not leave the capital. But that didn¡¯t mean he had nothing to do. Quite the opposite. He had no time for rest as he helped the pce lord handle all sorts of random tasks. He was also responsible for filtering all the reportsing in.

    After the assembly was over, the pce lord convened a smaller counsel with the Administration Pce and the Justice Pce. Xu Qing stood by his side, keeping the minutes of the meeting, and also forwarding any new information from the pce lord to those on the outside.

    Before long, Xu Qing¡¯s voice could be heard throughout the various prefectures as he transmitted the pce lord¡¯s orders. Virtually overnight, people from all groups became familiar with the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general.

    Given how closely Xu Qing was working with the pce lord, as the days passed, he personally witnessed how exhausted the pce lord was, thanks to working nonstop. Every few days, the pce lord would exchangemunications with the lieutenant governor and the other two pce lords.

    More and more dharmic decrees were issued. All of Sea-Sealing County was astir.

    As Xu Qing became responsible for dealing with more and more reports, it reached the point where he needed help. Therefore, he summoned some swordsages and formed a new division.

    It was called the Secretariat Division.

    Qing Qiu was among those he recruited. She had returned two days prior. The moment she¡¯d received Xu Qing¡¯s notification, and came to understand the situation, she¡¯d hurried back. When she came into his presence, she had a very strange expression on her face. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have time for a discussion. He just assigned her a number of important tasks.

    <i>I really wish the Captain was here....</i> Despite how busy he was, Xu Qing kept thinking about the Captain. Unfortunately, the Captain wasn¡¯t responding to any messages.

    asionally, nonhumans would send representatives for audiences. More often than not, Xu Qing was there to receive them.

    At the moment, Xu Qing was in one of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s reception halls, rubbing the bridge of his nose. In front of him was a very angry nonhuman cultivator.

    He was an emissary from the Spirit Ear species. They looked very simr to humans, except they had a second set of ears and twin pupils. They also had gray skin, and no hair whatsoever.

    ¡°Exalted Xu, our species really cannot join the war effort. Our patriarch and the other high-level cultivators are unable to leave our homnd. If they do, our enemies, the Persewater species, will definitely cause big problems.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the jade slip he held in his hand. Virtually all the nonhumans who hade for audiences had some sort of problem with the pce lord¡¯s demand that the Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators fight in the war. Many groups didn¡¯t want toply, but also knew that they were being forced toply. Therefore, their only option was toin and protest.

    ¡°Your species has ne Nascent Soul stage cultivators,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Thirty-seven in the mid stage. And forty-five in the early stage. You have over three hundred Gold Core cultivators. The Persewater species has simr numbers.... So how exactly are they going to cause ¡®big problems¡¯ for you?¡±

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the nonhuman.

    The Spirit Ear emissary was clearly taken aback. The exact numbers of cultivators in their species wasn¡¯t public knowledge. Normally speaking, they kept thirty percent of their forces top secret. Yet Xu Qing obviously had very urate numbers.

    The nonhuman was just preparing a response when Xu Qing received a summons from the pce lord. He stood.

    ¡°Look,¡± he said coolly, ¡°either youply, or your species gets wiped out. Qing Qiu, you handle the final details. If they refuse to cooperate, notify Honor Guard Sima.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Qing Qiu said, approaching the Spirit Ear cultivator. Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay any further attention as he headed toward the Grand Hall of Swordsages.

    He¡¯d already dealt with too many situations like the one with the Spirit Ears. In reality, the stance of people like this wasn¡¯t veryplicated. In short, they didn¡¯t want to send their high-level experts fighting in the war.

    But there were likely other, less obvious reasons. For instance, if Sea-Sealing County lost the war, then any top experts left behind in the surviving species and organizations would have a much easier time profiting from the fallout. And as long as they were careful, they wouldn¡¯t need to worry about any repercussions. In reality, that was exactly what the pce lord was worried about, and the reason why he had issued such a harsh dharmic decree. The four honor guards had already exterminated a handful of defiant species.

    <i>¡°Internal trouble and outside aggression,¡± </i> Xu Qing murmured.

    In all of Sea-Sealing County, there was no government agency more in tune with the general state of affairs than the Secretariat Division. All war reports came through the Secretariat Division, and after they were filtered and sorted, they were delivered to the pce lord. That was how the pce lord wanted things handled. And though it made the war effort more streamlined, it put a lot of weight on Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders. Not only did he need to organize all the reports, but he also needed to verify their uracy.

    As he was thinking about those things, he arrived at the Grand Hall of Swordsages.

    As the pce lord¡¯s only secretary-general, he was able to enter the pce lord¡¯s presence without being announced. The swordsages outside nodded deferentially to him when he arrived, and he entered.

    The pce lord wasn¡¯t the only person inside. The lieutenant governor was there, as were the pce lords from the other two pces. Also present was a middle-aged cultivator dressed like a schr. Xu Qing had encountered him multiple times in the past few days. He was Marquis Yao. These five individuals were clearly having some sort of disagreement.

    ¡°Brother Liangxiu,¡± said Marquis Yao, ¡°how can you be treating the nonhumans in the prefecture so harshly at a time like this? If we don¡¯t get things under control quickly, open rebellion could break out. And if that happens, then all other military affairs will have to be dyed until the taboo treasure fallout passes!¡±

    ¡°Tianyan is right,¡± the lieutenant governor said. He sighed. ¡°Liangxiu, don¡¯t you think you¡¯re being a bit extreme? I¡¯m sure we can think of other ways to make use of the top experts from the nonhuman species.¡±

    The pce lords from the Administration Pce and the Justice Pce, a man and a woman, were just sitting looking on with cold expressions.

    Xu Qing kept his head bowed as he approached his spot behind the pce lord. The pce lord¡¯s expression was cold and grim. Not responding to Marquis Yao or the lieutenant governor, he just stood there lookingpletely unruffled.

    A long moment passed, and then the pce lord said, ¡°Xu Qing, read today¡¯s report.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, took a step forward, and then began.

    ¡°Between the two forbidden grounds, the most catastrophic situation is in Forbidden by the Zombie. The circumstances in Forbidden by the Garment are less severe. Thanks to the hard work of the forces in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture, both forbidden grounds have been brought under a certain level of control. ording to the reports from the respective Swordsage Courts, the stalemate will continue for about a month.

    ¡°In Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the Seven Blood Eyes sect from the Eight Sect Coalition requested help from 93 nonhuman sects from the Forbidden Sea, as well as forces from the continent of South Phoenix.

    ¡°The Swordsage Courts from the other eight prefectures have finished their conscription campaigns. They¡¯ve gathered 37rge sects, 975 mid-sized sects, and 7,831 small sects that are currently marshaling on the western front.

    ¡°A total of 39 human sects of varying sizes refused to follow orders, and in line with the orders from the Swordsage Pce, were exterminated by various Swordsage Courts as a warning to the others.

    ¡°Thirty percent of the nonhumans overseen by the Administration Pce and the Yao n have gathered on the northern front. The remaining seventy percent have demandedpensation to participate, and are refusing to do anything until they get it.

    ¡°The three great sects overseen by the Justice Pce are all fully equipped. With theirbined strength, they have sessfully transported the first six batches of war supplies to the battlefield.

    ¡°In addition, of the various species and organizations that were not required to join the war effort, a total of 421 have refused to send their top experts as required by yourmand. Only 215 have honored the dharmic decree. The four honor guards have already exterminated 13 species, and are reporting that the resulting intimidation factor is effective. They have submitted an official request to continue with that work.

    ¡°As of one hour ago, all human taboo treasures have been sessfullymandeered.

    ¡°Today, the swordsages sent out into Sea-Sealing County have killed 9,513 escaped prisoners, which is a ten percent increase over yesterday. Unfortunately, 971 swordsages lost their lives in the process.

    ¡°The situation is dire on the western front. The Holytides have fielded three Void Returning experts. What¡¯s more, the Earthsoil Dynasty has joined the fighting. The county capital¡¯s taboo treasure has been forced to fall back by 35,000 kilometers.

    ¡°The Heavengale Dynasty arrived on the northern front today, and their emperor is personally takingmand of the troops there.¡±

    Having finished with the report, Xu Qing took a step back.

    1. The swordsage oath was first mentioned in , and was repeated in .

 Chapter 477: The Desolate Wind Blows, the Waters of Yi are Cold

    <h4>Chapter 477: The Deste Wind Blows, the Waters of Yi are Cold</h4>

    Silence reigned in the hall. Everyone present, including the lieutenant governor, Marquis Yao, and the pce lords from the Administration Pce and Justice Pce, were all privy to various war reports. But none of them had aprehensive understanding of the situation like the Swordsage Pce did. After all, the pce lord from the Swordsage Pce was temporarily serving as the governor. Therefore, it was only natural that the Swordsage Pce would have the mostplete information during this period of conflict.

    ¡°Did you all hear that?¡± the pce lord said, his face expressionless. ¡°Lieutenant Governor, it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to use less severe methods to get cooperation from the nonhuman experts. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t have time.¡±

    The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    ¡°Marquis Yao, why has a full seventy percent of the allied army not even budged? They¡¯re demandingpensation? What outrageous gall!¡± The pce lord¡¯s voice was as cold as a winter wind. ¡°Over four hundred groups have refused to dispatch their experts. If a rebellion breaks out in Sea-Sealing County right now, what do you think will happen as a result? Have you put <i>any</i> thought into that, Marquis Yao?

    ¡°Both fronts are facing impending crises. Given the current state of Sea-Sealing County, I¡¯m shocked the lot of you are sitting around moaning and whining about things. If I don¡¯t kill a few nonhumans to stabilize things, then my surname isn''t Kong!¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s voice was so icy the entire hall seemed to get colder.

    ¡°And what happens if the nonhumans join forces to resist?¡± Marquis Yao said, his expression steely as he looked at the pce lord.

    ¡°Then,¡± the pce lord replied, enunciating each word one at a time, ¡°we kill them.¡±

    ¡°What if they betray us on the battlefield? You¡¯re just going to kill them all?¡±

    Ignoring Marquis Yao, the pce lord said, ¡°Xu Qing, notify the four honor guards to continue ughtering any species that defies us. I¡¯m curious to see who refuses toply when they see that.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and made a notation.

    ¡°You¡¯re as obstinate and self-opinionated as ever, Kong Liangxiu,¡± Marquis Yao said. ¡°If you do things like this, but don¡¯t keep absolute control over Sea-Sealing County, then when the timees, those nonhumans....¡± He trailed off. [1]

    The pce lord looked at him coldly. ¡°If Sea-Sealing County ends up being destroyed, then why would I possibly care about what the nonhumans get up to?¡±

    Marquis Yao gave the pce lord a hard look, then flicked his sleeve and stalked off.

    ¡°When will the allied nonhumans mobilize, Yao Tianyan?¡± the pce lord called after him.

    ¡°In a day,¡± came the reply from outside the hall. It was followed by a cold harrumph.

    The lieutenant governor sighed. Standing, he sped hands to the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce, then left. The other two pce lords did the same, showing no facial expression the entire time.

    After that, the hall was quiet. Only Xu Qing and the pce lord were there.

    Seeing that no more orders were forting, Xu Qing sped hands and said, ¡°I¡¯ll take my leave now, Pce Lord.¡±

    ***

    Once the pce lord was alone, he took out a jade slip and slowly rubbed its surface. Looking in the direction of Yao Mansion, he frowned.

    <i>Was it him?</i>

    ***

    Marquis Yao looked increasingly furious as he returned to his mansion. Once inside, he made his way to a secret chamber. At that point, the fury evaporated, and was reced by a deeply somber expression.

    <i>It probably wasn¡¯t Kong Liangxiu. But then... who assassinated the governor...?</i>

    ***

    Ten days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing essentially had no opportunities to rest. His days were spent dealing with more and more reports. That was especially true after the main armies reached the western and northern fronts, and actually began fighting the Holytide forces.

    Reports came in nonstop.

    Marquis Yao followed through on his words. It was impossible to say how he did it, but in only a single day, he mobilized the allied nonhumans. Then he left for the northern front, taking virtually all the Yao n cultivators with him. The marquis never made a public appearance before leaving.

    However, Xu Qing noticed the pce lord staring off in the direction of Yao Mansion on more than one asion.

    The forceful actions of the four honor guards, joined by the two deputy pce lords, intimidated the majority of the nonhumans. Their top experts basically had no choice but toply with the Swordsage Pce¡¯s dharmic decree, and were assigned to armies in the various prefectures. Because of that, there were no Spirit Trove or Void Returning experts in Sea-Sealing County, save for in the armies.

    The escaped prisoners were also handled.

    The Swordsage Pce employed a dra that initially focused on the prisoners with the highest cultivation base. Although some of the weaker prisoners managed to escape, the majority were captured or killed.

    Soon enough, the swordsages that had been dispatched started returning. On the tenth day, they were all back.

    Around that time, the situation on the two main fronts grew critical. The reportsing through Xu Qing became increasingly desperate. Casualties were shocking, and they only mounted as the days went by. By the evening of the tenth day, both the western front and the northern front sent messages saying they needed emergency assistance.

    Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure was fully activated. It was already on the verge of copse, and couldn¡¯t be used for very much longer. Once it fell, the Holytides would sweep through Sea-Sealing County like a sh flood.

    Sadly, no backup army from the imperial capital ever showed up. What was more, Xu Qing knew through the war reports that the distant imperial capital, as well as other counties, were in simr circumstances. The Nightshades... were on the warpath. All of their subordinate species were also on the attack. Every single territory controlled by humankind was being threatened.

    When Xu Qing delivered those reports to the pce lord, it was obvious that he was already aware of the situation. When Xu Qing found him, he was putting on a suit of armor. It was pitch ck and contained over a hundred sections, each of which emanated terrifying might. When the pce lord spotted Xu Qing, his face remained as somber as ever as he waved him over.

    ¡°Come, help me with my armor.¡±

    Xu Qing approached and started helping the pce lord strap the armor on. The pce lord looked off at the sunset, and he suddenly smiled.

    ¡°Thest time I put on my armor, it was my oldest son who helped me. That was many years ago.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the pce lord, who suddenly seemed a lot older than he had before, and thought back to what Ghost Hand had mentioned about him having two sons that died in service. [2]

    ¡°My oldest son killed himself,¡± the pce lord said quietly. ¡°I sent him on an infiltration mission into Holytide territory. He aplished the mission, but was discovered in the process. Rather than putting me in the position of deciding his fate, he took his own life.¡±

    Xu Qing strapped another section of armor onto the pce lord.

    ¡°My second son was very outgoing. Perhaps too outgoing. He was sentimental and honorable, but at the same time, was a bit of adies¡¯ man. Those two sides to his personality made it easy for people to plot against him. Eventually, he fell victim to such plots, and died. There¡¯s something that no one knows, though. I actually have a grandson. And my grandson... is amazing.¡±

    The pce lord smiled again. Today was the first day Xu Qing ever saw him smile.

    It was only a few days before that Xu Qing came to realize that the pce lord¡¯s surname was Kong. After learning that, he¡¯d started to specte about the grandson that had just been mentioned.[3]

    After Xu Qing put thest piece of armor onto the pce lord, the smile disappeared from his face. His expression was somber once again, making him seem like his usual rigid and inflexible self. Taking his helmet, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, send orders to the Administration Pce and the Justice Pce. Tell the two pce lords to go to the northern front. They absolutely <i>must</i> hold the line! As for me, I¡¯m going to take all 100,000 swordsages to the western front. I want to see how strong those Holytide codgers have gotten.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said somberly. ¡°When do we leave, Pce Lord? I need to prepare a few things.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not going to battle. I¡¯ve already arranged for a body double to rece you.¡± Pce Lord Kong turned around and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was stunned as he looked back. The pce lord¡¯s ck armor emitted a strong baleful aura, as well as the faint sound of countless wild beasts howling. What was more, countless vicious souls were visible on the armor.

    ¡°I have a different assignment for you,¡± Pce Lord Kong continued. ¡°I¡¯m sending you on a top secret mission. You¡¯ll leave immediately for Daybreak Prefecture. There¡¯s something I need you to investigate. You¡¯ll start in the local Swordsage Court, and then follow any leads as necessary!¡±

    He handed a jade slip to Xu Qing. It was the very same jade slip he had been fiddling with a few days before in the grand hall.

    Xu Qing took it, his expression grave.

    Pce Lord Kong turned to look once again at the sunset. A long moment passed.

    ¡°Only half a month ago, it was underneath this very same sky... that the governor perished. Xu Qing, if I die, I want you to give that jade slip to the new governor, whoever it is. It contains all the clues I¡¯ve gathered so far regarding the governor¡¯s death. In the meantime, feel free to study it yourself....¡±

    Xu Qing hid his surprise as he looked at Pce Lord Kong.

    The pce lord¡¯s eyes were still focused on the sunset. ¡°There are too many things about the governor¡¯s death that don¡¯t add up. It¡¯s not as simple as a mere Holytide assassination. The governor was half a step into the Smoldering God level. How could he perish, just like that? He didn¡¯t even fight back! If I didn¡¯t know the governor so well, I would think he died that way on purpose!

    ¡°But in the end, the governor is indeed dead. And the circumstances around his death... are very suspicious. Unfortunately, <i>time and tide wait for no man</i>, and I have no time to continue the investigation.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know who the emperor dispatched to Sea-Sealing County to rece the old governor, but whoever it is, deliver the jade slip to them. The reason I¡¯m entrusting you with this is that I don¡¯t trust anyone else. My grandson is too impulsive, so this kind of responsibility doesn¡¯t suit him.

    ¡°Yao Tianyan, the lieutenant governor, and pce lords of the Justice Pce and Administration Pce... are all potential suspects. The death of the governor and the copse of the Corrections Division were definitely the work of an insider. In fact, I¡¯m sure some people consider me to be the biggest suspect!

    ¡°Whoever the traitor is, their cover is perfect. If we can¡¯t uncover their true identity, Sea-Sealing County is going to bepletely destabilized.... Xu Qing, the reason I¡¯m confident you¡¯re not a traitor is that 30,000-meter pir of light.¡±

    Xu Qing struggled to breathe steadily as the ramifications of the pce lord¡¯s words hit him.

    ¡°I¡¯m also giving you amand medallion that will give you ess to any Swordsage Pce facility in Sea-Sealing County, even restricted facilities. Normally you¡¯d need to spend battle credits to get something like that, but not now. The medallion will ensure that the spell formations don¡¯t react to you. That will let you conduct your investigation secretly.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, themand medallion contains the authority to call on the full killing power of the county¡¯s taboo treasure. That should keep you safe while you carry out the investigation.¡±

    Pce Lord Kong handed a bluemand medallion to Xu Qing. Then he turned to leave. Stopping at the door with his back to Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, do you remember what I said to you when we met for the first time in the Corrections Division, a year ago?¡±

    ¡°I remember!¡±

    ¡°Repeat it for me.¡±

    Raising his voice, Xu Qing said, ¡°Every swordsage is a sharp sword wielded for humankind as a whole. They should be ready to sacrifice their lives at any moment, all for humanity¡¯s sake.¡±

    Hearing that, Pce Lord Kongughed heartily and put on his helmet. As he walked away, he said, ¡°I am a swordsage too!¡±

    1. Kong Liangxiu: Kong is listed #99 on the top 100 surnames list. Liang means ¡°bright, clear, resonant¡± and Xiu means ¡°decorate, embellish, repair¡± as well as ¡°cultivate, cultivation.¡± Kong has a long O sound, so it does NOT sound like ¡®kong¡¯ from King Kong. Liang sort of rhymes with the English word ¡°song¡±, except it starts with a sort of Y sound after the L. Xiu starts out with a sound between SH and S, and sort of rhymes with ¡°no.¡± Long also has a long O sound. It rhymes with the first syble ¡°kong¡± but does not sound like the English word ¡°long.¡± To hear it pronounced by google, <u>go here</u> and click the ¡°listen¡± button. When I asked Madam Deathde about his name, she gave me a long analysis of the meaning of the two different characters, which basically epasses the information I gave above. Then she ended by saying, ¡°he sounds like a nerd.¡± ?

    2. Ghost Hand mentioned the pce lord¡¯s sons in<u> chapter 436</u>. ?

    3. It¡¯s interesting to go back and read some of the interactions between Kong Liangxiu and his grandson, now that we know the details of their rtionship. There¡¯s nothing mind-blowing there. I just thought it was more touching now that we know why he always went so hard on his grandson. Such chapters include <u>chapter 411</u>, <u>421</u>, <u>427</u>. There is also a very interestingment toward the end of <u>chapter 417</u> that rtes to their rtionship. ?

 Chapter 478: Clues Left by the Palace Lord

    <h4>Chapter 478: Clues Left by the Pce Lord</h4>

    That night, the pce lords from the Administration and Justice Pces left for the northern front.

    After that, Pce Lord Kong led 100,000 swordsages off to the west with great fanfare. That group of 100,000 included the best of the best from the Sea-Sealing County for the past centuries. The elite cultivators in that group represented all the prefectures in the county. Each one had passed the most difficult of assessments to be a swordsage. All had been on countless missions, and had gone through grueling training to hone their killing ability and toughness. In fact, you could say that they represented the heart of Sea-Sealing County.

    And on this day, they took to the field. 100,000 swordsages. Just like the oath they had sworn, they headed to the western front with decisiveness and tenacity.

    Xu Qing stood on a mountain outside the county capital, watching them go. He had already concealed his aura. The cold wind caused his garment to p, and sent his long hair swaying behind him. After watching the swordsage army leave, his expression turned fierce. Turning, he shot in the direction of Daybreak Prefecture. He was like a lone wolf stalking through the night.

    ¡°Daybreak Prefecture....¡± he murmured. As he sped along with his guard up, his heart pounded.

    After all, Mount Daybreak was in Daybreak Prefecture. His most deep-seated desire upon reaching the county capital was to eventually travel to Mount Daybreak. Never could he have imagined that he would end up going there like this.

    As he flew, he took out the jade slip from Pce Lord Kong and studied the contents. The pce lord had exined a lot before they parted, and had made his way of thinking very clear. The governor¡¯s sudden death was extremely strange, and there was no telling who the secret traitor was.

    As he studied the information in the jade slip, Xu Qing suddenly stopped in ce and struggled to control his breathing.

    <i>The lightmost fatehavoc pill?</i>

    Despite everything Xu Qing knew about the dao of medicine, he had never heard of such a pill.

    Pce Lord Kong¡¯s jade slip gave a detailed description of it. It was a taboo pill that had been ouwed during the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. The reason for the ban on the pill was that top experts from countless species had absolutely detested it. A lightmost fatehavoc pill wouldn¡¯t do anything to an ordinary cultivator. However, it was a pill that was extremely dangerous to government leaders, as it had the potential to kill them almost instantly.

    The reason for that was rted to destiny aura: the pill could cause a deadly eruption in destiny aura power. And the more destiny aura was gathered in someone, the more powerful the effect would be.

    The pill was originally created to resist the rule of the Ancient Spirits, and was created using the light of a perished sun. It resurfaced in the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and was used to assassinate many humans who had destiny aura, as well as many nonhuman political leaders. There were even three nonhuman emperors who were killed with it.

    It didn¡¯t matter if someone was human or nonhuman, as long as they were an important leader, they would naturally gather the destiny aura of their species. Destiny aura would give a person something like the mandate of heaven. But at the same time, it could be turned into something that would wreak havoc on someone¡¯s fate, and ultimately destroy them with terrifying power. During the half-month that Pce Lord Kong had been investigating the governor¡¯s death, the clues he had uncovered pointed to the possibility of a lightmost fatehavoc pill being involved.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as the information from the jade slip entered his mind.

    <i>¡°Based on my investigation, there are many possibilities as to why the governor died. However, among those many possibilities... only a few of them can ount for what happened in the Corrections Division.</i>

    <i>¡°Imprisoned in the Corrections Division was the clone of the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal. The method of imprisonment involved converting destiny aura into a power of forced amnesia. In other words, the clone believed itself to be the spirit automaton of the Corrections Division.</i>

    <i>¡°Whoever continues my investigation should study the files of D-132. For all intents and purposes, D-132 was the epitome of the Corrections Division, and a miniature representation of the entire prison. Feel free to consult my secretary-general, Xu Qing, who was the most recent guard in D-132, and who I¡¯ve been grooming as my sessor. He¡¯s trustworthy.</i>

    <i>¡°The D-132 cellblock was formed by an external manifestation of the prison¡¯s suppressing power. Inside of it was the finger of that god¡¯s clone, as well as a spirit manifestation of the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    <i>¡°This god clone from Forbidden by the Immortal had a formidable power: anyone who remembered h¨©m would be sucked into endless misfortune. Based on our records, whoever became wrapped up in that misfortune would experience increasingly terrifying situations that would ultimately lead to their death.</i>

    <i>¡°The purpose of the destiny aura spirit in D-132 was to wipe out the memories of that god from anyone who served as a guard there, thus severing the karma.</i>

    <i>¡°Normally speaking, whatever the circumstances surrounding the governor¡¯s death, they shouldn¡¯t have any connection to the Corrections Division. After all, the Corrections Division has been around for an extremely long time, and has seen many governorse and go.</i>

    <i>¡°After carefully considering the various possibilities, and weighing them against each other, I¡¯vee to focus on the lightmost fatehavoc pill. As for why I think that pill is involved, whoever continues the investigation can check ssified Dossier 19.</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ve had limited time to run this investigation, and time is now running out. What¡¯s more, the enemy is still in hiding, while I myself am exposed. I don¡¯t want to tip my hand, and also, the war situation is approaching a critical point. Sea-Sealing County is in great danger, making it impossible for me to secretly carry out this investigation.</i>

    <i>¡°Thus, I¡¯m sending my secretary-general, Xu Qing, to look for a very specific clue.</i>

    <i>¡°And that is: daybreak light.</i>

    <i>¡°Activating a lightmost fatehavoc pill requires one special element: the light of a perished sun. Such light can only exist for a very short moment. And that kind of light asionally appears in the vicinity of Mount Daybreak. </i>

    <i>¡°Whoever is behind this plot is obviously clever and skilled. In all likelihood, investigating Mount Daybreak won¡¯t lead to anything. But we can¡¯t ignore it. As for what it reveals in the end... if I die in battle, then whoever continues the investigation can ask Xu Qing.¡±</i> [1]

    Xu Qing currently stood on a wide ne under the dark of night, a thoughtful look on his face as he put away the jade slip. He turned to look toward the western front, then started moving again toward Daybreak Prefecture.

    A few days passed.

    The public believed Xu Qing to be with Pce Lord Kong on the way to the battlefield, but in reality, he had already used the concealment magic given to him by Arch-Immortal Plumdark to ¡®disappear.¡¯ He was already in the prefecture thaty between the county capital and Daybreak Prefecture.

    It was a veryrge area that was known for the very unique type of wind that blew through it. Wherever that wind blew, it would open up countless strange rifts in the air. That made it impossible to fly, and thus made ground travel a necessity. After all, the wind only touched the air, not the ground. ording to local legend, when the sun perished in Daybreak Prefecture, it created an unusual climate that gave birth to this unique wind. As a result, it came to be called the ¡®sun wind¡¯.

    When the sun wind blew, only people with extremely high cultivation bases could fly. Everyone else had to drop to the ground. There was no way to reach Daybreak Prefecture without going through this area.

    Xu Qing would drop to the ground when the wind blew. When it stopped, he would fly back up into the sky again. As he traveled, he saw how the war was already affecting Sea-Sealing County. The citizens of the small human nations that existed everywhere were visibly rmed. The countless viges that dotted the wilderness were terrified. Everyone that Xu Qing saw was fearful because of the war, and also uncertain about the future.

    And then there were the nonhumans. Now that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t wearing his swordsage uniform, and was instead d in an ordinary robe, he could see the wild ambition and greed in their eyes. It was easy to imagine what would happen if the war spread to these areas, and the Holytide army took over. These nonhumans would immediately turn on the humans, and take advantage of the situation to plunder whatever was avable.

    <i>Pce Lord Kong was right. If he hadn¡¯t forced the nonhuman experts into service, things would have been a lot worse.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he continued on his journey. asionally, he would spot human sects off in the distance. All of them had activated spell formations to seal off their headquarters. Most of the cultivators were off at war, leaving those headquarters with only a few people behind to take care of things.

    All major sects had activated their taboo treasures and handed control over to the county capital.

    Over the course of a few days of travel, Xu Qing saw brightly colored light shing in heaven and earth, which were of course caused by the use of those various taboo treasures being activated. One afternoon, the canopy of heaven trembled, and Xu Qing looked up to see scintiting light flowing across the in the sky. Terrifying pressure weighed down as one stream of light headed to the west, the other to the north. Clearly, power was being taken from the taboo treasures and used with killing force on the battlefield.

    The rumbling sounds that filled the sky were a constant reminder to Xu Qing that a bitter war was being fought.

    Looking down from the sky, he continued on his way.

    Two more days passed.

    If he traveled through the night, he would reach the border of Daybreak Prefecture. As the sun set, and the sun wind blew, Xu Qingnded near a vige.

    Something seemed off about the ce. It looked different from other viges that Xu Qing had seen. For example, the trees weren¡¯t growing out of the ground. Instead, they floated in the air. There was a flock of birds overhead, and though the feathers of their wings rippled, they weren¡¯t actually moving. They seemed stuck in ce. And they were being hurt by the sun wind.

    The situation on the ground was even more freakish. The buildings were all upside down. Some parts of the vige would disappear, then appear again a momentter. At the entrance of the vige was a hairless dog with a human face, looking at Xu Qing with bared teeth, growling.

    Xu Qing took in the scene as the sun set and darkness spread.

    Once it was dark, everything changed again. It went back to normal, and resembled any old vige. The dog at the entrance was now a muscr oaf. He grinned at Xu Qing with ckish-yellow teeth and beckoned at him to enter the vige.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. He had no time to waste, and thus, he just circled around the vige and continued on his way.

    But then, the vige behind him trembled, and then the buildings grew legs, stood up, and rushed toward him.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and turned around. All the buildings dropped in ce. The vige oaf was still there, grinning and waving at him. As he grinned gruishly, the entire vige emanated pure malice.

    Xu Qing walked back toward the vige.

    His shadow stretched behind him, emitting fluctuations of excitement. It sounded like it was salivating.

    ¡°Hungry... so hungry....¡±

    That made Xu Qing think back to when he was in Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s major world, when the shadow had tried to eat some of the evil souls, only to end up vomiting.

    Xu Qing decided he ought to reward the shadow for its loyalty, and therefore walked a bit more quickly toward the vige. It only took a few moments for him to reach the grinning oaf.

    Seeing Xu Qing approaching, the oaf was about to open his mouth when the shadow suddenly lunged toward him. The shadow enveloped him, and the oaf disappeared.

    As crunching sounds rang out, the entire vige trembled. Numerous eyes popped up on the buildings and trees. They looked at Xu Qing, then closed.

    ¡°Eat,¡± Xu Qing said coolly, standing there with arms crossed.

    1. Some readers might remember that daybreak light was described obliquely in <u>chapter 392</u>. ?

 Chapter 479: Patriarch Muddlesky and Stonefiend Seacrusher

    <h4>Chapter 479: Patriarch Muddlesky and Stonefiend Seacrusher</h4>

    After devouring the oaf, the shadow excitedly acknowledged Xu Qing¡¯s subsequent orders. It was like an extremely obedient but vicious dog who, in its extreme longing, suddenly received its master¡¯s approval to go wild.

    The buildings in the vige now realized that Xu Qing was someone not to be trifled with. Their legs immediately appeared, and they turned to flee. It was toote.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow spread out rapidly, whereupon agonized shrieks rang out from the buildings. The shrieks didn¡¯tst for long, though. After the shadow covered the buildings, the shrieks were reced by chewing sounds.

    ¡°Yum... yummm... yummmm.....¡±

    The shadow was clearly very excited. It even sent out ck tendrils, like tentacles, to capture all the fleeing buildings.

    It was a very gruish scene. Anyone who happened upon it would be astonished. After all, Xu Qing¡¯s method of giving orders to a grue made him more gruish than the grues themselves. The trees vanished. The buildings copsed. The shadow was essentially devouring everything including the flesh and bones.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly appeared. He blinked a few times, and his eyes shone with excitement. Apparently, he was trying to remind Xu Qing of the things he had done in the past.

    Xu Qing ignored him.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly felt the need to be more vignt than ever, as he realized that his own sense of existence was fading. He had read a lot of books in which the main character had a pet who, because of matters rting to their sense of existence, gradually faded away, never to be seen again. In the past, the patriarch had always assumed it was because the author just forgot about the pet. But based on his current experiences, he realized that wasn¡¯t the case. It was instead a situation in which the pet didn¡¯t work hard enough. It didn¡¯t have anything to do with the author.

    <i>I have to break through soon! Very soon! I have to get Nascent Soul power before the Fiendish Xu! That way my sense of existence will be much stronger!</i>

    As the patriarch stewed in such thoughts, the shadow gorged itself. Apparently, the vor really was delicious, as the shadow even materialized a tongue that it used to lick everyst bit of vor out. But then, an angry shout rang out.

    ¡°You¡¯re going too far!¡±

    Some tentacles appeared that resembled the shadow¡¯s tendrils, except they were made of flesh and blood. As they burrowed out of the ground and whipped around wildly, the shadow stretched toward them excitedly. However, the tentacles then used some unknown method to spit out some ck mist which blocked the shadow.

    But the shadow wasn¡¯t picky with food: it just started devouring the mist, which got it even more excited. Then, it got closer to the tentacles, looking like it was very pleased to have found something so interesting.

    When they shed, chewing sounds mixed with cries of agony. The tentacles were quickly being ripped to shreds. Only a momentter, the surviving tentacles self-detonated, and the resulting explosion shoved the shadow backward and caused it to shatter. Then the countless chunks of bloody flesh converged in the distance, forming a strange beast that looked like a qilin, except that it was covered with tentacles.

    The beast looked grimly at the shadow, which was already back in one piece and clearly unharmed. <i>What kind of grue is this?</i>

    ¡°Hurry up and eat it,¡± Xu Qing said coolly.

    The shadow red malevolently at the beast, then blurred toward it. Halfway there, it turned into a huge coffin with countless eyes covering its surface.

    ¡°Youmand grues? Very interesting. It seems that during my two hundred years of confinement in the Corrections Division, some very unusual magical techniques have been developed. In that case... allow me to devour you first, fool!¡±

    With a roar, the beast exploded again, causing a host of bloody flesh chunks to rush forward. In the blink of an eye, they were right in front of Xu Qing, and were clearly about to surround him.

    ¡°Corrections Division?¡± Xu Qing murmured, his eyes turning cold. He shoved his hand out into the middle of all the chunks of flesh and grabbed a small, slippery object from within. He yanked it out.

    A bloodcurdling scream shook the area. The chunks of flesh dissolved into ashes, and Xu Qing was left holding a trembling, pitch-ck imp. It was dripping wet and had only one eye. What was more, the back half of its head was missing, and the interior of its skull was empty. Someone had apparently dug out most of its brain. The wound had not yet healed over.

    It all seemed very strange. Xu Qing knew that not all jailers in the Corrections Division liked to just kill prisoners. Many of them were fond of experimentation and research. Many had grand aspirations that would lead them to perform vivisections on nonhumans. This imp most likely had been an experiment subject at the moment of the prison break.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shadow approached and swirled around him, looking curiously at the little imp that was the same color as itself.

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t dare kill me!¡± the imp shrieked. ¡°My bosses are Patriarch Muddlesky and Stonefiend Seacrusher! They¡¯re from D-132! You¡¯ve probably heard of D-132, haven¡¯t you? That¡¯s the most brutal and mysterious location in the Corrections Division. If you dare do anything to me, they¡¯ll definitely put you to death!¡±

    Clearly, this little imp didn¡¯t know who Xu Qing was....

    It made sense considering how many prisoners had been kept in the Corrections Division. It wasn¡¯t as if Xu Qing had visited all the cell blocks. What was more, the majority of prisoners whoid eyes on him ended up dead.

    Xu Qing had been nning to just crush the imp out of existence. But then he started talking about D-132, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter. Next, he threw him down in front of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    ¡°Get a location,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the patriarch said. He shed a vicious smile as he stalked toward the little imp.

    Before long, screams rang out in all directions. They didn¡¯tst for very long. After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, the extremely pleased-looking patriarch got the information out of the imp.

    Once they knew the direction to go in, Xu Qing blurred into motion.

    About an hourter, they caught sight of an illusory mountain made of ck mist. A pitch-ck aura pulsed out from it in all directions, making it seem extremely malevolent. Anyone who looked at it would feel instantly uneasy, and wouldn¡¯t dare to approach it.

    ¡°Milord, based on the information from Little Imp, this mountain has a lot of grues on it. All of them were recruited by the two bosses he mentioned. They began recruiting after the swordsages left for war.¡± Keeping a firm grip on the gasping imp, the patriarch respectfully continued, ¡°What if I go with Little... Shadow to scout ahead? Once these two bosses appear, we can¡ª¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to waste any more time, so he flew toward the misty mountain.

    The concealment magic he was using didn¡¯t just hide his aura, it also concealed his cultivation base. As he entered the mountain, he waved his hand to part the mist.

    A momentter, howls erupted from within the mountain as ghostly shadows surged out. But before they could even get a sense of where Xu Qing was, they screamed and exploded.

    Seeing that, the little imp in the patriarch¡¯s hand grew increasingly terrified.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t slow down at all. He strode through the mist, causing any gruish entities to vanish before they could even get within thirty meters of him. Thus he climbed closer and closer to the summit of the mountain.

    It was only at this point that whatever entities controlled the mountain started to realize that something was going on. A piercing cry erupted, full of wild arrogance.

    ¡°What blind dog dares to cause a scene in my presence?¡±

    It was a familiar voice. As it echoed out, a head appeared, rising up from the summit of the mountain. And beneath it was the extremely impressive body of a stone guardian lion. The head and the stone lion didn¡¯t really match, but they emanated an impressive aura that weighed down viciously on everything.

    Xu Qing looked up without a scrap of expression on his face.

    Meanwhile, the imp being held by Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly got extremely excited.

    ¡°Bosses!¡± he screamed. ¡°Bosses, help!¡±

    A vicious gleam appeared in the eyes of the head, and its expression was equally ferocious. Looking down through the mists, it bellowed, ¡°Whoever dares cause problems for one of my subordinates is courting... huh?¡± Before the head could finish speaking, its eyes came to rest on Xu Qing. ¡°What? What?¡±

    The head¡¯s eyes went wide and its pupils constricted. It started trembling. It seemed it couldn¡¯t believe what it was seeing, and it even blinked seven or eight times.

    All the while, the imp was yelling more and more loudly. ¡°Bosses, it was this bastard! You have to kill him!¡±

    The head unleashed a piercing scream of terror that caused everything to tremble violently.

    ¡°Holy crap!!¡± Massive tidal waves of shock pounding the head¡¯s mind as it turned to flee.

    However, the stone lion reacted even more quickly. All four of its legs pumped wildly, and its tail swished back and forth as it threw the head off it and started running away at top speed.

    After being thrown off the lion, the head flipped end over end a few times before righting itself and fleeing after the lion.

    ¡°Y-y-you? What are you doing here? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be at war? Aren¡¯t all the swordsages off at war? Goddammit! What are you doing here??¡±

    Remainingpletely calm, Xu Qing strode after them in pursuit.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior hurried after Xu Qing, keeping his grip on the imp, who waspletely stunned. Its two bosses were supposed to be illustrious and terrifying figures from D-132, but now they were fleeing like mad.

    ¡°Bosses... the two of you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± wailed the head. ¡°<i>He¡¯s</i> the boss! He¡¯s the freaking guard in charge of D-132!¡± The head really wished it could just devour that imp. ¡°I just got free! You little bastard! I can¡¯t believe you brought this heaven-damned killer here! Do you know how many times he¡¯s stomped me to death?¡±

 Chapter 480: Not One Less!

    <h4>Chapter 480: Not One Less!</h4>

    Upon realizing that its short moment of freedom wasing to an end now that it had run into a jailer... the head was profoundly furious.

    If it had been an ordinary jailer, it might not have been a big deal. The head could have made a big scene and probably pulled the wool over the eyes of someone unfamiliar with it. But when facing Xu Qing, it didn¡¯t dare to bare even a hint of its teeth. All it dared to do was flee. Not even it was sure how many times Xu Qing had killed it. Xu Qing¡¯s methods were profoundly brutal, and what was more, the fluctuations of godly authority he emanated were terrifying. And then there was that shadow of his....

    The head could remember not too long ago how Xu Qing would awaken in D-132, and the first thing he would do was stomp the head out of existence. No matter how many times the head experienced that, it never got used to it. All it did was instill a deep terror of Xu Qing into it. It trembled in fear as it fled, and the stone lion ahead of it was in the same position.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a rush. He watched coldly as the head and the stone lion ran from him. Now that he wasn¡¯t under the influence of D-132, some of the memories of that time were returning to him. One thing he now recalled... was why he had always snapped those bamboo slips. They had gathered godly power from D-132, and were also full of the amnesiac destiny aura. What was more, being all piled together caused the bamboo slips to change on a substructural level.

    <i>Every time I woke up and realized that, I wanted to use the power of D-132 to create a special treasure.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, he summoned the hellspirit bloodwing and then shot forward with such astonishing speed that he instantly caught up with the head.

    All the head saw was a blur, and then Xu Qing was in front of it. It shrieked in absolute terror as Xu Qing lifted his foot.

    ¡°AIIIIEEEEEE! Not this again!¡± It instinctively closed its eyes, and then a loud thump rang out.

    Xu Qing stomped his foot onto the head, causing it to burst. Then he looked cidly at the stone lion.

    ¡°Get the hell back here!¡±

    The stone lion stopped in ce and shivered. It didn¡¯t dare to continue fleeing. Thinking back to how many times Xu Qing had burned it to death, it obediently turned back around, then skipped back to Xu Qing, wagging its tail like a puppy. When it reached him, it dropped to the ground in front of him in obeisance.

    Xu Qing coldly examined the lion. Whether it was because of his memories or the information carved onto the broken bamboo slips, he knew that this stone lion was the cloud troll from D-132. More precisely, under the effects of the destiny aura, it looked like a cloud troll. But this headless stone lion was its true form. That was why the head had made such a big deal about Xu Qing putting him in that specific cell. It was because it wanted to be the stone lion¡¯s head.

    As Xu Qing considered those things, the chunks of flesh that had been the head flew back together. A momentter, the head was whole again, and it immediately started shrieking.

    ¡°Exalted Jailer, I¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing stomped on it. Another thump rang out as it exploded yet again.

    The stone lion shivered and wagged its tail even harder.

    The head recovered fairly quickly, and immediately began moaning. ¡°I¡¯m done for. Done for! Without the amnesic effects of D-132, I simply¡ª¡±

    <i>Thump.</i>

    It exploded again.

    In that manner, an hour passed. After stomping on the head seventeen or eighteen times, Xu Qing left.

    But this time, he wasn¡¯t moving on foot. He was sitting on the back of the stone lion. As for the head... it was tied onto the stone lion¡¯s tail. As the stone lion bounded along, its two rear paws would continuously smack the head, causing it to moan in grief and indignation. However, it didn¡¯t dare lose its temper with Xu Qing. Instead, it would curse the lion.

    Upon hearing those curses, the stone lion would make sure to swish its tail vigorously, and kick out its hind legs with increasing force.

    Xu Qing had originally intended to put these two prisoners to death. But apparently, they had been locked up in D-132 with that god for so long that they had been slowly transformed in miraculous ways. Or perhaps it was some curse. Either way, whenever they died, they were always resurrected almost immediately.

    Now that Xu Qing thought about it, that was how they were back in D-132.

    That said, though he couldn¡¯t kill them, he also couldn¡¯t just let them go free. So he decided to bring them with him.

    The headless stone lion bounded along at incredible speed, using a lot of force with its rear legs. The head tied to its tail screamed and cursed constantly. And Xu Qing sat expressionlessly on the lion¡¯s back, asionally pointing out to indicate which direction to travel in.

    Around the time the sky was turning bright, Xu Qing could see Daybreak Prefecture in the distance.

    ¡°Daybreak Prefecture?¡± the bruised head blurted. Spitting out some chunks of rock it had bitten off the stone lion¡¯s legs, it looked in the direction of Daybreak Prefecture and blinked a few times.

    ¡°Exalted one! Sir! I have information to report! Do you remember that Paintedfolk bastard Sir Inkwell? He¡¯s in Daybreak Prefecture! And not just him. That god¡¯s finger from D-132 is also there!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he turned to look at the head.

    Putting on a very fawning expression, the head said, ¡°Those damn prisoners have no sense of gratitude. The Corrections Division treated us so well! We got food and drink, and they didn¡¯t execute us. We had a nice ce to sleep. In a chaotic world such as ours, a ce like that is hard to find. But them? They actually broke out!

    ¡°Exalted one, the truth is that this entire time, I¡¯ve been really missing life back in the Corrections Division. Every single memory is something I cherish! I miss it so much! So, being the upright and righteous head that I am, I absolutely had to give you this information! Exalted one, you should also know that the old fart Sir Inkwell was the one that instigated the whole prison break!¡±

    Hearing all of that, Xu Qing looked thoughtfully in the direction of Daybreak Prefecture.

    As the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general, he¡¯d been given ess to more than just the war reports from all of Sea-Sealing County. He¡¯d also been privy to the details surrounding the copse of the Corrections Division.

    At the moment of the event, the suppressing power of the Corrections Division had vanished. The god¡¯s clone, which had been fooled into thinking it was a spirit automaton, instantly woke up. Then it erupted with power as it tried to revert itself from a state of dismemberment into a state of being whole again.

    Thankfully, Pce Lord Kong himself was stationed in the Corrections Division. Thanks to his quick action, along with the help of the honor guards and the deputy pce lords, bolstered by the power of the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure, they quickly re-sealed the clone¡¯s head and torso. However, as they did that, the governor died and the Corrections Division exploded. The county capital had descended into chaos, andrge numbers of prisoners took advantage of the moment to escape. And among those who escaped were some of the other parts of the god¡¯s clone.

    The final tally concluded that two fingers and an eye had vanished without a trace. The only upside was that they sustained severe injuries in the process.

    During the swordsage¡¯s attempt to round up all the prisoners, they found one of the fingers, and the two deputy pce lords managed to capture it.

    As for the other missing parts, one finger and one eye, there were no clues regarding their whereabouts. They had gone into hiding somewhere, and the presumption was that if further intense searching was carried out, they would be found. But because of the war, the swordsages didn¡¯t have that spare time to work with.

    If what the head just said was true, then the finger from D-132 was hiding somewhere in Daybreak Prefecture.

    As Xu Qing considered matters, the head blinked rapidly a few times. It was very pleased, as it was thinking that if Xu Qing went looking for Sir Inkwell, then either Xu Qing would end up dead and the head would have his freedom back, or the old Paintfolk bastard would also end up captured, and there would be a big D-132 reunion party.

    As far as the head was concerned, it was too unfair that all the other D-132 cellmates were free, while it wasn¡¯t. It would be much better for them all to be suffering. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best way to think about it, the head continued speaking.

    ¡°Exalted one, back when the Corrections Division exploded, that old fart Sir Inkwell ran off with the god¡¯s finger and¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a fan of lies,¡± Xu Qing said coldly.

    The head shivered and quickly spoke in a different tone of voice. ¡°It was the god¡¯s finger! H¨¥ clearly has thoughts of being independent. Instead of responding to the call of the other body parts, h¨¥ fled with Sir Inkwell. Me and the lion here had no choice but to follow along.

    ¡°Ehhh... while we were traveling, I heard that old fart Sir Inkwell talking to the finger. From what I could hear, I think h¨¥ wanted Sir Inkwell to paint something.

    ¡°Of course, h¨¥¡¯s a god. Very different from us. So Sir Inkwell said that a painting like that would need special paint. And that¡¯s why they went to Daybreak Prefecture, to look for the legendary remains of the fallen sun, and use them as the main ingredient in the paint.¡±

    The head didn¡¯t dare to hide any elements of the story, and in fact took great efforts to include every detail. After all, if Xu Qing got the sense he was lying, he knew he would pay the price.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing patted the stone lion¡¯s neck, and the lion bounded forward toward Daybreak Prefecture.

    As the prefecture got closer, Xu Qing mentally reviewed everything he knew about it. Daybreak Prefecture was unlike Sea-Sealing County, or any of the other prefectures, for that matter. It contained virtually no drynd. Instead, it was a massive, iparably deep pit covering ny percent of the prefecture.

    Legend had it the huge pit was really a crater that resulted when the broken face of the god arrived, and one of the suns perished. When it fell, it created that massive pit.

    Thus, Daybreak Prefecture was like a bottomless abyss, ake so big it was like a sea. In fact, it was called the Abyssal Sea. The surface of the pitch-ck sea was dotted with asional mountain peaks that stuck up out of the water. Over time, the tips of those huge mountains came to be upied by humans and nonhumans alike. The mountains were very unique in that they were made of a ck, crystalline substance that came to exist when the sun fell and released iparable heat. That was one of the reasons why this prefecture was known for producing cloudmother stones.

    In the middle of the Abyssal Sea and all the mountains, there was an extremelyrge mountain called Mount Daybreak, which was where Daybreak Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court was located.

    What was more, the sun wind in Daybreak Prefecture was stronger than in surrounding areas. It blew constantly, year-round, and never abated. As a result, Daybreak Prefecture was a ce where teleportations weren¡¯t possible, and flight was extremely limited. Instead, over the years that had passed, cultivators of the various species took to traveling on huge ships.

    To amodate those huge ships, the borders of Daybreak Prefecture featured numerous harbors. Right now, Xu Qing was looking at a mid-sized harbor. He was in disguise, and he had masked his aura. He had also disguised the stone lion and the head.

    The huge harbor reminded him very much of Seven Blood Eyes. After all, the Abyssal Sea was reminiscent of the Forbidden Sea. It was even the same color.

    A wharf stretched out into the water, but there were no ships docked. That said, a lot of cultivators were waiting on the wharf. There were a handful of humans present, but the majority were nonhumans of every shape and size.

    The buzz of conversation reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears as he approached.

 Chapter 481: Euphoria Iris

    <h4>Chapter 481: Euphoria Iris</h4>

    Xu Qing currently sat atop a big headless turtle that had a fist-sized barnacle on its tail. He made quite a strange sight, so it was no wonder the Smokewights noticed him. That said, there were all sorts of strange and unusual species on the wharf, so Xu Qing didn¡¯t stick out very much. There were other cultivators who had mounts, including some who were riding skeletal creatures.

    Humans weren¡¯t asmon nowadays in Sea-Sealing County. The various Swordsage Courts had issued the call to war, so most human cultivators were on the northern and western fronts defending the county. It wasn¡¯t just the Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators who had been mobilized. Though they had left some forces behind, especially those who were supposed to be the future of their sect, the majority of their forces had been mobilized.

    As Xu Qing studied the Daybreak Prefecture harbor, he saw mostly nonhumans. These people all lived in Sea-Sealing County, and had benefited for countless years from the protection of humankind.

    Though that protection wasn¡¯t necessarily critical to survival, such species hadn¡¯t been expelled. As a result, this was their home.

    When Xu Qing thought about how many of them had refused to join the war effort, he shook his head. In some ways he could understand that decision. They believed that the war wasn¡¯t their fight, and that it didn¡¯t matter to them who was in charge of Sea-Sealing County. Given that, why should they fight? From their viewpoint, it made sense. But Xu Qing was not some sort of saint that loved all species unconditionally. Given his perspective on the matter, he didn¡¯t have much love for these nonhumans.

    What was especially noteworthy was that Xu Qing had already spotted some Smokewights among the nonhumans. Smokewights didn¡¯t just live in the desert. It wasmon for mist and fog to crop up in Daybreak Prefecture, and such things made the conditions perfect for Smokewights.

    Their bodies were made from smoke, so unless you were extremely familiar with them, it wasn¡¯t possible to tell which were male and which were female. In fact, you couldn¡¯t even make out their facial features clearly. They looked like shadowy wisps of smoke that moved through the crowds on the wharf. They seemed to be searching for something. Also in their group was a type of special pitch-ck puppet, with numerous cracks and crevices where the Smokewights could live symbiotically.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like Smokewights. They had treated him maliciously on his trip through the desert, which was what led to his big fight with Chu Tianqun in their major world fragment. [1]

    After that incident, Xu Qing had done some calctions ande to the conclusion that he ran into Chu Tianqun only two hours from the county capital border. And two hours... was how long the Smokewights had made him wait.

    Of course, he was on a secret mission right now, so he suppressed his killing intent and paid no attention to the Smokewights. He went down to the dock and sat atop the headless turtle waiting for this ship to show up.

    The Smokewights looked him up and down, but didn¡¯t find anything suspicious, and continued on their way down the wharf.

    Xu Qing had no idea what they were looking for. However, after they had moved along, the surrounding nonhumans cultivators started talking.

    ¡°The Smokewights have been searching for days now, although I¡¯m not sure for what. I heard they¡¯re not just searching here. They¡¯re even out on the open water.¡±

    ¡°I heard someone say that they¡¯re looking for the remains of the sun that perished here in Daybreak Prefecture. Except that happened years and years ago. Humans and other species have long since searched high and low. It¡¯s been thousands of years since any new bits of flesh have been discovered.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re probably not really looking for the sun¡¯s remains. I get the feeling they¡¯re trying to prevent someone from getting into Daybreak Prefecture.¡±

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the distant Smokewights.

    Two hours passed, and more nonhumans gathered on the wharf. That was when something like a whimpering sound echoed out from the distant fog. Everyone on the wharf looked in that direction. Along with the sound came a cold, sinister wind. As it swept across the wharf, a handful of strange-looking ships floated out of the fog. There were two types of ships.

    One type resembled a swallow. Each was about three thousand meters long, their decks covered with numerous beautiful buildings. There were handmaidens on the decks of the ships, all of them extremely lithe and beautiful, with rabbit ears growing out of their heads. Xu Qing recognized them. They were members of the Spirit Rabbit species. They had no ancestralnd, and instead could be found in prefectures far and near. They usually adhered to whatever powerful experts would ept their service.

    The other ships hardly even looked like ships. They seemed more like giant leaves, with four legs stretching down beneath them like tree trunks. The leaves were about three hundred meters, and were much more simple and crude than the swallow ships. There were a lot more of them. Of the group, about ten percent were swallow ships, with about ny percent being leaf ships.

    As they neared, the cultivators on the wharf stirred into action, and began heading toward whatever ship would take them to their desired destination.

    Xu Qing noticed that there were some Nascent Soul cultivators present. They all went to the swallow ships. The rest of the cultivators chose the leaf ships. That made it clear to Xu Qing that the ships were designed for different cultivation bases.

    After studying the options, he boarded one of the leaf ships that was going to Mount Greenmist, which was near the middle of Daybreak Prefecture, not very far from Mount Daybreak.

    It didn¡¯t seem smart to Xu Qing to simply go straight to Mount Daybreak. It was a secret mission, after all. His n was to go to Mount Greenmist, where he would rely on the power of his cultivation base to make the journey to Mount Daybreak. Journeying across the water on his own wasn¡¯t something he could do for long periods of time, but he could manage a short journey.

    After boarding the leaf ship, he looked around. It was a very simple vessel. There was no cabin and no handmaidens. Instead, there were three cultivators at the front of the ship, wearing green robes and ghost masks. They were in charge of the ship. In terms of passengers, there were over thirty. There was a group of eight that were obviously traveling as a group, but the others were individuals. Everyone spread out and took a spot. Given the three-hundred-meter length of the ship, there was plenty of room for everyone.

    After finding a corner to sit down, Xu Qing looked at the three cultivators in green robes.

    Most of what Xu Qing knew about Daybreak Prefecture came from the swordsage files he¡¯d read. For example, he knew that ferries like this were controlled by a group called the Dawnluster Consortium. It was a business alliance formed from many organizations. Even the Swordsage Court had a share in the business. After all, Daybreak Prefecture was a very unique ce, and there was a lot of profit to be had in maritime ventures. Official members of the Dawnluster Consortium wore green robes.

    After studying them briefly, Xu Qing took a look at the other cultivators on board the leaf ship, then closed his eyes to meditate.

    Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, after which the ships started leaving the wharf.

    That included the ship Xu Qing was on. Sometime after he paid the fare, the leaf vibrated. Then the four legs started moving the ship forward. The wind blew, and there was nothing blocking it, so it swept across the passengers.

    Eventually, the leaf ship left the harbor behind. When the wind picked up, a shimmering shield finally spread out to block it. However, the wobbling sense of movement remained.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to any of that. He focused on meditating. Three days passed.

    During that time he asionally opened his eyes and looked around. He would gaze at the depths of the Abyssal Sea, and could sense its cold, damp aura. asionally, strange entities would appear.

    For instance, there were winged whales, flocks of flying rednterns, and huge two-headed bats. That said, the Dawnluster Consortium had brokered deals with all such mutant beasts, so they didn¡¯t cause any problems for the leaf ship.

    At one point, Xu Qing noticed a huge flower blooming shortly beneath the surface of the water. It was roughly 3,000 meters across, and was bright red, making it very conspicuous. As Xu Qing watched, a host of stamens rose up above the water, swaying back and forth.

    When the nonhuman cultivators aboard the leaf ship saw the stamens, they looked over curiously. The reason was that at the end of each swaying stamen grew a woman. All sorts of species were represented. Xu Qing even saw a human female. They were lithe and beautiful, and none wore clothing. Stroking their hair coquettishly, they beckoned at the cultivators.

    ¡°We¡¯re really lucky, exalted one,¡± a voice said. It came from the barnacle attached to the turtle¡¯s tail. That barnacle was really the head from D-132. Eyes were visible on the barnacle as it stared out at the flower. ¡°It¡¯s a euphoria iris! Back in the day, that was my favorite type of flower.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. He had never heard of euphoria irises before.

    Eyes gleaming with reminiscence, the head continued, ¡°Euphoria irises are a special type of gruish nt native to Daybreak Prefecture. The stamens transform into women of varying species that entice passersby.

    ¡°If they seed in getting someone to approach, they grab them and drag them down to the sea floor where they suck them dry, leaving behind nothing but a desated corpse. An ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would onlyst for four or five breaths of time. A Gold Core expert mightst for a bit longer, but not that much. Only individuals like me with unique innate abilities can turn things around and experience the true bliss of a euphoria iris. Now, before you make some joke about that being reason I don¡¯t have a body, let me rify that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Quiet,¡± Xu Qing said. The turtle and the barnacle said nothing further.

    As Xu Qing remained in ce cross-legged, he cast out his senses in the direction of the group of eight nonhumans. It seemed they were discussing the Swordsage Court.

    By focusing properly, Xu Qing could hear their conversation.

    ¡°The whole world is falling apart! I heard that it¡¯s only when the poption drops in Daybreak Prefecture that these vile euphoria irises start blooming....¡±

    ¡°Things don¡¯t look good for the humans. The Swordsage Pce is heading into a huge crisis. From what I heard, a lot of nonhumans and rogue cultivators are eyeing the Swordsage Court on Mount Daybreak.¡±

    ¡°I heard that rumor too. There¡¯s somebody recruiting rogue cultivators, bandits, and criminals from all species. They¡¯re preparing to strike at Mount Daybreak and loot the Swordsage Court there.¡±

    ¡°Things are really unstable. I¡¯ve definitely seen a lot of strangers aroundtely. I think most are cultivators from outside Daybreak Prefecture.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t have anything to do with us. Let¡¯s just get home. Who cares if the humans survive or not? But if they fall... then we should make sure to get a piece of the pie.¡±

    ¡°True. I heard the Swordsage Court has some serious treasure stockpiled....¡±

    Xu Qing frowned, and his gaze turned cold. However, that was when he suddenly noticed something in the fog. He saw eight 30-meter-tall puppets, pitch ck in color, emerging from the fog. Their eyes glowed red with malice as they looked at the leaf ship. It was a party of Smokewights.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned icier. As the Smokewight puppets approached, he assessed their cultivation bases and battle prowess.

    Smoke emerged from the cracks and crevices in the puppets, which turned into Smokewights. They fanned out to surround the leaf ship. As for the puppets, they arrayed themselves in front of the ship so it couldn¡¯t move forward.

    The leaf ship¡¯s four legs shivered but didn¡¯t move. Meanwhile, the cultivators on board looked at the Smokewights with vignce.

    The three cultivators in green robes and ghost masks quickly got to their feet. The one in the middle stepped forward, looked at the Smokewights, and said, ¡°How can I help you, Fellow Daoists from the Smokewights?¡±

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s distaste for the Smokewights began in <u>chapter 459</u>. ?

 Chapter 482: Donâ€™t Flip Out In Front of the Yama King

    <h4>Chapter 482: Don¡¯t Flip Out In Front of the Yama King</h4>

    The Smokewights surrounding the leaf ship didn¡¯t respond to the green-robed cultivator¡¯s question. Completely ignoring the leaf ship¡¯s defenses, they floated aboard and started circting among the passengers. The cultivators looked around with varying facial expressions. Some of the Smokewights approached Xu Qing and circled around him a few times, their vicious faces just barely visible in the smoke as they inspected him. A moment passed, and the Smokewights left the ship. Returning to the puppets, they gathered in front of the centermost puppet and kowtowed.

    ¡°Exalted one, of the thirty-five cultivators, six have suspicious auras.¡±

    The expressions of the passengers flickered when they heard that.

    Before anyone could do anything, the puppets¡¯ eyes glowed even more brightly with a red color. It was especially evident in the center most puppet. In fact, it was so bright the entire leaf ship looked like it was the color of blood.

    ¡°Kill them,¡± the puppet said in a cold voice. In response, the Smokewights rose into the air and transformed into six huge faces that shot toward the leaf ship.

    Battle prowess equivalent to six heavenly pces erupted from the six vicious faces. In any location, battle prowess of that caliber would be considered the backbone of a species. And that was more the case considering there were no Spirit Trove or Void Returning cultivators in Sea-Sealing County right now. The most powerful were Nascent Soul experts, but people like that would be stationed in their sect or species headquarters. As a result, Gold Core was the highest level of battle prowess that could be found out and about.

    The six faces rushed toward six individual cultivators. Three of them were lone travelers. Two were members of the group of eight. And one of them was one of the green-robed members of the consortium.

    Rumbling booms echoed out as the six cultivators fought back. But the red light shining from the puppets weakened them, such that the six Smokewights easily devoured five of them. The final individual fled. But before he could get far, the center most puppet blurred into motion. Chasing after him, the puppet unleashed a palm strike that caused everything to shake. The fleeing cultivator screamed, then exploded.

    <i>Pseudo-Nascent Soul,</i> Xu Qing thought.

    He had been able to tell from the beginning that the six faces were not individual Smokewights. They were formed by numerous Smokewights merged together. As for the eight puppets, the center most puppet had pseudo-Nascent Soul battle prowess, while the others were at the level of seven or eight heavenly pces. That level of battle prowess was on par with the Holytide ck Guard.

    <i>These must be elites among the Smokewights.</i>

    Xu Qing stifled his killing intent, as he didn¡¯t want to reveal himself right after he had just arrived in the prefecture. He sat in ce coolly. That said, he had already released his taboo poison, and was ready to activate it at a moment¡¯s notice.

    As Xu Qing sat there in concealment, the six faces hovered above, scanning the crowd of passengers.

    Every cultivator on the leaf ship was breathing heavily and looked furious. That included the two cultivators from the Dawnluster Consortium. They were obviously enraged that theirpatriot had just been killed. However, they didn¡¯t dare say anything.

    ¡°Exalted one, the magical device reading... hasn¡¯t weakened. There¡¯s still someone suspicious onboard.¡±

    The puppet with pseudo-Nascent Soul battle prowess just hovered there for a moment.

    ¡°Kill them all.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

    When the cultivators on the leaf ship heard that, their faces fell. All at once, they burst into motion. Even the green-robed cultivators fled at top speed.

    None of them moved quickly enough. The six faces broke apart, turning into twelve faces, each of which had five-pce battle prowess. As they shot in pursuit of the passengers, the puppets also took motion, with the exception being the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet.

    The puppets with seven- and eight-pce battle prowess could easily ughter random cultivators like this. In the blink of an eye, miserable shrieks rang out everywhere.

    The one to attack Xu Qing was one of the twelve Smokewight faces. It now looked like a human. Within the blurring smoke that made it up was the face of a middle-aged woman. As she neared, her mouth opened wide. At the same time, tendrils of smoke snaked out from her, which performed incantation gestures tounch a magical attack.

    Xu Qing just looked at her coldly.

    All of a sudden, she shivered, then let loose a bloodcurdling scream. There was no way she could stand up to the power of Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison, and began to immediately dissolve. She backed up at high speed, smoke crumbling everywhere. No attempt to dispel the poison did any good, and her screams intensified. A momentter, the smoke vanished, as she was destroyed in body and soul.

    That immediately attracted the fury of the other Smokewights. Two of the puppets flew toward Xu Qing andunched attacks.

    Xu Qing frowned. His mission was to perform a secret investigation, and thus he hadn¡¯t intended to get involved in a fight. But since they were attacking him, he would react in kind. As per his custom, he would wipe them out.

    <i>As long as no one finds out, it won¡¯t affect the mission.</i>

    He pulled out his dagger, then suddenly vanished. The puppets could tell something had gone wrong but before they could react, Xu Qing appeared behind one of them. The dagger shed through its neck.

    Explosive cultivation base power ripped through the puppet. Then a boom echoed out as the puppet copsed. Out from inside emerged a stream of gray smoke that tried to flee.

    The shadow appeared out of nowhere and devoured it.

    ¡°I need one of them alive,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. Bursting into motion, he mmed into the next puppet. The puppet exploded, and the gray smoke inside of it fled. However, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shot forth and surrounded it with crackling lightning.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Two puppets and one face were destroyed, causing the remaining Smokewights to look over in shock. The pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet reacted with particr intensity. Its red eyes glowed even more brightly. It was about to issue some orders about what to do when, out of nowhere, more agonized shrieks rang out from the Smokewights in face form.

    All eleven of them screamed in horror as their bodies started corroding. The expressions of the Smokewights within the smoke were that of agony as they howled. There was nothing they could do. In the shortest of moments, they lost all their life force, and became scattered scraps of smoke.

    ¡°You!!¡± Trembling, the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet turned and fled. The other four puppets did the same.

    They were too slow.

    Xu Qing blurred with incredible speed, appearing only a momentter in front of the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet.

    He could kill actual Nascent Soul enemies, so someone in the pseudo-Nascent Soul level counted for almost nothing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eight heavenly pce erupted with power. Taboo poison spread out, and the power of the violet moon converged on his finger. Then, Xu Qing struck the puppet. As the puppet shivered, the shadow arrived, wrapping around Xu Qing and instantly boosting his fleshly body power to the ten-pce level. It was a peak level of fleshly body power that even an early Nascent Soul expert would have trouble dealing with, much less a pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator....

    Xu Qing¡¯s attack caused the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet to explode as his hand reached inside and grabbed the white smoke.

    The smoke rippled and distorted, revealing the face of a young woman. She looked terrified as she opened her mouth to speak. Xu Qing viciously twisted his hand, causing half of her to copse. Shepsed into unconsciousness.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing turned to look at the remaining four puppets. All were in a bad state, as the shadow, patriarch, head, and lion had already been fighting them.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing went over and destroyed all four puppets. The gray streams of smoke that emerged from them couldn¡¯t escape; he captured them all. The reason he didn¡¯t kill them was that he wanted to get information from them. He wanted to know exactly what they were looking for, and how they had determined someone suspicious was on board.

    He had been suspicious about the Smokewights ever since arriving at the harbor.

    Back on the leaf ship, he sat down cross-legged and took out one of the gray streams of smoke. ¡°What are all you Smokewights looking for?¡±

    The leaf ship was clearly a living being, as it was trembling.

    As for the gray smoke, it distorted to reveal a face that red at Xu Qing without saying a word.

    Not wanting to waste words, Xu Qing released his taboo poison. The face instantly started screaming shrilly, which in turn caused the other captive Smokewights to tremble. Momentster, the gray smoke was destroyed in body and soul. Xu Qing moved on to the second Smokewight. Voice calm, he asked the same question.

    The Smokewight hesitated.

    Xu Qing tossed the smoke to the shadow.

    ¡°Eat.¡±

    The shadow excitedly opened its mouth and devoured the smoke. Then it made deliberately loud chewing sounds that wereced with the screams of the Smokewight. The other Smokewights now looked at Xu Qing as if he were a Yama King from the Yellow Springs.

    Xu Qing grabbed the third Smokewight. This time, before he could even ask a question, the gray Smokewight blurted, ¡°Our leaders gave us a mission. We¡¯re just supposed to look for people who seem suspicious. And we kill them. We¡¯re not supposed to let them get anywhere near the depths of Daybreak Prefecture.

    ¡°The inspection method rtes to their aura.... We can detect human blood in a cultivator¡¯s aura. Even if it¡¯s a tiny fraction, we can still find it.¡±

    Xu Qing was stunned. Off to the side, the stone lion, the head, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior all looked instinctively at Xu Qing. From what they remembered, the Smokewights hadn¡¯t initially detected Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing considered the development. After interrogating the other gray Smokewights, he came to the conclusion that it was as the first had said. They were on a mission and didn¡¯t know much in the way of details. Even torture produced the same answers.

    After a while, Xu Qing turned his attention to thest Smokewight, which was the white smoke from the pseudo-Nascent Soul puppet. The young woman was conscious again, and when Xu Qing focused on her, she trembled and her eyes went wide.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything else....¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand and was about to ask Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to interrogate her when the shadow suddenly let loose fluctuations of longing, as if to impart to Xu Qing that it could do just as good a job as the patriarch.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then tossed the white smoke to the shadow.

    ¡°I want answers,¡± he said.

    The shadow looked excited, while the patriarch looked shaken. Thetter felt a sense of intense crisis. Meanwhile, the shadow opened its mouth and gobbled up the young woman.

    It was impossible to say what torment the shadow inflicted, but after enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, the shadow spat out the white smoke. The young woman lookedpletely terrified, to the point where she had almost lost her mind. As she trembled, she blurted, ¡°I¡¯ll talk. I¡¯ll talk! The human Marquis Yao came to our species and entrusted us with¡ª¡±

    All of a sudden, the young woman¡¯s words activated a secret warding spell within her. Before she could finish speaking, she violently exploded. Smoke scattered everywhere.

    Xu Qing felt ripples of shock flowing through him. It took about ten breaths of time for him to calm himself. The young woman was gone.

    <i>Marquis Yao?</i>

    After a bit more time, he put the matter aside and patted his hand onto the surface of the leaf ship.

    ¡°We need to get to Mount Daybreak. Time is of the essence.¡±

    The leaf ship vibrated, and the four trembling legs started moving it forward.

 Chapter 483: Lonely One Step, Fiendish the Next (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 483: Lonely One Step, Fiendish the Next (part 1)</h4>

    The leaf boat sped across the surface of the ck Abyssal Sea. It was moving about ten times as fast as before, making it seem like it was truly fearful of causing any dys for Xu Qing. Whenever it noticed Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression turning dour, it would speed up.

    Given the information he¡¯d learned from the Smokewights, Xu Qing had abandoned his previous n to go to Mount Greenmist. Instead, he would go directly to Mount Daybreak. That said, he was feeling more uncertain than ever. For one thing, he was worried about the war in the north and to the west. What was more, the information from the Smokewights made it impossible for him to forget about what the pce lord had mentioned in the jade slip about a behind-the-scenes traitor.

    <i>I can¡¯t do anything to affect the war... The only thing I can do is finish this mission for the pce lord.</i>

    Days passed. The in the dome of heaven seemed to flicker more dramatically than before. To Xu Qing, that seemed to indicate that the war was heating up.

    Sighing, he focused on the path ahead.

    On the evening of the fourth day, he spotted Mount Daybreak off in the distance. The mountain was very unique. Instead of being ck like all the other mountains, it was seven-colored. It almost looked like it was a puzzle put together with many pieces. But in reality, it was whole. It was clearlyrger than any of the other mountains Xu Qing had passed along the way. It towered over the Abyssal Sea, reaching high into the sky, roughly about 30,000 meters above water level.

    As the moonlight shone down onto the seven-colored Mount Daybreak, it created a dazzling, beautiful halo around it. It was possible to glimpse the mountain stretching down into the ck water, making it seem even more majestic.

    As Xu Qing neared, he could sense incredible pressure radiating from the mountain, weighing down on the entire area. The sun wind was incredibly strong here, causing whimpering sounds to echo out, and creating innumerable rifts in the air. They would form, close up, then form again, over and over again.

    He felt mixed emotions as he looked at the mountain, which ultimately became a blend of apprehension and nervousness. On the one hand, he had to worry about the pce lord¡¯s mission. But also... he was thinking about his parents¡¯ graves. Sitting atop the leaf ship, he looked at distant Mount Daybreak. Eventually, he settled his thoughts, took a deep breath, and flew off the ship toward the mountain.

    As for the leaf ship... as soon as Xu Qing was gone, it sank underwater. Apparently, it was worried that it would disturb Xu Qing, so it quietly went down as far as it could go before speeding away. The stone lion and the head watched with expressions of envy....

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing arrived at Mount Daybreak. He could sense the defensive barrier surrounding the mountain, covering it from top to bottom.

    It was the Swordsage Court¡¯s grand spell formation, which would prevent any unauthorized people from entering, even swordsages from other provinces without the proper qualifications. Because this ce housed secret locations set up by the Swordsage Pce, even local swordsages were prohibited from going to most ces on the mountain. Only people with sufficient battle credits could qualify to ess such ces.

    That said, the barrier might well have not existed as far as Xu Qing was concerned. With themand medallion he had been given, he basically had the same level of authority as Pce Lord Kong. When he arrived, the spell formation didn¡¯t block his path, or even react at all.

    <i>First, I¡¯ll start my investigation. Later I¡¯ll look for Mom and Dad¡¯s graves.</i>

    Eyes shining with determination, he took out the pce lord¡¯smand medallion and slipped onto Mount Daybreak without any fanfare.

    The moment he stepped onto the mountain, his heart thumped in his chest as he sensed a faint reaction in his blood. As he inhaled, he realized his heart hurt. He could sense his father and mother. After his cultivation base reached a certain point, he became sensitive to matters rting to bloodline. Reaching up, he put his hand on his chest over his heart.

    ¡°Dad... Mom....¡± His eyes were already bloodshot.

    To most people, Xu Qing was a decisive, ruthless killer. He never revealed his emotions. But that was something he had been forced to learn. It wasn¡¯t his inherent nature. As he stepped onto Mount Daybreak, he found himself thinking back to his day to day life in Peerless City.

    Xu Qing looked down and took a moment to settle and conceal his aura. Right now, the most important thing was to handle Pce Lord Kong¡¯s mission.

    With that, he started climbing the mountain. At the summit, he could see over a hundred pce buildings. They were made from rock quarried from Mount Daybreak, so they were also seven-colored. And they were constructed in a very bold style of architecture, so they seemed incredibly holy in the moonlight. It was a beautiful scene.

    The Swordsage Court here was muchrger than the one back in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Normally speaking, there were many, many more swordsages stationed here than back there. But because of the war, ny-nine percent of the Swordsage Court here had gone to the front lines. As Xu Qing walked along, the ce seemed incredibly peaceful and quiet.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even see thirty swordsages as he studied the ce from concealment. Most were on patrol, and their expressions were wary. Obviously, they had heard the rumors about people nning to make a move on the Swordsage Court.

    The cultivators left behind were mostly in the Gold Core level, with only a few heavenly pces. There was only one Nascent Soul swordsage, and his aura was simr to that of Chu Tianqun, pegging him as being in the early Nascent Soul level.

    Xu Qing studied the area for a while, then turned his attention to the Swordsage Court¡¯s spell formation. It wouldn¡¯t be a simple thing to break through that formation. It was connected to the great in the sky, which was a way of ensuring that all of the Swordsage Courts in Sea-Sealing County were safe. After checking the formation, Xu Qing looked away and focused on the interior of the virtually empty Swordsage Court. Making sure to avoid the patrols, he continued toward the summit.

    He had one destination in mind: the Swordsage Court¡¯s Archives Pavilion.

    The concealment provided to Xu Qing by the pce lord¡¯smand medallion ensured that things went very smoothly. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he had arrived. The warding spells protecting the pavilion would prevent even swordsages from casually entering. But themand medallion emitted a soft glow that caused the warding spell to ripple and open up.

    Before going inside, he sent a divine will message to his shadow, which quickly spread out and enveloped the stone lion and the head. It was almost as if they had been ced into a bag.

    After making sure they were secure, Xu Qing stepped inside and took a moment to get his bearings. After making sure there were no swordsages on duty at the moment, he went inside and started looking for the files he needed.

    The pavilion had four floors, and too many files to count. There was no way Xu Qing would be able to look through all of them. Instead, he found files that rted to daybreak light. It was on the third floor that he found the files he was looking for. After unlocking the warding spell, he started reading.

    Soon enough, he frowned. ording to the records, it was exactly as the previous information indicated. Daybreak light was light cast out before a sun perished. And it was intelligent, not dead in any way. Over the years, daybreak light had appeared 752 times. That said, it seemed contradictory. If it formed when a sun perished, then shouldn¡¯t it have all exploded out that one single time? It shouldn¡¯t have appeared over and over again over a period of many years.

    The answer came when the Swordsage Pce did further research. Eventually, they came to find that, in some respects, daybreak light was rted to a perishing sun. But that wasn¡¯t the only thing that would cause it to form. Apparently, when a sun perished, it would change some of the surrounding magicalws of heaven and earth. And from that point on, that area was essentially alive. And that was why the daybreak light continued to manifest over the years.

    It only happened on Mount Daybreak.

    ording to one story in the file, just before perishing, the sun coughed up a mouthful of blood that scattered around the area. That sun¡¯s blood was seven-colored, which was why the mountain was also seven-colored.

    Because this ce had the aura of a sun, it met one of the prerequisites required to produce daybreak light.

    At the same time, daybreak light could be a huge benefit to one¡¯s cultivation base. It could help a cultivator gain enlightenment of the power of suns, and could also be used in bloodline retroconversion. And when used in equipment forging, it produced astounding results. Furthermore, research done by the Swordsage Pce showed that it was extremely effective in resisting the power of gods. For all of those various reasons, it was extremely rare. In fact, the Swordsage Court had kept urate records of every single time daybreak light appeared. That included when it appeared and where it ended up.

    Xu Qing reviewed the records and didn¡¯t find anything unusual. Every single bit of daybreak light was ounted for, with most having been sent to the Swordsage Pce, and only a few having been traded to other organizations. The Swordsage Court¡¯s records included all the details of the light that had been traded out.

    Xu Qing looked around some more, but that was all the relevant information.

    <i>Short of tracking down every single ce where the daybreak light went, it¡¯s going to be hard to get any clues by going down this path.</i> Xu Qing frowned and looked around at the endless files around him.

    ***

    Deeper in Daybreak Prefecture, in the depths of the Abyssal Sea... was an area filled with boundless mutagen, as well as a terrifying will of death that weighed down on everything around it. Things were blurry there, almost as if it were a ce formed by the opening of a god¡¯s eyes.

    Any cultivator who came to this ce would probably explode or be mutated. It was a forbidden region. The source of it all was some of the remains of a sun, which had seemingly long since vanished.

    Standing shivering atop a chunk of flesh fully 3,000 meters in size was Sir Inkwell. Hovering in front of him was a 300-meter long finger that emanated terrifying godly might.

    ¡°Oh mighty exalted one,¡± he said, his voice trembling, ¡°ording to what I heard, in the countless years that have passed, many species havee here looking for the remains, but never found them. Yet you found them right away! You truly are a god favored by heaven!

    ¡°That being said, this part of the sun¡¯s remains fell here long, long ago. There¡¯s no life left in it. It¡¯s going to be hard to use it for the paint we need. We need some living things to blend into the mix. The more life force, the more potent the paint will be....¡±

    When the god¡¯s finger heard that, it swiveled in a certain direction. Everything around it rippled and distorted, then it vanished.

    Seeing the finger speeding off into the distance, Sir Inkwell scowled on the verge of tears.

    <i>How do I turn this around...? Once I finish painting, ¨©t¡¯ll kill me. And if I don¡¯t paint it, I¡¯ll still end up dead....</i>

 Chapter 483: Lonely One Step, Fiendish the Next (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 483: Lonely One Step, Fiendish the Next (part 2)</h4>

    It was that moment right before the break of dawn. The sky was dark, though the moon still hung high. That said, the moonlight couldn¡¯t pierce the mist and fog covering Daybreak Prefecture. And thus, the entire Abyssal Sea was dark. There was only one spot in which it was possible to see the moon, and that was at the summit of tall mountains in the Abyssal Sea. However, not all the mountains towered high above the mist and cloud. The brightest of them all was Mount Daybreak.

    Xu Qing still stood there on the third floor of the Archives Pavilion. As he looked out the window, the breeze swept past, stirring his hair. Moonlight glittered in his eyes.

    <i>I need more clues. However, tracking them down by myself is going to take a really long time</i>.

    His frown deepened. He couldn¡¯t exin the matter to anyone else. Even if he told other swordsages, he would need to be very careful about who he trusted. If the pce lord was correct, and the person responsible for the governor¡¯s death was a traitor, then they would definitely be a very powerful person. Therefore... he didn¡¯t dare to casually put his trust in swordsages.

    After all, if he made a mistake in whom he trusted, he could end up in a deadly crisis.

    He put some more thought into the matter, then went through the files one more time. Finally, he left the Archives Pavilion, taking advantage of the concealment effect to make his way through the Swordsage Court.

    Dawn neared, and the moonlight faded, causing everything to turn even darker. At the same time, the wind grew even colder than before. As it blew on Xu Qing, it caused his daoist robe to sway. He walked quietly through Mount Daybreak, intending to find his parents¡¯ grave to pay his respects. He had been waiting for this day for a very long time.

    His mood was unstable. His thoughts created ripples in his emotions, ripples that prated to his very core. He couldn¡¯t suppress those emotions or get rid of them. Eventually, they became so intense he began to tremble physically. It was something that rarely happened. He didn¡¯t attempt to control them. He just closed his eyes, sent his senses out, and followed the tug of his bloodline.

    He passed a residence that tugged him toward it.

    He passed some boulders that tugged him toward them.

    He passed a pagoda that tugged him toward it.

    He walked for a long time, going through many areas. Wherever he went, he felt that tug, yet it didn¡¯t lead him anywhere specific. Eventually, he had traversed the greater part of Mount Daybreak.

    Finally, he came to a stop at the very summit of the mountain. The wind was very strong here. As the sun rose, the dark sky turned crimson, like fire. It pierced through the clouds,nding on the waters of the Abyssal Sea, and illuminating all the mountains. Of course, it shone directly onto Mount Daybreak. Seven-colored light shone off of every rock and pebble that covered Mount Daybreak. Mixing with the daylight, it formed something incredibly beautiful, making the ce more eye-catching than anything else.

    From a distance, that seven-colored mountain rose high above the ck water, bing a dazzling source of light that seemed almost as majestic as the sun itself. As the light shone everywhere, the sky grew brighter, and the sun climbed higher. All the while, Mount Daybreak cast seven-colored light on everything around it. It was spectacrly beautiful.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked down the mountain. He understood. He knew why all the ces he had passed tugged at his blood. He realized why he had felt as if the graves he were looking for were at his side, yet couldn¡¯t be seen.

    <i>¡°I buried Dad and Mom at Mount Daybreak.¡±</i> That was what the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had said to Xu Qing. [1]

    As of this moment, Xu Qing knew why.

    <i>Mom and Dad¡¯s grave is Mount Daybreak itself.... They¡¯re buried in the heart of the mountain, which is why I felt the tug wherever I went.</i>

    He looked down at Mount Daybreak beneath his feet. He wanted to enter the interior of the mountain, but it was unique. Given the level of his cultivation base, he couldn¡¯t do that.

    Time passed.

    Xu Qing quietly dropped to his knees and put his hand on a boulder in front of him. He bowed his head. No one knew he was here, so of course, no one saw the tears dripping off his nose and sttering onto the boulder like drops of ink.

    The seven-colored lighting off of Mount Daybreak spread out like a gentle hand that closed around him. Xu Qing trembled as he wept silently. A very long time passed. He put his forehead onto the boulder.

    ¡°Dad... Mom, rest in peace....¡± His voice was so low that not even he could hear it.

    Finally, he looked up, and there were no tears in his eyes. As he got to his feet, he looked incredibly bleak. He started down the mountain.

    The sky was now bright. Boundless sunlight shone onto him, and onto the mountain. The dawn light was spectacr, creating the most gorgeous scenery imaginable.

    Xu Qing left. He hadn¡¯t wanted much. He just hoped toe to Mount Daybreak and pay respects in front of his parents¡¯ graves. Once he was at the bottom, he looked back at the seven-colored mountain.

    <i>Later on, when I have no more regrets in life, I¡¯lle back here and settle down.</i>

    He closed his eyes.

    After a few breaths of time passed, he opened them. His mind and heart were in order, and his eyes were once again cold and harsh. Turning, he walked off with a determined step.

    His destination was an underwater valley some distance away from Mount Daybreak. ording to the records, that was thest location where daybreak light had been seen. He wanted to investigate the area to see if there were any clues to be found. Under the surface of the water, it seemed like a different world. The mist above blocked the sunlight, as well as the warmth.

    Xu Qing shot away from Mount Daybreak and into that darkness, picking up speed until he was a blur of afterimages that headed down and down. The mutagen here was strong, and full of unhealthy yin energy. He asionally saw green ghost fire, dancing about in the silence.

    <i>After the sun perished, mutagen flourished....</i> Keeping his guard up, he kept moving. He knew full well that the mutagenced depths of the massive Abyssal Sea would be full of danger. There would be ferocious and vile beings that lived there. That was one of the main reasons Daybreak Prefecture cultivators didn¡¯t travel underwater. It was simr to the Forbidden Sea. Everyone knew that there were terrifying entities beneath the waters in the Daybreak Prefecture. Anyone who stayed under the water for long enough would eventually run into incredibly dangerous situations.

    Xu Qing made sure to strengthen the concealing magic, making him like a specter that headed toward that specific underwater valley. Four hourster, when Xu Qing was far from Mount Daybreak¡¯s spell formation, he reached his destination.

    The so-called valley was actually a deep crevice that ran along theke bed. It was fully 300 meters across, and ran for a length of several thousand meters. ck mist floated up from inside the crevice and drifted around everywhere.

    Xu Qing observed it from a distance. He was tempted to rush right in, but instead, squatted in ce and hid behind a rock formation. There were some very familiar fluctuations in that ck mist.

    <i>¡°Delicious... smoke....¡±</i> the shadow projected via divine will. At the same time, it finally released the stone lion and the head, who emerged trembling. The two of them didn¡¯t move a muscle. Being entrapped by the shadow had made them feel like they were going to be devoured, and they were still a bit traumatized.

    Xu Qing ignored them. After confirming that there were indeed Smokewights in the ck mist, he gave the shadow orders to go scout the area.

    The shadow immediately stretched out. However, it didn¡¯t go into the crevice. A short timeter, it returned looking very excited. Apparently, it had seen something, but was acting so twitchy it was impossible to understand. Even Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked confused.

    Frowning, Xu Qing took the head off the stone lion and tossed it to the shadow.

    ¡°Take it with you.¡±

    The head was terrified as the shadow swallowed it in a single gulp, then raced toward the crevice. It returned a short timeter.

    ¡°Exalted one, I saw everything,¡± the head gushed. ¡°There are Smokewights there. A few hundred of them. And quite a few are in Nascent Soul! They¡¯re building some sort of magical treasure. From what I could see, and also based on my vast experience, I recognized it instantly. It¡¯s a disposable taboo treasure!¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior frowned as he looked at the head. More than ever, he was feeling a sense of impending crisis.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the crevice, his eyes shining coldly. The fact that the Smokewights were constructing a magical treasure so close to Mount Daybreak made it fairly obvious what they were up to. Obviously, they were targeting Mount Daybreak or something connected to it. Although he couldn¡¯t be absolutely certain of that, it seemed the most likely exnation.

    However... whether he was right or not didn¡¯t really matter. He didn¡¯t like Smokewights to begin with. What was more, Mount Daybreak meant something different to him now.

    He was going to destroy this valley of Smokewights.

    <i>If there are Nascent Soul Smokewights there, I can¡¯t just stroll in and kill everyone</i>. He waved his hand, causing his third heavenly pce to tremble. The power of taboo poison streamed out in all directions.

    Next, he sensed which way the current was running, and carefully applied more poison into it.

    And thus, he spent about an hourcing the entire area with taboo poison power. Then, when he was sure everything was ready, his eyes glittered with killing intent as he waved his finger. Instantly, poison billowed into the crevice, taking with it countless little beetles.

    It took only a short moment for the poison to fill the crevice. Then anguished screams rang out from inside.

    ***

    Some distance away in the depths of the water, a 300-meter-long finger was speeding along right out in the open. Whatever living beings it encountered were quickly bound and strung up behind it.

    From a distance, it looked like there were several hundred cultivators, all of them unable to escape, their eyes full of despair.

    1. The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan said that to Xu Qing in <u>chapter 315</u>. ?

 Chapter 484: Golden Crow Devours Sun (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 484: Golden Crow Devours Sun (part 1)</h4>

    Outside of Mount Daybreak, next to the underwater valley, Xu Qing studied the situation, then turned and left. Behind him, agonized shrieks continue to ring out, as well as howls of rage.

    Smokewights then began to emerge from the valley, their divine sense out in full force as they scanned the area in both frustration and anger. The interior of the valley was inplete disorder. Before, there had been hundreds of Smokewights inside, but now there were only a few left. Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison had killed most of them in body and soul. Xu Qing¡¯s poison really was just that ridiculously brutal. Those who were not dead yet were moaning in agony. They were doing everything they could to stop themselves from dposing, but their bodies of smoke continued to fall apart. One after another, they died.

    The work on the magical treasure was now stalled. And as the mutagen in the poison filled it, it became clear it wouldn¡¯t survive for long.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±

    There were seven or eight Smokewight puppets who emitted terrifying Nascent Soul fluctuations. They were now frantically searching for the perpetrator. The puppets were corroding rapidly, exposing their true bodies within and making it clear they couldn¡¯t escape the effects of the attack. Obviously, they were urgently looking for the enemy in the hopes of finding an antidote. Though their n had involved concealing any evidence of their presence, including energy fluctuations, things had so quickly gone out of control that they were ignoring that directive.

    Sadly for them, Xu Qing¡¯s jade slip of concealment had been given to him by Arch-Immortal Plumdark, so there was no way some mere Nascent Soul cultivators would be able to perceive it. What was more, as soon as he unleashed his poison, he took a very quick look at the results and then left. After confirming that his poison was working, he had decided to simply wait until the Smokewights were all dead before going back to investigate the valley.

    <i>Normally speaking, they should all be dead in an hour. But I¡¯ll wait six hours just to be safe</i>.

    However, even as he sped along, a sudden sense of terror rose in his chest. Expression flickering, he turned to look in the general direction of the valley. He had just sensed a familiar aura.

    As soon as it appeared, something changed about theke bed; mutagen levels began to increase.

    What was even more shocking to Xu Qing was that everything in the area began to ripple and distort, to where it became hard to see clearly.

    <i>A god!</i>

    Xu Qing thought back to what the head said about Sir Inkwell. Given this new aura, his face turned grim and he started fleeing even faster than before. This aura wasn¡¯ting from inside the valley. It wasing from a slightly different direction.

    <i>Probably attracted by the energy fluctuations. The finger of that god must have brought Sir Inkwell to look for the remains of the sun. But would the energy fluctuations really be that much of a draw...? Don¡¯t tell me that valley really does have some of a sun¡¯s remains in it?</i>

    Back when the head mentioned these things, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t ced much importance in the information. He and the god¡¯s finger were onpletely different levels, so he didn¡¯t intend to go looking for it. His intention was to make use of his concealment abilities toplete the mission and then go check in at the Swordsage Pce. After all, Daybreak Prefecture was such a big ce that the chances of randomly running into the god¡¯s finger were extremely small.

    For one thing, when that sun perished, it copsed, meaning that its remains scattered far and wide. Add in the fact that it happened so long ago, it meant that most pieces had already been located.

    The proximity to Mount Daybreak made it even less likely that some of the sun¡¯s remains were nearby.

    <i>Could it be the head and stone lion drawing the attention of the finger?</i> Xu Qing looked down fiercely at the head and the lion.

    Trembling, the stone lion rocked back and forth as if to tell Xu Qing that it had nothing to do with the situation.

    ¡°It¡¯s not me, exalted one!¡± the head wailed. ¡°It really isn¡¯t me. I couldn¡¯t attract the attention of that god even if I wanted to.¡±

    Killing intent glittered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and he made a decision to teach a lesson to the lion and head once he was sure he was safe. Looking away from them, he continued on his way.

    He didn¡¯t dare to use the power of his taboo poison, so he kept it inside. Although that power could be used as a cover, as had been proven when he used it on the violet moon, that was in a circumstance in which the red moon wasn¡¯t anywhere close by. Right now, he wasn¡¯t sure if using it would have the same effect or the opposite effect.

    He anxiously tapped into every bit of concealment power the jade slip would offer. However, after only ten breaths of time had passed, the fluctuations behind him grew more intense, and the area around him became even more distorted. As the fear in his heart reached explosive levels, a terrifying stream of divine will spread out from the mist behind him. It spread out to cover everything, including Xu Qing.

    As everything turned blurry, a 300-meter long finger suddenly appeared in front of Xu Qing.

    A tremor of fear passed through him, and every fiber of his being screamed at him that he was in mortal danger. He felt like his body was about to be ripped apart limb from limb.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing released the power of his taboo poison and the power of the violet moon. As it swept through him, he fled in the opposite direction.

    It didn¡¯t do any good.

    He was no longer in the Corrections Division. Back there, the finger was in a state of suppression, but out here, ¨©t was free. Though it had been injured during the prison break, even if those injuries were far worse than they were, Xu Qing still wouldn¡¯t have been able to fight back.

    As godly authority filled Xu Qing, pushing him to a higher level, his mind spun. The divine will of the god¡¯s finger overtook him and dragged him close.

    The power of that god¡¯s finger superseded every asset Xu Qing had at his disposal. Then he was thrown behind the finger onto a pile of despairing nonhumans that ¨©t was dragging along. The stone lion and the head were there too.

    Thetter shrieked. ¡°Boss! Boss!! It¡¯s me! Me! The head! We¡¯re cell mates....¡±

    The finger ignored the head, whose cries had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Instead, the finger shifted to point in the direction of Mount Daybreak. And ¨©t looked hesitant. In the end, the finger didn¡¯t get any closer to the mountain. Instead, the finger vanished, to appear a great distance away. After another teleportation, the finger arrived in a location with a lot of living beings.

    Already, ¨©t had captured over five hundred cultivators, including quite a few Smokewights.

    Xu Qing himself hadn¡¯t attracted any special attention. The other cultivators all seemed full of terror and despair. There was something very strange about the way they looked. Most were iplete. They had been ripped apart. Eyes, noses, ears, organs, and limbs were scattered everywhere. Even the Smokewights were in simr condition, with their smoke bodies having been ripped apart.

    Because of the power of the god¡¯s finger, after being piled up, they couldn¡¯t leave. They justy there in pieces. It was a very grotesque and very inauspicious scene.

    Xu Qing looked around with a scowl. However, he didn¡¯t try to leave. Instead, he tapped into the two types of godly authority within him to prevent himself from being ripped apart. That effort kept him whole. Then he struggled to look around. However, all he saw was a blur. Obviously, he was being dragged along at high speed behind the god¡¯s finger.

    <i>What¡¯s this finger doing?</i> Xu Qing forced himself to calm down and start thinking of a way out of this situation. <i>Back in the Corrections Division, they suppressed this thing using destiny aura</i>....

    Countless thoughts ran through Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Meanwhile, rumbling sounds echoed out as the god¡¯s finger suddenly stopped moving. The sudden lurching motion caused quite a few of the surrounding cultivators to explode. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Thankfully he had godsource and an extraordinary fleshly body. Though cracks spread out across him, they didn¡¯t rip him apart.

    Again, he struggled to look around. The most noteworthy thing he spotted was a 3,000-meter chunk of rotting flesh.

    Standing atop it was an old man with an anxious expression on his face. He was none other than Sir Inkwell of the Paintedfolk.

    Before Xu Qing could study the situation any further, the pile of cultivator body parts flew through the air toward the chunk of flesh. As soon as they hit it, the flesh wriggled, and crevices opened up on its surface. It sucked in all of the body parts. Some were sucked all the way into the crevices, others stuck out partly. Then it began absorbing them. The stone lion and the head were among those who got partly stuck inside the flesh.

    Screams of agony echoed out. In some cases, the cultivators could cry out loud, in other cases, they sent out streams of divine will.

    Xu Qing himself was about half-sucked into the flesh, and as screams echoed out around him, his heart swelled with astonishment.

    The reason was that he didn¡¯t feel the pain of being dissolved. Instead, the moment he was sucked into that chunk of flesh, he felt an intense sensation of longinging from the golden crow on his back.

    <i>Is this... part of that sun¡¯s remains??</i>

    His eyes widened, and his mind reeled. He turned to look at Sir Inkwell not too far away. Sir Inkwell had already spotted the head and the stone lion, and he had just noticed Xu Qing as well. Their gazes met.

    The head, of which only half a face was visible, looked at Sir Inkwell. ¡°Hahaha! A reunion....¡±

    Sir Inkwell ignored the head and focused on Xu Qing. A curious look gleamed in his eyes as he slowly approached.

    ¡°Exalted jailer?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve really done something amazing,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Sir Inkwell stopped in ce, his eyes suddenly glittering mysteriously.

    He looked Xu Qing up and down briefly, and quickly noted that the ¡®exalted jailer¡¯ didn¡¯t seem the least bit frightened. The calm expression on his face made Sir Inkwell suddenly feel like he was back in D-132. That, in turn, caused the cautious Sir Inkwell to stifle his previous clever thoughts. Something didn¡¯t seem right here. He looked at the head. Before he could say anything else, though, wails of anguish echoed out, and the air vibrated as the god¡¯s finger appeared in front of Sir Inkwell.

    Sir Inkwell tried to prevent himself from trembling, and even stered a fawning smile onto his face.

    ¡°Oh great and mighty lord who is favored by heaven, mighty god from the sky who is recovering by means of the sun¡¯s remains, sir, you are surely foreordained to conquer Revered Ancient and reach the most paramount of positions.¡±

    The pressure from the god¡¯s finger lessened by a bit, and it released a roar that echoed into the minds of everyone present.

    Sir Inkwell couldn¡¯t stop himself from shivering head to toe. However, his facial expression didn¡¯t change. Lookingpletely pious, he continued to speak in what was almost a chant.

    ¡°Oh lord, favored by heaven, only a few days are left until you can recover. The paint needed to restore your fleshly body is halfplete. Were this any other vulgar and filthy god, the paint material would be sufficient. But for a god favored by heaven, your humble servant needs to have the perfect ingredients to create the perfect body for you. Sir, you really cannot allow yourself to be profaned.

    ¡°Therefore... I need more life force. Once I bring some life back to this flesh, then it will benefit you, oh exalted god favored by heaven.¡±

    The god¡¯s finger thrummed a bit impatiently, causing some of the wounds on its surface to open up again. However, ¨©t didn¡¯t seem to care, and instead rose up and circled around the area a few times. Then, everything in the area blurred and distorted again before ¨©t disappeared.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed in response to this development, and his mind was working on overdrive. He knew full well that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, but at the same time, he could tell this was a destined opportunity.

    The golden crow tattoo on his back was heating up with longing, but he kept it under tight control. It wasn¡¯t time yet.

 Chapter 485: Golden Crow Dao Soul Accompanied by Daybreak (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 485: Golden Crow Dao Soul Apanied by Daybreak (part 1)</h4>

    ¡°Exalted jailer, let me n things out,¡± Sir Inkwell said excitedly. ¡°In order to buy time for you, sir, I can just use the same general method I¡¯d devised earlier in the hopes of getting myself out of this situation. Originally, I didn¡¯t have much faith that it would work. But with you here, sir, I think it should work fine.

    ¡°Exalted jailer, all we have to do is wait until the finger returns. I¡¯ll exin that you have a Golden Crow Body, and therefore, you can bring life back to these remains. You just need to fuse with it.

    ¡°I¡¯ll start painting for the finger, but I can control how long it takes. I¡¯ll go really slowly, and wait for your signal before finishing.

    ¡°However, the entire thing will be a trick. I¡¯ll paint something that looks like a body, but is, in reality, a cage of flesh. The finger was injured in the prison break, and lost some of its thinking ability. Besides, it won¡¯t be possible to identify what I¡¯m painting by just looking at it. I¡¯m very confident no one would be able to notice it¡¯s a trick. Once it¡¯s inside, then we lock the cage and flee!

    ¡°Because this cage will be made from the remains of a sun, it will be quite sturdy. My original estimate was that it would hold strong for a few days. But with the life provided by your golden crow, sir, I think it would trap the finger for half a month or more.

    ¡°That should give us plenty of time to get away. What do you think, sir? If you have some other ideas, I¡¯m happy to follow your lead.¡±

    Despite having gone through that entire exnation, Sir Inkwell apparently had more to say. ¡°Oh right, exalted jailer. I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯re aware, but I came to realize that the pce lord used a taboo treasure to strike the finger during the prison break. Because of that, the finger has be somewhat forgetful....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Sir Inkwell and nodded. Then he closed his eyes and focused fully on directing the golden crow to devour the power in the sun¡¯s remains. As the golden crow wildly absorbed the power, Xu Qing could sense more tails growing on it. In a very short amount of time, it reached the level of over sixty tails.

    Based on his previous experience, he was fairly certain that once he broke past ny-nine tails, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits would reach the third stage. The power of the third stage was equivalent to Nascent Soul!

    Furthermore, because his golden crow was already part of his fifth heavenly pce, once the golden crow reached the next stage, that heavenly pce would experience a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering transformation. In fact, it would make an advance transformation into the pseudo-Nascent Soul level.

    Xu Qing was looking forward to that very much.

    As time slipped by, the golden crow continued its work, and Xu Qing¡¯s aura climbed higher and higher. In fact, he began to pulse with fluctuations that terrified both the head and Sir Inkwell. At the same time, the sun¡¯s remains showed more and more signs of life, as if they might awaken.

    All of a sudden, the terrifying divine will of the god¡¯s finger swept forth from the depths of the Abyssal Sea. Then the finger appeared, dragging a host of nonhuman cultivators with it. The majority of them were Smokewights. They were all in a tattered state as the finger threw them toward the sun¡¯s remains.

    One of the reasons Smokewights often lived in desert environments was because of the sun. As a result, they provided a lot of nutrients, which was a help to Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation.

    That said, the return of the finger made Xu Qing more than a little nervous. He opened his eyes. Obviously, the finger sensed that something unusual was going on with the sun¡¯s flesh, and it sent divine will sweeping about.

    Off to the side, Sir Inkwell looked like the paragon of piety as he kowtowed, ¡°Oh great lord, you truly are a god favored by heaven, sir! While you were gone, I discovered that you happened to capture a very interesting fellow. It¡¯s him!¡± Sir Inkwell pointed at Xu Qing. ¡°Exalted one, you might not remember him, but he was actually the guard back in our D-132. I just took a close look at him and found that he has a Golden Crow Body. That means he¡¯s the descendant of a sun!

    ¡°Discovering him is like an amazing blessing from heaven and earth, oh exalted one. He can actually bring a certain level of life back to the sun¡¯s remains!

    ¡°And because of that, your humble servant can paint a new god body for you! The mere thought of having the honor of painting a new body for someone favored by heaven has filled me with the utmost excitement!¡±

    Thrumming, the god¡¯s finger turned and locked onto the sun¡¯s remains, then began pulsing with fluctuations of hope. Everything in the area rumbled. The water shattered, and the ground cracked.

    rmed, Sir Inkwell was about to start painting. However, that was when Xu Qing gritted his teeth against the difort of being in this god¡¯s presence.

    ¡°Exalted god,¡± he said, ¡°there isn¡¯t enough life in this sun¡¯s remains. Check if you¡¯d like. If you give me some time, I can bring more life into it. If you use flesh full of life to paint your body, it will turn out perfect!

    ¡°After all, there aren¡¯t many of this sun¡¯s remains left in the world. If you waste this one, who knows when you might find another. Exalted god, do you mind waiting a short time?¡±

    As Xu Qing spoke, the golden crow expanded its influence, causing the sun¡¯s flesh to emanate an aura of awakening. When the finger¡¯s terrifying divine will picked up on that, the finger seemed hesitant and thoughtful.

    Off to the side, Sir Inkwell¡¯s eyes flickered imperceptibly as he noted that Xu Qing had already gone off script.

    Xu Qing ignored him. Looking at the finger, he suppressed his anxiety and continued, ¡°Exalted god, the Smokewights you just brought have a unique bodyposition, and are full of life. I¡¯m sure you noticed that. They¡¯re very useful. If you can get more, we can bring even more life into the remains. Furthermore, if you¡¯re able to bring some daybreak light to this sun¡¯s remains, it will reach an incredibly high level very quickly!¡±

    Based on the records back on Mount Daybreak, he knew that the most recent daybreak light to appear had been seventy years in the past, and had been recovered by the Swordsage Pce. None had appeared since then. That said, nothing Xu Qing had said so far was a lie. Everything was truthful. He <i>could </i>bring more life into the remains, and the Smokewights <i>would </i>be helpful in that regard. As for daybreak light, it was rted to the fallen sun, so adding it would make the process better, were some of it to be recovered.

    The finger scanned the area again with divine will, all the while pulsing with fluctuations of irritation. However, after a few breaths of time passed, the finger vanished into the distance.

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He¡¯d made a bit of a gamble just now, and it had all been based on the assumption that the finger waspletely focused on that new body.

    If Sir Inkwell could use that method to manipte the finger, then Xu Qing was willing to bet that he could too. And by doing so, he had taken the upper hand in the situation.

    ¡°Well yed, exalted one,¡± Sir Inkwell said, chuckling.

    Xu Qing ignored him. With the finger gone, he pushed the golden crow again, and it started assimting the power in the remains. If the god¡¯s finger really did try to find some daybreak light, then it wouldn¡¯t return any time soon.

    Daybreak light was exceedingly rare, to the point where Xu Qing doubted the finger would even be able to find some.

    At this point, the golden crow had over eighty tails.

    The breakthrough point wasn¡¯t very far off.

    Xu Qing was now feeling confident that the golden crow would indeed break through to the third stage. If he could get free from the warding spell, then he could use the power of the taboo treasure the pce lord had given him to strike a powerful blow. And if he did that, then he would most likely be able to make his escape.

    Off in the distance, the head could tell that Xu Qing and Sir Inkwell were ying some game. Therefore, it climbed onto the stone lion and surreptitiously started nning to escape once Xu Qing and Sir Inkwell made their move.

    In that manner, time passed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s aura kept getting stronger and stronger. Soon, the golden crow had ny-three tails.

    And it kept going.

    Ny-four. Ny-five. Ny-six....

    Around the time the ny-seventh tail grew out, powerful fluctuations suddenly swept over them. The god¡¯s finger was on the way back! It was carrying several thousand Smokewights, all of whom were moaning in despair. If that were all there were to it, it might not be a big deal. But to Xu Qing¡¯s utter shock, the finger also had a seven-colored beam of light with it!

    That light contained life force, and it gave off the sense of being newly born. It seemedpletely and utterly holy, as if it had actuallye to exist when the sun perished, but now was filled with hope and a sense of new life!

    It glittered dazzlingly, sending out immeasurably powerful pressure that felt vastly superior to what Xu Qing remembered feeling from the tree branch from the Ten Entrails Tree. When he saw that light, he started breathing heavily, and his eyes went wide.

    <i>Daybreak light!</i>

    Even as the golden crow continued to absorb the sun¡¯s remains, it pulsed with intense hope, as if it wanted both the remains and the daybreak light.

    <i>It actually found some?</i> Xu Qing was so astonished that he had a hard time believing it was true. He wasn¡¯t sure how the god¡¯s finger had pulled this off. Daybreak light was clearly very rare, and hardly ever appeared. And yet... ¨©t managed to bring some back!

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about the Smokewights; all of his attention was focused on that daybreak light. At any other time, he would have been shaken to the core by this level of godliness. But now... he was conflicted.

    He needed time.

    That was why he¡¯d told the finger that Smokewights would work, but that daybreak light would be much better. He¡¯d assumed the finger would stay away much longer as a result. That, in turn, would give him the time he needed to advance his golden crow to the next stage, then break through the warding spell.

    Never could he have imagined that the god¡¯s finger would return so quickly... with daybreak light!

 Chapter 485: Golden Crow Dao Soul Accompanied by Daybreak (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 485: Golden Crow Dao Soul Apanied by Daybreak (part 2)</h4>

    As Xu Qing looked on in surprise, the finger tossed the thousands of screaming Smokewights into the sun¡¯s remains by Xu Qing. The Smokewights instantly became nutrients that the flesh assimted. By extension, Xu Qing benefited.

    As for the daybreak light, the finger flicked it right toward Xu Qing....

    Xu Qing stood there in silence. The moment the light neared, the golden crow snapped it up, preventing it from reaching the sun¡¯s flesh. The light erupted inside the golden crow, causing a seven-colored glow to fill the area. From a distance, it almost looked like the sun¡¯s remains really were going to awaken. Powerful fluctuations rolled out everywhere, and at the same time the nourishment from thousands of Smokewights bolstered the life in the flesh.

    The ny-ninth tail sprang out of the golden crow.

    The one hundredth tail was just about to appear. Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was growing, and a Nascent Soul aura was building in the golden crow.

    The god¡¯s finger thrummed as ¨©ts divine will scanned the sun¡¯s flesh. Clearly, ¨©t didn¡¯t care about what was happening with Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow. Instead, the finger turned and pointed directly at Sir Inkwell¡¯s forehead. The explosive nature of the finger made it seem like ¨©t was already vexed beyond measure. It was as if the fact that a body had not been painted made the finger so enraged that ¨©t wanted toy waste to everything in the area.

    Sir Inkwell trembled as he sensed death looming over him.

    ¡°That¡¯s no problem at all, heaven-favored one. Your humble servant will start painting your body immediately!¡±

    Sir Inkwell quickly took out a paintbrush and waved it in the direction of the sun¡¯s flesh. In response, some energy and blood emerged from inside and converged in front of him. Next, he dipped the tip of the brush into it a few times, then began to paint something. With only a few brush strokes, hepleted the basic outline of the body.

    Seeing that, the finger¡¯s impatience seemed to fade a bit, to be reced by deep-seated longing. Ignoring everything in the area, the finger¡¯s divine will became fully focused on Sir Inkwell¡¯s work.

    ¡°Oh heaven-favored one, you can insert your divine will into the body if you wish, sir. That will ensure that you¡¯re fused with the body from the beginning. It¡¯s an idea your humble servant came up with specifically for you. This will increase the likelihood of sess, and reduce the chances that the body will reject you.¡±

    It was hard to say if it was because Sir Inkwell was working so hard or because of his efforts to sell the act, but either way, he no longer seemed schrly and refined like before. Instead he seemed crazed, with his hair disheveled.

    The god¡¯s finger sent divine will into the outline of the body, and as Sir Inkwell continued to paint, the finger fused more and more deeply. At the same time, the body became clearer and clearer.

    When Xu Qing saw what was happening, he felt more anxious than ever. He knew he didn¡¯t have much time to work with. If Sir Inkwell finished that painting, then Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have any control over what happened. That wasn¡¯t to mention that he didn¡¯t trust Sir Inkwell. Although they were working together, he was still convinced the Paintedfolk man had some malicious ulterior motives.

    <i>I need the golden crow to reach the next stage before he finishes....</i> Xu Qing gritted his teeth and checked the golden crow¡¯s progress on the one hundredth tail.

    That was going to be the key to everything. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t forming very quickly. Right now, it was only about half finished.

    <i>Must go faster!</i> he howled inwardly.

    The golden crow could sense his anxiety and tried to speed up. It madly absorbed the sun¡¯s flesh, and even started assimting some of the Smokewights that were still present.

    In that manner, an incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed.

    From a distance, the scene ying out was very gruish.

    Apletely deranged old man with bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair was madly painting a 300-meter-tall body. The body¡¯s skull was alreadypletely painted, and its flesh was starting to take shape. It looked very shocking and ghastly. The body emanated sun-like fluctuations, and as the divine will of the god¡¯s finger fused with it, godly might pulsed out, along with a feeling of awakening.

    Some distance away on the sun¡¯s flesh, Xu Qing closed his eyes and sat in ce. The flesh around him was already withering up dramatically. One reason was because of Xu Qing absorbing it, the other was because of Sir Inkwell using it as paint.

    The stone lion and the head were cautiously inching away, until they reached the warding spell, which made it impossible for them to move any further.

    The head had been hoping to look more closely at what was happening, but was now moaning inwardly. <i>The two of them are trying to one-up each other. Each one is trying to turn the other into a scapegoat. Based on what I can see... my god! This is terrifying. We¡¯re dead. Dead....</i>

    The head couldn¡¯t understand why it was so unlucky. In fact, it was already starting to think back fondly to the Corrections Division.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow finished with its one hundredth tail. The golden crow was obviously excited, and wanted to erupt with mes, spread its wings, and fly high into the sky. However, Xu Qing restrained it!

    It was almost as if he mped his hand around its throat. The golden crow could do nothing other than meekly re-enter Xu Qing and go back to his fifth heavenly pce. That pce had been created by Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Once back inside, the golden crow changed. Instead of looking like a crow, it looked like a young man.

    He wore an imperial gown and an emperor¡¯s crown. His facial features were the same as Xu Qing¡¯s, except he didn¡¯t have a flesh-and-blood body. Countless streams of dharma force and the dao of the golden crow made... a dao soul! [1]

    It was a bit blurry, making it obvious it was in an embryonic state. But the moment it appeared, fluctuations that vastly surpassed the Gold Core level erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s fifth heavenly pce. As they spread through his sea of consciousness, the golden crow rose to the third stage. And at that point, his fifth heavenly pce couldn¡¯t really be called a heavenly pce anymore.

    It was now an incubator for a dao soul!

    This was a unique position. One of his pces was in the Nascent Soul level, while the others hadn¡¯t progressed. Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s level was actually... pseudo-Nascent Soul!

    As his battle prowess rose with heaven-shaking, earth-toppling force, Xu Qing sensed the shapeless warding spell, which was made from innumerable transparent chains. He felt god power fluctuations in the area, almost like countless incredibly tiny worms wriggling.

    And he could sense an aura of new lifeing from the body Sir Inkwell was painting. He hadn¡¯t been able to sense that before, but now it was very clear. That was because he was changing on a substructural level, and had now developed divine sense!

    Divine sense was something unique to Nascent Soul cultivators, and it was a power formed by thebination of his dao soul and regr soul. It was also the foundation of divine abilities.

    Before Nascent Soul, magical techniques were magical techniques. After reaching Nascent Soul, there weren¡¯t just magical techniques, there were also divine abilities.

    Beyond that, now that the golden crow had reached the third stage, a powerful nourishing force flowed out of his fifth heavenly pce to replenish Xu Qing. That was from Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits; whenever it devoured something, it could help Xu Qing in return. That said, this particr instance was providing an astonishing level of replenishment that surpassed anything from before.

    Rumbling sounds filled Xu Qing as his fleshly body was further refined. The replenishment was so astonishing that it affected his heavenly pces; his ninth heavenly pce was now getting very close to being fully materialized.

    His current heavenly pces had been formed in the following order: the first was a ck umbre; the second was a seven-colored wind-chantingmp; the third was a taboo poison core; the fourth was a violet moon pce; the fifth was an imperial-ss technique; the sixth was a heavenly dao bluegreen dragon; the seventh was upied by the Ghost Emperor mountain; and the eighth was the hellspirit bloodwingmp.

    As for the ninth, Xu Qing hadpleted it by half thanks to the Ten Entrails Tree. But with the replenishment power coursing through him, it reached seventy percent. Then eighty percent. Ny percent! After an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, his ninth heavenly pce reached a state of ny-nine percentpletion. All it needed was something inserted inside toplete it.

    ¡°And that item will be... golden crow, spit out that light!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind raced as he sent divine sense to his fifth heavenly pce. Inside, the golden crow dao soul opened its eyes, causing a seven-colored glow to spring out of its mouth.

    It was daybreak light. As that light shed, it flowed toward the ninth heavenly pce.

    When it entered, the ninth heavenly pce became a seven-colored pce that was crystalline and semitransparent. It glowed like the sunrise. The daybreak light became a sphere of light, within which was some immense living creature that resembled a phoenix, except asleep.

    The perished sun here was not a golden crow. Instead, it was a different type of living being. The reason Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow had been able to devour it was that they were simr on a substructural level. When the ninth heavenly pce materialized, and the daybreak light settled inside, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base experienced a breakthrough!

    His battle prowess skyrocketed, and at the same time, the replenishment from his golden crow continued, causing his tenth heavenly pce to start forming!

    Xu Qing was shaken, but also felt keen anticipation. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Sir Inkwell and the god¡¯s finger. To Xu Qing, the changes that had urred to him felt heaven-shaking and earth-toppling. But they were all internal. To the god¡¯s finger, the most important thing was the body being painted, and therefore, the finger didn¡¯t bother paying attention to Xu Qing.

    However, Sir Inkwell did notice, and his eyes glittered. Pretending that nothing had happened, he continued painting. The painted body was now about halfplete, and the godly might within it was astonishing. It pulsed out, causing everything to twist and ripple.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s heart grew more determined.

    <i>If I fled now, the old man would have to stop painting. He wouldn¡¯t have any more paint to work with. And then he could send the finger after me. Therefore, now¡¯s not the time to make my escape. I need to wait until the finger is fully fused!</i>

    Calming himself, he sat by waiting, while simultaneously using the replenishment from the golden crow to furtherplete his tenth heavenly pce.

    As for what object he would ce inside that tenth pce, he already had a n.

    <i>This time, I¡¯m going to try out my violet crystal!</i>

    1. This ¡°soul¡± is a ¡°Nascent Soul¡± not the ordinary word for ¡°soul.¡± Please keep this in mind whenever dealing with the Nascent Soul stuff. ?

 Chapter 486: The Violet Crystal Glitters; The Heavenly Palaces Tremble

    <h4>Chapter 486: The Violet Crystal Glitters; The Heavenly Pces Tremble</h4>

    When Sir Inkwell saw that Xu Qing didn¡¯t take advantage of the moment to escape, his heart sank.

    <i>The little punk is too cautious. Well, fine. I¡¯ll have to resort to n B!</i>

    Snorting coldly in his heart, the old Paintedfolk continued working on the painting.

    Xu Qing directed the replenishment from the golden crow toward his tenth heavenly pce, causing rumbling to echo within his sea of consciousness as the pce rapidly materialized.

    <i>After reaching the five-me level in Foundation Establishment, I didn¡¯t n to add any more lifemps. I thought my limit was going to be eight pces. Of the ten heavenly pces I now have, three are made from lifemps. And now, I¡¯m working on my seventh heavenly pce, which is one of the original group of eight. After Iplete it, I¡¯ll only be one pce away from being in the great circle of Gold Core! </i>[1]

    As Xu Qing contemted those details, the replenishment from the golden crow surged, and time passed. When Sir Inkwell was about seventy percent finished painting the god body, and as the sun¡¯s remains withered up, Xu Qing¡¯s tenth heavenly pce was more than halfplete.

    <i>It won¡¯t be long now.</i>

    Xu Qing felt keen anticipation. He was really looking forward to finding out what would happen when he used the violet crystal to finish his tenth pce. While keeping an eye on Sir Inkwell in case he fled, Xu Qing focused on the materialization. Before long, the tenth pce had reached ny percentpletion. Then, after a few dozen breaths of time passed, Sir Inkwell¡¯s painting wasplete except for the head. At that point, Xu Qing¡¯s tenth heavenly pce was ny-nine percentplete.

    <i>Violet crystal!</i>

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and turned it semitransparent with the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. Plunging it into his chest, he ignored the piercing pain as he wrapped his fingers around the violet crystal. However, instead of pulling it out, he pushed it toward his sea of consciousness.

    ¡°Fuse!¡± The anticipation he felt in his heart reached incredibly intense levels.

    However, as the violet crystal got close to his sea of consciousness, before he could even insert it, he felt a very strong force of rejection. It wasn¡¯ting from one of the heavenly pces. No, it wasing from <i>all</i> of his heavenly pces. As one, they were sending out fluctuations to keep the violet crystal away.

    Xu Qing¡¯s jaw nearly dropped.

    That force of rejection seemed to irritate the crystal. Seemingly offended, the crystal released a tiny fraction of the boundless and paramount force it was capable of. That stream of force contained something absolutely domineering. It was majestic and paragonic, like something that could crush anything and everything in the world. Intense rumbling filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, causing his entire body to tremble.

    The violet crystal seemed to transform into a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering archaean mountain, pulsing with the aura of aeons. Compared to it, Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness seemed like a tiny bup sack. There was no way something so massive could fit into such a small sack.

    Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness shook violently, and cracks started spreading through it. His ten heavenly pces were all trembling.

    The three pces formed from lifemps, including the ck umbre, the seven-colored wind-chantingmp, and the hellspirit bloodwingmp, generally burned with mes that seemed like they would stay lit forever. Yet right now, they were flickering as if they might go out!

    They had all been created from the blood of Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, yet right now, they simply couldn¡¯t stand up to a scrap of power from the violet crystal. And beyond that, they looked like they might break. This definitely surpassed anything Xu Qing could have nned for, and it caused a look of nk shock to fill his face.

    Then something happened with his taboo poison core that left himpletely gobsmacked. That taboo poison core originated from ancestral god power from a god domain. However, before it could even release the full extent of its power, it shrank back, bing clearly blurry, as if it might be erased out of existence. As it struggled, it became increasingly unstable, making it seem like it might copse at any moment. His violet moon heavenly pce came from the essence of Crimson Mother. But right now, that pce was trembling like a waif in a winter wind. Cracks spread out over the pce, and it looked like it might shatter.

    Nothing like this had ever happened before!

    <i>This....</i> Xu Qing felt waves of shock smashing into him.

    Then he realized that his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon and Ghost Emperor mountain were both shivering like mad. The bluegreen dragon was sending out fluctuations of terror, as if it was looking at some horrifying entity that couldpletely destroy it. And the Ghost Emperor mountain was bowing its head in subservience to the violet crystal. The golden crow was already at stage three, and had turned into a dao soul, but right now it looked extremely nervous and was whimpering.

    In his mind and heart, Xu Qing felt like he had suddenly been thrown into the midst of a violent hurricane. He knew that his violet crystal was special. After all, it had always been the key to keeping his shadow in check. But he could never have predicted that it would be so unbelievably terrifying. What was more, he had only pushed the violet crystal <i>toward </i>his sea of consciousness, not <i>into </i>it. Yet all of his heavenly pces were acting like little girls being approached by an evil tyrant. They didn¡¯t even want it to be near them.

    Because of the pces¡¯ instinctive rejection, the violet crystal¡¯s domineering nature erupted. It was easy to guess what would happen if Xu Qing forced the violet crystal closer to his sea of consciousness. The sea of consciousness wouldn¡¯t be able to sustain the pressure. It would copse, and all of his heavenly pces would shatter.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand trembled. All of a sudden, it didn¡¯t feel like he was holding a violet crystal. Instead, he was holding a bolt of lightning that could destroy the world! Without the slightest hesitation, he carefully pulled the crystal away from his sea of consciousness and back to its spot in his chest.

    As the violet crystal moved away, his sea of consciousness slowly stopped trembling and went back to normal.

    <i>What exactly just happened?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s forehead was covered with a sheen of sweat. All of a sudden, he realized that he really didn¡¯t know much about the violet crystal. However, what he did know was that now wasn¡¯t the time to sit around thinking about it, so he forced himself to put the matter aside for now.

    <i>If I can¡¯t use the violet crystal....</i>

    His eyes gleamed with determination as he took out the bamboo slips that had been infused both with D-132¡¯s suppressing force, and also the power of the god¡¯s finger. That collection of bamboo slips contained a record of everything Xu Qing had experienced after waking up in D-132.

    They contained both the power of memory and the power of amnesia. After taking them out of his bag of holding, Xu Qing inserted them directly into the tenth heavenly pce in his sea of consciousness. The moment he did that, the bamboo slips copsed into dust. Then that dust swirled together in the tenth heavenly pce to be... a bamboo slip that glowed with the color of blood. It was covered with lines of text, all in Xu Qing¡¯s handwriting. The text shifted back and forth between blurry and clear. Sometimes it disappeared, but it would always return. It was extremely gruish. The strong blood-colored light it emitted turned his tenth heavenly pce a deep crimson color.

    As the tenth heavenly pce changed form, it came to look like... D-132! And the blood-colored light it emitted was just like the glow cast by the god¡¯s finger.

    If you looked closely, that blood-colored light contained bits of white that crisscrossed the red. Within that heavenly pce that resembled D-132, the bamboo slip floated, casting out a glow thatbined white and red. It looked profoundly sinister.

    The moment the process wasplete, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base skyrocketed. It waspletely appropriate to say that, at that moment, Xu Qing had essentially reached the ultimate possible peak in Gold Core.

    From ancient times until modern, people like that had indeed existed before in the Revered Ancient maind. However, it would be <i>easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn</i> than to encounter one of them.

    His heavenly pces now contained the ancestral god taboo poison, the godsource of the violet moon, and the god power of misfortune. Those three alone would be enough to dominate everything near and far. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon, the Ghost Emperor mountain, or the daybreak light from the perished sun. A Gold Core cultivator like this basically didn¡¯t even count as being in Gold Core. If Xu Qing were to encounter Chu Tianqun right now, it would only take a moment to crush him.

    In fact, he was already considering trying to break through to the next cultivation realm. After he left the Gold Core level, he would reach something called the Heavenfate Dao Soul level, which was also just called Nascent Soul. However, the reality was that Xu Qing still hadn¡¯t reached his limit. Of the eight pces formed from his original five life mes, he still had one more that wasn¡¯tplete. With that thought on his mind, Xu Qing took a deep breath. Eyes shing, he turned to look at Sir Inkwell.

    Sir Inkwell¡¯s painting was almostplete. The only thing it was missing was the pinky finger on the right hand and the face on the head.

    When Xu Qing looked at Sir Inkwell, the Paintedfolk looked back. And then Sir Inkwell grinned gruishly, reached out with his right hand, and quickly painted the face.

    It was... Xu Qing¡¯s face!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes became as cold as ice. When Sir Inkwell put the eyes onto the face, the massive body he had painted suddenly trembled as if it was awakening.

    ¡°Exalted god, the body I¡¯ve painted for you is nowplete!¡±

    With that, Sir Inkwell turned and fled at top speed.

    The god¡¯s finger thrummed with fluctuations of excitement as it flew toward the body. As it fused, the surrounding warding spell shivered and loosened.

    That was when Xu Qing made his move.

    Xu Qing shot away from the shriveled remains of the sun. Taking advantage of the loosening of the warding spell, he pierced through it.

    Sir Inkwell did the same, and the two of them fled. The head and the stone lion also broke free.

    The god¡¯s finger wasn¡¯t paying attention to them at all; instead, ¨©t shrank down and fused with the painted body. It was possible to see countless tendrils of flesh snaking off of ¨©t andtching onto the body. Then, as ¨©t struggled, the body¡¯s eyes fluttered as if trying to open.

    Everything in the area rippled and distorted. As the final tendril of flesh connected, the painted eyes opened. However, the moment that happened, cracks exploded all over the body, spreading to cover every inch of it. Then, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering boom echoed out as... The entire body exploded! A massive shockwave spread out in all directions. An agonized shriek rippled out, filled with madness and fury.

    As it passed the head and the stone lion, they detonated with a thump. Then it hit Sir Inkwell, whose body immediately started turning blurry. It looked like he was about to disappear. That said, he didn¡¯t seem afraid. Rather, he seemed regretful.

    <i>I guess I can¡¯t control a god, huh? What a pity. It was a good opportunity. Ah, whatever. I guess I should flee for my life now.</i>

    While he sighed inwardly, he shouted as loud as he could.

    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, oh exalted god! Your humble servant didn¡¯t just prepare one body for you. There are two! One was a painting, but the other is real! But they look the same. Sir... just go try out the other body!¡±

    1. As a brief reminder, lifemps essentially give you an extra pce. Keep that in mind if you¡¯re trying to do the math on this part. ?

 Chapter 487: God Possession

    <h4>Chapter 487: God Possession</h4>

    An enraged roar drifted through the depths of the Abyssal Sea. As the painted body copsed, the god¡¯s finger shot out from within the haze of flesh and blood, pulsing with a will of destruction.

    The head and stone lion had already copsed, but Sir Inkwell had used some unique method tost a bit longer and yell those final words.

    Instantly, the furious god¡¯s finger swiveled to point in the direction of the fleeing Xu Qing.

    Although ¨©ts mental faculties were impaired to a degree, and ¨©t was a bit forgetful after being injured, ¨©t immediately identified Xu Qing as bearing a perfect resemnce to the painted body. As a result, the finger didn¡¯t bother chasing down Sir Inkwell, and instead shot toward Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing realized what was happening behind him, his expression turned dour. Truth be told, the moment he realized Sir Inkwell was painting that face to resemble him, he had guessed what wasing.

    Unfortunately, Sir Inkwell had been in control of the painting, and the god¡¯s finger was lurking nearby the entire time, so there was nothing he could do. The only thing he¡¯d been able to do was influence the direction in which Sir Inkwell fled.

    When Sir Inkwell saw the god¡¯s finger pursuing Xu Qing, a verycent expression filled his face. That said, he did feel some regret.

    <i>What a pity I wasn¡¯t able to control a god. Even though it¡¯s only the pinky finger of a god¡¯s clone, it¡¯s still on a higher level of existence than I can interfere with. That said, after this experience, I need to think more about how to make it work better next time. This world inside of a painting is a very interesting ce. If I could control a god in here, then just imagine what I could do outside the painting....</i>

    That thought got Sir Inkwell fairly excited. He nced back at the fleeing Xu Qing.

    <i>The jailer certainly showed up at just the right time. Without him, I might not have escaped. He¡¯s one of the few good people in this painting. I¡¯m going to miss him. All I can do is hope he ends up safe and sound.</i>

    Sir Inkwell chuckled and sped up. However, that was when he suddenly felt something extremely malevolent locking onto him. Face falling, he looked over his shoulder, whereupon his eyes went wide.

    At some point, a gigantic bluegreen dragon had appeared behind him. It had a dark gray body covered with countless sharp scales, and it stared at him with ice-cold eyes. It was hundreds of meters in length, making Sir Inkwell seem like a bug inparison. A tremor passed through Sir Inkwell, and his mind reeled.

    ¡°A heavenly dao??¡± he blurted. Waves of shock assailed him. Although he feared the god¡¯s finger, there was a second thing he truly feared, and that was destiny aura!

    Those were the two things he had been forced to deal with in D-132. D-132 was used to suppress a god and sever karma. But it had also suppressed the prisoners, who had all been transformed to a certain degree by the god¡¯s finger. Though he feared the god¡¯s finger, that fear wasn¡¯t overwhelming. After all, he was something of apanion to that finger, and because of their dealings, had strong karma built up with it. As for the destiny aura... it could suppress that god¡¯s finger. And given that Sir Inkwell was apanion to the god¡¯s finger, it meant that destiny aura was like his nemesis!

    And destiny auras came from heavenly daos!

    As Sir Inkwell¡¯s eyes went wide, he instinctively let loose a miserable shriek, as if he had just encountered the most deadly beast in the world. Turning, he fled at top speed away from the bluegreen dragon.

    <i>Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT. What¡¯s a heavenly dao doing here? What is that bluegreen dragon, anyway? Don¡¯t tell me the giantke in this painting produced it because of the sun¡¯s remains?</i>

    As Sir Inkwell fled, his scalp tingled as he realized the bluegreen dragon had opened its mouth.

    <i>Why is it staring at me?</i>

    Nothing that Sir Inkwell could do would mean a thing when dealing with a heavenly dao. Thus, he fled right back into the world of his painting, whichy on the ground nearby.

    However, the bluegreen dragon followed, chasing him right into the painting. Inside of that painting was Sir Inkwell¡¯s family. They all looked terrified when the bluegreen dragon appeared. Then they started disappearing one by one, as if they¡¯d been devoured. A feeling of terror began to spread out from the painting.

    However, Sir Inkwell obviously had some skills. Though he was facing his nemesis, a heavenly dao that he couldn¡¯t possibly fight against, he was still able to buy some time.

    That was one reason why Xu Qing didn¡¯t make a move against him back when he was absorbing the sun¡¯s remains. Back then, Sir Inkwell had been painting in the presence of the god¡¯s finger, so making a move against him would have been counterproductive. But now the god¡¯s finger was chasing Xu Qing. As it turned out, though Sir Inkwell thought he was plotting against Xu Qing, the reality was that Xu Qing was plotting against him. From a certain perspective, it seemed... that neither of them hade out on top.

    Sir Inkwell was in mortal danger, but so was Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was currently fleeing at top speed. The godly might of the god¡¯s finger seemed boundless, and considering it was capable of greater teleportations, it didn¡¯t seem likely that Xu Qing could outrun it. After only about four or five breaths of time, everything around Xu Qing rippled and turned blurry.

    The god¡¯s finger raced with madness and determination right toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked over his shoulder and released an explosive poison mist. He unleashed the godsource of the violet moon, and summoned a projection of the Ghost Emperor mountain. The golden crow appeared, a dao soul within it, its eyes glowing brightly. There was also a seven-colored stream of light that spread out from Xu Qing, making him seem full of holiness. In addition, there was a bamboo slip that floated in front of him, releasing fluctuations exactly the same as the god¡¯s finger.

    Finally, he had amand medallion. Raising it overhead, he shouted, ¡°Taboo treasure!¡±

    The great that covered Sea-Sealing County, including the Abyssal Sea, suddenly glittered brightly. Countless streams of blinding light then converged high above Xu Qing.

    Taboo treasures were not things that any person could just randomly use. They required a certain level of understanding. Because of that, they often had limitations, and required great effort to use. In many cases, it was difficult to use much of their power. Using a taboo treasure wasn¡¯t something that could be done intuitively. Taboo treasures were critical to any major organization, and that meant that most people would never get a chance to study or experiment with them.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing had an advantage in that regard. Thanks to how much Master Seventh favored him, he had been appointed as a treasure custodian for a short time. That had allowed him to study and experiment with a taboo treasure, an experience which was now proving very handy. As a result, the light that gathered overhead was exceedingly dazzling.

    The moment Xu Qing did that, the god¡¯s finger appeared only a few dozen meters ahead. Its maddened divine will locked onto him, causing an enraged howl to fill his mind.

    <i>¡°You... took away... my body. Give it back!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing backed away cautiously, while simultaneously tapping into all his trump cards.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t take away your body. That bastard Inkwell painted your body to look like me, all so he could escape. You should be chasing him!¡±

    As Xu Qing backed away, the god¡¯s finger rushed forward by nine meters, its divine will exploded out.

    <i>¡°Give... it... back!¡±</i>

    ¡°My body is filled with a bunch of random stuff that¡¯s not suitable for you. You can sense it, can¡¯t you?¡± As Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing, he sent his shadow out. The shadow appeared, trembling, then shrank beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet.

    <i>¡°Give it... back!¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger wasn¡¯t listening to anything Xu Qing said. The finger¡¯s divine will grew more insane as it got closer and closer.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes filled with a crazy look. His right hand dropped, and the taboo poison power within him erupted. A projection of the violet moon appeared, shooting right toward the god¡¯s finger. Daybreak light erupted dazzlingly, creating a sea of light around the finger. The golden crow overhead held nothing back; one hundred tails rippled behind it as the power of a dao soul swept toward the finger. Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Xu Qing was going all out! Taking out some demonization symbols, he sent the Ghost Emperor mountain out with full force.

    And then, Xu Qing pointed at the god¡¯s finger. That was when he pushed down on themand medallion the pce lord had given him. The power of a taboo treasure descended. Brilliant light gathered in the above, then shot downward in the form of a glowing hand some several thousand meters in size. As the hand dropped, the water shattered, spreading out in all directions.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing was unleashing every scrap of battle prowess he was capable of. Intense rumbling sounds echoed into the sky. However... Xu Qing¡¯s enemy was not a cultivator, but rather, a god. Maybe ¨©t was only the pinky finger of the clone of a god. But the terrifying power emanating off of ¨©t could shatter heaven and rock the earth.

    His poison didn¡¯t do much to the finger. Given ¨©t¡¯s maddened state, ¨©t didn¡¯t care about a bit of rot. What was more, ¨©t was part of a god¡¯s body, so ¨©t naturally had defenses. The violet moon godsource was rtively negligible. To cultivators, it would be boundlessly powerful. But to this god¡¯s finger, that small amount of essence was something ¨©t could easily rebuff.

    Even more noteworthy was that ¨©t¡¯s thinking was currently muddled; it waspletely consumed by desire and madness. The finger pierced through the power of the poison and the violet moon. However, as ¨©t neared Xu Qing, ¨©t was resisted by the daybreak light. But that didn¡¯tst for long.

    However, Xu Qing took advantage of the time it bought him. His golden crow let loose a piercing cry and closed in. The Ghost Emperor mountain hurtled forward. And the hand of light descended from above with crushing power. As the taboo hand grewrger andrger, destructive power pulsed off of it. Then, it hit the god¡¯s finger at the same time as Xu Qing¡¯s other attacks.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother to see what happened as a result. He just fled with all the speed he could muster, turning into a blur of afterimages that shot off into the distance.

    Behind him, a deafening boom shook heaven and earth. A massive portion of the Abyssal Sea exploded, sending water spraying everywhere, and causing huge, destructive waves to roll out.

    Xu Qing coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, and his face went as pale as death. He staggered dramatically, but at the same time, kept fleeing.

    However, after only a dozen or so breaths of time passed, a howl echoed out that could shake heaven and make ghosts and gods weep. And then, from the area where Xu Qing¡¯s attacks had allnded simultaneously, a wriggling mass of shattered flesh slowly rose up.

    As ¨©t stitched itself back together, ¨©t raced after Xu Qing. Xu Qing knew he couldn¡¯t fight it, so as it closed in, his eyes lit with craziness as he tapped into the violet crystal! The wriggling mass of flesh neared, leaving behind a trail of blood. In the blink of an eye, ¨©t was on top of Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°My... my.... Give... it... back!¡±</i>

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing was no longer visible. The spot where he had been was now covered with a mountainous mass of bloody flesh. And a terrifying, evil will spread out from that spot.

 Chapter 488: The Finger Didnâ€™t Want To Possess Him....

    <h4>Chapter 488: The Finger Didn¡¯t Want To Possess Him....</h4>

    The depths of the Abyssal Sea were very quiet. This part of Daybreak Prefecture was remote to begin with, and few travelers ever went there. Couple that with the fact that the god¡¯s finger had already scoured the area to capture living cultivators, and the result was that right now, the ce waspletely deste. Whether because of the sun¡¯s remains or the god¡¯s finger, this area now abounded with mutagen, to the point where it was showing signs of bing a forbidden region.

    The head and the stone lion were both affected by the fluctuationsing off the god¡¯s finger, and were taking longer than usual to recover. At the moment, they were mangled masses of gore. Sir Inkwell¡¯s painting still had some of his family members in it, but only about five. And the survivors were still being devoured.

    As a result of that, no one was aware that something extremely bizarre was happening beneath the mountainous mass of flesh at the bottom of theke.

    That was what remained of the god¡¯s finger, and at the moment, ¨©t was wriggling like mad. As for Xu Qing, he was underneath ¨©t,pletely surrounded by the shredded flesh of the finger, which was now burrowing into him, causing intense pain to sweep through him.

    It felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly while also being shed to ribbons. Xu Qing trembled violently. However, no matter how he fought back, it didn¡¯t seem to do any good. He couldn¡¯t stop the invading flesh and blood. Thus, time passed, and the massive mountain of flesh slowly shrank down.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the mountain of flesh was reduced by half, and an outline of Xu Qing was visible. He was twitching and jerking around, making it obvious how much pain he was in. The flesh wasn¡¯t done burrowing into him. ¨©t continued to squirm as ¨©t madly entered him through every pore in his body.

    Another incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, after which Xu Qing became more visible. There was now only one big strip of flesh left, which turned into a host of tiny tendrils that started digging into Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    Then ¨©t was gone.

    Xu Qingy there unmoving, his expression one of frozen pain. He could not sense anything around him. All of the flesh that made up the god¡¯s finger was now inside of him, turning into a host of extremely fine tendrils that filled him from head to toe.

    His meridians. His flesh. His bones. Every part of him was filled with those tendrils. And they were slowly linking together, causing a terrifying mutagen to spread out and change Xu Qing, to transform him into something suitable for the god¡¯s habitation.

    The violet crystal in his chest was still glowing with violet light. But that light could repair damage to him, and wasn¡¯t able to fight back against a transformation that came from the flesh of a god. In fact, in some ways, that recovery power was actually making the transformation process proceed more smoothly. Any damage that was inflicted was quickly healed.

    As a result, the flesh of the god¡¯s finger didn¡¯t pay any attention to the violet crystal, and just slowly continued transforming Xu Qing.

    Fleshy growths sprang out from him, like tentacles, spreading out, growing longer, and swaying back and forth. It was a very bizarre scene, but what was most bizarre was how those flesh tentacles were rapidly intertwining around Xu Qing. Close observation would reveal that meridians and blood vessels were being formed by the flesh tentacles, and it was actually being done in exactly the same way that Sir Inkwell had painted the body earlier.

    Apparently, the god¡¯s finger had observed that painting process and learned from it. Each of the fleshy tentacles was like a paint brush, and the body itself was the paint. In that manner, a new body began to take shape, which was several hundred meters from head to toe. The god¡¯s finger was using Xu Qing as the core, while building another body like an outer shell.

    Time passed. The outer shell grew more and moreplete. It was possible to see bones, with muscles slowly taking shape over them. Then the flesh tentacles began making limbs, and also, they spread up like a blooming flower to create a neck. Next was the head. The outer shell made a general framework, while flesh tentacles proliferated and filled in the gaps. Eventually, the wriggling tentacles from the neckpleted the head. Facial features appeared, and astonishingly, they were those of Xu Qing.

    About an hourter, the outer shell wasplete. The body was unclothed, and the muscles wriggled as skin formed and filled in any empty spots. When thest gap was removed, a perfect body was visible, over 900 meters tall, right there in the depths of theke.

    It was perfectly proportioned, being tall and lean, with broad shoulders and a sturdy chest. It had terrifyingly powerful muscture, and bewitching good looks.

    One unusual aspect was the body¡¯s hair, which wasn¡¯t ck, but violet. As the violet hair swayed in the surrounding water, it created an image that seemed both vile and charming at the same time. Godly might spread out, and something holy pulsed from the body. It was abination that was extremely disturbing to say the least.

    This was the body of a god!

    However, other than the swaying violet hair, the body wasn¡¯t moving at all. The eyes had not opened.

    That was because ¨©tcked a soul.

    The god¡¯s finger had created a very suitable body, but thest step had not yet been carried out. And that was... possession. ¨©t needed to devour Xu Qing¡¯s soul, and then use godliness to make ¨©ts own soul for the body, a god¡¯s soul. Only then would ¨©t be well and truly independent! When all was said and done, ¨©t would have changed from being a god¡¯s finger into being a brand new god in full form, filled with limitless potential.

    This was ¨©t¡¯s dream. And of course, that dream was what Sir Inkwell had hoped tomandeer. As of now, ¨©t¡¯s dream was almostplete. All that remained was to simply devour the soul. After all, ¨©t was a god on a substructural level, and little effort was required for a god to devour the soul of a mortal.

    Thus, the will of the god¡¯s finger erupted inside the body, converging into one spot that then shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s soul in his sea of consciousness.

    Xu Qing¡¯s befuddled soul sensed the vile, icy will rushing toward it. It didn¡¯t struggle. However, the desire to fight back had not left it. Though the soul did not have control of the body, or even consciousness, or even the ability to sense the outside world, there was still a crazy notion that existed within Xu Qing.

    <i>Years ago, the shadow seemed immeasurably mighty to me. And there was no way I could have fought back when it tried to possess me. Just like now. To me, this god¡¯s finger is something I simply can¡¯t defend against.</i>

    <i>Except, the violet crystal made all ten of the heavenly pces in my sea of consciousness tremble uncontrobly. The crystal was what fought back against the possession attempt by the shadow. So today... why don¡¯t I do the same thing to defend against the possession attempt by this god¡¯s finger?</i>

    The crazy notion that drifted out from Xu Qing¡¯s soul was the exact reason he hadn¡¯t struggled earlier. He had simply watched the power of the gods and spirits craft a new body as an outer shell. He had observed everything. And he had waited....

    He had waited for his opponent to try to devour his soul.

    That moment had arrived.

    As that vile, icy will assaulted him, and the sensation of impending doom grew more intense, the violet crystal in Xu Qing¡¯s chest seemed offended. And it erupted!

    A boundless, majestic force swept out from the violet crystal, bing a paragonic, unstoppable, ancient sea of violet light that rushed toward the will of the god¡¯s finger with domineering force. Rumbling echoed out, and Xu Qing¡¯s mind felt like it was filled with infinite bolts of lightning. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion ripped out as the god¡¯s finger, which had previously been a bit muddled, could suddenly think very clearly. And ¨©t screamed.

    <i>¡°W-what... what is that?? How could something like that be in a body like this?? This power... th-this power....¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s will was filled with astonishment, and at the same time, indescribable terror of the violet crystal. As the screams echoed about, the god¡¯s will retreated. ¨©t... wasn¡¯t interested in possessing Xu Qing anymore.

    Xu Qing had made the right gamble!

    He had remembered how the violet crystal had been passive from the moment he acquired it. Even in the most deadly situations, the crystal never did anything, leaving him with the feeling that if he died in such a situation... he would truly die. The only time the crystal had ever reacted explosively was when the shadow tried to possess him. [1]

    That seemed to indicate that the violet crystal had no interest in things rting to the fleshly body. Nor did it care if Xu Qing himself faced any sort of deadly crisis. But if something tried to possess him, then it perked up.

    That was what happened with the shadow all those years ago. And it was happening now with this god¡¯s will.

    The god¡¯s will pulsed with intense terror. ¨©ts mental faculties had recovered, and because of that, ¨©t could think and reason. As a result, ¨©t abandoned all possession attempts and tried to retreat.

    It was too slow. The shadow had tried to do the same thing, and it had also failed.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal released terrifying fluctuations, causing the violet sea to surge in the direction of the god¡¯s will.

    The god¡¯s will screamed as a sealing power mmed into ¨©t.

    <i>¡°NO!!¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger struggled violently as ¨©t screamed into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. To ¨©t, this moment was more of a deadly crisis than what Xu Qing had experienced earlier. As this fight yed out, the 900-meter-tall body in the depths of the massiveke started twitching. Then a vicious ghost face appeared on its chest, bulging outward as if trying to break free into the open. But then a huge violet hand wrapped around the face, grabbing it and pulling it back. The ghost face screamed.

    Unprecedented despair filled the will of the god¡¯s finger.

    <i>¡°Just who exactly are you?! What exactly is this thing??¡±</i>

    The howls were filled with grief and indignation, as well as wild madness. Xu Qing¡¯s massive body trembled as the god¡¯s will repeatedly tried to struggle free. Such efforts were to no avail.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing hade to notice something unusual.... The power of the violet crystal didn¡¯t seem even close to its true limit. Yet it wasn¡¯t actually able to seal the god¡¯s will in the same way it had sealed the shadow. The god¡¯s will was fighting back. As for his own soul, it was filled with intense pain, and seemed like it might start withering into nothing.

    <i>It¡¯s not that the violet crystal isn¡¯t strong enough. Rather, I¡¯m not capable of unleashing its full power....</i>

    As Xu Qing realized that, cold light flickered in his eyes.

    1. The shadow tried to possess Xu Qing in <u>chapter 13</u>. ?

 Chapter 489: Out of Consideration for a God, We Continue the Traditions of the Corrections Division

    <h4>Chapter 489: Out of Consideration for a God, We Continue the Traditions of the Corrections Division</h4>

    <i>It¡¯s only sealed ¨©t by half.</i>

    Now that the god¡¯s finger was no longer muddled in the head, ¨©t was struggling violently. The finger could sense the violet crystal in Xu Qing, and could also sense that the sealing power had reached a limit, and wasn¡¯t getting any stronger. Upon sensing that, ¨©t reacted immediately.

    <i>¡°You¡¯re not strong enough to sustain the use of that treasure!¡±</i>

    The will of the god¡¯s finger pulsed with fluctuations of delight, then struggled even more violently, going all out to try to break free. After all, ¨©t could sense that, thanks to the repeated injuries ¨©t had sustained, this moment of rity wouldn¡¯tst for very long. Therefore, ¨©t hoped to get free of this bizarre, terrifying body and flee as far away as possible.

    That said, though Xu Qing was too weak to release the true might of the violet crystal, the violet sea of light was stillpletely terrifying. Thus, no amount of struggle on the part of the god¡¯s finger was enough to break free. In fact, the god¡¯s finger was slowly being dragged backward. The will of the god started to get very anxious, and was pulsing with a wild sense of frustrated anger.

    Just like the situation with the heavenly pces, this was like a little girl facing an evil tyrant. The difference was that the god¡¯s finger was fighting back with more intensity, and was not willing to surrender.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing frowned. He could sense that his soul was starting to wither up thanks to this struggle. If things continued in this manner, and he didn¡¯t give up, then the violet crystal would be fine, but he would end up destroyed in body and soul.

    He sighed inwardly at the realization that the violet crystal actually wasn¡¯t helping. That said, he also realized that the true reason for that was himself.... After all, this was no shadow being sealed. It was a god. The difference in the difficulty between those two things was like the difference between heaven and earth.

    That said, he wasn¡¯t ready to just let this god¡¯s finger make a getaway.

    From the depths of his soul, he said, <i>¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯m not strong enough to control my heavenfate god crystal for much longer. But that¡¯s not important. What¡¯s important is that if I really go all out, I might die, but you end up sealed in the end! So, don¡¯t force my hand!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Heavenfate god crystal?¡±</i> The will of the god¡¯s finger hesitated. ¨©t could sense that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t bluffing. He really could perform the sealing, though it would cost him his life.

    <i>¡°That¡¯s right. When I was born, the destiny aura of the Revered Ancient maind converged on me, and thus, I was born with a heavenfate item inside of me!¡±</i> Xu Qing offered the exnation in the most serious of tones.

    The god¡¯s finger was dumbstruck. In any other situation, ¨©t wouldn¡¯t believe a story like that, but right now... ¨©t was having trouble deciding what was true and what wasn¡¯t.

    The god¡¯s finger didn¡¯t want to sit around trying to figure out what was true and what wasn¡¯t. ¨©t could tell that it was starting to lose its thinking faculties again. And therefore, it screamed, <i>¡°Let me go! I don¡¯t want to possess you. And even if you do manage to seal me, you¡¯ll be killed in body and soul. Maybe I¡¯ll lose my freedom, but you¡¯ll lose your life!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing frowned. It was true that he could let the god¡¯s finger go. All it would take would be a thought on his part, and the violet crystal would retract, leaving the path free to escape. But he didn¡¯t want to do that. For one thing, he was the type of person who would seek revenge over the smallest grievance. He couldn¡¯t just let an enemy like this go free. Beyond that, he could tell... that this god¡¯s finger was actually a mixture of deadly threat and destined opportunity!

    What was more, he didn¡¯t dare to let the god¡¯s finger go free. If he did, the thing could turn around and crush him to death. If the finger really didn¡¯t want to possess him, then he would be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt. And even if he somehow wasn¡¯t crushed to death instantly, and the finger fled, ¨©t would surely look for another opportunity in the future to kill him. With such thoughts on his mind, he decided that he definitely couldn¡¯t free ¨©t. Besides, he also couldn¡¯t risk publicly revealing his biggest secret, which was the violet crystal. In addition, Xu Qing could tell that though the god¡¯s finger was fighting back, as long as ¨©t was in the half-sealed state thanks to the violet crystal, ¨©t actually couldn¡¯t hurt him.

    After considering the situation for a few breaths of time, he calmly said, <i>¡°As I said, I can¡¯t sustain the use of the heavenfate god crystal. But I also said something else. Before you tried to possess me, I said I have a bunch of random stuff. I didn¡¯t want youing inside because I can¡¯t control them all, and¡ª</i>

    <i>¡°Let me out of here!!¡±</i> the god¡¯s will interrupted furiously. Then ¨©t struggled mightily, which caused Xu Qing¡¯s soul to wither even more.

    Seeing the situation turning more critical caused Xu Qing¡¯s ferocity to erupt.

    <i>¡°Shut up! If I had a way to let you free, I¡¯d already have thrown you the hell out!¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing¡¯s shout echoed within his sea of consciousness, the god¡¯s finger suddenly hesitated.

    <i>¡°If you don¡¯t let me go, I¡¯ll make sure you die! If you die, and all that happens to me is I get sealed, then eventually I¡¯ll get free, one day!¡±</i> The will of the god¡¯s finger again struggled, but ¨©t seemed like ¨©t was willing to ept a mutual loss as the oue of the conflict.

    <i>¡°You¡¯ll get free one day?¡±</i> Xu Qingughed coldly. <i>¡°You must have sensed it in the past. Did you forget, or are you intentionally not mentioning it? It doesn¡¯t matter. Tell me, what is... this?¡±</i>

    The godsource of the violet moon suddenly erupted from within its heavenly pce, filling his sea of consciousness and turning into a signal. By now, Xu Qing was very familiar with the process. It wasn¡¯t his first time using the violet moon as a threat. He was basically doing the exact same thing he had done to deal with Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    That said, because he was in the Revered Ancient maind, he didn¡¯t release the godsource to the full extent. He kept it inside of himself. But if he died and lost control, then the godsource power would connect to its origin, and the red moon would sense it.

    The will of the god¡¯s finger trembled and spoke as if through gritted teeth.

    <i>¡°That¡¯s the essence of High God Crimson Mother!¡±</i>

    ¨©t had entered Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness in a muddle state, and had vaguely sensed the essence, but had been more focused on possessing Xu Qing¡¯s soul. Then the violet crystal erupted, forcing a state of rity. After that, the terror of the situation made the god¡¯s finger fully focused on escaping.

    <i>¡°You see, I can¡¯t use the god crystal to seal you, but I also have other ways to kill you. If Crimson Motheres, you¡¯ll be devoured. I¡¯ll die. But you won¡¯t survive!¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing spoke word by word, the will of the god¡¯s finger pulsed with extreme anxiety. At the same time, ¨©t was starting to lose control of ¨©ts faculties, and was gradually losing the ability to think clearly.

    When Xu Qing saw that he was making some progress, he growled, <i>¡°I have something else!¡±</i>

    He activated the power of this sixth heavenly pce, and though the bluegreen dragon wasn¡¯t there, the heavenly dao aura was still around.

    <i>¡°A heavenly dao!¡±</i> The will of the god was even more shaken.

    Xu Qing¡¯s third heavenly pce shivered, and taboo poison seeped out.

    <i>¡°And the curse of a god!¡±</i>

    The will of the god¡¯s finger wasn¡¯t sure what to say. As ¨©ts faculties degraded, they were reced by a sense of chaos.

    Sounding very calm, Xu Qing said, <i>¡°Therefore, don¡¯t feel embarrassed. I don¡¯t want you to stick around, but I have no way to make you leave. But that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t be able to do so in the future.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I... don¡¯t believe... you....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing could sense the god¡¯s will getting muddled again, so he spoke in a softer tone.

    <i>¡°I can guarantee you that once my cultivation base is high enough, I¡¯ll free you. In fact, if we get along, maybe I can even make a new body for you....</i>

    <i>¡°As you know, the destiny aura of Revered Ancient converged on me when I was born. The heavenfate god crystal apanies me for life. As such, staying with me is not a degradation of your status as a god. And in the future, I¡¯ll definitely qualify to form a new body for you.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I... I... don¡¯t....¡±</i> The god¡¯s will again felt more muddled.

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice became even gentler.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t struggle. If you do, then I¡¯ll die and you¡¯ll still be devoured. You¡¯re a god, but you can be easily devoured by a stronger god. You surely know what kind of pain that will involve. You¡¯ll be ripped to shreds and swallowed! Do you want to be food?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°No... I....¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Exactly! I know you don¡¯t want to be food. So stop struggling. Just rest. Later on, you¡¯ll have endless possibilities.¡± </i>Then Xu Qing concluded with a final question. ¡°<i>Do you want to live, or would you rather die?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Live... I....¡±</i> The will of the god¡¯s finger seemed dazed.

    <i>¡°I promise!¡±</i> Xu Qing said resolutely. <i>¡°Just rest and leave everything else to me. I¡¯ll take care of everything.¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing spoke softly and gently, a rift opened in his sea of consciousness, which led right into his D-132 heavenly pce, his tenth.

    <i>¡°Go. You¡¯ll feel right at home. And you can just rest. Rest....¡±</i>

    Acting on instinct, the will of the god¡¯s finger slowly headed toward D-132. Xu Qing was right, ¨©t did feel right at home. However, ¨©t stopped right in front, and a sensation of irritation suddenly rose within ¨©t.

    Xu Qing quickly said, <i>¡°Don¡¯t overthink things! If you do that, you¡¯ll just get frustrated. Trust me.... I¡¯ll make you a new body and then set you free!¡±</i>

    The will of the god¡¯s finger let loose a few more fluctuations. Then ¨©t eased into D-132 and went to ¨©ts usual spot, which was made up of a few dozen cells. There, ¨©t transformed into a huge, blood-colored finger, then settled down to sleep.

    However, just when Xu Qing was about to breathe a sigh of relief, D-132 suddenly trembled. Divine will emerged from the god¡¯s finger.

    <i>¡°Where¡¯s... everyone else...?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ll bring them soon to join you,¡±</i> Xu Qing said solemnly.

    ***

    In the outside world it was evening, and red light filled the sky. Not very far away from Xu Qing and his 900-meter-tall body, was Mount Daybreak, which was currently in great danger.

    Pressure weighed down on the interior of the mountain, while the spell formation that kept it safe was vibrating. There were about a dozen locations where the formation was close to breaking open thanks to the vicious ck spikes being stabbed into it. Outside of the formation were a host of nonhuman cultivators, their vicious eyes gleaming with greed. Shockingly, quite a few of them were escaped prisoners from the Corrections Division. They had all recently answered the call to join forces and besiege Mount Daybreak.

    ¡°There¡¯s definitely a lot of treasure in this Mount Daybreak. The swordsages are all at the front lines, so they don¡¯t have attention to spare. Fellow Daoists, the time hase to get our revenge!¡±

    ¡°Break open the spell formation! Kill everyone in the Swordsage Court. Wipe out the swordsages. Clean this ce out. And then there¡¯s the mountain itself. Hey, everyone, let¡¯s see if we can blow the entire ce up!¡±

    ¡°Good idea! We can make sure that Daybreak Prefecture doesn¡¯t even have a Mount Daybreak anymore! This is going to be incredible! Hahaha!¡±

    ¡°And we don¡¯t even have to worry about repercussions! The humans of Sea-Sealing County... are doomed to be overthrown!¡±

    ¡°The Swordsage Courts everywhere else are also under siege. By the way, everyone, I have some good news. I have a confirmed report that the humans of Sea-Sealing County on the northern and western fronts are in really bad shape! Their defense could copse at any moment!¡±

    ¡°Break open this spell formation! We¡¯ll kill all the swordsages and tear down Mount Daybreak!¡±

    As the demonic, animalistic howls filled the air, the spell formation rippled, and intense killing intent surged out from the nonhumans. Rumbling booms filled the air, and the light of magical techniques glowed. Huge magical devices were being used to assault Mount Daybreak¡¯s spell formation.

    Inside Mount Daybreak were a few dozen swordsages. All of them looked like they were ready to fight to the death as they faced the sole Nascent Soul swordsage present.

    The Nascent Soul cultivator looked off toward the distant battlefields to the west and north, and quietly said, ¡°We¡¯ll stand our ground and die together if we must.¡±

    His voice was soft, but full of conviction.

 Chapter 490: Shamelessly Reaping Without Sowing!

    <h4>Chapter 490: Shamelessly Reaping Without Sowing!</h4>

    In the depths of the massiveke, the spot where the god¡¯s finger made ¨©ts possession attempt was now unnaturally silent. The mutagen levels were very high, causing everything to ripple and distort as it gradually turned into a forbidden region.

    The source of that forbidden region was a huge figure standing in the depths. It was 900 meters tall and looked like some type of devilish god. It waspletely naked, without any clothing. Swirling mist surrounded it, making it look almost dead. However, countless faintly glimmering magical symbols could be seen on its skin, causing it to pulse with an ancient aura that seemed alive. That figure seemed like a mountain, with shoulders broad enough to prop up the dome of heaven. It was perfectly proportioned, with a bewitching face. Within the mutagen and mist, it seemed profoundly nefarious. It also seemed fatally attractive.

    As time passed, the devilish god began to glow with seven-colored light. At first, it was weak. But it gradually grew more dazzling, until finally, that devilish god¡¯s body seemed extremely holy. And then the nefariousness and the holinessbined with each other.

    Some time passed, and the huge body shivered. Then it started dissolving.

    It started with the head, then the neck. After that, the limbs. It almost looked like a person taking off a suit of armor. Countless tendrils of flesh sucked inward to Xu Qing¡¯s real body.

    Before long, all of the exterior flesh and blood was back inside, and the 900-meter-tall devilish god body had vanished. Xu Qing opened his eyes. At first, he looked a bit confused. Everything that had just urred was inside his sea of consciousness, and now that he was waking up, it almost seemed like a dream.

    The moment he opened his eyes, he coughed up a huge mouthful of ck blood. He wasn¡¯t injured. Instead, he felt something brimming inside of him. And he felt a fleshly body power that vastly surpassed anything from before. As the feeling surged within him, he struggled to control his breathing. And the confused look in his eyes resolved into rity.

    ¡°My body...¡± he murmured. After sensing himself, his spirits lifted.

    His body felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. After a few breaths of time passed, his eyes glittered brightly. Then he burst into motion, causing a piercing boom as he suddenly moved hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.

    It was an astonishing level of speed. Left behind him was a string of slowly fading afterimages.

    <i>I¡¯m so fast</i>.

    Based on what he could sense, his fleshly body was at least three times stronger than before. Eyes shining, heunched an experimental punch with his right hand. He used no magical technique, just fleshly body power. And as a result, a vortex opened up, rumbling loudly, surrounded by a destructive tempest. It destroyed anything it touched.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and his heart started pounding. Clearly, his body was very differentpared to before. He was faster and stronger, but also, a lot tougher. And his attack power was very different. In a very short time, he had experienced a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformation. His fleshly body level had changed.

    As his heart raced in his chest, he released his taboo poison, causing it to fill his body and test how well he could sustain godly power.

    Soon he realized that the taboo poison was deeply fused with his body. In the past, releasing the taboo poison would cause his own flesh to corrode. Thankfully, he had built up a resistance, so the effects weren¡¯t too bad. Combined with the powers of the violet crystal, he could maintain an equilibrium. But that was only short-term. If he used the taboo poison for a long time, the effects could be cmitous. As of now, though, that didn¡¯t seem to be happening at all. His body seemed fully limated to the power of the taboo poison.

    His mood lifted as he did some tests with the violet moon. Soon, he discovered that he was much more able to deal with the violet moon¡¯s power as well. Apparently, this body really had been built with the intention of being able to use the power of a god.

    ¡°A god body...¡± he murmured.

    He tested out some more of his magical techniques, and before long, confirmed that this fleshly body upgrade affected every aspect of himself. The good fortune he was experiencing left him feeling very excited. It was sort of like <i>reaping without sowing</i>.

    <i>This is what happens when I take really big risks! Of course, this isn¡¯t truly the body of a god</i>....

    Xu Qing could remember the 900-meter-tall external shell from earlier. By casting his senses into himself, he could see arge number of golden threads. They seemed infinite, filling every part of him, and all of them pulsed with a very holy sensation. He could tell they were harmless, and also that he could control them. That said, the method of control wasn¡¯t magical techniques or cultivation base. It was only by tapping into the power of the taboo poison and the essence of the violet moon that he could do so. Also, he couldn¡¯t use them to form that same exterior shell as before.

    <i>It seems that the 900-meter-tall exterior shell was the real god body. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t make it again right now....</i> Obviously, it was because he didn¡¯t have enough godly power.

    <i>That was the body the god¡¯s finger had prepared.</i> Xu Qing next scanned his tenth heavenly pce in his sea of consciousness.

    Within the cells in D-132, the blood-colored finger rested alone, sleeping. However, apparently because of being so lonely, ¨©t wasn¡¯t sleeping soundly, but rather, stirred asionally.

    <i>Sadly I have no control. But one day, I should be able to use the violet crystal topletely seal it. Then I¡¯ll be in control just as I¡¯m in control of the shadow.</i>

    Xu Qing did not feel bound to stick by the words he had spoken earlier to the finger. It was just like the time his Master had taken him along to prepare his special technique. Master Seventh took him to many sects to look through their secret magical techniques. When they left each sect, Master Seventh taught Xu Qing how to bow and offer respects. That way, if they met as enemies, they could kill them with a clean conscience. This was a simr situation. Xu Qing felt that what his Master had said made sense, and therefore, he sped hands and bowed. Though there was nothing in front of him to bow to, Xu Qing felt that the sincerity in his heart was the most important thing. As long as he was being sincere, it was the same as actually bowing in thanks to the god¡¯s finger. It was the type of logic Master Seventh had taught to Xu Qing, and he agreed with it. [1]

    However, he still needed to make sure that the finger slept peacefully, so after bowing, he looked around. After sensing his next objective, he blurred into motion, bing another string of afterimages.

    His destination was an unrolled scroll painting. The painting had once been filled with arge family, but now the only person left was an old man. His expression was one of terror, and that was because he wasn¡¯t alone. He was the only person left, but there was also a vicious bluegreen dragon next to him with its mouth wide open.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the painting, reached out, and made a grasping gesture. The painting flew up into his hand. When the bluegreen dragon sensed him, it flew out.

    Looking at Xu Qing, it roared, then let loose a loud belch. Finally, it returned to the sixth heavenly pce inside Xu Qing.

    ¡°Get the hell out of there!¡± Xu Qing said coolly, looking into the painting.

    The bluegreen dragon knew he wasn¡¯t talking to it, so it settled down quietly.

    Inside the painting, Sir Inkwell shivered with fear. However, he didn¡¯t dare to ignore Xu Qing, so he emerged from inside the painting. After taking human form, he floated in front of Xu Qing, looking terrified.

    Shivering uncontrobly, he cautiously asked, ¡°Sir... sir, are you the god favored by heaven, or are you the jailer?¡±

    He really wasn¡¯t able to tell exactly who he was dealing with.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing sent some divine will to the shadow.

    The shadow immediately rose up from the ground, pulsing with a terrifying aura, lookingpletely ferocious with bared teeth and flexing ws. Despite its ferocious appearance, the shadow was actually feeling very scared. When Xu Qing had been in danger of being possessed, the shadow had been hiding. The truth was that it had harbored some hope that the violet crystal might end up being broken by the god....

    If that happened, the shadow might have a chance at freedom.

    But when the violet crystal erupted with power, and the god¡¯s finger moaned in agony, the shadow had be filled with terror and despair.

    That said, regardless of anything, it didn¡¯t want to die. Therefore, it put on a show of beingpletely devoted and loyal. It loudly salivated as all of its countless eyes red at Sir Inkwell. Then it growled a bit, like a vicious dog.

    When Sir Inkwell saw the shadow like that, his face fell.

    ¡°Y-y-you¡¯re... you¡¯re the jailer!! How is that even possible? Weren¡¯t you being possessed by the god¡¯s finger? How could a godly possession have failed?¡±

    Sir Inkwell trembled violently. He recognized the shadow. After all, the shadow had shown a lot of interest in him back in D-132. [2]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light, and the shadow understood what he wanted. Acting like the vicious dog, the shadow lunged forward and sunk its teeth into Sir Inkwell. An agonized shriek echoed out from the old Paintedfolk¡¯s mouth.

    Xu Qing ignored him as he next went to the head and stone lion. The two of them had still not recovered yet, so though they wanted to flee, they couldn¡¯t. The stone lion¡¯s legs had not grown back, while the head was only halfplete. Upon seeing Xu Qing moments ago, they had both begun trembling. Just like Sir Inkwell, they hadn¡¯t been sure if he was or wasn¡¯t Xu Qing. But then they heard Sir Inkwell¡¯s voice, and they realized what was going on. And that filled them with intense terror.

    ¡°That god¡¯s possession failed? Holy crap....¡±

    Then the head noticed the bedraggled state of Sir Inkwell and his painting.

    ¡°Congrattions, exalted one!¡± he gushed fawningly. ¡°Great job! Your humble servant guessed earlier that the shifty god wouldn¡¯t be a match for you, sir. And that old fart Sir Inkwell obviously was being as treacherous as ever. Exalted one, you can consign him to eternal damnation by hardly lifting your finger! Your humble servant really is extremely excited. We¡¯re finally getting our D-132 reunion!¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly whooshed out of Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding.

    ¡°Milord, that¡¯s nothing but viinous poppycock! That head seems like it¡¯s being ingratiating, but look at the way its eyes roll when it talks! That makes it obvious the thing is nning its escape. Just like Little Shadow, these people are all traitors to the core. Milord, the moment anything goes wrong, they¡¯ll turn on you. They¡¯d love to see you suffer! My humble advice is to thoroughly crush them!¡±

    The head cast a venomous re in the direction of the ck iron skewer, and was about to offer a retort. Before it could, Xu Qing waved his hand in the direction of the head. Instantly, his tenth heavenly pce appeared, and a violet glow covered the blood-red light within it.

    The moment D-132 appeared, the head¡¯s jaw dropped and its eyes went wide with disbelief.

    ¡°You wanted a reunion, right?¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Get inside.¡±

    1. Master Seventh taught Xu Qing to offer respects to enemies in <u>chapter 304</u>. ?

    2. The shadow showed interest in Sir Inkwell in <u>chapter 410</u>. ?

 Chapter 491: Someone in a Euphoria Iris

    <h4>Chapter 491: Someone in a Euphoria Iris</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice contained not even a hint of emotion.

    When his words echoed into the head¡¯s ears, the head shivered even more intensely than before. Never could it have ever imagined that its talk about a reunion would actuallye true. This development left itpletely bbergasted.

    Off to the side, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior felt supetively excited as he urged, ¡°Go on! Get inside!¡±

    The head looked like it was really about to start crying, and was about to say something when Xu Qing waved his hand. A scream echoed out as the head tumbled into D-132 and back into its same old cell. Once inside, the head sensed the presence of the finger, and it let loose an agonized shriek.

    ¡°Th-th-this....¡±

    Before it could even react, light glittered as the stone lion also flew into its old cage in D-132, where itnded with a thump and turned into a cloud troll. After looking around nkly, it spun until its back was to the door, then started eating its own tentacles. Apparently that was the only way it could pacify itself. However, every time it plucked off a tentacle, that tentacle turned into a head. Clearly, it was not very happy about the head¡¯s so-called ¡®reunion.¡¯

    When the head saw that, it started crying.

    Before many tears could fall, light glittered again in D-132, and Sir Inkwell appeared. In order to make sure the god¡¯s finger had familiar surroundings, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to kill the old Paintedfolk. Instead, he would keep him in D-132. He had bite marks all over him as he stood looking around mutely at D-132. His cell felt very familiar. Then he heard the head weeping, and saw the god¡¯s finger sleeping. He looked dazed.

    ¡°And thus, the D-132 reunion begins,¡± Xu Qing said, his voice echoing within the tenth heavenly pce.

    The head wept. The stone lion chewed. Sir Inkwell trembled. And the god¡¯s finger had apparently found the familiarity ¨©t sought, for ¨©t slept very soundly.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing paid no further attention to his tenth heavenly pce. Instead, he looked in the direction of Mount Daybreak, and started moving. Previously, he hadn¡¯t been capable of long-term travel on the surface of the Abyssal Sea. But things were different with this new body.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    A dayter, when he was about two days away from Mount Daybreak, Xu Qing suddenly slowed down as he realized he had caught wind of someone crying for help. With his previous body, his senses were not so acute. It went to show how extraordinary he was now.

    By paying attention closely, he could make out what this person was saying.

    ¡°Help... can someone help... help me....¡±

    The voice sounded weak. At the same time, it caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows to shoot up as he realized it was a familiar voice. After some thought, he realized who it was.

    ¡°Ning Yan?¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked around at the pitch-ck waters of the Abyssal Sea and thought back to when they had all teleported away from the Ten Entrails Tree. He hadn¡¯t seen Ning Yan since that event. [1]

    <i>Could it be that the sun winds here interrupted his teleportation path and caused him to drop down in this area? Then he ran into some sort of trouble, and that¡¯s why he never made it back to the county capital?</i>

    Curious, Xu Qing started moving in the direction of the voice. About an hourter, he found its source. Deep beneath the surface of the Abyssal Sea, he saw an enormous, beautiful flower, right in the middle of blooming.

    It was a euphoria iris.

    The flower was some dozens of meters in size, and had a host of colorful petals that swayed rhythmically. What was more, there were hundreds of stamens swaying about, and at the end of each was a nonhuman woman. The stamens didn¡¯t extend above the surface. Instead, they clustered around the flower, their expressions joyful as they continuously absorbed something. Right in the middle of the flower and its countless swaying petalsy a figure.

    It was Ning Yan. His clothing was tattered, and he was gasping for breath. He looked shriveled to the point of being skeletal. His listless eyes seemed dazed and lifeless as he looked at the surrounding nonhuman women absorbing him. He asionally shivered, and as he seemed to grow weaker and weaker, he would asionally cry out.

    ¡°Help... help....¡±

    The euphoria iris was a unique type of flower native to Daybreak Prefecture, and Xu Qing had seen one on his travels. He had also been told by the head that even strong men would onlyst four or five breaths of time before being turned into a desated corpse. Not even Gold Core experts wouldst for very long. The flower¡¯s unique ability was to turn the ends of its stamens into beautiful members of the opposite sex, who would then attract victims.

    An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he looked at the huge euphoria iris. This flower seemed smaller than the one he¡¯d seen on his travels, although this one seemed much more attractive.

    The women on the ends of the stamens had flushed faces and seemed extremely flirtatious. Clearly, Ning Yan was providing them with abundant nutrients.

    <i>If Ning Yan was really teleported here... then he¡¯s been stuck for a long time! I can¡¯t believe he¡¯s still alive!</i> Xu Qing thought back to everything that happened at the Ten Entrails Tree, and had to admit that the Captain¡¯s intuition was really on point. <i>There¡¯s definitely something very unusual about this guy.</i>

    After some thought, he decided that he should save the skeletal Ning Yan. After all, he was a good tool in his and the Captain¡¯s arsenal, and was rtively easy to make use of. Just leaving him to die here would be a big pity.

    Face calm, he strode forward. As he neared, the euphoria iris could sense the impending danger. Shivering, it sent its stamens away from Ning Yan and toward Xu Qing, where they gnashed their teeth and made threatening noises.

    Xu Qing just got closer.

    Seeing that, the euphoria iris belched out a pink mist that roiled forth. At the same time, it uprooted itself to flee.

    Meanwhile, the stamens swished to block Xu Qing¡¯s path. Before they could even get close to him, the ones in the lead screamed in agony as their skin melted, turning into ck goo that dripped down.

    Xu Qing noticed that with some intrigue. Only now was he realizing that, after his transformation, his taboo poison took effect even more quickly than before. Pondering that, he continued forward. As he proceeded, the stamens melted. The beautiful, nonhuman faces filled with terror as they backed up, trembling. From their expressions, they clearly didn¡¯t want him getting close to them.

    It was a familiar sensation to Xu Qing. It made him think back to when he¡¯d pushed the violet crystal close to his heavenly pces, or when the god¡¯s finger had experienced something simr. Xu Qing frowned. He actually didn¡¯t like this scene. So he stamped his foot down, sending out a ripple that exploded the stamens.

    The only thing left behind was the euphoria iris itself, which shivered in terror.

    Pleased, Xu Qing walked onto the flower, past its many petals, and picked up the emaciated Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan was virtually naked. Looking up at Xu Qing with pleading eyes, he said, ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing? What are you doing here...? Help... help me....¡±

    When Xu Qing saw the extent to which Ning Yan had been tormented, he sighed inwardly. It was just further evidence of the horrors this world could inflict. Taking out some medicinal pills, he fed them to Ning Yan. He also took out a new set of clothing for him. Then he helped him out of the euphoria iris. Once they were some distance away, and the euphoria iris was melting in a cloud of poison, a scream echoed out. Behind them was nothing but a mass of ck sludge.

    The moment the euphoria iris died, Ning Yan shivered. Then he seemed to recover to a degree. He looked back in the direction of the euphoria iris, mixed emotions on his face.

    Xu Qing was actually shocked by the look on his face after he regained his senses. ¡°You miss it?¡±

    ¡°No...¡± Ning Yan said, shivering. He looked at Xu Qing with eyes full of gratitude. ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, you saved my life. I, Ning Yan, will never forget this! But what are you doing here...?¡±

    ¡°What are <i>you</i> doing here?¡± Xu Qing replied calmly. Most importantly, he wanted to know if Ning Yan had ever realized it was Xu Qing back at the Ten Entrails Tree. That said, it didn¡¯t really matter either way. The four of them had all been involved in that incident, so if word got out, it would be bad for all of them.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Ning Yan said hesitantly. ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, I came here to Daybreak Prefecture on a mission. But then I got snagged by that damned euphoria iris. I was trapped for so long....¡±

    ¡°So you don¡¯t know about what¡¯s happening in Sea-Sealing County?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Ning Yan looked surprised. He had no idea what was happening outside. Actually, Xu Qing¡¯s earlier guess was correct. Ning Yan had been teleported here, and had been unable to make his way out. Then he ran into the euphoria iris. At first, the euphoria iris had been just a tiny nt. Almost ordinary in nature. But as time passed, it grewrger andrger. Stronger and stronger. And... no matter how Ning Yan tried to free himself, he failed.

    Xu Qing got the answer he needed just by looking at Ning Yan¡¯s facial expression.

    <i>So, he never guessed that it was me</i>....

    Without another word, he started moving again.

    Ning Yan hesitated. He had always been afraid of Xu Qing, but for some reason, he now felt even more afraid; he could sense that Xu Qing was actually stronger than before. After a moment, he cautiously started following.

    Finally, he asked, ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing... where are we going?¡±

    ¡°To Mount Daybreak.¡±

    Time passed, and Xu Qing and Ning Yan eventually got closer to Mount Daybreak.

    ***

    The critical situation at Mount Daybreak was reaching a head. Whistling sounds filled heaven and earth as numerous ck spikes shot toward Mount Daybreak and mmed into the spell formation. The shockwaves from the attacks sent rumbling sounds everywhere.

    From the look of it, there were now thousands of ck spikes piercing into the spell formation. Because of them, Mount Daybreak¡¯s spell formation had deep cracks all over it.

    It obviously wasn¡¯t going tost for much longer.

    1. Thest time we saw Ning Yan was when they all teleported off the Ten Entrails Tree in <u>chapter 458</u>. ?

 Chapter 492: Multicolored Light Shakes a Horde of Devils

    <h4>Chapter 492: Multicolored Light Shakes a Horde of Devils</h4>

    Outside of Mount Daybreak, every spike that whistled through the air contained explosively destructive power. And they had an unusually restrictive effect on spell formations. When they stabbed into the defensive spell formation, they created ck lightning bolts that slowly connected. Though Mount Daybreak¡¯s spell formation was very powerful, even it was being slowly weakened.

    ¡°It¡¯s gonna blow soon!¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! Keep it up, everyone!¡±

    ¡°After it blows, we¡¯ll charge in, kill everyone, loot the ce, then tear down the mountain!¡±

    This attack on Mount Daybreak was obviously the result of careful nning. At the moment, there were over a thousand cultivators involved in the siege. Roughly eighty former prisoners from the Corrections Division formed the core of the operation. The others were rogue cultivators and random hoodlums that had been recruited to help. There were also clues indicating that some of the major nonhuman species in Daybreak Prefecture were secretly backing the effort. That was especially true of the spikes being used on the formation. They were not a weapon that ordinary cultivators would have ess to; only a major species would be able to provide them.

    In terms of the cultivation level of the besieging forces, most of them were in Foundation Establishment or Gold Core. There were only three Nascent Soul cultivators present.

    Of those, two were male and one was female. All were nonhumans. One of the males had scales covering his face, while the other had four arms. The female was middle-aged, with a second face on her forehead. That second face was charming and pretty, making her overall appearance grotesque. In terms of cultivation base, the fluctuations they emitted made their level of strength obvious. The woman was in the mid Nascent Soul stage while the two men were in the early stage. All three were prisoners who had escaped from Unit C in the Corrections Division, and they were also the ones leading the siege. It was with very cold eyes that they looked down at Mount Daybreak from high in the air.

    ¡°The skeleton crew left behind by the Swordsage Court hasn¡¯t called for backup. And they even sent orders to the other human sects nearby to not send aid! Things aren¡¯t going exactly as predicted....¡±

    ¡°We didn¡¯t make the predictions. The major species backing us did. I¡¯d say this cooperation of ours is going quite well. Since there¡¯s been a bit of a twist... let¡¯s clean this ce out and figure things outter!¡±

    ¡°Agreed. I¡¯ve been wanting to taste swordsage flesh for a long time now.¡±

    Chuckling viciously, the three Nascent Soul nonhumans sent out orders for more ck spikes to be loaded into the magical devices, and for the assault on the formation to be intensified.

    Shockwaves rippled out, shaking Mount Daybreak.

    ***

    The skeleton crew left behind was made up of only a few dozen swordsages. As they felt the mountain shaking beneath their feet, their faces flickered with fury. They all knew that there was no hope of defending Mount Daybreak sessfully.

    There was no backup on the way. There <i>couldn¡¯t</i> be any backup on the way.

    The majority of the forces from Mount Daybreak, and from humankind in general, had been sent to the front lines in the west and north. All taboo treasures were in the control of the county capital. Everything was focused on defending against the Holytide invasion of Sea-Sealing County. Because of that, there was nothing left to provide aid to the interior.

    The only backup avable was in the various human sects in Daybreak Prefecture that were currently on lockdown.

    It was a big shock to find that these despicable criminals had magical devices that could target spell formations. That said, they had obviously been using them sporadically, as if giving Mount Daybreak a chance to call for help.

    Among the group of a few dozen swordsages was a Nascent Soul expert who was obviously their leader. It was possible to see the conviction of his swordsage oath in his eyes as he said, ¡°This siege of Mount Daybreak is obviously about more than the Swordsage Court. They <i>want</i> us to call for backup. If we did that, then the major human organizations in Daybreak Prefecture would all have to open their defenses toe to our aid. These viins want to use Mount Daybreak as bait!

    ¡°That¡¯s why I haven¡¯t asked for any help from anyone. In fact, I¡¯ve taken advantage of the lulls in their attacks to notify all human sects in Daybreak Prefecture that they absolutely, positively must not try to help us in any way! We¡¯re going to fight this battle without any hope of backup.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have the authority to call on the taboo treasure in the sky. The main battle is too significant. Humankind as a whole is more important, and things look bad right now....

    ¡°However, I trust the pce lord! Humankind will definitelye out on top in this war for Sea-Sealing County. We here might fall in battle, but humans as a whole will rise victorious! And afterward, every nonhuman organization backing this despicable siege will suffer the fate ofplete extermination!¡±

    The Nascent Soul expert¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he made his speech, and the other swordsages surrounding him were clearly ready to fight to the death.

    ***

    A massive boom echoed out in all directions. The Abyssal Sea vibrated, and all the mountain ranges shook. Mount Daybreak¡¯s grand spell formation had copsed!

    The demonic viins and devilish rogues that had been surrounding the mountain let loose greedy howls as they surged forth in attack.

    The handful of swordsages there to defend Mount Daybreak also charged forward. Magical devices installed in the mountain were activated, sending out blinding beams of light.

    The battle had begun.

    The magical devices could unleash astonishing power, making it impossible for the first wave of attackers to advance very far. But the enemy had prepared well. A momentter, the three Nascent Soul nonhumans made their move, causing a huge screen of light to descend from above.

    That light came from a magical treasure given to them by the nonhuman species backing this event. It turned into a huge palm print that dropped onto Mount Daybreak and crushed all of the defensive magical devices. Popping sounds rang out left and right as the magical devices crumbled. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the second and third wave of rogue cultivators and random hoodlums raced forward. A major crisis was building.

    Seeing what was happening caused a look of madness to fill the Nascent Soul swordsage¡¯s eyes. Shouting a battle cry, he fought back along with the dozens of swordsages at his side. However, their counterattack seemed like a little sailboat fighting back against a burst dam. It just wasn¡¯t enough. In the blink of an eye, they sustained heavy injuries, causing blood to spray from their mouths.

    The Nascent Soul swordsage sustained abined attack from the three Nascent Soul nonhumans, leaving him badly hurt.

    However, there wasn¡¯t a scrap of regret or pain on his face. Eyes radiating madness, he backed up a bit, along with the other swordsages. When he looked around at the grief and indignation in the eyes of the other swordsages, his expression became even fiercer. He took out a transmission jade slip.

    <i>¡°All human sects in Daybreak Prefecture, this is Sun Hai from the Swordsage Court on Mount Daybreak. This is my final message to all of you....</i>

    <i>¡°Do not send us any help! Your job is to stay safe in your spell formations, and wait... for humankind to rise to victory! When that happens, report what happened today to the Swordsage Pce!</i>

    <i>¡°Any species involved in this attack, whether rogue cultivators or not, and any species backing them, shall be sent to hell. And I, Sun Hai, will be waiting for them there, with all of my fellow swordsages at my side today!</i>

    <i>¡°Swordsages are pledged to defend humankind, even if we die in the process!¡±</i> [1]

    Sun Haiughed heartily. The surrounding swordsages, despite being in a situation ofplete despair, also joined him inughing. When theirughter reached the ears of the enemy rogue cultivators, their killing intent burned, and they charged forward with increased rage.

    Just when things seemedpletely hopeless for the swordsages....

    A piercing cry that could shake heaven and earth erupted from the direction of the Abyssal Sea. The fog and water roiled as a huge golden crow with a wingspan of hundreds of meters rose up, surrounded by a sea of fire. Bursting with a spectacr aura, it shot toward Mount Daybreak. The golden crow glittered with ck light, and from within the boundless sea of fire around it, more than a hundred tails swirled, releasing a terrifying aura.

    Even more notable was a small figure seated cross-legged on its head, d in an imperial robe, with an imperial crown on its head. That tiny figure¡¯s eyes were ice cold. It seemed threatening without being angry, and pulsed with a massive killing intent along with Nascent Soul fluctuations.

    As the golden crow let loose its cry, the tiny figure got to its feet, and together, they erupted with <i>a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers</i>.

    In response to this unexpected event, the nonhuman cultivators assaulting Mount Daybreak looked over their shoulders with shocked looks. That was especially true of the three Nascent Soul criminals, whose pupils constricted.

    The middle-aged woman with the mid Nascent Soul stage cultivation base looked over with narrowed eyes.

    ¡°Jiaolin,¡± she said coldly, ¡°go ughter that golden crow!¡± [2]

    The moment the words left her mouth, the Nascent Soul nonhuman with the scaled face turned, his eyes flickering with killing intent. Calling to a handful of other cultivators toe with him, he flew to meet the golden crow.

    Meanwhile, the swordsages on Mount Daybreak were visibly surprised. That was especially true of the Nascent Soul swordsage.

    ¡°Stay away!¡± he shouted anxiously. ¡°I don¡¯t care who you are, just get out of here! Run!¡±

    However, even as he shouted those words, the group that had split off from the main attacking force to block the golden crow... suddenly found themselves in darkness. An evening glow of sunset had been covered over!

    The entire sky had turned pitch ck, as if it had turned into an ocean of darkness. And it was just barely possible to spot a bluegreen dragon swirling above, howling, its draconic whiskers floating around it. As it moved, it unleashed heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fluctuations. The mighty pressure it exuded weighed down on the rogue cultivators with such crushing force that all of them vomited.

    Then Mount Daybreak trembled violently as all of the weaker cultivators in the criminal army suddenly shivered and exploded. Miserable shrieks rang out as they were destroyed in body and soul.

    As the canopy of heaven turned dark, countless eyes appeared, extremely gruish in appearance. They blinked, and the nonhuman cultivators¡¯ hearts shivered, leaving them stunned. A red bolt of lightning appeared, shooting back and forth among the stunned cultivators, piercing through each of them.

    Then, to the astonishment of all of the enemy cultivators, a beam of light appeared from within the Abyssal Sea. As it shot toward them, it let loose a piercing sound. It was... daybreak light!

    Within that seven-colored light was a person.

    He was not dressed in ordinary clothing. Instead, he wore the white uniform of a swordsage. His eyes were ice-cold and contained killing intent that could reach the highest heights.

    He was none other than Xu Qing.

    He had been some distance away, but he had seen Mount Daybreak¡¯s spell formation copse. Whether it was because of his responsibility as a swordsage, or what Mount Daybreak meant to him personally, there was no way he would allow it to be desecrated.

    Thus, he attacked.

    Up above, the Nascent Soul nonhuman with the scales mmed into the golden crow. The sea of mes raged, intense rumbling sounds shook everything, and the sound ofbat rang out.

    Xu Qing nced there, then looked away. Now that the golden crow had reached the third stage, it had Nascent Soul battle prowess. What was more, he didn¡¯t need to control it. Imperial-ss techniques eventually gained their own independent thinking, which meant the golden crow could handle itself.

    Xu Qing elerated. With the blessing provided by the godly body, he became a blur that almost instantly reached Mount Daybreak. The first thing he did was m into a Gold Core nonhuman. That cultivator was an extraordinary individual, but all he could do was scream for a moment before he exploded. As the mist of blood spread out, Xu Qing emerged from within. A momentter, he was in front of another Gold Core nonhuman. Before that cultivator could react, Xu Qing took out a dagger and shed it through his throat. The force was such that the head flew off the shoulders, apanied by an explosion of blood.

    It was a somewhat familiar scene. Eyes cold, Xu Qing leapt forward, performing an incantation gesture and pointing out. Daybreak light shot out from him, heading toward the gaping swordsages.

    As it neared, it created a defensive barrier around them. Xu Qing didn¡¯t have time at the moment for exnations. He simply unleashed the power of his third heavenly pce.

    He was going all out! Given the circumstances, he wasn¡¯t thinking a lot about keeping secrets. A poison cloud spread, and when it touched the nonhuman cultivators, they screamed and melted into bloody sludges. It was a shocking and ghastly scene.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s poison spread out, his shadow went crazy. In order to prove its worth and loyalty, it took advantage of the darkness to start parasitizing everything it could. It took control of one nonhuman cultivator after another. To their terror, they found they couldn¡¯t control their own bodies. They started self-detonating and killing each other.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was on the killing path as well. In an attempt to elevate his own position and make himself seem stronger, he put everything on the line. As a red lightning bolt, he shot back and forth, causing endless booms and rumbling sounds.

    And then there was the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. As it exhaled left and right, the power of the magical treasures provided by the major nonhuman species began to ripple and distort. Meanwhile, the defensive magical devices on Mount Daybreak were bolstered by destiny aura. Activating, they started unleashing devastating attacks.

    Deafening booms rang out everywhere. Xu Qing had arrived just in the nick of time!

    1. Sun Hai: Sun is #10 on the list of 100mon surnames. Hai means ¡°sea, ocean.¡± Madam Deathde said this name makes her think of someone that has ¡°big ambitions and big dreams.¡± This is the exact same name as one of the characters in I Shall Seal the Heavens, who first appeared in <u>chapter 820</u>. I don¡¯t want to spoil ISSTH for those who haven¡¯t read it, but the Sun Hai in that novel ended up being an important supporting character. And he ended up going bald.... That character does not have anything to do with the Sun Hai in this chapter. ?

    2. Jiaolin: This side character obviously isn¡¯t very important, but it is noteworthy that ¡°jiao¡± is the same jiao as in ¡°flood dragon.¡± These creatures are notable for their scales, and this guy has scales. ¡°Jiao¡± is not a surname, so this doesn¡¯te across as an ordinary human name. ?

 Chapter 493: It Was You! It Was You!!

    <h4>Chapter 493: It Was You! It Was You!!</h4>

    Xu Qing descended, wreathed in daybreak light. He attacked ferociously, without holding anything back. He even activated his Ghost Emperor heavenly pce, causing the extremely terrifying pressure of the Ghost Emperor mountain to appear above him. It didn¡¯t crush down in an attack, but rather, emanated shocking might from above. Its mere existence would strike fear and shock into the hearts of any enemies who remained hidden or in disguise, and would cause them to think twice before making an attack.

    Though the Ghost Emperor mountain didn¡¯t ¡®join the fight,¡¯ its presence also caused many of the nonhuman cultivators below to start crumbling.

    But everything so far wasn¡¯t gruish enough. What was truly gruish was when Xu Qing unleashed the aura of D-132, which caused all of the invading cultivators to be suddenly overwhelmed with an aura of misfortune.

    That misfortune became immediately evident on the battlefield in terrifying fashion. Magical techniques suddenly flew in the wrong direction, and unexpected yet fatal idents started urring left and right. One cultivator slipped up in his attack, ripping the cultivator next to them to shreds. Another cultivator tripped and fell right into a puddle of deadly poison. Another person was in the middle of unleashing a technique when it backfired, killing him.

    Astonishment rippled through the ranks of the invading rogue cultivators. Some of the prisoners among them recognized Xu Qing, and started crying out.

    ¡°He¡¯s a jailer. He¡¯s the Fiendish Xu from Unit D!¡±

    There were two Nascent Soul cultivators still hovering overhead, and one was the nonhuman with four arms. Shivering, he stared at Xu Qing and then shrieked, ¡°He¡¯s Xu Qing! A Unit C jailer from the Corrections Division!¡±

    This particr nonhuman was a prisoner from Unit C, and had actually been in East District 13, which Xu Qing had been in charge of.

    The middle-aged woman examined Xu Qing briefly. ¡°Who cares about some puny jailer? He might have some skill, but he can¡¯t stand up to all of us. The western and northern fronts are all in big trouble, so there¡¯s no way any top swordsage experts could be here right now. Everyone join forces to kill this guy! He¡¯s obviously got a lot of valuable stuff that¡¯s going to be ours now!¡±

    Eyes shing with killing intent, she shot toward Xu Qing. The four-armed cultivator gritted his teeth, then followed, his eyes shing viciously. Even as he flew through the air, a suit of armor spread out over him. It was a manifestation of his life essence, and was incredibly tough. From a distance, it resembled a turtle shell. Rumbling booms echoed out as the two Nascent Soul cultivators flew to block Xu Qing¡¯s path.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Even before he arrived on the scene, he¡¯d sensed the presence of these Nascent Soul cultivators. He knew that the strongest of them was in the mid Nascent Soul stage. However, the biggest threat to him wasn¡¯t these three individuals.

    The biggest threat came from the canopy of heaven.

    There were energy fluctuationsing from above that covered the whole battlefield, and Xu Qing could sense the resulting pressure.

    <i>I can¡¯t tell if that¡¯s a cultivator or something else....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. He lifted his right foot, then stomped it down. Beneath his feet, his shadow transformed into a coffin that surrounded him, then fused into him.

    Instantly, his fleshly body power reached unprecedented heights. His fleshly body had already been remolded by the god¡¯s finger, making it many times stronger than before. Bybining that effect with the Shadow Fusion Secret Magic, he could release terrifying power that far surpassed the Gold Core level.

    As the four-armed nonhuman approached and unleashed a barrage of divine abilities and magical techniques, Xu Qingpletely ignored all that. Moving far, far faster than his opponent, he closed in, clenched his right hand into a fist, andunched a punch.

    The punchnded, and the four-armed nonhuman¡¯s life essence turtle shell cracked in numerous ces. The nonhuman coughed up blood like mad as he tumbled backward, eyes shining with surprise.

    Xu Qing was actually a bit taken aback. Based on his assessment, that punch should have been enough to kill this opponent.

    <i>Nonhumans do have a lot of life essence innate abilities... this viin¡¯s external shell is really tough.</i>

    The four-armed nonhuman backed away, his heart filled with waves of astonishment, and all of his organs trembling on the verge of copse. He knew full well how tough his life essence shell was, so he would never have been able to guess that a single punch would be enough to nearly destroy it.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    Before he could say anything else, Xu Qing strode forward andunched a second punch. In response, the middle-aged woman with the charming face on her forehead lunged to intervene. Hands shing in an incantation gesture, she summoned a huge ck umbre made of mist.

    The umbre had countless charming faces on it that moaned in an enticing way as the umbre approached Xu Qing. Then the charming faces turned vicious as they opened their mouths to devour him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. As daybreak light shone out from him, he shattered the woman¡¯s umbre, causing all of the vicious faces to scream as they copsed. The middle-aged woman was then forced into retreat. Daybreak light was like a precious treasure that could resist even the power of a god. To it, simple magical techniques were things that could easily be wiped out of existence. That was one of the terrifying things about that type of light.

    Everything happened so quickly that, even as the middle-aged woman¡¯s face flickered with surprise, Xu Qing blurred into motion toward the fleeing four-armed nonhuman.

    The four-armed cultivator resorted to a minor teleportation to gain some distance. However, the enemy¡¯s suppressive spell formation didn¡¯t just apply to Mount Daybreak. Everyone was affected. Teleportations couldn¡¯t go very far, and therefore, Xu Qing managed to close the distance andunch another fist strike.

    It was a moment of deadly crisis, and the four-armed cultivator¡¯s expression was one of deep madness. Stopping in ce, he turned and put his four hands together into one big fist attack. As for his species, they had innate abilities focused on fleshly body power. In other words, his biggest trump card wasn¡¯t a magical technique, but rather, his own fleshly body. Right now, he was putting everything on the line, tapping into all his strength to fight back. In fact, two nascent souls appeared behind him, further bolstering him.

    That said, it wasn¡¯t even possible topare his fleshly body to Xu Qing. That¡¯s how far apart they were. When they mmed into each other, the four-armed nonhuman¡¯s fists couldn¡¯t stand up to the force. The flesh was shredded, the bones shattered, and the arms were broken. As the nonhuman tumbled backward, the effects spread to the rest of him, and his entire body exploded.

    One of his nascent souls was caught up and shredded to pieces. The lone surviving nascent soul screamed in terror and fled in the opposite direction.

    Xu Qing was about to give chase when the middle-aged woman gritted her teeth and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. Instantly, the charming face on her forehead blurred and switched ces with her existing face. Afterwards, she was a charming woman who looked at Xu Qing, opened her mouth, and exhaled a red mist.

    The mist contained a powerful emotional longing; anyone who the mist hit would be attacked by their own emotions, and would suddenly want to yield to the woman. This was the technique she had used to make a name for herself. Over the years, she had used it to enve quite a few experts who were in the same level as herself.

    But today, she was dealing with Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look at the red mist. He pointed his right finger, and a projection of a violet moon appeared above the mist.

    The red mist seethed, and frantic fluctuations rolled out from it. A thump rang out as it exploded. The woman¡¯s face fell, and blood sprayed out of her mouth. Then her face turned a shade of violet, and her expression became vicious, as if she were dealing with an internal attack.

    Not slowing down at all, Xu Qing chased after the four-armed cultivator¡¯s nascent soul.

    ¡°Why are you only attacking me??¡± the four-armed cultivator howled in despair.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother wasting time trying to determine if the cultivator¡¯s voice contained some sound-based magical technique. The daybreak light around him rippled, and then he waved his hand in a pping attack. The eyes of the four-armed nonhuman¡¯s nascent soul went wide. There was no way he could evade an attack like this in his current form. A boom rang out as he was killed in body and soul.

    Meanwhile, the golden crow let loose another cry before devouring the nonhuman with the scales. The horrifying chewing sounds that echoed out shook all the remaining cultivators to the core.

    Two Nascent Soul experts were already dead. It was such a crushing blow to the invading force that the surrounding viins¡¯ hearts crumbled. They lost any desire to do battle, and madly scattered in all directions. These people had basically been a disorganized mob to begin with, so it was no surprise at all that they quickly lost the will to fight.

    What was more, as Xu Qing¡¯s poison spread, more cultivators screamed in agony. That made the rest of them think of Xu Qing as being the most vicious and fiendish opponent imaginable.

    As for the middle-aged woman who had tried unsessfully to do something about Xu Qing, she was also fleeing, her expression extremely somber, her heart aghast. She could tell that this person wasn¡¯t in the Nascent Soul level, but rather, was in pseudo-Nascent Soul. But his battle prowess was frightful and almost unbelievable. In fact, she had never encountered someone like this in her entire life.

    Ning Yan was also present on the battlefield. Though he was fighting ferociously, when he saw everything Xu Qing was doing, he shivered.

    <i>That¡¯s not Gold Core... it¡¯s too powerful!</i>

    After ughtering the four-armed cultivator, Xu Qing turned his full attention to the middle-aged woman. Eyes burning with killing intent, he was about to start chasing her when his expression flickered.

    He suddenly shot backward toward Ning Yan. Before Ning Yan could react, Xu Qing reached out and pped his belly.

    Ning Yan¡¯s garment burst open, and the green vines he had been working so hard to conceal were revealed. Xu Qing grabbed them.

    Ning Yan¡¯s jaw dropped.

    Meanwhile, the area Xu Qing had just vacated copsed, and a ck hand appeared out of nowhere. It was a sneak attack that had failed. However, it sent a terrible shockwave rolling out as a figure with two ck wings emerged. The fluctuations of thete Nascent Soul stage rolled out as the figure shot toward Xu Qing, leaving a string of afterimages behind it.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    As the dark figure neared, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light, and he tugged at the vines. Ning Yan was then thrown out in front of Xu Qing to block the enemy.

    A boom echoed out as the shadowy figure mmed into Ning Yan. It was followed by a cold harrumph as the figure backed away and looked at Ning Yan in disbelief.

    Ning Yan didn¡¯t have a scratch on him, and he was so shocked he didn¡¯t even think to let loose a howl of grief. He just stared at the vinesing out of his belly, and then followed them to Xu Qing. His eyes went wide. Then he let loose an extremely brutal scream that could shake heaven and earth.

    ¡°Y-y-you...? I can¡¯t believe it was YOU!!!¡±

 Chapter 494: Xu Qing is Hereby Assigned to Represent the Palace Lord! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 494: Xu Qing is Hereby Assigned to Represent the Pce Lord! (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing ignored Ning Yan¡¯s scream of disbelief as he mentally issued a call, causing the golden crow to fly toward him. Half of it merged into Xu Qing, while the other half remained outside, causing 300-meter wings to spread out in a shocking disy. Xu Qing¡¯s aura also skyrocketed, making him pulse with an energy that could devour mountains and seas. From a distance, the golden crow surrounding Xu Qing made him look like the reincarnation of an emperor, descended into the mortal world. He now pulsed with one-soul, nine-pce strength.

    And then there were his fleshly body fluctuations, which also gave off a Nascent Soul sensation. With that, he had the equivalent of two-soul, nine-pce battle prowess. Battle prowess like that waspletely unheard-of in the Gold Core level.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere, and the fluctuations sent out by both sides of the conflict created ripple-like waves that only served to further spread Xu Qing¡¯s poison. The fleeing rogue cultivators didn¡¯t even make it past the bounds of Mount Daybreak before they sumbed. Their screams echoed out over the Abyssal Sea. The ground was soon covered with puddles of ck sludge. Previously, there had been over a thousand viinous cultivators. As of now, there were only about forty percent of the original number, and they were all visibly terrified.

    The magical devices of Mount Daybreak were gradually repairing themselves, and unleashed more destruction. All of the prisoners in the invading force... knew that the battle was lost.

    Xu Qing hade alone. But he had immediately killed two early Nascent Soul enemies, shocking everyone to the core. At the same time, the fearsome power of his taboo poison was probably the most terrifying thing on the battlefield. The term ¡®poison cultivator¡¯ was now the thing of nightmares to the rogue cultivators who still had their lives.

    That said, Xu Qing didn¡¯t let his guard down. Eyes cold, he looked up at the shadowy figure with the wings. And he kept a firm grip on the vines growing out of Ning Yan¡¯s belly, ready to jerk him out at any moment. This shadowy figure was no ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator. He pulsed with the valiant fluctuations of thete Nascent Soul stage. And the sneak attack he had justunched gave Xu Qing a first-hand taste of how incisive he was. This enemy was very reminiscent of the Demi-Immortals¡¯ immortal puppets. However, close examination revealed some differences and deficiencies.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he waved the pce lord¡¯smand medallion, which gave him control over all of Mount Daybreak¡¯s magical devices. The weapons all shifted to point at the shadowy, winged figure.

    Xu Qing quickly tried to assess how he stacked up to this enemy. Just now, killing early Nascent Soul cultivators had been as simple as turning over his hand. Once a Gold Core cultivator surpassed ten-pce battle prowess, then they were essentially the same as a cultivator with a single nascent soul, as long as you excluded matters of divine abilities, divine sense, and minor teleportations.

    But Xu Qing had godsource, which could be used to counter divine abilities. In terms of the threat of divine sense, he could resist it with his third-stage golden crow and godsource. When it came to minor teleportations, Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body powerbined with the hellspirit bloodwing gave him speed that was roughly equivalent.

    It was for that reason that his first fist strike shattered the innate ability of the four-armed cultivator, that turtle-like shell. His second fist strike had then destroyed that cultivator¡¯s fleshly body and one of his nascent souls. And his final p had wiped out the final nascent soul.

    That said, not every Nascent Soul cultivator was the same. It was simr to how some Gold Core cultivators would reach the great circle when they had six pces, while for others, it was eight pces. And for cultivators with lifemps, the ultimate limit could be thirteen.

    For an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, one-soul was the early stage, three-souls was the mid stage, five-souls was thete stage, and six-souls was the great circle.

    That four-armed nonhuman¡¯s cultivation base had been suppressed in the Corrections Division. As a result, though he might have eventually been able to reach the six-soul level, that didn¡¯t matter, as he didn¡¯t have time to do that after the prison break. Therefore, though he seemingly had two-soul power, making it seem like Xu Qing was fighting someone from a higher cultivation realm, the reality was a bit different. The four-armed cultivator was so weak that Xu Qing was able to easily crush him.

    If Xu Qing had to fight an ordinary mid-Nascent Soul enemy, killing them would be quite difficult. For instance, when fighting the injured three-soul Chu Tianqun, Xu Qing had been forced to put his life on the line, and also ended up injured more badly than he ever had been before. Without Ling¡¯er and the violet crystal, he would have died.

    Now, after having his body remolded by the god¡¯s finger, he had made up for that deficiency. Maybe he couldn¡¯t unleash the true abilities of a god body, but he was still about three times as strong as he had previously been in terms of fleshly body. And that gave him one-soul strength, in other words, the fleshly body of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

    His greatest strength, though, were his defenses. Within his fleshly body were those countless golden threads that provided terrifying defensive capabilities to him.

    With thatbination, he didn¡¯t need to use any magical techniques to tangle with a three-soul mid-Nascent Soul opponent. And if he did use magical techniques, then he could kill a four-soul expert without risk of injury.

    When it came to a five-soul enemy, if Xu Qing held nothing back in the fight, he wasn¡¯t sure what the result would be. In all likelihood, he wouldn¡¯t be able to harm his opponent, while his opponent wouldn¡¯t be able to touch him.

    <i>My fleshly body attacks are equivalent to the one-soul level. My golden crow adds a nascent soul, while my nine pces are also equivalent to the one-soul level. That alone gives me three-soul strength. Add in my magical techniques, and I can definitely fight four-soul enemies! My biggest asset is my fleshly body defenses. With this body, I¡¯m almost untouchable to most Nascent Soul opponents.</i>

    During the fighting just now, Xu Qing had been able to test out his limitations. Thus, his eyes glittered coldly as he realized that this shadowy, winged opponent was most likely capable of five-soul battle prowess.

    The middle-aged woman had already flown up next to the winged nonhuman, her expression one of reverence.

    ¡°Boss, this jailer is trouble. When are the species financing this operation going to make a move? We¡ª¡±

    She suddenly coughed up a mouthful of ck blood. Obviously, there were areas of rot spreading through her, and she was using all her strength to only partly suppress the effects. After seeing the fates of the other cultivators hit by that poison, her terror prompted her to back out of the fight.

    ¡°How amusing,¡± said the ck-winged nonhuman, staring down coldly at Xu Qing. Seeing that Mount Daybreak¡¯s magical devices were working again, and that the rogue cultivators were all scattering, he knew that the battle was lost. What was more, he got a very strange feeling from Xu Qing. He could sense that Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body was out of the ordinary, and also could tell there was something very odd about the cultivator Xu Qing was wielding like a weapon. And then there was the humanoid mountain hovering above that emanated such an astonishing pressure. Finally, there was the bluegreen dragon in the clouds, eyeing him. All of these things gave him a very bad feeling. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention the poison mist spreading out below.

    <i>So many gruish techniques.... Plus he has daybreak light, which makes him even harder to deal with. What¡¯s worse, those cowards financing this operation won¡¯t dare to make a move openly until the northern and western fronts copse. Until then, they¡¯ll only hide like rats. Therefore....</i>

    All of these considerations caused the ck-winged nonhuman¡¯s wariness to build. After glowering briefly at Xu Qing, he grabbed the middle-aged woman, who was teetering on the verge of copse thanks to the poison, then turned and shot off into the sky. A momentter, he copsed into a ck dot as he used a minor teleportation to vanish.

    His departure signaled the end of the assault on Mount Daybreak.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t give chase. Instead, he dropped down and took Ning Yan with him to find all of the scattered rogue cultivators. He attacked viciously and showed no mercy. Before long, blood flowed in rivers, apanied by numerous agonized shrieks.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow helped, as did the bluegreen dragon.

    Only after all the enemies were dead did Xu Qing rein in all his assets, including the poison mist. Then he removed the daybreak light shell surrounding the swordsages.

    The swordsages all had various injuries, but that did nothing to cover their expressions of excitement and disbelief. And their eyes were full of reverence as they sped hands and bowed in greeting to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Greetings, Secretary-General!¡±

    The old man Sun Hai quickly stepped forward and bowed deeply. ¡°I am your humble servant Sun Hai. Greetings, Secretary-General!¡±

    Thanks to the uproar amongst the prisoners, all the swordsages knew who Xu Qing was. What was more, Xu Qing had also passed along the pce lord¡¯s orders to all swordsages in Sea-Sealing County, ensuring that his name was already widespread among the various Swordsage Courts. His title of secretary-general obviously ced him in a higher position than most ordinary swordsages, which was why it was entirely proper for Sun Hai to address himself as ¡®humble servant.¡¯

    Of course, Sun Hai was more than a little surprised. Having just recently reached Nascent Soul, he knew exactly how strong the enemy prisoners had been. Even just the three Nascent Soul nonhumans who had been part of the initial assault had been too difficult for him to defend against, and that wasn¡¯t to mention the final five-soul enemy who showed up at thest minute. To most ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, a five-soul cultivation base was a peak level of power. A person like that would be the nucleus of most ordinary sects and organizations.

    Generally speaking, chosen cultivators, as well as ordinary cultivators with three mes and six pces, made up the majority of the cultivators in a sect. After such people reached Nascent Soul, their limit would be the six-soul level. Given that, it made sense that five-soul cultivators were nothing to look down on.

    Yet Xu Qing had just killed two early-Nascent Soul enemies, and had even prompted a five-soul expert to simply flee rather than fight him. That level of battle prowess in a mere Gold Core cultivator was dazzlingly impressive.

    Sun Hai¡¯s assessment of the situation was absolutely correct. Were it not for Xu Qing choosing toe check on Mount Daybreak, then the mountain would have been destroyed. Though it might seem coincidental, the reality was that simr things were happening across Sea-Sealing County right now.

    ¡°News doesn¡¯t reach us in a very timely manner,¡± Sun Hai said. ¡°All we know is that, after some defeats on the northern and western fronts, no less than three Swordsage Courts fell to treacherous species who got their hands on formation-breaking devices. Many rogue cultivators were involved in those events. Thankfully, none of the human sects taking part in the war effort were implicated.

    ¡°There are definitely even more nonhuman species that are part of the conspiracy, but they won¡¯t show their faces right now. As long as humankind holds strong on the northern and western fronts, they won¡¯t dare make an open move against any Swordsage Court. Their ultimate goal is obvious. They¡¯re hoping to have a blood tribute ready to pay to the Holytides if their invasion is sessful.

    ¡°We can only hope that humankind ends up surviving this tribtion. Then we can put these traitorous, backstabbing nonhumans to death!¡±

    Xu Qing stood there looking taciturn. Dawn was breaking, driving away the darkness of light. As the sun touched Mount Daybreak, it became iparably dazzling. The aftermath of the battle didn¡¯t reduce the splendor of the mountain, and the seven-colored light was as beautiful as always.

    ¡°Everything will be fine,¡± Xu Qing said softly as the seven-colored light illuminated him.

    Three dayster, the spell formation was back in working order. After it was activated, Xu Qing left Mount Daybreak. He hade alone, but on his return trip, he had Ning Yan with him. One reason for leaving so quickly was that he had already found all the clues he needed. The other reason... was that he had received a dharmic decree from the pce lord.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, regardless of the progress on your investigation, I want you to drop everything and return to the county capital to handle some matters rted to the war.</i>

    <i>¡°The situation on the western and northern fronts is extremely critical. We need troops, and we need supplies, right away. I¡¯m not able to go back myself, so I want you to represent me. Work with the lieutenant governor to handle everything in the county capital!</i>

    <i>¡°Themand medallion I gave you will provide you withplete authorization to act with all my power!¡±</i>

    The pce lord soundedpletely exhausted. However, as his words echoed out, a beam of golden light fell from the above. Itnded on themand medallion, and cracking sounds rang out as it was fully activated.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Xu Qing replied somberly. He didn¡¯t ask any questions about the situation on the battlefield. He could tell from the dharmic decree that the situation was urgent. The fighting must have reached an extremely critical juncture. Had it not, the pce lord wouldn¡¯t have made the arrangement he did. He would have simply issued orders for troops and supplies however he saw fit.

    What was more, the fact that the pce lord told Xu Qing to abandon the investigation went to show how important the mission was.

    <i>The pce lord doesn¡¯t fully trust anyone. Not Marquis Yao on the northern front or the two pce lords from the Administration Pce or the Justice Pce. Not even the lieutenant governor. He doesn¡¯t trust any of them. That¡¯s why he wants me to handle the matter of troops and supplies.</i>

    <i>It seems like he¡¯s sending me to ¡®work with¡¯ the lieutenant governor, but in reality, I¡¯ll be keeping an eye on things. Most likely, the pce lord will have other contingencies in ce. Other people helping him.</i>

    Feeling very anxious about what was going on, Xu Qing took Ning Yan and left Mount Daybreak.

    Thankfully, this trip hadn¡¯t been a waste. Shortly before the pce lord¡¯s message arrived on the third day, Xu Qing and Sun Hai uncovered an important bit of information.

 Chapter 494: Xu Qing is Hereby Assigned to Represent the Palace Lord! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 494: Xu Qing is Hereby Assigned to Represent the Pce Lord! (part 2)</h4>

    Whenever daybreak light appeared, the spot where it came to exist would produce a seven-colored powder for about ten years. From the very beginning, the light cast by that powder would be weak. It couldn¡¯t be harvested or used, and as time passed, the light would grow weaker. By the tenth year, there was no light, and the powder would cease to appear. That would mark the full end of the phenomena.

    These details were actually a big help to Xu Qing.

    The important clues he had uncovered didn¡¯t actuallye from the records of the more than seven hundred recorded instances of daybreak light appearing. Instead, it came from the god¡¯s finger.

    Xu Qing had the feeling that if the god¡¯s finger was able to find some daybreak light that didn¡¯t exist in the records, then it was possible for the conspirator to do the same.

    Therefore, he reached out to the sleeping finger in D-132, and roused ¨©t. After some kindmunication, and some promises given, he determined where the finger found the daybreak light. It wasn¡¯t easy, as the finger was still very forgetful.

    However, during the three days that passed, Xu Qing performed a thorough search of the general area indicated by the finger, and eventually found where the daybreak light came from. It was a remote, subterranean crevice.

    Inside that crevice Xu Qing found a puppet that had been destroyed recently and contained scraps of the finger¡¯s aura. It had been crushed into rubble, making it almost impossible to tell what exactly it had looked like when whole. Also present in the crevice was a very faint seven-colored powder that emanated a weak glow. From what Xu Qing could tell, it still had years left before it would dissipate.

    The powder was, of course, the special product created by the daybreak light. And it indicated that the daybreak light hade to exist in this spot. After thoroughly investigating the area, Xu Qing came to the shocking realization that the powder... wasn¡¯t the result of a single beam of light.

    There were more beams of light that hade to exist in this spot. Based on the powder residue left behind, one of them only had a year or two left before it would dissipate. A lot of that powder was on the puppet.

    It seemed clear that the puppet had been left here specifically so someone could check the powder residue levels. It didn¡¯t take much analysis toe to the conclusion that this spot had produced daybreak light about eight or nine years ago!

    Yet, Xu Qing knew for a fact that the Swordsage Court records didn¡¯t contain any information about daybreak lightinging from this spot. Clearly, someone must have taken it the moment it appeared. Furthermore, that indicated to Xu Qing that the pce lord¡¯s theory about the lightmost fatehavoc pill seemed valid.

    In other words, it was highly likely that the governor¡¯s death was caused by that specific pill.

    With that clue having been secured, Xu Qing left Mount Daybreak with Ning Yan. As for the crushed remains of the puppet, he took those with him as well. Teleportations weren¡¯t possible on Mount Daybreak, so the two of them traveled on foot toward the county capital.

    Along the way, Ning Yan repeatedly considered asking Xu Qing some questions. But whenever he saw the steely expression on Xu Qing¡¯s face, his fear took over, and he didn¡¯t dare to speak up. He had very, very mixed feelings about everything.

    Back during the Ten Entrails Tree incident, he had been suspicious about what was going on. And he had even spected about what might really be happening. But those spections seemed too outrageous, so he¡¯d dismissed them. But when Xu Qing had pped his belly with what seemed like practiced ease, it had felt like a p to Ning Yan¡¯s soul. [1]

    <i>I bet the one who bit me was actually Chen Erniu! What is that guy anyway, a wild dog? And he didn¡¯t just bite me. In the end, he tried to bite the heavenly dao! He deserved to be ripped to shreds down to his head!</i>

    Ning Yan felt furious, but also helpless, as he knew from experience that the vines growing out of his belly couldn¡¯t be easily excised. And when he found out that the governor had been killed and the Holytides were invading, he was shocked to the core. Compared to those things, his personal issues didn¡¯t seem very important.

    Xu Qing and Ning Yan traveled for three days. Xu Qing moved at top speed. That was the time it took to get out of Daybreak Prefecture, through the intervening prefecture, and back to the territory controlled by the county capital.

    At that point, Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother hiding his tracks as he moved. He found the nearest teleportation portal and then used it to get back to the county capital.

    Once back, he could see the barely concealed anxiety and confusion on the faces of the citizens.

    He immediately checked thetest news. Though the western and northern fronts held strong, the situation was still critical. Sea-Sealing County¡¯s defensive lines could theoretically copse at any moment. That said, the residents of the capital were in a better state than before. Though they were fearful of what was toe, they also had hope. All the shops were open for business like usual, and everything operated in an orderly fashion. If you didn¡¯t look closely, you might not even know that there was a war going on.

    Xu Qing soon came to realize why that was the case, after stepping off the teleportation portal and walking down the street. There were government cultivators on the streets keeping up the morale of themoners.

    ¡°Everyone remain calm and orderly. As the exalted lieutenant governor has already exined, the Swordsage Pce and all human sects and organizations have already gone to the front lines to defend ournds. They¡¯ll keep our Swordsage Pce safe.¡±

    ¡°Our exalted lieutenant governor has exined that reinforcements are already on the way. It won¡¯t be long now before this crisis is resolved, and everything goes back to normal.¡±

    ¡°Uprisings will not be tolerated, nor will any sort of price-gouging. Any vitors will be severely punished!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no reason to be afraid. The sky¡¯s not falling! Things are still orderly. Over the past few days, hasn¡¯t the lieutenant governor crushed those handful of nonhumans who wanted to cause problems? What¡¯s more, the lieutenant governor has exined that Pce Lord Kong is leading the defenses. We mustn¡¯t allow things to get out of hand here on the interior!¡±

    Xu Qing was moved at how much work the lieutenant governor was doing to keep things orderly.

    As for Ning Yan, he followed along and felt stunned by what he was hearing.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t even been back for an incense stick¡¯s worth of time when he received a voice message from the lieutenant governor.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing? I got the dharmic decree from the pce lord. You¡¯re back from the battlefield to help with military affairs here, right? Come see me as soon as you can.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. He knew that time was of the essence, so he arranged for Ning Yan to stay with the swordsages in the Swordsage Pce, checked in at the Secretariat Division, then went to the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion.

    There were lots of local government cultivatorsing in and out. Martialw had been dered, and the lieutenant governor was posting a lot of missions.

    When Xu Qing arrived, someone sent word to the lieutenant governor of his arrival, and soon enough, he was whisked inside.

    The lieutenant governor seemed a lot more haggard thanst time Xu Qing had seen him. And his eyes were a lot more bloodshot. He was currently epting a handful of medicinal pills from one of his servants. However, he didn¡¯t consume them. Instead, he ced them down off to the side. Normally speaking, when one¡¯s cultivation base reached a certain level, it made it difficult to spot signs of exhaustion on a person. Only in times of incredible stress would such signs be impossible to hide.

    Gaze flitting toward Xu Qing briefly, the old servant sighed and said, ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor, you¡¯ve been taking care of the entire county recently. You have to keep things peaceful internally, but also have to worry about external affairs. Dealing with <i>internal trouble and outside aggression</i> is extremely stressful. What¡¯s worse, the old injury to your soul is starting to act up again. You can¡¯t just refuse to take medicinal pills at a time like this.... Ai.¡±

    ¡°Enough with that mrkey,¡± the lieutenant governor said, frowning. ¡°I¡¯m not going to take those pills because, at a certain point, it doesn¡¯t do any good. And I¡¯m perfectly aware of the situation with my old injury. There¡¯s nothing that can be done about it.¡± He looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing, I recently received urgent messages from several Swordsage Courts. There are five prefectures in which the Swordsage Courts were besieged by rogue cultivators. The pce lord was right. The other species really are criminals deserving the death penalty! I¡¯ve sent some of the local government cultivators to try to resolve the situation.

    ¡°Furthermore, the pce lord¡¯s dharmic decree indicates that the situation is really bad on the front lines. Casualties are high. They need more troops and more supplies. I¡¯m trying to think of the best way to handle it, but if you have any advice, please don¡¯t hesitate to share. I¡¯ll do my best to make it happen.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. He knew that the lieutenant governor had a lot of responsibilities. After all, he was essentially ountable for everything happening behind the front lines. Making sure things went smoothly on the interior wasn¡¯t a simple task.

    ¡°Many thanks, exalted Lieutenant Governor. Your humble servant is ready to collect some supplies, and also purchase more from the nonhumans in Sea-Sealing County. I just need your approval.¡±

    The lieutenant governor nodded. ¡°We¡¯ve reached a critical moment. Appropriating supplies is going to be time-consuming and problematic. Buying them outright will be much easier. You have my approval. Funds are tight right now, but we can squeeze out some extra money.¡±

    Xu Qing offered his thanks and left. He didn¡¯t waste any time. Returning to the Secretariat Division, he sent out dharmic decrees throughout Sea-Sealing County calling for supplies. He also arranged for people to go visit the Demi-Immortals, who had been isted in seclusion the entire time, to enter negotiations to purchase supplies.

    As his dharmic decrees flowed out, they were received by the hundreds of swordsages left behind.

    Back when the pce lord had been around, Xu Qing had been tasked with handling many daily affairs, and had sent down many orders. As a result, no one had any objections now, and the swordsages immediately got to work.

    However, Xu Qing still felt anxious about the situation. He knew that his cultivation base wasn¡¯t sufficient to handle this mission. That was especially true considering his journey to Daybreak Prefecture, which had allowed him to see with his own eyes how many nonhumans harbored secret malice toward the swordsages. If he went out to purchase supplies, he would surely meet resistance. And that wasn¡¯t to mention trying to recruit troops for the front lines.

    <i>If I want toplete this mission for the pce lord, then I¡¯m going to need help.... I¡¯ll need someone with some impressive battle prowess. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t totally trust the lieutenant governor</i>. As he sat pondering the manner in the Secretariat Division, he looked out at the sky.

    It was currently night, and there were a lot of clouds. Though there was no thunder or lightning, fat raindrops were starting to fall onto the limestone tiles outside. And the rain brought a cool wind that swept inside and onto Xu Qing.

    <i>Master and Sir Bloodsmelter, as well as Arch-Immortal Plumdark... they¡¯re dealing with Forbidden by the Zombie. They won¡¯t have time to help. I still don¡¯t know where Eldest Brother is. He hasn¡¯t responded to any messages yet.</i>

    Even as Xu Qing pondered the matter, he happened to be looking in the direction where the desert met the border of the county capital. There, he¡¯d seen a huge three-headed bird.

    ¡°The great bird Qingqin!¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    Xu Qing clearly remembered the first time he¡¯d seen Qingqin. It was when he¡¯d first arrived at the county capital. Back then, the huge bird had flown through the sky carrying Ning Yan. Wherever it passed, a tempest sprang up, almost like a tornado connecting heaven and earth. It was a very impressive sight.

    Back then, Chen Tinghao had exined that the great bird Qingqin was an ancient mutant beast, with a bloodline going back to primordial times. Supposedly, his ancestor had been apanion of one of the Ancient Emperors. What was more, he was considered a friend of the previous governor. Eight hundred years ago, that governor had returned to the imperial capital and invited Qingqin toe along, but Qingqin had instead stayed in Sea-Sealing County. [2]

    The current war was beneath Qingqin, and as such, the pce lord had never asked for help.

    <i>Based on what Chen Tinghao originally told me, the great bird Qingqin actually likes us humans. Considering how desperate of a situation we¡¯re in, I might as well give it a shot. What¡¯s more.... </i>Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light. <i>If Qingqin refuses, then it will be interesting to find out if the great bird fears the red moon!</i>

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t think of any other options. Considering how badly the front lines needed troops and supplies, he had to resort to an unconventional gambit. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he immediately went to find Ning Yan. Without a word, he grabbed him and pulled him along.

    ¡°Xu... er, Elder Brother Xu Qing, what are you doing?¡± Ning Yan was already trembling.

    ¡°I¡¯m taking you to see an old friend.¡±

    ¡°An old friend?¡± Ning Yan was stunned. Taking a breath, he cautiously asked, ¡°Is it Elder Brother Erniu?¡±

    1. Ning Yan¡¯s suspicions were first mentioned in <u>chapter 453</u> and were mentioned again in <u>chapter 457</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing first saw the great bird Qingqin, and heard the story from Chen Tinghao, in <u>chapter 391</u>. ?

 Chapter 495: An Irritable Bird!

    <h4>Chapter 495: An Irritable Bird!</h4>

    In response to Ning Yan¡¯s question, Xu Qing shook his head. Gripping the flustered Ning Yan by the neck, he stepped onto the teleportation portal. Glittering light surrounded them, and they vanished from the Swordsage Pce.

    A momentter they materialized near the border of the county capital¡¯s territory, very near the desert, at one of the Swordsage Pce¡¯s teleportation portals. A shimmering defensive shield surrounded both them and the portal. The Swordsage Pce operated a lot of teleportation portals, and not all of them were in cities. There were some located out in the wilderness, and they had built-in defensive shields to make it safe to teleport in.

    The moment they materialized, Xu Qing scanned the area vigntly. Before leaving, he had been able to use a function of the portal on the county capital end to confirm that the destination portal was safe. But checking his surroundings was an instinct that he wouldn¡¯t abandon. After confirming they were in no danger, he stepped off the portal onto the weed-covered paving stones beyond.

    He looked up into the sky. It was still the dead of night, and clouds covered most of the sky. A steady rain fell, bringing with it a bone-chilling cold. Because there were norge buildings in the area, there was nothing to stop the wind from blowing steadily through the rain. It created a soft, whimpering sound.

    Ning Yan looked around nervously at the surrounding wastnd. ¡°Elder Brother Xu Qing, where... where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Ning Yan,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°back when we first arrived at the county capital to report for duty, this is where the two of us initially met.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Ning Yan was initially stunned, but then he nodded in agreement.

    Xu Qing continued to scan the dark clouds above. ¡°Back then, you¡¯d been captured by Senior Qingqin. And that¡¯s where we¡¯re heading right now. To Senior Qingqin¡¯s ce.¡±

    ¡°Uh....¡± Ning Yan shivered. He feared Xu Qing, but he also feared that enormous bird. In fact, that event in which the big bird had seemed intent on eating him had left him with recurring nightmares.

    He was already trying to think of a tactful way to get out of helping Xu Qing. But then, as the rain fell and the wind blew, Xu Qing turned and looked at him.

    ¡°Ning Yan, this matter rtes to the safety of a hundred thousand swordsages on the front line, as well as the millions upon millions of human cultivators who¡¯ve joined them. Their lives are on the line. If you can help me find Senior Qingqin, I¡¯ll report the matter to the pce lord and make sure you get a big reward for your effort!¡±

    ¡°But...¡± said Ning Yan hesitantly.

    ¡°And if not,¡± Xu Qing said coolly, ¡°I¡¯ll send you back to Daybreak Prefecture for a little reunion with the euphoria irises.¡±

    Ning Yan¡¯s facial expression turned extremely grave. ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me, Elder Brother Xu Qing. Since this matter rtes to Sea-Sealing County as a whole, then I¡¯ll do everything in my power to help. Back then, I was just flying along in an area not too far from here when I spotted Senior Qingqin. Allow me to lead the way, Elder Brother!¡±

    Looking very serious, he shot up through the rain into the air.

    Xu Qing followed, his facepletely expressionless.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the two of them to reach the spot where Ning Yan imed to have spotted Qingqin. It was a wide-open in without any mountains or trees. It definitely didn¡¯t look like a ce where a huge bird would perch.

    Xu Qing looked around doubtfully.

    Ning Yan shivered inwardly at the thought of Xu Qing seeing through his ruse. ¡°It really was here, Elder Brother Xu Qing. I was just flying along when I saw something like a tornado. Then, out of nowhere, I was captured.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him. Ning Yan instinctively averted his eyes.

    Xu Qing had brought Ning Yan along for the sole purpose of getting his help in tracking down Qingqin. He didn¡¯t have anything else in mind. But now he was getting the feeling he¡¯d been a bit too merciful. Looking away from Ning Yan, he took a deep breath.

    ¡°Senior Qingqin!¡± he shouted at the top of his lungs. ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing of the Junior generation is here to offer formal greetings! As a show of good faith, I¡¯ve brought the swordsage Ning Yan with me, who offended you in the past. I want him to offer you an apology face-to-face.¡±

    Ning Yan¡¯s face fell. He really had been trying to pull a fast one on Xu Qing by taking him to a different location than the one where he¡¯d encountered Qingqin. For one thing, he feared Qingqin. But also, he had certain secrets he didn¡¯t want to reveal.... Back when Qingqin captured him, Ning Yan had told everyone he had no idea why it happened. But the truth was a bit different.... Their current location was actually quite far away from Qingqin¡¯s nest, and therefore, Ning Yan felt a bit safer. Now all he had to do wase up with a way to make his story seem even more convincing.

    However, before he could say anything, an ear-piercing and very unpleasant ¡®caw¡¯ echoed through the dark night. It was impossible to say if it happened because of Ning Yan or Xu Qing, but either way, the explosive sound kicked up a rushing wind that scattered the clouds and caused a brief torrential downpour. Then a 3,000-meter bird head appeared within the break in the clouds.

    Two bright red eyes locked onto Xu Qing and Ning Yan, the gaze so intense it seemed corporeal. Then a second head appeared, as well as a third, each of them 3,000 meters long.

    This was the great bird Qingqin. His perch was actually located <i>inside </i>the dark clouds.

    The dramatic entrance caused countless lightning bolts to crackle in the shattered clouds as the bird¡¯s massive torso appeared. The bird really was gargantuan. From Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, he took up therger part of the sky.

    Perhaps because he had been awoken from sleep, the bird seemed to be in a foul mood. After letting loose his deafening cry, he inhaled deeply, causing the clouds and rain to rush toward him, making three rivers in the sky that entered his three mouths.

    The sight of him left Xu Qing feeling deeply shaken. Apparently, this was the bird¡¯s true body, as he was vastlyrger than what Xu Qing remembered seeing before.

    Additionally, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was much higher than the day he arrived at the county capital, and he had experienced many things. As a result, he had a much deeper understanding of Void Returning experts. He could now see that the eyes of the great bird Qingqin¡¯s three heads were filled with countless dao lineaments. What was more, there were projections of his body superimposed over each other. And within the lightning that surrounded him were countless minor worlds being created and destroyed in an endless cycle.

    This wasn¡¯t quite the level of 1,000,000,000 Magics Combined. But the massive pressure radiating off his gargantuan body was enough to shake heaven and earth.

    As waves of shock rolled through Xu Qing, Ning Yan was off to the side feeling extremely jumpy and also incredulous. After all, this was not the location where he had encountered Qingqin before. Qingqin¡¯s nest was very, very far away....

    <i>What¡¯s he doing here? Something weird¡¯s going on. Qingqin is inherentlyzy and doesn¡¯t go out much! Don¡¯t tell me... don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s been following me around?</i>

    As Ning Yan reeled, Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked up at the massive three-headed bird. Stepping forward, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing here to offer greetings, Senior Qingqin.¡±

    In response, the three heads all let loose loud caws. The sound was like the crash of heavenly thunder, creating a violent tempest around the bird. Xu Qing had no choice but to back up a bit.

    Off to the side, Ning Yan wailed, ¡°We¡¯re finished! Qingqin hates nothing more than being woken from sleep. We¡¯re finished!¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Xu Qing growled as he struggled to keep his footing despite the wind. Then he once again sped hands and politely continued, ¡°Senior Qingqin, the Holytides have invaded Sea-Sealing County, putting us all in great danger. Senior, I beg of you toe out of retirement to help. If you don¡¯t want to go to the battlefield, that¡¯s fine! If you don¡¯t want to do any fighting, that¡¯s also fine! I¡¯m just hoping you can apany me on some tasks, and lend your weight to my authority.¡±

    Xu Qing finished by sping hands and bowing again.

    Meanwhile, Ning Yan was about to start crying. Ignoring Xu Qing¡¯s directive from moments ago, he said, ¡°It¡¯s not going to do any good, Elder Brother Xu Qing. I guessed earlier that you were nning to do this, but the reality is that even though people say that Qingqin¡¯s ancestor was a follower of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and died in battle for him, that story has been embellished over the years.

    ¡°The truth is that Qingqin¡¯s ancestor was a vicious bird of prey who was actually a rival of the Ancient Emperor. It was only because of the circumstances at the time, and a promise made by the Ancient Emperor to safeguard that ancestor¡¯s descendants, that the story about dying in battle was concocted and spread. When the broken face of the god arrived, the Ancient Emperors left the Revered Ancient maind, and thus didn¡¯t live up to the original agreement. After that, the continuity of friendship ended.

    ¡°It¡¯s true that Qingqinter became friends with the previous governor. But that¡¯s only because the governor provided crucial assistance in an important situation. After the governor left, the karma between them was resolved, and that¡¯s why Qingqin didn¡¯t go with him.

    ¡°If you read <i>Annals of Sea-Sealing County</i>, you¡¯ll find that though Qingqin hasn¡¯t been hostile toward humans for thest eight hundred years, neither has he been friendly. What¡¯s more, Qingqin has a very irritable personality. That¡¯s public knowledge. What¡¯s more, the progenitor of his ancient mutant beast bloodline was famous for being a ravenous bird of prey that devoured victims from all intelligent species!

    ¡°We disturbed his sleep, and as a result, Qingqin is obviously furious. By the way, the reason I wasn¡¯t killed when he grabbed me before isn¡¯t because my fleshly body is strong. It¡¯s because he was scared of my bloodline!¡±

    Ning Yan was so desperate and flustered that he was blurting out everything he knew, including some things he shouldn¡¯t have stated out loud.

    As for Xu Qing, he had a lot of questions about the things Ning Yan had just told him, but now wasn¡¯t the time to dig into the subject. And that was because massive pressure was weighing down on him from above.

    Qingqin¡¯s three heads were all sticking out of the clouds and staring at the two of them with deep ferocity.

    Xu Qing was close enough that he could see that the three vicious heads had no feathers on them. They were made entirely of wrinkled, magenta skin. They were really quite ugly. The eyes were all bright red and overflowed with irritation, and the sharp beaks all pulsed with terrifying pressure.

    Compared to the 30,000-meter bird, Xu Qing and Ning Yan were like specks of dust.

    Ning Yan desperately released the power of his bloodline, hoping that it would get him out of danger. Obviously, he couldn¡¯t afford to pay attention to what happened to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he stood stock-still. However, inside of him, the violet moon had already risen out of its heavenly pce, and he was preparing to speak. But then, Qingqin¡¯s three heads sniffed him, and the irritation in his eyes disappeared.

    The right-most head suddenly dropped down until it was right in front of Xu Qing. Then he pushed his head forward and gently nudged Xu Qing onto it.

    Xu Qing was very taken aback.

    Ning Yan¡¯s eyes went wide with astonishment. Lookingpletely incredulous, he blurted, ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    Ning Yan was so ovee with shock that all he could do was remain in ce, staring. His mind waspletely blown by what he was seeing. He couldn¡¯t even think. The scene that was ying out really was astonishing to the point of being frightening. The truth was that Ning Yan had a very mysterious background. That was why he immediately recognized all the things the Captain had produced back at the Ten Entrails Tree. Actually, he knew a lot of things that Xu Qing didn¡¯t know. For instance, he knew about Qingqin¡¯s ferocity, and the bird¡¯splicated rtionship with humans, which was why he had been able to exin all those things to Xu Qing.

    Based on Ning Yan¡¯s understanding, Qingqin wouldn¡¯t care if Sea-Sealing County was controlled by humans or not. It wouldn¡¯t make any difference to him. Even if the Holytides did end up taking over, they wouldn¡¯t casually mess with Qingqin. The state of affairs would be the same as it was now. Therefore, Ning Yan was absolutely certain that Qingqin wouldn¡¯t agree to help Xu Qing.

    But now....

    The mighty and proud Qingqin had actually lowered his right head and allowed Xu Qing to stand on it!

 Chapter 496: This Species... Shall Be Exterminated

    <h4>Chapter 496: This Species... Shall Be Exterminated</h4>

    Ning Yan¡¯s head felt like it was spinning as massive waves of shock swept through his entire body. He knew full well that all three of Qingqin¡¯s heads had deep significance to the proud and arrogant bird.

    The middle head was the source of his life essence. As for the right and left heads, they each represented something different. In fact, based on what Ning Yan knew, it should have been outright impossible for him to let Xu Qing stand on his right head. It had nothing to do with cultivation base, but rather, on the approval of Qingqin. He would only allow his lord and master to stand on his middle head. And neither Qingqin nor his ancestor had ever been in the habit of epting a lord and master.

    As for his left head, it would only ept his personal descendants there. If a member of any other species tried to stand there, the bird would take it as a huge insult, and would fight to the death to kill that person. When it came to his right head, Qingqin would only allow someone to stand there who he considered to be a dear friend and an equal. Years ago, the previous governor had been allowed to stand there.

    <i>Qingqin thinks of Xu Qing as a friend?</i>

    As Xu Qing stood on Qingqin¡¯s right head, Ning Yan looked at him as if he were a deity. It wasn¡¯t his first time looking at Xu Qing in that way. Back when he finally realized that the so-called Nightshade godchild was actually Xu Qing, he had felt simr levels of shock. It was the same right now. He was having a hard time evening up with a theory. The best that he could imagine was that perhaps Qingqin worshiped the red moon, and thus viewed Xu Qing as a godchild.

    <i>But even if that¡¯s true, why let him stand on the right head?</i>

    Ning Yan was truly at a loss.

    Xu Qing was also at a loss. He had been preparing to use the red moon as a threat, only to have things turn out far better than he had ever thought possible. He didn¡¯t even need to make the threat. The great bird Qingqin just immediately showed good will toward him. Although Xu Qing didn¡¯t know all the details about what the bird¡¯s three heads signified, it was obvious that the way he offered his head to him held deep meaning.

    <i>What¡¯s going on...?</i>

    Before he could dig through his memories in the hopes ofing up with an exnation, Qingqin let loose a caw that shook heaven and earth. Then he dropped down fully from the clouds.

    As the ck clouds crumbled around it, and lightning surrounded him like a sea, the great bird was fully revealed.

    3,000-meter heads. A 30,000-meter body. Completely magenta, with tiny wings. His feathers were messy and disheveled, but he emanated shocking fluctuations of godliness. After emerging from the clouds, he glided through the air and let loose a deafening cry that echoed out in all directions.

    Xu Qing stood atop his right head, looking down at thends below, a sensation swelling within him unlike anything he had ever experienced. sping hands, he bowed deeply toward the other two heads.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior!¡±

    Qingqin¡¯s middle head looked at him and nodded. Then it released another deafening caw. This time, the caw didn¡¯t seem aggressive at all, but rather, full of joy.

    When Ning Yan saw all of that, a wild and almostpletely unbelievable notion sprang up within him.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me that Qingqin showed up here, far away from his nest... because of Xu Qing? There¡¯s no way that it¡¯s been hiding in the clouds this entire time, and follows Xu Qing around whenever he¡¯s in the county capital territory.... Hahaha, there¡¯s absolutely no way. Is there?</i>

    Ning Yan¡¯s own spection struck him with fear. And yet, that theory seemed like the perfect exnation. Otherwise, what exnation could there be for how Qingqin had suddenly appeared the moment Xu Qing called out?

    <i>They know each other? No. They can¡¯t know each other. But if they don¡¯t, then why is all of this happening?</i>

    As Ning Yan¡¯s thoughts went wild, Xu Qing suppressed his own suspicions about what was happening. Regardless of anything, now wasn¡¯t the time to contemte the matter. Although he had the feeling the pce lord had multiple ns underway to resolve the situation on the front lines, he still felt that it was important to get his mission done as quickly as possible.

    ¡°Senior Qingqin, please return to the county capital with me,¡± he said with sped hands.

    Qingqin nodded and turned to fly off. However, that was when Xu Qing remembered Ning Yan, and quickly mentioned him to Qingqin.

    Qingqin looked down, his eyes glittering with revulsion. However, he still reached down and grabbed the shrieking Ning Yan with one of his ws. Then his wings pped and he shot off like a lightning bolt.

    The level of speed was so different from what Xu Qing was capable of that he felt he finally understood the idiom <i>so close yet so far</i>. They were very far away from the county capital, and yet Qingqin moved so quickly that everything blurred around them. After only enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the county capital was just up ahead.

    It was speed that Xu Qing had never experienced before. Of course, the arrival of Qingqin caused a stir in the capital.

    The spell formation red to life, and the lieutenant governor flew up into the air. When he saw Qingqin, his expression flickered, and when he noticed Xu Qing on its right head, his jaw dropped. But only a momentter, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Xu Qing, the city¡¯s defenses are....¡± He trailed off without finishing his sentence, but his meaning was clear.

    He couldn¡¯t allow Qingqin to actually enter the city. That would be a breach of responsibility. He also didn¡¯t ask Xu Qing about his rtionship with Qingqin. Everyone had their secrets, and prying wouldn¡¯t be helpful.

    Xu Qing knew where the lieutenant governor wasing from, so he offered a very respectful exnation to Qingqin. The bird let loose a cry, then flew up into the clouds, where he would remain. Xu Qing dropped to the ground, sped hands to the lieutenant governor, and entered the Swordsage Pce.

    When he arrived at the Secretariat Division, his eyes glittered. Having secured the help of Qingqin, he didn¡¯t need to worry about obstacles posed by battle prowess. The first thing he focused on was to ask for a report about how the various nonhumans in Sea-Sealing County were responding to the call for supplies.

    Details began flowing in, and Qing Qiu, who had been assigned to stay in the Swordsage Pce instead of going to the front lines,piled them into a report for Xu Qing.

    ¡°There are a total of 57,841 different nonhuman species in Sea-Sealing County. Of those, seventy percent have responded to the call, thirty have not. Of those who responded, about half expressed willingness to provide supplies. The other half demandedpensation, generally between three to ten times the normal market price. The most egregious of them....¡±

    Qing Qiu trailed off and looked hesitantly at Xu Qing.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°Continue.¡±

    ¡°The most egregious of them are species allied with the Demi-Immortals. Such species have demanded outrageous prices. Taking medicinal pills as an example, they¡¯re asking a thousand spirit stones for medicinal pills that would normally only cost twenty spirit stones! For a magical device that normally costs a few tens of thousands of spirit stones, they¡¯re demanding ten million. And when ites to magical devices with battlefield applications, they¡¯re being even stingier.

    ¡°The swordsages sent to confer with the Demi-Immortals were refused entry. The Demi-Immortals stated that inpliance with the pce lord¡¯s request, they¡¯ve sequestered themselves and don¡¯t want to be disturbed.¡±

    After finishing with the report, Qing Qiu stepped back. She had never felt more disgusted with nonhumans than she did right now.

    In response to Qing Qiu¡¯s report, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. As of now, he felt the same way as the pce lord, that the nonhumans in Sea-Sealing County were getting a lot more respect than they deserved. On the other hand, he could understand their stance. Humans were in decline as a species, and they couldn¡¯t throw their weight around like they had in the past. Furthermore, for many years, the Holytides had been opposed to a fully united Sea-Sealing County. As a result, maintaining a delicate bnce was the only way to avoid war. Unfortunately, there were obviously some things that couldn¡¯t be avoided.

    After thinking about the matter in silence for a moment, Xu Qing said, ¡°Determine which species is demanding the most outrageous prices. I want all files rting to that species delivered to me. Also, find out how many times they¡¯ve vited thew without repercussion, including all relevant details.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing closed his eyes. It was still dark outside, and dawn had not yete. It was also dark inside the Secretariat Division, making it seem like Xu Qing himself was part of the gloom.

    When Qing Qiu looked at him, she could sense killing intent building within him. Nodding in affirmation, she hurried away to startpiling the information he wanted.

    Half an incense stick of timeter, as the light of dawn appeared on the horizon, she returned to the Secretariat Division with a jade slip that she handed to him.

    With that, she provided a summary of the information. ¡°The Fullspirit species is located to the northwest of the county capital in Enlightenment Prefecture, in the mountain hignds which bear the same name. They¡¯re not a veryrge species, and they don¡¯t organize into sects. Instead, they group themselves based on the ethnicposition of their species. Because they have four main ethnicities, they organize themselves into what they call the Four Branches.

    ¡°As a species, they¡¯re very skilled in alchemy and equipment forging. They¡¯re closely allied to the Tianyin n, which is one of the three great ns of the Demi-Immortals. The Tianyin n has eight subsidiary species that form the bulk of their subordinates, and the Fullspirits are one of them. Thanks to the treaty between humans and Demi-Immortals, the Fullspirits aren¡¯t required to pay an annual tribute. They haveplete autonomy in the 50,000-kilometer Enlightenment Hignds.

    ¡°During the past 800 years, the Four Branches have vited humanws 18,931 times. Of those, 1,300 were vitions of Title 1w, and as such, thew was enforced. But in all other instances, no action was taken.

    ¡°Furthermore, because of being so closely allied with the Demi-Immortals, this species refused toply with the pce lord¡¯s directive to send all Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators to war.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he stood to leave.

    Thinking back to everything that happened at the Ten Entrails Tree, she suddenly said, ¡°Xu Qing, should we report this to the lieutenant governor and request forces from the county yamen to help?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. As he stepped out of the Secretariat Division, the sun in the sky cast its brilliant light out, driving away all darkness.

    ¡°I¡¯ll handle it myself,¡± he said coldly, then flew up into the air.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out, and massive pressure weighed down onto the county capital as the great bird Qingqin appeared. The bird was so massive he blotted out the sun. As his shadow was cast over the city, Xu Qing stood on his right head. Squatting down, he gently rubbed the bird¡¯s magenta skin.

    ¡°Senior,¡± he said quietly, ¡°if you have some free time, I¡¯d like to go to the Enlightenment Hignds and exterminate a species there. What do you say?¡±

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i> replied Qingqin excitedly.

    The sound was so intense it could pierce through metal and rock, and caused everything to tremble!

    The scattered feathers on his small wings rippled as they pped, causing a tempest to spring up around it. Pulsing with savagery, he flew off toward the northwest, moving with such incredible speed that he disappeared only a momentter.

 Chapter 497: Dark Clouds Suppress Immortals; the Immortals are Furious (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 497: Dark Clouds Suppress Immortals; the Immortals are Furious (part 1)</h4>

    The northwest of Sea-Sealing County had four prefectures.

    To the far west was Tranquility Prefecture, which was also the location of the western front. To the north was the icy Tidefall Prefecture, which was the other main front line of the war.

    Squeezed between those two prefectures was Rainfield Prefecture.

    Water that drained into Rainfield Prefecture from the melting tundra to the north ensured that the ce had a lot of water. However, it also had subterranean volcanic flows that caused mist to rise up from the ground year-round. That mist would then turn into rain, which was why the prefecture was named the way it was.

    In the spot where Rainfield Prefecture neared the county capital was the fourth of the northwestern prefectures, which was Enlightenment Prefecture. The name of the prefecture came from the very famous mountainous region called the Enlightenment Hignds.

    Mountainous regions and mountain ranges are different. Thetter generally stretch out in a specific direction. They¡¯reposed of easily distinguished mountain peaks and valleys. Their clear geography and vast range distinguish them from mountainous regions. A mountainous region doesn¡¯t have such obvious terrain features, and might even contain volcanic belts. There might be countless mountain peaks interspersed with vast stretches of tnd. All of those unique features merge together to create something like a ¡®family¡¯ of mountains.

    The 50,000-kilometer Enlightenment Hignds were just such a mountainous region, and they were the home to the Fullspirits.

    The Fullspirits were a tall people. Normally speaking, they stood at a height of about fifteen meters, and specialized in body cultivation. In line with themon traditions in Revered Ancient, because they were so closely allied with the Demi-Immortals, they had been gifted with some of the blood of that species. That had provoked some changes in their own bloodline, and caused them to grow wings. However, due to the size of the Fullspirits, those wings didn¡¯t make them capable of true flight. They were more for show.

    The reason the Demi-Immortals were so fond of the Fullspirits was that they were exceptionally skilled in alchemy and equipment forging.

    The Enlightenment Hignds were filled with many equipment and alchemy workshops. Some were independently operated by individual Fullspirits, while others were muchrger operations. All in all, there were hundreds of thousands of such workshops there. The nking of tools and the fragrance of medicinal pills filled the hignds year-round. What was more, the volcanic flows under the ground ensured that the ce was always warm. It could well be said that the Fullspirits were constantly producing medicinal pills and magical devices to be put onto the market. There were some off-limits areas set aside for the maturation of medicinal pills. The number of such locations was staggering. The presence of so much ¡®earthme,¡¯ plus the species¡¯ innate abilities, allowed them to produce the highest-quality pills and equipment imaginable. And they were usually very expensive.

    That said, even if they charged more than they usually did, it didn¡¯t make sense for a medicinal pill that normally cost twenty spirit stones to suddenly cost a thousand.

    They had never charged such outrageous prices before the war, as no one would have paid them. And normally speaking, a dharmic decree from the Swordsage Pce was enough to get shipments of supplies flowing from them.

    Although they were close with the Demi-Immortals, the Fullspirits were generally reasonable, and wouldn¡¯t risk offending humans over something as trivial as supplies. Therefore, they knew exactly what they were doing when they responded to the Swordsage Pce¡¯s most recent request.

    At the moment, the branch chiefs of their Four Branches were meeting secretly in the Fullspirit ancestral mountain temple. They were all dressed in luxurious outfits, and were festooned with all types of jewelry and fancy magical devices.

    ¡°We have to charge these prices to make our stance clear to the Demi-Immortals!¡±

    ¡°War is here, and it seems highly unlikely the humans are going to maintain control of this particr administrative district.¡±

    Two statues were enshrined in the temple, one in the front and one in the back. The statue in the front resembled a Fullspirit, while the one in the back was much more amazing. It resembled an immortal flying into the sky. It was, of course, the original ancestor of the Demi-Immortals.

    Each statue had a collection of thousands of items in front of it, including precious spirit fruits and high-quality medicinal pills. The strong spirit energy from those items filled the temple. That showed how important this temple was to them.

    Any one of the spirit fruits and medicinal pills was something that could be urgently used on the battlefield. After all, casualties had been severe so far in the war to defend Sea-Sealing County. It might be an exaggeration to say that each item could save a life, but to say that ten could save a life would bepletely reasonable. That said, the four branch chiefs couldn¡¯t care less about the humans dying on the battlefield. All they cared about was how their own species would fare going forward.

    ¡°For the sake of Marquis Yao, we should at least send some supplies. Over the past few hundred years, Marquis Yao has helped us out a lot. We should make sure all the other species know that we Fullspirits know how to properly repay favors.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine. So we ask for extremely high prices for most of the products, to make our stance clear to the Demi-Immortals. At the same time, we send a small amount to boost our reputation as a species. And finally, we¡¯ll offer a tiny bit for sale at a discount to prove we¡¯re not being hostile.¡±

    ¡°Truth be told, this is what our species in general wants. Beforeing here today, I did a little survey, and everyone I talked to agreed that we should charge high prices. After all... humans have plenty of money.¡±

    ¡°My branch feels the same. In fact, some people I talked to even suggested that we use this as an opportunity to get rid of all our defective products that we would normally destroy. Although, that might be pushing things a bit too far.¡±

    ¡°Since we¡¯re all in agreement, then we¡¯ll follow through with this n. One branch will support the humans, one branch will cooperate to repay previous favors, one branch will do nothing in public but will secretly contact the Holytides to curry favor, and thest branch will be responsible for maintaining the status quo with the Demi-Immortals!¡±

    ¡°If we want this act to seem realistic, we should pretend to be debating the matter for a few more days....¡±

    Chuckling, the four branch chiefs rose to their feet to end the secret meeting. However, it was at that exact moment that a terrifying pressure suddenly weighed down on all of them from above, causing their hearts to lurch.

    To the shock of the branch chiefs, the ground quaked, and a deep rumbling sound erupted within the Enlightenment Hignds. From a distance, it was possible to see that the sky above the Fullspirit¡¯s ancestral mountain temple was glittering with red light.

    A massive, 30,000-meter three-headed bird emerged from the clouds, with both of his massive ws pointed directly toward the temple. The bird ignored the mountain¡¯s defenses. He ignored the temple¡¯s defenses. He ignored everything. Massive rumbling sounds echoed out as the temple and the two statues inside of it exploded.

    The huge bird¡¯s ws thentched onto the mountain, and as he pped his wings, he wrenched the entire ancestral mountain out of the ground and into the air! Boulders fell like rain, trees and nts showered down, and massive clouds of dust billowed everywhere.

    All Fullspirits present to witness what was happening were dumbstruck. That was especially true when they noticed that someone was standing atop one of the bird¡¯s heads.

    That person wore a white swordsage uniform, and had long hair that seemed both ck and violet at the same time. He was consummately good-looking, but his expression was ice cold. For a good ten breaths of time, all people could do was look on in shock.

    As Qingqin lifted the Fullspirits¡¯ ancestral mountain into the air, his ws tightened, and cracks started spreading out across the mountain. Then it exploded!

    Blood sprayed out of the mouths of the four branch chiefs, and they backed away looking both shocked and furious. When they saw their ancestral mountain destroyed, they looked at the terrifying, strange bird, and Xu Qing perched atop it, their hearts seething with rage.

    ¡°Qingqin!?¡±

    ¡°A swordsage??¡±

    ¡°Senior Qingqin, what¡¯s the meaning of this? Why did you destroy our ancestral mountain temple??¡±

    The four branch chiefs were all in the Spirit Trove level, but none of them hadpletely formed their first secret trove.

    In the Spirit Trove level, powering up the secret troves was usually a slow and difficult process. Because of that, the majority of Spirit Trove cultivators were actually at this same point. It was only after the first secret trove took the shape of a world, and also had a heavenly dao, that it could truly be considered a secret trove. That said, even when still in the process of powering up the first secret trove, such cultivators would still be able to crush any Nascent Soul enemy.

    As the four branch chiefs howled in rage, several dozen nearby mountain peaks trembled, and theke they bordered was suddenly filled with massive waves.

    The water all flowed in the same direction as a pair of eyes as big as theke itself suddenly opened inside of it. They were looking at Qingqin.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Qingqin, why have you done this?¡±

    As the eyes opened and the voice rang out, a 24,000-meter-tall giant slowly stood up. The dozens of mountain peaks came with it, as they were actually spikes sticking out of its body. It even had spikes growing out of its head.

    This figure was the Fullspirits¡¯ only Void Returning patriarch.

    He had dao lineaments in his eyes, and had numerous projections of himself superimposed upon each other. He also had a number of minor worlds that were on the verge of beingplete. He was in the great circle of the second stage of Void Returning, and was half a step into the third stage. Though he seemed calm, the truth was that inwardly he was feeling very flustered.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i> said Qingqin disdainfully.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing, who stood atop the right head, looked down coldly. ¡°Over the past 800 years, the Four Branches of the Fullspirits have vited humanw a total of 18,931 times. The most recent was the refusal toply with the pce lord¡¯s demand that Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators join the war effort. I¡¯m here today to punish all of the criminals who perpetrated those crimes over the past 800 years!¡±

    His voice echoed through the Enlightenment Hignds, and the hundreds of thousands of Fullspirits there looked up angrily at the huge bird in the sky.

    Meanwhile, the massive giant standing there with energy and blood seething seemed incredibly intimidating.

    ¡°Our species is allied with the Demi-Immortals. And we haven¡¯t vited any part of our agreement with you humans. For a swordsage toe here and wreck our ancestral mountain is a clear breach of our alliance!¡± For the first time, that giant¡¯s gaze came to rest on Xu Qing. ¡°Are you really trying to cause chaos in Sea-Sealing County right now, in this moment of crisis on the front lines of the war?¡±

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing turned to Qingqin, sped hands, and bowed. ¡°Senior Qingqin, please take action and exterminate this species!¡±

    Qingqin¡¯s eyes glittered with excitement. It had been a long time since he wiped out a species, a point which had caused him to sigh many times in the past. He was supposed to be a fierce beast, so the fact that he hadn¡¯t wiped out many species seemed like a betrayal of his own bloodline. Beyond that, it had been a long time since he had eaten any meat. He spent all his time absorbing water and mist, making him feel like he was starting to fade from existence.

    That said, he had always restrained himself. After all, the humans had long since kept things peaceful in Sea-Sealing County, and he didn¡¯t feel inclined to cause trouble and disturb the status quo. Besides, his most revered Eldest Brother from the continent of South Phoenix had told him to be a little less fierce, and not follow the path of his ancestor. He wasn¡¯t supposed to go around ughtering people, especially humans. He was supposed to make more friends. That was the way to stick around for a long time.

    However, the little bro his Eldest Brother had entrusted to his care had just made a very reasonable request. Considering that he was also a swordsage, there didn¡¯t seem to be any reason to refuse.

    As for why his Eldest Brother had be bros with a human didn¡¯t really matter. He just knew that his Eldest Brother had always treated him so well that it didn¡¯t seem like it would be possible to repay the favor in this life. Therefore, he didn¡¯t want to do anything to lose face for his Eldest Brother.

    And thus, it was with an excited caw that Qingqin bristled with rage and prepared to shoot toward the Fullspirits.

    ¡°Hold on!!¡± the Fullspirit patriarch blurted.

 Chapter 497: Dark Clouds Suppress Immortals; the Immortals are Furious (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 497: Dark Clouds Suppress Immortals; the Immortals are Furious (part 2)</h4>

    The Fullspirit patriarch¡¯s words came toote.

    Qingqin shot out of the sky at top speed. Rumbling sounds echoed out. The ground quaked. 30,000-meter-tall mountains either rocked violently or outright copsed. A tempest wrought by Qingqin swept out in all directions, filled with the aura of the great circle of third-stage Void Returning.

    For 5,000 kilometers in all directions, the Fullspirits who were swept up in that tempest had no way to fight back. They trembled and then exploded, causing blood to spray out everywhere. From a high vantage point, it was possible to see something like a blood-colored tide sweeping about. Then Qingqin inhaled, and vast quantities of blood became three rivers that flowed into the bird¡¯s mouths.

    The bird treated it like congee. After sucking it in, he chewed a few times and then swallowed. He looked extremely ghastly.

    Blood sprayed from the mouths of the four branch chiefs as the tempest inflicted serious injuries on them. Two of them had it worse off, and were also a bit slower. Suddenly, their vision dimmed as a huge mouth appeared in front of them. A momentter, it devoured them. Screams echoed out, to be reced with chewing sounds. To Qingqin, they were like popcorn that was even more vorful than the congee.

    The Fullspirits were overwhelmed with terror. As for the two branch chiefs who were luckier than the others, their faces were ashen masks of horror as they fled for their lives.

    The Fullspirit patriarch was visibly enraged. Roaring, he lunged toward Qingqin to block his path.

    But Qingqin was even more excited now that he had tasted blood. The eyes of all three of his heads were crimson as the scattered feathers on his frame stood upright. As a wild wind swept forth, his three heads all opened their mouths and let loose excited cries.

    <i>¡°CAW! CAW! CAW!!¡±</i>

    Completely ignoring the iing Fullspirit patriarch, Qingqin dodged to the side, then sent its two massive ws flying out, destroying everything they touched, even mountains. As Qingqin moved, Xu Qing flew off his head andnded on the bird¡¯s back.

    The two heads were moving too quickly, almost like a rooster pecking food up from the ground as Qingqin devoured one howling Fullspirit after another. To Qingqin, this really was a feast.

    Xu Qing himself felt a bit excited at everything that was happening. ¡°Senior, if there are any heavenly pces, do you mind saving some for me? Er... if not, that¡¯s fine too.¡±

    Qingqin immediately bristled with fury, his feathers standing on end, as if Xu Qing¡¯s words were making him defensive over his food. But then he thought back to what his Eldest Brother from the continent of South Phoenix had mentioned about not being selfish with food. With a caw, he sent a few gasping one-pce Gold Core Fullspirits flying in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    The other Gold Core cultivators with lots of pces, as well as the Nascent Soul experts, Qingqin personally devoured out of fear they might escape if he didn¡¯t.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing used the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art to plunge his hand into a Fullspirit and extract the heavenly pces from within.

    Obviously, Qingqin wasn¡¯t a big fan of sharing....

    You usually had to negotiate when dealing with people like that, and forcing them to cooperate wasn¡¯t an option. That said, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been nning to force anything. So he just sat down cross-legged and let Qingqin devour the Fullspirits.

    Before long, the Fullspirit patriarch had caught up and wasunching a fist strike at Qingqin.

    The patriarch obviously realized how much weaker he was than his opponent. As he attacked, all of the Enlightenment Hignds trembled as numerous beams of light shot into the air and converged to make a 30,000-meter-long hammer. This was the Fullspirits¡¯ taboo treasure, and as soon as it appeared, it smashed down toward Qingqin.

    Qingqin¡¯s eyes radiated savagery as he used the top of his right head to meet the hammer attack. A massive boom rang out as the hammer was flung backward. As for Qingqin, his right head swayed a bit as if it were dizzy, but didn¡¯t seem to have taken any damage. If nothing else, the hammer attack seemed to have angered Qingqin even more. His eyes burned with bloodthirsty madness as he let loose a deafening cry, then stretched his right neck out to return the attack on the hammer.

    Meanwhile, his left head blurred out toward the attacking patriarch.

    Ear-splitting rumbling sounds spread out as the Fullspirit patriarch was struck. Clearly, he couldn¡¯t sustain this blow from Qingqin; blood sprayed out of his mouth as he staggered backward.

    The right head was now further enraged as well, and shot after the patriarch, either to head-butt him, bite him, orunch divine ability attacks.

    Their attacks caused gale force winds and lightning to spread out, and made the surrounding heaven and earth distort wildly. This was getting very close to a battle of gods. That was what happened when one reced an external heavenly dao with one¡¯s personal heavenly dao.

    The middle head was arrogantly refraining from fighting. Instead, he just repeatedly pecked down at the Fullspirits, devouring them one after another.

    Xu Qing simply watched everything y out. He was no saint, and didn¡¯t feel anypassion for the Fullspirits. That said, the brutal ughter being carried out gave him a very clear indication of what Qingqin was capable of. He could sense Qingqin getting more frenzied the more he devoured, to the point where he seemed to be on the verge of losing his mind.

    As the ground shook, and the fluctuations of magical techniques rolled out, a massive pill furnace suddenly appeared, formed from the entire Enlightenment Hignds.

    This was another of the Fullspirits¡¯ taboo treasures, which was made from the body of one of their dead Void Returning experts. From a distance, the majestic pill furnace seemed connected to the volcanic flows beneath it, which caused it to heat up dramatically. Because of that, everything within the 50,000-kilometer interior of the pill furnace began to melt.

    When Qingqin¡¯s middle head noticed that, its expression became one of disdain. A tremor passed through the head, and a magenta beam of light suddenly shot out.

    Being on Qingqin¡¯s back, Xu Qing was able to avoid that beam of light as it shot overhead and spread out rapidly. While Qingqin continued to emit an ear-piercing cry, that beam of magenta light mmed into the surrounding terrain.

    A thrumming sound rang out as the violet light melted mountains and rocks. The Fullspirits who were touched by it instantly grew old, as if their life force was being wiped out. As for the giant pill furnace, it started rocking back and forth.

    When Qingqin saw that the pill furnace could actually stand up to his life essence godlight, he seemed angrier, and released another volley. The pill furnace couldn¡¯t take it this time. It turned magenta itself, then exploded with a bang. In turn, that caused the hammer to copse.

    Filled with despair, the Fullspirit patriarch cried, ¡°Only godly birds have life essence godlight! Your ancestral awakening has progressed to the point of forming godlight!¡±

    Qingqin¡¯s eyes filled with ferocity, as if the godlight had once again clouded his thinking ability. In fact, even Xu Qing was starting to feel like he might be in danger. Without another word, he summoned the golden crow from within him. His daybreak light heavenly pce glittered, and the light of dawn covered both Xu Qing and the golden crow before continuing to spread out. Although that light wasn¡¯t on the same level as Qingqin¡¯s godlight, it was simr to it.

    As the seven-colored light spread, Qingqin¡¯s middle head looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. His eyes seemed to contain joy and even familiarity. As a result, some of its thinking ability returned.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i> cried Qingqin, and some of the feathers on its back lifted and created a protective barrier around Xu Qing. Then all three of its heads focused their res on the Fullspirit patriarch. It seemed as if it was done with the appetizers and was ready for the main course.

    However, at that exact moment, Qingqin¡¯s three heads shifted to look up in the sky. Meanwhile, the Fullspirit patriarch took advantage of the moment to fly backward, an excited expression on his face as he sped hands toward the sky.

    As he did, rumbling sounds echoed out as a huge rift opened up, and three figures emerged. All of the figures had massive projections behind them. Two were men and one was a woman. They all wore white robes, and were themselves as white as snow, including their eyebrows, hair, and the white wings stretched out behind them. They all looked spectacrly beautiful.

    They were, of course, Demi-Immortals. In terms of their auras, they seemed to rival Qingqin¡¯s.

    Upon descending from the sky, the one in the middle, the female, looked coldly at Qingqin. ¡°Qingqin, why are you devouring these allies of ours?¡±

    Qingqin¡¯s ferocious gaze took them in, and then he parted the feathers on his back to reveal Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood there with his facepletely expressionless as Qingqin lowered his right head and allowed him to step onto it. At the moment, he was surrounded by Qingqin¡¯s godlight, which protected him from the mighty pressure weighing down from the sky. He instantly became the focus of attention. However, the three Demi-Immortals hardly looked at him, as if he were a bug that wasn¡¯t worthy of their gazes.

    Looking at Qingqin¡¯s middle head, the female Demi-Immortal said, ¡°Qingqin, we¡¯re willing to let this slide. Just leave immediately.¡±

    Qingqin¡¯s left and middle heads ignored the woman, and seemed more interested in preening each other¡¯s feathers. It was the right head that rose high with Xu Qing upon it. Overall, Qingqin¡¯s attitude seemed to be ¡®you talk it out, this has nothing to do with me.¡¯

    That forced the three Demi-Immortals to study Xu Qing. Nothing about him seemed impressive to them.

    The woman in the middle took out a jade slip and sent a message using divine will.

    <i>¡°Lieutenant Governor of Sea-Sealing County, your Swordsage Pce has invaded the territory of one of our allied species. This is a vition of our 800-year peace treaty. Therefore, we Demi-Immortals have hereby ceased toply with the pce lord¡¯s request to stay sequestered. We¡¯vee out to take care of the situation.</i>

    <i>¡°This is wrongdoing on the part of you humans, and you cannot me our species. You must immediately offer an exnation, hand over the culprit, and also have the pce lord of your Swordsage Pce give us a detailed exnation of what¡¯s going on!¡±</i>

    As soon as the Demi-Immortal¡¯s message went out, Xu Qing felt his own transmission jade slip vibrating. He ignored it. He had already thought out his n in detail along the way.

    ¡°I can give you the exnation,¡± he said, ¡°by releasing the god imprisoned in the Corrections Division. Would that exnation be sufficient? Right now, our county capital is protected by the converged taboo treasure power of everything in the county. Dealing with that level of defense wouldn¡¯t be easy. Besides, just about everyone in the capital is a mortal, so that god isn¡¯t going to be interested in devouring them.

    ¡°But your Demi-Immortal homnd has as many powerful experts as the sky has clouds. I bet a hungry god would just love to have a feast there. Does that sound like a good exnation?¡±

    Upon hearing Xu Qing¡¯s words, the three Demi-Immortal¡¯s faces darkened. Snorting coldly, the one on the right said, ¡°What incredible gall!¡±

    His words echoed like a thunderp. Meanwhile, the female Demi-Immortal¡¯s gaze locked onto Xu Qing.

    ¡°How amusing. You have such a weak cultivation base, yet you dare to speak like that to us? Do you even understand what you¡¯re saying?¡±

    ¡°Of course I do,¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes suddenly glittering with a crazy light. ¡°I also know that the two main fronts are running out of supplies, and people are dying constantly. The front lines could copse at any time. Sea-Sealing County is in grave danger. If supplies aren¡¯t delivered soon, the Holytide army could break through. Therefore, do you really think there¡¯s anything I wouldn¡¯t dare to do?

    ¡°If the front lines fall, and the Holytides invade, then humans will either be ughtered or enved like animals. And if that happens, will the Swordsage Pce really have the resources to keep that god sealed? What¡¯s the difference between being wiped out by the Holytides and wiped out by the hand of a god?

    ¡°And if thetter happens, and you nonhumans get buried with us, then we can at least save the effort of wiping you out. Therefore, what makes you think I wouldn¡¯t dare to do that?¡±

    He extended his right hand, and within it was the golden light of amand medallion. It was the pce lord¡¯smand medallion. All of the pce lord¡¯s authority in the Swordsage Pce was converged in that medallion. Holding the medallion aloft, Xu Qing looked up at the Demi-Immortals.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just a matter of me daring to do that. I have the full authority to do it. And therefore, I ask you... do <i>you</i> dare?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Qingqin¡¯s two bickering heads suddenly looked up proudly into the sky.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i>

 Chapter 498: Xu Qingâ€™s Friendly Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 498: Xu Qing¡¯s Friendly Negotiation</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out in all directions. He sounded very calm, and only the tiniest scrap of craziness was visible in his eyes. After all that he had experienced through the years, including more than one instance of engaging in a friendly negotiation, he was now very familiar with how to manifest the spirit of friendship when doing business. For example, by remaining kind and professional when dealing with Emperor Ancient Spirit and the god¡¯s finger, he had sessfully reached eptable deals. Given those examples of sess, he didn¡¯t feel the least amount of stress at having to deal with these Demi-Immortals.

    Xu Qing knew well that, when involved in a business discussion, sincerity had to be used like a weapon to get the best results. Only by being truly genuine could one touch the heart of the party on the other side of the negotiation table. The more simple and direct you were, the better. That was why he had stuck to concrete facts.

    If Sea-Sealing County fell into enemy hands, why would the Swordsage Pce go to the trouble of keeping that god sealed up? The most logical thing to do would be to release the god, regardless of who lived or died afterward.

    The best way to get a good oue in this friendly negotiation was to stick to logic and focus on pros and cons.

    When Xu Qing finished speaking, the three Demi-Immortal cultivators in the sky all had scowls on their faces. They all had high positions in Demi-Immortal society, being in the patriarch level. Yet all of them had to admit that if Xu Qing really freed that sealed god, then... given how close the Demi-Immortals were to the county capital, they would be the first ones in line to be devoured.

    It was true that the county capital was mostly full of mortals. What was more, they were under the protection of the created by all the taboo treasures. There would be two options presented to that freed god: a little appetizer that would require great care to eat, and a huge feast that could be gobbled down with ease. It was self-evident which of those two options would be selected.

    If it happened, Sea-Sealing County would be done for. But it was also true that unless the humans got the resources they needed, the front lines would copse, and the end result would be the same.

    As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s final question ¡®do you dare?¡¯ echoed out into heaven and earth, and especially within the hearts of the three Demi-Immortal patriarchs.

    A long moment passed. Finally, the female Demi-Immortal said, ¡°You¡¯re the first human we¡¯ve ever encountered who would dare to threaten people like us with a cultivation base that low. The reality is that though you came here and caused trouble for the Fullspirits, your actual goal was to draw us out into the open. Well-yed. Very clever. Maintaining the status quo in Sea-Sealing County is actually the best oue for us. So, tell us your demands.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not demanding anything, as this is a negotiation,¡± Xu Qing corrected, his facial expression one of full sincerity. It was no surprise to him that the Demi-Immortals were willing topromise. Any logical person would do that. However, he was also aware that the situation wasn¡¯t over yet. Everything woulde down to whether it was worth it or not for the various parties involved. Xu Qing hade to realize how that worked back in Seven Blood Eyes. If he made demands that weren¡¯t worth it, then everything would devolve into chaos. Looking up at the three of them, he continued, ¡°All resources required for the battlefield will be made avable at a fair price. Purchasing on credit will be allowed!¡±

    The female Demi-Immortal looked down at him expressionlessly. ¡°So, this is a negotiation, huh? Fine. Your requests... are eptable.¡±

    ¡°The oath of alliance between our two species will remain in ce,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°Furthermore, you will continue to abide by Pce Lord Kong¡¯s suggestion to remain sequestered.¡±

    The demands weren¡¯t unreasonable at all, which was evidenced by how the three Demi-Immortals considered the proposal and then nodded.

    ¡°However,¡± the leader said, ¡°you will cease your ughter of the Fullspirits!¡±

    The truth was that it was a good deal for them. They didn¡¯t want to participate in the war, which was why they had agreed to Pce Lord Kong¡¯s original suggestion. The only difference now was that they were leery of Xu Qing¡¯s threat of releasing the god. That said, all they needed was enough time to prepare, and then even that threat could be dealt with.

    And with that, the deal was struck. Because of it being wartime, things were rtively simple, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel the need to talk about any further details. Nor was he worried about the Demi-Immortals going back on their word.

    Going forward, it wouldn¡¯t take long for the other nonhumans in the county to find out about how the Demi-Immortals had agreed to apromise. And everyone would know that the Fullspirit species was nearly wiped off the face of the map. No one would want to risk the same thing happening to them.

    With the negotiation over, the three Demi-Immortals opened the rift again. Before entering, the female asked, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment. There wasn¡¯t really a need to hide the truth; if the Demi-Immortals wanted that information, it wouldn¡¯t be hard for them to find out.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun!¡± he said. Despite the reality of the situation, Xu Qing was just too cautious of a person. It didn¡¯t matter if the Demi-Immortals could easily find out his true identity. He didn¡¯t want to be the one to tell them the truth. That was especially true considering that although the negotiation had gone smoothly, it would be a big pity to slip up at the very end. He had no idea what magical techniques a Void Returning expert might be able to unleash. For instance, what if they had some special way of striking a fatal blow if they knew his real name?

    At almost the exact same moment that Xu Qing spoke, a whistling sound echoed out from the direction of the county capital as a figure blurred toward them at top speed.

    It was none other than the lieutenant governor. He was scowling anxiously as he rushed over to them. Upon arriving, he saw the three Demi-Immortals, and then he saw Xu Qing. Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s calm demeanor, he rxed inwardly.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun!¡± he barked. ¡°You¡¯ve got a lot of guts to do something like this. I¡¯m definitely going to report you to the pce lord!¡± Turning to the three Demi-Immortals, he sped hands and stered an apologetic look onto his face. ¡°This was a big misunderstanding. The situation on the battlefield is critical, and Zhang Siyun got a bit too anxious. That¡¯s what led to this disaster. After the war is over, I¡¯ll make this up to you!¡±

    The three Demi-Immortals all gave cold harrumphs. ¡°Lieutenant Governor, this human of yours has some potential. He actually dared to threaten us!¡±

    Looking very stern, the lieutenant governor red at Xu Qing and snapped, ¡°Zhang Siyun, hurry up and apologize to the Demi-Immortal patriarchs!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, then bowed his head and sped hands to the Demi-Immortals.

    ¡°Seniors,¡± he said, sounding very sincere, ¡°I was really anxious about the battlefield situation, and thus inadvertently offended you. Please, I hope the three of you patriarchs can forgive me.¡±

    The three Demi-Immortals didn¡¯t respond. Filled with a variety of thoughts and emotions, they turned back to the rift.

    Except, just then, the female Demi-Immortal¡¯s expression flickered, and she suddenly coughed up a mouthful of violet blood. Turning, she looked at the lieutenant governor, then Xu Qing, her expression grim, and her eyes flickering with a profound look.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. However, it was obvious that she had used some sort of magical technique, and... it had failed.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes went wide and he looked confused. ¡°What just happened?¡±

    The female Demi-Immortal gritted her teeth but didn¡¯t say anything. There wasn¡¯t going to be an easy way to offer an exnation. As a matriarch of the Demi-Immortals, she had ways to plot against people if she knew their name. If the technique had worked, no one would have been the wiser. Except it didn¡¯t work....

    It was a passive technique that, once employed, required no action on her part. Normally speaking, it wouldn¡¯t matter if it worked or not. But contrary to all expectations, when the technique failed, she instantly suffered a serious bacsh. What was more noteworthy was that moments ago, she got the distinct feeling that some unknown entity was watching her.

    Scowling, she hurried into the rift and disappeared.

    After they were gone, the Fullspirit patriarch backed up a few steps. He took in the devastation around, then looked at Xu Qing and the lieutenant governor. He sighed.

    The lieutenant governor, meanwhile, looked at Xu Qing. ¡°You took a really big risk today.¡±

    ¡°CAW!¡± Qingqin¡¯s three heads all red at the lieutenant governor, as if Qingqin wasn¡¯t very pleased at hearing his Eldest Brother¡¯s bro being criticized. That was especially true considering that the little bro provided a very filling meal, and also the fact that, just like Qingqin and his Eldest Brother, could harness light. [1]

    Seeing that response, the lieutenant governor smiled wryly and sped hands to Qingqin. Qingqin then looked away from him.

    ¡°Many thanks foring, Lieutenant Governor,¡± said Xu Qing. ¡°Sorry for the trouble, sir.¡±

    Xu Qing really did feel sorry for doing something so crazy. sping hands, he bowed to the lieutenant governor. Besides, the lieutenant governor had yed along with his act, which brought a warm feeling to Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    ¡°It was no trouble at all,¡± the lieutenant governor said. ¡°It was all for Sea-Sealing County. However, next time... maybe you could let me know ahead of time when you do something like this.¡± From the haggard look on the lieutenant governor¡¯s face, it was obvious he had been working very hard over the past few days. ¡°Pce Lord Kong asked me to work with you to handle this situation. That just goes to show that he trusts both of us. Now, let¡¯s get back to the capital.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Qingqin pped his wings and flew up into the air, casting one longing nce back at the dpidated Fullspirits. They had lost about forty percent of their poption, which was a grievous blow. Worse, two of their branch chiefs had been eaten by Qingqin. Xu Qing also looked down at the Fullspirits, but didn¡¯t say anything. All the Fullspirits could do was watch bitterly as they left.

    On the way back to the capital, Xu Qing sent some voice messages to his subordinates in the Secretariat Division and had them once again get in contact with the various nonhumans in the county to start collecting resources. That included the Fullspirits.

    By the time he got back to the Swordsage Pce, three days had gone by.

    During that time, all nonhumans in the county, be they big species or small species, were in a state of frenzied activity. Everyone knew about what happened to the Fullspirits, and how the Demi-Immortals had been forced into apromise. It was a big shock to everyone. What was more, it wasn¡¯t long before people found out the name of the person who was central to it all: Xu Qing. Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s name became known to leadership figures of species all over.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know exactly where he started out, but we do know he was very young when he joined Seven Blood Eyes in the continent of South Phoenix. He served in their Violent Crimes Division, where he ughtered countless criminals. He¡¯s cruel and ruthless, and is very skilled in the use of poison!¡±

    ¡°Back when Seven Blood Eyes was at war with the Seazombies, he and his Elder Brother, who were both in Foundation Establishment at the time, carried out a daring plot to steal the nose of one of the Seazombies¡¯ divine likenesses. And then, when he was only known as a random disciple from that backwater sect, he actually ughtered the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s dao child Master Shengyun, and absolutely crushed all the other chosen disciples. Eventually, he became the Eight Sect Coalition¡¯s newest dao child!¡±

    ¡°He participated in the swordsage recruiting event in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, where he dominated the dao child from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, as well as all the other elite chosen from that prefecture. He took first ce in that event, hands down. The Grand Emperor of humankind blessed him with a 30,000-meter pir of light, making him the number one figure in all of Sea-Sealing County!¡±

    ¡°After he got to the county capital, Pce Lord Kong made him his first and only secretary-general. And then, when he was only in Gold Core, he became a Unit C jailer in the Corrections Division!¡±

    ¡°Before the war, he worked with the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce to handle a lot of official business. He founded the Secretariat Division and became well-known far and wide. A lot of people are saying he¡¯s the most likely candidate to seed Pce Lord Kong!¡±

    ¡°At Mount Daybreak, he came out of nowhere to save the Swordsage Court from imminent peril. He ughtered two early Nascent Soul enemies, and forced mid- andte-stage cultivators into retreat. During that battle, he killed hundreds of rogue cultivators with his poison. It was brutal! Anyone who got infected by his poison ended up melting into a ck sludge! They were destroyed in body and soul!¡±

    ¡°He can actually devour the heavenly pces of others! It¡¯s hard to imagine what he¡¯s going to be like when he rises to the Nascent Soul level. He¡¯s going to be aplete monster!¡±

    ¡°And now he actually worked with Qingqin to devour the Fullspirit species. He threatened three Demi-Immortal patriarchs. Considering that and everything else he¡¯s done, this guyes across as being totally crazy!¡±

    All sorts of stories were spreading through Sea-Sealing County, and Xu Qing¡¯s name was causing a big stir.

    When Ning Yan heard the news, he just sighed.

    <i>They don¡¯t know the half of it. Among the other crazy things he¡¯s done are: impersonating a Nightshade godchild; destroying the Ten Entrails Tree; bing the father of a heaven-god; and...ing very close to bing a high-ranking figure among the Holytides.</i>

    When Qing Qiu heard the news, she was a bit stunned. What was the most troubling to her, however, was the revtion that Xu Qing came from the continent of South Phoenix. Thinking back to the way he¡¯d looked at her at the Ten Entrails Tree, a theory began to form in her heart that she didn¡¯t dare to believe was true. In fact, the moment it rose up in her, she quashed it.

    <i>There¡¯s no way. This guy is horrible. It¡¯s absolutely not possible!</i>

    As she realized what it would mean if her spection was actually true, she inhaled sharply.

    Xu Qing looked over at her. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Keep reading the report. I want to know all the details about which species are delivering supplies.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± she said, sounding very much like she had when she was a handmaiden back at the Ten Entrails Tree. She immediately began to continue with the report. Only then did her reaction kick in. She snorted coldly, and her facial expression beneath her mask once again became one of icy arrogance.

    1. The part about ¡®harnessing light¡¯ is a vague metaphor invented by the author. Itbines a verb that means ¡®to brush or swipe¡¯ with the character for ¡®light.¡¯ I saw numerous theories/exnations in the readerments for what exactly it means. Most agreed that it was something rted to light. There is never any exnation for what it means, so it seems open to interpretation. ?

 Chapter 499: Honest and Truthful

    <h4>Chapter 499: Honest and Truthful</h4>

    As stories spread about Xu Qing crushing the Fullspirits, it didn¡¯t just result in him bing famous. It had a marked effect on the nonhumans¡¯ provision of supplies. Everything went much more smoothly in that regard, and not one single species dared to demand exorbitant prices.

    When all was said and done, humankind had not fallen. When all was said and done, Xu Qing didmand the power to exterminate entire species. Given that, it made perfect sense that things went smoothly.

    ¡°The Watermings delivered 180,000 seaspirit healing pills and three battlefield magical devices.

    ¡°The Listeners sold us 130,000 drops of their blood. Such blood has powerful medicinal properties that can be used to quickly treat serious injuries. They also gave us one battlefield magical device.

    ¡°The local ghost ward provided medicinal pills free of charge, and also agreed to send us evil ghost warriors to bolster our forces, as long as we¡¯re willing to let them absorb Holytide souls on the battlefield.

    ¡°The Fullspirits... took the initiative to send 1,000,000 high-quality medicinal pills, free of charge.¡±

    Still feeling shocked, Qing Qiu continued to read the report to Xu Qing. It was obvious to her that the species of Sea-Sealing County had been stricken with fear thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s actions. As a swordsage, Qing Qiu was familiar with the philosophies that governed the Swordsage Pce. And ever since Xu Qing arranged for her to work in the Secretariat Division, she had learned a lot and received some very valuable experience.

    As a result, she knew that Xu Qing¡¯s actions fell perfectly in line with what Pce Lord Kong expected.

    Because of the timing, it wasn¡¯t as difficult to pull off as before the war. If he had done this before, it would have provoked a strong negative reaction. And considering that the Holytides were off to the side, eyeing the humans <i>like tigers eying prey</i>, it would never have worked. It was the same when they were mobilizing for war. Things had beenplicated back then, and considering all the factors, the situation with the nonhumans had been a quagmire that, if not handled with finesse, would have led to disaster.

    But things were different now. The situation on the front lines was urgent. What was more, the top experts from virtually all the species were on the battlefield. Because of that, there was no reason to hold back, and there was every reason to <i>strike like lightning and move like the wind</i>.

    Of course, it was all built on the premise that there was force to back up the threats, and a corresponding cultivation base.

    <i>The strategy of standing on the shoulders of a giant might seem simple, but not anyone could do it. It requires tenacity and determination. Ruthlessness and audacity. And craziness. But at the same time, you can¡¯t lose your cool. Even more important, the other party must be given a way out. It involves ¡®attacking to defend¡¯ while simultaneously ¡®retreating to advance.¡¯</i>

    Qing Qiu nced at Xu Qing. Although she still didn¡¯t like him, she couldn¡¯t stop herself from admiring him as well.

    <i>Pulling this off sessfully requires qualities that most people don¡¯t have. If it was me... I think I¡¯m ruthless enough. But I don¡¯t have the finesse, the cool-headedness, or the negotiation instinct. I just don¡¯t measure up to him in those ways.</i>

    Xu Qing had no way of knowing what Qing Qiu was thinking. After she finished with the report, he thought about the situation for a short time.

    Finally, he said, ¡°The Fullspirits still haven¡¯t given us enough medicinal pills. When I was there, I personally saw their stockpiles, and I know they have a lot more in reserve. Tell them to give more. However, don¡¯t try to squeeze them dry. Now¡¯s not the time for that. Furthermore, make sure to offer payment for whatever we take.

    ¡°As for the ghost ward... we can agree to that in principle. But tell them that they have to confirm the details with Pce Lord Kong. Have the evil ghost warriors go to the battlefield and make the final deal with him there.

    ¡°As for all the other goods from the other species, make sure they¡¯re delivered to the county capital within three days. Then we¡¯ll send them all to the front lines. In terms of the money we need to pay for the purchased items, we¡¯ll request it from the lieutenant governor after all of the goods have been shipped out.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Qing Qiu said with a nod.

    As she left, Ning Yan hurried into the Secretariat Division.

    ¡°Urgent message, Secretary-General!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up.

    When that gazended on Ning Yan, he shivered and stood up a bit straighter. ¡°An ambassador from the Wood Spirits hase seeking an audience with you, Secretary-General.¡±

    At almost the same moment, Xu Qing¡¯s transmission jade slip vibrated. He took it out and scanned it with divine will, whereupon the voice of the innkeeper from nkspring Way echoed into his mind.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯ve brought a second group of Wood Spirits to join the war effort!¡±</i>

    Moved, Xu Qing rose and went out to personally meet them.

    The Wood Spirits were allies, and back when the pce lord was levying troops, they had sent a contingent of their people to join Marquis Yao¡¯s forces on the northern front. They weren¡¯t a veryrge species to begin with, and the fact that they were sending a second group was unusual. In fact, it was something that no other species in Sea-Sealing County had done up to this point.

    Before long, Xu Qing caught sight of the innkeeper flying through the air, followed by a group of several thousand Wood Spirits. When they were in their tree form, they were very impressive, and they pulsed with extraordinary auras.

    Next to the innkeeper was an old man. He was also a treant, but was in human form. His face was worn with age and wisdom. He had amazing fluctuations as well, with a thousand dao lineaments in his eyes, indicating he was in the first stage of Void Returning.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this is the grand elder of the Wood Spirits,¡± the innkeeper said.

    Xu Qing quickly sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, Grand Elder. Many thanks for your support!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for such formalities, Secretary-General. You yourself are like an <i>august spirit</i> of our species, and your status is the same as one of our n chiefs. Besides, humans have kept our species safe for many years. It¡¯s only natural that we would repay that kindness.

    ¡°I was previously in seclusion working toward a breakthrough, and received special permission from Pce Lord Kong for my arrival on the battlefield. Now that I¡¯ve broken through, I wouldn¡¯t dare to stay behind.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what an ¡®august spirit¡¯ was to the Wood Spirits, but he assumed it had something to do with Ling¡¯er. Yet again, he bowed, then called for a subordinate to make all the necessary arrangements. In three days, the Wood Spirits would join the procession going to the western front to deliver all the newly gathered supplies to the pce lord.

    The Wood Spirits were kind by nature, and the grand elder didn¡¯t use his cultivation base as an excuse to look down on Xu Qing. Some of that was because of the situation with Ling¡¯er, and part of it was because of Xu Qing¡¯s status in the Swordsage Pce. Most importantly, the grand elder knew that this young human was someone that had to be treated as a friend, and never as an enemy. Along the way, he¡¯d heard the story of the Fullspirits, as well as how Xu Qing had negotiated with the Demi-Immortals. Because of all that, he knew that Xu Qing was the one responsible for resolving the supply crisis for the front lines.

    It was going to be a big help to the war effort. If Xu Qing also resolved the troop crisis, then those two thingsbined would ensure that he rose to incredible heights in the Sea-Sealing County Swordsage Pce.

    Of course, the prerequisite was that humankind came out victorious in the war.

    Two groups of Wood Spirit troops were all the species could offer. And it was a gamble. They were betting that humans would win, and were gambling on a future Sea-Sealing County controlled by humans. If that gamble paid off, it would result in a thousand years of security for the Wood Spirits. And having a good rtionship with Xu Qing would only give the potential to reach even higher heights.

    Therefore, the Wood Spirit grand elder didn¡¯t object at all to Xu Qing¡¯s arrangements. Knowing that the holy dharma protector and the august spirit had some things to discuss, he bid farewell.

    After he was gone, the innkeeper looked Xu Qing up and down and seemed pleased. But then he realized he didn¡¯t want to reveal what he really thought, so he smoothed out his face and cleared his throat.

    ¡°The Wood Spirits are doing this partly because they¡¯re gambling on humansing out victorious. But some of it has to do with what Ling¡¯er has aplished.¡±

    ¡°Is she still in seclusion?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Yes. She still needs more time. This good fortune for Ling¡¯er will take a while to take full advantage of.¡± After that, the innkeeper wasn¡¯t sure what to say next.

    Xu Qing, not being adept at small talk, took out a jade slip and sent some orders regarding the Wood Spirits and the big supply shipment.

    A long moment passed.

    The innkeeper cleared his throat. ¡°Ahem. Isn¡¯t there something you wanted to ask me?¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked up.

    ¡°For example, don¡¯t you want to know about Ling¡¯er¡¯s past? Or how this good fortune can transform her? Or if she happened to regain consciousness at all recently? Aren¡¯t you curious about any of that??¡± The innkeeper was actually feeling a little irritated.

    Xu Qing frowned. ¡°Why would I ask <i>you</i> about that? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to hear those things from her?¡±

    ¡°Uhh....¡± The innkeeper actually couldn¡¯t think of a way to rebut that. It made sense. That said, he still felt a bit irritated.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, could sense the innkeeper¡¯s irritation. It was actually a familiar sensation, as it reminded him of dealing with the Captain.

    ¡°I can¡¯t afford to fully trust the Wood Spirits,¡± he said. ¡°The supply shipment is too important. Therefore, Senior, I would like for you to go with them to keep an eye on things. The reality is there¡¯s only one person in the capital city that I can truly trust, and that¡¯s you, Senior.¡±

    The innkeeper suddenly felt very pleased. Laughing heartily, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry at all. Once the shipment is ready, I¡¯ll use my life essence magic to seal it tight. And I¡¯ll keep a very close eye on it during the trip. That way, nothing wrong could possibly happen!¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed deeply.

    The innkeeper now felt wonderful. <i>This Xu brat really does know how to show respect. As it turns out, he¡¯s actually not that bad.</i>

    Three days passed.

    The nonhuman supplies all came in, and as Xu Qing looked on, the Wood Spirits and the innkeeper left with the shipment to the western front. Although most of the trip would be made via teleportation portal, there was still a lot of ground to cover. And there were some parts of the trip that couldn¡¯t be made via teleportation. Therefore, the trip was scheduled to take five or six days.

    After the convoy left, Xu Qing stood on the limestone tiles of the Swordsage Pce, looking out at heaven and earth.

    nking him were Ning Yan and Qing Qiu, as well as a contingent of other swordsages who worked in the Secretariat Division. All of them were looking at Xu Qing with veneration in their eyes.

    As for Qing Qiu, she was trying very hard not to feel respect for Xu Qing. Meanwhile, her evil ghost scythe sighed into her mind.

    <i>¡°Oh, Ah Qiu, don¡¯t fight back.... I can sense the conflict in your heart. Why are you still fighting it? Just bow your head to the amazing and incredibly good-looking Secretary-General Xu. Isn¡¯t that just the normal thing to do?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Shut. Up. Ever since you got captured at the Ten Entrails Tree and found out that Xu Qing¡¯s spirit automaton can hear you talking, all you¡¯ve done is bber like this. Aren¡¯t you disgusted with yourself? You¡¯re the one always yammering about ending things in mutual destruction! So... what, are you already dead?¡±</i> She snorted coldly in her heart. <i>¡°A disgusting individual such as yourself should know exactly what I¡¯m thinking. I, Qing Qiu, am nothing like you. I would never bow my head so casually! And Xu Qing is the same!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing, of course, had no way of knowing what Qing Qiu was thinking. It was currently dawn, and a brisk breeze lifted his hair as he stood at the edge of the Swordsage Pce and gazed out at all creation.

    Over the past few days, he had been contemting an important question. And that was how to provide fresh troops to the front lines. A few thousand Wood Spirits simply wasn¡¯t enough.

    This was a protracted war in which the enemy was a Holytide army that vastly outnumbered the humans. Even with the county¡¯s taboo treasures helping in the defense, there were still people dying constantly. The supply shipment was going to make things a bit easier on the front lines, but the real key to making progress was going to be more troops.

    A long moment passed.

    ¡°Qing Qiu.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh. Here!¡± Qing Qiu had been so focused on arguing with the evil ghost scythe, and had been so wrapped up in feeling superior, that Xu Qing caught her off guard. She took a step forward and stood there ramrod straight.

    Looking off in the direction of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he said, ¡°I want all the details about what¡¯s happening in Forbidden by the Garment in Injustice Prefecture and Forbidden by the Zombie in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. You have one incense stick¡¯s worth of time to put the report together.¡±

    Puffing up her chest, she loudly said, ¡°Your orders shall be followed! I guarantee the report will be done in one incense stick¡¯s worth of time!!¡±

    Her voice thrummed with passion, in just the way it did when she¡¯d spoken with Pce Lord Kong in the past.

    <i>¡°Didn¡¯t someone just mention refusing to back down?¡±</i> the scythe said.

    <i>¡°Shut up! I¡¯m putting on a show, that¡¯s all. This is for the sake of the front lines!¡±</i>

    ¡°Why are you standing around?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± she said loudly, then turned and raced off.

 Chapter 500: Iâ€™m... Back! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 500: I¡¯m... Back! (part 1)</h4>

    For the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Qing Qiu scrambled topile all the information from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, then carefully put it all into two jade slips. Racing back to the Secretariat Division, she found Xu Qing waiting for her, his eyes closed in rest. She hadn¡¯t done all the work herself. She¡¯d enlisted the help of some of the other swordsages, who double checked everything and added their personal sealing marks to their work. This was all to ensure there were no slip-ups, since any mistakes could be easily traced back to their source.

    Opening his eyes, Xu Qing took the jade slips and examined them.

    Sea-Sealing County needed more troops, and they couldn¡¯t be levied from the nonhumans. Therefore, the only thing Xu Qing could think to do was look toward Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Because of the incidents in Forbidden by the Garment and Forbidden by the Zombie, the pce lord had exempted the sects there from sending forces to the front lines. After all, they needed to focus all of their attention on keeping those two forbidden grounds under control.

    Sea-Sealing County had a total of thirteen prefectures. If he could divert the forces of two entire prefectures to the forces on the front lines, it would be nearly a twenty percent boost. That would be a huge help to the troops on the front lines.

    However, that wasn¡¯t going to be easy, even if he asked Qingqin to help. And that was why he wanted to look into the details of what was going on in those two prefectures.

    The situation was summarized in the opening remarks on the first jade slip.

    <i>¡°The situation in Forbidden by the Garment is under control. However, it required thebined power of the entire prefecture, led by the local Swordsage Court. They managed to ce an initial seal on the forbidden ground, but are still dealing with counterattacks. They can¡¯t afford any reduction in battle prowess, and still need an entire month before the situation is fully contained.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing sighed. A month was too much. The troops on the front lines simply couldn¡¯t wait that long. However, if the forbidden ground wasn¡¯t contained, then the sects in the prefecture would be destroyed, and countless humans would end up being devoured or mutated. Eventually, it would lead to all of Sea-Sealing County being dragged into chaos.

    The nonhumans in those two prefectures were also participating in the effort to keep the forbidden grounds under control. The situation there was different from the other prefectures. After all, when a crisis was at your front door, it didn¡¯t matter what species you were, you sent people to deal with it. There was no way Xu Qing could order the forces in those two prefectures to simply ignore the forbidden grounds and send their forces to the front lines.

    Besides, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was where Xu Qing¡¯s home sect was. It had taken over ny nonhuman species from the Forbidden Sea plus the majority of the forces in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to get Forbidden by the Zombie under control.

    Things were currently in a deadlock.

    Xu Qing silently perused the jade slips. At a certain point in going through the information from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he came across a bit of information that caused his eyes to narrow slightly. It was in one of the routine reports sent in by the Swordsage Court there.

    <i>¡°The majority of the nonhuman species and organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture participated in the war with Forbidden by the Zombie. But some did not participate. That contingent was led by the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain and the Ghost Emperor mountain.</i>

    <i>¡°That said, both of those parties agreed that, during the duration of the conflict, neither of them would deploy any of their forces outside their own territory.</i>

    <i>¡°The Dao-Suppressing Mountain¡¯s three spirits, and the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s seven fiends are manifestations of the spiritual and physical souls of the Ghost Emperor. The seal which remains on the Ghost Emperor mountain is something that can only be broken by a Smoldering God. As a result, they¡¯re all undying. Forcing them to join the conflict would create friction, and unless they were willing participants, it wouldn¡¯t help the situation with Forbidden by the Zombie, and would cause unnecessary distraction.</i>

    <i>¡°In order to prevent side issues from cropping up, and in order to not waste time, the local Swordsage Court made the decision to exempt them from the war effort.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing read the message and then mulled it over for a while. Finally, he stood and started pacing back and forth. His eyes sometimes flickered with determination, then with hesitation. He was clearly pondering some course of action.

    Neither Qing Qiu nor Ning Yan had seen Xu Qing act like this before, not even back during the Nightshade godchild situation. The two of them exchanged a nce, and both were clearly hesitant to even breathe too loudly.

    Frowning, he walked a few dozen more paces, then stopped in ce. Sensing the Ghost Emperor pce within him, he looked out at the dome of heaven, and his eyes glittered with determination.

    ¡°Qing Qiu, Ning Yan, I¡¯m leaving you in charge of the Secretariat Division. Keep on top of the reports from the front lines. Keep an eye on the progress of the supply shipment. Qing Qiu, you¡¯re in charge. If there¡¯s anything important, use the Swordsage Pce to send a message to mymand sword.¡±

    Qing Qiu stood up a bit straighter and was about to say something loudly, but then thought about her pride, and instead just nodded coolly.

    Ning Yan didn¡¯t have such reservations. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± he said loudly. Then he curiously asked, ¡°Elder Brother Xu, where are you going?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Ning Yan. He didn¡¯t want to reveal the truth about his n to anyone, so he said, ¡°I¡¯m taking a trip to Forbidden by the Garment.¡±

    With that, he left the Secretariat Division and, without any hesitation, flew up into the sky.

    A loud caw echoed out as Qingqin poked his three heads down out of the clouds and looked excitedly at Xu Qing. He seemed to be salivating at the prospect of wiping out another species. He extended his right head down, and Xu Qing stood atop it.

    Then Xu Qing reached out with divine will. A momentter, Qingqin¡¯s eyes glittered with brilliant light. He pped his wings, and intense rumbling sounds filled the sky above the county capital. In the blink of an eye, Qingqin disappeared with Xu Qing.

    As long as Qingqin was traveling short distances, he could move so quickly that taking a teleportation portal wouldn¡¯t have been much faster. When greater distances were involved, though, he couldn¡¯t match up to a portal. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to risk revealing where he was actually going. Though the likelihood of that information reaching the wrong ears wasn¡¯t high, he still preferred to be careful.

    When he was some distance away from the capital, he found a teleportation portal belonging to the Swordsage Pce. After having Qingqin shrink down a great deal, they went through the portal. After a number of such teleportations, the two of them reached the northern tundra of the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The trip took about three days.

    It was currently noon, yet the sun didn¡¯t seem very bright, and it didn¡¯t provide much warmth. The wind brought with it a frigid coldness that pierced into the bones, and it stirred the kes of snow into motion, so that thendscape looked almost like a white sea.

    Off in the distance, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir rose to shocking heights, imparting a sense of wonder to those who looked at it. Xu Qing remembered the time when so many tents surrounded the massive pir that they formed an entire city.

    Now, though, there were few tents. And those tents that did exist were battered by the endless wind. A few people could be seen here and there, and they were all bundled up heavily against the cold. Those people weren¡¯t swordsages. They were locals, people that the Swordsage Court had left behind, primarily older ones who didn¡¯t need to participate in the war effort.

    Xu Qing hovered in the air taking in the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir and the ck pce at its top. He could sense that there weren¡¯t very many swordsages inside.

    ¡°The Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir...¡± he murmured, and then he had Qingqin glide in a few circles around the area.

    As clouds gathered because of Qingqin¡¯s presence, Xu Qing looked at the shocking pir. Before going through with this n of his, he needed to confirm something using the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    Extending his hand, he made a grasping gesture. The Ghost Emperor pce within him activated, and the cross-legged Ghost Emperor opened his eyes.

    Instantly, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir trembled, which caught the attention of the rogue cultivators gathered at the base, as well as the Swordsage Court on the top. Many people looked up and saw the vague shape of a huge bird in the clouds.

    ¡°Who goes there?¡± rang out a voice from the Swordsage Court.

    Now that he was in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, there was no need to stay in hiding. Therefore, Xu Qing drew hismand sword and calmly said, ¡°Xu Qing.¡±

    As his words rang out, Qingqin pped his wings, parting all of the clouds and revealing himself to the swordsages.

    In the other prefectures of the county, the swordsages might have first recognized him by name. Then, thebination of his physical appearance and hismand sword would confirm his identity. But here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the swordsages already knew what he looked like. After all, back when he was given the 30,000-meter pir of light, all swordsages from the prefecture were there to witness it. Therefore, after the Swordsage Court¡¯s spell formation authenticated Xu Qing¡¯smand sword, the swordsages rushed out to meet him.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Secretary-General Xu!¡±

    Most of these swordsages looked familiar to Xu Qing. They came out with friendly expressions on their faces and offered formal greetings. The swordsage in charge took a step forward and sped hands.

    ¡°Secretary-General Xu, do you need to activate the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir? Can we help you in any way?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. He knew that the pir was being used to suppress the ghast hollow, and because of that, it couldn¡¯t be activated. He had juste to do a test. He clenched his hand into a fist, whereupon the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir started vibrating with even more intensity. Of course, he knew that there was a limit to what he could do in this regard. His cultivation base was too low to extract the pir.

    That said, he wasn¡¯t here to take the pir. Rather....

    ¡°Spirit Automaton!¡± he said, his voice booming like heavenly thunder. He was calling out to the spirit automaton of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. That was why he was here.

    A short time passed, and the pir continued to vibrate. And then a very distant moaning sound echoed out from within the pir. As the sound rose high into the sky, an enormous pair of eyes opened up on the pir. They seemed to radiate something profoundly ancient as they looked at Xu Qing with suspicion.

    This scene shook the swordsages to the core. They all knew that the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir had a spirit automaton, but normally speaking, it stayed in a state of slumber. And in all the Swordsage Court, only the grand elder couldmunicate with it.

    Yet right now, Xu Qing said one thing, and it unexpectedly regained consciousness.

    As Xu Qing looked at the eyes which represented the pir¡¯s spirit automaton, he activated his Ghost Emperor pce. The eyes of the Ghost Emperor seated within it started glowing brightly. But that wasn¡¯t enough for Xu Qing. Waving his hand, he tossed out some demonization talismans, whereupon the vague image of a Ghost Emperor mountain appeared.

    ¡°Ghost Emperor mountain!¡±

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    People in other prefectures wouldn¡¯t necessarily be familiar with the Ghost Emperor mountain, and thus wouldn¡¯t understand the significance of what they were seeing. But cultivators in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture knew exactly what the Ghost Emperor mountain signified. And people there could recognize it on sight.

    Meanwhile, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir vibrated dramatically as those eyes looked out with confusion and a bit of excitement.

    When Xu Qing saw that, he breathed a sigh of relief. His return to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was all going to revolve around his Ghost Emperor pce, and he had needed to do this test to make sure he was on the right track with his n.

    ¡°Spirit Automaton, do you recognize me?¡± Xu Qing suddenly said.

    The spirit automaton was silent for a few breaths of time. Then it sent out divine will, not to answer Xu Qing¡¯s question, but to say four words that carried deep meaning.

    <i>¡°The emperor has awakened!¡±</i>

    That wasn¡¯t exactly what Xu Qing had been expecting. Based on his theory, the spirit automaton should have said something about epting a legacy. That said, it didn¡¯t matter too much. The spirit automaton¡¯s actions fit in line with his n.

    ¡°Do you mind sending a message to the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls? Tell them... I¡¯m back.¡±

 Chapter 500: Iâ€™m... Back! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 500: I¡¯m... Back! (part 2)</h4>

    A good businessman will usually have a way to certify that their merchandise is in good condition, to ensure they have the trust and approval of the customer. If the businessman skips that step and just directly starts trying to sell the product to the customer, the results wouldn¡¯t be as good. But with certified proof from an impartial party, things would be very different.

    That was why Xu Qing needed toe to the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. This was only the first step in his n, but it was a very important one. If this part of the n didn¡¯t work out, then he had contingencies, although the n would then have be a lot moreplicated.

    His ultimate goal was to be a good businessman, and make a deal with the Ghost Emperor¡¯s three spiritual souls and seven physical souls. The spirit automaton of the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir provided his certification.

    After an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir¡¯s spirit automaton used a special method tomunicate with the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls. After that, Xu Qing left.

    He stood atop Qingqin¡¯s right head as the great bird flew in the direction of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    The further south he got, the less snow there was. Thends gradually changed from white to green, until eventually he saw the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. All of a sudden, he found himself wrapped up in memories. How could he have imagined when he left that he would end up being gone for years? And how could he have guessed that he would return like this?

    Qingqin let loose a caw that brought Xu Qing out of his memories.

    ¡°Senior, we can¡¯t just randomly go around wiping out species. But I¡¯ll try to find a good opportunity for you soon.¡±

    Qingqin seemed a bit disappointed as he pped his wings and followed Xu Qing¡¯s directions toward the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain. Not too much time passed before they had arrived.

    In thesends, the mountains were like skeletons, the trees were like bones. Human skin formed the ground covering, with clumps of hairlike vegetation. And it was scraped dry by a harsh wind that turned everything as dark as night. From high in the air, it was possible to see mounds of corpses and pools of blood everywhere. A hellish stench filled the ce.

    In the past, Xu Qing had wondered why the Swordsage Court allowed an organization like this to exist. But now he understood. The Ghost Emperor wasn¡¯t really dead. And he was so powerful that his three spiritual souls and seven physical souls possessed undying power. In other words, as long as the Ghost Emperor still existed, they couldn¡¯t perish. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t that they couldn¡¯t die, but rather, that it was impossible to kill them. What was more, if the situation got extremely urgent, and they were willing to give up their independence, then the Ghost Emperor... might awaken.

    If that happened, then the existence of every living being in Sea-Sealing County could be determined by a single thought on the part of the Ghost Emperor.

    That was something nobody wanted to bet on.

    Based on what the Swordsage Pce knew of this ancient Smoldering God, if he woke up, he would be famished, and it was entirely possible that he could devour entire prefectures and even counties. That was why the governor had always treated the Ghost Emperor with as much care as any forbidden ground.

    In the final analysis, it just went to show how much humans had declined. In the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls would have remained fully suppressed, and there wouldn¡¯t have been any chance that the Ghost Emperor could wake up.

    The three spiritual souls and seven physical souls all knew the reality of the situation, which was why they didn¡¯t go too far in building power structures. And the small nations within their borders were made up of all sorts of species.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t have a good impression of the three spirits. However, considering the urgent situation on the front lines, he had to suppress that dislike.

    As he neared the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, winds swirled, the ground quaked, and rifts opened up in the sky. In the past, the mountain had featured three enormous peaks. Now there were only two. The mountain that had once been Nethersprite¡¯s home was a crumbled mound. As for the other two mountain peaks, though, they were still enormous thrones like they had been before.

    On the right side was a huge throne made of bones, and surrounded by countless deceased souls. Sitting on it was a gigantic emaciated figure, with a fleshy hump on his back covered with greenish-red veins that pulsed and wriggled. That was one of the three spirits, the earthly soul. It was August Spirit Sunughter! He looked up, his gaze cold as he observed Qingqin flying toward him.

    The other mountain peak was surrounded by ck mist, making it difficult to see what was within. However, raspy breathing could be heard from within. That was the strongest of the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s souls, the heavenly spiritual soul. It was August Spirit Sporelight!

    Surrounding the mountain were countless cultivators who trembled as they sensed the pressure from above.

    ¡°Halt!¡± said August Spirit Sunughter.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i>

    Given how ferocious Qingqin was, there was no way he would just blithely obey August Spirit Sunughter. Instead, he started slowly flying circles over the mountain. In fact, he even stretched his left head down and gobbled up some of the cultivators from down below. Chewing sounds echoed out, mixed with screams. Apparently Qingqin liked the vor, so he dropped down andnded on the ground. His massive frame was evenrger than the mountain itself, so he just stood there eating some of the terrified cultivators from below while ring challengingly at the earthly spiritual soul.

    That said, he was aware of Xu Qing¡¯srger goal here, so after looking around, he extended his right head out until it was just in front of the mountain.

    August Spirit Sunughter ignored the chaos amongst his subordinates and fixed his gaze on Xu Qing.

    ¡°I remember you, insect!¡± he said coldly. ¡°How dare youe back here!¡±

    From within the defensive shield cast by Qingqin, Xu Qing looked back calmly at August Spirit Sunughter and said, ¡°If I¡¯m an insect, then what are you?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t waste any more words. He activated his Ghost Emperor pce, and also threw out a handful of demonization talismans. Instantly, a projection of the Ghost Emperor mountain appeared. Majestic pressure radiated out as the Ghost Emperor¡¯s eyes opened, causing the entire Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain to tremble.

    And yet, August Spirit Sunughter¡¯s facial expression remained the same as before.

    ¡°A projection created from enlightenment, inserted into a heavenly pce, and summoned via Supreme Void demonization talismans. There¡¯s a lot involved in doing that. But you¡¯re not the only one who can do it. All of the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls are still around. What did you think you were going to do? Say you¡¯re the reincarnation of the Ghost Emperor? That you have the Ghost Emperor¡¯s legacy?¡± August Spirit Sunughter stared at Xu Qing. ¡°What a joke! That spirit automaton isn¡¯t on the same level as us. It¡¯s a servant, nothing more. Its senses are a bit one-sided, and besides, it surrendered to <i>humans</i>. That message you had it send us did nothing.

    ¡°This war is between you humans and the Holytides. We¡¯re not going to lift a finger. The fact that you forced Nethersprite into helping out is already as far as we¡¯ll let you go.¡±

    With that, Sunughter closed his eyes.

    Xu Qing remained calm. He¡¯d known all along that it wouldn¡¯t be easy to strike a deal. Given the level of Sunughter¡¯s cultivation base, he would obviously know why Xu Qing hade.

    ¡°What happens,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°if I take my Ghost Emperor pce and upgrade it into a nascent soul? And after it¡¯s a nascent soul, what if I make the Ghost Emperor projection into a dao soul? Then, what if I take it to the next step, and when I reach the Spirit Trove level, I turn it into one of my secret troves, andbine it with a heavenly dao? If I summon it then, will you still look down on it?¡±

    Sunughter¡¯s eyes remained closed as he coolly replied, ¡°You want the Ghost Emperor as a secret trove? The secret troves of the Spirit Trove level need to start out as minor worlds that plunder heavenly daos and assimte them. Heavenly daos are inherently arrogant, so even if you assimte one, you can¡¯t force it to do anything. You could never even think of fusing one with the Ghost Emperor!¡±

    ¡°What if it was my personal, life essence heavenly dao, and it would do anything I wanted?¡± Xu Qing waved his hand, and his bluegreen dragon appeared, pulsing with the might of a heavenly dao, as well as a connection to his life force. When it roared, it sounded like heavenly thunder crashing in all directions.

    August Spirit Sunughter¡¯s eyes snapped open. It was the first time he had reacted visibly.

    On the other mountain upied by the heavenly spiritual soul, the ck mist suddenly stopped seething, and the sound of breathing ceased.

    Xu Qing continued. ¡°What if my cultivation base eventually reaches the Void Returning level, and I use Void Returning strength to manifest an entire world? What if I put the Ghost Emperor mountain in there and turn it into a ghost world? And then I connect it to the secret trove and my Ghost Emperor projection which was already fused with a heavenly dao? And they allbine...? If that happened, and I said I had the legacy of the Ghost Emperor, would you still say it was impossible?¡±

    After a short moment of silence, August Spirit Sunughter growled, ¡°It¡¯ll take far too long to do that. Besides, there¡¯s no way of knowing if you¡¯ll actually pull it off!¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure why you yourself haven¡¯t done this. Perhaps it¡¯s because your identity makes it impossible for you. Or perhaps it would disturb the bnce between all of you. Either way, it doesn¡¯t matter. As for it taking too long, that doesn¡¯t matter either. What does matter is that I¡¯m giving you a possibility! It¡¯s the possibility of bingplete as I get stronger!

    ¡°All I have to do isplete that legacy, and then it won¡¯t matter if I haveplete control over the Ghost Emperor mountain. I¡¯ll still be able to break the shackles binding you to the mountain. You¡¯ll be able to keep your undying power, but at the same time, be an independent entity. In the truest sense, you¡¯ll be free.

    ¡°This deal is a simple one for you. You don¡¯t actually have to do anything. Even that spirit automaton understands the situation.¡±

    Xu Qing was being serious. Based on his previous understanding, plus details he¡¯d uncovered in the Swordsage Pce, he hade to realize what the Ghost Emperor¡¯s three spiritual souls and seven physical souls actually wanted. They wanted independence. Freedom. And they also wanted to keep their undying power.

    Sunughter remained silent for a very long moment. He had no choice but to admit that this swordsage¡¯s hypothesis was logical and also feasible. And just as the swordsage said, the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls wouldn¡¯t have to do anything to make it happen. It would be great if the n worked, and if it didn¡¯t, it wouldn¡¯t harm them at all.

    He looked over at the ck mist, within which was the heavenly soul.

    All of a sudden, an ear-piercing voice erupted from the ck mist. ¡°If we don¡¯t have to do anything, then we shouldn¡¯t have to go to war with the Holytides.¡±

    Xu Qing breathed an inward sigh of relief. The fact that they were still talking went to show that his offer had some merit. He knew full well that he was trying to sell a story. And these people weren¡¯t fools. But as long as his story was good enough, feasible, and logical, then it meant he had already hooked them. Now he just needed to make sure it sounded worth it to them. And that meant he just needed to fix the right price.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to go to the battlefield and fight the Holytides,¡± he said, his voice softening. ¡°I just want you to help me with Forbidden by the Zombie. One time. After that, you can sit back and do nothing. You can just wait for your freedom toe to you.¡±

    This time, he wasn¡¯t using threats. He was just being practical. Everything he had said was the truth. All it relied on was him continuously bing stronger over time.

    In the end, he was still selling a story. But it was a very well-rounded story. And the price he was asking for wasn¡¯t very dramatic. Stupid people might be swayed by their emotions to make a decision, but not these two. These two souls... wouldn¡¯t do much of anything unless the price was right.

    Silence reigned on the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

 Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God! (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t push them for an answer. He waited for a moment, then seeing that neither the heavenly spiritual soul nor the earthly spiritual soul was responding, he decided not to continue with any sort of sales pitch.

    ¡°August Spirits, please take time to think it over. This evening at sunset I¡¯ll be waiting outside the Eight Sect Coalition atop Mount Seagazing.¡±

    With that, he spoke to Qingqin via divine will. Qingqin burped, cawed, then stretched his wings and flew up into the sky. Clouds gathered, surrounding Qingqin. They rapidly turned pitch ck and filled with countless lightning bolts. The rumbling of thunder echoed out. Then Qingqin burst into motion, exploding from the clouds and shooting in the direction of the Ghost Emperor mountain.

    Two hourster, the giant mountain became visible ahead.

    The Ghost Emperor had sat down cross-legged and be an incredibly formidable mountain. Although the surface of the mountain had degenerated and ultimately be a ¡®garment¡¯ of nts and vegetation, that couldn¡¯tpletely cover the suit of armor or the two vicious des that emanated strong, baleful auras. The Ghost Emperor sat there, facing the direction of the Forbidden Sea, head slightly bowed as if waiting for something....

    Just looking at the spectacr mountain filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart with emotion. Back when he came here with Master Seventh to seek enlightenment, he didn¡¯t see the seven physical souls of the Ghost Emperor mountain. He had stayed in a little residence near the base of the mountain. [1]

    Now that he was back and looking at the real Ghost Emperor mountain, he felt his Ghost Emperor pce stirring.

    Eyes shining, he took a deep breath and threw out some demonization talismans. As Qingqin got closer to the mountain, a projection of the Ghost Emperor appeared behind Xu Qing. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. From a distance, it was possible to see two Ghost Emperor mountains. One wasrge, the other small. One was real, the other was illusory. The two of them almost seemed to be looking at each other.

    A roar echoed from the real Ghost Emperor mountain, something that sounded almost like a threat. At the same time, seven streams of ck smoke shot out from the two major worlds resting on the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s shoulders. Each was roughly 300 meters thick, and was extremely ghastly. They all pulsed with terrifying fluctuations as they rose into the dome of heaven and transformed into seven enormous faces that looked down at Xu Qing.

    They were bizarre in appearance. Some were human, some were beastly. There were men and women, old and young represented. And the middle face actually looked extremely simr to the actual Ghost Emperor.

    Their arrival on the scene caused the air to ripple and distort. What was actually a bright day turned into something more like a gloomy evening as immense pressure pulsed down from the faces. A ferocious and brutal sensation erupted out as they red down at Xu Qing with seeming displeasure.

    At the same time, ghostly shadows emerged from the two major worlds, spreading out in all directions. Among those entities were evil ghosts and grues. They were unhealthy yin entities that hade to exist after those two major worlds were extinguished. They spread out to obfuscate the sky and enshroud thends, making it seem almost like the gates of hell had been opened.

    Of course, such things hardly registered with Qingqin. He even looked a bit excited, as though he were now wondering what these evil ghosts tasted like.

    Xu Qing stood atop Qingqin¡¯s right head, looking at the seven faces of smoke. Expression calm, he said, ¡°I already talked things over with the spirit automaton and the heavenly and earthly spiritual souls. I don¡¯t want to rehash the same information. Presumably, the seven of you already know what¡¯s going on. Tonight at sunset I¡¯ll be waiting on Mount Seagazing outside the Eight Sect Coalition.¡±

    He sped hands, bowed, and turned to leave.

    Truth be told, he didn¡¯t even need toe here. The three spiritual souls and seven physical souls were technically two distinct groups, but they had the same origin. Xu Qing refused to believe that these seven faces didn¡¯t already know what had yed out at the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain.

    That said, even people who knew all the information mighte up with additional demands.

    Therefore, it wasn¡¯t a huge surprise that, as Xu Qing turned, the face that resembled the Ghost Emperor, who ranked first among the physical souls, spoke in a voice that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°I want to see your heavenly dao!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    Turning to face the first-ranked physical soul, he waved his hand toward the sky, and a rumbling howl filled the dark canopy of heaven. The clouds became like an ocean, and the bluegreen dragon leaped out of it. Its long whiskers rippled as it swirled through the air, pulsing with astonishing energy and the clear aura of a heavenly dao.

    The seven physical souls looked on silently.

    Xu Qing waited for a moment, called back the bluegreen dragon, then turned to Qingqin¡¯s middle head and sped hands. Qingqin knew exactly what Xu Qing was getting at. Cawing, he flew a circle around the Ghost Emperor mountain, then pped his wings and shot off into the distance.

    The day passed, and eventually evening approached. It wasn¡¯t a red evening. Instead, the dome of heaven was a waxy yellow color, like an old person clinging to life who just couldn¡¯t bear to let go. As that fading light enveloped Mount Seagazing outside of the Eight Sect Coalition, the evening hour arrived.

    Xu Qing stood at the summit of the mountain. To his right was the Eight Sect Coalition, which had long since activated its defensive shields. Martialw had been imposed there, just in case the seals on Forbidden by the Zombie failed. The sect wasn¡¯tpletely locked down, but was close. All of the sects had activated their taboo treasures, which would asionally send pulsing beams of radiant light into the depths of the sea.

    In front of Xu Qing was the pitch-ck Forbidden Sea.

    Waves crashed there, smashing into the rocky shore and creating a brown froth that piled up on the shoreline. The froth would build up, dissipate, and then build up again. The mutagen in the Forbidden Sea¡¯s waters was also in that froth, and when the froth dissipated, the mutagen would spread out into the area.

    <i>Forbidden by the Zombie is in that direction</i>. Xu Qing continued looking out at the sea.

    He waited. Time passed. Eventually, evening deepened, and darkness started to gobble up the light. Just when it seemed like the sky was going to turn ck, a huge figure appeared a great distance away in the canopy of heaven.

    He was emaciated, with a vicious-looking head and a cancerous growth on his back that made him look like a hunchback. He was none other than August Spirit Sunughter!

    He wasn¡¯t alone. Astonishingly, there was a dwarf standing on his head.

    The dwarf wore a ck robe and had tiny, beady eyes along with a bulging forehead. He had two very long eyebrows that drooped down to his cheeks, a recessed chin, and a mustache shaped roughly like the character °Ë, with the ends curled up so they resembled tusks. In short, the dwarf was very ugly. However, the fact that he was standing on August Spirit Sunughter¡¯s head made it clear how high of a position hemanded. He was surrounded by a ck cloud that looked like it was formed from countless shrieking centipedes. The dwarf was looking at Xu Qing. He was, of course, August Spirit Sporelight.

    ¡°We¡¯ll help you this one time,¡± August Spirit Sporelight said in a raspy voice. It was the voice of the heavenly spiritual soul that Xu Qing had heard earlier.

    Next, rumbling sounds filled the dark sky as seven enormous faces appeared. They were also looking at Xu Qing.

    ¡°We¡¯ll help you this one time!¡± they said, all at the same time. Their voices echoed like thunder.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Xu Qing nodded. Since the deal had already been struck, there was no need for formalities.

    Every single one of the seven physical souls was in the first stage of Void Returning, with the exception of the first-ranking soul, which was in the second stage. August Spirit Sunughter, the earthly spiritual soul, was surrounded by second-stage projections, and August Spirit Sporelight, the heavenly spiritual soul, was so powerful Xu Qing had a hard time assessing him. However, given that he was the leader of all the three spiritual souls and seven physical souls, it went without saying that he was extraordinary. With battle prowess like that, all it would take was one instance of help at the right time.

    That was even truer considering that they hadn¡¯te alone. Xu Qing could sense the aura of countless evil cultivators from the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, as well as a host of evil ghosts.

    Both of these groups, which were two of the major powers of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, hade in full force. Xu Qing also had Qingqin. With the full power of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in y, Xu Qing was confident that Forbidden by the Zombie could be fully sealed.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he took a step forward. Qingqin materialized in front of him and epted him. Then the great bird looked around, let loose a deafening cry, and flew out over the Forbidden Sea.

    Behind Qingqin, August Spirit Sunughter licked his lips and followed. August Spirit Sporelight sped his hands behind his back and stood atop August Spirit Sunughter, his facepletely expressionless. Above them, the clouds seethed as the seven massive faces also followed along. Within those clouds were innumerable evil ghosts, pulsing with a formidable aura that made them seem like a horde of devils that darkened the sky.

    The sky was dark, and the Forbidden Sea was just as dark. Waves surged, and mutagen pulsed. Currents flowed under the surface, and it was just possible to see sea beasts swimming through them. They were a lot different than Xu Qing remembered. Most of them existed in various stages of rot. And by inhaling deeply, it was possible to detect the aroma of decay in the salty sea air.

    Clearly, this incident with Forbidden by the Zombie had severely contaminated the Forbidden Sea. After all, the true heart of the sea was Forbidden by the Zombie, which made it easy for the containments to freely spread through most of the sea.

    Up ahead, Xu Qing spotted a massive wave heading in a certain direction. Meanwhile, a stiff wind built up. The two forces mmed into each other with a deafening crash, sending more waves, some dozens of meters tall, others hundreds, sweeping out in all directions. The Forbidden Sea looked like an irascible giant, frantically trying to ease the pain that wracked its body.

    The fluctuations of magical techniques merged with the sound of sutras being chanted, alling from the direction of Forbidden by the Zombie.

    As Xu Qing continued on his way, he noticed the color of the sea changing. He saw streaks of gold spreading out, as if the area around Forbidden by the Zombie were slowly bing golden. The closer he got to Forbidden by the Zombie, the more gold he saw. It got denser and more numerous, and glittered dazzlingly.

    The sound of sutras and the fluctuations of magical techniques became more boundless, until they were like the cry of countless people.

    <i>¡°A person can fail the dao; the dao cannot fail a person. A person can lose their life; a life cannot lose the dao.</i>

    <i>¡°Things touched by a god are given life by that spirit. Gains are not gifted by heaven, failures are not seized by a person.¡±</i>

    The sutra seemed capable of stirring one¡¯s soul; as soon as Xu Qing heard it, his expression flickered, and his mind vibrated as though his soul might leave his body.

    But then Qingqin¡¯s head shifted slightly beneath his feet, and magenta light spread out. Daybreak light erupted from Xu Qing. Thus, his soul was kept under control, and ceased attempting to escape.

    The physical and spiritual souls behind him looked out at the Forbidden Sea with gleaming eyes.

    A shocking formation was active on the Forbidden Sea right now.

    From his position in the sky, Xu Qing looked around and saw masses of cultivators from all over Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And he also saw what Forbidden by the Zombie looked like now.

    It resembled a massive golden face.

    1. Xu Qing arrived at the mountain with Master Seventh in <u>chapter 305</u>. ?

 Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God (part 2)

    Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God (part 2)

    The face covered as much of the sea as the entire dimension of Forbidden by the Zombie. It bulged slightly out of the water, massive and ghastly, struggling as if to emerge from the depths. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out as the closed eyes of the face constantly tried to open. This was the source of the corpse-like stench that spread out and tried to invade all living beings.

    From what Xu Qing could sense, there were some huge differences between this face and the gods he had encountered. The golden face definitely wasn¡¯t a god, but it did seem like it had been formed by the aura of a god.

    The reason it hadn¡¯t broken free was that there was a restraining it formed from 999 blood threads. That meant there were very nearly 1,000 blood threads. Every single one was affixed to the surface of the sea, and was held in ce by various cultivators from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    There were a total of 1,998 points of contact surrounding the face. Each was a spell formation heart, which meant that there were a total of 1,998 spell formations in y. These formations all worked together to create a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering grand formation. The formationpletely surrounded Forbidden by the Zombie, restraining the huge face. From high in the sky, it was apparent that within each formation sat over a thousand cultivators.

    Xu Qing saw many familiar faces among them. All-in-all, there were around 2,000,000 cultivators.

    Represented among them were species from all over Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and the Forbidden Sea, and they formed a terrifying force. There were even some Qi Condensation cultivators in the group, which made it obvious that Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and the Forbidden Sea were going all out in this effort. All were chanting the same sutra.

    ¡°We embody the energy of heaven and earth; the dao shall curse the ghosts to be sealed.

    ¡°Curse gold to melt itself; curse wood to chop itself; curse water to drink itself; curse fire to extinguish itself; curse mountains to copse themselves.

    ¡°Seal ghosts to kill themselves; seal prayers to end themselves; seal boils to excise themselves; seal gods to bind themselves.

    ¡°The paramount yin-yang dao sealing cannot be vited.¡±

    The voices of over 2,000,000 peoplebined, creating a shocking sound that resonated high into the sky. It was like countless bolts of heavenly thunder crashing at the same time. It was an iron-dmand that instantly made the godly might dim.

    The sight caused the spiritual and physical souls to react with visible surprise, and Xu Qing was also taken aback.

    Meanwhile, there were two extremely powerful auras present, one in the sky, one beneath the surface of the water.

    Reinforcing the formation from the sky were streams of power from twenty-six taboo treasures. Apparently, most of the taboo treasures in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were focused there, creating a projected image.

    It was readily apparent what levels of taboo treasures were at y.

    At the very top was the strongest. It was an ancient bronze bell that emanated an aura so ancient it was impossible to tell how old it was. Every time the bell tolled, it would shake the souls of those who heard it, and would cause the gigantic face below to frown. It contained the power of emotions, and could influence the hearts and minds of all living things. That was the taboo treasure from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    Beneath the bell were three slightly weaker taboo treasures. One of them was a statue with its arms wrapped around its chest, bent over and pierced with countless thorns. Its facial expression was a mixture of pain and piety. There was also a green spear that emanated piercing sensations and a strong baleful aura. The final treasure on that level was Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ giant mirror, which featured seven opened eyes that all glowed with gruish light.

    Below those were slightly weaker taboo treasures, and there were a lot of them. They included the other treasures from the Eight Sect Coalition, as well as additional treasures from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and the Church of Departure.

    However, they did not form the overall structure of the formation in the sky.

    That formation was also made from taboo treasures, but they were from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court. They were secret reserve powers from the Swordsage Court, and they were actually two formations conforming to yin and yang. The yang formation was in the sky, and the yin formation was at the bottom of the sea.

    The two formations bolstered each other and constantly emitted suppressing power.

    Looking down through the water, it was possible to see that the yin formation suppressing the face contained over eighty Void Returning cultivators from across Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, seated cross-legged. They included members of the Eight Sect Coalition, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, the Church of Departure, as well as patriarchs from other species. All of them were following the lead of the Swordsage Court. They included the Void Returning swordsages that Xu Qing remembered from the Swordsage Court.

    Especially noteworthy was the grand elder, whose terrifying might was enough to power about ten percent of the formation. August Spirit Nethersprite sat next to him. Though her expression was cid, she had no choice but to lend aid.

    Sir Bloodsmelter, Master Seventh, and Arch-Immortal Plumdark were all there as well. Master Seventh had experienced a breakthrough recently. In fact, given his position in the formation, it seemed that he had already surpassed Sir Bloodsmelter in terms of importance.

    All of that went to show that, thanks to the month of hard work to suppress Forbidden by the Zombie, they had managed to keep it in check. Although Forbidden by the Zombie was terrifyingly powerful, thebined power of the prefectural forces was enough to seal it, given enough time.

    When Xu Qing arrived, he immediately attracted a lot of attention. Numerous streams of divine will swirled to lock onto him.

    The spiritual and physical souls were clearly taking the situation very seriously, and even Qingqin had reigned in some of his ferocity. The sight of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s formations was nothing less than astonishing.

    The various patriarchs sitting in the yin formation opened their eyes and looked up. Master Seventh, Sir Bloodsmelter, and Plumdark all looked at Xu Qing. Thetter two seemed surprised. Master Seventh looked thoughtful.

    When the Swordsage Court¡¯s grand elder saw Xu Qing, Qingqin, the heavenly and earthly souls, and the seven physical souls, his eyes glittered. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all, as he had been expecting Xu Qing. After Xu Qing entered Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, while he was on the way to the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain, he had sent a message to the grand elder notifying him of the n, and letting him know about the situation with his Ghost Emperor pce. The grand elder had approved of the n.

    After all, it was an inherently dangerous n, and bringing the Ghost Emperor¡¯s spiritual and physical souls into the situation came with the risk of betrayal. Logically speaking, the chances of that seemed small, but they still had to be on guard in case it happened.

    Xu Qing and the grand elder had talked it out. The grand elder agreed, and told Xu Qing to go through with the n.

    ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing reporting for duty. Well met, Grand Elder!¡± From his spot atop Qingqin¡¯s right head, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. ¡°Your humble servant has invited the two spiritual souls of heaven and earth, plus the seven physical souls here today. That¡¯s a total of nine members of the Senior generation here to help. I also have Senior Qingqin willing to lend a hand. Please, Grand Elder, let us know what to do.¡±

    Qingqin let loose a caw to emphasize his agreement.

    Xu Qing then turned to Master Seventh and the patriarch and offered a respectful bow.

    ¡°Greetings, Master. Greetings, Patriarch.¡±

    Next he looked at Plumdark, who smiled at him with glittering eyes.

    Master Seventh stroked his beard, and Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down in pride. However, given the enormity of the work at hand, none of them could afford to be distracted.

    As for the grand elder, he didn¡¯t waste any time. ¡°Xu Qing, please reveal your Ghost Emperor mountain!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Thankfully, hisst trip to the Supreme Void World had left him with enough demonization talismans to summon the Ghost Emperor a few times.

    He activated the talismans, and the Ghost Emperor mountain rumbled into being. The mountain was shocking in appearance as it hovered in the dome of heaven. It looked extremely lifelike, and sent out maddening pressure. Even more noteworthy was the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir that rested on its knees, glittering brightly.

    More shocking than all of that, though, was that the face resembled Xu Qing.

    The moment the Ghost Emperor appeared, the more than 2,000,000 cultivators from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and the Forbidden Sea reacted with visible astonishment. Obviously, most of them knew about the Ghost Emperor mountain in general, but to see it manifested by Xu Qing was a bit of a shock.

    Among those who were shocked was Master Seventh. He almost couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing. And then he thought back to what he had taught Xu Qing about materialization techniques before he left for the county capital. All of his advice had been merely theoretical, and he hadn¡¯t truly thought that Xu Qing might seed. Yet now... he could see with his own eyes that the Ghost Emperor mountain really was right there. Clearly, it had been done via a different method than he suggested, but when all was said and done, there it was, right in front of him.

    It really worked? he thought, feeling quite at a loss.

    Around then, the Swordsage Court¡¯s grand elder said, ¡°August Spirit Sporelight, August Spirit Sunughter, and you seven physical soul Fellow Daoists, I¡¯m aware of the deal you struck with Xu Qing. I hereby solemnly swear that after this day, you can sit back and wait for the next step of the n to unfold.

    ¡°Since you¡¯ll only be helping this one time, please fuse with this illusory ghost mountain. Then, after your three spiritual souls and seven physical souls havebined temporarily, please take action!

    ¡°All allied species from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, in a moment, add your power to the Ghost Emperor projection to ensure it stays whole. Senior Qingqin, please release your life essence godlight to do the same thing. We need the Ghost Emperor projection to stay whole for only a short time.

    ¡°Xu Qing, stay alert. This instance of destined opportunity and good fortune for Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is all due to you!¡±

    Xu Qing noticed Master Seventh nod in his direction, and thus, without hesitation, cast his senses out.

    August Spirit Sunughter said nothing, while August Spirit Sporelight gave the grand elder a long, hard look. The request that had just been made surpassed what he had expected, yet was perfectly reasonable. There was no conspiracy at y. Sporelight and the other souls didn¡¯t want the Ghost Emperor to awaken. Nor did the various groups in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. There was a tense situation on the front lines of battle, and the sealing of Forbidden by the Zombie had reached a critical juncture. Besides, if this was some trick, he felt confident that he could deal with it. Therefore, he nodded, and then looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯re obviously very important to the Swordsage Pce. Well, that¡¯s fine. Since we don¡¯t have to do anything after this, I wish you sess in your future endeavors!¡±

    With that, he turned into a white beam of light that shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s Ghost Emperor. As he fused with it, the mountain trembled, and its aura erupted. It now pulsed with a third-stage Void-Returning energy, causing it to be surrounded by countless minor worlds.

    August Spirit Sunughter¡¯s eyes glowed; he had never done anything like this before, but that didn¡¯t stop him from turning into a second beam of white light that shot toward the mountain. After he was fully fused, the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s aura erupted again. The minor worlds around it started shattering and reforming in an endless cycle.

    Next, the seven physical souls also became beams of light that fused with the Ghost Emperor mountain. The Ghost Emperor projection was obviously unable to sustain such a fusion, and began teetering on the verge of copse. However, Qingqin sent forth a beam of magenta light to bolster it. At the same time, the 2,000,000 cultivators below added in the blessing of the formation¡¯s power.

    The image of the Ghost Emperor grew even clearer, and began to pulse with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering pressure. It was as if the Ghost Emperor had actuallye!

    The countless minor worlds started merging with each other amidst their cycles of destruction and creation. Eventually, they became part of the two major worlds on the Ghost Emperor¡¯s right and left shoulders. And those worlds, previously dark and dim, began to shine with godlight.

    An aura very close to that of a Smoldering God spread out over the Forbidden Sea. The clouds in the sky trembled and copsed in the face of an aura thatmanded ultimate respect! Much of the Forbidden Sea sank down, as if the sea itself were bowing its head!

    Whether it was cultivators of varying species from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture or the strange denizens of the Forbidden Sea, all were shaken to the core. It was an instinct built into their life force, a veneration that came from the depths of their soul. They trembled uncontrobly, and a profound feeling of terror filled them.

    It was something they couldn¡¯t resist or avoid. They could only yield to that terror that weighed down on them from above. It was as if this beingmanded the might of an emperor that all living beings would immediately kowtow to. It was as if this beingmanded imperial majesty that all species would bow and pray to. It was immeasurably domineering!

    The chanting of the sutra was stifled, and the formations in the area trembled. The golden face stopped struggling. Having sensed an immense threat, its eyes suddenly opened.

    This was a being that was half a step into the Smoldering God level. If Nethersprite was added as the final spiritual soul, it would be a Smoldering God! However, the grand elder had not released that final soul.

    What was more, if Qingqin¡¯s godlight vanished, then the Ghost Emperor would crumble. So there were great limitations at work. The help of the 2,000,000 cultivators served the same function. What was more, this projected emperor belonged to Xu Qing, and thus he had some measure of control over it.

    ¡°Ghost Emperor, please crush Forbidden by the Zombie with the might of a single attack!¡± the grand elder shouted.

 Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God (part 3)

    <h4>Chapter 501: Half-Step into Smoldering God (part 3)</h4>

    The Ghost Emperor, which was just about to copse, extended his right hand toward Forbidden by the Zombie, then pushed it down. That motion released heaven-rending, earth-crushing power. Countless dao lineaments manifested, and innumerable magicalws appeared. There were even heavenly dao auras in the air, offering blessings of might! Countless supernatural phenomena filled heaven and earth. Humanoid images stood tall. Beastly images howled. Heavenly maids scattered blossoms. Ancient Emperors watched attentively.

    As the hand descended, it seemed to rece the dome of heaven, crushing down. Intense, deafening rumbling sounds echoed out! The power of heavenly might soared to the limit.

    In all directions, the water of the Forbidden Sea exploded. Water sprayed everywhere as an endless tempest built on the Forbidden Sea, sweeping across all of the inds there, causing the sea level to rise by hundreds of meters.

    The golden face was instantly inundated, yet it fought back defiantly. Its eyes were open, as was its mouth, as it howled in frustration. However, the sealing surged with force. After the brief pause in the chanting of the daoist sutra, it returned with a thunderous roar, mping down with suppressive strength.

    In the end, the face could do nothing but howl begrudgingly as it sank down.

    Previously, the sealing would have worked, but required much more time. But that was only with thebined might of an entire prefecture, nearly a hundred species from the Forbidden Sea, a host of top experts and taboo treasures.

    Adding in the palm strike of a half-step Smoldering God, it sped up the process dramatically. The reality was that not even the might of a half-step Smoldering God was enough to seal Forbidden by the Zombie with a single blow. It was only because of thebined strength put into y by Emperor-Receiving Prefecture that one single blow was enough toplete the sealing.

    Neither side could have aplished it so quickly on their own.

    When the golden face sank into the sea, covered by the blood-colored, the image of the Ghost Emperor couldn¡¯t remain whole. Just before it copsed, the somewhat vacant eyes of the Ghost Emperor didn¡¯t look at anyone present. Instead, it looked at the sinking face. Then it opened its mouth as if to say something, except no words came out. A boom rang out, and the Ghost Emperor crumbled into dust.

    Rain fell from the sky, like weeping. Heavenly daos dispersed, like sighing. The supernatural phenomena departed, like demolished daos.

    However, nine beams of light remained, shooting out to form the heavenly and earthly spiritual souls, plus the seven physical souls. All looked dazed, but at the same time, thrummed with emotional fluctuations. This event had been momentous for them.

    What was more, they knew it probably wouldn¡¯t happen a second time, unless Xu Qing was willing to make it happen. It required protection from Qingqin¡¯s godlight, and more importantly, the entire might of a prefecture joined with that of nearly a hundred nonhumans, all under themand of the Swordsage Court, backed by dozens of taboo treasures and nearly a hundred Void Returning experts. That wasn¡¯t likely to happen ever again.

    The catastrophe in Forbidden by the Zombie had been temporarily ended!

    No one could wipe forbidden grounds out of existence. From ancient times until now, whenever a forbidden ground went out of control, their method of resolution was sealing.

    As for this particr catastrophe, it was the result of outside meddling. The Holytides wanted it to happen to give them an advantage in the war. They needed to limit the battle prowess Sea-Sealing County was capable of fielding, and had therefore dispatched agents into Forbidden by the Zombie to secretly open the ancient bronze door there. They only opened it a crack, but that was enough to cause Emperor Zombie to be devoured. Without that emperor, the various entities that resided in Forbidden by the Zombie had nothing to keep them in check, and they began proliferating.

    But that was only one aspect of the catastrophe. The aura of a god seeped out of the opened door, which was the second aspect.

    Therefore, the sealing which had been carried out didn¡¯t just prevent the various evil entities inside Forbidden by the Zombie from escaping to cause harm, it also ensured that the door was tightly shut again. That was the most challenging aspect of the sealing formation that had been powered by over 2,000,000 cultivators. When the door of a god was opened even by a crack, it wasn¡¯t easy to shut.

    Emperor-Receiving Prefecture had gone through countless trials and tribtions since the fighting started. And they had pushed the door until it was on the very verge of being closed. Then a half-step Smoldering God arrived and sped things up,pleting the sealing. The only thing left to do was a bit of cleanup work.

    As for Xu Qing, he had benefited greatly. His expression was currently nk. Thanks to his connection to the Ghost Emperor projection, his mind had gone through a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering baptism.

    That baptism had a profound effect on his senses. To any other observer, the arrival of a half-step Smoldering God would be an iparably shocking assault on one¡¯s vision. It could even be likened to a painting. In the end, no matter how clearly those observers saw what was happening, they were only ¡®seeing.¡¯

    That wasn¡¯t the case with Xu Qing. He was the one who had created that ¡®scene¡¯ and that ¡®assault on vision.¡¯ He participated in it, and had been an integral part. He was not an outside observer. He was a participant. Therefore, what he had sensed surpassed what anyone else could possibly know.

    The power of a half-step Smoldering God had in some ways led Xu Qing in a certain direction, and given him a window through which to observe what it meant to be a Smoldering God.

    Most importantly, it affected his understanding and his soul. He had gone through an astonishing expansion of understanding; going forward, whenever he faced powerful experts, he would have a much stronger mental state! It was roughly the same when it came to his soul. A half-step Smoldering God had been created out of nothing, and that provided a deep tempering. It wasn¡¯t a tangible benefit, but it was something that would prove very usefulter on.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked down toward the grand elders and the others, who were rising up from the yin formation now that the face was sealed.

    Xu Qing knew that though the grand elder had been mostly concerned about the sealing, he had also provided an amazing destined opportunity. Xu Qing sped hands and bowed solemnly to the grand elder.

    The grand elder gave a faint nod in return, and a look of approval appeared on his exhausted face. Xu Qing had gotten his start in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and this grand elder had viewed him as important even back then.

    Sir Bloodsmelter felt simrly, and it went without saying that Master Seventh was the same. Master Seventh stroked his beard looking very pleased with himself.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s eyes overflowed with an unreadable expression, but her gaze was clearly focused on Xu Qing.

    Then a loud caw rang out, causing all eyes to shift to Qingqin.

    Qingqin hovered haughtily in the air, and his call was apparently a reminder to everyone that he had also yed an important role.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior Qingqin!¡± the grand elder said respectfully, sping his hands and bowing.

    The other Void Returning experts all bowed in thanks, as did the 2,000,000 cultivators.

    Qingqin seemed very pleased with the prestige he had garnered. He instinctively looked in the direction of South Phoenix, and suddenly realized it was strange that his Eldest Brother hadn¡¯te. But then again, his Eldest Brother had his own set of principles, and obviously didn¡¯t like brushing shoulders with all sorts of species. At least, that¡¯s what Qingqin believed was the case.

    The heavenly and earthly spiritual souls and the seven physical souls had all recovered. August Spirit Sporelight, who was the leader, looked grimly at the grand elder, and then Xu Qing.

    ¡°We¡¯ve done our part. Now it¡¯s your turn.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded gravely.

    August Spirit Sporelight turned and vanished. August Spirit Sunughter did the same. The seven physical souls turned into smoke that flew up into the air and vanished. During the entire time, none of them had even looked at Nethersprite.

    If the Swordsage Court wanted to return her, they would. If they didn¡¯t, then everyone seemed fine to leave her behind as a hostage. Nethersprite was obviously disappointed with that, but couldn¡¯t do anything about it. She knew full well that herpatriots cared more about their personal freedom than any bonds ofpanionship.

    After the Ghost Emperors souls were gone, and the cleanup work began, the grand elder called for a meeting with Xu Qing and the Void Returning patriarchs. One of the people in that group was the president of the Eight Sect Coalition. He looked at Xu Qing differently than he had before. He showed more respect.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you mind telling us what you n to do next?¡± the grand elder asked, massaging the bridge of his nose.

    The gazes of the dozens of Void Returning cultivators all shifted to Xu Qing. Any other cultivator who had so many gazes like that locked onto them would started trembling uncontrobly. But after everything Xu Qing had experienced, including the gazes of multiple gods, he had no trouble having some Void Returning cultivators looking at him.

    ¡°The situations on the northern and western fronts are critical. The power of the taboo treasures is weakening. The front lines are in danger. Pce Lord Kong issued a dharmic decree giving me the power to represent him in all matters. My main job is to gather resources and troops from throughout Sea-Sealing County. I¡¯ve already handled the supplies, and in fact, they should already have reached the battlefield. In terms of troops, my thoughts immediately turned to Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the grand elder.

    The grand elder nodded, looked around at the group, then calmly said, ¡°What do all of you think?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter was the first to respond. ¡°We fight!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s facial expression remained the same as ever as he nodded.

    Arch-Immortal Plumdark looked at Xu Qing. ¡°The Dark Serenity Sect will fight.¡±

    The other patriarchs of the Eight Sect Coalition thought the matter over briefly, then agreed. Finally, the president looked at Xu Qing and gave an encouraging smile.

    ¡°It¡¯s only natural that our Eight Sect Coalition will support its dao child. And more than that, we support humankind!¡±

    The grand elder turned to look at the other Void-Returning cultivators. ¡°In that case, what about the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society and the Church of Departure? And what about all you other human sects from throughout Emperor-Receiving Prefecture?¡±

    The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society had about ten Void Returning cultivators. They exchanged nces. Obviously, they had no reason to refuse the call, so they nodded in agreement.

    The group from the Church of Departure took a moment longer, but also agreed.

    The grand elder gave one final look at the group then turned to Xu Qing with a somber expression. ¡°In that case, Secretary-General Xu, please represent Pce Lord Kong and give us your orders!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grave as he took out the pce lordmand medallion and raised it high. As the medallion glittered with bright light, Xu Qing spoke in an imposing voice.

    ¡°I hereby call for all organizations in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to follow themand of the Swordsage Court and make haste to Injustice Prefecture. There, you will help resolve the catastrophe with Forbidden by the Garment. Afterwards, thebined forces of both prefectures will head to the western front!¡±

    ¡°The pce lord¡¯s orders shall be followed!¡± the grand elder said, bowing solemnly.

    The swordsages who nked him all had very serious expressions on their faces. As they bowed their heads to acknowledge the orders, somber and deste auras pulsed from them. The other Void Returning experts all inclined their heads to themand medallion.

    Two hourster, the grand elder of the Swordsage Court stood at the head of a new army.

    The nonhumans who hade from various parts of the Forbidden Sea to help with Forbidden by the Zombie weren¡¯t interested in participating in another war, so they took their leave. The Swordsage Court didn¡¯t cause any problems for them, and in fact, courteously saw them off.

    Not everyone from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture joined the new army. People from various sects and species stayed behind to take care of matters with Forbidden by the Zombie.

    Among those who the grand elder ordered to stay behind were Master Seventh and Arch-Immortal Plumdark. They were to be in charge of the final cleanup at Forbidden by the Zombie.

    When Xu Qing heard that order, he nced at the grand elder. In his heart, he suspected that the grand elder had done that because of him. After all, things on the battlefield could get very dangerous.

    Xu Qing epted the situation withoutment.

    Everyone else was to be part of the new army. The Seven Blood Eyes contingent would be led by Sir Bloodsmelter.

    At the behest of the grand elder, all Emperor-Receiving Prefecture sects sent the power of their taboo treasures to the county capital. As a result, the golden shimmered briefly above Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. With more taboo treasure power under the control of the county capital, the northern and western fronts both grew a bit stronger.

    And with that, Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s army headed toward Injustice Prefecture.

    From a distance, it was possible to see tens of thousands of massive flying ships moving through the air. They were followed by evenrger numbers of smaller magical ships. The movement of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s army was quite impressive. Wherever it went, immense pressure weighed down in all directions.

 Chapter 502: Iâ€™m Right Here, Little Junior Brother!! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 502: I¡¯m Right Here, Little Junior Brother!! (part 1)</h4>

    The grand army passed through thends, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. Any evil elements in Sea-Sealing County scattered in front of it. Intense rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth, and a somber and deste aura spread out in all directions. Tens of thousands of massive flying ships sted through the clouds.

    Xu Qing flew off of Qingqin¡¯s right head andnded on thergest flying ship of them all, the Swordsage Court¡¯s, which headed up the procession. Sir Bloodsmelter was there as well. Xu Qing hade to ask him about Forbidden by the Zombie. After all, the golden hand he¡¯d seen stretching out of that bronze door had made asting impression on him. [1]

    ¡°Forbidden by the Zombie is like the other forbidden grounds,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter exined. ¡°All were created when the eyes of the broken face of the god opened a second time. ording to the information we have in the ancient records, it was countless years ago that the god looked into the depths of the Forbidden Sea at an ancient bronze door, transforming everything around it. The second gaze was also cast upon that door.

    ¡°Truth be told, it¡¯s not just forbidden grounds that are like this. It¡¯s the same with forbidden regions. They all have an object as their foundation. That¡¯s why people will usually try to figure out what the broken face of the god was looking at. And that¡¯s also why people havee to the conclusion that the broken face of the god is carrying out some sort of selection process. As for any details beyond that, nobody knows.¡±

    If any other person had asked for this information, Sir Bloodsmelter wouldn¡¯t have gone into such detail. But things were different when it came to Xu Qing. He took his time to exin everything. That was simply how he treated his grand-apprentice.

    Meanwhile, the exnation so far caused Xu Qing to think about the forbidden region he had visited during his early days in Seven Blood Eyes, which was next to the scavenger basecamp in South Phoenix. Upon peering into its depths, he¡¯d seen a dpidated zither. [2]

    Sir Bloodsmelter looked at Xu Qing and continued, ¡°The emperor of Forbidden by the Zombie was created by the energy sent out into the forbidden ground by that ancient bronze door, which became part of the surrounding mutagen over many years.

    ¡°That¡¯s why, when that bronze door opened, even just a little bit, the emperor was incapable of resistance. He was devoured. In some ways, you could consider that forbidden ground to be like a giant pantry.

    ¡°The emperor acted like the pantry custodian, except the reality is that he was standing in for someone else, and was himself nothing but food for the taking. The real pantry custodians are asleep.

    ¡°And they¡¯re waiting for the eyes of the broken god face to open a third time. When that third time happens, they¡¯ll awaken, and that area will turn into a god domain.¡±

    ¡°What about Forbidden by the Phoenix?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Forbidden by the Phoenix... is different.¡± Sir Bloodsmelter shook his head. ¡°The foundation of that forbidden ground isn¡¯t an object. It¡¯s me Phoenix himself. And me Phoenix isn¡¯t asleep. He¡¯s always been awake. me Phoenix could wait for the god¡¯s eyes to open a third time, or he could decline to wait and ascend to a higher level of his own volition. That¡¯s why me Phoenix is different.¡±

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i> called out Qingqin proudly from outside the flying ship.

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked out at the huge bird.

    Qingqin was actually a bitzy. He had grabbed onto the bottom of the ship with his ws and was hanging there upside down, his three heads swaying as he inhaled and exhaled the clouds. Noting Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, he lifted his right head. He looked a bit frustrated. Xu Qing knew exactly what that expression meant. Qingqin wanted to exterminate a species....

    ¡°Just be a little patient, Senior,¡± Xu Qing said quickly. ¡°You¡¯ll get your chance!¡±

    His right head dropped back down and continued inhaling and exhaling the clouds. He seemed quite bored.

    Sir Bloodsmelter noted the exchange. Looking thoughtful, he sighed. ¡°Your Master has some real skills. He¡¯s really blessed to have taken in you and your Elder Sister as apprentices. It¡¯s also a blessing for you two. You¡¯ve got to stay alive and keep getting stronger. Don¡¯t worry about anything else. As long as I¡¯m alive and kicking, I¡¯ll make sure to watch out for you!¡±

    The praise in his words couldn¡¯t have been more clear.

    Xu Qing was very taken aback. ¡°Wait.... Me and my Elder Sister? What about Eldest Brother and Third Elder Brother?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter snorted coldly. ¡°Them? Heh. Right. Forgot about those two. We cultivators can¡¯t let carnal desires affect us. Your Third Elder Brother had things under control for a while. But he just had to go seduce that holy daughter from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. In the end, he tried to flee the marriage, but failed. The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society gathered enough evidence to track him down and drag him back from where he was hiding overseas. [3]

    ¡°Now he¡¯s stuck in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, forced to live like a normal person. How tragic! Well, that¡¯s what you get when your cultivation base is too low.¡± Sir Bloodsmelter actually looked angry. ¡°If his cultivation base was high enough, he would be more like your Master. One re from your Master is enough to cow any daoist partner and even her family!¡±

    An odd look appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as he looked at the patriarch, and he started wondering if there was a hidden meaning to the patriarch''s words.

    ¡°Anyway, your Third Elder Brother is in a really tragic situation, but your Master doesn¡¯t feel like wasting the time to go save him. Me either.

    ¡°As for your Eldest Brother... I have no idea when it happened exactly, but sometime recently he suddenly became obsessed with lust. In fact, roughly half a year ago, he sent a message to your Master asking him to propose a marriage with some woman named... Tao something. He ignores his responsibilities, refuses to be a good swordsage, refuses to focus on his cultivation, and cares only about lust!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and refrained from saying anything.

    ¡°But you, Fourth Sib, are a perfect example. It¡¯s not that we cultivators shouldpletely sever sensual desires. Rather, they aren¡¯t the focus. The cultivation base is the most important thing.

    ¡°Once you reach Void Returning, you won¡¯t have to go looking for a daoist partner. The tall ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones, in fact, every type of female cultivator will line up hoping you pick them. Trust me, I know a thing or two. Just take my advice and work hard!¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s words seemed very sincere and heartfelt.

    However, Xu Qing, after hesitating a moment, cautiously asked, ¡°But Second Elder Sister and Huang Yan... aren¡¯t they¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s different!¡± Sir Bloodsmelter cleared his throat and looked out at Qingqin. Apparently, he was done with the conversation.

    Xu Qing was a little surprised. But then he noticed what Sir Bloodsmelter was looking at, and it reminded him of the time he¡¯d looked at Huang Yan using the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, and how Huang Yan had seemingly noticed him. Even back then, he¡¯d gotten the impression there was something unusual about Huang Yan. [4]

    <i>I remember Huang Yan saying something about having a friend in the county capital who was going to watch out for me</i>.... Upon recalling that, an outrageous notion urred to Xu Qing that got his heart pounding. He suddenly looked at Qingqin. Xu Qing had always been confused about why Qingqin so readily agreed to help him. After mulling the matter over a bit, he shoved it aside and decided to just ask Qingqin about itter when the time was right. [5]

    In that manner, time passed.

    As arranged by the Swordsage Court, the grand army of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture used a long-range teleportation to shorten the trip to Injustice Prefecture. Three dayster, the army reached a point that was only about six hours from the other prefecture.

    During the three days, Xu Qing spent most of his time with Sir Bloodsmelter, catching up on all the sect matters he had missed during his time away.

    Other bits of time were spent with the grand elder from the Swordsage Pce, informing him of what he had learned in the Secretariat Division about the Forbidden by the Garment situation. Using that information, they formed a general strategy.

    ¡°Forbidden by the Garment in Injustice Prefecture is right next to the Garmentfolk territory,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°It¡¯s not a jungle, but rather, an enormous pitch-ck funerary garment. The funerary garment is extremely inauspicious, and is full of mutagen. Living beings who enter it find themselves in another world, a bizarre ce of infinite dusk.

    ¡°On a fundamental level, this disasteres down to that ck funerary garment awakening. Those bearing the brunt of the disaster are not the human sects and the Swordsage Court of Injustice Prefecture, but rather, the Garmentfolk. The Garmentfolk aren¡¯t an original native species of Injustice Prefecture. They¡¯re a new species that came into existence in Forbidden by the Garment, after the broken face of the god arrived.

    ¡°They despise death and love beauty, so the environment of Forbidden by the Garment wasn¡¯t appropriate for them. They split ways and became a unique species, which is why they and Forbidden by the Garment are as intolerant of each other as water and fire. It goes without saying that the Garmentfolk stand guard over Forbidden by the Garment.

    ¡°The major powers of Injustice Prefecture have teamed up, and thanks to their hard work, Forbidden by the Garment is almostpletely sealed. Based on the estimates sent by the Swordsage Court, most of the work is done.¡±

    That was the gist of the information Qing Qiu hadpiled for Xu Qing back in the Secretariat Division. Though the grand elder knew some of the details, his information wasn¡¯t asprehensive.

    ¡°In that case,¡± the grand elder said, ¡°with our help, things should go as they did with Forbidden by the Zombie. We should be able toplete the sealing fairly quickly.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and nced at August Spirit Nethersprite, who had shrunk down to the size of a normal person and stood behind the grand elder. As a prisoner, she had no personal freedom, and had been required toe with the army. Seeing Xu Qing looking at her, she hmphed and looked away.

    Xu Qing looked away and focused on the discussion with the grand elder. Eventually, when the army got even closer to Injustice Prefecture, he returned to Qingqin¡¯s right head.

    Right when they were about to cross the border, Xu Qing remembered the question he¡¯d been nning to ask. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Senior Qingqin. Sir... do you know Huang Yan?¡±

    <i>¡°CAW?¡±</i> Qingqin¡¯s three heads, which had all been preening each other, suddenly turned to look at Xu Qing. They all blinked a few times.

    Seeing Qingqin¡¯s gaze upon him, Xu Qing said, ¡°Senior Qingqin, maybe we shouldmunicate via divine will...?¡±

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i> Qingqin¡¯s eyes shed with displeasure. Apparently, he was determined to speak only by means of his caws. All three heads shook back and forth, and he was about to let loose another caw when, all of a sudden, all three heads swiveled to look toward the horizon.

    It wasn¡¯t just Qingqin. The entire army immediately pulsed with the fluctuations of magical techniques, all focused on the horizon.

    They had arrived in Injustice Prefecture.

    There was a reason why everyone in the army was so focused on what was ahead. There was an extremely strong aura of deathing from Injustice Prefecture, so strong that it changed the color of the sky. In fact, it changed the color of everything.

    Xu Qing remembered what Injustice Prefecture looked like, especially the part controlled by the Garmentfolk. The Garmentfolk upied at least twenty percent of Injustice Prefecture, and because of them, thends were usually very colorful and beautiful. But right now... everything looked like it was covered with an ash-colored white. It was an enormous white shroud! [6]

    1. Xu Qing saw the bronze door and the hand in <u>chapter 385</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing saw the zither in <u>chapter 383</u>. ?

    3. It was a passingment, but the subject of Third Elder Brother running away to avoid being forced into marriage was mentioned in <u>chapter 383</u>. ?

    4. Huang Yan noticed Xu Qing looking at him with the taboo treasure in <u>chapter 383</u> and <u>384</u>. ?

    5. Huang Yan mentioned his friend in the county capital in <u>chapter 380</u>. ?

    6. You might remember a while back in the story when Xu Qing acquired a strip of a shroud that he used to make the handle for his dagger. That¡¯s actually a slightly different word in Chinese than this one, though they both mean the same thing. The other shroud, which first appeared in <u>chapter 344</u>, uses the moremon and proper word for shroud which, in Chinese, literally means ¡°corpse-wrapping cloth.¡± The word for shroud in this chapter is very simr, and basically means the same thing, but uses a character that means ¡°cover¡± instead of ¡°wrap,¡± so directly tranted it¡¯s ¡°corpse-covering cloth.¡± None of this is particrly important, but I just wanted to make sure nobody makes a connection between this shroud and the other one, at least in terms of them having the same name, because in Chinese they do not have exactly the same name. And to forestall anyments about trantion choice, I know there are a handful of synonyms for ¡®shroud,¡¯ but in my opinion they¡¯re too obscure, and in this instance, it makes more sense to use an easily understandable word. ?

 Chapter 502: Iâ€™m Right Here, Little Junior Brother!! (part 2)

    Chapter 502: I¡¯m Right Here, Little Junior Brother!! (part 2)

    Looking closely, it looked like the huge shroud was made of countless individual Garmentfolk who had been fused together. There were shirts, pants, hats, gloves, and all sorts of other apparel. But none of them were colorful. They were all ashen white. The terrifying fluctuations rolling out from the shroud made it so that the sky seemed as dark as evening. It was the same color as the skin of a rotting corpse, and created a very oppressive atmosphere. The ashen whitends seemed withered, and they were rife with an aura of death. In fact, if you scanned the area with divine will, you would find that the Garmentfolk who made up the shroud were all dead. Their corpses had been formed together into this huge shroud. It looked extremely ghastly.11

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.0

    As Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s army proceeded, they eventually caught sight of the army formed from the various sects and species of Injustice Prefecture.0

    Combined, they numbered well over a million individuals, and they were all under themand of the Swordsage Court. They were scattered at the edges of the huge shroud, and had tapped into the full power of their cultivation bases to send the enormous shroud forward at a slow pace. There were all sorts of taboo treasures at y, their powers filling the dome of heaven and connecting to the shroud to power it. The shroud was being used to cover an enormous ck funerary garment. Compared to that garment, the cultivators seemed like tiny bugs that counted for nothing.5

    That said, what was most inly visible was the shroud. It had been stretched up all the way to the funerary garment¡¯s chest. At the same time, dozens of Void Returning cultivators under themand of the Swordsage Court¡¯s grand elder were using various divine abilities and magical techniques to attack the funerary garment.0

    Counterattacks came in the form of ck streams of energy with vicious figures inside them. They represented all species imaginable, but they all wore the same attire: ck funerary garments that pulsed with shocking mutagen.2

    Down below, the huge ck funerary garment was like a massive chasm, pulsing with a terrifying and evil aura. Shocking howls echoed out, filling heaven and earth. At the same time, there was breathing. Each breath caused an explosion of ck mist that was so dangerous even the Void Returning cultivators had to avoid it. And it caused the encroaching shroud to wave and ripple.0

    This was how the forces of Injustice Prefecture were sealing Forbidden by the Garment.0

    The arrival of the forces from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture caused an immediate stir. Many cultivators looked excited.0

    Along the way, Xu Qing had used his authority to notify Injustice Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court that they were on the way, so their arrival wasn¡¯t a surprise. Instead, the Injustice Prefecture forces had been looking forward to seeing them.0

    The grand elder from Injustice Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court was a middle-aged cultivator. Upon seeing the iing reinforcements, he excitedly said, ¡°Many thanks for your assistance, Secretary-General Xu! And many thanks to the help from all you Fellow Daoists from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture! Please, help bolster our strength toplete the sealing!¡±0

    Xu Qing nodded. Knowing that now wasn¡¯t the time for casual conversation, he gently patted Qingqin. The great bird let loose a cry, shot forward, then sent forth a beam of its godlight toward the ck funerary garment. The godlight smashed into the vicious streams of ck energy, causing them to copse. The funerary garment shivered and howled in rage.1

    At the same time, cultivators from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture flew out and, under the leadership of the various sects, settled into ce into the Swordsage Court¡¯s two formations of yin and yang. Being used to the process from their previous experience, they immediately joined in the chanting of the sutra.1

    <em>¡°We embody the energy of heaven and earth; the dao shall curse the ghosts to be sealed.¡±</em>0

    <em>¡°The paramount yin-yang dao sealing cannot be vited.¡±</em>0

    Brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth. Wild winds screamed everywhere. The power of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture caused the two formations of yin and yang to glitter brightly as the sound of the sutra echoed out.0

    The ground quaked, and the ck funerary garment vibrated visibly. Thanks to the reinforcements from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, the exhausted cultivators from Injustice Prefecture felt enlivened. Now, the huge white shroud advanced a bit faster than before.0

    Xu Qing stood atop Qingqin¡¯s right head, fighting the attacks being sent up by the funerary garment. As he did, his transmission jade slip suddenly vibrated, and a voice message came in.0

    <em>¡°I¡¯m right here, little Junior Brother! I can see you. You¡¯re finally here. Quick, I need help!¡±</em>17

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. After parting ways with the Captain back at the Ten Entrails Tree, he hadn¡¯t heard from him at all. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that Xu Qing knew he could survive even after losing everything but his head, he would have thought the Captain was done for. Even still, he had always been a bit worried. And now, here by Forbidden by the Garment, he finally heard the Captain¡¯s voice again.0

    Xu Qing looked down toward the ground. Down in the ck funerary garment, which was more than half covered by the white shroud, there was a figure in the thick fog, waving at Xu Qing. He looked vaguely like the Captain.2

    However, he was quite a distance away, and also in fog, so Xu Qing couldn¡¯t make out much of him other than a general outline. What was more, he was pulsing with a ck energy that made him seem very much like the vicious beings produced by Forbidden by the Garment.1

    In fact, Xu Qing immediately started feeling a bit suspicious about his identity.<em>I heard that Forbidden by the Garment has the power to produce illusions....</em>0

    <em>¡°I¡¯m not an illusion! Little Ah Qing, hurry. I need help!¡±</em>7

    Eyebrows shooting up, Xu Qing quickly considered the situation from atop Qingqin¡¯s right head. Behind that figure in the fog and ck energy, he saw a host of huge hands, pursuing the figure with madness and fury. Obviously, that figure had done something to arouse their rage.13

    That was all Xu Qing needed to confirm this figure¡¯s identity.27

    ¡°Senior Qingqin, that¡¯s my Elder Brother. If it¡¯s not too much trouble, sir....¡±0

    Qingqin was in the middle of sending magenta light sting forth in attack after attack. Every single burst would explode multiple enemies from Forbidden by the Garment. As they detonated, Qingqin would suck them in as if he were guzzling fine wine.0

    Upon hearing Xu Qing¡¯s request, he turned his heads.0

    ¡°CAW!¡±3

    Turning, he dropped into the fog of Forbidden by the Garment. Any enemies he passed shrieked as they were either destroyed by godlight, wiped out of existence by Qingqin¡¯s massive body, or devoured.0

    When Qingqin dropped into Forbidden by the Garment with Xu Qing, it was immediately noticed by the forces from the two Swordsage Courts. Both of the grand elders seemed shocked, and charged in that direction at the same time. To them, Xu Qing was simply too important of a person to risk losing.0

    Sir Bloodsmelter also took immediate action. In fact, though his cultivation base wasn¡¯t on the same level as the two grand elders, he was actually the first to rush to help. After all, Xu Qing was essentially a member of his family. This was a battlefield, and thus, though the sealing was important, and though the survival of allies was something he cared about, nothing was more important than the safety of his own family. That was also why he had made sure to stay rtively close to Xu Qing the whole time.8

    Meanwhile, Qingqin had taken Xu Qing into the depths of Forbidden by the Garment. Everything around them was dark, and the mutagen levels were very high. Deafening roars buffeted them from all directions.1

    Xu Qing was able to see the Captain much more clearly now.0

    The Captain was going all out to try to escape Forbidden by the Garment, except that the huge hands behind him were just about to catch up to him. It was a critical moment, and the Captain wasn¡¯t holding anything back. He had a crazy look in his eyes as he shot forward. Suddenly, a host of eyes opened all over him, then popped out of his skin and shot back toward the hands, where they started exploding one after another.2

    Many of the hands detonated. Taking advantage of that moment, the Captain shot toward Xu Qing.0

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡± The Captain extended his right hand as if to grab Qingqin. However, there was still about 300 meters between them.0

    To Qingqin, 300 meters was nothing. However, just as Qingqin¡¯s right head was about to stretch forward to close that distance, all three heads¡¯ facial expressions flickered, and the feathers on them stood erect. An intense sensation of deadly crisis suddenly rose up in Qingqin.9

    At the same time, a terrifying pressure swept forth from the depths of the forbiddennd, causing everything to tremble violently. And it was heading right toward Xu Qing and Qingqin. There was also a thunderous roar that rippled out from behind the Captain.0

    ¡°Vile thief!¡±41

    More massive hands appeared, covered with ck veins, vicious in the extreme as they shot toward the Captain. Further back in the depths of the forbidden ground, a pair of bright-red eyes opened, full of madness and rage. And they were getting bigger. Clearly, the face those eyes were set into was getting closer rapidly.0

    The Captain looked even more anxious, but the crazy look in his eyes was even stronger. He reached out with his right hand, and a long saber appeared, which he used to chop his own head off.7

    His headless body then pulled back its right foot and kicked his head as hard as possible, sending it streaking toward Xu Qing. It spanned the 300-meter distance in an instant, allowing Xu Qing to grab it. The Captain sighed in relief while Qingqin backed up at top speed.32

    Meanwhile, 300 meters back, a face appeared behind the Captain¡¯s headless body and gobbled it up.0

    The face looked like it had been soaking in water for too long. It was swollen with rot and looked incredibly vicious. It also stank as it viciously chewed the Captain¡¯s body. The red eyes glowed with madness as they locked onto the Captain¡¯s head in Xu Qing¡¯s hand. The face roared again, and masses of ck mist shot toward Xu Qing.0

    Qingqin unleashed a cry that could pierce metal or rock, then pped his wings. His cultivation base red, and he elerated, shooting out of Forbidden by the Garment.0

    The face raced in pursuit, but then Sir Bloodsmelter and the two grand eldersunched simultaneous attacks, backed by the crushing power of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. A rumbling boom rang out. The face howled again, but now it was even farther away from the Captain. It struggled wildly, and clearly wanted to keep giving chase.0

    But then Injustice Prefecture¡¯s shroud swept over it, ceasing any pursuit.0

    A cry of intense humiliation and rage just barely made it through the shroud, and it was even possible to see the fabric bulging up.0

    ¡°You vile thief! I¡¯m gonna kill you!¡±11

    Thebined power of two entire prefectures was astonishing. With the sutra being chanted, and the cultivators of Injustice Prefecture working on their sealing magic, the shroud continued to extend, and the face had no way to break out into the open.0

    ¡°Vile thief! Shameless! I¡¯m going to devour you! I¡¯ll chew you to pieces! I¡¯ll consume you!¡±1

    Off in the distance, Nethersprite heard the words, and her expression flickered as she thought back to her own previous tragic circumstances. She felt a bit bad, and even started cursing in her heart.<em>You little thief. I¡¯m not going to let you get away with it. One of these days I¡¯m going to kill you. And then I¡¯ll eat you. I¡¯ll devour you!</em>9

    Xu Qing stood atop Qingqin¡¯s head watching everything happening, and of course, listening. The words caused a strange expression to appear on his face, and left him feeling lingering fear. He looked at the face struggling to break out of the shroud, then turned to the Captain¡¯s head.0

    At the same time, Qingqin¡¯s middle and left head also looked at the Captain. It was the same with the grand elders from the Swordsage Court, and the other prefectural cultivators nearby.1

    Seeing that, the Captain inhaled sharply before shouting, ¡°I did it! I did something amazing for the Swordsage Pce! I did something amazing for Injustice Prefecture! Do you people know why that moronic fellow in Forbidden by the Garment didn¡¯t fully awaken? It¡¯s because of me! It was for the sake of my fellow swordsages, and in order to save Injustice Prefecture, and also because of my love of humankind that I risked my life to personally go into the depths of Forbidden by the Garment!31

    ¡°And then, just when that moronic fellow was about to wake up, I sessfully bit out his soul-heart! And thus, he¡¯s iplete! That, in turn, threw a wrench into his n to wake up. It was apletely unexpected turn of events!¡±18

    The Captain was obviously worried that people were going to get the wrong idea about what he¡¯d been up to, and the circumstances of his return, so he preemptively offered an exnation. If people thought he was the reason for the big disaster with Forbidden by the Garment, it would be a very tricky situation to deal with.4

    How could he have guessed that going into that ce with his friend, simply to have some fun, would turn into such a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering event? In fact, he barely ended up escaping with his life. And now that he was out, he could see thebined forces of two prefectures, numbering into the millions. Many people were ring at him angrily. Though he wasn¡¯t exactly sure what was going on, he could tell the situation was urgent.4

    In fact, it looked like some people were hefting their weapons with the intention of killing him.0

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the Captain shivered. He actually felt quite wronged. He definitely wasn¡¯t the one who started all of this!16

    In any case, his words caused some very strange expressions to appear on the surrounding cultivators¡¯ faces. The forces of Injustice Prefecture clearly didn¡¯t believe him. After all, the huge face that was chasing him was obviously still furious.... Then the forces of Injustice Prefecture looked at Xu Qing and the grand elder from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The grand elder was frowning.0

    Chen Erniu had made a deep impression on him. As he weighed whether or not the exnation seemed realistic, he looked at Sir Bloodsmelter. After all, Chen Erniu was a disciple from Seven Blood Eyes.1

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s facial expression was solemn as he said, ¡°Chen Erniu is one of the most gifted disciples in Seven Blood Eyes. He grew up in my sect, and has always been steadfast and loyal. He knows his ce, is straightforward, never causes disasters, and never lies. I alwayspletely trust everything he says.¡±

 Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 1)</h4>

    Upon hearing the patriarch¡¯s words, the Captain immediately felt a bit excited. He turned to look at Sir Bloodsmelter, his eyes brimming with glittering tears. To him, Sir Bloodsmelter was a towering and mighty figure who also overflowed with warmth and kindness. The truth was that he really was the subject of a lot of malevolent gazes from millions of cultivators from two prefectures. For the patriarch to forthrightly speak up for him went to show how much the patriarch approved of him. It instantly turned all of the Captain¡¯s feelings of humiliation into pride. All of a sudden, he realized that there really was such a thing as truth and warmth in the world. It was his Grand-Master that had always loved him the most. And he had always been the most beloved of the grand-apprentices. With that, he forced his eyelids up, causing his head to tilt slightly so he could give Xu Qing a look.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he lifted the Captain¡¯s head up high so he could see what was going on. Then Xu Qing turned to the grand elders from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture and said, ¡°Based on the Secretariat Division¡¯s Summary Intelligence Report #A-379, I found out that the chaos in the two prefectures was caused by the Holytides. Then, ssified Dossier 214 confirmed that they were trying to awaken Forbidden by the Garment.

    ¡°In addition to that, the sealing in Injustice Prefecture was clearly going more smoothly than in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Bybining information I received from both prefectures, I confirmed that backup wasn¡¯t immediately required in Injustice Prefecture. All Injustice Prefecture required was about a month toplete the work. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture needed more.

    ¡°I had my suspicions about what was really going on, even when I was back in the Secretariat Division. Originally, I thought that sealing the godly door in Forbidden by the Zombie was simply a more difficult task. But now, thanks to Chen Erniu¡¯s efforts in Forbidden by the Garment, I can see that the two events are actually connected.¡±

    The Captain was getting even more excited. He nodded vigorously. That,bined with his haggardplexion and scraggly beard, made him seem unusually tragic, and as a result, quite convincing. However, the most convincing voice came from some distance away.

    ¡°The chaos in Forbidden by the Garment has nothing to do with this human child. In fact, he¡¯s been of immense help to my people.¡±

    Everyone turned to see a host of garments flying out from atop the giant shroud. Once in the air, they transformed, bing extremely colorful. They were, of course, Garmentfolk. However, there were clearly much fewer living Garmentfolk than there were dead ones. The person who had just spoken was a garment that resembled the robe of an empress. Behind her were a host of garments that looked like those of an imperial guard.

    The local cultivators all sped hands respectfully. The Garmentfolk had paid the steepest price to carry out this sealing of Forbidden by the Garment, and the words spoken by this empress¡¯ robe clearly carried a lot of weight.

    When the Garmentfolk appeared, the Captain suddenly made something of a retching sound. Looking somewhat ufortable, he said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, help me out.¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing pulled open the Captain¡¯s mouth, fiddled around for a moment, then pulled a glove out.

    It was hard to say how the Captain had managed to hide that glove in his mouth. It was all crumpled up into a ball, and was very wrinkled. But after it was out in the open, the Captain exhaled sharply into the glove, causing it to expand to its normal shape.

    It was none other than Lady Fivefingers. Having just awoken, she looked around, seemingly confused. Then she flew a few unsteady circles around the Captain¡¯s head. After sending out some emotional fluctuations of joy, she waved to the Captain and flew back to her people.

    Xu Qing noted the way the Captain looked at the glove, and something about it seemed suspicious. His gaze seemed too warm. It was a look Xu Qing had never seen in the Captain¡¯s eyes before. Knowing that now wasn¡¯t the time to pry, he said nothing.

    The sealing of Forbidden by the Garment was essentiallyplete at this point. The ck funerary garment waspletely covered by the white shroud.

    Things had gone ording to n. Two hourster, Injustice Prefecture¡¯s Swordsage Court had already organized the human cultivators to join the forces of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to head to the front lines of the war.

    In majestic fashion, the armies began the process of leaving Forbidden by the Garment via the teleportation portal.

    As the armies started entering the teleportation portal, Qingqin looked at Xu Qing and gave a caw. From the look in his eyes, it was obvious he was getting ready to part ways. He had helped Xu Qing because his Eldest Brother had asked him to. But that didn¡¯t mean he would just blithely follow along and fight to the bitter end. He had his own ideals. Though he didn¡¯t feel any malice toward humans, he didn¡¯t love them either. What was more, he didn¡¯t want to directly participate in a war between two major species. That was the main reason he¡¯d refused Pce Lord Kong¡¯s original request for help. He was more than willing to help Xu Qing as a personal favor. But he didn¡¯t want to do favors for the species as a whole.

    For the entire time, Qingqin hadn¡¯t used any divine will, and had only used his physical voice. That said, Xu Qing could tell what he meant, and he understood the decision.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior Qingqin!¡± Xu Qing said from aboard the huge flying ship. sping his hands, he bowed.

    Qingqin soared through the sky, looked at Xu Qing with his three heads, then circled around.

    <i>¡°CAW! CAW! CAW!!¡±</i>

    With a p of his wings, he rocketed off into the dome of heaven and disappeared over the horizon.

    Xu Qing watched him go. After he was gone, he looked down at the Captain, who stood next to him. The Captain was currently as tall as Xu Qing¡¯s knee.

    ¡°I never thought so much stuff would happen in such a short time,¡± the Captain said. The Captain had already grown a tiny body, which was roughly the size of an infant. His plump little hands and feet were very cute. However, when they werebined with an adult-sized head, it made him look very strange.

    Xu Qing nced around to confirm that everyone else was focused on entering the teleportation portal. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Eldest Brother, what actually happened back there?¡±

    The Captain sighed. ¡°I really got the short end of the stick. After I teleported away from Ten Entrails Tree, I ended up in Garmentfolk territory. I happened to run into my old friend Little Sis Fivefingers. I asked her if there was anywhere fun to hang out, and as we were going along, lo-and-behold the freaking Forbidden by the Garment started waking up!!

    ¡°The waking up part wasn¡¯t so bad. But then Little Sis Fivefingers got devoured by the forbidden ground! It happened right in front of me! She just got devoured! So what could I do? I had to go after her. I went into the depths of Forbidden by the Garment, risked my life and nearly died, all to save her!

    ¡°Of course, you know me. Things always go bad for me, right? While I was there, I figured I might as well go in a little deeper. That was when I saw this heart flying along. Looked like it was in the process of waking up. Thinking solely of revenge, I took a bite out of that heart-soul. Well. A few bites.¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat. sping his two tiny hands behind his back, he looked up at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back, thinking about how that face had been angrily cursing him. For some reason, Xu Qing got the sense that what happened came down to a lot more than ¡®a few bites.¡¯ Xu Qing only believed about half of what the Captain said. However, the iplete information just confirmed in his mind that the Captain wasn¡¯t the reason behind the disaster.

    Based on what he knew of the Captain, it seemed most likely that something heaven-shaking, earth-shattering had taken ce in the depths of the forbidden ground. And some unpredictable thing had urred that not even the Holytides could have guessed wasing. When all was said and done, things worked out, and the sealing was aplished smoothly.

    Nodding, Xu Qing looked down at the diminutive Captain. ¡°In that case, Eldest Brother, when I get back, I¡¯ll make sure to create an official record describing your amazing aplishment.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and heughed heartily. ¡°That¡¯s my little Junior Brother! Hahaha! Here, take this.¡±

    After ncing around furtively, the Captain produced an egg-sized green crystal and shoved it into Xu Qing¡¯s hand. There was clearly something sealed inside, although it wasn¡¯t visible. But once it was in his hand, Xu Qing could sense shocking fluctuations inside. The moment he had it, he felt an instinctive sense of longinging from his soul.

    Even the god¡¯s finger in his D-132 heavenly pce stirred because of it.

    Xu Qing was visibly moved. ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°Ahem. Want to know why I said that fellow in Forbidden by the Garment is a moron?¡± The Captain grinned enigmatically, then winked at Xu Qing. Raising his tiny little hand, he pointed at the crystal. ¡°That¡¯s why.¡±

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply and looked at the Captain with disbelief in his eyes.

    ¡°What else did you eat, Eldest Brother?¡±

    ¡°Nothing! Really, nothing! That¡¯s just a tiny fraction of the half-god body that fellow was trying to make. With a lot of difficulty, I should add.¡± The Captain burped haughtily, then looked at Xu Qing in the hopes of getting an envious reaction.

    ¡°Half-god?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Of course. Ai. Better than nothing, I suppose. It¡¯s not like it was that amazing. You know, little Ah Qing, you showed up just a tad toote. If you¡¯de earlier, I might not have ended up so stuffed, and you could have had some more for yourself.¡± The Captain cleared his throat. Though his tone of voice came across as sounding modest, his facial expression made it seem obvious that he was very pleased with himself. ¡°Come on, show a bit of envy for your Elder Brother.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in agreement, then opened his eyes wide and let his jaw drop as if in astonishment. After, he put the green crystal away to absorbter.

    The Captain didn¡¯t look very pleased, though. ¡°Ai, little Ah Qing. That expression wasn¡¯t very good. Come,e. You need to click your tongue in admiration, and add in a gasp too.¡±

    Xu Qing had to admit that it made sense, so he gave it a shot. In the end, it didn¡¯t seem to add much to the effect, though.

    The Captain was pleased to see Xu Qing cooperating in this way, but he still shook his head. ¡°Oh, you! You need to practice more!¡±

    With that, he and Xu Qing got off the ship and started walking toward the teleportation portal. As the Captain walked along, he stretchedzily.

    ¡°By the way, little Ah Qing, what sort of things have you acquiredtely?¡± The Captain stepped onto the portal.

    ¡°Oh, not much,¡± Xu Qing said coolly, also stepping onto the portal. ¡°I did get a god body, though.¡±

    As the teleportation portal rumbled to life, the Captain spun and said something, except Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear him clearly. However, the Captain had clearly gasped, and his eyes were wide. What was more, after his gasp, he apparently bit his tongue.

    <i>Oh, is that what he means by clicking the tongue? </i>Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    The light of teleportation red, covering them and the cultivators from two prefectures.

 Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 2)</h4>

    Rainfield Prefecture was a long and thin prefecture. Its western border with Tidefall Prefecture formed the western front, and its northern border with Tranquility Prefecture formed its northern front. The climate was warm year-round. Because of that, the species in Rainfield Prefecture tended to berger than those from other prefectures. For example, the Fullspirits that Qingqin had been such a fan of grew to an average height of about fifteen meters.

    The prefecture was a very rainy ce. There were mountains everywhere, with about one out of every ten being a volcano. That said, they didn¡¯t erupt very frequently. Because of the war, Rainfield Prefecture ended up bing a staging zone. If supplies weren¡¯t delivered directly to the northern or western front, they would be stored in Rainfield Prefecture for a time.

    To some extent, the prefecture was considered part of the war zone, and therefore, the Justice Pce was temporarily in control of it.

    The vast majority of Holytides were in the armies being held off on the borders. But because the northern part of the county had lost three prefectures early on, not even the great created by thebined forces of the county¡¯s taboo treasures could prevent small squads of Holytides from slipping into the interior.

    Holytides were very skilled at disguising themselves, and were also equipped with magical treasures that could prevent the taboo treasure from targeting them. Therefore, unless a lot of effort was put into tracking them down, it would be almost impossible to wipe them outpletely. In addition to all that, they had received special training for this operation. The majority of them were from the ck Guard, and most of them had split up to avoid detection. Their main goal was to either divert or destroy the supplies being sent to the front lines.

    After all, not all supplies could simply be stuffed into a holding device or dimensional space. And not everything could be sent through teleportation portals. Much of it was transported manually.

    At the moment, a few thousand ck Guard cultivators had gathered outside of arge-scale teleportation portal in Rainfield Prefecture, and wereunching an unexpected attack. Each one had an extraordinary cultivation base and shocking battle prowess. After all, members of the ck Guard were simr to swordsages; they were all outstanding figures among their people. Although not every single one could fight an enemy from a higher cultivation level, most were considered elites among elites.

    Their mission was to destroy this specific teleportation portal. Theplex had a total area of about fifty kilometers. From high above, it looked very impressive, and whenever it was activated, it could move tens of thousands of cultivators at a time.

    The sounds of fighting already echoed along the edges of the portal.

    There were a lot of cultivators stationed around the portal to defend it. However, most were disciples from the Justice Pce who couldn¡¯t evene close to being on the same level as the elite members of the Swordsage Pce. Andpared to the ck Guard cultivators, they were just simply deficient.

    The upside was that they had the advantage of numbers. Furthermore, there were also members of Rainfield Prefecture¡¯s native species present, plus some swordsages as well.

    The portal had been activated, but there were a few hundred ck Guard cultivators in the air using magical devices to interfere with the portal¡¯s operation. As a result, the portal wasn¡¯t working.

    Some of the ck Guard cultivators even managed to break through the defensive barriers, reach the portal itself, and self-detonate, causing shock waves to spread out and further disrupt the portal¡¯s operation.

    That said, overall, the portal was still in good working order. Most of the assault was being held at bay by the borders.

    Much of that was due to the person in charge of the overall defenses of the portal, Yao Yunhui. She was the director of the Justice Pce¡¯s Division 3, and was also a Spirit Trove cultivator. As such, she had personally repelled the ck Guard cultivators multiple times already. She did not seem alluring and seductive like she had back at the county capital. Instead, she wore a suit of armor, and though she was clearly exhausted, she exuded a somber and deste aura. Thanks to her leadership, the forces under hermand had held strong against the ck Guard assault.

    After the protracted fight, the ck Guard cultivators seemed like they were on the verge of withdrawing. Themander in charge of the ck Guard contingent looked coldly at the distant Yao Yunhui and weighed the options. He knew that they couldn¡¯t stay in this location for too long, so finally, he decided to order the retreat.

    However, even as the thousands of ck Guard cultivators prepared to leave, and as the human cultivators and their allies breathed sighs of relief... the ground started vibrating.

    It happened so suddenly that both sides were shocked. Countless specks of dirt on the ground began to rise into the air, making it seem like some massive force was arriving from above.

    Scattered buildings, rocks, corpses, and even blood on the ground started floating up. The sight of all that blood flowing up in rivulets was nothing short of appalling.

    The ck Guard cultivators¡¯ magical devices were no longer capable of interfering with the teleportation portal. In fact, they suffered such a severe bacsh that they exploded.

    All of the local cultivators present were shaken to the core. Their hair began to drift up around them, and in some cases their skin sank down. There were even some with very low cultivation bases who found their blood oozing out of their pores and coating them in crimson. Thankfully, no one died.

    Everyone was absolutely shocked, but what was more shocking was what was causing this event. The astonishing development wasn¡¯ting from the sky, but thend. Specifically, it was the enormous, 50-kilometer-wide teleportation portal! The portal had been activated! The explosive power of the portal caused everyone to gasp for breath. A power of this shocking level hadn¡¯t been seen since the big movement of troops in the beginning of the war. The only thing that could provoke something like this was a teleportation that pushed the limits of what the portal was capable of! And that meant that the group teleporting in had to reach into the hundreds of thousands!

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡±

    ¡°Our people and the humans are at a deadlock at the front lines. There¡¯s no way the humans could send in backup forces right now. Don¡¯t tell me we¡¯re dealing with nonhumans?¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s a nonhuman force, it would be incredibly small. We¡¯ve already sent notices to all nonhumans in Sea-Sealing County that we¡¯ll maintain the status quo after we take over!¡±

    ¡°Given the circumstances, what nonhuman species could fully mobilize like this?¡±

    The ck Guard cultivators who had just been on the verge of retreating were visibly shocked. All of them could see the brilliant light building up on the massive teleportation portal. The light was so dazzling that it turned a dark night into what seemed like daytime. Along with that light came a deafening rumbling sound that pulsed to a special cadence.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what¡¯s going on. We can¡¯t let this teleportation happen!¡±

    ¡°All ck Guard cultivators, attack at once! Stop this teleportation!¡±

    When themander gave the orders, the thousands of ck Guard cultivators all rushed toward the portal.

    ¡°Hold nothing back!¡± Yao Yunhui ordered. ¡°Kill anyone that gets even close to the portal!¡± Then she personally shot forth to block the path of the ck Guardmander. When arge-scale teleportation portal like this was activated, it emitted its own type of pressure that mixed with the pressure of the iing teleportation. That ensured that the teleportation process couldn¡¯t be interfered with.

    As the ck Guard cultivators advanced, and the Justice Pce cultivators fought back, intense rumbling sounds echoed from the portal. At the same time, a group of over a hundred individuals appeared.

    The ck Guardmander had been both right and wrong. He was right in that there was a group of hundreds of thousands of cultivators teleporting in. But he was also wrong, because the first wave consisted of all Void Returning experts!

    The arrival of over a hundred such cultivators caused brightly colored light to sh in heaven and earth, and screaming winds to whip about. The air trembled, and the ground shook so hard it seemed like it might crack.

    The cultivators from both the ck Guard and the Justice Pce, plus the allied nonhumans, were all staring in absolute astonishment.

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡±

    ¡°Human relief troops!¡±

    The ck Guard cultivators felt like their scalps were about to explode. All were visibly stunned and began to scramble backward. In contrast, the cultivators from the Justice Pce were all extremely excited.

    ¡°Relief troops!¡±

    ¡°The backup troops are here!¡±

    ¡°Reinforcements have finally arrived!¡±

    Though these cultivators had not been stationed on the front lines, the past month had been very difficult for them. They had been forced to continuously suppress their feelings of despair and just endure. In fact, right now, some even wept or let loose piercing cries.

    Yao Yunhui was so moved she seemed dazed. She¡¯d long assumed there would be no relief troops, and that the war was a lost cause.

    In fact, everyone had thought that. It was easy to imagine how the front line troops would react when seeing backup arrive. Given how long they had been risking their lives on the battlefield, they would probably be ten times as excited as the cultivators here. Maybe even a hundred times.

    The patriarchs from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture emerged and spread out in all directions. Some waved their hands, causing heaven and earth to explode. The thousands of ck Guard cultivators were as weak as wet paper, and they exploded into flowering clouds of blood.

    The Void Returning cultivators checked the teleportation portal and the surrounding area for safety, and as the excited local cultivators looked on, began another teleportation.

    Before long, an army of hundreds of thousands of cultivators appeared. Theirbined aura spread out like a tempest, causing rumbling like thunder to fill the sky, and cracking the ground as if from an earthquake.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet! After those hundreds of thousands of cultivators materialized, they made room for another teleportation, and another wave materialized. Heaven shook! The earth quaked! After the over 1,000,000-strong army from two prefectures arrived, including the Captain, the teleportation portal glittered again as one more person arrived.

    As this person materialized, everyone was asked to leave the portal, including the Captain.

 Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 3)

    <h4>Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 3)</h4>

    The entire portal was empty. The over 1,000,000 cultivators hovered in the air looking down, and the two Swordsage Court grand elders stood by, looking somber. Everyone was looking at the person materializing in the middle of the portal. The cultivators from the Justice Pce seemed very serious. As for Yao Yunhui, who had been just about to hurry forward to sp hands in greetings, she suddenly stopped in ce and looked at the materializing figure. For some reason, this person seemed familiar to her. And then, as the light reached its most dazzling brightness, that person became clear.

    It was Xu Qing!

    The moment he materialized, the surrounding 1,000,000 cultivators and the two Swordsage Court grand elders sped hands and bowed to him.

    They didn¡¯t speak a word. They just bowed. And yet, that bow was such a powerful gesture it caused heaven and earth to tremble violently. There was even an invisible convergence of destiny aura at y.

    Xu Qing looked around at everything. He knew that as secretary-general, he didn¡¯t deserve to be bowed to like that. But right now he represented Pce Lord Kong, and therefore, he had to ept it. Besides, the cultivators of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture were only here because of his leadership. Thus, he could ept that bow. Looking very respectful, he sped hands and returned the bow.

    From high in the sky, the grand elder from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture said, ¡°Secretary-General Xu Qing is here on behalf of Pce Lord Kong with new orders!¡±

    Holding the pce lord¡¯smand medallion aloft, Xu Qing said, ¡°The relief troops from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture will make haste... to the western front!¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡± the million cultivators shouted.

    Some distance away, Yao Yunhui stood in ce, stunned, her mind spinning, her vision growing dim. The only thing she could see was that person standing straight and tall as a million people bowed to him. The image would be etched in her mind forever.

    The relief troops from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture didn¡¯t stay in Rainfield Prefecture. As soon as Xu Qing issued his orders, they started moving. They would fly the rest of the way to the western front.

    Yao Yunhui and her contingent of Justice Pce cultivators had their own assignments to attend to, and didn¡¯t go along. However, even after the army was gone, she couldn¡¯t dispel her astonishment. And she couldn¡¯t stop thinking about that final figure who had teleported in and received honor from a million cultivators.

    ¡°That was the secretary-general from the Swordsage Pce. He works directly for Pce Lord Kong....¡±

    ¡°His name is Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°I heard Xu Qing and Chief Yao... don¡¯t get along.¡±

    Though the cultivators from the Justice Pce didn¡¯t care as much about Xu Qing as those from the Swordsage Pce, they had still heard about him. That was especially true considering that, before the start of the war, Pce Lord Kong had been named as the temporary governor, and Xu Qing had always been at his side.

    That said, none of them were as shocked by what had just happened as Yao Yunhui was. And as some people remembered that she and Xu Qing had had their differences, many of them secretly looked over at Yao Yunhui.

    Yao Yunhui didn¡¯t say anything. Waves of shock pulsed through her as she thought back to past events. Everything was still vivid in her mind, and it all led to very mixed emotions. After a long moment passed, she managed to regain herposure. Looking around at her Justice Pce subordinates, she said, ¡°Back into position! Guard the portal!¡±

    Because of her status, her cultivation base, and her recent experience, Yao Yunhui seemed a bit more dignified than before.

    The surrounding cultivators immediately voiced affirmation of her orders and stopped focusing on thoughts about the amazing event which had just urred. With fresh reinforcements heading to the front lines, they now had some hope.

    The fire of hope set Rainfield Prefecture aze. And it soon spread to Tidefall Prefecture and the western front.

    ***

    On the western front, the humans and the Holytides had just gone through thirteen straight days ofbat, and had only just agreed to a temporary ceasefire to rest and recuperate.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that some 5,000 kilometers away from the Heaventide Mountains was a massive ravine. That ravine formed a clear division between sets of territory.

    On the other side of the ravine were the Heaventide Mountains, which had once formed the third line of defense holdout in Tidefall Prefecture. Beyond the mountains were the Heaven Eye Abysm and the Ninnds ins. Previously, you had to pass those three areas to get to Holytidends.

    But things were different now. From high above, the Heaventide Mountains looked like a dragon that had surrendered and was gasping for breath. Many areas in the mountains were inplete ruins. Some peaks had crumbled, and ck smoke drifted about everywhere. The wreckage of magical devices was visible everywhere. They were the vestiges of war.

    Previously, those mountains had been one of the major lines of defense against the Holytide army. But as the Sea-Sealing County taboo treasures began to crumble... the Holytides broke through.

    The human forces had been forced to fall back 5,000 kilometers to where the taboo treasure was reestablished, and a fourth line of defense was maintained.

    As of now, the Heaventide Mountains had no humans in them. Most of the individuals present were heavily armored Holytide cultivators. They were several million strong. What was more, beyond the mountain range it was possible to see a vast area filled with countless army tents. There weren¡¯t just Holytides present. There were also members of countless species that the Holytides had enved.

    Over the course of thest half-month, the Holytides had begun a host of engineering projects in the mountains. As of now, there were over a million towers rising up from the mountains. ck lightning bolts danced between them, creating a huge of electricity. Then the lightning rose up, but didn¡¯t go all the way up into the sky. As deafening thunderps rang out, it caused the ck clouds to form a very clear barrier that made it seem like there were countless enormous objects taking shape within them.

    Each of those huge objects was a full 3,000 meters, roughly diamond-shaped, and had a red eye in the middle of it. There were no less than a hundred thousand of them. They existed within the boundless clouds in the sky and were arrayed in the direction of the front lines of battle. They pulsed with terrifying auras, as well as the drone of howling animals. Wherever that sound passed, the air twisted and rippled, making it sound almost like the chanting of a god. They were magical devices of war that the Nightshades had given to the Holytides. The sounds they emitted could shatter the soul, and cause pressure to weigh down that could crush the flesh. In fact, the magical techniques they released could devastate just about anything.

    But most dangerous were the grim reapers they scattered about. Those reapers were strange, invisible entities that the senses couldn¡¯t perceive. They came and went on the battlefield like ambassadors of death with huge sickles that they used to inflict grievous and deadly wounds on humans.

    They didn¡¯t just attack individual enemies, though. They also perpetrated invasions by releasing mutagen, just like the kind in forbidden regions and grounds. It was a severe corruption method specifically targeting humans. Humans who got too close to the reapers would only be able tounch a few attacks before their bodies started withering rapidly. Then their mutation blotches would go out of control, causing them to mutate into mindless beasts. That was just one of the tactics employed by the Holytides.

    Above the battlefield, the dome of heaven was dark and gloomy, and weighed down oppressively. There were also ck snowkes that fell.

    The ck snow was another Holytide tactic. Although it looked like snow, if you examined the snowkes closely, you would see that each ke had very tiny hands and feet, as well as faces. They fell everywhere. Individually, they could form magical techniques, or they could clump together to be divine abilities. As they spread, the humans who breathed them would be corrupted with an extremely dangerous poison. The snowkes could also be used by Holytide cultivators to make weapons. There was almost nothing that could defend against them.

    Inside the clouds were the diamond-shaped magical devices. Beneath the clouds was the endless ck snow. But that wasn¡¯t even close to everything at y.

    The Holytides had caused the ground itself toe alive.

    The endless mud and corpses turned into enormous severed arms that crawled forward. The deep furrows left by the arms would quickly fill with ck snow. The severed arms dragged ck chains behind them that stretched up into the sky and into the clouds.

    There, in the clouds, they converged in a massive ck vortex. That vortex resembled a sun. As it slowly rotated, the chains from the ground merged into its depths. And as the severed arms slowly pulled the nking chains, it seemed like they were gradually dragging some terrifying entity out into the open. An extremely noxious smell drifted out from the vortex, which became even more ck clouds that made the ck snowfall thicker.

    As the armies from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture neared the front lines, they received official permission to get close. What they saw of the Holytide front lines was as described above.

    Xu Qing led the army, and what he saw caused his heart to pound. The other most noticeable part of the battlefield were the endless corpses.

    Mountains of corpses. Seas of blood. Forests of bones.

    Xu Qing had killed a lot of enemies in his life. But not even he had seen anything as shocking as this battlefield.

    There were just too many corpses. Too many. Few were in one piece. And the seemingly endless flesh and blood created a most vile of stenches. War was like a millstone of heaven and earth. When it began to roll, all living beings would be caught up by it and crushed.

    Xu Qing had thought of the Three-Spirits Dao-Suppressing Mountain as being a hell on earth. Butpared to this, that was nothing.

    This was worse than a hell on earth.

    Next to Xu Qing was the Captain and everyone else, and all of them could only look around wordlessly.

 Chapter 504: This World Really Eats People Up (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 504: This World Really Eats People Up (part 1)</h4>

    After taking everything in, Xu Qing focused on the front lines of the human forces.

    The enormous golden that filled the sky and connected to thends below were what cut off the field of battle like a screen. Whether it was above or below, the Holytides¡¯ tactics were all blocked by the humans¡¯ fourth line of defense. The majestic golden didn¡¯t just connect heaven and earth, it spread to the left and right for a seemingly endless distance.

    If someone possessed a pair of eyes that could see all of Sea-Sealing County at the same time, they would see that the reached all the way to the northern front, creating a barrier at every spot where the Holytides were encroaching on the county.

    The huge ravine that formed the fourth line of defense had been selected for its location within the golden. Behind the ravine were hosts of tents as well as defensive war machines. Innumerable human cultivators, all of them visibly wracked with exhaustion, worked to build and maintain the various structures.

    There were rows of military magical devices that resembled thorns, filling the ravine and pointing in the direction of the Holytides. There had to be hundreds of thousands of them, and they glittered brightly and caused the air in front of them to distort in waves. In fact, the distortions were so intense that small rifts were torn open, causing deafening sounds to echo out. They weren¡¯t explosive bangs, but rather, deep and sustained rumblings.

    The magical devices weren¡¯t unleashing techniques that could be seen with the naked eye. Rather, they were deploying magical sound waves to deal with the ck snow. When fully deployed, they mostly negated the effects of the ck snow clumping together, and would cause it to melt earlier than normal. The intense rumbling sounds put out by the devices were constantly drifting out over the front lines.

    Hundreds of Void Returning experts sat cross-legged in the golden, guiding the power of the taboo treasures to defend against the diamond-shaped magical devices used by the Holytides.

    They also collected data and coordinates that were used to dispatch cultivators to kill the enemy.

    Scattered everywhere on the ground were enormous war puppets that were clearly the work of human hands. They towered over the surrounding area like mountains. Each puppet was stationed atop a spell formation, and was operated by an entire squad of cultivators. It went without saying that they were incredibly mighty.

    Most hair-raising of all were the nine enormous Emperor¡¯s Swords! They were beyond massive, as they stretched from the ground high into the sky. They radiated immense majesty and disturbing power. Looking closely at them, it was clear that the nine Emperor¡¯s Swords were actuallyposed of countless smaller Emperor¡¯s Swords. Bybining the power of all those swords, it was possible to create an incredibly powerful weapon unique to humankind.

    High in the sky was the enormous Dao Bell. That bell had been gifted to Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Swordsage Pce on the day of its founding by the Swordsage Division headquarters in the imperial capital. It had originally been hung in the Swordsage Pce. But it had been moved to the field of battle. After all, it was... a precious treasure of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Swordsage Pce, and was considered one of the reserve powers of both the Corrections Division and the Swordsage Pce as a whole. It wasn¡¯t just something that could be used as a weapon against enemies. It also provided a rousing boost to the humans and their allies.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that the huge bell was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of bronze coffins, each of which was covered with manyyers of sealing marks. Those coffins didn¡¯t contain dead people; they contained living people! There were men and women, old and young. They were ¡®living swords¡¯ created by the Swordsage Pce over the years, and their sole purpose was to be used in a wartime situation like this.

    The majority of them were people who had lived in times of rtive peace. When they reached the end of their life without ever having unsheathed The Emperor¡¯s Sword, they had submitted special requests to use a secret magic to enter a state of suspended animation. At the same time, The Emperor¡¯s Sword was fused with their life force.

    Once they woke up, they could unleash a single attack with that special sword that was now a permanent part of their own life. There were others who, knowing that they couldn¡¯t progress any further in their cultivation, made the same decision to be living swords. Every single one of them knew that, were they to be woken up, it would be at a moment when Sea-Sealing County faced grave danger.

    At the moment, about thirty percent of the coffins were empty. The swordsages in those coffins had been awoken in the fighting. Every single one of them had, without the slightest hesitation, ended their own lives to unleash that final devastating sword attack.

    As Xu Qing looked on, a group of several dozen figures flew out from the front lines and headed toward him and the army he led. As they neared, it became clear that they were being led by one of the deputy pce lords. The fact that he wasing personally made his attitude very clear. He looked exhausted but also excited. Considering the high level of his cultivation, it wasn¡¯tmon to see such things on his face.

    Kong Xianglong was in the group nking the deputy pce lord. Kong Xianglong was injured, and looked a bit depressed, although when he saw Xu Qing he managed to force a smile onto his face.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank upon seeing Kong Xianglong in that state, and he suddenly got a very bad feeling. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to ask questions. As the deputy pce lord neared, he spoke in a loud voice.

    ¡°Brother Mingyi, Brother Gongze!¡±

    The grand elders from the Swordsage Courts in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture flew forth and sped hands respectfully to the deputy pce lord.

    ¡°You came just in time. Just in the nick of time!¡± The deputy pce lord took a deep breath and forced himself into a state of rtive calm. ¡°Pce Lord Kong has issuedmands. The Void Returning experts and other sect leadership from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture are to immediately proceed to the forwardmand tent. The pce lord wants to see you! Everyone else will set up camp and wait for orders. Please, follow me!¡± The deputy pce lord sped hands to the forces from the two prefectures. Then he looked at Xu Qing, his eyes glittered with open admiration. ¡°Secretary-General Xu, youe to themand tent also.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said somberly.

    No one wasted any time. The deputy pce lord led them to themand tent.

    Just before leaving, Xu Qing looked over at the Captain.

    The Captain¡¯s body was now roughly equivalent to a seven- or eight-year-old. He was standing next to one of the Spirit Trove honor guards, and looked just like a kid. Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, he waved as if to say, ¡°See you in a bit.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and followed the others to themand tent.

    Along the way, Xu Qing noted countless wounded human cultivators. Clearly the front-line cultivators had been aware reinforcements wereing from two prefectures; as the group made their way to themand tent, numerous cultivators walked out of their tents and looked at Xu Qing and the others, excitement visible on their faces. There were sect disciples, rogue cultivators, and swordsages as well. Some had very serious injuries, others had minor wounds. But all of them sped hands and bowed deeply to Xu Qing. The situation had been dire, bitter, and exhausting. No one seemed to be in a state of despair, yet they were longing for hope. And that hope had just arrived!

    Xu Qing could sense the emotion in the eyes of the cultivators as he made his way through the camp. He saw some who looked taciturn or cold. Others were bitter, or had eyes glowing with killing intent. But all of them changed when they saw Xu Qing. Clearly, their spirits were lifting.

    Of course, there were many swordsages present. Xu Qing even spotted Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying. Both had serious injuries, and Sun Liying was supporting Chen Tinghao with her arm. When they spotted him, both smiled. Because of being so close to the battlefield, the noise of the magical devices was almost deafening, making it pointless to call out greetings.

    Xu Qing gave them a nod. Seeing Chen Tinghao so badly hurt, yet in good spirits, caused him to sigh inwardly. Xu Qing had always liked those two. They had been the ones who introduced the county capital to them, and also stood up for him to the Justice Pce. [1]

    Xu Qing soon passed them. Before long, the deputy pce lord had led them through the camp to themand tent that overlooked the ravine.

    This ce was the Command Department, which oversaw the front lines.

    There were several hundred guards keeping an eye on the area. There were also swordsages with civil post assignments, standing by waiting for orders toe out of the tent. They were the ones responsible for making sure those orders got delivered and executed. Orders streamed out of themand tent, whereupon the civil swordsages outside raced to execute them.

    ¡°Have the Seventh Battalion advance to the front lines immediately. I want to be apprised of even the slightest Holytide movements!¡±

    ¡°Arrange for the Ninth Battalion to split up and try to infiltrate the battlefield. I want updated data on the ck snow levels!¡±

    ¡°Have the Corrections Division form small squads to track down the ck Guard infiltrators. We cannot allow the fifth line of defense to be sabotaged before it¡¯s even ready!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he took stock of the civil swordsages. When those swordsages noticed Xu Qing, they were initially surprised. Then their eyes shone with respect. Those who epted new orders and raced off would take the time to bow briefly to him as they passed. Because of their status and rank, as well as their focus on time management, they would rarely take time to show respect to others in a wartime situation. But they absolutely had to do so for Xu Qing. After all, they were all attached to the Secretariat Division now, which meant that they were his subordinates.

    Though Xu Qing hadn¡¯te to the battlefield, the Secretariat Division had traveled with the army to the front lines.

    Xu Qing nodded to them, indicating that they should hurry about their business. Meanwhile, the deputy pce lord stopped out front of themand tent.

    ¡°Pce Lord, the Void Returning experts and sect leadership from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture are here.¡±

    ¡°Enter!¡± Pce Lord Kong said from within the tent.

    The Void Returning experts all filed into the tent solemnly. Before long, the only people outside the tent were the guards, as well as Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong.

    Xu Qing looked over at the haggard and dispirited Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Big Bro Kong?¡± he asked softly.

    1. Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying were introduced by name in <u>chapter 390</u>, though they were present without names in earlier chapters. West saw Chen Tinghao ¡°onscreen¡± in <u>chapter 425</u>. ?

 Chapter 504: This World Really Eats People Up (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 504: This World Really Eats People Up (part 2)</h4>

    ¡°Duskspirit... is dead.¡± Kong Xianglong¡¯s voice thrummed with grief and bitterness, and his eyes no longer sparkled.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped when he thought about Duskspirit, who had clearly been in love with Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°Before she died, she told me she loved me....¡± Kong Xianglong shivered. Reaching out, he gripped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. His eyes were bloodshot and his hand trembled. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to deal with this, Xu Qing!¡±

    He closed his eyes.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He just let Kong Xianglong hold on to his shoulder. Xu Qing had been forced to part with loved ones in death. More than once. So he could imagine what Kong Xianglong was feeling. It was a sensation that defied reality, and was something you could never get used to.

    The only thing Xu Qing could think to do was take out a gon of alcohol and hand it to the trembling Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong took it and drank deeply. Then he murmured, ¡°I never imagined there would be a time when alcohol tastes like nothing.¡±

    Kong Xianglong released his grip, patted Xu Qing on the shoulder, and then walked away. Despite feeling so heavy at heart, he hade here just to see Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He suddenly thought back to the first time he saw Duskspirit, back when he first arrived at the Swordsage Pce. She was a young woman who liked eating melon seeds of flesh and blood. She was the one who suggested he go to the Supreme Void Demonization Sect to learn the Demonization Art. Even back then, he¡¯d known that she only cared about Kong Xianglong. [1]

    A long moment passed, and Xu Qing sighed. <i>This world really eats people up.</i>

    Eventually, the Void Returning experts started filtering out of the tent to handle their various assignments. That included Sir Bloodsmelter and the two Swordsage Court grand elders.

    Finally, Pce Lord Kong called out, ¡°Come in, Xu Qing.¡±

    Steeling himself, Xu Qing stepped into the tent. He immediately caught sight of the pce lord sitting there in front of a huge sandbox formed by means of a magical technique. The sandbox was a map depicting the entire western front, including the ravine and much of the Holytides¡¯ front line. It even stretched all the way to include the northern front. Obviously, the western front was only one part of a muchrger war. Though themand tent had a direct view of only one small part of that conflict, the fact that Pce Lord Kong had set up the Command Department here went to show that he thought of this ce as the most important part of the front lines.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he looked at the sandbox and then Pce Lord Kong. The pce lord looked even more haggard than before. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was clearly injured. He still wore the very same suit of armor that Xu Qing had helped him don. The baleful aura that surrounded him was stronger than before. To Xu Qing, he seemed like a wild beast, as if all of the ferocity of the army was focused on him.

    ¡°Greetings, Pce Lord,¡± Xu Qing said somberly, sping hands and bowing.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I received the supplies you sent.¡± As the pce lord looked up at Xu Qing, he seemed to reign in his baleful aura. However, the destiny aura of the army made it impossible for him topletely dispel the aura of blood on him. That said, he managed to force a gentle look onto his face, and his eyes glittered with praise. ¡°I¡¯m also aware of what went into gathering the armies of the two prefectures. You¡¯ve performed an amazing service!¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head. ¡°Your humble servant only did what was necessary. By the way, about Mount Daybreak, I¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, the sky outside changed colors dramatically, as if it were being dted and stretched out at the same time. Killing intent surged from the earth, which quaked as though being attacked by subterranean dragons and snakes.

    The howls of Holytide cultivators echoed in the air. The temporary lull in the fighting had ended! Killing intent swept forth like storm winds from the Heaventide Mountains, mming into the taboo treasure protecting Sea-Sealing County. The huge trembled and emitted dazzling shes of light. The wild wind swept across the ravine, hitting countless tents among the forces of Sea-Sealing County, and causing many of them to ripple wildly.

    When the wind hit Pce Lord Kong¡¯smand tent, the fabric whipped back and forth loudly. The tent ps opened, revealing that the dark clouds outside were filled with countless lightning bolts.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    Bothnd and sky filled with the loud sound.

    Xu Qing¡¯s long hair stirred, and his heart started to pound.

    A roar echoed out like that of countless wild beasts, quickly surpassing the heavenly thunder as it spread far and wide.

    Facepletely expressionless, the pce lord stood. His baleful aura red, and he handed a jade slip to Xu Qing. Then he walked toward the tent ps.

    ¡°That jade slip contains all the details about the Holytides and the battleground. I want you to take the time to study it thoroughly, Xu Qing. I¡¯ll give you a day. What¡¯s happening now is justbat as usual. Things haven¡¯t really reached the point of being a big war. How to make use of all the details in that information will be up to you. Starting tomorrow, I want you back at my side as my secretary-general!¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Xu Qing said immediately.

    Pce Lord Kong nodded and walked out of the tent. The swordsages from the Secretariat Division had already returned and were waiting for new orders.

    Xu Qing stood behind the pce lord looking out at the battlefield. In addition to the dramatic things happening in the dome of heaven, he saw countless Holytide cultivators racing forward like a wave on the ocean. Some flew in the air, others raced on the ground. All wore suits of armor and radiated killing intent. Their troop formations resembled enormous severed hands that covered the sky and spread out over the earth.

    The pce lord began issuing orders, and Sea-Sealing County¡¯s army stirred like a beast that had been napping and was now ready to fight back.

    After taking it in for a moment, Xu Qing sped hands and left. He knew that, having just arrived at the battlefield, he didn¡¯t have any idea of the wartime operations, much less the ups and downs of the situation. The post of secretary-general wasn¡¯t something to be viewed casually. It didn¡¯t just involve passing along orders, but rather, required keen observational and analytical skills. In the current situation, it would require a general understanding of all the details rted to the battlefield.

    In reality, a single day wouldn¡¯t be enough for Xu Qing to catch up properly.

    Nor could one jade slip possibly contain all of the information necessary to understand the Holytides and the battlefield.

    In order to more quickly familiarize himself with everything, he wanted to find a spot that overlooked the battlefield, and station himself there to observe the fighting. At the same time, it would be easy for him to actually go onto the battlefield to personally experience the details of the fighting between humans and Holytides.

    He could do the former by staying with Pce Lord Kong, but not thetter. Being near the pce lord, who was the core of the entire army, would make it difficult to actually go onto the battlefield.

    As rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth, and everything shook, Xu Qing looked around for a suitable spot. Eventually, he noticed an area where a host of scrap puppets had been piled up on a mountain. The war puppets of Sea-Sealing County were usually operated byrge numbers of cultivators, and would be stationed on a spell formation to be kept in a peak state of readiness. But already, many of them had been rendered nonoperational due to damage taken. They were being temporarily stored on that mountain, where they could be scavenged for spare parts. Or, they could be tossed out at key moments in the battle and detonated.

    After spotting the pile of scrap puppets, Xu Qing flew over.

    Given the state of the fighting, there was only one person on guard. It was an old cripple who sat there looking out woodenly at the battlefield. He noticed Xu Qing''s approach, and he looked over with a nk expression.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t speak to him. He leaped up onto the scrap puppets and climbed to the top of the pile. Standing there, he took out the jade slip and reviewed the contents while simultaneously looking out at the battlefield.

    The high vantage point offered a good view. Just beyond the golden, the battle raged.

    High in the sky, the Holytides had their diamond-shaped magical devices. asionally, they would release ear-piercing sounds that rippled through the air, along with lightning bolts that would smash into the ground. The blood-colored eyes in the middle of the diamond-shaped devices would emit crushing pressure that hindered the human forces but bolstered the Holytides.

    The jade slip had some basic information about the diamond-shaped magical devices, such as the fact that the gruish things were a gift from the Nightshades.

    That said, the humans had their own advantages. For instance, Xu Qing could see the Void Returning experts seated in the golden sending out cultivation base power into the. As a result, numerous golden mouths appeared, which emitted noiseless howls as theyunched attacks at the diamond-shaped magical devices.

    Though the mouths interfered with the diamond-shaped devices, and even drew their attention, the ck snow was pervasive and difficult to contain.

    Sometimes the snowkes transformed into magical attacks that hit the human cultivators, or converged to form both humanoid and beastly shapes. Somended near Holytide cultivators, where they formed into dangerous weapons. Sometimes the ck snow wouldnd on the humans, no matter how they tried to avoid it. There was simply too much of it. When that happened, the cultivator would shiver as the snow turned into a dangerous poison. If the mutagen within those cultivators reached a certain point, they would scream as they experienced mutation and started blindly attacking anyone around them. It was a brutal scene.

    But there was still more the humans could do.

    Even as Xu Qing felt shaken, he saw the shocking magical thorns emit deafening sound wave attacks. Wherever the sound passed, the snow would melt, turning into ck water that sshed onto the ground and eventually turned into a ck mist.

    When that happened, some humans on the battlefield would just take the time to catch their breath, maybe even by falling back from the fighting. Then, after recovering, they would charge back into the battle.

    1. Duskspirit was introduced in <u>chapter 397</u>. She introduced the Demonization Art to Xu Qing in <u>chapter 421</u>. ?

 Chapter 505: The Emperor of Redspirit (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 505: The Emperor of Redspirit (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing was shocked by what he was seeing. Even in the short time he had been observing, he had seen many people die. Human cultivators lost their lives in a very gruish fashion. Despite being far from any enemies, they would suddenly be shed to pieces by unseen des. Then, after dying, they mutated into mindless mutant beasts. Hoarse shouts and bloodcurdling screams mixed with the sounds of self-detonations and the thrum of magical devices. Taking in the scene as a whole, it didn¡¯t seem like the forces of Sea-Sealing County could possiblyunch a counteroffensive. They could only mount a defense.

    <i>Sea-Sealing County originally had thirteen prefectures, but lost three at the very beginning. Injustice and Emperor-Receiving weren¡¯t participating from the beginning. That means we had the power of eight prefectures. And I remember that, at the beginning of the conflict, we had eight battalions!</i>

    Suppressing his shock at what he was seeing, he quickly analyzed the situation.

    <i>There¡¯s no specific strategy being forced on everyone. The forces from the different prefectures all have their own unique qualities, so it doesn¡¯t make sense to shoehorn everything into one n.</i>

    <i>Therefore... the eight battalions are essentially autonomous, with their own supplies, magical devices, battle ns, and the like.</i>

    <i>For example, those magical thorns are overseen by the Third Battalion. And the hundreds of Void Returning cultivators managing the taboo treasures from the various prefectures are actually selected from all of the different battalions. And they only represent a portion of the Void Returning forces. The Swordsage Pce is responsible for the war puppets, the Dao Bell, and The Emperor¡¯s Swords!</i>

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing looked left and right and didn¡¯t see anyone from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And the army forces here seemedcking.

    It made Xu Qing think back to the sandbox he¡¯d seen in themand tent.

    <i>The front lines stretch for a long way, and are divided into multiple battle zones. Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, as well as the forces from two other prefectures, are being assigned to one of the more westerly areas. The part I¡¯m in right now is the battle zone overseen by the Command Department!</i>

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me Pce Lord Kong has set himself up here to make himself bait? Is he trying to attract the attention of the Holytides...? Or maybe he has some other n</i>.

    Without more detailed information, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be sure of the nuances of what he was seeing. That said, he was still getting much more familiar with the war situation. After wrapping his mind around the various battle zones, he decided to number the zones to make it easier to analyze them.

    <i>Sea-Sealing County is the West Zone, while the Holytides upy the East Zone.</i>

    <i>Zones West 1, West 3, West 4, and West 8 are closest to the golden. The forces there are on standby as they wait to engage with the enemy forces from Zones East 5, East 7, and East 11. West 2, West 5 are using war puppets, while the other three zones are providing support. On the Holytide side, dozens of zones including Zones East 3, East 6, East 14, and East 17 have shifted to make Zone East 2 the most prominent.... No, hold on. The Holytide formation is changing into an arrow, with East 2 being the arrowhead!</i>

    After having made that determination, he looked over to where the golden hovered above East 2.

    With the Holytide¡¯s formation shiftplete, over ten thousand living severed hands suddenly appeared. Every single one of them held a huge chain as they surged forward. Simultaneously, intense rumbling sounds rang out as the vortex behind them opened up further. More ck snow emerged, pouring like an avnche onto the field of battle.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as he noticed one of The Emperor¡¯s Swords suddenly glitter with light, as if it had been waiting for this moment. Massive amounts of sword light erupted from it, turning into a sword sea that shot toward the vortex. It closed in and detonated, causing howls of anguish to emerge from the spinning vortex. The sword sea sent the avnche of ck snow spraying off in different directions.

    Meanwhile, high above the Sea-Sealing County, the huge Dao Bell surrounded by the bronze coffins suddenly tolled. The sound was profoundly ancient, and seemed capable of shattering anything and everything. The bell tolled seven times, and each time, it sent ripples out over the battlefield. Countless Holytide cultivators simply exploded, while at the same time revealing figures that had previously been invisible.

    The illusory figures were not Holytides. Instead, they looked like mantises, each of them dozens of meters tall and pulsing with a very unique mutagen that invaded everything around them. Xu Qing knew that these were the grim reapers created by the Nightshades¡¯ diamond-shaped magical devices. Their unusual state of existence made them impossible to detect, and thus extremely difficult to deal with. Normally speaking, the golden was needed to mark them. But right now, the Dao Bell was exerting crushing power that instantly revealed them.

    That was the moment when the war puppets sprang into action. Over ten thousand gigantic puppets rushed onto the battlefield toward the grim reapers.

    War was like aplicated game. Sometimes, a defensive maneuver could actually turn into a counteroffensive. And sometimesplicated situations were actually simple.

    That said, war was always like a millstone that required great effort to be expended as it rotated. Whether one side was in the right or wrong didn¡¯t matter. Blood had to be spilled. When the millstone rotated, lives were taken. Matters of victory and defeat were secondary.

    Xu Qing stood by, silently studying the battlefield.

    The sky above seemed to be that of perpetual dusk. It didn¡¯t matter if it was day or night. The sky always looked like that.

    Intense sounds. The reek of blood. Mutagen. Those were the main themes of the war. As for how long the brutal symphony would continue to y, no one knew. The ughter went on and on, an endless cycle that brought untold pressure onto thebatants. Along with that pressure came a mounting despair.

    Eventually, Xu Qing looked away. He had seen enough of the battlefield. The fighting continued, with both sides employing various tactics to keep the bloody millstone turning.

    Death wasmonce. Survival was a miracle.

    Yet, during the entire time he watched, Xu Qing didn¡¯t see retreating troops.

    <i>Where would they retreat to?</i>

    From his position atop the pile of scrap puppets, he looked back at Sea-Sealing County. Even though he had experienced countless sufferings from his youth until now, there were still many things he worried about. It made sense for a well-rounded person to have worries.

    Eventually, he looked away from Sea-Sealing County and up at the diamond-shaped magical device in the sky, and the rippling distortions that surrounded them.

    <i>I can sense a bit of the power of the red moon on those magical devices....</i>

    He had only picked up on that after observing them from a distance for a while. He got the same sense from the ck snow. That said, he was so far away from both that the sensation wasn¡¯t very strong.

    After considering the matter, he left the scrap puppet pile and headed toward the battlefield.

    As he was leaving, the old cripple called out in a voice hoarse from age, ¡°Come back alive!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped and turned in ce to look at the old man. Xu Qing didn¡¯t know him, and the two of them hadn¡¯t exchanged any words up to this point. The old man didn¡¯t say anything further. He just looked out at the battlefield, his expression one of sorrow. Xu Qing nodded to him, then became a streak of light that shot toward the golden.

    He wanted to get onto the actual battlefield to get a better sense of the power of the ck snow and the diamond-shaped magical devices. If both of them were really backed by the power of the red moon, then maybe he could provide some help.

    Given the speed he was capable of, he quickly passed through the golden and onto the battlefield. The smell of blood and gore hit him like a wave. The air was humid and smelled disgusting. Even a hardened killer would feel nauseous upon smelling such an odor. It was because of how many had died, and how many had been filled with feelings of despair when they did.

    Emotions were like contaminants. The eyes of humans would turn red, whether from fear or excitement. And when those two emotions mixed together, the results were even more dramatic.

    Being on the battlefield was very different from observing it from afar. The sights, sounds, and smells were now much more intense.

    He saw bitter faces, enraged expressions, and back-and-forth fighting. There was madness and confusion. It almost looked like a great hand had dropped from the sky to create a painting in front of Xu Qing. And then the painter had unwittingly added Xu Qing into the picture as well, like a tiny dot that could hardly measure up to therger image.

    Next to that tiny dot was a Holytide cultivator, his expression one of ferocity as he shot forth to take Xu Qing¡¯s head. ck snow became a magical device shaped like a ghost w. It burst with extraordinary might, yet the moment the vicious Holytide arrived, Xu Qing vanished.

    A ck dagger shed through the Holytide¡¯s neck. Blood sprayed and the head flew, allowing the Holytide cultivator to briefly see his own headless body.

    Xu Qing licked the acerbic blood from his lips, all while the baleful aura seeped out of his bloodshot eyes. He didn¡¯t waste any time. He burst into motion, sending taboo poison power all around him. Any Holytides who dare get close to him would shudder, then scream as their bodies melted within their armor.

    As he proceeded along, he got closer to an area with ck snow. When he arrived, he let the snow fall and looked closely for traces of the red moon. However, as he studied them, the snowkes released faint fluctuations that caused them to copse.

    <i>It does and doesn¡¯t</i>... he thought, looking around vigntly. The ck snowkes did have the power of the red moon in them, but it was so weak as to be insignificant.

    What was more noteworthy was that it had some type of chaotic power element. As a result, though Xu Qing could exert some tiny fraction of control, the slightest misstep would result in total failure. If he wanted to gain true control, he would need to do further observation and testing.

    As for the poison in the snow, it didn¡¯t count for much whenpared to Xu Qing¡¯s poisons. However, when the ck snow turned into various magical techniques, they were very strong. And when they clumped together, they became incredibly astounding.

    <i>There¡¯s more to them than meets the eye. There¡¯s something vicious inside, plus there¡¯s that unstable chaos power that guides the melting of the snowkes....</i>

    After some thought, he tried to collect some of the snow, then turned to leave for another area.

 Chapter 505: The Emperor of Redspirit (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 505: The Emperor of Redspirit (part 2)</h4>

    He wanted to see if the diamond-shaped magical devices were simr to the ck snow. Unfortunately, the devices were high in the sky, which made them much more dangerous to approach. Therefore, he settled on the grim reapers as his next goal.

    Blurring into motion, he headed to a spot in the distance where he saw some war puppets fighting with some grim reapers. Along the way, he took time to study the mutagen on the battlefield.

    <i>This is a living mutagen, not the kind thates from forbidden grounds, or the kind made by cultivators!</i>

    Narrowing his eyes, he sent his shadow out to devour the surrounding mutagen. Such living mutagen was very suitable for the shadow. Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out and circled protectively around Xu Qing like a dharma protector.

    Xu Qing continued on his way, and the ughter proceeded around him. There were too many Holytides on the battlefield. As Xu Qing sped along, blood sttered onto his uniform, and dripped from his face and hands down to the ground. As time passed, he left behind a wake of corpses. He was cautious by nature, so despite the bloodshot nature of his eyes, his expression was still calm and collected. He didn¡¯t stay in one ce for very long, and whenever he sensed Spirit Trove fluctuations, he would flee.

    Thus, time passed, and eventually he reached the spot where the war puppets and grim reapers were fighting. Being on the battlefield, he now had a good sense of how difficult things were for the human cultivators. The deafening noise here was much more intense than on the other side of the golden.

    It was easy to imagine how cultivators from either side would eventually go deaf from it. They wouldn¡¯t hear the screams of others, nor their own howls of grief. People who lost their hearing would experience two contradictory sensations. On the one hand, the battlefield would seem vastly bigger because of theck of sound. On the other hand, that person would feel immeasurably small because of being isted and alone. That state could help a cultivator to focus more on fighting, but could also drive them to the limits of sanity.

    Xu Qing saw people like that as he moved along. He saw some corpses with hands mped over their ears as if they only hoped to stop hearing the rumbling and booms around them. It was the same with both humans and Holytides.

    At the moment, Xu Qing was stepping over a mangled corpse. He looked at it, then looked up at the spot ahead where the grim reapers and the war puppets fought back and forth. The puppets seemed to have the upper hand.

    Both parties were dozens of meters high. The Sea-Sealing County war puppets were humanoid, while the grim reapers looked like mantises. They fought back and forth ferociously, causing blood to spray with each blow. Either that, or shattered puppet parts would fly out.

    The shockwaves spread far and wide. After all, the battle prowess on disy was not just Nascent Soul; it was actually more in the Spirit Trove level. More than ten thousand war puppets had engaged the grim reapers, and there were already high casualties on both sides. Before long, though, the war puppets sted through the grim reapers, then surged onward.

    When Xu Qing arrived, he gathered some of the flesh and blood of the grim reapers. He could sense their brutal aura, and was able to detect the power of the red moon in it. It was stronger than in the ck snow.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he once again sensed that, all of a sudden, things were changing on the battlefield!

    Then Pce Lord Kong¡¯s voice echoed out, filled with unprecedented solemnity.

    ¡°All Sea-Sealing County battalions: fall back immediately!¡±

    Even as the words rang out, the sky shed as an intense sound that surpassed all the magical devices erupted from the huge vortex. The sound crushed down on everything, and seemed to restore hearing to all cultivators on both sides of the conflict.

    <i>Thump-thump!</i>

    <i>Thump-thump!</i>

    <i>Thump-thump!</i>

    It sounded like a heartbeat, pulsing down from the vortex in the sky, filling all thends. And then, an eye peered out from within that vortex. It was ashen gray, lifeless, and in fact, pulsing with a boundless aura of death. Then the eye lunged forward, and the vortex was pulled open as a crimson head emerged!

    It was not the head of a human. Rather, it was the bright red head of a bird! It was only a head, not a body. The bird¡¯s neck ended in a gaping hole, as if its neck had been cut through with a sharp de. This bird¡¯s head was so huge that it wasrger than Qingqin¡¯s entire body, as if Qingqin were just a child, and this was an adult. As it appeared, filling the sky, a huge emperor¡¯s throne could be seen in its eye!

    Sitting on that throne was a person. He wore an emperor¡¯s robe, as well as a crown, the beads of which obscured his face. He emanated a majestic mightiness that created a tempest all around him. The terrifying bird¡¯s head was apparently serving as his imperial carriage.

    All of the Holytide cultivators on the field of battle dropped to their knees to kowtow, their eyes gleaming with fanaticism.

    ¡°Emperor!¡±

    ¡°Emperor!!¡±

    Next, a projected image of Pce Lord Kong appeared above the fourth line of defense, tens of thousands of meters in size. His feet were nted on the ground while his head was high in the sky, and he radiated a terrifying, baleful aura. To his left was the Dao Bell, emanating an ancient thrumming, and to his right was a 30,000-meter Emperor¡¯s Sword, pulsing with killing intent. Behind him, the air undted into the shape of a huge eye that stared at the newly-arrived emperor.

    ¡°Redspirit, you old bastard.¡±

    The neer was the emperor of the Holytides¡¯ fourth royal dynasty, the Redspirit Dynasty!

    The battle lines were clearly drawn, with Emperor Redspirit on one side and Pce Lord Kong on the other.

    The delineation created by the golden was very clear. Outside of the, imperial might surged. Inside the, a baleful will enveloped all. The pressure from the two mighty figures swept across the battlefield, filling the prefecture. As a result, countless living beings in Tidefall Prefecture shivered from the depths of their souls.

    Emperor Redspirit and the Pce Lord Kong were simply too powerful. As they locked eyes and their energies squared off, heaven shook and the earth quaked. Close examination would reveal that the air between them was filled with the projections of countless minor worlds.

    It looked like a sort of supernatural phenomena. As their minor worlds collided, countless figures flew out from them and started fighting. It was a hair-raising sight as innumerable minor worlds crumbled. Yet more minor worlds popped into being to rece them. It was obvious that the minor worlds on both sides were reaching the point of being able tobine into one. Both of their auras rose higher and higher, until that unification happened, and illusory major worlds appeared. That signified the true extent of their cultivation bases.

    By reaching this point and forming illusory major worlds, they were in the fourth stage of Void Returning. After creating that major world, they would lift it high, turning it from illusory to corporeal. And by hoisting it onto their shoulders, then fusing it with their soul, they would turn it into a full world.

    They would be one-world Smoldering Gods!

    That said, neither Emperor Redspirit nor Pce Lord Kong were at that point yet. After all, the difference between fourth-stage Void Returning and one-world Smoldering God was a gap that was rarely crossed!

    As a result, fourth-stage Void Returning was considered extremely domineering in most situations. As their minor worlds collided endlessly, ck clouds copsed and lightning transformed into starlight. Down below, only those cultivators who were in Spirit Trove dared to look up at what was happening. All others could only avert their eyes.

    However, there were a few who had outrageous gall, or perhaps who didn¡¯t look away in time, who saw what was happening. When they did, their eyes bulged, their flesh exploded, and they were destroyed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing only saw for a brief moment, and it caused his mind to reel and his soul to feel like it was about to be ripped to shreds. Thankfully, his fleshly eyes were able to endure the pain. He took a deep breath as he realized that meant his fleshly body was a lot tougher than his soul. Taking out the green crystal the Captain had given him, he began to absorb it while backing up with the rest of the army toward the golden.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out that surpassed the magical devices of war.

    The Holytide army was clearly in high spirits. In fact, as soon as they received the orders from theirmanders, they started rushing toward the retreating Sea-Sealing County forces.

    Meanwhile, Emperor Redspirit¡¯s cold voice echoed out high above.

    ¡°Kong Liangxiu, if it weren¡¯t for the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County converging on you and forming your major world, you wouldn¡¯t be a match for me.¡±

    ¡°You,¡± Pce Lord Kong said coolly, ¡°one of the four mighty emperors of the Holytides, don''t have the blessing of the Holytide Region¡¯s destiny? Why might that be? Don¡¯t you know?¡±

 Chapter 506: Grievous News (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 506: Grievous News (part 1)</h4>

    The ughter intensified. Though the Holytides advanced with deadly momentum, the golden of Sea-Sealing County bolstered the troops, and the countless magical devices thrummed, providing cover for the orderly retreat of the battalions.

    Large numbers of cultivators gathered in the war puppets and then rushed out to provide further support. There were bothrge puppets and small ones. The smaller varieties were sometimes only a few dozen meters tall, while therger ones could reach a height of 3,000 meters. All contained a variety of spell formations, and were crewed by cultivators of all types and kinds. In some cases, the crew had less than a hundred people, but in most cases, thousands. Thetter were the variety that had been fighting the grim reapers. The cultivators in them linked their cultivation base with the puppet itself, allowing them to unleash battle prowess simr to the Spirit Trove level. Looking around the battlefield as a whole, there were tens of thousands of puppets bothrge and small.

    Because of that, the human battalions maintained order as they fell back and went through the golden into safety.

    Meanwhile, Emperor Redspirit faced off with Pce Lord Kong.

    ¡°Kong Liangxiu,¡± the emperor said in a voice that thrummed with heavenly might, ¡°the scope of the conflict surpasses your little county here. The Nightshades are already at war with you humans, and that¡¯s why your Imperial Region is powerless to help you. You can¡¯t afford to dy things any longer, and you have no backup on the way.

    ¡°All the major species in Revered Ancient are waiting to see how this war will fare. The slightest decline in human strength will result in them uniting to wipe you out of existence. You must realize all of that, don¡¯t you?

    ¡°The imperial dynasty of one of the most paramount species in Revered Ancient, the Firemoon Darkheaven people, will soon carry out the grand tradition they¡¯ve maintained for the past 400,000 years. The Great Hunt of Species. The ancient treaty will expire soon, and there isn¡¯t a single species that wants to be the prey in the Great Hunt. Since humans have no <i>domain treasure</i> it¡¯s obvious you¡¯ll be the sacrificial gift. That way, the other species can rest at ease for the next 100,000 years. [1]

    ¡°Therefore... the oue here is inevitable. You¡¯re out of time. I¡¯ll give you one single chance to surrender to my Holytide army. That¡¯s the only chance you have to save Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    The words spoken by Emperor Redspirit weren¡¯t just for Pce Lord Kong to hear. They echoed across the entire battlefield and through the golden. All the humans heard them. Just as the emperor intended. Everyone who heard the words were shaken. The speech had some mysterious power within it that caused feelings of despair to rise unbidden in the hearts of the listeners.

    When Pce Lord Kong spoke, his voice was as cool and collected as always. It didn¡¯t tremble in the least bit, making him seem like a boulder that stood in ce no matter how the sea smashed it with waves. ¡°It¡¯s interesting you would resort to such ridiculous words in an attempt to erode the fighting spirit of Sea-Sealing County. I guess you must be getting really nervous, Emperor Redspirit.¡±

    As his voice echoed out, the effects of Emperor Redspirit¡¯s words faded from the hearts of the human cultivators.

    Then Pce Lord Kong strode forward, reached out, and grabbed the scintiting Emperor¡¯s Sword. As he did, it changed shape, bing a long spear that he hefted. He charged toward Emperor Redspirit. They shed, sending wild colors pulsing out left and right. As they fought, they rose higher and higher into the air until it wasn¡¯t possible to see them. That said, the rumbling booms of their fight shook everything below.

    The battle continued.

    After the human battalions had all fallen back behind the golden, the county capital¡¯s taboo treasures were unleashed. They manifested as spirit automatons on the golden, which began to advance in resistance of the Holytide assault. Unfortunately, Sea-Sealing County was only one county, and it couldn¡¯t possibly measure up to the entire Holytide Region. That was why the conflict had been fairly one-sided so far. Though they were only facing the lone Redspirit Dynasty, they still weren¡¯t a match. They could only hold the line as best they could, and hope that reinforcements would eventuallye from the imperial capital.

    ***

    Time passed, slowly but surely. Soon, seven days had passed. The battle continued as it had up to this point. Whether it was night or day, rumbling booms echoed out, and deadly fighting went on.

    Pce Lord Kong had not returned. However, thanks to the deputy pce lords and the swordsage grand elders from the various prefectures, things remained orderly. On numerous asions, it seemed like the lines would copse, but in the end, they held.

    The construction work on the fifth line of defense, which was 5,000 kilometers back, was halfwayplete.

    Xu Qing joined the fighting on multiple asions. As he got familiar with the situation on the battlefield, and the tactics of the various battalions, he ughtered many enemies. That said, he suffered his fair share of injuries. The violet crystal was always there to heal him, but he couldn¡¯t shake the feeling of mental exhaustion that continued to build up in him. It seemed to almost close up his throat, making him even more silent than ever.

    On a few asions, he ran into Holytide Spirit Trove cultivators. Thankfully, he never strayed too far into the fighting, and was always able to escape them. On one asion, he received a very serious injury.

    Eventually, he joined up with Kong Xianglong¡¯s squad of several hundred cultivators. Sir Mountain-River was there. Using one of the war puppets, they were able to wade deep into the fighting.

    Because of the relentless assault of the Holytide forces, the troops of Sea-Sealing County as a whole got no opportunities for rest. Nerves grew taut. Only by rotating forces within the battalions were any of the cultivators able to get any rest. It was currently just such a moment.

    Kong Xianglongy on the ground staring nkly up into the sky. It was the same with Sir Mountain-River. Normally speaking, Sir Mountain-River wasn¡¯t a big drinker. But now he leaned back against the battered war puppet, gulping alcohol and rubbing his slowly growing beard stubble. He was young, yet right now he looked iparably old.

    Xu Qing had heard that three days after Duskspirit died, about half a month ago... Wang Chen was killed inbat. He had been providing backup for Sir Mountain-River. In one of the lulls in the fighting, Kong Xianglong and Sir Mountain-River went out to look for his corpse on the bloody sludge of the battlefield. They never found it. [2]

    Xu Qing looked off into the distance. It was evening. Red light asionally red, and deafening booms rang out constantly. Specifically, he was looking toward another part of the western front, where the battalion from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was garrisoned.

    The Captain was there, as was Sir Bloodsmelter.

    <i>I hope they¡¯re safe.</i>

    It wasn¡¯t possible to send a message via transmission jade slip, asmunications were locked down on the battlefield. Only messages rting to the war itself were allowed.

    Stifling pressure. Taciturn silence. That was the general state of affairs in war. Any periods of rest were very short.

    When orders came down to start fighting again, Kong Xianglong wordlessly got back up and returned to his spot on the war puppet. The puppet itself was sttered with blood and had taken a lot of damage already. This was the seventh puppet their squad had gone through in the past seven days. Sir Mountain-River carefully put away his gon of alcohol and also returned to the puppet. Xu Qing did the same, along with all the other cultivators in the squad. Back at his spot, he sat down cross-legged and sent his cultivation base out. A tremor passed through the puppet, and then it pulsed with mighty pressure as it lumbered toward the field of battle. As it moved, chunks of bloody flesh slipped out of its joints and fell to the ground. Some came from the crew, but most was the flesh of Holytide cultivators. The flesh that fell to the ground was left behind, to be trampled by other puppets that followed behind them.

    Xu Qing was responsible for the war puppet¡¯s left hand, which gave himmand of incredibly destructive force.

    From his spot, Xu Qing was able to see the outside through a screen. As they neared the battlefield, he unconsciously maintained the same expression as everyone else; wooden and numb.

    Upon passing the pile of scrap puppets, Xu Qing looked over and didn¡¯t see any living person there. He thought back to the crippled old man who had told him to e back alive.¡¯ The old man¡¯s corpse was leaned up against one of the scrap puppets, greenish-ck from advanced spread of mutagen.

    Xu Qing had seen many corpses like that back in South Phoenix. On a battlefield full of millions upon millions of people, a single death wouldn¡¯t be noted by anyone other than the squad they had been a member of, or perhaps by the records division. Such deaths were inconsequential.

    The puppet eventually charged through the golden, joining tens of thousands of other puppets to race toward the enemy.

    Time passed.

    On the evening of the tenth day, Pce Lord Kong returned. His presence boosted morale; it was possible to see a gleam in the eyes of the Sea-Sealing County cultivators. After the pce lord returned, the Holytide forces chose to fall back for a short time. Another rest period began. Squads from both sides did their best to recover the corpses of theirrades. Although that resulted in asional friction and even fighting, for the most part, both sides would look for the quickest opportunity to back down.

    Xu Qing received a summons from Pce Lord Kong and left Kong Xianglong¡¯s squad.

    Back in themand tent, Xu Qing noted that the pce lord didn¡¯t have any visible injuries. In fact, the me of his life force seemed to burn with more intensity, and he had an even stronger baleful aura than before. It didn¡¯t make sense. How could the pce lord have possibly fought such an extended battle with Emperor Redspirit without ending up hurt?

    After a moment of hesitation, Xu Qing finally rted the results of his investigation in Daybreak Prefecture. Taking Pce Lord Kong¡¯smand medallion, he offered it forward with both hands.

    Pce Lord Kong took it, looked at it, and then tossed it back to Xu Qing. ¡°There are two of thesemand medallions. You can keep that one. It might keep you safeter on. Even after the new governor arrives, and the authority of that medallion is taken away... it will still allow you to activate the capital¡¯s taboo treasure one time.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the old pce lord and felt deeply moved. ¡°Pce Lord¡ª¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± Pce Lord Kong interrupted, ¡°do you have a handle on the battlefield now?¡±

    Inside, Pce Lord Kong was sighing. He really liked Xu Qing, and had originally nned to mentor him as a sessor. But then war came along and changed everything. There wasn¡¯t enough time.

    Xu Qing bowed his head and quietly answered, ¡°I think I have a rough handle on it.¡±

    Pce Lord Kong looked out of the tent and calmly said, ¡°In that case, going forward, I want you to continue serving as my secretary-general. Record the following information.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said, taking out a jade slip.

    ¡°Notify the Sixth Battalion as well as the Seventh Battalion that they¡¯re to fall back 5,000 kilometers to the garrisons on the fifth line of defense.

    ¡°Notify the battalions from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and Injustice Prefecture to fall back 19,000 kilometers to the garrison in the Rainvast Mountains.

    ¡°Notify the Fourth and Fifth Battalions to retreat 35,000 kilometers to the garrison on the border of Rainfield Prefecture.

    ¡°Notify the Corrections Division to scatter into Tidefall Prefecture and hunt down everyst ck Guard cultivator that¡¯s there. I want all roads in Rainfield Prefecture purged.

    ¡°Notify Rainfield Prefecture that they¡¯re to immediately activate theirrge-scale teleportation portal!

    ¡°Secretly notify the First Battalion to make haste to Rainfield and Enlightenment Prefectures to inspect the current state of the earthme there, and to elerate the evacuation of the mortals in those prefectures.¡±

    Upon hearing thest order, Xu Qing looked up at the pce lord. ¡°Pce Lord, this will leave the fourth line of defense manned solely by the Swordsage Pce and the Second and Third Battalions.¡±

    Pce Lord Kong closed his eyes. ¡°Send out the orders!¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head and backed away. At the mouth of the tent, he hesitated, then quietly said, ¡°Pce Lord, in case you¡¯re not aware... Big Bro Kong is in very low spirits....¡±

    Pce Lord Kong didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing waited for a moment, then quietly left.

    After he was gone, Pce Lord Kong opened his eyes. When he did, the me of his life force that gleamed in his eyes went dim. A momentter, it red back to life, though it came with a price: blood leaked out of the corners of his mouth.

    Outside themand tent, Xu Qing encountered Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong caught his eye and nodded. Pce Lord Kong called to Kong Xianglong, and he hurried into the tent.

    Seeing Kong Xianglong look so deste caused Xu Qing to sigh in his heart. Taking a moment to settle his thoughts, he started organizing the variousmands to send out.

    1. The Firemoon Darkheaven people were previously mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

    2. RIP Wang Chen. Hest appeared in <u>chapter 475</u>, and hisst speaking role was in <u>chapter 458</u>. He was introduced in <u>chapter 397</u>. ?

 Chapter 506: Grievous News (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 506: Grievous News (part 2)</h4>

    Days passed. The fighting got more intense, and the casualties mounted. As the battalions got new orders and left, the camp remained busy. Corpses continued to pile up.

    Xu Qing walked silently through the camp. Twenty-three days had passed since he arrived at the front lines. He had seen a lot of death during those twenty-three days. He had witnessed unspeakable misery. He had observed a true hell on earth. At this point, he hardly noticed the constant rumbling boom ofbat.

    There was another lull inbat right now, and Xu Qing was nning on taking advantage of the moment to recruit a few more people into his Secretariat Division. The Secretariat Division yed an integral role in the fighting, and as a result, over a hundred members had already lost their lives. There weren¡¯t enough left behind.

    When he thought about how many people he saw die on a daily basis, Xu Qing¡¯s feet felt heavy as he walked. At the same time, he thought about Pce Lord Kong. There was definitely something wrong with the pce lord. It wasn¡¯t possible for the me of his life force to burn so brightly. In fact, that fire seemed to overshadow the baleful aura on him.

    Grief flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. As a cultivator, he knew what it indicated. Though he hadn¡¯t realized it at first, after enough time passed, it became obvious. Pce Lord Kong was burning his life force. And he was burning it with abandon. Doing so gave a terrifying boost to strength, which the pce lord was pooling into a powerful reserve he could unleashter.

    <i>Are the relief troops from the imperial capital really not going to show up?</i>

    All of the Sea-Sealing County cultivators were wondering the same thing.

    As the secretary-general, Xu Qing knew more about the war situation than just about anyone, but... he didn¡¯t know the answer to that question. As he sighed, he walked past piles of corpses. Suddenly he stopped walking and turned his head.

    Off in the distance were two corpses embraced in death. They were covered with wounds and full of mutagen. But despite having sacrificed their lives, they wouldn¡¯t let go of each other. That was the case even though the lower halves of their bodies were missing.

    Xu Qing walked over and stood by the two corpses. A very long time passed.

    ¡°Elder Brother Chen....¡±

    The two embracing corpses were Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying. Xu Qing had seen them when he first arrived. Back then, Chen Tinghao had been injured, and Sun Liying had been tending his wounds. He remembered how they smiled at him when they spotted him. Now they were gone forever. [1]

    Xu Qing took the cape off of his swordsage uniform and put it over the two corpses. After ten breaths of time passed, he softly said, ¡°Rest in peace.¡±

    He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and left. Around then, horns red on the battlefield as fighting began again. Things were intensifying.

    Pce Lord Kong stood outside of hismand tent in his suit of armor. He didn''t need the Secretariat Division, as he was projecting these orders directly to the army using divine will.

    <i>¡°Activate all taboo treasures, and unleash them at seventy percent capacity!</i>

    <i>¡°Notify all war puppets to use discarded weapons as projectiles on the battlefield!</i>

    <i>¡°Notify all swordsages to use their Emperor¡¯s Swords!</i>

    <i>¡°Have the dharma thorns utilize stage three power. Unleash five barrages onto the battlefield.</i>

    <i>¡°Tell all battalions to prepare to retreat to the fifth line of defense!¡±</i>

    Though the pce lord had an overall view of the situation, there was no way he could be aware of all the minute details. Therefore, he needed Xu Qing¡¯s Secretariat Division swordsages to go to the battlefield to collect detailed reports for him, which he could use to make judgment calls. Before long, the fighting was back at full intensity. This time, thanks to the fact that Xu Qing was personally filtering all of the reports, he got the sense that the entire western front was about to copse.

    ¡°Pce Lord,¡± he said, ¡°there¡¯s something wrong with the exhaustion levels of the Holytide cultivators! Something¡¯s also wrong with the ck lightning! It¡¯s only about fifty percent as strong as before! Based on casualty statistics, and also based on the differences between the magical device and spell formation operation numbers... the Secretariat Division hase to the conclusion that the Holytide¡¯s have secret reinforcements on the way!¡±

    At almost the exact same moment that Xu Qing said that, a wild tempest sprang into being in the north. It was like a tornado that connected heaven and earth. The rain within the wind spread out over the battlefield. It was a rain, not of water but of blood. And it wasing from the north.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯smand sword started vibrating as reports started pouring in from the north.

    As Xu Qing scanned the reports, his mind started spinning. It took all the willpower he was capable of to maintain calm. The hand that gripped hismand sword tightened.

    Also outside themand tent was one of the deputy pce lords, two honor guards, and the Swordsage Court grand elders associated with the Second and Third Battalions. All of them could sense something strange going on, and they looked at Xu Qing and the pce lord.

    Pce Lord Kong shivered slightly. Given his authority over the magical treasures from the capital city, he was already aware of the information contained in Xu Qing¡¯s reports. For the first time, Pce Lord Kong, who had always been like an unmovable bastion, boulder-like stabilizing force for Sea-Sealing County, betrayed a look of sadness. With that look in his eyes, he gazed northward. The trembling and the grief onlysted for a short moment, though. Then he purged the weakness. He stood tall and straight, his expression grim, his eyes as determined as ever.

    ¡°Pce Lord...?¡±

    The grand elders from the Second and Third Battalions stood there hesitantly.

    ¡°Read the report, Xu Qing!¡± Pce Lord Kong said. He was back to being that unmovable bastion.

    Xu Qing ducked his head in acknowledgement, then took a deep breath.

    ¡°The northern front reports that the taboo treasure copsed and can¡¯t be restored. The army of allied species was defeated. Casualties are impossible to track. The Holytide¡¯s Heavengale Dynasty and Earthsoil Dynasty have surged into Tranquility Prefecture! The pce lord of the Justice Pce died in battle! The pce lord of the Administration Pce died in battle! The Yao n forces on the northern front... were wiped out. Marquis Yao went missing on the battlefield. It¡¯s not yet known if he¡¯s alive or dead.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words hit the deputy pce lord like a bolt of lightning. Everyone gasped and looked at Pce Lord Kong. He smiled.

    ¡°It¡¯s only now that I understand everything...¡± he said. ¡°Fear not. There¡¯s no need for any of you to be afraid.¡± He looked out at the battlefield. ¡°The final battle ising.¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, something dramatic happened on the battlefield. All of the Holytide forces simultaneously started cheering, and at the same time, falling back. They retreated to the Heaventide Mountains. So did the diamond-shaped magical devices.

    The retreat of the devices cleared the sky of much of the cloud cover and revealed that there was a huge vortex spinning there. ck snow poured down from it. At the same time, the countless severed arms pulled the chains violently, whereupon a powerful aura of death emerged from the vortex. Even just the small bit of that aura that came out was enough to turn everything as dark as a winter night. Green mist gathered on the ground. The chains stretching out of the vortex frosted over, as if they were being frozen.

    Two huge figures rose up from behind the Holytide army, standing tall on the mountains.

    On the left was Emperor Redspirit. On the right was another figure in an imperial robe and crown. It was the emperor from the fourth of the Holytide¡¯s royal dynasties. As they towered up into the sky, they looked down at the pce lord by hismand tent.

    ¡°Kong Liangxiu, the northern front has copsed. Our army is inside Sea-Sealing County. The Nightshades¡¯ domain treasure ising. Things will end soon. You know what a domain treasure is. If you want to try to stop it, go ahead. We won¡¯t interfere. But as you know... you can¡¯t stop it.¡±

    The swordsages around themand tent stood there with decisive looks on their faces. Pce Lord Kong looked up at the two emperors standing atop the Heaventide Mountains.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, things will end soon.¡± The pce lord looked back at Sea-Sealing County, then continued, ¡°Notify the Second and Third Battalions to retreat 5,000 kilometers. They¡¯re not to continue fighting.

    ¡°Notify all Sea-Sealing County cultivators present to cease fighting.

    ¡°Notify all other battalions to hold their ground. They will cease fighting.

    ¡°Notify all swordsages... to retreat 2,500 kilometers. They will cease fighting!¡±

    Everyone present looked at the pce lord with surprise. Xu Qing also turned to face him.

    The deputy pce lord took a step forward, his face somewhat ashen. ¡°All of our forces are to cease fighting. That just leaves you.... Pce Lord, given your age, let me stand with you.¡±

    Honor Guard Sima¡¯s eyes revealed that he was ready to die, yet he still smiled as he took a step forward. ¡°Pce lord, I, Sima Nan, might not have an amazing cultivation base. But my blood runs hot in my veins, and I don¡¯t want to waste that. That domain treasure is emanating a frigid coldness. I¡¯d love nothing more than to go use it to cool down.¡± [2]

    The other honor guard present was Honor Guard Sun, the very one who had yed a lead role the day Xu Qing and the other new swordsages swore their oaths. Smiling, he stepped forward. ¡°Of the four honor guards, Ol¡¯ Zhou and Ol¡¯ Song are no longer with us. Only myself and Ol¡¯ Sima are left behind. Pce lord, you can¡¯t show favoritism to Ol¡¯ Sima. I¡¯ll being along too.¡±

    As the honor guards stepped forward, the frigid powering from the vortex grew stronger. The sky looked even darker than before. The vortex rotated, and shocking coldness emerged, spreading out to cover everything. Where it passed, it froze the clouds. It also turned the green mist into a forest of irregrly shaped columns. It was horrendous in appearance.

    Looking at the honor guards, Pce Lord Kong said, ¡°Am I still the pce lord, or not?¡±

    Everyone stood there silently.

    ¡°Are you tired of the Swordsage Pce?¡± the pce lord continued. ¡°When humans go to war, do we fear death? All of you. <i>Follow orders!¡±</i>

    Looking in the direction of the battlefield, he waved his hand. Instantly, a majestic tempest sprang up that took all of the countless cultivators on the front lines and physically moved them back 30,000 meters.

    Now there was a lone figure standing on the fourth line of defense. It was a man who, up to now, had not removed his armor.

    Sand flew in the wind. Frost lifted from the ground. Everything became hazy.

    He strode forward, growing more distant, but at the same time, stronger. He waved his hand, and the Dao Bell tolled. Flying out from amidst the coffins, it shot toward the vortex, exuding crushing pressure.

    Then, Pce Lord Kong¡¯s hoarse voice echoed out.

    ¡°Redspirit. Moonmist. Do the two of you dare to fight me?¡±

    1. RIP Chen Tinghao and Sun Liying. Chen Tinghao first appeared in <u>chapter 283</u>. They appeared as a couple in <u>chapter 388</u>. ?

    2. Quick reminder that Honor Guard Sima is Zhang Siyun¡¯s Sect Grandfather. He was mentioned a few times in passing, but yed a key role in the event in <u>chapter 425</u>. ?

 Chapter 507: The Lone General, A Hero Through the Ages (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 507: The Lone General, A Hero Through the Ages (part 1)</h4>

    The spinning vortex in the dome of heaven emitted rumbling sounds along with a frigid coldness so intense it turned the chains into ice. The coldness spat out by the vortex turned the sky into something like a ck mirror.

    The terrifying entity inside was slowly emerging.

    In front of it hung the huge Dao Bell, which was covered in countless ancient magical symbols, all flickering as the bell emitted an invisible pressure. However, the auraing from the vortex was so astonishing that not even the bell could suppress it. The bell held nothing back, yet eventually it reached its limit. Cracks started to spread out across its surface; clearly it couldn¡¯t prevent the domain treasure from emerging.

    A wind of extermination blew out from the vortex. It looked like a windmill, slowly spinning to send the icy cold out in all directions. More frost built up on the ground below, turning countless corpses and stretches of gore into ice that eventually shattered and became dust. Meanwhile, the ck snow continued to fall, turning everything blurry.

    A lone figure strode through it all, his cultivation base burning, causing everything around him to twist and contort.

    All Sea-Sealing County cultivators saw him.

    Xu Qing saw him, and only him.

    He wore the pitch ck armor of a soldier, and had long hair that was white because of how he was burning his own life force. The cold wind blew Pce Lord Kong¡¯s cape to the side, making it look almost like a g. Sand and frost swirled through the dark of evening, making the scene seem ancient.

    ¡°Pce Lord....¡± Waves of grief and indignation swept through Xu Qing.

    As Pce Lord Kong walked away, his energy built. He wasn¡¯t just the focus of the watching cultivators, but also seemed to attract the attention of heaven, earth, and the universe. In front of him was the massive Holytide army, and the two shocking emperors standing in front of the Heaventide Mountains. Those emperors seemed to block out the sun, sending out brutal and fiendish auras to cover everything. 30,000 meters behind Pce Lord Kong were the Second and Third Battalions, as well as tens of thousands of surviving swordsages.

    He was making his stand alone! The sight caused all human cultivators to feel sorrow deep in their hearts. Their eyes were already bloodshot from all the fighting, but now they¡¯d be more deeply bloodshot.

    Kong Xianglong looked at that lone figure, and his somewhat zed eyes suddenly lit up. He began trembling.

    As waves of emotion swept through everyone, the deputy pce lord suddenly cried out, ¡°Everyone. The time hase... to fall back!¡± The pain in his hoarse voice was there for everyone to hear, yet his words echoed like thunder. ¡°That is what Pce Lord Kongmanded. Follow your orders!¡±

    As the wind blew, the honor guards and grand elders shouted further instructions to get the army moving. Everyone kept looking over their shoulders. Unfortunately, there was nothing for them to see. That figure had melted into the darkness.

    But then, a dazzling stream of light ripped through the gloom, rising high into the sky above the battlefield. The sky trembled and thends shook. A boundless sword will drove away the darkness, turning the sky light again. It was a beam of sword light.

    It was The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    The Swordsage Pce of Sea-Sealing County had a total of nineposite Emperor¡¯s Swords. They had previously used four in the fighting, and this was the fifth. The moment the sword appeared, it cast out blinding light that sliced apart the haziness. Everything rippled as it shot into the sky and headed toward the two Holytide emperors atop the Heaventide Mountains. Wherever the sword passed, it left a huge furrow in the ground, almost like a dragon. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out. The light of the sword illuminated the faces of the countless Holytide cultivators, shocking them to the core.

    ¡°You¡¯ve already lost this war, Kong Liangxiu,¡± Emperor Redspirit said. ¡°What¡¯s the point of burning away your own life force?¡±

    He strode forward, and when his footnded on the ground, everything shook. He lifted his right hand, and the tens of millions of minor worlds around him converged on his palm. Shrinking down, they turned into an illusory major world. That was a sign of the fourth stage of Void Returning. He gently pushed his hand down. Heaven and earth shook wildly, and everything blurred again. A violent storm sprang up, causing the frozen ground to shatter and turn into what looked like meteors. The Heaventide Mountains trembled, and rocks tumbled down.

    When things became clear again, Xu Qing and all the other Sea-Sealing County cultivators could see a 30,000-meter gap in the Heaventide Mountains! A shocking crevice had been hewn from the battlefield and through the Heaventide Mountains. It was hundreds of kilometers long andpletely shocking in appearance.

    Emperor Redspirit was staggering backward toward the mountains.

    All Holytide cultivators looked on with shock and fear.

    In front of them, the air rippled as Pce Lord Kong walked out of the haze. His entire body burned with the power of his life force and cultivation base. As he walked, his hoarse voice echoed out along with the sound of his footsteps.

    ¡°As long as Sea-Sealing County lives, I won¡¯t hesitate to sacrifice myself for it.¡±

    As his words rang into the hearts of the cultivators from Sea-Sealing County, a second radiant beam of sword light appeared.

    It was the sixth Emperor¡¯s Sword. The moment it appeared, the battlefield shattered. Blinding light spread out into what seemed like the Nine Serenities itself, and it shot right toward Emperor Redspirit.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. As Pce Lord Kong continued to move forward, burning his own life force, he unleashed the seventh and eighth swords.

    This time, Emperor Moonmist gravely stepped to Emperor Redspirit¡¯s side and thrust out his hand. The dome of heaven seemed to tilt, and the ground copsed outward. Everything blurred again.

    This time, the cause of the blur wasn¡¯t the rippling air, or the copse of the frost, or any other such thing. It was that the cultivation bases of the cultivators in the area were too low, and that made it impossible for them to see clearly.

    Even Xu Qing saw nothing but a blur, within which three figures fought a battle to the death. Every time they shed, booms rang out that surpassed the intensity of heavenly thunder. The deafening shockwaves mmed into the hearts and minds of the observers, forcing them to back away. It was the same among the Holytides.

    Sword energy swept back and forth, wreaking havoc on thends. Thissted until there was one more boom, apanied by shattering sounds as the countless bits of floating earth in the air copsed.

    The three battling figures parted.

    Once again, everything became clear to the observers. Pce Lord Kong¡¯s advance had finally been halted. He looked up into the sky.

    Behind Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist, the Heaventide Mountains were half copsed. Massive gullies had been shed through them. The two emperors were also looking up into the sky.

    All cultivators, including Holytides and those from Sea-Sealing County, likewise inclined their heads and looked into the dome of heaven, their hearts pounding.

    ¡°The portal to the Nightshades¡¯ Nine Serenities is about to open,¡± said Emperor Redspirit in a hoarse voice. His face was now ashen after his fight with Pce Lord Kong.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out from the dome of heaven, specifically, from the massive vortex. The frigid power emanating from it was like an icy seal on life force. Even the vortex itself seemed frozen. And then, the razor-sharp tip of a weapon emerged from within! It was pitch ck and full of a consummate killing intent, as well as an intense aura of death.

    Even Void Returning experts would tremble because of the terrifying cold.

    The Dao Bell trembled as cracks spread further across its surface. Despite being a gift from the imperial capital, it was crumbling. And that was because it was now facing a precious treasure designed for warfare. The mysterious materials used in its construction had been a gift given by the red moon. ording to the stories, it was made from the weapon of a god that the red moon had exterminated. The cold that it emanated could turn the world into a wastnd.

    It was a domain treasure. Domain treasures were the ultimate reserve powers of entire major species, and were so powerful they defied imagination. They could even cause gods to tremble. They existed on a higher level than the taboo treasures of the sects in Revered Ancient. Domain treasures were the foundation of why a species could be strong.

    The Holytide species did not have a domain treasure. Most species did not have domain treasures. Humans had one in the past, but not anymore. Any species who had a domain treasure could ensure that their position in the Revered Ancient maind was secure; they wouldn¡¯t have to worry about invasion, and could even wage war on other major species.

    What was emerging, however, wasn¡¯t the actual domain treasure of the Nightshades. It was a projection of the domain treasure. That said, the power within it was such that Void Returning cultivators couldn¡¯t resist it. It could wipe out heaven and earth. Its unparalleled coldness could eradicate anything and everything, reducing it to pure dust.

    The countless spirit automatons in the distant golden howled in anguish. They wanted to fight back, but simply couldn¡¯t, and were being wiped out one by one.

    When the cultivators of Sea-Sealing County saw what was happening, they were despondent. Xu Qing¡¯s mind was aplete nk. Their entire world was being reced with cold.

    Meanwhile, Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist looked at Pce Lord Kong as the frost built up.

    ¡°Soldiers and officers, heed mymand,¡± Emperor Redspirit said. ¡°Our target is the county capital. We¡¯ll rendezvous with Heavengale and Earthsoil there!¡±

    In response, millions upon millions of voices joined together to shout, ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

    The massive army of Holytides and other species began to flow like the tide. Then Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist headed in the direction of Pce Lord Kong.

    They closed in.

    Pce Lord Kong stood in front of the massive army. Looking up at the vortex, he threw his right hand over his shoulder. A dazzling Emperor¡¯s Sword appeared, which was the ninth. It was also Pce Lord Kong¡¯s personal sword.

    ¡°I have a sword!¡± he said. As the words left his mouth, the countless bronze coffins that were still floating in the air... opened!

    Voices echoed out.

    ¡°I have a sword!¡±

    ¡°I have a sword!!¡±

    ¡°I have a sword!!!¡±

    One voice after another emerged from the coffins as numerous figures appeared out in the open.

    They were people from ancient times until modern whose cultivation bases had reached the limit. They had lived in times of peace, and had ultimately chosen to enter a state of suspended animation in which their lives were fused with The Emperor¡¯s Sword. They chose to be sealed until great need arose in Sea-Sealing County, whereupon they could unleash their deadly sword. They were... swordsages!

    Light erupted from the awoken swordsages! Hundreds of thousands of beams of sword light converged in the dome of heaven, bing a river of swords that rushed to Pce Lord Kong. The swordsages¡¯ bodies withered rapidly, until they simply vanished from existence.

    In theirst moments, all of them looked in the direction of their home, Sea-Sealing County. They were reluctant to part ways with it. They wished it well. They felt relief, but at the same time reminiscence. And there was something that none of them had: regrets.

    ¡°I have a sword.¡± Pce Lord Kong looked up as hundreds of thousands of streams of sword light swept around his hand, fusing with his Emperor¡¯s Sword. The light became blinding, to the point where even the coldness in the air had to shy away from it. The sword shook heaven, and its sound crushed the ages.

    ¡°I will defend my home!¡± Pce Lord Kong said, and he swept the sword out from behind him toward Emperors Redspirit and Moonmist.

    It was an earth-quaking, sky-felling sword that could wipe out entire armies. It was a sword that could cause the weapons of gods to turn dark, whose intense cold could repudiate all transformations.

    The two emperors were visibly taken aback. The convergence of hundreds of thousands of swordsage swords was something that could crush anything in its path. It could supersede heavenly daos, transform magicalws, ughter viinous wills, and punish all invaders.

    Emperor Redspirit fell back, summoned his red bird imperial carriage, and shoved it out in front of himself as a defense.

    The sword energy screamed as it pierced right into the forehead of the red bird. It sliced it in half!

    Looking shocked, Emperor Redspirit summoned his major world. When The Emperor¡¯s Sword hit it, a deafening noise rang out as the major world once again turned illusory, then copsed. Blood sprayed out of Redspirit¡¯s mouth. His cultivation base was teetering, and as fury filled his eyes, the sword shed through his forehead!

    Moonmist was next to him to provide support, yet couldn¡¯t even protect his own fleshly body. He was able to defend his soul, except he ended up being cut in half at the waist. Flustered, he could only watch as his imperial robe was shredded into nothing, and his imperial crown was destroyed. Lookingpletely bedraggled, he fell back.

    The might of the sword dissipated. Heaven became peaceful, and the earth went silent.

    Pce Lord Kong stood in ce, his hand empty of any sword. Blood oozed out of his mouth, bing like a rain of blood that fell toward the ground. However, that blood rain wasn¡¯t destined to reach the earth. As the might of the sword faded, the coldness from the vortex erupted again, sweeping across everything. Wherever it reached, heaven and earth iced over and turned into nothing.

    The Dao Bell that had been gifted to Sea-Sealing County when it was founded... tolled for thest time.

    The bell copsed.

 Chapter 507: The Lone General, A Hero Through the Ages (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 507: The Lone General, A Hero Through the Ages (part 2)</h4>

    The Nightshades¡¯ domain treasure continued to emerge. It was the darkest ck imaginable, and emanated boundless evil that could ravish heaven. It was a long, sharp weapon that was infinitely vicious.

    Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure pulsated. The spirit automatons of the various taboo treasures howled as they were wiped out. The was about to copse.

    Emperor Moonmist only had half his body left. Threads of flesh and blood were already wriggling out to form a new lower body for him. He looked up at Pce Lord Kong, fear in his eyes.

    ¡°Do you have another sword, Kong Liangxiu?¡± Emperor Redspirit had lost his entire fleshly body and couldn¡¯t build another. He floated there in soul form. However, his soul wasn¡¯t like other ordinary soul shadows. It was covered with countless red threads that filled the soul, protecting it but also merging with it. It was a lifesaving aid to Holytides provided by the Nightshades. However, it would only sustain the soul for a limited time. Emperor Redspirit looked at Pce Lord Kong. ¡°Your swordsage power devastated my physical form. It shattered my major world. It severed my dao foundation. It wiped out half of Moonmist¡¯s body. It shook my soul. You¡¯re an amazing person, Kong Liangxiu!¡±

    Pce Lord Kong looked up, his eyes filled with regret as he smiled. Cracks spread across his face, extending to his armor, like a spider web. He ignored that. Nor did he respond to Emperor Moonmist¡¯s words. He turned to the crumbling protecting Sea-Sealing County. As he walked toward it, he got bigger and bigger, his armor eventually ceasing to function. The armor started copsing, falling to the ground, piece by piece. He left the battlefield and walked to the crumbling. By that point, he was several tens of thousands of meters tall. He looked through the at the retreating human army.

    ¡°Pce Lord....¡±

    Many such cries rang out from within the army.

    Kong Xianglong nearly fell to the ground, but Xu Qing was there to help him stand. Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes were red. Though he couldn¡¯t see everything clearly, he could see enough to know what was going on. It was the same with everyone else.

    Outside the, Pce Lord Kong looked at these scions of humanity and said, ¡°Everyone dies, so why cry? Stand tall and straight!¡±

    In their grief, everyone in the army stood a bit taller and straighter!

    Pce Lord Kong nodded. He scanned the crowd, stopping to look at Xu Qing for a moment, anticipation in his eyes. His gaze came to rest on Kong Xianglong for two moments. He looked regretful but also gratified. He looked at the deputy pce lord for three moments. Though no one else knew what he meant by that, the deputy pce lord knew exactly what he was indicating. The deputy pce lord nodded, his heart filled with brief loneliness.

    As Kong Xianglong trembled even harder, Pce Lord Kong looked in the direction of the county capital. As he did... the final piece of his armor fell off.

    Terrifying and destructive fluctuations from the domain treasure pulsed out of the vortex, and the army of Holytides advanced....

    Pce Lord Kong turned so his back was to Sea-Sealing County. Stretching out his arms, he leaned back into the great and fused into it.

    As he did, countless minor worlds appeared on the. Endless amounts of them flowed into a burning major world that belonged to Pce Lord Kong. The coldness in all the taboo treasures in the flowed to Pce Lord Kong¡¯s major world, converging there. He was fusing with the taboo! He had sacrificed his longevity and sacrificed his cultivation base. He had unleashed his final sword strike. Then, just as he was about to die, he sacrificed his own life. He had made himself a part of the taboo, and had used his warmth to dy its crumbling.

    ¡°Notify all human forces in Tidefall Prefecture... to retreat to the county capital.¡±

    As the intense coldness converged on him from all directions, he howled, until finally he turned into a statue of ice. Yet he still stood there propping up heaven and earth. He was still protecting Sea-Sealing County from that intense coldness. Down to thest, his tone of voice and his facial expression had not betrayed the slightest weakness.

    The taboo was once again the color of gold. After fusing with the, he ensured that the wouldst for longer, and would continue to protect all of the county. The northern front, the western front, and all of the scattered armies everywhere else were once again protected by the golden. The advance of the Holytide army was halted. All of the upied territories were once again covered, temporarily ending the deadly scenarios that had been ying out.

    The source of all that, Pce Lord Kong, was starting to fade from existence. The frigid cold from the domain treasure was a destructive force that caused indescribable pain. To Pce Lord Kong, that didn¡¯t matter. His limbs crumbled into dust, as did his torso. His head slowly lowered, and his eyes seemed about to close.

    On the battlefield, Emperor Redspirit and Emperor Moonmist both raised their hands to stop the army from moving. They stood in ce in front of the golden, as did all the forces behind them. Then the expressions of the two emperors flickered as they looked into the air just in front of Pce Lord Kong. A raspy voice spoke out of nothing.

    ¡°Kong Liangxiu. There was no need for me to appear here, but to see you die in this way has earned you my respect. Thus, I¡¯vee here to ask you something. Are you holding on to yourst breath of life in the hopes that I would show up?¡±

    A shadowy figure appeared in the air in front of Pce Lord Kong¡¯s face. The dark form caused all onlookers to be shocked to the core, whether they were Holytides or humans. Only the two emperors didn¡¯t seem to be very surprised.

    As for Xu Qing, his eyes went wide as he stared at that shadowy figure. It made him think about the mission Pce Lord Kong had assigned him. Using every ounce of ability he possessed, he tried tomit that figure¡¯s image to memory.

    Unfortunately, that shadowy figure was nothing but a blur.

    Pce Lord Kong¡¯s closed eyes suddenly opened, and he looked at the shadowy figure. Voice hoarse, he asked, ¡°You¡¯re the one who killed the governor?¡±

    The shadowy figure nodded. ¡°Yes. It was me. You assigned someone to investigate, didn¡¯t you? What a pity you were looking in the wrong direction.¡±

    Pce Lord Kong didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask who I am?¡± the figure continued.

    ¡°Would you answer?¡±

    The shadow figure shook its head and sighed. ¡°In that case, goodbye, Kong Liangxiu.¡±

    The shadowy figure stepped back a few paces, sped hands, and bowed. Then it began to fade from existence.

    However, just before it disappeared, a dazzling light suddenly erupted from Pce Lord Kong¡¯s eyes. It was an astonishing Emperor¡¯s Sword that had been converging there, and it shed right toward the shadowy figure. It moved with such astonishing speed that it seemed impossible for anyone to dodge it. In the blink of an eye, that sword reached the shadowy figure¡¯s forehead. It could track the essence, and could pierce through the endless void. It could find the shadowy figure¡¯s true form, and sh it down regardless if it was in the past, present, or future. All those things were in the range of this sword.

    The shadowy figure shivered, then vanished, leaving behind only a whisper.

    ¡°So, you did have another sword left. However, I have no past. I have no future. Nor do I have a present. There are not many people I admire, Kong Liangxiu. But you¡¯re one of them. This sword of yours ensures that you¡¯ll remain in my heart. I won¡¯t forget you.¡±

    Pce Lord Kong¡¯s gaze froze for all eternity. Frost covered his face. He copsed into dust. He had been annihted.

    ¡°Pce Lord!!¡±

    The human army wept blood in their hearts. Tears flowed from the eyes of all the cultivators. Each and every one felt overwhelmed with infinite grief. Pce Lord Kong of the Swordsage Pce had perished. The leadership of Sea-Sealing County had once again fallen. The sky also seemed to grieve, and rained blood onto the ground.

    Within that icy blood, Xu Qing shivered. His eyes were full of sorrow, and his heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand. It hurt. Badly. He couldn¡¯t stop thinking back to all his interactions with Pce Lord Kong.

    The sound of weeping echoed out. Kong Xianglong slipped out of Xu Qing¡¯s arms and dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face. Helplessness and sorrow were the only things in his heart. He eventually fell prone on the ground, sobbing.

    Right then, intense rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the taboo treasure copsed. It started in the northern front, then continued to the western front. It was an official indication that Sea-Sealing County had been defeated. Intensely cold storm winds blew in, sweeping in all directions. The ground quaked.

    At the same time, the Holytide army advanced again. Frigid energy filled the air, making it hard to tell if it was night or day.

    The reality was... it was dawn. Even if frost fills the sky, a rainbow can still appear. However, it only happens after the storm ends and the sun rises.

    Pce Lord Kong¡¯s blood was the rain. The despair and grief of Sea-Sealing County kicked up the wind.

    The Holytide army crossed the fourth line of defense exactly as the sun rose into the sky.

    Golden light converged into a sea that spread through the dome of heaven. However, it wasn¡¯t just sunlight. Within that sea of light were countless gs streaming in the breeze. There were innumerable figures d in golden armor. There were ck dragons, howling, and countless spell formations sending out powerful fluctuations.

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed.

    At the summit of heaven was a 300,000-meter four-wed golden dragon, ripping through the air, its voice capable of shaking suns and moons. Thends shook, and the Holytide army stopped in ce. Emperors Redspirit and Moonmist looked up.

    On the back of that golden dragon, sitting in a golden throne, was a figure who seemed threatening without being angry. He wore a yellow robe, but was not an emperor. The four ws of the golden dragon indicated his identity. [1]

    ¡°It¡¯s the seventh son of the emperor. Seventh Prince!¡± [2]

    1. The number of ws on a dragon can be important. Although the significance of the ws changed throughout history, it was mostmon for the emperor to be associated with a five-wed dragon motif, with princes and nobles having four-wed dragons. ?

    2. The title of the prince, in this specific passage, is literally ¡°human emperor seventh son.¡± There are some other configurations of the various characters making up the name, some of which use the more proper configuration of characters to mean ¡®prince.¡¯ I¡¯m going to refer to this character as Seventh Prince to make things simple. Just bear in mind that he¡¯s specifically an imperial prince, and of course, is human. It goes without saying that if he¡¯s the seventh prince, then there are other princes as well. ?

 Chapter 508: An Elegy to Sea-Sealing

    <h4>Chapter 508: An Elegy to Sea-Sealing</h4>

    <i>In the fourth month of the year 2,932 of the Dark War calendar, the governor of Sea-Sealing County perished. In addition to that, Holytide forces invaded three prefectures, while the Nightshades mounted arge-scale offensive on the imperial capital.</i> [1]

    <i>Sea-Sealing County was thrown into profound chaos, and hovered on the brink of utter disaster.</i>

    <i>In the sixth month of the same year, Sea-Sealing County, after marshaling all the county forces and mounting a two-month-long defense, failed to hold its northern front. Li Rongyu, the pce lord of the Administration Pce, died in battle. Zhang Hengxin, the pce lord of the Justice Pce, also died in battle. Yao Tianyan went missing. The allied army suffered untold casualties, and was forced to retreat 100,000 kilometers.</i>

    <i>The day after the defeat on the northern front, the western front also copsed. Kong Liangxiu, the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce, died valiantly in battle.</i>

    <i>In that most critical of situations for the humans of Sea-Sealing County, the seventh imperial prince, who was deeply worried about the situation, fought against all odds to break through the Nightshade blockade and arrive with relief troops.</i>

    <i>Seventh Prince </i>hacked through brambles and thorns<i> and </i>struck like a thunderbolt backed by hundreds of thousands of pounds of force<i>. Under hismand was an imperial army 60,000,000 strong, including forces from five Celestial Divisions as well as 49manders-in-chief from Eastglory. With those forces, he swept through the northern front. </i>[2]

    <i>He ughtered 7,000,000 enemy cultivators from the two Holytide kingdoms of Heavengale and Earthsoil. Using the blood of those enemies, he established an imprable defensive perimeter on the northern front.</i>

    <i>After that, he sallied forth into the night with 27manders-in-chief, 113 generals, and a host of seasoned warrior cultivators from the imperial capital. Mounted on a golden dragon imperial carriage, he made his debut on the western front.</i> [3]

    <i>At that moment in which the western front copsed, and all humans in Sea-Sealing County faced the peril of imminent extinction, Seventh Prince stopped the advance of the two royal Holytide dynasties of Redspirit and Moonmist. Personally taking to the field of battle, he inflicted grievous wounds on the emperors of both dynasties.</i>

    <i>Seventh Prince didn¡¯t just seriously injure two emperors. Under his leadership, the forces of humankind ughtered more than 6,000,000 enemies on the western front. Imperial blood stained the dome of heaven as Seventh Prince, with the cooperation of themanders-in-chief, disregarded his own safety to unleash a taboo magic to seal half of the entire county and halt the effects of the Nightshade domain treasure. In that manner, he came to the rescue of the defeated forces on the western front.</i>

    <i>He then marshaled the surviving forces to create a unified line of defense. He assigned 10,000,000 of his own troops, along with the surviving Sea-Sealing County cultivators, to guard the border. Then he assigned threemanders-in-chief and ten generals to lead warrior cultivators from the imperial capital into the heart of Sea-Sealing County to track down the ck Guard infiltrators.</i>

    <i>The spirits of everyone in Sea-Sealing County were lifted, and during that time, fiends and devils trembled in fear, while evil spirits cowered in terror! All the viins in Sea-Sealing County were rooted out, and humankind entered into a period of peace and tranquility. The numerous allied species cried out in joy, and countless other species bowed in respect.</i>

    <i>In the seventh month of that same year, after the Holytides were thoroughly defeated, the humansunched a major counteroffensive, sending a terrifying armed force out to reim their lost prefecturalnd.</i>

    <i>Seventh Prince was a skilled strategist, and had the reputation of having an outstanding military mind. He turned retreat into assault and set devious traps for the enemy. By detonating the earthme in Rainfield and Enlightenment Prefectures, he used countless volcanoes as weapons. Lands shook and mountains rocked. The effects stretched all the way into Tidefall and Tranquility Prefectures. Four prefectures were set aze.</i>

    <i>The sky there turned dark, with the only lighting from the ever burning earthme.</i>

    <i>The Holytides in thosends screamed in anguish as they were exterminated inrge numbers. In that manner, the Holytide invasion was ended. When news of the victory spread through Sea-Sealing County, cries of rejoicing echoed out everywhere.</i>

    <i>The lieutenant governor made several formal visits to the imperial prince, to formally beg for him toe to the county capital and take control. All such requests were denied. However, after the great victory was achieved, Seventh Prince, out of consideration of all the officers and soldiers in the human forces, announced his ns to travel to the county capital. That was in the seventh month of the year.</i>

    ***

    It was three days before the imperial prince nned to depart for the county capital.

    On the border of Enlightenment Prefecture, where the mountains formed a natural barrier millions of kilometers in length, Xu Qing sat atop a mountain boulder looking out into heaven and earth.

    He looked very differentpared to the past.

    Instead of his swordsage uniform, he wore a battered suit of armor. He no longer had long, flowing hair. It was cut short. He was dirty and smelled of blood and gore. His lips were dry and cracked. Deep exhaustion filled his eyes. As he looked out into the evening he saw smoke everywhere. What had once been lush and verdant mountains were now scorched and bare. He saw either darkness or mes everywhere. And within all of that smoke and fire were countless ckened corpses....

    Xu Qing took it all in silently.

    At some point he heard footsteps behind him. It was Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong was dressed in the same attire as Xu Qing, and looked just as exhausted and lonely. He approached and sat next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Go back and rest, Xu Qing,¡± he said, sounding numb and emotionless as he looked out at heaven and earth. ¡°I¡¯ll take over for now. By the way, I saw your Eldest Brother on the way here. He wants you to hurry over and meet him. Earlier this morning the deputy pce lord said that our main force will be returning to the county capital in three days. He mentioned wanting you toe along. The Secretariat Division is no more, so there¡¯s little point in you sticking around. I agreed on your behalf to go back.¡±

    Xu Qing stood and looked at what was now the front line of defense. The forces here were made of Sea-Sealing County cultivators and imperial troops. Off in the distance was the main camp overseeing the second line of defense.

    A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing sped Kong Xianglong''s shoulder. Taking out a jug of alcohol, he ced it off to the side. It was the only jug he had left after standing watch at this spot all day and all night.

    Kong Xianglong took the jug and drank deeply. As Xu Qing turned to leave, he spoke again.

    ¡°Xu Qing, did you see that shadowy figure...?¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and nodded.

    Kong Xianglong was silent for a moment. ¡°What do you think of the imperial prince?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s ruthless,¡± Xu Qing replied in a hoarse voice.

    He thought back to the moment when the grand of taboo treasures copsed, and the four-wed gold dragon appeared in the sky. And he thought about the figure who had been riding that dragon.

    ¡°He detonated the earthme in two provinces,¡± Kong Xianglong said. ¡°The old man¡ªer, I mean, the pce lord was also nning to do that, which is why he was trying to evacuate those provinces. But this imperial prince is so ruthless he didn¡¯t bother. All he cares about is victory and reputation. He doesn¡¯t care about life!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Have you read the war reports, Xu Qing? All they talk about are the prince¡¯s glorious achievements. He injured two emperors! Oh, how amazing! But why didn¡¯t hee earlier? Even an incense stick¡¯s worth of time would have made a big difference....¡± Kong Xianglong chuckled bitterly and said nothing further. After taking another long drink from the jug, he waved his hand dismissively.

    Xu Qing stood there for another long moment, then walked away.

    A month had passed since the death of Pce Lord Kong.

    Now that Seventh Prince had arrived, there was no point in having a Secretariat Division. In fact, most people had forgotten about it. The swordsages Xu Qing had recruited into his old division had been assigned to other posts.

    Life went on. As the war dragged on, Xu Qing had personallye to know more about Seventh Prince¡¯s personality and way of doing things. The prince seemed to care only about victory, regardless of the price to be paid. It was just as Kong Xianglong had said. To him, life didn¡¯t count for much. Most of the humans, nonhumans, and mortals in Rainfield and Enlightenment Prefectures never had a chance to evacuate.

    When the right strategic moment came, Seventh Prince detonated the earthme. A lot of Holytides had died during thest month. But a lot of humans had also died.

    It was the same with the forces who had originally been stationed on the western front. They usually served as the vanguard in battle. Not many survived, and those who did were sent out into therger imperial army. Through the course of the war, each of them had been tempered into elite warriors, veterans of many battles.

    Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong were no exception. Eventually, the deputy pce lord and other county leaders managed to get the two of them exempted from the most deadly missions. As of now, they were members of the grand imperial army, serving in the forces of the Seventeenth Commander-in-Chief. Specifically, they were in Fourth Legion led by Third General. That legion was in charge of this stretch of the defensive perimeter.

    It was currently evening. The dark clouds and the smoke made everything look brown as Xu Qing walked silently along the mountain path.

    He went straight to the garrison, which had been set up in a nearby valley. There were hundreds of cultivators there. Some were from the old western front. There weren¡¯t a lot of people, but neither was the group small. Yet things were very quiet. Everyone had injuries of some sort. Some people sat tending their wounds. Others were meditating. Yet others sat there with nk looks on their faces. A short distance away was a pile of corpses that had not yet been buried.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival caught the attention of a few people who looked at him. Some were swordsages, some were sect disciples. He even saw some cultivators from the old Secretariat Division.

    Off to the side, in front of one particr tent, was the Captain. He was bedraggled, and his armor was heavily damaged. But he seemed to be in good spirits. His body had long since grown back to normal. He squatted in front of the tent, gnawing on a ck horn as if to test its toughness. In front of him was an army wok heated by a me stone. There was some meat stewing inside, bubbling and popping. It smelled wonderful.

    ¡°Eldest Brother. I¡¯m back.¡± Xu Qing walked past him into the tent.

    That tent was their joint residence. Although Seventh Prince was a strictmander on the field of battle, he had eventually sumbed to the repeated requests by the deputy pce lord and Swordsage Court grand elder to allow swordsages to return to their various sects, all of which were dangerously low on cultivators.

    That said, he didn¡¯t allow all of them to return. Only some.

    Sir Bloodsmelter, who had been seriously hurt, as well as some of the other Seven Blood Eyes disciples, had been able to return. They were in the fourth wave of county locals to be able to return.

    As a swordsage, the Captain hadn¡¯t been able to join them. He had previously been assigned to a different location, but had somehow manipted matters to eventually be transferred to the same legion as Xu Qing.

    The Captain turned to look at Xu Qing and grinned. ¡°You came back just when I calcted you would, little Junior Brother. Come on, let¡¯s eat!¡± Laughing, he beckoned for Xu Qing to join him at the wok. ¡°Earlier this morning I went over to the imperial garrison and found that they have some delicious food there. I just so happened to get some for me and you. Did you know they have Holytide battle beasts over there?¡± He pointed at the wok. ¡°Want to have a try?¡±

    Xu Qing nced at the Captain, inwardly marveling at how skilled he was at making friends. Ever since the imperial army arrived, the Captain had been visiting the imperial garrisons on a daily basis. He had made a lot of friends, and had also acquired a lot of information. And asionally, he brought back some very nutritious supplies.

    Xu Qing took a piece of meat and put it into his mouth. It tasted good. What was more, after swallowing, it sent warmth throughout his body, along with bits of spirit energy that benefited his cultivation base.

    ¡°Not bad, huh?¡± the Captain said, grinning again. Leaning back, he started eating his own piece of meat. ¡°I heard Ol¡¯ Kong say that we¡¯re going back to the capital in three days. Feels like we haven¡¯t been there in forever. Once we¡¯re back, you and I need to start trading off some of those dao fruits we got.

    ¡°I asked around and found out that those things are even prized in the imperial capital.¡± The Captain nced around, then lowered his voice and continued, ¡°ording to the rumors I¡¯ve heard, the war in the Imperial Region is still ongoing. The Nightshades are attacking full force. And other species are getting antsy. Sea-Sealing County is the only ce where humans havee out victorious.

    ¡°I heard that the big victory here has caused some of the major species near the Imperial Region to quell their thoughts of making a move. Instead, they¡¯re waiting to see what happens.... Everybody in the world is talking about Seventh Prince and his big win.

    ¡°I also learned that the emperor has twelve sons and three daughters, yet there¡¯s not even a hint of any session struggle. The emperor is in the prime of his life, and he acts with strength and decisiveness. What¡¯s more, he¡¯s a grim and callous person. He doesn¡¯t care much about family, and is only interested in what benefits humankind as a whole.

    ¡°You can tell Seventh Prince is cut from the same stock. Apparently, the prince doesn¡¯t even n to go back to the imperial capital. Think about everything he¡¯s done since he got here; it all seems to be in preparation for making Sea-Sealing County his personal territory.¡±

    The Captain looked very thoughtful.

    ¡°It¡¯s all a huge game of Go. Who knows what move he¡¯ll y next? One thing¡¯s for certain: Sea-Sealing County has a new leader.... And thus, little Junior Brother, don¡¯t be too attached to how things were in the past. There¡¯s only one certainty in this world, and that¡¯s death. Therefore, staying alive is the most important thing.

    ¡°It¡¯s like the meat in this wok. Although it takes a while for it to stew, if you give it enough time, it¡¯ll be very tender. There are no negative emotions that won¡¯t abate with time. If you have them, it just means that not enough time has passed.

    ¡°Back before the patriarch left, he told me to work hard on my cultivation, and not worry about girls. He said that there will still be plenty of girls around after I get my cultivation base to a very high level. I put a lot of thought into that, and I realized it makes sense.

    ¡°The same principle applies to Sea-Sealing County. If they don¡¯t want us, we¡¯ll leave. Later, when we get stronger, we cane back and throw our weight around. Other species will line up to work for us.¡±

    Looking very proud of himself, the Captain took another piece of meat out of the wok and handed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing slowly chewed the meat, one mouthful at a time.

    ***

    Around the time that the Holytide invasion of Sea-Sealing County was ended by the earthme congration in four prefectures, the four Holytide emperors gathered in the holynd of white sand. There in the temple of the ancestral emperor, they kowtowed in front of a special throne made from blood crystals.

    Seated upon the throne was a figure cloaked in blurred darkness, making it impossible to see him clearly. The only things visible were the streams of ck energy that seeped off of the figure and merged into the blood crystals. It seemed as if the figure¡¯s blood vessels were being purified in that way.

    Emperor Redspirit had regrown his fleshly body. However, he looked pale, as though his energy and blood were unstable. ¡°Your Ancestral Highness,¡± he said, ¡°everything is going ording to n. However, the Nightshades seem to be getting suspicious.¡±

    Next to Emperor Redspirit were the other three emperors, Heavengale, Moonmist, and Earthsoil. All had their heads bowed.

    When they got no response to Redspirit¡¯s exnation, Emperor Heavengale said, ¡°Your Ancestral Highness, we lost 30,000,000 troops in this conflict. Seventh Prince is both ruthless and decisive. He¡¯s no ordinary individual. If the person we¡¯re cooperating with... is deceiving us, or if Seventh Prince breaks his promise¡ª¡±

    ¡°Heavengale,¡± interrupted Emperor Moonmist, ¡°this has all been arranged by the ancestral emperor. All we have to do is get things done. Stop worrying so much.¡±

    The other two emperors didn¡¯t reveal what they were thinking, and just remained in ce silently.

    A short timeter, an ancient voice echoed out from the figure on the throne.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for the four of you to probe for information. I know you¡¯re curious about what¡¯s going on. Some of you want independence. Some of you still think of yourselves as human. Some of you are concerned about my position. And some of you want a stronger leader. In the past I might have ignored all of that, but this time, I can tell you that whoever causes problems for our species will be killed immediately. I¡¯ll rece them with a new emperor.¡±

    The four emperors bowed their heads low.

    ¡°Redspirit.¡±

    Emperor Redspirit¡¯s expression turned even more serious.

    ¡°You made a big sacrifice, and you¡¯ll bepensated. Though your dao was severed, I can replenish your loss!¡±

    Trembling, Emperor Redspirit knocked his forehead onto the ground as he kowtowed.

    ¡°Regarding the suspicions of the Nightshades that you mentioned, it¡¯s because of something I told them. After all, the truth can only be kept hidden if another truth is revealed.¡± When the four emperors heard that, various unusual expressions appeared on their faces.

    ¡°Heavengale.¡±

    Emperor Heavengale took a deep breath.

    ¡°I¡¯m aware of your misgivings. That said, the human Seventh Prince clearly wants to be some sort of hero. After all, it¡¯s in for everyone to see that, though he did kill 30,000,000 of our Holytide soldiers, it came at the price of countless humans dying. Yet who cares? Nobody. The humans want a hero, so they pay attention to the glorious aplishments. As for what is wrong or right, other than the family members of the dead, who will pay attention? Few people know how many bones are buried in the shadows.

    ¡°He¡¯ll still go through with his ns to expand his territory and establish a millennium of glory. If he seeds, who will take note of how many people died along the way? Who will dare to defy him?

    ¡°As the saying goes, <i>a general¡¯s reputation is made out of ten thousand corpses</i>. Considering he wants to be the hero of humanity, he definitely won¡¯t go back on his word before he reaches his goal. And he will send us that which we have requested.

    ¡°As for you four, you need to have the same attitude when ites to the future of our species. It will be impossible to avoid making sacrifices. Now that the first step of the n isplete, let¡¯s wait to see what move will be made by the mediator linking us to the Seventh Prince. Most importantly, we need to see if the method they suggested is effective.¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡± the four emperors said, sounding both excited and respectful.

    1. The Dark War calendar was previously mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u>, in case you want to go back and check how much time has officially passed since then.... ?

    2. Eastglory was previously mentioned in the same chapter linked to in footnote 1. ?

    3. The word for imperial carriage here is the same word used as an alternative for the golden crow¡¯s chariot. In fact, <u>chapter 110</u> is entitled The Sun¡¯s Imperial Carriage. ?

 Chapter 509: Troops Return to the Capital

    <h4>Chapter 509: Troops Return to the Capital</h4>

    Time passed. Three days went by in a sh. At dawn on the fourth day, Seventh Prince¡¯s grand army broke camp and prepared to travel.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Kong Xianglong were all in the crowd.

    As the army left the defensive perimeter, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder in the direction of the distant western front. He had experienced many things in the past two months, and had seen far too much death. There were many other cultivators who were simrly looking to the west. Most were swordsages from Sea-Sealing County.

    Eventually, Xu Qing turned back around. High in the air, he could see several hundred ck dragons gliding around a... four-wed golden dragon.

    Only bits and pieces of the dragon¡¯s massive frame were visible as it swirled through the clouds, but it gave off a sensation of holiness. Of course, there was little need to mention who sat on the imperial carriage atop the dragon. The people down below, including Xu Qing, were all familiar with that individual who was as respectable as the highest heavens, and was as far above them as the clouds were from the mud.

    It made Xu Qing think back to something one of the schr teachers back in the slums had once said.

    <i>¡°What are important people like...? It¡¯s simple. They¡¯re people who, if you¡¯re in a crowd and you look up at them, you remember them, whether you want to or not. Because they¡¯re the only person you see. But when that person looks into the crowd, they don¡¯t see you, and could never remember you. That¡¯s the difference between ordinary people and important people. So, ya little punk, if you ever reach the point that the city magistrate himself notices you, then you¡¯ll know you¡¯re an important person.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing remembered that after the broken face of the god¡¯s eyes opened, he had snuck into the city magistrate¡¯s manor to look for cultivation techniques. At that time, he found the city magistrate himself, who was nothing more than a corpse. Xu Qing had looked down at his nk eyes and seen his own reflection in those dead pupils. [1]

    He nced briefly at Seventh Prince high in the clouds, then looked away, his facepletely expressionless as the army moved onward.

    Several hourster, the army reached arge-scale teleportation portal. They marched into the portal, and then Xu Qing and his fellow war veterans disappeared in a sh of dazzling light. They materialized near the county capital.

    The locals had been away for two months. It wasn¡¯t possible for the army as a whole to enter the capital. Xu Qing and most of the other rank-and-file soldiers waited on standby outside of the city. Only a handful of people who qualified to personally attend Seventh Prince teleported into the city itself.

    Now that he was back in familiar territory, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the capital and listened to the familiar buzz of the city that drifted through the air. A seven-colored glow rose high above the city, and the three pces emitted dazzling light.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see into the city, so he didn¡¯t notice the colorful banners that festooned all of the buildings. The main road which led from the teleportation portal into the Governor¡¯s Mansion had been renamed Boulevard of the Imperial Prince. Lanterns and colored banners decorated the streets, which were lined with cheering crowds.

    ¡°We won!¡±

    ¡°We won!¡±

    ¡°We won!¡±

    Drums thumped and gongs shed as the lieutenant governor waited outside the teleportation portal, nked by a contingent of Demi-Immortals, Saintfiends, and other nonhuman patriarchs. When the teleportation light red, and Seventh Prince stepped out, the entire group sped hands and bowed respectfully.

    ¡°Greetings, Seventh Prince!¡±

    High above, the four-wed golden dragon exhaled a red mist that glowed with bright light. Down below, Seventh Prince stepped out and smiled.

    The crowd roared.

    Of course, none of that had anything to do with Xu Qing. He currently stood outside the city in the army, where they could hear themotion but couldn¡¯t see anything. Eventually, orders came down telling the imperial army to pitch camp. Meanwhile, the swordsages from the western front were finally given freedom to return to their homes. They were being dismissed from service. Going forward, they wouldn¡¯t need to go to the front lines except under special circumstances.

    The order came from the lieutenant governor and the deputy pce lord of the Swordsage Pce. Thanks to their pleadings, the imperial prince had shown favor to the swordsages to thank them for their service.

    When Xu Qing left the army, he had nowhere else to go but his sword pavilion. Upon entering, he didn¡¯t even bother to take off his armor. Instead of meditating, hey down and slept. He didn¡¯t wake up until the evening of the following day.

    When he opened his eyes, he found that his transmission jade slip andmand sword were both full of messages.

    Message transmissions weren¡¯t allowed on the battlefield, and all such devices had been locked down. Now that he was back in the county capital, all of those messages came through.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, I haven¡¯t been able to get in touch with you, but I saw your Eldest Brother today. I was very relieved to hear that you¡¯re fine. I¡¯m going back with the Wood Spirits. Things are different nowadays in the county capital, and the war took a heavy toll on the Wood Spirits. I nearly died myself.... If you have time,e visit the Wood Spirits. Ling¡¯er will be awake soon.¡±</i> That message was, of course, from the innkeeper of nkspring Way.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, when you wake up,e drink with me.¡±</i> That was Kong Xianglong.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, after you wake up, let me know. I need toe get your dao fruits.¡±</i> That was the Captain.

    <i>¡°Secretary-General Xu, be careful. After I got back to the county capital I got news that some of the nonhumans you threatened joined forces to submit a formal petition iming you harmed the unity of Sea-Sealing County. The lieutenant governor has kept a lid on it, but you still need to watch out.¡±</i> That was Qing Qiu.

    Xu Qing responded to each message with a few words, then put the jade slip down. After stretching a bit, he finally took off his armor, then waved his hand to summon plenty of rainwater and mist to bathe himself. He hadn¡¯t bothered with such things during the war. There hadn¡¯t been any point. The battlefield was filled with so much smoke and death that even if you cleaned yourself, you would almost immediately be dirty again. Only the most fastidious person would bother with such an endless, pointless cycle.

    After bathing, Xu Qing put on a new swordsage uniform. Around that time, the Captain, who had simrly bathed and changed clothes, arrived with a look of anticipation on his face. Back on the battlefield, Xu Qing had exined to the Captain that he only brought a small portion of dao fruits with him, and had left most of his cache back in the county capital. Now that they were back, Xu Qing didn¡¯t even wait for the Captain to say a word. He took out a bag of holding and tossed it over.

    ¡°50/50,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. ¡°Perfect! I¡¯m finally going to have enough to buy that Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edict. Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, all of my hard work here in the county capital to earn military credits has been for this!¡±

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain tucked the bag of holding into the fold of his garment and then looked at Xu Qing with a broad smile on his face.

    ¡°Any chance you¡¯re thinking of buying a lifemp, little Ah Qing? The military credits from these dao fruits will be more than enough to get one. Pretty soon, they¡¯ll be giving out battle credits as well. Have you checked to see what battle credits you¡¯ll be getting? I got four grade-five battle credits and two grade-three!¡±

    Xu Qing took out hismand sword to check his battle credits.

    <i>¡°Swordsage Xu Qing, as approved by the Swordsage Pce and audited by the Military Affairs Department, you have earned the following battle credits during the war of Sea-Sealing County: one grade-two battle credit; four grade-three battle credits; seven grade-four battle credits; eleven grade-five battle credits.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing was more than a little surprised that he had earned so much.

    The Captainughed heartily. ¡°Looks like you got a lot. I heard that the deputy pce lord himself approved all of the rewards, and that he doled them out handsomely to everyone.¡± Grinning, the Captain looked around and then lowered his voice. ¡°Did you really sleep the entire time since you got back, little Ah Qing? Let me tell you, a lot of stuff happened since yesterday. The entire county capital has changed thanks to the arrival of Seventh Prince.

    ¡°He appointed three of his own subordinates as the pce lords of the Swordsage Pce, Administration Pce, and Justice Pce.

    ¡°The grand elders of four prefectural Swordsage Courts were used of being negligent in their duties. The one from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was among them. One of the listed reasons was a prisoner escape. That shrew Nethersprite went so far as to suffer a serious injury and even a drop in her cultivation base to slip out of her bonds and escape during the chaos.

    ¡°There was a big change to the treaty with the Demi-Immortals and Saintfiends. Nobody knows how Seventh Prince did it, but all it took was a single day for both of those species to officially ally themselves with the humans of Sea-Sealing County. In addition to that, over 400 nonhumans agreed to increase their yearly tribute and also cede full military authority.

    ¡°Anyway, enough of that boring stuff. I¡¯m going shopping! By the way, little Ah Qing, the lieutenant governor announced that tomorrow we¡¯ll have a county-wide memorial service for the governor, the three pce lords who died, and all the other warriors who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.¡±

    Xu Qing watched the Captain leave. As he stood outside his sword pavilion, he realized that the familiar county capital already looked different. Things were changing.

    He suddenly missed Seven Blood Eyes, and he missed his Master.

    After some thought, he went into the city to buy some alcohol, then went to Kong Xianglong¡¯s sword pavilion.

    Kong Xianglong was there alone, drinking. Upon seeing Xu Qing, his lips twitched as if he might smile. However, he didn¡¯t smile. He just took another drink. Xu Qing sat down next to him and took out a jug. Together, they drank without speaking for a while.

    The night passed, and then light filled the sky outside. At that point, Xu Qing said, ¡°Big Bro Kong, the memorial service is about to begin.¡±

    Kong Xianglong looked up at him. A moment passed. ¡°Xu Qing, go outside and wait for me for a moment.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and walked out of the sword pavilion.

    Before long, the door opened and Kong Xianglong emerged. He had just shaved, and he didn¡¯t smell of alcohol. With his fresh, white swordsage uniform on, he looked just like he had in the past, before the war.

    ¡°The old man never let me call him ¡®grandfather,¡¯¡± he said softly, ¡°so I didn¡¯t bother trying. Even when I was young, I always lived alone. Except... he was always so strict. If I showed up to the memorial drunk, I can only imagine how pissed he would be. Maybe he¡¯s not here to curse me, but I think I should do what would please him. Am I right, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Kong Xianglong took a deep breath and started walking. Xu Qing went with him. As they left the sword pavilions and went up into the city, bells tolled somberly. Eventually they found themselves... in front of the huge statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    There were already hundreds of thousands of people gathered there. There were cultivators from the Swordsage Pce, Administration Pce, Justice Pce, as well as the county yamens.

    More people were arriving, flying in from all directions. Some people were missing limbs or were otherwise recovering from serious injuries. Some people had bloodshot eyes, while others suppressed their grief. These were the veterans from the western front.

    Down in the imperial military camp, the soldiers stepped out of their tents and bowed their heads.

    All families in the county emerged. Men. Women. Young ones. The elderly. They all looked at Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    On the western front, the prefectural cultivators and swordsages who were still part of the war effort all stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the county capital, their expressions full of sorrow.

    And the humans who had returned from the front lines to their sects in various prefectures did the same. Bells tolled in all of those sects, spreading through the prefectures and filling all heaven and earth.

    As one, the county mourned.

    1. Xu Qing snuck into the city magistrate¡¯s manor before the start of the story, though he recounted the incident in <u>chapter 1</u>. It was during that escapade that he got seriously injured. Only by shoving the violet crystal in his chest did he recover from that injury. He went back to the manor in <u>chapter 44</u>. ?

 Chapter 510: Guyue Zhangâ€™an

    <h4>Chapter 510: Guyue Zhang¡¯an</h4>

    The capital city was held in Dark Serenity¡¯s hands, roughly at his chest level. At the spot closest to the statue itself was a huge public square paved with limestone bs, which could amodate a million people. Ny-nine stairs led from the square to an altar that had a total of nine hundred and ny-nine enormous columns carved to resemble dragons.

    Only a few hundred thousand people had been permitted to gather below the altar. Among them were swordsages, cultivators from the Administration and Justice Pces, and county officials. Their robes and uniforms were all in perfect order, but their expressions were those of grief. All of them held ck flowers.

    The arrival of Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong attracted some attention. People looked over at them with sorrow, conflict, and reminiscence....

    They went to the assembled swordsages, who parted to make a path leading to the front of the formation. Xu Qing stopped walking, but Kong Xianglong, his face expressionless, went to the very front, where he bowed his head and stood there unmoving. Xu Qing stayed behind with the Captain. The Captain sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, and the two of them stood there solemnly.

    Everything was quiet. Grief built up in the hundreds of thousands of cultivators, spreading to fill the city, the three pces, and eventually, all of Sea-Sealing County.

    The clouds in the dome of heaven seemed to reflect the grief from below, and rain began to fall. The pitter-patter echoed out across the limestone bs. No one used their cultivation base to avoid the rainfall. They let it fall on them.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, a rumbling sound reached their ears. High in the clouds, lightning snaked back and forth. A group of people appeared. Approaching, they entered the square and walked up the stairs.

    All of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators bowed their heads.

    The group included the highest ranking deputy pce lords of the Swordsage Pce, Administration Pce, and Justice Pce. There were also three middle-aged men who, despite having changed outfits recently, pulsed with baleful auras. They were themanders-in-chief that the imperial prince had appointed to head the three pces. Also present was the lieutenant governor, who had a very grim look on his face.

    Leading the group was a young man in a yellow robe. He had long ck hair that flowed down his back, extremely fair skin, angr features, sword-like eyebrows, and eyes that sparkled as if with starlight. Not only was he unusually good-looking, he also exuded an indescribable sense of nobility. It seemed as if, with him present, heaven and earth would dim. There seemed nothing more natural than for him to walk in front, while others followed behind.

    This, of course, was the person who had saved Sea-Sealing County in its moment of crisis. He had suppressed all the evil devils in the county, had brought light to overcast skies, and earned the admiration of countless species. He was the seventh imperial prince!

    On this day of memorial in Sea-Sealing County, only he qualified to preside.

    As people left and right bowed low, Seventh Prince climbed the stairs to the highest spot on the altar. There he stood, alone. Only he had the right to stand in that spot. From that position, he looked up at the enormous statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and his eyes glittered with reverence. After a moment, he got to his knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Oh imperial ancestor, I am Guyue Zhang¡¯an, your 3,915th descendent. I wish you peace and purity!¡± [1]

    When he kowtowed, the lieutenant governor, themanders-in-chief, the deputy pce lords, and everyone else bowed from the waist. Further down, the hundreds of thousands of cultivators also bowed respectfully. There was no need for them to kowtow. After Seventh Prince got to his knees, it indicated that no one else qualified to do the same. After kowtowing nine times, Seventh Prince stood back up and looked at the crowd.

    Because of the rain, it was difficult to see him clearly. But the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity behind him was clear for everyone to see, and it created a very somber atmosphere.

    A moment passed, and then he spoke with grief in his voice.

    ¡°<i>Great winds blow, great tides flow; the flood dragon, totem of torrents; the phoenix reborn in the fire¡¯s glow</i>.

    ¡°Today, I hereby submit a memorial to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and a testimonial to Emperor Dark War. We humans, guardians of Sea-Sealing, bringers of peace and serendipity, have safeguarded the County for eight hundred twelve-months, and do yearn for more than ten continued sixty-year cycles of peace and security.

    ¡°Countless among our heroes have met their end, but three stand foremost among them.

    ¡°The pce lord of the Administration Pce was the epitome of schrly wisdom and magnanimity. The pce lord of the Justice Pce was the personification of humility and courage. The pce lord of the Swordsage Pce was the paragon of loyalty and responsibility.

    ¡°The souls of the Sea-Sealing heroes provoke awe, thereby dimming the light of stars and moon. As the millennia pass in ournds, ancestorse and go. There are times of honor and times of disgrace. There are ups and there are downs.

    ¡°We grieve at the decline of heaven and earth. We mourn when stars fall in the blue sky. The fallen have gone, but the physical relics linger; when recalling their visages, tears of sorrow pour out. The anguish born therein pushes us beyond the point of self-control.¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s words up to this point were rife with sorrow, and his expression was downcast. He stopped speaking for a moment. Everyone in the crowd felt deeply sorrowful, and it was even possible to hear the sounds of weeping.

    ¡°However, the me of humanity will never be extinguished! Not even gods can suppress the human heart! I hereby solemnly swear to petition our emperor to enshrine the souls of the fallen heroes, and erect a monument to them, before which incense will burn from generation to generation!

    ¡°We are a species whose ancient ancestors shone like the stars. And among our descendants will be generations of heroes. The universe is in constant motion, which embodies the spirit of eternal self-improvement. The cosmos is forgiving, which reinforces the virtue of magnanimity.

    ¡°Our respected ancestors, venerated by the masses, shall have temples erected in their names, as we join forces to establish lofty splendor. Let it be made clear to future generations that none of this will be forgotten. Not ever!¡±

    As Seventh Prince¡¯s mournful speech echoed out, the bells in all the numerous sects through the various prefectures of Sea-Sealing County tolled loudly.

    The county grieved as one.

    Down beneath the capital city, the tallest sword pavilion of all, which had belonged to Pce Lord Kong, crumbled into ashes which drifted out across the county.

    Uncontrolled weeping could be heard within the crowd of hundreds of thousands of cultivators, and their tears mixed with the rain to fall to the ground.

    Xu Qing was having trouble seeing clearly. It was hard to say whether it was because of the anguish in his heart or the blur caused by the rain. Either way, he felt like he could almost see Pce Lord Kong standing in front of him, tall and mighty. Majestic. After the death of the governor, he had be the leader of Sea-Sealing County.

    As emotions swept through Xu Qing, he suddenly recalled something Arch-Immortal Plumdark had said.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, maybe when you develop a bit of admiration for the organization and the people in it, you¡¯ll eventually turn that admiration into respect. And when that happens, you¡¯ll have figured things out.¡±</i> [2]

    Back then, Xu Qing had been a bit confused by that advice. After all, he hadn¡¯t really thought of himself as truly being a swordsage. But now, as he stood there in the rain, his heart hurting, he suddenly felt deep respect.

    Sadly, Pce Lord Kong wasn¡¯t standing there in the rain. He existed only in Xu Qing¡¯s memories. And now they were as far apart from each other as heaven was from earth. The only thing left behind was thatmand medallion. After Pce Lord Kong died and Seventh Prince tookmand of the Swordsage Pce, all of the authority in that medallion had been taken away. However, it still contained the right to use the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure a single time.

    After a long, mournful silence, Seventh Prince spoke again. This time, there was no grief in his voice. Instead, he spoke with unwavering determination,ced with killing intent, that caused thunder to rumble in the sky, and provoked a vicious growl from the four-wed golden dragon.

    ¡°Let all of Sea-Sealing County be made aware that we have determined the identity of the culprit responsible for the death of the governor, the disastrous war, the fall of the three pce lords, and the blood of all our heroes!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up.

    ¡°Yao Tianyan, a descendant of Heavenly Marquis Yao, has broken our hearts! Throughout the history of Sea-Sealing County, he has always shielded the nonhumans. And now, he has colluded with the Holytides to assassinate the governor, drag our county into the mes of war, betray humanity, and bring death to countless Sea-Sealing humans!

    ¡°Our investigation further confirmed that he wasrgely responsible for the copse of the northern front. Due to the horrendous nature of his crimes, I hereby issue a county-wide arrest warrant for this traitorous Yao Tianyan. I will also submit a petition to the emperor to extend that warrant to all human territories!¡±

    An immense swell of rage erupted from the hundreds of thousands of cultivators. And fury rose from the countlessmoners in the county capital who heard the words. There had been plenty of people over the years who didn¡¯t approve of Marquis Yao. People cursed him on just about a constant basis. Not only had he shielded nonhumans over and over again, he had even allowed members of his n to marry nonhumans. It seemed like little more than working hand-in-glove with the enemy, which was why many people cursed the Yao n as being <i>worse than dogs or pigs</i>. They were traitors against humanity, devoid of conscience, people who bent the knee to outsiders. Such cursing had beenmon in the past eight hundred years.

    Themon view was that Marquis Yao thought that nonhumans were worth more, and that his reputation among nonhumans was more important. In other words, humans weren¡¯t very important. Such thoughts had weighed on the minds of cultivators for eight hundred years.

    When Xu Qing arrived at the county capital, he had heard countless instances in which people cursed Marquis Yao in private.

    As far as Xu Qing could tell, it made perfect sense that Marquis Yao was the traitor! In fact, back when the governor died, there was a lot of talk about Marquis Yao being the biggest suspect.

    Right now, the eyes of the cultivators from the three pces were iparably bloodshot. In the blink of an eye, their killing intent reached unheard-of levels. For the swordsages, the death of their pce lord was the source of unending pain in their hearts, and all of them now felt it was their most important mission to avenge his death.

    ¡°Kill Marquis Yao!¡±

    ¡°Get revenge for the pce lords!¡±

    ¡°Avenge the governor!¡±

    ¡°Get revenge for the countless sons of Sea-Sealing County who sacrificed their lives in the war!!¡±

    ¡°The Yao n should be exterminated!¡±

    Down below, the imperial garrison surged with killing intent. The fury of the officers and the soldiers was so intense it shoved aside the rain!

    Yao Yunhui was in the crowd, trembling, her eyes full of grief. People all around her red at her, and backed away from her as if she were dirty. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

    Zhang Siyun was in a simr situation. Momentster, both of them were escorted away by imperial troops.

    Atop the altar, Seventh Prince noticed the movement below. He clearly saw what was happening, and when he looked at Zhang Siyun, his eyes glittered briefly.

    Meanwhile, in Yao Mansion, Marquis Yao¡¯s younger sister Yao Feihe wept openly, her tears falling onto her garment, soaking it and turning it dark. [3]

    ¡°Brother... was it worth it?¡±

    She closed her eyes as a crashing sound reached her ears. The forces sent by Seventh Prince had arrived to arrest everyone, including the elderly and the children. Yao Feihe didn¡¯t fight back as she was taken captive. As the prisoners were led out of Yao Mansion, many of themoners looked on with disdain, calling out curses and demanding blood be spilled.

    Li Shitao was off in the distance. She had arrived toote to help, and could only stand there helplessly, her expression one of fury. [4]

    The anger burning in the county capital at the moment was more than enough to drown out all other sounds.

    1. Guyue Zhang¡¯an. Guyue is apound surname invented by the author. Gu means ¡°ancient.¡± This is the same character from things like Revered Ancient and Ancient Emperor. Yue is a character with many meanings. It can mean ¡°exceed, climb over, surpass.¡± But it¡¯s alsomonly associated with peoples and states in south China or South Asia in general. Zhang also has many meanings, including ¡°chapter, structure, rules, seal, stamp, badge, medal, order.¡± An means ¡°prison, jail¡± as well as ¡°a mythological animal mentioned in ancient legends whose image was put on prison gates.¡± Madam Deathde says the surname Guyue gives a feeling of ancientness, while the given name Zhang¡¯an sounds vicious and even animalistic. ?

    2. Arch-Immortal Plumdark said that to Xu Qing in <u>chapter 414</u>. ?

    3. Yao Feihe was introduced in <u>chapter 428</u>. ?

    4. Li Shitao was introduced in the same chapter as Yao Feihe was introduced in, <u>428</u>. She appeared briefly in <u>chapter 475</u>. ?

 Chapter 511: Classified Dossier 19

    <h4>Chapter 511: ssified Dossier 19</h4>

    From his spot in the county memorial service, Xu Qing turned and looked toward the distant Yao Yunhui and Zhang Siyun.

    He thought about how the Smokewights in Daybreak Prefecture had mentioned Marquis Yao. He also considered Marquis Yao¡¯s previous actions, and how he¡¯d simply disappeared from the battlefield. On the surface, it really did make it seem like there was something suspicious going on with him. What was more, the pce lord had also suspected Marquis Yao.[1]

    But there were some things that didn¡¯t make sense to Xu Qing. Why would Marquis Yao take his entire people, with the exception of the women and children, to the battlefield, where they were all wiped out? And why would all the women and children just sit around waiting to be arrested? What was more, Marquis Yao had been the one to rally the nonhumans into an alliance and then lead them to the northern front. And everything had gone smoothly in that regard. When you considered all the elements as a whole, they didn¡¯t add up.

    Of course, Xu Qing was well aware that he couldn¡¯t possibly be the only person to havee to this conclusion. But right now... no one dared to speak up.

    For one thing, Marquis Yao was generally disliked. What was more, there was no evidence to prove that he <i>wasn¡¯t</i> a traitor to humanity.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. By now, he hade to the conclusion that the war in Sea-Sealing County was a lot moreplicated than just two enemies fighting each other. The fact that Seventh Prince showed up at almost exactly the same moment that Pce Lord Kong died gave Xu Qing the sense that there was much more to the situation than what appeared on the surface.

    Off to the side, the Captain narrowed his eyes and spoke to Xu Qing in a voice as quiet as a mosquito¡¯s. ¡°This Seventh Prince is quite impressive. He¡¯s tugging at everyone¡¯s heart strings withplete ease! He hits things from every angle, has his pulse on themunity, and really knows how to work the crowd!

    ¡°As of now, Sea-Sealing County might as well be his personal fiefdom. He¡¯s got an incredibly high status, he can take credit for saving the entire county, and he¡¯s got the support of the masses. In reality, if he¡¯d shown up just a moment earlier, Pce Lord Kong wouldn¡¯t have died in battle. And if the pce lord didn¡¯t die, then the imperial prince¡¯s arrival wouldn¡¯t have been as dazzling. He would have had to share the spotlight with the pce lord.

    ¡°In contrast, by arriving just a bit toote, he took all the glory. Hepletely saved the day and became famous far and wide. All because of one battle.

    ¡°I know you¡¯ve alreadye to realize this on your own, little Junior Brother. I know you¡¯re close with Kong Xianglong, but you¡¯ve got to remember not to be impulsive. This prince is not someone you can casually trifle with.

    ¡°Surely you can see how even the deputy pce lords and the lieutenant governor are biting their tongues. And Kong Xianglong is holding back too. A lot of people know what¡¯s really going on here, not just us! We small fries should focus on keeping our friends and family safe. Trying to do more than that... isn¡¯t going to do any good.¡±

    The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    Xu Qing looked up into the sky. Truth be told, he hade to a realization of what was going on a lot earlier, and had been keeping it inside for a long time.

    ¡°I know, Eldest Brother,¡± he replied quietly. ¡°There¡¯s no way he was going to show up before the taboo fell and Pce Lord Kong died. That was why the pce lord issued all those orders to the army, and also the reason he chose to die as he did.¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and thought back to everything the pce lord had said before dying, and all the arrangements he¡¯d made.

    It rained all day. As for the memorial service, it didn¡¯tst that long. It was over after about two hours. When Seventh Prince left, it marked the end of the service. The crowd dispersed in lonesome solitude.

    The Captain seemed really worried about Xu Qing, and gave several more warnings in line with his previous exhortation. Then he said he was going to go buy Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edict, then find a ce to open another of his seals. Apparently, that was going to take some time.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to be in seclusion for about half a month, little Junior Brother. Remember. Don¡¯t do anything impulsive. After I¡¯m out of seclusion, we can assess the situation. If things are really bad, then we can just resign as swordsages.¡±

    Noting how sincere the Captain seemed, Xu Qing nodded.

    The Captain, convinced of Xu Qing¡¯s sincerity, hurried away.

    Xu Qing really was being sincere. He knew that even if he said something to someone, his words wouldn¡¯t carry any weight. Whether because of his general status or his cultivation base, he couldn¡¯t do anything to affect the tangled web of intrigue that was this war.

    And yet, he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about Pce Lord Kong. Eventually, he sighed and went back to his sword pavilion beneath the glow of evening. Upon arriving, he looked around.

    <i>I miss Seven Blood Eyes.</i>

    Closing his eyes, he sat down and started meditating. Eventually, night fell and the moon rose. Around midnight... he heard a voice outside his sword pavilion, full of pain and bitterness.

    ¡°You there, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. It was Kong Xianglong. Xu Qing opened the door of his sword pavilion and saw Kong Xianglong standing there in the moonlight. He was obviously drunk. The smile he wore made him look more full of grief than if he¡¯d been weeping.

    ¡°Duskspirit is dead. Wang Chen is dead. Sir Mountain-River is back in his sect recovering from his injuries. I... I don¡¯t have anyone else to drink with. Xu Qing, do you mind drinking with me again today?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He just took a few steps back.

    Kong Xianglong grinned and walked inside, swaying back and forth a bit as he did. Sitting down, he tossed a jug of alcohol to Xu Qing, then pulled out one of his own and took a drink.

    ¡°Wanna guess who I saw this afternoon?¡± he said with another forced smile.

    Xu Qing took a drink and shook his head.

    ¡°Seventh Prince, of course! The deputy pce lord took me to see him. Oh, that prince. As you might expect, he knew that the pce lord was my grandfather. So what do you think happened next? Hemended me, and even gave me an assignment. I¡¯m in charge of the Corrections Division now. I¡¯m supposed to get the ce back in order. I mentioned you, by the way. He agreed to let me handle things however I wanted.¡± Heughed. ¡°I expressed my deep and heartfelt gratitude.¡±

    Kong Xianglongughed even more. However, his expression looked pained, and though hisughter was full of many emotions, joy was not one of them. In the end, he huffed and then spat off to the side.

    ¡°Screw that motherfucker! You know who the first batch of new inmates are? Everyone from the Yao n. What does he think I¡¯m going to do, execute them all? I¡¯m not an idiot. Don¡¯t tell me that the shadowy figure that appeared before the old man right before he died was Marquis Yao?¡± Kong Xianglong roared withughter, but his eyes were cold. He took another drink. ¡°I went over and took a look at the Yao n prisoners. They¡¯re all women and children. Zhang Siyun was nowhere to be seen. Apparently Honor Guard Sima vouched for him. [2]

    ¡°That said, maybe it would be good for me to be a bit of an idiot. If I execute them, I might be able to get closer to Seventh Prince. Then maybe I can figure out what¡¯s really going on with this war.¡± As he spoke, his voice got colder and colder. His eyes glittered. ¡°What do you think, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Kong Xianglong, who had lost most of his friends during the war, then had to deal with Pce Lord Kong¡¯s death. After all of that, Kong Xianglong¡¯s personality had changed.

    Based on his tone of voice, Xu Qing could tell that Kong Xianglong¡¯s killing intent was truly growing strong. And it was very possible that Kong Xianglong would go so far as to vite his own sense of morality if it meant getting close to Seventh Prince and finding out the truth.

    Xu Qing took a moment before answering. ¡°If we get to make the decision, I suggest not executing them.¡±

    Kong Xianglong looked up. ¡°Why?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t give an answer. He just looked Kong Xianglong in the eye.

    As he did, the coldness in Kong Xianglong¡¯s gaze slowly disappeared. He seemed to shrink in on himself, and then he took another drink.

    The two of them sat together drinking, just like they had the night before.

    Eventually, Kong Xianglong put the jug down,y back, and looked at the ceiling. ¡°I miss the old days, Xu Qing. Rememberst year when we all went on that mission...?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, and thought back to when the two of them had left on the mission with Duskspirit, Wang Chen, and Sir Mountain-River. Their task had been to extract an agent who was fleeing from Holytide territory. There was also an intelligence report in a wish box. Later, they ughtered an entire group of ck Guard cultivators to get revenge for the young man they¡¯d tortured to death. Then they fled like mad into the night. Eventually, they reached an open in where theyy down in the grass to catch their breaths. After that event, all of them had grown closer to each other.

    ¡°What a pity...¡± Kong Xianglong said, shaking his head. He lifted the jug, only to find it was empty, just like the wish box they¡¯d recovered on that mission. [3]

    Xu Qing slid another jug over to him. Kong Xianglong sat up and took it. ¡°Oh, by the way, Seventh Prince¡¯s people took away the wish box we got on that mission. They said it was evidence of Marquis Yao¡¯s secret n.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to the empty wish box. ¡°There wasn¡¯t anything inside, was there? Or did the pce recover somethingter on?¡±

    ¡°They did. But it¡¯s top secret. I was in charge of the mission, so I qualified to know about it. But the intelligence report still hasn¡¯t been dessified.... Ah, whatever. There¡¯s no point in keeping you in the dark.¡± Kong Xianglong took a drink. ¡°Based on the aura that remained inside, it was determined that the box previously contained an ancient medicinal pill. Something called a fatehavoc pill.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he reached out to grab Kong Xianglong¡¯s arm.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°A lightmost fatehavoc pill?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, exactly.¡± Kong Xianglong¡¯s expression turned very serious. All of a sudden, he was much more sober than before. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Thinking back to the jade slip the pce lord had given him, he thought for a moment then said, ¡°Big Bro Kong, is there any chance the intelligence report you¡¯re talking about is ssified Dossier 19?¡± [4]

    When Kong Xianglong heard Xu Qing mention that specific file, he becamepletely sober. Eyes shining, he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Okay, what¡¯s happening here?¡±

    Xu Qing took out the jade slip from the pce lord and handed it to Kong Xianglong.

    After returning to the county capital from Mount Daybreak, the urgency of the war, and his mission to deal with supplies and troops, made him too busy to check into ssified Dossier 19. Besides, Pce Lord Kong was already familiar with the file¡¯s contents, and Xu Qing¡¯s mission had simply been to confirm some details regarding the daybreak light. When it came to the continuation of the investigation, he had been waiting for further instructions from the pce lord. But now, things had changed.

    As Kong Xianglong studied the information on the jade slip, he started trembling. When he finished, he gripped the jade slip tight in his hand and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing whispered, ¡°I already investigated the daybreak light. And there was indeed some that didn¡¯t make it into the records.¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he said, ¡°That shadowy figure that appeared to the old man before he died! Did he kill the governor with that pill? No wonder there wasn¡¯t a big fight on the day of the governor¡¯s assassination. His death came out of nowhere!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°But it still doesn¡¯t make sense. If that pill is really so amazing, how did the killer manage to use it on the governor? I¡¯m pretty good with poisons, so I know there are a lot of ways to poison someone. But given the high level of the governor¡¯s cultivation base, it seems almost impossible for someone to secretly poison him!

    ¡°That¡¯s even more true considering how many assassination attempts the governor experienced in his life. He was definitely a cautious person who wouldn¡¯t let his guard down even around people he trusted. For him to die so unexpectedly seems to indicate that the killer poisoned him in a very ingenious way! It was the perfect murder.¡± [5]

    After speaking, Xu Qing closed his mouth to think.

    Kong Xianglong also sat there, thinking. After some time passed, Kong Xianglong stood, sped hands, and bowed deeply to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing, don¡¯t investigate this matter any further. It¡¯s too dangerous. I¡¯ll handle it!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, Kong Xianglong seemed to want to say something further, but hesitated to do so. Finally, he sighed. Given how well he knew Xu Qing, he could tell that Xu Qing¡¯s silence was an indication that he was refusing Kong Xianglong¡¯s advice.

    ¡°Fine, we do it together!¡± Kong Xianglong said quietly.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    It was nearly dawn, and they were out of alcohol. Besides, after all of the recent revtions, Kong Xianglong wasn¡¯t interested in drinking. He made to leave. However, then he looked at the spot where he had spat off to the side. Shaking his head, he cleaned the spot with his sleeve. Then he walked to the door.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing took out a bag of holding and tossed it to Kong Xianglong. ¡°Big Bro Kong, this is for you. Sir Mountain-River¡¯s portion is in there also. As for Duskspirit and Wang Chen... you decide what to do with their share.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s inside?¡± Kong Xianglong asked, looking surprised.

    ¡°Dao fruits,¡± Xu Qing replied softly.

    1. Marquis Yao was mentioned by a Smokewight in <u>chapter 482</u>. ?

    2. Starting in this chapter, the author changed Honor Guard Sima¡¯s name, and instead started calling him Honor Guard Sinan. Because it happened out of nowhere, I initially thought it was a different character, which was very confusing to meter on when it became clear that Sinan was actually Sima. I double-checked by looking up every instance of every variation of the name, and can say conclusively that Sima=Sinan. I personally think this happened because,st time he was mentioned, the author called him Sima Nan. I think the author just got his wires crossed, and started calling him Sinan instead of Sima. Another possibility is that he intentionally changed the name for some reason. However, there is no exnation, and in the grand scheme of things, the name itself isn¡¯t important to the plot. This sort of thing isn¡¯t something worth bothering the author about, so going forward, I will standardize everything to Sima, since we¡¯ve alreadye to know this character by that name. ?

    3. The wish box was recovered in <u>chapter 419</u>. ?

    4. ssified Dossier 19 was mentioned previously in chapter 478. ?

    5. In <u>chapter 391</u> we were told the governor had survived many assassination attempts through the years. ?

 Chapter 512: Crimson Mother of the Red Moon!

    <h4>Chapter 512: Crimson Mother of the Red Moon!</h4>

    Kong Xianglong quietly left the sword pavilion with the bag of holding.

    The first glimmer of dawn was visible outside as Xu Qing watched him leave. Then he stood there looking into the sky and thinking about the wish box from that mission.

    ¡°The smell of osmanthus flowers,¡± he murmured. He remembered checking the wish box, and he remembered the faint scent of osmanthus inside. [1]

    Muffled thunder could be heard in the sky; it was the rainy season in the county capital. Before long, heavy rain blocked the rays of the sun, and everything turned gloomy. It gave early risers the strange sensation that evening had already fallen before noon had evene.

    Xu Qing went back into his sword pavilion. Sitting down cross-legged, he settled his thoughts and started meditating.

    His cultivation base was close to the very peak of Gold Core. All he needed was one additional heavenly pce to reach the great circle. After everything he had experienced on the battlefield, that heavenly pce was almost fully materialized. It wouldn¡¯t be long now.

    <i>As for what to put inside of it....</i>

    Xu Qing took a moment to sense The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    <i>If I can¡¯t think of anything else, then I¡¯ll use The Emperor¡¯s Sword.</i>

    Taking a deep breath, he continued working on breathing exercises.

    In that manner, half a month flew by.

    During that time, Xu Qing almost felt like he had been forgotten.

    He didn¡¯t leave his sword pavilion, and almost no one came to visit. With Seventh Prince in charge of the county capital, everything had changed. It wasmon to see warrior cultivators from the imperial capital on the streets. The city was under military control now, and species from all over Sea-Sealing County wereing to pay respects.

    The three pces had been reorganized. With the threemanders-in-chief Seventh Prince had assigned to take over for the pce lords, they were now essentially a wing of the army. Imperial swordsages from the swordsage headquarters in the capital were now in charge of most of the departments. It was the same with the other two pces.

    Militaryw was even more strictly enforced. There were quite a few people who were executed publicly for breaking suchws. And they weren¡¯t just people from Sea-Sealing County. There were even officers and soldiers from the imperial capital who were punished! Kong Xianglong discussed the matter with Xu Qing, and clearly he had mixed emotions.

    Seventh Prince issued a directive to all sects and organizations in Sea-Sealing County. It was very strictly worded and clearly was not supposed to be questioned. It required all sects to perform military service, and also required the sects to permanently hand over control of their taboo treasures. The directive caused quite a stir. However, there wasn¡¯t anybody willing to defy the orders. The nonhumans reacted simrly. In the end, they had no choice but toply; they sent half of their supplies as tribute, and joined the allied army, which meant they had to go to war on behalf of humankind whenever requested.

    Under the leadership of Kong Xianglong, the Corrections Division was being rebuilt. However, it wasn¡¯t located in the same ce as before. It was now in the Swordsage Pce.

    The first batch of prisoners really were the women and children from the Yao n. Although there were many public demands for their execution, Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t do anything to them. He chose to ept Xu Qing¡¯s advice in that regard.

    Though Honor Guard Sima had vouched for Zhang Siyun, that didn¡¯t mean Zhang Siyun could avoid investigation. In the end, he chose to testify against his mother¡¯s n. Most people thought of it as his expression of loyalty to humankind. As a result, he wasn¡¯t implicated in any of the Yao n¡¯s crimes. After all, his surname wasn¡¯t Yao. What was more, he was allowed to remain as a swordsage.

    In the end, Seventh Prince had the final say on everything that happened in Sea-Sealing County. His subordinates weren¡¯t just stationed in the county capital. They spread out to all the Swordsage Courts in all the prefectures. Because of the fact that they were essentially the saviors of Sea-Sealing County, they were weed with open arms wherever they went.

    Meanwhile, a rumor started spreading. It started in the county capital, but before long, it reached all of the prefectures.

    Forbidden by the Immortal really was going to be opened soon.

    Sea-Sealing County was the first ce Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had upied aftering back from sea, and thus it was home to a very special area called Forbidden by the Immortal.

    In the past, it didn¡¯t have that name, though. It was an Immortal Estate, one of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s thirty-six remote operations pces.

    The Immortal Estates were all unique worlds that contained not only amazing and unique treasures, but also, strong immortal energy. Immortal energy was essentially a higher level of energy than spirit energy. The thirty-six operations pces, or Immortal Estates, were worlds belonging to the imperial n back in the era of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. They often contained mutant beasts, which were kept there to hunt.

    After the broken face of the god arrived, everything changed. When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity and the other emperors and sovereigns left, the thirty-six operations pces were abandoned. Most of them fell into ruin. There were others that, as humans slowly lost one region after another, became the property of nonhumans.

    In some cases, gods entered them and turned them into personalirs, filling them with intense mutagen. The Immortal Estate in Sea-Sealing County was one of those, as there was a god sleeping inside. ¨©ts aura filled the Immortal Estate, making it rife with death. It was a ce where the living couldn¡¯t go, and thus it came to be called Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Throughout all the years that had passed, humans had only opened Forbidden by the Immortal one time. Powerful experts from the Imperial Region had attempted to extract the godsource from inside, only to fail. Although they didn¡¯t wake the god that slept inside, even in sleep that god was powerful enough to create a clone of ¨©tself. That clone caused a massive disaster in Sea-Sealing County. In the end, the humans suppressed the clone. However, they couldn¡¯tpletely destroy it. Therefore, the imperial preceptor of humankind dismembered it.

    For certain reasons, it wasn¡¯t possible to take the parts of the clone away from the forbidden region, so they had been sealed at its entrance. And that entrance was none other than the famous Corrections Division in the county capital. By using a destiny sealing technique, the clone was fooled into thinking it was a spirit automaton. As a result, it was essentially tasked with keeping itself sealed.

    Now, years after that incident, everyone was shocked to hear rumors about Forbidden by the Immortal being opened.

    In reality, there had been talk of this happening in the past. But the governor and lieutenant governor hadn¡¯t approved of the idea. Even Pce Lord Kong had been hesitant. It was simply too dangerous. The slightest misstep could result inplete catastrophe for Sea-Sealing County. Living beings everywhere would be in horrific danger, and would end up as food for a god. But imperial orders couldn¡¯t be defied. And thus, all Sea-Sealing County could do was try to dy the opening. [2]

    Now, the person with the final say in everything was Seventh Prince. It was shortly after the rumors started spreading like mad that Seventh Prince actually issued the formal dharmic decree.

    In half a month, Forbidden by the Immortal was to be opened. First to enter would be the swordsages, and they would be on a special mission. They would beying the foundation for the second group to enter. The dharmic decree shook the entire county, and especially the county capital. Everyone was deeply rmed.

    However, due to public trust in Seventh Prince, and the mightiness of his army, people calmed down quickly enough. And then the preparations began.

    Hordes of imperial troops started clearing the rubble out of the old Corrections Division. They ced sealing marks and also used the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure to hew out a path leading to Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know much about Forbidden by the Immortal. But being a former Corrections Division jailer, he knew a bit more than the average person. Furthermore, after making D-132 one of his heavenly pces, he knew... that the finger therein was part of the clone of the god imprisoned in the forbidden ground. Just the finger of that clone had stupefying power. After all, the clone ¨©tself had been so mighty that the imperial preceptor had only been able to dismember and seal ¨©t. Destroying ¨©t hadn¡¯t been an option. It was easy to imagine how astonishingly powerful the actual god was.

    Although there was a lot Xu Qing didn¡¯t know, one thing he did know thanks to his experience of sealing that finger, was that the clone definitely feared the red moon. That much was obvious from how ¨©t had reacted to the essence of his violet moon.

    Obviously there were different levels of gods, and the red moon was stronger than the god in Forbidden by the Immortal! That said, just the term ¡®god¡¯ was enough to shake any cultivator to the core.

    Xu Qing was on the list of people to enter Forbidden by the Immortal first. Kong Xianglong, the Captain, and most of the other Sea-Sealing swordsages were also included.

    At the moment, Xu Qing was walking down the street in the county capital on the way to purchase some medicinal pills. He was also trying to establishmunication with the finger in D-132. He was hoping to get some more information about Forbidden by the Immortal. After all, considering there was still a war going on, it seemed like a strange time to open the ce.

    Unfortunately, the god¡¯s finger hadn¡¯t really woken at all since ¨©t went to sleep, and calling out to ¨©t didn¡¯t usually provoke any response. After buying the medicinal pills he wanted, Xu Qing thought about using the violet moon to stimte the finger. However, before he could do anything, the finger shivered and started to wake up voluntarily.

    The reason was because Xu Qing had just spotted a certain person.

    Zhang Siyun.

    Although his white swordsage uniform was inherently impressive, he himself was sallow, with bloodshot eyes. Overall, he looked bedraggled.

    As Zhang Siyun walked down the street, he spotted Xu Qing. In the past, his heart would have filled with hatred as a result, but this time he just averted his gaze and walked off quickly in a different direction. He was being followed by a few people Xu Qing didn¡¯t recognize. Apparently, they were keeping an eye on him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react visibly to what he saw. However, inside, his heart surged with waves of astonishment, the reason being that the finger was shouting into his mind.

    <i>¡°The Crimson Mother parasitized him! That¡¯s a doppelg?nger of the red moon! Crimson Mother isn¡¯t awake now, but that won¡¯tst long. Why aren¡¯t you running??¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger seemed extremely nervous and rmed, far more so than Xu Qing was.

    Xu Qing was breathing heavily, but his mind remained focused. It was a surprise to find that the god¡¯s finger was obviously thinking very clearly this time. ¨©t wasn¡¯t muddled like before. Suppressing his shock, he calmly projected a message with divine will.

    <i>¡°Didn¡¯t you say Crimson Mother </i>isn¡¯t <i>awake?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°It¡¯ll happen soon! The awakening will happen soon! Er, hold on. Somethings off here.... He has a human spell formation inside of him? You humans are actually taking the initiative to help Crimson Mother possess him?? In less than a month, Crimson Mother will wake up in his body! Just what are you humans trying to aplish? This is High God Crimson Mother we¡¯re talking about!!!¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger sent a stream of divine sense out, which helped Xu Qing to scan the area. Upon noticing the excavation work at the Corrections Division, ¨©t started trembling violently.

    <i>¡°That¡¯s an Immortal Estate! And it¡¯s almost open!! A doppelg?nger of Crimson Mother? Opening an Immortal Estate? At the same time...? Y-y-you... you humans are actually trying to feed me to Crimson Mother!!¡±</i>

    1. I linked to the wish box chapter already, but here it is again in case you¡¯re interested in checking the osmanthus reference. <u>Chapter 419</u>. ?

    2. The opening of Forbidden by the Immortal was previously mentioned in <u>chapters 355</u> and <u>358</u>. ?

 Chapter 513: What Do You Do When Youâ€™re Not Strong Enough?

    <h4>Chapter 513: What Do You Do When You¡¯re Not Strong Enough?</h4>

    The waves of astonishment smashing at Xu Qing forced him to stop walking. The terrified shrieking of the god¡¯s finger was clearly based on spection. The finger was asleep most of the time, and had no idea what was happening on the outside. ¨©t could only gain a very cursory surface understanding.

    But even when Xu Qing first arrived in the county capital a year ago, he remembered hearing asional rumors that Forbidden by the Immortal would be opened. Nothing ever came of it. That was one reason why he found it suspicious that it was actually being opened right now, at a time of war. But the exnation provided by the god¡¯s finger now caused everything to click into ce. In Xu Qing¡¯s mind, numerous puzzle pictures connected, and he came to a very clear realization. It caused him to immediately leave the capital city, go back to his sword pavilion, and sit down cross-legged to get his thoughts in order. The god¡¯s finger jabbered the entire time, and was clearly deeply shaken by what humans were doing.

    Eventually, Xu Qing got all his thoughts in order. Gradually, a general outline of things formed.

    <i>It all starts with Zhang Siyun.... Back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, the Captain and I both climbed to 9,000 meters. Because of the mark of the cultivator who died in a god domain, we were both affected to different degrees by Crimson Mother, the red moon. The Captain got the aura, but I also got... the godsource!</i>

    These were details that he had pieced together after the fact.

    <i>Zhang Siyun also climbed to 9,000 meters, so it¡¯s only natural that he would also be affected. But Zhang Siyun was very seriously injured and fell off the pir. In fact, he nearly died. Afterward, I felt an intense sensation of dread</i>. [1]

    <i>From that point on, I could sense the red moon looking for me. Back then, I didn¡¯t realize that Zhang Siyun had changed. But looking back, I¡¯d say that the pir incident must have been when Zhang Siyun was parasitized!</i>

    Eyes glittering, he considered everything he remembered. Then he focused on when the Grand Emperor assessed his heart.

    <i>Is it possible to hide things about yourself during the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart? If Zhang Siyun really was parasitized by the red moon at that point, why did that assessment go normally for him? He even came here to the county capital.</i>

    After some more thought, Xu Qing realized that, based on what the god¡¯s finger had just said, that there were humans helping to speed up the awakening of the red moon within Zhang Siyun, then everything made sense.

    <i>They knew from the beginning. And I know just how to confirm that!</i>

    He took out hismand sword to send a message to the grand elder in the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. But then his face fell slightly.

    <i>I forgot. After the death of the pce lord, inter-prefecturalmunications were restricted.</i>

    Xu Qing sighed. There was a workaround. Though he didn¡¯t have the authority to send inter-prefectural messages on his own, he could purchase the right with military credits. And he had a lot of military credits. Therefore, he paid the fee, and before much more time passed, he had sent the message to that grand elder to ask about Zhang Siyun.

    If any other person asked the grand elder about the situation, he wouldn¡¯t answer their question. In fact, he probably wouldn¡¯t even respond to Kong Xianglong. But that grand elder thought differently of Xu Qing. The response came quickly.

    <i>¡°Back during the Grand Emperor assessment, I did indeed know that he was parasitized by a god. That said, I couldn''t confirm which exact god it was. Considering how important of a matter it was, I reported the situation to the pce lord.</i>

    <i>¡°I checked in a few times to see what was happening with the matter. At one point, Pce Lord Kong told me that as long as Zhang Siyun was a swordsage, he refused to allow him to be used as bait! What¡¯s more relevant is that the original statue of the Grand Emperor is in the imperial capital. In other words, it¡¯s a given that they know about the situation there.¡±</i> [2]

    After providing his exnation, the grand elder¡¯s tone turned serious, and at the same time, caring.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, things are different now in Sea-Sealing County. I heard about Forbidden by the Immortal being opened. Back when the idea was originally proposed, a lot of people were opposed to it, including the governor and the lieutenant governor. But the dharmic decree came from the imperial capital. You can¡¯t just defy an order like that. They tried to buy time, but that can only be done for so long. Then war came, and nobody wanted to bring up the subject. I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re asking me about this, but... you need to be careful in everything.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing could sense the concern in the voice of the grand elder, so he responded in kind. Then he asked about the situation with August Spirit Nethersprite, and whether her escape was going to cause problems for the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    The grand elder cleared his throat, sighed, and then went on to say, <i>¡°I take full responsibility for that. I wasn¡¯t paying close enough attention, and that led to Nethersprite¡¯s escape. The first thing I brought to the imperial prince¡¯s attention was the potential awakening of the Ghost Emperor. As for where Nethersprite is now, nobody knows. The other two spiritual souls and the seven physical souls all went missing. We¡¯re in such great danger here in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture that not even the imperial prince dares toe here....¡±</i>

    Something about the exnation seemed strange to Xu Qing. After thinking about it, he started to get the feeling that Nethersprite hadn¡¯t escaped after all. The grand elder had probably set her free on purpose. More likely, she wasn¡¯t ¡®missing¡¯ at all, and the grand elder had her captive somewhere else. Having reached the conclusion that made the most sense, he actually felt a bit better. After a few concluding messages, he ended the conversation.

    <i>The opening of Forbidden by the Immortal is nothing to take lightly. That¡¯s why the governor, lieutenant governor, and Pce Lord Kong were all opposed to it. But now the governor is dead and the pce lord was killed in battle. The only member of the old guard still around is the lieutenant governor.</i>

    <i>As for Zhang Siyun, he lost the protection of Pce Lord Kong, which likely means that he¡¯ll be sent into Forbidden by the Immortal to wake up the red moon within him. He¡¯ll turn into a doppelg?nger of the red moon, which will then devour the god in the forbidden ground. Is that what¡¯s going on? But why? How does the imperial prince benefit if that happens?</i>

    Xu Qing stillcked enough clues toe to a proper conclusion.

    Eventually, the god¡¯s finger finished talking, retracted ¨©ts aura, and went into hiding. Even the fluctuations of sleep stopped emanating out, making it seem like the finger was in a state of death. No matter how Xu Qing called to the finger, he got no response.

    <i>Regardless of the details, if the red moon wakes up, I¡¯m going to be in serious trouble!</i>

    Xu Qing scowled. The only thing he could think to do was flee the county capital so he wasn¡¯t around when Forbidden by the Immortal was opened. However, a momentter, another thought entered his mind.

    <i>The best time to catch a big fish is during a big storm! Forbidden by the Immortal is going to be full of all sorts of precious treasures. It will be full of endless good fortune. The danger is the sleeping god. But if the red moon devours that god, then Forbidden by the Immortal will bepletely open for exploration.</i>

    <i>The red moon is the god of the Nightshades. If the imperial prince really ns to wake the red moon, then he must have an idea of what to do afterward. For one thing, he has to keep himself safe. Plus, he has a lot of people here in Sea-Sealing County. Unless he¡¯s nning to do something really insane, like feeding all of Sea-Sealing County to the red moon as a sacrifice....</i>

    <i>In any case, if I can avoid being noticed by the red moon, then entering Forbidden by the Immortal will actually be a destined opportunity for me</i>.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing sent a voice message to the Captain. After all, the Captain seemed to be an expert in matters rted to gods. Unfortunately, the Captain was still in seclusion, and didn¡¯t respond to the message.

    Forcing his mind to still, he decided to simply focus on meditation. He would just wait until the Captain was out of seclusion, and then discuss the matter with him and decide what to do next.

    After all, this was simply too dangerous of a situation. If the red moon awoke, trouble wouldn¡¯t juste for Xu Qing. The Captain had previously stolen some of the moon¡¯s aura. Though the moon had never gone looking for the Captain, if the Captain suddenly showed up in Forbidden by the Immortal, it could very well lead to his death.

    In that manner, time passed. It got closer and closer to the day Forbidden by the Immortal would be opened.

    The old Corrections Division had been almostpletely excavated. It was a dark hole in the ground, so deep its bottom wasn¡¯t visible. It pulsed with endless mutagen. The imperial troops had erected special formations to dispel that mutagen, but it was still possible to hear ghostly screams and criesing from the depths of the pit. It was almost as if there was hell at the bottom. The cries echoed out into the capital city. Everyone could hear them clearly, regardless of whether it was daytime or nighttime. It left everyone feeling anxious and jumpy.

    Xu Qing kept his attention focused on that pit. Eventually, when there were only six days left before the opening, he finally got a reply from the Captain.

    <i>¡°Little Ah Qing! Hahahahaha! I used the Righteous Bestowal Edict to safely open one of my most important seals! This way you and I can finally travel the world together!¡±</i>

    The Captain was obviously very excited, which rubbed off on Xu Qing a bit. Xu Qing could sense how happy he was, and thus offered his sincere congrattions. Then he went on to exin everything he had been wrestling withtely.

    The Captain¡¯sughter gradually turned into heavy breathing. When Xu Qing finished, the Captain severed the jade slip connection without saying a single word.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he waved his hand. The door of the sword pavilion opened, and he started counting.

    ¡°One. Two. Three.... Seven.¡±

    The Captain raced toward him with speedparable to Nascent Soul. His hair was disheveled and he was gaunt. In the blink of an eye, he was at the door of the sword pavilion. Without any hesitation, he rushed inside, mmed the door, and stared at Xu Qing with a crazy look of joy in his eyes.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you surely know that since your Eldest Brother just opened some seals, he¡¯s starving. That must be why you arranged for this special gift for me, right?¡±

    Xu Qing looked the Captain up and down. The Captain looked extremely thin, like the ghost of someone who had starved to death. However, his aura was much stronger than before.

    Back at the western front, the Captain had only revealed strengthparable to seven or eight heavenly pces. But based on what Xu Qing could sense now, he was iparably close to the Nascent Soul level. All it would take would be half a step, and he would be in that level. But there was more. He seemed to have changed on an even deeper level. The Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edict that the Captain had longed for clearly turned out to be very useful.

    Of course, Xu Qing expected nothing less from the Captain. Therefore, after examining the Captain, Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, Eldest Brother. I deduced that this breakthrough of yours was going to be very different. Therefore, I decided to put some thought into some of your most challenging obstacles.¡±

    The Captain threw his head back andughed uproariously. Clearly, he was very pleased with Xu Qing¡¯s wording and attitude. It really made him feel like the Eldest Brother again. Rubbing his hands together, he started pacing back and forth in Xu Qing¡¯s sword pavilion.

    ¡°Okay, little Junior Brother. This is definitely an amazing destined opportunity bestowed by heaven. The red moon ising. To devour the god in Forbidden by the Immortal no less. And after th¨¥y go at it for a while, the two of us¡ª¡±

    ¡°Can scrape Forbidden by the Immortal clean!¡± Xu Qing finished with a decisive nod.

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing with a very dissatisfied expression. ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡¯ve been hanging out with that sissy too muchtely. What happened to your sense of ambition? How could a crappy ce like Forbidden by the Immortal possibly befit people like you and me, who are fathers of a heavenly dao?

    ¡°This time, we can take advantage of the moment when those two gods are fighting... to steal a chunk of flesh from the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal! Based on what you¡¯re telling me, that god seems a bit weak. But a god is a god! Then, the two of us can secretly take a bite out of that red moon. If we seed, just think of how goddamn badass we¡¯ll be!!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes were fairly glowing red.

    In response, Xu Qing was breathing heavily, and his eyes were also red. He had also considered doing something like that, but it just seemed so unrealistic. Suppressing the pounding of his heart, he calmly said, ¡°Eldest Brother, there¡¯s no way the two of us could do that on our own. And if we mess up, it will screw up the ns of the imperial capital, which could affect all of Sea-Sealing County. We can¡¯t let ourselves get too greedy.¡±

    The Captain frowned. ¡°I guess that makes sense. In the final analysis, we¡¯re just too weak. Ai. How horrible to have some lovely meat right in front of you, but not be able to eat it....¡±

    The Captain looked almost frantic as he plopped down in front of Xu Qing and let loose another sigh. Then he opened his mouth to speak, only to suddenly smack his own thigh. ¡°I got it! Little Junior Brother, let¡¯s ask Master to join us! Believe you me, the old man was the one to start this whole tradition back when he was young. Otherwise, why else would I be like this? I mean, isn¡¯t he the one who took me along on a bunch of jobs to begin with? Granted, I got impulsive a few times, but in the end, it was really the old man who led me down this most crooked of paths!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were already glittering brightly. The Captain¡¯s eyes were shining with just as much brightness.

    ¡°Master?¡± Xu Qing said questioningly.

    ¡°Exactly!¡± the Captain replied. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen the old man in a while. Last time I asked Sir Bloodsmelter about him, he said the old man just made another breakthrough! Which of course doesn¡¯t make sense. The only way the old man could advance his cultivation so quickly is if he¡¯s secretly eating stuff behind our backs!¡± [3]

    The Captain yet again viciously pped his own thigh, just like a child who had discovered their parents were having a feast in secret.

    1. Xu Qing, the Captain, and Zhang Siyun climbed the pir and encountered the red moon in <u>chapters 361</u> and <u>362</u>. It was in 362 that Xu Qing felt dread because of Zhang Siyun. There were further details about the whole situation in the following chapter as well. ?

    2. Although the context doesn¡¯t include the grand elder, it was in <u>chapter 413</u> that Pce Lord Kong said he refused to use Zhang Siyun as bait. ?

    3. We have other confirmation that Master Seventh achieved a breakthrough in <u>chapter 501.2</u> ?

 Chapter 514: But Iâ€™m His Master!

    <h4>Chapter 514: But I¡¯m His Master!</h4>

    The Captain¡¯s words made Xu Qing think back to seeing his Master back at Forbidden by the Zombie. He had been located in a spell formation that indicated his cultivation level was simr to Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s. Fully convinced of the Captain¡¯s wisdom, he nodded.

    Seeing Xu Qing agree to his suggestion, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. ¡°So, we need to go talk to Master. Of course, we can¡¯t send a voice message, nor can we ask the Swordsage Court to ry a message for us....¡± The Captain blinked a few times. ¡°We need to trick Master intoing to us! Then we can exin in person.¡±

    ¡°So...?¡± Xu Qing asked hesitantly. Something about the look in the Captain¡¯s eyes seemed concerning.

    ¡°So... we¡¯re going to need toe up with a foolproof n to make sure Master eagerlyes charging over here at top speed!¡± The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Consider everything, little Junior Brother. You might think that telling him one of us is about to die would be the perfect scam. But we need something realistic. If we told him that I was about to die, he would probably drop everything and speed over here immediately. All in all, Master cherishes me the most. But... I can survive with my head alone and no body. So all Master has to do is put some thought into it and he¡¯d probably realize it was a trick.¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°Couldn¡¯t we send him a message in code?¡±

    ¡°Code? Of course not! What, you think we have some secret system of code words or something? We don¡¯t!¡± The Captain sighed, nced at Xu Qing out of the corner of his eye, then continued, ¡°Sadly, you¡¯re going to have to take one for the team, little Junior Brother. To make things seem very realistic, you have to agree to not fight back. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t hit too hard. You¡¯ll probably recover within a week.

    ¡°The worst I¡¯ll do is break your legs in a few ces, stab you a few times, shatter eighty or ny of your other bones, and stter some of your brains out. That sort of thing. Given how many times we¡¯ve done this, I¡¯m pretty good at it.

    ¡°The most important thing is that, when Master sees you, he doesn¡¯t get any indication it¡¯s a scam. Afterward, we¡¯ll exin the whole situation in a very logical manner. Things will definitely go very smoothly. Rx. I¡¯ve handled this sort of thing many times in the past.¡±

    The Captain chuckled darkly, and was virtually dancing back and forth. Whenever he opened seals, he felt it was necessary to reinforce to Xu Qing his authority as the Eldest Brother. That was especially true considering that he had beengging behind Xu Qing a bit in cultivation. That alone was enough to make him want to make a very big point of establishing his dominance.

    In response to the Captain, Xu Qing nodded and took out hismand sword. After paying the requisite fee, he sent a voice message to the grand elder at the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    <i>¡°Sorry to bother you, Grand Elder, but I¡¯m hoping you can pass a message to my Master.¡±</i>

    Looking the Captain in the eye, he continued to send the message with themand sword. However, this was the type of message that someone couldn¡¯t overhear even if they were standing there.

    <i>¡°Tell my Master that my Eldest Brother is dead set on marrying a cloud troll he met here in the county capital. I¡¯ve tried to persuade him against it, but he won¡¯t listen to me. The wedding is in three days. My Eldest Brother doesn¡¯t dare to say anything to our Master, so I¡¯m officially extending Master the invitation to the wedding.¡±</i>

    ¡°....¡± The grand elder listened to the message, then suddenlyughed. He could obviously read between the lines. <i>¡°Your Master is definitely going to be very happy to hear the news.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Many thanks, Grand Elder!¡±</i> Xu Qing replied solemnly. He put away hismand sword and looked at his suspicious Eldest Brother.

    ¡°Why do I get the feeling something fishy is going on, little Junior Brother? Did you send the message exactly ording to the n we agreed on?¡±

    Looking back at him solemnly, Xu Qing said, ¡°You ought to trust me a bit more than that, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain still wasn¡¯tpletely convinced, but he rubbed his hands together nheless. Eyes glittering, he said, ¡°Alright, fine. I¡¯m going to go easy on you, little Junior Brother. Remember, I just broke through, so I¡¯m particrly formidable right now. This is a perfect opportunity to get in some practice.¡± The Captain prepared to make a move.

    But then Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Eldest Brother, the message I sent indicated that I was poisoned, and that I don¡¯t know how to dispel the poison.¡±

    Xu Qing produced a poisonous nt from his bag of holding and put it in his mouth. The Captain gaped at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him innocently. ¡°There¡¯s no way Master would believe I was injured. That¡¯s too...monce. So I said I was poisoned. As you know, I¡¯m skilled in the dao of poison. So if I can¡¯t dispel it, then it¡¯s obviously a very dangerous poison.¡±

    Next, Xu Qing took out some poison powders and consumed them.

    The Captain watched. He was still convinced Xu Qing was pulling a fast one on him, but at the same time, had to admit that what Xu Qing said was logical. Besides, Xu Qing had clearly eaten a lot of the poison already.

    But then the Captain thought back to previous situations, and he blinked a few times. An enigmatic smile yed out on his face. ¡°Nice try, little Junior Brother. Did you really think I would fall for that?¡± He chuckled sarcastically, then stretched dramatically. ¡°Even using teleportation portals, it¡¯s impossible to make the journey from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to here faster than three days. Fine. I won¡¯t beat you up. Keep eating that poison. Eat your fill. I¡¯ll be leaving now. I need to gather some intelligence reports about Forbidden by the Immortal.¡±

    With that, the Captain sped his hands behind his back. Looking very pleased and extremely confident, he turned to leave.

    Xu Qing watched him go, all while shaking his head and continuing to eat poison.

    The Captain calmly strutted out of the sword pavilion and back to the city. Eventually, he found an alleyway. Ducking inside, he looked down at his right hand. In the palm of that hand was an eyeball which projected an image of Xu Qing eating poison.

    <i>He¡¯s still eating? Don¡¯t tell me he realized I put an eyeball in ce there. No, that¡¯s not possible. After releasing the most recent seal, there¡¯s no way little Ah Qing could sense me do something like that.</i> Then the Captain hesitated. <i>I¡¯ll just keep watching for a bit.</i>

    Two days passed. It was now the eve of the day someone could arrive at the county capital if they rushed at top speed from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. The Captain strolled into Xu Qing¡¯s sword pavilion, rubbing his belly contentedly. He sat down in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless. He had greenish-ck blotches all over his body, and looked like he had been seriously poisoned.

    The Captain still felt suspicious. Yet for the past two days he had observed Xu Qing and noted him continuously eating poison. ¡°Err...e on, little Junior Brother, there¡¯s no need for that!¡±

    ¡°When Master shows up and finds out we scammed him,¡± Xu Qing said loudly, ¡°he¡¯s definitely going to be pissed off.¡± Xu Qing took out another poisonous nt and started chewing it. ¡°Therefore, the worse I look, the less angry he¡¯ll be.¡±

    The Captain was starting to feel quite nervous, and was starting to wonder if Xu Qing¡¯s analysis was correct. If so, then the fact that Xu Qing was working so earnestly to sell the act would actually show that he respected Master.

    As it turned out, there really was a dao of scamming, and apparently, Xu Qing knew all about it. Long story short, Xu Qing¡¯s way of doing things was going to ensure the Master was less pissed off. If that happened, and the Captain was perfectly hale and healthy... then Master would take that as a sign of disrespect. After all, regardless of the reason for scamming one¡¯s Master, one had to do it in the proper way. If it was a single person involved, thus providing no way topare with someone else, then it wouldn¡¯t matter. But that wasn¡¯t the case here.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the Captain bitterly looked at Xu Qing. Outside, the sky was already starting to turn bright. Gritting his teeth, the Captain extended his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Give me some poison!¡±

    Xu Qing looked back at him quizzically. ¡°You want some too?¡±

    Full of grief and indignation, the Captain continued, ¡°Give it to me!¡±

    Xu Qing silently took out some poison and handed it to the Captain.

    The Captain took it, closed his eyes, and ate. Almost instantly, his face turned greenish-ck. Seeing that Xu Qing was still eating poison, he howled inwardly and did the same.

    And thus, time passed. Two hourster, it was bright outside when Xu Qing¡¯s transmission jade slip vibrated. Xu Qing picked up, and Master Seventh¡¯s voice echoed out.

    ¡°Where are the two of you?¡±

    Upon hearing Master Seventh¡¯s voice, the Captain started stuffing more poison into his mouth until he was trembling from head to toe and gasping for breath.

    Eyeing the Captain, Xu Qing sent a reply indicating they were in his sword pavilion. Then he waved his hand to open the door.

    Shortly thereafter, Master Seventh materialized without a sound outside the sword pavilion. It almost looked like he had been painted there by a giant, invisible paintbrush. Facepletely expressionless, he entered.

    Xu Qing tried to stand, but only managed to cough up a mouthful of poisoned blood. Bowing his head, he said, ¡°Master....¡±

    ¡°Nice acting. You know scamming your Master is wrong, right? However, it looks like you¡¯ve been consuming poison for days to sell the act.¡± Master Seventh¡¯s gaze softened as he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Hm. Yes, that¡¯s the right attitude.¡±

    When the Captain saw that, he struggled to rise, only to vomit.

    Master Seventh smiled grimly, walked over, and kicked the Captain. A thump rang out as the Captain flew up into the air and thennded on his butt in a sitting position.

    ¡°Your acting skills aren¡¯t as good. Just look at you! You hardly ate any poison at all. Why didn¡¯t you learn a thing or two from your Junior Brother?¡±

    ¡°Master, I miss you so much!¡± the Captain said, ignoring his smarting butt to look intively at Master Seventh.

    Off to the side, Xu Qing just looked on with a pained expression, as if he wanted to say something but didn¡¯t dare.

    Master Seventh snorted coldly. After one more re at the Captain, he turned to look at Xu Qing, and yet again, his gaze softened. ¡°Fourth Sib, you¡¯ve never been the kind of kid who makes a practice of lying. Given that, it¡¯s obvious your Eldest Brother forced you into this whole thing. It makes sense, considering your Eldest Brother is a habitual criminal.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head. ¡°Master, Eldest Brother and I came up with the idea together.¡±

    ¡°Even now you¡¯re still trying to speak up for your Eldest Brother?¡± Master Seventh¡¯s eyes overflowed with praise. He quickly pulled out some very expensive antidote pills and handed them to Xu Qing. ¡°Hurry up and eat those. Poor child. You¡¯re just too honest.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh turned and red at the Captain again. ¡°Look at you! What kind of an Eldest Brother are you? I can¡¯t believe you went so far as to force your Junior Brother to do all this. If you want me toe over here, you could just send a message in code! Your Junior Brother became an apprentice muchter than you, so he doesn¡¯t know all the code words. But you know them, don¡¯t you? Wasn¡¯t I the one who personally taught them to you when I took you out on all those missions years ago? What, you released another seal so you¡¯re all smug now? Or are you just hoping to get a good thrashing again?¡±

    The Captain shivered and shook his head. Then he noticed Xu Qing looked at him silently, and he cleared his throat awkwardly.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing betrayed no facial expression as he put the antidote pills in his mouth and swallowed them. He also took out a few medicinal nts and ate them. Momentster, the poison within him was dispelled. During the two days in which he constantly ate poisonous nts, he had used the principles of mutual augmentation and suppression to carefully make the right mix of poisons. As a result, all he had to do was consume the right medicinal nts, and the poison would instantly be neutralized.

    But the Captain had only eaten one portion of poison, which had instantly turned his face greenish-ck. When the Captain saw that Xu Qing was already back to normal, his eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth to speak.

    ¡°Enough!¡± Master Seventh said, cutting off the Captain. ¡°Spit it out. Why did the two of you go to this much trouble to scam your Master over here?¡±

    The Captain looked like he was about tounch into an exnation, but Master Seventh shot him a re. ¡°You can just shut up. Simply hearing your voice is going to piss me off!¡±

    Looking hurt, and somewhat depressed, the Captain thought, <i>All I did was open a seal! I was just trying to establish some authority with little Ah Qing. How did things end up like this...?</i>

    ¡°You exin, Fourth Sib.¡±

    Looking very respectful, Xu Qing exined everything in detail. He even told his Master about the god¡¯s finger, and how ¨©t had transformed him.

    It was the Captain¡¯s first time hearing such details, and his eyes went wide.

    Master Seventh red at the Captain again. Though Master Seventh didn¡¯t seem surprised by what Xu Qing was telling him, if you looked at him very closely, you would notice that his eyelids had twitched a few times. When Xu Qing finished, Master Seventh gave a cold harrumph.

    ¡°The two of you have really done some daring things in Gold Core. And you¡¯re even plotting against gods! Thankfully, Fourth Sib, you cleverly thought to tell your Master about all this. I understand the situation now. Going forward, don¡¯t put any more thought into it. Just go into Forbidden by the Immortal and act normal.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh turned to walk out. After giving the Captain one more re on the way, he faded into nothing.

    ***

    When Master Seventh materialized in the county capital, his aura was masked, and he was struggling to control his breathing. Massive waves of shock battered at his mind and heart.

    <i>I recruited a real monster as my apprentice....</i>

    Then, he startedughingcently. A proud expression filled his face.

    <i>But I¡¯m his Master!</i>

    ***

    Back in the sword pavilion, the Captain looked at Xu Qing, his eyes bleary. ¡°Little Junior Brother, what message did you send to Master? He seemed pissed off the moment he saw me.¡±

    ¡°So, Eldest Brother, as it turns out there <i>are</i> code words,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°Heyyy, it¡¯s all good,¡± the Captain said, getting to his feet. Giving Xu Qing a hug, he produced a very familiar-looking crystal. He pressed it into Xu Qing¡¯s hand. shing a very sincere smile full of familial love, he said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, I was just joking around with you! Don¡¯t you feel the bitterness and pain of the battlefield easing away? Ever since we got back, I¡¯ve been worried about you!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, stunned.

    The Captain smiled back, his eyes full of warmth and kindness. ¡°Oh, you! You take everything so seriously! Your face is always so expressionless! And that¡¯s especially the case when you¡¯re hurting inside. That¡¯s really not the way to do things.

    ¡°You¡¯re not alone, little Ah Qing. You have the patriarch. You have Master. You have me. You have Second Elder Sister and Third Sib! We all care about you. We¡¯re a family! Therefore, you don¡¯t need to keep everything inside all the time. You can talk to us!

    ¡°I said before that we should travel the world together. I was serious about that. And not just you and me. All of us, as a family! Together, traveling the world!¡±

    In that moment, the Captain truly seemed like a big brother. Xu Qing¡¯s heart swelled with warmth. He was truly moved.

    Then the Captain cleared his throat. ¡°And that¡¯s why I was wondering if you could get rid of this poison for me!¡±

 Chapter 515: Broken Sword Life Lamp

    <h4>Chapter 515: Broken Sword Life Lamp</h4>

    Xu Qing finally gave some antidote pills to the Captain, which sessfully purged the poison.

    Afterward, the Captain happily produced a peach, took a bite, and patted Xu Qing on the shoulder. ¡°We don¡¯t have a thing to worry about now that Master¡¯s here. The old man is a lot more experienced and knowledgeable than the two of us. And he¡¯s even better at knowing the ins and outs of society in general. All we have to do now is just wait until he figures everything out for us. Oh, by the way, little Ah Qing, do you mind asking Ol¡¯ Kong to do me a favor? I¡¯m bringing a good friend to see himter today.¡±

    Xu Qing looked pensively at the peach in the Captain¡¯s hand. ¡°If you¡¯re going to see him, what do you need me to message him for? And who are you taking to see him?¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat, looked left and right, and then lowered his voice. ¡°I went yesterday... and boy is Ol¡¯ Kong stingy. Thankfully, I helped him save Sir Mountain-River. Hmmmphh! He¡¯s obviously just jealous that I¡¯m your Eldest Brother; that¡¯s why he doesn¡¯t like me. Ai. I really have the short end of the stick here. If he¡¯s such hot stuff, why doesn¡¯t he go see if Master will ept him as an apprentice, huh?

    ¡°As for who I¡¯m taking to see him, who else do you think it could possibly be other than my most beloved and amazing Lady Peachy?¡± The Captain was trying to look very casual and rxed, but was obviously very pleased with himself. [1]

    ¡°You two know each other?¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    ¡°Of course! I just happened to notice Lady Peachy outside Yao Mansion the other day. When I saw her big boo... ahem, I mean, her depressed and despondent facial expression, I realized there wasn¡¯t even an ounce of happiness in that little face of hers. My heart literally hurt, little Ah Qing! So I went over tofort her a bit. And I ended up promising to take her to see the Yao n people.¡± Looking anxiously at Xu Qing, the Captain took a big bite out of the peach. ¡°Big talk isn¡¯t going to help me at this point, little Junior Brother.... Look, this is really important. It rtes to what could well be the biggest day of your Eldest Brother¡¯s life!¡±

    Xu Qing took out hismand sword and sent a voice message to Kong Xianglong. Upon getting a reply, he gave the Captain an expressionless nod.

    The Captainughed heartily, then hurried away looking very excited.

    Xu Qing watched him until he¡¯d vanished. The weight he¡¯d been feeling in his heart thanks to the war was finally starting to lessen.

    <i>Eldest Brother was right. Getting stronger is the foundation for everything.</i>

    He closed his eyes, then opened them a momentter. This time, they looked just as calm and peaceful as they had in the past. Walking out of his sword pavilion, he headed in the direction of the Swordsage Pce.

    His n: buy a new lifemp.

    As far as he was concerned, the fastest way to improve his cultivation base and battle prowess was by using a lifemp.

    <i>I currently have ten heavenly pces. I got seven of them through raw cultivation. Three of them were made from lifemps. For cultivators concerned about heavenly pces, life mes form the foundation for lifemps. Before, I had five life mes, which means I can actually have a maximum of five lifemps.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, he reached the Treasure Hall of the Swordsage Pce. This was the location where you could exchange military credits for rewards. A lot of military credits had been passed out as rewards for war efforts, and thus, many of the surviving swordsages hade to buy new things at the Treasure Hall. When Xu Qing arrived, he spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd.

    There were even some officers and soldiers from the Imperial Region. Though they weren¡¯t swordsages, they qualified to purchase items from the three pces, although there was a limit to how much they were allowed to take away. That was the result of a petition sent to Seventh Prince by the deputy pce lord.

    The Swordsage Pce¡¯s Treasure Hall didn¡¯t just sell goods. They also bought goods. In other words, swordsages could trade in spoils of war to get military credits.

    As a result, the Treasure Hall was in some ways a self-propagating market. Going there, you could find everything from fragments of ancient scrolls to high-tier magical devices and cultivation techniques. They also had... lifemps! Previously, there had been two lifemps for sale.

    There was no such thing as high-level and low-level lifemps. That said, they differed in their functions. Upon arriving, Xu Qing found that one of the lifemps had already been purchased, meaning there was only one for sale now. The price listed wasn¡¯t in military credits. Instead, it required grade-two battle credits. Xu Qing had enough battle credits to buy onemp, so he did.

    Then he cautiously made his way back to his sword pavilion without incident. It made Xu Qing recall what Kong Xianglong had said about Seventh Prince enforcing militaryw. It was the same across the board, whether Xu Qing and the Captain handing in the dao fruits, or other people handing over spoils of war. Neither Xu Qing nor Kong Xianglong nor any other swordsage was being treated badly. And no one dared to try to rob them.

    Any exchange of military or battle credits, and any sale or purchase, was a personal matter. Just like before, the Swordsage Pce didn¡¯t try to take advantage of anyone. The people who came to exchange their credits had all earned them through blood, sweat, and tears on the field of battle. There was no way that the Swordsage Pce, whether the old version or the new, would allow such people to be treated poorly. That was what Seventh Prince had said.

    ¡°It¡¯s the old bnce of kindness and severity. This Seventh Prince is quite formidable. He¡¯s obviously not interested in piddling financial profit. He has bigger ambitions.¡± That¡¯s what Kong Xianglong said on the subject. Clearly he had mixed feelings about the situation.

    When Xu Qing thought about everything that had yed out since Seventh Prince arrived, he sighed inwardly. On a personal level, he didn¡¯t like the imperial prince. But when you considered the bigger picture, it was true that everything he was doing was for the public interest. As for whether he was ultimately doing the right thing, opinions differed.

    Xu Qing shook his head. Stowing such thoughts for now, he took out his new lifemp.

    It looked like a ck, broken sword. The aggressive energy it emanated contained an astonishing baleful aura. Clearly, whoever had originally created this lifemp had been a prolific killer. When they made the lifemp from their own blood, it contained raw killing intent that made it different from all of Xu Qing¡¯s other lifemps.

    One difference between getting a lifemp in the Swordsage Pce and taking one by force on the outside was that the former came with a record of themp¡¯s history. When purchasing themp, Xu Qing had also acquired a jade slip with all the details of themp.

    <i>¡°This is an immortal-shredding god-devouringmp. The bloodline of themp traces back to the ninth heavenly marshal of the Epoch of Profound Serenity. However, it wasn¡¯t themp of the heavenly marshal. Instead, it belonged to one of his descendants, a general who lived during the Dark Serenity Epoch and died in battle. It focuses on killing, destroying magics, and drinking blood. Because of the evil will that has converged in it, those who use it risk being gradually turned into psychopathic killers. Anyone not ustomed to killing should be very cautious with it.</i>

    Xu Qing reviewed the information, then looked at the ck, broken sword. After some thought, he decided to do an experiment, and used the violet crystal to try to suppress the sword just like he had the shadow. After suppressing it well over a hundred times, he felt a bit less worried. The shadow looked on, trembling. Xu Qing ignored it.

    Taking the ck, broken sword, he spent a bit more time to think before turning his hand semitransparent, grabbing the sword, and inserting it into his sea of consciousness, very close to his D-132 heavenly pce.

    He hesitated briefly, then put it into D-132.

    The god¡¯s finger was asleep, but Xu Qing put the sword next to ¨©t anyway. He poked the finger gently a few times, and ¨©t didn¡¯t react, which made him feel a bit less nervous. Though he had already attempted to purge the sword, he figured that just in case it wasn¡¯t as clean as he thought it was, cing it next to the god¡¯s finger could serve as a warning. Whatever evil will existed in the sword should know to behave, otherwise it would be in trouble.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing next tapped into his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. After it appeared, it gobbled up the broken sword. Then the bluegreen dragon used its heavenly dao nature to assimte the sword. After that, Xu Qing ced it next to the violet crystal as if it were a food offering. After all of that, Xu Qing was fairly certain he heard something like a very faint and distant shriek of agony.

    He blinked a few times and ignored it. Now he felt a lot better. Taking the broken sword, he absorbed it. An instantter, the life mist above his sea of consciousness vibrated and rumbled as a sword-shaped heavenly pce took shape.

    It materialized rapidly, taking no longer than the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    As of that point, Xu Qing had eleven heavenly pces.

    The moment it appeared, powerful fluctuations rolled out in all directions, filling his sword pavilion. His aura became even fiercer, like that of a sharp, unsheathed sword, full of baleful intent that could ughter heaven and eradicate earth.

    If a Nascent Soul cultivator were present to feel the fluctuationsing off Xu Qing, they would be absolutely shocked. Xu Qing¡¯s eleven heavenly pces werepletely and utterly stupefying.

    The objects people would use for their heavenly pces were all different, and worked together in different ways. Because of that, there could be vast differences in Gold Core cultivators, even those with the same number of pces.

    As for Xu Qing, whether it was the number or the quality of his pces, although it was possible there might be someone else in the Revered Ancient who was simr, they would only be outstanding figures with ess to destiny aura, and who were the most famous in their species.

    <i>Right now I don¡¯t need to worry about myst lifemp. For all intents and purposes I¡¯m already in the great circle!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness now contained elevenplete heavenly pces. However, he still had one that wasn¡¯t yet fully materialized.

    <i>Hopefully this trip into Forbidden by the Immortal will be just what I need to finish my final non-lifemp heavenly pce!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly before he closed them to focus on stabilizing and powering his new heavenly pce.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    ***

    It was now the very day that Forbidden by the Immortal was to be opened.

    When Xu Qing¡¯smand sword vibrated, he opened his eyes. They glittered with an aggressive light, which he subsequently reined in. Face expressionless, he got to his feet and left his sword pavilion. Kong Xianglong was waiting for him outside.

    Their eyes met, and then they looked in the direction of where the Corrections Division used to exist.

    The entire area had been excavated. Mutagen pulsed out of it, along with what sounded like the wail of ghosts and howl of wolves. The sounds were very unsettling. Timid people who heard the screamsing from the depths of that pit would feel an eruption of cowardice within them, and wouldn¡¯t dare to get very close.

    However, the first wave of cultivators who would be entering Forbidden by the Immortal were Sea-Sealing County swordsages who had lived through hundreds of battles. Some had severe injuries that weren¡¯t yet fully healed. However, all of them were extraordinary in terms of character. They had experienced the baptism of war, and had been tempered in the fires of hell....

    Every single one had towering baleful auras, and had ughtered countless foes. Every single one had faced death over and over again, yet weren¡¯t afraid. Their temperaments had been refined to the ultimate level.

    Other cultivators from the county capital had gathered to watch the proceedings, andpared to them, the group about to enter Forbidden by the Immortal waspletely different. Although there weren¡¯t very many of them, they were all people who would stand out in a crowd. Now, gathered together in a unified fighting force, they were even more impressive. The officers and soldiers from the Imperial Region, who had not gone through such intense wartime events, only served as foils to them.

    As they stood there, they attracted the attention of everyone in the area.

    Then Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong arrived.

    Both were tall and somewhat thin, and their white swordsage uniforms rippled in the wind, making them seem cold and austere. One had crude facial features and the stubble of a beard on his face. The other had features as fine as jade, and eyes that were tranquil and calm.

    When the other swordsages saw them, their eyes glittered. Offering a military salute, they parted to make a path for them. It was the first unified action those swordsages had taken since gathering.

    Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t pause for a moment. They walked through the crowd to the front, where they stood alongside the dozens of Spirit Trove swordsages there. They didn¡¯t match up to those swordsages in terms of cultivation base, but in terms of the services they had rendered, they definitely could stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Their aurasbined perfectly with those of the other veterans.

    The observers were all shaken, including the soldiers and officers from the imperial capital, as well as various nonhuman cultivators.

    A momentter, Seventh Prince arrived. As he hovered in the air above, the people who stood out to him first were Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong.

    ¡°That¡¯s the Xu Qing I¡¯ve heard so much about?¡± Seventh Prince asked.

    The lieutenant governor nodded. ¡°Yes, Your Majesty. Xu Qing was previously serving as the pce lord¡¯s secretary-general. During the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart, he earned a 30,000-meter pir of light, making him the top figure in Sea-Sealing County. When we urgently needed supplies on the front lines, he got them to us. He was also the one who arranged for the forces of two prefectures to arrive at the western front to provide critical relief. He¡¯s performed amazing services for our Sea-Sealing County. He was one of the few people to earn grade-two battle credits during the war.¡±

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t seem to care about the other services Xu Qing had performed. Upon hearing the lieutenant governor¡¯s introduction, he only said four words.

    ¡°A 30,000-meter heart assessment?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the lieutenant governor replied with a faint smile.

    1. He¡¯s obviously referring to Li Shitao, who was introduced in <u>chapter 428</u>. Remember that the ¡°tao¡± in her name means ¡°peach.¡± She was mentioned or appeared ¡°on screen¡± a few other times, the most relevant to this chapter being in <u>chapter 439</u>. Previously, the Captain called her Taotao a few times. This nickname is a slight variation on that. I¡¯m taking a bit of a liberty in tranting the nickname, for one, to capture the feeling of cute intimacy it conveys, and also to hammer home the wordy element with the peaches, which really pops visually in Chinese, and is what the author is trying to emphasize here. ?

 Chapter 516: Forbidden by the Immortal

    <h4>Chapter 516: Forbidden by the Immortal</h4>

    The people standing in front of the crowd of roughly a hundred swordsages were all Spirit Trove experts. They were middle-ranking cultivators in the Swordsage Pce, and had been officers in the various battalions during the war. Because of surviving countless battles, they were all extraordinary cultivators. During the war, even if they were taken out of their unit and assigned somewhere else, they would quickly gain approval because of their ferocity and bravery.

    However, that led to a unique state of affairs. There were many people who approved of them, but few people <i>they </i>approved of. Being arade wasn¡¯t enough for them. They would only respect people who had aplished great things and had respectable statuses. Xu Qing had aplished great things. And Kong Xianglong had a respectable status. That was why those two had the tacit approval to stand among the Spirit Trove cultivators.

    When they arrived, the other cultivators exchanged nces, then quietly looked at the huge pit in front of them. The depths were pitch ck, and it was impossible to see the bottom. The mutagen was clearly very strong. However, when that mutagen got close to Xu Qing, he actually feltfortable, as if he could absorb it.

    That made his pupils constrict slightly, and he could only assume it had to do with his body being remolded by the god¡¯s finger. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to study the situation. He didn¡¯t want to reveal his secrets publicly.

    Therefore, he held back from absorbing it. However, he did release a bit of the power of his D-132 heavenly pce, creating something of a barrier around himself.

    The sound of howling and weeping was more intense, and it battered at their minds and hearts like attacks. More swordsages were gathering. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan were among them. The Captain was, too. The other swordsages didn¡¯t part to make way for them. Qing Qiu and Ning Yan simply lined up in the back.

    The Captain didn¡¯t care about formalities, so he shouldered his way through the crowd, calling out greetings to people he knew along the way. The surrounding swordsages were all a grave and expressionless lot, but even they had a hard time maintaining theirposure with the Captain around, and quite a few wry smiles could be seen. All of them were very familiar with this Chen Erniu. Chen Erniu¡¯s name had spread far and wide on the front lines. After all, he was the type of person who liked to make friends. Therefore, just about every survivor of the war had at least met him. That was especially true considering that the Captain had, for at least a time, been assigned to go back to the battlefield during lulls in the fighting, to retrieve corpses. Quite a few heavily wounded and unconscious swordsages had actually been saved by him.

    ¡°Coming through, Brother! I¡¯ve got to get past you!

    ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t Ol¡¯ Cao! Don¡¯t think you can block my path just because you have a higher cultivation base. Remember, I¡¯m the one who dragged you out of that pile of corpses. I even stuffed your intestines back into your gut!

    ¡°Hey, Little Apricot! Your arm is certainly taking its time growing back. Once we¡¯re back from this mission I¡¯ll give you some medicine that will help. Trust me, I have experience with that sort of thing.¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t have much trouble carving a path through the crowd until he was eventually standing next to Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong. He even called out greetings to some of the Spirit Trove cultivators he knew. The Spirit Trove cultivators had odd expressions on their faces when they nced at the Captain. A few of them had also been saved by Chen Erniu, and some had eaten meat that he gifted to them.

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyelids twitched. Though his attitude toward the Captain had changed now that they were fellow war veterans, he still hadn¡¯tpletely shaken his original negative impression.

    The Captain didn¡¯t notice Kong Xianglong¡¯s reaction. After calling out greetings, he threw his arm over Kong Xianglong¡¯s shoulder. Kong Xianglong tried to brush the Captain¡¯s arm off, but it didn¡¯t work. The Captain chuckled darkly.

    ¡°Now now, Ol¡¯ Kong. Your facial expression seems to indicate you¡¯re annoyed with me. Don¡¯t forget that I carried Sir Mountain-River to safety on my own back!¡±

    Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Seeing that, the Captain felt very pleased. Turning to Xu Qing, he gave him a manly hug, then winked and lowered his voice. ¡°Have you seen the old man? He hasn¡¯t shown up at all for the past few days. I guarantee you he didn¡¯t leave, though. Maybe since we scammed him, he¡¯s nning to return the favor?¡±

    The Captain looked around at the cultivators present, hoping to spot Master Seventh.

    Xu Qing was secretly surprised. Along the way, he¡¯d been looking around as well, but hadn¡¯t spotted any signs of his Master¡¯s presence.

    Around the time that the Captain arrived, a faint ripple of conversation swept through the group of about a hundred cultivators, as Seventh Prince appeared overhead along with notable leaders from the county capital.

    Seventh Prince wore a yellow robe and had long, flowing hair. He was unusually handsome, with slender eyes and a noble aura that surrounded him. nking him were the lieutenant governor, the threemanders-in-chief of the three pces, the deputy pce lords, and other generals and officers.

    One person among the group wore blood-red armor and had a vicious helmet that made his facial features impossible to discern. The only thing visible through the mask were cold eyes. As he stood there, he pulsed with a bloody, baleful aura.

    With the arrival of this group, the swordsages all stood at attention. The mutagening from the old Corrections Division was stifled, and the howling from inside ceased temporarily.

    All eyes were on Seventh Prince as hended on the ground.

    There weren¡¯t just swordsages gathered by the huge pit. There were also officers and soldiers from the imperial capital. All of them were in the first wave to enter the forbidden ground.

    After looking over the group, Seventh Prince said, ¡°Forbidden by the Immortal is deeply connected to the war currently being waged.

    ¡°You, the first wave to enter the ce, are the most outstanding talents in our species. Your task is to clear out any vile fiends you find so that the second wave can enter safely. You have four days. After the second wave enters, you¡¯ll be free to leave. That is your mission.

    ¡°Generalissimo Bloodhorror.¡±

    In response to Seventh Prince¡¯s words, the figure in the blood-red armor stepped forward and knelt.

    ¡°Here, sir!¡±

    Seventh Prince took the sword from his side and handed it to the kneeling figure. ¡°I hope you win a quick victory.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Your Majesty!¡± Bloodhorror said, reaching up with both hands to formally ept the sword. Then he stood, turned, and spoke in a voice as cold as winter. ¡°Let Forbidden by the Immortal be opened!¡±

    An intense rumbling sound echoed out from the depths of the old Corrections Division. The sound drifted far and wide, and shockwaves spread out in all directions. The ground quaked, and it was even possible to see distant mountains shifting. Some copsed as though subterranean dragons were on the move. Crevices opened up in the ground, and green smoke billowed out. The sun and moon were obscured, and all heaven and earth was cast into darkness.

    The reason was that opening the depths of the old Corrections Division was like opening the doors of hell itself. The mutagen levels skyrocketed instantly. Although spell formations had been prepared to mitigate the effects, and immediately kicked into effect to cleanse the surroundings, it wasn¡¯t possible to instantly drive away the mutagen that had been building up for years and years.

    That said, Seventh Prince had clearly prepared well in advance for this event. Troops poured into the area, and all of them carried fist-sized cages. When they opened the cages, figures flew out from inside that rapidly grewrger until they were the size of people.

    These were Holytide prisoners of war, and all of them had been specially imnted with unique devices designed for this specific situation. Looks of terror appeared on their faces as they became like ck holes, sucking in all of the surrounding mutagen.

    A momentter, the Holytide cultivators¡¯ screams filled the area.

    Thanks to the devices imnted in them, they didn¡¯t explode from the mutagen. Instead, they mutated, turning into mindless mutant beasts that the surrounding imperial cultivators then chained up and dragged away to be put into new cages. When the first round of prisoners was exhausted, more were brought. The scene ying out was shocking to all the onlookers.

    From beginning to end, Seventh Prince simply stood there, his facepletely expressionless. Eventually, more than two million prisoners of war had been turned into mutant beasts. Only then did the mutagen levels finally drop to about eighty or ny percent.

    Voice cool, Seventh Prince said, ¡°Take the two million mutant beast soldiers and send them to the front lines. Give them to the Holytides as a little gift. In theing days, bring the rest of the prisoners of war here and have them continue absorbing the mutagen. Do not let the mutagen here affect Sea-Sealing County in any way!¡± With that, Seventh Prince turned to look at the assembled cultivators. ¡°Suitable, no?¡±

    The lieutenant governor nodded. The three deputy pce lords bowed their heads. Everyone else offered tacit agreement by maintaining respectful silence.

    ¡°In that case, the first wave shall now enter.¡± As he turned and left, everyone present offered respectful salutes.

    The lieutenant governor and the threemanders-in-chief floated up into the air, but didn¡¯t leave with the imperial prince. Instead, they stayed behind to oversee the proceedings and ensure nothing dangerous happened.

    Meanwhile, the person responsible for leading the event, Generalissimo Bloodhorror, made the final arrangements to enter the forbidden ground.

    The four honor guards of the Swordsage Pce would also be going along. They included Daoist Sima and Honor Guard Sun, plus two imperial swordsages who hade with Seventh Prince, both of whom were in the second stage of Void Returning. Honor guards from the Justice Pce and Administration Pce were alsoing.

    After they flew into the pit, the rest of the cultivators entered, including the officers and soldiers from the imperial capital.

    Xu Qing moved with the Swordsage Pce group.

    It didn¡¯t take long for hundreds of thousands of cultivators to follow Generalissimo Bloodhorror into the pit. After, spell formations red to life topletely seal the area, including many that had been set up by the imperial forces. Down in the pit, cultivators flew along at top speed. The vanguard was responsible for checking the area ahead thoroughly. Those in the rear followed in a very orderly fashion.

    The lower they got, the colder it became. The mutagen levels rose as well.

    When they reached the bottom, Xu Qing caught sight of a massive stone spell formation that looked extremely ancient. It was made of numerous stone obelisks covered withplicated magical symbols. The middle of the formation had copsed, and was now nothing but a gaping hole surrounded by rubble. Inside of that hole was what appeared to be another world.

    That was Forbidden by the Immortal, which of course was once an operations pce of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Long ago, it hadn¡¯t been located under the ground. But inter years, after the humans sealed it, it was buried in the bottom of a huge pit.

    As Xu Qing examined the area, the Captain stood next to him doing the same. Further back, Qing Qiu and Ning Yan were among the forces that were still arriving and getting into formation.

    When the Captain noticed Ning Yan, his face lit up. Hurrying over, he threw his arm around Ning Yan¡¯s neck and dragged him over to where Xu Qing was. Trying to look very sincere, the Captain said, ¡°Do you know how much I missed you, Little Ningning? Did you miss me too?¡±

    Ning Yan smiled enigmatically. ¡°No, I didn¡¯t.¡±

    ***

    Back in the capital city, in a certain mansion, Ning Yan slowly opened his eyes. He looked around nkly for a moment. Then his eyes snapped open even wider, and he raced out of the mansion.

    Moving at top speed, he soon reached the edge of the capital city. Looking down, he saw the spell formations around the old Corrections Division, and noted theck of any people in the area. He immediately started howling inwardly.

    <i>I¡¯m finished! How could I have overslept? This is impossible! I want to go into Forbidden by the Immortal too! W-w-what... what do I do now?</i>

    Scowling on the verge of tears, he looked around and then hurried back toward the mansion, worried that he might be spotted and branded as a deserter. However, along the way, he came to a very terrifying realization.

    And that was... he had apparently lost his identity, his name, and even any sense of existence. It was a very strange feeling. Simply put, everyone he knew seemed to have forgotten his name and who he was. They treated him like aplete stranger. It was as if his identity and name had been taken away from him!

    <i>A god magic!</i>

    The realization caused Ning Yan to shiver. Then he vaguely remembered someone telling him to go find a ce to hole up for a few days, after which everything would go back to normal.

 Chapter 517: Itâ€™s Not Easy To Disobey Master

    <h4>Chapter 517: It¡¯s Not Easy To Disobey Master</h4>

    Deep in the old Corrections Division, cultivators were gathering around the stone obelisks.

    Xu Qing was among the first to arrive, but he didn¡¯t get close to the hole in the middle of the formation. He kept his distance, and took time to warily assess his surroundings.

    Within that hole was Forbidden by the Immortal, and it was dark and full of mist. Obviously that was a result of the mutagen. Within the swirling mists, it was just barely possible to see pces and other buildings. There were howls and shrieks that floated about as well, making it seem as if they were standing in front of the gates to the Yellow Springs.

    As Xu Qing looked around, the Captain looked in surprise at Ning Yan.

    His response from moments ago left the Captain with the distinct impression that Ning Yan could use a good biting. Smiling mysteriously, he tousled Ning Yan¡¯s hair and licked his lips.

    ¡°How very naughty of you, little Ningning!¡±

    Ning Yan smiled back just as mysteriously. Then he lifted his right hand, and it was hard to tell if he intended to strike a blow or struggle free from the Captain¡¯s arm. Then he looked around and seemed to get himself under control. Turning his head, he ignored the Captain.

    The Captain seemed pleased with his behavior. Naturally, he didn¡¯t think Ning Yan would ever dare to hit him, which in turn meant that he¡¯d been thinking of struggling free. But then he¡¯de to the conclusion that it was in his best interests to abandon such thoughts.

    ¡°That¡¯s much better, little Ningning. You see, I really, really missed you. Really!¡±

    Chuckling darkly, the Captain dragged Ning Yan in front of Xu Qing. There, the Captain winked. Though few people would understand what he meant by such a facial expression, Xu Qing understood instantly. He was telling Xu Qing that their tool was ready to use.

    Xu Qing nced at Ning Yan and was about to speak when a group of cultivators arrived wearing ck robes with deep hoods, and who pulsed with strange fluctuations. Most of them seemed cold and sinister in a way that was very different from ordinary cultivators. It was as if they all cultivated unique techniques that, though different from each other, merged together perfectly. Anyone who looked at them would feel a strange sensation that would prompt them to keep as much distance as possible.

    It was very telling that most of the imperial cultivators in the area backed away to give them space. What was most noteworthy was that there was one cultivator in this group whose aura was different from the others. The others clustered around him, almost as if they were guarding him, but at the same time, were keeping him prisoner.

    This figure stumbled a bit as he walked. His cultivation base was in the Gold Core level, and as he neared the huge hole in the spell formation, the wind created by the mutagen lifted the corner of his hood to reveal part of his face.

    It was none other than Zhang Siyun. He looked a lot different than he had half a month ago. Before, he had been wan, sallow, and dispirited. Now, though, his face was covered with a shocking disy of red veins, almost like a spider web. He seemed very gruish, but at the same time, appeared to be in a lot of pain.

    Xu Qing quickly looked away. At the same time, he thought back to what the god¡¯s finger had told him.

    <i>The red moon is about to awaken.</i>

    He quietly took a few steps backward.

    When the Captain saw all that, his smile vanished, and he also backed up, dragging Ning Yan with him. It was hard to tell if Ning Yan did it on purpose, but when he backed up, he made sure to stand in a way that blocked the line of sight between the ck-robed group and Xu Qing and the Captain.

    After arriving, the ck-robed cultivators scanned the area, then took up a position off to the side.

    Eventually, Generalissimo Bloodhorror flew out to hover above the giant hole. As his baleful, bloody aura spread to fill the area, he nced at the hole and then said, ¡°Void Returning will go in first. Then Spirit Trove.¡±

    The honor guards from the three pces as well as the generals from the imperial capital unhesitatingly stepped forward and entered the hole. The mists within seethed, and howling sounds echoed out briefly. Then everything went quiet, and a glittering white light could be seen inside the hole.

    ¡°Now, all other forces will enter!¡± he barked. Stepping forward, he entered the hole. The other cultivators followed.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were among them, as were Qing Qiu and Kong Xianglong.

    After dropping into the hole, a new world opened up in front of Xu Qing. Everything was so hazy it wasn¡¯t possible to see how far the world stretched out. Structures were visible in the mists, but because they were high in the sky, it wasn¡¯t possible to make out many details. That said, they seemed old. Mutagen levels were high, and faint shrieks and howls could be heard in the distance. There was no natural sky. Rather, the dome of heaven was the work of human hands.

    It looked almost like a huge mirror. However, it wasn¡¯t t. Instead, it was distorted in an odd way. And those distortions were even more pronounced in the spot where they had just entered. There, the canopy of heaven looked almost like a funnel leading into a passage. In fact, it resembled the inside of a bottle.

    As Xu Qing noted all these things, he realized he suddenly felt an intense difort, like a longing to absorb his surroundings. Now wasn¡¯t the time to do something rash, so he suppressed the sensation.

    Keeping his arm locked tight around Ning Yan, the Captain looked around and projected a message to Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, do you think we¡¯re actually inside of a bottle?¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing considered that, he looked to the side as the ck-robed cultivators whisked Zhang Siyun off into the distance. They obviously had a specific destination in mind, as they quickly disappeared into the mists.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged an anxious nce.

    <i>¡°What gives, little Junior Brother. Where¡¯s Master?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing considered the question, then replied, <i>¡°Maybe he¡¯s using a special technique toe here. Or perhaps he¡¯s in such a good disguise that we have no way of identifying him.¡±</i>

    The Captain nodded. <i>¡°That would make sense. The old man has always been a shady character. He probably used some unknown method to sneak in. Based on what I know of him, the moment he heard the word ¡®god¡¯ he probably started drooling like a waterfall. In other words, the two of us should head inside and help ourselves to some initial refreshments.¡±</i>

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked down at the swirling mists.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

    During their conversation, the Captain kept a tight grip on Ning Yan, as if he were worried about him fleeing. When the nearby mist seemed to flow past Ning Yan¡¯s face as if to avoid it, Ning Yan looked at the Captain out of the corner of his eye. Neither Xu Qing nor the Captain noticed that. After finishing their conversation, they dropped down with the rest of the cultivators.

    The Captain kept a firm grip on Ning Yan, leading the way, with Xu Qing following. Before long, they were down within the mists, along with the rest of the cultivators. Almost immediately, the rumble ofbat started echoing out.

    It was possible to see huge mutant beasts in the mists, which were already attacking the Void Returning and Spirit Trove cultivators.

    This far down, they were able to see the surrounding buildings more clearly. It was a veryrge location that resembled a pceplex. Pce halls, temples, and other structures created a huge city. Everything seemed very ancient and gruish.

    The reason for that was that the structures were all covered with wriggling, purplish-ck flesh. In fact, it wasn¡¯t just the buildings that were covered with that horrendous flesh. It was the ground too.

    Then a cold voice echoed out through the mists. ¡°Everyone, purge this area and create a safending zone!¡±

    It was an order from Generalissimo Bloodhorror. Instantly, the hundreds of thousands of cultivators who hade on the mission got to work. There were many tasks at hand. Some piloted war puppets to kill the enemies in the mists. Others started setting up spell formations. Still others focused on purging the mutagen and the flesh from the area. Most operated in small teams.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were among them. Qing Qiu, Kong Xianglong, and the others had been pulled into other teams, and were nowhere to be seen.

    Things went ording to n. Before long, a small area had beenpletely cleared. Then they started expanding that area outward. Whenever a team ran into a situation they couldn¡¯t handle, they would report the matter. It would go up the chain ofmand, and then a powerful expert would arrive to help. Under Generalissimo Bloodhorror¡¯s leadership, everything went smoothly.

    Xu Qing and the Captain finally got a good look at the mutant beasts. They had ckish-violet skin, and weren¡¯t intelligent at all. However, they pulsed with mutagen, and had extraordinary battle prowess. Furthermore, they were huge.

    Sometime after arriving, when they had established a ratherrge area of safety, they stopped to rest. For one thing, the strong mutagen meant that everyone had to take time to purge themselves, lest they risk mutation.

    During the rest period, Xu Qing and the Captain epted a reconnaissance mission so they could leave. They took Ning Yan with them.

    <i>¡°There¡¯s no point in sticking around here,¡±</i> the Captain said. <i>¡°We don¡¯t have to worry about mutagen, so we need to go find some refreshments. Otherwise this whole trip will be a waste. With Ning Yan here, things should go very smoothly.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nced at Ning Yan and felt a bit sorry for him. For this entire time, the Captain hadn¡¯t rxed his grip on Ning Yan one bit. He was obviously worried about their ¡®tool¡¯ escaping. Ning Yan seemed to have simply epted his fate, and mostly maintained silence.

    Seeing how Ning Yan was acting, Xu Qing eventually said, ¡°Eldest Brother, isn¡¯t your arm getting tired? Maybe you should let Ning Yan go for a bit.¡±

    ¡°Tired?¡± the Captain said solemnly. ¡°Are you kidding? I¡¯m just trying to keep Little Ningning safe!¡± He looked at Ning Yan with a very sincere expression. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Little Ningning. Since you¡¯reing along, I¡¯ll make sure you get some nice meat to eat!¡±

    The Captain suddenly reached out and tousled Ning Yan¡¯s hair again. He wasn¡¯t sure why, but after tousling Ning Yan¡¯s hair that first time, he¡¯d fallen in love with the action. It felt strangely good.

    Ning Yan struggled to control his breathing as he stared fixedly at the Captain. ¡°You¡¯re here to get some good loot, right? Beforeing in, I got my hands on some intelligence reports, so I know the exact direction to go. There should be some nice stuff there. Why don¡¯t you let me lead the way?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times, then smiled happily. At the same time, he secretly projected a message to Xu Qing. <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, there¡¯s something suspicious about Ning Yan, isn¡¯t there?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained the same, but he was indeed starting to feel a bit suspicious. The truth was that Ning Yan¡¯s reaction right now seemed very unusual. After all, upon returning from Daybreak Prefecture, he had seen to it that Ning Yan was assigned to his Secretariat Division. He was quite familiar with Ning Yan¡¯s manner of speaking. And there was indeed something very unusual about the way Ning Yan was talking. It didn¡¯t seem like Ning Yan.

    He was just about to project a message back to the Captain when he heard a very cold snort in his mind.

    It was a cold snort that contained a warning. Hearing it, Xu Qing shivered, then somberly projected a different message to the Captain.

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, I spent some time with Ning Yan when I brought him back from Daybreak Prefecture. I know him pretty well. He was sort of traumatized by what happened in Daybreak Prefecture, and thus, his personality changed a bit. Right now... he¡¯s actingpletely normal!¡±</i>

    After saying that, Xu Qing heard a very familiar, and very pleased, sound of approval in his mind.

 Chapter 518: Crazed Taboo Poison

    <h4>Chapter 518: Crazed Taboo Poison</h4>

    Xu Qing bowed his head and sighed inwardly. Never could he have imagined that their Master had actually been with them the entire time. And that cold warning snort from moments ago had made it clear that their Master wanted to teach a lesson to Eldest Brother. Xu Qing looked sympathetically at the Captain, and was tempted to somehow warn him. However, that cold snort from his Master brooked no such interference.

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s exnation, the Captain looked suspiciously at Ning Yan.

    ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ looked back with a cordial smile. ¡°Captain, I did my research beforeing here. Besides, as you know, I have a unique bloodline, and as such, I¡¯m able to sense that there¡¯s something really amazing not too far away.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and then looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing cleared his throat and was about to secretly signal the Captain that something was going on, only to notice ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ smiling enigmatically in his direction.

    Looking very serious, Xu Qing said, ¡°Eldest Brother, we should get moving. I trust Ning Yan!¡±

    The Captain was starting to get even more suspicious. Tousling Ning Yan¡¯s hair again, he said, ¡°Little Ningning, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother!¡± Xu Qing interrupted, his heart pounding as he watched his Eldest Brother continue to court death. ¡°Eldest Brother, you should really give poor, poor Ning Yan a break. There¡¯s no need to keep your hands on him all the time. Let him go for a bit. I know you¡¯re treating him like this because of the mean things Ning Yan said about our Master a while back. You feel the need to punish him, right?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± the Captain said. However, his surprise onlysted a moment. Being as shrewd as he was, his eyes quickly went wide, and his hand, which had been in the middle of tousling ¡®Ning Yan¡¯s¡¯ hair, suddenly stopped moving. He was now starting to suspect something was going on with Xu Qing also. Looking cautiously at ¡®Ning Yan,¡¯ he pulled his hand back. Then his gaze shifted to ¡®Ning Yan¡¯s¡¯ belly. Not able to take the suspense, he decided to make a final check. Without any further warning, he smacked ¡®Ning Yan¡¯s¡¯ belly.

    <i>WHACK!</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes.

    ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ did absolutely nothing to stop the Captain from striking him. No vine appeared.

    The Captain gasped, and despite how cold it was, beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

    As ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ stared, the Captain shivered and backed up a few steps until he was standing next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, why have you always made me hit Ning Yan¡¯s belly on missions like this?¡± the Captain said loudly. ¡°It¡¯s so impolite! Is that how Master taught us to act? Have you forgotten what I told you before? Master treats us so well! Like a father! In fact, we¡¯ll never be able to repay him for that, not in our entire lives! Therefore, we have to solemnly abide by everything our Master tells us. Remember that. Whenever we make some bad decisions, just think back to what Master taught us. That¡¯s the best way to pick the right path in life!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, gave a sarcastic chuckle, and then looked away. He had already acted with <i>extreme humanity and utmost virtue</i>. If his Eldest Brother wanted to court death, then Xu Qing would let him.

    ¡°Want to smack me again?¡± ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ asked coolly.

    The Captain cleared his throat and shook his head. He looked quizzically at Ning Yan. Then he started worrying about Ning Yan noticing him staring at his belly. Shivering, he shifted his gaze to Ning Yan¡¯s face. But then he worried that doing so wasn¡¯t the best move, considering he had just been tousling Ning Yan¡¯s hair.

    When ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ noticed the Captain¡¯s shifting gaze, he calmly said, ¡°Want to do a bit more hair tousling?¡±

    The Captain shook his head as vigorously as a rattle drum. He was already howling inwardly with anguish, especially when he thought back to that wonderful sensation from earlier. Shivering violently, he turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡± he berated. ¡°I have to offer you some constructive criticism. Last time when Ning Yan said those very mean things about our Master, I was nning to beat him ck and blue, but you stopped me! Ah, whatever. This time, Ning Yan, I won¡¯t go very hard on you. But I have to warn you. If you ever say bad things about our Master again, I won¡¯t show you a scrap of mercy!

    ¡°I, Chen Erniu, am the type of person who, if someone disrespects my Master, I will track them down no matter how far away they are to deliver severe punishment!

    ¡°Therefore, little Junior Brother, in the future, you¡¯d better not interfere like you did in the past. Otherwise you and I are going to have a <i>very</i> big problem. I, Chen Erniu, will put my life on the line for the sake of our Master!¡±

    ¡®Ning Yan¡¯s¡¯ expression softened a bit.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing expressionlessly pointed off into the mists. ¡°Eldest Brother, see that mist over there? Isn¡¯t that the cloud troll you ran into a while back?¡±

    The Captain looked in that direction and blurted, ¡°Cloud troll? I didn¡¯t realize this ce was so dangerous!¡±

    He then lunged in front of ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ protectively, making it seem like, if even the slightest bit of danger cropped up, he would throw caution to the wind to provide a defense.

    However, the Captain''s words actually provoked a cold snort from ¡®Ning Yan,¡¯ who then red at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back at ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ with a fawning expression.

    ¡°You two,e with me,¡± ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ said, and then he shot into the mists.

    Xu Qing followed, ignoring the Captain.

    The Captain gritted his teeth and went after them. When he caught up to Xu Qing, he looked over innocently, produced a green stone, and tossed it over.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression eased a bit.

    And thus, the three of them traveled through the pces covered with flesh. ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ led the way. They encountered asional grues and mutant beasts, but they were easy to deal with. They were all roughly in the Gold Core level, so it was only a question of who could kill them first, Xu Qing or the Captain. asionally mutant beasts would appear with battle prowess so terrifying the two of them couldn¡¯t handle them. But such beasts would almost instantly start to wither as if aging, and within moments would crumble into ashes.

    When Xu Qing and the Captain saw that, they were deeply shocked.

    There was one mutant beast they encountered which was 300 meters long and pulsed with the aura of the great circle of first-stage Void Returning. Even that one quickly copsed into dust. Xu Qing was stunned.

    The Captain blinked madly. Then the two of them exchanged a look.

    Although both of them now realized that they were with their Master in disguise, neither of them were aware of his true battle prowess. The fact that he could so casually destroy a first-stage Void Returning enemy went to indicate that his cultivation base was at least in second-stage Void Returning.

    <i>¡°He¡¯s probably beyond that level!¡±</i> the Captain projected.

    Fully convinced of that, Xu Qing nodded. Up ahead, ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ looked over his shoulder and smiled at them proudly. The Captain grinned back tteringly, while Xu Qing blinked a few times and tried to look as charming as possible.

    The further they traveled, the stronger the mutagen got. Xu Qing was already shivering from the effort of keeping himself under control. A sensation of longing now filled every fiber of his being. He knew full well it was because his body had been remolded by the god¡¯s finger.

    Before, he had been in front of too many eyes to try to absorb anything from his surroundings. But now he was in a much safer position. After one more brief moment of hesitation, he rxed his control slightly and started absorbing some of the surrounding mutagen. As it flowed into him, a tremor passed through him, and then an unbelievably pleasant sensation filled him. His pores opened, and mutagen flowed into him, nourishing him and strengthening him!

    The tiny golden threads within him began to flow, bing more active. As they did, they began to take the form of something like a thread of golden spirit energy. It seemed like spirit energy, yet wasn¡¯t. Xu Qing scanned it with divine sense, and could sense something like the aura of a god.

    ¡°This...¡± he murmured, feeling deeply shaken.

    There was only one single such golden thread. But the moment it came into existence, his poison core, violet moon, and Ghost Emperor mountain all trembled and unleashed forces of absorption. That was especially true of the taboo poison core, which seemed like parchednds longing for sweet dew, or a starving person who had encountered delicious food. It immediately pulsed with a terrifying aura. That aura caused the violet moon and the Ghost Emperor mountain to tremble.

    The taboo poison core absorbed thergest portion. It got about fifty percent, while the violet moon got thirty, and the Ghost Emperor got about ten. After the taboo poison core finished the absorption process, it seemed more than ever like it might awaken. The violet moon glittered with more intense violet light, as if it had finally received some powerful nourishment. The Ghost Emperor mountain reacted simrly, as its eyes glowed.

    Xu Qing was shocked. At the same time, the sensation of longing within him grew stronger. Gritting his teeth, he loosened his control a bit more, and a vortex sprang up around him as mutagen rushed in his direction. At the same time, all the howling and shrieking in the area suddenly ceased.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart leaped in his chest, and he quickly tightened up his control.

    At the same time, the Captain turned to look at him, visibly surprised. ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ stopped in ce and looked at Xu Qing in delight.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and prepared to offer an exnation. Before he could, the ground shook, and the surrounding mists seethed as a host of mutant beasts charged in their direction. They contained tremors of greed and were filled with madness. It was as if they had sensed something indescribably delicious, and were determined to devour it.

    A sensation of intense crisis erupted in Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ shot toward Xu Qing and the Captain, grabbed them, and then leaped up into the air. All of them disappeared.

    A momentter, the spot they had just upied became filled with snarling mutant beasts. The beasts began searching the area, but it didn¡¯t do them any good. Before long, they calmed down and dispersed.

    Meanwhile, about 50 kilometers away, ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ appeared with Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The Captain immediately turned to Xu Qing. ¡°Little Junior Brother, y-y-you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ said, ring.

    The Captain shrank in on himself.

    ¡®Ning Yan¡¯ then snorted coldly and turned to look at Xu Qing. Looking very pleased, and even admiring, he softly said, ¡°Fourth Sib, was it that body of yours which caused that scene just now?¡±

    Xu Qing had been scared witless by the sensation of all those mutant beasts wanting to devour him. And he saw no reason to try to fool his Master.

    ¡°Yes, Master. As I mentioned to you before, this body was remolded by that god¡¯s finger.¡± Back when Master Seventh had first arrived, Xu Qing exined everything in detail. After all, it was all rted to how he knew about the red moon wanting to devour the god in Forbidden by the Immortal. ¡°Master, I can keep it under control. I won¡¯t attract the attention of any more mutant beasts.¡±

    Xu Qing still felt lingering fear based on what had just happened.

    ¡°Well done, Fourth Sib. But those mutant beasts weren¡¯t there to devour you. They were driven by instinct to allow <i>you</i> to devour <i>them</i>. The reason is that they¡¯re manifestations of the very same aura that your body is formed from. That said, now is definitely not an appropriate time. Because... the source of that finger is a sleeping god. Not a dead one.

    ¡°When h¨¥¡¯s dead, then you can eat to your heart¡¯s content. Otherwise, you¡¯ll be creating potential cmities because of that god¡¯s will. By the way, have you produced any god vitality yet?¡± Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. ¡°It¡¯s something golden that looks like spirit energy.¡± He waved his right hand, and a golden power appeared in his palm. ¡°Like this.¡±

    Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing with keen anticipation.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, tapped into his heavenly pces, and produced a golden power that looked very much like that held by Master Seventh, except smaller.

    Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing. Xu Qing looked at Master Seventh. A momentter, Master Seventh let loose a stream of unsurpassably contentedughter.

    ¡°Amazing. Amazing! Just what I would expect of an apprentice of mine. Later on, the two of us can rebuke heaven and earth together, as Master and apprentice! Hahahahaha!¡±

    Off to the side, the Captain waved his hand a bit, hoping to do the same thing, but nothing happened. He cleared his throat. ¡°Master, what about me? Remember, sir, I¡¯m your highest-ranking apprentice....¡±

 Chapter 519: Human Immortal Skills

    <h4>Chapter 519: Human Immortal Skills</h4>

    ¡°You? If you don¡¯t work harder, then you¡¯ll be Fourth Sib and Xu Qing will be Eldest Brother!¡± Master Seventh snorted coldly. The sound of it resounded like millions upon millions of bolts of heavenly lightning, crashing into the Captain¡¯s mind and causing his eyes to go wide. The mere thought of something like that happening....

    The Captain shivered, and his countenance became very serious. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master. I¡¯ll definitely work very hard. Henceforth, I, Chen Erniu, will forget all about girls. I will focus solely on cultivation, and on working hard to aplish big things!¡±

    Pleased, Master Seventh nodded. Then he turned to look at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, then stered a look of surprise on his face as he looked at the golden power in his Master¡¯s hand. Although his reaction came a bit too slowly, it was always better to bete than never.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s attitude caused Master Seventh to look even more pleased.

    ¡°This is god vitality, Fourth Sib. I managed to extract it after studying Master Shengyun¡¯s body, and also after gaining enlightenment from numerous gruish nts from both Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix. Needless to say, the techniques Torchlight have gained mastery of are shocking.

    ¡°So-called gods are really nothing more than beings who exist on the same cultivation paradigm as us. Th¨¥y¡¯re just on a vastly higher level, and are much stronger. What¡¯s more, th¨¥y¡¯re not invincible. In fact, I have a very daring spection that I will confirmter when I track down certain long-lost ancient records.

    ¡°What a pity that most ancient records have disappeared over the countless years that have passed. In some cases, our only hope of getting such information is finding it in the random and varied wish boxes that have been scattered through heaven and earth. In any case, once I find evidence confirming my theory, I¡¯ll let the two of you know.¡±

    In that moment, Master Seventh looked truly mysterious and enigmatic.

    Xu Qing, moved with admiration for his Master, quickly bowed.

    The Captain rushed to do the same.

    Seeing his apprentices act so obediently filled Master Seventh¡¯s heart with iparable contentment.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he said. ¡°We need to keep moving. I¡¯m nning to take you to a very amazing ce. You see, I had a chance to explore another of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s operations pces one time, and I happen to know that they all have this very unique ce in them.¡±

    Master Seventh led the way.

    After about an hour of constant travel, they were deep within the pceplex. The pceplex was so huge that they were still within its east district. In fact, they were still in the central part of the east district. Thankfully, the ce Master Seventh was leading them to was just ahead.

    It was a very special pce. Although it was covered with flesh, the shape of that flesh was unique. It looked like a huge face. The face seemed neither male nor female. It had no hair, and it was magenta in color, as if it were filled with blood vessels. It pulsed with a very strong mutagen that had the power to influence emotions. Any living being who saw this face would be unable to control the emotions that rose within them. They would influence the mind and drive a person mad.

    Even the Captain, who had such an extraordinary body, felt the influence. He started breathing heavily as mouths appeared all over his body, shifting position constantly in a very gruish disy.

    Xu Qing had it a bit better off. The god¡¯s finger inside of him was part of the clone of the god that dwelt in this ce. And since that finger had remolded Xu Qing¡¯s body, not only could he absorb the local mutagen and turn it into god vitality, but also, he had the ability to disregard some of the powers present in this ce.

    ¡°This is the ce,¡± Master Seventh said, stopping outside the hall with the face of flesh. ¡°This is the location of great good fortune. In a moment, you¡¯ll understand why.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s entire person suddenly red with golden light, making him seem extremely holy. However, not a scrap of aura emerged from him. It remainedpletely hidden. In fact, just looking at him with the naked eye, it seemed impossible tomit his features to memory. That caused waves of shock to rise in the hearts of the Captain and Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had seen a few gods, and knew full well that gods had such a power. Being able to make people forget about you was one of the best ways to stay hidden.

    This was actually more shocking to Xu Qing than when his Master had casually destroyed a first-stage Void Returning beast. ¡°Master, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°The god vitality I extracted in my research has the power of ancient time in it,¡± Master Seventh said calmly as he walked forward. ¡°As well as concealment functions.¡±

    As he neared the pce hall, the face undted as if it were alive. Its expression of pain became more pronounced, and the flesh almost looked like it was aging. In the blink of an eye, wrinkles appeared on it and began spreading out. This face seemed to be acting differently than the mutant beasts and grues Xu Qing had encountered so far. It seemed to be struggling to resist.

    But as Master Seventh advanced, it grew weaker and weaker, until it began to copse, starting at the edges.

    Xu Qing waspletely astonished, and the Captain even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn¡¯t seeing things.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing,¡± the Captain whispered, ¡°how can our Master be so strong? In fact, given this, why are we working so hard? Why not just stay in Seven Blood Eyes and have everything handed to us? Little Junior Brother, as of this moment, I have such a sense of safety....¡±

    Before Xu Qing could say anything in response, Master Seventh snorted coldly.

    ¡°Sense of safety my ass! If this ce was safe, I wouldn¡¯t have been forced to sneak in here. This Seventh Prince is no simple person. And all of his subordinates are exceptional. I even suspect Generalissimo Bloodhorror might have even realized who I really am! By the way, I sense the auras of other interlopers here. We¡¯re not the only group who came to this ce.

    ¡°We need to get this job done quickly, then I¡¯ll find a ce for us to lie low until the fuss dies down. You two are mere Gold Core cultivators, yet you¡¯re plotting against a god. That¡¯s pushing things almost too far. Once we¡¯re finished, you two need to think of a way to get out of the county capital for a while. Then you can go back to Seven Blood Eyes and wait for me.¡±

    Xu Qing looked very serious. Meanwhile, the Captain obviously wanted to take advantage of the moment to curry some favor, so he said, ¡°You¡¯re so mighty, Master! It¡¯s only because we have you, oh venerable Master, that we dared to hatch a plot like this!¡±

    ¡°All you know how to do is brown nose!¡± Master Seventh said coolly.

    The Captain didn¡¯t take that as a rebuke, and in fact, looked very pleased with himself.

    As Master Seventh walked onward, the face struggled with even more intensity. A momentter, Master Seventh was right in front of it. A wave of frigid energy swept across the face, which howled begrudgingly. Then, as the three of them looked on, it copsed into ashes, revealing that it had been covering a bright red temple. The temple exuded an ancient aura, and its main gates were tightly closed. No noise came from within. There was something gloomy and sinister about the ce, but at the same time, it almost seemed alive. The red color didn¡¯t look like fresh blood, but rather, like high-quality wine.

    It was somewhat contradictory. However, it somehow created a sense of hunger in Xu Qing, and he even felt his stomach rumbling. The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he started salivating.

    ¡°Back up, both of you,¡± Master Seventh said.

    Xu Qing flew backward. Then, seeing that the Captain was hesitating a bit, Xu Qing grabbed him and dragged him 300 meters back. Master Seventh approached the main door of the red temple, his expression very serious. Extending his right hand, he pushed on the door.

    Rumbling echoed out as the door opened. Red light erupted from within, transforming into a huge illusory face that lunged toward Master Seventh to devour him.

    Master Seventh snorted coldly, and golden light surged out from him. Pushing forward with his right hand, he hit the illusory face, which shattered into countless blood-colored butterflies. Wherever the butterflies flew, they caused corrosion to spread. The aura that reached Xu Qing and the Captain filled them with shock.

    ¡°Okay,e on over,¡± Master Seventh said coolly as he stepped into the temple.

    Xu Qing and the Captain hurried over and entered. It was magnificent. There was an amazing statue inside. It didn¡¯t depict Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, but rather, some unfamiliar person, apparently someone whose name hadn¡¯t been recorded in the annals of human history. He wore a blood-colored daoist robe, and stood with both hands raised high as if to embrace the entire temple.

    Filling the rest of the temple were hundreds and hundreds of masks. There wererge masks and small masks, and they depicted a wide variety of people. Old and young, men and women were all represented. And their expressions included happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy. They were affixed to the walls everywhere, and if you looked closely, you would find that they were all made from human skin.

    The fact that so much skin had been used to make the masks filled the area with a very gruish atmosphere. When Master Seventh, Xu Qing, and the Captain entered, the faces all looked at them, their vacant eyes glowing with faint light.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered, and the Captain inhaled sharply.

    ¡°This ce is called the Immortal Skills Hall,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Every one of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s pces had a ce like this. Stored here arerge numbers of very unusual immortal skills. Immortal skills are not as wonderful as you might imagine them to be. In fact, they¡¯re not beautiful at all. Instead, they¡¯re terrifying.

    ¡°Each of these skin masks is an immortal skill. You don¡¯t need to gain enlightenment or cultivate them. You just put on the mask to use it.

    ¡°Magic like this naturallyes with a price. Whenever you use an immortal skill, it absorbs some of your life force. And every time you put one of the masks on, it sticks on tighter than before, until eventually you can¡¯t take it off. And after it¡¯s sucked out all of your blood and life force... it turns you into a new skin mask.¡±

    Master Seventh spoke calmly, but his words filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart with waves of shock.

    Apparently, the Captain already knew a bit about immortal skills, as he wasn¡¯t very surprised. However, aplex look appeared briefly on his face before he suppressed it.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to feel nervous,¡± Master Seventh continued. ¡°Generally speaking, immortal skills are all very impressive. They contain mysterious daos, so as long as you use them carefully, they can be beneficial. Any given person can only take one immortal skill. Try to take more, and you¡¯ll be cursed. What¡¯s more, after you take one, you can¡¯t go to other Immortal Skill Halls to get more.¡± Master Seventh looked at the statue in the hall, and he seemed to sigh inwardly. ¡°This statue is one of the human emperors who has been forgotten in the histories, who created many immortal skills in his life.

    ¡°Based on some of the clues I dug up in various ancient records, it seems that this person was stricken from the histories by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity in an attempt to make humankind, and immortal skills, seem more ptable.

    ¡°The immortal skills were gathered and stored in his thirty-six operations pces, where they were branded as forbidden magics. That said, the ancient records indicate that, even then, the immortal skills created by this emperor were considered a boon to humankind, and they saved countless human nations from destruction. Any species that rises to prominence will have bright aspects and dark aspects. It¡¯s only natural.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh turned to look meaningfully at his two apprentices, especially Xu Qing.

 Chapter 520: The Truth About the Opening of Forbidden by the Immortal (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 520: The Truth About the Opening of Forbidden by the Immortal (part 1)</h4>

    Looking at the statue, Master Seventh said, ¡°Big Sib. Fourth Sib. Hurry up and offer respects.¡±

    Xu Qing was just about to sp hands and bow when the Captain suddenly said, ¡°I don¡¯t need to offer respects.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and stopped to look over at the Captain. Master Seventh did the same, his eyebrows raised.

    ¡°What bull crap are you up to now?¡±

    Eyes gleaming fanatically, the Captain looked at Master Seventh. ¡°Master, you are the only existence in my world. You are the most paragonic being, surpassing anything and everything else. When I encountered that Grand Emperor before, I had no choice but to bow. But when I encounter you, Master, I also bow. And I¡¯ve bowed to you so many times that, in my most deepest of hearts, you have long since surpassed any Grand Emperor. Therefore, any sincerity I show to other Grand Emperors nowadays is a sham. That¡¯s why I say that I don¡¯t need to pay respects. Only you exist in my heart, Master. Bowing to other people is literally pointless!¡±

    The words flowed out of the Captain¡¯s mouth very naturally, and didn¡¯t betray any hint of insincerity. Apparently, these words came straight from his heart. And as he spoke to them, his face was lit with reverence. It seemed that, to him, his Master was the same as a Grand Emperor, or even a god.

    The veneration on his face even seemed to contain a very healthy and appropriate dosage of admiration, the type a child would feel for a parent. In fact, his facial expression had reached the pinnacle of perfection.

    Hearing the Captain¡¯s words caused Master Seventh to snort coldly. And his eyes seemed as cold as ever. However, someone who examined him closely would notice that his eyebrows had twitched slightly, and he seemed to be very pleased. What was more, his gaze had softened slightly as he looked at the Captain. Apparently, he knew that this apprentice of his had some faults. But when all was said and done, he had a good attitude. He knew how to respect his Master, which was one of the most important qualities and merits. It was a case of <i>blemishes not obscuring the jade¡¯s luster</i>.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Master Seventh coolly said, ¡°You¡¯ve grown up, haven¡¯t you? You have a smooth tongue and like to jabber, but overall you behave well. Fine. I understand what you mean. If you don¡¯t want to offer respects, then just forget about it.¡±

    With that, Master Seventh turned to start looking for a specific skin mask.

    Trembling with excitement, the Captain bowed deeply to Master Seventh, then shed a pleased grin in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Seeing this scene y out, Xu Qing felt his admiration for the Captain growing even deeper. He also realized that before he joined as an apprentice, the Captain must have been their Master¡¯s favorite. After all, who <i>wouldn¡¯t</i> approve of someone who could deliver such endless ttery at any time and ce?

    Considering that, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed to the statue of the Grand Emperor, and then turned and bowed three times to Master Seventh. The solitary bow was one of respect toward an outsider. The three bows were a disy of deep familial love.

    Upon seeing that, the Captain chuckled.

    The corner of Master Seventh¡¯s mouth lifted slightly. Then he made a grasping gesture, and one of the skin masks flew off the wall and into his hand. It resembled a young man with a vicious facial expression. The mask emanated a deep longing to devour flesh, and seemed like it wanted to start eating Master Seventh¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Big Sib, this one is perfect for you.¡±

    Master Seventh tossed the mask into the air, and it flew toward the Captain.

    The Captain grabbed it.

    The mask immediately flipped around and wrapped up the Captain¡¯s right hand. A momentter chewing sounds could be heard, as if the mask were trying to eat the Captain¡¯s hand. The Captain flicked his hand, but the mask wouldn¡¯te off. At this point, most people would look horrified as they realized the mask was trying to eat them. But the Captain didn¡¯t seem worried at all. In fact, he looked curious, and just let the mask do what it wanted.

    ¡°What a surprise. <i>It</i> wants to bite <i>me</i>?¡± The Captain seemed very amused, so much so that he lifted his hand to bring the mask closer to his face.

    Noticing that, the mask unwrapped itself, revealing a hand covered in bite marks and blood. Pulsing with vicious greed, the mask lunged toward the Captain¡¯s face. In the blink of an eye, it wrapped around the Captain¡¯s face, bing a true mask that covered his facial features. The Captain¡¯s aura immediately skyrocketed, and his features changed to resemble a stranger. And he pulsed with something sinister and cold that made him seem like a different person. A tremor passed through him and he closed his eyes.

    Seeing all this, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with curiosity, and he cast his senses out to try to learn more about what was happening. He quickly discovered that, based on how deeply he knew the Captain, after putting that mask on, he didn¡¯t seem familiar at all. In fact, if Xu Qing hadn¡¯t witnessed the transformation himself, he would have no way of identifying him. With the mask on, the Captain¡¯s aura had changed, but even more significant, his soul fluctuations were totally different.

    ¡°These skin masks with their immortal skills are inherently useful as disguises,¡± Master Seventh said to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded. At this point, the Captain¡¯s eyes opened, and he looked coldly at Xu Qing. Then he shifted his gaze to Master Seventh.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change, but Master Seventh snorted coldly.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you done ying around? Or should I give you a good thrashing?¡±

    The Captain chuckled, and as he did, his aura transformed again. Although it still seemed different, there were some familiar elements to it.

    ¡°Master. Little Junior Brother. This mask is really interesting. I can tell that it wants to fully fuse with my face. And it contains deep malice. I can also hear the sound of many men and women all speaking together, uttering two words that echo in my mind.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the name of the immortal skill,¡± Master Seventh exined. ¡°Speak the words, and you¡¯ll be able to use the immortal skill. That said, the results will differ based on the level of cultivation base of whoever uses it.¡±

    After a moment of thought, the Captain spoke the words.

    ¡°Heavenly Dog!¡±

    The Captain shivered as the mask exuded a red mist that pulsed with incredible grandeur. The mist swirled out around him until he disappeared, then converged into the shape of a huge crimson dog. It salivated greedily, its eyes bright red, and its coarse breathing something that would strike fear into the heart of anyone who heard it. It looked like it was starving and was looking for someone to devour. [1]

    Xu Qing instinctively took a few steps back. The heavenly dog threw its head back and howled, causing the surrounding temple to shake. Then the dog faded from view, and the Captain became visible again. He reached up to take the mask off. There seemed to be no special process involved in taking it off, though there were thin red tendrils that stretched out between the mask and the Captain¡¯s face as he pulled it away. It took some effort, but he managed to pull it off.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem worried at all about the mask, and in fact, looked excited and happy.

    ¡°Master, this immortal skill is amazing! It even has a dimensional space inside. If there¡¯s something it can¡¯t digest, it¡¯ll store it inside. This is perfect for me!¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing nodded, fully convinced of how amazing the mask was.

    Master Seventhughed. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s indeed perfect for you.¡±

    Master Seventh reached in a different direction and made another grasping gesture, causing another mask to fly toward him.

    This one looked like an old man with a wrinkled face and a bitter expression. It was obviouslypletely different from the heavenly dog mask, as it didn¡¯t show any signs of struggle or malice when itnded in Master Seventh¡¯s hand. It just sat there quietly and let loose a soft sigh. Sensing that, Master Seventh shook his head slightly.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, your Elder Brother¡¯s heavenly dog mask is the best one in this ce. Sadly, this mask here isn¡¯t suitable for you. Well, I¡¯ll have to pick another one for you. What a pity none of the others are as good as these two.¡±

    Xu Qing looked more closely at the mask. ¡°Master, what kind of immortal skill is it?¡±

    ¡°Mercy.¡± Master Seventh sighed as he looked around at the other masks. He really didn¡¯t like the idea of Big Sib getting such a nice mask while Fourth Sib got something inferior.

    Meanwhile, the Captain offered the heavenly dog mask to Xu Qing. ¡°Take it, little Junior Brother. It¡¯s a nice immortal skill, but honestly, it¡¯s not going to help me much.¡±

    Xu Qing knew that the Captain was just trying to be nice, and it brought some warmth to his heart. After politely refusing, he looked at Master Seventh.

    ¡°Master, what does the immortal skill of mercy do?¡±

    ¡°It allows you to share half of the injury and pain of whoever you look at.¡± As Master Seventh provided the exnation, he continued to study the masks in the hopes of finding one better-suited to Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, the Captain chuckled. ¡°Master, what are you wasting time for? Mercy is perfect for me! I¡¯m very merciful.¡±

    Master Seventh ignored the Captain¡¯s gibberish. He knew that his senior apprentice specialized in fleshly body recovery. And he also knew that although his apprentices were always messing with each other, they actually had a very good rtionship.

    Just as he was about to say something, Xu Qing spoke. ¡°Master, that skill is actually very suitable for me.¡±

    ¡°Since when are you merciful, little Ah Qing?¡± the Captain asked, sounding surprised.

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes also glittered with curiosity.

    ¡°I have a friend who¡¯s very merciful,¡± Xu Qing exined earnestly. ¡°That mask looks ideal for that friend.¡±

    His D-132 heavenly pce vibrated, and the extremely bored and despondent head vanished from inside, then plopped onto the ground in front of Xu Qing. The head rolled over a few times, then looked around nkly.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    Before the head could gain its bearings, Xu Qing stomped it, causing it to explode.

    Both the Captain and Master Seventh were stunned.

    ¡°That¡¯s your friend?¡± the Captain asked, looking at the bloody sludge on the ground.

    Xu Qing nodded. Meanwhile, the sludge slid back into the shape of the head. Scowling on the verge of tears, the head looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What did I do wrong, exalted one?¡± the head wailed. ¡°I didn¡¯t even curse you today!¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing waved his hand, sending the head back into the heavenly pce. Then he looked at the Captain and Master Seventh, both of whom had very strange expressions on their faces.

    ¡°That¡¯s my friend,¡± Xu Qing said solemnly, ¡°who is very merciful.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and Master Seventh cleared his throat. Then Master Seventh handed the mask of mercy to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Since Fourth Sib¡¯s friend is so merciful, this mask should be a perfect fit!¡±

    Xu Qing epted the mask, thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Master, I have some other friends who are also very merciful. Since an individual can only get one mask, is there any chance there are other immortal skills of mercy in this ce that <i>they</i> could use?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s suggestion caused the Captain¡¯s eyes to glitter. Master Seventh mulled the matter over, then looked around at the masks. Finally, he shook his head.

    ¡°Based on all of the things I¡¯ve experienced through the years, I¡¯ve learned that it¡¯s worse to push things too far than to not push them far enough. That¡¯s especially true of immortal skills. Each one contains significant karma, and their strange creation method contains mysterious cursing magics. You really shouldn¡¯t casually take too many of them.

    ¡°If all of those friends of yours take a mask, then in the final analysis, they¡¯ll be bringing all of that karma onto you.

    ¡°That¡¯s even more the case if they¡¯re not human. There¡¯s really no way to know what would happen if all that karma came to rest on you, or what hidden curses might be within the immortal skills.

    ¡°My suggestion is that you wait for the next time you find a ce like this. Then get someone you don¡¯t like to try something out like you¡¯re suggesting. If they survive, and don¡¯t suffer any repercussions, then you¡¯ll know it¡¯s safe, and you can just steal the immortal skills from them.

    ¡°Or if you don¡¯t feel like stealing them, then at least you know it¡¯s generally safe. Remember, immortal skills can¡¯t run away, and this isn¡¯t the only operations pce out there.¡±

    Xu Qing had learned quite a while ago that Master Seventh always liked to do things the safe way. Therefore, hepletely agreed with the advice, and realized he could learn a thing or two from his Master in that regard.

    On the other hand, the Captain didn¡¯t agree at all, but didn¡¯t dare to say anything out loud. <i>Master is getting a lot more cowardly as he gets older.</i>

    After taking the immortal skills, they didn¡¯t waste any time. Master Seventh led Xu Qing and the Captain out of the hall. Once they were outside, the mutagen caused the flesh to start growing back over the entrance. In the blink of an eye, that distorted face was back, and it opened its mouth and started howling. Master Seventh looked at the face, then nced up at the ck, mirror-like sky above them.

    ¡°It won¡¯t be long before the red moon awakens. I have the feeling the two of you won¡¯t obediently go back to the camp, will you? Ah, whatever. There¡¯s plenty more good fortune to be had in Forbidden by the Immortal. Be careful and don¡¯t do anything too rash.

    ¡°In a moment, I¡¯ll go ahead by myself to make some preparations. After you exined the situation to me, I did some of my own research, and have a good idea of what¡¯sing.¡±

    1. The heavenly dog is an actual creature from Chinese mythology. It¡¯s mentioned in the <i>ssic of Mountains and Seas</i>. It¡¯s sometimes said to be white, other times red. There are somemon idioms associated with it, such as ¡°heavenly dog eating the moon¡± or ¡°the heavenly dog can¡¯t eat the sun.¡± ?

 Chapter 520: The Truth About the Opening of Forbidden by the Immortal (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 520: The Truth About the Opening of Forbidden by the Immortal (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing and the Captain were paying very close attention to Master Seventh¡¯s every word.

    That was especially true of Xu Qing. He really wanted to know the truth behind the opening of Forbidden by the Immortal. He didn¡¯t understand why it was being opened now, and why the sleeping god was being given to the red moon to eat. What did it all mean? The red moon was the god of the Nightshades, who were currently at war with humankind. As far as Xu Qing could guess, the only reason to give a sacrifice to the red moon right now would be to curry favor.

    But what was the ultimate reason? Given his limitations, he felt like he wasn¡¯t able to get to the bottom of the matter, as if his vision were obscured by fog.

    ¡°What do you think is going on, Master?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Master Seventh stared off toward the central part of the templeplex. ¡°I don¡¯t think Seventh Prince is doing this on his own. True, he¡¯s an imperial prince with countless powerful experts working for him and an entire army under hismand. He seems impressive, but the reality is that the emperor still sits on the throne, and is hale and healthy. ording to the rumors, he¡¯s extremely decisive and has great ambitions. Granted, those are just rumors, but rumors don¡¯t spring up out of nowhere. Regardless, the point is that we¡¯re not in a time period in which imperial heirs could even think about trying to usurp the throne.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s gaze grew more intense. ¡°That said, this Seventh Prince is obviously ruthless and decisive. However he did it, he managed to break through the blockade set up by the Nightshades and the crony species helping them. That alone eased some of the tension weighing down on the imperial capital.

    ¡°In other words, his actions have benefited both the emperor and humankind in general. Forget what sacrifices were made or whatever other clues are at y. The important thing to consider is the big picture.

    ¡°The bottom line is that what¡¯s going on right now in Forbidden by the Immortal is a matter rted to gods. And that¡¯s not something Seventh Prince has the authority to deal with on his own. Long story short, the opening of Forbidden by the Immortal had to be ordered by the emperor. Seventh Prince is simply carrying out the orders! With that knowledge, the fog begins to lift a bit.¡±

    Both the Captain and Xu Qing were now starting to understand things a bit better.

    ¡°If you look at things from the perspective of the emperor,¡± Master Seventh continued, ¡°you¡¯ll realize that he¡¯s obviously trying to aplish something that rtes to the war. Maybe it¡¯s to just end the war, or maybe it¡¯s to win it. It doesn¡¯t matter. What could you do that would either end the war or win it?¡± Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered with profound light. ¡°It would be to use the most dangerous and majestic weapon of war humankind could ever have. A domain treasure!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s voice rang with decisiveness that could <i>sever nails and chop iron</i>.

    ¡°Of course, things aren¡¯t as simply stated as that. The Nightshades have the red moon god on their side. All their high priests have to do is make the right sacrifices and employ the right god magics, and they can summon a projection of that red moon. Therefore, thinking of a way to get a domain treasure is only one element. The second is thinking of a way to prevent that red moon from being summoned.

    ¡°And how could that be aplished? Well, humans can¡¯t control the red moon. Nor could we trust the fate of our species to some sort of business transaction with the red moon. Therefore, since a deal is out of the question, how could we prevent h¨¥r froming, or at least, ensure sh¨¥es toote to matter?¡±

    Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Create a situation the Nightshades couldn¡¯t predict,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°For instance, put the red moon to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Whenever I¡¯m stuffed,¡± the Captain said, ¡°I instinctively want to slumber....¡±

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain inhaled sharply as the implications hit them.

    Master Seventh chuckled in a way that made him seem especially wise. ¡°This is only one line of reasoning that leads us to this conclusion. We can also analyze things from a different angle.

    ¡°For example, consider why the emperor would open Forbidden by the Immortal just as the situation with the war seemed to be easing up? Why would he intentionally rouse the red moon in Zhang Siyun? Before, that didn¡¯t seem to make much sense. But everything became clear thanks to that god¡¯s finger outright stating that ¨©ts true form was going to be devoured. Xu Qing, you¡¯re still young, so no matter how carefully you think about a matter, it¡¯s normal for you to overlook certain things.¡±

    Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing and clearly hoped that he woulde to the correct conclusion.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s mind was in high gear as he thought back to what the god¡¯s finger told him.

    ¡°Master,¡± he said, ¡°do you mean that it¡¯s important that the god¡¯s finger immediately realized that the red moon wanted to devour ¨©ts true form?¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes glittered with praise as he nodded. ¡°Exactly. That level of certainty provides the exnation. Clearly, ¨©t was absolutely confident that the red moon would devour ¨©ts true self. That bit of knowledge itself contains deeper elements to consider. Obviously, it¡¯s not umon for powerful gods to devour weaker gods.

    ¡°Couple that with the fact that the god in Forbidden by the Immortal is in a state of sleep, then the chances our conclusion is correct rise to over eighty percent. As I mentioned to you before, my research has led me to the conclusion that gods are nothing more than higher versions of people like you and me.

    ¡°When mortals stuff themselves with food, they get tired andzy. They don¡¯t want to do anything. It¡¯s the same with cultivators. When Big Sib gets stuffed, he instinctively wants to sleep. That goes for both me and you as well. Of course, it doesn¡¯t necessarily require sleep; going into secluded meditation might also work. And the length of time spent in seclusion or sleep depends on the type of food.¡±

    Xu Qing was mentally reeling, while the Captain was licking his lips. One thing was clear, both lines of reasoning led to the same conclusion.

    ¡°So, does everything make sense now?¡± Master Seventh asked quietly. ¡°The emperor is taking the initiative to awaken the red moon, ce it in Forbidden by the Immortal, and devour the god here. Then, the moon will be forced to enter a digestion period!

    ¡°During that time period, the red moon won¡¯t pay any attention to the Nightshades, even if something goes wrong for them. To the moon, the Nightshades are nothing but servants. And there¡¯s no way sh¨¥¡¯ll forgo food or sleep for servants!

    ¡°What¡¯s more, the digestion period willst for a while. During that time... the Nightshades won¡¯t have any protection from their god!¡±

    ¡°The emperor must have been waiting for an opportunity just like this!¡± Xu Qing said. He felt like he had experienced a sudden revtion, as if the clouds had parted, making everything incredibly bright. In fact, as his thoughts coalesced, his twelfth heavenly pce began to materialize even faster, and got very close to the great circle!

    With Master Seventh¡¯s guidance, Xu Qing suddenly came to a much deeper understanding of the big picture. No longer were his thoughts limited to what was right in front of him.

    Master Seventh could have refrained from helping out in this way. But thanks to his help, Xu Qing¡¯s powers of cognition improved. Having Xu Qing logically think through the situation had been an instance of immense good fortune. Moral and practical instruction could really be given at any time.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with reverence as he sped hands and bowed deeply to Master Seventh.

    Master Seventh smiled faintly. The truth was that he was very proud of Xu Qing.

    The Captain was also shaken. Looking reverently toward his Master, he said, ¡°Okay, well what about the domain treasure? What do you think about that, Master? Should we steal it?¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s smile wavered. The Captain had actually asked about something Master Seventh hadn¡¯t considered. Then he realized that Xu Qing was looking at him with keen expectation, and he suddenly felt a headacheing on. Considering how hard he had worked to build up his image just now, he obviously couldn¡¯t say that he hadn¡¯t thought of stealing the domain treasure....

    ¡°How could you be so short-sighted, Big Sib?¡± Master Seventh said, doing nothing to show his displeasure. ¡°I already made a decision about that. That said, I can¡¯t just go around exining every little thing to you all the time. Therefore... let¡¯s consider that the homework assignment for this ss. Take some time to think about it on your own, and see which of you can figure it out first. Whoever does will be rewarded.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, feeling more admiration for his Master than ever.

    The Captain, however, looked suspiciously at Master Seventh.

    Seeing that Chen Erniu was about to say something, Master Seventh gave a cold harrumph and decided that he wasn¡¯t going to forget this. Quickly taking out a special semitransparent skin mask, he handed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°This item is the immortal skill that I got years ago. It has one use: concealment. Extreme concealment.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, when the red moon awakens, you need to put that mask on. That¡¯s your firstyer of concealment, but not the only one. You also need to find a ce with a lot of flesh built up, and dig your way inside. That will hide the god¡¯s aura that you carry with you. That¡¯s your secondyer of concealment.

    ¡°Whatever other assets you have will be the thirdyer. And finally, I¡¯ll bolster you with a god magic of concealment. That¡¯s the fourthyer. That way, unless the red moon specifically starts looking for you, you should be fine. The awakened moon is definitely going to be attracted to the sleeping god, so be cautious and you¡¯ll be okay.

    ¡°Remember, after you put that mask on, you can¡¯t move. Your cultivation base isn¡¯t high enough, so if you move, it will break the concealment effect.¡±

    Xu Qing was touched by his Master¡¯s concern, and quickly sped hands and bowed his head. ¡°Master, make sure to take care of yourself as well.¡±

    Master Seventh smiled warmly. He really did like this fourth apprentice of his. sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, he bolstered him with the god magic, then turned to leave.

    ¡°What about me, Master?¡± the Captain said. ¡°What about me?¡±

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t bother looking at the Captain. ¡°Compared to the aura of that sleeping god, yours is like nothing. Who would even notice you?¡±

    Despite his words, Master Seventh waved his hand and sent a god magic of concealment to the Captain. Then he turned and vanished.

    With Master Seventh gone, the Captain shivered and looked at Xu Qing, his eyes shining brightly.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, I saw something really amazing on the way here. The old man was moving too quickly, so I didn¡¯t say anything. Come on, let¡¯s go check it out!¡±

 Chapter 521: A Hand To Create All Things (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 521: A Hand To Create All Things (part 1)</h4>

    When Xu Qing saw how bright the Captain¡¯s eyes were shining, he was just about to nod in agreement when a cold snort suddenly swept over them.

    ¡°Check what out? And since when did I be ¡®the old man¡¯?¡±

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply, and the Captain¡¯s face fell. Both of them turned to look in the direction of the familiar voice.

    The air there rippled as Master Seventh suddenly appeared.

    ¡°This is today¡¯s second lesson,¡± Master Seventh said coolly. ¡°Sometimes, what you can see with your eyes isn¡¯t real. Going forward, you should move a good distance away before discussing business.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed his head and said nothing. The Captain appeared to be on the verge of tears. How could he ever have guessed that his Master, who had very obviously left, would actually be hiding nearby?

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Master Seventh continued, ¡°I was thinking about how Fourth Sib¡¯s cultivation base is on the verge of a breakthrough, so I came back to provide a reminder. Fourth Sib, it shouldn¡¯t be hard for you to break through from Gold Core to Nascent Soul. However, in the Heavenfate Nascent Soul level, cultivation involves provoking five instances of heavenfate tribtion. Each one will make you a lot stronger.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. This information conformed to what he had already learned in the past.

    ¡°However, the increase of battle prowess in the Nascent Soul level is of secondary importance. Of more importance is using those tribtions to build up heavenfate for useter in the Spirit Trove level. Based on my experience, if you deploy multiple nascent souls in each tribtion, then despite the fact that tribtion will be more powerful than normal, the resulting sess will bring in more heavenfate. If you encounter good fortune in Forbidden by the Immortal, that¡¯s fine, but don¡¯t provoke any tribtion. I¡¯ll exin more about the detailster on.¡±

    At that point, Master Seventh gave one final re at the Captain, then turned and vanished.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, considered the advice, which contained some new information.

    As he did that, the Captain blinked a few times, grabbed his arm, and pulled him a good distance away.

    There, he breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Master really does treat us well, wouldn¡¯t you say, little Ah Qing? I definitely received some enlightenment during today¡¯s lesson.¡±

    ¡°Me too,¡± Xu Qing said convincingly.

    The Captain nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll probably never be able to pay back Master¡¯s love. Not in this life anyway!¡±

    ¡°The two of us need to work as hard as possible,¡± Xu Qing said solemnly, ¡°so that one day in the future, we can keep Master safe!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s face lit up. ¡°That¡¯s right, little Junior Brother! We definitely need to make that our goal!¡±

    The Captain and Xu Qing continued walking along, all the while exchanging such words. A few hourster, they looked at each other.

    ¡°He¡¯s probably gone, right?¡± the Captain said.

    ¡°Most likely...¡± replied Xu Qing, looking around.

    ¡°The old man really does pop in and out randomly!¡± the Captain said with a wry smile. Lowering his voice, he continued, ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here and go back to that spot I mentioned before. There¡¯s definitely some good stuff there!¡±

    The two of them flew off at top speed.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Three days had passed since the opening of Forbidden by the Immortal. During that time, the first wave of hundreds of thousands of cultivators had already carved out a safe space of roughly five hundred kilometers. That was like a drop of water in the oceanpared to Forbidden by the Immortal as a whole. In fact, even when just considering the eastern district, it barely counted for one percent of the area. The ce was just thatrge.

    Considering Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had thirty-six operations pces in the past, it made sense that they were all considered minor worlds. What was more, because this one had a god sleeping inside of it, it had never been fully explored. Despite the invasion of mutagen, there were countless unique treasures, ancient records, and reserve powers to be found.

    That was especially true given that, in Revered Ancient, great efforts had been made to study and research mutagen. As a result, there were many methods that could be used to disperse mutagen, such as those used to purify taboo treasures.

    That was why the imperial capital highly valued Forbidden by the Immortal, and didn¡¯t intend for it to be opened for only a short time. The n was for the exploration tost for several months, and gradually get closer and closer to the imperial hall in the very center of the forbidden ground.

    Of course, that was all based on the presumption that there wouldn¡¯t always be a god inside.

    Right now, the Captain and Xu Qing were about 50 kilometers away from the safe zone, resting atop the roof of a pce hall.

    During the days that had passed, they had explored quite a few locations and made some significant gains. They had seen a lot of buildings that were fading from existence, presumably because of the seal on the forbidden ground having been broken.

    They had run into a few dangerous situations. For example, the ce the Captain had originally gone to had been so infused with mutagen that the only thing left behind was the head of a huge statue. When the two of them got close to the statue, it rushed toward them. It turned out to be a very hazardous incident that they barely escaped from. Thankfully, the concealment blessing from Master Seventh turned out to be very effective, and facilitated their escape. It left the Captain sighing repeatedly. The feeling of being able to see a juicy piece of meat right in front of him, but being unable to eat it, left him with increasingly bloodshot eyes.

    They experienced a lot of ups and downs until they eventually reached this very promising-looking pce hall. Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t get inside.

    After multiple failed attempts, they went about five kilometers away to a safer pce hall, where they rested on the roof to try toe up with another n.

    The Captain was grinding his teeth as he discarded n after n. ¡°This ce is just too big, little Ah Qing. And we don¡¯t have enough in the way of intelligence reports. I¡¯m convinced there¡¯s some treasure in that pce hall, otherwise, why would those four flesh-covered statues be standing guard over it?¡±

    As the Captain spoke, Xu Qing was looking off in the direction of the safe zone. That area had mostly been cleared of mutagen, thanks to the spell formations that had been set up. And it caused light to shine up into the dark sky from that spot. The surrounding mutagen constantly tried to work its way back in, and eventually it would seed, but not at the moment. On the inside of the glimmering shield created by the spell formations were numerous strange-looking buildings. They were towering pyramids made from spirit stones, and they emanated shocking fluctuations that linked all of them into one huge formation. Small squads of people came in and out constantly; they were groups who, like Xu Qing and the Captain, were on exploratory missions. All of the pces within the 500-kilometer safe zone had already been cleared out, and had been integrated into the spell formation.

    Even more shocking than all of that were the nine 30,000-meter white crystals that hung in the air like floating mountains. Generalissimo Bloodhorror had brought those huge crystals, and originally they hadn¡¯t been that big. They had grown over the three days into that shocking size. They floated in midair like ck holes sucking in all the surrounding mutagen. More precisely put, they were filtering the mutagen. In other words, they sucked in mutagen then dispersed it. It was an endless cycle that, as it propagated, left tiny golden markings on the crystals.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. <i>It must be taking the god vitality out of the mutagen.</i>

    Based on the expanded knowledge and sense of judgment imparted by his Master, Xu Qing¡¯s conclusion was that the crystals were being prepared for use on the front lines of the war.

    ¡°Forget those things,¡± the Captain said, sitting up suddenly. ¡°They¡¯re not important to us right now. I just got a new idea, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing looked away from the crystals and at the Captain. ¡°You¡¯re still thinking about that pce?¡±

    ¡°Of course! We¡¯ve seen a lot of pces over the past few days, and the ones that aren¡¯t guarded areplete trash. The ones that have a single guardian statue are better. But this is the only one we¡¯ve found with four guardian statues! Compared to a sleeping god, it probably doesn¡¯t count for much. But since we¡¯re here, we need to do our best to get some good stuff!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips as his eyes glittered with a crazy look.

    Xu Qing thought back to the pce and the four flesh-covered statues that guarded each of its sides. The statues were alive, and only small portions of them had dissipated. The fluctuations they released werepletely terrifying. The pce they were guarding was unusual in appearance because of its square shape. Also, Xu Qing remembered that the roof had countless finger-width venttion holes in it. The strange thing about those holes was that the encroaching flesh clearly avoided them. Xu Qing had no idea what might be inside the pce. His shadow couldn¡¯t get inside; he¡¯d tried, and something inside the pce prevented surveince.

    ¡°After the red moon awakens and devours the sleeping god, it should be a lot easier to get inside. Does it have to be now?¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    ¡°When that happens, a lot more people are going to be inside exploring,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°At that point, even if we get what¡¯s inside, we might not be able to keep our hands on it. And once the pce starts crumbling, we¡¯ll be out of time. Besides, little Ah Qing, my intuition is telling me that the treasure inside there is incredible!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips.

    ¡°My n is simple, little Ah Qing. In a moment, we¡¯ll head over there again. Just likest time, you absorb the surrounding mutagen and get the attention of the statues. Once the four of them are chasing after you, I¡¯ll go in and loot the ce!¡±

    ¡°Last time you couldn¡¯t even get the door open,¡± Xu Qing pointed out. On the previous attempt Xu Qing had put himself in danger to create the distraction, except the Captain didn¡¯t work hard enough to get inside.

    Eyes bloodshot, the Captain gritted his teeth and said, ¡°It¡¯ll be different this time. I have a new way to open that door!¡±

    Seeing how determined the Captain was, Xu Qing finally nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll give you thirty breaths of time.¡±

    ¡°No problem!¡± Grabbing Xu Qing by the arm, he dragged Xu Qing in the direction of the pce hall.

    Making sure to stay concealed, they headed toward the square-shaped pce hall. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, they arrived. Seeing the four, flesh-covered statues, and sensing their terrifying fluctuations, caused both Xu Qing and the Captain to breathe a bit more heavily. After exchanging a nce, they split up.

    Xu Qing quickly loosened the restrictions on his absorption powers, causing the surrounding mutagen to rush toward him. When it entered him, it created a pleasant, even intoxicating sensation. His soul felt like it was floating, and his fleshly body was getting stronger. On an instinctive level, he wanted that mutagen to just keep pouring into him. People without great willpower would find it hard to avoid bing lost in the sensation. Thankfully, Xu Qing had the perseverance to remain cool and collected. As he absorbed the mutagen, the golden threads within him trembled with longing. Slowly but surely, Xu Qing felt himself transforming.

    Meanwhile, the four statues outside the pce hall slowly looked up. The flesh-covered faces¡¯ features flickered, and their eyes glowed red. Then they all started moving at the same time.

    Xu Qing quickly took out the mask from his Master. Speeding along, he kept absorbing mutagen, all the while counting down in his head. After a bit more than ten breaths of time had passed, he felt a sudden sensation of critical catastrophe from above. Without any hesitation, he put the mask on his face, then threw himself down onto the flesh-covered ground and burrowed inside. There, he remained unmoving. The mask covered all traces of his existence.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, and terrifying fluctuations spread everywhere. The statues were clearly searching for him.

    However, Xu Qing had the mask on and he wasn¡¯t moving. In that state of concealment, the four statutes didn¡¯t even recognize his existence. He and the Captain had tested out how the mask worked with the statues. As long as they were a distance from the hall, it worked normally. But if they were close to the hall, they would eventually sense him. That was a big difference from the other guardian statues they had encountered at other pces. And it was one way that this pce hall was very unique.

    <i>Hopefully the Captain makes it work.</i>

 Chapter 521: A Hand To Create All Things (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 521: A Hand To Create All Things (part 2)</h4>

    After the statues were lured away, the Captain ran pell-mell toward the entrance of the huge pce. This time, he didn¡¯t waste time trying to open the door. Instead, he rushed to the roof with the countless holes. Upon arriving, he madly threw himself toward the holes. Bizarrely, his flesh split apart, forming into countless finger-width strips that shot right through the holes.

    Of course, those holes weren¡¯t just simple venttion shafts. They had terrifying warding spells within them that instantly erupted, destroying many of the strips of flesh.

    Those left over wriggled like worms. As they struggled, faces appeared on them that resembled the Captain, and they gnashed their teeth as they tried to break through the warding spells. Unfortunately, the warding spells were very strong, and before long, about ny percent of the Captain¡¯s strips of flesh were gone, and there were only about thirty left.

    Within the mouth of each worm was an ancient and damagedmand medallion. Those medallions were none other than Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edicts. As they glowed with amber light, the wriggling worms began to transform. They glittered with crystalline light, and though more than half crumbled, in the end, four managed to wriggle to the end.

    After popping out of the venttion hole and dropping into the hall beyond, they looked around.

    There was only one thing in the hall, and it was right in the middle. Emptiness surrounded it. It was a severed hand with a bit of the forearm attached, fully 300 meters in size. The spot where it had been severed featured arge fleshy growth that ended with countless swaying tentacles. The five fingers were outstretched, and in the palm was a huge mouth filled with countless razor-sharp teeth.

    ¡°What¡¯s this thing?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s voice emanated from the mouths of the four crystalline worms as they clumped together and then transformed into a tiny crystalline imp. The imp was, of course, the Captain. However, his face didn¡¯t resemble the Captain¡¯s, as he was wearing a vicious and greedy mask. Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and unleashed the heavenly dog immortal skill.

    A massive dog appeared in the middle of the pce hall. Pulsing with greed, it lunged toward the severed hand and gobbled it up.

    The crystalline imp then broke back up into four wriggling worms, which shot back through the venttion holes. Of course, this entire process took a lot longer than thirty breaths of time, so the four statues had already returned from chasing Xu Qing. As a result, the warding spells in the venttion holes were even stronger.

    The Captain struggled to fight his way through them, but eventually ended up stuck. As the destructive power of the warding spells surged, he started getting very nervous. However, right then, the mutagen in the area suddenly started flowing away rapidly, causing the statues to burst into motion again. The Captain took advantage of that moment to burst free. The four crystalline worms turned into an imp again, and the imp fled at top speed.

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the pce area returned to normal, and the four statues returned to take up their guard positions.

    Xu Qing was already at the rendezvous spot. He squatted there, spitting blood out of his mouth and looking frightened. When he¡¯d realized the Captain wasn¡¯ting back, he¡¯d assumed something unexpected happened. Gritting his teeth, he¡¯d once again drawn away the statues. Though he¡¯d managed to hide sessfully, the statues were enraged from being repeatedly fooled, and had unleashed random attacks.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hiding spot was never revealed, but he still suffered the effects of the attacks. As his heart pounded with lingering fear, he turned his head to see a crystalline imp running toward him that bore the face of the Captain.

    Before Xu Qing could ask any questions, the Captain shivered and started to growrger. Momentster, he was back to normal size, although his face was pale and he looked very weak. Dropping onto the ground, he gasped for breath, all the while looking very excited.

    ¡°Thankfully I had that Righteous Bestowal Edict. Otherwise, I would have been done for. In the end... it was worth it!¡±

    Seeing that the Captain was fine, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°What was inside?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea. But I think it¡¯s a precious treasure.¡± Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain took out the skin mask and put it on to summon the heavenly dog. The heavenly dog¡¯s throat wriggled as it coughed up a 300-meter severed hand onto the ground along with a shower of saliva.

    Before Xu Qing could even take time to examine it, the huge mouth on the hand lunged toward the Captain. In the blink of an eye, the Captain was gobbled up.

    It happened too quickly.

    Face falling, Xu Qing took out a dagger and shed it toward the severed hand. The dagger had absolutely no effect on the hand. What was more, the bacsh attack from it caused Xu Qing to shiver and stagger backward. Eyes grim, he unleashed his poison to try to invade the hand. However, before he could actually send the poison into the hand, its five fingers glittered with multicolored light apanied by loud cracking sounds. It was a five-colored light that flowed out of the fingers and back to the severed part of the arm. The light gathered at the fleshy growth there, grew stronger, and then went back to the fingers. From there, the light floated into the air and began to converge into the shape of a heart.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. As the five-colored light stitched together, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide as he realized it was taking the shape of a peach.

    The light then faded, and a momentter, the Captain was vomited out of the mouth.

    ¡°Precious treasure! Eat, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Looking very excited, the Captain lunged toward the peach with his mouth wide open.

    Xu Qing hesitated.

    When the Captain bit into the peach, it copsed, turning into a noxious ck sludge that sshed into the Captain¡¯s mouth.

    The Captain immediately started retching. Dazed, he said, ¡°How could this be happening? Dammit. I got scammed by that thing! It asked what I wanted, and I said I wanted to eat a peach that would turn me into a Smoldering God!¡±

    Xu Qing looked quizzically at the ck sludge, and then the hand. Finally, he looked at the bedraggled Captain.

    ¡°Captain, what¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°I got scammed, little Ah Qing!¡± The Captain ground his teeth. ¡°After that thing ate me, I heard a voice asking me what I wanted it to create. It said it could use life force power to create anything. But after I told it what I wanted, it created nothing but a lump of trash.¡±

    Looking angry, the Captain walked over and kicked the hand. That wasn¡¯t enough though, as next, he leaned over and bit into it.

    He instantly let out a shriek. Pupils constricting, Xu Qing looked over and saw that the Captain¡¯s teeth had shattered.

    ¡°How could it be so hard??¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes were wide as he looked at the hand, which had a faint bite mark on it. However, the bite didn¡¯te close to prating the skin. ¡°It actually broke my teeth! This thing is incredible. Maybe I didn¡¯t use it right. Little Ah Qing, you try it out.¡±

    After some thought, Xu Qing walked over toward the huge hand¡¯s mouth. The mouth opened, and a powerful gravitational forcetched onto Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t resist, but rather, allowed it to suck him inside. Afterward, the same five-colored light started to swirl, and eventually it took the shape of a mirror. It was the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure. Whether in the appearance or the aura, it seemedpletely genuine.

    The Captain looked on, his eyes shining with anticipation.

    Shortly after, the hand¡¯s mouth opened and spat Xu Qing out. The instant he appeared, he looked up at the mirror. Moments ago, he had found himself in a blood-colored world, with a calm voice speaking into his ear. It had said that it could use the power of life force to create anything. Xu Qing had then created the mirror. At the same time, he noticed that his life force hadn¡¯t been absorbed. Perhaps it was because the severed hand had been hurt too badly, and didn¡¯t have all of its powers.

    Xu Qing reached out to grab the mirror, but the moment he touched it, it turned into ck sludge that sshed onto the ground.

    Xu Qing frowned and the Captain sighed.

    ¡°A scam,¡± the Captain said. ¡°I really lost out this time!¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother, maybe the hand has just been in that pce hall for too long. Maybe back in the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity it... really could create anything.¡±

    The Captain pondered that for a moment, then nodded. ¡°I guess too much time has passed. The mutagen invasion probably broke it. But if that were the case, could this thing really be called a precious treasure? No. No! I¡¯m going to give it one more try.¡±

    He walked toward the hand and let himself be swallowed up again. And he did that again. And again. He created a wide assortment of things, even things from the mortal world. But all of them copsed into ck sludge.

    Xu Qing also tried a few more times, with the same result.

    However, their repeated tests revealed another function of the hand: if you entered the hand but didn¡¯t use it to create anything, you had a very secure location to stay safe. After some specific tests, they were even able to determine how tough the exterior of the hand was.

    ¡°It¡¯s as strong as the Void Returning level!¡± the Captain said through gritted teeth.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°It almost doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s made from flesh. It¡¯s more like some special tool, crafted to be like a shield.¡±

    After that, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered brightly, and he felt a bit better.

    ¡°Hahaha! The two of us can use it like a shield, and Ning Yan like a meteor hammer! Perfect! Let¡¯s go, little Junior Brother. We can use this hand to check out some other locations.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing figured using the hand as a shield would be a perfectplement to their concealment abilities.

    Before long, it was possible to see a 300-meter hand flying through the mists in Forbidden by the Immortal. By lifting the hand up and smashing it down into the ground, Xu Qing and the Captain had managed to curl the five fingers until it formed a fist. Once inside, they felt a lot safer.

    Time passed. As the two of them continued their exploration, the fourth day arrived. The passage to the outside had been opened, and everyone was free to leave if they wanted. Some did, while others stayed behind to explore.

    On the evening of the fourth day, the second wave of cultivators arrived. Most of them were made up of imperial troops. Many of them wore ck robes, and the moment they arrived, they flew off into the depths of Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Xu Qing, who was already about 250 kilometers away from the safe zone, didn¡¯t see any of that. Though they weren¡¯t incredibly far away, it was too far to see things back at the safe zone with the naked eye. However, a transmissions tower had been erected in the safe zone, which meant that theirmand swords could again be used to send messages.

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain felt theirmand swords vibrate, and checked them to find that in three days, the third wave of cultivators would arrive.

    That evening, a gruish red color appeared in the sky, spreading rapidly.

    A strange sense of fear rose up in Xu Qing¡¯s heart. What was more, he could tell that his heavenly dao was sending him a warning.

    ¡°We need to hurry up, Eldest Brother. I have the feeling that the red moon... is about to wake up. I think it will probably happen in three days, when that third wave arrives.¡± Xu Qing squatted in the severed hand, and the Captain squatted next to him. Nodding, he pointed to the path ahead.

    ¡°Look over there, little Junior Brother. I wasn¡¯t paying close attention before, so I didn¡¯t realize this forbidden ground had a pceplex like that.¡±

    Xu Qing turned to look in the direction he was pointing and saw a flesh-covered pceplex surrounded by a high wall.

    ¡°Look at how intact the outer wall is. That¡¯s different from anything we¡¯ve encountered before. It hasn¡¯t even started to crumble yet. And even with the flesh covering the buildings, you can see that theplex generally resembles the shape of a phoenix. I wonder if one of the concubines from Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s harem used to live there.

    ¡°Female cultivators generally love cleanliness. You know, taking baths and stuff. If that¡¯s a harem pce, then do you think there might be something like an immortal hot spring there? And if so, I wonder if there might be some clothes like Nethersprite had? Maybe even jewelry and ornaments.... Female cultivators always have lots of fun stuff where they live. I mean, that¡¯s what it was like with Nethersprite, right? She had all sorts of treasures.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes were shining brightly. ¡°By the way, we¡¯re in the east district. You know, I¡¯ve read a lot of books that make it very clear the girls in the East Pce are extra special!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed with interest. But then, he heard Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior clearing his throat.

    <i>¡°Milord, um... based on the pce intrigue novels I¡¯ve read, the East Pce is usually upied by the empress dowager, the crown prince, and the young princesses....¡±</i> [2]

    1. Presumably most of you know that a meteor hammer is a weapon in traditional Chinese martial arts that features some sort of weighted object at the end of a rope. Here¡¯s <u>a short YouTube video</u> demonstrating its use. ?

    2. The patriarch is right. Historically, the ¡°East Pce¡± of the imperial pceplex would be where the empress dowager and/or the crown prince lived (in some ancient dynasties). There were even some readers whomented about this in Chinese. There are some moreplexities, but I won¡¯t get into them because they¡¯re not relevant. ?

 Chapter 522: Plumdark and a Green Lamp (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 522: Plumdark and a Green Lamp (part 1)</h4>

    Upon hearing Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s words, Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the distant pceplex. Then he looked at the Captain, noting his excited expression, and the fact that he seemed just on the verge of rushing toward the pce. The crazy look in his eye seemed different from how he looked when going after ordinary treasure.

    <i>This is how Eldest Brother looked back during the Nethersprite heist. Apparently, he¡¯s really obsessed with stealing things from female cultivators.</i>

    Surprised, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hold back from asking the Captain for more details.

    The Captain smiled proudly. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, based on my experience, female cultivators always have a lot of treasures. Especially the really pretty girls. It¡¯s the result of countless menpeting to give them the best gifts. I saw this thing over and over again in my previous lives. Think back to Nethersprite. She was just like that, right? She had <i>tons</i> of treasures.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to Nethersprite¡¯s mansion grotto and all of the countless items she had there.

    ¡°In the past,¡± the Captain continued in a very meaningful and heartfelt tone, ¡°I would shamelessly give all sorts of gifts to girls to get them to like me. Later on, I made a promise to myself to help female cultivators share the burden of having so many gifts around. Do you know what the most important quality of a good person is, little Ah Qing? It¡¯s being helpful! Kind and helpful! And that¡¯s what we¡¯re doing now. Being very helpful.¡±

    Xu Qing was somewhat taken aback. Although the exnation seemed strange, the Captain¡¯s facial expression and manner of speaking were very confident. And thus, what he said made a lot of sense.

    ¡°Oh, you!¡± the Captain said. ¡°You¡¯re just too young! That¡¯s why you don¡¯t understand. Trust me, I¡¯m right about this. As your Eldest Brother, do you think I would try to scam you or something?¡± The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go. As you mentioned, we have no more than three days until the third wave is all here and the red moon awakens. We need to make the most of those three days. And we¡¯re going to start by finding whatever treasures are in this pce.¡±

    Licking his lips, he sent the severed hand flying toward the phoenix-shaped pceplex.

    Because of the impending awakening of the red moon, Xu Qing decided not to ask any more questions.

    Thus, the severed hand flew over the ground of flesh, getting closer and closer to the pce. At a certain point, a tremor passed through the hand.

    At the same time, Xu Qing and the Captain sensed something dangerous up ahead. Through the cracks between the fingers, they could see the huge wall of flesh circling around the pce, creating a barrier to entry. Beyond that wall of flesh was the pceplex, which was made of nine pce buildings. There were no guardian statues, and the roaring of mutant beasts was actually less loud here than in other ces.

    ¡°It¡¯s too quiet,¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    The Captain nodded. ¡°Something¡¯s off here.¡±

    They exchanged a nce, and then Xu Qing gave orders to his shadow, causing it to stretch out to gather information. The Captain bit off one of his fingers. When he spat it out of his mouth, it turned into a crystalline worm that sped in roughly the same direction as the shadow. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by this ability, as the Captain had already used it numerous times during their explorations.

    Bybining their surveince abilities, they could usually identify dangers and avoid them.

    As the seconds ticked by, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow neared the wall surrounding the pces, while the Captain¡¯s finger, now a worm, veered in a slightly different direction. Eventually, the finger reached the wall and tried to fly over it.

    As it did, violet light flickered, and the crystalline worm lurched to a halt midair. Then, it was sliced into ribbons, almost as if invisible des had shed at it. The crystalline worm had very strong life force, though, as the ribbons just became smaller individual worms that continued onward. However, there wasn¡¯t just a single line of defense to deal with. Powerful warding spells erupted, and the ribbons were shredded into ash. Then a powerful force of expulsion sent the ashes back to the area outside the wall. And yet, there was more. After the worms were turned into ashes, a sealing power erupted from inside the wall, which mped down on the area where the ashes had scattered.

    The air there rippled and distorted, and an eye which had previously been invisible was suddenly revealed, then squashed out of existence.

    The Captain grunted and coughed up some blood.

    Frowning, he said, ¡°I can¡¯t believe this ce has the power to resist the Ancient Dao Righteous Bestowal Edict. Little Ah Qing, this ce is no simple pceplex!¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was also having trouble. When his shadow reached the wall, it screamed as it was severed by some powerful force. Of course, the shadow was inherently vicious. The portion that had been severed quickly self-detonated, breaking itself into countless smaller fragments that raced in all directions.

    Unfortunately, that action elicited a response from an even more powerful set of warding spells. A terrifying shockwave burst out of the wall of flesh, along with violet light. As it swept over the countless tiny fragments of the shadow, they screamed as they were wiped out of existence. And the shockwave continued onward, apparently looking for the source of the shadow fragments.

    From a distance, Xu Qing and the Captain saw dazzling violet light and an icy will rushing toward them. As the violet light spread out, it became so dense it started to turn ck, until everything in front of them waspletely dark.

    The two of them were about to flee when, all of a sudden, the violet light tumbled backward, so that the area in front of them turned bright and radiant again.

    The surviving portion of the shadow by the wall hastened back to Xu Qing, where it trembled and sent him emotional fluctuations of embarrassment and terror.

    ¡°Scared... can¡¯t get... in.¡±

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked at the area beyond the wall of flesh, his heart pounding.

    Off to the side, the Captain was panting for breath. ¡°Well, this is annoying, little Junior Brother. I wonder who lived here back in the day. That was really tough, especially the violet light which¡ª¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing interrupted, ¡°I feel like this ce... is familiar. Did you hear that just now?¡±

    Stunned, the Captain looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Familiar? Hear something?¡±

    ¡°A sigh came from that violet light just now,¡± Xu Qing said softly.

    The Captain reached out and grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s arm. ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± he said in a serious tone, ¡°we don¡¯t have aplete understanding of all the species that exist in this world. After the broken face of the god came, a vast number of grues and other terrifying creatures came to exist. That includes gods, plus other indescribable entities. You might think I act like a crazy person, but the truth is that every single job I¡¯ve taken you on was something I spent a lot of time preparing for, taking into ount all sorts of intelligence reports and other clues. But Forbidden by the Immortal is different.

    ¡°I actually don¡¯t know much about this ce. If we¡¯ve run into something that you can hear, but others can¡¯t hear... well, that seems to indicate this thing is extremely dangerous. That¡¯s especially true considering how unique I am. If I can¡¯t hear something, then... it means we need to be very careful.

    ¡°I think we should forget about getting into this ce. Let¡¯s wait until the sleeping god is dead, and then we can decide if it¡¯s worth it toe back and try again.¡±

    It was rare to hear the Captain talking like this. In fact, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t remember any other time in which the Captain would hold back from trying to gobble up a juicy morsel. That went to show how unusual the situation was.

    Xu Qing nodded. However, just as they were about to leave, he noticed that, beyond the wall of flesh, inside the pceplex, there was a person standing amidst the violet light.

    It was a woman.

    She wore a violet gown, and the light around her almost looked like a plum flower. She was spectacrly beautiful as she stood there alone, looking straight at him. There was something so familiar about her gaze that Xu Qing¡¯s mind was battered by waves of shock.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain said. Noting Xu Qing¡¯s vacant expression, he shook him.

    Xu Qing shivered and looked at the Captain. Then he looked back at the pceplex, except the woman was gone. What was more, the entire area surrounded by the flesh wall was turning blurry, almost as if it were about to dpose into nothing.

    This wasn¡¯t a unique urrence. The same thing had happened in other ces that Xu Qing and the Captain had visited on their journey so far. Apparently, when the ancient seals were broken, and outside energy entered, it had a huge effect. Items which normally wouldn¡¯t have survived for so long would finally return to the state they should have reached long ago, and simply disappeared.

    Looking somewhat dazed, Xu Qing murmured, ¡°Did you see her, Eldest Brother?¡±

    Seeing Xu Qing in that state got the Captain even more nervous, especially since he hadn¡¯t seen a thing.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here, little Junior Brother. We need to go back, right now. There¡¯s something really strange going on here!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said softly. He was still looking at the decaying area beyond the wall, and thinking back to what just happened. He also thought about how his heavenly dao didn¡¯t give him any warning about this ce being dangerous. ¡°Eldest Brother, can you help me out with something?¡±

    ¡°What are you nning to do?¡± the Captain said. He suddenly had an idea of what was about to happen.

    ¡°Given how fast that area is decaying,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°by the time the sleeping god dies, it¡¯ll be gone. Therefore... I¡¯m going inside to take a look around. You wait for me here.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± the Captain said, shaking his head. ¡°I refuse!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°If I don¡¯t go in to look around, I¡¯m going to regret it. Besides, my heavenly dao isn¡¯t giving me any warnings. It should be safe.¡±

    A long moment passed, and then the Captain sighed. ¡°We¡¯ll go in together!¡±

    ¡°Captain, the power in there is dangerous to you. It¡¯s dissipating, but it will still affect you. If we stick together, I won¡¯t be able to go in.¡±

    They went back and forth a bit before the Captain reluctantly agreed. At that point, Xu Qing took a deep breath and had the severed hand swallow him.

    Because of the warding spells, it wasn¡¯t possible to just walk into the pceplex, so Xu Qing¡¯s idea was to enter the hand and then have the Captain throw the hand over the wall. If the area beyond the wall wasn¡¯t dposing, then he would have waited to find a safer means of entry. But right now, he was running out of time.

    And the reason was that the figure he had seen was none other than Arch-Immortal Plumdark, who absolutely, positively should not be in this ce.

 Chapter 522: Plumdark and a Green Lamp (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 522: Plumdark and a Green Lamp (part 2)</h4>

    After Xu Qing entered the hand, the Captain gritted his teeth. Grabbing the hand, he swung it around as hard as he could and then hurled it over the wall.

    The hand became a streak of light that shot into the pceplex. The moment it entered theplex, the warding spells activated again. However, the hand was extremely tough, so its flesh ended upcerated and cut down to the bone, but it made it into the courtyard intact.

    Before long, the hand¡¯s mouth opened and Xu Qing stepped out. He looked around.

    Of the nine pces that made the phoenix-shapedplex, the middle one was glowing with violet light. Simultaneously, a simrly colored light was shining in Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding. A jade slip flew out of the bag of holding, moving of its own ord to hover in front of him. It was the same jade slip Arch-Immortal Plumdark had given him, which contained protective power from her. The moment it was out in the open, it pulsed with light.

    The light in the pce flickered in response. A blurry figure appeared within the violet light in the pce, floating there and looking at him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart flip-flopped.

    It was none other than Plumdark!

    But now that he was closer, Xu Qing could see that she wasn¡¯t exactly like the Plumdark he remembered. It wasn¡¯t in terms of her looks, but rather, her bearing. This person seemed deste, even emotionless.

    Xu Qing stood there for a moment before walking forward. As he approached, the warding spells seemed to make a path for him, allowing him to walk right up to the center most pce. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the ancient doors.

    They opened noiselessly, revealing a pitch ck hall.

    There were nomps in the hall, making it very dark and gloomy. In fact, it was so dark the light from outside couldn¡¯t enter.

    Xu Qing stood there for a while getting used to the darkness, until he was finally able to see the interior. The hall was almostpletely empty. There were no chairs or anything else. However, there was a lonely statue in the middle of the hall. It was easy to imagine how, when the door was closed and the hall was sealed, it would feel very much like a cage. There was only that statue there, standing eternally alone.

    The statue was of a woman, but she was not Plumdark. However, she was beautiful. And within that beauty was a gracefulness that came with age. The statue didn¡¯t seem to want to hide that age, as there were some wrinkles at the corner of her eyes. She had a warm smile on her face, and her eyes had been sculpted in a way that made them seem warm and merciful.

    In her hand was amp that she held as if it were the most precious object in the world. It was a very uniquemp. It was carved from purple stone, and it resembled a blooming bauhinia flower. On the surface of the flower rested a violet phoenix with its wings outstretched. It looked very lifelike.

    Upon seeing thatmp, Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. It was a lifemp, or more precisely, it was a sculpture of a lifemp. Xu Qing had never seen it before, yet it seemed very familiar to him. And the reason was because of a dream Arch-Immortal Plumdark had rted to him.

    <i>¡°There¡¯s a dream I have asionally.... In the dream, the world is pitch dark. I can¡¯t see anything except for amp, which is right in front of me.... Themp is extinguished. It has no light. That makes it almost impossible to see. Nor can I touch it. It¡¯s as if it¡¯s too far away, but at the same time, incredibly close to me.</i>

    <i>¡°In my imagination, it looks like a blooming bauhinia flower. And living on it is a little violet phoenix with its wings spread.</i>

    <i>¡°Thatmp has always appeared in my dreams, and it¡¯s always extinguished. And there is never any light in that world.¡±</i> [1]

    Xu Qing was visibly stunned.

    In the past, he¡¯d assumed the story was just a random dream Arch-Immortal Plumdark had. But then he saw Plumdark outside this hall. And then he saw this carving of amp. He had no idea where the real version of themp was. In the holynds? Vanished in time?

    <i>Why would Plumdark dream about thismp? And why did she appear in the violet light outside? What karma connects her to thismp?</i>

    Within the darkness of the hall, the image of Plumdark appeared in front of the statue. She was looking at the statue, her eyes glittering with something like familial admiration, and also extreme bitterness. She looked over her shoulder at Xu Qing, and something shed through her deste eyes. She opened her mouth and spoke.

    Xu Qing heard nothing. But after she finished speaking, her expression changed. It became sorrowful. All of a sudden, another figure entered the hall, walking forward and through Xu Qing.

    Shivering, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder, then back at the figure that had just walked through him.

    It was a tall young man wearing an imperial robe with a four-wed golden dragon on it. He had a nine-tasseled imperial crown, and though he emanated no aura, a mere nce at him gave the impression of mighty strength. [2]

    Standing with his back to Xu Qing, he spoke to Plumdark, although Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear what he was saying.

    Plumdark wept as she looked outside of the hall. She seemed overwhelmed with sorrow. That was when Xu Qing realized that, reflected in her pupils was a shattered sky, and an enormous broken face looming there.

    Xu Qing suddenly realized that what he was seeing wasn¡¯t real, but rather, was like a recorded image!

    Earlier, Plumdark hadn¡¯t been looking at <i>him</i>. She had just been looking in the direction where he was standing.

    As he watched, Plumdark shook her head and spoke. She seemed to be saying something critical. The figure in the imperial robe eventually extended his hand, as if asking Plumdark to leave with him. Plumdark decisively shook her head. The young man in the imperial robe stood there for a long moment. Then he took a small violet bottle out of his robe. Walking up to the statue, he poured a few drops of liquid from the bottle onto the violetmp.

    The liquid was transparent, likemp oil.

    Having done that, he put the nearly empty bottle down to the side. Then he turned, revealing a face full of grief and bitterness. When Xu Qing saw his face, he was shocked to find that the young man looked very simr to Plumdark. Apparently they were brother and sister.

    The young man left, walking through Xu Qing and out of the hall.... After he was gone, the doors of the hall slowly closed.

    Plumdark knelt in front of the statue, her face a mask of sorrow. Gradually, the hall started to turn dark again. Themp carving had oil in it, but the darkness continued to gather until everything disappeared.

    Everything turned very cold. When darkness and gloom filled the hall, the only thing that remained was a sigh that echoed out before fading into nothing. A momentter, the darkness vanished. It turned into a violet light that swept back toward the distant wall of flesh.

    When the violet light was gone, the coldness disappeared. Everything returned to normal for Xu Qing.

    The Captain stood next to him, panting for breath.

    ¡°Well this is annoying, little Junior Brother. I wonder who lived here back in the day. That was really tough, especially the violet light which¡ª¡±

    The shadow by the wall hastened back to Xu Qing, where it trembled and sent him emotional fluctuations of embarrassment and terror.

    ¡°Scared... can¡¯t get... in.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned and looked at the courtyard beyond the wall.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing interrupted, ¡°I feel like this ce is familiar. Did you hear that just now?¡±

    ¡°Familiar? Hear something?¡± The Captain looked stunned.

    ¡°It was like a sigh came from that violet light just now,¡± Xu Qing said solemnly.

    The Captain¡¯s expression flickered, and he was about to say something when a rumbling sound echoed out from the safety zone about 250 kilometers away. Despite the great distance involved, the sound was very clear, and they even felt the ground tremble. Then theirmand swords vibrated as a notification came in.

    <i>¡°The third wave has arrived. Furthermore, Seventh Prince has new orders for those who came in the first wave. For seven days, you have been working hard here in Forbidden by the Immortal. Dramatic events may be unfolding, so you may all leave over the course of the next three hours. Those who came in the second wave may leave after they have been here for seven days. The same pattern holds for the third wave.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing and the Captain looked at each other. There was no way they were going to leave, so they put theirmand swords away and looked back at the wall of flesh.

    The Captain had been about to ask Xu Qing about the sigh he mentioned, but before he could, something urred to him. Eyes widening, he looked at Xu Qing. Xu Qing apparently had thought of the same thing, as he also turned to look at the Captain.

    ¡°The third wave is already here?¡±

    ¡°Last I remember, the second wave had just shown up....¡±

    Their pupils constricted simultaneously as they took out theirmand swords again to review the contents of the notification. Both of them focused on the same thing, and it caused waves of shock to roll through them.

    ¡°Seven days?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    ¡°When we arrived at this pceplex, it was the fourth day, and the second wave had just arrived.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s expression became iparably serious.

    ¡°As far as I can tell,¡± the Captain said, ¡°we¡¯ve only been here for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn. But based on the information from themand sword, it¡¯s been three days!¡± His eyes glittered. ¡°What were we actually doing during those three days?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was very unsightly as he looked past the wall of flesh at the nine pces. He suddenly got the sensation that he had forgotten something. At the same time, he felt like this area seemed very familiar. It was a feeling very much like what he had experienced back in D-132. Without any hesitation, he tapped into the power of his D-132 heavenly pce and sent it throughout his body.

    The Captain¡¯s expression was grim. The image of a face appeared in his pupils and his aura turned very cold as he looked in the same direction as Xu Qing, at the wall of flesh.

    A long moment passed, and they slowly backed away from the area. As they did, the nine pces began to crumble and disappear. Seeing that, Xu Qing and the Captain stopped in ce. The moment they did, the crumbling stopped. Eyes nk, they took a few steps forward, which caused the crumbling to reverse. Then they backed up, and it started again. After they had backed up about 3,000 meters, the pceplex had crumbled into nothing, as it would have thanks to the ravages of time. However, there was one thing that didn¡¯t crumble. An old statue.

    It was in such bad shape it was impossible to tell much about it. Its facial features weren¡¯t visible. It wasn¡¯t possible to tell if it was male or female. It didn¡¯t even have arms. The only thing visible was amp.

    And next to themp was a violet bottle, right there in the middle of the ruins.

    1. Plumdark exined her dream in <u>chapter 380</u>. ?

    2. The robes with the four-wed dragon would be for princes or other royalty, as opposed to the emperor himself. And the crown with nine tassels would also be worn by high-ranking people other than the emperor (with the emperor having a twelve-tasseled crown). ?

 Chapter 523: Heavenfate Dao Soul (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 523: Heavenfate Dao Soul (part 1)</h4>

    The Captain hesitated. Xu Qing frowned.

    Their experiments had confirmed that the phoenix-like pceplex with its nine buildings would crumble when they moved away from them, and then be restored as they got closer. The transformation urred based on the behavior of whoever came to explore the ce. And if they got close enough, even stranger things would happen. They would enter a bizarre, distorted state of reality in which time passed without them realizing it.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing,¡± the Captain said, ¡°remember how you said the ce seemed familiar? Was that a really strong feeling?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Very strong.¡±

    ¡°In that case, do you think it¡¯s possible that, during the three days that passed, we actually went in and explored the ce? Maybe more than once? I have a simr feeling, but it¡¯s not very strong. So maybe I stayed on the perimeter while you went further inside. That would exin why you have such a strong feeling.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°If you¡¯re right, then had we not received that notification from themand sword, we wouldn¡¯t have realized time was passing. In which case, the next thing that would have happened would be me thinking to use the severed hand as a protection. And I would have asked you to throw me over the wall. Apparently that method works. Once inside the wall, I would step out of the hand and explore the pceplex.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing looked over at the hand hoping to find evidence to prove his theory. Unfortunately, the regenerative properties of the hand were so impressive that it looked exactly as it always had. That said, upon looking very closely, it was possible to find evidence of newly regrown flesh.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°So, you <i>have</i> explored the ce a few times. Except, you don¡¯t remember what happened inside.... Little Junior Brother, think carefully. Are you able to remember even the slightest thing?¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and searched his memories. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t remember anything at all. His recollection of the events with the pceplex seemed to make perfect sense, without any discrepancies in the timeline. He frowned. This was indeed very much like his early experience with D-132, although there were some differences.

    D-132 had two levels of reality, a superficial one, and a deeper one. Because of the effects of destiny aura, there was bnce between the two, leaving most ordinary people to only be able to see the superficial reality. That said, the deeper reality still existed at all times, and its influence still existed. People just didn¡¯t notice it. That was why other guards had died because of the misfortune in D-132. There were also other people who, for a variety of different reasons, woke up and saw past the superficial reality. But when they left D-132, they would forget everything. Because of that cycle, Xu Qing would wake up every day, and then forget everything every day. However, that led to a subconscious cyclical sensation.

    In contrast, the phoenix-like templeplex didn¡¯t have a superficial and deeper reality. It only had one level of reality that was part of the endless cycle.

    After analyzing the situation for a time, Xu Qing decided to activate his taboo poison core, his Ghost Emperor mountain, his heavenly dao, and the power of D-132, all at the same time. In the blink of an eye, he rose to a higher level of existence.

    As winds screamed in the area, the Captain looked over. This was the Captain¡¯s first time seeing Xu Qing in such a state. Eyes shining, he smacked his lips.

    Xu Qing ignored the Captain. As he continued to power up, he looked over at the pceplex. Everything seemed normal. But then Xu Qing¡¯s jaw nearly dropped. Tapping into his god body, he forced the golden threads within him to stir. Then his eyes glittered with golden light as he looked more closely at the templeplex.

    This time, he saw something different. The nine pces were clearly still there. But they seemed blurry. And they were covered by a shimmeringyer of violet, a light that seemed illusory, and gave off the sensation of existing somewhere between reality and falsehood. What was more, it contained a sense of flowing time. The sensation was difficult to describe.

    A momentter, Xu Qing retracted all his powers. Sighing, he turned to the Captain and shook his head.

    ¡°I can¡¯t remember.¡±

    The Captain sighed.

    ¡°Although,¡± Xu Qing suddenly added, ¡°I think I have a way to get that little violet bottle.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Xu Qing waved his right hand, causing the stone lion and head to fly out of his D-132 heavenly pce. The head was a quick learner, so the moment it appeared, it stered a fawning expression onto its face.

    ¡°Greetings, my most great, esteemed, paramount, and exalted jailer!¡±

    The stone lion had no head, and thus couldn¡¯t speak, but it wagged its tail vigorously and put its chest on the ground like a dog.

    The Captain had seen the head before, but not the stone lion, so his eyes glittered as he examined it.

    ¡°Is this another friend of yours, little Junior Brother? I remember seeing the head before, and was very intrigued. As for this stone lion, I¡¯d say it looks amazing. It smells a lot like a cloud troll, though. Also... these two friends of yours are very fantastic. Not only do they have destiny aura, but also, they¡¯ve been cursed. And those two powers exist in a perfect state of bnce.

    ¡°For a curse to exist in a state of bnce with destiny seems to indicate that the curse is from a god.... Little Junior Brother, have you ever heard of the idiom <i>a ghost helping a tiger</i>? In that idiom, the ghost is none other than a tiger-assisting ghost. ording to the stories, if a tiger kills someone, they¡¯ll be a special kind of ghost that stays by the tiger¡¯s side forever. These two friends of yours are basically tiger-assisting ghosts!¡± [1]

    When the stone lion heard that, it shivered. The head¡¯s eyes went wide, and it looked suspiciously at the Captain. This was the second time the two had encountered someone who could quickly see how unique they were.

    The first was Xu Qing. The second was this person. [2]

    <i>He called the Fiendish Xu ¡®little Junior Brother.¡¯ That means they¡¯re fellow disciples! Anyone who has such a close rtionship with the Fiendish Xu must also be a freakish hellion!</i> The terrified head thought back to when Xu Qing recently summoned it, stomped it, and then put it away after it recovered. In that brief moment, the head¡¯s attention had been focused on the terrifying Xu Qing, so it hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the other two individuals present. But now, it looked over and examined the Captain closely.

    The moment it did, its eyes nearly exploded, and it screamed, ¡°Mouths. Infinite mouths! Chains! Chains from the Nine Serenities.... Sealing marks. Unending seals! Dear lord! What am I looking at? The bones of gods? Innumerable bones of gods!¡±

    All of a sudden, the head exploded.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The Captain looked back innocently.

    The stone lion shivered, even more terrified than before.

    Shortly after, the head was back to normal. Trembling, it inclined itself into a bow, looking iparably obedient. It didn¡¯t dare to look at the Captain or Xu Qing, and was inwardly howling in grief. After all, it was just now realizing that, back when Xu Qing summoned it recently, there had been a third person present.

    Xu Qing had quickly whisked it back into D-132. But even back in D-132, it had trembled fearfully for a long time. That group of three people was just too terrifying, so much so that the head was too scared to use any of its powers.

    <i>All three of them arepletely terrifying!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s curiosity was piqued. Though he knew the Captain had a lot of secrets, the head¡¯s reaction was really pushing the boundaries of melodrama. Now wasn¡¯t the time to delve into the details, though, so he just looked coldly at the head.

    ¡°I want the two of you to go get that violet bottle. If you do well, I¡¯ll consider reducing your sentence.¡±

    ¡°Oh great and wonderful jailer, the reality is we don¡¯t care if our sentence is reduced or not. As long as we¡ª¡±

    Before the head could finish speaking, the stone lion nted its forepaws onto the ground, then burst into motion toward the templeplex. Seeing that, the head instantly got nervous and started rolling along after the stone lion. After picking up some speed, it flew into the air andnded on the lion¡¯s neck. Together, they dashed toward the area beyond the wall of flesh.

    Xu Qing watched carefully, as did the Captain.

    ¡°You think they can do it?¡± the Captain asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re prisoners from D-132. Considering how long they were in that cell block, they should be able to do it.¡± Xu Qing went on to exin a bit about how D-132 worked.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°I had no idea the Corrections Division had such an amazing location!¡±

    The Captain noted the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and realized how much he missed life in the Corrections Division. That made the Captain think about Pce Lord Kong, and how nice things had once been. Sighing inwardly, he sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder then pointed toward the templeplex.

    ¡°Very impressive!¡±

    The stone lion, carrying the head, shot toward the wall of flesh and then leaped over it. Because of their unique nature, the warding spells weren¡¯t effective at all against them.

    As Xu Qing watched, the stone lionnded in the courtyard and started circling around as if searching for something. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the violet bottle was very close, they didn¡¯t seem capable of finding it.

    Xu Qing frowned slightly.

    Then things changed. Apparently at the urging of the head, the two of them backed away from each other, then rushed toward each other, mmed into each other, and exploded. They were quickly resurrected. Trembling in excitement, they flew a short distance away, then killed each other again. That cycle continued to y out, getting them closer and closer to the violet bottle.

    The Captain chuckled. ¡°Those two are actually pretty smart! Whenever they¡¯re resurrected, the interaction between the destiny aura and the curse gives them a brief moment in which they can see their surroundings clearly.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    As the two of them watched, the head and the stone lion died a good dozen times or so. Eventually, they reached the violet bottle. Without the slightest hesitation, the head stuffed the bottle into its mouth, then flew back to the stone lion. As they fled, the area of dposition reached the remnants of the statue, which started blurring, and eventually crumbled into dust. At the same time, the wall of flesh extended to cover the entireplex.

    During the process, the stone lion and the head managed to race back to Xu Qing. The head released the violet bottle, then continued to jabber fawning words. However, Xu Qing just waved his hand and sucked them back into D-132.

    The Captain squatted and picked up the bottle. The moment he touched it, he shivered visibly. He recovered a momentter, and then looked at Xu Qing with an expression ofplete incredulity.

    ¡°This is... a timescape bottle!¡±

    1. I¡¯ve directly tranted the entire passage regarding ghosts and tigers. The idiom the Captain cites, <i>a ghost helping a tiger</i>, is not usually tranted into English that way, primarily because the character for ¡°ghost¡± is not the general one for ghost, but rather, that of the ¡°tiger-assisting ghost.¡± Such ghosts, which were mentioned previously in <u>chapter 241</u>, are ¡°the ghost of someone who was killed by a tiger, yet helps the tiger to devour others.¡± Usually, the idiom in question is tranted in ways such as: ying the jackal to the tiger; helping a rascalmit viiny; abetting an evildoer. ?

    2. Don¡¯t forget that, as initially revealed in <u>chapter 412</u>, Xu Qing figured out the secret of D-132 on his second day there. ?

 Chapter 523: Heavenfate Dao Soul (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 523: Heavenfate Dao Soul (part 2)</h4>

    The Captain instinctively looked left and right, then grabbed Xu Qing and directed the severed hand to leave the area.

    Xu Qing already had a lot of questions, but given the Captain¡¯s behavior, he held his tongue. Eventually, when they were far away in a safe location, the two of them squatted across from each other in the severed hand. The Captain was breathing heavily, and his eyes shone with brilliant light.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing asked, ¡°what exactly is a timescape bottle?¡±

    The Captain exhaled slowly, then once again looked around. Upon confirming they were alone, he performed an incantation gesture to seal the surroundings.

    Seemingly overwhelmed with excitement, he said, ¡°This is a major windfall, little Ah Qing!! A timescape bottle! I¡¯ve seen them described in certain ancient records. Back in the era of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, only the imperial n had these things. Even then, they were very rare. If a new one popped up, it would be the sole focus of the imperial n. And any group outside of the imperial n who got one and hid it would eventually be exterminated. Doing so was considered a major crime.

    ¡°Supposedly, when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity took the imperial n and various other humans out of this world, they took all the timescape bottles with them. Yet right here we have one. An actual timescape bottle!¡±

    Lowering his voice, the Captain continued, ¡°Nobody really knows where timescape bottlese from. From ancient times until now, not one person has been able to identify their true history. However, one known fact is that whenever Ancient Emperors conquered Revered Ancient in the past, they always collected them. ording to one legend, and it¡¯s just a legend, mind you, the timescape bottles contain the biggest secret of the Revered Ancient maind. Other people say that they contain the method that lets Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns break their inner shackles. Yet others say that timescape bottles contain the most supreme and paramount legacy imaginable.

    ¡°There¡¯s just about every sort of rumor imaginable regarding them. But in the end, only one timescape bottle cane to exist in a given epoch. They¡¯re mysteries that belonged only to the imperial ns. Although no one has ever unraveled the secrets of the timescape bottles, not even after all these years, they aren¡¯t useless by any stretch of the imagination. They have the power to preserve time itself. You see, they¡¯re receptacles, and anything you put inside them is spared the ravaging effects of time.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, now it makes sense why that area was so strange. There was a section of time that was preserved in the timescape bottle, and it was slowly spreading out in the area, creating an endless cycle.¡±

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing about timescape bottles, and the information was quite surprising. However, it also made him think about wish boxes and recording bottles. Therefore, he asked the Captain if they were connected.

    ¡°Wish boxes and recording bottles? Both of those things are basically imitations of timescape bottles. One of them copies the timescape bottles¡¯ preserving powers, the other imitates their powers of time preservation!¡±

    The Captain lifted the timescape bottle and shook it back and forth gently. ¡°There¡¯s something inside. It sounds like a liquid!¡± Eyes shining, he sniffed the bottle, causing an intoxicated expression to fill his face. ¡°Smells lovely! I wonder what it is. Seems consumable. Little Junior Brother, do you think we should drink it?¡± Licking his lips, the Captain passed the bottle to Xu Qing. ¡°You smell it.¡±

    Xu Qing epted the bottle, put it under his nose, and inhaled. A strange aroma entered him, bing an energy flow that swept through him. It didn¡¯t provoke any reaction from his god body, but it did cause the four lifemps in his sea of consciousness to flicker. They seemed to surge with boundless longing, as if the contents of the bottle would be an extraordinary boon to lifemps. And then there was his iplete twelfth heavenly pce, which rocked back and forth. Apparently, the contents of the bottle would be a big help in the process of materializing a heavenly pce.

    Xu Qing was visibly moved, but was also hesitant. After all, he had no idea what that liquid was, and it was a relic of ancient time. That said, as for whether or not it could be consumed, Xu Qing decided to trust the Captain.

    He nodded decisively. ¡°Let¡¯s drink it!¡±

    The Captain chuckled, took the bottle, shook it, then lifted it to his mouth and let a single drop of the viscous fluid flow out. There was another drop left in the bottle. The Captain handed the bottle to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing opened his mouth and poured the second drop inside. Then he closed his eyes to focus on absorbing the liquid. He immediately felt like his insides were about to explode. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering aura erupted in his mouth, shot down his throat, spread through his body, and converged in his sea of consciousness.

    The four lifemp heavenly pces trembled violently, much as the taboo poison core had reacted to god vitality, except that the longing was even more intense. It was as if their long existence had resulted in them being incredibly withered, and only now did they encounter true nourishment. After all, though they existed inside Xu Qing, and were thus bolstered by him, they hadn¡¯t been created using his blood.

    After absorbing the liquid, the life mes that burned on themps became unprecedentedly brighter. The fire burned incredibly brightly, such that it pierced the mist that hung over the sea of consciousness. As that fire climbed higher and higher, it was possible to see that atop each of the four lifemps sat a small, illusory figure, right in the middle of the me.

    When Xu Qing saw that, he was rocked with astonishment. He knew exactly what those small figures were.

    They were nascent souls!

    Though they were currently illusory, they were already getting very close to a state of full materialization.

    Thanks to the incitement of the liquid from the timescape bottle, the life mes burning on Xu Qing¡¯s four lifemps grew vastly brighter. What was more, the small figures sitting in the fire all bore the exact same face as Xu Qing.

    After ten breaths of time passed, the first of Xu Qing¡¯s lifemps, the ck umbre, started burning so brightly that the figure atop it materialized! It becamepletely clear to see. Then its eyes opened, and it seemed to be looking right at Xu Qing via divine sense, through the life me. Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as his cultivation base fluctuations grew even more intense.

    At the same time, an umbre appeared over Xu Qing¡¯s head. It looked different than before. It was more lustrous, and seemed even more real. What was more, as it hovered above the cross-legged Xu Qing, he seemed like a young Ancient Emperor. He abounded with majesty.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Next, as the seven-colored wind-chantingmp emanated deafening sounds, the figure in its me opened its eyes.

    A second umbre appeared!

    Next, a nascent soul formed in the hellspirit bloodwingmp, and then in the immortal-shredding god-devouringmp.

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged underneath four umbres, all of which flowed with dazzling light. There was the ck umbre, the seven-colored umbre, then the blood wing. After that, his aura became fiendish and deadly. All of thatbined with his spectacrly beautiful good looks would ensure that, if anyone was able to see him right now, and didn¡¯t know who he was, would assume that he was an imperial prince of humankind.

    Four nascent souls appeared, one after another, causing Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base to rise dramatically. His fluctuations reached an astonishing level, and terrifying power flowed through him. Next, his golden crow nascent soul erupted.

    At the same time, a sensation of impending heavenly tribtion filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind. However, it hadn¡¯t reached the point of bing a reality; the sensation needed to intensify before he could summon the tribtion.

    There was still a bit of power left from the liquid in the timescape bottle. Therefore, Xu Qing directed it toward his twelfth heavenly pce. It was close to being materialized, but not all the way. As it absorbed the power, it rapidly materialized, reaching an eighty percent level ofpletion. Then ny percent. Then ny-nine percent!

    His twelfth heavenly pce glittered brightly as it rocked back and forth.

    All it needed was an item to fill it, and it would beplete!

    Xu Qing opened his eyes to see the Captain looking regretfully at the umbres.

    The Captain¡¯s aura was obviously dramatically higher than before. Simr to Xu Qing, he emanated the fluctuations of the Nascent Soul level. However, it was hard to tell exactly how many nascent souls he had.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing awaken, the Captain inhaled sharply, his face a mask of regret. ¡°Little Ah Qing, the nascent souls your lifemps have formed are almost on the verge of summoning the first tribtion!

    ¡°Lifemps really are precious treasures. What a pity I don¡¯t have the blood of any Ancient Emperors or Imperial Sovereigns, so I can¡¯t make my own lifemp. And external lifemps can¡¯t be integrated into my blood. Nor can I do as the descendants of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, and use a lifemp as one of the Spirit Trove ovens, in other words, as the foundation for one of the five secret troves.

    ¡°That¡¯s why a lot of almighty cultivators don¡¯t care much about lifemps when they reach Spirit Trove. It¡¯s not that lifemps aren¡¯t good, but rather, we eventually just can¡¯t use them. Ai.¡±

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t heard about lifemps being converted into ovens in Spirit Trove. But he had sensed that, as his cultivation base climbed, the lifemps were reaching the point of being obsolete.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way you can integrate them with your blood?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain shook his head. ¡°From ancient times until now there have been plenty of people who tried. But sadly, it¡¯s not possible. The only people who can do that are descendants of Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns who used their own blood to make the lifemp.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. That said, he wasn¡¯t going to cry about the situation. His lifemps were still helping out when it came to the Nascent Soul level, and he got the sense that they would enable him to reach a peak level of strength.

    The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. I¡¯ll keep thinking about it, and who knows, maybe I¡¯lle up with a way to make it happen. Let¡¯s not worry about that now. I doubt Master had any clue that we would benefit from the good fortune of a timescape bottle. Therefore, he didn¡¯t bother giving us much detailed information about nascent souls. I guess I¡¯ll have to pick up the ck.

    ¡°The Nascent Soul level is called different things by different species. For instance the Heavenfate level, or the Dao Soul level. And of course, the Heavenfate Nascent Soul level. All of the different names trace back to times when various conquering Ancient Emperors decreed that the name be changed.

    ¡°When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity conquered Revered Ancient, he stipted that it be called the Heavenfate Dao Soul level. But the reality is that they all mean the same thing. The ¡®dao¡¯ was added to unify the understandings of all of the various species. As for ¡®heavenfate,¡¯ it refers to a specific type of heavenly tribtion.¡±

    Xu Qing took things he had already heard about the Heavenfate Dao Soul level andbined it with what the Captain had just told him to get an even clearer understanding.

    The way humans understood it was that the level required a ¡®dao soul¡¯ that had experienced the baptism of heavenly tribtion. After that, it was called a heavenfate dao soul. Truly stepping into that level required experiencing heavenly tribtion. Before you did, it didn¡¯t matter how many dao souls you had, you were still considered to be in the pseudo-Nascent Soul level.

    That was how it was in the era of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Though humans no longer controlled the entire maind, their understanding of the level hadn¡¯t changed. Of course, different species had different beliefs and customs. There were even many species who didn¡¯t believe that heavenly tribtion was important, so as soon as someone had a dao soul, they were considered to be in a higher cultivation realm.

    Humans considered the heavenly tribtion to be a way to deal with the shackles limiting nascent souls. With every new nascent soul that appeared, they would have it face heavenly tribtion, the baptism of which would break that shackle.

    The world of Revered Ancient was huge and filled with countless species that had varying beliefs. For instance there were the Demi-Immortals, who looked at things very differently than humans. And there were plenty others like them. As a result, there was no way there would be one unified understanding.

    What was more, there were different ways of achieving breakthroughs, depending on the species. As a result, there were plenty of variations within the level, and also some that were stronger than others.

    In the final analysis, though, there were basically two main types. In one type, the baptism of heavenly tribtion came starting with the second nascent soul. In the second, which was the rarer type, the cultivator would form nascent souls in all of their heavenly pces, and then experience all of the tribtions at one time. Thetter was the more difficult version, but those who seeded would have stronger heavenfate, which would be of great assistance in the Spirit Trove level.

    Once in the Heavenfate Dao Soul level, rising higher was a different process than in the Gold Core level with its heavenly pces. It required passing the heaven-fate tribtions. With each nascent soul that experienced that baptism, one rose to a higher level.

    Doing so five times was considered the great circle.

    There were dangers involved, and thus, it was required to strengthen the nascent souls as much as possible before attempting the tribtion. Otherwise, a failure would involve the permanent destruction of the nascent soul.

    That was where lifemps showed their true advantage in this level. That was because if a lifemp failed a tribtion, themp wouldn¡¯t be destroyed. In turn, that meant that multiple attempts were possible with them.

    As he contemted those things, Xu Qing examined his twelfth heavenly pce and tried to decide what to do with it. That was when the Captain unexpectedly tossed him the timescape bottle.

    ¡°Put this thing into your twelfth heavenly pce!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the Captain.

    ¡°It¡¯s a real treasure, and I can¡¯t use it. My cultivation involves undoing seals.¡± The Captain chuckled and winked.

    ¡°Thank you, Eldest Brother.¡± Xu Qing felt warmth in his heart. Over the years that had passed, the Captain and Master Seventh had be like a family he couldn¡¯t do without.

    His experiences as a youth had resulted in him developing a cold personality, but deep inside, he had always longed to have family. He and the Captain had gone through a lot together. They had risked their lives together. And unconsciously, Xu Qing had started to think of him as a big brother.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing put the timescape bottle into his twelfth heavenly pce.

    The pce rumbled as it becameplete. It was very different from his other heavenly pces; the twelfth pce pulsed with the power of time. As it did, Xu Qing could just barely make out something like a sighing from the ancient past. That sigh caused his eyes to widen.

    It was... Arch-Immortal Plumdark¡¯s voice.

    He was just about to try to figure out what was going on when, all of a sudden, a deafening rumbling sound filled the dome of heaven. Cracking sounds rang out, and rifts opened up overhead, filling the sky. The canopy of heaven suddenly resembled a spider web. Bright red light began to spread out everywhere.

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain looked visibly surprised.

 Chapter 524: Crimson Mother Arrives (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 524: Crimson Mother Arrives (part 1)</h4>

    The canopy of heaven in Forbidden by the Immortal was lit with crimson light, making it seem like a world of blood. What was more, it was full of rifts. Thanks to the bright red sky, it was possible to see that the rifts were very deep. And they didn¡¯t look like they¡¯d formed naturally. They looked constructed, such that they resembled a massive magical symbol! A mere nce at that symbol would cause feelings of uncontroble terror to rise up in a person, something instinctual and from the depths of one¡¯s life force.

    It wasn¡¯t just Xu Qing and the Captain who were shaken. All of the cultivators in the safety zone were also affected. Everyone felt deeply moved, and sensed as if a great catastrophe was looming. The army of cultivators was made mostly of people from the second and third wave. Most of those who¡¯d made up the first wave had already left.

    The source of the dramatic scene in the canopy of heaven was the central region of Forbidden by the Immortal. At that location was the main imperial pce hall of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity for this particr operations pce.

    What had once been a magnificent and iparable pce hall was now very different. It was now covered in a gigantic, cancerous growth of flesh. From a distance, it looked like a massive ball of flesh some tens of thousands of meters in size, covered with thick blood veins that stretched all over it. What was more, it pulsed, almost like a heart.

    <i>Thump thump. Thump thump.</i>

    Every time it moved, it sent a thunderous noise rippling out in all directions.

    That noise distorted the air, turning it blurry. Mutagen levels soared, bing like a mist. It also created gruish figures who hovered in the air and bowed to the ball of flesh. The blood vessels stretched out from the flesh and across the ground in the area.

    About 500 kilometers away, there was another strange sight. It wasn¡¯t a ball of flesh, but rather, something like a spike rising into the sky. It was pitch ck, incredibly sharp, and pulsed with a cold aura. It looked like some sort of consummate, deadly weapon. It was a godly weapon, and there wasn¡¯t just one of them. Another 500 kilometers away was another spike that looked exactly the same. Yet another 500 kilometers away was a third spike! If you could look down on Forbidden by the Immortal from a very high vantage point, you would see that there were a total of twenty-seven spikes. Starting from the imperial pce, they stretched out toward the west. It was almost as if there were some huge beast buried underneath the operations pce, and the thorns were spikesing off of its back.

    The ¡®heart¡¯ covering the imperial pce was directly above that beast, and hovering above it in the sky was an octagonal spell formation that looked like it was set into the sky itself. It pulsed with red light. There was a natural cadence to the way it flickered and turned the sky red. It was impossible to tell what the spell formation was made from. It was only 3,000 meters across, sopared to the beast below, it was insignificant other than the red light it cast.

    That said, it was clearly the source of the rifts, as they spread out from the formation to fill the dome of heaven.

    Inside the octagonal spell formation were 361 ck-robed figures. 360 of them sat cross-legged and were chanting some sort ofplicated and indecipherable enchantment. It wasn¡¯t a humannguage. It sounded gruish and bizarre. What was more, every so often as they chanted, they would lift a hand, plunge it into their bodies, and pull out one of their organs. Then they would hold the organ high overhead, dripping blood, as if it were an offering. The organs would rapidly wither, turning into ck energy that converged in the middle of the spell formation.

    That was the location of the 361st person. Though he also wore a voluminous ck cloak, he was trembling so hard that the hood had fallen back to reveal a face criss-crossed with red blood vessels.

    He was none other than Zhang Siyun. He knelt there, his head thrown back so he faced the sky, his expression one of agony. The blood vessels on his face wriggled, and were seemingly trying to take the shape of a crescent moon. Tears of blood leaked out of his eyes. His left eye had burst out of the eye socket, leaving an open hole. Countless blood vessels snaked out of that hole and connected to the spell formation, whose blessing allowed them to continue growing outward. If you traced those blood vessels further, you would find that the rifts in the sky were actually extensions of the blood vessels from Zhang Siyun¡¯s hollowed-out left eye!

    As the sound of the enchantment rang out, the wriggling of the blood vessels on his face increased in intensity, and the shape of a red crescent moon became more clear. Meanwhile, the ck energy converging around Zhang Siyun was sucked into him, where it became red, and was fed into the growing moon.

    Then Zhang Siyun''s hands slowly rose. It seemed as though he would soon rip out his right eye and then cover both eyes with his hands, which would conform exactly to the figure atop the moon that Xu Qing had seen in his sea of consciousness. [1]

    The 360 ck-robed figures surrounding Zhang Siyun started chanting with increased fervor, all while continuing to rip out their organs and offer them as sacrifices. The smell of gore abounded in the most gruish fashion, apanied by a boundlessly vile aura.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were deeply shaken, and were no longer seeking new ces to explore. Instead, they were looking for somewhere with a lot of built-up flesh. Though there was magenta flesh everywhere, it seemed better to find a ce with a lot of it.

    About two hourster, as Xu Qing¡¯s anxiety was really starting to build up, they saw some distant ruins that had been covered with so much flesh it looked like a mountain. Eventually, they found a spot in one of the massive, flesh-covered walls that seemed to be an opening.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hole up in here, little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain said quietly after looking around.

    Xu Qing also scanned the area, then nodded. The two of them entered. As they did, they spotted a fallen card with the character East on it.

    ¡°East Pce? Normally a crown prince¡¯s residence is called the East Pce.¡± The Captain looked around regretfully. ¡°It¡¯s too bad the ce is in ruins. Normally speaking, the crown prince¡¯s residence would have a lot of good treasures in it.¡±

    Xu Qing also felt it was a pity. They had seen a lot of pces as they traveled, which gave a good sense of the wealth during Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s time. They hadn¡¯t even explored all of the east district yet, much less gone beyond it. Forbidden by the Immortal was so huge thatpletely exploring it would require a huge group of people, and even then would take many months.

    ¡°I wonder if we¡¯ll get a chance toe back inter,¡± the Captain said.

    After looking around, they selected a rather remote side chamber. Clearing out the flesh, they started digging a little cave. The flesh was in almost constant motion, so as soon as they cleared the flesh, it started growing back. Therefore, as soon as they had a little tunnel dug, they burrowed in.

    As the flesh closed up behind them, they kept digging in. Eventually, when they felt they were deep enough, they settled down cross-legged amidst the flesh and the mutagen.

    ¡°I wonder how Master is nning to profit from all of this,¡± Xu Qing said as he looked around at the darkness. He still couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the sigh he¡¯d heard when he integrated the timescape bottle into his heavenly pce. It seemed to still echo in his mind.

    ¡°Hey, little Ah Qing, want to see a battle between gods?¡± The Captain chuckled, then extended his hand to reveal an eyeball in his palm. It blinked a few times, then projected an image of a red sky.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    ¡°I put a few eyes in ce outside, all for the purpose of being able to witness this battle between gods. That said, I know it brings a certain element of risk. So let¡¯s wait until the red moon is awakened and in the middle of devouring the local god. Things will be a lot safer then.¡±

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain closed his hand, covering the eye.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s wait. It shouldn¡¯t be very long now.¡±

    With that, he put on the skin mask with its concealment powers. He settled the power of his taboo poison over his violet moon heavenly pce. He also added in the power of his heavenly dao, the Ghost Emperor mountain, and the daybreak light. With all that, he was confident the violet moon wouldn¡¯t be revealed. Having aplished these things, he closed his eyes and settled down to wait, all while mentally reviewing everything that happened with the phoenix-like templeplex.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    About six hourster, intense rumbling sounds once again echoed out in the sky outside. They were so intense that Xu Qing and the Captain could hear them even in their hiding spot in the flesh.

    Shaken, and still a bit fearful, they continued to wait. They didn¡¯t try to look at what was happening. Xu Qing knew for sure that the red moon... was about to wake up.

    The red color in the sky was even more intense than before, casting all of the buildings and flesh in a deep crimson light. There was some violet in it, but it was overwhelmed by the blood-red color.

    The twenty-seven spikes trembled, and the racing heart seemed to pulse with an aura of awakening.

    Meanwhile, in the canopy of heaven, all of the ck-robed individuals in the octagonal spell formation, who had already sacrificed their five yin organs and their left eyes, dug out their right eyes. As they held them aloft, Zhang Siyun¡¯s right eye withered into nothing, and a host of blood vessels exploded out of his eye socket.

    More rifts opened up in the sky.

    Then Zhang Siyun¡¯s hands slowly covered both of his eyes. His facial expression didn¡¯t reveal any hint of pain. The corners of his lips twitched upward slightly. A terrifying and paramount will suddenly erupted from Zhang Siyun. Both heaven and earth were all stained red by that will.

    Then a red moon rose in the sky of Forbidden by the Immortal, right above Zhang Siyun!

    1. Xu Qing saw the figure atop the moon, covering its eyes with its hands, in <u>chapter 361</u>. ?

 Chapter 524: Crimson Mother Arrives (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 524: Crimson Mother Arrives (part 2)</h4>

    The ground shook as a voice erupted from below that sounded like it had been wrenched from sleep.

    ¡°Crimson Mother!¡±

    Countless pces crumbled, and the flesh that filled Forbidden by the Immortal shivered. The twenty-seven spikes all started emitting bright light. In the location of the heart, the wriggling flesh opened up to reveal a 30,000-meter golden eye inside, which was open. The ground trembled violently, the sky rippled, and mutagen exploded out everywhere. The entire world blurred. The prostrating figures all around screamed and scattered. And the subject of the eye¡¯s vision, the octagonal spell formation up in the sky, instantly crumbled into ashes.

    The 360 ck-robed figures experienced instant mutation, and then exploded, bing a rain of blood that showered down. Shockingly, the raindrops mutated in midair! They became numerous golden eyes that swirled around the huge 30,000-meter eye. And they were looking up at the only entity left in the sky!

    They were staring at a kneeling figure, floating there with both hands covering its eyes. It almost looked like a statue.

    It was none other than Zhang Siyun. He was very conspicuous as the eye of the god stared at him. But it didn¡¯t seem to affect him at all, as if the power of that gaze were insignificant. The red moon behind him glittered with blood-colored light, bing the only thing clearly visible in the entire Forbidden by the Immortal. The corners of his mouth rose further. Though it seemed a given that he should seem sinister and terrifying, there was also something very elegant about him. Keeping his hands in front of his eyes, he slowly rose to a standing position. As he did, something about him changed.

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled off of h¨¥r, filling heaven and earth. Long ck hair became as red as blood, spreading out to cover thends and fill the sky. A crown of thorns settled onto the head of ¡®Zhang Siyun¡¯; clearly visible on it were three vicious faces, sealed inside, howling in agony. From the fluctuations emanating from the crown, it was obvious those three faces all belonged to gods. Th¨¥y had been used to create the crown.

    The blood vessels on the face flowed together, converging on the forehead in the shape of a red moon. H¨¥r eye sockets were now like seas of blood that glowed with an extremely disturbing light. The ck daoist robe covering h¨¥r body crumbled into ashes, and was reced by a flowing gold robe, so voluminous it spread out in all directions, covering the surroundingnds.

    From a distance, the scene was spectacr and shocking. Hair filled the sky. The clothing covered thend. Sh¨¥ hovered between heaven and earth, like the ruler of the world. The good looks of ¡®Zhang Siyun¡¯ seemed supremely holy. It was enough that, anyone who looked at this scene would feel their blood vessels copsing, and anyone who heard what was happening would descend into an endless sea of pain.

    The only way to live would be to offer obeisance. As of this moment, godly might raged. The distortions created by the huge eye below were wiped out of existence and reced. The mutagen pouring out transformed, bing a red mist that imprinted itself on h¨¥r robe, bing aplex red design.

    ¡°How amusing,¡± Crimson Mother said softly.

    All of the humans¡¯ ns wereing to fruition now that sh¨¥ was awake. Gods didn¡¯t need to sit around conjecturing and analyzing. With a single nce, a god could understand anything and everything. All information existed within a god. Nothing from the mortal world could be hidden from the sight of such a being. Everything was transparent.

    That said, the human emperor¡¯s scheme was still working. When Crimson Mother woke up and saw the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal, that god was like a juicy piece of meat, just waiting to be devoured.

    ¡°A unique body. Excellent.¡± Crimson Mother did not speak thenguage of humans, but that didn¡¯t matter. All species could understand words spoken by a godly voice. It caused Forbidden by the Immortal to show signs of immediate copse. Cracks spread out on the ground, and the sky seemed like it might shatter. ck soil was revealed outside, but it quickly turned red. It was as if Forbidden by the Immortal itself couldn¡¯t sustain the sound of h¨¥r voice.

    As the ground trembled, golden blood flowed out of the eye in the imperial pce. The twenty-seven spikes released flickering fluctuations, and a thunderous roar echoed out.

    ¡°High God Crimson Mother, my lord and master is wless Hell, Celestial Manager and Fifth Star of Cruelty, to whom was burned the godfire of the Land of Cruelmurk, well-deserving of the title High God!¡±

    Crimson Mother looked down, blood-colored eyes fixing onto the huge eye below. Golden saliva oozed out of the corners of h¨¥r mouth. Every drop that fell became like golden meteors that smashed into the ground and ate out enormous craters. Anything the golden saliva touched, it dissolved.

    It was as if Crimson Mother waspletely ignoring the words spoken by the huge eye. As the saliva fell, sh¨¥ extended her right hand, then pushed it down toward the ground. That gesture caused the ground of Forbidden by the Immortal to tremble with unprecedented intensity. Starting with the imperial pce at the center, five enormous crevices appeared.

    Each one was a different length, with the shortest being 100-150 kilometers long, with the longest being about 250 kilometers. The ravines stretched in a fan-like shape, stretching to the northwest, true north, and northeast. They were like five fingers! Behind them was arge portion of thend that sank down to a depth of 30,000 meters, and was covered with countless smaller gullies in the southwest, due south, and southeast.

    Looking at it straight down from high above, it was obviously a huge palm print some 500 kilometers in size. It was as if a massive hand were falling from the sky into the middle of the forbidden ground. The five huge fingers were visible right where the twenty-seven spikes stretched out.

    As the ground trembled and shook, h¨¥r open right hand slowly closed. At the same time, the five fingers of the enormous hand did the same thing, digging huge furrows into the ground. Dirt exploded everywhere, and Forbidden by the Immortal shook violently.

    The god of Forbidden by the Immortal howled, and as the cries drifted everywhere, the twenty-seven spikes glowed with dazzling godly light, bing beams that shot upward. From a distance, it was possible to see that every single spike contained the power to pierce through heaven and earth. They were like twenty-seven godly weapons, all targeting Crimson Mother.

    The red moon on Crimson Mother¡¯s forehead glittered, and the red moon higher in the sky radiated dazzling light. That light became a sea of blood that mmed into the twenty-seven beams of golden light, and transformed into twenty-seven blood-colored vortexes.

    The vortexes spun endlessly and could not be pierced through. The twenty-seven beams of golden light were obviously going to be assimted by the red vortexes.

    Divine will tinged with terror erupted from the ground. Saliva continued to drip from Crimson Mother¡¯s mouth, while h¨¥r blood-red gaze emanated fluctuations of greed and hunger. Then sh¨¥ lifted her right hand with great force. Cracking sounds rang out as five huge furrows grew deeper, until they reached the true form of the god below.

    Gold and red collided,ying waste to countless pces and collections of flesh. The ground was pulverized as the god resting beneath the surface of the ground thrashed violently. Deafening rumbling sounds rang out as soil exploded everywhere. Crimson Mother¡¯s smile continued to grow as sh¨¥ wrenched her right hand up.

    The ground for 500 kilometers in all directions copsed as the massive invisible handtched onto the god of Forbidden by the Immortal. As thends copsed, something huge appeared. It was a gigantic tentacle of flesh, almost like a snake, that whipped about as it was wrenched violently out of the ground.

    Crashing sounds rang out as a 5,000-kilometer gully formed.

    Countless red lightning bolts filled the dark sky as the god of Forbidden by the Immortal was pulled into the open. The god resembled a snake or dragon, with no scales, but instead, a body formed from magenta flesh. As the god twisted and writhed, a host of twenty-seven spikes was visible, with a distance of 500 kilometers between each one. They were like a line of twenty-seven needles going down the back.

    This was the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal. As the god howled, the twenty-seven spikes stabbed toward the hand, but could not prate it. However, they did manage to surround the hand and thus reveal the hand¡¯s general shape.

    The scene was profoundly shocking to anyone who could see it. Even to the cultivators, it seemed like something out of myth or legend, and filled them with intense reverence. Because of the shockwaves, much of thends behind were destroyed. But the ce least affected was the east district. Clearly, that was why the humans had chosen to make their safe zone there. Everything... had been part of the n.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were both stunned. Once the action started, the Captain had opened his hand, and they had been able to use his eyes to view the event from different angles, giving a veryprehensive view. However, the power of the gods was too much for the Captain¡¯s special eyes, and they kept exploding. Therefore, the view wasn¡¯t as clear as it could have been. That said, it didn¡¯t change the terror they felt regarding Crimson Mother. If anything, it increased it. To them, the god of Forbidden by the Immortal had seemed astoundingly mighty, to the point where even getting too close was risking death. Yet Crimson Mother was easily able to drag the god out of the ground.

    The struggling of that god made it very clear how vast the differences could be between the strength of different gods.

    Eyes glittering, the Captain took a deep breath and said, ¡°The gods of the Revered Ancient maind are far, far stronger than most people can even imagine. Strong beyondprehension. And these entities that even cultivators call gods are, to the mortals, creators. Each and every one! I really feel like eating red moon, little Junior Brother....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding with fear, but he didn¡¯t show it. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all to hear the Captain say something like that. It was just the type of crazy thing he was always saying.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Good luck with that.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you support me a bit more, little Junior Brother? I¡¯m already devising an amazing new n. Actually... I worked out a simr n in a previous life. It didn¡¯t work.¡±

    Eyes glittering, the Captain licked his lips.

 Chapter 525: Snatching Food From the Tigerâ€™s Mouth (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 525: Snatching Food From the Tiger¡¯s Mouth (part 1)</h4>

    At the moment, the Captain and Xu Qing were hiding, not moving a muscle.

    Other than them, all other cultivators had fled, terrified, into the safety zone in the east district. All of them sat cross-legged with their eyes closed, not even daring to look at what was happening outside. In fact, they didn¡¯t even dare to directly <i>sense</i> what was happening. They stayed in ce in the defensive spell formations that had been erected specifically to use in this moment. A fight between gods was something they fundamentally didn¡¯t qualify to even observe. A mere nce could end with them killed in body and soul. Even using alternative methods to watch, such as the Captain was doing, required some boost on a substructural level, or perhaps a special item.

    Considering the elite nature of the cultivators who had been part of this expeditionary force, it was a given that some of them had such qualifications or items. Thus, there were a few who were able to use such means to see what was happening.

    Outside of Forbidden by the Immortal, in the mouth of the bottle that was the canopy of heaven, there were people waiting at the crumbled spell formation in the depths of the old Corrections Division.

    Shockingly, one of them was Seventh Prince. With him were the lieutenant governor and themanders-in-chief from the pces. There were also numerous powerful experts from the imperial army. All of them looked very serious. Even the four-wed golden dragon in the dome of heaven was paying close attention to what was happening. All were looking down at the world that existed beyond the spell formation. Of course, the opening had been sealed tight, but there was now a glowing screen there that showed a projection of Crimson Mother and the god of Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Standing next to Seventh Prince was a person in a voluminous ck robe, who spoke in a sinister, piercing voice. ¡°Your Majesty, everything is going as nned. As predicted by His Imperial Majesty and the imperial preceptor, the first thing High God Crimson Mother did upon awakening was attempt to devour the god of Forbidden by the Immortal.

    ¡°Now we just need to wait and see if the second phase of the n goes smoothly. It won¡¯t take Crimson Mother long to devour the other god.... After that, if Crimson Mother escapes into the outside world, then I fear that all of Sea-Sealing County....¡±

    Upon hearing those words, the surrounding Sea-Sealing County cultivators bowed their heads to conceal the mixed emotions on their faces.

    Seventh Prince kept his gaze fixed on the screen as he softly said, ¡°Before I came here, my father the emperor asked if I was afraid of dying in this ce. Do you know what I told him? I said that I was more than willing to give my life for a great cause!

    ¡°I¡¯m not strong enough to stop Crimson Mother from escaping. However, not even a god would be able to do much after getting out, and would end up dying along with Sea-Sealing County. Kong Liangxiu could have seen that happen, and I, Guyue Zhang¡¯an, can do the same thing.

    ¡°When I told my father the emperor that, he looked at me and said, ¡®Gods are just like us, except on a much higher level. Th¨¥ir so-called omniscience and omnipotence only apply to life forces weaker than th¨¥ir own.¡¯ In other words, gods can also be plotted against. Tricked. Crimson Mother is definitely not going to be satisfied....¡±

    Back in Forbidden by the Immortal, the long, almost rope-like god was still struggling mightily. ¨©ts twenty-seven spikes pulsed with the power to destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth, and they shone with brilliant golden light that wrapped around Crimson Mother¡¯s invisible hand and stabbed into it. Every single one of those spikes would have been a precious treasure if it surfaced in the Revered Ancient maind of ancient times. But now, when unleashed against Crimson Mother, they couldn¡¯t put up a serious force of resistance. Grating sounds echoed out that could shred the souls of ordinary people. At the same time, godly howls echoed out in heaven and earth.

    From a distance, the god of Forbidden by the Immortal looked like a snake that had been dragged out of the ground, and was being slowly pulled toward the red moon. ¨©ts every twitch shattered the air, and ¨©ts every howl caused the surroundings to copse. Bothnd and sky in the area around the conflict were being reduced to rubble.

    Up in the canopy of heaven, Crimson Mother, whose physical form was that of Zhang Siyun, looked at the other god with mouth open so wide it stretched from ear to ear. The mouth lookedpletely vicious and horrifying. Within it were countless razor-sharp teeth, as well as a huge tongue made of countless hairs that slowly stretched out. On the tip of the tongue was a blurry face that appeared to be the face of a woman, whose eyes were closed, and yet looked extremely greedy and hungry. Saliva dripped off the tongue, sshing down into the craters below.

    The scene could hardly have been more gruish. Taking the image in as a whole, it was almost impossible to describe. This was a level of power that surpassed cultivators by many times over. As the golden light and the blood-red glow neared, they were filled with hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of god magics, allbined into one force.

    When they formed, they instantly copsed, then formed again in the blink of an eye. Apparently, th¨¥y didn¡¯t even need to consciously unleash any god magic; such god magic naturally formed automatically.

    In the final analysis though, it was clear that of these two most primordial of beings, one was about to consume the other. There was none of the holiness one would expect of gods. Yet any who saw it would, for a variety of reasons, feel a sense of holiness rising within them. It was as if the meaning of the word ¡®holy¡¯ had, many countless years ago when the broken face of the god arrived, been carelessly twisted into something else.

    What was more, any observer would be able to sense that the god that had been sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal, which possessed the power of misfortune, did have godly authority. Yet in the face of Crimson Mother, that godly authority wasn¡¯t doing ¨©t any good. The difference between the two was apparent; it was almost like an encounter between a toddler and an adult. It wasn¡¯t that the god in Forbidden by the Immortal wasn¡¯t strong; rather, Crimson Mother was just a higher-level being!

    As the snake-like god from Forbidden by the Immortal was pulled inexorably closer to being devoured, ¨©t suddenly let loose a powerful roar. As a result, the god¡¯s entire body exploded.

    A massive boom ripped through heaven and earth. That god¡¯s body, which was more than 10,000 kilometers in length, shattered into a river of flesh, a stream of golden light that swept across the canopy of heaven. In that manner, the god slipped out of Crimson Mother¡¯s grip.

    The river of flesh then converged in another spot, where it quickly stitched back together. This time, it didn¡¯t resemble a snake, but rather, something else.

    It looked vaguely like a fish.

    And the twenty-seven spikes that had been on its back were now inside of it, and resembled the skeleton of a fish. Meanwhile, the shockwaves sweeping through Forbidden by the Immortal caused the magenta flesh covering the various pces and buildings to vibrate. Then they peeled off in strips, flew up, and fused with the fish-shaped body.

    From a distance, it was possible to see countless strips of flesh rising up and building into the shape of a fish. That included the spot where Xu Qing and the Captain were hiding, and as the flesh lifted away, their hiding spot was revealed.

    Xu Qing sat there stock still, focusingpletely on staying concealed. The Captain did the same.

    The auraing off that fish was profoundly important to Crimson Mother. Just like the sun would ignore the stars, Crimson Mother ignored everything else and focused fully on the fish. That was only truer as the strips of flesh filled in the colossally monstrous creature, until the appearance of the thing was that of an enormous, magenta fish. The fish was scaleless, with a huge mouth full of incredibly vicious razor-sharp teeth that emanated godly might. The fish also had two whiskers that undted on either side, and they were the color of gold.

    Most strange was the fish¡¯s tail, which was not smooth and t. It spread like a peacock¡¯s tail, with the feathers like sharp thorns that gradually assumed the shape of a face. It was not the face of a male or female. In fact, it wasn¡¯t even human. ¨©ts face had four eyes, no nose, and a closed mouth beneath the eyes.

    There were alsoplex designs that covered everything, making the face difficult to see clearly. That said, there was godly might on disy that caused a sense of holiness to again rise in the hearts of any observers.

    Beyond that, boundless information streamed from the god¡¯s body and into the minds of anyone looking on. Those who did would feel madness rising within them, as well as a sense of impending amnesia. Any who looked for too long would find their memories disappearing, and ultimately reced. This was the true form of the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s saliva flowed as sh¨¥ stared at the fish and strode forward, surrounded by glowing red light that deepened the rifts in the sky.

    All of a sudden, golden light erupted from the eyes on the fish¡¯s tail, and the face¡¯s mouth opened wide. Golden bubbles spewed from the mouth that contained major worlds. Countless lives proliferated within them, creating generation after generation of life force. Little did they know that the world they lived in were mere bubbles spat out of the mouth of a god. When the bubbles reached the end of their flight path, they popped, releasing boundless force which smashed into Crimson Mother. The fish god took advantage of that moment to suddenly turn transparent. The air around the fish then sank in on itself, as if it were turning into a ck hole. ¨©t was hoping to flee this ce.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes shone with greed. Clearly, sh¨¥ had no intention of letting this fish flee, and thus blurred into motion, sending out fluctuations that turned everything bright red. As for the popping bubbles, they became sealing marks thatnded on Crimson Mother¡¯s clothing and formed a design.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s right hand waved through the air, and the air sank, turning into a sea of blood that swept over everything. The transparent fish god had no choice but to appear in the open, ¨©ts facial expression one of terror. The fish god clearly wanted to flee, but then Crimson Mother arrived, ready for food.

    Red beams of light swept out from the red moon, filling the canopy of heaven as they swept endlessly toward the fish god.

    The fish god had no opportunity to flee. The red beams of light swept forth from every direction, creating an inescapable prison. The fish god struggled mightily, even roaring, yet none of that did any good.

    The moment Crimson Mother arrived, ¨©t was truly nothing more than a fish.

    Crimson Mother closed in on the fish god, pulsing with a sensation of intense hunger. H¨¥r eyes glittered with joy as sh¨¥ opened her mouth unnaturally wide. H¨¥r tongue then stretched forth like a snake toward the trembling fish god. The woman¡¯s face on the tip of the tongue opened her eyes, and they glowed bright red. At the same time, a godly voice echoed out into heaven and earth.

    ¡°Open the entrance.¡±

    The echoing words provoked an unprecedentedly shrill howl from the fish. The fish¡¯s flesh and bones ignited, burning with golden mes that rose into the sky and took the shape of a well. In the blink of an eye, the well went from illusory to corporeal.

    The pitch ck interior led to the Land of Cruelmurk!

    How could a single fish make Crimson Mother so happy? After all, the fish¡¯s paltry body could only be an appetizer to h¨¥r.

    The reality was that the true feast was to be found beyond the entrance to the Land of Cruelmurk. All along, Crimson Mother had been nning to take advantage of the fish¡¯s rtionship with wless Hell, Celestial Manager and Fifth Star of Cruelty, to open that entrance.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s true form was about to enter the Land of Cruelmurk... to devour the godfire of High God wless Hell! This was the second phase of the emperor¡¯s scheme, which Seventh Prince had discussed earlier! The subsequent length of slumber would be determined by the food devoured.

 Chapter 525: Snatching Food From the Tigerâ€™s Mouth (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 525: Snatching Food From the Tiger¡¯s Mouth (part 2)</h4>

    As Xu Qing and the Captain observed these things happening in the projection in front of them, they were left reeling.

    The eyes of all observers couldn¡¯t help but be focused on the possessed Zhang Siyun, who was now a mere godly doppelg?nger of Crimson Mother. At the moment, sh¨¥ was glowing with incredibly bright light.

    The countless rifts in the sky that formed a magical symbol were glittering brightly. The entire canopy of heaven was bright red, and seemed to be stirring in motion. The sky spun, faster and faster, until it gradually became a blood-colored vortex. Rumbling sounds echoed out as moonlight emerged from within the vortex. It was as if the vortex connected to some unknownnd, a ce where, high in the sky there hung a huge blood moon!

    This was the <i>real</i> red moon! On that moon was a kneeling statue with its hands covering its eyes. But now those hands were slowly lowering. The statue¡¯s mouth stretched wide in a greedy grin.

    This was Crimson Mother¡¯s true form!

    Entering the Land of Cruelmurk to devour a High God by means of a doppelg?nger wasn¡¯t enough. Crimson Mother was actuallying in person. Sh¨¥ rose to her feet on the red moon, and wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Rumbling sounds echoed out, and destructive power rocked everything as sh¨¥ strode forward. Every step surpassed space and time. The step surpassed the vortex, emerging from the other heaven and earth, to arrive... right in front of the well formed by the burning of the golden god fish.

    The moment the true form appeared, the doppelg?nger blurred. Then, almost all of the energy within the doppelg?nger swept out of the top of its head in a haze. After taking most of the energy out of the doppelg?nger, Crimson Mother¡¯s true form stepped into the ancient well, thus entering the Land of Cruelmurk!

    Violent rumblings emerged from the well, mixed with the anguished howl of the fish, who was enraged at having been forced to create the well to begin with.

    As for what exactly was ying out in the Land of Cruelmurk, no one knew. However, stters of golden blood flew out of the ancient well, and horrifying chewing sounds echoed out through Forbidden by the Immortal and into Sea-Sealing County. It then spread through the entire Holytide Region, into Nightshade Region, and even into the Imperial Region.

    They also echoed into the regions controlled by other major species. Over forty regions were all inundated by that sound which seemingly came from nowhere. That part of the Revered Ancient maind waspletely shaken.

    Meanwhile, beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, golden blood seethed. It was the same in the depths of the cavern at the bottom of the Forbidden Sea. In other prefectures, counties, and regions through Revered Ancient, there were over eight thousand ghast hollows, and in all of them, god blood seethed.

    All living beings were left trembling and astonished.

    That wasn¡¯t the end of it, though. All of the forbidden regions and forbidden grounds were deathly silent. No sounds emerged from them. Countless streams of terrifying divine will from actual gods stirred in all corners of Revered Ancient, and they were all paying very close attention to what was happening. High above the dome of heaven, the broken face of the god, moved slightly, as if about to look down. However, the eyes did not open.

    Th¨¥y were paying attention, not to some location in Sea-Sealing County, but rather, what existed beneath it, yet it was not some location that could be considered simple to find.... The Land of Cruelmurk.

    Not much attention was being paid to Forbidden by the Immortal in Sea-Sealing County, despite that being where everything started. The devouring of a god was noteworthy, but didn¡¯t count for much whenpared to the devouring of a High God.

    After the red moon¡¯s true self entered the Land of Cruelmurk, the doppelg?nger was left behind in Forbidden by the Immortal. Zhang Siyun turned, saliva flowing, and began devouring the fish god. Zhang Siyun¡¯s mouth opened dramatically wide and gulped at least half the fish down, then began chewing. Next, Zhang Siyun turned toward the blood-colored portal, as if nning to take the god fish into it.

    It seemed that everything was over. No one would dare to interfere with the red moon eating. Even the doppelg?nger, whose power had been taken away by the true form, wasn¡¯t something anyone would dare to trifle with.

    The human forces inside Forbidden by the Immortal were all in a daze thanks to the shockwaves of the event. Their mutagen levels were rising so quickly that some of them even died. So of course, none of them would dare to do anything. Even Seventh Prince and the others waiting outside of Forbidden by the Immortal were just standing there.

    However, that was when something unexpected happened!

    After Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger swallowed half of the fish god, then prepared to return to the blood-colored vortex, a rift opened up in the sky. That rift created a very obvious contrast with the surrounding blood-colored sky, as its color was very different. It erupted with white light.

    Then, a huge hand emerged, dazzlingly bright, and as white as fresh snow! The hand, fully 3,000 meters in size, couldn¡¯t have been more pure and fair. In fact, ¨©t was like white jade, and seemed just as holy as any god.

    The surroundings pulsated in response to the presence, while at the same time, a mutagen that corresponded to the hand spread out in all directions. Without hesitation, the hand stretched forth and grabbed the fish that was currently mped between the teeth of Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger.

    Off in the distance, Xu Qing was able to see this happening through the projection created by the Captain. And when he did, waves of shock rolled through him, the reason being that... he had seen this hand before! Back when he fought Chu Tianqun, the father of Master Shengyun, in the minor world of the Smokewights, his opponent had used a shocking god magic that summoned this very hand. Xu Qing would never forget that hand stretching out from Chu Tianqun¡¯s body. Nor would he forget that he would have died at that time were it not for Ling¡¯er sacrifice. [1]

    Back then, the hand wasn¡¯t asrge, but from what Xu Qing could sense, they were one and the same.

    As his mind spun, a word suddenly popped into his mind: Torchlight.

    As Xu Qing reeled, the hand of white jade stabbed into the fish, grabbed some of its bones, then pulled viciously. It was an instance of <i>snatching food from the tiger¡¯s mouth</i>!

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as three of the fish¡¯s twenty-seven bones ended up clumping together as the hand grabbed them.

    Strangely ¨©ts actions didn¡¯t attract the attention of Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger. Now that the main course had been served, sh¨¥ apparently didn¡¯t care that much about the appetizer.

    What was most noteworthy was that the white hand chose this exact moment to take action! It was a moment in which Crimson Mother¡¯s true self was distracted while eating in the Land of Cruelmurk, and much of the doppelg?nger¡¯s power had been extracted, resulting in a state of incredible weakness. Of course, there was another possibility, which was... that Crimson Mother tacitly approved of what was happening. As for what was truly the case, no one could possibly know.

    In any case, whatever karma was involved, the white hand sessfully grabbed the three bones and pulled them out. It was apletely astonishing scene for all the onlookers. That included everyone outside the entrance of Forbidden by the Immortal. Every one of them was visibly taken aback, with one exception. Seventh Prince. His eyes only narrowed very slightly.

    After the jade hand grabbed the three bones, another dramatic transformation urred in the canopy of heaven.

    Another rift opened next to the fish god!

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as more snow-white light erupted from that second rift. Then, another hand of white jade emerged, which looked just like the other, except much smaller, being only 300 meters in size.

    The timing of arrival for this hand was even more precise. It appeared in a perfect time and position, right underneath the god fish, where the fish had an unhealed wound. The white hand jabbed into the wound, moving at the perfect angle and speed to grab a fish bone and then yank it out.

    Rumbling echoed out as the bone was jerked out from inside the fish. That hand was obviously much weaker than the other. It immediately trembled as if it might copse, yet it endured. With a surge of craziness, it threw everything to the wind as it pulled. Apparently, this hand was determined to get that bone even if it died in the process. After the hand dragged the bone out of the fish, it retracted into the rift. The process was so rough on the hand that much of it copsed in the process.

    But the craziness in the hand was so intense that before it crumbled, it sessfully pulled the bone all the way into the rift.

    Then, it disappeared!

    It came quickly, and vanished even more quickly. And everything about its actions, from its timing to its position, had been perfect. It was only then that the muchrger hand with the three fish bones realized what had just happened. ¨©t paused for a moment.

    At the entrance of Forbidden by the Immortal, the onlookers were visibly taken aback. And for the first time, a glitter of suspicious curiosity shed through Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes.

    Xu Qing and the Captain both gasped. The way that white hand appeared, and its method of stealing the fish bone, had seemed very familiar to both of them. It seemed to correspond perfectly to the style of the Seventh Peak.... That, of course, was to wait in hiding until the right opportunity arose. When that opportunity came, it went crazy, snatched the target, then fled at top speed. The two of them looked at each other, and could see the suspicion and excitement in each other¡¯s eyes.

    After pausing momentarily, the first white hand above dragged the three fish bones back into the rift.

    When the rift disappeared, Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger leaped into the blood-colored vortex with the rest of the fish god and disappeared. The vortex slowed, and the deep red color faded. It gradually faded from view, and then the sky went back to normal.

    Without the power of a god at y, the countless rifts in the sky shattered, and began to fall to the ground in pieces. Thends of Forbidden by the Immortal also seemed like they were about to copse, and were almost immediately riddled with damage. In many areas, thends were already inplete ruin. The one thing that didn¡¯t weaken was the mutagen, which spread out rapidly, turning everything dark.

    However, any sense of fear within Xu Qing and the Captain disappeared along with Crimson Mother. They both breathed sighs of relief.

    ¡°Hurry up and start absorbing, little Junior Brother! We don¡¯t have much time. I bet Seventh Prince will be arriving soon. He¡¯ll probably stabilize everything, but will also seal the ce up and make everyone leave. The only other possibility is that the entire ce will copse!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply, as he had alreadye to the same conclusion. And thus, he opened himself wide and began absorbing all of the mutagen in the area!

    1. The hand appeared in the Chu Tianqun fight in <u>chapter 465</u>. ?

 Chapter 526: Lord of Forbidden by the Immortal!

    <h4>Chapter 526: Lord of Forbidden by the Immortal!</h4>

    Ever since entering Forbidden by the Immortal, Xu Qing had been longing to absorb the mutagen here. Back when he had experimentally absorbed some in the presence of his Master, he had benefited a lot from only a moment before he suppressed his instincts and stopped. It had made him like a hungry person, filling him with longing. Yet he had forced all of those feelings down.

    There hadn¡¯t been any doubt that if he let loose and absorbed the mutagen, it would attract, not only the attention of the mutant beasts, but also the human cultivators nearby. Besides, absorbing a lot of mutagen while the god of Forbidden by the Immortal was still present would have been risky. Then the red moon showed up, and that added additional variables that made the situation too difficult to control.

    He did have the violet crystal to offer some degree of protection, but it couldn¡¯t solve all problems. And it didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to be overreliant on the violet crystal, especially in situations that weren¡¯t really life-threatening. But now, there were no such obstacles.

    During the fighting, Crimson Mother¡¯s true form had absorbed all of the magenta flesh, as well as the mutant beasts that it produced. What was more, the fact that Forbidden by the Immortal was crumbling meant that the human cultivators weren¡¯t going to be paying such close attention to everything.

    An unprecedented opportunity had arrived.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing started absorbing mutagen. In the blink of an eye, mutagen swept toward him like tidal waters, streaming into his pores and filling him. He feltpletely at ease as every fiber of flesh and drop of blood participated. In the shortest of moments, a vortex sprang into being around Xu Qing.

    As rumbling sounds echoed out around the cross-legged Xu Qing, he heard the Captain speaking to him.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, I can sense through the rifts in the sky that the cultivators on the other side are repairing the canopy of heaven. Given their speed, I¡¯d say we have the time it takes an incense stick to burn. I¡¯ll stand as dharma protector for you, and also keep all fluctuations masked. Hurry up!¡±

    There was no way for Xu Qing to respond at the moment. Inside of him, the golden threads spread, and they absorbed the nutrients like dry, cracked ground absorbing water. All he could do was nod faintly.

    The mutagen was different from before. Previously, it just had the aura of the local god, but now it also had the aura of Crimson Mother. And because Crimson Mother¡¯s true self had passed through, the mutagen was even stronger than it had been. To any other person, it would be extremely poisonous, and they would need to immediately consume medicinal pills to stave off mutation.

    Generally speaking, Xu Qing had to be careful when absorbing the mutagen of other gods. But that wasn¡¯t the case with Crimson Mother¡¯s mutagen. Because he had his violet moon godsource, there was hardly anything more suitable for him than the red moon. Therefore, he rapidly absorbed all the mutagen avable. As he sucked it in, streams of golden god vitality proliferated within him.

    His taboo poison core, his violet moon heavenly pce, and his Ghost Emperor mountain all needed god vitality to exist, and thus, they shivered, bing like ck holes that gobbled it up.

    It created a repeating cycle within Xu Qing. The first step was the mutagen entering him. Then the golden threads created god vitality. That was the second step. As every stream of god vitality was snatched up, that made the third step. And every step of that cycle required him to absorb more mutagen.

    The taboo poison core, violet moon, and Ghost Emperor mountain were like three furnaces, constantly burning madly, and the force with which they sucked in the golden threads seemed to spread outside of Xu Qing.

    As a result, mutagen surged toward him with even greater speed. The vortex around him soon spread 300 meters, only to keep growing. It eventually reached 1,500 meters. 2,400 meters. 3,000 meters! That entire area was a spinning vortex. It was shocking to the extreme! Boundless mutagen rushed toward him in wave after wave, creating seemingly unstoppable momentum.

    Now that there was no god in Forbidden by the Immortal, it was almost as if Xu Qing himself had be the lord of the ce.

    Off to the side, the Captain, who was nearly overwhelmed, looked on with wide eyes.

    ¡°Off the charts!¡± he murmured. Gritting his teeth, he pushed down onto his forehead with both hands, causing blue light to surge from within him. Frigid coldness spread out in all directions, linking with the vortex around Xu Qing and bolstering the concealing effect. In any other location, a bolstering like that wouldn¡¯t have worked well. It would have stood out like a bright torch on a dark night. But a torch in the middle of a sea of fire wouldn¡¯t attract much attention. Forbidden by the Immortal was in such chaos that it was just like that sea of fire.

    Thus it was just as the Captain had said. As long as they didn¡¯t stick around for too long, they would be safe.

    Xu Qing knew that time was of the essence, so he wasn¡¯t holding back. As he absorbed the mutagen, god vitality flourished within him.

    The golden threads felt wonderful. And they had grownrger than before, by double. As golden light flowed across him, countless magical symbols appeared on his skin, all of which pulsed with holiness. It was almost as if he was no longer a mortal. Instead, he pulsed with the aura of a god.

    Seeing that change in Xu Qing, the Captain started salivating, and his nose twitched.

    <i>Smells even better than Ning Yan!</i>

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered.

    <i>I wish I could have a bite. Just one little bite....</i>

    The Captain swallowed, only to find himself salivating even more.

    As the Captain vacited inwardly, Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison core absorbed so much god vitality that, for the first time, it experienced a transformation. Popping sounds rang out from the pitch-ck gold core, and cracks appeared on its surface. As they spread out and became more numerous, fluctuations of awakening began to spread out. Nearby, the violet moon heavenly pce and the Ghost Emperor mountain, though slightly slower, also exhibited simr signs of transformation. Half an incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, whereupon the taboo poison core was almost covered with cracks. Then, a loud pop rang out as the outer shell copsed.

    A ck imp emerged from within. It looked exactly like Xu Qing, and was the dao soul form of his taboo poison core. After flying out, the ck imp opened its mouth and devoured the shattered shell of the taboo poison core. A tremor passed through it, and then it erupted with such a terrifying taboo poison power that it was obviously an entire level higher than before.

    It pulsed with ck light that spread out over Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness and filled his body.

    The Captain, who had been paying close attention to Xu Qing the entire time, noticed the change.

    <i>A different vor? It seems more delicious, but I can also tell that if I ate it, this current life of mine would be over. W-w-what... what poison is that?</i>

    As the Captain¡¯s eyes widened, and his heart pounded, Xu Qing¡¯s aura once again climbed higher. This time, the source of the increase was the violet moon heavenly pce!

    Previously, Xu Qing had used his taboo poison power and his own mutagen to suppress the projection of the red moon in his sea of consciousness, thus taking some godsource. Because it had then be a part of Xu Qing himself, it became violet in color. From ancient times until now, it was rare for such things to happen. And normally speaking, it happened only when one high-level god devoured another.

    Back then, the red moon had sensed some of h¨¥r godsource go missing, and had briefly awoken. Despite being on guard, not even the omniscient and omnipotent god had been able to pick up on any clues about what happened. That godsource had vanished without a trace. H¨¥r first inclination was to believe that some other god was responsible.

    Now, inside of his violet moon heavenly pce, the godsource that had once belonged to the red moon was rapidly transforming. Within the violet moon, it became something else. Out from within the violet moon stepped a figure in a long violet robe, with long violet hair. Though it somewhat resembled the god in the red moon, its face was the same as Xu Qing¡¯s!

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon dao soul! The moment it appeared, he made a beckoning gesture toward the violet moon behind him. The moon then transformed into a symbol that settled on his forehead. He then walked to the far end of the heavenly pce, where he sat down on the throne there, then gazed out of the sea of consciousness at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back with divine sense. When he looked at each of the dao souls, it made him feel like he was staring at himself. That sense of linked self made Xu Qing realize that the essence that had once belonged to the red moon truly had be a part of him, and was now growing. If it kept growing, and things continued as expected, then in the years toe, he might eventually push the violet moon dao soul to the highest level. At that point, ¨©t could theoretically usurp the red moon, and be a High God in its own right.

    When that happened, Xu Qing might be able to change all living beings, ensuring that, in their memories, there was never a red moon. They would believe... that the violet moon was the only true existence starting in ancient times.

    <i>Master was right. Gods... are just like us, except they exist on a much higher level. They can be supnted!</i>

    As that realization hit him, he continued with the absorption work. After the dao souls of his taboo poison core and violet moon heavenly pce formed, Xu Qing had seven in total! Four of his other dao souls were from his four lifemps. And he also had one that was the manifestation of his imperial-ss technique, Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. Adding in the taboo poison and violet moon, it meant he had the power of seven dao souls. His battle prowess was now vastly superior to before. In fact, it wasn¡¯t even possible topare the current version of himself with the one that entered Forbidden by the Immortal.

    And yet, things weren¡¯t over yet.

    As the Ghost Emperor mountain continued to absorb the god vitality, and as the incense stick¡¯s worth of time reached its end, the heavenly pce rumbled, and the Ghost Emperor within it shook violently. The old body cracked, and finally crumbled, and a dao soul emerged. Just like the nirvanic rebirth of a phoenix, a new life was born out of death. The eighth nascent soul had formed!

    Eight-soul power erupted from Xu Qing, causing him to tremble. As his aura skyrocketed, his eyes opened. The first thing he saw was the vast devastation in Forbidden by the Immortal. The second thing he saw was the Captain, looking at him with a face full of conflict and regret.

    ¡°Eldest Brother?¡± Xu Qing asked, surprised.

    ¡°You smell better, little Ah Qing. But there¡¯s too much poison in you to make you taste good....¡± The Captain sighed.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing ignored the Captain and got to his feet. ¡°Stow it, Eldest Brother. We need to go.¡±

 Chapter 527: Seems Familiar

    <h4>Chapter 527: Seems Familiar</h4>

    The moment Xu Qing stood, the surrounding mutagen surged away from him, creating a cloud of mist. He currently stood at about three meters in height, looking very mysterious. Extraordinary fluctuations rolled off of him, causing the mutagen to roil as if it were crawling away from him. Based on what Xu Qing could sense, he was at the point in which he could cause the mutagen to erupt if he wanted. Now that the god of Forbidden by the Immortal had perished, he was gradually bing the lord of the ce.

    <i>Sadly, my current cultivation base isn¡¯t enough to sustain much more of the local mutagen</i>. Shaking his head, Xu Qing suppressed his desire for more mutagen. He could theoretically absorb some more, but they were running out of time, and doing so could reveal their position.

    There was another reason that had prompted Xu Qing to cease absorbing mutagen. And that was... he had sensed the god¡¯s finger stirring in D-132.

    <i>The violet crystal is too weak to fully seal the god¡¯s finger. And if the finger gets the local mutagen, it¡¯s entirely possible ¨©t could break out from inside of me....</i>

    He sighed at how seemingly useless the violet crystal was right now.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was off to the side, looking up at the 3-meter-tall Xu Qing, andparing his own height. His eyebrows were fully raised.

    Xu Qing understood what he meant by that look. A tremor passed through him as he shrank back down to his normal height. Afterward, he felt different. Before, he¡¯d known that his remolded body was unusual. However, he had been unable to control the golden threads inside of him, and as a result, hadn¡¯t been able to control the god body. As of now, he had enough control that he could reach a height of three meters. When transforming from his normal height to that three-meter height, he was in apletely different state. In thetter, he was vastly stronger.

    The Captain seemed pleased to see Xu Qing back at his normal height. Earlier, when he realized Xu Qing had berger, he had very nearly released one of the seals inside of himself so he could do something simr.

    However, right then, intense rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven. As the rifts above shattered and fell, a white appeared overhead. Upon looking closely, it was possible to see that above the were quite a few cultivators from the army. They were unleashing the, which was now spreading out across the sky.

    Meanwhile, the fourth wave of cultivators was alreadying through the entrance.

    From a distance, it was possible to see that Seventh Prince wasn¡¯t leading the way. Instead, the group was being led by the threemanders-in-chief from the three pces. Behind them were masses of imperial cultivators, who quickly spread out to purge the mutagen, or worked on repairing the shattered sky. By working on both fronts, they were attempting to quickly stabilize the area. Apparently, that was why they had taken a bit of time before entering.

    At the same time, Xu Qing and the Captain both felt theirmand swords vibrating. An order hade in, requiring all cultivators from the first three waves to leave within two hours. After that, Forbidden by the Immortal would be converted into a special region that could not be entered without special orders. What was more, anyone who didn¡¯t leave in the required time would be considered an interloper.

    ¡°If Master was right,¡± the Captain said, ¡°then Seventh Prince must have aplished his mission here. Now, he considers all of this to be his personal reward.¡± A crazy look suddenly appeared in his eyes. ¡°You leave, little Junior Brother. I¡¯m going to wait around just a bit longer.¡±

    Xu Qing eyed the Captain. Noting the crazy look in his eyes, and also knowing his Eldest Brother, he didn¡¯t bother trying to persuade him to leave. That said, the risks of staying outweighed the benefits for Xu Qing. After all, with Seventh Prince in charge of everything, and if something went really wrong in Forbidden by the Immortal, it would be hard to make an escape.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Alright. In that case, I¡¯ll leave now. Master already got the best loot, and he¡¯s probably outside waiting for us. I¡¯ll go work to make sure we get our fair share from the old man. Don¡¯t worry at all, Eldest Brother. You just have fun.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing turned to leave.

    Stunned, the Captain ran over to Xu Qing¡¯s side.

    Xu Qing looked at him in surprise. ¡°Eldest Brother, I¡¯m heading back to the camp. What are you doing?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily and threw his arm around Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders. ¡°I changed my mind! The old man is ruthless to the core. I¡¯m worried that you might not know how to deal with him. Ah, whatever. For your sake, little Junior Brother, I¡¯m going to forget about the other treasures up for grabs here!¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Xu Qing replied, looking the Captain up and down.

    The Captain blinked a few times very sincerely, then urged Xu Qing to hurry up and get moving. Thus, the two of them raced along, making sure to keep their concealments in ce all the way until they reached the safe zone.

    The magical devices in the safe zone purged mutagen. However, the mutagen levels were so high that it was possible to see asional gory remains of cultivators who had mutated and died in the process. After the fight between Crimson Mother and the local god, the surviving cultivators were all dealing with various degrees of mutagen. For now, all they could do was suppress it and wait until they were outside to take steps to purge it. Quite a few people were already flying up to the exit.

    Xu Qing scanned the crowd, and though he saw a few familiar faces, he didn¡¯t spot Qing Qiu or Kong Xianglong. Therefore, he took out hismand sword and sent messages to them inquiring how they were.

    He soon learned that Qing Qiu had left as soon as the initial seven days were up, whereas Kong Xianglong only just now left.

    Upon getting Xu Qing¡¯s message, Kong Xianglong said he would wait outside to meet up. Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief knowing that both of them were fine. Because of the situation with his Master, he hadn¡¯t been able to tell anyone what was really going on. He¡¯d been forced to just follow his Master¡¯s lead. Besides, if they had gone with him, they would have been in a lot more danger. Considering how busy Xu Qing had been, he hadn¡¯t been able to check in with them. Thankfully, he¡¯d managed to let them know ahead of time that something dramatic was going to happen, and that they needed to be careful.

    Clearly, Qing Qiu had taken the words to heart. And though Kong Xianglong hadn¡¯t left early, he¡¯d been able to keep himself safe.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce, then their eyes shone with determination as they shot up into the sky. As they rose higher and higher, Forbidden by the Immortal became smaller and smaller beneath them. Far off in the distance, Xu Qing could see the scars left behind by Crimson Mother¡¯s massive hand. He also saw the gigantic ravine that had once housed a sleeping god. The palm print was very clear, and the terrifying mightiness that pulsed from it gave a clue as to how powerful Crimson Mother was. Xu Qing felt lingering fear just looking at it.

    ¡°Crimson Mother will sleep after eating,¡± the Captain said, ¡°but will be even more terrifying after awakening. I just wonder how the emperor ns to deal with things after that.¡±

    Xu Qing had been wondering the same thing, and didn¡¯t have any answers. With that, the two of them flew through the gigantic bottleneck. Leaving Forbidden by the Immortal, they reached the depths of the old Corrections Division, and the crumbled spell formation there. Along the way, they had passed the web formed by dozens of spell formations, which was designed to iste the mutagen.

    Looking up, beyond the pit that was the old Corrections Division, they saw that the sky was dark. It was night time.

    About a dozen breaths of time passed, after which they flew out of the old Corrections Division. They were met by a refreshing breeze that lifted their hair and caused their garments to ripple. Compared to the sealed world of Forbidden by the Immortal, the outside was a much more weing ce.

    The moon in the sky was not red. That alone caused Xu Qing and the Captain to subconsciously breathe sighs of relief.

    One thing they noticed right away was that the old army camp was gone. There had been millions upon millions of troops in that army, so they hadn¡¯t all gone into Forbidden by the Immortal. Based on what Xu Qing had estimated, it didn¡¯t seem that more than a million imperial troops had gone in.

    As Xu Qing took that in, he spotted Kong Xianglong, seated cross-legged nearby, waiting. Upon noticing Xu Qing, he stood and flew over. His mutagen levels didn¡¯t seem to be very high, so he had obviously used various methods to purge himself after leaving. Noticing Xu Qing looking in the direction of where the army camp used to be, Kong Xianglong offered a quick exnation.

    ¡°They left. Five days ago, from what I heard. They used the county teleportation portal to go back to the front lines. I only found out after I left earlier. My guess is that something big is happening on the battlefield.... About an hour ago, Seventh Prince also teleported away. This time, he didn¡¯t conscript any Sea-Sealing County cultivators.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to his Master¡¯s spection that everything was part of the emperor¡¯s n rted to the war. And now, right after the Crimson Mother n wrapped up, the army suddenly left for the front lines?

    ¡°There¡¯s definitely something big going on!¡± Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked at the Captain. The Captain was looking back at him. Both of them were specting about the same thing. And that was... that humankind was going to announce that it had a domain treasure.

    ¡°All fogs of confusion will soon be lifted,¡± the Captain said. ¡°We¡¯ll know the truth in short order.¡±

    Kong Xianglong sighed. ¡°Xu Qing, I feel like there are a lot of things going on that we have no clue about. If you figure anything out, don¡¯t forget to give me a heads up.¡±

    With that, Kong Xianglong took out two medicinal pill bottles which he offered to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°These are pallid boluses. Although a lot of preparations were made before opening Forbidden by the Immortal, there was still a lot of mutagen released. Since so many people areing back with high mutagen levels, pallid boluses have sold out just about everywhere. They¡¯re basically impossible to buy. Those are some of the stockpiles I built up earlier. Take them.¡±

    Chuckling, the Captain took a bottle, opened it, dumped out two pallid boluses, and consumed them.

    The process caused a medicinal aroma to spread out, clearing the area of mutagen.

    When Xu Qing smelled that aroma, it seemed familiar, as if there were some other fragrance in addition to the normal smell of the medicine. It was very faint, and gave him a vague sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. Reaching out, he took the other bottle.

    Pallid boluses were an improved version of white boluses, which the lieutenant governor had created years ago. They were twice as effective as white boluses, and were considered a blessing for humankind, especially Sea-Sealing County. Unfortunately, some of the main ingredients were very difficult to produce, and thus, the supply had always been limited to the county capital. Despite that, many people had benefited from them, especially since they were actually cheaper than white boluses. As a result, many mortals could consume them.

    Although Xu Qing didn¡¯t need pills like that, there were some secrets he wanted to keep as tightly as possible, which was why he epted the bottle. Next, he conveyed some of his Master¡¯s spections to Kong Xianglong.

    There were many finer details he had to hold back, but he was able to give Kong Xianglong a general idea. Upon hearing the theories, Kong Xianglong shivered and then struggled to control his breathing. His eyes were already bloodshot, and his hands kept clenching and unclenching. Clearly he was thinking about Pce Lord Kong¡¯s death. Eventually, he opened his mouth to speak, only to close it again.

    Finally, his hands settled into fists and he said, ¡°I just hope we humanse out victorious!¡±

    Looking bleak, he gave a farewell wave of the hand, then turned and left. Kong Xianglong was obviously very young, but right now, he seemed like he was aging rapidly.

    The Captain watched him leave and softly said, ¡°Kong Xianglong really is a great person!¡±

 Chapter 528: The Fragrance of Osmanthus Flowers

    <h4>Chapter 528: The Fragrance of Osmanthus Flowers</h4>

    Xu Qing said nothing. He knew why Kong Xianglong felt so bleak and lonely.

    Back in Forbidden by the Immortal, Xu Qing himself had felt simrly upon hearing his Master¡¯s analysis of the situation. Pce Lord Kong, the governor, and all of Sea-Sealing County were essentially game pieces in a huge game of Go. Everything leading up to Pce Lord Kong¡¯s death on the battlefield made that abundantly clear.

    That said, the pce lord had lived a life of bravery and courage, and had been a rger than life¡± figure. Dying in battle for the sake of humanity was something he¡¯d done without a single regret. Apparently, he had alreadye to a conclusion about what was happening. But as long as he could guarantee the safety of his people, his family, his subordinates, and especially his grandson, and the fact that his death would not have an overall negative effect, then he had been more than happy to offer salvation to Sea-Sealing County.

    <i>¡°As long as Sea-Sealing County lives, I won¡¯t hesitate to sacrifice myself for it.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing had thought back to Pce Lord Kong¡¯s words many times, and pondered how decisive he had been in his final moments. [1]

    Sure enough, right after Pce Lord Kong died, an army arrived led by Seventh Prince. The prince saved the day, and became a popr hero as a result.

    How could Kong Xianglong not have mixed emotions after realizing the truth of it all? But in the end, he made a simr choice as his grandfather. He states his hope that humans would achieve a great victory in the war. By doing so, he honored his grandfather¡¯s sacrifice.

    Sighing, Xu Qing turned and went to his sword pavilion. The Captain followed.

    Along the way, the Captain didn¡¯t say anything. Once they were in, they sat down cross-legged, and the Captain squeezed Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait. No!¡± Xu Qing interrupted, looking up. His eyes glittered with a mysterious light.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    ¡°Master was right,¡± Xu Qing continued, ¡°but there¡¯s more to the story..... That white jade hand. I¡¯ve seen it before!¡± Thinking back to past events, he confirmed that he was right.

    The Captain didn¡¯t say anything.

    Back in Forbidden by the Immortal, he had seen both of the hands of white jade. One was big, one was small. The small one was obviously created by his Master, after having done research on that experimental god body. The big question was who summoned therger hand. Up to this point, the Captain hadn¡¯t brought it up, as he was worried about upsetting Xu Qing.

    There was no expression on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he bowed his head and said nothing further.

    The Captain sighed. There were certain things his Master had exined to him, and because of that, he could guess what was bothering Xu Qing. Therefore, the best thing he could do was sit there and offerpany. Eventually, the sun rose. Seeing that Xu Qing was still not saying anything, the Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, why do you think Master hasn¡¯te back yet?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, based on how well I know the old man, I suspect that he¡¯s probably here already.¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly looked up, his eyes flickering.

    ¡°Trust me, little Ah Qing. Master loves eavesdropping. Back before we had you around, I experienced that firsthand. I bet Master was actually here in the sword pavilion before we got here. Either that, or he left a message here for us.¡±

    The Captain had actually brought this up in the hopes of just getting Xu Qing to start talking. But as he thered on, his eyes widened as he realized what he was saying made a lot of sense. Inhaling sharply, he shot to his feet and looked around.

    Fixating on one corner of the room, he hurried over, sped hands, and bowed excitedly. ¡°Master! Master, you cane out now. I see you!¡±

    Xu Qing looked on suspiciously. He had been in a rotten mood before, but the Captain¡¯s antics had already squashed that bad mood.

    Unfortunately, no matter how the Captain bowed, nothing happened. The Captain blinked a few times, then went to another corner in the room. There, he continued bowing.

    ¡°Hahaha! Truth be told, Master, I didn¡¯t see you before. But I can sense your aura! As you know, sir, I¡¯m very sensitive to such things.¡±

    Nothing happened in that corner of the room either.

    As Xu Qing watched quizzically, the Captain looked around, thought for a moment, and then turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, do you still have that mask Master gave you?¡±

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply as he realized what the Captain was getting at. Taking the semitransparent immortal skill mask out of his bag of holding, he put it down to the side, then got to his feet and bowed to it.

    The Captain also somberly sped hands and bowed.

    A long moment passed in which nothing happened. The two of them looked at each other.

    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re overthinking this, Eldest Brother....¡±

    ¡°Trust me, I know our Master.¡± The Captain looked supremely confident. However, as time passed, and morning turned to afternoon, and then afternoon turned into evening, things remained the same in the sword pavilion. Master Seventh never showed his face. Nor did they receive any message from him.

    Xu Qing looked hesitantly at the Captain.

    The Captain looked at the mask and gritted his teeth.

    ¡°We have no choice at this point, little Junior Brother. I have to resort to a trump card!¡±

    As Xu Qing watched attentively, the Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°Okay, little Junior Brother,¡± he said loudly, ¡°I have a secret I want to reveal to you. Do you want to know why I¡¯m so keen on helping girls resolve their issues with having too many gifts? It¡¯s because many years ago, there¡¯s an old person that both of us know¡ªyou know who I¡¯m talking about, but I¡¯m not going to mention the name out loud¡ªwho gave a bunch of gifts to a female cultivator. Later on, he went back in the middle of the night, bringing me along, to take back the¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut UP!¡± a voice interrupted angrily from the semitransparent mask.

    Xu Qing gasped. The Captain shed a pleased look at Xu Qing, then dropped to the ground in front of the mask, stering a pained expression onto his face.

    ¡°Master, you scared me! I was deeply concerned about your safety, so I had no choice but to use this method to confirm your whereabouts. Now that I know you¡¯re fine, I can rest at ease!¡±

    ¡°I said to shut up, fool!¡± Master Seventh roared from within the mask. ¡°I¡¯m fleeing for my life here!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious. The Captain¡¯s face fell, and he refrained from making a sound. Worried, both of them just waited, not saying a word. Tension mounted. Xu Qing was starting to get really worried, and the Captain¡¯s expression turned so serious he started looking somewhat vicious.

    An entire night passed. The following morning at dawn the mask twitched, then floated up from the ground. As Xu Qing and the Captain looked on nervously, Master Seventh¡¯s voice again spoke from the mouth. He sounded hoarse.

    ¡°I got away. Finally. I just took one little bone! Was there really a need for a full-on manhunt?¡±

    Upon hearing Master Seventh¡¯s words, both Xu Qing and the Captain breathed deep sighs of relief.

    ¡°The two of you need to find an opportunity to get back to Seven Blood Eyes. I really made out like a bandit this time. I¡¯m going to refine this bone and create some amazing treasures with it. I mean, it¡¯s the bone of a god! An actual, authentic item from a real god!

    ¡°Hm.... Actually, the two of you should wait a bit beforeing back to the sect, otherwise you might blow our cover. How about this? Come back in about a month. By that time I should be nearly done with refining the bone.

    ¡°By the way, going forward, I can¡¯t afford any distractions. The two of you better not stir up any trouble. Incidentally, Big Sib, you need to devour this mask and hide its aura in your belly! Alright, I need to go now. I¡¯m going to find a ce to hole up for a bit. See you back in Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    When Master Seventh finished speaking, the mask ttered to the ground.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, do you think Master¡¯s okay...?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the Captain.

    The Captain chuckled, picked up the mask, and stuffed it into his mouth. After chewing it up and swallowing it, he burped and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°The fact the old man could give such a detailed message goes to show that he¡¯s alive and kicking. He¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t worry. Master might not measure up to me when ites to pulling off big jobs, but when ites to fleeing.... Let¡¯s just say I¡¯ve never seen anyone as good as him. Think about it! What kind of person does it take to research an experimental god body that has the power of time in it, or create such powerful concealment magics?¡±

    The Captain sighed inwardly. He wasn¡¯t trying to pull a fast one; he really did have full confidence in his Master. With that, the Captain looked outside to check the time, and was about to say something further when his transmission jade slip vibrated.

    Xu Qing watched as the Captain, his eyes glittering, licked his lips and grinned.

    ¡°I need to take off, little Ah Qing. Lady Peachy is looking for me.¡±

    The Captain hurried away toward the Administration Pce. Along the way, he bought a peach. After taking a bite, he used the eyeball in his palm almost like a mirror to check his appearance. After confirming his good looks, he sped up.

    Xu Qing watched the Captain go and mentally wished him luck. Then he nced back at his now-empty sword pavilion. Earlier, he had been in a bad mood because of Torchlight, but now he¡¯d reached a state of equilibrium.

    <i>In a month, I¡¯ll be back in Seven Blood Eyes, and I can ask Arch-Immortal Plumdark about everything that happened.</i>

    Thinking about the timescape bottle, he sighed inwardly. Shortly thereafter, he closed his eyes in meditation to stabilize his cultivation base. When that work was done, he took out the bottle of pallid boluses that Kong Xianglong had given him. Back when the Captain consumed the pills, Xu Qing had noticed another fragrance that seemed familiar. He knew he¡¯d encountered it before. However, after telling Kong Xianglong the details of Master Seventh¡¯s analysis, he hadn¡¯t been in the mood to dig into the matter.

    Now that his mood was stable, he figured it was a good time to check the pill again. It seemed unlikely to be important, but given his cautious personality, he didn¡¯t want to just ignore it. After opening the bottle, he inhaled the fragrance to confirm what medicinal nts were in the ingredients.

    <i>There are a lot of nt fragrances....</i>

    One by one, he began identifying the different smells, taking time to repeatedly inhale the fragrance of the pill as he did. It took some time, but he finally identified that unique and familiar fragrance. It was very faint, to the point where he wouldn¡¯t have noticed it unless he had his remolded god body.

    <i>It¡¯s... the fragrance of osmanthus flowers?</i>

    All of a sudden, his pupils constricted, and he looked down at the pallid boluses. His expression became one ofplete and utter incredulity.

    ¡°It¡¯s the fragrance of osmanthus flowers!¡± Xu Qing felt like his mind was being struck by countless lightning bolts. In order to confirm that he was right, he crushed the pallid bolus into a powder, then carefully analyzed it. The fragrance of osmanthus flowers grew even stronger. For a long moment he sat there in a daze, medicinal powder dribbling off of his fingers.

    <i>It¡¯s the same fragrance from that empty wish box....</i>

    Waves of astonishment rolled through Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart as he realized why the smell was familiar. Back on the mission with Kong Xianglong, they had recovered an empty wish box.

    When he handled that wish box, he had noticed the fragrance of osmanthus flowers. And it was the exact same fragrance that was in the pallid bolus! [2]

    Over the years, pallid boluses had be one of the necessities of life for cultivators and mortals in the county capital. Countless people had consumed them!

    1. Pce Lord Kong uttered those words in <u>chapter 507.1</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing noticed the osmanthus flower fragrance in <u>chapter 419</u>. The Wish box was also mentioned in <u>chapter 511</u>, and the osmanthus fragrance was mentioned in <u>chapter 512</u>. ?

 Chapter 529: The Truth, Revealed!

    <h4>Chapter 529: The Truth, Revealed!</h4>

    Xu Qing sat there quietly. Eventually, he looked up, his heart and mind trembling as wave after wave of shock crashed into them.

    ¡°The lieutenant governor....¡± he murmured.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t dealt much with the lieutenant governor, but he had always respected him.

    The reason for that was his skill in alchemy, which reminded Xu Qing of Grandmaster Bai and the grand elder from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He remembered how kind the lieutenant governor had been when he first arrived in the county capital, and also what Honor Guard Sun had said about the ¡®virtuous achievement¡¯ of inventing the pallid bolus. Once the war started, Xu Qing had noticed repeatedly how exhausted the lieutenant governor seemed. Back when dealing with the Demi-Immortals, the lieutenant governor had almost immediately picked up on Xu Qing¡¯s ruse, and had yed along. True, the lieutenant governor had quickly fit in to the new arrangement when Seventh Prince arrived, but that alone didn¡¯t mean much.

    Later, the lieutenant governor was responsible for many things that benefited Sea-Sealing County. He worked with the deputy pce lords for the three pces to sessfully submit many official requests to Seventh Prince. After Xu Qing had just returned, it was the lieutenant governor who dealt with the cabal of nonhumans who had protested Xu Qing¡¯s conscription orders.

    After Seventh Prince took over and sought to make changes to the Swordsage Pce¡¯s rules and reward systems, it was the lieutenant governor who negotiated with Seventh Prince on the swordsage¡¯s behalf.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s influence was present in so many things.

    Pce Lord Kong had trusted him with the safekeeping of the capital city. Even if the pce lord had suspected him, he still had a lot of trust in him. During the war, the lieutenant governor never procrastinated in anything. He worked diligently to serve the front lines, earned the confidence of the mortals, and became a pir of stability. The only reason the front lines had been able to hold strong as long as they did was because of the lieutenant governor¡¯s hard work.

    He really had aplished many virtuous achievements. He really was someone who kept the interior safe during a time of war. He really was someone who fought for the rights of Sea-Sealing County even after Seventh Prince came and took over.

    Given all of that, Xu Qing had a hard time believing that he could be some sort of viinous mastermind. Previously, there had never been a single thing to lead him to suspect the lieutenant governor. He certainly hadn¡¯te across any evidence implicating him.

    As Xu Qing sat there, he suppressed his shock. This was too important of a matter, and he couldn¡¯t do anything rash. Therefore, he took this new clue and tried to fit it in with everything he had uncovered up to this point.

    He thought back to the information in Pce Lord Kong¡¯s jade slip, and also what he had uncovered at Mount Daybreak.

    <i>ording to ssified Dossier 19, the empty wish box once contained a lightmost fatehavoc pill. Pce Lord Kong was aware of that, which was why he was certain the governor died because of that pill. After all, there are few things that could kill someone as strong as the governor in such a quiet, nondramatic way. The only exception would be someone at least as strong as a Smoldering God. But if someone like that were involved, what would be the point of the war? All those factors indicate that a lightmost fatehavoc pill had to be the murder weapon.</i>

    Xu Qing was mentallyying out all the clues in the most logical fashion possible.

    <i>However, to use a lightmost fatehavoc pill, one would first need a stream of daybreak light. That was what Pce Lord Kong wanted me to investigate. That, and the method by which the poison was administered.</i>

    Back when Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong had discussed this matter, they hadn¡¯t even been able toe up with a theory about how the poison was administered. How could the governor, who was blessed with destiny aura and was halfway into the Smoldering God level, not notice someone trying to poison him?

    <i>I got to the bottom of the daybreak light. I proved that there was some daybreak light whose existence didn¡¯t make it into the official records. And that made it seem even more likely that we were dealing with a lightmost fatehavoc pill. As for how it was administered....</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at the powder that was all that remained of the pallid bolus he had just crushed. Then he took the remaining pallid bolus out of the pill bottle. He had previously studied this pill. Back then, he hade to the conclusion that it was just a more effective version of the white bolus, and that its function was to extrude mutagen. The concoction method for the pill was unique, such that despite Xu Qing¡¯s skill in the dao of alchemy, he couldn¡¯t figure it out by merely studying the pill.

    What was more, the pill contained many medicinal nts that didn¡¯t seem to be well-matched. They only seemed to be effective after having been transformed in some way. That actually conformed to the lieutenant governor¡¯s unique dao of medicine. He would transform medicinal nts by altering their environment.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes hardened as he thought about that. It was as if a huge hand were clearing the fog in his mind. He suddenly recalled the first time he had seen the lieutenant governor, which was when he taught a lesson to all the new swordsages.

    <i>¡°If you want to affect a medicinal nt, you </i>can¡¯t<i> be bold and decisive. You don¡¯t need to make yin-yang adjustments to change it. You just water it quietly.</i>

    <i>¡°If you gradually change its environment, as well its diet, you can exert a huge influence on the nt without it even realizing it.</i>

    <i>¡°To put it inly, you¡¯re not actually transforming the nt. It¡¯s using its own power to transform itself. All you¡¯re doing is giving it the proper environment in which to change.¡±</i>

    That was what the lieutenant governor had said in his lecture. Upon hearing those words, Xu Qing had felt deep admiration. He couldn¡¯t help but respect the lieutenant governor after learning that he hade up with such a useful method of alchemy. After all, it was that method which led to the transformation of the white bolus into the pallid bolus, which had been such a blessing for people in the capital.

    But now that Xu Qing thought back to that lecture, it made him feel like lightning bolts were mming into his mind.

    <i>If you take the lieutenant governor¡¯s lecture, and rece the word ¡®medicinal nt¡¯ with the word ¡®governor,¡¯ then... everything makes sense.</i>

    <i>If you wanted to poison the governor, you couldn¡¯t do it in a bold and decisive way. You would need to do it just like quietly watering a nt. You would need to gradually change the environment around the governor without him even realizing it.... And the environment is the poption of the county capital.</i>

    <i>Without the governor ever realizing it, you could change his diet.... In this case, his ¡®diet¡¯ would be the most crucial element of the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Destiny aura! As the governor slowly absorbed the destiny aura, he would be affected from the inside.</i>

    <i>The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t actually do anything to the governor specifically. The governor did it to himself through his normal routine. The lieutenant governor just created a way to influence the governor¡¯s environment and diet.</i>

    Xu Qing trembled, and his heart pounded.

    <i>In other words, the lieutenant governor didn¡¯t actually administer any poison at all. He treated the governor like a nt. To poison him... he used all of the humans in the county capital!</i>

    <i>The harmless and inexpensive pallid boluses were the carriers. They had the power of the lightmost fatehavoc pill in them. As the years passed, and countless people consumed those pills constantly, they transformed the destiny aura, and by extension, the governor¡¯s diet.</i>

    <i>By using the destiny aura of all humans in the county capital, he transformed and influenced the governor, all for the purpose of ultimately poisoning him. How utterly devious....</i>

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he realized that everything made perfect sense. The empty wish box had once contained the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Because it had been in the box for so long, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers remained in the box even after the pill was taken out.

    That mission had revolved around an agent who was in Holytide territory. After uncovering a monumental secret, that spy had fled back to human territory. Looking back, Xu Qing realized that the agent had probably been dead all along. The wish box that Xu Qing and the others had recovered had been in the hands of his son.

    And then there was ssified Dossier 19, which contained the evidence Pce Lord Kong needed to verify the governor¡¯s cause of death.

    Everything made sense. Everything.

    Next, Xu Qing thought about the boy in D-132, who was a manifestation of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura. It was only after they brought the wish box back to the county capital that he suddenly became listless and seemingly sick.

    Back then, Xu Qing had assumed that listless state came because the boy had somehow encountered an unclean thing. However, the boy recovered very quickly, and thus, Xu Qing never thought more about it. And why should he have, given the scant information he had back then?

    Later, the governor died, the Corrections Division exploded, and the boy went missing. Xu Qing had assumed the boy went missing because of the copse of the Corrections Division. But now that he looked back, he realized that obviously wasn¡¯t the case!

    Afterpleting ssified Dossier 19, Pce Lord Kong had already started investigating the matter. Sadly, in the end, he was not omniscient and omnipotent. Before he had a chance to solve the mystery, the governor died, and the war started. And in the end, he had to suspect everyone.

    Xu Qing felt his scalp tingling. Then he thought about how so many humans thought of the lieutenant governor¡¯s pallid boluses as a virtuous achievement. What was more, the lieutenant governor had openly, perhaps even brazenly, revealed his tactics publicly. And yet... not one person caught on to what was really happening.

    The ¡®pallid bolus¡¯ was a pack of lies! The lieutenant governor had made a mockery of the people of Sea-Sealing County!

    Xu Qing felt like he was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts as he thought back to the lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes when he looked out at the ss and delivered that lecture. He had seemed so kind. But now that Xu Qing thought back, he realized that within that kindness was mockery. Scorn. It was like he was ying some cruel guessing game.

    <i>¡°I¡¯m telling you the truth. Every little aspect. But... none of you have realized it, have you?¡±</i>

    This was the truth, revealed. And after putting all the pieces together, Xu Qing didn¡¯t just feel enlightened. He felt scared.

    <i>Why would the lieutenant governor do this? Could it be that he and Torchlight...?</i> He stopped for a moment to think. <i>I should have realized the truth even before Chu Tianqun died.</i>

    Xu Qing had never forgotten what Chu Tianqun said in the moments before his death, when Xu Qing asked him about the whereabouts of Night Dove and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    <i>¡°Do you know how to change the color of the sea? When you figure out how, you¡¯ll get your answer.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked out into the night at the capital city.

    <i>The color of the sea. Based on the lieutenant governor¡¯s method of enacting change, the way to change the color of a sea would be to change the countless streams flowing into it. It would happen so slowly that, before the sea realized what was happening, it would be a different color.</i>

    ¡°That¡¯s the answer,¡± Xu Qing murmured quietly.

    <i>The lieutenant governor is probably the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Either that, or he¡¯s Night Dove. And he¡¯s the one who murdered the governor. The mysterious figure in the ck cloak who appeared on the battlefield wasn¡¯t Marquis Yao. It was the lieutenant governor.</i>

    Xu Qing understood everything now. He understood the truth. Except, he wasn¡¯t sure what to do with this information. The person who had assigned him to investigate the mystery was dead. The lieutenant governor was now the heart and soul of Sea-Sealing County. All the leaders looked to him for guidance. Given his ¡®virtuous achievement¡¯ with the pallid bolus, he was thought highly of by the emperor and had won the hearts of the people.

    He was like a sun shining in the sky. Given the circumstances surrounding Seventh Prince¡¯s arrival, it seemed obvious that the two of them were working together.

    <i>The reason that white jade hand appeared in Forbidden by the Immortal is because they had already worked out a deal....</i>

    Sighing, Xu Qing opened the door of his sword pavilion, walked out, and looked out at the night sky. Eventually, a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon, which gradually illuminated the dome of heaven. It was the sign that dawn hade. The light seemed to spread faster than ever. Along with the light gave waves of heat. It was at that moment that all cultivators in Sea-Sealing County received a message from the lieutenant governor.

    <i>¡°Twenty hours ago, Emperor Dark War unleashed a domain treasure into the heart of Nightshade territory!¡±</i>

 Chapter 530: Human Domain Treasure; Dawning Sun! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 530: Human Domain Treasure; Dawning Sun! (part 1)</h4>

    <i>During the end of the tenth month in the year 2,932 of the Dark War calendar, the 3,915th descendant of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, Guyue Zhang¡¯an, the seventh son of the magnificent and glorious Emperor Dark War, received imperial orders to save Sea-Sealing County by opening the ninth operations pce of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.</i>

    <i>Seventh Prince summoned the Nightshades¡¯ Crimson Mother into that operations pce to devour the vile god sleeping therein. Thus, a potential cmity was expunged, assuring a thousand years of peace and security for Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    <i>Because that dharmic decree of the magnificent and glorious Emperor Dark War was carried out, humankind could walk the path to victory in the war. It was a matter that shook the countless species of Revered Ancient to the core. The myriads of species in Sea-Sealing County cheered in delight. Humans all looked up to Seventh Prince; the emperor himself praised the prince for the services he had performed.</i>

    <i>In the same month, after the ninth operations pce of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity in Sea-Sealing County had been opened, the magnificent and glorious Emperor Dark War, who had been besieged in the imperial capital for months by the Nightshades, finally revealed his heavenly might by unleashing Dawning Sun into the heart of the Nightshade Region.</i>

    <i>The immense, spherical sun was just like a real, scorching sun. It represented humanity¡¯s drive to rise to prominence, and when it exploded in the darkness of the Nightshade Region, it released boundless light that filled heaven like burning fire.</i>

    <i>All of Nightshade Region was lit aze. The sky there copsed, and the ground cracked open everywhere. Countless Nightshades died, and all Nightshade cultivators were seriously injured.</i>

    <i>A tempest came into being, spreading out far and wide, like an eternal sea of fire that drew the attention of all eyes. The Nightshade¡¯s pitch-ck region was now filled with radiance and light.</i>

    <i>Rough estimates indicate that the burning sun will remain in ce for a full sixty-year-cycle. However, its effects will continue to y out for much longer than that. For the next thousand years, the dark night of the Nightshade Region will be reced with bright fire.</i>

    <i>Countless lives were lost, but at the same time, humankind had a new lease on life.</i>

    ***

    The news was a huge shock to Revered Ancient. All species were shaken. The allied army that had besieged the imperial capital of the humans fell into retreat. Back home, they sealed their borders and trembled in fear. Even the most powerful species on the maind were absolutely bbergasted.

    It marked the beginning of a time of prosperity the likes of which hadn¡¯t been seen for many tens of thousands of years.

    Emperor Dark War became so famous that his name was known to everyone from all species. By unleashing Dawning Sun, the human emperor was making a clear announcement to everyone: from this day on, humans are no longer prey. We... have the power to defend ourselves!

    And that was because of the humans¡¯ domain treasure, Dawning Sun! That domain treasure was not created by a god; it was the work of human hands!

    The Nightshades suffered heavy losses. However, their fury overshadowed their terror, and they did not surrender. In fact, they started fighting back even harder. They unleashed <i>their</i> domain treasure, ultimately destroying a third of the human imperial capital. They stubbornly insisted that the humans were actually bluffing. Their narrow-minded assertion was that the humans hadn¡¯t actually created a domain treasure. They believed that Dawning Sun was nothing like traditional domain treasures. In fact, they were sure that it was a single-use magical technique, or some lone relic of the ancient past.

    War horns continued to sound.

    ***

    <i>In the eleventh month of the year 2,932 of the Dark War calendar, seven days after the first unleashing of Dawning Sun, Emperor Dark War once more revealed his heavenly might, as he again unleashed his domain treasure on another of the Nightshades¡¯ regions, plus the neighboring Holytide Region!</i>

    <i>The second usage of Dawning Sun created a destructive sea of mes and an eternal light. In the blink of an eye, the Nightshade¡¯s other region copsed. Thends were set ame, and the sky burned red.</i>

    <i>Countless Nightshades howled in anguish as the light melted their skin and dissolved them into ashes. Cultivators and mortals alike, as well as any species that adhered to them, were thrown into the ultimate distress. The death toll was too high to count. It was as if godly might had been unleashed.</i>

    <i>The Holytide Region was also affected. Tempests of fire swept through it, crushing anything and everything. The countless species of the Revered Ancient maind watched in silence.</i>

    <i>The Nightshades trembled. Countless members of their species were sacrificed as god magics were unleashed and they beseeched their god Crimson Mother toe and punish the humans. Such efforts...pletely failed.</i>

    <i>They made three attempts to summon their god. They failed three times.</i>

    <i>Completely demoralized, the Nightshades had no choice but to retreat. However, the imperial army gave chase, causing Nightshade blood to fill heaven and earth. The Nightshades... were routed. It was only by using their domain treasure to cover their own retreat with a canopy of frigid cold that they managed to stop the human counter assault.</i>

    <i>The war caused a sensation among the countless species of the Revered Ancient maind. The prestige of humankind was once again on disy. Emperor Dark War had truly lived up to his name.</i>

    <i>Despite the great victory won by humankind, Emperor Dark War didn¡¯t greedily take the war into Nightshade territory. What was more, he informed all interested parties throughout Revered Ancient that the creation of Dawning Sun had been proposed tens of thousands of years in the past by Emperor Mirrorcloud.</i> [1]

    <i>There had been many twists and turns in its creation, and construction was only finished recently. As for its operating principles, Emperor Dark War didn¡¯t keep them a secret. Besides, now that Dawning Sun had been unleashed, it would have been hard to do so, and ultimately, the secret would have been revealed. Instead, he courageously chose to reveal the truth himself, thus revealing the spirit of what it meant to be human, and simultaneously striking fear into the hearts of the lowly.</i>

    <i>Dawning Sun was connected to the Lightborn species!</i>

    ***

    Everyone knew that the Lightborn were close allies of the humans. The Lightborn had special eyes that could absorb and store sunlight. Because of that, there was an entire industry in Revered Ancient focused around the sale of Lightborn eyes. [2]

    That said, few people knew that, tens of thousands of years in the past, there was no such species as the Lightborn in Revered Ancient.... They were actually a hybrid variety of humans created by Emperor Mirrorcloud. And their eyes were actually miniature versions of Dawning Sun.

    When that news started to spread, it was difficult to tell what was the truth and what wasn¡¯t. The idea that the humans had hatched a plot that took tens of thousands of years toe to fruition left many species trembling in fear.

    The war wasn¡¯t over yet, though.

    ***

    <i>In the same month that the Nightshades were defeated, Emperor Dark War¡¯s seventh son, who was stationed in Sea-Sealing County, unsealed the county and led an army of 60,000,000 to wage war against the Holytides. The human army crushed everything in their path. They reimed three prefectures which had recently been lost, then advanced into the depths of the Holytide Region. Their warpath carved out rivers of gore and caused blood to rain from the sky.</i>

    <i>The Holytides experienced setback after setback, suffered countless casualties, and lost vast swaths of territory.</i>

    <i>Seventh Prince possessed godly power, heavenly genius, and a courageous heart. Ignoring his own safety, he ughtered the enemy, expanded human territory, and conquered half of an entire region! The four Holytide emperors were enraged.</i>

    <i>In the moment of greatest crisis, the Holytide ancestral emperor experienced a breakthrough in cultivation. He emerged shouldering a major world. Having stepped into the Smoldering God level, hepletely transformed the Holytide Region by severing his species¡¯ bloodline connection with the Nightshades. From that moment on, the Holytides no longer adhered to the Nightshades, and werepletely free.</i>

    <i>The arrival of a Smoldering God changed everything. Seventh Prince¡¯s rampage was brought to an end, and in the ensuing deadlock, Seventh Prince revealed his magnificent benevolence by kindly offering the Holytide species clemency. The Holytides, having alreadye to hate war, and convinced by Seventh Prince¡¯s boundless sincerity, were deeply moved. At the behest of their ancestral emperor, they agreed to return to the fold of humankind.</i>

    ***

    The momentous turn of events caused a hugemotion among the court andmon people alike. That, of course, was something the emperor had expected. The return of the Holytides wasn¡¯t something that could be affected in a short time; there were still plenty of aspects to be negotiated. As the person in charge of the affair, Seventh Prince remained in the Holytide Region to see the matter to its conclusion.

    It was in that manner that a war which hadsted for half a year was brought to a conclusion.

    The Nightshades had suffered crippling losses. The humans won a great victory, and made a huge impression on the countless other species that existed.

    Seventh Prince had saved Sea-Sealing County, carried out imperial orders to a tee, expanded human territory, and overseen the return of the Holytides. His numerous aplishments earned him widespread fame. He became a hero to all, and was even rumored to be named the crown prince in the future.

    Humans in Sea-Sealing County and the other counties were very excited to read the official reports about the resolution of the war. All households had shrines in which to make offerings to Emperor Dark War and wish him longevity. But now, such shrines also had a que to wish longevity to Seventh Prince. After all, this was the first time during the Dark War calendar that humans had ever expanded their territory! In fact, tracing back the history, it was also the first time since Emperor Eastglory¡¯s spectacr defeat that humans had expanded their territory! [3]

    The implications were impossible to overstate.

    What was more, the betrayal of the Holytides during the Dao Life calendar had brought unending pain to Emperor Dao Life, and to humankind as a whole. But now, during the Dark War calendar, Seventh Prince guided them back to the right path, thereby aplishing something downright amazing!

    Thus came to an end a skirmish that had long been ying out on the Revered Ancient game board.

    But what most people saw was only whaty on the surface. As for what happened behind the scenes, opinions were mixed on whether or not things had been handled properly. And it wasn¡¯t the sort of matter that could be decided with a few casual words.

    That was simply how war worked. War was not just about fighting and killing. It was not about one person attacking and one person retreating. Wars like that were either children¡¯s games, or fiction. The reality was that war was brutal. What most people saw was simply the blood spilled on the battlefield, not all the other countless elements involved. Few people understood the truth, not even the majority of people in Sea-Sealing County. Only those who actually participated in the war had an inkling. And frankly speaking, it was better that way.

    Not understanding the truth left themoners happier.

    Xu Qing currently sat in his sword pavilion, gripping hismand sword and taking in the reports and news. It had been twelve days since he learned the truth. Nowadays, reports were released every day, and they inevitably caused lots of cheering and rejoicing.

    The county capital was swept up in the moment. The mortals were all visibly exuberant, and even swordsages who had witnessed Pce Lord Kong die in battle seemed relieved and impressed.

    Kong Xianglong hadn¡¯t made a public appearance in days. He spent all of his time drinking alone.

    Xu Qing was also drinking at the moment. He had a jug of alcohol at his side from which he would sip.

    More days passed.

    As the dust settled, Seventh Prince finished his initial negotiations with the Holytides, then returned to Sea-Sealing County. Because of how he had won the hearts of the people, he was received much more formally. The grand celebration thrown in his honor rivaled any celebration thrown for the sake of the emperor.

    Itsted an entire day. Later that evening, in a building in the Governor¡¯s Mansion, Seventh Prince stood looking out at heaven and earth.

    ¡°I offer my thanks for all of this,¡± Seventh Prince said calmly.

    As his words echoed out, a figure appeared next to him.

    1. Emperor Mirrorcloud was mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

    2. This isn¡¯t the first time we¡¯ve heard about the Lightborn and their eyes. They were mentioned in <u>chapter 390</u>, even in the chapter title. ?

    3. Emperor Eastglory was also mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

 Chapter 530: Human Domain Treasure; Dawning Sun! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 530: Human Domain Treasure; Dawning Sun! (part 2)</h4>

    The figure that appeared next to Seventh Prince had a face full of wrinkles, along with very kind eyes. He was none other than the lieutenant governor.

    ¡°I helped you,¡± the lieutenant governor said. ¡°You helped me. It was very fair. There¡¯s no need for thanks.¡± He smiled as he looked out at the scenery along with Seventh Prince.

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t speak for a moment. Then he said, ¡°I wanted to win acim. The Holytides wanted a magic to purge the Nightshade blood from their species, as well as a chance to reach the Smoldering God level. Both of us got what we wanted. But what about you? Do you really just want that item from the imperial pce that once belonged to Emperor Mirrorcloud?¡±

    The lieutenant governor smiled kindly. ¡°Of course. I¡¯m not a liar. Also, you forgot something. I want to be the governor of Sea-Sealing County.¡± Lowering his voice slightly, he continued, ¡°So, the emperor had that domain treasure all along, but didn¡¯t use it. Very devious. Very clever. No wonder you wanted to work with me. The reality is that, normally speaking, you shouldn¡¯t have won any acim in this war. The emperor was behind everything. Your mission was simply to save Sea-Sealing County, open Forbidden by the Immortal as bait for Crimson Mother, and give humanity the right opportunity to unleash its domain treasure.¡±

    It was almost as if Seventh Prince hadn¡¯t been listening. Facepletely expressionless, he coolly said, ¡°Why is the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County so important to you?¡±

    ¡°Having been baptized by the lightmost fatehavoc pill, the destiny aura is very important. And the old governor was the perfect person to give his life to purge it of poison. As of now, the destiny aura is fine. Think of it as a fruit that¡¯s only just ripened. It¡¯s a gift from me to you.¡± The lieutenant governor spoke in a mild and straightforward manner. The truth was that he was worried Seventh Prince might renege on their agreement.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Who are you, really?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a nobody,¡± replied the lieutenant governor, smiling.

    Seventh Prince stood there for a moment before nodding. ¡°During the big ceremony in three days, I¡¯ll publicly announce that you¡¯re the new governor. Going forward, Sea-Sealing County belongs to you, so handle things here as you see fit. As for that item that once belonged to Emperor Mirrorcloud, I can simply add it to the list of goods we¡¯re sending to the Holytides as part of the deal governing their return. Even if my father notices it, given the bigger picture, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll still agree to hand it over to you. Besides, he¡¯s the only person that can open the ancestralnd to retrieve it.¡± Seventh Prince turned to look at the lieutenant governor. ¡°That said, I¡¯m very curious. Why did you hatch this extremelyplicated conspiracy just to get a bowl?¡±

    The lieutenant governor smiled. ¡°I can answer that. But there¡¯s also something I¡¯m curious about. What happenster on if I give the people of Sea-Sealing County and its destiny aura to my lord and master to devour? What will you do then?¡±

    ¡°On a personal level,¡± Seventh Prince replied calmly, ¡°I couldn¡¯t care less. The county belongs to you now, after all. But from the perspective of humankind as a whole, I¡¯d have to stop you.¡±

    Hearing that, the lieutenant governor turned to leave.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t answered my question,¡± Seventh Prince said, his face expressionless.

    The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t look back. He just said one thing. ¡°If I told you that bowl is actually the skull of my lord and master, would you believe me?¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes glittered. The imperial pce had been constructed by Emperor Mirrorcloud. In other words, it was very, very old. It contained many secrets, some of which could actually be traced back to the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    Emperor Mirrorcloud had been the type of person who liked collecting things. However, there was only one thing that went with him into his grave, and that was a bowl. It was a bone bowl, and it had been interred with him. It was put into a coffin of the exact same measurements as his own, such that it looked as if two emperors had been entombed there. No one knew what that bone bowl did, or whose skull it was made from. And there was no information about it in any records. The truth had been erased in the countless years of time that had passed, so the only thing that remained were conjectures. There were even some people who imed that the skull was that of Emperor Mirrorcloud¡¯s closest friend, the crown prince of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t ask any more questions.

    The lieutenant governor left.

    A momentter, numerous streams of energy appeared around Seventh Prince, which resolved into a host of figures in ck cloaks. They looked exactly like the cloaked figures who had been with Zhang Siyun not so long ago. The figure in the forefront looked at Seventh Prince, sped hands, and bowed, then spoke in a sinister voice.

    ¡°Your Majesty, if you give us the order, sir, we¡¯ll kill him on the spot. We¡¯ve already determined his origin. He¡¯s from an organization called Torchlight. As for his identity¡ª¡±

    Seventh Prince shook his head. ¡°Whatever information you uncovered is what he wanted you to uncover. I¡¯m standing by my agreement with him. See to it.¡± Kneading the bridge of his nose, Seventh Prince continued, ¡°By the way, have you found any traces of my younger brother?¡±

    The ck-robed figure bowed his head. ¡°Your Majesty, we¡¯ve already scoured all the counties looking for Twelfth Prince, but haven¡¯t found him. We found some clues indicating he came to Sea-Sealing County. But his trail goes cold here.¡±

    Seventh Prince digested that information briefly, then shook his head and left.

    ***

    News began to spread about the grand ceremony that was to take ce now that Seventh Prince had returned. All human sects and organizations knew about it, as did all the countless species.

    Everyone was talking about the event because it was a coronation. Seventh Prince was going to crown the new governor.

    Once that happened, the new governor would be the most paramount entity in Sea-Sealing County. His every word and deed could affect the lives of countless people. The three pces, all the cultivators, and all the swordsages would have to listen to hismands. All it would take would be a single dharmic decree, and any one of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s thirteen provinces or countless sects and organizations could be wiped out of existence.

    He would be blessed by the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County, which would help him break through all the shackles tying down his cultivation base, and enable him to reach the highest of heights. He would exist at the pinnacle of the county.

    Of course, along with that great power came corresponding responsibilities. He would be in charge of safeguarding both humankind and Sea-Sealing County. Although no public announcement had been made regarding the identity of the new governor, everyone could already specte who it was. After all... there was only one person who, after having gone through so many dramatic events, qualified to take the spot. And that was the lieutenant governor!

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s virtuous achievement with the pallid bolus had earned him the veneration of the masses. During the war, he had been cautious and conscientious. He had kept the interior of the county safe. And after Seventh Prince arrived, he fought hard for the rights of the county.

    Everything he had done ensured that people loved him dearly.

    If Pce Lord Kong had been alive, then he would obviously have been the best choice. The other two pce lords would simrly have qualified. But now they were gone, and only the lieutenant governor was left. He represented the heart of the people, and also the old guard of Sea-Sealing County. Obviously, the people would have no qualms about someone like him bing the governor.

    Xu Qing was drinking in his sword pavilion when he heard the news. He¡¯d gone through quite a few jugs, but had plenty more.

    <i>In nine days, it¡¯ll have been a month. In nine days I can go back to Seven Blood Eyes. I really need to pay a visit to Arch-Immortal Plumdark.... And Ling¡¯er as well. Before I leave, I should go see her. She¡¯s probably awake by now. As for Master, I wonder if he¡¯s already done creating that treasure.</i>

    <i>Eldest Brother must have other big jobs in mind for the future. I wonder what the next one will be. I should really work on my cultivation. I need to get stronger. The two of us haven¡¯t evene close to traveling the world together.</i>

    <i>I have to tend to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave and pay respects to Grandmaster Bai as well. I should leave some offerings at Master Sixth¡¯s gravestone too. There are so many important things to handle.</i>

    <i>Huang Yan! I wonder how he¡¯s doing. And also... who is he? I still don¡¯t know for sure. Sir Bloodsmelter is getting so old. And then there¡¯s Elder Brother Zhang San, and Yanyan, and also Ding Xue! I haven¡¯t seen any of them for such a long time. With so many things to do, I can¡¯t just stick around the county capital. I should just go out and do something.</i>

    He took a long drink.

    <i>Yeah, that¡¯s totally right. My cultivation base is too weak to aplish anything important. At least I don¡¯t have any regrets about fighting in the war. Perhaps the swordsages... aren¡¯t a good fit for me. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. I grew up alone in a brutal world, fighting to survive. There have always been plenty of things beyond my control. From the time I was small, the most important thing was to just stay alive....</i>

    Xu Qing kept drinking. Eventually, it was only about seven days before the appointed time to return to Seven Blood Eyes.

    That was the day that Sea-Sealing County held its big ceremony.

    At first, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t nning to go. But then he thought about how he and the Captain would be leaving in seven days. When the bells started ringing, and hismand sword vibrated, he put down his jug of alcohol, walked out of his sword pavilion, and went up into the city. Soon, he found himself standing in the very same square where he had sworn his oath in front of the souls of the county heroes.

    There were a lot of people present, but everything was very orderly. Cultivators from all three pces were there. Hundreds of thousands of people were all congregated. Everyone was dressed in fresh, clean clothes, and they all looked very excited. That included the three deputy pce lords, who didn¡¯t look anxious and worried like before. And all the swordsages who were veterans of the war seemed to be in great moods.

    Humankind had won a historical victory. They had a domain treasure, which meant they were no longer prey for other species. Everyone¡¯s spirits were lifted by all of the good news.

    More than half of the Holytide Region now belonged to humans, and a golden age was starting. Besides, the fact that the Holytides were returning to humankind essentially meant that humans would soon control an entire region. It was something that hadn¡¯t happened for tens of thousands of years.

    It was little wonder everyone was so worked up!

    What was more, it would only be a short time before everyone got to see their new governor. Everything was ying out perfectly.

    The Captain was in the crowd, as were Kong Xianglong, Qing Qiu, and Ning Yan.

    When the Captain found Xu Qing, he threw his arm around his neck, leaned toward him, and sniffed a few times.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Last time I messaged, you said you were in seclusion. Why do you smell like booze? How drunk are you?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head and chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    The Captain looked suspicious, and was about to ask a question when the bells started ringing. The golden dragon in the dome of heaven roared, spewing out colorful clouds. Seventh Prince floated down from above, d in a yellow robe, a nine-tasseled crown on his head. He moved with power and grace, and his mere presence caused the crowds to erupt into wild cheering.

    ¡°Victory!¡±

    ¡°Victory!¡±

    ¡°Victory!¡±

    Seventh Prince smiled and nodded as he proceeded to the altar. He was nked by dozens of followers, all of whom were d in the robes of government officials.

    Among them were the threemanders-in-chief from the three pces and the othermanders-in-chief and generalissimos from the imperial army, including the one who had presided over the operation in Forbidden by the Immortal, Generalissimo Bloodhorror.

    Also present was the lieutenant governor. Just as in the past, he looked kind, with merciful eyes. There also seemed something wistful about him. From the look of it, he was very grateful that humans had finally achieved this victory.

    The group floated down to the altar, until theynded in front of it. The imperial prince strode to the highest position of all, then turned so that his back was to the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and he was looking out at everything below him.

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators below the altar wentpletely silent. Expressions somber, they looked up at the prince, and behind him, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    Xu Qing did the same. As he did, his heart pounded, and he struggled to remain still and unmoving. Over the past twenty-three days, he had be ustomed to drinking. However, there was no alcohol to drink at the moment. He sighed inwardly.

    <i>Once this ceremony is over, I¡¯ll go buy some medicinal nts. I still have some military credits, and a few days to spend them. Who knows how long it will be before I¡¯m back in the county capital? Yeah. I might as well get some magical devices and other things as well.</i>

    He tried hard to think about what things he should do before leaving, and thus keep himself under control.

    Meanwhile, Seventh Prince looked out at the hundreds of thousands of gathered cultivators. sping hands, he bowed.

    ¡°Sea-Sealing County is here today, not just because I defended it. It is here because all of <i>you</i> defended it. <i>We </i>defended it. Together!

    ¡°As such, the victory belongs, not just to me, but even more so, to all of you. And especially to the fine officers and troops who gave their lives on the front lines! Therefore, on this day of ceremony, I wish to pay my respects to them! Please, join me as I bow to the souls of all the heroes!¡±

    Expression somber, Seventh Prince turned in the direction of the front lines, sped hands, and bowed deeply. Hearts swelling in response to his words, the gathered cultivators turned in the same direction, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°I hope that we humans can live for all eternity in peace and security! And I also hope that we can once again capture the glory of our past!¡± Seventh Prince¡¯s words resounded in all heaven and earth, causing the clouds to swirl into auspicious formations!

 Chapter 531: Follow The Path Your Heart Chooses (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 531: Follow The Path Your Heart Chooses (part 1)</h4>

    Seven-colored clouds shone in the dome of heaven, spreading out to fill the sky. They looked like beautiful flowers made of light, their shifting colorsced with gold as they hung over the grand ceremony taking ce.

    The roars of the four-wed golden dragon thundered out as it exhaled multicolored clouds. Within the clouds were numerous illusory figures standing tall as they observed; they were all the governors from the history of Sea-Sealing County, there to bear witness to what was toe. Of course, they were just projections created by destiny aura.

    Spirit energy gathered in the form of raindrops, which fell to the ground and dispelled the scattered mutagen that had seeped out from Forbidden by the Immortal. Countless nts began to grow vibrantly, while all living beings experienced a boost to their cultivation base, and found old injuries and conditions rapidly improving.

    A golden age had arrived. All cultivators in the county capital, and in fact, all people in general, were cheering loudly. The various nonhuman representatives from around Sea-Sealing County who were there to witness the event couldn¡¯t help but feel a deep reverence in their hearts. Even the Demi-Immortals respectfully bowed their heads.

    Atop the altar, themanders-in-chief who hade with the imperial prince from the capital all had eyes shining with zealous veneration. Thanks to the leadership of Seventh Prince, they had won a great victory, and had performed unheard-of services to humankind.

    That group included the threemanders-in-chief assigned to the three pces.

    The lieutenant governor stood there looking up into the sky. His expression seemed to be a mixture ofmentation and reminiscence. And it was tinged with the sensation of ancient time, as if he had already witnessed someone achieve things such as the imperial prince had achieved, except, on a far grander scale.

    <i>It¡¯s not a big deal. Everything will return to the way it once was, my Lord. Three days at the most after the Holytides fulfill their agreement, I will sacrifice all the living beings in Sea-Sealing County. I¡¯ll squeeze out all of their destiny aura to create a boundless life fruit for you, sir.</i>

    The lieutenant governor smiled faintly. He was a man of <i>rigorous schemes and deep foresight</i>, and thus, he couldn¡¯t stop his heart from swelling. However, he quickly wiped away any expression of reminiscence from his face. The kind smile returned, and the crow¡¯s feet around his eyes seemed even more prominent.

    Xu Qing was back in the crowd. As he looked up, his eyes were fixed, not on Seventh Prince, but rather, on the huge statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    Within his mind echoed a certain collection of words.

    <i>¡°A swordsage can execute judgment on anyone except the emperor!¡±</i>

    Those words had popped into his mind over twenty days ago, and he had been suppressing them for just as long.

    Leaning over to the Captain, Xu Qing said, ¡°Eldest Brother, after this, why don¡¯t wee up with a good reason to leave this ce?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s simple,¡± the Captain said proudly. ¡°I already figured it all out. It¡¯s been a full two years since we joined the swordsages. Normally speaking, new swordsages have to serve in the capital for three years. But you can reduce that time with military credits. Once we¡¯re ready to make our move, we can just apply for a position outside of the capital, and I¡¯ll grease the right wheels to make sure we end up assigned to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been two years?¡± Xu Qing said. Time really had flown by.

    The Captain sighed. ¡°Yeah, two years!¡±

    ¡°I guess that means I¡¯m twenty years old now,¡± Xu Qing mused.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, little Ah Qing. You still haven¡¯t grown up all the way. Twenty years old!¡± The Captain chuckled heartily.

    Xu Qing also chuckled.

    On the altar, Seventh Prince raised his hand, and instantly, the cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands went silent. The entire county capital quieted.

    ¡°You fighting men of Sea-Sealing County have had it rough over the past half a year,¡± the prince said quietly. ¡°I¡¯ve watched your blood flow. The emperor has seen the sacrifices you¡¯ve made. All humankind has borne witness to your service. The war is over. Humans are triumphant!

    ¡°For tens of thousands of years, the Nightshades humiliated us. Now we¡¯ve made them pay the price for that. Countless Nightshades died on the field of battle outside the imperial capital. Then we released Dawning Sun in two of their regions, exterminating ten times as many Nightshade as died in the fighting!

    ¡°Humankind¡¯s domain treasure shook heaven and earth! But what is most terrifying about our domain treasure is not that initial burst of power; rather, it is the fact that it will remain in Nightshadends for a sixty-year-cycle, endlessly burning!

    ¡°During that sixty-year-cycle, a hundred times as many Nightshades will die as have already died. Whatever Nightshades are born in the meantime will be altered. Transformed. Granted, they have their own domain treasure. But they only have one. And they don¡¯t have the courage to use it at the cost of their own lives. So they will hold back from using it. Their champion, High God Crimson Mother, has fallen into a deep sleep.

    ¡°As for us humans, we have already unleashed our domain treasure three times, and can continue to do so. In this war, we have aplished something incredible, the likes of which hasn¡¯t been seen for tens of thousands of years. Emperor Dark War is now known throughout all heaven and earth!¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s impassioned voice filled the sky. ¡°Thanks to our hard work, Sea-Sealing County stands strong, just as before! But there¡¯s more than that. Though three prefectures were lost, I... have brought them back! In addition to the three prefectures I recovered, we humans have also recovered control of half of the territory in the Holytide Region. That territory includes nine counties and a hundred prefectures!¡±

    An excited wave of cheering swept through the crowd.

    As Seventh Prince looked out, his gaze became filled with unswerving determination, and his voice deepened.

    ¡°That said, I¡¯m aware that some people believe my methods to be overly cruel. They think my actions are for the purpose of turning Sea-Sealing County into my personal territory.

    ¡°That couldn¡¯t be further from the truth. I¡¯m aware that Sea-Sealing County needs a leader, and therefore, I submitted a formal petition to the emperor, and received official approval to appoint a new governor for you. And this governor is someone you¡¯re very familiar with.

    ¡°Soon, I will leave Sea-Sealing County, and in all likelihood, I¡¯ll never return. Instead, I will enter Holytide territory, to guard the frontier border!¡±

    He finished speaking, and before the crowd could react, he turned to the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity and bowed formally. Then he turned to the illusory governors in the clouds, and bowed even more deeply.

    ¡°The county of Sea-Sealing cannot be left unguarded. Throughout history, all governors of this county have been outstanding heroes.

    ¡°Therefore, on this day, I, Guyue Zhang¡¯an, as the seventh son of Emperor Dark War, would like to nominate a candidate to be the new governor. After his heart has been assessed by heaven, earth, and the people, I will submit his candidacy to the emperor himself, and then await the official appointment. Lieutenant governor!¡±

    The lieutenant governor smiled and sped hands in his direction.

    Seventh Prince looked down the altar. ¡°Your pallid bolus is a blessing to all humans in the county capital. Your actions have freed countless humans from the corrupting pain of mutagen. This is your first aplishment!

    ¡°During your time serving as lieutenant governor, you were cautious and conscientious. From assisting the governor to showing pity on themoners, your hard work and meritorious service are known to all. This is your second aplishment!

    ¡°During the war, you kept the interior safe, ensuring that the people of Sea-Sealing County didn¡¯t devolve into chaos. You spared no effort to support the front lines. This is your third aplishment!

    ¡°Going forward, you will lead all the cultivators in Sea-Sealing County. You will see to it that the county returns to business as usual. You will oversee the reconstruction. You will return the county to its previous state. This will be your fourth aplishment!¡±

    As Seventh Prince listed out all of the lieutenant governor¡¯s meritorious aplishments, the hundreds of thousands of onlookers, and the tens of millions of people in the county capital in general, all looked on, their eyes shining with reverence.

    The lieutenant governor stood there with a kind, merciful look on his face.

    Down below, Xu Qing looked down. He had no desire to watch any of this. He just kept telling himself that all he had to do was wait seven more days. In seven days, he could go back to Seven Blood Eyes.

    <i>The ceremony should be over soon.</i>

    After Seventh Prince finished listing out the lieutenant governor¡¯s aplishments, the crowd roared, and the prince smiled and nodded to the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor then stepped forward. All eyes were on him as he walked up the stairs to the top of the altar, where he stood next to Seventh Prince.

    A strong wind swept through the area. It wasn¡¯t the result of a magical technique, but rather, a manifestation of the invisible destiny aura. It came as streams of destiny aura rose up from all of the mortals and all of the cultivators in the county capital. Up above, the clouds seem to grow thinner as the destiny aura formed a massive vortex. The vortex grew increasingly visible.

    ¡°That¡¯s the county¡¯s destiny aura,¡± the Captain said enviously. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be of much use to me and you. But to a Void Returning cultivator, the destiny aura of an entire county could easily push you up an entire stage. In fact, it might be enough to step halfway into the Smoldering God level!

    ¡°With a blessing of destiny aura, he really will be the most paramount figure in all of Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down and said nothing.

    Atop the altar, Seventh Prince looked over at the lieutenant governor.

    The kind lieutenant governor softly said, ¡°I hereby ask heaven: may I serve as the governor of Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    The most important aspect of the governor¡¯s coronation was the assessment of heaven, earth, and the people. It was a ceremonial tradition started by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity that had continued to this day. In this case, ¡®heaven¡¯ was Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And as a representative of the imperial n, Seventh Prince qualified to represent heaven. Looking solemnly at the lieutenant governor, he nodded.

    ¡°You may!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, thunder rumbled in the sky. It was as if a million lightning bolts all fell at the same time. As the sound spread out, the vortex of destiny aura became even easier to see. Gradually, it was taking the shape of a crown.

    The crown of the emperor had twelve tassels. The leaders of the regions had ten tassels. The imperial princes had nine tassels. And the leaders of the counties had five tassels. The regtions had been set in ancient times, and they had not changed. And thus, the destiny aura overhead was taking the shape of a crown with five tassels.

    As the thunder rumbled, the crown-shaped convergence of destiny aura overhead echoed with another sound. It was like that of a boy weeping.

    It struck Xu Qing to the heart, causing him to suddenly look up. The weeping was extremely clear to him, but no one else seemed to be reacting, as if they couldn¡¯t hear it.

    ¡°Did you hear that, Eldest Brother?¡± Xu Qing suddenly said.

    The Captain looked over at Xu Qing and shook his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t hear anything. Neither did you.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. He knew that the weeping in the destiny aura was the boy from D-132. Considering that he and the Captain were both linked to a heavenly dao, there was no doubt that the Captain had also heard the weeping. The sound seemed to grow louder in his ears, and it struck him to the core.

    <i>There are a lot of things I still have yet to aplish. I need to get back to Seven Blood Eyes.... My cultivation base isn¡¯t strong enough. I have to stay alive. Everything depends on improving my cultivation base. Everything. There will still be time to fix everything. After I¡¯m strong enough.</i>

    However, even as Xu Qing consoled himself, there was another voice in the back of his mind screaming at him that the governor¡¯s killer, and Pce Lord Kong¡¯s killer, was right in front of him. All of the cmity Sea-Sealing County had faced was the result of a plot carried out over many years by this very person. Of course, that voice was Xu Qing¡¯s own voice. He forced it into silence.

    <i>It¡¯s not my responsibility. Exactly. Not my responsibility.... I¡¯m a nobody who needs to focus on staying alive. Besides, I don¡¯t want to drag Master and Eldest Brother into this.</i>

    As Xu Qing kept looking down, he clenched his hands into fists.

    Atop the altar, the lieutenant governor calmly continued speaking. ¡°I hereby ask earth: may I serve as the governor of Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    In this case, ¡®earth¡¯ were thends of Sea-Sealing County, and in a ceremonial and symbolic sense, Seventh Prince qualified to respond.

    ¡°You may!¡±

    Instantly, thunderous rumbling erupted overhead, like a million lightning bolts exploding at the same time. More destiny aura converged, and the crown became clearer. It even started floating down toward the altar. The weeping grew more intense, and almost pleading.

    Xu Qing¡¯s chest heaved and his heart pounded. He looked up. From his angle of view, it almost looked like Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s hands were cing the crown of destiny aura onto the head of the new governor.

    Once the crown was on the head of the lieutenant governor, he would be the governor. He would be blessed by destiny aura, and he would be in charge of the entire county.

    From that moment on, the heaven of Sea-Sealing County would belong to Torchlight. Thends of Sea-Sealing County would belong to Torchlight. And the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County would belong to Torchlight. [1]

    If that happened, then Sergeant Thunder¡¯s death, Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death, and Master Sixth¡¯s death would be pure regret.

    There was one unknown: would Master Seventh¡¯s actions in Forbidden by the Immortal be able to evade the scrutiny of an entire county?

    <i>Probably. Master should be fine. Worst case scenario....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, and his clenched fists rxed briefly before falling back into fists. But then the Captain put his hand on Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°It¡¯s almost time to leave, little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain said softly, squeezing Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    On the altar, the lieutenant governor smiled kindly as his gaze swept across the crowd of hundreds of thousands. It passed Xu Qing, then focused on something far, far away.

    ¡°I hereby ask the people, the fighting men of the county, may I... serve as the governor of Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    This was the final step in the ceremony. In this case, Seventh Prince didn¡¯t qualify to respond, as the question was asked to the people of Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°You may!¡±

    ¡°You may!!¡±

    ¡°You may!!!¡±

    The response was immediate. Hundreds of thousands of voices joined together on the altar, and were joined by the even louder convergence of the voices of the mortals in the city. The popr sentiment had been made clear! All living beings were in agreement! Heaven, earth, and the people all approved!

    The clouds above seethed, and millions upon millions of thunderps rang out. The crown with five tassels, which represented the safety of an entire county, finished forming. The destiny aura converged, causing thends to tremble and the sky to ripple.

    The pleading wail turned into one of despair, and then gradually began to fade from Xu Qing¡¯s ears. The crown slowly lowered from the sky as if Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity were cing it onto the lieutenant governor¡¯s head.

    At that moment, the struggle within Xu Qing reached an explosive level. It felt like heavenly lightning was smashing into him, shattering his thoughts.

    Looking up, he sighed. With that sigh, he exhaled the impure vital energy that had been building up within him for more than twenty days. He knew that he was powerless. And in recent days, he hade up with countless logical reasons to convince himself he was doing the right thing.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been fooling myself,¡± he said quietly. ¡°I can¡¯t say those words. I can¡¯t give my approval. Eldest Brother, I can¡¯t hold back any longer.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s pupils constricted, Kong Xianglong gasped, Qing Qiu¡¯s jaw dropped, and everyone else in the crowd looked on in confusion as Xu Qing flew up into the air.

    1. When reading this part, I was initially confused as to why Xu Qing would connect the lieutenant governor to Torchlight. Though this passage is not written as internal dialogue, it¡¯s clearly being exined from Xu Qing¡¯s perspective. Only a few chapters ago in <u>chapter 529</u>, Xu Qing made the initial connection to Torchlight. We also got confirmation (from outside of Xu Qing¡¯s perspective) in <u>chapter 530.2</u>. Though it¡¯s not spelled out in extreme detail, the main factor linking them was Chu Tianqun and the white hand that originally appeared in <u>chapter 465</u>. That white handter appeared in <u>chapter 525.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 531: Follow The Path Your Heart Chooses (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 531: Follow The Path Your Heart Chooses (part 2)</h4>

    In front of hundreds of thousands of people, Xu Qing alone rose up, glowing with the light of daybreak. A bluegreen dragon appeared over his head, along with a group of scintiting umbres.

    Countless people shifted their gazes in his direction. Seventh Prince looked at him. The lieutenant governor stared. Numerous cultivators looked up.

    The despairing wail of the boy suddenly disappeared as Xu Qing hovered there looking out at heaven and earth. In the heat of the moment, he wasn¡¯t thinking about whether he¡¯d made the right choice. He wasn¡¯t wondering whether he would live or die. He was just following his heart.

    All of the arguments he had been using on himself for the past half a month became powerless. How could they possibly suppress the truth he knew in his heart? Perhaps if another moment had passed, he wouldn¡¯t have done this. And perhaps if he had another chance to do the same thing, he wouldn¡¯t. But right now, he wasn¡¯t thinking about such things.

    ¡°I am Xu Qing, who received a 30,000-meter pir of light when the Grand Emperor assessed my heart. And I object to this!¡±

    In voicing his objection, he had no choice but to mention the 30,000-meter pir of light and the assessment of the heart. Those were his qualifications. After speaking the words, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted from him. All of the pressure that had been building up on him over thest twenty days or so finally disappeared.

    Fuck off, confusion!

    Fuck off, deliberation!

    Popr sentiment couldn¡¯t suppress his heart. Public opinion couldn¡¯t keep his soul down.

    Concerns about good decisions and bad decisions... could all just fuck off!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and his entire person seemed to glow. The power of destiny aura in the sky seethed, and unexpectedly, some of it actually shifted away from the crown and toward Xu Qing¡¯s head.

    Another crown, slightly smaller, was now taking shape above Xu Qing! It represented the approval of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura, and the approval of its heavenly dao! Although many people weren¡¯t able to see it happening, there were definitely some people who could see it!

    His words echoed like thunder into the hearts of all who could hear. Instantly, the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the square went dead silent.

    A moment passed, and then gasps could be heard everywhere.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s gaze focused on the spot above Xu Qing¡¯s head, and his heart started pounding. He knew full well who Xu Qing was. What stuck out to him was one single thing. It wasn¡¯t the services Xu Qing had rendered, or the fact that he earned the measly title of secretary-general from the old pce lord. Instead... it was the 30,000-meter pir of light during the Grand Emperor''s assessment of the heart!

    Never before in history had a person received a 30,000-meter pir of light in Sea-Sealing County. Most people only had a cursory understanding of what that meant, and that it was rare. To them, a person like that was like an individual with a politically approved family background and education, who could be trusted. And it would ensure they had good prospects for the future.

    But given Seventh Prince¡¯s status and rank, he had a much deeper understanding. He knew that because of the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart, Xu Qing¡¯s name was now inscribed on the statue of the Grand Emperor in the imperial capital! That statue was not a domain treasure. However, it was a legacy relic that had safeguarded humankind on many asions. Throughout history, all emperors had prostrated in worship in front of it. People whose names were inscribed on that statue were considered very important to the emperor.

    In other words... even Seventh Prince would hesitate long and hard before acting against such a person. And if he killed someone who had received a 30,000-meter pir of light in the assessment of the heart, it would have a major effect on his reputation.

    It was because of that 30,000-meter pir of light that Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out for everyone to hear. And all the cultivators who heard it were shaken to the core.

    If this were Xu Qing¡¯s first day in the county capital, then even the backing of the Grand Emperor wouldn¡¯t have been enough for him to be taken seriously. If it was his first day, nobody would know him or understand what he was like. On his first day, people might recognize his name, but nothing else. Anything he said would be meaningless, because though people might have heard he was outstanding, they wouldn¡¯t have actually valued him.

    Except this was not his first day.

    Without doing it intentionally, Xu Qing had worked his way into the hearts of everyone in Sea-Sealing County. He was the one who had brought great aid to the western front. And because of him being the secretary-general, countless people knew about him. What was more, his actions on the front lines of the war had won him the approval and understanding of all his fellow veterans.

    He was a part of Sea-Sealing County. And to the swordsages, he was someone who had risked his life along their side, arade-in-arms who they trustedpletely!

    That, plus the 30,000-meter light, became like a glowing halo that made him the center of all attention. He had risen to the top based on his own talent, and had earned the deep trust and approval of the people of Sea-Sealing County, and especially to the Swordsage Pce. In fact, when they looked at him, they instinctively thought about Pce Lord Kong.

    Not even someone like Kong Xianglong could do something like that. After Pce Lord Kong died, word began to spread about Kong Xianglong''s true identity. And for the most part, Kong Xianglong had been by the pce lord¡¯s side during the war. As a result, his words were taken very seriously, and could shake all of the county capital.

    However, after everything Xu Qing had experienced, he hade to realize that the most difficult thing to influence was public opinion. To the mortals in the county capital, the lieutenant governor was a person who had truly benefited the people. In that regard, Xu Qing couldn¡¯tpare at all.

    The cultivators from the other pces were shaken, and at the same time, puzzled. All of that made it very clear to Xu Qing what he was up against. Being clear-headed was sometimes a big mistake.

    Even as Xu Qing¡¯s words continued to ring out, the deputy pce lord from the Swordsage Pce, the same one who had watched with tear-filled eyes as Pce Lord Kong perished, rushed out into the open.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡± he shouted. ¡°Did you actually cultivate that technique I gave you all the way to the first level! Are you daft? I told you not to get greedy, but you just wouldn¡¯t listen!¡± Though the deputy pce lord was yelling angrily, his eyes betrayed how anxious he was. Spinning, he sped hands in the direction of the altar. ¡°Your Majesty. Lieutenant Governor. Xu Qing clearly ran into some problems in cultivation. Please, take no offense. I¡¯ll personally take him away right now to punish him!¡±

    At the same time, Honor Guard Sima and Honor Guard Sun from the Swordsage Pce flew up and bowed in the direction of the altar. Down below, there were other veterans who were about to join them. There were more than 100,000 of them, and they included Kong Xianglong, the Captain, Qing Qiu, and Ning Yan. It didn¡¯t matter what happened. It didn¡¯t matter what mistake Xu Qing made. They instinctively wanted to keep him safe. After all, Xu Qing would do the same for them. They wererades-in-arms!

    That was especially true of the Captain, who was already glowing with a faint blue light.

    However, before anyone could fly up, the deputy pce lord rebuked them angrily, then once again bowed in the direction of the altar.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes were narrowed and his heart pounded as his gaze focused on the spot above Xu Qing¡¯s head. Then he looked down at all the veterans below. At that moment, he realized that if he didn¡¯t handle this matter properly, it could lead to a lot of chaos. If that happened, then even if he smoothed everything out, there would be a blemish on the lieutenant governor. After all, Seventh Prince was now dealing with someone with a 30,000-meter pir of light, plus the approval of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura. A person like that... would be treated thoughtfully even by his father the emperor.

    That said, none of this was really his responsibility. He had fulfilled his part of the agreement. If the lieutenant governor couldn¡¯t keep control of the matter, what did that have to do with Seventh Prince? Therefore, Seventh Prince didn¡¯t say anything. He just waited to see how the lieutenant governor would handle the matter.

    As the lieutenant governor stood on the altar, he looked at Xu Qing and quietly said, ¡°It¡¯s no bother. However, I¡¯m curious to hear why exactly you object? By the way, Xu Qing, I haven¡¯t forgotten that I had you in my ss before.¡±

    Before Xu Qing could say anything, the deputy pce lord again sped hands and said, ¡°Exalted Governor, there¡¯s no reason for you to give any weight to the nonsense of children!¡± Then he turned to Xu Qing and yelled, ¡°What are you standing around for? Get out of here!¡±

    With that, he backed up as if to drag Xu Qing away, while simultaneously releasing the power of his cultivation base in case the imperialmanders-in-chief of the lieutenant governor made a sudden move.

    ¡°Stop right there, Li Yunshan!¡± the lieutenant governor said coolly. [1]

    Li Yunshan was the deputy pce lord¡¯s name. Upon hearing his name spoken, he stopped for a moment, then continued a few more steps until he was standing next to Xu Qing. Looking at the lieutenant governor, he spoke in a voice that mixed bitterness with decisiveness. ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor, Xu Qing was the secretary-general to Pce Lord Kong. He¡¯s a swordsage too. He¡¯s young and inexperienced, but he doesn¡¯t deserve to die. After Pce Lord Kong sacrificed his life, I¡¯m the only one left to take care of Xu Qing. Therefore... I vouch for him!¡±

    Honor guards Sima and Sun released the power of their cultivation bases, as did the more than 100,000 veterans.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes glittered faintly as he looked at the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor, meanwhile, looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took a step forward, bowed to Li Yunshan and the two honor guards. Then he turned to the more than 100,000 veterans and bowed to them. When he stood straight again, he spoke in a calm voice.

    ¡°In the fourth month of this year, after the war broke out, when Pce Lord Kong led the army to the front lines, he gave me a secret mission to investigate the governor¡¯s murder!¡±

    Li Yunshan had been just about to rush forward and drag him away, when the words registered and he lurched to a halt. The hundreds of thousands of cultivators present felt their minds reeling as they looked at Xu Qing.

    As everyone looked on, Xu Qing expressionlessly took out the jade slip that Pce Lord Kong had given him.

    ¡°It took me half a year toplete that mission. Although we already know the role Marquis Yao yed, there are still unanswered questions. And there is still a killer atrge. Unfortunately, because Pce Lord Kong sacrificed his life, I didn¡¯t have a chance to report my findings to anyone. Lieutenant Governor... do you mind if I make my report to you, right here and now? I¡¯ve uncovered some evidence rting to the governor¡¯s death that all humans in Sea-Sealing County should know about. I would love for you to point out any errors I¡¯ve made, Lieutenant Governor!¡±

    Down below, the Captain sighed. Eyes glittering with blue light, he prepared to release one more of his seals. Kong Xianglong trembled, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the lieutenant governor. Ning Yan shrank back a bit. Surreptitiously ncing at Seventh Prince, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Qing Qiu maintained silence, but her knuckles were white as she gripped her scythe.

    There was also a random swordsage hidden in the crowd who looked at Xu Qing with a gleam of approval in his eyes, even pride. However, there was also a bit of helplessness in those eyes, within which briefly flickered a hint of golden light.

    On the altar was Generalissimo Bloodhorror, who had led the operation in Forbidden by the Immortal. Beneath his mask, his eyes glittered.

    The crowds were absolutely silent. In response to Xu Qing¡¯s words, their gazes shifted to the lieutenant governor. Obviously, the governor¡¯s murder had brought sorrow to the entire county. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention that Xu Qing was acting on the orders of Pce Lord Kong. Even the mortals in the county capital were paying rapt attention. Already, public sentiment was wavering.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t match up to the lieutenant governor in terms of prestige.

    However, the lieutenant governor couldn¡¯t match up to the governor and Pce Lord Kong in prestige!

    The lieutenant governor looked down at Xu Qing, and he seemed very serious, as if he only just now realized who Xu Qing was.

    ¡°Say what you have to say.¡±

    1. Li Yunshan: Li is listed #2 on the list of 100mon surnames. It also means ¡°plum.¡± Yun means ¡°cloud¡± and Shan means ¡°mountain.¡± Madam Deathde says this name sounds cool but not amazingly unusual. ?

 Chapter 532: Point Out Any Errors Iâ€™ve Made, Lieutenant Governor! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 532: Point Out Any Errors I¡¯ve Made, Lieutenant Governor! (part 1)</h4>

    For more than twenty days, Xu Qing hade up with countless reasons to convince himself to stay silent. But he hadn¡¯t been able to stop himself from thinking about another possible oue.

    He had known all along that if he stepped out like he did, there were three possible catastrophic oues. The first was that the moment he stepped out into the open, he would be struck dead immediately. Although that didn¡¯t seem likely, it was a possibility. After all, to most people, voicing an objection wasn¡¯t the same as outright rebellion.

    The second possibility was that he would be imprisoned, whereupon his life or death could be determined by someone¡¯s else¡¯s whim.

    The third possibility was that everything would go smoothly, but that he would create immense potential cmities that would lead to further catastrophe.

    Of course, all of those possibilities were what would happen if he failed.

    The moment he stepped out into the open and mentioned the 30,000-meter pir of light, he ensured that the first possibility wouldn¡¯t y out. What was more, he hadn¡¯t even considered that the deputy pce lord and others would try to shield him from harm.

    Next he had taken out the orders from Pce Lord Kong. With that jade slip as evidence, and as soon as he said he wanted to report the findings of his investigation, he ruled out the second possibility. Although the governor¡¯s murder had previously been announced as having been solved, his carefully worded statement did not exempt Marquis Yao from culpability. He simply said there was more to the story, and that he wanted the people of Sea-Sealing County to hear all the details. Although the lieutenant governor was well-liked, he couldn¡¯t surpass the old governor in terms of being loved by the people. What was more, the brilliant services performed by Pce Lord Kong would not be easily forgotten.

    Xu Qing had called upon the names of two people who might as well have been mountains in the hearts of themoners. Then he coupled that with the 30,000-meter pir of light, and it bought him the opportunity he sought. The former was what shook the mortals. Thetter was what shook the veteran cultivators.

    And that was why the lieutenant governor looked deeply at Xu Qing, as if he were only finally realizing who he really was. After all, if Xu Qing said anything that even hinted at him trying to protect Marquis Yao or contradict the previous judgment that had been announced, then it would be easy to crush him.

    Silence reigned in heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing hovered in front of everyone, the destiny aura slowly gathering above his head.

    He knew that his every choice of word was vitally important, and that if he said even one wrong thing, he would be <i>damned by myriad tribtions</i>. He let a few breaths of time pass, then looked at the lieutenant governor.

    ¡°In the fourth month of this year, the governor mysteriously died, the Holytides invaded, and eight hundred years of peace in Sea-Sealing County came to an end. The Nightshades besieged the imperial capital, prevented the new governor and the relief troops froming to our aid, and left Sea-Sealing County isted and without help. We were being <i>tossed about by the wind and the rain</i>, and everyone felt deeply rmed.

    ¡°In the face of such deadly peril, Pce Lord Kong epted the orders to stand in as the governor to safeguard Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°In that same month, I worked closely with Pce Lord Kong to process all war reports and announcements. At the end of the fourth month, the situation on the front lines became critical. The pce lord tookmand of the Sea-Sealing County army and left to defend humankind. Living up to his oath as a swordsage, he personally went to the front lines. On the day he left, I helped the pce lord don his armor.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words were not meaningless in any way. He wanted the hundreds of thousands of listeners to think back to those times. He wanted the mortals to remember what life was like back then in the county capital. He wanted them to clearly remember who it was that had really kept them safe.

    ¡°Before Pce Lord Kong left, he told me I wouldn¡¯t being along. Instead, he took a body double with him so no one would realize I was secretly on my way to Daybreak Prefecture to investigate the governor¡¯s death.

    ¡°Pce Lord Kong already had a theory about the governor¡¯s cause of death. He believed the murder weapon was something called a lightmost fatehavoc pill. In ancient times, it was a very famous pill, but nowadays you have to study history books to learn about it. It specifically targets people upon whom destiny aura has converged. The stronger the destiny aura, the more deadly the pill will be to them.

    ¡°The old governor had all of the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County. And his death perfectly conforms to how the lightmost fatehavoc poison works.

    ¡°Pce Lord Kong¡¯s reasons for concluding that pill was involved can be found recorded in ssified Dossier 19 in the Swordsage Pce. I have no idea if that file even exists anymore. Regardless, before the governor¡¯s death, the Swordsage Pce ran an operation to extract an agent from Holytide territory, and also recover an empty wish box. Quite a few people participated in that mission, and they can all corroborate my story.

    ¡°However, there is one very specific item required to make a lightmost fatehavoc pill work. And that is daybreak light. I don¡¯t know if it exists in other regions, but I do know that it exists in Daybreak Prefecture here in Sea-Sealing County. That is what Pce Lord Kong sent me to check on. I needed to look through the records there to see if there was any daybreak light that could have been used in concert with a lightmost fatehavoc pill to kill the governor.

    ¡°Acting on Pce Lord Kong¡¯s orders, I went to Daybreak Prefecture. While I was there, I resolved a crisis with the local Swordsage Court. That was when I got to the bottom of the situation. The Swordsage Court there can corroborate my story, and all of the evidence is recorded in this jade slip. What I found in Daybreak Prefecture is that there was some daybreak light that appeared a few years ago, but did not make it into the official records.¡±

    All of a sudden, Kong Xianglong flew up into the air. ¡°I participated in the mission to extract that agent. And I can testify that ssified Dossier 19 did mention that empty wish box. Everything is exactly as Xu Qing has said!¡±

    Countless gasps rang out from the crowd of hundreds of thousands, and the mortals throughout the county capital were trembling. Seventh Prince¡¯s gaze had turned t as he looked at the lieutenant governor.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing continued, ¡°Ipiled all of this into a report to give to Pce Lord Kong. However, in that very same month, he died in battle. Therefore, I decided to continue the investigation on my own.¡±

    At this point in Xu Qing¡¯s speech, the lieutenant governor suddenly sighed. ¡°Brother Liangxiu came to the same conclusion as me!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s gaze left Xu Qing and shifted to the hundreds of thousands of cultivators. Looking hurt, he said, ¡°Xu Qing is giving voice to the very same things I considered. For example, I tracked down ssified Dossier 19.

    ¡°You see, it wasn¡¯t just Brother Liangxiu who was investigating the governor¡¯s death. I was also running my own secret investigation. The matter was too important to entrust to just a single person. I long believed that, given the high level of the governor¡¯s cultivation base, it should have been impossible to poison him without him realizing it.

    ¡°The governor was not just a colleague, he was my close friend. And he was a hero to all of Sea-Sealing County. Because of that, I very much wanted to find out how he died, and also, get revenge!

    ¡°Thankfully, I made some progress in the short time before the war started, reached my conclusion, and announced it publicly. However, what Xu Qing says makes sense. The people of Sea-Sealing County deserve to know the truth.¡±

    With that, the lieutenant governor waved his hand, causing arge Go board to appear in midair. There was aplete game on the board, with white and ck pieces arrayed against each other in a disy of fierce conflict.

    ¡°This is the governor¡¯s Go board. Normally speaking, the only people who yed on this board, other than the governor, were myself, Brother Liangxiu, and Yao Tianyan. Only the four of us ever touched it.¡± The lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes seemed to flicker with reminiscence. Sighing, he turned to Seventh Prince and sped hands. ¡°I hate to trouble you, Your Majesty, but do you mind assisting as you did the day when we revealed the hidden poison? We need imperial blood to expose the fatehavoc element to view.¡±

    Facepletely expressionless. Seventh Prince flicked his finger, causing a red drop of blood to emerge and fly over to the Go board. That blood contained an astonishing bloodline power that caused all nearby humans to shiver. Itnded on the Go board, and it was as if a veil had been lifted. ck energy pulsed off the board, and close examination would reveal that, specifically, it wasing from the game pieces.

    ¡°That ck energy is the lightmost fatehavoc poison. Under normal circumstances, none of us could see or sense it. It was the same with the Governor. Only those with the blood of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, who conquered all of Revered Ancient, have the power to reveal it.

    ¡°The culprit used this Go board to poison the governor!¡±

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s words caused a buzz in the crowd. After all, everything he was saying seemedpletely believable and realistic.

    A bitter expression appeared on the lieutenant governor¡¯s face as he looked out at heaven and earth and quietly continued, ¡°Truth be told, my n has always been to use my time as governor to train my sessor from among the deputy pce lords of the three pces. Li Yunshan, you are my top candidate.¡±

    The lieutenant governor reached out and touched the imperial prince¡¯s blood on the Go board. That blood flowed up his finger, and where it spread, it revealed ck energy. After the process was over, it was possible to see ck streaks covering the lieutenant governor. He looked... just like the governor had looked in the moment before he died.

    ¡°The reason is that I¡¯ve also been poisoned. I also touched the Go pieces on that board. Not just now. I handled the board numerous times before the war began.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you remember that time you paid me a visit? You saw how tired I was, right? I know full well that this poison cannot be cured. That¡¯s why I refused to take the medicine my subordinate gave me. [1]

    ¡°The governor perished. Brother Liangxiu perished. And I don¡¯t have much longer to live. Yao Tianyan is on the run. Who could the killer possibly be?¡±

    The lieutenant governor grinned bitterly. His words, coupled with the ck energy, struck the altar like millions upon millions of bolts of heavenly lightning. Countless people were visibly shaken.

    Even Xu Qing felt moved, and his previous confidence diminished slightly.

    ¡°You¡¯re a good kid, Xu Qing,¡± the lieutenant governor said softly, his expression one of kindness. ¡°Today''s events just prove that you deserve that 30,000-meter pir of light. It¡¯s a good thing. Really.

    ¡°And now, does that 30,000-meter pir of light allow you to approve my governorship? Will it allow me to keep everyone safe?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    To anyone else, those words would sound like the epitome of benevolence. Only Seventh Prince realized that it made the lieutenant governor seem much more dangerous. He knew that those words... were a death sentence! He knew exactly what the lieutenant governor was thinking right now.

    <i>So what if the Grand Emperor gave you a 30,000-meter pir of light? So what if you¡¯re willing to fight your way through entire armies? I didn¡¯t fly into a rage and attack you. I never got flustered and exasperated and started killing people. I just talked things out calmly. And then... I demanded that you say the simple words ¡®you may.¡¯ Using popr sentiment, I sentenced your 30,000-meter of light to death!</i>

    Everything was dead silent as all gazes shifted to Xu Qing.

    The Captain¡¯s expression was a bit fierce. Ning Yan huddled in on himself, his expression one of fear. Qing Qiu had no facial expression whatsoever, but she gripped her scythe even more tightly than before. That random unprepossessing swordsage who had looked proudly at Xu Qing earlier was now frowning and looking at the lieutenant governor with a slightly malevolent expression. On the altar, the masked Generalissimo Bloodhorror shifted his right foot as if he were about to take a step forward....

    But then Xu Qing looked up.

    1. The lieutenant governor refused to take the medicine from his servant in <u>chapter 494.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 532: Point Out Any Errors Iâ€™ve Made, Lieutenant Governor! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 532: Point Out Any Errors I¡¯ve Made, Lieutenant Governor! (part 2)</h4>

    ¡°After Pce Lord Kong perished,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°I continued my investigation. After all, I didn¡¯t think some measly bit of daybreak light could exin how the governor would fall victim to a lightmost fatehavoc pill. The governor was half a step into the Smoldering God level, so poisoning him wouldn¡¯t be an easy task.¡±

    Quite a few people frowned in response to Xu Qing speaking. It was almost as if he hadn¡¯t been paying attention to what the lieutenant governor just said. Had he not seen that ck energy? He had just continued speaking as if he hadn¡¯t even been interrupted earlier.

    ¡°I started thinking how it might be possible to poison the governor without him realizing. I myself am skilled in the dao of medicine, but not even I could think of an exnation. But then I remembered that wish box, and how it contained the lingering smell of osmanthus flowers.

    ¡°Twenty-three days ago, after returning from Forbidden by the Immortal, I noticed the same fragrance in a pallid bolus.¡±

    The moment the words <i>pallid bolus</i> left Xu Qing¡¯s lips, the lieutenant governor¡¯s pupils dted imperceptibly. ¡°I¡¯ve never imed that the pallid bolus was some sort of benevolent achievement,¡± he said calmly. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean you can use it this way in such an insulting manner, Xu Qing. It¡¯s like a p to the face!¡±

    Along with his words, the lieutenant governor released a burst of Void Returning power, aimed right at Xu Qing.

    The deputy pce lord¡¯s face fell, and threw himself forward to block the power. However, given the lieutenant governor¡¯s strength, and the fact that he was blessed with destiny aura, the deputy pce lord was shoved backward. That was when the cloud cover split open and a sound erupted that could pierce metal and stone.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i>

    The moment the sound echoed out, a three-headed bird appeared. It moved with shocking speed to arrive right in front of Xu Qing. Its right-side head bent down so Xu Qing could step onto it. Then it lifted him up. After, all three heads loomed over the lieutenant governor. The bird¡¯s feathers all stood on end like spikes, and it pulsed with a deadly will as it released another ear-piercing caw.

    The soundwave swept out, causing the entire county capital to shake violently.

    All of the mortals in the city gasped, and the hundreds of thousands of cultivators looked on with shock. Seventh Prince¡¯s expression tightened, and the lieutenant governor frowned.

    As of that moment, all eyes were fixed on the great bird Qingqin. Only his caw could shake the clouds in heaven. Only someone that Qingqin viewed as a dear friend and equal could stand there. And right now, the figure standing there wore a white swordsage uniform!

    He had four umbres glittering over his head, a bluegreen dragon swirling around him exhaling daybreak light, a projection of the Ghost Emperor mountain, and behind him it was just possible to see a faint image of a flowing river of time.

    Secretary-General Xu, the representative of Pce Lord Kong, was finally back!

    All of the nonhumans who were watching were shaken to the core, as they remembered this person!

    Xu Qing''s voice then rang out again. ¡°Over the years, countless mortals in the county capital have consumed pallid boluses. Thinking about that, I realized how the governor was poisoned. The killer didn¡¯t directly administer the poison. He crushed the lightmost havoc pill into powder and carefully blended it into batch after batch of pallid boluses. And those boluses were consumed by all the humans in the county capital.¡±

    His words smashed into the hearts of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators like lightning bolts, and mmed into the ears of countless mortals. Gasps and cries rose up. The crowd stirred chaotically. The chaos that had begun to foment because of Qingqin¡¯s arrival was now building.

    ¡°Countlessmon citizens were used to administer the poison. It changed the destiny aura of the county as a whole. Themoners themselves became the agents to carry the poison. It was no longer destiny aura, it was poison aura! And it slowly entered the governor, unbeknownst to him, full of the lightmost fatehavoc poison.¡±

    As Xu Qing continued to speak, the county capital was thrown into chaos. Hundreds of thousands of people beneath the altar were all crying out, shaking heaven and earth.

    ¡°The pallid boluses are poisonous?¡±

    ¡°Pallid boluses? How is that even possible?¡±

    ¡°But it makes sense! All the pieces fit.¡±

    ¡°Pallid boluses were created by the lieutenant governor. They¡¯re amodity unique to the county capital. All the medicine shops here get them from the lieutenant governor!¡±

    ¡°Is this even real? Or is it a lie?¡±

    ¡°What... what is really going on?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words were shocking to the extreme, and it caused wild emotions to grip everyone in the crowd. Kong Xianglong gasped. All the other swordsages were trembling. The deputy pce lord¡¯s face fell.

    The lieutenant governor was simply looking at Xu Qing. From the moment Xu Qing mentioned pallid boluses, it revealed that he knew the truth. It caused the lieutenant governor to sigh inwardly.

    Xu Qing stood atop Qingqin¡¯s head, looking out at the county capital.

    ¡°Everyone in the county capital has been poisoned. I have no idea what will happenter on.... If the poison res up, it could cause catastrophe. I, Xu Qing, who the Grand Emperor blessed with a 30,000-meter pir of light, will take full responsibility for every word I have spoken today. Exalted Lieutenant Governor, I¡¯ve finished with my report. Please, point out any errors I¡¯ve made!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice spread out through the square. And everyone, whether they believed Xu Qing or not, was now looking in the direction of the lieutenant governor. It wasn¡¯t just them. Furious mortals throughout the city were all looking in the same direction. After all, this matter rted to the safety of everyone! Whenever a matter rtes to a person personally, no matter how small it is, it bes something major. At the moment, few people were thinking about how the situation would affect others. They just wanted to know what was really going on!

    <i>Were the pallid boluses we ate throughout the years actually poisonous?</i>

    At the moment, Xu Qing was clearly on the side of themoners! At first, Xu Qing tapped into the might of the governor and the pce lord took away some of the public approval from the lieutenant governor. That earned him the right to speak.

    After that, the lieutenant governor negated his advantage.

    But now, everyone sensed that they could be in danger, and thus, their attitude changed. Now, their hostilities were aimed at the lieutenant governor.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t devised this strategy out of thin air. He had learned a lot in the county capital, especially from Seventh Prince, and especially when it came to winning public support. And then Master Seventh opened a door of knowledge to him in Forbidden by the Immortal, which was when he realized he needed to stand at a higher vantage point to be able to take in the bigger picture. In the past seven years, he had gone from being a scavenger in the slums to this current point. Over that time, his personality, which had started out like rough, unpolished jade, had slowly been transformed into something magnificent and gleaming.

    Back in the slums, the schr teachers had taught him how to read. That was when his schooling began.

    Sergeant Thunder taught him manners. He transformed the lone wolf who didn¡¯t trust anyone into someone who felt like he had a warm home to go back to.

    Grandmaster Bai taught him about nts and vegetation. People were like nts, in that they came in all varieties. That taught Xu Qing to behave with integrity.

    Master Seventh taught him how to strategize, how to behave properly, and how to broaden his horizons.

    The Captain¡¯s crazy antics helped him understand how to fight for anything and everything, and the manner in which to defy heaven.

    Seventh Prince taught him the usefulness of being backed by the people. With that backing, right could be wrong, and wrong could be right. Ambition didn¡¯t allow for regrets.

    Pce Lord Kong taught him how to do the right thing. He taught him about the swordsage oath, and how sometimes dying was the only way to reach a goal. He also taught him that some ideals were worth defending until your dying breath.

    The lieutenant governor taught him how useful it could be to scheme and plot. He taught that all things can transform because of their environment, and that you could affect great change with little effort.

    Over the years, many people had been Xu Qing¡¯s teachers, whether they knew it or not. And he had grown. It all led down to this day!

    All of a sudden, the unfinished crown of five tassels above the lieutenant governor¡¯s head shivered. Destiny aura spilled out of it, and though most people couldn¡¯t hear it, was apanied by cheering as it swept toward Xu Qing. As it gathered above Xu Qing, the crown there grew increasingly visible.

    Soon, people could see it. As Xu Qing stood on Qingqin¡¯s right head, he glowed from head to toe, a crown of destiny aura hovered above the umbres atop his head.

    It was just barely possible to see a boy in that crown, jumping for joy. It was as if the boy was telling everyone who could see him that <i>this</i> was the way things were supposed to be! <i>This</i> was where Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura was supposed to converge. <i>This</i> was a true citizen of Sea-Sealing County!

    Destiny aura surged, countless citizens¡¯ hearts were changed. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. And as if the leader of it all, Xu Qing looked at the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at Xu Qing. Simr to the lieutenant governor, it was as if he was only just nowing to realize who Xu Qing was.

    <i>This kid isn¡¯t some random chump!</i>

    As Seventh Prince considered that, and as the lieutenant governor opened his mouth to speak, Xu Qing suddenly sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°I bow to you, exalted Lieutenant Governor, to thank you for the kindness of teaching ss. After this bow, I can rest at ease, and can finally speak my mind.

    ¡°I know you¡¯re from Torchlight, Exalted Lieutenant Governor. And Torchlight cultivators disdain lying. They value rationality. That, sir, is why you exined your entire n in your lecture. You spelled out everything. Considering you did that, and then carried out your n so meticulously, it only makes sense that you would eventually be exposed.

    ¡°And now, please point out any errors I¡¯ve made, Lieutenant Governor.¡±

    Xu Qing looked calmly at the lieutenant governor. In response to his words, Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes grew sharper. Before, the lieutenant governor had executed a death sentence on Xu Qing¡¯s 30,000-meter pir of light. But now, Xu Qing had executed a simr death sentence on the lieutenant governor.

    Seventh Prince had indeed noticed that, during the time in which they worked together, the lieutenant governor hated lies. And he always acted rationally. When asked a question, he answered. As of now, if he admitted to the usations, there would be no way for him to escape a guilty verdict. But if he denied the usations, and thus vited his own principles, he wouldn¡¯t have a clean heart, and his will could be affected negatively.

    The lieutenant governor once again maintained silence for a time. He looked deeply at Xu Qing. Then he sighed. He suddenly seemed to get much older and much more exhausted. Taking out a pallid bolus, and transforming himself into a huge projected image so that everyone could see him, he consumed the pill.

    ¡°Pallid boluses are not poisonous.¡±

    The crowd was shaken.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re so dead set on ndering me. However, considering your aplishments in the war, I can¡¯t bear to kill you. Instead, I¡¯ll imprison you in the Swordsage Pce. Later on, we¡¯ll get answers via interrogation. We¡¯ve reached my bottom line. Li Yunshan, you handle the arrest and interrogation. Men!¡±

    Calls of affirmation rose up as numerous figures flew up into the sky and surrounded Xu Qing. One of them was the lieutenant governor¡¯s servant that Xu Qing had encountered previously. Looking regretfully at Xu Qing, he erupted with the fluctuations of second-stage Void Returning.

    The lieutenant governor waved his hand, causing a vortex to appear. Out stepped a puppet in ck armor, with a face of mangled red flesh. An aura of death spread everywhere as it looked around coldly, pulsing with the fluctuations of fourth-stage Void Returning.

    ¡°So, you aren¡¯t the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan,¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    Facepletely expressionless, the lieutenant governor calmly said, ¡°Arrest him.¡±

 Chapter 533: Apprentice of the Crown Prince, Bai Xiaozhuo (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 533: Apprentice of the Crown Prince, Bai Xiaozhuo (part 1)</h4>

    Things were getting very dramatic in the county capital.

    High in the dome of heaven, the four-wed golden dragon looked down with coldly glowing eyes, peering first at the lieutenant governor, and then at Seventh Prince, whose face waspletely expressionless. After a moment, a somewhat dejected gleam appeared in its eyes, and then it flew back into the clouds. A draconic hiss echoed out, as if the dragon were furiously attempting to shatter the clouds and bring the light of the sun to all creation.

    Unfortunately, despite the fact it was high noon, the fluctuations emanating from the city distorted the sky, ensuring that the canopy of heaven was as dark as evening. The statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity became darker, as if it had been covered with ayer of obscuring dust.

    As for the countless humans in the city held in the Ancient Emperor¡¯s hands, their expressions were those of confusion, and their hearts pounded with fear. The nonhumans backed up a bit, their eyes glittering. They had absolutely no interest in participating in human affairs during this scenario.

    Everyone was waiting to see how things would y out on the square in the county capital.

    The lieutenant governor did not reveal any of the imposing boldness of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Instead, when the critical moment came, he admitted to nothing and instead used force to try to control the situation. In his heart was the evidence of a deep blow, struck by the death-sentence sword of Xu Qing¡¯s condemnation.

    As the sky went dark, and intense rumbling sounds echoed out in all directions, the lieutenant governor issued his orders. And the puppet he¡¯d summoned emerged from the vortex, pulsing with the battle prowess of fourth-stage Void Returning. As soon as it was out in the open, it walked toward Xu Qing.

    The fourth stage of Void Returning was nothing to take lightly!

    In all of Sea-Sealing County, people with cultivation bases like that were <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>. Each and every one was a famous and important person.

    Someone like that who had been transformed into a puppet could only be described as spectacrly terrifying. What was more, the puppet''s mangled face, which made it impossible to identify any distinguishing features... ensured that there was no way to deduce who this person was.

    The moment the puppet stepped out, thunder crashed and countless bolts of lightning manifested about Qingqin. They became countless projections of minor worlds that ovepped like mountains in a mountain range.

    In the middle of them all was the puppet.

    It looked down at Xu Qing without a scrap of emotion on its face. Then it reached out and lowered its hand, causing the terrifying might of heaven and earth to crush down, ignoring Qingqin.

    Qingqin shivered as the countless minor worlds surrounded him. Apparently, they contained some power ofw that suppressed nonhumans, and thus, he was rendered immobile. Deputy Pce Lord Li Yunshan, as well as Honor Guards Sun and Sima, were notpletely suppressed by the terrifying power, yet were incapable of reaching Xu Qing to help him. Their anxious fury mounted.

    Meanwhile, the moment the vortex appeared and the puppet walked out, Xu Qing had already sent his thoughts into his bag of holding. A severed hand appeared, surrounding him protectively. This was the same severed hand he and the Captain had acquired in Forbidden by the Immortal. And during the past twenty or more days, he had decided to keep it ready in case a scenario simr to this popped up. [1]

    Immense pressure weighed down. In response, the hand shivered. Flesh was yed off its surface, and its fingers began crumbling. Cracks appeared on its surface. However, it didn¡¯tpletely copse.

    Taking advantage of the moment, Qingqin managed to slough off the bounds confining him. Flicking his right head, he threw the severed hand behind him. Then he threw all of his three heads back and let loose a thunderous cry.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i>

    The explosive sound shattered many of the minor world projections, and then Qingqin lunged toward the puppet.

    He had promised his Eldest Brother to keep Xu Qing safe as long as he was in the county capital. He hadn¡¯t been willing to go to the front lines, but they weren¡¯t on the front lines right now. They were in the county capital, which was his territory. And he happened to like this little munchkin who could harness light just like himself, and what was more, had taken Qingqin out for some lovely meals. What was more, he had never seen anyone who would foolishly walk out of the crowd and make a stand the way that this person had. And therefore, even though Qingqin¡¯s cultivation base was not on the same level as the puppet, he was going to keep Xu Qing safe! [2]

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out.

    The severed hand, within which was Xu Qing, thumped to the ground.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s old servant shot toward it.

    The deputy pce lord moved to block him. ¡°Back down! This is a Swordsage Pce matter!¡±

    The servant¡¯s eyes narrowed as Honor Guards Sun and Sima also neared.

    Then, hundreds of swordsages also flew over and took positions around the severed hand.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as all of the cultivators in the lieutenant governor¡¯s personalmand also rushed out and faced off against the swordsages by the hand.

    <i>The swords were drawn, and the arrows were nocked</i>. The lieutenant governor stood atop the altar looking at the scene, his expression one of disappointment.

    ¡°Since the Swordsage Pce is defying my orders, then I¡¯ll have to stand in for Brother Liangxiu to point out the errors made by his secretary-general.¡±

    Striding off the altar to hover in midair, he flicked his sleeve.

    Large amounts of destiny aura converged, along with the power of fourth-stage Void Returning, which forced all nearby cultivators away, even Li Yunshan and the honor guards.

    The old servant now had no obstacles in his path, so he shot toward the severed hand, a strange glow in his eyes as he reached out.

    As the onlookers stood by, shocked and furious, the Captain suddenly glittered with blue light, and he reached up to his forehead. It looked like he was about to rip something away.

    But then the old servant¡¯s face fell. Pupils constricting, the servant lurched to a halt and lunged backward.

    Seemingly out of nowhere, a golden had appeared in the dome of heaven. Intense rumbling sounded as the spread out, glittering with dazzling light. It was the of taboo treasures that, thanks to the war, was something all people in Sea-Sealing County were familiar with. Just before Pce Lord Kong died, he gave Xu Qing the authority to use the taboo treasure one time. The moment the taboo power appeared, all the mortals in the county capital were overwhelmed with amazement, and the cultivators on the altar were shaken to the core. Golden light descended, shrinking down as it swept toward the severed hand.

    The servant¡¯s expression flickered as he shot backward at top speed.

    However, the golden did not harm the servant. Considering that Xu Qing only had the authority to use that power only one time, he didn¡¯t want to waste it on the servant.

    Under the eyes of all present, the golden light spread out over the severed hand. At the same time, Xu Qing emerged from within it. Face pale, he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. His chest was partially caved in, and he felt pain from head to toe. Despite the protection of the severed hand, he¡¯d still suffered serious injuries. Yet he still stood there on the severed hand to ept the golden.

    In the blink of an eye, the golden covered him, bing like a shield of golden fire. Compared to all heaven and earth, that fire seemed like little more than a spark, something that wasn¡¯t remotely capable of igniting the world.

    Xu Qing looked around, his heart pounding. He knew that the moment he stepped out from the crowd earlier, he had rebelled against the leadership of Sea-Sealing County. And rebels would suffer the consequences of their actions. He hadn¡¯t anticipated that the deputy pce lord and honor guards would side with him. Nor had he anticipated Qingqin¡¯s actions. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t asked any of them for help.

    Yet they had all stepped forward, one after another. As for the more than one hundred thousand veterans of the war, they were all looking at him with keen determination. They... trusted him.

    Xu Qing wiped the blood from his mouth, and suddenly felt courage swelling within him.

    Only about a third of the cultivators present were swordsages. The other seventy percent, those from the other two pces and the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion, seemed hesitant.

    But Xu Qing felt no fear. That was just his personality. It didn¡¯t matter how hesitant and cautious he had been before, now that he had thrown caution to the wind, he had rejected fear along with it. His only regret was that the enemy closest to him was the old servant, and not the lieutenant governor. That meant it would be difficult to utilize his true trump card. And his previous preparations would need to be altered. As for the fourth-stage Void Returning puppet, it was also something he hadn¡¯t factored into his ns.

    <i>I¡¯m only going to have one shot at this....</i>

    He was going to have to create a situation that would get the lieutenant governor closer to him.

    With that n in mind, he took a deep breath.

    ¡°Lieutenant Governor, since you aren¡¯t willing to admit that you¡¯re with Torchlight, then I guess I have to keep calling you ¡®lieutenant governor.¡¯ In reality, you shouldn¡¯t have to rely on others to apprehend me. As a mighty Void Returning expert, a mere pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator like myself should be easy to handle. In fact, it¡¯s actually a surprise to me that I¡¯ve managed to stay alive this long.¡±

    Blood oozed out of the corners of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he spoke.

    ¡°Lieutenant Governor, we all know the extreme methods Torchlight employs. They love their Blood-Soaked Performances. Presumably this scenario is <i>your</i> Blood-Soaked Performance? Sadly, it¡¯s quite disappointing.¡± Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°To be clear, what¡¯s disappointing isn¡¯t the performance. It¡¯s <i>you</i>. You¡¯re obviously defying your own heart and viting the principles of reason. You... do not deserve to be in Torchlight.¡±

    The lieutenant governor betrayed no reaction as he looked at Xu Qing and calmly said, ¡°Because of your service to Sea-Sealing County, and the 30,000-meter light from the Grand Emperor, I¡¯ve held back from ughtering you. There¡¯s no need for you to continue down this path of rebellion and death.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled calmly. ¡°For a schemer like you to talk so much is revealing. You¡¯ve obviouslye to realize that my clumsily chosen words are all an attempt to get you to approach me. I might not be a member of Torchlight, but the more I think about it, the more I admire how all of you stay so calm. So I¡¯m going to stay calm too. You see, the truth is that I have a way to kill you, as long as you get close enough.

    ¡°Therefore, oh exalted Lieutenant Governor, are you truly afraid of a puny pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator? Do you dare to get close to me? I know the answer. You don¡¯t. After all, you don¡¯t even dare to tell us who you really are.¡± Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Who are you putting this performance on for? The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan? If so, then he¡¯s probably shaking his head at your timidity. How could one of the Crown Prince¡¯s people act like this? Although, if his followers are all like this, then I suppose it¡¯s no wonder he ended up dying before he could aplish anything significant.¡±

    Xu Qingughed. ¡°Or could it be that you just don¡¯t deserve to be a follower of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan?¡±

    Throughout Xu Qing¡¯s speech, the lieutenant governor waspletely calm. However, Xu Qing¡¯sst sentence caused his eyes to glitter with a cold light. The ¡®death sentence blow¡¯ Xu Qing had inflicted earlier was now bing more serious.

    The lieutenant governor looked up into the sky and spoke, his voice hoarse. ¡°It¡¯s time to end this farce. I¡¯m sorry this has turned into such a joke, Your Majesty.¡±

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t respond. He just kept watching, a smile on his face.

    The lieutenant governor lifted his right hand, and another vortex sprang into being. A second wave of fourth-stage Void Returning power erupted from inside, and then the sound of footsteps rang out as a second puppet appeared. It looked exactly like the other puppet. It wore a suit of armor, had a mangled face, and waspletely terrifying. Everyone present felt their hearts pounding with astonishment. One puppet was bad enough. But now there was a second puppet, also in fourth-stage Void Returning.

    The lieutenant governor then spoke in a voice that reached the ears of all the countless mortals in the county capital. ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing obstinately persists in going about things the wrong way. He foments rumors, creates trouble, and sows chaos in Sea-Sealing County. His rebellious behavior is not befitting of a 30,000-meter pir of light. Therefore, his swordsage status is hereby revoked, and he will be executed on the spot, as demanded by the people!¡±

    As the lieutenant governor¡¯s words rang out, the second puppet charged toward Xu Qing!

    The lieutenant governor was not going to approach him!

    However, right then, a sigh could be heard, seemingly from nowhere.

    The sound caused Seventh Prince and all of hismanders to suddenly look up. The lieutenant governor¡¯s pupils constricted.

    A figure appeared out of nowhere, as if being painted into existence by a master artist. As the figure appeared in front of Xu Qing, it extended its right hand and walked toward the puppet.

    A massive boom swept out. The puppet stopped in ce and looked woodenly at the figure in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as he realized who this figure was.

    1. Xu Qing got the hand in <u>chapter 521.2</u>. ?

    2. The ¡®harness light¡¯ term was previously mentioned in <u>chapter 498</u>. ?

 Chapter 533: Apprentice of the Crown Prince, Bai Xiaozhou (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 533: Apprentice of the Crown Prince, Bai Xiaozhou (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned bloodshot, and then, just like a child who had been caught misbehaving, he bowed his head.

    ¡°Master!¡±

    The person who had appeared was none other than Master Seventh, who had been hiding in the crowd the whole time. He had told his apprentices that he left to go into hiding, and the reality was that his hiding spot had been the most dangerous ce of all, the county capital itself. Considering what had yed out in Forbidden by the Immortal, there was no way he could just leave behind his own apprentices and not worry about them. As such, he had decided to stay behind. He had told Xu Qing and Chen Erniu to wait for a month before leaving, because he had already decided to secretly stay behind and watch over them. And now he had chosen to reveal himself.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s bloodshot eyes, and chastened demeanor, Master Seventh sighed inwardly. ¡°Keep your head up!¡±

    Xu Qing shivered and looked up.

    ¡°Xu Qing, as your Master, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ve done anything wrong. In fact, I¡¯m proud to have an apprentice like you! I don¡¯t know what the fallout will be for all of this. But I¡¯m still your Master! And there¡¯s no way a Master can stand around indifferently while his apprentice puts his life on the line. You kowtowed to me. You offered me tea. Starting then, it became my responsibility to keep you safe.¡±

    ¡°Same here!¡± Blue light glittered in the crowd as the Captain emerged. He had been ready to step in all along, except his little Junior Brother always seemed to have another move ready to employ. Thus, he¡¯d been waiting for the right moment to do so. After he saw their Master reveal himself, it was without the slightest hesitation that he rushed out to stand next to Xu Qing. Grinning, he said, ¡°Why¡¯d you go and try to do something this big without asking me along?¡±

    Countless eyes focused on the Master and two apprentices. At the same time, even more destiny aura converged above Xu Qing. In fact, it affected the canopy of heaven, creating a huge vortex that even the mortals could see, filled with lightning and the roar of thunder. Everyone was deeply shaken.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he felt like his head was spinning.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh looked at the lieutenant governor. ¡°I¡¯ve seen the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan!¡±

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes suddenly flickered in a way that didn¡¯t seem calm at all.

    ¡°And my fourth apprentice is right. You really don¡¯t deserve to be a follower of the Crown Prince. Why? Because you like to hide in the shadows. You don¡¯t have any courage!¡±

    The lieutenant governor closed his eyes for a few breaths of time. When he opened them, they were calm again.

    ¡°The Eight Sect Coalition from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is guilty of fomenting rebellion. Let everyone in Sea-Sealing County be notified that this sect is sentenced to extermination!¡±

    Master Seventhughed. ¡°You think you can scare me with words like that, fool? Fuck off with your talk of extermination!¡±

    He took a step toward the lieutenant governor. Instantly, the puppet moved to intercept him, and a momentter, the boom ofbat echoed out. Master Seventh wasn¡¯t a match, but he had plenty of assets to call upon. God magics erupted! Though he couldn¡¯t possibly defeat a fourth-stage Void Returning puppet, he could at least fight it for a time.

    The entire situation had been turned on its head. There had been so many twists and turns in this event that it was hard for everyone present to wrap their minds around it.

    As rumbling booms swept through the county capital, killing intent surged in the lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes. He knew full well that he needed to end things as quickly as possible. Thus, he strode forward to personally put an end to everything.

    However, that was when Master Seventh, even as he fought the puppet, shouted, ¡°I know you¡¯re here! Even my apprentice figured out who you are. So why the fuck aren¡¯t you doing anything? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re going to let my two apprentices risk everything while you just watch???¡±

    A blood-colored streak of light shot from the altar, moving at top speed. No one in the crowd could have possibly predicted that this would happen. In the blink of an eye, that figure shot down and joined Qingqin, who was still dealing with the first puppet. This figure wore a blood-red suit of armor, and had a blood-colored mask, all of which shone with crimson light. It was the very same subordinate of Seventh Prince who had presided over the operation in Forbidden by the Immortal. It was Generalissimo Bloodhorror!

    The othermanders-in-chief were clearly surprised to see him interfere. However, Seventh Prince didn¡¯t betray even the slightest reaction.

    Xu Qing turned to look at Generalissimo Bloodhorror.

    As the onlookers shouted exmations of shock, Generalissimo Bloodhorror performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then pushed his hand toward the puppet fighting Qingqin.

    ¡°Pce Lord of the Justice Pce. Brother Hengxin: wake up!!¡± [1]

    Generalissimo Bloodhorror¡¯s shouted words caused the hundreds of thousands of cultivators present to feel shaken to the core. Xu Qing was simrly taken aback. The cultivators from the Justice Pce felt like their hearts were breaking, and rage began to burn within them. That was even more the case of the mortals. After all, it had been announced that Zhang Hengxin, pce lord of the Justice Pce, had died on the northern front during the war!

    In response to Generalissimo Bloodhorror¡¯s shout, the puppet shivered. Its listless eyes seemed to twitch slightly, and tremors swept through its body. Then its hands lurched up, seemingly of their own ord, and started performing an incantation gesture that perfectly mirrored that of Generalissimo Bloodhorror.

    Their hands mmed into each other, and a deafening shriek rang out from the puppet¡¯s mouth. The puppet¡¯s armor shattered, revealing that its body was made of countless pieces that had been sewn together.

    Then, a discarnate soul floated up, which bore the semnce of a burly, mighty man. His fleshly body had been ravaged beyond recognition, but his soul would always look the same. And the face of that soul... was that of one of the three pce lords of Sea-Sealing County, Zhang Hengxin of the Justice Pce!

    Everyone in the county capital who was watching these events y out were visibly astonished.

    The discarnate soul couldn¡¯t survive for very long before dissipating. Nor could the soul speak. All it could do was look with mncholy at Sea-Sealing County, in much the same way as the governor and Pce Lord Kong had done.

    The rage of the Justice Pce cultivators was rising to heaven-shaking, earth-shattering proportions as they all red at the lieutenant governor.

    Meanwhile, Generalissimo Bloodhorror turned to face the lieutenant governor, reached up, and grabbed his mask. When he removed it, he revealed a very familiar face.

    ¡°Long time no see, Lieutenant Governor!¡±

    The lieutenant governor looked back and sighed. He had done a lot of sighing today. ¡°Yao Tianyan! I¡¯m surprised you would dare toe out of hiding!¡±

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators were rocked to the core. As it turned out, Generalissimo Bloodhorror was really Marquis Yao, who had gone missing from the battlefield and then been branded a traitor and rebel! The series of stunning events that were ying out in the county capital left everyone nk from shock.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he looked at the remaining puppet, hoping to be able to make out some identifying features. From what he could tell, it wasn¡¯t Pce Lord Kong....

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to reveal myself so soon,¡± Marquis Yao said softly. ¡°The old governor showed grace to my n, and I still haven¡¯t aplished the task he assigned me. But I had no choice. Who could have guessed things would turn out like this?

    ¡°An adult like me couldn¡¯t possibly let a human child be murdered in front of me. I¡¯ve experienced a lot of things in life. I reached the peak of my career. I¡¯ve been pursued, cursed, and have been considered both brilliant and infamous. If I die, then I die. But... it was the words of this child that kept the few remaining members of my n safe. And that¡¯s a favor I can¡¯t forget.¡±

    He gazed warmly at Xu Qing for a moment before shifting his attention to the lieutenant governor.

    ¡°As for you, Lieutenant Governor, this plot of yours was amazing, I¡¯ll give you that. You pulled the wool over everyone¡¯s eyes, to the point where none of us even trusted each other. However, you also slipped up. While on the front lines, Brother Hengxin, Brother Rongyu and myself all used soul-hexing magics on each other so that we could truly trust each other.

    ¡°You coveted their physical bodies, and thus turned them into puppets after they died. But the soul hexes allowed their discarnate souls to wake up. Although it would only allow for a moment of rity before the discarnate soul dissipated, that... was more than enough evidence.¡±

    Marquis Yao¡¯s words were heard by everyone present. They were borne witness to by heaven, earth, and the people! mes of rage began to burn brightly throughout the county capital. Countless eyes began to flicker with killing intent. In apletely unprecedented turn of events, all of that killing intent was focused on the lieutenant governor.

    Xu Qing looked up, and he could sense that, though he himself was little more than a spark, he had managed to set the entire world aze. Everything made sense now. All the pieces of evidence fit together.

    ¡°And now I¡¯ll just have to quote Xu Qing,¡± Marquis Yao said calmly. ¡°Lieutenant Governor, you carried out your n so meticulously, it only makes sense that you would eventually be exposed. So, do you dare admit to your crimes? Please point out any errors I¡¯ve made.¡±

    The lieutenant governor was silent for a long moment. Then he exhaled some impure vital energy. Seemingly very calm, he turned to Seventh Prince.

    Seventh Prince looked back at him expressionlessly. It was no surprise to Seventh Prince that Marquis Yao had been hiding amongst hismanders. After all, it was Seventh Prince himself who had secretly saved the marquis. He had multiple reasons for doing so. One of them was to have someone to keep the lieutenant governor in check. The second was in case his father the emperor started to suspect that he was up to something. Saving the marquis would be evidence to prove that he was cooperating with his father¡¯s n, and that he was doing everything for the sake of humankind. Based on what he knew about his father, as long as he could prove such a thing, he would be safe. Compared to the potential losses, the potential gain had been immense: to be a hero of humankind, to expand human territory, to bring the Holytides back into the fold. All could be considered unparalleled achievements.

    Given what was at stake, there was no chance he woulde out the loser. At the moment, he actually hoped the lieutenant governor would try to expose him. After all, it didn¡¯t matter what the lieutenant governor said at the moment, no one would believe him. That said, he didn¡¯t think the lieutenant governor would actually do that. The deal with the Holytides wasn¡¯tplete, which meant that the bowl he wanted had not yet been secured.

    Besides, Seventh Prince had no intention of going back on his word. Everything that was ying out was the responsibility of the lieutenant governor. It had nothing to do with Seventh Prince. Thus, he had refrained from helping either party. He just stood back and watched. As he did, he focused more and more on Xu Qing.

    After looking at Seventh Prince, the lieutenant governor turned away. There were countless gazes fixed on him, full of killing intent. ncing around, he eventually focused on Xu Qing. It was this person, who he had never taken very seriously, that suddenly wrecked everything and delivered a death blow to his heart.

    He had recognized Xu Qing from the first moment he saw him in the Swordsage Pce. He knew that his lord and master had a younger brother in this current life. That said, the lieutenant governor had never felt Xu Qing was worth paying much attention to. How could a person who had seen a massive dragon care about a tiny snake?

    He had always assumed that the younger brother was just a minor essory attached to his lord and master, as far separated from the other as mud was from the clouds. But now he didn¡¯t think that way at all. Now he realized that there was much about Xu Qing that reminded him of his lord and master.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he said softly, ¡°I can tell you who I really am now, and my name.¡± The lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes glittered with reminiscence. ¡°I was the governor of Sea-Sealing County back during the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. My name is Bai Xiaozhuo. Tens of thousands of years ago, I was the governor of this very ce. It belongs to me.¡± [2]

    His words caused the minds of all the natives of Sea-Sealing County to tremble. Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened.

    The name ¡®Holytide Region¡¯ hade into use after the betrayal of Grand Duke Holytide. Before, it had a different name. It was the Violet and Cyan Region. Another ancient name was associated with this location, one that stretched back to the time of Emperor Mirrorcloud. Back then, it was called the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. The king of that kingdom had been weak and feeble, so its crown prince ended up taking control of national affairs. During that time, Sea-Sealing County... bore the same name as it did now: Sea-Sealing County. In the year 315 of the Violet Cyan calendar, its crown prince perished in the southern continent. That same year, the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan crumbled.

    Bai Xiaozhuo, the apprentice of the crown prince, who had been thest governor of Sea-Sealing County, stood by when all of the other cultivators in his county died. Weeping tears of blood, he disfigured half his face to make himself look like the broken face of the god.

    Then, he spoke his final words before dying. <i>¡°I will apany the crown prince in death. Then I will awaken a thousand years before him, to pave the way for him as his dao protector.¡±</i>

    1. ¡¯Brother Hengxin¡¯ is obviously the same Zhang Hengxin mentioned in <u>chapter 508</u>. ?

    2. Bai Xiaozhuo. Bai is #70 on the list of the 100mon Chinese surnames. It means ¡°white, pure.¡± It¡¯s the same surname as Bai Xiaochun, and is also my Chinese surname. Xiao means ¡°miserable, deste, dreary.¡± It is NOT the same Xiao from Bai Xiaochun. Zhuo means ¡°outstanding.¡± Madam Deathde pointed out that the two characters which make his name are part of two othermon words, specifically ¡°xiao sa¡± and ¡°zhuo yue.¡± The first means ¡°confident, dashing, debonair,¡± while thetter means ¡°outstanding, brilliant, remarkable.¡± Because of that, she thinks the name sound very cool and impressive. ?

 Chapter 534: Back from Antiquity (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 534: Back from Antiquity (part 1)</h4>

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators beneath the altar reeled in response to the lieutenant governor¡¯s words. The mortals in the city were mostly confused, as not many of them were familiar with the history involved.

    Xu Qing himself had only learned about the history of the human species after bing a swordsage and attending a ss taught by the lieutenant governor. That was also his first time learning of the role yed by the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan in human history.

    Marquis Yao, who hovered in midair, the three deputy pce lords, and all the other important people present were looking at the lieutenant governor withplicated expressions that seemed mostly dazed.

    Although the lieutenant governor¡¯s true identity was unexpected, it also made sense. The services he had performed over the years, and also the way he kept the county going during the war, hinted at past experience with government affairs. In fact, if you looked at what he did during the war, and ignored the fake exhaustion he¡¯d employed to enhance his cover story, then the reality was that he had handled everything with skill and ease.

    And that wasn¡¯t even to mention how smoothly the reconstruction work had gone after the war was over. Every single government decree issued by the lieutenant governor had been the perfect order to give at the time. He really was good at his job. Perhaps that was why, in the past, many people had believed him to be a bit more skilled than the governor himself. Talent like that wasn¡¯t something everyone possessed. Not only did someone in that position need to be very familiar with how to issue government decrees, but also, they needed to be able to view Sea-Sealing County as a whole.

    Because of all that, Xu Qing believed the lieutenant governor¡¯s story. However, there were other things he was suspicious about. For example, why had he been reincarnated? What did he sacrifice to make it happen?

    Regardless, none of the unrevealed information could possibly erase the crimes he hadmitted as the lieutenant governor. Whether it was murdering the governor, throwing Sea-Sealing County into chaos, colluding with the Holytides, orchestrating Pce Lord Kong¡¯s death, his every single action was soaked with blood.

    In the briefest of moments, the killing intent in the county capital surged to an even higher level.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the lieutenant governor said. He ignored all of the murderous gazes. He didn¡¯t pay attention to Marquis Yao and the others. It was as if the only person who was worthy of his attention in all of Sea-Sealing County was Xu Qing.

    The Captain, who had been standing right next to Xu Qing, eased a few steps backward. He knew that on this day, Xu Qing was the focus of attention.

    ¡°I gave you the answer you were looking for,¡± the lieutenant governor said tranquilly. ¡°Now I have a question that I want to ask you. This ce belongs to me. It¡¯s my territory. Isn¡¯t it reasonable for me to take it back?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Your territory was destroyed along with the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.¡± He looked out at the hundreds of thousands of people gathered below the altar, and also, the rest of the capital city. ¡°To all these people, Sea-Sealing County is home.¡±

    As his words drifted out, the eyes of those present glittered, and their hearts surged with approval.

    The lieutenant governor smiled. ¡°Then why are you the only person who stepped forward to object? As I recall, you¡¯re not from Sea-Sealing County. You¡¯re from the continent of South Phoenix.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question. No one in the county capital answered the question. No one in heaven and earth answered the question. The words struck Xu Qing¡¯s heart and mind like a lightning bolt, creating great waves that threatened to overwhelm him. But they couldn¡¯t possibly overwhelm a certain blood-soaked figure in his memories.

    ¡°There¡¯s an old man I respect very much,¡± Xu Qing said quietly. ¡°He died in battle. But in my heart, he¡¯s still alive.¡±

    Grief simmered in the hearts of the war veterans. They knew who Xu Qing was talking about. None of them would ever forget the image of Pce Lord Kong dying in defense of Sea-Sealing County. The image of him fusing with the of taboo treasures, and the way he slowly froze before shattering, was something every cultivator from the western front would grieve over for the rest of their life. The words he had spoken, ¡®I will defend my home,¡¯ had been branded into the hearts of all swordsages. [1]

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± The lieutenant governor seemed surprised.

    ¡°What else did you expect?¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Some big speech?¡±

    The lieutenant governor chuckled.

    Xu Qing said nothing further. He just looked up into the sky. It was as if he could clearly see Pce Lord Kong. There was actually something else that remained unsaid, in his heart. And that was the fact that Pce Lord Kong, through both words and actions, had taught Xu Qing what it really meant to be a swordsage. Therefore, Xu Qing took a deep breath and spoke in a grim voice that spread through all heaven and earth.

    ¡°Swordsages. We have conclusive evidence. And we have the right to execute anyone but the emperor.¡±

    In response to his words, heaven and earth rumbled. Lighting crashed in the sky, and countless streams of killing intent rose from the veteran swordsages, all of whom had bloodshot eyes. They were all familiar with the words Xu Qing had spoken.

    The cultivators from the Justice Pce and the Administration Pce, despite not being swordages, were all familiar with the authority and responsibilities of the swordsages. They weren¡¯t the only ones who knew. All the mortals in the county capital also knew.

    A screaming wind sprang up. Through the county capital, people from all households stepped out into the open, and their garments pped in the wind. As they did, destiny aura rose from them and swirled in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    As of this moment, the people all felt the same thing!

    As of this moment, heaven and earth trembled in unison!

    As of this moment, all the destiny aura was converging above Xu Qing, creating a resplendent crown so iparably distinct that even the mortals could see it!

    The weight of the crown and the blessing of the destiny aura caused Xu Qing¡¯s bluegreen dragon to roar as it directly transformed into a nascent soul. That nascent soul was an embodiment of destiny aura, and it caused heaven to shake and the earth to tremble. Up above, the vortex grew in size. This was Xu Qing¡¯s ninth nascent soul!

    Daybreak light erupted within Xu Qing, spreading out resplendently in all directions and transforming into a seven-colored nascent soul! The daybreak soul shone with such brilliance that all light dimmed in heaven and earth. This was his tenth nascent soul!

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. As the destiny aura continued to converge, D-132 trembled. The destiny aura eventually became a tiny figure. It looked very much like the young boy from the early days of D-132, except his facial features were those of Xu Qing. With his arrival, D-132 wasplete. The head, the stone lion, and Sir Inkwell all shivered as they kowtowed to the eleventh nascent soul!

    Finally, the river of time outside of Xu Qing became so clear that a figure could be seen emerging from it. At first, the figure¡¯s features were indiscernible. It did not seem elegant and magnificent, but instead wore shabby clothing, and had a face caked with filth. It almost looked like a child who had climbed out of the grave. But there was a tenacity and determination in the child¡¯s face, as if none of the bitterness of life could force him to bow his head. He would continue onward, no matter what. He would keep on living! This was Xu Qing¡¯s twelfth nascent soul.

    The arrival of this nascent soul seemed to cause the entire county to resonate. Among the crowd of hundreds of thousands was Qing Qiu, who shivered from head to toe. The mere sight of that nascent soul left her stupefied.

    ¡°Big Bro Kid....¡±

    Although Xu Qing was hardly aware of it, the fact that he had suddenly added four nascent souls to his cultivation base created a sudden increase that pushed him to the twelve-soul level.

    High in the dome of heaven, lightning began to gather, which was none other than the power of tribtion. Because of the arrival of a twelfth nascent soul, the heavenfate tribtion was forming. Though it wasn¡¯t a convenient time, it was still there. Within the darkness of the sky above, lightning flowed like millions upon millions of silver snakes.

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators below the altar were shaken, and the countless mortals in the county capital trembled in fear.

    It seemed like heavenly tribtion was about to strike. However, just before it finished forming, something happened with the crown of Sea-Sealing County that hovered above Xu Qing¡¯s head. Within the crown was a young boy who looked up.

    ¡°Begone!¡± he shouted.

    As the word rang out, Xu Qing¡¯s twelve nascent souls flew up into midair, looked at the heavenly tribtion, and also let loose a shout.

    ¡°Begone!¡±

    As those two shouts harmonized, the hundreds of thousands of cultivators below the altar all thought the same thing in their hearts.

    ¡°Begone!¡±

    The destiny aura had offered approval. The people had given their blessing. The heavenly tribtion crumbled and retreated. As a result, boundless heavenfate had no obstruction as it surrounded all twelve of his nascent souls and baptized them. The heavenfate blessed Xu Qing, who reached over his shoulder to grab an invisible sword.

    ¡°I have a sword!¡±

    Upon hearing those four words, the more than 100,000 swordsages below the altar thought back to the blood-soaked figure in their memories. Right now, it was almost as if that figure was superimposed over Xu Qing. Thus, one voice after another spoke, their voices dripping with blood and death.

    ¡°I have a sword!¡±

    ¡°I have a sword!¡±

    The words converged, echoing louder than heavenly thunder. One by one, all the swordsages were drawing their swords.

    Streams of sword light erupted, sweeping toward Xu Qing and gathering in his hand in the shape of a sword. It was The Emperor¡¯s Sword of the swordsages, which glittered with blinding light.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. In one particr house in the capital city, a crippled old man limped out into the open. His clothes were neat and tidy, and his eyes shone with the desire to do battle. He was none other than the jailer from Unit C in the Corrections Division, Ghost Hand! Back when the Corrections Division copsed, he held back from using his sword. And he¡¯d told Xu Qing he was saving it to use on the culprit behind the disaster. This was the day he had been waiting for.

    Reaching over his shoulder, he loudly said, ¡°I have a sword!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, an Emperor¡¯s Sword emerged from behind his back that had been powering up for eight hundred years. It became a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering beam of light that shot toward Xu Qing. That was a sword that could devastate Spirit Trove and shake Void Returning. When it merged with Xu Qing¡¯s Emperor¡¯s Sword, that sword erupted with many times more power than before.

    Eyes shing, Xu Qing looked at the lieutenant governor. ¡°I have a sword, and I will defend my home!¡±

    He shed the sword down. Sword light shone into heaven, and sword energy erupted that could devastate anything and everything. Backed by the oath of the swordsages and the ideals of Pce Lord Kong, it shot toward the lieutenant governor.

    Master Seventh shot toward the lieutenant governor. Eyes burning with killing intent, Marquis Yao also burst into motion, pulsing with blood-colored light.

    Qingqin let loose a piercing cry as he alsounched an attack. The three pce lords, the honor guards, and all the cultivators from the Administration Pce and Justice Pce unleashed the power of their cultivation bases to attack the lieutenant governor.

    This was a blow that couldn¡¯t possibly be blocked.

    The lieutenant governor lowered his eyes and stood in ce.

    Things were about to end!

    His old servant backed away looking shocked. However, there had been so much power unleashed that he didn¡¯t qualify to evade it.

    As the sword light glittered, the old servant¡¯s head flew off his shoulders. His body exploded. And as the head tumbled through the air, the skin dripped off of it like melting ice, revealing the true facial features beneath.

    Shockingly, it was Night Dove! [2]

    He wasn¡¯t the only one to die. The lieutenant governor¡¯s other forces had no means to escape, and were killed in body and soul. Then the power rumbled toward the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor hovered in midair, making no move to evade. Power which could destroy heaven and extinguish the earth surged toward him. He looked past the sword light at Xu Qing briefly, then closed his eyes. The sword light, which was the gathered power of countless individuals, and was filled with the will of the entire county capital and its destiny, neared.

    In the blink of an eye, itnded on the lieutenant governor. He shivered. His expression became pained. His hair turned into ashes, and his clothing and skin melted together. The force weighing down on him caused his body to slowly be crushed. His flesh was quickly wiped out of existence. His chest caved in, and his bones became visible. But not even his bones could stand up to this level of power, and they were scraped away, shattered, to reveal his organs.

    It happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint.

    That was all the time it took for the lieutenant governor to no longer even resemble a human. The same process happened with his legs. The flesh was wiped out, the bones shattered. His torso was destroyed. His limbs were wiped out. The only things left behind were his spine and his head.

    It was a horrendous sight. But not even his spine couldst, and it soon vanished, leaving behind only the skull.

    Half of his face remained. But then a golden light shone from that half of a face, spreading out to create a broken, golden mask. It glittered indestructibly.

    Marquis Yao, Qingqin, and Master Seventh, as well as all the cultivators present, as well as the power of Xu Qing¡¯s sword, slowed to a halt in front of that broken face. No amount of destructive force could do anything against it.

    From a distance, that broken, golden face seemed very familiar. Anyone who looked at it would feel shock rippling through them. Then the broken face of the lieutenant governor opened its eyes.

    1. Pce Lord Kong spoke the words, ¡°I will defend my home,¡± in chapter <u>507.1</u>. ?

    2. The chapter in which this ¡®servant¡¯ was first introduced was <u>494.2</u>. Night Dove wasst seen on screen in <u>chapter 327</u>. He was introduced in <u>chapter 277</u>. ?

 Chapter 534: Back from Antiquity (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 534: Back from Antiquity (part 2)</h4>

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s gaze fell on the county capital.

    In the blink of an eye, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, winds screamed, destiny aura howled in grief, and mortals wept tears of blood. Immeasurable mutagen cascaded down. It instantly filled the nts, vegetation, people, buildings, and everything else. The sky blurred and thends rippled. It was as if the end of days hade.

    The scene was familiar, and everyone knew why. The broken face of the lieutenant governor... looked exactly the same as the broken face of the god in the sky, down to the wounds and the general shape. Only the specific facial features were different. Other than that, there were no differences.

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators were shocked to the core, and the mortals in the city were rendered speechless.

    The dome of heaven shook. The clouds parted. It was as if the hands of an unseen god had pulled apart the sky, revealing the evening horizon, and also, the broken face of the god that had hung there eternally since the final days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    H¨©s hair hung down freely. H¨©s size rivaled that of the sun and moon. H¨¥ floated outside of the Revered Ancient maind, for all living beings there to look up and see. Because of that, many people were simply used to h¨©s presence. But right now, everyone instinctively looked up at h¨©m as the pain coursed through their bodies. H¨©s eyelids twitched. But in the end, those eyes did not open.

    Down below, the broken face of the lieutenant governor did look around with open eyes, and heaven and earth trembled.

    In the past, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had opened a box in the Eight Sect Coalition. As of this moment, the lieutenant governor¡¯s gaze was even more astonishing than that box. Heaven and earth quivered. All living things blurred. Howls of grief echoed about everywhere. And then, the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face shifted its gaze to focus on Marquis Yao.

    Marquis Yao shook from head to toe. A three-colored flower appeared over his head, seated atop which was the image of a heavenly marquis. However, Marquis Yao apparently didn¡¯t have appropriately pure blood, because the image wasn¡¯tplete. A momentter it faded from existence, and two of the flower¡¯s petals fell off. As for the remaining petal, it withered listlessly. Rumbling sounds echoed out as Marquis Yao coughed up blood and staggered backward.

    ¡°You actually sacrificed yourself to be a partial domain treasure!¡± the marquis said.

    The broken face of the lieutenant governor didn¡¯t react in any way. Instead, he turned to Qingqin. Qingqin let loose an anguished cry as his body blurred. Behind him appeared a figure from antiquity, something that could devour heaven and earth. Though Qingqin¡¯s blood was pure, it existed at too low of a level. Qingqin tumbled backward, sttered with blood.

    Next, the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face turned to Master Seventh. A hand of white jade appeared behind Master Seventh, radiant and scintiting. It seemed to have a simr origin as the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face, and thus avoided the judgment cast by the face. However, Master Seventh¡¯s cultivation base was too low, so blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    As he staggered backward, he red at the lieutenant governor and said, ¡°Before, I only had suspicions. It made sense that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan would be reincarnated due to his spectacr deeds. But why would Bai Xiaozhuo be reincarnated? Now I understand. You... are so cruel!¡±

    The lieutenant governor shifted his gaze to the deputy pce lords, whose souls suffered grievous injuries. Next came the honor guards, whose skin turned greenish-ck as they headed toward mutation.

    All of the Void Returning experts had been summarily crushed. All cultivators and all mortals were moaning in anguish. The county capital was rapidly being pushed toward a forbidden region transformation.

    Blood-colored rain fell, apanied by crashing thunder. The rain even fell on the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, running down the forehead of the statue, and through the eyes, then streaming down like tears of blood. If that statue could open its eyes, it would see all of the county capital turning into a realm of ghosts. And it was all happening because of the broken face of the lieutenant governor.

    Meanwhile, the two puppets the lieutenant governor had employed no longer had discarnate souls in them. The souls had long since faded away. Therefore, the puppets automatically reverted to their original orders, and rushed toward Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, and Qingqin.

    Being soaked with the rain, it was now possible to see something in the puppets that hadn¡¯t been visible before. Shining out through the stitched seams of the puppets¡¯ bodies... was light.

    Each puppet had a box inside of it.

    Just like Chu Tianqun, these puppets were actually experimental god bodies. And clearly, progress had been made in their construction. If Bai Li was the first generation of the experimental god body, then Master Shengyun could be considered the initial attempt at the second generation. Chu Tianqun was theplete version of the second generation, while these two puppets were the third generation. That was why their cultivation bases were in the great circle of the third stage of Void Returning, yet they had the battle prowess of the fourth stage. That said, they couldn¡¯t form major worlds, only countless minor worlds. It was something Master Seventh had noticed when the first puppet attacked Qingqin.

    The sound ofbat once again rang out as the lieutenant governor continued to send his gaze sweeping about.

    Xu Qing hovered in the darkness, looking around at the agony around him. He could hear the cries of anguish. A spark could start a prairie fire, but a rain of blood could extinguish it. When faced with raw strength, ideals were nothing but a joke.

    Only the Captain seemed to be reacting differently than everyone else. Blue light radiated off of him as he looked deeply into Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. It was almost as if he were bidding farewell. He was about to take action.

    But Xu Qing reached out and gripped the Captain''s shoulder. Looking at him, he quietly said, ¡°Eldest Brother, this is my affair. If I survive at the cost of losing you, I¡¯ll regret it for the rest of my life.¡±

    The Captain said nothing in response, but his eyes flickered as he struggled to maintain control.

    Meanwhile, the power of the violet moon erupted within Xu Qing. His taboo poison core surged, and the power of D-132 appeared. The Ghost Emperor mountain rose up behind him. Inside, Xu Qing sighed. Rebels had to pay a price, and in this case, the price was immense. He advanced quietly. As he did, he grew taller andrger. As he bore the weight of all the surrounding mutagen, he looked at the broken face of the lieutenant governor hovering in the sky.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s eyes focused on Xu Qing, while his voice echoed out in all directions via divine will.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, did you know that this ce... is where I originally died? When the crown prince perished in the southern continent, I was right here looking up at the broken face of the god, while simultaneously carving up my own flesh to resemble h¨©m.</i>

    <i>¡°I pleaded to allow me to see my lord and master again in the future.</i>

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, you said before that I don¡¯t deserve to be a follower of my lord and master. You¡¯re right. People said the same thing back then. A lot of people. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t evade your attack right now. I deserve to be punished.</i>

    <i>¡°But I still need to aplish my mission. I can¡¯t flee. Therefore, I decided to reveal the blessing of a god. I¡¯ve polluted the aura of Revered Ancient, making it impure, and thus ensuring that neither my past, present, nor future self can ever be reincarnated again. The previous moment was my past. This is my present. And the next moment is my future.</i>

    <i>¡°I, Bai Xiaozhuo, am not the type of person who exins myself to others very often. But I think you¡¯re worthy.¡±</i>

    He looked out at the county capital.

    <i>¡°Sadly, I don¡¯t have time to wait for the appropriate moment. I failed to be the governor, so I don¡¯t have the blessing of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s destiny aura. That means there are many things... that I will have to aplish via force. Ai.¡±</i>

    The lieutenant governor sighed because his attempt to deceive the living beings of Sea-Sealing County had failed. He had longed to be acknowledged by heaven, earth, and the people as the governor, and thus be blessed by the county¡¯s destiny aura.

    His n had been to rely on the aid he had provided to humankind to strengthen the destiny aura of humankind. After all, human territory had finally been expanded, and the Holytides had been brought back into the fold. In that manner, he could use the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County to tap into more of the destiny aura of humankind. That was thest step in his n. Sadly for him, he had failed.

    <i>¡°You seeded, Xu Qing. Even if I killed everyone here, I would never be able to see my n to fruition. I can only use force now.</i>

    <i>¡°You forced me to harvest the fruit before it was ripe, spoiling everything. And thus, you¡¯ve forced me to break my word to my people.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing said nothing, as he could tell the lieutenant governor still had more to say.

    <i>¡°Back then, I sacrificed myself to the god above in the hopes of getting another chance to be a follower of the crown prince. The god ignored me. Therefore, I allowed myself to be transformed into a domain treasure. I gave up my soul to do it. I gave up everything. The god still ignored me.</i>

    <i>¡°I have no idea what the god wanted. It was only in the very end, when the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was destroyed, that I realized what h¨¥ wanted. With tears streaming down my face, I killed all the people in the county. It didn¡¯t matter if they were cultivators or mortals. Old or young. They didn¡¯t resist. They let me do it. Finally, after I killed everyone, h¨¥ gave me a nod.</i>

    <i>¡°Back then, I promised to bring back all the people I¡¯d killed. And now, my people, you will alle back. From the Land of Cruelmurk!¡±</i>

    His voice seemed to thrum with ancientness, as if it came from tens of thousands of years in the past, as if it had floated up the River of Ancient Time.

    As the blood rain fell and the mutagen flourished, the people of the county capital shivered. Their pain turned into numbness as life force streamed out of the tops of their heads, forcibly extracted along with destiny aura. Their bodies withered. Their skin sank in. And yet, they didn¡¯t die.

    It wasn¡¯t just the people. The entire county capital trembled. Lands, rivers, nts, mountains. Boundless life force and destiny aura was ripped out and sent streaming toward the capital city. In the rest of the prefectures of Sea-Sealing County, with the exception of the three prefectures that had previously been lost, and those which had been immted, the ancestralnds in all sects and organizations trembled. It was the same in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    The earth quaked throughout Sea-Sealing County. One mountain range after another crumbled. They were all mountain ranges that had risen up in modern times. And in the spots where they fell, mountains of antiquity rose up.

    In the tens of thousands of years that had passed since the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan existed, the topography of Sea-Sealing County had changed. But now, it was reverting to what it had been before. Thendscape of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was returning. Rivers formed. Mountains rose up. If you could stand at a very high vantage point and look down, you would find that the mountains which made up the county in ancient times actually formed a massive magical symbol.

    As that symbol becameplete, and as the hearts of the people in the county filled with astonishment, three massive spikes appeared. They were bones of a god fish, and they rose up from three locations in the county, rising high into the sky. When they stabbed into the canopy of heaven, ripples rolled out, covering the sky in the county, creating something like a second canopy of heaven. And that canopy of heaven looked like a painting. The world in that painting was not the Revered Ancient maind. Instead, it was pitch ck.

    The aura was familiar to Xu Qing, allowing him to instantly identify what he was looking at. The world in that painting was the very same world that all cultivators would briefly encounter when they were reaching Foundation Establishment.

    To reach Foundation Establishment, one needed something akin to a lifemp to stay safe. Without that protection of burning, one would attract terrifying entities. It was a fact that all cultivators came to realize before they reached Foundation Establishment. However, no one knew what world those entities came from.

    Years ago, the Mute had experienced an ident when trying to reach Foundation Establishment, and had been possessed by an evil soul. Xu Qing had ended up saving him.[1]

    As of now, Xu Qing knew what world those things came from. It was called the Land of Cruelmurk. And it was also where Crimson Mother currently was!

    1. The Mute¡¯s possession and subsequent breakthrough was in <u>chapter 309</u>. ?

 Chapter 535: Xu Qingâ€™s Trump Card! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 535: Xu Qing¡¯s Trump Card! (part 1)</h4>

    The key to opening the Land of Cruelmurk were the three fish bones!

    Xu Qing recognized those bones. They were the same spikes taken by the hand of white jade from within Forbidden by the Immortal. Only now did he realize their function.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the ripples from the three bones created a second canopy of heaven. ck mist swirled, and the soul-shaking wail of ghosts emerged. Within that ck, misty painting were innumerable evil souls. When they looked up and saw everything on the outside, the lieutenant governor¡¯s summons became like countless karma threads.

    On one end, they connected to the broken face of the lieutenant governor. The other end stretched into Cruelmurk, wherein lurked the souls of the countless dead of Violet and Cyan¡¯s Sea-Sealing County. And those threads began to pull. The evil souls began to follow the karma threads, burrowing out of the second canopy of heaven and looking down on thends below, and the living beings within them, with open greed.

    This was the lieutenant governor¡¯s master n. This was his offering to his lord and master. It wasn¡¯t just the life force and destiny aura of all the living beings in Sea-Sealing County. It was also... a return of the entire county itself! This was how he nned to atone for his past mistakes.

    The living beings of Sea-Sealing County were to be hosts possessed by his true people, who were currently in Cruelmurk. That said, the moment he had nned for never came. The fruit did not ripen. He did not fool the living beings of Sea-Sealing County into making him their governor and freely giving him all the destiny aura of the county.

    Therefore, he did not be the protector of his people that he wanted to be, thus ensuring their smooth and unhindered return. He had to forcefully summon the deceased souls. When they appeared, the aura of Revered Ancient would fight back against them, destroying nine out of ten. But there were just too many evil souls. Thoughrge numbers of them would be wiped out, there were still an innumerable amount that could descend on Sea-Sealing County.

    That said, the lieutenant governor was the type of person who kept his word. As per the agreement, he would make sure none of Seventh Prince¡¯s people were affected.

    Meanwhile, Seventh Prince was bbergasted. It had never urred to him that the lieutenant governor would have a n like this. He had assumed he was going to be dealing with some minor sacrifice. And how could he have ever guessed that the three fish bones would be used for this purpose?

    ¡°Bai Xiaozhuo!¡± Seventh Prince said, eyes narrowing. As he stood on the altar struggling to control his breathing, he very nearly took a step forward. This matter was quickly getting out of hand. Themanders-in-chief around him looked at him with glittering eyes. Up in the dome of heaven, the four-wed golden dragon growled and also looked at Seventh Prince. Down in the crowd, Ning Yan looked at Seventh Prince, his eyes bloodshot. But Seventh Prince looked at the lieutenant governor for a long moment, and then... did nothing.

    As an imperial prince, he was privy to many secrets. The way he had grown up had left him with a unique sense of judgment, and as a result, he knew what was going on. He understood that no ordinary type of power could defeat the lieutenant governor right now. A higher level of personhood would be required to vanquish him.

    In other words, a Smoldering God or someone like Zhang Siyun. After all, in his current state, the lieutenant governor might as well be a snack for someone like Crimson Mother. Sadly, Crimson Mother was asleep. And after everything that happened with Crimson Mother before, most other gods were in hiding.

    Based on the information in various ssified files in the imperial capital, Seventh Prince knew that there had been plenty of species throughout the years that made deals with the broken face. However, those deals didn¡¯t involve the opening of the face¡¯s eyes. Throughout all of history, there had only been one instance in which the god¡¯s eyes opened for a person. And that person was the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    If Seventh Prince took action right now, he might be able to prevent a tragedy from ensuing. But the cost to be paid by him would be far, far too immense. He would have to risk his life, and would also have to waste his most valuable reserve powers.

    Sea-Sealing County alone wouldn¡¯t be worth going back on his word, risking his life, and losing his best resources. This was not the time and ce to lose his reserve powers. As a result, he did nothing. He waited. After everything yed out, he would have to scramble to think of how to deal with the aftermath, and turn things to his advantage.

    As far as whatever catastrophe struck Sea-Sealing County... amazing things couldn¡¯t be aplished without a bit of chaos.

    In the end, Seventh Prince ignored all of the people that were looking in his direction.

    As for Xu Qing, he had never spared a nce for Seventh Prince. He had known all along that it would be naive to expect help from the imperial prince. The four-wed golden dragon let loose a cry of sorrow, and instinctively looked down at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing slowly lifted his hand, and the fire from the county¡¯s taboo treasure rose off him. It turned into a golden that climbed into the sky, much the same as it had before when keeping Sea-Sealing County safe. This time, it blocked the soulsing down from above.

    ¡°That won¡¯t do you any good,¡± said the broken face of the lieutenant governor. ¡°Crimson Mother devoured the god of Cruelmurk, leaving the ce without anything suppressing it. That¡¯s why this is going to work so smoothly for me. You can¡¯t stop me.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the lieutenant governor. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve revealed your true form, do you dare allow me to approach you?¡±

    The lieutenant governor looked deeply at Xu Qing. ¡°Unless a god shows up, or perhaps the emperor, then no one exists at a level high enough to do anything to me. I know you always seem to have some trick up your sleeve, but fine. I¡¯ll give you your chance. Let me see what this trump card of yours is. You may attempt to approach me.¡±

    Xu Qing advanced.

    Everything blurred. The sky rippled. Even the Void Returning experts were having trouble because of the immense pressure. The two experimental god bodies pulsed with godly might as the blood rain fell. They blocked every attack.

    The Captain, who was now behind Xu Qing, suddenlyughed. ¡°Little Ah Qing, if you and Master die fighting the good fight, then I¡¯ll join both of you!¡±

    ¡°Great!¡± Xu Qing replied softly, without even looking back.

    The Captain smiled. <i>Little Junior Brother is rarely impulsive. He probably has a trump card ready to go. But as the Junior Brother, I¡¯m honestly shocked that he would block my path. I¡¯m the Eldest Brother! Hmph!</i>

    <i>Ah, whatever. Considering how much he cares about me, I won¡¯t waste time worrying about it. If he doesn¡¯t want me to release my seals right now, fine. But if he ends up failing, he won¡¯t have any logical basis to stop me.</i>

    <i>Let me think. If I have to make a move, what pose should I strike? And what should I say? How can I end this life in a really amazing ze of glory?</i>

    <i>After all... who frickin¡¯ knows if I¡¯ll have any lives left this time after releasing the final seal.... </i>The Captain made some calctions on his fingers.<i> Probably not. What a pity. I¡¯m still so young! Lady Peachy is waiting for me, and Lil¡¯ Sis Five Fingers still has her eye on me. Who knows how many other girls might show up in the future. I never even got married....</i>

    The Captain sighed.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was floating up into the air toward the broken face of the lieutenant governor. The closer he got, the harder it became. There was only 300 meters between them, but it was like the difference between heaven and earth.

    He progressed 30 meters, andcerations covered him. Blood oozed out of his mouth, and he staggered in ce a bit. Then he waved his hand, and his twelve nascent souls erupted with power, bolstering him. He continued.

    After 39 meters, the ck umbre nascent soul dimmed. After 48 meters, the seven-colored wind-chanting nascent soul blurred. After 57 meters, the hellspirit bloodwing nascent soul became hard to see. After 66 meters, the immortal-shredding god-devouring nascent soul distorted.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce, gasping for breath. It took some struggle, but he looked up at the broken face of the lieutenant governor.

    The lieutenant governor was looking back at him. ¡°234 meters to go.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. The golden crow¡¯s nascent soul form bolstered him, and daybreak light lit his path. He moved on.

    The bluegreen dragon appeared, throwing its head back and roaring. He progressed a few more meters.

    And thus, Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls revealed their power. The taboo poison nascent soul. The violet moon nascent soul. The projection of the Ghost Emperor. With all of these blessings, Xu Qing continued onward.

    Eventually he reached 90 meters. 120 meters. 150 meters.... The image of the boy appeared, superimposing with Xu Qing. At that point, he passed 168 meters.

    ¡°Is that your limit?¡± the lieutenant governor said from 132 meters away, shaking his head slightly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light. Stretching his hand down toward the ground, he growled, ¡°Come here!¡±

    Down in the county capital, the ground trembled, and countless sword pavilions copsed, as if a subterranean dragon were on the move. And the source of it all was in the depths of the Corrections Division. Specifically... Forbidden by the Immortal.

    While in Forbidden by the Immortal, Xu Qing had alreadye to realize that after the god there was gone, he could absorb the mutagen that was left behind. That said, he only had limited control, and was also worried that the god¡¯s finger in D-132 would awaken as a result. As a result, he had always restrained himself.

    But right now, he had no intention of restraining himself. That was because he was intentionally going to awaken the god¡¯s finger from D-132!

    In response to his call, rumbling sounds erupted from Forbidden by the Immortal, filling heaven and earth. The power of the mutagen erupted from the entrance, breaking through all the spell formations, and turning into a ck mist that rose from the pit of the Corrections Division. From a distance, it looked like a ck dragon racing toward Xu Qing.

    It took only a moment for the mutagen to surround Xu Qing, then madly pour into him. An expression of pain covered his face as cracking sounds rang out within him. After a certain limit was reached, he began to grow taller. He was soon 3 meters tall. 6 meters. 9 meters....

    Eventually, he was 30 meters tall, like a giant. The air around him distorted, and the aura of a god pulsed off him. Within him, the god¡¯s finger sleeping in D-132, which was in the midst of all the golden threads in him as well as the surging mutagen... suddenly woke up.

    The moment ¨©t did, Xu Qing¡¯s entire person pulsed with an even stronger aura of a god. At the same time, something like a howl rang out within him. His eyes changed, turning nk, and his expression became one full of godly might. He shot toward the lieutenant governor.

    <i>¡°Agh! What are you doing?¡±</i> The finger had been prodded awake, and the first thing ¨©t saw afterward was the broken face of the lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor¡¯s aura and fundamental personality left ¨©t feeling shaken. What was even more relevant was the second canopy of heaven and the three fish bones from ¨©ts true form. Then ¨©t saw everything that was happening in the surroundings. The way everything was distorted and blurry left ¨©t feeling rmed.

    As immense fear rose up within ¨©t, Xu Qing stepped forward 90 meters.

    ¡°Do something. Now!¡± he shouted.

 Chapter 535: Xu Qingâ€™s Trump Card (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 535: Xu Qing¡¯s Trump Card (part 2)</h4>

    The furious finger wanted to flee. But the violet crystal made that impossible. ¨©t wanted to fight back, but ¨©t was being imprisoned in Xu Qing. Although the mutagen pouring into the finger was ¨©ts own mutagen, which meant ¨©t might have been able to break free from Xu Qing, the fact that Xu Qing had experienced the beginning of a nascent soul tribtion, and boosted his cultivation base so much, meant that the violet crystal was even more effective than before.

    Because of all that, though the god¡¯s finger still wanted to be free, there was no way it would happen in a short time. The finger knew that ¨©t would need an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, whereupon it could be free, and might even be able to turn the tables and possess Xu Qing. Except, that wasn¡¯t going to happen.

    After ¨©t awoke, it sensed that ¨©ts true form had already perished. That left ¨©t with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the terrifying situation in the outside world was very worrisome. On the other hand, ¨©t now had a much better chance of developing a new true form. Seeing how Xu Qing was rushing forward toward the small-scale broken face, and noticing the shocked look on that face, the finger¡¯s thoughts raced. However, no matter what ideas ¨©t came up with, there was only one path moving forward; this dangerous situation had to be dealt with.

    <i>This brat is giving me an opportunity! For the sake of freedom, I have to go for broke! Afterward, I can devour the little punk!</i>

    Throwing caution to the wind, the finger released rumbling god power, which caused Xu Qing to rapidly grow another 30 meters. Xu Qing extended his right hand, and the god¡¯s finger converged in his index finger. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing¡¯s index finger glittered with brilliant golden light as he pointed it toward the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face.

    At that exact same moment, the two puppets fighting with Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, and Qingqin spun. Ignoring any injuries they sustained as a result, theyunched attacks to interfere.

    Qingqin erupted with magenta light that became a sea, which rumbled toward the broken face of the lieutenant governor.

    Behind Master Seventh was a 300-meter hand of white jade surrounded by rippling distortions. It swept forward.

    Marquis Yao had the highest cultivation base of anyone involved. A decisive gleam could be seen in his eyes as a blood-colored flower appeared above his head. It swayed, the stem twisting into the shape of a huge bow. Then it withered as a blood-colored arrow took form. The arrow shot forth, pulsing with astonishing might, bing a streak of light that headed toward the lieutenant governor with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t evade. He just looked at Xu Qing, seemingly disappointed.

    ¡°As it turns out, you didn¡¯t exceed my expectations. You have that god¡¯s finger in you. That¡¯s your trump card. Xu Qing, your cultivation base isn¡¯t sufficient. You thought you were keeping that hidden the whole time, but my eyes saw the truth clearly.

    ¡°If that finger¡¯s true form appeared, then I would be crushed. But ¨©t was devoured by Crimson Mother. What a pity. I gave you your chance, Xu Qing, and you failed anyway.¡±

    Golden light shone off the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face, forming into the outline of a body. The left hand of that body then lifted high, and more golden light swirled into the shape of a golden umbre.

    As the umbre blocked the might of Marquis Yao, Master Seventh, and Qingqin, the lieutenant governor reached out with his newly formed right hand and pushed toward Xu Qing¡¯s index finger.

    They collided.

    A huge boom rang out as the hand copsed.

    The power of the god¡¯s finger could crush anything in its path. However, right then, a hand of white jade emerged from within the lieutenant governor. It started out small, but rapidly became enormous. And it grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s finger. The god¡¯s finger shivered, unable to move forward, and unable to fall back. Terrifying force erupted from the hand of white jade, surging through the finger and into Xu Qing.

    The god¡¯s finger was absolutely terrified. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s god body as it started rotting, with many portions falling off. Blood sshed everywhere, and many golden threads shattered.

    Before Xu Qing could even regret that loss, the god¡¯s finger filled with so much pain that ¨©t howled, and released an eruption of power. ¨©t needed to keep this body safe. However, all ¨©t could do was buy time, not resolve the situation.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a thing.

    In that critical moment, the golden umbre above the lieutenant governor thrummed loudly. Then the attacks of Marquis Yao, Master Seventh, and Qingqin hit, and the umbre copsed.

    But then a second hand of white jade emerged from within the lieutenant governor, and pushed back against the lighting from Marquis Yao¡¯s arrow, Master Seventh¡¯s god power, and Qingqin¡¯s light. Intense booms rang out. The lieutenant governor ignored all of that. The entire time, his gaze was fixed on Xu Qing alone. He shook his head, looking regretful as he prepared to speak.

    ¡°Finally,¡± Xu Qing interrupted. ¡°I got close enough.¡±

    The lieutenant governor was stunned, and the pupils of the eyes in his broken face constricted. Within the mangled remains of Xu Qing¡¯s left hand was a talisman of ck iron. It had a single purpose: it couldplete a teleportation to a very specific ce. Because of the teleportation destination, the talisman contained a higher level of personhood. It was a treasure, and was a rare thing in the world.

    It was called a spirit abyss talisman. Its fixed teleportation destination was a spirit abyss.

    There was no god there, nor any human emperor. But that ce did contain an entity who was vastly superior to the human emperor of those times. It was an entity far superior to an Imperial Sovereign. That entity once conquered all of the Revered Ancient maind. In those days, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had not yet arrived, and there was no broken face of a god in the dome of heaven. After that entity died, the countless species of Revered Ancient devolved into chaos. That was when humankind rose to prominence, and eventually, gave rise to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    That entity was Emperor Ancient Spirit, who had led the Ancient Spirits to conquer Revered Ancient! The spirit abyss contained the dead of his species. What was more, he... was still awake.

    Xu Qing had encountered the enormous eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit, and had threatened him with the terror of Crimson Mother. He was no weaker than the god in Forbidden by the Immortal, and in fact, was actually a bit stronger.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s trump card!

    Everything he had done up to this point had been a feint. He obviously couldn¡¯t trust anything the lieutenant governor said. What was more, he needed to be right in front of the lieutenant governor to employ his trump card. Therefore, he unleashed the god¡¯s finger to distract the lieutenant governor and get as close as possible. As long as the lieutenant governor thought the finger was his secret weapon, then Xu Qing would be able to unleash his real trump card. He would only get one chance to make it work.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t a prophet, so he had no way of knowing what the lieutenant governor would do during the process. And he could only guess at how strong he really was. But regardless of how strong he was, Xu Qing could still make the trump card work.

    Xu Qing had originally hoped to use this trump card on the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. The lieutenant governor was not the crown prince, and thus, Xu Qing had hesitated at first. He wasn¡¯t sure if it would really work. And he wasn¡¯t sure if things would go as smoothly for him as they had before with Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    But he figured that if gods could devour each other, as Crimson Mother had devoured the god in Forbidden by the Immortal, then since Emperor Ancient Spirit was like a god, h¨¥ would surely be willing to devour something else like h¨©mself. After all, Emperor Ancient Spirit must have been hungry for a very, very long time.... There was no way some random souls that came along every so often would be satisfying.

    Those were all the things that had run through Xu Qing¡¯s head earlier. And right now, as he crushed the talisman, a massive gravitational force erupted from his palm. He quickly visualized that imperial pce made of flesh, where he had seen the eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit. The innkeeper from nkspring Way had exined to Xu Qing how to use the spirit abyss talisman, and the method by which to fix a destination. [1]

    Because the power of the talisman existed at a higher level, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t resist it. Nor could the lieutenant governor. After all, the lieutenant governor¡¯s hand of white jade was mped firmly onto the bait Xu Qing had thrown out, that being the god¡¯s finger. They were still touching.

    In the blink of an eye, the gravitational force locked onto them and swept out in all directions.

    The surrounding mutagen was driven away. The light of evening appeared again. The images of an entire nation were visible in thends, and a powerful gravitational force spread out everywhere.

    The lieutenant governor¡¯s face fell, and he sought to flee, but he was toote. He had been overconfident.

    The gravitational force expanded, and the two of them vanished!

    The Captain inhaled sharply, and rapidly performed an incantation gesture in the hopes of figuring out where they went.

    Master Seventh¡¯s expression was grim as he looked over at Seventh Prince, who hadn¡¯t done a single thing the entire time.

    Marquis Yao looked surprised, and Qingqin let loose a sharp cry.

    With the lieutenant governor gone, there was no source for the mutagen. The ripples and distortions faded. The blurriness to thend disappeared. The dramatic transformations to Sea-Sealing County ceased. The taboo treasure above glittered brightly as it blocked the souls from above. Many people were awakening from their dazes. The ancient mountains that had risen up trembled.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. The two puppets were still powerful enemies; they would not go still unless the lieutenant governor died and the connection to him was severed.

    Seventh Prince looked at the two puppets.

    If the two puppets went silent, and ceased to follow their orders, that would be the moment for the prince to step in and save the day.

    <i>Who¡¯s actually going to win? The teleportation talisman Xu Qing crushed had an extremely high level of personhood. Definitely not something to underestimate</i>. Seventh Prince decided to continue waiting. He wouldn¡¯t side with either party until the final oue was concluded.

    ***

    In the Spirit Abyss, which was filled with countless souls of the Ancient Spirits, everything waspletely still and quiet. The sky above was filled with an eternal darkness of evening. Thends were the same. Everything was so quiet it almost looked like a painting.

    Off in the distance was an imperial pce. It was surrounded by countless vicious souls. Inside the pce was a mountain of flesh whose summit was high in the sky. Above it floated a huge eye.

    ¨©t was closed, as though there were nothing in the world worth looking at, and ¨©t contained nothing that could disturb ¨©ts tranquility. There were fresh souls nearby that had been offered up as sacrifices. They emanated soul strands that floated up and merged into the eye. Golden dragons flew around the eye, swirling into the shape of magical symbols that apanied the soul strands into the eye.

    The surrounding souls would asionally shiver, look up at the eye, and then bow deeply.

    Countless zombies were scattered about, vicious in appearance, and pulsing with a sense of blood and madness. However, they stood in ce, and didn¡¯t move at all except to bow along with the souls.

    This was not the only imperial pce in this ce. There were others in distant locations. Each of them had mountains of flesh, and huge eyes that all looked exactly the same.

    At the imperial pce that Xu Qing had once visited, the eye surrounded by the countless deceased souls suddenly twitched atop the mountain of flesh. ¨©ts peace had been disturbed. The eye snapped open and red out into the sky. Then a stream of divine will erupted that seemed like it could fill all of the Ancient Spirit world.

    <i>¡°How dare youe back here, scoundrel!¡±</i>

    1. The innkeeper exined the usage of the talisman in <u>chapter 473</u>. ?

 Chapter 536: Bai Xiaozhuoâ€™s Grand Finale (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 536: Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s Grand Finale (part 1)</h4>

    Although the divine will was onlying from the imperial pce that Xu Qing had previously visited, all of the eyes above all the imperial pces in the entire Ancient Spirit world were twitching.

    The reality was... that encounter had been more frustrating to Emperor Ancient Spirit than anything since the destiny aura of Revered Ancient destroyed h¨©s species and banished them to this ce. Given h¨©s personhood, and h¨©s former glory, it was possible to guess h¨©s state of mind when h¨¥ ended that encounter by screaming, ¡°Screw off, NOW!¡± [1]

    In h¨©s eyes, Xu Qing was a bug. For a bug to attract the attention of Crimson Mother to use as a threat and take a soul that had been offered to h¨©m... well that was one thing. But then Xu Qing extorted some of his Ancient Spirit destiny aura. It was such an incredible offense and disrespect that it took h¨©m months to calm down after Xu Qing left.

    And now, this person dared to return?

    Emperor Ancient Spirit was nowhere close to as glorious as h¨¥ had been in the past, and h¨©s mental faculties had suffered after h¨©s fall. H¨¥ couldn¡¯t think as deeply, and h¨©s thoughts were simpler than before. However, h¨¥ was just as proud as h¨¥¡¯d always been. And in terms of h¨©s personality, h¨¥ was still an Ancient Emperor of Revered Ancient. To h¨©m, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was a member of the younger generation.

    As such, upon sensing this familiar aura, h¨©s first reaction was to fly into a rage. As h¨©s divine will surged out into the Ancient Spirit world, everything shook violently.

    The souls in the sky all looked up. Sensing the emperor¡¯s rage, they howled noiselessly, creating invisible sound waves that rolled out. On the ground, the countless vicious zombies raised their bone des over their heads. The Underworld River churned as numerous colossal and monstrous creatures rose up from the waters. The clouds in the sky churned just as violently as ck war banners appeared and a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses appeared out of nowhere. Hostility raged in all parts of the Ancient Spirit world.

    Then a massive vortex appeared above the mountain of flesh in the imperial pce that Xu Qing had previously visited. That was the very same location where Xu Qing had sent Ling¡¯er away, and it was right in front of Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s massive eye.

    Rumbling sounds emerged from the vortex as two figures appeared.

    One wasrge, one was small. One was on the left, one was on the right.

    Therge one was roughly 90 meters tall. The small one was the size of a normal person, and was holding therge one¡¯s finger. They almost looked like intimate friends who had stepped into the vortex hand-in-hand!

    <i>¡°You brought an aplice?¡±</i>

    The massive eye opened wide, causing golden light to brighten heaven and earth. Everything rippled and distorted as a unique mutagen spread out, dissolving all outside powers and suppressing them. The godly authority of Emperor Ancient Spirit erupted from the eye. The power of that godly authority, when focused on an enemy, would make any injuries inflicted ten times worse! A minor injury would be a serious one. And a serious injury would result in death!

    Before those two figures could fully materialize out of the vortex, they shivered as the godly authority started affecting them.

    The one on the left had a god body that started crumbling.

    The one on the right had a transparent body that instantly disappeared, revealing a broken face. The broken face, upon sensing his surroundings, looked unprecedentedly shocked. In fact, it was the first time such a distorted expression had ever appeared on the face of the lieutenant governor. Even before, when all of his plots and schemes had been publicly exposed, he had not reacted like this.

    There was no way he <i>couldn¡¯t</i> be shocked and moved. After all... upon seeing this gigantic eye, he could sense the startling personhood radiating off it. Although it didn¡¯t measure up to Crimson Mother, it surpassed the sleeping god in Forbidden by the Immortal. For all intents and purposes, this gigantic eye <i>was</i> a god.

    It took only a moment for the lieutenant governor to deduce the identity of this god.

    <i>Emperor Ancient Spirit??</i>

    Never could he have imagined that Xu Qing¡¯s trump card would be Emperor Ancient Spirit! This was not something he could have anticipated. After all, Emperor Ancient Spirit had been hidden for so long that, if it weren¡¯t for Ling¡¯er, there was no way Xu Qing could have known about h¨©m.

    Thus, the lieutenant governor was left reeling. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he shot backward, golden light spilling out around him as he tried to initiate a return teleportation to leave this terrifying ce.

    But how could Xu Qing possibly allow him to do that? The moment the broken face of the lieutenant governor started moving, and even as Xu Qing¡¯s body copsed, filling him with intense pain, he respectfully bowed at the waist to Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    ¡°Oh great Emperor Ancient Spirit, I of the younger generation havee here today to deliver some food to you. Sir, this is the first round of interest I owe you for that Ancient Spirit destiny aura. After you finish digesting this bit of food, I¡¯ll bring you the second round of interest!¡±

    <i>¡°Interest?¡±</i>

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s enormous eye was visibly taken aback. Widening, it looked behind Xu Qing at the fleeing broken face of the lieutenant governor.

    Previously, h¨©s attention had been focused on Xu Qing. But upon shifting focus to the lieutenant governor, a heartbeat like that of heavenly thunder filled the Ancient Spirit world.

    <i>Thump-thump. Thump-thump!</i>

    The Underworld River seethed, almost as if it were the saliva of Emperor Ancient Spirit. Surging over its banks, it began spreading rapidly in all directions. Then it abruptly disappeared. A sound like saliva being sucked back into the mouth echoed out in terrifying fashion.

    The lieutenant governor, furious and rmed, held nothing back as he fled, causing cracks to spread out over his broken face. Golden light surged around him as he raced like mad in the opposite direction.

    That golden light hit Xu Qing, causing his body to crumble even further. Inside of him, the god¡¯s finger wailed in anguish and fought back in an attempt to save the body.

    Meanwhile, the golden lighting off the lieutenant governor became like sharp spikes that stabbed into the vortex and tried to get it to rotate in the opposite direction, thus opening a way out. However... in the lieutenant governor¡¯s current state, he would have been a tasty meal even to Crimson Mother, much less Emperor Ancient Spirit, who had been starving for countless years, and could only absorb the souls of random other Ancient Spirits who stumbled into his presence.

    The Underworld River was virtually boiling. There was simply too much saliva to be swallowed back, causing the river to rise into the air and speed toward the vortex.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit was too hungry.

    Meanwhile, the light shining from the massive eye illuminated all of heaven and earth.

    The opening the lieutenant governor was trying to carve out copsed under the gaze of Emperor Ancient Spirit. It was reced by the Underworld River, which quickly surrounded the lieutenant governor.

    A swallowing sound erupted from the far end of the river. It was a terrifying sound filled with greed, excitement, and anticipation. And it exerted a gravitational force that dragged the delectable lieutenant governor down to be devoured.

    When the lieutenant governor realized he was being dragged down, his broken face glittered with light, and two enormous hands of white jade appeared. The hands reached out to rip the river apart. The power of ancient time waned, the gravitational force ended briefly, and the lieutenant governor struggled to escape.

    But then, a majestic pulse of divine will echoed through the entire Ancient Spirit world.

    <i>¡°In my world, there is no ancient time!¡±</i>

    The divine will pulsed with godly might and an indescribably tyrannical dao, which caused the Underworld River to return to its previous state. The gravitational force grew even stronger, and the broken face of the lieutenant governor couldn¡¯t stand up to it. Cracks spread out across the surface of the face.

    The two hands of white jade began crumbling, sending pieces sshing down into the river, where they were devoured.

    The lieutenant governor shrieked as more cracks spread out over his broken face. Holding nothing back, he tried to send more golden light out. As he put everything on the line, light spread out, revealing a totem tattoo on his broken face. The totem had always been there, it just hadn¡¯t been visible. But because of the pressure weighing down from Emperor Ancient Spirit, it was revealed.

    Tattooed on his face was an image of the Sea-Sealing County of antiquity. It looked exactly as the transformed version of the county on the outside. That was the core essence of the lieutenant governor¡¯s return from ancient times. Back then, before he died, he used the blood of themon people to tattoo that image onto his face!

    Now it was revealed within the surrounding sea of light. Sea-Sealing County, which had been a magnificent ce in the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, appeared like a mirage.

    This was not simply the power of ancient time. This was the result of all the lieutenant governor¡¯s ns and schemes, to snatch a section of time from the River of Ancient Time, andbine it with the existing Sea-Sealing County to activate the tattoo on his face to bring antiquity back to the present.

    Using that blessing, he was able to suppress the Underworld River. Waves surged across the river as it neared the point of being destroyed. The water within it began to dry up and disappear.

    The Sea-Sealing County of antiquity appeared in the golden light, and seemed as if it might descend into the Ancient Spirit world, block the mouth of Emperor Ancient Spirit, and thus give the lieutenant governor his chance to escape.

    <i>¡°In here, everything is food.¡±</i>

    The divine will echoed outzily, carrying with it something like amand as it approached the sea of light.

    The Sea-Sealing County of antiquity in the sea of light couldn¡¯t persist, and began to fade away.

    The rivers in the county copsed. The mountains crumbled. Intense rumbling sounds spread out as the endless evil souls of the Ancient Spirits lunged toward it with mad greed. The souls didn¡¯t fear destruction as they swarmed the sea of light. The lieutenant governor fought back, destroying them in swaths, but there were too many. They surged into the light with pure insanity, descending on the Sea-Sealing County of antiquity in a scene very reminiscent of what had yed out earlier on the outside.

    The evil souls of the Ancient Spirits began to devour everything. Land. Air. Living beings. Everything was targeted. After all, their emperor had told them that everything was food!

    The seething of the Underworld River grew more intense.

    Seeing all of that, the lieutenant governor sighed. An irregrly shaped chunk fell off of his broken face during that sigh, which then became a golden beam of light that shot up into the dark sky.

    In the blink of an eye, that beam of light vanished, and a loud rumbling sound echoed out that shook everything in existence. At the same time, golden light shed, revealing the tip of a sword.

    The sword was gold, and it looked like it was stabbing through the canopy of heaven toward thends below. Itnded on a mountain in the Ancient Spirit world.

    The mountain copsed, revealing a 30,000-meter sword.

    Winds screamed in a tempest, and countless evil souls howled. Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t stop the sword.

    Before long, a second chunk fell off of the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face. Then a third and a fourth. They also flew up into the sky, and when they pierced the canopy of heaven, thunderous rumblings echoed out. A second 30,000-meter golden sword descended and stabbed into the ground, followed by a third, a fourth, and a fifth.

    As more chunks fell off the lieutenant governor¡¯s broken face, the face grew smaller and smaller, until it finally copsed. All the pieces floated up.

    A total of thirty-three chunks became thirty-three swords. Heaven trembled as they stabbed into the ground.

    All of this happened in the shortest of times. The light of heaven dimmed as thirty-three massive swords stabbed into the ground in a rough circle surrounding the broken face. All thirty-three of them glowed with golden light, which turned into golden threads that linked the swords together.

    It was a massive, deadly spell formation.

    Within the formation, the thirty-three swords thrummed, causing the power of ancient time to surge toward them from all directions. The Underworld River stopped moving, and a figure began to take shape in the spot where the lieutenant governor had just disappeared from.

    1. The previous encounter with Emperor Ancient Spirit ended in chapter 473. ?

 Chapter 536: Bai Xiaozhuoâ€™s Grand Finale (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 536: Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s Grand Finale (part 2)</h4>

    The figure was no broken face. Instead, he was a whole person.

    What was more, he looked a lot younger, and he was wearing different clothing. There was something ancient about him. It was as if this wasn¡¯t the lieutenant governor, but rather, the true form of Bai Xiaozhuo from Sea-Sealing County in the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. As he stood there in the middle of the thirty-three swords, looking out at heaven and earth, he eventually turned to the huge eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit. Expression bleak, he bowed to the eye.

    ¡°I am a minister from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, which came to exist inter generations. I offer greetings, Emperor Ancient Spirit. Since you aren¡¯t willing to let me leave this ce, sir, and are determined to devour me, then I have no choice but to employ the methods I¡¯d intended to use on the outside.¡±

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s huge eye remained the same as ever, but deep inside, something mysterious flickered briefly.

    Bai Xiaozhuo then pointed at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Emperor Ancient Spirit, I will now open the door to Cruelmurk. When Cruelmurk and your Ancient Spirit worldbine, the catastrophic consequences are not due to my wishes, but rather, are the fault of this child.¡±

    Xu Qing was currently safe in the Underworld River. Earlier, he had found himself being pulled toward the chewing sounds at the far end of the river. But as the river slowed to a halt, he also stopped moving. During the entire time, he continued to bow at the waist. He did not fight back, and he remained outstandingly respectful.

    Even when Bai Xiaozhuo pointed at him usingly, he didn¡¯t look up.

    Although he understood the implications of Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s words, and had seen Bai Xiaozhuo employ such tactics earlier, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel the need to do anything. His purpose ining had already been made clear, and he knew that he couldn¡¯t do anything to control the situation. He had already done everything he could do. Therefore, he kept his head bowed and even closed his eyes. There was no point in paying attention to what was happening.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit also paid no heed. H¨¥ just looked at the lieutenant governor, all while the sounds of swallowing got louder in the area.

    Bai Xiaozhuo stood there feeling increasingly uneasy. Regardless of anything, though, he had to do something. Throwing both hands overhead, he began to chant.

    ¡°By means of my karma, I call to Cruelmurk, and to my people there.... Return to me!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the second canopy of heaven above Sea-Sealing County in the outside world, which was restrained by the golden, suddenly began to vibrate. The ancient mountains that had risen up copsed. And as the living beings in Sea-Sealing County recovered their senses, that second canopy of heaven started fading from existence, and the evil souls that had emerged went back to where they came from. A momentter, that second canopy of heaven was gone.

    Meanwhile, in the depths of the Spirit Abyss, Xu Qing could see that, in the sky above the corpse of the huge snake that was the Ancient Spirit world, a vortex had appeared. It spun endlessly, as that second canopy of heaven appeared again.

    The giant snake shivered.

    Howling erupted from the second canopy of heaven as hordes of souls flew out. This time, the aura of Revered Ancient didn¡¯t interfere with them. And thus, there was nothing to stop the deceased souls from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan from rushing toward the giant snake.

    However, just as they appeared, the giant snake¡¯s eyes opened. They were listless and pale, but at the same time, a terrifying pressure erupted from the snake¡¯s body, which sent the Ancient Spirit world atop its head straight toward the vortex. When they mmed into each other, there was no rumbling boom. There was no shock wave. There was only silent destruction.

    The giant snake crumbled. The Ancient Spirit world atop its head... crumbled. As it turned out, they were nothing but illusions.

    At the same time, the second canopy of heaven and the countless deceased souls from Violet and Cyan also crumbled. So did the Land of Cruelmurk within the vortex. Like a bubble popping, they were annihted into nothing. None of them existed any longer. The formation made from thirty-three golden swords was nowhere to be seen.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised.

    Within the gigantic eye of Emperor Ancient Spirit, a faint light glittered.

    The lieutenant governor looked up at the sky above him, and when he saw that it looked no different from before, he knew his tactic had failed. He felt pain deep in his heart. It was almost as if he could see the countlessmoners of his county, wailing in anguish as they were wiped out of existence. He breathed in and out a few times, and as he did, he suddenly seemed to age dramatically.

    Sighing, he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°You previously tried something like what I just attempted?¡±

    Xu Qing looked back at him and nodded. Considering that Xu Qing had used a very simr method against Emperor Ancient Spirit, he had predicted that the emperor would be on guard against such methods, and would make sure not to fall victim to anything like that again. As for how exactly things would y out, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been totally sure, but he¡¯d assumed it would involve some manner of concealment or illusion.

    From the expression on the lieutenant governor¡¯s face, Xu Qing could guess that Emperor Ancient Spirit hadn¡¯t just concealed the true Ancient Spirit world, but also, h¨¥ had set up counterattacks.

    The lieutenant governor didn¡¯t say anything in response. The thirty-three golden swords were gone. The suppressed Underworld River began to flow strongly again. The gravitational force returned with a vengeance.

    A bitter expression overtook the lieutenant governor¡¯s face. All of his ns. Everything he had prepared. They did no good. Right now, he felt much the same way as the god in Forbidden by the Immortal upon encountering Crimson Mother.

    And the reason for this unexpected twist... was Xu Qing.

    The lieutenant governor turned and looked at Xu Qing. The bitterness on his face turned into calmness.

    ¡°I lost,¡± he said softly. He didn¡¯t try to call out to the broken face of the god. He knew it wouldn¡¯t do any good. The god¡¯s eyes wouldn¡¯t open because of him. Their deal had been concluded the moment he awoke.

    He also didn¡¯t try to call for the help of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He had lost. He had brought shame to his lord and master, and felt too humiliated to face him. Nor could he bring himself to plead for help. He didn¡¯t want to be the reason his lord and master shed with Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    <i>Thankfully, I already arranged for my master¡¯s skull to be returned. Though Seventh Prince loves to sit around weighing the pros and cons of everything, after everything he¡¯s seen me do, he won¡¯t go back on the agreement we made.</i>

    Sighing, the lieutenant governor closed his eyes.

    The thirty-three swords fadedpletely as they were swept over by the boundless Underworld River. The lieutenant governor himself was carried away by the rushing water. In the depths of that river was an enormous mouth, into which the water flowed. It got closer and closer.

    The lieutenant governor was moments away from being devoured.

    But then a violet bolt of lightning crashed down from beyond the canopy of heaven. Moving with incredible speed, it pierced through half of the Ancient Spirit world¡¯s canopy of heaven. It looked like the sky was going to be ripped in two.

    Xu Qing looked up. The lieutenant governor shivered.

    The eyes above all the imperial pces in the Ancient Spirit world opened and looked toward the sky. More mouths appeared in thends, and more Underworld Rivers swept through heaven and earth. The entire Ancient Spirit world was trembling. Vastly more evil souls, zombies, and war banners appeared than ever before. Gigantic figures climbed from the depths, pulsing with terrifying auras. Some were hundreds of meters tall, some thousands, some tens of thousands, and they all howled toward the sky. It was as if the Ancient Spirit world wasing alive.

    The ground quaked, as if some massive being that lived beneath it were moving. And all of the howling seemed to be telling that lightning bolt something.

    <i>All of this is my food, and no one can take it away from me!</i>

    Heaven and earth were in a confrontation!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he looked into the sky. Killing intent swirled in his eyes. Meanwhile, the god¡¯s finger within him was trembling uncontrobly.

    ¨©t was truly afraid.

    ¨©t had originally assumed that after an incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, ¨©t could wrest control of the god body. When ¨©t sensed how formidable the lieutenant governor was, ¨©t decided to hold back a bit, to save some power until Xu Qing was dead, then flee. There was no way ¨©t could ever have guessed that Xu Qing would bring ¨©t here.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye hadn¡¯t just shaken the lieutenant governor, it also shook the god¡¯s finger.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s hungry eyes, and the sound of swallowing, filled that finger with infinite fear. And the fact that ¨©ts true form was already dead pushed ¨©ts fear to the ultimate level.

    And now, this aura had arrived.

    <i>If this brat manages to survive this day without getting devoured... then as soon as I¡¯m free, I¡¯m going to possess the god body! I definitely cannot allow him to just run around getting into trouble with it!!</i>

    As the finger trembled, the lieutenant governor looked initially excited, then ashamed. Bowing to the sky, he cried out, ¡°My Lord!¡±

    The violet lightning bolt grew brighter, and then, a familiar voice spoke from within it.

    ¡°Senior, I want the time that belongs to him.¡±

    <i>¡°You can¡¯t have it!¡±</i> Emperor Ancient Spirit replied with divine will that resonated with a tyrannical dao.

    ¡°I already took it.¡± The violet lightning bolt flickered in the sky.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye grew colder.

    <i>¡°Then screw the hell off!¡±</i>

    The violet lightning bolt coalesced in the sky, turning into a face that very much resembled the broken face of the god. The face looked down at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked up at it. It was a very, very familiar face.

    ¡°You¡¯ve really grown up, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    In response to those words, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye shivered. At the same time, the god¡¯s finger inside of Xu Qing trembled violently and wailed, <i>¡°I don¡¯t want my body after all! I need to get away!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. He said nothing.

    The broken face in the sky simrly said nothing further. After looking at Xu Qing for a short time, it faded into nothing.

    Inside the Underworld River, the lieutenant governor kowtowed respectfully.

    ¡°I, Xiaozhuo, am unable to follow you, Crown Prince. I wish you... peace and security.¡±

    With that, Bai Xiaozhuo looked up into the sky, his eyes filled with reluctance and reminiscence. Finally, he stood, and without any urging from the Underworld River, flew toward the huge mouth. His expression was one of cid determination, as if he were dying for a just cause. As he neared, he didn¡¯t look back. But he did speak.

    ¡°Sea-Sealing County belongs to you now, Xu Qing. Take good care of it.¡±

    With that, Bai Xiaozhuo flew into the huge mouth. The chewing sounds that emerged made it clear that the original governor of Sea-Sealing County from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan had been destroyed in body and soul. He had been devoured by Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    Exining the story of his life wouldn¡¯t be an easy thing to do. And it would very much be based on the perspective of who told it. Was he loyal, evil, crafty, or ruthless? No simplistic exnation would suffice.

    Before long, a contented sigh echoed out in the Ancient Spirit world. It was the sigh of someone who hadn¡¯t eaten food for a very, very long time, then tasted something delicious. Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye narrowed and shifted to focus on Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Is the second batch of interest that thing you have inside your body?¡±</i>

 Chapter 537: Trampling Thistles On The Way To The Throne (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 537: Trampling Thistles On The Way To The Throne (part 1)</h4>

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s divine will echoed out like booming thunder through the Ancient Spirit world. The words could be heard with ears and felt in the mind and heart. Even the soul would tremble in response to it. It was an intimidation from a higher level of life, and also pressure because of the differences in personhood involved.

    The god¡¯s finger went rigid. Terror flooded through ¨©t, which quickly transformed into grief and indignation.

    The divine will locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s ravaged body, causing his flesh to vibrate. Despite his extraordinary body, it was still rapidly crumbling away. His wounds were worsening, and the god power he had left couldn¡¯t keep him going much longer. Right now, though, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have time to worry about his injuries. He had to work hard to just stay cool-headed. He knew full well that he couldn¡¯t afford to do anything to anger Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    Before he could speak, Emperor Ancient Spirit lost patience. Divine will rumbled into the dark sky, and the Underworld River below roiled, revealing countless dead bodies within it. A boundless gravitational force erupted, like a vortex, which swept toward Xu Qing with greed and longing.

    Xu Qing shivered as chunks of his flesh were ripped away, and his life force began to scatter. From head to toe, he started decaying.

    Inside of him, the god¡¯s finger wailed in grief as ¨©ts soul copsed under the power of the gravitational force. The soul turned into streams of ck energy that seeped out of Xu Qing, then started taking the shape of an illusory finger. To the god¡¯s finger, it was a process of agonizing pain. Emotions of grief and bitterness filled the finger as ¨©t bemoaned its extremely miserable existence. After all, the finger was also a god....

    However, the finger¡¯s true form had been devoured by Crimson Mother, and now it seemed escape was impossible from this situation. ¨©t really wasn¡¯t sure what was going on. ¨©t clearly had the godly authority to control misfortune, and yet, <i>¨©t</i> was the one who was struck by misfortune. ¨©t struggled in anguish, but no such efforts amounted to anything. ¨©t had be prey in the mouth of a predator, and struggling only made the teeth bite down harder.

    More soul mist emerged from Xu Qing.

    From a distance, the soul mist of a god caused everything around Xu Qing to ripple and blur. The aura of a god was now starting to pulse from the finger outside Xu Qing, which was rapidly transforming from illusory to corporeal.

    Xu Qing maintained silence. Emperor Ancient Spirit wasn¡¯t just interested in absorbing the god¡¯s finger; Xu Qing¡¯s life force and god vitality was also being drawn out. As that happened, Xu Qing¡¯s personhood was dropping from that of a god to that of an ordinary cultivator.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all that Emperor Ancient Spirit would reveal such malicious intentions.

    He and Emperor Ancient Spirit weren¡¯t exactly on good terms. And a bit of food wasn¡¯t going to turn things around in that regard. That was one reason why he hadn¡¯t wanted to use the spirit abyss talisman unless he had absolutely, positively no other options.

    Those who would <i>pit the lion against the wolf</i> ended up walking on the edge of the cliff. And the slightest mistake could end with them plummeting to their death.

    However, because of the bit of good faith from earlier, at least Xu Qing had the chance to speak up for himself.

    ¡°Your Majesty,¡± he said calmly, ¡°were you pleased with the interest I paid earlier?¡±

    Emperor Ancient Spirit ignored him. The emperor seemedpletely focused on the snack that was taking shape above Xu Qing¡¯s head.

    In fact, Emperor Ancient Spirit wasn¡¯t even paying much attention to extracting Xu Qing¡¯s life force. That was how attractive that sweet morsel was.

    Seeing that, the god¡¯s finger fell deeper into despair. As the shape of the finger became more and more clear, Xu Qing once again spoke, his voice devoid of any emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°Your Majesty, what you are absorbing isn¡¯t the second batch of interest. Sir, what you¡¯re absorbing is a tool that I need to temporarily borrow from you. If you take ¨©t back now, I won¡¯t be able to pay any more interest.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s previous words had vanished as surely as if they were <i>a stone ox thrown into the ocean</i>. Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t respond to them at all. But this time, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s huge eye looked curiously at Xu Qing.

    Countless evil souls swirled through the air, circling around Xu Qing and pulsing with malicious longing. It became an aggressive pressure that spread out into the area and weighed down on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked up calmly at the huge eye. He ignored the fact that his body was copsing, and that his own blood was seeping out everywhere. Previously, he had been about 90 meters tall, but now he was back to the size of a normal person, except covered with gaping wounds.

    ¡°Your Majesty, there¡¯s a lot of food on the outside. But there aren¡¯t many people willing to deliver that food to you in here. In fact, I might be the only one. If you consume that tool, and me as well, then you won¡¯t get any further interest payments.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was one of open honesty. He wasn¡¯t lying. He had just shifted his wording when it came to who actually owned the god¡¯s finger, simply to make it easier tomunicate with Emperor Ancient Spirit. He was certain that an entity like Emperor Ancient Spirit would be able to sense his sincerity. And he was right. The reality was that the god¡¯s finger had performed perfectly in that critical moment, allowing Xu Qing to get close to the broken face of the lieutenant governor. Without that, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to sessfully teleport into the Ancient Spirit world.

    The gravitational forceing from the Underworld River suddenly ceased.

    That said, the sound of swallowing still echoed out everywhere. Though it was under control, the sensation of hunger and greed it conveyed was hair-raising. It was something that would cause terror to well up in any living being who heard it, and would make them feel like food that was about to be devoured.

    The god¡¯s finger was already eighty percentplete above Xu Qing¡¯s head. When the despairing finger heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, and realized he was trying to protect ¨©t, ¨©t felt indescribably excited and nervous. That mixture ofplex feelings swelled within the finger, quickly overwhelming any hatred ¨©t felt for him. After all, ¨©t knew that the only chance of salvation in this situation rested in Xu Qing¡¯s hands. As ¨©t floated in the air, it exuded a sensation of approval with divine will.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s huge eye was fixed on Xu Qing. Gradually, everything went quiet. The sound of swallowing and heavy breathing drifted with the wind.

    Shortly after, the gravitational force that had locked onto Xu Qing faded away. The vortex in the Underworld River vanished, and the river returned to its normal state.

    The restraints on the god¡¯s finger rxed, allowing the finger to fly back inside Xu Qing.

    After everything ¨©t had experienced, ¨©t felt like ¨©t had barely escaped with ¨©ts life, and could still sense lingering fear. Because Xu Qing¡¯s body had copsed, resulting in a huge reduction of god vitality, ¨©t had no interest in stirring up trouble. In fact, ¨©t feltpletely exhausted, and was already having trouble thinking clearly and even staying awake. At the same time, the incredible danger ¨©t sensed on the outside turned into a powerful seed that took root inside. All ¨©t wanted to do now was go back to that familiar spot in D-132. ¨©t was used to the surroundings there, which made sense considering most of ¨©ts life had been spent there.... And it was a safe, quiet ce where ¨©t could sleepfortably.

    Meanwhile, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s divine will echoed out.

    <i>¡°The next interest payment must be a crippled god! If you don¡¯te with a crippled god, then you won¡¯t be wee in this world.¡±</i>

    As the divine will echoed out, a host of soul strands swirled out from the nearly evil souls. Gathering together in front of Xu Qing, they turned into a talisman. It was the same spirit abyss talisman Xu Qing had crushed earlier.

    <i>¡°And now, screw off!¡±</i>

    A vortex opened up behind Xu Qing. On the other side of it was the very same abyss that Xu Qing had been to in Wood Spirit territory.

    Xu Qing looked at the vortex, then the talisman. Finally, he looked up at Emperor Ancient Spirit. He was actually surprised. He had previously assumed that before leaving, he would be marked with a branding symbol or a warding spell. Yet, unexpectedly, that didn¡¯t happen.

    <i>H¨¥ doesn¡¯t think it¡¯s worth it. Also, h¨¥ doesn¡¯t seem worried that I¡¯ll summon another god here.... Combine that with the lieutenant governor¡¯s failure to summon Cruelmurk, I¡¯d say it means that Emperor Ancient Spirit has hidden the Ancient Spirit world even better than I imagined.</i>

    Xu Qing looked around thoughtfully, and suddenly wondered if he was actually standing in the same Ancient Spirit world he had been to before. Was it possible that no one would ever be able to find the real Ancient Spirit world again?

    Regardless, Xu Qing could sense a bit of the daring and nerve that Emperor Ancient Spirit must have possessed when conquering Revered Ancient. sping hands and bowing, he took the talisman and then turned to the vortex.

    Before he could enter, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s divine will once again echoed out.

    <i>¡°Given that you really did bring me some nice food, human child, I¡¯m going to give you a friendly reminder. Those lifemps in you have enabled you to stand out as brilliant in that low level of yours. But they¡¯re a rickety amalgamation. They¡¯re not made from your own blood. Each one is packed with differing karma, and you¡¯ll have a hard time using them to reach the highest level.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked over his shoulder at Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s huge eye. ¡°How can I resolve that issue, Your Majesty?¡±

    <i>¡°Bring me the food I want, and I¡¯ll tell you.¡±</i> With that, the huge eye closed.

    Xu Qing nodded. He remembered his Eldest Brother mentioning something simr to this, and now he was getting the same information from Emperor Ancient Spirit. [1]

    Bowing onest time to Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s huge eye, Xu Qing entered the vortex. Rumbling sounds swept out as he disappeared. Then the vortex vanished.

    After Xu Qing was gone, the Ancient Spirit world blurred.

    Thend, the sky, the evil souls, the zombies, the Underworld River. All of them vanished like a popping bubble. The entire world became a pearl, which then dropped down into the boundless depths of the Spirit Abyss. After a time, a withered, mottled hand appeared in the depths of the Spirit Abyss. It pulsed with an aura of rot as it reached out and grabbed the pearl. A momentter, chewing sounds could be heard. Shortly after that, a sigh of contentment could be heard.

    <i>¡°Scrumptious! I hope the little punk brings something good to eat next time. As for his delicious vor... I¡¯ll wait until he grows up a bit before I devour him. Now, that Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan... is quite interesting.¡±</i>

    ***

    Near the altar atop the Spirit Abyss, a figure could be seen slowly climbing up the cliff.

    Xu Qing¡¯s wounds were influencing his speed. However, given how he had just survived by the skin of his teeth, he found enough energy in himself to keep moving. Slowly but surely, he kept climbing toward the top. Blood flowed from his wounds, which dripped down the cliff walls of the Spirit Abyss.

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth as he struggled against the abyss¡¯s gravitational force. It took all the effort he could muster. Unfortunately, there are sometimes things that will never happen no matter how much you want them to, and simrly, many things that <i>will </i>happen no matter how much you <i>don¡¯t </i>want them to. Xu Qing felt himself gradually losing consciousness.

    He didn¡¯t want to. But he was so exhausted, and was so physically weakened, that unconsciousness gradually started to sweep over his mind like the tide.

    His vision blurred, and darkness began to take over everything. But then, just barely, he saw a figure in white rushing toward him.

    1. In <u>chapter 117</u>, the Captain exined that lifemps are legacies passed down from the people who originally created them. ?

 Chapter 537: Trampling Thistles On The Way To The Throne (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 537: Trampling Thistles On The Way To The Throne (part 2)</h4>

    Back in Sea-Sealing County, the moment Bai Xiaozhuo died, the mountains and rivers of antiquity that had risen up throughout the prefectures trembled. When the second canopy of heaven disappeared earlier, they had begun to copse. However, there was a will sustaining them that prevented them from falling apart. But now, they trembled so violently that they copsed into pieces. Those pieces turned into dust and then disappeared, as if they were fading away into the past of tens of thousands of years ago. The sky became clear, and thends returned to their previous state.

    That said, the entire county was a disastrous mess. Ghastly scars crisscrossed thends of Sea-Sealing County. There were seas of dead among all species, and many small nations and sects belonging to humankind had been wiped out of existence.

    The war itself had taken a huge toll on the poption. Then the lieutenant governor¡¯s rebellion brought further cmity. Sea-Sealing County, which had only just begun to recover, experienced <i>hail added atop snow</i>.

    Dead and wounded victims could be seen throughout all the prefectures. The survivors looked around nkly, many of thempletely unaware of the reason for the catastrophe. The wails of the mourners filled heaven and earth. It was the same in the epicenter of the dramatic event, the county capital.

    Grief filled the city. Although the blood rain wasing to an end, the casualties here were worse than anywhere else. Eventually, the night sky was revealed, and the moon looked down at everything below.

    Two puppets that were experimental god bodies hovered in the air above the altar. Violent cracking sounds emanated from within them. As the sounds spread, the puppets¡¯ aura faded. When the lieutenant governor died, and they lost their source, they opened their eyes, revealing that they had lost all of their energy.

    When that happened, Seventh Prince looked out at the county capital and spoke in a voice that reached the ears of all the despairing mortals.

    ¡°The Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup seriously harmed Sea-Sealing County. Heaven and earth are both furious. This is something that cannot be tolerated! Officers and soldiers, heed mymand: crush all rebel elements from the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion! Bring brightness and rity back to thends of Sea-Sealing County!¡±

    In response, themanders-in-chief rose into the air and shot in unison toward the two puppets.

    In the blink of an eye, dozens ofmanders-in-chief closed in, causing intense booms to shake heaven and earth.

    Bursting with courage and determination, Seventh Prince seemed to erupt after having been forced to keep control for so long, and also attacked one of the puppets. Because he was going all out, a massive projected image appeared behind him, ensuring that all the mortals in the county capital could see clearly what was happening.

    Themanders-in-chief attacked with lightning speed, and thus, the two puppets quickly lost their battle prowess and fell to the ground.

    Next, Seventh Prince¡¯s massive illusory body threw its arms up, thus preventing the blood rain from falling onto the city. The blood rain fell on him instead, leaving streaks of rot as it streamed down him. However, because Seventh Prince had blocked the rain with his own body, the golden dragon could unleash a roar that scattered the rain.

    Meanwhile, the millions upon millions of troops outside the county capital flew up into the air and unleashed magical techniques and huge spell formations that drove away the mutagen.

    Seventh Prince, who was widely regarded to be benevolent and generous by nature, issued orders for his troops to spread through the county capital to save the mortals. Because of his quick thinking, many mortals who had been just about to experience mutation, ended up saved. As a result, the scale of the mutation disaster was greatly reduced. Before long, excited cheering and songs of praise directed toward Seventh Prince could be heard in all directions....

    That said, the people in the capital were not blind and deaf fools. The hearts of the people couldn¡¯t be won so casually, and thus, there were many people who didn¡¯t cheer and sing. That was especially true of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators from the three pces who were present below the altar. All of them were looking coldly at Seventh Prince, their eyes filled with disappointment, anger, and derision. Also visible in their eyes was bitterness.

    Many people were thinking about Pce Lord Kong. And many people were thinking about the words used to eulogize Pce Lord Kong after he fell in battle: he was the paragon of loyalty and responsibility. [1]

    But now, all of the credit and glory for the current victory was being given to Seventh Prince. It was as if the performance that began when Pce Lord Kong died was still ying out. After all, only those people present knew the truth of what happened. And though there were hundreds of thousands of them,pared to the poption of the county capital, or of humans in general, they were like a tiny ripple on the surface of a massive body of water.

    Of course, the limitations of mortals meant that they were even more easily influenced. What was more, it was human nature to easily forget the past. Before long, their memories of the event would be hazy, and their attention would be focused on other matters.

    And Seventh Prince could easily use the pallid bolus as a way to turn everything to his advantage. After all, when it came to the lieutenant governor¡¯s crimes, the fact that the pallid boluses were actually poisonous was something that affected everyone in the city. As for people outside of the county capital who had no idea what happened, they would be even more easily swayed. They would only hear one version of events.

    Seventh Prince, who had just expanded human territory and presided over the return of the Holytides, and who had just saved Sea-Sealing County from imminent crisis, had again aplished the most amazing of deeds. Because of his glory, which already made him shine like gold, even more people would believe whatever he said.

    The hearts of the people would be overwhelmed by the drama, and any doubts would fade into nothing, eventually bing meaningless in a historical context.

    That is... unless Xu Qing came back alive. Immediately!

    If that happened, then everything would change. The hearts of the people would have something else to focus on, and when the destiny aura converged, everything would be different. That said, most people didn¡¯t think that was very likely to happen.

    High in the air, Marquis Yao watched everything happening. Closing his eyes, he sighed. He knew that his entire existence, and any future sess, depended on Seventh Prince. After all, he had been saved by Seventh Prince, and had then revealed himself while disguised as one of the prince¡¯smanders-in-chief. The three deputy pce lords could only stand by silently. Qingqin released a despondent cry, as he was also powerless to do anything.

    Master Seventh dropped to the ground to stand next to his senior apprentice. The Captain opened his mouth to speak, but Master Seventh shook his head.

    ¡°Just wait!¡± Master Seventh said in a loud voice that could be heard by everyone in the county capital. ¡°Before Xu Qing made his stand today, he personally told me that he had a way to purge the pallid bolus effects from anyone who consumed them. He can ensure that no one in the capital city is harmed! If I ate a pallid bolus, and some random person told me they could purge its effects, I wouldn¡¯t trust them. But you know who I would trust? The one person who stepped forward and exposed the truth!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s words stirred the thoughts of countless people, and caused Seventh Prince¡¯s pupils to constrict.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered, and he thought, <i>Now this is what my Master¡¯s like! </i>Ginger gets spicier the older it is<i>, as they say!</i>

    Nodding, he chose not to say anything.

    Master Seventh¡¯s words caused all of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators to look in his direction. Marquis Yao¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. Qingqin¡¯s expression became one of hope. The three deputy pce lords all looked at Master Seventh. If there was anyone who truly understood Xu Qing, it would naturally be his Master.

    Thus, Master Seventh¡¯s words struck the hundreds of thousands of cultivators deeply. That was especially true considering the hidden meaning in his words. Although some people might not have realized the truth of what Master Seventh said before, now, they did.

    Up in the dome of heaven, Seventh Prince took a moment to calm himself inwardly. Then he spoke in a calm voice.

    ¡°You people are letting your imaginations run wild! From the way you¡¯re looking at me, I can tell what you¡¯re thinking. You believe that I didn¡¯t do anything to help today. But is that true? No, it¡¯s not. I did help!

    ¡°I¡¯m the one who rescued Yao Tianyan. I didn¡¯t stop him from interfering earlier, which means I approved of his actions. If Yao Tianyan hadn¡¯t provided the final bit of evidence, would Xu Qing¡¯s enthusiasm have been enough?

    ¡°I admit that I was slightly suspicious of the lieutenant governor¡¯s true identity. But that¡¯s why I saved Yao Tianyan to begin with. My n was to oversee the return of the Holytides, and ensure that humankind was in a stable position. Then I would handle the situation here.

    ¡°Considering how many of us fellow human cultivators sacrificed their lives, considering the heavy price paid by our heroes, considering all the hard work the emperor put into unleashing the power of our Dawning Sun, I absolutely could not allow us to lose any momentum!

    ¡°At a time when our armies are on the move reiming our homnd, we can¡¯t afford to have any chaos in the interior. Therefore, I forced myself to be patient.

    ¡°Though you have no way of knowing this, I can tell you that the puny Bai Xiaozhuo couldn¡¯t possibly have done all of this by himself. He obviously has a hugework of allies, plus the lord and master he himself mentioned! After learning the truth of what was going on, I chose to wait and see if that lord of his would show up. What¡¯s more, there¡¯s another possibility to consider. It¡¯s very likely that, as long as I didn¡¯t step in, his lord and master wouldn¡¯t step in. I... was a lurking threat keeping you safe!

    ¡°Perhaps you won¡¯t be able to understand all of this. Perhaps you will still be suspicious of me. But you can¡¯t deny the significance of my choices here.¡±

    Below the altar, the hundreds of thousands of cultivators maintained silence. None were giving stock to anything the imperial prince was saying.

    Seventh Prince sighed. Then his eyes hardened. ¡°I can see why you¡¯d like to stand there waiting. But we can¡¯t wait for the reconstruction of Sea-Sealing County. We can¡¯t wait for the humans in the county capital to recover. We can¡¯t wait to save the tens of thousands of humans who need saving! At a critical moment like this, when nonhumans are definitely thinking of sowing chaos, our families, our sects, and our homes are all in critical danger.

    ¡°Marquis Yao, heed mymand. Cultivators of the three pces, heed mymand. Officers and soldiers of Sea-Sealing County, heed mymand! All of you cooperate with the imperial army to travel to all the prefectures in the county and crush any signs of rebellion. Save all of the afflicted humans. This is your responsibility!¡±

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators below the altar had mixed expressions on their faces. What Seventh Prince said all made sense, and there was no refutation any of them could provide. It was their responsibility to do as he¡¯d ordered. But once they left the county capital, they would be truly scattered. It wasn¡¯t that they would never be able to reunite. But while they were gone, it was entirely possible that everything could be flipped around. ck could be white. The strategy of ¡®divide and conquer¡¯ was a de that could cut in any direction.

    The three deputy pce lords looked disappointed. Marquis Yao sighed and was about to speak when, all of a sudden, he turned to look off into the distance. Master Seventh shivered and looked in the same direction. The Captain did the same, and already he was breathing heavily, his eyes shining with blue light and his expression one of delight. Even more delighted was Qingqin, who let loose an excited cry.

    <i>¡°CAW!¡±</i>

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators all sensed that something was happening.

    Seventh Prince frowned imperceptibly as he looked off into the distance.

    A beam of light streaked through the air toward the county capital. It was not the speed of pseudo-Nascent Soul, but rather, that of Void Returning. Soon, it became possible to see a gigantic Wood Spirit moving at incredible speed. Standing on his shoulders was a figure in a blood-stained uniform. As his garment pped in the wind, his eyes shone with unswerving determination. His good looks were unrivaled in all heaven and earth. He was none other than Xu Qing. Wrapped around his right wrist was a little white snake which looked curiously in the direction of the county capital.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival caused excitement to fill the hearts of the cultivators in the capital. Cheering broke out, creating a massive sound wave that spread out, resonating with heaven and earth.

    In the canopy of heaven, the four-wed golden dragon let loose a roar, and it pulsed with golden light that blessed Xu Qing. It also exhaled dazzling clouds that lit up all creation. As a result, all humans in the capital could clearly see what was happening. It was the first time this dragon had created auspicious clouds for someone other than an imperial prince.

    The cheering in the county capital was so forceful the clouds trembled, and surpassed the cheering that had been directed toward Seventh Prince after Pce Lord Kong died and he returned having won a great victory over the Holytides. Back then, Xu Qing had been in the army outside the capital, and had looked up silently as Seventh Prince received the adoration of the crowds.

    Today, Seventh Prince was in the capital city looking out at the crowds, and watching as Xu Qing returned to adoring cheering. This time, Seventh Prince was the one looking on silently. Even the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity trembled.

    What was more, immense streams of destiny aura swept toward Xu Qing and gathered above his head. As he neared, something became visible even to the naked eye of the mortals. It was....

    A crown!

    1. Seventh Prince himself said that Pce Lord Kong was the paragon of loyalty and responsibility in <u>chapter 510</u>. ?

 Chapter 538: The Heart of the People Contains Righteousness and the Dao

    <h4>Chapter 538: The Heart of the People Contains Righteousness and the Dao</h4>

    Someone who brings ruin to a governmentes to bear a heavy weight. In fact, a weight like that is enough to crush the soul and leave one damned by myriad tribtions. Someone who survives such an ordeal experiences something like nirvanic rebirth. Having done so, they can soar beyond the highest heavens and be the focus of all eyes.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing, who had <i>trampled thistles on the way to the throne</i>, was now returning. He was that person who had experienced nirvanic rebirth. After experiencing the cmity he did, then returning to be the center of attention, he was like the most dazzling light in existence. His light burned so brightly that it stoked the emotions of all living beings, burning away the pressure that resulted from all the recent hardships.

    Cheering filled heaven and earth. The sound soared along with the wind.

    The events of the past year or more had been difficult for everyone in Sea-Sealing County. The death of the old governor left everyone in a daze. Then war came, seemingly out of the blue. Even as they were still in that daze, the death of Pce Lord Kong struck like tribtion lightning, tearing apart Sea-Sealing County and leaving the survivors deeply scarred. After the war ended, and the reeling Sea-Sealing County finally started to recover, the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup brought despair.

    The people felt apprehensive, confused, bitter, and helpless. They needed someone who could bring about real change. They needed someone who could lead them through the crisis. In the past, they had believed Pce Lord Kong to be that person, except he died in battle. Later, they thought that person to be Seventh Prince or the lieutenant governor....

    But today, they fully believed it was Xu Qing! His moment of return brought a change to the dome of heaven. Auspicious signs proliferated, and the people cheered endlessly. Men and women. Old and young. Cultivators and mortals. To them, there was only one person worth looking at.

    Xu Qing was the focus of all the eyes in the county capital.

    The golden dragon roared. Qingqin released a piercing cry. The destiny aura surged into the sky, swirled around, and formed a dazzling crown over Xu Qing¡¯s head.

    And then, within the cheering, people started shouting something very specific. It didn¡¯t take long before others heard and approved, then joined in shouting the same word.

    ¡°Governor!¡±

    ¡°Governor!¡±

    As they cheered, the atmosphere in the county capital grew more passionate. The Wood Spirit grand elder, at Xu Qing¡¯s direction, stopped about 300 meters outside the city wall. Xu Qing stood on his shoulder, looking out at everything, his heart pounding.

    Xu Qing was only twenty years old. Despite having learned a lot from his Master and the Captain, he was currently struggling to control his emotions. His goal had never been to assume the office of governor. In fact, the thought had literally never urred to him. He had merely been following his heart and doing what he thought needed to be done. Therefore, he just stood there outside of the city thinking for a long moment. He was really at a loss.

    But the cheering only grew louder, so he finally took a deep breath, calmed himself, and walked into the city.

    He went straight toward the altar. Everywhere he passed, the mortals sped hands and bowed. The cultivators did the same. On every road he walked down, it was the same. The crown above him became clearer and more eye-catching.

    Eventually, he reached the square below the altar. The hundreds of thousands of cultivators from the three pces looked at him with shining eyes as they sped hands and bowed! No one asked them to do it. It was just something they instinctively felt they had to do after everything they had witnessed.

    It was because of their respective fallen pce lords. It was because of the old governor. It was because of the crisis Sea-Sealing County had gone through. It was because of how Xu Qing had bravely stepped out alone. For a number of reasons, everyone was more than willing to bow to him.

    Hundreds of thousands of people all bowed simultaneously, causing the crown over Xu Qing¡¯s head to thrum loudly as it glowed with dazzling light.

    The three deputy pce lords smiled as they also bowed. Among them, Li Yunshan seemed the most grateful. The three honor guards bowed as well, and they seemed almost dazed.

    Master Seventh did not bow. Nor did the Captain. Of all the residents of Sea-Sealing County, only those two, because of their status, qualified to refrain from bowing. After all, they were essentially Xu Qing¡¯s family.

    Master Seventh did nothing to hide the pride in his eyes. It was bright and impossible to overlook. It was simr with the Captain, who stuck his chest out and grinned, looking very pleased with himself.

    Meanwhile, Seventh Prince looked at Xu Qing approaching, then at the crowd. He could tell that, going forward, no one in Sea-Sealing County would be able to do a thing to Xu Qing.

    Marquis Yao looked at Xu Qing and smiled, his eyes filled with a very profound look, as well as determination. The marquis was about to do somethingpletely monumental. Something unheard-of among humans. And he was the only one in the crowd who qualified to try. After all, there was very little chance of anyone seeding at such a task. Ancient traditions were difficult to break. Because of that, and many other reasons, what he was about to do probably shouldn¡¯t be possible.

    But even if the result was failure, he still had to try. Sea-Sealing County as a whole had made its wishes clear, and that was something even the emperor would take seriously. Even if the result was failure, it didn¡¯t matter to Marquis Yao. He still had to make the attempt. And if it didn¡¯t work, he could always try again in the future.

    As Marquis Yao looked at Xu Qing, he thought, <i>the heroic souls of the governor and Brother Liangxiu in heaven would definitely agree with what I¡¯m about to attempt. Whether in public or private, I need to make sure this kid is absolutely invincible in Sea-Sealing County!</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, Marquis Yao sped hands and bowed very deeply to Xu Qing. Then, he spoke in a somber voice that echoed far and wide.

    ¡°Ask heaven!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the crowd exploded with cheering so loud it shook the surroundings.

    Seventh Prince sighed inwardly. Earlier, the random mortals cheering ¡®governor¡¯ didn¡¯t really mean much. Such shouting could be chalked up to emotions running high, and they carried no weight.

    But for Marquis Yao to say what he had just said waspletely different. Asking heaven, asking earth, and asking the people... was the ceremonial way to crown a new governor!

    Throughout all human history, there had never been a pseudo-Nascent Soul governor. This would definitely be something the emperor paid very close attention to. That was especially true considering that it was pushed forward by Yao Tianyan. He was one of the few people who distinguished himself in opposing the lieutenant governor. He was the only member of the old guard who survived the war. What was more, he had been grievously wronged in the whole affair. And of course, he had been one of the five most powerful people in Sea-Sealing County. As such, he had the authority to do this.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s thoughts raced as he considered all the elements at y. <i>I doubt my father will approve of this. But he does have to consider the will of Sea-Sealing County as a whole. And regardless, Yao Tianyan is clearly throwing caution to the wind. He¡¯s betting everything by publicly announcing to the world, to the human species, and to the emperor himself that Sea-Sealing County... approves of Xu Qing!</i>

    <i>Xu Qing has ignited the hearts of the people, and that¡¯s going to make him difficult to deal with. He¡¯s going to be like an ever-burning me.</i>

    Seventh Prince maintained silence. He could tell that public sentiment had already been established.

    The sky glittered as the image of the past governors, created by the flow of destiny aura, stood tall and bore witness to the events below.

    No words were spoken in response to ¡°ask heaven.¡± However, there was a deafening crash of thunder, which was the canopy of heaven in Sea-Sealing County providing the answer.

    ¡°Ask earth!¡± Marquis Yao said, his eyes shining. Intense rumbling sounds echoed from the earth, providing the answer.

    ¡°Ask the people!¡± Marquis Yao said, looking out at the county capital.

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators below the altar, as well as the countless mortals in the city, all shouted their resounding response.

    ¡°You may!¡±

    ¡°You may!¡±

    The sound of the voices became like heavenly might filling the world. It represented the voice of the people and the will of Sea-Sealing County. Sea-Sealing County had made its choice!

    As everyone looked at Xu Qing, and as the destiny aura converged on him, his heart pounded with many emotions. Looking around at everyone, he took all of those emotions and made them part of a deep bow. He bowed to Marquis Yao. He bowed to the cultivators of the three pces. And he bowed to the county capital. Deeply.

    At this point, it didn¡¯t matter if the emperor approved or not. Even if there was no official governor in Sea-Sealing County, Xu Qing¡¯s words would carry more weight than those of anyone else. There was no one in Sea-Sealing County with a higher standing than him.

    As the bright moon shone down, no one was paying any attention to Seventh Prince. After a long moment of silence, Seventh Princeughed softly. He could tell what was happening. At that moment, he made his decision to leave. He would take his army out of Sea-Sealing County and toward the former Holytide battlefields. Only there could he be in the limelight.

    Before leaving, he turned to look at Xu Qing. Xu Qing¡¯s return, and the ceremony that resulted, had fixed the image of Xu Qing deeply in Seventh Prince¡¯s mind.

    <i>In addition to Yao Tianyan, there¡¯s now a second person I¡¯m going to remember from Sea-Sealing County. My father will definitely reprimand me for letting a lone hero like this take center stage. But I can ept that.</i>

    With that, Seventh Prince made his departure.

    The Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup was over.

    The forces of Sea-Sealing County were mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of cultivators spread out to help purge the mutagen, save the mortals, and restore order. As orders streamed out from the county capital, the various prefectures of the county were rescued from cmity. Because of all the various karma involved, there was no attempt made to hide the truth about the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup. Official announcements were made so that everyone knew what happened.

    The curtain closed on the coronation ceremony for the new governor.

    ***

    <i>In the end of the tenth month of the year 2932 of the Dark War calendar, the tumult in Sea-Sealing County was revealed to be the work of the lieutenant governor, who was exposed as a member of Torchlight. His real name was Bai Xiaozhuo, and he had served as the governor of Sea-Sealing County in the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. By using a god magic, he was reincarnated, and then sowed chaos in Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    <i>The swordsage Xu Qing, who had received a 30,000-meter pir of light in the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart, stepped out from the crowd during the coronation ceremony. Ignoring the threat to his own life, as well as his own desires, he strongly opposed the coronation. Then he revealed the truth about the conspiracy, resolved the danger to Sea-Sealing County, and saved everyone from a massive catastrophe.</i>

    <i>The emperor was deeply moved.</i>

    <i>In that same month, the emperor issued five edicts. The first edict was a strong rebuke of Seventh Prince for his failure to manage the situation properly.</i>

    <i>The second edict put all members of Torchlight on the Most Wanted list. In all counties and prefectures, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, and all associated government departments, were to scour thends and kill anyone connected to Torchlight.</i>

    <i>The third edict named Yao Tianyan, direct descendant of Heavenly Marquis Yao, as the acting governor of Sea-Sealing County. It also named the righteous folk hero Zheng Kaiyi as the new lieutenant governor, and gave him the authority to rmend a new governor for the county, as long as that person was in the Void Returning level. If so, then Sea-Sealing County could appoint a new governor with no further formalities.</i> [1]

    <i>The fourth edict removed themanders-in-chief as the pce lords of the three pces, and instead promoted the existing deputy pce lords to those positions.</i>

    <i>The fifth edict bestowed swordsage Xu Qing with a golden identity medallion, a yellow robe, the right to attend the Imperial University, and grade-one battle credit</i>.[2]

    ***

    Those five imperial edicts were announced publicly everywhere.

    In a very short time, all human regions and counties were deeply shaken, and Xu Qing¡¯s name spread far and wide.

    There were two things in those edicts that were particrly important. The first was Zheng Kaiyi¡¯s mission. The second was Sea-Sealing County¡¯s right to appoint a new governor with no further formalities.

    Clearly, the emperor knew how important the situation was, but at the same time, couldn¡¯t change thew. That said, he wasn¡¯t going to ignore Sea-Sealing County¡¯s wishes. That was why he gave such an important mission to Master Seventh. After all, everyone in Sea-Sealing County now knew about the rtionship between Master Seventh and Xu Qing. As for the new governor being able to take office without further formalities, that essentially guaranteed that as long as Xu Qing reached Void Returning... then he would be the governor of Sea-Sealing County.

    Sea-Sealing County¡¯s moment of catastrophe had passed. Everything... went back to normal.

    But to Xu Qing, it was just a new starting point. It was time to set sail again....

    1. In case you forgot, Zheng Kaiyi is Master Seventh¡¯s name, as revealed in <u>chapter 113</u>. It was only mentioned a few times other than that, specifically in <u>115</u>, <u>116</u>, <u>122</u>, and <u>127</u>. ?

    2. Historically speaking, the ¡®Imperial University¡¯ was a real life school; it was the highest ranking educational establishment in certain dynasties in ancient China. ?

 Chapter 539: Do You Have a Daoist Partner, Xu Qing?

    <h4>Chapter 539: Do You Have a Daoist Partner, Xu Qing?</h4>

    It was the twelfth month of year 2932 of the Dark War calendar, and as the winter wind blew through the fields and the dry forests, it brought with it snowkes that danced like fine powder. It was as if the wind wished to cover over all of the scars left behind by that ancient foe who had so recently visited thends. When the wind reached the county capital, it swirled about, falling onto the streets, the rooftops, and the bustling people. It became a white mist that filled the world.

    The county capital had changed a lot during thest half a month.

    Just as the snowy wind sought to cover the scars in thends, the cultivators from the three pces joined forces with the Swordsage Courts of the various prefectures, along with all of the countless sects there, to rebuild Sea-Sealing County. Swordsage veterans traveled to the prefectures to join the rescue operations and help suppress any chaos being unleashed by nonhumans.

    Gradually, the effects of the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup began to fade. The recovery was truly underway.

    Marquis Yao and Master Seventh were both tied together because of Xu Qing. Though they didn¡¯t know each other at first, after starting to work together, they both earned each other¡¯s respect and admiration. Apparently, they had simr personalities in some ways, and thus, they got along well.

    The wind brought with it a new era to Sea-Sealing County.

    The deputy pce lords of the three pces were now the official pce lords. In the case of the Swordsage Pce, that was Li Yunshan. Honor Guard Sun was the highest-ranking of the honor guards, so he became the new deputy pce lord.

    Honor Guard Sima had another mission to handle.

    Xu Qing¡¯s life was vastly different than before. The rewards mentioned in the imperial edict hadn¡¯t yet been officially distributed, but thanks to his Master and Marquis Yao, he knew full well how significant they would be.

    The golden identity medallion brought with it the right of reprieve from the death penalty. As long as the bearer didn¡¯tmit treason, they could nullify the death penalty one time. The yellow robe was a gift directly from the imperial n, and provided a huge boost in status. The right to attend the Imperial University was also very significant. Ever since ancient times, the legacies of humankind were kept in the Imperial University, which meant that the ce could be a lot of help when breaking out of Spirit Trove and into Void Returning. Beyond that, whichever student ranked highest in the university¡¯s standardized testing would have a chance to be recruited by one of the holynds. If they passed the recruitment assessment, then they would be able to travel to the holynds. The holynds existed outside of the Revered Ancient maind, and were on a much higher level of existence.

    In the nearly 3,000 years of the Dark War calendar, not one single student had ever passed the recruitment assessment.

    As for the grade-one battle credit, that was a massive honor, and there were less than a hundred living people who had it.

    That said, all of those rewards were things Xu Qing could live without. His daily life hadn¡¯t changed very much, except for the fact that he no longer lived in his sword pavilion. He now resided in the old Secretariat Division in the Swordsage Pce.

    At the urging of Marquis Yao and Master Seventh, Xu Qing had once again reestablished the Secretariat Division. It was now a special department in Sea-Sealing County, and it oversaw, not just one specific pce, but the entire county. In other words, it surpassed the pces.

    As for Xu Qing, he continued to serve as the secretary-general.

    He worked for the Governor Marquis Yao, as well as Master Seventh, to consolidate all reports from throughout the county. And thus, he assisted them in county administration.

    There were a lot more members of the Secretariat Division than before. Now, the Secretariat Division didn¡¯t have offices just in the Swordsage Pce, but also in the other two pces. At Kong Xianglong¡¯s suggestion, Secretariat Division offices were set up in all the prefectures as well, and they would cooperate with the Swordsage Courts there to keep the prefectures safe.

    Kong Xianglong took responsibility for all that. He was now a member of the Secretariat Division as well, as was Sir Mountain-River, who had recovered from his injuries.

    The Captain was a bit jealous of all the authority Kong Xianglong had, so he pestered Xu Qing into starting a ck Ops Division. When it came to rmendations for who to lead the ck Ops Division, the Captain naturally put himself forward. Once he took over, he became obsessed with his duties. And before long, he organized a mission outside of the county capital.

    Before leaving, he sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder and shed a haughty grin. ¡°Little Junior Brother, the old man is the lieutenant governor now. In order to keep the family fortune safe, your Eldest Brother can¡¯t just sit around idly. I¡¯m going to make sure the ck Ops Division does its part!¡±

    Xu Qing noted how the Captain was trying not to look excited, and then thought back to a transfer order submitted by Li Shitao from the Administration Pce. He looked around.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± the Captain asked, stunned. Before, he had been looking very lofty and heroic, but seeing Xu Qing looking around caused him to feel a bit guilty.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for Li Shitao,¡± Xu Qing answered sincerely.

    ¡°Your sister-inw? She demanded toe with me, and though I¡¯m not exactly thrilled by that, I couldn¡¯t refuse her.¡± Clearing his throat, the Captain abandoned that conversation topic and threw his arm around Xu Qing¡¯s neck. ¡°Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, I¡¯m not taking this trip for the purposes of romance. I have two main goals. One rtes to the ck Ops Division. But the other... is that I¡¯m starting to n a <i>really</i> big job!

    ¡°After that job, you and I are going to be even more awesome than we are now. To prep for this job, I need to go out and start collecting intelligence reports about the Moonrite Region. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be back soon.¡± [1]

    ¡°Moonrite Region?¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes narrowing. Nowadays, he was very sensitive to the word ¡®moon.¡¯

    The Captain blinked a few times, waved his hand in a ¡®hushing¡¯ gesture, then lowered his voice.

    ¡°Just wait until I¡¯m back. I¡¯ll exin everything then. Suffice it to say, little Junior Brother, you need to be ready to travel. This time around, your Eldest Brother is going to take you to aplish something consummately amazing!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips, his eyes shing with that crazy light that Xu Qing was very familiar with. Humming a little tune, he led his people out of the county capital.

    Xu Qing was currently standing on a limestone tform next to the entrance of the Swordsage Pce, watching the Captain leave.

    ¡°Come on out,¡± he said coolly.

    Ning Yan poked his head out of the doorway of a nearby building, then chuckled self-deprecatingly as he hurried over to Xu Qing. Ning Yan feared the Captain, and had also been very worried about the Captain dragging him along. Knowing that hiding wouldn¡¯t do any good, he had repeatedly begged Xu Qing for help in that regard.

    ¡°Exalted Secretary-General, as it turns out, I really <i>can </i>serve as your secretary!¡±

    ¡°Did you track down Qing Qiu?¡± Xu Qing said, looking at him.

    ¡°Yes! That shrew¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze turned cold.

    Ning Yan gulped and quickly reworded things. ¡°The exalted Qing Qiu, who was previously affiliated with the Church of Departure in the Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, has left for the continent of South Phoenix....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Ning Yan then hurried off. After he was some distance away, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had to admit that Xu Qing had really be a lot more impressive in the past half month. As Ning Yan knew, that was the pressure he exuded as the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County gathered on him. Even though Xu Qing technically had experienced only a single tribtion, the destiny aura of the county made it so that no one could casually defy him.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing ignored Ning Yan and made his way toward the Swordsage Pce¡¯s Records Repository.

    During the past half month, they had been going there a lot. At his request, the Administration Pce and Justice Pce, as well as the Governor¡¯s Mansion, had been sending their ancient records there for him to study. There were a lot of records to go through.

    On the way to the Records Repository, a little white snake peeked out from his sleeve. Looking at him with big, innocent eyes, she curiously asked, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, who¡¯s Qing Qiu?¡±

    Xu Qing looked down and stroked the little snake¡¯s head. ¡°A childhood friend of mine,¡± he said gently, ¡°that I encountered againter in life. I¡¯ll introduce youter.¡±

    The little white snake seemed very pleased with the way he was petting her. Closing her eyes, sheughed, and it sounded like tiny bells tinkling.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡±

    Xu Qing alsoughed softly. Back in the Spirit Abyss, Ling¡¯er had been the one to save him right before he lost consciousness.

    She had not yet fully absorbed the Ancient Spirit destiny aura. It was a long and slow process. Therefore, she was currently in the form of a little white snake that stayed wrapped around his right wrist.

    When Xu Qing arrived at the Records Repository, he continued browsing through the records and information there. Hours passed. Days.

    Three dayster, Xu Qing sighed. He had found some useful information, but not very much. He was looking for information about lifemps, especially the way to thoroughly integrate them into oneself. He remembered the Captain once mentioning that many people had tried unsessfully to do that through the years.

    After poring through so many ancient records recently, Xu Qing hade to find that what the Captain said was entirely true. There were historical examples of people seeding. However, all of them were before the broken face of the god arrived.

    Long before Emperor Ancient Spirit conquered Revered Ancient, there was an Imperial Sovereign of antiquity who walked a path of defiance. Normally speaking, once a cultivator reached the Imperial Sovereign level, they could transform their blood and thus generate a lifemp. Later on, that Imperial Sovereign¡¯s descendants could be blessed by the good fortune of using that lifemp in Foundation Establishment. But the Imperial Sovereign in question defied that custom.

    Simr to Xu Qing, while he was in the Foundation Establishment level, he ughtered descendants of the Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns, took their lifemps, and made them his own. He nearly died in the process. But in the end, he managed to fully integrate those lifemps into his own blood, making them part of himself. Then, after many more near-death experiences, he rose to the highest heights and became an Imperial Sovereign.

    In the lieutenant governor¡¯s ancient records, that Imperial Sovereign was mentioned, but only in passing. After all, those events were in the ancient past. What was more, the only reason there was any mention of him at all was that he walked such a heaven-defying path. As for how true the story was, it was hard to tell.

    ¡°Light from beyond the heavens?¡± Xu Qing murmured. The story of that Imperial Sovereign mentioned those words. Apparently, the reason he could integrate the lifemps into his own body was because of some mysterious thing referred to as ¡®light from beyond the heavens.¡¯

    That light from beyond the heavens was only mentioned in this one story about this specific Imperial Sovereign. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been able to find any other clues about it in any of the other ancient records.

    A few days ago he¡¯d asked his Master about it. Not even Master Seventh had heard of such a light. Xu Qing also consulted Marquis Yao, who didn¡¯t know anything, but offered to ask a friend of his in the imperial capital about it. Feeling a bit disappointed, Xu Qing went back to the Secretariat Division. There, he worked on processing various documents being sent in from the prefectures. The next day, he got a voice message from Marquis Yao.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, I got a response to my inquiry. I also have something I want to give you. Do you mind stopping by Yao Mansion?¡±</i>

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing left the Swordsage Pce and hurried toward Yao Mansion.

    Along the way, he noted how busy everyone on the street seemed to be, and how all of them seemed a lot happier than before. None of them were suffering any poisonous effects from the pallid boluses they had consumed. That matter had been confirmed after Marquis Yao and Master Seventh summoned alchemy grandmasters from all over Sea-Sealing County. After careful inspection, they had dered the pallid boluses to be harmless.

    However, manymoners still harbored doubts. Therefore, Marquis Yao suggested to distribute a harmless elixir andbel it as an antidote to the pallid bolus. Before long, that antidote was being distributed free of charge to everyone in the county capital. They called it a ¡®pallid-diffusing pill.¡¯

    The reality was that the pill mostly just strengthened the physical body. But the result was much rejoicing on the part of the people. What was more, Xu Qing learned a valuable lesson from that about human nature. Whether in terms of the process or the result, everything worked out in the end.

    Clearing his mind, Xu Qing hurried to Yao Mansion.

    Once he arrived, he was received with all due solemnity. The Yao n cultivators who had been released from the Corrections Division had all learned that a few words from Xu Qing had spared them from a deadly catastrophe. Therefore, arge crowd of people from the Yao n were waiting respectfully for him at the front gate. Their eyes shone with gratitude as they sped hands and bowed deeply to him.

    ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Secretary-General Xu.¡±

    The crowd was made up mostly of elderly ones, women and children. Yao Yunhui and Yao Feihe were both there. [2]

    Yao Yunhui had aplicated facial expression. Before, she had been alluring and curvaceous. Now she seemed haggard and had clearly lost a lot of weight. That said, she was still very attractive. In fact, to some people, she might seem weaker than before, and thus more deserving of tenderness.

    Yao Feihe, meanwhile, wore the same formal court attire she usually wore. However, the disaster which had befallen her n, and especially being imprisoned, had left her much thinner, even a bit sallow. When Xu Qing first met her, she had seemed very graceful and poised. Now she seemed a lot more down-to-earth.

    When she met Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, she gave a curtseying bow, as did Yao Yunhui.

    Xu Qing hurried forward and physically lifted them up from their bowing. He nced at Yao Yunhui and those around her, then focused on Yao Feihe.

    ¡°Marquis Yao is my Senior,¡± he said. ¡°Please,dies, there¡¯s no need for this formality.¡±

    ¡°Young Sir Xu,¡± Yao Feihe said softly, ¡°your kindness is something our Yao n will never forget.¡± As the surrounding members of the crowd gave way, she and Yao Yunhui led Xu Qing into Yao Mansion. Yao Feihe walked next to Xu Qing. Yao Yunhui trailed behind them. The fragrant aroma of perfume filled the air, which was something Xu Qing wasn¡¯t used to. The little white snake on his wrist peeked curiously out of his sleeve.

    Eventually, they reached the Yao n¡¯s primary reception hall.

    Marquis Yao was there waiting, a smile on his face.

    ¡°Greetings, Governor,¡± Xu Qing said, bowing respectfully.

    Marquis Yao smiled and indicated for Xu Qing to take a seat. Instead of taking the seat of honor, Marquis Yao sat to the side. Seeing that, Xu Qing felt even more respect than before, and also chose a seat to the side. [3]

    Yao Feihe and Yao Yunhui poured tea for them.

    The one serving Xu Qing¡¯s tea was Yao Yunhui. As she poured the steaming tea from the pot, she looked at Xu Qing out of the corner of her eye, and she suddenly looked a bit distracted. The events of the past shed through her mind. She almost couldn¡¯t believe that the new swordsage from less than two years ago had somehow risen to such incredible heights. In her distraction, she overfilled the cup, and as the tea spilled onto the table, Xu Qing turned to look at her. Only then did Yao Yunhui react. She quickly took a few steps back.

    Yao Feihe seemed simrly distracted. However her reasons for distraction were different from those of Yao Yunhui, but were no less profound. She was thinking about the first time she¡¯d met Xu Qing, back when her close friend Plumdark introduced him. Back then, she didn¡¯t pay much attention to him, as he was nothing more than a puny little swordsage. Maybe he did have a 30,000-meter pir of light from the Grand Emperor, but he was far from being grown up.

    Meanwhile she was the younger sister of Marquis Yao, who even had a small role to y in the imperial capital. Back then, the civil way she conversed with Xu Qing was for the sake of Plumdark. The reality was that Yao Feihe didn¡¯t want Plumdark to ce limitations on her own future. Yao Feihe felt like a mighty tree standing next to Plumdark, there to make sure no one did anything to besmirch her honor.

    But after that, things changed rapidly, and everything was turned upside down. The next thing she knew, Xu Qing was acknowledged by the people of Sea-Sealing County as their next official governor. Because of him, her brother¡¯s name was cleared, and she and her entire n were spared a deadly cmity. Thinking back now to that time when she first met Xu Qing, she realized that he was actually the mighty tree. She just hadn¡¯t realized it at the time.

    As a result, she couldn¡¯t help but be a bit distracted. Because of her distraction and mixed emotions, she suddenly found herself feeling a bit envious of Plumdark.

    Marquis Yao noted the odd expressions on the faces of his sister and daughter. He was a bit surprised. He looked at Xu Qing, then his daughter, and then his sister. Finally, he cleared his throat.

    Yao Yunhui and Yao Feihe quickly bowed their heads and left the reception hall.

    Soon, Marquis Yao and Xu Qing were alone.

    Marquis Yao looked at Xu Qing. Xu Qing looked back at him, his expression the same as always.

    The marquis spoke first. ¡°Xu Qing, do you have a daoist partner yet?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s jaw nearly dropped. Before he could say anything, the white snake poked her head out of his sleeve and red at Marquis Yao.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo!¡±

    Marquis Yao nced at the snake, smiled, and then dropped the subject. Waving his hand, he took out a blood-coloredmp shaped like a wing. He put it down in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Thismp is for you.¡±

    1. In Chinese, the character I¡¯m tranting as ¡®rite¡¯ more specifically means ¡®to offer sacrifice (to).¡¯ Think of it as a rite of sacrifice. For pithiness sake, I¡¯m just going to use ¡®rite.¡¯ There is some significance to that, which will be revealedter. In any event, going forward, just keep in mind that the name of the region inherently contains the idea of sacrificial offerings. ?

    2. By quick way of reminder, Yao Yunhui is Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother, who yed a role in the story starting in <u>chapter 393</u> (though she appeared briefly before then). She is Marquis Yao¡¯s daughter. Yao Feihe is her aunt, is the sister of Marquis Yao, and is the friend of Plumdark. Yao Feihe was introduced in <u>chapter 428</u> and appeared a few times after that in various contexts. ?

    3. Given the context of the scene, it seems likely that Marquis Yao and Xu Qing are sitting at a circr table. The seat of honor would be the seat facing away from the front door. The ¡°side seats¡± would be any of the other seats, although there are also protocols for who sits in those seats depending on the situation. That¡¯s beside the point. What¡¯s relevant here is that neither Marquis Yao or Xu Qing sit in the seat of honor, and thus both of them are refraining from putting themselves in the position of superiority. The Marquis has the right to do so, since he is the acting governor. And no one would me Xu Qing for doing so, since he is essentially the future governor who has an even more proper ¡°right¡± to im superiority. The fact that both of them choose the more humble route is telling. ?

 Chapter 540: Last Nightâ€™s Wind Brings a Starry Night Sky (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 540: Last Night¡¯s Wind Brings a Starry Night Sky (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    He recognized thismp. It was a hellspirit bloodwingmp! Back when he was in Holytide territory in disguise as a Nightshade, he had acquired one of thesemps, and currently had it inside of him as one of his dao souls. However, themp he currently had was the left wing, which provided a boost to speed. In front of him now was the right wing.

    Many thoughts were running through his mind as he looked up at Marquis Yao.

    Marquis Yao looked back at him with a meaningful expression. Smiling, he lifted his cup and took a sip of tea. He didn¡¯t speak.

    Xu Qing likewise didn¡¯t say anything. He knew that in Sea-Sealing County, both the governor and the pce lords were allplicated people. Considering that Marquis Yao was one of that group of five people who were considered the most powerful in Sea-Sealing County, he was just the same.

    All in all, not just anyone could befriend so many nonhumans, and earn their trust. Nor could many people keep the truth about themselves hidden for so long, only to reveal it right at the perfect time. Even more telling was that, in the end, he had identified all members of his n who truly preferred nonhumans over humans, and he had purged them with blood.

    Whether it was in terms of his thinking ability or his methods, Marquis Yao was among the best of the best. It was no coincidence that he was giving Xu Qing this specificmp.

    <i>Back during the battle at the altar, I revealed my lifemp umbres. I guess that was a bit of a slip-up</i>.... Of course, it wasn¡¯t as if he¡¯d had much choice in the heat of the moment.

    Xu Qing was right: Marquis Yao had noted his lifemp umbres, then used a secret identity of his among the Holytides, plus other connections, to secure the matchingmp.

    Upon seeing Xu Qing¡¯s thoughtful expression, Marquis Yao smiled. He could only hope that this lesson would help Xu Qing to be a bit more thoughtful in the future, and thus grow up a bit faster, at least in terms of thinking ability. The lesson had been emphasized enough, so Marquis Yao put down his cup of tea.

    ¡°Although it might not be obvious to someone paying attention to the war, the Holytides actually suffered losses as significant as our own. For example, most of the small nations around the Ten Entrails Tree were destroyed. And many of their ck Guard cultivators died.¡±

    Having reached this point, Marquis Yao stopped talking for a moment and looked Xu Qing in the eyes.

    ¡°Some died before. Some died in thest half a month. During the transfer of the Heavengale Imperial Pce, many records were lost. Emperor Heavengale is very apologetic about it.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly.

    ¡°Xu Qing, given your current status, you have the right to know a few things. For years, the governor, myself, and Brother Liangxiu were working on aplicated n to earn the trust of the Holytides. My job was to deal primarily with Emperor Heavengale, to convince him to desert the Holytides and rejoin humankind!¡±

    Marquis Yao¡¯s words caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to start pounding. Considering that the Holytides on the northern front had been the forces of Emperor Heavengale and Emperor Moonmist, it exined how Marquis Yao had managed to somehow avoid getting killed.

    ¡°I got about eighty percent of the way to achieving my goal. If I¡¯d had ten more years, I could have seeded.... Unfortunately, things changed. In the fighting on the northern front, Emperor Moonmist was such a menacing force that we even suspected he had human traitors working for him....¡± Marquis Yao¡¯s eyes turned cold. ¡°The deaths of Brother Hengxin and Brother Rongyu are not as simple as they seem. When Emperor Heavengale held his hand and allowed me to escape, Seventh Prince arrived and took control. Given that he showed up out of nowhere to save me, I had my suspicions about what was going on. But I had no choice other than to start working for him.¡±

    Xu Qing picked up his cup and looked at the tea swirling inside.

    Marquis Yao kept talking. ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m telling you all of this so that you can hopefully see the bigger picture. Right now, you¡¯re more than just a swordsage.

    ¡°You have status. But you¡¯re also like a game piece on the board. What assets you have, you need to use. Based on what I¡¯ve heard, Emperor Heavengale is currently representing their ancestral emperor in the negotiations with Seventh Prince. One of the things they¡¯re haggling over are territory rights.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to be taking over several counties. Plus, we need to expand Sea-Sealing County....

    ¡°On the surface, the Holytides have cut their ties to the Nightshades. But given how long I¡¯ve dealt with them, and everything I¡¯vee to learn about how Holytides think and operate, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any way they¡¯ll really iste themselves in that way. They¡¯re definitely going to keep some secret connections to the Nightshades.

    ¡°For example, in the negotiation party from the Kingdom of Heavengale are members of their nobility, in other words, people in the top two levels of their caste hierarchy. From what I¡¯ve heard, one of them received a caste promotion from a Nightshade godchild.¡±

    Marquis Yao¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at Xu Qing. It was very rare for him to speak so openly with other people.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained the same as ever. Inside he was thinking that, after everything that had happened, he could trust Marquis Yao. What was more, there didn¡¯t seem any reason to hide things from him. After some more thought, Xu Qing put down his tea cup, took out a jade slip, released some of his violet moon aura, then handed the jade slip to Marquis Yao.

    ¡°Mu Ye.¡± [1]

    Marquis Yao took the jade slip and studied it for a short time.

    ¡°Xu Qing, although I have a general idea of what you aplished as the ¡®Nightshade godchild,¡¯ there are obviously a lot of details I don¡¯t understand. Do you think you can trust this Mu Ye?¡±

    ¡°I can kill him with a thought,¡± Xu Qing replied softly.

    Marquis Yao smiled and nodded. Next, he went on to exin to Xu Qing what he had learned about the ¡®light from beyond the heavens.¡¯

    ¡°As the name implies, this type of lightes from beyond the Revered Ancient maind. More specifically, they¡¯re a mysterious type of light beam that exists in the void. No one knows where theye from, and they¡¯re extremely rare. It¡¯s highly umon for them to reach Revered Ancient, and it¡¯s very hard to capture and preserve them.

    ¡°At least, that was the situation before the broken face of the god arrived. After the face arrived, they virtually disappeared. They can indeed be used to integrate lifemps, but the cost is immense. You have to spend some of your own life force.¡±

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly. It sounded like getting light from beyond the heavens would be <i>as hard as fishing a needle from the sea</i>. In fact, it seemed almost impossible. After chatting for a bit longer, Xu Qing bid farewell to Marquis Yao. By the time he left Yao Mansion, it was evening.

    Once out in the open, he heard Ling¡¯er¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, you need to be careful around those two female cultivators! There was something very strange about the way they were looking at you. Especially the one who spilled the tea. There¡¯s something very fishy about her. You absolutely, positively have to be careful, Big Bro Xu Qing. I fear they might be trying to hurt you!¡±

    Ling¡¯er seemed very sincere.

    In response, Xu Qing thought back to the situation as a whole. Considering what happened with Zhang Siyun, it seemed entirely likely that Yao Yunhui might be plotting against him. He nodded. In contrast, he wasn¡¯t sure what to make of Yao Feihe. However, he decided to keep an eye on the situation.

    Ling¡¯er was very pleased that Xu Qing seemed to agree with her. She felt very useful at being able to help him keep an eye out for dangers. Thus, she flew out from Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve and coiled up on his shoulder next to his ear.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she whispered, ¡°I can actually be very useful. Once I can take human form again, which will be soon, I can even do housework! Oh, right. I can sing too! You see, I¡¯m a very quick learner, and some of my Wood Spirit friends taught me. I¡¯m pretty good! Can I sing a song for you?¡±

    Ling¡¯er seemed so happy that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but smile and nod.

    Ling¡¯er started to sing in a voice like a misty rain, which reached all the way to Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    <i>¡°The moonlight, diffuse.</i>

    <i>"Sunlight on the trellised rail, abstruse;</i>

    <i>"Rain falls, light and loose;</i>

    <i>"Heartbreak ebbs and flows, but never is reduced.</i>

    <i>"Say not you¡¯ll join me in your next life, just say we¡¯re fated to meet again like before....</i>

    <i>"I have no regrets in this life, I just hope the flowers will bloom for you evermore.</i>

    <i>"In the next life, I¡¯ll look back, smile, and wait millions of years for the fated encore....¡±</i>

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s young, tender voice seemed to flow right to Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    As the sun slowly sank toward the horizon, he walked the streets of the capital, keeping his aura concealed, and hiding any trace of his passage. He passed the people, and he passed the mor, and he felt calm. As the wind blew past him, he listened to the song, and his hair drifted along with the lyrics.

    When the red light of sunset arrived, the little white snake almost looked like a young woman, her face flushed as she softly sang.

    ***

    Some distance away in the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion, Master Seventh stood in a building looking down at the street. His gaze fell on Xu Qing, and he smiled. Marquis Yao stepped out of thin air to join him. They stood together.

    Master Seventh sighed. ¡°How wonderful to be young.¡±

    Marquis Yaoughed softly. ¡°Couldn¡¯t have said it better myself. How nice to be young.¡±

    ¡°Exactly.¡± Master Seventh looked at the marquis. ¡°Now, considering that my apprentice saved your n and cleared your name, you have to keep a close watch over him and keep him safe. If you don¡¯t... if your heart turns cold... then no one will step out to say they object to what happens.¡±

    ¡°You still don¡¯t trust me, do you?¡± Marquis Yao asked quietly.

    A very meaningful look appeared in Master Seventh¡¯s eyes. ¡°Something urred to me recently. When everything happened the other day... if I hadn¡¯t said something, would you have stepped in?¡±

    Marquis Yao looked at Xu Qing off in the distance, and took a moment to think seriously about the question. He even visualized the situation that yed out half a month ago.

    ¡°I probably would have.¡±

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t respond for a while. After looking at the sunset for a time, he said, ¡°How did the discussion go with him?¡±

    ¡°He gave me a name. I¡¯ll have my people connect with this person, and we can use him to keep Seventh Prince in check. The three prefectures we lost haven¡¯t been returned yet. Sea-Sealing County isn¡¯t strong enough to be a threat to anyone right now.¡± Marquis Yao turned to look at Master Seventh. ¡°Any progress with the puppet corpses of Brother Hengxin and Brother Rongyu?¡±

    Master Seventh shook his head. ¡°They¡¯re the next generation of the experimental god body. I haven¡¯t even been able to restart them yet. But I have some ideas. I¡¯ll be heading back to Seven Blood Eyes soon to retrieve my other research material. In fact, I n to move Seven Blood Eyes here to the county capital.¡±

    Marquis Yao nodded. He didn¡¯t have any issues with Seven Blood Eyes being moved to the capital. Having no further questions, he turned and left.

    After Marquis Yao was gone, Master Seventh looked down at his hands. Visible on his palm was a magical symbol formed from god vitality. It was a unique little thing he had been researching, and it had one purpose. It detected lies. Normally speaking, gods were supposed to be omniscient and omnipotent. Although that was only true rtively speaking, what it did mean was that gods were much more easily able to tell the difference between what was true and what wasn¡¯t.

    As Master Seventh looked at the symbol, it flickered. He nodded.

    <i>He was beingpletely sincere, but at the same time, not totally honest. Well, people¡¯s hearts can change. Since Sea-Sealing County is supposed to belong to Fourth Sib... it will be his.</i>

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes shone as he thought for a moment, then took out a jade slip to send a voice message to Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Fourth Sib, in three days I¡¯m leaving the county capital. I¡¯m taking a trip back to Seven Blood Eyes. It¡¯s been a while since you¡¯ve been back. Want toe along?¡±</i>

    1. We learned Mu Ye¡¯s name in <u>chapter 445</u>, but he was originally introduced in <u>441</u>. In <u>458</u>, we learned he had be a godservant. ?

 Chapter 540: Last Nightâ€™s Wind Brings a Starry Night Sky (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 540: Last Night¡¯s Wind Brings a Starry Night Sky (part 2)</h4>

    <i>¡°Pockets lined with gold, I return home; I walk the night d in brocade silk....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing had just arrived back at the Swordsage Pce, and was immersed in Ling¡¯er¡¯s singing. Eventually, he noticed his jade slip vibrating, and he listened to his Master¡¯s message.

    Looking at the little white snake, he asked, ¡°Ling¡¯er, do you want to go back to Seven Blood Eyes?¡±

    ¡°Sure!¡± she replied happily. ¡°I¡¯m still part of the Seven Blood Eyes Intelligence Division, after all!¡±

    After seeing how happy that made Ling¡¯er, Xu Qing thought back to all the people he knew in Seven Blood Eyes and realized he really did want to take a trip back. He needed to tend to Master Sixth¡¯s gravestone. It had also been a long time since he paid a visit to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave, or Grandmaster Bai¡¯s. Beyond that, there was another thing Xu Qing needed to do.

    Taking out his jade slip, he replied to his Master. <i>¡°Master, do you think we could swing by the Smokewights on the way back? I have a little debt to settle with them.¡±</i>

    From the time he was young, Xu Qing had always been the type of person to hold a grudge.

    ***

    Three dayster, a Seven Blood Eyes dreadnaught rose into the sky over the county capital. It was pitch ck, had ornamental rocks and buildings on its back, and could carry a hundred thousand cultivators.

    Master Seventh stood atop the highest building on the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure, and next to him was Xu Qing. Behind them were a thousand cultivators, all of them swordsages and veterans of the war. They were being led by Honor Guard Sima, as ordered by Pce Lord Li Yunshan and Marquis Yao. This group was Xu Qing¡¯s guard division while he traveled through Sea-Sealing County.

    Daoist Sima wasn¡¯t just an honor guard now. He had another identity. He was Xu Qing¡¯s dao protector. It was his responsibility to keep Xu Qing safe in all circumstances.

    In addition to the Dreadnaught, there was another huge entity up in the sky, hardly visible in the clouds.

    Qingqin.

    He hadn¡¯t nned toe along, but after Xu Qing indicated he would have a good meal along the way, he¡¯d excitedly agreed. Qingqin seemed a bit impatient, and kept letting loose exasperated caws. The clouds vibrated in response, and the cries echoed out so clearly that all mortals and cultivators could hear them.

    As everyone in the county capital looked on, Xu Qing, Daoist Sima, and the rest of the thousand cultivators sped hands and bowed. Then the dreadnaught rumbled to life and shot over the horizon. As it sped over thends of Sea-Sealing County, it left behind a streak of light and expanding ripples in the air. Qingqin gave it added speed, making it streak along like a lightning bolt. In less than a day, it passed over the border of the county capital, and soon reached a boundless desert.

    As soon as they entered the desert, the majestic power of the dreadnaughtbined with Qingqin¡¯s hunger became a somber and deste aura that blurred the sky. The intense heat of the desert instantly lessened as a result.

    Killing intent rippled out from Qingqin and the dreadnaught.

    That was even more the case considering that Daoist Sima and the other veteran swordsages had learned along the way that their first stop was a branch division of the Smokewights.

    These swordsages had experienced the baptism of war. They had climbed mountains of corpses and swam through seas of blood, and thus viewed ughter and death differently than before. Though they weren¡¯tpletely indifferent to such things, it took more than their mere mention to move them. That level of increased calm just made their somber and deste aura even more striking.

    As the dreadnaught sped along, the denizens of the desert trembled in fear. Not even the lightscrags dared toe out into the open.

    The Smokewights in this location weren¡¯t the only representatives of their species. Because Smokewights were made of smoke, they could be found in any location where there was smoke. However, because of the environment, there were a lot of Smokewights in this particr branch location.

    After the defeat of the lieutenant governor, Xu Qing had exined to Marquis Yao how the Smokewights were connected to Torchlight. Thus, this branch had already been locked down during the half-month cleanup operation in the county.

    The Smokewights had done their best to get back into the good graces of the humans. But after the suffering brought by the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup, humans needed an outlet for their pent-up emotions. That, coupled with the fact that Torchlight aplices were now on the most wanted list, ensured that the Smokewights weren¡¯t allowed to simply escape.

    All of the Smokewight branch locations had been locked down, and few individuals managed to escape.

    However, there was one specific branch location that Xu Qing had isted to handle himself. This was the ce he had visited on his trip back from Ten Entrails Tree. During that extremely critical time, he had requested use of their teleportation portal, only to have them intentionally dy him. He had not forgotten how he very respectfully waited to use the portal, only to be treated with malice. Back then, the Smokewights had just looked at him with coldness in their eyes.

    Because they dyed him, Xu Qing ended up running into Chu Tianqun and being forced into a battle to the death in a minor world fragment that they controlled. Had it not been for Ling¡¯er, Xu Qing would have died in that fight. What was more, after he came out victorious, he remembered a Smokewight out in the desert, watching him. His grudge with the Smokewights had existed ever since then. [1]

    As the dreadnaught screamed through the desert, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice. Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s emotional state, Qingqin let loose ear-piercing cries.

    Half a dayter, they reached the Smokewight city that Xu Qing remembered so well. From a distance, it looked illusory, as if it were smoke with no physical structures in it. Of course, Smokewights existed in a state of smoke to begin with. When it came to openbat, they usually used puppets, which they normally stored in their minor worlds. However, part of the sanctions imposed by the humans involved the destruction of their minor worlds and the sealing of all their cities. Considering how powerful humans were in the county, the Smokewights hadn¡¯t been able to fight back at all.

    That was when Xu Qing had requested that this particr city be left alone. And thus, they had simmered in anxiety until this point. Now, Xu Qing''s arrival signaled their imminent destruction.

    Qingqin led the charge with an excited caw. Magenta light red, smashing through all barriers. Then three heads shot forth and began absorbing everything. Anguished howls rang out as smoke streamed into Qingqin¡¯s mouths. He let loose an exuberant cry.

    Next, Daoist Sima gave orders to the swordsages, and a thousand beams of light shot into the Smokewight forces.

    Xu Qing stood on the dreadnaught, watching coldly. He did not have a heart that overflowed with pity. As soon as the Smokewights began colluding with Torchlight, their fate had been sealed. It didn¡¯t matter if it was because they had been paid off, or because they were hoping to gain from the rtionship in the future. The Smokewights had chosen to help Torchlight fight against humankind. From that point, they should have been prepared to pay for any failure with their own blood. It was a brutal world in which people lived by the maxim ¡®an eye for an eye.¡¯

    The extermination didn¡¯t take long. After all, this was only one branch of therger species. Considering the extreme level of force at y, there was no way they could fight back. Four hourster, the smoke cleared, and there was nothing left of the Smokewight city.

    Qingqin didn¡¯t seem sated, and gave Xu Qing a caw that seemed to be a request for more food.... Xu Qing considered it, then nodded. Enlivened, Qingqin flew off over the horizon. The dreadnaught followed.

    On the way to the teleportation portal, Xu Qing took a bamboo slip out of his bag of holding and scratched the Smokewights off the list.

    Off to the side, Master Seventh looked at the bamboo slip and noticed ¡®Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan¡¯ carved at the top of the list. He also noted how many names had been crossed off, and then his eyes stopped at one particr name that hadn¡¯t been crossed off.

    ¡®The Captain.¡¯ Behind it were a host of question marks, many of which were crossed out.

    Master Seventh <i>wasn¡¯t sure whether tough or cry</i>. Pointing at the Captain¡¯s name, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s that all about?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s name, reached up to cross it off, then paused. ¡°Crossing a name off means that person is dead, so... it would be unlucky to cross this one off.¡± He put the bamboo slip away. Then he took a look at his iron skewer. The skewer vibrated in a show of respect.

    ¡°Master, what happened to that fish bone?¡± Xu Qing felt like Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow had fallen so far behind him in battle prowess that it seemed like a good idea to rece them.

    The patriarch could sense what Xu Qing was thinking. The skewer vibrated more strongly. At the same time, the shadow rippled and emanated emotional fluctuations of fear and pleading. Xu Qing ignored them.

    Ling¡¯er could sense what was going on, and looked curiously at the shadow. The shadow shivered. Changing strategies, it sent fawning fluctuations toward Ling¡¯er.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh smiled. He had long since be aware of all the various assets possessed by his apprentice. And ever since finding out Xu Qing had the finger of a god, he generally wouldn¡¯t be surprised by anything.

    ¡°I broke the fish bone into three parts, and I¡¯m still ensorcelling them. I¡¯d say it¡¯ll take another half month before it¡¯s done. What a pity we lost the three fish bones Bai Xiaozhuo had.¡±

    Of course, Master Seventh had long since inquired about the details of what happened after Xu Qing and Bai Xiaozhuo teleported off the altar, and Xu Qing had exined everything in detail.

    And thus, the shadow continued to cozy up to Ling¡¯er, even going so far as to take a variety of shapes to amuse her. As Ling¡¯erughed contentedly, the dreadnaught flew over the desert and eventually reached the teleportation portal leading toward Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Two dayster, Xu Qing caught sight of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture¡¯s northern tundra.

    The wind here was colder than in the county capital. There were many more snowkes, drifting down from the sky, covering thends and heavily reducing visibility.

    However, there were several thousand people standing in the snowy wind. As the dreadnaught got closer, those people became clearly visible. In front of them was the grand elder of the Swordsage Court. Expression somber, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Lieutenant Governor.¡±

    The thousands of people behind him also bowed. Etiquette had to be followed.

    Master Seventh was no longer the sect leader of Seven Blood Eyes, he was the lieutenant governor.

    There weren¡¯t just swordsages in the crowd, there were also many sect cultivators. They had been organized into two groups. One group wore ck daoist robes embroidered with blood-red threads. They were from the Church of Departure. The other group wore golden daoist robes that seemed extremely luxurious, and pulsed with immortal energy. They were from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. It didn¡¯t matter if the cultivators¡¯ daoist robes pulsed with death and blood, or refinement that surpassed mortality, they all had extremely respectful expressions on their faces.

    Master Seventh¡¯s facial expression remained the same as ever, and he didn¡¯t seem moved at all by the deference shown to him. He seemed like a person who, after many years of life, wasn¡¯t concerned about putting on an ostentatious disy upon returning home from afar.

    Xu Qing noted his Master¡¯s reaction, and felt even more admiration than before. He also felt that he could be more like his Master in that regard.

    ¡°Master, Little Junior Brother....¡± someone called from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society forces. Then a person emerged wearing a Seven Blood Eyes daoist robe. He had a tall hat with the character ¡®forbidden¡¯ on it, was unusually thin, and had dark circles under his eyes.

    Xu Qing recognized him immediately. It was Third Elder Brother. However, his physical appearance caused Xu Qing to inhale sharply. He was skinnier than before, to the point of being gaunt. It seemed like all the energy had been sucked out of him, leaving him as little more than a husk. What was more, Third Elder Brother was nked by... eight young women, all of whom were cradling infants. [2]

    Master Seventh, his face expressionless, calmly said, ¡°This is just too much!¡±

    From the coldness In Master Seventh¡¯s voice, Xu Qing could tell that he was really angry.

    1. The Smokewights dyed him in <u>chapter 459</u>. He saw a Smokewight watching him in the desert in <u>chapter 466</u>. ?

    2. Third Elder Brother, who was originally known as the third highness, first appeared in <u>chapter 62</u>. Some key chapters about him include <u>98</u>, <u>236</u>, <u>241</u>, and <u>270</u>. ?

 Chapter 541: Flowers in the Eyes, Stars in the Heart (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 541: Flowers in the Eyes, Stars in the Heart (part 1)</h4>

    As the cultivators from the county capital looked on with strange expressions, Third Elder Brother hurried out of the crowd, leaped up onto the dreadnaught, and kowtowed in front of Master Seventh.

    ¡°Master, it¡¯s been years since you said it would be difficult for me to ovee the challenge of passion. Thus, I bound my hair with a hat that has the character ¡®forbidden¡¯ on it. As of today, my heart has been fully assessed. I¡¯ve ovee the challenge of love. Therefore, I earnestly request that you let me back into your tutge.¡±

    Third Elder Brother¡¯s voice was soft and reserved. After he finished speaking, he shed a smile in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. That said, his current demeanor, including his rather forced smile, made him seem a lot less impressive than in the past.

    Meanwhile, the eight female disciples from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society held their children as they followed Third Elder Brother. However, when they noticed the res of the swordsages, they stopped short of boarding the dreadnaught.

    ¡°Eight? That¡¯s it?¡± Master Seventh said coolly. ¡°When you have ny-nine, then you¡¯ll be ready to return to me.¡±

    Master Seventh flicked his sleeve, sending Third Elder Brother tumbling off of the dreadnaught.

    Stopping in midair, Third Elder Brother sighed and, as everyone watched, once again kowtowed in the direction of the dreadnaught.

    Then, Master Seventh invited the Swordsage Court grand elder, plus the patriarchs from the Church of Departure and the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, to join him in the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure. There, they apprised Master Seventh of the various intelligence reports from their sects. The Swordsage Court grand elder also provided an update on the recovery work going on in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Xu Qing stood by, asionally looking at Third Elder Brother off in the distance.

    Third Elder Brother remained in a kowtow. It was the same with his daoist partners.

    The two sect patriarchs who were giving their reports to Master Seventh asionally nced at Xu Qing out of the corners of their eyes. Both of them were aware of Xu Qing¡¯s status in Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor, as of now, the recovery and rebuilding in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is about seventy percentplete. Everything should be done within half a month. Furthermore, the orders you gave regarding the remaining half of the experimental god body have been carried out.¡±

    The grand elder from the Swordsage Court sped hands and bowed, then looked at Xu Qing and smiled.

    Xu Qing looked back respectfully. He had always felt a lot of admiration for this grand elder.

    After another brief interchange with Master Seventh, the Swordsage Court grand elder and patriarch from the Church of Departure respectfully left.

    The patriarch from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, who was the Junior Brother of Daoist Sima, hesitated briefly. Then he nced at his Elder Brother. Daoist Sima looked back with no change in facial expression. Finally, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society patriarch smiled wryly and sped hands to Master Seventh.

    ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor, about Third Highness, he¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your business,¡± Master Seventh said coolly. ¡°I know I shed with your Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society in the past, but you never told me that hemitted such a grave error. It¡¯s only natural for you to punish him.

    ¡°I might be the lieutenant governor now, but I can¡¯t <i>practice favoritism and engage in cronyism</i>. Nor can I use my position to put pressure on others. Since my Third Sib made such a mistake, I¡¯d say punishing him with eight daoist partners isn¡¯t enough. Go for ny-nine! That should teach him a lesson.¡±

    The patriarch chuckled bitterly in his heart. He knew that his previous actions had aroused the displeasure of Master Seventh. That was why he¡¯d had no choice but to bring Third Highness along. After all, Third Highness¡¯s Master was now the lieutenant governor; if the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society got too stubborn, they would be courting disaster. All he could do was feed as many replenishing tonics as possible to Third Highness. However, that didn¡¯t do much considering Third Highness had been almostpletely drained out. Now, all he could do was grit his teeth and keep trying.

    ¡°Exalted Lieutenant Governor, our Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society doesn¡¯t have enough holy daughters to¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s your problem. Remember, Third Sib¡¯s punishment can only be handled by holy daughters with the proper position and bloodline. Now, see yourself out.¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless.

    The patriarch seemed like he had more to say, but Master Seventh¡¯s eyes were extremely cold, so he just sighed inwardly with regret. He almost couldn¡¯t believe this was happening. How could he have ever guessed that, seemingly overnight, the sect leader of some random little sect that he¡¯d never cared about would suddenly be the lieutenant governor. What was more, he had been keeping his cultivation base hidden so deeply no one knew how strong he really was. The patriarch knew he had to figure out a way to resolve the situation, otherwise the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society¡¯s future in Sea-Sealing County would be uncertain.

    The patriarch felt more anxious than ever, but he had no choice but to leave. As he passed by, his Elder Brother Daoist Sima said, ¡°Don¡¯t covet what belongs to others. Repay what needs to be repaid.¡±

    The patriarch seemed to grow a lot older as he left the dreadnaught.

    In a balcony on the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure, Master Seventh stood, saying nothing as they flew in the direction of the Eight Sect Coalition.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing hesitantly said, ¡°Master, about Third Elder Brother....¡±

    ¡°Forget about him!¡± Master Seventh said, snorting coldly. ¡°Third Sib has always been a very deep thinker. However, all he cares about is profit. He¡¯s extremely patient, but at the same time, unpredictable.

    ¡°Why do you think he went and provoked the holy daughters of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society? Why do you think he made it seem like he was fleeing from marriage? He obviously knew the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society was aware of his true identity, and that they would track him down and apprehend him.

    ¡°He did everything specifically so the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society would apprehend him in the way he wanted.¡±

    Although Xu Qing was the one who had spoken up, Master Seventh was obviously speaking to Daoist Sima as well.

    Daoist Sima didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing stood there thoughtfully. His Master¡¯s words had touched on some very important information. And that was... Third Elder Brother¡¯s true identity.

    Seeing Xu Qing puzzling over that, Master Seventh continued speaking.

    ¡°Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was never very special until ten thousand years ago when the Ghost Emperor passed away into meditation here. As the body nourished thends of this prefecture, the three spiritual souls became the Three Spirits, and the seven physical souls became the Seven Fiends. The Ghost Emperor¡¯s blood fed all living beings, and his core teachings and doctrines allowed numerous sects to rise to prominence. That¡¯s why Emperor-Receiving Prefecture changed.

    ¡°The Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society possesses more of those core teachings and doctrines than anyone else, especially the will domain. They, a once tiny sect, eventually became the number one organization in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    ¡°The reason is that the year the Ghost Emperor passed away into meditation, a child was born into the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He was born out of a convergence of the Ghost Emperor¡¯s blood, and he led the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society in their rise to prominence. Though he eventually perished, he left behind children.

    ¡°Members of that bloodline were considered direct descendants of the Ghost Emperor, and each generation served as leaders in the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. However, over time, the bloodline became diluted, and eventually, those people lost their position of prominence. That said, members with strong blood would asionally appear. Your Third Elder Brother is one such person. He has the strongest blood of the Ghost Emperor in this generation.

    ¡°Thirty years ago when Third Elder Brother was born, and they realized how strong his blood was, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society tried to refine him into a treasure. That was when he was only a teenager. His allies managed to sneak him out, andter, he became my apprentice.

    ¡°That said, he always had a desire to get revenge for what happened. And thus, thanks to his careful nning and preparations, he managed to return to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t fear death. You see, he might seem human, but in reality, he isn¡¯t a human at all. And he has an innate bloodline ability that, after death, allows him to reawaken in any descendant he chooses. That said, it¡¯s hard for him to recover his consciousness when that happens. That¡¯s why he spent so many licentious years out on the Forbidden Sea. At this point, I doubt even he knows how many descendants he has.

    ¡°The reason is to give all of his ancestors a chance to reawaken as well, all for the purpose of ultimately destroying the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society. He¡¯ll likely experience an ancestral reawakening at some point, which is why he has the character ¡®forbidden¡¯ on his hat. That said, my cultivation base has its limits, so I¡¯m not sure if the hat I created will work forever.

    ¡°In any case, the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society knows all of this. Presumably, the reason they¡¯re keeping him under house arrest and constantly delivering daoist partners to him is that they have another way of refining that bloodline. In the final analysis, though, it¡¯s still a betrayal. If he wasn¡¯t my apprentice, I wouldn¡¯t bother interfering. But he is my apprentice, so things are different.

    ¡°If the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society wants to smooth things out, they¡¯ll have to figure out how to do so on their own. All I can say is that when an apprentice kowtows to me, they earn my protection. And if anyone dares to harm my apprentice, I¡¯ll wipe out their entire sect or n.¡±

    Xu Qing was understandably shaken by all of this information. Third Elder Brother had an innate ability that was very simr to the parasitization technique of the Grueglooms. Except, it was even more nefarious.

    Daoist Sima didn¡¯t seem surprised at all by what he was hearing. As a former patriarch of the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society, he¡¯d known such details for a long time. After a moment of thought, he sped hands. ¡°Lieutenant Governor, my Junior Brother is at fault in all this. I¡¯ll make sure he provides satisfactorypensation.¡±

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t respond. Xu Qing also maintained silence. This was a matter that surpassed him, and there was no need for him to provide input.

    ***

    The next day, the dreadnaught passed over the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, then followed the Evesting Immortal Profundity River until the Eight Sect Coalition appeared.

    The bells tolled twenty-one times, which was the highest level of honor, and indicated the greatest tribute that could be offered by the Eight Sect Coalition. [1]

    As the bells rang, the president and patriarchs of the Eight Sect Coalition all came out to receive the guests. Sir Bloodsmelter and Plumdark were among them. Sir Bloodsmelter looked very pleased, while Plumdark¡¯s expression was soft and gentle. The other patriarchs were all behaving simrly. Only the patriarch of the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect looked a bit deste. The president¡¯s expression was neutral, and he didn¡¯t betray either happiness or anger. When he caught sight of the dreadnaught, his eyes glittered with mixed emotions. However, they faded quickly as he bowed respectfully to the dreadnaught. Everyone else bowed deeply at the waist.

    The megacity was decorated withnterns and colored banners. Countless disciples present all looked very excited, especially those from Seven Blood Eyes, who seemed exceptionally proud.

    ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary-General Xu.¡±

    As the coalition echoed with expressions of greeting, Sir Bloodsmelterughed heartily.

    Master Seventh shoved aside thoughts of his third apprentice. Smiling, he led Xu Qing off the dreadnaught and into the Eight Sect Coalition.

    Xu Qing was moved by the sight of so many familiar faces. That was especially true when he looked at Plumdark and thought back to themp from Forbidden by the Immortal. Plumdark was looking at him with the same gentle smile she always had.

    1. In <u>chapter 379</u>, Sir Bloodsmelter mentioned that the bells would never toll more than twenty-one times. As far as I¡¯m aware, this isn¡¯t anything rted to Chinese history or culture, but rather, corrtes to a twenty-one gun salute. ?

 Chapter 541: Flowers in the Eyes, Stars in the Heart (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 541: Flowers in the Eyes, Stars in the Heart (part 2)</h4>

    The first thing Master Seventh did was take Xu Qing to offer formal greetings to Sir Bloodsmelter. Sir Bloodsmelter smiled from ear to ear; clearly, this was one of the highlights of his life. After that, Master Seventh exchanged greetings with the others present.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t just leave. He was no longer a mere dao child. Everyone knew that he was the future governor, so he would stick close to Master Seventh and start getting acquainted with the types of situations he would deal with in the future throughout Sea-Sealing County.

    The formalitiessted for about two hours. After that, the president respectfully saw them off, whereupon Master Seventh and Xu Qing went with Sir Bloodsmelter back to the Seven Blood Eyes headquarters. The one thousand swordsages also joined them; they would stay in Seven Blood Eyes for the time being.

    Qingqin, meanwhile, remained hidden in the clouds, where he gazed in the direction of South Phoenix, thinking, <i>I wonder if I should pay a visit to Eldest Brother?</i>

    Plumdark watched them go. She knew that they had many matters to attend to having just returned, and that it wouldn''t be appropriate to intrude. But she felt happy. As she turned to head back to the Dark Serenity Sect, she nced at the president and saw hisplex facial expression. Laughing softly, she flew off. Though she hadn¡¯t said a word, her softughter left no doubt as to her attitude.

    The president stood there silently, thatughter ringing in his ears. It created a powerful pressure that made his mixed emotions surge even more powerfully. Eventually, he closed his eyes for a time. When he opened them, his gaze was once again soft and gentle. He would maintain that visage. From the very beginning, he had never shown any outright hostility toward Xu Qing or Seven Blood Eyes. Staying calm and gentle was his baseline behavior. It was also just his personality. Many people had ugliness inside them, but they kept it hidden. The only question was whether the world would give them the chance to reveal it. Some people would keep it inside for years. Some people would keep it inside for a lifetime, even until they died. The only question was how long the president of the Eight Sect Coalition could keep it inside.

    In Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing was serving tea to Sir Bloodsmelter.

    Sir Bloodsmelter still hadn¡¯t recoveredpletely from the injuries he¡¯d sustained in the war. He was obviously in a wonderful mood, though he asionally coughed. That said, the excitement of this day was something he hadn¡¯t experienced for a very long time.

    ¡°That¡¯s more than enough!¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said, taking the cup of tea. He drank the entire cup without spilling a drop. Eyes shining with admiration and praise he continued, ¡°Little Seventh, you need to take care of this apprentice of yours. Without him, you¡¯d never be the lieutenant governor. In fact, you¡¯re simply borrowing glory from him!¡±

    Master Seventh stood there looking extremely proud.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why I still think you should expel all of your other apprentices. All you need is Fourth Sib and Second Sib. They¡¯re more than enough. Big Sib and Third Sib are both useless and annoying to the core.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond to Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s words. He¡¯d heard this kind of talk before.

    ¡°What you say makes sense, Patriarch,¡± Master Seventh said, nodding. ¡°I¡¯ll definitely put some thought into your advice. By the way, sir, have you put any thought into that matter I mentioned earlier?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not going. But I fully endorse your idea of moving Seven Blood Eyes to the county capital.¡± Sir Bloodsmelter put down his tea cup and looked at Master Seventh with gratitude in his eyes. ¡°It wasn¡¯t an easy thing to bring Seven Blood Eyes this far. But over the years, I¡¯ve seen both castles built and mountains crumble. We need to <i>prepare for future storms</i> and <i>be vignt in peacetime</i>.

    ¡°The continent of South Phoenix is our first foundation. We can rest at ease with your lovely little apprentice there to watch out for things. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture is Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ second foundation. We can¡¯t just leave it undefended.

    ¡°The two of you can establish our third foundation in the county capital. That way, if things ever go wrong, we can fall back to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and if necessary, to South Phoenix. That¡¯s the only way to ensure that our work with Seven Blood Eyes will stand the test of time.¡±

    Given Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s years and experience, he was always concerned with how to provide a solid foundation to deal with problems. Master Seventh agreed with him in some ways, but disagreed in others. Seeing that the two of them were going to discuss the matter at length, Xu Qing bid farewell.

    As he walked the familiar paths in the sect, he ran into fellow disciples he knew. All of them were very excited to see him, and would sp hands and bow, even if they were a great distance away. At a certain point Xu Qing looked over his shoulder and saw the Mute about 300 meters behind him. As usual, the Mute was there keeping an eye on him, standing guard. Xu Qing nodded at him.

    Then he went to Master Sixth¡¯s grave. When he stood in front of the gravestone, he could almost hear Master Sixth¡¯s voice. He took out a gon of alcohol and poured it over the grave.

    ¡°Master Sixth, Night Dove is dead,¡± Xu Qing whispered. ¡°Sadly, his head was ripped to shreds, so I couldn¡¯t bring it back with me. I think that¡¯s fine, though. I¡¯ll make sure to take good care of the crown prince¡¯s head. I¡¯ll bring it to you in one piece.¡±

    He sat in front of Master Sixth¡¯s grave for a long time. Eventually, the little white snake in his sleeve slithered out, crawled up to his neck, and nuzzled his cheek.

    When dusk approached, he stood and left. While walking down the stairs, he saw someone familiar. It was a young woman in her twenties. She wore a yellow daoist robe, and was extremely pretty. The aroma of medicinal pills surrounded her, except, she seemed lonely, as though she had too much on her mind. When she caught sight of Xu Qing, she suddenly looked ill at ease.

    ¡°Xu... er, Elder Brother Xu Qing.¡±

    Smiling, Xu Qing said, ¡°Junior Sister Gu, long time no see.¡±

    This young woman was Gu Muqing. She seemed a bit stunned, and couldn¡¯t think of what to say to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was a bit surprised to see her acting so awkwardly. A moment passed, and he left. When he was gone, she bowed her head and berated herself for not saying all the things she¡¯d wanted to say for so long.

    ***

    Ling¡¯er stuck her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve and looked curiously back at Gu Muqing. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, that girl seemed really nervous. Like she wanted to tell you something. What¡¯s her deal? Should we go back and ask what she wanted to say?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°I doubt it¡¯s anything serious. I¡¯ll ask Master about itter.¡±

    Ling¡¯er nodded. ¡°Okay. If she¡¯s in trouble, Big Bro Xu Qing, maybe you and I could help her.¡±

    This wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s first timeing to realize how willing Ling¡¯er was to help others. Smiling in agreement, he continued on his way and eventually left the sect.

    ***

    After Xu Qing was gone, a sigh could be heard near Gu Muqing. It was Gu Muqing¡¯s Master, who was almost like a mother to her. Stepping over, she wrapped her arms around Gu Muqing.

    ¡°Master,¡± Gu Muqing said, her eyes welling with tears.

    There was little Gu Muqing¡¯s Master could do butfort her. ¡°You foolish girl. You still have a chance! Keep trying!¡±

    Gu Muqing nodded, and her eyes shone with determination. [1]

    ***

    After Xu Qing was out of the sect, he took out his transmission jade slip and sent a message to Zhang San. [2]

    Zhang San had been waiting for the message toe in, and he replied instantly. <i>¡°Hahaha! Xu Qing! I¡¯m in our harbor!¡±</i>

    Smiling, Xu Qing put the jade slip away and raced over to their harbor. It didn¡¯t take him long to find Zhang San.

    Zhang San already had three life mes. In the two years since Xu Qing hadst seen him, he¡¯d put on some weight. Clearly, things had been going well for him. He even had a few girls from the Second Peak with him. It was hard to say how he did it, but all the girls with him seemed to get along. He seemed very excited to see Xu Qing. Rushing forward, he embraced him andughed heartily.

    Zhang San was very pleased. In fact, he was so pleased that it wasn¡¯t possible to describe with words. Nowadays, he found himself smiling even when he was in the middle of meditation. As it turned out, his investment from years ago had paid off many times over. Who could ever have guessed that a puny constable from the Violent Crimes Division in South Phoenix would eventually end up as the future governor of all of Sea-Sealing County? Going forward, Zhang San would have quick ess to the highest authorities in the county.

    Xu Qing could sense Zhang San¡¯s excitement, and it made him smile. It felt wonderful to be back in Seven Blood Eyes seeing all his old friends. All the weariness and exhaustion that had been building up in the county capital was melting away.

    Taking out his dharmaship, he handed it to Zhang San. ¡°Elder Brother Zhang, is there any chance you could upgrade my dharmaship?¡±

    After experiencing his first heavenfate tribtion, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base had reached the Nascent Soul level, and the dharmaship hadn¡¯t been a good fit anymore. He needed something faster and stronger. He needed what was called a spirit cruiser.

    Boat. Skiff. Ship. Cruiser.

    Those were the four main categories of dharmaboats in Seven Blood Eyes. After the cruisers were the dreadnaughts the likes of Master Seventh¡¯s. Of course, Master Seventh¡¯s dreadnaught was on a much higher level than the ordinary variety. [3]

    Thumping his chest, Zhang San said, ¡°No problem at all! My cultivation base is a bit low, but we¡¯ve got plenty of money on hand. I¡¯ll just ask some Sixth Peak elders toe over. I¡¯ll tell them what to do, and they¡¯ll handle the particrs. I¡¯ll definitely make you a spirit cruiser like no other! In fact, this dharmaship of yours is basically useless. Instead of upgrading it, I¡¯ll just make you something brand new.¡±

    Seeing that Zhang San wasn¡¯t taking the dharmaship, Xu Qing put it away and sped hands in thanks.

    ¡°By the way, Xu Qing, all of your share of our harbor profits are with Ding Xue. She¡¯s keeping them safe for you. That girl just doesn¡¯t trust me! Every time shees to collect your share, she counts everything, one spirit coin at a time. And if even one spirit coin is missing, she gives me the hardest time!¡±

    Zhang San and Xu Qing chatted for a while until it gotte. Finally, Xu Qing bid farewell.

    Zhang San was determined to make the perfect spirit cruiser, so instead of going to sleep, he started working.

    ***

    Xu Qing strolled through the Port District. It was night, and the moon¡¯s reflection danced in the rippling water. The sound of the waves took him back to his old life in Seven Blood Eyes. Eventually, he reached his old berth, where he set down his dharmaship and boarded it. The rocking sensation of the boat made him feel incredibly at peace.

    Sticking her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve, Ling¡¯er said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I get the feeling you¡¯re preparing to go somewhere. Are you nning to go to the Imperial University in the imperial capital?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. Based on what his Master had told him, going to the Imperial University wouldn¡¯t help much considering the level of his cultivation base.

    ¡°I¡¯m wondering how Eldest Brother¡¯s research into the Moonrite Region is going,¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    ¡°Moonrite Region? Well, Big Bro Xu Qing, wherever you end up going, I¡¯lle along. Once I can take human form, I¡¯m going to be really impressive!¡±

    Xu Qing smiled. He was used to being alone most of the time, but having Ling¡¯er along was nice. He was about to say something in response to her when his divine sense detected someone approaching. He looked up.

    After about ten breaths of time, he heard Ding Xue¡¯s lovely voice. ¡°What are you up to, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± [4]

    1. Gu Muqing was introduced by name in <u>chapter 94</u>. West saw her in <u>chapter 383</u>, when we were told she¡¯d been assigned back to South Phoenix. So... will she appear again in the story, or is this goodbye forever...? ?

    2. Zhang San!!! West saw him in the same chapter Gu Muqing was mentioned in, <u>383</u>. ?

    3. The dharmaboat categories were first exined in <u>chapter 53</u>. ?

    4. Ding Xue was also mentioned in <u>383</u>. Herst on screen appearance was in <u>381</u>. ?

 Chapter 542: Three Women, One Snake, One Man (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 542: Three Women, One Snake, One Man (part 1)</h4>

    Ding Xue¡¯s voice was soft and charming, like a fine rain that entered the dharmaship to be heard by both Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er.

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes widened, and she looked suspiciously outside.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change as he waved his hand, opening the dharmaship¡¯s defenses.

    Ding Xue approached through the moonlight. She had long hair and violet garments. Her hair was bound with a golden ribbon, which glittered resplendently. Strapped to her back was an ancient bronze sword that made her seem very valiant. That said, she also seemed somewhat flirtatious, with bewitching eyes and a cute smile. She was still young, but in the two years that had passed, she had transformed from a girl into a seductive young woman. As the moonlight shone down on her, she seemed incredibly attractive, but at the same time, charmingly shy.

    Surprised, Xu Qing instinctively looked in the direction of the shore.

    ¡°What are you looking at little old me like that for, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± Ding Xue asked, looking a bit bashful as she stepped onto the deck.

    ¡°I¡¯m not looking at you,¡± Xu Qing replied truthfully. ¡°I¡¯m looking for Zhao Zhongheng.¡±

    Ding Xue¡¯s ample chest rose and fell. Although Xu Qing¡¯s unromantic words were potentially lethal, they didn¡¯t do much to her. Difficulties existed to be ovee, right??

    Eyes glittering beautifully, she approached Xu Qing. Upon seeing his captivating face, her heart skipped a beat, and she swallowed. As she struggled to maintain control, she sighed inwardly with regret at the thought of failing to win him over back during the Merfolk Isles days.[1]

    <i>It¡¯s all the fault of that Zhao Zhongheng! Hmph! But that¡¯s fine. With effort, one can achieve anything!</i>

    As Ding Xue tried to pump herself up mentally, she took out a stack of spirit notes and offered it to Xu Qing. She made sure to reveal some of her snow-white forearm as she did.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this is your share of the profits from Harbor 176. Thanks to Zhang San¡¯s skill and my attentive care, there isn¡¯t a single spirit coin missing.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had already learned from Zhang San that Ding Xue had been taking care of his share of the profits for the past two years. He was very grateful for her warm-heartedness. That was especially true when he thought about how, thanks to her love of knowledge, she had given him a lot of spirit stones back when he was very poor. Because of that, he¡¯d always had a good impression of Ding Xue. Smiling, he took the spirit notes. Pulling out a few, he handed them back to Ding Xue.

    ¡°Here, take these.¡±

    Ding Xue blinked a few times and refrained from taking the spirit notes. Then, she stood there for a moment fiddling with the hem of her sleeve, looking like she wanted to say something. After a few breaths of time passed, she was mentally ready. Taking out a white bottle from her bag of holding, she ced it in front of her.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this is some osmanthus-vored lotus seed soup that I personally prepared. I¡¯m nning to give it to my aunt and uncle, but I¡¯m hoping you can try it and give me some feedback.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly. However, there didn¡¯t seem to be any reason to refuse, so he took the bottle and sampled it. He frowned.

    ¡°It¡¯s a bit sweet.¡±

    An embarrassed flush crept up Ding Xue¡¯s neck to her face. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, you.... Anyway, okay. I get it.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by that, and was about to inquire. Before he could, Ding Xue stood.

    ¡°I need to go, Big Bro Xu Qing. I know you just got back and need to rest. I¡¯lle back tomorrow. By the way, thanks for the pocket money.¡±

    Still blushing, Ding Xue took the spirit notes and hurried away. Once outside the dharmaship and on the shore, a pleased smile appeared on her face.

    <i>It turns out the methods my aunt taught me really do work. I just need to set myself up as his household administrator. If I want to win Big Bro Xu Qing, I can¡¯t rush things. I have to make sure things go smoothly. That way, he doesn¡¯t get his guard up. Then, slowly but surely, I¡¯ll melt his heart. I also need to be sure to not be too assertive. I need to make myself seem like helpless prey. Aunt exined that that¡¯s how she won over Uncle years ago.</i>

    With such thoughts on her mind, Ding Xue started nning out her next steps in finer detail....

    Back on the dharmaship, Xu Qing frowned as he tried to figure out what exactly Ding Xue meant by the things she said. There were obviously multiple interpretations.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± Ling¡¯er said from his sleeve. ¡°You need to be careful about her. I picked up some hidden aggression in her eyes when she was looking at you. She must have some specific thing she¡¯s trying to aplish. My papa once told me that there are some people who are always trying to get things out of other people. I think she¡¯s that type of person. She¡¯s bad news, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing felt his guard go up. But then he realized it wasn¡¯t likely that Ding Xue meant him any harm. That said, it probably wouldn¡¯t hurt to keep his guard up, at least a little bit.

    Ling¡¯er felt very happy to see Xu Qing taking her advice seriously. ¡°Aren¡¯t I pretty amazing, Big Bro Xu Qing? Especially when ites to getting a read on people. With me around, you¡¯ll have a much easier time figuring out who the bad people are.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled and was about to start meditating when he once again looked toward the shore.

    Before long, he heard the rather high-pitched voice of an excited young woman.

    ¡°You¡¯re finally back, Big Bro Xu Qing....¡±

    A young woman appeared outside. She was dressed in all ck, and she was carrying a veryrge earthenware jug on her shoulder. The jug was so muchrger than her petite frame that it created a very discordant image. However, that just made her seem more unique. She had fair skin and eyebrows like willow leaves, as well as eyes that, though not unusuallyrge, seemed capable of revealing her heart to the world. Her facial expression seemed to be one of infatuation, passion, and also morbid obsession. There were a lot of scars visible on the skin of her forearm, all of which had been put there by her own fingernails. Her lips and nose were very distinctive, as was her pretty ponytail. All of these things together created a very unique image.

    Yanyan.

    She leaped into the air and right toward the dharmaship¡¯s defenses. Of course, Xu Qing¡¯s dharmaship had Gold Core power, and since Yanyan was only in Foundation Establishment, she could be seriously injured if she mmed right into the defenses. She didn¡¯t seem to care.

    Knowing Yanyan well, Xu Qing lowered the defenses so she could easilynd on the deck.

    She looked a bit disappointed, as if she¡¯d been ready to be seriously injured, and had been looking forward to it. But then she thought about what was toe, and she brightened up. She put the earthenware jug down with a thump, then dumped a pile of torture instruments off to the side.

    There were needles, des, pincers, saws, and more.... Many of them were ck with blood thanks to their heavy usage over the past two years. A good number of them were also stained with the baleful aura of resentful souls, which spread out into the dharmaship.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing. Let¡¯s... get started, okay?¡±

    Her nose red and she started breathing heavily as she pped the jug. The jug shattered, and streams of smoke billowed out. Unexpectedly, they were Smokewights.

    Although the Smokewights had been heavily sanctioned after the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup, some of the more clever ones had fled before any action was taken. And of course, there were others that had been away before everything went down. Some were top experts, others were more ordinary individuals.

    The ones that tumbled out of the jug were thetter. There were quite a few of them, but most emitted Foundation Establishment fluctuations. The handful that were in Gold Core were extremely weak.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, my grandma helped me capture these Smokewights. Sadly, we couldn¡¯t find the big one. Just these shrimps. But we can still have some fun with them. After you left, I was all alone, and it was just so boring!¡±

    Eyes glittering with excitement, she grabbed one of the Smokewights. As it struggled in her hand, numerous des flew up and circled around her like a tempest. They shed through the smoke, but no screams could be heard. That was because no matter how you shed up a Smokewight, they could form back together almost instantly, and it didn¡¯t inflict any pain.

    Despite that, Yanyan seemed entranced with the concept of slicing up the Smokewight. Trembling almost uncontrobly, she looked over at Xu Qing.

    She was about to say something when she noticed that his facial expression was somewhat aloof. Stunned, she hesitated for a moment and then said, ¡°You don¡¯t like this, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    She looked deeply apprehensive, even despairing, and she even started to wilt physically. She obviously cared a lot about Xu Qing¡¯s opinion, and whatever he said next could affect her entire world.

    Xu Qing looked at her and realized that there was something unusual about Yanyan. She had been a morbid person two years ago, but she hadn¡¯t been as crazed as this. What was more, he could tell that many of the scars on her arm were fresh. The look in her eyes was the same as you would expect to see in a drowning person who was pleading for help. Her illness had gotten worse. It wasn¡¯t that she treated others sadistically. She treated herself sadistically. And it was only in that state of twisted pain that she felt she could breathe and be happy.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with profound light, he heard an aged voice speaking from outside. It was none other than Guru Easher, Yanyan¡¯s grandmother.

    ¡°I only have this one grandchild, Xu Qing,¡± she said bitterly, ¡°Can you help her...? Ever since she was little, she¡¯s had no mutagen in her, and as a result, she has a problem with inner devils. Her personality has be more and more cruel over the years. I¡¯ve tried many times to purify her, but her problembined with her personality makes it impossible to cleanse her of wicked thoughts.

    ¡°Things got really bad when she tried to reach Gold Core but failed. She very nearly copsed mentally. I can keep her safe physically, but she has too much mental pressure to deal with. She either has to torture others or torture herself. And that just makes her more antisocial and entric. I have no other options here. But I do trust you.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Yanyan. He could see the despair in her eyes, and the way she seemed to be wilting. It was as if her sea of consciousness was riddled with damage thanks to all of her pent-up frustrations.

    ¡°So immature,¡± Xu Qing suddenly said.

    Yanyan looked up at him.

    1. The Merfolk Isles arc with Xu Qing, Ding Xue, and Zhao Zhongheng was in <u>chapters 166</u>-<u>168</u> ?

 Chapter 542: Three Women, One Snake, One Man (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 542: Three Women, One Snake, One Man (part 2)</h4>

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture with his right hand, causing one of the Smokewights to fly over to him. As soon as it was in his hand, he sent a stream of frigid energy out, which surrounded the Smokewight and solidified into an ice cube around it.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and one of Yanyan¡¯s needles flew over to him. Bolstering the needle with his cultivation base, he stabbed it through the ice into the struggling Smokewight. An agonized shriek rang out from the ice cube. Next, a flying dagger sliced into the Smokewight through the ice. Because of being frozen, the Smokewight couldn¡¯t form anew. Before long, it had been sliced into a dozen pieces which Xu Qingy out on the ground in front of him so that none were touching.

    It was clear that the sensation of being chopped apart but unable to form anew brought extreme mental anguish. The screams grew more intense.

    Meanwhile, Yanyan¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and she was breathing heavily. She was shivering, and seemed to be getting excited once again.

    Throwing the pieces of ice to Yanyan, he made another grasping gesture, causing a second Smokewight to fly over to him. This time, he didn¡¯t use ice. He used poison. When the poisons spread into the Smokewight, it started corroding, not just its body of smoke, but its soul. Howls of grief filled the dharmaship.

    Yanyan was getting even more excited; apparently the howls of agony were like soothing sounds of nature.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t done yet.

    ¡°Rip off some cloth from your garment,¡± he said coldly.

    Looking very obedient, Yanyan immediately ripped off a section of her garment, which revealed more scarred flesh beneath.

    She didn¡¯t even notice that. Crawling over to Xu Qing almost like a puppy, she handed him the cloth.

    Xu Qing took it, then waved his hand, which soaked the fabric and added a sealing power to it. Next, Xu Qing put the third Smokewight onto the cloth. The cloth turned dark as the Smokewight was sucked into the fabric.

    Xu Qing tossed the fabric to Yanyan.

    ¡°That way it has no freedom, either of body or soul,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Pursuing physical cruelty, whether towards others or towards oneself, is a means to an end. Not the end itself. And when you use it, the results are childish. Mental torment is something much different.¡±

    Yanyan shivered. The more Xu Qing berated her, the happier she felt. Eyes burning with infatuation, she put her finger into her mouth, bit it, and then offered it to Xu Qing.

    His eyes turned cold.

    Bowing her head, she pulled her hand back and sucked it in her mouth. The strange energy in her sea of consciousness was dissipating, and her cultivation base fluctuations were growing stronger. Apparently, her first heavenly pce was almost materialized. It wasn¡¯t quite there yet, though.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed and lifted his index finger.

    The moment he did, Yanyan crawled over, bit his finger, and sucked deeply. Her eyes narrowed as if in ecstasy, and she looked more content than she had ever looked before. She had been waiting for this day for a long time. In that moment, her heavenly pce materialized! Her mind then started spinning so dramatically she passed out.

    After that, Guru Easher sighed from outside the dharmaship. ¡°Many thanks.¡±

    Yanyan vanished, having been taken away by Guru Easher.

    The ship was silent.

    Shortly after, Ling¡¯er poked her head out and looked at Xu Qing, then the spot where Yanyan had disappeared. Xu Qing looked a bit embarrassed, and was about to offer an exnation when Ling¡¯er suddenly inhaled sharply.

    ¡°She¡¯s a monster, Big Bro Xu Qing! She¡¯s even worse than the one before. I can¡¯t believe she actually bit your finger! You really have to be careful around her!¡±

    Before Xu Qing could respond, gentleughter echoed in the dharmaship.

    ¡°What a cute youngdy.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that voice, he went stiff.

    When Ding Xue showed up, he could brush her off. When Yanyan showed up, he could put her in her ce. But there was one woman in the Eight Sect Coalition who Xu Qing had always felt flustered around. Whether it was their first meeting when she lifted his chin, or her changeable personality when they traveled up the river, or the times their gazes met in the county capital, or that time he took his robe off in front of her.... [1]

    She understands more than you. And there are things she understands that you¡¯re clueless about. She¡¯s seen everything you¡¯ve seen, and many other things you¡¯ve never seen. She knows what you¡¯re thinking, and even knows some things you don¡¯t understand how to think about. She¡¯s impable.

    As her voice reached Xu Qing, and he felt himself unable to move, a consummate beauty stepped out of thin air.

    She wore a white dress embroidered withvender-colored roses. Her belt matched the flowers, and was decorated with moons. Her ck hair was rolled into a bun and bound with a pearl hairpin with tassels that hung down the front. [2]

    Her beautiful face had eyebrows like something from a painting, and her eyes glittered like stars. The faint smile on her face was the type that could tug at the hearts of anyone who saw it, but at the same time, she seemed elegant and refined, like a hibiscus flower floating on the water, free from all impurities. There was also something enigmatic about the way she smiled at Xu Qing, as if her smile contained hidden bitterness as well as a bit of sorrow.

    She was, of course, the unmatched and peerless Arch-Immortal Plumdark.

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes went wide, and she instinctively shrank back into hiding.

    Inhaling deeply, Xu Qing got to his feet and bowed. ¡°Greetings, Arch-Immortal.¡±

    Plumdark smiled as she walked up to him. Reaching out, she brushed some dust off his shoulder, as if to ensure that there was nothing present to contaminate him. She smoothed out some of the wrinkles in his garment. Then she looked deeply into his eyes.

    ¡°As long as you¡¯re safe, that¡¯s all that matters,¡± she said simply. Her words contained concern, caring, worry, thoughtfulness, and all of those things came across in the words she spoke.

    Warmth filled Xu Qing, and he shivered as it spread through him, softening his heart. He no longer felt rigid, but instead, rxed. He let Arch-Immortal Plumdark take his hand as she sat next to him. He could smell her familiar perfume, and noted how the tassel of her hairpin swayed as she sat. The mere sight seemed enough to sway one¡¯s thoughts.

    Xu Qing felt a bit dazed, and thus, a bit cautious.

    As Plumdark gazed at him, she said, ¡°I know what you want to do, and where you want to go. I won¡¯t stop you. But I want to tell you something. If I had known what was going on, I would have stood with you. As you know, I don¡¯t tell lies. I¡¯m a decisive person, and when I make a decision about something, I don¡¯t change my mind. It doesn¡¯t matter who tries to change my mind, I won¡¯t do it, not even if heaven falls and the earth is crushed.¡±

    Plumdark¡¯s voice caused ripples of emotion to spread through Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    He understood. He didn¡¯t remember everything he¡¯d seen in that temple in Forbidden by the Immortal. But he remembered themp. And he remembered that person who looked exactly like Plumdark. Now, as Plumdark spoke, he suddenly felt an image rising up in his mind. Though he couldn¡¯t make out the details of it, it brought with it a familiar feeling. She was right. She was the type of person who wouldn¡¯t change her mind no matter what anyone said.

    A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°I know.¡±

    Her smile grew more radiant. ¡°Your Master invited me to bring the Dark Serenity Sect to the county capital along with a portion of Seven Blood Eyes. He suggested that webine the sects and form a new sect. I agreed. He said I should pick the new name for the sect. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. What would you think if we called it the Green Dark Sect?¡± [3]

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

    Her tender gaze dropped from his face to his sleeve. Sheughed softly. Then she went on to talk a bit about what the future would hold for the Green Dark Sect. She kept the conversation on official business, but her voice was so lovely that it was easy to lose track of time just listening to her speak.

    Xu Qing gradually grew even more rxed.

    It waste in the night when Plumdark said, ¡°There¡¯s another reason I came. I want to paint a defensive totem on you. Remove your robe.¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly went from being rxed to being as stiff as a board again. Plumdarkughed. Eyes glittering yfully, she stood and left. As she walked out, she said, ¡°See you back in the county capital, Ah Qing.¡±

    The ship went quiet again.

    After a long moment, Xu Qing exhaled, and instinctively looked down at his sleeve. Ling¡¯er poked her head out and looked at him anxiously.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing! She was the most dangerous of all! She¡¯s a devil queen!! That was so scary! Big Bro Xu Qing, all the others before are just on a totally different level than the devil queen!¡±

    Xu Qing cleared his throat and went on to cate Ling¡¯er. She wasn¡¯tpletely convinced.

    A few days passed.

    Yanyan was in seclusion. Plumdark didn¡¯t show up again. But Ding Xue came back. That said, she wasn¡¯t able to follow through with her n.

    And that was because Zhao Zhongheng showed up as well. Although he was very nervous around Xu Qing, he gritted his teeth and followed Ding Xue around with a determined look in his eyes. When Xu Qing saw how determined Zhao Zhongheng was to win over Ding Xue, he sighed inwardly.

    Because Xu Qing had been gone for two years, there was a lot of business to take care of. That was especially true considering how much his status had changed. What was more, sects from throughout Emperor-Receiving Prefecture were sending people to offer formal greetings to Master Seventh. And Master Seventh would often ask Xu Qing to be present.

    Ten dayster, much to Ding Xue¡¯s frustration, Xu Qing decided to leave the sect.

    He nned to go to South Phoenix and pay respects at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave.

    Before he left, Master Seventh gave him a jade box. ¡°This is the fish bone from that god. I¡¯ve crafted it into a divine weapon. You can try it out while you¡¯re traveling. It¡¯s pretty incredible, and you can consider it a major line of defense for you. What¡¯s more, it¡¯s from the same source as your body, so it¡¯s particrly suitable for you specifically.¡±

    Inside the jade box was a ck spike, about as thick as a finger. It was covered with natural striations, and emanated a terrifying aura, as well as powerful fluctuations of godliness. Although it wasn¡¯t alive, when Xu Qing looked at it, he got the sensation it was breathing in unison with him. It felt like it was actually part of him. As Xu Qing sensed how terrifying the spike was, and the feeling of lingering fear that came with it, Master Seventh spoke again.

    ¡°In the eyes of gods, things from the mortal world are iparably weak. But this weapon... could harm a god. It has the godly authority of misfortune in it. Therefore, I picked a specific name for it. It¡¯s the Spike of Misfortune.¡±

    1. Plumdark references: lifting his chin was in <u>chapters 278</u>-<u>279</u>; traveling the river was in <u>chapters 297</u>-<u>299</u>; gazes meeting in the county capital... if I recall there were a couple times this happened, the one I found most readily was in <u>chapter 475</u>; he took his robe off in front of her in <u>chapter 439</u>. ?

    2. There is a specific type of rose here. The word is not the generic andmon word most often seen for ¡®rose¡¯ in Chinese. Instead, it¡¯s the word for Rosa chinensis, also called Chinese rose, China rose, or Bengal rose. As for the hairdo, it¡¯s specifically called a ¡°princess bun,¡± in Chinese. This is not a specific hairstyle, but rather, is supposed to look like the type of hairstyle you¡¯ll see the women wear in those pce drama TV shows. Given the part about the tassel, I think it¡¯s probably supposed to look <u>something like this</u>. ?

    3. The sect namebines one character from each of their names. The Qing from Xu Qing=Green. I¡¯m tranting the character instead of transliterating because I feel that calling it the Qing Dark Sect would be too on the nose. It¡¯s not that on the nose in Chinese. ?

 Chapter 543: Old Haunts, Old Friends, Old Stories (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 543: Old Haunts, Old Friends, Old Stories (part 1)</h4>

    Beyond Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, atop the pitch-ck Forbidden Sea, there were endless rolling waves and a mist full of cold mutagen. Even in the middle of the day, the burning heat of the sun couldn¡¯t disperse that mutagen, much less illuminate the depths of the sea. That was why, over the countless years that had passed, there were many legends on the Forbidden Sea about godly entities lurking in its depths. Only the species native to the sea, or other high-level cultivators, could possibly know how strong those godly entities actually were, and whether or not it was possible to defeat them inbat.

    The broken face wasn¡¯t the only god in existence. In other words... the most terrifying entities in the Forbidden Sea weren¡¯t godly entities, they were actual gods. Gods could sleep in suns and moons. Gods lurked in pces in ces like Forbidden by the Immortal. Gods existed in Cruelmurk. As such, it was only natural to expect gods to be resting in the Forbidden Sea that surrounded the Revered Ancient maind.

    For one thing... the Forbidden Sea was just too immense. The sea region between Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix was massive, and that wasn¡¯t even to mention the fact that the sea extended far beyond South Phoenix.

    Truth be told, the areas that surrounded South Phoenix, whenpared to the Forbidden Sea as a whole, were essentially coastal waters.

    In the past, the Forbidden Sea had been called by a different name. It was the Sea of Endlessness. That name perfectly described the scope and range of the waters. It was almost like an entire world of its own, standing tall alongside the maind and the dome of heaven. [1]

    At the moment, waves roiled on the water outside of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture as a pitch-ck dreadnaught screamed through the air overhead. It was Master Seventh¡¯s dreadnaught, which he had lent to Xu Qing for use in Sea-Sealing County. The dreadnaught had a spirit, and thus didn¡¯t need to be piloted. As long as it had a power source, it could be controlled by anyone.

    Coming along with Xu Qing were the thousand swordsages from the county capital, as well as Daoist Sima.

    Also flying through the air was Qingqin, whose caws echoed out far and wide. No other birds dared to fly too high into the sky, thanks to Qingqin¡¯s presence. They would stay low, where they would asionally dive into the water ande back up with prey in their beaks. That caused snakeneck dragons to gather. They would asionally burst out of the water and snatch birds out of the sky, then ssh back down.

    Xu Qing stood on the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure, looking down at the sea. He saw the snakeneck dragons and the waves they created, and it made him think back to all the time he had spent out at sea in his early days.

    After a time, he focused on the Spike of Misfortune. In the sunlight, the ck fish bone spike seemed like a ck hole that sucked in all the light around it, all while emanating terrifying fluctuations.

    Quite a few of the swordsages noticed, and looked over with serious expressions. Only Xu Qing, thanks to his unique fleshly body that had the same origin as the spike, could hold the thing without feeling ufortable because of the pressure.

    Looking at the Spike of Misfortune, he said, ¡°Master Freespirit.¡±

    Instantly, the ck iron skewer flew out of his bag of holding and hovered in front of him, trembling obsequiously. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°Milord!¡±

    The patriarch was wracked with anxiety, and felt like he was facing imminent catastrophe. In fact, it caused his voice to tremble, and left his heart wallowing in despair. For a long time now, he had been operating under the expectation that if he didn¡¯t work hard enough, Xu Qing would put him to death. Because of his personality, that thought had taken root deep within him, and therefore, whenever Xu Qing experienced a big jump in cultivation base, the patriarch felt jumpy and nervous.

    And now, with this fish bone spike out in the open, he was certain his time hade. He had gone all out, yet nothing he had done had enabled him to keep pace with Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t that he <i>hadn¡¯t</i> been working hard. It was just that Xu Qing made progress too quickly.

    ¡°Milord, I¡¯m ready. In all the books I¡¯ve read in my life, the main character always progresses by leaps and bounds, while their followers are ordinary people who can¡¯t keep up. This just goes to show, milord, that you are definitely like the main character in a novel. That¡¯s fine. I understand. I don¡¯t want to drag you down. So I won¡¯t beg or plead. I just hope that, based on all the cautious and conscientious work done by your humble servant over the years, you can make it quick and painless.

    ¡°If I do get another life after this one, your humble servant will definitely find an opportunity to be your follower again. After being there to serve your every need, sir, I will gaze up as you reach the pinnacle of the highest heavens.¡±

    The patriarch''s face was a mask of sorrow, yet even in that state, he looked at Xu Qing with loyal sincerity. As far as he was concerned, that was his only chance to save himself.... He knew that he was privy to too many secrets. If he was in Xu Qing¡¯s ce, the patriarch would be bursting with killing intent. Therefore, he could just do his best to touch Xu Qing¡¯s heart, and hope that Xu Qing would think about all his hard work and not kill him. The best oue would be for Xu Qing to kindheartedly take the initiative to spare the patriarch.

    Xu Qing looked deeply at Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. He didn¡¯t sense any sincerity from the patriarch. But he had been paying attention to everything the patriarch did over the years, and how much help he had provided. By now, the grudge Xu Qing had developed years ago toward the patriarch had long since faded into nothing.

    After all, the iron skewer couldn¡¯t match up to his own cultivation base now. Even though he had ensorcelled it,pared to the Spike of Misfortune, it was severelycking.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had nned to unseal the patriarch and let him go on his way. After all, he understood how karma worked. As for the secrets the patriarch was aware of, Xu Qing had his ways to deal with that.

    But after what the patriarch just said, Xu Qing thought for a time, then changed his mind. Eyes hardening, he decided that he should give the patriarch an opportunity.

    Though Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was still feeling nervous, he was actually sighing with relief on the inside. He was convinced that his words just now had been very effective. Obviously, the Fiendish Xu was moved; his silence right now was evidence of that. Because of all the patriarch''s hard work over the years, he was considering whether or not tomute his death penalty.

    <i>Why is my life so hard? I just want to be free! To keep on living! Howe things have to be this difficult?</i>

    As the patriarch¡¯s inner fury built, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with determination. Xu Qing performed a right-handed incantation gesture, causing fire to spring up and envelop the iron skewer. He seemed to be nning to melt the skewer with the heat.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was stunned. ¡°Milord, I¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m giving you an opportunity. Just hang in here.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and his twelve nascent souls all opened their eyes and spat out life mes. He also added in the fire of his five lifemps.

    As the patriarch howled, the iron skewer, which he had fused with after two instances of tribtion lightning, started melting into molten iron. That molten iron was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s true form. The patriarch¡¯s screams grew shriller. Terrified, the shadow twitched back and forth, and looked ingratiatingly toward Ling¡¯er.

    In that manner, time passed. The patriarch¡¯s screams grew weaker and weaker until they weren¡¯t audible. And the iron skewer melted into a red-hot pool of molten iron.

    Next, Xu Qing performed another double-handed incantation gesture, causing the molten iron to fly up in numerous thin streams. They headed right toward the Spike of Misfortune, not to fuse into it, but to fill in the natural striations on its surface. At the same time, Xu Qing mobilized his god vitality, sending out fluctuations that provided an additional blessing. Eventually, the molten iron had filled every striation on the fish bone.

    The Spike of Misfortune looked very different now. It had a pitch-ck base with red striations. And it pulsed with an aura of death and killing.

    Since Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was already a spirit automaton, he was now half integrated into the Spike of Misfortune. His level of existence was so much lower than the Spike of Misfortune, that normally speaking, he couldn¡¯t possibly serve as its spirit automaton. Only by cing him on the outside, almost like a glove, could he link to the spike and control it.

    Although that level of control wouldn¡¯t be perfect, with Xu Qing¡¯s help, the spike could ughter enemies much more effectively than if it didn¡¯t have a spirit automaton at all.

    What was more, the influence of the fish bone of a god would affect long-term transformations on the patriarch. In fact, it was possible that one day in the future, the patriarch could transform into the true spirit automaton of a godly weapon. That process would be very painful, as it would involve aplete metamorphosis that was an even greater torment than what just happened.

    What was more, the patriarch would have to survive long-term and refrain from being devoured....

    The patriarch was understandably shocked by what had just happened. When he finally recovered from his daze, he was actually very pleased. The process had been painful, and he had no idea how he would survive long-term. But he did know that he had passed a major milestone.

    <i>Thankfully I¡¯m very calm and resourceful, otherwise I might not have seeded!</i>

    Rejoicing at heart, the patriarch was about to say something when Xu Qing looked at him encouragingly.

    ¡°Master Freespirit,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°I¡¯d been nning to give you your freedom. But since you want to be my follower for all eternity, I¡¯ll help you out this one time.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± The patriarch¡¯s eyes went wide, and his heart started pounding. He even shivered. However, he recovered quickly. <i>He¡¯s testing me. It¡¯s a trick! Yes, that¡¯s right. He wants to check how loyal I really am. Very, very cunning!</i>

    Convinced that he was right, he loudly said, ¡°Milord! I, Master Freespirit, will loyally follow you, sir. I¡¯ve long sincee to the realization thatfort is far more important than freedom!

    ¡°These past few years have been the most wonderful in my entire life. The level offort I¡¯ve experienced is something I could never part with. Without being able to be your follower, sir, I would feel unending pain and torment. In fact, even just thinking about something like that fills me with grief and despair. I have no desire for freedom, milord. I only want to be by your side. In the end, I far preferfort to so-called freedom.¡±

    Ling¡¯er was moved by the patriarch¡¯s speech. Looking at him, she whispered to Xu Qing, ¡°This old guy is really a good person, Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother exining the situation to her. After offering a few encouraging words, he put the Spike of Misfortune away. Then he looked down at the shadow.

    The shadow shivered and sent out a host of emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°Breakthrough... very soon... wonderful lord and master... amazingdy and mistress... I¡¯m formidable... and useful!!¡±

    The shadow was truly frightened. It had seen the violet crystal in action, and had seen how the god¡¯s finger failed to escape from it. That had filled the shadow with despair, and the longing to simply figure out a way to stay alive. In its anxiety, it could do nothing but spout out everything it knew how to say.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was thinking of a way to get the shadow to break through to the next level. Before, it hadn¡¯t been possible, but now he was confident he could do it.

    Ignoring his shadow, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and started to meditate. At the moment, he had thirteen heavenly pces. Twelve of them already had nascent souls, and he had experienced one heavenfate tribtion.

    It was only his most recent heavenly pce, the one formed from the hellspirit bloodwingmp, that didn¡¯t have a nascent soul. However, with the help of his other nascent souls, the nascent soul in that fifthmp was rapidly forming.

    <i>It won¡¯t be long now.</i>

    Closing his eyes, Xu Qing focused on cultivation.

    1. It was in <u>chapter 82</u> that we first learned the story of the Sea of Endlessness changing names to Forbidden Sea. ?

 Chapter 543: Old Haunts, Old Friends, Old Stories (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 543: Old Haunts, Old Friends, Old Stories (part 2)</h4>

    Seven dayster, the dreadnaught arrived at South Phoenix. From a distance, Xu Qing spotted the old Seven Blood Eyes, where he had started out years ago. A lot had changed since then. It was still just as bustling and noisy, and there were Seventh Peak ships going in and out of the port. The original seven peaks had been taken to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, but the peaks that had reced them looked exactly the same, except without the huge eyes.

    The arrival of the dreadnaught caused a stir. Countless people looked up as it flew overhead. Unfortunately, Xu Qing¡¯s messages to Second Elder Sister had not been answered. When Master Seventh saw him off, he¡¯d mentioned that she was in seclusion trying to reach a breakthrough. Because of that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t stay in Seven Blood Eyes for long. Soon, the dreadnaught shot out of the city and headed toward the eastern part of South Phoenix.

    To the Xu Qing of the past, South Phoenix had been massive. In fact, it was so big that getting around it required using teleportation portals. But after everything he had experienced, he now realized why Master Seventh had described ¡®the continent of South Phoenix¡¯ as an ind. Compared to the massive Revered Ancient maind, it really was just a little ind.

    Given the speed the dreadnaught was capable of, it only took half a day before Xu Qing reached the old scavenger basecamp.

    It was just as dirty and chaotic as before. Xu Qing didn¡¯t see many familiar faces. Scavengers, who walked a fine line between life and death, rarely had very long lifespans, unless they got really lucky.

    Xu Qing looked down to take everything in. Then he went down to walk the streets of the now-unfamiliar camp. He passed scavenger after scavenger. He walked past the buildings made from logs and mud. Any mortals who saw him wouldn¡¯t even remember seeing him. That was a function of his D-132 nascent soul. It wasn¡¯t as easy to create amnesia effects in cultivators. But such effects worked easily in a scavenger basecamp.

    Xu Qing walked along silently, heading in a specific direction. He wasn¡¯t aiming to visit his old residence. Instead, he went to that one particr street that he had left soaked in blood all those years ago.

    There had been a general store on that street back then. The store was still there, although there was a different proprietor.

    Across the street from that shop, a person in a ck robe sat cross-legged under the eaves of a building. She seemed skinny, and though her facial features weren¡¯t visible, she had an evil ghost scythe slung over her shoulders. She was none other than Qing Qiu. There were a few scavenger corpses nearby. Clearly, they were foolish idiots who had provoked her. Not everyone in the world could think clearly.

    Perhaps because of Qing Qiu¡¯s presence, the street was very quiet. The proprietors of all the shops sat inside trembling and not saying a word. She had obviously been here for some time. Maybe it was because she hade looking for certain information, or because she¡¯d been unable to believe everything she saw back in the county capital.

    Thus, she hade here to wait. In reality, it was possible that not even she knew what she was waiting for. And she kept waiting until this very day, when she heard footsteps approaching on the little street.

    Xu Qing walked up until he was standing next to her.

    She kept looking straight ahead. She didn¡¯t turn her head. Her hand tightened on her evil ghost scythe, and then it rxed. She didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing followed her gaze and realized she was looking at the general store. He could almost see the scrawny, dirty little girl with the scar, busy at work there.

    Seven years had passed. Seven years ago, the two of them had met by chance. Both had experienced the opening of the eyes of the broken face of the god. Both had survived. Seven yearster, they were here again.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    Qing Qiu sat there quietly until her shoulders started trembling.

    Finally, he whispered, ¡°It was here that you gave me a piece of candy. You said that when I felt down, I just had to eat it, and I¡¯d feel better. I think I have an idea what you¡¯re feeling right now. However, I want to let you know that I ate that piece of candy you gave me, and it eased the grief in my heart.¡± He took out something wrapped in a piece of oil paper and put it on the ground in front of her. ¡°That¡¯s a piece of candy I bought for you in Seven Blood Eyes.¡±

    With that, he turned to leave. However, after only walking about ten paces, he stopped and looked back. Voice somber, he said, ¡°Also, remember to submit your report to the Secretariat Division when you get back.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Qing Qiu replied instinctively. Only after the words left her mouth did she bow her head. Her hands tightened on her scythe.

    The faintest of smiles appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Without another word, he left.

    ***

    After he was gone, the wind picked up, sending dead leaves swirling through the street. It rustled the oil paper, and stirred Qing Qiu¡¯s heart and mind. Back when she saw Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls on that altar, she had felt shaken to the core. The shocking scene was something she almost couldn¡¯t believe was real.

    For years, she had struggled and fought in the hopes of being able to go back to South Phoenix and look for one specific person. It was hard to believe that the very person she had been hoping to find had actually been by her side for two years.

    Not only that, but he was so amazing and powerful. She, who could never admit her own weaknesses, now had to acknowledge that she had fallen behind. It left her feeling dazed. Confused. All of her hard work, all of her bitter struggles, had been in the hopes of going back and keeping safe that one person who was the most important person in her life.

    Years ago, he had stood in front of her and exchanged bamboo slips to keep her safe. She had struggled to return that favor. It was her goal. Her dream. But now she realized that the person she wanted to keep safe didn¡¯t need her at all.

    Then she thought about everything that happened in the county capital. She thought about the Ten Entrails Tree. And she realized that, all along, <i>he</i> had been keeping <i>her</i> safe. And thus, she hade back to this scavenger basecamp, filled with too many mixed emotions. As she sorted out those emotions, she started to hope that she would once again run into her Big Bro Kid. And she had.

    ¡°Damnation!¡±

    Qing Qiu gritted her teeth as she thought back to how she had instinctively responded to Xu Qing¡¯s finalmand. Fuming, she reached out to grab the candy in the oil paper. However, as soon as her fingers closed around it, they became iparably gentle, as if she were holding a precious treasure.

    She carefully opened the paper to reveal a gleaming piece of rock candy. She didn¡¯t eat it. She just looked at it. And underneath her mask, she smiled.

    When the evil ghost scythe noticed that, it started talking excitedly.

    <i>¡°Ah Qiu, you have to seize this opportunity. It¡¯s a gift from a heavenly dao! Going forward, make sure to always do exactly as the exalted Xu Qing says. If he asks you to do something, you do it! Don¡¯t even think about refusing.</i>

    <i>¡°And that way... we¡¯ll eventually have the chance to end things in mutual destruction with a Void Returning expert! Or even... a god!! That could actually happen!</i>

    <i>¡°Heavens! If we could actually end things in mutual destruction with a god, then it would be the greatest glory imaginable!!¡±</i>

    The evil ghost scythe was so excited it was shivering, and its eyes glowed bright red.

    For once, Qing Qiu didn¡¯t tell the scythe to shut up. In fact, a thoughtful look appeared in her eyes.

    ***

    Xu Qing had left the scavenger basecamp and was walking through the forbidden region toward Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave.

    Ling¡¯er hadn¡¯t said anything the entire time. There were some things she wanted to say, but she could sense that Xu Qing¡¯s mood had dipped once inside the forbidden region. She gently rubbed her head against his cheek.

    Inside, she was thinking, <i>That girl must have been one of Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯s friends from back in the day. She seemed to be in a really bad mood, but once she saw that candy, she felt better. What¡¯s the deal with that candy, anyway? Maybe I should buy some. Then if Big Bro Xu Qing doesn¡¯t feel good, I can take it out and give it to him.</i>

    As Ling¡¯er was thinking that she had just learned something very useful, Xu Qing arrived at Sergeant Thunder¡¯s grave.

    The weeds had grown in, but the gravestone was the same as before. He sat down in front of it. He looked at the big tree, then the gravestone. It was already dusk, and mist was starting to build up in the area. He didn¡¯t care about that. He took out two jugs of alcohol, one of which he ced down in front of the grave. The other, he raised in a toast.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder, a few days ago I did something really momentous....¡±

    Smiling, Xu Qing drank and told the story. He talked about the county capital, the swordsages, the war, and Pce Lord Kong.

    ¡°Eldest Brother said I¡¯ve grown up. I guess he¡¯s right. It¡¯s been seven years.... Sergeant Thunder, you once told me that when enough time passes, you forget things. You said that you¡¯d waited for long enough, and that you didn¡¯t want to wait any longer. But howe, when I close my eyes sometimes, I just find myself wishing I could eat one of the dishes you¡¯re so good at cooking...?¡±

    After Peerless City vanished from existence, he had drifted about, homeless, encountering all sorts of bitterness. Eventually, he met the one person who had given him a home, and some warmth. He would never forget that.

    He took a drink. Then another. Evening turned into night. The mist turned into a fog.

    ¡°I miss you, Sergeant Thunder....¡±

    Finally, Xu Qing sighed, kowtowed to the grave, and then got to his feet. Step by step, he walked deeper into the forbidden region.

    This was where he¡¯d acquired the shadow. His n was to bring the shadow back, have it absorb the mutagen of this forbidden region, and see if that could help it to achieve a breakthrough.

    After Xu Qing entered the forbidden region, the shadow started getting excited. As Xu Qing got deeper inside, that excitement grew. The shadow began to emit fluctuations of hope, and it spread out from Xu Qing¡¯s feet.

    Wherever it went, the trees would rock back and forth before turning into coffins with countless eyes on them. As a result of the shadow, the fog grew thicker. And pulses of greed began to float through it, as though there were malicious eyes in its depths, looking at Xu Qing and his shadow with avarice. Rustling sounds could be heard, as if entities in the depths were whispering quietly.

    Xu Qing eyed the surrounding fog, his eyes shining coldly. He kept walking. Eventually, he reached the templeplex from years before. As he passed it and entered the true depths of the forbidden region, the fog got even thicker. Eventually, he heard the Singing.

    This was his second time hearing the Singing in this forbidden region. Legend had it that if you heard it and survived, the forbidden region would give you a gift. The second time you heard it, you would see the person you most wanted to see. As the Singing echoed out, everything turned colder. A frigid coldness filled the area.

    Xu Qing stopped walking and looked out into the fog. He heard... footsteps.

 Chapter 544: Favor for the Phoenixâ€™s Family (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 544: Favor for the Phoenix¡¯s Family (part 1)</h4>

    The forbidden region¡¯s silence turned into something very gruish with the arrival of the Singing. The lyrical voice brought sinister coldness that froze the grass, turning each de into an icy thorn, and each tree into a statue. It seemed like it was part of the night, so instead of breaking the deep stillness, it actually made everything more still.

    Xu Qing stood in ce listening, his heart racing as he thought back to what happened seven years ago. This was his second time hearing the Singing. [1]

    To the scavengers, the Singing in the forbidden region was something terrifying; generally speaking, anyone who heard it ended up dead.

    But something different happened back when Xu Qing heard it. He¡¯d had no means to protect himself back then. All he could do was wait for death as the Singing froze everything around him.

    As for right now, though he wasn¡¯t actually standing on the soil of Sea-Sealing County, he could still feel the county¡¯s destiny aura. With the blessing of that destiny aura, he didn¡¯t need to fear anything but the most horrifying grues. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention the fact that he had backup in the form of a dreadnaught and Qingqin.

    Therefore, Xu Qing felt no fear when he heard the Singing. Instead, his eyes shone with anticipation as the footsteps approached. He was waiting. Waiting for that figure to appear.

    His shadow had spread out 300 meters in all directions, creating something like a special forbidden region around him. Within that area, all the grass had eyes on it, and the trees had be coffins. All of the countless eyes were open, and they joined Xu Qing in looking around. The shadow¡¯s gruish aura spread out, and it was filled with brutality, hunger, and also fear.

    If one could look down at the forbidden region from a very high vantage point, it would be covered with fog, with the exception of the 300 meters surrounding Xu Qing, which was absolutely clear.

    The Singing grew clearer. The footsteps drew closer.

    Upon reaching the 300-meter border, the Singing persisted, but the footsteps stopped. Just beyond that border, where the fog started, it was possible to see a pair of straw sandals, crimson as if stained with blood.

    Xu Qing did not remember seeing these sandals before. Above the sandals in the swirling mist was a figure that was simrly unfamiliar. It looked like a young woman, d in a voluminous ck robe that stretched behind her into the forbidden region. Her arrival caused the grass in the area to bend in her direction, and the trees bowed in worship.

    Mutagen roiled off of her, infusing the fog and causing it to ripple. Her eyes were especially unique. One was red. The other was white. The red eye contained innumerable deceased souls, while the white one had endless skeletons. The eyes took in both Xu Qing and his shadow.

    ¡°Food!¡± she said in a raspy voice that emanated, not just from her mouth, but from the fog, the nts, and the entire forbidden region.

    Within the 300-meter area, the shadow¡¯s eyes glowed with mysterious light as they locked onto the woman. At the same time, they flickered with even greater fear.

    <i>¡°Thedy of... forbidden region....¡±</i> the shadow said, projecting fluctuations directly into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    Xu Qing simply stood there, his eyes cold. Meanwhile, the ck-robed woman was just about to step into the 300-meter area when she stopped and looked up into the sky.

    A momentter, she spoke again. ¡°Leave!¡±

    This time, the voice thrummed with a power of expulsion and rejection, and it rose up from the entire forbidden region as well.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. sping hands to thedy of the forbidden region, he said, ¡°Sorry to disturb you.¡±

    The fog gathered around the woman, and the power of expulsion grew more intense. Within it was a faint sense of malice, as if it were looking for an opportunity. However, the pressure weighing down from above, struck fear into her heart, and thus, the malicious intentions did not turn into malicious actions.

    As thedy of the forbidden region faded from view, Xu Qing politely said, ¡°Did you forget something, ma¡¯am?¡±

    The figure in the fog was apparently pretending not to hear him.

    Looking like the perfect image of courtesy, Xu Qing continued, ¡°When you hear the Singing a second time, this forbidden region gives you a gift. You¡¯re supposed to be able to see the person you most want to see. This is my second time hearing the Singing.¡±

    The figure in the mist looked coldly at Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t respond. It turned and began to move in the opposite direction, disappearing into the fog. The frigid yin aura in the area grew more intense, and the sound of the song drifted about, giving further weight to the force of expulsion.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim, and his eyes even colder. Abandoning his previous polite attitude, he said, ¡°Dreadnaught!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the 3,000-meter dreadnaught descended, emanating a terrifying pressure. At the same time, Daoist Sima and the thousand swordsages all unleashed their auras, lending further weight to the pressure on the forbidden region.

    The forbidden region trembled, and the fog seethed. The woman that had been in the middle of leaving stopped in ce, turned, and then thrummed with very dangerous fluctuations as she looked at Xu Qing with a vicious expression.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing unreasonable about my request,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Senior Qingqin.¡±

    A caw erupted in the dome of heaven that could shred metal, as if Qingqin had been waiting for a long time for Xu Qing to call him into action. He seemed excited, and it brought a stiff breeze that was like a huge hand shoving down onto the forbidden region.

    Then Qingqin himself appeared. The ground quaked, and the fog rippled violently.

    Thedy of the forbidden region looked around with her eyes shing. Her malice soared, and at the same time, shrill zither music echoed out from the depths of the forbidden region. The song of the zither filled the entire forbidden region, causing everything to vibrate. Zombies emerged from the trees, and vicious souls burrowed out from the nts and vegetation.

    All of them pulsed with killing intent aimed at Xu Qing. It was as if everything was transforming dramatically thanks to the zither music. It was as if the forbidden region had been previously covered by a veil, but now that veil was being pulled back to reveal the true features of the ce. Many of the nts here were actually made from evil souls. And many of the trees were actually piles of corpses. There were also ordinary nts and trees. But they only took up about forty percent of the ce. Sixty percent of the forbidden region abounded with zombies, which were all of the countless living beings that had died in this ce over the years.

    Up above, Daoist Sima stepped out onto the deck of the dreadnaught and looked down at thedy of the forbidden region. ¡°This forbidden region isn¡¯t very formidable. It¡¯s only about half mutated. Once it¡¯s fully mutated, it will be a peak forbidden region, at which point not even I could suppress it. I would need more power. But right now, we could attempt to seal it.¡±

    Daoist Sima¡¯s words caused the zither music to grow even more piercing. At the same time, the surrounding zombies howled ferociously.

    The shadow, meanwhile, looked at Xu Qing, pulsing with fluctuations of longing.

    Xu Qing ignored those things. After sping hands to Daoist Sima, he turned to thedy.

    ¡°Please allow me to see the person I wish to see. That is the rule which governs this forbidden region.¡±

    As the zither music resounded, thedy of the forbidden region coldly said, ¡°The honor of this forbidden region is invible!¡±

    She lifted her hands, and the entire forbidden region woke. The forces of rejection and expulsion erupted. It looked like a war was about to break out

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing lifted his hand and pointed toward the sky.

    ¡°Taboo treasure!¡±

    ***

    Far away in the county capital, the taboo treasure thrummed, and golden light shot through the sky in the direction of South Phoenix.

    Marquis Yao, who was currently in the Governor¡¯s Mansion working on official business, noticed what was happening. Looking up, he smiled, then went back to work.

    ***

    Golden light appeared in the sky above the continent of South Phoenix, specifically, over the forbidden region by the scavengers. It turned into a golden that weighed down with terrifying pressure.

    The zither music stopped. Yet again, thedy of the forbidden region looked up, and this time, her expression flickered slightly. As she red at the golden, ripples spread out in the surrounding fog. The zombies and evil souls stopped moving. A momentter, thedy of the forbidden region looked away. She waved her hand. And then, a stream of red mist emerged from her and converged off to the side.

    That mist was formed from her essence; once it left her, she became a bit more difficult to see.

    The mist converged slowly, almost begrudgingly. Eventually, it became a pair of shoes.

    They were the same shoes Sergeant Thunder had been wearing when he died.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as the mist pulsated, gradually turning into the image of Sergeant Thunder, who stood there looking at Xu Qing. His gaze was one of mixed relief and sorrow.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were already slightly bloodshot.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder....¡±

    Sergeant Thunder smiled and nodded in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Then, after looking around, he sighed, turned, and turned back into a mist that gradually dissipated into nothing.

    The shoes walked away and disappeared.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He was thinking about something Sergeant Thunder had said once.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t wait around this ce. I saw the one I wanted to see, but now I feel empty....¡±</i>

    ¡°Do I feel empty?¡± Xu Qing murmured as he looked at the fog. He was still waiting to see if any other figures would appear.

    Now that he had heard the Singing twice, he was hoping to see other people. For instance, Grandmaster Bai, Master Sixth, and especially his father and mother. However... as time passed, and Xu Qing waited, no more shoes appeared. Looking very lonely, and feeling very bleak, he looked at thedy of the forbidden region.

    ¡°Senior, is there any chance I could see some other people?¡±

    Thedy red back at him. Qingqin let loose a cry. The dreadnaught pulsed. The taboo treasure glittered. Thedy said nothing.

    Eventually, Master Sixth appeared in the fog. He seemed confused, then looked thoughtful. Finally, he noticed Xu Qing. He smiled. Heart full of grief, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed very deeply. Master Sixth smiled and returned the bow. Then he faded away into the fog.

    The fog began to retreat.

    ¡°Senior, is there any possibility I could see Grandmaster Bai and my parents? I¡¯d be happy to pay for it.¡± Xu Qing spoke withplete politeness.

    However, thedy of the forbidden region ignored his courtesy. The zither music grew harsher, and the expression on thedy¡¯s face turned even icier.

    Voice cold, she said, ¡°me Phoenix has ordered that the forbidden regions in South Phoenix may not expand outward. However, any who encroach on the forbidden regions here will be crushed by Forbidden by the Phoenix!¡±

    The surrounded zombies all howled in unison. The taboo treasure, Qingqin, and Daoist Sima all erupted with even greater pressure. However, in response, the brutal will of the forbidden region did the same. Forbidden regions could be suppressed or sealed. But their honor could not be infringed upon.

    Then Qingqin glowed with magenta light, and his center head shed a look of arrogance and disdain. A red feather appeared in its mouth.

    1. Xu Qing originally heard the Singing in <u>chapter 16</u>. ?

 Chapter 544: Favor for the Phoenixâ€™s Family (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 544: Favor for the Phoenix¡¯s Family (part 2)</h4>

    The moment the feather appeared, the entire forbidden region trembled. Thedy in the ck robe looked up, stunned, before quickly bowing her head. The distant zither music became a low vibration.

    That was one of me Phoenix¡¯s feathers.

    In the continent of South Phoenix, me Phoenix wasn¡¯t just the emperor of Forbidden by the Phoenix. He was the emperor of the entire continent, and by extension, the emperor of all the forbidden regions.

    The fog returned, swirling and wriggling into a new shape. Strangely, no matter how thedy of the forbidden region tried, it wasn¡¯t possible to form all three figures in full. Xu Qing¡¯s father and mother became mere outlines before they copsed. Grandmaster Bai was also an outline, but didn¡¯t be clear. He also dissipated.

    Xu Qing looked at thedy of the forbidden region. A moment passed. Qingqin cawed. Finally, thedy of the forbidden region spoke in a raspy voice.

    ¡°There are two human souls that were sacrificed to the Father God. They cannot be summoned back. The other soul is not in Revered Ancient.¡±

    Thedy of the forbidden region suddenly backed away, merging into the fog. Then the fog retreated into the depths of the forbidden region, where it formed a sealing power that isted itself from the outside. Apparently, she wasn¡¯t very pleased with how things had gone, and was now choosing to seal herself in seclusion. Along with her went the force of expulsion.

    Xu Qing stood there quietly. He was not surprised that he had been unable to see the image of his father and mother. Back in Peerless City, they had been sacrificed to the broken face of the god. But he was confused by the situation with Grandmaster Bai¡¯s soul.

    <i>Not in Revered Ancient?</i>

    Xu Qing frowned. Thinking back to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death, he turned to look in the direction of the Violet Lands. Hisst stop on this visit to South Phoenix was to pay respects to Grandmaster Bai, and also see his childhoodpanions who lived in the Violet Lands.

    <i>Maybe I should ask Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu about all the details of Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death.</i> [1]

    After a moment of thought, he turned to Daoist Sima and Qingqin. He sped hands and bowed. ¡°Seniors, I hope you don¡¯t mind waiting for me for a few days. I n to have one of my spirit pets evolve here.¡±

    Daoist Sima looked at the shadow beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet. Nodding, he took the swordsages back to the dreadnaught. Qingqin gave a caw, pped his wings, and flew in the direction of the fog in the middle of the forbidden region. He was actually very interested in thedy there. The zither music twanged, and the fog roiled. Qingqin disappeared into the fog.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t quite sure what happened after that. However, given that Qingqin had one of me Phoenix¡¯s feathers, it seemed unlikely he would be in any trouble.

    Turning, he walked back in the general direction of his oldboratory. As the light of dawn appeared, he reached the spot where Squad Thunderbolt had battled the ck-scaled wolves.

    Sitting down cross-legged, he quietly said, ¡°This is the spot where I sealed you. Let this mark the boundary for you today. Don¡¯t go into the depths of the forbidden region. Don¡¯t go into the templeplex. But you can go everywhere else. Show me how much you can grow up.¡± [2]

    His shadow immediately spread out 300 meters. Countless eyes opened and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Thanks... milord....¡±

    The shadow faded as it spread out even farther. It left Xu Qing and began moving around and finding nts that had been mutated by thedy of the forbidden region. Seemingly inexhaustible amounts of mutagen flowed into the shadow. Chewing sounds echoed out. nts and trees alike were nothing more than food for the shadow. It was the same with the mutant beasts. Howls echoed out, and the scavengers who heard them trembled and fled. After some thought, the shadow decided not to bother the scavengers. It wasn¡¯t sure how Xu Qing would react to that. So it stuck to devouring mutant beasts and mutagen.

    Gradually, its aura grew stronger. Slowly but surely, the nts and trees, instead of disappearing, transformed. The nts grew eyes, and the trees became coffins. It was the same with the mutant beasts. After the shadow devoured them, they would grow eyes ande back to life. It was almost as if the shadow was somehow taking over the forbidden region.

    Time passed. Three days went by.

    By now, about ten percent of the forbidden region pulsed with the aura of the shadow. And its appearance had changed. The shadow was stuffed and couldn¡¯t continue. Sweeping back toward where Xu Qing was seated cross-legged, it emanated cheerful fluctuations that indicated it was close to a breakthrough.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they glittered coldly.

    ¡°Devouring ten percent and then trying to force a breakthrough? That won¡¯t do any good.¡±

    The pleased shadow shivered. ¡°Keep going... slowly but surely... get stronger....¡±

    ¡°Hurry up and break through,¡± Xu Qing said coldly.

    The shadow shivered and shrank in on itself. Then a 300-meter-tall tree appeared in front of Xu Qing. It had a thick trunk and an umbre-like canopy. It pulsed with immense power, and emanated an extraordinary aura. There were no leaves on the tree, just countless red eyes. However, the eyes didn¡¯t contain a hint of brutality. Only obedience. That only made the tree seem more gruish, though.

    Ling¡¯er stuck her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve. ¡°You¡¯ve got this!¡±

    Her words of encouragement caused the shadow to be even more excited. The tree branches swayed, releasing heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling sounds.

    Next, the huge tree began to transform. It became an enormous coffin, also covered with eyes. Its aura became even more intense, and it also had a feeling of death in it. After that, the coffin transformed into a ck vortex that emitted howling sounds. The shadow was now heading toward its third state.

    Xu Qing stared at the vortex with keen anticipation. The shadow had its uses asionally, after all. Therefore, after Xu Qing came to understand how terrifyingly powerful the violet crystal really was, he wanted the shadow to get stronger.

    <i>I wonder what its third form will be like.</i>

    Rumbling echoed from within the vortex as it grewrger. It went from 300 meters to 3,000, and it floated high into the sky.

    It wasn¡¯t a vertical vortex. It was horizontal, like an enormous storm cloud that filled the sky. ck rain fell from it, except, it wasn¡¯t made of raindrops, but rather, of numerous shadows. Gradually, everything within that 3,000-meter area became pitch ck, as if the entire area waspletely isted from the rest of the world.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing started to get a bit excited.

    Up above, Daoist Sima and the other swordsages looked on with raised eyebrows.

    Eventually a huge face appeared within the vortex. The facial features were unfamiliar, but it was clearly howling in a way that made it seem like the voice was full of thunder. The face didn¡¯t remain in ce for long. After a few breaths of time, it vanished back into the vortex, while at the same time, Nascent Soul fluctuations rolled out.

    The shadow¡¯s shape changed again. Instead of a vortex, it was like a 3,000-meter ck canopy up in the sky. It was almost like a blotchy stain on the dome of heaven. Excited fluctuations rolled out.

    ¡°I¡¯m... so... strong!¡±

    Xu Qing let out a cold harrumph.

    The fluctuations transformed into those of terror.

    ¡°I¡¯m... so... weak!¡±

    The shadow didn¡¯t wait for any instructions from Xu Qing, and immediately revealed some of its new powers. The 3,000-meter canopy of heaven was suddenly dotted with stars. It was almost as if that 3,000-meter section wasn¡¯t just a blotchy stain in the sky, but rather, its own starry sky! Astonishingly, those stars were all eyes. And when the eyes blinked, those stars glittered.

    ¡°Milord... I conceal... flee... transport....¡±

    The shadow was excitedly trying to exin what it could do.

    Xu Qing frowned. From what he could tell, the shadow had transformed to look a bit more gruish, but other than that, didn¡¯t seem to have developed any new abilities.

    Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s displeasure, the 3,000-meter canopy of heaven sent out more fluctuations.

    ¡°Eyes... possess... seal....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes glittering coldly.

    Shivering, the shadow loudly said, ¡°I... can possess... gods!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Standing, he looked at the 3,000-meter canopy of heaven.

    ¡°Eventually....¡± The eyes in the canopy of heaven blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing replied in a cool tone, his facepletely expressionless. ¡°Get the hell back here.¡±

    The shadow dropped down and returned trembling to Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er chuckled. ¡°Little Shadow is really trying hard, Big Bro Xu Qing!¡±

    She looked at Xu Qing and blinked a few times.

    The shadow shivered and emanated fluctuations of thankfulness. It had never experienced anything like this before. After all, the only thing it got from Xu Qing was coldness. Considering all that coldness, getting just a teeny bit of warmth left it feeling very grateful toward Ling¡¯er. Not sure how to respond, it twisted and turned in a variety of clever ways. Ling¡¯erughed.

    Theughter made the shadow even happier. But then it saw Xu Qing¡¯s expressionless face, and it shivered and didn¡¯t dare to look happy any more.

    Xu Qing ignored the shadow as he flew up to the dreadnaught. As soon as hended on the deck, Daoist Sima gave him a look. His other warrades smiled.

    Xu Qing also smiled. Thanking them, he then looked back into the depths of the forbidden region. Apparently noticing his gaze, Qingqin flew up out of the fog and let loose a contented caw. Even now, no one knew what he had been doing in the fog.

    Curious, Xu Qing scanned the forbidden region, but the fog obscured everything. Qingqin seemed fine, though, so Xu Qing didn¡¯t put any more thought into it. Before long, the dreadnaught was speeding toward the Violet Lands.

    That was going to be Xu Qing¡¯s next stop. After what happened in the forbidden region, he wanted to look more deeply into what happened leading up to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death. Last time he¡¯d been there, he had only been concerned about exacting vengeance, and hadn¡¯t looked much into the overall circumstances. Based on what thedy of the forbidden region had said, Xu Qing got the feeling that there were more mysteries to be unraveled.

    1. West saw Chen Feiyuan in <u>chapter 210</u>. That arc started in <u>chapter 207</u>, where we also saw Tingyu again after many chapters. Other chapters featuring them include <u>18</u>, <u>21</u>, and <u>29</u>. This is probably a good point to remind everyone that Grandmaster Bai¡¯s surname is NOT the same surname as Bai Xiaochun from AWE. Grandmaster Bai¡¯s surname (which could also be pronounced Bo) is ²® while Bai Xiaochun¡¯s is °×. If you look closely, you can see that Grandmaster Bai¡¯s surname actually contains the character °×. So if there was some situation where Grandmaster Bai was somehow connected to Bai Xiaochun, it wouldn¡¯t be super surprising. That said, there is no inherent reason to connect the two. That¡¯s not to mention that there have been other characters surnamed Bai in Er Gen¡¯s novels. ?

    2. Xu Qing got the shadow in the fight with the ck-scaled wolves in <u>chapter 13</u>. ?

 Chapter 545: Assassination Before a Grave (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 545: Assassination Before a Grave (part 1)</h4>

    The Violet Lands were special to humans in the continent of South Phoenix. To the scavengers and mortals, they represented imperial authority. They were a symbol of nobility. Anyone who came from the Violet Lands was automatically important. Their style of clothing conveyed eternal luxury, and they gave people something to look forward to. Most people would dream their whole lives of being able to reside there. Sadly, it would be <i>easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn</i> than to find someone capable of making that move.

    The reason for all of that was that the Violet Lands were thest true kingdom of humans in South Phoenix. The Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, which bore the same name as an even greater kingdom from the Revered Ancient maind, had long since been toppled. However, eight major ns from that kingdom still lived on.

    They represented the true local power of humans. Their court politics affected the entire continent, and because of their long rtionship with me Phoenix, they benefited from his protection. For generations, they had refused to leave South Phoenix, and they were people no one dared to provoke. In their view, all the other forces in South Phoenix, from Seven Blood Eyes to the Church of Departure, and even the mysterious Words of Truth, were, in the final analysis, outsiders.

    Istionist. Old-fashioned. Haughty. Those were the words mostmonly used to describe the Violet Lands.

    But on this bright morning, the mortals in the Violet Lands saw somethingpletely unimaginable.

    All eight ns had mobilized. The direct bloodline n members dressed in their finest, and had gathered in ranks at the east gate of the Violet Lands¡¯ capital city. All of them had very respectful expressions on their faces. The eight n chiefs stood up front with simrly respectful bearings. nking them were the elders of the various ns. All of them were looking east toward the horizon.

    There were some elderly folks atop the city wall, who had once borne the magical treasure legacies of their people, but who had since passed those legacies on to their sessors. Now, their cultivation bases were in decline, and they couldn¡¯t even walk without assistance. But they were there, looking toward the horizon as well.

    No one spoke.

    Considering how important social hierarchy was in the Violet Lands, this was something rarely seen.

    There was nothing in South Phoenix that could cause the istionist ns to present themselves so solemnly. Clearly, they were waiting to receive someone. Because of that, the mortals in the Violet Lands were all specting about what was going on.

    Among the forces of the eight ns gathered outside the east gate were two people who stood near the n chiefs. Given their low seniority in the n, they normally wouldn¡¯t be allowed to stand in that position. But on this day, they had been required to stand there. Many people were ncing their way, including some of the n chiefs. One was a man, the other was a woman. He was handsome, but his expression was dour. She was beautiful, her expression a mixture of nervousness, anticipation, and also disbelief. They were none other than Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu.

    The events in Sea-Sealing County the previous month had been shocking to everyone. And of course, news had spread to the continent of South Phoenix. It was no surprise that the eight ns of the Violet Lands had looked into the matter. Everyone knew that someone named Xu Qing had been appointed as the secretary-general, which was a very high position. And after the attempted coup in the county capital, he had be even more important. It didn¡¯t take long before they found out that Xu Qing, like them, was from South Phoenix. Thus, when they were notified that Xu Qing wasing to the Violet Lands, the eight ns took it very seriously. That was why they had gathered to receive him. They were old-fashioned and istionist, but they knew who they were dealing with. If this visitor was someone from South Phoenix, they could afford to treat him haughtily. But they wouldn¡¯t dare to treat Sea-Sealing County that way.

    As Tingyu wrestled with her nervousness, she quietly asked, ¡°Feiyuan, do you think Xu Qing... is the same as he was before?¡±

    Grandmaster Bai¡¯s death had been a very harsh blow to Tingyu. As she had grown, her personality changed. She became weaker. If it weren¡¯t for Chen Feiyuan protecting her, she would have been nothing more than a tool to be married off by her n.

    ¡°Tingyu,¡± Chen Feiyuan said, ¡°forget about all that stuff when we were kids.¡± When he spoke, he sounded grim and forbidding. However, that wasn¡¯t on purpose. He lived in a n where power struggles affected everything, and everyone was trying to outwit everyone else. He had long since adapted to that environment. ¡°If Xu Qing is the same as before, that would be great. But it wouldn¡¯t be surprising at all to find that he¡¯s changed. Also, the fact that he announced his visit indicates... that there¡¯s an important reason he chose toe here.¡±

    Tingyu nodded and said nothing further.

    An hourter, a mighty caw echoed from the horizon, spreading in all directions and causing the clouds to seethe. Qingqin¡¯s massive frame filled the sky, casting a shadow over the Violet Lands. Along with him came the dreadnaught, screaming through the air. They brought a stiff wind that caused the clothing of the Violet Lands cultivators to p wildly. Expressions somber, they looked up into the sky.

    Xu Qing and Daoist Sima emerged from the dreadnaught andnded in front of the east gate. The cultivators from the eight ns all sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Secretary-General Xu, Honor Guard Sima.¡±

    Bells tolled in the Violet Lands. They rang twenty-one times, echoing out somberly in all directions.

    Xu Qing was as polite as he always was. He returned the greeting ording to etiquette, then exchanged some more formalities. After that, he looked at Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu. Smiling, he said, ¡°Elder Brother Feiyuan. Elder Sister Tingyu.¡±

    Tingyu became visibly excited. Chen Feiyuan, on the other hand, remained expressionless, though his eyes flitted back and forth vigntly. Xu Qing noticed that and wondered what it meant.

    Meanwhile, the eight ns enthusiastically invited him into the city. They had nned avish banquet to wee him, but he politely declined, and instead indicated he wanted to pay respects to Grandmaster Bai. The n chiefs all knew about Xu Qing¡¯s rtionship with Grandmaster Bai, and could also tell that he was interested in catching up with his old friends. Naturally, they amodated his wishes.

    The chief of the Bai n carefully avoided mentioning that Grandmaster Bai was buried in a public cemetery.

    Meanwhile, the chief of the Chen n smiled and said, ¡°In that case, we won¡¯t bother you, Secretary-General Xu. My dear son Feiyuan can keep youpany and also be responsible for your safety.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the n chief and nodded. Then he sped hands to the representatives of the eight ns. After all of them left, he was alone with Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu.

    Once they were alone, Tingyu couldn¡¯t hold back any longer, and she hurried up to Xu Qing. In her memories, Xu Qing was a dirty little kid who had eavesdropped on alchemy lessons outside the tent in the scavenger basecamp. In the blink of an eye, seven years had passed. She hadn¡¯t seen him since the day they parted in that basecamp. Back when Grandmaster Bai passed away, Xu Qing hade to the Violet Lands, but she¡¯d only glimpsed him in passing, and he had also been in disguise. Onlyter on did Chen Feiyuan tell her about Xu Qing avenging their Teacher¡¯s death. [1]

    ¡°Little Junior Brother....¡± she said, her eyes red with tears.

    ¡°Elder Sister Tingyu.¡± Xu Qing was also feeling emotional. Although he wasn¡¯t as close to Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu as he was to the Captain, the innocence of their childhood rtionship was something he would never forget. Though they hadn¡¯t spent much time together, those memories were something he cherished.

    As he sighed with emotion, he looked at Chen Feiyuan and noted that his cultivation base was only in Foundation Establishment. However, his aura was very gruish, and it seemed like he had a massive tempest within him. It made Xu Qing think back to when he had used the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, and had seen something inside of Chen Feiyuan. [2]

    People with the blood of Violet and Cyan could live symbiotically with magical treasures. It was a power the eight ns had seized, and then eventually turned into an innate ability.

    Looking at Chen Feiyuan, Xu Qing said, ¡°Elder Brother Feiyuan, inside of you is that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Well met, Secretary-General Xu,¡± Chen Feiyuan interrupted, sping his hands formally.

    Xu Qing stopped speaking. Given Chen Feiyuan¡¯s facial expression, and his behavior at the east gate, Xu Qing could guess that something was going on. He turned to Daoist Sima.

    Daoist Sima maintained silence for a few breaths of time. Then he quietly said, ¡°Marquis Yao arranged all of this personally. We shouldn¡¯t run into anyplications.¡±

    Xu Qing stood there in silence. The trip to the Violet Lands had been announced ahead of time. But when Xu Qing arrived and saw all eight ns present, he had started to suspect something was going on. Combine that with the way Chen Feiyuan looked around vigntly earlier, it caused everything to click into ce. Marquis Yao had probably arranged all of this as a fishing expedition.

    It was like how, years ago, Master Seventh had sent him out, then followed along secretly, hoping that people who coveted Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp would reveal themselves. Right now, while Sea-Sealing County was stable again, there were surely still viins in hiding. [3]

    There were definitely species with hidden agendas that didn¡¯t want Sea-Sealing County to be stable. Perhaps there were Torchlight agents out there, or other rebels who hadn¡¯t been rooted out during the attempted coup. Even Seventh Prince would have to be on the watch for such people.

    Given how important Xu Qing was right now, if he perished, it would be a huge blow to the stability of Sea-Sealing County. Despite that, it didn¡¯t make sense to pour endless resources into mounting defenses against such people. Therefore, Marquis Yao wanted to purge as many of them as possible at the same time. And Xu Qing¡¯s trip had thus be a focal point.

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly in the direction of the county capital. He said nothing further.

    Off to the side, Chen Feiyuan¡¯s expression eased after hearing Daoist Sima¡¯s words. He had previously assumed this trip was all Xu Qing¡¯s doing, and that he had been using their Teacher¡¯s grave as a tool in some sort of game. That was why he had reacted with antipathy.

    1. Tingyu kept looking over her shoulder at Xu Qing when they parted in <u>chapter 29</u>. She saw him in disguise in <u>chapter 207</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing used the taboo treasure in <u>chapter 383</u>. ?

    3. Master Seventh mentioned the ¡°fishing expedition¡± in <u>chapter 300</u>, though the journey didn¡¯t begin until <u>301</u>. ?

 Chapter 545: Assassination Before a Grave (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 545: Assassination Before a Grave (part 2)</h4>

    Tingyu didn¡¯t have the heart of a schemer like Chen Feiyuan or Xu Qing. Therefore, she didn¡¯t realize there had been a misunderstanding, nor did she even consider that only a few words could resolve that misunderstanding. However, she could sense that Chen Feiyuan seemed somewhat irritated. Grabbing Chen Feiyuan, and then grabbing Xu Qing, she pulled them closer together.

    Smiling, she said, ¡°Chen Feiyuan, don¡¯t think that just because you¡¯ve grown up you can ignore your Elder Sister¡¯s words. And Xu Qing, don¡¯t be put off by Chen Feiyuan¡¯s icy exterior. He actually paid very close attention to everything you did in the county capital. You see, the more he grows up, the less he likes revealing what he really thinks.¡±

    Chen Feiyuan cleared his throat. Xu Qing grinned. The three of them looked at each other, and for a moment it was like they were all back in that tent in the scavenger basecamp, sitting together and listening to Grandmaster Bai¡¯s lectures. A moment passed, and they continued on their way to the public cemetery.

    Daoist Sima followed behind, keeping his distance. As he looked at the three youngsters, he sighed inwardly and thought of his own Junior Brother. <i>I should go remind him again not to covet the bloodlines of others. It will only lead to disaster.</i>

    It was currently noon. Though it was in the middle of winter, the sky was clear, with only a few wispy clouds floating along. The wind wasn¡¯t very cold, and the sun shone down on Xu Qing, Chen Feiyuan, and Tingyu, keeping them warm as they walked to the cemetery.

    Martialw had been imposed thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s visit. What was more, there were guards from the eight ns nearby, ready to follow orders from Chen Feiyuan if necessary.

    There were plenty of flowers and incense at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. Whether it was Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu, or other people who had been helped by Grandmaster Bai through the years, there were always peopleing to pay respects.

    Xu Qing looked at the grave and thought back to Grandmaster Bai. Tingyu handed him some incense, and he lit it, knelt in front of the grave, and kowtowed. Parents impart the soul to a child. A teacher prepares them for life. Because of that, teachers and parents surpass the importance of heaven. Whether it was Master Seventh or Grandmaster Bai, it was the same.

    Xu Qing had understood that truth from a young age. Although he lived in a chaotic world, anyone who imparted knowledge to him was someone he would cherish forever.

    However, as Xu Qing kowtowed, those wispy clouds floating in the sky suddenly stirred into motion. There was no explosion of killing intent. There was no icy will. The clouds just formed into a hand that shot down toward Xu Qing in front of the grave. It moved so quickly, and happened so unexpectedly, that it seemed clear this was an ambush designed to be difficult to defend against. What was more, Void Returning power erupted in the hand, causing it to pulse with a sensation of extermination.

    Nine figures suddenly appeared.

    The first eight were the n chiefs who had previously departed. All of them pulsed with Spirit Trove fluctuations. The ninth person was an old man with white hair who had a Void Returning aura. Together, they shot toward the descending hand. That old man was publicly epted as the patriarch of all eight ns, and he was the only Void Returning cultivator in the Violet Lands.

    When the two forces collided, the hand was sent flying backward. Eyes shining, the Violet Lands patriarch raced in pursuit.

    The eight n chiefs then flew out to make sure Xu Qing wasn¡¯t harmed by any residual shockwaves from the hand. Just like that, the situation was resolved.

    The entire time, Xu Qing didn¡¯t react at all. He just kept kowtowing.

    Tingyu was visibly shaken. As for Chen Feiyuan, his face remained expressionless. Because he was in charge of Xu Qing¡¯s safety, he had immediately requested help from the Violet Lands leadership when he sensed something was going wrong.

    However, just as Xu Qing¡¯s forehead touched the ground, streams of smoke suddenly rose up all around him. Numerous Smokewights took form and rushed toward Xu Qing. There were hundreds of them, all with extraordinary cultivation bases. Being skilled at assassination, they closed in quickly. However, before they could get close, the surrounding air rippled, and a huge sealing mark appeared, pulsing with terrifying power. It was thebined power of the eight ns¡¯ magical treasures. Though it wasn¡¯t quite at the level of a taboo treasure, it was about as powerful as a magical treasure could be.

    All it took was for Chen Feiyuan to crush a jade slip he held in his hand, and the magical treasure appeared. Everything trembled.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t hurt at all, but the Smokewights screamed as they were ripped apart.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Almost as soon as the magical treasure sealing mark appeared, the third wave of assassins arrived. They didn¡¯t attack from the sky ornd, but rather, from within the wind. As the wind blew from all directions, over a thousand figures appeared. They seemed to be Smokewights, except their auras were different from Smokewights. Clearly, they were just in disguise, and were from some other unknown species.

    When they appeared, the dreadnaught shot onto the scene. A thousand swordsages emerged, and arrayed themselves around the cemetery with deadly force.

    Meanwhile, a ck lightning bolt shot through the sky, opening up a rift out of which three figures emerged.

    All three were Void Returning experts. One was in the second stage, the other was in the third stage. All were in disguise as Smokewights. The moment they appeared, the clouds seethed as a caw from Qingqin turned into an attack that targeted all three of them.

    As explosions filled the air, a fourth figure emerged from the rift. It became a bright beam of light that shot right toward Xu Qing. As the fourth figure neared, Daoist Sima¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light. Stepping forward, he flicked his sleeve, flew up into the air, and started fighting.

    As fighting yed out in the sky and on thend, a nearby n member shivered, and then exhaled sharply. The breath transformed into two imps made of mist that rushed toward Xu Qing.

    They were so close to Xu Qing that they made an immediate threat. In the blink of an eye, they were closing in. That was when a hand reached out of thin air and grabbed both of them. The hand clenched, and the imps screamed as they shattered into bits of mist. Then the hand continued outward as a person emerged.

    Xu Qing recognized this person. It was the old deputy pce lord of the Justice Pce, who was now the official pce lord. He nodded at Xu Qing, then pursued the fleeing bits of mist.

    At the same time, a massive magical symbol of teleportation appeared next to the rift in the sky. It flickered to life, and eight people stepped out. Shockingly, they were led by Pce Lord Li Yunshan. Next to him was the pce lord of the Administration Pce, plus the other three honor guards.

    They immediately shot into the rift, after which rumbling booms rang out.

    Tingyu waspletely stunned by what was happening. She opened her mouth to speak, but Chen Feiyuan reached out, grabbed her, and pulled her to safety.

    Xu Qing stopped kowtowing and looked up into the sky. There, golden light flickered as the county capital¡¯s taboo treasure formed. It spread out to fill the canopy of heaven. In the middle of that, a face appeared. It was none other than Marquis Yao.

    Countless minor worlds swirled around him, like glittering stars. With the blessing of the taboo treasure, and the destiny aura of the county capital, those minor worlds coalesced into a single major world! It then swept toward the rift formed from the ck lightning.

    ¡°Fourth-stage Void Returning!¡±

    Even as Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, the smokeing off of the incense in front of the grave turned into a finger that shot toward Xu Qing. An aura of fatal killing spread out, locking onto Xu Qing¡¯s soul. If that finger attacknded, Xu Qing¡¯s soul would copse.

    However, the moment the finger appeared, the air next to it rippled, and another person emerged to stand protectively in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Begone!¡±

    The fluctuations in the voice were terrifying, but they didn¡¯t harm the grave itself. They were all focused on that finger of smoke. The smoke copsed.

    It only took a moment for Xu Qing to realize who this neer was. He was the grand elder from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    He was Grandmaster Bai¡¯s Master! After a moment, he turned to look at Xu Qing. Then he looked at Tingyu and Chen Feiyuan. He nodded.

    ¡°Xu Qing, continue paying your respects.¡±

    After sping hands to the grand elder, Xu Qing looked back at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s gravestone. Once again, he began kowtowing earnestly.

    ¡°Sorry to disturb your sleep, Teacher...¡± Xu Qing murmured. He could guess at what Marquis Yao was trying to aplish here, though Xu Qing himself had not been aware of the n. And he also knew why Marquis Yao didn¡¯t mention anything ahead of time. The marquis had obviously been aware that Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t agree toy a trap like this right in front of his Teacher¡¯s grave. Or perhaps this wasn¡¯t their chosen location for the fight to y out.

    Xu Qing continue to kowtow.

    One kowtow. Two kowtows. Three kowtows....

    Marquis Yao had obviously prepared thoroughly for this situation. He also had the cooperation of the Violet Lands. As a result, the well over 1,000 would-be assassins were either being killed or captured. The fight didn¡¯tst long. Once the attackers realized a trap had beenid, they tried to flee.

    After Marquis Yao¡¯s major world entered the rift, the ce rained blood. The assassination attempt was already almost over. Although some fighting was still ying out, it had already moved out of the Violet Lands.

    Everything grew quiet.

    The assassination attempt by the secret resistance forces in Sea-Sealing County had been thwarted. Perhaps they didn¡¯t attack with full force, or perhaps they didn¡¯t prepare well enough. Either way, their haste, coupled with their selection of the wrong battlefield, and perhaps other factors they couldn¡¯t have predicted, led to this conclusion. Because of everything, Xu Qing felt like he had just been part of a show.

    <i>Or maybe Marquis Yao wasn¡¯t on a fishing expedition. Maybe he got some information about what was going to happen, and decided to tighten the noose....</i>

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    The grand elder from the Swordsage Court noticed Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be irritated at Marquis Yao,¡± he said. ¡°He paid a heavy price for this. Tapping into the county¡¯s taboo treasure and destiny aura, plus the forced convergence of his major world, is going to cost him longevity.

    ¡°Now that he¡¯s the governor, his connections with the various nonhumans are going to be the foundation of his sess in Sea-Sealing County. He has a totally different style than the old governor. Some species required to give blood tribute did it in the form of intelligence reports.

    ¡°Marquis Yao wants to stabilize the county and intimidate those around us. He can¡¯t afford to show any cowardice, and thus, chose to make an impression. The reality is that Sea-Sealing County doesn¡¯t actually have a fourth-stage expert, which led to this current situation.¡±

    The grand elder looked deeply at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Furthermore, he took a weakness of yours and managed to erase it in the eyes of the enemy. If they think you¡¯re willing toy a trap like this right in front of your Teacher¡¯s grave, then they¡¯ll believe that mundane emotional connections are meaningless to you. Going forward, no one will try to use such things against you. Of course, this is all just my opinion.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. He knew the situation in Sea-Sealing County, and he could guess Marquis Yao¡¯s intentions.

    As Xu Qing looked in the direction of where the fighting was still ying out, Chen Feiyuan approached.

    ¡°Our Violet Lands forces have captured many enemies. Some we need to keep for interrogation. What do we do with the others?¡±

    Calming his heart and mind, Xu Qing said, ¡°Kill them.¡±

 Chapter 546: Daofate Heavenfiend; Thirteenth Nascent Soul! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 546: Daofate Heavenfiend; Thirteenth Nascent Soul! (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing had always been indifferent toward enemies.

    Chen Feiyuan nodded. Looking at Xu Qing, he sighed inwardly. After his Teacher passed away, Chen Feiyuan had lost any measure of protection he had. To survive the n infighting that was typical in the Violet Lands, he had mastered the ability to be ruthless and unfeeling.

    <i>But Xu Qing had already mastered that when he was a kid. It¡¯s an instinct by now.</i>

    Chen Feiyuan had onlye to understand that part of Xu Qing when he himself became embroiled in n power struggles. Chen Feiyuan¡¯s understanding of Xu Qing was informed by many things, such as his actions as the Kid in the scavenger basecamp, the bloodbath with the camp owner, or how Xu Qing ughtered his way through Seven Blood Eyes. Chen Feiyuan had observed how Xu Qing handled himself, and had been determined to learn from him.

    There wasn¡¯t any need for further discussion. Chen Feiyuan took out a transmission jade slip and gave the orders to ughter the prisoners.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to the details. He didn¡¯t stay for long in the Violet Lands. He spent three days catching up with Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu. Then the eight ns gathered again to see him off.

    When it came time to part, Tingyu wept. Her frailty had be much more apparent after their Teacher¡¯s death, and that was especially true when it came time to part with people she cared about. The pain she felt was obvious.

    Xu Qing could tell that she was no longer the curious and exuberant girl she¡¯d been when they were kids. But as she grew, the camaraderie they¡¯d experienced as fellow disciples was a source of warmth inside of her, which insted her against the coldness of the Violet Lands, and the dog-eat-dog world she was forced to live in. That¡¯s just how life is sometimes. White hair eventually covers the past. The colder the world is, the more likely that emotions other than love will build up in the heart. And sometimes, those emotions don¡¯t need long periods of time to develop.

    With some struggle, Tingyu managed to control herself. She didn¡¯t cry in front of Xu Qing. It was only after he was gone that she fell onto Chen Feiyuan¡¯s shoulder and wept.

    Chen Feiyuan looked at the Elder Sister he had grown up with. He could feel her heartache. ¡°Elder Sister,¡± he said softly, ¡°do you remember what Teacher told us? The world is a tavern for living beings. And the timescape is an old guest....¡±

    Tingyu looked up and softly continued, ¡°As long as we don''t die, we¡¯ll meet again.¡±

    The exact same words could be heard on the dreadnaught as Xu Qing murmured them. The wind stirred his clothes and lifted his hair as the dreadnaught started moving. He was thinking about what Grandmaster Bai looked like when he uttered those words. [1]

    On his final day in the Violet Lands, he had asked Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu for all the details of what happened before Grandmaster Bai died. For example, he¡¯d asked if Grandmaster Bai had any other friends simr to Master Seventh. He¡¯d inquired about any unusual circumstances leading up to the murder, and whether or not Grandmaster Bai said anything noteworthy.

    Chen Feiyuan had little to add. But Tingyu had a good memory, and was able to describe that time period in detail. However, she didn¡¯t mention anything that Xu Qing found relevant. Except... she mentioned that their Teacher had the habit of looking into the sky. It wasn¡¯t something he had always done. He only developed the habit in the year before his murder.

    Xu Qing looked up quietly into the sky.

    ¡°Beyond Revered Ancient....¡±

    He thought about it for a moment. In the end, he couldn¡¯te up with an answer to what happened to Grandmaster Bai. He could only bury the matter in his heart.

    After leaving the Violet Lands, Xu Qing took a trip to Forbidden by the Phoenix. He wanted to determine once and for all who Huang Yan really was. Upon arriving at the fog-filled Forbidden by the Phoenix, Qingqin let loose a loud caw. However, me Phoenix didn¡¯t react.

    Xu Qing studied the ce for a time, then chose to leave. However, just before passing the border of Forbidden by the Phoenix, he got a voice message from Second Elder Sister.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother! I¡¯m in Forbidden by the Phoenix. Guess what? I¡¯m pregnant! However, because of that, I¡¯m having trouble with my next cultivation breakthrough. It¡¯s so annoying. And it¡¯s all the fault of that big fat fatty, Huang Yan. So, so annoying!</i>

    <i>¡°Anyway, Huang Yan is helping me figure everything out, which means we can¡¯t go out and see you. By the way... Huang Yan wants me to tell you that his offer from before is still valid. If you¡¯re feeling down, juste back to South Phoenix.¡±</i>

    After listening to the message, Xu Qing turned to Qingqin.

    Qingqin cawed. His expression was one of excitement and curiosity; he could clearly sense that something unusual was going on in Forbidden by the Phoenix.

    <i>Is Huang Yan really me Phoenix?</i> thought Xu Qing. All the clues indicate that the answer was yes. But when Xu Qing thought back to everything he¡¯d done with Huang Yan, it seemedpletely preposterous.

    In the end, all he could do was sigh and return to the dreadnaught. With that, he left South Phoenix and crossed the Forbidden Sea. Soon, he could see Emperor-Receiving Prefecture in the distance.

    He didn¡¯t spend much time in the Eight Sect Coalition. After a few days, Master Seventh took a contingent of disciples from Seven Blood Eyes and the Dark Serenity Sect, then teleported back to the county capital along with Xu Qing. Plumdark wasn¡¯t with them; she¡¯d gone ahead to select a suitable site for the new sect, and begin the construction work.

    The president of the coalition saw them away with a smile. However, there was also something wistful in his expression.

    The Eight Sect Coalition still had eight sects. There was no change in that regard. The new Green Dark Sect would be an independent organization. As it expanded and grew in the future, it would surely outpace the Eight Sect Coalition. Master Seventh was the lieutenant governor, and one of the characters from Xu Qing¡¯s name was in the name of the sect. Given that, everyone in the county knew that, though the sect was currently small and weak, given enough time, it would be a superpower.

    Thus ended Xu Qing¡¯s travels.

    He had visited many ces and aplished many things. He also felt like he was thinking much more clearly now. On the fourth day back in the county capital, he finished his thirteenth nascent soul using the hellspirit bloodwingmp. The left wing boosted speed, and the right wing augmented attack power. The moment the right wing formed, a sensation of killing and death erupted from the nascent soul. It was far stronger than any of his other lifemps.

    After sensing how formidable it was, Xu Qing thought for a moment, then took out a jade slip. Master Seventh had given it to him on their way back. It contained a nascent soul technique that Master Seventh had created just for Xu Qing.

    The Daofate Heavenfiend Art.

    Simr to the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art, Master Seventh had designed it ording to Xu Qing¡¯s personality, temperament, and current capabilities. In other words, it was a one-of-a-kind technique. When Xu Qing thought about how proud Master Seventh was of the technique he had crafted, he felt warmth in his heart. It was only recently that he hade to realize that creating an entire technique was extremely difficult. It required a lot of practice, and also plenty of special materials. And Master Seventh had done that all for him.

    Xu Qing studied the jade slip andmitted the technique to heart.

    Cultivators from all species in the Revered Ancient maind would experience a big shift in cultivation style when they reached Nascent Soul. It required heavenfate.

    Heavenfate was something that only came into y starting with Nascent Soul cultivators. It was different from destiny aura. Specifically, heavenfate was built on a foundation of power from the natural and magicalws of heaven and earth. It could be likened to the musical notes that make up a piece of music, the strokes used to write characters, or the bricks used to construct a building. One of its uses was to nourish and grow the nascent souls. But also it could be stockpiled inside the nascent souls, and then, during one of the five tribtions, could be used to form a secret trove.

    The amount of heavenfate you possessed determined your sess rate in forming a secret trove. It also formed the foundation of the secret trove. What was more, if you had enough heavenfate, then after you formed a secret trove, any remainder could be added into the secret trove to create natural and magicalws, thus preparing it for the birth of a heavenly dao. Clearly, heavenfate was an absolutely essential aspect to cultivation in the Nascent Soul level. The way to get more heavenfate was to experience heavenly tribtions.

    Normally speaking, the first heavenly tribtion wasn¡¯t unusually powerful. But every tribtion after that became increasingly terrifying. It was said that the fourth tribtion was one ofplete extermination, and it wasn¡¯t umon for people to fail that tribtion. People who had lifemps had a bit of an advantage. If they failed that tribtion, they wouldn¡¯t lose the nascent souls in themps. But they would lose the lifemps.

    Ordinary nascent souls would be severely damaged, and the cultivator would have to pay a huge price to fix them. In some cases, the nascent soul would even be destroyed permanently. Because of all that, there were many people who didn¡¯t dare to face the tribtions of the Nascent Soul level. They were willing to just stop at that point.

    Though it seemed like Spirit Trove cultivators weren¡¯t very rare, one reason for that was the vast size of the Revered Ancient maind, and its immense poption. Every single one of those Spirit Trove cultivators had experienced the life-or-death test of heavenly tribtions.

    Of course, it went without saying that immense amounts of research had been done regarding the Nascent Soul ¡®heavenfate tribtion.¡¯ And there were obviously sundry methods used to pass them. Some were very effective, but also extremely expensive. Others were less ideal, had harsh requirements, and were essentially theories.

    The best chance to pass tribtions was to use one of the secret methods kept by the major sects, or to cultivate an imperial-ss technique. Not only would that enable a person to have a much higher chance of sess, but also, it would allow them to get more heavenfate.

    Of course, many species had even more precious techniques for tribtions. Such techniques would enable the user to pass the tribtion unharmed. However, they had very strict cultivation requirements, and couldn¡¯t be cultivated without the use of various precious materials of heaven and earth. Techniques like that were not widespread.

    What was more, since most species had hierarchical societies, those techniques were usually reserved for the nobility.

    Regardless, cultivators needed to actually form their nascent souls before thinking about the tribtions. Whether they formed nascent souls from the spirit power of heaven and earth, by devouring the nascent souls of other people, or by consuming precious materials and medicinal pills, the ultimate goal was to have nascent souls that could pass the tribtions and absorb a lot of heavenfate. In addition to that, special techniques were required.

    The Daofate Heavenfiend Art that Master Seventh had designed for Xu Qing was a domineering technique that conformed to the traditions and style of the Seventh Peak.

    It was essentially a continuation of the Gruegloom Daosiezing Art, as it focused on devouring. Of course, it didn¡¯t devour gold cores from heavenly pces, but rather, heavenfate from nascent souls! With it, Xu Qing could take the heavenfate that other people had umted after passing their tribtions, and make it his own.

    Heavenfate was the best nourishment a nascent soul could get, and thus, this technique didn¡¯t require precious materials. It just required ughter! It was because the technique focused on heavenfate that it had Daofate in the name.

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face when he saw the name. As best he could tell, Master Seventh had added ¡®dao¡¯ to the name just to make it sound good. It probably would have been better to call it the Plunderfate technique. [2]

    The Heavenfiend part of the name was also important. There was a second aspect to the technique; the person who cultivated it could break down the nascent souls they devoured. Some of the heavenfate that resulted would be turned into nourishment. But some of it could be used to create an illusory clone called a heavenfiend clone.

    Heavenfiend clones looked like ordinary doppelg?ngers, but weren¡¯t. For one, they could be produced en masse. They would adhere to the original form like souls, and could be sent into battle to protect their true form.

    However, the best use of the heavenfiend clones was to pass tribtions! Because heavenly tribtions just got more and more terrifying, and the price to pay for failing was the loss of nascent souls. Meanwhile, the main goal was to gather heavenfate. Therefore... passing such tribtions was essentially a formality. Having a heavenfiend clone pass the tribtion instead was the same thing. If a heavenfiend clone was destroyed, there would be a second to take its ce. Then a third.... As long as one of them seeded, then the heavenfate power could be gathered using the Daofate aspect of the technique.

    That was how the Seventh Peak operated, and that was how Master Seventh operated.

    Eyes shining, Xu Qing took out three medicinal pill bottles.

    1. Grandmaster Bai uttered those words in <u>chapter 29</u>. ?

    2. There¡¯s some word y in Chinese that doesn¡¯t exactly trante well, as the character "dao¡± has the exact same pronunciation as another character which basically means ¡°steal.¡± There¡¯s an additional line rifying the use of the ¡°steal¡± character. Depending on what other characters you add to ¡°steal,¡± it can have different meanings. It could mean to pilfer, in other words, to secretly steal something. Or it could mean to plunder, in other words, to rob with force. So in Chinese, he rifies that the ¡°steal¡± character, as applicable to this passage, is the one from plunder, not pilfer. ?

 Chapter 546: Daofate Heavenfiend; Thirteenth Nascent Soul! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 546: Daofate Heavenfiend; Thirteenth Nascent Soul! (part 2)</h4>

    In the beginning, cultivating the Daofate Heavenfiend Art was simr to cultivating the Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. Thetter had required the actual heart of a Gruegloom to function as the foundation. With the former, the requirement was a nascent soul from another cultivator, one that had passed a heavenly tribtion and already had some heavenfate.

    That was the foundation of the Daofate Heavenfiend Art.

    And thus came the three pill bottles.

    The first bottle contained the headless corpse of a Gruegloom Nascent Soul cultivator. Master Seventh had spent a lot of time tracking that down for Xu Qing. After all, the Grueglooms were a rare species. It would function to augment Xu Qing¡¯s Gruegloom abilities, and would enable him to extract the nascent souls from his enemies.

    The second bottle contained a blood-red vortex that pulsed with clear holiness. That was the marrow Master Seventh had extracted from the fish bone of the god. Because the god in Forbidden by the Immortal was now dead, it was masterless, and easy to work with. There was a unique way to use it. It had to be fused with Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao nascent soul. And then, with the power of the heavenly dao, Xu Qing could wrest the heavenfate out of his enemy¡¯s nascent souls.

    The third bottle contained 100,000 evil souls from Cruelmurk.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had used the three fish bones to lock onto the position of Cruelmurk and open a pathway to it. That had allowed masses of evil souls to enter the world. It didn¡¯tst for long before Xu Qing whisked him away to the Ancient Spirit world. But some of those souls had remained behind.

    The souls were incredibly ferocious. What was more, their minds were in chaos. Memories from before life and after death had driven them into states of madness.

    Later, Master Seventh tracked them down and started purifying them in the bottle. After cleansing their chaotic minds, he turned them into seeds that wouldter be heavenfiend clones. Although killingrge numbers of Cruelmurk souls would result in being marked by Cruelmurk, thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s special body, as long as he didn¡¯t go overboard, he would be fine.

    Xu Qing looked at the bottles and sighed. This technique truly was tailor-made for him. The Daofate Heavenfiend Art essentially took his capabilities, evolved them, adjusted them, and then turned them into something uniquely perfect for him.

    <i>Everything¡¯s ready. Now I just need to finalize my nascent soul tribtion.</i> Through his thirteenth nascent soul, Xu Qing could sense that the tribtion woulde in the next few days.

    <i>Also, I need to consider the purification of the memories of the Cruelmurk souls.</i>

    Taking a look at the bottle with the Cruelmurk souls, he came to the conclusion that the purification speed was subpar.

    <i>It¡¯s going to take months....</i> Eyes shining, he considered another option.

    However, even as he pondered that, his transmission jade slip vibrated. Taking it out, he saw that he had received a message request from Marquis Yao.

    He used divine sense to respectfully say, <i>¡°Greetings, Governor.¡±</i>

    Marquis Yao¡¯s voice echoed in his mind in response. <i>¡°Xu Qing. I got in touch with Mu Ye.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    <i>¡°At the moment, everything is going fine. Per my request, Mu Ye is pushing for the Heavengale dynasty to hand over one of its counties to us. There are some issues. That county isn¡¯t on the border, and in fact, is a long way from Sea-Sealing. However, we can deal with that.¡±</i>

    After saying a few more things about Mu Ye, the marquis went on to discuss some matters rting to Sea-Sealing County as a whole, including the situation with some of the allied nonhumans, as well as how things were going with Seventh Prince in the three prefectures that had yet to be returned to the county.

    The marquis was using his own methods to help Xu Qing get a handle on the big picture. They didn¡¯t talk about the Violet Lands. Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask about it, and kept his tone very respectful.

    His attitude pleased Marquis Yao very much. It wasn¡¯t lost on the marquis that, even after Xu Qing¡¯s status changed so dramatically, his behavior and attitude remained the same.

    <i>It¡¯s rare for people to stay so true to themselves.</i>

    Eventually, the discussion ended, and Xu Qing put down the jade slip. He looked in the direction of Yao Mansion.

    Although Xu Qing wasn¡¯tpletely convinced regarding all of Marquis Yao¡¯s methods, having such a perceptive and discerning individual in charge of Sea-Sealing County would leave the people feeling very safe. As long as you trusted him.

    Xu Qing looked away from Yao Mansion. With Master Seventh around, he didn¡¯t feel the need to worry about such things. Although Xu Qing had a high position in the eyes of the people, the reality was that he was nothing but a mere pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator. When you simply ept public opinion as fact, you would lose the quality of having an inquiring mind.

    Xu Qing hated people like that, and had no desire to be what he hated. Therefore, he would act the way he had always acted. He would be respectful, but vignt. And he wouldn¡¯t think of himself as being some amazing, important person. At the same time, he would keep his eyes and ears open. He would learn as much as possible, including about the big picture, to make himself a moreplete person.

    Putting the jade slip away, he settled down and focused on cultivation.

    In that manner, time passed.

    Three dayster, a vortex of tribtion clouds appeared in the dome of heaven above the Swordsage Pce. Rumbling sounds built in intensity until a bolt of heavenly lightning shot toward Xu Qing in the Secretariat Division.

    Xu Qing¡¯s thirteenth nascent soul floated up into the air to meet the heavenly lightning.

    Rumbling echoed out as the lightning surrounded the nascent soul. Sparks flew everywhere. Then a second bolt of heavenly lightning fell, even more violent than the first. A killing will raged out of the nascent soul, whose eyes shone with ferocity as it looked up and faced the tribtion.

    The intensity of the sounds attracted the attention of people throughout the county capital. That was especially true in the Swordsage Pce. Everyone knew that Xu Qing was going through nascent soul ¡®heavenfate tribtion.¡¯ For this tribtion, there would be three bolts of lightning.

    Although it seemed unlikely anything would go wrong, both Master Seventh and Plumdark were both in different areas looking at the Swordsage Pce, ready to intervene if necessary.

    When the third bolt of heavenly lightning fell, it surrounded the nascent soul. The nascent soul let loose a piercing shriek. Then the tribtion wasplete. The clouds parted, and as the sun shone down, a heavenfate aura rushed into the thirteenth nascent soul. The heavenfate aura was nothingpared to the aura that had appeared on the day of the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup. After all, this was a tribtion of a single nascent soul, whereas the previous one had been for twelve at the same time.

    That wasn¡¯t relevant, though. With his Daofate Heavenfiend Art, Xu Qing would have plenty of chances to build up more heavenfate. What was most important was that he no longer counted as a pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator.

    As his thirteenth nascent soul returned to him, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened, and they glowed with violet light.

    ¡°Nascent Soul!¡±

    His thirteenth heavenly pce wasplete, and had turned into a nascent soul. He hadpletely experienced the first tribtion.

    <i>Now there¡¯s only one more step before I can start cultivating the Daofate Heavenfiend Art!</i>

    Xu Qing took out one of the bottles from Master Seventh. It was essentially a holding item, as within it were the Cruelmurk souls, in the middle of being purified. After examining the souls thoughtfully for a time, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination. After much analysis over the past few days, he hade to the conclusion that his idea for elerating the process was valid.

    Standing, he left the Secretariat Division and went in the direction of the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. Although the Supreme Void Demonization Sect had suffered during the war, it was a superpower sect, and thus, recovering afterward hadn¡¯t been too challenging.

    When Xu Qing arrived, there were lots of disciples about.

    His goal wasn¡¯t to make a big scene. Rather, he intended to visit the Supreme Void World. From inside the sect, he teleported out of Sea-Sealing County and into the same void as before. Inside the body of that huge fish, he traveled to the familiar Supreme Void World. Before long, he saw the huge statue with the hole in its chest, whereupon the fish spat him out in a bubble.

    A momentter, Xu Qing was in the Supreme Void World.

    The brain trees, which had been floating around casually, caught sight of him. Sensing his aura, they shivered and fled in the opposite direction. They also sent out warnings to the other brain trees, letting them know that the great robber hade again!

    As a result, the area around Xu Qing became empty almost immediately.

    Ling¡¯er stuck her head out and looked around curiously. ¡°What is this ce, Big Bro Xu Qing? And why are those things running away? It looks like they¡¯re scared of you.¡±

    ¡°This is the Supreme Void World,¡± he exined. ¡°It¡¯s a special ce. They¡¯re not running away. It¡¯s their special way of offering greetings.¡±

    Xu Qing took a step forward, and a pair of blood-red wings appeared behind him. The wings pped, and he shot forward at incredible speed toward the nearest brain tree.

    The brain tree screamed. ¡°Don¡¯t eat me, don¡¯t eat me, don¡¯t eat me!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the cries of the brain tree. Grabbing it, he took out the bottle with the Cruelmurk souls, and then used the bottle¡¯s function as a holding device to suck the brain inside.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s idea. The brains in the Supreme Void World liked to eat memories. In their malicious avarice, they would swindle people they encountered, and then make them forget the terms of the deal they made. That, in turn, let them make even more deals, which could lead to their victims losing all of their memories.

    Xu Qing got the feeling that these brain trees would be perfect for purifying the Cruelmurk souls. After all, what they suffered from was chaotic memories.

    At first, the brain tree had been screaming. But once it was inside the bottle, and noticed all of the Cruelmurk souls, it started trembling in excitement. It flew to the nearest soul, and then the surface of the brain seemed to flicker with electricity, as if it had absorbed something. After that, the soul didn¡¯t seem cruel anymore, but rather, dazed.

    <i>It works!</i> Thrilled, Xu Qing flew onward to get more brain trees. That said, he knew he had to keep himself in check. After capturing about thirty of the brain trees he stopped.

    Although he only had thirty, they were going to significantly speed up the process of purifying the souls. In fact, it would probably be only five days until the souls could be used in his cultivation. Pleased, Xu Qing left. Back in the Swordsage Pce, he went into seclusion to start working on his Daofate Heavenfiend Art.

    Half a month flew by.

    During that time, he worked constantly on cultivation. One day, he got a message from Master Seventh.

    <i>¡°Fourth Sib, an emissary from Seventh Prince arrived with a letter of invitation. You¡¯re invited to the spot where the Ten Entrails Tree used to be in Holytide territory, to participate in the Holytide¡¯s ceremony of return. Seventh Prince and the Holytides have finalized the initial agreement. After the emperor certifies it, he¡¯ll issue an imperial edict, and the Holytides will return to humankind.</i>

    <i>¡°You¡¯re not just invited to the ceremony. You¡¯re also invited to a private dinner with him to talk about returning the three provinces to Sea-Sealing County. Based on my information, the people invited to this event are the children of various nobles and aristocrats, the apprentices of almighty cultivators, and other famous heroes from the imperial capital.</i>

    <i>¡°So, will you go?¡±</i>

    ***

    Even as Xu Qing was listening to his Master¡¯s message, the banquet was starting in Holytide territory near where the Ten Entrails Tree had once stood. With the huge tree gone, that area had changed a lot. There was now a huge crater in the earth there.

    Later, Seventh Prince arrived and set up a garrison headquarters. The area surrounding the crater was an endless army camp.

    The surviving tiny city-states had all been swallowed up by the huge army camp. One of the smaller city-states, the name of which was Modelrule, had a dark blue pce that Seventh Prince took a liking to. Therefore, he took it over and used it as his operations pce.

    In a banquet hall in that pce,ughter could be heard from a group of well-dressed young men and women. All of them had the air of nobility, and all were from the imperial capital.

    Seventh Prince sat at the head of the table, smiling. Unbeknownst to everyone present, though, his eyes contained deep contempt for the other people at the table. That contempt only vanished when he looked at the young woman sitting next to him.

    ¡°Sister, I have to admit I¡¯m surprised that you honored me with your presence.¡±

    The girl looked to be in her twenties. She had fair skin and clear, cold eyes that seemed capable of seeing through anything and everything. The fingers that held her drinking vessel were like white snow dusted with pink frost. She wore an outfit of blue, embroidered with peach flowers, cut in a very elegant style. Her hair was bound high with a beautiful hairpin, and she wore all sorts of jade jewelry. Everything about her seemed icily arrogant.

    In response to Seventh Prince, she said, ¡°What does that mean, Seventh Brother? Are you prying for information about why I came?¡±

    Seventh Prince smiled and looked down into the alcohol in his own drinking vessel. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dare.¡±

 Chapter 547: Fanning the Flames; Lending a Knife (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 547: Fanning the mes; Lending a Knife (part 1)</h4>

    In the early parts of the war, the Holytides had seized three prefectures. After the war finished, Seventh Prince had epted their return as part of the surrender. However, to date, they had not been transferred back to Sea-Sealing County.

    It was nothing unusual. Seventh Prince had recaptured the provinces, and Sea-Sealing County was prepared to pay for their return. However, Seventh Prince had not been inclined to negotiate the matter before. What was more, he had army forces garrisoned throughout those prefectures. Because it was a human matter, the Holytides didn¡¯t interfere. Another factor was that those three prefectures had mines that produced a lot of spirit stones, as well as other valuable forging materials. Those things would be instrumental in Sea-Sealing County¡¯s future recovery from the war. As a result, the prefectures couldn¡¯t simply be abandoned.

    And now, at longst, Seventh Prince had invited Xu Qing to negotiate their return.

    <i>¡°Marquis Yao hopes you can go, but he didn¡¯t give his approval yet. You need to make the final decision, Fourth Sib. In terms of your personal safety, I wouldn¡¯t worry about it too much. If anything untoward urs, Seventh Prince will be held responsible. Given his personality, I doubt he would be so foolish as to allow something like that to happen.¡±</i>

    Master Seventh had pointed out all the pros and cons for Xu Qing to consider.

    Xu Qing mulled it over. He thought about the arrangements Marquis Yao had already mentioned, including that other county Sea-Sealing was secretly taking over. Because that county wasn¡¯t on the border, it actually didn¡¯t matter very much to Sea-Sealing County. But it had a different significance to Seventh Prince.

    <i>I bet Marquis Yao predicted this was going to happen. He really is quite brilliant.</i>

    Another thing to consider was that, since the Captain wasn¡¯t back, Xu Qing had some time to spare.

    Marquis Yao wanted him to go. Master Seventh was waiting for an answer. And on his travels, he had personally seen how much everyone was working to keep Sea-Sealing County safe. Considering that he was blessed by the greater part of the county¡¯s destiny aura, it was only natural that he shoulder simr responsibilities.

    What was more, once the Captain did get back, they would need to leave. After doing some research, Xu Qing hade to find that the Moonrite Region was far, far away from Sea-Sealing County. It was on the other side of the Holytide Region, separated by Yin Sacrifice River. In the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, it had been human territory. But it had subsequently been lost, and was now controlled by the Nightshades. Of course, the Nightshades had a different name for it.

    Spirit Garden.

    The word ¡®garden¡¯ can have different meanings. It could just mean a ce with animals and nts. But metaphorically speaking, it could refer to something like a farm where essence is harvested. That said, the information Xu Qing had ess to didn¡¯t go into any detail. Presumably, that was why the Captain had felt the need to go out and gather his own information. In any case, Xu Qing felt like it would be good to aplish some things before leaving Sea-Sealing County, so he agreed to ept the invitation.

    ***

    A few dayster, a fleet left Sea-Sealing County under themand of Pce Lord Li Yunshan. The new deputy pce lords from the Administration Pce and the Justice Pce came along, as did six honor guards from the various pces. Because the Swordsage Pce took the lead in military matters, 20,000 veteran swordsages were picked to join the force.

    Kong Xianglong was among them. After the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup, Kong Xianglong stopped drinking as much. He focused his energy on cultivation, and spent a lot of time working in the Secretariat Division, where he had consolidated a lot of authority. Li Yunshan had taken a liking to him, and was grooming him to eventually take over the Swordsage Pce.

    The fleet consisted of over a thousand huge warships that cast shadows on the mountains and rivers below as they flew along.

    In the lead was an enormous bronze sword, atop which were Li Yunshan and the other Void Returning experts.

    Right behind the bronze sword was Master Seventh¡¯s dreadnaught, which was pitch ck and pulsed with a somber and deste aura that gave birth to screaming winds. Xu Qing currently stood on the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure, looking out at heaven and earth.

    After several teleportations, the fleet reached what had once been the western front. At that point, the flying ships stopped for a short time. Everyone looked down at the shatterednds that had not yet been restored to their previous condition. They saw the huge gully that had been carved out by Pce Lord Kong, and they also saw... the spot where he¡¯d fallen in battle.

    Everyone bowed their heads and observed a moment of silence.

    Xu Qing sped hand and bowed deeply. Kong Xianglong stood next to him, his face expressionless and his eyes closed.

    Eventually, the ships started moving again. They left the battlefield and continued into Holytide territory.

    Kong Xianglong opened his eyes. He didn¡¯t look over his shoulder, but instead, kept his eyes in the direction of the Holytides.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m genuinely interested in seeing what these damned imperial hotshots are all like.¡±

    ¡°I bet they¡¯re allplicated people,¡± Xu Qing replied quietly.

    Ever since Kong Xianglong took oversight of prefectural intelligence reports in the Secretariat Division, he had started dressing differently. He wore a ck suit of armor that radiated a somber and deste aura. His eyes were cold, and his expression was always threatening without being angry.

    He looked a lot like Pce Lord Kong.

    His cultivation base had improved. Two years ago, he had possessed ten heavenly pces. Back then, he was the number one chosen in Sea-Sealing County. And he had continued that tradition by adding more heavenly pces and also converting some of those pces into nascent souls. Just like Xu Qing, Kong Xianglong had decided to form all of his nascent souls before experiencing ¡®heavenfate tribtion¡¯ and acquiring heavenfate. From his aura and fluctuations, it was obvious that he would only need a few more months before he would face his tribtions.

    A few days passed.

    After entering Holytide territory, things went smoothly. They didn¡¯t encounter any dangerous situations. By making use of teleportation portals, they arrived on the eve of Seventh Prince¡¯s private dinner.

    The area where the Ten Entrails Tree had once stood looked a lot different than Xu Qing remembered. Seventh Prince¡¯s imperial army camp stretched out seemingly without end. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but look up into the dome of heaven and think back to what had happened there not so long ago. He looked away. Seventh Prince¡¯s subordinates received them and set them up in a garrison in the army camp. Then Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong were invited to attend the banquet in the imperial pce.

    Li Yunshan and the others were not included. There were few people in Sea-Sealing County that Seventh Prince cared about. As for Kong Xianglong, he was being invited because of his grandfather.

    And thus, not long after they arrived in the army camp, Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong were led by Seventh Prince¡¯s servants into the city-state of Modelrule. Most of the houses in the ce were abandoned. The entire city-state had been taken over by the army, and the city now pulsed with an austere aura. There were bloodstains on the ground.

    Inparison, the blue pce was quite different. The sound of music, dancing,ughter, and chatting drifted out from inside.

    When Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong heard that, they exchanged a nce. Keeping their facial expressions cid, they entered. The banquet was already underway.

    The moment they stepped into the banquet hall, the music continued, but there was a lull in theughter and chatting. Everyone turned to look at them.

    At the same time, Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong examined the banquet hall.

    Seventh Prince was in the position of honor, smiling at them. Next to him was a pretty young woman with an icy facial expression, who sat alongside Seventh Prince in the position of honor. Clearly, they ranked the same in the social hierarchy.

    Seated slightly lower than them on either side of the room were about a dozen other young men and women who all had extraordinary cultivation bases. At the very least, they were in the Nascent Soul level, and there were even a few who pulsed with Spirit Trove fluctuations. All were exceptionally attractive, and most of them wore very fine garments. A few were dressed in more utilitarian outfits, yet their eyes sparkled like starlight, making them seem very unique.

    It was hard to tell from their facial expressions what they thought about Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong. Though they might not be considered the most profoundly shrewd people in existence, they had all been raised in the imperial capital, and were definitely above average in that regard.

    Seventh Prince waved his hand slightly, and the chatting andughter resumed.

    ¡°Xu Qing. Kong Xianglong.¡±

    Expression somber, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, Your Majesty Seventh Prince.¡±

    Only the most hot-headed people would reveal their feelings in a situation like this. Obviously, this ce was not full of such people. And if people like that were here, there would be a reason for them to act like that.

    For example, Kong Xianglong¡¯s face remained expressionless as he bowed, yet refrained from saying a single word.

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t seem to care about Kong Xianglong¡¯s behavior. Looking at Xu Qing with admiration in his eyes, he raised his voice and said, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, this is Xu Qing of Sea-Sealing County, who you have all heard so much about. He was rewarded personally by my father the emperor. He was given a golden medallion, a yellow robe, admittance to the Imperial University, and grade-one battle credit.¡±

    With that, Seventh Prince started introducing everyone else to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this is Zhou Tianzhi, an elite chosen from the Yearmaster College in the imperial capital. He brims over with talent.

    ¡°This is Luo Jinsong, a descendant of Heavenly Marquis Luo Yun.

    ¡°Over here is Immortal Fairy Gemspirit from the Creation Mansion, a ce that specializes in the research of gods. Our Dawning Sun isrgely their handiwork.

    ¡°Next is the grandson of Minister Meng, the Minister of War.¡±

    Smiling the entire time, Seventh Prince went on to introduce everyone. Most everyone present was nobility of some sort. They were either from families that had once produced heavenly marquises, or currently had family members in high positions of government. Those who were not like that were famous people from the imperial capital.

    ¡°Right here is Huang Kun. Xu Qing, you and Brother Huang have a bit of a connection already. You¡¯re both swordsages. You see, his grandfather is a grand honor guard in the Swordsage Division, one of our dynasty¡¯s Five Greater Celestial Divisions.¡±

    Every person who was introduced nodded and smiled at Xu Qing. He saluted them all courteously.

    There was one person who caught Xu Qing¡¯s attention in particr.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you¡¯ve definitely never seen this fellow before, but he¡¯s actually from Sea-Sealing County. He¡¯s Zhang Qifan, a chosen from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. Thirty years ago he traveled to the imperial capital to study, and hase back as part of the princess¡¯ retinue.¡±

    The middle-aged Zhang Qifan stood and sped hands in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, his expression a mix of wistfulness and admiration.

    Finally, Seventh Prince¡¯s expression turned very serious as he stood, sped hands, and bowed to the cold young woman seated next to him.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this is my dear older sister, Princess Anhai.¡±

    Without batting an eyelid, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, Princess.¡±

    Kong Xianglong also bowed formally in greeting.

    Princess Anhai¡¯s expression remained cold. She nodded, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Seeing that, Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes narrowed very slightly, and only for a moment. Smiling, he invited Xu Qing to sit.

    Xu Qing nodded. Together with Kong Xianglong, he sat on the right side of the banquet, at a table at the far end near the door.

    The singing and dancing resumed, as did theughter and chatting. Seated across from Xu Qing was Zhang Qifan from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect. Raising his drinking vessel, he offered a toast. His smile seemed sincere and slightly tinged with sorrow. [1]

    Xu Qing noticed his gesture. Raising his drinking vessel to join in the toast, he took a drink.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± a voice said from next to him, ¡°considering it¡¯s our first meeting, I really shouldn¡¯t be this bold, but I can¡¯t help but be curious about... the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment of the heart. What answer did you give to get that amazing 30,000-meter pir of light?¡±

    1. Zhang Qifan: Zhang is listed #3 on the top 100 surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as people like Zhang San and Zhang Siyun. Qi means ¡°strange, surprising, wonderful, weird, extraordinary¡± and Fan means ¡°ordinary, mundane, mortal.¡± Madam Deathde says it sounds like the name of someone amazing who stands out from the crowd. ?

 Chapter 547: Fanning the Flames; Lending a Knife (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 547: Fanning the mes; Lending a Knife (part 2)</h4>

    The person who had just spoken to Xu Qing was not Zhang Qifan. Instead, he was a young man seated to the left of Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong, at the same table. He wore a pale yellow robe, and though he was handsome, he had affected a gentle expression that made him seem mild and kind-hearted. He was currently looking at Xu Qing with a smile on his face.

    Xu Qing thought back to the introductions from moments before and remembered that this person was the grandson of the Minister of War. His name was Meng Yunbai. [1]

    Upon hearing Meng Yunbai¡¯s question, the young woman seated next to him looked over. She wore a in green garment and was very attractive. Her hair was tied into a ponytail, but the pupils of her eyes glittered so bewitchingly that anyone who looked at her would feel shaken to the core. ording to Seventh Prince¡¯s introduction, she was Immortal Fairy Gemspirit from the Creation Mansion.

    ¡°You smell like a god,¡± Immortal Fairy Gemspirit said. She was young and pretty, but she spoke with the voice of an old woman, which made her seem somewhat gruish.

    Xu Qing looked at Meng Yunbai, then Immortal Fairy Gemspirit. He was about to tactfully decline to answer the question when Meng Yunbaiughed.

    ¡°How about we make a deal? You tell me the answer, and I¡¯ll, er, I¡¯ll tell you which of these people already have it out for you and why! How about that?¡±

    Kong Xianglong¡¯s brow furrowed slightly. He was alreadying to realize that these people from the imperial capital were no simpletons. Meng Yunbai probably didn¡¯t care about the answer to his question. He was using it as a pretext to show his own attitude. As for whether he had good intentions or not, that was impossible to say. But one thing was for certain: he wanted to influence Xu Qing¡¯s opinions. The main question was whether he would provide legitimate information or lies. However, Kong Xianglong knew that games like that wouldn¡¯t work on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at Meng Yunbai for a moment, then took a jade slip out of his bag of holding and handed it over.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Meng Yunbai said, his eyebrows shooting up. He scanned the jade slip with divine sense, and then his eyes went wide. He looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°This is how you answered? It¡¯s soprehensive!¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Those are basically all the answers that have been given in the assessment of the heart over the past several years in seven prefectures.¡±

    The jade slip was the very same one that the Captain had paid for years ago. He hadter given a copy to Xu Qing.

    Stunned, Meng Yunbai stared suspiciously at Xu Qing. He instinctively didn¡¯t believe the story, but the jade slip really did have a lot of answers recorded in it. They were very detailed. They even went on to list how high the pir of light was that came with each answer. At a nce, it was obvious it had taken a lot of money and work to get a list like this. As he hesitated about what to do next, other people at the banquet had somehow begun talking about the Nightshade godchild. The matter had been discussed a lot among the Holytides, and many other people had heard about the situation. Although most people who had been directly involved were dead, it wasn¡¯t possible to stop rumors from spreading.

    ¡°You¡¯re talking about that Nightshade godchild? I don¡¯t know all the details, but I heard that big crater outside was made by him. From that alone you can understand the kind of astonishing things he does.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, nobody knows where he came from, nor why the Ten Entrails Tree suddenly disappeared.¡±

    ¡°The Nightshades are pure evil, and this godchild is probably more evil than the average Nightshade. Considering their culture revolves so much around sacrifices, I¡¯d say there¡¯s a high likelihood he sacrificed the Ten Entrails Tree to their god Crimson Mother.¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty Seventh Prince, during your victory against the Holytides, did you happen to hear anything about that Nightshade godchild?¡±

    Seventh Prince shook his head. ¡°I heard about the situation, and I did ask some Holytides about it. Based on how they described it, this Nightshade godchild had a shocking cultivation base and an extremely high status. With the wave of his hand, he could unleash the power of Crimson Mother. Even the Nightshade divine likenesses kowtowed to him and called him master.

    ¡°Sadly, after he vanished, no trace was ever found of him. Of course, my venerable sister knows much more about the Nightshades than me. Sister, the Creation Mansion oversees such matters, correct?¡± He looked at Princess Anhai.

    Princess Anhai¡¯s face remained expressionless as she spoke in a cold voice that matched her demeanor. ¡°In all likelihood, the Nightshade godchild came from the Moonrite Region. It¡¯s only there that the true family of Crimson Mother exists, and is kept like livestock.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened. He hadn¡¯t heard information like that before, but it made sense.

    Off to the side, Kong Xianglong took a sip of alcohol to prevent himself from ncing at Xu Qing. He had not forgotten that Xu Qing and the Captain had disguised themselves as Nightshades and infiltrated this very area. And it was after they went on their mission that the whole Nightshade godchild incident urred....

    Everyone else present nodded knowingly in response to Princess Anhai¡¯s assessment. However, Seventh Prince suddenly turned to Xu Qing and smiled.

    ¡°Xu Qing, Sea-Sealing County isn¡¯t too far away from here. Did you hear about that Nightshade godchild?¡±

    Xu Qing looked Seventh Prince in the eyes and said, ¡°I heard about it after the fact.¡±

    Seventh Prince smiled and said nothing further.

    Xu Qing betrayed no reaction whatsoever. Eventually, the topic of conversation changed to topics rting to other species on the Revered Ancient maind. For instance, they started talking about the Firemoon Darkheaven people, and their uing Great Hunt of Species. Everyone present seemed incensed.

    At one point, everyone started praising Seventh Prince for his great service in bringing back the Holytides. He simply smiled in response. Discussion shifted to Dawning Sun, and the situation with humankind in other counties. People mentioned other random anecdotes and rumors. Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t participate in any of the chatter. They weren¡¯t informed enough.

    Then, out of nowhere, someone suddenly obliquely criticized Xu Qing.

    ¡°Your Majesty Seventh Prince, I¡¯ve always been the kind of person to speak directly, and tend to offend people. You yourself have pointed that out to me. But I really just have to get this off my chest.... I just can¡¯t hold it in! There¡¯s someone who <i>forgets favors and vites justice</i> here! It¡¯s disgraceful!¡±

    The person who said this was the descendant of Heavenly Marquis Luo. Based on Seventh Prince¡¯s introduction, his name was Luo Jinsong. [2]

    As he was speaking, he was looking straight at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react. From a young age, he had witnessed the ugliness of humanity. And he had long since learned that when a person started a conversation by jabbering about their own personality, it usually meant that whatever came after that was hostile. As he sat there, he heard Meng Yunbai whispering into his ear as quietly as a mosquito.

    ¡°Brother Xu Qing, that¡¯s Luo Jinsong. He¡¯s not at all as direct as he just imed to be. Let me tell you, he¡¯s not the only person in the imperial capital who¡¯s supposedly a descendant of a heavenly marquis. There are others. And all they have to rely on is past glory. They have no true authority or power. What¡¯s more, few of them are talented in any way. Their bloodlines have be far too diluted.

    ¡°And that¡¯s exactly what Luo Jinsong is like. He¡¯s clever, and fancies himself a follower of Seventh Prince. But Seventh Prince doesn¡¯t care about him one bit. That¡¯s why he¡¯s calling you out in front of everyone. It¡¯s all to curry favor with Seventh Prince.

    ¡°Of course, he¡¯s no fool, and has surely considered that Seventh Prince might not be too pleased by him doing this. But as long as rumors start to spread that he¡¯s close with Seventh Prince, then he doesn¡¯t care. I guess what he doesn¡¯t realize is that people who are merely clever will always be that: just clever.¡±

    Meanwhile, Luo Jinsong was ring at Xu Qing with malice in his eyes. ¡°It was a tough choice to try to save Sea-Sealing County, Your Majesty Seventh Prince. But you <i>stood your ground against the opinion of the masses</i>. In the heat of the fighting with the Nightshades, you led your army to Sea-Sealing County and saved them from imminent peril. You saved countless lives!

    ¡°Then you personally led the troops into battle, braving death to dauntlessly advance across the field of battle. The Holytides fell back again and again! If it wasn¡¯t for their ancestral emperor achieving a breakthrough, I bet all of the Holytide Region would already be human territory again!

    ¡°Despite that, you still aplished amazing things. You brought the Holytides back to humankind, thus earning glory in all of Revered Ancient. All the while, <i>someone</i> was behind your back ndering you in the most contemptible fashion! As a result, His Majesty the emperor reprimanded you for failing to manage the situation properly!¡±

    Luo Jinsong was clearly turning right into wrong and obscuring the truth. The banquet hall wentpletely quiet.

    Seventh Prince coolly said, ¡°Shut up.¡±

    Luo Jinsong stood, sped hands, and bowed to Seventh Prince. Then he looked up and angrily continued, ¡°Your Majesty, you are <i>benevolent and generous by nature</i>. In your righteous nobility, you decline to haggle with the hoi polloi. But I personally just can¡¯t stand for this! Some dog got his life saved, only to <i>forget favors and vite justice</i>.¡±

    With that, he sat back down, lifted his alcohol gon, and took a long drink. Everyone else in the crowd looked at Xu Qing with a variety of different facial expressions. That included Meng Yunbai.

    Xu Qing still betrayed no reaction whatsoever. He naturally didn¡¯t put much stock in what Meng Yunbai had just told him. Luo Jinsong seemed like he was saying these things to Seventh Prince because he was outraged by injustice. But Xu Qing¡¯s way of dealing with things in life had changed. He didn¡¯t just pay attention to what was right in front of him. He had learned to widen his view and look at the situation from a more broad perspective. Doing so in this situation led to some different insights. It seemed unlikely that Luo Jinsong was simply doing this to curry favor with Seventh Prince. He was trying to open up some old scars and stir up some sort of controversy. Xu Qing noted that Princess Anhai¡¯s facial expression had remained the same the whole time, and that she was just sitting there quietly instead of getting involved.

    Kong Xianglong, in contrast, still kept his sight on what was right in front of him. He was already getting mad, and it looked like he was about to say something. Before he could, Xu Qing reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. Standing, he turned to Seventh Prince and Princess Anhai.

    ¡°Your Majesty. Princess. I only arrived today, and I¡¯m tired from traveling. If there¡¯s no official business to attend to, I¡¯ll take my leave for now.¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes glittered with profound light, and he smiled. It looked like he was about to speak, but before he could, Zhang Qifan from the Supreme Void Demonization Sect, who was sitting directly across from Xu Qing, pped the table in front of him. As the bang echoed out, he shot to his feet and looked furiously at Luo Jinsong.

    ¡°That¡¯splete nonsense! Having just returned today, I got in touch with good friends of mine in my sect, and got all the details about the war. I know exactly what Secretary-General Xu did! You talk of Sea-Sealing County being saved from destruction? Well I¡¯m from Sea-Sealing County, and I¡¯d like to ask you, when the Holytides invaded, where were the relief troops? When countless Sea-Sealing cultivators were sacrificing their lives on the northern and western fronts, where were the reinforcements?

    ¡°My county marshaled all of its troops to defend against the forces of an entire region! They bitterly endured for months. The pce lord of our Swordsage Pce died! Countless people lost their lives. And who was it that stood atop all those corpses and gloriously epted the credit for the win?

    ¡°If the backup troops had arrived earlier by one incense stick¡¯s worth of time, then our pce lord wouldn¡¯t be dead! Based on what I¡¯ve heard, the relief troops actually left the imperial capital in plenty of time to arrive much earlier! What were the relief troops doing? Waiting for everyone else to die before they swooped in? I suppose they were worried if there were too many survivors, they would have to split the rewards too many times?

    ¡°Since you brought up managing the situation improperly... if a member of Torchlight was actually appointed as governor, then would Sea-Sealing County even be controlled by humans anymore? If that¡¯s not failing to manage the situation properly, then what is?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Kong Xianglong looked at him, and he suddenly realized what was going on. Zhang Qifan¡¯s words came seemingly out of nowhere. Someone here wanted to use Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong to fan the mes of conflict!

    Things had just settled down in Sea-Sealing County, and now was definitely not the time to be stirring up the pot. The county had just experienced a war and an attempted coup, and was still in the process of recovering. If things suddenly got out of control again, it could cause big problems. Most importantly, after the repeated catastrophes, the people of the county wouldn¡¯t easily trust another leader.

    And yet now, someone was muddying the waters for as-yet unknown reasons.

    1. Meng Yunbai: Meng is #71 on the list of 100mon surnames. It¡¯s the same surname as Meng Hao from ISSTH (I¡¯m not implying that¡¯s relevant, just pointing it out). Yun means ¡°cloud¡± and Bai means ¡°white, pure.¡± Madam Deathde says that the cloud and sky imagery is impressive, but at the same time, seems like the name of a quiet and mellow person. ?

    2. Luo Jinsong: Luo is #20 on the list of 100 surnames. Jin means ¡°strength, energy, enthusiasm¡± and Song means ¡°pine (tree), rxed.¡± Madam Deathde says this sounds like the name of a persistent and towering figure. ?

 Chapter 548: Any Who Touch Sea-Sealingâ€™s Soft Spot... Die! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 548: Any Who Touch Sea-Sealing¡¯s Soft Spot... Die! (part 1)</h4>

    The moon hung bright over the spot where the Ten Entrails Tree had once stood. The dark sky surrounding it formed a very clear contrast. But there were also clouds, and as they crept in front of the moon, that clear contrast was obscured. As a result, the banquet in the pce was slowly being covered by a stream of darkness.

    In turn, that dark stream was muddying the waters thaty between Sea-Sealing County and the Holytide Region.

    It would have been within the rights of Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong to say the very things Zhang Qifan had just blurted. After all, they had fought in the war, and had been present for all the chaos. They were eyewitnesses. But now was definitely not the time for Zhang Qifan to be saying such things. Although he was from Sea-Sealing County, he hadn¡¯t experienced any of those things personally. He was like an outsider who aired someone else¡¯s grievances, then joined forces with them in opposition to the same adversary.

    This entire situation had obviously been nned ahead of time. However, it seemed certain that this was not the original n.

    Xu Qing had obviously turned things around by keeping Kong Xianglong from losing his temper. That had forced the hand of the enemy, who had scrambled to adjust by having an outsider jump in and take over the script lines that they had expected to be spoken by Kong Xianglong. The hope was to get the scene back in line with what had been originally expected. The person behind all of this obviously didn¡¯t care how it affected Sea-Sealing County.

    It was a clear attack aimed at... Seventh Prince.

    Xu Qing knew that, and so did everyone else at the banquet. Granted, there had been many words of praise showered on Seventh Prince earlier. Butnguage is one of the most unpredictable things in heaven and earth. When you believe what someone says, you give them all the power.

    Kong Xianglong looked at Xu Qing. No change in expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. It was almost as if he hadn¡¯t heard anything Zhang Qifan just said. He just turned and started walking off.

    Kong Xianglong did the same. Though Kong Xianglong seemed like the kind of person who focused more on brawn than brains, the reality was that he was capable of deep thinking. He just didn¡¯t have a lot of practice at it. That was why he had been slow to react earlier. Now it was obvious to him that Sea-Sealing County was being used to fan the mes with Seventh Prince. And he wanted no part of it.

    What Sea-Sealing County needed right now was stability. That was the most relevant thing to consider. Secondary to that was that ying games with the imperial n could turn lethal very quickly. Although it could also result in <i>turning weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk</i>, those who ended up stuck in the middle rarely had good fates in the end. You could be an important asset in one moment, and then be discarded a momentter.

    Everyone in the banquet was surprised to see the two of them ignoring what was happening, and even going so far as to leave. Meng Yunbai¡¯s eyes glittered, and he smiled. Princess Anhai showed no reaction at all. Seventh Prince took a sip from his drinking vessel, his facial expression the same as before.

    Meanwhile, an almost undetectable flicker passed through Zhang Qifan¡¯s eyes. Face a mask of fury, he flicked his sleeve and turned to walk off.

    But then, the blunt and straightforward Luo Jinsong narrowed his eyes. A flush was creeping up his neck, and blue veins bulged, making him look very unsophisticated. Shooting to his feet, he unleashed explosive Nascent Soul fluctuations, which became like a tempest around him. A shadowy figure appeared behind him, d in battle armor and pulsing with a baleful aura. There were twelve totemic designs on the armor, and shockingly, each one resembled Luo Jinsong¡¯s face. Even more astonishing, the fluctuationsing from each face contained heavenfate; clearly, all of them had passed a heavenfate tribtion. He took a step forward, which propelled him with lightning speed toward Zhang Qifan.

    ¡°How impudent!¡± he raged, reaching out with both hands.

    Meanwhile, Zhang Qifan turned around. Pulsing with killing intent, he pulled a long, blood-colored sword out of thin air using his right hand, while simultaneously using his left hand to perform an incantation gesture and touch his forehead. Demon energy pulsed out of him. Two leathery wings appeared on his back, and his entire body seemed to wither until it looked like a corpse. Scowling viciously, he lifted his blood sword and prepared to sh with Luo Jinsong.

    Simultaneously, three other banquet attendees became blurs of afterimages as they shot toward Zhang Qifan.

    It was a case of four against one. There was no need to specte what would happen. In the blink of an eye, blood sprayed out of Zhang Qifan¡¯s mouth. His blood sword exploded, and he staggered backward toward Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong frowned. Xu Qing lookedpletely calm. Ignoring what was happening, they kept walking. Xu Qing could tell that this entire thing was an act, and it wasn¡¯t a very good one.

    But then, Luo Jinsongughed coldly and said, ¡°Kong Liangxiu might have seemed like he performed some important services, but given the way things ended, he obviously got greedy and made his move too soon. If he¡¯d just stayed calm andsted for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he would have still been alive when His Majesty Seventh Prince arrived with the relief troops. You can¡¯t me others for his death!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped walking, and a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.

    Next to him, Kong Xianglong was already seething. Turning, he red at Luo Jinsong.

    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± he growled. He couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer. The humiliation had gone too far. Taking out hismand sword, he took a step forward.

    But then Xu Qing¡¯s hand mped down onto Kong Xianglong¡¯s shoulder.

    Kong Xianglong was in the pseudo-Nascent Soul level, and was only a few months away from a breakthrough. Given that, he wasn¡¯t in the position to fight Luo Jinsong, who was an actual Nascent Soul cultivator.

    Xu Qing stepped past Kong Xianglong, moving with incredible speed to appear right in front of Luo Jinsong. His eyes were as cold as ice. Pce Lord Kong¡¯s name and honor were invible. That was Xu Qing¡¯s bottom line. Pce Lord Kong was also a soft spot for Sea-Sealing County in general. Anyone who touched that soft spot would have to pay the price. It didn¡¯t matter if that person was the descendant of a heavenly marquis.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was filled with killing intent. He wasn¡¯t going to wait untilter to kill this person in secret. In some cases, killing someone in secret was the best thing to do. But in other situations, killing them out in the open was the best way to send a message.

    Of course, Xu Qing knew that killing Luo Jinsong here wouldn¡¯t be easy. There would be people inclined to interfere. Therefore, he needed to end things quickly and efficiently.

    Clenching his right hand into a fist, heunched a blow at Luo Jinsong¡¯s chest.

    Luo Jinsong¡¯s gaze sharpened. Xu Qing¡¯s speed and aura were both fear-inspiring. But Luo Jinsong didn¡¯t show even a shred of cowardice. Grinning fiercely, he unleashed all of the power of his energy and blood, causing a blood mist to erupt from him and form an illusory projection. His baleful aura grew more intense, his muscles bulged, and his entire body became covered with vicious-looking blue veins. He had an innate ability that gave him a huge boost to his fleshly body. As his energy and blood raged, he grew in size, rapidly reaching a height of six meters. His arms were thicker than Xu Qing¡¯s torso as he reached out to grab Xu Qing¡¯s iing fist. Meanwhile, his other hand swept out as if to grab Xu Qing bodily.

    But then Xu Qing¡¯s entire body turned semitransparent. He did nothing to stop Luo Jinsong¡¯s hands from getting close to him.

    Then those hands mped down... onto nothing!

    When using his Gruegloom abilities, Xu Qing could turn his entire body semitransparent, which allowed things to pass right through it. In that state, his speed wasn¡¯t reduced at all.

    Luo Jinsong¡¯s face fell as he realized he¡¯d made a mistake, and it was toote to fall back. However, he still managed to react. Eyes ring with anger, he roared at Xu Qing¡¯s iing form.

    Meanwhile, red light erupted from his blood clone as it took a step toward Xu Qing. That light became like a sea of blood that weighed down on Xu Qing with immense pressure. But a fraction of a momentter, golden light glittered as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared, controlling the Spike of Misfortune and sending it stabbing right toward the blood clone. The Spike of Misfortune cut like a hot knife through butter, piercing through the sea of blood and shing open the clone.

    Because of that opening, Xu Qing in his Gruegloom form was able to elerate rapidly and then pass through Luo Jinsong. When he came out the other side, he had a nascent soul in his hand!

    It was one of Luo Jinsong¡¯s nascent souls!

    Xu Qing tightened his hand, and the nascent soul screamed before copsing. The heavenfate within it swept into Xu Qing¡¯s hand and entered his body, bing nourishment. What remained of the nascent soul in his hand was pitch ck. It continued to crumble in on itself until it turned into a shadowy form that pulsed with a cold, vile aura as it floated behind Xu Qing.

    It was his first heavenfiend clone.

    Luo Jinsong shivered violently from head to toe. Eyes shining with astonishment, he suddenly coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and staggered forward. At the same time, his flesh started turning ck, with many spots starting to visibly decay.

    ¡°This....¡±

    He seemed to have something to say, but before he could, Xu Qing stepped forward in his illusory form, and then appeared in front of Luo Jinsong.

    Somehow, he had a dagger in his hand, and he swept it right through Luo Jinsong¡¯s neck.

    The head tumbled through the air!

    Itnded on the ground with a thump, then rolled to a stop in front of Seventh Prince and Princess Anhai. The eyes were wide open and full of disbelief, as if, even in the moment right before death, he couldn¡¯t believe what was happening. Clearly, there wasn¡¯t a huge difference between Luo Jinsong¡¯s cultivation base and Xu Qing¡¯s. What was more, Luo Jinsong had a fleshly body blessing. So how could he have literally lost his head so quickly?

    And then the poison ravaged his head, turning it into a ck sludge. His body was also melting.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t skip a beat, though. Without pausing for a moment, he sent the dagger stabbing toward Luo Jinsong¡¯s poisoned and decapitated body.

    The moment the dagger made contact with the headless body, the corpse¡¯s chest split open, and red fire erupted from within. The fire pulsed with a stupefying aura that made it clear it wasn¡¯t something from the mortal world, and it caused rippling heat waves to spread out as it shot toward Xu Qing.

    At the same time, an ordinary-sized person stepped out from Luo Jinsong¡¯s chest, holding a cosmic teapot that was pitch ck and covered in golden striations. The fire wasing from inside that teapot. [1]

    1. There is no indication what this ¡®cosmic teapot¡¯ looks like. However, when I put the Chinese term into search engines, the results were all teapots. <u>Here¡¯s a cool version</u> that seems like it could fit in the story (except it¡¯s a different color). ?

 Chapter 548: Any Who Touch Sea-Sealingâ€™s Soft Spot... Die! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 548: Any Who Touch Sea-Sealing¡¯s Soft Spot... Die! (part 2)</h4>

    The person who stepped out looked exactly like Luo Jinsong. The moment he was out in the open, he took out a huge handful of antidote pills and swallowed them. Eyes cold, he red at Xu Qing within the fire. Then he opened his mouth to speak, only for his face to fall again.

    The sea of mes surrounding Xu Qing immediately began to die down. Over the course of two breaths of time, Xu Qing inhaled all of the fire and swallowed it down. Xu Qing became clearly visible as the fire went away. He had an odd expression on his face as he looked at Luo Jinsong holding the cosmic teapot, and an imperceptible flicker passed through his eyes.

    Meng Yunbai¡¯s voice suddenly reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears. ¡°The Luo n is in decline, but they still practice the legacy technique passed down by their heavenly marquis patriarch. It¡¯s called the Darkheaven Rhythm Art. Whenever they use the molting rhythm, they can get a better fleshly body blessing.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him. Meanwhile, quite a few people at the banquet had risen to their feet and were calling out.

    ¡°Neither of you make a move!¡±

    ¡°This is not the proper venue for fighting!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure the two of you can work things out without resorting to deadlybat.¡±

    A few people even started walking forward. What was more, the mor of the fight had even attracted the attention of some of the guards outside the banquet hall, who were now rushing inside.

    When Luo Jinsong saw that, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. ring coldly at Xu Qing, he made to back up.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stop him. ncing at the cosmic teapot, and then back at Luo Jinsong, he calmly said, ¡°There¡¯s no cure for my poison.¡±

    Luo Jinsong¡¯s expression flickered, and he was about to take out some more antidote pills when he shivered from head to toe. Then, greenish-ck coloration started spreading out over his skin again. Feeling extremely rmed, he sent his cultivation base into full rotation, hoping to suppress the poison. Then he looked pleadingly at Seventh Prince and Princess Anhai.

    Yet before he could say a word, ck blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His tongue and ears fell off, turning into ck sludge as they dropped to the ground. A horrendous gurgling emerged from his throat, and then, right in front of everyone, he melted into a fetid sludge.

    In only about four or five breaths of time, Luo Jinsongpletely liquefied. Thest thing he did was look at Princess Anhai as if begging for mercy. She didn¡¯t react.

    All of the onlookers were visibly stunned. None of them had been very impressed with Xu Qing¡¯s ability to snatch nascent souls. He wasn¡¯t the only person in existence that had such abilities. It was the same with his poison. When he produced that strange soul shadow, some of them had been surprised, though they didn¡¯t show it on their faces. Even when Xu Qing beheaded Luo Jinsong, no one had reacted, as they all knew that Luo Jinsong couldn¡¯t be killed in that way.

    But now things were different. The situation with Luo Jinsong was already resolved. However, that poison was still around, and it was explosively deadly. All eyes fell on Xu Qing.

    As for Meng Yunbai, he was looking at Xu Qing with a mixture of confusion and dread.

    Immortal Fairy Gemspirit from the Creation Mansion had an unprecedentedly serious look on her face. Eyeing the ck sludge, she suddenly said, ¡°That poison has the curse of a god in it!¡±

    Everyone was shaken by her words.

    An unusual gleam could be seen in Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes, and for the first time, Princess Anhai looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing, his expression cid, stepped over to the ck sludge that had been Luo Jinsong. Seemingly unconcerned about dirtying his hand, he took the cosmic teapot out of the sludge. After putting it away, he turned and bowed to Seventh Prince and Princess Anhai.

    ¡°I killed this person because he insulted the soul of a hero. Pce Lord Kong lived for humankind, and for Sea-Sealing County. Even the emperormented his passing, and agreed for the pce lord to be enshrined and blessed by the joss me of humanity.

    ¡°This person was the descendant of a heavenly marquis, yet he insulted a brave hero and threatened to drive Sea-Sealing County into chaos. Clearly, he had a twisted heart, and was most likely a secret member of Torchlight. Not even death can wipe out his crimes!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice didn¡¯t thrum with emotion. His expression was neutral, and after speaking, he rose from his bow, turned, and walked back toward Kong Xianglong.

    Zhang Qifan was standing next to Kong Xianglong, but Xu Qing ignored him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t address what was really going on. Instead, he used his actions to let everyone know they couldn¡¯t manipte him and Kong Xianglong. <i>Whatever issues you people have with each other, you handle them. Leave us out of it.</i>

    It was also a clear message that touching Sea-Sealing County¡¯s soft spot woulde with a price.

    A smile appeared on Seventh Prince¡¯s face. Princess Anhai¡¯s gaze hardened slightly. Everyone else had serious expressions on their faces. Now all of them knew a bit about Xu Qing¡¯s personality. And they were all thinking the same thing.

    <i>Best not provoke this guy.</i>

    As for Luo Jinsong, the truth was that none of them really cared about him or the fact that he was dead. That was his issue.

    Everyone watched as Xu Qing walked to the door. He stopped there, turned to look at Seventh Prince, and after a moment of thought, said, ¡°Your Majesty Seventh Prince, is there any chance Sea-Sealing County can have those three prefectures back?¡±

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t respond immediately. Next to him, Princess Anhai¡¯s eyes flickered with an imperceptible smile. Picking up her drinking vessel, she took a sip.

    A moment passed, and then Seventh Prince smiled amiably. ¡°There are still some problems with bandits in those three prefectures. Once they¡¯re cleared out, Sea-Sealing County can have them back.¡±

    This was not how he had nned for things to end up. But given how events yed out, there was no way he could outright refuse Xu Qing. Xu Qing had taken Luo Jinsong¡¯s behavior as an outright instigation, and that actually fell in line with what the prince wanted. Therefore, he had decided to back down a bit in regards to the three prefectures. Although he hadn¡¯t given an explicit timetable of when he would return them, he had made his stance clear.

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully, then turned and left with Kong Xianglong. During the entire time, neither of them had looked once at Zhang Qifan.

    It was hard to tell what Zhang Qifan was thinking, as he didn¡¯t reveal anything via his facial expression. He just returned to his seat and took a drink of alcohol.

    The banquet resumed. The chatting andughing returned. It was as if nothing had happened. However, people would asionally nce at the ck sludge on the ground, and they would feel deeply shaken.

    Later that evening, Princess Anhai departed to rest, and that marked the end of the banquet.

    Soon, the only person left in therge banquet hall was Seventh Prince. As he sat there calmly sipping alcohol, he smiled.

    <i>I set the stage for you perfectly, my sister. And as it turned out, you nned a whole little y for me to watch. Except, given how smart you are, how could you botch it up so badly?</i>

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes narrowed as he fiddled with his drinking vessel. Then, his expression hardened, and his eyes shone with cold light.

    ¡°Checks and bnces!¡± he murmured.

    ***

    Seven days passed.

    The official ceremony marking the return of the Holytides would begin soon. During that time, Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong never left the Sea-Sealing County garrison. Xu Qing spent some of that time studying the cosmic teapot he¡¯d taken from Luo Jinsong.

    Specifically, he was interested in the fire. It was obviously a very special fire. As soon as Xu Qing sensed how terrifying it was, he carefully avoided it. But he hadn¡¯t been able topletely avoid it, and the burning of that fire had provoked a change in the violet crystal. The violet crystal had actually reached out to absorb the fire. And afterward, a sh of light emerged from the crystal.

    That light seemed to illuminate Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness. Though it only shed once, when it happened, one of the spokes on the ck umbre lifemp had vanished, as if it melted!

    That was the reason Xu Qing had taken special note of the teapot. There had been no time to look closely at the teapot in the heat of the moment, so he had waited until he was back in the garrison to go into seclusion and study it.

    Meng Yunbai came to pay a visit, and Immortal Fairy Gemspirit submitted a request to do the same. Xu Qing politely refused to see them. For one thing, he didn¡¯t have much spare time. What was more, he didn¡¯t want to get dragged into the intrigue of the imperial capital.

    He and Kong Xianglong gave a full report to Li Yunshan. He reached the same conclusions as them, but also had some deeper insights that he shared.

    ¡°Seventh Prince obviously didn¡¯t just invite us to observe the Holytide return ceremony. I bet he was trying to figure out why Princess Anhai suddenly showed up to visit.

    ¡°As for the way you killed Luo Jinsong, Xu Qing, I¡¯d say you handled it beautifully. He insulted Pce Lord Kong, and not even death could wipe out that crime. I¡¯ll report all of this to Marquis Yao. Given what he¡¯s capable of, and the fact that we¡¯re ultimately in the right here, I doubt there will be any ramifications.¡±

    On the seventh day, the ceremony began. There was a lot of pomp and formality. Representatives from the imperial capital came to read an imperial decree, and the four Holytide emperors came in person. The Holytide ancestral emperor attended as a projection.

    Their arrival caused wild colors to sh in the sky, and kicked up a huge wind. Immense pressure weighed down on what had once been Ten Entrails of the True Immortal.

    It was the pressure of a Smoldering God. Time and space both seemed affected, and that was only because of a mere projection of a Smoldering God.

    Xu Qing felt like he was facing an actual god, although the feeling was different and hard to describe.

    As the ceremony yed out, Li Yunshan whispered, ¡°Smoldering Gods... continuous and unending, impossible to be named; they return to non-existence. They are called the forms of that which are without form; the image of non-existence. Meet them and you do not see their beginning; follow them and you do not see their end.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven. He saw the four Holytide emperors, as well as the figure behind them, which seemed capable of propping up all heaven and earth. Its head was not visible, nor were its feet, as if it was too big to actually exist.

    The Holytide¡¯s ancestral emperor didn¡¯t stay for long. After hearing the imperial edict being read, he vanished.

    The imperial edict heaped approval and praise on the Holytide ancestral emperor. What was more, he was bestowed with the very same title as his ancestor. He was appointed as the new Grand Duke Holytide. The Holytide Region would not be renamed. However, it would be half of its original size. The other half would be a new area called the Deep Blue Region. With the exception of Sea-Sealing County, the new region was to be administered by Seventh Prince¡¯s army. Princess Anhai would also assist in carrying out government affairs.

    When the ceremony ended, Xu Qing and everyone else returned to Sea-Sealing County.

    However, before they left, one other thing happened. Seventh Prince took the initiative to return the three prefectures to Sea-Sealing County. What was more, he added an additional four prefectures. Because of that, Sea-Sealing County henceforth had seventeen prefectures.

    The matter was initiated by Seventh Prince and approved by Princess Anhai.

    Meanwhile, Moongazing Prefecture, which was the prefecture Sea-Sealing County had secretly taken over, was handed over to be part of the Deep Blue Region. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t really sure of all the details of what happened. Although Marquis Yao had previously exined that Moongazing Prefecture would eventually be handed over, he wasn¡¯t sure of exactly why. It was all the work of Marquis Yao and Master Seventh. However, the imperial edict did make it clear how things would develop going forward into the future.

    With Princess Anhai part of the Deep Blue Region, the big picture was changing.

    1. Li Yunshan is actually quoting the <i>Dao De Jing</i> here. Or at least, his dialogue is an exact quote from <i>Dao De Jing</i>. Whether or not he¡¯s supposed to be actually quoting the real-life daoist text is... up to you. Whenever there are poems, quotes from books etc. that have existing trantions, I like to use those existing trantions if it makes sense. So the portion here is taken almost directly from the ¡°<i>Dao De Jing by Lao Zi, A Minimalist Trantion</i>, by Bruce R. Linnell, PhD, 2015¡± which is avable to read for free on Project Gutenberg. <u>Here¡¯s the link to the original trantion</u> if you¡¯re interested in reading the context. The quote is specifically from chapter 14. I made some slight changes to make sure it makes sense in context, but for the most part, the trantion is from Dr. Linnel¡¯s work. In case you¡¯repletely unfamiliar with the <i>Dao De Jing</i>, here¡¯s a link to the <u>wikipedia article about it</u>. ?

 Chapter 549: Little Ah Qing, Are You Ready For a REALLY Big Job?

    <h4>Chapter 549: Little Ah Qing, Are You Ready For a REALLY Big Job?</h4>

    Located between the Holytide Region and the Deep Blue Region was the spot where the Ten Entrails Tree had stood.

    Currently, the Sea-Sealing County fleet was flying away from the Ten Entrails Tree area back home through the Deep Blue Region. Numerous massive flying ships roared through the sky.

    The imperial edict did not contain any stiptions directly benefiting Sea-Sealing County. However, the ¡®checks and bnces¡¯ ced on Seventh Prince, and the arrival of Princess Anhai, changed Sea-Sealing County from a rtively insignificant ce to something quite the opposite.

    The prince and princess seemed to be ying some game with the goal of recruiting Sea-Sealing County onto their side to help in their struggles against each other. Although that might seem dramatic to mortals, when it came to people of their standing in the imperial n, such recruiting efforts only held so much weight.

    As far as why Seventh Prince handed over four additional prefectures, there was clearly more going on than what was on the surface. There was no way either the prince or princess would allow Sea-Sealing County to be too important. But as long as the county didn¡¯t do something foolish, then they would have plenty of time to settle down and recover.

    And that was just what Sea-Sealing County needed.

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He was currently seated cross-legged in a private cabin in the dreadnaught. He had just finished a session of cultivation, and as he exhaled, the energy swirled around in front of him. It was like smoke containing incredibly high heat, which raised the temperature of the private cabin until it was like an oven. Xu Qing looked at the smoke, felt the heat, and his eyes glittered.

    <i>I never could have guessed that I would get something like this back at the Ten Entrails Tree!</i>

    His heart was racing. The source of his excitement was the fire from the cosmic teapot. After several days of study, he had confirmed that the fire was harmless to him. But more relevant was that it could melt lifemps! When he sucked the fire into himself, the violet crystal would automatically absorb it. And then, the most fantastic thing would happen. The violet light that then shone onto Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness would cause the lifemps there to start dissolving!

    That process didn¡¯t involve destroying themp. Instead, it changed its form. In all of his practice of cultivation up to this point, he had never seen anything like this happen. His understanding had always been that lifemps werepletely indestructible. That was what all the information he had ever read about lifemps also indicated.

    ¡°Light from beyond the heavens?¡± he murmured. He couldn¡¯t be absolutely certain about that assessment.

    The information about that Imperial Sovereign of antiquity who had acquired light from beyond the heavens, all it said was that he used that light to melt lifemps and then make thempletely his own.

    In any case, Xu Qing had never encountered any situation like this. The focus of his research so far had been checking to see if the lifemps would actually be destroyed when dissolved.

    <i>They wouldn¡¯t!</i>

    He extended his hand, and on the tip of his finger was a red crystal.

    He had already confirmed that when a lifemp was melted, it would turn into an unfathomable substance in his sea of consciousness. When it then entered his bloodstream, it would change his blood into something different. At the same time, impurities would be released. It was as if the red crystal contained the dissolved blood that couldn¡¯t be absorbed by his own bloodstream.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what the red crystal could be used for. But he could sense that it contained the aura of a lifemp. It glittered with bright light and intense heat. Xu Qing put the red crystal away, and his eyes shone with anticipation.

    <i>With enough of this kind of fire, I can bring out more light from my violet crystal, melt all of my lifemps, and absorb them into my bloodstream. And when that happens... I might be able to, with my own will, create a personal lifemp!</i>

    It seemed possible on a theoretical level. That said, it was different from what that Imperial Sovereign of antiquity had done, which was putting blood into the lifemps to make them his own. Xu Qing was doing the opposite. He was melting the lifemps, and putting them into his blood to make them his own.

    <i>Although it seems possible in theory, I have to do more experimentation. And I also need a lot more of that fire!</i>

    He looked down at the cosmic teapot. There wasn¡¯t an infinite amount of fire in it. After his experimentation, less than half was left. He had also done some asking around, and had eventually got some information from Pce Lord Li Yunshan himself.

    ¡°It¡¯s heavenfire that can be found on the border between the Moonrite Region and the Mountsouth Region!

    ¡°The Mountsouth Region is an administrative enve of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It¡¯s in the southern part of their territory, and holds much strategic value. There¡¯s a continental sea there along the border between the two regions, made, not from water, but from fire. That fire is astonishingly powerful, and the deeper you go into the sea, the more terrifyingly destructive it gets.

    ¡°However, that sea of mes isn¡¯t natural. It came from heaven. In the middle of Heavenfire Sea is a rift in the sky, out of which pours an endless flow of mes. It¡¯s like a waterfall that feeds into the sea below.

    ¡°Heavenfire is unique in that, if it leaves that area, it gradually turns into normal fire, unless you have some special item that can preserve it. Obviously, this cosmic teapot is just such an item. But it can¡¯t preserve the fire for too long.¡±

    Xu Qing was more familiar with the southern parts of Revered Ancient. But he had looked at maps in the past. To the northwest of Sea-Sealing County was the Deep Blue Region. Due north of that was the Holytide Region. To the west of the Holytide Region was the Yin Sacrifice River. Beyond that river was the mysterious Moonrite Region. In the northeastern part of that region was the regional border connecting to the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    ¡°The Moonrite Region...¡± Xu Qing murmured, his eyes shining. He opened the door of his private cabin, and the cold wind dispersed the heat from inside.

    It wouldn¡¯t be long before they reached Sea-Sealing County, and then, the county capital. After stepping out onto the dreadnaught¡¯s superstructure, he found Kong Xianglong sitting there looking out at heaven and earth. He nced at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Did it work out?¡±

    Xu Qing grinned and nodded. He sat next to Kong Xianglong and looked in the direction of the Moonrite Region. Eyes shining, he took out his transmission jade slip and sent a message to the Captain.

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, how¡¯s your search for information going? I have some news on my end.¡±</i>

    It didn¡¯t take long before the jade slip vibrated. When the Captain spoke, he sounded very rxed and incredibly pleased.

    <i>¡°I got back a few days ago. I¡¯ve been waiting for you to get back from visiting our son.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Good. I¡¯ll be back in the county capital in about four hours.¡±</i>

    They didn¡¯t get into any particrs via voice message. But Xu Qing¡¯s chest felt tight with anticipation. Kong Xianglong looked at him quizzically.

    ¡°Xu Qing, are you and that extremely dubious Eldest Brother of yours going out on another big job?¡±

    Xu Qing patted Kong Xianglong¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Want to join us?¡±

    Kong Xianglong inhaled sharply, looked around suspiciously, and then shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid your Eldest Brother would sell me out. Haven¡¯t you noticed how Ning Yan looks at your Eldest Brother nowadays? He seems scared to death.¡±

    It madeplete sense to Xu Qing. However, he had the feeling Ning Yan wasn¡¯t going to be able to get out of this mission. He was just too useful as a tool.

    The fleet made a few more teleportations, and about four hourster, arrived at the county capital.

    As soon as he stepped off the dreadnaught, he got messages from the Captain urging him to meet up. Therefore, Xu Qing sent a message to Master Seventh to let him know he¡¯d returned, then hurried, not to the Swordsage Pce, but to a particr restaurant where the Captain had said to meet.

    Upon entering the establishment, he saw Li Shitao walking out of the Captain¡¯s private room. She smiled at him and, without a word, left.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and then walked into the room. The table was filled with food and alcohol. The Captain sat on the far side nibbling on a peach. Looking up at Xu Qing, he proudly said, ¡°Ai, little Ah Qing. I finally understand how frustrating your life must be. People, am I right? When you¡¯re too outstanding, the girls are just too forward. It¡¯s really annoying.¡± He reached up and rubbed his cheek with his sleeve. His cheek looked clean, but he seemed to be trying to tell Xu Qing that there had previously been a hickey there. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s just lunch, right? Why do I have toe to providepany?¡±

    The Captain sighed.

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he looked at the food on the table. Every dish had spirit ingredients, and everything was obviously very expensive. There were two sets of dishware, one of which was untouched, while the other was piled with food. Obviously, one person had been plying the other with food. As for who had done the plying, well, that didn¡¯t matter to Xu Qing. As long as the Captain was happy, that was all that mattered. He quickly stered an envious look onto his face.

    The Captain seemed extremely pleased with that expression. After taking a few more bites of his peach, he dragged Xu Qing over to the corner of the room, where he waved his hand to set up a warding spell.

    Looking very somber, he said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, are you ready for a <i>really</i> big job?¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing knew that with the Captain¡¯s prelude out of the way, the truly astonishing information was about to be revealed.

    As such, Xu Qing put a simrly somber expression onto his face and nodded gravely.

    The Captain was delighted at how well Xu Qing was cooperating. Clearing his throat, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°The reality, little Junior Brother, is that you should be the governor already! But your cultivation base is too low, and thus, you can¡¯t ept the position. How could we possibly just let Marquis Yao take charge of our stuff? And that¡¯s when I started thinking of how we could get both of our cultivation bases to advance by leaps and bounds! And guess what? I thought of a way!¡±

    Raising his eyebrows, Xu Qing said, ¡°What way?¡±

    With a very proud expression, the Captain looked up into the sky and said, ¡°We¡¯re going to... devour the red moon!¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then stood up to leave. He wasn¡¯t interested in pointlessly seeking to die. The Captain was crazy, and that was a condition Xu Qing couldn¡¯t cure him from. Master Seventh would have to take over.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was about to leave, the Captain anxiously jumped up and blocked his path. ¡°Hey, hey. Just wait and hear me out!¡±

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly at the Captain. Going to Moonrite Region sounded interesting, but he didn¡¯t want to be food for Crimson Mother. After all, Crimson Mother was a High God whose mere doppelg?nger had devoured the god sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal. Xu Qing figured he would have to be crazy to present himself on a tter to Crimson Mother.

    ¡°Just think about it, little Junior Brother. The red moon is sleeping! The timing here is like a gift provided by heaven. If we devour h¨¥r sessfully, or even just devour a little bit, we could instantly reach Spirit Trove! In fact, I bet that only a few bites might take us all the way to Void Returning!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot as he looked at Xu Qing with that familiar craziness. ¡°Little Junior Brother, did I ever take you on a big job that didn¡¯t work out?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. ¡°Eldest Brother, did you ever do anything like this in one of your previous lives?¡± [1]

    1. The Captain actually already gave the answer to this question in a passingment in <u>chapter 524.2</u>. Whether Xu Qing forgot about that, or didn¡¯t forget about... you can make a judgment call on that yourself.... ?

 Chapter 550: Heavenly Moon Bandits

    <h4>Chapter 550: Heavenly Moon Bandits</h4>

    The Captain blinked a few times.

    ¡°That¡¯s not important. We can get into itter. First, let¡¯s talk about the red moon. You really need to think about it from the opposite angle, little Junior Brother. If we <i>don¡¯t</i> devour h¨¥r, then when sh¨¥ wakes up, sh¨¥¡¯ll have no trouble tracking us down. Sh¨¥¡¯ll find us with a single thought, and before we know it, sh¨¥¡¯ll be right in front of us! You have h¨¥r godsource. I have h¨¥r aura. To h¨¥r, we¡¯re nothing but thieves, which means once sh¨¥ finds us, we¡¯re dead for sure. And that¡¯s why we need to strike a fatal blow before sh¨¥ wakes up! There¡¯s no reason for us to be scared of a shrew!¡± Pulling out a peach, the Captain took a big bite.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, struggled to control his breathing. His mind was spinning, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was well aware that the Captain liked to do really big things, and he had assumed that thetest n was going to be something monumental. But he hadn¡¯t guessed it would be <i>this</i> monumental.

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth. ¡°Tell me everything in detail, Eldest Brother.¡±

    Looking very excited, the Captain said, ¡°Okay, little Ah Qing. Moonrite Region is very unique among regions. To the Nightshades, it¡¯s considered like a holynd. In fact, it basically <i>is</i> a holynd. And that¡¯s because... the Moonrite Region is the only way to reach the red moon! The red moon is the red moon, while Crimson Mother is Crimson Mother!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded as he listened attentively.

    ¡°There¡¯s one thing you need to understand from the beginning. And that is... the red moon is the dwelling ce where Crimson Mother sleeps. As for the red moon itself, it¡¯s a star! A moon! A unique heavenly body! In other words, if you want to devour Crimson Mother, then you have to first go to h¨¥r dwelling ce. You have to get to the red moon!

    ¡°Unfortunately, the red moon is above the canopy of heaven. Although it follows its own orbital track, actually reaching it is going to be extremely difficult. Even though we can see the red moon, we can¡¯t get close to it. However, that¡¯s not the case in the Moonrite Region. Right in the middle of it, in the Penitence Steppes, there¡¯s a shocking statue!¡±

    When the Captain mentioned the statue, his expression became strange, like a mix of regret and sorrow. Xu Qing noted that, and his eyes glittered thoughtfully.

    ¡°The statue is massive. Though it¡¯s kneeling in penitence, it¡¯s also in a position to prop up heaven and earth. It¡¯s so tall that words really can¡¯t describe it. It¡¯s very nearly touching the apex of the dome of heaven.

    ¡°When the red moon follows its orbital track, it will speed past the statue¡¯s head so closely you can reach out and touch it. That¡¯s also the lowest point in the red moon¡¯s path of travel. The intelligence reports I¡¯ve acquired make that certain. In other words, if we¡¯re right there when the red moon passes, and we fly up with all our might, we¡¯ll be able to get on to the red moon.¡±

    With that, the Captain took out another peach. Taking a bite, he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯ve already nned out everything we need to do once we¡¯re on the red moon. And I... am going to devour Crimson Mother, guaranteed!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes were bloodshot with craziness.

    After taking in the exnation, Xu Qing said one thing. ¡°Who does the statue depict, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain took a few breaths, during which time he took out a peach and handed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°That statue,¡± he said in a hoarse voice, ¡°was created during the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. It depicts a human Imperial Sovereign who refused to leave Revered Ancient with the Ancient Emperor. Long ago, the Moonrite Region used to belong to him!

    ¡°He and Crimson Mother fought a war the likes of which surpassed anything before it. In the end, that Imperial Sovereign died in battle. Because of how much Crimson Mother hated him, sh¨¥ punished him by forcing his fleshly body to kneel to h¨¥r for all eternity. And h¨¥r curse turned hisnds into a pasture.

    ¡°Every so often, when the poption in Moonrite Region gets big enough, the red moon will have a feast. And everything there is on the menu. Mortals, cultivators, it doesn¡¯t matter. They be food. With the cultivators, it starts with those with the highest cultivation base. Every time it happens, the Void Returning experts get eaten first.

    ¡°People born in the Moonrite Region are incapable of leaving it, thanks to that curse. If they take even a single step out of the region, they explode and die. Because of that, cultivators from the Moonrite Region live in a state of constant bitterness and loss. Their path of cultivation always ends in death. What¡¯s worse, they live in a horrid environment where it¡¯s very difficult to survive <i>without</i> practicing cultivation.¡±

    The Captain took a vicious bite out of his peach. ¡°There is no true sun in Moonrite Region, only artificial light sources and something they call the Heavenfire Skycrossing. Unfortunately, the light of thetter is harmful to the point of being deadly.

    ¡°There are also rtives of Crimson Mother who live there, who are also kept like livestock. Because of this, many high-level species call Moonrite Region by a different name. They call it the Red Moon Spirit Garden.¡±

    Based on everything Xu Qing was hearing, it seemed to him like the Moonrite Region was a horrid ce. And given the circumstances, it seemed likely that the species there would be extremely evil.

    ¡°A hell on earth,¡± he murmured, and then took a bite of peach.

    The Captain suddenly looked curiously at Xu Qing. ¡°Where¡¯d you get a peach?¡±

    ¡°You gave it to me,¡± Xu Qing replied quizzically.

    The Captain snatched it back, then took out an apple and handed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, then epted the apple and took a bite. Considering he had heard of the Heavenfire Sea before, he asked the Captain about it.

    ¡°Heavenfire Sea? I didn¡¯t focus much on that, although I did get a few pieces of information.¡± The Captain briefly collected his thoughts and then continued, ¡°Supposedly, it¡¯s a sea of fire, in the middle of which is a rift. In the ancient past, the rift wasn¡¯t very big. But as time has gone by, it¡¯s berger andrger.

    ¡°Few people know what¡¯s inside the rift. Through the years, many species have investigated it, but not much hase of all that. One thing that seems certain is that there¡¯s a never-ending world of fire inside. And if you enter, you die. Why, little Junior Brother. Are you nning to visit Heavenfire Sea?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Well perfect! Since I¡¯ve already deduced when exactly the red moon will arrive, I can tell you we have plenty of time to work with. What¡¯s more, I have a few loose ends that need tying up in the Moonrite Region. So now, all we need to do is sneak away. You can do your thing, I¡¯ll take our ¡®tool¡¯ to finish all the preparations.¡±

    The Captain then took out a map of the Moonrite Region, and pointed to one specific spot and said, ¡°Afterward, we¡¯ll meet up here on Mount Heavenly Ox in the Unfinished Mountains.¡± [1]

    ¡°Well, what do you think, little Ah Qing? Are you in?¡±

    After a moment or two passed, Xu Qing nodded and said, ¡°How about we go there first? Then, after we see things with our own eyes, we can make the final decision. Also, you still haven¡¯t told me if you tried something like this in the past.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat and then tapped one spot on the map. ¡°Think about the name of this ce here.¡±

    ¡°Mount Heavenly Ox?¡± Xu Qing said, an odd expression on his face. ¡°The Unfinished Mountains?¡±

    Unfinished was fairly self-exnatory. But Heavenly Ox.... [2]

    The Captain looked very pleased with himself. ¡°The mountain was originally named after me. Who could have guessed thatter generations would keep the name? You see, little Ah Qing, one of your Eldest Brother¡¯s past-life bodies is buried there. I really got unlucky back then. I tried to devour a god, but failed. It was all the fault of my unreliable teammates. I actually escaped at first, but didn¡¯t survive long after. That¡¯s the main reason I want to meet up there. I want to take you with me to raid a tomb.¡±

    Xu Qing <i>wasn¡¯t sure whether tough or cry</i>. ¡°You¡¯re going to raid your own tomb?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. ¡°I¡¯m getting excited just thinking about it. Also, that¡¯s one of the things we need to do to prepare to deal with Crimson Mother.¡±

    After that, Xu Qing and the Captain went over some of the details of the n. They decided to leave in three days. They also made ns for how to get away.

    Xu Qing was an important person in Sea-Sealing County, so traveling around could be dangerous. The safest option was to make sure no one knew he was gone. The only people Xu Qing told were Master Seventh and Plumdark. Both disagreed with him leaving at first. But after some persuasion, they gave in, and even provided him with some defensive items. Then Xu Qing made a public announcement that he was going into seclusion to work on his cultivation.

    Before ¡®going into seclusion,¡¯ he went to see Zhang San, who hade with Seven Blood Eyes to the county capital. Zhang San had recently finished working on Xu Qing¡¯s spirit cruiser. After collecting it, Xu Qing disappeared from the public.

    In a sh, a month passed.

    There were no major developments in the county capital. The construction work on the Green Dark Sect was finished, and Plumdark took charge. Everything was developing in an orderly fashion. Life had gone back to normal in Sea-Sealing County. Things were calm and peaceful. With Master Seventh and Marquis Yao running things, and especially with Marquis Yao wielding fourth-stage Void Returning power, the nonhumans in the county had stowed any treacherous thoughts.

    ***

    In the western part of the Holytide Region, there was a mortal caravan making its way along one of the public highways. The group consisted of some traveling merchants, being escorted by a Holytide bodyguard team. They were nning to visit some small nations near the Yin Sacrifice River.

    Somewhere within the long caravan was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old with freckles on his face. He sat atop the carriage with the reins in his hand, which he would asionally flick feebly while calling out to the horses.

    He was Ning Yan.

    Standing next to him was a young man with his hands sped behind his back, looking proudly off into the distance. As the sun shone down onto him, it created something like a halo, which made him seem somehow holy.

    <i>¡°The Lord of dust and ferries arrives; heaven and earth wee him with drums and gongs!¡±</i>

    Ning Yan couldn¡¯t have been more annoyed.

    <i>What drums and gongs?</i> he thought. He was truly frustrated at having to be around this person who, the entire journey so far, had been constantly spouting nonsensical poetry.

    Looking at the young man out of the corner of his eye, he muttered, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡±

    Hearing that, Wu Jianwu red derisively at Ning Yan. <i>¡°A gentle breeze carries the squawk of chickens and geese; turning, I find myself facing a kiddie!¡±</i>

    Ning Yan red at him. Wu Jianwu looked back at him proudly.

    At that point, the Captain spoke via divine will from the interior of the carriage.

    <i>¡°Great poem! It really has that Ancient Emperor cadence. Just what I would expect of our special guest, the top chosen from Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ First Peak! No wonder he¡¯s known as the greatest sessor of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Another! Recite another!¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu looked very excited and pleased. Ning Yan said nothing, but he flicked the reins angrily.

    Xu Qing sat in the carriage looking out at the scenery. He had expected the Captain to bring Ning Yan along, but was surprised that he¡¯d invited Wu Jianwu.

    Ling¡¯er had emerged from Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve and was wrapped around his neck. She was currently looking at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back at her and blinked a few times. Then he quietly said to Xu Qing, ¡°Let¡¯s egg on the moron for now. He¡¯s going to be very useful for the n!¡± Raising his voice, he loudly said, ¡°Going forward, we¡¯re the Heavenly Moon Bandits! Come on, brothers. Come on!¡±

    1. In this passage, it¡¯s actually not clear that ¡°Mount Heavenly Ox¡± is in the ¡°Unfinished Mountains.¡± It initially sounds like the mountain is named Unfinished Heavenly Ox. However, weter find out the details that the mountain itself (Heavenly Ox) is part of a mountain range (Unfinished Mountains). There does not seem to be any reason for this information to be withheld. It¡¯s nothing unusual in Chinese to not add the relevant details, but it creates potential ambiguity/confusion in English, so I¡¯m ¡°spoiling¡± it a bit early with my trantion choice. Keeping that secret is not relevant to the plot in any way, so this just keeps things less confusing for you readers. ?

    2. Don¡¯t forget that the Captain¡¯s name ¡°Erniu¡±bines the characters ¡°two¡± and ¡°cow/ox.¡± ?

 Chapter 551: Disciple Xu Qing of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 551: Disciple Xu Qing of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect (part 1)</h4>

    On the border between the Holytide Region and the Moonrite Region were a host of scattered mortal nations. There were also bazaar towns that surrounded the various ferries that facilitated travel across the river. Out-of-region visitors to Moonrite Region could enter; as long as they didn¡¯t stay for too long, they wouldn¡¯t be affected by the curse. Therefore, there was quite a bit of trade that went on between the two regions.

    The hard border was formed by the massive Yin Sacrifice River, which surrounded the Moonrite Region. The river water was red, like blood, and it also smelled like blood. When the wind blew, it would spread that odor of blood throughout the area. People who weren¡¯t used to that smell would often feel nervous and go on guard when they detected it. But even passing travelers would get used to it quickly.

    That was exactly the case with the caravan Xu Qing was part of. The merchants and bodyguards were obviously familiar with the route, and didn¡¯t react at all to the smell.

    When Xu Qing detected it, he realized that the gory smell contained traces of Crimson Mother¡¯s aura. However, it was very faint. Without his violet moon, Xu Qing would never have noticed it.

    ¡°There¡¯s a curse at work here,¡± Ling¡¯er said in her melodious voice.

    The Captain stretched, then pushed aside the carriage curtain to look outside. ¡°That smell is from the Yin Sacrifice River. It¡¯s not a naturally urring river. Crimson Mother feeds it with the cursed blood of the living beings from Moonrite Region. The river isn¡¯t dangerous to outsiders, as long as you offer the proper sacrifices. But to people from within the Moonrite Region, it¡¯s like a cage. I¡¯d say we should reach the shore by evening. After that, it will take a few days to cross the river, and then we¡¯ll be in the Moonrite Region.¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation.

    After leaving Sea-Sealing County, they had snuck through the Deep Blue Region as well as most of the Holytide Region. Then, at the suggestion of Xu Qing, they joined this caravan to travel the rest of the way. It would be easier to remain hidden by staying among mortals. After a month, they reached their current position.

    As evening fell, the sky turned bright red, matching the color of the river. However, it didn¡¯te across as looking beautiful. Instead, it seemed sinister and gruish.

    Eventually, Xu Qing and the others left the caravan and approached the bank of the Yin Sacrifice River.

    The raging waters flowed south, and the smell of blood was extremely strong. It was possible to see bodies floating in the river, which were the remains of residents of Moonrite Region who had tried to escape the region. The water was so corrosive to them that their facial features had already melted away. However, it was possible to determine that the corpses included both adults and children.

    ¡°All living beings in Moonrite Region are food,¡± the Captain said quietly, ¡°from the moment they¡¯re born.¡±

    Ling¡¯er took it in and sighed. Then she snuggled a bit closer to Xu Qing, as if his warmth would keep her safe.

    Xu Qing silently looked up at the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven. Whether it was the Moonrite Region or the Revered Ancient maind as a whole, when had things <i>not</i> been like this?

    Ning Yan had been scowling before, but now his expression was even more bitter. He had never wanted toe on this journey. Life had been good back in the county capital, but then he had been forced to travel to this hellish ce. He knew all about the Moonrite Region. And because of what he knew about it, the ce terrified him, and he wished he didn¡¯t even have to get near it.

    <i>It¡¯s all the fault of that damned Chen Erniu! This ispletely outrageous!</i> Though Ning Yan was cursing in his heart, he didn¡¯t let it show on his face. He was too scared of being bitten.

    In contrast to Ning Yan, there was Wu Jianwu, who had been more than willing to join. And not even the gruish river could affect the haughtiness in his heart. As he stood on the river bank, he took a deep breath and then loudly said, <i>¡°The lonely clouds and sunset birth memories; the river has raged for seven hundred centuries.¡±</i>

    ¡°Great poem!¡± the Captain said, his eyes shining with praise.

    Wu Jianwu cleared his throat, stuck his chin up, and was about to continue with some more poetry. But then he noticed Xu Qing frowning, and decided not to.

    Xu Qing was starting to get annoyed. After all, Wu Jianwu had spouted roughly a hundred poems on the road. Waving his hand, he produced his spirit cruiser and put it on the water. The spirit cruiser was the work of the Sixth Peak elders, as directed by Zhang San. It lookedpletely different from Xu Qing¡¯s old dharmaship. In fact, it almost couldn¡¯t be described as a ship. It was all ording to Zhang San¡¯s ingenious nning.

    In appearance, it resembled a hunch-backed old woman, about 1,500 meters tall, d in a ck robe. Atop her hunched back was the superstructure. Her robe, which spread out over the water and caused ripples to flow out everywhere, were the sails. Most gruish of all was what the old woman had in her hands. In her right hand she held antern that emanated a mysterious green light. And from within the fire that cast that light rang out bloodcurdling screams. That was the power source. Floating above her left hand was a red eyeball that constantly shifted around to take in the surroundings. That was an imitation of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure.

    Xu Qing had been surprised when he first took a look at the spirit cruiser. As it appeared on the river, Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were bothpletely stunned.

    Wu Jianwu gasped and spoke like a normal person. ¡°Is that a Seventh Peak spirit cruiser?¡±

    The Captain chuckled. ¡°It seems Zhang San misses Joine!¡±

    It was true; the spirit cruiser really did look like the god of the Merfolk Isles, Joine. [1]

    Xu Qing nodded. Without another word, he flew up to the superstructure on the old woman¡¯s back. There, he looked off into the distance.

    The others flew up after him. Momentster, thentern in the old woman¡¯s hand glittered with bright light, and the ck robe ¡®sails¡¯ fluttered as she started moving at top speed.

    The Yin Sacrifice River was no small river. Even at the speeds Xu Qing¡¯s spirit cruiser was capable of, it would take about five days to cross it. They encountered some dangers. But when the gaze of the imitation taboo treasure from Seven Blood Eyesnded on them, most of them simply fled.

    There were a few unexpected developments. At one point, a host of blood-colored hairs erupted from the water, rapidly encircling the spirit cruiser and then heading toward Xu Qing.

    Neither Xu Qing nor the Captain needed to do anything.

    Wu Jianwu had been itching to show off, especially since he¡¯d had no opportunities to do so up to this point. He flicked his sleeve, and dozens of vicious animals appeared around him. Some of them flew into the air, and others dove into the water. One of the animals was a parrot which let out a loud squawk as itnded on Wu Jianwu¡¯s head and spread its wings wide.

    The parrot looked around arrogantly, then spoke in a human voice. <i>¡°Wherever my daddy makes an appearance, spirits and immortals tremble and fear us!¡±</i>

    Then Wu Jianwu haughtily said, <i>¡°The House of Wu has eight hundred progeny; who in the world dares brag to them wantonly?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked on with an odd expression. Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes were wide. Ning Yan gasped. The Captain¡¯s eyes shone.

    As the words left Wu Jianwu¡¯s mouth, a bear flew out of his sleeve, rapidly growing bigger until it was 30 meters from head to tail. Standing in front of Wu Jianwu, it let loose a thunderous roar. Stretching its arms out, it grabbed the iing hairs and shredded them.

    The fierce animals were all extraordinary. They all had unique appearances, yet were clearly rted. They worked together perfectly as a team, and seemed capable of ignoring whatever vile enemies they faced, as if their bloodline and personhood existed on a much higher level. Thanks to their efforts, the attacking hairs soon retreated back into the water.

    Wu Jianwu looked very proud of himself, and the parrot threw its head back arrogantly. The parrot¡¯s behavior was odd; it had clearly received a lot of instruction on how to act. The animals all opened their mouths as if to recite whatever lines came next in their script. However, the danger had not yet beenpletely dealt with.

    The water suddenly seethed, and the smell of blood grew stronger, as countless blood-colored hairs shot up from the water and into the sky. In the blink of an eye, they formed into the shape of a gigantic figure, hundreds of meters tall. It was just an outline, without any flesh or blood, and vaguely resembled a skeleton. It pulsed with a terrifying mightiness.

    It looked down at Xu Qing and the others.

    ¡°Offering!¡± it growled. At the same time, the river continued to seethe as another figure rose up. Then a third and a fourth....

    In the end, thirty-seven such figures appeared, one after another, surrounding Xu Qing and the others.

    As each one appeared, it said the same thing. ¡°Offering!¡±

    ¡°These are the river spirits of the Yin Sacrifice River,¡± the Captain exined. ¡°They require you to give them an offering to cross the river.¡± He had obviouslye prepared, as he waved a hand, sending a bag of holding sshing into the water.

    Xu Qing had no idea what was inside. But once the bag of holding entered the water, most of the figures faded away.

    However, a few remained behind, and suddenly, they all looked at Ning Yan.

    ¡°Offering!¡±

    Ning Yan¡¯s face fell.

    The Captain frowned. He knew that Ning Yan had an extraordinary background, but had never guessed that it would result in the river spirits asking for a second round of offerings.

    ¡°I wonder if river spirits taste good....¡± After looking around, he came to the conclusion that there were probably a lot more river spirits in the area than he could see. He sighed. Thankfully, he had gone all out in his preparations. Taking out another bag of holding, he prepared to toss it out. Before he could, Xu Qing spoke.

    ¡°Can I give it a shot, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain thought about it briefly and then nodded. ¡°Sure. The offerings I prepared can be put to useter in the Moonrite Region.¡±

    Xu Qing took a few steps forward and looked at the blood-colored figures.

    ¡°Step aside,¡± he said calmly. As the words left his mouth, violet light shone in his eyes. At the same time, his violet moon nascent soul opened its eyes. Instantly, pressure appeared, and fluctuations rolled out, turning into a manifestation of personhood and godly authority.

    The Yin Sacrifice River went still. The wind ceased blowing, and everything stopped. The river spirits trembled, then quickly bowed their heads and dropped to kneel.

    ¡°Our respects, godherald.¡±

    They all said the same thing. At the same time, more river spirits appeared. Their total number went from dozens to hundreds, and then thousands. There seemed no end to them. All of them were kneeling very respectfully.

    Although Ning Yan had been prepared to see something like this, it still caused his heart to skip a beat. Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes went even wider, and she looked confused.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. <i>With little Ah Qing along, this trip to the Moonrite Region has a much greater chance of turning out how I¡¯ve nned!</i>

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu inhaled sharply, and the parrot on his head shivered and forgot to remain in its arrogant pose.

    After a long moment of silence, Xu Qing once again spoke in a calm voice. ¡°Escort me.¡±

    ¡°Your godly edict will be honored!¡±

    1. If you want to go back and check out the original description of Joine, it¡¯s in <u>chapter 121</u>. ?

 Chapter 551: Disciple Xu Qing of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 551: Disciple Xu Qing of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect (part 2)</h4>

    Thousands of humanoid skeletons made from blood-colored hairs all said the same thing, then circled around Xu Qing¡¯s spirit cruiser and led the way forward. Ripples flowed out on the surface of the water.

    Wu Jianwu was left trembling.

    Seeing that, the Captain sidled over to him, threw his arm around his neck, and quietly said, ¡°See, I wasn¡¯t lying, Big Jianjian. Now, do <i>you</i> want to be like that one day?¡±

    Wu Jianwu definitely did want to be like that one day, and that was why he was doomed to never escape the Captain¡¯s clutches. Before long, the Captain had dragged him off to the side and was whispering into his ears. Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes glittered with both struggle and excitement, but eventually, the excitement took over.

    ¡°Moron!¡± Ning Yan muttered.

    Xu Qing ignored them all, as he was focused on the river spirits.

    These river spirits were living beings, so unlike the situation with the Nightshade divine likeness he had encountered in Holytide territory, he could sense reverence within them. What was more, after activating his violet moon nascent soul, he realized he could sense a very faint medicinal energying off the river spirits. Eyes glittering, he sent his violet moon nascent soul over his head, where it not only emanated pressure, but also, it started absorbing that medicinal energy. Slowly but surely, the energy left the river spirits and flowed into the violet moon nascent soul¡¯s mouth. A pleasant sensation spread through Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart, and the violet moon nascent soul shivered and slowly started growing. As the river spirit¡¯s medicinal energy was absorbed, their expressions grew more pious.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded. He could sense that the medicinal energy was something very beneficial, and was about to start absorbing more when, all of a sudden, a sensation of impending danger swept through him, prompting him to stop.

    <i>This ce is a pasture for the red moon. Since the red moon can absorb anything here, theoretically speaking, so can I. However, doing so will increase the chances of me being noticed. And if that leads to an early awakening....</i>

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly and abandoned any further tests. He figured he would wait until he was actually in the Moonrite Region before making any further decisions.

    And thus, it was with an escort of thousands of river spirits that Xu Qing¡¯s spirit cruiser rapidly crossed the Yin Sacrifice River toward the opposite shore. It was a shocking scene that was bound to attract notice.

    Xu Qing and his group weren¡¯t the only ones going into the Moonrite Region. There were many local cultivators who could go in for trading purposes. Even now, there were dozens of ships on the river, all of whom were required to give offerings to be allowed passage. When they saw what was happening, they were stunned. All the ships stopped in ce, and the cultivators on them looked over and spected among themselves about what they were seeing.

    ¡°Escorted by thousands of river spirits...? Who could that possibly be?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s someone from the Red Moon Cathedral? Maybe someone with really high standing there?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s only one possibility. It has to be someone with a very high status in the Red Moon Cathedral.¡±

    ¡°People from the Red Moon Cathedral rarely make public appearances. In fact, I think this is the first time I¡¯ve seen someone from there.¡±

    The spections led to lingering fear in the hearts of the observers. People like them who traveled to and from the Moonrite Region knew the details of the curse. They realized that the living beings in the region were like livestock, and that it was the mighty Red Moon Cathedral that harvested them for the god. All of them bowed their heads and waited for the river spirits to pass before looking up again.

    Two more days passed in which Xu Qing and the other swept across the Yin Sacrifice River. Eventually, they saw the other shore, which was the Moonrite Region proper.

    The soil was ck. The sky was like an evening sky, with no sun; there was only sourceless moonlight that spread out like a mysterious veil over the darknds. Birds flew in the night sky, letting loose asional mournful cries, while rotting corpses were visible here and there on the ground.

    Xu Qing and the others madendfall on a bare hill. Xu Qing put away his spirit cruiser. As soon as he was onnd, the thousands of river spirits bowed to him, then sank back into the water.

    The Captain looked around, his eyes glittering with reminiscence. He sighed. ¡°It¡¯s been so many years. I¡¯m finally back. Alright, little Junior Brother, we¡¯re fairly safe now. Crimson Mother is asleep, so as long as we don¡¯t blow our cover, we¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. For all intents and purposes, there was no one here who could possibly know them.

    The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Now we split up. I¡¯ll go handle my business, and I¡¯ll take Little Ningning and Big Jianjian with me.¡±

    A pained expression could be seen on Ning Yan¡¯s face, while Wu Jianwu seemed very excited. Clearly, thetter felt very important.

    This was the n they had agreed on. They were currently in the eastern part of the Moonrite Region. By heading a bit further east, Xu Qing would eventually reach Heavenfire Sea.

    Xu Qing nced at Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan, wished them well in his heart, then turned to the Captain. ¡°Take care of yourself, Eldest Brother!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. With Little Ningning and Big Jianjian to keep me safe, who would dare to mess with me?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times at Xu Qing, then reached up and smacked himself on the top of the head. He instantly transformed, turning into an elegant middle-aged cultivator. He actually looked quite a bit more handsome than before. What was more, his smile and facial expression made him seem somehow more wicked.

    Smiling enigmatically, he smacked Ning Yan¡¯s belly, causing him to shiver and transform into a servant girl. Ning Yan had apparently been aware that this would happen, as he didn¡¯t seem surprised. The scowl that stayed on his face now that he was a servant girl made him seem like the kind of person who suffered a lot of bullying.

    Wu Jianwu was all smiles as the Captain gave him simr treatment. With a smack, he transformed Wu Jianwu into a young boy.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t even curious at how the Captain did all of this. The more seals the Captain undid, the more strange and unusual abilities he seemed capable of.

    ¡°I¡¯ve prepared a secret identity for you as well, little Junior Brother.¡± The Captain tossed a jade slip to Xu Qing. ¡°Going forward, you¡¯re a wandering disciple from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, known as Master Heavengreen. That¡¯s your identity slip, and will also serve as your travel permit. There are all sorts of nations and species in the Moonrite Region, so you¡¯ll need something like that to find your way around. The Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect is in charge of the sacrificial dances for the Red Moon Cathedral. They¡¯re a very big sect, and that means, being a member will offer you a lot of protection!¡± [1]

    Xu Qing took the jade slip. He was really getting a sense of how much work the Captain had put into the preparations. He was clearly dead set on devouring the red moon.

    ¡°And now the time hase to part ways. We¡¯ll meet up at Mount Heavenly Ox in the Unfinished Mountains. Whoever gets there first will wait for the other. And if one of us doesn¡¯t show up, the other will surreptitiously go looking for the other.¡±

    The Captain reached out and pulled a fan out of midair. Opening it with a snap, he fanned himself a few times in a very leisurely fashion. ¡°Remember, little Junior Brother. My secret identity is that of Master Unfinished! I¡¯m also a disciple of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, and I¡¯m your Eldest Brother! In a few months, that name is going to be famous throughout the Moonrite Region. You¡¯ll likely hear it while you¡¯re out and about. Now, let¡¯s go!¡±

    The Captain waved to Xu Qing. Xu Qing bowed. And thus, the Captain took Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu off into the distance. It seemed that Ning Yan would rather have stayed with Xu Qing, as he kept looking back helplessly.

    Xu Qing pretended not to realize that as he watched them leaving.

    About ny meters away, the Captain suddenly stopped in ce. It looked like he had just remembered something. Turning back, he called, ¡°If you have a chance, little Ah Qing, you should really go visit the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. Your identity is legitimate. They emphasize the harmony between yin and yang, and the way theyplement each other. I bet you could learn some things from them. Considering your aptitude, you¡¯d probably master their teachings quickly. That way, if you happen to run into any seductive girls, you¡¯d have some additional methods to keep yourself safe, and won¡¯t be taken advantage of!¡±

    When Ling¡¯er heard that, she immediately stuck her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve. ¡°With me here, Big Bro Xu Qing won¡¯t run into any seductive girls!¡±

    The Captain was about to say something further when Xu Qing expressionlessly produced a peach and took a bite.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes widened into a re. Muttering to himself, he turned and led Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu away.

    Xu Qing watched them go. When the Captain had disappeared into the night, Ling¡¯er looked at him with bashful anticipation in her eyes. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, does this count as our first date?¡±

    Xu Qing chuckled and nodded. Then he turned and sped away. As he did, his facial features changed, making look less extraordinary and more like a random person.

    ***

    For an entire night, Xu Qing sped through the Moonrite Region. He passed a lot of corpses, from a variety of species, most of whom had died from explosive mutation. Some of them had been killed in fighting. It all was what Xu Qing had expected. Given the unique circumstances in the Moonrite Region, it was a ce rife with death and evil.

    There were some ces that Xu Qing passed that made him pause.

    They were corpse pits. Upon nearing the edge of the first one, Xu Qing saw that it was some 30,000 meters wide, like a massive crater full of piles of bones. From the markings on the bones, it was obvious their flesh had been stripped off and used for food.

    Ling¡¯er said nothing.

    Xu Qing took it in and felt the need to be even more vignt. Eventually dawn came in the form of artificial light in the dome of heaven. Thends were no longer pitch ck, but instead, like dusk. That dusky darkness was how daytime usually was in the Moonrite Region.

    Eventually, Xu Qing found himself on a barren mountaintop, looking off into the distance. Taking out the map the Captain had given him, he identified his current location.

    <i>This area is called Lesser Shrine. It¡¯ll take half a month to pass through here. The next area is controlled by the Twofold Alliance. Once I get to the other side of that, I¡¯ll be at the Heavenfire Sea.</i> [2]

    Xu Qing put the jade slip away and continued traveling.

    Days passed. Half a monthter, he reached the other side of Lesser Shrine and neared the territory controlled by the Twofold Alliance.

    After traveling through Lesser Shrine, he now understood where it got its name. There were over a thousand corpse pits there, and they were arrayed in the shape of a crescent moon. In the very middle was an old shrine that was roughly the size of a city. Xu Qing had kept his distance from it, as he could sense the lingering aura of the red moon. It made him think of the alternative name for this region. Spirit Garden.

    With that, he entered the allied species¡¯ territory. The moment he did, he stopped in ce. Not too far ahead of him, he saw beams of light shining out of a host of irregrly shaped mirrors. They were pointing at Xu Qing. The mirrors were about the size of an ordinary person, and their surfaces were blurry and cracked. However, he could see his reflection in all of them. What was most strange was that his reflections all had vicious gazes. And then they spoke in cold voices.

    ¡°Present your travel permit now!¡±

    1. The ¡®green¡¯ part of the daoist name ¡®Heavengreen¡¯ is the Qing character from Xu Qing. Incidentally, that same character can be rendered in different ways, including cyan. It¡¯s the same character as the ¡°Violet and Cyan¡±bo from the country and crown prince of the same name. ?

    2. The name of the Twofold Alliance in Chinese makes it obvious that it¡¯s an alliance of two species. My trantion choice is for the sake of sinctness. ?

 Chapter 552: When Striving Against Heaven, the Days Do Not Pass (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 552: When Striving Against Heaven, the Days Do Not Pass (part 1)</h4>

    The map in the jade slip given by the Captain had obviously not been created with this part of the Moonrite Region in mind, as it wasn¡¯t very detailed. It just gave a general overview of the area.

    However, it did indicate that neither member of the Twofold Alliance was human. The alliance was made up of two species called the Mirrorlings and the Skyfaces, respectively. The cultivators asking for Xu Qing¡¯s travel permit were Mirrorlings.

    Mirrorlings were literally mirrors. As youngsters, they were simply small mirror fragments, but as they matured, they grew muchrger. They were categorized as a grue species, and hade into existence after the broken face of the god arrived. They were hermaphroditic, and could reproduce rapidly. What was more, they had an innate ability that allowed them to exercise a measure of control over an enemy by trapping their reflection in their mirror bodies. They were also fond of enving members of other species and parasitizing them. However, envement required a powerful version of their innate ability that only the nobility had.

    At the moment, Xu Qing¡¯s path was being blocked by these Mirrorlings. However, they were mere patrolling guards with cultivation bases equivalent to Foundation Establishment, which was roughly the same as the cultivation base Xu Qing was revealing as part of his secret identity.

    That was why they felt confident in blocking his path and openly revealing their malicious intentions. Apparently, if Xu Qing didn¡¯t quickly prove that he was somehow important, then they would attack and kill him. After all, in their eyes, humans were an inferior species.

    Xu Qing looked with cold, expressionless eyes at the Mirrorlings, noting their malicious gazes andmitting that to memory.

    That said, he didn¡¯t attack. After all, this was their territory. Looking them over and noting his reflection on their mirror bodies, he took out the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect jade slip the Captain had given him, and tossed it toward them. He was curious to see how they interacted with other physical objects.

    As the jade slip sailed through the air, the reflection of Xu Qing in one of the Mirrorlings reached his hand out of the mirror. When inside the mirror, that hand looked exactly like Xu Qing¡¯s. But outside the mirror, it was a bundle of ck energy that grabbed the jade slip and inspected it.

    After the Mirrorlings realized who he was, as indicated by the identity slip, they seemed to frown. The malice and greed in their eyes didn¡¯tpletely disappear, and they continued to measure up Xu Qing. Clearly, they didn¡¯t want to just let him go on his way.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he faced off with the Mirrorlings.

    After a long, tense moment, the Mirrorlings exchanged nces and ultimately decided to hold back. Apparently, the threat of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect was real. The Mirrorling guards dropped down, sank into the ground, and disappeared.

    Xu Qing watched with great curiosity as they sank into the ck soil.

    <i>Why do they merge into the soil?</i>

    The jade slip map didn¡¯t give any details about that behavior.

    Putting his curiosity aside for the moment, he consulted the map again, then proceeded into the territory of the Twofold Alliance.

    The soil here was ck like everywhere else. However, the dusky sky looked different from the sky in Lesser Shrine. It was brighter. Perhaps that was because it was closer to the Heavenfire Sea. Furthermore, there were no more corpse pits.

    Instead, as Xu Qing traveled, he spotted viges and cities. They were very different from human viges. Mirrorling cities were mostly made from mudbricks, and resembledrge, earthen castles. Xu Qing saw quite a few such cities. Even thergest of them resembled sprawling fortresses. They all seemed like bleak and rough ces.

    The Mirrorlings were a quiet species. Xu Qing didn¡¯t hear any chatting,ughter, nor did he spot much activity. He just saw their mirror-like bodies walking or flying about. Apparently, they weren¡¯t a very talkative species, and did most of theirmunication nonverbally. It was almost a given that a species like that would be xenophobic.

    Xu Qing attracted no small amount of attention. Malicious gazes locked onto him from all sides. However, nobody made a move on him.

    The Mirrorlings didn¡¯t have a lot of cultivators. The majority of their species were mortals. The mortals didn¡¯t haveplete mirrors as their bodies. Instead, they were cracked. Most had only seven or eight cracks, while others had so many cracks their mirror bodies weren¡¯t reflective at all. Thetter were the weak ones who abounded with auras of death. In terms of the specific shapes of their bodies, some were humanoid, while others looked like animals. All of them were scruffy and dirty. There were even some who seemed to be made up of countless smaller mirror fragments all clumped together.

    At a certain point, Xu Qing spotted humans. All of them were extremely weak, and clearly upied a very low standing in the Mirrorling cities. Those who spotted Xu Qing looked at him with dull, empty eyes.

    Xu Qing just looked back at them. There was nothing he could do to change their situations. Although thesends weren¡¯t very far from human territory, especially now that the Holytides had returned to the fold, it was separated only by the Yin Sacrifice River. However, there was nothing humans could do to break the curse of this region.

    It was the same with humans in many other regions. When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity conquered the Revered Ancient maind, humans proliferated in all the regions. Later, Emperor Eastglory¡¯s huge defeat resulted in countless humans being isted and unable to rejoin humankind. As the generations passed, some of those isted humans rose to prominence, but generally speaking, they devolved into being lesser species. Some of them thought of themselves as humans, but given that tens of thousands of years had passed, many of them had either forgotten who they were, or had experienced such a change in their bloodline that they might not even be considered human anymore.

    That said, there were some who looked with longing in the direction of the human Imperial Region. Unfortunately, because of the great distance involved, the curse, and all theplicated situations that existed between the various regions, it was only the most powerful experts who could dream of making that journey. The vast majority of mortals would never be capable of it. All they could do was wait. Wait and hope that one day a human emperor would rise up, conquer Revered Ancient, and give them the chance to once again be part of humankind. After the tens of thousands of years that had passed, though, that hope had grown very weak.

    Even Ling¡¯er sighed at what she was seeing. After all, the Ancient Spirits were in a simr situation. They had been waiting for an even longer time, all in vain. Though Emperor Ancient Spirit still existed, what Ling¡¯er had experienced in the Spirit Abyss left her feeling very suspicious. She wasn¡¯t even sure if that Emperor Ancient Spirit was the same one who had actually led the Ancient Spirits to conquer Revered Ancient.

    Xu Qing continued silently on his way. Eventually he left Mirrorling territory and reached Skyfacends. This species lived in a mountainous region with very few open spaces. They were also categorized as a grue species. Unlike the Mirrorlings, they had flesh and blood bodies. However, all members of their species wore masks. Or perhaps the masks <i>were</i> their faces.

    Everything else about them looked simr to humans, although they were taller andrger. On average, they would reach a height of about three meters. As for the masks on their faces, they didn¡¯t have the same facial features as humans. Instead, the masks featuredplex designs.

    They were even more malicious than the Mirrorlings. And as Xu Qing traveled along, he saw that they were very active.

    Because of the aura Xu Qing exuded, most of the Skyfaces restrained their malice. However, there were a few foolish ones who caused problems. Xu Qing ran into some ambushes as he made his way through the mountains. They yed out as expected.

    The Skyfaces hadrge cities that matched their tall frames. And those cities reeked in such a way that humans couldn¡¯t tolerate it. Because the Skyfaces lived in that environment, they were used to the smell and didn¡¯t even notice it.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t see any humans. However, he did see a restaurant in one of the cities. The proprietors were an old man and woman whose masks made them seem very kind. However, hanging in the front of their shop were bs of meat. From the bones, it was possible to tell that some of the meat came from humans, while some was Skyface flesh. In this ce, the weak were devoured. Truth be told, situations like this existed everywhere. Even back in South Phoenix, cannibalism was practiced in the lower rungs of society. [1]

    ¡°What a chaotic world...¡± Xu Qing murmured. He eventually reached the border of Skyface territory.

    Beyond it was his destination, the Heavenfire Sea. Xu Qing saw endless redva, atop which burned eternally indestructible me. It was a massive ce. Even when Xu Qing flew high up into the sky, he couldn¡¯t see the end of it. The sky above reflected the sea of mes, making everything bright. And the heat pulsed out endlessly.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out from the sea of mes. asionally, theva would form bubbles which, when they popped, created flower-like explosions of sparks.

    After taking in the scene for a time, Xu Qing shot forward through the exploding sparks. He didn¡¯t intend to immediately absorb the fire. He wanted to make some observations first, then find a suitable location for an extended session of cultivation. After all, he had no idea if trying to melt his lifemps might cause something unexpected to happen, and thus attract unwanted attention.

    There were actually quite a few cultivators in this area. The fire here could be harvested and taken out of the region, as long as you had an extraordinary method to store it. And it could be very useful in both alchemy and equipment forging. As a result, it was a valuable trade item. There were also some cultivators who specialized in the dao of fire, and could use it in their cultivation.

    Because of that, Xu Qing spotted both outsider cultivators and locals. Most were on their own, but others were in groups of three to five. All were on guard, and would react viciously if anyone got close to them.

    Overall, he saw more Mirrorlings and Skyfaces than any other species. Given that they lived so close to the Heavenfire Sea, it was only natural that they could endure the heat much more easily than other species, and also use it to be stronger.

    Xu Qing found that there were some unique ces where cultivators would use geomanticpasses to search for something.

    Obviously, there was a lot about the Heavenfire Sea that Xu Qing didn¡¯t know. Asking around wasn¡¯t an option, so he decided that his best bet was to just observe what was happening. As he sped along the sea of mes, he moved quickly, but not too quickly. After three days had passed he still couldn¡¯t see the other side of the sea.

    <i>This ce is huge. It¡¯s going to take a long time to explore it....</i>

    During the three days that passed, Xu Qing figured out what the cultivators were doing with the geomanticpasses. They were looking for a specific type of white crystal. It was a naturally urring substance in the sea of mes, and seemed to be like spirit stones. They were obviously valuable, as they were rtively rare, and had to be pulled up from within theva. It was only possible to find them by using a geomanticpass.

    Xu Qing observed the process from afar a few times. That said, everyone present was both vignt and hostile. Xu Qing knew what was proper, and didn¡¯t get very close to any of them.

    He flew a few more days until he was deep within the Heavenfire Sea. Fewer and fewer cultivators were present. Eventually, Xu Qing changed his mind about what to do here.

    <i>I might as well do some tests right now!</i>

    Looking down at the fire, he waved his hand to put some extra protection around Ling¡¯er.

    Knowing that Xu Qing was about to work on his cultivation, she said, ¡°You¡¯re going to do great, Big Bro Xu Qing! My innate ability is starting to work now, so I¡¯ll help you keep an eye out for any bad guys in the area!¡±

    Xu Qing grinned. Here he was in strange, grimnds, but with Ling¡¯er to keep himpany, he didn¡¯t feel lonely at all.

    Nodding, he made some final preparations. Then, eyes shining with anticipation, he headed directly toward the sea below.

    1. I doubt hordes of readers are hungering for the South Phoenix cannibalism link (pun intended haha), but it was discussed and even depicted in <u>chapter 100</u>. ?

 Chapter 552: When Striving Against Heaven, the Days Do Not Pass (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 552: When Striving Against Heaven, the Days Do Not Pass (part 2)</h4>

    As he dropped down, and the fire raged, the violet crystal immediately sprang into action. Xu Qing inhaled, and fire swept into him. After a moment of thought, he reached out and touched some of theva. It was very hot, but his hand wasn¡¯t injured.

    <i>My body is strong enough to sustain this</i>.

    With that thought in mind, he dropped down into theva. When he had sunk down to his waist, he inhaled, and could sense the intense heat wrapping him up. It was starting to sting.

    <i>I can¡¯t go any deeper.</i>

    After looking around vigntly, he inhaled again, bringing masses of fire inside of him.

    As the violet crystal rapidly absorbed the fire, it sent out six streams of violet light that thoroughly illuminated his sea of consciousness. Because of that light, the life mist didn¡¯t obscure things as much as before, and the five lifemps within it became bright.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart filled with anticipation. Although he couldn¡¯t control the light emanating from the violet crystal, as it shone through the life mist, it firstnded on the ck umbre lifemp.

    That was the lifemp he¡¯d acquired in that temple in the Merfolk Isles. As the six beams of lightnded on it, it once again showed signs of melting. One of the umbre spindles no longer looked as sharp. It gradually began to bend, until it ultimately turned into liquid that flowed downward. A drop of liquidnded in his sea of consciousness, causing thunderous rumbling to fill Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    A tremor passed through him as the fantastic elements that made up the lifemp flowed into his blood. Things were going exactly as they had in his previous experiments.

    Eyes shining, Xu Qing took another deep breath, and more fire raged into him. Another six beams of violet light formed, and the melting continued.

    Two hourster, the second drop of liquid fell from the ck umbre lifemp. At the same time, the nascent soul that had formed from thatmp began to blur.

    Xu Qing stopped to assess the situation. What he confirmed was that the nascent soul wasn¡¯t being harmed. Instead, some of the melting parts of themp were fusing into it. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued.

    Three days passed.

    Because of the unending ess to the mes, Xu Qing was able to constantly work at melting the ck umbre lifemp. By now, it was thirty percent melted. It no longer resembled a lifemp, but rather, a broken umbre.

    Meanwhile, the lifemp elements in his blood were growing stronger. Xu Qing got the strong feeling that, once those elements reached a certain level of strength, then it was highly likely he would be able to form his own personal lifemp.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he steadied his breathing and, instead of continuing to absorb the fire, flew back up into the air. He flew for about a day, found a new spot, checked carefully to make sure it was safe, then dropped back down into theva and started again. Given how unfamiliar he was with the environment, and his vignt and cautious nature, he was acting very simr to the way he had back when he first arrived in Seven Blood Eyes. He knew that it was too dangerous to stay in one spot for long. [1]

    <i>It¡¯s too bad this sea of mes isn¡¯t a suitable space to set up spell formations. That would make things much simpler.</i>

    After some thought, he used his Gruegloom abilities to be semitransparent.

    That method made him much more difficult to spot. Only then did he start absorbing the fire again. With the light of the violet crystal shining, the ck umbre lifemp, which no longer looked like either a ck umbre or a lifemp, continued to melt. It was now down to the base of themp.

    Three dayster, Xu Qing switched spots again. Themp was now melted by fifty percent.

    <i>It¡¯s fine. I have plenty of time!</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a hurry, so he continued at this pace. He would never stay in one ce for more than three days. He was constantly switching locations.

    The ck umbre lifemp went from fifty percent to sixty percent. Then seventy percent. Eighty.... During that time, red crystals continued to form, each of which he would instantly put away. He still wasn¡¯t sure exactly what they were, but he still didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to keep them out in the open.

    As it turned out, being cautious in that way had its benefits....

    ***

    ¡°High-grade heavenfire crystals!¡±

    A small team of Mirrorling cultivators was flying along over the Heavenfire Sea. They were different from the Mirrorlings that Xu Qing had encountered previously. They didn¡¯t have mirror bodies. Instead, they had fleshly bodies. However, those bodies were actually those of other species. In the forehead position of each of them was a diamond-shaped mirror shard, blood red, without any cracks on its surface. The mirrors were not dirty in the least bit; in contrast, they were as clear as ss. These were members of the Mirrorling nobility, with bloodlines that far surpassed ordinary members of their species. All of them had enved members of other species, and used their bodies like puppets.

    The leader of the group was a cultivator with three pairs of wings on his back and a body covered in ck scales. He had a geomanticpass in his hand, which glittered with red light as it led him in a certain direction.

    The Mirrorling cultivators spoke in hushed, excited tones as they sped along.

    ¡°Our luck is good today. We actually found a high-grade heavenfire crystal!¡±

    ¡°High-grade heavenfire crystals are usually hidden deep at the bottom of the sea. But asionally theva flows dislodge them and they rise toward the surface. That doesn¡¯t happen often, though.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry. If we get there toote, someone else might get it, and then we¡¯ll have to kill them.¡±

    A momentter, their expressions flickered as the red light on the geomanticpass suddenly went out.

    ¡°Dammit! Someone took it!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s keep going in this direction and see if we can find whoever stole our crystal!¡±

    This scene wasn¡¯t just ying out with the Mirrorlings. There were other cultivators in the area who had noticed the high-grade heavenfire crystal. And it had happened several times.

    ¡°It happens every three days. But it vanishes almost as soon as it appears.¡±

    ¡°How could there be someone getting the heavenfire crystals so quickly?¡±

    Not far away in a different direction was a group of Skyface cultivators, who were having a simr situation with their geomanticpass. Outsiders might not be familiar with high-grade heavenfire crystals, but these people knew exactly how valuable they were.

    ¡°There¡¯s got to be a reason why these sacrificial items are appearing with such regrity!¡±

    ¡°We should ask the royal preceptor toe help. His geomanticpass is extremely urate. It can even lock onto things hidden in firebrane boxes!¡±

    ***

    As dramatic developments were brewing in the area, Xu Qing was focused on melting his lifemp. The ck umbre lifemp was now ny percent melted.

    <i>I only need one more day!</i>

    Eyes glittering, he looked around. Although he had no idea that there was increased cultivator activity in the area, his bluegreen dragon had been sending him warning signals, and he felt the need to be more on guard than ever.

    Looking at theva, which was at his chest level, he gritted his teeth, sent Ling¡¯er into his bluegreen dragon heavenly pce, then sank deeper. In the blink of an eye, theva covered him. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Xu Qing¡¯s aura waspletely masked by theva. That said, he couldn¡¯t go very deep. At the most, he could go down a bit more than a meter. Gritting his teeth, he started moving. Thanks to theva, he left no trace of his passage.

    When he was a good distance away from his previous location, he once again settled into a cross-legged position and started absorbing fire. Instantly, huge waves of fire entered him, the violet crystal stirred, and light shone out again.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Twenty hours passed. At that point, a loud crack rang out from the ck umbre as thest bits of it melted into liquid and fell into Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness. A boom followed. It had taken a month, but the ck umbre finally melted.

    The sound swept like wind over the water, causing ripples to spread. It reached the dome of heaven, and rumbling like thunder echoed out.

    Xu Qing shivered uncontrobly in theva. Unafraid of the heat, his eyes opened. Within them, something like a swirling mist converged, pulsating, preventing theva from harming him.

    Meanwhile, the lifemp elements in his blood had reached the requisite level. As the thunderous rumbling continued, and as theva seethed around him, something like a vortex appeared in the sea of mes, with him at the center. It spun rapidly and visibly. However, beyond the 3,000-meter area of the vortex, everything seemedpletely normal.

    Only within that area did everything look different.

    Xu Qing remained cross-legged in the middle of the vortex, flickering with light that pulsed between bright and dark. At the same time, an aura erupted from him that contained the advancement of life force.

    Inside of Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, a tempest raged in the spot where the ck umbre lifemp had once sat. Throughout Xu Qing¡¯s body, violet threads appeared and gathered there.

    As they did, a new lifemp began to take shape. This lifemp was actually made from Xu Qing¡¯s blood, making it one-of-a-kind in heaven and earth! Whether it was the Ancient Emperors or the Imperial Sovereigns, when they created lifemps, they were just like this. After the arrival of the broken face of the god, people who could attain Imperial Sovereign personhood, even when taking in the entire Revered Ancient maind as a whole, were <i>rarer than phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>. Thus, it was the same with new lifemps.

    Yet right now, a lifemp that had never been seen before in the world was now being born!

    What appeared first was a circr te of violet jade, tilted at an angle. The disk had twenty-four marked sections, each of which contained masses of magical symbols. All in all, the violet jade te lookedplicated and somehow full of holiness. Right in the middle of the te was the spot where the violet threads were gathering. They slowly took the shape of something that resembled an upright needle!

    It was a gnomon!

    There was also a ball of light that slowly rotated around the gnomon.

    When looking closely at that ball of light, it was possible to see that, seated cross-legged inside was one of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls!

    The light shining from the nascent soulnded on the gnomon, casting a shadow onto the te. And that shadow was constantly rotating as the nascent soul rotated.

    It was... a sundial!

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp! Violet jade formed the te. Greenish gold made the needle! A ball of light floated around it, creating an image of ancient time.

    It was: <i>the sundial moves; the timescape is eternal. When striving against heaven, the days do not pass!</i>

    1. In thinking back to the Seven Blood Eyes days, I feel like the reference here is to when he was opening dharma apertures by provoking attacks by sea creatures. He went from ind to ind doing this, simr to what he¡¯s doing here. That was described in <u>chapter 142</u>. If you can think of something else from the Seven Blood Eyes days that this could be referencing, please feel free to mention it in thements. ?

 Chapter 553: Kids Nowadays are So Unethical! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 553: Kids Nowadays are So hical! (part 1)</h4>

    Recing the ck umbre within the life mist was a sundial lifemp, which glittered radiantly. Though the dial te was jade, the ball of light made it seem like it was made of crystal, resplendent and dazzling. To Xu Qing, it seemed to be formed from a simr material to the violet crystal. In fact, the sundial was like an extension of the violet crystal. Lending weight to that observation was that both the shadow and the god¡¯s finger sleeping in his D-132 heavenly pce were trembling.

    What was more, the violet crystal seemed to have changed with the addition of the sundial, although Xu Qing wasn¡¯t certain of exactly how. However, he did know that the gnomon which grew out of the sundial like a bone spur pulsed with fluctuations that were unique to himself. It was formed from his own blood!

    At first nce, the gnomon looked like a needle. But close examination would reveal that there was something carved on its tip. By zooming in very closely onto that spot, it was possible to see an ordinary-looking violet-colored chair.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. As for the ball of light that rotated around the gnomon, it resembled a sun, and it cast a shadow of the gnomon onto the dial te. Meanwhile, theplicated designs on the dial te were not only clearly visible; they were in constant motion.

    Xu Qing was reeling mentally. He actually had no idea why the lifemp he had made would look like this. It seemed to have something to do with the violet crystal.

    <i>Is it because the violet crystal has fused with my blood? And then there¡¯s that aura....</i>

    As the shadow moved around Xu Qing¡¯s lifemp, it emanated an aura that was simr to a timescape bottle.

    It was the aura of time! However, that time wasn¡¯t in sync with the time of the outside world.

    It caused a sense of boundless majesty to rise in Xu Qing, causing his sea of consciousness to seethe. It affected his fleshly body as well; he started trembling. Furthermore, it affected the outside world, spreading into the 3,000-meter vortex, cutting it off from the surroundings, and forcing the time within the vortex to sync with Xu Qing.

    As a result, everything beyond that 3,000-meter area seemed like a different world, and the border between them was a mass of rippling undtions.

    When a new lifemp was created and made contact with the magicalws of the Revered Ancient maind, it led to supernatural phenomena. Each lifemp was different, so the supernatural phenomena would also be different. Regardless, such phenomena were indications of the approval of Revered Ancient. Few people know about this, mostly because from ancient times until modern, very few people had been present to witness such things.

    Within that 3,000-meter area, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, his entire person shining with violet light and a mysterious will. Meanwhile, his heart was pounding so hard it was hard to remain calm.

    Looking at the sundial that had formed in his sea of consciousness, he stopped thinking about whether the lifemp really was a fusion of the violet crystal and his blood, and instead focused on how he now seemed to have the same origin as the lifemp. This was, without any shadow of a doubt, <i>his</i> lifemp.

    It feltpletely different from any of the othermps he had acquired. Though he had integrated the other lifemps into himself, in the final analysis, they were not connected to his blood. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, they were essentially dead. Therefore, he could use them and borrow their power, but they weren¡¯t truly his.

    That was why, to the cultivators of Revered Ancient, though lifemps were definitely precious treasures, they were only useful for cultivation levels beneath Spirit Trove. After Spirit Trove, they became useless, and you actually needed to get rid of them to avoid the negative effects of karma. That was the experience of all cultivators who used lifemps made with the blood of other cultivators.

    But starting now, Xu Qing was different. Because this lifemp had been made with his own blood, it could be used like an enormous furnace in Spirit Trove, and would allow him to create a foundation simr to the Imperial Sovereigns.

    By entering Spirit Trove with that furnace, he could refine anything to put into his secret trove, thus strengthening that secret trove and putting him on the path to great strength.

    It was an advantage that, normally speaking, only the descendants of Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns could benefit from. In fact, Xu Qing had pushed it a bit further. He wasn¡¯t benefiting the way that such descendants did. He was creating his own good fortune. Because of that, he would have to figure out what other mysterious abilities his new lifemp had.

    For now, all he could sense was that the powers of his lifemp were rted to time. In terms of how strong it was, he would have to do some tests to find out. Based on what he was feeling, his new lifemp was roughly as strong as his other lifemps. It wasn¡¯t a situation of suddenly having immense strength and being able to crush all enemies regardless of their cultivation base.

    That left Xu Qing feeling slightly disappointed. That said, it was a bit unrealistic to expect such dramatic benefits.

    <i>The biggest difference between a personal lifemp and a lifemp belonging to someone else is the difference between life and death. The lifemps of others are dead as far as I¡¯m concerned. There¡¯s no long-term potential for them. They¡¯re basically on loan. However, my personal lifemp is linked to my own life force. It contains unbounded potential, and it can grow with me. As for its powers of time, I bet theye from the violet crystal.</i>

    In any case, Xu Qing knew that now wasn¡¯t the best time to experiment with the newmp. After all, the gigantic vortex was bound to draw attention eventually.

    Around then, Ling¡¯er urgently said, ¡°Run, Big Bro Xu Qing! Bad guys areing! A lot of bad guys!¡±

    She sounded anxious. Though his heavenly dao had been sending him urgent warnings, they hadn¡¯t changed much in recent days. It went to show that Ling¡¯er¡¯s senses were very refined.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing settled his thoughts, sank down into theva, and sped away. He also put away the red crystals that had formed on the lifemp. This time, quite arge group of crystals had formed, more than twenty.

    About six hours after he left, the 3,000-meter vortex gradually faded into nothing. Not long after that, a group of Mirrorling cultivators flew toward that spot. When they arrived, the vortex was already gone. However, there were traces of its power remaining, and as the Mirrorling cultivators neared, they cried out in shock.

    ¡°Something¡¯s strange about this spot!¡± one of them shouted. Then he backed up at top speed. As he did, his parasitized body began withering rapidly. It wasn¡¯t a case of its life force being taken away, but rather, its life being run in reverse. His face fell.

    The other Mirrorling cultivators all gasped in shock.

    ¡°Either there¡¯s some powerful expert here, or there¡¯s some mysterious magical treasure beneath the Heavenfire Sea here that¡¯s connected to time itself. This is a big deal!¡±

    ¡°Based on the reaction from the geomanticpass, more than twenty high-grade heavenfire crystals just appeared now. That¡¯s enough... to cause a war!¡±

    The group exchanged nces thatbined fear with greed.

    ¡°The royal preceptor is on the way. Let¡¯s see what we can find out before he gets here!¡±

    ¡°Notify all Mirrorlings in the area to join us!¡±

    The Mirrorlings started sending voice messages while simultaneously searching the area. Before long, a lot of Mirrorling cultivators had gathered.

    Not far off, there were cultivators from other species whose geomanticpasses had brought them in this direction. Some were on their own, others were in groups. And a ratherrge group of Skyfaces were approaching from one area. For 5,000 kilometers in all directions, hordes of cultivators were on the move, making what seemed like a gigantic vortex.

    Meanwhile, the warning from Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao was getting more intense.

    Ling¡¯er, her voice trembling, said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, there are too many peopleing! And I can sense two really powerful auras on the way!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. He had originally assumed the vortex that formed when making his lifemp had been attracting attention. But that didn¡¯t exin the repeated warnings from his heavenly dao.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s because of those red crystals?</i>

    All of a sudden, he stopped in ce and shoved his hand upward through theva. As he did that, a massive force weighed down from above. It turned into a giant mask that sank into theva and mmed into Xu Qing¡¯s hand. In an area of about 300 meters, all of theva sank down by almost ten meters. As sparks exploded everywhere, Xu Qing was revealed.

    Thanks to the attack from above, the pressure of the sea of mes became like a balloon on the verge of popping.

    Xu Qing shot up into the air just as theva below him exploded in something like a flower of sparks. As the sparks fell like rain, Xu Qing looked up to see who had attacked him. It was a Skyface cultivator, fully 21 meters tall, pulsing with formidable might. He wore a golden suit of armor that reflected the light of the fire and made him glitter blindingly. His cultivation base was also extraordinary. He had seven nascent souls, which took the form of seven huge masks that circled around him, their eyes closed. He appeared to have passed two nascent soul tribtions, and wasn¡¯t far from his third. He was one of the people who had just attacked Xu Qing.

    ¡°So, you¡¯ve been sneaking around in theva. You thought you could evade notice that way, you filthy human?¡±

    The Skyface cultivator looked coldly at Xu Qing, the manyplex designs on his mask flowing and writhing to make two vortexes, one on top of each other like an eye.

    That eye had unusual powers, and it was how he had been able to spot Xu Qing underneath theva.

    ¡°The Mirrorlings are locking down this area. Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re looking for you?¡± The Skyface cultivator started walking toward Xu Qing. ¡°The logical conclusion is that you must have all those heavenfire crystals. I only want five. Give them to me, and I¡¯ll pretend I never saw you. Think about it, but don¡¯t take too long. There are a lot of cultivators searching this area.¡±

    Given the surroundings, any cultivator who didn¡¯t have a very high cultivation base would definitely pause for thought upon hearing those words. And that was why the Skyface immediately burst into motion after he finished speaking.

    He moved with shocking speed right toward Xu Qing.

 Chapter 553: Kids Nowadays are So Unethical! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 553: Kids Nowadays are So hical! (part 2)</h4>

    Sadly, the Skyface¡¯s clever n didn¡¯t amount to much. Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to think anything over, and immediatelyunched his own attack. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this Skyface¡¯s offer wasn¡¯t even worth thinking about. It was obvious what the Skyface was really up to.

    A momentter, a massive boom rang out, and the Skyface shot backward, eyes shining.

    ¡°Thirteen nascent souls? And five lifemps?? No wonder something seemed strange. You¡¯re not from the Moonrite Region!¡± The Skyface cultivator excitedly licked his lips. ¡°Lifemps are precious treasures. I can¡¯t believe you have five of them! You must be some human chosen from a neighboring region.... I wonder what you¡¯ll taste like when I eat you?¡±

    The Skyface cultivator¡¯s hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and his seven nascent soul masks all opened their eyes, stared at Xu Qing, and let loose piercing cries. The sound pierced through the air, creating a rippling with astonishing force behind it.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, shot backward just as the Skyface had done. Secretly releasing his shadow, he pulled out the Spike of Misfortune, and his eyes shone with killing intent. He knew that he had to finish this fight quickly, otherwise more enemies would show up, and then getting away would be a lot harder. Two wings suddenly appeared behind him, and he raced with incredible speed toward the Skyface.

    The Skyfaceughed mockingly and simrly advanced.

    However, before they could reach each other, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he realized a shadowy figure had appeared behind the Skyface cultivator. It happened without any warning or obvious indication, and the Skyface clearly didn¡¯t realize it. The shadowy figure extended its left hand, lifted its index finger, and put that finger to its lips, signaling for Xu Qing to be quiet.

    Then it reached out and put its right hand on the Skyface¡¯s head. A cultivation base power very close to Spirit Trove red. The Skyface couldn¡¯t resist, and before he could even react to what was happening, the images on his mask stopped moving for all eternity.

    A thump rang out as the Skyface¡¯s huge body exploded. His seven nascent souls copsed, and everything about him crumbled with the exception of his mask. Chunks of flesh and blood, along with fragments of spirit flesh from the nascent souls, rushed toward the mask, turning it the color of blood. Then, the figure that had smashed the Skyface out of existence reached out and took the mask.

    ¡°I got lucky,¡± the figure said in a raspy voice. ¡°This Skyface punk really was nobility. Thanks to him, I get another heaveneye.¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing backed up as surely as if he were facing a deadly enemy.

    At that point, the figure began to turn clear. It was an old man who was so scrawny he almost looked skeletal. His eyes were cold and sinister, and he pulsed with a malicious will. However, based on his physical appearance, he was human.

    He looked Xu Qing up and down. ¡°Out-of-region human?¡±

    Xu Qing continued to keep his guard up as he backed away. He kept the power of his taboo poison swirling, and made sure the Spike of Misfortune was ready to use. His shadow remained hidden in the firelight.

    Xu Qing felt massive pressure weighing down from this old man.

    His cultivation base seemed like it was in Spirit Trove, but at the same time, seemed like it wasn¡¯t. He was keeping the truth hidden. At the very least, he was in the Nascent Soul level with five tribtions under his belt, putting him in the great circle. Based on what he had said so far, Xu Qing had no way to know if he had good intentions or not, so he decided not to answer. He refused to believe that this person would just sit around randomly after killing that Skyface.

    Xu Qing was right. The old man scanned the area, then looked back at Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t seem troubled by Xu Qing¡¯s silence. He then performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, causing the fluctuations unique to human blood to pulse out of both of them. Seeing that, the old man¡¯s expression softened.

    ¡°Alright boy, since you¡¯re human, I¡¯ll give a little bit of advice. You need to take those heavenfire crystals in your bag of holding and put them in a secure box. Otherwise, people will never stop chasing you down to get them.¡±

    The man produced a ck box made of jade, which he tossed out. Itnded on theva. It was obviously made in a very special way, as theva didn¡¯t affect it at all.

    ring, the man said, ¡°The charge for that box, plus the information I just gave you, is 10,000 spirit stones!¡±

    Meanwhile, powerful auras were approaching in the distance.

    Without saying a word, Xu Qing threw out a bag of holding, turned, and vanished.

    ¡°You don¡¯t want the box?¡± the old man called out. But then, the box suddenly disappeared from its spot on theva. The old man¡¯s eyebrows shot up. <i>He¡¯s got some skills.</i>

    The old man turned and shot off into the distance, leaving no trace of himself behind.

    It was very rare for people to be charitable in this world, so the fact that the man wanted spirit stones in exchange for his help was actually a relief to Xu Qing. That said, he wasn¡¯t going to let his guard down. After leaving, he masked his aura and fluctuations, then looked around to make sure he wasn¡¯t being followed. Then heced the area with poison.

    He¡¯d had his shadow take the box. Now, the shadow was sending out emotional fluctuations to indicate that there was nothing hidden inside. It was just a unique box designed to store things securely. Xu Qing took it, inspected it to be safe, then scattered poison on it. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. After sinking down into theva, he took out the more than thirty red crystals he¡¯d collected and put them into the box.

    <i>Based on my previous spections, coupled with what that Skyface cultivator said, I guess these must be heavenfire crystals. And they must be produced when you use the fire from here to melt a lifemp. I suppose this box will mask their presence. I need to confirm that.</i>

    With that, he flew out of theva. If the Skyfaces could see him in theva, then hiding there seemed pointless. Eyes glittering, he flew off into the distance.

    Four days passed.

    During that time, it was perhaps because of the box that, whenever Xu Qing ran into other cultivators, they ignored him. asionally someone would block his path, and he would kill them. That was how he managed to eventually get one of the geomanticpasses, as well as a few more of the ck boxes.

    They seemed to bemon items that most cultivators here possessed. The majority were either empty or contained white crystals.

    At one point when he was alone, he did some tests with the boxes and the geomanticpass. Sure enough, the geomanticpass would reveal the location of the red crystals, but not when they were in the box.

    ¡°It does work!¡±

    Seeing that, Xu Qing decided to discard the box the old man had given him. Although he couldn¡¯t find anything to indicate there was anything suspicious about it, he also couldn¡¯t guarantee that there was just something built into the box that he couldn¡¯t detect.

    Before discarding it, he put some poison in it. After switching the red crystals into one of the boxes he¡¯d taken as plunder, he continued moving.

    ***

    The next day, the mysterious old man from earlier showed up at the spot where Xu Qing had discarded the box. The moment he picked up the box, his face fell, and he threw the box away, took out some antidote pills and consumed them.

    <i>What the hell? I had no idea those out-of-region kids are so treacherous! Not only do they throw their trash around, but they alsoce it with poison! So hical!</i>

    The old man turned to leave, but then looked down and realized his hand was slowly dposing. His antidote pills didn¡¯t seem to be doing anything. He inhaled sharply.

    <i>What damn poison is this?</i>

    The old man¡¯s heart started pounding.

    ***

    Xu Qing was currently hovering over the Heavenfire Sea, looking at a trembling Mirrorling cultivator. Previously, the Mirrorling had threepanions, who had locked down the area and were forcing passersby to submit to searches. Upon seeing him, they had quickly surrounded him and demanded he let them look through his bag of holding.

    Xu Qing had encountered simr situations over the past few days. They weren¡¯t just searching the bags of humans. They were searching the bags of all species other than Skyfaces. Xu Qing had attacked, killing everyone but leaving this one alive to have a friendly conversation with.

    ¡°What are high-grade heavenfire crystals good for?¡± the Mirrorling said in a trembling voice. ¡°They can be given as offerings to the Red Moon Cathedral.... The Red Moon Cathedrales here to the Heavenfire Sea every hundred years or so. They wait at the big rift in the middle of the sea, and all the surrounding speciese and give offerings. Heavenfire crystals are just one thing that can be given. They¡¯ll also state other requirements that have to be met. They¡¯re different every time.¡±

    This Mirrorling was covered with wounds, and the mirror on his forehead had a dozen or more cracks in it. The Spike of Misfortune currently hovered right in front of his forehead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes hardened. This was the fourth Mirrorling he had interrogated so far, and they all gave the same answer. They had also all mentioned the pending arrival of their royal preceptor. The royal preceptor was in the Spirit Trove level. Apparently, the Mirrorling species only had three Spirit Trove experts, although no one he had interrogated knew how many secret troves any of them had. He got the feeling the Skyfaces were simr.

    <i>No Void Returning experts?</i> Xu Qing thought, surprised. He refused to believe that. Regardless, even Spirit Trove experts could be very dangerous to him.

    Therefore, he kept his guard up and looked at the Spike of Misfortune. Inside the Spike of Misfortune, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior got the message. He sent the fish bone spike flying forward and into the mirror, which let loose a loud cracking sound. The Mirrorling was thus destroyed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing had already extracted the Mirrorling¡¯s nascent souls.

    With that, Xu Qing turned to leave. Surrounding him were roughly a dozen heavenfiend clones. They looked like specters that emanated sinister coldness and surrounded Xu Qing with a nefarious will.

    <i>Regardless, I need to get out of here.</i>

    He began flying at top speed over theva.

    The reality was that he couldn¡¯t stay in the Heavenfire Sea for long periods of time. The heat was never-ending, and the explodingva bubbles would release even greater sts of heat. Xu Qing could sense that he was reaching his limit. His n was to go back on the shore for a time, recuperate, then go back in to melt another lifemp.

    Right now, there were simply too many cultivators from the Twofold Alliance present. What was more, he wanted to find a safe ce where he could study his sundial lifemp, and hopefully find out what it was capable of. Although he had done a bit of study, the situation was too dangerous to allow him to concentrate fully on that.

    <i>I wonder who that old man was.</i>

    Xu Qing had asked the Mirrorling cultivators about that as well. However, none of them recognized the old man based on his description. That led him to wonder if he was even an old man at all, or if that was a disguise. All of it made Xu Qing feel more than ever that he needed to stay vignt.

    Days passed as Xu Qing cautiously made his way out of the Heavenfire Sea.

    Eventually, he found a barren mountain where he dug out a mansion grotto, set up some spell formations, and prepared to spend some time holed up. After making sure the area was safe, he settled down cross-legged and took a deep breath. Forcing himself to ept the situation as rtively safe, he unhesitatingly focused his attention on the sundial lifemp. By using its connection with his blood he began to study it closely.

    Seven days passed in a sh.

    At a certain point, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened within the darkness of his makeshift mansion grotto. An excited look appeared on his face.

    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡±

 Chapter 554: Freezing Time (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 554: Freezing Time (part 1)</h4>

    The light of the violet crystal had fused with his blood to form a lifemp. After doing some study, Xu Qing was convinced the lifemp¡¯s ability had something to do with time itself. However, he still wasn¡¯t absolutely certain of the details. The soul-protecting properties of the ck umbre had not gone away just because he melted that lifemp. They still existed. As a matter of fact, those properties had improvedpared to before.

    And the time indicated on the sundial seemed to be fourteen hours off real world time. Xu Qing didn¡¯t know what mystery was contained in that difference, not even after putting a lot of thought into it.

    Over the seven days he had spent studying the new lifemp, he¡¯d attempted to speed up the sundial. But it was impossible to get the ball of light, which of course contained a nascent soul, to either speed up, slow down, or stop. The sundial was obviously part of him, but at the same time, acted independently. In fact, even when Xu Qing took control of the nascent soul, for instance by taking it away from the sundial, the ball of light would stay behind and continue its prescribed movement.

    In that manner, it was very much like the violet crystal.

    Eventually, Xu Qing came up with an idea.

    He couldn¡¯t alter the movement of the ball of light, nor could he rotate the te, but he <i>could </i>manipte the gnomon! After all, fundamentally speaking, the gnomon was made from his blood. With some experimentation, he realized that he could detach the gnomon from the dial te and send it flying around. When he did that, the dial te then lost its guiding element, and the ball of light stopped moving. That, in turn, removed the sensation of time from the sundial. The ball of light still shone, but it didn¡¯t cast any shadow. In fact, it was possible to see faint signs of degradation on the dial te.

    Xu Qing quickly put the gnomon back. The dial te returned to normal, and the ball of light continued orbiting. The shadow of the gnomon went back to normal. As for the time notation, it began to move from the exact spot where it had stopped. To some extent, it was as if the time that had passed between removing the gnomon and recing it... had disappeared.

    <i>I guess it makes sense to say that time stopped?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed as he came to the conclusion that his assessment wasn¡¯t entirely correct. Regardless, he had at least unlocked the first function of the lifemp.

    When he had removed the gnomon, stopping time, Ling¡¯er had been climbing out of his sleeve to whisper something in his ear. He had looked down at her, and then she had stopped moving. She¡¯d just remained in cepletely motionless. It was almost as if time had ceased flowing for her. She had existed in that state for only a brief moment. Once Xu Qing saw the degradation of the disk ce, he¡¯d returned the gnomon, sending everything back to normal.

    That discovery caused his heart to leap in his chest.

    <i>When I take out the gnomon, time stops moving for whatever I look at?</i>

    Xu Qing did a few more tests. The entire time, Ling¡¯er had no concept of the fact that she was remaining in ce, motionless. It was as if she was working very hard to reach his ear, but kept stopping along the way. Eventually, she reached his ear and looked at him bashfully.

    ¡°What are you looking at little old me like that for, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    Those words seemed somehow familiar to Xu Qing, but his mind was reeling so dramatically that he didn¡¯t put any thought into it. [1]

    Nodding, he said, ¡°Ling¡¯er, did you notice anything unusual just now?¡±

    Surprised, Ling¡¯er shook her head.

    Xu Qing continued doing some more experiments.

    Ling¡¯er was curious about what was going on, but could tell that her Big Bro Xu Qing was busy, so she settled down in afortable position and then rocked back and forth as if ying.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s mind was racing.

    <i>Ling¡¯er didn¡¯t sense that time stopped for her. I can think of a lot of applications for this function....</i>

    Stepping out of the mansion grotto, he looked up at the evening sky and thends surrounding him. Sensing the heat on the breeze, he looked in the direction of the Heavenfire Sea.

    After some thought, he decided not to do anyrger experiments.

    Given the low level of his cultivation base, and the fact that he¡¯d only just created the sundial, he had the feeling that if he tried to use the time-stopping function on arge scale, for instance to stop the starry sky from moving, or cease the flow of the wind, or orbital track of the world itself, he would probably end up killing himself in body and soul. If the movement of Revered Ancient was likened to that of a massive running animal, then one of the magicalws governing it would be akin to the energy in that animal. Given his current state, he was like a flimsy rope. It was easy to imagine what would happen to a flimsy rope if you tried to use it to restrain a huge animal.

    <i>Might as well forget it for now....</i>

    However, Xu Qing could imagine how useful and shocking this ability would be if he used it in the middle of a fight.

    <i>I¡¯m going to call this ability Time Lag!</i>

    Xu Qing had the feeling the sundial lifemp had more functions which would be revealed over time with further study.

    <i>There¡¯s no rush. The most important thing now is that I have four more lifemps to melt.</i>

    In the seven days that had passed, he had fully recovered, and was back in his peak state, leaving him ready to go back to the Heavenfire Sea to further his cultivation. What was more, he had improved his resistance to the heavenfire.

    Not wanting to waste any time, he sped through the night toward the glow of the sea of mes.

    This time, Xu Qing adjusted his tactics based on his previous experience. He picked a very remote area, and made sure to immediately put away any of the red crystals that formed. That would ensure this session of cultivation was much safer. He had no idea if another 3,000-meter vortex would form.

    Since there was nothing he could do to hide the vortex if it appeared, he picked the remotest location he could find.

    Twelve days passed.

    Perhaps because of the sundial, or perhaps because of other reasons, the seven-colored wind-chantingmp melted a lot faster than the ck umbre. As it dripped into his blood, and the lifemp elements gathered, he could sense that another personal lifemp was about to form.

    Eventually, in the evening of the twenty-third day, Xu Qing opened his eyes in the depths of theva. A 3,000-meter vortex swirled around him as the seven-colored wind-chantingmppletely vanished, and a second sundial lifemp formed in the life mist of his sea of consciousness.

    It looked exactly the same as the first sundial! This was whatmps looked like that were formed from his blood. That was what always happened with Imperial Sovereigns and their descendants. For other people toter acquire a full set of the same type of lifemp was incredibly, incredibly difficult.

    When the new lifemp formed, and the gnomon shadow started moving, it was exactly fourteen hours behind that time indicated on the first sundial lifemp. Both sundials moved in unison, causing the vortex to spin even faster. It was even possible to see spatial rifts forming.

    As Xu Qing took in the astonishing sight, he could sense that this second lifemp¡¯s powers still contained the fleshly body protection from the seven-colored wind-chantingmp.

    What was more, the augmentations of the twomps were astonishingly beyond anything from before. After some study, he realized that the strength of Time Lag was double that of before.

    Meanwhile, he had long since stowed all of the red crystals that formed, cutting off their aura using the same box from before. It seemed reasonable to conclude that this session of cultivation had remainedpletely undetected by anyone.

    Although the vortex could theoretically attract attention, given his remote location, it wouldn¡¯t be easy for people to detect it the way they could lock onto the heavenfire crystals with a geomanticpass.

    Xu Qing had nned things out in this way thinking it was the best way to keep a low profile. But sometimes, fate can operate in mysterious ways. For example, as the 3,000-meter vortex spun, three red crystals suddenly emerged from theva and flew into the vortex.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered and he reached out as if to grab them. But then, he reconsidered and pulled his hand back. At this point, they were already out in the open and flying around, so it was a bit toote to think about preventing people from noticing them. Gritting his teeth, he turned and flew away.

    He didn¡¯t need heavenfire crystals, and besides, if they drew people to that spot, it would make it easier for him to stay out of sight by moving in a different direction.

    Although the incident the month before didn¡¯t amount to much, the Mirrorlings and Skyfaces hadn¡¯t given up. After all, both groups had already calcted that dozens of heavenfire crystals had appeared recently. Although some of the readouts might have been duplicates, they knew for sure that there was one instance of more than twenty appearing at once. Considering that they viewed those crystals as precious treasures, it was no wonder the royal preceptor had personallye to take charge.

    When the heavenfire crystals appeared in that vortex, they quickly locked onto that location, assuming that the crystals would disappear quickly like they had in the past. But when they didn¡¯t, it quickly became very clear where they needed to head to.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was already a good distance away from the vortex, traveling at top speed. But soon, he realized that something was going on.

    There was a group of Mirrorling cultivators who seemed to have locked onto <i>his</i> position, and were moving to intercept him. The group had four Gold Core cultivators and two that emanated the fluctuations of Nascent Soul. Of thetter two, one had passed a single tribtion, the other had passed two.

    Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, their faces lit up. The Gold Core experts fell back to notify other members of their species, while the two Nascent Soul cultivators shot toward Xu Qing.

    <i>They still found me?</i> Xu Qing frowned. He was reallying to understand how frustrating it was to be in a strange location with no background information or intelligence reports. <i>Don¡¯t tell me they can sense the heavenfire crystals even inside the box?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent. After all the running and fleeing he had been doing, his killing intent had been building up to a very high level.

    <i>Since I don¡¯t have any intelligence reports, then I¡¯ll kill some of them and see if I can figure out what¡¯s going on!</i>

    Xu Qing released the power of his taboo poison, let the shadow free, released the strength of the Spike of Misfortune, and let loose the fluctuations of all his nascent souls.

    1. Ling¡¯er¡¯s words are the exact same words spoken by Ding Xue in <u>chapter 542.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 554: Freezing Time (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 554: Freezing Time (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing was about tounch an attack when a familiar shadowy form suddenly appeared behind the two attacking Mirrorlings. The figure raised both hands and pped each of the Mirrorlings.

    When facing deadly power like this, the Mirrorling cultivators weren¡¯t even able to dodge the blow. They screamed and then exploded, their flesh, blood, and nascent souls converging together just like thest time this old human man hadunched an attack. But this time, masks didn¡¯t form. Instead, they turned into two mirrors that the old man took. Then he blurred into motion toward the Gold Core Mirrorlings. They were even less qualified to fight back, and died screaming. The old man collected the resulting mirrors. Having aplished these things, the old man turned and red angrily at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned as he looked back, taking note that the man was now wearing a reflective glove so his skin didn¡¯t touch the items.

    ¡°Why are you so careless, boy?¡± he snapped. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for the fact you¡¯re human, I wouldn¡¯t bother wasting time on you! You¡¯re obviously an out-of-region human. Did youe here from the human Imperial Region? Are you royalty or something? You obviously have talent, plus you have a full set of lifemps. So what, you think you can just screw around however you like?

    ¡°Let me tell you, this is the Moonrite Region! Around here, humans are a lesser species that count as nothing more than food! The living beings in Moonrite Region all know the fate that ultimately awaits them, so they¡¯re brutal and vicious. It¡¯s an instinct to them. Whether you believe me or not, I can tell you that if you keep acting like this, then within two months you¡¯ll be in Holy City, where the Mirrorlings and Skyfaces will delight in sampling your flesh!¡±

    The old man had certainly unleashed a torrent of reprimands.

    In response, Xu Qing simply backed up a few steps. ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±

    ¡°What am I trying to say? You little punk! Why did you throw away the box I gave you? Don¡¯t you know that the Mirrorling royal preceptor has a special ability to see through all sorts of concealments? But I personally modified that box to give it extrayers of screening. I was doing you a favor. But then, not only did you throw it away, but also, youced it with poison! Now hand over the antidote!¡±

    It took a while, but the old man finally got around to making his point.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing decided not to drag things out any further, so he took out a medicinal pill bottle and threw it over. ¡°My poison is a mix of a lot of different things. Take that medicine for seven days. At dawn, when the sun first rises, take three pills and perform seven full cultivation base cycles. Considering there¡¯s no sun here, you¡¯ll need to calcte the time carefully on your own and double the dosage.¡± Xu Qing tossed him a second bottle. ¡°Don¡¯t skip any doses. Since the poison has already started to take effect, you can¡¯t afford any dys, otherwise you won¡¯t be able to purge the poison. Don¡¯t me me if you don¡¯t do everything as I¡¯ve said.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing backed up rapidly and kept his guard up in case the old manunched an attack.

    The old man took the pill bottles and was about to say something when something locked onto their location. ring at Xu Qing, he turned to leave. However, after a moment of hesitation, he sighed and tossed a box to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Your antidote better work. Take this to keep yourself off the geomanticpasses.¡±

    The old man sped off into the distance.

    After considering the situation, Xu Qing took the box and left.

    As he moved along, he thought about the conversation. Eventually, his eyes shone with determination as he put the heavenfire crystals into the newly acquired box. Then, just to be safe, he sent the box into D-132 to experience the pressure of a god. After, he covered it with taboo poison, and then purified it with his violet moon nascent soul. When that was done, he sped on his way.

    Five days passed in a sh.

    During that time, Xu Qing encountered some Mirrorlings, but it was obvious that none of them had known his position. Most of them were oblivious to him, and just randomly went on their way.

    <i>Wait, was the old man actually telling the truth?</i>

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment. The antidote he¡¯d given the old man was fake. The reality was that there was no antidote for his taboo poison. The only way to dispel it was for Xu Qing to personally extract it. After some thought, Xu Qing was still hesitant and a bit suspicious about the old man. But there wasn¡¯t anything he could do about it, so he found another remote ce to melt his third lifemp.

    This time it was the hellspirit bloodwingmp. Specifically, the left wing.

    <i>All my other lifemps are singr. It¡¯s only the hellspirit bloodwingmps that have a left and a right version....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened as certain possibilities urred to him. Then he started the melting process.

    Seventeen dayster, in the east part of the Heavenfire Sea, another 3,000-meter vortex appeared over theva. This time, nothing unusual happened. No heavenfire crystals appeared. And because the vortex was in a remote area, nobody noticed it.

    Several hourster, the vortex vanished, and Xu Qing was speeding off in another direction. He looked exhausted. He was reaching his limit of endurance with the heavenfire, and knew he would need to leave to rest and recuperate before continuing with the process. Despite the exhaustion on his face, his eyes glittered with excitement.

    <i>I have three sundials!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s third personal lifemp again took the shape of a sundial. Just like before, it provided augmentations to everything from strength to speed. From what he could tell, it added an additional seventy percent to his previous foundation. By now, he could move so fast that ordinary cultivators wouldn¡¯t be able to see him move with their naked eye. They would only be able to catch some fading afterimages.

    <i>I wonder what will happen when I have a full set of five.</i>

    Anticipation filled Xu Qing at the thought. He could already sense that once he had a full set of sundial lifemps made from his own blood, some mysterious and amazing transformations would ur.

    With that thought on his mind, he sped on. A few dayster as he continued over theva, he suddenly stopped in ce and looked off into the distance. He could just barely detect some rumbling sounds in that direction, as well as the fluctuations of a magical technique. From what he could tell, someone was refining something in that area.

    What was especially noteworthy was that he could sense his taboo poison.

    Although the old man he¡¯d met had been poisoned, he obviously hadn¡¯t been hit with a very strong dosage. What was more, he had that special mirror-like glove, which helped reduce the level of the poisoning by reducing the level of contact. But even after the time that had passed, the poison was still there, which was why Xu Qing could sense it.

    <i>It¡¯s still pretty strong....</i>

    Xu Qing knew how terrifying his poison was, and after some consideration, came to the conclusion that the old man hadn¡¯t tricked him.

    ¡°Might as well check it out.¡±

    He shot in the direction where he sensed his poison. His goal was to see how the old man was doing, and possibly extract the poison from him. As he got closer, his expression turned serious. Then, without any hesitation, he sank down into theva.

    He had spotted a group of Mirrorling cultivators. There were dozens of them, including a lot of Gold Core experts, plus eight or nine Nascent Soul cultivators, who ranged from the one-tribtion to the three-tribtion level.

    What put Xu Qing on guard even more was the fact that he¡¯d spotted a spell formation. Because of the unique characteristics of the Heavenfire Sea, making spell formations there was very difficult. That had been very frustrating for Xu Qing. And yet, there was actually a spell formation here. It would obviously take someone extraordinarily powerful to set up a spell formation here.

    It was a strange formation that resembled a huge mirror. It was about 300 meters across, and as it floated in the air, the surrounding Mirrorling cultivators were powering it.

    The mirror was pointed at theva below, and the reflection of the sea of mes below was thus trapped inside it. Also trapped inside it was a person who had been standing in that same area.

    The trapped person was that old man. His entire body was greenish ck, and parts of him were dposing, revealing bones beneath. And thanks to the immense pressure of the spell formation, he was trembling violently. His disguise was being wiped away. Although he still resembled an old man, he wasn¡¯t scrawny anymore. Instead, he was burly, and he looked unusually dignified as he stared at the mirror.

    In addition to the sea of mes and the trapped figure, the mirror also contained a bulging face that was coldly eying the trapped figure.

    ¡°Duanmu Zang!¡± the face said in a rumbling voice. ¡°You¡¯re always sneaking around killing chosen cultivators of my species. Now look at the state you¡¯re in! If you get on your knees and surrender, then I¡¯ll consider letting you be a Mirrorling. You can shed your despicable human blood, and I¡¯ll help you once again reach Spirit Trove. Although it¡¯s virtually impossible to avoid death, at least you can be a bit happier in what life you have. And you won¡¯t have to go skulking around all the time. Consider carefully. If Ie here in my true form, and you insist on being stubborn, then you won¡¯t have any options to pick from.¡± [1]

    The old manughed harshly. ¡°That¡¯splete nonsense. Human blood is iparably noble, you fool! You think you canpare your lowdown species to me? How much history do you Mirrorlings have? We humans have a history that goes back as long as Revered Ancient does. When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was in charge, he conquered Revered Ancient. Back then, you Mirrorlings were nothing but farts that hadn¡¯t been farted out yet!¡±

    ¡°So, you refuse toe to your senses,¡± the voice said coldly from the mirror.

    The surrounding Mirrorlings unleashed the power of their cultivation bases. As a result, immense pressure weighed down from the mirror, causing rumbling sounds to echo out from the old man. However, he still held strong.

    Unfortunately, his heart was full of despair thanks to the poison in him. It was a terrifying poison that he had initially ignored. But as time went on, it got worse and worse. And now it was toote. Everything about him, including his body and soul, were decaying. It had also dispelled his concealment magics, which was how the Mirrorlings had tracked him down. And now he was trapped.

    <i>It¡¯s all that little punk¡¯s fault. That no-good schmuck!</i>

    In the very beginning, Duanmu Zang didn¡¯t have good intentions. However, after realizing Xu Qing was human, he¡¯d decided not to kill him, but instead, to mark him ande backter to rob him. But what really ended up happening was that he ended up infected with a terrifying poison.

    <i>That antidote was fake!</i>

    As Duanmu Zang cursed in his heart, Xu Qing was hiding some distance away in theva, watching. Because the Mirrorlings were focused on their spell formation, they hadn¡¯t noticed him. Besides, none of them believed that there were people of any species in this area who would dare to provoke them. That was especially true since their royal preceptor had unleashed the power of this formation treasure.

    Xu Qing mulled the situation over and came to the conclusion that the box the old man had given him really did turn out to be useful. Therefore, he made his decision.

    <i>I¡¯ll save him. This one time!</i>

    With that, he unleashed his taboo poison core, causing the poison to spread out. Then he waved his hand to produce the Spike of Misfortune. And finally, he sent his shadow out. Eyes glittering coldly, he shot out from theva. Thirteen nascent souls erupted with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force. And the gnomons on his three sundials quivered; at any moment, they could be plucked out to unleash Time Lag.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    1. Duanmu Zang: Duanmu is apound surname that doesn¡¯t have any special meaning. Many dictionaries point out that it¡¯s the surname of Duanmu Ci, one of Confucius¡¯ famous disciples. As I¡¯ve mentioned before, thesepound surnames generally give a sense of old-timeyness to the name. Zang means ¡°conceal, hide away, storehouse, treasury.¡± It¡¯s the same character that makes up the Spirit Trove cultivation level. Madam Deathde says this name sounds ¡°very royal, old-school, and mysterious.¡± ?

 Chapter 555: If Youâ€™re So Strong, Why Didnâ€™t You Say So Earlier!? (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 555: If You¡¯re So Strong, Why Didn¡¯t You Say So Earlier!? (part 1)</h4>

    There could be incredible differences between cultivators in the Nascent Soul level. Based on what reserve powers they had, how they had prepared for their breakthrough, and many other small factors, two cultivators could be onpletely different power levels. For one thing, the number of tribtions had a huge influence on how strong a cultivator was. Different species had different traits, and personal experience also yed into it. It was not as simple as things had been in Gold Core, where everything came down to heavenly pces.

    If two Nascent Soul cultivators were dramatically different, then their auras would feel different. Otherwise, careful examination would be required to see the differences. However, there was a rough standard that most species applied. The first tribtion propelled one from pseudo-Nascent Soul into the real Nascent Soul level. That was when a cultivator acquired a dao soul, and true Nascent Soul battle prowess. The second heavenfate tribtion would double one¡¯s power. In other words, every nascent soul would be twice as strong. With the third tribtion, it became triple!

    The Skyface cultivator Xu Qing had fought previously was considered a chosen in his species. Although he had no lifemps, he did have seven nascent souls, and had experienced two heavenfate tribtions. Because of that, he could be considered to have fourteen-soul battle prowess. It was for that reason that, after detecting Xu Qing¡¯s thirteen nascent souls, he had chosen to attack. Based on that, it was possible to deduce that when he was in Gold Core, he had seven heavenly pces. And when in Foundation Establishment, he¡¯d possessed four life mes. That, in turn, meant he had 120 dharma apertures; he had never reached the ultimate limit of 121.

    But Xu Qing¡¯s path <i>had</i> involved reaching 121 dharma apertures. Other than Master Shengyun and Kong Xianglong, he had never met anyone else who aplished that. Or if he had, that person hadn¡¯t revealed their true strength, ensuring that Xu Qing had no way of knowing.

    However, that was just the foundational aspect. Heavenly pces were the easiest way to ssify Gold Core cultivators, but when it came to fights between Nascent Soul cultivators, things changed.

    Measuring Nascent Soul cultivators of a simr level also involved their treasures, their techniques, the innate abilities of their species, and their adaptability inbat. All of those things yed vital roles in determining victory or defeat. In other words, Nascent Soul strength wasn¡¯t the only thing that could be relied upon. It was more like a general reference. Sometimes, the only way to find out who was stronger was to fight.

    That was how things worked with Xu Qing. His thirteen dao souls had experienced a single heavenfate tribtion, so theoretically speaking, he had thirteen-soul battle prowess.

    But his dao souls were extremely unique. The factors included his imperial-ss techniques, his connection to gods, his heavenly dao, the timescape bottle, the daybreak light, and his sundial lifemps. Because of all those reasons, Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess in the Nascent Soul level was far beyond that of an ordinary cultivator. In essence, his dao souls were already as strong as if they had experienced two heavenfate tribtions.

    And that meant that he basically had twenty-four soul battle prowess!

    The only reason it wasn¡¯t twenty-six was that he still had two lifemps that he hadn¡¯t melted and turned into an additional two sundials. When he did that, he would have twenty-six soul battle prowess.

    That said, Xu Qing was always cautious. If he could push his dao souls to that level, then other people could do the same. And that wasn¡¯t to mention that enemies would have treasures and techniques at their disposal. That was why things got so tricky in Nascent Soul.

    Even as such thoughts swirled in his mind, he shot out from theva, unleashing all the might of his thirteen dao souls, which turned into the terrifying battle prowess of twenty-four souls.

    A momentter, he appeared in front of one of the one-tribtion Nascent Soul Mirrorlings.

    The Mirrorling cultivator reacted with shock. Though all of his energy was being poured into the spell formation, he had ample fighting experience and good reflexes. As a result, he instantly shifted his attention and unleashed the power of six of his nascent souls. He also spat out a flying sword. At the same time, the mirror on his forehead glittered, casting light onto Xu Qing which caused the Mirrorling¡¯s face to suddenly resemble Xu Qing¡¯s.

    This was one of their species¡¯ innate abilities, and it instantly boosted the Mirrorling¡¯s battle prowess to the level of eight souls. That innate ability was nothing short of amazing, and when used on ordinary one-tribtion cultivators, would almost always result in the victim being ughtered. However, when the absolute level of power was too disparate, there would be too many factors at y that couldn¡¯t be controlled.

    And thus, the moment Xu Qing arrived, cold light red, and the Mirrorling cultivator¡¯s head flew off his shoulders.

    Blood sprayed, and a scream rang out, but Xu Qing was already gone, rushing toward one of the Nascent Soul Mirrorlings. He also sent his taboo poison raging out, not to target the Nascent Soul experts, but rather, the Gold Core cultivators.

    Xu Qing¡¯s recent upgrade resulted in his taboo poison core bing even more ruthless and terrifying. As it spread out, around seven Gold Core cultivators cried out in rm. Before they could do anything in response, their bodies turned purple, and they started rotting. Terrified screams rang out everywhere.

    Meanwhile, other Gold Core cultivators shivered, and then their eyes turned pitch ck. Erupting with fiendishughter, they rushed toward the giant spell formation mirror and then self-detonated.

    As booms rang out, a streak of red lightning followed the Spike of Misfortune as it zipped back and forth with deadly uracy.

    The other Mirrorling cultivators in the area were visibly stunned. Chaos ensued almost immediately.

    Duanmu Zang, who was still dealing with the pressure of the mirror, was also astonished. But when he saw that the Mirrorling cultivators had been poisoned, his pupils constricted. He knew exactly what was going on.

    <i>It¡¯s that treacherous punk!</i>

    With that, he called out in a loud voice, ¡°Stop wasting time. Finish the fight and kill those Nascent Soul cultivators. Without them powering the spell formation, I¡¯ll be free. Hurry! The Mirrorling royal preceptor is on the way!¡±

    The face in the mirror spun to look at Xu Qing. However, that was when Duanmu Zangughed heartily, and ignoring the fact that it could exacerbate his injuries, tapped into the power of his cultivation base.

    Eight nascent souls rose up, all of them pulsing with the shocking power of five tribtions. Even more astonishing than the eight nascent souls was an illusory secret trove! However, the secret trove had copsed, and was withering, which was the evidence of a previous breakthrough failure. Even still, it was an impressive level of battle prowess. And the addition of the secret trove forced the face in the mirror to look away from Xu Qing and focus all its efforts on suppressing Duanmu Zang.

    Rumbling booms echoed out as Xu Qing attacked with greater speed. He needed no advice from Duanmu Zang. From the moment he¡¯dunched his attack, he¡¯d known that it needed to be ended quickly, and that he couldn¡¯t afford any dys. At the moment, he had unleashed his taboo poison, let the shadow wreak havoc, and sent the Spike of Misfortune flying around. While all that yed out, Xu Qing closed in on another Nascent Soul Mirrorling.

    Unfortunately, the Mirrorlings were finally reacting to the sudden development. With angry shouts, two of the two-tribtion Nascent Soul experts, and one three-tribtion cultivator, all shot toward Xu Qing.

    As they neared, Xu Qing¡¯s daybreak light shed.

    All the light in the area was reced by a seven-colored glow, forcing the enemies to stop and back up. Meanwhile, Xu Qing entered his Gruegloom state, blurring into motion and speeding right through one of the Mirrorlings. When he came out the other side, he had two nascent souls in his hands, which he instantly crushed. Dozens of snarling heavenfiend clones pounced on the Mirrorling behind him.

    Shrill, despairing screams erupted from the Mirrorling¡¯s mouth as his body trembled and withered. Xu Qing lunged backward, and as he did, the spot he had previously upied copsed into a huge vortex sent by the three-tribtion cultivator.

    ¡°Have a death wish, you despicable human?¡± the Mirrorling shouted. Seven nascent souls appeared within him, five of which had three-tribtion power, with the remaining two having two-tribtion power. Overall, that caused him to thrum with close to twenty-soul battle prowess.

    What was more, an illusory ck mirror appeared behind him, which boosted him further. Inside the mirror was a huge ck bat, bound in ce and releasing powerful sound waves in all directions. He also had a long spear in his hand, which was surrounded by countless resentful souls howling in grief.

    And yet, there was more. There were two of the three-tribtion Mirrorlings, and the other was closing in from the opposite direction. This one wore a ck suit of armor and had seven balls of ghostfire floating around its head. Each was the manifestation of a nascent soul. In addition, he had a cape attached to his suit of armor that was made of countless eyes, all of them ring angrily at Xu Qing. If that wasn¡¯t enough, there were still four of the two-tribtion Mirrorlings approaching Xu Qing from all directions.

    Duanmu Zang was paying close attention to what was happening. If he wasn¡¯t trapped, killing those Mirrorlings would have been as simple as turning over his hand. And yet, there was something about Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess that seemed odd to him.

    <i>The little punk¡¯s nascent souls seem unusually gruish.</i>

    As Xu Qing¡¯s poison spread, agonized shrieks could be heard everywhere. But the six Nascent Soul Mirrorlings were still closing in.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned as cold as ice. Inside of him, the gnomon on one of his sundials rose up, and he turned to look at the nearest three-tribtion Mirrorling.

    Instantly, his first sundial stopped moving. That power of stoppage then traveled through his gaze to affect the Mirrorling he was looking at. The three-tribtion Mirrorling stopped in ce, his expression vicious. It was as if time had slowed to a standstill for him specifically. It onlysted a moment before he recovered. But for cultivators in the Nascent Soul level, a moment can mean the difference between life and death.

    Just as he recovered, Xu Qing¡¯s knife shed into his throat, and his head tumbled off his shoulders in a spray of blood.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t have time to do anything other than grab the nascent souls and crush them. When he put the gnomon back in ce, the sundial looked extremely withered. It was in far worse shape than when he¡¯d tested it on Ling¡¯er. Thankfully, it was already starting to slowly repair itself.

    Now wasn¡¯t the time to study what was happening, though. Xu Qing quickly looked at the other three-tribtion Mirrorling and removed the gnomon from his second sundial.

    That other Mirrorling waspletely astonished by what he¡¯d just seen. For some inexplicable reason, his fellow Mirrorling had just stopped moving moments ago. He didn¡¯t fight back or resist in any way. He seemed almost like a puppet as this human cultivator beheaded him.

    ¡°This....¡± Before the Mirrorling could process what was happening, Xu Qing¡¯s gazended on him.

 Chapter 555: If Youâ€™re So Strong, Why Didnâ€™t You Say So Earlier!? (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 555: If You¡¯re So Strong, Why Didn¡¯t You Say So Earlier!? (part 2)</h4>

    The three-tribtion Mirrorling stopped moving. He couldn¡¯t sense anything or move. And when he recovered, Xu Qing was right in front of him. Another head flew through the air, and more nascent souls were destroyed. All of that happened in only two breaths of time.

    The other two-tribtion experts let loose cries of rm. Scalps tingling, they spun to flee.

    Xu Qing ignored them and focused on the giant mirror spell formation.

    Temporarily pushing aside his astonishment at Xu Qing¡¯s abilities, Duanmu Zang shouted, ¡°This thing is a precious treasure belonging to the Mirrorling royal preceptor! It¡¯s not going to be easy to destroy. But without anyone powering it, there¡¯s a possibility. Back up! I¡¯ll detonate one of my nascent souls. That should damage it!¡±

    With that, he prepared to detonate one of his nascent souls.

    But then Xu Qing waved his right index finger, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior became a red lightning bolt that shot forth. He moved with incredible speed, guiding the Spike of Misfortune directly into the mirror.

    The vicious face in the mirror looked at Xu Qing and was about to speak. But then its expression flickered. Rumbling echoed out as the Spike of Misfortunepletely ignored the mirror¡¯s defenses and stabbed into its surface like a hot knife through butter. A loud crack could be heard as the mirror shattered.

    Not even looking at Duanmu Zang, Xu Qing turned around and waved his hand.

    His taboo poison rushed back toward him, as did the shadow. The Spike of Misfortune was a red glow that sped back into his hand.

    Then Xu Qing sted away at the highest speed possible. During the entire time, he didn¡¯t say a single thing. He struck like a metric ton of lightning, then left without even the hint of a sound.

    The mirror trembled as more cracks spread out over its surface. The face distorted in anxiety as it red at Xu Qing fleeing off into the distance.

    As for Duanmu Zang, he inhaled deeply and ceased the nascent soul detonation process. Racing toward the hole that had been punched in the mirror, he waved his sleeve, sending his copsed secret trove shooting out in front of him.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    More cracks covered the mirror¡¯s surface as it dropped out of the sky and mmed into theva.

    The face seemed like it wanted to speak, but had suffered such a grievous injury that it couldn¡¯t send out any divine will.

    Snorting coldly, Duanmu Zang hawked a loogie and spat onto the mirror. The force of the spitting caused the mirror to sink further into theva. With that done, Duanmu Zang turned and fled off into the distance.

    About six hourster, a tempest raged on the horizon as a huge figure approached. The figure wore a golden robe, and had no face, only a mirror. After arriving, he stopped and looked down at theva. His face reflected the images in the area. A moment passed, and he extended his right hand. The mirror slowly emerged from theva. After he had it in his hand, a cold voice emanated from his mirror-face.

    ¡°Humans....¡±

    Three dayster, some 5,000 kilometers away on the Heavenfire Sea, Xu Qing finally slowed down. He¡¯d been moving nonstop that entire time, staying concealed and moving toward the shore. During those three days, the sky had be brighter, as if the fires of the sea had begun burning more strongly. The popping bubbles ofva had be moremon. As a result, the heat had been rising, to the point where his soul was hurting.

    <i>I need to get to the shore, otherwise I¡¯m not going to be able to hold on, and my soul¡¯s going to melt.</i>

    Xu Qing even felt like his hair was starting to dry up. He was just about to speed up, but then he coolly said, ¡°Senior, do you really need to follow me secretly for so long?¡±

    A momentter, he continued on his way.

    He¡¯d been doing this roughly every two hours for the past three days.

    Though Xu Qing had the ability to sense the aura of his taboo poison, he knew thatcency could easily lead to slip-ups. And in a chaotic world like this one, slip-ups could lead to very tragic oues. Therefore, even though he hadn¡¯t sensed any taboo poison aura, he still made a point of speaking out loud like he just had.

    Another day went by. At that point, Xu Qing stopped and said, ¡°Senior, you really do love staying invisible, don¡¯t you?¡±

    This time, he got a response....

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    A bit more than thirty meters to his right, the air rippled, and Duanmu Zang appeared. He was surrounded by a bubble thatpletely isted his aura. What was more, he had a cloth wrapped around his right hand, which masked the taboo poison aura.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he realized this actually seemed very familiar.

    <i>How¡¯d the little punk detect me?</i> Duanmu Zang wasn¡¯t sure, but considering what he¡¯d seen Xu Qing doing, it seemed most likely that some unusual technique was responsible. <i>Or maybe he¡¯s just stopping every so often and saying something like that! How treacherous!</i>

    Duanmu Zang noticed Xu Qing looking at the strip of cloth around his hand. He offered no exnation. ring angrily, he said, ¡°You have no conscience, boy! I didn¡¯t do a single thing to harm you. I even gave you a box to keep those heavenfire stones secret. But the antidote you gave me was fake!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned.

    Seeing that frown, Duanmu Zang quickly changed to a more agreeable tone. ¡°However, since you did help me escape back there, I guess there¡¯s no need to bicker about the past.¡± Waving his hand dismissively, he cleared his throat. ¡°We¡¯re both human. So... why not give me that antidote?¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°10,000 spirit stones!¡±

    Duanmu Zang inhaled sharply and red at Xu Qing. Then he smiled wryly, shook his head, and took out the very same bag of holding Xu Qing had given him earlier.

    Xu Qing took it and checked it. There was nothing unusual about it.

    Seeing Xu Qing meticulously check the bag of holding caused Duanmu Zang¡¯s temper to heat up, but he forced himself to remain calm.

    ¡°Good enough?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and waved his hand. A tremor passed through Duanmu Zang, and then all the poison power in him stirred. An expression of pain appeared on his face as the poison then burrowed out into the open. Once outside of him, it turned into a ck mist that swept back toward Xu Qing and vanished inside of him.

    When the taboo poison vanished, Duanmu Zang immediately felt a wave of relief. His cultivation base power surged, and his body returned to normal. Heaving a sigh, he looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing backed up a few steps, looking supremely vignt.

    Duanmu Zang¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°After seeing how formidable you are, boy, why did you need my help those other two times?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t have time to do anything,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly and honestly.

    Hearing that, Duanmu Zang confirmed that this kid really didn¡¯t talk much. He turned to leave. However, after only taking a couple steps, he looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing.

    ¡°The Heavenfire Skycrossing is starting. You¡¯d better find a ce to hole up.¡± He tossed Xu Qing an umbre. ¡°The umbre will keep you safe for short periods of time. But it won¡¯tst long. You¡¯re on your own now.¡±

    With that, he turned to leave.

    Xu Qing inspected the umbre to make sure it was safe. That was when something urred to him, and he called out, ¡°Wait a moment.¡±

    Duanmu Zang stopped in ce and looked back at him curiously.

    Xu Qing reached out and extracted onest bit of poison from Duanmu Zang. He¡¯d left it there as insurance just in case the old man suddenly attacked him.

    When the poison appeared in the open, Duanmu Zang¡¯s expression flickered. ring at Xu Qing, he breathed in and out heavily a few times, then suddenly burst outughing.

    ¡°Completely hical!¡±

    Xu Qing betrayed no facial expression in response. Given everything he had experienced from a young age, he had been forced to develop caution. And that was more appropriate than ever considering he was in this unfamiliar region. From beginning to end, he¡¯d harbored no harmful intentions.

    Duanmu Zang eyed Xu Qing, then nodded. ¡°Whatever. It¡¯s normal to be so vignt.¡± With that, he tossed a jade slip to Xu Qing. ¡°If you can¡¯t find any good ce of refuge from the fire, you can go there.¡±

    This time, Duanmu Zang really did disappear.

    Xu Qing scanned the jade slip and then put it away. He knew what the Heavenfire Skycrossing was that Duanmu Zang had referred to. It was a special weather pattern in the Moonrite Region in which the sky turned very bright.

    <i>Presumably it has something to do with the Heavenfire Sea.</i>

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been aware of the details before, but he¡¯d had his spections, especially considering how things had been heating up recently. He started moving again. A few dayster, he was back on shore. He didn¡¯t return to the same mansion grotto he¡¯d hollowed out earlier. He didn¡¯t like the idea of using the same ce twice.

    Looking up into the sky, he could see that it really was a lot brighter than two months ago. The Heavenfire Sea also seemed to be in a much greater state of agitation. From where he was standing, the rumbling soundsing from the Heavenfire Sea sounded like thunder. And there were hardly any cultivators out and about like there had been before. The ground trembled asionally, as if there were some enormous creature preparing to rise up from the depths of the Heavenfire Sea.

    It made Xu Qing think back to how the Mirrorling guards had sunk down into the ground.

    <i>Is that the way to avoid the Heavenfire Skycrossing?</i>

    After some thought, he found a suitable location to carve out a cave. Covering the entrance, he settled down cross-legged to focus on recovery. Although he had a god body, the Heavenfire Sea was a mysterious ce, and theva there was terrifyingly hot. At the most, Xu Qing could sink down about three meters into it. He wouldn¡¯t dare to go any further lest his soul be damaged. Not even the violet crystal would be able to keep up with the effects.

    Days passed. Eventually, Xu Qing had fully recovered. During that time, he did some further study into his sundial lifemps.

    asionally he would chat with Ling¡¯er. Because of that, he still didn¡¯t feel lonely.

    Seven dayster, he was back at a new peak. And that was when he noticed what was happening outside. The temperature during thest week had soared. Even being deep underground, he could see the soil around him starting to turn red. Eventually, he heard a distant rumbling like the crack of thunder. Then, using divine sense, he caught sight of something that struck him with waves of astonishment.

    Something like a tsunami was rolling across the Heavenfire Sea. Theva exploded with massive waves. As they mmed into the shore, a pair of 300,000-meter-long severed arms rose from inside the Heavenfire Sea.

    The severed arms ended in huge, cancerous growths that had countless tentacles growing out of it. And the palm prints on the palm of the hands were like the canopy of heaven. As the two hands floated into midair, they slowly performed an incantation gesture. Massive amounts ofva began to rise into the air, creating rivulets and streams that spread out in all directions. The sky was turning very bright.

    Endless fire began to fall from the sky, immting thends below. That was why this area was full of barrenndscape and low-lying mountains, and also why it had no vegetation. The effects stretched out, covering thends of the Twofold Alliance, going from east to west until it covered the entire Moonrite Region.

    Seeing it, Xu Qing murmured, ¡°Heavenfire Skycrossing....¡±

 Chapter 556: A Lie Called Hope (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 556: A Lie Called Hope (part 1)</h4>

    The Heavenfire Skycrossing was a unique weather pattern in the Moonrite Region. Opinions differed about why it urred. Some people said it was akin to a tide flow caused by the pull of the red moon. The reason for that theory was that Heavenfire Skycrossing urred more frequently when the red moon was nigh. Other people imed that the red moon, which had been subdued by an Imperial Sovereign long ago, would soon make aeback.

    Whenever the Heavenfire Skycrossing appeared, all of the Moonrite Region would be lit up brightly. A sea of mes would roll across the dome of heaven, starting in the east. The further east you got, the brighter and hotter it became. At the same time, rains of fire would appear, sometimes heavier and sometimes lighter, depending on the specific location. It wouldst for a few months, and then the sea of mes would retreat to the Heavenfire Sea in the east. That was considered a full cycle.

    During that time period, all locations in the east, other than locations like Lesser Shrine, would be set ame by the fiery rains. Everything turned to ashes, from cities to vegetation. That was why the cities of the Twofold Alliance were mostly constructed from y bricks. Only their jointly-owned Holy City was strong enough, and bolstered with enough special magics, to endure. But even then, it would sustain damage.

    After every instance of Heavenfire Skycrossing, the effects of the fires would be purged and the mudbrick cities would quickly be rebuilt. Crop cycles were also nned around the event.

    Thankfully, Heavenfire Skycrossing didn¡¯t happen very often, only once every few decades. The destruction was mostly limited to the east, with other areas being mostly spared. What was more, thanks to the magical technique employed by cultivators, reconstruction wasn¡¯t very difficult. Ordinary people just needed to get to Holy City to find refuge, which was usually very expensive. If they didn¡¯t have some way to stay safe... then they would hide themselves under the ground.

    Over the generations, their natural constitutions made them much more capable of avoiding the destructive nature of the fire. That was why the guards who had stopped Xu Qing sank down into the ground. In the days preceding Heavenfire Skycrossing, they needed to break down their bodies and be one with the soil. The Skyfaces had simr methods to deal with the situation.

    Unfortunately, the evolutionary traits of those two species were assets Xu Qing didn¡¯t possess. As the soil around him heated up to the point of crystallizing, the temperature soared, and Xu Qing started feeling more and more ufortable.

    <i>It¡¯s already nearly as hot as the surface-levelva. And the event has just started....</i>

    Beads of sweat had popped out on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead, and he felt mmy all over. His garments were getting soaked, and his difort was increasing. He started burrowing deeper.

    At a certain depth, he started to get some relief. However, he was still receiving a sensation of warning from his bluegreen dragon. And it was getting stronger.

    Instead of retracting his divine sense, he kept it outside to see what was happening. The sky was blindingly bright. It was as ifva were soaring through the canopy of heaven. Those two severed arms continued to perform incantation gestures that seemed to send theva spreading out constantly.

    Meanwhile, fire rained down, causing mountain peaks to melt, and dramatically transforming thendscape. Heaven above and earth below were full of roiling mes. The terrifying level of the heat reminded Xu Qing of what he had felt when going down three meters into theva.

    <i>This isn¡¯t going to work!</i>

    As the sensation of crisis grew stronger in Xu Qing, he looked outside thoughtfully. Staying in ce clearly wasn¡¯t an option. After all, he had limitations. There was inherent pressure in the Revered Ancient maind, and the further down you went, the stronger that pressure got. At a certain point, he wouldn¡¯t be able to go down any further.

    <i>What¡¯s worse is that I don¡¯t know how far down the heat will go.... If it goes down farther than I can go down, then I¡¯ll end up dead.</i>

    He weighed the matter over, taking into consideration that this was only the first day, and the effects would most definitely grow increasingly terrifying.

    Eventually, he took out the jade slip Duanmu Zang had given him, inside of which was a simple map. Duanmu Zang had told Xu Qing that if he didn¡¯t have a suitable ce to weather the Heavenfire Skycrossing, he should follow this map.

    After mulling the matter over, Xu Qing decided to check out the location in the map. If it wasn¡¯t suitable, then he would have to just burrow down as far as he could go in the ground, and gamble that it would be sufficient. Either that or try to flee the territory of the Twofold Alliance.

    Having made his decision, he burst out of the ground. Although subterranean travel was possible, it would have been a lot slower. As soon as he was out in the open, he felt the terrifying heat weighing down on him. Almost immediately, his flesh suffered deep burns, and he felt pain filling him.

    The surface temperature was now greater than the three-meterva temperature. Even Xu Qing¡¯s extraordinary fleshly body and healing powers weren¡¯t enough to stave off the pain. Most importantly, the heavenfire reached all the way to his soul. Thankfully, he had his sundial lifemps to offer additional protection, but even with that, he wouldn¡¯t be able tost very long in these conditions.

    It was for the same reason that he hadn¡¯t been able to stay in the Heavenfire Sea for very long during his cultivation sessions. The fleshly body was one aspect. The soul was the other aspect. That was especially true considering that his soul was actually a lot weaker whenpared to his fleshly body.

    <i>I can¡¯t stay out here long!</i> When he inhaled, the scorching air made him feel like he was burning from the inside out.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he pulled out the umbre Duanmu Zang had given him and opened it. That cut him off slightly from the heat. Rxing slightly, he sped up, bing like a storm wind screaming through the fire at top speed.

    In that manner, he traveled for two days. The temperature around him continued to rise, causing everything around him to ripple. His divine sense was being limited, and the umbre was on the point of crumbling. Thankfully, he was getting very close to the spot indicated on the map.

    There didn¡¯t seem to be anything special about that area. It appeared to be an old abandoned mine, and now that it was surrounded by a sea of mes, it had melted so badly it was almost unrecognizable.

    Xu Qing arrived on the scene and looked around, a frown on his face. It didn¡¯t seem at all like a ce of refuge. What was more, through some of the cracks in the ground he was able to see the interior of the mine, and the ce seemed full of intense heat.

    <i>Too bad my divine sense is limited, otherwise I might be able to detect more.</i>

    He looked at the crumbling umbre and then the mine.

    <i>That said, given what Duanmu Zang was like in the Heavenfire Sea, it actually makes sense that he would hide in a ce like this. Somewhere that looks like a ce of refuge obviously wouldn¡¯t make a very good hiding spot.</i>

    After some thought, he bent his legs and then sprang into motion, heading right toward one of the crevices leading into the mine. He stayed quiet and kept his guard up as he prepared to go deeper into the mine to assess the situation.

    About two hourster, he still hadn¡¯t reached the bottom of the mine. At the same time, it was no less hot. At a certain point, Xu Qing stopped. Frowning, he looked ahead, where he had just spotted a figureying on the ground, unmoving. It wasn¡¯t possible to tell if it was a man or a woman. However, the figure was wearing thick armor. Discarded on the ground nearby was a heat-blocking umbre.

    This was the first person Xu Qing had seen since Heavenfire Skycrossing began. Narrowing his eyes, he sent his shadow out to scout the situation. When he got word back from the shadow in the form of emotional fluctuations, Xu Qing looked surprised. He hurried toward the figure. It took only a moment to reach it. He stopped a short distance away, which was still close enough to inspect it.

    It was a young human cultivator with a three-me Foundation Establishment cultivation base. He was obviously hovering on the verge of death. He was covered from head to toe in pitch-ck armor that was made from a special heat-resistant material. His umbre was especially noteworthy. It looked exactly like the umbre Duanmu Zang had given to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked deeper into the mine. Then he picked up the armored figure and continued on.

    Another hour passed. That was when Xu Qing finally reached the bottom of the mine. He saw nothing special there. The soil was crystallizing, and the temperature was extremely high.

    After looking around, Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°Senior, I found this person along the way. Was he looking for you, sir?¡±

    The answer was provided by a cold voice that echoed out from the surrounding walls. ¡°I have no use for people who don¡¯t follow my rules!¡±

    The wall rippled, bing a vortex, out of which stepped Duanmu Zang. He extended his arms to take the armored figure from Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing handed the young man over, whereupon Duanmu Zang tossed him into the vortex. Then he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What are you doing here, boy?¡±

    Given their handful of interactions, Xu Qing had a general idea of how Duanmu Zang operated. Instead of wasting time talking about the jade slip, he skipped directly to the important part.

    ¡°A hundred spirit stones a day!¡± he offered.

    Duanmu Zang snorted coldly. ¡°A thousand a day!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Deal!¡±

    Duanmu Zang eyed him briefly, then stepped back through the vortex.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing kept his taboo poison swirling around him just in case he was walking into an ambush. Then he stepped into the vortex. After he was inside, the vortex faded into nothing, and everything returned to normal. Xu Qing stepped out of the vortex into a cave temple filled with crumbling statues. Some were missing heads, others limbs. Other than the statues, the ce was rtively barren.

    There was no sign of the young man in the armor. Duanmu Zang, meanwhile, was seated cross-legged on a headless statue. He was looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing studied his surroundings, and when he looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed. There was a huge wall there covered with thousands of masks and a simr number of mirrors. The masks were obviously the remains of Skyfaces that had been specially refined after their death. The mirrors were simr. Xu Qing even spotted the mask left behind by the Skyface that had attacked him originally.

    Sounding very proud of himself, Duanmu Zang said, ¡°Those two species have worked hard over the generations to adapt to this ce. I used their strength, coupled with some special magics, to create this safe haven from the Heavenfire Skycrossing. The event usuallysts for about a hundred days. At a thousand a day, that will be a total of 200,000 spirit stones. Hand them over.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he red at Duanmu Zang. ¡°A hundred days would be 100,000.¡±

    Duanmu Zang red right back at Xu Qing. ¡°Per person. Considering you have that snake with you, it¡¯ll be 200,000, right?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have that many spirit stones on me.¡± Xu Qing was telling the truth. He actually had a lot of spirit notes, but not many spirit stones. He took out a magical device and put it off to the side. ¡°How about I use this for payment?¡±

    Duanmu Zang waved his hand to collect the magical device. He studied it then nodded. ¡°Alright.¡±

    With that, his eyes glowed with cold light, and his tone became very somber and deste. ¡°Considering you¡¯re human, I¡¯ll help you out this one time. But listen well. Everything beyond this cave temple is off limits. If you go poking around... then don¡¯t me me for forgetting all about us being fellow humans!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in response.

    Duanmu Zang gave him a deep look, then turned and disappeared into the depths of the cave temple.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change at all as he looked around again to make sure the area was safe. The statues looked very old, and none of them depicted humans. All of them had snakes and dragons wrapped around them, making them look very dangerous.

    Although the statues were all in bad shape, it was possible to tell that, back when they were whole, they had been in worshipful poses. Coupled with the sinister atmosphere, it made the ce seem like a tomb.

    <i>Was this ce some sort of burial ground?</i>

 Chapter 556: A Lie Called Hope (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 556: A Lie Called Hope (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing found an appropriate statue that he could sit cross-legged atop.

    That was when Ling¡¯er poked her head out of his sleeve, looked around, and quietly said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this ce looks like it might be connected to my own species, the Ancient Spirits.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart flip-flopped. He looked down at Ling¡¯er. She was still studying the ce.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, these statues are all Ancient Spirit divine likenesses. My people look like snakes when we¡¯re young, but we can take human form when we grow up. If we have a strong bloodline, then when we break the shackles of our cultivation base, we¡¯ll gain heavenly dragons as lifelongpanions. From that point on, we¡¯ll be forever guarded by dragons and snakes.

    ¡°Given this ce¡¯syout, I¡¯d say it must be the tomb of an important member of my species. Usually, my people will make tombs with multiple levels. Big Bro Xu Qing, my guess is that the main tomb chamber is probably below us. This is just the first level. I can sense the warding spells down below. Big Bro Xu Qing, I could probably open an entrance to the level below.¡±

    Ling¡¯er was feeling really excited at the prospect of finally being able to really help her Big Bro Xu Qing.

    After hearing Ling¡¯er¡¯s exnation, he studied the area again. Then he stroked Ling¡¯er¡¯s head and said, ¡°Don¡¯t open it. The person in charge of this ce now asked us not to disturb anything. Let¡¯s wait until the Heavenfire Skycrossing is over, and then we¡¯ll leave.¡±

    Xu Qing was generally a polite person, and since he had entered into agreement, he wouldn¡¯t break the terms of the deal unless it was absolutely necessary.

    Ling¡¯er thought about it and came to the conclusion that her Big Bro Xu Qing did things very differently than her papa. Going forward, she would remember that, and try to do things more like Big Bro Xu Qing.

    Half a month flew by in the briefest of moments.

    The Heavenfire Skycrossing grew more terrifying. Heaven and earth were scorched, countless living beings were destroyed, and those who survived trembled in fear. From a distance, it almost looked like the fury of a god. It waspletely appalling. Rumbling like thunder echoed out. The sea level of the Heavenfire Sea grew lower and lower as theva inside was sucked up into the canopy of heaven by the severed arms.

    Deep in the mine, in the Ancient Spirit tomb, Xu Qing kept his promise. He didn¡¯t take a single step outside of the cave temple. Instead he stayed in ce and worked on cultivation. Duanmu Zang didn¡¯te back. Everything was peaceful and quiet.

    Ling¡¯er was on her best behavior. She didn¡¯t try to sneak down into the deeper parts of the tomb. As far as she was concerned, she was more than happy to just be able to keep her Big Bro Xu Qingpany. The only downside was that she asionally felt useless.

    <i>I really need to hurry up and absorb all the power of that ancestral emperor destiny aura. Then I can improve the level of my bloodline</i>.

    With that thought in mind, Ling¡¯er got to work.

    On Xu Qing¡¯s seventeenth day of cultivation, he was interrupted by a visitor.

    Some distance away, the ground of the cave temple started glowing as a teleportation activated. A figure solemnly stepped out of the light. It wasn¡¯t Duanmu Zang. Instead, it was a young human man wearing a green jerkin.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    This was the very same person he had saved half a month before. He still looked weak, but had clearly recovered from his injuries. Apparently that armor had really proved useful. Duanmu Zang must have intervened to save his life. However, the effects of the fire still lingered. He had many burn patches and even parts of his skin that had melted away and not grown back. As a result, he looked quite ferocious.

    As Xu Qing looked over, the young man looked back nervously. Then he hurried over and knelt in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Senior, I am Shi Pangui. Many thanks to you, Senior, for the kindness of saving my life!¡± [1]

    Xu Qing looked the young man up and down. He had a rather strange name, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t inquire about it. ¡°It was nothing. If I hadn¡¯t done something, Senior Duanmu would have saved you.¡±

    Nevertheless, Shi Pangui kowtowed three times, then looked up and nervously said, ¡°Either way, Senior, you¡¯re the one who saved me. I¡¯ll never forget that kindness.¡±

    With that, he took a meal box out and ced it off to the side. [2]

    ¡°I know you have a very high cultivation base, Senior, and I have nothing of value to offer you. This is some food my missus made. Many thanks, Senior!¡±

    With that, Shi Pangui stood, bowed to Xu Qing, then respectfully backed up to the teleportation portal. A momentter, he disappeared.

    Xu Qing looked at the meal box. It was filled with aromatic pastries that someone had clearly taken much effort to prepare.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s skill in the dao of poison, all it took was a single whiff for him to check for poison in food. He didn¡¯t detect any such poison, so he picked one up. Seeing Ling¡¯er salivating off to the side, he took a bite to make sure they were safe. Then he gave a piece to Ling¡¯er.

    When she took a bite, her eyes narrowed with pleasure.

    ¡°Coo. Coooo.¡± The vor was so wonderful that Ling¡¯er couldn¡¯t help but speak in the way she had as a child.

    Seeing how happy Ling¡¯er was caused Xu Qing to smile. He ended up giving her all the pastries. Later, he closed his eyes and went back to meditation.

    More days passed. Shi Pangui came back to visit a few times, and each time he brought delicious food with him. He always seemed to have something on his mind, but was always hesitating to give voice to it. Eventually, he couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer. Eyes brimming with hope, he said, ¡°Senior, the chancellor said that you¡¯re from another region? So... how are we humans doing out there?¡±

    Shi Pangui was obviously nervous, but his hopefulness seemed to surpass that nervousness. He had lived his entire life in Moonrite Region, unable to leave, and doomed to a fate he couldn¡¯t escape. That said, even in childhood, he had heard people talking about the glory of humankind, and about how powerful humans were. But all he saw was how weak and feeble humans were, to the point where they were little more than food to the nonhumans. He had seen misery and grief that left him shaken and dazed.

    And the reality was that it didn¡¯t matter what Xu Qing told him. It wouldn¡¯t change his situation. But he still wanted to get an answer to his question. He wanted to know if what the older humans said was true, that human society outside the Moonrite Region was glorious and beautiful. That alone would give him pride and strength.

    Xu Qing looked at Shi Pangui for a few breaths of time.

    As the moments ticked by, the light in Shi Pangui¡¯s eyes faded.

    Xu Qing smiled and softly said, ¡°Humans on the outside live in peace and work happily. They have good lives. There¡¯s little fighting, and everyone gets along. Our reigning emperor has outstanding ability and grand vision. We recently fought a war with the Nightshades, and came out victorious. Nonhumans bow their heads in our presence. Either they choose to join us, or we destroy them. What¡¯s more, our emperor firmly believes that one day he will be able to change things here in the Moonrite Region.¡±

    His words, and his smile, caused Shi Pangui¡¯s eyes to light up, and his heart to race. ¡°I knew it! Me and Zhou Wangbei got into a big argumentst night. She said that humans on the outside are the lowest of the low. I told her that¡¯s impossible! We humans have noble blood. Maybe we¡¯re weak and powerless in Moonrite Region, but in the past, we conquered Revered Ancient, and that means we¡¯re definitely glorious on the outside! Many thanks, Senior!¡±

    Shi Pangui excitedly bowed to Xu Qing, then hurried away to tell his wife, friends, and family what he¡¯d found out.

    Xu Qing watched him leave. He sighed. Now he understood the meaning behind Shi Pangui¡¯s name. ¡®Pangui¡¯ referred to a return to glory for all humankind. [3]

    The other name, Wangbei, came from the fact that humankind¡¯s Imperial Regiony to the north. [4]

    Over the past few days, Xu Qing had begun to specte what was happening in the lower levels of this tomb. It seemed likely there was a colony of humans who lived there, and the ¡®chancellor¡¯ Shi Pangui had mentioned was none other than Duanmu Zang. Humans took shelter here to avoid the bitter life they would otherwise live outside. And that was why Duanmu Zang had told him not to leave the cave temple.

    Feeling a sudden swell of respect in his heart, Xu Qing stood, sped hands, and bowed at the waist.

    As he did that, Duanmu Zang materialized on one of the other statues. Looking at the spot where Shi Pangui had disappeared, he turned to Xu Qing. When he spoke, his voice was a bit hoarse.

    ¡°Thank you. Did humans on the outside actually win a big victory?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded solemnly. ¡°The Holytide Region belongs to humankind now. And we have a domain treasure.¡±

    Duanmu Zang hopped off the statue and strode over to Xu Qing. This was the closest they had ever been to each other. In the past, they had always interacted at a distance. Duanmu Zang sat down, took out a jug of alcohol, and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Exin everything,¡± he said.

    Xu Qing took a long drink, frowned, and then took out a jug of alcohol from his bag of holding, which he handed to Duanmu Zang. Duanmu Zang¡¯s eyes lit up, and he took it.

    And thus, the two of them drank together as Xu Qing gave Duanmu Zang a general overview of recent events. Of course, he didn¡¯t reveal his true identity. He told everything from the perspective of an observer.

    Duanmu Zang didn¡¯t say anything the entire time. He just listened intently.

    Xu Qing finished the story right about the time they finished the alcohol.

    Eyes narrowing, Duanmu Zang said, ¡°What you saw was this Seventh Prince¡¯s actions. And you heard the emperor¡¯s orders. But you overlooked something. Seventh Prince¡¯s mother and her people!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened.

    ¡°As an imperial prince,¡± Duanmu Zang continued, ¡°it makes sense that he¡¯s daring and reckless. But given the bigger picture, it¡¯s clear he has deeper reasons for being so confident. The way he handlesplicated matters with such ease leads me to believe that his mother might not be human. And even if she is, well, she¡¯s definitely not from ordinary stock!

    ¡°As for the emperor, I find his actions very thought-provoking. Everything he does seems to be handled perfectly.... But the reason for that is that you¡¯re looking at the oue, and it seems like the oue of everything ispletely under his control. But it seems to me that there¡¯s some other bigger force behind the scenes, carefully manipting everything.¡±

    Duanmu Zang looked up at Xu Qing. ¡°Everything you¡¯ve described so far... it¡¯s just the beginning. If I was the emperor, I would have long since put someone in Sea-Sealing County that I trusted. To be my eyes there, and keep watch over everything. Whoever this person is, they wouldn¡¯t have a very high cultivation base, otherwise they would draw too much attention.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react visibly, but inside, he was shaken.

    Duanmu Zang didn¡¯t say anything beyond that. Floating up into the air, he looked off into the distance for a long moment, then turned back to Xu Qing. ¡°Would you like to see my home?¡±

    1. Shi Pangui. Shi is listed #61 on the list of 100mon surnames. It means ¡°stone.¡± Pan means ¡°hope for, long for, expect.¡± Gui means ¡°return, go back to.¡± Madam Deathde says that because the name has a fairly literal meaning (longing for something to return), it¡¯s a very sad and mncholy name, which is somewhat unusual. Generally speaking, it¡¯s not verymon in Chinese culture to give children sad, mncholic names. ?

    2. Most dictionaries will trante ¡®meal box¡¯ as ¡®lunch box.¡¯ However, considering what the word ¡®lunch box¡¯ conjures in the minds of most readers, and how many people don¡¯t read the footnotes, I went with something slightly different. Boxes like this weremon in ancient times and nowadays as well. <u>Here is a small gallery</u> of some of the more ancient-looking varieties. ?

    3. If you look at the footnote exining Shi Pangui¡¯s name, you can see the meaning of the individual characters. In this paragraph, it adds an additional character to each of those characters, creating a total of two words with four characters each, to exin the full meaning. Packing deep meaning into names is fairlymon in Chinese. The individual characters can be references to other words or idioms that aren¡¯t immediately apparent. Without further information or context, you might never unlock the true meaning of the name. ?

    4. Wangbei: Wang means ¡°hope, expect, gaze (into the distance), look towards.¡± Bei means ¡°north.¡± In the passage in which Shi Pangui talks about Zhou Wangbei, he does not use any pronouns at all, so it¡¯s impossible to tell if he¡¯s talking about a wife or a friend. Given the context, it seems to me it¡¯s supposed to be his wife, thus my interpretation of the passage. (addedter:) In retrospect, I realize that this name has some vague foreshadowing in it.... ?

 Chapter 557: Fireflies in the Night (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 557: Fireflies in the Night (part 1)</h4>

    Duanmu Zang hovered in the darkness of the cave temple and looked at Xu Qing, his words still echoing back and forth.

    Xu Qing stood, sped hands and bowed. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Earlier, Duanmu Zang had thanked Xu Qing for making the outside world seem beautiful, and in turn, giving hope to the people here. Now, Xu Qing thanked Duanmu Zang for trusting him.

    Duanmu Zang waved his hand, and a vortex appeared in front of him. He stepped inside.

    Xu Qing followed. Since he hade here nearly a month ago, he had never gone below the first level of the tomb. After stepping through the vortex, he found himself in a world of mortals. He was still underground. But the open area was massive, enough that it created an entire subterranean city. It was a bustling ce. Chatting andughter drifted through the air to Xu Qing¡¯s ears. Ling¡¯er stuck her head out and looked at the city.

    All residents of the city were human, and the poption was well over 100,000. This was the first human city Xu Qing had seen in Moonrite Region, and also the most humans he had seen gathered in one ce. Though he had been prepared to see something like this, it was still an astonishing sight. What was even more surprising was that the ceiling overhead was covered with a blue canopy.

    That canopy was massive, and it almost looked like a blue sky. There were even beautiful white clouds. As for the ground, though there was a city, there were also trees, vegetation, and even fields of crops off in the distance. A glowing ball of light hung above everything. It was actually a bottle in which some heavenfire had been sealed using a special magic, making it like a sun. As that glowing light filled the cave, it was possible to hear children reading out loud in their sses.

    In Xu Qing¡¯s travels in the Moonrite region, all the humans he¡¯d seen had looked numb and lowly. Like food waiting to be eaten. Because of that, Xu Qing knew that only a very courageous and broad-minded person could create a city like this, and offer safety and refuge to so many other humans. Not all powerful experts cared about taking care of mortals. To many such people, survival was more important than anything else.

    ¡°This is my home,¡± Duanmu Zang said softly.

    Heart swelling with respect, Xu Qing once again bowed.

    As time passed, his opinion of Duanmu Zang had been slowly changing. That was especially true right now. In fact, because of what he was seeing, his impression hadpletely changed.

    When Duanmu Zang looked at the city, his gaze was gentle and kind. The light of the heavenfire ¡®sun¡¯ glittered in his eyes. He smiled. He looked like an elderly person gazing at all of his descendants.

    ¡°History hasn¡¯t treated humans well in the Moonrite Region. Life is hard and full of bitterness. It was like that even when I was a child. Most of the people you see here once lived terrible lives in the territory of the Twofold Alliance.¡±

    Right now, Duanmu Zang seemed like apletely different person than the one who had been fighting with the nonhumans outside. When he returned here, his devious, treacherous, and ruthless nature vanished. And the only thing left behind was warmth and kindness.

    ¡°There¡¯s only so much I can do. I can¡¯t save all of them. But I can help some. I can save a few. Over time, that number adds up to what you see here.¡±

    Xu Qing felt deeply moved by Duanmu Zang¡¯s words. What was more, it was obvious that it must have been hard to carve out a safe refuge for humans here. To many top experts, something like this would be a hindrance.

    Emotions swirled in Xu Qing as he followed Duanmu Zang into the city. The buildings were simple, and the people wore in clothing. Xu Qing saw no signs of luxury. There were no businesses on the street. Instead, everyone helped each other. He saw smiles everywhere. As he walked along, he realized that there were middle-aged people present, as well as youngsters and children. But there were no old people.

    ¡°The elderly prefer death,¡± Duanmu Zang exined simply. ¡°They don¡¯t want to waste food.¡±

    There was grief in his eyes, but that grief disappeared when excited voices reached his ears.

    ¡°It¡¯s the chancellor.¡±

    ¡°Greetings, Chancellor!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Grandpa Chancellor! Hi, Grandpa!¡±

    ¡°Grandpa Chancellor, I¡¯ve been looking at those clouds in the sky for so long now. Howe they don¡¯t move?¡±[1]

    A crowd was building. The middle-aged people had respectful looks on their faces. The youths seemed excited. And the children treated Duanmu Zang like he was family as they raced over and started running yful circles around him.

    Kneeling down, Duanmu Zang smiled and took a small boy into his arms. ¡°The clouds in the sky can definitely move. But they¡¯re sleeping right now! Once they wake up, then they¡¯ll start moving.¡±

    Laughter and chatting ensued. Some people looked at Xu Qing leerily, but most seemed friendly. Apparently, anyone that was with Duanmu Zang was a person they trusted. Like family.

    Xu Qing followed as Duanmu Zang led the way through the city. He saw many scenes y out just like before. At one point, they passed a school.

    Looking at the school, Duanmu Zang sighed and said, ¡°History is about legacy. Civilization has to continue! We humans live bitter lives here in the Moonrite Region, but I really hope that more people can understand how glorious humankind was in the past. We must never forget that!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the school, and listened to the sound of the children reading out loud from their textbooks. They were studying about human history. There were many inurate parts that actually sounded wonderful. There were some ces in the city that taught about cultivation, or nts and vegetation. By studying there, the mortals would have a chance to rise to a higher level of existence.

    There were a lot of children around. At one point they stopped at an alchemy school, where Xu Qing heard the voice of a young girl.

    ¡°Teacher, I know about that seven-leaf clover you just mentioned! A while back I searched everywhere for it but couldn¡¯t find any! I couldn¡¯t find any of that soaring ox sapling either![2]

    Hearing that, Duanmu Zang quietly said, ¡°The cultivation methods taught here, and the information about nts and vegetation, are partly from me. But I¡¯ve alsopiled a lot of information that I either won in fights or traded for. Most are from ancient records, so they¡¯re not exactly very meaningful. The majority of the nts and vegetation they learn about don¡¯t even grow in Moonrite Region. But knowledge is knowledge. Who knows... maybe it¡¯ll be useful in the future.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded quietly. Strolling through the city, he saw a lot of low-level cultivators simr to Shi Pangui. They were members of the city militia who, during times when the Heavenfire Skycrossing wasn¡¯t an issue, would go out and trade with other cities for living essentials.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Eventually, the heavenfire ¡®sun¡¯ in the sky dimmed, bringing night. At that point, glittering lights like stars appeared overhead. They were actually the refined remains of Mirrorlings. By this point, Xu Qing had been through the entire city.

    Beneath the darkness of the night, Duanmu Zang stopped outside of an abandoned house. He looked at Xu Qing for a long moment.

    ¡°What do you think of my home?¡± he asked in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°You are the pinnacle of virtue, Senior!¡± Xu Qing said solemnly.

    ¡°I can¡¯t im that,¡± Duanmu Zang said, shaking his head. ¡°What you see is me protecting them. But the reality is... that they¡¯re here to keep mepany. That¡¯s why I call this ce my home.¡± Duanmu Zang turned to leave, and Xu Qing made to follow. But then Duanmu Zang said, ¡°Heavenfire Skycrossing willst two more months. You can stay here for now.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. He knew the significance of those words. Duanmu Zang was inviting him to stay in his own home.

    Looking very solemn, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed.

    After Duanmu Zang left for his own residence in the city, Xu Qing turned and looked at the house. It was a simple structure, but to Xu Qing, it was full of the warmth andfort that had beencking during his travels in the Moonrite Region. And so, he moved in.

    Ling¡¯er chose to temporarily take human form. Smiling broadly, she started organizing things and working hard to prove to Xu Qing that she knew how to do housework. Seeing Ling¡¯er scurrying around busily brought a smile to Xu Qing¡¯s face. Gradually, he rxed and settled into life in the city. It actually wasn¡¯t very hard. The people here were friendly and approachable. Xu Qing¡¯s mood became increasingly stable.

    The ¡®sky¡¯ overhead alternated between ck and blue, and as the Heavenfire Skycrossing continued outside, half a month passed.

    During that time, Shi Pangui came to visit at least seven or eight times. He always brought delicious food with him. His wife clearly had culinary talent, and the food she made delighted Ling¡¯er.

    At first, Ling¡¯er didn¡¯t reveal her human form to anyone. But after she got used to Shi Pangui, she eventually stopped hiding when he came around.

    When Shi Pangui saw her for the first time, his jaw nearly dropped. However, the next time he came to visit, he brought a young woman who looked to be around the same age as Ling¡¯er, as well as a young girl.

    ¡°Senior,¡± Shi Pangui said respectfully, ¡°allow me to introduce my wife and my younger sister.¡±

    The woman and girl seemed very nervous as they offered curtsying bows to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing smiled warmly. He had previously asked Shi Pangui about how he ended up unconscious in the mine during Heavenfire Skycrossing. Shi Pangui had exined that he¡¯d been out trying to get medicine for his wife. She was very weak, and got sick a lot. Two months ago, her illness had be more serious. Although Shi Pangui knew the Heavenfire Skycrossing wasing, he¡¯d been too anxious, and had thus taken the risk to visit one of the allied species¡¯ cities to buy medicine. It had been a dangerous risk, but he felt he had no choice.

    ¡°The chancellor is responsible for a hundred thousand people. It¡¯s not as if every person can go asking him for help with every single thing.¡±

    That was how Shi Pangui had exined it when Xu Qing asked. Everyone in the city felt gratitude and deep respect for Duanmu Zang, and thus didn¡¯t want to burden him with too many things. They tended to care for their own situations.

    Xu Qing had not encountered many ces in his life where people behaved with such virtue. After a quick visual examination of Shi Pangui¡¯s wife, Xu Qing took some medicinal pills out of his bag of holding.

    ¡°Your daoist partner is suffering from yin poisoning from living in this cave environment, plus an overabundance of yang pathogens from the heavenfire. They don¡¯t mix together any more than water and fire. These medicinal pills should neutralize those things to an extent. They can¡¯tpletely extrude them, but they¡¯ll help a lot.¡±

    Shi Pangui gratefully epted the medicinal pills. His wife was equally grateful, and the two of them even tried to get on their knees to kowtow. Xu Qing reached out to prevent them from doing so.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to kowtow. Think of the pills as a thank you for all the wonderful pastries.¡±

    Shi Pangui and his wife seemed even more grateful. Meanwhile, the little girl was surreptitiously eyeing the medicinal pill bottle with great curiosity. Eventually, they had to leave to take the girl to ss.

    After they were gone, Ling¡¯er started eating the pastries they¡¯d brought. Looking at Xu Qing, she smiled, her eyes turning into crescent moons. She was really proud.

    <i>My Big Bro Xu Qing is such a good guy. Even if the person he¡¯s dealing with has a low cultivation base, he won¡¯t be all high and mighty. He¡¯s so kind and gentle.</i>

    Xu Qing was surprised to see Ling¡¯er staring at him. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Ling¡¯er?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh, nothing!¡± Flushing a bit, she hurried over and grabbed his forearm. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go for a walk, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡±

    1. In the case of this dialogue, the use of ¡®grandpa¡¯ is not familial. They¡¯re using it as a respectful form of address for an elderly person. ?

    2. Seven-leaf clover is one of the key ingredients in the white bolus. It was mentioned a lot in the early chapters. The first time it came up was in <u>chapter 5</u>, and thest time it was mentioned was <u>chapter 58</u>. ?

 Chapter 557: Fireflies in the Night (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 557: Fireflies in the Night (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at the sky and saw that it was roughly noon. He nodded. Together with Ling¡¯er, he left the house and started strolling through the city. Ling¡¯er was in very high spirits, and couldn¡¯t hold back from hopping and skipping almost like a child. She was so cute that many city residents noticed her and smiled. Some families brought out food as gifts. Ling¡¯er would offer spirited greetings and scarf the food down happily. Ling¡¯er¡¯s child-like innocence made Xu Qing smile.

    They walked around corners and down streets until eventually they passed a school. The ss topic was nts and vegetation, which caused Xu Qing to stop and look over.

    It was an open-air ssroom that all children in the city could attend. The lecturer was a middle-aged woman. She had no legs, and sat in a wheelchair as she gave a very serious lecture about nts and vegetation. She was surrounded by children between the ages of about seven and thirteen, and all of them were paying very close attention.

    There was one young girl who seemedpletely absorbed in the information as she listened and took notes. That young girl was none other than Shi Pangui¡¯s sister. Seeing her reminded Xu Qing of his days back in the scavenger basecamp. After Grandmaster Bai had invited him in to attend lectures, he had paid attention as raptly as this young girl was paying attention.

    After watching for a short time, he turned and left.

    Another half a month passed.

    Heavenfire Skycrossing was tost for three months. Xu Qing had spent the first month in the cave temple above. He had spent the second month in the city. He was not the type of person who liked a lot of hustle and bustle, so he spent most of his time in his room meditating.

    Ling¡¯er, in contrast, got bored easily. At first, she kept asking Xu Qing to go out with her, but eventually, when she got familiar with the city, she didn¡¯t hesitate to go out on her own. Although Xu Qing doubted she would run into any trouble, he arranged for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to go along with her and keep her safe.

    It didn¡¯t take long for Ling¡¯er to be a lot more popr than Xu Qing in the city. And thanks to Shi Pangui¡¯s wife, she got to know a lot of the other women in the city, both those her age, and also the older ones. All of them seemed to really like her, and of course, everyone was curious about her rtionship with Xu Qing.

    Whenever that got brought up, Ling¡¯er would blush shyly. Before long, the women of the city had taken it upon themselves to teach her how to cook. As they said, <i>the way to a man¡¯s heart is through his stomach</i>.

    Ling¡¯er excitedly devoted herself fully to mastering cooking. There were other women who emphasized how important it was for her to learn how to sew. After all, a woman couldn¡¯t let her man go around in clothes some other woman had fixed. After that, Ling¡¯er was even more excited to learn sewing. She was determined that, going forward, <i>she </i>would be the one to mend all of her Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯s clothing.

    Five days after Ling¡¯er had started to learn how to cook, Xu Qing ate one of her meals for the first time. She bustled around the kitchen for two hours before presenting him with several dishes.

    Xu Qing looked down at the ckened vegetables, then up at Ling¡¯er¡¯s expectant, and also slightly nervous, expression. He took a bite. It took him a while to chew it up and swallow it down.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± she asked nervously. ¡°Is it good?¡±

    A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing smiled. ¡°It¡¯s delicious.¡±

    Ling¡¯er burst with joy. ¡°Then eat some more, Big Bro Xu Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, then went ahead and finished all the food. After, he prepared to go back to meditation.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± Ling¡¯er said exuberantly, ¡°I¡¯ll cook again tomorrow!¡±

    Xu Qing was quiet for several breaths of time, then he nodded.

    Ling¡¯er wasn¡¯t the only one getting popr in the city. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior also took human form, and quickly started bing very well-known. In fact, he soon became more popr than Ling¡¯er, despite getting ater start than her. The reason was that, while apanying Ling¡¯er around the city, he¡¯d found a ce where storytellers would ply their trade. After listening to one of the storytellers, and being far from impressed, he¡¯d taken the stage and told the story of one of the books he¡¯d read.

    To people living in the Moonrite Region, it was a very fresh and innovative tale. What was more, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior also sprinkled in a few things from Xu Qing¡¯s real-life story. Because of the vivid, lifelike nature of the narrative, he earned quite a bit of cheering and apuse at the end.

    At first, only a few people listened to his story. But the crowds grew every day. Given how many years the patriarch had spent trembling in fear at Xu Qing¡¯s side, it had obviously been a very long time since he enjoyed any public praise. It was so enticing that he started taking advantage of the moments when Ling¡¯er was studying cooking and sewing to sneak off and tell stories.

    At the moment, he was sitting in a small roadside pavilion surrounded by a crowd of several hundred listeners.

    Looking out at the crowd, the patriarch cleared his throat and then calmly said, ¡°Last we left off, Seven Blood Eyes sent tens of thousands of dharmaboats to surround the Merfolk Isles. The Merfolk patriarch was no hero. The truth is that....¡±

    The audience listened, entranced, as the patriarch told the story with great gusto, his voice rising and falling during all the right parts. Everyone felt like they were right there, watching the events y out. Duanmu Zang was up in midair, invisible, listening along and nodding asionally.

    That evening, when the blue of the ¡®sky¡¯ was starting to turn dark, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior stopped talking and cleared his throat.

    ¡°If you want to know what happens next, pleasee back tomorrow at the same time. The story will continue then.¡±

    When the audience realized the story was over for the day, they seemed to get very anxious, and started crying out.

    ¡°Hey, at least finish this part of the story!¡±

    ¡°This installment was short. Too short. Way too short!¡±

    ¡°What even happened in the story this afternoon? I hardly remember!¡±

    ¡°No! You have to at least tell the next part! How could you stop right here?¡±

    Hearing that, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve read tens of thousands of stories, and I can tell you that, although this part might have seemed boring, the reality is that there was a lot of important information hidden in the narrative. You can¡¯t just gobble down the story! Savor what¡¯s happening. Enjoy it!¡±

    As the crowd hooted and guffawed, the patriarch hummed a little tune, sped his hands behind his back, and slowly walked off to find Ling¡¯er.

    The shadow was very envious of how much Ling¡¯er and the patriarch were shining. It also wanted to go out and have some fun. However, it didn¡¯t dare. All it could do wasy on the ground and stare impatiently at Xu Qing as he sat there like a block of wood, meditating.

    That said, Xu Qing did have visitors. Shi Pangui woulde to visit, as did his little sister. She was only about eleven or twelve years old. Every time she came to visit, she would bring some type of simple food, like a roasted sweet potato, and would set it off to the side as a gift. Then she would stare at him nervously for a while as if she wasn¡¯t sure what to say.

    After a few visits, she finally got impatient enough that she blurted, ¡°Big Bro, can you... can you concoct pills?¡±

    She hadn¡¯t forgotten how Xu Qing gave her sister-inw some medicinal pills.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The girl immediately got excited. Taking out a little notebook, she asked him a simple question about nts and vegetation.

    He gently exined, ¡°Seven-leaf clover, also known as mutagen-expelling grass, is a spirit nt with a single long de simr to wood rices. It¡¯s a perennial grass that grows in the shade in humid, wide-open areas. It will not grow in areas that the broken face of the god has looked at directly.¡±

    The girl wrote down everything that Xu Qing said. Then she quickly asked a second question about something she¡¯d learned previously. Both of these questions were things her teacher hadn¡¯t been able to exin.

    Xu Qing patiently offered a detailed exnation. The girl kept asking questions, one after another. As he provided the answers, he could see how determined this girl was to learn about nts and vegetation, also how outstanding her memory was. Thetter was one of the foundational elements in learning about nts and vegetation. The question-and-answer sessionsted for about four hours. After that, the girl came over every few days. On one particr day, she came with even more sweet potatoes than before, which she carefully ced off to the side before starting up with more questions.

    Xu Qing eyed the sweet potatoes, smiled, and thenunched into his exnations.

    When evening came, the girl sighed contentedly and left with a smile on her face. However,ter that night, her brother Shi Pangui brought her back to apologize and promise she wouldn¡¯t bother him again.

    Xu Qing looked at how nervous both of them looked, and was about to speak when he noticed the obstinate look in the girl¡¯s eyes. After some thought, he just nodded. He was curious to see if the girl woulde back to ask more questions.

    A few dayster, she came back.

    This time, she changed tactics. She timidly took some medicinal nts out and asked, ¡°Teacher, is this the golden twistgrass you mentioned?¡± [1]

    Xu Qing looked at the little nt with an odd expression on his face. Then he looked back at the girl. Eyes shining with a profound look, he went on to exin how to tell golden twistgrass apart from nts that looked somewhat like it.

    The girl apparently believed her tactic to be very effective, because in the following days, she kept bringing random nts to ask simr questions. Xu Qing always went into a very detailed exnation.

    Time passed. Before long, the Heavenfire Skycrossing wasing to an end. Calctions indicated that there were only ten more days. At that point, the sea of mes would retreat, and the Heavenfire Skycrossing wouldn¡¯te again for a few more decades.

    <i>It¡¯s almost time to leave,</i> Xu Qing thought. With that, he cast his senses out until he located Ling¡¯er, who was practicing sewing with some of the older women in the city. And then he found Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, who was prattling on to arge crowd. Xu Qing looked out at all the people in the city, and in the end, all he could do was sigh.

    ¡°You¡¯re leaving?¡± Duanmu Zang asked. He had just appeared out of nowhere in the room.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Duanmu Zang sat down. ¡°You have nice alcohol.¡±

    Xu Qing grinned. He transferred about half of the alcohol he¡¯d brought along into a separate bag of holding and handed it to Duanmu Zang.

    Duanmu Zang epted it, looked inside, and then broke out into a smile. He looked up at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯m not just going to take your alcohol withoutpensation. I noticed how you were zipping around up at the Heavenfire Sea. My guess is that you need the heavenfire from there to cultivate some sort of magical technique. I can lend you a secret treasure that will give you extra protection against the fire. It¡¯ll allow you to sink much deeper into theva. That way, you won¡¯t attract attention as easily, and you should be much safer.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he reached out his hand and opened his palm. Resting there was a gruish brown eyeball covered with blood-red veins, looking right at Xu Qing.

    1. Golden twistgrass was previously mentioned in <u>chapters 21</u>, <u>207</u>, and <u>351</u>. ?

 Chapter 558: The Sorrow of Parting; Disappearing Over the Horizon (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 558: The Sorrow of Parting; Disappearing Over the Horizon (part 1)</h4>

    The moment Xu Qing saw the eyeball, his gaze hardened. Off to the side, Ling¡¯er blinked a few times and quietly edged closer to Xu Qing.

    Duanmu Zang nced at Ling¡¯er then back at Xu Qing. The brown eye was covered with blood-red veins, and it emanated a faint sensation of decay. A caustic aroma pulsed off it, quickly filling the small room. The faint sound of screaming could be heard.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking up at Duanmu Zang.

    ¡°It¡¯s a gruish item I picked up when I first discovered this ce,¡± Duanmu Zang said, looking very serious. ¡°It has spectacr fire-resistance qualities. However, you first have to subjugate it. I doubt that will pose a challenge for you. It¡¯s timid. Just frighten it a few times, and it won¡¯t dare to cause any problems. I used its power to explore some of the deep areas in theva.

    ¡°The depths of the Heavenfire Sea are full of profound mysteries, so I rmend not going lower than 3,000 meters. Past that, you¡¯ll run into warding spells set up by the Red Moon Cathedral. Few people can get past such things. I¡¯ve even seen a few mutant beasts swim down past 3,000 meters and end up shredded to pieces.¡±

    With that, he tossed the eyeball to Xu Qing.

    After Xu Qing caught the eyeball, he found it was still staring at him, all while emanating a vile, malicious sensation.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. Rolling the eyeball in his hand, he said, ¡°Senior, has the Red Moon Cathedral set up other warding spells in the Moonrite Region, simr to the ones in the Heavenfire Sea?¡±

    Duanmu Zang sat down, hefted one of the alcohol jugs Xu Qing had given him, and took a drink. He nodded, aplex expression on his face.

    ¡°Quite a few, actually. In the Moonrite Region, there is no higher authority than the Red Moon Cathedral. Their whims determine life or death for all living beings. Any whock respect, even by the tiniest of margins, will end up suffering a tragic fate.¡±

    Xu Qing digested that and then said, ¡°Senior, I¡¯m interested in knowing more about the Red Moon Cathedral. Do you mind telling me a bit more?¡±

    Duanmu Zang peered at Xu Qing. ¡°Boy, in the Moonrite Region, the Red Moon Cathedral is like a god. You absolutely cannot spheme it. In other words, be cautious about provoking them. Otherwise, they won¡¯t just kill you. They have ways to turn you into an offering. To curse you. And if that happens, you¡¯ll never leave this ce.¡±

    Duanmu Zang¡¯s face was cold, but his heart burned. Given his interactions with Xu Qing, and his life experience, he hade to understand Xu Qing a lot more. And his impression of him had changed a lot. Although his expression seemed solemn, his words were obviously a reminder and a bit of a warning.

    Xu Qing nodded. He was no fool. Though he had his violet moon, he obviously couldn¡¯t afford to underestimate anyone or anything rted to the red moon. What was more, he also knew that there were some things that would be difficult to avoid in the Moonrite Region. The more he knew about the Red Moon Cathedral, the better chance he would have to avoid some of those things. Therefore, he asked for some more details.

    Duanmu Zang considered his request, then said, ¡°The more you know, the better. It¡¯ll help you understand how truly terrifying the Red Moon Cathedral is around here. Members of the Red Moon Cathedral are like herdsmen for Crimson Mother. Every so often, the various species here have to voluntarily bring sacrifices to them.

    ¡°The Red Moon Cathedral doesn¡¯t care the least bit about the lives of the species here. Every time Crimson Motheres, the majority of the living beings in Moonrite Region end up being devoured. Therefore, the mission of the Red Moon Cathedral is to gather food and put it into storage before Crimson Mother arrives. After Crimson Mother leaves, the species need to proliferate again. They¡¯re almost like crops, constantly being harvested and regrown.¡±

    Duanmu Zang spoke as calmly as if he were recounting a story that didn¡¯t affect him at all, as opposed to exining his own doom.

    Xu Qing listened carefully.

    Ling¡¯er watched them drink for a bit, then after some thought, she hurried to the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and started preparing a meal. That was what the other women had taught her. When the men drank, then she, as a good wife, should prepare a few dishes to make it obvious how able and virtuous she was.

    Xu Qing looked over at her and seemed like he wanted to say something. In the end, he didn¡¯t. When he saw how excited she seemed, he just couldn¡¯t say anything.

    Duanmu Zang also noticed what was going on, but didn¡¯t take it to heart. He just continued drinking and exining the Red Moon Cathedral to Xu Qing. As a local, his understanding of the Red Moon Cathedral would obviously surpass anything that might show up in an intelligence report.

    Xu Qing listened attentively. Eventually, Duanmu Zang reached the end of his exnation.

    ¡°Based on my calctions, the Red Moon Cathedral will being soon. After you leave this ce, if you ever see them, keep your distance and stay out of sight. They¡¯re easy to spot, considering they dress in all red. Normally speaking, as long as you don¡¯t provoke them, they won¡¯t bother you. They don¡¯t care about random rogue cultivators, any more than an elephant cares about ants.¡± Duanmu Zangughed self-deprecatingly. ¡°What they <i>do</i> care about are the species that don¡¯t have enough offerings prepared. Any species that isn¡¯t sufficiently prepared has to make up for the difference.

    ¡°For example, over forty years ago, the Whitw species in the north didn¡¯t meet the demands of the cathedral. Therefore, a godherald came with some godservants, and ended up harvesting seventy percent of their species to make up the difference.¡±

    ¡°What kind of cultivation base do the godheralds have?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°No one knows exactly how many godheralds the Red Moon Cathedral has. Theye from all species. All are Void Returning experts. The godservants are in Spirit Trove. Anyone lower than Spirit Trove are godves.

    Xu Qing thought about everything he had learned so far. ¡°Are there godchildren?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Duanmu Zang said, his eyes flickering with fear. ¡°There¡¯s one godchild in the Red Moon Cathedral. Supposedly, he¡¯s an actual blood rtive of the red moon. No one knows his cultivation base, but in reality, cultivation base is irrelevant to him. What¡¯s important is that hemands the power of a god. Therefore... he can exempt anyone from the fate of bing food, and allow them to survive theing of Crimson Mother.¡± Duanmu Zang sighed. ¡°Because of that, countless powerful experts go crazy trying to impress him. Given they have the chance of earning exemption, they¡¯ll do anything he asks them to.¡±

    Hearing that caused an imperceptible glimmer to pass through Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. After that, he didn¡¯t ask any more questions about the Red Moon Cathedral. Instead, he asked about the Twofold Alliance. After all, that was the most pressing issue he had to deal with.

    ¡°The Twofold Alliance has a total of six Spirit Trove experts, two of which are patriarchs. As for Void Returning....¡± Duanmu Zang shook his head. ¡°They have none. Void Returning experts are the most vorful, so when one appears, they¡¯ll be marked by the Red Moon Cathedral. Think of them as ripe fruit. Although nothing happens to them immediately, they¡¯re most definitely put onto the menu.

    ¡°Because of that, most cultivators in the Moonrite Region stop at the great circle of Spirit Trove. If they can avoid breaking through, they do.

    ¡°Once you¡¯re on the menu, your fate is sealed. You¡¯ll die eventually. In contrast, if you stay off the menu, then you have a chance of surviving. Although that chance is small, it still exists. And most people would rather have a shot at staying alive.¡±

    Xu Qing had previously suspected the Twofold Alliance didn¡¯t have Void Returning experts, and now he had confirmation.

    Duanmu Zang continued speaking. ¡°The Mirrorlings and Skyfaces are really just minor species. Of their six Spirit Trove experts, only the two patriarchs haveplete secret troves.

    ¡°The others, including that royal preceptor, are in the process of growing heavenly daos for their secret troves. They¡¯re still in ¡®dao begetting and dawnstar raising.¡¯¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know very much about Spirit Trove. Considering how far away it was, he hadn¡¯t bothered asking his Master any questions. So this was his first time hearing a description of it.

    ¡°Dao begetting and dawnstar raising?¡± Xu Qing asked. Those words had stuck out to him.

    Duanmu Zang nodded. ¡°To truly unlock the power of magicalws within your secret trove, you have to generate a heavenly dao, and also cause a dawnstar to rise. Only then will your secret trove be consideredplete, making you a true Spirit Trove expert. [1]

    ¡°It¡¯s an extremely difficult stage. Having the proper cultivation base and lots of resources are only one element of sess. You also need enlightenment of the power of magicalws to be able to generate a heavenly dao. That¡¯s the most critical aspect. In reality, most Spirit Trove cultivators don¡¯t proceed past the stage called ¡®dao begetting and dawnstar raising.¡¯

    ¡°To Nascent Soul cultivators, Spirit Trove cultivators in that ¡®dao begetting¡¯ phase are actually extremely strong. But to someone in the true first stage of Spirit Trove, dao begetting cultivators have not achieved their dao, and are thus unworthy. It¡¯s simr to the ¡®before and after¡¯ difference of life mes in Foundation Establishment.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how it is in other regions,¡± Duanmu Zang went on, ¡°but here in the Moonrite Region, for every thousand Spirit Trove cultivators, there are only one or two who generate a heavenly dao and actuallyplete their first secret trove.

    ¡°The rest stay in the dao begetting phase. Many of them ultimately suffer severe injuries, the reason being that if your secret trove copses before beingpleted, your cultivation base drops significantly.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Duanmu Zang and thought back to what he had seen back at the Heavenfire Sea. He had personallyid eyes on Duanmu Zang¡¯s copsed spirit trove.

    Noticing the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, Duanmu Zang coolly continued, ¡°That¡¯s what happened to me, so I can tell you firsthand how dramatic the difference is between a Spirit Trove cultivator in dao begetting and dawnstar raising, and one who has passed that phase.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and was about to continue with more questions when Ling¡¯er bustled out with two tes of ckened food. She put them down on the table, one in front of each of them, then stared at them expectantly.

    Xu Qing smiled, picked up some chopsticks, and started slowly eating. A momentter, a look of praise appeared on his face, and he took a drink.

    Stunned, Duanmu Zang looked at the ckened food, then the approving look on Xu Qing¡¯s face, and finally Ling¡¯er, who was looking at him with hopeful expectation.

    Duanmu Zang also took a bite. His expression did not change. After slowly chewing and swallowing, he took a drink and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him.

    Duanmu Zang¡¯s expression became one of admiration. Turning to Ling¡¯er, he said, ¡°Excellent.¡±

    Ling¡¯er burst with joy.

    Xu Qing smiled and continued eating. Seeing that, Duanmu Zang cleared his throat.

    ¡°I have a batch of medicinal pills I need to check on. See youter.¡± With that he stood, blurred, and disappeared from sight.

    ¡°Is it that good?¡± Ling¡¯er said. ¡°Now I want to try!¡± Ling¡¯er went to take some of the food, but Xu Qing quickly put thest bit into his mouth.

    Ling¡¯er looked very pleased. Seeing that Xu Qing was going to start meditating again, she hurried over, picked up the set of clothes she was working on, and started sewing again. <i>I definitely have to get Big Bro Xu Qing to wear the clothes </i>I¡¯m<i> making for him.</i>

    Thinking of that future scene, and how wonderful it would be, Ling¡¯er focusedpletely on her work.

    In that manner, the final ten days passed.

    1. The ¡®dawnstar¡¯ mentioned here is the ssical Chinese word for Venus. This name obviouslyes from the time before the understanding ofs, when all thes were believed to be stars. Venus has other names in Chinese. Themon modern name is different, and there¡¯s another name for Venus as a mythological part of Chinese cosmology. In my dictionaries, I found at least 8 different words for Venus (there are different names for Venus both as a morning star and an evening star). And there are different names for Venus as a being from Western mythology. In any case, in this usage, the meaning of the word is obviously that of a ¡°morning star.¡± ?

 Chapter 558: The Sorrow of Parting; Disappearing Over the Horizon (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 558: The Sorrow of Parting; Disappearing Over the Horizon (part 2)</h4>

    As the day of departure neared, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior stopped cutting off the story in the middle of the good parts. He also sped up the plot a bit. On the day before Heavenfire Skycrossing ended, he reached the end of the tale.

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s mood became a bit more reserved as she realized they would be leaving soon. Deep in her heart, she wished she could stay. In the two months that had passed, she had made friends. She had also given out a lot of medicinal pills as gifts.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t looking forward to parting ways with the little girl who loved alchemy. She hade to visit many, many times. Three days before it was time to leave, he decided to personally tell her that he was leaving.

    ¡°Panyan, take a seat in front of me,¡± he said softly. The girl¡¯s name was Shi Panyan. [1]

    ¡°Yes, Teacher!¡± Shi Panyan had full confidence in Xu Qing, and thus immediately sat down in front of him.

    Xu Qing reached up and put his hand on her forehead. ¡°Don¡¯t resist.¡±

    Hearing that, Shi Panyan closed her eyes.

    A momentter, Xu Qing shook his head and sighed inwardly. He had done a quick test in the hopes that he could somehow undo the red moon curse in her. At the very least, he had hoped to find out the basic principles that made the curse work. Unfortunately, given his current level of power, there was no way he could do anything about the curse in her blood. And he would need to do a lot more research, study, and experimentation. Unfortunately, such tests would requirerge amounts of blood, and meticulous vivisection. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t bring himself to do tests like that on humans.

    ¡°Panyan,¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    She quickly opened her eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯m leaving in a few days.¡±

    Shi Panyan¡¯s eyes turned red and she bowed her head. She didn¡¯t say anything. She hade to realize a few days ago that this wasing, and had tried to prepare herself mentally. But when she heard the wordsing from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, her heart hurt.

    Xu Qing thought back to her earnest hard work over the past month, and how she thirsted for knowledge. It was something Xu Qing was very familiar with. After a lot of thought, he¡¯d made a decision.

    Taking a medicinal codex out of his bag of holding, he rubbed the cover and thought about Grandmaster Bai. Then he handed the book to Shi Panyan.

    ¡°My Teacher gave this to me, and now I¡¯m giving it to you.¡±

    Shi Panyan¡¯s little hands trembled as she reached out and took the book. She looked at it, then sped it against her chest and gazed up at Xu Qing. Her eyes seemed sad and reluctant. She obviously wanted to say something, but didn¡¯t know how to form the words. In the end, though, she knew that she and her Teacher were from different worlds. Therefore, all the words she wanted to say transformed into one thing.

    Shi Panyan kowtowed nine times to Xu Qing.

    He epted her kowtows, and then said, ¡°If you carefully study this medicinal codex, you won¡¯t need any more help from me. Now go.¡±

    Shi Panyan got to her feet. She walked to the door and stood there, her skinny little frame looking unusually lonely and deste. She looked over her shoulder. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she said, ¡°Teacher, will I ever see you again?¡±

    He looked up at her. She was only eleven or twelve, and he knew what kind of thoughts were in her heart and mind. Something very simr had happened to him once. [2]

    He smiled warmly and nodded. ¡°The world is a tavern for living beings. And the timescape is an old guest. As long as we don¡¯t die, we¡¯ll meet again. I hope that when we do, you¡¯ll have made something of yourself.¡±

    Shi Panyanmitted the words to memory. Taking a deep breath, she bowed to Xu Qing, then left. As she walked through the night feeling very down, she clutched the medicinal codex against her chest, as if it was the embodiment of hope to her.

    ¡°As long as we don¡¯t die,¡± she murmured, ¡°we¡¯ll meet again!¡±

    Xu Qing watched her go, thinking about Grandmaster Bai, as well as himself back at that time.

    <i>Teacher, I epted an apprentice. Her name is Shi Panyan. She¡¯s very studious.</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes.

    There was no farewell banquet. After the Heavenfire Skycrossing ended, the time came to leave the city. To Xu Qing, the people in that city were like fireflies in a world of darkness and gloom.

    Before leaving, Ling¡¯er embraced all of her friends, young and old. She cried a lot.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior said farewell to the people who hade to listen to his stories. He was clearly loath to part with them.

    Duanmu Zang stood next to Xu Qing, looking on and sighing inwardly.

    Xu Qing also studied the crowd. He saw Shi Pangui off in the distance with his wife and sister. He sped hands and bowed in farewell. Shi Panyan kept her head bowed as she stood there trembling slightly. She didn¡¯t want her Teacher to see her crying.

    After taking it all in, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°Senior, do you mind seeing me out?¡±

    He turned and started walking away. He left the city. He left the tomb.

    Ling¡¯er went back to her snake form and nestled in Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior went back into the Spike of Misfortune, feeling very mncholy.

    Once outside the abandoned mine, Xu Qing gave Duanmu Zang some more jugs of alcohol. He also gave him some spirit stones, medicinal pills, and magical devices. In fact, he gave most of his collection.

    The two of them looked at each other and nodded. Both wished each other well.

    After that, one of them walked back into the mine, and the other flew up into the sky.

    There were no mes above. It was dark again. However, there was a bit of the glow of fireing from the direction of the Heavenfire Sea. Thends were all scorched and ckened. The mountain peaks looked crumpled, and there wasn¡¯t any sign of nts or vegetation. The world looked withered and dry. There was still some lingering heat.

    As Xu Qing flew along, he tried to stop thinking about departures. He was used to such things. It had always been like this, from the time he was young. That said, even things that you think you¡¯re used to can still be difficult. The only difference as you get older is that it¡¯s easier to hide it inside.

    A few dayster, Xu Qing caught sight of the Heavenfire Sea. It looked the same as before. Theva still bubbled, and rumbling sounds still echoed out. As he flew out over the sea, he didn¡¯t see anyone else.

    Because the Heavenfire Skycrossing had just ended, local cultivators would be most concerned with the rebuilding efforts. Few of them would do as Xu Qing was doing and immediately go to the Heavenfire Sea. He felt like he was the only person in the world.

    That said, he was no less cautious than before. He wanted to find a distant and remote location to start melting the next lifemp.

    Seven more days passed.

    He was now in the very depths of the Heavenfire Sea. That evening, he noticed a red glow.

    The source was an iparably massive heart. As the heart beat, it sent out shocking thumping sounds into heaven and earth. Atop the massive heart was a red church temple. The construction was crude, and everything was as red as blood. It also pulsed with the god power of Crimson Mother. The most eye-catching thing about it was the statue that rose up above it. It was a kneeling statue, with its hands covering its eyes. Blood oozed out of the statue¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    Rotating around the heart were several dozen asteroids of varying sizes. They were pitch ck, but they oozed with blood, making them look magenta. Atop each asteroid sat a cross-legged cultivator. They were all from different species, and none of them were moving. All had their eyes covered with their hands, and blood dripped from them down onto the asteroids. Not one of them spoke. The only sound to be heard was the beating of the heart. These people were obviously from the Red Moon Cathedral.

    The moment Xu Qing spotted it, he dropped down into theva. Once there, he continued to observe through narrowed eyes.

    The huge heart was floating through the canopy of heaven, the asteroids orbiting around it. It seemed to bepletely oblivious to everything around it as it flew toward some unknown destination.

    In the Moonrite Region, they were gods. Any species who encountered them would either bow in obeisance or flee. No one would dare block their path. Eventually, after they were far in the distance, Xu Qing emerged from theva. After ensuring they were really gone, he continued on his way.

    Three dayster, he found a suitable location. There, he took out the eyeball Duanmu Zang had given him. The eyeball was still staring at him. Thinking back to what Duanmu Zang had said about subjugating the eyeball, he summoned his shadow. The shadow manifested around him in a canopy of darkness. Its eyes glittered like countless stars, and all of them focused on the eyeball. The eyeball shivered.

    Expression cold, Xu Qing tossed the eyeball into the ck canopy.

    ¡°Have a chat with it.¡±

    The eyes in the dark canopy blinked, and malicious fluctuations of divine will spread out. The canopy wrapped around the eyeball.

    Sometimeter, the canopy spat the eyeball back out. The eyeball looked listless and terrified. It was trembling.

    Xu Qing examined it, then called out Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and told him to use the eyeball to polish the Spike of Misfortune. The patriarchplied with a vicious grin, and the eyeball trembled even more.

    Finally, Xu Qing gripped the eyeball in his hand and dropped into theva. The brown eyeball obediently sent out a defensive shield.

    Although it looked timid and weak when dealing with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow, once in theva, it really did a fantastic job of helping Xu Qing deal with the heat. This eyeball was a perfect example of the principles of mutual augmentation and suppression that exist in all living things. With the help of the eyeball¡¯s power, Xu Qing sank down further.

    The shadow seemed concerned the eyeball might try something, so it stayed out in the open.

    In that manner, Xu Qing sank down about 300 meters before settling cross-legged. Then he sucked in some of the mes from outside. It was only a bit, yet it instantly filled him with a sense of deadly crisis. The violet crystal immediately gobbled it up.

    A light that was far more intense than before filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, shining right onto the immortal-shredding god-devouringmp.

    Themp started melting. The process went much more quickly than before. Xu Qing watched excitedly. Meanwhile, the shadow was going all out to supervise the eyeball, and was continuously emanating a sensation of profound hunger.

    The terrified eyeball did everything possible to reduce the heat from theva.

    Seven dayster, Xu Qing hadpletely melted the immortal-shredding god-devouringmp. His sea of consciousness vibrated as a 3,000-meter vortex appeared beneath the surface of theva. Then, a fourth sundial lifemp appeared!

    The gnomon shadow moved to a different time as its effects spread to the outside world. Being 300 meters below the surface of theva, the effects, though dramatic, weren¡¯t as noticeable. Coupled with his remote location, they didn¡¯t attract any attention.

    Seven more days passed, and Xu Qing opened his eyes. Another 3,000-meter vortex appeared as a fifth sundial appeared in his sea of consciousness. Terrifying fluctuations rose up from him the moment that fifth sundial formed. The gnomon shadows spun, all of them fourteen hours apart from each other at different times!

    Xu Qing studied them thoughtfully. Several hourster, the first sundial¡¯s gnomon shadow stopped at noon. The ball of light also stopped moving. A sensation of enlightenment filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    <i>Next, the other four sundials will stop at noon. When they¡¯re all at the same time, some special ability will manifest....</i>

    Xu Qing had no idea what it would be. But based on what he could sense, it was going to be the first time the true power of the sundials were revealed.

    1. Shi Panyan: As you can tell, her name is very simr to her brother¡¯s name, which is Shi Pangui. Shi is listed #61 on the list of 100mon surnames. It means ¡°stone.¡± Pan means ¡°hope for, long for, expect.¡± Yan means ¡°goose.¡± Madam Deathde says that, culturally speaking, the reference to the goose makes her think of family and family reunions. The goose migrates to a distant location, then eventually returns. Simr to the father¡¯s name, this is a somewhat sad and mncholic name, although maybe it¡¯s slightly more hopeful than his. ?

    2. Chapter reference: <u>29</u>. ?

 Chapter 559: A Bronze Coffin Under the Heavenfire Sea! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 559: A Bronze Coffin Under the Heavenfire Sea! (part 1)</h4>

    <i>The other four sundials wille to a stop soon.</i>

    Because each sundial was fourteen hours behind the dial in front of it, they stopped moving in a specific order. Anticipation filled Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    As he waited, he rose through theva until he was only three meters below the surface. There, his eyes glittered. Theva was turning out to be very beneficial. Not only did it allow the violet crystal to melt the lifemps, it also... upgraded his Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits. At least, that was what it seemed like to Xu Qing. He had yet to confirm it. But considering his Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits could assimte the remains of a fallen sun, then fundamentally speaking, this sea of mes should be beneficial to it.

    <i>After Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits became a nascent soul, it reached the third stage of development.</i>

    After some thought, he sent the golden crow nascent soul flying out of his forehead, surrounded by dazzling light. It started out as an ordinary nascent soul, but it took only a moment for it to transform into a golden crow. As it circled around Xu Qing, its cries echoed out in his mind. Then the golden crow inhaled deeply, causing the power of fire to sweep into its mouth. A tremor passed through it and its eyes narrowed. At the same time, the fire surrounding it grew more intense.

    After fully digesting the fire, the golden crow shivered and let loose an even more piercing cry. Then it circled around Xu Qing again before diving directly into theva.

    Stunned, Xu Qing looked to see what would happen after that. A momentter he breathed a sigh of relief. The golden crow was a spirit, and its spirit qualities grew stronger after turning into a nascent soul. And considering its connection to Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart, he could sense everything about it.

    The golden crow remained at the three-meter mark, devouring the fire. As it did, its aura grew more intense, and it grew even more tails. Two hourster, Xu Qing¡¯s second sundial stopped. By then, the golden crow¡¯s number of tails had gone from 100 to 130. Excited, Xu Qing had the golden crow continue its devouring.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely.

    Soon, three of the sundial lifemps had stopped at the noon position. It took a few more hours for the others to stop. When that happened, theva around Xu Qing pulsated.

    For a moment, he looked dazed.

    But then that dazed look vanished from his eyes, to be reced with astonishment. He could now sense that the five sundials contained an ability that he could activate with a mere thought. As for what that ability was, he couldn¡¯t tell by merely sensing it.

    <i>I guess I¡¯ll test it out!</i> Eyes narrowing, he settled down and sent a thought out. Inside his sea of consciousness, the five sundials thrummed as they appeared around him as projections.

    The five sundials slowly rotated around him, looking almost like the petals of a huge violet flower. Dazzling light shone out as five balls of light like suns appeared above his head, arrayed in a pentagonal shape. The sundialsplemented him. The balls of light were like stars. And they made Xu Qing absolutely resplendent.

    What was more, the five sundials emanated the power of time, which poured into Xu Qing, filling him with a mysterious sensation. It almost made it seem like he himself hade from within time.

    The entire processsted for only a moment before the feeling vanished. The sundials went dark, and flew back inside of him along with the suns. The first sundial immediately began moving again, tracking time, but the others remained still. Stunned, Xu Qing looked around, then cast his senses inside of himself. He didn¡¯t detect anything unusual.

    <i>What¡¯s going on?</i>

    Frowning, he thought back to everything that just happened, and couldn¡¯t determine what the ability was that came with the sundials¡¯ eruption of power.

    Confused and curious, he kept waiting.

    Fourteen hourster, the second sundial lifemp started tracking time again. The others did the same, all of them in fourteen hour intervals. After the fifth sundial started moving, the first one eventually stopped at the noon position.

    Xu Qing did some calctions. <i>It¡¯s been seventy hours. That¡¯s about three days</i>.

    Twenty-four hours passed. During that time, as the sundial lifemps remained in a stopped position, that explosive aura once again built up.

    <i>Four days. That¡¯s aplete cycle. Could it be that the effect wasn¡¯t very obvious because I¡¯m in thisva?</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the golden crow off in the distance, which now had over 200 tails. Looking away, he flew up out of theva.

    Once he was hovering midair, he unhesitatingly activated all five of the sundials. Five sundials and five suns rotated around him, and the sundial¡¯s power erupted.

    Xu Qing immediately felt heat everywhere.

    He was surrounded byva! He had... returned to the exact spot he had upied before in theva! The realization struck him and his eyes filled with disbelief. Looking around, he confirmed that he had returned to the same spot.

    <i>I was definitely midair a moment ago!</i>

    As waves of incredulity assailed him, he realized there was one obvious possibility.

    <i>Could this be some sort of time reversal?</i>

    The spection caused his heart to pound. After doing some basic calctions based on the height to which he¡¯d flown, and the time it took, he realized that seven breaths of time had passed during the whole process.

    <i>I went back seven breaths of time? The first time I tried it, I was just sitting there cross-legged, so it wasn¡¯t obvious what happened!</i> [1]

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing decided that he needed to do some more tests toe to a firm conclusion.

    As the golden crow continued its devouring, Xu Qing remained in theva for eight days. During that time, he used the power of the sundials twice. He varied his testing methodology.

    The first time, he burst into motion and went as far as possible before unleashing the sundials¡¯ power. What he found was that he went back seven breaths of time.

    The second time, he broke some magical devices and threw them off to the side, then injured himself intentionally. Then he used the sundials¡¯ ability. What he found was that the sundials didn¡¯t affect other objects. Only himself. The things he¡¯d broken remained broken and in the same ce. But his body returned to the state before it had been injured, and he looked exactly like he did seven breaths of time earlier.

    Those tests gave him a much deeper understanding of the sundials¡¯ ability.

    <i>It returns my body to the state it was in seven breaths of time previous! Using this ability at the right time would be like having a spare life. I could also use it as a deadly weapon!</i>

    After some thought, he quelled his shock. At the same time, he realized that all of this seemed to be because of the violet crystal.

    <i>Just what is the violet crystal...? It can seal the shadow, seal gods, gives me shocking regenerative capabilities, and contains some sort of time magic....</i>

    After a while, he stowed the questions to considerter, and turned his attention to the golden crow.

    The golden crow now had 280 tails, which was its limit at this level. It would need to absorbva from a deeper level to progress any further. Paradoxically, the golden crow couldn¡¯t go any further down than three meters. That said, the increase from 100 tails to 280 was a huge boost to the golden crow. It now pulsed with a sensation that seemed to indicate it was on the verge of provoking a second heavenfate tribtion.

    Xu Qing¡¯s session of cultivation in theva had reached its conclusion. There was no reason to stick around any longer.

    <i>I¡¯ll return this eyeball, then leave the east and go meet Eldest Brother at Mount Heavenly Ox.</i>

    He had already been in the eastern part of the Moonrite Region for almost half a year, and was wondering how the Captain was doing. He actually missed him. Before leaving the Heavenfire Sea, he turned and looked into its depths.

    <i>I¡¯m really curious to see the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s warding spells that Senior Duanmu mentioned....</i>

    For one thing, he was curious why the Red Moon Cathedral felt they needed to set up warding spells there. Now that he had the power of the sundials, he felt that as long as he was careful, he shouldn¡¯t run into any trouble.

    With that, he tightened his grip on the eyeball. The eyeball trembled and released more of its protective power.

    Satisfied, Xu Qing retracted the golden crow, then held the eyeball tightly as he dropped down deeper into theva. Soon he reached a depth of 300 meters. He kept going until he reached 600 meters. 900 meters....

    The further down he got, the hotter it became. Thankfully, the eyeball¡¯s protective power kept the heat mostly at bay.

    Xu Qing eventually passed a depth of 2,700 meters. There wasn¡¯t just intense heat down here, there was also immense pressure. More veins than ever could be seen on the brown eyeball.

    The deeper Xu Qing got, the more he realized he was sensing a familiar aura. It was the god power of Crimson Mother. That realization caused him to put up his guard even further. As he carefully descended, he felt a sensation of crisis building within him. Without any hesitation, he unleashed the power of his violet moon nascent soul. Violet moon power spread all around him.

    As a result, that sensation of crisis faded away. It was also by means of the violet moon¡¯s power that he was able to determine the source of the red moon power that he sensed.

    After a moment of hesitation, he continued downward.

    1. Up to this point, units of time have not been super important, but here they do matter. Themon unit of time that I trante as ¡°hour¡± is actually a specific unit of timemon in ancient China. In that system of time measurement, the day is broken up into 12 two-hour periods called ¡°shichen¡± when transliterated. To make things simple, I convert those units into hours. In other words, when I say the clocks are ¡°fourteen hours apart,¡± in Chinese they are actually ¡°seven shichen apart.¡± So the ¡°seven shichen¡± seems to corrte to the ¡°seven breaths of time.¡± ?

 Chapter 559: A Bronze Coffin Under the Heavenfire Sea! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 559: A Bronze Coffin Under the Heavenfire Sea! (part 2)</h4>

    Not too far away, in the sky above the Heavenfire Sea, the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s massive heart floated along.

    The figures on the dozens of asteroids that rotated around it remainedpletely unmoving. The only movement visible was when someone walked out of the temple atop the heart. It was a human woman wearing a long red robe. Her facial expression was icy cold, and she had impatient eyes. Walking out of the temple and to the edge of the heart, she looked down at the sea of mes below. Her brow was furrowed.

    She knew what she had to do next, but didn¡¯t really want to. It wasn¡¯t that she couldn¡¯t handle the brutality of it. Rather, it would mark her, and that would affect her future. However, as a godservant, she didn¡¯t qualify to refuse.

    <i>All I can do is try to use a dispersal magicter on to get rid of the mark.</i>

    The woman sighed. Stepping forward, she dropped toward theva below. As she fell, she waved her hand to produce a red pearl. She put the pearl into her mouth and entered theva. The pearl was obviously a unique treasure of the Red Moon Cathedral. After swallowing it, it allowed her to move about freely in theva without being harmed.

    Thus, she sank down at top speed, releasing the power of her cultivation base, which was in the Spirit Trove level. However, she didn¡¯t have a heavenly dao or magicalws. She was not a cultivator with a true secret trove, but instead, was in the dao begetting and dawnstar raising phase. That said, as a godservant who had the blessing of Crimson Mother, she was the kind of person no one in the Moonrite Region would dare to provoke, assuming she was outside of the cathedral. There was no species in the Moonrite Region who could afford to harm a godservant.

    In fact, her godservant authority gave her the right to sentence minor species to death. Having grown up in the Red Moon Cathedral as part of a n that had produced godenvoys, she was almost like royalty in the Moonrite Region. Right now, she was speeding down through theva toward a specific destination.

    ***

    Xu Qing was at around 3,000 meters down, relying on his instincts to proceed. He was much closer to that specific area than the woman in red.

    However, she was moving far, far faster than him, so she actually arrived first. Because of the limitations imposed by theva, neither of them were able to detect each other with divine sense. Furthermore, because of the different environments in which the two of them had been raised, the woman wasn¡¯t as vignt as Xu Qing. The result was that, in his overabundance of caution, and his senses being augmented by the violet moon, he actually noticed her before she noticed him.

    He instantly shrank in on himself, hoping to make himself smaller and less noticeable.

    Meanwhile, further down at a depth of 3,000 meters, there was what initially looked like a strange, enormous mountain. In reality, it wasn¡¯t a mountain at all. Instead, it was a gigantic coffin. It seemed as big as a city to Xu Qing. Made entirely of bronze, it was covered with corrosion, making it a mixture of ck, green, and blue. As a result, the coffin abounded with a sensation of ancientness. It was as if it had beenying there for countless years of time.

    The exact size of the coffin was difficult to determine, but Xu Qing could see that it had four chains attached to its four corners, which stretched down into the depths below. The coffin¡¯s lid wasn¡¯t sealed. It was slightly open. That said, the coffin was so enormous that even the slight crack was actually massive, like a huge abyss.

    The woman in red neared that door, eventually floating to a stop about 300 meters above it. There, she performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing pulses of red moon god power to flow out. The power of the hand sign entered the nearby warding spells, causing a glowing red to appear. That red was the manifestation of the warding spell. Close examination revealed that the was full of magical symbols, and it pulsed with godly might.

    As Xu Qing continued to observe, he came to realize that the woman was apparently bolstering the warding spell. That said, the paltry level of god power involved was miniscule at best.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as the woman in red pulled out a head-sized crimson crystal. The crystal caused the surroundingva to roil, and it emitted an aura that left Xu Qing feeling shaken. Others might not recognize that aura, but given the sense he had thanks to the violet moon, he could tell that the crystal was actually a drop of blood that had been diluted countless times.

    <i>Is that Crimson Mother¡¯s blood?</i>

    His heart was already racing. Even if the blood was diluted, the aura of the red moon it had was very strong. And to Xu Qing, it could be considered incredibly nourishing.

    As Xu Qing secretly looked on, the woman in red gazed at the crystal with longing. However, she kept her feelings in check. She knew that this object was not meant for her benefit.

    <i>When the High Godes and finishes harvesting the region, all members of my n will get a drop of god blood like this. And then I¡¯ll have a chance to do some absorbing.</i>

    With that, she threw the crystal down into the crack in the coffin. As it drifted down, it crumbled, causing terrifying fluctuations to sweep into the huge red created by the warding spells. This was a true reinforcement of that huge. The glowed with blinding light, and its godly might surged. Meanwhile, the aura from the coffin grew more incisive. The ground quaked, and a bitter howl of rage echoed out.

    ¡°Crimson Mother!!¡±

    As the voice rang out, the coffin trembled violently. Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun, and he kept his guard up more than ever. At the same time, the woman in red looked down into the abyss of the coffin and spoke with divine will.

    <i>¡°Shut up!¡±</i>

    Labored breathing could be heard in the coffin. Clearly, whatever entity was in that coffin feltpletely humiliated at being insulted by a low-level cultivator like this woman, yet was powerless to do anything in response.

    The woman¡¯s eyes gleamed with derision. To her, it was an absolute delight to be able to humiliate an ancient, terrifying entity such as this. With the wave of a hand, she produced numerous chunks of meat from her bag of holding. There were over a hundred of them, each about thirty meters in size. Extending her finger, she sent one of the chunks of meat flying into the abyss.

    ¡°Eat. It¡¯s food from the High God to you. It¡¯s made from the people of Moonrite Region. Your brothers and sisters all think it¡¯s delicious. And to aid in your digestion, we made sure to remove all the bones. Now, enjoy!¡±

    As the meat fell into the abyss, a bitter howl emerged. It was as if the entity in the abyss wanted to reject that meat, yet for some unknown reason was being forced to swallow it.

    As it bitterly whimpered on the verge of weeping, chewing sounds emerged, creating a mixed sound that couldn¡¯t have been more miserable. At the same time, bitter resentment floated out of the coffin, turning into a mark that settled onto the woman in red, branding itself into her. The woman seemed to enjoy the sounds she was hearing. Ignoring the mark that had settled on her, she started throwing down the rest of the meat.

    Xu Qing noted the way the woman held herself, and listened to the painful soundsing from inside the coffin. He already had an idea what kind of person this woman was.

    After a moment passed, he began slowly backing up with the intention of leaving. He had no desire to get into friction with the Red Moon Cathedral right here and now.

    Yet before he could get very far, the woman suddenlyughed.

    ¡°Considering how long you¡¯ve been watching, why leave now?¡±

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing sped up. At the same time, the woman in red raised her right hand and pointed in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Calling on her powers as a godservant, she tapped into the warding spells.

    ¡°Come here!¡± she said. The manifestation of the warding spells, which contained the power of the red moon, immediately rippled, turning into a huge crimson hand that shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing knew that, relying only on his own power, he couldn¡¯t possibly deal with this giant hand formed by the red moon warding spells. The only other option was to reveal the authority he carried. But if he did that, he would blow his cover.

    It only took a moment for him to make his decision. Eyes flickering with cold light, he said, ¡°What nerve you have!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the huge red hand stopped, turned around, and shot toward the woman in red.

    The woman in red was visibly shocked. She quickly performed an incantation gesture, yet couldn¡¯t avoid the hand, and was sent tumbling backward, blood spraying out of her mouth. It was only by pulling out a blood-redmand medallion that she managed to dispel the attack power.

    Expression flickering dramatically, she gasped, ¡°Godherald?¡±

    She immediately locked her fingers into a very peculiar configuration, bowed respectfully at the waist, then looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned. This was obviously a ceremonial way of offering greetings to a superior. But he wasn¡¯t sure of the proper way to return the greetings. All he could do was calmly nod. When that happened, the woman¡¯s pupils constricted. Again, she locked her fingers together, bowed, and looked at him. After that, her expression flickered.

    ¡°You¡¯re no godherald! Who are you? And how can youmand the power of a High God?¡±

    The woman was suspicious but not exactly sure of what was happening. And her heart was racing. It was the first time anything like this had happened to her before. Truth be told, it wasn¡¯t just her. No one in the entire Red Moon Cathedral had ever experienced anything like this. She almost couldn¡¯t believe it was happening.

    Xu Qing showed no reaction via facial expression. However, inside, he hade to the conclusion that the woman realized the truth about him, not because of him flubbing the etiquette, but rather, some other reason. Given the level of her cultivation base, she obviously wasn¡¯t an idiot; she must have picked up on other clues. He had been nning to just leave, but since she attacked him, it didn¡¯t matter how much he feared her cultivation base. He would just have to figure out a way to kill her.

    Killing intent swirling, he coolly said, ¡°You¡¯re overstepping your authority.¡±

    He waved his finger, and the surrounding red moon warding spells rumbled with unprecedented loudness. Ripples spread out in all directions. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing took control of them and sent crushing power right toward the woman.

    The woman¡¯s countenance fell, and shock ran rampant through her.

    <i>He¡¯s not from the cathedral! I¡¯m certain of that. So how does he have god power? He alsomands authority. And with such strength! What¡¯s going on here??</i>

    Trembling, the womanunched an attack. Her secret trove appeared behind her, and though she had no heavenly dao, her battle prowess was still beyondpare. Combined with the blood-redmand medallion she had, it was virtually unstoppable.

    <i>This level of control, and the fact the warding spells are cooperating... it means his level of authority surpasses that of a godherald!</i>

    The woman couldn¡¯t have been more shocked. For years she had attended her n¡¯s patriarch, and she had witnessed godheralds utilizing the warding spells. What she was seeing now definitely surpassed that.

    ¡°Impossible!¡± As her mind spun, a new thought suddenly urred to her. <i>This is big! If I report this to the cathedral, I¡¯ll definitely get rewarded!</i>

    With such thoughts in mind, the woman held nothing back. Her spirit trove ignited, and she unleashed all the power of themand medallion... not to attack Xu Qing, but rather, to flee! 3,000 meters up above was the cathedral¡¯s church temple atop the heart. If she could just fly out of theva and send a message, then she could notify the cathedral¡¯s leadership.

    Of course, how could Xu Qing let her do something like that? He waved his hand, causing more fluctuations to sweep out from the warding spells. Instantly, eight blood-colored hands appeared, which smacked viciously toward the woman.

    Xu Qing knew that if she left the vicinity of the red moon warding spells, then he wouldn¡¯t be a match for her. It didn¡¯t matter that she was only in the dao begetting and dawnstar raising phase, she was still a Spirit Trove expert. And if she escaped, he would be in incredible danger.

    <i>She¡¯s got to die!</i>

 Chapter 560: Senior, I Donâ€™t Taste Good. Really! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 560: Senior, I Don¡¯t Taste Good. Really! (part 1)</h4>

    The Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple hovered above the Heavenfire Sea, emanating a boundless red glow like that of fresh blood. The thumping of the heart echoed out far and wide. Any cultivator whoid eyes on it would feel mentally shaken, and wouldn¡¯t even dare gaze upon it. They would just drop to their knees and kowtow from a distance until it passed.

    The Red Moon Cathedral didn''t care one way or another. To the cathedral, they were livestock. Free-range animals. In fact, the more active they were, the better, as it meant their energy and blood would be full of life.

    The cathedral cultivators on the asteroids still had their eyes closed. Meanwhile, inside the cathedral itself were seven figures in red robes, all seated cross-legged. Each one was a different species, with one of them in the seat of honor, and the other six seated in the lower-ranking positions.

    In the seat of honor was a Wingflyer whose feathered face didn''t reveal any distinct facial expression. The fluctuations of Void Returning could just barely be detected in him. As for the other six people present, they were all simr to the woman in red, as they had Spirit Trove cultivation bases. All of them were waiting for theirpatriot to return.

    The job of doling out food and augmenting the warding spells would result in a marking, which was tricky to deal with. That was why, normally speaking, less important people were sent to handle it. Theva made it impossible to check the situation with divine sense. And though the process seemed to be taking a bit longer than usual, considering their status and mental capacities, none of them were very worried that anything would happen. That was why they just sat there meditating and waiting. Little did they know that, 3,000 meters beneath the surface of theva, theirpatriot, the woman in red, was visibly astonished.

    Xu Qing, driven by the killing intent in his heart, used all of the power of his violet moon nascent soul, allowing him to take control of the Red Moon Cathedral''s warding spells and transforming their power into eight massive red hands that shot toward the woman in red.

    In that critical moment, the woman shivered down to her core. She could tell that her level of authority didn¡¯t surpass this enemy. If she didn¡¯t have themand medallion from her patriarch, she wouldn¡¯t even qualify to defend herself. Her only advantage at the moment was her cultivation base. Though she was only in dao begetting and dawnstar raising, she was just on the verge of forming her heavenly dao. With battle prowess that strong, she was strong enough to crush any Nascent Soul cultivator she encountered.

    <i>Dammit! If we were in any other location, I could kill him as easily as turning over my hand!</i>

    Eyes bloodshot, she quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture and shoved her hands out in either direction. Instantly, an illusory secret trove formed behind her, which belched out fire and lightning toward her enemy.

    Then the eight blood-red hands mmed into their target. A muffled boom spread out beneath theva. Blood sprayed out of the woman¡¯s mouth as the force delivered by the blood-red hands was dispersed by hermand medallion and her various defensive powers.

    Blood dribbling down her chin, she said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where you¡¯re from, or how you have that godly authority. In the end, your cultivation base is too weak!¡±

    Eyes shing, she ceased her retreat and prepared to lunge out and catch this enemy alive. It seemed a given that taking this person a prisoner would cause a big stir in the Red Moon Cathedral. It would count as a meritorious service that would earn her some big rewards.

    With that thought on her mind, her eyes shed with determination, and she waved her hand, causing her secret trove projection to howl as if it were a gigantic beast. Terrifying strength swept right toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing frowned and sighed inwardly. The red moon warding spells here were iparably strong. It was only because of the godly authority Xu Qing could wield that he was able to do anything with them. And if someone came along with a slightly more authoritativemand medallion, then he wouldn¡¯t be able to do even that. And even then, he could only unleash so much of its potential.

    As his opponent¡¯s secret trove closed in, bringing along astonishing pressure, he felt fine in terms of his physical body. But his soul was trembling and letting off an intense sensation of deadly crisis. Eyes gleaming with unwavering determination, he swept both hands out in front of him, causing his entire person to glow with violet light. His violet moon nascent soul manifested above his head, turning into a visible violet moon.

    As soon as that moon was out in the open, the surroundingva also turned violet. The power of more warding spells swept toward him, creating a defensive barrier that blocked the path of the woman¡¯s secret trove.

    A boom rang out and shock waves swept in every direction. The woman staggered backward. Veins bulged all over her, like wriggling earthworms beneath her skin. She was now even more shocked than she had been before.

    ¡°Just who exactly are you?!¡± she blurted hoarsely. That violet moon gave her the same sensation as the cathedral itself, and she felt the strong instinct to drop to her knees and kowtow. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that her cultivation base provided an anchor that stabilized her willpower, she would have already been kowtowing. The feeling caused her scalp to tingle as if her mind were being struck by 100,000 lightning bolts.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in much better of a situation. He¡¯d managed to use the red moon warding spells to block the attack, but his cultivation base was so much lower than hers that he was having a hard time staying conscious. The difficulty was particrly pronounced with his soul. It felt like it was about to be ripped to shreds, and as his mind trembled, he felt his vision turning dark. It was like a de had been stabbed into his brain and was being swished back and forth.

    That said, Xu Qing knew how critical of a moment this was, and that he couldn¡¯t afford to bex in any way. Fighting back against the crippling pain, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture.

    The violet moon nascent soul also performed an incantation gesture. Then, violet moon power swept out, bing arge violet that activated the blood-red and sent it rumbling toward the woman.

    Enraged, she gritted her teeth and caused her blood vessels to ignite. She held hermand medallion high. It was also in mes.

    ¡°God Summoning!¡± she howled shrilly.

    Blood oozed out of her eyes, and her expression was vicious. Cracks spread out over her, causing more blood to run down her. Except for the fact that she wasn¡¯t covering her eyes with her hands, she looked exactly like a statue of Crimson Mother. Then, all of a sudden, her eyes exploded. Xu Qing had seen something like that before. The same thing happened with Zhang Siyun. [1]

    Even as her words continued to echo about, a surging power rose within the woman. Crimson Mother was asleep, and couldn¡¯t actually be summoned. But with the power of themand medallion, and by igniting herself, the woman was able to unleash an aura that caused the red moon warding spells to suddenly lurch.

    Xu Qing immediately lost some of his control.

    The woman took advantage of that moment to burst into motion, shooting toward the surface of theva. She had finally chosen to flee; Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon was simply too fear-inspiring.

    All she had to do was get to the surface, and herpatriots would notice what was happening. They would definitely make a move. Though that meant the meritorious service would have to be split up between all of them, the woman had no other options now. She was too worried that if she kept the fight going, that gruish violet moon might drive her crazy.

    When Xu Qing saw that she was about to escape, a crazy look appeared in his eyes. There was no way he could let her get away. He burst into motion after her. As he did, the golden threads within him proliferated until he was nine meters tall. In that form, he raced toward the woman.

    Meanwhile, her eyes shed with freakish light as she waved both of her hands, causing ck mes to erupt from her secret trove and form into a vicious ghost face. The ghost face lunged toward Xu Qing, jaws snapping. A tremor passed through him as his body copsed from its height of nine meters down to that of an ordinary person. All of his nascent souls were trembling, and his ordinary soul looked like it might copse at any moment. Thankfully, he had the blessing and protection of his lifemps, and thus managed to hold on. Xu Qing could tell that one more blow like that would be too much for his soul to take.

    That said, there was a good reason why he had chosen to meet the blow head on. It stopped the woman¡¯s momentum. Before, she had been fleeing at top speed, but now she had slowed down for a moment. Meanwhile, her God Summoning technique was being affected by the warding spells, and was weakening. Simultaneously, Xu Qing¡¯s level of control was increasing again.

    Once again, the warding spells formed a huge blood-colored hand that moved rapidly toward the woman. It moved at top speed, but before it could reach her, she elerated rapidly. It seemed likely she wouldpletely avoid the iing hand.

    However, at exactly the right moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked right at her. Right then, he removed the gnomons from all five of his sundial lifemps!

    Time Lag!

    Without any warning whatsoever, the woman sensed time around her forcibly being paused. She stopped moving, and couldn¡¯t react or even sense anything. That cessation of movement was going to be deadly! The woman recovered only a momentter, but not before the gigantic warding spell hand mmed into her and gripped her tight.

    More hands appeared, wrapping around her and dragging her back. To stop time for a Spirit Trove expert was something that Xu Qing had to pay a heavy price for. His sundial lifemps instantly started corroding, and deep cracks spread out over their surfaces.

    However, they didn''t copse. And Xu Qing could already feel them repairing themselves. Of course, he didn¡¯t have time to study the details. He still felt ripping pain in his soul, so he quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture to tap into the surrounding warding spells. They erupted with power, dragging the woman in red down toward the abyssal opening of the coffin below!

    Ever since Xu Qing showed his face, any sounds from within the coffin had ceased. But now, the sounds of swallowing could be heard from within. It was a sound full of longing and madness.

    As the numerous handstched onto the woman and started dragging her down, her face fell, and her heart pounded with a sensation of deadly crisis. She was shaking from head to toe, and her eyes gleamed with madness. She knew what her fate would be if she got thrown into that coffin. So she fought back wildly. Unfortunately for her, that just slowed things down slightly; she kept getting closer and closer to the coffin.

    Despair lit up in her eyes, and she screamed shrilly for help. mes sprang up on her as she burned her cultivation base and life force with abandon. Because of all that, her voice became a sound wave that could pierce through rock. Theva in the area copsed.

    The sound wave caused blood to spray from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Seeing that the woman had a chance at breaking free, he did a quick time calction, then lunged forward. Two breaths of timeter, he was closing in on the woman. Throwing both of his hands out in front of him, he became the weapon that mmed into the woman. He used his own momentum to shove her toward the abyss.

    Getting that close caused his soul to start crumbling into pieces. But by sheer force of will power, he held on for a total of six breaths of time. That was how much time it took to use the warding spell hand to shove her into the abyss!

    1. Zhang Siyun¡¯s eye exploded in <u>chapter 524.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 560: Senior, I Donâ€™t Taste Good. Really! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 560: Senior, I Don¡¯t Taste Good. Really! (part 2)</h4>

    The moment she was inside the abyss, Xu Qing saw a pair of huge blue eyes and a massive, gaping mouth. Next, he used what scant power was left in the sundials to once again reverse time!

    Xu Qing faded as if he didn¡¯t exist inside the abyss. It was as if time had been shattered into countless pieces, then went back for seven breaths of time before piecing back together. He appeared suddenly outside of the abyss. His soul was not copsing, although he still felt immense pain. All of his injuries were back to the state they had been in seven breaths of time previous.

    The woman would never leave the abyss. Delighted and forceful chewing sounds drifted out.

    That said, the crisis wasn¡¯t over, and the reason for that wasn¡¯t anything in the abyss, but rather, above the surface of theva.

    Xu Qing had no idea if the fight, or her death, might have attracted notice. And he didn''t want to bet on the details. Despite the injuries to his soul, he gritted his teeth and flew toward the location of the warding spells. There, he used the violet moon within him to hide inside one of the protruding magical symbols on the red moon warding spells.

    His injuries were so bad he was about to lose control of them. As his vision grew dark, he bit down hard on his tongue in the hopes that it would keep him awake. Keeping the power of the violet moon circting, he took out the concealment mask his Master had given him. He put it on his face. He wouldn¡¯t ever use that mask unless it was absolutely necessary. After all, you could only use it so many times before needing to discard it. Right now... he needed to use it.

    Meanwhile, the coffin shivered, and a gentle force emerged from it that covered Xu Qing and provided him with a blessing.

    Then, Xu Qing¡¯s heart raced as he sensed astonishing fluctuationsing from above. Bowing his head, he went absolutely still.

    Rumbling sounds filled theva as a red-robed figure appeared with red wings. It was the Wingflyer. His expression was grim as he hurried down and stopped above the coffin. His Void Returning fluctuations made him seem even more full of madness. As the Wingflyer godherald looked around, the content sounds of chewing continued to echo out from the coffin.

    ¡°Crimson Mother¡¯s servants really do taste wonderful.¡±

    The Wingflyer godherald looked into the abyss, his eyes glowing red, making it seem like he could see everything within. A momentter, he frowned. He could sense the aura of that godservant, and could tell that she had been devoured. Although he wasn¡¯t sure of exactly how it had happened, after thinking about who was actually inside of that coffin, he felt it made sense.

    <i>I have to report this to my superiors. Perhaps we should perform sealings here a bit more often.</i>

    After ncing at the surrounding warding spells, he waved his right hand to produce some blood crystals. He crushed them and added them to the warding spells. The warding spell fluctuations instantly grew stronger. Having done that, he looked coldly at the crack in the coffin leading to the abyss. Then he turned and left.

    Although the death of a godservant might be a big deal on the outside, to him, it actually didn¡¯t matter, as long as he knew why it happened.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t immediatelye out of his hiding spot. He waited for about half a day to make sure the godherald was really gone. Only then did he rx a bit. However, the injuries to his soul made him feel weak and listless. He checked on his sundials, and was d to see that, though they had been damaged, the gnomons were still functioning like normal.

    Breathing a sigh of relief, he struggled to fly out of his hiding spot. Then he turned in the direction of the city-sized coffin. He sped hands.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior.¡±

    Blue eyes appeared in the abyss, staring at Xu Qing. They gave Xu Qing a simr sensation as the eyes of a god. However, they weren¡¯t quite that strong.

    ¡°You have the power of Crimson Mother on you!¡± a rumbling voice said.

    Xu Qing bowed his head and respectfully said, ¡°My father stole it and gave it to me. It doesn¡¯t belong to the red moon anymore. It¡¯s mine.¡±

    The eyes in the coffin narrowed slightly. No more words were spoken.

    Xu Qing waved his hand to release the power of his taboo poison. ¡°It''s the same with this.¡± Next, the aura of the Ghost Emperor mountain appeared. ¡°And this too. Also, my body was something my Master stole for me.¡± Then Xu Qing took out the Spike of Misfortune. ¡°It¡¯s a whole set.¡±

    After a moment passed, the rumbling voice asked, ¡°Your Master? And who is he?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. Looking very sincere, he said, ¡°Senior, my Master forbade me from telling anyone his name before finishing the mission he assigned me.¡±

    The eyes narrowed. ¡°Mission?¡±

    ¡°My mission is to get information about Crimson Mother for my Master. Senior, you might not be aware of it, but my Master actually arranged for Crimson Mother to be asleep right now. I''vee here to travel to the Penitence Steppes and calcte when the red moon wille. By the way, Senior, who exactly are you?¡±

    The coffin was silent for a long moment. Then, the ancient voice said, ¡°I don¡¯t believe any of what you just said, boy. But I guess it won¡¯t hurt to tell you a few things. I can tell that the power of Crimson Mother you have was stolen. And unlike those godheralds, you¡¯re actually human. As for who I am... well, let¡¯s just say this region used to belong to my father.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, and his heart started pounding.

    ¡°The steppes you n to travel to is where my father is buried.¡± The voice from the coffin sounded deeply bitter. ¡°A long, long time has passed since those days. I don¡¯t even know how many years have passed.

    ¡°Forgetting all the people from the Red Moon Cathedral, you¡¯re only the second person to stand before me after all those years. Before you, there was someone else who came some years ago and promised to free me. But he never came back. Do you mind telling me how humans are doing out there nowadays?¡±

    Xu Qing pondered the situation. He wasn¡¯t sure how much he could trust what he had just been told. However, given the injuries to his soul, he knew he was extremely weak at the moment. And there was another reason why he didn¡¯t dare to be impulsive. Therefore, he sat down cross-legged to focus on recovery. At the same time, he spread his taboo poison out around himself.

    Then he quietly started telling some of what he knew about the history of the world. asionally his injuries would re up, and he would have to stop talking to deal with them. But he would always keep going. Throughout the process, he felt very nervous, and tried to staypletely vignt.

    In that manner, time passed. About a dayter, he finished speaking.

    The blue eyes in the coffin glittered with reminiscence. ¡°Humans are really in dire straits....¡±

    Xu Qing stood there in silence.

    A sigh echoed out from the coffin, and then the blue eyes focused on Xu Qing. ¡°You¡¯re hurt pretty badly, boy.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. The violet crystal could quickly heal his body, but injuries to his soul took a lot longer to get better. That was more the case considering he had no idea who was really inside this coffin, and he didn¡¯t dare to let down his guard.

    ¡°Considering you provided me with some delicious food,¡± the ancient voice in the coffin said, ¡°and that you told me about the history of humankind, I''m going to give you some help.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Many thanks for your good will, Senior. But I was simply living up to my responsibilities.¡±

    A few dozen breaths of time passed quietly. Then a white mist swept out of the abyss in the coffin, and it was full of heavenfate fluctuations.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so jumpy,¡± the voice said. ¡°I got this from that servant of Crimson Mother. You can have it.¡±

    After sensing the mist, Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained exactly the same as before. ¡°Senior, I hope you won''t take offense at my rudeness, but I just need to mention to you, sir, that I don¡¯t taste very good.¡± With that, Xu Qing let his taboo poison spread out even more. After it hadpletely surrounded him, he looked at the eyes. ¡°Senior, maybe this misunderstanding is my fault. However, I want to make it clear that I really am an enemy of the red moon. And though my soul was injured, I can still use warding spells around here.¡± Xu Qing respectfully sped his hands, whereupon the red appeared, glittering in theva. ¡°Therefore, I¡¯d like to ask your permission to leave.¡±

    ¡°I never said you couldn¡¯t leave,¡± the voice said calmly from within the coffin. ¡°You¡¯re free to go any time you want.¡±

    ¡°Senior,¡± Xu Qing said, slowly and deliberately, ¡°I know that I''m not outside of the coffin. I''m actually inside it. And if I take one more step forward, I¡¯ll be inside your mouth. I''m fully aware that you altered my perceptions. And let me repeat, I really don¡¯t taste good.¡±

    ***

    Back near the shores of the Heavenfire Sea, the Mirrolings and Skyfaces had one city, which happened to look somewhat like a bird¡¯s nest. It was called Holy City. It was oval, and covered about 50 kilometers ofnd. Right now, a shockinglyrge heart hovered in the air above Holy City, and atop it, the Red Moon Cathedral church temple pulsed with bizarre, red light. The dozens of magenta asteroids orbiting it let off immense pressure.

    Down below, the leaders of the Twofold Alliance were all gathered. Both the patriarch and the royal preceptor were on their knees, kowtowing. It wasn¡¯t just them. All of the members of those two species in the city were on their knees.

    A momentter, a voice echoed out from the Red Moon Cathedral temple.

    ¡°You will provide your offerings in forty-nine days. This time, you must provide heavenfire crystals plus 500,000 live food items.¡±

    After the words were spoken, the heart floated off in a different direction. It would go to the middle of the Moonrite Region¡¯s eastern section, where they would wait for all the eastern species to bring offerings on the appointed day. The requirement ced on each species was different.

    As for the patriarchs and royal preceptors of the Twofold Alliance, they waited until the Red Moon Cathedral was gone, then stood and exchanged nces.

    ¡°That''s fifty percent more live food items than before....¡±

    ¡°If we don¡¯t meet the quota, the leftovers wille from our species.¡±

    After a moment of silence, the patriarch of the Skyfaces looked over with glittering eyes. ¡°For years now we''ve pretended that we didn¡¯t know about that human refugee camp. There''s probably a lot of living food there.... They''ve been growing steadily for a long time now. I''d say it''s their time to experience a harvest.¡±

 Chapter 561: The Sun Comes Out Before Moonfall; an Emperorâ€™s Son Returns to the Starry River

    <h4>Chapter 561: The Sun Comes Out Before Moonfall; an Emperor¡¯s Son Returns to the Starry River</h4>

    The bronze coffin in the depths of the Heavenfire Sea remained silent. The red moon warding spells glittered, while the red glow of theva seemed to flow in concert with the warding spells¡¯ fluctuations.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t actually seated cross-legged outside the coffin. Although his senses were telling him he was seated some distance away, he was really on the edge of the crack leading into the abyss, with his back to the outside world. Right in front of him was an enormous pair of blue eyes, staring at him, as well as a gigantic mouth. Xu Qing was so close that if he got to his feet and took a step forward, he would be inside that mouth.

    Xu Qing looked up at the blue eyes and quietly said, ¡°Senior, I really don¡¯t taste good.¡±

    He continued to send poison swirling about him, while maintaining an utterly sincere attitude.

    ¡°Interesting. When did you realize it?¡±

    The voice carried with it a noxious wind. That said, the noxious wind did not change Xu Qing¡¯s perception of his surroundings. He sighed. ¡°Senior, when you altered my perceptions, making me think that I was moving away even though I was doing the opposite, well... I sensed that something was off.¡±

    ¡°So,¡± the voice replied in a tone that was hard to read, ¡°you sat down cross-legged right there, only one pace away from me?¡±

    ¡°One pace closer, Senior,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°and you¡¯d be poisoned.¡±

    The voice inside the coffin didn''t respond. Xu Qing didn¡¯t add anything. A long moment passed.

    Finally, the voice in the coffin said, ¡°Since you stole the authority of Crimson Mother, boy, does that mean you can do more than just control the warding spells? Can you absorb them, too?¡±

    Xu Qing looked down and rapidly analyzed the situation. He wasn¡¯t sure of the meaning behind the voice¡¯s questions. He got the sense he was being asked to prove his value. But it also felt like it might be some sort of trick, maybe to tempt him into reducing the restrictive power of the warding spells. It was hard to say for sure. And if he made a mistake, he could end up <i>damned by myriad tribtions</i>.

    Instead of trying to weigh all the pros and cons, he decided to just respectfully give voice to his concerns. Many times, being direct was the best tactic. However, when you used that tactic, you had to have sound reasoning to back it. After a brief bit of silence from inside the coffin,ughter rang out.

    ¡°You¡¯re a lot more interesting than you seemed at first, boy. You¡¯re definitely a lot more cautious than that other person who came to see me. Ah, whatever. Once you¡¯re out, show me what you¡¯re capable of.¡±

    Xu Qing got to his feet. After a moment of consideration, he sped hands and bowed. Then, without any hesitation, he took a step to the left. That stepnded him, not one pace to the left, but one pace backward.

    The eyes of the mysterious entity in the coffin glittered faintly.

    Just like that, Xu Qing strode out of the crack leading to the abyss. The moment he was outside, his eyes went nk for a brief moment, then went back to normal. Fear still lingered within him, but he suppressed it. He knew full well that he had just been walking the line between life and death. If he hadn¡¯t handled everything perfectly, it would have meant the end of the line. The entity in the coffin spoke only in half-truths. Though it had agreed to let him leave, Xu Qing knew that it was a test to see if he could really pierce the fog of illusion that had surrounded him. Even though he had sessfully stepped away, that didn¡¯t mean that the danger waspletely past.

    Xu Qing reached out and slowly clenched his hand into a fist. As he did, the power of the red moon warding spells swept toward him, gathered in his hand, and created a blinding ball of dazzling red light.

    Shortly after, Xu Qing rxed his grip. The violet moon nascent soul within him then inhaled deeply, and the red light in Xu Qing¡¯s hand became a host of threads that entered the violet moon. The violet moon immediately began to glow even more brightly. Xu Qing could indeed absorb the power of the warding spells. That said, he couldn¡¯t absorb that much.

    ¡°That''s as much as I can do, Senior,¡± he said quietly.

    The voice in the coffinughed. ¡°That¡¯s all you can do? Or is it all you <i>dare </i>to do?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all I can do,¡± Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

    The eyes looked deeply at Xu Qing, and then the entity exhaled. It contained heavenfate-filled energy from the woman in red who had been devoured earlier. As it swirled toward Xu Qing, it turned into a white piece of fruit.

    ¡°I need you to do something for me, boy. And this heavenfate is a down payment on that.¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a long moment, then took the heavenfate. ¡°What are your instructions, Senior?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t get into the details now. I¡¯ll tell youter.¡± With these very telling words having been spoken, the blue eyes slowly closed. Everything went back to normal.

    Forcing himself to ignore his misgivings, Xu Qing backed up, then sped away. When he was some distance away, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Inside of him, in D-132, another sigh of relief could be heard. It came from the god''s finger.

    <i>¡°I just got scared half to death!¡±</i> the god¡¯s finger grumbled. <i>¡°C-c-can¡¯t you... can¡¯t you just be happy with your lot in life? Do you always have to wake me up with such terrifying entities?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing thought back to everything that had just yed out, and could feel fear lingering within him. The whole reason he had been able to detect the change to his perception was that the finger had been stimted awake, and had screamed for him not to take a step forward. The finger had also been the one to tell him how to make his escape from the crack leading to the abyss.

    <i>¡°Your soul is too weak!¡±</i> the finger said angrily. <i>¡°If you don¡¯t do something to strengthen it, then considering your sense of judgement in these suicidal situations, sooner orter you¡¯re going to end up dead!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded and responded, ¡°Many thanks for your help, Senior. Sir, is there any chance you have some ideas for how to improve my soul?¡±

    <i>¡°If I did, then I wouldn¡¯t be a clone!¡± </i>the god''s finger snapped angrily. The reality was that it was feeling humiliated from being so scared. <i>¡°Hungry! I''m so hungry!¡±</i>

    ¡°I know,¡± Xu Qing saidfortingly. ¡°I¡¯ll find you something to eat.¡± He wasn¡¯t bothered at all by the finger¡¯s fury. After all, the god''s finger was a prisoner that Xu Qing himself had locked up. Yet the finger had still helped out. It only made sense for the finger to be somewhat emotional after all that.

    ¡°I want to eat live food!¡± the finger raged.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    ¡°And a lot of it!¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°I want to eat¡ª¡±

    ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ll get it for you.¡±

    Seeing how cooperative Xu Qing was being, the finger suddenly came to the realization that Xu Qing must be pulling some sort of scam. Going forward, it would make a lot more sense to just ignore the little punk!

    With that, Xu Qing left the area with the coffin. As he sped through theva, he mentally reviewed everything that had just happened.

    <i>He said I''m the second person outside of the Red Moon Cathedral to havee before him. I wonder who the first person was.</i>

    For some reason, Xu Qing¡¯s first inclination was to wonder if it was his Eldest Brother in a past life. There was no evidence to point him to that conclusion. It was just a hunch.

    <i>The final words spoken by that being....</i> There was obviously some deep meaning in those words, although Xu Qing wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to unpack it.

    Sometimeter, he took out the heavenfate he had been gifted, and inspected it carefully. However, even after confirming it was safe, he still didn¡¯t feel at ease, and decided to consult the god''s finger.

    The finger ignored him.

    Expression the same as ever, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°Senior, do you mind helping me check to see if something is suspicious about this heavenfate? I''m worried the entity in that coffin might be thinking about you.¡±

    The finger sent out some divine sense. Clearly, ¨©t was very concerned about anything rting to ¨©tself. Shortly after, the finger confirmed that the heavenfate was clean.

    Feeling a bit more at ease, Xu Qing absorbed it. A tremor passed through him. The heavenfate was so strong that Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls all absorbed some, taking them even closer to the great circle of the one-tribtion level. Previously, only his Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits nascent soul had been at that level. Later, the violet moon nascent soul got very close, while the others were only in the early one-tribtion level. But now, all were making significant progress.

    After taking stock of what was happening, Xu Qing took a deep breath and got moving again, all while making sure his violet crystal was doing the best possible to heal his soul.

    In that manner, time passed.

    ***

    In the east of the Moonrite Region, some distance away from the Twofold Alliance, a huge heart flew along with the Red Moon Cathedral church temple atop it.

    The cultivators on the orbiting asteroids remained still and unmoving. However, it was possible to see a figure emerge from the temple itself, who then came to stand in front of the statue of Crimson Mother. It was a woman wearing a red robe.

    She looked up into the sky with a face that seemed full of regret. It was almost as if she hadn¡¯t seen the sky for a very, very long time. Finally, she looked down at the statue, and her expression became zealous and pious. Yet, deep in her eyes was a venomous malice.

    If Xu Qing could see that woman, he would be deeply shaken. It was the very same godservant he had shoved into the abyss to be devoured by the terrifying entity therein! She had clearly died, yet here she was right in the open.

    <i>Something is wrong with your senses, Crimson Mother. You failed to detect my escape. Granted, I''m only a clone. But normally speaking, you would have noticed.... That boy was very interesting. Very, very interesting. Thanks to him, I was able to devour a godservant and recover some of my strength.</i>

    When the woman in red smiled, her eyes glittered with some blue light. That blue light was exactly the same as that seen in the eyes of the figure in the bronze coffin! As it turned out, she was actually that same entity from within the coffin!

    That entity had altered the perception of Xu Qing, and had done the same thing to the godherald who came to inspect the area. The godherald had perceived that the godservant took longer than usual because the feeding process went slowly. And the godservant had apparently been enjoying the process of toying with the entity in the coffin. The godherald offered a reprimand, then brought the godservant back with him.

    However unusual that was, the change to his perceptions made him think his actions were perfectly reasonable.

 Chapter 562: The Wind Canâ€™t Blow Out the Fireflies

    <h4>Chapter 562: The Wind Can¡¯t Blow Out the Fireflies</h4>

    Ten dayster, Xu Qing burst out of theva in the Heavenfire Sea. The glow of the fire reflected down from the dome of heaven onto him, causing him to shine dazzlingly. His eyes were particrly resplendent. His cultivation base was now far beyond its previous point. Among his thirteen nascent souls the golden crow and violet moon versions had progressed the farthest. Although they weren¡¯t quite at the great circle of one tribtion, they were very close.

    <i>That collection of heavenfate was priceless.</i>

    His eyes shone as he considered that if he had a few more bits of heavenfate like that, he would probably be able to get all of his nascent souls into the great circle of one tribtion.

    <i>The heavenfate of a Spirit Trove cultivator lives up to its reputation. Maybe she was only in the dao begetting and dawnstar raising phase, but that heavenfate is far stronger than anything from the Nascent Soul level.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly; the damage to his soul had recovered in the ten days that had passed. Furthermore, he could tell that, not only had his soul recovered, but it had actually be a bit stronger.

    <i>In that case... I¡¯ll return the eyeball and then start traveling again!</i>

    He looked down at the Heavenfire Sea and thought about what other secrets must be hidden in those depths. For example, were there other sealed areas down there? Or what about that area in the depths where fire emerged from the rift in the dome of heaven?

    <i>Now¡¯s not the time to explore those things. The better part of a year has already passed. I need to hurry up to meet with Eldest Brother.</i>

    He looked down at his wrist, and the mark that encircled it. That was Ling¡¯er. After leaving the human city hidden beneath the abandoned mine, he hade to an agreement with Ling¡¯er. Because he had been nning to go to some dangerous areas in the Heavenfire Sea, he wanted her to remain sleeping in that seal. That had seemed the safest. But now that the danger had passed, and the time hade to return to the abandoned mine briefly, Xu Qing smiled and tapped on the symbol.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er, wake up. We''re going back to that mine.¡±

    The symbol flickered, then Ling¡¯er poked her head out, blinking blearily. When she heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, her eyes glittered. ¡°We''re going back? Awesome! Big Bro Xu Qing, do you think we can stay there again for a little bit?¡±

    When Xu Qing saw the anticipation on Ling¡¯er¡¯s face, he thought about it briefly and then nodded. ¡°How about for half a month?¡±

    Laughing happily, Ling¡¯er climbed up to Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder and coiled next to his ear.

    Her happyughter caused him to rx a bit. He wasn¡¯t as nervous as he had been at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea, but he still kept his guard up. He knew that he had to be very careful about revealing the position of that human city. Therefore, as he flew along, he kept a close eye on his surroundings.

    After he was sure he wasn''t being followed, he left the Heavenfire Sea and flew toward the mine.

    At one point, he stopped and looked down. Below, he saw a red flower growing out of a crack in the ground. It was one lonely flower blowing back and forth in the wind. This was the first vegetation Xu Qing had seen in this area. It wasn''t easy for most nts to survive, given the climate. But there were some special nts that would actually bloom after the Heavenfire Skycrossing. This little flower was one of them. It was no ordinary nt, but rather, a very precious medicinal nt.

    In Grandmaster Bai¡¯s medicinal codex, this flower was called a firespirit tulip. Surprised, Xu Qing harvested the flower and put it into a transparent bottle.

    <i>I remember Panyan asking about this flower</i>. Smiling, he continued on his way.

    Staying in concealment the entire time, it took three days before he spotted the mine in the distance. Thinking about Duanmu Zang and his apprentice Shi Panyan caused Xu Qing to sigh in his heart.

    <i>It''s too bad I can¡¯t dispel that curse. But give me enough time, and I can do some experimenting.</i>

    When he was about 3,000 meters away from the mine, he stopped in ce. Pupils constricting, he looked around the area. Things seemed different. Before, the mine entrance had a lot of loose rocks piled around it. That rock had been melted together during the Heavenfire Skycrossing, leaving only a small opening to be squeezed through. But now, the mine entrance lookedpletely copsed. A tremor passed through Xu Qing.

    Ling¡¯er swayed back and forth as she took everything in. But then she stopped swaying. Voice trembling, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing....¡±

    Eyes shining with vignce, Xu Qing shot forward. It took him three breaths of time to reach the entrance.

    As he neared, he smelled blood wafting out of the mine. Ling¡¯er sensed the same thing, and she shivered. Breathing heavily, Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base, then raced into the mine.

    The smell of blood grew stronger. Heart racing, Xu Qing flew along for a few dozen breaths of time. He stopped when he ran into a pile of seven or eight corpses. He took a few steps closer and examined them. He recognized them. They were guards from the city who had low level cultivation bases.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, they were as cold as ice. He pressed on. More and more corpses became visible until atst he reached arge cave temple. It was the first level of the tomb, and it was inplete disarray. Evidence of fighting was everywhere. The floor in the middle of the cave had caved in. Down below was a silent city.

    The blue canopy that made the sky had been ripped up mercilessly. Tattered bits of it fell down into the city. It was the same with the white clouds.

    Hundreds of corpsesy scattered about the city. They included men, women, and children. They had died horribly. Some had been chopped in half. Others had beenrgely crushed into bloody paste. Still others had been dismembered violently. Before, this ce had been alive withughter, but now it was as quiet as death. The warmth andpanionship of memory had be like ice. The tomb... had truly be a tomb. Buildings had copsed, and the odor of blood and decay filled the ce.

    Ling¡¯er flew out and raced toward the city. The Spike of Misfortune trembled as Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent it flying in the same direction. After they were in the city, both of them lurched to a stop.

    Ling¡¯er began weeping, and the patriarch simply looked around, the eyes of his projected bodypletely bloodshot.

    Xu Qing quietly walked forward. He looked around at the familiar city and everything in it, and his heart hurt. And a terrifying howl was building in his mind.

    Xu Qing had seen death. A lot of death. But he couldn¡¯t get used to things like this. He wasn¡¯t capable of it. He thought back to the three months he had lived here, and everything that happened. Those memories were now a source of immense pain.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, they... th-th-they....¡± Ling¡¯er wept in pure grief. Among the corpses were some of the women she had befriended. She just couldn¡¯t ept that the people who hadughed with her as they taught her to cook and sew were now mutted corpses.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior returned to Xu Qing¡¯s side and looked at him. His expression was one of fury, and also... pleading. He had also spotted corpses who had oncee to listen to his stories.

    Xu Qing''s face was expressionless, but something boundlessly cold was rising up within him. Without a word, he took some time to carefully inspect his surroundings and determine when these people had died.

    <i>More than a hundred thousand people lived here. But there aren¡¯t even a thousand corpses. That seems to indicate most everyone else survived. Whoever captured them won''t have an easy time moving so many mortals. They can''t be far.</i>

    <i>Given the state of dposition, these people died no more than five days ago. Considering Duanmu Zang¡¯s cultivation base, and the safety precautions he''d put in ce, the only group in this area who could have broken inside and taken everybody away is the Twofold Alliance.</i>

    <i>The Red Moon Cathedral is in the area.... Duanmu Zang said that the cathedrales regrly to demand offerings from the local species....</i>

    Xu Qing turned and waved his hand, causing Ling¡¯er and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to fly back to him. Then he shot back toward the exit.

    Ling¡¯er, her heart almost overwhelmed with grief and anxiety, said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, we¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to find them,¡± Xu Qing said softly, his eyes turning colder and colder.

    He soon sped out of the mine and was able to start looking for clues.

    In the five days that had passed, the heat levels were dropping slowly, and thus, much of the evidence was gone. There seemed only one likely destination, and that was Holy City. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t just one path to Holy City. What was more, it wasn''t possible to guarantee that they were taking the humans there. If Xu Qing made an error in judgment, he would lose precious time. And every bit of time mattered in trying to carry out this rescue operation.

    As Xu Qing pondered the situation, Ling¡¯er wiped her eyes. Looking suddenly determined, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, let me look for some clues. This is an Ancient Spirit tomb, and they lived here for years. If they have even a scrap of Ancient Spirit aura on them, I can probably find them!¡±

    Ling¡¯er flew up into midair, where she suddenly erupted with a seven-colored glow. As it swirled around her, she began to change shape. She turned human, but didn''t stop there. Within moments, she was even taller and more impressive than an ordinary human. Because of the light, it wasn¡¯t possible to see her clearly, but Xu Qing could see a dragon and a snake encircling her.

    ¡°South!¡± Ling¡¯er said in an echoey voice.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing grabbed her and started moving south.

    ***

    Some 5,000 kilometers in that same direction was a long caravan flying along at low altitude. The caravan included ten huge iron cages, each of which was like a small mountain being dragged along by huge beasts of burden. The cages were packed with people. Countless humans were visible, some of whom, on the bottom of the cages, had been crushed to death. However, there were plenty who were alive.

    That said, those who still lived had numb expressions. They were already living lives worse than death, and were less human than animal.

    The caravan was being led by cultivators from the Twofold Alliance. In order to make sure that as many mortals survived as possible, they couldn¡¯t move too quickly. Teleportations were a possibility, but there was no way the two species would pay for a luxury like that simply to save some time.

    The cultivator in charge sat atop one of the carts looking cold and indifferent. ¡°We¡¯ll be in Holy City soon. It will take about seven days.¡±

    ¡°This job has been a lot of work. That said, who could have guessed there would be so many humans?¡±

    ¡°That''s a good thing. With an offering like this, plus the other species we got from other ces, we should be fine.¡±

    The Skyfaces pulled out a few human corpses and began viciously eating them.

    The sound of tearing flesh and snapping bones echoed out brutally into the evening.

 Chapter 563: The Goose Cannot Fly Out of the Moonlight (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 563: The Goose Cannot Fly Out of the Moonlight (part 1)</h4>

    The glow of the Heavenfire Sea lit the sky, making it nearly as red as blood. It definitely felt inauspicious. However, the sky was so far away from the sea that the light which reached it was faint. The darkness swallowed up everything else, making everything gloomy. The ground beneath the cages was so dark that the blood which dripped onto it didn¡¯t register.

    The caravan left a trail of blood behind it. Surrounding the cages were members of the Twofold Alliance, who had greedy expressions on their faces as they licked their lips and eyed the cages. As far as they were concerned, the humans locked in the cages were delicious morsels of food. At the same time, they were sacrificial offerings, live food that could be offered to the cathedral for safety going forward. Arrangements such as this had existed in ancient times, and they still did now.

    It wasn¡¯t just humans who found themselves in such a plight. Throughout this part of the Moonrite Region, lesser species were all suffering the same fate. They either became food to other species, or they became sacrificial offerings. <i>The weak are the prey of the strong</i>. That maxim was more true here than anywhere else on the outside.

    However, there are some instances in which ¡®the strong¡¯ end up running into someone even stronger than they are. And in that case, they turn into ¡®the weak.¡¯ It was simply impossible for all species to be considered paramount among all species.

    That rule even applied to the Red Moon Cathedral. Perhaps that was just the rhythm that the music of fate yed to.

    Right now, the wind whimpered as it carried heat through thends, causing imperceptible ripples to roll through the sky. And the ash on the ground after the Heavenfire Skycrossing turned into fine dust that blew everywhere. Within that ashy dust was a killing intent that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. It became an ambassador of death, hefting a blood-soaked scythe as it neared with explosive speed!

    The source of that killing intent was Xu Qing! He didn¡¯t speak at all. His eyes pulsed with something profoundly somber and deste, and not even the surrounding heat could soften the frigid coldness of his expression. With Ling¡¯er as his guide, he went south at top speed, tapping fully into his lifemps, as well as all of the blessings built into his cultivation base. He was obviously moving much faster than the caravan. What was more, he soon saw the blood on the ground, providing a clear trail to follow.

    <i>This is the way,</i> he thought, speeding up.

    Now he didn¡¯t need Ling¡¯er¡¯s help. Following the blood, he sped along, kicking up a stiff wind as he got closer and closer to his target.

    2,500 kilometers. 1,500 kilometers. 500 kilometers. 250 kilometers....

    During four days¡¯ time, he traveled nearly 5,000 kilometers. On the evening of the fourth day, the wind caused by his passage was a rumbling tempest that reached the ears of the caravan guards. There were over a hundred members of the Twofold Alliance in charge of the caravan, and when they heard the sound, they looked off into the distance toward what seemed like thunder on the horizon.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    The caravan¡¯s beasts of burden stirred restlessly. The cultivators atop them stood, then looked off into the distance, frowning.

    Suddenly, Xu Qing appeared. He had finally caught up! When he saw the caravan, and the ten huge cages, his heart filled with pain. He saw the people stuffed into the cages like livestock. They were clearly numb and suffering. The aura of rot and death spread out from the cages, causing Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to turn bloodshot, and sending icy killing intent raging uncontrobly through him.

    He became a prismatic streak of light filled with endless lightning bolts as he closed in on the caravan at top speed. A deafening boom rang out when Xu Qing mmed right into the caravan! The ground shook violently, and dust shot out in all directions.

    The caravan stopped moving. The beasts of burden could sense the icy killing intent, and they shivered visibly. Meanwhile, the cultivators from the Twofold Alliance rushed out to defend the caravan.

    ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±

    ¡°What gall! I can¡¯t believe you would actually attack the Twofold Alliance!¡±

    ¡°What species is this guy?¡±

    As the cultivators from the Twofold Alliance angrily cursed Xu Qing, the killing intent in his eyes grew more intense. Without hesitation, he shot toward the Skyface cultivator right in front of him. The terrifying fluctuationsing off Xu Qing caused the Skyface to nch. Before it could even think of dodging, Xu Qing was there, using the intense power of his fleshly body in full force. A thump rang out as the huge Skyface cultivator¡¯s chest caved in, then exploded as Xu Qing shot through his entire torso. After that, the Skyface¡¯s entire body copsed.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pause for a second. Waving his hand, he sent daybreak light out in ten streams that swept out and covered the cages. Next, he explosively unleashed his taboo poison. The air pulsated as boundless mutagen provoked miserable shrieks and screams among the enemy.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was there, madly smashing into the enemy in the form of a red bolt of lightning.

    Ling¡¯er bared her teeth, and her eyes gleamed with vicious light as she alsounched attacks here and there.

    The shadow could sense Xu Qing¡¯s rage and Ling¡¯er¡¯s grief. That caused the shadow to get angry as well, and it stretched out protectively around Ling¡¯er, where it would help herunch attacks.

    Of course, none of them could match Xu Qing¡¯s brutality. As he elerated even more dramatically, a dagger appeared in his right hand. He closed in on a Mirrorling cultivator, and punched it with his left hand. A crash could be heard as the Mirrorling¡¯s body shattered. Then Xu Qing sent poison roiling out of his fist, and another agonized scream could be heard. Xu Qing spun, then body-mmed a Skyface cultivator who was behind him. Then his dagger seemed toe alive, shing and stabbing, sending blood everywhere. Finally, it viciously swept through the Skyface¡¯s throat. A head flew through the air.

    The golden crow rose up, then exhaled, causing heavenfire to fall onto the shocked and fleeing cultivators of the Twofold Alliance. All they could do was scream as they were incinerated.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face was expressionless, but his eyes were bloodshot and he was soaked with blood from head to toe. He pressed the attack, closing in on a Mirrorling cultivator.

    This cultivator was in the Nascent Soul level, and he had a furious expression on his face. He was actually shaken by Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent, and tried to fall back. He was too slow. Xu Qing attacked with astonishing speed. When they shed, the Nascent Soul Mirrorling quickly used an incantation gesture to summon a sharp de. He also sent ghostfire swirling out to make demonic ghost flowers that surrounded Xu Qing and tried to devour his life force.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have cared less about that. His fleshly body was so powerful, and his violet crystal could heal him so well, that unless he was attacked by some force that he truly couldn¡¯t deal with, then he would always default to his normal fighting style, which was to sustain damage to inflict fatalities.

    As he closed in, rumbling sounds echoed out. Xu Qing allowed the enemy¡¯s magical techniques to hit him. Eyes shining brutally, he simply chomped up the ghost flowers. Poison raged out, destroying everything it touched. The dagger stabbed and shed. The Nascent Soul cultivator wanted to struggle free, but such efforts were to no avail. Screams escaped his lips, along with sprays of blood. It only took a few breaths of time to devastate his enemy¡¯s body, and ultimately sh open his throat.

    Then Xu Qingunched himself backward, right into the two other enemy cultivators who had been charging from that direction. He quickly performed a left-handed incantation gesture and shoved his hand out in front of him. A massive group of heavenfiend clones appeared behind him, which then rushed forward, snapping their jaws ravenously.

    The nearby members of the Twofold Alliance were already terrified and scrambling backward to flee. None of them got more than a few paces before their bodies crumbled, and they fell to the ground screaming. The other cultivators present trembled as they madly fled. To them, Xu Qing seemed like a harvester of souls that couldn¡¯t be stopped. Wherever he looked, the shadow of death descended. It was especially frightening considering his garment was now blood-red. Combined with the glow of the golden crow¡¯s fire, he looked astounding.

    Although there were over a hundred cultivators in the caravan, the majority were in Gold Core and Foundation Establishment. There were only six in Nascent Soul.

    After all, this was their territory. Transporting a shipment of mortal humans wouldn¡¯t require a bunch of top experts to stand guard. Besides, Duanmu Zang had already been taken away by the royal preceptor and his people. Therefore, the cultivators assigned to this territory didn¡¯t have any reason to believe that someone woulde and try to save the captives. There were no other top experts among humans who would do so.

    Not one of the more than 100,000 residents of the human city had mentioned Xu Qing. The kindness and love of one human for another would be especially prominent during times of adversity.

    As for Xu Qing, he had been very careful during his entire time in this region, and thus, no one in the Twofold Alliance had any idea about his true identity or level of strength.

    The end result was that when Xu Qing attacked the caravan, they fell like dry weeds in front of him. That was especially true considering how terrifying his poisons were. The Foundation Establishment cultivators were the first to sumb, and screamed shrilly as they rotted away.

    Not even the Mirrorlings¡¯ special bodies were immune to this poison.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s ughter continued. Next, he closed in on a Skyface cultivator in the Nascent Soul level. They shed for about four or five breaths of time. Then blood sprayed out of the Skyface¡¯s mouth before his head tumbled off his shoulders. His nascent souls then exploded before being devoured by Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t have time right now to fully assimte them.

    Ignoring any injuries he had sustained, Xu Qing turned to survey the area. Thanks to his taboo poison, the entire area was a region of death. And Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and the shadow had inflicted even more casualties.

    Seeing Ling¡¯erunching attacks made Xu Qing think back to years ago in the Merfolk Isles. He knew now more than ever that though Ling¡¯er seemed soft and weak, she was actually very experienced at fighting. Ling¡¯er had taken human form, and was wearing a suit of armor. Illusory dragons and snakes curled around her, and she had a long spear in her hand. Despite looking so petite, she erupted with stupefying battle prowess.

    The ughter didn¡¯tst for very long. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, thest of the enemy cultivators was put to death, and silence reigned. Even the beasts of burden pulling the cages had been decapitated by the enraged Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    After everything was over, tears flowed down Ling¡¯er¡¯s cheeks. The patriarch looked furious. And everyone was looking at the cages, which were still wrapped protectively in daybreak light.

    The people in the cages still looked numb. After the days of torment they had endured, their minds were on the verge of copse. They didn¡¯t even react when seeing Xu Qing and the others.

    Ling¡¯er approached the nearest cage, looked inside, and then tremulously said, ¡°Big Sis Li... Auntie Chen....¡±

    Xu Qing walked over. With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the daybreak light, then opened the cage. People tumbled out like cargo. However, Xu Qing was careful to facilitate their exit from the cage so that no one was hurt.

    Seeing the conditions in the cages caused Xu Qing¡¯s mood to sink further. At the bottom of the cages, dead bodies had been crushed so badly their facial features weren¡¯t even identifiable.

    <i>Panyan. Where¡¯s Panyan...?</i>

 Chapter 563: The Goose Cannot Fly Out of the Moonlight (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 563: The Goose Cannot Fly Out of the Moonlight (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing went to the next cage and opened it. He looked at the familiar faces, and then the mangled corpses at the bottom of the cage, and the grief in his heart grew more intense. He had seen the misery and bitterness that existed in the world. Yet not even he could remain unaffected by this hellish scene.

    Two months ago, Xu Qing had seen how guileless and kind-hearted these wonderful people were. On a dark, cold night, they offered to share some of their own warmth with a shivering fellow human.

    But now....

    Xu Qing closed his eyes. The killing intent in his heart had not been reduced at all because of the ughter from moments ago. Instead, it had grown stronger, building up more and more until the perverse energy within him was so strong he struggled to breathe steadily.

    The reason for that was... he had just spotted half of a face in the bloody sludge at the bottom of the cage. It was Shi Pangui¡¯s wife, who had been so skilled at making delicious pastries.... Her body had mostly been crushed into a pulp.

    Xu Qing walked away quietly to open the next cage. As the people tumbled out, he spotted something at the bottom of the cage off in the corner.

    It was the edge of a book.

    When he saw it, he started trembling uncontrobly. He waved his hand, dispersing all of the blood and gore, to reveal a girl. Her clothing was mashed with blood and gore. Only about half of her tiny body was intact. Her arms were sped tightly around a medicinal codex. She had clearly been holding it with all of her strength. It was as if it represented her strongest desire, and her deepest hope. Shey on the bottom of the cage, and because there wasn¡¯t any blood on her face, she almost looked like she was sleeping.

    Xu Qing felt profound pain building his chest. He struggled to take in a breath, but couldn¡¯t stop shaking. In his mind, he thought back to the scene from two months ago.

    A scrawny figure appeared, timidly, holding a sweet potato, heart full of questions about nts and vegetation. Next, she came with a little nt that she asked about. He could see her eyes, shining with the thirst for knowledge. It left such a deep impression on him that he gave her his own medicinal codex and epted her as his first apprentice in the dao of medicine.

    <i>¡°Teacher, will I ever see you again?¡±</i>

    That was thest thing Shi Panyan ever said to him.

    It was almost as if the girlying there in front of him had looked up and asked him that question.

    ¡°As long as we don''t die, we¡¯ll meet again,¡± he murmured. It was a wonderful saying, except... it also meant that if you died, you wouldn¡¯t meet again.

    He stood there for a very long time. Eventually, he was roused by the sound of Ling¡¯er¡¯s weeping and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s fury. Clearing his thoughts, he returned to reality.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er...¡± he said hoarsely, turning to look at her.

    She ran over and wrapped trembling arms around him. She had little experience witnessing death on this scale, and it was difficult for her to handle.

    Slowly but surely, the captives began to regain their senses. The sounds of rage and sorrow began to grow. Eventually, a figure staggered over and dropped to his knees in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Senior...?¡± It was Shi Pangui. He was weak, his eyes bloodshot and his cheeks stained with tears. His expression was twisted on the verge of madness as he looked at Xu Qing. He knew that his wife and sister were dead. And his eyes also seemed dead, although he had forced himself to endure to this point. He knew that he had to tell Xu Qing where the chancellor had been taken. ¡°Senior, please, you have to save the chancellor.... He was taken to Holy City by the royal preceptor of the two-species alliance. I heard them say they¡¯d refine his blood into a material to repair their mirror treasure.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Shi Pangui, and then turned to look at Shi Panyan.

    Shi Pangui followed his gaze and then started trembling even more violently. He clenched his hands tightly into fists until the grief in his heart grew so intense that he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Then heughed bitterly.

    Xu Qing quietly walked back to Shi Panyan¡¯s corpse. Kneeling down, he gently closed her eyes.

    ¡°Pangui, your sister is sleeping. Please don¡¯t disturb her. All of you... wait here for me. I¡¯m going to go get your chancellor and bring him back.¡± He stood. ¡°Ling¡¯er, can you keep everyone safe while I¡¯m gone?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± she said, wiping the tears from her face.

    Xu Qing said nothing else. He had the shadow stay to help, and even summoned the stone lion and the head from D-132 to do the same. Finally he covered the entire perimeter with taboo poison, effectively sealing the area. Having done all that, Xu Qing took a deep breath, then reached out and sped Shi Pangui¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Wait until I return, Pangui.¡± With that, he looked in the direction of Holy City. It was as if he was looking at and of the dead. His heart did not pound. He was just filled with an increasingly strong will of death that eventually spread out around him. Without a word, he took a few steps forward, then flew up into the air where he summoned his spirit cruiser.

    An enormous old woman in a ck cloak appeared in midair. Xu Qing stood on her head, while her face pulsed with death and killing intent. Then, they blurred off into the distance. Xu Qing looked down. As he sped along at top speed, he sent taboo poison spilling out of himself.

    He didn¡¯t scatter it, but rather, had it converge on him. More and more of it. Gradually, a ck miasma built up around him. The miasma contained taboo poison, and caused strange colors to sh. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the miasma grew bigger and stronger. As he continued to converge poison, his taboo poison nascent soul augmented the effort, so that the poison he was producing grew increasingly formidable.

    Xu Qing rarely unleashed all of the potential of his poison. But right now, the pressure and killing intent within him ensured that he wasn¡¯t holding anything back.

    Three days passed by in a sh.

    About 500 kilometers away from Holy City, a sandstorm appeared that seemed to stretch a good 50 kilometers. It connected the sky and thend, and was filled with both endless lightning bolts and boundless mutagen. Within the boundless dark desert, the image of a huge old woman appeared, and atop her head... stood Xu Qing, his facepletely expressionless.

    During the past three days, he had attempted to summon the god¡¯s finger from D-132. However, the finger didn¡¯t respond to any of his calls. That said, Xu Qing knew ¨©t wasn¡¯t asleep. Since the finger wasn¡¯t responding, Xu Qing didn¡¯t continue his efforts. He didn¡¯t even frown. He knew that he was heading into extreme danger. Given the level of his cultivation base, he couldn¡¯t easily deal with Spirit Trove opponents.

    There was little need to mention that the Twofold Alliance had six Spirit Trove experts. Of that group, two had finished their first secret trove.

    As far as Xu Qing was concerned, though, it didn¡¯t matter how dangerous this situation was going to be. It was something he simply had to do. As long as he could deal with those six Spirit Trove enemies, then the remaining Nascent Soul cultivators shouldn¡¯t be too difficult to wipe out.

    The price to pay would be high.

    <i>My apprentice is dead. As her Master, I have to avenge her death. I ate so many of her sister-inw¡¯s pastries.... I have to do something. Also... I borrowed something from Duanmu Zang. Without him around, how can I return what I borrowed?</i>

    His eyes only got colder and colder. And the 50-kilometer sandstorm full of poison that surrounded him spun slowly as he neared Holy City.

    ***

    500 kilometers away in Holy City, members of the Twofold Alliance were having a big celebration. Everyone had heard about the capture of the humans. What was more, quite a few lesser species had already been dragged back to Holy City. They were definitely going to meet the quota for the sacrificial offering this time. That meant that when the next day of sacrifice came, both species would be safe. The two species were very delighted, and the sounds ofughter and celebration filled the city.

    The city had taken some damage during Heavenfire Skycrossing, but thankfully, their spell formations had mostly held tight. As a result, the city was already back to normal. One thing that added to the bustle was a scene ying out in an open square located between the Twofold Alliance¡¯s royal pces.

    There was an assimtion event happening there, and it was almost over. The person doing the assimting was the Mirrorling¡¯s royal preceptor. The person being assimted was Duanmu Zang. A lot of cultivators in the Twofold Alliance knew who Duanmu Zang was. Over the years, investigations indicated that many of their fellow species members who went missing had connections to him. Therefore, many members of the Twofold Alliance had been watching this assimtion process.

    Duanmu Zang had been nailed onto a huge mirror that now floated above the square. White energy seeped out of his body and entered into the mirror. The mirror was the very same one that had been cracked not too long ago. The spirit automaton inside had been destroyed, and now they were making a new one.

    Blood oozed down Duanmu Zang. The process of having one¡¯s life force assimted was painful, and he constantly twitched and writhed. If you looked closely, you would see that the bones throughout his body had been shattered, and his tendons had been ripped apart.

    His nascent souls were locked down, and were currently being gnawed upon by hosts of gruish maggots. His copsed secret trove pulsed with an aura of death, causing evil souls to converge to feast on it. He had obviously endured horrendous torture. Yet despite all of that pain, he didn¡¯t howl or scream. Even at the end of the line, the courageous spirit of the humans still showed. He just grinned, all while refusing to betray any sign of weakness.

    ring at the figure hovering cross-legged in front of him, he spoke in a raspy voice, ¡°I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s taking you this long to assimte me. You Mirrorlings really are useless pieces of trash.¡±

    The person seated cross-legged in front of him was an old man made of stone. He was the royal preceptor of the Mirrorlings. Eyes cold, he red at Duanmu Zang and said, ¡°Just wait until you be our mirror spirit. Then I¡¯ll have you personally devour your fellow humans. You¡¯ll love the vor.¡±

 Chapter 564: Fierce Star Melts the Sun and Shatters the Sky (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 564: Fierce Star Melts the Sun and Shatters the Sky (part 1)</h4>

    Because of the Heavenfire Sea, and the hot environment it created, there weren¡¯t many species that upied the eastern part of the Moonrite Region. The Mirrorlings and Skyfaces were essentially the dominant species.

    However, because the heavenfire crystals from the Heavenfire Sea were one of the many items required by the Red Moon Cathedral for sacrificial offerings, it wasn¡¯t umon for species from other areas toe to harvest the crystals. In order to defend against such invaders, the two species had banded together and formed their alliance.

    Together, they upied Holy City. That city had stood for a thousand years already, and was a safe haven for countless members of the two species during the Heavenfire Skycrossing. Although some of the buildings had been destroyed recently, they had already been rebuilt. To the two species, this city had profound significance. They believed that the city was a testament to the long history of their alliance, and proof that it wouldst far into the future.

    In contrast, that city was a ce of despair to all the lesser species in the Heavenfire Sea area. Whether it was humans or other species, they were like prey, living innds full of death and evil. In fact, there were actually more nonhumans who had died here than had been given as offerings to the Red Moon Cathedral. Brutality was built into the very bones of the two species. Living in despair in the Moonrite Region, they loved seeing the looks of even greater despair in the eyes of their victims. That was the only way for them to feel superior, and thus, they turned it into a joy of life.

    Although the city was filled with the sound ofughter and rejoicing, mixed into that was weeping and wailing. The sounds of whips, screams, and sadistic brutality also echoed in every corner. The city ran red with blood; each and every household had corpses piled outside the main entrance. Their food didn¡¯t just consist of humans.

    Whenever the big harvest came, the first goal was to meet the quota provided by the Red Moon Cathedral. Anything beyond the quota was given out as food and ythings.

    Members of the Twofold Alliance could purchase the captive members of the lesser species. Thetter would live lives worse than death, and would suffer horrific torment. But most would end up giving their lives in pain so that the members of the two species could survive.

    On this day, a great rumbling sound was building on the horizon. Within the brutal city, the reveling members of the Twofold Alliance suddenly began to quiet down. Stunned, they looked off into the distance. On the horizon was a 50-kilometer sandstorm, like a huge shadow getting closer and closer to them. It filled the sky as it pulsed with shocking energy. The size of the sandstorm wasn¡¯t the only impressive thing about it. Countless lightning bolts danced within it, sending out deafening crashing sounds, and shaking the earth so much that dust floated up into the air. The dark sky rippled and distorted as a powerful mutagen spread out. Everything turned even darker, making the atmosphere horrifying.

    It was possible to spot a figure within the sandstorm. A person in a ck robe screamed through the air, as if the ambassador of death had heard the curses of the living beings here, and had descended into the mortal world in response.

    The scene attracted the attention of many of the members of the Twofold Alliance. Gradually, the city went quiet.

    The royal preceptor of the Mirrorlings, who was still in the middle of assimting Duanmu Zang, suddenly looked up. Turning in the direction of the horizon, he sent out terrified fluctuations of divine sense. Rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven as he appeared in projected form over the city, in a form just as massive as the ck-cloaked old woman in the sandstorm.

    ¡°Halt!¡± he said, his voice resounding like heavenly thunder.

    At the same time, three streams of divine sense shot out from Holy City. All of them were in the same level of strength as the preceptor. As they manifested above the city, they stared coldly at the sandstorm. There were four of them, and all emitted the fluctuations of Spirit Trove. Though none had developed heavenly daos, the strength of the dao begetting and dawnstar raising phase was still formidable.

    Duanmu Zang, who was wracked with pain and hovering on the brink of death, looked up. When he saw that huge figure in the sandstorm, he could just barely make out someone on top of its head. And that figure wasn¡¯t human! It had gray skin, arge head, and spikes for hair. It was a Nightshade!

    As the majestic sandstorm got closer to Holy City, the members of the Twofold Alliance were increasingly shaken. However, the storm stopped about 5 kilometers away from the city. That distance wasn¡¯t enough to reduce the deafening sound of the storm. Nor was it enough to prevent the spread of taboo poison. As billowing miasma spread like a hazy fog, it covered Holy City, causing the defensive spell formations to sizzle as they melted. Deafening booms rang out.

    ¡°He¡¯s just trying to pull a fast one!¡± the Mirrorling royal preceptor growled. He waved his right hand. The fog of miasma that had been building in the city was sent swirling off to the side. However, it didn¡¯t dissipate. In fact, after it was sent to the side, it just slowly drifted back to its original ce.

    Seeing that caused the Mirrorling royal preceptor¡¯s heart to sink. Frowning, he looked out of the city. Five kilometers away was the sandstorm formed from taboo poison miasma. The spirit cruiser, shaped like an old woman, stepped out of it. Standing on the head was Xu Qing. His face was expressionless as he looked at Holy City for a moment. Then he sent some divine will into D-132.

    <i>¡°You¡¯re really not going to eat?¡±</i> he asked the god¡¯s finger.

    <i>¡°Nope, I¡¯m not,¡±</i> the finger replied with conviction.<i> ¡°I¡¯m definitely not eating! These are freaking sacrificial offerings to Crimson Mother! I wouldn¡¯t dare eat them. They¡¯re cursed! Eat them, and it¡¯ll turn you rotten. Are you gonna eat?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing ignored the finger. Along the way here, he had consumed one of the shadeheaven demonmoon pills that he and the captain had acquired from the Holytides. That pill, coupled with some other medicines Xu Qing had on hand, had transformed him into a Nightshade.

    Keeping his eyes on Holy City, he raised his hand toward the canopy of heaven and pointed out with his index finger. The sky trembled as a violet moon suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. When the violet moon came, everything transformed. The entire city became covered in the color violet. It was the same with heaven and earth. The whole city, as far as the eye could see, was violet!

    Godly might spread out, filled with the authority of Crimson Mother, in a way that surpassed even the godheralds. It was as if a godchild had arrived, and it caused the entire city to distort so dramatically it became blurry. Mutagen flourished in the city, rising up in the buildings and exploding into the members of the Twofold Alliance. Gasps, shrieks, and cries of astonishment erupted from countless mouths. Individuals from both species were visibly astonished.

    At the same time, it was a familiar feeling, causing many of the Twofold Alliance cultivators to drop and kowtow.

    Equally stunned were the four Spirit Trove experts, including the royal preceptors. They were trembling violently, and couldn¡¯t prevent their facial expression from revealing their shock. All living beings in the Moonrite Region had the curse of the red moon in them. It was passed down by blood from generation to generation, and made it impossible for any native species to leave the region. What was more, it also made it possible for them to feel the majestic pressure of a god when they dealt with the Red Moon Cathedral. Granted, the curse was usually dormant. It would only activate if they tried to flee the Moonrite Region.

    Yet right now, the Spirit Trove experts as well as all the other members of their two species could feel that curse waking up within them. The curse wasn¡¯t fully awake. But they could sense it, as faint as the vibration of the strings on a musical instrument before it was yed. And it was like a death knell in their minds.

    Five kilometers away, Xu Qing stood atop the spirit cruiser and looked down at everything below. Then he said one single thing.

    ¡°All Spirit Trove cultivators from the Twofold Alliance will step forward immediately to receive me!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, violet light red, and the godly might grew more intense. Heaven and earth rippled and distorted, and everything trembled. Some mortals from the two species couldn¡¯t handle the pressure, and screamed in agony. Some of them began to mutate as the curse in their blood went out of control. They shrieked miserably as they withered up.

    Everyone in the Twofold Alliance trembled in terror. Meanwhile, the royal preceptor and the other three Spirit Trove experts instinctively flew out toward Xu Qing.

    In the two royal pces in the city, there were two sets of fluctuations that surpassed the other four Spirit Trove experts. They came from the two chancellors, who were also called patriarchs. They were shocked, but also a bit suspicious. There were obviously some differences between this violet moon and the red moon they were used to. That said, the aura and godly might was exactly the same. Regardless, they didn¡¯t dare to do anything offensive. They joined the other four Spirit Trove cultivators, except they didn¡¯t dare to get too close to Xu Qing. They stopped about 3,000 meters away.

    ¡°Greetings, Godherald!¡± the two patriarchs said in unison, sping hands and bowing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. This was actually ying perfectly into the n he hade up with along the way. All six of them were in one ce! It hadn¡¯t been hard to make that happen. All he had to do was call on the authority of the cathedral.

    The first step wasplete. As all of them bowed, the violet moon in the sky rumbled as it floated into position above the six Spirit Trove experts. Then it started weighing down on them. This was step two.

    Xu Qing knew that Spirit Trove cultivators couldn¡¯t possibly be idiots. It would be especially important not to underestimate the patriarchs. It wouldn¡¯t take them long to see through his disguise, and it was hard to say what would happen after that. Therefore, he couldn¡¯t afford to draw things out. He needed to take advantage of their shock to resolve the situation in the shortest time possible.

    Step two required the power of the violet moon to suppress them and leave them a bit dazed. As the pressure of the violet moon weighed down, the six Spirit Trove experts reacted with visible surprise. Within them, the power of the curse stirred even more dramatically. However, their cultivation bases allowed them to have some control, and prevent the curse from exploding out of control.

    As they began to grumble angrily, Xu Qing unhesitatingly pulled the gnomons out from all five of his sundials. This was step three. The daze created in step two wasn¡¯t enough. Step three had to be added for step four to work properly!

 Chapter 564: Fierce Star Melts the Sun and Shatters the Sky (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 564: Fierce Star Melts the Sun and Shatters the Sky (part 2)</h4>

    The moment the gnomons were removed, the five sundials erupted with the power of Time Lag. As a result, time stopped around all six of the Spirit Trove experts.

    Next, the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon appeared, and even as the Spirit Trove experts struggled against the daze inflicted by the violet moon, it lunged toward them with gaping maw. In one gulp, it swallowed both the violet moon and the six cultivators!

    This was step four. And it was going toe with a heavy price. Xu Qing¡¯s five sundials copsed into pieces. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his body withered. However, his cultivation base didn¡¯t change at all, and that was because the true lifemps made from his blood were actually the five gnomons!

    The sundials came from the violet crystal, and after what Xu Qing had experienced in the Heavenfire Sea, he knew that they would recover given enough time.

    Using the power of the sundials was step four in his n. The violet moon vanished, as did the six Spirit Trove experts. The bluegreen dragon let loose a howl of pain, and then began to expand, all while rumbling sounds echoed within it. It wouldn¡¯t be able to hold out for very long. Although the bluegreen dragon was very unique, and had a heavenly dao blessing, it was still too weak. Even with the help of the violet moon, it couldn¡¯t keep the six Spirit Trove experts trapped for long. What was more, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have enough godly authority to fully activate the curse within them. He could only push the curse from its sleeping state toward a state of being awake.

    Truth be told, even doing just that waspletely spectacr. After all, he was doing this all with his own powers and abilities. In contrast, godheralds could only do it by making themselves vessels to channel the strength of a god. The oue looked the same, but they were fundamentally different.

    <i>¡°Hold out for an incense stick of time!¡±</i> Xu Qing said to the bluegreen dragon. Then he turned to the city, his eyes raging with uncontroble killing intent.

    He strode toward the city, his voice rumbling out in all directions. ¡°Last month, the Mirrorlings brazenly harmed a Nightshade godherald. It is a crime worthy of the death penalty, and as a result, this species will be exterminated!¡±

    Xu Qing lifted his right hand, then shoved it downward. Instantly, a red bolt of lightning shot out from the miasma behind Xu Qing. It headed straight toward the city with such incredible speed that it left behind a string of thunderous booms.

    That red lightning bolt was none other than Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, whose eyes were bloodshot as killing intent raged in his heart. Having followed Xu Qing all this time, he often fought on Xu Qing¡¯s behalf. Usually, he was a passive participant. But this time, he was the one who took initiative. He was here to avenge the deaths of his audience! When he thought back to the looks in the eyes of his fans, and their voices, it caused rage to burn within the depths of the patriarch¡¯s being.

    ¡°DIE!¡± the patriarch howled, sending the unstoppable Spike of Misfortune viciously mming into Holy City¡¯s defenses.

    Those defenses had just endured Heavenfire Skycrossing, and were already damaged to the point of falling apart. Though a few months of work had gone into repairing them, they were not back to their peak condition. They quickly dimmed, making it obvious they couldn¡¯t stand up to the piercing power of the Spike of Misfortune. Then, a boom echoed out as the fish bone spike, surrounded by red lightning, pierced through the city¡¯s defenses, leaving behind a tiny hole!

    That hole created a chain reaction, causing cracks to spread out from that spot in all directions. Holy City¡¯s defenses were extraordinary. Despite being weakened, and breached, they already glittered with light as they began to self-repair.

    However, on his way here, Xu Qing had already thought out all of his ns. Therefore, as soon as the patriarch pierced through the shield, and before it could do anything to repair itself, a deafening rumbling swept through the dome of heaven. A massive mountain suddenly appeared in midair. From a distance, it resembled a figure seated in meditation. That figure looked like Xu Qing, except that it shouldered two major worlds, though they were dim and faint. Either way, the figure emanated shocking pressure. It was none other than Xu Qing¡¯s Ghost Emperor mountain!

    As soon as the mountain was out in the open, it dropped down viciously onto the city¡¯s defensive shield. The ground shook as the city¡¯s defenses quivered. Their repair functions had no choice but to slow down and stop, as the entire glimmering shield began to sink in on itself! That said, it managed to hold strong, though cracks spread out continuously from where the Ghost Emperor mountain hadnded, and the spot where the Spike of Misfortune had stabbed through.

    Right then, a sound erupted above Xu Qing that could shake the highest heavens. A pitch-ck golden crow flew out, rapidly growingrger as it did. In the blink of an eye, it was 3,000 meters in size, with 200 tail feathers. It looked like a ck phoenix, its wings spread out through the sky as it shot toward Holy City.

    A momentter, it was directly over the city, looking down with cold eyes. It let loose a piercing cry, then opened its mouth, aimed toward the cracked and crumbling defensive shield, and exhaled... heavenfire!

    It was formed from theva the golden crow had consumed in the Heavenfire Sea, and it was unsurpassably hot. As it flew, it breathed fire, causing massive mes to spread out everywhere. From a distance, it looked like the whole city was covered in heavenfire.

    It was almost as if Heavenfire Skycrossing had once again begun!

    All of this takes some time to describe, but the reality is that from the moment Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out until the golden crow started breathing fire, only about four or five breaths of time had passed.

    Holy City¡¯s defensive shield couldn¡¯tst any longer. Popping sounds echoed out, then it copsed. The Ghost Emperor mountain mmed down, shaking the city. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew forward, killing anyone in his path. The mes from above couldn¡¯t be stopped, and they began burning the city.

    All light dimmed in heaven and earth!

    The members of the Twofold Alliance in Holy City had just personally witnessed their leaders swallowed up by a bluegreen dragon. That alone was shocking.

    But even more astonishing was how the curse within them was stirring. And more than that, Xu Qing¡¯s status as a godherald left them shaken to the core. Only a few breaths of time had passed, yet the defensive shield had copsed, heavenfire was spreading everywhere. All of them felt like they were facing a brutal catastrophe.

    That said, though the Twofold Alliance¡¯s Spirit Trove experts had been captured, they still had many Nascent Soul cultivators as well as plenty in Gold Core as well. After the initial shocking development, those cultivators reacted, and shot out toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cold as he hovered in midair. Reaching out with his right hand, he pushed it down in the direction of the city. The dust storm full of poison became a shadowy haze that swept over the city. Each particle within the haze was backed by unstoppable momentum, and contained extremely high concentrations of poison. It also had mutagen.

    The cultivators who had been attacking Xu Qing were hit first, and the bits of sand provoked roars of rage from them. Because of the taboo poison, their skin started melting. However, the sound of the poison dust storm was so intense that their agonized howls were hardly noticeable.

    The storm raged with heaven-rending, earth-crushing power.

    The city walls copsed first, and then buildings in the city started falling apart. Members of the Twofold Alliance began dropping like flies. In the shortest of moments, the entire city was covered over by the 50-kilometer storm. From a distance, it looked like a case of a god exacting punishment!

    Up in the sky, Xu Qing hovered, the god who was openly unveiling his godly might. Wherever he looked, the poison miasma covering the city brought about more death!

    One scream might not be very noticeable. But when many of thembined, it was a different story. Cries of grief and agony echoed out in all directions. This was an unmitigated disaster for the Twofold Alliance.

    And yet, there were still some of them who managed to break free of the poison storm. Even as their bodies rotted, they charged angrily toward Xu Qing. Their facial expressions were vicious, and their hearts pulsed with rage. In their eyes, he was a heinous, irredeemable fiend.

    Xu Qing felt the same about them.

    A momentter, they shed.

    The coldness in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes surged as a dagger appeared in his right hand. He stepped forward, and before his opponent could unleash any magical technique, he attacked. He raised his hand. The de fell. Blood sprayed as a head tumbled to the ground.

    Five umbres appeared over Xu Qing¡¯s head, which merged together to make a violet throne. That was the true manifestation of Xu Qing¡¯s bloodline lifemp. When the throne appeared, winds screamed, and the power of blood sent out fluctuations that became mighty pressure. Everything around Xu Qing distorted.

    Due to the boost to speed and strength, the enemy cultivators were like pieces of paper. They couldn¡¯t stand up to any of his attacks. Corpses fell out of the sky left and right.

    Screams filled the city as Xu Qing became a blur of afterimages. He appeared in front of a Skyface cultivator, then his dagger shed as it slit the enemy¡¯s throat. However, this enemy cultivator was no simpleton. He didn¡¯t die. Reaching out with both hands, he grabbed Xu Qing. Meanwhile, the other surrounding cultivators unleashed attacks.

    Seeing how dangerous the situation was, Xu Qing took the throne of umbres down to surround him. Booms rang out. The throne blurred, turning into five spikes that stabbed out in five directions. Screams resulted as the spikes flew out, circled around, and then formed the throne again.

    Xu Qing burst into motion, his dagger shing through the throat of a Skyface.

    Just then, three figures appeared, racing toward Xu Qing, all of them pulsing with fluctuations of the great circle of Nascent Soul.

    Xu Qing was knocked out of the sky. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his internal organs vibrated painfully. Thankfully, he had a very tough physical body. Although he couldn¡¯t match this level of strength, he could endure it without copsing.

    As the three enemies gave chase, Xu Qing blurred, turning semitransparent as he melted into the haze that filled the city. In that state, his aura would remainpletely hidden. At some point, a blood-red mask had appeared on his face. The mask offered a peak level of concealment, and allowed Xu Qing to be like a specter, a dagger-wielding assassin that slipped through the haze, undetectable.

    Whenever he saw any cultivators from the Twofold Alliance, he slit their throats. If that wasn¡¯t convenient, he would stab their heart, or whatever other vital spot presented itself. He encountered some powerful experts. Those he could kill, he killed. Those he couldn¡¯t kill, he fled from.

    And of course, those Nascent Soul cultivators he killed provided some very nourishing nascent souls. After extracting and crushing them, he would absorb their heavenfate. At the same time, he sent his heavenfiend clones out into the miasma, both to distract the top experts and also to kill whoever they could.

    Rotting corpses fell to the ground constantly. Miserable shrieks filled the haze. The top experts from the Twofold Alliance had no choice but to desperately charge through the haze.

    One group shot toward the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon in the hopes of freeing their patriarchs. Even fewer flew up into midair and unleashed techniques that they hoped would clear the haze of the storm. Unfortunately, no such techniques could do that in a short time.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was an elusive shadow of death that cut down everyone he encountered.

    This was the n he hade up with on the way. This was the battlefield he had prepared for himself!

    When he encountered cultivators weaker than himself, he ughtered them ruthlessly. When he encountered enemies stronger than himself, he would avoid them and let the poison continue to take its toll. If no cultivators got close to him, he would target the mortals. There was no way any of these enemies would be able to escape. The poison haze was too deadly, and any infected by it were marked for death.

    In summary, Xu Qing had passed the death sentence on everyone and anything here! This was the battlefield he had created, and he roved about it like an invisible god of death! He was so ruthless and difficult to deal with that the cultivators from the Twofold Alliance were shaken to the core.

    This was what it looked like when Xu Qing exacted revenge!

 Chapter 565: Add In You, And It Should Be More Than Enough (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 565: Add In You, And It Should Be More Than Enough (part 1)</h4>

    The 50-kilometer taboo poison sandstorm covered all of Holy City. From a distance, the city which had long borne witness to the history of the Twofold Alliance now looked as blurry as if the end of days hade. The invasion of mutagen caused countless residences to dry up and crumble. Innumerable living beings withered up, or even worse, mutated. Many members of those two species reached and passed critical points in terms of mutagen levels. As a result, either their blood copsed, or they mutated into howling beasts. People dropped dead everywhere.

    Inparison, the taboo poison was even more dramatic. Whether it was mutant beasts or members of the Twofold Alliance, and whether they were dead or alive, they showed how powerful the poison was. It was the same with the buildings. The Mirrorlings¡¯ mirrors turned ck, and lost their reflective qualities. The Skyfaces¡¯ hulking frames melted into bloody sludges, and their life force faded. Howls of grief and bitter shrieks merged together to make something that sounded like a funeral dirge. The sound drifted past Xu Qing as he slipped like a spectral assassin through the city.

    Whenever he attacked, it added a new musical note to the dirge. Every instance of ughter added a new rhythm to the lyrics. His dagger was not stained with blood. And that was because every sh of his dagger sent blood spraying onto his arms and clothes. By now, his robe was drenched with so much blood it stuck to his skin.

    Xu Qing had long since grown used to that feeling. He crouched in the haze as he took one life after another. He ignored those wailing in agony. He wasn¡¯t the type to give in charity, and thus, he wouldn¡¯t give them the mercy of ending their pain.

    He couldn¡¯t stop thinking about that city that had been like a host of fireflies in the darkness and gloom. The images flitted through his mind, going faster and faster. And when he thought of the gore at the bottom of those cages, it made him grip his dagger even more tightly. The scenes reached images of Panyan, and Xu Qing sped past a Skyface. Blood sprayed all over his arm.

    ¡°Still not enough,¡± he murmured, suddenly backing up. A momentter, six figuresnded on the spot he had upied moments before.

    All were four- or five-tribtion Nascent Soul experts. Every one had vicious expressions of hatred that mixed brutality and rage. They were supposed to be tracking down Xu Qing to kill him. But the taboo poison in the city was so strong they hadn¡¯t been able to pick up on his trail. It was only by the asional fluctuations that they were able to gradually find him.

    All the while, they were struggling to resist the invasion of the taboo poison. Thankfully, the situation hadn¡¯tsted very long so far, otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t be able to stave off the decay.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t bothered to fight them. He had a very clear goal, and that was the open square between the two royal pces. That was where Duanmu Zang was.

    Xu Qing¡¯s Nightshade disguise, plus the words he had spoken at the outset, were all attempts to hide his true species and goal. That was his only chance at catching the enemypletely unprepared. He needed to save Duanmu Zang and make his escape, not create a situation in which Duanmu Zang was used as a hostage.

    After all, it would bepletely ridiculous to try to use a human to threaten a Nightshade.

    Of course, time was still the most crucial element. If the Twofold Alliance were given the chance to study him and realize his true identity, then things could go bad. It wasn¡¯t apletely perfect n. But it was perfect enough.

    Xu Qing sped through the haze, getting closer and closer to the public square. By means of the poison haze, he could sense Duanmu Zang there, gasping for breath.

    A haze as dense as this wasn¡¯t something Xu Qing could control easily. As a result, Duanmu Zang also had to deal with the invasion of the poison. Thankfully, he had some big advantages. He had been poisoned by Xu Qing in the past, and Xu Qing hadter extruded that poison. Because of that, Duanmu Zang had a level of resistance that the cultivators of the two species couldn¡¯t possibly have.

    Though that resistance couldn¡¯t stave off all the effects of the poison, it would at least help him tost a bit longer. It wasn¡¯t really possible toe up with a foolproof n in the middle of chaotic circumstances.

    Though Xu Qing was in disguise, the fact was that he had shown up right in the middle of Duanmu Zang being assimted. The cultivators of the Twofold Alliance would likely have considered that the two events were rted, and could very well be hiding around Duanmu Zang, <i>guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits</i>. That said, given that they had no idea what was really going on, and also had to deal with the taboo poison invasion, at least they wouldn¡¯t be able to have a huge group of cultivators waiting in ambush.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered with cold light as he noted a few figures moving through the haze ahead of him.

    Eyes narrowing to cover any glitter in his eyes, he sped forward. Moving in a blur, he soon appeared behind a Mirrorling cultivator moving through the haze. Without a sound, Xu Qing lifted his hand to cover the Mirrorling¡¯s forehead.

    The Mirrorling sensed him, but before it could fight back, Xu Qing shoved hard. A crack rang out, and the mirror shattered. The Mirrorling was about to scream, but Xu Qing mped his hand down over its mouth. The scream turned into a mild whimper.

    Xu Qing sent taboo poison roiling out of him and into the Mirrorling. Only after the thing went still in death did he rx his grip, drop the corpse, and then spring back into motion.

    There was one less figure in the haze. Over the course of the following ten breaths of time, yet another figure dropped. By now, the surviving cultivators realized what was going on. The next time he attacked, a dozen enemy cultivators sprang out of hiding.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. Inside, he was calcting how much time had passed. This time, he didn¡¯t avoid the fight. He shifted from his Gruegloom state, and instead tapped into the golden threads within him. He suddenly grewrger. The Nightshade disguise vanished, and he revealed human features. But now, instead of being his normal height, he was nine meters tall.

    He looked like a devilish fiend, sending out godly fluctuations into the poison haze. This was the most powerful fleshly body state Xu Qing could utilize, and it caused a vortex to appear around him.

    He burst into motion, mming into three Skyfaces that were right in front of him. A boom resounded as the three Skyface cultivators, beingpletely incapable of mounting a defense, were sent tumbling backward, blood spraying out of their mouths. One of them physically exploded.

    Each of Xu Qing¡¯s abilities was more stupefying than thest. He didn¡¯t slow down a bit. Spreading his arms wide, he jumped, passing the two Skyfaces and grabbing them along the way. Then he hurled them over his shoulders and mmed them into the ground.

    A string of booms rang out as the two Skyfaces exploded into hazes of blood. However, there were still more Skyfaces and Mirrorlings closing in.

    In the lead was a four-tribtion Nascent Soul cultivator.

    As they neared, daybreak light with its multitude of transformations erupted from Xu Qing and swirled around. It shot toward the cultivators from the Twofold Alliance, and they were forced to back away. However, the four-tribtion Nascent Soul expert decided to hold nothing back. Bursting with killing intent, and ignoring the re-ups of poison within him, he shot toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, and his nascent souls vibrated painfully as he staggered backward. Before he could get his footing, the enemyunched another attack, this time performing an incantation gesture that summoned an evil ghost that lunged toward Xu Qing.

    As soon as that evil ghost made contact with Xu Qing¡¯s godly pressure, it shrieked and tumbled away.

    Yet the four-tribtion cultivator wasn¡¯t going to stop until one of them was dead. Clearly, he knew he couldn¡¯t do anything about the poison, and wanted to kill Xu Qing before his own body rotted away.

    Seeing that the evil ghost didn¡¯t work, he bit his tongue and spat out some blood, causing the ghost to gopletely berserk. He also produced a bottle gourd, which he used to release even more evil ghosts. Finally, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing a golden bell to fly out into the open.

    The sound of the bell stabbed into Xu Qing¡¯s soul, all while the evil ghosts snapped at him. Trembling, he tumbled back again and then retreated. The enemy pursued him. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t a match in speed, and without his Gruegloom state, it didn¡¯t take long for the enemy to catch up.

    The rumbling booms from thebat were noticed by more enemy cultivators, who started moving in that direction.

    About a dozen breaths of timeter, Xu Qing was sted thirty meters backward by the four-tribtion cultivator. The four-tribtion cultivator was about to press the attack when he realized his body wasn¡¯tplete. His legs were almostpletely rotted away, leaving only his torso hovering in midair. And his nascent souls were decaying as the taboo poison filled him.

    ¡°I...¡± the cultivator growled defiantly. He had gone all out, yet the human enemy¡¯s body seemed capable of absorbing even immense amounts of damage. He hadn¡¯t been able to deliver a death blow. What was more, because of the seven-colored light that he could unleash, the human was incredibly hard to capture. Even as despair filled him, a red bolt of lightning shot out of nowhere and stabbed into his forehead. The cultivator flopped to the ground, dead in body and soul.

    Xu Qing struggled to his feet. He was covered with bite marks from the evil ghosts.

    Now that the four-tribtion cultivator was dead, those evil ghosts were dispersing. However, some of them, havinge out of that bottle gourd, didn¡¯t just dissipate. Though they copsed because of the mere aura of Xu Qing¡¯s body, that took time, and as long as they could move, they still tried to ravenously devour him.

    Xu Qing ignored them. As of now, he knew that he wasn¡¯t a match for a four-tribtion cultivator. That said, he wasn¡¯t worried. He controlled this battlefield, and though his battle prowess wasn¡¯t sufficient to take out every enemy, his defenses were incredibly strong.

    Besides, even enemies who he couldn¡¯t take out with an attack would still die eventually because of the poison. The dead cultivators piling up around Xu Qing ensured that those survivors didn¡¯t dare to keep fighting him. Instead, they flew up into the air in the hopes of escaping the poison.

    Xu Qing paid them no heed. Gasping for breath, he continued his approach to the public square.

    He had trapped six Spirit Trove enemies, shattered the city¡¯s defensive shields, poisoned at least 100,000 members of the Twofold Alliance, killed hundreds of Gold Core enemies, and killed dozens of Nascent Soul experts. That was about the limit of what he could do.

    He couldn¡¯t push himself any harder as he finally reached the public square, and saw Duanmu Zang there, struggling to breathe.

 Chapter 565: Add In You, And It Should Be More Than Enough (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 565: Add In You, And It Should Be More Than Enough (part 2)</h4>

    Duanmu Zang had clearly been deeply affected by the poison, and his body was starting to decay. When he spotted Xu Qing, he opened his mouth as if to speak, yet didn¡¯t seem capable of mustering the energy. Xu Qing smiled, reached out, and put his hand on Duanmu Zang. The poison inside him immediately left him and returned to Xu Qing. Xu Qing ced some daybreak light onto Duanmu Zang, creating a barrier between him and the taboo poison as well as the warding spells that had been set up to restrain him.

    Duanmu Zang shivered as the poison left him and the effects of the warding spells faded. He immediately began to heal, however, his wounds were so serious that it was a struggle for him to do more than sit up. He smiled bitterly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t havee.¡± He had seen Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon rising, but right now, he didn¡¯t ask any questions about that.

    Xu Qing sat down next to Duanmu Zang and tried to catch his breath. Based on the fluctuations he could sense, he had an idea of what was going on. The powerful experts from both species were gathering nearby. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they made a move. He could sense the intive call of his bluegreen dragon, which made it clear that it wouldn¡¯t be long before the Spirit Trove experts broke free.

    <i>Even the violet moon and my heavenly dao working together can¡¯tst longer than an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. Not that impressive.</i>

    Xu Qing sighed as he looked up into the sky. Crimson Mother was sleeping, which meant that he was much freer than before to use the power of the violet moon. The main thing he needed to be on guard about was the Red Moon Cathedral. That said, with the heavenly dao and his taboo poison to cover the traces of the violet moon, as long as he didn¡¯t use it dramatically right out in the open, he should be fine.

    Xu Qing looked at Duanmu Zang. ¡°Want a drink?¡±

    Duanmu Zang nodded.

    Xu Qing took out two jugs of alcohol, one of which he gave to Duanmu Zang. The other he put to his lips, then threw his head back and took a long drink.

    Duanmu Zang took the alcohol and noted the rumbling in the sky, as well as the roars of rage that sent winds whipping about. The ground trembled, and the entire city rocked back and forth. The haze stirred as if it might spread beyond the bounds of the city.

    The bluegreen dragon finally let loose a howl of grief as its body copsed, and the six Spirit Trove experts burst out into the open.

    As soon as they appeared, the curse in their blood stirred as if it might awaken. They suppressed it violently. And then they noticed the bodies littering the city, and all the other catastrophes, and their rage built. All of them unleashed various magics, causing heaven and earth to shake violently. They suppressed the heavenfire and began to disperse the poison haze. Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior raced back to Xu Qing.

    Hope appeared in the eyes of the surviving Twofold Alliance cultivators.

    Seeing everything that was happening, Duanmu Zang¡¯s eyes hardened with determination. After taking a long drink, he prepared to stand. Xu Qing put out a hand to stop him.

    ¡°There¡¯s no rush,¡± Xu Qing said, smiling.

    Duanmu Zang looked at the smile on Xu Qing¡¯s face, and noted the bite marks all over him from the evil ghosts. Fear lingering in his heart, Duanmu Zang said, ¡°What about all that...?¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t even my real body,¡± Xu Qing replied. ¡°It¡¯s fine. They can bite away.¡±

    When the words left his mouth, certain vibrationsing from D-132 went away.

    Xu Qing ignored that and looked around. ¡°Senior, I saved most of the people from the city. But there were some... who I wasn¡¯t able to save.¡±

    Duanmu Zang sighed softly.

    The haze around them stirred as the six Spirit Trove experts appeared overhead. Because of their presence, a wind kicked up, spreading everywhere and reducing the effects of the poison haze and all the sand. The golden crow had already done all it could do, so it returned. The heavenfire in the city went out.

    Finally, the city became visible again within the scattering haze. It was more than seventy percent destroyed. Most of the buildings had copsed. Some sumbed to fire, others were destroyed by mutant beasts, and some yet were dissolved by poison. As for corpses... there actually weren¡¯t very many. Dead people couldn¡¯t exactly flee poison, and thus, they melted into gory pools of sludge that eventually evaporated into noxious fumes. Weeping, howls of grief, and shouts of rage drifted about.

    The surviving members of the Twofold Alliance trembled as they took it all in. They couldn¡¯t have been more enraged. The Spirit Trove experts above had bloodshot eyes as they focused on Xu Qing drinking alcohol as he sat in the square.

    ¡°Just who exactly are you?!¡±

    ¡°Your godherald,¡± Xu Qing said coolly, looking up at them.

    The six Spirit Trove experts pondered his response. It wasn¡¯t possible to fake the awakening of the curse, which meant that they had already begun to suspect who Xu Qing was.

    <i>A godherald from another region.</i>

    That was what all of them were thinking, and it made them feel both humiliated and murderous. Their aura caused the dome of heaven to ripple, and resulted in a huge vortex spinning above them. Within it were six faces.

    None of them would ever dare to kill a Moonrite godherald. However, if this was a godherald from another region, that made things a bit different. They could theoretically capture him and turn him over to the Red Moon Cathedral. For all they knew, they might be rewarded with an extremely rare medicinal pill called a painquelling lozenge, which could temporarily alleviate the pain of the Moonrite Region curse. That pain only got worse as one¡¯s cultivation base increased, so such pills were precious.

    They exchanged nces. Then, at the direction of the Mirrorling patriarch, the royal preceptor descended toward Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t move too quickly. He could tell that this sudden interloper had many abilities, all of them iparably gruish. Therefore, he needed to maintain caution.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing got to his feet, all while reaching out to the god¡¯s finger with divine will.

    <i>¡°I¡¯ve already reduced their number with my poison. Because of my violet moon and heavenly dao, the meat is still fresh. If you don¡¯t eat now, you¡¯re going to be hungryter. I¡¯m nning to stay in Moonrite for quite a while.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯m sleeping!¡±</i> the finger said proudly, suppressing the gnawing hunger within ¨©t.<i> ¡°You don¡¯t get hungry when you¡¯re asleep! What, you¡¯re going to threaten to end my life? Believe me, that won¡¯t work. Crimson Mother is asleep and won¡¯t wake up anytime soon. You¡¯ve used that excuse a few too many times. I can tell that you¡¯re afraid of dying, you little punk. So what now? If I die, you die. And I¡¯ll die before eating!¡±</i>

    Hearing that, Xu Qing calmly looked up at the Mirrorling royal preceptor. Then he took out the spirit abyss talisman from Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    The moment that talisman appeared, the god¡¯s finger shivered. <i>¡°What are you doing?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯m getting ready to take them to Emperor Ancient Spirit as an offering.¡±</i> Xu Qing took a step up into the air, his eyes shing with resolve.

    The stunned finger was starting to feel very uneasy. <i>¡°Didn¡¯t Emperor Ancient Spirit tell you that you had to bring a crippled god? These Spirit Trove cultivators definitely aren¡¯t good enough.¡±</i> [1]

    <i>¡°Add in you, and it should be enough,¡±</i> Xu Qing said coldly.

    As he fixed his eyes on the royal preceptor, the god¡¯s finger started shrieking.

    <i>¡°Y-y-you¡¯re... you¡¯repletely devoid of conscience! I¡¯ve saved you so many times!!¡±</i> The finger was furious. However, ¨©t also realized ¨©t had miscalcted. Then ¨©t thought back to the terrifying gaze of Emperor Ancient Spirit, and the sound of the emperor swallowing. The finger shivered. <i>¡°Why bother the exalted Emperor Ancient Spirit with something as trivial as this? I¡¯ll handle it!¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger burst out of D-132, looking sullen and resentful as ¨©t started augmenting Xu Qing¡¯s body. Godly fluctuations that surpassed anything from before erupted from Xu Qing! The dark sky rippled as a vortex appeared, rumbling loudly and emanating terrifying pressure.

    The faces of the six Spirit Trove experts flickered in shock. The Mirrorling royal preceptor stopped moving and looked up.

    ¡°What¡¯s this...?¡±

    ¡°Impossible!!¡±

    As they devolved into a panic, the fluctuationsing off Xu Qing caused the sky to lose any color, and physically shook the entire city. Loud cracking sounds rang out from inside Xu Qing, each of them like thunder. The golden threads inside of him emanated golden light that spread out topletely cover him. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s physical body once again began to grow dramatically. In the blink of an eye, he reached a height of 90 meters. He loomed over thends like a giant mountain peak.

    As the overhead vortex spun, rifts opened up, as well as one lightning bolt after another. Then the lightning bolts focused on Xu Qing. The aura of a god was on full disy. The power of mutagen raged everywhere, distorting the air and making it difficult to see clearly.

    The city trembled. Buildings copsed. More cries of anguish echoed out. Meanwhile, the six Spirit Trove experts up above felt immeasurably intense sensations of deadly crisis. It screamed at them from their flesh, blood, and even their souls. Every fiber of their being seemed to be joining forces to scream at them.

    ¡°A god!!¡±

    Earlier, Xu Qing¡¯s use of the taboo poison had left them suspicious, but now... they were downright terrified. Xu Qing¡¯s current aura surpassed anything remotely mortal.

    As of now, he had be h¨¥!

    A cry of rage erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth and spread out along with the cosmic fluctuations filling the sky.

    The six Spirit Trove experts, whether they had real secret troves or were just in the dao begetting phase, were stunned by the howl of rage, and lost any ability to fight back. They were like mortals who had heard the roar of a tiger, and were overwhelmed with sensations of panic. It was a terror that formed because of the vast difference between them. It was the crushing pressure that mortals felt in the presence of a higher life level, a god.

    Even though the god¡¯s finger was weak, ¨©t was still a god!

    As for Xu Qing, h¨¥ was nowpletely golden in color. Golden light red and godly might weighed down as h¨¥ took a step toward the six Spirit Trove cultivators! H¨©s single stepnded, and was right in front of the Mirrorling royal preceptor.

    The royal preceptor had a high rank in his species, and had parasitized a body made of pure rock. But now he was like a mortal. The mirror on his face shone with pure terror, and he was powerless to do anything. Xu Qing¡¯s hand reached out andtched around his neck.

    The finger began to absorb. Bloodcurdling screams erupted from the royal preceptor¡¯s mouth as his body withered. Only a momentter, he copsed into ash, while streams of white energy streamed into the god¡¯s finger.

    <i>¡°Disgusting! It¡¯s rotten! Absolutely revolting!¡±</i> The god¡¯s finger made some retching sounds. Furious, ¨©t decided not to eat anything further. But then ¨©t realized how incredibly hungry ¨©t was. Given that state of starvation, ¨©t didn¡¯t think that vor was that important. <i>¡°Fine, no need to be picky! I¡¯ll eat first, then worry about everything elseter!¡±</i>

    1. Xu Qing made the promise to Emperor Ancient Spirit in <u>chapter 537.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 566: Godly Authority of Misfortune (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 566: Godly Authority of Misfortune (part 1)</h4>

    The vortex spun in the dark sky, but eventually stopped growing after it covered all of Holy City. Catastrophe was once again about to strike the ce. The members of the Twofold Alliance had already dealt with a curse resurgence, taboo poison, and scorching heavenfire. Things were already miserable. Their captured patriarchs had been freed, which brought some hope. But then a god arrived, and that hope was shredded to pieces. Despair filled the city.

    Also filled with despair were the surviving five Spirit Trove experts. Three of them, those in dao begetting, were shaken to the point of being dazed. The godly might of the god¡¯s finger had bereft them of any hope of defending themselves. They were so terrified their minds were nk.

    The patriarchs both had secret troves that had produced heavenly daos. Although the violet moon had awoken the curse within them, they could still cling to lucidity. In fact, it was that very lucidity that caused them to be filled with so much astonishment and terror that it slowly became pure despair. In the final analysis, each of them had only a single secret trove. Perhaps if they had five, cing them in the great circle of Spirit Trove, then they might have a chance of surviving.

    But they didn¡¯t have that many secret troves. Therefore, they could do nothing but watch as the 90-meter-tall figure devoured the Mirrorling royal preceptor. Then that figure took a step in their direction. It was like a fierce tiger taking a step toward a trembling deer.

    The Skyface Spirit Trove cultivator stood there nkly as the finger approached. Then the finger directed Xu Qing¡¯s hand tond atop the Skyface¡¯s head.

    <i>He¡¯s Xu Qing. He¡¯s Xu Qing! I¡¯m eating Xu Qing!</i>

    A shocking gravitational force erupted,tching onto the dao begetting cultivator, causing him to rapidly wither up until he was dust.

    White energy poured into the god¡¯s finger. It was disgusting, and caused the finger to start violently retching.

    In that moment, the patriarchs of the Twofold Alliance suddenly erupted with shocking fluctuations. After some struggle, they had finally managed to reveal their secret troves. There was no time to use magical techniques. They were just hoping that a st of pure power would break them free from the god¡¯s finger. What was more, their personal heavenly daos were in their secret troves, and they were targeting the god¡¯s finger.

    ¡°Detonate!¡± the patriarchs screamed, and then they fled like mad in the opposite direction.

    Their secret troves rolled toward the finger, pulsing with terrifying fluctuations. Cracks spread out onto their surfaces, and then they exploded. Around that time, the other two dao begetting cultivators recovered their senses. Trembling, they unleashed their own iplete secret troves and sent them flying toward the god¡¯s finger. An intense boom rang out as the two illusory secret troves detonated. The terrifying shock wave that resulted swept over the 90-meter-tall body.

    At that point, it was without any hesitation whatsoever that the four Spirit Trove experts fled. They were so deeply shaken that they couldn¡¯t care less about the survival of their species. They just wanted to get to safety. In the blink of an eye, they became beams of prismatic light that shot off over the horizon.

    Yet right then, a very gruish scene yed out.

    It started with the Skyface¡¯s royal preceptor, who was in the dao begetting phase. He had flown about 3,000 meters away when, as his secret trove exploded behind him, he pulled out a special treasure. It was a very rare item that was the most powerful object he possessed. Not only could it provide a huge blessing of speed, but also, he was capable of long-range teleportations. In fact, it was a range that surpassed any sort of ordinary teleportation talisman.

    Without any hesitation, he activated the treasure.

    And yet, that treasure, which had always worked perfectly for him, failed to activate. Apparently, the general chaos, plus the detonation of the secret troves, caused its magical power to malfunction.

    If that were all there were to the situation, it might not have been a big deal. Not even very gruish things would surprise this royal preceptor. But after his treasure failed to activate, it started cracking. An instantter, it exploded. It was only an explosion of a treasure. However, the royal preceptor had already hung the talisman around his neck, and thus bore the full brunt of the detonation.

    The shockwave swept over him. A scream rang out as he mmed onto the ground, seriously injured. He had already been weakened by the secret trove explosion, and now his treasure detonated, leaving him even more deeply wounded.

    Confused, he tried to struggle to his feet. Most gruish of all was that a Mirrorling general up above suddenly turned in ce, then raced toward the spot where the secret troves had detonated.

    Given that the Mirrorling had the same cultivation base as the Skyface royal preceptor, it was no wonder he reached that spot in the blink of an eye, then disappeared....

    Meanwhile, something horrendously gruish was happening to the Skyface patriarch. As he was fleeing like mad, a stream of heavenfire suddenly appeared in the sky above him.

    Heavenfire Skycrossing had just been going on barely a month before, so it wasn¡¯t unheard of for stray bits of heavenfire to appear here and there. But they usually wouldn¡¯t be very destructive, and would only affect a small area. That was especially true considering how massive the Moonrite Region was. As a result, the statistical probability of lingering bits of heavenfirending on inhabited areas was extremely remote. But right now... a massive, 300-meter-wide swath of heavenfire had appeared right over the Skyface patriarch¡¯s head. The astonishingly powerful heavenfire fell.

    The Skyface patriarch had an extraordinary physical body, and despite detonating his secret trove, still had a lot of strength left. Heart filled with fear, he burst into motion, heading around the falling heavenfire. Thanks to his quick reaction, he avoided most of the heavenfire, though he did receive a few random burns in the process.

    Once safe, he looked down at the fire, wondering what exactly was going on. However, there were more gruish things toe. Strange heavenly lightning had somehow gathered in the canopy of heaven, and then it fell. Well over 10,000 lightning bolts were all heading in his direction.

    Fundamentally speaking, the chances of this happening were so small as to be nonexistent. Yet it was very clearly happening.

    The Skyface patriarch¡¯s pupils constricted, and he madly tried to fight back. However, a series of booms echoed out, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. He staggered, hit over and over again before managing to flee the affected area. Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly stopped in ce. Scowling, he looked down at his body to see that it was withering up.

    He had suppressed the curse inside of him, but apparently, the shock waves from the secret trove detonations had caused it to awaken. The curse of Crimson Mother would kill you beyond the shadow of a doubt. A momentter, his withering body copsed into dust. Thest thing he saw before he died was that nothing like this was happening to any of hispatriots....

    Down below, the struggling Skyface royal preceptor saw what happened, and it filled him with intense terror.

    ¡°Misfortune!!¡± he said. At the same time, the fluctuations of teleportation power appeared in a different direction in the sky.

    It was the Mirrorling patriarch, who had moved quickly enough to avoid the misfortune. As a result, nothing unusual happened when he activated his teleportation talisman and vanished.

    After all of that, the god¡¯s finger let loose another wave of godly might. The finger¡¯s 90-meter-tall god body then stepped out of the area affected by the secret trove detonations. The body didn¡¯t look any different from before. It still glowed with golden light, and didn¡¯t seem to be injured at all. It was almost as if the detonation of the secret troves were like nothing more than sparks to ¨©t.

    The reality was... ¨©ts body was starting to shrivel. In order to protect ¨©ts body, ¨©t had wasted a lot of god power. Considering ¨©t had been hungry before, that resulted in ¨©t being downright starving now.

    <i>¡°Hungry. Hungry! So hungry!!¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger was essentially salivating like mad. With a burst of speed, ¨©t arrived in front of the despairing Skyface royal preceptor and devoured him. The finger felt more starved than ever, though, and ¨©t was so empty ¨©ts pangs of hunger resounded like thunder. The finger turned and looked at Holy City. ¨©ts expression became one of struggle. In the end, it didn¡¯t matter how disgusting the food was. When you were starving, you didn¡¯t worry about such things.

    ¨©t blurred into motion, appearing right over the city. The surviving members of the Twofold Alliance therein could only look on in despair as the finger inhaled deeply. Instantly, the huge vortex overhead sank down and enveloped the city. Innumerable howls of grief and screams of pain spread out. Countless members of the two species were sucked up and devoured. The process was slow. After half the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the huge city... was basically emptied out.

    <i>¡°Disgusting! Revolting. So gross!¡±</i> the finger spat angrily.

    Back down in the public square, Duanmu Zang looked at what was happening and seemedpletely taken aback.

    <i>Have humans on the outside really be this strong?</i>

    Although Duanmu Zang was certain there were things he didn¡¯t understand about the situation, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what it indicated about humankind in general.

    Thankfully, the finger had some level of intelligence, and steered clear of Duanmu Zang. Then, at a certain point, ¨©t seemed to sense something, and suddenly opened ¨©ts mouth wide and looked up into the sky, as if waiting for something.

    Before long, teleportation fluctuations spread out, and someone popped out right in front of the finger¡¯s god body.

    He was in really bad shape. He had lost half of his body. The parasitized host was falling apart, his true form mirror was almostpletely shattered, and his expression was one of despair. He had indeed escaped sessfully via teleportation. But then he appeared beneath the surface of the Heavenfire Sea. However, he had paid a heavy price for the teleportation, and then, as he tried to leave the Heavenfire Sea, he was attacked by a mutant beast.

    He had been so outmatched that, despite knowing he was dealing with the threat of misfortune, he had been forced to teleport back to stay alive. That second teleportation was what brought him here.

    Heart full of grief and indignation, he could do nothing as the god body of the finger opened ¨©ts mouth, inhaled, and reduced the patriarch to ashes. The finger¡¯s god body then bent over and retched loudly, all while looking vaguely resentful. Then ¨©t descended on the city below.

    As ¨©ts feetnded on the ground, the body shrank down. ¨©t went from 90 meters to 30. And before long ¨©t was normal sized again. The golden color faded away, and the golden light disappeared from the eyes.

    Xu Qing was back in his normal body, his eyes shining as he walked across the square.

    In his sea of consciousness, the god¡¯s finger pulsed with the aura of a curse, and ¨©t was bitterly grumbling.

    <i>¡°Food in the Moonrite Region is all marked! It doesn¡¯t matter if you kill them or eat them. Your karma ends up suffering from Crimson Mother¡¯s curse! I said I wasn¡¯t going to eat! No eating. No, no, no! Now we¡¯re finished. Once Crimson Mother wakes up, we¡¯ll be the first meal! I need to sleep. I have to sleep! And no matter how you yell at me next time, I¡¯m not going to wake up!!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing made an attempt to cate the finger, but the finger just ignored him, went into D-132, and went to sleep.

 Chapter 566: Godly Authority of Misfortune (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 566: Godly Authority of Misfortune (part 2)</h4>

    Seeing that there was nothing more he could do on that front, Xu Qing ignored the finger and walked up to Duanmu Zang.

    Duanmu Zang instinctively edged away from him a bit before smiling wryly. ¡°Is that... is that you?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then surveyed the area.

    Holy City was now empty. If there were any survivors, they would sumb to the taboo poison soon enough.

    Duanmu Zang was stunned. In the past, he had dreamed of wiping out the Twofold Alliance, but it wasn¡¯t something he could aplish on his own. But now he had witnessed it actually happening. Duanmu Zang took a deep breath, and his eyes once again began to shine. He was the leader of a small nation of humans, and had experienced many things in life. As such, he knew that one of the most pressing matters was to start figuring out what to do going forward.

    He looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing, we need this city! Can you help me to clear the ce out? After that, I¡¯ll bring my people here.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Sure.¡± After telling Duanmu Zang where everyone else was, Xu Qing thought for a moment and then asked, ¡°What about the Red Moon Cathedral...?¡±

    Duanmu Zang stood, his eyes shing. He had now shoved aside all distractions and was starting to analyze the situation. He shook his head.

    ¡°The Red Moon Cathedral is so important that the life or death of these two tiny species won¡¯t matter much. All they want are their offerings. Therefore, we need to prepare an offering for them. Only the elites of this species lived in Holy City. There are plenty more on the outside. Probably numbering more than 500,000. Leave it to me. They have no idea what happened here. I¡¯ll go take care of things, and then we¡¯ll have our offering ready!¡±

    As Duanmu Zang checked the status of his cultivation base, Xu Qing took some medicinal pills out of his bag of holding and handed them over.

    After epting the pills, Duanmu Zang grinned and looked around. ¡°There¡¯s no time to lose! I¡¯ll take over for now, Xu Qing!¡±

    Throwing some medicinal pills into his mouth, Duanmu Zang flew off into the sky.

    After he was gone, Xu Qing stood in the square quietly for a while.

    There was no need for him to oversee Duanmu Zang. Considering the vile surroundings, the fact that Duanmu Zang had set up a ce of refuge and also reached a high level of cultivation, went to show he was capable of many things.

    After a time, Xu Qing started walking through the city. As he proceeded, he collected all remaining scraps of taboo poison, as well as any lingering bits of mutagen. He asionally encountered some member of the Twofold Alliance who had not been devoured, but were slowly sumbing to poison. Xu Qing didn¡¯t need to give any orders. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior immediately appeared and struck them dead.

    Two dayster, the city¡¯s tribtion was over. It had been cleansed of evil, and was now empty. Xu Qing, who sat on the roof of one of the royal pces, felt unusually calm.

    His cultivation base had risen significantly.

    The finger had devoured nearly everything in the city, and thus, Xu Qing didn¡¯t benefit much from that. But in the ughter before that point, he had unwittingly pushed all of his nascent souls to the point where they could summon the second heavenfate tribtion.

    ¡°It won¡¯t be long now,¡± he murmured.

    It was a clear night with no moon. Heaven and earth were both dark. As Xu Qing sat there quietly, he thought back to the gory paste at the bottoms of those cages. And he thought about Panyan. After a while, he took out a violet-colored flute, put it to his lips, and yed the song Plumdark had taught him. The whimpering of the flute drifted to and fro in the city.

    Time passed. Ten dayster, the humans arrived.

    As Xu Qing caught sight of the procession of more than 100,000 humans, he saw a sh of white appear in their midst. That sh became a young woman who rushed toward him.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing!¡± Ling¡¯er said. Hurrying up, she wrapped her arms around him.

    Xu Qing gently stroked her hair, and a smile broke out onto his previously expressionless face. Behind Ling¡¯er were the shadow, the stone lion, and the head.

    Before the head could say anything, Xu Qing threw it and the lion back into D-132. The shadow obediently returned to its spot beneath his feet.

    ¡°Come on,¡± he said softly. ¡°Let¡¯s go receive them.¡± He led the way toward the iing procession.

    Nothing unusual happened in the following days.

    The humans brought new life to the city. Their sorrow remained in their memories, but hope for the future became a seed that would grow in their hearts. Buildings were going back up, and the city wall was being repaired. Gradually,ughter could be heard in the city. The sounds of joy filled the streets.

    Duanmu Zang returned a monthter.

    Somehow, he had acquired over a thousand iron cages, into which had been crammed numerous members of the Twofold Alliance. Because Skyfaces were sorge, it wasn¡¯t possible to fit as many of them into the cages. However, overall, it seemed that there were well over the required 500,000 offerings. Their despairing, numb gazes looked exactly like the gazes of the human victims they had treated like nothing more than food.

    Xu Qing felt no pity for these people from the Twofold Alliance.

    The cages were plopped down outside the city, and there they waited for their doom to be sealed.

    Duanmu Zang¡¯s return brought new life to the city and the repair work. Soon, the spell formations were back in working order. When the defensive shield was activated, the 100,000 humans jumped for joy. Ling¡¯er did the same. They had lived desperate lives in the bottom of an abandoned mine, just waiting to be food. Given that, this new set of circumstances felt much safer.

    As Xu Qing watched from the city wall, he felt happy. Then he looked at the distant horizon. It was time to leave.

    <i>It¡¯s too bad I still don¡¯t have a way to remove that curse.</i>

    He turned to the side, where Duanmu Zang had materialized next to him. Handing Xu Qing a jug of alcohol, he sat down, looked at the people below, and sighed.

    ¡°Thank you, Xu Qing,¡± he said softly.

    Xu Qing nodded and took a drink. ¡°I just did what I had to do.¡±

    Duanmu Zang looked deeply at Xu Qing, but in the end, decided not to ask any questions about how everything yed out. It was all the past now. He knew that everyone had secrets, and that sometimes, it was best not to pry.

    Taking a drink, he said, ¡°By the way, I asked around about the Doorites. Most sightings have been in the central district here in the east. That¡¯s where offerings are delivered to the Red Moon Cathedral. After all, this time of year is a busy season for the Doorites. They do a lot of business in times like this.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had previously asked Duanmu Zang about long-range teleportation portals. He needed to get to Mount Heavenly Ox, which was in the south of the Moonrite Region. That was a very, very long way away.

    During his entire time near the Heavenfire Sea, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t spotted a single teleportation portal the likes of which weremon in Sea-Sealing County. There wasn¡¯t even a teleportation portal in Holy City. It was possible to buy teleportation talismans, but most of them were the entropic variety that teleported you to a random ce.

    Duanmu Zang had exined to him that, in the Moonrite Region, only the biggest species had teleportation portals.

    Normally speaking, anyone else who wanted to teleport somewhere would need to enlist the help of the Doorites.

    The Doorites were an unusual species who were born with an innate and permanent connection to a specific and unique door. As a species, they did not have any one area that they called home. What was more, when members of their species became adults, they would leave to travel about the region. The species¡¯ innate ability was that they could make a record in their door of any location they had visited. Later on, they could teleport people back to that spot. The range depended on the level of cultivation base involved.

    That was how the Doorites earned a living. And whenever the Red Moon Cathedral went somewhere to demand offerings, the Doorites would have plenty of customers to do business with among the species who didn¡¯t control teleportation portals.

    ¡°If you want,¡± Duanmu Zang continued, ¡°you cane with me to the east. I need to leave soon anyway to deliver our offering to the cathedral.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it. If he didn¡¯t use teleportation portals, it would take far too long to travel to Mount Heavenly Ox. The appointed time to meet up with the Captain had already passed. Given that they had no way tomunicate, Xu Qing made his decision quickly. Based on experience, he knew that the Red Moon Cathedral apparently had no way to detect his violet moon. So he nodded.

    Thus, three dayster at dawn, Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er left along with Duanmu Zang and all the cages. When they left, the 100,000 humans in the city all stepped out at the same time. Looking at Xu Qing, they got to their knees and kowtowed. Their eyes were full of blessings, and they all prayed that Xu Qing would be safe on his journeys.

    Xu Qing looked back. Moved, he sped hands and bowed.

    The sky was dark, and a stiff wind blew, reducing visibility. But there was nothing that could mask the hope in the city.

    Xu Qing turned and left with the caravan.

    Later, as the wind blew, Duanmu Zang spoke in a hoarse voice. ¡°Xu Qing, there¡¯s a legend in the Moonrite Region. Supposedly, because of the curse, the souls of people who die in this region cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation. Instead, they return to the Red Moon Cathedral.

    ¡°When Crimson Motheres to enjoy h¨¥r offerings, those souls be seeds that are reincarnated in the region. It¡¯s an endless cycle, and is why this ce is also called the Red Moon Spirit Garden. People from here live and die over and over again, always living lives of bitterness, unable to escape Moonrite.

    ¡°The point is... Panyan might be dead. But her soul should still be there at the Red Moon Cathedral.¡±

 Chapter 567: An Agreement Reached Beneath the Heavenfire Sea (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 567: An Agreement Reached Beneath the Heavenfire Sea (part 1)</h4>

    A great wind blew over the destends of the Moonrite Region. It was like a solemn dirge recounting the distant past. Dust rose up into the wind, spreading out into all heaven and earth, bing a part of the duskiness that filled everything.

    Just barely visible within the hazy darkness was a caravan. It was made of giant metal cages, within which were innumerable Mirrorlings and Skyfaces.

    On a cart up front were two people who were a generation apart in age. The old man wore a mask, as did the young person. The masks featured very dramatic facial expressions full of piety and devotion. They almost looked worshipful.

    ¡°Anyone who goes to the Red Moon Cathedral to provide offerings is required to wear masks like this,¡± Duanmu Zang exined. ¡°It''s one of the ceremonial requirements. Thankfully, I did this before when I was younger.

    ¡°Here in the Moonrite Region, the destruction of the Twofold Alliance isn¡¯t going to cause any waves. To the majestic Red Moon Cathedral, two minor species getting wiped out isn¡¯t worth paying attention to. That¡¯s especially true toward the end of one of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s visits. Countless species have been stockpiling offerings for many years. People really start to go crazy. We need to be ready for anything, but don¡¯t worry, I can handle all the details.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, while simultaneously reaching up to touch the mask he wore. He was actually already familiar with some of these things thanks to the intelligence reports from the Captain.

    They were now nine days away from Holy City. It would take another half a month to reach the spot where the Red Moon Cathedral was waiting for offerings. Over the past few days, Xu Qing had been putting a lot of thought into the matter that Duanmu Zang mentioned when they first set out.

    Duanmu Zang looked at Xu Qing. ¡°You¡¯re still thinking about the dead souls in the cathedral?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the dusky dome of heaven and quietly replied, ¡°From ancient times until now, has there ever been anyone who managed to free themselves from the curse of the Moonrite Region, as well as its cycle of reincarnation?¡±

    Duanmu Zang shook his head. ¡°Never.¡±

    Xu Qing thought back to the Captain¡¯s previous lives.

    ¡°But,¡± Duanmu Zang suddenly continued, ¡°there are some people who have tried very hard to do so. And they¡¯re still trying.¡± Duanmu Zang looked meaningfully at Xu Qing, as if feeling him out. <i>¡°The red moon is by no means eternal....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked back at Duanmu Zang and nodded. The words sounded like some sort of code phrase, except he didn¡¯t know the follow-up response.

    Duanmu Zang looked at him for a moment, then couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to respond?¡±

    ¡°<i>The red moon is by no means eternal</i>,¡± Xu Qing said in a low voice.

    Duanmu Zang said nothing at first. A moment passed, and he sighed, took off his mask, and massaged the bridge of his nose. ¡°Xu Qing, have you heard of the Moonrebel Congregation?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened. He had never heard of any such organization, not even in the Captain¡¯s intelligence reports. He shook his head.

    The moment Duanmu Zang said ¡®Moonrebel Congregation,¡¯ his gaze remained focused on Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, as if he were looking for something. After noting Xu Qing¡¯s reaction, he didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any questions. He could tell that this ¡®Moonrebel Congregation¡¯ was obviously very secretive, and probing for more information could lead to a misunderstanding.

    The caravan moved on.

    Over the course of the next seven days, they left the ins, went through some mountains, and got very close to the center of the eastern part of the region. At one point when they were resting on a mountaintop, Duanmu Zang took a drink of alcohol, and then seemed to finally make a decision.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I trust that you¡¯re not working with the Red Moon Cathedral.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him.

    ¡°The Moonrebel Congregation is a secret society that¡¯s existed for a very long time in the Moonrite Region. In fact, it goes back just as long as the Red Moon Cathedral.

    ¡°No one knows how exactly it got started. And it¡¯s been wiped out many times. However, whenever Crimson Motherpletes a harvest, and the survivors start to rebuild, the organization will grow back.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. If this Moonrebel Congregation had been around for as long as the Red Moon Cathedral, it went to show it was extraordinary in some way. It seemed particrly astonishing that it would grow stronger after the destruction that regrly urred in the Red Moon Spirit Garden.

    Although Crimson Mother was currently sleeping, that state of affairs wouldn¡¯t continue forever.

    Duanmu Zang continued, ¡°The Moonrebel Congregation attracts people in the Moonrite Region who wish to fight back. They dream of one day removing the ancient curse, and turning everything around. Although it¡¯s a very vague dream, at least it provides some hope.

    ¡°And a lot of hard work has gone into that dream. Though individual members of the Moonrebel Congregation can¡¯t really work together in the open, there¡¯s plenty of research going on about how to dispel the curse.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart surged at those words. He had done some of his own research into the curse while in the city beneath the mine, but didn¡¯t have much to show for it. He needed to do a lot more deep study.

    There was some emotion in Duanmu Zang¡¯s voice that Xu Qing could sense.

    ¡°Every member of the Moonrebel Congregation keeps their identity secret. No one knows who they are, except for they themselves. The first major rule for members is that they not reveal who they are.

    ¡°As you can imagine, the Red Moon Cathedral is constantly trying to find members of the Moonrebel Congregation. Likewise, there are members of the Moonrebel Congregation who have infiltrated the Red Moon Cathedral.¡±

    Duanmu Zang took a deep breath and looked at Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°The red moon is by no means eternal, hope exists from time immemorial and into forever.</i> Xu Qing, you might not be a member of the Moonrebel Congregation. But I have a feeling that one day you¡¯ll have dealings with them. If you want to get to the Moonrebel Congregation, you can start by traveling to the Bitter Life Mountains....¡±

    Duanmu Zang said nothing after that. He closed his eyes, and they continued on their way.

    Xu Qing could tell Duanmu Zang didn¡¯t want to talk about the matter any further, so he didn¡¯t ask any questions. It seemed highly likely that Duanmu Zang was a member of the Moonrebel Congregation. Considering what he had already revealed, it was obvious that he trusted Xu Qing a lot. Xu Qing contemted everything Duanmu Zang had told him.

    Just like that, days passed. Eight dayster, they reached their destination.

    Off in the distance was a huge valley. The mountains on either side were taller than any mountain Xu Qing had ever seen. In the dusky light, the grotesquely-shaped jagged rocks that covered their surface seemed like demonic monsters.

    The valley between them looked almost like the entrance to the Yellow Springs. Not only was it shocking in appearance, but also, the wind that blew out of it carried with it sounds like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.

    Floating right in the middle of the valley was a huge, blood-red heart, the beating of which caused thumping sounds to spread out in all directions, and made the atmosphere around the valley even more gruish. The church temple and the statue atop the heart both emanated astonishing pressure. Quite a few asteroids still orbited around the heart, and the figures seated cross-legged atop them were as unmoving as they¡¯d beenst time Xu Qing saw them.

    There were doors scattered about, made from different materials, somerge, others small, some round, others square. All of them pulsed with teleportation fluctuations. Crowds emerged from the doors almost nonstop. As a result, the valley was a bustling ce.

    There were all sorts of strange species present, some with physical bodies, others who were in illusory form. All of them wore the same type of masks that Duanmu Zang had provided. These were species from throughout the eastern part of Moonrite Region, who were here to bring offerings to the Red Moon Cathedral.

    ¡°See those doors, Xu Qing?¡± Duanmu Zang said quietly. ¡°Those are the Doorites. Go talk to them, and you should be able to arrange teleportation to the south. They usually ept payments in spirit stones or heavenfire crystals. As for the church temple up in the air, don¡¯t look at it directly.¡± As a local, Duanmu Zang was familiar with how everything worked. After giving a few more pieces of advice, he solemnly said, ¡°And finally, have a safe journey!¡±

    With that, he led the caravan away.

    After watching Duanmu Zang disappear into the crowd, Xu Qing took a deep breath and did the same.

    There were all sorts of species present, and people were hurrying around everywhere. The church temple above didn¡¯t seem to be paying attention to what happened below. As long as they got their offerings, they let things y out naturally.

    When enough people gathered in one ce, it would result in a bustling atmosphere. And that was how things were now. It was even possible to see people engaged in business transactions here and there. It was very loud.

    As Xu Qing walked along, he chose not to go to one of the veryrge doors. Instead, he picked a smaller door. It was made from wood, and was only about three meters tall. Seeing that no one wasing out of it, Xu Qing prepared to walk over. Before he could, the chatter of the crowd caused him to stop in ce.

    ¡°Did you hear? Something huge went down recently in the west!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re talking about what happened to the Lonesun species about five months ago? Apparently they issued a region-wide arrest warrant.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, I heard about that. I guess they lost some sort of precious treasure.¡±

    ¡°Precious treasure? Seriously? That¡¯s what you¡¯re going to call it? It was an artificial sun!¡±

    ¡°The Lonesuns are the biggest species in the west. Didn¡¯t they create an actual sun a few years back, which they hung above theirnds? Because of that, it¡¯s not dark over there. Except, five months ago, somebody stole that sun....¡±

    ¡°Someone stole their sun right out from under their noses? What crazy species did that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Apparently the Lonesun¡¯s aren¡¯t sure either. That said, their arrest warrant did mention a name. Unqing Jianyan. The thief was really bold, as he left that name carved into the ground after he left. No matter how you look at it, that name is really strange.¡±

    ¡°Everybody is talking about this Unqing Jianyan.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard all the talk, a strange expression appeared on his face beneath his mask.

    ¡°Unqing Jianyan?¡± he murmured. It seemed highly likely that the Captain was behind this. Xu Qing remembered that, when they parted, the Captain had proudly said that his alias, Master Unfinished, would be famous everywhere.

    If youbined the first syble of Unfinished with characters from Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan¡¯s names, then added in Qing from Xu Qing, it made it very obvious what Unqing Jianyan was referring to. The Captain had obviously put a lot of thought intobining the four characters into a name. Even though Xu Qing hadn¡¯t participated in the heist, the Captain had still included his name.

    Xu Qing sighed and walked toward the wooden door.

 Chapter 567: An Agreement Reached Beneath the Heavenfire Sea (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 567: An Agreement Reached Beneath the Heavenfire Sea (part 2)</h4>

    High above the valley atop the beating heart, a woman in red walked out of the church temple. This person was actually the entity from the coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea, and was actually a man, not a woman. His expression was reserved as he looked down at thends below. A faint, mysterious smile appeared on his face. [1]

    ¡°This boy has a very strong baleful aura.¡± Behind him in the church temple, the godherald sat as unmoving as a statue.

    No one in the valley could sense what was happening above. In fact, even if people below had looked up, they wouldn¡¯t have seen a woman in red. Everyone¡¯s senses had been secretly altered.

    In D-132, inside of Xu Qing, the god¡¯s finger, who had been so deeply affected by the curse, was in the middle of retching. Suddenly ¨©t shivered. Then ¨©t pretended nothing had happened and continued retching.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t detect anything abnormal. After talking with the Doorite and finding that it couldn¡¯t teleport him to the south, he moved on and patiently tried to find another Doorite. He talked to a few dozen until he found an unusually short door. It was barely more than a meter tall, and was in very bad condition. As Xu Qing neared, the door frame suddenly twisted like a wriggling snake. A face appeared on the door itself, which looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Hello, Fellow Daoist,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Can you perform teleportations to the south?¡±

    The face in the door looked Xu Qing up and down, then smiled. ¡°100,000 spirit stones!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the face. The stated price was excessively high. Xu Qing had given most of his spirit stones to Duanmu Zang, and didn¡¯t have many left.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even think ofining that the price is too high,¡± the face said coolly. ¡°We¡¯re in the busy season right now. Species from all over are bringing offerings here. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I was already nning to head south myself, I wouldn¡¯t take you there even if you did give me 100,000.¡±

    After mulling the matter over, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Can I pay in heavenfire crystals?¡±

    The face¡¯s eyes lit up. Clearly, it really liked heavenfire crystals. ¡°No problem. Either a thousand white crystals or a single red one.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. However, after they started discussing the deal in more detail, he found that the Doorite couldn¡¯t take him south immediately; it had a few groups of customers that hadn¡¯t teleported in yet, and thus needed to wait untilter that night.

    Xu Qing frowned. He wanted to leave immediately if he could. Therefore, he made inquiries of other Doorites, only to find that none of them could send him south any sooner than three days. In the end, Xu Qing chose to seal the deal with the small wooden door.

    It was about six hours until evening. Rather than wandering around aimlessly, Xu Qing found a quiet corner where he could sit down cross-legged to meditate.

    Time passed. A few hourster, he happened to see Duanmu Zang walking through the crowd.

    Duanmu Zang noticed him and approached.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t find a Doorite that could help you?¡± he asked.

    ¡°I did. I¡¯ll leave in a little bit.¡± Xu Qing noted that there was no sign of the caravan.

    Noticing his gaze, Duanmu Zang sat down next to him. ¡°I already handed the caravan over to the cathedral. Everything is settled, so you don¡¯t need to worry. You can leave with a clear head.¡±

    Although Duanmu Zang¡¯s facial expression looked no different than normal, the truth was that he was feeling very anxious. The reason wasn¡¯t because of how he¡¯d wiped out the Twofold Alliance. The Red Moon Cathedral really didn¡¯t care about that kind of thing. Rather, he was anxious because of the demands the cathedral had made. They told him to go back and prepare another 500,000 offerings. That wasn¡¯t going to be easy, but Duanmu Zang didn¡¯t intend to tell Xu Qing about the situation. As far as he was concerned, Xu Qing had already done enough. Duanmu Zang needed to handle his own issues.

    Xu Qing looked at Duanmu Zang.

    Duanmu Zang smiled. Given everything he had experienced, and of course his age, he was a shrewd person, and not the type Xu Qing could easily read. That was especially true when he was intentionally hiding things.

    ¡°What, don¡¯t believe me?¡± Duanmu Zang said with a chuckle. ¡°Oh, you! You¡¯re too suspicious. I just figured I would wait until you¡¯d teleported away before I headed back.¡±

    Xu Qing really hadn¡¯t picked up on any clues that something else was going on. He nodded. When evening fell, he stood and said farewell to Duanmu Zang.

    ¡°If you have free time, remember toe back and visit us,¡± Duanmu Zang said, looking a bit sad.

    ¡°Definitely!¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    ¡°Most definitely!¡± Ling¡¯er said from within his sleeve.

    Duanmu Zang gave a nod in response.

    Xu Qing turned and headed toward the short wooden door. Once he arrived, he took out the heavenfire crystals.

    The face inhaled, sucking the crystals in. Then the door glittered with the light of teleportation as a vortex appeared. Xu Qing took a deep breath and prepared to step in.

    Just before he did, someone spoke from behind him in a low voice, almost a growl.

    ¡°Shut the door.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face fell. He wanted to simply jump into the vortex, but before he could, the door closed, and the teleportation fluctuations ceased. Scowling, he looked over his shoulder to see who was approaching from behind. His pupils constricted.

    It was a woman wearing red, emanating Spirit Trove fluctuations. No one in the area seemed to register her presence, as if they didn¡¯t notice her. Not even Duanmu Zang reacted. It was as if their perceptions had been altered. But Xu Qing¡¯s had not.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    He recognized this person as the godservant he had thrown into that coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea. When a dead person suddenly showed up like this, it made it easy to theorize about who they really were. That was especially true considering that no one in the area seemed to notice what was happening. That lent even more certainty as to their identity.

    It was easy to exin why the people in the church temple above, even the godherald, hadn¡¯t noticed anything unusual happening.

    The entity from that coffin could alter one¡¯s perceptions. With that ability, it was no wonder the godherald was fooled. And then that entity had used some unknown method to create a clone. Everything made sense. This was not the woman he had fought. It was the entity from the coffin.

    With those thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing made sure to keep a very respectful expression on his face.

    The entity smiled enigmatically. Then, as Xu Qing felt pressure mounting, he approached and stopped right in front of him. Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s attitude caused the entity to smile. It was no surprise at all that Xu Qing had recognized this form he was wearing.

    ¡°You¡¯re always so polite, boy. It makes it hard to have any malicious thoughts.¡±

    ¡°Senior,¡± Xu Qing replied solemnly, ¡°you¡¯re clearly majestic and noble. I¡¯m only behaving in kind. That¡¯s how my Master taught me to act.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re bringing up your Master again?¡± the entity asked, smiling profoundly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered, and he bowed again. ¡°Since you don¡¯t like me bringing it up, Senior, I won¡¯t bring it up again.¡±

    The entity looked Xu Qing up and down before shaking his head and smiling. ¡°I know you have an extraordinary background. Your Master is probably some almighty individual. However, we¡¯re in the Moonrite Region right now.¡±

    He looked up into the sky.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    A momentter, the entity spoke again. ¡°Boy, do you remember the agreement we made at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea?¡±

    ¡°I remember!¡± Xu Qing said, nodding seriously.

    ¡°In that case, I want you toe with me to the frozen north of the Moonrite Region. My older sister is being suppressed there. And I have a little brother who¡¯s interred beneath a cier.¡±

    The entity¡¯s voice seemed to contain reminiscence and mncholy.

    Xu Qing hesitated. For one thing, he had no way to tell if what this person was saying was true. And regardless, if he went north, he knew without a doubt that things would get even more dangerous than they already were. Given his level of strength, getting involved in things like this could be very risky. And if the reward was just heavenfate, then it didn¡¯t seem worth it.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hide his hesitancy. Instead he let it show on his face. He was confident that whatever almighty entity he was dealing with, they would surely understand what that expression meant. It was one of the ways the weak could make demands of the strong. Although he wasn¡¯t sure what would result, he needed to try.

    ¡°Did your Master teach you that too?¡± the entity asked coolly, his voice calm but imposing, and his facial expression simr. In his memories, he remembered that speaking in this way, and using this facial expression, would usually leave people trembling and ready to agree to anything he demanded.

    Xu Qing looked embarrassed, which actually served to rx the atmosphere.

    Seeing that, the entity¡¯s eyes glittered with a strange light. After some thought, he said, ¡°This is a business transaction, and I want you to do exactly as I ask. You can benefit in three ways.

    ¡°One. You can get some heavenfate.

    ¡°Two. The humans by Heavenfire Sea will receive an official decree from the cathedral exempting them from the need to provide further offerings. What¡¯s more, the decree will keep them safe all the way until the next call for offerings.

    ¡°Three. After you¡¯ve followed all of my instructions, you¡¯ll receive a mysterious gift.

    ¡°Now, what¡¯s your decision?¡±

    Xu Qing turned to look at Duanmu Zang.

    Duanmu Zang was actually walking off into the distance. As far as he knew, Xu Qing was already gone. He looked bleak and lonely. Clearly, the anxiety he had been hiding from Xu Qing was growing.

    ¡°I agree,¡± Xu Qing said quietly, looking back at the entity in red. Saying no would have been dangerous. Besides, the possible risks and rewards seemed bnced.

    The entity smiled. He liked polite, intelligent people, and therefore, was very pleased with Xu Qing. When people cooperated, it made it possible for him to avoid killing.

    ¡°I¡¯ve always kept my word, boy. So don¡¯t worry. Now,e with me.¡± With that, the entity floated up into the air, going in the direction of the heart.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and followed.

    The entity stopped in front of the church temple. When Xu Qingnded in the same spot, he looked at the statue of Crimson Mother. The statue struck fear into his heart.

    ¡°Your Master has some skills. After all, he managed to find a High God for Crimson Mother to devour, thus putting her in a deep sleep.¡± The entity looked at him with a mysterious and knowing smile.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and chose not to respond. He looked at the church temple, and could see through the open door that all the people inside were as unmoving as statues.

    ¡°They tasted good,¡± the entity said, licking his lips. ¡°Rest up. The act needs to be fully yed out. In three days, when the sacrificial offerings are over, we¡¯ll leave.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing sat down and looked at the bleak Duanmu Zang off in the distance.

    The entity waved a hand, and a streak of red light shot out of the cathedral. It turned into amand medallion that headed toward Duanmu Zang.

    ***

    Down below, the increasingly anxious Duanmu Zang looked surprised as he reached up and caught themand medallion. He could sense the aura of protection in it, and when he realized it negated the orders to bring more offerings, he spun to look in the direction of the church temple. He saw nothing. Eventually, he looked back and continued on his way.

    <i>Was it him? Just who exactly is he?</i>

    ***

    Xu Qing looked at Duanmu Zang leaving the area, and wished him well. ¡°Please... stay safe.¡±

    1. The author goes back and forth between male and female pronouns for this being, and continues to call her ¡®woman¡¯ even after it¡¯s evident she¡¯s actually a man. As was made clear in the title of <u>chapter 561</u>, the entity in the coffin was male. To avoid confusion, I¡¯m going to standardize the pronoun to male and call him an ¡®entity¡¯ for a short time until we learn more about who he is. The author only uses the female pronoun a few times, and like I said, switches back and forth for a time. If this was a case of the author intentionally hiding the gender of the character, I would shape the trantion to mimic that. However, we knew literally from the beginning that the character is male, so in order to avoid confusion, I¡¯m going to make the trantion clear and understandable. ?

 Chapter 568: Secrets of Revered Ancient (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 568: Secrets of Revered Ancient (part 1)</h4>

    Three dayster, as the days of offerings came to an end, the Red Moon Cathedral burst with crimson light as it screamed off over the horizon. The dozens of asteroids continued to orbit around it as it left.

    Whatever people from various species remained in the valley all prostrated on the ground with masks on their faces. After the cathedral was gone, they all breathed sighs of relief in their hearts. Now that the offerings had been given, it would be years before they needed to consider doing it again. Though everyone was relieved, most people also felt internal pressure building up within them.

    ording to calctions, the red moon would being very soon. There was no fixed schedule governing theing and going of the red moon in the Moonrite Region. However, there was a special way to get a good idea of the timetable. And that was by keeping track of when the cathedral came for the harvest of offerings. When the interval switched to once every three to five years, that indicated the red moon... would appear soon. At that time, when life for most people was about to end, evil would proliferate and everything would devolve into chaos and war.

    This time it would be no different.

    ¡°The Moonrite Region is about to be a scene straight out of hell,¡± said the entity in red as he stood atop the heart and looked out at thends below.

    Xu Qing stood next to him. First he looked over his shoulder at the valley getting smaller behind him, then he turned back and focused on what he stood atop. Over the course of the past three days, he had examined the heart in quite a bit of detail. It was fantastically bizarre. It had life force, and was even beating, sending out thunderous booms that could shake one to the core.

    Noticing what Xu Qing was looking at, the entity said, ¡°All of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s mobile church temples are built on organs.¡±

    ¡°Do you happen to know whose organs they are, Senior?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The entity shook his head. ¡°I looked into that myself, and could only confirm that they don¡¯t belong to any of my brothers or sisters. What¡¯s more, the organs all have evidence of having been sacrificed.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been sealed for so long that my understanding of the outside world is outdated. Only by eating some of the people in the church temple was I able to get a bit of information. Sadly, they aren¡¯t important enough to have information about who the organse from.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Earlier, he had changed into one of the ceremonial red robes worn by certain members of the Red Moon Cathedral. As of now, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t just a member of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect; he had also been appointed as a godve.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then finally decided to answer the big question he¡¯d been wondering about. ¡°Senior, in some ancient records I read once, I read about how your father waged war against the red moon. And there are a lot of stories about the Penitence Steppes....¡± [1]

    He wanted to know Crimson Mother¡¯s true origin.

    The entity in red stood there for a moment before responding.

    ¡°Crimson Mother died once before. Killed by my father. That obviously led to a big grudge. By the time she returned, she had already reached godly ascension. And I heard my father mention that sh¨¥ was returning from Revered Ancient¡¯s earthworld.¡± As if to emphasize the entity¡¯s words, thunder rumbled on the horizon.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing. This was his first time hearing about any of Crimson Mother¡¯s story. As a result, he couldn¡¯t hold back from asking, ¡°Crimson Mother wasn¡¯t always a god? And what¡¯s Revered Ancient¡¯s earthworld?¡±

    The entity didn¡¯t answer immediately. He looked up at the dome of heaven, reminiscence in his eyes. Then he turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Some gods are born as gods. Some be gods by means of cultivation, which we call postheaven gods. Still otherse from beyond the heavens. And there are some whoe from the depths of thends.¡±

    Thunder once again crashed. It seemed to Xu Qing that something unusual was going on. And then, fog sprang up around them, after which it started raining heavily. In the distance, it looked like it was snowing. The sudden transformations to heaven and earth made Xu Qing think about heavenly daos and magicalws.

    ¡°Do you dare to listen to more?¡± the entity asked, looking at Xu Qing deeply.

    Xu Qing looked into the sky and could sense his shattered bluegreen dragon, which was slowly healing. Thinking back to everything that happened at the Ten Entrails Tree, he nodded.

    The entity chuckled. ¡°Even still, you dare to listen further...? Ah, whatever. Let¡¯s just see how much you can take.

    ¡°The history of what exists beneath Revered Ancient has mostly been wiped out by sessive generations of Ancient Emperors. Because of that, few people are aware that... in the most ancient times, that ce was called Brilliant Heaven. ording to some stories, the very first species to inhabit the Revered Ancient maind came from there. And it continued to be called that until Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity started calling it an earthworld.¡± [3]

    The sound filling the sky grew more intense. Everything in the area rippled and distorted, and terrifying pressure weighed down from above as an immense will became apparent.

    That immense will caused Xu Qing¡¯s face to drain of blood. His heart raced as he realized that heaven and earth were apparently telling him that these were taboo matters rting to Revered Ancient. The heavenly daos of the Revered Ancient maind wouldn¡¯t allow him to spread word of these things.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± the entity said, measuring up Xu Qing curiously. ¡°The heavenly daos didn¡¯t release any of their powers of silence or amnesia. These heavenly daos really like you, boy.¡±

    Xu Qing struggled to keep his facial expression neutral, but the rising will left him feeling jumpy.

    Looking amused, the entity continued, ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll let you in on another secret. The so-called gods... well, th¨¥y have a goal. And that is to....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he realized he couldn¡¯t hear the entity speaking anymore. Everything else sounded normal, but he couldn¡¯t hear any voice.

    The entity seemed to notice that, and thus ceased speaking.

    An hourter, Xu Qing recovered, and his heart pounded with lingering fear.

    Days passed as the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s mobile church flew north.

    Xu Qing asked for rification about what they had been discussing earlier. However, whenever it came time for the key information to be spoken, he couldn¡¯t hear anything. Thanks to experimentation, though, he was able to get some basic information. That included details about the cultivation level above Smoldering God.

    ¡°So, godfire...¡± Xu Qing murmured. As of now, he had heard the name ¡®godfire¡¯ but didn¡¯t know much about what it was. [2]

    A monthter, thend ahead turned white from cold, and a stiff wind picked up.

    Xu Qing soon saw the ck ciers of the frozen north. Virtually all of thends in the north were covered in ciers. There was no soil, just thick ice that covered everything. The mountains were also made of ice, making the entire ce seemcking in life.

    Hovering over the ciers, the entity in red looked around with a gleam of reminiscence in his eyes. Then he said, ¡°We¡¯re here, boy. Follow me.¡±

    The entity dropped off the huge heart and started walking. Xu Qing followed.

    The Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s mobile church changed directions and shot off into the distance.

    Xu Qing turned to look at it go.

    ¡°Inside of that thing is a gift for an old friend of mine in the Red Moon Cathedral.¡± The entity proceeded across the ciers, keeping his senses spread out around them as if he was looking for something.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He just kept pace.

    They walked through the cold wind for several days. At one point, Xu Qing spotted a sect off in the distance. It was fairlyrge, with quite a few disciplesing and going.

    ¡°Those are the Gloomite people. They serve the Red Moon Cathedral, and performed such amazing services in the past that they were given the right to send disciples to the cathedral to serve as special guards. That arrangement has been in ce for generations.¡±

    The entity looked a bit derisive when speaking of the Gloomites. However, he didn¡¯t borate. He just led Xu Qing in the direction of the sect.

    No one detected their arrival. Their perceptions were affected, and they had no idea Xu Qing or the entity in red were even there.

    As Xu Qing walked among the Gloomites, he had a hard time understanding why the entity in red referred to them as if they were a unique species. From what he could see, the disciples seemed to be people from all species.

    The entity didn¡¯t seem inclined to go into more detail, though, so he didn¡¯t ask any questions. After walking deep into the sect, they reached a huge crevice in one of the ciers. The entity stopped at the edge and closed his eyes for a long moment.

    ¡°This is the ce,¡± he said. Expression one of sorrow, he stepped into the crevice.

    Xu Qing looked down into the crevice briefly, then followed.

    A cold wind blew out from inside. It was so cold it seemed capable of freezing both the body and the soul. The further down he went into the crevice, the colder it got. After going down for such a long time, Xu Qing had lost track of how long they had been inside. His eyebrows were white from frost. Not long after that, they reached the bottom. They were in a huge, icy cave temple. It was almost like a minor world, with a sky filled with ice andnds that stretched on with seemingly no end.

    Off in the distance, Xu Qing saw ake. The water in theke was obviously very strange, as it hadn¡¯t frozen. Mist swirled above its surface.

    Within that mist, Xu Qing could see numerous Gloomite disciples. The disciples were lugging crystal caskets over to the shore, where they ced them neatly in rows. At a nce, there seemed to be hundreds of coffins around theke. After delivering a coffin, the disciple carrying it would hurry away.

    Looking over the coffins, Xu Qing saw that there were bodies inside of them. Based on their clothing, they were all disciples of this sect.

    It was a very strange sight, and Xu Qing was about to look more closely at everything when theke suddenly churned, and beams of seven-colored light rose up from it like tentacles reaching toward the coffins. Each tentacle ultimately wrapped around a single coffin, which it then dragged back toward theke.

    Before much time had passed, all the coffins sank into theke and disappeared. After that, the surface of theke became calm again.

    ¡°When you look at the Gloomites superficially,¡± the entity said cidly, ¡°they look like a sect filled with all sorts of species. But the reality is that turning into other species is the only way for them to serve as special guards in the cathedral. Those who don¡¯t be another species will end up as food.

    ¡°In order to be another species, they have to go through a special ceremony. You just witnessed it. The disciples in the coffins will be taken to a special location, and if they live through it ande out again, it¡¯s considered a sess. That¡¯s because the individuals thate out are not the same as those who go in.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. ¡°Parasitization?¡±

    ¡°The Gloomite patriarch used to be a subordinate of my father. Back when Crimson Mother showed up, he chose to betray my father, who subsequently killed him. The major worlds he was building copsed and were mostly destroyed. The life force within them ceased to exist. One damaged chunk fell here. To thank them for their service, Crimson Mother preserved the discarnate souls of those who died here, and that¡¯s how the Gloomite species came to be.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at theke again. If it took an Imperial Sovereign to kill that Gloomite patriarch and shatter his major worlds, then it went to indicate that the patriarch was a Smoldering God.

    After another long look at theke, the entity turned and headed deeper into the cave temple. ¡°Let¡¯s go. The ce we¡¯re going to isn¡¯t here.¡±

    Xu Qing could sense that there was more to the story, but now wasn¡¯t the time to ask questions. He simply followed as they got deeper and deeper into the cave.

    Because the seven-colored tentacles moved so quickly, and also because of therge number of coffins, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t noticed that there was a familiar face in one of the coffins.

    1. The detail about this entity¡¯s father being the leader of the region was mentioned in <u>chapter 560.2</u>. ?

    2. Godfire was mentioned before in <u>chapter 524.2</u> and <u>525.1</u>. ?

    3. Incidentally, the exact same term Brilliant Heaven appears in Er Gen''s other novel <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>. The term is fairly unique, so it pops out. As for whether the terms are rted, connected, the same, or whatever... well that''s obviously not clear based on the context here. ?

 Chapter 568: Secrets of Revered Ancient (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 568: Secrets of Revered Ancient (part 2)</h4>

    At the bottom of theke, one of the ¡®corpses¡¯ in the coffins opened his eyes and looked around. Seeing the surroundingke water, he suddenly looked extremely pleased with himself. Then he nced at the seven-colored tentacles that were dragging down the coffins, and he looked even more pleased.

    <i>Foolish Gloomites. Getting into this ce was </i>as easy as putting a hand in my pocket and pulling something out<i>. Next, I need to get into this species¡¯ minor world. Then I can enact my real n. I wonder how little Ah Qing is doing nowadays. I doubt he¡¯s having as much fun as I am. He¡¯s probably already at Mount Heavenly Ox, shivering and trembling as he waits for me to show up....</i>

    That ¡®corpse¡¯ was none other than the Captain.

    <i>Oh, little Ah Qing. Eldest Brother didn¡¯t intend to bete. But that¡¯s just how things worked out. For the sake of this big job, you need to stay put for a little bit. Besides, you¡¯re the one who decided not to stick close to me.</i>

    Feeling very lofty, the Captain closed his eyes and continued to pretend to be dead.

    ***

    The entity in red sped up as he led Xu Qing away from theke and across the ciers. Eventually, he waved his hand to sweep up Xu Qing and move even faster.

    Because of the shocking speed, it only took about fifteen or sixteen hours to reach the very depths of the ciers. It was extremely cold here, and the power of the red moon warding spells was intense.

    The warding spell fluctuations caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to narrow as he realized where they were heading. Just as he expected, the entity in red soon stopped at the edge of a cier, and looked down, his eyes full of grief. His grief was so intense that it affected the surroundings, so that it was just barely possible to detect the faint sound of weeping.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever. Recalling what he had said back in the east, he followed his line of sight into the ice below. It was dark in this area, and that was even true of the interior of the cier. But as Xu Qing looked down into that darkness, he realized he was looking at some colossally monstrous entity.

    ¡°Want to see more closely?¡± Without waiting for an answer from Xu Qing, he waved his right hand gently through the air. All of a sudden, countless pinpricks of light appeared inside the cier, almost like fireflies. Individually, their light was weak. But collectively, they illuminated the entire area.

    With that light, Xu Qing could see clearly what was under the surface of the cier. His heart leaped into his throat. A corpsey inside the cier.

    It was fully 30,000 meters from end to end, and wore a brown suit of armor. Despite being dead, the corpse emanated a baleful aura that filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind with a sound like an angry roar.

    Xu Qing shivered and took a few steps back. After calming his heart, he again looked more closely. The corpse was that of a handsome young man with a determined facial expression. He had eyebrows like swords and a heroic disposition. However, pierced into his forehead was a ck nail. Blood dripped from the wound down his face, making him look very fierce.

    But his body was even more shocking. It wasrgely desated, and those few ces that weren¡¯t withered emanated a blood energy that contained an aura of death as it spread throughout the cier. That alone caused countless spections to arise in Xu Qing. He looked over at the grieving entity in red.

    ¡°This was my third little brother. When we were small, he loved following me around. As the Heir Apparent, I helped my father deal with the politics of the court, and was always busy. Wherever I went, my little brother followed along. Sometimes when I got frustrated I would send him off to the side, and he would cry out to me. ¡®Big brother, big brother....¡¯

    ¡°Being an impulsive person, he never got along with my ninth little brother. They were always fighting. And I always tended to side with Ninth Sib.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing said nothing. He could sense the deep sorrow in the entity.

    ¡°That nail in his forehead is the weapon of my father, the king. My fourth younger brother took it and stabbed him with it. You know, my fourth younger brother was actually trying to kill me. Instead, my third younger brother died in my ce.¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled.

    ¡°Boy, I still haven¡¯t exined who my fourth younger brother is. He did all of this as a blood tribute for when Crimson Mother arrived. And as a result, he¡¯s very famous nowadays. He¡¯s the godchild of the Moonrite Region.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that, he was stunned. He had heard about a godchild rted to the Red Moon Cathedral in the Moonrite Region, and had assumed that such a person would be extraordinary. But he could never have guessed that individual''s origin. The current red moon godchild used to be the fourth son of the region¡¯s Imperial Sovereign!

    ¡°Over the years that have passed, he¡¯s the one that¡¯s kept us fed.¡± The Heir Apparentughed. ¡°He was worried that his brothers and sisters would die too quickly. Therefore, he harvestsmon citizens to keep us fed. In the past, he would asionally slice skin off us and feed it to the others. Later on, he stopped appearing in person. See? Didn¡¯t he treat us other brothers and sisters <i>sooo</i> well?¡± The Heir Apparent was grinding his teeth, and his eyes shone with killing intent. ¡°Do you know where my third younger brother¡¯s energy and blood is now? You¡¯ll find out soon.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to say, so he just sighed softly.

    As they walked along and Xu Qing heard all of this information, he began to gain a much better understanding of the Moonrite Region. However, the more he understood it, the more he felt the pressure that weighed down on all living beings here.

    ¡°Boy, can you help me open a hole in the red moon warding spells? Just a tiny one will do.¡± The Heir Apparent looked calmly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded. Sitting down cross-legged, he activated his violet moon nascent soul. Instantly, the surrounding red moon fluctuations grew stronger. The power of the warding spells surged, and tiny red threads appeared everywhere. The red threads spread out, creating a huge that covered everything. Then one of those many threads changed colors, turning violet. As soon as that happened, the red moon warding spells slowly shivered to life.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. As far as he was concerned, it wasn¡¯t too hard to manipte the warding spells in a simplistic way. But to open a hole in them was something far more difficult. Right now, all he could do was absorb the red moon power in the area, causing the warding spells to weaken. Then, by tapping into the authority of his violet moon, he could slowly create an opening. That was the limit of what he could do now.

    Three days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing continuously absorbed from his surroundings. On the evening of the third day, he had reached his limit. Eyes opening, he extended his right hand and pushed down toward the ground.

    The red moon warding spells seethed as a vortex formed.

    The moment the vortex appeared, the Heir Apparent blurred. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared, turning into a stream of blue energy, within which was a discarnate soul. The soul actually looked like a young man, and his facial features resembled the man in the cier below. However, he seemed more dignified as he flew into the vortex.

    The red moon warding spells surged as they formed a barrier. Xu Qing went all out to resist them. He felt like he was a little pony pulling a massive war chair, and it made his soul feel like it was about to be ripped to shreds. His violet moon nascent soul shivered, and its facial expression was one of pain.

    And this was the reaction for a discarnate soul. Given that, if this wasn¡¯t a discarnate soul, and it was something trying to break from inside to outside, then Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have seeded no matter how hard he tried.

    What was more, Xu Qing could only do so much, even right now.

    The fact that the Heir Apparent picked this ce meant that he had a lot of confidence here. The soul shadow flickered with blue light as it ignited itself, pushing its power to the maximum as it pushed into the vortex Xu Qing had created.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out, and Xu Qing coughed up seven or eight mouthfuls of blood. His violet moon nascent soul looked dangerously listless. However, the discarnate soul of the young man finally managed to break open the barrier, make a hole, and enter it.

    Once past the warding spells, the discarnate soul started fading. It clearly couldn¡¯tst for very long. Without any hesitation, it shot toward the nail in the forehead of the third younger brother.

    Just before it faded from existence, it reached the nail and merged into it.

    Xu Qing wiped blood from his mouth. Walking back a few paces, he sat down cross-legged. He had already done everything he could. As for whether the overall n would seed, all he could do now was wait and see. There was no way he was strong enough to drag the discarnate soul back out.

    ***

    Back at the bottom of thatke, the seven-colored tentacles had dragged the hundreds of coffins all the way to the bottom of theke. There was a vortex there, pulsing with greed and longing. And the coffins were being pulled right toward that vortex. Once through the vortex, they were in a strange world.

    Laying inside one of those coffins was the Captain. His eyes snapped open, and they gleamed with anticipation.

    ¡°I¡¯ve finally arrived! Hahaha! Okay, little birdies, grandpa is here!¡±

    1. Normally speaking I wouldn¡¯t capitalize Heir Apparent. However, this is going to serve as this character¡¯s name in addition to his title. ?

 Chapter 569: Imperial Sovereignâ€™s God-Weapon Suppresses the Northern Plains (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 569: Imperial Sovereign¡¯s God-Weapon Suppresses the Northern ins (part 1)</h4>

    Beneath the surface of the cier, the Heir Apparent of an Imperial Sovereign merged with the nail stabbed into his third younger brother¡¯s forehead. After that, no energy fluctuations emerged whatsoever. There was absolutely no change to the nail. It was as if nothing had happened.

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the distance, looking down at the cier. After some thought, he slowly got to his feet, then carefully took a step backward to see if it was possible for him to leave. Although he hadn¡¯t run into any danger up to this point, that didn¡¯t mean things would stay that way. Right now seemed like the perfect time to make an exit. Given the level of his cultivation base, it made sense to not participate in whatever was toe next.

    However, he¡¯d barely made it ten paces when the face beneath the nail flickered. And then a growling voice echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    <i>¡°The time hasn¡¯te yet, boy. Wait for me.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and tried to decide what to do.

    As he did, the voice continued, <i>¡°If you want to leave, I won¡¯t stop you. Right now, I¡¯m not strong enough to. But you¡¯re the one who pointed out that you and I have a mutual enemy in Crimson Mother. And right now... I¡¯m nning to do something huge. If you help me, then my chances of sess will rise significantly. But even if you don¡¯t help me, I¡¯m still going to try. You¡¯re standing at a crossroads. You just have to decide which direction you want to go.¡±</i>

    Without any change in facial expression, Xu Qing looked at the huge figure in the cier below. A moment passed, and he sped hands and bowed. Then he turned and sped away as fast as he could.

    In the silence that followed, a faint sigh echoed out over the cier.

    About eight hourster in the distant darkness, Xu Qing stopped moving. Having confirmed that he really was being allowed to leave, he turned and went back. After arriving, he sat down cross-legged in the same spot as before.

    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you for a day!¡± he said.

    <i>¡°Thank you!¡±</i> the voice replied from beneath the cier.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and waited.

    Meanwhile, deep below the surface of the cier, something momentous was ying out. The Heir Apparent had told the truth to Xu Qing. The Gloomite patriarch really had been a subordinate of an Imperial Sovereign, and really had turned traitor when Crimson Mother arrived. Later, he was killed by the Imperial Sovereign, and his major world was shattered and reduced almostpletely to ash. Only a small fragment survived,nding in this location and ending up buried beneath the cier.

    That fragment contained countless deceased souls from that rebel major world. There, they milled aimlessly, without any consciousness. In fact, most were asleep. However, because of the services they had performed, the deceased souls in that world fragment were allowed toe out by means of parasitization. And that was how the Gloomite species came to be. That said, the veil between life and death was not easy to cross. There were also other restrictions in ce. As a result, during the countless years that had passed, though a lot of Gloomites had returned, the vast majority remained in the Moonrite Region.

    Some people imed it was the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s rage, suffused into a heavenly dao.

    The vortex at the bottom of thatke was a passage that led to the major world fragment. Though it was only a fragment, being buried beneath the ciers, it was essentially a minor world. Ghostfire was the only illumination under the surface of the ciers.

    ck snowkes filled the sky, covering all thends. And a sinister wind blew, weeping like ghosts or wolves. Any mortal who heard that sound would be shaken down to their soul. It sounded like something from the underworld. Even in the darkness, it was possible to see into the ck cier and glimpse vastnds and even mountain ranges, filled with deceased souls, wandering aimlessly everywhere. To them, time had no meaning. Everything was a blur, except for their hunger.

    They would instinctively try to attack any living beings they encountered. Right now, on the edge of the world fragment, a different sort of light was glittering. It started out as red. But then blue was added, and yellow, then more, until it was seven-colored light.

    As the seven-colored light flickered, the countless souls in the world fragment locked onto that area. There were even some souls sleeping beneath the cier who seemed like they might wake up as a result. Next, strips of light appeared out of the seven-colored vortex, like tentacles that wrapped around the coffins and ced them down on the ck cier. After the hundreds of coffins were in ce, the seven-colored tentacles retracted into the vortex and disappeared.

    However, the vortex still remained, waiting. Before long, the wind screamed as the deceased souls floated toward the coffins at high speed, like ravenous wolves. It was as if, to them, the coffins were plump sheep. The life force emanating from the coffins drove the deceased souls toward madness.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a swarm of souls closing in on the coffins. They were like a ck tempest.

    The coffins were obviously made from special materials, as they kept the disciples sealed within, but didn¡¯t stop the deceased souls from entering. In the blink of an eye, well over 10,000 deceased souls had entered the coffins.

    The bodies had already been prepared fully. They had no souls in them, and were only empty husks. That made them much easier to parasitize.

    That said, because the souls were chaotic and unthinking, they wouldn¡¯t immediately parasitize a body. Their first instinct was to eat. That was one of the reasons that not every Gloomite parasitization attempt worked out.

    Because of that, a few dozen of the body shells in the coffins began withering up as hundreds of souls fed on them. In a few breaths of time, they became little more than skeletons. After that, the souls would burst out of those coffins and move to new coffins.

    At the same time, the fragrant aromaing from the hundreds of coffins was attracting even more sleeping souls.

    Before long, souls whose auras vastly surpassed those of the ordinary deceased souls were moving through the ck cier, pulsing with greed and madness. They fought fiercely to be the first into the various coffins, snipping and biting at each other. Compared to the ordinary souls, the ones that were sleeping in the cier were much stronger, and therefore, it was easier for them to acquire bodies to parasitize.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the first parasitized body to appear. The coffin exploded with a boom, revealing a person seated there cross-legged. It was a young man whose ck facial expression was only now changing. A vile energy began to pulse off him, and longing appeared in his eyes as he looked toward the seven-colored vortex. Slowly, he rose to his feet, then started walking forward unsteadily. At first he looked like a marite, struggling to walk smoothly. But he soon got used to the body, and the rigidity faded away. After about ten breaths of time had passed, he seemed fully limated. Running toward the vortex, he leaped in, thus returning to the world of mortals.

    Before long, another coffin exploded, and a figure stepped out.

    However, there was yet another coffin that seemed very strange. Lots of deceased souls were pouring into that coffin... yet nothing wasing out. It was almost as if that coffin contained a ck hole that swallowed everything up. Within the other coffins, many of the bodies withered up, and the souls within them turned their ravenous attention toward that strange coffin.

    All of a sudden, about a hundred deceased souls entered the coffin, where they saw the Captainying there. They pulsed with greed as they prepared to drop onto him.

    However, as they neared, a host of mouths suddenly popped into being all over the Captain, and simultaneously, they inhaled. Instantly, those souls were sucked into the mouths, after which chewing sounds rang out. Then the mouths disappeared, and everything went back to normal.

    Not long after, another group of souls burst into that same coffin....

    And thus, time passed. Most of the body husks in the coffin turned into ashes, with only about ten of them seeding in waking up and leaving through the vortex.

    The seven-colored vortex was gradually turning dark, until eventually, it vanished. As for that strange coffin, it was the only one present that had life force in it. As a result, the surrounding deceased souls continued to pour into it ravenously.

    All of a sudden, a terrifying shockwave surged out of the coffin. The souls who had been about to charge inside instantly turned and fled in terror.

    The Captain, still inside the coffin, didn¡¯t just produce a host of mouths. Numerous arms also stretched out to grab the deceased souls. However, too many of the souls had entered the coffin, and a lot of them were now trying to flee. Seeing that, the Captain took out a mask and put it on his face.

    A howl echoed out as the illusory image of a massive heavenly dog appeared, which lunged toward the fleeing souls and gobbled them down. A momentter, all of the souls in the surrounding 300-meter area had been devoured. And those beyond that area were like rabbits in the presence of a hungry wolf. They fled in the opposite direction.

    Ignoring them, the heavenly dog vanished, after which a loud burp echoed out from within the coffin. The Captain then sat up, stretched, and nced around, looking very pleased with himself.

    ¡°Hahaha! Using myself as bait is the best way to get nice and full!¡± He waved his hand and proudly continued, ¡°Get out here, both of you. Am I that warm andfortable? Hurry up! We have a big job to worry about!¡±

    Two people flew out from the Captain. They started out extremely small, but quickly grew to the size of normal people. They were none other than Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. They had been apanying the Captain recently on all sorts of fantastic jobs. Wu Jianwu was no longer high-spirited and full of mettle like before. Instead, he lookedpletely on guard. Ning Yan seemed numb to everything. That said, both of their auras were much stronger than before.

    Seeing their facial expressions, the Captain sighed, sped his hands behind his back, and started walking.

    ¡°Keep up and don¡¯t be too loud. You don¡¯t want to wake up these old souls that are sleeping under this cier. Though I do have ways of dealing with them, our priority is to reach our destination as quickly as possible.¡±

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu hurried to follow. Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t spout any poetry as he nced around, looking so nervous that the sound of the wind stirring a leaf would make him run in the opposite direction.

    Ning Yan nced at him out of the corner of his eyes. Keeping his disdain in his heart, he smacked his own belly, revealing some vines, which he fiddled with as he walked along nonchntly.

    After they were some distance away, the Captain sighed. ¡°Oh, you two. You¡¯re really not on the same level as little Ah Qing. Ai. I miss little Ah Qing so much! I wonder how he¡¯s doing nowadays. Probably eating poorly and sleeping even more poorly than that.¡±

 Chapter 569: Imperial Sovereignâ€™s God-Weapon Suppresses the Northern Plains (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 569: Imperial Sovereign¡¯s God-Weapon Suppresses the Northern ins (part 2)</h4>

    Not too far away, the very Xu Qing the Captain was so worried about was seated cross-legged atop the cier, looking down into the ice. He had been waiting for quite a while now. Already, about half of the day he¡¯d set as the deadline had passed. As of yet, there was no change to the figure in the cier below.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever as he retracted his vision and continued to wait. He would do his absolute best to wait for the entire day.

    Thus, time passed. Soon, as the twenty-fourth hour nearedpletion, Xu Qing opened his eyes. Standing, he sped hands in the direction of the ice.

    ¡°Time¡¯s up, Senior.¡±

    <i>¡°Back up by about 3,000 meters,¡±</i> came the faint voice of the Heir Apparent from beneath the ice.

    Hearing that, Xu Qing sped away. When he was about 2,400 meters away, a thunderous boom erupted from the cier behind him. The icy ground quaked, and blue light shot up from the ice below, making everything increasingly bright. Eventually, it became so bright that the area beneath the cier almost seemed lit by a blue sun. The source of that blue light was the nail in the huge figure¡¯s forehead.

    Quivering, the nail slowly rose, as if there was a massive power inside of it trying to pull it out of the body¡¯s forehead. As every sessive inch came out into the open, it shone with more scintiting blue light. Gradually, terrifying fluctuations spread out from the cier. The mere sensation of the fluctuations caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to thump with fear. The sensation he was getting surpassed the taboo treasure of Sea-Sealing County. In fact, the difference between the two was like that between a firefly and the sun.

    There was also something profoundly ancient spreading out. As a result, Xu Qing had no other choice than to back up. After he¡¯d gone another 300 meters, the feeling of fear remained, but wasn¡¯t as intense. Meanwhile, the fluctuations had provoked a reaction from the red moon warding spells.

    From a distance, it looked like the red light of the warding spells was being suppressed by the blue light. As a result, the cier vibrated, and cracks started spreading out over its surface.

    All of a sudden, a howling voice echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    <i>¡°Help me suppress them!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth. It was obvious that if he stuck around, he would be asked to provide help. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out with his right hand and pushed it down onto the cier.

    Violet moon godly authority erupted out to interfere with the warding spells.

    He didn¡¯t need to take control of the warding spells to open a passage. He just needed to interfere with the warding spells. As for whether the Heir Apparent would ultimately make it out, there was no way for Xu Qing to assess.

    That said, to the Heir Apparent, Xu Qing¡¯s actions were crucial. His interference and influence could very well make the difference between sess and failure. Before, all probabilities pointed to failure. But now, things were different.

    Next, an even more deafening sound erupted from the cier. Blue light shone brilliantly as the nail continued to rise. Ultimately, itpletely emerged from the corpse.

    When that happened, the northern ice ins turned blue.

    Various species and sects that called the northern ice ins their home took notice, and many were curious about why things had suddenly turned blue. Though they had no idea what was happening, they all felt fear and pressure as the blue light spread everywhere.

    Cracking sounds erupted that surpassed the volume of heavenly thunder. In the depths of the cier, the nail, which was emanating that boundless blue light, pulsed with terrifying energy as it slowly rotated around to point at the red moon warding spells. Light red as the blue nail then shot upward.

    It elerated with boundless courage and unstoppable force as it mmed into the warding spells. Blue and red light flickered together, creating a violet glow. It was a deadlock.

    <i>¡°God Weapon Qi Nuo, you were born in the darkheaven and tempered in an earthworld; are you really willing to be trapped here? I can help you! Now is the time to unleash your power!¡±</i>

    The blue nail vibrated, until eventually, the defiant fluctuations of a spirit automaton rolled out of it. They were imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and as they gathered at the tip of the nail, it pulsed with the power to crush everything in its path! Wild colors shed in heaven and earth as the nail shot high into the sky! The dome of heaven was now lit by blue light, so that it was no longer dusky. From a distance, the northern ice fields seemed to have been turned into a world of blue. Cracks spread out on the ground, and many ces caved in. ciers shattered. The entire northern region was starting to sink down.

    Nothing like this had ever happened before. Whether it was to the living beings of the north, or to the Moonrite Region in general, it waspletely unprecedented! There was no way the Red Moon Cathedral wouldn¡¯t investigate something like that, and thus, it was only possible to imagine what explosive developments were just around the corner.

    All living beings were shocked. Cries of astonishment rang out everywhere. However, the blue nail in the sky didn¡¯t leave. It slowly turned until its tip was pointed at the ice below. Light flickered dazzlingly, making it look like the nail was building up power.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing appeared on a distant shattered cier, looking around at everything. He had prepared himself mentally, but even still, was nearly bowled over with shock.

    <i>The Heir Apparent said that he had a younger brother who died here, and a big sister who was sealed here.... Does that mean he¡¯s about to.... </i>

    Pupils constricting, Xu Qing turned to run. He could tell that things were going to get very dangerous and destructive soon. However, even as he turned, a majestic stream of divine will mmed into his mind like ten thousand sledgehammers.

    <i>¡°It will be really unlucky for me if you leave now, young friend. Don¡¯t you remember how I promised to give you a very mysterious gift? As the Heir Apparent, my word is my bond. And I promised you something!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing stopped moving. Gritting his teeth, he turned to look at the blue nail, which seemed very close to the point of being fully powered up.

    <i>¡°What gift?¡±</i> Xu Qing asked.

    <i>¡°How about the fragment of a Smoldering God¡¯s major world? There are three items sealing my third older sister, and that¡¯s one of them.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide, and his heart raced. How could he ever have guessed that the mysterious gift which had been offered to him was the fragment of a major world?

    The identifying mark of a Smoldering God was the ability to bring forth a major world. A major world like that would have boundless mysterious abilities. And even a broken fragment of one would still be considered a precious treasure. It was something that would be valuable even to a god. The red moon hadn¡¯t taken it away, but rather, used it as part of a sealing cage. To ordinary cultivators, something like that would be even more incredibly precious.

    Once again, divine will echoed into his mind. <i>¡°Do you daree with me to get it?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Yes!¡±</i> Xu Qing said, his eyes already bloodshot.

    A prize like that was enough to cause craziness to bubble up from deep within him. It was like the time he got his first lifemp, his first imperial-ss ability, or that experience with the seazombie divine likenesses. During those escapades, the craziness in his heart rivaled the Captain.

    In response to his words,ughter swept out from the nail.

    <i>¡°Come here!¡±</i>

    Blue light shone down, surrounding Xu Qing like a cage, then taking him up into the sky. Eventually, he approached the nail and stood atop it.

    The blue light connected with the nail. Because the light was from the nail, Xu Qing didn¡¯t suffer any of the pressure of being so close to a precious treasure. As he stood there, the Heir Apparent spoke to him again with divine will.

    <i>¡°Okay, young friend. Now I¡¯m going to show you exactly how mighty this precious treasure of my father¡¯s was!¡±</i>

    Rumbling sounds erupted from the blue nail as it turned into a streak that shot down toward the ice! Its shocking speed and might caused ripples to spread through the canopy of heaven, and resulted in the ground caving in.

    There wasn¡¯t anything that could stand up to it!

    ***

    Meanwhile, inside the major world fragment, atop the highest of the ck ciers, the Captain stood, looking around. Of course, he had no idea what was going on outside.

    ¡°This is the ce! Little Ningning, Big Jianjian, you two better behave well! In a moment, you both need to unleash your treasures. We need to do the sealing as quickly as possible. Once the sealing is over, we¡¯ll get out of here. If we go too slowly, though... well, then I wish all of you good luck. After all, every ce that I¡¯ve raided up to this point ends up bing a barren wastnd.¡±

    Wu Jianwu nodded vigorously, though inside, he felt very nervous. Ning Yan was also getting anxious.

    Seeing their facial expressions, the Captain inwardly shook his head.

    <i>Just not on the same level as little Ah Qing. They clearlyck courage. If little Ah Qing were here, he would just be looking at me calmly.</i>

    Sighing inwardly, the Captain waved his hand, causing a ball of light to shoot up into the dome of heaven.

    ¡°Show yourself, my Little Roundy!¡±

    The ball of light suddenly erupted with blinding beams of light that contained seemingly infinite heat. As the light rose high into the canopy of heaven, it turned into a sun! Boundless light and heat spread out, covering all of the ck ciers!

 Chapter 570: Look, Everyone! Whoâ€™s That on the Nail? (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 570: Look, Everyone! Who¡¯s That on the Nail? (part 1)</h4>

    There was no true sun in the Moonrite Region, which existed in year-round dusk. It was only during the three months of Heavenfire Skycrossing that the region received significant light. What was more, <i>that</i> light represented death.

    However, not all species were adapted to living in endless darkness. Therefore, after the living beings in the region were culled, and regrowth had begun, there were always certain big species who produced talented and courageous individuals. The artificial sun that was being discussed was the result of a very powerful species who, after generations of replenishment, managed to raise a sun for their own species.

    That said, the light and heat of suns like that wouldn¡¯t travel very far, and generally only illuminated the species in question. They were nowhere near as mighty as the Dawning Suns. Even still, just being able to do that was enough to guarantee a certain level of protection for their species.

    Usually, more godheralds came from such species than others. As a result, when Crimson Mother came, though such species would suffer from the fate of extermination like all the others, their sun would remain. And because of that, they could recover more quickly. The cycle would continue for years and years.

    There were originally nine species in the Moonrite Region who had their own suns. Due to unexpected circumstances, three of them ended up being wiped out, leaving six. The Lonesuns were one of those six, and they were also the most recent addition. Reportedly, they had mysterious assistance back when they originally created their sun.

    Months earlier, their sun suddenly vanished, seemingly of its own ord, despite the Lonesuns having extremely strict security. It almost seemed like the sun had intentionally gone into hiding.

    Right now, that very sun appeared in the sky of the major world fragment.

    ¡°Those old Lonesun bastards borrowed my things years ago and never gave them back. Hmmmphh! Little do they know I let them do that on purpose!¡± The Captain looked up at the sun, feeling supetivelyfortable. ¡°They took good care of it for me.¡±

    The sun the Captain had released into the sky unleashed dazzling, blinding beams of light, as well as intense heat. Instantly, heaven and earth shifted into the warm season.

    The temperature increased, and was continuing to increase. After only ten breaths of time had passed, it reached shocking levels. Mist roiled off of the ice, and the seemingly eternal cier was already showing signs that it might melt. That said, this one sun wasn¡¯t enough to melt all the ciers in the entire major world fragment. That was why the Captain hade to this specific ice mountain.

    ¡°I just need this ce melted! That¡¯ll be enough!¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered as he lifted both hands into the air. ¡°Little Roundy, this is the ce to let it shine!¡±

    The sun in the sky vibrated, causing the light and heat to contract. Wherever it passed, the ice slowly melted, revealing the ruins beneath.

    Eventually, all of the light and heat was focused on the ice mountain the Captain was standing on.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were fully aware of how mighty this sun was, so they had long since picked a safe spot off in the distance to watch from. Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s hair was melting away, leaving him looking very strange. He didn¡¯t seem to care. His clothes weren¡¯t affected by the heat, and he looked very calm and rxed.

    ¡°It was so nippy. Finally it¡¯s warming up a bit.¡±

    The ice mountain beneath his feet was starting to melt. Rivulets of ck water rolled down its side until it eventually evaporated into steam. The mountain was rapidly shrinking, until all that was left was a 300-meter cavern in the ice shelf, out of which emerged steam and an ancient aura.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu watched fearfully as an intense rumbling sound also emerged from the huge cavern.

    The melting continued until the bottom of that huge cavern was visible! Now it was possible to see something that had been concealed for countless years: the true surface of the ground. That said,pared to the endless ck ciers in this area, that 300-meter cavern was like the eye of a needle. Though it had been opened, the frigid energy in the area was so strong that the cavern was already showing signs of icing over.

    The Captain didn¡¯t care. He just looked down excitedly into the cavern.

    Thanks to the sunlight, the depths of the cavern were clearly visible. There was ck soil there, as well as numerous blood-colored furrows arranged in a very precise fashion. If you took them all in together, you would realize they resembled a huge fingerprint. It was as if some paragonic entity had mmed a palm down onto this area to wipe out all living things, and had left behind a blood-colored palm print. The markings, here, though, were just those from a single finger.

    After confirming this was the right spot, the Captain bellowed, ¡°Little Ningning! Big Jianjian! Hurry up. Help me handle this treasure!¡±

    Using his outstretched hands to control the sun, he sent more heat into the area, preventing the cavern from being sealed over again.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t dare to dally. They burst into action, with Ning Yan waving a hand to produce a patch of golden flesh. The patch of flesh wasrge enough to be able to cover dozens of people at once. And once unfurled, it was obvious that it had actually been stitched together with many smaller pieces. Because of that, it would be very difficult to determine where it came from. Wu Jianwu quickly gripped the side of the flesh opposite of Ning Yan. Then the two of them stretched it out and sent it toward the bottom of the cavern.

    ¡°Hahaha! I like this skin patch treasure more and more!¡± Up in midair, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as his eyes burned with excitement.

    Ning Yan looked like he wanted to say something, but ultimately held back. He nced at Wu Jianwu. Wu Jianwu kept his mouth shut.

    Next, the excited Captain performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then pointed up into the sky.

    ¡°Let it shine a bit more, Little Roundy! Help me get a good image of this fingerprint!¡±

    The sun above seemed to shift in ce, and then it erupted with light that was vastly more intense than before. It abruptly stopped, only to reappear a momentter. That happened about a dozen times, so quickly in session that the entire area was bathed with dazzling light.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu kept a firm grip on the patch of skin, and as the light red, an image of the fingerprint appeared on the skin. It was a perfect copy of the fingerprint in the cavern, although much smaller. As it became increasingly clear, it emanated an astounding level of pressure.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were ready for that, but it still caused them to tremble. And as the patch of skin transformed it seemed to be so heavy that it started to slowly sink down.

    That was when Ning Yan unleashed the power of his bloodline. At the same time, a host of little animals appeared around Wu Jianwu and released bloodline fluctuations. As a result, they managed to keep the patch of skin from falling. About ten breaths of timeter, the sun darkened, and the fingerprint was clearly visible on the patch of skin.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu struggled to control their trembling as they quickly rolled up the patch of skin. When it was put away, both exhaled sharply in relief, then looked up at the Captain.

    The afterglow of the sunnded on the Captain, making him look very imposing, and perfectly highlighting the emotion on his face as he sighed.

    ¡°It¡¯s too bad the only people here to witness this majestic event were us three. Little Ah Qing had no way to see it.¡± The Captain sped his hands behind his back and sighed loudly. ¡°Later on when I exin what happened, he¡¯ll definitely have mixed emotions. What a pity. What a pity!¡±

    The Captain shook his head and was about to continue speaking when, all of a sudden, something very dramatic happened.

    The sky in the major world fragment glittered, and wild colors shed left and right. Then, blue light appeared in the canopy of heaven. It wasn¡¯t just a small section of the sky. It filled everything! It was as if the entire dusky sky had turned light blue. What was more, that light grew more intense, all while terrifying ripples spread out.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were visibly stunned, but the Captain was taking it in stride.

    ¡°Presumably we¡¯ve been discovered. They¡¯ll be here soon. But that¡¯s fine. This is all within the realm of what I predicted. The two of you can make your escape ording to the method I exined earlier. We¡¯ll meet back up at Mount Heavenly Ox. Once we¡¯re there, I can promise you that even more good fortune will appear!¡± The Captain waved his hand to produce a jade slip. ¡°Starting now, we just let things y out naturally and¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, a heaven-sundering, earth-crushing rumbling sound spread out through the blue-lit sky. The deafening sound stirred the clouds as a massive rift opened up in the icy canopy of heaven.

    As the fully 5,000-kilometer rift opened, the sound continued to echo out, shaking thends. There wasn¡¯t just one rift. In the blink of an eye, a second opened. Then a third and a fourth....

    Dozens of rifts opened in the icy canopy of heaven. Looking up, the sky almost seemed like a shattering mirror. As rifts continued to open, the rumbling sounds were like thunder.

    Meanwhile, the blue light continued to shine dazzlingly, and the faint blue in the sky became deeper and deeper. Then light emerged from all of the rifts, in narrow beams that shone onto the ciers below. The ck ciers couldn¡¯t do anything to stop the blue light, and thus, thends also turned blue. In the blink of an eye, everything in heaven and earth was blue. The terrifying pressure that came from beyond the icy sky grew even more intense.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the canopy of heaven started crumbling. Countless chunks of ice fell like blue meteors. As they mmed into the ground, everything started crumbling. Deafening rumbling rolled out everywhere. As the sky copsed, the tip of a 30,000-meter nail appeared!

    It was only the tip, but it shattered the canopy of heaven around it, with those effects spreading rapidly in all directions. As the sky fell, the huge blue nail descended! The entire major world fragment was shaking violently. Not even the Captain had caused something as dramatic as this to happen.

    The countless deceased souls in the major world fragment, regardless of whether they drifted aimlessly or were sleeping in the ice, all let loose terrified screams. As far as they were concerned, doomsday hade!

    Ning Yan waspletely and utterly stunned, while Wu Jianwu looked like he might start crying.

    ¡°We¡¯re finished! I said before we came in here that I had a bad feeling about this! Why¡¯d you have to drag me along??¡±

    ¡°Chen Erniu!! What are you doing? What¡¯s going on?¡±

    The two of them had already crushed their teleportation talismans. Unfortunately, thanks to the dramatic situation, the talismans that the Captain had said would ¡®never, ever malfunction¡¯ were somehow not working.

 Chapter 570: Look, Everyone! Whoâ€™s That on the Nail? (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 570: Look, Everyone! Who¡¯s That on the Nail? (part 2)</h4>

    The Captain inhaled deeply, his eyes wide and somewhat nk.

    ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on! Something weird is happening. This is too bizarre! I just came in here to take a picture! I didn¡¯t touch anything! I definitely didn¡¯t do anything to instigate something like this. How could these Gloomites be so unreasonable? We do one tiny thing and they go and destroy everything? What are they doing! This is outrageous!!¡±

    Trembling, the Captain looked up at the enormous blue nail, and his nk expression changed into one of shock.

    <i>That¡¯s freaking... the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign!!! These Gloomites are all psychos! In order to destroy us, they¡¯re deploying the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign? They were never this vicious back in the day! Also, where did they get a weapon like that? Wait, hold on. That¡¯s the same nail that¡¯s in the forehead of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s third son! What the hell? That was supposed to be my sixth major heist! Who¡¯s taking that thing? Who?? Who is the early bird getting that worm??</i>

    The Captain was both shocked and also a bit defiant. There was no questioning that the aura he felt was from the weapon of an Imperial Sovereign. The Captain quickly snapped a jade slip, but it didn¡¯t do anything. After that, all he could do was turn around and run. As he did, he pulled out more teleportation jade slips and snapped them.

    ¡°Stop standing around shivering, you two! Hurry up and follow me. We have to get out of here. This really isn¡¯t my doing!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s definitely your doing!¡± Wu Jianwu shouted angrily. However, he also knew that now wasn¡¯t the time to lose his temper. Gritting his teeth, he promised himself that if he survived, he would make sure to stay as far away from this crazy person as possible.

    The terror in Ning Yan¡¯s heart swept away any fear he had of the Captain, so he shouted, ¡°This is just like the Ten Entrails Tree! Chen Erniu, don¡¯t you know that you can¡¯t die if you don¡¯t have a death wish??¡±

    Despite those words of fury... he still followed the Captain.

    The three of them were like three tiny rabbits fleeing in the face of andslide. But then, the rumbling sounds in the sky grew louder, and the area of devastation widened. Countless chunks of ice rained down from above as the massive nail pierced down and stabbed directly into the surface of the major world fragment. The descent of the nail sent out terrifying shock waves that obliterated countless deceased souls. Violent winds swept out.

    All the Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu could do was huddle together in the patch of skin and flee as fast as they could.

    The Captain was really not inclined to give up so easily, and looked back in the direction of the descending nail. When he did, his pupils constricted and he gasped.

    ¡°What the eff? That nail... there¡¯s someone standing on it!!¡±

    Hearing that, Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu instinctively looked over their shoulders. Sure enough, they saw that atop that absolutely terrifying nail... was a person.

    The blue light made it hard to see, but that person¡¯s robe and hair whipped in the wind, making him look like an immortal. His beautiful facial features and slender frame werepletely attractive in every sense of the word. The way he stood atop the nail made it seem like it was his personal weapon that he was controlling. The imposing manner, the grandeur, were enough to deeply shake anyone who could see.

    The Captain suddenly stopped in ce. Gaze somewhat nk, he said, ¡°Say, guys, does that fellow look familiar...?¡±

    Ning Yan stared, his eyes filled with disbelief and his mind aplete nk. Wu Jianwu stood as motionless as a wooden chicken, his eyes numb. Reaching out, the Captain pinched Ning Yan very hard. When Ning Yan yelped in rage, the Captain knew that he wasn¡¯t hallucinating. His eyes began to shine.

    ¡°It really is little Ah Qing!¡± The Captain started jumping up and down and waving his hands. ¡°Little Junior Brother! I¡¯m right here!¡±

    Meanwhile, in the shattered sky, the massive nail continued to descend. The ground was shattered and copsing in many ces. Ice fell out of the icy sky like rain.

    Atop the nail, Xu Qing was not as calm as his facial expression might indicate. He was actually trembling inwardly, and was absolutely shaken to the core. The pressure from the nail really was fearsome. From the moment the nail had stabbed into the ciers in the world above, it had smashed through all obstacles without a pause. All of theyers of ice had shattered, until the nail pierced all the way to the major world fragment.

    It had taken him here. Upon looking around, Xu Qing saw the shattered ck ciers, as well as the light source in midair, which resembled a sun, except that it was going dark.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but be curious about why there was a sun here. Then he saw the figures fleeing like rabbits down on the ground below. His expression became one of absent-minded curiosity.

    It seemed impossible that the Captain and the others would be here. After all, they were supposed to be meeting at Mount Heavenly Ox soon. Xu Qing had been hurrying on his way, worried about beingte, only to find the Captain right here. The feeling of disbelief onlysted a moment before vanishing. It took only that long for him to realize that it actually made sense to find the Captain here.

    After all, given how crazy the Captain was, the more unimaginable a ce was, the more likely he was to go there. The Captain had already traveled far, far down the path of having a death wish. He didn¡¯t ever seem to get tired of it. And the only way he would stop would be if he reached the end of the path....

    Such thoughts only existed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind for a moment. Then, it was without hesitation that he jumped off the gigantic blue nail.

    Given the speed of the nail, the moment Xu Qing left its surface, he was already a great distance away from it. However, blue light still surrounded him protectively as he shot toward the Captain and the others. Behind him, the blue nail picked up speed. Surrounded by blue light and whipping winds, as well as by the copsing heaven and earth, it got closer and closer to the icy surface of the ground.

    In the blink of an eye, there were only about 6,000 meters between the tip of the nail and the ground.

    Being that close, the destructive power of the nail could eradicate everything in its path. Theyers of ice below shattered, revealing a huge crater.

    As the 30,000-meter crater opened up, the deceased souls sleeping there didn¡¯t have a chance to awaken before being wiped out of existence. Those who did awaken had it worse off, as they were unable to flee, and could only scream as they were ripped to shreds.

    The distance shrank by 300 meters. 2,400 meters. 1,500 meters....

    The ground waspletely cracked and shattered, and the massive hole was so huge it couldn¡¯t be covered back over like the crevice created by the Captain¡¯s sun. Finally, a massive boom echoed out, and the entire major world fragment shook violently, as the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail stabbed deeply into the depths of the crater.

    A tempest sprang up, and a violent shock wave spread out. From a distance, it was possible to see the iceyers exploding out from that central area.

    50 kilometers. 500 kilometers. 5,000 kilometers.

    The iceyers erupted in a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering manner. The nail pierced into the crater like a hot knife through butter, crushing everything and piercing into the depths of the soil. As everything copsed, the nail pierced through the outeryer of the earth! Keeping up its terrifying momentum, it continued stabbing down!

    Despite Xu Qing being in midair some distance away, the shockwaves still mmed into him and sent him tumbling away like a kite with its string cut. Thankfully, he was protected by the blue light, so all that resulted was he coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood.

    The Captain, Wu Jianwu, and Ning Yan had already flown up into the air. With the patch of skin as a shield, they weathered the storm. The Captain had already retracted his sun. That said, all three of them were still trembling with fear.

    As Xu Qing got close to them, he raised his voice and said, ¡°Fly up! Something big is about to happen below!¡±

    Xu Qing knew exactly what the nail was aiming at, and thus he knew that this world fragment was heading toward destruction. After shouting his warning, he turned and fled toward the shattered canopy of heaven.

    The Captain and the others followed at top speed. Everybody knew that now wasn¡¯t the time for reunions. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were rather slow, so the Captain grabbed them and then held nothing back to fly high into the sky.

    As they got farther from the ground and closer to the canopy of heaven, the entire world started shaking. It was far more intense than before. The effects went beyond 5,000 kilometers, filling the entire major world fragment. Because the cause came from above and went down, the effect came from below and went up!

    Beneath theyers of ice in the major world fragment, there was some colossal entity... and it was emerging from a sealed state of slumber into consciousness! It shivered, and then started rising from beneath the ground. Layers of ice exploded, and ice chunks flew everywhere. A huge bronze coffin broke through the ground, the ice, and the snow to appear right in front of Xu Qing and the others.

    It looked exactly like the coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea! It was horrendous and stupefying! After having been buried under the ground for countless years, it... was finally out in the open! An ancient aura spread out from it, filling the area. In the lid of the coffin was a nail, spreading out from which were numerous tiny cracks.

    In that shocking moment, the face of the Heir Apparent appeared in the blue mist surrounding the nail. Looking down at the coffin, he quietly said, ¡°Time to wake up, Third Sister.¡±

 Chapter 571: Awake, My Third Sister (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 571: Awake, My Third Sister (part 1)</h4>

    The world fragment didn¡¯t even have a ¡®dome of heaven¡¯ anymore. The ¡®sky¡¯ had previously been made of ice, but now that had mostly been shattered. And the growing rifts were ripping the rest of it apart.

    The ground was in a simr state, beingpletely uneven thanks to the destruction that had been wrought on it. All of theyers of ice had beenpletely thrown to the side by the rise of the massive bronze coffin.

    The coffin was actuallyrger than the one Xu Qing had seen at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea. With most of it exposed, it radiated boundless majesty. It also pulsed with an incredibly ancient aura that spread out to fill the world fragment, as if the coffin was releasing all of the captured time that had remained buried with it through the years. It had been buried for a very, very long time, as was evidenced by its corroded exterior. The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail had clearly unleashed a very powerful attack. Though it didn¡¯t actually pass through the lid of the coffin, there were already numerous cracks spreading out from the point of impact. Meanwhile, some parts of the coffin were bulging outward, making it seem like it was just on the verge ofpletely exploding.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing, the Captain, Wu Jianwu, and Ning Yan all exchanged nces, and then kept flying higher.

    Meanwhile, the figure in the blue mist surrounding the nail spoke again.

    ¡°Third Sister, once I was free, I could sense you. The only people who emanated the fluctuations of consciousness from our homnd are me and you.... Our other brothers and sisters have all lost consciousness. Their souls are not intact. They were extracted by Fourth Brother, Li Pan.... Therefore, I came here to unseal you. Awake... my third sister.¡±

    The voice contained grief that filled the entire world. Meanwhile, the bronze coffin trembled.

    The cracks on the coffin¡¯s lid expanded and grew deeper, and an increasingly terrifying aura spread out from inside. Then, the entire world fragment shook as a withered hand smashed through the coffin lid. A smashing boom echoed out as bits of coffin lid sprayed in all directions. It was difficult to identify much about the hand. It wasn¡¯t obviously male or female, and it didn¡¯t have any skin, only bloody flesh. There were no fingernails on the tips of the fingers, and the entire thing emanated an aura of death.

    When the figure in the blue mist saw the hand, his sorrow deepened. This was his third sister, beloved by his father the king, and who had been doted on so lovingly. Among all of the siblings, she was the only one who qualified to stand on equal footing with their ninth brother. Her cultivation base had been astonishing, and she had revealed amazing battle prowess when on the campaign trail with their father. Beyond that, she had been famous among a myriad species for her astounding beauty. Countless nobles had admired her, and the emperor had personally bestowed upon her the title Princess Brightblossom. Back then it was said that she was ¡°like a cloud above the masses, free from even a speck of dust.¡±

    But then Crimson Mother came and changed everything. The peerlessly magnificent Princess Brightblossom ended up being sealed in a coffin when her father died. Their fourth brother, who was more beastly than most beasts, intentionally tormented her by cing the blood of their third brother in the coffin with her. As she became ravenous, she had no choice but to abandon her principles and humanity, and for the sake of future revenge, absorbed it. [1]

    A human, but not human. A ghost, but not a ghost. Living, but also dead. Dead, but also alive.

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s grief grew as he looked at the coffin. The interior was pitch ck, making it impossible to see whaty therein. It was only possible to see the hand slowly reaching out from inside. The coffin shivered, then went still. After a moment of silence, the hoarse voice of a woman spoke.

    ¡°Heir Apparent....¡±

    That familiar voice made the Heir Apparent think back to better times. After that, the figure in the coffin slowly stepped out into the open. She stood tall and straight, so withered that the rusted suit of armor she wore hung emptily on her frame. As the wind blew through the cracks in the armor, it made whimpering sounds. The parts of her body that the armor didn¡¯t cover were horrendous. They were covered with wounds infested with countless maggots. What was more, she had almost no skin on her, as if she had been skinned alive. Because of all that, she was horrendously ugly, and in fact, it was hard to tell if she was even male or female.

    Her face was sunken in. Where the eyes should have been, there were nothing but empty cavities within which burned the fire of the underworld. Given her appearance, it was obvious that she had experienced torment and torture that defied imagination. And yet, she still emanated terrifying fluctuations, and those fluctuations grew stronger as she stepped into the open. The world fragment shook so violently that the effects were already spreading into the world outside.

    The sky above the northern ice ins shed, and winds swept back and forth. A huge vortex even appeared in the sky. As the vortex rotated, all of thends in the north rippled and distorted. It seemed like a god was arriving. All living beings trembled, and off in the distance, a red glow appeared on the horizon.

    Those were fluctuations from the Red Moon Cathedral. There was no way the cathedral would allow something as dramatic as this to ur without investigating it.

    What wasing wasn¡¯t a godherald. Instead, it was a massive palm.

    The prints on the palm were like huge canyons, clearly visible as the thing emanated blood-colored light. It got closer and closer until it filled the entire sky, like the boundless hand of a god. After covering the northern ice ins, it pressed down toward the major world fragment. It was obviously going to crush everything here. The air shattered, the ice trembled, snowkes were sent swirling, and countless living beings were stunned into a daze.

    Inside the major world fragment, neither the Heir Apparent nor Princess Brightblossom who had just emerged from the coffin seemed to be affected at all.

    The two of them looked at each other. Given their cultivation level, there were many things which could bemunicated with a mere nce. Princess Brightblossom knew what the Heir Apparent was nning.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± she asked, her voice as grating as two chunks of iron being rubbed against each other.

    ¡°Crimson Mother is asleep, Third Sister,¡± the figure in blue replied. ¡°It¡¯s a rare opportunity. I want to go see our fourth brother and bring an end to the enmity from years back. As for how it will turn out, I¡¯m done contemting the possibilities. I¡¯d rather fight than continue living like this.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t say anything. She waved her hand, and the nail of the Imperial Sovereign vanished from its spot next to the dpidated coffin. When it reappeared, it was outside of the major world fragment, shooting right up toward the enormous blood-colored hand. It emanated force that could shatter space itself, as well as something profoundly ruthless.

    In the blink of an eye, it stabbed into the hand. A heaven-rending, earth-crushing boom rang out over the northern ice ins. The seemingly unstoppable palm stopped in midair as the nail hit it. Blinding blue light spread out, wrapping around the bright red hand. And as the nail stabbed into the middle of the palm, cracks spread out from that point. As the cracks spread, the hand copsed. In the blink of an eye, it shattered into dozens of fragments. At the same time, numerous beams of blood-colored light shot out over the northern ice ins. The pieces were like crimson shooting stars that mmed into the ground and created bright red craters.

    The blue nail didn¡¯t stop moving. It continued moving until it disappeared over the horizon.

    Princess Brightblossom looked up. ¡°He knows that we¡¯re free. That palm strike was actually an invitation. In that case, let¡¯s go. It¡¯s time to see how this little brother of ours, child of our father and mother, has fared since joining Crimson Mother.¡±

    She took a step forward and floated up into the air.

    The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing off in the distance. Hepletely ignored the Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu.

    ¡°Many thanks for your help, young friend.¡± With that, he looked at his third sister and nodded. She, in turn, looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce, sped hands, and bowed to the two of them.

    No facial expression could be seen on her ugly, skeletal face. However, she did reach out with a withered hand and push down toward the ground. The world fragment rumbled. Lands shook, and mountains rocked. The ice shattered, creating ck snow. It seemed like, going forward, this ce would be and of endless ck blizzards. At the same time, creaking sounds could be heard. It was almost as if this Imperial Sovereign¡¯s daughter had somehow taken control of the entire world fragment.

    As she did, the world fragment started to shrink. In the shortest of moments, it transformed into a palm-sized chunk of stone that looked like ck ss. She sent it flying toward Xu Qing. As it neared, mes erupted from its surface, burning it and purifying it. By the time it came to a stop in front of him, it looked like a ck crystal, sparkling and translucent.

    A boundless energy surged within it, and it glittered like the stars in the sky. What was more, thanks to the way it had just been purified, it was masterless.

    Something like this was indescribably precious!

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded. Though he had been prepared for something like this, he was still deeply moved. After taking the crystal, he looked at Princess Brightblossom, as well as the Heir Apparent, and he bowed deeply.

    The Captain, meanwhile, was breathing heavily, and his eyes shone with deep longing. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were shaken to the point of madness. Thetter seemed to have it better off, because he apparently didn¡¯t realize as much as Ning Yan how significant and meaningful the gift of a world fragment was.

    <i>S-s-seriously? You can just give those things out as a gift?</i> As Ning Yan reeled, Princess Brightblossom vanished. When she reappeared, she was in the outside world. As for the Heir Apparent, he nodded at Xu Qing again, then simrly vanished.

    The two of them stood tall next to each other in the crimson rain of blood.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for such a detestable species to exist in this world.¡± Princess Brightblossom looked down at the mountain headquarters of the Gloomites. Clenching her fist, she punched downward.

    A massive fist projection appeared right above the Gloomites. The mountain exploded. Thends copsed. All of the buildings were destroyed. Everything was wiped out. All that was left behind in the cityndscape was a huge, blood-colored hand print.

    With that done, the two figures became prismatic beams of light that shot off into the distance. They carried with them incredible majesty, unstoppable will, and a grudge that had existed for countless years. Their destination: the Penitence Steppes. That was the ce where their father¡¯s corpse was, and it was also the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Out over the Heavenfire Sea, the air rippled and distorted as a streak of blue light shot along, piercing through the fire, splitting apart the canopy of heaven, and dazzling the cosmos.

    Looking closely, it looked like a 30,000-meter-long nail!

    As it descended from above, its target was clear: it was locked onto a location beneath the surface of the Heavenfire Sea. Its passage caused a deafening roar. Lava sprayed everywhere as the spike shot down toward... the bronze coffin.

    1. When ites to all of these siblings, there are a handful of different ways the author refers to them. I will, for the most part, standardize the forms of address to make it easier to keep track of them. ?

 Chapter 571: Awake, My Third Sister (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 571: Awake, My Third Sister (part 2)</h4>

    3,000-meter tsunami waves spread out in all directions as the nail mmed right into the coffin. The red moon warding spells dimmed, and the coffin started trembling violently. The deafening noise reached a crescendo, and the coffin started crumbling! As debris exploded out, it created numerous huge whirlpools that seemed almost like swirling sparks.

    Then, a shocking and majestic body akin to Princess Brightblossom emerged from the rubble of the coffin. It was a very emaciated body covered with blue veins that resembled vicious mountain ranges. A brown robe covered most of him. It was covered with blood stters that had turned its once apricot color into what it was now. His face was emaciated, but that couldn¡¯tpletely conceal his heroic spirit. His blue eyes were like gemstones that radiated a captivating force. The bloodline of an Imperial Sovereign caused powerful fluctuations to constantly roll off him.

    He waspletely eye-catching, especially his full head of gray hair that flowed down around him like a cloak, spread out around him, and curled up at the end. Every single strand of hair was a deceased soul that howled to heaven!

    This was the true form of the Heir Apparent! He slowly looked up, then started walking. His first step took him out of the Heavenfire Sea. He hovered in the dome of heaven, his hair swaying around him like endless clouds.

    ¡°I was born in the golden age of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s rule, and was sealed after the arrival of the false god. Now I reappear in the sorrowful world of Revered Ancient. In this life... I¡¯ve experienced glory, splendor, wealth, and rank. I¡¯ve been the hope of all peoples. My cup did ruh over.¡±

    His mere murmuring caused thunderous rumblings to spread out. The sky flickered, winds screamed, and the sea of mes seethed.

    ¡°But there are two obsessions of mine that cannot be forgotten. First: destroy the moon and free the people from their curse. Second: to kill my traitorous brother to assuage the hatred in my heart! If Li Pan doesn¡¯t die, it will be a betrayal of my father, a betrayal of the people and the region, and a betrayal of my entire existence!¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked in the direction of the Penitence Steppes. His eyes were as cold as theherworld as he took a step forward and vanished into thin air.

    The Heavenfire Sea churned. Ripples spread through the dome of heaven. All living beings in the Moonrite Region shivered in fear.

    The top experts from many species could sense that something was happening. Shocked, they looked in the direction of the Penitence Steppes.

    Meanwhile, many parts of the northern ice ins were copsing. An entire minor world fragment had existed beneath them, but now it was gone, so many ces were simply crumbling. As rivers became waterfalls tumbling in all directions, four figures shot like lighting through the copsing, icyndscape.

    They were, of course, Xu Qing, the Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu. As they fled at top speed, rumbling sounds echoed out behind them like the howling of a god. The icy ground copsed, bing like a ck hole that sucked everything else toward it.

    Ahead of them, sections of ice rose up like des. Frigid winds assailed them.

    Thankfully, all four of them were extraordinary individuals, and had plenty of magical techniques to call on. Wu Jianwu was once again surrounded by a host of animals that helped clear a path for him. The Captain used Ning Yan like a meteor hammer, allowing him to speed along disdainfully. When adding in the field of pressure put off by the patch of skin, it made things simple.

    Xu Qing, though, used the simplest method. He used his Gruegloom abilities to be semitransparent, allowing him to disregard anything in his path.

    And thus, the four of them got closer and closer to the surface. A few times, the Captain couldn¡¯t help but look at Xu Qing and open his mouth as if to say something. He looked depressed. The reality was that he was stupefied. The fact that Xu Qing had suddenly shown up and did what he did left the Captain feelingpletely robbed by the ¡®early bird.¡¯

    <i>My sixth major n here in the Moonrite Region was to get the nail from the forehead of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s third son. The eighth major operation was to free the Heir Apparent from his imprisonment beneath the Heavenfire Sea....</i>

    <i>But little Ah Qing obviously went to the Heavenfire Sea, and he... already did those things? And he didn¡¯t just half-heartedly do them. He couldn¡¯t have done everything more perfectly! He even rescued the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s third daughter?</i>

    <i>Something feels really off about this. It should be </i>me<i> taking </i>him<i> to do these things, right...?</i>

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing with hidden bitterness. What was even harder for the Captain to take was that Xu Qing had somehow acquired a fragment of a major world. When the Captain thought about the countless untold hardships he had endured just to get a picture of that fingerprint, all while Xu Qing went and <i>ripped up everything by the roots</i>, well....

    <i>No. I have to work harder! I¡¯m the Eldest Brother here! Besides, I¡¯m totally familiar with this area. I have to establish my authority and dignity as the Eldest Brother. There¡¯s one person who pulls off incredible jobs, and that¡¯s m</i>e!

    Determination flickered in the Captain¡¯s eyes as he elerated.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the four of them finally burst out from the subterranean world and into the ice ins.

    pping his forehead, the Captain shouted, ¡°Little Roundy!¡± A faintly burning ball of fiery light emerged from the Captain¡¯s forehead and started flying up into the sky. The Captain quickly jumped inside of it. ¡°Hurry up, all of you!¡±

    Without a word, Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan flew inside. But they weren¡¯t as fast as Xu Qing.

    The moment Xu Qing saw that sun, he took action. He knew the Captain well enough to guess what wasing next, and therefore, almost as soon as the Captain was inside the sun, Xu Qing was standing there next to him.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out from the faintly burning sun as it rumbled into motion, disappearing over the horizon a momentter. With that sun gone, Xu Qing and the others had nothing linking them to the ice ins.

    Slowly but surely, the day passed.

    In the dome of heaven above the Moonrite Region, a blurry ball of light shot along at top speed. It was cloaked with a concealment power that made it so no one noticed its passage.

    Looking closely, it was possible to see that the ball of light was actually made of five intertwining rings. The five rings were covered in magical symbols that pulsed ording to some unknown rhythm. Because of the rapid pace of the pulsing, they emitted almost a constant light. In the middle of the five rings was a golden asteroid.

    The light emitted by the asteroid was absorbed by the five rings and then sent out in the form of light and heat.

    Atop the golden asteroid was a beautiful building. The Captain sat on the roof of that building, his expression strange. asionally he would sigh, asionally he would look determined, and asionally he would grit his teeth.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu had obviously been here before, as they weren¡¯t looking around curiously. They were sprawled out on the floor, thinking fearfully back to what happened in the ice ins. The treasured patch of skin had been tossed off to the side.

    Xu Qing stood off in the distance, examining his surroundings. He already knew the origin of this artificial sun. What he was curious about now was how it had been created.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was on the rooftop, secretly passing a message to Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan.

    <i>¡°Haven¡¯t the two of you rested enough? Pick up that treasured patch of skin! It¡¯s going to dry up in the heat!¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan both sighed, crawled to their feet, and went over to roll up the patch of skin.

    Noticing the movement, Xu Qing walked over. He... could sense that something strange was going on with the Captain. He had a good idea what it was, but also didn¡¯t care. It wasn¡¯t his first time dealing with something like this. It was the same back at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. That was when Xu Qing hade to realize that the Captain sometimes just needed some time to settle his thoughts. [1]

    After reaching Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu, Xu Qing looked at the patch of skin, as well as the fingerprint on it. ¡°That¡¯s what you came for?¡±

    Wu Jianwu nodded helplessly.

    Ning Yan, who actually revered Xu Qing, quickly said, ¡°That¡¯s right, Biggest Bro. After we parted ways with you, Elder Brother Erniu has constantly been pushing us forward.¡± With that, he nced at the Captain out of the corner of his eye.

    Off in the distance, the Captain sighed again.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, then quietly said, ¡°This patch of skin is incredible!¡±

    Ning Yan hesitated, then lowered his voice and said, ¡°It <i>is</i> incredible.... You see, it¡¯s Elder Brother Erniu¡¯s skin! He had me and Big Jianjian slice a few dozen pieces off him... and then sew them together. I think Big Jianjian is still haunted by all that.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He knew the Captain was crazy, but he never thought he was <i>this</i> crazy. That said, it made a lot of sense to use one¡¯s own body as an asset.

    Up on the roof, the Captain noticed Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, and he suddenly felt very pleased with himself. He was just about to open his mouth to speak when he realized that the patch of skin he had made couldn¡¯t possiblypare to a world fragment. He sighed again. It felt like he¡¯d let himself be skinned alive for no reason....

    A moment passed, and then his eyes shone with determination. Shooting to his feet, and looking very serious, he turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing looked attentively in the Captain¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, this was simply an instance of your Eldest Brother being <i>the butcher who gives only a small demonstration with his cleaver</i>. We¡¯re on our way to Mount Heavenly Ox, which is where I¡¯m really going to open your eyes. I¡¯m going to show you how fucking awesome I was back in the day!¡±

    Xu Qing immediately donned a look of keen anticipation.

    Seeing that look on Xu Qing¡¯s face made the Captain feel a lot better. sping his hands behind his back, he looked at Wu Jianwu briefly, stared off into heaven and earth, and said, <i>¡°Gaze not at yesterday¡¯s daylilies; instead, see who will be more awesome tomorrow!¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu waspletely speechless.

    1. The situation at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was when Xu Qing collected the "battle spirit symbols.¡± That started in <u>chapter 350</u>. After the initial incident, Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t actually talk to each other until <u>chapter 359</u>. ?

 Chapter 572: Heavenly Tribulation Tempers the Soul; the Ox Returns (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 572: Heavenly Tribtion Tempers the Soul; the Ox Returns (part 1)</h4>

    If there was one truly holy location in the Moonrite Region, it was the Penitence Steppes. It was considered holy in the past because of being the location of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s pce. It was considered holy now because it was the location of the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Though it might sound like the ce was just a sprawling ne, there was more. It was more like an ind surrounded by a sea of blood.

    Towering above the Penitence Steppes was a kneeling statue, taller than any mountain in the Moonrite Region. It was as tall as heaven, and boundlessly astonishing. It was the Imperial Sovereign who had once ruled this region. Though he had died, he still emanated majestic pressure. What was more astonishing was that on his head was a massive pceplex shaped like a crown. It was crimson, and acted like a sealing restraint that forced the Imperial Sovereign statue to stay kneeling. Because of it, the statue sank down a little deeper every year. The pceplex was the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Sprawled out around the statue on the ground were a host of church buildings. People strolled about in red robes, all of them quiet and peaceful. There was almost no sound. That was because the godchild didn¡¯t like a lot of noise.

    But today, it was going to get noisy. Two prismatic beams of light shot through the air, one from the north and one from the east. They were like two sharp des slicing the sky, destroying the silence and sending loud rumblings throughout the earth.

    The beam of light from the north abounded with death energy. Within it was the daughter of the Imperial Sovereign, d in her suit of armor. From the east came something like a massive tempest in the form of a brown-robed figure. Full of daring, the two figures closed in, causing the sky to pulsate because of their passage, and shattering the surrounding air. Their arrival caused the sea of blood to churn, and the cathedral buildings to tremble. The moment their terrifying, apocalyptic aura descended, a tender voice spoke from the churchplex atop the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s head.

    ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t my big brother the Heir Apparent. And my beloved third sister is here too. I¡¯m honestly surprised you got free.¡±

    As the words echoed out, a figure in a red robe walked out of one of the buildings. His mere presence caused the sky to brighten. A thousand radiant beams of light swayed, sending light out for 30,000 meters, illuminating the world. With a single step, he rose into the air, everything around him pulsating, distorting the air. He headed straight toward his two blood rtives.

    The three astounding individuals squared off, then shed with a boom. Their fight existed on a level that most living beings couldn¡¯t even directly perceive. They could just see the sky shaking, heavenly bodies being disturbed, andndscape elements in turmoil.

    Countless church cultivators bowed their heads and piously offered obeisance, all while chanting together.

    <i>¡°The red moon,dy to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.¡±</i>

    The sound of the lyrics drifted through heaven and earth.

    As for how the battle ultimately turned out, it was impossible for anyone to say. However, the fighting caused fluctuations that spread through the canopy of heaven over all of the Moonrite Region. It was almost like Heavenfire Skycrossing was back. Naturalws were influenced, and magicalws were thrown into chaos.

    During that time, no living being dared to fly high in the sky. Even the sun in which Xu Qing and the others traveled, which was far to the south, was forced down to a low elevation.

    Eventually, the Captain put the sun away, and theynded on top of a mountain. Standing on a boulder, the Captain and Xu Qing looked off into the distance. Wu Jianwu still seemed to be trembling with fear, and Ning Yan seemed to be thinking deeply about something. A long moment passed, and then Xu Qing and the Captain looked at each other.

    ¡°They¡¯re at war,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°It¡¯s too early. It¡¯ll be hard to seed.¡± Shaking his head, the Captain produced a peach, took a bite, then continued, ¡°That said, it¡¯s not necessarily a bad thing for us. And since we¡¯re not exactly in the position to participate directly, we need to just proceed ording to n. Little Ah Qing, going forward, this territory belongs to your Eldest Brother. Me. Are you ready?¡±

    To the Captain, what was really important wasn¡¯t the fight ying out at the cathedral headquarters. No, it was Mount Heavenly Ox. Once there, he nned to give Xu Qing a glimpse into his own former glory and majesty.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react visibly. This was at least the seventh or eighth time the Captain had said something like this recently.

    Seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t cooperating, the Captain tossed him an apple. Xu Qing grabbed it, took a bite, and then stered a look of anticipation onto his face.

    The Captain immediately looked pleased.

    Off to the side, Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan exchanged a nce and sighed. Before Xu Qing showed up, neither of them got to eat any of the Captain¡¯s apples. And after Xu Qing showed up... they still didn¡¯t get any apples.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± the Captain said energetically, and took a step forward.

    Xu Qing was also about to take a step forward, but then he stopped in ce and looked up into the sky.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, do you think this would be a good spot to provoke heavenly tribtion?¡±

    The Captain knew what Xu Qing was thinking. Looking back at Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan briefly, he replied, ¡°Your violet moon nascent soul?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. After everything that happened in the northern ice ins, his nascent souls were all in the great circle of the one-tribtion level.

    The Captain muttered to himself for a moment, scanned the sky, and then chuckled.

    ¡°It¡¯s an interesting idea, little Junior Brother. Because of the high-level battle going on, the magicalws of heaven and earth are in chaos. Although everything looks normal to the naked eye, if you provoked heavenly tribtion right now, I¡¯d say there are two possible oues.

    ¡°One is that the heavenly tribtion won¡¯t evene. It¡¯ll be stuck on the outside, and you¡¯ll be able to get your hands on the heavenfate without going through the tribtion. But the second possibility is that the heavenly tribtion wille down with stupefying force. And it might even affect your true soul. Have you put all that into consideration?¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing mulled it over briefly. ¡°If it¡¯s thetter, it would probably result in even more heavenfate than average. And it would be good soul tempering.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°Well said. Especially the part about soul tempering. Heavenly lightning is great for that.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it some more, then calmly said, ¡°Let me give it a shot.¡±

    The Captain licked his lips. He found this idea of Xu Qing¡¯s very amusing. ¡°You know, there¡¯s another possibility. You could always hide out in your minor world as well!¡±

    Realizing that what the Captain said made sense, Xu Qing discussed a few particrs, then found a valley to start making preparations.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu almost couldn¡¯t believe what they were hearing. And once they were in the valley, they couldn¡¯t hold back from talking about what was going on.

    ¡°Why does it feel like they¡¯re once again feeling suicidal?¡±

    ¡°You should trust yourself more,¡± Ning Yan said with a sigh. ¡°Just take out the part about ¡®why does it feel like,¡¯ and you¡¯re on the money....¡± As a very bad premonition built in Ning Yan, he turned to flee. Unfortunately, before he could get very far, his premonition became a reality.

    A massive gravitational force erupted from the valley, grabbed Ning Yan, and pulled him back inside.

    ¡°We still have tools at our disposal, right little Junior Brother? With the right tools, we¡¯ll have a much better chance at sess.¡±

    As the Captain¡¯s words rang out in the valley, Wu Jianwu shivered and elerated. About 3,000 meters away, he quickly hid in a ditch. Peeking back at the valley, he heard intense rumbling in the sky. The thunderous booms were like the enraged roars of a god. Wu Jianwu inhaled sharply and fled another 3,000 meters. Only then did he start to feel a bit more at ease.

    The transformations up above became more terrifying. A massive vortex appeared, within which crackled endless bolts of lightning, which gradually converged into a massive lightning dragon.

    To the astonishment of Wu Jianwu, the lightning dragon roared and then shot toward the valley. The ground shook violently as the lightning dragon smashed into the valley. Boulders shattered as an infinitude of sparks showered out, creating ake of lightning.

    It was just barely possible to make out the screams of Ning Yan.

    So terrified his scalp was tingling, Wu Jianwu fell back even further. The vortex above grewrger, and a second convergence of lightning tribtion descended. At the same time, the lightning from theke below shot upward, connecting to the sky. From a distance, all of the lightning seemed to converge, then form one solid mass that smashed into the valley.

    Soil exploded in all directions. The shock wave sent Wu Jianwu¡¯s hair into disarray as he fled for his life.

    Lightning fell over and over again, the range widening, sending out deafening noise everywhere. Itsted for seven days. Eventually, everything for 500 kilometers became scorched earth. The final round of lightning was immensely terrifying. A huge spear formed of lightning pierced through the dome of heaven and toward the earth below. Lands shook, and mountains were rocked.

    500 kilometers away, Wu Jianwu trembled as he observed. As of now, he came to the firm conclusion that Xu Qing was just as crazy as Chen Erniu, even more so in some ways.

    <i>No. I have to get out of here! Traveling with Chen Erniu feels like walking constantly on the edge of death. And then if you add Xu Qing, it¡¯s like strolling in the middle of death! I¡¯m freaking walking directly down a path of death!!</i>

    Eye shining with determination, Wu Jianwu turned and fled. He shifted directions back and forth numerous times in order to avoid detection. After running for a few days, though, he suddenly heard a very familiar voice behind him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t run, Big Jianjian. Fear not. Hahaha! It¡¯s over now!¡±

    Howling inwardly with grief, Wu Jianwu pretended not to hear, and just started running away faster. But he couldn¡¯t outpace the Captain. About four or five breaths of timeter, the Captain whizzed past him and grabbed him by the shoulder. Scowling on the verge of tears, Wu Jianwu looked up at the Captain¡¯s wickedly smiling face.

    Ignoring the look on Wu Jianwu¡¯s face, the Captain amiably wrapped his arm around his neck. ¡°What are you running for, Big Jianjian? I thought the two of us were good friends! This is a dangerous ce, and though we¡¯re strangers in a strangend, we¡¯re not strangers to each other. Sticking with me will be the safest thing to do. If it weren¡¯t for Little Ningning being able to track you down, you might have ended up wandering around all alone.¡±

    Hearing that, Wu Jianwu red at Ning Yan.

    The Captain had Ning Yan in his other hand. Ning Yan was smiling at Wu Jianwu in a way that said, ¡®Don¡¯t even think of trying to leave me behind.¡¯

    As Wu Jianwu fumed, he suddenly realized that Xu Qing was behind the Captain, looking pale and quite weak. Though his clothes were in tatters and his hair was disheveled, he seemed to be in good spirits. Also, his aura was much stronger than before. However, he trembled as he walked, and he asionally let off small bursts of sparks.

    The tribtion lightning had been so formidable that, thinking back on it, Xu Qing trembled in fear. Thankfully he had a minor world, so when things got really bad, he went inside to recover briefly before going back out to face the lightning. What was more, he had the Captain there to provide assistance. Despite all that, Xu Qing had been pushed to his limit several times. Although it was pure torment, he eventually passed the unusually intense heavenfate tribtion. As a result, he acquired more heavenfate than was normal. Most importantly, his soul had been baptized by the lightning, and was now a lot stronger.

    Xu Qing steeled himself mentally. <i>If things keep going like this, then when I finally pass the fifth heavenfate tribtion, my soul will no longer be so weak and feeble!</i>

 Chapter 572: Heavenly Tribulation Tempers the Soul; the Ox Returns (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 572: Heavenly Tribtion Tempers the Soul; the Ox Returns (part 2)</h4>

    With Wu Jianwu back with the group, they were whole again, and could start moving in the direction of Mount Heavenly Ox.

    It was hard to say how the Captain did it, but thanks to his endless cajoling, he finally won over Wu Jianwu again. Once Wu Jianwu was smiling again, he started spouting poetry. That said, he was so furious with Ning Yan that he didn¡¯t speak one word to him the entire trip.

    Xu Qing ignored their antics. As they traveled, he stimted the violet crystal to heal himself as quickly as possible. The lightning tribtion had been so powerful that he ended up with a lot of deep flesh wounds. Of course, that meant that the recovery process was a big transformation for his physical body.

    In this manner, half a month passed.

    The restrictions on movement in the air became less severe, and eventually, they started traveling in the artificial sun. About half a monthter, they finally caught sight of Mount Heavenly Ox.

    Mount Heavenly Ox was located in the Unfinished Mountains. Those mountains formed an extensive forested mountain chain, inhabited by many small sects and species. The climate was very different from either the north or the east. There was lush vegetation everywhere, making the mountain range as a whole seem emerald in color. The sky overhead seemed clearer as well. There was abundant life force in this location.

    ¡°See that?¡± the Captain said proudly. ¡°The tallest mountain there is Mount Heavenly Ox. All of you, listen to me. Back in the day, Mount Heavenly Ox was a holynd here. It upied the highest position possible!

    ¡°But let¡¯s not bring up history. All of those things are past glories. Now... now there are all sorts of sects here, and they¡¯re organized into an alliance. And that alliance is named, ahem, well, they clearly feel sentimental about the legends associated with this ce, because they¡¯re called the Heavenly Ox Alliance.¡±

    The Captain seemed very happy to speak those words. In fact, back in Sea-Sealing County, when he received the intelligence reports that exined all of these things, he had been ted for days. [1]

    Hearing all of that, Xu Qing made sure to look very impressed. Then he looked up into the sky.

    ¡°Seems brighter than everywhere else, right?¡± the Captain said, grinning. ¡°That¡¯s because the canopy of heaven here was once split open. Also, the mountains are special. They actually produce their own light. Because of that, the Unfinished Mountains are quite famous throughout the Moonrite Region. Now, let¡¯s get moving. I¡¯ll take you to the main city at the bottom of the mountain. Because there are so many cultivators here, the city formed naturally there, and it¡¯s a very bustling ce.¡±

    sping his hands behind his back, the Captain led the way. It almost seemed like he was arriving back at his own home. Before long, a huge city appeared up ahead. Even from a distance, it was possible to hear the hustle and bustle. There were local cultivators from a number of species present, as well as lots of mortals. Standing outside the city gate, the Captain cleared his throat loudly, stuck his chin up, and intentionally studied the card with the city¡¯s name printed on it.

    Ox-Receiving City.

    The name seemed bold and also ancient, as if it had existed for countless years of time. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan looked at the name of the city, then reflexively looked at the Captain. Beaming with joy, the Captain turned to Xu Qing. Xu Qing studied the name of the city, and his expression flickered.

    The Captain roared with happyughter. Leading them forward, he said, ¡°You saw that, huh? This city was built for the specific purpose of weing me! Coming back to this ce really ising home.¡±

    The Captain strode forward jauntily. However, when they actually went through the gate, a little incident urred. As it turned out, entering the city required a hefty spirit stone fee. The Captain had just finished exining that this was his home, so he obviously wasn¡¯t very thrilled at having to pay money to get in.

    Ning Yan averted his gaze. Wu Jianwu looked around nkly. Neither of them had any money.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. Noting how dismal the Captain looked, he quietly offered some words offort. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Eldest Brother. They don¡¯t know who you are, or that this ce actually belongs to you. And if you think about it, the spirit stones being paid are actually yours anyway, right?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes beamed with admiration. <i>Little Ah Qing really is so considerate!</i>

    With that, he happily paid the spirit stone fee out of pocket.

    And so they entered the bustling city. There were species and sects of all sorts represented, and there were lots of shops. The ce was clearly very prosperous.

    As they walked through the city, the Captain looked around and sighed contentedly. At one point, he spotted a spirit spring facility, and he stopped in ce, a look of reminiscence appearing on his face.

    ¡°There¡¯s a spirit river that snakes through the Unfinished Mountains, and it forms plenty of spirit springs. Even after all the years that have passed, the springs are still there. Back in the day I used to love having a soak here, and of course, having some of the female cultivators join me. Come! Let¡¯s go rx in the water. After you¡¯re all feelingfortable, I¡¯ll take you to my home.¡±

    And thus the Captain led them inside.

    The proprietor of the spirit spring facility was a cultivator. After nodding in greeting, he epted the payment and then led them inside. The pools wererge, and there were lots of customers present. Though the pools were separated to allow for private bathing, it still felt like a bustling ce, filled with the sound of chatting andughter.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu each got a separate pool. Doffing their outer garments, they slipped into the water and sighed contentedly. Wu Jianwu paid extra so that he could be joined by all of his children.

    The Captain had his own pool, where he spread out his arms and let loose a long sigh.

    Once Xu Qing was in his own pool, Ling¡¯er came out and took human form. Blushing a bit, she scooted close to Xu Qing and smiled so broadly her eyes became thin crescent moons. Xu Qing smiled, closed his eyes, and felt his mood improving as he rxed. After all, the exhausting travel, plus the physical transformation he went through, had left him so worn out that soaking in the spring just felt extremely rejuvenating andfortable.

    As they limated to the surroundings, theughing and chatter wasn¡¯t just random noise. After getting used to it, it seemed like part of the experience.

    There were some conversations that caught Xu Qing¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What a pity! Next month, all of the spirit springs on the mountain are going to be closed. Supposedly the spirit river is going to bepletely diverted and sent to the local branch of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.¡±

    ¡°It is what it is. Immortal Fairy Sweetfrost is getting married, and she has to go through a one-month baptism first. Everyone in the Unfinished Mountains has to give her some face. The Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect even agreed to host her baptism, right?¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that just because of her fianc¨¦, Master Darkfate? Considering he¡¯s the top expert in the Unfinished Mountains, people basically have no choice but to cooperate.¡±

    ¡°Maybe. Immortal Fairy Sweetfrost really is a stunning beauty. I happened to catch a glimpse of herst year, and she¡¯s really a looker. Completely iparable.¡±

    ¡°I heard Immortal Fairy Sweetfrost isn¡¯t actually from the Unfinished Mountains. She just showed up a while ago when she was passing through. For Master Darkfate, though, it was love at first sight.¡±

    Those were some of the things Xu Qing heard mixed in with the regr chatting andughter.

    It was very thought-provoking to Xu Qing. This was his custom; whenever he was in a new location, he would take time to learn more about the ce, including the current gossip. Thetter was especially important. Considering what happened in the Heavenfire Sea, and how ack of information had proved to be very troublesome, he hade to value that sort of thing more than ever.

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan weren¡¯t thinking about such things. However, the Captain was keeping his ears open. Eventually, he looked over at Xu Qing, smiled, and said, ¡°That¡¯s not important to us. This is our house, and they¡¯re like little house sparrows.¡±

    In response to the Captain¡¯s confident words, Xu Qing nodded, then closed his eyes and sank down a bit in the water.

    Two hours passed. When they left the spirit spring facility, they all felt revitalized.

    Although Xu Qing was in disguise, his tall, slender frame still attracted a lot of attention when they left. So did rosy-cheeked Ling¡¯er. Now that she was back in human form, she was exquisitely beautiful, and as she apanied Xu Qing, quite a few people nced at her.

    Wu Jianwu was feeling great. Any sense of depression he had felt was long gone, and as he walked the streets along with Xu Qing and the others, he gracefully fanned himself with a fan.

    <i>¡°Floating clouds are mountains¡¯ halos; in my heart a field of boulders glows!</i>

    <i>¡°A feather from spirit to mortal will grow; its beauty is naught but apropos!¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu usually stuck to a single line of poetry at a time. But this time, he spoke two lines with two sections each, for a total of four rhyming sections. After finishing with the poem, he looked very pleased. Ning Yan took a few steps away from Wu Jianwu, while the Captain seemed confused about the meaning of the poem. Xu Qing kept looking straight ahead. Other pedestrians who heard Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry looked over curiously; it wasn¡¯tmon to hear poetry like that on the street.

    Wu Jianwu snorted coldly in his heart. <i>Simpletons! How can they not understand the deeper meaning of my poetry?</i>

    Feeling more highbrow than ever, Wu Jianwu shook his head and strolled after Xu Qing and the others.

    Unbeknownst to him, two women were looking down at the street from the second floor of a nearby building. One of them was younger, and had her head bowed as she said something to the other woman, who was good-looking and middle-aged. Thetter looked surprised. However, it wasn¡¯t because of what her subordinate was telling her.

    Standing, she pushed aside the curtain and looked out to see Wu Jianwu walking away in the opposite direction. Her eyes filled with admiration and praise.

    ¡°What an extraordinary individual. He¡¯s using mountains and boulders as a metaphor for inner will, and ¡®spirit¡¯ to describe mortality. He¡¯s giving voice to his true inner ambitions in the same manner as Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity! Given the times we live in, romantics like this aren¡¯t verymon!¡±

    The woman¡¯s subordinate was visibly taken aback by her words, and stepped up to the window to take a look for herself. She was aware that her sect leader had always been enamored with Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And for someone to be a sect leader with such public adoration was something only an extraordinary individual could aplish.

    ¡°Sect Leader, should I do some digging and find out who the young gentleman is?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± the middle-aged woman said softly. ¡°Our Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect values predestined affinity. Besides, romantics such as him probably wouldn¡¯t appreciate people prying into his personal affairs.¡± Eyes glittering, she turned to look at her subordinate. ¡°Did you dig up any information about Fellow Daoist Sweetfrost?¡±

    Her subordinate ducked her head and respectfully replied, ¡°I got some. She was originally in the first stage of Void Returning. However, after sustaining a serious injury, her cultivation base dropped below Void Returning.

    ¡°She¡¯s probably using a fake name, as her background story ispletely fabricated. She does have some of the curse in her, but not much, which seems to indicate she¡¯s an out-of-region cultivator. What¡¯s more, her spiritual souls and physical souls are iplete. Given the location where she first appeared, it seems unlikely that she¡¯s a Firemoon Darkheaven. She probably isn¡¯t a Nightshade either. The most likely possibility is that she snuck in from Holytide territory. It¡¯s impossible to say what she¡¯s doing here. However, we do know that she only met Master Darkfate a year ago.¡±

    With that, the subordinate stopped speaking, so the middle-aged woman waved her hand. The subordinate quickly took her leave.

    Once alone, the middle-aged woman looked off into the distance.

    <i>In that case, why does this Sweetfrost have the aura of a Smoldering God on her...?</i>

    1. By way of reminder, the Captain¡¯s name Chen Erniu has the character Niu or ¡°ox/cow¡± in it. So all of the Ox rted things are sort of inherently funny because of that. ?

 Chapter 573: Opening a Tomb on a Moonless Night (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 573: Opening a Tomb on a Moonless Night (part 1)</h4>

    As Wu Jianwu followed Xu Qing and the Captain, slowly shaking his head, he had no idea that, at longst, someone had appeared who could not only understand his poetry, but appreciate it.

    <i>¡°The crumbling leaves are lonely and scattered; a bird missing feathers cannot fly high.¡±</i> Wu Jianwu sighed.

    Off to the side, Ning Yan¡¯s lips twitched with disgust. As far as he was concerned, Wu Jianwu was off in the head. In fact, Ning Yan had decided that if he ever reached the pinnacle of all heaven and earth, he would definitely issue orders to have Wu Jianwu¡¯s head opened up to see what host of demonic beings had possessed him.

    Sensing that something was off about the way Ning Yan was looking at him, Wu Jianwu looked at him and snorted coldly.

    <i>¡°Shameless, but seemingly a decent chap; look close, you¡¯ll realize he¡¯s a piece of crap!¡±</i>

    The infuriated Ning Yan looked like he was about ready to start an argument. But then he thought about all of those random animals Wu Jianwu had, and decided not to.

    Around then, the Captain said, ¡°Would you two cool it? It¡¯s gettingte, so the time hase to show all of you my home. You will now see splendorous architecture and overflowing wealth. There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into the construction of my mausoleum. And there was amazing treasure left inside as well!

    ¡°Big Jianjian, you like to collect the Ancient Emperor¡¯s calligraphy? I have five scrolls in there! Little Ningning, remember those things you need for your ancestral bloodline awakening? I have seven of them. Just follow me! And as for you, little Junior Brother, believe me, you¡¯re the main foundation of all of our big jobs, and also the main reason the Red Moon Cathedral is going to topple soon!

    ¡°Remember, all of you. Keep a firm grip on your jaw. Otherwise, it might drop so low it falls off your face!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with lofty pride, and he kept his chin stuck up as he led them forward.

    The Captain¡¯s confident words, and his look of longing, got Xu Qing thinking. He was increasingly curious about this past life of the Captain, and though he had some spections, there was no evidence to give him any solid clues. That said, from all the Captain¡¯s descriptions, it must have been a very extraordinary life. Thus, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation.

    Wu Jianwu had stopped his poetry, and walked a bit faster to keep up. Ning Yan was looking increasingly excited, and Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes shone with deep curiosity.

    As night fell, the five of them left Ox-Receiving City and entered the Unfinished Mountains.

    The Captain led the way. He hadn¡¯t been here for a very long time, but it was where he had lived a previous life. Therefore, all it took was to note a fewndmarks, and he had no trouble leading. Four hourster, the five of them were deep in the Unfinished Mountains. They had made their way past quite a few mountain peaks, and every time they did, the Captain would wax reminiscent.

    ¡°In the past, that was Pure Girl Summit, which was the location of a sect that one of my old mes called home. Ah, what a pity. She¡¯s nothing but bleached bones now. She won¡¯t be chasing me anymore. [1]

    ¡°This is where the Three Cauldrons Sect once stood. It was also where one of my best friends was born. Oh, how I miss him. As a member of the Weaponoid species, he was much stronger than our Little Ningning. He could take the form of any kind of weapon!

    ¡°There¡¯s one constant in the vicissitudes of time: things change, but people stay the same.¡±

    The Captain continued to sigh. Eventually, when the sky waspletely dark, he led Xu Qing and the others to the foot of a barren mountain. Along the way, they stopped at seven different locations, where the Captain would perform an incantation gesture. It seemed like he was dispelling sealing marks.

    ¡°There are eight steps involved in opening this tomb from my previous life. All the seals have to be opened in the correct order within six hours. Make even one mistake, and it won¡¯t work. The most important thing is to space out the timing correctly. You can¡¯t go too fast or too slow. And now, we¡¯ve reached the eighth and final spot.¡±

    The Captain looked up at the barren mountain. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything unusual about this location. It lookedpletely average.

    But after looking around and calcting the time, the Captain performed a right-handed incantation gesture, then pushed his hand out in front of him. A tremor passed through the ground, and many boulders seemed to shift in ce. Upon sensing that, the Captain grinned. Then he smacked himself in the chest, causing blood to spray out of his mouth. As itnded on the ground, the blood seeped down and disappeared.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t done with his work, though. He began speeding circles around the barren mountain. To the shock of Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu, as the Captain ran, he pummeled himself viciously, until he had coughed up so many mouthfuls of blood it was hard to keep track of. The blood all disappeared into the soil, leaving no trace of itself behind. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the Captain returned to them, huffing and puffing, his face pale. He was clearly very weak, but also visibly excited.

    ¡°If you mess up even one step of the process, the tomb won¡¯t open. Other than me, nobody could possibly do this.¡±

    After some quick calctions, Xu Qing determined that the Captain had coughed up enough blood to fill the bodies of two hundred ordinary people. It really did seem reasonable to say that the Captain was the only person who could do this.

    ¡°And now, polish your eyeballs and get ready to see something amazing!¡±

    Laughing heartily, the Captain pped the ground. The soil beneath his feet sank down, creating a vortex that instantly sucked the Captain inside.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing led Ling¡¯er forward. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu followed. They all entered the vortex.

    A momentter, the vortex vanished, and everything went back to normal. The warding spells here had obviously been designed to mask fluctuations. During the entire time, almost no noise or vibrations escaped out to be detected by anyone.

    Xu Qing had no idea where the vortex was taking them. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw that the five of them were in a subterranean cave temple. It was quiterge. The templeyout was oval, and it had a ceiling some several hundred meters high. Against the walls were twelve enormous statues. Some were humans, some were nonhumans. All of them had weapons in hand, and fierce eyes that seemed to see back into ancient times. They were so enormous that Xu Qing and the others felt like they were in a kingdom of giants. In the temple¡¯s position of honor was a huge throne. It was empty save for an imperial crown made of stone. Though the stony cavern was simplistic in nature, it abounded with a straightforward and even overbearing air.

    When Ning Yan was able to see everything clearly, he inhaled sharply.

    <i>Twelve Imperial Sovereigns, each of them 299 meters tall. And they¡¯re bowing to a throne that¡¯s 300 meters tall. It conforms to the pattern of a Grand Emperor!</i>

    Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t know about such things, but he was nheless struck with an indescribable sensation that caused him to look at the Captain with a bewildered look in his eyes.

    Xu Qing was simrly astonished. Based on all of this, it was obvious that the Captain had been an extraordinary person in this previous life of his. Even Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes were wide with incredulity.

    Seeing the looks on everyone¡¯s faces caused the Captain to sigh softly. The sound of his sigh carried a sensation of reminiscence and mncholy throughout the stony cavern as the Captain slowly started walking forward. As everyone watched, he strode toward the front until he reached the 300-meter-tall throne, growingrger andrger as he did. Sitting on the throne, he looked out at everything.

    The height, and the gaze, as well as the grandeur because of the surroundings, made it seem like the Captain really was a Grand Emperor returned, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Wu Jianwu shivered instinctively. Ducking his head, he sped hands and bowed. Ning Yan felt himself going a bit weak at the knees.

    Only Xu Qing managed to keep himself calm and collected. He looked around suspiciously at the cave, and then at the enormous projected version of the Captain on the throne.

    ¡°Everything here is fake, isn¡¯t it, Eldest Brother?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words caused the eyes of Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu to go wide. The Captain, however, maintained the same dignified facial expression as he looked back at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing turned to the left, toward what seemed like nothing but thin air. Facepletely expressionless, he said, ¡°Stop fooling around, Eldest Brother.¡±

    Laughter suddenly erupted from the spot Xu Qing was looking at, and the Captain materialized.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu looked at that spot, then back at the throne. The huge projected figure on the throne was obviously an illusion, not the real Captain.

    The Captain ignored Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. Chuckling, he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Nobody understands me better than you, little Junior Brother. Well done. This ce is actually intended to deter tomb raiders. Although the method to open the entrance here isplicated, and only I know how to do it, I still wanted to y things very safe. So I made this area.

    ¡°Any tomb raider who managed to make it this far, would surely be fooled by the illusion, and then stumble into the deadly traps. I¡¯ve engaged in a lifetime of tomb raiding myself, so I understand all such things very deeply.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. All of this really did conform to the Captain¡¯s style.

    ¡°Come, I¡¯ll take you in further,¡± the Captain said. ¡°After this are eight simr locations set up to guard against tomb raiders.¡±

    Grinning craftily, the Captain led them up to the throne. There, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, and another vortex appeared that they jumped into.

    They passed through six of the areas the Captain had mentioned earlier. All of them were constructed to look inimitably realistic. Also, each one was bigger and more magnificent than the one before it. In the sixth location, they felt like they were floating amongst the clouds. When Ning Yan looked around at what scenery was visible through the clouds, he was yet again dumbstruck. Everything conformed exactly to the pattern of the Ancient Emperors.

    They didn¡¯t continue any further. In the sixth location, the Captain harvested a bit of a cloud, coughed up some blood to mix with it, and subsequently created an enormous door made of mist.

    Looking as proud as a peacock, the Captain stood in front of the door and said, ¡°Normally speaking, anyone who reached this point would believe that there were more spots to visit. And that¡¯s why I did things contrary to logic and hid the real entrance right here. This door leads to the first floor of my residence from this past life.¡±

    Everything Wu Jianwu had seen had left him shaken to the core. The fact that so many facade tombs had been built to guard against tomb raiders begged the question of how amazing the real tomb was going to be.

    Ning Yan¡¯s thoughts were focused in a different direction. ¡°What do thest two facade tombs look like?¡±

    The Captainughed but didn¡¯t answer the question. Waving his hand, he summoned the Lonesun¡¯s artificial sun, and had it shine a burst of light on the door. He did that nine times. After the ninth burst of light, the door rumbled open.

    ¡°I¡¯m finally home! Ai. It¡¯s been such a long time. I really miss this ce.¡±

    The Captain could already imagine Xu Qing¡¯s stunned reaction upon seeing how skilled he was at hiding treasure. Trying to look like the epitome of casualness, the Captain beckoned at them to enter the door.

    Xu Qing actually was looking forward to seeing whaty beyond the door, so he strode forward. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu followed. Once they were in, the Captain smiled proudly and stepped in the door. On the other side was a veryrge mansion grotto.

    ¡°And this is¡ª wait. What?¡±

    As the Captain looked around, his jaw slowly dropped.

    1. The ¡®Pure Girl¡¯ mentioned here is a reference to Sun¨¹, an ancient Chinese goddess associated with music and sexuality. For more info about this, <u>here¡¯s the Wikipedia article</u>. ?

 Chapter 573: Opening a Tomb on a Moonless Night (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 573: Opening a Tomb on a Moonless Night (part 2)</h4>

    The ce waspletely and utterly empty. There was nothing present, not even a chair. It was absolutely bare, to the point where it looked like someone had cleaned the ce. There wasn¡¯t even any dust in the corners.

    A strange expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. Ning Yan blinked a few times. Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down.

    Ling¡¯er leaned over to Xu Qing and loudly whispered, ¡°It¡¯s so clean!¡±

    The Captain spun to look left and right, feeling increasingly flustered. Something was definitely not right here. However, he managed to maintain superior control over his facial expression, and continued to talk in a very rxed and casual manner.

    ¡°There was never anything on the first floor. Considering how many years have passed, you would expect things to look a bit weathered. In any case, my really good stuff is all on the second floor. I put special protections in ce there.¡±

    The Captain hurried to the opposite wall, where he flicked his sleeve. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a stone door appeared. Seeing that the door was undamaged, the Captain breathed a sigh of relief. cing his hand in front of his mouth, he started licking it to cover it in saliva. At the same time, he provided an exnation for Xu Qing and the others.

    ¡°This door can only be opened with my saliva and palm print. Without those two things, nobody can open the door.¡± The Captain put his hand directly on the door. ¡°Open!¡±

    The door vibrated a few times, but in the end, it didn¡¯t open.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. Ling¡¯er looked at the Captain. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were also looking at the Captain.

    Surprised, the Captain retracted his right hand. After giving his left hand a thorough licking, he tried again. The door vibrated even more dramatically, but it didn¡¯t open. Beads of sweat were now visible on the Captain¡¯s forehead. Aware that everyone was looking at him, he cleared his throat.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a really long time. I guess some parts have broken over the years. It¡¯s fine! It¡¯s totally fine. I have other ways of getting inside.¡±

    The Captain put both hands on the door and pushed, and though the door vibrated even more dramatically than before, it still didn¡¯t open. The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. Biting his tongue, he spat out some blood. The blood made the door shake violently. But it didn¡¯t open.

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing took a step forward, clenched his hand into a fist, and punched the door. It shook even more violently.

    The Captain inhaled sharply. He was starting to get anxious. ¡°What are you people standing around for? Help me! Something is freaking wrong here. Somebody changed the lock on my house!¡±

    Wu Jianwu muttered to himself apprehensively, but in the end, still summoned some of his children.

    A bear appeared, as did a parrot, as well as a host of other strange-looking animals. They charged toward the door.

    Ning Yan was starting to get a very bad feeling, and started to back away. But then the Captain reached out, grabbed the vines growing out of his belly, and yanked Ning Yan through the air to m into the door. A boom rang out. Ning Yan had very thick skin, so he wasn¡¯t hurt. And thanks to the force being focused on it, it finally opened a tiny crack.

    Looking very nervous, the Captain started spitting out mouthful after mouthful of blood onto the opened part of the door. His blood was apparently an all-purpose tool in dealing with things he had set up in a previous life....

    Thanks to the blood, the crack grew wider. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the door eventually swung open, revealing a cave temple beyond.

    It was... aplete mess.

    A thief had clearly been here. There was junk tossed around everywhere, including broken medicinal pill bottles and overturned book cases. There was also a faint scent of decay.

    The Captain looked around, bbergasted.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone as he stepped into the cave temple and looked at the chaos.

    Wu Jianwu sighed. Given what he was seeing, he couldn¡¯t hold back from reciting some poetry.

    <i>¡°The delighted ox took the long path back, only to find a home bare and miserable....¡±</i>

    ¡°What Big Jianjian means, Elder Brother Erniu,¡± Ning Yan said quietly, ¡°is that your home got robbed.¡±

    The Captain turned to look at the two of them, and he seemed so furious that he looked like he might eat them. They quickly shut their mouths. That said, the Captain wasn¡¯t in the mood to deal with the two morons. Looking at the devastation in the cave temple, anger began to bubble within him. That was especially true when he thought back to all the expensive things he had stored here in his past life.

    Finally, he sighed, and pretended to be very rxed. ¡°I predicted years ago that something like this could happen,¡± he said loftily. ¡°After all, a lot of time has passed. It¡¯s normal for unexpected things to happen. And that¡¯s why I made sure all the best stuff was actually on the next floor, by the coffin.

    ¡°This is the second floor, and what¡¯s gone is gone. My coffin, on the other hand, is on the third floor. It¡¯s definitely going to be untouched. Other than me, no one in heaven and earth exists who could open the third floor. Not even a god!¡±

    With that, he strolled to the middle of the stony cavern, where he performed an incantation gesture. The cavern trembled, and then a circr door appeared.

    Some of what the Captain said, Xu Qing believed. But he didn¡¯t believe the part about gods being unable to open the door. However, he didn¡¯t say anything. He scanned the floor, then looked at the door thoughtfully. He was about to say something, but before he could, the Captain suddenly coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and staggered to the side.

    Snarling viciously, he said, ¡°Very interesting. Someone actually altered this warding spell!¡±

    Xu Qing prepared to step over and help, but the Captain waved him away.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need any of your help. I refuse to believe I can¡¯t handle this alone!¡± Everything he¡¯d said on the way here now seemed like ps on the face. With his self-esteem crashing and burning, the Captain gritted his teeth. Gruish faces appeared in his pupils, and the faces¡¯ pupils also had faces in them. Apparently, that pattern went on forever.

    The area was now surrounded with blue light, as well as an explosively frigid coldness. Approaching the door, he lifted his right hand and then shoved it out. His chest suddenly ripped open as a blue hand with bone spurs jutting off it emerged. There wasn¡¯t just one. A total of eight hands burst out from inside him, along with terrifying fluctuations.

    Wu Jianwu and his animal children trembled. Ning Yan was stunned. And the eight vicious blue hands shoved at the door.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out. The Captain had set up the warding spells here, and though they had been altered, he still had a higher level ofmand over them than any other person. The door trembled as glowing cracks spread out over its surface to form a magical symbol. The magical symbol flickered a few times, and then a loud cracking sound could be heard. The door copsed, revealing a roughly 30-meter cave temple.

    Without the slightest hesitation, the Captain flew inside. A momentter, a howl of grief rang out.

    It was an intense cry that prompted Xu Qing to rush into the cave temple. Once inside, he gasped. The mess on the third floor surpassed that on the second floor. If the second floor had been ransacked by a thief, then the third floor had been cleared out by a gang of thieves. Everything was inplete disorder. Worst of all, there were some dried-up piles of excrement in a few ces.

    There was a tall plinth in the middle of the cave, atop which the coffin would normally rest. The coffin had been smashed to pieces, although there was one small part of it still intact,ying off to the side. It was empty. There was no corpse.

    The Captain sat down on one of the pieces of the coffin and looked around. He seemed numb.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed, walked over, and sped the Captain¡¯s shoulder.

    The Captain looked at him with grief and indignation in his eyes. ¡°Little Junior Brother, my past life... has been stolen.¡±

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan entered, and they looked around, shocked.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing whispered, ¡°just calm down. Are youpletely sure that your past life body was actually dead?¡±

    He had no idea what it would be like to have your corpse from a previous life stolen. After all, not many people could experience something like that. But he could guess what the Captain was feeling.

    Hearing Xu Qing¡¯s question caused the Captain¡¯s eyes to harden. He was a shrewd person, and though it had been a big shock to find that his past life body was gone, after Xu Qing¡¯s question, he started noticing things. His expression turned cold.

    ¡°Do you mean that my body might have woken up and done all this? But if I didn¡¯t die in that previous life, then how could I be here in this life? It doesn¡¯t seem to me that your suggestion is very realistic. Unless....¡±

    ¡°Unless some unclean thing came and possessed your body,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± the Captain said, standing. Terrifying fluctuations rolled off him. ¡°I¡¯m the one who usually pulls a fast one on other people. This is the first time someone else has pulled a fast one on me! The chaos on the second floor spread from one spot, so it seems likely it was caused by a single person.¡±

    ¡°And then this third floor...¡± Xu Qing said, looking at the Captain.

    A crazy look appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. ¡°Everything on the third floor is focused on the center of the cave. Given the damage here, it seems that the coffin exploded, creating a big shockwave. Only after the dust settled did someone search the ce. For this unclean thing to open the doors and change everything shows that they must understand me very well....

    ¡°That lets us narrow things down a lot. It seems extremely unlikely that someone broke in from the outside. Instead, an unclean spirit that originated here seems like the most likely culprit. I had a lot of funerary objects in here. Maybe after all the years that passed, one of those objects had some sort of destined opportunity and ended up producing a spirit automaton!¡±

    The more the Captain voiced things out loud, the more everything made sense. A cold light flickered in his eyes.

    ¡°That said, this unclean thing really should not have possessed my old body. I ensorcelled that body starting from when it was just born. What¡¯s more, it¡¯s linked to this specific location. Without interference from me, if it leaves the Unfinished Mountains, it¡¯ll copse into ash. And that means... if it¡¯s still alive, it can¡¯t be very far away!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s cold voice thrummed with killing intent.

    Xu Qing nodded, looked at the cave walls around them, and opened his mouth to speak.

    The Captain beat him to it. ¡°We need to determine if this thing sensed that we wereing.¡±

    The Captain performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing streams of light to spring up everywhere, allowing him to connect to the warding spells. A momentter, he gave a cold harrumph.

    ¡°There are no signs of any fluctuations leaving this ce. This unclean thing might have some control over things here, but in the end, this is <i>my</i> tomb!¡±

    The Captain spat up another mouthful of blood, then lifted his right hand and snapped his finger. The blood he had just coughed up turned into a geomanticpass. The needle on thepass spun, then pointed it in one specific direction.

    ¡°Anything connected to my blood can be tracked using this bloodlinepass!¡±

    All of a sudden, the needle shifted to point at Ning Yan.

    Ning Yan¡¯s face fell.

 Chapter 574: Predestined Relationship; Too Wonderful for Words (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 574: Predestined Rtionship; Too Wonderful for Words (part 1)</h4>

    ¡°It¡¯s not me!¡± Ning Yan blurted anxiously. ¡°It¡¯s obviously pointing at something behind me! That¡¯s got to be it!¡±

    Ning Yan quickly hurried over to Wu Jianwu¡¯s side. However, as he did, the blood needle on the Captain¡¯s geomanticpass swiveled to follow him.

    The Captain¡¯s expression turned very serious as he stared deeply at Ning Yan.

    ¡°Get over here!¡±

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s expression flickered as he turned to look at Ning Yan and, without even thinking about it, said, <i>¡°A barren tree blooms, making new generations; the glimmering light points to distant rtions?¡±</i>

    Trembling with terror, Ning Yan ignored Wu Jianwu. He looked confused, and at the same time, his heart was pounding so hard it could dry up rivers and drain seas. He really had thought that he was just standing in between the geomanticpass and the tomb raider. But now it was clear that the needle really was pointing at him. When he thought about what that signified given the circumstances, he started to get panicky.

    ¡°Elder B-brother Erniu,¡± he stammered, ¡°this doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me, really. I... I don¡¯t even know what¡¯s going on!¡±

    Xu Qing looked on curiously, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Eyebrows dancing up and down, the Captain said, ¡°Hurry up and give it to me.¡±

    ¡°Give you what?¡± Ning Yan said, grimacing. ¡°You and I definitely aren¡¯t blood rted!¡±

    The Captain frowned in disdain. ¡°I know this has nothing to do with you. How could I possibly have a descendant like you? I want you to give me that treasured patch of skin!¡±

    Shivering, Ning Yan quickly took the patch of skin out of his bag of holding and threw it to the Captain. The needle followed it. Seeing that, Ning Yan breathed a huge sigh of relief. He¡¯d been scared nearly to death just now.

    Wu Jianwu sighed inwardly and murmured, ¡°<i>The world copses, the bird pees in fright; fatees and goes for this troglodyte</i>.¡±

    Ning Yan didn¡¯t understand the poetry, but he could sense that it was somehow making fun of him. He red at Wu Jianwu. Wu Jianwu red back, and the numerous animals surrounding him joined him. Ning Yan kept his mouth shut.

    The Captain was already ignoring their mutual animosity. Picking up the patch of skin and storing it in his own bag of holding, he once again consulted his geomanticpass. It was now pointing in a specific direction.

    ¡°That¡¯s the way. Let¡¯s go! I¡¯m very curious to see who the hell went so far as to possess my past-life body!¡±

    Bristling with anger, the Captain hurried back toward the entrance of the tomb.

    Xu Qing hurried along. As he did, he checked the shadow beneath his feet, and also sent his senses into his bag of holding to make sure the Spike of Misfortune was ready to use. He was now more determined than ever to stay on guard against them; the Captain¡¯s current situation had made it obvious how important that was. When the shadow sensed Xu Qing¡¯s divine will, it trembled. Inside the Spike of Misfortune, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered. Both tried to exude overt subservience.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained unchanging. Inside, he was thinking that he should probably learn some more about warding spells, and consider using some to make sure he was fully prepared to deal with any issues with the shadow or patriarch. He didn¡¯t want to hurt their feelings, but also didn¡¯t want to make the same mistake the Captain had made. As he was wrapped up in such thoughts, he followed the Captain out of the tomb and into the morning outside.

    Off in the distance, an artificial sun cast out its first morning rays, driving away the darkness. The lush mountain vegetation became clearly visible. Given the bitterness of the world they lived in, the life pulsing through the nts and vegetation almost seemed like an illusion to Xu Qing. But as the day grew brighter, things seemed to turn normal, and the mountain boulders looked less like demonic monsters and more like ordinary rocks.

    The small group of four was wrapped up in all sorts of emotions.

    The Captain was anxious. Wu Jianwu was sighing regretfully. Ning Yan was still a bit frightened. Xu Qing waspletely on guard, as he was convinced that this incident wasn¡¯t going to wrap up as smoothly as the Captain had imed it would.

    Xu Qing had no idea how many years had passed since this previous life of the Captain¡¯s. And if the culprit was still in the Unfinished Mountains, it seemed likely they would be very well prepared.

    <i>In all likelihood, whoever we¡¯re dealing with knows that Eldest Brother can transmigrate. In other words, he would be able to guess that Eldest Brother would eventuallye back. And that means this guy is definitely extremely cautious.</i>

    Xu Qing hurried to catch up with the Captain and then shared some of his thoughts.

    The Captain nodded. He had considered such things as well. However, he still felt confident. sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Whoever the hell did all this, little Junior Brother, you can rest assured that there¡¯s one thing he didn¡¯t think of. And that is... all I have to do is touch him and I have my ways of taking control.

    ¡°You see, whenever I transmigrate, I always ensorcel my new body as soon as possible after being born. That way, the body is ready to be used as a weapon at any moment. Because of that, this past-life body really can¡¯t escape me.¡±

    Xu Qing looked the Captain up and down. ¡°You did the same thing with your current body?¡±

    ¡°Of course, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain said, looking down his nose. ¡°On that fateful day back in the county capital, I was ready to open all my seals and call all of my past-life bodies to me. That¡¯s no exaggeration. If I called all my past-life bodies together, then even gods would have to call me ¡®Big Bro.¡¯¡± [1]

    Xu Qing chuckled. He had long since grown used to the Captain¡¯s bragging. However, considering that the incident rted to Xu Qing himself, it had a different level of meaning. He nodded earnestly.

    Seven days passed. During that time, they followed the Captain¡¯s geomanticpass deep into the Unfinished Mountains. The mountain peaks were tall and forbidding, the vegetation was dense, and they saw lots of wild animals.

    Simr to both cultivators and mortals, the animals in the Moonrite Region were also cursed. Because of that, they had all changed, and were much fiercer than their out-of-region counterparts. Just now, a swarm of tiger-headed butterflies was flying past, their wingspans nearly two meters. As they flew along, they scattered extremely poisonous powder. Xu Qing captured a few of them, whereupon his eyes glittered with curiosity. He looked in the direction they were flying.

    <i>The powder has the red moon curse in it.... But it¡¯s very active, like it was just created.</i>

    Though his curiosity had been aroused, he decided to think about such matterster, and instead followed the Captain.

    At a certain point deep in the mountains, the sensation the Captain was getting from his blood prompted him to mask his presence. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan also used simr methods to conceal their auras. Xu Qing took out the mask his Master had given him, then went into his Gruegloom state, making him virtually invisible.

    In a small valley, the Captain squatted on the branch of a tree, then turned to what seemed to be empty air next to him and said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, about a day ahead of us is where my bloodline power is strongest. However, only scraps are left behind. The origin isn¡¯t there.

    ¡°Instead of running around after him, I want toy in wait until he returns. Incidentally, because of various reasons, this old body of mine likely doesn¡¯t have Void Returning battle prowess. It should be in Spirit Trove. Spirit Trove fleshly body battle prowess.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Xu Qing replied from a different direction.

    The Captain blinked a few times. <i>Hmm. Little Ah Qing¡¯s concealment abilities have really improved. I need to pick up the pace</i>.

    However, now wasn¡¯t the time to put a lot of thought into such things, so he just squatted there unmoving.

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were nearby, hardly daring to breathe.

    After all, no one knew who exactly had taken over the Captain¡¯s previous life body. And in terms of this person¡¯s cultivation base... the Captain might seem rxed, but if they were dealing with a Spirit Trove cultivator, they might as well be up against a colossal monster. Everyone was being very cautious. Time passed.

    Four dayster, the Captain suddenly transmitted a message to everyone.

    <i>¡°He¡¯s here!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked, not up into the sky, but at a spot in front of the Captain. There was an eyeball there which was projecting an image of the area.

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan retracted every scrap of their auras. At first, they looked up into the sky, but then quickly shifted their attention to the eyeball in front of the Captain.

    ***

    About a day¡¯s journey from where they were, something dramatic happened in the canopy of heaven. A group of people flew over the horizon. Along with them came music spreading out in all directions. There were over a hundred people in the group, and all of them were ying flutes. The music was beautiful and energetic. There were handmaidens flying alongside them, scattering flower petals that caused a fragrant aroma to surround them.

    The group wore colorful clothing that made them look like beautiful flowers flying through the sky. The flowers swirled around an enormous marriage sedan crafted from a gigantic skull. It was being carried through the air by thirty-two burly men who weren¡¯t human at all. They were Lionfolk. The way their golden fur shone in the sunlight made them seem like celestial soldiers. [2]

    In Sea-Sealing County, this type of ostentatious show wouldn¡¯t be very unusual. But in the Moonrite Region, and especially the Unfinished Mountains, it was dramatic to the point of being a bit ridiculous.

    Inside the marriage sedan sat a man and a woman. The woman appeared to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. d in a beautiful gown embroidered with a cloud-studded red sunset, she was petite, with skin as fair as snow, and eye-catchingly attractive. She was currently leaning up against the man, and had pulled his arm around her. From the gentle way she stared at him, it was as if he was the only person that existed in her world.

    Beneath her slender neck was a milky-colored chest that was only half-covered by her garment. The silk band around her waist entuated her long, shapely legs, which ended in feet as dainty as lotus blossoms. Altogether, she was incredibly enticing, and could definitely be described as a consummate beauty. [3]

    The man was tall and muscr, with rather crude facial features, and grayish skin that seemed devoid of life force. He had onerge eye and one small eye that didn¡¯t seem to match. When he breathed, he exhaled dark, turbid energy. Even the whites of his eyes seemed strange. They were yellow as if with sickness. Some patches of skin on him seemed to be decaying, and he even oozed necrotic corpse fluids in some ces, making it hard for anyone to look at him for long.

    This man hardly seemed a goodplement for the young woman. That said, he was also impressive in his own way, with a strong baleful aura. What was more, his strangely mismatched eyes contained an inherent apathy toward life. All-in-all, he had his own type of dignity that few people would dare to underestimate.

    Eventually, they arrived at their destination. There, the man stood, and the woman rose with him.

    They looked at each other. One pair of eyes was cold. The other abounded with emotion. They kissed, and it was hard to imagine how the woman could stand the dark energy he exhaled. And when their tongues touched each other, it was appalling to say the least. If nothing else, it seemed to show that these two loved each other very deeply.

    Eventually, the man stepped away and flew to the nearby mountaintop. The surrounding cultivators bowed respectfully, and then left with the sedan chair.

    Meanwhile, on a nt leaf below, there was an eye that slowly closed and then dissolved into liquid.

    ***

    In a nearby valley, Xu Qing looked at the image being projected by the eyeball.

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan didn¡¯t seem very surprised by what they had just seen. After all, they didn¡¯t recognize either of the people.

    However, the Captain turned to Xu Qing, his gaze somewhat vacant. ¡°Little Ah Qing, did that girl look familiar to you...?¡±

    Xu Qing almost couldn¡¯t believe what he had just seen. From what he remembered, that woman waspletely obsessed with the pursuit of beauty. Yet now she was apparently on intimate terms with a person who oozed necrotic fluids. Though it seemed unbelievable to Xu Qing, when he heard the Captain¡¯s words, he nodded.

    ¡°She looks just like the same person whose house you ruthlessly plundered. The same person who hates you to the core of her being. Nethersprite.¡± [4]

    Xu Qing stopped talking, but then added one further thought. ¡°Captain, any chance you still have some of her clothes?¡±

    1. Although it¡¯s not specifically exined, the ¡°fateful day¡± mentioned by the Captain is presumably the day of the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup. In <u>chapter 533.1</u> and <u>533.2</u>, the Captain was preparing to interfere, but never went all out. ?

    2. Thest time a "sedan chair¡± was mentioned was in <u>chapter 468.2</u>. The Chinese word used there is slightly different than in this chapter, but refers to the same thing. In this chapter, the specific word for a ¡°marriage sedan¡± is used (the word in 468 could be for a marriage sedan or sedan chair used for other purposes). Here¡¯s a link to the <u>same picture gallery as before</u> to show what they look like. ?

    3. The description of her feet uses the term ¡°lotus feet,¡± which often refers to feet altered by the traditional practice of footbinding. From what I¡¯ve seen nowadays, this term also gets used simply to describe beautiful feet, so I don¡¯t think the implication is that this woman actually has bound feet. That said, it¡¯s not impossible. If you¡¯re unfamiliar with footbinding, you can find more info in the <u>Wikipedia article</u>. ?

    4. Nethersprite was first introduced in <u>chapter 273</u>. The Nethersprite heist arc (in which we met the grown-up Qing Qiu) was from roughly <u>chapter 328</u>-<u>338</u>. Nethersprite was mentioned in other chapters. She appeared briefly in <u>chapter 501.2</u> and <u>501.3</u>. In <u>chapter 509</u> we learned that she escaped captivity during the war. And in <u>chapter 513</u>, we got the grand elder¡¯s perspective, as well as a theory from Xu Qing that Nethersprite wasn¡¯t even missing. ?

 Chapter 574: Predestined Relationship; Too Wonderful for Words (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 574: Predestined Rtionship; Too Wonderful for Words (part 2)</h4>

    The look on the Captain¡¯s face was strange. It flitted back and forth between ferocity and incredulity. Xu Qing could understand his reaction.

    ¡°The man with her...?¡± Xu Qing said hesitantly.

    The Captain sighed bitterly. ¡°That guy, well it¡¯s highly likely that he... is my body from that previous life.¡±

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan didn¡¯t know who Nethersprite was. But after hearing the conversation between Xu Qing and the Captain they could guess at what was going on. Both of them inhaled sharply.

    Ning Yan hesitated, then quietly said, ¡°Congrattions on your big day!¡±

    Wu Jianwu was deeply moved. Thinking back to stories he¡¯d heard about matters rted to predestined rtionships, he couldn¡¯t help but get excited and say, <i>¡°The situation causes shock and confusion; the Ox wonders if his life¡¯s a delusion! In the past they were nothing but foes and aggressors; in the present they¡¯ve chosen to grow old together!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing sat there quietly. The Captain sat there even more quietly.

    There was no way Ning Yan was going to let an opportunity like this slip away, so he asked, ¡°If the two of them have children, Elder Brother Erniu... what will the kids call you?¡±

    Veins bulged on the Captain¡¯s forehead.

    Seeing that, Wu Jianwu decided that he could temporarily forget his revulsion for Ning Yan. After a moment of thought, he looked meaningfully at the Captain and said, <i>¡°My son¡¯s dad is not his dad, my son¡¯s mom is not his mom; ask my son what he calls me and he¡¯ll say, biological dads and stepdads are all still dads!¡±</i>

    The moment Wu Jianwu finished with his poem, the Captain clenched his hand into a fist and punched him in the face. With a howl in grief, Wu Jianwu was sent flying backward 300 meters. Ning Yan was about to turn and run when the Captainunched a kick and sent him flying over to join Wu Jianwu. Eyes bloodshot, the Captain then looked up into the sky.

    Xu Qing looked sympathetic. He could imagine whatplex emotions the Captain was dealing with. Reaching out, he sped the Captain¡¯s shoulder. A long moment passed.

    ¡°What the heck is going on here?? Why did Nethersprite fall for my past-life body?¡± The Captain¡¯splex feelings were reflected in his facial expression. There was really too much to put into words.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too upset, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°If Nethersprite knew the truth, she¡¯d probably have mixed feelings as well.¡±

    His words seemed to have a positive effect. After a moment of looking surprised, the Captain gritted his teeth.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. All it took was a single nce and I could tell that my past life body was actually possessed by the spirit automaton of one of the funerary objects in the tomb. As for which exact funerary object it was, I can¡¯t tell at the moment. But that doesn¡¯t matter! I¡¯m taking my body back. All I have to do is touch it!¡±

    A crazy light shed in the Captain¡¯s eyes as he pulled Xu Qing closer to discuss the details.

    It was going to be a difficult job. For one thing, Nethersprite¡¯s aura made it clear she was in the great circle of Spirit Trove. Based on what Xu Qing remembered from various war reports, that was likely a result of how Nethersprite had severely injured herself on the battlefield to make her escape.

    ¡°Her ¡®escape¡¯ was a tactic,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°used by the swordsage grand elder of Emperor-Receiving Prefecture to keep Seventh Prince in check. But I always assumed the grand elder had her held captive secretly somewhere. As it turns out, he really did set her free. That said, I¡¯m sure the grand elder has other contingencies in ce. Unfortunately, we¡¯re too far away from Sea-Sealing County to ask him for details.¡±

    Eyes narrowing, the Captain said, ¡°My past-life body has a very strong aura of death, and no fluctuations of any magical techniques. That¡¯s as I expected. That body has been dead for long enough that whatever damned thing possessed him only has ess to the shell. That said, that fleshly body power isparable to the great circle of Spirit Trove.¡±

    The Captain frowned. The past-life body alone would have been too much for him to deal with. And now Nethersprite was in the picture. For all intents and purposes, getting close enough to his past-life body to touch it was going to be impossible.

    ¡°Considering how intimate Nethersprite was with him, Eldest Brother, it seems to me that your past-life body must be the number-one expert in the Unfinished Mountains that we heard about. Master Darkfate. But I¡¯m really curious as to how Nethersprite ended up here. And how could she really fall in love so deeply at first sight?¡±

    Xu Qing got the feeling something suspicious was going on. He looked at the Captain. ¡°We need some intelligence reports about this Master Darkfate.¡±

    ¡°I have some,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Before, I didn¡¯t pay much attention to the small fries around here. But I did get some basic information.¡± The Captain rummaged through his bag of holding and eventually produced a jade slip that had some information about Master Darkfate.

    He had founded a sect in the Unfinished Mountains, its name being the Darkfate Sect. Master Darkfate himself spent most of his time in seclusion in his sect. He rarely made public appearances. It went without saying that his secluded meditation facilities had very tight security. Infiltrating them would be very risky. And they would only have one chance to do it. If they were discovered, all of them would be in incredible danger.

    After Xu Qing and the Captain discussed matters at length, they decided that they had no choice but to cut a few corners.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said thoughtfully, ¡°your past-life body and Nethersprite are supposed to be getting married soon....¡± A n was already starting to form in his mind.

    Hearing that, the Captain got a very bad premonition.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, didn¡¯t we hear that Nethersprite is going for a month-long baptism at the spirit spring in the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect? If we could think of some way of capturing her there, then she wouldn¡¯t be able to go through with the wedding.... And then, Eldest Brother, you could disguise yourself as Nethersprite!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. Around that time, Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan had just run back. Hearing thest bit of dialogue caused both of their eyes to shine. That was especially true of Ning Yan, who couldn¡¯t stop a grin from spreading out on his face. But then, fearful of being whacked again, he wiped the grin away.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing continued, ¡°you know your past-life body better than anyone. And you know Nethersprite fairly well too; after all, you¡¯ve been in her house before. What¡¯s more, you¡¯re really an expert in dressing up like the opposite sex. You have experience, remember? You know, that Seazombie princess? Back then, your disguise was remarkably true to life. Iparably realistic!¡± [1]

    Keeping his eyes on the Captain, Xu Qing slowly took out an apple and handed it to him. ¡°And that¡¯s why I think,¡± he went on, ¡°that you should disguise yourself as Nethersprite and go to the wedding with your past-self body. That would be the perfect way for you toy hands on him, right? Of course, it¡¯s all based on the presumption that we can figure out how to restrain Nethersprite and also pull the wool over the eyes of your past-self body.¡±

    The Captain reflexively took the apple. His expression was one of hesitation.

    On the one hand, he had to admit that Xu Qing¡¯s n seemed feasible. On the other hand, the idea of getting married to his past-self body seemed patently absurd. The end result was that he wasn¡¯t sure what to think.

    Sighing, Xu Qing squeezed the Captain¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Eldest Brother, this is the only n I cane up with right now. But it¡¯s pretty crazy. I understand if you can¡¯t do it.¡±

    Gritting his teeth viciously, the Captain started breathing heavily. Then he looked at Xu Qing with a crazy look in his eye.

    ¡°I can do it! However, we have a lot to prepare before we go through with it. Little Ah Qing, can you lend me that world fragment of yours? That¡¯s going to be how we restrain her. Ordinary methods won¡¯t work if we want to capture Nethersprite. I¡¯m going to set up a grand spell formation in that world fragment. Then I¡¯m going to have to undo some of my seals. We¡¯ll add in my treasured skin patch, plus the might of my sun and... right, your Ghost Emperor nascent soul! We¡¯ll need that as well.

    ¡°We¡¯llbine all of those things and then trap her inside the world fragment! In terms of tricking my past-self body, I have my ways!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes were bloodshot; he was clearly willing to go all-out to retrieve the body that had once been his. With that, he and Xu Qing went on to discuss more details about the setup, including ways to avoid attracting the attention of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.

    One suspicion Xu Qing brought up was the possibility that this entire thing was a big trap. Like a fishing expedition. Xu Qing knew from experience that traps like that weren¡¯t obvious from the outside.

    The Captain nodded and looked at Xu Qing with a strange look in his eyes. However, only a momentter, he brimmed with confidence as he exined that he had everything under control.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. Ever sinceing to the Unfinished Mountains, it seemed like the Captain¡¯s confidence levels were different than before. That said, Xu Qing was used to his overconfident words.

    A few dayster, they had hashed out all the details and had a n in ce. With that, they headed toward a branch of the Southern Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect located in the Unfinished Mountains.

    The Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect was a veryrge organization in the Moonrite Region. Because they worked with the Red Moon Cathedral to provide sacrificial dances, they had a good amount of authority. Also, they were sorge that they had eastern, western, southern and northern branches.

    Among their disciples were people both righteous and wicked, and as a result, it wasn¡¯t hard to infiltrate them. That was one of the reasons that the Captain, during his initial preparations, had arranged secret identities in that sect.

    Their destination was one of a number of branches of the Southern Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect in these mountains. Its patriarch was in Void Returning, and he spent most of his time on the Penitence Steppes in the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral. The sect leader was his heir, who had a Spirit Trove cultivation base.

    Because there were so many branches of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, it wasn¡¯t possible for all of them to get along. Though there were some dealings between the various branches, most stuck to themselves, and even guarded against the others. As a result, even though the Captain and Xu Qing had identity medallions from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, when they presented their identification, they were refused entry.

    The headquarters of this branch was located on a tall mountain with twin peaks. It featured carved jade railings and extravagant decorations. On the back side of the mountain was a spiritke formed because of how the local spirit rivers converged in the area. Because of that, the ce was well-known.

    At the foot of the twin peaks, a blur of light appeared in front of Xu Qing and the Captain, blocking their path. Three sect disciples walked out of the light.

    The leader of this group of three was a middle-aged cultivator with his hands sped behind his back. ¡°Your identity medallions aren¡¯t from the southern branch here in the Unfinished Mountains. In ordance with our rules, we can¡¯t just let you inside. Go back to wherever you came from.¡±

    Of course, they had already nned how to deal with this exact situation. Smiling, the Captain took a few steps forward and put his hand on his bag of holding to take something out.

    Before anything else could happen, Spirit Trove fluctuations rolled down from above, followed by a light sigh.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened, and the Captain froze in ce. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan both had uneasy feelings.

    A figure appeared in the sky, floating down to hover above them. It was a good-looking middle-aged woman in a daoist robe. The moment she appeared, the disciples on guard duty dropped to their knees to kowtow.

    ¡°Greetings, Sect Leader!¡±

    Xu Qing and the Captain quickly sped hands respectfully. However, even as Xu Qing bowed, he pondered how odd it was that this person showed up at this exact moment.

    The middle-aged woman wasn¡¯t looking at Xu Qing or the Captain. The moment she appeared, she smiled, looked at Wu Jianwu, and softly said, ¡°This is our second meeting, young sir. Yet your poetry is still fresh in my mind from our first meeting.¡±

    1. How could any of us forget the time the Captain disguised himself as a Seazombie princess in <u>chapter 183</u>? ?

 Chapter 575: Itâ€™s All Ancient Emperor Dark Serenityâ€™s Fault (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 575: It¡¯s All Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s Fault (part 1)</h4>

    The gentle voice spoke from above, almost chanting. <i>¡°Floating clouds are the mountains¡¯ halos; in my heart a field of boulders glows!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing was shocked, and the Captain was clearly taken aback.

    Wu Jianwu looked up at the woman in the sky. Raising his eyebrows, he said, <i>¡°The mountains ask not the depths of the gloom; only heaven knows of the setting of the moon.¡±</i>

    The woman clearly understood what Wu Jianwu meant, as she softly replied, ¡°Forgive me for being rude. You can call me Mistress Rosyclouds.¡±

    This time, it was Wu Jianwu¡¯s turn to be stunned. A gentle afternoon breeze swayed the nts and vegetation on the mountain, and sent clouds driftingzily through the sky. It stirred the hair of everyone present, and also brushed against Wu Jianwu¡¯s heartstrings. How could he have guessed that there would actually be a person in existence who could understand his poetry and appreciate the emotion it contained? The fact that such a person had suddenly appeared was nothing short of a surprise.

    Ever since he started imitating Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, nobody ever understood him properly, not even his own Master. Yet he never gave up on his ideals and never forgot about that Ancient Emperor¡¯s unique style. From early on, he became used to the crude and tasteless response of people who didn¡¯t understand him, and had long since stopped hoping to have his poetry acknowledged.

    Yet now....

    A fierce light shone in Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes as he sped his hands behind his back. The breeze picked up slightly, stirring his hair and causing his robes to ripple. At the moment, his attention waspletely focused on the woman.

    <i>¡°The world, society, and the universe dominate; will the mist obscuring the bridge evaporate?¡±</i>

    Visibly moved, the womannded on the ground in front of Wu Jianwu. The sunlight shone down onto her simple daoist robe, causing it to glimmer as if with seven beautiful colors. The way that light shone in her eyes made her attractive features even more beautiful, like that of an immortal fairy. She nodded slightly.

    ¡°You guessed correctly, young sir. I am indeed the sect leader of the Southern Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.¡±

    Eyes glittering, Wu Jianwu said, <i>¡°Yesterday the starry wind blew early; might cats and dogs fall from the sky?¡±</i>

    The womanughed. ¡°I understand.¡±

    Turning, she waved her hand, causing the sect¡¯s defensive shield to open slightly. At the same time, bells tolled thrice. It was nothing insignificant in terms of ceremony.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the Captain were dumbfounded, and Ning Yan stood there with a nk look in eyes. Ning Yan looked at Wu Jianwu, then the sect leader, and could reach no other conclusion than that both of them were off in the head.

    Ning Yan wasn¡¯t the only one to be thinking that. The three sect disciples on guard duty were all reeling mentally. They literally couldn¡¯t understand one bit of Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry, yet their sect leader seemed to understand it down to the core. It made them think of the stories they had heard about their sect leader. Supposedly, she had absolutely adored Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, who was a human. She was also very fond of literary and artistic talents, and was even known topose poetry of her own.

    That said, the details didn¡¯t matter. The three guards were extremely respectful as they stepped aside to clear the path. They were especially careful to give Wu Jianwu lots of room.

    ¡°Please,e with me, young sir!¡± the woman said softly. Clearly, she wasn¡¯t worried about the vast difference between her cultivation base and Wu Jianwu¡¯s. In fact, in her experience, the higher someone¡¯s cultivation base, the less likely that they could be a literary or artistic genius. As far as she was concerned, Xu Qing and the Captain were nothing more than foils to Wu Jianwu¡¯s superiority.

    Wu Jianwu looked very enlivened as he stuck out his chest and courteously walked along with Rosyclouds.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce, then followed politely behind. Ning Yan hurried to do the same, but before he could get inside the sect, Wu Jianwu stopped in mid stride.

    <i>¡°Half a piece, one piece, two pieces, three; the squat little dog ought bow its head to me!¡±</i>

    Upon hearing that, Mistress Rosyclouds turned to look at Ning Yan. He shivered, and before he could say anything, the sect¡¯s defensive shield mmed shut in front of him.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on? I don¡¯t even understand what he just said. You can¡¯t do this!¡± Ning Yan knew that Wu Jianwu was petty. But despite Ning Yan¡¯s fury, he didn¡¯t dare do anything but meekly watch Xu Qing and the others walking away.

    Thus, they entered the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. They sawrge groups of tiger-headed butterflies everywhere, far more than they¡¯d ever seen in the wild. From a distance, they looked like multicolored clouds swirling around the mountains.

    Xu Qing was surprised. He had seen these types of butterflies a few times in his recent travels. But he had never seen as many as this. Then, as he continued after Wu Jianwu and simultaneously looked at the distant butterflies, his vision suddenly swam. He stopped in ce. A momentter, everything went back to normal.

    A few paces ahead, the Captain stopped and looked back questioningly.

    Xu Qing shook his head. He looked just the same as before, but now he was far more on guard. He knew that he was hale and healthy from head to toe, which meant that the unusual sensation from moments ago was the result of something gruish. However, now wasn¡¯t the time for discussion about it. Lowering his gaze, he continued following Wu Jianwu. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the sect leader had led them to the sect¡¯s guest housing area, which was where they were to stay.

    ***

    The sect leader watched them enter the guest houses, then turned and left. As she walked through the sect, a host of butterflies swept toward her, then swirled into the shape of two illusory figures that walked by her side. One of them leaned over and spoke in a low voice.

    ¡°Sect Leader, this group showed up out of nowhere in Ox-Receiving City about ten days ago. They¡¯ve never been around here before. The first thing they did in the city was go to a spirit spring facility. Nothing out of the ordinary happened there. Later, they left and went into the Unfinished Mountains. After that, their trail went cold. We have no idea why they¡¯re here. Their disciple identities check out. They¡¯re really from the Eastern branch of the sect.¡±

    The other figure then said, ¡°The talented young poet doesn¡¯t have a high ranking in their group. That said, he doesn¡¯t seem to be with them under duress. He¡¯s traveling with them of his own ord. All of them have signs of the curse on them, which means it¡¯s unlikely they¡¯re from out of the region. That¡¯s especially true of one member of their group, who has very strong curse levels. In fact, they¡¯re so strong they could erupt at any moment.¡±

    Hearing all of this, Mistress Rosyclouds nodded. ¡°Just keep an eye on them. If they¡¯re really just here for lodgings, and they don¡¯t reveal any malicious intentions toward our sect, then you don¡¯t need to do anything.¡±

    ¡°But if...¡± one of the figures said hesitantly.

    ¡°But if they do have malicious intentions,¡± Mistress Rosyclouds said, stopping in ce, ¡°then... chop them up and feed them to the butterflies. Except for the poet. You can give him a proper burial.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± The two figures blurred, then vanished into thin air.

    ***

    Seven days had passed.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and Wu Jianwu settled in and didn¡¯t do anything to overstep their bounds. Though they did leave their residence a few times, they didn¡¯t pry into any secrets of the sect.

    They knew full well that since they had shown up out of nowhere, the sect would be watching them. Though the unexpected development with Wu Jianwu ensured a quick and easy entry, in the end, they were not disciples of this branch of the sect. Therefore, they were confined to the lower half of the sect¡¯s first mountain peak. The deeper parts of the sect were closed to them. Although the sect leader obviously liked Wu Jianwu a lot, she wasn¡¯t going to break the sect rules casually.

    In the end, just being able to stay in the sect was enough to fulfill the first part of the n.

    That was because the spirit spring in the back of the sect was open to all disciples as long as you had the spirit stones to pay for entry.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had gone twice already. By soaking in the spirit spring and doing breathing exercises, they were able to keep the curse within them under control. The curse was the excuse they hade up with on the way to the sect. If you wanted to sell a lie, you needed to have some realistic bits of evidence to go along with it. By mixing the false and the true, you were much more likely to seed.

    Although the spirit spring wouldn¡¯t directly affect the power of the curse, it could nourish the fleshly body, and thus provide indirect benefits.

    There were a lot of ces like this scattered throughout the Moonrite Region, and they were one of the big reasons there was even a Heavenly Ox Alliance to begin with.

    There was one other asion in which Xu Qing experienced that same blurred vision and strange sensation as before. It was always when the tiger-faced butterflies were around. As he hade to learn, the butterflies had a specific name.

    They were ¡®dancing butterflies,¡¯ and they were a unique life form that was crucial to the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect¡¯s sacrificial dance.

    Xu Qing secretly consulted with the Captain about why he was experiencing those strange episodes. The Captain took it very seriously, and analyzed it from a lot of angles. However, not even he coulde up with an exnation. There was definitely something suspicious going on, but since empty spection wasn¡¯t going to do any good, Xu Qing decided to pay closer attention going forward.

    During the seven days that passed, Xu Qing and the Captain had to deal with unexpected circumstances affecting their n.

    For one thing, the sect leader Mistress Rosyclouds frequently visited the spirit spring. Considering that, it didn¡¯t matter how careful they were in making preparations to deal with Nethersprite, they had to hold back, otherwise Mistress Rosyclouds would definitely notice what was going on.

    It was now less than a month until Nethersprite woulde for her baptism.

    The Captain was starting to get very anxious. Even though he and Xu Qing hade up with a veryprehensive n, given the circumstances, it reached the point where they knew they needed help from Wu Jianwu.

    Therefore, on the eighth day, the Captain found Wu Jianwu, threw his arm over his shoulder, and quietly said, ¡°This isn¡¯t going to work, Brother Jianjian.¡±

    Wu Jianwu looked at the Captain out of the corner of his eye but didn¡¯t say anything. The past few days had been wonderful, and he had already mentallyposed several volumes of poetry that were now waiting at the ready.

    Clearing his throat, the Captain continued, ¡°Big Jianjian, I need you to seduce the sect leader. Just a bit. Get her away from the spirit springs....¡±

 Chapter 575: Itâ€™s All Ancient Emperor Dark Serenityâ€™s Fault (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 575: It¡¯s All Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s Fault (part 2)</h4>

    Wu Jianwu sneered. Now that they were in this sect, his status among the three of them had changed. Arrogantly waving his hand, he summoned one of his children, the parrot, who perched on his head.

    Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t say a word after that. Instead, his parrot stuck his chin up and spoke for his father.

    ¡°What kind of immature, bullshit n is that? You think Mistress Rosyclouds is an idiot or something? If my dad tries to seduce her, she¡¯ll definitely get suspicious! Then all she¡¯ll have to do is scan the spirit spring, and she¡¯ll know exactly what you two are up to! If you want to court death, that¡¯s fine. But leave my dad out of it! He refuses to go along!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the parrot, and noted the way it held its head arrogantly and looked down its beak at them.

    The Captain, meanwhile, looked visibly surprised. ¡°I never said that we would set stuff up in the spirit spring after your dad seduced her! It¡¯s the opposite! Of course she¡¯ll get suspicious when your dad seduces her. And then when she checks the spirit spring, she¡¯ll find that there¡¯s nothing out of the ordinary there. It¡¯ll be the same way every time. After that happens a few dozen times, then her suspicions will naturally fade away. Am I right, or am I right?¡±

    The parrot was stunned, and Wu Jianwu¡¯s expression seemed a bit more solemn than before.

    ¡°It will take time to set things up in the world fragment,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°But as far as the spirit spring goes, getting the spell formation ready will only take about six hours.¡±

    The parrot surreptitiously looked down at his father. Wu Jianwu, meanwhile, looked a bit hesitant.

    The Captain, who knew Wu Jianwu very well, went on to make some more persuasive arguments. Toward the end, as Wu Jianwu finally seemed to be wavering, the Captain made his final move.

    ¡°Worst case scenario, we can forget about my past-life body. I have other alternatives ready. It¡¯s just sad that I won¡¯t be able to get those five volumes of ancient records left behind by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Ai. There are just so many descriptions of the Ancient Emperor in there, such as his ambitions when he was young, all of which were recorded in the form of poetry....

    ¡°You know, I actually remember one poem from in there. I can even recite it for you! <i>Heavenly daos bend the knee, sun and moon shine so clear; purge the imperialnds and bring order to the frontier.¡±</i> The Captain spoke in a soft voice, but there was something magnificently powerful about his words. [1]

    Wu Jianwu shivered from head to toe, and he suddenly looked fascinated. Quickly putting away the parrot, he took a deep breath and nodded.

    ¡°I¡¯m in!¡± The determination in his eyes, and the forcefulness with which he spoke those two words, made it clear that he had made a firm decision.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with approval as he stepped over to start discussing some details with Wu Jianwu.

    Off to the side, Xu Qing sighed inwardly and went over to the door to stand guard.

    Normally the nights were dark, but right now, there were countless shimmering lights in the air. They were the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect¡¯s special dancing butterflies, which not only pulsed with curse power and dangerous poison, but also shone brightly at night.

    <i>Disciples in this sect are good with dangerous poisons, so they aren¡¯t bothered by the dancing butterflies¡¯ poison. But what exactly caused me to feel that strange sensation? And not once, but twice.</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing reached out to the god¡¯s finger in D-132 inside of him. He found that ¨©t was sleeping soundly....

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me that provoking that heavenfate tribtion created some potential cmity?</i>

    Xu Qing frowned as he analyzed the situation.

    The night passed.

    The next morning, the Captain¡¯s new n was carried out. As the sun climbed over the horizon, Wu Jianwu strolled out of their guest amodations, a cid look on his face. He was on his way to carry out the mission as devised by the Captain: to seduce Mistress Rosyclouds!

    It was obviously a very formidable task, and seeding at it rted directly to Wu Jianwu¡¯s personal dreams. Therefore, he took the mission as something sacred. As he walked out of the door, the sunlight illuminated him, and he turned to look at the Captain and Xu Qing.

    The Captain clenched his hand into a fist and pumped it in the air encouragingly. ¡°You¡¯ve got this!¡±

    Wu Jianwu stuck his chin up and nodded slightly, then turned and walked off into the distance.

    The Captain watched him go. After a few breaths of time passed, and Wu Jianwu was definitely out of sight, the Captain took out an eyeball and then squatted off to the side, where he beckoned at Xu Qing. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all by this. There was no way the Captain would ignore his own curiosity and refrain from spying. In fact, it seemed entirely likely that he was recording everything.

    ¡°Hahaha! Big Jianjian has his uses after all!¡± Looking very pleased, the Captain took out a recording jade slip which he used to record everything the eyeball was showing.

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just looked at the image of Wu Jianwu as projected by the eyeball.

    ***

    As Wu Jianwu walked through the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, he was actually quite nervous, and had to keep saying encouraging things to himself. Eventually, he stopped by a small pavilion. After taking a deep breath, he took out a jade slip to send a voice message to Mistress Rosyclouds. Back when she first escorted them into the sect, they had exchanged jade slip information.

    <i>¡°The birds are nowhere to be seen in the firmament; oh immortal, this pavilion can make destiny permanent!¡±</i>

    After sending the message, Wu Jianwu sped his hands behind his back and looked up into the sky. The wind blew, stirring his long hair. Shortly after, he heard a kind, smiling voice from behind him.

    ¡°Did you call for me, young sir?¡±

    Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t turn around. Instead, he proudly said, <i>¡°In heaven, glowing clouds meander and flow; on earth, the minstrel is joined by the rosy glow.¡±</i>

    Mistress Rosyclouds eyes shone as she walked up to Wu Jianwu. Looking at him from the side, she said, <i>¡°The royal spring basks in the light of the moon; in this life, cleanse the heart to bring a boon.¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu shivered and turned to look at Mistress Rosyclouds, his eyes glowing. He previously had assumed that there was little more to the situation than Mistress Rosyclouds understanding his poetry. Because of that, the poem he had sent as a voice message was something he casuallyposed on the fly. Little did he know that Mistress Rosyclouds was also adept at speaking in poetry.

    Getting even more excited, he quietly said, <i>¡°With no dark gales, who can speak in verse? The green waters¡¯ ripples will never disperse!¡±</i>

    As the sun shone onto Mistress Rosyclouds¡¯ face, she seemed to flush slightly. Looking off at the horizon, she replied, <i>¡°Heaven trembles but green mountains stand; in this dream of life, what can be nned?¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu thought for a moment. Not being ready to give up, he continued, <i>¡°The unripe plums have a violet glow; brew them into wine and toward home we go!¡±</i>

    Mistress Rosyclouds hesitated. Emotions rising and falling, she quietly said, <i>¡°We met by chance, and follow the wind; yet we can still discuss the principles of Zen.¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s mood sank slightly, but he forced himself to smile brightly. Mistress Rosyclouds also smiled. Then the two of them walked off together. The wind apanied them, and the sun lit their path. Dancing butterflies swirled in the air. Altogether, it was a dazzling and beautiful scene that defied description. And yet, despite the beauty of the scene, it still resonated with a feeling of heartbreak.

    ***

    ¡°What were they saying to each other?¡± the Captain said. Looking nkly at Xu Qing, he continued, ¡°Why did it seem like they were passing secret messages?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes looked just as nk as the Captain¡¯s. Up to now, there was only one person they knew of who could understand Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry, and that was Mistress Rosyclouds.

    A moment passed. Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce, and then went back to spying on Wu Jianwu.

    The day passed and evening approached. That was when Wu Jianwu returned. His expression was one of pain and grief. He didn¡¯t say anything once he was back. He just sat in a chair and stared nkly at nothing.

    Seeing that, the Captain went over to offer some encouraging words. Wu Jianwu just shook his head and sighed. Some time passed.

    Finally, Wu Jianwu said, <i>¡°No flower blooms for a hundred years; the stars before p¨¡ramit¨¡ shed gauzy tears.¡±</i>

    The Captain frowned and looked at Xu Qing. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold.

    ¡°Speak like a normal person!¡±

    As Wu Jianwu just sat there scowling on the verge of tears, his parrot flew out andnded on his head. Sighing, the parrot said, ¡°My dad got rejected.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine!¡± the Captain said, sliding his arm around Wu Jianwu¡¯s shoulders. ¡°That¡¯s just how women are! Look, Big Jianjian, the trick is to y hard to get. I can teach you a few things that will definitely secure you the victory!¡± With that, the Captain went on to discuss some strategies.

    By dawn, Wu Jianwu waspletely enlivened, and hurried out to ask for another date.

    Slowly but surely, twelve days passed. It was now less than a week until Nethersprite was supposed to show up.

    Xu Qing and the Captain would asionally visit the spirit spring, but still hadn¡¯t done any work toward their n.

    As for Wu Jianwu, he had made some progress. On just about a daily basis he would ask Mistress Rosyclouds out on a date. The two of them would go for outings or recite poetry together. And a few times, they had long, intimate talks in which they praised Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s literary and artistic talents. In that manner, the two of them unwittingly got closer to each other.

    Mistress Rosyclouds would get daily reports about what Xu Qing and the Captain were up to, and as time passed without anything unusual happening, she slowly started to get less suspicious of them.

    Three days before Nethersprite was supposed to show up, Xu Qing and the Captain finally took action. As usual, they went to the spirit spring for a soak.

    After settling down cross-legged, the Captain snapped off one of his fingers and sent it wriggling through the water like a caterpir. After quietly circling the spirit spring once, it went to the middle, settled down, and transformed into what looked like a little clump of mud.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were closed as he absorbed the nourishing power of the spirit spring, and didn¡¯t give off even the slightest suspicious feeling. However, just when the Captain finished with his work, a group of dancing butterflies flew in their direction. Xu Qing¡¯s heart flip-flopped, and as he looked over at the approaching butterflies, he yet again felt a strange sensation sweep over him. His vision blurred. The world seemed like it was superimposed over itself, including the rocks, terrain features, and even the spirit spring itself. It was the same with the people present as well. Only the Captain remained clear!

    His head suddenly throbbed, and at the same time, felt like he had be the center of the world, and everything else was spinning around him. The sensation prompted him to close his eyes again and try to get rid of the feeling. Waves of weakness and revulsion swept through him, and without him even realizing it, sweat started dripping down his forehead.

    Not even soaking in the warm spring water could get rid of the coldness within him. The sounds that reached his ears were faint, to the point where he almost couldn¡¯t hear them. The sensationsted for longer than before. It was a full ten breaths of time before he recovered.

    Eyes snapping open, he breathed heavily as he looked around. His face was ashen, and he found himself leaning up against the stones that lined the spring. The Captain was there, supporting him.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°Eldest Brother, is there something you¡¯re hiding from me?¡± Xu Qing said quietly, looking at the Captain.

    The Captain didn¡¯t answer the question. Smiling sincerely, he said, ¡°Just trust me, little Ah Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and didn¡¯t ask any more questions. Shortly after, they got out of the spirit spring and went back to their room. Nothing unusual happened the entire time. In fact, Xu Qing felt like things went too smoothly. It was as if every single element of their n was seeding perfectly. Wu Jianwu had established a close rtionship with Mistress Rosyclouds, ensuring that she didn¡¯t notice anything suspicious about them. With all the preparations made, all they needed to do now was wait for Nethersprite to show up.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t give voice to any of his misgivings. The next day, it was time for them to leave the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.

    Wu Jianwu was clearly reluctant to part with Mistress Rosyclouds. But for the sake of the greater good, he gritted his teeth and left, not even looking over his shoulder as she saw them off.

    ***

    Three days after they left, Nethersprite appeared.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the grand procession escorting her, including handmaidens dancing and scattering flowers.

    No one seemed to notice that, as she neared, a pair of ancient eyes opened on the twin peaks. There was deep meaning in those eyes as they looked out.

    ¡°How amusing.¡±

    1. In Chinese poetry, fixed-line poetry is fairlymon among poems. In other words, each line will have the same number of Chinese characters. Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry always contains two lines that are seven characters each. The poem recited by the Captain has two lines that are eight characters each. I¡¯m by no means an expert in Chinese poetry, so I¡¯m not really sure if that¡¯s supposed to be significant. I did some cursory brushing up on Chinese poetry and couldn¡¯t find anything to provide insight in that regard. As far as I know, it¡¯smon historically for poems to have either seven or eight characters. If any of you have insights, feel free to share them in thements. ?

 Chapter 576: A Big Show (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 576: A Big Show (part 1)</h4>

    A melodious, joyous song filled the air. Nethersprite was iparably beautiful and elegant; anyone who even merely caught sight of her would feel like they were smelling the sweet fragrance of flowers.

    Bells tolled thrice in the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. It was a sign of courtesy for visitors, and a sign of deep respect toward Master Darkfate.

    Mistress Rosyclouds personally went out to meet Nethersprite, a smile on her face.

    ¡°I hope all is well, Fellow Daoist Sweetfrost,¡± she said.

    ¡°Well met, Sect Leader Rosyclouds,¡± Nethersprite replied. She hurried forward, a smile on her wless face. Also visible was a prominent birthmark on her neck, which would leave such a deep impression on anyone who saw it that they would never forget it.

    ¡°The spirit spring is ready for you. Please, follow me.¡± Smiling, Mistress Rosyclouds gestured, whereupon the entrance to the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect opened. With that, she led the way to the spirit spring.

    They soon reached the back part of the mountain, where the spirit spring had been prepared for her. For the next month, no sect outsiders would be allowed inside while Nethersprite received her baptism in preparation for her wedding. The only people who came with Nethersprite were some handmaidens. Generally speaking, there wasn¡¯t any way something could go wrong. For one thing, it wasn¡¯t as if her cultivation base was weak. What was more, Master Darkfate¡¯s name was always there, keeping her safe.

    All the arrangements seemed very reasonable. Upon arriving at the spirit spring, Nethersprite noted the water vapornguidly drifting in the air, and she could sense the spirit resonance in the area. She was clearly pleased. For the next month, all of the spirit ponds in the Unfinished Mountains would be redirected to this spot. Master Darkfate had specially arranged for that just for her, as an expression of his love.

    When Nethersprite thought about what Master Darkfate had done for her, her heart raced, and she found herself subconsciously smiling in the direction of the Darkfate Sect.

    <i>Hubby Darkfate really does treat me well.</i>

    Nethersprite¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation for the future. After Mistress Rosyclouds bid farewell, Nethersprite knelt, revealing even more of her curves as she tested the temperature of the water. Then she slowly entered the spring.

    The warm water caressed her skin as it wrapped around her, creating an image that would cause anyone to see her to palpitate with eagerness. After wading to the very center of the pond, she settled down.

    Dozens of handmaidens sat around the edges of the spring. Some yed music, some scattered flower petals, others used magical techniques to stir the water, creating numerous tiny hands that gently scrubbed Nethersprite.

    Nethersprite felt sofortable that she immediately closed her eyes contentedly. Unbeknownst to her, there was a little bit of mud not too far away from her. Before long, a crack spread out over the surface of that mud, opening to reveal an eye. What was more, a spell formation hidden in the bottom of the spring surreptitiously activated.

    It was impossible to say how the Captain did it, but he sessfully masked the fluctuations so they weren¡¯t noticeable.

    ***

    In a valley not too far away from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, the Captain and Xu Qing had both put on masks to disguise themselves.

    ¡°Big Jianjian, you go find Ning Yan,¡± the Captain said, sounding very serious. ¡°That little brat obviously ran off somewhere. We can¡¯t have him out there alone and starving. We¡¯re all friends, right? We should stick together! Just like those years ago when he went looking for you!

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you need to take care of all the handmaidens there at the spirit spring. Don¡¯t kill them, obviously. Just knock them out.

    ¡°As for Nethersprite, I¡¯ll drag her into the world fragment. You don¡¯t need to worry about that, though. Just wait until ¡®she¡¯es out. At that point, ¡®she¡¯ won¡¯t be Nethersprite anymore.¡±

    Everything about their n had been going smoothly so far, but now they were reaching the most critical part. Sess was going toe down to whether or not the Captain really could trap Nethersprite. If it didn¡¯t work, then they would have toe up with a good way to flee the area.

    Wu Jianwu was starting to feel nervous. After hearing all of the Captain¡¯s arrangements, he nodded. <i>If these two fail, and I don¡¯t manage to escape, I should n now what to say to prove my innocence.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, Wu Jianwu hurried away and had his various children use all of their abilities to try to find Ning Yan.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t speak the entire time. He just looked the Captain in the eyes and tried to figure out why the entire situation seemed so strange to him.

    ¡°Just trust me, little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain said, giving Xu Qing a meaningful look. Chuckling, he produced an eyeball which he looked at closely. Only a momentter, his eyebrows shot up as he caught sight of something unexpected on the other side. His eyes even lit up.

    As Xu Qing looked on, surprised, the Captain cleared his throat and quickly crushed the eyeball. A momentter, a vortex sprang up in front of him which he entered. Without pausing for a moment, Xu Qing followed. He was still suspicious, but he also trusted the Captain. After both of them entered the vortex, it vanished.

    Next, both of them appeared in the spirit spring!

    The moment they were there, the spell formation the Captain had set up in the spirit spring activated, creating a force of concealment that covered the entire area. At the same time, the clump of mud at the bottom of the spring transformed into a vortex with a shockingly powerful gravitational force.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing and the Captain shot forward.

    Xu Qing was to target the handmaidens, while the Captain would handle Nethersprite.

    As water sprayed everywhere, the handmaidens reacted with astonishment. Nethersprite¡¯s expression flickered wildly. Despite the mask the Captain was wearing, she still recognized him.

    ¡°It¡¯s you!¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t say a word. His entire person shone with blue light, and countless eyes popped open all over him, within the pupils of each was a face. And each of those faces had pupils with faces in them. He looked incredibly gruish, almost like a gigantic bat, dripping with fluid as he closed in on Nethersprite.

    Xu Qing had no time to check on what the Captain was doing. As soon as he burst out of the water, he locked onto the nearest handmaiden. As he did, the countless droplets of water in the area swept together to form a sphere that shot toward the handmaiden. It happened very quickly. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of her. She tried to back up, but didn¡¯t move quickly enough. Xu Qing swept his hand through the air, and then blood sprayed out of the handmaiden¡¯s mouth as she tumbled backward, unconscious.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯tnding fatal blows. His shadow spread out from his feet, creating a pitch ck canopy of heaven as he elerated to the next handmaiden.

    The handmaidens were all in Gold Core, except for two of them who were in Nascent Soul. Because they were so much weaker than Xu Qing, he was able to get instant results when he attacked. Of the dozens of handmaidens, not a single one escaped. All were rendered unconscious, and were soonying around haphazardly. Once they were all out ofmission, Xu Qing turned to check on the Captain.

    What he saw was Nethersprite snorting coldly and waving her hand, which caused the Captain¡¯s entire body to copse.

    He instantly turned into countless blue bugs which swept through the air toward Nethersprite. There were tens of thousands of them, and when Nethersprite waved her hand again, they copsed, turning into even smaller bugs. In the blink of an eye, the number of bugs went from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. They became like a sky-obfuscating,nd-enshrouding vortex spreading out over Nethersprite and sinking down to connect to the water.

    A momentter, the vortex vanished. Nethersprite was nowhere to be seen.

    Ripples spread out over the water, and water droplets gently drifted down. After about a dozen breaths of time passed, everything waspletely silent.

    Xu Qing stood at the edge of the spring, studying the area. Things seemed even more unusual at this point, but all he could do was scan the area to make sure no signs of the brief struggle had reached the outside.

    <i>This was too easy. Nethersprite was a Void Returning expert! Even if she has slipped down to the great circle of Spirit Trove, things shouldn¡¯t have gone this smoothly!</i>

    As he pondered the situation, a thought urred to him.

    <i>The Captain has all sorts of mysterious, gruish assets. And he went all out in preparing for this. I guess it¡¯s possible things have just gone really well. Maybe that¡¯s why he¡¯s been so confident.</i>

    After some further thought, Xu Qing figured it made sense. Thus, he kept his eyes on the concealment magics, and also paid attention to the water as well as the world fragment. Because of everything the Captain had set up, it wasn¡¯t possible to tell what was happening inside. There were only terrifying fluctuations that rolled out asionally.

    Time passed.

    Xu Qing waited quietly for about ten hours. The more time that went by, the more likely something could go wrong. But though Xu Qing knew the Captain was crazy, he also didn¡¯t have any reason to think the Captain would make simple mistakes.

    Another two hours went by, and then waves suddenly rolled out over the surface of the water.

    Xu Qing backed up a few paces, keeping his disguise up. He was ready to flee at any moment if necessary.

    The water roiled, sending ripples out everywhere as a head slowly rose up from the water. It was the head of a woman, bewitchingly charming, with extremely fair skin. It was none other than Nethersprite. After floating up, she looked at Xu Qing, then slowly stood, revealing clothing stered tightly against her beautiful body. She had half a head in her hands.

    It was... the Captain¡¯s head.

    Fluctuations rolled off of her that were clearly the great circle of Spirit Trove. Looking coldly at Xu Qing, she tossed the half head over. Itnded on the ground and rolled to a stop at his feet.

    ¡°That Elder Brother of yours is useless,¡± she said.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t dead. Eyes full of bitterness, he weakly said, ¡°Run, little Junior Brother... it was a trap....¡±

 Chapter 576: A Big Show (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 576: A Big Show (part 2)</h4>

    Xu Qing looked down, his facepletely expressionless. ¡°Stop fooling around, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not fooling around,¡± the Captain¡¯s half-head said urgently. ¡°You have to run! This is no joke. Master Darkfate is on the way. He nned this whole thing to target me!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Nethersprite and sighed. ¡°You should have shaved your legs. That¡¯s the same mistake you made with that Seazombie princess. It¡¯s... a big hole in your story.¡±

    Nethersprite stopped walking and looked down at the shapely legs beneath her garment. Sure enough, they were as hairy as if she were wearing fur leggings. Even with the clothes atop them, it was very obvious.

    Nethersprite cleared ¡®her¡¯ throat, then looked venomously at Xu Qing. That look was enough to cause Xu Qing to take a few steps back. Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er poked her head out of his sleeve and looked in amazement at Nethersprite.

    ¡°Hahaha! I was just joking around!¡± It was the Captain¡¯s voice that came out of Nethersprite¡¯s mouth. Meanwhile, the half-head at Xu Qing¡¯s feet melted, turning into a handful of blue bugs that jumped back into the water and returned to the Captain.

    ¡°How¡¯s Nethersprite?¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°Her?¡± the Captain said, plopping down and starting to shave his legs. ¡°Oh, she¡¯s fine. After I exined the whole situation to her, she had very mixed feelings. And then we engaged in some very friendly discussion and negotiation.¡±

    The image of the Captain casually shaving his legs while speaking socently was very jarring.

    ¡°Long story short, I resolved any potential misunderstandings. She was very grateful to know the truth, and agreed to cooperate. In fact, she took the initiative to seal herself. See? I always said I¡¯m a very reasonable person.¡±

    The Captain finished with one leg and moved on to the next, allowing the hair he shaved off to dissipate in the wind.

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just rolled his eyes and sat down cross-legged.

    In response to Xu Qing ignoring him, the Captain chuckled, produced an apple, and took a bite. Then he took out a second apple and tossed it to Xu Qing. Xu Qing caught it, looked closely at the apple, then shifted his gaze to the Captain.

    The Captain smiled.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and focused on keeping the concealment magics working.

    Days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. When the handmaidens regained consciousness, they were confused and suspicious. But seeing that Nethersprite seemed fine, they didn¡¯t dare to ask any questions.

    The Captain¡¯s disguise was perfect. Apparently, he really did manage to get a lot of details out of Nethersprite, because whenever he talked, there was no hint that he was an imposter.

    Eventually, even Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how to tell if he was really dealing with the Captain.

    And thus, the month passed. Soon, it was time for Nethersprite toplete her session of baptism. Brightly colored fabric and dazzling lights appeared in the sky as the bridal procession arrived to receive her. Yet again, the sedan chair was made from a huge skull. Thirty-two Lionfolk cultivators in red robes carried the sedan, and there were countless servants in the procession, ying rousing music. The group of hundreds of people came to a stop outside the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. They were there to pick up Nethersprite and escort her to the Darkfate Sect. The wedding day had arrived! [1]

    Mistress Rosyclouds hadn¡¯t made any appearances for a while, but she waited outside the spirit spring with a smile when Nethersprite emerged.

    After the month-long baptism, Nethersprite¡¯s skin looked healthier than before. She had also changed into a new outfit that made her look even more alluring than usual. She wore a long red gown and had her hair bound in a phoenix crown, which somehow made her seem unusually flirtatious. In fact, she drew the attention of countless eyes in the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.

    After bidding farewell to Mistress Rosyclouds, she let the handmaidens and guards cluster around her as she left the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect and stepped into the skull sedan. The burly sedan-bearers let loose loud growls as they hoisted up the sedan and strode up into the air. Music surrounded the procession, and flower petals rained down. As they disappeared over the horizon, countless cultivators in the Unfinished Mountains looked up in surprise.

    All of the major sects in the Unfinished Mountains had been given invitations toe to the Darkfate Sect to bear witness to the ceremony.

    ***

    Neither the departing bridal procession nor the disciples in the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect noticed that a very meaningful chuckle echoed out from the twin peaks on the mountain.

    Specifically, that chuckle came from a cave temple near the twin peaks.

    The temple wasrge enough that it essentially upied the entire interior of the mountain. Inside was an old man with disheveled hair and a five-colored robe, hovering in a cross-legged position near the entrance. He was so emaciated he almost looked skeletal. However, he did not emanate any aura of death, but instead, a profound life force. He was also surrounded by Void Returning fluctuations, although it wasn¡¯t possible to glean any details of his cultivation beyond that.

    Directly beneath him was something profoundly shocking and simultaneously horrid. It was a three-dimensional map. Most people wouldn¡¯t know what it depicted, but any locals who saw it would know it instantly. It depicted the Unfinished Mountains. Other than the difference in size, it was exactly the same as the real mountains. Every single nt, tree, ridge, and rock was extremely realistic. There were birds flying in the sky, cities at the bases of the mountains, and sects here and there. Even the living beings who upied the Unfinished Mountains were in the projection.

    It contained all living things in the area! That included both mortals and cultivators. Everything was in motion, making it seem like this protection was a real-time depiction of the Unfinished Mountains.

    Xu Qing and the others were present, and the bridal procession leaving the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect was inly visible.

    Even more spectacr was that every living being in the projection had something like a thread attached to it. They were like threads of fate or destiny that swirled within the cave temple. The countless threads were gruish enough. But what was even more gruish was the old man in the five-colored robe, who had thrown out his arms and was gesticting wildly. His movements caused the threads from the countless living beings to sway back and forth and asionally touch each other.

    Because of that, situations where predestined affinities shouldn¡¯t exist... were created. Emotions that shouldn¡¯t have been disyed... were disyed. Interconnected rtionships which should not have been... inexplicably formed. The fates of countless living beings, and their path in life, were being changed. And it was all happening in ordance with the thoughts of that old man. It was as if everything happening in the Unfinished Mountains were part of a big show.

    And this old man was in charge of that show. Everything that happened in that show was because of him. Although they retained their memories and personalities, everything they did was ording to the old man¡¯s script.

    Sparks of life were generated in that way, like the light of fireworks, and they transformed into dancing butterflies which flew this way and that. Some flew within the cave temple in that mountain, others flew out of the mountain and into the outside world. The dancing butterflies emanated strange powers wherever they went, and the powder that drifted off of them as they flew spread to fill the mountains.

    asionally, outsiders would appear. However, once they stepped into the Unfinished Mountains, they would appear in the projection, and threads would form, connecting them to the old man¡¯s show. Their fates would then be transformed, and they would be given a new mission.

    Sometimes the old man would stand up and move around bizarrely. When he iled his arms and limbs, the threads connecting to the people in the projection would vibrate. As his facial expression flitted between various emotions, the people in the projection would be embroiled in various instances of love, hatred, passion, and revenge. He had created this show, and yet he was also part of it, as he had inserted himself into it, and used his own life force to carry out a performative dance. On the one hand, it was incredibly gruish, but at the same time, imparted a sense of holy piety.

    That was because this was the sacrificial dance of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect! The sacrificial dance wasn¡¯t for the benefit of the members of the church. It was a dance of offering to a god, and was for the benefit of a god. Many regions that had gods in them had simr arrangements. One reason was that many gods had the custom of sleeping. Crimson Mother was no exception. That said, while sh¨¥ would normally be able to awaken at any time, right now, sh¨¥ was in a state in which awakening couldn¡¯t be aplished quickly.

    Regardless, when gods slept, it resulted in the power of dreams seeping out. The dreams of gods were the real reason why sacrificial dances had bemon. The dancers could use the god¡¯s dream to influence an entire region.

    Everything within that region would be affected. Fate. Life. People¡¯s minds could be made nk and then their thoughts could be rewoven by means of the sacrificial dance. And then it would turn into a dazzling, five-colored dream reality. The god in question wouldn¡¯t be able to sense that dream when sleeping, only upon awakening. If the god was happy, ¨©t would give out blessings.

    That was one reason why there were so many subsidiary branches of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. Every single branch had one of their sacrificial dancers. The blessings they could bring varied based on their cultivation bases, as did the range of their power. As for the dream ying out in the Unfinished Mountains, the creator, that old man, was convinced that the god would definitely like this particr sacrificial dance.

    Then the old man spoke, all while hovering in the air cross-legged, his eyes gleaming profoundly.

    ¡°Those outsiders make this dream... a lot more interesting!¡±

    ***

    Strangely, the exact same words wereing out of the Captain¡¯s mouth in the sedan chair. He also had a very profound look in his eyes. Stretching, he looked around until his gaze came to rest on one particr guard. That guard was none other than Xu Qing in disguise.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind was in a fair amount of chaos, as he was still convinced that something unusual was going on. Everything was ying out too smoothly.

    For example, he had just looked up into the sky and noticed a bird. The bird had been flying, but then it stopped in ce for several breaths of time. It just remained in ce, unmoving. Xu Qing was suddenly overwhelmed with a sensation of vertigo, and his vision swam. When everything returned to normal, the bird was flying along as if it had never stopped.

    Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, reached out, and made a grasping gesture. His goal was to see if the bird was real or not. The bird shivered, then started tumbling through the air toward him.

    As soon as the birdnded in his hand, his vision swam even more dramatically, and he felt extremely dizzy. This time, the sensation was even more intense and shocking than before. Everyone in the bridal procession stopped in ce, and then all of them turned to look mutely at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shivered. Considering how he was gripping the bird, it seemed real. He could even feel its heart beat and body warmth. As everyone turned to look at him, his scalp went numb. He stood in ce quietly for two breaths of time, then opened his hand and let the bird fly up into the air. It flew right back to where it had originally been flying, and started moving along the same path. It was almost as if its fate had already been determined.

    Everyone in the bridal possession looked away. It was almost as if nothing had just happened. Expressions the same as before, they continued joyfully on their way. The music continued. Flower petals drifted through the air.

    Fear lingered in Xu Qing¡¯s heart as he turned to look at the Captain. The Captain looked back with a profound gleam in his eyes.

    That look caused Xu Qing to think back to what the Captain had told him multiple times already.

    ¡°Just trust me, little Ah Qing.¡±

    1. Traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies are different from the typical Western version. There are many variations regionally and historically, but the general idea is that the bride travels in some sort of procession to the groom¡¯s house. Upon arrival there are usually some formalities such as serving tea, bowing, etc. Of course, there are also things like wedding receptions/banquets. ?

 Chapter 577: Life is a Show; It All Depends on your Acting Ability

    <h4>Chapter 577: Life is a Show; It All Depends on your Acting Ability</h4>

    <i>The wind from heaven blows, bringing a fragrance like a bouquet.</i>

    <i>Lovely music ys, bringing happy guests to the wedding day.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart raced as he kept pace with the bridal procession. He was no longer looking at the Captain. Xu Qing had witnessed strange behavior from the Captain ever since they arrived in the Unfinished Mountains. And he had done some experiments.

    Whether it was by means of conversation, or the action of giving him an apple, Xu Qing had confirmed that there was something unusual going on with the Captain. And it wasn¡¯t something he was doing subconsciously. He was intentionally doing things to attract Xu Qing¡¯s attention.

    <i>He¡¯s warning me.</i>

    His senses were telling him that the Captain wasn¡¯t doing anything to harm him. That was evident based on everything that had happened so far. The two of them had done so many big jobs together that Xu Qing had long since grown used to the Captain¡¯s general style.

    <i>It¡¯s not a cry for help. More like he had some things to say, but it¡¯s not convenient to say them. So he¡¯s sending a message this way.</i>

    Xu Qing pondered the situation, especially what happened with that bird. When he grabbed the bird, everyone in the bridal procession had turned to look at him.

    <i>That bird was a real, living being. Living beings are unpredictable. Yet it flew right back to where I¡¯d taken it from, then continued on its way. It almost seemed like it wasn¡¯t in control. As if its actions had been predetermined.</i>

    Xu Qing frowned and checked D-132. The god¡¯s finger was sleeping as usual, which seemed to indicate ¨©t hadn¡¯t noticed anything unusual.

    <i>And why did everyone look at me just now? Is it that my action broke the coordination of the group? Or is it that... the person I¡¯m disguised as just wouldn¡¯t do something like that normally?</i>

    Everything had gone so smoothly after entering the Unfinished Mountains that, if he hadn¡¯t specifically thought about it in that way, everything would have seemedpletely normal.

    <i>It¡¯s the normality that¡¯s the most gruish.</i>

    His eyes narrowed as he continued moving with the procession and prepared to see how the wedding ceremony would y out.

    Time passed as the procession flew through the sky. About two hourster, they were nearing the Darkfate Sect. Even from a distance, it was possible to see that the ce was decorated withnterns and colored banners. Magical techniques had been used to decorate the mountains. The trees were festooned with rednterns, and magic was also used to send fireworks shooting up into the sky.

    Representatives of sects and ns from throughout the Unfinished Mountains had responded to the invitation, and were gathering outside the sect. There were men, women, young, and old, and everyone was smiling. The sound of happy conversation rose into the air, filling the area with the mor of activity. Laughter and chatting could be heard everywhere. It was a very joyous atmosphere.

    As the bridal procession neared, the buzz grew louder, creating sound waves that spread through the clouds.

    The Darkfate Sect was clearly prepared for a special event. The main headquarters glowed with seven-colored light, and atop the highest mountain, the sect¡¯s grand hall had been turned into a wedding chapel. Countless rednterns were hung everywhere, and there was even more sunlight in the sky than normal. The disciples of the Darkfate Sect were all very excited, and were out in full force to wee the wedding guests. A colorful band of silk had beenid on the stairs from the top of the mountain to the bottom.

    As the wedding sedan approached, bells tolled in the Darkfate Sect, and a solemn atmosphere spread out. People stopped talking, and all eyes came to focus on the sedan.

    ¡°Immortal Fairy Sweetfrost, please,e in.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± a melodious voice responded, and the Captain, looking eager, with his cheeks flushed, stepped out of the sedan and onto the stairs leading up into the sect.

    Looking elegant and charming, ¡®she¡¯ started walking.

    Most of the members of the bridal procession dropped to their knees to kowtow. Only Nethersprite¡¯s personal handmaidens and a few special guards followed along.

    Xu Qing was one of them. As he watched the Captain swaying along, he sighed inwardly at how amazing the Captain¡¯s acting abilities were. If Xu Qing hadn¡¯t personally seen the Captain¡¯s hairy legs, he would never have guessed that he wasn¡¯t in the presence of the real Nethersprite.

    As the bells tolled and the sound of singing filled the sect, the Captain slowly walked up to the summit. It was his big day. Everything was about him. All the Darkfate Sect disciples that he passed dropped to their knees to kowtow.

    As Xu Qing watched all of that, some of the joyous spirit started to infect him a bit.

    After the bells rang for the twenty-first time, the Captain reached the top of the stairs.

    The Captain¡¯s past-life body stepped out of the grand hall. He looked different than thest time Xu Qing saw him. He was dressed in all red, and looked very festive. That said, the noxious odor and rotting bits of flesh were just the same as before. And the ck energy he exhaled was downright ghastly.

    <i>He¡¯s marrying his past self</i>. Xu Qing was slightly disappointed that Wu Jianwu wasn¡¯t around. If he was, he would definitely havee up with some amazing poetry.

    With that, the formalities began.

    ¡°As cultivators, heaven bears witness to us, while earth solemnly observes. We are joined as one by means of the dao. And now, the couple will pay respects to each other!¡±

    The Captain bashfully ducked his head down and bowed to the groom. The groom also bowed his head and sped hands. After bowing to each other, to heaven, and to earth, the crowd roared its approval. Colorful fireworks exploded, the sky shivered, and thends shook.

    Amidst the joyous uproar, the Captain was led to the bridal chamber. That was where the bride would burn incense while waiting for the groom.

    It was also time for the banquet to begin. All the important people from the big sects and organizations gathered in the main square of the Darkfate Sect. Only these people who had been specially invited had that privilege. That said, the lower-ranking members of those organizations weren¡¯t treated poorly. There was an evenrger banquet underway outside the sect where the other guests were entertained. Before long, the sounds of rejoicing filled the air.

    As one of Nethersprite¡¯s guards, Xu Qing didn¡¯t qualify to join the banquet. Instead, he was assigned to work with Darkfate Sect guards to keep the banquet orderly. As he watched the guests toasting each other andughing, he thought back to the nk expressions on the faces that had looked at him when he grabbed that bird. It was quite a contrast to what he was seeing right now, and it made the strange sensation in him grow even more intense.

    <i>There¡¯s another way I could try to figure out what¡¯s going on in the Unfinished Mountains.</i>

    He looked at the bridal chamber off in the distance.

    As of this point, the entire n came down to what the Captain did.

    Xu Qing looked away and focused on the crowd.

    <i>What if all the people here are like that bird</i>...?

    Eyes narrowing, he reached out to the shadow and told it to try to take control of one of the cultivators. A momentter, his shadow stretched out across the floor toward a Gold Core cultivator. The possession wasplete in an instant. However, the cultivator in question continued to behave as before, eating, drinking, and chatting.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he sensed the intense emotional fluctuationsing from the shadow.

    <i>¡°Can¡¯t... interfere... forcing would be fatal... weird....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing told the shadow to try again with someone else. And it did. Every single time, the result was exactly the same. Xu Qing was starting toe to an understanding of what was going on.

    He wasn¡¯t done testing things out though. Next, he told the shadow to try to forcefully take control. Shortly after, the shadow possessed a Foundation Establishment cultivator and tried hard to do just that. The cultivator shivered as, instead of reaching out to grab his drinking vessel, he used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of food. Theughter and chatting nearby stopped as countless guests turned to look at that cultivator.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, and he instantly told the shadow to relinquish control.

    The cultivator in question didn¡¯t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. He put the piece of food back in exactly the same spot, returned his chopsticks, and then picked up his drinking vessel. After he took a drink, everyone in the area went back to talking as if nothing had happened.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes. Now he understood.

    <i>Everyone is on a fixed track. It¡¯s just like that bird. They have to follow the set arrangement, and if anything interferes with that, they¡¯ll correct their own course and go back to what they were supposed to do. All of this gruish phenomena started when we entered the Unfinished Mountains....</i>

    <i>It seems all the living beings in these mountains have had their fates tampered with. Someone else is pulling the strings. It¡¯s like a big show. And I¡¯m stuck in it. Without even realizing what happened, my thinking and actions have made me part of the show. I suppose that¡¯s even more the case with Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan.</i>

    <i>And that¡¯s why I¡¯ve been having those strange episodes. There are things inside me such as the god¡¯s finger or the violet moon that are rejecting the force of influence. That¡¯s why I was able to see what happened with that bird, and it¡¯s also why I can sense that something unusual is going on.</i>

    <i>But the Captain</i>.... He looked up toward the mountain summit.

    <i>He probably knows what¡¯s going on. He joined the show intentionally</i>....

    Xu Qing looked down and waited.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. The banquet began to wrap up, and as evening fell, guests began leaving. But then, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the bridal chamber at the summit of the mountain. The scream caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth.

    What was more, Xu Qing experienced that sensation of vertigo again. At the same time, all of the guests turned and looked woodenly toward the top of the mountain. Apparently, something was happening there that did not conform to the script!

    Meanwhile, all living things in or near the Darkfate Sect, whether it was birds, des of grass, or anything else, all turned in the direction of the mountain summit.

    The screaming ended, to be followed by the sound of footsteps. Then the Captain walked out, still d in red. He was leading his past-life body behind him by the hand. Stopping outside the hall, he looked around.

    Ignoring the nk expressions on the faces of everyone looking at him, he found Xu Qing in the crowd and smiled.

    ¡°Did you figure it out, little Junior Brother?¡± As the words left his mouth, a peach appeared in his free hand. He took a bite.

 Chapter 578: Dance for a God; the Skilled are Praised, the Unskilled Die!

    <h4>Chapter 578: Dance for a God; the Skilled are Praised, the Unskilled Die!</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s sense of vertigo grew more intense. However, after experiencing it so many times, he was getting used to it. He nced around, then focused on the peach in the Captain¡¯s hand. Heughed.

    ¡°I figured out some,¡± he said. ¡°Everything in the Unfinished Mountains is part of a show.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed with admiration. Heughed heartily. ¡°Yes, definitely a show. Little Junior Brother, all of this is a show put on for Crimson Mother. The two of us are lucky to be able to perform!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had taken special note of what the Captain said about the show being put on for Crimson Mother.

    ¡°In the Moonrite Region,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°locations where Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sects exist are ces where the dream power of Crimson Mother is strong. The sect scripts out dramas there that serve as the dream of a god.¡± He grinned. ¡°This is the ¡®sacrificial dance¡¯ of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.¡±

    In all of Xu Qing¡¯s spections, he hadn¡¯t thought to connect any recent events with the ¡®sacrificial dance¡¯ that he had heard about before.

    ¡°The dancing butterflies...?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the Captain.

    ¡°The dancing butterflies?¡± the Captain replied. ¡°When the dancers use the dream power of a god to affect other living beings, the resulting friction brings dream animals to life.¡±

    The Captain continued to eat his peach as he dragged his past-life body toward Xu Qing one step at a time.

    ¡°The butterflies are illusory, as they¡¯re part of the dream power. They record the story of what¡¯s happening, and when the god awakens, they¡¯re like mediums to transfer that information.¡±

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply. What the Captain was saying seemed absolutely outrageous, and yet it did make sense.

    ¡°Before the god awakens, the dancing butterflies cannot return to whence they came. They have no way to rte the events of the show. I knew all of this, yet still chose toe here. Do you know why, little Junior Brother?¡±

    The Captain was looking very pleased as he came to a stop in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain¡¯s past-life body, and the answer urred to him.

    ¡°You never lost your past-life body. That tomb we went to wasn¡¯t even real. As you yourself said, Eldest Brother, in order to stave off tomb raiders, you set up a number of facade tombs. The ce we went to... was actually one of the facade tombs.

    ¡°Ning Yan even asked you about what the final two facade tombs were like. You justughed and didn¡¯t answer the question, the reason being that the tomb we went to was the eighth facade tomb. The reality is that the Unfinished Mountains... are the ninth facade tomb! How many people have you offended, Eldest Brother, and how many big jobs have you done, that you¡¯re so worried about people stealing your past-life body?¡±

    The Captain was initially surprised by Xu Qing¡¯s assessment, but toward the end he startedughing.

    ¡°Just what I would expect of my little Junior Brother. Hahaha! You¡¯re right. That tomb we went into was the eighth facade tomb. And the Unfinished Mountains are the ninth!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. ¡°Eldest Brother, you picked up some bad habits from Bai Xiaozhuo. It¡¯s bad form to give the answer ahead of time.¡±

    The Captain chuckled darkly. The truth was that he had learned this little trick from Bai Xiaozhuo. It seemed really badass to be able to reveal your n secretly ahead of time. [1]

    ¡°Want to know where the real tomb is?¡± the Captain said, his eyebrows dancing up and down enticingly.

    Seeing that familiar facial expression, familiar attitude, and familiar style made Xu Qing feel a bit more rxed. Looking expressionlessly at the Captain, he said, ¡°It¡¯s the dream.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t interested in ying along with the Captain¡¯s games.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. This whole reveal wasn¡¯t exactly going as he had nned. <i>You used to be a lot more charming than this, little Ah Qing!</i>

    Noting that Xu Qing seemed to actually be getting angry, the Captainughed heartily, threw his arm around Xu Qing¡¯s neck, and then lowered his voice.

    ¡°You¡¯re incredible, little Junior Brother. I can¡¯t believe you even guessed the part about the dream.

    ¡°You see, there was a very mysterious High God years ago who took my past-life body and put it into Crimson Mother¡¯s dream... and even destroyed some of the dancing butterflies in that dream.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze sharpened. He was particrly interested in this High God that had been mentioned.

    Meanwhile, everything around them was changing. The guests¡¯ facial expressions were turning from nk to vicious. Even the nts, rocks, and other terrain features seemed to radiate a sense of malice. That malice seemed to grow stronger and stronger, emanating from the Unfinished Mountains until it formed a voice.

    ¡°Get the hell out of here!¡±

    The sound of it shook the Unfinished Mountains, causing the ground to quake and rocking the cities at the bases of the mountains.

    The Captain chuckled. He didn¡¯t go into an exnation of the mysterious High God he¡¯d mentioned. Nor did he seem worried about what was happening around them. Instead, he went into some more detail about his past-life body.

    ¡°Getting inside is easy. You just have to join the dream. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t say anything to you in the beginning. Everything was for the sake of conforming to the requirements of the dream. That¡¯s the only way I could truly be a part of the show. That said, I did give you a warning earlier, right, little Junior Brother? So... calm down and don¡¯t get mad.¡± Smiling ingratiatingly, he held up the hand of his past-life body.

    ¡°See? He really was my goal all along. He¡¯s the key to unlocking my real past-life body. Now, I bet you can¡¯t guess what this fellow really is!¡±

    With that, the Captain waved his hand, and his past-life body melted into a puddle of ck liquid. And right in the middle of that liquid... was a rotting butterfly! It emanated a sense of ancient time, making it clear it was very old. It also seemed to have a very high level of personhood hidden so deeply in it that Crimson Mother had overlooked it.

    This was the key. The moment it appeared, screaming winds swept through the Unfinished Mountains, and everything shook violently. Looks of ferocity and pain appeared on the faces of all living beings. Boulders cracked, and nts wilted. At the same time, shocking fluctuations rolled out from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, along with a furious shout.

    ¡°Awaken. Awaken!¡±

    The living beings in the area began to tremble. From the look of it, the sacrificial dancer that had created this show was ready to end the dream to stop the Captain¡¯s n.

    ¡°Toote.¡± The Captainughed heartily as he picked up the ¡®key¡¯ and then waved his hand toward the sky. ¡°Open!¡±

    Thunderous rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven. The clouds seethed, and it seemed like the cosmos itself was being split open. Then a rift appeared overhead. It didn¡¯t start out veryrge, but it rapidly expanded, apanied by deafening ripping sounds.

    It looked extremely ghastly. A sense of decay emerged from the rift, filled with ancient time. The sky changed color, and thends seemed like they might shatter, as a blue coffin emerged from the rift.

    It was a coffin made, not from wood or metal, but rather, blue ice! Inside the ice coffin was a body wearing an extravagant blue robe embroidered with golden thread. He emanated terrifying pressure, but at the same time, seemed incredibly majestic. In his hand was a scepter!

    The sky seemed to explode, and thend quaked violently. At the same time, a howl of grief erupted from within the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.

    ¡°The original scepter of the sacrificial dance! You used to be the Grand Dancer!!¡±

    As those words rang out, the old man in the five-colored robe in the cave temple had a look of abject terror in his eyes. With almost frantic anxiety, he was severing all of the threads connecting himself to the projected image of the Unfinished Mountains. He knew full well that as a sacrificial dancer, he looked strong, but was actually weak. The strength came because of the power to create dreams for a god; but that was also a source of weakness.

    If the created dream ended normally, it counted as the conclusion of the sacrificial dance. But if the process was interrupted, it would result in a bacsh. The so-called sacrificial dance was actually a very unique ceremony. There was a massive difference between that ceremony being interrupted actively versus being interrupted passively.

    He was actively interrupting it to awaken everyone in the dream. Although there was a bacsh, it wasn¡¯t too much for him to deal with. That was why, when he realized something unusual was going on, he had taken the initiative to call out to all the living beings and prematurely end the creation of the dream.

    For the dream to have been passively interrupted would be a totally different matter. He would have been affected by the decay of all living beings, the karma of all entities, and also the bacsh of a god¡¯s dream power.

    Not even someone in Void Returning could survive that! It wasn¡¯t something that any person could easily do.

    The moment he spotted the scepter that represented the Grand Dancer, he was struck with absolute terror.

    Sadly for him, he didn¡¯t have the time to fully interrupt the dream. The moment the coffin appeared, the Captain¡¯s eye shone with a strange light, and he shouted, ¡°Show how strong you are, little Junior Brother! Send your power into that scepter. Awake all the living beings here whose fates have been transformed!¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t exin anything else. Xu Qing knew what he meant. The Captain wanted him to use the power of the violet moon. Fighting against the vertigo, Xu Qing walked over to the coffin.

    He reached out in the direction of the scepter. The power of the violet moon erupted within him, causing the ice to start turning the same violet color. At the same time, the Captain performed an incantation gesture, using the power of the coffin to guide the violet light into the scepter. A tremor passed through Xu Qing as he sensed a majestic power bolstering his soul. The vertigo vanished, and his mind cleared. Everything around him suddenly seemed like it was covered with a gauzy veil.

    He saw threads rising up from everyone present. And those threads connected to the mountains of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. On each thread was an illusory butterfly. Some wererge and some were small, but all of them were growing.

    ¡°Wake up!¡± Xu Qing said calmly, his eyes glowing violet.

    Those two words were like 10,000,000 lightning bolts all exploding at the same time. The threads were all severed as the words echoed in the minds of the living beings in the Unfinished Mountains.

    Countless cultivators and mortals shivered as they woke up. They looked around nkly for a moment before starting to subconsciously edge backward. Daoist partners looked at each other in terror, not even recognizing each other! Close friends shivered as they suddenly realized they actually hated each other. Entire families including parents and children all of a sudden came to the realization that they weren¡¯t rted. There were also some people who went back to what they were doing before. They were now awake and remembered everything. It was the same with all the sects.

    Not even the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect could escape the effects of the show. There were some disciples in the sect who weren¡¯t even from the Unfinished Mountains. They had just been passing through, and the next thing they knew, they were disciples. Mistress Rosyclouds shivered, her hair inplete disarray as she looked up at the mountain summit. In reality, she wasn¡¯t the sect leader, and she wasn¡¯t the daughter of the sect¡¯s patriarch. It was actually the opposite. He was her mortal enemy!

    As the living beings in the Unfinished Mountains woke up, and the threads were severed, the dream came to an end. All the karma that resulted from severing the dream of a god, all of the bacsh and the malice, converged back on the sacrificial dancer.

    A miserable, agonized shriek echoed into the sky.

    The old man in the cave had a look of despair on his face. He struggled, all in vain. As the threads snapped and turned into butterflies, they lunged toward him ravenously. They seemed to flit back and forth between illusory and corporeal as they covered him and started eating him.

    He began to rot out of existence. To his utter despair, it was simply impossible to resist the bacsh of the severed dream of a god. As he was being devoured, the curse within him erupted, filling his body and soul with agony, and driving him into madness. Even if he dropped to his knees and begged the god for help, it wouldn¡¯t do any good.

    After a few breaths of time passed, the dancing butterflies and the power of the severed dream had reduced him to a pool of blood on the floor of the cave temple.

    When dancing for an emperor, the skilled are praised and the unskilled die!

    That¡¯s even truer with gods.

    1. Just in case anyone forgot, Bai Xiaozhuo is the old lieutenant governor of Sea-Sealing, and before that, the actual governor of Sea-Sealing, also a Torchlight agent. He revealed his entire n in his lecture to the new swordsages in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

 Chapter 579: The Wind Picks Up In Moonrite; Sparks Seek to Start a Wildfire (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 579: The Wind Picks Up In Moonrite; Sparks Seek to Start a Wildfire (part 1)</h4>

    <i>¡°Gods have dreams, sacrifice to them with dance; the living are paper cutouts, all beings are art.</i>

    <i>¡°The skilled please gods, and are blessed forever; the unskilled are hated by the gods, and are destroyed eternally.¡±</i>

    That was the sacrificial dance.

    As the old man in the twin peaks was destroyed via bacsh, he faded from existence along with all of the failed dancing butterflies. After eating their fill of his flesh, they merged back into heaven and earth, leaving behind no trace of their existence. As a result, all living beings were able to see clearly again.

    That said, to the beings in the Unfinished Mountains, being awake... wasn¡¯t necessarily a blessing. Those for whom no special arrangements were made ended up extremely confused. The confusion started in the cities in the foothills, and spread rapidly from there. Mortals and cultivators alike suddenly regained rity, and then looked around silently.

    Husbands and wives. Friends. Loved ones. Masters and apprentices. In many cases, mixed emotions reced the confusion on their faces as they struggled to reconcile the mix of familiarity and unfamiliarity. The unfamiliarity came because they didn¡¯t know the other person. They had been assigned these roles regardless of their real identity. The familiarity came because they still had all their recent memories. Upon awakening, such people weren¡¯t sure what to do with their lives.

    The cities were like that, and it was the same with the sects and ns. A storm of confusion swept through the Unfinished Mountains, filling thempletely. Some people chose to leave and never return to a ce they now viewed with terror and incredulity. Most of those were outsiders.

    However, the majority of people in the Unfinished Mountains had been born and raised there. From the moment they were born, their fates could be altered on a whim. In fact, if you went back in history, all of their ancestors had lived like this. Their lives were arranged for them. The tracks were allid out. And thus, living in that manner had be an instinct for most such people. After all, before they woke up, they had no idea what was really happening. In that state, everything looked exactly the same as it always had to them. Normal. They were like pets in a cage. Even if that cage was somehow opened one day, they... would still choose to live in the cage.

    Many of them, deep in their hearts, would foster the suspicion that the talk about the ¡®dream¡¯ was a sham. By doing that, they could reinforce the belief that they were always ¡®awake.¡¯ It was part blessing, part sorrow.

    Xu Qing stood there in silence.

    With the help of the ice coffin upied by the Captain''s past-life body, plus the scepter, he was able to send his divine will throughout the Unfinished Mountains. As a result, he could sense what the living beings there were thinking.

    In the end, Xu Qing and the Captain chose to leave. Before departing, the Captain sensed everything and sighed.

    ¡°For the people who have lived here from generation to generation, is there really a difference between being in the dream and being awake? They¡¯ll keep on living, and things won¡¯t be much different than before. Let¡¯s go, little Ah Qing.... Perhaps to them, our presence really is an interruption.¡±

    Shaking his head, he collected the ice coffin, then floated up into the air. A momentter, he stopped and looked back down at Xu Qing. Xu Qing took a deep breath, retracted his senses, and then followed the Captain. As they flew through the sky, they stopped to look down at the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect.

    Wu Jianwu was there.

    The sect wasrgely empty. Many of the mountains in the sect had copsed, and the spirit spring was choked with dust and sludge. More than half of the disciples had departed upon awakening. Local cultivators who had been born in the area sat around looking at the chaos and rubble, their hearts filled with mixed emotions.

    Wu Jianwu stood at the base of the mountain as Mistress Rosyclouds slowly walked away from him.

    The evening glow weighed down with oppressive weight that rivaled their heavy hearts. Mistress Rosyclouds obviously had some very conflicted emotions.

    Wu Jianwu stared at her nkly, not quite sure what he should say. The moment he sensed the change, he had raced back here and seen the dpidated state of the sect. And he had spotted Mistress Rosyclouds almost immediately. A moment ago, he had spoken a few lines of poetry, only to find that she didn¡¯t understand any of it. In fact, she¡¯d hardly looked at him.

    It filled Wu Jianwu¡¯s heart with bitter pain. As he looked at her walking away from him, he suddenly raised his voice and said, <i>¡°The dark wind blows the mountain wastnd; though rain falls, I have an umbre in hand!¡±</i>

    His words reached Mistress Rosyclouds, but she didn¡¯t stop walking. She didn¡¯t even turn around. She just kept going until she disappeared.

    Dazed, Wu Jianwu took a few steps back and then sat down on the ground.

    Xu Qing and the Captain approached silently. When Xu Qing saw the nk look on Wu Jianwu¡¯s face, he held out a gon of alcohol. It looked like Wu Jianwu needed a drink.

    Wu Jianwu reached out with a trembling hand to take the gon. He drank deeply. Eyes bloodshot, he murmured, ¡°She never understood. It was all fake!¡±

    The Captain sighed and sped Wu Jianwu¡¯s shoulder. He said nothing. Eventually, Wu Jianwu seemed to get his emotions under control, and they left together. The entire time, Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t say anything.

    At a certain point, the Captain dragged Ning Yan out of a ravine where he¡¯d been hiding.

    Ning Yan was still scared witless. What he had seen had left him with a feeling of extreme danger. After he saw Xu Qing and the others, his spirits lifted. ring at Wu Jianwu, he prepared to say something, only to notice that Wu Jianwu seemed to be in a very unusual state. Confused, Ning Yan thought to ask about what was going on. But in the end, he decided it didn¡¯t seem like the right time, so he buried his curiosity.

    And thus, they left the Unfinished Mountains. Eventually, the Captain brought out his artificial sun, and they entered it. It shot over the horizon.

    Seven days passed.

    Rumors began to spread about what had yed out in the Unfinished Mountains. What was more, the death of the sacrificial dancer caused some waves in the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. The sect relied on the help of the Doorites to send top experts into the mountains to investigate. Eventually, wanted posters from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect started spreading through the Moonrite Region.

    A bounty was being offered for a group of heathen sphemers led by Master Unfinished and Master Heavengreen.

    Anyone who offered useful tips or clues would earn the friendship of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. And anyone who brought in the heads or souls of the culprit would be rewarded with a painquelling lozenge.

    The bounty caused a big stir in the Moonrite Region. One reason was the general momentous nature of the event. The other reason was the painquelling lozenge. Such pills had only one use. They could relieve some of the bitter pain that resulted from the Moonrite Region curse. All cultivators in the Moonrite Region had to deal with the curse of the red moon. As their cultivation base improved and they grew stronger, the curse would inflict increasingly intense pain on their bodies and souls. That pain would eventually be pure torment. Few cultivators were willing to deal with such pain, and the only way to get rid of it was by using painquelling lozenges.

    However, there were far too few pills to supply all living beings with them. As a result, they were exceedingly precious, to the point where you usually couldn¡¯t even buy them with spirit stones. Even just one such pill could be considered a raremodity worth hoarding. After all, the patriarchs of the Twofold Alliance had been hoping to turn Xu Qing over to the Red Moon Cathedral and get a reward of a painquelling lozenge. From that alone it was possible to imagine how enticing a bounty reward with painquelling lozenges could be. [1]

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the others were long gone from the Unfinished Mountains, and were now nearing the western part of the region. The Captain nned to lie low there until the fuss died down. And he had some work to do in that area anyway.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t nning to go with him. There was something else he needed to work on. He hadn¡¯t been able to stop thinking about Duanmu Zang and his city of fireflies. There were over 100,000 humans from that city who were affected by the curse. He wanted to help them. However, it was going to take a lot of research, study, and hard work to figure out how to dispel the curse. And that meant he needed a quiet and peaceful location to work for a while.

    Given the Captain¡¯s frisky personality, it seemed better to part ways. What was more, there was a specific location that Xu Qing wanted to investigate. Eventually, he exined his n to the Captain.

    ¡°You want to study the curse?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. Producing a peach, he took a bite. ¡°Hahaha! This idea of yours is actually eighth on my list of tasks to handle. If you want to get to work now, it¡¯ll save me a lot of time and effort down the road. I think that¡¯s a great idea!¡±

    Eyes shining with determination, the Captain handed Xu Qing an apple, then threw his arm around his neck and lowered his voice. ¡°If you¡¯re going to go off alone, little Ah Qing, just keep in mind to avoid the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. As for me, I have a small job to handle that shouldn¡¯t take me more than about half a year.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°What do you mean by ¡®small¡¯ job? How small?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! Very small. Very, very small!¡± He put his thumb and index finger very close together to illustrate how small of a job he was talking about.

    Xu Qing smiled. ¡°In that case, take care of yourself.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t inclined to press for details.

    The Captainughed again and then looked off into the distance. ¡°Alright, then. We¡¯ll part here, and meet back up in half a year in the Bitter Life Mountains. Sound good? You listen to me, little Ah Qing. Don¡¯t bete. In fact, it would be better to show up early. In half a year, your Eldest Brother is going to introduce you to a very badass organization! And that organization is going to y a very important role in dealing with the red moon!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He had first heard of the Bitter Life Mountains from Duanmu Zang, which was also when he learned that those mountains were rted to the Moonrebel Congregation. [2]

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know much beyond that, but he had nned to go there at some point.

    As Duanmu Zang had mentioned, the Moonrebel Congregation had done a lot of research into the curse. If he could get some good information from them, it might save a lot of time in his own study. Or he might even be able to take existing ideas and expand them in different directions.

    Nodding, he discussed a few more details with the Captain. Then he stood to leave.

    1. The patriarchs of the Twofold Alliance pondered the reward of a painquelling lozenge in <u>chapter 565.2</u>. ?

    2. Duanmu Zang told Xu Qing about the Bitter Life Mountains and the Moonrebel Congregation in <u>chapter 567.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 579: The Wind Picks Up In Moonrite; Sparks Seek to Start a Wildfire (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 579: The Wind Picks Up In Moonrite; Sparks Seek to Start a Wildfire (part 2)</h4>

    Before departing, the Captain had Wu Jianwu give a seed to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, if you get to the Bitter Life Mountains before me, nt this seed somewhere. That way, if I need to find you urgently, I can have Big Jianjian send his children to find you by tracking down the scent of the seed. Either way, after my current task, I can use the seed to find you.¡±

    Xu Qing epted the seed curiously. He knew that Wu Jianwu¡¯s children were very special. In fact, it made him think back to years ago when Wu Jianwu opened that wish box. [1]

    Wu Jianwu looked just as despondent as before. He justy there listlessly, asionally sighing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him,¡± the Captain said. ¡°This is just what happens with a bad breakup. He¡¯ll be fine in a few days.¡± He took a deep breath and looked at Xu Qing with encouragement in his eyes. ¡°Well, little Junior Brother, time to see what fate has in store. You take care of yourself, and I¡¯ll do the same.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Off to the side, Ning Yan¡¯s ears perked up as he eavesdropped, especially when he heard the word ¡®breakup.¡¯ That was when everything clicked, and he realized why Wu Jianwu was acting unusual. Feeling more than a little disdainful, he thought, <i>That¡¯s it?</i>

    Seeing that Xu Qing was about to leave, Ning Yan got to his feet and hurried over with a hopeful look on his face. He obviously wanted Xu Qing to take him along....

    Xu Qing ignored him. He left the artificial sun, then flew up into the sky and disappeared.

    ¡°He¡¯s so grown up he doesn¡¯t want to hang out with his Elder Brother anymore.¡± The Captain sighed as he watched Xu Qing leave. Then he performed an incantation gesture, and the artificial sun rumbled to life and continued on its way.

    Half a month flew by.

    The bounty from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect was still active, but no one had dug up any traces of the people on the wanted posters. They had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. And then something happened that caused most people to forget all about the bounty. In fact, it was such a momentous and astonishing development that it shook all of the Moonrite Region!

    The godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral had been grievously injured!

    At first, the details were kept under wraps. Only the high-ranking members of the Red Moon Cathedral had any idea what happened. But stories spread about some sort of dramatic event in the northern ice ins, as well as supernatural phenomena at the Heavenfire Sea. For more than a month, lingering fluctuations had continued to spread out through heaven and earth. There was a lot of spection about what happened, but no solid facts emerged.

    After a few months passed, the truth about the event started to spread. Of course, the word was spread, not by the Red Moon Cathedral, but rather, by members of the Moonrebel Congregation. ording to the stories being spread, the supernatural phenomena at the Heavenfire Sea were the result of the Heir Apparent of the Imperial Sovereign being freed from captivity.

    The dramatic events in the northern ice ins resulted when the Heir Apparent rescued Princess Brightblossom, who was the daughter of that same Imperial Sovereign. When those two shocking individuals were freed, the first thing they did was attack the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    What yed out was an incredibly shocking battle. In fact, that battle was the source of the lingering fluctuations that had been present for a whole month.

    The battle ended with the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom going missing, and the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s godchild seriously injured. Most relevant of all was the fact that... Crimson Mother of the red moon never showed up. It didn¡¯t make sense. If the godchild ended up injured, he would surely have unleashed some powerful god magic during the fighting. But based on the fluctuations, it didn¡¯t seem that happened!

    Before long, two rumors were spreading.

    The first rumor was rted to the godchild¡¯s true identity. What was more, ording to this rumor, the godly souls he had collected from his imprisoned brothers and sisters ended up being taken during the fighting. Those souls were the reason that the imprisoned descendants of the Imperial Sovereigns lost their minds when in captivity. The moment they were seized, countless howls of grief erupted from inside the Red Moon Cathedral.

    It was a shocking development. What was more, after analyzing the events, some people came to the conclusion that the Heir Apparent hadn¡¯t been interested in fighting a battle to the death with the godchild. There was deeper meaning. And apparently, the godly souls were one of his main targets. No one knew any more than that.

    The second rumor was more momentous, and had a much bigger practical effect.

    ¡°Crimson Mother of the red moon is sleeping in an outside region. For the time being, sh¨¥ can¡¯t wake up!¡±

    This rumor was incredibly astonishing, and led some people to wonder if leadership was going to change in the Moonrite Region.

    Some people believed the rumors, others didn¡¯t. But either way... all of the Moonrite Region was shaken to the core by the various developments. The region was like a pool of still water that was suddenly disturbed by rolling waves.

    Almost overnight, secret societies sprang up in prefectures and counties all over the region. They preached about ¡®rebelling against the moon,¡¯ and urged themoners to defy the leaders of the region. They were hoping to spark a wildfire.

    However, the Red Moon Cathedral sent all of its affiliate organizations out to crush such movements, and they were joined byrge numbers of godves, godservants, and godheralds.

    After the godchild was injured, the cathedral¡¯s pontiff awoke from slumber to take charge. He was the type of person who controlled things with an iron fist, and almost immediately, blood was being spilled through the Moonrite Region.

    At longst... the wind was blowing in Moonrite.

    ***

    In the west of Moonrite Region was Greensand County. At the moment, a green sandstorm filled that area, stretching from the ground all the way to the dome of heaven.

    Greensand County was one of the seven counties in the western part of the Moonrite Region. It was located near the center of the region. The reason for the name was that the entire county was a desert with very unique sand. It wasn¡¯t yellow sand. It was green. And green sandstorms covered the ce year round. The people who lived there had long since grown used to the local climate, and could not only survive, but also flourish amidst the endless green sandstorms.

    There were a lot of legends rted to the sandstorms, but there was only one that the majority of people believed to be true.

    ording to the legend, long ago, this ce wasn¡¯t home to a desert. Instead, it was an enormous basin filled with countless towering mountains. Back then, the soil was ck, and the ce was so full of mist that it was said to be home to a sea of mist.

    One day, a strand of green hair fell from the sky, which transformed into sand that filled the basin and gave it its green color. After that, the ce was a desert. The once towering mountains had been mostly covered in sand, but the exposed parts were still connected into a rough collection of mountain ranges. Thergest of those mountain ranges was called the Bitter Life Mountains.

    As for the desert, it was called the Greenhair Bands. Because of the horrific climate, the poption in the Greenhair Bands wasn¡¯t veryrge. However, because of the ce¡¯s unique qualities, there was no shortage of visitors. [2]

    And over the years, mudbrick cities had sprung up in numerous ces. The cities were all built on the mountains, not the sand. Of course, the Red Moon Cathedral also had territory staked out in the area.

    As the green sandstorms blew, it was just possible to see a figure moving through the haze.

    The wind blew strong and loud. It felt like a host of hands pushing against whoever it touched, blocking forward progress, and making one¡¯s clothing whip wildly. However, the wind couldn¡¯t stop this figure from moving. He seemed to be moving at a leisurely pace, yet each step propelled him dozens of meters forward. asionally he would stop in ce and take out a jade slip to check his position and course.

    ¡°It¡¯s just up ahead,¡± Xu Qing murmured. After parting ways with the Captain, he had thought for a time about how exactly he wanted to proceed. Eventually, he decided to fix his sights on the Bitter Life Mountains. He was nning to try to make contact with the Moonrebel Congregation, and hopefully identify a good path to follow in his curse research.

    This was his third day in the Greenhair Bands.

    He no longer wore a daoist robe. Instead, he wore local attire. He had a cloth scarf wrapping up his head and face, leaving only his eyes visible, as well as wide-legged trousers, knee-length animal hide boots, and a voluminous gray cloak that he could wrap around his entire body. The cloak also served to keep Ling¡¯er safe. The wind here could be painful even to cultivators, and it had to be defended against using one¡¯s cultivation base. For short periods of time, it wasn¡¯t anything worth worrying about. But if you were exposed for long periods, you could easily exhaust yourself.

    Thanks to the endless wind, the spirit power in this desert was scattered and weak. There was also something deste in the wind, something that would slowly eat away at life force, until the victim was left as nothing but a skeleton pulsing with death energy.

    Of course, there were some unique life forms who, like fish in water, thrived in this environment.

    At the moment, Xu Qing was eyeing a green scorpion that was about as big as a child. The scorpion had just burst out of the sand behind him, and was racing toward him at top speed. As it neared, its tail glittered with cold light. Just when it seemed like it was about to stab Xu Qing, his shadow swept out.

    The scorpion vanished. The shadow returned.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother checking into what happened. After arriving here, he had run into quite a few beasts like this. All of them had a lot of curse power in them, so he weed them. He had already told the shadow to capture them alive and keep them around forter study.

    After confirming his current position, he put away the jade slip with the map in it and proceeded on his way. The intelligence reports the Captain had given him about the Moonrite Region weren¡¯t very detailed. Therefore, he had spent some of his own money to buy some more information about Greensand County.

    That was how he knew some of the local legends, as well as the general location of the Bitter Life Mountains. He continued traveling for seven days, getting deeper and deeper into the desert. During his travels, he saw all sorts of gruish beings in the green sand.

    For instance, he noticed some roughly 30-meter-tall mushrooms. They looked almost like huge houses standing in the middle of the desert. They were very colorful, and would be very attractive to anyone who spotted them from a distance. Xu Qing didn¡¯t get close to them. After scanning them briefly, he decided to avoid the area. He didn¡¯t want to get involved in any unnecessary trouble.

    He would asionally run into mirages in the desert. The sandstorms would create images of men and women,ughing with each other as they walked along. Their voices contained alluring power, and wherever they passed, they left behind long streaks in the sand. The streaks looked like evidence of the passage of huge worms, crawling beneath the surface of the desert.

    Xu Qing also spotted pirs. Corpses were strapped to the pirs like warning messages.

    He took note of them and kept traveling. A few dayster, he saw a group of huge animals with bells hanging around their necks. They vaguely resembled rhinoceroses. Wherever they went, the sound of tinkling bells followed them. Mounted on the backs of the huge beasts were wizened nonhumans who were wrapped up in so much cloth all you could see were their pure white eyes surveying their surroundings.

    Upon noticing Xu Qing, the huge beasts stopped short, and the nonhumans atop them looked at him vigntly. Xu Qing sped hands respectfully and backed up a bit. They nodded at him and continued on their way without causing any trouble.

    In that manner, days passed. Eventually a month had gone by.

    The Bitter Life Mountains were now visible in the distance.

    The sky was dusky, and in the haze, the Bitter Life Mountains looked like a dragon sleeping in the desert. One mountain after another stretched up, going from west to east, spanning more than 4,500 kilometers.

    1. How could we forget the amazing chapter when Wu Jianwu opened the wish box? It was in <u>chapter 147</u>. I didn¡¯t mention it at the time, but the message in the wish box was extremely difficult to trante, and I¡¯m quite proud of how it turned out. ?

    2. Quick heads up that the author actually refers to this ce with a few different names, and goes back and forth between them. For the sake of continuity, I¡¯m going to generally standardize the name to Greenhair Bands. ?

 Chapter 580: The Consequences of Attempted Lasciviousness and Robbery (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 580: The Consequences of Attempted Lasciviousness and Robbery (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to be part of the Moonrebel Congregation. Duanmu Zang hadn¡¯t provided any details about that. He had only exined where to find it.

    The greater part of a year had passed since then. Surrounded by the endless green desert sand, Xu Qing looked at the Bitter Life Mountains off in the distance and thought back to what he had learned of this area, thanks to the intelligence reports he¡¯d purchased. Unlike the Unfinished Mountains, the Bitter Life Mountains had no nt life. Endless sandy winds whimpered through the mountains, leading to a very deste and oppressive sensation.

    Xu Qing tightened his clothing a bit. He could feel Ling¡¯er nestling against his neck, leading him to feel warmth at heart. Walking through the wind, he entered the Bitter Life Mountains and began looking for clues leading to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Ten dayster, Xu Qing found himself on a towering peak in the Bitter Life Mountains, frowning as he studied his surroundings.

    During the days that had passed, he had searched the mountains but hadn¡¯t found any clues pointing him toward the Moonrebel Congregation. One thing he hade to realize was that a lot of people lived in these mountains. There were all sorts of species, most of them congregating in mudbrick cities. Mortals were rare. Most local denizens had cultivation bases, although there were some exceptions. On a few asions, Xu Qing sensed from afar the hostility in the gazes of the cultivators in the cities.

    <i>Duanmu Zang said that the way to join the Moonrebel Congregation is toe to the Bitter Life Mountains...</i> In the distance was one of the tallest peaks in the Bitter Life Mountains, and it pulsed with fluctuations from Red Moon Cathedral warding spells.

    <i>The Red Moon Cathedral doesn¡¯t just randomly set up church temples. But there¡¯s one there.... It goes to show that this ce is unique, probably because of being linked to the Moonrebel Congregation. But it''s strange. If it¡¯s fairlymon knowledge that the Bitter Life Mountains are key to joining the Moonrebel Congregation, then why wouldn¡¯t the Red Moon Cathedral seal this ce, or at least prevent people froming in and out?</i>

    Xu Qing looked down the mountain, his expression thoughtful.

    From his vantage point, the green desert and the endless gritty winds made it seem like the entire world was covered in green fog.

    <i>Maybe sealings or lockdowns won¡¯t work here for some reason.</i>

    He was about to continue his search when he heard a cry carried to him through the wind, along with the fluctuations of magical techniques.

    At first he nned to simply ignore them. He had encountered simr situations elsewhere in the Bitter Life Mountains, as there were always local cultivators fighting and killing each other. However, most such situations involved Foundation Establishment cultivators, and maybe a few in Gold Core. But after taking only a few steps, Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked in the direction the fluctuations wereing from.

    <i>Nascent Soul fluctuations? And they''re strong. Seems like the two- or three-tribtion level.</i>

    It was the first time Xu Qing had encountered any Nascent Soul fighting. And since he hadn¡¯t made much headway in joining the Moonrebel Congregation, maybe it warranted an adjustment in his search methods.

    Wrapping himself up in concealing invisibility, he became one with the wind as he headed toward the fighting.

    Before long, he found the field of battle. There was a ravine, through which swept the green desert wind. Two cultivators hovered in mid-air exchanging attacks with all sorts of magical techniques and weapons. Their shes caused shockwaves to roll out in every direction.

    Both of thebatants were middle-aged, and wore clothing simr to Xu Qing¡¯s. Beingpletely wrapped up, the only thing visible about them were their eyes. They both attacked with ruthless ferocity, and were just as willing to sustain injuries as they were to inflict them. One of them had suffered some severe injuries already. He had a huge gash in his abdomen, and one of his arms flopped uselessly at his side. His opponent had been blinded in one eye. Blood flowed out of the ruined eye socket, while the other eye glittered with ruthlessness.

    The fight hadn¡¯t just started. It seemed that there had actually been a chase that led to this spot.

    When Xu Qing arrived, he saw one of the cultivators exhale a ck mist. His opponent was so weak and injured that he couldn''t dodge out of the way, and was hit in the face by the mist. He screamed shrilly as he backed away. However, he didn¡¯t move fast enough. The one-eyed cultivatorughed maniacally as he lunged forward and shoved his hands into his opponent¡¯s torso, crushing his five yin organs and shattering his six yang organs.

    It was hard to say what technique he was using, but it resulted in his opponent rapidly withering into a desated corpse.

    Xu Qing watched as that cultivator¡¯s nascent souls tried to escape, but failed, as they were now sealed inside the desated corpse.

    Having aplished that, the one-eyed cultivator collected the corpse, then spun to look at Xu Qing. Shockingly, a sealing mark flickered in his pupil, which imparted a very gruish feeling. Grinning, he said, ¡°Another one? You think <i>you¡¯re</i> going to rob me, fool?¡±

    He was looking right at Xu Qing, despite his cloak of invisibility.

    Xu Qing had not put on a mask of concealment. But his concealment abilities were extraordinary to begin with. Only someone with special abilities would be able to see him, and apparently, this cultivator was just such a person. After some thought, Xu Qing emerged from his concealment of invisibility. After taking a few steps back to indicate that he had no hostile intentions, he spoke in a very sincere manner.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist, I have nothing to do with the person you just killed. I just noticed the fluctuations of the magical techniques and followed them here. A friend of mine went missing in these mountains about a month ago, and I''m looking for him. Is there any chance you saw¡ª¡±

    The cultivator interrupted with a coldugh. Backing away in the opposite direction, he said, ¡°A lot of people go missing here. I haven¡¯t seen any damned friend of yours.¡±

    The one-eyed cultivator then turned and sped off into the distance.

    Xu Qing watched him go. He had been hoping to use his cover story to get some information from this cultivator. Sadly, the cultivator was too wary.

    It wasn¡¯t a big deal to Xu Qing. Turning, he started moving in a different direction. However, before he got more than a few paces, his eyes glittered coldly as he realized the wind was bringing poison with it. It was cleverly concealed, odorless, and colorless. And considering it was being carried on the wind, most people would fall victim to it before even noticing it.

    <i>The ingredients are mixed clumsily. There¡¯s blurry strawgrass, hundred-leaf deadwood, ninemerit g... and also some corpseblooms. It¡¯s a catalytic poison, so it needs another poison to be active.</i>

    After his initial analysis, he kept moving. Enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, whereupon he heard a whistling sound behind him, and turned to look expressionlessly over his shoulder.

    The one-eyed cultivator was back. He was about thirty meters back, an expression of surprise on his face as he looked Xu Qing up and down. Then he sniffed the air.

    ¡°Something¡¯s strange about you. You smell good.¡± The one-eyed cultivator''s gaze then stopped at Xu Qing¡¯s neck. Eyes glittering, he pointed. ¡°That thing you have there looks delicious. Give it to me, and I¡¯ll tell you what you want to know.¡±

    Ling¡¯er shivered. The cultivator had just pointed directly at her.

    When Xu Qing felt Ling¡¯er shivering, his eyes turned cold. He had noticed that when the one-eyed cultivator pointed at him the poison around him grew more intense, as if it was about to detonate. He looked calmly at the one-eyed cultivator.

    Meanwhile, the one-eyed cultivator''s heart sank. The poison in the area was his, and after sensing something on this person¡¯s neck, he hade to the conclusion it was some sort of treasure. Because he feared his battle prowess, he had resorted to using poisons. Upon returning to the scene, he had found that the poison was in ce and ready to activate. However, even after using the activation item, nothing happened.

    The one-eyed cultivator was getting the feeling something about the situation was off. Eyes darting back and forth to study his surroundings, he backed up and said, ¡°Given your reaction, I can only guess that the thing around your neck is important to you. In that case, forget about it. I¡¯ve never been in the practice of taking things that people love. However, if you want answers to your questions, you¡¯re going to have to pay.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and took a step forward. As he did, his cultivation base erupted with power. Thirteen two-tribtion nascent souls surged with a total of thirty-nine-soul battle prowess. Even Nascent Soul cultivators who had six heavenly pces with nascent souls in them, and had passed five heavenfate tribtions, still couldn¡¯t match up to something like that. Their mere existence caused a terrifying tempest to spring up in the area.

    The one-eyed cultivator¡¯s mind spun and he began to breathe heavily.

    ¡°Y-y-you! What kind of battle prowess is that??¡±

    He could sense that Xu Qing was in the two-tribtion level, and that he had a number of nascent souls. However, being in the three-tribtion level, he hadn¡¯t feltpletely terrified of Xu Qing. When his poison was defeated, he started getting a bit worried. And then Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base erupted like a p to the face. Now he was shivering, and his eyes shone with utter incredulity. In fact, he almost felt like he might pass out at any moment. As a rogue cultivator, he had never encountered a two-tribtion opponent who was as terrifying as this.

    <i>There¡¯s no way this freak is in the two-tribtion level. He¡¯s on a fishing expedition!!</i>

    The one-eyed cultivator trembled as he backed up, his mind spinning as he tried toe up with a n to get out of this situation alive. Waving his hand, he used a magical technique to summon a host of brown worms with wings. There were roughly 10,000 of them, filling bothnd and sky. And all of them spat out strands of silk thatbined into arge that spread out over Xu Qing. Magical devices flew out as well, sending defensive fluctuations out to surround the one-eyed cultivator. There were also flying swords, a variety of pill bottles, and spears.

    There were a lot of things, but they didn¡¯t seem to conform to any specific collection or package. They had obviously been taken as loot from different opponents. And though they looked impressive on the surface, they actually weren¡¯t as mighty as they seemed.

    When he tossed out the medicinal pill bottles, they exploded, causing a corrosive poison powder to spread out and block Xu Qing¡¯s path.

    As the cultivator shot backward across the ground, a vortex sprang into being, out of which emerged a host of brown vines that sought to constrain Xu Qing. All of these things together were indeed extraordinary. But they weren¡¯t enough.

    Xu Qing was like a shocking beast whomanded a never-ending tempest that could shred everything in its path. The vines couldn¡¯t even get close to Xu Qing before they copsed into pieces. The mere fluctuationsing off of him were too powerful for it. The same thing happened with the worms and the. Xu Qing¡¯s aura formed an image of a golden crow and raging mes. The fire immediately swept over the worms. The worms screeched as they copsed, bing a rain of fire thatnded on the ground below.

    The one-eyed cultivator was coughing up blood like mad, and his expression was one of pure terror.

    ¡°Forgive me, Senior! I''m at fault!¡±

    As he fell back, he howled in grief as he realized how perilous of a situation he was in. Never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that a simple outing like this would result in him encountering a terrifying monster like this. What was even more unbelievable was that someone so strong would have been so courteous earlier. The fact that he had been keeping his cultivation base hidden left the one-eyed cultivator feeling full of despair.

    As he fell back, the magical devices he had thrown out all exploded and scattered more poison powder....

 Chapter 580: The Consequences of Attempted Lasciviousness and Robbery (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 580: The Consequences of Attempted Lasciviousness and Robbery (part 2)</h4>

    To Xu Qing, this poison was simply too weak.

    Clearly, these two opponents had very different skills when it came to the use and understanding of poison. One seemed like an apprentice, while the other seemed like a master.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that. He was like a descending storm as he shot his hand out. Itpletely ignored the one-eyed cultivator¡¯s defenses. As the magical devices shattered, his handnded on his opponent¡¯s neck.

    The one-eyed cultivator let loose a shout. Releasing the power of his seven three-tribtion nascent souls, he started a minor teleportation. His goal was clear; he wanted to get away from Xu Qing. But then a host of heavenfiend clones appeared around him, like a vortex distorting the air. The resulting interference to the one-eyed cultivator¡¯s minor teleportation caused it to slow down slightly. In a moment like this, a slight slow-down could be the difference between life and death.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing closed in and grabbed the cultivator by the throat and mmed him down onto the ground below. A boom rang out as the boulders shattered and arge crater opened up.

    The one-eyed cultivator was like a rag doll that Xu Qing was holding in ce, making it impossible for him to move. Eyes shining with terror, the cultivator blurted, ¡°Please, calm yourself, Senior! This is my fault! I know what you want to ask about. I know! I know everything!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was as cold as ice. He had always been the type of person who lived by the maxim, <i>don¡¯t hurt me, and I won¡¯t hurt you</i>. Right now, his eyes were radiating so much killing intent that the one-eyed cultivator was about to pass out from terror.

    ¡°Senior, I bet you want to ask about the Moonrebel Congregation. Am I right? <i>The red moon is by no means eternal, hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!!</i>¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him coldly.

    The one-eyed cultivator shivered. The truth was that he had instantly recognized that Xu Qing was an outsider. And most outsiders who came to this ce wanted to join the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Of course, there were exceptions. But given the deadly crisis situation, the one-eyed cultivator couldn''t worry about it. All he could do was try to make the best of a bad situation. Therefore, he spoke the secret signal out loud, then searched Xu Qing¡¯s eyes in hopes of finding clues that his guess was correct. Sadly, he couldn¡¯t discern anything by looking at Xu Qing.

    However, there was one thing he did notice: Xu Qing didn¡¯t kill him. Therefore, he quickly continued, ¡°Senior, I''m from the Moonrebel Congregation! We''re on the same side! You want to join, right? I can help you!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze remained as cold as ever. If the Moonrebel Congregation was full of people like this, then he didn¡¯t have any desire to join them.

    ¡°Senior, as long as you¡¯re in the Moonrebel Congregation, all you have to do is take out a mirror¡ªany kind will do¡ªand say the secret signal. That will initiate the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s assessment test. Once you pass the test, then it doesn¡¯t matter where you go. You can always use a mirror to instantly be sent to the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±

    As the one-eyed cultivator finished speaking, his heart sank as he noticed a hole in his own story. And all he could do was brace himself for Xu Qing to notice the same thing.

    ¡°If that''s true,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, ¡°then why did you try so hard to run away? Why not just pull out a mirror?¡±

    The one-eyed cultivator smiled wryly. This person had instantly honed in on the very point he was worried about.

    ¡°Senior, I... I''m still in the assessment period myself. I haven¡¯t passed it yet....¡± Seeing that his words hadn¡¯t reduced the killing intent in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he quickly continued, ¡°Senior, everything I said before is true. I was blinded in one eye, Senior, that''s why I messed up!¡±

    This one-eyed cultivator was also a ruthless individual. As he apologized, he pulled a nascent soul out of the top of his head, then presented it to Xu Qing and crushed it.

    ¡°Senior, I''m crushing my own nascent soul and offering it as an apology!¡±

    The cultivator shivered. Blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth as his aura seemed to shrivel.

    Xu Qing frowned. It all seemed like a bit of a waste. ¡°If it¡¯s that easy to contact the Moonrebel Congregation, then why doesn¡¯t the Red Moon Cathedral lock down this area?¡±

    The one-eyed cultivator looked back at Xu Qing, stunned. This information wasmon knowledge. Not daring to ask any questions, though, he quickly exined, ¡°Senior, there are nine entrances to the Moonrebel Congregation in the Moonrite Region. This area is just one of them. In the past, the Red Moon Cathedral would lock such ces down. However, after doing that, the entrance would just disappear, only to reappearter in another ce.

    ¡°Entrances to the Moonrebel Congregation can appear randomly, so there¡¯s no point in trying to block them. Rather, the Red Moon Cathedral leaves them in ce to make it easier to keep an eye on them.¡±

    The one-eyed cultivator was being very cautious in how he spoke to Xu Qing, and he was trying to look as cooperative as possible. In his mind, he was still trying toe up with a way to escape with his life. Noticing that Xu Qing¡¯s face still abounded with killing intent, he gritted his teeth and took out another nascent soul.

    Presenting it to Xu Qing, he crushed it.

    ¡°Senior... I''m crushing another as an apology.... This was really all my fault.¡±

    The one-eyed cultivator was now very pale in the face. Crushing two of his own nascent souls was a very serious injury to himself, and he was already much weaker and even gasping for breath. Yet he was still trying to highlight his sincerity.

    The sight of it caused Ling¡¯er¡¯s heart to soften. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, I feel so bad for this guy. Maybe you should extract his other nascent souls and check to see if he''s being sincere. If he¡¯s not, just get it over with.¡±

    Xu Qing agreed that it was for the best. It was not his style to simply free people who had tried to harm him. Before the one-eyed cultivator could say anything further, Xu Qing used his Gruegloom abilities to reach in and extract five nascent souls. He crushed them. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the heavenfate from the five nascent souls swept into Xu Qing. In the blink of an eye, they became heavenfiend clones that pulsed with baleful auras.

    Meanwhile, the one-eyed cultivator let loose a miserable shriek. Having lost all of his nascent souls, he was already teetering on the verge of death.

    Xu Qing had confirmed that there wasn''t some trick at y, so he got things over with. By means of a dagger to the throat.

    The one-eyed cultivator¡¯s body copsed into ashes. Although he had seemed human, from very early on, Xu Qing had been able to tell that he was a nonhuman. That said, his species had nothing to do with why Xu Qing killed him. If Xu Qing had been the weaker party, he would have been the one suffering. Ling¡¯er would have been taken away, and would have undergone an even crueler fate.

    After handling the situation, Xu Qing collected his enemy¡¯s bag of holding and then shot off into the distance.

    ***

    A few hundred kilometers from where the fight had just yed out, there was a mansion grotto carved out of stone. Inside of it, an old man sat cross-legged in meditation. His clothing covered most of him, but his face was revealed, and it was full of wrinkles.

    His eyes suddenly shot open, and he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. He swayed to the side before reaching out to support himself against the wall. But he couldn¡¯t control what was happening inside him, and coughed up more blood. After seven or eight mouthfuls, he shivered uncontrobly. Eyes shining with terror, he looked off in a certain direction.

    <i>I escaped a catastrophe. But what a price I had to pay... my traction avatar....</i>

    The old man was a member of the Traction species, who had an innate ability that allowed them to turn dead enemies into mummies. By adding their own blood to such a mummy, and then using certain refining techniques, they could turn it into a ¡®traction avatar.¡¯ Traction avatars were essentially like clones, except even more lifelike, to the point where they were almost indistinguishable as doppelg?ngers.

    Normally speaking, this old man used his Traction abilities to his own benefit. It was also one of the key ways he could evade powerful experts. Unfortunately, the traction avatar he had just lost was his primary ensorcelled avatar. It was connected to his mind and heart, and its destruction left him severely injured. His internal organs had all been badly damaged.

    What was more, he didn''t recall ever having met a powerful expert like this one. The mere memory caused his heart to pound with dread.

    <i>This isn''t going to work. That guy is smart enough that he probably spotted the clues.</i>

    Gritting his teeth, he ignored his injuries and started moving. He didn''t dare to stay in one ce, and could only hope that he would be able to get far enough away to find a good hiding spot.

    ***

    About two hourster, Xu Qing appeared outside of that very same mansion grotto. After sending his shadow in to scout, he entered. Looking at the blood everywhere, he snorted coldly.

    After the initial incident, something had seemed off. The nascent souls he had harvested didn¡¯t contain the right amount of heavenfate, and as a result, the heavenfiend clones they made had too much baleful energy. That made him think of the random assortment of magical devices his opponent had used, and how he had witnessed him transform his opponent into a desated corpse and seal him in a nascent soul. After that, Xu Qing came to suspect that he hadn¡¯t killed the true form of his enemy.

    Different species had their own unique characteristics. That also counted for innate abilities and gruish skills. Just about anything was possible. Therefore, Xu Qing had cast his senses out and used the new heavenfiend clones to detect the presence of his enemy.

    ¡°He ran away quickly,¡± Xu Qing murmured. Walking outside he looked around. His opponent hadn¡¯t left behind traces of his passage, and with the ever present green wind, not even the heavenfiend clones could lock onto him now.

    <i>He got lucky. I guess I¡¯ll have to wait until next time to kill him</i>. Xu Qing turned and left. After traveling for a while, he found a remote mountain hollow without any other cultivators nearby.

    He was currently contemting how much, if any, of the information the one-eyed cultivator had given him was true. Back in the heat of the moment, the man had obviously been primarily concerned with keeping himself alive and also protecting his true identity and abilities. In moments like that, most people would say some true things in the hopes of keeping their secrets safe. Telling outright lies could lead to the other person suspecting everything they were saying.

    <i>Given that logic, I bet there¡¯s some truth to what he said. I might as well do some experimentation!</i>

    Eyes gleaming with determination, he took out a mirror fragment.

    He still had fragments of some of the Mirrorlings he had killed, which he had kept with the intention of studying themter. Based on what the one-eyed cultivator had said, it seemed worth it to experiment with them now.

    <i>¡°The red moon is by no means eternal, hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!¡±</i>

    Almost the same moment that Xu Qing spoke the words, the mirror fragment vibrated, and then a majestic will entered his mind.

 Chapter 581: The Beginnings of Moonriteâ€™s Most Badass Medicine Shop (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 581: The Beginnings of Moonrite¡¯s Most Badass Medicine Shop (part 1)</h4>

    In the Greenhair Bands, winds screamed everywhere, and green sand stretched out like the sea. It seemed to go on forever and ever.

    For some reason, though, the sand and wind were a lot less prevalent in the mountains, which drastically improved the visibility there. In fact, from a distance, the towering mountains looked like they existed in another world. The Bitter Life Mountains were so expansive that there was even less sand and wind there than most other mountains. That said, the sound of the wind was still clearly audible. It sounded like countless demonic monsters, howling in defiance of death.

    The mountain hollow Xu Qing had selected was in a rather remote part of the Bitter Life Mountains. Before Xu Qing could even use the mirror, the shadow spread out to keep guard.

    Seeing the shadow¡¯s quick reaction to the situation caused Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to suddenly feel more on guard than ever. He quickly flew out, trying to look like the type of dharma protector who would willingly be crushed out of existence if necessary to prove his loyalty. Ling¡¯er was also looking around vigntly, her eyes shining with white light.

    As they stood guard, Xu Qing¡¯s expression became vignt. He could sense the personhood in the will pulsing in the mirror, and it gave him the same feeling as if he was looking up into the starry sky. Boundlessly majestic.

    D-132 vibrated, and the god¡¯s finger looked out briefly, then seemed terrified and quickly went back into hiding.

    The might pulsing from the mirror fragment then converged as it flew out in front of Xu Qing.

    The will turned into a voice that spoke into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. It sounded like it wasing from a very great distance away, but soon it superseded the sound of the wind.

    <i>¡°Prehistoric rising constetion, unceasing changes and transformations, assess evil and bind demonic, safeguard and protect the body.</i>

    <i>¡°Wisdom that is pure and bright; test the heart for peace and security; three spiritual souls for eternity; physical souls untoppled and preserved.¡±</i>

    The voice was so indistinct it was impossible to say if it was the voice of a man or woman. In fact, it sounded like many people speaking together. For some reason, it imparted a sense of calm into Xu Qing. It was as if the words that had been spoken had the ability to cleanse the heart and mind. Almost immediately, he felt incredibly peaceful and grounded. On the one hand, it felt like a lot of time had passed. At the same time, hardly any time had passed at all. The voice continued to echo in his mind, repeating the same thirty-two words. However, in Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, the meaning of the words changed. [1]

    That was because two of the words were clearer than the others.

    ¡°... assess.... test....¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything rash. He just took his time to listen to the words. Gradually, he got the very distinct impression that if he allowed himself to be drawn into those two words, it would begin some sort of test. After considering the matter, he decided not to proceed. For one thing, he wasn¡¯t in the appropriate environment for something like that. What was more, he had no idea what sort of test he would be taking.

    Reaching out, he grabbed the mirror fragment and broke the connection. The sense of peacefulness faded away, and he looked up. Once again, the sound of the wind reached him.

    Ling¡¯er looked over at him. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Big Bro Xu Qing? Did it work?¡±

    Xu Qing reached up and stroked Ling¡¯er¡¯s head. Looking thoughtful, he said, ¡°I think this is the right method, but I need some time to make sure.¡±

    That seemed to cate Ling¡¯er. And considering how Xu Qing seemed lost in thought, she didn¡¯t do anything further to disturb him. She quietly went back into his sleeve, found afortable spot, and coiled up. Soon, the warmth of his body heat had her feeling very rxed. It was as if his warmth was the source of all peacefulness to her.

    Sometimeter, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination. He had made his decision. He would find somewhere in the Bitter Life Mountains to settle down temporarily, both to study the mirror fragment and also do research on the curse. If he was alone, he would have just found some random cave in the middle of nowhere. But he wasn¡¯t alone. He had Ling¡¯er.... After some consideration, he decided to find one of the mudbrick cities. He didn¡¯t want to force Ling¡¯er to live isted from the world while apanying him.

    And thus Xu Qing left the mountain hollow and eventually found a rather small mudbrick city on the outskirts of the mountain range.

    It was located about halfway up a mountain, and was so small it didn¡¯t even have a name. There weren¡¯t even a thousand residents. Virtually everything was made from mudbricks, with hardly any color visible anywhere. It was quite monotonous. Most residents were locals, although there were some outsiders who had settled down for various reasons. All sorts of species were present.

    There were a few shops here and there, none of them very busy. At a nce, it looked like about a third of the buildings in the city were empty. Either the people who had upied those locations had moved on, or had died.

    Xu Qing¡¯s first impression of the ce was that it was a bleak and lonely ce. However, the people here seemed more tolerant than those in other ces. Although his arrival attracted some hostile gazes, no one bothered him.

    Xu Qing, who was still wrapped up in clothing that left only his eyes visible, took some time to study the upants of the city. After a while, he realized there were a lot of people with deformities. Some people were extremely obese, with massive rolls of flesh all over them. Others had multiple limbs, while some had extra faces on them. Some had growths that dragged on the ground as they walked, making them difficult to cover up with clothing.

    They seemed like they had extra flesh growing on them. Perhaps it was natural, or perhaps it was some kind of mutation. Either way, they all had numb expressions on their faces. At first, Xu Qing assumed they were some strange nonhuman species he had never seen before. But eventually he realized that wasn¡¯t the case.

    <i>They weren¡¯t born with these deformities.</i>

    The Greenhair Bands only seemed to get more gruish as he saw more of it.

    After walking around the city for a while to get a sense of theyout, he found an abandoned building that he took over. It was very dusty, and there were broken bottles and jars everywhere. There were also some rickety shelves. From the look of it, the ce used to be a medicine shop.

    After looking around, Xu Qing started cleaning up. Ling¡¯er took human form, examined the ce curiously, and then started helping.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said excitedly, ¡°are you nning to open a medicine shop?¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and smiled. After all, the very first time he ever saw Ling¡¯er was when she and her father were running an inn on nkspring Way. To Xu Qing, it didn¡¯t make much of a difference whether he was just living there or running the ce as a shop. But since Ling¡¯er had suggested thetter, he decided it wouldn¡¯t hurt.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he answered.

    ¡°Awesome! Let me tell you, Big Bro Xu Qing, I actually know a lot about running businesses. I can handle everything!¡±

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes glittered with excitement as she dusted, cleaned up the debris, and then took out some rags to start cleaning more deeply. Such things could be aplished with magical techniques, but Ling¡¯er clearly enjoyed doing things herself.

    When Xu Qing saw that, and noticed how happy Ling¡¯er was, he sighed inwardly. He hade to understand Ling¡¯er a lot more during their travels together. She was very smart, but at the same time, humble and innocent. Sometimes, very small things could keep her happy for days on end.

    With Ling¡¯er in charge, all it took was a day before the abandoned little medicine shop was open for business again. Ling¡¯er came up with the name for it. It was the Green Spirit Pharmacy. [2]

    Xu Qing already had a big collection of medicinal pills, the majority being white boluses. After all, that was the first pill form he had mastered. Though white boluses weren¡¯t of any use to him, they were a staple for virtually all other living beings in the world, and were thusmon everywhere. Xu Qing had learned a lot by studying Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s methods in Sea-Sealing County. Although Bai Xiaozhuo had ultimately changed white boluses to add poison to them, the reality was that he truly had improved them in terms of quality and purity.

    Thus, the Green Spirit Pharmacy focused primarily on selling white boluses.

    After taking human form, Ling¡¯er disguised herself as an ugly girl who looked exactly like a shopkeeper¡¯s assistant. That said, there weren¡¯t many people in this city, and considering the shop had just opened, they didn¡¯t get many customers. That didn¡¯t do anything to curb Ling¡¯er¡¯s enthusiasm.

    When Xu Qing saw how much Ling¡¯er looked forward to running the shop, he gave her free rein to do whatever she wanted. After taking the seed the Captain had given him and nting it in a flower pot, he went into the back room of the shop to focus on cultivation and research. He needed to do more experiments with the mirror fragment, and also wanted to use some local animals to start studying the curse.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely.

    At first, hardly any customers showed up. But eventually a few people came to buy white boluses. After all, the white boluses were both cheap and effective.

    After the shop started making money, Ling¡¯er got even more motivated. Every day she would carefully calcte all the spirit coin profits, and even started keeping ounts in a little book.

    Every so often, Xu Qing would take a break from cultivation. When he saw Ling¡¯er working so hard to bnce the ounts, he felt peaceful and calm. Ever since his time in the city of fireflies by the Heavenfire Sea, he hade to realize that he enjoyed life when things were calm. And living in such peace and tranquility did something to his heart and mind. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what changed, but he could sense something different deep inside himself.

    He started spending more time on study and research. Things went well with the mirror, but progress was very slow with the curse. On multiple asions, he sent the power of the violet moon into animals to try to suppress the curse. The results weren¡¯t good. His efforts failed every single time.

    At the moment, he was studying a trembling scorpion. Putting his hand onto the scorpion, he sent violet moon power inside. The scorpion¡¯s color changed. It went from brown to violet. At the same time, Xu Qing could sense the curse inside of it.

    The curse in Moonrite Region affected all living beings. It existed in the blood, which made it very hard to extrude. When it red up, it quickly dissolved the subject.

    When Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon power contacted the curse, it would instantly change from being dormant to active. It was almost like it was a living being that would quickly absorb his violet moon power. Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon was extremely attractive to the curse. After doing quite a few experiments, Xu Qing confirmed that if the curse in a subject devoured enough of his violet moon power, it would re up. When that happened, the test subject would dissolve rapidly into a pool of blood. The process was irreversible.

    He could suppress the effect by constantly sending more violet moon power into the subject. However, that would only work to a certain point, whereupon the re-up would ur. The difference was that when he didn¡¯t attempt to suppress the re-up, the subject would dissolve into blood. If he did suppress it, then when the re-up urred they would melt into ck ashes.

    <i>It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re burning up.</i>

    After watching the scorpion copse into ck ashes, he frowned. He had studied the ck ashes in detail, all to no avail. The feeling he got was that the curse, after being suppressed temporarily, chose to end itself along with the blood of the subject.

    <i>I need to do more experiments, and also use more species.</i>

    With that, Xu Qing took out an animal the shadow had captured and continued working.

    1. The original Chinese features two lines of poetry/verse that are 16 characters each, broken up into 4 parts, with each small section being 4 characters. I did not try to match the number of characters to the number of words. ?

    2. Green Spirit: The namebines characters from the names of Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er. Qing=Green. Ling=Spirit. ?

 Chapter 581: The Beginnings of Moonriteâ€™s Most Badass Medicine Shop (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 581: The Beginnings of Moonrite¡¯s Most Badass Medicine Shop (part 2)</h4>

    Days passed.

    The city was small, but there were still asional conflicts between residents. However, Xu Qing kept to himself, and in that state of istion, managed to avoid trouble.

    The seed he had nted eventually sprouted, then quickly turned into a flourishing little sapling. It was a very strange nt, as it was slightly intelligent. Whenever Xu Qing appeared in its presence, it would tremble. In contrast, it would sway back and forth for Ling¡¯er, causing her tough with delight. In response to herughter, it would work harder to amuse her. She took to calling it Sprouty.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was on guard duty. For the most part, he stayed in the rafters and kept his eye on the front door.

    As for the shadow.... It was not very pleased at all with how Sprouty was getting on Ling¡¯er¡¯s good side. On a few asions when Ling¡¯er and Xu Qing weren¡¯t watching, it would show up next to Sprouty and re murderously at it. When that happened, Sprouty would shrink in on itself and stop moving.

    However, the shadow didn¡¯t do that very often, as it had another mission. It had to leave the city and go out into the Bitter Life Mountains, and even the Greenhair Bands in general, to find animals for Xu Qing. Thanks to the shadow¡¯s efforts, Xu Qing¡¯s research could continue nonstop. It would also bring back news from the area.

    Those were asions when Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was able to prove his usefulness. He was always there to trante, although he would asionally slip in some extra things to get the shadow in trouble. The shadow had matured quite a bit, yet stillcked experience. As a result, it only noticed what the patriarch was doing about thirty percent of the time.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay much attention to it all. He had long since grown used to the two oafs and their bickering.

    Regardless, thanks to the shadow and the patriarch, Xu Qing was learning a lot more about the Greenhair Bands. For example, he now knew why the mudbrick cities were always on the mountains. There were a lot of gruish phenomena in the desert that were capable ofpletely wiping out entire cities. Because of that, only the mountains were safe.

    For example, every so often in the desert, illusory regions would appear. Sometimes they were oases, sometimes they were floating cities, and sometimes they were other worlds. Regardless, they would move about bringing death with them wherever they went. If you entered one of those illusory regions, it wasn¡¯t easy to get out alive. And when an illusory region finally vanished, it would leave behind bare bones that had been scraped free of all flesh and blood.

    The shadow brought some information about the giant mushrooms Xu Qing had spotted before. The shadow had seen one such mushroom standing up and moving around. The mushrooms had root systems that resembled human bodies, which allowed them to rove about in the desert looking for illusory regions.

    But those weren¡¯t the most terrifying things to be found in the Greenhair Bands. Thanks to the shadow, Xu Qing learned that the desert wasn¡¯t always the same color.

    asionally, the wind would turn pure white, whereupon all living beings in the desert would scramble to find refuge in the nearest mountains. If they failed, they would be in great danger, as the mountains were the only ces where the wind and sand didn¡¯t reign supreme.

    Over the many years that had passed, the white wind had appeared numerous times. And asionally, people would fail to make it to the mountains quickly enough. Although such people didn¡¯t die, they were changed. Their bodies would be deformed, and they would be extremely ugly. Later generations would inherit those deformities. It made Xu Qing think of the people he had seen when looking around the city.

    There wasn¡¯t just a white wind. Sometimes the wind in the Greenhair Bands would turn ck. It hadn¡¯t happened for hundreds of years at this point, but the stories about it persisted. When the ck wind appeared, all living beings in the Greenhair Bands were put into great danger. Even people who fell back to the mountains were still at risk.

    That said, there were few ces in the Moonrite Region that weren¡¯t dangerous. Death was always lurking around the corner. Considering that, a ck wind that came around every few hundred years wasn¡¯t anything special.

    Yet there was another type of wind. The gray wind, which was really just a legend. Xu Qing learned about it from the very first customer who came to buy medicinal pills. Supposedly, the gray wind had only appeared once in all the history of the Greenhair Bands. What was more, it had been such a long time since it happened that nobody knew any real details about it.

    Because of all that, Xu Qing got to know a lot more about the desert. In addition to his research into the curse, he also did more experiments with the mirror fragment. After a lot of tests, he wasing to a much better understanding of the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s test.

    <i>That one-eyed cultivator wasn¡¯t lying about this part. Any mirror can be used in the Bitter Life Mountains to find an entrance to the Moonrebel Congregation. It also serves as the way to start the test. Only by passing the test can you get in.</i>

    Xu Qing sat in the back of the little building, looking at the mirror with determination in his eyes.

    Thanks to his research, he now realized that the test to enter the Moonrebel Congregation involved three subtests.

    The first subtest involved a sacrifice. It was really more like a blood tribute. Any person who wanted to enter the Moonrebel Congregation needed to kill two cultivators of the same level as themselves from the Red Moon Cathedral. By sending the corpses into the mirror, onepleted the first part of the test. It made sense to Xu Qing. The first subtest was intended to prove the applicant¡¯s strength, and also provide a measure of protection against outside forces.

    Because of the requirements, people from the Red Moon Cathedral who wanted to infiltrate the Moonrebel Congregation would have to pay a heavy price to do so. What was more, the higher the cultivation base, the more difficult it would be. And that was just the first subtest. If someonepleted the first subtest, but failed the subsequent subtests, then it would all be a big waste. That was why the subtests were ordered in that way.

    The second subtest to enter the Moonrebel Congregation was an expression of faith. As for the third subtest, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure about the details. His intention was to get the first subtest out of the way.

    With such thoughts in mind, he looked up into the hazy dome of heaven. Eyes shining with determination, he put the mirror fragment away and then left the medicine shop.

    His target destination wasn¡¯t the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple in the Bitter Life Mountains. He knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to underestimate the church temple in these mountains.

    All in all, the blood tribute was a hard requirement to get into the Moonrebel Congregation. For all intents and purposes, anyone who wanted to get in was forced to first deal with the Red Moon Cathedral. Only fools would fail to exercise caution in such a situation. Based on Xu Qing¡¯s previous dealings with the Red Moon Cathedral, he figured it was highly likely the cathedral would set traps for people just like himself.

    Of course, everyone had their own way of thinking, and it seemed unlikely to Xu Qing that the people trying to get into the Moonrebel Congregation would be idiots. In all likelihood, most of them would search for cathedral cultivators outside of the desert.

    Regardless, Xu Qing wanted to y it safe.

    After putting on the immortal skill mask, and also using his Gruegloom abilities, he left the mountains and startedbing the desert for animals with the same cultivation base as himself.

    Just like that, days passed.

    There were all types of animals in the desert. And while the shadow had been hunting on Xu Qing¡¯s behalf, it had noted where some of the most dangerous areas were. As a result, Xu Qing knew exactly where to go.

    Two dayster, in a region full of quicksand, rumbling booms echoed out as a huge red worm burrowed out of the ground. It emanated fluctuations equivalent to the Nascent Soul level, and was howling in grief. Beneath it, Xu Qing shot forward andunched a blow with his right hand. The red worm was sted in two, with each part dropping to the ground twitching. Xu Qing collected it and then proceeded on his way.

    Five dayster, a huge scorpion that was dozens of meters in length burst out of the ground. A shadowy figure chased it, nked by countless heavenfiend clones. The scorpion let loose a grating cry as it realized it couldn¡¯t escape. Booms rang out for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. After that, the shadowy form resolved into Xu Qing. Turning, he headed back toward the Bitter Life Mountains.

    About half a dayter, he was back in the medicine shop. It was business as usual for Ling¡¯er, although she¡¯d been worried about Xu Qing being gone. Now that he was back, she breathed a sigh of relief and shed a bright smile.

    Xu Qing tousled her hair, then went into the back and sat down cross-legged. There, he activated a defensive spell formation, produced the mirror, and took a deep breath. He wasn¡¯t interested in ambushing cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral. If his true identity was revealed as a result, it could lead to big trouble.

    Instead, he nned to use his own methods to ¡®create¡¯ a cultivator from the Red Moon Cathedral. One of the reasons he had spent so much time doing research was that he was hoping to fool the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s test.

    <i>All of my experiments have proven that the test isn¡¯t proctored by a person. It¡¯s more like a machine. However, since my blessing provokes the curse, I have to do it all very quickly.</i>

    After blinking a few times, he took out the scorpion and the worm, both of whom were barely alive. Without any hesitation, he blessed them with the power of the violet moon. It was very simr to what he¡¯d done with Mu Ye.

    In the blink of an eye, the two animals shivered. As the image of a violet moon appeared on both of them, the curse inside of them stirred. Thankfully, Xu Qing was very quick. Before any re-up could ur, he threw them into the mirror.

    The mirror was small, and they were big. But as soon as they touched it, the mirror exuded a gravitational force that sucked them inside.

    Xu Qing backed up a few steps. Although he had done a lot of experimentation, and was confident that this would work, he still felt a little nervous as he kept his eyes on the mirror. The mirror trembled as it floated in midair, glittering a bit as if it were deciding what to do. Ten breaths of time passed in which Xu Qing¡¯s heart started racing. Then a boundless will emerged from the mirror.

    <i>¡°You pass!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

    The truth was that he didn¡¯t want to use a cheap trick like this. But it was just too dangerous to go hunting people from the Red Moon Cathedral, especially when they would be on the lookout for that. Even the slightest mistake could lead to a lot of trouble. Besides, leaving the Greenhair Bands would waste a lot of time. Probably half a year. Considering that, his own n seemed a lot better.

    <i>I¡¯d say using such a special way to pass the first subtest probably doesn¡¯t count as cheating.</i>

    Thinking back to the education he had received from his Master, he decided that he had definitely made the right decision.

 Chapter 582: Plucking a Tigerâ€™s Whiskers; Breaking Ground above Taisui (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 582: Plucking a Tiger¡¯s Whiskers; Breaking Ground above Taisui (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing felt like his line of reasoning made a lot of sense. After all, the basics had been taught to him by his Master, and there was no way his Master would make any mistakes in teaching him. Sighing, he felt his heart bing very calm, all while his eyes sparkled translucently.

    Conscience clear, he focused on the majestic will in the mirror. As the mirror glittered in front of him, it seemed to let off some curse power, as if it were rejecting it. Xu Qing blinked but remained calm. After the curse power was all rejected, the mirror didn¡¯t shine as brightly. However, the majestic will in the mirror continued to flow into Xu Qing and inform him about the second subtest.

    ¡°Faith,¡± he murmured. Thanks to his previous experiments, he already knew what the second subtest was about.

    The second subtest of faith was something that ny-nine percent of cultivators in the Moonrite Region wouldn¡¯t have a problem with. It was primarily designed to weed out cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral. If you had faith in the red moon, or had blessings from the red moon within you, then you couldn¡¯t pass the test.

    Xu Qing sighed. He knew full well that, considering how he had passed the first subtest, the second subtest was going to be incredibly difficult.

    <i>The first subtest basically proves that the Moonrebel Congregation can¡¯t distinguish between my violet moon and the red moon....</i>

    It made sense considering that both the violet moon and the red moon were essentially the same type of authority. Their affiliations were different, but to Xu Qing, it was still going to be a frustrating conundrum. He obviously didn¡¯t exercise faith in either the red moon or Crimson Mother. However, his violet moon power would make it seem like he was a red moon cultivator. In fact, it was possible it could make him seem like a godchild.

    <i>I need to think of another way to pass the subtest.</i>

    He didn¡¯t want to perform any casual experiments, but at the same time, wasn¡¯t ready to give up. After spending some time thinking about his Master¡¯s style of doing things, he came up with some ideas. However, he needed more time to contemte the finer details.

    Just like that, days passed.

    The shadow kept going out to hunt for Xu Qing. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior worked hard from the rafters to keep a close eye on all customers. And Sprouty kept growing; every day it would sway back and forth almost like it was dancing. Ling¡¯er seemed to be in a better mood each day as she ended up spending more and more time on bookkeeping.

    Now that their medicine shop had been open for a while, and word had spread about their white boluses, they were starting to get some repeat customers.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior made sure to stay more vignt than ever. That said, he never had to actually do anything. Most of the cultivators who came to buy medicinal pills were in the Qi Condensation level, with only a handful in Foundation Establishment.

    White boluses were mostmonly used by Qi Condensation cultivators. Although there were a few high-level cultivators among the residents, most such customers were rogue cultivators stopping by on their travels through the Bitter Life Mountains. People like that could easily get white boluses through a number of channels, and generally looked down on small medicine shops.

    There were scattered organizations based in the Bitter Life Mountains. Some were made up of people from the same species, while others had been started by teams who worked well together. Low-level cultivators from such groups, as well as ordinary residents of the city, were the mostmon customers.

    At the moment, a young man had just entered the shop. He wore a voluminous robe, and was roughly in the fifth level of Qi Condensation. He came from a mid-sized organization nearby, and had heard about the shop from a friend who had previously purchased pills.

    Upon entering, he looked around vigntly. The first thing he noticed was the ugly girl behind the counter doing bookkeeping. Seeing that the ce wasn¡¯t dangerous, he walked up to the counter.

    ¡°I want ten white boluses!¡± he said, putting ten spirit coins down in front of him.

    Eyes lighting up, Ling¡¯er quickly scooped up the spirit coins, examined them carefully, and after she was sure they were authentic, handed the customer a bag.

    ¡°Come back again!¡± she said with a smile.

    The young man looked through the bag and found that, just as his friend had told him, the pills were different from the kindmonly avable. They had no impurities. Taking out a pill, he put it in his mouth. Ten breaths of timeter, he was covered with a sheen of sweat. His eyes widened.

    <i>They¡¯re so effective!</i> With that, he took a few steps toward the door, then stopped and looked back at Ling¡¯er.

    Ling¡¯er smiled back at him. ¡°Is there any other way I can help you, sir?¡±

    The young man hesitated. Acting a bit more respectfully than before thanks to how effective the pill was, he lowered his voice and asked, ¡°Do you have any antidote pills? During my daily cultivation routely, I keep coughing up ck, noxious blood. Also, I feel pain in my chest near my heart. Sometimes it hurts so badly I can¡¯t even meditate. I suspect I¡¯ve been poisoned.¡±

    Ling¡¯er looked him up and down, then opened her mouth to speak. Before she could, the young man said, ¡°I have a whole spirit stone here!¡±

    Ling¡¯er blinked a few times then looked toward the back of the shop. ¡°Big Bro, we¡¯ve got a high roller here!¡±

    In the back room, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He wasn¡¯t sure whether tough or cry at Ling¡¯er¡¯s cheekyment. Knowing how quick she was to pity people, he stood and walked out into the main floor of the shop.

    The moment the young man saw Xu Qing, he backed up with a vignt look on his face. Just looking at Xu Qing made him shiver from the indescribable terror that rose up within him. He didn¡¯t sense any cultivation base fluctuations, such that Xu Qing almost looked like a mortal to him. However, he knew that it was highly unlikely that a mortal could produce medicinal pills of such high quality.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t bothered by the young man¡¯s vignce. After looking at him, he could tell what was wrong. The young man really had been poisoned. And the specific poison... was familiar to Xu Qing. It was the very same kind of poison the one-eyed cultivator had used, although it had been diluted significantly, and hadn¡¯t been activated. Because the young man had a weak constitution, he was suffering some of the effects early.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten about that one-eyed cultivator, and thus, when he noticed the poison, his interest was piqued. He took out an antidote pill.

    ¡°Go home and prepare a wooden barrel of water. Add in nine drops of early-morning dew. Take this antidote pill and then do breathing exercises in the water for two hours. When the water has turnedpletely ck, it will mean the poison is extruded.¡±

    The young man took the medicinal pill. Despite looking a bit suspicious, he gave the spirit stone to Ling¡¯er then hurried away.

    Ling¡¯er took the spirit stone and smiled sweetly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shook his head and went back to working on his curse research and the Moonrebel Congregation test. Of course, he left a slip of divine sense on the young man. It wouldn¡¯t do anything unless the young man ran into that one-eyed cultivator. If that happened, Xu Qing would know immediately.

    As Xu Qing focused on study and research, half a month passed.

    The Green Spirit Pharmacy had now been in business for nearly two months. Because of how cheap and effective the white boluses were, the shop was starting to get fairly popr. More and more customers wereing in every day. Eventually, when there were upwards of ten customersing in every day, the shop really started to attract the attention, not only of the local residents, but of nearby organizations.

    Sometimes, <i>the tree may crave calm, but the wind will bother it anyway</i>. And many times, poprity only results in unwanted frustration. The principle applies just about anywhere and everywhere. It was especially true in a ce with so many random organizations. And thus, one day at around noon, an unwanted guest arrived in the medicine shop.

    He was a nonhuman cultivator in the great circle of Qi Condensation. He wore a ck robe and had a ne with a skull on it, making him look quite dramatic. The moment he entered the shop, he released the power of his cultivation base, while simultaneously kicking a chair that was in his way. The chair sailed through the air and hit the counter, damaging it before shattering into pieces.

    Ling¡¯er looked up from her ounting book, a slight frown on her face.

    mming his hand down onto the counter, the cultivator coldly said, ¡°Starting today, you¡¯ll give the Skull Syndicate 300 white boluses every month. Got that? I¡¯m only going to say it once!¡±

    He hadn¡¯te alone. There were four other cultivators keeping watch outside, all dressed the same way as him. Passersby who saw the men and their distinctive clothing quickly left in the opposite direction.

    ¡°It¡¯s the Skull Syndicate!¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re vicious and merciless. I heard that any store in this little city that offends them ends up getting ughtered overnight.¡±

    ¡°Their leader is in the great circle of Foundation Establishment! Ai. They don¡¯t dare to cause problems for anybody that¡¯s truly strong. They just bully hardworking and honest people.¡±

    Ling¡¯er didn¡¯t say anything.

    In the rafters, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior trembled excitedly. A long time had passed with no action, and now someone hade looking to get killed. It seemed like it was finally his chance to shine. Just as he was about to fly down and poke the cultivator full of holes, he stopped in ce. Ling¡¯er had just waved him back.

    Ling¡¯er looked as pale as death, as if she were terrified. Quickly taking out a bag, she held it out and nodded.

    ¡°Of course, of course. We¡¯ll give you whatever you want.¡±

    The Skull Syndicate cultivatorughed coldly at how easily he had seeded. This was how they normally operated. First they would observe their target for a while to make sure they weren¡¯t dangerous, then they would extort them. They¡¯d been watching the Green Spirit Pharmacy for about half a month, and had only been nning toe inside and probe for information. To the cultivator¡¯s surprise, he actually seeded immediately. Casting a re at Ling¡¯er, the cultivator grabbed the bag and hefted it to gauge its weight.

    ¡°So, you do know what¡¯s good for you!¡± With that, he turned arrogantly to leave.

    After the Skull Syndicate cultivators were gone, the rmed look on Ling¡¯er¡¯s face vanished. Making a notation in her ounting book, she said, ¡°Master Freespirit.¡±

    ¡°Here!¡± the patriarch replied from the rafters. ¡°What is yourmand, mdy?¡±

    ¡°Killing them here could hurt business,¡± she replied coolly. ¡°Later tonight, I want you to track them down and ughter them all. Remember to bring back the medicinal pills. I don¡¯t want even a single one to go missing. If you see anything valuable there, take it. It¡¯s too bad Little Shadow isn¡¯t back to help.¡±

    The patriarch nced at the back room, then Ling¡¯er. All of a sudden, he felt like he had learned a lot more about Ling¡¯er.

    <i>Mydy and mistress only seems like a harmless angel!</i>

    Back when Xu Qing had been dealing with the one-eyed cultivator, Ling¡¯er had casually said to ¡®just get it over with.¡¯ That had surprised the patriarch a lot.

    ¡°Mdy, I guarantee sess in this mission!¡±

    Ling¡¯er smiled and started cleaning up the broken chair. ¡°Oh, by the way, make sure to bring back a recement chair. No. Three of them.¡±

    The patriarch blinked a few times. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°Another thing,¡± she added. ¡°Bring back some heads for Big Bro Xu Qing to use in his research.¡±

 Chapter 582: Plucking a Tigerâ€™s Whiskers; Breaking Ground above Taisui (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 582: Plucking a Tiger¡¯s Whiskers; Breaking Ground above Taisui (part 2)</h4>

    In the back room, Xu Qing looked up from the Gold Core scorpion he¡¯d been experimenting on. Checking on the situation outside and noting how considerate Ling¡¯er was, he felt warmth in his heart.

    The truth was that he really was starting to get sick of studying animals.

    The scorpion wasn¡¯t dead yet; terror gleamed in its eyes as it looked at the figure that had been slowly slicing it open. Of course, all fluctuations had been locked down, ensuring that no one outside of the back room could sense what was going on. Otherwise, that Qi Condensation cultivator from the Skull Syndicate would have gone weak in the knees from fear.

    <i>The time hase to see what the curse does to cultivators</i>. Xu Qing crushed the scorpion¡¯s head, ending its life.

    That night, when the dusky sky turned pitch ck, a dark streak shot out of the city. It was none other than Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. He was flying the Spike of Misfortune right toward the headquarters of the Skull Syndicate.

    <i>That crappy shadow is always running around like an idiot. But it did one thing right. It started sucking up to ourdy and mistress.... It was foolish of me to not do the same. I always assumed the girl was na?ve and innocent. But the reality is that her heart is as dark as that of the Fiendish Xu. In the books I¡¯ve read, women like that are characters that cannot be trifled with. The crappy shadow has someone to rely on now, which is why it¡¯s been getting so arroganttely.</i>

    The patriarch thought back to everything he knew and remembered about Ling¡¯er and came to realize that she definitely wasn¡¯t as simplistic as she seemed. Going forward, he would need to focus more on currying favor.

    <i>I missed out on one opportunity... but that¡¯s fine. Once we get back to Sea-Sealing County, there¡¯s anotherdy and mistress I can suck up to. That way, if the Fiendish Xu starts to dislike me, I¡¯ll have a secret weapon ready to go.</i>

    The patriarch was thinking about many things as he pierced through the sky and eventually closed in on the Skull Syndicate.

    Even before he got close, his expression flickered as he detected the aroma of blood and gore.

    The patriarch grunted in surprise. Although he was certain he could kill these cultivators with hardly any effort, he still felt the need to remain cautious. Moving undetectably, he eventually entered the Skull Syndicate. That was when he saw all the corpses on the ground.

    Everyone in the entire Skull Syndicate was dead. The patriarch didn¡¯t see one living cultivator. What was more, the entire ce had been looted.

    <i>Looks like they died about an hour ago. The person who attacked them had to be in Gold Core at the very least. The killing was done very quickly.</i>

    He turned and went back to the medicine shop, where he reported all of his findings and analyses to Ling¡¯er and Xu Qing. Ling¡¯er was shocked, and Xu Qing looked thoughtful. It all seemed too coincidental.

    The exnation came the next day.

    At around dawn when the Green Spirit Pharmacy opened for business, two people were waiting outside. Ling¡¯er saw them as soon as she opened the shop. Both of them sped hands and bowed to her.

    ¡°Well met, Shopkeeper. Is the grandmaster present?¡±

    Ling¡¯er blinked and examined the two people. She had seen one of them before. He was the very same young man who had asked for an antidote pill. The other person was middle-aged and dressed in a green robe that made him look schrly and refined. It was clothing that set him apart from other residents of the city. His cultivation base was profound, being in thete Gold Core stage, though he clearly hadn¡¯t been in that level for very long.

    The person who had just greeted her was the middle-aged man. His youngpanion looked reserved as he nced in the direction of the back room.

    When the middle-aged man saw that, he sped hands in the direction of the back room.

    ¡°Grandmaster,¡± he said respectfully, ¡°yesterday people from the Skull Syndicate bothered you, so I got rid of them. Here are all the medicinal pills they stole from you.¡±

    The man produced a bag which he handed to Ling¡¯er.

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes lit up. Last night she had been thinking about the medicinal pills, and had assumed she just lost them. However, she didn¡¯t immediately take the bag, but instead, waited to see what Xu Qing wanted to do. Given her Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯s personality, she knew that she should let him make the decision.

    ¡°Please,e in,¡± Xu Qing said from the back room.

    Ling¡¯er backed up a few steps to let the two of them enter. They stepped inside respectfully, but didn¡¯t make any attempt to open the door to the back room.

    Seeing how polite they were being, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t just stay out of sight. A momentter, he walked out.

    The Gold Core cultivator was surprised to see how young Xu Qing looked. But that didn¡¯t affect his respectful behavior. Looking very serious, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Grandmaster. I am Sect Leader Chen Fanzhuo from the local Epactic Soil Sect. This disciple of mine recently came to realize how skilled you are in the medicinal arts, Grandmaster. I took the liberty ofing here because all of the disciples in my sect have been poisoned. In fact, so have I. Grandmaster, is there any chance you have more antidote pills? I would be willing to pay handsomely for them.¡± [1] [2]

    He knew that it was best to keep things simple and direct, and that he shouldn¡¯t try to hide anything. His disciples had been falling victim to poisoning one after another, and even after seeking help from quite a few local alchemists, he hadn¡¯t been able to help them at all. He had been getting increasingly nervous about the situation until he unexpectedly found that one of his disciples was cured.

    After getting the exnation, he made the decision to personallye ask for help. He wasn¡¯t convinced that a mortal could make medicinal pills like that. What was more, the person who made the pill had to have some skill in dispelling poisons. That all indicated that he was dealing with someone extraordinary. That was why he was being so courteous.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he looked at Chen Fanzhuo. He wasn¡¯t inclined to try to find out if the man had actually orchestrated the situation with the Skull Syndicate just to earn some good will. His current attitude was enough for Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, sending out a bag of antidote pills.

    Chen Fanzhuo epted the bag with both hands. After inspecting it briefly, he took out a bag of holding which he put off to the side. Then he respectfully left.

    After he was gone, Ling¡¯er quickly checked the bag of holding. ¡°Wow, Big Bro Xu Qing. There¡¯s a hundred thousand spirit stones in here!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up as he suddenly felt his estimation of Chen Fanzhuo improving. With that he beckoned Ling¡¯er into the back room.

    Ling¡¯er wasn¡¯t sure what was going on. Blushing a bit, she hurried to close the front door, then took a deep breath and followed Xu Qing into the back. Puffing out her chest, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, what are you calling me back here in the middle of the day for?¡±

    Sitting down cross-legged, he took out a mirror fragment. ¡°Ling¡¯er, I want you to go into the Moonrebel Congregation.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Ling¡¯er said, stunned. Her mood immediately dipped. This wasn¡¯t exactly what she had expected would happen....

    ¡°I¡¯ve been doing a lot of tests, but I can¡¯t get in.¡± No matter what Xu Qing did, when he tried to pass the second subtest, he failed. None of his ideas were working.

    This was the final option that he hadn¡¯t tried yet. If Ling¡¯er could pass the test, then maybe he could use her life-sharing skills to do the same.

    It was problematic because even the weakest people in the Moonrebel Congregation were in the Nascent Soul level. At the moment, Ling¡¯er was only in Gold Core. Because of that, the first subtest was going to be a problem.

    The first subtest required a blood tribute in the same cultivation level as the person offering it. If there was a level disparity, it would make it obvious the person had help. At the same time, the requirement ced some limitations on the cultivation bases of the people who could get into the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Of course, that was an easy thing for Xu Qing to deal with.

    After he exined everything, Ling¡¯er understood. Shoving her disappointment into the back of her mind, she nodded earnestly.

    ¡°No problem, Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said, thumping her chest confidently. ¡°I can do it!¡±

    Xu Qing was nowpletely focused on getting into the Moonrebel Congregation. He had put a lot of thought into it, and based on all of his analyses, he was confident this wouldn¡¯t be dangerous for Ling¡¯er. After he exined the process to her, they got started.

    First he had her activate the mirror shard. Then he took out two animals that were in the same cultivation level as her. After blessing them, he had her throw them into the mirror before the curse red up.

    With the first subtest out of the way, the next subtest was about faith. Because Ling¡¯er had no connection to the red moon, she passed that subtest very easily.

    At that point, the mirror made a cracking sound as a rift opened on its surface. A gravitational force instantly pulsed out.

    Looking at the mirror, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, the voice from the mirror said that this is the way to the Moonrebel Congregation.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the rift, but didn¡¯t attempt to go inside. If someone tried to uwfully enter the Moonrebel Congregation, given the personhood of the people inside, it was likely they would kill trespassers instantly.

    Xu Qing looked at Ling¡¯er. Her eyes glittered with anticipation. Back when Xu Qing dispelled the life-sharing power that connected them, she had been very disappointed, though she never said anything. Now that she could do the same thing again, she was feeling very blessed. Without any hesitation, she turned into a little white snake and flew onto Xu Qing¡¯s wrist.

    A momentter, a thread appeared.

    The two of them were connected again. However, Xu Qing had changed a lot since thest time. He had the blessing of destiny aura now. What was more, this time the connection wasn¡¯t one-sided. Both parties participated willingly.

    The moment it was aplished, Xu Qing could sense Ling¡¯er, almost as if they were sharing a body.

    ¡°This is my Ancient Spirit innate ability, Big Bro Xu Qing. It works... for life. You can only be connected to one person. Even if the connection is removed, it can¡¯t be switched to someone else. Going forward, our lives are connected. If you live, I live. If you die, I die. We¡¯re connected in both life and death. In both the glow of dawn and the shade of the Yellow Springs, we are...panions!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the mark on his wrist and nodded. Taking a deep breath, he shot toward the mirror. The moment he neared, he turned into a streak of light that entered the rift. And found himself in a very strangend!

    1. Epactic Soil Sect. The name of this sect is based on the word ¡°epact¡± which is essentially a time period used to harmonize the lunar and sr calendars. It¡¯s kind ofplicated, and to be honest, the meaning of the word isn¡¯t important to anything in the story. It¡¯s not a supermon character, but it actually sticks out to me because his same character can be found in the name of Chow Yun-Fat. Specifically the ¡°yun¡± character in his name, which is actually pronounced ¡°run¡± in Mandarin. So in Mandarin, Chow Yun-Fat is Zhou Runfa. And in even more useless trivia, this same character was in the name of a very random supermarket chain that I used to frequent in my early days in China. It was called Da Run Fa, which always reminded me of Chow Yun-Fat (Zhou Runfa). ?

    2. Chen Fanzhuo. Chen is #5 on the list of the 100mon Chinese surnames. Fan means ¡°ordinary, mortal¡± and Zhuo means ¡°outstanding.¡± Madam Deathde says this sounds like the name of someone whose parents have high hopes for him, and expect him to aplish great things. At the same time, it sounds kind of nerdy. ?

 Chapter 583: Youâ€™re Scared? Me Too (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 583: You¡¯re Scared? Me Too (part 1)</h4>

    The Green Spirit Pharmacy was absolutely still and silent.

    Sprouty swayed back and forth a few times. Then, sensing that no one was around, it curiously sent its branches out to get a closer look. A moment passed in which Sprouty waited to see if anything would happen. When nothing did, it very carefully pulled its roots out of the soil. It was as if it had been waiting for just such an opportunity to flee.

    However, after it pulled its roots up and jumped out of its flower pot, but before it could leave, it suddenly sensed killing intent from the rafters.

    The Spike of Misfortune appeared right in front of Sprouty, with the bone tip almost touching it.

    Sprouty shivered, then slowly climbed back into the flower pot. After putting its roots back in ce, it started swaying back and forth fawningly.

    The Spike of Misfortune flew a few circles around it, then returned to the rafters.

    <i>If the little miscreant escapes, the Fiendish Xu will definitely vent his anger on me when he gets back</i>. Chuckling inwardly, the patriarch nced at the back room.

    Because of the concealing magics Xu Qing had left in the room, it wasn¡¯t possible to see many details about it. However, due to the innate connection between them, the patriarch could tell that Xu Qing¡¯s aura was no longer present. No one was in the back room at all. What had entered the rift in the mirror were not streams of divine sense, but the true forms of Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er. That was one of the mysterious aspects of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    However, the path to that mysterious location had Xu Qing feeling a bit ufortable. He felt like he was in an extremely cramped location, with lots of pressure weighing down on him. Glittering light around him formed walls that hemmed him in.

    The walls were curved, forming a concave floor and an arched ceiling above him. It was almost like a big circle, and it was so tough that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t even move. He was wedged in ce. The more he struggled, the tighter he was stuck. It was as if he was being given no option other than to go back.

    Xu Qing frowned and wondered why the rift would take him to such a forsaken ce.

    <i>Could this be the third subtest?</i>

    During his study of the mirror fragment, he hade to a general understanding of the first two subtests, but hadn¡¯t gleaned any details about the third. After mulling the matter over, he experimentally sent out some divine sense. It wasn¡¯t easy, as the pressure restraining him didn¡¯t just affect his fleshly body, but also his senses. What was more, the glowing walls were too tough for his divine sense to pierce through. Thankfully, he was able to send his divine sense forward, though it was difficult. With some work, he was finally able to get a sense of where exactly he was.

    <i>I¡¯m in a pipe?</i>

    His divine sense didn¡¯t have the range to see the end of the pipe. However, based on the fluctuationsing from ahead, he was fairly certain that was the direction of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    <i>Interesting. I guess this is the third subtest. If you aren¡¯t able to follow the pipe to the end, you don¡¯t qualify to enter the Moonrebel Congregation.</i>

    From the very beginning, he had wanted to join the Moonrebel Congregation because, as Duanmu Zang had told him, members had done research on the curse for generations, and understood many things about it. Xu Qing wanted to go there to get information. After all, it seemed a lot more efficient for a bunch of people to consider a matter over many years,pared to one person trying to figure it out on their own. The ability to save time in that way was key to Xu Qing¡¯s confidence in being able to do something about the curse. Of course, in addition to information about the curse, he was also generally curious about the Moonrebel Congregation.

    <i>No wonder Eldest Brother wants to get in here.</i>

    Eyes gleaming with determination, Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base. He also tapped into the explosiveness of his god body to fight back against the pressure.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out, and Xu Qing trembled. The light walls seemed to grow stronger; no matter how much force he used against them, it didn¡¯t do anything. And he could only physically grow to a height of a bit more than two meters. The sense of pressure on his body and soul was causing a perverse energy to build up in him. He quickly huddled up so that he was back to normal height.

    The walls around him also shrank down, but there was some gap left.

    Taking advantage of that gap, Xu Qing reached out with his right hand and tapped into his cultivation base. Leaving out his violet moon nascent soul, he went full force with everything else tounch a fist strike. The blow contained the power of taboo poison, the Ghost Emperor mountain, the heavenly dao, the timescape bottle, the golden crow, as well as his personal lifemps.

    Cracking sounds could be heard as Xu Qing shot forward by several meters. Then he felt himself being restrained again. Gritting his teeth, he used the same method to continue forward.

    He wasn¡¯t sure how much time passed as he used that method to force his way forward. Although progress was slow, he eventually reached the point of 300 meters. At that point, he was exhausted. Sensing how far away the end of the path was, he had no choice but to sigh and give up. After going back to the medicine shop to rest for a bit, he returned.

    The path he had cleared so far was still there when he went back. At the 300-meter mark, he gritted his teeth and started sting his way forward again.

    In that way, days passed.

    Ling¡¯er didn¡¯t need toe along. With her mark on Xu Qing, he coulde and go as he pleased while she worried about keeping the Green Spirit Pharmacy open for business. Of course, she would asionally look toward the back room to see how her Big Bro Xu Qing was progressing in his efforts.

    <i>It¡¯s so hard to get to this Moonrebel Congregation! Even considering how hard Big Bro Xu Qing is working, he still hasn¡¯t gotten there!</i> While Ling¡¯er sighed in her heart, simr sighing rose up in Xu Qing.

    Half a month of rumbling boomster, Xu Qing had progressed 9,000 meters along the path to the Moonrebel Congregation. At that point, he returned to the medicine shop, where he sat down cross-legged to catch his breath.

    <i>I¡¯m only about thirty percent of the way there. There¡¯s still about 21,000 meters to go. The existing members must be so amazing. Are they all in Spirit Trove or something?</i>

    Xu Qing was more interested than ever in reaching this group. After all, considering how difficult this third subtest was, it seemed clear that every member must be an incredible individual.

    <i>I can do it too!</i>

    Looking very determined, he rested for a short time, then went back in to continue forging ahead.

    The constant repetition was actually useful training for Xu Qing. The pressure weighing down made him tougher physically, and it also improved his ability with his transformed state. He could now transform all the way to a size of three meters. Because of that, his progress improved. Another half a month passed, during which time he sessfully reached a distance of 24,000 meters.

    As he stood there and looked back at the path he had traveled so far, all he could think about was how hard it had been. Then he looked ahead. 6,000 meters away was the Moonrebel Congregation, whose members he only continued to revere more and more.

    <i>Another 6,000 meters. I really hope that¡¯s where the Moonrebel Congregation is!</i>

    After forcing his way almost to the very end of the path, he realized that it was indeed just up ahead!

    ***

    The Moonrebel Congregation existed as a standalone dimension, within which was a massive, majestic mountain. Hundreds of thousands of ancient temples covered the mountain, closely packed together with paths running between them.

    Some of the temples glittered brightly, while others were pitch ck. Those which were lit apparently had stone statues in them that shone with splendorous brightness. asionally, a statue would walk out of a building, take to flight for a time, then return to its spot. They were usually surrounded by softly glowing light that made them seem extremely holy. At the same time, they all had their own shape and look, and from a distance, it made them seem like a horde of devils.

    There were more temples at the base of the mountain than further up, half of them bright, half of them dim. One of the temples seemed much brighter than the others. Before, it hadn¡¯t stood out much. But over the past month, it had attracted the attention of the statues in other nearby temples.

    The reason was: it was too loud.

    As Xu Qing was inside the tunnel battering his way forward, loud booming sounds erupted from that temple, spreading out in all directions.

    ¡°He¡¯s at it again!¡± Four or five statues walked out of some of the nearby temples and red at the temple with the loud noiseing from it.

    ¡°Dammit, this guy¡¯s still not done? What¡¯s he doing?¡±

    ¡°A whole month! If he¡¯s going toe in, he might as well hurry it up. Is he banging around constantly to attract more light? Just what is he thinking?¡±

    ¡°He must be insane!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s definitely got mental problems.¡±

    The banging grew louder, and more statues walked out to see what was happening.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like this. People like us should be able to just go right through the entry channel. What¡¯s he banging around for?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s trying to show off his battle prowess?¡±

    ¡°How exactly does that count as showing off? The Moonrebel Congregation has been masterless for years now. The spirit automaton is asleep and only provides the most basic functionality to maintain operations. The guiding light is supposed to be based on the cultivation base of whoever¡¯s taking the test. And it¡¯s supposed to just lead them inside.¡±

    ¡°This fellow could juste in, but instead he¡¯s banging around with each step he takes. It¡¯s almost as if he¡¯s having trouble!¡±

    As the discussion raged, the booms got more intense.

    The statues frowned helplessly. Before a new temple was officially opened, they couldn¡¯t go inside. So the only thing to do was go back into their own temples to avoid the racket.

    This time, the booms didn¡¯tst for very long. About four hourster, things got quiet again.

    ***

    Xu Qing was tired. Gasping for breath, he looked at the final 3,000 meters, then turned and went back. Outside in the medicine shop, his eyes glittered with resolve.

    <i>Three days. Four at the most. Then I¡¯ll reach the end!</i>

    The idea of finally being able to pass the third subtest made him sigh inwardly. It really had been a very difficult process.

    <i>Once I¡¯m inside, I¡¯ll have to be very cautious and vignt. The other people inside... are not to be trifled with!</i>

    Looking very serious, he settled down to meditate and catch his breath. At the same time, he used divine sense to scan the medicine shop and its surroundings. There were people lined up outside.

 Chapter 583: Youâ€™re Scared? Me Too (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 583: You¡¯re Scared? Me Too (part 2)</h4>

    As word continued to spread about the Green Spirit Pharmacy, business picked up even more. That was especially true after Chen Fanzhuo from the Epactic Soil Sect purchased that lot of antidote pills. Those pills resolved the crisis in his sect, and as a result, every member felt deep reverence for Xu Qing.

    Thanks to the threat of that sect, a host of smaller organizations all decided not to cause problems for the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Medicinal pill sales were going great, to the point where Ling¡¯er was selling well over a hundred white boluses per day. Thankfully, Xu Qing had built up quite a stockpile of them, although he would asionally concoct more to keep supplies up. In terms of ingredients, he had a lot stockpiled, but he would also buy certain ingredients when he could.

    What was more, Chen Fanzhuo was always very respectful when he came to visit, and would bring along some medicinal nts as a gift. If Xu Qing wasn¡¯t around when he came, he would simply hand over the nts, sp hands to Ling¡¯er, then leave.

    When someone acted as politely as that, it was hard to feel ill will toward them. Chen Fanzhuo hade again, but instead of using his status and cultivation base to push his way to the front of the line, he just waited patiently. In fact, only when the line had died down did he finally enter the shop.

    ¡°Uncle Chen!¡± Ling¡¯er said, smiling and waving.

    ¡°Miss Ling¡¯er! Is the grandmaster busy concocting pills?¡± Chen Fanzhuo took out a bag of medicinal nts, put them on the counter, then nced in the direction of the back room.

    Ling¡¯er was about to answer his question when the curtain to the back room flipped to the side and Xu Qing stepped out.

    ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster!¡± Chen Fanzhuo said, sping hands in a very solemn fashion.

    Xu Qing nodded. Upon scanning the man, he noted something surprising.

    Chen Fanzhuo should have been able to purge all of the poison within himself by using Xu Qing¡¯s pill and method. But looking at him, Xu Qing could still see poison. Some was left over from before, but there was also new poison there.

    Xu Qing thoughtfully produced a white bolus and handed it to Chen Fanzhuo.

    ¡°Put that in your mouth and then perform one minor cirction of your cultivation base, except in reverse. As you do, let the pill melt.¡±

    Chen Fanzhuo could sense from Xu Qing¡¯s wording that something was off. After a brief moment of hesitation, he put the pill in his mouth and then rotated his cultivation base in the manner Xu Qing had described. Shortly after, the pill in his mouth dissolved, and the effects spread through his body.

    ¡°Focus your cultivation base power on your index finger,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Force out a drop of blood onto this leaf.¡±

    He held out a yellow medicinal nt.

    Without any hesitation, Chen Fanzhuo forced a drop of ck blood out of his index finger. When a noxious odor spread out, Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s face fell. He had previously believed himself to be purged of poison, except clearly he wasn¡¯t.

    Not wanting to be careless, he very carefully guided the drop of blood onto the yellow medicinal nt Xu Qing had given him. When the bloodnded on the nt, it caused hissing sounds, plus a greenish smoke. As the smoke writhed up into the air, it was possible to hear a howling sound that could pierce into the soul. When Chen Fanzhuo saw that, his pupils constricted. Waving his hand, he summoned some defenses. Apparently, he was worried that the smoke could contaminate the medicine shop. Although his actions were partly a show, they were also a disy of sincerity.

    Xu Qing examined Chen Fanzhuo again, then took out a transparent pill bottle. When he opened it, the energy inside seemed to exert a powerful force of extraction on the smoke. A momentter, all the smoke had been sucked into the bottle. Afterwards, Xu Qing corked the bottle and looked at it. The smoke swirled back and forth inside the cramped confines of the bottle. Eventually, it converged into the form of a green centipede. It looked vicious, and if you examined it closely, you would see that it was actually made up of a host of much smaller centipedes.

    ¡°Grandmaster, that....¡± Chen Fanzhuo was clearly horrified. The fact that his blood had such gruish centipedes in it made him shiver.

    ¡°It¡¯s the soul of a centipeck crawler,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°It¡¯s a fairly rare medicinal ingredient with mildly poisonous characteristics. It¡¯s not very dangerous, and is usually used to track or identify the location of a target. That said, bybining it with other things, it can be turned into an effective poison.¡±

    Xu Qing was actually pleasantly surprised. How could he have ever guessed that he would find a precious item from Grandmaster Bai¡¯s medicinal codex here?

    ¡°Someone has their sights fixed on you,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°Look, the centipeck crawler soul is very active, which indicates that the person targeting you probably isn¡¯t very far away.¡±

    As he spoke, the green centipede in the bottle thrashed back and forth for a moment, then smashed against the inside of the bottle.

    The bottle vibrated, but Xu Qing kept his grip on it. ¡°Hmm. The person targeting you is on the way here right now.¡±

    Expression flickering, Chen Fanzhuo bowed solemnly to Xu Qing, then turned to the door. He knew that this grandmaster from the Green Spirit Pharmacy wasn¡¯t duty bound to help him solve all his problems. It was already an expression of benevolence and righteousness for him to help with the poison. If he didn¡¯t know what was good for him, he might have dragged Xu Qing into his personal issue. But that was not how he did things.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he hurried to walk out the door. However, just when he was about to push it open, Xu Qing said, ¡°He¡¯s here.¡±

    As the words left Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, the sky above the mudbrick city filled with roiling clouds, along with a sound like the weeping of ghosts and howling of wolves. It was so horrifying that themon citizens in the city all mmed shut their doors and windows, and huddled trembling in their bedrooms. In the blink of an eye, the city streets emptied.

    Meanwhile, the dark clouds swirled into the city itself, where they shrank down into the shape of a person. It only took moments for his features to be clearly visible. He was an old man in a voluminous robe, who pulsed with Nascent Soul fluctuations. He had flowing white hair, cold eyes, and a derisive smile. The edges of his robe were actually wisps of cloud, causing him to look particrly gruish.

    ¡°How dare you steal from me, ya little punk! Tired of living, I suppose?¡±

    This old man was the true form of the same one-eyed cultivator who had provoked Xu Qing. Their initial sh had left the old man edgy and rmed. He had gone into hiding to avoid Xu Qing, until he¡¯d felt the coast was clear. Then he had cautiouslye out, only to find that his old mansion grotto had been cleared out by someone else. Upon examining the evidence and finding that the thief was a Gold Core cultivator, his fury had burned. Given that he was ustomed to poison, he had been able to easily track down the culprit. Thanks to the connection to his poison, all it took was a nce at Chen Fanzhuo to determine that he was the thief. Eyes gleaming coldly, he prepared to approach.

    However... Chen Fanzhuo was currently standing right in front of the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    During the process of looking at Chen Fanzhuo, the old man couldn¡¯t help but take in the medicine shop as well. He saw the ugly girl behind the counter, and he saw Xu Qing standing there, his facepletely expressionless. The moment the old man saw Xu Qing, his pupils constricted. He stopped in ce and began to shake from head to toe.

    <i>Th-th-this.... It¡¯s him! I can¡¯t believe he¡¯s here!!</i>

    The old man felt like his mind was being struck by 1,000,000 lightning bolts. Although he wasn¡¯tpletely scared out of his mind, he certainly wasn¡¯t interested in escting the situation. He was truly terrified of Xu Qing, and still felt his heart pounding in fear at the thought of the battle prowess he had sensed that day.

    What was worse, he was convinced this person was a monstrous freak who had more assets to fear besides his cultivation base. For instance, Xu Qing¡¯s keen senses were definitely something to fear. Then you added in the fact that the old man¡¯s poisons were ineffective against him, and it was no wonder that he suddenly felt a deep sense of deadly crisis. Most relevant of all was that he was here in his true form!

    Meanwhile, Chen Fanzhuo was as terrified as this old man. The truth was that recently, he really had led a group to plunder a mansion grotto. The mansion grotto had seemed abandoned, but there were still a lot of valuables inside. After the job was done, Chen Fanzhou had been worried that someone woulde back to the mansion grotto, but hadn¡¯t ever seen it happen. At first, he had been relieved. Later, when he realized he¡¯d been poisoned, he came to the Green Spirit Pharmacy for help.

    Moments ago when Xu Qing had mentioned a poison that could ¡®track or identify the location of a target,¡¯ he had suddenly felt very nervous. Now that he realized the person targeting him was apparently a Nascent Soul cultivator, he felt himself descended into pure terror. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t flee. All he could do was stand there with the pressure weighing down on him.

    Trembling, he managed to say, ¡°Calm yourself, Senior. I know I made a mistake... I still have all your things....¡±

    His words had absolutely no effect on anything. In fact, the old man actually seemed more scared than he was, and wasn¡¯t moving a muscle. As of this moment, the old man wasn¡¯t even thinking about the things that had been taken from his mansion grotto. The only thing he was thinking about was how to stay alive.

    From a distance, it was actually a very strange scene. Chen Fanzhuo was staring fearfully at the old man. And the old man was staring fearfully at something straight ahead of him. Neither of them dared to move.

    Everything waspletely quiet.

    The fact that the old man wasn¡¯t saying anything caused Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s terror to build. The fact that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t saying anything caused the old man¡¯s terror to reach ocean-like proportions. As the crisis feeling built, the old man¡¯s mind raced as he analyzed the situation.

    <i>This is a medicine shop. That ugly girl is the source of the fragrant aroma. From her clothes, she looks like a shop worker. This is that freakish monster¡¯s medicine shop! Given how terrified the Gold Core thief is, he¡¯s obviously not working with the freakish monster. I bet he doesn¡¯t even know the monster¡¯s actual cultivation level. Obviously the monster doesn¡¯t want his cultivation revealed. But if so, why¡¯s he hiding out here?</i>

    <i>He must be working on some mysterious n! My arrival could potentially force the monster to reveal his cultivation base, and thus ruin his mysterious n. And if that happens, he¡¯s obviously going to be angry at me.</i>

    <i>But if I just turn around and leave, the same thing could happen! I can¡¯t beat him in a fight. And I can¡¯t run away....</i>

    The old man¡¯s eyes turned bloodshot as he realized he was in a no-win situation. Gritting his teeth, he took a few steps forward and stered an expression of solemn joy onto his face.

    ¡°Benefactor!¡± he said. ¡°What are you doing here, sir?¡±

    Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s jaw dropped.

 Chapter 584: Milord, This Guyâ€™s Bad News!

    <h4>Chapter 584: Milord, This Guy¡¯s Bad News!</h4>

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior instantly went on guard, and focused his gaze solely on the old man.

    Further up the street, the old man once again called out, ¡°Benefactor!¡±

    His voice seemed to thrum with feeling. His expression was one of excitement, and as he trembled, tears glistened in the corners of his eyes. It made him seem like he was swept up in a moment of extreme emotion.

    Voice quavering, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you for such a long, long time! Sir, I¡¯ll never forget about how you saved my life. However, I deeply regret that I was so immersed in cultivation on that day that, by the time I gained my senses, you had long since departed! And you never even collected your medical fees!¡±

    With that, he suppressed his immense terror and approached the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been feeling guilty about that ever since, and have thus been searching for you. Thankfully, the heavens noticed my feelings, and finally enabled me to reunite with you this day, sir.¡±

    Rubbing his eyes dry, the old man looked at the expressionless Xu Qing standing inside the shop, then sped hands and bowed deeply! When he looked at him, his expression was pleading.

    ¡°This time around, I just hope you can give me a chance to pay you, sir. Please, you have to ept the gift I prepared for you, oh benefactor.¡±

    Heart twinging with painful regret, the old man took out three bags of holding which he held aloft.

    Chen Fanzhuo watched all of this happening with nk shock. Moments ago, this old man had been bristling with frightful malice, but now he seemed full of sincerity and excitement. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that the old man only had a total of three bags of holding, yet he was offering all of them.

    It was surprising, but also strange, and it caused him to slowly look from the old man to the grandmaster of Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Inside, Xu Qing rolled the bottle back and forth in his hand as he looked coldly at the trembling old man. At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior projected a message to him.

    <i>¡°Milord, this guy is bluffing. He¡¯s clearly treacherous, and definitely bad news! In most novels, characters like this are the kind who stab you in the back. Definitely not like me.¡±</i>

    Ignoring the patriarch, Xu Qing slowly walked out of the medicine shop.

    Xu Qing obviously saw right through the old man¡¯s little ploy. Tricks like that might work on other people, but not him.

    Considering this man had escaped him before, there was no way Xu Qing had any intention of letting him go this time. Even up in the rafters, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior could sense the killing intent in Xu Qing¡¯s heart, and was egging him on, hoping to see the result.

    As Xu Qing approached, the old man felt increasing pressure weighing down on him. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and Xu Qing¡¯s cold eyes caused his heart to pound.

    Seeing that his strategy wasn¡¯t working, he anxiously nced at Chen Fanzhuo, then gritted his teeth and said, ¡°Benefactor! I, Li Youfei, owe a debt that surpasses heaven! Sire, you absolutely must ept this gift of thanks from me!¡± [1]

    When Chen Fanzhuo heard Li Youfei¡¯s name, he frowned slightly. The name seemed familiar, but clearly, he didn¡¯t know who Li Youfei was.

    When Li Youfei noticed Chen Fanzhuo¡¯sck of reaction, he got even more anxious. <i>What¡¯s going on? Why doesn¡¯t he realize who I am? Is he not from around here?</i>

    Raising his voice, he said, ¡°I, Li Youfei, have lived in the Bitter Life Mountains for two sixty-year cycles. It¡¯s been a tough life. A struggle! But it really makes you understand the importance of repaying kindnesses. Benefactor,st time, you left before I, Li Youfei, managed to¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish, Chen Fanzhuo suddenly realized why the name was familiar, and blurted, ¡°Sir, you¡¯re Senior Li, also known as the Bitter-Life Immortal. Li Youfei!¡± He was visibly moved. ¡°Twenty-three years ago, the notorious Qilin Blood Sect, which had kidnapped mortal children from throughout the Bitter Life Mountains to concoct into pills, was wiped out overnight. All the mortal children were saved. Since that event, everyone in the Bitter Life Mountains says that the hero of the story was the Bitter-Life Immortal, Li Youfei!

    ¡°Forty years ago, the Blood-Worshipping Sect, known for their practice of piging, murdering, and raping countless mudbrick cities, waspletely wiped out of existence over a period of three days. ording to what most people say, it was the work of Li Youfei, also known as the Bitter-Life Immortal!

    ¡°During the entire past sixty-year-cycle, any time there were natural disasters or cmities, a mysterious person would provide food to all of the stricken mortals in the mudbrick cities. Supposedly, that mysterious person is Li Youfei!

    ¡°For the past few months, all rogue cultivators who have harbored thoughts of bing godves of the Red Moon Cathedral, have died, one after another. ording to the rumors....¡±

    During the time Chen Fanzhuo had lived in the Bitter Life Mountains, he had obviously heard many stories about Li Youfei. People said that he was both righteous and evil, that he had both the spirit of a hero and the spirit of a viin. However, overall, he was more heroic than viinous.

    ¡°Senior,¡± Chen Fanzhuo said, ¡°the situation with your mansion grotto is all my fault. I can give back everything I took. Please, Senior, I hope you can forgive me.¡±

    Chen Fanzhuo took a deep breath and bowed to Li Youfei. He looked very excited. However, people who rose to leadership positions in organizations in the Bitter Life Mountains were generally extraordinary. As such, it was only natural that he picked up on the tension between Li Youfei and the grandmaster of Green Spirit Pharmacy. Even if this person wasn¡¯t really Li Youfei, at least he had a chance to smooth out a potentially deadly situation.

    When Li Youfei heard Chen Fanzhuo exining his identity, he breathed a sigh of relief. Normally speaking, he wore a disguise in public so that people wouldn¡¯t recognize him easily. But right now wasn¡¯t the time to hide his identity. Given the deadly crisis he was in, it seemed like a good idea to make sure this freakish monster... realized that Li Youfei could be useful.

    He knew that Xu Qing wanted to get to the Moonrebel Congregation. Normally speaking, only very determined people would try to do that. And Li Youfei wanted Xu Qing to know that he was just such a person! Although he hadn¡¯t passed the test to get into the Moonrebel Congregation, all he needed was a godve to offer. In fact, many of the things he had done through the years were in the hopes of achieving that goal.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Li Youfei looked pleadingly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, had stopped in ce, and was looking Li Youfei up and down without saying a word.

    His silence caused Li Youfei to tremble from head to toe.

    A very long moment passed. Finally, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture, and the three bags of holding flew over to him. Taking them, he walked back inside the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    After Xu Qing was gone, the pressure weighing down on Li Youfei eased. Feeling like he had just survived a near-death experience, he exhaled slowly. sping hands and ducking his head, he bowed, then turned and left. He didn¡¯t notice at all that an eyeball had suddenly appeared in his shadow. It quickly closed, vanishing from sight.

    For the moment, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t nning to kill Li Youfei. Instead, he left a shadow eye on him. If it turned out that Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s description of him was urate, then Xu Qing wasn¡¯t opposed to sparing him. However, if it turned out the man was malicious and viinous, then it didn¡¯t matter what else he did, he wouldn¡¯t have any chance of surviving. The shadow could easily take control of him and make him eat himself to death.

    Now that Li Youfei was gone, there wasn¡¯t a cloud in the sky. Meanwhile, Chen Fanzhuo, who had witnessed everything, suddenly felt even more reverential toward Xu Qing. Rejoicing at his previous decision to show so much respect, he turned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy and bowed at the waist. Then he left.

    Inside the medicine shop, Ling¡¯er blinked a few times and then looked at the bags of holding Xu Qing had taken. Ever since running the business, Ling¡¯er had be very profit-oriented, to the point of being a bit miserly. Xu Qing had noticed that. Smiling, he checked the bags of holding with divine sense to make sure they were safe, then handed them to Ling¡¯er.

    Letting loose an excited exmation, Ling¡¯er took them and opened them with the same exuberance she would open a wish box.

    Xu Qing looked on for a moment, grinning, then went into the back room, sat down, and took out the mirror fragment.

    Thus, three days passed.

    On the morning of the fourth day, he reached the very end of the weing light from the Moonrebel Congregation. There he stood, his heart full of excitement and anticipation.

    <i>It took over a month, but I¡¯ve finally finished the third subtest. It was so hard!</i>

    Clenching his hand into a fist, heunched a punch straight ahead of him. Cracking sounds rang out, and the final three meters were cleared. Light shone brightly, wrapping him up as he stepped forward. It felt like being immersed in cold water.

    Then he found himself in an ancient temple. It wasn¡¯t a veryrge temple. It was only about thirty square meters. It was gloomy, without any joss me inside. There was a small altar present, but nothing else.

    Xu Qing was currently standing atop the altar.

    However, he didn¡¯t look like he normally looked. Instead, he looked like a statue. The statue depicted an old man in a long robe, with facial features that seemed threatening without being angry. He had a beard that went down past his chest, and had the demeanor of a transcendent being. Strapped to his back was an enormous bottle gourd. There was something vaguely holy about the way he looked.

    After examining his appearance, Xu Qing sent divine sense out, only to find that it couldn¡¯t pierce the walls. Its range was limited to the interior of the temple. After confirming there were no other auras present, Xu Qing lifted his hand.

    The stone hand looked as if it had been expertly painted years ago. However, after all the time that had passed, it was spotted with age, and there were even cracks on its surface, some deeper than others. Xu Qing put his hand down and looked around.

    <i>This is the Moonrebel Congregation?</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure why he¡¯d been transformed into a statue. But he could sense that this statue form contained life force power that wasn¡¯t his own. It was almost like a suit of armor.

    <i>In other words, there was a statue here before I arrived? And after I came here, I entered the statue?</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing did some tests.

    The altar vibrated. Dust fell. But Xu Qing managed to awkwardly walk the statue off the altar. With that, he moved around a little bit to get used to the statue ¡®armor,¡¯ and also inspect the temple. He quickly found that his cultivation base was meaningless here, as he couldn¡¯t use it. The only way to move around was to make the statue move. That said, he could ess his bag of holding.

    With that, he looked at the main door of the temple. It had once been bright red, but after all the years that had passed, the paint was cracked and faded.

    <i>I guess the Moonrebel Congregation is on the other side of the door.</i>

    Eyes shining with anticipation, he sent the statue walking toward the door. He reached it in only a few steps. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door. However, the moment he touched the door, something unexpected happened!

    ***

    Outside the Bitter Life Mountains on the edge of the Greenhair Bands, a five-colored light shot through the green wind and sand. It moved with incredible speed, asionally flickering forward in minor teleportations to reach even higher speeds. The desert was a dangerous ce, but apparently, as long as this light could move fast enough, it wasn¡¯t scared of anything.

    asionally, the light would stop briefly as if searching for something. During those times, if you looked very closely, you would be surprised to find that the light contained one of Wu Jianwu¡¯s children, specifically, the parrot.

    Every time he slowed down, the parrot would inhale deeply, then look around as if searching. Soon enough, the parrot spotted the Bitter Life Mountains off in the distance. When he did, his eyes lit up.

    ¡°Oh yeah, who¡¯s the badass now? I found them! If my dad were here to see this, he would definitely be so excited he woulde up with a great poem. As the smartest of all his children, I should step in for him to do the same.¡± Sounding very proud, the parrot said, <i>¡°When the parrot debuts, the dad sucks balls; when I show up, call me pops, ya clowns!¡±</i>

    In his heart, he was just sad that no one was around to hear his amazing poem.

    1. Li Youfei: Li is #2 on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. You means ¡°to have¡± and Fei means ¡°viin, bandit, brigand.¡± Madam Deathde says it sounds strange and is an unlucky name. She said, and I quote, ¡°No loving parents would give a baby that name.¡± ?

 Chapter 585: Hundreds of Thousands of Statues

    <h4>Chapter 585: Hundreds of Thousands of Statues</h4>

    The moment Xu Qing¡¯s hand touched the door, a tremor passed through him. The same will that he had encountered earlier erupted from the door and into his mind. It didn¡¯t give him any chance to react or back away. It rushed into him like an ocean, inundating him and filling him with intense pain. The pain stabbed through his flesh, blood, and bones. It felt like countless sharp des slicing away at every part of him.

    The sudden turn of events left Xu Qing reeling. Then the pain changed; it didn¡¯t get weaker, it got more intense. It became like a fire burning every bit of him.

    Then the burning sensation left, to be reced by a feeling of decay. In both body and soul, he felt like he was sinking into the Yellow Springs. Although Xu Qing had experienced pain because of the many injuries he had suffered, at this moment, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from shivering.

    That said, he didn¡¯t pass out.

    Next, the sensation of decay changed. Now it felt like he was being chewed. It was like he was inside some gigantic mouth with sharp teeth that were shing him to bits. What was most terrifying was that the pain just kept getting more and more intense, until it could only be described as a horrific torture. It onlysted for a moment. But even Xu Qing with his unswerving determination quickly reached the point where he was shaking too hard to stand up straight.

    After about a dozen breaths of time, everything turned back around, and the pain vanished. Sweat dripped out of the cracks in the statue andnded on the ground, where they spread out like ink blotch flowers.

    As Xu Qing gasped for breath, the majestic divine will echoed in his mind.

    <i>¡°That is the pain awaiting you in the future when Crimson Mother¡¯s curse activates. It is the same torment that all living beings in this region must suffer. You have passed the third subtest, which is to experience the true pain of the curse. Is that what you want for the future? If not, if you wish to fight back, if you wish to resist, then open the door. You are wee to join us. Join the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±</i>

    The divine will faded away. Everything Xu Qing had experienced was an illusion. He looked up. As of now, he understood the third subtest.

    <i>Everyone who enters must experience the pain of the curse, to prove that they truly wish to rebel against the moon.</i>

    A momentter, Xu Qing¡¯s jaw nearly dropped.

    <i>If that was the third subtest, then what about sting my way through the passage? Which subtest was that?</i>

    A strange expression appeared on his face as he looked hesitantly back at the altar. Then his eyes glittered. There wasn¡¯t any point in wondering about trivial matters like that. Putting his hand on the door, he pushed. An ancient creaking sound reached his ears as the temple door slowly opened.

    He found himself looking at a strange world. The sky was blue, which was something he hadn¡¯t seen for a long time. Gentle sunlight filled the sky and spilled down onto everything below. He detected a fragrant aroma in the air. Compared to the dusky darkness of the Moonrite Region, this ce seemed like an otherworldly utopia. If Xu Qing, a visitor from another region, was so moved by what he was seeing, it was impossible to imagine the reaction of people who had been born and raised in the Moonrite Region.

    Heart pounding, he walked out of the temple. Directly outside the entrance was a corroded bronze cauldron.

    The temple itself was located on a mountain. It was the only mountain in this world, and it was massive. Countless temples covered its surface. Some were dark, and some shone brightly, but every single one emanated a sensation of ancient time.

    <i>So, this is the Moonrebel Congregation.</i>

    As he stood at the bottom part of the mountain looking up, it made him feel extremely small.

    Floating in the air above the huge mountain were nine extremelyrge temples. Five of them shone with brilliant light that reached 30,000 meters into the sky. It was just possible to see boundlessly auspicious divine likenesses in those temples. The other four were dark, and did not contain any statues.

    Above the nine temples was a brilliant sun. If you looked closely enough, you would see that the sun itself also had a temple in it. However, the main door of that temple was closed. In fact, when Xu Qing spotted it, he instinctively realized that the temple... was dead. There was no statue inside! Or perhaps it was most correct to say that no one was stationed inside that temple at the moment!

    Xu Qing saw other divine likenesses simr to his own. They wereing and going from the countless other temples on the mountain, and many were interacting with each other.

    The mountain was actually a bustling ce. Considering all the statues, Xu Qing almost felt like he was looking at a kingdom of divine beings. A very bizarre notion urred to him that made him turn around and look at the temple he had walked out of.

    <i>It¡¯s like the world I live in exists only in that temple....</i>

    He shook his head to dispel the notion. He knew that wasn¡¯t possible. Taking control of the statue he was in, he flew up into the air to get a better look at the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Time passed. As he carefully looked around, he started to understand more about the ce.

    The dark temples were unupied. They had not been activated, and could not be entered. The glowing temples had life in them. Even if the upant wasn¡¯t present, as long as they hadn¡¯t restricted ess to their temple, other statues could enter whenever they wanted. Most temples had glowing spheres of light in them that contained items for sale.

    <i>Is the Moonrebel Congregation mainly a marketce?</i>

    After inspecting more temples, he confirmed that it really was like a marketce. Each temple had a bronze cauldron, some of which were empty, but some of which had incense burning in them.

    At first, Xu Qing was confused by that. But after further inspection, he realized why some cauldrons had incense. If a statue entered another person¡¯s temple andpleted a business transaction, incense would appear.

    In some cases, he saw temples with only a single stick, in other cases, there were many sticks.

    <i>I guess the incense shows how popr the ce is</i>.... After looking around at more temples, he felt even more like they were shops.

    After looking around for a while, Xu Qing found a temple whose owner wanted poison pills, and was offering rare medicinal nts in exchange.

    Some of the medicinal nts were so rare that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but be interested in them. It seemed to him that the owner of this temple was probably some amazing grandmaster of alchemy. As he was inspecting the glowing sphere of light with the transaction information, the statue on the altar opened its eyes and looked at him.

    ¡°Can I help you?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°What kind of poison pills do you need, Fellow Daoist?¡±

    The statue nced at Xu Qing out of the corner of its eye. ¡°I cultivate the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. Any kind of poison will do.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a time, then took out one of his personal poison pills. ¡°This poison pill of mine is a bit unusual, Fellow Daoist. I suggest taking it slow and easy when using it.¡±

    He put the pill into the glowing ball of light.

    The statue, meanwhile, was chuckling coldly inside. <i>I¡¯ve been consuming poison for years. asionally people give warnings like this, but their poisons are always average at best. In any case, based on what I can sense, this pill is also average</i>.

    He epted the transaction.

    The sphere of light proceeded to give Xu Qing the medicinal nt he wanted. At the same time, he sensed a faint fluctuation in his mind. It was a very simple stream of divine will that allowed him to give his feedback about the transaction. He could either select <i>satisfied</i> or <i>dissatisfied</i>.

    He selected <i>satisfied</i>. When he did, a stick of incense appeared in the bronze cauldron outside the temple.

    <i>Oh, I see.</i> He walked outside, but before leaving the temple, looked back at the statue. ¡°Be careful, Fellow Daoist. I suggest you avoid taking the whole pill at once. Start out by shaving some off and sampling it.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± The statue frowned a bit impatiently.

    Xu Qing was surprised at how confident this person was. However, <i>there are always more talented people out there, just as there are always higher heavens out there</i>. Perhaps this was just a case in which Xu Qing didn¡¯t know as much as he thought he did. Forgoing any further warnings, he turned and left.

    As he continued on his way in the Moonrebel Congregation, Xu Qing mused that the ce was definitely different than he¡¯d imagined. And the more temples he visited, the more he came to understand it. Physical goods weren¡¯t the only thing for sale. There were intelligence reports avable, job offerings, even bounties.... In fact, just about everything imaginable could be found. That included information rted to curse research.

    There were also some medicinal pills for sale here and there that caught his attention due to how expensive they were.

    Painquelling lozenges!

    Xu Qing had first learned about such pills thanks to the bounty put on him and the Captain by the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect. Even back then, he knew how expensive those pills were, but even still, he found the price tag shocking. Here, the pills weren¡¯t sold for spirit stones, and they were offered in small quantities. Most people wanted various precious materials in exchange, either that, or services performed.

    When it came to precious materials, Xu Qing noticed the price for one painquelling lozenge was twenty red heavenfire crystals. Xu Qing was fully aware of how rare heavenfire crystals were. Twenty was about how much a small species or sect would have to pay to the Redmoon Cathedral as an offering. [1]

    In terms of services performed, most rted to the Spirit Trove level. For instance, there were assassination missions that could be markedplete when you handed over a Spirit Trove expert¡¯s soul.

    Another option was to sign a soul contract to perform other services.

    After looking around and buying plenty of information about the curse, he went back to his temple at the foot of the mountain. Along the way, he ran into some of his neighbors. The statues near his temple looked at him with odd expressions when he passed. In fact, as he was returning, a statue emerged from a nearby temple, pulsing with orange light.

    The statue depicted a burly man, bare-chested, with colorful ribbons draped across his torso. He looked very impressive and was ring at Xu Qing in dissatisfaction.

    Noticing that, Xu Qing¡¯s guard went up, and he flew into his own temple and stood on the altar. Closing his eyes, he returned to the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    After confirming he was safe, he opened his eyes and thought back to everything in the Moonrebel Congregation. It still seemed very strange. After a while, he took out the jade slips with curse information and started studying them.

    ***

    Back in the Moonrebel Congregation, the bare-chested statue looked at Xu Qing¡¯s temple and snorted coldly.

    <i>Here I thought it was some vicious individual. After a whole month of banging, you would think he would be really impressive. I couldn¡¯t rest at all!</i>

    Meanwhile, in another small temple at the foot of the mountain, the main door creaked open to reveal a statue. The statue held a magic bottle in one hand. Its face was pitch ck, and it had six eyes. There was a divine bird on the statue¡¯s shoulder, making it look even more unusual. After walking out of the temple, the statue stretchedzily.

    <i>It¡¯s not that I want to bete meeting up, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s just that your Eldest Brother is simply too amazing. Halfway through one of my tasks, I happened to earn the right toe to the Moonrebel Congregation. Ai. I really am just too amazing. But what can I do other than to just keep aplishing amazing things?</i>

    <i>The subtests were really hard. Given little Ah Qing¡¯s circumstances, I doubt he could get in here. What a pity. I guess I¡¯ll just have to enjoy the scenery on my own. I wonder if that dumb bird made it to the Bitter Life Mountains. It better not give up halfway there....</i>

    1. If you¡¯re like me and forgot how much heavenfire crystals are worth, you can go back to <u>chapter 567.2</u> to see how theypare to spirit stones. ?

 Chapter 586: I... Ach... Youâ€™re Full of Poison! (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 586: I... Ach... You¡¯re Full of Poison! (part 1)</h4>

    It waste at night. Darkness filled heaven and earth. In the mudbrick cities of the Bitter Life Mountains,ntern light flickered in the wind. The wind never ended, and asionally sent sand swirling through the city streets. Although not a lot of sand and wind reached the cities, there was enough to create an unsettling sound when it scraped past the doors of the houses. However, long-term residents got used to the sound. Even Xu Qing, after about half a year of dealing with the wind, considered it just another part of life.

    At the moment, he was studying curse information, and his eyes were shining. Three days had passed since he visited the Moonrebel Congregation. During that time, he had immersed himself in poring over curse research information.

    <i>The people in the Moonrebel Congregation have studied the curse down to the finest details.</i>

    Already, he felt that the poison pills and spirit stones he had spent to purchase curse information had been more than worth it.

    The information was veryprehensive, and was obviously not the work of just a single generation of researchers. It was clearly the result of many years of study, and included data from countless experiments, as well as a variety of theories and conjectures.

    <i>After a lot of experimentation, people confirmed that the curse has life force....</i>

    <i>After studying the effects of the curse on over a hundred species, it was determined that it affects different species in slightly different ways. Some species are inherently born with less of the curse, only to have the curse build up in them over time.</i>

    <i>Some people focused on studying variations on curse re-ups, ultimately identifying 137 different types of reactions that can ur. It seems the re-ups have slightly different effects depending on the species. The curse can inflict specific types of torment on specific species. For example, the Dingyang species have an innately high level of pain tolerance when ites to their fleshly bodies. As a result, the curse re-ups affect their souls.</i>

    <i>The Moonrebel Congregation research has also confirmed a very interesting theory. And that is... the effects for different species can be mixed together. The curse in the various living beings in the Moonrite Region can change. For example, by taking certain medicines or using blood, it¡¯s possible for the curse effects to ovep.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. The new information was already giving him new ideas. Before, it had never even urred to him that the curse could have so many uses.

    For example, people had isted versions of the curse that targeted the soul, then mixed it with the curse from a species that didn¡¯t fear harm to the soul. The result was a reduction in the curse torment.

    <i>The curse is different in different species. And the different versions can be mixed and blended.... So that¡¯s how the painquelling lozenges came to be.</i>

    Now he also understood a bit more about why painquelling lozenges were so incredibly expensive and rare.

    <i>Each painquelling lozenge contains an amalgamation of different characteristics from different species, which is then used toprehensively cancel out the curse to a certain degree. Whoever takes the pill will have the re-up effects of the curse quelled to an extent. More advanced versions of the pill need to be customized by an alchemist, by adjusting the various characteristics to benefit a specific species.</i>

    <i>The long story short is that painquelling lozenges mix together the curse power from different species. To be most effective, they need to be customized. It¡¯s using the curse to fight the curse. It¡¯s mutual growth to effect mutual restraint.</i>

    Xu Qing sighed. He knew that the information he had was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the body of knowledge avable for sale. But even that little bit gave him a very deep impression of the wisdom of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    <i>If I keep up this research, it¡¯s entirely possible that one day in the future I could create a pill thatpletely negates curse re-ups. And that might make it possible for people to escape this region. That¡¯s assuming... that Crimson Mother hasn¡¯t changed the curse, and that the information isn¡¯t lost when sh¨¥es.</i>

    He took a deep breath. It seemed that painquelling lozenges were going to be key to making further breakthroughs in curse research.

    <i>I have the essence of the red moon. So, to a certain degree, I should be able to discharge the curse. Theoretically speaking, my blessing should be able to either strengthen or weaken the curse. I was on the wrong track before. What I really want is to be able to end the curse in one shot. Unfortunately, my violet moon isn¡¯t strong enough for that, so it¡¯s going to be hard. But what if I can at least weaken the curse...?</i>

    His eyes shone with determination.

    <i>I need to get a painquelling lozenge to confirm some of my spections.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, he took out the mirror fragment and went back to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Back at the foot of the huge mountain of the Moonrebel Congregation, the eyes of a statue opened in a small temple.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the type to act rashly, so the first thing he did was stay on the altar and check his surroundings. After making sure it was safe, he sent the statue off the altar.

    He stretched a bit to get used to the statue form again, and also took time to inspect the statue itself. It was still covered with cracks, and still resembled an old man in a robe, with a huge bottle gourd on his back. Everything looked normal.

    Xu Qing pushed the door open and stepped out. He noted the blue sky and bright light, as well as all the statues moving around. Without the slightest hesitation, he joined the crowd.

    Having a definite goal this time; he wanted to find a ce that had a painquelling lozenge for sale. Along the way, he passed the temple where he had bought medicinal nts with a poison pill. As he did, he looked over curiously. The temple still shone with light, but the owner wasn¡¯t present. He looked away.

    There were too many temples to quickly check them all, and even after a good amount of time passed, he couldn¡¯t find a ce that was offering a painquelling lozenge at a price he was willing to pay. The temple where he had previously seen one for sale for twenty red heavenfire crystals was closed for some reason. He couldn¡¯t even get inside.

    Sighing, he continued his search. Ultimately, though, all he got was more information about curse research.

    Time passed.

    For ten days, Xu Qing studied curse information, did research on the curse in animals, and spent about half of each day searching for a ce in the Moonrebel Congregation to get a painquelling lozenge.

    He went back to the ce that had offered one for heavenfire crystals, but it remained closed.

    Simrly, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t seen the alchemist master who cultivated the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body and had taken one of his poison pills. That said, the alchemist didn¡¯t close his temple. It was just that the statue remained on the altarpletely unmoving. Xu Qing went in a few times and found that the sphere of light had not been updated in a long time. Furthermore, there were no more medicinal nts for sale. It seemed that after the deal with Xu Qing, that alchemist hadn¡¯t returned to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    <i>There¡¯s no way he actually consumed that pill, and then had some trouble. Is there?</i> Xu Qing was surprised, and also worried that the man mighte looking for him to get revenge....

    That said, Xu Qing had clearly warned him.

    <i>I¡¯m probably overthinking it. If he cultivates the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body, he must be a top expert</i>. It was entirely likely that the alchemist hadn¡¯te back because of some other reason.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing left.

    A few more days passed, and the alchemist never returned....

    One day when Xu Qing was out searching for a painquelling lozenge, the entire Moonrebel Congregation trembled. Dazzling light shone out from the sky, and terrifying fluctuations rolled out over the entire mountain.

    Sensing it, Xu Qing walked out of the temple he was currently in and looked up. He wasn¡¯t the only one to do that. Statues walked out of many of the temples and looked into the sky.

    There, a figure emerged from one of the nine temples that hung beneath the sun. When that figure stepped out, the entire Moonrebel Congregation shook. Auspicious signs appeared in the canopy of heaven, and brilliant light shone everywhere.

    ¡°Greetings, Vice-Bishop!¡±

    The various statues began to call out respectful greetings, their voices joining together into a massive sound wave that swept out.

    Xu Qing joined them. This was his first time seeing one of the leaders of the Moonrebel Congregation. Because of the limitations of the statue form, he couldn¡¯t sense the vice-bishop¡¯s cultivation level. But given the reaction to his presence, Xu Qing could only assume that he had a very powerful cultivation base.

    As the vice-bishop¡¯s statue stepped out, boundless light glimmered, and a thunderous voice spoke.

    <i>¡°I have three matters to share with all of you Moonrebel cultivators.</i>

    <i>¡°One. Things are really heating up in the Moonrite Region. In all locations, cultivators are rising up who refuse to ept their fate. Sparks are flying, and they¡¯ll soon turn into a huge wildfire!</i>

    <i>¡°Two. Thanks to our efforts over the better part of thest year, we sessfully destroyed five of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temples. We killed eleven godheralds, dozens of godservants, and hundreds of godves!</i>

    <i>¡°Three. Verifiable information hase in which indicates that the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom are recovering from th¨¥ir injuries, and are fine. We¡¯re working hard to get in touch with th¨¥m. Once we do, the Moonrebel Congregation will rise to new heights of glory!</i>

    <i>¡°Ladies and gentlemen, </i>the red moon is by no means eternal<i>!¡±</i>

    His words caused many emotions to stir in the hearts of the statues. What was more, many temple doors opened, and more statues walked out. In response to the words he had just spoken, the statues sped hands and joined voices.

    <i>¡°Hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!¡±</i>

    The deafening sound of their voices stirred even the clouds.

    More seeds of hope had been nted.

    Xu Qing also felt moved. As he watched, the statue that had made the announcements turned and went back into his temple. Though the statue was gone, the news he had shared was already starting to spread rapidly into the Moonrite Region.

    Xu Qing nced at all the excited statues, then turned to leave. However, that was when he noticed that the temple that wanted heavenfire crystals was open again.

    He immediately flew over. Upon entering and inspecting the sphere of light, he found that the painquelling lozenge was still for sale. Without any hesitation, he handed over twenty red heavenfire crystals toplete the transaction. With the painquelling lozenge in hand, he left.

    Thanks to the news shared by the vice-bishop, many more statues had already returned, making the ce even more bustling than before. From a distance, it looked like a host of devils was buzzing about.

    However, the temple where Xu Qing had bought the nts with a poison pill was still empty....

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to do about that. With a final nce at that specific temple, he flew back to his own temple.

 Chapter 586: I... Ach... Youâ€™re Full of Poison! (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 586: I... Ach... You¡¯re Full of Poison! (part 2)</h4>

    Out in the Greenhair Bands, a five-colored beam of light was currently flying along. Behind it, the green wind looked like it was changing colors. The green wind was turning into a white wind! Inside the beam of light was a parrot who looked rmed. As he flew along, he cursed up a storm.

    <i>What the hell? I was just fooling around by flying a bit more slowly! Okay, fine, I stopped to take a crap in a quicksand pit. How could I have known that would cause the wind to turn white?</i>

    The rmed parrot flew on, using a few minor teleportations in an attempt to stay away from the white wind.

    ***

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing appeared in the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the mudbrick city in the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Sitting down cross-legged, he took out the painquelling lozenge and started studying it. The pill was multi-colored, making it look very strange. However, the curse aura in it was very prominent.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to act blindly. Painquelling lozenges were far too expensive, and he wasn¡¯t in the position to buy a second one. All he had was this one single pill to study. He nned to start with simple observation. He studied the exterior of the pill. After smelling it, a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

    <i>It doesn¡¯t seem like a pill made from medicinal nts. There¡¯s definitely not just one type of curse. There are many.... The most important factor is the quality.</i>

    <i>This thing is designed to absorb curse power. Each curse is used in a different amount. The pill form basically uses the curse power from different species just like nts and vegetation.</i>

    <i>Interesting. All of these curses have the same origin, but they have different effects. In the end, though, they¡¯re all curses. As a result, consuming this pill will quell the pain of the curse, but it doesn¡¯t reduce the curse. In fact, it adds more of it.</i>

    <i>What¡¯s more, adding in the power of other curses will cause side-effects like the loss of life force or reduction of cultivation base.... </i>Drinking poison to quench one¡¯s thirst<i>.... That¡¯s basically what this is.</i>

    Sighing inwardly, he waved his hand, causing violet moon power to converge in the form of violet streams.

    There were several hundred, and as they swirled in front of him, he exercised a thought, sending them toward the painquelling lozenge. They pierced into the pill, with each stream focusing on one specific curse. This was something no one else could ever do. But because Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon had the same origin as the red moon, then it could affect the same transformations.

    Before, he hadcked an item to study directly, and also couldn¡¯t do enough experimentation. But now he had a general understanding, as well as the painquelling lozenge. The door had been unlocked.

    As time passed, Xu Qing¡¯s expression grew more serious. He continuously sent violet strands out, transforming the different curses in different ways. He was exceedingly careful in everything he did. For one thing, he made sure that the fluctuations from the streams didn¡¯t trigger the curse power in the medicinal pill.

    About six hourster, after so much time spent being careful, he finally made a slight mistake.

    The incredibly valuable painquelling lozenge trembled slightly, and then the curse power activated, and the pill copsed, turning into ck ash that slipped through Xu Qing¡¯s finger and onto the floor.

    He didn¡¯t regret any of his actions, and in fact, his eyes were shining. During the six hours that had passed, he had thoroughly inspected over three hundred types of curse power from different species. Sighing softly, he looked down and brushed together all the ck ash. As he did, he suddenly realized it looked familiar.

    ¡°What¡¯s this...?¡±

    Eyes glittering, he took out a bag and dumped the ck ash out of it. The two types of ash looked exactly the same. The ash from the bag was what he had collected during his time doing research on the animals. When the curse power in them red up, they would copse into this ash. He had never found any use for the ash, but had collected it anyway. Apparently, that was the ingredient in the pill that absorbed the curse power.

    <i>In other words, each painquelling lozenge is made from the remains of a living being that died in an explosive curse re-up.</i>

    Picking up a handful of ash, he sent several hundred streams of violet moon energy into it. Based on all the research he had done up to this point, he used them like curse power, which stuck to the ash.

    During the process, the ck ash shrank down, and its color changed. Soon, it was multi-colored. It also changed shape.

    Xu Qing rolled it around between his hands, ultimately forming it into an oddly shaped medicinal pill. Although it didn¡¯t look exactly like a painquelling lozenge, it had the same aura. That said, it was different substructurally. That was because the ¡®curse power¡¯ was actually formed from Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon.

    <i>If you liken the red moon curse to an enemy army, then my violet moon power is like an enemy uniform that I can wear as a disguise. Using that method, I can infiltrate the enemy army. Once inside, if I take action with explosive speed, then I can cancel out some of the curse power before it has a chance to devour me.</i>

    Things were starting to click into ce. With that, he took out a scorpion, whichy on the ground trembling, not even daring to raise its tail. Xu Qing nced at it, then put down the new medicinal pill in front of it.

    ¡°Eat,¡± he said calmly.

    The scorpion didn¡¯t dare to resist, and meekly consumed the pill. A momentter, it shivered. Ten breaths of time passed, then the scorpion copsed into ck ash.

    <i>The ¡®disguise¡¯ didn¡¯t work.</i>

    Frowning, Xu Qing reviewed everything, then started transforming more of the ck ash.

    Days sped by. Xu Qing tried many variations, but always failed. Every time, he would make adjustments. On the evening of the tenth day, he managed to sessfully disguise his pill.

    The animal that consumed it didn¡¯t copse, and the curse within it stabilized.

    Heart racing, Xu Qing looked at the painquelling lozenge he had crafted. It was the result of about half a year of research and work. Because of the direction of his research, the pill was still notpletely as effective as a real painquelling lozenge, but it was close.

    <i>Painquelling lozenges are designed to reduce the pain of the curse. But my research... is focused onpletely eliminating the curse. The pain relief is just a side-effect. Although I haven¡¯tpletely seeded yet, at least I¡¯m going in the right direction. Also, I need to improve my violet moon power.... And I need to get more research information. The more I get, the moreplete my understanding will be.</i>

    Eyes gleaming with anticipation, he prepared to create a few more of his special painquelling lozenges. But then his gaze hardened and he looked outside. He suddenly blurred, disappearing from the back room and appearing next to the counter in the shop.

    Ling¡¯er had been happily working on the ounts. When she sensed Xu Qing, she quickly transformed into a white snake and burrowed up into his sleeve.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly pulsed with an aggressive aura. Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s expression softened slightly as he looked out the window.

    He saw a five-colored light shooting through the city. It reached the medicine shop, entered, then came to a stop next to Sprouty.

    Sprouty suddenly stopped swaying back and forth. Meanwhile, the light converged into the shape of a parrot. Looking around arrogantly, it said, <i>¡°When the parrot debuts, the dad sucks balls; when I show up, call me pops, ya clowns!¡±</i>

    The parrot looked pompously at Xu Qing. ¡°Hey. You, whatever your name is. That Chen what¡¯s-his-name Er-something asked me toe tell you to light, uh, some kind of fire.¡±

    ¡°Light what fire?¡± Xu Qing said, frowning. He recognized the parrot, but had no idea what the parrot was talking about.

    ¡°How the hell would I know what fire he was talking about, fool? That Er-what¡¯s-his-name just said to tell you to light the fire. Light it! Light, light, light that fire!¡±

    Looking extremely arrogant, the parrot turned to Sprouty, took a big bite out of it, then slowly started chewing.

    Sprouty shivered but didn¡¯t dare to try to avoid the bite.

    Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er stuck her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve and looked angrily at the parrot. ¡°Hey, stop that!¡±

    The parrot looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then looked arrogantly at Xu Qing. ¡°I¡¯m not stopping anything!¡±

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out, but before he could even get close to the parrot, the parrot vanished, then reappeared on the other side of Sprouty. He took another bite.

    ¡°I said I won¡¯t stop!¡±

    It was a level of speed that the patriarch foundpletely shocking. He was about to give chase, when the parrot started zipping around Sprouty, taking more bites.

    ¡°I won¡¯t stop. Won¡¯t stop. Won¡¯t, won¡¯t, won¡¯t!¡± The parrot was looking very pleased with himself. But then he lurched to a stop. Eyes widening he coughed up a mouthful of blood. ¡°I... ach... You¡¯re full of poison!!¡±

    The parrot red at Sprouty, and the sapling shivered. Then the parrot coughed up more blood and started withering up. Around then, he realized that it wasn¡¯t Sprouty that was poisoned. There was actually poison everywhere. He opened his beak to speak, but then toppled over onto the ground. He turned to Xu Qing, a look of terror on his face.

    Meanwhile, Sprouty pulled its roots out of the soil, jumped down, and started trampling the parrot angrily.

    The parrot moaned and groaned as he tried to get away. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t. All he could do was roll around on the ground. Then Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior arrived, and the parrot didn¡¯t do anything other thany there, terrified.

    Sprouty didn¡¯t dare to keep causing a scene, and climbed back into the pot and settled down again.

    At that point, Xu Qing calmly walked over and sat next to the struggling parrot.

    ¡°Are you ready to talk normally now?¡±

    The parrot nodded his head. Now he finally understood why his father was so scared of this person. Instead of talking things out reasonably, he just went around poisoning people.

    ¡°Sect Uncle Xu, um, sir, how about you get rid of this poison...?¡± The parrot coughed up more blood, then struggled to breathe as his body continued decaying.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, causing most of the poison to leave the parrot. The parrot twitched a few times, but then noticed Xu Qing staring at him, and quickly went still.

    ¡°Sorry about that, Sect Uncle Xu. So, Sect Uncle Erniu asked me toe tell you to light that fire. I really don¡¯t know what he meant. I think it has something to do with some suns.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it briefly, then looked down at the parrot. The parrot really was incredibly fast, which he found surprising. ¡°What powers do you have?¡±

    ¡°I can do minor teleportations. I¡¯m the fastest of all my father¡¯s children. And it doesn¡¯t matter how bad the environment is, or what sealing magics are in ce. They won¡¯t affect me at all. In the past, whenever my father was in a really dangerous situation, I¡¯m the one that teleported him away. I¡¯m the best there is at... um, I mean, your humble servant is skilled at being fast.¡±

    The parrot looked cautiously at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded and was about to say something, when he quickly stood and went to the window. The wind was blowing into the city, causing buildings to vibrate and doors to m. When it reached Xu Qing, it stirred his hair.

    Off in the distance, the wind screamed, and sand blew about like clouds. Lightning shed, and thunder boomed. It almost seemed like there was a god in the wind, driving it along with the sand. It was clearly a sandstorm. What was more, it was turning from green to white.

    The screaming of the wind grew more intense. It sounded as if the dome of heaven was furious, and thends were indignant, and that they wanted to bury all living beings for all time.

    Terrifying pressure came along with the white sand storm. As it spread over the Bitter Life Mountains, everything outside turned a hazy white color. It looked very inauspicious.

    Xu Qing looked down and realized his shadow wasn¡¯t there. He¡¯d sent it hunting, and it hadn¡¯t returned....

 Chapter 587: A Terrifying Figure in the Sandstorm

    <h4>Chapter 587: A Terrifying Figure in the Sandstorm</h4>

    ¡°The green wind changed color...¡± Xu Qing murmured. Looking out the window, he could see the white-colored wind, and it left him with a very uneasy feeling. Dramatic changes like this would either be the result of magical and naturalws, or would be some unimaginable power at work. The Heavenfire Skycrossing and the nature of the Greenhair Bands were good examples.

    <i>I wonder if the two are connected.</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t exactly an expert when it came to the Moonrite Region, plus there were far too many mysterious things in existence for him to understand all of them. Xu Qing quietly extended his hand out of the window, grabbed some of the white sand, and pulled it back inside to look at. It was pure white, and almost seemed alive. It struggled to escape his palm, and when it failed, started burrowing into his flesh.

    Golden light glittered on Xu Qing¡¯s hand, preventing the sand from digging into his skin.

    After studying it for a time, Xu Qing came to realize that the white grains of sand... seemed like bug eggs.

    <i>When the green wind changes color, is it some kind of unknown entity, spreading its eggs out into the desert to provide nutrients?</i>

    Of course, it was just an unconfirmed theory. Other than the physical appearance, he had no evidence to confirm that the grains of sand were eggs. After all, there were all sorts of strange living beings in existence, and observation alone wasn¡¯t enough to prove anything.

    Ling¡¯er was also looking outside at the moment. Her eyes were full of reverence; she also sensed the inauspicious nature of the white wind.

    When the parrot noticed the expression on Xu Qing¡¯s face, he looked a bit guilty. Blinking a few times, he exined how he had defecated in that pit of quicksand.

    Xu Qing looked away from the sand and back at the parrot. The parrot shivered and quickly stood up a bit straighter.

    ¡°You can teleport people?¡± Xu Qing asked calmly.

    ¡°I can!¡± the parrot replied loudly. <i>If I¡¯m in the mood for it</i>, he added, but only in his thoughts.

    ¡°Where¡¯s the Captain?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°In the west,¡± the parrot answered. ¡°Near the shores of the Yin Sacrifice River.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any more questions. He still wasn¡¯t sure why the Captain had sent the parrot with a message about lighting some sort of fire. But if it had something to do with suns, then Xu Qing could only specte that it might rte to his golden crow powers.

    <i>Might as well go see what the situation is. Besides, the shadow hasn¡¯t returned yet.</i>

    Because of Xu Qing¡¯s curse research, the shadow was constantly going out hunting for him. Sometimes it stayed out for a day or two, other times it needed five or six days.

    Xu Qing looked back out at the white haze. He issued a mental call to the shadow, but didn¡¯t get any response. Presumably the wind and sand were interfering. He could still vaguely sense the shadow, and knew that it was somewhere rtively far away, staying in ce without moving.

    Considering the parrot made it back through the wind, it seemed unlikely that the shadow would foolishly get spooked by the same thing.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± Ling¡¯er said, clearly worried, ¡°do you think Little Shadow...?¡±

    ¡°The shadow should be fine. But let¡¯s go check, just in case.¡±

    Xu Qing looked around the Green Spirit Pharmacy. After tidying things up and taking anything worthwhile, including Sprouty, he pushed the door open and stepped out. The parrot and patriarch followed. One hovered by his side, the other perched on his shoulder. Xu Qing locked the door, then, after some thought, he found a sign and wrote ¡®closed for a few months.¡¯ After hanging the sign on the door, he left.

    There weren¡¯t many people on the street in the city. asionally, he spotted people kowtowing to heaven and earth, all while mumbling something. As the white wind blew, mostmoners in the city were hurrying inside and locking their doors and windows. It was the same with the cultivators from the various local organizations. Unless it was absolutely necessary, none of them wanted to be out in the white wind.

    It was only the people with the deformities who stayed outside, where they would offer praise to the white haze.

    <i>¡°White Mother is awake, enjoying the fiery river.</i>

    <i>¡°The godchildeth, to bring salvation hither.</i>

    <i>¡°All beings are dazzled, in confusion they quiver.</i>

    <i>¡°I will be the soil, a nourishing caregiver.¡±</i>

    The chanting of the deformed ones carried with it dedication and piety. As they kowtowed, they threw open their garments to reveal the exaggerated ugliness of their bodies. They were truly horrifying to look at. It was as if they had just started growing randomly, with strips of flesh hanging here and there. Some even had limbs or faces growing out of their abdomens. And the fleshy growths would move of their own ord, swaying back and forth oddly.

    The sight of it all caused the parrot to inhale sharply.

    Xu Qing took it in without any change to his facial expression. He had noticed the people with deformities before, so he wasn¡¯t very surprised, and just walked past them. Step by step, he left the city and eventually reached a nearby cliff.

    From this location, he could look out at the hazy white atmosphere. The sobbing wind made the entire world look like a sea of white. And the countless particles of sand blew against him,nding on his clothing and trying to burrow into him. However, golden light would shimmer from within him, and the sand would drop to the ground.

    After determining the shadow¡¯s general location, Xu Qing tightened all of his clothing, then blurred into motion, bing a prismatic beam of light that flew out of the Bitter Life Mountains and into the desert. His garments fluttered as the sandy wind enveloped him.

    He moved at top speed through the desert. There was no end to the sand, and it surrounded him voraciously, as if it sought nourishment from anything alive. It had incredible life force power within it, such that any living being it encountered would be unable to stop the bizarre growth that led to deformity.

    The grains of sand never stopped their efforts to burrow into living flesh.

    <i>This white wind has a catalyzing power in it. The grains are parasitic bug eggs, and they catalyze the growth of flesh to serve as nutrition. Most people who experience that catalyzation ultimately get sucked dry and end up dead. But some of them make it to safety first. That¡¯s why all those deformed people live in the Bitter Life Mountains. That said, they can¡¯t reverse the effects. The parasitic bug eggs are still inside them. That¡¯s what those fleshy growths are.</i>

    As he proceeded through the wind and sand, Xu Qing sent out some taboo poison power, creating the lone section of ck color in the white wind. When the grains of sand touched the ck cloud around Xu Qing, hissing sounds resulted, and the sand dropped dead to the ground.

    However, there was simply too much sand to deal with. Xu Qing was well aware that unless he came up with some other method to deal with it, he couldn¡¯t stay out in the white wind for very long. With that thought in mind, he elerated.

    Six hours passed.

    There weren¡¯t many cultivators out in the white wind. Xu Qing actually felt like he was all alone in the desert. Everything looked very different than what he remembered from before.

    The green desert didn¡¯t have many nts in it. But in this white sandstorm, all sorts of white nts were growing out of the ground. Their growth rate was rapid. They would start out the size of a finger, but in a very short time were about half the height of an average human.

    White nts swayed in the wind everywhere. It was almost as if they were a part of the sandstorm. Xu Qing had never seen anything like it before.

    The white nts bloomed with fuzzy white flowers that looked like dandelion seeds. And when they flew into the wind, they resembled white puffs that floated through heaven and earth. They made the wind even whiter.

    The voracious hunger of the sand only seemed to increase. White wind. White sand. White dandelions. And the catalyzing power. As Xu Qing flew through the wind, he could feel every inch of his flesh twitching. It was as if his flesh wanted to separate from his body. To grow until it exploded. The overwhelming sense of malice caused Xu Qing to frown. Eventually, he stopped in ce and sent taboo poison power sweeping out around him.

    Three meters. Nine meters.... In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing¡¯s poison had expanded for 30 meters in all directions, creating a ck storm around him. After that, he continued following his senses toward the shadow.

    He could now sense exactly where the shadow was. The closer they got, the stronger the sensation became. By this point, the shadow could also sense Xu Qing, and was sending him feelings of humiliation along with pleas for help.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold. His previous assumption had been correct; the shadow had run into trouble. He sped up.

    ***

    The shadow was some distance away from Xu Qing in the white sandstorm, howling in pain and grief. Normally speaking, its voice wasn¡¯t audible to random people. But that wasn¡¯t the case now.

    It was stuck in ce! It was pinned to a white nt by a bronze dagger covered with golden blood that stabbed into the shadow so thoroughly that no matter how it struggled, it couldn¡¯t free itself. Whenever it did struggle, the dagger would send out golden light that would crush down on the shadow, resulting in further injuries.

    The ck canopy the shadow could create was covered with countless fuzzy dandelions. Their roots had burrowed into the shadow, and were constantly draining its life force. For those reasons, the shadow was in pure agony.

    Surrounding the shadow were about a dozen figures. All of them wore white robes that obscured their facial features and covered thempletely, protecting them from the wind and sand. The only thing visible were white eyes, which stared coldly off into the distance.

    ¡°Your lord and master still hasn¡¯te?¡± asked the leader of the group. He looked at the struggling shadow, then performed a quick incantation gesture and pointed at the dagger.

    The dagger glittered brightly, then sank down further, stabbing deeper into the shadow. Golden light shone, and the shadow screamed even more shrilly.

    ¡°That sounds horrible,¡± said the leader. He was just about to continue tormenting the shadow when he suddenly looked up, his eyes shifting to the horizon. Hispanions noticed the same thing, and all looked in the same direction.

    The shadow suddenly got excited and issued a cry for help.

    A ck tempest had appeared in the distance. Anything that got close to it, including dandelions or sand, were infected and turned ck and either fell to the ground or became part of the ck tempest. As the tempest neared, the white nts in the area turned ck and wilted. It was as if the ambassador of death was on the way.

    The people in the white robes were shaken by what they were seeing. They had previously been waiting for the shadow¡¯s master in full confidence. But seeing that darknessing for them, they instinctively thought about some of the legends that circted in the Green Sand Desert.

    As their guard went up, the leader struggled to take in a breath. Staring at the figure approaching within the ck tempest, he called out, ¡°Halt! Who goes there!?¡±

    The tempest didn¡¯t stop for even a moment, and the figure within it neared relentlessly. Then a cold voice spoke with waspletely devoid of any sort of emotion.

    ¡°Do you people have a death wish?¡±

 Chapter 588: Let This Kid Go!

    <h4>Chapter 588: Let This Kid Go!</h4>

    As Xu Qing¡¯s words rang out, the ck tempest rumbled and spread out to cover the area. Bolts of lightning snaked back and forth, casting electric light everywhere.

    The shadow was already iparably excited, and was trembling. It was deeply moved. As of this moment, it felt like all of its hard work and loyalty were paying off. Its lord and master hadn¡¯t abandoned it. It didn¡¯t matter that three of its white-robed captors were in the great circle of the Nascent Soul level, or that the leader was a Spirit Trove expert. Its lord and master had stille to rescue it. It quickly sent out some emotional fluctuations to convey its thankfulness, as well as exin the humiliation and pain it felt. It also started struggling even harder.

    The figure in the tempest strode forward, and as it neared, terrifying pressure built up.

    The white wind would show up in the Greenhair Bands every so often. In contrast, it had been hundreds of years since a ck wind appeared. Yet right now, the group of white-robed cultivators could clearly see the ck tempest in front of them, and it filled their hearts with bewilderment. What was more, they all could see how the dandelions and the sand would change color and be part of that ck tempest. It was exactly like the legendary ck wind that everyone talked about. In their shock, some of them were already starting to back away from the figure in the tempest.

    These people were a very unique species. Their mission was to guard the desert. What was more, all of the beasts in the desert were kept by them as pets. That was why they had targeted the shadow. Over thest half a year or so, the shadow had been constantlying out and capturing animals, thus attracting the attention of this species. However, because there was no white wind, they had to abide by the ancient treaties and stay in hiding beneath the surface of the sand.

    Their species¡¯ ancient records gave them insight into the shadow¡¯s powers, and therefore, once the white wind appeared, they sent out a squad to track down the shadow. After finding it, they used a holy weapon to pin it to the ground.

    Originally, they had assumed their mission wasplete. All they needed to do was take the shadow back to be punished.

    However, the leader didn¡¯t want to end things like that. He could tell that the shadow had a master, and wanted to take advantage of their time in the open to capture both the shadow and its master. But the arrival of this ck tempest had him and his squad feeling very uneasy. For generations, their species had lived beneath the sands of the desert, and were innately immune to the white wind. What was more, they understood more about the desert than any outsider. Because of that, they knew all about the white and ck winds.

    The squad leader looked at the figure in the tempest, and could tell that he didn¡¯t have very strong cultivation base fluctuations. But the ck tempest made him leery.

    As a result, they didn¡¯t blindly take action. Instead, they startedmunicating with hand signs that only their species understood. Then, the leader spoke.

    ¡°Sire, over the past half year, this vile spirit of yours has been killing our pets, harming the desert environment, and stealing our food. This behavior is considered <i>wicked beyond redemption</i> to our species, so we were given the mission of capturing it. What¡¯s more, our patriarchs and other leaders tasked us with asking you a question, Sire. Why are you doing this? Our species has no quarrel with you. We demand that youpensate us!¡±

    The figure in the tempest stopped in ce.

    Xu Qing was a reasonable person, and what these people were saying seemed to make sense. After a moment of consideration, he said, ¡°That¡¯s fine. What do you want?¡±

    The white-robed cultivators¡¯ eyes narrowed. This was not what they had expected at all.

    ¡°First. You have to pay us back for the pets we lost. You killed 153 of them, and each one is worth 100,000 spirit stones! Second. You have to let us take the vile spirit with us.¡±

    When the shadow heard that, it seemed to be terrified. Only a momentter, it seemed to notice something unusual nearby. A fraction of a second,ter, it pretended it hadn¡¯t noticed anything, and continued to howl in grief and terror.

    The figure in the tempest shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t afford that. Can you ept a bit less?¡±

    The white-robed cultivators stared back at Xu Qing.

    ¡°If you tell us how you made that tempest,¡± the leader said, ¡°then we can cut the price by thirty percent. But we won¡¯t give back the vile spirit.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it. He couldn¡¯t afford that many spirit stones, even after the discount. It seemed that he wasn¡¯t being the unreasonable one. And since the other party was being unreasonable, then he didn¡¯t see the need topensate them. As calm as ever, he took another step forward.

    The moment he moved, the white robed cultivators jumped into the air and simultaneously performed incantation gestures. The white wind grew more intense as a result, withrge amounts of white sand flying toward the ck tempest.

    The leader was thinking, <i>We haven¡¯t been out in a while. Are all the cultivators out here as dumb as this nowadays? I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re actually getting a chance to fight!</i>

    As he and the other members of his species sprang into motion together, the white wind blew with astonishing intensity, whipping the sand into the shape of a huge worm that lunged toward the figure in the ck tempest.

    When they mmed into each other, a loud boom rang out.

    However, because the white-robed cultivators were paying such close attention to the ck tempest, they didn¡¯t realize something unusual had just happened to the shadow. Someone had appeared invisibly next to it. And that person was squatting next to the shadow, and was closely examining the dagger pinning it to the ground.

    That person was Xu Qing.

    The figure in the tempest was actually a projection of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    The fact that these people managed to trap the shadow indicated to Xu Qing that they were nobody to take lightly. He had assumed from the beginning that there would beplications, which was why he¡¯d had Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior take point in the tempest and keep the enemy¡¯s attention focused elsewhere.

    Concealed in invisibility, he¡¯de here. He had hoped to just secretly free the shadow. Unfortunately, the golden dagger was an extraordinary item, and the aura on it didn¡¯t just suppress the shadow; it also left Xu Qing feeling jumpy with fear.

    He could tell that the dagger was controlled by means of blood, and anyone without the right bloodline would have a hard time doing anything with it. The dim light it exuded allowed it to sense the world around it, and if the wrong person tried to touch it, they would be rejected.

    And thus, he squatted off to the side trying to figure out how to remove it.

    <i>Without the right bloodline, I can¡¯t pull it out. I would be discovered, and would also have to deal with a bacsh. The dim light flickering on it connects to the user. But during the moment in which it switches between light and dark, as long as I¡¯m fast enough, I should be able to reach in and grab it. I¡¯ll only have one chance. In that case... I¡¯ll have to freeze time!</i>

    As Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered, booms rang out not too far away. The ck tempest was being ripped apart by the white worm. The figure inside backed up, transforming into a fish bone before disappearing off into the desert. At the same time, the power of Xu Qing¡¯s sundials exploded.

    It locked onto the dagger and froze it in ce!

    As the dim light on the dagger flickered back and forth between dark and light, it suddenly stopped in a moment of darkness. Xu Qing¡¯s hand then shot out and grabbed the dagger. His cultivation base erupted, as did his fleshly body power. Using both, he pulled as hard as he could.

    In the blink of an eye, the dagger was out of the shadow. The shadow issued a sound like a cheer, and as the dandelions faded away from it, it shot back to its spot beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet.

    Having done that, Xu Qing put the dagger into his bag of holding, and without a backward nce, fled at top speed. Having already circled around, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior joined him.

    Meanwhile, the moment the ck tempest copsed, the white-robed cultivators realized something was going on with the shadow. Their faces fell.

    ¡°It was a trick!¡±

    Despite their astonishment, they quickly gave chase. Instantly, terrifying Spirit Trove fluctuations rolled out across the desert. Meanwhile, the top experts from their species sensed what was going on, and rushed to help.

    In that moment of crisis, the parrot prepared to flee for his life. He didn¡¯t care whether Xu Qing lived or died, and was actually feeling very pleased with himself. He had aplished his task, after all. <i>You poisoned me, fool! So don¡¯t even think of getting help from me. If you want to court death, then that has nothing to do with me!</i>

    However, just when he was about to flee via teleportation, Xu Qing reached out and grabbed him.

    ¡°Teleport me away,¡± he said calmly.

    The shocked parrot was already cursing in his heart, but had no choice other than to begin a teleportation. However, it didn¡¯t quite act fast enough.

    Xu Qing squeezed a bit harder, and the parrot let loose a squawk. One of his feathers copsed into ashes, and then the power of teleportation surged out. They vanished. Only the ashes of the feather remained behind, drifting away with the wind.

    A momentter, a massive boom rang out as a vortex appeared in that spot. Astonishing fluctuations rolled out, filled with intense rage. It didn¡¯t just happen in that spot. There were other vortexes in other nearby spots, all of them searching for the same thing.

    As it turned out, the parrot had exaggerated his teleportation abilities to a certain degree. He wasn¡¯t capable of teleporting very long distances. Only a few hundred kilometers away, the parrot and Xu Qing popped into existence.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t actually surprised, and had actually assumed something like this would happen. The moment they materialized, he squeezed down hard on the parrot.

    The parrot let out a yelp and used another feather to initiate a second teleportation.

    The process continued after that. At Xu Qing¡¯s urging, the parrot would howl in grief as he lost a feather and teleported further away, taking Xu Qing racing toward the edge of the desert. Eventually, the parrot stopped howling so much, and instead started cursing.

    ¡°You¡¯re not even human, are you? You¡¯repletely deranged! You¡¯re more of an animal than I am! Y-y-you... you schmuck! I¡¯d tell you to go to hell, but all dogs go to heaven! This is outrageous! Duck you, motherclucker! I¡¯m gonna die! Heeeelp!¡±

    After a few dozen additional teleportations, they were getting close to the edge of the desert. The parrot could hardly breathe. ¡°Stop, I beg of you! I¡¯m still just a kid! I can¡¯t handle this....¡±

    He was now trembling with fear, and barely had any feathers left, leaving him looking naked. As he looked in terror at the expressionless Xu Qing, he came to the conclusion that he was the most diabolical monster in existence. A terrifying nightmare.

    ¡°Bastard!¡±

 Chapter 589: The Hunger from Red Moon Authority

    <h4>Chapter 589: The Hunger from Red Moon Authority</h4>

    Despite the parrot¡¯s inner anguish, he didn¡¯t dare to continue with any more cursing. In a weeping voice, he continued, ¡°Sect Uncle, I really can¡¯t handle this. I can¡¯t do any more. Please, let me off the hook....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the parrot.

    ¡°Sect Uncle,¡± the parrot wept, ¡°I-I-I... I can only teleport by using feathers. Look at how young I am! I haven¡¯t even gotten married yet! See, I hardly have any feathers left. If other birds see me they¡¯llugh to death!¡±

    The parrot wasn¡¯t lying. His teleportation powers did rely on his feathers, and he had long been very proud of his multicolored look. In fact, whenever he had run into other birds, he had always sneered derisively at their drab coats. As far as he was concerned, he was the most beautiful bird in heaven and earth. One of a kind! But now... he looked naked and bald, which filled his heart with sorrow and indignation.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was paying attention to the distant fluctuations. Then he checked to see how many feathers the parrot still had left.

    ¡°You have a few more, don¡¯t you?¡± he said, squeezing the parrot.

    ¡°Drop dead!¡± the parrot screamed as he initiated another teleportation. Xu Qing and the parrot vanished, leaving behind a single feather crumbling to ash in the wind.

    A momentter, they materialized a few hundred kilometers away. Before the parrot could say anything, Xu Qing squeezed him hard.

    Another scream echoed out across thends....

    A dozen or so teleportationster, the parrot only had a single feather left. At longst, Xu Qing had, with the help of the parrot, shaken the pursuit of the white-robed cultivators. The edge of the desert was only about fifteen kilometers away. The white wind here was very weak, and hardly any dandelions could be seen.

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

    The parrot sagged weakly in Xu Qing¡¯s hand. He looked like a b of meat, his expression despairing, his face ashen, and his skin red, swollen, and covered with dots. Each of those dots was a spot where a feather had once grown. But now... the parrot only had a single feather left on one of his wings. He looked nkly at that feather. A few months ago when he started out on his journey, he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams that something like this would happen.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Xu Qing said softly. It probably would have been better if he didn¡¯t say thank you. The moment he did, the parrot started crying again.

    ¡°My feathers.... How will I ever get married now? All other birds will despise me....¡±

    Xu Qing was thinking that this parrot was actually very useful, and he was contemting having a chat with Wu Jianwuter, to ask if he could borrow the parrot for a few decades. He wasn¡¯t sure how long the feathers would take to grow out again, but regardless, he decided he ought tofort the parrot a bit.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. They¡¯ll grow back.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± the parrot wailed, ¡°but it¡¯ll take a really, really long time...¡±

    As Xu Qing pondered the situation, the parrot¡¯s single feather rustled back and forth a bit.

    Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er actually felt bad. ¡°Poor little parrot. Big Bro Xu Qing, look, he only has one feather left! We really didn¡¯t take his feelings into consideration.¡±

    When the parrot heard that, his heart swelled with gratitude, and he was about to say something.

    But then, Ling¡¯er continued, ¡°I think the lone feather actually looks pretty bad. Big Bro Xu Qing, why not teleport us one more time?¡±

    The parrot¡¯s eyes went wide and it instantlypsed into a fit of rage.

    ¡°If I had a face like yours, I''d sue my parents! Calling you an idiot would be an insult to all the stupid people! Thest time I saw something like you, I flushed it!¡±

    The parrot had already lost its mind a bit, so Ling¡¯er¡¯s expression ofpassion pushed it over the edge into madness.

    Ling¡¯er slid back into Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve. Sounding hurt, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this thing is vicious. But you can¡¯t me the little parrot. He¡¯s just a kid. I probably misspoke....¡±

    When the shadow heard that, it spread out and hovered menacingly over the parrot. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior also flew out and locked onto the parrot.

    The parrot shivered, all while feeling even more enraged. At the moment, all he wanted to do was get back to his dad. He missed his dad.

    Stroking Ling¡¯er, Xu Qing ignored the parrot and turned to look off into the distance, and his eyes glittered. He sensed familiar fluctuations in that direction.

    ¡°Little Shadow,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    The shadow shivered. After sensing what was happening, it twisted to form the shape of an old man being chased by two moons.

    ¡°Li Youfei?¡± Xu Qing murmured. He had left a shadow eye on the old man, which was how he could identify him.

    A few moments passed, then Xu Qing started moving in the direction of the fluctuations.

    Instead of killing Li Youfei, he¡¯d put a shadow eye on him so the shadow could help determine if the old man was telling the truth. As it turned out, he was more heroic than viinous, and had not revealed Xu Qing¡¯s presence to anyone. After that, Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent toward him had died down, and he¡¯d had the shadow keep tabs on him while Xu Qing did his curse research.

    It looked like cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral were chasing him right now, and Xu Qing nned to go see exactly what was happening. It wasn¡¯t very often he got a chance to deal with a couple of godves. He had done a lot of curse research on animals, but was also interested in doing research on cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral.

    <i>Based on all my work from the better part of thest year, my guess is that the Red Moon Cathedral cultivators don¡¯t have the curse in them. Either that, or the curse isn¡¯t as strong. But the question is whether or not I can absorb it....</i>

    Licking his lips, he put on the concealment of invisibility and began the hunt.

    ***

    A few dozen kilometers away at the edge of the Greenhair Bands, a freakish being was speeding along. The thing was about fifteen meters tall, and looked like a mountain of flesh. It had over a dozen arms growing out all over it, as well as seven or eight tumor-like heads. Shockingly, one of the growths that hung down over its chest had an almost unrecognizable face on it.

    If you looked closely, you would probably recognize Li Youfei. However, he was as ashen as death, and his aura was very weak. He was suffering from some serious mutations, and also had some very wicked wounds. It seemed that every rotation of his cultivation base caused his internal organs to hurt, and caused him to cough up blood uncontrobly. Most notable, there was a huge wound on his chest, within which was visible shattered bone.

    Most astonishing of all was that there were a host of dandelions all over him, madly absorbing his life force. All the while, flesh grew out from him all over, spreading out constantly. Anyone who looked at him would find him exceedingly gruish. This was what happened when one went out into the white wind.

    He was being chased through the hazy whiteness by two figures in red. They seemed to be slowly catching up to him. They had Nascent Soul fluctuations, and were surrounded by a red mist. The power of Crimson Mother protected them, allowing these two godves to move around freely in the white wind.

    It was obvious that they could catch up to him if they wanted. But they seemed very rxed, as if they were just out taking a dog for a walk.

    ¡°Run, Li Youfei! The edge of the desert is just ahead!¡±

    ¡°Once you reach the border, you won¡¯t be tormented by the wind of the White Mother. Just a few more kilometers now. Hurry!¡±

    ¡°Then again, even if you escape, our Lady¡¯s curse is about to explode out of control in you. Don¡¯t forget to tell us which hurts worse, the curse, or the White Mother¡¯s wind.¡±

    ¡°Or you could beg for your life. Maybe we¡¯ll suddenly feel merciful and end things for you right away.¡±

    Brutal gleams could be seen in the godves¡¯ eyes. They were lucky to have run into Li Youfei out in the white wind. He was well-known in the Red Moon Cathedral, having killed many rogue cultivators who wanted to work for the cathedral. Although he hadn¡¯t caused a huge amount of trouble, he was still annoying to them.

    However, <i>when fishing for a small fish, the fisherman won¡¯t do much until the bait is bit</i>. And Li Youfei was good at staying out of sight.

    That said, Li Youfei could still be of value to the two godves. If they could keep him alive but torment him to the point of causing the curse to erupt, then they could take his remains back to the cathedral, they could exchange it for rewards. That was what had led to the current situation.

    Li Youfei currently felt wrapped up in despair.

    He knew that there was no way for him to escape. The white wind had allowed him to escape the Bitter Life Mountains and the person he had offended there. However, he ended up badly hurt in the process. That injury just kept weakening him. And then he ran into the godves from the Red Moon Cathedral, which removed just about any hope he had of surviving.

    <i>I¡¯m not going to make it out of this....</i>

    All he could do wasugh bitterly in his heart. There had been a lot of twists and turns in the Bitter Life Mountains over the past few years. All he had wanted to do was join the Moonrebel Congregation. But godves weren¡¯t easy to kill, and they rarely went out alone.

    That was why he had never been able to meet that specific qualification to join the Moonrebel Congregation. But recently, he had learned that one of the most powerful rogue cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains had an apprentice that had secretly be a godve. So he had taken a risk and set up an ambush.

    The ambush actually seeded. But before he could collect the body, the Master¡¯s divine sense arrived and destroyed his traction avatar. Then it started chasing after his true form. If it weren¡¯t for the white wind covering some of his tracks, he would have definitely died. He was left with no choice but to flee into the wind. Right now, the despair in his heart caused his eyes to glimmer with ferocity and determination.

    ¡°If I¡¯m going to die, I¡¯ll take you fools with me!¡±

    Killing intent surged in his heart, and he was about to lure the godves close to him when, all of a sudden, he heard a bloodcurdling scream from behind him. Not even the wind could drown out the terror in that cry.

    Stunned, Li Youfei turned. What he saw caused his pupils to constrict!

    A massive hand had appeared in the white wind. It was violet, and around the size of an average person. It had grabbed one of the godves, and then yanked them back into the wind. It happened so quickly that the godve couldn¡¯t even struggle or fight back. As the miserable shriek rang out, the godve¡¯s body rapidly withered, as if his life force were being sucked out of him. The other godve was visibly shocked, and was so taken aback he started trembling.

    Li Youfei struggled to control his breathing. He had no idea what exactly was happening, but he did know that the death of even just one godve meant he now had a chance to survive. Therefore, without the slightest hesitation, he ignored his severe injuries and unleashed everything his cultivation base was capable of to speed away in the opposite direction.

    The other godve was not inclined to go chasing after Li Youfei. Right now, he was dealing with massive waves of shock as he realized he had just sensed the aura and fluctuations of Crimson Mother. And they surpassed anything that he had ever sensed from any godservants or even godheralds.

    <i>A god!</i>

    The godve¡¯s heart was already pounding. His energy, blood, and cultivation base vibrated, and based on the blessing inside of him, he knew that his senses couldn¡¯t be deceiving him. The hand that had just killed hispanion was definitely emanating the High God aura of hisdy and mistress. As he trembled, a seemingly empty voice drifted through the wind.

    ¡°Come to me, my servant. Over here...e....¡±

    Li Youfei was too far away to hear that voice. But the godve heard it clearly, and it made him tremble even harder. That voice contained the aura of Crimson Mother, and it made him lose any ability to fight back against it. Shaking, he instinctively walked forward, disappearing into the white wind.

    Sometimeter, a person emerged. Violet light glittered in his eyes, and violet moon fluctuations rolled out in all directions from him. Within the white wind, that violet color made it seem like a god had arrived. After walking about thirty meters out from the wind, the violet light in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes faded, and he burped.

    <i>It¡¯s just as I expected. In the bodies of the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral, the curse is turned into a blessing. It¡¯s the source of their faith. The more faith they show in Crimson Mother of the red moon, the stronger the blessing gets, allowing them to summon corresponding power from the red moon. And just now... I devoured their faith power, thus augmenting my violet moon godly authority. It wasn¡¯t much... but it was delicious.</i>

    He licked his lips. Devouring two Nascent Soul godves hadn¡¯t been veryplicated. Because of the faith in them, all he had to do was emit the godly authority of the violet moon, and they became like walking food that came right to him.

    <i>However, if it was a Spirit Trove godservant, it wouldn¡¯t have been as easy</i>. Thinking back to the red-garbed woman he¡¯d encountered at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea, he sighed. <i>I can actually do the same thing with any living being in the Moonrite Region, because all of them have the curse. The difference is just that it hasn¡¯t been turned into faith in Crimson Mother.</i>

    As he continued, gurgling sounds drifted out from within him, along with a sense of hunger. Apparently, eating that red moon faith left him with the desire for more. Stopping in ce, he took a moment to sense himself, then frowned.

    <i>Why does eating their faith make me hungry...?</i>

    At least the hunger wasn¡¯t very intense, and with a bit of effort, he suppressed it. Then he sped up and vanished into the wind. Half a dayter, Xu Qing used the shadow eye to track down a certain mountain of flesh.

    It was none other than Li Youfei.

 Chapter 590: How Very Rare!

    <h4>Chapter 590: How Very Rare!</h4>

    The white wind blew, stirring the sand and swaying the white nts.

    Li Youfeiy on the ground, as still as a corpse. His fifteen-meter frame emanated a nauseating stench that the wind couldn¡¯t dispel, and could be smelled from quite a distance away. Even from a distance it was possible to see parts of his flesh rotting away to reveal bones beneath. He waspletely enveloped in an aura of death. He was in this state because of abination of the gruish nature of the white wind and the re-up of Crimson Mother¡¯s curse. He was stricken both in his physical body and his soul. He wasn¡¯t very far away from being actually dead. Or more precisely, he was already half a step into the Yellow Springs. Only a scrap of defiance within him kept hold of the veryst bit of life force he had left. However, that defiance and struggle also inflicted more pain and suffering on him.

    Xu Qing approached, checked his condition, and then shook his head.

    <i>Can¡¯t be saved.</i>

    Xu Qing had some painquelling lozenges, but all they did was reduce the torment of curse re-ups. They didn¡¯t actually treat the curse itself. In fact, as far as Xu Qing could tell, they actually made it worse.

    If Li Youfei ate a painquelling lozenge, it wouldn¡¯t just fail to save him. It would probably overwhelm thest scrap of life that existed within him.

    Since Li Youfei couldn¡¯t be saved, Xu Qing took back the shadow eye and turned to leave. However, after taking only a few steps, he stopped walking, turned, and looked again at Li Youfei. A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

    <i>Hold on. Something¡¯s off about this situation. He shouldn¡¯t havested so long with a curse re-up like this. And he also shouldn¡¯t have a scrap of life force left in him. It doesn¡¯t make sense.</i>

    Suddenly curious, Xu Qing walked back. This time he looked more closely. A momentter, he grabbed Li Youfei and sped away.

    Leaving the Greenhair Bands, he went to a mountain some 500 kilometers away, quickly hewed out a cave, and put Li Youfei inside. After going back to get rid of all traces of his passage and presence, he returned to Li Youfei and studied him even more closely. He even went so far as to cut some of the rotting flesh off him to study it.

    The next day, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly. He had found the answer to the question.

    <i>It¡¯s the white wind. That wind is a catalyst that actually bolsters life force and leads to the chaotic growths. The point of it is to nourish the bug eggs and facilitate their growth.</i>

    <i>That¡¯s why Li Youfei hasn¡¯t died from the curse re up. The white wind and the curse are actually at odds with each other. Although the white wind isn¡¯t a match for the curse, it¡¯s strong enough to keep him alive.</i>

    Xu Qing was visibly moved.

    <i>So, this white wind can actually resist the curse? What is it?</i>

    Eyes shining, Xu Qing squatted next to Li Youfei and started slicing his flesh open to extract the bug eggs and the dandelions. It was a gruesome process. He needed to make a lot of incisions, and much of the flesh was rotting so badly that merely touching it caused it to turn into a noxious ck sludge.

    However, Xu Qing was very patient. He was like an extremely focused artisan who paid no heed to the materials he was wasting as he carefully sculpted away. Before long, Li Youfei was covered with countless wounds. In some cases, Xu Qing just cut the fleshpletely off.

    With each bug egg that was taken away, less of his life force was being taken away by them, which meant he was able to resist the curse even more. Although that power couldn¡¯t surpass the curse, at least the life force within him was able tost a bit longer.

    Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t going to have much effect in the long run. From what Xu Qing could tell, it would only be between three to five days before Li Youfei¡¯s life force ran out, and he was ovee by the curse. However, that gave Xu Qing some inspiration.

    <i>Li Youfei is actually lucky. Given his current state, it actually makes sense to try a painquelling lozenge.</i>

    After thinking it over, Xu Qing took out a painquelling lozenge and put it into Li Youfei¡¯s mouth. Then he waved his hand, sending hundreds of violet threads out, which stabbed into Li Youfei. But the painquelling lozenge was only the first step. Xu Qing nned to thoroughly study Li Youfei, using the same methods he¡¯d used to refine painquelling lozenges.

    <i>Chances are he¡¯s going to die anyway. But if he lives, maybe I can consider using the white wind as a new direction in my research.</i>

    Sitting down cross-legged, he got to work.

    The next day, he left the cave. Following the directions of the hapless parrot, he traveled and experimented on Li Youfei at the same time. Thanks to his work, the curse in Li Youfei was slowly fading. He was also able to make medicinal pills made from Li Youfei¡¯s flesh. Every time the curse red up, Xu Qing would feed one of those pills to him. The result was that the life force within him would be bolstered.

    Xu Qing was absolutely delighted. It was like he finally had material to experiment with that he¡¯d previously only dreamed of.

    A month passed.

    Xu Qing was now deep into the western part of the Moonrite Region. On one particr evening in a random valley, he finished experimenting on Li Youfei. Extracting all of the threads, he fed Li Youfei another painquelling lozenge made of his own flesh. This particr pill was different from the ordinary variety. Thanks to his research on Li Youfei, he had dramatically altered the painquelling lozenge form. Although there was still more work to be done, he was close to being finished.

    After feeding Li Youfei the pill, Xu Qing quietly said, ¡°If you¡¯re awake now, there¡¯s no need to pretend to be dead.¡±

    Li Youfei shivered. Having no other choice, he opened his eyes and looked fearfully at Xu Qing. The reality was that he had regained consciousness three days before....

    He¡¯d realized Xu Qing had been experimenting on him, but was too terrified to say anything. And then he realized that Xu Qing was actually feeding him strange medicinal pills that seemed to be dispelling the curse power within him. He waspletely shocked. But at the same time, he wasn¡¯t stupid. Given his wealth of experience in life, he quickly guessed what the medicinal pills were made from. It left him so stunned that even now he hadn¡¯t fully recovered.

    During the three days he¡¯d been conscious, he¡¯d counted how many pills Xu Qing fed him. Eight.

    <i>Even if I sold myself, I wouldn¡¯t have enough to buy one of those pills... what exactly is his goal</i>...? That was what Li Youfei had asked himself multiple times during the three days.

    Now that he couldn¡¯t fake death any more, he couldn¡¯t hold back from asking about his spections.

    ¡°Grandmaster, were you feeding me...?¡±

    ¡°Painquelling lozenges,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    Even though that was what Li Youfei had suspected, hearing the answer confirmed caused him to reel mentally. Shivering, he asked, ¡°And... how many did you give me?¡±

    Xu Qing did some calctions and then looked at Li Youfei. ¡°It¡¯s been a month. I gave you a bit over a hundred.¡±

    Li Youfei¡¯s eyes went wide and he twitched. He knew full well how expensive painquelling lozenges were. Even Spirit Trove experts would go crazy for them. And he¡¯d consumed over a hundred....

    He had no reason to doubt Xu Qing. After all, he knew for sure that he¡¯d consumed eight pills in three days.

    If news of this spread, it would cause pandemonium. At the moment, he felt like a beggar who¡¯d been fancied by a rich businessman who casually gave him a billion spirit stones. All of a sudden, he didn¡¯t want to think about it. He didn¡¯t want to consider why Xu Qing had done this. Trembling, he got to his feet then immediately dropped to his knees to kowtow.

    ¡°Grandmaster! Sir, I¡¯m not sure why you did this for me. But it doesn¡¯t matter. Sir... you¡¯ve done too much!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him and opened his mouth to speak, but then his eyes hardened and he looked toward the entrance of the valley.

    They were in the depths of the western part of the Moonrite Region. The sky was dusky, and there was very little light. Because of that, it wasn¡¯t possible to see much more than the weeds growing around the valley. The whispering night wind carried with it the sound of distant drums and gongs. It seemed like there was arge group of people heading in the direction of the valley.

    Li Youfei noticed Xu Qing¡¯s shing eyes, and quickly jumped up to take a defensive position in front of him. Which was what Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior usually did.

    The patriarch immediately flew out, red scornfully at Li Youfei, and then turned his attention to the valley entrance.

    The cacophony grew louder, and soon a group of people entered the valley. They looked like they were made from y. However, they wore clothing, and there were over a hundred of them. Gongs were being beaten in the front of the procession, and drums were being banged in the back. In the middle, a group of a few dozen of the y people were carrying a stone shrine. [1]

    Inside the shrine was a fox made of y, wearing a red robe. It had makeup on its face, and wasn¡¯t moving at all, as if it were dead. [2]

    The arrival of the procession caused a sinister wind to blow through the valley, stirring the weeds and leaves. However, the y people didn¡¯t pay any attention to Xu Qing and Li Youfei as they walked right down the middle of the valley.

    Xu Qing looked them over. He was already used to the many freakish and grotesque things that existed in the world, so he wasn¡¯t surprised. Beings like this were usually the type who would only bully the weak and fear the strong, so there was little point in paying attention to them. However, there also wasn¡¯t any point in creating a conflict by blocking their path. Expression calm, he released some cultivation base fluctuations and then took a few steps back to make way.

    And thus the procession passed by. However, when the shrine was going right in front of Xu Qing, the y fox inside turned and looked at both him and Li Youfei.

    The y eyes rippled, transforming into something like glittering gemstones that could pierce all the way to the soul.

    Then the fox spoke in thenguid, sultry voice of a woman. [3]

    ¡°Primal yang? I can¡¯t believe you have a Nascent Soul cultivation base, but still have primal yang! And it¡¯s so pure! Completely unplucked! How very rare....¡± [4]

    1. This is the same type of shrine that Xu Qing and the Captain encountered on their river inspection tour a few hundred chapters ago. It looks <u>like this</u> (the same picture I linked back then). ?

    2. The y people and the y fox would likely look like traditional Chinese y statues <u>like this</u>. ?

    3. As I¡¯m sure many of you know already, fox spirits (also known as fox immortals, fox gods, or whatever) are amon thing in Chinese myth and legend, and of course, that concept spread from China to ces like Japan, Korea, Vietnam etc. There are many varieties, but one of the most stereotypical version has the fox spirit capable of taking the form of a beautiful but often malevolent or mischievous woman who tries to seduce men. Again, that¡¯s not a rule, and of course, the fox in this chapter has its own unique qualities. However, the concept of fox spirits popped into mind for me when I read this part. Incidentally, the 2008 supernatural/wuxia movie <u>Painted Skin</u> all revolves around a fox spirit. That movie is awesome and I rmend it if you haven¡¯t seen it before. ?

    4. What I¡¯m tranting as ¡°primal yang¡± could also be tranted as something like ¡°original yang, originating yang, origin yang,¡± etc. In TCM, it¡¯s supposed to be the origin of yang energy, or perhaps the original batch of yang energy that someone is born with. Obviously, things in xianxia aren¡¯t necessarily going to correspond exactly with ¡°real-life¡± TCM stuff. Regardless, ¡°yang energy¡± is male energy. Given the context of the statement, this woman seems surprised that Xu Qing, despite being in the Nascent Soul level, still has this type of male energy. The unstated implication here is that someone in the Nascent Soul level would presumably be old enough to have a lot of life experience. I think ya¡¯ll get the point.... ?

 Chapter 591: Name Your Price, Young Sir!

    <h4>Chapter 591: Name Your Price, Young Sir!</h4>

    The coquettish voice seemed like silk threads that drifted through the air, into the ears, and down to the soul.

    Xu Qing frowned and looked at Li Youfei.

    Li Youfei, who was visibly stunned, shook his head and said, ¡°Not me... I don¡¯t have any. I lost it all in Qi Condensation.¡±

    The y fox nced disdainfully at Li Youfei. ¡°Where did youe from, you piece of trash?¡± She looked back at Xu Qing, her eyes glittering flirtatiously. It was as if she could see right through Xu Qing¡¯s disguise. ¡°Also, you¡¯re so handsome! I¡¯m getting worked up just looking at you.¡±

    The y fox stood and stepped out of the shrine. Then, the fox¡¯s entire body rippled as she transformed into a bewitchingly charming young woman. [1]

    Her ample chest swayed as she walked, and her hourss figure was so iparable that Li Youfei gasped upon seeing it. As his heart raced, he thought, <i>Seductress!</i>

    She wore gauzy red clothing that only half covered her, and looked like it might fall off at any moment. Her skin was so fair it was almost translucent, and her curvaceous body was so attractive that anyone who looked at her would be overwhelmed with the desire to be with her.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he assessed the seductress¡¯ cultivation base. She was clearly in Nascent Soul. His shadow spread out, but as soon as the woman took a step forward from the shrine, it shivered and tumbled back to Xu Qing.

    The woman licked her lips and smiled. ¡°Young sir, although we¡¯re both in Nascent Soul, you¡¯re not aware of my background and origin. I don¡¯t want to use force on someone as cute and lovable as you. That would take all the fun out of it. Therefore, let¡¯s negotiate. Name your price.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. This was his first time experiencing something like this. Ling¡¯er had already stuck her head out of his sleeve. She was clearly bristling with rage, to the point where her scales were standing on end as she red at the woman.

    The woman ignored Ling¡¯er. She slowly looked at Xu Qing from head to toe. Then she looked back into his eyes and licked her lips again.

    ¡°I won¡¯t hurt you,¡± she said. Then she took out a bottle gourd and slowly shook it back and forth. ¡°I have nine painquelling lozenges here. There used to be ten, but someone bought one of them for twenty red heavenfire crystals. I can give the rest to you, if you¡¯d like. Sound good?¡±

    Xu Qing was very taken aback.

    When she saw his facial expression, she felt herself burning with even more passion than before. Next, she took out a silver-colored bone. Smiling, she continued, ¡°This is a bone pill from an almighty member of the Ancient Spirit species. It would be very useful to that little snake of yours. Want it?¡±

    Ling¡¯er was visibly stunned for a moment, but then she clenched her teeth and continued ring at the woman, all while refraining from even looking at the bone pill.

    The woman smiled and took something else out. Astonishingly, it was an internal organ from a human. It was golden and crescent-shaped, indicating that it was probably a kidney.

    ¡°This little treasure came from a crazy person who took a bite out of Crimson Mother, and was subsequently chopped to pieces. Someone gave me the kidneyter on. If you spend a few days with me, young sir, you can have it to replenish your emptiness.¡± [2]

    Shocked, Xu Qing looked at the kidney. Ling¡¯er, meanwhile, was starting to get nervous. Li Youfei was astonished, and looked enviously at Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond to the woman, she sighed.

    <i>¡°The young man made a big mistake; he somehow took to favoring a snake.</i> Ah, whatever. Take care of your primal yang, young sir. If you ever change your mind, you cane back and look for me right here. I¡¯d be happy to do business any time.¡±

    The woman turned and swayed back to the shrine, where she turned back into a y fox. During the entire exchange, the y people just stood there expressionlessly. And once she was back in the shrine, the procession continued on its way. As the sinister wind blew, they went through the valley and then disappeared into the distance.

    Everything went quiet.

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully in the direction the y fox had disappeared to. Ling¡¯er looked nervously at Xu Qing. Li Youfei stood off to the side with very mixed emotions, not really sure of what to say. Ever since leaving the desert, things had been very strange.

    Speaking in hardly more than a whisper, Ling¡¯er said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing....¡±

    ¡°There was no curse on her,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    Ling¡¯er sighed.

    Li Youfei shivered. ¡°Grandmaster, do you mean... she¡¯s from out of the region?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. The y fox had shown up too unexpectedly, giving him no chance to assess whether she had passed by randomly, or if she hade this way on purpose. What was more, the items she had pulled out were all extraordinary to say the least. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the painquelling lozenge she¡¯d mentioned selling was the same one he had bought in the Moonrebel Congregation. And then there was that kidney....

    Xu Qing hesitated for a moment. However, in the end, he knew he couldn¡¯t stay in this location for very long. Turning, he left in the opposite direction. Li Youfei hesitated briefly, then followed him.

    Half a month flew by.

    Xu Qing followed the directions of the parrot the entire time. Every day, he would spend more time studying Li Youfei. As a result, he gained a lot of inspiration regarding pill concocting, and also continued to make changes to his version of the painquelling lozenge.

    At first, Li Youfei was very nervous about the whole thing. But as the days passed, he gradually stopped caring. Just about every day, he ate more painquelling lozenges than he could afford even if he sold himself.

    Eventually, Xu Qing came to learn why Li Youfei had chosen to leave the Bitter Life Mountains, specifically, because of his conflict with a patriarch there.

    ¡°Patriarch Inkrule is in the Void Returning level. He¡¯s the number-one expert among rogue cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains. He deals with both the Red Moon Cathedral and the Moonrebel Congregation, and has always lived well doing so. Having no other options, I killed his apprentice to pass the Moonrebel Congregation test....¡±

    Thinking back to how things yed out, Li Youfei surreptitiously looked at Xu Qing out of the corner of his eye. Sighing, he mused that things really hadn¡¯t gone well. After all, though he sessfully killed his target, he didn¡¯t manage to keep his hands on the corpse. The reason he was surreptitiously looking at Xu Qing was that, over the course of the past half a month, he hade to realize that Xu Qing had two godve corpses. They were none other than the ones he had killed in the white wind.

    Xu Qing had been experimenting on them, especially when reaching a deadlock in his work on Li Youfei. When that happened, he would often take them out and dissect them for research purposes. As time passed, his dissection methods grew increasingly brutal. Sometimes he would remove their organs to study, sometimes he would crush their bones to check the marrow. It always involved a lot of blood.

    Xu Qing had discovered something very interesting about the two godve cultivators. Their internal organs were in different states of invasion. Although the curse within them had turned into a blessing, that transformation wasn¡¯tplete.

    ¡°I wonder what Spirit Trove godservants would look like,¡± he murmured.

    During times like that, Li Youfei would shiver. Although there was no screaming involved when Xu Qing dissected the corpses, Li Youfei would still watch with his heart full of trepidation. He had always thought of himself as a ruthless person. Butpared to this grandmaster, he almost didn¡¯t even count as being ruthless. And he couldn¡¯t help but fear the prospect of this grandmastering up with the idea of experimenting with Li Youfei¡¯s corpse.

    As he stewed in anxiety, they got closer and closer to the Yin Sacrifice River in the west. Eventually, Xu Qing solved the final problems with his new painquelling lozenge.

    At the moment, they were about a month away from the Yin Sacrifice River, atop a mountain. Li Youfeiy in front of Xu Qing on the ground, unconscious.

    Xu Qing had just finished with some experimentation. He looked at Li Youfei, whose life force was flourishing, then at the pill he had just concocted. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction. This pill was the result of the fantastic circumstances rting to Li Youfei¡¯s body, as well as all the research he¡¯d done on the two godve corpses.

    It didn¡¯t look very different from a normal painquelling lozenge. It had the same five-colored exterior. But if you examined it closely, you would find that it also contained a white color, making it generally lighter in appearance. That said, in terms of its medicinal efficacy, it was poles apart from the original. It didn¡¯t just quell the pain from the curse. It could actually reduce the curse levels!

    If you assigned a numeric value to the curse level in a person, say 10,000, then consuming this pill would reduce the level to 9,999. Although that wasn¡¯t very much, perhaps even too little to notice, it was still a big leap forward.

    And that was because the reduction was permanent! The fundamental principle was simr to antibodies. Once the reduction urred, it never changed. And the pain relief was only a side effect. There were other side effects. For instance, it drained life force. However, the drainage was less than with the ordinary painquelling lozenges, while the pain relief was even more effective.

    <i>Unfortunately, the curse reduction only works the first time you consume it. After that, you get pain relief but nothing else. That¡¯s because the curse is alive, and it will adjust to deal with the pill effects.</i>

    Xu Qing was slightly disappointed, but at the same time, realized that problems like this couldn¡¯t be solved instantly. In order to improve this pill, he needed more information about the curse.

    <i>Also, if I could experiment on a Spirit Trove godservant....</i>

    The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that Spirit Trove godservants must have some fantastic mysteries hidden within them.

    <i>Another problem is that nts are just too rare in the Moonrite Region. I remember that some forbidden regions have nts with a lot of mutagen in them. If I could add some of those medicinal properties into this pill, then I could probably make my version of the painquelling lozenge even better.</i>

    Xu Qing had the shadow cover the sleeping Li Youfei, which sent him into even deeper sleep. After making sure that the surroundings were safe, Xu Qing took out the mirror fragment and went to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    It had been quite a while since he went there, so when he arrived on the altar in the temple, he felt a bit ufortable. After taking a moment to limate, he went outside. The sky was bright and blue, causing him to squint a bit as he looked around.

    In the distance... he saw the temple where he had paid heavenfire crystals to get the first painquelling lozenge. It made him think about the y fox, which caused his guard to go up. Whether it was a coincidence or not, he still got the feeling that his original opinion of the Moonrebel Congregation was correct. People here wereplicated.

    This time, he didn¡¯t leave his temple. He waved his hand, and a beam of light shot from the depths of the temple to form a ball in front of him. It looked just like the balls of light in the other temples. After inspecting it, he put one of his altered painquelling lozenges inside. Next, he made a notation of what he wanted for it.

    <i>One hundred drops of blood from a Spirit Trove godservant.</i>

    It wasn¡¯t an outrageous price. For him, concocting these painquelling lozenges wasn¡¯t difficult. After all, he had given over two hundred of them to Li Youfei. And ultimately, he wanted to improve the pill even more. Based on his previous experience, he knew that after he put the item in and listed the price, he could leave ande backter to collect the profit.

    <i>Hopefully it doesn¡¯t take very long.</i>

    With that, he went back to the altar and left.

    Back on the mountain top, he woke up Li Youfei and continued traveling.

    ***

    The next day in the Moonrebel Congregation, the burly man from the temple next to Xu Qing¡¯s opened his door and walked out. With his bare chest and ribbons of stone, as well as his intimidating expression, he seemed very dazzling in the sunlight.

    <i>It¡¯s been quiet recently.</i>

    He came to the Moonrebel Congregation on a daily basis to enjoy the sunlight. Only in this ce did he feel truly alive, to the point where he was reluctant to go back to the real world. The real world was full of darkness and suffering, and he was constantly forced to think about the tragic fate that awaited him in the end.

    There were many people like him who would rather stay in the Moonrebel Congregation permanently. However, there were rules in ce, so no matter how much he liked it here, he had to go back to the real world every few days. That was the main reason he got so infuriated by the racket Xu Qing had made earlier. After enough time, anyone would start to get annoyed at having their precious peace disturbed.

    Upon walking out into the peace and quiet, the burly man stretched, then prepared to go for a walk. That was when he noticed the ball of light in Xu Qing¡¯s temple. The burly man¡¯s eyebrows shot up.

    <i>So, the annoying scoundrel put some stuff up for sale?</i>

    The burly man wasn¡¯t very surprised. It actually made him chuckle disdainfully. He remembered how the person from that temple would always act so mysteriously, and hardly did business with anyone. Whenever he red over, that person would flee like a scared rabbit.

    <i>Ah, whatever. Might as well see what the scared little rabbit is like.</i>

    The burly man was clearly not very happy to have a neighbor like Xu Qing. Swaggering over, he went into Xu Qing¡¯s temple. Noting that there wasn¡¯t any incense in the corroded cauldron, he snorted sarcastically. Once inside, he red scornfully at the unmoving statue on the altar, then shifted his attention to the ball of light.

    <i>I wonder what he finally put up for sale. Probably some junk.</i>

    He touched the ball of light, whereupon his previously calm expression flickered. Then his eyes went wide and he stopped moving, as if he had been struck by numerous bolts of lightning.

    1. In this case, the word for ¡®young woman,¡¯ means someone roughly between the ages of 25-35. Technically it means ¡®young married woman,¡¯ but nowadays this word is basically synonymous with ¡®hot girl.¡¯ If you Google/Baidu the term, you will get bombarded with images of curvaceous and seductive young women. ?

    2. Many years ago in China, I was told that eating kidney is a way to replenish yang energy, which could also be considered ¡°male¡± energy. Also, here is an interesting passage from my Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine that rtes to kidneys and the ¡°primal yang¡± that was mentioned in thest chapter: ¡°Since kidney yin and kidney yang are the root of the yin and yang of all the organs of the body, they may also be referred to as true yin or original [primal] yin, and true yang or original [primal] yang.¡± ?

 Chapter 592: Becoming Famous in the Moonrebel Congregation

    <h4>Chapter 592: Bing Famous in the Moonrebel Congregation</h4>

    <i>Painquelling lozenge? The first thing he puts up for sale is a painquelling lozenge? And that price....</i>

    The burly man started breathing heavily, as if he didn¡¯t dare to believe what he was seeing. He checked again, just to make sure he wasn¡¯t hallucinating.

    <i>Only one hundred drops of godservant blood?</i>

    The burly man was almost struck senseless. Although painquelling lozenges were rare, having been in the Moonrebel Congregation for years, he had seen them for sale many times. Thus, he knew how outrageously expensive they could be. In his memory, he had never seen any painquelling lozenge offered for such a low price. At first, he suspected that it might be some sort of scam.

    However, in the Moonrebel Congregation, the way transactions worked was that the seller had to put the sales item on disy so that potential buyers could inspect it. For one thing, that forestalled inadvertent mistakes. Beyond that, it made it possible to inflict severe penalties in the case of fraud. In minor cases of fraud, the result might be trade sanctions on that temple. But in severe cases, the owner could be expelled from the Moonrebel Congregation, and never allowed to return. Because of that, most people never tried to run scams. It just wasn¡¯t worth it.

    The burly man looked closer at the pill. After examining it, he started breathing even more heavily, and his heart started pounding. Turning, he rushed out of the temple.

    <i>A mistake! From the time I joined the Moonrebel Congregation until now... this is the biggest mistake I¡¯ve ever seen! I need to buy that thing immediately. If I miss this chance, it¡¯ll be the biggest regret of my life! The little rabbit must surely know how much that pill is worth. So why offer it at such a low price...? Maybe he wrote down the price wrong. He probably meant one </i>thousand<i> drops of godservant blood!</i>

    The burly man was determined to get that painquelling lozenge before the foolish seller returned.

    <i>I¡¯ve got to snatch it before someone else does. Thankfully this location is rtively remote. I doubt anyone will notice that pill for a while. I can¡¯t let anyone find out about it!</i>

    The burly man struggled to suppress his excitement and instead look cool and collected. Noticing someone walking down the road in his direction, he stered a look of disdain onto his face, as if he had just looked at a pile of trash.

    After quickly finding a ce with no one nearby, he further suppressed his excitement and got in touch with his friends in the Moonrebel Congregation. He also used all of his other connections and contacts to find godservant blood.

    <i>The little rabbit didn¡¯t specify blood from a specific person, which makes this easy. Over the years, lots of people have made deals with godservants, so their blood isn¡¯t exactly rare.</i>

    The burly man was in very high spirits. It only took a day for him to make arrangements to get the hundred drops of godservant blood. Worried that someone might beat him to the punch, he stood guard outside his own temple while he waited for the blood to arrive. He pretended like he was just out enjoying the scenery, but was constantly keeping an eye out on all the other passing statues, worried that one of them might enter Xu Qing¡¯s temple.

    When he finally got the godservant blood, he raced like the wind into Xu Qing¡¯s temple, rushed over to the ball of light, andpleted the transaction. Once the painquelling lozenge was in his hand, he smelled it, whereupon his heart erupted with excitement.

    <i>The color. The smell. It¡¯s the same as the ones other people sell. Seems this thing is real! Hahaha! What a big mistake!!</i>

    All of a sudden, he realized that the statue on the altar seemed to be moving.

    <i>The little rabbit ising back. He must have realized he made a mistake. I can¡¯t stick around!</i>

    Spinning, he hurried out, looking very much like someone who felt guilty at having taken advantage of someone.

    ***

    The moment the burly man left, the statue¡¯s eyes opened.

    Xu Qing was back.

    <i>I had no idea I would sense it when someone buys something from me</i>. Pleasantly surprised, he nced outside the temple. A moment ago, he had seen someone hurrying out. Though he¡¯d only seen their back, it seemed like his angry neighbor. Given how the man had been hurrying out, Xu Qing could guess what had happened. <i>He probably thinks I made a mistake in the price. So he hurried away feeling guilty.</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. Stepping off the altar, he walked over to the ball of light. The light glittered, and a bottle flew out into his hand. After checking it, his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

    <i>It¡¯s not blood from a single person. There¡¯s blood from a few dozen. Not bad. Not bad at all.</i>

    He was very pleased. He now had plenty of specimens to work with. With that, he took out another painquelling lozenge and put it into the ball of light. Just as before, he listed the price as a hundred drops of godservant blood. After that, his statue went still again as he left the Moonrebel Congregation.

    ***

    Shortly after, his bare-chested neighbor cautiously stepped out into the open. After making sure Xu Qing was gone, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    <i>Hahaha! That idiot must have been so pissed off just now.</i>

    Thinking back to all those months of noise, the burly man felt wonderful. Then he noticed that the ball of light in Xu Qing¡¯s temple again had something for sale in it. Looking very pleased with himself, he walked over.

    <i>Let¡¯s see what other stuff the little rabbit is selling.</i>

    Feeling very smug, he reached out and touched the ball of light. Instantly, his eyes went wide, and he felt like his mind was being struck by even more lightning bolts than before. Yet again, he wondered if he was hallucinating, and had to double check what he was looking at. A momentter, a nk look appeared on his face.

    <i>How... is there another one? And the price is still a hundred drops of godservant blood? Impossible! Is this guy really just aplete idiot...? No. There must be something wrong with the pills!!</i>

    Expression turning grim, the burly man hurried back to his temple. He was going to go see if the pill he had purchased was real.

    <i>If it¡¯s fake, I¡¯m going to make sure he gets what¡¯sing to him!</i>

    Gritting his teeth, he left the Moonrebel Congregation. The next day, he came back, bits of lingering shock still on his face. Looking like a madman, he raced back toward Xu Qing¡¯s temple.

    <i>Real. It was real!</i>

    However, his excitement onlysted until he walked back into Xu Qing¡¯s temple, where he discovered that someone else had already purchased the second pill. Regret filled him.

    <i>Dammit! Why didn¡¯t I buy the thing right then and there?</i>

    The burly man slumped, feeling pain in his heart, as well as the regret of missing out on something. He waited around for a few days after that, hoping that Xu Qing woulde back and put up more medicinal pills for sale. During that time, his regret intensified.

    ***

    However, Xu Qing never came back. The two hundred drops of godservant blood had given him a lot of inspiration, and had also helped him improve his concocting techniques.

    He was still about half a month away from the Yin Sacrifice River, but this time, he was in the middle of a sprawling in, concocting more pills using Li Youfei. Yet again, he was thinking about the medicinal nts in the forbidden regions.

    <i>Just because I don¡¯t have any right here doesn¡¯t mean they don¡¯t exist....</i>

    After some more thought, he went back to the Moonrebel Congregation, where he put another painquelling lozenge up for sale. This time, instead of asking for godservant blood, he asked for a specific medicinal nt. Having done that, he left.

    About an hourter, his burly neighbor emerged from his temple looking full of regret. Acting on instinct alone, he looked over at Xu Qing¡¯s temple. When he saw the ball of light glowing, he shivered from head to toe, then rushed over. Getting the godservant blood he¡¯d prepared ready, he reached out to the ball of light.

    <i>There really is another one for sale! This guy... wait, hold on!</i>

    Although the asking price had changed, making it impossible for him to buy the pill immediately, he knew the medicinal nt in question. He had seen it for sale before. Though it was expensive, it couldn¡¯t possiblypare to a painquelling lozenge.

    <i>This guy must be some sort of grandmaster! He must be able to concoct painquelling lozenges with ease. Either that, or they aren¡¯t important to him. Or maybe he has some amazing background that makes him so generous! Regardless, he¡¯s clearly a very important person!</i>

    The burly man was convinced that this was the most amazing destined opportunity of his entire life. Turning, he left to find the medicinal nt the grandmaster wanted, deeply worried that someone might beat him to the punch.

    Unfortunately, his fear came true. The moment he walked out of the temple, another statue rushed over, burst into Xu Qing¡¯s temple, and headed right toward the ball of light.

    Shocked, the burly man turned to look at the neer. The neer touched the ball of light, looked shocked, and then noticed the burly man looking at him. He looked back. The two of them obviously recognized each other and didn¡¯t like each other very much.

    ¡°It¡¯s you, 99715!¡± the burly man said through gritted teeth. In the Moonrebel Congregation, people didn¡¯t use their real names. When they got to know each other, they used their temple address number. The burly man was familiar with this neer, as he was another of the local neighbors.

    ¡°Only those connected by destiny can get the pills of a grandmaster!¡± the other statue said. Chuckling coldly, he raced away.

    The burly man replied with a cold harrumph. Then he raced away in the opposite direction. About ten hourster, he finally found the medicinal nt Xu Qing wanted. After rushing back, he saw 99715 walking out of the temple.

    ¡°Toote,¡± said 99715, who then sat down cross-legged outside of Xu Qing¡¯s temple.

    The burly man wasn¡¯t ready to give up that easily. After going inside to check the ball of light, he went outside and also sat down to wait. He had the right idea. In the following days, Xu Qing came back over and over again with more painquelling lozenges. To Xu Qing, it was a very convenient situation. By doing business in the Moonrebel Congregation, he was able to easily make progress with his painquelling lozenges. Whatever he needed for his experiments, he could get by offering pills for sale. At the most, it would take about a day to get what he wanted. Sometimes it only took three or four hours.

    As a result, the quality of his painquelling lozenges increased quickly and dramatically. Although he had already sold a few dozen painquelling lozenges, he could make more at any time using Li Youfei.

    Li Youfei, meanwhile, grew so astonished that he was numb. Every single day, Xu Qing used him to concoct more medicinal pills. It was almost unimaginable. asionally, he found himself wrapped up in a childish daydream in which... he ended up being the hero who saved all of the Moonrite Region. But after looking at Xu Qing, he would abandon such thoughts and make sure to be even more cooperative.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s activities were causing a bit of amotion in the Moonrebel Congregation. It had started with two statues waiting outside of his temple. That soon changed to four or five. Eventually, as word spread, the number of statues waiting outside his temple reached into the dozens. The statues all stayed on guard. Whenever light started shining in Xu Qing¡¯s temple, they would rush inside, check the ball of light, and then scatter in the hopes of being the first person to track down what was being asked for. Of course, the sight of so many statues sitting around waiting made passersby curious. And the mor prompted inquiries. As a result, astonishment spread in the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Before long, the number of statues waiting outside of Xu Qing¡¯s temple went from dozens to hundreds. The effects of so many people milling about were terrifying. The situation became even more pronounced as the cauldron outside Xu Qing¡¯s temple umted more than thirty sticks of incense burning in it. That was especially eye-catching. When the crowd reached into the hundreds, word really started spreading.

    ¡°Did you hear about the mysterious andpassionate grandmaster?¡±

    ¡°His temple address is 99719. Because of that number, I say we should call him Grandmaster Pill Nine!¡±

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s painquelling lozenges cost only a tenth as much as everyone else¡¯s. And they¡¯re more effective! He really cares about themon people, and wants to save all living beings!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. That¡¯s why Grandmaster Pill Nine only asks for medicinal nts and godservant blood!¡±

    ¡°I knew about Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s amazing power when he first joined the Moonrebel Congregation! All of you people who just showed up recently have no idea how extraordinary he really is. Back then, the grandmaster spent two months transmitting an amazing dao reverberation that filled the area and resonated with the heart and mind! It was an immeasurable blessing for me to be here from beginning to end. It was an exciting experience, but at the same time, it left me feeling very clear-headed. What¡¯s more, the curse in me was suppressed, all thanks to the mysterious and unpredictable mercy of Grandmaster Pill Nine! Sadly, it onlysted for two months. That¡¯s what leaves me sighing with regret. As I think back, those two months were so wonderful....¡±

    From the burly man¡¯s facial expression, it seemed that he was having trouble even expressing himself in words. And thus, word started to spread through the Moonrebel Congregation about Grandmaster Pill Nine.

    ***

    However, it eventually reached the point where Xu Qing didn¡¯t put up any new medicinal pills for sale for a few days in a row. That was because he had finally reached the banks of the Yin Sacrifice River.

    Off in the distance he could see the roiling waters. Even being far away, he smelled the stench of gore and saw countless corpses floating by. It filled him with revulsion. Even the sand was red, and the entire ce thrummed with the feeling of the curse.

    This was the spot the parrot had led him to, where he was supposed to meet the Captain.

    He continued walking. After passing some warding spells, and reaching the red sand, his expression flickered as he heard the sound of the Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu breathing heavily.

    He also could hear some of their conversation.

    ¡°I can¡¯t do it. It¡¯s stuck! It won¡¯te out!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t be scared, Big Jianjian. Just pull harder! It¡¯lle out at any moment! Put your back into it, Big Jianjian! Use those legs!¡±

    A strange look appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he heard Ning Yan screaming.

    ¡°Nooo! It¡¯s gonna break. Everybody get your hands off....¡±

 Chapter 593: Extracting Suns from the Ancient Yin Sacrifice River

    <h4>Chapter 593: Extracting Suns from the Ancient Yin Sacrifice River</h4>

    The entire Moonrite Region was surrounded by the Yin Sacrifice River, with the exception of a mountain range in the northwest that connected to another region. The river was almost like a sealing mark that encircled the region and trapped all the living beings inside.

    The area where Xu Qing had just arrived was in the southwest. There were unbroken chains of mountains here and not much vegetation. Because of being so close to the river, the wind brought with it an aroma of death and decay that filled the area.

    However, the bizarre dialogue that the wind brought with it changed the dark and gloomy atmosphere into something a bit different than before. An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face, all while Ling¡¯er poked her head out of his sleeve.

    ¡°What are they doing, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± Ling¡¯er then covered her face with the hem of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve.

    Li Youfei had been wondering this whole time where they were going. Being so close to the Yin Sacrifice River, and hearing the voices carried to them, he also had a strange, uneasy expression on his face, and he even backed up a few steps. Although it seemed unlikely, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this all had something to do with why Xu Qing had given him all of those painquelling lozenges, and maybe even his reason for refusing that y fox.

    <i>No, it can¡¯t be</i>... Li Youfei thought, trembling in the depths of his being.

    Xu Qing had no way of understanding why Li Youfei was so apprehensive.

    There were warding spells here. Not only did they provide the concealment of invisibility, but also, they isted this area and cut off both sound and sight.

    Now that Xu Qing was close enough, he could tell that the Captain had used his blood to set all of this up to allow for Xu Qing to be able to enter without any trouble. Looking thoughtful, Xu Qing took a few steps forward, squatted down, and put his hand on the ground. He could sense that he was right on top of one of the warding spell eyes. Brushing the sand aside, he revealed an eye, which looked at him and blinked a few times. There were other simr eyes in the area. There were also blue worms wriggling in the sand. The area in question was a good 500 kilometers wide.

    When Li Youfei saw all of that, he shivered as if facing a powerful enemy. To him, this area seemed far more gruish than the white wind in the desert.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was already specting about what was going on.

    <i>When we partedst, Eldest Brother said he had a ¡®small job¡¯ to handle.... What exactly is he doing that requires warding spells covering a 500-kilometer area?</i> [1]

    As he pondered that, the eyes and worms stirred, emanating emotional fluctuations. At the same time, the Captain¡¯s voice rang out.

    ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re here, little Ah Qing! Hurry over here and help pull!¡±

    Xu Qing still had a strange expression on his face, but without the slightest hesitation, he hurried forward. As he did, the eyes and worms parted to make a path for him.

    As he proceeded, the vicious dialogue and the panting grew clearer. After less time passed than it takes half an incense stick to burn, he experienced a sensation simr to passing through a curtain of water. Then everything became clear.

    The first thing that attracted his attention was a colossal object on the river bank. It was a huge structure shaped like a door frame, crafted from bronze-colored stone. It was fully 9,000 meters tall and 3,000 meters wide. It loomed over the riverbank like an ancient giant, emanating pressure that was both shocking and majestic. Xu Qing saw innumerable ancient magical symbols covering it, and just looking at it left him feeling shaken.

    Inside of the door frame, there wasn¡¯t an actual door. Instead, it was a massive object formed of concentric rings of ck metal. The rings on the top and bottom were the smallest, with those in the middle being thergest. It almost looked like a huge spring. It was mottled with rust, and some parts of it dripped with red river water. Apparently, it had been submerged in the river for a very long time.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t even begin to guess what he was looking at. Looking off to the side, he saw the Captain, Wu Jianwu, and Ning Yan, lined up in a row.

    The Captain was in the front, holding a vine, bent over and gasping for breath as he pulled as hard as possible. Behind him was Wu Jianwu and a host of his children, all of them simrly pulling on the vine. Ning Yan wasst in line, sitting on the ground with his legs syed and his feet in the sand, moaning and howling as he tugged on the vineing from his belly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t! It¡¯s really gonna break....¡±

    The vine extended from his belly all the way into the Yin Sacrifice River up ahead.

    As all of them pulled, the river water seethed. It was just barely possible to see some massive, circr object underneath the water, slowly being pulled up.

    ¡°Hurry up and help, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain yelled, sweat pouring down his face as he pulled hard on the vine.

    Wu Jianwu also gasped for breath as he looked over at Xu Qing.

    Sounding helpless and hopeless, Ning Yan howled, ¡°Help me, Biggest Bro....¡±

    Meanwhile, a streak of light shot away from Xu Qing. It was the parrot. The host of tiny, new feathers that were starting to grow out on him made him look extremely ugly. It took only a moment for him tond on Wu Jianwu¡¯s shoulder. Looking like a child who had just escaped the clutches of a fiendish devil, he started crying.

    ¡°Daddy, I thought I would never see you again!¡±

    However, before he could go into detail about everything he¡¯d gone through, his daddy knocked him to the side with his head and shouted, ¡°Grab the rope and pull!¡±

    The parrot was both stunned and indignant at how horrible the world was. However, since his daddy had told him to do something, he had no choice. Just like the hapless Ning Yan, he had to start pulling as hard as he could.

    Although Xu Qing had some misgivings, he walked over to the Captain, grabbed the vine, and pulled.

    Li Youfei hurried to help as well, shing a smile at Wu Jianwu, looking curiously at Ning Yan, and ncing at the Captain, all while trying to figure out which of the three ranked highest in seniority.

    With their help, there was a lot more pulling power. The water seethed, and rumbling sounds rang out as a huge circr ring appeared at the edge of the river.

    ¡°What is that thing, Eldest Brother?¡± Xu Qing asked as he pulled.

    The Captain took a few gasping breaths, but couldn¡¯t hold back from proudly saying, ¡°You certainly took your time getting here, little Ah Qing. But that¡¯s fine. There¡¯s still time. See that big door frame behind us? Hahaha! Wanna guess what it is?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head and looked puzzled.

    Upon noticing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, the Captainughed heartily.

    ¡°It¡¯s a sun! The Moonrite Region used to have nine artificial suns, but three of them fell from the sky. You know about that, right? Well, that door frame is one of those suns that perished! And what we¡¯re pulling on is another of the three fallen suns. This is the small job I came here to handle. In spring, I nted the seed. Now it¡¯s autumn, and the time hase to harvest three suns!¡±

    As a matter of fact, the Captain had tracked down all three of those ancient fallen suns in a past life, and had even gone so far as to repair them. Then he hid them in the Yin Sacrifice River.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was shaken, and couldn¡¯t help but look back at the huge door. Never could he have imagined that the thing was actually an artificial sun.

    ¡°It¡¯s all thanks to Ning Yan. Hahaha! I knew it from the very beginning. The little punk does have an amazing bloodline. After I put that vine into him, then blessed it, it¡¯s able to resist the corroding effects of the Yin Sacrifice River.¡±

    The Captain tugged hard on the vine. Further back, Ning Yan heard the Captain¡¯s words, and an angry look appeared on his face. By now, he regretted nothing more in life than his decision to go to Sea-Sealing County. If he hadn¡¯t gone to Sea-Sealing County, he would never have gotten to know Chen Erniu. And if he didn¡¯t get to know Chen Erniu, then he would have avoided a lot of misery. That couldn¡¯t be truer of the current moment. Inside, he was trembling with fear at the thought of Xu Qing¡¯s grip faltering, which could easily result in himself getting dragged into the river. That said, on his adventures with Chen Erniu, he had eaten a lot of very interesting things, and was now on the verge of breaking into the Nascent Soul level....

    ¡°Everybody, crank it up!¡± the Captain shouted.

    They pulled harder. Water sprayed everywhere as the huge item finally broke the surface and neared the shore.

    It was massive, being over 9,000 meters tall. And it radiated immense pressure. As it got closer, Xu Qing was finally able to see clearly what it looked like. It was a massive ring, and though it was covered with red water, he could tell that it was actually the color white. Most gruish of all was that the middle part of the huge ring was filled with countless person-shaped statues. They were standing on the ring itself, hands sped with each other to form an inner ring. However, the ring they formed wasn¡¯tplete. Xu Qing could see that there was one statue missing, creating a gap.

    ¡°Little Roundy, get out here and pull your dad!¡± the Captain shouted. Taking out the artificial sun he¡¯d taken from the Lonesuns, he added it to the effort. As water sted everywhere with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, the huge ring slowly got closer and closer. About an hourter, they finally managed to pull it out.

    When itnded with a massive thump on the shore, Ning Yan sagged to the ground. Wu Jianwu did the same. In contrast, the Captain, despite looking exhausted, ran over and ran his hands over the surface of the ring, his eyes shining fanatically.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you know this thing''s name? It¡¯s Big Roundy!¡±

    Xu Qing approached and looked at the massive ring. He couldn¡¯t help but feel admiration for whatever species it was that created this thing.

    ¡°Help me push it over to Big Boxy, little Ah Qing.¡±

    The Captain excitedly started pushing, and Xu Qing joined. Together, they managed to roll the gigantic ring across the sand to a spot right next to the huge door frame. There, they dropped down and sat on the riverbank, huffing and puffing.

    Xu Qing looked at the two colossal items. He sighed. ¡°Eldest Brother, are you sure this is the ¡®small job¡¯ you mentioned?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily and threw his arm around Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders.

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s a small job. Once we¡¯re finished here, it¡¯s off to the Bitter Life Mountains. And that¡¯s where... we¡¯ll do something <i>really</i> big! By the way, little Ah Qing, how did things work out for you over there?¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Xu Qing replied. ¡°I opened a little medicine shop.¡±

    ¡°Medicine shop?¡± the Captain said, his eyes glittering. ¡°Not bad! I bet you need a shopkeeper, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Ling¡¯er poked her head out. ¡°No, we don¡¯t!¡±

    The Captain chuckled, looked at Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er, and then nodded knowingly. Clearing his throat, he continued, ¡°Forget about that for now. There¡¯s still a big fellow at the bottom of the river. Let¡¯s rest up, then we¡¯ll start pulling again. Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, thisst one is not going to be simple! It¡¯s the very first artificial sun created in the Moonrite Region. There¡¯s even a story that says ites from the time of the Imperial Sovereign.¡±

    Off to the side by Wu Jianwu was Li Youfei, who was feeling shaken to the core. Being a native of the Moonrite Region, he obviously knew about the artificial suns. To have personally seen one dragged out into the open was something outright shocking.

    <i>Are all of the grandmaster¡¯s friends this terrifying?</i>

    They rested for a bit, but not long enough for Li Youfei to ovee his shock.

    At that point, the Captain stood. Heading toward Ning Yan, he excitedly called, ¡°Time to get to work, everybody! This is thest fellow to pull out. Let¡¯s go!¡±

    As Ning Yan looked pleadingly at the Captain, the Captain patted his shoulder.

    ¡°This is thest one, Big Ningning. I promise you, we¡¯ll get that thing I said I would get for you. It¡¯ll definitely push your bloodline so high it¡¯ll surpass your own father¡¯s!¡±

    Ning Yan looked back at the Captain suspiciously.

    Grinning enigmatically, the Captain grabbed Ning Yan¡¯s vine and tossed it into the river.

    Xu Qing still felt a bit apprehensive, but he walked over to join the Captain nheless.

    The Captainughed heartily. Feeling warmth in his heart, he said, ¡°You¡¯re the best, little Junior Brother. You really do care about your Eldest Brother. Earlier, Ningning and Jianjian just watched while I jumped in the river. Neither of them came with me! Alright, let¡¯s do it!¡±

    With that, the Captain ran forward and jumped into the river. Xu Qing followed. Both of them unleashed the power of their cultivation base to fight back against the power of the water as they dropped down toward the bottom of the river. The Captain¡¯s method of protecting himself involved blue light shining all around him. Xu Qing did things a bit more simply. He just sent out the power of the violet moon. And thus, the two of them sped downward.

    The river was dark, and the blood-red color grew deeper as they went down. There were corpses everywhere.

    Xu Qing saw the rotting corpse of a girl floating by, eyes open. Ignoring it, he continued down.

    There were terrifying entities in the river, but the Captain¡¯s blue light and Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon authority cowed them. None of them daredunch an attack.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. With the Captain guiding it, Ning Yan¡¯s vine extended down with them as they neared the bottom of the river. It was hard to say how much time passed. Eventually, a huge sphere appeared below, many thousands of meters in size. It was in bad shape, with lots of damage, as if it had gone through a battle. Its rusty surface added to the extremely ancient feeling it imparted.

    Anyone who looked at it would feel a sense of decay thanks to the countless years it had witnessed. This was indeed the very first artificial sun that the Imperial Sovereign had created for the Moonrite Region.

    ¡°We¡¯re here!¡± the Captain said to Xu Qing via hand signs. With Xu Qing to keep an eye on the area, the Captain neared the huge sphere with the vine in hand.

    Xu Qing kept watch vigntly.

    ***

    Unbeknownst to Xu Qing and the Captain, there was someone seated cross-legged in the ancient, rusty sphere! He was gaunt and wizened, and wore a brown robe. His skin was covered with countless veins that vaguely resembled mountain ranges. Long gray hair floated around him, which slowly became deceased souls that drifted in the sphere.

    As the Captain and Xu Qing neared the sphere, he opened his eyes, and they shone with blue light that could shock the soul.

    He was none other than the Heir Apparent! As he looked out of the sphere, a strange expression appeared on his face.

    1. The Captain mentioned the ¡®small job¡¯ in <u>chapter 579.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 594: What The Heck Did We Pull Out??

    <h4>Chapter 594: What The Heck Did We Pull Out??</h4>

    Xu Qing and the Captain had no idea what was inside the sphere.

    As Xu Qing stood guard, the Captain closed in on the sphere with Ning Yan¡¯s vine. Eventually, he found a spot where he could attach the vine to the damaged exterior. However, he was worried that the connection might not be stable enough, so he continued wrapping the vine through several other spots as well. Eventually, he tied it into a huge knot. Then he bit his finger and used blood to draw a magical symbol, fusing the vine onto the sphere itself.

    Having done that, the Captain patted the sphere, then settled down cross-legged and shed a hand signal to Xu Qing.

    A casual observer would have no idea what that signal meant. But Xu Qing knew. Feeling a bit awkward, he took out an image-recording jade slip, protected it with violet moon power, and then recorded an image of the Captain in the jade slip.

    With that aplished, the Captain raced over to check the image. Looking pleased, he winked and shed another hand signal.

    Xu Qing shook his head to refuse the Captain¡¯s invitation to return the favor and record a wonderful image of Xu Qing.

    The two of them then followed the vine back up out of the river. Everything went smoothly. A few hourster, they were back on the shore. The moment they came out of the water, the Captain grabbed the vine.

    ¡°Get to work, people! Big Jianjian, just now I actually saw some inscriptions on that thing which were penned by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity himself. Sadly, it was too dark to make them out clearly....¡±

    Wu Jianwu had been lying on the sand resting, but when he heard the Captain¡¯s words, he jumped up, his eyes wide. Grabbing Ning Yan¡¯s vine, he shouted excitedly at his children, who all followed his example. The parrot was no exception. Ning Yan was starting to get nervous again, but he sat up just like before and grabbed the vine. Li Youfei was an astute person, so he grabbed the vine and started pulling, his face flushed from the effort.

    As everyone pulled, the water started churning. At the other end of the vine, the huge metal sphere started rocking back and forth, and then it rose up a bit.

    Inside of it sat the Heir Apparent. When he sensed the sphere moving, an odd expression appeared on his face, and he looked outside. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but in the end, chose not to....

    As time passed, the metal sphere slowly rose out of the mud and started moving across the bottom of the river toward the shore. With every slight movement, the water seethed, and waves rolled out on the surface. It was creating quite a disturbance, but the Captain had prepared well, so it didn¡¯t attract any attention, at least temporarily. If the effects went on for too long, though, that could change. That was one reason why he was in such a hurry.

    Unfortunately, there were a lot of rocks on the riverbed, and as the metal sphere hit them, it bumped up and down. And those effects reached the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent no longer had an odd expression on his face. He was calm as he sat there, doing nothing to stop the Captain and the others from pulling on the sphere within which he was recovering from his injuries.

    Three days passed in a sh.

    Everyone was working so hard that, before long, the huge sphere became visible. After countless years of remaining unseen, it was now visible in the outside world. It was covered with rust, and seemed profoundly ancient. It even caused ripples to spread out in the sky.

    ¡°It¡¯s out! Everybody pull harder!¡±

    The Captain excitedly tapped into all of the power in his cultivation base and pulled as hard as he could.

    The huge sphere was fully 30,000 meters in size, making it evenrger than the rings in the door frame. It moved very slowly, and even that required a huge amount of effort. On two asions, the vine seemed like it might snap. Thankfully, the vine was being bolstered by both the Captain and Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon power, so it held strong.

    With the goal right in front of them, everyone went all out. Xu Qing even grew his bodyrger, to a size of 15 meters, making him seem like a small giant.

    Finally, as all of them gasped for breath, the sphere broke the surface. Then, a few hours after that, they managed to drag it onto the shore.

    It was now out of the Yin Sacrifice River. As ity there, red water dripped down its pocked surface, almost like a waterfall. The ancient feeling of the thing was even more intense now, and it radiated the effects of time, causing everything around it to pulsate.

    Li Youfei was rocked to the core. Ning Yan inhaled sharply. Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he approached, looking for the inscriptions the Captain had mentioned.

    The Captain, meanwhile, was sprawled out, hardly able to catch his breath. Looking at the gigantic sphere, heughed proudly.

    ¡°What do you think, little Junior Brother? Is your Eldest Brother awesome, or is he awesome? Hahaha! Three suns! All sitting right here. Add in Little Roundy, and that means I have four. Let me tell you, although the other five Moonrite Region suns are in the hands of other species, I left back doors in all of them. When the critical moment arrives, all it will take is a thought on my part, and all nine suns wille to me. Of course, I¡¯ll need a bit of help from you to deal with these three! Little Junior Brother, the big day we came here for is about to arrive!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the three massive items, his heart pounding. All of a sudden, he thought back to what the parrot had told him earlier, and a question urred to him.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, when you mentioned lighting a fire, were you talking about these three suns?¡±

    The Captain crawled to his feet, his eyebrows dancing up and down. ¡°Exactly! Come on. The big sphere needs more time to dry off. Let¡¯s start by lighting the other two.¡±

    The Captain dragged Xu Qing over to the huge stone door frame. Reaching out, he put his hand on the door frame, his eyes shining with anticipation.

    Xu Qing looked up at the thing, still trying to wrap his mind around how something like this could turn into a sun.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, have you ever heard of <i>eternal power</i>?¡± The Captain pointed at the door frame. ¡°<i>This</i> is eternal power. And it¡¯s also how it can be turned into an artificial sun.¡±

    The Captain waved his hand, and Little Roundy appeared. As Little Roundy¡¯s light focused on the door frame, the magical symbols on the bronze-colored stone began to glow.

    They almost seemed to be powering up. Little Roundy continued to shine, until the magical symbols were all shining brightly. At the same time, loud rumbling sounds echoed out. Eventually, the door frame was shining radiantly, attracting the attention of everyone else present.

    When the light was so bright it felt blinding, the Captain said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, your amazing golden crow is the best fire to light all things. Use your golden crow power to breathe a bit of fire and light this thing up!¡±

    The golden crow within Xu Qing erupted, manifesting as a majestic figure outside of him. To Li Youfei''s astonishment, the huge golden crow swirled around a few times, then faced the doorframe and breathed a st of heavenfire. A boundless sea of mes swept over the door frame, and was then sucked in by the magical symbols. Then powerful fluctuations pulsed out and gathered in the huge spring. The spring vibrated.

    ¡°Again!¡± The Captain spat out some blood and added it to the effort, transforming Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow power.

    The mes transformed, and the door frame started rumbling. As it shone brightly, countless fluctuations entered the spring, which started vibrating with even more intensity, until finally... it sank down with great force!

    Thergest ring, which was in the middle of the spring, mmed down. A huge boom rang out, and thend quaked. Countless boulders shattered, and everyone present staggered. Then the spring shot back up and mmed into the top of the door frame.

    Next, it mmed down again.

    The cycle continued, resulting in constant rumbling booms. It seemed like it would keep moving like this for all eternity. Eventually, a sea of mes developed, sweeping out to cover the door frame and turning into a huge ball of fire.

    Xu Qing looked on, his heart pounding. Everyone else reacted even more dramatically. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were both staring, dumbfounded. Li Youfei was utterly and thoroughly stupefied.

    As for the Captain, heughed heartily and waved his hand. As a result, the sun in the doorframe shrank down until it became a beam of light that entered his hand.

    After putting it away, the Captain pointed at therge ring that he and Xu Qing had pushed over earlier.

    ¡°On to number two, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain said, and he pulled out a headless corpse. A mere nce revealed that the corpse was obviously from the Captain¡¯s present life. He must have decapitated himself recently....

    He threw the corpse toward the ring, and as it tumbled through the air, it grewrger andrger. Eventually, it was the same size as the person-shaped gap. When itnded in ce, its hands connected with the hands of the statues on either side. The inner ring was nowplete!

    ¡°Give me some fire, little Ah Qing!¡± the Captain shouted.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing had the golden crow breathe out some more heavenfire, which swept over the ring, and then shot toward the Captain¡¯s corpse. The corpse ignited, and then the fire spread to the statues on either side of it. One by one, the statues lit up. As they did, their eyes opened, and they began chanting a spell. At the same time, they began moving in unison like a gear. Intense rumbling sounds spread out as the fire grew more intense. A momentter, the ¡®gear¡¯ was spinning rapidly, and the huge ming ring turned into a sun.

    The Captain flew over, reached out, and grabbed it. Just like the door frame, the new sun shrank down, and the Captain put it away.

    ¡°Hahaha! That couldn¡¯t have gone more smoothly. In fact, it went so well it felt weird!¡±

    Xu Qing suddenly went on guard. As far as he could remember, whenever the Captain did something big, unexpected things always happened. If the Captain hadn¡¯t said what he just said, Xu Qing might not have been worried about anything. But now he felt uneasy.

    When the Captain saw Xu Qing¡¯s expression, he looked displeased.

    ¡°Now now, little Ah Qing, don¡¯t you trust me? Like I said, this wasn¡¯t a big job. It was a small job! I¡¯ve been nning it for a very, very long time, so there¡¯s absolutely no chance anything unexpected could happen. You were watching just now. Everything went incredibly smoothly, right? Come,e. Let¡¯s light thest one. After, we¡¯ll depart for the Bitter Life Mountains!¡±

    Licking his lips, the Captain looked at the metal sphere. There wasn¡¯t as much water draining off it now. What was more, there were some things that resembled evil spirits that wereing out of the inside and looking around malevolently.

    ¡°We can light it now,¡± he said. ¡°Just send the fire over. When those evil spirits get burned up, they¡¯ll be an offering for the sun.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly. It was true that he didn¡¯t see any signs that something unexpected would happen, and therefore, he decided to trust the Captain. With the wave of his hand, he sent the golden crow flying up into the air, where it breathed out a sea of mes toward the metal sphere.

    Boundless fire enveloped it. The fire had been lit.

    The Captain then prepared to take out some items he had prepared for this moment to make sure the sphere waspletely ignited. However, before he could, the huge sphere vibrated and rose up into the air of its own ord.

    The fire went wild, making it seem like the heat was about to gopletely out of control. It was the same inside the sphere. In the blink of an eye, the thing looked like a giant soldering iron. If that was all there was to it, it might not have been a big deal. But then it started emanating terrifying fluctuations that made it seem like... it was about to self-detonate!

 Chapter 595: An Old Grandpa in a Sun

    <h4>Chapter 595: An Old Grandpa in a Sun</h4>

    A massive burning metal sphere currently hovered in the air above the Yin Sacrifice River, emanating terrifying pressure along with loud crunching sounds that resembled the grinding of teeth. It had turned bright red, and its surface was so hot it was starting to melt. Fluctuations of instability rolled wildly off it, such that anyone who looked at it would feel indescribable terror. The pulsations of the ancient sun caused countless grains of red sand to rise into the air. It was the same with the river, as innumerable droplets of blood-red water floated upward.

    Everyone on the river bank was so astonished they felt like they were being struck with 1,000,000 bolts of lightning.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Li Youfei said.

    ¡°Dammit, I <i>knew</i> this would happen!¡± Wu Jianwu blurted.

    ¡°Every time Chen Erniu does anything, bad things go down!¡± Ning Yan snapped. ¡°Does he really have a death wish? I can¡¯t believe I trusted all of his goddamn nonsense again!!¡±

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were both deathly pale in the face as feelings of deadly crisis exploded within them. Both of them were trembling visibly. Ning Yan was the first to turn his shock into action. Screaming, he turned and ran. As he fled, he tried to pull the vine all the way back underneath his garment.

    Wu Jianwu¡¯s cultivation base wasn¡¯t high enough, and he was also slower, so as the vine swept past him, he grabbed onto it and used it to flee.

    Li Youfei also reacted quickly. This was his first time apanying Xu Qing, so he wasn¡¯t prepared. But as his spine tingled, and he saw the terrifying fluctuations of self-detonationing off the sun, he instinctively fled.

    All three of them wished they could teleport away, but the Captain¡¯s warding spells had the ce locked down. Besides, the fluctuationsing off of the sun had thrown the surrounding space into chaos, making teleportions impossible. The parrot might have been able to, except... his feathers still hadn¡¯t grown out yet.

    ¡°We¡¯re finished! Finished! I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m going to die! This is so messed up!¡± Furious, the parrot bit down onto Ning Yan¡¯s vine. ¡°The biggest mistake in my entire life was going to the Bitter Life Mountains....¡±

    It didn¡¯t matter how quickly everyone fled, they couldn¡¯t flee far enough.

    Seeing what was happening, Xu Qing sighed. This was exactly what he had thought would probably happen. Whenever the Captain did something big, things like this went down. However, he didn¡¯t flee in the same direction as Ning Yan and the others. Instead, he turned toward the Yin Sacrifice River. It seemed like a much better choice to rely on the power of the river to stay safe, rather than flee out into the wide open.

    As he burst into motion, he shouted some advice to Ning Yan and the others.

    ¡°Get in the river!¡±

    Hearing that, Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu changed directions. Li Youfei was surprised, but after thinking about his own special abilities, he gritted his teeth and did the same.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was just staring at the sun up above,pletely dumbfounded. Sensing the fluctuationsing off of it, he turned to the fleeing Xu Qing.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way! I nned everything. Things can¡¯t go wrong. This really was just a small job....¡±

    As Xu Qing reached the water, he looked at the Captain. ¡°You call this a small job?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s really a small job! Dragging some things up and lighting them on fire!¡± The Captain¡¯s heart was in chaos. This really went beyond anything he could have predicted. As he had said, he really did prepare for a long time for this job. ¡°How could dragging up a sun lead to this? It¡¯s not a god or something! Logically speaking, this shouldn¡¯t be happening.¡±

    The Captain felt both humiliated and hurt that something was going on with the sun. This didn¡¯t conform to his n at all, and it seemed he wouldn¡¯t be able to take the sun away.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go take a closer look, little Ah Qing. Maybe I can repair¡ª¡±

    All of a sudden, the ancient sun¡¯s aura erupted again, sending out terrifying fluctuations. The sand was no longer rising up into the air. Instead, the high levels of heat were causing everything to melt. The nearby water was steaming as the aura of self-detonation grew more intense. The massive detonation of a sun like this would release indescribable force. But one thing was for sure; everything in the area would definitely be incinerated.

    As a result, the Captain gave up on his idea of repairing the sun. Xu Qing took a deep breath, and as the sense of deadly crisis built within him, he backed up into the water.

    But then, the sun floating above suddenly dropped down. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth as intense heat rippled out, and pressure weighed down everywhere. Most terrifying of all was that the sun wasn¡¯t just moving straight down. It was actually going in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Xu Qing could only watch as the massive sun drew near. As it did, the Yin Sacrifice River near Xu Qing and the Captain solidified.

    It wouldn¡¯t permit them to enter!

    Xu Qing¡¯s face fell, and he prepared to change directions. But then a massive amount of pressure wrapped him up. In the blink of an eye he was shaken to find that he couldn¡¯t move at all. It wasn¡¯t just him. It was the same with the water and thend. Ning Yan and the others had stopped moving, and were locked in ce.

    ¡°What is this?¡± the Captain moaned. ¡°Is this thing intelligent or something?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s scalp tingled. Everyone else felt like their astonishment had turned into tempests of death in their mind.

    Meanwhile, as the sun neared, it shrank. As everyone trembled, it unexpectedly shrank down to roughly the size of a fist. And then someone seemed to step out of thin air and grab it.

    He was an extremely handsome man in a brown robe, with long, flowing hair that turned into deceased souls. He had blue eyes, almost like gemstones, which gave him an extremely noble air. When he appeared, everything above and below went still. The wind stopped blowing. The fire stopped burning. Even the waters of the Yin Sacrifice River became as tranquil as a painting. All creation calmed down because of the presence of this person. The only thing left behind was the boundless terror in the hearts of everyone present.

    Ning Yan was terrified. Wu Jianwu was shaking. Both of them recognized this person....

    Li Youfei seemed to be the closest to aplete breakdown. Ever since he had started following Xu Qing around, the things he experienced surpassed anything he could have imagined. What he had gone through in the past several months went far beyond anything he had experienced before in his entire life. Although he had no idea who this neer was, it couldn¡¯t have been more shocking to see him take a sun that was about to explode and fiddle with it in his hand.

    The Captain, meanwhile, looked on with pupils constricted, his heart battered by waves of shock and astonishment.

    <i>How could there be a person inside my sun.... Just what the heck did I drag up? And why does this person... seem so familiar?</i>

    The Captain was trembling.

    Also trembling was Xu Qing. As he looked at the person holding the sun, he felt nk inside. Never could he possibly have imagined that the Captain¡¯s ¡®small job¡¯ of dragging up some suns would also involve dragging up the Heir Apparent of an Imperial Sovereign!

    Then Xu Qing thought back to the scene at the bottom of the river when they found the metal sphere. The Heir Apparent must have been inside at the time. Thinking back to the stories he¡¯d heard about the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom fighting the godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral, he could only guess that the Heir Apparent must have gone into hiding in this sun while he recovered.

    It was true that a sun would make a great hiding ce. After all, this ancient sun originated in the time of the Imperial Sovereign, so the Heir Apparent would naturally know a lot about it. And though the Yin Sacrifice River was a dangerous ce, with Crimson Mother sleeping, it was actually very safe.

    Normally speaking, it would have been virtually impossible for anyone to find him. That is... except for the Captain, whose entire n had been to drag that sun to the surface.

    Looking very calm, the Heir Apparent approached Xu Qing and the Captain. Looking down at them, he asked, ¡°How did you find me? And why did you try to light my hiding spot on fire?¡±

    With that, he waved his hand, dispelling the restraining power that held them in ce. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu flopped onto the ground, as did Li Youfei. All of them were shaking uncontrobly. The terrified parrot scrambled to hide in his father¡¯s sleeve. The Heir Apparent¡¯s gaze and aura contained unimaginable pressure that filled the area.

    Trembling, the Captain tried to be dismissive and fawning at the same time. ¡°Senior, it was just a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding.... Our bad. So, we¡¯ll take off now. No need to pay any further attention to us, venerable sir. Er... maybe you should go back and rest some more?¡±

    As he spoke, the Captain slowly backed up.

    The Heir Apparent looked at him calmly.

    The Captain plopped to the ground, a geyser of blood spraying out of his mouth.

    The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing eyed the Captain coughing up blood. Looking very respectful, he sped hands and bowed to the Heir Apparent. Being just as courteous as he had been in the past, he said, ¡°We had no idea you were in there, Senior. We¡¯re here to work on the mission our Master gave us to locate three suns.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing and smiled mysteriously. Forgoing any further questions on the subject, he looked off into the distance.

    ¡°He¡¯ll be here soon. We should leave. Young friends, where did you n to take these suns after you dragged them up?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, but in the end, didn¡¯t dare to hide the truth. ¡°The Bitter Life Mountains.¡±

    ¡°The Bitter Life Mountains?¡± The Heir Apparent thought for a moment, then smiled. All of a sudden, his appearance changed as he transformed into a kindly old grandpa. Retracting all of the pressure and everyst fluctuation, he sped his hands behind his back, making him look very much like a random mortal shopkeeper.

    ¡°I was nning to go in that direction myself,¡± he said, starting to walk. ¡°Let¡¯s go together. On the way, I¡¯ll exin some secret information about the Red Moon Cathedral that rtes to you.¡±

    Ning Yan and the others looked on, bbergasted. For some reason, their attention was focused on Xu Qing. As for the Captain, he stopped coughing up blood, crawled to his feet, and also looked in shock at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯tpletely sure of what to do, but after a moment, he gritted his teeth and hurried after the Heir Apparent.

    The others quickly followed. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu exchanged a nce. Both of them felt weak in the knees, and could see the astonishment in each other¡¯s eyes.

    <i>A living Smoldering God....</i>

    That was what both of them were thinking. As for the Captain, he quicklyposed himself and then rushed to the Heir Apparent¡¯s side. Acting very much like a servant, he took out a fan and started gently waving it in the Heir Apparent¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Grandpa, you look hot. Allow me to cool you down, sir. Grandpa, are you tired? Big Jianjian, call your precious bear out immediately for the grandpa to ride!¡±

    Everyone trembled as they proceeded along. Only Xu Qing looked the same as usual. However, in his heart, he was trying to figure out what was going on.

    <i>I guess we¡¯re going back to the Green Spirit Pharmacy?</i>

    ***

    About two hours after they left, everything blurred and rippled as an enormous figure appeared.

    It was impossible to make out any details about this neer. He wore a voluminous red cloak that spread out in all directions and caused everything to turn the color of blood.

    Godly might that surpassed Void Returning filled heaven and earth, causing countless natural and magicalws to manifest. It was even possible to see projections of suns, moons, stars, and other heavenly bodies. Everything blurred as the power of the red moon spread out. The figure waved a hand, and time flowed in the opposite direction in the area.

    Countless illusory shards formed together, as if to reveal what had yed out in the area earlier. However, just as the shards were connecting, but before they could form a stable image, they started vibrating. A momentter, they shattered and dispersed.

    The figure looked at the Yin Sacrifice River, and the waters seethed.

    ¡°Come to me, river spirits,¡± he said, his deep voice echoing over the water.

    In the blink of an eye, a host of river spirits appeared. All of them bowed deeply to the cloaked figure.

    ¡°Well met, Pontiff.¡±

    ¡°What happened here?¡± the enormous figure asked coolly.

    The river spirits looked around, confused and shaking their heads. They had no idea what happened.

    ¡°Altered perceptions....¡± The huge figure looked off into the distance, then turned and faded into nothing. However, his voice continued to echo even after he¡¯d left. ¡°So, you were hiding here, Heir Apparent.... Now that you¡¯re on the move, where are you going?¡±

 Chapter 596: Crimson Motherâ€™s Mortal Flesh

    <h4>Chapter 596: Crimson Mother¡¯s Mortal Flesh</h4>

    The sky above the Moonrite Region was like a permanent evening. Even at nighttime, there were no stars, no sun, and no moon. It was as if a ck sheet had been spread over the dome of heaven, covering all living things and obstructing the eyesight of all beings.

    Right now, undetectable ripples flowed through that night sky. Within those ripples was a huge artificial sun. It was none other than Little Roundy.

    The Heir Apparent had declined to use Wu Jianwu¡¯s bear as a mount, so the Captain ended up taking out Little Roundy instead.

    The Heir Apparent was actually quite pleased with the artificial sun. With the wave of his hand, he concealed it with invisibility, and as a group, they sped in the direction of the Bitter Life Mountains.

    The atmosphere was tense inside the sun.

    Ning Yan sat still, his back straight, but unable to refrain from trembling. Despite being in pain from head to toe, he had been shaking for the better part of a day now. Like a mortal facing a tiger, he simply couldn¡¯t calm his heart and mind as he sat there.

    Wu Jianwu was in a simr state. He hardly dared to breathe too loudly.

    Li Youfei was even more on edge. Aftering to his own conclusion about the cultivation base of this ¡®grandpa,¡¯ his apprehension and terror turned into beads of sweat that rolled down him constantly. He could hardly breathe. The suffocating feeling filled him with even more reverence for Xu Qing than before. In fact, that reverence had reached a peak level that seemed difficult to surpass.

    In his mind, this grandmaster truly was a grandmaster. Not only did he have a mysterious background and aplish unimaginable things, but also, he was acquainted with Smoldering Gods.... Li Youfei had heard of that cultivation level before, but during his entire life, had never seen a dead one, let alone a living one. Truth be told, he hadn¡¯t even seen a scrap of hair from such a being. As he thought about that, he couldn¡¯t help but nce at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was currently sitting next to the Heir Apparent. Few people would dare to sit in a position like that, and in reality, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t intended to. But the Heir Apparent had beckoned him over.

    As a result, Xu Qing had no choice but to steel himself and sit down there.

    As for the Captain... he was one of those ¡®few people,¡¯ so he did dare to sit there. He fanned the Heir Apparent nonstop and hadn¡¯t let up with his fawning behavior. ¡°How¡¯s the airflow, grandpa? Okay? Would you like more?¡±

    The Heir Apparent grunted an affirmative response.

    The Captain immediately started waving the fan a bit harder.

    Xu Qing¡¯s hair stirred as he sat next to the Heir Apparent. He understood exactly why the Captain was working so hard, and even cast him an encouraging look. The Captain saw that and waved the fan even harder.

    The Heir Apparent was looking at the floor. The Captain, Ning Yan, and Wu Jianwu had lived in this sun for quite a while now. As was expected, the spot where three grown men had been camping out for such a long time was quite a mess. That was even more the case considering that Wu Jianwu had all his animals with him.

    Noting what the Heir Apparent was looking at, the Captain opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the trembling Ning Yan rushed forward with a rag to clean the floor.

    The speed with which he acted prompted a profound gleam to appear in the Captain¡¯s eyes.

    Ning Yan wasn¡¯t paying attention to the Captain, though. For all he knew, this ¡®grandpa¡¯ might be his future patron and supporter, the person to save him from the sea of suffering he wallowed in currently. As long as he served this new master well, it was entirely possible that the Captain might be too scared to cause problems for him. Thanks to his frantic efforts, the ce was soon much cleaner.

    The Heir Apparent looked pleased.

    Thinking back to certain people he remembered, and how they looked in situations like this, Ning Yan quickly tucked his hands into the opposite sleeves and stered a smile onto his face. [1]

    ¡°Grandpa, sir,¡± Ning Yan said, ¡°if there¡¯s anything you find displeasing, please just let your humble servant know. Your humble servant will immediately take care of it.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at Ning Yan with a glimmer of reminiscence in his eyes, as if Ning Yan reminded him of an old friend. His expression softened.

    ¡°Your bloodline is fairly strong. If you keep working hard, there¡¯s no limit to what you can do with it.¡±

    Hearing that caused Ning Yan¡¯s heart to swell with excitement, and he bowed deeply to the Heir Apparent.

    Wu Jianwu noticed all of that and suddenly felt nervous. Before he could do anything, though, the parrot flew over and cautiouslynded on the ¡®grandpa¡¯s¡¯ knee. Wu Jianwu¡¯s heart swelled with apprehension, and he wondered if the parrot was intentionally trying to get killed.

    However, the Heir Apparent didn¡¯t seem to mind. Looking at the parrot, he smiled. ¡°Your bloodline is even more interesting.¡±

    When the parrot realized that the Heir Apparent wasn¡¯t shooing him away, he got a bit excited.

    <i>¡°When grandpa shows up, ya¡¯ll are stinky schmears; call grandpa¡¯s name and grandpa is here!¡±</i>

    The ridiculous poetry caused Wu Jianwu to inhale sharply, and start trembling inwardly at the fear that he might be implicated. However, the Heir Apparent just smiled again.

    ¡°Back in the day, your ancestor didn¡¯t talk like an Ancient Emperor.¡±

    Hearing that, the parrot gushed, ¡°My ancestor is a stinky schmear! Grandpa¡¯s the best! Grandpa¡¯s the most awesome! Long live grandpa!¡±

    The Heir Apparent grinned and petted the parrot¡¯s bald head. He clearly liked the parrot.

    The parrot looked profoundly deferential as he let the Heir Apparent pet him. Then he looked around until his gaze settled on Ning Yan.

    ¡°Hey! Little Ningy! Why isn¡¯t this ce spotless yet, huh? Are you blind or something? From now on, whenever grandpa is around, you¡¯d better make sure this ce is spick and span!¡±

    Ning Yan looked at the parrot. The parrot looked back disdainfully.

    Saying nothing, Ning Yan went back to scrubbing the floor.

    When the parrot realized that Ning Yan wasn¡¯t talking back, he got a bit more daring. ring at the Captain, he said, ¡°And you. Niu what¡¯s-your-name. What kind of fanning is that supposed to be? Haven¡¯t eaten today or something? How weak! Also, why are we going so slow? You¡¯re only using one hand to fan grandpa, so feel free to use your other hand to fan the mes and get this sun moving faster!¡±

    The Captain stopped fanning and looked at the parrot.

    The parrot red at him derisively.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the Heir Apparent suddenly said, ¡°You¡¯re the one who came to the Heavenfire Sea back then.¡± [2]

    The Captain¡¯s heart suddenly started pounding. Shaking his head, he said, ¡°That wasn¡¯t me. Definitely not.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked deeply at the Captain but didn¡¯t say anything further.

    The Captain breathed an inner sigh of relief. Then he waved his left hand to produce a second fan. ¡°You¡¯re very perceptive, little parrot. Thanks for the reminder. I¡¯ll speed things up, Grandpa.¡±

    With that, he started fanning with both hands, and the sun sped up a bit. [3]

    When the parrot saw Chen Erniu obeying and the Heir Apparent being so encouraging, he felt extremely proud, and got even braver. He felt like this was the pinnacle of bird life, and that it was his moment to shine. Therefore, he ordered his dad toe over and massage grandpa. Then he red at Xu Qing and prepared to exact revenge.

    ¡°Now there¡¯s you, Little Qingy. We¡¯ve got a long trip ahead of us, so get up and do a little dance for us. Grandpa here needs some entertainment!¡±

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu surreptitiously looked over to see what would happen. The Captain smiled mysteriously.

    Meanwhile, no expression at all could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he looked back at the parrot.

    Sounding profoundly arrogant, the parrot said, ¡°Hey, did you¡ª ack!?¡±

    Before the parrot could say anything else, it flopped onto the ground and coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.

    ¡°How¡¯d you poison me?¡±

    Xu Qing calmly ignored the parrot and turned to the Heir Apparent. Sounding very respectful, he said, ¡°Senior, you mentioned earlier some information about the Red Moon Cathedral that rtes to me. Sir, do you mind sharing some of the details?¡±

    The Heir Apparent nced at the parrot. Smiling, he reached out and stroked it gently. Then, a strange look appeared in his eyes as he turned his attention back to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing understood what the look in his eyes meant, so he said, ¡°It¡¯s a trump card my Master gave me. It¡¯s a curse poison from a god.¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled enigmatically. Considering that he now looked like a kindly old man, his smile made him seem like an elderly person in the presence of younger family members.

    Xu Qing made sure to keep a very respectful expression on his face.

    A moment passed, and the Heir Apparent began to speak in a hoarse voice that filled the interior of the sun.

    ¡°You previously mentioned that we have amon enemy in Crimson Mother. I¡¯m not sure what your Master¡¯s n is, but regardless, if you want to deal with Crimson Mother, the first step is to handle the Red Moon Cathedral. My most recent trip there was not just to deal with a personal grudge. I also wanted to see what sort of reserve powers Crimson Mother has given to the cathedral.¡±

    The ears of Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu both perked up, and the Captain looked on, blinking.

    ¡°When we spoke before, the heavenly dao prevented you from hearing everything I said. But presumably you remember some of the things I told you. Crimson Mother, before reaching godly ascension, was killed by my father.¡±

    Everyone present was visibly shaken by the words spoken by the Heir Apparent. That was especially true of Li Youfei. As a local, hearing this shocking information was enough to leave him reeling.

    ¡°The reserve power left to the Red Moon Cathedral by Crimson Mother is none other than the husk sh¨¥ shed upon transforming from a mortal into a god! It contains raw power from the red moon, and it forms the nucleus of the cathedral. With it around, the cathedral cannot be destroyed.

    ¡°Anyone who gets too close to it will be absorbed. They¡¯ll lose their identity and be a believer in Crimson Mother. Not even cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral dare to touch it. All they can do is enshrine and worship it. The godchild can use it to seek instructions from Crimson Mother. However, because Crimson Mother is currently sleeping, it won¡¯t work.

    ¡°The only person who can make it work... is you.¡±

    As Xu Qing considered the words, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows raised slightly. However, the Heir Apparent didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Days passed. Wu Jianwu, Ning Yan, and Li Youfei slowly got used to the presence of the Heir Apparent, but all of them were still very nervous and couldn¡¯t rx.

    The Heir Apparent cleansed the parrot of poison, who eventually got back into high spirits. The parrot was clearly afraid of Xu Qing, but had no qualms about being arrogant and bossy with everyone else. On many asions, Ning Yan gritted his teeth in response to the parrot¡¯s words. The Captain frequently smiled grimly. With the Heir Apparent present, no one dared to act out of turn. That said, the parrot wasn¡¯t an idiot. When the Heir Apparent rested, he would stay very close by. There were never any chances to do anything to the parrot. However, the Captain wasn¡¯t going to forget any of this.

    When the Heir Apparent was resting, the Captain started doing something new. In Xu Qing¡¯s presence, he would take out a mirror, go inside of it, and thene back out shortly after.

    Every time he did that, he would look proudly at Xu Qing, hoping to see some surprise on his face.

    Xu Qing never looked surprised. But the Captain didn¡¯t give up, so Xu Qing eventually sighed inwardly and asked the question he knew the Captain wanted to hear.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, what have you been doing with that mirror?¡±

    Hearing that, the Captainughed heartily. At longst he¡¯d gotten the reaction he¡¯d hoped for. ¡°Given how much time you spent in the Bitter Life Mountains, I bet you know exactly what I¡¯ve been doing. You¡¯re probably just so depressed that it took you a while to ask me. Am I right? Hahaha! You guessed correctly. I¡¯ve joined the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±

    sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder and giving him a knowing smile, the Captain continued, ¡°I get it, little Ah Qing. You probably tried the same thing in the Bitter Life Mountains, except you got stuck in the second subtest. With the red moon authority you have, there¡¯s no way you¡¯ll pass it. What a shame you can¡¯t see the scenery there. Listen to this. Something really big happened in the Moonrebel Congregation recently. An alchemy grandmaster showed up!¡± Smiling mysteriously, he lowered his voice. ¡°Nobody knows where this grandmaster came from. But guess what? Thanks to my hard work, I actually became friends with him.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, wondering if the Captain was actually talking about himself. He was about to ask for rification when the Captain proudly kept talking.

    ¡°But let¡¯s not get into that. In a bit, I¡¯ll tell you some stories about me and the grandmaster. The reason I bring this up is that I epted a mission from the Moonrebel Congregation. For the past few days, I¡¯ve been working onpleting that mission. The reward is going to be amazing when I do. And with grandpa here, we have nothing to be afraid of, so I¡¯ve been working even harder than normal!¡±

    Xu Qing was familiar with the way the Captain always tried to take advantage of every asset avable, so he wasn¡¯t surprised by any of this.

    ¡°What mission?¡± he asked.

    Speaking in a near-whisper, the Captain answered, ¡°There¡¯s an unlucky cultivator from the Moonrebel Congregation who cultivates some technique called the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. However, he actually ended up being severely poisoned and had to go into seclusion. He hasn¡¯t even moved since then.

    ¡°That cultivator is desperate for a way to dispel the poison. He¡¯s basically on his deathbed. It¡¯s so bad that he went so far as to reveal his actual location, and issued a mission to ask for help.¡±

    1. Ning Yan is obviously acting like a pce servant, or the servant of a rich person. Putting the hands into the sleeves is how they would look when standing by waiting for orders. It <u>looks like this</u>. ?

    2. The Heir Apparent is referring to what he mentioned back in <u>chapter 560.2</u>, about another person who came to see him when he was in the coffin at the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea. There are other references to that conversation in this chapter, so you can use this same link if you want to check back. ?

    3. Obviously I don¡¯t need to exin that fanning mes will make them burn higher. For me, the image of someone literally using a fan to stoke mes is a very Chinese thing. Back in China, it¡¯smon to see street meat vendors fanning their grills (assuming the grills use charcoal or wood). Sometimes you also see the same thing in restaurants when they cook meat tableside over open me. Actually, now that I think about it, that practice is getting rarer. In the city where I lived, they banned such practices a year or two before I left China, with the intent of reducing air pollution. ?

 Chapter 597: Donâ€™t Eat Random Medicines (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 597: Don¡¯t Eat Random Medicines (part 1)</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response to what the Captain said. However, the story sounded very familiar. He remembered encountering a cultivator who imed to cultivate the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. After concluding a transaction with him, Xu Qing had warned him not to directly consume the pill he¡¯d given as payment. That cultivator had disappeared afterward. However, after Xu Qing got busy concocting pills using Li Youfei¡¯s body, he didn¡¯t pay much attention to the situation.

    <i>Is it the same person?</i> Xu Qing thought.

    ¡°I bet the fellow is crazily anxious by now. That¡¯s why the reward for the mission is so amazing.¡± A peach appeared in the Captain¡¯s hand. Taking a bite, he continued, ¡°I figure that with grandpa here, if this poisoned guy is on a fishing expedition, we¡¯ll still be safe. But if he really needs help, then your skill in the dao of poison might be of some help. In other words, this could be a chance for us to earn a quick profit.¡±

    The Captain handed an apple to Xu Qing. ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Want to give it a shot? You might not have joined the Moonrebel Congregation, but that doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m here!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the apple and considered the matter for a moment. ¡°Sure.¡±

    He was curious to find out if it was the same person. And if it was... then it really would be a simple thing for him to get rid of the poison. After all, the information that person provided about the curse was urate.

    The Captain was pleased that Xu Qing had agreed. ncing at the Heir Apparent, who was seated in meditation, he said, ¡°With a Smoldering God here, it would be a big waste to <i>not</i> do this.¡±

    Truth be told, he had another reason for wanting to do this, and that was to make a name for himself in the Moonrebel Congregation. After joining, he had learned a bit about how the Moonrebel Congregation worked. Considering that the ce was essentially a big marketce, word of mouth was extremely important. Since he didn¡¯t have anything worth selling, he figured he needed to take a different approach. His golden ticket was going to be helping people.

    <i>And then there¡¯s that Grandmaster Pill Nine. There are so many people crowded around his temple that I haven¡¯t even been able to get inside. I need to think of a new strategy for that.</i>

    As the gears in his mind spun, he looked up at Xu Qing. ¡°Say, little Ah Qing, how has your curse research been going?¡±

    ¡°I have some ideas,¡± Xu Qing replied. Considering how proud the Captain was about joining the Moonrebel Congregation, he figured it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to exin that he himself had also joined. That would definitely be very disappointing to the Captain.

    ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t worry. How could you expect that curse to be something easy to research? Later on if you have time, you might think about looking at painquelling lozenges.¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes suddenly shone with longing. ¡°Little Ah Qing, you have no idea how significant painquelling lozenges are to the people in the Moonrebel Congregation. Remember I said that something big happened there recently? And remember that grandmaster I became best friends with?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Well he¡¯s no simpleton. He¡¯s a genius in the dao of alchemy, and can even mass-produce painquelling lozenges. I¡¯m really lucky to have gotten to know him and have some very, very interesting conversations. I¡¯m a fan of his genius, but he¡¯s also a fan of my profound insights. That¡¯s why we¡¯ve be bosom buddies. Thanks to our conversations, I¡¯ve seen his genius firsthand.¡±

    The look of reminiscence in the Captain¡¯s eyes caused Xu Qing to blink a few times. However, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Don¡¯t feel discouraged, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s fine. During one of our conversations, the grandmaster promised to give me a painquelling lozenge. Once I get it, I¡¯ll hand it over to you so you can study it. Maybe you can unlock some of its secrets and concoct a few.¡±

    The conversation had attracted the attention of Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu, as well as Li Youfei. None of them were members of the Moonrebel Congregation, so they had no idea what had been going on there recently.

    When Li Youfei heard the Captain mention that this grandmaster could ¡°mass-produce¡± painquelling lozenges, he couldn¡¯t help but nce at Xu Qing briefly.

    Meanwhile, Ning Yan asked, ¡°Elder Brother Erniu, how could this grandmaster from the Moonrebel Congregation be so amazing? Can he really mass-produce painquelling lozenges?¡±

    Aftering to the Moonrite Region and having a bounty put on their head by the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, both Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu hade to understand how valuable painquelling lozenges were. Because of that, this information from the Captain was actually shocking to both of them.

    The Captain stuck his chin up and smiled proudly. ¡°Why do you think he¡¯s <i>not</i> amazing? After Grandmaster Pill Nine made his debut, he shook the entire Moonrebel Congregation for two whole months with his dao reverberations. His neighbors were incredibly lucky. Apparently, the curse within them was suppressed significantly afterward. That¡¯s why some people suspect that the Moonrebel Congregation personally extended an invitation for him to join.¡±

    Ning Yan gasped and Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes went wide. Li Youfei was also visibly moved. Everyone was now paying keen attention to the Captain¡¯s story.

    ¡°The most shocking thing of all is that his painquelling lozenges sell for a tenth of the standard market value, but they¡¯re actually more effective! Since none of you are members of the Moonrebel Congregation, you have no way of knowing that every single day, Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s residence is surrounded by a crowd of hundreds! When he puts a pill up for sale, hordes of cultivators go crazy trying to find whatever he lists as the asking price. It¡¯s a really spectacr sight!¡±

    The Captain sighed emotionally. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan were reeling mentally. It was only Li Youfei who was truly starting to feel shocked, as he was now convinced that the grandmaster in question could only be Xu Qing. Xu Qing, meanwhile, stered a shocked look onto his face.

    ¡°That being said, as the saying goes, <i>celebrities deal with both fame and controversy</i>. My good friend the grandmaster has his fair share of difficulties.¡± The Captain cleared his throat and then sighed. ¡°Because his painquelling lozenges are so cheap, it¡¯s affected the market as a whole. As his fame has grown in the Moonrebel Congregation, he¡¯s picked up a lot of detractors. In fact, it¡¯s hard to say how many there are.

    ¡°In any case, he hasn¡¯t put any new pills up for sale in quite a while, and his detractors have taken advantage of that to spread a lot of bad rumors.

    ¡°Other grandmasters of the dao of alchemy have made public statements about him. Some praise him, but others disparage him. There are even people who im that his products are dangerous, and that they¡¯re not really painquelling lozenges. There are also people who im that the pills he put up for sale weren¡¯t made by him, and that he acquired them with shady methods.

    ¡°Some rumors im that he¡¯s actually working for the Red Moon Cathedral, and that the pills are secretly poisonous. Opinions differ.¡±

    The Captain sighed. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan sat there feeling blown away. Li Youfei didn¡¯t say anything.

    As for Xu Qing, he sighed softly. He hadn¡¯t been to the Moonrebel Congregation in a while, so he had no idea about the things the Captain was describing, especially the nderous things some people were saying.

    ¡°<i>The tree may crave calm, but the wind will not drop</i>,¡± Xu Qing whispered. ¡°The best thing is to not worry about what other people say.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± the Captain said, his voice tinged with emotion. ¡°And that¡¯s exactly what I said to my dear friend the grandmaster. Because of that, he¡¯s in a good mood despite all the bad rumors.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and nodded.

    The Captain appeared to be very pleased with himself, and was about to continue talking when the parrot opened his eyes from his position on the Heir Apparent¡¯s knee. Looking arrogantly at Xu Qing and everyone else, he squawked, ¡°What are you people sitting around talking for? Get to work! And by the way, Niu what¡¯s-your-name, it¡¯s too hot in here! Get over here and fan grandpa immediately!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes widened into a re. However, when he noticed that the Heir Apparent was finishing a session of cultivation, he sighed inwardly. With a fawning look on his face, he hurried over with his fan.

    The parrot then contemptuously started scolding everyone else, even his father. Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei all got to work immediately.

    Things were like that every day in the sun.

    Xu Qing took it all in and sighed. It seemed to him that the parrot was setting himself up for a very bad end. And he was right. A few dayster when the Heir Apparent was resting, the Captain brought Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu over to Xu Qing.

    Grinding his teeth, the Captain said, ¡°Big Jianjian, that parrot of yours needs to be taught a lesson. It¡¯s so annoying!¡±

    Ning Yan nodded, and his eyes glittered with killing intent. The parrot¡¯s dramatic behavior had only continued to be more detestable. Li Youfei kept his head bowed and didn¡¯t say anything, as he knew it wasn¡¯t his ce to add anything. But he felt exactly the same way.

    Wu Jianwu thought for a bit, then took a deep breath. Eyes glimmering with pain, he lowered his voice and said, <i>¡°The unworthy son¡¯s actions bring great pain; does any love within him remain?¡±</i>

    He was also annoyed by the behavior of his rebellious son. The parrot had been yelling at him left and right as well, and definitely was not acting in a filial manner. If things kept going as they were, Wu Jianwu could see a day in which the <i>parrot</i> demanded to be called dad.

    Therefore, they started toe up with a n. The downside was that the Heir Apparent was always around, and the parrot never left his side. At the Captain¡¯s suggestion, they decided that they would take action after they reached the Bitter Life Mountains.

    And thus, time passed. When they were still about half a month away from the Bitter Life Mountains, the Captain ingratiatingly asked the Heir Apparent if they could make a quick side trip. The Heir Apparent agreed.

    As a result, the artificial sun shifted directions and went to the Whitecloud Mountains, the location of the hiding spot of the cultivator who practiced the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body. It was located in Skywater County, which was two counties away from Greensand County. It was a ce with a lot of vegetation, which made the ce seem very alive.

    Given the environment, there were a lot of sects and species there. What was more, because the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s godchild was injured and in seclusion, the resistance movement in the region was flourishing. Much of that activity was among the organizations in the Whitecloud Mountains, and as a result, the Red Moon Cathedral was working hard to keep the area under control. When they arrived, it was immediately possible to see the effects of the cathedral¡¯s actions. Everyone in the artificial sun could see it.

    As they proceeded along in their concealment of invisibility, one of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temples appeared off in the distance.

 Chapter 597: Donâ€™t Eat Random Medicines (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 597: Don¡¯t Eat Random Medicines (part 2)</h4>

    Unlike the other church temple Xu Qing had seen, which was built on a heart, this church temple was atop a gigantic eyeball. Dark veins covered the eyeball, and it pulsed with the power of inspection, which it used to scan the area it passed through. There were a lot of cultivators on the asteroids that orbited around it, and they pulsed with killing intent.

    When the Captain noticed it, he slowed down the artificial sun.

    ¡°What are they doing here? Did they track down my unfortunate friend?¡±

    He quickly took out a mirror and went to the Moonrebel Congregation, only to return a momentter. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°I got in touch with my friend. It seems that after he posted his mission, someone passed the information to the Red Moon Cathedral. Because of that, he isn¡¯t willing to tell me exactly where he¡¯s hiding.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the distant church temple and noticed that it had just shifted directions, and was now elerating.

    ¡°I think they already found him,¡± he said.

    The Captain immediately sent the sun flying in pursuit. Before long, they saw the church temple stop above a valley.

    The huge blood-red eyeball pulsed with a demonic glow that locked onto the valley. Then, a streak of red shot out of the eyeball. Countless streams of blood created a magical symbol that entered the valley. The grounds shook. Boulders shattered. The sides of the valley crumbled, sending dust floating up everywhere. Everything in that spot copsed, leaving behind a huge crater.

    Shockingly, there had once been a cave under the valley.

    In the middle of the crater that was all that remained of the cave, surrounded by masses of rubble, was an altar. Andying on that altar was a person. It looked like he wanted to fight to defend himself, but could hardly move. What was more, he was surrounded by a poisonous miasma. Blood was sttered all around the altar, some of it dried up and some of it fresh. Clearly, this person had been there for quite a while coughing up blood.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed. He recognized that poison....

    The Captain blinked a few times as he also realized the poison seemed familiar. He looked suspiciously at Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t ask any questions. Instead, he looked at the Heir Apparent with a fawning expression.

    ¡°Grandpa...?¡±

    The Heir Apparent was currently ying with the parrot and pretended not to hear.

    The Captain gave Xu Qing a helpless look.

    Xu Qing turned and bowed respectfully to the Heir Apparent. ¡°Senior...?¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked up and smiled. ¡°What did you call me?¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. ¡°Grandpa?¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled and looked out of the sun. A momentter... the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple suddenly shivered. Without any warning whatsoever, the asteroids orbiting it suddenly exploded, sending deafening booms out everywhere. The cultivators atop them instantly went unconscious and dropped to the ground like dumplings dropping into a wok of boiling water.

    The church temple atop the eye seemed inclined to fight back, but in the end it just went silent, and the blood-red glow it emanated faded and went away.

    A momentter the main entrance opened, and a middle-aged godherald stepped out d in a red robe with golden trim. The godherald looked threatening without being angry, and pulsed with extraordinary fluctuations. He obviously had a very high standing in the cathedral. However, his eyes were nk and his face was expressionless and even numb. He almost looked like a marite. Following him were three godservants in red robes, two men and a woman. They had simr facial expressions, and behaved in the same way. Next came a few dozen godves who walked in a simr fashion. It was almost as if they all had strings attached to them guiding their movement. All of them hovered up into the air, where they remained in ce unmoving.

    The gruish scene caused Wu Jianwu and Li Youfei to tremble. Although both of them knew that Smoldering Gods were terrifying, the reality was that they had no idea how strong they actually were. Now that they were seeing for themselves, it was like a new world was opened up to them.

    <i>It¡¯s like an actual god....</i>

    As they trembled, Ning Yan sighed and continued scrubbing the floor.

    The Captain was thrilled. Giving Xu Qing an encouraging look, he jumped down into the crater below.

    ¡°37951, is that you?¡± he called out. The figure in the miasma stirred weakly. Eyes fluttering open, he struggled to rise, but failed. All he could do was call back to the Captain in a weak voice.

    ¡°<i>The red moon is by no means eternal</i>....¡±

    ¡°Now¡¯s not the time for code phrases!¡± the Captain snapped as he got closer. ¡°Are you 37951 or not?¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± the figure replied from within the poison.

    As they spoke, Xu Qing also emerged from the sun. ncing around at the chaos, he descended into the crater and walked over to the blood-sttered altar.

    <i>I told him from the beginning not to take the whole pill....</i>

    With the man¡¯s identity confirmed, the Captain squatted at the edge of the miasma.

    ¡°How did you end up like this?¡± he asked curiously. ¡°I thought you cultivate the Ultimate Poison Resistance Body!¡±

    The figure in the miasma looked angry, and was about to say something, except his injuries suddenly caused him to cough up a huge mouthful of blood. He passed out.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s dead,¡± the Captain eximed, shocked.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and the poisonous miasma dissipated, revealing the unlucky cultivator within.

    He was an old man dressed in a wrinkled navy blue robe. His hair was gray, and he had pronounced cheek bones and arge nose. He had a proud look to him, and he seemed like the kind of person who normally spoke his mind and acted decisively. His face was wrinkled, but he didn¡¯te across as a frail elderly person. Instead, he seemed dignified. He was clearly an important person. But right now, he was obviously in immense pain. His brow seemed to overflow with helplessness, as if the world hade tock meaning to him. The ck blood sttered on his face looked horrendous and ghastly. His hands were clenched into fists, as if he wished to crush away the unwillingness in his heart, and yet... could not.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed and waved his hand, sending a medicinal pill flying out. Itnded in front of the old man, where it exploded, turning into a stream of white energy that entered his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

    Within moments, the poison in the old man was already half dispelled. Seeing that, the suspicion in the Captain¡¯s eyes grew. He looked at the old man. Then he looked at Xu Qing.

    It seemed to him that Xu Qing had dispelled the poison a bit too easily. It was almost as if... Xu Qing was the original source of the poison.

    <i>No, that¡¯s not possible. Little Ah Qing isn¡¯t a member of the Moonrebel Congregation! How could these two know each other! He couldn¡¯t be the poisoner.</i>

    As suspicion swirled in the Captain¡¯s heart, the old man regained consciousness. After looking around nkly for a moment, he sat up, his gaze sharpening. Checking to confirm that the poison in him was gone, he looked at the Captain and Xu Qing, clearly moved.

    ¡°How did you get rid of the poison?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He just backed up a few steps.

    The Captain, meanwhile, chuckled sarcastically and looked the old man up and down. ¡°First you have to tell us how you ended up like that, 37951.¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t respond immediately. He really was an important person, and he wasn¡¯t used to Nascent Soul cultivators talking to him like equals. It was true that they had saved his life by dispelling the poison. But he had to wonder how they got past the Red Moon Cathedral forces. And that left him feeling a bit suspicious. That was especially true considering he had no idea what was going on beyond the crater....

    Clearing his mind, the old man decided he needed to leave as quickly as possible. Standing, he smoothed out his garments, recapturing a bit of his usual dignity.

    ¡°I offer you my thanks, young friends,¡± he said. ¡°However, I¡¯d prefer not to get into personal details about myself. Suffice it to say that this was a tribtion for me. Please, don¡¯t spread word about it.¡± With that, he took out a bag of holding and tossed it to the Captain. ¡°That¡¯s the reward I promised. It wouldn¡¯t be wise to stick around here for very long. We¡¯ll see each other again in the future, and I¡¯ll provide some further rewards.¡±

    The old man then flew up into the air. Ignoring Xu Qing and the Captain, he released the power of his cultivation base and prepared to start fighting if necessary. However, as soon as he was out of the crater and saw the situation outside, he lurched to a halt. As he looked around, his heart was battered by waves of shock, and his expression flickered dramatically. What he saw was a group of cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral all lined up in ranks. They weren¡¯t hurt, but they weren¡¯t moving, as if they lost consciousness. What was most shocking of all was that one of them was a godherald. And even the godherald was just hovering there quietly.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here??¡± The old man felt rocked by astonishment. Deeply shaken, he looked back down into the crater. He had spent two months battling for his life with that poison, so he had no idea what had been going on outside. Also, where had those two Nascent Soul cultivatorse from...?

    Suddenly questioning his previous behavior, he dropped back down into the crater. This time, instead of acting proud and dignified, he adopted a very polite tone.

    ¡°I was caught up in the moment before and was a bit impolite,¡± he said. ¡°I offer profound thanks to you two Fellow Daoists for your kindness. About the scene outside....¡±

    He could tell that something very strange was going on with the people from the Red Moon Cathedral. And yet he couldn¡¯t fathom what force could be at y that would cause an entire group of cathedral cultivators, including a godherald, to seemingly lose consciousness like that.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless, but the Captain smiled.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about all that, 37951. Let me guess, that poison that almost killed you must be the work of some archenemy of yours. Am I right?¡±

    The Captain was clearly very curious about the poison.

    The old man looked the two of them over, then thought back to the shocking scene he had just witnessed. After a moment of consideration, he sighed. ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t an archenemy.¡±

    ¡°Then what happened?¡± the Captain asked curiously.

    ¡°Two months ago I bought a medicinal pill from someone in the Moonrebel Congregation.¡±

    ¡°Then what?¡± the Captain prompted.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t a very expensive pill, so I didn¡¯t look at it very closely.¡± The old man shook his head helplessly.

    ¡°Was the pill some sort of trap?¡± the Captain asked.

    The old man kept exining. At first, he kept things very simple. But as the Captain interacted with him, he began to vent all the frustration and humiliation that had been building up within him.

    ¡°I thought it was just some ordinary poison pill. How was I supposed to know that some freaking whoreson was plotting against me? When I consumed the pill, everything seemed normal at first. It wasn¡¯t that bad. But who could have guessed that the after-effects would keep getting stronger and stronger? Eventually, they wentpletely out of control, and before I could react, I was fully poisoned!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s outrageous!¡± the Captain said, ncing at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. In contrast, the old man was getting more worked up.

    ¡°Exactly! Completely and utterly outrageous! I could hardly move this whole time. I did everything I could to fight back and dispel the poison. I was basically on death¡¯s door when you arrived. This whole dang thing is something a good person would never do! Now that I think about it, whatever whoreson gave me that pill probably <i>was </i>an archenemy! I just got careless. How viinous!!

    ¡°Most outrageous of all is that the pill he sold me was actually a mix of many kinds of poison. A pill like that should be really expensive! But he gave it to me for so cheap! All I gave him was a bit of information. How sinister!¡±

    The Captain continued to provide loud exmations in response to various parts of the story, getting the old man even more worked up. As for Xu Qing, his frown deepened as the old man kept using the word ¡®whoreson¡¯ over and over again.

    ¡°And then, in order to pull the wool over my eyes, the whoreson hypocritically told me not to consume the pill, but to shave off a bit to try first. See what I mean? He was obviously trying to egg me on!¡± The old man finally sighed. ¡°I suppose I have my stubborn personality to me for why I just consumed the whole thing.... If an archenemy wasn¡¯t behind this situation, then who was? It was a clever trap designed around my personality! I¡¯m definitely going to track down that archenemy to get payback!¡±

 Chapter 598: A Story about the Glories of the Ancient Past

    <h4>Chapter 598: A Story about the Glories of the Ancient Past</h4>

    The old man¡¯s face was a mask of anger, and his wording abounded with sullen fury. He would have been fine if he held his tongue, but once he started talking, he could hardly stop. It reached the point where he didn¡¯t need any egging on from the Captain. He just angrily vented his fury, getting more and more worked up, until finally he ran out of words. At that point, he took a deep, shuddering breath. The pressure within him had finally beenrgely relieved.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glimmered with empathy. ¡°You¡¯ve had it really rough. Do you think you can determine who¡¯s responsible?¡±

    ¡°After thinking back to enemies I¡¯ve made, I¡¯ve narrowed it down to three people. And I¡¯d say there¡¯s a seventy to eighty percent chance it was orchestrated by Master Fieldcripple!¡±

    The old man gritted his teeth and his eyes shone with resolution. A moment passed and he took out two bags of holding which he gave to the Captain. Then he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Our meeting must be predestined affinity. I know the two of you Fellow Daoists are moreplicated than you seem, and I know my ce in the world. I won¡¯t say anything to anyone. If you can¡¯t show respect in small things, how can you expect it in big things? Let¡¯s be friends.¡±

    The Captainughed heartily as he took the bags of holding and scanned them with divine sense. It was full of amazing items. Smiling radiantly, he cordially said, ¡°We¡¯re <i>already</i> good friends! Just remember to find my templeter on and leave an incense stick there!¡±

    ¡°Definitely!¡± the old man said solemnly. sping hands to Xu Qing, he bid farewell and left.

    Watching him leave, the Captain patted the bags of holding contentedly. Of course, considering the old man had seen the Red Moon Cathedral cultivators locked in ce unmoving, there was the inherent possibility that it could lead to his own cover being blown. But the Captain wasn¡¯t too worried about that. After all, grandpa was around....

    Upon thinking of that, the Captain blinked a few times.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, what do you think? Should we go ept a few more missions to do along the way? This is just too convenient....¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head and calmly said, ¡°Unless you want to spend the entire trip back coughing up blood, I suggest you don¡¯t ept any more missions.¡±

    During his time interacting with the Heir Apparent, he hade to understand a bit about him. As far as he could tell, this Smoldering God ¡®grandpa¡¯ didn¡¯t have either ill will or goodwill. Unless a situation was personally important to him, there was really no way to know if or how he would interfere. It all depended on his mood. Just because he had helped out this time didn¡¯t mean he would do the same next time.

    The Captain felt that it was a real pity. However, after thinking back to the Yin Sacrifice River, and how the heir apparent had made him cough up blood just by looking at him, he realized it was probably better not to take any risks. He did have a lot of blood, but still....

    <i>Oh well, I¡¯m just too weak in this life,</i> the Captain thought, thinking about the image of the ¡®old man¡¯ saying sarcastic things about him. Looking over at Xu Qing, he smiled mysteriously, as if he had juste to realize something interesting.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, were you the one who poisoned that guy?¡± With that, he peered closely at Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression.

    Looking the Captain in the eyes, Xu Qing earnestly said, ¡°That¡¯s right. It was me. I sold it to him.¡±

    Stunned, the Captain asked, ¡°You joined the Moonrebel Congregation?¡±

    That, of course, was the salient point.

    Continuing to maintain the same earnest facial expression, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I joined a long time ago. Truth be told, I¡¯m actually that good friend of yours, Grandmaster Pill Nine.¡±

    The Captain had alreadye to suspect that this was the case, but hearing Xu Qing¡¯s confession caused him to burst outughing.

    ¡°You almost pulled the wool over my eyes. Well done, little Ah Qing. That said, in the end, you¡¯re still a bit too inexperienced. I¡¯m just too familiar with that earnest expression of yours. Every time you use it, you¡¯re lying. Sadly, you¡¯re just not that good at bragging. Later on, I¡¯ll give you a few lessons.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times but didn¡¯t say anything else as he turned to leave.

    The Captain hurried after him. ¡°Wait, little Ah Qing. Were you serious just now?¡±

    ¡°Very,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly.

    ¡°Then give me one of those painquelling lozenges to prove that you¡¯re actually that best friend of mine.¡± The Captain kept his eyes on Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯m out,¡± Xu Qing said, shaking his head. He hadn¡¯t done any pill concocting work with Li Youfei recently, so he really didn¡¯t have any more painquelling lozenges.

    Hearing that, the Captainughed again. ¡°How convenient! Now I¡¯m sure you¡¯re just bragging, little Ah Qing. Well, that¡¯s fine. Sure, you¡¯re Grandmaster Pill Nine. I believe you!¡±

    With that, he went through the bags of holding and took out half of the items to give to Xu Qing. Then the two of them left the crater and went back to the artificial sun. After they returned, the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral, as well as the blood-red eye, were teleported to random locations in the area, where they fell to the ground. Seeing that caused Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei to feel even more reverence for the Heir Apparent. At the same time, they instinctively felt a lot safer.

    The artificial sun red with light as it left the Whitecloud Mountains and continued on its way to the Bitter Life Mountains.

    The Captain was right. The old man who had struggled with the poison for two months was currently speeding through the mountainsing up with a story to exin what happened to him. His tale wasn¡¯t very different from what really happened, except he left out the part about the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Meanwhile, back inside the artificial sun, the Captain was feeling very pleased with how he¡¯d made out on the mission. Although, he was still trying to decide whether or not Xu Qing was telling the truth.

    Then the Heir Apparent did something that caused his heart to lurch. The ¡®grandpa¡¯ currently held an eyeball in his hand with which he fiddled. asionally, he would squeeze it and look at the Captain.

    Xu Qing noticed the same thing. He had long been curious about the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s giant heart that he first encountered in the Heavenfire Sea. Add in that the Red Moon Cathedral sent a gigantic blood-red eyeball to the Whitecloud Mountains, coupled with the Captain¡¯s facial expression, and it got him thinking.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly. ¡°Do you know why the Red Moon Cathedral travels around on various organs?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    The Heir Apparent smiled, then looked at the Captain with a prating look. ¡°Do you know, Erniu?¡±

    ¡°Grandpa, I also have no clue¡ª¡± Before the Captain could finish his sentence, he noticed the Heir Apparent forcefully squeezing the eyeball between his fingers, to the point where it seemed like it might get squished t. His expression suddenly turned serious. ¡°Wait, grandpa. I remember now!¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± the Heir Apparent said, smiling enigmatically.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell upon the Captain. Ning Yan and everyone else also looked over at him.

    The Captain took a deep breath, and his expression turned even graver. ¡°Based on some things I read in the past, it seems that there was once a very brave, extraordinary, handsome, threatening, ultra-amazing and heroic consummate chosen. This person was supremelypassionate, and cared deeply about all living beings in existence. Upon seeing the profound misery in existence, he could have decided to live a happy life by himself, but instead made a different choice!

    ¡°Because of the bright light in his heart, and the stalwart justice in his soul, he chose to rescue the people from the fire and water. And thus, he went to the God Legion in to fight with Crimson Mother!

    ¡°The battle shook all of Revered Ancient. The starry sky trembled. Heaven and earth moaned in grief. This spectacr, profoundly valorous and righteous amazing chosen ended up fighting the iparably evil Crimson Mother for three hundred years!

    ¡°During those three centuries, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and gale-force winds swept hither and thither. Shockwaves spread out into the starry sky, causing countless gods¡¯ faces to fall. Innumerable living beings offered prayers on his behalf. Sadly, <i>heaven is jealous of heroic geniuses</i>, and in the most critical moment, his closest allies chose to betray him. That most mighty of chosen ultimately suffered defeat. However, in the end, he still managed to bite off a chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh!¡±

    The Captain sighed emotionally. ¡°Crimson Mother¡¯s animosity toward him knew no bounds, and thus ordered this chosen¡¯s heroic and handsome body to be dismembered. And that is the origin of the organs the Red Moon Cathedral uses when they travel about....¡±

    Ning Yan was shaken to the core. Wu Jianwu stood there with his eyes wide. Li Youfei reacted simrly. All of them felt the same thing: that the Captain had used too many adjectives, all of which basically meant the same thing.

    Xu Qing said nothing, but found himself thinking back to that kidney the y fox had offered him. He believed some of what the Captain said toward the end of the story. But the part in the beginning, such as fighting for three hundred years, he didn¡¯t believe at all. And it wasn¡¯t even necessary to mention how much he disbelieved all of those adjectives.

    ¡°Of course, that most amazing chosen was also immeasurably wise, and thus, before sallying forth to battle Crimson Mother, he cut off one of his ears... and left it behind for all living beings to remember him by.¡± The Captain cleared his throat and blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing found himself visualizing the Captain¡¯s past-self body from Mount Heavenly Ox.

    ¡°Oh really?¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly. ¡°I heard that story as well, but the version I heard was a bit different. Apparently, there was a very bold and reckless fellow who hatched a scheme to get some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and blood. He snuck into this region for that purpose alone. He was a skilled fellow, and somehow managed to infiltrate the Red Moon Cathedral and be the Grand Dancer. Then, he colluded with an outside god to transform himself into a mosquito.

    ¡°Taking advantage of a time when Crimson Mother was asleep, he used a true-false transformation magic, along with the help of that outside god, to travel through Crimson Mother¡¯s dream all the way into reality. And there, he bit deeply into Crimson Mother. Before he could even swallow that god blood, Crimson Mother smacked him to death with h¨¥r palm.

    ¡°Crimson Mother was understandably furious with the cathedral, and ordered the godchild to seal his organs and limbs, and have them used as mounts for the cathedral from generation to generation.¡±

    After the Heir Apparent stopped speaking, his words echoed softly in the artificial sun.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu had odd expressions on their faces. Li Youfei inhaled sharply, and yet, found that he was already getting used to associating with these people. Considering he was already in the presence of a Smoldering God, it didn¡¯t seem like a very big deal to add in a mosquito who had bitten Crimson Mother.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. As far as he was concerned, if he had to pick which version of the story seemed more in line with the Captain¡¯s personality, it was definitely the Heir Apparent¡¯s version.

    Scoffing, the Captain quickly changed subjects. ¡°Little Ah Qing, we¡¯ll be in the Bitter Life Mountains in no more than half a month. How¡¯s your medicine shop doing there? Did you pick a name for it yet? Maybe I should help youe up with one! How about the Green Ox Pharmacy? Or maybe the Super Ox Pharmacy?¡±

    Xu Qing ignored him. He knew full well that the Captain was looking for someone else to jump into the conversation to diffuse the awkwardness.

    Even though Xu Qing chose not to respond, Ling¡¯er wasn¡¯t willing to let things slide.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need your help at all! We already have a name. It¡¯s called the Green Spirit Pharmacy!¡± [1]

    Up to this point, Ling¡¯er had been too scared of the Heir Apparent to show her face. But when the Captain seemed to be trying to steal her Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯s reputation, that was simply pushing things too far, and she had to step out and do something.

    ¡°Green Spirit Pharmacy?¡± asked the Captain. Heart swelling with joy, he quickly said, ¡°That name really isn¡¯t good enough. How is business for our little medicine shop, by the way?¡±

    ¡°Business is great,¡± Ling¡¯er replied proudly. ¡°It¡¯s a small city, and our shop is the best there is. We have over a hundred customers a day!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty impressive!¡± the Captain said, looking amazed. ¡°How big is the shop?¡±

    ¡°Very, very big!¡±

    The more Ling¡¯er talked, the more Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were envisioning some amazing, paradisiac medicine shop. Even the Heir Apparent was smiling and listening closely.

    And thus, time passed. The invisible sun got closer and closer to the Bitter Life Mountains. And then, when they were only five days away from the Bitter Life Mountains, the wonderful little medicine shop that Ling¡¯er had described suddenly copsed into rubble....

    1. As I¡¯m sure most of you remember, all three of the words Green, Ox, Spirit are characters from the names of Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, and Ling¡¯er respectively. ?

 Chapter 599: Donâ€™t Trust Heaven, Donâ€™t Trust Fate!

    <h4>Chapter 599: Don¡¯t Trust Heaven, Don¡¯t Trust Fate!</h4>

    It wasn¡¯t just Xu Qing¡¯s medicine shop that copsed. Many of the mudbrick structures in the city copsed, sending dust and debris flying out everywhere. A group of cultivators in gray robes were ttening the buildings. Themoners had long since scattered, having been forced to leave.

    Seven or eight figures hovered in midair, looking down at the city. In the lead position was a young dwarf with very ugly facial features and a baleful aura. His cultivation base was in the great circle of Gold Core, and was actually a bit higher than Chen Fanzhuo, the sect leader of the local Epactic Soil Sect. [1]

    These were not cultivators from the Bitter Life Mountains. A few months ago when the green wind changed colors to white and spread out to fill the entire desert, it negatively affected some of the isted mountain peaks, causing some of them to melt to certain degrees.

    After the white wind disappeared, and the green wind returned, there were quite a few organizations that chose to relocate. They wanted to find better mountains that would provide refuge from the white wind, whenever it came around next. This sort of thing happened a lot when the green wind changed colors. Because the Bitter Life Mountains formed thergest mountain range in the Greenhair Bands, it was naturally a prime destination for such groups.

    Of course, the forces in the Bitter Life Mountains were both istionist and xenophobic. Therefore, any organization that wanted to encroach would need to resort to force. As a result, the Bitter Life Mountains had been full of chaotic warfare recently.

    That was exactly what was happening in this mudbrick city. This group of outside cultivators had picked this city on the periphery of the mountains as the location where they wanted to build their new sect headquarters. That resulted in friction with the Epactic Soil Sect. However, in the end, the two sects reached apromise. After all, losing control of the city didn¡¯t mean that the Epactic Soil Sect would also lose their sect headquarters.

    And thus, the outsiders upied the city. At the moment, their leader, that young dwarf, was looking down and feeling very satisfied.

    ¡°It should only take about five days to clear this ce out,¡± he said coolly.

    Meanwhile, one of his subordinates looked at the rubble of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. After a moment of hesitation, he said, ¡°Sect Leader, don¡¯t forget what Chen Fanzhuo told us. He said that we could do whatever we wanted to the city as a whole, but that we shouldn¡¯t touch the Green Spirit Pharmacy....¡±

    The dwarfughed coldly. ¡°Chen Fanzhuo didn¡¯t want to lose control of this city, so he was being deliberately mystifying. You actually believed him? I don¡¯t care what amazing person owns that Green Spirit Pharmacy. How amazing could he possibly be if all he did was open a pharmacy in a mortal city like this? This is the future location of my sect¡¯s new headquarters! It would bepletely improper to have some random medicine shop here!¡±

    His subordinate nodded. Around that time, a beam of light appeared off in the distance. As it neared, it resolved into Chen Fanzhuo. When he saw the ruins of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, his expression darkened, and he turned to look coldly at the dwarf.

    ¡°Sir Tree-Dao, didn¡¯t I tell you not to touch the Green Spirit Pharmacy?¡±

    Sir Tree-Dao looked at him askance. ¡°I already did,¡± he said coolly. ¡°What are you going to do about it?¡±

    Green sand blew through the city on the wind, making everything very hazy. Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s expression turned even grimmer. Looking coldly at Sir Tree-Dao, he said nothing as he turned and left. Inside, he was thinking, <i>This guy will be dead soon.</i>

    Sir Tree-Daoughed coldly. As he watched Chen Fanzhuo leave, his eyes glittered with killing intent.

    <i>A measly Gold Core cultivator with no powerful backers, scared of everything, shivering in his boots. Just wait until I be an apprentice to Guru ckeyes. He¡¯s the first one I¡¯ll kill!</i>

    It had taken a lot of work over the past half-year or so for him to get in the good graces of Guru ckeyes, and Sir Tree-Dao was very proud of that. He was actually already apprenticed to another Master, but that Master¡¯s cultivation base wasn¡¯t very impressive. What was more, that Master was so secretive that Sir Tree-Dao didn¡¯t even know what he looked like or what his name was. For the past sixty-year-cycle, every time he saw his Master, his appearance was different. As a result, Sir Tree-Dao had long sincee to his own conclusions about who his Master really was.

    That said, he wasn¡¯tpletely sure of all the details. All he knew was that his Master was only in the Nascent Soul level. Therefore, bing an apprentice to Guru ckeyes, who was in the Spirit Trove level, would be like upgrading from earth to heaven.

    <i>I wonder when Guru ckeyes is going to show up. I asked for his help quite a while ago....</i>

    Even as he was thinking such things, a jade slip in his bag of holding vibrated. Heart lurching, he quickly took it out, whereupon a voice message echoed in his mind.

    <i>¡°Come see me, Sir Tree-Dao.¡±</i>

    Sir Tree-Dao immediately got excited as he realized it was Guru ckeyes¡¯ voice. Without hesitating for a moment, he turned and flew off.

    ***

    Some distance away from Greensand County, ripples spread through heaven and earth as an invisible sun raced toward the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Everyone inside was as busy as usual.

    Ning Yan was scrubbing the floor. Wu Jianwu was delivering a massage. The parrot was acting bossy. Li Youfei was doing random chores. The Captain was still fanning away.

    The big difference was that the inside of the sun was now filled with Ling¡¯er¡¯s voice and the Heir Apparent¡¯sughter.

    The Heir Apparent really liked Ling¡¯er. Meanwhile, Ling¡¯er wasn¡¯t as afraid as she had been in the past. She was now in human form, seated next to him and chatting with him in her charming and innocent way.

    ¡°Grandpa, pretty soon we¡¯ll arrive at me and Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯s Green Spirit Pharmacy. Grandpa, sir, why don¡¯t you stay there? You¡¯ll really like our medicine shop.¡±

    The Heir Apparent nodded, his eyes as warm and loving as if he were talking with his own grandchild. Ling¡¯er reminded him of his granddaughter from years past, memories which he actually found somewhat painful.

    Ling¡¯er, seeing that she hadid it on thick enough, finally said, ¡°And so... grandpa, maybe you should let Big Bro Xu Qing rest a bit. Once we get to the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he¡¯s going to have to start concocting a lot of medicine.¡±

    ¡°Silly girl,¡± the Heir Apparent said, chuckling. Turning, he looked at Xu Qing, who was seated cross-legged some distance away, trembling, with sweat pouring down his face.

    Above his head floated three tiny suns. One was a door frame, one was a ring, and the other was a sphere. The three suns emanated intense heat that shone down on Xu Qing and the over one hundred desated corpses surrounding him. They were none other than the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral. They included dozens of godves, three godservants, and a godherald.

    It was only the godherald that was trembling as if in struggle. His eyes would asionally open, and he would look around nkly. His face was a mask of pain.

    Because of the suns shining down, the red moon power within them was being slowly extracted, turning into thin blood-colored threads that flowed toward Xu Qing and entered his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and pores. He was currently in a session of cultivation.

    After leaving the Whitecloud Mountains, the Heir Apparent had instructed him to do this, and had even set up the cathedral cultivators in a spell formation around Xu Qing. Apparently, the suns were purifying their red moon power and making it easier for Xu Qing to absorb. As a result, his violet moon nascent soul was getting stronger. It wasn¡¯t just his violet moon nascent soul. Heavenfiend clones were rising up from the corpses around him as their heavenfate was extracted. The result was that all of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls were growing. Xu Qing was receiving an unprecedented level of replenishment!

    That said, there was a thin line between replenishment and poisoning. For Xu Qing to devour so much nascent soul heavenfate and red moon power in such a short time caused him to feel like his sea of consciousness was expanding dramatically. It also brought with it a sensation of searing pain that left him soaked with sweat and his facial expression fierce.

    That was why Ling¡¯er was so concerned.

    ¡°Silly girl. Your Big Bro Xu Qing has immense potential, but hasn¡¯t experienced enough tempering. It seems likely that his Master hasn¡¯t spent much time with him, and can only give him asional advice and pointers.

    ¡°Truth be told, considering your Big Bro Xu Qing¡¯stent power, he needs high-level tempering. Given the unswerving determination that stems from deep in his bones, he¡¯s suited for that type of thing. Right now, he¡¯s just getting started.¡±

    The Heir Apparent waved his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, causing the three suns to erupt with more light and heat than before.

    Xu Qing¡¯s body sank down a bit, and cracking sounds rang out from within him. His skin seemed like it was on fire, to the point where he hardly looked human. Meanwhile, the corpses around him started exploding one by one. Starting with the godves, all of the red moon power within them rushed out.

    As Xu Qing devoured that power, his cultivation base improved rapidly. Three dayster, as they entered the Greenhair Bands, the godservants were all dead, and only the godherald remained alive. Blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and he howled in defiance.

    At the same time, powerful fluctuations swept out from Xu Qing. His thirteen nascent souls had now been forced into the great circle of the two-tribtion level. The third heavenfate tribtion woulde soon.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu looked on, jumpy with fear as they worried the Heir Apparent might do something simr to them. Clearly, they were overthinking things. As far as the Heir Apparent was concerned, the only person who qualified to receive his instruction and tempering was Xu Qing.

    ¡°You barely scraped by. Provoking heavenfate tribtion with a cultivation base so low will bring a tribtion that most ordinary cultivators would find formidable. But for you, it wouldn¡¯t be enough to bring out yourtent potential. I can help make up for the difference. Are you willing to try, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the Heir Apparent. ¡°Yeah!¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes gleamed with admiration. Walking up to Xu Qing, he flicked his sleeve, pulling Xu Qing away from the suns. And then, to everyone¡¯s astonishment, the Heir Apparent and Xu Qing disappeared and materialized out in the Greenhair Bands.

    As the green wind screamed, the Heir Apparent pushed down with his left hand. The desert rumbled, and sand swirled as a massive pit opened up. Without any hesitation, the Heir Apparent threw Xu Qing into the pit. The moment hended at the bottom, the Heir Apparent spoke in a voice that boomed like heavenly thunder.

    ¡°Let the soil be the body. Temper the soul to be golden. Heaven shall fill with heavenfate tribtion. Bring dao lightning that can destroy the world!¡±

    His voice caused the shifting sands to rumble loudly as they covered Xu Qing. Then, the Heir Apparent pushed down viciously with his right hand, causing thend to press down onto Xu Qing, as if to merge with him.

    His divine sense was also connected to the sandy soil. It was almost as if the Heir Apparent was forcing Xu Qing to be part of the desert, and then use that new ¡®body¡¯ to provoke the third heavenfate tribtion. As a result, in the eyes of the heavenly dao, Xu Qing was in the unprecedented great circle of the second tribtion. As a result, he would be summoning the most terrifying lightning imaginable.

    ¡°Xu Qing, your Master is extraordinary, but he treats you too softly. He created techniques for you and put the primary focus on avoiding crises, reduced risks, and eliminating threats. That method doesn¡¯t directly face challenges, and refrains from using overwhelming power. That method might leave you feeling safe andfortable.... It¡¯s both correct and incorrect!

    ¡°We cultivators need to put our lives on the line. We don¡¯t trust heaven. We don¡¯t trust fate. We don¡¯t allow anything to get in our way. No living being can suppress our hearts. Not even gods can make us bend the knee! If you want to do that, you can¡¯t avoid or reduce danger. You need to find destined opportunities in the face of a deadly crisis. That¡¯s how you develop an indomitable spirit!

    ¡°You are obviously an extraordinary piece of metal! And how can you forge metal with something mild and gentle? Sit down and summon the heavenfate tribtion!¡±

    1. Chen Fanzhuo was introduced by name in <u>chapter 582.2</u>, and appeared subsequently in <u>chapters 583.2</u> and <u>584</u>. ?

 Chapter 600: 3,000 Lightning Bolts; Duskmurmur Extirpation Command

    <h4>Chapter 600: 3,000 Lightning Bolts; Duskmurmur Extirpation Command</h4>

    The canopy of heaven trembled as the sound of thunder rolled out. The sky filled with dark clouds that grew thicker and thicker with every moment that passed. Winds screamed in the Greenhair Bands, growing stronger and stronger until their whimpering turned into the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.

    Immense pressure weighed down from above, settling not just onto Xu Qing and his location, but the entirety of the Greenhair Bands. Rumbling sounds seemed to descend from the highest heavens, causing all living beings in the desert to feel jumpy with fear.

    All of the organizations in all of the mountains, including those in the Bitter Life Mountains, trembled with anxiety. Even people in the Red Moon Cathedral looked up into the sky.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±

    ¡°Something¡¯s strange about the sky....¡±

    Chen Fanzhuo sat cross-legged in his sect, his heart pounding. As he looked up into the dark sky, a very uneasy sensation filled him. That said, he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what was going on.

    There was someone else who suddenly felt uneasy. It was Sir Tree-Dao, who was currently serving tea to an old man in a ck robe. It was a ceremony of apprenticeship. Sir Tree-Dao¡¯s hand was trembling so hard that some tea actually spilled. The old man in the ck robe looked up into the sky, a suspicious expression on his face.

    The number-one rogue cultivator in the Bitter Life Mountains, Patriarch Inkrule, was seated cross-legged in meditation. All of a sudden, he looked up into the dome of heaven, an incredibly serious expression on his face.

    Everyone reacted simrly, even the species that guarded the desert and normally lived under the sand.

    There was little need to mention the people located in midair in the sun, just overhead the location that was causing all of the dramatic upheavals. Ning Yan shivered. Wu Jianwu gasped. Li Youfei seemed stunned.

    And the Captain looked down with an expression of anticipation on his face. <i>The Heir Apparent said it right. Ever since Xu Qing was named as the future governor of Sea-Sealing County, the old man has been putting safety first. That said, things don¡¯t need to be as dramatic as the Heir Apparent makes them out to be. Little Ah Qing¡¯s dao heart is already forming. Give it a few more years, and he¡¯ll naturally develop his own personal dao. He actually doesn¡¯t need pointers from anyone. Although, for little Ah Qing, this is for the best.</i>

    Down below, the Heir Apparent, in his grandpa form, floated up into the air with his hands sped behind his back. As the rumbling sounds grew more intense, lightning arced through the air, dancing every which way.

    The affected area grew evenrger. It started at 3,000 meters but soon reached 30,000 meters. And it kept going, until eventually it covered the greater part of the Greenhair Bands. That led to no small amount of astonishment among the living beings that inhabited the desert. Before any of them could check closely about what was happening, a roar echoed out like the angry cry of a god. Countless crashes of thunder were apanied by innumerable lightning bolts which spread out to cover the desert.

    Then they mmed down onto the surface of the desert! There were no less than 3,000 bolts of lightning. All of themnded in different spots, then shot through the sand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. They were like 3,000 lightning dragons, streaking forth with astonishing power.

    When the Captain sensed what was happening, his eyes went wide and he gasped. Even he found the development astonishing.

    ¡°This is going to kill little Ah Qing!¡± he blurted, and was about to fly out to help.

    The Heir Apparent turned and looked at him. ¡°Calm down!¡±

    The Captain stopped in ce, his expression flickering.

    The 3,000 lightning dragons rumbling toward Xu Qing, converging around him, shattering thend in his area. When they met each other and became one, a wild, deafening sound wave swept through the Greenhair Bands. The sand surrounding Xu Qing¡¯s subterranean location shattered violently.

    Then a miserable shriek rang out inside the artificial sun, drawing the attention of Ning Yan and the others. The godherald that Xu Qing had been absorbing started glittering with electric light, until finally exploding and transforming into a diamond-shaped piece of wood that fell to the ground.

    Before anyone could react to his sudden death, a huge shockwave swept across thends, shattering everything for 250 kilometers in every direction. When it was over, a massive, 500-kilometer chasm was visible below. In the middle of ity a 15-meter-tall figure, scorched, ckened, and unmoving. It was impossible to tell if the figure was dead or alive.

    ¡°Not very impressive. Of the 3,000 lightning bolts, you only sustained a few hundred.¡± The Heir Apparent shook his head. With the wave of his hand, he pulled the scorched figure up to him, then returned to the artificial sun.

    Back inside the sun, Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes were puffy and red as she rushed over.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing!¡± Seeing Xu Qing injured and gasping for breath, Ling¡¯er started crying. Wrapping her arms around him, she looked at the Heir Apparent. ¡°Grandpa, you....¡±

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu hardly dared to breathe, and as they looked at the unmoving Xu Qing, their hearts started to pound.

    ¡°He¡¯s not going to die,¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly. Then he noticed that Ling¡¯er was crying, and his heart softened a bit. ¡°This was a type of tempering. That Red Moon Cathedral godherald sustained most of the tribtion. When your Big Bro Xu Qing reached his limit, the godherald shared the burden....¡±

    When the Captain heard that, and then looked at the spot where the godherald had vanished from existence, his heart pounded. <i>Duskmurmur Extirpation Command</i>.

    At that point Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan realized what happened, and both of them inhaled sharply.

    That was especially true of Ning Yan, who was privy to many secrets. Thinking back, he recalled a very ancient ceremony that he¡¯d read about in certain ancient records.

    ¡°The Duskmurmur Extirpation Command!¡± he murmured. Thanks to his studies, he knew all about the technique called the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command. Few people nowadays had heard of it or knew how to use it. But back in the days of Ancient Emperors, it was well-known as a very ruthless technique.

    The ¡®duskmurmur¡¯ was a type of vicious tree that existed in the ancient past. Every few thousand years, that tree would have to pass a tribtion. Whenever that tribtion came, numerous top experts would suddenly drop dead in random locations. After a lot of research, people came to realize that all of those events were connected. The experts who died reced the duskmurmur tree in death, allowing the tree to pass the tribtion. Gradually, people figured out the details of the ceremony.

    In the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, only chosen cultivators from the imperial n, under the direction of older members of the n, would use the technique on nonhumans in order to pass tribtions. The most shocking thing about the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command was that after the person facing the tribtion reached their limit, and experienced what should have been their own death, the effects would be passed on to another cultivator, who could be turned into a piece of wood. The curse power that filled the wood, once released, would contain shocking power.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Ning Yan looked at where the godherald had died, and to his astonishment, saw the piece of wood there.

    Meanwhile, outside in the dome of heaven, everything was going back to normal. The ck clouds were dissipating, and all shockwaves had died down. Although the area affected by the lightning was only about 500 kilometers, the event had actually affected the entire Greenhair Bands. Innumerable mountains there were shaken, including those in the Bitter Life Mountains. Within all those mountains, intense exmations of shock could be heard everywhere.

    Numerous figures flew up into the air, sending out divine will to check the area. Feelings of terror and vignce abounded.

    ¡°What almighty entity is facing tribtion?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like tribtion. More like somebody refining something!¡±

    Spections and theories exploded in the Greenhair Bands. Even the Red Moon Cathedral was shaken, and immediately began trying to figure out what caused the situation. No such efforts amounted to anything. However, the effects were profound and far-reaching to the local cultivators.

    The number one rogue cultivator, Patriarch Inkrule, hovered in midair in the Bitter Life Mountains. As he stared up into the dome of heaven, he thought to himself, <i>Momentous events are in store for the Greenhair Bands....</i>

    Simr thoughts urred to many top experts. The ck-robed old man with Sir Tree-Dao finally epted the cup of tea.

    ¡°For the time being, don¡¯t leave the Bitter Life Mountains,¡± he said. ¡°I have a bad feeling about this. Did you stir up any troubletely?¡±

    Sir Tree-Dao immediately shook his head. ¡°Master, I¡¯ve been in these mountains this entire time, working on establishing my new sect headquarters. I definitely haven¡¯t stirred up any trouble.¡±

    The ck-robed old man nodded.

    ***

    Xu Qing, who had caused all of themotion, struggled to open his eyes. He could sense how weak he was, but at the same time, felt shocking power flowing through him. His thirteen nascent souls had all reached the three-tribtion level. His battle prowess had increased significantly, such that any Nascent Soul cultivator who encountered him would feel despair and shock.

    As of now, Xu Qing could definitely fight against any expert in the early part of the dao begetting phase.

    Even the weakest dao begetting experts were vastly superior to Nascent Soul cultivators. And the strong ones would be very close to the true Spirit Trove level. All they would have to do was form a heavenly dao, and break through from the illusory to the corporeal to have a true secret trove.

    As Xu Qing focused on recovery, three days passed.

    The Bitter Life Mountains were now visible in the distance.

    When Ling¡¯er saw that her Big Bro Xu Qing really was okay, she breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. At that point, she returned to her previous vivaciousness, and started exining more about the Green Spirit Pharmacy to the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Grandpa, our medicine shop is really beautiful. I personally decorated everything. It¡¯s very warm andforting inside, and I take time every day to clean the entire ce. You won¡¯t find even a speck of dust anywhere.¡±

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s enthusiasm had rubbed off on Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. Even the Captain couldn¡¯t wait to see the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Li Youfei was also excited. Last time, he¡¯d had no choice but to flee from the medicine shop. But this time, things were different. As far as he was concerned, even someone like Patriarch Inkrule counted as nothing more than a joke.

    The Heir Apparent smiled. He really was feeling very happy. In the past, his lofty position made it difficult for him to experience the happiness of mortal life. Nor had he experienced anything like a true family. Later, he was suppressed in the Heavenfire Sea and endured unending bitterness. Even after his return, he had spent most of his time recovering. Now he felt like he was spending his time with a group of children. All of them went around calling him grandpa, and though he hadn¡¯t given voice to how he felt, the truth was that it filled his heart with warmth.

    Hearing how happy Ling¡¯er was caused him to smile and nod. However, when he looked outside, a strange expression filled his eyes. ¡°Ling¡¯er, is your medicine shop in the mudbrick city up ahead?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, grandpa! That¡¯s the city! We¡¯re finally home!¡± Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes shone with anticipation.

    As the artificial sun got closer and closer to the Bitter Life Mountains, Xu Qing continued to recover. As of now, he could stand with Ling¡¯er¡¯s help. As he looked toward the mudbrick city off in the distance, he sighed inwardly. His travels had taken him away for more than half a year.

    All of a sudden, his gaze hardened. Up ahead, he sensed nothing but ruins. Then a rumbling sound echoed out from the mudbrick city. Dust and rubble flew everywhere as thest of the buildings there copsed.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t have been more taken aback.

 Chapter 601: Youâ€™re In Trouble!

    <h4>Chapter 601: You¡¯re In Trouble!</h4>

    Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and the Captain had no idea where the Green Spirit Pharmacy was located. But seeing the ruins of the city left them astonished.

    Xu Qing suddenly blurred into motion, vanishing from inside the sun and appearing in the city right in front of the former location of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. His expression was grim. The medicine shop had long since been reduced to rubble. The entire area was in shambles. The sign was still there, but it was broken into a handful of pieces.

    Ling¡¯er appeared next to Xu Qing, a dazed look on her face as she looked at what was left behind of the shop.

    The Captain and the others appeared one after another. Looking around at the devastation, the Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, um... did we go the wrong way? There¡¯s no medicine shop here!¡± He took a few steps forward, squatted down, and picked up a few of the pieces of the sign. He looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°Actually, it looks like there really was a medicine shop here at one time.... Hey, check out this sign. It looks like one of the characters is ¡®Green.¡¯¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression became grimmer.

    Ning Yan blinked a few times and then quietly said, ¡°My condolences, Biggest Bro....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned ice cold.

    Meanwhile, there was no way Wu Jianwu could possibly pass up an opportunity like this. Sighing, he said, <i>¡°The sea of life bes a cesspit; the beautiful flowers have turned to shit. Don¡¯t believe me, just take a look¡ª¡±</i>

    Before Wu Jianwu could finish his poetry, the parrot flew out and excitedly said, <i>¡°The great heavens spare none from sorrow!!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing radiated intense coldness as he nced at the parrot.

    And then Ling¡¯er finally reacted; her face swelled with fury. This was her shop. Her home! And now it was destroyed. Sensing Ling¡¯er¡¯s anger, the shadow also pulsed with emotional fluctuations of rage.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out into the open, thrumming loudly. ¡°Milord. Mdy. Say the word and I¡¯ll go ughter whoever did this!¡±

    Not to be outdone, Li Youfei stepped forward and furiously said, ¡°That¡¯s right! I want to see who had the outrageous gall to do something like this!¡±

    He called the Bitter Life Mountains home as well, and considering that the grandmaster¡¯s medicine shop had been razed to the ground, he felt like it was his responsibility to help. It didn¡¯t matter who was responsible, he would do everything possible to deal with them.

    The arrival of Xu Qing and the others had now caught the attention of the gray-robed cultivators who were bustling about in the area. With malicious gazes, they started surrounding them.

    Before they could get very close, though, a prismatic beam of light approached at high speed. Ignoring the gray-robed cultivators, it shot to Xu Qing and resolved into the leader of the Epactic Soil Sect, Chen Fanzhuo.

    After the grandmaster¡¯s medicine shop was destroyed, he had been keeping a close eye on the area, and therefore, hurried over as soon as he realized Xu Qing was back. Expression one of fury, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Grandmaster, I wish I could have done something, but I was powerless to keep your medicine shop safe.¡±

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing looked at Chen Fanzhuo. ¡°Who¡¯s responsible?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a new group that decided to take over this area. They drove everyone away and then started building their sect headquarters here. The leader is a dwarf who calls himself Sir Tree-Dao.¡±

    Upon hearing his words, Li Youfei¡¯s eyes went wide. He felt like his mind had just been struck by 100,000 lightning bolts, leaving him reeling mentally. Rushing over to Chen Fanzhuo, he said, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s a dwarf called Sir Tree-Dao?¡±

    Looking surprised, Chen Fanzhuo nodded.

    After seeing that nod, Li Youfei no longer felt like he had been struck by 100,000 lightning bolts. Instead, it felt like 10,000,000 lightning bolts smashing into him. Grief welled up within him. Trembling from head to toe, he flopped to the ground in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Grandmaster... this is a misunderstanding. It must be a misunderstanding.... Sir Tree-Dao is a novitiate apprentice of mine.... I can handle this. I¡¯ll deal with it! Right now!!¡±

    Li Youfei was actually terrified. The thought of his own novitiate apprentice causing a disaster like this left him shaking to the core. He wished he could track that apprentice down right now and p him to death.

    Xu Qing looked calmly back at Li Youfei.

    That gaze made Li Youfei think about all the experiments Xu Qing had carried out on his own body. Then he thought about everything else he had seen and experienced recently, and he couldn¡¯t help but look over at ¡®grandpa.¡¯

    Shivering again, he raised his voice and said, ¡°Grandmaster, I¡¯ll handle this post haste!¡±

    He quickly sent his divine sense out and locked onto a specific location. Then, throwing all caution to the wind, he unleashed the power of his Nascent Soul cultivation and shouted, ¡°I¡¯m the Master of your sect leader, fools! Back down now! Make a single wrong move and you¡¯re all dead!¡±

    Such words backed by a Nascent Soul cultivation base left the gray-robed cultivators feeling so shaken that none of them dared to do anything.

    With that, Li Youfei unleashed all of the power he was capable of to rush toward the spot his divine sense had locked onto. Inside he was cursing to death. <i>You damn unfilial apprentice! Where did you get the outrageous gall to destroy the medicine shop of someone as terrifying as this??</i>

    Truth be told, he actually liked this apprentice a lot. But because he had so many enemies, he had never told Sir Tree-Dao his true identity and background. As a result, he couldn¡¯t just stand by while his apprentice did something so suicidal. Moving at top speed, he quickly arrived at Sir Tree-Dao¡¯s sect headquarters. Not holding anything back, he made a beeline for the building where he sensed his apprentice¡¯s aura.

    Sir Tree-Dao was still there kneeling respectfully in front of the ck-robed old man, receiving some cultivation pointers.

    ¡°Sir Tree-Dao, your cultivation base is passable. But your techniques are all random. If you want to cultivate my personal techniques, you need to do something about all of those misceneous things you learned before. You¡¯re talented, but sadly, you became an apprentice to the wrong Master. That¡¯s why you haven¡¯t made much cultivation progress in the past few years.¡±

    Deep within the ck-robed old man¡¯s eyes was a flicker of greed. He actually had his own reasons for epting Sir Tree-Dao as an apprentice. Just as he was about to continue speaking, he noticed something outside and frowned.

    Meanwhile, Sir Tree-Dao very respectfully said, ¡°I was a fool in the past, Master. Ai. If only I¡¯d known that <i>there is always someone better out there</i>. But instead, I became an apprentice to the wrong Master.¡± The moment he finished speaking, he heard a familiar voice from outside.

    ¡°Sir Tree-Dao, get the hell out here right now to talk to your Master!¡±

    Sir Tree-Dao¡¯s eyes went wide, and his jaw nearly dropped. Turning, he watched as the door of the building mmed open and Li Youfei appeared there.

    Sir Tree-Dao didn¡¯t recognize Li Youfei¡¯s appearance, but he definitely recognized his gaze, his voice, and his fluctuations. In the blink of an eye, Sir Tree-Dao realized that this was the mysterious person he had previously called Master. Stunned, he opened his mouth to speak. However, Li Youfei wasn¡¯t in the mood to sit around pondering the situation. As soon as heid eyes on Sir Tree-Dao, he reached out to grab him.

    ¡°Come with me right now, you rebellious apprentice! If you apologize to the grandmaster this instant, and offerpensation, you might still get out of all this alive!¡±

    There was no way Sir Tree-Dao could resist. That said, he wasn¡¯t even sure what was going on. However, before he could do anything, the ck-robed old man snorted coldly.

    ¡°How impudent!¡± Backed by his Spirit Trove cultivation base, the ck-robed old man¡¯s cold snort echoed like heavenly thunder.

    Li Youfei staggered backward, blood oozing out of his mouth as he finally looked at the old man in ck. ¡°Guru ckeyes!¡±

    ¡°Li Youfei!¡± Guru ckeyes said coolly. ¡°So, you¡¯re the one who had Sir Tree-Dao as an apprentice before. Well he¡¯s my apprentice now. As of now, he¡¯s not your concern!¡±

    Li Youfei could obviously see that his apprentice had left his tutge to join another Master, so he nodded. Looking at Sir Tree-Dao, he said, ¡°Well, what are you going to do?¡±

    Sir Tree-Dao hesitated for a moment, then sped hands to Li Youfei. ¡°Senior....¡±

    ¡°Fine, I get it,¡± Li Youfei interrupted. If things had been like they were before, he would have continued to vent his anger. But now, he could breathe a sigh of relief. ¡°Very well. As you said, this doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me. You¡¯re no longer my apprentice. But considering that we used to be apprentice and Master, Sir Tree-Dao, let me give you a little warning.... You really pissed off the grandmaster.¡±

    Li Youfei shook his head. At almost exactly the same time, footsteps could be heard outside, along with some agonized shrieks. A momentter, Xu Qing arrived with everyone else.

    Sir Tree-Dao was clearly surprised at that.

    However, Guru ckeyes simply looked over the group quickly, then said, ¡°A few measly Nascent Soul cultivators? Since when did people like that think they could start showing off? Sir Tree-Dao, you¡¯ll now get a chance to see that technique I taught you in action.¡±

    Guru ckeyes stood, his expression tranquil. sping his hands behind his back, he walked out of the room with a single step. There, his Spirit Trove cultivation base erupted, causing a secret trove to appear over his head. The secret trove seemed full of erupting volcanoes. And it was just possible to hear the roar of a heavenly dao within it, which caused the surrounding naturalws to stir. Meanwhile, innumerable projections appeared behind him, vicious and howling with rage.

    It was a very impressive sight. Then Guru ckeyes took a second step forward, cing him right in front of Xu Qing and the others. Behind him, his secret trove emanated astonishing pressure, causing rumbling sounds to fill heaven and earth. What was more, a ck magical symbol began to form in the sky overhead. It was fully 3,000 meters in size, and pulsed with enough might to shatter boulders.

    ¡°Watch closely, my apprentice. This is the technique I just imparted to you. The Grand Devil Seal!¡±

    Guru ckeyes casually waved his hand with the intent of crushing the pitiful animals in front of him.

    A strange expression appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. Ning Yan sneered and Wu Jianwu stood there with his chin stuck up. Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless. And then, all of them turned to the Heir Apparent and sped hands.

    ¡°Grandpa.¡±

    The Heir Apparent, who had been ying with the parrot, turned and looked at Guru ckeyes.

    One look.

    That was all it took for Guru ckeyes¡¯ mind to start spinning. Going numb from head to toe, he flopped to the ground, all while his Grand Devil Seal faded from existence. Then, all the blood in his body sprayed out of his mouth. Clearly, he didn¡¯t have as much blood as the Captain, making it hard to tell how badly he was injured. Everything went deathly silent.

 Chapter 602: A Cozy Little Medicine Shop (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 602: A Cozy Little Medicine Shop (part 1)</h4>

    Sir Tree-Dao''s eyes were wide and nk with astonishment. As he watched Guru ckeyes coughing up blood, he almost couldn¡¯t believe that what he was seeing was real. In his mind and heart, Guru ckeyes was unsurpassably powerful.

    ¡°W-what¡¯s... what¡¯s going on...?¡± Trembling, Sir Tree-Dao struggled to breathe, and he felt like the world was spinning around him. Then he started to go weak at the knees. He really couldn¡¯t understand how all of this could be happening. What kind of a person could do this to Guru ckeyes with a single look? What was more, why would a person like that be looking for him? He hadn¡¯t done anything to offend any powerful experts!

    As Sir Tree-Dao stood there,pletely dumbfounded, Li Youfei sighed.

    Although Sir Tree-Dao had deserted him, he was still his apprentice. Therefore, he strode forward, grabbed Sir Tree-Dao, and dragged him over to Xu Qing, where he pped him across the face. Then he pped him again. And again. After pping him until his face swelled up so much his features were unrecognizable, Li Youfei bowed respectfully to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Grandmaster, shall I kill him?¡±

    Those words caused Sir Tree-Dao to finally regain his senses. He was wracked with pain, yet didn¡¯t dare to moan. Voice trembling, he said, ¡°M-mas... Master, this is a misunderstanding. I-I-I... I didn¡¯t offend anyone!¡±

    ring angrily at his rebellious apprentice, Li Youfei gritted his teeth and replied, ¡°Are you the one who destroyed the Green Spirit Pharmacy?¡±

    ¡°Green Spirit Pharmacy?¡± Shivering, Sir Tree-Dao tried to figure out what Li Youfei was talking about. Only after thinking about it for a moment did he remember that little medicine shop in that city. His eyes widened again, and rumbling sounds exploded in his mind. All of a sudden, he recalled how Chen Fanzhuo had warned him not to even touch the Green Spirit Pharmacy. And he had ignored that advice....

    <i>How could this be? What medicine shop was that? Why is this happening...?</i>

    Sir Tree-Dao¡¯s heart filled with both remorse and terror. His out-of-control emotions, coupled with the severe beating from Li Youfei, caused him to pass out.

    When Li Youfei saw the look on Sir Tree-Dao¡¯s face, it made him think back to the days when he had instructed him in the ways of cultivation. Sighing inwardly, he cast a pleading nce at Xu Qing. He knew full well that his former apprentice¡¯s life would be determined by a single thought.

    Xu Qing noted the look on Li Youfei¡¯s face, and then looked over at the unconscious Sir Tree-Dao.

    ¡°He has two hours to put it back like it was,¡± Xu Qing said tranquilly.

    Li Youfei exhaled slowly. sping hands, he bowed gratefully to Xu Qing. There was no way Sir Tree-Dao would die from a little beating, so Li Youfei pped him awake, then grabbed him and flew off.

    Two hourster, thanks to Sir Tree-Dao working hard and screaming at his subordinates to do the same, the Green Spirit Pharmacy was back. It wasn¡¯t just the medicine shop. The entire city was back to its original state. For that to happen in only two hours went to show that everyone involved in the rebuilding work didn¡¯t dare to dally.

    In order to ensure that the interior of the Green Spirit Pharmacy was the same as before, Li Youfei found Chen Fanzhuo. After all, Chen Fanzhuo had been inside before and knew what it looked like. With Chen Fanzhuo¡¯s help, the Green Spirit Pharmacy looked just like it did before. The sign was fixed, and the door even had the notice Xu Qing had put there saying that the ce was temporarily closed.

    In terms of the citizens of the city... Li Youfei demanded that Sir Tree-Dao and his subordinates dress up to y the part. In the end, the city basically became their new sect headquarters.

    Xu Qing currently stood outside his little medicine shop, looking around at the familiar sight. He felt a little better now. sping hands to the Heir Apparent, he said, ¡°Many thanks, grandpa. Please, after you, sir.¡±

    Ling¡¯er stood next to him looking very pleased. Looking at the Heir Apparent, she proudly said, ¡°Thank you, grandpa, for helping my Big Bro Xu Qing rebuild his medicine shop.¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled, sped his hands behind his back, and walked inside.

    Xu Qing followed. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu looked at the sweat-soaked Li Youfei. Then each of them patted his shoulder on the way through the door. Once everyone was inside, Ling¡¯er gave a short tour to the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Grandpa, this is the back room where Big Bro Xu Qing concocts medicine. And this is the counter where I keep the books. Business has been great!¡± As she spoke, she took out the little sapling and put it back in its normal spot. ¡°This is Sprouty. He¡¯s very cute, and when he¡¯s happy, he dances.¡±

    The parrot immediately looked over. The little sapling shivered and then started swaying back and forth.

    As Ling¡¯er showed off the shop, the Captain looked around a bit. Then he lowered his voice and leaned over to Xu Qing. ¡°Little Ah Qing, this shop is a bit small, don¡¯t you think? How many people can stay here anyway?¡±

    When Li Youfei heard that, he immediately took out a jade slip and sent orders to some of the surrounding ¡®citizens¡¯ toe expand the medicine shop on either side. Within moments, the shop was muchrger than before.

    Later that evening, as the city quieted down, themps in the Green Spirit Pharmacy lit up, filling the shop with warm light. Within thatmplight, everyone sat around the table in the shop.

    The Heir Apparent was ying with the parrot. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were trying hard to get used to having a Smoldering God around. Sadly, they were just too nervous to rx in such a situation. Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er had already gotten used to the situation, and thetter had no trouble at all bringing a smile to the Heir Apparent¡¯s face.

    The Captain, meanwhile, blinked a few times as he looked around. It had already be obvious to him while traveling that the Heir Apparent had two reasons foring to the Bitter Life Mountains. Although he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what those two goals were, he knew one of them had something to do with Xu Qing.

    <i>Maybe he¡¯s optimistic about Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon power. Perhaps he wants to make it stronger, and help little Ah Qing grow up faster. That way, he can make use of Little Ah Qing¡¯s strength to unseal his other brothers and sisters. Although, the problem obviously can¡¯t be solved that easily. The Red Moon Cathedral definitely has their guard up now.</i>

    The Captain thought back to the journey, and everything the Heir Apparent did. Obviously, the Heir Apparent enjoyed the mundane affairs of daily life. And he seemed to like the medicine shop.

    <i>That makes sense. He¡¯s all alone and without any real family, so of course he enjoys the warmth of living with a bunch of grandkids....</i>

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the Captain looked at Ning Yan and the others.

    ¡°You lot!¡± he said. ¡°Which of you can cook? Hurry up and make something to eat for grandpa.¡±

    Ning Yan looked back, stunned. Wu Jianwu shook his head. Li Youfei hesitated. But Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyes glittered and she jumped up. She had learned a lot about cooking from the women in Duanmu Zang¡¯s city of fireflies. And her Big Bro Xu Qing always loved the dishes she made. Therefore, she opened her mouth to speak.

    Before she could, Xu Qing held out his arm in front of her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± he said. He stood. But then he hesitated for a moment. ¡°Except we don¡¯t have any food.¡±

    When Xu Qing said he would cook, the Captain was intrigued. ¡°Alright, who has some food?¡± he asked.

    Wu Jianwu suddenly looked at the parrot, who grimaced a bit before finally producing a pile of big fish. The parrot loved eating fish. Back on his journey to find Xu Qing, he had caught quite a few. And even now, he would often find opportunities to go out and catch some fish to eat. It was only natural that his own father would know about that.

    After the parrot handed over all his surplus food, he stared impatiently at Xu Qing. There were some things he really wanted to say to Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t dare to. Instead, he turned his angry re upon the Captain and the others.

    ¡°What are the rest of you sitting around for? Can¡¯t you see how dirty this ce is! Start cleaning!¡±

    The Captain smiled. Ning Yan¡¯s eyes glittered profoundly. Wu Jianwu pretended to see neither of those things, as they knew that Erniu¡¯s n was still on the verge of being implemented.

    Therefore, everyone got to work. The floor needed to be scrubbed. The table needed to be wiped down. The medicinal pills needed to be organized. And the parrot demanded that all of them change into rough hemp garments while they were working, the result being that nobody even looked like a cultivator.

    When the Captain saw how much work there was to be done, he felt that the Heir Apparent could do with another maidservant. Nethersprite came to mind, so he brought her out of the world fragment.

    When Nethersprite appeared in the medicine shop, her aura red and she ground her teeth furiously.

    ¡°Chen Erniu, you goddamned¡ª¡±

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t even spare a nce for Nethersprite. They just kept working.

    And before she could even finish speaking, the Captain red at her and interrupted, ¡°Behave yourself, Little Spritey! Look around! Can¡¯t you read the room?¡±

    Feeling very pleased with himself, the Captain pointed over Nethersprite¡¯s shoulder. Nethersprite¡¯s eyes went wide as she realized that something was very off about the situation. Without even thinking about it, she looked briefly over her shoulder.

    One look....

    Shortly thereafter, there was a new maidservant in the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    It was in that manner that time passed. Soon, it was dark outside and the wind had picked up. It was a cold night, but it wasn¡¯t possible to see muchmplight in the mudbrick city. Everyone just sat shivering in their houses. But in the little medicine shop, Xu Qing¡¯s cooking caused a fragrant aroma to spread. The flickeringmps created a very warm atmosphere.

    After about two hours in the kitchen, Xu Qing carried out a handful of dishes and ced them on the table.

    It smelled delicious. It was a fish banquet! There was fish stew, broiled fish skin, fried fish, braised fish.... [1]

    The Captain was very surprised to see such a sumptuous feastid out.

    Ling¡¯er started salivating at the mere sight of it. Quickly grabbing some chopsticks, she looked eagerly at the Heir Apparent. [2]

    The Heir Apparent smiled, picked up some fish with his chopsticks, and put it in his mouth. A momentter, he nodded.

    ¡°Don¡¯t hold back. Everybody dig in.¡±

    1. This is obviously reminiscent of the scene in <u>chapter 8</u>. ?

    2. In Chinese culture, if there is a person from an older generation at the table, it¡¯s generally expected that everyone will wait for them to start eating to officially begin the meal. ?

 Chapter 602: A Cozy Little Medicine Shop (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 602: A Cozy Little Medicine Shop (part 2)</h4>

    Curious, the Captain carefully tried a piece of fish.

    ¡°Incredible!¡± he said, though inside he was thinking that though it was good, it wasn¡¯t as delicious as the flesh of gods.

    Ning Yan took a bite and looked visibly moved. Inside, he was thinking that it was only so-so.

    Wu Jianwu took a sip of broth and then sighed. It had been a long time since he ate mortal food, and he was inclined to spout some poetry. However, after ncing at Xu Qing, he held back.

    Nethersprite, who was dressed as a maidservant, was also part of the group, took a bite. However, after that one bite, she didn¡¯t eat anything further. She preferred human flesh. In fact, the most delicious thing she could imagine eating was Chen Erniu.

    Li Youfei and Ling¡¯er ate the most. The former made sure to say lots of ttering things, while thetter ate with her eyes shining brightly.

    ¡°I had no idea you could cook such delicious food, Big Bro Xu Qing!¡± Ling¡¯er blinked a few times, all while musing that though her own cooking was actually a bit better, in theing days, she would make sure to try her own hand at making a meal like this.

    Meanwhile, the Heir Apparent swallowed a mouthful of the fish stew.

    ¡°Xu Qing, your culinary method seems to conform to the southern tradition. The vor of this stew is unique. Normally speaking, it would be a snake stew, right? If you reced the fish with snake, the vor would be a lot better.¡±

    Ling¡¯er froze in ce.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s this fish skin dish,¡± the Heir Apparent continued. ¡°It should really be snake skin instead. It¡¯s the same with the meat. All of your culinary techniques are best applied to snakes, but instead, you created a fish banquet.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked curiously at Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er.

    Xu Qing looked back at the Heir Apparent. He didn¡¯t say anything.

    Ling¡¯er inhaled sharply, and her eyes suddenly glittered with terror, and she edged slightly closer to Xu Qing. Leaning over, she quietly said, ¡°Snakes taste disgusting, Big Bro Xu Qing. Really disgusting.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The Heir Apparent smiled. Right now, he didn¡¯t seem at all like some mighty heir apparent to an Imperial Sovereign. Instead, he was just a kindly old grandpa. As the meal wound to an end, everyone realized that they really were getting used to living in the presence of a Smoldering God. Nethersprite washed the dishes, and the night passed uneventfully.

    The next morning at dawn, the Green Spirit Pharmacy opened for business for the first time in more than half a year. In the past, it had been Ling¡¯er who would open the main door, but today it was Wu Jianwu, dressed in his rough hemp garment. [1]

    Expression flickering a bit as he stood next to the door, he gritted his teeth and then called out, <i>¡°Time passed in a blur, the sun rises again; our shop is open, how long has it been; from north and southe and spend; get a free white bolus if you buy ten!¡±</i>

    His voice drifted up and down the street for all to hear.

    This was the Captain¡¯s idea. As he had pointed out, their medicine shopcked a host out front, and Wu Jianwu was naturally the best choice. In response to Wu Jianwu¡¯s voice, the trembling ¡®citizens¡¯ of the city emerged onto the street and looked over. Not only did they see Wu Jianwu, but also, they saw that there was a pudgy shop assistant scrubbing the floors. The fat shop assistant looked very strange, with a belly bulging so dramatically it seemed like his clothing was stuffed with something to make it so fat. Next to him was Li Youfei, who had the lowliest position of all in the group, and thus, had to y the role of the handyman.

    Standing off to the side was the Captain, who had appointed himself as the guard.

    ¡°Our medicine shop is located in the extremely dangerous Bitter Life Mountains. Considering the vicious and evil cultivators that live in this area, we have to have a guard to keep the peace in our little shop.¡±

    That was the Captain¡¯s work manifesto.

    The Heir Apparent was the elderly shopkeeper. In his hand was a pearl with which he fiddled as he smiled and looked around the shop. A person was sealed inside that pearl, and if you looked closely, you would see that it was Guru ckeyes.

    Xu Qing was the alchemist, of course, and Ling¡¯er continued to keep the books, which she absolutely loved to do.

    In the newly reopened shop, there was also a maidservant who waited on the shopkeeper. She was Nethersprite....

    Business was better than ever. On the very first day, over two hundred people came in with spirit coins to buy white boluses. As a result, Ling¡¯er was very busy with the books.

    A few days passed.

    Other than working on his cultivation, Xu Qing spent time on curse research.

    Wu Jianwu got used to his assignment. After all, the only thing he needed to do was stand outside ande up with new poems. He was actually quite good at it.

    Ning Yan sometimes got very tired and just leaned up against the door frame to rest. As he listened to Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry and enjoyed the down time, he unwittingly came to realize that he understood some of Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry. That realization filled his heart with rm.

    Li Youfei worked the hardest of all. In addition to all the random jobs he had to do, he also had to give orders to Sir Tree-Dao. He needed to make sure that Sir Tree-Dao and his subordinates worked on their act. It was simply too weird to have subordinatesing in with their legs shaking.

    Meanwhile, the Captain stood there with his arms crossed, a sword in one hand, looking coldly at everyone who came and went. He really did seem like a martial arts master.

    And then there was Nethersprite.... Because ¡®grandpa¡¯ liked to drink tea and y with the parrot, her work primarily consisted of brewing tea and attending to the bird.

    That was how things went in the little medicine shop.

    Seven dayster, as business for the Green Spirit Pharmacy went well, Xu Qing finally recovered from the injuries he had suffered during the tribtion. The time hade to continue his tempering.

    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve recovered, Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said, ¡°you¡¯re going toe with me. It¡¯s time to really dig out that potential in you.¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and stood up. Then, he vanished along with the Heir Apparent. When they materialized, they were up in the air.

    The Heir Apparent sped his hands behind his back and started moving. Xu Qing looked down at the Green Spirit Pharmacy, then followed.

    As they flew through the Bitter Life Mountains, they encountered other cultivators. Some were just flying along, others were engaged inbat. None of them even noticed the presence of Xu Qing and the Heir Apparent. Even those who almost ran right into them didn¡¯t actually see them, and would just go about their business.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all by that. It was obviously the power of the Heir Apparent.

    Given the direction they were moving in, Xu Qing had an idea of their destination. It was the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple in the Bitter Life Mountains. He was right. Several hourster, they were hovering in the air above that church temple.

    The Red Moon Cathedral upied the highest peak in the Bitter Life Mountains. The godherald in this church temple was terrifying, and emanated a faint pressure that could weigh down on the entire desert. To the people in the Greenhair Bands, there was no more important location than this. It represented a god.

    That wasn¡¯t the case for the Heir Apparent, though. It was with a bit of a swagger that he led Xu Qing directly inside.

    Inside the temple were cultivators d in red robes. However, just like the cultivators outside, they didn¡¯t see the two neers. And thus, they soon arrived at an open square in the depths of the church temple. The ce was busy, with a lot of cultivatorsing and going. Everything was very orderly, as if any outbursts would be considered sphemous and profane.

    The Heir Apparent scanned the open square, then extended his right hand in the direction of a middle-aged dao begetting cultivator. When the Heir Apparent made a beckoning motion with his index finger, the middle-aged cultivator swiveled and walked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. He stopped moving when he reached the middle of the square.

    Seeing the gruish scene y out, Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°One hundred breaths of time,¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly. ¡°Xu Qing, tap into all of your cultivation base and fight him to the death. Kill him, and devour his red moon faith. If you don¡¯t seed within a hundred breaths of time, everyone here in this church temple will be able to see you, and I won¡¯t be able to help. If you seed, you seed. If you fail... then your life is in your own hands.¡±

    With that, the Heir Apparent flew up, hovered above, and closed his eyes.

    The unmoving dao begetting cultivator¡¯s eyes then turned bright red, and he looked furiously at Xu Qing. He looked like he had just spotted his archenemy. Howling, he unleashed the power of his cultivation base.

    Vortexes started popping up around him, until there were nine. They were like nine stars which formed the outline of an illusory secret trove.

    The secret trove seemed to contain erupting volcanoes which resulted in muffled rumbling sounds that spread out in every direction. Blood-colored light pierced into the cultivator¡¯s fleshly body, surrounding him and connecting to heaven and earth, ultimately forming a projected image several hundred meters tall.

    The image was that of a treant, with a sturdy torso, brown branches, and ck leaves. The ground trembled as roots stabbed into it, spreading out. In the blink of an eye, the entire square was filled with countless branches. The ground shattered as innumerable blood-red des of grass sprouted up, covering everything to create a crimson grasnd.

    From a distance, it looked like a massive treant standing atop a in of grass, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. His eyes gleamed with ruthless light as he emanated terrifying pressure. Lightning bolts even started crackling around him. Anyone who saw this scene would be shocked. As for Xu Qing, it was his first time actually facing a dao begetting enemy!

    And then, all of the des of grass and innumerable branches shot toward Xu Qing, moving with such speed they were little more than blurs. They obviously surpassed the limits of the Nascent Soul level, and weren¡¯t giving Xu Qing any chance to react.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as danger closed in from all sides. A feeling of mortal peril filled him. He knew that his battle prowess wasn¡¯t at the proper level, and that if he didn¡¯t move quickly enough, he wouldn¡¯t have any hope of dodging.

    His god body erupted, and he instantly reached a height of 15 meters. At the same time, taboo poison and violet moon power erupted from within him, mming into the branches and the grass.

    Rumbling booms echoed out. Xu Qing was extraordinary, but he wasn¡¯t on the same level as a dao begetting enemy. In the blink of an eye, countless des of grass surrounded him, as sharp as swords. At the same time, the innumerable branches were like tentacles trying to grab him.

    His violet moon power and the corrosive taboo poison had an effect, but there were just too many des of grass and branches. Every time one vanished, more would rece it. In the shortest of moments, grass and branches were piling up around him. They piled into a mountain of dead vegetation, soon reaching a height of 300 meters. Then, the top spread out like an umbre, eventually forming a hand.

    That palm shot down toward Xu Qing, who was already buried in the nts and vegetation. As the hand descended, the grass and branches copsed, crushed out of existence by the terrifying power at work. And it seemed like Xu Qing would also crumble within moments.

    But then, a huge figure appeared out of nowhere. It was the Ghost Emperor mountain! In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing sent all of his cultivation base power into the Ghost Emperor mountain. When the projected Ghost Emperor appeared, he threw his arms up to meet the descending hand.

    A deafening boom rang out as the hand copsed. In the blink of an eye, it turned into something like a rain falling down onto the square below. At the same time, cracks spread out over the Ghost Emperor, until it copsed, revealing Xu Qing within.

    He was coughing up blood and his face was pale. The crushing pressure from a dao begetting enemy had his internal organs quivering, and he was gasping for breath. However, his eyes were as cold as usual.

    Without any hesitation, he rocketed toward the dao begetting cultivator.

    Up above in the dome of heaven, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°Eighty breaths of time left.¡±

    1. There is a sentence I left out of the trantion which indicates that the ¡®front door¡¯ of the shop is made of wooden nks. That¡¯s a rtivelymon feature of some types of buildings in ancient China. If you watch the first few seconds of this <u>clip from the famous wuxia movie Iron Monkey</u>, you¡¯ll see how such entryways work. However,ter on the door is repeatedly described in a way that makes it seem more like a regr door. In other words, it¡¯s described as opening, closing, mming, etc. Considering how much time I wasted finding the above link, I¡¯m going to leave this information here in the footnote, but leave out the ¡®door nks¡¯ part as it appears the author either forgot about it or just changed his mindter and didn¡¯te back to change this chapter. ?

 Chapter 603: Bluegreen Dragon Takes Charge

    <h4>Chapter 603: Bluegreen Dragon Takes Charge</h4>

    The Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temples in the Moonrite Region favored a ck color scheme in their architecture. And they would always have a statue of Crimson Mother. Given the dusky nature of the sky in the region, that dark color scheme made the church temples seem even more forbidding. Anyone who looked at them would feel indescribable pressure weighing down on them. As the sobbing wind blew through the mountains andnded on the statue of Crimson Mother, the crescent-moon-shaped earrings on the statue jingled like bells. It created a discordant sound in the Heir Apparent¡¯s ears.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond to the words the Heir Apparent had just spoken. All of his focus was on the dao begetting cultivator surrounded by endless bolts of lightning. He felt very clear-headed. His cultivation base was fully deployed, and his thirteen three-tribtion nascent souls were allpletely active. He was like a ck thunderbolt, piercing through the sea of lightning like a hot knife through butter.

    As he closed in with incredible speed, his right hand shifted into a transparent Gruegloom state. His fingers curled into hooks as he reached out toward the enemy cultivator.

    ¡°Myws cannot be defied,¡± the treant said with a cold chuckle. He didn¡¯t dodge out of the way. Instead, his secret trove rumbled, causing his right hand to burn with bright red mes. It was a convergence of red moon faith! The invisible power of natural and magicalws erupted from the secret trove, spreading out in the area. Then he lifted his right hand to grab Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base and battle prowess were inferior, but he did have the power of the violet moon, which allowed him to negate much of the godly might of the red moon. But not even that helped very much. Xu Qing trembled as the treant¡¯s vice-like grip locked onto him.

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled into Xu Qing, while at the same time, the treant began to chant a curse. It wasplicated and virtually impossible to understand. Filled with a gruish sensation, it spread out, causing pulses of sinister wind to sweep toward Xu Qing, filled with ghostly figures.

    It was a moment of deadly crisis. However, that was when the decisiveness and ruthlessness of Xu Qing¡¯s killing style were revealed. Ignoring the hand that had locked on to him, he jerked back.

    A cracking sound rang out as his shoulder popped out of its socket, and his entire body twisted in an unexpected way. Then his right leg shot up in a vicious kick. Hundreds of heavenfiend clones appeared around him and lunged forward. Beneath him, his shadow stretched out. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shot forth. The two of them closed in from both sides.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. In the blink of an eye, the heavenfiend clones mmed into the ghostly figures. Golden Vajra Warrior Sect stabbed into the body of the treant. And Xu Qing¡¯s foot smashed into the treant¡¯s head.

    Except, Xu Qing¡¯s face fell as his foot passed right through the head. Simrly, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t hit anything solid.

    ¡°It¡¯s not his true form!¡±

    Simultaneously, a few dozen meters behind Xu Qing, the treant cultivator suddenly appeared out of nowhere. <i>That</i> was his true form.

    ¡°What a pity. You really don¡¯t understand the naturalws that surround dao begetting cultivators.¡± Grinning coldly, he reached out toward Xu Qing.

    Instantly, countless lightning bolts appeared, bing a horde of lightning dragons that closed in on Xu Qing,ing from so many directions there was no way he could evade them. Especially noteworthy was the huge hand that had locked onto Xu Qing. It had transformed, bing a huge maggot that suddenly exploded. As a rumbling boom echoed out, the treant cultivator¡¯s true form shot toward Xu Qing. He waved his right hand, and a mass of branches snaked out, turning into a massive battle ax.

    Xu Qing lurched backward, but he couldn¡¯t avoid the lightning or the exploding maggot. Thankfully, Xu Qing had ample fighting experience, and thus, he instantly erupted with seven-colored daybreak light. Reaching up with his hand, he shoved his shoulder, ignoring the pain as his shoulder loudly snapped back into the socket.

    As the daybreak light shone out, sweeping away most of the lightning, his shadow reared up in the shape of a coffin. It surrounded him, allowing him to avoid most of the remaining attacks. Then the shadow coffin tumbled backward a few dozen meters. When itnded, it opened, and Xu Qing emerged.

    Without a moment of hesitation, he looked at the treant cultivator, who was already speeding toward him. In his mind, he calcted the time, and then he unleashed the power of his five sundial lifemps.

    Time Reversal!

    As light red from the sundial lifemps, a tempest of time swept over Xu Qing. Then, shockingly, he appeared seven breaths of time in the past. Now he was located right behind the enemy cultivator.

    ¡°A magicalw of time? Impossible!¡± The cathedral cultivator¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Obviously, this development was something thatpletely surpassed anything he could have predicted. Although his battle prowess surpassed that of Xu Qing, their simple interchange just now made it clear that Xu Qing had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. And he clearly had a lot more fighting experience.

    And the main reason the cathedral cultivator had the upper hand was that Xu Qing obviously didn¡¯t have much experience dealing with dao begetting enemies.

    For Xu Qing to do something like this right now made it obvious he was using a trump card. And the cathedral cultivator didn¡¯t have enough time to figure out how to deal with it. Therefore, instead of continuing the fight, he tapped into the power of magicalws in his secret trove to try to flee. He acted toote.

    Xu Qing unhesitatingly used the power of the sundials on the treant cultivator.

    Instantly, the treant cultivator found himself locked in ce in time.

    Xu Qing¡¯s right hand shed, and his dagger ripped through the cathedral cultivator¡¯s throat. As the familiar shing sound rang out, he added in the power of taboo poison in the hopes of making it a true killing blow. At the same time, five gnomons flew out, bing five streaks of light that stabbed into the cathedral cultivator. Booms rang out as Xu Qing put everything on the line.

    The cathedral cultivator¡¯s head flew up into the air, and thanks to the gnomons stabbing into his body, it exploded.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing gasped for breath, looked around at the carnage, and then turned to eye the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent was actually shocked, but didn¡¯t show any sign of it on his face.

    ¡°Thirty breaths of time left.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he looked back at the surrounding carnage. Waving his hand, he sent mes out to scorch everything around him, all while backing up at top speed. However, the moment he started moving, nine crimson vortexes appeared, in the spot where the cathedral cultivator had exploded. Glittering, they shot toward Xu Qing.

    It didn¡¯t matter what Xu Qing did to try to dodge them. Nothing worked. They surrounded him in the blink of an eye. The nine vortexes glittered brightly, emitted resounding booms as they formed into an illusory secret trove. From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing trapped inside of it!

    ¡°Secret Refinement Combination!¡± the cathedral cultivator said. A boundless force erupted from within the illusory secret trove, transforming into countless magical and naturalws, and forming suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. Ice, fire, lightning, and thunder became a cage that started assimting Xu Qing.

    Suns and moons could lock down gods. Ice and fire could assimte the body. Thunder and lightning assisted. A heavenly wind became profoundly mighty!

    Xu Qing shivered down to his soul. His senses were telling him that he was standing in the same spot as before, except he felt like he was in a different dimension. The pressure and sensation of assimtion seemed like it was going to crush his soul and immte his body. The pain levels skyrocketed, filling every square inch of him with intense pain.

    Xu Qing looked around, his facial expression the same as before.

    Up above, the Heir Apparent looked down thoughtfully for a moment, then said, ¡°You¡¯re facing a true dao begetting enemy. If you don¡¯t free yourself, you¡¯ll be assimted and crushed. You¡¯ll perish.¡±

    As the Heir Apparent¡¯s words rang out, the sensation of being assimted grew more intense. At the same time, the illusory secret trove transformed into the cathedral cultivator.

    In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly.

    ¡°So, you have a secret trove but no heavenly dao. In that case, how about I gift you a heavenly dao? Bluegreen dragon!¡±

 Chapter 604: Just In Time

    <h4>Chapter 604: Just In Time</h4>

    In the square in the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple, nine dazzling vortexes glittered like heavenly bodies, surrounding Xu Qing and emanating the might of assimtion. Suns, moons, ice, fire, lightning, thunder, and a heavenly wind all surged.

    There was also the enormous figure of the treant, visible outside of the illusory secret trove created by the vortexes. He was fully 3,000 meters tall, looming over the square in terrifying fashion. A dao begetting aura was fully on disy. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Gale force winds screamed. A sound like heavenly thunder echoed out everywhere.

    Yet the moment Xu Qing spoke, all of those things were deeply shaken by the roar of a dragon. That draconic cry resonated with the dome of heaven, causing ripples to appear in the sky that resembled fish scales. The ground started to shake violently.

    The whiskers of a massive bluegreen dragon appeared from within Xu Qing, followed by the majestic head, and then the entire body. As its massive form leaped out, it began to swim through the illusory secret trove. Its bluish body, countless razor-sharp teeth, and shocking draconic fins were divinely graceful. At the same time, the aura of a heavenly dao spread out everywhere. There was a pleasing exuberance in the dragon¡¯s cry, as if it had finally returned to the sea, its most suitable environment.

    Its arrival caused the secret trove to tremble. It was as if the natural and magicalws within it were soldiers that were now in the presence of a general, and were instinctively inclined to be obedient. The sky shook as heavenly thunder boomed.

    The cathedral cultivator¡¯s face fell, and his eyes filled with unprecedented disbelief.

    ¡°A heavenly dao??¡±

    Massive waves of shock filled him at the unimaginable sight. He had long dreamed of forming a heavenly dao, yet never had. But now he was seeing one in the hands of a Nascent Soul cultivator. What was even more shocking was that this person wasn¡¯t from a minor world, but rather, was a native of the Revered Ancient maind. That was absolutely ridiculous.

    <i>How can a Nascent Soul cultivator have a heavenly dao? That means that when this kid reaches the great circle, he can basically skip the dao begetting phase and go right into having a secret trove!</i>

    The cathedral cultivator was not only shocked. He was also starting to feel very uneasy, even terrified.

    <i>The secret troves of dao begetting cultivators don¡¯t have heavenly daos. During that time, though they seem impressive, they¡¯re actually incredibly vulnerable. After all, they can easily be upied by someone else¡¯s heavenly dao.... This is the perfect ce to form a heavenly dao....</i>

    A tremor passed through the cathedral cultivator as he quickly performed an incantation gesture. As a result, the nine vortexes that formed his secret trove began to fade away. And instead of pulsing with the power of assimtion, they were trying to open up and eject Xu Qing and his heavenly dao.

    But it was toote!

    The bluegreen dragon was already here. As it cried out exultingly from within the secret trove, it started to take over all of the subservient magical and naturalws. This was like a dreame true. After all, normally speaking, a dao begetting cultivator would never, ever bring someone else¡¯s heavenly dao into their secret trove.

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing fought back against the power of expulsion. After all, right now, he had no desire to leave.

    Waving both of his hands out in front of him, he said, ¡°Take control, bluegreen dragon!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, the bluegreen dragon roared, growingrger and simultaneously sending out countless beams of light to connect to the secret trove.

    The nine vortexes were the key.

    Innumerable threads of light shot toward the vortexes. Though many of them copsed as they neared, there seemed to be no end to their recements. Considering how badly the bluegreen dragon had been injured recently, and how hungry it had been for so long, it was as crazed as a starving person at a banquet. Eyes glittering with greed, it held nothing back to start viciously devouring everything around it. As it did, its color started turning to a darker blue.

    Crunching sounds rang out as the secret trove shook violently. To the cathedral cultivator, those sounds were like the sounds of its own heart being devoured. Each bite took away nourishment that he had been building up for years. What was even more painful was that the heavenfate that he had been umting for so long was now being wolfed down by the bluegreen dragon. As a result, the bluegreen dragon¡¯s godly resonance grew more prominent, and its aura surged. Then it changed colors again, with bits of silver appearing on it. It wasn¡¯t much silver, but there was enough to impart the sensation of the Spirit Trove level.

    Up above, the Heir Apparent noted that, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

    As for the cathedral cultivator, he was on a higher level than Xu Qing, so when he saw what was happening, his heart filled with madness.

    ¡°Devouring my secret trove might be an opportunity for you. But it¡¯s also an opportunity for me! If I can assimte you and take your heavenly dao, then I¡¯ll be the one in charge of it. And that means that today... is the day my firstplete secret trove will be formed!¡±

    His illusory body shrank down, turning into nine clones that bolstered the nine vortexes. As a result, the secret trove once again surged with power. Suppressing the bluegreen dragon¡¯s ability to devour the natural and magicalws, they once again erupted with the power of assimtion.

    He had been working on this secret trove for many years, and though the bluegreen dragon did have a big advantage, the cultivation base discrepancy was too great. As of now, it had only absorbed about twenty percent of the secret trove.

    Now that the cathedral cultivator was truly going all out, everything had turned around.

    ¡°Six breaths of time left,¡± the Heir Apparent said calmly.

    As the words left his mouth, Xu Qing looked deeply at the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. He could sense that the bluegreen dragon had only absorbed twenty percent of the secret trove. However, the heavenfate that it had taken was more than enough.

    <i>Good enough, even if I just use it for a self-detonation!</i>

    Xu Qing stowed his greed. He got the feeling that the Heir Apparent wasn¡¯t joking around, and that if he really did go past a hundred breaths of time, he would end up in a deadly situation. Given his own personality, he didn¡¯t want to let his own safetye down to someone else¡¯s whim.

    As the cathedral cultivator continued his assimtion efforts, the bluegreen dragon was having trouble doing any devouring. Therefore, the most important thing at the moment was to end this fight quickly.

    With those thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing sent themand to the bluegreen dragon to self-detonate. The bluegreen dragon shivered and let loose a moan of disappointment. Then it shivered, and to the shock of the cathedral cultivator, it suddenly erupted with a terrifying shockwave. The shockwave grew stronger and stronger, until it was a loud rumbling sound that filled heaven and earth. And then the bluegreen dragon exploded.

    A deafening boom shook everything. Miserable shrieks rang out from both the bluegreen dragon and the cathedral cultivator. Xu Qing, meanwhile, let loose a muffled grunt of pain.

    It wasn¡¯t just the bluegreen dragon that exploded. The secret trove, having already been connected to the bluegreen dragon by countless threads, was directly impacted. Instantly, six of the nine vortexes copsed. The three that survived were now very dim. As they raced to converge, they formed the cathedral cultivator, who coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood. Eyes full of rm, he backed away.

    All that was left of the bluegreen dragon was its head. The rest of it was flying around in all directions.

    However, there was a lot of silver on that head. Though it seemed very weak, it was actually stronger than before. Howling in grief, it became a silver streak that shot back into Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was also badly hurt. Whether it was the injuries from fighting or the effects of the assimtion, he was in bad shape. What was more, the bluegreen dragon was his life essence, so self-detonating it would obviously result in a bacsh. Blood dribbled out of the corners of his mouth. He had numerous wounds all over him. Yet even as he staggered backward, he released all of his taboo poison and sent it shooting toward the cathedral cultivator.

    Then he lunged forward and shed his dagger out. A head flew through the air!

    That sudden burst of movement caused more blood to spray out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. He was currently gasping for breath, and could barely see. Gritting his teeth, he looked up at the Heir Apparent. Voice hoarse, he said, ¡°Just in time!¡±

    The moment words left his mouth, the perception-altering power that had been covering the church temple vanished. Everything went back to normal. Everyone turned to look at the square. Nothing was there.

    The dead dao begetting cultivator was gone. Xu Qing was nowhere to be seen. Only the ripples in the air and the wrecked ground bore any evidence that something had happened recently. However, in the memories of everyone present, the ground had always been cracked and crumbled. And none of them paid much attention to the ripples. Things in the church temple were the same as usual.

    High in the sky over the church temple, the Heir Apparent hovered with hands sped behind his back. Xu Qing was next to him, trembling and working hard not to pass out as the shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior supported him on either side.

    ¡°You revealed many weaknesses in that fight,¡± the Heir Apparent said calmly.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°In Spirit Trove, having a secret trove and not having one is simr to having or not having the profound radiance state in Foundation Establishment. Therefore, you should now understand that if you fought an actual Spirit Trove enemy, you would be killed with a single blow. That said, you did finish it in a hundred breaths of time, even though you ended up seriously hurt.

    ¡°Your first weakness is yourck of battle experience against dao begetting cultivators. You still don¡¯t understand how to fight against people with natural and magicalws on their side. What was more, your opponent¡¯sws weren¡¯t very impressive. They were even simplistic.

    ¡°Your second weakness is all the random assets you use all the time. You haven¡¯t unified them to create a true trump card for yourself.

    ¡°Your third weakness is that you haven¡¯t taken the time to truly explore what you¡¯re capable of with those powers of yours. Long story short, your methods are too one-note.

    ¡°You do have somebinations, but they¡¯re not good enough. And you don¡¯t have any divine abilities that you can use to truly threaten someone in a higher level than yourself. I can tell that you have experience fighting people stronger than you. But the reality is that you didn¡¯t ¡®use weakness to defeat strength¡¯ in this fight. You won by going all out. That¡¯s not the way to do things.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at the teetering Xu Qing and waved his hand. Everything blurred, and then they reappeared outside the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Eyes glittering with anticipation, he softly said, ¡°When you can truly ¡®use weakness to defeat strength,¡¯ then you¡¯ll be up to standard.¡±

    Expression tranquil, he entered the medicine shop.

    Xu Qing followed, but after stepping inside, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and finally lost control, toppling over unconscious. Just before everything went ck, he heard Ling¡¯er cry out in rm, and heard the parrotining.

    ¡°Grandpa! Grandpa! You¡¯re finally back! When I was out ying recently I ran into some mysterious cultivators! They ripped out all the feathers I¡¯d just regrown....¡±

 Chapter 605: Back to the Moonrebel Congregation

    <h4>Chapter 605: Back to the Moonrebel Congregation</h4>

    When Xu Qing opened his eyes the next morning, Ling¡¯er was there taking care of him. She¡¯d been there the entire night. When she noticed that he was awake, she hurried over looking very concerned.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing....¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Smiling, he reached out and tousled her hair, then checked his injuries. Thanks to the violet crystal, he was already halfway to being fully recovered. However, he still felt very weak. It was especially bad thanks to the bacsh damage from self-detonating the bluegreen dragon. That said, even though the bluegreen dragon only had its head left, it still had more heavenfate power than before. What was more, it existed on a higher level now. Therefore, Xu Qing¡¯s recovery process was also an upgrade.

    ording to what he could sense, once he passed this stage of weakness, his soul would be tougher and stronger.

    <i>It should take about twenty days for me to fully recover. At that point, my battle prowess will be significantly improved. If I have to fight another dao begetting expert at that point, it¡¯ll go much more smoothly.</i>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and sat up. As he did, the Captain strolled through the door, munching on a peach. Looking at Xu Qing, he smiled.

    ¡°I went out for a walk, and upon returning, you somehow seem different. Your gaze seems sharper than before.¡± He tossed an apple to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it and took a bite. Then he slowly got out of bed and walked out into the main room of the medicine shop.

    Ning Yan was scrubbing the floor and sighing. When he caught sight of Xu Qing, he forced a smile onto his face. Nethersprite was irritably boiling some water. Obviously she could do that with her cultivation base, yet wasn¡¯t permitted to do so. All she could do was squat in front of the stove and stare at the iron kettle, waiting for the water to heat up. Li Youfei was introducing some medicinal pills to a trembling Qi Condensation cultivator. Wu Jianwu was at his spot by the door in his hemp garment. He had long since grown used to his role, and was proudly reciting some poetry.

    And then there was the ¡®grandpa¡¯ who sat behind the counter fiddling with his pearl and smiling as he looked at all the activity. Perched on his shoulder was the indignant, featherless parrot.

    The parrot spotted Xu Qing, and the Captain behind him. ring at the Captain, he leaned over to the Heir Apparent and grumbled, ¡°Grandpa, I really think that Chen Erniu was behind it....¡±

    The Captain smiled and ignored the parrot. Walking to the door, he made sure his sword was clearly visible as he crossed his arms, stuck his chin up, and resumed his guard duty.

    Xu Qing felt warmth in his heart. Everything was the same as before he¡¯d left. The coziness of the Green Spirit Pharmacy made him feel peaceful and safe.

    The water finally reached a boil, so Nethersprite hurried over to the ¡®grandpa¡¯ and poured him a new cup of tea.

    The Heir Apparent lifted the cup, took a sip, and nodded. Then he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°In twenty days, your tempering continues.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said. He was actually looking forward to it. Although tempering like this was very dangerous, as long as he could struggle through it and learn some things, then he would make incredible advances.

    Days passed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s injuries healed, and he could already tell that his soul was different. Specifically, he could now analyze problems faster. In the past, difficulties he needed to think about deeply could now be solved quickly. Because of that, he was able to make some progress in his curse research as he recovered.

    As a result, Li Youfei was even busier than before.

    Ten dayster, Xu Qing was able to take advantage of the upgrade to his soul to achieve some new results. Using Li Youfei¡¯s blood, as well as what remained of the chaotic flesh growths, coupled with his violet moon power, he improved his painquelling lozenge.

    This improvement was different than before. Thanks to everything that had been leading up to this, his new painquelling lozenge could significantly reduce the curse. The previous versions of his painquelling lozenges did the same thing. However, they could only remove about 1/10,000th of the curse. But now, if assigned a value of 100 to represent the curse inside of a person, the pill would reduce that value to 99. Because of that, the pain-relieving effects were also significant.

    Xu Qing got the feeling that once he put this pill on the market, people would definitely notice what it could do.

    <i>Sadly, that¡¯s still nowhere near good enough. But at least I¡¯m going in the right direction. Going forward, as long as I keep improving the pill¡¯s medicinal efficacy, I¡¯ll eventually be able to produce something thatpletely removes the curse.</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing finally returned to the Moonrebel Congregation. It had now been several months since he was there. This time, he didn¡¯t go alone. Ling¡¯er had been so wrapped up in taking care of him recently that she hadn¡¯t been keeping up with the books. She spent all her time with him. Because she was so curious about the Moonrebel Congregation, he decided to take her with him. [1]

    ***

    There were seven or eight statues seated in meditation inside Xu Qing¡¯s temple in the Moonrebel Congregation. Most were either neighbors or huge fans of his who had purchased his painquelling lozenges in the past. Even though Grandmaster Pill Nine hadn¡¯t shown up for months, they still piously returned every day. It was almost as if they believed meditating in his temple would help them suppress the curse within them.

    That was especially true of the burly bare-chested man. As someone who had heard the full ¡®dao reverberation,¡¯ he had experienced a change in personality, and now dered himself to be a follower of Grandmaster Pill Nine.

    He was disgusted with all of the verbal attacks being made on the grandmaster. At the moment, he had a very stern expression on his face as he calmly spoke to the other followers present.

    ¡°It¡¯s true the grandmaster hasn¡¯t been back for some time. But as his followers, and as people who have benefited from his work, we have to have faith. Don¡¯t foolishly believe all the gossip you hear. I¡¯ve always had faith that the day the grandmaster returns, he¡¯ll quell the pain of the Moonrebel Congregation to an even greater degree!¡±

    The other followers nodded gravely. However, one of them was a statue of a female immortal. After a moment of hesitation, she said, ¡°Although a few alchemist cultivators have criticized Grandmaster Pill Nine, overall, they¡¯re in the minority. However, a few days ago Grandmaster Sagelowe pointed out some very valid suspicions....¡± [2]

    Everyone went silent.

    The cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation thought very highly of Grandmaster Sagelowe. The main reason was that he sold more painquelling lozenges in the Moonrebel Congregation than anyone else. Some people had even calcted that about thirty percent of all painquelling lozenges on the market were his. As a result, any suspicions he voiced were taken very seriously by most people.

    As the small crowd of followers went silent, the burly neighbor snorted coldly. Then he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the altar in the temple vibrated. All of the statues seated cross-legged in the temple turned in shock to look at the altar. Atop the altar was the statue of the old man with the huge bottle gourd on his back. His eyes opened.

    ¡°Grandmaster!¡±

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine!¡±

    Shaken, the other statues got to their feet, sped hands, and bowed in greeting. That was especially true of the burly neighbor, who was now very excited.

    ¡°Grandmaster, you¡¯re finally back, sir!¡±

    A bit surprised, Xu Qing simply stood there for a moment taking in his surroundings. Focusing his gaze on the bowing statues, he said, ¡°Who are you people?¡±

    ¡°Grandmaster,¡± the burly neighbor said respectfully, ¡°all of us here have benefited from your grace. Over the past few months, we¡¯ve taken it on ourselves to stand guard here. We hope to learn from your example and be your followers!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Looking outside of the temple, he saw that the bronze cauldron had lots of incense smoke swirling up from it. Beyond the cauldron, a few dozen statues were seated in meditation. Although Xu Qing had heard from the Captain about all this, it was very thought-provoking to see it in person.

    When the statues in the temple saw that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t saying anything, they started to get nervous. Based on everything they knew, Grandmaster Pill Nine had to be an entric cultivator with a very high cultivation base. Normally speaking, entric cultivators had unusual personalities that differed from average people. Therefore, they weren¡¯t sure if he would be pleased with the fact that they were all sitting around in his temple meditating.

    However, it made sense to at least see what would happen. If it turned out that the grandmaster was pleased with them, and approved of them being his followers, then it could be profoundly meaningful to them. Thus, they all sat there nervously, waiting to see what he would do.

    For about ten breaths of time, Xu Qing stood there looking at them, his facepletely expressionless, but his heart pounding.

    Finally, he spoke, his voice cool. ¡°Tell me the news from the past few months.¡±

    When they realized Grandmaster Pill Nine wasn¡¯t rejecting their followership, they all breathed inner sighs of relief. That was especially true of the burly neighbor. And he was the one to quickly exin all the important news from recent months, including the suspicions and gossip that had been floating around.

    Xu Qing nodded. Everything aligned with what the Captain had told him, though there was more detail. After some thought, he prepared to take out the new medicinal pill. However, that was when Ling¡¯er¡¯s voice echoed in his mind. She sounded angry.

    <i>¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, after hearing all the news, I get what¡¯s going on. The people saying all those things about you are definitely up to no good! But I have an idea.... Since you have a new pill, let¡¯s use their own mouths against them! Just make an announcement saying that you have a new pilling out in a few days.</i>

    <i>¡°Those bad guys will definitely start bad-mouthing you, but that will just cause word to spread. And then, when you finally release the new pill, all of them will bepletely humiliated! Whenever my papa¡¯s inn got investigated in Seven Blood Eyes, it would cause all sorts of rumors to spread. But that would just make the ce a lot more popr!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing grinned. Truth be told, he didn¡¯t care about rumors and poprity. But considering how angry Ling¡¯er was, he nodded. Looking at the gathered statues, he said, ¡°In ten days, I¡¯m going to release a new and improved version of the painquelling lozenge. It¡¯s actually so different from the current version that it has a new name: cursequelling lozenge. Over the next ten days, spread word about this. Do well, and I¡¯ll give all of you one of the new pills as a reward.¡±

    Having said that, Xu Qing closed his eyes and left the Moonrebel Congregation.

    After he was gone, the statues in the temple all inhaled deep breaths and exchanged shocked looks.

    ¡°It has a significantly different medicinal effect?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a painquelling lozenge, it¡¯s a cursequelling lozenge?¡±

    ¡°That name....¡±

    The mere name of the pill gave all of them an idea of what the pill could do.

    ¡°The pill can quell the effects of the curse?¡± Despite being so passionate in his devotion to Grandmaster Pill Nine, the burly neighbor couldn¡¯t help but feel some disbelief.

    ¡°What if it¡¯s true?¡± one of the statues said.

    The other statues were breathing heavily.

    ¡°If it¡¯s true...¡± the burly neighbor said, his heart racing, ¡°then going forward, we followers of Grandmaster Pill Nine are going to be like gods in the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±

    1. During my initial reading of this chapter, I was confused why Ling¡¯er was going to the Moonrebel Congregation. I¡¯d forgotten that, in <u>chapter 582.2</u>, Xu Qing took advantage of their life-sharing arrangement to have Ling¡¯er lead him to the mountain. I figured if I forgot about that, some other readers might, and thus this footnote. ?

    2. Sagelowe: This name is made of two characters. The first is the character for ¡°sage, saint, holy.¡± The second is a character that is almost exclusively used in transliterations or ce names. It has no semantic meaning, which is why I¡¯mbining a trantion and a transliteration in this term. ?

 Chapter 606: Patriarch, the Thief is in that Medicine Shop!

    <h4>Chapter 606: Patriarch, the Thief is in that Medicine Shop!</h4>

    About an hour after Xu Qing left the Moonrebel Congregation, the followers in his temple made up their minds and left with excited expressions on their faces. They were immediately noticed by those who had be ustomed to waiting outside the temple

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine has issued a dharmic decree!¡± the burly neighbor announced in a booming voice. ¡°In ten days, the grandmaster will be releasing an amazing and innovative medicinal pill! This pill carries on the traditions of the painquelling lozenge, but has very different effects. It¡¯s a type of pill that¡¯s never been seen in the Moonrebel Congregation, despite all the years that have passed. This shocking pill will change everything!¡±

    The statues present were visibly taken aback, and were listening very carefully.

    Seeing that, the burly man took a deep breath. Eyes gleaming with anticipation, he raised his voice even louder.

    ¡°I can¡¯t go into any more detail,dies and gentlemen. But I can reveal the name of the pill. The name is not painquelling. It¡¯s cursequelling! Cursequelling lozenge!¡±

    Every single statue outside the temple was visibly moved. At the same time, it was possible to see many expressions of disbelief.

    ¡°Cursequelling lozenge? It can suppress the curse?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡±

    ¡°Who would dare to undo Crimson Mother¡¯s curse?¡±

    An uproar was already building. There were clearly only a few dozen statues outside Xu Qing¡¯s temple, but the monumental news resulted in amotion that sounded like it came from hundreds of voices.

    The reaction caused the burly man to inhale sharply. Then he continued, ¡°Ten days! When the grandmaster returns, he¡¯ll release the pill. Ladies and gentlemen, all you have to do is wait ten days, and then you¡¯ll bear witness to a true miracle!¡±

    With that, he hurried away. The other followers also scattered. All of them were going to do everything in their power to spread the word as widely as possible in the Moonrebel Congregation. They had ten days.

    Of course, they all knew that they didn¡¯t need to do much. All they had to do was start spreading the word, and it would naturally spread like wildfire. After all, Grandmaster Pill Nine was already quite well known in the Moonrebel Congregation, and a lot of people were paying attention to his name. Considering the monumental nature of the news, word would spread as surely as <i>one stone creating a thousand ripples</i>. It was easy to imagine what would happen over the next ten days.

    Sure enough, after the followers scattered, the statues who had been waiting outside the temple also went their separate ways to spread the astonishing news. Truth be told... the name ¡®cursequelling lozenge¡¯ was profoundly significant. Actually, the reaction to the news surpassed what the burly neighbor and the other followers had predicted. By the fourth day, the entire Moonrebel Congregation was abuzz. Everyone who heard the news was shaken to the deepest level. However, it also led to endless doubts and suspicion.

    ¡°Only a dumbass would believe stupid crap like that!¡±

    ¡°People are iming this pill will quell the curse? That¡¯splete and utter nonsense!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the curse of a god! What, is this Grandmaster Pill Nine also some kind of god?¡±

    ¡°But... what if it¡¯s true? If it really can quell the curse, even just a little bit?¡±

    Even within all the doubts and suspicion, many people were also saying ¡°but, what if?¡± After all, the me of hope still burned in the hearts of everyone in the Moonrebel Congregation. In the Moonrite Region in general, that me had been extinguished in most people. But people who joined the Moonrebel Congregation were people who wanted to defy fate. Therefore, because the me existed in their heart, they were all moved.

    That said, the hope didn¡¯t stop the doubts and suspicions. The more hope one had, the more one would fear disappointment, and the more one would be suspicious. And that was especially true among members of the Moonrebel Congregation who were skilled in making medicinal pills or doing research into the curse.

    ¡°We cultivators despise show-offs. This Fellow Daoist Pill Nine is saying some really irresponsible things!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s giving people hope, but if they end up being disappointed in the end, his reputation is going to hit rock bottom!¡±

    ¡°Cursequelling lozenge. Cursequelling lozenge.... That¡¯s easy to say, but from ancient times until now, no one has ever seeded in something like that. Neither will he, unless he¡¯s either a god or a godchild!¡±

    Rumors raged, rocking the Moonrebel Congregation. Even the high-level leaders heard about what was happening, and were paying close attention. Although some people believed the rumors, about ny percent of the rumors were negative. Among the other grandmasters who had very good reputations, some fed the rumor mill, while others focused on research, trying to determine how realistic it was that such a pill could be concocted.

    ***

    In the eastern part of the Moonrite Region, not far from the Heavenfire Sea in the Ninehues ins, was the hiding spot of one of those grandmasters.

    Someone had just flown up to the entrance of his secluded meditation facilities in his mansion grotto, and they were holding aloft a medicinal pill bottle.

    ¡°Master, I managed to purchase one of those painquelling lozenges that Pill Nine concocted.¡±

    Shortly after, the door of the mansion grotto opened, and a gravitational force emerged from within, grabbing the bottle and pulling it inside.

    Within the mansion grotto was a middle-aged man in a white robe, seated cross-legged in meditation. Circled around him, also cross-legged, were a few dozen squirrels with red eyes, all of them pulsing with extraordinary auras as they also meditated. The man snatched the bottle out of the air. Face expressionless, he opened it and inhaled. Then he looked at the pill inside.

    ¡°It has the aura of the Greenhair Bands¡¯ white wind,¡± the man said coolly. ¡°The life force in the white wind establishes an equilibrium with Crimson Mother¡¯s curse. However, the truth is... that this method was explored years ago and subsequently abandoned. People who consume this pill will initially suffer no ill side-effects. However, after enough time, it will result in a severe bacsh.¡±

    The cultivator outside the mansion grotto nodded respectfully. ¡°So that¡¯s how it is. No wonder they¡¯re so cheap. You¡¯re as knowledgeable and wise as ever, Master.¡±

    The man continued to inspect the pill, going so far as to squeeze it between his fingers. Finally, he shook his head.

    ¡°There are some random medical nts inside, plus some other unknown substances. But in the end, the fundamentalposition is incorrect. Alchemists nowadays don¡¯t spend enough time on their cultivation. They use cheap tricks to show off and y to the crowd. There are definitely going to be a lot of people who get hurt by this pill.¡±

    The man tossed the pill to one of the squirrels. Without any hesitation, the squirrel consumed the pill.

    ¡°Nothing out of the ordinary,¡± the man said. Looking outside of the mansion grotto, he said, ¡°Distributing pills like this is downright evil. Go to the Moonrebel Congregation and announce that I¡¯ve recently improved the painquelling lozenge as well. In six days, on the same day that Grandmaster Pill Nine releases his pill... I¡¯m also going to release a new pill. My new painquelling lozenge is also amazing and innovative. It¡¯s twice as effective as the old painquelling lozenge. And I¡¯ve cut the side-effects in half!¡±

    The apprentice outside was visibly moved. Inhaling sharply, he gave a respectful salute, then raced away to spread the news in the Moonrebel Congregation. Before long, more shocking news was making the rounds.

    ¡°In six days, Grandmaster Saintlowe is releasing an improved painquelling lozenge!¡±

    ¡°With such amazing medicinal effects, and such a reduced rate of side-effects, this pill is going to be nothing short of a miracle. It¡¯s going to be far, far superior to the cursequelling lozenge!¡±

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe has a sterling reputation, unlike Pill Nine with his vile theatrics!¡±

    In contrast to the cursequelling lozenge, there were no doubts or suspicions regarding this news. Just about everyone reacted with praise and anticipation. Of course, it also prompted more discussion about Xu Qing¡¯s cursequelling lozenge. In the briefest of moments, the tempest in the Moonrebel Congregation became more intense. The waves even reached beyond the Moonrebel Congregation.

    ***

    Two days before the release date for the pills, Xu Qing was in the middle of doing some research when the Captain showed up with a cryptic look on his face.

    ¡°Something really big happened, little Ah Qing!¡± he said with a jaunty grin.

    Xu Qing looked up at him. ¡°Oh? What is it?¡±

    Looking very pleased, the Captain sat down in front of Xu Qing. ¡°What? You don¡¯t know? I thought you said you were actually my dear friend Grandmaster Pill Nine! Shouldn¡¯t you already know what¡¯s going on? Well, let me tell you. Right now, ¡®you¡¯ are the hottest topic of conversation in the Moonrebel Congregation.¡±

    Grinning maliciously, he took out a peach and bit into it.

    Xu Qing nodded expressionlessly.

    ¡°Still trying to sell the act?¡± The Captainughed heartily and patted Xu Qing on the shoulder. ¡°Oh, little Ah Qing. I¡¯ve been paying very close attention to you recently. I haven¡¯t detected even the slightest hint that you went to the Moonrebel Congregation. What¡¯s more, the very day the grandmaster returned, I was right there at his temple!

    ¡°After everything went down, I came back and found that you were here ying Go with grandpa the whole time. Look, you and I are close friends, so there¡¯s no need for all this showboating.¡±

    The Captain grinned arrogantly.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment but couldn¡¯t remember ever ying Go with the Heir Apparent. After ncing in the direction of the Heir Apparent¡¯s room, he thought back to the statues he¡¯d seen when he went back to his temple. Sadly, thanks to the properties of the Moonrebel Congregation, he had no idea of confirming whether or not the Captain was one of the statues at his temple. However, seeing how the Captain was in such high spirits, he decided not to be the one to rain on his parade.

    ¡°Did something happen with this best friend of yours?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Oh, nothing much,¡± the Captain said, looking down his nose. ¡°In a few days he¡¯s going to release a new type of medicinal pill. I went to see him today and he actually showed it to me. I think it¡¯s so-so, nothing more.¡± The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not bad, so Iforted him a bit. You see, he¡¯s somewhat depressed at how everyone is suspicious of him. I told him that all those doubts just go to show how important people think he is.

    ¡°Thanks to my advice, Ol¡¯ Nine came to his senses. Then, in order to thank me for my help, he promised to give me one of those pills after he releases them. After I get it, little Ah Qing, I¡¯ll pass it on to you!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He was now determined to pay much closer attention to those followers next time he went to his temple, and try to determine if any of them were acting like the Captain.

    ***

    The day before the pill was to be released, rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven outside the mudbrick city. At the same time, a majestic pressure spread out from the desert. The green wind was picking up dramatically, and it was just possible to see bolts of lightning dancing within it.

    Astonishingly, closer examination would reveal the presence of numerous cultivators in the wind. They wore white robes with hoods that covered their faces. Apparently, they had gruish bloodlines that allowed them to fuse with the wind, and travel anywhere it went. There were a lot of them, probably several thousand at the minimum. What was more, their presence made the green wind seem a bit whiter.

    Among them were five individuals with shocking Spirit Trove auras.

    The person leading them, though in the Spirit Trove level, emitted shocking pressure that was on the very cusp of the Void Returning level. He was a white-haired old man with a cold expression on his face, who kept his hands sped behind his back as he sped toward the mudbrick city.

    Among the members of the younger generation that apanied him was the very same person in the great circle of Nascent Soul who had impaled the shadow to the ground during the white wind. [1]

    These people were from the mysterious species known as the Wind Guardians!

    ¡°Patriarch, that¡¯s the city up ahead! After we issued the bounty for the vile thief who stole our species¡¯ holy relic, we got information indicating he operates a medicine shop in this city!¡±

    ¡°Our species hasid low for a long time,¡± the patriarch said coolly. His eyes were already fixed on the mudbrick city, and within it, the little medicine shop. ¡°Apparently, the cultivators in the Greenhair Bands have forgotten how mighty we are. Let¡¯s set an example with this fellow. That way, the locals will once again remember the Wind Guardians!¡±

    1. The situation with the shadow being impaled during the white wind was in <u>chapters 587</u> and <u>588</u>. ?

 Chapter 607: Supremely Confident Patriarch Wind Guardian

    <h4>Chapter 607: Supremely Confident Patriarch Wind Guardian</h4>

    The Wind Guardians were a very mysterious species in the Greenhair Bands that rarely went out in public. And though most cultivators in the Greenhair Bands had heard of them, few had ever seen them. It was only when outside forces threatened to harm the desert in some way that they would rise up in force to mount a defense. They had very gruish methods and ancient powers. Even Void Returning experts who ran into them would find them difficult to deal with. Because of that, people eventually started calling them the guardians of the desert.

    However, the true name of their species was Wind Guardians. That was because they weren¡¯t really standing guard over the desert. Rather, they were the guardians of the wind. The reason they were so protective of the environment in the desert was that changes to the desert would affect the wind. When the green wind changed color, and filled the sky with white sand, their species would emerge. Though it might seem like they were doing so to wee the wind, the reality was that they were searching for something within that wind.

    As history marched on, people forgot about their reasons for doing that. And therefore, the Wind Guardians eventually just became one of the unique features of the Greenhair Bands.

    It caused quite an uproar when they put a bounty on Xu Qing. After all, the reward, even just for information leading to Xu Qing, was amand medallion. Anyone who had thatmand medallion could be spared from death when the white wind came. A reward like that was attractive to just about everyone.

    Although Xu Qing had taken efforts to hide his identity when dealing with them, there were plenty of extraordinarily talented people in the world. And it was someone like that who used some unknown and mysterious methods to dig up some clues about who he was.

    That was why the Wind Guardians were now on the move. In order to establish some prestige for their species, they weren¡¯t going to strike a blow in secret. They were going to handle the situation with great fanfare.

    Organizations throughout the Bitter Life Mountains noticed what was going on. That was especially true of the various sects near the mudbrick city. Many of them monitored the situation with divine sense, while others approached the city itself to watch things y out.

    When they saw the figures moving through the whitening wind, they gasped.

    ¡°The green wind is changing color because of those figures in white. That¡¯s the mysterious species that shows up along with the white wind!¡±

    ¡°I heard that this species... issued a bounty recently.¡±

    ¡°Apparently someone stole one of their holy relics....¡±

    ¡°Given what¡¯s happening, is the thief hiding out in that city?¡±

    Quite a few cultivators had gathered in the area and were watching closely. Some looked surprised, others sneered, and there were other varied reactions.

    ¡°The thief is doomed. If you want to screw around, fine, but whatever you do, don¡¯t screw with the Wind Guardians.¡±

    ¡°I read a description of this species in one of the ancient records I was studying. They¡¯re ruthless and brutal, and they do everything in a very domineering way.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t they supposedly really rich?¡±

    As people looked on with both mundane eyes and divine sense, the mudbrick city was quiet in the darkness of night. The pressure from the dome of heaven, as well as the green-and-white wind, created a very stifling atmosphere. Sir Tree-Dao and his subordinates all felt it. The low-level cultivators were shaking in their boots, and didn¡¯t dare to even open the doors of their houses. The only building in the city that was lit withmps was the Green Spirit Pharmacy, making it seem like the lone source of warmth in the area.

    Inside the medicine shop, Ning Yan was bored to death as he scrubbed the floor. Li Youfei looked outside for a bit, and though he noticed something strange was going on, he was ultimately so bored that he decided to help Ning Yan.

    Wu Jianwu was sprawled out with his eyes closed as he mentallyposed new poems.

    Ling¡¯er was hunched over the counter, her abacus clicking and cking as she calcted the day¡¯s profits. asionally she would make notes in her ounting record book. She seemed to be having a very good time.

    The Captain stood next to the door like a door god. Though he also noticed that something unusual was happening, he didn¡¯t seem to care much. Nowadays, he seemed to take the most pleasure out of watching Nethersprite make tea. [1]

    When Nethersprite realized he was staring at her, she red angrily at him.

    The Captain red back at her. ¡°Hey, get back to work! Otherwise I¡¯ll call your husband out to deal with you!¡±

    A tremor passed through Nethersprite as she thought back to how she¡¯d been toyed with by that vile thing.

    Eyes glittering with killing intent, she red at the Captain. To her, Chen Erniu was the most wicked person in existence. In fact, her hatred for him far surpassed anything she felt toward Xu Qing.

    The Captain snorted. ¡°What are you looking at? All you know how to do isze around and boil water. Get grandpa¡¯s tea ready immediately!¡±

    Nethersprite grinded her teeth, but had no choice other than to take the tea kettle and walk over to the Heir Apparent, who was currently watching Sprouty. Instinctively calming herself, she obediently poured a new cup of tea.

    Seeing that, the Captain smiled and was about to say something further when, all of a sudden, a loud knocking rang out from the door.

    Wu Jianwu frowned. The noise had interrupted his train of thought. Waving his hand, he opened the door and looked out impatiently.

    ¡°Grandmaster!¡± Chen Fanzhuo said, rushing inside. He looked very rmed. Quickly sping hands to the back room he loudly continued, ¡°Grandmaster, this is bad! The Wind Guard¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, the rumbling sound of an intense wind could be heard outside. Sand kicked up everywhere in the city, beating against the houses and making everything hazy.

    Then, figures in white dropped out of the wind and into the city. Some appeared on the streets, others on the rooftops. Still others hovered in the air. There were thousands of them, with many of them being powerful experts. Their intimidating energy became a mighty pressure that was focusedpletely on the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Of their number, four in specifded about 300 meters away from the medicine shop. Those four had white robes iid with gold. Though it wasn¡¯t possible to make out their facial features, their clothing made it obvious that they were different from other members of their species. It was the same with their cultivation bases. All of them had passed the dao begetting phase and were fully in the Spirit Trove level.

    And yet there was one who surpassed even them. As hended only about 30 meters away from the Green Spirit Pharmacy, his golden robe made him very eye-catching. Another difference between him and the other Wind Guardians was that he had no hood on his robe. His white hair was very clear, and despite his hunched back, he seemed threatening without being angry.

    In his presence, the four Spirit Trove cultivators as well as the thousands of other white-robed figures all bowed their heads.

    ¡°Patriarch,¡± they said.

    He pulsed with the aura of the great circle of Spirit Trove, and he also had numerous threads connected to him that were dao lineaments. When he managed to contain all of those dao lineaments in his eyes, then he would be able to break through from the Spirit Trove level and into Void Returning. At the moment, though, he was only halfway to that point.

    The wind was getting stronger, screaming like an angry beast and shaking the hearts of all onlookers. The people watching from outside the city felt a suffocating sensation, and they couldn¡¯t help but focus their attention on the golden-robed old man.

    The old man looked with cold eyes at the Green Spirit Pharmacy. As his energy surged, it was just barely possible to see the image of a divine dragon roaring. It made the old man seem like he could surpass any tribtions and crush anything in his path. After studying the Green Spirit Pharmacy briefly, he started walking forward. Every step he took caused the ground to quake, and sent the wind screaming about. No one else seemed capable of even moving. He didn¡¯t speak, nor did he pulse with terrifying fluctuations. It was as if the people in the Green Spirit Pharmacy were so unimportant to him that he didn¡¯t need to say anything.

    Now that he was here, all he had to do was reach out and take back the holy relic, then crush the entire medicine shop. When all was said and done, cultivation base was the foundation of everything. Hands sped behind his back, he walked forward and, without even a moment of hesitation, entered the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    As soon as he did, the door mmed closed behind him.

    No one took the mming of the door to indicate that something bad might happen to the patriarch. Whether it was the Wind Guardians or the people who were just watching themotion, no one felt that something unexpected had happened. After all, the cultivation base disparity was so great that it was like watching a gigantic beast deal with a tiny rabbit. No matter what the rabbit did, it wouldn¡¯t be able to escape the fate that awaited it.

    The Wind Guardians all felt that way, and stood by excitedly waiting. Because the wind was connected to their emotions, it started blowing even harder through the mudbrick city.

    Meanwhile, the onlookers were shaken. Every time the Wind Guardians took to action and revealed some of their reserve powers, everyone was stunned.

    ¡°They¡¯re establishing their might and giving a warning to everyone.¡±

    ¡°The thief in that medicine shop doesn¡¯t stand a chance.¡±

    ¡°Want to steal stuff? Have fun. But don¡¯t steal holy relics from the Wind Guardians....¡±

    ¡°If the thief knows what¡¯s good for him, he¡¯ll hand over the holy relic and the evil spirit. If he does, he might enjoy a quick death. Otherwise, he¡¯ll definitely suffer.¡±

    Some onlookers sighed. Others reveled in the thief¡¯s misfortune. Most pleased of all were the white-robed Wind Guardians who had previously shed with Xu Qing. The Wind Guardian who had led that group was on the same street as the Green Spirit Pharmacy, smiling broadly. He felt wonderful, and was visualizing what would happen when his patriarch walked out with that evil, savage thief.

    <i>You got lucky and made off with our holy relic, thief. As a result, I was punished by the elders. But now you¡¯ll learn the consequences of offending our species! And not just you. That evil spirit of yours, plus that teleporting parrot, are both going to die! That¡¯s what happens when you provoke the Wind Guardians!</i>

    <i>If you need to me someone, me yourself! This is what you get for pissing off truly powerful experts! Starting today, all cultivators in the Greenhair Bands are going to remember how mighty and powerful the Wind Guardians are!</i>

    The white-robed young man startedughing coldly. He simply couldn¡¯t wait to see what was going to happen next.

    1. Door gods are (ording to Wikipedia): ¡°divine guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folk religions, used to protect against evil influences or to encourage the entrance of positive ones.¡± In this case, I think it¡¯s less referring to his physical appearance, posture, or pose, and more referring to the fact that he¡¯s standing next to the door with a weapon. ?

 Chapter 608: Sorry to Bother You, Iâ€™m Just Here to Buy Some Pills

    <h4>Chapter 608: Sorry to Bother You, I¡¯m Just Here to Buy Some Pills</h4>

    After the Green Spirit Pharmacy¡¯s door mmed shut, the golden-robed Patriarch Wind Guardian looked around coldly. The shop wasn¡¯t veryrge, and didn¡¯t look unusual in any way. There was a little oven off to the side with a steaming kettle of water boiling atop it.

    He noted the young man sprawled out to the side, d in a hemp garment. The young man¡¯s expression flitted between a frown, a thoughtful expression, and a pleased look. He seemed to be mumbling some sort of incoherent, nonsensical poetry. Surprisingly, he hardly took note of Patriarch Wind Guardian.

    The patriarch scanned him and found that he was nothing more than a measly Gold Core cultivator. Ignoring him, he turned his attention to the next notable person, who stood next to the door holding a sword. He was also a young man, and he was smiling broadly at the patriarch.

    ¡°Wee to our establishment! Don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯m just the guard here. If you want to buy something, step on in!¡± Turning to look in the direction of the counter, he yelled, ¡°Hey, Ling¡¯er! We have a customer!¡±

    Ling¡¯er was behind the counter settling the ounts. Hearing her name, she looked up.

    The counter was ratherrge, and she was petite, so when her tiny head suddenly popped up from behind the counter, it looked a bit strange. Seeing the patriarch by the door, her eyes lit up.

    ¡°Wee, sir!¡± she said enthusiastically. ¡°What would you like to buy? The white boluses here are the most famous in all of the Bitter Life Mountains. They¡¯re a single spirit coin each. If you buy arge number, I can give you a discount.¡±

    Patriarch Wind Guardian frowned slightly. After looking coldly at the young man with the sword, he nced at the girl. It had been many years since anyone would dare to be so rxed in his presence. The people here weren¡¯t reacting quite the way he¡¯d imagined they would. Thankfully, not everyone was behaving in that manner. There was one little cultivator in the corner who was trembling in terror. That was a more appropriate reaction.

    Next, the patriarch shifted his attention to two people who were currently cleaning the floor.

    One was fat, the other was old. They were hard at work scrubbing this way and that. All of a sudden, the fat one turned to look at Patriarch Wind Guardian.

    ¡°I just scrubbed over there, so it¡¯s wet! <i>Don¡¯t</i> leave your footprints there!¡±

    Patriarch Wind Guardian¡¯s eyes turned even colder. All people who had ever dared to speak to him in this manner were dead. However, he didn¡¯t immediately take action. He could crush a bug like that with no effort at all. Next, he turned to look at the old man seated at the counter, who was ying with a parrot. The old man looked like any other mortal hovering on the brink of death. After looking at him for a moment, Patriarch Wind Guardian ignored him. In his opinion, it didn¡¯t matter who these people had backing them. The fact that they were basically ignoring him wasn¡¯t important.

    sping his hands behind his back, he coolly said, ¡°I have no interest in buying medicinal pills. How much are your lives worth? Give me a number and I¡¯ll pay it.¡±

    Tapping into power that was a half a step into Void Returning, he lifted his right foot and then stamped it onto the ground. As he did, he prepared to watch the entire medicine shop be leveled. Everyone would be shredded out of existence, leaving behind nothing but bones. And the fat one was going to turn into ashes.

    A momentter, the old man¡¯s jaw dropped, and he looked down at the ground. Not one thing had happened to the medicine shop. It looked exactly the same as before. It was as if the explosive energy that had flowed out of his foot was <i>a stone ox thrown into the ocean</i>. There weren¡¯t even any lingering ripples, or any other sign that anything had happened.

    But then the kettle slipped off the stove, nging onto the ground and spilling all the hot water. The fatty scrubbing the ground suddenly looked up with a deep frown.

    ¡°Hey, you old codger!¡± he snapped angrily. ¡°I just scrubbed the floor there!¡±

    Bewildered, Patriarch Wind Guardian sent his divine sense out to check the spot where he had stamped his foot down. Then he looked over at the kettle. Something was off, and it caused his pupils to constrict. The fact that his burst of energy hadn¡¯t resulted in anything was obviously a cause for concern. Realistically speaking, that stamp of his foot shouldn¡¯t just have incinerated the medicine shop. It should have turned the entire city into ruins. But instead, the only thing that happened was that a kettle fell.

    A feeling of deep unease welled up in his heart. But before he could do anything, he turned to find someone hurrying in from another room with an armful of firewood.

    It was a girl dressed like a maidservant. She looked extremely angry, like a volcano about to erupt, as if she and the patriarch were enemies who couldn¡¯t tolerate living under the same sky as the other.

    ¡°You damned geezer!¡± she yelled. ¡°I went out for a few seconds to get some firewood, and the water was already boiling. Then you came along and knocked over the kettle! You fool! Do you know how hard it is to boil water without using your cultivation base??¡±

    The maidservant¡¯s cultivation base suddenly red to life, sending out fluctuations in the great circle of Spirit Trove, just on the edge of Void Returning. At that moment, Patriarch Wind Guardian¡¯s suspicions were all cleared up, and he knew why the stamp of his foot had been ineffective. He also understood why all these people hadn¡¯t reacted in the way he expected. It was all because of this girl. She was clearly very strong. Although it was unusual that she was dressed up like a maidservant, top experts often behaved freakishly. Although, truth be told, he had never seen anyone behave in this freakish manner.

    He had already abandoned his previous arrogant attitude. Trying to be calm and even-tempered, he waved his hand to send the kettle back to its previous position.

    ¡°I¡¯m here because my species lost a holy relic,¡± he said calmly, ¡°and I¡¯d like to broker a fair resolution to the situation. Since <i>you¡¯re</i> here, Fellow Daoist, let¡¯s discuss the matter.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care if you lost a holy relic or an unholy relic, idiot!¡± the girl shot back. ¡°That doesn¡¯t have one goddamn thing to do with me. Hurry up and get the water boiling, otherwise I¡¯m having you for dinner!¡± She shed a grim smile.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian frowned. He had shifted to being polite, but considering how rude the maidservant was being, it was obvious she didn¡¯t fear him. Sending out his divine sense to check and make sure there weren¡¯t any Void Returning experts in the medicine shop, he turned to look coldly at the back room.

    ¡°Get the hell out here, thief!¡± he snapped, walking directly toward the back room. He didn¡¯t want to waste any more time. Therefore, it only took a moment for him to reach the curtain that led to Xu Qing in the back room. Reaching out, he grabbed the curtain to yank it aside. However, at that moment, his face fell. Out of nowhere, a wave of force hit him, and before he could do anything, it hadpletely wrapped him up.

    Trembling, he walked backward several paces, his internal organs shivering with pain. Turning to the maidservant with killing intent surging, he coldly said, ¡°You¡¯re protecting him?¡±

    The maidservant rolled her eyes and impatiently said, ¡°Kill him if you can. And I¡¯d love it if you killed that guy by the door. If you do, I¡¯ll offer you my thanks.¡±

    By that point, bubbling sounds could be heard from the kettle as the water started boiling. The maidservant picked up the kettle and walked over to the mortal man with the parrot. As she neared the old man, she made sure to walk very quietly.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian looked on, stunned. Here was a fellow daoist with the same cultivation base as himself, who had suddenly changed personalities. The vitriol in her eyes transformed into something pure and tranquil, and she seemed like the picture of obedience as she made tea for the old man.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian¡¯s heart started pounding, and he suddenly felt a very gruish sensation. Trying to be as surreptitious as possible, he took out a jade pendant that he used to scan the old man. That jade pendant was a special treasure belonging to his species, which could be used to identify cultivation base fluctuations from anyone under the Smoldering God level. However, the jade pendant wasn¡¯t giving him any unusual information.

    He was really puzzled, but could tell on an instinctual level that there was something wrong with this medicine shop. Something profoundly wrong. Feeling more suspicious than ever, he looked at the two people scrubbing the floor, the young man with the sword, and the cultivator mumbling poetry.

    Finally, he looked at the counter. All of them were behaving exactly the same as before. And all of that seemed extremely bizarre.

    As Patriarch Wind Guardian hesitated about what to do, the old mortal behind the counter stopped ying with the parrot and lifted his cup to take a sip of tea.

    That action revealed his left hand, within which was a pearl. Looking closely, it was possible to see a terrified face in that pearl, and it belonged to none other than Guru ckeyes. Although Guru ckeyes¡¯ cultivation base wasn¡¯t that impressive, to see him so terrified in the hands of another caused Patriarch Wind Guardian¡¯s scalp to go numb. He started edging his way backward. All he wanted to do now was leave. This medicine shop was a scary ce. And theck of information from his jade pendant could mean only one thing. Although it seemed extremely unlikely, as he looked around, he realized that the unlikely possibility... was actually very likely.

    Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, and he started shaking. His heart also started racing. As it turned out, this was the exact same reaction he¡¯d expected from the people inside the shop when they saw him. Feeling wildly nervous, and full of deep regret, he realized that he had been extremely careless. And he should never have charged through the door of this little medicine shop.

    <i>If I¡¯m right, this is no medicine shop. This is the freaking Nine Serenities underworld!!</i>

    Seeing the patriarch trembling, Ling¡¯er sighed. ¡°You¡¯re really not going to buy any of our medicinal pills? They¡¯re truly amazing!¡±

    Patriarch Wind Guardian hesitated, then took out a bag of holding and put it on the counter.

    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll buy some!¡±

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s expression brightened up. Scooping up the bag of holding, she handed him a white bolus.

    The patriarch took it, then slowly backed away, trying to retrace his footsteps so that he didn¡¯t make the floor any dirtier than he already had. What was more, he couldn¡¯t help but nce at the old mortal with the tea.

    The old man looked up at him.

    When their gazes met, Patriarch Wind Guardian felt like his mind had been struck by 1,000,000 lightning bolts. He started shaking even harder than before, and sweat began to soak through his golden robe.

    <i>S-smoldering... God....</i>

    Waves of terror swept through him, battering his mind. Every inch of his flesh, blood, and bones were screaming at him that he was in incredible, incredible, incredible danger.

    In fact, those numerous sensations of danger felt like they had lives of their own, and they were chewing at his flesh, soul, and senses. Filled with iparable, unsurpassable regret, he came to the realization thating to this little medicine shop was the worst mistake he had ever made in his entire life.

    <i>How could this be happening...?</i>

    As sweat poured off of him like rain, he instinctively dropped to his knees.

    That was when the Heir Apparent spoke. ¡°Come here.¡±

 Chapter 609: A Very Polite Patriarch

    <h4>Chapter 609: A Very Polite Patriarch</h4>

    The piercing wind still howled outside the Green Spirit Pharmacy, bringing with it a sense of terror. The thousands of cold, haughty Wind Guardians filled the city with a very somber and frigid aura.

    ¡°The little thief is probably on his knees begging the patriarch for mercy right now!¡±

    ¡°Hmph! Pleading for forgiveness might work if we lived in a world of peace.¡±

    ¡°Considering he stole our holy relic, the patriarch will do as usual and skin him alive. Maybe turn him into a decorativentern. The fat from his corpse can be the oil, and his soul can burn forever within it.¡±

    The Wind Guardians were all sneering grimly, especially the ones Xu Qing had shed with before. All of them felt full of excitement and anticipation.

    ¡°However arrogant the little thief was that day, that¡¯s how miserable he¡¯ll be today!¡±

    ¡°He stole our holy relic and then evaded our pursuit. He¡¯s got some skill, I¡¯ll give him that. But it won¡¯t do him any good right now. When faced with overwhelming power, he¡¯s doomed to suffer.¡±

    ¡°If the patriarch turns him into amp, I¡¯ll definitely borrow thatmp and have lots of fun with it in my mansion grotto.¡±

    ¡°And then there¡¯s that detestable parrot and the evil spirit!¡±

    The Wind Guardians who had shed with Xu Qing were gathered in the same area, and were chuckling with each other as they kept eyes on the medicine shop.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian had been inside for a while, but none of them were worried, not even the four Spirit Trove Wind Guardians.

    As they watched the door of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, they didn¡¯t detect the tiniest fluctuation from inside. But that wasn¡¯t unusual. Given Patriarch Wind Guardian¡¯s cultivation base, no one outside should have been able to detect him taking any action.

    ¡°Sadly for the culprit, our patriarch will be able to crush him with a single nce.¡±

    ¡°ording to what I heard, years ago when the patriarch was out adventuring, he liked to turn his enemies into little toys and gadgets. I imagine he¡¯s justing up with something new to turn this guy into.¡±

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    As the four Spirit Trove Wind Guardians joked and chatted, the people observing from outside the city were sighing as they looked on. All of them knew that the Wind Guardians were doing more than just destroying a little medicine shop.

    ¡°This mudbrick city is going to turn into a hell on earth.¡±

    ¡°Given this species¡¯ tendencies, I bet they¡¯re going to turn this city into a never-ending windstorm, just to show everyone else how strong and terrifying they are.¡±

    ¡°That said, have any of you noticed that... it¡¯s been quite a while since Patriarch Wind Guardian went inside?¡±

    As the cultivators on the outside and the Wind Guardians inside the city discussed the matter, time passed. Eventually two full hours had gone by.

    Around then, people started to realize that something strange was going on. Cultivators inside and outside the city were now paying even closer attention to the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Eventually, the four Spirit Trove Wind Guardians started to realize that the time really was stretching out too long. After exchanging nces, they prepared to approach the medicine shop. However, that was when the door of the shop slowly creaked open. Countless gazes locked onto the door, most of them filled with anticipation, excitement, and concentration. But then, only a momentter, countless eyes widened.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian was visible inside the door. His face a mask of politeness, he slowly backed out, bowing and scraping as he said, ¡°Sorry to disturb all of you. I didn¡¯t understand the situation. Please forgive me for any trouble.¡±

    Even after he was outside, he kept bowing deeply in the direction of the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    ¡°I¡¯ll send our other holy relics over immediately. They function as a set, so it¡¯s best not to keep them apart for long, and besides, I can¡¯t do as good a job of keeping them as safe as you. Going forward, if you need assistance in anything, just press that jade pendant. It doesn¡¯t matter what it is, I¡¯ll rush over immediately. And now, I¡¯m really going to say farewell. I truly apologize!¡±

    The trembling patriarch bowed yet again. Then the door mmed shut. The cold wind blew through the streets of the city. No one made a sound.... The Wind Guardians were dumbfounded. The cultivators outside the city were stupefied. Because the wind carried the patriarch¡¯s polite words through the city, everyone heard them. It almost didn¡¯t seem real. None of them could have predicted that Patriarch Wind Guardian would do or say anything like this. It seemedpletely and utterly impossible. Yet, it was clearly happening.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian stood outside of the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the cold wind, and he could feel himself trembling. As the chill spread through his body, itbined with the pounding of his heart to create an intense level of terror. Because his cultivation base was so high, it had been a long time since he felt the type of coldness that mortals would feel. But right now, he felt it. Deeply. He didn¡¯t want to think any more about what happened inside. Nor did he want to stick around this ce. Shivering, he slowly turned around.

    The four Spirit Trove Wind Guardians looked at him hesitantly.

    ¡°Patriarch...?¡±

    ¡°Patriarch, what happened?¡±

    The patriarch shook his head. Eyes shimmering with terror, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Don¡¯t ask. Don¡¯t ever bring it up. We¡¯re leaving. Now!¡±

    Deeply shaken, the four Spirit Trove cultivators clustered around the patriarch and flew off. The leader of the Wind Guardians who had shed with Xu Qing before was bbergasted, and couldn¡¯t help but give voice to his concerns.

    ¡°Patriarch, that little thief¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, Patriarch Wind Guardian turned and waved his hand. Blood sprayed out of the young Wind Guardian¡¯s mouth as he was knocked off into the distance, where he flopped to the ground unconscious.

    ¡°He¡¯s a grandmaster!¡± the patriarch said furiously. ¡°I dare anyone to talk about him casually!¡±

    As the surrounding Wind Guardians trembled in confusion, their patriarch flew off into the distance. Before long, thousands of figures were seen leaving the mudbrick city and disappearing into the wind.

    The observers from the various factions who had been watching from outside the city couldn¡¯t help but gasp in astonishment. And then they looked at the Green Spirit Pharmacy with new eyes.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on??¡±

    ¡°Am I seeing things? Is this a figment of my imagination? Why did it seem like the patriarch of the Wind Guardians was shaking...?¡±

    ¡°What happened to him? How could Patriarch Wind Guardian go into the ce looking so arrogant, thene out looking like that?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s something very unusual about the Green Spirit Pharmacy!!¡±

    As the gasps rang out, countless eyes filled with dread, and soon people started looking away from the Green Spirit Pharmacy. They didn¡¯t dare to keep their eyes on it for too long. The events which had yed out were simply unbelievable.

    The mysterious sensation that their incredulity brought led, not only to intense terror, but also incredible curiosity about the little medicine shop.

    ¡°Just what exactly happened inside that ce?¡±

    Trembling with fear, the gathered crowds quickly left the area.

    Inside the Green Spirit Pharmacy, everything was the same as usual.

    However, there were more bags of holding, about a dozen or so, which Ling¡¯er was excitedly going through. Others in the shop had gathered around curiously to see what the bags contained.

    Nethersprite just sneered and tended to the boiling water.

    Ning Yan sighed and went back to re-scrub the parts of the floor that had been walked over. Because of all the cleaning he had been doingtely, he¡¯d be somewhat obsessed with cleanliness. Whenever he spotted any part of the shop that was dirty, he would rush over to clean it. Only when everything was spotless would he feel at ease.

    The Heir Apparent, meanwhile, chuckled as he rolled two pearls in his palm. Just like before, one of them contained Guru ckeyes. But there was now a second pearl, and the face within it was none other than Patriarch Wind Guardian. Of course, it wasn¡¯t the patriarch as a whole, but rather, a strand of his soul.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t made an appearance the entire time. He stayed in the back focusing on recovering from his injuries.

    Chen Fanzhuo was acting extremely respectfully. After paying his respects and wishing everyone good health, he said farewell. Just before he left, Ling¡¯er took some treasure out of one of the bags of holding and gave it to him. Looking excited, he offered thanks over and over again.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian, in order to apologize for his intrusion, had given a lot of good things in those bags of holding. There were spirit stones, medicinal pills, and magical devices, all of them extraordinary.

    As everyone split the loot, the Heir Apparent went into the back room where Xu Qing was meditating.

    Xu Qing quickly got to his feet, sped hands, and bowed.

    The Heir Apparent waved his hand and produced a pill bottle, which he tossed to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Those are some divine soul pills provided by our respectful little friend who just came to visit. There are ten in total. Take one of them, and you should recover much more quickly. Keep the remaining nine for the uing healing you¡¯ll need to do.¡±

    Xu Qing took the bottle and opened it. Considering his skill in the dao of alchemy, he could immediately tell that the pills were amazing. The medicinal effect was specifically focused on healing injuries to the soul. This category of medicinal pill was both rare and expensive.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he consumed one of the pills. As it melted, an eruption of warmth filled him before rushing toward his sea of consciousness. Rumbling sounds filled his sea of consciousness, like an erupting volcano. It reached his soul, then sent waves of heat through him. Before, his soul had been dim, but now it was rapidly bing clear. Only a momentter, he had not only fully recovered from his injuries, but also, his soul had improvedpared to before. Moved, he opened his eyes and looked at the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Since you¡¯ve recovered,¡± the Heir Apparent said calmly, ¡°we might as well continue your tempering now. Xu Qing, you have a lot of random skills and abilities. Unfortunately, you haven¡¯te to a deep understanding of any of them. If you do that, then your battle prowess will advance by leaps and bounds!

    ¡°If you continue to make progress in the same way as before, you won¡¯t get stronger fast enough. You need to force yourself to reach the highest level. And the only way to unlock your true potential is to walk the fine line between life and death.

    ¡°This time, I¡¯m not taking you to the Red Moon Cathedral. Instead, I want you to send your golden crow nascent soul into this pearl and fight the little fellow inside.¡±

    As he spoke, the Heir Apparent handed Guru ckeyes¡¯ pearl to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Only use the golden crow nascent soul, and as you walk that line between life and death, see what transformations you can dig up from deep within it! You¡¯ll have nine chances. You can use those pills to recover after each time, but you only have nine of them.

    ¡°I promised the fellow inside the pearl that after the tenth battle begins, he can directly devour your golden crow nascent soul. If he seeds, I¡¯ll let him go free. Therefore, you must either gain enlightenment of the deeper transformations of the golden crow nascent soul, and use it to create a personal trump card, or... you¡¯ll lose your golden crow nascent soul forever. It alles down to your personal good fortune.¡±

    Eyes glittering, the Heir Apparent turned and left.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly for a moment looking at the pearl. Then, eyes shining, he said, ¡°Golden Crow.¡±

    Instantly, ck light glittered above his head as the golden crow shot out, streaming mes behind it and pulsing with a holy aura. As Xu Qing directed it mentally, its eyes gleamed and it shot into the pearl.

 Chapter 610: Tracing the Essence Back to the Beginning

    <h4>Chapter 610: Tracing the Essence Back to the Beginning</h4>

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, his mind linked with the golden crow nascent soul. As of this moment, he <i>was</i> the golden crow.

    Upon entering the pearl, he found himself in a strange dimension. Everything was blurry and filled with roiling mist and muffled thunder. Then, only a moment after he arrived, the mist parted to reveal a huge face rushing toward him.

    It was none other than Guru ckeyes. His eyes were crimson and bursting with madness. After being sealed in the pearl, he had experienced unending torment that made him wish he could die. He had assumed that his life would be like that forever going forward. But then, the terrifying Smoldering God had unexpectedly told him that he would have ten chances to devour a golden crow and thus free himself. He had no choice but to believe the Smoldering God. Therefore, as soon as heid eyes on Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment to unleash his cultivation base, causing a full secret trove to appear.

    ¡°Hurry up and die!¡± he howled. ¡°Hurry up and die ten times!¡±

    Then he lunged toward Xu Qing with his mouth wide to devour him.

    Xu Qing fell back, his golden crow body ring with unending heavenfire. However, given he was facing a Spirit Trove cultivator with aplete secret trove, there was no way that heavenfire could mount any sort of effective defense.

    Guru ckeyes exhaled, and in the blink of an eye, the golden crow¡¯s mes were swept aside. Then Guru ckeyes¡¯ face grewrger until it filled the entire dimension. His forehead touched the sky, his chin touched the ground, and his mouth opened wide, closing in on Xu Qing like a ck hole.

    From a distance, Xu Qing as a golden crow looked like a bird from the mortal world,pletely incapable of fighting back. As his vision grew dim, he felt intense pain in his soul. The golden crow copsed, and as Xu Qing lost consciousness, he heard a voice.

    ¡°Nine more times....¡±

    Back in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, Xu Qing opened his eyes as he sat cross-legged in the back room.

    ¡°It happened in an instant!¡± he murmured, scowling. His golden crow was still there. It hadn¡¯t been devoured. But his soul, which had just recovered, was inundated with intense pain.

    Xu Qing took out one of the divine soul pills and consumed it. Closing his eyes, he meditated for about two hours. After he was fully recovered, he looked at the pearl in his hand and thought about the experience of directly facing a Spirit Trove expert.

    <i>This isn¡¯t going to work. How am I supposed to transform the golden crow to be able to avoid being devoured?</i>

    A thousand thoughts ran through Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Eventually, he sent his consciousness back into his golden crow nascent soul.

    <i>The golden crow can assimte myriad spirits. It can be a sun.... The former isn¡¯t going to help much. But thetter</i>....

    Xu Qing thought about all of the suns he had seen close up.

    <i>Back in Daybreak Prefecture in Sea-Sealing County, I got to see a sun close up for the first time. Granted, it was only the dead remains of a sun.... Later, here in the Moonrite Region, I saw four artificial suns. Little Roundy was the first. The one with eternal power was the second. The round ring was the third. And the ancient sphere was the fourth.</i>

    After some more thought, his eyes glittered.

    <i>Wait, there was another. When I gained enlightenment of the golden crow, there was that young man depicted in the carvings in the dragon chariot. What if I transform the golden crow into a sun? Return it to its original essence....?</i>

    Xu Qing felt a lot of pressure. If he wanted to do this, he needed to deeply consider how to use the golden crow.

    The night passed.

    The following morning at dawn, the sky was still dark, just not as dark as at night. As the Green Spirit Pharmacy opened for business, Xu Qing made his second attempt. As the golden crow, he entered the pearl. Instantly, the strange dimension unfolded in front of his eyes. He started backing up.

    The mist in front of him seethed, and Guru ckeyes¡¯ rushed toward him as a giant face. Just likest time, he rapidly grew bigger until he filled the dimension. Then he rushed toward Xu Qing, bursting with destructive power as he opened his mouth wide.

    This time, just before he devoured Xu Qing, the golden crow emitted a piercing cry as it exploded into four chunks of flesh.

    The first of those chunks rippled into the shape of a door frame, within which was a spring. As the spring bounced up and down with increasing speed, it ignited and became a sun. The second part became a round ring which started spinning around rapidly until it caught fire. The third piece of flesh became a sphere which also burst into mes.

    These were the three suns that Xu Qing had seen at the Yin Sacrifice River. The suns rushed toward Guru ckeyes¡¯ gaping maw. As they burned with intense heat, they suddenly self-detonated.

    A massive boom filled the entire dimension, and Guru ckeyes¡¯ giant face stopped moving briefly. Though that face briefly caught fire in a few ces, it returned to normal very quickly.

    However, Xu Qing had sessfully avoided being devoured, at least temporarily. The final chunk of flesh wriggled wildly as it transformed into a young man. His face was as fair as jade, and he wore an imperial robe and crown. He was surrounded by heavenfire, and a dragon chariot formed beneath him. Looking very imposing, he prepared tounch an attack. Before he could, the entire dimension seemed to copse. The sky seemed to be the top jaw, and the ground was the bottom jaw, and when they snapped shut, everything turned ck.

    Back in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, Xu Qing opened his eyes and coughed up a mouthful of blood. There was a voice ringing in his ears.

    ¡°Eight more times!¡±

    Expression grim, Xu Qing consumed another pill and then analyzed his defeat.

    <i>There¡¯s absolutely no way a three-tribtion Nascent Soul cultivator could ever beat a Spirit Trove expert. It doesn¡¯t matter that thetter is sealed in a pearl and restricted. The difference between the two levels is something that¡¯s fundamentally impossible to surpass. But the Heir Apparent is right. I clearly haven¡¯te to a deep understanding of my nascent souls. For example, the golden crow.... After transforming it into a sun, it¡¯s clearly on a much higher level than before.</i>

    Xu Qing could sense that he was exploring the right direction.

    <i>In that case, how do I dig down to an even more profound level? What is the golden crow made from? And substructurally speaking, what exactly is an imperial-ss technique?</i>

    Xu Qing was just about to send his mind back into the golden crow to do further study when Ling¡¯er excitedly ran into the back room.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said in a whisper, ¡°today¡¯s the day you¡¯re supposed to release your new pill!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went wide. He¡¯d already forgotten about the new pill. The Heir Apparent had changed everything. Instead of a quiet life, things were now moving ahead at breakneck speed. That said, he¡¯d already finished concocting all the pills he needed, and they were even more effective than he¡¯d hoped they would be. They significantly reduced the curse.

    Xu Qing nodded at Ling¡¯er, took out the mirror, and then brought her with him as he went to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    The Moonrebel Congregation was like a boiling cauldron of voices. Ten days had passed in which everyone was talking about how Grandmaster Pill Nine was going to release a new medicine called a cursequelling lozenge, all while Grandmaster Saintlowe was going to release his own pill on the same day. Everyone in the Moonrebel Congregation was caught up in the hubbub.

    Tens of thousands of statues hovered in the air above the Moonrebel Congregation, all waiting for Xu Qing and Grandmaster Saintlowe to arrive. Though each statue looked different, collectively, they shone with dazzling light, like magnificent devils. A constant buzz of conversation rippled through the air.

    ¡°I had no idea there would be such a mor of activity. I¡¯m also really curious to see how things y out between the two grandmasters.¡±

    ¡°People¡¯s expectations are too high for the painquelling lozenge and the so-called cursequelling lozenge. I guess it¡¯s understandable. Overall, I don¡¯t believe in this Pill Nine fellow.¡±

    Among the countless discussions, there were obviously altercations between supporters from either side.

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe is a person of virtue and prestige. Countless people have benefited from his grace. His dao of alchemy is iparable. How could some random alchemist like Pill Nine possiblypare to him?¡±

    ¡°A person of virtue and prestige? Cut the crap! Saintlowe¡¯s medicinal pills are outrageously expensive. I once had to spend a year of ie just to buy one of them!¡±

    ¡°Such impudence! If you hadn¡¯t purchased that pill, you¡¯d be a corpse right now! Yet you dare to spout such absurd rhetoric?¡±

    ¡°Exactly! Grandmaster Saintlowe is my personal benefactor! Anyone who says anything bad about him is an enemy of mine!¡±

    There was a lot of arguing. Overall, it seemed that about eighty percent of the people supported Grandmaster Saintlowe, which meant that in many cases, the supporters of Grandmaster Pill Nine were drowned out. However, there were two of Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s followers whose voices were so loud they couldn¡¯t be drowned out.

    One of them was Xu Qing¡¯s burly neighbor. ring at the crowd, he spoke in a booming voice that thrummed with gratefulness.

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe might be able to save a person¡¯s life. But he leaves them destitute afterward! All of us live bitter lives, and we struggle just to stay alive! We shouldn¡¯t have to suffer exploitation like that!

    ¡°But take a look at Grandmaster Pill Nine. He clearly <i>bemoans the state of the universe and pities the fate of mankind</i>. He has a heart of mercy! All he charges for a painquelling lozenge is a hundred drops of godservant blood. Is that because he doesn¡¯t know how valuable painquelling lozenges are? He absolutely does know! But he can¡¯t stand to see us in pain! That¡¯s why he charges such a low price. He wants to help us relieve our bitterness!¡±

    Meanwhile, not far away, another statue spoke in a piercing voice.

    ¡°You bunch of idiots! You¡¯ve been scammed into poverty by that brat Saintlowe, yet you insist on kissing his stinky feet! While Saintlowe bathes in wealth, you lot are like obedient children!¡±

    The statue that was speaking was very thin and held a precious bottle in his hands. His face was ck and had six eyes, all of which glittered with scorn. That was especially true when he said ¡®obedient children.¡¯ The statues listening to him bristled with anger at the sarcastic insult. The six-eyed statue actually seemed pleased at how angry everyone was getting. [1]

    ¡°What was that, you obedient little children? Say it again, grandpa couldn¡¯t hear you, you bunch of brainless Little Spriteys.¡±

    That got everyone even angrier. Although none of them understood what ¡®Little Spritey¡¯ meant, they could tell it was some sort of insult.

    Meanwhile, some of Grandmaster Pill Nine''s most ardent followers and supporters started gathering around the six-eyed statue, forming something almost like a home base. They had found their pir upon which to rely.

    When the burly neighbor saw that, his eyes gleamed with admiration. He recognized the six-eyed statue as someone who had frequentlye to Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s temple. However, he had never spoken to him. Never could he have guessed that the statue would be able to speak in such an incisive manner. Seeing that this six-eyed statue was a kindred spirit, he resolved to make friends with him.

    Right at that moment, the entire Moonrebel Congregation suddenly trembled. The mountain shook and the temples vibrated as a shocking pressure descended from above.

    All of the arguments ceased as everyone looked up.

    1. We learned the identity of the six-eyed statue in <u>chapter 585</u>. ?

 Chapter 611: That Guy Looks Kind of Like Erniu

    <h4>Chapter 611: That Guy Looks Kind of Like Erniu</h4>

    In the dome of heaven over the Moonrebel Congregation were nine majestic temples. One of them was now radiating the most dazzling of lights. Then, a tall, god-like figure emerged from it, pulsing with incredible glory. He was 3,000 meters tall, golden, with three heads and six arms. Within each arm he held a mountain of a different color, and behind him were numerousyers of shimmering projections. He shone with radiance like the sun, and clearly surpassed anything from the mortal world. His arrival shook the huge mountain below, sending the clouds scattering. And he emanated a mountain-toppling, sea-draining pressure that reached every corner of the Moonrebel Congregation. Everyone who felt that pressure shivered, bowed their heads, and sped hands toward the canopy of heaven.

    ¡°Fourth Vice-Bishop!¡±

    The nine paramount temples in the air above the Moonrebel Congregation were the highest existences in the congregation. Although only five of them were upied, with four awaiting sessors, those fivemanded the ultimate authority in the Moonrebel Congregation. They were the ones in charge.

    In recent years, the leadership of those five vice-bishops had led to the Moonrebel Congregation growing stronger, and constantly participating in secret resistance operations. Their true identities were secret, and they normally only made appearances to announce very important matters. Therefore, all of the statues below were very curious why Fourth Vice-Bishop hade, and were now waiting to see what announcement would be made.

    Sitting down cross-legged, the 3,000-meter-tall statue spoke in a booming voice that echoed into the hearts and minds of everyone present. ¡°I have note here today to make any sort of announcement. Rather, Grandmaster Saintlowe invited me to attend the medicinal pill release ceremony. Carry on,dies and gentlemen.¡±

    Those words led to an even greatermotion among the statues in the Moonrebel Congregation. Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s supporters got even more excited, while the supporters of Pill Nine felt their hearts starting to pound.

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe is so famous and respected that Fourth Vice-Bishop personally came to attend!¡±

    ¡°Given all the people Grandmaster Saintlowe has shown grace toward over the years, and all the cultivators he¡¯s saved, he¡¯s definitely the only one who qualifies to invite a vice-bishop to attend!¡±

    Conversation swelled in the Moonrebel Congregation, almost exclusively among those who supported Saintlowe. Those who supported Pill Nine remained silent. Even the burly neighbor and the six-eyed statue were shaken.

    Meanwhile, at a location about halfway up the mountain of the Moonrebel Congregation, at a temple of pure jade that was surrounded by countless statues, the door slowly opened, allowing scintiting light to shine out along with the sound of ringing bells. The cauldron in front of the temple suddenly red to life with burning incense, its smoke drifting up into the air.

    A statue walked out. It resembled an angry vajra warrior with auspicious clouds beneath his feet. He had a third eye in the middle of his forehead, which emanated a glow that could capture souls. Above his head floated a rotating pill furnace, and he was surrounded by a medicinal aroma.

    The moment that statue walked out, all of the other statues that had been waiting nearby broke out into excited cheering.

    ¡°It¡¯s Grandmaster Saintlowe! I can¡¯t believe the grandmaster is so punctual!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just Grandmaster Saintlowe! Strict self-discipline is part of his personality. It always has been!¡±

    As highly reverential talk like that spread, Grandmaster Saintlowe strode out of his temple and up into the air. All eyes in the Moonrebel Congregation were on him, and countless people bowed in greeting.

    ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster!¡±

    As Grandmaster Saintlowe hovered in the air receiving all the adoration, he looked around feeling very pleased.

    Nodding slightly, he said, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen. Fellow Daoists. Sorry to keep you waiting.¡± Turning to Fourth Vice-Bishop, he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Fourth Vice-Bishop, many thanks to you foring to attend the release of my new little pill.¡±

    The vice-bishop smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve been eagerly awaiting your new pill for some time, Grandmaster.¡±

    Saintlowe smiled in response, and was about to continue speaking when, at the base of the mountain, the door of a temple opened and a statue walked out of an old man with a bottle gourd on his back. It was none other than Xu Qing. There was no dazzling light that apanied his arrival, nor did the incense in the cauldron re to life. In fact, not many people even noticed his arrival.

    However, his followers noticed the moment he arrived. They instantly got very excited.

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine!¡±

    ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster!¡±

    The burly neighbor rushed over excitedly. ¡°You¡¯re finally here, Grandmaster!¡±

    The six-eyed statue followed close behind him, all six of his eyes brimming with tears of excitement. Looking extremely excited, the six-eyed statue said, ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine, your virtue reaches the highest heavens! Your pills can conquer ten oceans, forge a hundred worlds,st a thousand autumns, and survive ten thousand generations!¡±

    The six-eyed statue¡¯s words were very impressive, and surpassed anything that anyone else was saying. As a result, the other followers all started saying simr things.

    As their voices spread, the cultivators who had been paying attention to Grandmaster Saintlowe turned their heads.

    ¡°That¡¯s the ¡®Pill Nine¡¯ alchemist?¡±

    ¡°He seems pretty ordinary to me. Not very impressive.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m very interested to see what kind of pill he releases. If he¡¯s really just showboating, then it¡¯ll prove that all those cheap painquelling lozenges he sold are defective in some way!¡±

    As all the statues looked at him, Xu Qing looked back in surprise.

    Because he had been so focused on recovery, he hadn¡¯t been back to the Moonrebel Congregation recently, and had no idea that Saintlowe had also announced he would release a pill on the same day. That said, he didn¡¯t care. Looking at the vice-bishop high in the dome of heaven, he sped hands and bowed.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop looked down at Xu Qing. This was his first timeying eyes on the alchemist that had sparked so much excitement and debate recently. He gave Xu Qing a nod, but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing looked away from the vice-bishop and scanned the crowd of statues around his temple. He had no intention of leaving his temple, as he was currently wrapped up in thoughts about the golden crow. His n was just to take out the new medicinal pills and put them in the sphere of light like before. Then people could inspect them as they saw fit.

    However, before he could take out his pill, the followers of Grandmaster Saintlowe started making derisivements.

    ¡°So, you really decided to show your face, Pill Nine? We didn¡¯t think you would dare toe.¡±

    ¡°How could you think that? Pill Nine is a grandmaster! There¡¯s no way he would miss an opportunity to bask in the dazzling glory of others.¡±

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe is the one truly working toward great aspirations. He doesn¡¯t care about fame or fortune. Nor would he stoop to bickering with others. It¡¯s honestly a shock that this Pill Nine would pick the very same day as Grandmaster Saintlowe to release a new pill. Even a random passerby could see how narrow-minded he is.¡±

    Their words were quite vicious and offensive.

    Xu Qing looked up and took note of what all of those statues looked like.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s followers were starting to get angry.

    ¡°That¡¯splete nonsense!¡± the burly neighbor said loudly.

    Speaking in a piercing voice, the six-eyed statue said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us how much dirty money you took from Saintlowe to distort the truth like that? You must have plenty of spirit stones to spare now. Mind giving me some?¡±

    Both sides were saying some very biting things. Although Pill Nine obviously didn¡¯t have as many supporters as Saintlowe, the six-eyed statue alone seemed capable of standing against a thousand enemies. His every single word was very crafty, and his arguments were very persuasive. In fact, he had already made a deep impression on the crowds of statues who were watching the interchange.

    Xu Qing was actually a little irritated by all themotion. He wasn¡¯t interested in wasting time on pointless debates. Therefore, he turned around with the intention of returning to the Green Spirit Pharmacy and continuing his work with the golden crow.

    However, before he could do that, Grandmaster Saintlowe calmly said, ¡°Pipe down!¡±

    The supporters of both grandmasters all went silent. Then Saintlowe turned his attention to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Pill Nine,¡± he said coolly, ¡°you have walked down the wrong path!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and turned around to look at Grandmaster Saintlowe. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    In the resulting silence, all eyes were focused on Xu Qing and Saintlowe. That included Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    Grandmaster Saintlowe shook his head. ¡°Someone brought one of your pills to me. At first, I was very pleased with what I saw. But in the end, I was disappointed. You think you¡¯re pretty clever. Your pill uses the flesh of the white wind as an attractant. But it¡¯s all a sham. A charade. People experimented with that method seven thousand years ago and realized it¡¯s extremely harmful. Everyone who consumed pills like that ended up dying violently a few yearster! You clearly have bad intentions, Pill Nine!¡±

    Quite a few gasps could be heard during Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s speech. That was especially true among cultivators who had consumed Xu Qing¡¯s medicinal pills. All of them were visibly shaken.

    Xu Qing looked at Saintlowe, then turned his attention to the burly neighbor. He beckoned him over.

    The burly neighbor was also starting to feel a bit suspicious thanks to Saintlowe¡¯s usations, but he hurried over nheless.

    ¡°What happened over the past few days?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The burly neighbor was a bit nervous but he offered a very detailed exnation. After it was over, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light. At the same time, Ling¡¯er¡¯s charming voice echoed in his mind.

    <i>¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, they¡¯ve obviously taken advantage of us during the time we¡¯ve been away. This is some really ridiculous nder! They¡¯re saying we have bad intentions? It seems to me that they¡¯re the ones with the bad intentions!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless, but his eyes were cold. As of this moment, he had abandoned his n to go back to the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Walking out of his temple, he floated up into the air.

    His followers were clearly less confident than before, but they still stuck close to him. The burly neighbor remained on his left side, while a statue with six eyes rushed out to join him on the right.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked left and right, taking special note of the six-eyed statue. The statue¡¯s gaze seemed familiar. It was the same way the Captain looked at the Heir Apparent. As Xu Qing spected what that could mean, Ling¡¯er spoke again into his mind.

    <i>¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, this guy¡¯s eyes seem familiar. He kind of reminds me of Elder Brother Erniu!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Pretending not to recognize the six-eyed statue, he continued upward until he was hovering right in front of Grandmaster Saintlowe.

    ¡°Want to have a little contest?¡± he asked calmly.

 Chapter 612: A Pill Star Rises in Moonrite

    <h4>Chapter 612: A Pill Star Rises in Moonrite</h4>

    There was no cheering or surge of support from the tens of thousands of statues when Xu Qing walked out into the open. However, his words smashed into the Moonrebel Congregation like a hurricane. All of the statues were watching closely to see what would happen next.

    Grandmaster Saintlowe looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°I don¡¯t need any sort of contest. But I don¡¯t mind tutoring you a bit. I just hope that, after today, you¡¯ll understand deep in your heart that you should avoid crooked practices and corrupt methods!¡±

    Not bothering to look at Xu Qing, Grandmaster Saintlowe lifted his right hand. The pill furnace hovering over his head then floated down into his hand. Next, it was with a flourish that he sent the medicinal pill inside of the furnace flying out into the open. It looked crystalline, and as it hovered in the air rotating, it let off streams of gauzy light that circled around it. It looked spectacrly beautiful, especially the crystalline exterior, which made the pill seem like a gemstone. Just barely visible within it were swirling medicinal vapors, as if the pill itself contained an immortal paradise.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s skill in the dao of alchemy, it only took one nce for him to determine that this medicinal pill was extraordinary. It also gave him a good idea of Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s dao of alchemy.

    <i>He really is something of a genius,</i> he thought.

    Meanwhile, when the crowd saw the medicinal pill, they started crying out loudly.

    ¡°Now <i>that¡¯s</i> a medicinal pill! It¡¯s clearly some kind of pill treasure!

    ¡°I never imagined that Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s skill in the dao of alchemy would advance yet another step!¡±

    Anyone would be shocked when judging the pill by appearance alone. In fact, one of Saintlowe¡¯s followers stepped forth, eyes shining with reverence.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, Fellow Daoists!¡± he said loudly. ¡°As you¡¯re all aware, high-grade pills need to be perfect. The purer they are, the more precious they are. And when a pill reaches a certain exquisite level, Revered Ancient¡¯s heavenly daos will bless it with splendid light. As for Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s new pill, it has already attracted that splendid light!¡±

    As the crowd erupted with even louder exmations and cheers, countless longing gazes locked onto the pill.

    Xu Qing¡¯s followers were now really starting to lose confidence, and were exchanging awkward nces. Before, their faith in Grandmaster Pill Nine had been very strong. But after Saintlowe mentioned people dying because of the white wind, they started to get nervous. Then a pill appeared that seemed to be nothing short of a treasure, and all of a sudden, their confidence in Pill Nine was so shaken that they were starting to doubt him.

    As the crowd continued to cheer, Fourth Vice-Bishop nodded approvingly.

    ¡°That¡¯s truly a treasured pill. Grandmaster Saintlowe, can you mass-produce this pill?¡±

    Saintlowe smiled in response to the vice-bishops praise. sping hands and bowing, he said, ¡°Fourth Vice-Bishop, of course the pill can be mass-produced.¡±

    ¡°What benevolence!¡± the vice-bishop said with a smile.

    Feeling extremely pleased with himself, Grandmaster Saintlowe turned to the expressionless Xu Qing. ¡°This is the first lesson for this tutoring session. Remember, we pill cultivators pursue the dao of medicine because we¡¯re fully devoted to it. Abandon your clever tricks. Stow away your unrighteous desires. If you don¡¯t, then your heart won¡¯t contain a scrap of light. Concocting pills should never be about personal glory!¡±

    Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s tone was one of rebuke. When everyone heard his words, they turned to look at Xu Qing, some of them shaking their heads, some of them looking derisive, some of them sighing, and some of them even angry.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. Instead, he just took out his cursequelling lozenge. With the wave of his hand, he sent it floating out in front of him. The pill was pitch ck and didn¡¯t look special at all. In fact, it immediately provokedughter and criticism.

    ¡°Is that a medicinal pill or a clump of dirt?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡±

    As the mockingughter spread, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. Instantly, popping sounds rang out from the medicinal pill as cracks appeared on its surface.

    Next, the outer ckyer fell off, whereupon splendid light erupted that could topple mountains and drain seas. The mighty glow seemed to have no end; it was like the light of dawn, filling the world with hope. Every beam of light was like a rainbow, dazzling and beautiful. The dome of heaven was illuminated, and the sky filled with auspicious sights. It spread out over thends, filling them with propitious tidings. From a distance, it was as if that medicinal pill was the center of a vast sea of light that spread out resplendently.

    The cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation were stunned down to thest one. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that the two pills hovering in midair were vastly different from each other.

    Although Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s pill shone with splendid light, the lighting from Xu Qing¡¯s medicinal pill was so superior that it drowned the other pill out. Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s pill was dim inparison, to the point where its existence seemed meaningless.

    Loud gasps rang out left and right, and after a moment, exmations of shock began to ring out.

    ¡°A blessing of boundless splendid light from a heavenly dao?¡±

    ¡°That sort of splendid light... isn¡¯t that what Grandmaster Saintlowe always says you¡¯ll see with the highest quality pill?¡±

    ¡°There really is a pill like that? If I remember correctly, only a pill that contains destiny aura, plus the converged hope of all living beings, could possibly be blessed by a heavenly dao with such splendid light!¡±

    As expressions of incredulity rang out from the crowd, Grandmaster Saintlowe stood there staring nkly at Xu Qing¡¯s medicinal pill. His eyes shone with disbelief, and he opened his mouth to speak, except he couldn¡¯t think of what to say.

    Up above, the 3,000-meter-tall god-like Fourth Vice-Bishop rose to his feet and looked down at the pill. He was visibly moved, and he was even breathing heavily.

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine, is this pill... the cursequelling lozenge?¡±

    It was the first time he had ever spoken to Xu Qing, and he even used the title ¡®grandmaster¡¯ when he did. That was very significant.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Most excited of all were Xu Qing¡¯s followers. Whether it was the burly neighbor or the six-eyed statue, all of them were bursting with enthusiasm. Before, their confidence had been shaken, and they even started to doubt. But now, all of that was reced by unswerving determination and exhration.

    That was especially true of the six-eyed statue, who loudly proimed, ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine, your virtue reaches the highest heavens! Your pills can conquer ten oceans, forge a hundred worlds,st a thousand autumns, and survive ten thousand generations!¡±

    In response to his words, Xu Qing¡¯s other followers excitedly started calling out the same thing.

    Seeing that, Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s followers offered retorts, although they seemed a bit less confident than before.

    ¡°The outside of a medicinal pill isn¡¯t that important! After all, you¡¯re supposed to consume them. The medicinal effect is the most important aspect!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s painquelling lozenge is twice as effective as the old version, and it has fewer side-effects. It¡¯s truly a virtuous pill that can help quell the pain we suffer from the curse!¡±

    As their words reverberated in the Moonrebel Congregation, Grandmaster Saintlowe took a deep breath to ovee his astonishment. Looking at Xu Qing with aplicated expression, he said, ¡°My painquelling lozenge will reduce the pain of the curse for a full sixty-year-cycle!¡±

    With that, he stared at Xu Qing as surely as if he were a deadly archenemy.

    When the crowd heard that, the crowd seemed to gain their senses after having been stunned by the splendid light from Xu Qing¡¯s pill. After all, it was true that medicinal pills were supposed to be consumed. After hearing Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s exnation of his pill, their eyes started shining.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care at all how Saintlowe was looking at him. Focusing on his cursequelling lozenge, he calmly said, ¡°My pill will permanently reduce the curse by ten percent.¡±

    Although he didn¡¯t speak very loudly, his words had the same effect as a p of thunder. Everyone in the Moonrebel Congregation felt like they were being struck to the heart.

    Instantly, the entire Moonrebel Congregation went silent. Everyone waspletely stunned. Granted, the name of the pill itself made it easy to guess what it did. But the wordsing out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth were almostpletely outrageous. Some people even questioned if they had even heard correctly.

    Grandmaster Saintlowe¡¯s pupils constricted, and he suddenly turned to look closer at Xu Qing¡¯s pill. His heart was currently being assailed by huge waves of shock. However, his years of experience allowed him to quickly gather his thoughts.

    ¡°Impossible! The only way it could do that is if it has massive side effects. For example, whoever consumes it will die violently a few dayster!¡±

    Xu Qing kept his gaze locked on Saintlowe as he calmly responded, ¡°It has no side-effects.¡±

    Everyone was yet again shaken to the core. Saintlowe shivered. And yet, his eyes remained extremely suspicious as he stared at Xu Qing.

    ¡°That¡¯splete nonsense! Who are you, the red moon godchild? Except not even the godchild could do that! Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re a god or something? What a joke!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s test it out,¡± Xu Qing said, remaining just as calm as before. He looked out at the crowd. ¡°Who wants to volunteer?¡±

    As the crowd hesitated, Grandmaster Saintloweughed coldly. ¡°If you consume that pill, you¡¯ll definitely face hidden cmities!¡±

    The crowd hesitated even more. Not even the burly neighbor seemed willing to step forward. But then, a piercing voice echoed out in all directions.

    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll give it a try!¡± Everyone looked over to see a six-eyed statue proudly walking out of the crowd. Approaching Xu Qing, he sped hands and bowed deeply. ¡°All of you are hesitant about the grandmaster¡¯s medicinal pill. Clearly, youck piety. But not me! I have full confidence in the grandmaster. I¡¯ll try this pill!¡±

    Xu Qing felt a bit strange as he looked at the Captain, but he didn¡¯t say anything.

    As all eyes focused on the Captain, the burly neighbor suddenly rushed forward.

    ¡°Grandmaster!¡± he cried. ¡°Allow me to try the pill!! Sir, I¡¯m the one who heard your dao reverberations for two months. That proves we have a predestined affinity! After that, I bought your very first medicinal pill. Since I was the first to try your pill, let¡¯s continue the tradition! Please, Grandmaster, allow me to be the one!¡±

    The burly neighbor¡¯s eyes glittered brightly as he looked at Xu Qing with a pious expression.

    The six-eyed cultivator was obviously not very happy.

    Xu Qing mulled it over, then waved his hand, sending the medicinal pill shooting toward the burly cultivator. The Captain had too many random things inside him, and Xu Qing was worried there could be some sort of negative reaction.

    The burly cultivator caught the pill. Taking a deep breath, and eyes shining with determination, he put the pill in his mouth as everyone looked on, including Grandmaster Saintlowe and Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    The vice-bishop then made a grasping gesture, causing the burly neighbor to fly up to him. There, Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s power enveloped him, not only to bless him, but also to make sure everyone could see clearly.

    The burly man first shivered. Then sweat broke out on his forehead. His expression became one of pain. Then he began to shine with splendid light as ck fluid oozed out of his statue''s exterior. As the noxious, rotting smell of the fluid spread, a tremor passed through the burly man. Then his eyes opened, and they gleamed with incredulity and astonishment.

    ¡°My curse...¡± he murmured. ¡°It¡¯s been reduced by ten percent!¡±

    His words rang in the ears of the gathered crowds in the Moonrebel Congregation. Crazed looks appeared in the eyes of many, and yet, some were still suspicious and looked at Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    The vice-bishop closed his eyes. Everyone waited anxiously. Then he opened his eyes and slowly descended from above until he was right in front of Xu Qing. He looked at Xu Qing for a long moment. Then, despite his extremely honored position, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°You are the epitome of benevolence and morality, Grandmaster. There is no end to your virtuous achievements!¡±

    His words struck down like a lightning bolt.

    Every statue in the Moonrebel Congregation was shaken to the core, and all of their suspicions vanished, to be reced by fervent ardor. Boundless anticipation and excitement filled their hearts, which then transformed into innumerable cheers that shook the Moonrebel Congregation.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing had be like the brightest star in the sky.

 Chapter 613: You and I Are On the Same Path

    <h4>Chapter 613: You and I Are On the Same Path</h4>

    Now just a member of the crowd, the dazed Grandmaster Saintlowe heard the cheering of the crowd and wasn¡¯t sure how to react.

    ¡°It can really... reduce the curse?¡± he murmured. He didn¡¯t want to believe it. Even now, after Fourth Vice-Bishop had personally confirmed it, he just didn¡¯t think it could be real. From ancient times until now, no one had ever done this.

    It had been difficult enough for him to improve the painquelling lozenge. He had worked harder on that project than anything in his life, and had read countless ancient records about the curse. And he understood the curse better than just about anyone. As a result, he knew that permanently reducing the curse was nothing short of a miracle! Saintlowe¡¯s mind and heart were reeling, and his eyes were bloodshot.

    Some distance away, Xu Qing looked at him, then waved his hand, sending a cursequelling lozenge toward him. Eyes widening, Saintlowe caught the pill and looked at Xu Qing.

    Everyone was watching, and everyone had their own opinion of what was happening. As for the ardent followers of Grandmaster Saintlowe, they felt bitterness deep in their heart, as they prepared to have countless humiliating words directed at them.

    Except, Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything like that.

    Looking calmly at Saintlowe, he said, ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe, you and I are both cultivators who pursue the dao of alchemy. Because of that, we both know more than anyone else what all alchemists in the Moonrite Region dream of.

    ¡°While other people are working on cultivation, we¡¯re researching the curse. While other people are enjoying themselves, we¡¯re studying old books. The reason is that we want to get rid of that curse. And even if we can¡¯t, we record our research and leave it for the next generation. To give them hope. That is the mission of alchemy cultivators in the Moonrite Region.¡±

    There was no sarcasm in Xu Qing¡¯s words. He understood Grandmaster Saintlowe.

    Shivering, Saintlowe looked at Xu Qing and opened his mouth as if to speak. No words came out. Many emotions had flitted through him on this day. At first, he had been proud and arrogant. Next he was shaken. And finally, he was filled with intense doubt and defiance. Now... all of those emotions clumped together into something veryplicated. And that was because Xu Qing''s words had struck home. Although he did like fame and recognition, behind that, there was a personal dream.

    ¡°Grandmaster Saintlowe, consider that pill a gift from me,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°I can¡¯t figure out how to get rid of the curse on my own. So let¡¯s do it together....¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed at the waist.

    Saintlowe could sense Xu Qing¡¯s sincerity, and it only made the feelings within him moreplex. He was confused, and more than that, ashamed. All of his followers looked simrly filled with mixed emotions.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop looked at Xu Qing, his eyes gleaming with respect. He could tell that this Grandmaster Pill Nine was being sincere, and was speaking the truth from his heart.

    Saintlowe took a deep breath. Looking very solemn, he approached Xu Qing, then sped his hands together and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine, just now I... ai.¡± Shaking his head, he bowed again.

    Xu Qing nodded. Without another word, he went back into his temple. The reality was that Xu Qing didn¡¯t like dramatic situations like this. If Saintlowe hadn¡¯t openly provoked him, he would never have taken the spotlight. In the blink of an eye, he was inside his temple and out of sight. Taking out ten cursequelling lozenges, he put them in the sphere of light. Then, just before leaving, he distributed a cursequelling lozenge to each of his followers.

    His departure did not reduce the excitement in the hearts of the members of the Moonrebel Congregation. It was really true that, in the entire history of the Moonrite Region, no one had ever been able to reduce the curse. And Pill Nine¡¯s final words to Grandmaster Saintlowe established a pattern that left a deep impression on everyone.

    Before long, the members of the Moonrebel Congregation were respectfully filing through Xu Qing¡¯s temple to examine the cursequelling lozenges and see how much they cost. The asking price... left everyone feeling even more deeply respectful. It was basically the same price as his old painquelling lozenge. All he wanted were some medicinal nts and research information.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s a grandmaster...¡± someone said, and those words were echoed in the hearts of all the cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    From that moment on, the name ¡®Pill Nine¡¯ became embedded deeply in the hearts of everyone in the Moonrebel Congregation. It was easy to imagine how many more people would want to consume whatever new pills he concocted in the future. The impression he had made seeped down into the soul.

    Xu Qing had an idea of all that, but didn¡¯t care very much. Back in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he returned his focus to the golden crow research. He really wanted to know what an imperial-ss technique was on a substructural level. And he wanted to know how to dig deeper into the truth of the golden crow.

    He still wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to pursue that understanding. And the process wasn¡¯t going very smoothly. However, he had the feeling that, as he did further research, and as he provoked further transformations in the golden crow, he would be able to survive longer in the pearl. At first, he died instantly. But by the seventh time, he couldst for six breaths of time.

    <i>Unfortunately... I only have two shots left.</i>

    A few dayster at dawn, as he sat cross-legged in the back room, he opened his eyes. As blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth, he consumed a medicinal pill and tried not to feelpletely frustrated.

    It wasn¡¯t very often that he felt like this. But the repeated failures, and the fact that he only had two chances left, resulted in him feeling extremely exasperated. After all, the tenth attempt... would be when he lost the golden crow forever. He could sense the revulsion and greed in Guru ckeyes getting more intense.

    <i>If I can¡¯t make this work, I might just have to stop at the ninth attempt</i>. Taking a deep breath, he walked out of the back room and into the main floor of the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    He needed to clear his head.

    When he stepped out, he saw Ling¡¯er working on ounting. It seemed like there was never any end to the bookwork Ling¡¯er needed to do. Xu Qing had long sincee to realize that Ling¡¯er enjoyed ounting more than just about anything else.

    Ning Yan was scrubbing the floor. Li Youfei was organizing the medicinal pills on the shelves. The Captain was standing guard. And Wu Jianwu was standing next to the Heir Apparent, reciting some poetry.

    <i>¡°Grandpa¡¯s eyes glitter aesthetically; thedies cluster around him protectively!¡±</i>

    The Heir Apparent took a sip of tea and smiled at Wu Jianwu.

    Wu Jianwu bowed at the waist, a ttering expression on his face. As he straightened up, he cast a lofty nce at the Captain and Nethersprite. He had finally found a way to curry favor with the Heir Apparent. Every morning at the start of the day he would recite a poem for ¡®grandpa.¡¯ Day after day of such hard work really seemed to be having an effect. With that aplished, he hurried to his spot outside the door and started reciting poems into the wind.

    Xu Qing was used to the daily routine in the medicine shop. Nodding at Ling¡¯er, he sat down next to the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Any progress?¡± the Heir Apparent asked. The parrot sat on his shoulder, looking arrogantly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Senior, what exactly is an imperial-ss technique?¡±

    Xu Qing had been pondering that question for a while now, but this was the first time he¡¯d asked the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent didn¡¯t respond immediately. Instead, he shifted his gaze to Chen Erniu. Xu Qing did the same.

    The Captain with his sword didn¡¯t notice Xu Qing and the Heir Apparent looking at him. He was currently looking at Wu Jianwu and thinking, <i>What an obedient little child</i>. That said, the Captain wasn¡¯t inclined to argue with Wu Jianwu about his behavior, so he turned his attention to Nethersprite.

    ¡°You boil water every day!¡± he said. ¡°Haven¡¯t you learned a thing? Why are you so slow? Don¡¯t you realize you can blow on the fire??¡±

    Nethersprite shivered. She was reaching her limit of tolerance with Chen Erniu, and was about to snap.

    However, with the Heir Apparent around, all she could do was grit her teeth and daydream about chopping Chen Erniu into tiny little pieces.

    <i>One of these days I¡¯m going to rip him in two! I¡¯ll boil one half and turn the other half into meat pills! I¡¯ll chew and chew as he screams. And when the water is boiled, I¡¯ll have some lovely soup to sip.</i>

    Those were the thoughts that ran through Nethersprite¡¯s mind on a daily basis, and they gave her at least a bit of innerfort.

    The Captain snorted. ¡°What are you shaking for? You¡¯re always shaking, every single day. Didn¡¯t you notice that the water is boiling already? Hurry up and give grandpa his tea! And why are you always walking around swishing your big booty back and forth? Who are you trying to seduce? Doesn¡¯t it get annoying? And let¡¯s not talk about how you eat more than everyone else!¡±

    All of a sudden, Nethersprite stood up, her eyes zing and her cultivation base pulsing. ring at Ning Yan, who was scrubbing the floor right in front of her, she snapped, ¡°Get out of my way!¡±

    Forcing herself under control, she carried the kettle over to the Heir Apparent and started another cup of tea for him. Then she stood off to the side.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said, pushing the cup of boiling tea in front of Xu Qing and pointing at it. ¡°Tell me, what is water? And why does it get hot? What are tea leaves? Why does the water change color when you pour it onto the tea leaves? Why does it taste different?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened as he looked at the cup of tea in front of him. ¡°It¡¯s because¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not the point,¡± the Heir Apparent interrupted. He held out his hand toward Sprouty, who was on the table next to him.

    Sprouty swayed back and forth obediently until a tiny leaflet fell down. The Heir Apparent put the leaflet into the tea. It floated on the surface.

    ¡°Understand now?¡±

    Xu Qing sat in thought quietly, his eyes closed.

    Ning Yan had stopped scrubbing and was standing there looking introspective. He knew that advice from a Smoldering God was a rare thing, and he didn¡¯t want to miss out. It was the same with the Captain, who also looked thoughtful. Li Youfei was simrly paying close attention.

    After a long moment, a tremor passed through Xu Qing. Eyes opening, he looked at the leaflet in the tea for a moment. Then he stood up.

    ¡°I understand, Senior!¡± Struggling to control his breathing, he bowed. He knew where he had been going wrong, and also knew what to do about it. Turning, he returned to the back room.

    The Heir Apparent smiled and nodded slightly. He was impressed with Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding.

    The Captain sighed in a way that seemed to say he understood everything that just happened. Ning Yan blinked a few times and looked simrly enlightened. In contrast, the parrot seemed confused as he looked at the tea, then the leaflet. Finally, he looked around at everyone else.

    ¡°Grandpa,¡± he said quietly, ¡°I don¡¯t get it. What do they understand that I don¡¯t...?¡±

    The Heir Apparent lifted the cup and took a sip. ¡°I was exining coexistence. When the tea leaves and the waterbine, they make something better. And when Sprouty¡¯s leaflet dropped into the water, it was about loss and eptance.¡±

    The parrot got it. Ning Yan nodded. The Captain seemed deeply understanding.

    In the back room, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed as he sat down cross-legged. As the solution rocked his mind, he contemted what he had learned.

    <i>When the tea leaves and the waterbine, it¡¯s like the consolidation of a great dao. However, everybody can return to their original state. All living beings have an original essence. Therefore, the Heir Apparent was pointing out that, in reality, everything can be separated.</i>

    <i>Sprouty¡¯s leaflet is the same. Even after falling down, that leaflet is still part of Sprouty¡¯s essence. In other words... he was telling me that they¡¯re still a unified whole!</i>

    <i>He wants me to deepen my research. To magnify it. Then break down the golden crow into all its parts. To peel it down. Find the golden crow¡¯s essence! I understand now. That¡¯s the essence of an imperial-ss technique. It¡¯s substructure! I was focusing on the wrong thing. I shouldn¡¯t be observing things from the outside. And the same goes for instigating transformations. Instead, I should focus on the inside! On the finer details!</i>

    Moved, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the main sales floor, and his respect for the Heir Apparent grew even deeper.

    Meanwhile, as the Heir Apparent lifted his tea cup again, he could sense that something was happening in the back room.

    <i>Hold on, what did he gain enlightenment of?</i>

 Chapter 614: The Secret of Imperial-Class Techniques!

    <h4>Chapter 614: The Secret of Imperial-ss Techniques!</h4>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. Eyes shining, he sat cross-legged and immersed his thoughts in the golden crow. This time, he didn¡¯t focus on transforming the golden crow. Nor did he concern himself with the golden crow¡¯s history or sun memories. He peeled away all such thoughts. Everything else faded away from his senses, until the only thing he perceived was the golden crow, glimmering brightly. The ck body and resplendent mes became the only thing of concern to Xu Qing.

    <i>If I¡¯m being truly thorough, then I might as well ignore the mes. They¡¯re essentially illusory and meaningless!</i>

    As those thoughts took hold in Xu Qing, he could sense the exterior mes surrounding the golden crow dimming until they were gone. When the mes winked out, Xu Qing shivered. He had never done anything like this with the golden crow. As pain wracked his body, the damage being inflicted on the golden crow affected the associated nascent soul.

    In the past, Xu Qing would never have proceeded past this point. He could sense that he was in extreme danger. But with the advice from the Heir Apparent, he suppressed the ufortable feelings and focused on the ck-colored golden crow, which now really looked like an ordinary crow.

    It looked at Xu Qing, trembling.

    Xu Qing looked back, frowning. As far as he was concerned, for the golden crow to look like this was a bit superfluous. He sent out a thought, and the golden crow trembled as its feathers started vanishing, leaving behind a featherless body.

    The bacsh for doing that was even more evident. Xu Qing struggled to breathe, but reminded himself that he was going in the right direction. Gritting his teeth, he squashed all extraneous thoughts in his heart.

    Next, a boom rang out as the golden crow exploded. Countless bits of flesh and blood sttered everywhere. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, and yet his consciousness remained as firm as ever as the gore enveloped him.

    What was more, he was now able to sense countless colorful threads within the flesh and blood, like a tangled skein that intertwined with everything. Every one of those threads contained spirit fluctuations of intelligence. Within himself, Xu Qing could sense his nascent souls, the mes of the Heavenfire Sea, and the souls of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of lifeforms. That was the umtion of everything the golden crow had ever devoured.

    ¡°That¡¯s thebination of the tea leaves and water!¡± he murmured. ¡°Now I just have to filter out everything from inside!¡±

    He sent his thoughts out again, and the flesh and blood shrank down rapidly. Countless threads were separated, which piled up on the side. As it yed out, the golden crow howled in anguish.

    Xu Qing kept coughing up blood, but his eyes shone with determination, and he gritted his teeth and continued.

    As time passed, Xu Qing was like a person possessed. He forgot all about his surroundings, and was focused only on whittling the golden crow down. Days went by. Eventually, more than ny percent of the chaotic threads that made the golden crow were gone.

    There were actually only three left. One was ck. One was red. One was violet!

    <i>The tea leaves and water are almostpletely filtered!</i>

    Xu Qing could sense that the violet represented his own nascent soul, the red represented the mes, and the ck was the golden crow¡¯s life essence. Those things formed the substructure of the imperial-ss technique.

    <i>The Heir Apparent was telling me that, even though the leaflet went its own way, its essence remained the same. It was still part of the whole. Therefore, despite having been separated, it could still be returned to normal.</i>

    Although it was a suggestion from the Heir Apparent, it was through the actions of separating the parts of the golden crow that Xu Qing came to experience it for himself. Threads that he had separated out hadn¡¯t disappeared; they were still there. They were connected to him in myriad ways, and therefore, all it took was a thought to get them to fly back to where they came from. This again went to confirm how realistic the Heir Apparent¡¯s advice was.

    <i>I guess I should start with separating out the fire!</i>

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth, converged his divine sense, and then slowly began peeling away the red thread. It was immeasurably painful, causing him to tremble from head to toe. But he didn¡¯t give up.

    Days passed. Given how focused he was on his cultivation, he had no idea that, during the past seven or eight days, he had been releasing some significant fluctuations. The back room had slowly be full of violet spirit power fluctuations, which manifested as countless threads that whipped about and released cracking booms.

    He was currently soaked in blood! His clothes had been burned off, and the golden crow totem tattoo that covered him howled in grief. Every single brush stroke that made up the tattoo oozed with blood.

    However, that wasn¡¯t what was most noteworthy. Over the past few days, his aura had be dramatically outrageous. asionally, it would release terrifying fluctuations, and asionally, the life force within it would vanish. And it was just barely possible to sense the consummately terrifying power that was awakening. It was a power that seemed unpermitted by heavenly daos, and something that Revered Ancient could not tolerate.

    During the past week or so, the sky above the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the Bitter Life Mountains had transformed constantly. Winds and clouds swirled, and the sound of rumbling thunder echoed out. The living beings in the Bitter Life Mountains were stunned, and had no idea what was going on. The thunder almost sounded like iprehensible words being spoken.

    Few people could understand those words. However, the Heir Apparent could understand them. And because he could, he was increasingly astonished by Xu Qing.

    Ling¡¯er was extremely nervous. The Captain was both fearful and shocked. Ning Yan was astonished and terrified. Wu Jianwu was so stunned he wasn¡¯t sure what to do.

    The Heir Apparent... was now in the back room, seated cross-legged in front of Xu Qing, watching him closely. He had mixed emotions on his face. On numerous asions, he had lifted his right hand as he considered interrupting Xu Qing¡¯s enlightenment. But in the end, he forced himself not to.

    <i>This kid is gaining enlightenment of Revered Ancient¡¯s unbelievable, unspeakable taboo! I... I didn¡¯t say anything!</i> The Heir Apparent hesitated as he thought back to everything he had said. After a while, he breathed a sigh of relief. This was his first timeing to the realization that there was something very strange about this kid.

    The booming thunder outside reached the Heir Apparent¡¯s ears, as if the heavenly daos of Revered Ancient were giving him a very strong warning.

    <i>Every imperial-ss technique contains a sealing mark put in ce by one of Revered Ancient¡¯s heavenly daos.... Except, I was clearly giving him some advice regarding coexistence and abandonment....</i>

    The Heir Apparent sighed, then waved his hand to seal the aura from Xu Qing and act as dharma protector for him.

    Xu Qing was still immersed in his own senses, and was working hard. At a certain point, he finally managed to peel off that red thread. As of now, the golden crow didn¡¯t look anything like before. There were only two threads left, one ck, one violet.

    <i>Next is my violet one.</i>

    Without the slightest hesitation, he started extracting his own violet thread. That process was so painful that veins bulged out all over him, and he trembled down to his soul. However, his intuition was telling him that the key to all of this was to extract that violet thread.

    <i>Get out here!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled as he worked hard for an indeterminable period of time. Eventually, the violet thread peeled off. When that happened, the only thing left of the golden crow was the ck thread!

    The thread vibrated, sending out fluctuations of extreme terror.

    <i>This....</i>

    Soul trembling, Xu Qing focused his senses and then started making that ck thread bigger. Then bigger. Then even bigger! Eventually, the ck thread was vastly bigger, almost like an entire world in Xu Qing¡¯s senses. When it was big enough, he saw it for what it really was! It wasn¡¯t just a single ck thread. It was actually made of countless ck chunks, all converged together. And between each chunk was something like a bolt of lightning.

    The lightning bolts were like ropes, piercing through the infinitude of ck chunks. That was why, after they all clumped together, they looked like a ck thread. The chunks were irregrly shaped, but if you put them together... they looked like a shocking ck spear!

    When Xu Qing sensed it, a new understanding filled his mind.

    <i>Taboo weapon!</i>

    It was a weapon that could crush heavens, shatter earths, destroy daos, and massacre gods! The sight of it sent Xu Qing¡¯s thinking into turmoil. It shook his soul. No matter what ideas he could havee up with, he never would have guessed that within the golden crow¡¯s essence was... a host of fragments of a terrifying weapon!

    <i>Do all imperial-ss techniques have a simr substructure? Is this the golden crow¡¯s essence? Does that mean that every single imperial-ss technique is, in reality, formed from the sealed fragments of a terrifying weapon? Who sealed it? A heavenly dao? And why? Also... who owns this taboo weapon?</i>

    <i>If that¡¯s the case, why do people cultivate imperial-ss techniques? Don¡¯t tell me... that imperial-ss techniques are fundamentally a method of repairing a taboo weapon? And the ultimate goal is to control such weapons?? How many secrets are wrapped up in the Revered Ancient maind?</i>

    Xu Qing shivered as his mind reeled. Gradually, he retracted his senses, and with it the violet thread, then the red thread, and then all the other threads.

    In the blink of an eye, they were all clumped together. The flesh and blood of the golden crow gradually formed again into the outline of the crow. Then its feathers appeared, and it ignited into mes.

    As heat pulsed out, Xu Qing slowly looked up. His eyes opened, and he coughed up some blood. As he gasped for breath, he realized that, at some unknown point, the Heir Apparent hade in and was sitting in front of him.

    Before Xu Qing could say anything, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°Don¡¯t say anything. And don¡¯t ask anything.¡±

    As fear lingered in Xu Qing¡¯s heart, his eyes glittered. He took some time to control his breathing, then looked around. He could sense the fluctuations that still existed, and could also sense the dramatic things happening outside. Finally, he looked at the Heir Apparent and nodded. Then he took out the pearl with Guru ckeyes in it.

    ¡°Senior, I don¡¯t need this thing anymore. I can¡¯t beat ckeyes, and I don¡¯t want him devouring my golden crow. Most importantly, I¡¯ve found my dao of the golden crow!¡±

    ¡°You really don¡¯t need it...¡± the Heir Apparent said, taking the pearl. He looked at Xu Qing with aplicated expression. He could sense the golden crow within Xu Qing, and knew that it now possessed an unprecedented sharpness that it didn¡¯t have before. And just barely, he could discern that it now looked like a spear. This was the trump card for Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow nascent soul!

    ¡°Many thanks for your advice, Senior. It helped me refine my enlightenment!¡± Xu Qing took a deep breath, struggled into a standing position, then bowed to the Heir Apparent. He was truly grateful. Without the Heir Apparent¡¯s words earlier, he would never have gained enlightenment as deep as this.

    The Heir Apparent suddenly said, ¡°Did your Master ever give you advice in this manner?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Xu Qing said with a nod, surprised and wondering why the Heir Apparent would ask something like that.

    The Heir Apparent said nothing for a moment. Then he sighed. ¡°It must not be easy being your Master.¡±

 Chapter 615: The Heir Apparentâ€™s Way Of Setting Things Up

    <h4>Chapter 615: The Heir Apparent¡¯s Way Of Setting Things Up</h4>

    The Heir Apparent sighed and left the back room. He needed some time to get used to Xu Qing¡¯s freakishly unimaginable powers of understanding.

    After Xu Qing regained his senses, the thunder in the dusky sky over the Bitter Life Mountains faded away, and the pressure disappeared. The entire thing had attracted a lot of attention in the area, and many people were specting about what was going on. But other than the people in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, no one had any idea that it was all because of Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing found out everything that happened while he was focused on enlightenment, he felt lingering fear, and at the same time, even deeper respect for the Heir Apparent.

    <i>All it took was one bit of advice and I gained all of that enlightenment. I guess Smoldering Gods are Smoldering Gods, after all....</i>

    In the following days, he focused on recovering. At the same time, he went out a few times to do some experimentation with his golden crow trump card.

    And thus, half a month went by.

    ***

    One afternoon, Xu Qing went out and found a valley a short distance away from the mudbrick city. After entering the valley, he checked it carefully to make sure it was safe. Whenever he went out to experiment with the golden crow trump card, he went to a different location.

    This new trump card was spectacrly mighty. What was more, any loss of control resulted in it raging out of control like a bucking bronco. In turn, that would cause the golden crow to grow dim. Every time it happened, the golden crow got very close to withering up and copsing. Because of that, Xu Qing observed it carefully every time he experimented with it. By locking down to a certain range, he could make sure the power was something that the golden crow could sustain.

    <i>With a few dozen more adjustments, I should get it right.</i>

    He doffed his tattered garments, leaving him wearing only a pair of undershorts. Looking down at his near-naked body, he grimaced helplessly.

    <i>It¡¯s like this every time. I have to get it under control....</i>

    Gathering his thoughts, he closed his eyes for a moment and reviewed what he had learned. Sometimeter, his eyes opened, and they shone brightly. He quickly performed a right-handed incantation gesture, whereupon a shocking aura erupted from him.

    The golden crow tattoo appeared on his back, swirling in movement. It now covered most of Xu Qing¡¯s torso. The golden crow as depicted in the totem tattoo was intelligent, and it sent out pulses of a terrifying aura. That aura became a tempest and swept in all directions, withering the ground and melting boulders for thousands of meters in all directions. A sea of mes came to exist in that area, something that the wind couldn¡¯t touch. It was as if those mes existed outside of the natural and magicalws of heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing stood in the center of the sea of mes, trembling, his attention focused as he controlled the transforming totem tattoo that represented his golden crow nascent soul. This was the method of control he had been working with. If the shape transformed externally, he couldn¡¯t control its power. But if the transformation urred on his own body, then the results were a lot better.

    As he exercised control, the totem tattoo moved about with increasing speed. Eventually, it wasn¡¯t possible to see its shape clearly. All that was visible was something that looked like a dark spear. It wasn¡¯t very easy to see any details, the moment that ck spear formed, it caused a terrifying aura to surge off Xu Qing.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t using any of the external power of the golden crow. All of it was formed by the golden crow nascent soul, and its terrifying will surpassed thebined power previously revealed by all thirteen of his nascent souls. Suffice it to say, even a dao begetting expert would be astonished by this. From that it was possible to see how immeasurably shocking the golden crow nascent soul trump card was. And that was when he only released a scrap of the power of the golden crow taboo. It was also his current limit. Thus, it was easy to imagine how much more he would be able to utilizeter on when his cultivation base improved.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he looked up and put his right hand on his chest where the shaft of the illusory ck spear was. Gripping hard, he pulled!

    A blurry ck spear slowly emerged from Xu Qing¡¯s tattoo.

    The moment it was out in the open, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Thunder rumbled. Xu Qing ignored it all. In his hand was a ck spear that looked like a dragon that could destroy the world. He began swinging it.

    The ground quaked. Boulders shattered. The valley trembled.

    The ck spear looked like a spear, but also like a golden crow. It was surrounded by mes, and what was more, at its tip there was a second gleam of sharpness. It was The Emperor¡¯s Sword! The same Emperor¡¯s Sword the golden crow had consumed! Thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s adjustments, it was now part of the trump card. [1]

    The rumbling caused ripples to spread out in all directions. Xu Qing inhaled sharply, and staggered in ce slightly. However, his mind was clear. After checking to make sure the golden crow could sustain all of this, his eyes gleamed with excitement. With that, he prepared to leave.

    However, that was when a calm voice spoke from overhead.

    ¡°Not bad at all!¡±

    As the words rang out, the Heir Apparent drifted through the ripples being sent out by the ck spear. As he neared, the ripples faded away until no one would even notice they were there.

    ¡°Senior!¡± Xu Qing said respectfully, sping hands and bowing. He was happy to ept any guidance from the Heir Apparent. Whether it was the third tribtion early on, or the growth to his soul after the deadly fighting in the church temple, or the help with the substructure of the imperial-ss technique that was the golden crow, it all went to show that the tempering provided by the Heir Apparent was extremely effective.

    In only a few months, Xu Qing had <i>shed his body and exchanged his bones</i>. And of course, his battle prowess was vastly superior to before.

    ¡°It looks like you¡¯ve mostly recovered from your injuries. Therefore, the time hase to proceed to the next step!¡± The Heir Apparent approached Xu Qing and measured him up, eyes sharp but heart full of admiration. Inside, he was musing that this boy had some of the most advanced powers of understanding he had ever seen.

    And he was very interested in honing this unpolished gem. Considering his one casual statement had led to some seriousplications, he had decided that in the future, he would be more careful about what he said. That said, he had finally gotten over his astonishment from before, and was actually feeling proud.

    <i>Giving advice to this kid must be a big headache for his Master. Of course, that¡¯s because of his low level. I¡¯m different. Only I¡¯m capable of truly guiding an apprentice like this. His Master¡¯s not really up to the task.</i>

    Looking at Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent coolly said, ¡°Xu Qing, you did a good job gaining enlightenment thanks to my advice. You didn¡¯t give up. Good job. We cultivators need to face difficulties head-on. We need to persist no matter what. Only then can we cultivate a truly domineering spirit. Only then can we have the vigor necessary to defy heaven and earth!

    ¡°Now then, since you have a trump card for your golden crow nascent soul, the next thing we need to do is look more deeply into your taboo poison nascent soul!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone. Truth be told, he didn¡¯t need the Heir Apparent to tell him to start looking into his other nascent souls. After what happened with the golden crow, he¡¯d already nned to do that. Unfortunately, each of his nascent souls were independent entities, and each was different from the others. It wasn¡¯t necessarily possible to apply what he had learned from the golden crow to the others.

    Therefore, after hearing the Heir Apparent¡¯s words, Xu Qing respectfully said, ¡°Please, give me your advice, Senior!¡±

    Eyes shining with anticipation, he looked at the Heir Apparent.

    Seeing that gaze, the Heir Apparent smiled. ¡°Xu Qing, I can sense the power of a god in your poison.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°A shocking poison like that definitely has iparable potential. Considering it didn¡¯t exist in my time, it was probably created while I was sealed away. That¡¯s why I¡¯m not familiar with it.¡± The Heir Apparent¡¯s gaze turned profound when he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°However, I have seen taboo poisons that are even more poisonous than yours. In fact, you could say that I¡¯ve seen the strongest poison to ever exist in the Revered Ancient maind! I suppose you could also conclude... that you have too!¡±

    There was obviously deep meaning in the Heir Apparent¡¯s words. Hearing them, Xu Qing shivered, and suddenly started trying to figure out what he meant. However, the answer seemed to be obscured from him, making it impossible for him to grasp it.

    When the Heir Apparent sensed that Xu Qing was having trouble, he felt very proud at heart.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± he said coolly, ¡°look up into the sky. Look beyond the dusky sky at something that hangs there eternally. Look at... the broken face of the god!¡±

    Reeling, Xu Qing looked up at the canopy of heaven. Although the sky over the Moonrite Region was dark, which was unlike the sky in other regions, it was still possible to make out the enormous outline of the broken face of the god.

    ¡°Look at that broken face. Why is it that, whenever h¨¥ opens his eyes, all living beings howl in grief? Why do the ces h¨¥ looks at turn into forbidden regions? It¡¯s because that gaze is poisonous! And therefore, why not imitate that?

    ¡°Why only release a simple version of your taboo poison? Why spread it with the power of the wind? Whybine it with your other methods? All of those are mortal actions, not the actions of a god! Using the thoughts of a mortal to unleash the poison of a god? Naturally, that won¡¯t do.

    ¡°Learn from h¨©m. ce your poison into your gaze. If you can do that, even just to a small degree, then the power of your taboo poison, simr to the golden crow, will undergo a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling upgrade!¡±

    Xu Qing struggled to breathe steadily. The Heir Apparent¡¯s words were just too astonishing, and had opened his mind. They were like a lightning bolt to the brain that ripped open all of his previous ways of thinking.

    <i>That¡¯s right! When the broken face¡¯s eyes open, the mutagen levels there be stronger. And substructurally speaking... my poison is the same! If I could do that....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing as that line of thought expanded rapidly. Shortly after, he looked at the Heir Apparent, his eyes shining with matchless reverence. The Heir Apparent¡¯s way of setting things up, and his manner of analyzing things, helped him see things differently. In the past, Xu Qing had never been able to do this. Not even help from Master Seventh had helped him reach such a high level.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior!¡± Xu Qing said excitedly, bowing at the waist.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s expression, and understanding the emotions behind it, caused the Heir Apparent to smile. Once again he felt very proud. <i>Yep, my assessment of his Master was spot-on. Only I am capable of educating an unpolished gem like this!</i>

    ¡°In that case, you take it from here. Seek enlightenment of what I just mentioned. This isn¡¯t a bad location. Work here for three days. If you can¡¯t make any progress,e find me.¡±

    The Heir Apparent set up some warding spells that wouldst for three days. sping his hands behind his back, he left proudly.

    Xu Qing stood in ce for a long time before finally sitting down cross-legged and closing his eyes.

    <i>But how do I get the power of the taboo poison into my gaze...?</i>

    Releasing the power of the taboo poison, he sent it flowing into his eyes.

    1. Xu Qing gained initial enlightenment of The Emperor¡¯s Sword in <u>chapter 375</u>. ?

 Chapter 616: Goal - Vision of a God

    <h4>Chapter 616: Goal - Vision of a God</h4>

    Xu Qing had faced many challenges in his life. Some he had resolved, others he couldn¡¯t.

    But when it came to cultivation, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t remember very many situations in which he truly got stuck. That was especially true of matters rting to enlightenment. It was the same with his Sea and Mountain Incantation in his early days, and then all the other various techniques he¡¯d picked up. All of them went fairly smoothly. [1]

    The same went for his enlightenment of the Ghost Emperor mountain. Even when attempting to project it externally, he didn¡¯t encounter many significant obstacles. Then there was the golden crow from earlier. Although that process had been difficult, in the end, he just followed through with his idea and soon gained enlightenment. Of course, much of that had to do with advice given to him by someone else. But fundamentally speaking, the actual enlightenment was his own doing. He had always had astounding powers of understandingpared to other people.

    But this time, he had no direction to pursue. No outline to fill in. It was easy to say ¡°turn your gaze into taboo poison.¡± But actually doing it seemed more like a fantasy than a reality. In fact, after three days of constant attempts, he didn¡¯te close to seeding.

    He could put the taboo poison into his eyes. After all, the poison was already part of him, so he wasn¡¯t worried about it hurting him. Any damage he sustained would eventually be healed by the violet crystal. In some respects, his eyes had always had poison in them. But causing that poison to erupt along with his gaze was different.

    ¡°The gaze...¡± Xu Qing murmured.

    There were things he didn¡¯t understand. For example, the word for ¡®gaze¡¯ had the character for ¡®light¡¯ in it. But what exactly was that ¡®light¡¯? And how could he get poison into it, so that whatever he looked at ended up being poisoned?

    <i>How would a god do that?</i>

    Xu Qing looked exhausted. When he felt the Heir Apparent¡¯s warding spell disappearing, he stood up and walked back toward the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Just when he was about to reenter the mudbrick city, his heart suddenly thumped in his chest.

    <i>What if I¡¯m focusing too much on my eyes?</i>

    Stopping in ce, he closed his eyes and took a moment to assess himself with his other senses. Everything about himself felt the same as before. Closing his eyelids didn¡¯t seem to provide any deeper level of understanding. Everything was dark, which was the result of his gaze being covered.

    <i>In that case, what if I didn¡¯t have eyes?</i>

    Xu Qing had always been able to treat himself ruthlessly, so without any hesitation, he reached up and dug both of his eyes out of their sockets.

    Pain erupted into him as blood flowed out of the empty sockets. He was now blind. As for the pain he felt, it didn¡¯t really count for muchpared to some of the other types of pain he had experienced in the past. After digging his eyes out, the power of the violet crystal went to work and started repairing the damage. However, Xu Qing suppressed the violet crystal; he wanted to spend more time exploring the sensation of having no eyes.

    That was when he noticed that the darkness in front of him was different from the darkness he saw when closing his eyes.

    A tremor passed through him. It was obviously something he had never thought of before. Closing one¡¯s eyes was very different than having no eyes at all. When he closed his eyes, his vision was blocked, and he saw darkness. But right now, he had no vision at all, and therefore, no way to even perceive darkness.

    <i>It¡¯s not actually darkness....</i>

    He wasn¡¯t even sure what he was sensing at the moment. It was like when an ordinary person closed one eye, which altered their vision because it was missing one section. And that missing section wasn¡¯t dark, nor did it have any color. It didn¡¯t have any information at all. It was as if it just didn¡¯t exist.

    ¡°Nothingness...¡± Xu Qing whispered.

    That was the word that popped up in his mind. That was what he experienced after removing his eyes. It felt unsettling.

    Shortly after, he sent out his divine sense, and gradually, the world around him appeared in his mind. However, it wasn¡¯t the result of his gaze. It came from energy, the touch of the wind, the resonance of his soul, and the ovey of divine will. Divine will was like an invisible web made from infinite ripples, with him in the middle. Anything that touched that web would, in turn, cause the web to vibrate. The result was a different type of consciousness that existed in his mind.

    But it wasn¡¯t an image. An image was something he could see with his eyes. What he perceived with divine will was a sensation. Because of divine sense, most cultivators had a hard time distinguishing between an image and a sensation. As a result, they would just assume that divine sense was an aspect of vision. But as Xu Qing now realized, they were different.

    As the feeling continued, a representation of everything around him appeared in his mind, formed from his senses.

    Thend. The sky. All the buildings in the mudbrick city. The pedestrians on the streets. The distant mountains. He could sense them all, and thus, he could ¡®see¡¯ them. However, some things existed in color, while others had no color, and were mere outlines.

    Eventually, Xu Qing started walking. He entered the city, and eventually, reached the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Along the way, he took note of everything he was sensing with this gaze that was no gaze.

    <i>¡°If destiny calls,e buy some medicine; if it calls not, at least look at a specimen!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing heard Wu Jianwu talking up ahead. He looked up, and Wu Jianwu appeared in his senses. He was in full color, with his clothes, hair, and facial expression all urate.

    When Wu Jianwu saw the blood flowing out from Xu Qing¡¯s closed eyelids, his eyes went wide and he stammered. ¡°W-w-what... what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    His exmation caught the attention of everyone else. Momentster, the Captain, Ling¡¯er, and Li Youfei all saw Xu Qing.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing!¡± Ling¡¯er cried anxiously, rushing over and throwing her arms around him.

    Xu Qing tousled her hair and smiled. Ling¡¯er was also represented in color to him.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s just cultivation.¡±

    Sounding confused and sad, Ling¡¯er replied, ¡°But... what kind of cultivation involves ripping your own eyes out?¡±

    Xu Qing said a few moreforting words, and then walked into the medicine shop with her.

    Based on what he could ¡®see¡¯, the Captain looked astonished, Li Youfei was visibly stunned, and Ning Yan¡¯s eyes were wide. Nethersprite was boiling water, and the Heir Apparent sat there looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing patted Ling¡¯er¡¯s back, then walked over and sat down next to the Heir Apparent.

    After a moment of thought, he said, ¡°Senior, I can¡¯t do it. Even after digging my eyes out, I can¡¯t get the poison into my gaze. And when sensing the world around me, I¡¯m unable to create a poison onught with divine will.¡±

    The Heir Apparent lifted his cup and took a sip of tea. He was about tounch into another cryptic bit of advice, but then he looked at Xu Qing¡¯s mangled eyes and decided to be a bit more direct.

    ¡°Digging out your eyes was a good idea! Now you need to figure out a way to experience the vision of a god. Use it to look at the true world around you.¡±

    ¡°Vision of a god?¡± he murmured. ¡°True world?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± the Heir Apparent said, sounding very profound.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a bit, then stood and bowed. As Ling¡¯er looked on anxiously, he went into the back room, sat down cross-legged, and pondered the situation.

    <i>Howe the world I perceive has some color, but other things aren¡¯t in color...?</i>

    He had the feeling that the key to everythingy in the answer to that question.

    The night passed.

    The next morning he looked up. He felt like the answer was forming within him. After checking his surroundings and confirming that everything was in color, he sent a voice message to the Captain.

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, do you have anything on hand that I haven¡¯t seen before?¡±</i>

    When the Captain, who was on the main floor keeping an eye on Nethersprite, listened to the message, his eyebrows shot up. Smiling enigmatically, he strolled into the back room, looked down at Xu Qing, and then produced an item with a flourish.

    Xu Qing scanned it with divine sense. Based on the smell alone, he could tell that it was a medicinal pill. Specifically, it was a cursequelling lozenge.

    ¡°Something else,¡± he said.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. shing a very meaningful smile, he thought for a moment and then took something else out. ¡°How about this?¡±

    Xu Qing looked over and saw a bodice. A momentter he shook his head.

    Intrigued, the Captain kept taking things out. When Xu Qing saw the growing collection of random things, he wasn¡¯t sure what to say. Eventually, the Captain took out something that didn¡¯t register as being in color.

    Xu Qing looked up. ¡°What¡¯s that...?¡±

    Resting on the Captain¡¯s palm was a small blue statue that he had acquired a long time ago. It was an item of worship from a small, random species. There wasn¡¯t anything particrly special about it, and it had been in the Captain¡¯s bag of holding for so long he¡¯d forgotten about it.

    ¡°It¡¯s a statue,¡± the Captain said.

    Xu Qing nodded. His senses were telling him that the Captain was indeed holding a statue, though it was little more than an outline to Xu Qing.

    ¡°What color is it?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Red,¡± the Captain said with a meaningful smile.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing¡¯s senses were telling him that the statue was red. He nodded and was about to say something.

    Before he could, the Captain said, ¡°Huh? Oh, my bad, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s actually white.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned.

    Chuckling, the Captain put the blue statue down in front of Xu Qing. ¡°Little Ah Qing,¡± he said quietly, ¡°for certain reasons, I can¡¯t give you any advice. But I¡¯m leaving this statue here for you. When your eyes recover, take a look and see what color it actually is.¡±

    The Captain left.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart raced as numerous thoughts proliferated in his mind. Releasing his hold on the violet crystal¡¯s powers, he let his eyes start recovering.

    A few dayster, he opened his eyes and looked down to find a blue statue in front of him. The sight of that statue caused him to reel. Any thoughts of a red or white statue copsed, reced by the color blue. This process left him feeling profoundly shaken.

    <i>Colors can be deceiving.... Is what I¡¯m seeing true and real? In my previous state, the things I saw around me in color were only that way because I¡¯d personally seen them before, or at least had a concept of what they were like. That¡¯s why I could form an image of them.</i>

    <i>But I couldn¡¯t form an image of something I hadn¡¯t seen before. They were just outlines, without any color....</i>

    <i>What¡¯s more, my perception of the color of this statue changed based on what the Captain told me. And that goes to show... the thing that determines what you can see, and in fact, the very structure of the world around you, is not your eyes. For mortals, it¡¯s the brain that actually determines what is seen. For cultivators, it¡¯s the soul that determines what you sense.</i>

    Xu Qing inhaled sharply, and his eyes shone with enlightenment.

    <i>The eyes are basically a window. I was going down the wrong path. Putting poison in the window will do nothing more than create a stockpile there.</i>

    <i>If I want the poison to be part of my gaze.... I need to put the poison in my soul. If the soul has poison, then when the window opens, whatever I look at will be invaded by my gaze!</i>

    <i>Except now I can¡¯t help but wonder... is the world I can see the true and real world the Heir Apparent was talking about?</i>

    1. Wow, what a callback! The Sea and Mountain Incantation was first mentioned in <u>chapter 1</u>! It wasst mentioned in <u>chapter 177</u>. ?

 Chapter 617: The Depth of the Soul

    <h4>Chapter 617: The Depth of the Soul</h4>

    Xu Qing was well aware of how he differed from ordinary cultivators.

    It came down to his body. Although his fleshly body was his own, it had been remolded by the god¡¯s finger to make it easier to possess. Then, thanks to the violet crystal, that body became like a garment that he could wear. It was essentially the fleshly body of a god.

    <i>I suppose ¨©t¡¯s nothing incredibly special. Who knows how many clones that god from Forbidden by the Immortal had, and we¡¯re talking about the finger of one of them. That said, ¨©ts personhood was still that of a god.</i>

    Eyes glittering, he continued to ponder the situation.

    <i>In some respects, the eyes of my fleshly body could be said to be the eyes of a god. Therefore, theoretically speaking, I should be able to use the vision of a god to look at the world around me.</i>

    Lifting his hand, he kneaded the bridge of his nose. Inside of him, he could sense his soul. And yet, the truth was that he didn¡¯t have a very deep understanding of souls. All he knew was that the soul represented the psyche, as well as divine sense. It was an aggregation of intangible things within him. The strength or weakness of his soul was determined by however much psychic power he had.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t really sure about the details. After all, such things weren¡¯t important to study, given the low level of his cultivation base. But now he wasing to a realization of how important his soul was. And as he analyzed it from different angles, he was able toe to a conclusion.

    <i>If I raise my soul to a higher level, then insert the taboo poison into it, then I should be able to have poison in my gaze. Except, what exactly is a soul?</i>

    Different people would answer that question in different ways. Some people thought that souls were made from energy. Others thought they were convergences of the psyche. Still others believed that they were made from invisible fluctuations. Regardless, in the end, all of those things were intangible.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and unleashed the will of the taboo poison within him, sending it to fill his sea of consciousness. In that manner, he searched for his soul. He could do that because, in the depths of his sea of consciousness, at the limit of his psyche, there was a conglomeration of fiery light made from divine sense.

    Where there was light, there was fire. The light was the light of his soul, and the fire was the me of his life force. Their intersection formed the nucleus of everything about him. If they changed, his consciousness would be affected. If they were extinguished, his life force would be dark. That was what Xu Qing had previously assumed to be his soul. But now he was starting to suspect he had been wrong.

    That was because, when he tried to put the taboo poison into the fiery light, he could sense the light and fire swaying. Though the poison did effectively merge into it, the result wasn¡¯t what he had been hoping for. A momentter, he went back to analyzing the situation.

    It seemed like he was doing little more than putting the poison in the outeryer. It was as if... that fiery light was just a projection. It was not actually the source of his soul.

    Xu Qing sat there thinking. Time went by as he devoted all his attention to the situation. Seven days passed. During that time, his physical body grew visibly gaunt. None of his contemtion brought any answers. All that happened was that his psyche withered and his energy faded.

    <i>Cultivators and mortals are different. Cultivators have nascent souls and divine sense. And given my current cultivation level, I can possess people. After possessing someone, I would still be myself. In that case, my soul... obviously isn¡¯t in my fleshly body!</i>

    Frowning, he thought back to when the god¡¯s finger tried to possess him. He remembered that he¡¯d felt his soul being whittled away, and his consciousness scattering.

    <i>Might as well do some tests.</i>

    His eyes glittered. If he wanted to put poison into his soul, then he needed to have a much clearer understanding of what souls were. Taking a deep breath, he prepared to send some divine will to his shadow. But then he paused. The shadow had been in a state of terror recently. It could sense that, thanks to the Heir Apparent¡¯s advice, Xu Qing was growing terrifyingly stronger. And his aura was also transforming.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was about to give orders, it prepared to follow those orders immediately. Except the orders never came.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing looked out at the main floor of the medicine shop.

    ¡°Li Youfei!¡±

    Li Youfei, who had been in the middle of cleaning the shop, hurried into the back room. A momentter, he rushed back out and left the medicine shop. He returned that night with an unconscious middle-aged cultivator, who he put down in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord,¡± Li Youfei said respectfully, ¡°this is a vicious criminal who gues the Bitter Life Mountains. He rapes, piges, and perpetrates just about every evil crime you can imagine. Because he¡¯s close to Patriarch Inkrule, most people don¡¯t dare to do anything to him.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the middle-aged cultivator, who was in the Gold Core level and was a nonhuman. He had a scar running down his face that made him seem unusually ferocious. He also smelled of blood and gore.

    Xu Qing nodded. Li Youfei wasn¡¯t suicidal, so it seemed unlikely that he would try to deceive Xu Qing. Therefore, he sent him away. Then, after looking briefly at the unconscious middle-aged cultivator, he put his hand on his forehead. Then he sent divine sense into him. Along with that divine sense, he sent his aura and all other fluctuations into the cultivator. He even sent projections of his nascent souls inside. He was possessing him!

    Before long, Xu Qing¡¯s senses revealed to him a sea of consciousness that couldn¡¯t be considered very bright. He saw six heavenly pces glittering there, all of which were trembling.

    Completely devoid of emotional fluctuations, Xu Qing had his divine sensepletely cover the sea of consciousness. It didn¡¯t take long for him to find that convergence of fiery light.

    In the blink of an eye, that fiery light rippled and distorted. An anguished, bloodcurdling scream echoed out from inside. At the same time, memories flooded into Xu Qing¡¯s divine sense as he saw this cultivator¡¯s life ying out. Image after image appeared, some blurry, some clear. Regardless of their form, Xu Qing devoured them, causing them to disappear. It was almost as if he was stealing them....

    Eventually, the middle-aged cultivator¡¯s eyes opened. Face expressionless, he stood and looked down at his true form.

    ¡°So, this is possession?¡± Xu Qing murmured in the voice of the middle-aged cultivator. The sensation was unusual and even ufortable, as if he were wearing a set of clothing that was a size too small.

    That said, the ¡®clothing¡¯ was also eerily familiar to him. He knew exactly how that scar on his face had formed. In fact, when Xu Qing closed his eyes, he knew everything about this body¡¯s past. However, without much effort, he erased such things, leaving himself feeling a lot morefortable. As he realized what was happening, a tremor passed through him and he opened his eyes.

    <i>Memories? I think I get it now. If the soul is a synthesis of one¡¯s life force, aura, and psyche, then it really is intangible. It¡¯s like a collection of innumerable unreal things that are then turned into something true and real!</i>

    <i>The moment you¡¯re born and can sense yourself and the world, your memories begin! If you liken the soul to a nk bamboo slip, then the memories are the writing on that slip... and they¡¯re all part of the same thing!</i>

    <i>In the moment of possession, the limitations of my cultivation base ensured that I didn¡¯t sense myself devouring his soul. But I was clearly devouring his memories.... When mortals die, their memories disappear, almost like they¡¯re severed. That¡¯s why the souls that enter the underworld are so muddleheaded. Their memories are severed. Broken down.</i>

    Xu Qing struggled to breathe steadily as he sat there cross-legged, his eyes closed. Finally, he brought his divine sense back into his true form. When he opened his eyes as his true form, they gleamed with enlightenment.

    <i>What are souls? Maybe my understanding isn¡¯tpletely correct. As my cultivation continues, I¡¯ll need to spend more time contemting the subject and confirming my understanding.</i>

    <i>But... I can say with certainty that memories determine the depth, the scale, the medium, and the aura of the soul!</i>

    <i>In other words, if I want my soul to contain poison, and by extension my gaze, then I need to make sure the taboo poison is deeply within my memories!</i>

    <i>I need to change my memories so that, from the moment of birth, I have a deep understanding of taboo poison. I need to fill my memories from then until now!</i>

    Unbeknownst to Xu Qing, on the other side of the door curtain, the main floor of the medicine shop was like another dimension thanks to the Heir Apparent.

    And in that other dimension, his thoughts were being spoken out loud by the parrot.

    ¡°... from then until now!¡±

    The parrot was obviously connected to Xu Qing¡¯s emotions, as he was speaking with deep excitement.

    Ling¡¯er seemed deeply apprehensive as she looked in the direction of the back room. To her, it seemed like her Big Bro Xu Qing had gone a bit crazytely.

    Wu Jianwu was thinking something simr to Ling¡¯er. Xu Qing really seemed to have gone mad. After all, ordinary people didn¡¯t go around pondering things like souls all the time. And when he heard the parrot repeating what Xu Qing was thinking, he got even more confused.

    <i>I understand all the words, yet I don¡¯t understand what they mean when they¡¯re put together. What¡¯s he talking about...?</i>

    Eventually, Wu Jianwu decided that it wasn¡¯t his problem. Then he looked around and realized that Li Youfei seemed to be reacting in a simr way. The only difference was that Li Youfei didn¡¯t just seem confused, he also seemed scared. Clearly, he was worried about Xu Qing performing simr experiments on him one day in the future.

    Ning Yan was overwhelmed with shock. He had heard his father talking about such things before.... Never could he ever have imagined that Xu Qing, who was only in the Nascent Soul level, would also ponder such matters. Clearly, the enlightenment wasing from Xu Qing¡¯s personal analysis.

    The Captain had a thoughtful look and a dazzling smile on his face. <i>Little Ah Qing, the reason I brought you to the Moonrite Region wasn¡¯t just to devour Crimson Mother.... This is where both of us are going to fly to new heights!</i>

    Nethersprite looked in the direction of the back room, mixed emotions on her face. <i>Could it be that this Xu Qing is like me? Is he the embodiment of a soul fragment of some unknown entity?</i>

    Everyone was thinking different things, but all were dealing with varying levels of astonishment. Meanwhile, the Heir Apparent smiled. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all by Xu Qing¡¯s enlightenment; everything was within the range of what he had predicted. He had assumed from the beginning that, given Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding, he would gain enlightenment of this step.

    <i>That¡¯s just the difference between me and the little punk¡¯s Master. His Master¡¯s understanding is limited, so he has a hard time giving advice on things like this. I guess you can¡¯t me him for that. If any random person could hone an unpolished gem, then it wouldn¡¯t be unpolished.</i>

    Smiling, the Heir Apparent got to his feet. He knew that the next step would involve Xu Qing remembering that the Heir Apparent had perception-altering powers. Therefore, he was nning to give Xu Qing some options.

    <i>Having someone else alter memories isn¡¯t the perfect way. It¡¯s not possible to truly enter the consciousness. It¡¯s only possible to stay on the outside. Besides, then he would have my mark on his soul. The upside would be that he would have poison in his eyes. Given the little punk¡¯s temperament, he probably won¡¯t agree to that. In that case... he¡¯s much likelier to ept the second option.</i>

    Just as he was about to walk into the back room, the parrot started repeating what Xu Qing was thinking in the other room.

    ¡°There¡¯s only one way to do this. I need to imprint my body with innumerable poison marks. Every bit of my flesh, every drop of my blood, and every inch of my bones need to contain poison!

    ¡°I can¡¯t change my own memories, but memories aren¡¯t just made up of experiences and observations. They also contain the body¡¯s instincts!

    ¡°If I imprint every part of myself with poison, making it part of my instincts, then I can affect my memories in the opposite direction! I don¡¯t need to do anything to my eyes. I¡¯ll use feedback from my fleshly body to imprint information eternally in my memories!

    ¡°I already have poison!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with bright light.

    On the main floor of the medicine shop, everyone was bbergasted. Ling¡¯er looked worried, Ning Yan gasped, the Captain was visibly moved, and the Heir Apparent stopped in ce and then sat back down.

    <i>I don¡¯t need to alter his perceptions... this kid... he knows how to alter them himself?</i>

 Chapter 618: Blood-Red Dome of Heaven; Withered and Decaying Mortal World

    <h4>Chapter 618: Blood-Red Dome of Heaven; Withered and Decaying Mortal World</h4>

    When Xu Qing said he was going to do something, he would do it. Now that he had a direction, he immediately took out some poisonous nts and poison pills from his bag of holding. Some he consumed, some he rubbed on himself, and some he put directly into himself by slicing open his skin. He even crushed some poison pills into liquid, which he put into his eyes. He included some of his taboo poison in some of the medicinal pills as well. He was making sure that every part of him was infused with taboo poison, thus developing his fleshly body memories and tempering his fleshly body instincts.

    Half a month passed. During that time, he was so immersed in his work that sometimes his vision swam. However, he never gave up.

    Xu Qing knew that if he wanted to attain the fleshly body memories he hoped for, he didn¡¯t just need to use arge quantity of poisons, he needed to use a huge variety. Although he had a lot of poisons in his bag of holding, he had nothing close to the variety that was required. But that wasn¡¯t a big problem since he could go to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Whenever he needed something, he would just sell some cursequelling lozenges. His asking price included both poisonous nts and poison pills.

    In that manner, more and more cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation consumed cursequelling lozenges, and the reputation of Grandmaster Pill Nine grew. He also got more and more followers. In fact, the number of his followers increased on a daily basis.

    Because of the heartfelt words spoken by Xu Qing on that fateful day, many grandmasters of the dao of alchemy also became followers. That was especially true of Saintlowe. He often praised Xu Qing publicly, and when he did, his facial expression was one of deep respect.

    Before long, there was hardly any member of the Moonrebel Congregation who hadn¡¯t heard the name Pill Nine. The other vice-bishops took note. And the name also spread through the armed forces of the Moonrebel Congregation that were scattered throughout the Moonrite Region.

    Of course, his true identity was still a mystery. Some people imed that he was a Void Returning expert who had spent a lifetime studying the dao of medicine. Others said that he was from another region, which was why no one had ever heard of him before. Yet others imed that he was actually a spy from the Red Moon Cathedral, though few people actually believed that rumor.

    Regardless, the mysterious true identity of Pill Nine was something all Moonrebel Congregation cultivators wondered about. Not even the vice-bishops knew any of the details, as they didn¡¯t have the authority to investigate. Only the Archbishop of Moonrebel qualified to know the identities of all members.

    Sadly, for many countless years, Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation had been unupied. asionally it would glitter with light for about a year, but then it would go dark. After that, a new vice-bishop would appear. Although some people knew what that meant, it wasn¡¯t something people talked about.

    Xu Qing was aware of the dramatic reputation he was building. But at the moment, he was so focused on the poison situation that he didn¡¯t pay very much attention. And that was because he had reached a bit of a standstill with his poison cultivation. Resources in the Moonrite Region were scarce, which meant that he didn¡¯t have ess to the widest variety of poisons possible. As a result, he was having trouble developing the instincts he wanted.

    <i>I need a lot more poisonous nts, plus a lot of forms. If I was in Sea-Sealing County, it would be easy. But here.... Even with the cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation searching for what I need, I¡¯m still not able to get everything. That was especially true of certain poisonous nts. There are some that I¡¯ve only read about, but never actually seen.</i>

    A few days earlier, the Heir Apparent hade and exined the pros and cons of having someone else alter one¡¯s perceptions.

    ¡°It would leave a mark on my soul...¡± he murmured. In the end, he forced himself not to even think about that option. He wanted to rely on himself alone. Although it might take longer, the results would be more suitable.

    <i>Of course, the Heir Apparent mentioned another method, something rted to my violet moon.</i>

    He looked in the direction of the main floor of the shop, his heart bubbling with spection.

    He thought about all the tempering the Heir Apparent had put him through in the Bitter Life Mountains. Then he considered that second method. For some reason, he was getting the feeling that the Heir Apparent... was trying to get him to pick the second option. He thought back to what the Heir Apparent had said a few days ago.

    <i>¡°There¡¯s another way, boy, to experience the vision of a god, and to be able to see the true and real world. When you do it, you¡¯ll gain poison in your eyes. It¡¯s rted to your violet moon.</i>

    <i>¡°That said, it would be very dangerous. In fact, it¡¯s so dangerous that I¡¯m hesitant to exin the details. However, I can tell you that if you seed, then you¡¯ll see the world for what it really is. What I can¡¯t be certain of is whether... you¡¯ll still be you.</i>

    <i>¡°The moment you acquired Crimson Mother¡¯s godsource, it became a certainty that you would have to walk this path. The only other option would be to abandon the violet moon power you have. Think about it. I¡¯ll give you seven days. If you decide to do it, thene to me at dawn on the eighth day. It has to be at that exact time.</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ll tell you the details then, which rte to gods and karma. If you don¡¯te, though, I won¡¯t tell you.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing had been thinking a lot about those wordstely. After all, he got the feeling that once he was finished with the golden crow and the taboo poison, the next thing to upgrade would be his violet moon nascent soul.

    Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t figure out why the Heir Apparent said that he had to find him at dawn on the eighth day. The entire thing left him feeling puzzled.

    It was now deep in the night of the seventh day, only four hours before the dawn of which the Heir Apparent had spoken. Xu Qing cast his senses outside. He saw the Heir Apparent who, instead of sitting at the counter sipping tea like he usually did, was on the roof looking up into the sky.

    Xu Qing vanished from the back roof and appeared on that very same rooftop.

    ¡°Wait a moment!¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly, ncing at Xu Qing briefly before looking back up into the sky.

    Nodding, Xu Qing sat and also looked up into the sky. In the Moonrite Region, the sky wasn¡¯t very bright during the daytime. During the night, it was pitch ck, almost like it was covered by a ck cloth. There were no stars. Just emptiness. The whimpering of the wind echoed about in heaven and earth. The Bitter Life Mountains seemed unusually quiet. It was as if all cultivators felt that this particr night was unsafe.

    Xu Qing sent his divine sense out and noticed that although Li Youfei was seated in meditation in his room, his heart was racing, and he looked confused. Curious, Xu Qing sent his senses further out. That was when he realized that there were no animal sounds in the Bitter Life Mountains. It was as if something big were about to happen.

    Two hours passed.

    Now there were only two more hours left until dawn. At that point, the Captain walked out from the Green Spirit Pharmacy and came up to the roof. sping hands, he bowed to the Heir Apparent, then sat down next to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at him. ¡°Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°Shhh...¡± the Captain said, cing his index finger in front of his lips. Then he pointed up into the sky.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly.

    An hour passed.

    At that point, the wind stopped. All sound ceased. The Bitter Life Mountains were iparably silent. It was the same with the Greenhair Bands, as well as all the other counties. As of this moment, the entire Moonrite Region... was as silent as death.

    Then light appeared in the dome of heaven! It was red, and it was very faint. But considering it was the only color in the empty darkness, it was very eye-catching. Almost blinding. It started out as one tiny beam. But then it proliferated, bing countless des that sliced through the sky, almost edicts proimed by a dead god, foretelling of impending cmity.

    Feeling shaken mentally, Xu Qing realized that the violet moon power within him was trembling, almost like it was about to shake free from his control.

    As the red light grew more prominent on the horizon, the light spread almost like blood, slowly filling the sky over the Moonrite Region. It brought a sense of majesty, as well as heaven-shaking, earth-shattering momentum. And terror. Godly might apanied the spreading red light, which then... weighed down on the Moonrite Region.

    The sky was red like blood. Thends quaked. Living beings withered. The people wallowed in bitterness. The Bitter Life Mountains trembled. The Heavenfire Sea trembled. Mount Heavenly Ox trembled. All living beings in the Moonrite Region trembled. Looks of helpless despair appeared in their eyes. Waves crashed on the surface of the Yin Sacrifice River, and as the corpses rose and fell in the water, they wailed in endless grief.

    However, in the various church temples of the Red Moon Cathedral, the cultivators were getting very excited. All of them stepped out into the open, and as the red light spread, they kowtowed, their expressions those of madness and piety.

    <i>¡°The red moon,dy to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.¡±</i>

    Countless voices joined together, chanting.

    The red moon wasing. ¨©t was still some distance away from the Moonrite Region. But it was closer than it had been for many years. And it was already sending its light out into the region. It wouldn¡¯t be long before the entire sky was the color of fresh blood. The same thing would happen to thends. And then the huge red moon would appear on the horizon. And that meant that Crimson Mother¡¯s harvest wasing.

    Shaken, Xu Qing finally realized why the Heir Apparent had said toe to him at this hour.

    He also realized why the Captain was there.

    ¡°It won¡¯t be long now before Crimson Mother... returns to the mortal world.¡± the Heir Apparent murmured. ¡°When that timees, all living beings will be food.¡± He looked away from the sky and fixed his gaze on Xu Qing. ¡°What¡¯s your decision, Xu Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then said, ¡°What do I do?¡±

    The Heir Apparent stood. ¡°Xu Qing, I don¡¯t truly understand Crimson Mother. What¡¯s more, I don¡¯t know exactly how you can use your violet moon power. Nor do I know exactly what Crimson Mother is capable of as a god. Gods all have their secrets.¡±

    A gleam of reminiscence appeared in the Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes, and as he looked up into the ck and red sky, he seemed despondent.

    ¡°But I did watch as my father fought Crimson Mother. Back then, all I felt from Crimson Mother was... hunger. Boundless hunger!¡± Lingering fear now existed in the Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes. ¡°That type of hunger ispletely terrifying. It affects not just the fleshly body, but the soul. And everything. It¡¯s as if sh¨¥ arrives with infinite, never-ending hunger.

    ¡°Perhaps you aren¡¯t hungry enough to truly unleash the power of your violet moon. You need to experience the most intense hunger imaginable! All I can tell you is... it¡¯s something that oveps between human nature and godly nature. A blending and a connection.¡±

 Chapter 619: Human Nature, Animal Nature, Godly Nature

    <h4>Chapter 619: Human Nature, Animal Nature, Godly Nature</h4>

    In the Bitter Life Mountains, no wind blew. No sand stirred. All living beings were quiet. No one made a sound. Blood-red light continued to spread through the dome of heaven, making it seem like it had been wounded and was bleeding profusely.

    On the rooftop, the Heir Apparent spoke of matters rted to gods and karma, his voice echoing out into the deathly silence.

    ¡°I am not a god, nor do I have any godsource. But I do have authority, though it¡¯s different from that of a god.... My authority does note from a lit godfire, but rather, from a blessing given by the heavenly daos of Revered Ancient. I have no way to help you control the godsource within you. But I can give you a direction. And that is hunger.¡± The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Hunger?¡± Xu Qing said, and a momentter he nced at the Captain. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that every time the Captain saw the flesh of a god, he suddenly looked iparably hungry.

    The Captain blinked a few times but didn¡¯t say anything.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have much time, Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said, looking once again at the redness spreading through the sky. He took a step forward. When he did, he vanished, along with Xu Qing.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem surprised that they had disappeared. Stretching a bit, he opened his bag of holding and started rummaging through it. Eventually, he pulled out a metal box.

    ¡°The Heir Apparent was in too much of a hurry...¡± he murmured. Sticking out his tongue, he bit it and spat some blood into the box.

    <i>Can¡¯t do anything about that, though. I¡¯ll just have to use this. The old man really does have some amazing powers of foresight. Back when we were about to leave Sea-Sealing County, he gave me this little thingy and said it was Fourth Sib¡¯s anchor.... It can only open using my blood. And if I ever lose track of Fourth Sib, this can take me right to him.</i>

    The Captain looked at the box and considered activating it. That said, it was too important of an item, so in the end, he suppressed that desire.

    Somewhere out in the endless desert of the Greenhair Bands, the Heir Apparent and Xu Qing appeared out of thin air.

    Xu Qing immediately sent his senses out around him. The wind had stopped, and the dunes stood still. The desert was unusually quiet. For some unknown reason, the green sand underfoot actually looked gray. It gave off the sensation of death. Xu Qing had passed through this location before, and knew that it was a few months away from the Bitter Life Mountains.

    ¡°This ce should do,¡± the Heir Apparent said quietly. He looked at Xu Qing. ¡°I¡¯ll ask you onest time. Did you make a decision?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the red glow on the horizon, and sensed his violet moon power acting fidgety. It seemed like it wanted to burst out of him and rush off toward the horizon. He didn¡¯t want to abandon the violet moon, and thus, he realized that he didn¡¯t really need to make a decision. He looked at the Heir Apparent and nodded.

    ¡°Great!¡± The Heir Apparent reached toward him. He did not release any aura, nor any cultivation base fluctuations. There was no visible surge of energy. But that simple grasping motion caused Xu Qing to shiver.

    He could sense the me of his life force going dim. Then the vital force within him, seemingly with a will of its own, became a mist that rapidly spread off him. White mist emerged from his pores, as well as from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It spread out and then into the Heir Apparent¡¯s right hand. As it happened, his body started withering. His hair shriveled, and he suddenly felt incredibly weak. The feeling intensified.

    A momentter, a clump of white mist rested in the Heir Apparent¡¯s hand. He put it away.

    Xu Qing staggered backward several paces, gasping for breath. As of this moment, he no longer looked like he was twenty years old. Instead, he looked like an old man with one foot in the grave. Most of his hair had fallen out, and what remained was gray. He was gaunt, his cultivation base was incredibly weak, and his teeth were loose. His eyes were dim, and his life force was about ny percent gone. There was an emptiness within him that became as cold as ice, then gave rise to a sensation of hunger. Yet Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel that it was enough.

    Looking at the Heir Apparent, he hoarsely said, ¡°Senior, I know you¡¯re not just doing this for me. I know you want me to strengthen my violet moon power, and if I¡¯m right, sir, the reason has something to do with your brothers and sisters.¡±

    The Heir Apparent didn¡¯t respond deceptively. ¡°You¡¯re right, Xu Qing. I have my own selfish reasons for helping you. I hope that your violet moon power can improve and get stronger. And I hope you can learn to truly control it.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled weakly. ¡°In that case, keep going. I also want to control my violet moon power. And even more than that, I want to see what the world really looks like.¡±

    After a moment of silence, the Heir Apparent performed an incantation gesture with his left hand. Instantly, a Smoldering God seal settled onto Xu Qing.

    ¡°Strip you of vitality, make your life force empty.

    ¡°Strip you of cultivation base, wither up your spirit power.

    ¡°Strip you of healing, and make it impossible for you to recover.

    ¡°Finally, strip you of the chance to live, leaving you immobile and defenseless, with no choice but to wait for death to arrive.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun until it was nk. At a certain point, he lost the ability to stand, and toppled onto the desert floor.

    The Heir Apparent sighed. With a deep look at Xu Qing, he turned and floated up into the sky, gradually disappearing off into the distance. He left behind the silence of the desert, and a lone figureying in the sand.

    Xu Qing liked peace and quiet. It helped him think, and he liked thinking. But right now, despite the silence, he hardly had the strength to think. He felt so incredibly weak that he could barely move his fingers. And he could feel something that he truly hated: the cold.

    <i>It¡¯s been a long... a long time....</i> It truly had been a long time since he experienced the type of cold he had faced as a young person.

    It was a cold that seeped down to his soul. He felt like ice inside and out, causing him to shiver uncontrobly. He was starting to lose consciousness. Then he saw something. Images, flitting though his mind. He saw a dirty kid climbing out of a pile of endless corpses, struggling, fighting, just to stay alive.

    <i>I experienced this same feeling when I was young... and it didn¡¯t stop me.</i>

    There had been many times when he was so hungry he thought he would die. Or times when he had been so cold he lost all hope. In order to stay alive, he¡¯d eaten anything he could find. Back then, tree bark had been a luxury. Back then, he had been so hungry that he could find nutrition even in dirt.

    <i>Actually, the Heir Apparent was wrong. He should have left me some strength so that I could experience hunger on an even deeper level.</i>

    Forcing himself to smile, he lifted his trembling hand until it was at his mouth. Bloodshot eyes shimmering with madness, and veins bulging on his forehead, he gathered all the strength he could muster and bit deeply into his hand. Blood oozed past his teeth and lips, but before it could drop to the ground, he sucked it inside and swallowed it.

    His bite had also ripped out a chunk of his own flesh. Instead of chewing it, he just forced it right down his throat. The flesh wriggled as it slid down into his stomach, where his stomach acid met it like a parched desert meeting a morning dew. Xu Qing could feel his stomach twitch. The familiar sensation made him smile again.

    <i>That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about. If you want to be really hungry, you need to have a bit of energy.</i>

    His smile was more than a little terrifying. But as he smiled, and as his eyes turned more bloodshot, he started breathing more heavily. And with the tiny bit of energy he had now, the coldness and the empty hunger grew more intense.

    Xu Qing shivered. He felt like his insides were so profoundly empty that his view of the world was distorted. Thankfully, he had a lot of experience in this regard. Looking up into the sky, he suddenly let loose a curse.

    ¡°Son of a bitch!¡±

    Back when he was young, whenever he got really hungry, he would curse at the face in the sky, just like this. Cursing some more allowed him to focus his thoughts and control the madness that had been growing inside him.

    <i>Controlling my hunger this way isn¡¯t enough. The hunger I feel now isn¡¯t the hunger of a god that the Heir Apparent mentioned. I¡¯ve had other experiences with hunger.</i>

    He thought back to when he devoured those Red Moon Cathedral cultivators, and the sudden impulse he¡¯d had to continue with that. It had almost felt like an addiction; the more he devoured, the more he wanted to devour.

    <i>Back then, I controlled the feeling. But if I had just kept devouring, then I would have lost control.... And then there¡¯s Eldest Brother¡¯s hunger. And Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s hunger! Or the hunger shown by Crimson Mother back in Forbidden by the Immortal, when using Zhang Siyun as a doppelg?nger.</i>

    <i>Their hunger is both simr to mine and different. In that case, what happens if I don¡¯t keep it under control?</i>

    After some thought, he stopped trying to control it. Looking down, he gasped for breath as the sense of hunger overwhelmed his rationality, taking over everything.

    Opening his mouth wide, he bit another chunk out of his arm. It was almost as if he didn¡¯t realize it was his own flesh and blood. He took bite after bite, and as he chewed, he went further and further away from rationality. His instincts took over.

    As of this moment, he was like a wild animal!

    As his blood dropped down onto the sand, he instinctively got on all fours and then started wolfing down the blood-stained sand. Despite that, the hunger within him wasn¡¯t abated at all.

    ¡°Hungry... so hungry....¡±

    Trembling, he started crawling forward. He wanted more to eat! Unfortunately, he was in a very deste location, where there weren¡¯t even any animals present. After crawling for a few meters, he copsed, overwhelmed by darkness and insanity. As a feeling of weakness and death spread through him, he gained a moment of rity.

    <i>The Heir Apparent talked of an ovep between human nature and godly nature. But right now, I¡¯m like an animal. The fact that I¡¯m lucid now is more like an ovep between human nature and animal nature. It just proves that I¡¯m not doing the right thing. In that case, what is human nature? And what is godly nature?</i>

    Three days passed.

    ***

    While Xu Qing wandered the Greenhair Bands in a state of extreme hunger, all other living beings in the Moonrite Region felt despair at theing of the red moon. And out of despair was born chaos.

    Things were devolving in the Moonrite Region, with madness bing the order of the day. Since the final doom of death was just around the corner, there was only a short period of time to live, and in such circumstances, anything and everything could happen. Razing, killing, looting, raping, and plundering were going on everywhere. The ugliest side of life was ying out everywhere as countless people of the Moonrite Region wantonly gave vent to their insanity.

    There were no restraints. No limitations. Howls of grief and pain became a tempest that swept over everything.

    Human nature was copsing. Benevolence was crumbling. Animal nature proliferated. Madness erupted.

    The cultivators in the Greenhair Bands were no exception.

 Chapter 620: Secrets of the Gods!

    <h4>Chapter 620: Secrets of the Gods!</h4>

    When the light of the red moon first appeared in the Greenhair Bands, the wind died down. It returned the next day. It started out very faint. But by the third day, the green wind was blowing so hard that the dunes of green sand started shifting, until the desert resembled a sea. The wind seemed to carry the weeping of all living beings to fill heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing was half-buried in the sand, unmoving. He looked like a corpse. But his mind was alive as he thought about human nature and godly nature. It was a profound question, and Xu Qing was having a hard time wrapping his mind around it. Especially thetter topic.... After all, he wasn¡¯t a god. As a mere human, it was difficult to understand the godliness of gods.

    However, Xu Qing had certain advantages. In his short twenty years of life, he had seen more than his fair share of evil, bitterness, and, of course, the inexhaustible ugliness that humans were capable of. Because of that, he already had a good understanding of human nature. In the three days that passed, he had been thinking back through all of his memories, trying to recall everything he could ever remember experiencing.

    Greed. Madness. Cannibalism. Ruthlessness.

    Of course, there were also beautiful and wonderful things, but they were like sparks that were easily extinguished. Regardless, he could remember what it felt like when those sparks appeared. For example, there was the peace and tranquility of his youth in Peerless City, or the deep impression his father and mother made on him. He would never forget the warmth Sergeant Thunder provided and the emotion in Duanmu Zang. And there was... the towering image of Pce Lord Kong Liangxiu. There were many things like that.

    <i>Human nature includes both good and evil. Human nature also involves emotions connected to other things, and the fetters thus created.</i>

    He thought about his Master, the Captain, Plumdark, Ling¡¯er, and all of the other people he¡¯de to know on his journey. He had experienced both hatred and gratitude, loathing and joy.

    <i>I was alone at first. But now... without even realizing it, I¡¯vee to have many things to be concerned about. They are also fetters, like countless threads connecting into a huge web. Human nature is the source of that web. It¡¯s the reason why I feel happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy.</i>

    He opened his eyes and looked up into the sky. He listened to the sobbing wind, which seemed to him to be the weeping of all living beings.

    <i>Human nature contains all the hope we have for life, and the fear we have of death. Ever since I was young, I always felt the desire to keep on living. Our emotions, and the way we live our lives, are fundamental aspects of human nature. Back in Peerless City, I didn¡¯t even understand what killing was. I never worried about the future. And I never considered the consequences of my actions. But after experiencing life, I changed.</i>

    As Xu Qing lost himself in his memories and analyzed himself, his understanding of human nature grew deeper.

    <i>One of the differences between human nature and animal nature is that we can exercise restraint.</i>

    He looked down at his bare arm and thought back to how he had sunk into madness earlier. It seemed to him that the ability to exercise restraint came from self-control. But where did self-controle from? He pondered the question for a while.

    <i>I have self-control because of my moral system. I guess it¡¯s just one of the characteristics that make us human. Human nature revolves around order. Animal nature is the opposite. It¡¯s chaotic, and relies on instinct. Here in Revered Ancient, that¡¯s the state of existence of the animals infected by the aura of the god above.</i>

    Xu Qing felt somewhat enlightened.

    <i>But what is godly nature? Godliness?</i>

    He still didn¡¯t understand. However, he knew that the body he possessed was actually the body of a god. And his taboo poison came from a god domain, while his violet moon was actually godsource.

    <i>If I fill my body with violet moon power, then to a certain extent, you could say that godliness exists within me. Except... it¡¯s not something I¡¯m aware of. Or perhaps you could say that it isn¡¯t visible. After all, I¡¯m a human, not a god.</i>

    <i>The Heir Apparent wants me to experience hunger in the same way that Crimson Mother experiences it. Is hunger really the key to unlocking godly nature? What causes the hunger of a god?</i>

    Xu Qing was still confused. By now, he actually didn¡¯t feel hungry. His body had grown used to surviving in a weak state, and was now just waiting for death toe.

    A long moment passed, and he sighed. He couldn¡¯t find the answer, and he didn¡¯t feel like lying around, so finally, he struggled into a seated position in the sand. By this point, the beasts of the desert were active again. In fact, he could see one of the giant mushrooms off in the distance. It was currently heading in his direction, full of malice.

    Terrifying energy and frightening fluctuations rolled off the mushroom. From what Xu Qing could sense, it wasn¡¯t in the Nascent Soul level, but rather, more like the dao begetting phase.

    There weren¡¯t a lot of these gruish mushrooms in the Greenhair Bands. But because of the way their roots formed a humanoid shape, like a giant, few people would dare to provoke them.

    Xu Qing hade to realize that very early on when he first arrived in the desert.

    Unfortunately, simply sitting up had taken almost all of the scant energy he had remaining. And the shallow pit left behind him after he sat up was already filling in with sand. When Xu Qing noticed that, he was stunned. His mind reeled as if it were being struck by numerous lightning bolts. Forgetting all about his dangerous situation, he stared at the sand filling in the spot where he had been lying.

    <i>It¡¯s being filled in. When I wasying there, I was part of the desert. When I sat up, I left an empty spot. Therefore... the sand is tumbling back in to return that spot to its original state. If I likened that empty spot to myself, and the sand as human nature... then I could liken the recement sand as godliness....</i>

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. He felt like he hadtched onto something important, and was currently thinking deeply about it. That was when a huge scorpion tail emerged from the sand next to him and stabbed into him.

    Then it flung him to the side, causing him to flop like a kite with its string cut off into the distance.

    A momentter, three scorpions burrowed out of the sand, raced toward him, and dug into him with their mandibles.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention. Though he was currently in a very weak state, he still had some inherent toughness. The scorpions wouldn¡¯t be able to rip him apart that easily. Though pain filled him, his current line of thinking was more important.

    As the scorpions tore at him, he closed his eyes.

    <i>If I remove my human nature, I won¡¯t have self-control to suppress my animal nature. But if I rece it with godly nature, then I can use godliness to surpass the animal nature!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded. Now he understood.

    <i>I don¡¯t need to understand godliness. I just need to integrate it into myself and sense it. Use the vision of a god to understand it. At that point, maybe I won¡¯t be able to control my animal nature. But that¡¯s because I won¡¯t need to. It will instinctively listen to mymands.</i>

    <i>Therefore, the Heir Apparent is actually telling me to ovep human nature and godly nature. It¡¯s abination. A mixture! Except, where does hungere into it?</i>

    Xu Qing felt that he had a preliminary solution to the problem. Although there were still things he didn¡¯t understand, when all was said and done, he had a decision to make.

    Should he try out his new idea?

    A momentter, he thought about the first bit of advice the Heir Apparent had given him using the tea leaves and the water. Then he thought about the experiments he had done with the golden crow, and the inspiration he¡¯d received when the Heir Apparent used one of Sprouty¡¯s leaflets to demonstrate a point.

    <i>The tea leaves and the water are a mixture. But you can still separate them. And even though Sprouty¡¯s leaflet is separate, it¡¯s still part of Sprouty. The essence is the same. In other words, if I try out this idea, I can still reverse it if necessary.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination. He knew that, unless he wanted to abandon hope of controlling the power of the violet moon, he had to pursue this path.

    <i>As for how to get rid of my human nature....</i>

    He closed his eyes. Getting rid of his human nature meant removing the restraints on his instincts.

    He slowly started to make the change. Soon after, he was gasping for breath and trembling from head to toe. Then his eyes opened, and they shone with the crazed madness of a wild animal.

    He no longer exercised restraint over his instincts. He no longer guided his actions with self-control. He no longer considered morality, evil, or goodness. He didn¡¯t have any sense of self-respect. What was more, he wasn¡¯t thinking about memories of the past, and wasn¡¯t affected by emotions. He was set free. His instincts werepletely free.

    An animalistic roar erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Eyes crimson, he looked at the scorpions that were ripping into him.

    Saliva poured from his mouth as unbounded hunger rose within him. He had no idea where he got the energy, but he reached out, grabbed a scorpion, and ripped it apart with his teeth. Sand flew everywhere. Rumbling sounds echoed out. Piercing cries could be heard for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Then, a figure could be seen racing out of the dust.

    It was none other than Xu Qing. His hair was disheveled, and he gasped for breath. His face was sttered with blood. The arm that he had previously bitten chunks out of was now gone.

    But that didn¡¯t make him any less fast.

    He wasn¡¯t thinking. He was guided by instinct alone. And he wanted to eat. Everything. The hunger within him had plunged him into a state of madness. But it wasn¡¯t just a desire to devour flesh that filled him. There was something deeper he needed. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but he could sense that his body feltpletely empty. It was as if there was some indescribable thing he needed, something that was hiding from him.

    And the more deeply it hid, the more intense his hunger grew. It came from his body, but also from his soul.

    All of a sudden, his body flickered with violet light! It was violet moon power! It fluctuated like never before, glimmering brightly. It was infinitely close to Xu Qing, and more a part of him than ever before. His surroundings rippled and distorted. Heaven and earth were a blur. The power of a god rumbled, exploding out from him.

    The sand vibrated, and the green wind lurched to a halt, then rushed in the opposite direction, not daring to get close to him.

    A howl erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he started racing directly toward the distant mushroom. Before, it would have taken all of his energy, unleashed at his peak state, to just pierce the mushroom¡¯s surface. But now, the mere wave of his hand caused it to instantly crack open.

    An agonized shriek rang out as Xu Qing burrowed inside, taking bites left and right. His remaining hand swept back and forth, grabbing chunk after chunk of flesh and stuffing it into his mouth.

    ¡°Hungry... so hungry....¡±

    The mushroom instinctively fought back. The roots that formed the shape of a giant beneath the mushroom tried to grab him. Its energy alone was enough to crush all of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls. In the past, he would have been forced to go all out to defend himself. But right now... the pressureing from the roots copsed before it could even get close to him.

    The mushroom couldn¡¯t do a thing to Xu Qing. Terrifying fluctuations erupted from within it. It cried out in anguish again, yet Xu Qing just kept eating mouthful after mouthful.

    Xu Qing¡¯s belly swelled up, yet the sensation of hunger within him hadn¡¯t been reduced at all. Instead, it had grown even more intense. Eventually, it was as if every empty spot within him hadbined, creating a gigantic ck hole that could devour everything.

    The godliness from the violet moon began to flicker even more dramatically. A violet will spread out around him in all directions. Godsource was erupting.

    Xu Qing¡¯s movements were slowing. In his maddened state, his crimson eyes were now gaining some cold rity. Apparently, he was finally starting to sense godliness.

    It was something beyond description. Xu Qing didn¡¯t fully understand it, but he was aware of the sudden, new sensation. In his mind, it now didn¡¯t matter whether or not Crimson Mother showed up. It didn¡¯t even matter who he himself was.

    Emotions. The past. Good and evil. Gratitude and grudges. All people. All things. He remembered all of those things, but as of this moment, they weren¡¯t important at all. His view of all matters and all things had changed.

    <i>This is why the Heir Apparent said that if I seeded, I might not be me anymore. Because when godly nature reces human nature, things that were important to me before, even people, will be insignificant.</i>

    Those thoughts flitted through his mind in an instant, and as they did, he realized they weren¡¯t important to him. Neither was the act of thinking about them. The pervasive, corrosive, degenerative wind around him wasn¡¯t important. Heaven and earth were filled with vicious illusions. The world was full of bones and maggot-ridden corpses. And none of them were important.

    The blurry, broken face in the sky had changed. H¨©s eyes were looking down, almost as if they had never closed. But that wasn¡¯t important either.

    What was important was that Xu Qing was hungry. Immeasurably hungry. His hunger was limitless, with no beginning and no end. He finally understood the source of his hunger.

    It was an instinct to pursue the evolution of life. It was also a farewell to the past, but at the same time, a reluctance to part with it. In this process of getting rid of his human nature and suffusing himself with godly nature, he had not fully lost his human nature. That was the reason the imperfect ck hole hade to be.

    <i>If I want to abate this hunger, I need to perfect myself. I need topletely get rid of my human nature. I haven¡¯t done that yet. But neither has Crimson Mother. Neither has Emperor Ancient Spirit. Neither has the Captain... That¡¯s why th¨¥y¡¯re all hungry.</i>

    Xu Qing apathetically wondered why he was thinking about unimportant things. And then he quickly cleared his thoughts.

    And yet, even after that, he still felt that those things were important.

    The two types of thinking shed, causing struggle to appear in his eyes. One moment, his eyes contained apathy. The other, they revealed human nature.

    The conflict caused veins to bulge on his forehead. He released a howl of anguish. The rity in his eyes faded, reced by madness. The pursuit of perfect instincts returned, along with his attempts topletely get rid of his human nature.

    Xu Qing had gone mad again. Violet light red, like theing of a god. He raced off into the distance. There was more food there. There was no mushroom left behind. He had eaten the entire thing.

 Chapter 621: Donâ€™t Look At Me. Donâ€™t Think About Me. Forget About Me

    <h4>Chapter 621: Don¡¯t Look At Me. Don¡¯t Think About Me. Forget About Me</h4>

    Time passed. Five days went by. It was now eight days since the light of the red moon first appeared on the horizon. For over a week, red light gathered there, slowly creating a crescent shape and causing shimmering redness to spread like fresh blood.

    If the dome of heaven was a canvas, then in the days that had passed, the color red hade to cover about two to three percent of it. At the current rate, it would take roughly a year for the sky to turnpletely blood red. When that happened, the red moon would be fully risen, causing a death knell to ring for all living beings in the Moonrite Region.

    The countdown had begun.

    As death approached, people saw little need to suppress the madness within. ughters were carried out everywhere. It happened with both cultivators and mortals. The powerful bullied the weaker. The weaker bullied the weakest. But the weakest didn¡¯t just ept their fate; they fought back viciously. Brutal howling filled thends. The madness of death turned the world into a living hell in which demons and devils roved about freely.

    It was the same in the Greenhair Bands. Over the eight days that had passed already, different organizations devolved into madness in different ways. Kill or be killed. That was the new rule that governed everything. Entire species were wiped out. Mortal cities became ces where cultivators vented their despair.

    The same went for the mudbrick city that housed the Green Spirit Pharmacy. During the eight days that passed, hundreds of crazed individuals wreaked havoc by inflicting their own bitterness on others. Some people took great joy in seeing others suffer when they knew their own life wasing to an end.

    Little did they know that in the Greenhair Bands, there was one location that was even more dangerous than the Red Moon Cathedral. When the demons and devils descended on that mudbrick city, they ended up changing. Some vanished from existence. But others lost their madness. They smiled again and became ordinary citizens of the city.

    In the backyard of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, the Heir Apparent had taken up a new hobby. And Ning Yan had a new line of work.

    They were raising chickens.

    During those eight days, a group of about twenty shivering chickens had appeared in the backyard. They didn¡¯t dare to leave the yard; they would eat their food and then hide in the corner, terrified.

    ¡°Ai, are you guys blind?¡± Ning Yan said as he scattered chicken feed. ¡°What did you have toe here for? Did you really want to be turned into chickens?¡±

    Ning Yan was already unhappy having to scrub the floors all the time, and now he had even more work. As a result, he really didn¡¯t like these chickens. In fact, when one of them got too close to him, he kicked it into the air and then spat at it.

    The kicked chicken looked at him with terror, and made a few despairing clucking sounds. However, there was nothing he could do. Even though he was actually in the great circle of the Nascent Soul level, with a Master who was the top expert in the Bitter Life Mountains, he was now just a chicken. Thinking about what he had experienced, the chicken¡¯s heart filled with grief and indignation. He hadn¡¯te to this city to vent, but rather, to carry out orders from his Master. His job had been to scout out the mysterious Green Spirit Pharmacy, and find out if Li Youfei really was hiding out there. How could he ever have guessed that as soon as he stepped foot into the city, he would pass out? Then, when he woke up, he was a chicken.

    It left him overwhelmed with terror. Deep in his heart, his Master was as lofty as the heavens. Therefore, he was convinced that once his Master showed up, he would be saved.

    <i>My venerable Master realizes I¡¯m missing, he¡¯ll definitely figure out that something went wrong. This Green Spirit Pharmacy might be a mysterious ce, but when my Master shows up, all these people will be dead! After all, my Master is backed by the Red Moon Cathedral! As for this brat, I¡¯ll make sure to kill him with my own hands!</i>

    As the chicken grumbled inwardly, Ning Yan kicked it again, then sighed. <i>I wonder how Biggest Bro Xu Qing is doing. Ling¡¯er cries every day. And where did Chen Erniu go off to? Grandpa just sits there every day sipping tea, just like before....</i>

    Ning Yan scattered the rest of the feed, dusted off his hands, and then walked back inside, shaking his head the whole time.

    ***

    Out in the Greenhair Bands, Xu Qing raced along like a wild animal. His eyes were bloodshot, his body shimmered with violet light, and the hunger within him made it almost impossible to think. Terrifying fluctuations rolled off him constantly. They were like a tempest, causing heaven and earth to rumble loudly.

    Covering his human nature and filling himself with godliness had caused an iplete vortex to build within him. It was like a bottomless pit that could devour everything, even Xu Qing himself. He had lost all sense of himself, all understanding of his surroundings. Or perhaps it was more urate to say that he had lost any sense of being human. The fetters created by such human identity now had a hole in them. Xu Qing waspletely lost in that state of boundless release.

    To him, everything that existed in heaven and earth was food to be eaten. And the idiom <i>the starving can¡¯t be picky about food</i> perfectly described his current state. Whether it was random wild animals or the walking mushrooms or the energy in the wind, he devoured it.

    Even the mutagen was like sweet dew to him. It cheerfully entered Xu Qing¡¯s body, feeding his taboo poison and the violet moon. As a result, the violet light that surrounded Xu Qing grew more intense. And a halo spread out around him, which was taboo poison. He became like a conglomeration of violet light that turned all the surrounding sand into ash. It was like theing of a god.

    Off in the distance were some desert creatures that had seemingly lost their ability to flee. They stood there trembling, feeling terror that came from their instincts and their souls.

    They did nothing as Xu Qing approached. When his gaze locked onto them, they rotted away, bing nutrients that swept into him.

    He asionally encountered gargantuan beings like the mushrooms. They had trouble fleeing the fate that destiny had arranged for them. When Xu Qing came, all the mutagen in the area became like an unstoppable weight crushing down on everything.

    Hard outer shells couldn¡¯t provide any protection. They crumbled beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet. He would st into such food, then dig out handful after handful of meat to stuff madly into his mouth. In some cases, that didn¡¯t enable him to eat fast enough, so he would just devour the food directly with his mouth.

    His missing left arm had grown back. If Xu Qing needed something, a mere thought would make it happen. It was simple.

    The violet moon was very active, and his taboo poison raged. His shadow was terrified to the extreme, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior didn¡¯t dare to even think about showing his face.

    <i>Forget about me. Forget about me....</i>

    That was what both the patriarch and the shadow were praying constantly.

    Their very life force essence made them rmed to the point of terror. They had both seen Xu Qing devolve into madness before. But they had never seen anything which made them despair as deeply as this. Both could tell that in this state, Xu Qing was definitely capable of devouring them. All he had to do was think about it.

    Also in a state of terror was the god¡¯s finger in D-132. ¨©t had been stimted awake, and when that happened, ¨©t had been about to send out fluctuations of irritation. But then ¨©t sensed what was happening outside, and felt shocked to the core. Without any hesitation, ¨©t retracted ¨©ts aura and pretended to go back to sleep. The reality was that ¨©t was trembling in indescribable fear.

    <i>Wh-wh-what... what the heck is going on?? I just went to sleep for a bit, and now this is happening? How?</i>

    The finger shivered as waves of terror overwhelmed ¨©ts heart. What ¨©t was sensing right now was simr to what ¨©t had sensed in the presence of Crimson Mother or Emperor Ancient Spirit. The hunger in Xu Qing led the finger to realize that he could chomp ¨©t down at any moment. That feeling left ¨©t with feelings of both fury and despair. ¨©t felt that gods had destiny as well, and apparently, ¨©t was dealing with a bacsh from fate. It was as if ¨©t was being assailed by ¨©ts own authority of misfortune. After all, how unlucky could ¨©t possibly be?

    <i>I hid from my true form for so many years, terrified that I would be devoured. Then I had to run into this Xu Qing. Later, I had no choice but to cooperate with him to avoid Emperor Ancient Spirit. But... why didn¡¯t someone tell me that things would end up like this? I¡¯m hiding, in his own belly, yet here I am on the verge of being devoured!</i>

    <i>No, this can¡¯t be! He can¡¯t have reached this state so quickly! He shouldn¡¯t have done this for years!</i>

    <i>Furthermore, he¡¯s like all of those postheaven gods who got rid of their human nature and reced it with godliness! They¡¯re not like the noble, natural-born gods such as me! So howe he gives me such a feeling of iparable terror?</i>

    <i>Also... his human nature is actually at odds with the godly nature. Is he crazy? What¡¯s he doing that for? That¡¯s why he¡¯s in such a state of madness.</i>

    The god¡¯s finger was incensed.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing stopped in ce as if he was listening to something.

    The shadow pretended to be dead. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shrank in on himself. The finger in D-132 stopped moving. All of them seemed to be praying the same thing.

    <i>Don¡¯t look at me. Don¡¯t think about me. Forget about me....</i>

    All of them were profoundly nervous and uneasy.

    A momentter, Xu Qing burst into motion... heading off toward some delicious food in the distance.

    The shadow sighed in relief. The patriarch shivered and looked up. The finger in D-132 started grumbling angrily.

    <i>What¡¯s the point in fighting like that? If he keeps this up, all he¡¯ll do is end up bing a god bastard. A postheaven god bastard. Also, there¡¯s something strange with him. Normally speaking, considering he¡¯s only in the god-glimpsing phase, he shouldn¡¯t provoke such terror in me! The feeling he gives me ispletely excessive!</i>

    <i>Dammit! What do I do, what do I do?? If he really bes a god bastard, then I¡¯m finished! The hunger of a god bastard is so insane that they¡¯ll eat themselves up!</i>

    As the finger in D-132 fretted anxiously, Xu Qing¡¯s madness intensified, and he got closer and closer to the food he¡¯d detected.

    He could sense the food just up ahead, matchlessly sweet and delicious. It filled him with longing, and caused his hunger to reach unprecedented levels.

    ¡°Hungry... so hungry....¡±

    Someone was standing in the desert up ahead.

    It was the Captain! As he watched the violet tempest getting closer and closer to him, his expression was not asid-back as usual. Instead, it was uncharacteristically serious.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother....¡±

 Chapter 622: Violet Moon God Trove!

    <h4>Chapter 622: Violet Moon God Trove!</h4>

    In the Greenhair Bands, the wind was like a host of invisible knives shing at the sand between Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Xu Qing was crazed and not even aware of himself. Closing in with incredible speed, he soon reached a position only about thirty meters away from the Captain. But when Xu Qing heard the words ¡®little Junior Brother,¡¯ he lurched to a halt. His bloodshot eyes were full of chaos as he stared at the figure in front of him. As he did, struggle appeared in his eyes, and then a bit of lucidity. The struggle between human nature and godly nature intensified, and Xu Qing shivered. He recognized his Eldest Brother, and yet he couldn¡¯t control the hunger within him.

    ¡°Eldest Brother...¡± he said in a hoarse voice. As the words left his mouth, the struggle between human nature and godly nature grew even more intense, threatening to swallow him up. Letting loose a howl of anguish, he turned and fled. He exercised restraint, and didn¡¯t get close to his Eldest Brother!

    The sight left the Captain moved. He knew Xu Qing, and he also knew the torment Xu Qing was dealing with at the moment. He was also aware of how difficult it was to exercise restraint in his current state....

    It proved how extraordinary Xu Qing was, and also how important the Captain was to him.

    The Captain felt warmth in his heart.

    ¡°You little dork,¡± he murmured with a smile, shaking his head. Next, he took a deep breath, and within his pupils, faces appeared. Their eyes opened, and more faces appeared within those pupils as well. It went on and on forever. Blue light red around the Captain, and then he blurred into motion.

    When he reappeared, he was right in front of Xu Qing.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s face distorted, the Captain spoke in a soft voice. ¡°If you¡¯re hungry, little Junior Brother, just eat.¡±

    He put his hand out in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shivered as he looked at his Eldest Brother. Deep longing ached inside of him, pulsing out from the vortex formed from the struggle between human nature and godly nature.

    Opening his mouth, he bit deeply into the Captain¡¯s hand. Blood sprayed everywhere. He swallowed the flesh. It made Xu Qing feel a bit better. However, pain still existed in his heart. He wanted restraint! He didn¡¯t want things to be like this.

    Sadly, the chasm within him made that impossible. Looking ruthless and insane, he opened his mouth and made a sound like a sob. That was his human nature fighting back!

    The Captain smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, little Ah Qing.¡±

    As the Captain let Xu Qing devour his left hand, he used his right hand to tousle his hair. Then he scooped him up with his right arm.

    ¡°Eat. Eat your fill. The old man should have been the one to handle this, but I am the Eldest Brother after all. So I¡¯ll do it. Eat up. Get full. We have something really big to do.¡±

    Xu Qing shivered, and the struggle in his eyes intensified. A terrifying thought had just urred to him. He wanted... topletely devour this Eldest Brother of his. Everyst bit of him. He wanted to swallow him whole.

    What was more, as human nature and godly nature mixed within him, he finally experienced a sensation other than hunger. It was a different type of longing. It was a longing for blood. He wanted to drink the Captain¡¯s blood!

    The moment the thought urred to him, his heart filled with immeasurable pain. He didn¡¯t want that!

    He suddenly stopped chewing. He stood there moaning for a few breaths of time. Then violet light red, bing a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force that shoved the Captain several dozen meters away.

    Looking at the stump of the Captain¡¯s hand, Xu Qing seemed to struggle even harder. Shoving his hand into his mouth, he started pulling out the flesh he had consumed. Then he ripped open his belly to drag out the flesh in his stomach, one bit at a time.

    Blood sprayed everywhere, soaking the ground. Most gruish of all was that the blood... became like pearlsnding on the ground. When theynded, they rolled this way and that. Shockingly, on each pearl was a vicious representation of Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    As Xu Qing dragged out the flesh he had consumed, the struggle within him grew even stronger. The sh between human nature and godly nature had reached an unprecedented level.

    The Captain stood off in the distance, watching. His expression was one of pain and sorrow, but he didn¡¯t take any action. He knew... that Xu Qing had to reawaken his human nature if he truly wanted to survive this god-glimpsing phase.

    <i>Back in the day, I.... </i>The Captain thought back to things from the past that he had long chosen not to think about. Pain flickered in his eyes.

    Shortly after, the increasing amounts of blood spraying out of Xu Qing had formed a totem.

    Looking down at it from above, it resembled a face. The face¡¯s eyes were closed, and it looked to be in pain. And it seemed to flow with blood. In its general shape, it resembled Crimson Mother. But the facial features were Xu Qing¡¯s!

    In the middle of that totem, Xu Qing was still digging flesh out from inside himself. The struggle in his heart continued to grow stronger. The reason for that was that he had discovered he still felt the longing to devour his Eldest Brother.

    The sight of his Eldest Brother¡¯s mangled arm filled him with pain. Finally, Xu Qing unleashed a howl that didn¡¯t sound human at all. Turning, he raced off into the distance. He chose to take advantage of a surge of human nature to leave. He knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to suppress his hunger much longer, and he wanted to be far away before the madness overtook him.

    He couldn¡¯t see clearly. The world around him looked twisted and distorted. The apathy of godly nature was telling him that everything around him could be beneficial in his evolution, and that he should devour it. The animal nature within him was a weapon, and the godly nature within him was making sure it was liberated. But his human nature kept reminding him over and over again that there was a bottom line he couldn¡¯t cross.

    Some things just couldn¡¯t be done. Some people could not be abandoned. Some ideals had to be preserved even if it meant dying!

    Thus, Xu Qing fled.

    After he was gone, the totem formed from blood drops rose up into the air and followed him, pulsing with godly might.

    The Captain kept his eyes on the fleeing Xu Qing as he followed.

    Time passed. Xu Qing fled nonstop. The Captain¡¯s arrival had thrown his heart into chaos. His state of madness thanks to the mixing of human nature and godly nature was even greater than before.

    ¡°Who am I...? It¡¯s not important.¡±

    ¡°Yes it is. It¡¯s very important. I¡¯m Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°My past isn¡¯t important at all.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s very important!¡±

    ¡°The people you meet in life are nothing but food.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not true!¡±

    It was as if two versions of consciousness existed within him, one apathetic, one in pain.

    The apathetic consciousness was godly nature, and it was housed in the face of blood behind him. The consciousness full of pain was human nature, housed in Xu Qing¡¯s heart, and not willing to give up.

    As the process continued, his nascent souls did not experience any change. However, the violet moon grew in intensity. Unbeknownst to him, his violet moon nascent soul had already reached the great circle of three tribtions. No heavenfate tribtion had appeared, yet the violet moon nascent soul was still growing. Eventually, it reached the four-tribtion level, and then the great circle of that level.

    Yet it kept going. Five tribtions! After that, it reached the great circle of five tribtions! Even then, its growth did not stop.

    Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon nascent soul eventually reached the dao begetting phase!

    Violet light intertwined outside of him, gradually forming a violet secret trove. Put most precisely, it wasn¡¯t a secret trove. It was something that could only be made with the power of a god. It was... a god trove!

    When that happened, the dome of heaven seemed to lose its color, and the desert was thrown into chaos. As violet moon power surged, the struggle in Xu Qing began to ebb. His human nature faded, and his hunger began to overtake everything. He once again thirsted for blood.

    The face of blood behind him seemed to be smiling apathetically.

    ¨©t was winning.

    However, that was when something unexpected happened!

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. As he stood there, he saw something about thirty meters up ahead. He broke out in goosebumps, and then began to tremble. His mind was filled with unprecedented chaos. It was as if the item thirty meters up ahead of him had caused all of his thoughts to focus on it.

    It was a metal box. Inside the box was some blood-colored soil. And in that soil...

    Was a flower!

    It seemed like nothing but an ordinary flower. It had seven sawtooth leaves, and in between each of them was a strange symbol made of gauzy threads. That symbol looked like a face that was crying andughing at the same time.

    When Xu Qing saw that flower, his mind felt like it was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts. He felt like his soul was being ripped to shreds.

    Countless images appeared in his mind. Countless memories welled up from the depths of what he had felt was an unimportant part of his heart.

    ¡°Lifespan flower, also known as life-extending me and god-spirit weed, is a mutated variety of a god-type vegetation known as regeneration tree. There are actually seventy-three known mutations, but only the first type can be used in medicines. They grow randomly in forbidden regions, without any specific habitat pattern. They¡¯re extremely rare. They can be used to regrow severed limbs, reinvigorate life force, and treat any injury other than those inflicted by the god above.¡±

    Shivering, Xu Qing walked over and knelt in front of the flower. He reached out and touched it.

    ¡°Lifespan flower....¡±

    He had searched for this flower for years, but had never found one.... It was the very same flower he¡¯d hoped to use to extend Sergeant Thunder¡¯s life. The lifespan flower. [1]

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder....¡±

    Tears welled up in his eyes and then flowed down his face, dropping into the sand below like blotches of ink. Those tears came from human nature. The blood-colored face behind him suddenly copsed, bing countless droplets of blood that flowed through Xu Qing¡¯s injuries back into his body.

    The Captain stood off in the distance, watching. The tight pain in his heart was finally starting to ease. He smiled.

    Someone appeared noiselessly next to him. It was the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Now I believe it,¡± the Heir Apparent said as he watched Xu Qing. ¡°The two of you have a very unusual Master. He¡¯s either the reincarnation of some powerful expert from my time, or one of the elite descendants of an Ancient Emperor who left this ce.¡±

    Once again looking like the picture of ttery, the Captain said, ¡°The old man¡¯s so-so. He definitely can¡¯tpare to you, Senior. If you ever start recruiting apprentices, your humble servant will be the first to sign up.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at the Captain. He didn¡¯t trust one word that came out of his mouth. ¡°That said, I¡¯m curious. Did you and Xu Qing seek out your Master? Or did he seek the two of you out?¡±

    1. The lifespan flower was first mentioned by Grandmaster Bai in <u>chapter 18</u>. It was mentioned throughout the first volume, and was brought up most recently in <u>chapter 355</u>. ?

 Chapter 623: Xu Qingâ€™s Authority!

    <h4>Chapter 623: Xu Qing¡¯s Authority!</h4>

    ¡°Now that you mention it...¡± the Captain said, looking very pleased with himself. He took out a peach and helped himself to a bite. He was about to continue eating when he noticed the Heir Apparent looking at him. He blinked a few times, took out a pear, and offered it to the Heir Apparent. ¡°You should eat, Grandpa.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at him expressionlessly.

    The Captain stered a smile onto his face, put the pear away, then cleared his throat. ¡°Now that you mention it, the old man was the one who sought me out. It was back when I was wearing diapers and used to y outside in the mud with the neighbor girl. I had a good thing going, but the old man showed up and messed it all up. He checked my bones and said that we were connected by destiny. And then he just outright kidnapped me. As for little Ah Qing, he sought out Master. Very different from me.¡± [1]

    The Heir Apparent nced at the Captain. He understood everything. The brat had obviously sought out his Master, and was epted due to his extreme shamelessness. The Heir Apparent was about to inform the Captain of his conclusions when something else caught his attention. He looked back at Xu Qing off in the distance.

    The Captain noticed the same thing.

    Xu Qing stood in the darkness and green wind, looking at the lifespan flower in front of him. He knew that his Eldest Brother had put the flower there. The fact that the Captain knew about this element of Xu Qing¡¯s past was clearly because of their Master. As a result, the sight of the flower wasn¡¯t that much of a surprise. His Master had predicted all of this.

    Xu Qing carefully picked up the metal box. As he looked at the flower inside of it, he couldn¡¯t help but think back to that old man from the scavenger basecamp.

    ¡°Sergeant Thunder,¡± he murmured, ¡°I finally found that lifespan flower for you....¡±

    He closed his eyes.

    As the face of blood copsed, and all the blood flowed back into him, he heard a begrudging sigh from the godliness.

    His human nature was returning as his tears dropped to the ground.

    The flower was like an anchor. In a moment of chaos, it gave him something stable to hold on to. In his stupor, he was given a clear signal. And it made sure that his human nature materialized, bing like an unmovable boulder.

    All of the memories that he hade to view as unimportant were once again bing important. He saw his youth. His days in Seven Blood Eyes. His experiences in Sea-Sealing County.... Everything came back, and the memories became even more profound. He remembered his name. He remembered all of the people and things he couldn¡¯t make himself abandon. The godly nature was being concealed. The animal nature was being suppressed.

    Time passed.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. Within them was sadness. He was now fully awake. The chaos had vanished. The hunger was gone. Now that he was awake, he could sense that he was different from before. Majestic fleshly body power coursed through him, and he emanated a terrifying aura and fear-inspiring fluctuations.

    In the past, the god body had been difficult for him topletely control. But now his control had increased dramatically. Going forward, that body did not belong to the god¡¯s finger anymore. Of course, the resulting boost to his battle prowess was even more fearsome.

    Next, Xu Qing sensed the violet moon power, which was now a god trove. He also could tell how the godly nature had been driving his thoughts. There was now a golden magical symbol imprinted in the core of his life force. ¨©t could be activated at any time. Compared to everything else, that was the most precious thing toe out of this experience.

    He could sense how he had lost his human nature and devolved into the madness of animal nature. He also remembered the apathy of godly nature.

    In the end, he had his anchor to hold onto. He took control of the animal nature. He concealed the apathetic godly nature. And he brought back his human nature as the dominant force.

    ¡°This process is called god-glimpsing,¡± the Heir Apparent said from behind him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°After what you experienced, little Ah Qing,¡± the Captain said curiously, ¡°do you sense authority within yourself?¡±

    Xu Qing looked over his shoulder. He saw the Heir Apparent and the Captain standing there.

    He greeted them in a hoarse voice. ¡°Eldest Brother. Senior.¡±

    He looked at the Captain¡¯s mangled hand.

    Apparently, something special happened to the parts that Xu Qing had devoured. Despite the Captain¡¯s recovery powers, those areas weren¡¯t growing back like normal. Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, the Captain put his arm behind his back and smiled nonchntly, then tried to get his powers working at full speed again.

    The Heir Apparent felt like shaking his head. He didn¡¯t see how someone could develop authority after their first experience with god-glimpsing. Normally speaking, it took several times. But given what he knew of Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding, he chose not to shake his head.

    <i>This little punk has some freakish powers of understanding.... Let¡¯s wait and see what happens before making a determination.</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent and then the Captain. Heart racing, he thought back to the instincts he had experienced in his moment of chaotic madness. Unfortunately, he hadn¡¯t really been himself in that state, and thus his memories weren¡¯t very clear. Time passed. After two incense stick¡¯s worth of time, he frowned.

    He remembered that, in addition to the hunger he had felt, he had experienced the intense longing to drink blood. However, that did not really conform to what he expected godly authority to be.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression, the Captain cleared his throat. Looking very proud, he said, ¡°It¡¯s highly unlikely you could sense authority with your first attempt at god-glimpsing, little Ah Qing. However, I have to say I¡¯m a bit disappointed. Don¡¯t be discouraged, though. You¡¯re still young, so keep working hard. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll seed on your second try, just like I did.¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked closely at Xu Qing for a moment, and it was impossible to say if he was sighing inside, or gasping. Finally, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. We need to get back.¡±

    The Heir Apparent took a step forward with the intention of taking Xu Qing and the Captain away with him.

    But then Xu Qing hesitated. ¡°I think I did feel something, but... I can¡¯t be sure.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he experimentally extended his right hand and waved it a bit.... Drops of blood began oozing out of his pores. It was as if each drop of blood contained a will of its own as they floated out in front of him. The blood converged, swirling around Xu Qing to eventually form a blood-colored vortex.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. The Heir Apparent stopped walking.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the vortex grewrger, until it was like a blood-coloredke. Then a face rose up from within theke.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    ¨©t looked apathetic, but unlike before, ¨©t... could be controlled.

    Looking at the Captain and the Heir Apparent, Xu Qing said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure if this is ¡®authority.¡¯ Back then, when I took that scrap of godsource, it contained... a bit of blood.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s heart was pounding, and the Captain was visibly moved. The Captain could sense that, as that blood vortex appeared, and especially when the face emerged, all the blood in his body started stirring as if it was about to go out of control.

    It was as if... if Xu Qing wanted it, all the blood in his body would explode out and enter his control. As a matter of fact, that was exactly the case. Xu Qing could sense blood fluctuations in all sorts of locations in the desert. All he had to do was exercise a thought, and all of that blood would rush toward him.

    ¡°I can do more than control it...¡± he murmured. He closed his eyes, and the surrounding blood vortex rose up,pletely surrounding him. As it became a sea of blood, it also became possible to see a god trove.

    Terrifying pressure weighed down on thends below. The sea of blood surged and began to descend. Rumbling could be heard as the green desert became as red as blood. Countless droplets of blood entered the ground, spreading out for one kilometer, five, fifty.... In the end, it spread out to the shocking degree of 250 kilometers.

    The desert in that area was crimson. All of the animals that the blood touched howled and then copsed, bing part of the blood. There were even some giant mushrooms in dao begetting who trembled and copsed. One of them managed to form its roots into the shape of a giant, and tried to flee. But the rapidly expanding sea of blood hit it, and it suffered the same fate.

    A feeling of hunger once again appeared in Xu Qing, and yet again, he experienced the longing for blood. He felt the desire to expand the range of his devouring, and consume everything.

    But thanks to the restraint and self-control of human nature, he also knew his limits. Given his current level of strength, if he kept doing this, he would lose control.

    A momentter, all of the blood swept back toward its origin. As the Heir Apparent and the Captain watched, it once again turned into Xu Qing. It started blurry, but quickly turned clear as countless blood droplets converged. His hair started gray, but quickly turned ck. And soon his body was back to normal.

    The Heir Apparent waved his hand, causing one droplet of blood to emerge from the blood sea and fly over to him. Within the blood drop was Xu Qing¡¯s face, looking apathetically at the Heir Apparent. The Heir Apparent¡¯s gaze sharpened. He could tell that the blood didn¡¯t just contain the simple authority of Crimson Mother.

    Authority was something unique to each god, and thus, each god¡¯s authority had different characteristics.

    <i>Is this the essence of the red moon??</i> The Heir Apparent was deeply shaken. He knew full well that Crimson Mother had worked hard to make people think that sh¨¥ and the red moon were the same thing. But the reality was... the red moon came first, and Crimson Mother cameter.

    The red moon had existed from the most ancient times, even before Revered Ancient was born. In contrast, Crimson Mother... was a postheaven god that came after the arrival of the broken face. The reason Crimson Mother resided in the red moon was that sh¨¥ wanted to actually supnt the red moon. To be the red moon. That was Crimson Mother¡¯s path to godly ascension.

    That was how sh¨¥ got h¨¥r authority.

    Stealing some of Crimson Mother¡¯s authority was the same as taking some of h¨¥r power of enlightenment. It was like eating food that others had already digested. But Xu Qing... was different. Forgetting the levels of power involved, it waspletely appropriate to say that the moment Xu Qing gained enlightenment of blood, he began walking the same path as Crimson Mother! And the destination, whether intentional or not, was the red moon.

    Such thoughts left the Heir Apparent feeling profoundly astonished. However, he instinctively kept his cool.

    ¡°Not bad,¡± he said calmly. ¡°It¡¯s just as I thought. One drop of blood to mold the soul. One drop of blood to bring unbounded growth. Xu Qing, when you turn all of your blood violet, it will mean you¡¯ll have even more authority over blood. In fact, it¡¯s possible that one day... you might be able to turn the red moon violet.

    ¡°But right now, this session of cultivation has reached an end. Go back and rest. In seven days... I¡¯ll take you somewhere to see a certain person.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s calm expression and mysterious wording made it seem like all of this was what he had predicted would happen. As he started walking forward, he waved his hand, sending the drop of blood back toward Xu Qing, where it merged into his forehead.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at the Captain.

    The Captain forced a smile onto his face. He suddenly felt a lot of pressure. In fact, Xu Qing was putting far more pressure on him than he ever had before.

    <i>I can¡¯t believe he actually took control of authority on his first attempt at god-glimpsing! I wasn¡¯t even being serious before. And that authority.... This is not gonna work! I have to keep opening my seals!</i>

    Of course, those were his thoughts. What he said out loud was, ¡°Not bad. Not bad at all. Just like me, back in the day. Hahaha....¡±

    The Captain hurried to catch up with the Heir Apparent.

    Xu Qing nodded and followed along.

    The green wind blew just like before. The red color in the dome of heaven grew brighter. As it shone down on the three of them, it cast their shadows onto the ground below. Soon, they disappeared into the distance.

    1. Quick cultural note that the Captain actually did not mention wearing ¡®diapers,¡¯ but rather, kaidangku or open-crotch pants. Here¡¯s <u>a link to Wikipedia</u> with more information, but suffice it to say that in China, the most traditional clothing for babies are garments with an open crotch that allows them to pee/poop freely. Nowadays it¡¯s bing moremon among the younger generation to use diapers (Madam Deathde hates kaidangku and refused to use them for Baby Deathde when he was a baby), but the open-crotch pants are still ubiquitous all over China. I¡¯m rendering it ¡®diapers¡¯ for ease of reading, especially considering how many people don¡¯t read footnotes. ?

 Chapter 624: A Man Carrying a Sun

    <h4>Chapter 624: A Man Carrying a Sun</h4>

    Wu Jianwu looked at the busy street outside the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the Bitter Life Mountains. Citizens walked to and fro freely. Lately, Wu Jianwu had been feeling very inspired in his poetry. In fact, he¡¯d even been experimenting with using different poetry rhythms.

    <i>¡°Pills, pills, pills; you¡¯re like a catkin in the hills; seeking sleep but finding thrills; now hurry up and buy some pills!¡±</i>

    Off to the side, Li Youfei loudly eximed, ¡°Amazing poem, young sir!¡±

    Wu Jianwuughed heartily and was about to continue with some more poetry when Ling¡¯er suddenly raced past him like the wind. At almost the same moment, Xu Qing, the Captain, and the Heir Apparent appeared down the street.

    Ling¡¯er threw herself right into Xu Qing¡¯s arms.

    ¡°You¡¯re finally back, Big Bro Xu Qing...¡± she said, her eyes bloodshot. She had been fretting day and night recently, to the point where even her beloved bookkeeping wasn¡¯t enough to keep her upied. Now that Xu Qing was back safe, her tense heart could finally start to rx.

    Xu Qing smiled and tousled her hair, then looked in the direction of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Although only a few days had passed, it seemed more like years for Xu Qing. Finally being able to return prompted a sigh of relief to escape his lips.

    Striding into the medicine shop, the Captain loudly said, ¡°I¡¯m back, Little Spritey! Get that big booty of yours out here and give me a hug!¡±

    Nethersprite was currently squatted down next to the stove boiling some water. For the past few days, she¡¯d finally been able to calm down a bit, but as soon as she heard Erniu¡¯s voice, a wave of revulsion exploded in her.

    <i>Sooner orter I¡¯m going to eat that slutty Ox alive!!</i>

    The Heir Apparent grinned. He really loved theforting atmosphere of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Sitting down at his usual spot, he picked up his cup and took a sip of tea.

    The parrot immediately flew over and sat on the Heir Apparent¡¯s shoulder. Looking down at his mostly featherless body, the parrot grumbled, ¡°Grandpa, I ran into some more bad guys recently. It was hard to say who exactly they were. They used a bag to grab me! It was outrageous. They didn¡¯t beat me or anything, they just plucked out all my feathers!¡±

    Ning Yan kept his head bowed as he scrubbed the floor with increasing vigor. However, after only swiping the rag back and forth a few times, he noticed Xu Qing. He stopped, a quizzical expression appeared on his face.

    ¡°Biggest Bro, w-why... why do you seem so different from before?¡±

    Ning Yan¡¯s words caused Wu Jianwu to look more closely at Xu Qing. Li Youfei did the same. Both were somewhat confused, as nothing about Xu Qing struck them as being very different, though he did have a bit more of a sparkle on him. Ling¡¯er was also curious about what Ning Yan meant. The Captain chuckled proudly.

    Xu Qing grinned but didn¡¯t say anything. After looking around the shop, he noticed the chickens in the back.

    ¡°They just showed up one day,¡± Ling¡¯er said quietly.

    Xu Qing nodded. As everyone looked on, he walked into the back room. After sitting down cross-legged, he took a deep breath and thought back to everything he¡¯d experienced. Then he closed his eyes and took time to study his authority and his violet moon god trove.

    <i>Right now, I could use the violet moon god trove by itself to crush a dao begetting foe.... But I still can¡¯t get the taboo poison into my gaze. It would only work if I let the godliness take over. However, my authority seems to have other uses....</i>

    <i>What¡¯s more, the fleshly body strength, plus my violet moon power turned into a god trove, makes all of my other nascent souls a bit underwhelming. And that could lead to problems. I need to upgrade my other nascent souls as quickly as possible. If I somehow end up in that same state as before and start absorbing everything, they could end up damaged or worse.</i>

    ***

    Seven dayster, the Heir Apparent said that it was time to leave. Before departing, he gave Xu Qing a dull gray ball made of some sort of metal.

    ¡°Use your violet moon power to tie this metal sphere around your waist. Don¡¯t take it off unless absolutely, positively necessary.¡±

    As Xu Qing epted the ball, he studied it briefly. There was something familiar about it that he couldn¡¯t ce. The moment he sped his fingers around it, a boundless and indescribable force erupted from within it. It was suddenly so heavy that Xu Qing¡¯s hand sank down, and his entire body trembled.

    A momentter, Xu Qing instinctively released the power of his god body. Rumbling sounds echoed out, and a sixty-meter-tall projection appeared in the middle of the backyard. Only being bolstered in that manner could Xu Qing manage to sessfully hold up the metal sphere. Of course, the weight of the ball wasn¡¯t being sustained just by his body. He also had his nascent souls and his actual soul to share the weight. Even still, that weight was so great that Xu Qing immediately started sinking down into the rocky surface of the mountain.

    Cracks spread out in the ground around him until he was nearly down to his waist. The chickens scattered in terror, leaving behind a cloud of feathers. Xu Qing was visibly moved.

    Now he realized what this metal sphere was. It was the very same sun that he and the Captain had dredged up out of the Yin Sacrifice River. And the Heir Apparent had been inside of it.

    ¡°This...¡± Xu Qing said, inhaling sharply. He looked at the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°I¡¯m loaning the thing to you while we travel. You can¡¯t use your god body to share the weight. You can only use the violet moon power to hang it on your waist. Going forward, use the violet moon power and your other nascent souls to carry it. That will ensure that your violet moon power doesn¡¯t get out of control. And with your other nascent souls working hard, your cultivation base will improve slowly but surely.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll wait for you outside the entrance of the shop. You take your time to walk out. Control your strength otherwise you¡¯ll destroy the shop. And I¡¯m not helping you in any way.¡±

    sping his hands behind his back, the Heir Apparent walked out the main entrance.

    Outside, there was now another person standing next to the exit in addition to Wu Jianwu. He was an old man, tall and burly, with dignified features. He almost looked like a door god. His extraordinary aura spread out, and his eyes contained numerous dao lineaments swirling about. Shockingly, that was the sign of the first stage of Void Returning. However, this Void Returning expert was d in the rough hemp garment of a shopkeeper¡¯s assistant. And he seemed to be sticking very close to Wu Jianwu.

    As Wu Jianwu attempted to avoid even looking at him, the old man opened his mouth and solemnly said, <i>¡°Pills, pills, pills; you¡¯re like a catkin in the hills....¡±</i>

    He sounded sorrowful and even hopeless as he spouted the poetry. Then the old man noticed the Heir Apparent walking out. A tremor passed through him, and he wiped the grief off his face and reced it with respect. Feeling terrified, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Senior!¡±

    The Heir Apparent snorted coldly. Ignoring the old man, he floated up into the air and waited for Xu Qing.

    Wu Jianwu blinked a few times and then ferventlyunched into some more poetry.

    Trembling in fear, the old man repeated every line of Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry. He couldn¡¯t help but think back to what happened three days ago....

    Less than a week ago, he was still the number one rogue cultivator in the Bitter Life Mountains. People respectfully called him Patriarch Inkrule, and he was one of the main points of contact for the Red Moon Cathedral in this area.

    Given that the red moon was about to rise, he had decided that he needed to finally join the Red Moon Cathedral. But everything changed after he sent his apprentice to scout the Green Spirit Pharmacy, only for him to go missing.

    Given his experience in life, he knew that there was more to the Green Spirit Pharmacy than met the eye. But even he, the type of person who would <i>seek revenge over the smallest grievance</i>, decided to avoid the area, especially given that Li Youfei had been spotted. He didn¡¯t even go personally to look for his missing apprentice.

    Instead, he used a type of magic avable in the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple to try to find out what was going on. Never could he have imagined that, before he could even finish using that special magic, he would suddenly lose consciousness. When he woke up, he was in the backyard of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, in the form of a chicken. That was where he found his apprentice....

    Of course, the entire experience terrified him. After all, he had been unleashing that special magic from within the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple. And yet that hadn¡¯t stopped the gruish event from unfolding.

    He was even more astonished when heid eyes on the Heir Apparent. It only took a nce for him to know he was dealing with a living Smoldering God, which caused a boundless tempest to smash into his mind like an ocean of lightning.

    After that, he had begged and pleaded until a girl named Ling¡¯er mentioned that they could use another host at the front door. And thus, he became the Green Spirit Pharmacy¡¯s second host.

    As Patriarch Inkrule groveled, Xu Qing struggled to extricate himself from the ground in the backyard. He was very careful in how he did it. After some hard work, he managed to get his foot back up and not shatter the ground. It was a very simple action, but given his current state, it was extremely difficult. The metal sphere was astoundingly heavy.

    In the moments that passed, Xu Qing forced himself to limate. He also forced his nascent souls to get used to the weight. After that, he slowly reined in his god body, shrinking down from a height of sixty meters down to thirty.

    The more he shrank down, the less he was able to distribute the weight. And thus, a momentter, creaking sounds echoed in his body before the ground shattered beneath his feet and he sank down. Ashen-faced, he struggled back out of the ground. His violet moon nascent soul was doing fairly well, but his other twelve nascent souls hurt so badly they felt like they might copse. That was especially true of the golden crow.

    After taking a moment to get used to the sensation, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly. <i>This method actually works pretty well.</i>

    As long as it was effective, he was willing to persist. He continued to work hard for another two hours. At that point, he feltfortable shrinking his body down to about fifteen meters. Rumbling sounds echoed out loudly.

    Xu Qing disappeared, and the spot where he had been standing was now a crater.

    Things continued like that until nighttime. Xu Qing had sunk down into the ground many times. But along the way, he managed to get his body back to normal size.

    With the metal sphere hanging from his waist, he was able to lurch forward like a wooden marite. He had to focus all of his strength to take even a single step, and sweat flowed down him in rivulets.

    In the end, he managed to slowly walk through the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Every step he took caused the ce to creak, and sent dust flying about. Ling¡¯er, Ning Yan, Nethersprite, and everyone else watched with mouths agape. Eventually, he reached the front door, leaving behind a series of footsteps and a lot of cracks in the floor. The stove used to boil the water had fallen over, and part of Ling¡¯er¡¯s counter was crushed. Ning Yan looked furious. After all, he was in charge of keeping the floor clean....

    Xu Qing looked at him apologetically, then struggled to keep walking. As more rumbling sounds filled the air, he managed to walk outside. Behind him, the creaking sounds grew even more loud. Clearly, the Green Spirit Pharmacy was now tilted a bit to the side.

    ¡°Senior,¡± Xu Qing said, his facepletely expressionless.

    The Heir Apparent nced at the shop, smiled, and then turned to leave. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent casually leaving, and started walking after him. Loud thumps rang out with each step. The ground trembled, and surrounding buildings rocked back and forth. Deep footsteps appeared in the street....

    ¡°Senior, where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Not far,¡± the Heir Apparent answered. ¡°We¡¯re going to see someone here in the Bitter Life Mountains that you¡¯ve met before. My third sister. This is where she chose to settle down and heal. She recently reached out to me to exin that some flies have been buzzing around bothering her. I told her not to kill them. They¡¯ll be perfect to test out the limits of your authority.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had long been wondering why the Heir Apparent had wanted toe to the Bitter Life Mountains. He had guessed that there had to be another reason besides tempering Xu Qing. Hearing the exnation wasn¡¯t much of a shock.

    However, he still wondered... why was everyone so focused on the Bitter Life Mountains? The Captain. Princess Brightblossom. What was so special about this ce?

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t fly in the air. He could only struggle forward on foot. Sometimes he ran into ces where the ground wasn¡¯t very solid, and he sank down....

    In fact, that had just happened a moment ago, prompting the Heir Apparent to squat at the edge of the resulting pit and assess the situation.

 Chapter 625: Yesterdayâ€™s Youth, A Thing of the Past

    <h4>Chapter 625: Yesterday¡¯s Youth, A Thing of the Past</h4>

    ¡°Fell down again, huh?¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly from the side of the pit.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. Looking around, he saw that he was in an empty mansion grotto. The ce had long since been abandoned. There were mansion grottoes like this throughout the Bitter Life Mountains. Most were ces that cultivators had hewn out over the years as ces of refuge. Looking at the mountains from a distance, you would never notice them. But because Xu Qing was so heavy, it was easy for him to break through the ceilings of such ces.

    ¡°There are a lot of caves like this in these mountains. It looks like you¡¯re going to be doing plenty of climbing on this journey.¡±

    When the Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing, he seemed very rxed. It was almost as if seeing Xu Qing in this bedraggled state was somehowforting to him. The truth was that it reminded him of his own childhood, when his father would have him walk around with a sun tied at his waist.

    <i>He just needs that hat.</i>

    The only difference was that when he was a kid, he would have the sun at his waist and a special hat to add weight to his soul. Seeing Xu Qing without such a hat left him sighing inside.

    Xu Qing looked up at the Heir Apparent for a moment, then used his violet moon power and the strength of his other nascent souls to bear the weight of the sun. Bit by bit, he climbed back out into the open. Xu Qing felt like he was expending every bit of effort possible to ascend skyward. But because of the power of the sun, the weight he bore was so incredible that he could barely stand up straight. Xu Qing was not unfamiliar with situations like that.

    Back when he was in the Corrections Division in Sea-Sealing County, he had experienced something simr. The only difference was that he had been dealing with the pressure of a minor world. [1]

    One might think that something called a ¡®minor world¡¯ would actually weigh more than the little metal sphere. But Xu Qing was now personallying to realize that it was the exact opposite.

    It made him think about what the Captain had told him about the history of this sun. It was the first artificial sun created in the Moonrite Region, in the era when the Imperial Sovereign ruled the ce. Countless years had passed since then, and there were no records indicating who created it originally.

    The Heir Apparent watched as Xu Qing finally dragged himself out of the ground, then said, ¡°Take advantage of the pressure of that thing. It was a toy given to me by an Ancient Emperor of the time.¡±

    Xu Qing nced down at the metal sphere at his waist. ¡°Senior, other than weight and pressure, what else can it do?¡±

    The Heir Apparent stood and started walking away. ¡°Back then, when it was just a heavenly body, it had other powers. It could tap into the power of the immortal that covered the Revered Ancient maind, and use it to unleash heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. But nowadays...? After the Ancient Emperors left, the immortal copsed, and it became a lot weaker.¡±

    His voice thrummed with reminiscence and ancient time. Xu Qing started following, one booming step after another. The wind blew as they walked off into the distance, carrying their voices and surrounding them.

    ¡°Senior, someone told me that the ces the Ancient Emperors went off to are called holynds?¡±

    ¡°Do the hiding spots of cowards deserve to be called holy? The Ancient Emperors... got old. And when you get old, you cling to life.¡±

    ¡°Oh. In that case, where did the cowards go?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! Every year on the twelfth day of the sixth month of the human calendar, look into the sky toward the north. You¡¯ll notice an unusual star there. That¡¯s where you¡¯ll find one of the cowardnds, the one closest to Revered Ancient.¡±

    ¡°How many cowardnds are there?¡±

    ¡°In the year they departed, there were as many of them as there were Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns who left. Including the ones from all of the countless species that existed, there were probably over a hundred. The Ancient Emperors even offered one to my father, but he refused to ept it.¡±

    As the night deepened, booming sounds rang out, and the conversation continued between the old man and the young one.

    Eventually, dawn arrived.

    The red moon continued to cast its light over the horizon. It felt like the countdown to death. However, at least there was some light in the canopy of heaven over the Moonrite Region. The only downside was that it was blood-colored light. When the magical light sources that were used during the day in the Bitter Life Mountains were lit, they now were tinged with red.

    Within that faint light, it was possible to see that there was a very unique mountain at the far end of the mountain range. It was roughly the same height as all the other mountains, and was connected to them as well. However, upon nearing, Xu Qing came to realize that it actually wasn¡¯t a mountain. It was a gigantic, petrified tree. Everything beneath the crown of the tree was buried in the desert sands. As for the crown itself, it had been filled in with so much sand and rock that it looked like a mountain.

    Looking at the gigantic tree which was now a mountain, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°It¡¯s a joytravel tree, and is actually an ancient mutant beast. There are a lot of trees like this in this region, but most people don¡¯t notice them. And fewer people know that this specific tree was actually nted by my third sister. I was with her to bear witness to that. But now... everything and everyone from that time are gone. And the tree has been dead for years.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the distant tree and noticed some cultivators in red robes flying around it in circles. They almost looked like flies. Most were Nascent Soul cultivators, with only one in dao begetting, and one in full Spirit Trove. They were obviously from the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple in the Bitter Life Mountains.

    ¡°There was a Void Returning godherald, but my third sister most likely ate him already. The others are here for you to test out your authority. I hope that you can have them taken care of before my third sister and Ie out.¡±

    The Heir Apparent blurred, then vanished.

    Xu Qing looked at the metal sphere at his waist, then closed his eyes. Circting the power of the violet moon, he forced numerous droplets of blood out of his skin, until they were swirling around him in a blood-colored vortex. As the vortex spun, it surrounded him, eventually turning into an expanding blood-coloredke that started moving forward.

    Wherever it passed, boulders would shatter, and trees would be stained red. The bloodke emanated something gruish and inauspicious in all directions. It was shocking and ghastly, and immediately attracted the attention of the cathedral cultivators.

    ¡°What is that thing?!¡±

    All of them began to tremble to varying degrees. It was an instinctual reaction that came from their life force, and also the source of their faith. What was more, it affected their own internal blood flow.

    Their blood... went out of control! It was as if their blood had a will of its own and wanted to break free. If their hearts wanted to stop that blood, their hearts would be shattered. If their flesh wanted to stop it, their flesh would be shredded. If their souls wanted to stop it, their souls would be eradicated.

    It was as if, at this moment, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be looked at directly!

    Therefore, the moment that the group of cathedral cultivators looked at him, the roughly dozen Nascent Soul experts let loose bloodcurdling screams. Then, popping sounds rang out as cracks spread out over their bodies, out of which sprayed masses of blood. That blood almost seemed to be cheering as it shot toward the blood-coloredke.

    The cathedral cultivators instinctively started backing up and trying to take back control of their blood. Such efforts failed, and their bodies continued cracking apart. From a distance, it looked like the sky was filled with blood-colored flower petals.

    Among those cultivators was an old man in the dao begetting phase. His face was a mask of astonishment as he felt himself trembling, and the blood inside him going crazy.

    The middle-aged godservant with a fully formed secret trove had a look of unprecedented seriousness on his face.

    As they backed up, the blood-coloredke rose up into the air. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it then flew forward. Every drop of blood in theke had Xu Qing¡¯s face in it. And those countless faces formed a muchrger face that looked around apathetically. At the same time, a god trove appeared.

    It immediately crushed the cathedral cultivators.

    Howls of anguish rang out as the Nascent Soul cultivatorspletely failed to prevent their blood from spraying out. Seemingly endless volumes of blood flowed out of their eyes, ears, noses, mouths, and pores. Once outside of them, the blood turned into sharp des.

    Those countless des then turned on the dao begetting old man and the middle-aged Spirit Trove cultivator. The two of them looked around with numb terror. Both of them attempted to flee.

    Unfortunately, there was a massive difference between dao begetting and Spirit Trove. The Spirit Trove cultivator summoned his secret trove, which expanded outward. His heavenly dao roared, altering the magicalws around him. Then he tried to break free.

    Deafening booms rang out as the Spirit Trove cultivator managed to smash through the des.

    The dao begetting old man was too slow. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded. He fought viciously, and summoned his illusory secret trove. But it did no good. The sea of blood around him became a rapidly spinning vortex that sucked him inside. Terrified, the old man performed incantation gesture after incantation gesture, and even used magical devices. Nothing worked! The boundless and unfathomable blood sea swept over him. Then the blood burrowed into him, provoking a miserable scream to erupt from his mouth. From a distance, it was an appalling sight!

    A momentter, the sea of blood vanished, havingpletely burrowed into the old man. He shivered, and his eyes shone with despair. Apparently, his body couldn¡¯t contain all of that, as he exploded a momentter.

    The blood rushed back out into the open, turning into the apathetic face of Xu Qing. The face turned to look at the Spirit Trove cultivator.

    <i>This is probably going to be a tough fight. I wonder how I match up to a cultivator with a full secret trove. I guess I¡¯m going to find out!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart thrummed with the desire to do battle. As the sea of blood spread out and his god trove pulsed with destructive power, he raced toward the Spirit Trove enemy.

    ***

    Inside the joytravel tree, two pairs of eyes were looking outside. They were currently in a massive cave temple. Numerous roots spread out into the cave, where they clumped together in midair to form a cocoon. Dazzling light shone out through the many cracks on the surface of the cocoon, painting the entire area in bright color.

    The Heir Apparent stood next to the shining cocoon. Smiling, he said, ¡°Third Sister, you saw a lot of chosen throughout the years. What do you think about this quasi-apprentice of mine?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s your apprentice?¡± a cold voice replied from within the cocoon. ¡°Did he agree to actually address you as Master? Given how old you are, why are you still going around trying to steal other people¡¯s apprentices? Are you that shameless?¡±

    There were very few people who qualified to speak to the Heir Apparent like that, but one of them was his third sister. The Heir Apparent wasn¡¯t taken aback by her words. She was his big sister, so she was supposed to be cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve taught him a thing or two already. And I helped him a lot. In order to help improve his cultivation base, I even gave him a little gift.¡± The Heir Apparent continued to smile approvingly as he watched Xu Qing fighting.

    ¡°You call that a gift?¡± the cold voice said. A momentter, the shining cocoon exploded, and a figure emerged. That figure immediately left the mountain, appearing in midair just in front of the Spirit Trove cultivator Xu Qing was pursuing.

    The Spirit Trove cultivator didn¡¯t even have time to react when a delicate and beautiful finger suddenly appeared and touched his forehead. Rumbling sounds rang out and a tremor passed through the Spirit Trove cultivator. Then he transformed into a tree, which rapidly grew taller until it produced a fruit.

    Xu Qing in his sea-of-blood form stopped. Then he formed back into his normal shape, and he looked hesitantly at the woman in front of him.

    She had a face so beautiful it could topple kingdoms, but within that graceful elegance was a radiant, heroic spirit. Her cheeks were as rosy as the sunset, and her hair was bound into a simple bun adorned with a few glistening pearls. Those pearls, despite their beauty, couldn¡¯tpare to her sparkling eyes. They glimmered like stars, were as azure blue as the sky, and seemed capable of captivating generation after generation of admirers. It was no exaggeration to say that her physical appearance was like that of flowers blooming in spring, while her spirit was like the autumn frost on the leaves of a tree.

    She reached out her fair hand to pluck the fruit off the Spirit Trove tree. With a nce at the Heir Apparent, who had followed her out, she handed the fruit to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Now this is a gift,¡± she said. ¡°I was in a bit of a rushst time, sweetie, so I didn¡¯t have anything ready. This time, allow me to give you this gift to mark our meeting.¡±

    1. Xu Qing first felt the ¡®weight¡¯ of the Corrections Division¡¯s minor world in <u>chapter 429</u>-<u>431</u>. He started to train in that environment in chapter in <u>434</u>, and that process went on for a while. ?

 Chapter 626: Fourth Dollyâ€™s Lost and Wonâ€™t Come Back Again!

    <h4>Chapter 626: Fourth Dolly¡¯s Lost and Won¡¯t Come Back Again!</h4>

    Xu Qing looked hesitantly at the fruit, and then at the peerlessly beautiful young woman offering it to him. Given that the Heir Apparent was with her, it was easy to guess who she was. However, it was hard to match up what he was seeing in front of him with what he had seen back in the northern ice ins.

    The difference was staggering. What was more, he had just been bracing himself for a big fight with a Spirit Trove expert. But now....

    Xu Qing looked at the fruit, stowed any questions he had, and respectfully epted it.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior.¡±

    Things were fine this way as well.

    Princess Brightblossom nodded slightly. She had already taken a liking to this young man. One reason was that her little brother approved of him. The other was that she knew he had yed a key role in freeing her from captivity.

    She was the type of person who <i>knew whom to show gratitude to, and whom to feel resentment against</i>. And thus, she just couldn¡¯t bear to watch the results of her little brother¡¯s so-called ¡®tempering¡¯ and ¡®gift-giving.¡¯

    The Heir Apparent looked vaguely irritated. He had been hoping to temper Xu Qing further, only to have his third sister take charge and do this. In the end, all he could do was smile.

    ¡°Well, I guess we should get going now,¡± he said, looking at his third sister.

    Princess Brightblossom looked at the Heir Apparent, and the doddering form he had assumed, and sighed inwardly. Though she knew what her little brother really looked like, she could also tell that this form was a manifestation of how he actually felt about himself.

    <i>He used to be the elegant, charming, and famous Heir Apparent of an Imperial Sovereign.... But now, we¡¯re both old. Our best years were spent sealed and unable to see the sun in the sky.</i>

    Princess Brightblossom shook her head and changed her appearance so that she looked like a kindly old grandma. ¡°That medicine shop you¡¯ve been staying at seems like a nice ce.¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled. ¡°The Green Spirit Pharmacy is indeed a very cozy little shop.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom suddenly looked thoughtful.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, blinked a few times. Looking at the grandpa and grandma in front of him, he was suddenly getting the feeling that it wouldn¡¯t be long before the Green Spirit Pharmacy acquired yet another elderly shopkeeper. The idea of an ordinary medicine shop being home to two Smoldering Gods... left Xu Qing feeling a bit dazed.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Princess Brightblossom said coolly. ¡°We¡¯ll head to the spots you mentioned where Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib were sealed. After what we did at the cathedral, the restraints on their souls should have been broken. Now we can summon them to us.¡±

    She started walking.

    The Heir Apparent hurried after her, beckoning at Xu Qing toe along.

    Xu Qing brought up the rear, a strange expression on his face as he realized he¡¯d made an error in judgment. It looked like the Green Spirit Pharmacy might not have two Smoldering Gods around. It might have four.

    <i>Wait, how many brothers and sisters is the Heir Apparent going to free?</i>

    Despite his level of willpower, that thought caused him to shiver and subconsciously look in the direction of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Back when he first established the little medicine shop, he could never have imagined... that something like this could happen.

    The three of them made their way off into the distance. Up in the air were ¡®grandpa¡¯ and ¡®grandma,¡¯ while Xu Qing walked.

    The desert floor was so soft that Xu Qing had to be extremely careful with every step he took, lest he sink down into the ground. If he did end up sinking down, the sand would almost suck him down, making it even harder to climb back out.

    The Heir Apparent seemed younger when he was around his sister. Now he behaved more like a crafty street urchin who never tired of observing Xu Qing. Princess Brightblossom watched for a few days. At a certain point, she finally waved her hand to drag Xu Qing out of a spot where he¡¯d sunk down into the sand.

    Xu Qing looked a bit embarrassed. He had been struggling for about four hours to free himself.

    ¡°You¡¯re such a good kid! I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re being tormented like this!¡± She red in dissatisfaction at the Heir Apparent, who was about to speak. Before he could, she continued, ¡°Is this supposed to be like how father used to punish you, back in the day? That metal sphere looks familiar. Is it the same one father would strap to your waist?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent. He had also noticed how the Heir Apparent would always watch closely when he struggled to climb out of the ground, his eyes full of reminiscence and even happiness.

    The Heir Apparentughed heartily and changed subjects. ¡°Third Sister, the spot where Fifth Sister is sealed is very unique. Different from us. Let me go ahead to check the situation.¡±

    As Princess Brightblossom helped Xu Qing to his feet, she nodded. ¡°How is it unique?¡±

    ¡°Fifth sister isn¡¯t sealed in this reality,¡± the Heir Apparent said, sounding very serious. Voice hoarse, he continued, ¡°She¡¯s imprisoned inside of a nursery rhyme.¡±

    Hearing that, Princess Brightblossom looked thoughtful. Meanwhile, Xu Qing thought back to all of the things he had experienced and was certain this was the first time he had ever heard of someone being trapped in a nursery rhyme.

    ¡°Down south at the foot of Mount Eternal Centipede, there¡¯s a little vige. The vige existed a really, really long time ago. It ended up being wiped out, bing a vige of the dead. Every once in a while, it shows up again. And there¡¯s a nursery rhyme from that vige....

    ¡°Fifth Sister is trapped inside of that nursery rhyme. If the time everes in which no one in the world remembers that nursery rhyme, she¡¯ll die. Except, our little godchild brother wants to torment her, not kill her. So he makes sure to always have people around who remember the nursery rhyme.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, he borrowed the power of Crimson Mother to make sure that every single time the nursery rhyme is repeated, Fifth Sister sustains serious injuries. It¡¯s the same type of pain as having your flesh and blood consumed. As for why he picked this specific vige, it¡¯s because... her bloodline still survives there. Everyone living in the vige is one of her descendants.¡±

    Xu Qing was visibly moved.

    Princess Brightblossom said nothing, but her eyes shimmered with fury and grief. There was something the Heir Apparent hadn¡¯t spoken out loud, and she knew what it was. The godchild had ensured that the meat consumed by the residents of that vige over the years was actually the flesh and blood of Fifth Sister.

    The Heir Apparent maintained silence for a long moment.

    A sensation of grief filled the silence. As they continued on their way, Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t say anything further. Nor did the Heir Apparent. The three of them left the Greenhair Bands. In fact, they left the entire county, eventually departing the west and going to the south of the Moonrite Region.

    Ordinary cultivators probably couldn¡¯t make that journey in a lifetime without using teleportation portals. But the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were able to make the journey in a day. And that was because they had to take care of Xu Qing. Otherwise, they could have done it in the blink of an eye.

    Their destination was in an area of endless jungle, much of it filled with an air of rot, defeat, and death.

    In the depths of the jungle, Xu Qing spotted a very unusual mountain. It was a few thousand meters tall, and looked like a giant centipede, rearing back and snapping its jaws at heaven. The centipede¡¯s feelers were all inly visible; it was extremely lifelike. The moment Xu Qingid eyes on it, he felt something ferocious well up in his heart. He sensed something fiendish, as well as a rancorous energy that had been umting for countless years.

    This was the Mount Eternal Centipede that the Heir Apparent had mentioned. The sky here was filled with dark clouds, which were formed by the never-ending umtion of rancorous energy. asionally, lightning bolts snapped through the clouds, releasing loud thunderps. It was like the howling rage of all the living beings in the area, screaming defiantly.

    Built into the foot of the mountain was a vige surrounded by a rickety fence. It wasn¡¯t a veryrge ce. The buildings that made it up were all gray, and looked inauspicious. The ground was dirty. Apparently, this ce was so isted from the world, and the rumbling of the thunder was so intimidating, that outsiders never came here. As a result, the residents were rtively numb to life. The treacherous terrain that surrounded the vige made the ce bleak and deste. As the years passed by, the ce seemed to sink further and further into decay.

    There were children.... However, the natural disposition of children ensured that they didn¡¯t act like the parents. They took the angry lightning bolts to be fireworks, and just ran around jumping andughing, all while reciting a nursery rhyme. Although there were only five children, the sound of their voices drifted gruishly far away from them.

    <i>¡°There was once a big dolly; with a bunch of little dollies; ten little dollies one two three; bloodshot eyes with hair gray and dusty; one day they didn¡¯t say a word to me; the big kids looked around and yelled for mommy; the little kids shouldn¡¯t think it¡¯s that scary....</i>

    <i>¡°Then suddenly something happened when; big dolly got sick and second dolly tended him; third dolly bought meds and fifth dolly prepped them; sixth dolly died and seventh dolly grinned; eighth dolly dug a pit and ninth dolly jumped in; tenth dolly asked why they were cryin¡¯...</i>

    <i>¡°Fourth dolly¡¯s lost and won¡¯te back again!¡±</i>

    As the sound of the nursery rhyme drifted about, it seemed to contain a bizarre power that ensured it could be heard despite the booming thunder. As a result, it easily reached the ears of Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent, and Princess Brightblossom, who were now standing at the entrance to the vige.

    Mixed emotions could be seen on the princess¡¯ face. The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes were closed to cover the pain within them. Xu Qing sighed deep in his heart.

    The Imperial Sovereign had five daughters and ten sons, and as was the custom in imperial regimes, they were ranked, the males among the males, the females among the females.

    The nursery rhyme was obviously talking about the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s ten sons. As for the fourth... Xu Qing already knew that he was the godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    The ¡®big dolly¡¯ had to be the Heir Apparent.

    From the expression on the Heir Apparent¡¯s face, Xu Qing could only guess that in the past... he really had fallen ill. Although he couldn¡¯t be sure what sickness he was afflicted with, it seemed highly likely to have something to do with Crimson Mother and the red moon.

    <i>¡°Why did fourth dolly run away in his youth? Big dolly is the one who knows the whole truth! He knows the whole truth!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked quietly at the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent opened his eyes, looked at the vige, and quietly said, ¡°Fifth Sister¡¯s soul is already awake. The way to get her free is... for you, Third Sister, to use your authority to take the traces of all the people who have lived here through the years and manifest projections of them. We need all of the nursery rhymes that have been repeated throughout history to be heard at the same time.

    ¡°Xu Qing, the process will require help from your violet moon power. It¡¯s the key to unlocking the seal.

    ¡°I will do everything in my power to alter the perceptions of heaven and earth, and hide all fluctuations for at least ten breaths of time. I¡¯m confident that as long as we don¡¯t go for longer than that, the Red Moon Cathedral won¡¯t detect what¡¯s going on.

    ¡°However, we¡¯ll only have ten breaths of time.¡±

    The Heir Apparent turned to look at Princess Brightblossom.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough time,¡± she said. Walking forward, she pointed at the vige. Instantly, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Screaming winds rose up. The thunder in the dome of heaven ceased.

    A river of time appeared, sweeping through the vige. The waters churned, and waves sshed. Foam sprayed everywhere. At the same time, countless figures appeared.

    Any person who had been born in this ce had been dredged up out of time by Princess Brightblossom. More and more people filled the vige. After three breaths of time, the ce was packed. The current inhabitants of the vige all walked out of their houses, nk looks in their eyes.

    This was a gathering of living people and souls of the past. Rumbling sounds shook everything as the river of time gurgled. Then words echoed out that came from both life and death, both past and present.

    <i>¡°There was once a big dolly; with a bunch of little dollies....¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Then suddenly something happened when....¡±</i>

 Chapter 627: The Origin of the Doorites

    <h4>Chapter 627: The Origin of the Doorites</h4>

    When Princess Brightblossom extended her finger, causing the sound of time to ripple through the area, the Heir Apparent released his own authority.

    His was different from Brightblossom¡¯s, as it could alter perceptions. But it wasn¡¯t limited to the perceptions of living things. He could alter the fundamental attributes of natural and magicalws, and even tamper with the thinking of living beings. By transforming living things, influencing magicalws, and creating a grand illusion, he could ensure that even heavenly daos would overlook what was happening. Not even gods would pay attention.

    No one had any idea what was actually happening in this part of the Moonrite Region. That included the Red Moon Cathedral.

    It was a terrifying type of authority. The only downside was that, despite being a Smoldering God, the Heir Apparent could only use it for ten breaths of time. After that, it would cease to work. For most people, ten breaths of time wouldn¡¯t be sufficient.

    But it was more than enough time for Brightblossom. The river of time swirled out from her fingers, enveloping the vige. It was possible to see children within it, as well as adults and the elderly. They packed the vige, looking almost like a painting as they spread out. The nursery rhyme filled the air. To the senses, the moment seemed to stretch out. Although it seemed like ten breaths of time had already passed, in reality, only three had gone by.

    It was like a person taking a message andpressing it down to be delivered in only three breaths of time. It created a terrifying sensation of copse. If someone else was standing in the same spot as Xu Qing, and didn¡¯t have a god body or the sufficient cultivation base, their soul would shatter.

    Years ago, before the ninth of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s children was born, Princess Brightblossom had always been the most spectacr, to the point where she earned praise from Ancient Emperors.

    Xu Qing was deeply moved by what he was seeing.

    <i>Time... </i>he thought, his eyes shining. The chanting of all the souls became a cacophony. The nursery rhyme echoed out everywhere, causing an illusory image to form.

    It was the image of a young woman, her back to the crowd, her head bowed as if she were weeping. There appeared to be countless deceased soulstched onto her, gnawing away at her, mangling her flesh. There were also crimson iron chains binding her. She looked blurry, as did the chains, making it seem like she didn¡¯t exist in this world. She only existed in the nursery rhyme. Though she was visible, her image twisted and distorted so dramatically it looked like she wouldn¡¯t stay around for very long.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± said Princess Brightblossom.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing released the violet moon power within him, causing his red moon authority to skyrocket.

    Blood-colored light erupted from him, like countless streams of blood rising into the air. Princess Brightblossom waved her hand, and the blood shot toward the image formed from the nursery rhyme. In the blink of an eye, the blood-red color had spread out to cover everything. And the crying figure was now transforming from illusory to corporeal.

    In fact, right now, it seemed like the illusory and corporeal were ovepping. That caused fluctuations to spread out, shaking the surrounding image. The red chains started swaying back and forth violently, until cracking sounds rang out and they started to break.

    Finally, Princess Brightblossom stepped forward, entered the illusory image, and wrapped her arms around the crying figure.

    ¡°Don¡¯t cry, Fifth Sister. Your big sister¡¯s here to take you home.¡±

    Fifth Sister wept even more, trembling as she did. Then the crumbling chains exploded. All of the deceased souls howled in rage as they were wiped out of existence.

    Ten breaths of time had passed. The Heir Apparent vanished. Xu Qing disappeared. The image that had formed went away. It was as if the river of time hadn¡¯t existed to begin with. The souls it brought with it were nowhere to be seen. Everything was back to normal. The citizens in the vige looked around in confusion. However, their expression quickly became numb again.

    The only difference now was that the nursery rhyme being chanted by the children had changed.

    <i>¡°Little cloth dolly, little cloth dolly; big ol¡¯ eyes and hair like ebony; can you please juste along home with me?</i>

    <i>¡°Little cloth dolly, little cloth dolly; don¡¯t be scared of the lightning you see; justugh and smile for all eternity.¡±</i>

    ***

    The Doorites were a very unique species in the Moonrite Region. They didn¡¯t have an ancestralnd for their species. Whether or not a Doorite became an adult depended on whether or not they could find a personalized door in the Door Graveyard. If they did find one, then they would spend the rest of their life wandering the Moonrite Region with that door. They could do so until they went to every area possible in the region. That was their tradition. It was also their manner of living, and their method of cultivation.

    No one knew why the Doorites were like this. In fact, not even the Doorites understood it. They just acted on instinct.

    There was another unique thing about the Doorites. And that was... whenever Crimson Mother and the red moon came, they would be destroyed, but their doors would survive. When Crimson Mother came, their species reacted a lot more calmly than most other species. They would all return from their wanderings and gather in a specific location, where they would part ways with their doors.

    The location where they met was the Door Graveyard.

    It was arge valley in the east of the Moonrite Region. Most outsiders called the ce the Great Abyss. The reason was that the valley was shockingly wide, and so deep that no one really knew how far down the bottom was.

    Countless doors filled that valley. There wererge ones and small ones, made from every type of material, in every style imaginable. The entire ce was filled with a sensation of rot that would never be dispelled.

    Cultivators avoided the ce, the reason being that the valley and everything around it were filled with too many mysteries. A lot of people had gone missing there throughout the years.

    Just now, four figures had appeared on the cliff overlooking the valley. There were two grandmas and one grandpa. The fourth... was Xu Qing.

    It had been four days since they left Mount Eternal Centipede.

    The additional grandma in the group was much skinnier than Princess Brightblossom. She wore a ck robe, had prominent cheekbones, and didn¡¯t look kindly at all. Instead, she looked harsh and even mean. She also pulsed with a strong, forbidding aura. Whenever she looked at the Heir Apparent, she seemed even dourer. It was only when she looked at Princess Brightblossom that a trace of warmth could be found in her eyes. She was less surly with Xu Qing as well, and instead seemed like a member of the Senior generation, amiably looking at someone from the Junior generation.

    Xu Qing could sense that this ck-robed grandma wasn¡¯t used to kindly facial expressions, and that she was working hard to be nice to him.

    ¡°Eighth Sib is sealed here,¡± the Heir Apparent said. ¡°He was trapped in a very ancient door, which subsequently shattered into countless smaller pieces. That¡¯s where the Doorites came from. The Doorites themselves don¡¯t have an ancestralnd. But the doors do.

    ¡°Put precisely, the Doorites actually aren¡¯t the cultivators. They¡¯re these doors. And this is the ancestralnd of those doors. Every single door is a part of our eighth brother. And every time someone uses one of those doors to teleport somewhere, Eighth Sib¡¯s soul is drained a little bit more.

    ¡°That drainage creates an invisible karma that causes endless torment for eighth brother....¡±

    Princess Brightblossom looked down into the valley. Next to her, Fifth Sister snorted coldly andpletely ignored the Heir Apparent.

    Clearly the two of them had a long-standing conflict. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure about the details, but he¡¯d noticed that the Heir Apparent seemed to feel bad about it. Hearing the Heir Apparent¡¯s exnation made Xu Qing think back to the time when he came very close to paying for a Doorite teleportation. Now that he thought about it, he realized... that it was the Heir Apparent who had stopped him from doing that at the veryst moment. [1]

    ¡°Therefore, if we want to unseal Eighth Sib, we won¡¯t just need to rely on me and Third Sister. That alone wouldn¡¯t be enough to do it right.¡± Looking tenderly at Fifth Sister, he continued in a soft voice, ¡°Baby sister, we need the power of your authority....¡±

    The ck-robed grandma red coldly at the Heir Apparent. She didn¡¯t say anything. Princess Brightblossom sighed inwardly. Reaching out, she took hold of Fifth Sister¡¯s hand. The ck-robed grandma stood there quietly for a long moment before finally nodding.

    The Heir Apparent breathed an inward sigh of relief, and at the same time, his eyes lit up. Just like before, he would be responsible for masking all traces of their presence while Princess Brightblossom went into the valley to collect all the door fragments of her sealed eighth brother.

    ¡°I need a drop of that violet moon blood, sweetie,¡± Princess Brightblossom said, looking at Xu Qing.

    Without a moment of hesitation, Xu Qing used violet moon power to create a sea of blood. That would give her more than enough. His attitude made Princess Brightblossom smile. The ck-robed grandma secretly nodded in approval, and the kindliness she favored him with grew more sincere.

    With Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon blood, Princess Brightblossom went straight into the valley. The moment she was gone, the atmosphere on the cliff grew a lot colder.

    The ck-robed grandma didn¡¯t say a word. Not quite sure what to do or say, the Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been idle a lot recently, boy,¡± he said. ¡°Go back to the road. Don¡¯t use any of your violet moon power. You have to do it all on your own.¡±

    ¡°Like hell he will!¡± the ck-robed grandma snapped coldly.

    The Heir Apparent smiled wryly and looked at his fifth sister. ¡°Baby sist¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyebrows shot up in anger. But then he sensed how weak his younger sister was. Sighing, he turned his angry re onto Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and edged closer to the ck-robed grandma. Around that time, intense rumbling sounds echoed out from the valley, causing the surroundings to shake. The Heir Apparent gathered his thoughts, then waved his hand, covering over everything so that all signs of activity in the valley were masked.

    Meanwhile, the sound from the valley grew more intense. It almost sounded like countless howls of grief. Terrifying fluctuations built up, and the shaking grew more violent. Cracks appeared in the cliff face, causing rubble to rain down.

    Xu Qing was so surprised he felt a sense of crisis rising in him. He could only imagine what terrifying entities existed in that valley.

    That said, they didn¡¯t seem to count for much to Princess Brightblossom.

    A momentter, the fluctuations ceased. Princess Brightblossom appeared out of nowhere in front of them. She looked weak. In her hand was a palm-sized chunk of wood. She waved her hand, and it floated out into the air.

    ¡°The ancient door sealing Eighth Sib waspletely shattered, which makes it hard to put back together. I found this piece after scouring through the rubble down there and using my river of time. This was all I could do.¡±

    The fragment of wood emanated a sense of profound ancientness.

    Sensing it, Xu Qing looked over at the ck-robed grandma. He was very interested in seeing what her authority was like.

    The ck-robed grandma stared at the chunk of wood for a time. Then she reached out with a finger so wrinkled it seemed like it might never recover, she touched it. Instantly, she seemed to grow even older. However, the chunk of wood trembled and then started transforming. It grew longer, wider, and bigger. In a short five breaths of time, it transformed into an ancient door, standing tall in the world.

    The door frame was ck, while the door itself was white. It was covered withplex designs. And the design on the door itself formed a gray morning-glory flower. It was a bewitching-looking flower that seemed capable of shaking the soul. Pulses of ancient time flowed out, shattering the air and creating intense pressure. The moment the wooden door appeared, a loud knocking sound rang out.

    <i>Thunk-thunk. Thunk-thunk!</i>

    It rang out like heavenly thunder.

    Looking at Xu Qing, the ck-robed grandma said, ¡°My authority is not cultivated. Ites naturally. It can revive all living things, at a price. That I pay.¡±

    1. The Heir Apparent stopped Xu Qing from going through with the Doorite teleportation in <u>chapter 567.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 628: Nine Sons of the Dragon

    <h4>Chapter 628: Nine Sons of the Dragon</h4>

    Although the words ¡®can revive all things¡¯ were spoken with great apathy, they still struck Xu Qing to the core. That was especially true when thest part was added in about a price ¡®that I pay.¡¯ That added a level of tragedy that was difficult to put into words.

    The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s youngest daughter was born with a power of authority that was no blessing to her. She could use her own life force to ¡®revive all things.¡¯ It was extremely powerful, but also profoundly brutal. And it clearly had its limits.

    The Heir Apparent reached out and put his hand in front of Fifth Sister. That was what he had done since she was young. And not just him. All of the other siblings had that custom. That included Princess Brightblossom.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± the ck-robed grandma said coolly. ¡°I¡¯m not going to live much longer anyway.¡±

    The Heir Apparent frowned. Suddenly looking very majestic, he spoke in a domineering tone that he had avoided up to this point. ¡°Even if you don¡¯t live much longer, you still need to stay alive!¡±

    He smacked his hands together, sending out a stream of life force from himself to Fifth Sister.

    She shivered from head to toe as her aura grew clearly stronger. She looked at her older brother with aplicated expression, but held back from speaking.

    After Princess Brightblossom did the same thing, Xu Qing decided he should help too, so he produced a drop of violet moon blood.

    ¡°Yours won¡¯t be necessary,¡± the Heir Apparent said. He waved his hand, sending the drop of blood back to Xu Qing. After that, he flicked his sleeve, and they all disappeared along with the ck-and-white door.

    ***

    Three dayster, a vortex appeared somewhere in the Greenhair Bands. Xu Qing was inside, struggling to climb out. The weight of the sun was again making it very difficult for him to traverse the desert.

    This time, Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t pull him out. She, along with the Heir Apparent and Fifth Sister, were up in the air, seated cross-legged in front of the huge ck and white door.

    Clearly, the door wasn¡¯t going to open very easily. All three of them needed to continue drawing on their authority to make it happen. Thus, they hade to this spot, where the three Smoldering Gods all continued with their sorcery. Since none of them had interest to spare for Xu Qing at the moment, he decided to work on his cultivation.

    <i>This desert is actually the best ce for me to get used to this sun. If I can figure out how to walk around normally here, then things will be much easier once we¡¯re back in the Bitter Life Mountains.</i>

    <i>What¡¯s more, once I figure out walking, I should be able to start experimenting with flight! If I can figure out how to fly like normal, then I can upgrade my other nascent souls.</i>

    The fruit from that Spirit Trove expert had turned out to be a powerful tonic designed to push his cultivation base toward another breakthrough. However, the Heir Apparent had urged Xu Qing not to immediately consume the gift given to him by Princess Brightblossom.

    Until his nascent souls got used to the weight of the sun, eating the fruit would be a waste. Though it would help his nascent souls to a degree, it would be squandering a good opportunity for tempering.

    The process of getting used to the weight of the sun would bring out more of thetent potential in his nascent souls. The best option would be to push his nascent souls to their limit of growth, then use the fruit. Princess Brightblossom had not offered any disagreement to that suggestion. Because of that, Xu Qing was now immersed in cultivation.

    Before long, another three days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing worked day and night with his nascent souls. He tapped into everything they had to offer, and when he overdrew on their stores, he would sink down into the desert. Once in the depths of the sand, he would start the cultivation process over. It became a cycle. As of today, he was able to walk on the surface of the desert and only sink down by about one third of a meter.

    <i>That¡¯s my current limit. If I want to walk without sinking down, it¡¯s possible, but only for about two hours. Then my nascent souls will reach their limit, and need to recover for a time before I try again.</i>

    As he was pondering whether there was another way to do this, he suddenly heard a very loud knocking sound from up above. Although this wasn¡¯t the first time he had heard the knocking, this time it was much louder than before.

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven.

    The Heir Apparent and his two sisters all had their eyes open.

    ¡°Eight Sib¡¯s just as irascible as ever,¡± the Heir Apparent said, frowning. He looked at Princess Brightblossom. ¡°It¡¯s about time.¡±

    ¡°It seems he¡¯s still not fully conscious yet,¡± Princess Brightblossom said coolly, her facepletely expressionless. ¡°Let¡¯s just do the same thing we used to do when we were kids. Give him a good beating.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± the Heir Apparent said. His hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and he pointed at the door.

    Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister did the same.

    Upon seeing three Smoldering Gods take action, Xu Qing quickly hurried off into the distance. Given the conversation he¡¯d overheard, he didn¡¯t think it was a good idea to stay too close. As it turned out, he was exactly right.

    After he¡¯d run about five kilometers away, the knocking sound grew even more intense. It was as if some terrifying entity had turned the dome of heaven into a drum, and was repeatedly striking it.

    The deafening sound shattered the sand and caused cracks to appear in the air. However, there was something unique about the Greenhair Bands that was different from anything beyond its borders. For some reason, it naturally masked the fluctuations of the knocking.

    Xu Qing noticed that and came to the conclusion that it must be one of the reasons the Heir Apparent had chosen this spot.

    <i>Five kilometers might be a bit too close....</i>

    The power of the violet moon erupted, causing blood to spread out in a vortex around him and giving him a huge boost to speed.

    The Heir Apparent had not indicated for him to use violet moon power, but Xu Qing felt that it would be fine to use a little at this moment.

    Before long, Xu Qing was about 50 kilometers away. Feeling a bit more at ease, he turned around and looked at the sky in the distance. The limits of his eyesight made it so that he couldn¡¯t see the Heir Apparent and his sisters. But he could make out the huge door, which radiated scintiting light that shone into the sky and illuminated the surroundingnds.

    The knocking grew even more urgent and more shocking. Unexpectedly, it even affected Xu Qing¡¯s heart, causing it to pound beyond his control.

    As fear crept into Xu Qing¡¯s heart, he called on the authority provided by his violet moon power, causing the blood-colored vortex around him to fight back.

    Meanwhile, as the Heir Apparent and his sisters worked, the ck-and-white door emitted a piercing, grating sound as the door itself opened by a crack. Green mist rushed out from inside, as if the door had been sealed for so long that merely cracking it open allowed the energy inside to explode out.

    Now the sky had a green tinge, as did thends below. And as the mist proliferated, a burly, unclothed figure could just barely be seen inside. He threw his head back and roared. He clearly possessed stupefying power; despite how far away Xu Qing was, he could still sense it. It caused a burst of inexplicable rage to suddenly erupt in his heart. It was a fury beyond theparison of anything else.

    There didn¡¯t seem to be any reason for the sudden surge of emotion, as if it hade out of nowhere.

    It wasn¡¯t just Xu Qing. All of the wild beasts in the desert also experienced a sudden swell of rage. Even the normally docile sandworms were suddenly viciously angry.

    Everything was affected.

    Thankfully, the blood vortex spinning around Xu Qing allowed him to recover quickly. As he backed up again, he realized he now knew a bit about the authority wielded by the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s eighth son.

    ¡°Violent rage!¡± he murmured.

    Meanwhile, a cold harrumph could be heard off in the distance.

    ¡°What the hell are you howling for?¡± The Heir Apparent clenched his right hand into a fist. However, he seemed worried that the blow would be too much, so in the end, he only used a single finger. Everything around him rippled and distorted, and the howling figure suddenly stopped in ce and trembled underneath the sudden increase in pressure.

    But then the figure looked up, his expression fierce and full of even more rage than before.

    ¡°Give me¡ª¡±

    The burly figure¡¯s violent fury pulsed like massive waves, and it seemed to be building to a crescendo. However, that was when Princess Brightblossom frowned.

    ¡°Heir Apparent, you¡¯re being too soft.¡±

    She walked right up in front of the huge figure, reached out with her right hand, and pushed.

    The massive figure spasmed. Ripples and distortions spread through him, transforming him into a ball of flesh that mmed down onto the ground below.

    The ground vibrated as a huge crater appeared.

    Before the ball of flesh could struggle, Princess Brightblossom threw her hands apart, causing it to be ripped in two.

    A squelching sound could be heard as the two pieces separated, then sped in a circle and mmed loudly into each other. A rumbling shockwave swept out.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. The two parts of the ball of flesh hit each other with such force that they ripped apart again. This time, the ball turned into four pieces, which all circled around and then mmed into each other again. Next, eight pieces appeared. After that, sixteen. Then thirty-two....

    Meanwhile, Princess Brightblossom just stood there, her face expressionless as she waved her hand back and forth.

    The Heir Apparent stood by, chuckling softly. Fifth Sister had an uncharacteristic smile on her face, as if this scene brought back memories of good times in the past.

    Xu Qing watched with divine sense. He was now getting a much better idea of Princess Brightblossom¡¯s strength and style. Eventually, an anguished howl erupted from the ball of flesh, which had now been smashed into sixty-four pieces.

    ¡°Sis, I¡¯m awake! Stop hitting me! I¡¯m really awake!¡±

    Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t respond with a single word. She waved her hand again, causing a hundred and twenty-eight chunks of flesh to explode out in every direction. She seemed ready to continue, but the voice once again let loose a shout.

    ¡°Big Brother! Fifth Sister! Hurry up and tell Third Sister that this is my fault! I didn¡¯t have control before!¡±

    In response to the terrified cry, Princess Brightblossom snorted coldly. She waved her hand again, but instead of another explosion, the one hundred and twenty-eight pieces of flesh converged and took the shape of a burly young man. He was so muscr he looked like a small mountain. The violent rage from before was gone, and instead, he seemed ingratiating.

    Sounding very excited, the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s eighth son said, ¡°Big Brother! Third Sister! Fifth Sister! Is father awake now? Crimson Mother¡¯s been cut down, right? Hahaha! The old man is finally free!¡± But after looking up into the sky and sensing his surroundings, he looked stunned. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Father isn¡¯t awake? Crimson Mother is still around? Huh? And that red moon godchild too? What gall!¡±

    The burly young man suddenly noticed Xu Qing off in the distance. Eyes filling with violent rage, he instinctively reached out with his right hand and made a grasping gesture.

    Shocked, Xu Qing felt himself being locked in ce. In fact, it almost felt like the air around him was going to copse and crush him. Then he was wrenched through the air until he was right in front of the burly young man.

    ¡°That¡¯s your eldest brother¡¯s apprentice,¡± Princess Brightblossom said coolly, ¡°a benefactor who helped us free you.¡±

    A tremor passed through the burly young man. Suddenly moving with great tenderness, he put Xu Qing down and straightened out his clothing. Laughing heartily, he said, ¡°Well, hello, young friend!¡±

    His smile seemed both vicious and insane, especially when coupled with his bloodshot eyes and terrifying fluctuations. It reminded Xu Qing of the feeling he¡¯d experienced from the god¡¯s eye in the ghast hollow. He also felt a lot of pressure weighing down on him. [1]

    ¡°He¡¯s been muddle-headed since he was young,¡± the Heir Apparent exined. ¡°<i>Someone</i> beat him so badly it damaged his brain. Don¡¯t take offense, Xu Qing.¡±

    He extended his right hand in the direction of the ck-and-white door. It melted, flowing into his hand, where he kneaded it into a tall, gray hat. He tossed the hat to Xu Qing.

    ¡°This door started out as a gift from an Ancient Emperor to my father. A morning glory. It¡¯s an amazing thing. Wear it, and it will help temper your soul.¡±

    Xu Qing took it hesitantly, thought about it for a moment, then put it on his head. Rumbling sounds filled his soul, and he experienced the same feeling as when first epting the sun. The only difference was that it affected his soul this time. Xu Qing¡¯s vision blurred, his soul shook, and the world seemed to ovep in front of him. Even his divine sense trembled. He inhaled sharply, then gritted his teeth to try to get used to the sensation.

    Meanwhile, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°Third Sister. Eighth Sib. Baby Sister. This kid has a medicine shop near here. It¡¯s a really cozy ce. I¡¯d like to take you there for a bit.¡±

    1. The eye in the ghast hollow was in <u>chapter 369</u>. ?

 Chapter 629: Myriad Magics of Daybreak; Erniuâ€™s Big Event (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 629: Myriad Magics of Daybreak; Erniu¡¯s Big Event (part 1)</h4>

    In the Bitter Life Mountains, the blood-colored light spread from the horizon, indicating that the red moon wasing. As a result, living beings lost control over the wickedness in their hearts, allowing ughter and chaos to spread. However, there was one very small city on the edge of the mountains where things had been warm and weing from the very beginning. People smiled at each other without any sense of hostility. In fact, everyone seemed friendly.

    About half of the citizens were actually subordinates of Li Youfei. Because they knew of the Heir Apparent¡¯s magnanimity, they had stayed behind. The other half of the cultivators came from other locales.

    There were some outsiders who stormed into the city full of madness. However, after sensing the kind atmosphere of the ce, they rejected wicked thoughts and embraced the beauty.

    Looking around at the bustling streets, the Heir Apparent sighed. ¡°The coziness here is a tiny window into what things were like when my father was alive. All species lived in joy and harmony.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom, d in a white robe, looked at the crowds and nodded. She could tell that the Heir Apparent truly did like this ce.

    A gleam of reminiscence could be seen in Fifth Sister¡¯s eyes. Compared to being sealed for countless years of time, even just being back and able to see a small corner of the world brought a scrap of warmth to her cold heart.

    Meanwhile, the burly Eighth Sib wasn¡¯t able to keep his mouth shut. ¡°You call this ce cozy, big brother? Everything down to the des of grass here is full of your power. They all react ording to your moods. Every gust of the breeze. Every dancing de of grass....¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s expression turned down as he red in irritation at his Eighth Sib. Princess Brightblossom turned to look at him as well, her gaze cold. Even Fifth Sister was frowning at him. Thebined gazes of his three siblings caused the burly Eighth Sib to shiver and inhale sharply. Suddenly looking very ingratiating, he transformed his appearance into that of an old man.

    ¡°What a great ce! So cozy! I love it!¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, the Heir Apparent continued leading them through the city. Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister looked away. Eighth Sib breathed a sigh of relief.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, took note of the rtionship between these sons and daughters of an Imperial Sovereign.

    Princess Brightblossom ranks highest, but the Heir Apparent isn¡¯t far off from her. However, they both defer to Fifth Sister. And then there¡¯s Eighth Sib....

    He thought back to what he had seen with divine sense: Eighth Sib being beaten up.

    He must rank simrly to Ning Yan.

    With that in mind, he hurried forward to be close to Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister. As they got close to the Green Spirit Pharmacy, Xu Qing caught sight of Wu Jianwu and Patriarch Inkrule. A new type of poetry soon reached their ears.

    ¡°Ten heavens, nine earths, eight winds, seven seas, six daos, five elements, buy before we run out; oneing, two going, three pills, four peaces, five spirits, six ssics, no discounts but we¡¯ll still sell out!¡±

    During his time spent outside the Green Spirit Pharmacy recently, Wu Jianwu had been experimenting with many different forms of poetry. Histest creations were doing a good job of drumming up business from the passersby.

    Patriarch Inkrule had seemingly epted his fate. He stood there looking bored to death and spending most of his time trying toe up with a way to escape. Being a patient person, he hadn¡¯t done anything rash, and had instead been observing his surroundings closely. He had already started to notice some things he thought he could use to his advantage, and had been thinking hard about how to make them part of his n. When he noticed a group of people walking toward the medicine shop, he shivered and stered a servile look onto his face. Then, he prepared to copy some of Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry. However....

    That was when he realized that there were two old women walking with the Heir Apparent, one dressed in white, the other ck. Just looking at the white-robed grandma caused Patriarch Inkrule¡¯s mind to reel.

    Another Smoldering God?

    He started trembling, his heart full of disbelief. Then his gaze shifted to the second grandma, the one in ck. His mind reeled even further.

    That¡¯s another Smoldering God!

    Then Patriarch Inkrule looked at thest person in the group, who was a burly old man.

    And another....

    Patriarch Inkrule gulped in a breath and stopped breathing. None of this even seemed real. It was more like a dream. In fact, he actually wouldn¡¯t even dare to dream up something like this. Suddenly feeling weak all over, he dropped to his knees. He was being submissive. More submissive than he ever had been in his entire life. As of now, he wasn¡¯t putting a scrap of thought into how to escape. He now realized that unless the Red Moon Cathedral went all out to save him, or Crimson Mother personally came, there was no way anyone in the Moonrite Region would be able to save him.

    Surprised by Patriarch Inkrule¡¯s behavior, Wu Jianwu followed his gaze down the street until he saw Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent, and the others. He was about to wave and call out a greeting when he noticed the two new grandmas, and the additional grandpa. Two grandmas and two grandpas were strolling down the street in his direction. He instinctively rubbed at his eyes, convinced that he was seeing things. But then, he felt like he was being struck by heavenly lightning.

    ¡°No way. Don¡¯t tell me... we have another three??¡± Wu Jianwu was stunned. And though he felt like he must be mistaken, that didn¡¯t stop the waves of shock that rose within him. Standing there with his jaw hanging open, he just watched as Xu Qing and the others neared.

    Eighth Sib stopped in front of Wu Jianwu, looked up and down, then grinned. ¡°Nice poetry, little buddy.¡±

    The words hit Wu Jianwu like a lightning bolt, and he suddenly went limp and dropped into a kneeling position. Then he just stared as the group entered the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Still not convinced he was seeing reality, he bit down onto his tongue. As the painnced through him, he murmured, ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m looking at four Smoldering Gods!¡±

    Wu Jianwu would never be able to forget this image for the rest of his life.

    The moment Xu Qing stepped into the shop, Ling¡¯er was about to excitedly rush over when she noticed the three neers. She stopped in ce hesitantly.

    ¡°This little Ancient Spirit girl is wonderful.¡± Princess Brightblossom looked at Ling¡¯er and smiled. She had always admired the Ancient Spirits¡¯ fighting methods, and had even been close friends with an Ancient Spirit. What was more, Ling¡¯er was more than just a stranger to her. After all, back when Xu Qing rescued the princess, Ling¡¯er had been with him.

    Slowly walking over to Xu Qing¡¯s side, Ling¡¯er gripped the sides of her garment nervously, looked at Princess Brightblossom, and said, ¡°Nice to meet you, grandmother.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom nodded and smiled warmly. Fifth Sister could already see what kind of rtionship Xu Qing and Ling¡¯er had, and it caused her expression to soften a bit. Eighth Sib, who could tell how much his siblings valued Xu Qing, shed a silly grin.

    Meanwhile, the featherless parrot flew over, cursing all the way. ¡°Grandpa, you¡¯re back! The past few days¡ª¡±

    Before the parrot could reach the Heir Apparent, a whump rang out as a huge hand reached out and grabbed him.

    It was Eighth Sib.

    Looking curiously at the parrot, he said, ¡°Big Brother, don¡¯t you think this thing¡¯s bloodline is familiar?¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a descendant of that certain individual. Bred by that kid out there.¡±

    ¡°Bred by him?¡± Eighth Sib looked curiously at Wu Jianwu outside, then pulled the parrot a bit closer to examine.

    The parrot shivered, and his eyes shone with terror. He wasn¡¯t even capable of struggling as he looked at the scary old man that was holding him. That old man seemed like a burning oven who could incinerate the parrot with a mere thought.

    Ning Yan trembled as he continued to scrub the floor like usual. Simr to Wu Jianwu, he could only look at the Heir Apparent and his siblings with outright disbelief.

    They¡¯re all... they¡¯re all Smoldering Gods? Here in this medicine shop?

    Li Youfei had long since dropped trembling to his knees.

    Compared to all of them, Nethersprite seemed very cool and collected.

    Although she was slightly surprised by Princess Brightblossom and the other two, it only took a moment for her to regain herposure. After all, there wasn¡¯t much difference between waiting on one Smoldering God and waiting on four Smoldering Gods. In the end, she was just boiling water. What she cared most about was her revulsion for and hatred of the Captain.

    As for the Captain, he looked excited. Making sure to ce a look of ingratiating ttery on his face, he rushed out and dropped to his knees.

    ¡°Grandpa! You¡¯re back, sir! Thanks to the parrot¡¯s squawking earlier, I guessed that you would being back today. This is amazing, sir! Nice to meet you, grandmas, grandpa.¡± Ducking his head repeatedly, the Captain bowed at the waist and made sure to keep his tone as charming as possible. Inside he was trembling. After all, he had previously predicted that something like this would happen, yet he hadn¡¯t considered that Xu Qing would bring back a total of <i>four </i>Smoldering Gods. <i>Is he feeling suicidal or something...?</i>

    Eighth Sib turned his attention away from the parrot. Looking the Captain up and down, he said, ¡°Big Brother, why do you have a god bastard here? And why is this aura so familiar? Years ago, when I still had a bit of consciousness in me, I remember a cultivator with a simr auraing to the door in which I was sealed. I would bang the door, and in response, he would knock on it. He was very shifty-looking.¡± Staring fixedly at the Captain, Eighth Sib asked, ¡°Was that you?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and was about to respond, but before he could, Fifth Sister spoke in a cold voice.

    ¡°Years ago, someone used something like a sacrificial dance to send some divine will into my prison and make some unreasonable demands. I ate him.¡±

    Upon hearing their conversation, Ning Yan inhaled sharply. Outside the shop, Wu Jianwu¡¯s face went nk with astonishment. And Xu Qing eyed the Captain deeply. The Captain¡¯s heart was pounding.

    ¡°Erniu, have you been up to the same crazy antics in recent years?¡± the Heir Apparent said coolly.

    The Captain shook his head vigorously. ¡°Grandpa, you yourself have seen how well I¡¯ve been behaving.... This is definitely a misunderstanding!¡±

    The Heir Apparent smiled mysteriously but didn¡¯t dig any further into the topic. Instead, he led his brother and sisters to the spot where he usually sat. As they settled down, Nethersprite hurried over with the kettle, which she used to prepare four cups of tea.

    Princess Brightblossom picked up her cup, took a sip, then looked around. She nodded. ¡°This ce is nice.¡±

    Fifth Sister looked around the medicine shop, taking in Ning Yan and the others. She also nodded. ¡°How wonderful to be young.¡±

    Eighth Sib took a sip of tea. ¡°As long as you two like it, that¡¯s what counts!¡±

    Everyone in the medicine shop trembled in fear as the day passed.

 Chapter 629: Myriad Magics of Daybreak; Erniuâ€™s Big Event (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 629: Myriad Magics of Daybreak; Erniu¡¯s Big Event (part 2)</h4>

    The next morning when it came time to open the shop, it was business as usual. Ning Yan scrubbed the floor, Nethersprite boiled water, Wu Jianwu and Patriarch Inkrule tried to attract customers, Li Youfei did odd jobs, and the Captain stood guard. The only difference was that everyone seemed to be working unusually hard. That, and there were now four people sipping tea.

    However, as the days passed, it wasn¡¯t unusual to see the Heir Apparent sitting by himself.

    Over the course of the next half month, Princess Brightblossom gave Ling¡¯er a lot of attention. She would take Ling¡¯er out with her, and whenever they returned, Ling¡¯er would be in high spirits, and her cultivation base fluctuations would be more prominent.

    Fifth Sister got interested in the chickens. Apparently, she really liked chickens, so she took over Ning Yan¡¯s responsibilities in the backyard.

    After getting to know everyone, Eighth Sib seemed to develop a deep curiosity about Chen Erniu. The Captain worked hard to get on his good side, and thus, they ended up chatting with each other on almost a daily basis.

    Xu Qing had already grown used to the weight of the sun, and could even deal with the special hat. That was when the Heir Apparent came to exin the details of his new cultivation routine.

    This time, Princess Brightblossom joined.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said, ¡°your heavenly dao, your Smoldering God mountain, and your nascent soul prison cell are three very unique things. Once you achieve your next cultivation base breakthrough, you can seek further enlightenment of them. And then there¡¯s your timescape bottle and the remains of the sun that form daybreak light. Given those things, it makes more sense for my third sister to give you pointers going forward.¡±

    He looked at Princess Brightblossom.

    Xu Qing sat in front of the Heir Apparent listening intently. It wasn¡¯t a surprise to him that the Heir Apparent could simply list out his reserve powers. When the Heir Apparent finished speaking, Xu Qing also looked at Princess Brightblossom.

    ¡°Timescape bottles are items associated with the imperial n,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know any details of their mysterious origin. They do have the magic of time within them, however, it¡¯s something that can¡¯t be mastered by study. You have to seek enlightenment and imprint that on your heart. Each person is different in the way they pursue the extremely mysterious nature of time.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom looked Xu Qing up and down. He stiffened from head to toe at the sensation of being examined deeply.

    ¡°Your lifemps have already taken you down the path of time. All you need to do is keep going. The fact that you formed personalized lifemps despite not having the blood of an Imperial Sovereign like us... is impressive. I suppose that¡¯s why the Heir Apparent has taken an interest in you.¡±

    The Heir Apparent chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s too bad we can¡¯t secretly break open Ninth Sib¡¯s prison. His Life Lamp Godfire Incantation would be very suitable for this kid.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom nodded and continued, ¡°Daybreak light isn¡¯t verymon. In fact, I¡¯ve never had a chance to study it. Back in the day, one of the Ancient Emperors had a son who possessed daybreak light, and could use it to transform himself into a sun.

    ¡°Although it was difficult for him to fully unleash it, even just having part of the power of a sun was spectacrly glorious. There wasn¡¯t a magical technique that could hurt him!

    ¡°Don¡¯t be held back by the limitations of your thoughts, sweetie. Divine abilities can only truly be constrained by your own imagination. If youbine all of your other powers in the proper way, you can create something that matches perfectly.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom looked at Xu Qing with anticipation in her eyes. She knew full well that talking about things like this was easy, but actually understanding and implementing them would be extremely difficult.

    Right now, she wanted Xu Qing to at least develop an awareness of how the daybreak light and the golden crow could work together to release even greater power. Ideally, the two could bebined to create a trump card. Of course, she didn¡¯t outright say that. She just gave Xu Qing some food for thought. After he developed a general awareness, then he could gain deeper enlightenment. If she directly gave the exnation ahead of time, it could have a profoundly negative impact.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was deeply shaken by what he was hearing. Princess Brightblossom¡¯s words echoed in his mind for a long time, leaving him feeling as if he were being blessed with wisdom. As he pondered the situation, a host of ideas sprang up in his mind, mming into each other, mixing, and eventually turning into numerous sparks of inspiration. A short timeter, he felt blessed to the core. Thoughts racing, he looked up with an earnest expression.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior! I understand now!¡±

    The Heir Apparent, who had been in the middle of sipping some tea, suddenly red. Thest three words spoken gave him a sudden uneasy premonition, and he opened his mouth to speak.

    Princess Brightblossom beat him to the punch.

    ¡°Oh? What do you understand now?¡± She lifted her cup of tea.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. ¡°Senior, I understand what you¡¯re trying to tell me. Ma¡¯am, you¡¯re reminding me of the fact that light... doesn¡¯t have just one form! Its form can change. That¡¯s one of the powers of light, and it¡¯s a powerful one at that.¡±

    The cup in Princess Brightblossom¡¯s hand trembled slightly, and her cup lowered.

    Looking excited, Xu Qing continued, ¡°Therefore... since daybreak light can be used for countless techniques, then it definitely contains a myriad of magics! Yeah! Senior, what you mean to tell me is that the strength or weakness of my divine abilities is controlled by my imagination! That¡¯s what¡¯s been limiting me.

    ¡°Now I understand that daybreak light is one of the ways to use light. What I should be doing is using daybreak light to imitate the magical techniques of other people! Because light contains the power of transformations, I can definitely seed. That... is the correct path to follow regarding daybreak light!¡±

    Xu Qing shot to his feet excitedly, all while looking at Princess Brightblossom and waiting for any furthermentary from her.

    The Heir Apparent sat there quietly.

    Princess Brightblossom likewise didn¡¯t say anything. She seemed to be thinking. After several breaths of time passed, she nodded and lifted her cup to her lips again.

    Seeing her approval, Xu Qing inhaled deeply. All of a sudden, he realized that Princess Brightblossom definitely deserved to have the respect of even the Heir Apparent. All it took was a few words from her topletely open his eyes to the truth.

    Xu Qing loved that feeling. sping hands, he bowed to Princess Brightblossom, then rushed out to start some further study and research.

    After he was gone, Princess Brightblossom put down her cup and looked deeply at the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent smiled wryly and projected a message to her. <i>¡°What do you think of my quasi-apprentice¡¯s powers of understanding? Quite the prodigy, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡±</i>

    Expression the same as ever, Princess Brightblossom said, <i>¡°Watch your wording. He¡¯s not your ¡®quasi-apprentice.¡¯ Within three months, he¡¯ll absorb everything you have to teach him. At that point, he won¡¯t need your instruction anymore. I¡¯ll take over!¡±</i>

    Three days passed.

    During that time, Xu Qing absorbed himself in working with daybreak light in the back room. He constantly sent out bits of daybreak light and tried hard to transform it. Things didn¡¯t go very smoothly, but he didn¡¯t give up. And he kept putting a lot of thought into the subject. Eventually, he thought about jade slips designed to record images.

    <i>Recording jade slips are able to record images of just about anything. That seems to indicate... that they¡¯re rted to light! Back in that world fragment, Eldest Brother used that patch of skin with the palm print on it. That was also an application of light....</i>

    He sighed in his heart.

    <i>Senior Brightblossom is really amazing and gives extremely good advice. I was so stupid before! Everything was happening right in front of my eyes, yet I didn¡¯t even think about daybreak light! And if I want to use daybreak light to imitate things, then the first thing I need to think about is a carrier!</i>

    What came to mind immediatley were jade slips, so he took one out and started studying it.

    That night, as Xu Qing was making some progress, the Captain snuck in with a very mysterious expression on his face.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, it¡¯s almost time for the next big job.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at him. ¡°<i>Almost</i> time?¡±

    Xu Qing knew that the Captain was nning to do something big in the Bitter Life Mountains, although he wasn¡¯t sure what it was, and hadn¡¯t bothered asking.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, the big job we need to do in the Bitter Life Mountains is about to go down. When we can look at the horizon and see, not just blood-colored light, but the red moon itself, then it will be time to act!

    ¡°I¡¯ve been doing some calctions recently, and I can tell you that the time is almost here. This big job is going to be slightly different than anything in the past.¡±

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain squatted in front of Xu Qing, lowered his voice, and said, ¡°Usually, we sneak in, do our stuff, then make our escape. And I usually spend a lot of time figuring out how to get in and out unseen. But this time.... We want all living beings in the Moonrite Region to see what we¡¯re doing!¡±

    The Captain suddenly looked very proud. ¡°You can think of this big job as us putting on a show on a stage. And the living beings of the Moonrite Region are going to be the audience! This time, we¡¯re going to need everyone to participate. Big Jianjian. Little Ningning. Even Ling¡¯er.

    ¡°Sadly, even though I made a good case to the grandpas and grandmas, they said they wouldn¡¯t help. That would have made it so much easier.¡±

    At this point, the Captain tried to seal the deal. ¡°I came to you, not just to let you know that the time is almost here to get to work, but also... to ask you to help persuade them toe along....¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. Before he could say anything, they heard a cold snort from the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°We¡¯re not going!¡±

    Looking very serious, Xu Qing turned to the Captain. ¡°Eldest Brother, I think that if we want to eventually grow up, we should probably focus on tempering ourselves.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Fine....¡± The Captain seemed to struggle a bit before leaving helplessly. For the following three evenings in a row, it was possible to hear the Captain howling from Wu Jianwu¡¯s room. One of those days, Ning Yan also got called over. It was impossible to tell what the Captain was doing. Every morning, Wu Jianwu woulde out looking pale and exhausted. On the asion in which Ning Yan went over, he came out looking the same as well.

    Curious, Ling¡¯er asked about what was going on.

    Wu Jianwu said nothing.

    Ning Yan sighed. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing. And it¡¯s not the first time either....¡±

    That got Ling¡¯er even more curious.

    The howling ended after three days. When the Captain came out, he also looked extremely pale. After casting a resentful look at the Heir Apparent and the others drinking tea, he went into the back room.

    Gasping for breath, the Captain said, ¡°We¡¯ve got to rely on ourselves this time, little Ah Qing! I¡¯ve got the tools ready. Now I just need you to lend me your spirit automaton.¡±

    ¡°Just what exactly is this big job?¡± Xu Qing asked, taking out the Spike of Misfortune and tossing it to the Captain.

    ¡°A big performance!¡± the Captain said, catching the fish bone. Inside, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered. ¡°If I remember correctly, this spirit automaton of yours has read a lot of novels. That must mean he¡¯s adept at fabricating storylines. I want him to write the script for me.

    ¡°We¡¯ll also need some ancient-style clothing, which is going to be tough. Old clothing styles emphasize delicacy and beauty, and they require very expensive materials.... I guess it¡¯s not that big of a deal. Thedy over there with the big booty probably has lots of stuff hidden away.¡±

    The Captain was really starting to get excited. ¡°Little Ah Qing, this big job is going to be totally different than anything before!¡±

 Chapter 630: Daybreak Light Dazzles the Sky

    <h4>Chapter 630: Daybreak Light Dazzles the Sky</h4>

    Looking at the exuberant Captain, Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Okay, gotta go now!¡± the Captain said. ¡°I put a lot of work into preparing for this big job, most of it on the intelligence side. And now, all I need is onest report. Wish me luck!¡±

    He excitedly prepared to leave the back room and get familiar with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. Before he walked out, Xu Qing mentioned wanting to borrow a patch of the Captain¡¯s skin.

    The Captain didn¡¯t mind at all, and without any hesitation, tossed over a patch of his skin. It was as if his attitude was, <i>¡®I mightck some things, but skin isn¡¯t one of them!¡¯</i>

    ¡°Enough? If not, I¡¯ve got more!¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing with a gleam of generosity in his eyes.

    ¡°It¡¯s enough....¡± Xu Qing said. Looking at the patch of skin, he noticed it had a bellybutton on it. An odd expression overtook his face.

    Grinning proudly, the Captain strutted off.

    Xu Qing watched him leaving, all the while sighing inwardly. This wasn¡¯t the first time the Captain had announced an impending big job. Given that, it seemed to Xu Qing that he should have long since grown ustomed to situations like these. And yet, after the Captain was gone, he sat down cross-legged and realized that his heart was racing.

    Truth be told... whenever the Captain nned big jobs, it was very exciting. And the more Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base improved, the more exciting the jobs tended to be. Oftentimes, Xu Qing didn¡¯t really understand why the Captain was so willing to crazily risk his own life.

    <i>It¡¯s like he wants to put himself in deadly situations....</i> Then he thought back to what Eighth Sib had said when he met the Captain. ¡®God bastard.¡¯

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me that Eldest Brother really was a god bastard in the past.</i>

    He considered all the things he¡¯d witnessed his Eldest Brother aplish, including stealing things from the Seazombies, from Nethersprite, and from the Ten Entrails Tree. Although, in reality, it wasn¡¯t so much ¡®stealing¡¯ as it was ¡®eating.¡¯

    After a short time, he looked in the direction of the Captain¡¯s room, from where he could sense excited fluctuationsing from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    <i>Based on what he said just now, it seems this job involves some sort of performance. Could it be that he¡¯s not going to steal something this time?</i>

    Acting on instinct, he opened his bag of holding and checked all of his teleportation items. After confirming that he had plenty of spares, he felt a bit more at ease.

    <i>We definitely need to bring the parrot along.</i>

    With that, he put aside thoughts of the Captain¡¯s big job and focused on studying daybreak light.

    As a matter of fact, by the third day, he had already reached the point of being able to use the seven-colored transformations of the daybreak light to create some images from his imagination. Unfortunately, those images remained stuck in his mind. Although he could imagine them, and even try to form them with daybreak light, the end result was very different from what existed in his mind. Light was still light. He still couldn¡¯t use it to form an image.

    A few days after that, however, he started doing more serious research using the recording jade slip as a basis. The general principle wasn¡¯t veryplex, especially after he had personally witnessed the Captain using his patch of skin to capture a projection of a palm print. That alone gave Xu Qing a good direction to pursue in regard to understanding the magical transformations of light.

    <i>The reason light can form an image is because it reflects off things. My previous method of utilizing the daybreak light isn¡¯t necessarily incorrect, it¡¯s just that the light inherently contains a myriad of magics. Therefore, what I need to do is find a way to gather the daybreak light. Then, because of its unique properties, I can use it, not just to light up things, but to reveal the magical techniques of my enemies!</i>

    <i>What will follow are some reflections that I can¡¯t actually see.... So what I need to do is take those invisible reflections and use them to form an image!</i>

    Eyes glittering, he took out a recording jade slip.

    <i>The difference between an ordinary jade slip and a recording jade slip... is that the former is sensitive to divine sense, and can be used to record information with divine will. Thetter is sensitive to light, and can thus record images. Both the recording jade slips and the Captain¡¯s patches of skin are items extremely sensitive to light.</i>

    He put down the recording jade slip and then picked up the patch of skin. After some examination, he confirmed the results of his recent experiments.

    <i>The Captain¡¯s patch of skin was obviously a very extraordinary item. It was incredibly tough, and if you looked closely, the palm print really does remind me of magical symbols. This must be a special property of the Captain¡¯s body. Thanks to me being an ordinary person with a normal cultivation base, I couldn¡¯t do something simr.</i>

    <i>However, I could use other methods to peel off some of my own skin and make it extremely sensitive to light.... In that way, I could stimte this very unusual god body of mine. If I do that, then converge and reflect the daybreak light, then I could use the sensitive nature of my skin to reveal the things I can¡¯t see!</i>

    As countless thoughts ran through his mind, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and opened his fingers.

    There were many options at his disposal to make his skin sensitive to light, but he was most familiar with those rted to nts and vegetation.

    <i>There are a lot of medicinal nts as well as poisons that make your skin more sensitive. Although such methods are technically harmful, if you use them correctly they can be considered assets to support divine abilities.</i>

    <i>In fact, I have a lot of poison medicines in my bag of holding that have that specific medicinal effect. Princess Brightblossom was right. Imagination is definitely one of the big limitations on the strength or weakness of divine abilities.</i>

    He took a deep breath and put even more thought into his theory. After a while, he was convinced that he should give it a try. Opening his bag of holding, he took out a handful of poison medicines that could make the skin more sensitive.

    His n was to use poison to make his right hand vastly more sensitive.

    <i>If it works, then this hand will be a hand of myriad magics!</i>

    Excited, he started working. Seven days passed in a sh. It had now been about half a month since Xu Qing had begun researching daybreak light.

    Princess Brightblossom was very pleased at Xu Qing¡¯s progress. She could sense the transformation magic he was using in his daybreak light. Although Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see what was happening with his naked eye, and believed that he wasn¡¯t sessful at forming any images, the reality was that both the princess and the Heir Apparent could see the images very clearly.

    The Heir Apparent felt very surprised. Princess Brightblossom nodded in approval.

    In fact, the princess felt that he had already made enough progress. The fact that Xu Qing could do this was impressive, and already surpassed what she¡¯d hoped to aplish.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base and powers of understanding, there was no way he could possibly utilize all of the myriad magics that made up daybreak light. Actually, she had never known anyone who could do that.

    <i>But it¡¯s a good idea. If he keeps exploring this possibility, then you never know, he might actually aplish his dream. What young people need to do is dare toe up with an idea, and then work hard to try to make it happen!</i>

    Smiling, Princess Brightblossom prepared for Xu Qing to eventually give up, whereupon she would give him some more pointers. Except... she soon realized that Xu Qing was frowning in dissatisfaction. In the following days, she found that Xu Qing was continuing to research recording jade slips, Erniu¡¯s skin, and... his own poisoned hand.

    Princess Brightblossom wasn¡¯t sure what to make of that. Eventually, she looked over calmly at the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent didn¡¯t react at first. But eventually, he grinned and said, ¡°Third Sister, this kid¡¯s most freakish aspect isn¡¯t his cultivation base. It¡¯s his powers of understanding. When you told him that imagination limits the power of divine abilities, he was probably deeply moved. And now wants to break out of his cage. I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly possible... that he¡¯ll actually figure out how to use daybreak light to form images.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t respond.

    As for Eighth Sib, he looked at the Heir Apparent, and then his third sister. Over the past half a month, he had noticed that his brother and sister were paying close attention to Xu Qing. As a result, he had also been surreptitiously watching everything that was ying out. Now, he was hoping to have his own chance.

    <i>Years ago, I gave a lot of advice to young chosen disciples. Eldest Brother and Third Sister have clearly taken a liking to this Xu Qing. I need to find an opportunity to have my turn.</i>

    Having made his determination, Eighth Sib waited in anticipation.

    Fifth Sister had spent most of her recent days focused on the chickens in the backyard. All of them were getting very plump.

    The chickens were rapidly growing in number. More were added to the collection on just about a daily basis. In fact, a few days ago they got a few dozen new chickens. At one point when Ling¡¯er rushed out into the backyard on a task, she saw all the chickens and clicked her tongue in surprise.

    ¡°Grandma Fifth, we have so many new chickens today!¡± Ling¡¯er said as she scattered worms for the chickens to eat. The chickens raced over to eat, struggling with each other to get the most food.

    Fifth Sister smiled and nodded. ¡°Once I fatten them up a bit more, I¡¯ll ughter them and make a very nourishing meal for you and your Big Bro Xu Qing.¡±

    As the indignant chickens pecked at their food, they trembled, and their expressions transformed into that of fear. That was especially true of the newest batch, who clucked in absolute despair.

    Those cultivators actually weren¡¯t from the Bitter Life Mountains. They were members of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, and had been trying to track down the culprits of the disaster at Mount Heavenly Ox. Upon arriving, they hadn¡¯t caused any trouble. They first went to the Red Moon Cathedral to pay respects to the godherald there. The moment they entered the church temple, and before they could even meet the godherald, they felt the world spinning around them. When their vision grew clear, they had be chickens.

    As the chickens wallowed in despair, a deep rumbling sound echoed out from the back room of the medicine shop, followed by streams of seven-colored light. The light swept over the medicine shop, covering everyone, even the chickens. As it spread out, it made a sea of light that caused ripples to flow through the air.

    As the winds and clouds stirred, the sea of light rose up into the air, spreading out and constantly transforming at the same time. Eventually, something resembling a nail became visible. The moment the nail appeared, it caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth.

    Ling¡¯er gasped. Ning Yan¡¯s eyes went wide. Wu Jianwu gaped. Li Youfei was dumbstruck. The Captain was moved, Nethersprite looked on with a serious expression, and Patriarch Inkrule¡¯s eyes glittered.

    Some of them had seen this nail before, and were thus stunned. Some of them hadn¡¯t seen the nail before, but when they sensed the auraing off it, they were equally stunned.

    The Heir Apparent, Princess Brighblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib all looked up at the nail, their expression tranquil. However, if you looked closely at them, you would find their eyes glittering brightly. That was especially true of the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. The two of them looked very calm, but their hearts were actually racing. Eventually, they looked toward the back room.

    That was where the seven-colored light wasing from.

    ¡°He did it....¡±

    ¡°The little punk actually made an imitation of our father¡¯s nail!¡±

 Chapter 631: The Heavenly Body Rises, Bringing Blood

    <h4>Chapter 631: The Heavenly Body Rises, Bringing Blood</h4>

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth while tempestuous winds screamed back and forth. As everyone watched, the seething sea of light took the shape of a nail. However, the nail didn¡¯t fully manifest. After it reached a certain point of dazzling brightness, it copsed.

    In the back room, Xu Qing sat cross-legged with a seven-colored nascent soul hovering in front of him. Boundless daybreak light shone off the seven-colored nascent soul, spreading out in all directions to form the sea of light.

    Xu Qing had extended his right hand to touch the outstretched hand of the nascent soul. Within Xu Qing¡¯s right palm was the clear outline of a nail, slowly blurring and fading away.

    At first nce, the skin on his palm seemed no different than the rest of his skin. However, if you looked closely, you would notice that the middle of his palm was brighter than normal. It was almost as if it had been soaked in water for years, making it iparably pure. Eventually, the outline of the nail faded away, and the sea of light copsed and vanished.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. Instantly, all of the daybreak light swept back into his daybreak nascent soul. The nascent soul reentered Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing sighed.

    <i>I couldn¡¯t actually create an imitation of what I saw in my memories. These myriad magics of transformation have their limits.... I can¡¯t just create an imitation of any future magical technique I see.</i>

    Shaking his head, he stood and walked out of the back room, feeling a bit disappointed.

    The moment he was outside, he realized that everyone was looking at him.

    Ning Yan was staring at him like he was some sort of freak, and seemed to be on the verge of saying something, except he held back.

    Wu Jianwu looked dazed. He was actually thinking back to the time he met Xu Qing out on the Forbidden Sea. Back then, the two of them had fought to a draw. But now.... Wu Jianwu felt iparably frustrated inside. Eyes bloodshot, he made a decision. He had been cking offtely, and really needed to continue his bloodline restoration work!

    The parrot shivered and didn¡¯t say anything. Li Youfei had his head bowed respectfully. Nethersprite was looking deeply at Xu Qing.

    As for Patriarch Inkrule, it was apparently the first time he had realized there was someone besides the four Smoldering Gods who was worth paying attention to. He had sensed how extraordinary Xu Qing was. The things he had aplished were not things Nascent Soul cultivators should be able to aplish, but rather, Spirit Trove experts. All of a sudden he understood why the kid walking out of the back room was the nucleus of the medicine shop, and was allowed to sit amongst the Smoldering Gods.

    Ling¡¯er was also a bit surprised, but in contrast to the others, she looked very proud. The Captain blinked a few times, but looked happy. Eighth Sib was smiling at Xu Qing, while Fifth Sister had a strange look in her eyes. Although she hadn¡¯t participated in giving any advice to Xu Qing like her brother and sister had, she was now starting to see the bigger picture.

    The Heir Apparent nodded as a very profound and mysterious expression appeared on his face. He had no way to know it, but that facial expression made him look very much like Xu Qing¡¯s Master.

    As for Princess Brightblossom, she was looking at Xu Qing without any facial expression.

    Xu Qing looked around. It was obvious that they were looking at him this way because he had created an illusory manifestation of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail.

    Except that Xu Qing was actually very disappointed at his failure. That was especially true considering how Princess Brightblossom and the Heir Apparent were looking at him.

    Sighing, he approached them, bowed his head, and said, ¡°Seniors, I still failed.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s face twitched slightly. He took the opportunity to make himself look disappointed.

    ¡°I saw,¡± he said coolly. ¡°You¡¯re still young. It¡¯s normal to experience failures sometimes.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and was about to say something further when Princess Brightblossom spoke.

    ¡°Open your right hand,¡± she said.

    Hearing that, Xu Qing stuck out his right hand and opened it.

    Princess Brightblossom, the Heir Apparent, and Fifth Sister all scanned his palm with divine sense, and when they did, strange expressions appeared on their faces. The Heir Apparent reached out. Instantly, a ball of ck hair appeared in front of him. It pulsed, growingrger and smaller rhythmically, all while sending out powerful soul fluctuations.

    ¡°Imitate that,¡± the Heir Apparent said, looking at him.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing released daybreak light. It spread out, converged, and then settled onto the ck hair.

    Astonishingly, the white center of his palm blurred as a ck ball emerged. A momentter, a ck ball was hovering in front of Xu Qing, though it wasn¡¯t corporeal. What was more, the power it exuded was nowhere close to the original. It had the same shape, but didn¡¯t have the same godly might.

    The scene caused Nethersprite and Patriarch Inkrule to be visibly shaken.

    The Heir Apparent didn¡¯t say anything, but inside, he felt exhausted. Never could he have imagined that Xu Qing would be able to use daybreak light to create a copy of his own divine ability. Granted, the level of power between the two was like the difference between the full moon and a firefly. It was a physical copy without the godly might, and without any magicalws or authority. But... the Heir Apparent was a Smoldering God! He had never heard of, much less seen, any Nascent Soul cultivator who could do this.

    <i>This kid¡¯s powers of understanding cannot be described in any way other than freakish!</i>

    The Heir Apparent didn¡¯t feel like speaking.

    Princess Brightblossom waved her hand gently.

    The chair off to the side unexpectedly transformed, turning into a group of white doves that flew gracefully into the air. The doves didn¡¯t look unusual. However, considering they came from the hands of a Smoldering God, there was no way they could be ordinary doves. Looking closely, it was possible to see stars, moons, and other heavenly bodies twinkling in their eyes, and they seemed capable of piercing through time as they flew.

    ¡°Imitate them!¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and then used his same imitation technique on another nearby chair.

    The chair quivered, and then in a very gruish disy, sprouted feathers. Unfortunately, it never ended up looking like a bird. The feathers just grew out randomly, until the chair finally shattered into pieces.

    Seeing that, Ning Yan and the others were shocked. The parrot¡¯s eyes went very, very wide, and he even started breathing heavily.

    Xu Qing sighed deeply. ¡°I still can¡¯t do it.¡±

    Eighth Sib was getting very interested in what was happening. All of a sudden, a swell of rage erupted from him, which affected the surroundings, causing them to ripple and distort as a vicious, draconic beast appeared. It was covered in mes, and each of its scales emanated a terrifying pressure. Its presence made the entire Bitter Life Mountains tremble, and when it opened its mouth, it revealed countless sharp teeth as it roared.

    ¡°Give a shot at imitating me!¡±

    Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan looked like they might faint at any moment. Everyone else was in a simr condition. Xu Qing breathed heavily as the terrifying weight settled onto him and caused his soul to tremble. There was no way he could imitate anything at the moment.

    Expression calm, Princess Brightblossom let out a cold harrumph. ¡°Screw off!¡±

    The moment the words left her mouth, a thump rang out from Eighth Sib, and everything around him vanished. Heaven and earth went back to normal.

    Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief and bowed his head respectfully.

    Princess Brightblossom betrayed no reaction via facial expression. Voice cool, she said, ¡°You can¡¯t do it because your cultivation base is too low. Youck magicalws as well as trump cards. Your authority isn¡¯t bad, but not quite omnipotent. As your cultivation base improves, and you eventually reach Spirit Trove, that will change everything. Furthermore, you should think about cultivation as....¡±

    Princess Brightblossom had been about to give some pointers regarding powers of understanding. That was what she had always done with her apprentices in the past. But before she could go into her usual advice, she stopped.

    Xu Qing looked up attentively.

    Princess Brightblossom was quiet for a few breaths of time. Then she continued, ¡°Think of it as gaining experience.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about that for a moment.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom noted his expression and exchanged a nce. Then they were about to keep talking when, all of a sudden, their expressions flickered and they vanished. When they reappeared, they were up in the dome of heaven.

    Eighth Sib appeared next to them, fully recovered. They were joined by Fifth Sister. All of them were looking off toward the horizon.

    The red light was like viscous blood. In the past month, it had been expanding, though not at a steady rate. But now, it was virtually exploding. The red light on the horizon doubled in the briefest of moments, bing blindingly dazzling. As of that moment, all nts, vegetation, mountains, ins, and rivers in the Moonrite Region... had turned bright red!

    A boundless red glow spread out as... a heavenly body appeared on the horizon, almost like a star.

    It really did look like a gigantic star. It was pure red, as if it was made of blood, and was gargantuan. The heavenly body was covered with terrain features like mountains and valleys.

    It was the red moon! It seemed to be moving at high speed in the direction of the Moonrite Region. Mountains copsed. Boulders rained down, shattering tree trunks. Corpses flew up into the air.

    It was the tideflow power caused by the red moon. That tideflow would create a powerfulpulsion, causing all living beings in the Moonrite Region to howl in grief. The curse welled up in the bodies of countless mortals, and cultivators were incapable of escaping. Twisted expressions of agony appeared everywhere. Only the high-level cultivators, or perhaps people who had painquelling lozenges, were able to resist the pressure.

    Things were only just beginning. As the heavenly body grewrger andrger, slowly overtaking the canopy of heaven, thends below shattered, and countless living beings rose up into the air, where death awaited them.

    Xu Qing and the Captain also appeared in midair, where they looked off toward the horizon. They weren¡¯t the only ones. Top experts from all the species in the Moonrite Region did the same, and they were all trembling.

    ¡°The red moon... is visible to the naked eye.¡±

    Xu Qing was deeply shaken. He could sense his own violet moon authority reacting... it was clearly a lot stronger than before. Apparently, the closer the red moon got, the more shockingly it affected his authority.

    ¡°Remember what I said before, little Junior Brother? That when the red moon bes visible on the horizon, it will mean our day hase? And that¡¯s because our destination isn¡¯t a ce you can usually go to. In order to open the path there, you have to meet several requirements. And the most important of all has a name. Green Hair Like Blood.

    ¡°Legend has it that the Greenhair Bands was actually made from a strand of hair. Now, look at thends below. They look like blood.¡±

    The Captain looked out at the desert.

    Xu Qing looked in the same direction and saw that, thanks to the blood-colored light shining down from above, the desert no longer looked green. It looked red.

    ¡°We leave tonight,¡± the Captain said softly, sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

 Chapter 632: The Origin of the Wind Guardians

    <h4>Chapter 632: The Origin of the Wind Guardians</h4>

    The evening of the day when the red moon became visible, a ck wind sprang up in the Greenhair Bands. Simr to the various legends about the desert, it started when the green wind mixed with the redness from above. Closer examination would reveal that the color was actually more like violet.

    As the wind blew, Xu Qing and the Captain left the Green Spirit Pharmacy with a few allies in tow. The others in the group included Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, Ling¡¯er, Nethersprite, and Li Youfei. It had been very difficult to convince Nethersprite toe along. It was impossible to say how the Captain did it, but eventually she gritted her teeth and agreed. The parrot wasn¡¯t spared, as Xu Qing borrowed him from the Heir Apparent. The parrot had, of course, been dead set on refusing. However, after Xu Qing grabbed him, he inexplicably agreed to go along.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were adamant about not joining, but they didn¡¯t do anything to stop the group from leaving.

    And thus, they traveled out into the windy desert.

    As the red moon became more visible, and the tideflow power erupted in the region, the living people experienced indescribable bitterness. Countless mountains had copsed, and entirekes of water had begun flowing up into the sky.

    The effects of the curse were especially prominent among the mortals. If there were a pair of eyes that could take in the entire Moonrite Region, they would see countless viges and cities that were full of death and sorrow. The souls of those who died couldn¡¯t leave the Moonrite Region, and instead gathered at the Red Moon Cathedral, to be stuck in this hell for life after life.

    The insanity onlysted for a short time, to then be reced by an eternal vortex of despair.

    All species. All sects. All cultivators. They all experienced it.

    Those alive now were simply unfortunate to be around when Crimson Mother came. After all, Crimson Mother would usually onlye once every thousand years or so. There was no fixed schedule. Sometimes a lot of time passed between visits; in other cases, it was a very short time. Not everyone who was born and raised in the Moonrite Region would necessarily live to see theing of Crimson Mother.

    The ordinary people weren¡¯t the only ones in despair. Even organizations closely allied with the Red Moon Cathedral waited in silence. Historically speaking, those who adhered closely to the cathedral might have a better chance of survival, but it all depended on how hungry Crimson Mother was.

    Therefore, when the red moon appeared, despair overtook madness as the primary operating force in the Moonrite Region. It filled the world, even the wind in the Greenhair Bands, which whimpered past Xu Qing and the others.

    Everything in heaven and earth was blurry, making it difficult to see them clearly.

    As they walked along, they left behind footprints in the sand. However, those footprints were quickly filled in by the wind, leaving nothing behind.

    The Captain was in the front, leading the way. Xu Qing was right behind him. As they traveled, Xu Qing instinctively kept his eyes on the surrounding wastnds. He had been in this area before. He had passed it back when he went to rescue the shadow. In fact, just up ahead was the spot where he had firstid eyes on the Wind Guardians.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been moving for about four hours already,¡± the Captain said. ¡°After another incense stick¡¯s worth of time, we¡¯ll be at our destination.¡±

    ¡°The Wind Guardians?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing. Because of the wind and sand, it was impossible to make out his facial features, but his eyes were glittering.

    ¡°Well done, little Junior Brother. You really do understand me. Our destination is indeed thend of the Wind Guardians. You¡¯ve heard of their story, haven¡¯t you, little Junior Brother?¡±

    His gaze flitted from Xu Qing to Ning Yan and the others.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were both wearing thick garments and face coverings. Neither of them were very happy about that. The truth was that they hadn¡¯t been very eager toe along, especially considering they had no idea where they were going.

    Xu Qing nodded in response to the Captain¡¯s question. The Wind Guardians¡¯ mission was to guard the wind in this huge desert. And that mission was the source of the species¡¯ unusual characteristics.

    ¡°Their species didn¡¯t even exist before the desert came into being,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Long ago, a certain entity and a certain great individual entered an agreement. That¡¯s how the species came to be. The moment they were created, the Wind Guardians got their mission. From a substructural standpoint, the species¡¯ mission is actually a key.¡±

    The Captain suddenly stopped in ce and turned to look at Xu Qing, his eyes shimmering with reminiscence.

    ¡°The key to opening the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s Land of God Decapitation!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened. Everyone else looked surprised to hear the wordsing out of the Captain¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Like I told you before, little Ah Qing, before reaching godly ascension, Crimson Mother was actually killed by the Imperial Sovereign.

    ¡°At that time, the Imperial Sovereign used heaven as the de and earth as the altar. Connecting the sun and moon, he created an altar atop which to behead Crimson Mother.¡± As the Captain¡¯s garments fluttered in the wind, he pointed at the ground. ¡°The execution spot is right beneath our feet! It¡¯s the past-life body of the Greenhair Bands!¡±

    Everyone was shaken, and looked down at the ground beneath their feet, Xu Qing included.

    The wind picked up, making it slightly more difficult to hear the Captain as he continued, ¡°Afterward, that entity and that great individual and his partner found the ruins of the Land of God Decapitation. By employing strange magics, signs of awakening were provoked in thatnd.

    ¡°It became a desert wind that covered everything. In order to open the way, a few requirements have to be met. The first one is for the red moon to rise and turn the green sand into red.¡± With a profound look in his eyes, the Captain proudly continued, ¡°The second requirement is that... the wind in the Greenhair Bands needs to turn from green to ck. And that needs to be stable, with the ck wind flowing for eight hours. Right now, the wind is violet.¡±

    The Captain lifted his right hand, and a stream of yellow light emerged from his palm. It was none other than the Captain¡¯s Little Roundy. The light cast by the artificial sun was yellow. As it rose up into the sky, the yellow light it cast merged with the green wind and the red sand.

    With those three colors ovepping, it produced ck! Instantly, a ck wind filled the area. An aura of death proliferated in heaven and earth, growing stronger by the moment.

    Ning Yan and the others were astonished. The Captain¡¯s words and actions were giving them the very strong feeling that histest job was going to be monumental.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain with a very serious expression. ¡°There¡¯s got to be more than two requirements, right?¡±

    The Captainughed heartily, then waved his hand with a flourish, producing eight daggers that he tossed around.

    The eight daggers didn¡¯t stab into the sand. Instead, they floated with their tips pointing down. Then they emitted ck lightning bolts that spread out to create a rough circle. They were holy relics of the Wind Guardians, which had been sent to the Green Spirit Pharmacy to the Heir Apparent. Apparently, he had loaned them to the Captain.

    Having aplished these things, the Captain extended his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Okay, little Ah Qing. I need the holy relic you took from the Wind Guardians. Lend it to me for a bit, okay?¡±

    Without hesitation, Xu Qing took the dagger out of his bag of holding and tossed it to the Captain. The Captain performed an incantation gesture and then pointed out.

    The dagger shot into the rough circle. The ck lightning spread, creating a roughly 3,000-meter circle with the group in the middle. Complex magical symbols appeared in the lightning, almost like writing, although no one could read it.

    ¡°Wind Guardians, inpliance with the agreement built into your bloodline, I hereby summon you!¡±

    The Captain lifted his foot and then stomped it hard onto the ground.

    As ck wind screamed, the nine strange daggers thrummed loudly, bolstering the Captain¡¯s voice so that it echoed deep beneath the surface of the desert. Outside of the 3,000-meter circle, vortexes sprang up left and right in the desert. There were both big ones and small ones, and they numbered in the thousands. As they swirled around beyond the circle, Wind Guardians began to pop out into the open.

    Each member of the species had a simr circle on their forehead, which seemed to look like the circle that the Captain had created, and seemed to flicker just as the circle did.

    Closest to the 3,000-meter circle was Patriarch Wind Guardian, who looked suspiciously at Xu Qing and the others, his expression flickering.

    The other Wind Guardians looked at the circle with their hearts pounding.

    ¡°This ceremony....¡±

    Patriarch Wind Guardian could hardly have been more astonished. He knew about this ceremony. It was one of the most important ceremonies possible to his species, and it was something rted to their mission that no outsider should possibly know about.

    Guard the wind. Guard the desert. And wait.... One day, in the midst of the ck wind, a person would appear. That person would appear along with a circle that would call out to the Wind Guardian¡¯s blood, and cause a ceremonial spell formation to appear on their foreheads that resembled an eye. It rted to the entire purpose of their species.

    Never could Patriarch Wind Guardian have imagined that, after all the years their species had carried out their mission, that this would happen right here and now. What was more, the ¡®person¡¯ who had appeared was one of the cultivators from the Green Spirit Pharmacy. That left him absolutely, positively gobsmacked.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, the third requirement to open the way naturally lies with the Wind Guardians. And that requirement is for all members of this species who have appeared for the ck wind toe forth.¡±

    As the Captain¡¯s voice echoed out, he looked at Patriarch Wind Guardian.

    The patriarch shivered. Feeling his blood shivering, he bowed his head and said, ¡°Heed the godly orders!¡±

    Astonishingly, four of the surrounding vortexes suddenly turned white, and out of them emerged four Wind Guardians.

    They included men and women of different ages. But the unique thing about all of them was that they had white hair, down to their eyebrows, and pure white eyes. They were obviously unique among Wind Guardians, and were in fact closely cared for from the moment of their birth until their death. ording to the requirements of the Wind Guardians¡¯ mission, at any given time, they were to have at least three such individuals.

    ¡°And now, the skulls!¡± the Captain said, slowly floating up into the air.

    Patriarch Wind Guardian inhaled deeply, then ryed the orders. Before long, nine ck skulls were carefully produced and carried out by various Wind Guardians, who ced them underneath each of the floating daggers.

    ¡°That great individual made the God Decapitating Altar illusory, then hid it in the wind in the Greenhair Bands. It¡¯s only the memories of the Wind Guardians that can unlock it. And now, we can begin the ceremony.¡±

 Chapter 633: A Cup of Yellow Springs Water to Bring Back the God Decapitation Altar

    <h4>Chapter 633: A Cup of Yellow Springs Water to Bring Back the God Decapitation Altar</h4>

    Patriarch Wind Guardian bowed his head and said, ¡°Heed the godly orders!¡±

    No outsider knew the details. But all Wind Guardians knew who they exercised faith in. It was a specific god. That god had given them life, and had also given them their mission. And thanks to the soul fluctuations they could sense, they knew for a certainty that the god in question... was right in front of them.

    It wasn¡¯t their ce to consider why the god was in this specific form, or seemed limited in power. Gods were gods. H¨¥ could create myriad things and take myriad forms.

    As the words left the patriarch¡¯s mouth, he settled down cross-legged and closed his eyes. Reaching out with his right hand, he pushed the small circle on his forehead. Soul fluctuations pulsed off him and merged into the ck wind.

    At the same time, chanting drifted out of the Captain¡¯s mouth.

    <i>¡°Heaven and earth coexist, the ck wind burns the god on cue; assimte the nine daos, form that which is real and true!</i>

    <i>¡°The dark altar is not covered, memories of the sea given berth; the soul is one, connected to the origin of heaven and earth!¡±</i>

    His voice seemed ancient, and full of a mysterious will. The moment it echoed out, the entire Greenhair Bands seemed to react. Thends shook, countless particles of sand leaped into the air, quivering. Lightning crashed in the dome of heaven, sending out countless booms of thunder. The entire desert was stirred up.

    However, the chanting didn¡¯t stop because of all that. It continued, repeated the same words over and over again. Patriarch Wind Guardian joined in the chanting, and eventually, all of the Wind Guardians reached up, touched their foreheads, and joined in. Their soul fluctuations spread out, entering the ck wind and eventually turning it into a huge vortex.

    The vortex spun, moving in the opposite direction as the 3,000-meter circle! One moved clockwise, the other moved counter-clockwise! As they spun, they formed an astonishing power that caused everything to rumble. The friction caused the memories hidden in the wind to gradually be perceived by the Wind Guardians.

    As Xu Qing watched all of this y out, he felt like he was finally starting to understand more about his Eldest Brother¡¯s past. But at the same time, he felt just as shaken as when he¡¯d first experienced the sacrificial dance.

    <i>Eldest Brother really made a lot of preparations in his past lives.... Being the Grand Dancer was one of them. The Wind Guardian situation was another. And then there¡¯s the fact that Grandpa Eighth and Grandma Fifth apparently recognized Eldest Brother. It seems likely that Eldest Brother is the one who went and visited the burial sites of all the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s children.</i>

    Given what Xu Qing knew about Chen Erniu, it was likely that the ¡®great individual¡¯ he¡¯d mentioned was none other than himself.

    <i>Then what about the other entity he mentioned...?</i>

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he thought back to when the Captain exined the story of the sacrificial dance in Mount Heavenly Ox. He¡¯d mentioned a High God. [1]

    <i>High God....</i>

    Then Xu Qing thought about the legend of the Greenhair Bands, and a simple exnation popped into his head.

    As Xu Qing was lost in thought, the others, including Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei, all looked on with various expressions of shock. Although Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu had been along with the Captain on a lot of jobs, they were still starting to feel nervous. As for Li Youfei... ever since he had run into Xu Qing, he had experienced one thing after another thatpletely defied imagination. Even Nethersprite was paying close attention to what was happening, and seemed to be profoundly shocked.

    As the vortexes spun in different directions, as the wind blew and the Wind Guardians¡¯ memories mixed with it, images appeared. There were too many to count, and they seemed to contain anything and everything. They were also profoundly ancient. They were Wind Guardian memories, and thus, they were memories of the desert.

    As the soul fluctuations rolled out, they became a sea of memories in the vortexes. The sea spread, filling the air, and swirling into nine specific locations below. Those nine locations were where the nine skulls rested. Those nine skulls were like bowls that seemed capable of containing anything and everything.

    In that manner, time passed. The sea of memories continued to flow.

    When the eighth hour arrived, the nine skulls were full of something that resembled a liquid. It was memory elixir. It existed in a state between what was true and what was illusory. It was asionally white, and asionally ck. It was extremely strange.

    As Xu Qing looked at it, he realized that the memory elixir contained a bit of the aura of a god.

    At that point, the officiator of the ceremony, the Captain, performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then waved his hand. Instantly, the nine daggers inside the 3,000-meter circle red with lightning-like light.

    ¡°Stop!¡±

    His voice echoed like thunder, causing the nine daggers to plunge down into the nine skull bowls, stabbing right into the memory elixir.

    ck and white mixed together, turning gray! Within the gray liquid a miniature image appeared.

    It was a long, straight mountain range. It stretched in the darkness, illuminated by lightning. On either side of the mountains was a pitch-ck abyss seemingly full of hidden wretches and devils. Because of the ripples on the surface of the water, it was hard to make out any details clearly.

    As Xu Qing and the others looked on, they all realized what they were seeing. It was... the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s Land of God Decapitation, hidden in the wind.

    Meanwhile, the four Wind Guardians who had all been born on special days sent a drop of blood out of their foreheads. The drops of blood then floated through the air toward the Captain. They were a part of the key needed to unlock the memories.

    The other part came from the Captain. He bit his finger, causing a drop of blood to emerge. However, this drop of blood wasn¡¯t ordinary. Its color... was blue. The moment it appeared, the five drops of blood merged, then split apart into nine sections that shot into the nine skull bowls. The moment that happened, the wind reached its ninth hour of blowing.

    ¡°Let¡¯s... go in!¡±

    Laughing heartily, the Captain grabbed one of the bowls, lifted it up, and drank the liquid. His body blurred as he then stepped into the wind and vanished.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing did the same. The others gritted their teeth and, each with their own reasons, picked up a bowl and drank. It didn¡¯t take long for all of them to blur away just like the Captain.

    The Greenhair Bands looked the same as usual. As the ck wind blew, the sea of memories spread out to cover everything.

    Xu Qing and the others had already reappeared in the same spots where they had drunk from the bowls. They did not stand anywhere that was real. Nor was it an illusion. It existed on the thin line between those two, where memories were beyond mysterious and beyond wondrous.

    However, when things became clear around them, the surroundings looked very different than anyone had expected.

    First of all, the world around them wasn¡¯t pitch ck. Instead, warm light spread out everywhere. The light came from numerous floatingnterns. There were far too many of them to count, and theirbined light illuminated the world. Everyntern was made from skin. Perhaps they seemed unusually sinister because of the ghost faces painted on their surface. Some of those faces cried, othersughed. Some were furious, while others were surprised. They were extremely lifelike, almost as if they were crafted from human skin. Thanks to the glow from thenterns, the long, straight mountain range was now inly visible to Xu Qing. It was almost like a de, with the top sloping together from either side. It was so long it seemed like it was connected to the canopy of heaven.

    They were currently at the very beginning of the mountain range, standing on a circr altar that was covered with the cracks of time. It seemed ancient and even a bit decayed.

    On either side of the mountains was a ck abyss. The light of illumination couldn¡¯t prate that darkness, from which asionally echoed anguished howls, and a sound like ws scraping against stone. It seemed that the abyss beneath the mountain was filled with terrifying entities that were trying to climb up.

    The sky was just as dark. The light couldn¡¯t illuminate it. However, it was possible to see an enormous rift that separated the canopy of heaven, like a ghastly scar. Thunderous rumblings emerged from that rift. Every once in a while, a blue bolt of lightning would shoot across the sky.

    This ce was incredibly strange. Everyone looked around with serious facial expressions. Nethersprite waspletely on guard. Whether it was thenterns of human skin or the terrifying aura from the abyss, she was sensing extreme danger.

    The Captain seemed to understand this ce well. As he stood at the head of the group, he exined, ¡°The skinnterns are formed from the viins killed by the Imperial Sovereign. They hate all living beings. If they touch you, you¡¯ll instantly turn into a skinntern yourself. The abyss contains manifestations of Crimson Mother¡¯s rancorous energy. Their wicked nature makes it so that they view anyone who travels these mountains as enemies.¡±

    The Captain looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing. He smiled. ¡°Wee, little Junior Brother, to... arge-scale magical film studio. In a moment, you¡¯re going to see something that happened many, many years ago. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering event. And what we need to do is simply pass through here.¡± [2]

    The Captain extended his hand to point to the rift in the sky. ¡°Once we get there, we can start filming. In terms of the name, I¡¯ve already thought of a good one. It¡¯s going to be called... <i>God Decapitation</i>! I¡¯ll exin about the contents a bitter on. But don¡¯t worry... everyone here will have a role to y.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he extended his hand to reveal some blue candles. He gave out one candle to everyone. Xu Qing took one of them. It felt greasy and smelled of blood. Before he could even guess about what it was, he noticed theplex facial expressions on Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu. They looked like they wanted to throw up.[3]

    ¡°By lighting these candles, we can safely proceed through the mountains. However, the caveat is... you can¡¯t let the candle go out.¡±

    The Captain exhaled onto the candle he held, and it lit up. ck smoke billowed out from inside, surrounding him as he started walking into the mountains.

    Xu Qing nodded. He exhaled on his candle, and the ck smoke surrounded him. He followed the Captain. The others did the same, and before long, they were making their way through the mountains.

    ¡°Remember, the candles <i>cannot</i> go out...¡± the Captain warned from up ahead.

    From a distance, it was possible to see six clouds of smoke covering six figures, each of them only a few meters apart as they proceeded through the mountains. Thenterns of human skin swayed. Howls erupted from the abyss on either side of the mountain, apanied by the sound of ws scraping on rock.

    1. The Captain mentioned the High God in <u>chapter 578</u>. ?

    2. Since I¡¯m sure some readers will question why I¡¯m using the word ¡°film,¡± it¡¯s because thenguage here is very modern. The author did go back and forth between a couple different terms when ites to this particr aspect of the story, and I¡¯m standardizing them to avoid confusion. When I read this part for the first time, I was initially confused by what was happening, and only understood itter as events yed out. So another factor in the trantion choice is making the story easy to understand in English. In any case, the words make you think of modern film and broadcast productions, thus my trantion choice. Let¡¯s not forget that the cultivators in this story can send instant voice messages like we do on smartphones, or take take souvenir photos with jade slips.... ?

    3. Don¡¯t forget that the Captain just extracted his own blood, and it was blue.... ?

 Chapter 634: Past Life Face

    <h4>Chapter 634: Past Life Face</h4>

    A group of people raced across the tops of the mountains in this well-lit world.

    The Captain was in the lead, followed by Xu Qing. Then came Wu Jianwu, Nethersprite, Li Youfei, and finally Ning Yan. They were separated by a few meters each, and because of the ck smoke that surrounded them, they couldn¡¯t see the world around them, or even sense much of it.

    Xu Qing kept a firm grip on the blue candle as the ck smoke spilled out of it and surrounded him. As he proceeded, he remained fully on guard. If the Captain hadn¡¯t offered that warning about the candles, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have had much to worry about. But with that warning in ce, he couldn¡¯t help but think back to past experiences.

    He had his cultivation base fully activated, and had already forgotten about his agreement to not use his violet moon authority. In fact, not only had he tapped into that authority, but also, he had taboo poison spread out all around him. In addition, daybreak light flowed freely in the area. He waspletely ready in case anything unexpected happened.

    At a certain point, Ling¡¯er cautiously stuck her head out of his sleeve and looked around.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing,¡± she said quietly, ¡°this ce is sort of like the Ancient Spirit world. There are a lot of deceased souls here. I guess the difference is that in the Ancient Spirit world, the souls are intact. But here, there¡¯s some special magicalw that causes countless deceased souls to mix together. I can just barely hear them whispering, although I can¡¯t make out what they¡¯re saying. But I do know they¡¯re watching us.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. No matter how fast he moved in these mountains, the smoke from the candle made it impossible to see his surroundings. He couldn¡¯t even see the Captain up ahead, or sense anything significant. Even his shadow was restricted, and couldn¡¯t stretch out very far.

    But thanks to Ling¡¯er¡¯s innate abilities as an Ancient Spirit, she could see a bit of the surrounding world.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er,¡± Xu Qing said quietly, ¡°I can¡¯t sense anything around me. I can barely even see the ground beneath my feet. Are you able to see our surroundings?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I can, although it¡¯s a bit blurry. Big Bro Xu Qing, everything is going fine. Everybody else is surrounded by smoke but moving in the right direction. About thirty meters ahead of you is Elder Brother Erniu. And behind you is Big Jianjian.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and kept moving. And thus, the party of six sped along as quickly as they could manage. Everyone was on high alert. Even the person with the highest cultivation base, Nethersprite, didn¡¯t dare to bex.

    It was a very strange world. There were the skinnterns hanging in the air, and the howling from the abyss. In addition, there were gusts of wind. The shocking wind contained a towering killing intent that made their skin go numb. It caused the smoke surrounding them to ripple and distort, and it filled them with icy cold. The wind was like a host of des, each filled with a baleful aura that seemed to disregard cultivation base and sh directly at the soul.

    ¡°The wind kicked up,¡± the Captain said, his voice reaching all of them in their clouds of smoke. ¡°Keep hold of your candles. Unify your body and mind.

    ¡°The wind will make the howling from the abyss even clearer. And at a certain point, it will turn into a voice that we all find familiar. This ce is located within memories, so the moment we entered andid eyes on the surroundings, it became a portion of our own memories. At the same time, our existence is ced into the memories of this world fragment.

    ¡°Because our memories are part of the ce now, the voices we hear will be different for each one of us. And they¡¯ll be a voice we miss. Remember. It¡¯s not real! Don¡¯t believe what the voices say. Don¡¯t think about them. And definitely do not look back!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s voice grew fainter as he talked, and the wind grew stronger. Eventually, his voice faded away, leaving behind nothing but the cry of the wind.

    Xu Qing looked at the smoke around him, and suddenly thought of something.

    The Captain said not to trust the voices in the wind. In that case... could he trust what the Captain was saying? If what the Captain just said was true, why didn¡¯t he exin it earlier? But if it was the Captain, could it be possible there was a deeper meaning in his words?

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak, but then squashed the impulse. Whether the Captain¡¯s voice was real or not, responding to it would be a form of karma. And in the end, it didn¡¯t really matter if the words were real or not. The most important thing was to keep moving forward. With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing proceeded calmly through the mountains.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the Captain¡¯s warning became a reality. Everyone began to hear different voices.

    Xu Qing heard Sergeant Thunder, Grandmaster Bai, Master Seventh, and Plumdark. He even heard his parents talking to him, as well as the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. His expression remained the same. He couldn¡¯t imagine anyone in the party getting distracted by this. So he didn¡¯t pay much attention to the voices. He just continued forward, all while keeping a hand protectively on Ling¡¯er, who was now coiled around his neck. He didn¡¯t want her getting worried.

    It was impossible to say what Nethersprite was hearing, but her face was expressionless as she continued moving without pause.

    Li Youfei was old enough to have experienced a lot in life. Considering how he had cleverly plotted against Xu Qing when they first met, it was a given that he had tenacious willpower. It wasn¡¯t hard at all for him to keep his mind under control and ignore the voices.

    As for Wu Jianwu, he heard Mistress Rosyclouds¡¯ voice talking from behind him, calling to him. The suddenness of it caused his eyes to go wide. However, when he thought about how she¡¯d turned and walked away from him, he smiled grimly and continued onward. Next, he heard a voice full of profound majesty, something from ancient times, speaking in exactly the way he knew Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity would speak.

    <i>¡°Nine clouds in heaven remember the past; ten chasms of fog obscure ancient and modern!¡±</i>

    Wu Jianwu shivered from head to toe and very nearly looked over his shoulder. But then he realized something didn¡¯t make sense. <i>The wording is wrong. It¡¯s aplete load of crap! The tonal patterns are off. It¡¯s supposed to be both domineering and heart-rending, but in reality, it¡¯s just sentimental nonsense.</i>

    Snorting coldly in his heart, he kept moving.

    Thest to hear a voice was Ning Yan.

    ¡°Your Majesty....¡±

    He stopped in ce briefly, but then considered what the Captain had said. After taking a few breaths, he continued.

    The clouds of smoke kept moving across the mountains. Nothing unusual happened to any of them.

    Thanks to Ling¡¯er, Xu Qing was aware that everything was going well. However, he kept his guard up. He had the feeling there was going to be more gruish phenomena in these mountains. Eyes cold, he proceeded, trying to calcte how far they¡¯d gone based on his rate of movement and the time that had passed.

    The candle had been burning faster and faster, to the point where he only had a bit of wax left.

    <i>We should arrive soon</i>, he thought. However, that was when Ling¡¯er¡¯s voice rang out in his mind. She sounded rmed.

    <i>¡°Big Bro Xu Qing... I just realized there aren¡¯t six people traveling in clouds of smoke.... There are seven. The seventh person came out of nowhere. What¡¯s more, everyone else seems to be out of order now.... I can¡¯t tell who is who.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at Ling¡¯er. Her state of rm seemed to confirm that the voice he had heard really was hers. Her observation didn¡¯t surprise him at all.

    The gruish nature of this world was being fully manifest, whether by means of the voices earlier, or this additional person that Ling¡¯er had spotted.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look. Just keep going.¡±

    At that point, the Captain¡¯s voice once again reached everyone¡¯s ears. ¡°We¡¯re almost to the end. We¡¯ve sessfully passed this challenge, but that doesn¡¯t mean we can rx. The fact that the candles are burning faster shows that we¡¯ve been noticed. Let¡¯s speed up. We need to reach the spot where the mountains connect to the dome of heaven, and we need to do it before the candles burn out. Run, everybody!¡±

    In response to his voice, the figures in the seven clouds of smoke all thought different things.

    Ning Yan looked surprised, as did Wu Jianwu. Obviously, both of them had noticed that their candles were burning faster. They had also noticed that, back when passing out the candles, the Captain actually had quite a supply. If one candle wasn¡¯t enough, why hadn¡¯t he given them two? Li Youfei hesitated as he tried to determine if the voice he¡¯d heard was real or not, and if he should trust it. Nethersprite just snorted coldly and continued moving at the same pace as before. Unexpectedly, the Captain also continued moving at the same speed!

    It was only Wu Jianwu who suddenly sped up. The end of the mountainsy only about 300 meters ahead. As Wu Jianwu elerated, he swept past the clouds of smoke upied by Xu Qing and the Captain. The wind started blowing even harder than before, and the candle in his hands burned faster.

    Finally, when Wu Jianwu was only about 30 meters from the end of the mountains, his candle suddenly winked out. The moment it did, the smoke around him vanished, revealing his shocked and terrified face. When Wu Jianwu saw that he was 30 meters away from the end, and then looked back to see six clouds of smoke slowly moving in his direction, he noticed that he was the only one who had sped up. A bewildered look appeared on his face. Apparently realizing that he had been fooled, but knowing there was nothing he could do about it, he gritted his teeth and rushed past the final 30 meters.

    But then, bright colors shed in heaven and earth. Bolts of blue lightning crashed in the sky, and countless skinnterns turned to face Wu Jianwu, then raced toward him at top speed. The abyss on either side of the mountains erupted with deafening panting sounds, and a massive figure mmed into the side of the mountains and started climbing up. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out, shaking the mountains, distorting the sky, and blurring everything. It was almost as if there was a god in the abyss.

    At the same time, one of the clouds of smoke suddenly elerated rapidly, pulsing with a sense of greed as it closed in on Wu Jianwu.

    It moved so fast that the smoke around it cleared, revealing... antern of human skin! Unexpectedly, the face on thatntern actually looked very much like the Captain¡¯s face. Moving with astonishing speed, and its expression one of madness, it soon reached a point only about three meters from Wu Jianwu.

    Opening its mouth wide, it lunged. But then, all of a sudden, Wu Jianwu stopped moving and lifted his right hand. Then, blue light red as he reached out and grabbed thentern. Thentern reacted with astonishment, but it was toote for it to evade. Wu Jianwu¡¯s hand gripped it tight as he shot backward to the end of the mountains, and the altar that was there.

    All of the other countless skinnterns seemed to suddenly lose their senses. Returning to their peaceful state, they started floating around randomly. The howling from the abyss stopped and the mountains stopped shaking.

    Clearly, once someone reached the altar, they would stop paying attention.

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu stood on the altar gripping thentern, his eyebrows dancing up and down as he jumped back and forth excitedly.

    ¡°I finally hooked this thingy!¡± he said,ughing. At that point, Wu Jianwu¡¯s facial features changed, melting into a liquid that ran down his face and revealing... the Captain!

 Chapter 635: Flipped Upside Down; Grandparents Present

    <h4>Chapter 635: Flipped Upside Down; Grandparents Present</h4>

    Looking down at thentern, the Captain thought, <i>Grandpa Heir Apparent and the others really didn¡¯t tag along secretly? If they were here, could they really resist the urge to devour the dark souls in the abyss?</i>

    Sighing inwardly, the Captain ignored the struggling of thentern. Quickly performing a left-handed incantation gesture, he pushed his hand onto the face. The vicious face let loose a howl. In response, the Captain bit the tip of his tongue and spat some blood onto thentern. Instantly, the face became sttered with blood.

    ¡°Shut up, fool! You¡¯re a past life face that I left here on purpose. How dare you yell at me!¡±

    Around that time, Xu Qing sped onto the altar.

    Exactly as he did, his candle burned out and the smoke vanished. Xu Qing looked around, eventually noticing thentern in the Captain¡¯s hand.

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain held thentern up high.

    ¡°I left this thingy hiding here years ago. It doesn¡¯t have a brain, only a face, so it isn¡¯t very smart. But I know it all too well. You see, from the moment we stepped foot in the mountains, I kept my mouth shut. This thingy, taking advantage of the fact that we couldn¡¯t see anything outside of the smoke, said a lot. You probably heard it all.¡±

    Meanwhile, everyone else was stepping onto the altar, and wondering why the journey had gone so smoothly.

    Smiling, the Captain continued, ¡°At first it told you not to look back, right? That was to gain your trust. The truth is that it was worried the things in the abyss would steal its food. After gaining your trust, it told you to speed up. That was its attempt to snatch you.

    ¡°It was on a fishing expedition, except, so was I. This thingy has no brain, but it¡¯s still instinctively cautious. If it wasn¡¯t trying to hook one of us, it wouldn¡¯t have gotten close. Truth be told, this challenge is easy as long as we have those candles. The hard part was figuring a way to get my hands on thisntern.¡±

    The Captain smacked the face on thentern. After being sprayed with blood, the face had been gasping for breath. Now it opened its mouth and tried to bite the Captain, though he still managed to smack the face without being bitten.

    ¡°Give me that,¡± Nethersprite said, her eyes cold.

    The Captain blinked a few times then tossed thentern to Nethersprite. This was one of the promises he¡¯d made to convince Nethersprite toe along.

    After catching thentern, Nethersprite looked at the face, which was about eighty percent the same as Chen Erniu¡¯s. Eyes suddenly turning bloodshot, she viciously pped the face. However, she didn¡¯t stop at a single p. She pped it again and again, causing the face to howl in anguish.

    Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and the others were all shocked.

    Off to the side, the Captain cheered her on. ¡°Great shot! Harder! Go, go, go!¡±

    That just seemed to make Nethersprite angrier. Strangely, no matter how Nethersprite hit the skinntern, it didn¡¯t break. And though the face swelled up from the beating, the swelling went down almost immediately. It was a very bizarre scene.

    Watching the scene y out, Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak.

    However, before he could, a very familiar voice spoke into his mind.

    <i>¡°What a very interestingmp.¡±</i> It was the Heir Apparent¡¯s voice!

    Xu Qing¡¯s mouth snapped shut. He was only slightly surprised to hear that voice speaking. Next, another voice spoke.

    <i>¡°Yeah, quite the treasure. What¡¯s most interesting is that the construction method conforms to the style of Brilliant Heaven. This Chen Erniu really does have a mysterious background.¡±</i> It was Princess Brightblossom.[1]

    <i>¡°I told you there¡¯s something suspicious about the brat, which is why I suggested we secretly follow along. Earlier, it might have seemed like I was striking up a friendship with the little punk, but the truth is that I was pulling a fast one on him!¡±</i> That was Eighth Sib.

    <i>¡°What I¡¯m most interested in finding out is which mysterious high god actually chose to cooperate with him. And where is that god from? Is it really as our previous analysis indicated?¡±</i> That was Princess Fifth.

    The Heir Apparent chuckled. <i>¡°We¡¯ll get the answer here eventually. What¡¯s more, the dark souls in the valley below contain a very ancient energy that could provide some rare nourishment for us.¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing listened to the voices, he surreptitiously looked around. The spot they¡¯d traveled to was actually high in the sky. Looking down from that point, the dark canopy of heaven almost seemed like it was in the abyss.

    When viewed from the base of the mountains, the ¡®scar¡¯ in the canopy of heaven wasn¡¯t very noteworthy. But from this vantage point, it looked like an enormous valley. Lightning danced back and forth within it, but that wasn¡¯t enough to dispel the darkness and gloom. The only thing that emerged from it was a deep rumbling sound.

    Noticing what Xu Qing was looking at, the Captain walked over and sped his shoulder.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, the second challenge is going to be dangerous. But don¡¯t worry. Your Eldest Brother came prepared. Let me tell you, that valley is full of countless souls. And they¡¯re unique souls, as they have an ancient energy in them. If you get close to them, your life force will be infected with something extremely ancient that will cause you to age rapidly and wither into death.¡±

    As he spoke, the Captain took out a pile of what appeared to be paper talismans, which he distributed.

    ¡°Once we¡¯re inside, burn these as you walk along. This time, we¡¯re not going to split up. We need to stick close together. As long as the fire keeps burning, the souls won¡¯t get close. These strips of skin are very useful. Don¡¯t waste them....¡±

    The Captain seemed slightly reluctant to pass out the talismans.

    Xu Qing took some talismans. As soon as he touched them, he realized they were actually made from the Captain¡¯s skin. He cast a sympathetic look at the Captain.

    At the moment, he didn¡¯t think it was the right thing to tell the Captain that the Heir Apparent and the others were with them. Otherwise, the Captain¡¯s good mood would probably sour. Although it seemed likely the Heir Apparent and the others would show themselves soon enough, keeping the Captain happy for even just a bit longer seemed like the best choice.

    Sighing inwardly, he proceeded into the long, deep valley. The moment he did, everything turned upside down. The dome of heaven became thend. Thend became the dome of heaven. The valley which had been in the sky now looked like two cliff faces towering up on either side. The sky was now just barely visible through the narrow gap overhead. What was more, the de-like mountain range they had just walked through was now in the canopy of heaven. From the way it was angled, it really did look like a big saber, hanging up in the sky, ready to drop down at any moment into the valley. If it did... it would fit perfectly into the valley.

    The unusual sight naturally created a sense of stifling pressure in those below. After all, it was like a literal de hanging above their heads.

    As the group looked up in shock, the Captain took out one of the strips of paper and lit it on fire. The surrounding darkness became like ink that swept away from them in rivulets.

    ¡°Don¡¯t waste them. Burning two at a time should be enough. I¡¯ll keep one going at all times, the rest of you take turns to burn them one at a time. Big Jianjian, you¡¯re first. After that will be Little Ningning. Then Li Youfei, Big Boo¡ª er, Big Sis Nether, and finally little Ah Qing.¡±

    Warmth spread out from the fire, covering all of them. The darkness beyond the light stirred, and Xu Qing could see numerous eyes there, staring coldly at them. In fact, based on how they moved, Xu Qing could sense that there were massive entities out in the darkness, eying them <i>like tigers eying prey</i>. A sense of deadly crisis began to build within him.

    However, when he thought about how the Heir Apparent and the others were nearby, he calmed down a bit.

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu also lit one of the skin talismans, causing the light of the fire to spread even further.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± The Captain took a deep breath and started walking. Xu Qing followed. As a group, they proceeded into the darkness and gloom of the valley.

    As they walked, the fire made them the only source of light in the dark world. And though the light kept the evil things away, it also attracted a lot of attention. That,bined with the steep mountains on either side, created a sense of stifling pressure.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu already regretteding along. Li Youfei tried to stay as close as possible to Xu Qing, believing that to be the safest spot. Nethersprite was in the back,ughing coldly as she repeatedly pped the skinntern.

    Two hours passed. They were about halfway through the valley, and they had already burned a few dozen talismans. The further they went, the faster the talismans burned. Although the Captain had prepared a good stockpile, seeing them being burned away so quickly left him feeling very disappointed.

    After all, each talisman had been made by slicing off his own skin. Given the rate they were burning through the talismans, he was worried that they might run out, forcing him to cut more skin off himself.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way...¡± the Captain said with another sigh.

    Finally, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t take it anymore and spoke softly into his mind. <i>¡°Senior...?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I know,¡±</i> the Heir Apparent replied. ¡°<i>Enough of them have gathered.¡±</i>

    All of a sudden, the burning talismans in the hands of the Captain and Ning Yan went out.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes widened, and everyone went on guard.

    As the mes went out, everything turned dark. And the voracious souls in the darkness instantly lunged forward. Ghostly howls rang out everywhere. However, those howls quickly turned into exmations of terror. It was as if they had run into something that horrified even them. Sadly for them, they realized that toote.

    Xu Qing sensed his sleeve rustling as several figures popped out. Next, the cries of terror turned into bloodcurdling screams.

    Then, chewing sounds could be heard as countless souls were devoured. Then, a crashing sound rang out as a bolt of lightning fell. As the darkness was briefly dispelled, Xu Qing caught sight of the Heir Apparent and the others, all of them like vortexes sucking in the surrounding souls. Countless souls were sucked into the vortexes and ripped to shreds.

    Normally, these ¡®grandpas¡¯ and ¡®grandmas¡¯ seemed kind and amiable, but not now. Right now, they seemed profoundly cold.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. None of this was very surprising to him. After all, they were Smoldering Gods. Considering that their cultivation level had the word ¡®god¡¯ in it, that went to show that they were in a higher category of existence.

    They acted kind and amiable because of Xu Qing and the other youngsters in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. But to others, the fact that they were Smoldering Gods... made them almost no different from actual gods!

    1. Brilliant Heaven was first mentioned in <u>chapter 568.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 636: An Unusual Role

    <h4>Chapter 636: An Unusual Role</h4>

    Xu Qing had experienced god-glimpsing, so he understood some of what was happening.

    The illumination provided by the lightning disappeared, and the darkness returned. The agonized shrieks now sounded like they were farther away, evidence that the Heir Apparent and his siblings were moving out into the gloom.

    The Captain sighed and looked at the strip of flesh in his hand. He suddenly felt prickling pain, both on his skin and in his heart.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, isn¡¯t this a ssic case of evil intentions? I asked them if they wanted toe and they said no! Then I had to use my own fat to make candles and my own skin to make talismans. Do you know... how much all of that hurt?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and offered some constion. ¡°You can put them away now, Captain. I doubt we¡¯ll need them going forward. And don¡¯t waste the skin. Who knows, you might be able to stick it back on yourselfter.¡±

    Looking miserable, the Captain sighed again as he took back the skin talismans, then kept moving.

    The valley was still dark and the surroundings were icy cold. However, there was no longer any danger. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were sighing inwardly. It was the same with Li Youfei. In contrast, Nethersprite didn¡¯t seem to care at all about the new developments. If anything, she was excited; as long as Chen Erniu was unhappy, she felt great. In fact, she felt so great she just kept hitting thentern.

    Another two hours went by, during which they simply walked along until they reached the far end of the valley. The moment they emerged from the narrow path, they caught sight of a dpidated altar.

    Back before the altar crumbled into ruins, it had obviously been an incredibly majestic thing. It was fully 30,000 meters across, and roughly 3,000 meters tall.

    However, it was now barely more than a pile of boulder-like debris. There were also some statues around the altar. The statues were all 30,000-meters tall, and were in varying states of damage. Though they were clearly very old, they were also quite impressive.

    Xu Qing and the others felt like they had entered into a kingdom of giants.

    The area was full of extremely strong rancorous aura, as well as baleful energy. It was so intense that it created rippling distortions as they looked around.

    Because of that, the sky looked different to Xu Qing. And it was so high above his head that it seemed almost like a heaven beyond heaven.

    The rancorous energy and the baleful energy mixed together, making a giant vortex that spun endlessly overhead. Wind. Rain. Thunder. Lightning. Suns. Moons. Stars. Heavenly bodies. The vortex contained boundless magicalws that constantly shifted and transformed, releasing terrifying fluctuations.

    Xu Qing looked at the vortex, his heart pounding. He could sense that it contained the fluctuations of a god. It was Crimson Mother¡¯s aura, as well as a majestic might, a tyrannical dao that seemed capable of causing heaven and earth to prostrate in front of it. Xu Qing could just barely make out a roar of rageing from the most ancient times, mixed with a piercing shriek. It caused blood-colored light to spring up around Xu Qing. His god trove appeared, daybreak light swirled, and taboo poison pulsed, creating a protective barrier. Despite all of that, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered backward.

    <i>This vortex is so strong that I doubt even the Heir Apparent would casually step into it....</i>

    If Xu Qing was shocked by what he was seeing, it went without saying that the others had simr reactions.

    Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei were visibly stunned, and were all coughing up blood like mad. Ning Yan¡¯s bloodline had been aroused, and he shone with glowing yellow light. However, not even that was enough to protect him, and he passed out.

    Li Youfei shivered. He was in the Nascent Soul level, yet in the presence of this vortex, neither Nascent Soul cultivators nor Gold Core experts were worth much. Blood sprayed out of his mouth and he fell over, injured and unconscious.

    Wu Jianwu had an even weaker cultivation base. However, he had a lot of children. In that moment of crisis, he called forth a host of them, who clustered around him and bolstered him with bloodline power. Though he coughed up blood, he actually didn¡¯t pass out.

    Nethersprite¡¯s expression was very serious as she looked at the vortex up above. Five secret troves appeared around her, keeping her safe.

    The Captain coughed up blood and staggered backward. However, his eyes shone with excitement. Pointing at the crumbled altar, heughed crazily and said, ¡°See that, little Ah Qing! That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for!

    ¡°This is the very spot where the Imperial Sovereign of the Moonrite Region beheaded Crimson Mother before she reached godly ascension! At that time, Crimson Mother was also an Imperial Sovereign!

    ¡°Based on all the information I gathered in past lives, I determined that this location contains a convergence of Imperial Sovereign divine abilities in the form of the God Decapitation Altar. That altar right there is where Crimson Mother¡¯s head was taken off. Of course, after that event, sh¨¥ loathed this ce so much that sh¨¥ destroyed the altar. However, that doesn¡¯t matter!

    ¡°It won¡¯t affect my big n. There are some things I can say here that I wasn¡¯t able to say before. I don¡¯t have to keep them a secret in the fear of arousing the wrong karma and waking up Crimson Mother.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain, his eyes shining.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you know why my script is entitled <i>God Decapitation</i>?¡±

    Voice calm, Xu Qing said, ¡°Because you¡¯re going to recreate the scene in which the Imperial Sovereign beheaded Crimson Mother!¡±

    He had long sincee to this conclusion. However, because the Captain hadn¡¯t brought up the subject, he hadn¡¯t talked about it.

    The Captainughed heartily. ¡°Exactly! I¡¯m going to make it as realistic as possible. Then we¡¯ll film it and process it. Afterward, we¡¯ll use the power of all the artificial suns I¡¯ve collected to broadcast it throughout the entire Moonrite Region!

    ¡°One of the artificial suns is in the desert. There are two that I released beforeing here, and are already in the canopy of heaven above the Moonrite Region. And there are a few more that I¡¯ve secretly set up in different ces.

    ¡°Once the filming isplete, it can be broadcast immediately! When that happens, all living beings in the Moonrite Region, regardless of where they are, will be able to look up and see it all y out!¡±

    In concert with the loud rumbling of the vortex, the Captain¡¯s voice seemed extraordinarily grand and lofty.

    ¡°Right now, the living beings in the Moonrite Region are wallowing in despair. They need some hope! They need a reason to fight back. And the contents of my broadcast will bring them that hope. It will give them that reason!¡±

    Everything finally clicked for Xu Qing, and he said, ¡°The broadcast will show them that gods aren¡¯t unkible. They aren¡¯t eternal.¡±

    ¡°Exactly right!¡± The Captain looked very excited. Obviously, he had been thinking about this moment for a very long time, and had been making a lot of preparations for it. Now, it was finally about to be a reality.

    Looking thoughtfully at the Captain, Xu Qing said, ¡°There must be more to it than that, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°You understand me the best, little Junior Brother. Hahaha! You¡¯re right, I have three goals in mind!

    ¡°First, to arouse the fighting spirit of the people of Moonrite. It would be too difficult for us to devour Crimson Mother using our strength alone. We need to borrow the strength of the people of Moonrite. Remember, a few sparks can set a grasnd ame!

    ¡°Second, only by aplishing the first goal can I then gather the strength of the people of Moonrite in the same location where I filmed the broadcast. In other words, right here. That¡¯s going to be very useful, although you¡¯ll have to wait to see the details.

    ¡°As for the third goal, it¡¯s this: when the living people here see that broadcast, it will nt a seed in their hearts! Furthermore, the experience of being beheaded is one of Crimson Mother¡¯s most painful memories.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡¯ve glimpsed what it means to be a god, and therefore you have a clear understanding of the connections between human nature and godly nature. As a result you must surely understand why Crimson Mother is so hungry. It¡¯s because Crimson Mother... isn¡¯tplete.¡±

    The Captain licked his lips and looked at Xu Qing, the crazy look in his eyes more intense than ever, to the point where the faces were visible in his pupils. What was more, there was a faint sensation of hunger that pulsed uncontrobly in the Captain.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Based on what I¡¯ve sensed, I can guess that Crimson Mother has only reached a state of equilibrium. In the final analysis, sh¨¥ isn¡¯tplete. Otherwise, if h¨¥r human nature waspletely erased, sh¨¥ wouldn¡¯t feel any hunger.¡±

    The Captain smiled malevolently. Even Nethersprite shivered when she saw it.

    ¡°Therefore, what we¡¯re going to do is break that equilibrium! Later on, I¡¯ll use sacrificial dance techniques to deliver the recording right to Crimson Mother the moment sh¨¥ arrives. H¨¥r most painful memory will be what summons h¨¥r human nature! After all, emotions are one of the manifestations of human nature! Think of them like a see-saw that keeps human nature and godly nature constantly at odds.

    ¡°When it all happens, Crimson Mother will go insane. With h¨¥r equilibrium broken, sh¨¥¡¯ll have a weakness! And that¡¯s only one part of myrger master n. When the entire n is carried out, Crimson Mother... could very well be beheaded again!

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Is your Eldest Brother amazing, or is he amazing?¡± The Captain stood there proudly.

    Xu Qing was happy to agree, so he sped hands and bowed.

    The Captain felt even more pleased as a result. Laughing heartily, he walked over to Ning Yan and pped him. Ning Yan coughed up some blood and regained consciousness. The Captain also woke up Li Youfei.

    ¡°Little Ningning, take this script. You have one incense stick¡¯s worth of time to memorize your lines. You¡¯re going to y the role... of the Imperial Sovereign of the Moonrite Region!¡±

    Ning Yan shivered from head to toe. Wu Jianwu, meanwhile, was starting to get a bit worked up. Pushing aside his children, he stared at the Captain.

    The Captain waved his hand, sending a jade slip flying to Wu Jianwu.

    ¡°Little Jianjian, as your dear friend, how could I possibly not know about your biggest dream in life? Well, today, I¡¯m going to make ite true. You are going to y the part of... Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity!¡±

    Wu Jianwu was already getting very excited. The Captain was right that he had long dreamed of being Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Of course, that couldn¡¯t literally happen, but being able to y the part of the Ancient Emperor was still profoundly meaningful. And when he thought about how many people would see his performance, Wu Jianwu got even more excited.

    The Captain patted Wu Jianwu on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging look. Then he turned to Nethersprite.

    ¡°Big Boo¡ª Big Sis Nether, as per our agreement, you¡¯re going to y the role of Crimson Mother.¡±

    Nethersprite red at him maliciously and let out a cold harrumph. ¡°Give it to me!¡±

    The Captain quickly took out a jade slip and handed it respectfully to Nethersprite. Finally, he looked at Xu Qing. After blinking a few times, he smiled.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡¯re going to y a somewhat unusual role. You¡¯re not going to be a person. You¡¯re going to be... blood. Using your authority, I want you to make sure there¡¯s a lot of blood spraying around when Crimson Mother gets beheaded. It needs to be extremely realistic.¡±

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Although, considering that you <i>are </i>my little Junior Brother, I guess I could give you a second role. That of... the godpriest of the God Decapitation Altar! What do you say?¡±

 Chapter 637: The Hottest Show in Moonrite

    <h4>Chapter 637: The Hottest Show in Moonrite</h4>

    When the Captain finished speaking, Wu Jianwu felt iparably wonderful. He definitely got the best role of the performance, and it caused a poem to pop into his mind.

    <i>Erniu seems like he¡¯s tearing things apart, a well-rounded hero always has a heart!</i>

    He didn¡¯t speak the words aloud, but the sentiment was visible on his face.

    The Captain noticed that look and smiled approvingly.

    When Ling¡¯er realized that roles were being distributed, she stuck her head out of Xu Qing¡¯s sleeve and looked at the Captain.

    ¡°What about me, Elder Brother Erniu? What about me?¡±

    Without a moment of hesitation, the Captain said, ¡°You? Well you¡¯re the godpriest¡¯s little daoist partner, of course!¡±

    Ling¡¯er was very pleased to hear that.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s you, Little Li. You¡¯ll stick close to Little Ningning, as you¡¯ll be the court eunuch who reads out the imperial decree.¡±

    Li Youfei didn¡¯t have any expectations about the role he was to y, and considering that Xu Qing was assigned to be the stage crew, he simply nodded agreeably.

    ¡°What about you?¡± Xu Qing asked calmly.

    ¡°Me? Hahaha! Well, I¡¯m getting a bit too old to have an onstage role. I¡¯d rather you young whippersnappers get a chance at fame. You¡¯re our future, after all. Therefore, I¡¯ll simply be serving all of you from behind the curtain.¡±

    Lookingpletely calm and collected, the Captain went on to distribute jade slip scripts to everyone.

    Wu Jianwu was carefully studying his script, and had already started practicing some of his lines. Ning Yan was also interested in the script, although not as much as Wu Jianwu.

    Nethersprite did little more than nce at it and snort coldly. Then she went back to smacking thentern. Perhaps because she was able to vent her killing intent, or perhaps because thentern just felt good, she found the practice of smacking it to be very enjoyable.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem bothered by what Nethersprite was doing. He looked immensely pleased as he studied his little team. He was getting very excited about what was toe shortly.

    ¡°Study your lines closely, everyone. Remember, every living being in the Moonrite Region is going to be watching you. After this, we¡¯re doing makeup and then putting on the period costumes. With the assistance of Big Sis Nether, everything is ready.¡±

    Wu Jianwu nodded enthusiastically. Ning Yan suddenly seemed to be taking the situation a lot more seriously.

    The only one who didn¡¯t seem very excited was Xu Qing. His script was fairly simple, and he didn¡¯t even have any lines to memorize. In fact, there wasn¡¯t really any information at all in his script. All he had to do was make sure a lot of blood sprayed everywhere when Crimson Mother was beheaded. His main role really was to handle the blood. And his other role, that of the God Decapitation Altar¡¯s godpriest, didn¡¯t have any speaking lines. He just needed to sh a saber down. Although the Captain had named the role ¡®godpriest,¡¯ the reality was that he was the executioner.

    Given that he didn¡¯t have much to do, Xu Qing started looking more closely at the ruins of the altar. Its ancient aura was very strong, and the ravages of time were clearly evident everywhere. It reminded Xu Qing of the temples where he had studied the Supreme Vastness Solitary Saber. They imparted the same sensation of the passage of countless years.

    <i>I wonder if there¡¯s any enlightenment to be gained here.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts began to wander.

    Meanwhile, as the director, the Captain figured he should do as much as possible to help everyone understand their roles. Therefore, he decided to give a little bit of an exnation about the performance. Clearing his throat, he hopped up onto arge chunk of stone, then looked down.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen,¡± the Captain said passionately, ¡°we will be performing a y in two acts. If you look at your scripts, you can see the work you have cut out for you. Act 1 is called Demon Mother Disrupts Revered Ancient!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying any attention. As he stared at the rubble of the altar, he could sense how ancient it was. In fact, the Captain¡¯s voice almost seemed like it wasing from a different time.

    ¡°The story basically exins how Crimson Mother, before reaching godly ascension, was arrogant and despotic, threw Revered Ancient into chaos, spread torment and suffering, and ultimately displeased the Imperial Sovereign so much that he crushed her. Of course, there will be some narration during this part, which will be provided by yours truly!

    ¡°When the scene opens, the Imperial Sovereign will appear, surrounded by suns, moons, stars, heavenly bodies, wind, thunder, lightning, and rain. Long story short, a host of divine abilities and magical techniques will be used to create a dazzling, colorful image. It will be iparably beautiful. I¡¯ll handle all of that, of course.¡±

    As he spoke, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. Clearly, he was going to be taking center stage in his own way. Meanwhile, Xu Qing was so immersed in his senses that an image had formed in his mind.

    ¡°After that?¡± the Captain continued, ¡°Well, upon establishing the grandeur and might of the Imperial Sovereign, he will berate Crimson Mother in front of all creation, and will list out her nine criminal offenses! Crimson Mother, beingpletely arrogant and wicked, will try to devour the Imperial Sovereign. The Imperial Sovereign will thenunch a palm strike, severely injuring Crimson Mother.

    ¡°We really need to impart the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s invincible majesty. Ning Yan, you need to capture that feeling. Remember, the Imperial Sovereign is like a king. Just tap into your memories and imagine what a truly exalted individual is like. You can do it. I have full confidence in you.¡±

    Thanks to the Captain¡¯s encouragement, Ning Yan thought of his father. He nodded.

    ¡°As for Big Sis Nether....¡± The Captain turned to Nethersprite.

    She looked back at him coldly.

    He chuckled.

    ¡°Big Sis Nether,¡± he said warmly, ¡°you don¡¯t really have to say very much. However, acting as Crimson Mother is going to be a bit of a challenge for you. After all, Crimson Mother is inherently vicious and evil, unlike you, ma¡¯am. Big Sis Nether, you¡¯re inherently honest and kindhearted. So basically, you just need to act in the exact opposite way you normally would. That will make your performance perfect!¡±

    Nethersprite smiled sarcastically.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then continued, ¡°Next is act 2, which is where the climax of the yes. The story picks up after the Imperial Sovereign arrests Crimson Mother and brings her here. No matter how hard she struggles, she can¡¯t free herself. She¡¯s been ruthlessly restrained.

    ¡°We¡¯ll need some magical techniques to add to the effect. You know, wild colors shing in heaven and earth. Winds screaming around. Things rumbling. It needs to be a very dramatic scene.

    ¡°As the tension builds, Crimson Mother is forced to kneel in front of the Imperial Sovereign. In turn, the Imperial Sovereign sps hands to heaven, beseeching Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity to bear witness. A projection of the Ancient Emperor arrives, and the court eunuch reads out the decree. Like before, we¡¯ll need a lot of dramatic stuff happening in the background!¡±

    The Captain was really going all out. He¡¯d clearly put a massive amount of thought into the script.

    As the entire y was exined in a very eloquent manner, Xu Qing shivered. Peering at the outline of the image in his mind, he realized a wind had picked up, carrying with it chanting from the ancient past. However, he couldn¡¯t quite make out what was being said.

    ¡°And then?¡± the Captain said, his voice echoing loudly. ¡°The Imperial Sovereign will give the order, and Xu Qing, you, as the godpriest of the God Decapitation Altar, will raise the guillotine de high into the air and then chop it down! However, don¡¯t forget that you¡¯re also in charge of the blood effects. Make sure to time it well so it looks real. [1]

    ¡°Although this isn¡¯t exactly how it happened down to the finest detail, there¡¯s not much we can do about that. We have no way to imitate the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s divine abilities, the type that uses heaven as the de and earth as the altar, and connect to the sun and moon to create an insurmountable grandeur. As such, we¡¯ll just do what we can.¡±

    The Captain sighed. He really wished he could put an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s divine abilities on disy. That would have been absolutely shocking. Sadly... without being an Imperial Sovereign, it wasn¡¯t possible to show off an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s divine abilities.

    <i>If only the Heir Apparent and his siblings would give a helping hand. That would be so great....</i>

    The Captain scanned the area but didn¡¯t see any sign of the ¡®grandpas¡¯ and ¡®grandmas.¡¯ Pushing that idea away, he looked at Nethersprite.

    ¡°Big Sis Nether, remember to ster a look of extreme hatred onto your face the moment you¡¯re beheaded. To do that, you¡ª¡±

    ¡°All I have to do,¡± Nethersprite interrupted venomously, ¡°is look at you and my hatred will reach the most extreme level possible!¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times, backed up a few steps, and looked at Wu Jianwu. ¡°Little Jianjian, you just do your thing as usual. That¡¯ll be fine. Little Ah Qing, you... hey, what are you doing?¡± The Captain looked in surprise at Xu Qing and realized he seemed to be seeking enlightenment. ¡°Little Ah Qing, you can¡¯t just randomly seek enlightenment here....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Curious, the Captain continued, ¡°What are you seeking enlightenment of?¡±

    ¡°I hear some sort of chanting,¡± Xu Qing said, looking off into the distance.

    The Captain was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped. <i>Where¡¯d you get these powers of understanding??</i> He cleared his throat. ¡°Well then... just carry on.¡±

    Turning away from Xu Qing, the Captain took a deep breath and threw his hands into the air.

    ¡°Okay everybody,¡± he said excitedly, ¡°the time hase for the first rehearsal of <i>God Decapitation</i>!¡±

    Wu Jianwu immediately got into character, sping his hands behind his back and standing straight. Li Youfei hurried over to stand next to him.

    Ning Yan flew up into the air and looked down at Nethersprite. Thinking back to how his father would speak and act, his facial expression gradually turned dignified.

    ¡°Demon woman!¡± he barked.

    Nethersprite red up coldly at Ning Yan. Ning Yan¡¯s majesty copsed under her gaze.

    ¡°Stop!¡± The Captain looked very anxious. ¡°You¡¯re not putting the right emotion into it, Little Ningning. Start over from the beginning!¡±

    ***

    As the rehearsal went on, everyone worked hard. Ning Yan had trouble a few times, but in the end, there was nothing the Captain could do to change that.

    Finally, Xu Qing took to the stage. Continuing to work on enlightenment, he drifted out expressionlessly, then floated in the air looking down at Nethersprite. His gaze caused Nethersprite to frown and her gaze to seem a bit more serious. Inside, she was feeling an inexplicable pressure.

    Ning Yan noticed that, and tried to imitate Xu Qing¡¯s expression, and it turned out to be a big improvement.

    The Captain saw that and sighed inwardly. The truth was that the script they were working with was different from the original script he¡¯d created. In the original version, there had been more romance and grudges. That had made the script more emotionally impactful. But when he realized that the Heir Apparent and his siblings might be watching, and that the y was actually depicting their father, the Captain decided not to include those parts.

    Seeing that Ning Yan was still struggling to pull off a good performance, the Captain stepped out and prepared to offer some more direction.

    However, before he could, a cold harrumph echoed out, causing everyone who was part of the rehearsal to feel like they were being shaken down to their soul.

    ¡°This entire thing is a hot mess!¡±

    The voice boomed like thunder as the Heir Apparent appeared in the air with his siblings. Fifth Sister looked down expressionlessly. Princess Brightblossom was frowning slightly. Eighth Sib had his arms crossed over his chest as he sneered at Chen Erniu.

    Xu Qing sped his hands and bowed.

    ¡°Grandpa...¡± the Captain said fawningly, and was about to offer an exnation.

    Before he could, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°Your y ispletely wrong! Xu Qing, you don¡¯t need to provide any blood effects. And you also don¡¯t need to act as a godpriest. Go over to the God Decapitation Altar and continue seeking enlightenment from the lingering killing intent there. It¡¯s going to be a big help to your cultivation.

    ¡°If you can gain enlightenment of the killing will of the God Decapitation Altar, you¡¯ll have acquired amazing good fortune, and this trip will not have been made in vain. Of course, it¡¯s all going toe down to your powers of understanding. How much you gain enlightenment of will depend on you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes shining. Hurrying over to the altar, he sat down cross-legged on one of the crumbled boulders. Closing his eyes, he focused all of his senses on the surrounding energy.

    Next, the Heir Apparent pointed at the Captain. ¡°Now, you¡¯re going to be the godpriest. You have experience as a guard, right? Just act like that.¡±

    The Captain shrank back a bit. He had no desire to have a role like that, yet didn¡¯t dare to reveal his inner thoughts. He quickly hurried over to the spot Xu Qing had been upying moments before.

    ¡°Alright, start over, and I¡¯ll make some adjustments!¡± With that, the Heir Apparent dropped out of the air and sat down cross-legged, to be joined by his siblings.

    Everyone else was vastly more nervous now, but they started the rehearsal over. This time, the person stopping them constantly wasn¡¯t the Captain, it was the Heir Apparent. Thanks to him, the script and the lines were changed. As everyone slowly got into character, the images that the Heir Apparent remembered witnessing personally began to take shape. He exaggerated some things, but that just made things more realistic than the Captain¡¯s version.

    As the four siblings watched, gleams of reminiscence appeared in their eyes.

    Xu Qing was no longer part of the rehearsal. He sat cross-legged at the ruined altar, focused entirely on the surrounding energy. As time passed, he gradually sensed a wind blowing out of nowhere. When it touched him and reached his heart, ripples spread through him....

    1. Based onter descriptions, the ¡®guillotine¡¯ mentioned here is not the type of guillotine you might think of from the French Revolution. It¡¯s more like a guillotine paper trimmer. In other words, it looks roughly like <u>arger version of one of these</u>. ?

 Chapter 638: Everything That Exists Leaves Behind Evidence of Itself

    <h4>Chapter 638: Everything That Exists Leaves Behind Evidence of Itself</h4>

    At the edge of the shattered altar, Wu Jianwu was carefully studying his script. He intended to take everything he knew about Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity and make it a part of his performance. It wasn¡¯t a very difficult task for him, nor was it his first time doing something like this. Back in the Dark Serenity Sect¡¯s pocket dimension in the Eight Sect Coalition, he had done something simr to get a reaction from the demon snake skeleton. [1]

    With the Heir Apparent directing, Ning Yan and Nethersprite essentially had to start from ground zero with their lines. It went without saying that the Heir Apparent was definitely a more suitable director for this y than Chen Erniu. With his insights, everyone was able to bring a higher level of realism to their roles.

    Princess Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib sat next to the Heir Apparent watching the rehearsal and discussing it amongst themselves.

    ¡°That Wu Jianwu kid has some pizazz after all. Forget his cultivation base. His facial expressions and wording really do remind you a lot of the Ancient Emperor.¡±

    ¡°Ning Yan isn¡¯t bad either. He¡¯s at least channeling some of our father¡¯s imperial majesty.¡±

    ¡°Comparatively speaking, though, the hatred in Nethersprite¡¯s eyes is the most realistic. Probably the highlight of the performance.¡±

    ¡°The worst of the group is Chen Erniu. Why¡¯s he just standing there stock still?¡±

    As they chatted and nodded, they would asionally look over at Xu Qing. The frown on Xu Qing¡¯s face seemed to please the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°The boy looks like he¡¯s having a rough time. The God Decapitation Altar is a manifestation of one of father¡¯s divine abilities. It was a trump card thatbined all of his experiences and his cultivation base power. Forget the kid. Not even I could learn that divine ability back in the day. Countless years have passed since then, and this ce is in total ruins. I don¡¯t care how he seeks enlightenment... there¡¯s no way he¡¯ll fully seed.¡± The Heir Apparent shook his head. ¡°Only Ninth Sib was able to continue that tradition....¡±

    Thinking about his ninth brother made the Heir Apparent sigh.

    Off to the side, Eighth Sib suddenly said, ¡°Big Brother, I don¡¯t really approve of this rubbernecking attitude of yours. You obviously know he can¡¯t gain enlightenment here, so why are you having him try? It¡¯s so unscrupulous! I mean, do you want him to get enlightenment or don¡¯t you?¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s expression darkened as he looked at Eighth Sib. Eighth Sib shrank back a bit. Realizing he¡¯d said the wrong thing again, he smiled ingratiatingly.

    ¡°The Heir Apparent is worried that Xu Qing will get a big head because of his powers of understanding,¡± Princess Brightblossom said. ¡°He wants Xu Qing toe to understand his limitations. That will give him the best foundation for future growth. Besides, with this experience, when Ninth Sib awakens in the future, he can pass on the God Decapitation Altar magic, and Xu Qing will be in a much better position to learn it.¡±

    Fifth Sister nodded. By now, she fully approved of Xu Qing.

    Eighth Sib hesitated. There were some more things he wanted to say, yet didn¡¯t dare to. In the end, he just said, ¡°Okay, but... what happens if he actually does gain enlightenment of the killing will? After all, father used to say <i>everything that exists leaves behind evidence of itself</i>.¡±

    The Heir Apparent sat there quietly. Princess Brightblossom was simrly silent.

    Fifth Sister looked at Xu Qing and quietly said, ¡°That would prove that his powers of understanding actually surpass the shocking level of Ninth Sib. Remember, back then, he was said to have powers of understanding simr to father¡¯s....¡±

    ***

    <i>Everything that exists leaves behind evidence of itself.</i>

    All things in heaven and earth were governed by that principle. People. Objects. Concepts. And also divine abilities. The wind had a memory. Thend had a memory. The dome of heaven. All living things. No matter how many ages and eras passed, they could remember. Even heavenly daos had a memory. And if a heavenly dao forgot something, it was always possible that there was some higher will that existed above heavenly daos. If something like that existed, perhaps it would remember everything that had happened over the countless years of history.

    That said, such ¡®evidence¡¯ was sometimes hard to spot, to the point where it would be logical to assume it had disappeared forever. But the reality was the opposite.

    <i>¡°Divine abilities are only constrained by your own imagination....¡±</i>

    Those words spoken by Princess Brightblossom had profoundly affected Xu Qing. It was as if they had opened a window that let him see all of heaven and earth. The image outside that window wasn¡¯t fixed. It was determined by the limits of his imagination.

    As Xu Qing sat on the broken stone remnants of the altar, he felt the wind. Because this world fragment was isted from the outside world, the wind that blew here was from ancient times.

    Xu Qing sat there quietly. He was thinking, not just about his actions, but his inner self, his physical body, his soul, and everything else that made him up. As the wind blew, all of those things became extremely calm. All outside sounds ceased. He wasn¡¯t looking at anything. He felt utter tranquility covering him. His mind became nk. His thoughts were empty. Hecked intentions. Hecked will.

    The only sensation he experienced was the wind. It didn¡¯t stir his hair or garments, but it caused ripples in his sea of consciousness.

    As the ripples spread, images appeared like ink on water. They were blurry, and didn¡¯t have a fixed shape. They moved back and forth, merged and split apart, seemingly working hard to form a specific image. It was as if they wanted to take a memory and impart it to the outside world. Impart it to someone who existed now. Impart it to Xu Qing.

    Unfortunately, perhaps the evidence that had existed since ancient times had grown so faint that the ripples created by the wind weren¡¯t capable of making the imageplete.

    Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding really did have a limit when it came to <i>bringing the past to the present</i>. As a result, he wasn¡¯t really able to seek enlightenment from the ink on the water. The ink and water had lost their power, and were gradually going still. The water was the water. The ink was the ink. They no longer mixed together. They began to vanish.

    However, at the exact moment in which the ink was about to vanish, the defiance that existed in Xu Qing¡¯s heart caused his sea of consciousness to surge. Subconsciously, he knew that this was an amazing destined opportunity. And when destined opportunities came along... you only had one chance to seed. If that ink vanished, then he would lose the chance for all eternity.

    Thus, seven-colored daybreak light exploded in his sea of consciousness, casting radiance everywhere, seeking to extract, to imitate, and toprehend the ink.

    In the past, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this. But now, his enlightenment of daybreak light had reached the point where he could use it to imitate things. With that, just about everything was within the realm of possibility. The ink and water seethed as seven colors spread through them, causing the countless images on the water to turn into numerous projections. They were only imitations. However, there were far more of them than there were originals.

    The images that formed were full of even more detail. People became visible within them. As the images collided and merged with each other, they started to form arger, moreplete image.

    Within that image, it was just possible to make out two figures. One was in heaven, the other on earth. The figure in heaven extended its hands. The figure on the earth looked up. The moment it became clear, a will of intent flickered into being inside. It was killing intent.

    The moment it appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness seethed as if it had been struck by lightning from the highest heavens. Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning seemed to coalesce. Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies erupted into being in the killing intent. It was something that would strike fear into the hearts of other Imperial Sovereigns who faced it, and in fact, would even frighten gods. The moment the intent flickered into being, the image shattered and faded from view.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and his previously empty thoughts stirred again. All of a sudden, he was struck with the realization that he had just experienced the killing will the Heir Apparent had mentioned.

    <i>If I can find it and imitate it, then... perhaps I can turn the image I just saw into a reality.</i>

    From what Xu Qing could tell, gaining enlightenment of the killing will wasn¡¯t important. That was just part of the process. The important part was the image. With that thought in mind, he sent seven-colored light sweeping through his sea of consciousness, both to search and to imitate. Instantly, the ink and the water seethed.

    ***

    The rehearsal went on. As everyone got used to their roles, they started to gain more confidence. It was getting to the point where the actual performance could begin.

    Ning Yan and Nethersprite had already changed into their costumes.

    Before things got started, the Captain walked out, sped hands to the Heir Apparent and his siblings, then cleared his throat.

    ¡°Everybody, just do your best job. Of course, I have multiple roles to y. For one thing, I¡¯m going to use Little Roundy to film the show. The film will then be transmitted to Big Roundy. After being processed, it can then be broadcast out into the canopy of heaven.¡±

    With a flourish, the Captain produced a glowing sphere, which he tossed up into the air.

    But then the Heir Apparent waved his hand, sending Little Roundy right back to the Captain.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for all that! Your way isn¡¯t exactly very convenient. For one thing, everyone will have to crane their necks to see. And that¡¯s not to mention that there will be some ces where people <i>can¡¯t</i> see. You just concentrate on doing a good job as the godpriest. As for the filming, don¡¯t even concern yourself with it.¡±

    The Heir Apparent extended his right hand, and something crystalline shot out of his sleeve and up into the sky. High above, it stopped in ce, revealing that it was actually a huge mirror fragment. It was fully 3,000 meters across and irregrly shaped. However, it emanated a majestic feeling. In fact, the Captain could clearly sense the aura of the Moonrebel Congregation in it. The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed, and everyone else was visibly surprised.

    The huge mirror hovered in the air, slowly rotating and reflecting all of the surroundings. It also locked onto everyone present. The image it created was incredibly clear.

    ¡°This was a precious treasure that belonged to my father,¡± the Heir Apparent said. ¡°Its name is Eye of Heaven. It can see to the highest of the nine heavens and to the lowest of the ten hells. Years ago, right before my father lost to Crimson Mother, the mirror shattered into numerous fragments that scattered into the surroundingnds. In the final moment, my father gave orders to the spirit automaton in the mirror to respect the will of the people.

    ¡°Later, as the spirit automaton absorbed the faith of the people, the Moonrebel Congregation came to be. What you¡¯re looking at here is thergest of the mirror fragments that formed after the Eye of Heaven shattered. The images reflected in this mirror can be transmitted to the spirit automaton in the Moonrebel Congregation. And then, it can be sent directly into the minds of all the living beings in the Moonrite Region.

    ¡°We won¡¯t have to worry about dealing with a recorded broadcast. It will happen live! And now....¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at the group.

    The Captain was clearly excited. Ning Yan and the others were in very high spirits. At the same time, the realization that their performance was going to be broadcast live made them all feel more nervous than ever.

    ¡°Everybody to your ces! Let the show begin!¡±

    The giant mirror fragment glittered brightly. At the same time, in the secret location where the Moonrebel Congregation existed, everything started shaking. All of the temples suddenly shone with dazzling light. The numerous cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation were stunned to the core as an image appeared in their minds. It wasn¡¯t just them. The same thing was happening throughout the Moonrite Region. All mortals. All animals. All cultivators.... Even the members of the Red Moon Cathedral were seeing the same thing.

    An amazing y was officially starting.

    1. Wu Jianwu acted like Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity in the scene that started in <u>chapter 289</u>. ?

 Chapter 639: The Play Debuts!

    <h4>Chapter 639: The y Debuts!</h4>

    ¡°In a moment,¡± a hoarse voice said into the minds of the audience, ¡°all of you will witness a crucial event that yed out in ancient times. It is aplete recording of the time when the Imperial Sovereign of the region upon which we all stand viciously beheaded Crimson Mother!

    ¡°The gods believed this recording to be evil, and thus banned it for all time. However, after the countless years that have passed, today... we managed to dig up a copy of the recording, and will now y it in full for you.¡±

    The voice itself seemed ancient, as if it had been dragged through countless years of time. At the same time, it seemed full of sighing and emotion.

    ¡°Hopefully, everyone in this region, including cultivators and mortals of all species, we who are stuck in an endless loop of fate, can remember this extremely important scene. And that is because, after this recording is released, it will once again be locked down by the gods.¡±

    The wind was blowing in Moonrite! Everyone in the Moonrite Region, regardless of where they were, and regardless of what they were doing, now had the same image and the same voice in their mind. The image was iparably clear, and the voice didn¡¯t contain even a hint of static. It was clearly the result of the sudden use of some incredibly powerful magic.

    At first, most people were taken aback. However, they quickly realized that everyone around them also had nk looks on their faces, indicating that everyone was seeing the same thing. Waves of astonishment began to spread through all the cities of all the species in the region, building up into an unheard-of tempest.

    Some cities had devolved so deeply into insanity and despair that they were little more than ruins filled with dazed survivors. However, as the tempest built, the numbness of their heart was shaken. They emerged from the ruins in their shabby clothing, climbing out of the holes in the ground and the piles of corpses, to look in shock up at the sky.

    The sky was red, and there was no image projected there. But by looking up, they were able to focus even more clearly on the image in their mind.

    Scenes like that yed out everywhere in the Moonrite Region. In some cases, people came out alone. In other cases, they were in groups. Refugees in the wilderness had previously been trudging along silently with no destination in mind. Some of them even reached the point of just falling to the ground and closing their eyes. But now, as that image appeared, their hearts and minds stirred.

    Some cities controlled by major species had remained mostly peaceful despite the insanity sweeping the region. However, the impending arrival of Crimson Mother hung over them like a sharp de. With that de hanging there, they had no choice other than to ept their fate. They couldn¡¯t resist. They couldn¡¯t fight back. And thus, when the image and voice appeared, their silent hearts trembled.

    Most shaken of all were the cultivators in the region, especially those who were part of the Moonrite Region. They were powerful experts from all ces, all species, and all sects. When the red moon had appeared the previous month, all of them had been filled with rm. However, they still had the will to fight back. They were organized into small resistance squads. Unfortunately... not everyone could be like the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators. Most cultivators didn¡¯t have the courage and valor to defy a god. After all, those who didn¡¯t resist might survive until Crimson Mother showed up. Those who resisted... could very well be killed in battle with the Red Moon Cathedral. Therefore, the image was like a huge blow to their minds.

    That blow was even more dramatic to the cultivators of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    And thus, as everyone in the region paid close attention, the big y began.

    In the image, the dome of heaven was like a mass of fish scales rippling constantly. Endless clouds of blood formed, filling the sky and making it seem like a blood hell was taking over. Thunder rumbled, and ck bolts of lightning snaked out, connecting with each other to form a huge cage within the blood hell.

    Suppression was the main theme of the image. The ground below was also the color of blood. Countless corpses had been piled together to form 9,999 mountains. Each of those mountains was 3,000 meters tall. They loomed over thends, organized into a circr pattern that was a huge spell formation. Endless blood flowed down the corpse mountains, which gathered in the middle of them all to make a massive bloodke.

    In the middle of theke was a woman, submerged up to her waist, her back to the audience. She seemed to be bathing. She had long hair, skin as fair as snow, and seemed extremely alluring. As she bathed in blood, she sang a song.

    <i>¡°Some people take flight into the sky, their ambitions utterly bright and high.</i>

    <i>¡°At the Red Moon Sea they heave and sigh, visiting the frontier by-and-by.</i>

    <i>¡°As reincarnation exemplified, they be good food that satisfies.</i>

    <i>¡°Sunlight having burned out the eyes, ideals will never possibly run dry.</i>

    <i>¡°Into the vast expanse I spy, atop the high red moon... I will fly!¡±</i>

    The lyrics float in all directions, thrumming with a determination and staunchness that made them seem dreamlike.

    Except, the background music for this dream was a group of 9,999 mountains of corpses, filled with innumerable bodies. And they wept. Endless cries of grief provided the music for the dream. It was easy to imagine that this woman, in pursuit of that dream, had left behind far more mountains of corpses than were visible here.

    As the woman sang, waves rolled out over theke of blood as 9,999 tentacles emerged to link with the corpse mountains. The wriggling tentacles epted the sacrifice of blood from the corpse mountains, causing the corpses to wither up, turning into nutrients and being swept into theke of blood, and thus, the woman. As countless souls cried out in anguish, the mountains copsed and entered the woman¡¯s mouth.

    The living beings in the Moonrite Region were shaken by the sight of it. And because of the curse that existed in all of them, they all could tell that the woman... was Crimson Mother of the red moon!

    Next, a heaven-rending, earth-crushing crash of thunder erupted in the blood-colored canopy of heaven as a pair of hands stretched down and started ripping open the sky. Deafening noises shook all heaven and earth. The hands ripped open a huge gap in the sky, allowing boundless light to flow down, spreading out and driving away the color of blood. Wickedness was suppressed.

    The blood clouds crumbled as a middle-aged man dressed in a long golden robe appeared. His expression was threatening without being angry as he strode forth. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the blood clouds continued to fall into nothing. The ground quaked. The entire world was shaken.

    Massive waves appeared on the surface of the blood-coloredke, and the blood-red tentacles whipped about wildly. The woman, meanwhile, looked up into the sky and released a piercing shriek. Then she leaped up, emerging from theke and shooting toward the dome of heaven. The bloodke began to spin, creating a vortex that sent forth a blood will that seemed capable of devouring anything and everything.

    The middle-aged man in the sky looked down expressionlessly. He didn¡¯t pause for even a moment as his foot extended in a second step forward. That single step caused the blood-colored vortex to copse into pieces, thus revealing the woman¡¯s true form. Her torso was just like any ordinary human. But her lower half was made of endless tentacles. Overall, she was horrifying and extremely ugly.

    The man took a third step. The sky vibrated, shattering into countless fragments that fell toward the woman. The ground sank in as a huge crack appeared. Screaming and coughing up blood, the woman fell back.

    Next came the fourth step. Heaven shattered, and the earth crumbled. The woman mmed into the ground, seriously injured. Then the man took a fifth step, and his foot headed right toward the struggling woman¡¯s head.

    He smashed her head into the ground. Having aplished that, he looked down, just as expressionless as before.

    ¡°Because of your origin, the Ancient Emperor chose to ignore your behavior. He didn¡¯t wish to be infected with the karma of the ce youe from. But... the song you were singing was just too unpleasant to hear. It interrupted my fourth son¡¯s dream.¡±

    That voice echoed into the minds of all living beings in the Moonrite Region, creating unprecedented waves of shock within them. It was truly a shocking scene. And the mortals of the region were especially astonished to see Crimson Mother smashed with a single stomp. And all of it was because her singing interrupted the dream of this man¡¯s fourth son.

    The subversive image was so shocking that many people just couldn¡¯t believe that it was true. However, the image was incredibly realistic, and the pressure it created was real. Everyone felt their hearts pounding like mad. When all was said and done, most people were too suspicious. That was especially true of the top experts from the various nonhuman species in the Moonrite Region. There was no way that one simple image was going topletely alter their belief system.

    The Captain had actually predicted that would happen, which was why he had organized the y into two acts. Now that act 1 was over, the image blurred, and the hoarse voice once again spoke into the minds of the audience.

    ¡°Now, there will be a short intermission. After enough time has passed for an incense stick to burn, the second act of this amazing historical y will begin.¡±

    The Heir Apparent turned off the Eye of Heaven¡¯s recording function. Nodding, he said, ¡°That¡¯ll work.¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, Ning Yan, who had been performing as the Imperial Sovereign, quickly pulled his foot up. His majestic nature vanished, to be reced with ingratiating nervousness.

    ¡°Big Sis Nether....¡±

    Nethersprite got to her feet and looked coldly at Ning Yan. Ning Yan shivered. He had really put everything he had into that final stomp. In reality, from the very beginning of act 1 until the end, the Heir Apparent and his siblings had been secretly using their magical techniques to make things look perfectly realistic. As a result, Ning Yan had been left with the mistaken impression that he had been more effective than he really had been.

    ¡°Everyone get ready for act 2,¡± the Heir Apparent said. With that, he gave some more instructions to Ning Yan, then some detailed pointers to Wu Jianwu. Finally, he had Chen Erniu do a few run-throughs with the executioner¡¯s saber.

    Princess Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib also gave some advice. They wanted act 2 to be very realistic.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the Heir Apparent activated the Eye of Heaven. Ning Yan and everyone else took their ces, and the image again appeared in the minds of the people of Moonrite. The performance was about to begin.

    However, at that exact same moment, a wind picked up on the stage! It came suddenly, filled with an ancient aura, causing the hair and garments of everyone present to stir. And their hearts trembled as a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering killing sensation appeared. That killing sensation was just the beginning. Thend started to tremble, and wild colors shed in heaven and earth.

    All of the performers were visibly shocked. Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, Nethersprite, Li Youfei, and the Captain all turned to look at Xu Qing.

 Chapter 640: True History

    Chapter 640: True History

    The wind came from Xu Qing, who was sitting cross-legged off in the distance,pletely unmoving. As the wind picked up, lightning crashed and everyone looked on, confused. The vortex in the sky started emitting loud rumbling sounds.

    A moment ago, everyone had sensed a vague fluctuation that came along with the wind that seemed to originate with Xu Qing. Around them, the entire world fragment shivered. The ground shook, and the distant mountains, shaped like a de, trembled. Boulders crashed down into the valley, scattering in all directions.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ning Yan said with a gasp.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes widened as he looked at Xu Qing sitting there cross-legged.

    The Heir Apparent turned to look at Xu Qing, his expression flickering. ¡°What¡¯s this...?¡±

    Princess Brightblossom and the other siblings also looked in the same direction, their eyes gleaming.

    Eighth Sib shivered. ¡°?????? He¡¯s actually gaining enlightenment?¡±

    As everyone reeled in shock, a consummate killing intent began to build up! It was formless, and would take time to appear fully, but it was clearly on the way.

    Except, there was even more toe.

    The Heir Apparent was looking at Xu Qing, and he should have been very pleased. After all, Xu Qing was aplishing this under his tutge. Unfortunately, what he felt instead was unshakable helplessness. All of a sudden, he thought about Xu Qing¡¯s Master. And then he instinctively turned to look at Princess Brightblossom. Princess Brightblossom had turned to look at him. They shared a nce silently.

    ***

    It was impossible to say if you could assign an age to the wind. If not, then how could it contain evidence of the memory of all things? If it did have an age, how could you determine it?

    Few people could answer questions like that.

    Perhaps the age of the wind was determined by the events it had witnessed from ancient times until modern. As it blew on all the living beings in the Moonrite Region, stirring their hearts, the Red Moon Cathedral was taking action. The images from act 1 were nothing short of sphemy as far as they were concerned! They wanted to find out where the y was being broadcast from and put an end to it.

    As a result, innumerable cathedral cultivators were out scouring thends. Sadly for them, there was no way they would easily be able to find that altar hidden in the green sand of the desert. The ancient wind blew across the altar, stirring hearts and minds, and slowly transforming into a huge wave.

    ***

    Act 2 was about to begin, and the broadcast couldn¡¯t be stopped now. It didn¡¯t matter if Ning Yan and the others were feeling shaken, they just had to buck up and get on with the performance.

    Heaven and earth swayed as the ancient wind blew, bing part of the background imagery as the Eye of Heaven sent the image of the y into the minds of the people. The y began again.

    Although the audience didn¡¯t realize it, the ancient evidence dredged up by Xu Qing, plus the killing sensation it brought, made the y significantly more realistic.

    The first thing people saw was an altar. It was gargantuan, and seemed to pulse with majestic godly might. The altar had countless magical symbols on it, and they flickered with the light of endless destroyed suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. It was absolutely terrifying.

    In the middle of the altar was Crimson Mother, sealed by the shattered remnants of countless stars, kneeling in front of a burly man in golden armor. She struggled to free herself, but it did no good.

    The burly man in the armor had a mask on, making it impossible to determine his facial expression. He stood ramrod straight, pulsing with a somber and deste aura. He had one hand gripping Crimson Mother by the hair, and in the other hand, he held a long saber. The saber glittered with gold light, and it emanated shocking fluctuations that spread into the air and created a 3,000-meter projected image. This burly man was the godpriest in charge of the execution.

    Beyond the altar was Ning Yan, still in his role as the Imperial Sovereign. He seemed to be surrounded by countless respectful figures.

    Everyone was waiting for the Ancient Emperor¡¯s decree.

    The solemnity on disy, and the killing sensation that kept growing stronger and stronger, left everyone in the Moonrite Region feeling deeply shaken. After all, the killing intent on disy was astonishing, and was capable of inundating both body and senses. Although everyone had been suspicious of the y¡¯s content, as of now, the realism of the killing intent shook the doubts of even the top experts from the various species. The higher their cultivation base was, the more pronounced the effect. All of them were sensitive to killing intent in varying degrees, and what they sensed now was on another level entirely.

    ¡°And this is just a transmission of killing intent....¡±

    ¡°Just sensing it fills me with fear and trepidation!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me... that this recording is actually real??¡±

    The audience was shaken, especially the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral, who were holding nothing back in their search for the perpetrators.

    Unbeknownst to everyone, the performers were actually feeling just as shaken.

    Ning Yan was struggling to contain his anxiety as he nced at Xu Qing. He could sense the intense killing intent building up, and it had him scared witless. The Captain was also bewildered. Nethersprite, as she yed Crimson Mother, was trembling, and it wasn¡¯t an act. The wind was really just too powerful. The killing intent within it grew stronger and stronger, affecting the magicalws in the area, and causing snowkes to start falling.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom both had very serious expressions on their faces. At this point, they didn¡¯t care about the performance at all, and were instead focused on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was still seeking enlightenment. By using his daybreak light, he was able to continually search for and imitate the fluctuations in the ink. In fact, just a moment ago, he had found the evidence he sought within the ink in his sea of consciousness.

    Daybreak light shone into it. Along with the imitation and the enlightenment, his heart and mind filled with rumbling sounds, until eventually, he heard what sounded like chanting. The fluctuations were the source of the chanting, and also the source of the wind. Now, it was all bing increasingly clear.

    <em>¡°Kill!¡±</em>

    <em>¡°Kill!!¡±</em>

    <em>¡°Kill!!!¡±</em>

    Countless voices spoke together, howling one single word that filled Xu Qing¡¯s mind. His mind spun, and the ink in his sea of consciousness rippled violently.

    The ancient wind blew stronger, using Xu Qing like a mouth to exhale itself onto the shattered altar, through the Eye of Heaven, and into the minds of the people.

    All living beings were shaken to the core. The top experts of all the species felt their hearts pounding in their chests, and many of them shot to their feet with their hair standing on end. All of them could sense that the killing intent in the image they were seeing was something like a fiend from the ancient past, erupting right in front of them. It was iparably realistic.

    That was especially true for the cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation. The mysterious vice-bishops, all in their various respective hiding ces, were visibly shocked. They were taking this situation very seriously. Before, they had been suspicious about why this recording was being transmitted with the help of the Moonrebel Congregation. Although most of them had been suspicious about act 1 of the y, they still took it seriously. But then act 2 came with its towering killing intent, and there was no way they couldn¡¯t be deeply shaken.

    ¡°This is real??¡±

    Inside the Red Moon Cathedral, a terrifying aura suddenly exploded out. After the godchild went into seclusion, the pontiff had taken charge. Now, he emerged from the cathedral, his expression grave. Even he was feeling jumpy because of what was happening. Before, he had assumed that all of this was the work of the Heir Apparent. But now... he wasn¡¯t so sure.

    Meanwhile, Ning Yan and everyone else stood there with their hearts pounding. ording to the script, this was the point in which Wu Jianwu was supposed to take the stage. However, he was standing there as stiff as a board, unable to step forward. But then he thought about how many eyes were on him, and he forced himself to gain hisposure. d in an imperial robe, with an imperial crown on his head, he appeared in the sky. Looking down, he locked gazes with Ning Yan the Imperial Sovereign. He didn¡¯t need to release any might or majesty. The ground shook. Mountains rocked. Rumbling filled the sky. The killing intent transformed everything, creating a very dramatic scene.

    Previously, the Heir Apparent had been the one to amp up the drama of the scene. But right now, he wasn¡¯t even looking at the y. He was focused on Xu Qing.

    <em>He still hasn¡¯t snapped out of it?</em>The Heir Apparent hesitated. Given what he knew about Xu Qing, he decided not to give voice to his thoughts. He was confident Eighth Sib would do it for him.

    Just as the Heir Apparent predicted, Eighth Sib¡¯s eyes went wide and he murmured, ¡°The brat still hasn¡¯t snapped out of it? He¡¯s gonna gain enlightenment!¡±

    Hearing that, the Heir Apparent replied, ¡°He¡¯s still seeking enlightenment. The killing will alone isn¡¯t his limit.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom nodded.

    Eighth Sib chuckled coldly and looked at them. ¡°Howe both of you look like you knew this was going to happen? Very different from what you said earlier. So fake! What, you think I¡¯m stupid or something?¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, Princess Brightblossom waved her hand, resulting in a loud thump echoing out from inside Eighth Sib before he was sent flying off into the distance.

    ¡°Apparently, I<em>didn¡¯t</em>beat Eighth Sib into being a moron. He was a moron before the beating.¡±

    Heir Apparent nodded in agreement.

    Fifth Sister also agreed. Looking at Xu Qing, she said, ¡°I very much look forward to seeing what happens after he gains full enlightenment of the God Decapitation Altar. How far will his enlightenment go...?¡±

    Meanwhile, the ink inside Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness was in turmoil as killing intent spread out and filled him. He shivered as he felt pain building inside. And yet, he didn¡¯t even consider opening his eyes. Instead, he remained cross-legged and deep in thought and ignored the pain. He was waiting for the ink image to beplete! That had been his goal all along.

    He hadid hands on the killing will fluctuations, then released them. As a result, the image... was no longer being destroyed. As the ink and the seven-colored light mixed, the image... gradually took shape.

    In the image, the sky was split into two parts. The white part became green. The ck part became red.

    In the green sky stood a giant who could prop up heaven and earth. He wore an imperial robe, with auspicious clouds obscuring his facial features. An intense, domineering pressure from ancient times emanated off him. The gaze of the giant sent time spinning away, and the giant¡¯s breath caused everything it touched to return to the void.

    In the red sky was a second figure, mostly obscured. It was a majestic woman in a red gown. She had ordinary facial features, deep eyes that seemed to contain stars being constantly born and destroyed. She had no legs, only a mass of tentacles that spread through the red sky. Shockingly, each of those tentacles contained a star within it. Fluctuations of godliness rolled out in all directions.

    ¡°Li Zihua, I never thought it would be you... who stopped me from reaching godly ascension.¡± [1]

    ¡°Big Sib is ill,¡± the hulking figure in the sky said. [2]N?v(el)B\\jnn

    The woman thought for a moment, then quietly said, ¡°Do you remember my song?¡±

    She began to sing.

    <em>¡°Some people take flight into the sky, their ambitions utterly bright and high.</em>

    <em>¡°At the Red Moon Sea they heave and sigh, visiting the frontier by-and-by.</em>

    <em>¡°As reincarnation exemplified, they be good food that satisfies.</em>

    <em>¡°Sunlight having burned out the eyes, ideals will never possibly run dry.</em>

    <em>¡°Into the vast expanse I spy, atop the high red moon... I will fly!¡±</em>

    1. Li Zihua. By inference, I think you all realize this is the Imperial Sovereign of Moonrite, which means he¡¯s the father of the Heir Apparent and the others. Li is #2 on the list of the 100mon Chinese surnames. Zi means ¡°self, nature/naturally¡± and ¡°Hua¡± means ¡°to make, to change into, to transform, to melt.¡± When I asked Madam Deathde for a name reaction she said, ¡°It¡¯s a weird name. Self-melting? He sounds like a dorky guy with sses working for the government.¡± I then mentioned to her that he¡¯s an extremely powerful entity. She continued, ¡°Oh well. I still say he sounds like he works for the government. A top executive maybe. Mysterious and wild.¡± ?

    2. Just to make sure this is clear, the form of address used here is the one used to establish rankings either among siblings or fellow apprentices, simr to how Master Seventh¡¯s apprentices, including Xu Qing and the Captain, are called Big Sib, Second Sib, Third Sib, Fourth Sib etc., or how the Heir Apparent¡¯s siblings are simrly addressed. Without further context, it''s not possible to tell from the term alone whether the rtionship is between blood rtives or not. There is obviously significance this, though I''ll refrain from potential spoilers.... ?

 Chapter 641: God Decapitation Altar in Ink

    <h4>Chapter 641: God Decapitation Altar in Ink</h4>

    There were many records that contained historical ounts. Due to individual objectives and personal karma, it wasmon for people to try to cover over things that they didn¡¯t like, to adjust the story to make it more ptable before spreading it further. After enough time passed, it would be impossible for people to know what really happened.

    The image that Xu Qing was seeing was something no other living being could see. It had been hidden in time and ravaged by the wind, but now the memories were being sent into Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, and revealed through the ink there. Normally speaking, the images wouldn¡¯t have been easy to reveal. Whether it was the influence of the killing will, or the fact that the memories had degraded thanks to the passage of time, it was no easy task to pull them all together.

    The daybreak light added color to the image, filling in the missing spots, until gradually an outline formed, revealing to Xu Qing¡¯s senses that which had been buried in history.

    He saw the Imperial Sovereign. He saw Crimson Mother. He heard the words spoken by the former. He heard the song sung by thetter.

    The lyrics soared. They contained heart-wrenching attachment and dedication, the willingness to pursue an ideal no matter what happened. Apparently,pared to that ideal, all other living things were meaningless. Even if everyone alive ended up dead, even if heaven and earth wept in sorrow and agony, they counted as nothing more than nutrients necessary for godly ascension. They weren¡¯t important.

    Neither the figure in the green canopy of heaven, nor anything else, could possibly wipe out that hope for godly ascension. She would be a god, and she would stand on the red moon. To reach that goal, she would do anything.

    The lyrics of the song reverberated in the image, creating ripples that eventually swept forth, wiping out the voices and blurring everything.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. His chest heaved as he sat there, the image in his sea of consciousness blurred to the point where he couldn¡¯t see what was happening or hear what was being said. Inside his sea of consciousness, the green became white. The red became ck. And they swirled together to once again turn into ink. Not even adding daybreak light could make itplete.

    As a result, what happened after the part Xu Qing witnessed was not clear. He couldn¡¯t directly observe, but rather, was forced to rely on vague sensations to guess at what was happening. Yet Xu Qing chose not to open his eyes. Instead, he stayed immersed in his sea of consciousness, trying to sense what was happening.

    Inside the image, white shed with ck. Water swirled with ink. Just barely, Xu Qing could make out a sky in the image.

    <i>Within the white, there¡¯s a green sky....</i>

    He could also make out what appeared to bend.

    <i>The ck soil has be as red as blood.... Heaven and earth are connected by something. It looks like... an altar?</i>

    He felt confused. He had long since forgotten about what was happening outside. All of his concentration and senses were focused on the ink and water. Gradually, he saw a majestic altar, slowly bing clear within the blurriness.

    The reality was that the image wasn¡¯t turning clear. Ever since the Imperial Sovereign and Crimson Mother vanished, the ink in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness had been in a constant state of flux, and had not formed any new images.

    But to Xu Qing¡¯s senses, things were rapidly bing clear. Of course, to say it was happening ¡®rapidly¡¯ was subjective. That was because the rity... was a process.

    Everything so far had been the result of Xu Qing¡¯s hard work and determination. If he rxed his senses for even a moment, that altar would disappear. He needed to keep his heart and soul focused. It was like he was fishing. And yet he still hadn¡¯t managed to hook the fish. His mental faculties were being drained by the ever-building force. Slowly but surely, Xu Qing came to realize that his consciousness was being drained, and that he couldn¡¯t hold out for much longer. And the altar still wasn¡¯tpletely clear.

    <i>I¡¯m going to fail</i>. <i>I just can¡¯t dredge the altar up out of the ink because... I¡¯m missing a receptacle. A receptacle....</i>

    Meanwhile, outside on the stage, as Xu Qing¡¯s session of enlightenment wound down, the rumbling grew fainter, and the quaking sensation died down. The vortex in the sky wasn¡¯t exerting the same influence as before. Things seemed about to end.

    Ning Yan and everyone else breathed sighs of relief. The pressure that had been building up over them had been very anxiety-inducing. But now, they could focus onpleting the performance.

    Inside, the Captain was sighing. Although he had felt from the beginning that it was extremely unlikely Xu Qing would gain enlightenment, after the scene from earlier, he had harbored a bit of hope.

    <i>Oh well. Even just the experience will be useful. At the least, he¡¯s be more familiar with killing will.</i>

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were all sighing as well. Hindered by karma, they couldn¡¯t see what was happening in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, but they could sense that he was mentally spent. They could also see that Xu Qing¡¯s attempt to gain further enlightenment after the killing will was a failure.

    ¡°He¡¯s currently seeking enlightenment of father¡¯s divine ability. The God Decapitation Altar.¡±

    ¡°What a pity....¡±

    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not really his fault. The vestiges here are too degraded and weak. Otherwise, he might not have failed.¡±

    Despite the fact that Xu Qing had failed, his powers of understanding left all four siblings deeply moved.

    Right now, act 2 was ying out in the minds of everyone in the Moonrite Region, and the critical moment was near.

    All of a sudden, someone materialized out of thin air next to Wu Jianwu. He wore an extravagant garment, his eyes glittered, and his fairplexion emanated a soft and feminine air, but at the same time, he pulsed with terrifying fluctuations. He was one of the Ancient Emperor¡¯s high-ranking eunuchs, present to read a promation. Multicolored light glittered in heaven and earth as the extravagantly d eunuch extended his right hand and unfurled a scroll made of auspicious clouds.

    <i>¡°ording to the dao of Revered Ancient, I, an Ancient Emperor, hereby decree that the felon citizen from Brilliant Heaven has caused cmity and chaos to sundry living beings.</i>

    <i>¡°Moon King Zihua is therefore ordered to act in my stead as the executioner, and take the head of this criminal.... Any resulting karma will be borne by me!¡±</i>

    The voice boomed like thunder into the minds of the people, bolstered by the efforts of the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

    After the promation wasplete, Ning Yan as the Imperial Sovereign turned his gaze to Crimson Mother on the altar. Then he looked at the burly man in golden armor standing behind her.

    ¡°Godpriest,¡± Ning Yan said.

    ¡°Here, sir!¡± the Captain said loudly, one hand on Crimson Mother¡¯s head, the other holding his saber.

    ¡°Execute her!¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he lifted the saber. Intense hatred shed in Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes, and she again struggled to free herself. The countless magical symbols on the altar made thatpletely and utterly impossible.

    In the broadcast, the wind screamed as the Heir Apparent and his siblings continued to propagate dramatic effects. After all, the image of Crimson Mother being executed was profoundly significant to everyone else in the region.

    In the broadcast, thunder crashed, and countless bolts of lightning smashed down, forming a massive sea of electricity. Princess Brightblossom took action, creating a river of time, the flowing of which caused an ancient aura to spread out and enter the senses of the audience. Eighth Sib wasn¡¯t willing to be outdone, and lent his voice to the thunder. As a result, the emotional fluctuations of all the performers became more intense, and exerted a greater influence. Finally, the Heir Apparent caused suns and moons to appear in the lightning. Countless heavenly bodies flickered brightly, and it was even possible to make out the vague will of a heavenly dao.

    The audience was deeply moved by the dramatic scene, and everyone was wondering how it would end.

    Then, the Captain¡¯s de danced!

    de light glimmered, shining like lightning. It contained suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies, as well as a profoundly ancient aura that tugged on the emotions of all onlookers.

    Nethersprite¡¯s eyes shone with hatred as she prepared to speak her final lines.

    However, right then...

    Something dramatic happened!

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth! Lands shook and mountains were rocked! An intense rumbling sound descended from the sky, like the roar of a dragon filled with the power to dry up rivers and drain seas. Countless rifts opened up in the sky, which then copsed! Countless rocks tumbled down from above, smashing into the ground. At the same time, a cold light appeared in the canopy of heaven. The ground quaked as countless craters opened up, all while a screaming wind battered down everything in its path.

    There was more. A boundless killing intent erupted. These things vastly surpassed any of the effects unleashed by the Heir Apparent and his siblings. The living beings in the Moonrite Region had already been entranced thanks to the effects they had seen so far. But this unexpected upsurge of killing intent caused them to cry out in surprise and rm.

    This killing intent was vastly more intense than anything before. As it exploded into their hearts and minds, it became like tsunami waves that battered their souls. It was realistic in apletely unparalleled way.

    Everyone present at the actual performance was also shocked.

    Nethersprite¡¯s face went pale as the unprecedented shadow of death suddenly loomed over her. She possessed an undying body, yet at that moment, she felt overwhelmed by the sensation that she was about to die!

    <i>Is this really it?</i> she thought, shaking from head to toe.

    The Captain¡¯s de stopped in midair as his heart started racing. Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei all felt like their minds were being smashed by lightning.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings all turned to look at Xu Qing.

    As of this moment, the same Xu Qing who they had believed to have failed in his enlightenment now had a bottle in his sea of consciousness. It was true that he was unable to dredge up the image out of the ink. But the reason was that he didn¡¯t have a receptacle. And so... he put his timescape bottle into his sea of consciousness. That was what he would use to contain the ink. He nned to take it away.

    <i>I can¡¯t dredge it up, so therefore, I¡¯ll take thest remnants that are affecting my enlightenment andpletely extract them!</i>

    The ink flowed toward his timescape bottle, pouring inside. As it happened, Xu Qing felt the altar getting clearer. The process didn¡¯t take very long. From the moment he focused his attention on the task, it took only a short time for almost all of the ink to vanish into the bottle.

    What remained... was a very unique altar!

    And that altar was the source of the dramatic things happening outside. Heaven and earth seemed to be crumbling, and the massive vortex in the sky was bringing ruin to everything. Deafening rumbling echoed out everywhere as the area of the first challenge they had passed, the mountain range that tilted up to touch the sky... suddenly exploded.

    As the rubble rained down, cold light emerged, and the true nature of the mountain range was revealed in full.

    Shockingly, it was an enormous green saber!

 Chapter 642: Heavenly Saber Beheads Crimson Mother!

    <h4>Chapter 642: Heavenly Saber Beheads Crimson Mother!</h4>

    The moment the de appeared, an icy will towered into the sky, causing everything to tremble. The ground cracked and crumbled. The second challenge they had ovee, the long valley, was now revealing its true form as the boulders crashed down. It was actually a trough for the de! It was crimson red, as if it had been stained with endless amounts of blood. And it emanated a terrifying baleful aura.

    As for the area where Xu Qing was seated, the crumbled stone made a roughly circr altar that formed the base of the execution tform. A heavenly saber hovered above, which was connected to the execution tform below.

    Together, they formed an astonishing guillotine!

    By means of the Eye of Heaven, all of this imagery was transmitted directly into the minds of the people. A thrumming sound echoed everywhere as the performers reacted with utter shock, and the audience remained thoroughly stunned.

    ¡°God Decapitation Altar!¡± Eighth Sib blurted.

    The God Decapitation Altar was the ultimate trump card of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. Legend had it that after manifesting the divine ability for the first time, Li Zihua used it to behead himself!

    The technique was very heaven-defying, and was incredibly difficult to cultivate sessfully. Among Li Zihua¡¯s children, only Ninth Sib was able to master it. None of his other sons or daughters could do so. Neither the Heir Apparent nor Brightblossom ever seeded, which was one reason they were so astonished by what was happening.

    ¡°He¡¯s... really doing it?¡± the Heir Apparent murmured, looking at Xu Qing, then the canopy of heaven, and then the world in general.

    In this world, heaven was the saber, and earth was the altar. The green saber contained world-killing power, and the earth was soaked with the wicked blood of sinners. Most terrifying of all was the killing will inside of the horrifying guillotine. Countless beings had been beheaded with it, so the killing intent was so strong it caused heaven and earth to tremble.

    ¡°I never thought I would see the God Decapitation Altar in my lifetime...¡± Princess Brightblossom murmured, her eyes flickering with reminiscence. Fifth Sister was reacting simrly. Eighth Sib stood there silently. All of them seemed to be thinking about good memories, but at the same time, the losses their family had suffered.

    Meanwhile, out in the Moonrite Region, members of all species were reeling in astonishment. They couldn¡¯t even control their own thinking. Every single person waspletely immersed in what they were seeing in their mind. To the mortals, the shocking scene was profoundly moving. It was as if mes of anticipation had been ignited in their hearts. They anticipated... the moment of the beheading!

    It wasn¡¯t just the mortals who felt that way. The cultivators did too. Earlier, they had suspected the nature of the images they were seeing, but right now, those doubts vanished like smoke in the wind. This was absolutely, positively real!

    That was especially true of the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators. In their various locations in the resistance forces, they were now fully aware of the impact this broadcast was having on the people. Everyone was forced to hold a tight rein on their excitement as they simply waited... for the de to fall!

    The Red Moon Cathedral had devolved into a state of sheer madness. Even their pontiff was on the move. They were using all sorts of divine abilities and magical techniques to try to find the source of the broadcast. By this point, they had focused their search on the Greenhair Bands, and countless cathedral cultivators were rushing in that direction, including the pontiff.

    The pontiff could also tell that the broadcast was real, and he knew full well the significance of what was being depicted. The truth was that the images everyone was seeing had transformed. And that was because when the God Decapitation Altar actually formed... images recorded in ancient memories were revealed.

    Those images surpassed Ning Yan and the other performers, bing the only thing visible. They were the memories of thest execution ever performed by the God Decapitation Altar. An ancient wind blew through the green sky, touching the blood-colored canopy of heaven and sending out ripples as far as the eye could see.

    In fact, that sky looked exactly like the sky that Xu Qing had seen in the ink. But at the same time, it looked different. The simrity was in the way the canopy of heaven was partly green and partly red. The difference was that the two sides were obviously participating in a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fight.

    The dome of heaven was like a mirror that had cracked in half. Thends below also crumbled, turning into a violet sea. Within it were innumerable corpses. There were men, women, young ones, and elderly folks. There were mortals and cultivators alike. It was horrifying beyondparison.

    As for the towering figure, he was visible to all of the people as he sent fluctuations out into the sky.

    This was the first time anyone had seen Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. He had his eyes closed, but was uninjured, and stood tall, as if he could prop up heaven and earth.

    He was facing Crimson Mother, whose lower half of tentacles wasrgely destroyed. She had lost many of the stars as well. And as the stars shattered, they sent huge quantities of blood raining down. It looked extremely ghastly. That was the blood of all the countless living beings Crimson Mother had devoured up to this point.

    When the mortals and cultivators of the Moonrite Region saw Crimson Mother, they gasped. For them, it was also their first time seeing Crimson Mother.

    In the broadcast, Crimson Mother looked at the stars copsing, and her eyes turned crimson.

    ¡°Li Zihua,¡± she shrieked, ¡°we¡¯re both from the same ce! Back when you left, you told me you were going to pursue godly ascension! You were going to change our fate! Countless years passed in which I followed in your footsteps. I searched far and wide for you. And now I¡¯m here!

    ¡°Except, you¡¯ve changed! Why? Why not do the same as me and achieve godly ascension? Why would you rather bow your head to Dark Serenity?

    ¡°We... are the true rulers of this star ring!¡± [1]

    Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes filled with venomous hatred. Meanwhile, the surrounding blood sea rose up, turning into numerous blood moons that emanated shocking power as they shot toward Li Zihua. As they elerated, space shattered around them, creating innumerable rifts in the air. Finally, they mmed into Li Zihua, transforming into countless sealing symbols that could shatter great daos and copse the souls of gods.

    The most powerful of them hit Li Zihua¡¯s forehead. He didn¡¯t dodge the blow, and thus, his forehead caved in and blood poured onto the ground.

    Massive waves rolled across the violet sea as Li Zihua opened his eyes. Looking at Crimson Mother, he softly said, ¡°I did be a god... and then I destroyed my own godfire. Why? Because that¡¯s not the future I want. Nor is it what <i>you</i> want.... When did gods show up in Revered Ancient? It was when the primordial taboos were removed, and the Great Terror from the starry sky awoke. Go back.¡±

    Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes filled with even more vitriolic fury. The surrounding sea of blood seethed, and as both heaven and earth were covered with crimson, an enormous blood moon rose in the distance!

    Li Zihua sighed, then lifted his hand and pointed at Crimson Mother.

    ¡°Let thirty meters ofnd in the Moon Region be the executioner¡¯s block.¡±

    Deep rumbling echoed everywhere as thend started to shake, starting from where Crimson Mother stood and then spreading beyond.

    The mountains in the region copsed. The ins rose into the sky. Countless amounts of dirt and rocks surged like waves toward the center. Wherever the wave passed, thend sank down by thirty meters. The soil moved with stupefying speed as it closed in on Crimson Mother.

    In the blink of an eye, it piled together to form a shocking altar. It wasn¡¯t a round altar. Rather, it was rectangr. A huge trough ran straight through the middle of it, out of which rushed endless amounts of blood and an explosive killing intent. This was a divine ability that could shock the masses.

    The rancor in Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes grew more intense. As she rose up into the sky, the air around her shattered, and her tentacles used her remaining stars to send red light out into a sea of blood. It spun into a vortex as she prepared to flee. The surrounding air dissolved, the naturalws shattered, the magicalws copsed, and all heaven and earth spun wildly.

    And yet, with Li Zihua looking on, there was no way she could escape this area.

    ¡°Let the sky above this region be the sharp de!¡±

    As Li Zihua¡¯s calm voice echoed out, the sky shook as it tilted onto its side and became a huge saber! The canopy of heaven served as the de. Thends below were the altar. The vortex Crimson Mother was in resounded with a terrified shriek filled with unending animosity.

    Li Zihua said nothing. Eventually, he lifted his hand, plucked the sun out of the sky, and connected heaven and earth. Instantly... the massive God Decapitation Altar appeared. It was shocking beyond belief.

    As Crimson Mother¡¯s shriek rang out, and as the image filled with a sensation of horror, the audience looked on. Li Zihua¡¯s right hand slowly dropped.

    The sun rumbled, bursting into mes and rotating rapidly, causing a terrifying might to flow into the heavenly saber.

    The heavenly saber shed down! It was a case of heaven shing earth! The blood vortex around Crimson Mother spun with violent intensity as it attempted to fight back. It couldn¡¯t. The heavenly saber hit the vortex and didn¡¯t stop. It crushed through it like a hot knife through butter, slicing down until it was right in front of Crimson Mother¡¯s terrified face.

    The de then bit directly into her.

    <i>CRUNCH!</i>

    Crimson Mother¡¯s head was cut clean off. Endless quantities of blood sprayed everywhere.

    The saber didn¡¯t just cut away Crimson Mother¡¯s head. It also cut the fetters in the hearts of the audience. They watched as Crimson Mother died. It was like watching a myth die. The living beings in Moonrite Region felt their minds being assailed by heaven-shaking, earth-toppling waves of shock. They trembled violently and couldn¡¯t control their breathing.

    The scene continued to y out. As blood rained down, heaven and earth grew dim. A defiant curse exploded out, to ring into the ears of the living beings of Moonrite.

    ¡°If Ie back to life, Li Zihua, then your soul will howl in grief! Your flesh and blood will be ripped apart, and your people will experience torment through all cycles of reincarnation! And you... will kneel to me until Revered Ancient copses!¡±

    The voice was so piercing it could reach to the soul.

    Li Zihua hovered in midair amidst the echoing voice and the rain of blood. Then he looked off into the distance at something. He seemed lonely and deste.

    The image blurred, and Li Zihua slowly faded away. The moment before he did, he murmured something that could only be heard by the people on the stage, not anyone in the audience.

    ¡°The curse you mentioned? I already saw it, in the moment I reached godly ascension....¡±

    1. In <u>chapter 568.1</u>, I mentioned that the term ¡®Brilliant Heaven¡¯ appears in the author¡¯s other novel <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>. In that novel, Brilliant Heaven isbined with the same term used here ¡®star ring¡¯. In other words, it¡¯s called the Brilliant Heaven star ring. As I mentioned in chapter 568, the context is not sufficient to prove or disprove that there¡¯s a corrtion between the term(s) in the two novels. ?

 Chapter 643: Xu Qingâ€™s Face Reveal in Moonrite

    Chapter 643: Xu Qing¡¯s Face Reveal in Moonrite

    An image from antiquity existed in the minds of the people of the Moonrite Region, and it quickly became like a p of thunder, ripping out with explosive force.

    The hearts and minds of all living beings were hit by massive waves of shock. The things they had seen today surpassed their understanding, toppled their thinking, and shook them down to their souls. Previously, they had been devolving from madness and despair into pure numbness. Previously, they had existed in an iciness as cold as death. But now... cracks appeared in that ice, and it was now poised on the brink of copse.

    The de that severed Crimson Mothers head had also severed the fetters in their hearts! Or perhaps, if the fetters had not beenpletely severed, a chink had at least been cut in them.

    And underneath that gap was countless years of resentment and insanity. That breach... was extremely important!

    Although the image was a depiction of Crimson Mother in the past, before godly ascension... that didnt matter. What mattered was that a myth had been shattered. What mattered was that Crimson Mother had once been mortal! Crimson Mother had been beheaded!

    There was no person in existence who wanted to live as a ve. Nor did anyone want to be stuck in an endless loop of reincarnation in which they were nothing but food. Unfortunately, the people of Moonrite had be too numb to resist. The mindset of very had be part of their blood, and the idiom <em>submit meekly to adversity</em> had, over the generations, be baked into their bones.

    But....

    Who would actually want to live like that? Who would be willing to exist in darkness and gloom? And thus, when that gap opened, it was like a tsunami mming into the soul, or aplete copse of the heart and mind.

    As the oppressive blood-colored light of the red moon shone in the dome of heaven, the living people of Moonrite felt everything turn around, and suddenly erupted with the desire to resist! It erupted in the ruins of Moonrite, the cities, the species, and the countless cultivators. As of that moment, a few sparks were about to cause entire grasnds to burst into me.And yet, something was missing. The sparks were there. The fuel was ready. But they were waiting!

    The Red Moon Cathedral was furious. Countless cathedral cultivators were alreadybing through the Greenhair Bands looking for the source of the broadcast. The broadcast went on, like oil being added to a fire, causing the sparks to gather into a sea of mes.

    At the same time, the situation at the scene of the broadcast was one of mind-toppling shock.

    The image of the God Decapitation Altar was astonishing, especially the aspect of heaven forming the de, earth forming the altar, and a sun forming the axis. It was an image imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and everyone waspletely focused on it. Ning Yan and the others had long since stopped acting, and were instead backing up, trembling. Thankfully, the images from antiquity had taken over, so no one in the audience realized what was happening.

    It didnt take long for everyone to gather by the Heir Apparent. Nethersprite was actually one of the quickest, as she feared something going wrong on the God Decapitation Altar. The Captain was right behind her.

    Even being close to the Heir Apparent, all of them felt like their minds were being overturned. The images of the God Decapitation Altar were beyond astonishing, and contained massive amounts of information that seemed capable of ripping them to shreds.

    The implications were monumental.

    Li Zihua and Crimson Mother came from the same ce! <em>He </em>had once been a god also!

    Most terrifying of all was that it was years after Crimson Mother was beheaded that the broken face of the god arrived.... Was that the Great Terror spoken of by Li Zihua? Was Crimson Mothers godly ascension what brought the broken face?

    Everyone stood there silently. All they had was spections, no concrete answers. Very few people knew the secret of why the broken face hade. Perhaps there were some such people in the audience. However... the vast majority of people had no idea.

    The Captain looked down to hide the gleam in his eyes.

    The most astonishing thing of all was thest thing that Li Zihua murmured. The members of the audience actually didnt hear that part. But the people at the scene of the recording could hear it very clearly! It seemed to surpass heavenly lightning. It was like something that could sunder the heavens and crush the earth, a deafening sound that could exterminate the past and eradicate the present.

    That was especially true of the Heir Apparent and his siblings.... All of them were reacting with visible shock. Eighth Sibs eyes were wide. Fifth Sisters expression was vacant. And the Heir Apparent seemed to be looking far off into the distance, in the direction of the Penitence Steppes. That was the location of the Red Moon Cathedrals headquarters, and also the enormous statue that had formed from the fleshly body of the dead Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua.

    <em>Father, if you knew all of this from the beginning, then... what exactly were you trying to aplish?</em>

    Princess Brightblossom slowly looked up at the imagesing from the God Decapitation Altar, including her father, who was slowly vanishing from sight.

    The memories from the God Decapitation Altar were slowly drifting away in the ancient wind, turning into grit and dust and fading from existence. But as they vanished, something was left behind. The heavenly saber from the first challenge was still there in the sky. The trough that was the valley of the second challenge also still existed. And upon the altar where heaven and earth met, as Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua faded away... a person appeared!

    He was a young man in a ck daoist robe, with long ck hair bound by a crown of jade. As the wind blew, strands of his hair stirred, shifting aside to reveal his face. He was unusually handsome, to the point where he could topple the minds of countless living beings. As he sat there cross-legged, his eyes were closed, however, it was easy to imagine that, if they were opened, they would surely glimmer as if with starlight.

    He was none other than Xu Qing.

    The God Decapitation Altar that had appeared formed around him as the center. And the images which had been projected also came because of him. He was the reason for it all! Now, as the God Decapitation Altar faded from view, Xu Qing was revealed. As he sat there cross-legged on the altar connecting heaven and earth, it almost looked... like <em>he</em> was the God Decapitation Altar!

    All living beings in the Moonrite Region were reeling. After all, the broadcast was still live, and as a result, all of them could see Xu Qing.

    This was the first time Xu Qings facial features were revealed in the Moonrite Region, and it was for everyone to see!

    Hes....

    The Imperial Sovereign left, and this guy showed up. Is there some deeper implication to that?

    Is this a memory from antiquity, or is something actually happening right now?

    If it was a memory, then who is he? And if its actually happening... then could it be that this guy is the one who pulled up all of those precious memories from the past?

    Who is he?

    Spections went wild. The cultivators in the Moonrite Region were all shaken to the core, especially the powerful experts, who were able to glean deeper information thanks to the higher level of their cultivation base.

    Hes seeking enlightenment?!

    Dont tell me that the images we saw were actually the subject of his enlightenment?

    Is it possible this guy figured out where Crimson Mother was actually beheaded, and went there to seek enlightenment? Then, during the process, he activated the natural and magicalws there, which resulted in the images we just saw?

    If thats the case... then this enlightenment... well, I dont believe anybody can actually get enlightenment like that!

    Gasps could be heard in all corners of the Moonrite Region, especially in the Moonrebel Congregation. People there were shaken, and some were already starting to seek information about Xu Qings identity. It seemed logical to them that someone who borrowed the power of the Moonrebel Congregation was highly likely to already be a member of the congregation.

    As everyone looked on with varying levels of bewilderment, the Imperial Sovereign disappearedpletely, and Xu Qing became fully visible.

    Then his eyes slowly opened. They glittered with starlight, and pulsed like deep waters. Everyone saw the image. There seemed to be a flicker of enlightenment in them, and when the audience saw that, whether they were mortals or cultivators, they were nearly struck senseless.

    As the ripples of shock spread, exmations rang out.

    He really got enlightenment!

    Th-this... this shouldnt be possible. All of this happened because of his enlightenment! He brought memories of antiquity back to the present!!

    This type of enlightenment... is absolutely heaven-defying!!

    Who exactly is he?

    Astonishment and incredulity reigned supreme.

    Xu Qings terrifying powers of understanding were now rocking all living beings in the Moonrite Region.

    The forces of the Red Moon Cathedral picked up the pace in the Greenhair Bands. Now that they knew what his face looked like, the pontiff issued orders dering Xu Qing as most wanted!

    In the Red Moon Cathedrals headquarters, an astounding red glow rose up, bing a huge in the canopy of heaven, which connected to the red moon itself and exerted pressure on the entire region. Within that huge red, it was just barely possible to see a headless corpse that radiated immense majesty. That corpse... was the mortal husk of Crimson Mother that had been beheaded!

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, affecting even the Eye of Heaven that was currently still recording and broadcasting. In fact, at that moment, the images of the broadcast blurred, then vanished.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings couldnt do anything further... and the broadcast ended. However, just before it did, a voice rang out into the hearts and minds of the people of the Moonrite Region.

    <em>Gods are by no means eternal....</em>

    Each word echoed like thunder, shaking everyone to the core. Those were the words that the hearts of the people had been missing.

    They were like an explosion of sparks that caused everyone to immediately open their mouths and release a cry of defiance that came from their very souls.

    <em>Hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!!</em>

    Their cries became a howl filled with all of their pent-up fury. As it raged out through the gap in the fetters in their heart, the sparks finally lit the grasnds aze! And the fire spread through the mountains, across the ins, and out over all of the region. Countless despairing cultivators looked up with bloodshot eyes. They were now ready to fight back. Countless numb mortals howled. They were ready to resist.

    The power of hope finally appeared within the people of the Moonrite Region, spreading, growing, and finally... gathering at the God Decapitation Altar!

 Chapter 644: Smoldering God Blood Verifies, Primordial Tribulation Certifies

    <h4>Chapter 644: Smoldering God Blood Verifies, Primordial Tribtion Certifies</h4>

    That ¡®power of hope¡¯ was the power of expectation and longing. It was also the power of emotion. It was an instinctual drive to resist. Under normal circumstances, it might appear in moments of excitement or piety. However, the formercked purity, and thettercked frequency.

    Now, after the two acts of the y they¡¯d witnessed, and especially after memories from antiquity revealed Crimson Mother being beheaded... The living beings in Moonrite felt unprecedentedly excited. The desire to live and be free now exploded within them. And it contained the will to resist and fight back! Resentment that had been building for generation after generation had now been ignited, and it contained a terrifying power of hope.

    As the power of hope continued to build, the sky over Moonrite, which up until now contained only the crimson light of the red moon, now saw another type of light. It was pure white. Countless motes of light shone in the canopy of heaven, visible to anyone in the Moonrite Region. There were even ces that never saw light during any time of the year that were now being illuminated. The motes of light resembled stars, and they glittered resplendently as they pierced through the air toward a specific destination.

    And that was... the God Decapitation Altar atop which Xu Qing sat. In the blink of an eye, innumerable white motes of light appeared there, proliferating rapidly and bringing shock to everyone at the site of the recording.

    The Captain looked excited. He had picked this spot specifically because of how it rted to the power of hope within the people.

    <i>There¡¯s not enough yet. Just a bit longer....</i>

    As the Captain forced himself to remain patient, his heart swelled as he looked at the dramatic power of hope.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were both breathing heavily as they looked around at the motes of light, moved by the mere sensation of what was happening. They could sense the struggle and hope contained in those motes. It was a struggle against fate,ced with deep anticipation and longing.

    Nethersprite licked her lips, looked at the Heir Apparent and his siblings, then looked at Xu Qing. Finally, she suppressed the impulses in her heart. That power of hope would have been incredibly nourishing to her, and the sight of so much of it lit a fire inside of her. But she didn¡¯t dare to try to take it. For one thing, she feared the Heir Apparent. But also, she could sense that it contained karma, and that consuming it wouldn¡¯t be beneficial to her.

    Li Youfei looked on, stunned. However, it didn¡¯t take long for him to calm down. He was getting used to this sort of thing.

    As the power of hope converged, Xu Qing looked around at the white motes of light. He could sense that they weren¡¯t here for him. The motes hade because of hope, and they contained karma from all living beings.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    However, right then, the Heir Apparent suddenly said, ¡°Xu Qing, take out that Spirit Trove fruit and eat it!

    ¡°Take what¡¯s left of the energy here and use it to provoke a lightning tribtion from antiquity! You can push your nascent souls to the four-tribtions level! A baptism of tribtion from antiquity will contain the power of time. That¡¯s a rare chance for you! And this time, I¡¯ll once again activate the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command for you. Just remember, this is an opportunity! It¡¯s... an opportunity to create that trump card!

    ¡°You might have gained enlightenment from the God Decapitation Altar, but once you leave here, you won¡¯t be able to use it outside of very specific circumstances. You have toe up with some other way of using it!

    ¡°Change it into a trump card that truly belongs to you! The tribtion will be limited by the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command, but the burden cannot be shared like before. You need to turn the God Decapitation Altar into your trump card. Use it to destroy the heavenly tribtion. Only then will you be able to share the burden.

    ¡°If you seed, then the power of hope will converge on the tip of the de, and henceforth... will be a host of karma for your godly guillotine!¡±

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing as he looked at the Heir Apparent. His eyes gleamed as he thought for a moment. Then he took out the Spirit Trove fruit Princess Brightblossom had given him. He put it in his mouth. The fruit dissolved, turning into a wave of heat that swept through him like the eruption of a volcano. That Spirit Trove fruit contained the power of an entire secret trove.

    At the same time, Xu Qing heard a howl of rageing from inside the fruit. It was the howl of a heavenly dao.

    Instantly, all of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls opened their eyes. The golden crow danced in flight. The Ghost Emperor mountain trembled. The daybreak light glittered. The timescape bottle trembled....

    All of his nascent souls, with the exception of the violet moon nascent soul, became like twelve ck holes that devoured the heat flowing through Xu Qing. The golden crow nascent soul was the first to finish, and it erupted with a tribtion summons. Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao nascent soul awoke. The bluegreen dragon roared and shot toward the secret trove¡¯s heavenly dao. With the help of the violet moon, it viciously devoured it, pushing it to the great circle of three tribtions. Next came the nascent souls of taboo poison, daybreak light, timescape bottle, and Ghost Emperor mountain.

    One after another, they soared to higher heights. Taboo poison spread around Xu Qing, creating something like a haze.

    Daybreak light glittered, creating projections of countless living things. The timescape bottle emanated the feeling of time. And the Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s eyes opened and its majesty surged.

    The final one was D-132. Inside D-132, the god¡¯s finger didn¡¯t dare to even move. The head and the other prisoners all trembled. All of them could see Xu Qing¡¯s nascent soul, which sat cross-legged in D-132 just like the boy made from destiny aura. The nascent soul was currently performing an incantation gesture, and was surrounded by the broken fragments of a host of bamboo slips.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as eight of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls emanated terrifying fluctuations. However, things weren¡¯t over yet.

    Next, his five sundial lifemps shivered and transformed into five vortexes. As they spun madly, they absorbed the power of the Spirit Trove fruit rushing through Xu Qing.

    As the process continued, the gnomons seemed to be rotating rapidly. As they spun, the power of time bolstered Xu Qing from within. Soon... the five lifemps turned into five sun nascent souls, which pulsed with the fluctuations of the great circle of three tribtions. As of now, all of Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls, with the exception of the violet moon nascent soul, had all reached the great circle of three tribtions.

    The summoned tribtion power was at a peak.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth in this isted world. The ancient wind once again sprang up, stirring the dust. The huge vortex in the sky emitted thunderous booms. It seemed like a sound that contained many ancient years.

    It was at that moment that... the Heir Apparent turned and looked at Fifth Sister.

    She waved her hand, causing a flock of little chickens to fly out. They were only some of Fifth Sister¡¯s chickens. The moment they appeared, they clucked with terror and despair.

    The Heir Apparent waved his hand, and instantly, a connection sprang into being between the chickens and Xu Qing.

    Thanks to that, the heavenly tribtion¡¯s assessment of Xu Qing changed. He was no longer a Nascent Soul cultivator in the great circle of three tribtions. He was actually abination of a whole host of top experts!

    Thunder rumbled with even more shocking intensity. Meanwhile, the Heir Apparent looked deeply at Xu Qing, then suddenly bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some blood. Princess Brightblossom, Eighth Sib, and Fifth Sister all did the same. The blood from the four of them turned into a screen that swept over the de in the sky and the altar on the ground. It also covered Xu Qing and the chickens.

    It wrapped all of them up and turned into a blood cocoon! From a distance, it looked almost like an egg!

    Having aplished that, the four of them stepped forward and took positions around the blood-colored cocoon. Sitting down cross-legged, they performed incantation gestures and then pointed out. Then they spoke in unison, their voices thrumming with the passage of time, rumbling like thunder as they uttered what seemed to be an oath.

    <i>¡°The blood of a Smoldering God verifies that this child is permitted to learn our father¡¯s divine ability.</i>

    <i>¡°Tribtion from primordial times certifies the method to absorb all lives and assimte the cosmos.¡±</i>

    The gigantic blood cocoon shivered. Thunder rumbled even more loudly from the vortex in the sky as sparks of electricity built up within it. The lightning bolts were green, and as they multiplied and converged, they created a huge magical symbol. The deafening nature of the lightning caused everyone to react with shock.

    Ning Yan¡¯s thoughts were chaotic. <i>This is a fourth tribtion? This is a freaking fourth tribtion? What exactly is going on here?</i>

    <i>The destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County forced the first tribtion to retreat. He passed the second tribtion thanks to the fluctuations of magicalws. In the third tribtion, he used the Greenhair Bands as his body. And this fourth tribtion... is a tribtion from ancient times, and he has Smoldering Gods helping him train?</i>

    <i>In that case, what¡¯s the fifth tribtion going to be like? What could possibly surpass this fourth tribtion? Don¡¯t tell me a god¡¯s going to help him pass it?</i>

    Ning Yan shivered from head to toe. Wu Jianwu was doing the same. Li Youfei smiled proudly, and looked as calm as ever, although he was actually trembling. Nethersprite looked at the blood cocoon with mixed feelings. Given her experience, she could guess what the Heir Apparent and the others were trying to do.

    The Captain looked up and smiled. ¡°Be a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.... Little Ah Qing, the Moonrite Region is where we fly to new heights.... Crimson Mother is going to be your fifth tribtion!¡±

    As everyone looked on with various emotions, the vortex above grew louder. Then a bolt of lightning appeared that pulsed with an ancient aura. And it dropped right toward Xu Qing!

    The moment it was about to hit....

    The Heir Apparent performed an incantation gesture and touched his forehead. ¡°Let heaven and earth in this world now belong to this child!¡±

    Eighth Sib ced his palms together to make a hand sign, then shouted, ¡°Let all desires in this world now belong to this child!¡±

    Princess Brightblossom waved her hand, causing a river of time to appear. ¡°Let time in this world now belong to this child!¡±

    Fifth Sister spoke in a soft voice. ¡°Let all new life in this world belong to this child!¡±

    Thunder crashed, like a dragon from primeval times. The lightning hit the blood cocoon, causing a deafening boom as innumerable sparks showered everywhere. Next, the vortex above spun, and ancient lightning fell.

 Chapter 645: Noon is Here!

    <h4>Chapter 645: Noon is Here!</h4>

    One bolt of lightning hit. Then another. Then one after another, falling from the vortex onto the blood cocoon.

    The cocoon shrank.

    Unending amounts of dazzling sparks cascaded to the ground, creating ake of lightning. This tribtion was far mightier than the third tribtion. In fact, each individual lightning bolt contained the power to destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were using the power of their individual authorities to make sure that all of the surrounding heaven and earth belonged to Xu Qing. Along with that came what remained of the God Decapitation Altar, as well as the history it bore testament to. All of that was why the lightning was so appallingly powerful. At the same time, all four of them drew on their Imperial Sovereign bloodline to give Xu Qing the right to obtain the divine ability of the God Decapitation Altar. It would henceforth be the source of the divine ability¡¯s power, and would represent their father Li Zihua¡¯s approval of Xu Qing.

    It was a case of <i>having a just cause</i>. And it made the heavenly tribtion even more terrifying.

    That was exactly the result the Heir Apparent and his siblings were hoping for. They wanted to be able to use ancient tribtion lightning to refine the surroundings, shrink down heaven and earth, and seal it on Xu Qing. That was how they were giving a helping hand.

    With all of that, Xu Qing could <i>do half the work, and get twice the effect</i>. It would speed things up, and also give him a much higher chance of sessfully getting control of the God Decapitation Altar. It wouldn¡¯t just appear in his sea of consciousness, it would turn into a real trump card.

    To Xu Qing, that process was like refining both body and soul. Outside of him, the heaven and earth formed by the blood cocoon was being crushed down by the lightning. Inside of him, his sea of consciousness rumbled as the image of the God Decapitation Altar expanded outward.

    The sh between outside and inside made Xu Qing feel like his body was being smashed apart and his mind and heart were withering up. At the same time, his thirteen nascent souls were all erupting with abandon. The violet crystal was proving its worth as well. It sent out healing power like waters from a spring, nourishing Xu Qing and making it easier for him to stand up to the pressure. Naturally, it also bolstered his chances of sess.

    Lightning continued to fall. The blood cocoon continued to shrink.

    Xu Qing shivered as cracks spread out on his skin. Blood flowed out. The glow of electricity entered through the cocoon as it sought to melt everything.

    As the blood cocoon shrank down by a full measure, the heaven and earth within it crumbled. The de trough on the altar started to fall, causing intense rumbling sounds to echo out. It became a cloud of ash that shot toward Xu Qing. Next, the heavenly saber in the cocoon¡¯s canopy of heaven fell to pieces, turning into a cloud of rubble that swept toward Xu Qing. After that, the altar itself shattered.

    Some of the chickens that had been thrown inside wailed in grief; because of their connection to Xu Qing, they had no choice but to substitute for him to face the tribtion and even die. As the immense pressure weighed down on Xu Qing, they began to wither up and die one after another.

    As the blood cocoon shrank down further, everything inside of it crumbled into lightning-illuminated ash that surrounded Xu Qing. The blood cocoon had now shrunk down so significantly that it was only about nine meters from end to end. And it was shaking so hard it looked like it might copse.

    The lightning still pounded down.

    ¡°I told him I would use the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command after he achieved his first measure of sess,¡± the Heir Apparent said. ¡°I did that to make sure he was fully determined to turn the God Decapitation Altar into a trump card. But the reality is that I employed the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command from the very beginning.¡±

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings looked on with serious expressions. The Captain and the others were off in the distance, full of shock. They were all waiting.

    An hourter, the vortex above seemed to tap into an evenrger reserve of heavenly lighting. As a result, the lightning never ended. The blood cocoon was now surrounded by so many bolts of lightning that it wasn¡¯t possible to see it. However, it emanated a withered sensation that caused worry to build in the hearts of the onlookers.

    But then, even as that sensation of withering increased, a killing will suddenly erupted in all directions. Ripples of astonishment ran through the minds of everyone present as a chanting sound drifted out from the cocoon.

    ¡°Let the Ghost Emperor mountain be the altar. Let D-132¡¯s destiny be the trough!¡±

    Cracks spread out over the cocoon, as if some terrifying power were building up inside.

    ¡°Let the heavenly dao be the body of the de. Let the godly curse of taboo poison be the edge of the de. And let daybreak light be the de¡¯s light!¡±

    At that point, the blood cocoon started crumbling to pieces.

    ¡°Let the golden crow be the connection. Let the violet moon be the seal!

    ¡°Let the timescape be the container....

    ¡°Let the sundial lifemps be the catalyst....¡±

    As the chanting spread out, Wu Jianwu, Ning Yan, and everyone else slowly backed up, ashen looks on their faces. All of them could sense the terrifying fluctuationsing from the cocoon. Those fluctuations contained the power of naturalws, which caused the lightning falling from the vortex to start to blur.

    Finally came thest bit of chanting.

    ¡°When the sundials hit noon, heaven and earth will be jointly severed!¡±

    The blood cocoon exploded as a beam of de light emerged, full of boundless power and consummate killing intent.

    The moment it appeared, the dome of heaven trembled, and thends quaked. Cracks spread out through the damaged world. The bluegreen dragon swirled through the air, transforming into an enormous de. The de contained the will of Supreme Vastness, as well as a resonance to sever daos. It was the heavenly saber.

    The power of taboo poison converged rapidly to make the edge of the de. Now the de contained a peak level of taboo poison, ensuring that anyone struck with it would be instantly cursed by the poison. Next was the daybreak light, which formed the cold de light. It was a shining light that could sever all living beings, pierce all magics, and melt all techniques. It was a mystery within a mystery!

    Thends shook as the Ghost Emperor mountain and D-132 became the de trough. The Ghost Emperor mountain¡¯s hand rose, and within it was a huge prison cell full of destiny aura.

    The golden crow danced in the air, connecting heaven and earth. The violet moon sent out lineaments connecting it all. Within it, the god trove blessed everything. After that, the five sundials became heaven. As the gnomons spun, the aura of time seeped out everywhere. Then, all five of the gnomons stopped together, all of them pointing exactly at noon!

    And then...

    A saber shed into the sky!

    It raced right toward the lightning falling from the vortex, moving with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force. The lightning was severed. Theke of lightning shattered. The heavenfate tribtion... was shed to nothing! Heaven and earth trembled. The God Decapitation Altar blurred, then rapidly transformed into a timescape bottle.

    The bottle fell, until Xu Qing stepped out of nowhere and grabbed it. He looked at the bottle, his eyes glittering. Then he put it away, turned to the Heir Apparent and his siblings, and sped hands.

    ¡°Many thanks for helping me to seed, Seniors!¡±

    Ning Yan and the others were struck speechless. The Captain¡¯s eyes shone. The Heir Apparent and his siblings smiled.

    ¡°Does the divine ability have a name?¡± asked Princess Brightblossom.

    Xu Qing looked out at heaven and earth.

    ¡°It¡¯s called... Noon is Here!¡±

    Princess Brightblossom smiled and nodded. She seemed to look at Xu Qing with even more approval than before.

    Off to the side, the Heir Apparent cleared his throat. Eyes also glittering with admiration, he said, ¡°Not bad. But don¡¯t getcent. Your other nascent souls need tempering. That¡¯s the only way you¡¯ll be able to unleash the true power of this trump card. Now, are you going to take the power of hope here and absorb it to be the tip of the de?¡±

    As the Heir Apparent spoke, his gaze shifted to the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat and waved his hand, causing six motes of white light to appear in front of him. Those six motes of light contained the hope and spirit of resistance of the living beings of Moonrite Region. In fact, it was possible to see countless faces within them.

    Those motes of light were some of the power of hope that the Captain had managed to take during Xu Qing¡¯s tribtion.

    ¡°Eldest Brother probably has some better uses for them,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    He knew full well how much experience his Eldest Brother had in aplishing big things. In most cases, those big jobs were multyered. And in this case, he had obviously set everything specifically for the hope power of the living beings of Moonrite.

    When the Captain heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, he seemed to brighten up, and evenughed heartily. He felt anticipation in his heart, but at the same time, felt like something was a bit odd about this job. Normally speaking, though Xu Qing often ended up looking amazing, he was usually not far behind. They were like a pair of world-shaking heroes drawing their amazing swords. But this time, he got the short end of the stick.

    He had unsealed this area. He had made the arrangements for the script. He had also prepared all of the assets necessary. But in the end, the Heir Apparent and his siblings just took over. And the Captain even ended up having to act in the y.

    All of that could have been eptable. But then, halfway through the y, little Ah Qing just went totally out of control....

    If he had just gone out of control, that could have been eptable. But it hadn¡¯t been a case of simply going out of control once. It kept happening over and over again. First was the ancient wind, then the God Decapitation Altar, then the memories from antiquity, and finally that tribtion lightning.

    When the Captain thought about that, he suddenly felt very tired. Being little Ah Qing¡¯s Eldest Brother really wasn¡¯t a simple thing.

    <i>Finally, it¡¯s my turn!</i>

    Taking a deep breath, the Captain strode forward and then floated up into the air until he was next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Watch closely, little Junior Brother. Next up... it¡¯s time for our actual big job! Our true goal!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and then stered a look of anticipation onto his face.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression caused the Captain to feel very pleased. Proudly looking up, he waved his right hand forcefully and said, ¡°Inpliance with the treaty from long ago, I hereby use the power of hope as the instigator, to create a summoning symbol. A path for gods! Let the Firemoon Door open! High God Moonfire, I summon you to me!¡±

    As the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, the power of hope flew up, spinning around to create a huge circle in front of them. The circle pulsed with powerful fluctuations, as if it were opening a tunnel. It was... a pathway leading to the resting ce of another god!

    The unique and terrifying aura of Crimson Mother seeped out of that pathway. It was just a bit, but it was enough to visibly move the Heir Apparent and his siblings. Everything around them blurred, and the mutagen levels soared.

    Outside... strange things were also happening in the Greenhair Bands.

 Chapter 646: A Green Hair the Path; Firemoon the Door

    <h4>Chapter 646: A Green Hair the Path; Firemoon the Door</h4>

    The Greenhair Bands shook dramatically. From the look of it, the Captain¡¯s words had released some unknown taboo, causing the terrifying power of the desert to suddenly erupt.

    Grains of sand started floating up into the air. Every single one vibrated as faces appeared on them, which looked up into the sky and roared in rage. The sound of the roar became like heavenly thunder that resounded in the canopy of heaven. The wind swirled in all directions, transforming the gap between heaven and earth into a sea of sand.

    Looking at it from a distance, the countless particles of sand floating into the air significantly lowered visibility. As the wind took hold of the sand and swept it about, loud rumbling sounds echoed out. The grains smashed into each other, transforming into ashes, which fueled the growing sandstorm.

    The faces howled in pain. However, as they clumped together, they gradually formed an enormous face. It looked like a young woman. Sh¨¥ wasughing, but at the same time crying, and the sound of it filled the Greenhair Bands.

    Mutagen spread out, obscuring the world. A god hade!

    Heaven and earth in the Greenhair Bands became dark and gloomy. Divine sense was useless, and physical eyes couldn¡¯t see clearly either. There was only endless, deafening rumbling. All cultivators native to the area went into hiding in the mountains and then looked on in shock.

    It was hard to determine who did it first, but before long, all of them were prostrating in the direction of the huge face.

    ¡°White Mother!¡±

    As Xu Qing and the others raced toward the exit, the Wind Guardians there seemed to be getting extremely excited. Dropping to their knees, they started chanting an ancient chant.

    <i>¡°White Mother is awake, enjoying the fiery river.</i>

    <i>¡°The godchildeth, to bring salvation hither.</i>

    <i>¡°All beings are dazzled, in confusion they quiver.</i>

    <i>¡°I will be the soil, a nourishing caregiver.¡±</i>

    The chanting reverberated across the desert, spreading with the wind. Although the violent wind was shocking, it didn¡¯t seem particrly malicious to the Wind Guardians, who were natives of thesends.

    In contrast... the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral who were here looking for the source of the broadcast had no choice but to back away from the tempest. The sandstorm seemed intent on venting all of its malice on any outsiders in the area. In the shortest of moments, countless cathedral cultivators were sent tumbling this way and that, looks of shock on their faces. Some were overwhelmed and ripped to pieces. As their souls were shredded, they released howls of grief.

    Even the pontiff was visibly taken aback.

    ¡°Everybody, retreat from this area!¡±

    Without any hesitation, he issued orders for the cathedral cultivators to fall back. It was only when they were out of the desert that they were no longer in danger.

    After that, the pontiff, along with some of his Void Returning godheralds, pierced through the sandstorm like a spear, heading right toward the exit where Xu Qing and the others were just emerging.

    They got closer and closer. However, as they continued on their way, the dramatic things happening in the Greenhair Bands continued to unfold. As the sand continued to float up into the air, and as the huge face grewrger, the desert¡¯s horizon dropped downward.

    30 meters. 240 meters. 450 meters....

    Shockingly, in the end, the surface level of the entire Greenhair Bands dropped down 3,000 meters! From a distance, the Greenhair Bands consisted of a huge sea of sand... with nothing beneath it.

    It was a massive basin, within which were ancientnds that hadn¡¯t been seen since before the desert formed. There were also a host of mountains of varying sizes. Some of them had long been buried in the desert, and hadn¡¯t been seen in countless years. Others had been visible above the desert sands, such as the Bitter Life Mountains. But now, they were exposed in their entirety. Compared to the huge basin, the mountains resembled massive, terrifying spikes.

    The ground was made of pitch ck muddy soil, rife with decay. There were innumerable scars in thend, immense gullies and pits that seemed to indicate a shocking battle had been fought here in the past.

    The dramatic transformation surpassed what any cultivator could imagine happening. The cultivators native to the Greenhair Bands were astonished, and at the same time, devoted themselves to worshiping White Mother with even more piety.

    The sea of sand churned, with grains mming into each other and shattering, creating more ash that mixed into the wind. Gradually, it seemed to be taking a shape.

    Those who were witnessing it couldn¡¯t help but gradually think of a certain legend. It was said that the entire Greenhair Bands had once been a massive basin, and that many years ago a strand of hair fell from heaven and turned into sand, which filled in the basin and made the desert. Today, that legend... was being proven true. The sea of sand floating in the air continued to take shape, ultimately turning into... a strand of green hair! [1]

    The moment that hair appeared, the pontiff from the Red Moon Cathedral and his people all felt shaken to the core.

    It was as if time had stopped in the Greenhair Bands. The magicalws went still, and the naturalws froze in ce. Everything went quiet. The wind no longer blew. Time no longer advanced. Everything, living or not, ceased to move. Godly might spread.

    The Greenhair Bands was instantly separated, as if it wasn¡¯t part of the Moonrite Region anymore. Instead, it was hidden in its own gap in space-time.

    The strand of green hair shrank down, rapidly turning into the size of an ordinary piece of hair. It disappeared, only to reappear... right in front of the Captain in the sealed world. It floated down onto his palm. The two ends of the hair extended past either side of his hand and slowly drooped down.

    The Captain turned to look at Xu Qing with an enigmatic smile on his face.

    ¡°Surprised, little Ah Qing?¡±

    The moment Xu Qingid eyes on the hair, he saw everything that happened earlier on the outside. He saw the dramatic transformations, and the appearance of the huge basin. He was understandably shaken. They knew that the Captain¡¯s big jobs were always exciting, but this was downright hair-raising.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing lowered his voice and said, ¡°Eldest Brother, is that hair from the same High God you said you worked with in your past life?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s reaction was very pleasing to the Captain. He was d that things now seemed to be back in his control. This was how things were supposed to go on his big jobs.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± he said, waving the hair back and forth. ¡°This individual had a very bad temper, but extremely high personhood. Whether it was my hiding spot for my past-life body, or the sealing done here, it was all thanks to h¨¥r assistance. And the Greenhair Bands were formed from one of h¨¥r hairs.

    ¡°At the same time, it¡¯s an authentication device left behind for me. One day, when the opportunity came around, I could use the hope power from all living beings to turn the Greenhair Bands back into this strand of hair, and use it... to connect to h¨¥r door.¡±

    The Captain nced at the Heir Apparent and his siblings, and was very pleased to see the serious expressions on their faces.

    The Heir Apparent looked closely at the hair in Erniu¡¯s hand. ¡°You worked with one of the Three Gods of Sun, Moon, and Star of the Firemoon Darkheaven people? High God Moonfire?¡±

    The Captain chuckled and nodded proudly. ¡°The three high gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people all wanted to give me face. But in the end, I thought about how th¨¥ir species is the mortal enemy of us humans, and therefore, I refused th¨¥ir offer.

    ¡°And yet, Little Moonie shamelessly <i>demanded </i>to help, and I eventually had no choice but to reluctantly agree. Considering how hard sh¨¥ worked, I promised that when the time came, I would give her a few chunks of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to eat.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless, almost as if he hadn¡¯t heard any of the Captain¡¯s nonsense. Princess Brightblossom sneered, but also ignored the Captain. Ning Yan and the others had experienced quite a few shocks on this day, yet their first reaction upon hearing Erniu¡¯s bragging was that it seemed too fake. Xu Qing was used to this sort of thing, and didn¡¯t react at all.

    Seeing that nobody believed him, the Captain sighed again. ¡°Ah, whatever. Look, I¡¯m telling the truth. One of these days, all of you will realize that what Chen Erniu says isn¡¯t even remotely untrue. Th¨¥y really did beg me!¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat, and with a helpless swagger that bemoaned how ignorant everyone else was, he stepped forward and threw the hair into the vortex made from hope power.

    The hair drifted through the air, and when it touched the vortex, the vortex suddenly stopped moving. Then the hair grew longer and longer, stretching out to form a pathway. It was long and winding, and headed far out into the void.

    At the very end of the path was a wooden door, extremely ancient, and seemingly very inauspicious. The ck wood was covered with numerous very deep scratch marks, and even some chunks of flesh. Most horrendous of all was that ck blood oozed out of the edges of the door. The blood emanated an overwhelming sensation of sinister decay.

    It also contained the aura of a god. When Ning Yan and the others saw it, they groaned as their mutagen levels started rising. Xu Qing¡¯s vision swam, and his mind trembled. The Heir Apparent and his siblings looked at the ck wooden door as if it represented the impending arrival of a dangerous enemy.

    Only the Captain seemed rxed. Stepping into the vortex and onto the path made by the green hair, he looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing and grinned.

    ¡°Want toe with me to take a look, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing was about to reply when blood started gushing out of the edges of the door. At the same time, a loud, incessant banging started on the other side.

    <i>Bang-bang-bang-bang!</i>

    It was a deafening sound that shook them down to the soul.

    Apparently, whatever entity was on the other side had sensed neers, and was banging on the door. The force caused the door to shiver with each blow, and more damage appeared on its surface.

    The sudden banging seemed to catch the Captain by surprise. After blinking a few times, he continued to smile. ¡°What the hell? Howe everybody who gets locked up seems to love violently banging on the door?¡±

    Off to the side, Eighth Sib red at the Captain and snapped, ¡°Sh¨¥¡¯s cursing you.¡±

    1. The legendary origin of the Greenhair Bands was first mentioned in <u>chapter 579.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 647: Itâ€™s Called Love

    <h4>Chapter 647: It¡¯s Called Love</h4>

    The Captain grinned. Looking very sincere, he said, ¡°Senior, that¡¯s totally impossible. Back then sh¨¥ was the one who begged for the honor of helping me.¡±

    His calm voice, rxed demeanor, and the reminiscence in his eyes made it seem like he had absolute trust in the entity behind this door, all based on their previous beautiful rtionship.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu exchanged a nce. Based on what they knew about Erniu, and especially this specific facial expression, they were very suspicious about what they were hearing.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing backed up a few dozen meters until he was standing by the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. That seemed like the safest spot. He didn¡¯t even bother thinking about the Captain¡¯s invitation toe along. He thought of himself as a reasonable person who never went too crazy. It was all about costs and benefits. In that respect, he was different from the Captain. That was why, when it came to crazily courting death, the Captain always had the edge.

    Seeing Xu Qing backing up caused a sh of bitterness to appear in the Captain¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Sh¨¥¡¯s pretty good at cursing,¡± Eighth Sib said, looking at Chen Erniu. ¡°In fact, from the way sh¨¥¡¯s cursing you, it sounds like you were a heartless rat who seduced h¨¥r, then tossed h¨¥r to the side. Sh¨¥ wants to eat your flesh, drink your blood, absorb your soul, and dig out your marrow. Oh, right. Sh¨¥¡¯s been looking forward to youing.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s expression flickered slightly, and his heart started pounding a bit. Instinctively suppressing that, he cleared his throat. ¡°There¡¯s no way! We were just friends, that¡¯s all!¡±

    When Eighth Sib noticed that his older brother and sister weren¡¯t interrupting him, he started to get excited. Sneering, he continued, ¡°My authority rtes to emotions and longing. By means of h¨¥r aura, I can tell that this High God Moonfire views you with the utmost loathing, as well as infinite madness. Hunh. The fluctuations are <i>really</i> intense!¡±

    Eighth Sib seemed to focus on the fluctuations for a moment. An admiring expression appeared on his face.

    ¡°Erniu, you got h¨¥r emotions so stirred up they¡¯re very close to transforming into human nature. That¡¯s not easy!¡± When Eighth Sib saw that the Captain was about tounch into another exnation, he got visibly annoyed. He hated it when people didn¡¯t believe what he said. ring, he continued, ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me, fine. Just walk up to the door and see if the banging gets louder!¡±

    His heart starting to race a bit more, the Captain thought back to his bragging, then gritted his teeth and started walking forward. However, he¡¯d only taken a few steps when the banging on the ck wooden door grew more frantic.

    <i>BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!</i>

    It was more anxious than before. Almost maddened. And the door was shaking so hard it looked like it might shatter at any moment.

    As of now, even people without authority rted to emotion, for instance Ning Yan and the others, could tell that the voice behind the door was terrifyingly furious. All of them inhaled sharply and backed away.

    Eighth Sib chuckled coldly.

    Seeing all of that, the Captain sighed. ¡°You <i>still </i>hate me, Little Moonie?¡±

    All of a sudden, the banging stopped. Everything went quiet. The hidden implication of the Captain¡¯s words caused Xu Qing¡¯s gaze to harden. Wu Jianwu and Ning Yan both looked astonished. Nethersprite frowned as she looked at the door. She¡¯d been hoping to see Chen Erniu simply die, except now everything seemed peaceful.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s expression was one of loneliness. Walking up to the door, he stopped in ce, eyes flickering with reminiscence.

    ¡°Little Moonie,¡± he said in a near whisper, ¡°just wait a bit longer. Everything¡¯s going to be fine.

    ¡°Truth be told, I was lying to my friends just now. Even little Ah Qing. Oh, right, you don¡¯t know who little Ah Qing is. He¡¯s my Junior Brother in this life. Once you¡¯re out of there, I¡¯ll introduce him to you.

    ¡°Ai. I told them that you and I were just good friends. But the reality is... that our rtionship couldn¡¯t possibly be described with the word ¡®friend¡¯ alone....¡±

    The Captain¡¯s words drifted along the pathway made by the green hair, through the vortex created by hope power, and into the ears of Xu Qing and the others.

    At first, none of them had believed anything the Captain said. But as he kept talking, and as the door went silent, it started to seem like maybe he was actually telling the truth. Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and Li Youfei were all starting to believe. Nethersprite just frowned.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked very closely at his Eldest Brother¡¯s hands. At the same time, Erniu sighed and looked back at everyone.

    ¡°Let me do the introductions again. On the other side of this door is my ex-wife.¡±

    His words struck like lightning bolts. Ning Yan let loose an exmation of shock. Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t have opened wider. Li Youfei was dumbstruck. Nethersprite was deeply shaken.

    ¡°Ex-wife?¡±

    ¡°A god?¡±

    ¡°W-what¡¯s... what¡¯s going on here?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react in the same way. He was looking thoughtfully at his Eldest Brother¡¯s right hand, which was clenched into a fist.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings also reacted slightly differently. Eighth Sib seemed suspicious, Princess Brightblossom¡¯s eyes narrowed, and Fifth Sister seemed thoughtful.

    ¡°What are you holding in your hand?¡± the Heir Apparent asked.

    Such reactions caused the Captain to rejoice inwardly. But he kept the emotions off his face. He sighed. ¡°Please, don¡¯tugh at me. Years ago when Little Moonie attempted godly ascension, sh¨¥ could hardly bear to part with me. But in the end, we went our separate ways. Sh¨¥ became a god in heaven, while I remained a person on earth.

    ¡°Yet I still loved h¨¥r. And that¡¯s why, in reincarnation after reincarnation over the countless years that have passed, I was willing to be h¨¥r anchor. I am what lets h¨¥r keep a grip on h¨¥r human nature, and not be lost in godliness.¡±

    As the Captain¡¯s sorrowful words echoed out, he opened his right hand. There wasn¡¯t anything there.

    Everything was silent. Ning Yan and the others were shaken by what they were hearing, but at the same time, realized it sounded vaguely familiar. Xu Qing looked at the Captain and could guess where he¡¯de up with the storyline.

    Princess Brightblossom looked at the ck door, and then back at Erniu. ¡°If we hadn¡¯te along, those were the lines you nned to have our ¡®father¡¯ say in the performance. Right?¡±

    Eighth Sib couldn¡¯t help but add, ¡°I remember that High God Moonfire was born a god. Sh¨¥ wasn¡¯t a postheaven god. So what would sh¨¥ need an anchor for?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and was about to answer when, all of a sudden, the banging resumed on the door, this time, louder and more insistent. Cracks spread out on the door, and even started to bulge out in some spots. The bulge was the same shape as a seven-fingered hand. Along with the banging came gasping sounds that pulsed with greed and longing. There were also some hoarse cries.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious. The Heir Apparent and his siblings all looked on gravely. As for the Captain, he was definitely rmed, but was working hard to look calm and casual.

    He even reached up and rapped lightly on the door.

    ¡°The time hasn¡¯te yet, Little Moonie! I can¡¯t open the door right now. But don¡¯t worry. Howe you still have the same little temper as before? I just came to wake you up and make sure you don¡¯t go back to sleep. And I also wanted to let you know you should keep activating all the things you prepared over the years.

    ¡°In less than a year, I¡¯m going to live up to our agreement. And that¡¯s because, in no more than a year, I¡¯ll make sure youy eyes on the sleeping Crimson Mother. That¡¯s what I promised you years ago, and I¡¯m going to live up to it.

    ¡°Finally, I have a little authentication device for you. It¡¯ll enable you to ignore the might of Crimson Mother and walk right up to her.¡±

    The Captain reached up, dug his eyeball out of the socket, and smashed it onto the wooden door. The eyeball sank through the door to the other side.

    ¡°The authentication device is inside my eyeball that I just¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, chewing sounds drifted out from the door....

    Xu Qing said nothing. Ning Yan and the others had strange looks on their faces. The Heir Apparent looked at Erniu. But it was Eighth Sib who spoke.

    ¡°Sh¨¥ ate it.¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°It¡¯s called love.¡±

    With that, the Captain started growing a whole bunch of eyeballs, which he sent into the door one after another. The chewing sounds never stopped. Finally, after about a hundred eyeballs, the Captain angrily said, ¡°Alright, no more! Worst-case scenario, I just get help from another High God!¡±

    A huge bang on the door was the only response the Captain got. As a result of the bang, the path made by the green hair started to copse, and the hope power began fading away.

    The Land of God Decapitation in general started crumbling.

    Xu Qing hurried over to the entrance of the vortex in case he needed to help the Captain.

    Thankfully, after that huge bang, there were no more noises from behind the door. Instead, one of the Captain¡¯s eyeballs suddenly appeared on the surface of the door. It was staring at the Captain. Inside of the eyeball was a wriggling strand of gray hair that almost resembled a worm of some sort. It emanated a terrifying aura that far surpassed anything from the previous green strand of hair.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed and shone with blue light. Reaching out, he took the eyeball, then started backing up. The moment he moved backward, the palm print that was bulging out of the door wriggled and transformed into a vicious face. Opening its mouth, it lunged toward the Captain.

    Blue light red around the Captain as he raced backward toward the exit. The path beneath his feet was crumbling, and the vortex of hope power grew dim.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing reached out, grabbed the Captain by the shoulder, and dragged him out.

    Even still, the face closed in with a gaping maw, and then a crunch rang out as it bit into the Captain¡¯s waist. Blood spread out of his mouth. The path copsed into nothing. The vortex of hope power disappeared. And Xu Qing was left holding the upper half of the Captain.

    ¡°Happy, Eldest Brother?¡± Xu Qing sighed.

    The Captainughed heartily. ¡°Totally! When you do big things, you have to be thorough. Otherwise, how could they be considered big? Please, everyone, don¡¯tugh at me. This is just how my ex-wife and I bid farewell to each other.¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem worried at all about his missing lower half. Looking pleased, he opened his right hand to reveal the eyeball. After squeezing it, he managed to extract the gray hair, which shot through the void into the outside world.

    In the blink of an eye, it reached the air above the Greenhair Bands, where it expanded to cover the entire desert. Then it started breaking apart. It turned into countless grains of gray sand that fell down, once again filling in the huge basin. The process made the desert gray. And a gray wind blew over it....

    ording to the legends, there were different types of wind in the Greenhair Bands. In addition to the green, white, and ck winds, there was a fourth type. It was said that the fourth type had only appeared once in the entire existence of the Greenhair Bands. Now it had appeared a second time.

 Chapter 648: The Wind Locks the Desert; Missing a Dao Son

    <h4>Chapter 648: The Wind Locks the Desert; Missing a Dao Son</h4>

    The gray wind blew through the gray desert, begging the question of whether people would soon start calling the Greenhair Bands by a different name. After all, the sand was all gray now. As the wind blew, it rapidly intensified to the point of being a storm. It was a tempest containing godly might, and as it spread, it imparted the sensation that it would never die down. Even the canopy of heaven changed. It was no longer filled with red light. It was as if the entire desert had been separated out of the Moonrite Region.

    For anyone outside, entering the desert would now be a very deadly risk. Even the pontiff from the Red Moon Cathedral didn¡¯t dare to stay inside. Bedraggled and broken-down, he had no choice but to fall back. He had even lost some of his godheralds in the retreat.

    Once outside the desert, the cathedral cultivators looked back into the storm.

    ¡°This ce is cut off from the outside now.¡±

    ¡°The gray storm isn¡¯t going away. It¡¯s preventing anyone from going in.¡±

    ¡°The people inside can leave, but people on the outside have to deal with that storm if they want to go in.¡±

    The Red Moon Cathedral finally had no choice but tobel the ce a forbidden region and leave it be.

    The people already inside of the gray storm didn¡¯t look any different from before, although they were all incredibly shocked.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing and everyone else left the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s Land of God Decapitation and reappeared out in the gray wind and sand.

    In the past, when Xu Qing and the Captain finished a big job, they usually had to teleport randomly to safety. But this time, there was no need for that. The gray storm was their protection. For all intents and purposes, the Captain¡¯s deal with the ck wooden door ensured that they were now in the safest location in all of the Moonrite Region.

    And thus, the entire group returned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the mudbrick city. Everything was normal back at the medicine shop.

    Patriarch Inkrule had been standing guard the entire time, and had been doing a good job of it. After everyone left earlier, he¡¯d been feeling very nervous. And then those images appeared in his mind.... Although hardly anyone in the Moonrite Region could have recognized the people in those images, he recognized all of them instantly. And that was especially true of Xu Qing. After all of that happened, he had decided to just do his best to guard the shop. Later, the green sand transformed, and the massive basin was filled with gray sand and wind. All of that convinced him that the best course of action was just to stay where he was. He had worked hard to take good care of the chickens, fattening them up as much as he could. That included his old apprentice. When he finally spotted Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent, and everyone else on the street, he started trembling with excitement, and rushed forward to receive them.

    The next day, the Green Spirit Pharmacy opened for business again. Ling¡¯er¡¯s face was flushed as she worked on the ounts, all while asionally looking happily at the back room. Her cultivation base was very different from before. She had now thoroughly assimted the destiny aura from Emperor Ancient Spirit. That was all thanks to the good fortune of that blood cocoon.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one to benefit from good fortune. Ling¡¯er had also been blessed thanks to the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

    Ning Yan and Li Youfei went back to scrubbing the floor. The Captain resumed his guard duties and kept an eye on Nethersprite as she boiled water. Nethersprite hadn¡¯t returned her little toy. Thus, as she boiled water, she always took every opportunity to p and chide the skinntern. She also had thentern do the blowing to keep the fire hot.

    Wu Jianwu was again reciting poetry. He hadn¡¯t seen Patriarch Inkrule for quite a while, and missed him a lot. <i>¡°It feels like forever since I went on my way; yet it seems like I¡¯ve hardly been gone a day.¡±</i>

    Patriarch Inkrule pretended not to have heard him.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings went back to their routines. Fifth Sister was in the backyard, happily tending to the chickens. Eighth Sib sped the Captain¡¯s shoulder and chatted like before. However, when Xu Qing asionally listened in, it seemed like the Captain was often getting more information out of Eighth Sib than the other way around. Whenever that happened, Princess Brightblossom would shake her head.

    Xu Qing was once again focusing on cultivation.

    On the third day after their return to the Green Spirit Pharmacy, the Heir Apparent called Xu Qing over. As he sipped tea, he talked to Xu Qing in the meaningful and heartfelt manner of a true Master.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you might have reached the four-tribtion Nascent Soul level. However, there are still some abilities that you haven¡¯t been able to unlock. Therefore, you need to keep that sun at your waist, and you can¡¯t take the hat off.

    ¡°Things are going to be chaotic out there. Thankfully, things are going to be rtively peaceful here in the desert. Therefore, I want you to take advantage of the time you have to speed up the pace of your tempering.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. After returning, he¡¯d visited the Moonrebel Congregation to find that the statues there weren¡¯t active like before. An atmosphere of nervousness hade to fill the ce. Almost all of the discussion was about the images everyone had seen in their heads a few days before. Everyone agreed that something big wasing. As a result, everyone seemed to be interested in stockpiling medicine.

    Because of the gray wind that blocked off the desert, things were very peaceful around the Green Spirit Pharmacy. And that wasn¡¯t even to mention there were four Smoldering Gods there.

    Settling his thoughts, Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. Respectfully bowing he said, ¡°I look forward to your advice, Seniors.¡±

    The Heir Apparent was very pleased with Xu Qing¡¯s attitude. ¡°The first thing you need to do is study your heavenly dao. I don¡¯t know the details of how you got it, but it looks like you plundered it years ago.

    ¡°Situations like that would asionally ur back in the day. But heavenly daos aren¡¯t simple things. They exist on an extremely high level! And thuses today¡¯s advice. You¡¯ve overlooked something rting to your heavenly dao.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s expression looked very serious. In order to avoid exhausting himself, he was weighing his words very carefully before speaking.

    ¡°Given the level of that heavenly dao, if you don¡¯t keep a close eye on it, it could very well leave you. What¡¯s more, although you aren¡¯t in the Spirit Trove level, considering that you had the destined opportunity to plunder a heavenly dao like that, then, theoretically speaking, you should be able tomand at least some heavenly dao magicalws.

    ¡°It¡¯s just that it hasn¡¯t manifested very clearly on you so far. Keep digging. Keep seeking enlightenment of your heavenly dao. Sense the magicalws it contains. And more importantly, treat it well, guide it, and make sure it follows you willingly.

    ¡°In addition, though heavenly daos contain all of the usual magical and naturalws, yours does have a specialty. It will just take some effort on your part to discover what it is.¡±

    Xu Qing was very taken aback. Acting on instinct, he took a look at the heavenly dao inside of him. The bluegreen dragon was in his sea of consciousness looking back. And though Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be totally sure, it seemed almost looked like it had a fawning expression on its face. Xu Qing put some thought into the matter of the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. He was wondering what part of his study and research into it had beencking.

    After some thought, he decided that the Heir Apparent¡¯s advice made a lot of sense, and that he should study the heavenly dao more thoroughly. One thing that stuck out to him was that he had acquired this heavenly dao through enlightenment. It was actually a manifestation of his life essence bluegreen dragon. He had formed it, not plundered it.

    The most important thing was that he needed to assert his authority. The bluegreen dragon had been acknowledged as an heir by the heavenly dao at the Ten Entrails Tree. And that meant that Xu Qing... counted as its grandfather.

    In other words, he didn¡¯t need to study it too deeply. He fundamentally understood a lot about it already. And he wasn¡¯t worried at all about it leaving him. As for treating it well, that would depend on how it behaved.

    In view of all that, Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent. ¡°Senior, I can actually sense the specialty in my heavenly dao¡¯s magicalws.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± the Heir Apparent said, looking at Xu Qing. Princess Brightblossom also looked over. Before, the two of them would have reacted much more sharply to someone under their tutge acting so casually. But not now. The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing seriously, and Princess Brightblossom seemed somewhat excited.

    ¡°Seniors, my heavenly dao formed when I experienced enlightenment of dao-severing. That¡¯s its specialty. It¡¯s probably also connected to ughter and tribtion lightning. That¡¯s why I was able to convert it into a heavenly saber.¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a small bluegreen dragon to fly out from the top of his head and start gliding around.

    The Heir Apparent nodded. His expression unchanging, he said, ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s just as I thought. You used a destined opportunity to plunder enlightenment from heaven and earth.¡±

    A short distance away, Eighth Sib¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, Princess Brightblossom looked at him. A tremor passed through Eighth Sib, and he forced himself to stay silent.

    Despite what the Heir Apparent had said, he was actually bewildered. He rarely made mistakes, especially considering his experience as someone with a Smoldering God cultivation base. What was more, he had observed Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao quite a bit. He had seen a deep level of approval in that heavenly dao, as well as an independent spirit. Those things didn¡¯t seem to match with what Xu Qing said about his enlightenment.

    Gaining enlightenment of an illusory heavenly dao wasn¡¯t enough. It required constant cultivation and growth to seed. If you likened heavenly daos to a species, then heavenly daos of that level were like ordinary citizens who need to develop significantly before bing royalty. Besides, that was something of a dead end. It didn¡¯t matter how much a heavenly dao grew, it could never be like the heavenly daos of ancient times in the Revered Ancient maind. <i>They</i> were the royalty.

    But Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao was somehow different. It had a deep level of approval that the Heir Apparent could sense was connected to one of the ancient heavenly daos. It seemed outrageously unbelievable. Upon sensing it, the Heir Apparent had assumed that it must have been something that Xu Qing surreptitiously plundered and added to his assets.

    Princess Brightblossom muttered to herself briefly before looking at Xu Qing and his heavenly dao. ¡°Xu Qing, did your heavenly dao experience some incredibly momentous event?¡±

    Xu Qing was about to answer the question but didn¡¯t have the chance.

    The Captain proudlyughed and said, ¡°Of course! It was back when little Ah Qing and I were on a big job.¡±

    ¡°What job?¡± Eighth Sib asked curiously.

    ¡°Oh, nothing worth talking about. We just gave the little bluegreen dragon a daddy, which is when it became our grandson. You see, little Ah Qing and I had a child together. Ai. It¡¯s been such a long time since we saw our son. I¡¯m really starting to miss him.¡±

    The Captain looked up into the sky. All of a sudden, a rumbling in the dome of heaven seemed to respond to him.

    The Heir Apparent shot to his feet. Princess Brightblossom¡¯s expression flickered, and even Fifth Sister looked moved.

    Eighth Sib gasped and looked at Chen Erniu, then Xu Qing. Finally he pointed to the sky. ¡°That¡¯s your son?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then said, ¡°After waking h¨©m, h¨¥¡¯ll likely be one of the ancient heavenly daos.¡±

    The Heir Apparent sat back down and grabbed his teacup. Yet again he was starting to feel exhausted. Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister both sat there quietly. Eighth Sib¡¯s jaw was hanging open.

    Ning Yan continued scrubbing the floor, his heart aching with regret. <i>I had a chance too... to be the father of a heavenly dao!</i>

 Chapter 649: A Storm in Your Heart; Now Thatâ€™s Living

    <h4>Chapter 649: A Storm in Your Heart; Now That¡¯s Living</h4>

    There is no turning back in life. And thus, it didn¡¯t matter how much Ning Yan sighed inwardly. The past was the past.

    Xu Qing noticed the regret on his face but didn¡¯t say anything. Meanwhile, the Captain looked very pleased. Back in the leadup to that event, he had given some suggestions to Ning Yan. But Ning Yan hadn¡¯t believed what he said. He didn¡¯t cut out his entrails for the Ten Entrails Tree. And that wasn¡¯t the Captain¡¯s fault. [1]

    Silence reigned in the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Shortly thereafter, the Heir Apparent put down his cup of tea. Smiling, he gave Xu Qing a slight nod. ¡°Not bad at all.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated. The Heir Apparent¡¯s smile seemed a bit forced, and he should have been surprised to learn the origin of Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly dao. Instead, the Heir Apparent changed the conversation topic.

    ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll leave the heavenly dao matters to you. Just get the enlightenment you need. Forget about that for now. Let¡¯s talk about your Ghost Emperor mountain. That mountain¡ª¡± Before the Heir Apparent could continue speaking, Princess Brightblossom lifted her teacup.

    That motion caused the Heir Apparent to stop talking. After a moment of thought, he continued speaking, his voice hoarse. ¡°The fact that you can put a Smoldering God in your sea of consciousness for use as a nascent soul indicates to me that you must have some ns for it going forward. In that case, just upgrade the mountain in whatever way you see fit. The reason I called you over here is that I wanted to talk with you about your heavenfiend clones!¡±

    ¡°Heavenfiend clones?¡± Xu Qing waved his hand, causing over a hundred shadowy figures to appear, all of them emanating cold auras. They seemed like souls, yet they weren¡¯t. Their blurry nature made them hard to see clearly, but their baleful aura was so intense it caused the temperature to immediately drop in the medicine shop.

    Fifth Sister looked at them closely.

    Eighth Sib studied them and made an exmation of surprise. ¡°What divine ability is that? Assimting live souls, mixing in the will of the Yellow Springs, adding the feeling of the Nine Serenities. It¡¯s mysterious and bewitching, and definitely not something that ordinary people can control!¡±

    Princess Brightblossom suddenly looked thoughtful.

    The Heir Apparent seemed enlivened. Given Xu Qing¡¯s strange nascent souls and his terrifying powers of understanding, the Heir Apparent had already decided that it wasn¡¯t necessary to give him advice in that regard. That said, when it came to divine abilities and magical techniques, he felt that he still had the right to speak.

    ¡°Your Master gave you that Nascent Soul technique and it works well with your heavenfate-absorbing skill. It¡¯s exceptional custom work. However, you haven¡¯t done sufficient study of this skill. The reality is that your heavenfiend clones have another, even better, use.¡±

    Moved, Xu Qing looked at his heavenfiend clones and thought back to what his Master had told him. Specifically, Master Seventh had mentioned using the heavenfiend clones to step in for him when dealing with heavenfate tribtions. However, as things developed, it reached the point where Xu Qing didn¡¯t think that was necessary. After the Heir Apparent came along, the heavenfate tribtions got so terrifying that it didn¡¯t seem to make sense to use the heavenfiend clones.

    ¡°I look forward to your advice, Senior.¡± Xu Qing sped hands and bowed respectfully to the Heir Apparent.

    When the Heir Apparent saw that he was finally in control of things again, he felt a bit more at ease. However, he was still worried that something unexpected might happen, so he nced at his third sister.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± Princess Brightblossom said, ¡°these heavenfiend clones of yours clearly contain the will of the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command. Your Master is no simple individual. In order to create this divine ability for you, he obviously had to refer to the Duskmurmur Extirpation Command. These clones are inherently capable of substituting for you in tribtions.

    ¡°However, did you ever consider that you could use your daybreak light to cover them with an outer disguise to make them look like you? If you used that in a fight, then your enemy would see a whole host of you fighting at the same time, and they would have no way of determining which one was the real you. You could use them offensively or defensively. There¡¯s really no limit to the possibilities.¡±

    Hearing that, the Heir Apparent smiled and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I meant. If you can hide your true form among them, then it would be a big boost to your battle prowess, and would make you a lot harder to deal with.¡±

    The Captain seemed excited by what he was hearing, while Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were amazed. They could just imagine what it would be like to be fighting someone, only to have them summon over a hundred clones that looked exactly like their true self. It would be a fantastic scene.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He hadn¡¯t thought of doing that, and he couldn¡¯t help but admire Princess Brightblossom for the idea. That said, Xu Qing was actually a lot more interested in transforming his nascent souls than he was in altering his magical techniques. Therefore, he looked at the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom in the hopes that they were going to give him more advice.

    ¡°Seniors, my nascent souls have another unique quality. I have the finger of a god locked up inside of me in a prison cell that I call D-132.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be over-ambitious,¡± the Heir Apparent said, his gaze sharpening. ¡°For now, go back and improve your heavenfiend clones. Don¡¯t get anxious. You need to focus on tempering first.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. <i>I guess I am getting a bit too worked up</i>.

    With that, he went into the back room, sat down cross-legged, and got to work.

    In that manner, time passed. It was now six days since they left the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s Land of God Decapitation. During that time, the gray storm persisted in the desert, covering everything.

    Outside the desert in the various parts of the Moonrite Region, another storm was raging. However, it wasn¡¯t a literal storm. It was a storm in the hearts of the people. The storm started because of the broadcast of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua executing Crimson Mother. After seeing that, all living beings felt their hearts racing, and the desire to resist was ignited in their hearts.

    The countdown had already begun. If they didn¡¯t fight back within a year, they would be food. Of course, even if they fought back, they would still die. But at least it would be a dazzling and explosive finale to the nightmare that was the life they led.

    At the very least, they could <i>truly</i> live!

    <i>¡°Gods are by no means eternal; hope exists from time immemorial and into forever.¡±</i>

    In that case... some struggle, some madness, and some fighting back would bring something unique to the final moments of their lives. At the very least, they had hope! As the storm built in the hearts of the people, all species, sects, and cities filled with rallying cries.

    Meanwhile, the resistance armies put together by the Moonrebel Congregation weed the shocking development, as countless previously numb cultivators flocked to join their ranks. Numerous species and sects looked with maddened eyes toward the Red Moon Cathedral, and in their hearts, prepared to fight.

    For the very first time, the five vice-bishops of the Moonrebel Congregation chose to reveal their true identity to help the recruitment efforts. Some were chiefs from influential ns, while others were high-ranking elders from important sects. Still others were people who had been extremely famous but then gone missing. Shockingly, all of them had cultivation bases at the peak of fourth-stage Void Returning. Because of their status, cultivation, and valorous reputations, all five of them caused a rush of new recruits.

    And there were now five battlefields! The Red Moon Cathedral was furious, and immediately tried to crush them. Strangely, though... the pontiff didn¡¯t personally join the effort. He seemed leery, and preferred to remain in the headquarters.

    Even still, the Red Moon Cathedral sent a powerful force out to fight. The mes of war burned in various locations throughout the Moonrite Region.

    Meanwhile, the desert was like a paradise.

    Xu Qing was focusing on covering his heavenfiend clones with daybreak light to make them look exactly like himself. It wasn¡¯t easy. Their inner structure was different from an ordinary person, which posed an obstacle for changing their appearance. Therefore, Xu Qing switched to focusing on concealment. Concealment techniques could be very useful in catching someone off guard inbat.

    By means of the Moonrebel Congregation, Xu Qing was able to keep tabs on the war outside. He got the sense that it wouldn¡¯t be very long before that war got close to him. And that was because he¡¯d noticed that Eight Sib and Fifth Sister had disappeared. He had no idea where they went.

    Xu Qing had some spections. Then he noticed that his Eldest Brother was acting strange. He seemed to be working even harder to curry favor with the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. And the majority of his efforts seemed focused on the Heir Apparent. He took it upon himself to boil water, and even offered to massage the Heir Apparent¡¯s shoulders. He really was acting very filial.

    Xu Qing quickly came to the conclusion that his Eldest Brother was going to ask a favor of the Heir Apparent.

    The truth was revealed five dayster. Xu Qing was in the middle of studying his heavenfiend clones when he heard the Heir Apparent calling from the main floor of the shop.

    ¡°Come over for a minute, Xu Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked out toward the main floor. He saw the excited Captain fanning the Heir Apparent.

    Xu Qing gathered his thoughts, and then walked out. The Captain met his eyes, chuckled, then swung the fan more vigorously.

    ¡°Senior,¡± Xu Qing said coolly.

    ¡°There¡¯s something I¡¯d nned to give the two of you soon,¡± the Heir Apparent said, sounding very calm and collected. ¡°But Erniu is getting anxious and suggested I give it to you earlier.¡±

    He produced a mirror shard. It was the same Eye of Heaven that he had used to broadcast the events in the Land of God Decapitation through the Moonrebel Congregation to the people of Moonrite.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with longing as he looked at the mirror fragment. It was why he had been working so hard over the past few days.

    Xu Qing looked at the item. He was well aware how extraordinary it was.

    Rubbing his finger over the surface of the mirror, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°The precursor of the Moonrebel Congregation was my father¡¯s precious treasure, the Eye of Heaven. However, during the fight with Crimson Mother, it shattered. This is the biggest shard.

    ¡°Using this mirror to enter the Moonrebel Congregation is different from using ordinary mirrors. Doing so will activate the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s archbishop trial. Whoever passes the trial will be the Archbishop of Moonrebel. Even failure will result in earning the ce of vice-bishop. It¡¯s how the current five vice-bishops earned their positions.

    ¡°Unfortunately, once the trial is activated and the two of you enter, then the mirror won¡¯t be able to activate the trial again until after the Moonrebel Congregation declines and then revives again.¡± The Heir Apparent put the mirror shard on the table. ¡°The two of you can enter. Then we¡¯ll wait and see who can take advantage of this good fortune.¡±

    The Heir Apparent stood and walked out of the medicine shop. He had a lot of tasks to handle to prepare for theing war.

    After watching the Heir Apparent leave, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down. Excitedly picking up the mirror, he said, ¡°I finally got this opportunity, little Ah Qing! Hahaha! As I guessed, you¡¯re Pill Nine, right? Well, that¡¯s fine. You might be Pill Nine, but now... I¡¯m going to be the Archbishop of Moonrebel!

    ¡°I¡¯ve been preparing for this for a long time. After we go in, little Ah Qing, you can just focus on fooling around and having fun. Don¡¯t feel any pressure. Also, don¡¯t worry about me. Whatever form I take, just pretend you don¡¯t notice me.

    ¡°I have a n!¡±

    1. Ning Yan lost out on the ancient heavenly dao, culminating in the Captain telling him ¡°toote¡± in <u>chapter 455</u>. ?

 Chapter 650: New Ways of Thinking in a Land of Ambitions

    <h4>Chapter 650: New Ways of Thinking in a Land of Ambitions</h4>

    Seeing the Captain this excited caused Xu Qing to smile. He couldn¡¯t care less about the position of archbishop, and considering how hard his Eldest Brother had been working for so long, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t mind at all if he became the leader of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    ¡°Allow me to congratte you in advance, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said with a faint smile.

    The Captainughed heartily. ¡°What¡¯s mine is yours, little Junior Brother! Let¡¯s go!¡±

    The mirror shard flickered with light that rapidly spread out and enveloped the two of them. Some rumbling sounds could be heard, and then they vanished from sight.

    ***

    The mood inside the Moonrebel Congregation was bleak.

    The mountain was still there, and it still looked majestic. But the temples atop it were dark. In the past, innumerable statues could be seen traversing the paths on the mountains, but with the advent of war, they were currently nowhere to be seen. The vast majority of congregation cultivators werepletely focused on leading the resistance armies into battle against the forces of the Red Moon Cathedral. As a result, people had less time toe to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Therefore, there was only a small group present to exchange information and do business. They numbered in the hundreds. Most people hurried to take care of whatever business was at hand, and then left. No one wanted to waste any time. However, just now... something unusual suddenly happened.

    High in the dome of heaven, higher than the nine main temples atop the mountain, in the shocking temple that hovered above everything else, brilliant light glittered into existence. There was also a deafening rumbling sound that swept out. The light and the sound filled the mountain of the Moonrebel Congregation, causing the other temples to tremble.

    Stunned, the cultivators present all looked up. When they realized where the sound and light wasing from, they were even more astonished.

    ¡°Paramount Temple!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s happening? Paramount Temple represents the Archbishop of Moonrebel. It was dark before, but now it¡¯s shining brightly.¡±

    An uproar was already spreading. After all, to the cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation, this was an absolutely astonishing development.

    That was Paramount Temple! It was the highest temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, and it represented their archbishop! For innumerable years, there had been no Archbishop of Moonrebel. The vice-bishops had managed everything. Thus, it was only natural that a development like this would be unusual.

    That said, there were some old-timers present who, though they were surprised by what they were seeing, weren¡¯t exactly bbergasted. They had seen this happen before and knew what it implied.

    ¡°Some big-shot hase along to take the archbishop trial.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve seen this happen twice before. Sadly, on neither asion did the entrance to Paramount Temple actually open. And afterward, it went dark again.¡±

    ¡°I saw this happen once, and in the end, Fifth Vice-Bishop walked out.¡±

    The sighs of the old-timers clued the neers in. That said, there was still a keen air of anticipation. Few people believed that a new archbishop woulde out of the trial, but even having an additional vice-bishop would be a big matter for the Moonrebel Congregation. Considering the conflict going on with the Red Moon Cathedral, having a new vice-bishop would be a big boost to morale.

    As word spread, more and more people started returning to the Moonrebel Congregation. One statue after another walked out into the open and looked up into the sky. Discussion and chatter spread. In fact, some of the vice-bishops¡¯ temples lit up.

    Of the five vice-bishops, two stepped out and looked up at Paramount Temple.

    ***

    On the other side of the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s dome of heaven was a location that no one could take the initiative to enter. It was a mist-filled void. Roiling mist spread out in all directions, and at the far end of the void was ake. Rather, it was a huge mirror covered with ayer of water. As a result, theke was crystalline and iparably clear. In fact, it seemed holy.

    Atop theke was a huge figure. It was an old man in a white robe, with his hands crossed into the opposite sleeves. His head was bowed as he seemingly looked down into theke, unmoving. The only thing moving was his white hair, which stirred slowly as if having been touched by a breeze. Faint ripples rolled out across the water, as if something was forming beneath the surface.

    The mirror the old man stood atop seemed like a barrier that separated one side of the void from the other. And the figure that was forming was on the other side.

    After a certain period of time passed, the figure below took shape. It was Xu Qing. He looked around seriously, heart pounding. Eventually, he looked down. Earlier, when the light of the mirror enveloped him and his Eldest Brother, everything suddenly felt empty. Then, only a momentter, it went back to normal, and he was standing on thiske. In addition to theke, there was a void and nothing else other than the mirror....

    The mirror seemed to contain another world, and within it, he could see the old man in the white robe.

    The two of them looked at each other, separated by the mirrorke.

    Xu Qing could see two cold, apathetic eyes. His guard went up and he looked around, but didn¡¯t see any sign of his Eldest Brother.

    ¡°The person who came with you is in another mirror, contemting how to go about this trial.¡± The calm voice came from theke beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet, and it echoed out with great majesty into the void. ¡°All cultivators whoe here, regardless of the level of their cultivation base,e prepared for the trial.

    ¡°If you pass the trial, you will be the lord and master of the Eye of Heaven, and will also be my lord and master. If you fail, you will receive a lesser rank. What is your decision? Will you take the trial?¡±

    The voice seemed cold and emotionless to Xu Qing. After a moment of thought, he decided not to agree immediately.

    ¡°What kind of trial is it?¡± he asked.

    ¡°A statement of ambition,¡± the white-robed man said coolly. ¡°Use the power of ambition to reach an agreement. And demonstrate your qualifications. That¡¯s how you pass. You have a limited time toplete your ambition.

    ¡°The extent of your ambition will determine your level of privileges with the Eye of Heaven. If your ambition is only average, then you won¡¯t be the lord and master of the Eye of Heaven. You will receive a lesser rank.

    ¡°Only those with incredible ambition have incredible karma. That being said, do not behave unscrupulously.¡±

    The old man waved his hand, and intense rumbling could be heard as waves spread out over the water. At the same time, dozens of ice sculptures appeared. They featured men and women, all of whom emanated extraordinary auras. However, their life force fluctuations had been sealed.

    ¡°These are trial-takers who have failed throughout the years in this epoch. Some of them had ambitions so exaggerated that they were deemed to be false, and thus, they were punished. Others had no way to make good on their promises, and were thus bound to this spot until now."

    Xu Qing scanned the group, and when he didn¡¯t spot the Captain, breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°What is your ambition?¡± The old man in white looked through the mirror and the water at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a bit. Given that the Captain had prepared for so long for this, it seemed likely that he wouldn¡¯t have any trouble. After all, though his Eldest Brother wasn¡¯t always perfectly reliable, he certainly went crazy when going on big jobs.

    As for Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t think it was necessary to take a risk and say something about destroying Crimson Mother. Answering from the heart seemed like the best idea.

    He thought some more, then locked eyes with the old man.

    ¡°My ambitions aren¡¯t particrly amazing. The main thing I¡¯ve been trying to do here in the Moonrite Region is make a medicinal pill that can get rid of the curse. Especially for humans.¡±

    That was the whole reason Xu Qing had traveled to the Bitter Life Mountains in the first ce. He wanted to get into the Moonrebel Congregation so that he could find research information about the curse.

    In response to his words, the water rippled and the old man¡¯s facial expression flickered. If some other trial-taker had said something like that, he would call them out as a liar. But as the spirit automaton of the Moonrebel Congregation, he could sense certain things on Xu Qing, for instance, his cursequelling lozenge. He could tell that this person really was making progress toward the stated ambition.

    A momentter, the old man waved his hand, causing the surface of the water to roil as arge pill furnace rose up.

    ¡°In this ce you can easily <i>create something from nothing</i>. Although everything you create will be illusory, you can have ess to any ingredient or material you need.

    ¡°Your trial will begin here with a concocting session. Time flows differently here than in the outside world, so don¡¯t feel the need to track it. Create a medicinal pill that can reduce the curse by at least twenty percent and you will pass the assessment.¡±

    With that, the old man disappeared.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the pill furnace. After a moment, he approached to inspect it. His heart started pounding as he realized that the pill furnace seemed real in every aspect. It didn¡¯t seem illusory at all.

    ¡°This ce can create anything?¡± Xu Qing murmured. ¡°I need ten lifespan flowers!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, ripples flowed out on the water as ten water drops rose up and floated to Xu Qing. Along the way, the drops rippled and transformed into ten lifespan flowers. Whether it was the fragrance of the flowers or their medicinal strength, they seemedpletely real in every way.

    Moved, Xu Qing studied them for a while, then put one in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

    <i>It¡¯s so realistic. Even the medicinal effects. That said, I can sense that they don¡¯t really exist. But it does feel like I consumed it. This ce clearly has the ability to alter one¡¯s perceptions, although it¡¯s different from what the Heir Apparent can do.</i>

    <i>Thetter can use his power whenever he wants to affect the world around him. But here, it¡¯s like some of that type of authority was ced here to use like a tool! It also seems more domineering.</i>

    Looking around again, he marveled at how amazing this ce was. Then he started thinking about some of the difficulties he¡¯d faced so far in working on his cursequelling lozenges.

    <i>Because of the environment in the Moonrite Region, there are a lot of medicinal nts that don¡¯t grow here....</i>

    Eyes gleaming, Xu Qing said, ¡°1,000 stalks of one-hundred-year-old earthsole benevolence bamboo. 3,000 des of skymist immortal cagegrass! 10,000 immature leaves from a dragonsoar tree that¡¯s been struck by lightning! And I need cloudmist quasi-illusion flowers, nine-wither seven-wilt weed, and thousand-year-old mulberry root....¡±

    Even in Sea-Sealing County, precious materials like this would be considered very rare. But as Xu Qing rattled off dozens of different medicinal ingredients... they popped up instantly. Delighted, Xu Qing went on to list over a hundred different ingredients. There were some ingredients that didn¡¯te out as he expected. But all he had to do was describe their appearance and medicinal properties, and they would form anew. After making various adjustments, he had a huge collection of nts and vegetation that conformed exactly to his requirements.

    Xu Qing was deeply moved. He was obviously in a location that would be a dream to any alchemist. After taking all of the rare medicinal nts and studying them closely, he started concocting ording to his train of thought. Failures didn¡¯t matter. He would just start over.

    There was no limit to the medicinal nts he had ess to. Because he didn¡¯t have to worry about waste, Xu Qing happily focused on research. Every single theory or idea he had was tested.

    <i>I¡¯m already going in the right direction with my cursequelling lozenges. Concocting a version that will reduce the curse by twenty percent shouldn¡¯t be a problem. In fact, I might be able to make one that¡¯s even better than that. However, there¡¯s something else about this ce that I can¡¯t forget. It can make... poisonous nts!</i>

    His eyes burned with passion.

    <i>Any poisonous nt I can imagine is avable here! They¡¯re not real. But perception is reality. And I can still hone my instincts here. In that case, I should be able to finallyplete the process of getting poison into my gaze!</i>

 Chapter 651: Cultivating the Taboo God Poison Gaze (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 651: Cultivating the Taboo God Poison Gaze (part 1)</h4>

    As Xu Qing was enthusiastically pursuing his train of thought, the Captain was on anotherke. He was dressed in a ck robe and had his hands sped behind his back as he looked out into the void. His expression was wistful, as if he were simply enjoying the sights and thinking about the past. Shortly after, he sighed, a sound filled with mixed emotions as it drifted out in all directions.

    ¡°The heaven and earth here,¡± the Captain murmured. ¡°The nts and vegetation. Everything. It¡¯s all so familiar.¡±

    ¡°Are you blind?¡± a cold voice said before the sound of the Captain¡¯s voice even faded into nothing. ¡°There¡¯s no heaven or earth here. There are no nts or vegetation. The Imperial Sovereign created this location. It¡¯s a void from beginning to end.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. His facial expression didn¡¯t change, and he didn¡¯t betray even a hint of embarrassment at having been seen through. Inside, he was thinking, <i>You crappy little spirit automaton. I was uttering an enchantment, you idiot.</i>

    The enchantment wasplete, so the Captain suddenly looked up and said, ¡°I¡¯ve already decided about my ambition for the trial!¡±

    The water rippled beneath his feet as the old man in white looked at him coldly. ¡°State your ambition.¡±

    Looking very haughty, the Captain said, ¡°My ambition is to rescue all living beings in the Moonrite Region from the sea of bitterness. I will lead them to fight back against the red moon. And then, just like the Imperial Sovereign of old, I will execute Crimson Mother, devour h¨¥r, unite everyone, and found a new world!¡±

    The old man in the mirror didn¡¯t react in any way. He seemed unmoved. However, a frigid energy spread out from his feet, filling theke. ¡°How will you do that?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s simple. First I¡¯m going to be the Archbishop of Moonrebel. And then I have a whole series of steps to go through. By the way, I have a second ambition. I¡¯m going to change the name of the Moonrite Region. It will be... the Heavenly Ox Region!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with dedication, and his voice echoed with pride.

    The white-robed old man said nothing, and the frigid energy grew stronger as it slowly surrounded the Captain.

    The Captain was pleased to see that, yet was also thinking that he hadn¡¯tid it on thick enough. After all, that frigid energy was spreading too slowly.

    ¡°I¡¯m not finished!¡± he said loudly. ¡°I have a third ambition. Ultimately, I¡¯m going to eradicate that broken face in the dome of heaven. Then I¡¯ll be the newest Ancient Emperor in Revered Ancient, and I¡¯ll conquer the entire maind! I¡¯ll smash the holynds with my fists and crush Brilliant Heaven with my feet. Countless species will bow to me, and the many heavens will prostrate to me.¡±

    At this point, the Captain was so excited that he threw his head back andughed heartily.

    As heughed, the frigid energy exploded, rushing toward him and surrounding him in the blink of an eye. It only took a moment for him... to turn into an ice sculpture. As a sculpture, he still maintained theughing posture. He looked truly mad. Then he slowly sank down into theke, ultimately disappearing into the void....

    Clearly, the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s spirit automaton took his ambitions to be a scam, and thus sealed him as a punishment.

    Back at the otherke, Xu Qing was getting very excited.

    After some thought, he couldn¡¯te up with any reason not to experiment with his taboo poison. His only concern was whether or not the spirit automaton would realize what he was up to. After all, it would be a case of using the trial to achieve a personal desire. In order to forestall any misunderstandings, Xu Qing decided that the best thing would be to start by working on the cursequelling lozenge, then use that as a cover to do additional work. That way, if he were called out, he would at least have a way to exin things away.

    With that, he waved his hand, causing a massive amount of medicinal nts to fly into his hands. He prepared each nt differently. He extracted sap from some, deveined others, catalyzed some, and grafted yet others.

    The foundational pills he started working with were the cursequelling lozenge he had concocted on the outside. Those pills could reduce the curse by about ten percent, and he had concocted quite a few of them in his spare time recently.

    As he started working with them again, he found that by adding the medicinal nts from the trial, the transformations that would ur were partly real and partly illusory. However, theke itself ensured that whatever ingredients were added to a pill would fuse perfectly with it.

    Most importantly of all, each medicinal nt was perfect in every way, which made the concocting process go a lot more smoothly.

    If he needed something, he just asked for it, and it would appear instantly. If a given ingredient wasn¡¯t old enough, he could just add age to it. If the medicinal effect wasn¡¯t right, he could simply switch it out for another ingredient. All of the theoretical knowledge he had built up was now being employed all at the same time. He was even able to summon medicinal nts that he had never evenid eyes on before. Thanks to that, his skill in nts and vegetation advanced by leaps and bounds.

    From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing seated crosslegged, his hands dancing back and forth as masses of medicinal nts swirled around him. As the various medicinal nts were catalyzed, the pill¡¯s ability to reduce the curse increased. In fact, it was already getting close to the twenty percent point.

    Seeing that got Xu Qing very enthused. Now he was sure that his previous research direction had been correct.

    The main theory behind using nts and vegetation to reduce the curse effects was the principle of <i>fighting poison with poison</i>.

    For one thing, the pills already contained some of Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon power as their foundation, or you could say, the source of their power. Another factor was that the nts and vegetation had alle to exist within the invasion of the broken face of the god. As a result, they all had very unique medicinal properties. Those medicinal effects all contained certain levels of mutagen.

    By using the dao of nts and vegetation imparted by Grandmaster Bai, he could use the technique of <i>fighting poison with poison</i> to suppress Crimson Mother¡¯s curse.

    Of course, that was easy to say. But to actually pull it off required a lot of experience and flexibility. And outside of this trial, it would have been very difficult for Xu Qing to do this using his own power alone. The most difficult aspect would have been the ingredients. There just weren¡¯t enough precious materials for him to experiment with and eventually narrow down the correct form. But here, that wasn¡¯t a problem.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly.

    ¡°nts really are the key to opening the path to godhood,¡± he murmured. Of course, Torchlight hade to the same conclusion.[1]

    In that manner, time passed.

    Seven days passed in the trial, although on the outside it was only two hours. Most people would have no way of knowing about that. But because of the sundials inside of Xu Qing, and their gnomons, he was able to spot the changes to time.

    <i>For every two hours that pass outside, seven days pass in here. In other words, a day on the outside is almost three months in here?</i>

    Xu Qing was surprised at how powerful this ce was. However, he also got the impression that it wasn¡¯t exactly as the old man had said. There wasn¡¯t unlimited time for the trial. There would definitely be an ending point.

    <i>It¡¯s not as if I can just stay in here forever... there¡¯s definitely a time limit.</i>

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing switched pill forms. Although it looked like he was still doing the same concocting work as before, the reality was that for every seven or eight nts he summoned, he would slip in a poisonous nt.

    And when he had enough, he started working on a poison pill.

    ¡°Dropmoon crushstar leaf. Ninher spirit centipede root. Undying zombiehowl blood....¡±

    Xu Qing kept his facial expression under control and suppressed the excitement he felt in his heart. After summoning the various poisonous nts he needed, he started concocting poison pills. They were pills that, despite all of his progress in the dao of poison over the years, he had never been able to experiment with because ofcking the ingredients. As he worked, he felt increasingly rxed. This ce really was a holynd for alchemy cultivators.

    Thanks to the work he was doing, his skill with nts and vegetation was increasing. He didn¡¯t limit his practice to rare poisonous nts. He summoned other precious and unique ingredients. After all, everything he could ever want was avable at his fingertips. He even attempted to craft some poisonous animals, but sadly, this ce couldn¡¯t create living beings. That was a bit disappointing.

    However, he still had lots of nts and vegetation to work with. Days began to pass, and Xu Qing concocted more and more types of poison: jadespirit germgrain powder; yin-extinction rouge-crimson pills; three-headed zhen-feather pellets; cry of the thousand-nights deceased souls; heart-breaking soul-shattering serum; meburn thundersoar powder; quinine suicide poison; halfside month; sevenbreathughter; yangfire face; nine serenities bridge.

    Xu Qing looked down at all of the multi-colored concoctions of various sizes. He wished he could take all of these medicines with him when he left.

    <i>With these poisons... my battle prowess would be far, far higher.</i>

    In the end, he could only sigh. Obviously, it wasn¡¯t realistic to hope he could take the poisons out of the trial. Finally, he started consuming them to see how they worked.

    Instantly, a tremor passed through him as the poison effects erupted. Around then, the surface of the mirrorke rippled, and the old man in white appeared.

    1. The connections between nts, gods, Torchlight, and Bai Li were delved into in <u>chapter 355</u>, though there were bits and pieces of clues elsewhere as well. If you follow the footnote links back, you can eventually find the part of the story where Bai Li (who was one of the experimental god bodies) was revealed to be a huge nt, or at least have a nt form. ?

 Chapter 651: Cultivating the Taboo God Poison Gaze (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 651: Cultivating the Taboo God Poison Gaze (part 2)</h4>

    Looking at Xu Qing expressionlessly, the old man said, ¡°Those pills are fake. Consuming them won¡¯t do anything.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at the old man, all whilemitting to memory the feeling of consuming the pills. ¡°I¡¯ve reached a bottleneck in my curse pill project. I need to make headway in another direction first. Therefore, even if these pills are fake, I can still learn something from their behavior that might be able to get me past this bottleneck.¡±

    The old man looked deeply at Xu Qing, then nced at the collection of multicolored pills spread out in front of him.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, picked up one of the pills, then put it in his mouth and continued with the same work from before.

    In that manner, half a month passed.

    Xu Qing had already concocted about ny percent of the poison medicines and poison pills he had locked in his memories. He even managed to create some new ones. As he consumed more pills, his pupils dted until they eventually spread out to cover the whites of his eyes, leaving his eyes pitch ck.

    In the following days, the old man in white came out on a few asions to watch.

    At first, he didn¡¯t understand what Xu Qing was doing. After all, the pills were all fake. So what was the point of consuming so many of them? But then... he noticed what was happening with Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and the old man came to realize.

    <i>The nts, vegetation, and pills are all fake. But the feelings they impart are real. This kid... is memorizing the sensation of consuming all of those nts and pills! He¡¯s using his memory to plunder the essence of this ce!</i>

    The old man¡¯s facial expression was no longer apathetic. Instead, he seemed a bit excited, but at the same time, angry. ¡°The trial ends in two hours! If you can¡¯t finish by then, you¡¯ll be punished by being sealed!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s ck eyes glittered. He was now very close to being finished. He just had one more thing to do. After a slight nod, he closed his eyes, performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and then summoned numerous poisonous nts.

    In the blink of an eye, thousands appeared. Xu Qing didn¡¯t immediately begin concocting. Instead, he opened his mouth and sent the pills streaming inside. Some of them he crushed, creating a cloud that surrounded him. A howl escaped Xu Qing¡¯s lips as the power of taboo poison exploded.

    The white-robed man was visibly surprised, and came to the conclusion that this trial-taker had clearly be unstable. With the wave of his hand, he sent frigid energy expanding from beneath him to surround Xu Qing.

    As the frigid energy built up, the sealing power within it started to stretch toward Xu Qing. Cracking sounds rang out from theke water as it froze. The frigid energy was just about topletely cover him.

    But then the poisonous miasma around Xu Qing swept out in all directions. Xu Qing became like a ck hole, instantly sucking in all of the miasma. As the miasma disappeared, Xu Qing became clear. And then he opened his eyes! His pitch ck eyes were like bottomless pits. And anyone who looked into them would feel like those pits were looking back at them. They were iparably deep, and seemed to contain the darkness of countless ancient nights. Anyone who looked at them would be shaken to the core. Most shocking of all was that his gaze... contained mutagen!

    It was a unique mutagen that caused whoever he looked at to be instantly infected by taboo poison, including both their body and their soul. It was a taboo poison gaze!

    The old man shivered as a ck stain appeared on the surface of the mirrorke, which spread like ink.

    ¡°What incredible gall!¡± the old man roared. The water seethed, and frigid energy exploded everywhere.

    But then Xu Qing retracted his gaze. Ignoring the surrounding frigid energy, he looked down at his right hand. A pill rested on his palm.

    As his gaze came to be fixed on that pill, and he sent taboo poison power into it, the pill transformed. Its ability to reduce the curse skyrocketed. Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison didn¡¯t just contain the curse of a god. It also contained all of the poisons he had ever consumed. And then that power had been gathered into his eyes before being sent into the cursequelling lozenge.

    Granted, those poisons were illusory, but their effects could still bebined, bnced, and unleashed. The cursequelling lozenge¡¯s effectiveness rose sharply, passing the level of twenty percent, bursting past thirty percent, and continuing even past that.

    In the end, the pill had a violet color. As the frigid energy closed in, Xu Qing looked up.

    ¡°The pill¡¯s finished. It can reduce the curse... by fifty percent!¡±

    Even as the words left his lips, the frigid energy surrounded him. There were magicalws at y that he couldn¡¯t resist, and thus, he quickly turned into an unmoving ice sculpture.

    The medicinal pill in his hand dropped down onto the surface of the mirrorke, where it glittered with violet light. It almost seemed illusory. The pill melted into the icy surface, then dropped down into the hand of the old man. He looked closely at the pill, and his expression flickered. It started with shock, then turned into confusion, nkness, and finally, suspicion.

    During his entire life as a spirit automaton, he had never seen a medicinal pill like this one. After a long moment passed, he exhaled onto the pill. That breath caused the pill to transform from illusory into corporeal.

    Then he waved his hand, causing an ice sculpture to appear. The ice instantly melted, revealing a burly, middle-aged man. His cultivation base erupted with Void Returning power as he looked around, stunned. He initially seemed inclined to flee, but instead, sped hands respectfully to the old man in white.

    ¡°Well met, exalted one.¡±

    ¡°Eat this,¡± the old man said apathetically, sending the medicinal pill floating over.

    The burly man hesitated briefly, then chose toply. He took the pill, examined it, then put it in his mouth and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, he started shaking from head to toe. His eyes widened, and then he coughed up a huge mouthful of crimson blood. Astonishingly, that blood contained strong curse elements and also an aura of decay. It converged on itself in midair, turning into the shape of a red moon, bursting with curse power.

    The old man snorted coldly, and rumbling echoed out as immense pressure weighed down. Instantly, the blood turned into ice and dropped onto theke, where the fluctuations there sealed it. Having aplished that, the white-robed old man looked at the burly man, eyes glittering, and his expression changing once again, this time to astonishment.

    The burly man was equally astonished. Having sensed the changes to himself, he eximed, ¡°My curse... it¡¯s been permanently reduced by half!! Exalted one, what pill was that?¡±

    The old man didn¡¯t answer the question. The flick of his sleeve sent frigid energy to surround the burly man and turn him into an ice sculpture again. He sank down into theke.

    Having aplished that, the old man stood there in a daze for a long moment. Then he also sank down into theke.

    Shockingly, he reappeared a momentter right in front of the ice sculpture of Xu Qing. After looking at the sculpture for a while, he silently reached out and touched Xu Qing¡¯s forehead. The ice melted into water vapor, which rapidly dispersed.

    Xu Qing shivered and opened his eyes. ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very surprised. It didn¡¯t matter what the old man thought of his behavior during the trial, the important thing was that he had proven through action that everything he was doing was part of the cursequelling lozenge process.

    That final nce at the medicinal pill was what had truly raised it to a higher level.

    The old man looked at Xu Qing with a strange look in his eyes. Finally, he said, ¡°From ancient times until now, there have only been seventy-nine people who passed the first phase of the trial. Not many havee through during this epoch. Only three. You are the fourth. Those who came before you stated ambitions that they were able to see to fruition. However, none of them became the archbishop. All of them received a lesser rank.

    ¡°The reason for that is that passing this phase doesn¡¯t qualify you to be the Archbishop of Moonrebel.... In a moment, you¡¯ll find out why. You have half a year. If you can¡¯t seed in that amount of time, you¡¯ll have no choice but to agree to the lesser rank.¡±

    The white-robed old man kept his eyes on Xu Qing as he pointed at theke. The water seethed as a profoundly ancient stone door rose up. It was fully 3,000 meters tall, and seemed to have witnessed the passage of countless years. There was no need to open the door, as it was already cracked open enough for a person to slip inside.

    Through the crack, Xu Qing could just barely make out an interior pce hall.

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, thinking back to what the white-robed old man had said, and wondering about the Captain. He sped his hands respectfully.

    ¡°Senior, I came here together with another trial-taker. Did he pass?¡±

    ¡°His ambitions were too lofty, and thus, he reaped what he sowed.¡± He stamped his foot down, and a ripple spread out, which revealed the dozens of ice sculptures below.

    Xu Qing looked down and quickly spotted his Eldest Brother. He looked like he was in the middle ofughing maniacally. Xu Qing frowned. This wasn¡¯t exactly how he¡¯d predicted things would turn out. And then he thought about what the Captain had said before they entered the trial. Given what Xu Qing knew about his Eldest Brother, it seemed about ny percent certain that the Captain had intentionally gotten himself frozen.

    ¡°If you pass the trial,¡± the old man said, ¡°then you¡¯ll be the Archbishop of Moonrebel, and you¡¯ll have the right to give amnesty to the sealed individuals. Now, enter.¡±

    With that, the old man sank down into theke and vanished from sight.

    Now, Xu Qing was left alone with the huge stone door. Standing in front of it, he took a deep breath, then walked forward and entered through the crack in the door. He walked and walked. The pce hall got closer and closer. Light reached his eyes, filling his world.

    ***

    The Moonrebel Congregation was in an uproar.

    A few hours ago, the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s Paramount Temple had started shining with light. That attracted the attention of quite a few cultivators. There were even two vice-bishops present.

    A few hours had passed since then, and as word spread, more and more cultivators showed up. Discussions raged everywhere.

    Statues were visible as far as the eye could see. They included Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s followers, who had no idea that the event was actually precipitated by their revered grandmaster. However, that didn¡¯t diminish their attitude, and they continued their promotion efforts.

    The leader of that group of followers was Xu Qing¡¯s neighbor, the burly, bare-chested man. At his direction, hundreds of Pill Nine followers circted through the crowd, singing the grandmaster¡¯s praises.

    As the mor of activity filled the Moonrebel Congregation, Paramount Temple suddenly red with a 30,000-meter pir of light. It emanated a holy sensation as it climbed high. Everyone in the crowd noticed it.

    ¡°A sess?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me... the Moonrebel Congregation is going to have an archbishop??¡±

    ¡°This is so sudden....¡±

    Such talk could be heard everywhere, and all the cultivators in the congregation were looking up into the air with keen anticipation. The countless statues all looked closely at the door of Paramount Temple as they waited for it to open.

    However, after enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the door didn¡¯t open, although the temple continued to shine brightly.

    The faces of the old-timers darkened.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that old story about the Moonrebel Congregation is actually true....¡±

 Chapter 652: A Little Totem Beneath a Big One

    <h4>Chapter 652: A Little Totem Beneath a Big One</h4>

    The light shining from Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation led to a huge uproar. However, as time passed, and the door of the temple didn¡¯t open, things started to calm down. Anticipation began to turn into disappointment. Eventually, the lighting from Paramount Temple dimmed, leaving behind only a faint flickering. At that point, everyone felt like sighing.

    ¡°There¡¯s another legend in the Moonrebel Congregation. Supposedly, years in the past, Crimson Mother left a curse on the Moonrebel Congregation. Sh¨¥ cursed it... to never again have an archbishop to lead it. That¡¯s why, from ancient times until now, though Paramount Temple has lit up a few times, no one has ever walked out of the main doors.¡±

    The two vice-bishops in the audience were both sighing.

    ¡°It looks like this fellow daoist passed the first phase. However, just like the first vice-bishop, as well as Old Fourth and myself, he didn¡¯t pass the second phase, and thus couldn¡¯t open the door.¡±

    ¡°I guess it means we¡¯ll have another vice-bishop joining us soon. That¡¯s also good news for us!¡±

    As the two vice-bishops conversed, the rest of the cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation sighed.

    Although the arrival of a new vice-bishop was an exciting thing, all of them had been very hopeful upon seeing Paramount Temple light up. That was especially true considering there was a war going on. Because of that, everyone in the congregation wished that there was someone to truly lead them. They needed an archbishop to take charge, to lead them to a brilliant end in thesest moments of their lives. But now, hope was turning into disappointment, and the mood in the Moonrebel Congregation sank.

    Meanwhile, inside of Paramount Temple, Xu Qing opened his eyes. Paramount Temple was farrger than any ordinary temple. The grounds were magnificent, and it featured ny-nine huge pirs supporting the massive, domed ceiling. Looking up, that ceiling had illusory suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies slowly orbiting around a huge, dazzling mirror. Astonishingly, the mountain that made up the Moonrebel Congregation was visible in that mirror.

    What was more, there were a number of mysterious totems carved into the walls. Some were magical symbols, others depicted animals or even people. Every single one pulsed with hair-raising fluctuations.

    At the far end of the temple was an altar, atop which was a shrine. Shockingly, inside of the shrine was a divine likeness. It was a statue that was different from all the other statues in the Moonrebel Congregation, in that it was simple andcked a lot of decorations.

    Based on the statue''s appearance, it was a depiction of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. Right now, the eyes of that statue were open and looking around. They were Xu Qing¡¯s eyes. Xu Qing studied the area and thought back to what happened earlier. He remembered walking through the slightly-opened stone door. Light surrounded him, and then he opened his eyes and found himself here.

    ¡°Paramount Temple?¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the mirror in the ceiling, and even through the reflection, he could sense the regret and disappointment of the cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation. He remembered back when he first arrived in the Moonrebel Congregation, and how he had looked up at the nine temples on the top of the mountain, with Paramount Temple above them. Finally he looked away from the mirror and at the distant... main door of the temple.

    <i>The Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s spirit automaton said that there¡¯s a second phase. Is it that door?</i>

    Xu Qing started walking. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the statue of Li Zihua, which he was in, walked off the altar and toward the door. Stopping in front of it, he looked at it, his eyes narrowed. Then he experimentally lifted his hand and pushed. The door didn¡¯t move at all. It was apparently locked tight and couldn¡¯t be moved. Not even sound could pass through it.

    Xu Qing frowned and activated his cultivation base before pushing again. But not even that did anything. The door wouldn¡¯t budge. He thought for a moment, and then his eyes turned pitch ck. The power of taboo poison poured through his gaze and onto the door. His violet moon raged, and his god trove rose. Blood sprayed out of him everywhere before turning into a blood vortex.

    Finally, the door made a noise. And yet, it didn¡¯t move. Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered slightly as he backed up. The moment he did, the door suddenly red with red light as a totem appeared that was just asrge as the door itself. The totem was a blood-drenched figure holding an eyeball in each of its hands. It looked vicious and evil, yet at the same time, it emanated a holy sensation. It was none other than Crimson Mother.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing. Based on the fluctuations of his violet moon, he could sense Crimson Mother¡¯s aura. It was as if this totem... had actually been created by Crimson Mother.

    <i>Why would the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s Paramount Temple have a sealing mark from Crimson Mother in it? Is this the second phase?</i>

    Something seemed off about the whole thing. It didn¡¯t seem like the second phase of the assessment at all. Rather, it seemed like Crimson Mother had left h¨¥r mark here.

    <i>Maybe there isn¡¯t a second phase at all. Perhaps an archbishop could havee along at any time. It¡¯s just that the trial-takers all got stopped here. Without removing Crimson Mother¡¯s seal, you can¡¯t open the door, and without doing that, you can¡¯t be the archbishop.</i>

    Aftering to an understanding of what seemed to be going on, he walked up to the door again and examined it closely. He even carefully sent some violet moon power out. Unfortunately, the door seemed to be extremely sensitive to the violet moon power, and it resulted in instant fluctuations.

    Eventually, Xu Qing retracted the violet moon power and focused on using his pitch ck eyes and their power of poison invasion. A few dayster, a constant outflow of taboo poison power enabled Xu Qing to get a general understanding of the totem on the door.

    As that understanding came to him, his facial expression went from curious to very serious. That was because, thanks to his taboo poison, he was able to sense that all of the temples on the mountain were constantly emitting invisible streams of energy.

    The streams of energy couldn¡¯t be detected by anyone, and they were all feeding into the totem. As for what exactly that meant, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t entirely sure for the time being.

    What was even more curious was that he could sense that, beneath the veryrge totem, on the bottom right-hand side, there was a small totem, though it was difficult to see clearly. Unless Xu Qing used his taboo poison to cover therger Crimson Mother totem, then used his violet moon power to agitate it, then he couldn¡¯t see the smaller one. The general appearance of that totem was what had caused a curious expression to appear on his face.

    It looked exactly like the Captain.

    The moment Xu Qing realized what he was looking at, he noticed that the Captain was secretly munching on the totem of Crimson Mother. Although he only took one nibble at a time, he was gobbling down those pieces like a mad dog. Stranger still was that every time he took a bite, the totem would repair itself....

    After some thought, Xu Qing projected some words into the small totem. <i>¡°Eldest Brother?¡±</i>

    When the fluctuations reached the small totem, it suddenly looked up with crazy eyes. <i>¡°Little Ah Qing! I finally found you. I knew you¡¯d show up eventually!¡±</i>

    The Captain was very excited to have sensed Xu Qing. With that, he struggled, causing blue light to re before he finally appeared at the bottom right of the door. He looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him. ¡°Eldest Brother, what... are you doing here?¡±

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captainughed. ¡°What do you think? Surprised? This is the n I mentioned to you before. I prepared everything very thoroughly. After entering the trial, I intentionally provoked the spirit automaton so that he turned me into an ice sculpture and sank me down into theke.

    ¡°There, I was able to get my hands on all the things I left behind here years ago. I bypassed the trial and came right here to this door. All I have to do is open the door, and I¡¯ll receive power over the Moonrebel Congregation! I¡¯ll be the Archbishop of Moonrebel!

    ¡°Once I seed, I can use all the power of the Moonrebel Congregation to find all of my dismembered body parts from my past lives. And then, finally, I can take care of Crimson Mother!¡±

    After hearing that, Xu Qing looked at the Captain in the tiny totem, and then at the muchrger Crimson Mother totem. He sighed.

    ¡°How have things worked out?¡±

    The Captain suddenly looked both embarrassed and angry. ¡°Something very strange happened, little Ah Qing. How could I have guessed that Crimson Mother would be so crafty? I knew about h¨¥r sealing this totem here. But after my past life perished, and I got reincarnated in another region, sh¨¥ actually ced more seals here!

    ¡°What the hell? Do you have any idea what that means, little Junior Brother? I mean, there¡¯s one specific seal designed to protect against chewing!!

    ¡°I have no alternatives. I just have to keep chewing, slowly but surely. Normally speaking, I would have been finished already, and would already be the Archbishop of Moonrebel. But now I have no choice but to take a bit longer. Thankfully, I came prepared: you¡¯re here, which means we have a much better chance of seeding. If the two of us bros work together, we can easily devour Crimson Mother¡¯s seals! And then we can be the Archbishops of Moonrebel!¡±

    Upon hearing that, Xu Qing nodded. He wasn¡¯t interested in being the leader of the Moonrebel Congregation, but considering how important it was to his Eldest Brother, he decided to give a helping hand.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, based on what I can sense, Crimson Mother¡¯s totem is absorbing power from outside. That must be the source of its power.¡±

    The Captain smiled. ¡°It¡¯s all part of my n. You see, that¡¯s the me of faith created by hope. All cultivators whoe to the Moonrebel Congregation have hope in them. Based on the research I did in my past life, I can say with certainty that Crimson Mother wants it.

    ¡°Years ago, I came to suspect that the reason why the Moonrebel Congregation has been allowed to stay in existence, and the reason why Crimson Mother gives them freedom, is because of that.

    ¡°However, Crimson Mother is asleep right now. Therefore, the mes will have to wait until sh¨¥ wakes up. What¡¯s more, fire... has two sides. One is the side that can make you warm, the other is the side that can burn you up.

    ¡°That¡¯s the reason why I came here only after our performance was broadcast to the Moonrite Region. I wanted that hope to be burning a bit brighter. That way, when we add some fuel to the fire, it will explode and burn away Crimson Mother¡¯s seals. Then with a bit of chewing from me, we¡¯ll seed!

    ¡°Right now we just need that oil! Little Ah Qing, if things work out as I¡¯ve nned, then that oil... will show up within the month.¡±

 Chapter 653: The Voice of the Broken Face

    <h4>Chapter 653: The Voice of the Broken Face</h4>

    People who had passed the first phase of the assessment had a lot of freedom. They coulde and go as they pleased in their attempts to open the door of Paramount Temple. They had half a year to do so. Therefore, after settling things with the Captain, Xu Qing chose to go back. His n was to wait for the ¡®oil¡¯ that the Captain mentioned, and also to get used to his taboo poison gaze.

    As for the Captain, his true form was sealed in the mirrorke. He had appeared in Paramount Temple as a soul body, and thus couldn¡¯t leave. The Captain didn¡¯t seem to mind. He was more than happy to stick around endlessly gnawing on the Crimson Mother totem.

    And that was how the days passed.

    The war in Moonrite Region heated up. The Red Moon Cathedral violently cracked down on any uprising, but the resistance movement only grew.

    Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib had not yet returned. The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom frequently went out, though it was hard to say what exactly they were busy doing.

    The Green Spirit Pharmacy wasn¡¯t as busy as it had been before. However, Wu Jianwu was just as passionate with his poetry, Ning Yan constantly scrubbed the floor, and Li Youfei was now pulling double duty as he served as the guard. Nethersprite and Patriarch Inkrule were fully aware that the Heir Apparent was gone a lot, but neither of them dared to attempt escaping.

    Xu Qing also took plenty of opportunities to leave the medicine shop and find ces in the Bitter Life Mountains to test out his taboo poison gaze. He was currently speeding through the mountains, not slowed down at all by the sun hanging at his waist or the unusual hat. He had long since grown used to both of those things. Even bearing their weight, he was still capable of his normal speed. In fact, he was actually a bit faster than before.

    Thus, he was a blur of afterimages as he moved through the mountains. Eventually, he reached a valley. The cliff walls of the valley were full of holes, making them look almost like a honeb. They also pulsed with a sensation of decay. The lingering aura of taboo poison filled the area, making it so that any living being who got close would feel a sensation of deadly crisis, and would immediately go in the opposite direction.

    This was the spot where Xu Qing had been practicing with his taboo poison gaze. After arriving, he checked to make sure the area was safe, then sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and regted his breathing.

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, his eyes opened. They were pitch ck. In fact, if anyone were present to look at them, they would feel like they were looking into a bottomless pit. Whatever he looked at would start to rot. The power of taboo poison would build rapidly, to the point where everything would ripple and distort.

    It was very simr to what happened when the eyes of the broken face opened. Of course, the effect was vastly less formidable for Xu Qing.

    During Xu Qing¡¯s time in the Moonrite Region, he had been improving and growing constantly. If he went back to Sea-Sealing County now, all of his old friends would bepletely shocked. However, such growth came with a price. Mixed emotions could be seen on his face right now. This was not his first time unleashing taboo poison here. And every time he did, his heart filled withplexity.

    <i>During god-glimpsing, I looked at the world with the eyesight of a god. It seemed different.</i>

    Right now, this valley still looked like a valley. However, instead of being made of rocks, it was made of innumerable corpses, both human and nonhuman. In fact, the entire world seemed to be made of corpses. Death was the main theme of everything. The gray wind off in the distance also looked different. It was the breath of a massive snake that filled the sky. And every time the snake moved, scales would fall off of its body and be ash that drifted to the ground.

    It was just possible to see that it was snowing in thends outside of the desert. It was made of blood droplets that drifted to the ground like goose feathers. Sadly, ny-nine percent of cultivators couldn¡¯t see any of that.

    <i>And then there¡¯s the broken face in the sky.</i>

    Xu Qing looked up through the gray wind and red snow at the face.

    H¨¥... had opened h¨©s eyes. However, the spot being looked at was somewhere else.

    <i>Different gazes reveal different worlds. But which one is real?</i>

    Eventually, he looked away and took out a desert scorpion to experiment on. The scorpion was only about three meters long. It trembled, not daring to fight back or struggle. It was as if Xu Qing was a god to it. When Xu Qing looked at the scorpion, it didn¡¯t actually look like a scorpion. It was a mass of glowing light that wriggled constantly. Eventually, it went dark and disappeared. If anyone had been watching the scene, they would have seen the scorpion... transform into a pool of blood.

    Xu Qing lifted his hand and looked at it. It was still a hand. However, there was a gauzy substance covering it that seemed to be trying to absorb his flesh. Some of it was even trying to burrow into him. It should have hurt, yet Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel anything. He knew what those wisps were.

    ¡°Mutagen...¡± he murmured. Xu Qing had dealt with mutagen since he was born, but it was only after starting to practice cultivation that he understood what it was.

    Oftentimes, the higher one¡¯s cultivation base, and the further away from the mortal world someone got, the less they paid attention to the pain of mutagen. Furthermore, the threat of mutation that came with cultivation grew increasingly irrelevant.

    However, Xu Qing was well aware that, to mortals, mutagen was still a never-ending torment. The curse in Moonrite Region was part of that. Xu Qing knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to discount mutagen just because his shadow could devour it. As of this moment, he was once again sensing mutagen. Mutagen was everywhere in this world.

    <i>Mutagen. It¡¯s alive....</i>

    Xu Qing sent his senses out into the world.

    <i>The giant snake in the sky is made from the mutagen of the high god that the Captain made a deal with. That¡¯s also the source of the wind. The red snow is Crimson Mother¡¯s mutagen. The substance on my hand is local mutagen, of an unknown origin. There are other ces where there¡¯s even more mutagen, also of different varieties. Anywhere a god has passed through, or even looked at, will have mutagen.</i>

    There wasn¡¯t just a single type of mutagen.

    <i>Fundamentally speaking, my taboo poison is also a type of mutagen. In the past, my taboo poison could harm any and all living beings. But now, anything I look at... is invaded.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered, and the substance on his hand shivered and turned ck, then fell off, revealing his skin. Now he could see a ck ghost face on his skin where the gauzy substance had been.

    Evil. Sinister. Deathly. Inauspicious. That was what the ghost face emanated. It was the taboo poison from a god¡¯s gaze. It could be one ghost face, or it could be many. All were mutagen, and all came from Xu Qing¡¯s gaze.

    And to anything with a lower level of personhood, it... could be called a curse.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes, then opened them and looked at his shadow. The shadow trembled and sent out fawning fluctuations. A strange expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. This wasn¡¯t his first time using his taboo poison gaze to look at the shadow. And every time he did... it looked different.

    A few days ago, when he did it the first time, the shadow looked like a tree. The second time he looked at it, it was a coffin. The third time, it was an eye.

    This time, it had changed again. It looked like a person facing away from him. The person facing away from him was tall and muscr, mighty and emanating a sensation of violence and aggression. A momentter, it changed again. This time it looked like a pool of ink surrounding Xu Qing.

    He looked away.

    <i>I wonder what the broken face¡¯s mutagen looks like.</i>

    He was suddenly struck with the desire to find out the answer to that question. However, he also got the feeling it would be very dangerous. After some thought, he squashed his curiosity about that. There was plenty of mutagen in the world, and getting too curious about things like that could be extremely dangerous.

    ¡°You want to know about the broken face¡¯s mutagen?¡± the Heir Apparent asked. He had appeared out of nowhere, and was hovering just overhead. Princess Brightblossom was with him.

    ¡°Well met, Seniors,¡± Xu Qing said, quickly sping hands and bowing.

    Princess Brightblossom nodded in response. ¡°If you want to take a look, go ahead. That way you¡¯ll know what you¡¯ll have to deal withter on.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. After some thought, he unhesitatingly flew out of the valley and up into the air. Higher and higher he went, until he passed the huge snake in the sky, and went beyond the red snow. Soon he was high enough that he could feel the mutagen of the broken face.

    <i>¡°Hamabirah, dotadoya, gajarah, dodiya....¡±</i>

    All of a sudden, the sound of a chant filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness. It couldn¡¯t be heard, only seen, which seemed contradictory. And though he wasn¡¯t sure how he knew, Xu Qing could tell that the sound wasn¡¯t reaching him through his ears, but rather, his eyes. It was floating in his mind. At first, it sounded like aplicated enchantment. It started out faint, but eventually became an insane rumbling that boomed in his sea of consciousness. It kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

    Xu Qing shivered. He felt like he was being superimposed over himself, as if his soul was about to leave his body, as if he were being ripped apart, as if he were fusing with the air around him. Everything blurred. A sense of deadly crisis rose within him, and he dropped down. Gruish mutations suddenly struck him. He felt like his organs were alive, and he could suddenly sense his own past around him. The memories of the past were like illusory images that were about to be real.

 Chapter 654: A Kingdom of Gods

    <h4>Chapter 654: A Kingdom of Gods</h4>

    Perhaps using the word ¡®like¡¯ wasn¡¯t appropriate.

    That was because the memories of the past really were transforming from illusory into reality. And if those scenes became truly real, they would rece the present. As of this moment, time was elusive. It no longer flowed forward. Yet it didn¡¯t flow backward either. It was like a spinning vortex.

    Within that vortex existed Xu Qing¡¯s past, present, and future. However, the scenes of the future were blurry and impossible to see clearly. And that was even truer now as everything was mixing together. Even the word ¡®time¡¯ seemed to be losing meaning. Perhaps ¡®time¡¯ was really just an invention of intelligent beings to give meaning to life. Maybe ¡®time¡¯ didn¡¯t even need to be defined. After all, any such definitions couldn¡¯t be trulyprehensive.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as this strange notion urred to him. Everything was being turned upside down. To his eyes, the world was transforming again.

    Everything seemed blurry at first, but then he saw a host of indescribable gods moving through the void, stirring up numerous vortexes that were defined as time. Th¨¥y all looked different, and though Xu Qing could see them, th¨¥y couldn¡¯t be described with words. It was almost as if it wasn¡¯t permitted to describe th¨¥m.

    Xu Qing saw innumerable stars, all of them in the process of copsing. There were also suns and moons forming. However, all of them ended up being taken by the gods and ced onto th¨¥ir bodies as decorations, or turned into weapons or tools that boggled Xu Qing¡¯s mind. The colors and shapes of the times were beyond his ability to understand.

    It was the same with the starry sky. Xu Qing saw one god using a star like a brush to paint it. In the areas being painted, the starry sky expanded and gotrger. It was an outrageous scene, and it seemedpletely unrealistic. A momentter, everything blurred away. It was almost as if everything from before had only existed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    It was unfathomable and impossible to understand. Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness trembled. He felt like he couldn¡¯t trust what he had just seen. He had seen some sort of imperial figure wearing an emperor¡¯s robes, their face a mask of pain and struggle. However, in the presence of gods, resistance was meaningless. It was as if the chanting of the god, the enchantment, had opened up a grotesque and variegated world.

    In that ce... what he understood as time had a different meaning in the hearts of the gods. What he knew about space had another definition in the senses of the gods. What he grasped of consciousness wasn¡¯t actually real in the eyes of the gods. In fact, everything he could see was simply what the gods subconsciously allowed him to see. It was subconscious because th¨¥y wouldn¡¯t do so on purpose.

    All of it was causing Xu Qing¡¯s consciousness to crumble. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him, like a towering mountain. The figure blocked out everything, covering the chaos, and breaking his line of sight.

    Finally, Xu Qing¡¯s senses began to recover. He mmed down onto the ground, his heart racing as waves of shock assailed his mind. Unable to stand in ce, he staggered back, blood spraying out of his mouth. His expression flickered wildly as he looked up and saw Princess Brightblossom standing protectively in front of him.

    ¡°Did you sense it?¡± she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

    He took in a shaky breath. His mind and heart still felt like they were being struck by countless lightning bolts. Eyes flickering with shock and amazement, he took a moment to recover. He nodded. ¡°What was h¨¥ saying? I feel like the things I saw... were things I didn¡¯t see. I can remember them, but it also seems like I¡¯ve forgotten. All of the images. Everything. It was all turned upside down.¡±

    Xu Qing shivered as if from cold. As he thought about what he had just experienced, he felt a coldness that seeped into his bones and seemed to freeze his soul....

    ¡°H¨¥¡¯s counting down,¡± Princess Brightblossom said softly. ¡°After the broken face of the god arrived, cultivation became helplessly bitter. And also a dead-end path.

    ¡°In this world, mutagen is everywhere. In some cases you can sense it, but in other cases it¡¯s impossible to discern. It invades all living things and transforms them inside and out. Sometimes it turns things into ashes. Sometimes it turns them into a font of evil.

    ¡°The mortals... have it just as bad. Their lives are changed, and they have no choice but to adapt. For cultivators the situation is even more serious. At low levels, once you reach the tipping point of mutation, you either die or turn into a mutant beast. In the middle levels, cultivators feel blessed because they think they can keep the mutagen under control. Ignore it. But the reality is that they only feel blessed because their perceptions are limited, and they don¡¯t understand the truth.

    ¡°Eventually, when your cultivation reaches a high level... your perceptions are altered, and everything changes. Like us.... What you saw now for just a moment is what we deal with constantly.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom seemed very tired as she spoke. Next to her, the Heir Apparent sighed. Looking at Xu Qing, he shook his head.

    ¡°It is what it is. And who knows, maybe it¡¯s not real after all. Years ago my father said something interesting. ¡®We believe th¨¥y¡¯re outsiders. But is that really the case? Maybe to th¨¥m... we¡¯re the outsiders. Perhaps this ce has always been... a kingdom of gods.¡¯ Not even I know for sure.¡± The Heir Apparent shook his head.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about such questions right now. It¡¯s good enough that you just got a taste. That will help you understand the world more clearly.¡± The Heir Apparent sped Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Remember, going forward, until you¡¯ve made all the proper preparations, don¡¯t use your taboo poison gaze on the broken face. H¨¥... is paramount above all, and should not be looked at directly. Now, let¡¯s go home.¡±

    Nodding silently, Xu Qing left the valley with the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. Together, they returned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    For the next half a month, his experience in the valley continued to remain in his thoughts. He still couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around what it all meant.

    One day, the Captain told him that the ¡®oil¡¯ had arrived.

    The red moon was getting closer and closer to rising, making it even more prominent in the sky above Moonrite Region. The redness of the sky was only growing more intense, and the light it cast down made the entire region a bright red color. The tideflow power exerted by the moon grew stronger. Mountains copsed constantly, causing loud rumbling sounds to echo out.

    The cathedral cultivators who exercised faith in Crimson Mother experienced blessings to their cultivation base, and their god magics grew more terrifying.

    The five resistance armies led by the five vice-bishops of the Moonrebel Congregation were no longer able to maintain a deadlock with the Red Moon Cathedral. The resistance armies were starting to crumble. The situation was getting anxious.

    And to <i>add hail to snow</i>, the closer the red moon got to rising, and the stronger the tideflow power grew, something very gruish happened to the Moonrite Region.

    It got bigger. Thends cracked apart, and then new bs ofnd rose up, while simultaneously, huge chasms opened up. It was the same with the mountains. Mountains crumbled, but new mountains rose up. Such new locations abounded with the aura of a god.

    What was more, in the new mountains, newnds, and new chasms, a group of unique entities awoke. They were physically repulsive, resembling monsters like demons or devils. Theycked intelligence, and were instead governed by madness. They were like bugs or beasts, and they came out in great numbers. Every single one pulsed with the fluctuations of a god. Even the smallest of them was a few meters tall, with some being dozens of meters in height, and others, hundreds. They were absolutely ferocious, and also hungry. Wherever they went, they ate everything they could, even dirt or rocks. Of course, it went without saying that they preferred devouring living flesh and blood. They simply couldn¡¯t not eat. And they began to spread throughout the Moonrite Region. It seemed that, to them, they were attending a banquet. As all of these things happened, death was the order of the day.

    The Moonrebel Congregation was even more bleak and deste. Temples were going dark as their owners perished. Medicinal pills were now more important than ever before.

    Although Xu Qing was in his little paradise in the Bitter Life Mountains, he continued to distribute pills. He wasn¡¯t charging anything for them now.

    Unfortunately, there was no way to meet the demand. He was just considering a way to mass-produce more pills when something unexpected happened.

    The Bitter Life Mountains trembled, causing huge rock slides as numerous mountain peaks copsed. Vast chasms opened up. The epicenter was none other than the church temple of the Red Moon Cathedral. The locations that experienced such tumult throughout the region were always close to the church temples.

    And though the desert wind stopped people from entering, it couldn¡¯t stop this. Then, countless vicious beings poured out like tidewaters. Insane howling filled the air.

    The cultivators native to the desert who wanted to survive had no choice but to fight back. That was especially true of the Wind Guardians. Their entire species was on the move. Countless other organizations, bothrge and small, fought together against the insane monsters.

    When the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom noticed that the mountains were trembling, they walked out of the medicine shop. Apparently, they had been waiting for this moment. Xu Qing followed.

    ¡°Xu Qing, do you see those monstrous entities? It¡¯s not a coincidence that they showed up. They¡¯re children of Crimson Mother who haven¡¯t developed intelligence yet. They represent chaos. They¡¯re formed from superfluous aspects of Crimson Mother¡¯s physical form that were shed during godly ascension.¡± As the Heir Apparent flew toward the chasms, he coolly said, ¡°These are the real godchildren.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down into the mountains.

    This was not his first time learning about this. Before leaving the Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, the Captain had mentioned it. And this... was the oil he had talked about.

 Chapter 655: Xu Qingâ€™s Forbidden Region, Howling Godchildren

    <h4>Chapter 655: Xu Qing¡¯s Forbidden Region, Howling Godchildren</h4>

    They had magenta carapaces, were as stooped as a crescent moon, had triangr heads, and emanated a terrifying aura. They had six limbs with razor-sharp ws at the end, and long tails that made up about half their body and could smash through just about any obstacle. Running down each back, from head to the tips of the tail, was a row of crimson spikes that glowed with crimson light that matched the redness of the sky.

    These were the godchildren. At the moment, they were pouring out of the chasms in the Bitter Life Mountains and were spreading through the mountain range. They were embodiments of chaos, insanity, and hunger. They ate anything in their path, and whenever they smelled flesh or blood, their eyes lit up with greed, and they would follow that scent wherever it led them, usually into the sects or cities that filled the Bitter Life Mountains.

    From high in the air, they created red rivers snaking through the mountains. Horrifying howls filled heaven and earth.

    When cultivators heard them, they shivered in dread. When mortals heard them, they wallowed in terror. And in the end, mortals and cultivators alike knew that there was no escape.

    A huge battle was about to start in the Bitter Life Mountains. One organization after another activated their spell formations. Cultivators shouted rallying cries as they prepared to defend against the monsters.

    The entire Wind Guardian species were ready to fight. The red tide swept toward them. Clearly, some of the godchildren had been thrown into a frenzy by the smell of flesh, and were rushing forward with ws and fangs bared.

    However, even as the trembling cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains prepared to put everything on the line, and just as the fighting was about to break out, a cold harrumph rang down from the dome of heaven. It was a sound filled with astonishing mightiness, and sounded almost like thunder to the people in the mountains. In fact, they were so dazed they couldn¡¯t do anything except stand there. And before they could recover their senses, the monstrous godchildren shivered, looked up into the sky, and howled shrilly.

    Their howls didn¡¯t do them any good. It was as if an invisible hand had fallen from the sky, covering the Bitter Life Mountains and exerting immense pressure on the godchildren. A boom rang out as countless godchildren exploded. Agonized shrieks could be heard as they were crushed into bloody pastes. None survived.

    As the Bitter Life Mountains shook violently, the cultivators from the local sects and organizations looked up with wide eyes and pounding hearts. High in the sky, they saw three figures. The one who had just taken action was in the middle, and he looked like an old grandpa.

    ¡°Inkrule,¡± the Heir Apparent said.

    The air rippled as Patriarch Inkrule teleported into ce. The moment he appeared, he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Your humble servant is here!¡±

    The cultivators below noticed him. Most of them had seen Patriarch Inkrule before, and even those who had never seen him knew his name. In the Bitter Life Mountains, he was considered the best of the best.

    ¡°You lead people to take care of the rest of the beasts,¡± the Heir Apparent said.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡± Inkrule said loudly. He was feeling very excited and also very safe. He quickly dropped to the ground. Given his reputation, he experienced no resistance as he took charge of the local sects and led them to eliminate the godchildren.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom didn¡¯t stick around. They continued on their way with Xu Qing. Before long, they arrived at the spot where the godchildren wereing from. It was a huge chasm that glowed with red light. Howling emerged from inside, as well as a sound like a thumping heartbeat.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom looked down into the chasm. Xu Qing did the same. They had seen a lot of godchildren along the way. Though the Heir Apparent had killed many, there were still plenty that he didn¡¯t kill, and more wereing out.

    ¡°Xu Qing, you handle the ones on the periphery. Given your battle prowess, you should be able to hold your own for a while. Consider it another round of tempering.¡±

    With that, the Heir Apparent looked at Princess Brightblossom. She nodded, and the two of them dropped into the chasm, quickly disappearing into its depths.

    As soon as they were gone, Xu Qing turned his gaze onto the seething red tide below. The godchildren had already noticed him. To them, hunger was an instinct, and fear was rare. More than anything else, they were beings of chaos and madness.

    Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s aura was delectable to them, driving them into deeper madness as they raced toward him, howling. Given their bloodline, they could slough off most magical techniques. And they were capable of shocking speed. What was more, the fluctuations of godliness on them could smash through just about any obstacle. They also had a very vigorous life force.

    They were already closing in on Xu Qing from all directions. He faced the red tide expressionlessly. As it closed in, his eyes didn¡¯t turn red, but rather, pitch ck.

    <i>This is the perfect ce to see how I¡¯ve growntely.</i>

    At the spot where he looked, the ground rippled and blurred. Mutagen flourished and the power of taboo poison erupted.

    Within the affected area, dozens of godchildren howled in agony as their flesh rotted. The mutagen from the taboo poison had once enabled Xu Qing to plunder Crimson Mother¡¯s essence, and from that it could be deduced that its personhood surpassed h¨¥r. [1]

    This was even better proof of that. These were Crimson Mother¡¯s children, and in addition to their chaos and madness, they possessed Crimson Mother¡¯s mutagen. But right now... they couldn¡¯t stand up to Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison. Rumbling sounds mixed with screaming as the godchildren dissolved into pools of blood. The sight of it provoked the other surrounding godchildren, who flew up into the air toward Xu Qing.

    His expression remained the same as before as he waved his hand. His golden crow tattoo sprang to life, forming in midair and releasing a roar along with ck mes. Within the mes was a spear that pulsed with a taboo aura as well as terrifying fluctuations. Wherever it passed, the air shattered, and rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Any godchildren who got close were ripped to pieces and sucked into the spear.

    The ground shook as godchildren for 3,000 meters in all directions screamed bitterly. They had extremely tough bodies, but right now, were very weak, and their amazing fluctuations of godliness were being crushed. None of their assets were useful, and were instead being crushed like dried weeds. When dealing with ordinary cultivators, they had incredible advantages. After all, ordinary cultivators would have to deal with mutagen invasions just from their presence. And their blood was poisonous.

    But... with Xu Qing present, none of that mattered. They couldn¡¯t measure up to the poison. Nor could they match the personhood of the mutagen. The result was a foregone conclusion: this was going to be a massacre.

    Xu Qing strode forward into the crowd of monsters, his gaze erupting with taboo poison, and the golden crowying waste to everything around him. Daybreak light shone, wiping away any outside invasion and driving off any magical techniques. asionally, a projection of the Ghost Emperor mountain would send crushing pressure down from above. The heavenly dao bluegreen dragon swished through the air, madly devouring the godchildren.

    Xu Qing was like the ambassador of death as he moved about, leaving behind nothing but mangled corpses. The only downside was that no one was present to witness it. Had there been, they would have been astonished to the ultimate degree.

    Right now, Xu Qing hardly even resembled a cultivator. His pitch ck eyes andpletely expressionless face seemed more like that of a god.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the entire area was so blurry that it was impossible to see things clearly. It seemed... that the ce was transforming into a forbidden region. Of course, most forbidden regions were ces of bitterness and suffering for intelligent species. In contrast, this forbidden region was full of screaming godchildren.

    Gradually, the trembling godchildren shrank away, their fear so extreme that it suppressed their other instincts.

    Xu Qing observed all of it calmly.

    <i>These godchildren can only be dealt with using god magic. Without the power of a god, a cultivator would have a very difficult time dealing with them. Each one is a source of mutagen. In that case, I wonder what my violet moon power will do.</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes, whereupon blood drops floated out from him. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing himself disappeared, reced by a giant blood-colored vortex. Red moon authority erupted from within, along with a god trove. It became like a blood-colored canopy that spread out to cover all of the godchildren.

    However, before anything else could happen... the godchildren started trembling. Ceasing their howling, they bowed their heads toward Xu Qing in the form of the blood canopy. They even whimpered. It sounded very strange whenpared to their previous howling. The sound of it contained traces of intimacy and surrender.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face appeared in the blood canopy as he looked down at the groveling godchildren. A momentter, Xu Qing¡¯s form appeared again. As he walked amongst the godchildren, they seemed incredibly meek, almost like pets. Some even offered their heads for him to walk along as a path.

    <i>The Heir Apparent said that these godchildren came to exist during Crimson Mother¡¯s godly ascension. That sounds like a bit of a generalization. In fact, I wonder if they actually aren¡¯t Crimson Mother¡¯s children, but rather, children of the red moon. What if they¡¯re actually random impurities that resulted when Crimson Mother seized the red moon?</i>

    Reaching out, he put his hand onto one of the godchildren¡¯s heads.

    1. Xu Qing plundered Crimson Mother¡¯s essence in <u>chapter 361</u>. ?

 Chapter 656: Lord of Monsters

    Chapter 656: Lord of Monsters

    A gray wind swept sand through the dome of heaven. The entire world was dusky and cold. Down below on the ground, countless vicious and monstrous godchildren were no longer like agents of chaos. Their insanity had been suppressed, and they were prostrating low to the ground. It was a very impactful scene.

    In front of them all stood Xu Qing, tall and straight, looking very calm in his ck robe and ck hair. As the wind stirred his hair, his pitch-ck eyes glittered, and his robe swayed. Given the glistening pools of blood thaty around him, he looked like the lord of all monsters,ing to visit the world of mortals.

    This lord of monsters looked at the godchild in front of him. His hand rested on its head, causing it to shiver in ce, not daring to move. Face expressionless, he sent his divine sense into it.

    The first thing he realized was that the submissive and respectful behavior of this godchild was something based on pure instinct. That was what was suppressing the chaos and madness in the thing.

    Next, he sensed its hunger. It made him think of his god-glimpsing experience. Keeping his hand on the godchilds head, Xu Qing sent taboo poison out into it along with violet moon power. The godchilds flesh, which was normally so impervious, now just started to melt. Blood streamed down the godchilds face, sshing onto the ground, where it hissed as it melted into the dirt.

    Then Xu Qings right hand plunged into the godchilds flesh. The pain caused the godchild to shiver even more intensely, yet it still didnt dare to move. The red moon authority in Xu Qing was the most powerful suppressing force imaginable to this godchild.

    <em>Its flesh and blood contains a will of chaos, as well as a degree of decay, along with the mutagen invasion</em>. Xu Qing could also sense that the godchildren couldnt devour him.

    They were manifestations of impurities, and thus, consuming him would benefit them. After a short time passed, Xu Qing shook his head and pulled his hand away. After looking around at the prostrating godchildren, Xu Qings eyes narrowed, and he took out a fragment. The moment it appeared, a majestic force swept out, causing bright colors to sh everywhere, and increasing the pressure weighing down in the area.

    This was the gift the Heir Apparent had given Xu Qing back when they had just met. It was a fragment of a Smoldering Gods major world. The Captain had borrowed it when they captured Nethersprite, and had returned it when they brought her out to work in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. The fragment immediately unleashed a violent gravitational force that sucked in all of the tens of thousands of godchildren. It didnt miss a single one.When the process wasplete, Xu Qing put the fragment away and looked down into the chasm. There were no longer godchildren pouring out of it, and the howling was no more. The moment he looked inside, a stream of divine will emerged from within.

    <em>Come down for a moment, Xu Qing,</em> the Heir Apparent said.

    Xu Qing didnt immediatelyply. He took a moment to confirm that the voice was authentic. Then he walked to the edge of the chasm and stepped off the edge.

    He dropped down rapidly, taboo poison swirling in his eyes and blood surrounding him. As he descended, the mutagen levels rose. The walls of the chasm were covered with a rotting, viscous fluid, a mere whiff of which would spark the urge to vomit. Down below there was also a flickering red glow.

    Eventually, Xu Qing reached a point where a barrier of flesh and blood blocked his path down. It wriggled, letting off a red glow that was strong with the aura of Crimson Mother. It seemed to be struggling to expand up, but there was an invisible force pushing against it that it couldnt resist. As a result, it had no choice but to slowly shrink down.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom hovered above it.

    Turning to look at Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent said, This is thest line of defense before reaching the heart of this area. We n to go in and retrieve something critical to rescuing our Ninth Sib. If we force open this barrier, Crimson Mother will sense it even though shs asleep, and conceal the item we seek. And so, Xu Qing, we need your authority to secretly create an opening.

    Xu Qing nodded. He had guessed that something like this wasing. Now that he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that all the asions recently in which the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom disappeared must have involved theming here.

    Dropping down to the barrier of flesh and blood, he reached down with his hand. As he did, the blood swirling around him converged on his fingertip, creating a dazzling convergence of red light. Then a drop of blood emerged from his fingertip and floated toward the barrier.

    That drop of blood contained Xu Qings red moon authority, and it also pulsed with mutagen. In fact, it was even possible to see a very small red moon within it.

    When the blood touched the barrier, Xu Qing used divine will tomand, <em>Open!</em>

    The barrier of flesh and blood shivered as Xu Qings blood sank into it. Then it split apart and stretched to the side, creating a very small opening. Without any hesitation, the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom turned into two streaks of shimmering light that shot inside.

    Xu Qing didnt follow them. Instead, he backed up by about 300 meters. Before he could go any farther, a piercing shriek rang out from the barrier of flesh and blood. Then the barrier started withering.

    The processsted only about four or five breaths of time. At that point, the wall of flesh and blood copsed into ashes. Revealed below was a huge, horrific cave. It was filled with a cistern of sticky blood, from which wafted a noxious stench of rot. Half-submerged in the middle of the blood was arge red crystal.

    Countless eggs were visible in the blood cistern. Some were a few meters in size, others were dozens of meters. All were red. A portion of their number were intact, but some were broken open, leaving behind shell fragments floating on the surface of the liquid. If you looked closely, you could see through the outer shell of the intact eggs. Inside were vicious godchildren preparing to burst out into the open.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were moving toward the blood-colored crystal. Upon nearing, they acted together to extract the crystal. With the crystal gone, the blood cistern started drying up. The struggling eggs rocked back and forth, and faint howls could be heard from within them.

    Done. Lets get out of here. The Heir Apparent looked very pleased having taken the crystal. Next, he raised his hand as he prepared to crush the remaining eggs.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing quickly said, Senior, I have a use for these godchildren.

    The Heir Apparent looked at Xu Qing. Next to him, Princess Brightblossom nodded.

    Xu Qing took out the world fragment, performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. A gravitational force sprang up and sucked all the eggs into the world fragment. That many godchildren would hopefully be enough oil for the Captain.

    Lets go. The Heir Apparent flicked his sleeve to grab Xu Qing, and then the three of them returned to the outside. Once there, Princess Brightblossom pushed her hand down, causing intense rumbling sounds to drift out as the chasm copsed. Innumerable boulders and soil crashed down, burying the ce.

    Just like that, the chaos in the Bitter Life Mountains was resolved rather simply. Xu Qing wasnt very surprised by how it turned out. After all, with a Smoldering God present, a cave of godchildren wasnt anything to get very worked up about.

    To the cultivators of the Bitter Life Mountains, the event had a huge impact. They had been ready to fight to the death, only to have things end up very different than they expected.

    Who could exterminate countless godchildren with the mere movement of a hand? Who could get Patriarch Inkrule to respectfully address himself as your humble servant? As for what cultivation base was involved, the answer was obvious.

    <em>A Smoldering God....</em>

    That was what all the cultivators were thinking, and the words smashed into their minds like lightning bolts, leaving them trembling. Then, after thest remaining godchildren were taken care of, they watched as Patriarch Inkrule went to the Green Spirit Pharmacy to act as host.

    To the cultivators of the Bitter Life Mountains, that was astonishing to say the least.

    The Green Spirit Pharmacy had always been a mysterious ce, and was also fairly well-known in the area. After all, a lot of amazing things had happened there. Yet no one could have guessed that there would be a Smoldering God there. But today they understood. Now they knew that the Green Spirit Pharmacy... was the heart of the Bitter Life Mountains and the desert as a whole.

    That understanding filled everyone with deep reverence. As a result, that ordinary mudbrick city became like a holynd to the people of the desert.

    Of course, there were cultivators from the Moonrebel Congregation present, and therefore, everything that happened quickly started spreading. Before long, the resistance armies throughout the Moonrite Region had heard about it.

    It caused quite a stir. Everyone had heard about the Bitter Life Mountains. But the gray wind that had appeared had isted the desert, making it sort of like a mysterious paradise. Of course, some people hade to suspect that the God Decapitation Altar broadcast came from there. But for a Smoldering God to be located there was dumbfounding. Then people started connecting the dots with the God Decapitation Altar broadcast, and spections began to spread about who that Smoldering God was.

    Its the Heir Apparent!

    ***

    On a in not so far away from the Greenhair Bands, about a thousand flying ships were speeding through the air. Seated cross-legged on the lead ship was a middle-aged cultivator who was currently looking in the direction of the Greenhair Bands. He looked weary and travel-worn, and was also injured. His expression was threatening without being angry, and he seemed old-fashioned and serious.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop, were... going into the desert?

    About a dozen subordinates nked Fourth Vice-Bishop. All of them were in Void Returning, and all were injured to varying degrees.

    The Fourth Vice-Bishop of the Moonrebel Congregation looked over his shoulder. All of the flying ships behind him were full of cultivators. They represented numerous species, and all were exhausted and injured. This was one of the resistance armies. When facing the aggression of the Red Moon Cathedral and the godchild cmity, they had suffered a big defeat and sustained heavy casualties.

    The survivors had paid a heavy price just to escape with their lives. Unfortunately, they didnt have a safe ce to retreat to, and were currently being pursued by the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop took a deep breath. Yes. Were going into the desert.

 Chapter 657: Representing the Heir Apparent Publicly

    Chapter 657: Representing the Heir Apparent Publicly

    Half a month flew by in the briefest of moments. Because of all of the various godchild nests erupting, the situation for the resistance in the Moonrite Region was bad.

    Word spread quickly about the defeat of Fourth Vice-Bishops army, and it was a huge blow to morale. At the moment, there didnt seem to be much hope left. Sparks had flown, igniting a wildfire, but it seemed like that would just be a final ze of glory for most people.

    Right now, the desert was the center of attention. Because of the Heir Apparent, it had gone beyond the cultivators of the Bitter Life Mountains calling the little mudbrick city a holynd. Now, the resistance forces were calling the entire desert a holynd. Just about every day, people showed up trying to get into the desert and look for the real resistance.

    The Red Moon Cathedral had the entire ce blockaded. However, some unexpected situations arose in which powerful experts arrived and broke open pathways inside.

    Patriarch Inkrule went to the border on orders from the Heir Apparent. He took with him arge number of desert cultivators, and together, they received the neers. The desert wind kept outsiders away. But that wind hade because of a deal made by the Captain. Therefore, given the Heir Apparents cultivation base and status, he counted as an ally of High God Moonfire. Therefore, with his divine will, he could exercise some authority over the wind, which let him ignore the resistance forces and specifically target cathedral cultivators. And thus, as more and more resistance cultivators showed up, the forces in the desert grew stronger.

    After arriving, they were all very excited. However, they knew that none of them qualified to offer formal greetings to the Heir Apparent. Therefore, they didnt even bother going to the Green Spirit Pharmacy. They just sped hands and bowed in the direction of the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Things hadnt changed much in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu were doing the same work as before. It was the same with Linger, Li Youfei, and Nethersprite.

    Xu Qing spent most of his time dealing with the world fragment. After half a month of studying it, it reached the point where he knew things were getting too anxious. Whether it was the situation with the war or the rise of the red moon, they all pointed to one thing. Cmity was approaching.

    Therefore, Xu Qing didnt waste any time during the half month that passed. He focused on refining and incubating the godchildren. The Captain wanted some oil, and these godchildren had blood full of chaos and insanity.The ciers inside the world fragment had melted, revealing dark soil that was now covered with broken eggshells and godchildren. A violet moon was visible in the sky, filling the world with red moon authority. That was the prerequisite for being able to control the godchildren. The godchildren prostrated on the ground, covered with wounds, out of which blood slowly flowed, filling the huge fingerprint. It was turning into ake.[1]

    The process was going well. asionally, one of the godchildren in the horde would go out of control. When that happened, Xu Qing would crush it with his authority. Some of the godchildren eventually lost so much blood that they withered up and died. Xu Qing would throw the corpses to the other godchildren to eat as food, which would then lead to more blood.

    He went to the Moonrebel Congregation a few times to deliver godchild blood to Paramount Temples door. The blood had the desired effect. Upon sending it into the door, the Crimson Mother totem would tremble, and the mes of hopeing from the various temples would burn more brightly. Crimson Mother, meanwhile, would then be forced to devour fire, which caused hr body to burn.

    Thanks to that burning, the totem was getting visibly fainter. And the Captain just continued madly chomping away as he said, Thats not enough oil, little Ah Qing. Bring a bit more! The mes need to burn brighter! We have hope! As long as I can burn away Crimson Mothers seal, then the door can be opened. And then... well be the Archbishops of Moonrebel! The day that happens is the day that cmity strikes the Red Moon Cathedral!

    Given how fast the red moon is moving, Xu Qing whispered, there are only nine or ten months to go before Crimson Mother arrives.

    Thatll do. Im hurrying! The Captain took another vicious bite. Little Ah Qing, all of my other preparations areplete. We only have two more things to do. The first is here in the Moonrebel Congregation. Once were in charge, I can use the Moonrebel Congregation to identify the location of all of my dismembered body parts. Im already getting a very faint sense of where they are. When that happens, then by using everything else I got ready, well be strong enough to wipe out the Red Moon Cathedral.

    With the cathedral gone, then we can go to the Penitence Steppes where the Imperial Sovereigns fleshly body is. That fleshly body is thest step before we deal with Crimson Mother. And its the most important!

    Xu Qing nodded. Heres the oil. I can squeeze out some more, but it will take me some time. Not too long, though.

    The Captain looked excited to hear that. Hahaha! Im really looking forward to this, little Ah Qing. This trip to the Moonrite Region ising to an end. Ive been nning for years on how to devour a god. Now, its finally happening. Think about it. This is Crimson Mother were talking about! When we devour hr, rumors will spread all the way to Sea-Sealing County. Theyll spread through all human regions. Theyll fill the Revered Ancient maind!

    And then even the Nightshades will be viewed as trash! I bet even our human emperor will treat us with the utmost respect. And the old man is probably going to stare at us with his jaw hanging open!

    Now this is a big job. Its going to make our names famous in Revered Ancient. In fact, from the moment the gods arrived until now, this is going to be the biggest thing ever!

    In fact, after this, I think governor of Sea-Sealing County isnt going to be good enough for you. We need to set higher goals!

    There was no doubt that the Captain had a knack for boosting morale.

    As Xu Qing listened, he found himself thinking about Master Seventh, Plumdark, Seven Blood Eyes, and everyone else he knew in Sea-Sealing County. He suddenly felt a bit distracted.

    <em>I havent been in the Moonrite Region for very long. Only a few years. But it feels like its been lifetimes....</em>

    He knew that it felt like that because of everything he had experienced in the Moonrite Region, as well as his dramatic cultivation advancements.

    Eldest Brother... I miss our Master, Xu Qing whispered.

    Soon, the Captain said through a mouthful. Well be going home soon!

    Xu Qing nodded and left the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Another thing that happened during the half month that passed was that Xu Qings alter ego in the Moonrebel Congregation became even more famous thanks to the war.

    It was because of the cursequelling lozenge. Although hecked the proper ingredients to make the version of the pill that reduced the curse by fifty percent, the general concept behind the pill coupled with his taboo poison gaze allowed him to make lozenges that reduced the curse by thirty percent.

    A permanent thirty percent reduction was a big deal. Even though the Moonrebel Congregation was not doing well in the war, that still caused an uproar. To many cultivators, that pill was literally a life-saver. In war, it was impossible to avoid being injured. And injuries could provoke curse re-ups. That wasnt to mention that they were fighting cathedral cultivators, who could also instigate curse re-ups.

    On top of all that, the rise of the red moon made the curse more active. Given those circumstances, a medicinal pill that could reduce the curse by thirty percent was like a holy tonic to cultivators suffering from potential curse re-ups.

    His close followers were incredibly excited. Add in the fact that he was no longer asking for anything in return for the pills, and it ensured that Pill Nine was essentially the most famous name in the entire Moonrebel Congregation. In fact, it had long reached the point where his name wasnt just well known to the Moonrebel Congregations resistance armies. Even cultivators who werent associated with the Moonrebel Congregation had heard of him.

    As expected, there was a lot of spection about who Grandmaster Pill Nine really was. Some people imed he was from another region, while others said he was some powerful expert who lived as a hermit. Yet others said he was some other Senior in the same generation as the Heir Apparent.

    Theories ran wild. Eventually, the vice-bishops sent him messages in the Moonrebel Congregation, politely inviting him to join them, and even offeringpensation. In fact, as long as Pill Nine epted their offer, they would go to wherever he was to offer safe passage to them, as long as it wasnt in the Red Moon Cathedral itself. Most persistent of all was Fourth Vice-Bishop, who had been there to witness Xu Qing and Grandmaster Saintlowe release their pills together. He sent Xu Qing new messages every day or two, and was also very polite and sincere.

    Xu Qing didnt respond to any of the messages.

    Once people began talking about how the Bitter Life Mountains were a holynd, spections about Pill Nine took on a new facet. People were now convinced that he was in the Bitter Life Mountains. After all, it was only in such a mysterious paradise that someone could peacefully concoct medicinal pills during a war. Of course, spections were nothing but spections.

    No one knew the truth. And yet, it was because of the mystery that Pill Nine just kept getting more and more famous.

    At the same time, his followers were bing more organized. The leader was the burly neighbor. Not only did they work hard to uphold the grandmasters reputation, but also, they were searching for information about where he was, hoping that they could personally go to him to keep him safe.

    Another seven days passed.

    Upon emerging from the world fragment, Xu Qing got a voice message from the Heir Apparent.

    <em>Xu Qing, one of the Moonrebel Congregations vice-bishops is about to arrive in the desert with his army. Hes being chased by cathedral forces. Take these two jade slips, which have power from me and my third sister, and go receive the guests. Since youre going out, take the chickens with you. Theyve been sitting around eating all the time and are getting a bit too fat.</em>

    Three jade slips appeared in front of Xu Qing. Two of them pulsed with Smoldering God fluctuations, while the third could be used to control the chickens.

    Xu Qing nodded, collected the jade slips, then went to the backyard to get the chickens.

    There were quite a few powerful experts represented among the chickens. The weakest was in Nascent Soul, while there were a handful of Spirit Trove cultivators, as well as four Void Returning experts. Some of them were from the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, while others had been collected randomly by Fifth Sister.

    Who wants to do some work to reduce your sentence? Xu Qing said quietly.

    1. The fingerprint was mentioned in chapter 570.1. <blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to <strong>Prady</strong> for the review!</blockquote>

 Chapter 658: A Chicken Soars; Countless Heroes Give Way

    Chapter 658: A Chicken Soars; Countless Heroes Give Way

    Upon hearing reduce your sentence, the dozens of chickens pped their wings and started clucking loudly, their eyes shining with unbounded hope. In fact, they nearly went mad. They immediately started fighting each other in the hopes of being first in line to get this opportunity. Feathers flew everywhere.

    Xu Qing frowned slightly.

    The chickens quickly went quiet. It didnt matter what cultivation base they had before bing chickens, they knew the situation they were in. They were dealing with four Smoldering Gods, and given that, they could guess how important Xu Qing was. As a result, they didnt dare to do anything out of line. Though they still felt deep grief and indignation, they also wanted to stay alive, so they had no choice but to be submissive.

    After the chickens settled down, Xu Qing started pointing at individual chickens. Of the group of over a hundred, he selected thirty.

    Which of you is fastest? he asked.

    One of the chickens jumped up, clucking longingly.

    Xu Qing nodded and took out the jade slip the Heir Apparent had given him that let him control the chickens. He quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing a stream of white light to shoot from the jade slip to the chicken.

    The chicken shivered and began to change shape. However, it didnt turn into a cultivator. Instead, it just grewrger until it was a 30-meter-tall chicken. Its cultivation base also recovered, and soon second-stage Void Returning fluctuations were rolling out. Also present was some of Crimson Mothers power. This person... was none other than a godherald from the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Xu Qings eyes gleamed. But then he thought back to how Fifth Sister had been taking care of these chickens, and he realized it wasnt very surprising. He quickly hopped up onto the huge chickens back.The rest of you follow, he said to the other chickens, waving a hand to unseal them. Lets go!

    The second-stage Void Returning chicken didnt dare to resist. Fifth Sisters warding spells ensured that if he even fought back in the smallest way, he would be gued with pain worse than death. With a nod, he flew into the air. The other chickens flew up and followed. And thus, a whole flock of chickens zipped along through the gray sandstorm toward the border of the desert.

    A few hourster, they reached their destination. From a distance it was possible to see a host of crude huts built by cultivators on the border. There were close to ten thousand cultivators camped here, all under themand of Patriarch Inkrule.

    The cultivators looked suspiciously at the chickens, but Patriarch Inkrule was the first to rush out. He recognized those chickens, and as soon as he caught sight of Xu Qing, his heart started pounding.

    <em>Its the young lord!</em>

    As a worker at the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he knew exactly who Xu Qing was. He had watched the Heir Apparent giving him advice, and knew that Xu Qing was actually the owner of the medicine shop. And he also knew that the Heir Apparent and Xu Qing had a Master/apprentice rtionship.

    Therefore, he didnt hesitate to call, Greetings, Young Lord!

    As Patriarch Inkrule hovered in midair, he sped hands and bowed.

    Xu Qing nodded and returned the greeting. Well met, Senior.

    Although Patriarch Inkrule had a menial job at the Green Spirit Pharmacy, Xu Qing knew that his respectful attitude was only because of the Heir Apparent. What was more, the fact that Patriarch Inkrule wasnt a chicken seemed to indicate the Heir Apparent had a good reason for sparing him.

    Xu Qings respectful salute caused Patriarch Inkrule to sigh inwardly. In the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he didnt mind being heaped with shame. But out here in front of so many people, most of whom were his subordinates, he still expected to be treated with respect. As a result, he found himself liking this Xu Qing a bit more.

    Young Lord, sir, might I ask why youvee?

    The Heir Apparent sent me here to receive some cultivators from the Moonrebel Congregation. Xu Qing looked past the gray wind into the red world outside. Everything looked like it was stained with blood. Some distance away were some dark spots in the sky, moving in his direction at top speed.

    Before long, those dark spots turned into flying ships. They were the forces of the fourth vice-bishop, still fleeing from the pursuit of the Red Moon Cathedral. There were about a thousand ships, and they were all in bad shape. The cultivators aboard them looked much weaker than they had half a month before. Their exhaustion exacerbated their wounds, and all of them were feeling spent in spirit and body. The sky behind them was bright red.

    The leader of the group, the fourth vice-bishop, looked pale, and his wounds were particrly serious. His Void Returning subordinates all seemed to be struggling to cling to life.

    Behind Fourth Vice-Bishop was a middle-aged man in first-stage Void Returning. Taking out a medicinal pill bottle, he said, Fourth Vice-Bishop, this is ourst cursequelling lozenge. Although Grandmaster Pill Nine is giving his pills away for free, theres no way he can meet the demand. There just arent enough pills to go around. In the end, Im just not on the same level as Grandmaster Pill Nine. Even though he gave me the form, I just cant sessfully concoct the pill.

    Hearing that, Fourth Vice-Bishop looked at the medicinal pill and said, Youve done all you can, Saintlowe. Split thest pill up amongst yourselves. Im fine for now.

    That first-stage expert was none other than Grandmaster Saintlowe. Upon hearing Fourth Vice-Bishops words, Saintlowe bowed his head.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop sped his shoulder, then looked off toward the desert and the obfuscating gray wind that covered it. Because of the sandstorm, he couldnt see Xu Qing and cultivators with him. He just saw a big blur. He sighed.

    Grandmaster Pill Nine didnt respond to any of my messages. I guess it must not be convenient for him to reveal his true identity. I just hope hes safe....

    Saintlowe nodded, his face a mask of mixed emotions. Some people are saying that Grandmaster Pill Nine is actually in the desert.... Fourth Vice-Bishop, ording to the information from the Moonrebel Congregation, the desert holynd is open to us. And the entry point is just ahead. Its just that behind us....

    Saintlowe looked over his shoulder. Behind them, heaven and earth seemed thick with fresh blood. As the effect spread, it was just barely possible to see a huge church temple atop a human organ, flying toward them. On their journey, they had been intercepted multiple times by cathedral forces. Each fight had been bitter, and had resulted in a lot of casualties.

    They managed to shake their pursuers each time, but every single time, the cathedral forces eventually caught up. That was exactly what was happening right now.

    Theres nothing we can do, really, Fourth Vice-Bishop said wearily. To the Red Moon Cathedral, this crackdown actually isnt very important. After all, Crimson Mother will be here in less than ten months. The more of us that die, the more the cathedral and its adherents will have to make up for the loss.

    The reality is that the Red Moon Cathedral is fractured right now. Many people there are scared, and their factions are definitely not united. Some want to toy with us, some want to leave us alone, some want to crush us. If youve been paying attention, youd notice that this journey of ours has more been a case of them driving us to this spot.

    Fourth Vice-Bishopughed coldly. Some factions in the Red Moon Cathedral <em>want</em> us to escape here so that well be alive when Crimson Motheres. Other factions want to continue the traditions of epochs past, in which the prospective food is given a chance to be active. They im that fighting brings out the best vor.

    To us, resisting is a matter of life or death. But to the leaders of the Red Moon Cathedral, its more like a game. However, now that the Heir Apparent has shown up, the cathedral factions are all on guard, and are really focusing on cracking down.

    Saintlowe didnt say anything. He could see the reality of the situation as well. And it wasnt just him. All the Void Returning cultivators from the various species coulde to simr conclusions. But Fourth Vice-Bishop was just saying the words outright.

    Dont put too much thought into it. Whatever happens at the end of the ten months, at the very least... we get to live in freedom for a time. Fourth Vice-Bishop took a deep breath and waved his hand, causing all the flying ships to elerate toward the sandstorm.

    But then, the red light behind them glittered as a huge blood-colored hand stretched out, obscuring the sky as it reached toward them.

    Fourth Vice-Bishops eyes glittered coldly, and his cultivation base surged. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth as numerous illusory minor worlds appeared around him, which then coalesced into an illusory major world. That was the sight of fourth stage Void Returning! It was only illusory, but it was still shocking as it flew to block the blood-colored hand.

    At the same time, the other cultivators aboard the flying ships unleashed countless magical techniques, which bolstered the major world and made it more true and real.

    The ten Void Returning experts unleashed the power of their cultivation bases. Their number included first, second, and third-stage experts, and they made the major world even stronger. A massive boom rang out as the two mmed into each other, and then the blood-colored hand copsed.

    Unfortunately, Fourth Vice-Bishops illusory major world also copsed. Blood sprayed out of the mouths of all the cultivators present, causing droplets of blood to rain down like heavenly maids scattering blossoms. However, the st also propelled them toward the sandstorm.

    All of a sudden, a gap opened up in the huge sandstorm that connected the sky to thend in the desert. It was like a massive curtain opening up, revealing a door. Inside that door were Patriarch Inkrule and Xu Qing, along with nearly ten thousand desert cultivators.

    Considering that Fourth Vice-Bishops forces were just about to enter the sandstorm, the red light behind them red again. This time, a dozen conglomerations of flesh and blood bearing church temples emerged. Instead of trying to close the distance, they emitted blood-colored light that took the form of a huge face. It was a nonhuman face that was covered in scales. It shot forward with cold eyes, almost as if it nned to enter the desert along with Fourth Vice-Bishops fleet.

    That was when Xu Qing smacked the huge chicken.

    The huge chicken shivered, then cautiously flew out with Xu Qing atop it. Xu Qing ignored Fourth Vice-Bishop and his flying ships, and instead lifted his hand up, palm pointing toward the iing face.

    He had a jade slip in his hand. He crushed it.

    Smoldering God fluctuations erupted out, creating a massive vortex in front of him. Rumbling sounds echoed out as lightning bolts danced in the vortex. Then a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering finger stretched out from the vortex. It was surrounded by endless streams of lightning, and was encircled by suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies as well as streams of fire. Pulsing with the aura of a Smoldering God, it thrust forward.

    From a distance, it was possible to see it crushing forward like a wave smashing into the shore. Pulsing with a fury that could devour mountains and rivers, it closed in on the face.

 Chapter 659: Chickens Dancing Like Crazy

    Chapter 659: Chickens Dancing Like Crazy

    This was an attack from the Heir Apparent, a Smoldering God! It contained naturalws, magicalws, and the blessing of an ancient heavenly dao, making it capable of crushing all things in heaven and earth, smashing all defenses, and demonstrating a boundless will. It also thrummed with authority that could alter the perceptions of all living beings and achieve objectives by any means necessary. Domineering in a way that couldnt be matched, it passed with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force, smashing all obstacles and eliciting astonishment from all onlookers.

    In the blink of an eye, the finger passed the fleeing forces of Fourth Vice-Bishop and hit the blood-colored face in the forehead.

    The face shivered, and its eyes went wide with fury. Howling, it tried to fight back. However, a ck shockwave spread out from its forehead, covering the entire face. As it spread, the face shrank down, split apart, and then copsed into pieces that scattered in every direction. It also kicked up a gale force wind that swept toward the cathedral forces further back. Deafening rumbling sounds rang out as the cathedral forces were sent spinning away. One attack from a Smoldering God had caused godly might to erupt.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop and his forces saw that happen and were shaken deeply. Many gasps could be heard. After all, they knew that the pursuing cathedral forces were being led by a fourth stage Void Returning expert, in other words, someone as strong as Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    Godheralds such as that were able to guide the tideflow power of the red moon, giving them a terrifying boost to their battle prowess. With that, plus the other assets they could tap into, they could release mightiness that was close to that of the quasi-Smoldering God level. That was exactly what that huge face had been. Yet that face crumbled under a single attack, as surely as if it had been made of wax paper.

    Of course, the Red Moon Cathedral was the paramount expression of will in the Moonrite Region, so there was no way that one move like that wouldpletely vanquish their forces. After the church temples were sent tumbling back, the blood-colored light red again. Blood-colored figures shot out. Taking advantage of the fact that Xu Qings jade slip had crumbled, and the Heir Apparents attack was gone, they shot toward the desert.

    There were fully a thousand cultivators on the move. Unexpectedly, none of them had physical bodies. They were more like blood souls that shot through the air toward the sandstorm. As they closed in, they released the power of Crimson Mother, including god magics designed to infect the desert and allow Crimson Mothers godly might to enter it.

    Seeing that, Fourth Vice-Bishop issued orders that caused the flying ships to turn around. The cultivators aboard them shot out into the open, some of them to facilitate the escape of their fellow daoists, and others to block the blood-colored shadows.

    Patriarch Inkrule also sent out orders. The encamped desert cultivators all sprang into action, including some of the Wind Guardians. They released various divine abilities from their species, causing the sandstorm to grow stronger.Meanwhile, Xu Qings eyes glittered coldly. Your opportunity hase to reduce your sentence.

    He performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the chickens. The chickens responded with ear-piercing cries as their cultivation base fluctuations rolled out and they started growingrger.

    Just like the chicken Xu Qing was using as a mount, all of the small chickens transformed into huge chickens. They looked vicious, their eyes gleaming like they were ready to put everything on the line. They shot forward, determined to reduce their sentences, determined to avoid being eaten, and each one determined to outshine all of the other chickens.

    In the blink of an eye, the flock of chickens closed in on the blood-colored shadows, and fierce fighting broke out. Intense booms and rumbling sounds echoed out with tempestuous intensity. The blood-colored shadows just kepting anding, and the red light spread deeper into the desert. But at the same time, the resistance forces fought back with equal intensity.

    The big chickens were putting on an amazing show. All of them were roughly 30 meters tall, and they were putting their lives on the line. As a result, their battle prowess was outstandingly deadly. Wherever they went, they viciously devoured the blood shadows as if they were bugs. They were very skilled at devouring things, as if it was one of their most fundamental instincts. Of course, in deadly fighting like this, it wasnt possible for them to avoid being injured. But then something very unusual happened.

    After the big chickens got hurt badly enough, white light would spread over them, and they would be restored to normal. That was the power of Fifth Sisters authority.

    Xu Qing looked on thoughtfully. The cathedral cultivators were obviously being blessed because of their faith in Crimson Mother, and as a result, had some of Crimson Mothers godly might. However, the chickens had unwittingly begun to show faith in Princess Fifth, and were thus benefiting from her skills and abilities. That said, her powers werent absolute, and thus, some of the chickens lost their lives.

    And yet, it seemed that Fourth Vice-Bishops previous spections were correct. Whether it was out of fear of a Smoldering God or something else, the cathedral forces didnt seem interested in fighting to the death. After enough of the blood shadows copsed, the rest chose to flee. As the red light disappeared into the distance, the neers escape into the desert was facilitated.

    After it was over, Fourth Vice-Bishops resistance army felt waves of gratitude as they realized they really had escaped with their lives. They looked around at the desert cultivators, and then the vicious chickens with their iparably mighty battle prowess.

    Xu Qing stood atop the biggest chicken, ensuring that he stood out to everyone present.

    The forces from the Red Moon Cathedral had also taken note of him. After all, he had just used a Smoldering God jade slip. Thankfully, after the God Decapitation Altar broadcast, the Heir Apparent and his siblings had helped Xu Qing disguise himself. After all, that event had been too momentous. Therefore, though he still looked handsome, he wasnt as eye-catchingly attractive as before, and thus no one thought to connect the two faces. It was the same with the forces under the leadership of Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing smacked the big chicken and sent it toward Fourth Vice-Bishop and his subordinates.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop saw Xu Qing off in the distance. Turning to Patriarch Inkrule, he asked, Fellow Daoist Inkrule, whos that young man?

    Grandmaster Saintlowe was next to him, also looking at Xu Qing.

    Patriarch Inkrules heart was pounding. He was only in first stage Void Returning, but this person he was speaking to was in the fourth stage. He wasnt only a vice-bishop in the Moonrebel Congregation, he was also an important person in the Moonrite Region in general. Back before Patriarch Inkrule worked at the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he would have been extremely nervous in the presence of someone like this. After all, their statuses were just too far apart. But now, things were different. That much was obvious from the way Fourth Vice-Bishop had addressed him. He smiled.

    Thats the young lord of our house.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop nodded. Given the title young lord that was used, plus the fact that he had used a Smoldering God jade slip, made it obvious that this young man was deeply connected to the Heir Apparent.

    Upon hearing the title young lord being used, Grandmaster Saintlowe looked more closely at Xu Qing. In his heart, he sighed, as if he had just thought of something. sping hands, he bowed to Patriarch Inkrule.

    Fellow Daoist Inkrule, theres a small matter Id like to inquire about.

    Pray tell, what is it, Grandmaster Saintlowe? Patriarch Inkrule wasnt a Moonrebel Congregation cultivator, but some of his subordinates were. From them he had learned a bit about this Grandmaster Saintlowe, and knew that he was a very prominent figure.

    Are there any experts in the dao of alchemy here in this desert? Have you heard of the appetion... Grandmaster Pill Nine?

    Xu Qing was now close enough that he heard thest bit of dialogue. Looking closely at the speaker, he saw a middle-aged man with an extraordinary cultivation base who smelled like medicinal pills. Obviously this person spent a lot of time working on alchemy.

    Patriarch Inkrule shook his head. He said nothing about how Xu Qing often concocted pills. He had lived long enough that he could tell when people were prying. As he prepared to answer, he noticed Xu Qing approaching. After bowing politely, he answered Saintlowes question.

    There are some alchemist cultivators here in the desert. But few of them are very skilled.... In terms of Grandmaster Pill Nine, Ive heard that name as well. Grandmaster Saintlowe, are you thinking that Grandmaster Pill Nine might be here in our desert?

    When Xu Qing heard that, he looked at the alchemy cultivator and thought back to the statue of Grandmaster Saintlowe. He also thought about their alchemy battle in the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Saintlowe sighed. Given Inkrules half-hearted answer, he knew that he had made a misstep. Turning, he nodded to Xu Qing. Meanwhile, Fourth Vice-Bishop had also turned his attention to Xu Qing.

    Well met, Senior, Xu Qing said with sped hands. Your humble servant is here on the orders of the Heir Apparent to receive you. Wee,dies and gentlemen, to the Greenhair Bands.

    Xu Qings first impression of Fourth Vice-Bishop was that there was something familiar about him. Then he thought back to all the messages Fourth Vice-Bishop had sent in recent days. Apparently, Xu Qing had hid his identity well enough, as there seemed no clue that Fourth Vice-Bishop suspected him of being Pill Nine. He was right.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop had a very high cultivation base, but he wasnt omniscient or omnipotent. Neither he nor Saintlowe had any clue that the person they sought, Grandmaster Pill Nine, was actually standing right in front of them. However, that didnt cause them to be any less polite. They might have Void Returning cultivation bases, but Xu Qing represented the Heir Apparent, and therefore, they acted very courteously.

    And thus, after Xu Qing extended the formal invitation, they made their way toward the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Xu Qing and Patriarch Inkrule boarded Fourth Vice-Bishops flying ship. As they sped through the wind and sand, Xu Qing didnt say much. Patriarch Inkrule was the one to introduce the desert. Naturally, he offered some brief exnations about the wind and the holynd that was the Green Spirit Pharmacy....

    Of course, everyone had seen the God Decapitation Altar broadcast. And in the subsequent months, everyone had been talking about how the wind had kicked up in the desert because of that event. And many people hade to assume that the broadcast was somehow rted to the Heir Apparent.

    However, after hearing Patriarch Inkrules exnations, Fourth Vice-Bishop nced at Xu Qing briefly and then said, Young man, was the person in the God Decapitation Altar broadcast you?

    Grandmaster Saintlowe, on the other hand, hadnt been focused on the God Decapitation Altar. He was thinking about the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Looking at Xu Qing, he simultaneously blurted, Young friend, are you the owner of the Green Spirit Pharmacy? Can you concoct pills?

 Chapter 660: Little Ah Qing, Iâ€™m Missing a Kidney!

    Chapter 660: Little Ah Qing, I¡¯m Missing a Kidney!

    The gray wind blew innumerable particles of sand onto the flying ships. Their ships had defensive shields, but it was still possible to hear the pitter-patter of the sand hitting the hulls of the ships. Meanwhile, Xu Qing heard the words spoken by Fourth Vice-Bishop and Grandmaster Saintlowe.

    Fourth Vice-Bishops subordinates on the ship, who were mostly focused on healing and recovery, opened their eyes and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at Fourth Vice-Bishop. Earlier, when he hadid eyes on Fourth Vice-Bishop for the first time, something about the man had seemed familiar. It had nothing to do with meeting him before in statue form in the Moonrebel Congregation. Every person was represented by a different statue. In fact, the statue might not even be the same gender as the person using it. Only someone with the highest level of authority in the Moonrebel Congregation would be able to see through the disguises. Therefore, Xu Qing stood there for a moment trying to figure out the source of the familiar sensation. As of this moment, he realized why.

    The most obvious characteristic of Fourth Vice-Bishop was that he was old-school and very serious. He was the kind of person who didnt smile a lot, and the wrinkles on his forehead that resembled the character  only served to enhance that effect.

    Xu Qing now realized that Fourth Vice-Bishop reminded him of someone from Sea-Sealing County: Pce Lord Kong Liangxiu.

    Despite the years that had passed, when Xu Qing thought about Pce Lord Kong, his heart surged with emotions. He thought about the pce lord standing tall on the other side of the taboo treasure, stopping the advance of the Holytide army. The image of him perishing amidst ice and fire was something Xu Qing would never forget.

    The situation in the Land of God Decapitation was orchestrated by my Eldest Brother, Xu Qing said quietly. It was no lie. That entire episode hade about thanks to the Captains effort and nning, although things didnt end up going as expected. As for the truth of exactly what happened, Xu Qing didnt feel obligated to exin. And, yes, I did start the Green Spirit Pharmacy. I know a bit about how to concoct pills, but thats all.

    Having said that, he nced at Grandmaster Saintlowe, then closed his eyes and started meditating. Because of the feelings of familiarity that had just arisen in him, he found himself immersing himself in memories of Sea-Sealing County.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop looked at him deeply but didnt ask any further questions. Grandmaster Saintlowe sighed inwardly. He had no reason to think that Xu Qings skill in the dao of alchemy was very high, and thus it didnt ur to him that he might actually be connected to Pill Nine.After their alchemy showdown, Saintlowe hade to believe that the person who had given voice to his own ambitions in alchemy, which were the same ideals shared by alchemists throughout the Moonrite Region, had to be the same type of person as himself, in other words, someone who had pursued the dao of alchemy for many, many years. There was no way Pill Nine could be a young person.

    And thus, Xu Qing immersed himself in thought as the flying ships pierced through the wind and sand. A dayter, they arrived at the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Patriarch Inkrule made arrangements to give a dozen or so mountain peaks to Fourth Vice-Bishop to serve as the new home for him and his cultivators.

    Xu Qing, having aplished his task, returned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy. After taking the chickens into the backyard, he sat down in front of the Heir Apparent. Taking out the jade slip he hadnt used, he put it off to the side.

    Princess Brightblossom hardly looked at it.

    The Heir Apparent took a sip of tea, nced at the jade slip, then coolly said, Keep it. Consider it a gift in the form of a life-saving item.

    Hearing that caused Xu Qings eyes to flicker. Are you going away, Senior?

    Third Sister and I are taking a trip. Our n is to free Ninth Sib. We dont need your help this time. We can definitely handle it ourselves; we just need to wait for exactly the right time.

    Xu Qing nodded and put the jade slip away.

    You cant afford to ck off with your cultivation base. And now I can answer that question you asked about D-132. The Heir Apparent looked deeply at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing felt a brief twinge of excitement as he focusedpletely on whatever the Heir Apparent was going to say.

    The Heir Apparent was pleased with his attitude. He had spent a lot of time and effort mulling over D-132. Putting down his cup of tea, he said, Your D-132 is a prison, but also, is destiny aura. And it even contains the finger of a god. That finger isnt exactly very impressive, despite being the finger of a natural-born god, as far as I can tell.

    However, that''s also what muddles up your D-132. The finger actually has authority. Specifically, the power of misfortune! Unfortunately, that misfortune doesnt belong to you. What belongs to you is the mishmash of destiny aura and misfortune that turns into the prisons power of amnesia.

    Thatbination of destiny aura and misfortune is marvelous to say the least. Within it, I can see elements of a human taboo treasure,bined with the work of the Swordsage Division. In fact, if Im not mistaken, it was modeled after the Swordsage Divisions original Corrections Division! Later generations took inspiration from the historical records, added some new innovations, and then created their own version.

    The Heir Apparents words caused Xu Qing to shiver slightly, and suddenly feel even more reverential than before.

    He had never said very much about D-132 to the Heir Apparent, yet the man had seen the truth immediately. Xu Qing stood and bowed.

    Thank you for your advice, Senior.

    The Heir Apparent chuckled. I can sense the power of amnesia within it. Its a new type of authority... and is also a branch of research that the Swordsage Division focused on in the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. During that time, they had a specific name for that branch of study. The will domain.

    Xu Qing suddenly thought back to the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society in Sea-Sealing County. Li Zimei had exined to him that their techniques culminated in the will domain. What was more, the Seazombie king had also walked down that same path. And there was also that Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society cultivator he fought with at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, Li Ziliang, who had also attacked with a type of will domain. Then there was Qing Qiu, whose trump card in battle was another type of will domain. After thinking about all of those things, Xu Qing realized it made sense that D-132 had a simr power. [1]

    Seeing the expression on Xu Qings face gave the Heir Apparent a new level of understanding. It seems youve met cultivators with will domains before. Thats normal. After all, back in the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, the Swordsage Division invited others to participate in their research in the hopes of getting better results.

    That said, a will domain of amnesia isnt somethingmonly seen. After all, ites from a convergence of destiny from countless living beings and a gods misfortune. Thats definitely worth studying more closely. Whats more, the Swordsage Divisions goal in that research was to create a power that could force gods to bend the knee.

    The Heir Apparent picked up his cup of tea. He had recentlye up with an ingenious way of giving instruction to Xu Qing. And that was to go into extreme detail with everything he understood, and not give Xu Qing leeway to go off track with his powers of understanding. But when it came to things he wasnt very familiar with, he would be as vague and mysterious as possible, and ultimately just give a general direction to go in. That was the most suitable thing to do when dealing with Xu Qings powers of understanding. As for whether that path would end up leading to results, that would be made clearter on.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. The Heir Apparents exnation had made things a lot clearer regarding D-132, and had given him a new direction to pursue. Quickly sping hands respectfully, he went to the back room, sat down cross-legged, and got to work.

    At the same time, his D-132 nascent soul opened its eyes and looked at the gods finger. The finger tossed and turned as t slept, even shivering a bit. The other inmates behaved simrly. The head and the stone lion already felt profound respect and reverence for Xu Qing. Aftering to the Moonrite Region, they had increasinglye to feel like Xu Qing wasnt even human any more. He was just that terrifying.

    Sir Inkwell simrly trembled. Even if he was a hundred times as brave as he was, he still wouldnt dare to even speak out of turn to Xu Qing. [2]

    Xu Qing wasnt concerned about the inmates. Looking through the divine will of the D-132 nascent soul, he examined them briefly.

    Pursuing the concepts mentioned by the Heir Apparent, Xu Qing realized that the finger was the source of the misfortune, while his nascent soul was the convergence of destiny aura. The mixture of the two created the power of amnesia, and that power was most fully manifest on the inmates.

    After a time, his gaze came to rest on Sir Inkwell.

    Sir Inkwells face was ashen as a very bad feeling rose up within him. Exalted one, he said, I feel like our D-132 just isntplete. Were missing someone... were missing that water bucket and that scarecrow! [3]

    Yeah, thats right! the head blurted. Exalted one, those two are definitely out in the world causing a lot of harm. Since we value justice so much, we cant just let them run amok!

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing made a grasping gesture, causing Sir Inkwell to fly over to him. The old Paintedfolk looked up at him fawningly and opened his mouth to speak.

    Shut up, Xu Qing said.

    Sir Inkwell immediately produced a brush which he used to paint his mouth closed.

    Xu Qing nodded. cing his hand onto Sir Inkwells forehead, he examined him with his senses. Then he did the same with the head and the stone lion. In order to make sure his research was as thorough as possible, he smashed all three of them into bloody pulps, then watched closely as they resurrected. After he did it a few times, the three inmates were begging loudly that he end his research. Off to the side, the gods finger was still trembling.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes in the back room of the medicine shop.

    <em>Many of the old D-132 guards died because of the misfortune. Even I suffered from a lot of amnesia.... The inmates are fundamentally a part of the misfortune, which makes them eternally indestructible.</em>

    <em>The reason for me forgetting is that I was infected with the misfortune but also connected with destiny. Thatbined into the power of amnesia. Forgetting severed the karma, or put another way, was the core of D-132. In that case, the amnesia... requires a convergence and eruption of misfortune and destiny aura.</em>

    Inside D-132, his nascent soul flew over to the gods finger, reached out, and touched t. The finger didnt want to cooperate, yet didnt dare to fight back. The moment the D-132 nascent soul touched the finger, Xu Qings eyes went nk. The nknesssted for a while until Xu Qing sensed some message fluctuationsing from the Moonrebel Congregation. Taking out the Heir Apparents mirror shard, he returned to Paramount Temple.

    The moment he stepped in, he heard a howl of griefing from the Captains little totem.

    Little Ah Qing! Somethings wrong here. Somethings very wrong. Ive been using the Moonrebel Congregation to track down traces of my flesh and blood, and though I cant get very specific, Im only missing one piece! M-m-my... my past-life body is missing a kidney! Howe I cant sense it?

    Ive tried over and over again, but cant find it. This is impossible! Even if someone ate it, there would still be traces around that I could track. But now... itspletely gone! My kidney! What happened....?

    1. Li Zimei exined will domains to Xu Qing in chapter 287. In chapter 184.1 we learned that the Seazombie king cultivated a will domain. In chapter 354, Xu Qing fought Li Ziliang, who used a will domain. And Qing Qiu used a will domain in chapter 442.

    2. Sir Inkwell, the head, and the stone lion were all put into the D-132 prison in chapter 491. They appeared very briefly in a subsequent chapter, but for the most part, 491 was thest time they were in the story in a meaningful way.

    3. When Xu Qing saw the real D-132 in chapter 412, one of the inmates true forms was a water bucket. And of course, another was a scarecrow.

 Chapter 661: Xu Qingâ€™s Amnesia Domain

    Chapter 661: Xu Qing¡¯s Amnesia Domain

    In the Moonrebel Congregations Paramount Temple, the Captain sounded puzzled, and more than that, anxious.

    How could this be happening? My past life body is iplete! Little Ah Qing, do you know how important kidneys are to a man? My kidney! Without it, I cant be considered aplete man! Whats even more important is that the missing kidney was one I focused a lot of attention on improving in my past life. Its incredibly important! Incredibly valuable!

    The Captain in the totem seemed furious, and was gnashing his teeth as if he had lost the dearest of friends.

    It was definitely some narrow-minded degenerate who was jealous of my precious kidney and used it to power up! Dammity damn damnation! If I cant fix this situation, then on a personal level, Im fine with it. But its going to affect our big job! My past life body is missing a part of itself....

    The Captain was clearly very anxious.

    Meanwhile, a strange expression had appeared on Xu Qings face as he thought back to that time he was in a valley in the west of Moonrite, and ran into a y fox. That y fox had offered to give him a kidney.... [1]

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then said, Eldest Brother, how many kidneys did your past life body have?

    Two, of course! Im human, and my past life body is human. Dont all humans have two kidneys? What, do you have three or something? The Captain looked more closely at Xu Qing.

    Ignoring the look in the Captains eyes, Xu Qing asked another question. Can you sense the other one?Yeah! The other kidney is in the east in a godchild chasm. It got turned into fertilizer, but I can still sense it. The Captain suddenly realized something was going on. Eyes glittering brightly, he looked at Xu Qing with anticipation in his eyes. Whyd you ask me that, little Ah Qing? Dont tell me youve actually seen my missing kidney!

    Xu Qing didnt respond at first. He took time to think back to the kidney the y fox had shown him. Finally, he looked at the Captain, who was stewing in his anxiety and getting more and more nervous.

    Eldest Brother, is the kidney you lost the color gold, crescent-shaped, and covered with magical symbols? Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain got so excited the totem started vibrating. Yeah, thats the one! Its golden! You saw it, little Ah Qing?

    After some more thought, Xu Qing exined what happened with the y fox.

    The Captain was surprised by the story, to the point where he inhaled sharply. Youre telling me that some y fox wanted you to eat my kidney to replenish yourself?

    I didnt eat it, Xu Qing said calmly.

    Why not? If youd eaten it, then I could extract it. But now.... The Captain clearly had some very mixed feelings. Eventually, he sighed. Besides, little Ah Qing, that y fox is nothing to take lightly. She has my kidney, yet I cant sense it at all. That indicates shes extremely extraordinary. I dont have any memory of someone like that in my past life. Based on what youre describing, she was sitting in a shrine. Thats how gods operate! [2]

    Xu Qings gaze hardened. He had been able to tell from the beginning that there was something very mysterious about that y fox.

    She pulled out a lot of valuable things, and also mentioned that someone gave her that kidney, the Captain continued. If thats true, it just goes to show that shes definitely not an ordinary person. Is it really possible that y fox is a god? As the words came out of the Captains mouth, he shivered and seemed to get even more angry than before. If shs a god, then where did she from? And why take my kidney, huh? Ai.... I suppose its really my fault. I guess I refined my kidney into something that was just too amazing. It even caught the attention of a god!

    The Captain was feeling a mix of emotions that ranged from helplessness to anger to pride. Finally, he looked at Xu Qing with wide eyes. Xu Qing, what if you

    Eldest Brother, Xu Qing interrupted, if youre missing something, then youre missing something. You still have one left, right? It seems to me that youre just asplete as youve always been.

    Xu Qing turned to leave. He knew exactly what the Captain had been about to ask him.

    Wait, little Junior Brother! the Captain blurted anxiously. Little Junior Brother, this rtes directly to our big job! Cant you make a bit of a sacrifice? If that y fox is really a god, youll probably benefit a lot by doing this!

    Xu Qing ignored him and kept walking away.

    Little Ah Qing, this rtes to all the living beings in the Moonrite Region! Of even greater significance, it rtes to my future! Leaving my kidney in the hands of someone who doesnt understand its history is a potential cmity waiting to happen! Whats more, if Im missing a kidney, Im notplete, and it means I cant summon my body back into one ce!

    It was very unusual to see the Captain acting so openly anxious.

    Xu Qing could tell that the Captain really was getting flustered. He stopped walking. Thinking back to what happened with the y fox, he got the impression that the y fox had brought that kidney out with the express purpose of making sure he saw it.

    Little Ah Qing, that y fox probably showed you that kidney on purpose. And the fact that the fox wasnt hostile at all makes it seem like sh wants you to go find hr.... You know what? Forget it. If you dont want to help, then your Eldest Brother will just deal with the pain and suffering. Except this way, I might not be able to live up to my promise to travel the world with you.... The Captain let loose a long sigh, and his expression was one of deep loneliness.

    Xu Qing nodded. Good. Thanks, Eldest Brother.

    He started walking again.

    The Captain was initially stunned, then quickly gave a sarcasticugh.

    Xu Qing stopped walking and looked back at the Captain. Ill see what I can do.

    Now thats my little Junior Brother! the Captain said excitedly. Now that Xu Qing had agreed to help, he felt a lot better. In fact, he believed that as long as Xu Qing was willing to help, it was a guarantee that he would get his kidney back.

    Xu Qing sighed and left. When he reappeared in the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he was already mulling over ways to deal with the situation with the y fox. Eventually, a nk expression appeared in his eyes. Frowning, he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

    <em>So, how am I supposed to trigger a will domain of amnesia?</em>

    He closed his eyes and thought about it for a time, then sent himself back into D-132. His nascent soul was no longer touching the gods finger; instead, there was some distance between them. Eventually, he did some more tests by having his nascent soul go and touch the finger. Soon, his expression went nk again.

    Time passed as Xu Qing continued to study amnesia and memories. Every time his nascent soul touched the finger, thebination of destiny aura and misfortune would cause him to go nk. Only after the two separated would he eventually go back to normal.

    As for everyone else in the medicine shop, things seemedpletely ordinary.

    The only difference was the Heir Apparent, whose facial expression seemed to be more and more odd as the days went by. At the moment, he was just sitting there holding his cup of tea and looking at Nethersprite.

    Ning Yan was scrubbing the floor, while Linger worked on the ounts and Wu Jianwu spouted poetry. Li Youfei gripped a sword as he kept an eye on everyoneing and going. Nethersprite tended the boiling water.

    However, while Ning Yan usually scrubbed the floor seven or eight times, today he had already mopped more than fifty times, yet didnt seem to realize it. Linger seemed to be calcting the same part of the ounting book over and over again.... Wu Jianwu was repeating the same lines of poetry. Li Youfei just stood there in ce, apparentlypletely unaware that anything unusual was going on. Nethersprite had a nk look on her face. She had just realized that the water was already boiling. Meanwhile, the Heir Apparents tea cup was full, leaving nothing for her to do.

    Unlike everyone else, she could sense something unusual. Struggle appeared in her eyes, and then she started breathing heavily as she looked around the medicine shop at everyone else.

    Whats going on? she murmured, looking suspiciously at the Heir Apparent, and then the back room, where Xu Qing was working on his cultivation. Theres a strange powering from where that little punk is working on cultivation. Is it making me lose my memories? Nethersprite felt shaken to the core.

    This is the ny-fifth time youve woken up in the past few days, the Heir Apparent said coolly. But the time between wake ups is increasing. No one else has woken up at all, other than Linger. That girl is unique. Shes woken up fifteen times so far.

    Nethersprite inhaled sharply. The gruish situation was shocking to say the least. And when everyone else heard what the Heir Apparent just said, they all looked around, stunned.

    Ning Yans eyes went wide as he looked at the floor, and then his rag. How... how many times have I scrubbed the floor today?

    Wu Jianwu was bewildered, and could hardly believe that he had been repeating the same poetry. Linger was shaken, and Li Youfei seemed taken aback.

    Senior, Nethersprite said, unable to hold back from asking, is this happening because of Xu Qings cultivation?

    Yes, the Heir Apparent said, taking a sip of tea. Its the first sign of a will domain of amnesia. Hes on his way down the path, and as he furthers his study, the surroundings are affected. Just like him, everyone loses their memory. In short order, Xu Qings session of cultivation will end, and hell forget everything hes learned. At the same time, you will all forget everything thats happening right now.

    Everyone gasped.

    Knees trembling, Li Youfei said, Senior, I-I... I often feel like Im missing parts of myself. Has the young lord been doing any pill concoctingtely?

    The Heir Apparent looked at Li Youfei and nodded. He keeps forgetting and thinking its his first time. But the reality is... hes already concocted pills with you about a hundred times.

    When Li Youfei heard that, he sagged in ce, his heart filling with terror. At the same time, the Heir Apparent looked at the front door.

    We have guests.

    At the door, Wu Jianwu cleared his head and looked down the street.

    An old man was quietly approaching. He had a very serious facial expression, and seemed both old-fashioned and solemn. He approached the Green Spirit Pharmacy, stopped outside, and sped hands and bowed as if he had reached the end of pilgrimage.

    Sir Skysouth from the Moonrebel Congregation, here to seek an audience with His Majesty the Heir Apparent!

    Sir Skysouth was none other than Fourth Vice-Bishop! This was his first formal visit after arriving in the Bitter Life Mountains. He had nned toe pay respects to the Heir Apparent even earlier, but for the past week had been wrapped up in preparing his camp, plus another unexpected situation.

    Specifically, that situation rted to Grandmaster Pill Nine. Seven days ago, Fourth Vice-Bishop had taken a trip to the Moonrebel Congregation, and had waited outside Grandmaster Pill Nines temple hoping to get an audience. In the end, he did run into Pill Nine in his statue. Fourth Vice-Bishop had made a polite request to be able to purchase more cursequelling lozenges. He even gave Pill Nine his personal contact information within the Moonrebel Congregation. Grandmaster Pill Nine had agreed to his request.

    For the following days, Grandmaster Pill Nine would frequently send messages asking for specific medicinal ingredients. On slow days, he would only send seven or eight messages like that. But sometimes, he would send dozens....

    Although Fourth Vice-Bishop wasnt sure what that meant, he was very happy every time he got a new cursequelling lozenge. His subordinates were all dealing with the curse, and were in great danger because of it. But thanks to him personally taking action, most of them had been stabilized.

    Because of all that, it took him a few extra days before he finally arranged toe see the Heir Apparent.

    1. The y fox offered him the kidney in chapter 591.

    2. This specific word for shrine has the character for god in it. <blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thank you to <strong>Kenshi420 </strong>and <strong>metasinz </strong>for the reviews!</blockquote>

 Chapter 662: Donâ€™t Tell Lingâ€™er this Secret

    Chapter 662: Don¡¯t Tell Ling¡¯er this Secret

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Fourth Vice-Bishop left the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Back out on the street, he turned to look at the medicine shop, his eyes shining. Moments ago after meeting the Heir Apparent, he had exchanged some words, and had maintained an extremely formal and respectful attitude. In the end, he¡¯d expressed his interest in being a follower of the Heir Apparent.

    The result was promising. However, the Green Spirit Pharmacy was a very unique ce that left the vice-bishop with a very deep impression.

    <em>That young man scrubbing the floor has a bloodline in which the strength of humankind runs very strong.... It¡¯s extraordinary! And then there¡¯s the fellow reciting the poetry. I can sense some sort of blessing on him! Plus there¡¯s that Ancient Spirit girl. She has destiny aura on her!</em>

    <em>The maidservant tending to the water seems like a Smoldering God, except with iplete souls. I bet that she was formed from some Smoldering God expert who died, and was then tampered with by someone with very high personhood.</em>

    All of that got Fourth Vice-Bishop quite excited. But what was most extraordinary was the back room....

    <em>That entire medicine shop is full of a very strange type of authority. It¡¯s rted to amnesia. If your cultivation base is too low, then you¡¯ll be affected by it without even realizing it. And that effect... is only in the beginning stages, but still can affect the soul. If it reaches fruition... then it could affect all the living beings in a very wide range, substitute for them in cultivation, alter consciousness, and make it difficult for them to tell each other apart.</em>

    <em>It¡¯s alling from that back room, which is upied by that young man who met us on the border. He must have a very close rtionship with the Heir Apparent. That seems especially true considering that they call him ¡®young lord¡¯....</em>

    Fourth Vice-Bishop contemted all of that as he walked away.

    ***

    In the back room, Xu Qing opened his eyes. In D-132, his nascent soul had just pulled its hand away from the god¡¯s finger. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes went nk.

    At the same time, everyone else in the shop also looked dazed as all of them lost their memories of what just happened. The affected memories started from when Xu Qing¡¯s nascent soul touched the god¡¯s finger, and ended when the connection ended. It was a very smooth and natural process.

    Frowning, Xu Qing looked at the recording jade slip in his hand.

    Back in the old Corrections Division, he had used methods like this to try to unravel the mystery of what was happening. Unfortunately, looking through it didn¡¯t reveal any relevant information. It just showed him seated there in meditation.

    <em>Why do I get the feeling I¡¯m forgetting something?</em>

    After some thought, he summoned Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, and alsomunicated with his shadow. They provided no helpful information.

    <em>Nothing out of the ordinary?</em>

    The shadow and the patriarch were the backup methods he used in addition to the recording jade slip. Next, he looked through his bag of holding hoping to find some clues. Upon finding none, he thought some more, then went out to the main floor of the shop.

    Everyone there was going about business as usual. When Ling¡¯er noticed him, she smiled sweetly and hurried over.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, how¡¯s your cultivation going? Over the past few days I¡¯ve got the feeling you¡¯re about to break through.¡±

    Xu Qing smiled and tousled Ling¡¯er¡¯s hair. Then he walked over to the counter and picked up a recording jade slip he¡¯d secretly ced on the eaves the day before.

    Although nothing unusual seemed to be happeningtely, Xu Qing got the distinct sense that something gruish was happening. Therefore, he was hoping to see if anything unusual was going on outside the back room during his cultivation sessions.

    After checking the jade slip, he didn¡¯t notice anything unusual. The recording in the jade slip didn¡¯t reveal any clues. Yet that only made him feel more suspicious.

    <em>Whether in the back or out here, nothing has happened while I¡¯ve been doing my study? In that case... what exactly have I been studying?</em>

    A thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

    A short distance away, the Heir Apparent picked up his cup of tea and looked at Xu Qing. Inside, he was feeling very pleased. That jade slip... had been wiped clean by his very hand.

    <em>Even this little punk has days when he can¡¯t figure things out. Hahaha! I¡¯m happy just being able to witness this. That said, the brat¡¯s powers of understanding really are shocking. When he forgets, everyone else forgets. This will domain of amnesia is really domineering.</em>

    With such thoughts on his mind, the Heir Apparent decided that he would keep observing for a few more days. After that, he would give Xu Qing some advice. In that way, he could ensure that his awe-inspiring reputation remained the same.

    Frowning, Xu Qing put the jade slip away and turned to look at the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent looked calmly back at him.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing sped hands politely, then returned to the back room and sat down cross-legged to review his memories. No matter how he went over things, everything seemed normal. Yet he still felt like he¡¯d forgotten something. Therefore, he decided to draw on a trump card.

    <em>Have I really forgotten some things recently? Or has there been some other unusual reaction?</em>

    He sent some divine will into the god¡¯s finger in D-132. The god¡¯s finger was pretending to be asleep, and didn¡¯t react. And yet, that behavior in itself clued Xu Qing in to what was happening.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re admitting it?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He had another trump card. Tapping his bag of holding, he produced a bottle, which he shook back and forth a few times. Inside came a loud noise followed by a host of vague whisperings.

    Whatever was inside the bottle was obviously alive. Therefore, Xu Qing opened the bottle. Light emerged, which started growingrger andrger until Xu Qing stopped it at a bit less than two meters.

    It was an enormous brain that looked like a tree. Before leaving Sea-Sealing County, Xu Qing had gone to the Supreme Void World and captured a few brain trees in order to purify his heavenfiend clones. At the moment, he had one of them out in the open. He looked at it coldly.

    The brain tree shivered. Clearly it remembered Xu Qing, and was absolutely terrified of him. Shaking its head vigorously, it said, ¡°You¡¯re not hungry. Not going to eat.... don¡¯t want to eat... I¡¯m a brain! Don¡¯t eat good brains!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the chatter. Extending his right hand in the direction of the brain tree, he said, ¡°I want you to devour my memories of sitting in meditation for the past two days.¡±

    The brain tree shivered. Not daring to do anything disobedient, it carefully approached. When it touched him, bits of electricity cracked across the brain¡¯s surface.

    As it happened, Xu Qing did not experience any sensation akin to memory loss. However, the brain ended up shivering and then emanating a sensation of nkness. It currently was not sending out fluctuations of terror.

    Xu Qing paid very close attention until he noticed a change in the brain tree. It backed up, the sensation of nkness disappearing, to be reced with dread. It started shaking its head.

    ¡°You¡¯re not hungry. Not going to eat.... don¡¯t want to eat... I¡¯m a brain! Don¡¯t eat good brains!¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. Something seemed very odd about the brain tree. It was repeating itself, yet didn¡¯t seem to realize it. It was almost as if it had forgotten what just happened.

    After some thought, Xu Qing lifted his hand with the intention of doing some more experiments. Before he could, the brain tree started shaking violently, and then, after a few breaths of time passed, it copsed into ashes that drifted onto the ground.

    Eyes glittering, Xu Qing took out another brain tree and did some more experiments. After the fifth brain tree died he took a deep breath. He¡¯de to an outrageous conclusion.

    <em>After they devour the memories of me researching the amnesia will domain, they then forget about it. It¡¯s as if they don¡¯t realize they devoured anything. In other words, after they devour my memories, they lose some of their memories, and don¡¯t remember devouring anything.</em>

    <em>Eventually, they can¡¯t sustain it, and they die.... Does that mean my memories really can¡¯t be preserved?</em>

    He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he thought back to the sensation of forgetfulness he¡¯d been experiencing.

    <em>Could it be that I¡¯m actually being affected by the very will domain I¡¯m seeking enlightenment of?</em>

    As he tried to figure out how to confirm that theory, he noticed a message hade in from Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation. The Captain was calling for him. Realizing that he hadn¡¯t delivered any new oil to the Captaintely, he took out the mirror shard and went into Paramount Temple.

    The moment he arrived, he heard the Captain¡¯s excited voiceing from the door.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, little Ah Qing? It¡¯s been days! Have you rescued my kidney yet? Have you brought it back?¡±

    Xu Qing was very taken aback. ¡°What kidney?¡±

    The Captain looked at him from the totem, stunned. ¡°Quit messing around, little Junior Brother. My kidney shouldn¡¯t be the subject of jokes. It¡¯s really important to me.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned and looked at the Captain. ¡°It seems I¡¯ve forgotten some things, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide and he looked at Xu Qing. From his facial expression he could see that he was serious about forgetting things. He inhaled sharply. ¡°Have you been seeking enlightenment of some weird thingy nowadays?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°The Heir Apparent has me seeking enlightenment of a will domain of amnesia.¡±

    Hearing that, Erniu sighed. ¡°Little Junior Brother, how could you be going around randomly seeking enlightenment at a time like this.... You forgot about what you promised to do for me? You really don¡¯t remember how you solemnly agreed to give me 100,000,000 spirit stones?¡±

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back very sincerely. ¡°I¡¯m serious! Little Ah Qing, you really did promise me that. And you also promised to bring me back my missing kidney. Remember the y fox? You told me that she¡¯s interested in your primal yang. Am I right? See, I couldn¡¯t possibly be making this up. It was <em>your</em> idea.¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes. He didn¡¯t believe for a second what the Captain said about the 100,000,000 spirit stones. Given what he knew about the Captain, that part was aplete fabrication. But when it came to the y fox, he didn¡¯t remember telling the Captain that story. That seemed to indicate that he really was forgetting some things. And it confirmed why he was forgetting things back at the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Nodding, he said, ¡°What¡¯s the deal with your kidney?¡±

    The Captain sighed. As far as he was concerned, this amnesia will domain of Xu Qing¡¯s was very shameless and unreasonable. Back when he originally convinced Xu Qing to help him, it had taken a lot of carefully crafted words. If he tried to just exin things with a few words right now, it was entirely possible Xu Qing might refuse to help. Therefore, he had no choice but to revert to his previous state of sorrow and anxiety. He even said the same things and reused the same facial expressions. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that....

    After Xu Qing heard the whole sales pitch again, he was about to refuse when the Captain sighed loudly.

    <em>This is just like before</em>, he thought, and went on to counter all of the arguments he knew Xu Qing was going to use.

    Afterward, he felt very tired as he looked nervously at Xu Qing. Xu Qing hesitated briefly, but finally nodded, then turned to leave.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was going back, the Captain got a bit nervous.

    ¡°Help me get that kidney right away!¡± he called. ¡°Don¡¯t start by seeking enlightenment. I really don¡¯t want to have to repeat myself again like this time... it¡¯s really exhausting....¡±

    Xu Qing left. Back in the Green Spirit Pharmacy he stood there thinking for a short time before he finally let loose a sigh.

    ¡°I guess I should go take a look,¡± he murmured. With that, he vanished from the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    This time, he didn¡¯t tell Ling¡¯er where he was going.<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Hey all, if you''re into ttrpgs and the cyberpunk genre, I have a rmendation for you. A channel I follow on YouTube justunched a Kickstarter for an original cyberpunk game. I do my best to support content creators I like, and this channel is great. If that sounds like your cup of tea, check out the Kickstarter here. I do not know this creator personally, so this is not an official endorsement, advertisement or anything like that. I just hope to see a person as nice as this creator make their game happen. </blockquote>

 Chapter 663: Another Encounter with the Slutty Fox

    Chapter 663: Another Encounter with the Slutty Fox

    The desert wind blew down from the sky. It was almost as if there was a big hole in the dome of heaven, out of which would pour endless wind and sand to fill every nook and cranny of the desert. It was omnipresent, and reduced visibility to nothing but a blur. The wind sounded like the wail of countless mourners, piling together to create a howl of anguish. The souls of mortals wouldn¡¯t be able to endure that sound for very long, and even cultivators would have a hard time, unless they were natives who were born and raised in the desert.

    Xu Qing walked calmly through the desert, the hat on his head and the ancient artificial sun at his waist. The sand beneath his feet was soft, yet he walked atop it as if it were hard ground, without even leaving footprints behind him. He now had perfect control over every aspect of his strength. Normally, the wind would make it hard for anyone to walk around steadily, but it didn¡¯t affect him at all.

    A few dayster, Xu Qing reached the border. Standing there, he looked over his shoulder at the desert behind him.

    <em>It¡¯s been a year, but I hardly noticed the time passing....</em>

    The only person he¡¯d informed of his departure was the Heir Apparent. He didn¡¯t tell anyone else. As for Ling¡¯er... he decided that, in order to make sure she wasn¡¯t worrying about him constantly, it was better not to say anything.

    <em>y fox....</em>

    Thinking back to the previous encounter, he frowned slightly, then started walking, quickly moving across the border. His destination was that strange valley he¡¯d passed through on his way to the Yin Sacrifice River.

    Three days passed in a sh.

    Late in the night of the third day, as Xu Qing sped through the canopy of heaven, he caught sight of a valley in the distance.

    From above, it was a line running from east to west. As it reached the west, the terrain grew rough, and the lone valley became a host of smaller hills and valleys.

    The truth was that no one really knew exactly how long the valley was. It stretched east into some dark mountains, going so far into their depths that it wasn¡¯t possible to see where it ended. The valley didn¡¯t really have a name, considering that the poption in the area was so sparse. Not even the maps Xu Qing had dug up of the area listed any name for it.

    The sky was currently as red as blood, making the valley seem like a ghastly trough of gore.

    Staying on guard, Xu Qing dropped to the ground and walked into the valley. This was indeed the same ce where they had rested back on that journey. Standing there, he looked around and then waited quietly. It was still and quiet except for the wind, which rustled the weeds on the ground and stirred Xu Qing¡¯s hair. Coldness spread through him, creating an unhealthy yin sensation.

    Xu Qing just stood there waiting quietly. Based on what he and the Captain knew, that y fox had to be extraordinary. Therefore, there was no way Xu Qing could show up here without the y fox noticing. And she had previously mentioned for him toe back and visit.

    As it turned out, he was right. Before even waiting for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he heard the sound of drums and gongs off in the distance, as well as the music of a suona piercing through the night wind. The sound grew louder.

    Xu Qing looked up and saw the mist swirling at the end of the valley as a group of figures approached. There were well over a hundred, and all of them were y people. They carried a shrine made of stone, and as they yed their music, the mist rolled across the ground with them. The entire area got colder, and the nts and leaves stood on end and writhed.

    The moment Xu Qing¡¯s gazended on the procession, the y people cut through the air almost as if by teleportation to appear right in front of him. They stopped there. The moment they stopped moving, the drums, gongs, and suona music all stopped as well.

    As the sinister wind blew, the y people turned to look at Xu Qing. As for the dozen or so that carried the shrine, they squatted down and tilted the shrine in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, as if to invite him inside.

    Facepletely expressionless, Xu Qing looked at the y people and then the shrine. There was no fox inside, only a stone prayer mat.

    Xu Qing got the message. The y fox wanted him to get in the shrine. After a short moment of thought, he looked up into the sky briefly, then stepped into the shrine.

    Everything inside the shrine was crafted from y. However, it was beautifully decorated. There were also a host of designs on the sides. The designs were strange and unique. They depicted people from numerous species bowing in worship to a six-pointed star totem. There was something profoundly ancient about the totem, and also holy, as if it were a god.

    Xu Qing examined the designs closely, eventuallying to focus on the one right in front of him. It was the six-pointed star itself, and he had just noticed that there was an image of a fox inside.

    Xu Qing sat back quietly. He had already put some thought into how things would y out. As for the unexpected developments, <em>if you can¡¯t do anything about the situation, you might as well sit back and enjoy it</em>. Therefore, Xu Qing just sat down cross-legged on the stone prayer mat and closed his eyes to wait.

    The moment he sat, the shrine lurched downward. The dozens of y people beneath it shivered. However, the shrine had unique properties; it red with pink light, allowing the y people to easily shoulder the shrine and stand up straight.

    Xu Qing noted that thoughtfully. The music struck up again, and the y people shifted directions and then raced into the depths of the valley with Xu Qing.

    They pierced through the mist and fog, surrounded by jarring, metallic music. As Xu Qing looked outside, he could see the surroundings changing as they blurred by. Unfortunately, the shrine was moving so quickly he couldn¡¯t really make out any details. Eventually, he saw suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies outside spinning wildly. He saw mountains and rivers rising and falling. He saw what seemed to be worlds interconnecting.

    <em>I¡¯m definitely not in a valley!</em>

    Shortly after, he experienced a different sensation as the area outside the shrine turned pitch ck. The wind vanished. All sound went away. He only felt pressureing from outside.

    <em>Where am I?</em>

    Xu Qing looked more closely to confirm that he was right. As he looked out, a massive cave appeared. The ce was huge, and scattered boulders and other rubble filled the ce like ancient ruins. There was also an inescapable ancient feeling to the ce.

    Hovering in the air in the middle of the cave was a pce building. Strangely, the pce was hanging upside down. It was constructed from gruish materials, specifically, a mixture of bloody flesh and y. There were also countless tentacles of the same material that stretched out from its surface and swayed back and forth. From a distance, it almost looked like a ball cactus.

    The y people stopped once they were inside the cave. They lowered the shrine onto the ground, and then prostrated in the direction of the hanging pce. After that, they didn¡¯t move.

    Xu Qing quietly walked out and took in his surroundings. As he did, the main gate of the pce slowly opened as if to wee him.

    Looking through the main gate, he could see that the interior of the pce had a starry sky as a ceiling, suns and moons as pirs, and a host of y people standing in formation. The architectural configuration surpassed anything Xu Qing had ever seen in his entire life.

    There was nothing enshrined in the pce other than a huge painting.

    Of course, the painting was upside down because of the way that the pce was hanging, but Xu Qing could still see the painting clearly. It depicted a huge sea. Strangely, there was a whole host of fish of varying sizes flying in the sky. Meanwhile, in the water beneath the sky were innumerable birds flying through the water. It seemed like it was the reverse of what should be. The birds that should have been in the sky were now fish in the sea, while the fish had been transformed into birds. Of course, it was hard to say if it was a case of those two roles being reversed or whether it was the configuration of the painting itself that had changed their world.

    Between the sea and the sky in the painting was a cross-legged statue. The statue was of a huge y fox in a red robe, with makeup on her face. Opening her eyes in the painting, she looked out flirtatiously at Xu Qing.

    Rising, she swayed forward, lookingpletely enchanting and seductive as she walked out of the painting.

    The moment she stepped out, her appearance changed as she became a bewitchingly charming young woman. Her red robe became gauzy, partially revealing her soft, supple skin. The garment was so fine it seemed like the faintest breeze might cause it to slip down her shoulder. She had a very ample chest, and long legs as beautiful as jade. As she swayed forward, a tail flicked back and forth behind her, making her seem even more flirtatious. Her slender waist was barely visible through the red gauze, making her seem incredibly enticing. Her curvaceous form made her seem consummately beautiful, infinitely enchanting, and charming down to her core.

    It only took a few steps for her to emerge into the pce hall, where she walked toward Xu Qing through the rubble.

    There was something inherently stunning about the image. The surroundings included rubble, ruins, darkness, and a host of y people prostrating on the ground.

    And then a beautiful young woman walked through all that, bing the only spot of brilliance therein. Step by step, she approached Xu Qing. Her fragrance swept over him, stirring his insides and bing a wave of warmth that filled him like a stampede of wild animals.

    Xu Qing felt himself breathing heavily. He had experienced this same thing before, except it was slightly different this time. Either way, he knew that it was because of the effects of personhood.

    <em>Definitely personhood!</em>

    Taking a deep breath, he backed up a few paces then sped hands and said, ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    The y fox stopped walking. Her hair and gauzy red robe danced in the breeze as she stood in front of him. Her limpid, phoenix-like eyes did not flicker with emotion. Instead, they raged like a volcano, making her seem like she burned from the inside as she looked at Xu Qing and licked her lips. When she spoke, her enticing voice echoed out in all directions.

    ¡°Long time no see, young sir.¡±

    She stepped forward, her supple waist shifting in a way that would cause just about anyone to palpitate with eagerness. Seemingly drunk with infatuation, she stopped behind him and breathed, ¡°Your smell makes me quiver with delight. I can hardly wait!¡±

 Chapter 664: Too Ugly to Stomach!

    <h4>Chapter 664: Too Ugly to Stomach!</h4>

    ¡°In the days since Ist saw you, I dreamed about your aroma several times. It was absolutely captivating.... For someone to have a cultivation base like that but still have primal yang is really rare in the world. What a pity you couldn¡¯t see how amazing I am. Instead you treasured a little snake, and thus broke my heart.¡±

    The woman¡¯s ample chest heaved as she spoke, and her sweet voice couldn¡¯t have been more coquettish, like a yellow oriole or a bubbling brook, or the sounds of nature echoing eternally in an immortal mansion.

    The words struck Xu Qing to the core. Breathing heavily, he turned and put some more distance between them before looking over his shoulder at her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t run, my child. I forgive you! Who went and made you so damn attractive, you naughty little boy? Just looking at you makes me happy.¡± As the y fox looked at him with glistening eyes, it felt as if she could see every inch of him inside and out. A wild, unrestrained smile spread out on her face as she walked toward Xu Qing. ¡°Did you resign yourself to reality? Or did you reallye around? After all, you did sneak over here all alone.¡±

    Xu Qing backed up a step. The y fox walked forward a step, and it looked like her gauzy red robe was about to slippletely off her.

    She almost seemed like a vicious bully stripping off his clothes as he stalked closer and closer to a young woman waiting in the boudoir to be betrothed.

    In the end, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t back up any more. Inhaling, he smoothed out his face and calmly said, ¡°Senior, I came here today in the hopes of negotiating with you about that kidney you showed me.¡±

    The y fox licked her lips and thenughed merrily. ¡°That¡¯s nothing at all! Just a silly little kidney! Let¡¯s not waste any time. Come inside my house for a bit. Afterward, I¡¯ll personally go to the kitchen and make you a nice kidney stew to replenish yourself.¡± It looked like she was about to grab Xu Qing and fly him up to the pce. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, boy, I¡¯m very warm and soft.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s scalp tingled as he fully rotated his cultivation base. ¡°Senior, that¡¯s not what I meant. I want¡ª¡±

    The y foxughed softly and waved her hand gracefully. A golden, crescent-shaped kidney appeared, floating just above her hand and sending golden light shining everywhere. Spectacr fluctuations rolled off the kidney, along with a deste, ancient aura.

    Previously, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base had been much lower than it was right now. And now, he saw the world differently. And thus, his eyes glittered when he confirmed that the kidney had the Captain¡¯s aura.

    ¡°Is this the one?¡± the y fox asked, her eyes twinkling.

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°That¡¯s the kidney I was hoping to make a deal for.¡±

    The y fox¡¯s glistening eyes suddenly seemed even more flirtatious. It was almost as if her eyes had exuded a mysterious pink mist that filled the area. ¡°Don¡¯t be so blunt, you naughty boy. That makes things less interesting. Come with me, and I can give you a lot more than just a kidney. From the very beginning, I promised to offer you replenishment. However... what are you going to give me in exchange? Your primal yang?¡±

    When the words ¡®primal yang¡¯ left her mouth, the y fox¡¯s eyes burned even more brightly, and she bit her lip as she looked at Xu Qing. Her voice seemed even sweeter than before, as if it dripped with honey.

    Although Xu Qing had prepared himself beforeing here, the look on her face left him feeling very unsettled.

    Looking very sincerely at the y fox, he said, ¡°Senior, my six Masters all warned me about the same thing.... I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t help you. That said, I do have an Eldest Brother who I¡¯m sure you would really like. I joined my Masterter in life. My Eldest Brother, however, joined him years earlier. He cultivates the same technique as me, and he also has some great primal yang that you can easily pluck away.¡±

    The y fox¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What does he look like? Let me see.¡±

    Xu Qing immediately took out a jade slip that had an image of the Captain in it. He quickly made some adjustments to make sure his Eldest Brother looked as handsome as possible.

    The y fox nced at it, and then her lips twisted disdainfully. ¡°Too ugly! In fact, he¡¯s so ugly that I don¡¯t care how much primal yang he has, I just couldn¡¯t stomach it!¡±

    Xu Qing was about to add something when the y fox waved her hand, sending the golden kidney flying toward him.

    Stunned, Xu Qing caught it.

    The y fox looked up at the seemingly empty darkness. Smiling nonchntly, she looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°Don¡¯t bother racking your brains trying to figure out what to pay me. All you know how to do is refuse my offers, you naughty little boy. Think about it. If you were my gigolo, then who would dare to cause problems for you? You could just spend your time serving me without a care in the world. That said, I¡¯m not the kind of person who takes advantage of others. Trading your primal yang for that kidney wouldn¡¯t be a fair deal, so I¡¯m not surprised you refused the offer.

    ¡°Ah, whatever. Who made you this tempting, huh? Consider that kidney as a down payment. I¡¯ll just wait until you have something <i>really</i> nice that you can give me in exchange. For now, you just need to do me a favor. I want you toe and use your primal yang body to open a pathway for me.¡±

    With that, the y fox waved her hand, whereupon ripples spread out, tearing open a rift that led to a passageway. The opening was unstable, pulsing randomly between being open wide and nearly shut. It almost seemed as if two types of power were struggling with each other inside. The interior was pitch ck. Faint but intimidating roars echoed out along with a terrifying, sinister aura that would be profoundly damaging to an ordinary cultivator. However, the cave itself suppressed all of that, ensuring that it didn¡¯t spread very far.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± The y fox smiled, turned, and swayed into the rift, her body undting beneath her gauzy robe. Once inside, she turned and looked at Xu Qing with a broad smile.

    Xu Qing looked down at the kidney in his hand, then the y fox inside the rift. After a moment of thought he made his decision. Eyes gleaming, he walked into the rift. Wind stirred his garments as he walked through the dark pathway toward the y fox.

    After Xu Qing was inside, the rift closed up and disappeared.

    The pressure in the cave faded away into nothing.

    ***

    After all the fluctuations were gone, two figures appeared.

    They were none other than the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. Of course, they had no intention of interfering with Xu Qing¡¯s affairs. However, Xu Qing had informed the Heir Apparent that he was going on this trip, and thus, both the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom had been secretly keeping an eye on him. Both of them were currently looking at the spot where the rift had disappeared.

    ¡°The little punk has good judgment,¡± the Heir Apparent said. ¡°That really was a god. Sh¨¥ noticed us, but didn¡¯t seem to care, and actually let us eavesdrop.

    ¡°That said, I can sense that sh¨¥ has no malicious intentions regarding Xu Qing.... What¡¯s more, sh¨¥¡¯s not here as h¨¥r true self. That was just a stream of divine will. As for h¨¥r true origin, I can¡¯t make a determination right now. Nor can I determine what h¨¥r goals are. I was about to step in just now. Why did you stop me, Third Sister?¡±

    The Heir Apparent looked at Princess Brightblossom.

    She simply stood there for a long moment before answering, ¡°The Firemoon Darkheaven people have three High Gods of sun, moon, and star. The sun god is asleep, the moon god is alive and kicking, and the star god is very mysterious.... And given the setup here, my guess is that this y fox has something to do with that mysterious star god. That¡¯s why I stopped you. As for what h¨¥r goal is, I think I have a general idea, and it¡¯s going to be a destined opportunity for Xu Qing.¡±

    The Heir Apparent took in that information thoughtfully.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the y fox were proceeding through the pathway.

    The y fox held antern in her hands, which cast soft light out to illuminate the surroundings. If you looked closely, you would see that the light in thentern actually came from Xu Qing. He exuded innumerable tiny motes that the y fox directed into thentern, turning them into a light source.

    Beyond that light, everything was as dark as the Nine Serenities underworld. No path was visible, and there was only an unending sinister wind that carried with it howls and moans. However, the light from thentern had a certain power that kept the howling at bay. And thus, the two of them proceeded through the darkness and gloom. Before them, the darkness parted like ink, making the way for them to pass.

    Xu Qing kept his guard up as he followed. He had no idea where they were going, but he could sense a strong mutagen beyond the borders of the light. In fact, it wasn¡¯t just one type of mutagen. It was a mixture.

    Eyes flickering thoughtfully, Xu Qing kept close to the y fox and thentern. He had alreadye to realize that the pressure radiating from thentern might seem like it came from the light, but actually... came from thentern itself. The light was more of a guide.

    As they continued, it seemed like the light from thentern was actually being attracted to a certain location up ahead.

    ¡°This primal yang is indeed very pure,¡± the y fox said lightly. Her voice was beautiful, and in the murky surroundings, sounded very carefree and rxed.

    Looking away from thentern light, Xu Qing said, ¡°Senior, my so-called primal yang... isn¡¯t really a requirement toe here, is it? You¡¯re so strong that I imagine you cane and go as you please anywhere, Senior.¡±

    The y fox turned and looked at Xu Qing with praise in her eyes. ¡°You¡¯re very perceptive, naughty boy. That¡¯s right. Your primal yang is more like a guide. And that¡¯s because the ce we¡¯re going to is somewhere that you¡¯ve been before.¡±

    When Xu Qing heard that, his gaze hardened.

    Around then, thentern light grew brighter, driving away the darkness and revealing an opening ahead.

    ¡°Finally here.¡± The y fox¡¯s face was full of anticipation, and her eyes glittered flirtatiously. Her chest heaved with excitement, and part of her garment slipped down her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ve finally found it.¡±

    Hurrying forward, she stood in front of the opening and looked inside.

    Expression grave, Xu Qing did the same.

    Ash drifted aimlessly on a gritty wind. Deep inside was an ancient wooden door that was apparently hidden within the wind. The door had some faint, horrendous marks on it.... It waspletely gruish, astonishing, and sinister.

    And when Xu Qing saw it, his heart started pounding. He <i>had </i>been here before.

 Chapter 665: High God Starfire

    <h4>Chapter 665: High God Starfire</h4>

    He had seen this door before, at the God Decapitation Altar, when the Captain converged hope power to open a path to a High God. It was the same door! Even the scratch marks on it were exactly the same.[1]

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s second time seeing it. The atmosphere and energy inside of this rift also seemed familiar to Xu Qing. It was very obvious... that this was the same ce the Captain went to that day.

    <i>I can¡¯t believe the y fox wanted toe here!</i>

    Xu Qing very clearly remembered what the Heir Apparent had said that day. Behind this door was a High God of the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    The appetion ¡®High God¡¯ referred to paramount and terrifying entities.

    Crimson Mother was a High God, as was wless Hell, Lord of the Nine Serenities.[2]

    Of course, even High Gods could be weak or strong. Yet the weakest of High Gods still possessed astonishing levels of might that surpassed anything mortals could imagine. That was why Xu Qing was feeling very taken aback. He clearly remembered how the Captain had stood in front of that door and made an agreement with whatever was on the other side. She had even offered a gift in the form of a gray strand of hair. The gray wind in the desert hade about because of that hair.

    <i>Reading into the situation, it seems that the High God behind this door made a deal with Eldest Brother in a past life.... With h¨¥r help, Eldest Brother was able to use his sacrificial dance techniques to hide the pieces of his body. And the Greenhair Bands was part of that deal. It¡¯s a trump card that Eldest Brother prepared years ago to target Crimson Mother!</i>

    As those thoughts entered his mind, he reeled as various puzzle pieces clicked together.

    <i>When I was in the y fox¡¯s shrine, I saw countless species bowing to a six-pointed star.... The Firemoon Darkheavens have three High Gods of the sun, moon, and star....</i>

    Xu Qing turned to look at the y fox. He was now starting toe up with an idea of who this y fox might be. The y fox smiled sweetly at Xu Qing, h¨¥r eyes flirtatious. Then sh¨¥ swayed into the rift, walked through the void, and right up to the door.

    ¡°Big sister,¡± sh¨¥ said, ¡°I¡¯ve finally found where you¡¯re sealed.¡±

    H¨¥r voice would enter the ears and stir the mind, bing like a vortex that would suck in all thoughts and leave behind nothing but nkness.

    The door didn¡¯t react. It wasn¡¯t like when the Captain came and all the banging started. However, the sinister atmosphere grew more intense. The mutagen also proliferated, making everything turn as blurry as if a fog had sprang up.

    Those things would have posed a major obstacle to ordinary cultivators. But it didn¡¯t do anything to the y fox. Smiling, sh¨¥ walked right up to the door.

    ¡°So, sister, it seems you were nning toe back sometime in the future, so you left behind this soul door. Interesting. I could tell something was off about you back in the day. You were very shifty, like you were nning to stuff yourself alone. Am I right? All these years I¡¯ve been wondering what it was that my big sister wanted to eat.¡±

    The y fox licked her lips, and her eyes glowed with pink light as she stood in front of the door.

    The moment she stopped moving, blood started oozing out of the cracks on the sides and bottom of the door.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, stood at the very edge of the rift. He didn¡¯t go inside.

    The y fox ignored the blood and spoke just as tenderly as before.

    ¡°Big sister, things have been rough for me these years. I finally found a kidney that smelled like you. Although the smell was faint, there was no way I could miss it. That was when I started to get an idea of what you were up to. However, you really went all-out in your effort to stay hidden and stuff yourself alone, sister. You even hid from me! It¡¯s been so hard! That said, there are a lot of amusing things in the world.¡±

    The y foxughed and turned to look at Xu Qing. As herughter shook her shoulders, her gauzy garment slipped further down, making her look even more seductive.

    ¡°And then,pletely unexpectedly, I felt karma on this naughty little boy, and my godliness told me that it wouldn¡¯t be long before I found you, sister. He was to be my guide, to lead me to you. See? That¡¯s how all of this happened. I haven¡¯t deceived you in the least bit, big sister. And now, I know exactly what you wanted to eat.¡±

    At that point, something banged against the door, as if someone had furiously punched it. Everything trembled.

    The blood on the ground rose into the air, transforming into the shape of a moon, the light of which shone down with godly might to illuminate everything.

    Even being on the edge of the rift, not inside, Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded, and his flesh quivered.

    <i>¡°You useless piece of trash!¡±</i> Xu Qing snapped inwardly at the god¡¯s finger. ¨©t was only a clone, but ¨©t was made from a god, and therefore, was a god, yet ¨©t wasn¡¯t helping him at all.

    The god¡¯s finger was furious, yet didn¡¯t dare to react, and just pretended to continue sleeping.

    Xu Qing ignored it and fought back against the aura with everything he had, including the power of the violet moon. He also released some authority to help sustain himself. Despite all of that, he wasn¡¯t sure how much longer he could endure.

    ¡°Such a temper, sister!¡± the y fox said with a soft chuckle. The air behind her rippled and distorted as suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies appeared. They became a starry sky, the light of which converged into a totem of a six-pointed star. The moment the totem appeared, everything in the area began to tremble as though two powerful forces were shing.

    At the same time, much of the pressure weighing down on Xu Qing disappeared. The sh didn¡¯tst for long. A momentter, both sides backed down and everything went calm. At the same time, a voice spoke for the first time from the other side of the door. It was the voice of a woman, and it dripped with loathing.

    ¡°Watch your tongue, you slutty fox!¡±

    The y fox didn¡¯t seem to mind the use of the word ¡®slutty.¡¯ In fact, it almost seemed like the word was a confirmation of h¨¥r alluring powers, and it caused h¨¥r to smile even more broadly.

    ¡°That¡¯s fine, big sister. However, it¡¯s not okay to go around eating alone. It¡¯s Crimson Mother we¡¯re talking about....¡± When the y fox mentioned Crimson Mother, a flicker of dread could be seen in h¨¥r eyes. ¡°As you yourself said, if you¡¯re not careful, you might miss out on eating and even worse, pay a horrific price. Therefore, big sister... why not do it together?¡±

    A cold snort echoed out from behind the door, and then the scratch marks on the door flowed together into the shape of a closed eye. The eye opened. Mutagen erupted out, causing everything to ripple and distort, and filling the area with a sound like chanting. That was the eye of a god. It was golden colored, with double pupils, full of apathy as it first looked at the y fox and then Xu Qing.

    When the eye looked at him, Xu Qing shivered. The authority within him exploded out, yet not even that was enough to negate the effects he was feeling. ck energy abounded within him, which was the evidence of a mutagen invasion.

    A deadly sense of crisis arose within him. Every inch of his flesh screamed and trembled as a profound level of decay and rot spread through him.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that and focused on keeping his soul independent. At longst, the god¡¯s finger could no longer pretend to be asleep. Spitting out the most foul-mouthed curses, ¨©t started restoring ¨©ts body.... Seeing that, Xu Qing felt a bit more calm. Looking at the door, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Senior!¡±

    The eye of the god glittered brightly. ¡°I remember you. You were herest time with that damned traitor. And now you¡¯vee again with the slutty fox.¡±

    Before Xu Qing could respond, the y fox stepped forward daintily to stand between Xu Qing and the door, blocking the eye¡¯s line of sight. The pressure on Xu Qing faded.

    The y fox looked over h¨¥r shoulder at him sympathetically. ¡°Don¡¯t fear, little boy. I¡¯m here for you.¡± Sh¨¥ turned back to look at the door, chuckling softly. ¡°Big sister, you¡¯re talking to your little sister¡¯s husband! Don¡¯t even think about coveting his primal yang. It¡¯s mine.¡±

    The god¡¯s eye on the door focused on the y fox for a long moment. Then another cold snort echoed out. No more words were spoken. Instead, the eye closed and transformed back into a host of scratch marks. Clearly, High God Moonfire had chosen to tacitly agree to the y fox¡¯s suggestion.

    ¡°Thank you, big sister,¡± the y fox said, smiling dazzlingly. Truth be told, even if the y fox didn¡¯t try at all to be enticing, sh¨¥ would still be iparably alluring. Sh¨¥ was certainly a rarity among beautiful women. As sh¨¥ smiled, the y fox waved h¨¥r hand, causing the surrounding void to contract. Cracking sounds echoed out as a y door rose up right next to the wooden door. ¡°I¡¯ll leave for now, big sister.¡±

    The y fox walked over to the door, then looked back at Xu Qing and blinked seductively a few times. ¡°Want toe to my ce for a visit, naughty boy?¡±

    Maintaining a very sincere facial expression, Xu Qing politely refused.

    Laughter rang out as the y fox beckoned at him with h¨¥r finger. ¡°In that case, take care of your primal yang for me. I¡¯ll say farewell for now. Remember to call for me when the food is ready to serve.¡±

    She waved h¨¥r hand in his direction, and a patch of mist carried a silver bone over to him. Before he could do anything, the mist spread out and covered him. Next, everything around him rippled, as though space and time were being manipted. Everything blurred as he left the ce of a god and shot back through the void.

    A momentter, the mist disappeared, and Xu Qing found himself back in the valley. The sky was still red. A sinister wind still blew. Weeds choked the valley, stirring slightly. No one was around.

    He was standing on the exact spot where he had stepped into the shrine. It was almost as if everything that he¡¯d just experienced was a dream. It was hard not to feel dazed. After a moment passed, he opened his hand.

    Resting on his palm was a silver bone. Back when he met the y fox for the first time, she had shown that silver bone to him and mentioned that it was an Ancient Spirit bone pill that could be a huge help to the cultivation of any Ancient Spirit. Taking a deep breath, he turned to the depths of the valley, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior.¡±

    1. The Captain opened the door in <u>chapter 646</u>. ?

    2. In this passage, the author only mentions ¡°the Lord of Nine Serenities,¡± but does not use the name wless Hell. I was initially confused by this and thought it was a reference I had forgotten. Later on, other contextual evidence makes it obvious that it¡¯s referring to the High God that Crimson Mother devoured in the Land of Cruelmurk. I¡¯m editing this passage to reflect the name we already know for this entity. The fact that the author also calls him the Lord of the Nine Serenities just further emphasizes the connection to the underworld/hell. As I¡¯m sure most of you know, the Nine Serenities is one of many poetic names referring to hell or the underworld. wless Hell was mentioned in <u>chapters 524.2</u> and <u>525.1</u> ?

 Chapter 666: An Old Friend from Sea-Sealing

    <h4>Chapter 666: An Old Friend from Sea-Sealing</h4>

    The powers of a god could be described as extraordinary and unfathomable. The y fox¡¯s actions made that more clear than ever to Xu Qing. And it also gave him a deeper understanding of gods in general.

    <i>Gods are neither evil nor good. It alles down to what makes them happy.</i>

    In Xu Qing¡¯s memories, all the gods he had encountered were like that. There were no exceptions.

    <i>Whatever problems I might be thinking about right now would be of bug-like significance to the gods. Th¨¥ir thinking and actions aren¡¯t even worth attempting to analyze. Only when godly nature disperses both animal nature and human nature will I be able to think in the same way as th¨¥m.</i>

    Xu Qing looked out at the desert as he thought about everything he¡¯d experienced. Then he looked back at the valley.

    <i>The Firemoon Darkheaven species....</i>

    With that, he flew off at top speed. Days passed. The wind and sand blew against his face as he flew along. The gray wind was what prevented any outsiders from entering the desert, yet didn¡¯t affect the local cultivators hardly at all.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t bepletely sure, but it seemed to him that on his return trip, the wind was different from before.

    <i>This sandstorm was created by one of High God Moonfire¡¯s hairs. And I just met that very same High God....</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing stopped in ce in the wind and experimentally waved his hand out in front of him.

    ¡°Disperse.¡±

    The wind didn¡¯t change in any way. Xu Qing retracted his hand and continued traveling.

    However, not long after that, the wind suddenly vibrated, then copsed in front of him, creating a narrow passage like a canyon. Wind blew on both sides, connecting heaven and earth. Only that small, 300-meter gap was empty. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he sped hands, bowed to the wind, and then sped onward.

    Before long, he saw the Bitter Life Mountains up ahead. The familiar sight of the mountains and the mudbrick city calmed him. A momentter, he vanished, to reappear in the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Upon stepping out onto the main floor of the shop, Ling¡¯er, who had been absent-mindedly doing the ounts, looked up at him.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing!¡± She threw aside her treasured ounting book and raced over to him, her face alive with joy. Wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest, she said, ¡°Where¡¯d you go off to, Big Bro Xu Qing? And why didn¡¯t you tell me before you left! I got so worried....¡±

    Before she could say anything else, however, her nose twitched as she smelled something. She sniffed again, more deeply.

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu looked over at the developing scene.

    Nethersprite, meanwhile, checked the boiling water and then gave a sarcastic chuckle. ¡°Men,¡± she muttered.

    Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent, who was sipping his tea. The Heir Apparent looked back nonchntly.

    Xu Qing could tell that the Heir Apparent must have told Ling¡¯er about him going to see the y fox. That said, he didn¡¯t mind. Taking out a bag of holding, he held it out to Ling¡¯er.

    ¡°I went back to see those y people,¡± he said quietly. ¡°I needed to handle something for Eldest Brother. And I also got something for you.¡±

    Ling¡¯er took the bag of holding. Looking suspicious, she opened it. Her eyes lit up. ¡°An Ancient Spirit bone pill!¡±

    Xu Qing smiled and tousled her hair. ¡°Go work on your cultivation. That pill will help you a lot.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Big Bro Xu Qing! You¡¯re so awesome!¡± Ling¡¯er was bursting with happiness. As far as she was concerned, her Big Bro Xu Qing treated her the best. As it turned out, the entire purpose of his recent trip had been to get something for her. Realizing that, Ling¡¯er decided that acting suspicious wasn¡¯t a good thing. Feeling a bit guilty, she said, ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing, it¡¯s been a while since I used my cooking skills. I¡¯m going to make you some amazing dishes to eat tonight!¡±

    Xu Qing wanted to object, but then he looked at the Heir Apparent, who smiled back and nodded.

    Ling¡¯er looked even happier than before. Clutching the bone pill, she ran back into the kitchen to start preparing the food.

    Xu Qing sat down in front of the Heir Apparent. ¡°Senior, sh¨¥ was the Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s High God Starfire.¡±

    The Heir Apparent nodded and put down his cup. ¡°What did sh¨¥ want?¡±

    ¡°The same as High God Moonfire,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly. ¡°And now there¡¯s also a y door at the God Decapitation Altar.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. After giving the matter some thought, he smiled. ¡°Interesting. Countless threads here in the Moonrite Region are all connected into a giantwork of fuses, and one by one, they¡¯re being lit.... Boy, your Eldest Brother is no simpleton. That said, you¡¯re even moreplicated than he is.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s all ording to our Master¡¯s arrangements.¡±

    The Heir Apparent hesitated briefly. Given what he knew, he no longer believed what Xu Qing said about his Master¡¯s arrangements. For one thing, he now felt he could sympathize with Xu Qing¡¯s Master after having personally dealt with Xu Qing¡¯s powers of understanding. Now he was just interested in seeing what these two fellow apprentices would ultimately aplish. Because of that, the Heir Apparent had formed some theories about Xu Qing¡¯s Master, although he couldn¡¯t make any final determinations now.

    Meanwhile, the sounds and smells of cooking wafted out of the kitchen, causing Ning Yan¡¯s nose to twitch and his eyes to light up.

    At the door, Wu Jianwu took a deep breath. <i>¡°She snips and slices with a great attitude; who went and asked for some gourmet food?¡±</i>

    Even the Heir Apparent turned to the kitchen and gave a slight nod. ¡°Who would have thought that the girl was actually this good at cooking? Oh, by the way, I¡¯m going on a trip in the next few days. You got back just in time. Let me see that jade slip I gave you earlier.¡±

    Nodding earnestly, Xu Qing took out the jade slip used to control the chickens.

    The Heir Apparent took it, fiddling with it briefly, then handed it back. ¡°The jade slip still contains the warding spells to control the chickens. But now, you also have the warding spells for Inkrule and Nethersprite.¡±

    When Nethersprite heard that, her expression darkened.

    Xu Qing put the jade slip away safely. He could tell that the Heir Apparent was worried about staying away from the Green Spirit Pharmacy, and had acted ordingly. With that jade slip, he could definitely keep the Green Spirit Pharmacy safe for a time.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing asked, ¡°Senior, does your trip rte to Grandpa Ninth?¡±

    The Heir Apparent nodded. ¡°I¡¯m just about ready to unseal him. This time, we won¡¯t need your help. We can handle it on our own.¡±

    Around that time, Ling¡¯er bustled excitedly out of the kitchen with two dishes which she ced on the table. Then she hurried back to the kitchen and came out a momentter with more dishes. That continued until there were a total of eight dishes on the table.

    With that aplished, Ling¡¯er stood to the side and called for everyone to eat. ¡°Grandpa Heir Apparent. Big Bro Xu Qing. Big Sis Nethersprite. Please, have a taste!¡±

    Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t need an invitation to sit down. Nethersprite stopped what she was doing, looked at the dishes, and gave a friendly nod.

    The Heir Apparent was curious. Picking up some food with his chopsticks, he put it in his mouth. He smiled, looked deeply at Xu Qing, and nodded.

    ¡°Excellent.¡±

    Everyone hurried to try the food. Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes went wide, Ning Yan blushed, and Nethersprite looked contemtively at Xu Qing.

    Ling¡¯er was obviously very nervous as she watched Xu Qing calmly eating a few bites. Finally she said, ¡°If it tastes good, make sure to eat as much as you want!¡±

    Ling¡¯er¡¯s culinary skills had clearly improved. The eight dishes smelled, looked, and tasted great. Xu Qing was actually surprised.

    Ning Yan swallowed, smiled, and eximed, ¡°It¡¯s delicious!¡±

    Wu Jianwu had originally been nning to take a bite and then say he wasn¡¯t hungry. But seeing the reactions of Xu Qing and the Heir Apparent, he cautiously picked up some more food with his chopsticks. Nethersprite continued eating. By the time dinner ended, all of the food was gone. Ling¡¯er was incredibly satisfied, and was now convinced that her amazing culinary skills and cooking talents actually surpassed her cultivation ability.

    <i>I should open a restaurant!</i> she thought.

    Three days passed and the Heir Apparent left.

    The day after that, Sir Skysouth from the Moonrebel Congregation came to say farewell. The war on the outside had reached a fever pitch. The forces of the Moonrebel Congregation had experienced numerous defeats; Second Vice-Bishop¡¯s army had suffered severe casualties, and was in a very precarious situation. Given that Sir Skysouth was also Fourth Vice-Bishop, he had to take people out to provide reinforcements for Second Vice-Bishop. The Bitter Life Mountains were rtively safe, but Sir Skysouth couldn¡¯t just sit around watching people suffer.

    ¡°I¡¯m Fourth Vice-Bishop from the Moonrebel Congregation. I¡¯m duty-bound to resist the red moon and protect my home, and I¡¯m not going to shirk that responsibility. We need people to stand up.... I might be old and weak, but now¡¯s not the time to start worrying about my own life. If I don¡¯te back, my shattered soul will remain one with the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±

    As Sir Skysouth spoke the words, he looked incredibly determined and unfearful of death.

    After he said farewell, Xu Qing watched him leave, and suddenly found himself thinking about Pce Lord Kong from the Swordsage Pce.

    <i>They¡¯re the same type of person.</i>

    ***

    The red moon rose higher. The color in the sky grew deeper, until all of the Moonrite Region was as red as blood.

    That was especially true the closer you got to the Yin Sacrifice River. The river itself was already the color of blood, and the smell of blood and gore was strong around it. Now, it was more intense than ever.

    Nowadays, it was rare to see travelers from outside the region. After all, the merchants and businessmen all knew that a god wasing to harvest the Spirit Garden. And yet, a dpidated boat could still be seen floating across the waves of the river, heading from the direction of Holytide territory.

    Before long, the boat became clearer. It had been patched together so many times it looked like it was on the verge of falling apart. Yet it cut through the water until it reached the shore. A figure flew out just as the boat finally copsed and sank into the water. The figure looked around, sighed, and then stamped his foot on the ground.

    <i>I can¡¯t believe that viin took my Ling¡¯er away for such a long time and hasn¡¯t brought her back! I should have known he took her to this cesspit of a region!</i>

    <i>My Ling¡¯er has definitely been eating and sleeping poorly. She¡¯s probably starving and freezing at the same time. She¡¯s almost certainly shivering from fear at having to follow that fellow around all the time, and she¡¯s definitely in constant danger. Who knows how many enemies might be chasing them, and she has nobody to keep her safe! It¡¯spletely inappropriate.</i>

    <i>I should have known all along that effeminate little bastard isn¡¯t reliable! You just wait, you little rogue. I¡¯m going to find you!</i>

    The red light of the sky shone down on an ancient and exhausted individual that was none other than the innkeeper from nkspring way. After cursing up a storm, he finally sighed and looked off into the distance.

    <i>This region is so big, though. Where am I supposed to look?</i>

 Chapter 667: Big Changes to Moonrebel

    <h4>Chapter 667: Big Changes to Moonrebel</h4>

    The old innkeeper had made the perilous journey of tens upon tens of thousands of kilometers from Sea-Sealing County to the shores of the Yin Sacrifice River, braving a host of dangers, all to find Ling¡¯er, who he was convinced was starving, exhausted, and freezing to death....

    That very same Ling¡¯er was currently seated cross-legged in her room in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Life had been carefree and without worry recently. She had a bunch of grandpas and grandmas around, always encouraging her cute behavior. Plus she had a great rtionship with Xu Qing. Because of all that, she felt like a little princess.

    Her tender little cheeks were incredibly charming as she looked down at the bone pill Xu Qing had given her. The fact that the y fox had taken that pill indicated how extraordinary it was. It was definitely from some almighty member of the Ancient Spirit species. To members of any other species, it wouldn¡¯t be very useful. But to an Ancient Spirit, it was nothing short of a precious treasure.

    That was especially true of Ling¡¯er, who had already been blessed by the destiny aura of the Ancient Spirits. Given the short length of time she had been in the Moonrite Region, she didn¡¯t need to worry about the curse affecting her blood. She absorbed the power of the bone pill without facing any obstacles. She was only limited by how much her body was able to absorb.

    Given that Xu Qing was standing by as dharma protector, there was no way anything could go wrong.

    As she circted her cultivation base, the bone pill slowly melted, turning into silver streams of energy that she inhaled. Then they spread through her body and caused her cultivation base to surge.

    Back when Xu Qing first arrived in the Moonrite Region, Ling¡¯er¡¯s cultivation base was still in Foundation Establishment, and wasn¡¯t very stable. After everything she had experienced, it was now very stable.

    Ancient Spirits practiced cultivation in a different way from most other species. They didn¡¯t have to bother with the process of opening dharma apertures and igniting life mes. As Ling¡¯er absorbed the bone pill, her aura started getting closer and closer to the Gold Core level.

    Xu Qing was surprised by what he was seeing.

    <i>Very simr to the taboo poison pill.... It¡¯s an ancient cultivation method, very different from what people do nowadays.</i>

    It reminded him very much of how he¡¯d absorbed that taboo poison pill into himself. The biggest difference was that Xu Qing and the taboo poison pill had different origins, and therefore, him putting it into his heavenly pce was an indirect method to gain an initial measure of control.

    Things were very different with Ling¡¯er. As the silver energy poured into her, the bone pill disappeared from her hand. When it reappeared inside of her, it had be an internal core.

    All of a sudden, Ling¡¯er¡¯s bloodline power surged, and behind her appeared a female warrior god d in a suit of armor. The woman was tall and wlessly beautiful, but at the same time emanated a sense of killing and death. She had a long spear in her hand, and had a dragon and a snake coiled around her. That was the true form of an Ancient Spirit. Ancient Spirits started out as snakes when they were young. After reaching adulthood, they could take human form, and when their bloodlinepletely matured, they would gain a dragon and a snake to watch over them. Their battle prowess would also be shocking.

    <i>Like a demon!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone as he realized that Ling¡¯er¡¯s cultivation method was very simr to the cultivation of various wild animals. It involved cultivating a personal internal core and drawing out one¡¯s bloodline.

    This breakthrough was going to be very important to Ling¡¯er, and couldn¡¯t bepleted in one short session. It would require a sustained buildup of power. And thus, as Ling¡¯er slowly proceeded with her cultivation, she became a streak of light that shot over to Xu Qing¡¯s arm and became a sealing mark there.

    By means of the sealing mark, Xu Qing could sense how Ling¡¯er was doing. After making sure everything was going smoothly, he checked on his nascent souls.

    <i>I need to get all of my other nascent souls besides the violet moon one into the position of being able to summon the fifth tribtion. After that fifth tribtion, I¡¯ll be in the great circle of Nascent Soul. Oh, right. I need to go give this kidney to Eldest Brother.</i>

    With that, Xu Qing took out the mirror shard and went back to Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation. As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard the Captain shouting at him.

    ¡°I can sense my kidney, little Ah Qing! You have it, don¡¯t you? You must have paid a grievous price for my sake, little Junior Brother. I¡¯ll never forget that!¡±

    The Captain was now visible in the totem on the door, and he looked very excited.

    Looking at him, Xu Qing waved his hand to produce the golden kidney, which he sent flying toward the totem. It merged inside, whereupon a very contented sigh drifted out from the Captain.

    ¡°I can finally be aplete man again! Little Junior Brother, all of the preparations are in ce now. All we have to do is open this door. Don¡¯t worry! We can work together from both outside and inside. By adding in the blood of those god bastards, we¡¯ll definitely be able to bust this thing open!¡± The Captain was obviously emboldened and excited at having his kidney returned to him. ¡°By the way, little Junior Brother, did you get any clues about who that y fox is?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°It¡¯s High God Starfire.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Xu Qing then went on to exin the story to the Captain, taking his time but not going too slow, and finishing with an exnation about the y door.

    The Captain listened carefully. ¡°So that¡¯s who we¡¯re dealing with. I neverid eyes on that y fox in person, little Junior Brother, but based on your description, this extremely amorous High God is almost certainly up to no good.¡± The Captain licked his lips and continued, ¡°You¡¯ve done too much for me, little Junior Brother. I just can¡¯t bear to ask you to do any more. Therefore... do you mind introducing me to that slutty¡ª er, ahem, I mean to that High God? I can handle her!¡±

    From the Captain¡¯s tone, it seemed he would be willing to do anything for his Junior Brother.

    ¡°You said High God Starfire likes primal yang, right? I can give it to her! As the Eldest Brother, it doesn¡¯t matter if we¡¯re talking about friendship or just morality, I have to do my part. Therefore, I¡¯ll do it! I¡¯ll give my primal yang to this High God!¡± The Captain actually looked a bit angry.

    ¡°Thanks, Eldest Brother. I actually did offer to introduce you, but sh¨¥ said you¡¯re too ugly.¡±

    After all, that had been Xu Qing¡¯s n from the beginning.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s jaw nearly dropped and he looked hesitantly at Xu Qing, unsure of whether Xu Qing had said that simply as aeback, or if his story was true. Either way, adding another High God would make the job moreplicated, but would also increase the chances of sess. Eventually, the Captain cleared his throat and held back from asking further questions.

    In the following days, Xu Qing worked on his cultivation and also spent time sending fresh godchild blood into Paramount Temple for the Captain to use. The banging on the door there grew more intense.

    The Crimson Mother totem was starting to smoke and turn blurry. If things kept developing as they were, it seemed it wouldn¡¯t be long before the totem was unraveled.

    The cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation had already grown used to the constant noiseing from Paramount Temple. Few people paid much attention to it. As the red moon grew more oppressive, Crimson Mother¡¯s return neared, and the Red Moon Cathedral tightened their, the resistance forces of the Moonrebel Congregation were in increasing peril.

    And then, about ten dayster, something momentous urred.

    Second Vice-Bishop perished in battle!

    His death was a huge blow to the Moonrebel Congregation. That battle was a blood-soaked affair with innumerable casualties. It led to endless cries of grief, and shook the hearts of everyone. Sir Skysouth, who was also Fourth Vice-Bishop, went to provide backup, yet he was also seriously hurt. In the end, he couldn¡¯t turn the situation around, and had to flee with the scattered survivors.

    Before the members of the Moonrebel Congregation could recover from that loss, something even more momentous happened. In fact, it struck the Moonrebel Congregation as a whole like a bolt of lightning.

    First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop betrayed the Moonrebel Congregation and defected to the Red Moon Cathedral! What was more, as part of their betrayal, they used their authority to eject all members from the Moonrebel Congregation, then seal all the entrances so no one could return. It caused a massive uproar. After all, the Moonrebel Congregation itself was the final ce that cultivators could run to in an emergency. If they couldn¡¯t seek refuge there, then there was no chance that the Moonrebel Congregation could survive.

    Third Vice-Bishop and Fourth Vice-Bishop were still around. One of them was holed up while the other was on the run. But regardless, First Vice-Bishop had the highest level of authority, and thus, there was no way for either of the loyal vice-bishops to unseal the Moonrebel Congregation.

    The most relevant factor was that the development created a crisis of faith amongst all the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators. It went without saying that the betrayal of two vice-bishops put the Moonrebel Congregation on very shaky ground. It didn¡¯t matter whether the vice-bishops did it out of expediency or if they had been traitors all along. In the end, the ultimate reason for all of it was that for years, the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s Paramount Temple had never been opened, and thus there had never been an archbishop. Without a true leader, any organization will be <i>as disunited as anything and everything</i>.

    It was the ultimate moment of despair and chaos for the Moonrite Region. And off in the distance, the red moon was already halfway risen. There was no hope anymore, nor any indication that hope was on the way. The countdown had truly begun for everyone.

    Meanwhile, the Greenhair Bands was the only paradise in the region, and was like a bright light shining during a dark night.

    Just outside of that light, the seriously injured Fourth Vice-Bishop led his subordinates, as well as the surviving forces of Second Vice-Bishop, toward the desert. There was nowhere else for them to go.

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators that made up the group were all numb and dispirited. Most of them didn¡¯t even care if they died. Exhaustion had be a burden that they simply couldn¡¯t get rid of.

    And yet, there were some members of the group who looked in higher spirits than the others. They didn¡¯t seem numb or depressed, but rather, extremely excited. It was as if they weren¡¯t burdened by exhaustion, but instead, were fueled by a brightly burning hope in their hearts. That group was a few thousand strong, and almost seemed like a standalone organization. Their members had both strong and weak cultivation bases, but they all were united.

    What was especially noteworthy was that they wore clothing of a different color and cut than everyone else, almost like a uniform. The front of those garments were embroidered with the character Nine. The backs were embroidered with the character Pill.

    This group was made up of followers of the legendary and mysterious Grandmaster Pill Nine from the Moonrebel Congregation.

    Their leader was a woman with a Spirit Trove cultivation base. Her flowing robe wasn¡¯t enough to hide her attractive figure, and her facial features were so spectacr that she was clearly a peerless beauty. She didn¡¯t have the strongest cultivation base of that group. Yet the Grandmaster Pill Nine followers viewed her as their leader. Obviously she had a high status among the followers.

    When she spoke, her voice thrummed with exuberance and heroism. ¡°Just hang on a bit longer, everyone. We¡¯re almost at the Greenhair Bands! When I listened to the grandmaster¡¯s dao reverberation for two months, I could sense how profound and mysterious he was. The grandmaster uses the green sand as the furnace, the sun and moon as the fire, and the naturalws of heaven and earth as the medicinal ingredients. Then, by tapping into the white wind, he made his new pill.

    ¡°The only ce you can find that white wind is the Greenhair Bands. And thus... I¡¯m absolutely certain the grandmaster is in the desert!¡±

 Chapter 668: A Lord Young but Very Experienced

    Chapter 668: A Lord Young but Very Experienced

    That valiant and formidable woman was actually Xu Qing¡¯s neighbor from the Moonrebel Congregation. The statues there didn¡¯t just conceal one¡¯s facial features, they could also keep one¡¯s gender a secret. Before the resistance movement kicked off, nobody knew the true identity of that ¡®bare-chested burly man¡¯. As it turned out, ¡®he¡¯ was actually a woman. That said, this woman actually had a very manly personality, which was obvious given the words she had just spoken.

    She was the very first and most original follower of Grandmaster Pill Nine. She had listened to his two months of dao reverberations, and had also been the one to organize his followers. Given all of that, this neighbor of Xu Qing¡¯s was actually quite well-known. She was skilled at organizingrge groups, which was indisputable considering that there were now thousands of Pill Nine followers. And those were only the core members. There were even more followers who had spread out into Moonrite. As a result, more and more cultivators wereing to hear the name Pill Nine. The core members were now attached to Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s forces, and were getting closer and closer to the Greenhair Bands.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was being paid a formal visit by Patriarch Inkrule.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were gone, which meant that Xu Qing was in charge. And since Patriarch Inkrule was an employee of the Green Spirit Pharmacy, he didn¡¯t dare to be rash when dealing with whatever issues popped up.

    That said, deep in his heart, he was still a bit resentful at having to take orders from Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t necessarily because of Xu Qing¡¯s status, but rather, his age. As far as Patriarch Inkrule was concerned, it just didn¡¯t make sense for a child to have such important responsibilities.

    ¡°Young Lord, this is a bit differentpared tost time,¡± Patriarch Inkrule said to Xu Qing, his expression somber. ¡°Last time, the Heir Apparent and his siblings were here, which is why we could open the defenses and let Fourth Vice-Bishop and his forces inside. But now¡­ Fourth Vice-Bishop is being chased by a cathedral army. That¡¯s why I highly suggest that we do not open the gray wind defenses.¡±

    Because of the discussion, the atmosphere inside the medicine shop was tense. Ning Yan wasn¡¯t scrubbing the floor. Wu Jianwu wasn¡¯t reciting any poetry. Li Youfei and Nethersprite were both looking at Xu Qing.

    Li Youfei was the only one who looked outright nervous. Ning Yan had a serious expression on his face. He had been one of Xu Qing¡¯s subordinates from the very beginning, and had been present to witness all of the amazing things he¡¯d done, and the way he won the hearts of countless species. Because of that, he knew that Xu Qing had ample experience in dealing with this kind of situation.

    Although Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t know as much about Xu Qing as Ning Yan did, he had heard plenty of stories. Nethersprite had seen Xu Qing in action on the field of battle, andter on, had heard stories about the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup. Therefore, she knew there was a lot more to him than met the eye.Clearly, Patriarch Inkrule <em>didn¡¯t</em> know what they knew, as he looked straight at Xu Qing and forcefully said, ¡°Young Lord, please make your final decision!¡±

    His expression was very solemn. The situation had reached a critical point outside the desert. If they did open the defenses, it would make the desert very vulnerable to danger.

    As everyone looked on, Xu Qing sat in the same spot where the Heir Apparent usually sat. His eyes were closed in thought.

    Ling¡¯er knew that it was a delicate situation, so she just stood quietly behind Xu Qing.

    Time ticked by. Xu Qing didn¡¯t speak. Gradually, an imposing and dignified air seemed to build up around him. He was currently thinking back to Sea-Sealing County, and how he¡¯d stood in for Pce Lord Kong to lead the Swordsage Pce. Back then, he had far fewer trump cards than he had now, yet still managed to turn the entire situation on its head.

    ¡°What¡¯s the current state of our armed forces?¡± he asked calmly, opening his eyes.

    ¡°The desert forces were weak to begin with,¡± Patriarch Inkrule replied. ¡°Though the gray wind does serve as a defense, that doesn¡¯t make our armed forces here strong. In all of the Greenhair Bands, there are only three Void Returning cultivators. There are nine in Spirit Trove, including members of the Wind Guardians. We have over a hundred Nascent Soul experts, with the rest being low-level cultivators. And that doesn¡¯t count the Green Spirit Pharmacy.¡± Somewhat surprised at how calm Xu Qing was, Patriarch Inkrule decided to add a final warning. ¡°Compared to the Red Moon Cathedral, our forces are like <em>one hair from among nine oxen</em>. Unless the Heir Apparent returns... we aren¡¯t strong enough to fight back.¡±

    Patriarch Inkrule seemed about to continue speaking when he suddenly took out a jade slip and checked it. A look of surprise appeared on his face.

    ¡°Young Lord, I just got some news. Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s army is changing directions. They¡¯re noting toward us anymore. They¡¯re going in a different direction on the periphery of the desert. It looks like they¡¯re trying to find a spot to make ast stand. They don¡¯t want to cause trouble for us....¡±

    Inkrule eventually trailed off, his facial expressionplex and somewhat helpless.

    Xu Qing nodded and picked up a cup of tea. He didn¡¯t drink. Instead, he just looked at the tea inside. Within the tiny ripples, he felt like he could see a person from his memories. Years ago, that person stood on the border of Sea-Sealing County, burning to death as he single-handedly blocked an army. At that time, Xu Qing¡¯s heart had filled with pain, and yet he had been powerless to save that person. Today... there was a simr person that needed help. A moment passed.

    Xu Qing stood. ¡°First, have all of our cultivatorse into the Bitter Life Mountains. This is going to be our main gathering point. Without orders from me, no one is to leave the mountains. Second. Notify Fourth Vice-Bishop that he¡¯s not to change directions. Tell him toe right into the desert.¡±

    Patriarch Inkrule heard his orders but hesitated.

    Xu Qing looked up at him, his expression cid. ¡°The red moon has already taken over half the sky. True cmity is only months away. If we just sit idly by and watch Fourth Vice-Bishop fight with the Red Moon Cathedral, then what exactly would be the point of calling ourselves Moonrebels?

    ¡°Besides, if Fourth Vice-Bishop and his people are captured, will the Red Moon Cathedral just forget about the desert? Regardless of that, we¡¯re connected to Fourth Vice-Bishop. As the saying goes, <em>without the lips, the teeth feel the cold</em>. And therefore... we will fight! There won¡¯t be any more debate about it! Ning Yan!¡±

    ¡°Here, sir!¡± Ning Yan said, shivering as he stepped forward and stood with his back straight. He suddenly felt like he was back in Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°As a member of my Secretariat Division, you will work with Senior Inkrule to ry my orders.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Ning Yan replied loudly.

    ¡°Wu Jianwu!¡±

    ¡°Here!¡± Wu Jianwu was already getting swept up in the moment.

    ¡°I want you to send all your children out into the desert, especially the parrot. They¡¯re in charge of reconnaissance!¡±

    Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t dare to act disobediently, and immediately nodded his head.

    ¡°Nethersprite!¡±

    Nethersprite didn¡¯t say anything, but she looked up at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You keep Ling¡¯er safe, and stand guard over the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Li Youfei, same for you.¡±

    ¡°Great!¡± Nethersprite agreed, and Li Youfei nodded vigorously. Thetter could already sense that Xu Qing was different from before.

    Having given his orders, Xu Qing took out a jade slip and gave it to Ling¡¯er. ¡°When the God Decapitation Altar appears in the sky outside, crush this jade slip!¡±

    With that, Xu Qing strode out of the Green Spirit Pharmacy. He waved his hand, and a host of clucking sounds could be heard as the chickens flew out from the backyard. Light glittered around them as they all transformed into huge chickens. Those who had performed well previously now had dazzling feathers, making it obvious they had been promoted. In fact, beneath their feathers you could see their actual bodies. Clearly, they had been rewarded with some freedom. After a brief bit of squabbling over position, they clustered around Xu Qing as he flew up into the sky.

    Patriarch Inkrule looked on, moved. He could tell that Xu Qing was nning to take the flock of chickens and go personally receive Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    ¡°This....¡± Although Inkrule actually agreed with Xu Qing¡¯s decisions, he still hesitated. Then he nced at Ning Yan and the others. Considering how low their cultivation bases were, he disdained them. And yet, he had no one else to get information from.

    ¡°Does the young lord¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Ning Yan said proudly. ¡°This entire situation isn¡¯t a very big deal to our exalted leader. Back in Sea-Sealing County, he single-handedly quelled unrest in two forbidden grounds in order to levy millions upon millions of troops to send to the front line. You know what type of cultivators were in that army? First-stage Void Returning. And second stage. And third stage. What species out there <em>wouldn¡¯t</em> follow his orders?

    ¡°Ultimately, during the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup, he brought peace to the entire county. Our human emperor issued a promation of approval, and even named him as the governor-elect. As a result, our exalted leader is probably the most famous person in Sea-Sealing County, and has long since won the hearts of the people.¡±

    When Inkrule heard all of that, his pupils constricted. He could tell that Ning Yan wasn¡¯t lying, yet the things he¡¯d just said left the patriarch feeling shaken to the core. ¡°Quelled unrest in two forbidden grounds? Levied millions upon millions of troops? The governor-elect?¡±

    As he reeled in shock, Xu Qing stood atop the head of a huge bird as it shot through the dome of heaven over the desert.

    As he moved along, his eyes turned pitch ck, and his gaze filled with taboo poison power. As that power spread out and was carried by the wind, the gray wind around him turned ck and ghastly. The roiling poison within it caused all of the chickens to tremble fearfully.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. As the taboo poison power grew stronger around him, he reached the border of the desert. There, he waved his hand, causing the wind ahead of him to split apart and create an opening. Deafening rumbling sounds spread out everywhere.

    From a distance, the gap in the sand and wind looked like a valley with a road in the middle of it. Off in the distance, it was already possible to see Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s army being pursued by the cathedral cultivators. Intense fighting was already ying out, and people were dying.

    However, the rumbling sound caught the attention of both parties to the conflict, and countless eyes shifted to focus on Xu Qing.

    That included all of the Grandmaster Pill Nine followers.

    As Xu Qing stood in the gap in the sand and wind, he raised his right hand and pointed straight out.

    ¡°Poison!¡± he said. The poison wind around him erupted, sweeping forward, its poison and mutagen causing everything around it to blur. Few people qualified to avoid that poison as it rolled over the army from the Red Moon Cathedral.

    From a distance, it looked like a huge sea of poison spreading out, to the astonishment of all onlookers. The ground rotted, turning ck. The red light from the sky couldn¡¯t pierce through the poison cloud. This basically counted as the first time Xu Qing had actually used the taboo poison in his gaze.

    Within the taboo poison was Xu Qing, his face expressionless, his eyes cold, godliness rising within him.

    ¡°God cultivator!¡±

    It was hard to say who said it first, but soon countless people in the crowd were echoing the same words.

 Chapter 669: Not Recognizing the Gentleman in Front Of the Peach Flowers

    Chapter 669: Not Recognizing the Gentleman in Front Of the Peach Flowers

    In the past, the taboo poison couldn¡¯t distinguish between friend and foe. It affected everything within its range. But now that it was part of Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, he had much more control over it. He could set specific targets, and in the current situation, that meant the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators weren¡¯t affected.

    The ughter was focused on the cathedral cultivators. Within moments, cries of rm began rising up, and numerous cathedral cultivators fell back in terror. Some of the weaker ones screamed as their flesh melted and they turned into pools of blood on the ground. The majority, however, just had to deal with rotting flesh as well as the pain it brought. The mere threat of death was enough topletely unsettle them and force them to unleash whatever red moon power they could. Only the toughest cultivators were temporarily unharmed.

    In the final analysis, the Moonrebel cultivators had a bit less pressure, and thus Fourth Vice-Bishop issued the orders to immediately flee into the desert.

    Earlier, he had used various methods at his disposal to confirm that the Heir Apparent wasn¡¯t in the desert. In order to avoid causing unnecessaryplications, Fourth Vice-Bishop had been prepared to fight a battle to the death with cathedral cultivators. After all the years that had passed, Fourth Vice-Bishop was weary to the core. They were fighting a hopeless resistance fight, and though he didn¡¯t want to just give up, the reality of the situation was bitterly painful.

    When Fourth Vice-Bishop saw Xu Qing step out and open the desert, he gritted his teeth and raced toward safety.

    At the same time, he personallyunched attacks to buy time for his people. Booms rang out, and the fluctuations of magical techniques spread everywhere.

    The cathedral cultivators were blocked by the taboo poison, yet there were experts in their number who weren¡¯t ready to just give up. Scattering, they raced to intercept.

    The chickens surrounding Xu Qing shot forth to meet them. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s closed his eyes, lifted his right hand, and pointed out to the desert.

    ¡°Let the Ghost Emperor mountain be the altar. Let D-132¡¯s destiny be the trough!¡±The moment the words left Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, colors shifted in the sky, rumbling sounds echoed out, and both the Ghost Emperor mountain and D-132 manifested outside of him. A 3,000-meter projected image of the God Decapitation Altar¡¯s de and trough appeared.

    As the Ghost Emperor held the prison cell in both hands, the power of destiny aura created a huge de. The 3,000-meter altar was shocking and ghastly. It causednds and mountains to shake, and as it settled down, it blocked the path of the advancing cathedral cultivators.

    Of course, the scene ying out was both familiar and shocking to the cultivators present.

    ¡°What¡¯s this...?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s so familiar!!¡±

    As exmations of shock rang out, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes began to shine brightly.

    ¡°Let the heavenly dao be the body of the de. Let the godly curse of taboo poison be the edge of the de. And let daybreak light be the de¡¯s light!¡±

    The dome of heaven rumbled as the bluegreen dragon turned into the de itself. Taboo poison converged on the edge of that de, as did a dao-severing resonance. This was a heavenly saber, and it shone with scintiting daybreak light. It could shatter countless magics and melt innumerable techniques.

    The moment the heavenly saber appeared, both Moonrebel and cathedral cultivators thought back to why this seemed so familiar. And it didn¡¯t take long for them to put the pieces together.

    ¡°That¡¯s what everyone saw projected into their minds. It¡¯s... the God Decapitation Altar!¡±

    ¡°It looks exactly the same!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s the guy who did all that stuff at the God Decapitation Altar??¡±

    Xu Qing no longer bothered hiding who he was, and allowed everyone to see his true features, which everyone had seen on the day of that momentous event.

    When the truth was revealed, everyone was bbergasted, and felt like they were being struck by lightning from heaven. All of the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators were incredibly excited. Back when they had felt numb, it was the image of the things ying out at the God Decapitation Altar that sparked their desire to fight back, and turned it into a raging fire. Now, in a moment of hopeless despair, they again glimpsed that God Decapitation Altar, as well as the person they had previously only seen in the broadcast! That person seemed to ovep with the image of the Imperial Sovereign.

    A voice echoed out.

    ¡°Let the golden crow be the connection. Let the violet moon be the seal!

    The golden crow danced in the air. The violet moon sent out rippling fluctuations. The god trovebined everything into one.

    ¡°Let the timescape be the container.... Let the sundial lifemps be the catalyst....¡±

    Five sundials formed behind Xu Qing. The mes of the lifemps stirred the night. And the gnomons began to move, causing the power of time to surge. They all stopped at noon!

    ¡°When the sundials hit noon, heaven and earth will be severed together!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as the de fell! The heavenly saber descended from above, like a massive waterfall or a mountain, filling the sky and shaking thends below.

    It wasn¡¯t shing into a cultivator, but rather, heaven and earth. The saber contained boundless godly might. As the de and the trough met, the air was cut, and the void was shredded. Rumbling sounds swept out as the cathedral cultivators¡¯ path waspletely severed. A huge gorge appeared in thends, and a strong wind blew a baleful aura out on either side. Shocked, the cathedral cultivators had no choice but to stop moving.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing was like the Imperial Sovereign awakened. As of right now, the God Decapitation Altar that all of them had seen in their minds was now a reality, visible to all of the cathedral cultivators, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Moonrebel cultivators.

    As they all reeled in shock, a boundlessly destructive tempest rose up outside the desert.

    As Fourth Vice-Bishop looked deeply at Xu Qing, his hundreds of thousands of subordinates took advantage of the threat created by the God Decapitation Altar to speed into the desert.

    The Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s Void Returning experts were shaken. However, though Xu Qing¡¯s God Decapitation Altar was well-known at this point, it wasn¡¯t mighty enough to force them into retreat. In fact, they had just been preparing to strike back. But then, a towering might erupted from the depths of the desert, specifically, the direction of the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies appeared mysteriously in the dome of heaven. At the same time, a majestic river of time also appeared, and wherever it flowed, the aura of a great dao grew stronger.

    These were the fluctuations of a Smoldering God! It was just barely possible to see a pair of eyes within that river of ancient time.

    They were the eyes of Princess Brightblossom!

    Those eyes caused all cathedral cultivators outside the desert to fall back in horror and amazement. After all, the main reason they had dared toe here was that they had been informed the Heir Apparent and his siblings were gone from the area.

    Yet here they could sense a Smoldering God aura, leading to no small amount of amazement. Although it was possible it was a trick, the reality was that these cathedral cultivators weren¡¯t interested in taking any dangerous risks. And what was happening right now indicated that a Smoldering God attack was iing.

    Therefore, even the top experts from the Red Moon Cathedral chose to be safe rather than sorry. As they fell back, the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators finally made it into the desert. Looking excitedly in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, they sped hands and bowed.

    Taking it all in, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing the desert wind to close up and once again seal the interior away from the prying eyes of the Red Moon Cathedral. With that aplished, Xu Qing turned to the travel-weary Fourth Vice-Bishop. He sped hands in greeting.

    ¡°Well met, Senior.¡± Despite the serious expression on his face, Fourth Vice-Bishop didn¡¯t use his cultivation base disparity as an excuse. He bowed deeply to Xu Qing. ¡°Many thanks for your assistance, young friend!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and was about to say something further when a group of a few thousand cultivators caught his attention thanks to their cheering and other behavior.

    Before, he had been paying attention mostly to the enemy forces, and thus hadn¡¯t looked closely at the Moonrebel army. But now that he could see what that group of several thousand cultivators was wearing, it caused him to hesitate slightly. They were led by a woman who was so excited that she had dropped to her knees to kiss the ground. Many of the thousands behind her did the same.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times as a strange feeling welled up in his heart.

    ¡°Young friend,¡± Fourth Vice-Bishop said quietly, ¡°those people are followers of Grandmaster Pill Nine. Their leader calls herself the Apostle, and she¡¯s the one who heard the grandmaster¡¯s dao reverberation for two months. They came from all over, but they¡¯re very united and always help each other out. They weren¡¯t always following us around, but at a certain point we crossed paths and found that they were heading here to the desert just like we were. They believe that Grandmaster Pill Nine is actually hiding out here.¡±

    Hearing all of that, Xu Qing looked at the group. They were so excited that not even the wind could suppress their chatter.

    ¡°This is our holynd!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right! The grandmaster¡¯s medicinal pills contain the power of the white wind, and that just goes to show how important that wind is! This is the only ce in the Moonrite Region where you can find it.¡±

    ¡°The Apostle was right! The grandmaster is definitely hiding out here.¡±

    ¡°In this chaotic world, we need to find the grandmaster, to follow him and also keep him safe!¡±

    Xu Qing was surprised at the fanatical looks on their faces, especially when it came to the leader. After looking at her closely, and hearing her speak, he came to the realization that she was probably his bare-chested neighbor.

    As the wind blew in the desert, the group went back to the Bitter Life Mountains.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop returned to the very same garrison where they had been camped before. As he set about getting things in order, the followers of Grandmaster Pill Nine went their own way.

    In the following days, their people scattered throughout the Bitter Life Mountains, hoping to find clues leading to Grandmaster Pill Nine. Though they didn¡¯t meet with any sess, they were persistent.

    One thing they did was create their own camp a short distance away from the mudbrick city. In the middle of that camp was a statue that looked just like Xu Qing¡¯s statue from back in the Moonrebel Congregation.

    There was no way Xu Qing couldn¡¯t keep an eye on them. He had never experienced anything like this. In fact, on the day they erected their special statue, he couldn¡¯t help but go over to take a look. As he entered the Pill Nine camp, he saw that the thousands of cultivators there were all in very high spirits. They also had a map prominently disyed that showed the entire desert. The map had been divided up into sections, some of which had been crossed out.

    His arrival attracted some notice, and many people bowed in his direction. Meanwhile, the woman called the Apostle dropped what she was doing to go receive him.

    ¡°Well met, Fellow Daoist,¡± she said as she stood next to the statue of Pill Nine. She wore an outfit that made her seem quite capable and experienced. Her expression was serious as she sped hands and bowed to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing examined the statue and noticed how lifelike it was. All the details were correct. Turning, he looked at the valiant and formidable young woman. He thought back to that burly neighbor of his, and that image superimposed with that of the young woman.

    ncing at the statue again, he said, ¡°It¡¯s entirely possible that the cathedral could get into the desert eventually, especially as the red moon continues to rise. Leaving these mountains is inherently dangerous. There¡¯s no need for you to do any searching out there.¡±

    The young woman shook her head. Eyes shing with determination, she said, ¡°That¡¯s exactly why we have to find him as soon as possible. The grandmaster could be in a lot of danger!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then said, ¡°Or he could be very safe.... Besides, if you found him, would you even be able to recognize him?¡±

    The womanughed proudly, as did the other followers in the area. ¡°Fellow Daoist, you simply don¡¯t understand. After all, you¡¯ve never seen the grandmaster. But I heard his dao reverberation for two months! What¡¯s more, I¡¯ve been by his side on many asions. I know how mighty andpassionate he is, and I¡¯m also familiar with his unique aura. All it will take is one nce for me to know if someone is the grandmaster or not!¡±

    With that, she looked more closely at Xu Qing.

 Chapter 670: A God Comes to the Desert

    Chapter 670: A God Comes to the Desert

    In the end, Xu Qing left. He didn¡¯t reveal that he was actually Pill Nine. However, in his heart, he knew that he had to do his best to take care of these followers of his. After all, they had traveled great distances in their zeal to support Grandmaster Pill Nine. And one reason why the name of Pill Nine was so widespread in the Moonrebel Congregation was because of their tireless efforts.

    Before leaving, Xu Qing had his shadow put a shadow eye on the woman known as the Apostle. That way, he would know if she ran into any danger, and would hopefully be able to provide assistance.

    The warning he had provided earlier wasn¡¯t a case of <em>speaking without thinking</em>. As the resistance armies on the outside suffered defeat after defeat, the Red Moon Cathedral was gradually gaining the upper hand. The cathedral forces didn¡¯t pay much attention to the smaller, scattered resistance forces. After all, most cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral wanted there to be as many people alive as possibleter on. But as the resistance on the outside crumbled, the Greenhair Bands increasingly became the center of attention.

    That was especially true after Fourth Vice-Bishop made his escape there.

    Xu Qing even got some intelligence reports from Wu Jianwu¡¯s children, who were scouting on the outside. ording to them, there were cathedral cultivators constantly attempting to break into the desert. Although the sandstorm generally stopped them, they were having some limited sess. ording to the parrot, there wererge numbers of cathedral cultivators gathering outside the desert. That said, they weren¡¯t taking any specific actions. They were just waiting. Everyone was on guard.

    The cathedral cultivators only had to wait about a week. They had been waiting for a specific person to show up.

    It was an old man with a long, crimson robe and an imperial crown. He was none other than the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s Smoldering God pontiff. He held a scepter in his hand, and when he arrived, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and winds screamed. Unexpectedly, a second red moon appeared in the sky above him.

    It was only a projection, but when it appeared in the canopy of heaven, it caused a tideflow reaction to appear in the desert. The sandstorm was interfered with. Mountains copsed. Sand was sent blowing everywhere. And intense rumbling sounds filled the desert.

    To the shock of everyone in the Bitter Life Mountains, the red moon sent innumerable red lightning bolts shooting down into the desert. The desert trembled, and the sand storm seemed like it might copse at any time. The red moon power was mounting a full invasion of the desert. It was a supetively domineering invasion, causing the sand everywhere to copse into red mud.At the same time, the cathedral cultivators all received further blessings, causing them to shine with blood-colored light. The blessings of Crimson Mother became so intense that the cultivators could stand up to the power of the wind and actually step into the desert. And then they began to close in on the Bitter Life Mountains. Wherever they went, the sky andnd alike turned as red as blood.

    Meanwhile, the godly might on disy caused the sandstorm to slowly start shrinking. Thankfully, the storm had been instigated by a god, and therefore, disregarding it wasn¡¯t exactly simple. Therefore, the cathedral cultivators who entered it couldn¡¯t simply pass through it in one shot.

    Getting all the way to the Bitter Life Mountains was going to take time. However, the pressure that they created was immense. It was like entire mountains weighing down on the hearts of the locals, making it difficult for them to even breathe.

    In the shortest of moments, everyone felt immense apprehension and danger covering them. That grim feeling spread through the Bitter Life Mountains and eventually affected the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, and even Li Youfei all seemed mentally agitated. Nethersprite was no exception, and even the chickens in the backyard.

    Only Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem affected. He knew that things were now down to the wire, and he was already mentally nning out what to do.

    <em>The key to dealing with all this restsrgely on the return of the Heir Apparent and his siblings. And also... opening the main door of Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, to be the Archbishop of Moonrebel!</em>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he thought back to thatke governed by the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s spirit automaton. There were dozens of ice sculptures that had been building up there since thesting of the red moon. They were all cultivators who had participated in the archbishop trial. Each of those individuals was aplicated person, and many of them were simr to Fourth Vice-Bishop, being in the fourth stage of Void Returning.

    Put people like that anywhere, and they would be iparably powerful. And if they showed up in the desert now, they would be a huge help in resolving the current crisis.

    The key to freeing them was to be the Archbishop of Moonrebel. The Archbishop of Moonrebel¡¯s power wouldn¡¯t be limited to that. Based on what Xu Qing had learned recently from the Captain, he was fairly certain that the Archbishop of Moonrebel could take the Moonrebel Congregation from its illusory state and make it true and real. At that point, the Moonrebel Congregation... would no longer be the Moonrebel Congregation. It would be the precious treasure of an Imperial Sovereign! That level of mightiness could shake thends of an entire region.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes flickered thoughtfully as he sat in the seat usually upied by the Heir Apparent and analyzed the situation.

    <em>It¡¯s a domain treasure! Furthermore, the Archbishop of Moonrebel has the ultimate level of privilege, and can remove the seals put in ce by the traitorous vice-bishops. Then the Moonrebel cultivators will once again be able to enter the Moonrebel Congregation to recover from injuries and evade pursuit.</em>

    <em>In the end, I can¡¯t control when the Heir Apparent returns. But bing the Archbishop of Moonrebel... will be the key to solving everything!</em>

    After everything he had gone through with the Captain recently, he hade to a much clearer understanding of the ns the Captain hadid out.

    <em>Bing the Archbishop of Moonrebel, plus receiving help from the Heir Apparent and his brothers and sisters,bined with the power of all living beings in this region, plus all the cultivators, can be used to crush the Red Moon Cathedral before the red moon arrives. That¡¯s the first major step in dealing with Crimson Mother.</em>

    Xu Qing looked up. His calm demeanor had spread to the others in the medicine shop. Ning Yan and everyone else seemed calmer.

    Xu Qing harvested some more godchild blood from the world fragment and then went to Paramount Temple to deliver it to the Captain. In the past, the Moonrebel Congregation had always been a bustling ce. But not now. Thanks to the sealing marks ced by the traitorous vice-bishops, no one could get inside.

    At the moment, there was no one on the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s mountain. The temples were all closed, and nomps burned within them. There was no incense either. The only signs of life came from Paramount Temple, where the constant booming echoed out like thunder. The door shook constantly, and looked like it might open at any time. In fact, light had started seeping out through the cracks on the side of the door, creating a very holy atmosphere. asionally, the entire mountain would be affected, and it would vibrate, sending out shockwaves into the surrounding void.

    Although there had been other asions during this epoch in which someone banged on the door, it had never urred with this intensity. Unfortunately, no one was present to witness it, otherwise it would have been a big subject of discussion.

    Inside Paramount Temple, the Crimson Mother totem on the door was now mostly blurry. Some of that was because of the godchild blood, as it was effective in erasing the totem. Another factor was the hard work the Captain was putting into it. Both he and Xu Qing knew that they were in a race for time, and both were doing everything possible.

    When Xu Qing entered Paramount Temple, the Captain cried out excitedly from the door. ¡°In no more than five days, little Ah Qing, I¡¯ll be able topletely erase the totem. When that happens, we¡¯ll be the Archbishops of Moonrebel!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and prepared to go all out to help the Captain open the door. Though the time situation was urgent, they should have enough time, as long as somethingpletely unexpected didn¡¯t happen.

    As it turned out, something unexpected did happen.

    On the third day of intensive efforts to open the door, the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral in the desert managed to create a unified front that mostly surrounded the desert. Wherever the cathedral cultivators went, everything turned as red as blood, both overhead and underfoot.

    It was at that exact same moment that the leader of the cathedral¡¯s desert extermination campaign, the pontiff himself, waved his scepter into the air to release a torrent of energy. All of the cathedral cultivators present dropped to their knees to prostrate, all while chanting in a monotone. The red color grew so strong it became liquid that swirled around and around. After ny-nine rotations of the energy, the red-robed pontiff raised his scepter overhead.

    A heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound erupted from above, as if a huge pair of hands were ripping open the sky.

    Shockingly, a massive 5,000-kilometer rift opened up. Then, in an even more appalling development, blood began to spill out of the rift, bing a blood rain that fell onto the desert.

    The storm that protected the Bitter Life Mountains began to disappear because of the blood rain. But most shocking of all was the aura that emerged from the rift. It was so terrifying that, as it spread, it didn¡¯t just affect the desert, but also the entire Moonrite Region. In the blink of an eye, all souls in the region were trembling in terror.

    That was because the source of the aura was a patch of skin that was slowlying out of the rift. It grewrger andrger, until it seemed to fill the sky. There were mountains on its surface, and it was decorated with suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. It had innumerable warding spells and spell formations, and also contained souls from myriad species, all howling in grief and pain.

    The skin was pure red, like a red hell, full of absolute evil. At the same time, it imparted a holy sensation. It was as if it was a gruishbination of righteousness and evil, of goodness and wickedness, of life and death.

    Gradually, the sky grew so blurry that only the rift was visible. Below, thend twisted and distorted. Godly might abounded. Cathedral cultivators all dropped fanatically to their knees to kowtow.

    Then, after the skin was fully stretched out, it shrank in on itself to form the shape of a person. An arm appeared. Then a torso¡­ Eventually, a headless body was visible, slowly descending. As it dropped, thends quaked and sank down. The storm copsed, and the sand all became the color of blood.

    The blood rain fell everywhere, forming rivers that made the mortal world seem like hell itself. And anguished howls drifted out from the body, causing the souls of everyone present to shiver.

    This body was the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s greatest asset. It could suppress Smoldering Gods, and was a reserve power that could be used to punish all living beings in the region. It was Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk!

 Chapter 671: Red Moon Authority Cannot Have Two Masters!

    Chapter 671: Red Moon Authority Cannot Have Two Masters!

    Before Crimson Mother reached godly ascension, the Imperial Sovereign of this region removed h¨¥r head with the God Decapitation Altar. On the day of that event, the severed head copsed into ashes, leaving behind nothing but a headless corpse. That corpse eventually disappeared into the river of time.

    Later on, after Crimson Mother somehow became a god, sh¨¥ came back and conquered the region. Using a god magic, sh¨¥ fished her mortal husk out of ancient time, then set it up as a reserve power for the Red Moon Cathedral. It was an extraordinary item that, previously, only the godchild had been able to use. Yet here it was, having been summoned by the pontiff.

    ¨©t shook the entire desert as it descended, causing the desert floor to sink down by hundreds if not thousands of meters.... The quaking ground crumbled and the sky shattered. A never-ending blood rain fell, pooling together to form a huge blood-colored sea. Waves rolled out in all directions. In fact, the desert wasn¡¯t even visible at this point. It was only the seething sea of blood.

    Converting a desert to the sea was as much of a subversion as changing heaven to earth. And in the middle of it all there was an ind formed by the Bitter Life Mountains. The gray wind had copsed, and now clung to existence in the mountains. Anyone who could see it would be able to tell it lingered on the verge ofplete destruction.

    In addition to the wind on the sea of blood, there were numerous cathedral cultivators, their faces masks of zeal as they chanted. In the dome of heaven, the pontiff sped hands and bowed as the headless corpse emitted incredible pressure. The influence spread, filling the Moonrite Region. All living beings trembled. Every life form shook. All areas of the region quaked. Only a god could do something like this.

    In the Bitter Life Mountains, both Fourth Vice-Bishop and his subordinates were astonished. All local cultivators felt deep shock. And of course, they couldn¡¯t hide their despair. There was no way they could fight back against this, or stop it.

    It was the same with the people in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. Ning Yan trembled as he looked outside at the sea of blood, and the mortal husk hovering in the air. His mind was a nk. Wu Jianwu was not spouting any poetry. He was too flustered. In the backyard, the chickens were all hiding in the corners. Li Youfei trembled uncontrobly, and even Nethersprite was having a hard time keeping calm.

    The only one who acted differently was Ling¡¯er. She trusted Xu Qing so deeply that it could almost be called blind devotion. She believed that it didn¡¯t matter what difficulties came, as long as Big Bro Xu Qing was around, things would work out. And yet, things were reaching a point of extreme danger.

    High above, the pontiff of the Red Moon Cathedral looked coldly at that ind on the blood sea. Extending his right hand, he pushed out, whereupon Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk vanished, then reappeared right above the Bitter Life Mountains.The skin stretched out, quickly bing a canopy full of mountains, stars, and the anguished howls of living beings. It took hardly any time at all for it topletely cover the Bitter Life Mountains.

    ¡°Please enjoy yourself, mdy!¡± the pontiff said, his voice thrumming with piety.

    The cathedral cultivators on the blood sea heard his words and echoed them. They all bowed their heads and chanted. One could not simply watch as a god benefited from enjoyment. As they averted their gazes, the mortal husk emanated a boundless sense of evil, as well as a deep hunger. After covering the mountains, the patch of skin twitched and started shrinking down.

    ¨©t was going to devour the entire mountain range.

    The gray wind struggled. The local cultivators felt despair turning into madness within them. Fourth Vice-Bishop howled and released the power of his cultivation base. By this point, he and his subordinates <em>looked upon death as going home</em>, and thus they attacked. They might be in the position of <em>a mantis trying to stop a war chariot</em>, but the spirit of the Moonrebel Congregation was one of resistance.

    Muffled booms rang out. Waves swept out across the blood sea. And the chanting of the cathedral cultivators grew louder.

    Meanwhile, the pontiff slowly looked up at Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, which had stretched out to cover the Bitter Life Mountains.

    ¡°There¡¯s no point in fighting back here. Food... will always be food.¡±

    He turned to look at the red moon on the horizon, his expression one of deep devotion.

    The cultivators in the mountains looked up at the skin stretched overhead. Blood rain fell from the sky, sshing down everywhere. Mutagen levels skyrocketed. Howls of grief spread out everywhere. Mountain peaks crumbled, and mudbrick cities copsed.

    Even the Pill Nine statue started falling to pieces. The Pill Nine followers looked around with bitter confusion. As for the valiant and formidable young woman, she couldn¡¯t bring herself to do anything but look on silently.

    The mountains werepletely covered over by the wriggling flesh. And as it shrank down, the mountains vanished. They were being devoured and made part of the skin.

    It seemed entirely usible that the mountains, suns, moons, stars, heavenly bodies, and living beings which had previously been visible on the skin had probably been sealed there in this same manner. That said, the speed at which this was happening couldn¡¯t be described as very quick. The storm created by the hair of High God Moonfire was suppressed, but notpletely.

    Unfortunately, unless a miracle happened, nothing could stop the inevitable. Before long, the storm would die, and then the skin would be able to devour everything. The Bitter Life Mountains would disappear without a trace.

    As catastrophe bore down on the cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains, and they began to fight back futilely, the banginging from Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation grew even louder.

    The door shook violently, and the banging was so loud it sounded like thunder. It was even louder inside the temple.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were going all out. As they burned the godchild blood, the totem on the door grew fainter and fainter. It was now only about ten percent as strong as it had been originally. That final ten percent, however, was the source of its power, and was incredibly tough. Even burning godchild blood wasn¡¯t going to get rid of it quickly.

    Yet the Captain wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Lunging forward in totem form, he took a big bite. A loud crack rang out, and the Captain tumbled backward. The ten percent core had not been harmed.

    Seeing that, the Captain sighed. ¡°This crappy thing is just too tough, little Ah Qing. We need more time.¡±

    Xu Qing looked tired. Although he wasn¡¯t literally inside the door like the Captain was, he was constantly burning godchild blood, which was inherently tiring.

    ¡°We¡¯re running out of time,¡± Xu Qing said. He hadn¡¯t returned to the Green Spirit Pharmacy. But his connection to Ling¡¯er made it so that he knew exactly what was going on right now. ¡°The Red Moon Cathedral has already arrived, and they brought Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. The situation is critical.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back at him, stunned. ¡°Mortal husk? That¡¯s the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s biggest reserve power. They must be really anxious to be using it already!¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter why they¡¯re using it. It¡¯s already here.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination. ¡°Eldest Brother, I¡¯m preparing my violet moon power to devour thest bit of the totem. Back me up.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed. He knew full well that they were in a critical moment. ¡°If you devour it, your body won¡¯t be able to take it.¡±

    ¡°If I be the Archbishop of Moonrebel, then I can use the power of the Moonrebel Congregation to help me suppress it.¡± This was the only way Xu Qing could think of to speed things up.

    The Captain thought about it for a moment, then nodded. ¡°That¡¯ll work. Come on, let¡¯s do it together!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to perform a double-handed incantation gesture. Pointing his palm in the direction of the door, he sent violet moon power erupting out. Blood droplets spread out from all over his body. They quickly created a seethingke of blood with an illusory god trove in it, pulsing with the power of blood authority.

    The blood seethed as it raced toward the door. The Captain also held nothing back to assist, causing his small totem form to spin rapidly, creating a vortex to meet Xu Qing¡¯s blood. In the blink of an eye, they mmed into each other, and Xu Qing in blood form swept into the vortex and, through it, the door itself. Without pausing, he shot right toward the Crimson Mother totem.

    Xu Qing could sense that this core part of the totem was a blood sealing mark. It glittered with red light, and pulsed with godly might. No type of personhood coulde close to matching this.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s authority came from the red moon, the same as Crimson Mother. And thus, he only elerated. A huge boom rang out when he mmed into the totem. The door shook. At the same time, the Captain closed in with his mouth wide open.

    The massive noise filled the entire Moonrebel Congregation. Meanwhile, Xu Qing in bloodke form was sent spinning backward. The Captain howled in pain. But then the bloodke mmed into the totem again.

    The Captain was going absolutely crazy. His totem shed with blue light as he viciouslyunched attack after attack.

    Godchild blood burned away at the sealing mark, corroding it. As Xu Qing and the Captain went all out, time passed. A few hourster, the sealing mark was still there. However, it had cracks on it.

    Xu Qing was exhausted, and the Captain¡¯s howls had weakened significantly. Given that they could see evidence of their progress, they didn¡¯t slow down. Rumbling booms exploded out over and over again, until finally, the sealing mark copsed.

    As it did, a stream of golden light exploded from within. And it came from an illusory figure. It was just barely possible to see a young woman there, d in a dpidated robe, covering her eyes with her hands. Blood flowed from beneath those hands. As for the golden light, it made the woman seem iparably holy. This was none other than Crimson Mother!

    The sound of chanting could be heard as mutagen flowed everywhere, bing godly might that weighed down on Xu Qing and the Captain. Xu Qing in bloodke form vanished. The Captain also blurred away as if he were about to be erased. At that point, the Captain¡¯s craziness truly erupted.

    ¡°Let¡¯s devour h¨¥r, little Ah Qing! See what happens!¡±

    The bloodke had turned back into Xu Qing, who was now looking at the projection of Crimson Mother. Inside, he felt intense desire rising up uncontrobly within him. There was also a deep hunger. In that moment, his human nature vanished, and godly nature spread out. Xu Qing¡¯s bnce was about to be disrupted. He didn¡¯t do anything to stop it. He let the godliness rise up and take over his consciousness. And then he spoke in a very cold voice.

    ¡°Red moon authority cannot have two masters!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, blood-colored light exploded off him, mming into the door and heading toward the projection of Crimson Mother with greed, hunger, and calmness.

    Laughing heartily, and eyes burning with a crazy look, the Captain opened his mouth and lunged in for a bite!

 Chapter 672: Ranked Seventh

    Chapter 672: Ranked Seventh

    The Moonrebel Congregation was being rocked like it never had been before! Paramount Temple¡¯s door shone with dazzling red light that spread out over the entire mountain. From a distance, it looked like this entire world was wearing a garment the color of blood.

    The red glowing from the door was a solid, single color. However, if someone had been able to approach and study it closely, they would get the confusing sensation that they were actually looking at two colors. And that was because... there were two wills struggling over one type of authority.

    Red moon authority. The mysterious red moon was one of the original thirty-seven moons in the Revered Ancient maind. From ancient times until now there had been stories told about how, after the broken face arrived, twenty-five of the original thirty-seven moons perished, one after another, ultimately leaving behind twelve. [1]

    The red moon was one of those twelve! And it was ranked seventh!

    In ancient times, ¨©t had been called different things. It was the firefly moon, or the blood moon.... Nowadays, it was simply called the red moon.

    Crimson Mother lived on the red moon like a parasite, constantly devouring its authority, seeking to supnt it. If that happened, there would no longer be a ¡®Crimson Mother of the red moon¡¯. Instead, there would be a ¡®red moon of the Crimson Mother¡¯.

    Red light shone out from the door as Xu Qing¡¯s mind was overtaken by godliness. As of this moment, his human nature was almost gone, leaving behind animal nature blessed by godly nature. In that heightened state, he lunged toward Crimson Mother.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t in the same position as Xu Qing. He was in a very gruish state, shining with blue light. He apparently had no pure godliness, but at the same time, no human nature. Even his animal nature seemed to be in chaos. His mind was like a mix between a god, a human, and an animal. And they were mixed so thoroughly it was hard to tell the difference between them. Together, they formed a very unique state.

    With both Xu Qing and the Captain focused on devouring, the projection of Crimson Mother rippled. And then the projection¡¯s hands shifted as though they might drop away from the eyes. The projection began to superimpose over itself, all while the blood-colored light grew brighter. Immense pressure weighed down on Xu Qing and the Captain.When all was said and done, Crimson Mother was asleep, and what was left behind here was just a bit of divine will. Fundamentally speaking, it was very simr to what happened at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. The difference was that what was sealed at the pir came from one of h¨¥r followers. In contrast, what Xu Qing and the Captain were dealing with came directly from Crimson Mother, and was thus vastly mightier. [2]

    If ordinary cultivators were in this position, they would have a very hard time fighting back. It would take an extremely high cultivation base to do that. But Xu Qing and the Captain were not ordinary cultivators. The moment Xu Qing experienced god-glimpsing, he became a god cultivator! And the Captain had his own gruish assets, so naturally he wasn¡¯t an ordinary cultivator. [3]

    In the blink of an eye, two wills mmed into the projection of Crimson Mother. Xu Qing became a blood sea, pulsing with greed and hunger as he devoured the red moon authority. As blue light shone, the Captain became a blue worm thatnded on Crimson Mother¡¯s forehead, opened its mouth, and took a vicious bite.

    But Crimson Mother was still a god, and as more projected versions superimposed upon each other, creating hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands ofyers, it became increasingly true and real.

    The superimposed versions brought an explosive power of god magic that sent Xu Qing¡¯s blood sea form tumbling backward. The Captain in worm form also copsed. But only a fraction of a momentter, the copsed blood sea transformed into Xu Qing¡¯s emotionless face, which lunged back toward Crimson Mother with jaw snapping. With every bite he took, his red moon authority grew stronger.

    However, the reverse was also happening as Crimson Mother tried to assimte him. If Xu Qing had been operating alone, he couldn¡¯t have turned things around.

    But the Captain was here! His worm form had copsed into numerous chunks of flesh. However... each of those chunks formed anew, until there were hundreds of worms shrieking toward Crimson Mother. His vicious bites caused blue light to seep into Crimson Mother¡¯s projection, which interfered with h¨¥r attempt to fight back against Xu Qing and assimte him. Thus, Xu Qing was able to devour h¨¥r smoothly. As that happened, Crimson Mother¡¯s projected power slowly vanished, which made the Captain¡¯s job easier.

    The two of them were working together perfectly. If either was missing, it would have made the job much more difficult.

    As time passed, the superimposed projections disappeared one after another, and the projection in general started to blur. Xu Qing and the Captain were methodically wiping it out.

    Crimson Mother started twitching. And then, for the first time... she lowered h¨¥r hands from h¨¥r eyes. Time seemed to go still. Space spun. Godly might swept out in all directions. An immactely beautiful face appeared to Xu Qing and the Captain. The only thing that marred the beauty was the fact that both eye sockets were empty and bleeding.

    Sh¨¥ was looking at Xu Qing. His blood sea form exploded. At the same time, a gravitational force erupted from the empty eye sockets, which dragged the blood sea into them. In the blink of an eye, the blood sea was sucked into the eyes, as if it had been devoured.

    The Captain¡¯s worm forms were sent flying backward. But then, Crimson Mother¡¯s projection reached out, grabbed one of the worms, and crushed it. A boom rang out as the worm exploded. And then, the karmic power that had been unleashed caused all the other worms to copse. It seemed like everything was about to conclude.

    After dealing with Xu Qing and the Captain, the projection¡¯s hands returned to cover h¨¥r eyes. But then, somethingpletely unexpected happened.

    Massive amounts of fresh blood exploded out of h¨¥r. At the same time, h¨¥r face transformed until it looked like Xu Qing. If this had been Crimson Mother¡¯s true form or even h¨¥r doppelg?nger, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have been able to act defiantly. His level of authority wasn¡¯t high enough. But he could defy a bit of divine will.

    It was the same with the Captain. His worms had exploded, but the flesh that made them up hadn¡¯t gone anywhere. And now they clumped back together to make a hand. It was withered and decaying, and even had sealing strips on it. It looked like it was stretching out from the Nine Serenities underworld. Close examination would reveal that there were countless deceased souls grabbing onto the hand, as if they didn¡¯t want it to appear, and were trying to drag it back.

    The withered hand ignored all of that and pointed at Crimson Mother¡¯s forehead. The pitch ck fingernail hit the forehead.

    A rumbling boom echoed out as Crimson Mother shook from head to toe and then started rotting. Sh¨¥ tried to negate the effects, except that was when Xu Qing chose to burst into action and start devouring h¨¥r from inside.

    Crimson Mother shivered as pressure now built up from inside of her as well. Soon, sh¨¥ reached h¨¥r limit. A few breaths of time passed, and then a boom drifted out as sh¨¥ copsed. The projection turned into a stream of golden light that immediately started fading away.

    Xu Qing flew out in his blood sea form. The sea quickly turned into a face that pulsed with red moon authority. However, it was unstable, as if Xu Qing had taken in too much force to control.

    The Captain¡¯s withered hand faded away, leaving behind some blue light that turned into a worm. A face appeared on it, lookingpletely crazy.

    The exploded remnants of Crimson Mother turned into a river of blood that flowed together and then changed into a blood-red eyeball. As it snapped open, divine will echoed out.

    <em>¡°Red Curse. Hex Paper. Extend Soul. Merge Life.¡±</em>

    Four words. Eight characters. After being spoken, the blood eye closed and disappeared.

    As of this moment, the door of Paramount Temple did not have Crimson Mother¡¯s totem on it anymore. Xu Qing and the Captain had seeded.

    However... a cold wind sprang up out of nowhere, containing within it an inescapable power of karma. As it arrived, both Xu Qing and the Captain sensed it immediately. Xu Qing¡¯s will copsed. The blood sea shattered. And then a gruish power forcibly ejected him from the door. Once he was back in his ordinary body, he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood.

    Then his body blurred, bing red, and also paper-like. All of his flesh and blood were affected. It was as if he... was being transformed into a paper person. Not even his soul was able to escape, nor his life force. They were all being transformed.

    The same thing happened to the Captain¡¯s worm form. The gruish power shattered it, and after it turned back into a little totem, it started turning into paper. The Captain¡¯s face suddenly appeared.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, this is the hex of an angry god. A god curse! Hang in there for a moment. I¡¯ll figure out how to get free and then help you. This thingy is really fierce!¡±

    The totem glittered with blue light that turned into a vortex. Sounds echoed from within that resembled the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves, as though countless entities inside were screaming. It was a sound that could shake the mind.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with cold light. It was indeed a very fierce curse. Only a few breaths of time had passed, yet he had already transformed halfway into paper. The blood-colored paper was extremely gruish, and it seemed topletely ignore his red moon authority. Not even his taboo poison did anything to it. Apparently, this type of curse didn¡¯t rely on personhood. It was some type of karmicw that led to certain death.

    There was at least an upside for Xu Qing. His fluctuations of godliness were being suppressed by the curse, thus allowing his human nature to return and bring bnce. Unfortunately, having his human nature back didn¡¯t give him a way to break the power of the curse.

    He could sense himself transforming. His soul was fading, and he felt unending cold filling him. It was the sensation of death, and he couldn¡¯t do anything about it. Given how things were progressing, Xu Qing could tell that before a hundred breaths of time passed, he would be fully transformed into a red paper person.

    <em>Maybe this curse... isn¡¯t totally unbreakable.</em>

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing closed his eyes. Inside of him, D-132 rose up, and the domain of amnesia he had been seeking enlightenment of spread out. It covered him, and then it covered Paramount Temple, including the Captain¡¯s totem on the door.

    ¡°Eee?¡± Even as the Captain went all out to try to negate the curse, he looked around in surprise.

    Amnesia could sever karma. And this curse was fundamentally karmic. As long as the memories of the curse were erased from the soul, then the karma would be severed. This was a case of a will domain fighting against a god magic! During the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, people in Revered Ancient believed will domains to be the only way to fight against gods.

    Time passed.

    After enough time had passed for two incense sticks to burn, Xu Qing opened his eyes. ¡°What just happened?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s face appeared in the totem on the door. He looked at Xu Qing, seemingly confused. ¡°Yeah, something just happened, didn¡¯t it? Weird. It¡¯s like I¡¯ve forgotten something. No! I have to figure out what it was....¡±

    1. We first learned about the perished and surviving moons in chapter 361. ?

    2. The encounter with Crimson Mother at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir was in chapters 360 and . ?

    3. Specifically, the word I¡¯m tranting as ¡°ordinary¡± is the word for ¡°pure, unadulterated.¡± ?

 Chapter 673: Archbishops of Moonrebel

    <h4>Chapter 673: Archbishops of Moonrebel</h4>

    Stunned, Xu Qing looked suspiciously at the temple door, then at the Captain in totem form. Thest thing he remembered was sessfully devouring the Crimson Mother projection alongside the Captain.

    <i>Howe I feel like I¡¯ve been cultivating that will domain of amnesia?</i> Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing scanned himself but didn¡¯t find anything out of the ordinary. <i>Don¡¯t tell me....</i>

    ¡°No way!¡± the Captain said from the little totem on the door. ¡°Little Ah Qing, I definitely forgot something. I¡¯ve been influenced! What¡¯s going on here? No way. I have to figure this out. This is terrifying!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said. Standing, he walked over to the door and prepared to push it open.

    However, before he could, the totem red with blue light, and then innumerable soul-shaking howling sounds echoed out from inside. Next, a stream of bright light appeared on the totem, which began to spread rapidly and turn it into paper.

    Voice dripping with immense regret, the Captain anxiously said, ¡°I-I-I, I remember now! I got hit with Crimson Mother¡¯s curse! I shouldn¡¯t be remembering this. No way! Hurry up, Little Ah Qing, hurry up! Make me forget!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened. Quickly sitting down cross-legged, he once again unleashed the will domain of amnesia. About ten breaths of time passed, whereupon he opened his eyes. He looked around for a moment, somewhat confused.

    The Captain also opened his eyes in totem form. ¡°What? Howe I feel like I¡¯ve forgotten something? Interesting.... Okay, I have to think hard about this and remember what just happened.¡±

    Xu Qing looked around thoughtfully. ¡°Something¡¯s off here, Eldest Brother. I suspect I used my will domain of amnesia. However, I wouldn¡¯t just randomly do that. There¡¯s got to be a good reason. I bet there¡¯s something I want the two of us to forget. And if we remember it, something very terrifying will happen. Therefore, I suggest that you not try to remember.¡± With that, Xu Qing got back to his feet and put his hand on the door. ¡°Eldest Brother, let¡¯s push the door open together!¡±

    The Captain hesitated as he considered Xu Qing¡¯s exnation. Aftering to the conclusion that it made sense, he decided that, although he was still curious about what exactly was going on, he would suppress that curiosity.

    ¡°Ah, whatever. I¡¯ll figure it outter. Let¡¯s open this door and be the Archbishops of Moonrebel!¡±

    The Captain took a deep breath and then red with light. Together, he and Xu Qing exploded with force, pushing on the door of the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s Paramount Temple, which hadn¡¯t been opened for an entire epoch. And... they opened it!

    The time of the Archbishops of Moonrebel was nigh!

    ***

    The Bitter Life Mountains were in a very deadly situation, and the critical moment had arrived. The mortal husk of Crimson Mother, which was now a huge patch of skin, had fully stretched over that mountainous ind in the middle of the sea of blood. Every time the patch of skin twitched, it would shrink a little bit, and the boulders, vegetation, and living beings that it touched would be devoured.

    Because of that, the mighty Bitter Life Mountains had now shrunk down to about seventy percent of their previous scale.

    The meal continued.

    The cathedral cultivators on the sea of blood were fanatically kowtowing. The pontiff¡¯s face was expressionless. However, the pontiff wasn¡¯t actually looking at the situation ying out with the mountains. His gaze was fixed on the horizon.

    ¡°Are youing, Heir Apparent?¡± The entire point of his operation in the Bitter Life Mountains was to force the Heir Apparent and his siblings into the open. If it weren¡¯t for the Heir Apparent, there was no way the pontiff would have personallye with the cathedral¡¯s reserve power. ¡°If you don¡¯t show your faces, this entire ce is going to be food for mydy and mistress.¡±

    Chuckling coldly, the pontiff cast his senses about.

    As Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk continued to shrink, the Bitter Life Mountains were reduced to thirty percent of their previous size. All of the surviving cultivators were gathered in that area.

    Despair. Exhaustion. Confusion. Hopelessness.... Negative emotions flourished within all of these survivors. Their garments were ragged, their faces wan. Many of them had already drained their cultivation bases, and were now so weak they could do nothing other than wait to die.

    No matter how hard they fought back, it didn¡¯t do any good. Not even Fourth Vice-Bishop could do anything about Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. They had already done everything they could in the gloomy dusk cast by the skin that covered the sky. Magical technique and divine ability had been unleashed in all directions, yet that did as little good as <i>throwing a stone ox into the ocean</i>. It was literally impossible for mortals to contend with a god.

    Blood rain fell constantly, creating rivers of blood that forced everyone to seek higher ground. Mutagen levels soared. There were even some cultivators who were already heading toward mutation. Eventually, their screams of agony ceased when theirrades-in-arms ended things for them.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop looked around in despair. The sensation of fighting back, only to aplish nothing, had put cracks even in his strong mind.

    Grandmaster Saintlowe stood next to the vice-bishop, his face pale as he looked around at the agonized cultivators around him. He heard their cries, and yet, there was nothing he could do to help them. Medicinal pills weren¡¯t going to do anything right now.

    Also in the crowd were Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s followers, whose bitterness was overwhelming their faith. They... had never found Pill Nine. Now that the desert was a sea of blood and the Bitter Life Mountains were about to copse, it meant one of two things: either Pill Nine was already dead, or he had never been here to begin with.

    ¡°I hope the grandmaster <i>isn¡¯t</i> here...¡± the heroic young woman said. She sighed.

    Also present in the crowd were Ling¡¯er, Ning Yan, and the others. The chickens and Nethersprite were there, as was Patriarch Inkrule. The Green Spirit Pharmacy... had been devoured by the mortal husk.

    <i>Big Bro Xu Qing... where are you...?</i> Ling¡¯er shivered to her core, and her face was as pale as death.

    Ning Yan stood there quietly. Wu Jianwu looked rmed. Every twitch of the patch of skin in the sky caused everyone to tremble with fear.

    Rumbling sounds echoed again as the mortal husk shrank down again. More boulders disappeared. More areas vanished. The area left behind was even smaller.

    And yet, the fighting continued. Fourth Vice-Bishop flew up into the sky andunched an attack. Everyone else who had even an ounce of strength left followed suit. It didn¡¯t do anything. And yet, they still wanted to fight. Some cultivators who were on the verge of mutating chose not to seek help from theirrades. Chuckling bitterly, they flew up into the sky and self-detonated. The booms that rang out seemed particrly desperate.

    The skin continued to shrink. Blood rained down. There wasn¡¯t much of the gray wind left, only asional whimpering gusts here and there. Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk was devouring everything in heaven and earth.

    As despair reigned supreme, time passed.

    The Bitter Life Mountains grew smaller and smaller, until it was only ten percent of its previous size. The mortal husk wriggled with more intensity. There were even mouths visible now, dripping with crimson saliva and emanating a sensation of incredible hunger. Despair increased.

    ¡°Things are almost over,¡± Fourth Vice-Bishop said. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and smiled bitterly. Looking around at his subordinates, he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Fellow Daoists, if there¡¯s another life after this one... then I¡¯m going to do the same thing again! <i>Gods are by no means eternal!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!¡±</i> the surviving cultivators howled defiantly. It was as if they were taking all of the dedication and regret in their lives and releasing them at once. As the sound echoed everywhere, Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk shrank again as it prepared to devour thest of the mountains.

    And that was when something explosively dramatic urred!

    A beam of light suddenly appeared.

    It came without any warning whatsoever. It was golden, and as it appeared in midair, it rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye it turned into something like a sun that filled the area with brightness. When the blood rain was touched by that light, it was sted away. The sea of blood began hissing and steaming as it was driven off.

    For the first time, the mortal husk couldn¡¯t shrink down. The shapeless light became a very tangible support to the cultivators present.

    Everyone was shaken. Fourth Vice-Bishop looked on in shock, as did Ning Yan and the others. Ling¡¯er looked very excited, as her intuition was telling her that her Big Bro Xu Qing was on the way.

    As everyone watched in astonishment, the light took the form of a bronze door. It was big enough to prop up heaven and earth, and it emanated mountain-toppling, sea-draining fluctuations.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk shrieked, causing everything to shake, and sending huge waves rolling across the blood sea. The cathedral cultivators were absolutely stunned. The pontiff was no longer looking off into the distance as he waited for the Heir Apparent. Instead, he was looking at the mortal husk.

    ¡°That aura!¡±

    The sudden development was noticed by all of the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains. Their hearts swelled and their eyes went wide. It shook them to the core to realize that they recognized that door.

    ¡°Is that...?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the door of Paramount Temple!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe the door of Paramount Temple is right here!¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t the Moonrebel Congregation sealed right now?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me....¡±

    Gasps, exmations of shock, and cries of astonishment rang out as the door appeared in midair and stopped Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. And as everyone looked at it... The door slowly opened!

    God-like chanting drifted out from inside, causing wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. As everyone looked on withplete incredulity, they saw... that within that opened door, framed by dazzling light, were two figures....

    ¡°Archbishops of Moonrebel!¡± blurted the stunned Fourth Vice-Bishop. His words crashed like heavenly thunder into the minds of everyone present.

    As of this moment, the entire Moonrite Region was being shaken to the core, as an awakening will rose from the soil, the mountains, and all living beings!

 Chapter 674: A Trove; a World

    Chapter 674: A Trove; a World

    From the moment Xu Qing and the Captain led the way into this Spirit Garden, until the current moment... two years had passed. During that time period, a lot of things happened. And a lot happened to Xu Qing. Few people could have predicted that the Nascent Soul cultivator who stepped ashore two years ago would end up starting a world-shaking tempest.

    Truth be told, that tempest started to build back at the Heavenfire Sea. When the Twofold Alliance copsed, storm winds started to blow in the north. Wherever those winds blew, things started to change. Later, the dream of a god was interrupted at Mount Heavenly Ox. And events in the Bitter Life Mountains had repercussions far and wide. Pill Nine rose to prominence in the Moonrebel Congregation, and the God Decapitation Altar caused sparks to fly.

    And now, after two years of preparation and hard work, the storm winds reached the door of Paramount Temple.

    In the Moonrite Region, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, mountains and rivers trembled and seethed. An awakening will rose in the hearts of the living beings. A door was opening, not just in heaven and earth, but in the hearts of the people.

    It was simr to how the images of the God Decapitation Altar also affected everyone. By means of the Moonrebel Congregation, everyone could see the door of Paramount Temple opening. As it did, dazzling light spilled out, driving the despair out of the hearts of the people, and awakening their hope. Sparks again began to fly.

    In the east, by the Heavenfire Sea, the same Holy City where Xu Qing had helped the humans relocate was now in ruins. Deep beneath the ruins was a cave where Duanmu Zang had taken the survivors to hide.

    The cave was quiet, and it was filled with numbness and despair. Duanmu Zangy gasping for breath and waiting to die. The curse in him was very strong, and it was already eating away at his skin. But then his eyes snapped open. All the humans in the cave were looking around in shock. Exmations rang out as... they saw an image in their minds!

    Duanmu Zang started breathing heavily. He was a Moonrebel Congregation cultivator, so he recognized that bronze door. He knew what it signified. As he reacted withplete disbelief, he saw the door opening and two figures emerging. One of them was very, very familiar to him.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±In the north of the Moonrite Region, on the endless ice ins, a massive spell formation had everything locked down. It was designed to trap people, and outside of it were innumerable cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral, all working on powering it. Inside the formation... was an army several hundred thousand strong. And it was being led by someone simr to Fourth Vice-Bishop. It was Third Vice-Bishop!

    Thanks to the betrayal of First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop, the resistance forces in the Moonrite Region were located either in the Bitter Life Mountains or this ce. Therge army was on itsst legs. After the Moonrebel Congregation was sealed, they had no way tomunicate with the outside world, or to escape. They could only remain trapped, waiting for the red moon to fully rise.

    Their fighting spirit had been just about to flicker out. Their exhaustion had finally surpassed their will to live. But then, an image appeared in their minds, causing them to feel like they were being struck by lightning.

    Third Vice-Bishop, a middle-aged man, shot to his feet and blurted, ¡°The Moonrebel Door!!¡±

    Simr scenes yed out in locations in the west and south. Cultivators who had gone into hiding, or who had been scattered by the enemy, suddenly felt their hearts racing. In terms of numbers, they vastly outnumbered the armies in the Bitter Life Mountains and the northern ice ins.

    After all, the Moonrite Region was massive, and the Red Moon Cathedral would rather the scattered resistance forces be kept around for food. There were cultivators of all species, as well as people that Xu Qing and the others had dealt with on their journeys. For instance, Mistress Rosyclouds, who had taken a liking to Wu Jianwu. And regardless of whether people were members of the Moonrebel Congregation, they were shaken.

    That was because this was the first time in the epoch that the door of Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation had been opened! What was especially noteworthy was how it opened at the most critical moment, allowing its light to drive away the darkness and the clouds. Heaven and earth were being turned upside down.

    In the Bitter Life Mountains, beneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, dazzling light shone everywhere. All cultivators were deeply moved, especially those from the Moonrebel Congregation, who instinctively dropped to their knees.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop struggled to breathe steadily as he looked at the bronze door.

    More shocked than them were Ning Yan, Wu Jianwu, Li Youfei, and Patriarch Inkrule. Dazed, they simply looked at the two figures standing in the doorway. Nethersprite frowned, her eyes flickering with revulsion for the Captain. She hadn¡¯t seen him in a while, and had thus been calming down a bit. But now, she was starting to feel irritated again.

    And that was because Chen Erniu was speaking.

    ¡°Hahaha! I, the Archbishop of Moonrebel, am right on time!¡±

    The bronze door was fully open. Xu Qing and the Captain strode out into the light. And as the Captain''s words spread out, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered.

    He had just sensed a blessing. It came from the Moonrebel Congregation, along with a stream of astonishing power. It came out of the door, poured into them, and filled them from head to toe. The power was boundless and majestic, and seemed to contain unfathomable time within it, as well as faith and karma.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing understood. It was a blessing from the Moonrebel Congregation, a boon for bing the Archbishop of Moonrebel. It could be epted. It could be rejected. epting it would mean shouldering the karma of the Moonrebel Congregation, shouldering its mission, and shouldering responsibility for the entire Moonrite Region.

    After sensing that, Xu Qing paused in ce. The Captain also sensed the same thing, causing his eyes to glitter. He stopped walking as well.

    The two of them looked at each other.

    ¡°Should we do it?¡± the Captain asked.

    ¡°We do it!¡± Xu Qing nodded.

    The Captainughed heartily, and together with Xu Qing, stepped forward to shoulder the karma. The power of blessing flowed into both of them.

    Xu Qing shivered as intense heat swept through him. Blessing power that had been building up for countless years in the Moonrebel Congregation rushed into him and toward his golden crow nascent soul. The golden crow appeared in projected form, a piercing cry ringing from its beak. It now had a thousand tails, and had broken through from the four-tribtion to the peak of the five-tribtion level. It was now in the great circle of Nascent Soul.

    The ck spear appeared inside of it, pulsing with a terrifying aura and a power to destroy worlds. It was like a burning sun that could incinerate anything and everything.

    Xu Qing¡¯s aura grew stronger. And the breakthrough wasn¡¯t even over yet. Next, his Ghost Emperor mountain appeared. It was 3,000 meters tall, its eyes open, and it also pulsed with fluctuations of the great circle of Nascent Soul. After that was D-132. With the blessing power, it broke through. The sealing power within it grew terrifyingly stronger, and the will domain of amnesia more prominent. What was more, the inmates in D-132 also transformed. They were the only living beings that existed within Xu Qing¡¯s nascent souls.

    Of course, his battle prowess climbed.

    A roar erupted from the bluegreen dragon as it swirled in midair with the golden crow, sending out heavenly dao fluctuations. It was also breaking through, resulting in natural and magicalws manifesting around it.

    The profoundly majestic power of blessing still had not begun to weaken, and proceeded to Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison nascent soul. Soon, his eyes became pitch ck. The power of the taboo nascent soul broke past the four-tribtion level and into the great circle of five tribtions, resulting in a ck canopy forming and spreading out in the dome of heaven.

    Next came the daybreak light nascent soul, which was capable of unending transformations, and contained a myriad magics. Also, a timescape stream appeared, swirling around Xu Qing as it broke through. His sundial lifemps were next. The gnomons spun as the blessing caused the aura of the great circle to erupt in every direction. Last was his violet moon, which became a sea of blood, out of which rose a red moon. It was very realistic.

    Because of all that, Xu Qing¡¯s aura skyrocketed to an astonishing level. The blessing of the Moonrebel Congregation ensured that everyone present was watching very closely.

    Most terrifying of all was that behind Xu Qing, it was possible to see an illusory secret trove! It was sucking in the power of blessing like a whirlpool, causing the surroundings to shake. The aura from it surpassed everything because of how terrifying it was. And despite being blurry, everyone could see what formed the secret trove. Those things couldn¡¯t be described in any other way than unique.

    It had the golden crow in its sky as the sun, and the violet moon as its moon. Taboo poison formed the clouds in the sky, and the Ghost Emperor mountain rose up from the ground. Timescape streams were its waters, and the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon exhaled magicalws. Daybreak light formed countless inanimate objects, while D-132 brought the living things. The spinning sundials governed the motion of everything in the secret trove, including the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the transformations of the wind and clouds, and the vicissitudes of time. Although it was all illusory, the general structure of the secret trove was so big that it was almost like a world.

    This was the first secret trove Xu Qing had prepared for himself. It was his life essence secret trove! Though it was still in an embryonic form, it was easy to imagine how astonishing it would be whenplete. Of course, the nutrients required for such a secret trove would obviously be terrifying.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only one to be growing dramatically. The blessing also helped the Captain. With the power of the Moonrebel Congregation, heughed heartily and removed two of his seals. His aura immediately rose to the great circle of Nascent Soul. There was a third seal that he managed to open halfway, causing Spirit Trove fluctuations to seep out of him.

    That was when the blessing finally ended!

    It wasn¡¯t that the Moonrebel Congregation didn¡¯t have deep reserves. Rather, Xu Qing and the Captain had reserve powers that were just too profound, and required far more nutrients than what was ordinary. Furthermore, those nutrients needed to be varied, otherwise Xu Qing couldn¡¯t form his secret trove, and the Captain couldn¡¯t undo his seals. They needed different types of power to do that, and thus, it wouldn¡¯t help them to go overboard in taking the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s power.

    Next, as everyone looked on, tribtion clouds formed underneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. Rumbling thunder echoed out everywhere. Tribtion clouds also appeared in the outside world.

    It was the final heavenfate tribtion for Nascent Soul. Once Xu Qing passed it, he would truly be stable in the great circle of Nascent Soul. And because he already had a secret trove, he would be able to skip dao begetting and step right into Spirit Trove!

 Chapter 675: Godly Ascension Ceremony

    Chapter 675: Godly Ascension Ceremony

    Underneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, Xu Qing looked up. His gaze locked onto the tribtion clouds forming overhead. They weren¡¯t veryrge, and even with the thunder, they weren¡¯t very intimidating. Xu Qing could sense that there were more tribtion clouds forming outside. Those underneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk were merely illusory projections of the ones outside.

    Off to the side, the Captain looked on quizzically. ¡°I¡¯ve lived a lot of lives, little Junior Brother, and this is the first time I¡¯ve ever encountered anything like this. You¡¯re inside Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. So, is the heavenfate tribtion here for you or for the husk? If it¡¯s here for Crimson Mother, then the tribtion is going to be terrifying.

    ¡°That said, Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk is also terrifying. If it¡¯s here for you, then Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk will block it, and you won¡¯t even be hurt. You¡¯ll basically be able to skip the tribtion. This mortal husk showed up just to passively stand in for you during the tribtion! Interesting. I¡¯ve really never seen anything like this. Of course, mortal husks from gods are rare considering that they¡¯re mindless and act on instinct.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered thoughtfully.

    Outside, the clouds writhed in the canopy of heaven. The sky was red, but that couldn¡¯t block the magicalws of a heavenly dao, and thus dark clouds spread over the blood sea. Deafening thunder boomed in the clouds, and yet no lightning fell. It was as if the tribtion was making a decision.

    It didn¡¯t take long, though. A huge bolt of lightning emerged from the tribtion clouds, turning into a lightning dragon that shot toward Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. The lightning smashed into the skin, exploding into a cloud of sparks. Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk didn¡¯t appear to be damaged.

    However, the lightning bolts continued to fall. Nothing happened.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s fifth heavenfate tribtion! It wasn¡¯t here for Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk!

    For a variety of reasons, Xu Qing¡¯s heavenfate tribtions were different from those of most people. His first was driven away by the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County. The second happened when the tribtion mixed with magicalws. For the third, the Heir Apparent helped Xu Qing fuse with the desert, which made the tribtion even more intense. The fourth was even more terrifying, as it happened at the God Decapitation Altar.Every one was more shocking than the previous. And that pattern held for the fifth one. The Heir Apparent wasn¡¯t around to help him fuse with anything. Nor was Xu Qing seeking enlightenment of the God Decapitation Altar. The tribtion was focused on him alone. After all, he was essentially concealed within Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, as opposed to being fused with it.

    There was simply no way a tribtion like this could do anything to Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. Ny-nine bolts of tribtion lighting all fell, and the result was the same with all of them. The light of electricity glowed brightly. Meanwhile, the mortal husk wasn¡¯t damaged at all.

    The tribtion ended quickly, whereupon the clouds dispersed, revealing a brilliant glow. It was the light of heavenfate, which indicated that Xu Qing had seeded. Things went incredibly smoothly.

    However, beneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, Xu Qing frowned.

    Next to him, the Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed as he looked at the husk overhead. ¡°Something¡¯s not right!¡±

    That was absolutely correct. Although the tribtion was over, and though heavenfate shone brightly, the illusory tribtion clouds inside the husk had not disappeared.

    At the same time, Xu Qing did not experience the same sensation as previous asions in which he passed a tribtion. In fact, it seemed more like he <em>hadn¡¯t</em> passed the tribtion. Except, it really was a tribtion that had just yed out....

    ¡°Crimson Mother ate it!¡± the Captain said, sounding somewhat bewildered. ¡°Something¡¯s off here, little Junior Brother. This is too gruish! Let¡¯s get back inside the door!¡±

    ¡°Toote...¡± Xu Qing said in a hoarse voice, his expression very serious. He had just sensed something lock onto him. It was as if it didn¡¯t matter where he went, the tribtion would find him. It felt like a god was staring at him. He began trembling, his taboo poison seethed, his violet moon godsource erupted, and the god¡¯s finger in D-132 shivered. ¡°Everything inside of me rted to a god is being locked onto!¡±

    At almost the exact same instant that the words left his mouth, Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk suddenly twitched as the sky it contained started filling with tribtion clouds. Godly might descended, filling the tribtion clouds.

    As that happened, the clouds exploded, and then a huge stone stele the color of gold emerged from the shattered clouds. It was 300 meters tall, and it was heading right toward Xu Qing. As it descended, the aura of a god spread, causing all living beings to tremble with astonishment.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered. The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide with surprise. Knowing exactly what he was looking at, he gave a basic exnation.

    ¡°It¡¯s a god stele! If you inscribe your name on it with god blood, experience the Five Elements Deaths, and ce the god stele inside the body of an ancient god, then you plunder godhood and develop the personhood of a god! It¡¯s one of the main types of god tribtion ceremonies! It¡¯s called Hidden God Reborn!

    ¡°Hold on, it doesn¡¯t seem <em>that</em> formidable. It¡¯s way weaker than you¡¯d expect. It must be the instincts of Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk!

    ¡°Back before Crimson Mother was a god, h¨¥r determination was to reach godly ascension. And to make sure that happened, sh¨¥ must have used an imitation magic to practice ahead of time. That determination obviously seeped into h¨¥r mortal husk. Later, sh¨¥ was decapitated, and ultimately lit h¨¥r godfire in Brilliant Heaven to be a god. However, the determination remained in the mortal husk.

    ¡°If anyone else went through a tribtion in these circumstances, nothing would happen. But you¡¯re different! Your violet moon power has the same origin as Crimson Mother, and you¡¯re inside her mortal husk.... Therefore, when you summoned heavenfate tribtion, the mortal husk instinctively activated the god tribtion ceremony!

    ¡°This is a big opportunity! It might not be an actual god tribtion, and it might not involve lighting godfire, but to you, it¡¯s definitely a god tribtion of some sort! Little Junior Brother, <em>this</em> is your fifth tribtion!¡±

    As the Captain exined these things, the golden stele dropped down in front of Xu Qing, radiating a sea of golden light.

    <em>It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s good fortune or not. I have to pass this tribtion.</em>

    Xu Qing looked at the stele with determination in his eyes. Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk had devoured his heavenfate tribtion. As a result, his cultivation base wasn¡¯t whole andplete. Therefore, it didn¡¯t matter what good fortune was involved, he had to seed at this tribtion!

    ¡°It¡¯s a unique tribtion, little Junior Brother. Just follow my directions. Take your god blood and use it to write your name on the stele!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. As everyone watched, he raced up to the stele, extended his right hand, and sent blood spurting out.

    Using his hand as the brush and the blood as the ink, he wrote down the first stroke that made up his name. [1]

    The moment the brush stroke wasid down, the stele rumbled, and a tremor passed through Xu Qing. His blood immediately went out of control in his veins, and he started panting for breath. However, he continued to circte his cultivation base and keep writing. After the third stroke, he shivered from head to toe. He felt like he was withering up, as if incredible weakness were spreading through him. At the same time, water droplets appeared all around him, covering him and then running down him in rivulets.

    The water droplets were noxious, like necrotic fluid. Xu Qing... was melting.

    ¡°This is the five elements tribtion, little Junior Brother! Remember, you can¡¯t lose yourself! Step out!¡±

    Before Xu Qing could respond, he suddenly copsed onto the ground. He was now a soaked and swollen corpse, so rotten that he didn¡¯t even look like Xu Qing. Meanwhile, the necrotic fluid floated into the air, where it converged. And within it was a reflection of the living Xu Qing.

    The corpse itself was a five elements drowned corpse.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain said, ¡°use death to reach life. Step out!¡±

    Everyone was watching with various facial expressions. Ling¡¯er was extremely anxious. However, nobody could do anything to help. Xu Qing had to rely on himself.

    Shortly after, Xu Qing in the reflection opened his eyes. At first, he looked confused, but his gaze quickly became clear. He felt like he had just passed through endless amounts of time. He had experienced drowning to death over and over again. Each one had been iparably realistic, and he had struggled each time. Eventually, he lost consciousness and woke up here.

    Xu Qing stood and walked out of the reflection. He looked down at his corpse at his feet. He looked up at Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk up in the sky, then back down at the corpse. Suddenly, he realized something.

    <em>Is that my mortal husk? Is that what this ceremony does? Create a mortal husk?</em>

    After another brief moment of thought, he looked away from the corpse and went back to writing his name on the stone stele.

    Four strokes. Five strokes. Six Strokes.

    When he wrote the sixth stroke, blood sprayed out of his mouth, and a gaping wound opened on his stomach, as if a pair of hands had ripped open his belly. [2]

    His abdominal cavity was revealed. His five yin organs and six yang organs were all disappearing from sight, as if they were being extracted. A momentter, they were gone, and immense pain swept through Xu Qing, causing him to tremble. He dropped into a sitting position, and bent forward as if he were bowing.

    This corpse was a five elements dissected corpse.

    Before long, a figure emerged from within the dissected corpse. It turned into Xu Qing. Yet again, he had experienced countless deaths. He felt muddle-headed, and was shaking, but he still managed to keep writing his name.

    Seven strokes. Eight strokes. Nine strokes.

    A red vine appeared, which wrapped around his neck. It was also covered with numerous sharp thorns that stabbed into his flesh. It wrapped around him tighter and tighter, until he fell over, unmoving.

    This corpse was a five elements strangled corpse.

    After the strangled corpse¡¯s head tilted forward, a projected image superimposed over it, and Xu Qing stepped out of it like an embodied soul. Stepping away from his dead body, he returned to the stele.

    His expression was nk for a long time. Then he looked at the drowned corpse, dissected corpse, and strangled corpse off to the side.

    It suddenly made him think of that building he saw in the ghast hollow beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. There was a woman singing in that building, which was pentagonal in shape, and had five cross-legged zombies sitting around it. [3]

    <em>So, sh¨¥ was both suppressing that god and attempting godly ascension....</em>

    1. Minor spoiler here to reveal that, sort of unsurprisingly, Xu Qing is writing in Simplified Chinese. Simplified is the script mostmonly used in maind China, meaning it¡¯s the script the novel is written in and primarily read in. In Simplified, his name contains a total of 14 strokes. If he had been writing in Traditional Chinese the name would have 19 strokes, as the Xu character is slightly moreplicated in Traditional. Here is his name is Simplified ÐíÇà and Traditional ÔSÇà. Just in case you¡¯re not familiar with the difference, Simplified Chinese is only about 75 years old, and is the result of an initiative by the PRC to improve literacy by making the writtennguage easier to learn. I¡¯d rather we not get into arguments in thements, so forgetting about the political aspects and ramifications, it¡¯s interesting to think of what it implies that the author¡¯s xianxia universe uses Simplified characters¡­. Honestly, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s much different from an author writing in a Western fantasy setting based on, say, Medieval Britain, in which they have something rted to writing ornguage and it¡¯s all based in modern English as opposed to Middle English. ?

    2. The Simplified character for Xu Ðí has six strokes. So the continuation of the tribtion with that specific stroke corresponds to himpletely writing the first character that makes up his name. ?

    3. The pentagonal building and the five elements zombies were in chapter 369. Incidentally, the ¡°zombies¡± in that chapter have the same naming structure as the ¡°corpses¡± in this chapter. In other words, they are the same in Chinese. In Chinese, themon word for zombie is ¡°jiangshi¡± which literally means ¡°stiff corpse.¡± A ¡°jiangshi¡± can be a specific type of Chinese supernatural creature, or it can be applied to your typical Western-style zombie. However, although a lot of people know about ¡°jiangshi,¡± what many people don¡¯t know is that there are plenty of other kinds of ¡°zombies¡± that do not have the character jiang (stiff) in front of the character shi (corpse). In many ult, supernatural, and fantasy writings, there are other kinds of zombies thatbine other characters with ¡°shi.¡± So when I encounter anything with ¡°shi¡± in fantasy fiction, my standard for whether to trante it as corpse or zombie depends on how those things are portrayed. If they are unmoving, unalive, etc. then I¡¯ll usually call them corpses. If they are moving around, attacking, talking etc., then I¡¯ll usually call them zombies. In chapter 369, the zombies were all ¡°alive¡± as opposed to Xu Qing¡¯s bodies in this chapter, which justy there as unliving things. ?

 Chapter 676: Above the Violet Moon

    Chapter 676: Above the Violet Moon

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a very good situation at the moment. He wasn¡¯t sure if his fleshly body was in an illusory state, or if instead, his soul had left his body.

    During the previous three deaths, he had experienced innumerable reincarnations. He was having a hard time thinking clearly, and his memories were fuzzy. But there was one thing he could remember very clearly, and that was the situation with the building and the ceremony beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir.

    He could almost hear the singing in his ears.

    <em>¡°In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....¡±</em> [1]

    He looked up at the stone stele in front of him and suddenly understood why the Captain had called this ceremony by the specific name Hidden God Reborn.

    It was a godly ascension ceremony, although it wasn¡¯t the only ceremony of its kind. However, it was the ceremony Crimson Mother had chosen, and it was also the ceremony chosen by the woman in the ghast hollow. Thetter... had obviously been carrying out the ceremony for a long time.

    <em>She¡¯s trying to plunder from the god sleeping in the ghast hollow. She wants to use that god to form her own godly personhood. In the ceremony of Hidden God Reborn, the five elements are used in a certain way. Metal to dissect. Wood to strangle. Water to drown. Fire to immte. Earth to bury. In that case, earth and fire should be next.</em>

    Expression one of determination, he reached out and continued writing his name.

    He had already finished writing Xu. Now he had to finish writing Qing.By now, he could sense that the actual name and brushstrokes weren¡¯t necessarily connected. Even the most simple brushstroke would instigate the five elements punishment. This time, hepleted two strokes, after which his body copsed, and he found himself surrounded by burial soil. There was nothing he could do to fight back.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing was gone, and in his ce was a lonely gravestone with no writing on it.

    This was the five elements buried corpse!

    The cultivators underneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk stared in shock at the perilous situation. This ceremony surpassed the understanding of most people present. Only Fourth Vice-Bishop and a handful of his subordinates had any idea what they were looking at, and even then, they didn¡¯t know much.

    ¡°God tribtion!¡± Fourth Vice-Bishop murmured. That said, he didn¡¯t have any idea why this legendary ceremony was ying out.

    It was the same with Ning Yan and the others. More than once, Ling¡¯er tried to run to Xu Qing, only to be held back by Nethersprite. After all the time Nethersprite had spent in the Green Spirit Pharmacy, her opinion of Ling¡¯er had changed.

    As everyone watched in awe, the soil in front of the golden stele trembled, and then a hand wed out.

    Xu Qing emerged. And yet, what was truly gruish was that the soil wasn¡¯t moving. It was as if Xu Qing and the grave didn¡¯t actually exist in the same space and time.

    Xu Qing was like a blurry projection that seemed like he might wink out of existence at any moment. Once he was out in the open, he walked up to the stele, a nk look on his face. Experiencing countless deaths had pushed him into a state ofplete weariness. Both his memories and his life force were blurry and fading. It was almost as if he acted on instinct alone as he reached out and continued writing until there was only one stroke left.

    Before he couldplete it, mes engulfed him, burning him into a charred, ckened state, whereupon he fell to the ground as a corpse.

    It was a five elements immted corpse!

    Now there was only one stroke left before the name Xu Qing wasplete on the stele. There were mortal husks in all five directions, all with different causes of death, and all of them unmoving and gruish.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered mysteriously, and he took out a scepter. Pointing the scepter at the five mortal husks, he chanted, <em>¡°Themand of a god; thy soul will transcend; mortal husks are reverted; evil in anything and everything; five lives to earn grace.¡±</em> [2]

    As he chanted, the Captain approached the stone stele and started walking past the five mortal husks. As his chanting grew more impassioned, a stiff breeze picked up.

    <em>¡°The drowned will surpass; the dessicated corpse rises; the strangled dead freed; the buried body escapes; the immted life will live.¡±</em>

    It was as if death and life were being transposed. Even Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk up above was shaken. The area was filled with wind, rain, thunder, lightning, suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. And the chanting became like the roar of a god.

    Xu Qing¡¯s five mortal husks all started shaking, as if some bizarre power were awakening within them.

    The Captain walked faster and faster, until he was a blur speeding around Xu Qing, the stele, and the mortal husks. And as he went in circles, his voice became like booming thunder.

    <em>¡°Lives saved by edict; urgently surpass life; escape the sea of suffering; return alive to the world.¡±</em>

    The moment those four passages were spoken, the Captain suddenly stopped moving next to Xu Qing¡¯s mortal husks. From a distance, it looked like there were five versions of the Captains, each lifting a scepter overhead before bringing it smashing down onto the mortal husk in front of it. A shocking boom rang out.

    ¡°Return!¡± the Captain shouted. The wind became sinister and cold, causing all living beings it touched to shiver. It was as if the Yellow Springs had been opened, bringing with it a sound like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves.

    Instantly, Xu Qing¡¯s five mortal husks opened their eyes. That included the one buried in the soil.

    Then the five mortal husks stood, raced toward each other, and mmed into each other. The five bodies merged, bing Xu Qing¡¯s true form. His eyes were closed. He seemed different, though it was hard to say exactly how. Opening his eyes, he took a deep breath. Just now he had sunk deeply into death. It was like his body was a world of darkness in which he lost himself and then became abination of infinite deceased souls. Then he had heard his Eldest Brother¡¯s chanting, which was like a guide, leading him from death into life. That said, his thoughts were still muddled.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± the Captain yelled. ¡°Hurry up and draw the final stroke!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at the stele and noticed that there was a brushstroke missing. Instinctively raising his hand, hepleted his name.

    The two characters Xu and Qing were now inscribed on the stele.

    The stele vibrated as golden light converged on Xu Qing¡¯s name, transforming it from red to gold. Xu Qing shivered as his memories suddenly became clear again. In the blink of an eye, his muddled state vanished.

    <em>I¡¯m experiencing god tribtion!</em>

    Upon seeing that Xu Qing had recovered his senses, the Captain breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you don¡¯t have godfire, so it¡¯s not a real god tribtion. In other words, this imitation ceremony can¡¯t bepleted. But that doesn¡¯t matter. With the god stele, you already have the foundation for godly ascension. It wille in extremely handy after you plunder power from a god. In fact, that¡¯s the biggest good fortune you have!

    ¡°So we¡¯re going to skip the godfire, and you¡¯re going to take the god stele with your name on it¡­ and put it into Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk! Make h¨¥r into an ancient god and leave your mark. Though you can¡¯t control the mortal husk right now, you probably will in the future.¡± The Captain¡¯s eyes burned with a crazy look. ¡°This kind of opportunity onlyes along once in a very long time, little Junior Brother!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, and though his eyes burned with an even crazier look than the Captain¡¯s, he shook his head.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, sending this god stele into Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk would be a big waste. After all, a mortal husk is just a mortal husk. Our goal is the actual Crimson Mother. So I think I¡¯ll keep this god stele... and find an opportunity to send it into the red moon, and take away that which Crimson Mother seeks to fuse with! Red moon authority cannot have two masters!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with a strange light. Even to him, Xu Qing¡¯s idea soundedpletely crazy.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and his illusory secret trove appeared behind him. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the violet moon within it glittered, and an endless sea of blood spread out from it, creating a vortex. As the vortex spun within the secret trove, it exerted a gravitational force that pulled the golden stele toward it.

    The 300-meter-tall god stele was dragged into Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove, where it came to a rumbling halt. Gold light spread out from it, covering the violet moon. Then projections of Xu Qing¡¯s five mortal husks appeared around it, bathed by the fluctuations of the violet moon, and immersed in the golden light. Five elements. Five punishments. All were very gruish.

    If it were visible outside, any cultivator who saw it would react the same way Xu Qing did when he first saw the red moon. They would be astonished and terrified. After all, this conformed to the pattern of the gods.

    And it was all in Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove.

    As the god stele settled down along with the violet moon, Xu Qing¡¯s tribtion... was finally over! His cultivation base raced past the great circle of Nascent Soul and into the dao begetting phase. His aura rose to shocking heights, as did his battle prowess. Most people needed to take their time in the dao begetting phase. But Xu Qing already had a heavenly dao, which meant there were already natural and magicalws in his secret trove. And thus, he didn¡¯t need to stay in the dao begetting phase.

    Next, his secret trove started rotating. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s sundials transformed into an enormous furnace, burning with intense heat. Intense rumbling sound shook heaven and earth as the secret trove transformed from illusory to corporeal. In the blink of an eye... it became true and real!

    Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base had broken through. He was now in the first stage of Spirit Trove!

    From a distance, it was possible to see Xu Qing standing there, his long hair swaying behind him, his secret trove like an entire world behind him, with a furnace inside erupting with intense mes. Among the hundreds of thousands of cultivators present were some who were in Spirit Trove, and all of them were staring with their eyes wide and their jaws hanging open.

    Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove was truly unprecedented. But what was even more astonishing was that, right next to the huge opened door in midair behind Xu Qing was a blur of ripples that formed into a huge mirror. It filled the sky, emanating a magnificent and ancient sensation. Visible in the mirror was arge mountain with hundreds of thousands of temples on it. And inside each temple was a statue.

    Also within the mirror was an old man. He was none other than the spirit automaton of the Moonrebel Congregation. Looking at Xu Qing and the Captain from within the mirror, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Well met, Archbishops.¡±

    Instantly, massive amounts of information about the Moonrebel Congregation poured into the minds of Xu Qing and the Captain. They exchanged a nce. And then, speaking as one, they said, ¡°Let all of the statues... make their way back!¡±

    1. This song first appeared in chapter 364. It was repeated in a few subsequent chapters. ?

    2. The scepter was introduced in chapter 578. ?

 Chapter 677: Awakenings and Rising to Prominence

    Chapter 677: Awakenings and Rising to Prominence

    As the words of Xu Qing and the Captain echoed out for all to hear, the two of them entered theke-like surface of the mirror. They entered Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, where, like gods, they looked down on anything and everything. The mountain trembled as they erased the sealing blockade created by the traitorous First and Fifth Vice-Bishops.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were now truly the Archbishops of Moonrebel. Given the extent of their power, they could easily overturn anything done by the vice-bishops. As rumbling filled the mountain in the mirror, temples started lighting up. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of beams of light shot up, creating a dazzling disy. It was like hundreds of thousands of stars creating a gigantic sea. It was a magnificent scene that could shake mountains and rock the cosmos.

    There were also pulses of astonishing energy that surged from the hundreds of thousands of temples, terrifying shockwaves that spread out to affect the outside world.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, which had created its own heaven and earth, was unable to shrink down any further. It could not devour anything! It was being resisted by the power of the Moonrebel Congregation. This was the might of the congregation¡¯s reserve power.

    The words spoken by Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t just spread out underneath Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. They drifted out to the sea of blood beyond, and into the dome of heaven to eventually echo in all of the Moonrite Region.

    When they said ¡®all of the statues,¡¯ they meant the cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation. And when they said ¡®make their way back,¡¯ it referred to them returning to the Moonrebel Congregation.

    In the blink of an eye, the resistance army in the Bitter Life Mountains felt like they were being torn apart from the inside as their bodies,pletely beyond their own control, blurred until they became illusory.

    It was as if some supreme force locked onto all of those cultivators and became a summoning force that whisked them away regardless of where they were or the level of their cultivation base. One cultivator after another turned illusory and then vanished. When they reappeared, they were in the Moonrebel Congregation in their personal temples. There, they opened their eyes as statues, their facial expressions full of spirit and vigor.

    Included among that group was Fourth Vice-Bishop, who was also taken away to appear in his vice-bishop¡¯s temple.The same type of thing happened everywhere. In the east of the Moonrite Region, as Duanmu Zangy struggling to breathe, his eyes opened. Then his face became a mask of disbelief as he heard the words spoken by Xu Qing and the Captain. He blurred, then disappeared, to reappear inside the Moonrebel Congregation.

    All Moonrebel cultivators experienced the same thing, regardless of where they were located or how badly they were injured. As long as they weren¡¯t dead, they were summoned.

    It was especially dramatic in the north, where Third Vice-Bishop and his hundreds of thousands of subordinates all looked around with visible shock. They had no idea what exactly was going on, but they all heard those words spoken into their minds. Then all of them, including Third Vice-Bishop, vanished. When they reappeared, they were in their temples in the Moonrebel Congregation.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but the reality was that it happened in the mere blink of an eye. Then, the doors on all of the temples on the mountain slowly opened. Hundreds of thousands of statues all stepped off of the altars in their temples and walked out of the doors. Each statue was a different size and shape, but each was extremely impressive. All were reacting with surging emotions including: shock, confusion, apprehension, and excitement.

    It was the same with the vice-bishops¡¯ temples. Fourth Vice-Bishop opened the door of his temple and stepped out as a mighty divine likeness, radiating scintiting light. Next to his temple was Third Vice-Bishop¡¯s temple. That temple¡¯s door opened, and a divine likeness stepped out that resembled a furious vajra warrior, pulsing with terrifying pressure. That said, Third Vice-Bishop was clearly a lot more surprised than Fourth Vice-Bishop.

    First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop, as well as all their traitorous Moonrebel followers, were unable to escape the effects, and were forced to return to the congregation. As the temple doors of the traitorous vice-bishops opened, they stepped out, their expressions nk. To them, this development was simply too unexpected and sudden. Their arrival caused an instant surge of rage and killing intent from everyone else.

    However, no one acted on such impulses. And that was because there was something else that drew the attention of all the Moonrebel cultivators. Paramount Temple.

    Without any prior n, everyone simultaneously looked up toward the top of the mountain.

    The door of Paramount Temple was open, sending dazzling light out in all directions. It was almost like a sun. Within that sun were two figures who seemed capable of propping up heaven and earth, and were automatically worthy of esteem.

    As they looked down, the statues felt their minds reeling. Bowing their heads, the statues all said, ¡°Greetings, Archbishops of Moonrebel!¡±

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain said, ¡°<em>Gods are by no means eternal; hope exists from time immemorial and into forever!</em> On this day, the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s invasion is going to be the time for the Moonrebel Congregation to rise to prominence!¡±

    The Captain waved his right hand out with force, and the entire mountain shook as it expanded in size. Its true form, which still hovered in the Bitter Life Mountains, did the same.

    The mirror transformed, emitting deafening sounds as it grewrger. It took only a moment for it to make contact with Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. They mmed into each other, and the deafening crash was like two entire worlds smashing against each other. Heaven and earth shook. The air shattered.

    Before Crimson Mother reached godly ascension, h¨¥r mortal husk was driven by obsession and extreme gruishness. The Moonrebel Congregation was actually the precious treasure of an Imperial Sovereign, and contained his pre-death will and might. The sh sent out shockwaves that created a region-wide tempest, causing the dome of heaven to shake and all thends to tremble.

    Outside of Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, the cathedral cultivators could not hide their surprise.

    The pontiff¡¯s face was extremely grim; he was initially inclined to bolster the mortal husk, but in the end, decided not to. Only the godchild could truly exercise that level of control, and unseal it to reveal its ultimate form. As the pontiff, he could use his own faith plus a unique type of magic to influence the mortal husk. But it was only a rtively simple act of unleashing it. He didn¡¯t qualify to unseal it. Previously, he hadn¡¯t seen any need to unseal the mortal husk and reveal its final form. He should have been able to carry out his n without that. Yet not even the pontiff could ever have guessed that instead of waiting for the Heir Apparent to show up, he should have realized he was waiting for the Archbishops of Moonrebel toe forth! Itpletely surpassed his powers of prediction.

    And thus, the mirror continued to wrest control away from the mortal husk, which rippled outward, quickly revealing the part of the Bitter Life Mountains that had been devoured. The living beings in the mountain had been delivered from oppression.

    The Mirror of Moonrebel was not restricted by the mortal husk, and continued expanding, quickly covering the sky for tens of thousands of meters, and spreading out over the sea of blood. Within that area, the mirror sent out fluctuations, and the Moonrebel Congregation glittered brightly.

    The cathedral cultivators watching all of this were stunned. The pontiff¡¯s eyes flickered with killing intent.

    ¡°Eradicate all Moonrebel cultivators!¡±

    As the words reached the ears of the cathedral cultivators atop the sea of blood, their cultivation bases and killing intent surged, and they rushed toward the mirror overhead. Based on their estimation, though Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk was in retreat, there was still a huge disparity in the strength of the two forces.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing stood next to the Captain outside of Paramount Temple. His expression was the same as ever. He didn¡¯t look rmed. Now that he was one of the Archbishops of Moonrebel, information poured into his mind. A momentter, he opened his eyes.

    ¡°I hereby call on the name of Moonrebel to strip allmand powers from First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop. All traitorous cultivators are to be punished. And we have a whole group of people waiting in the mirrorke.¡±

    First Vice-Bishop and Fifth Vice-Bishop shivered as their statues dimmed, and their auras grew incredibly weak. It was as if some invisible force had caused them to deteriorate. Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s orders, once given, would be strictly enforced. The two traitorous Void Returning vice-bishops were both shaken and furious. Not willing to resign themselves to their fate, they howled and raced toward Xu Qing and the Captain. Yet before they could move hardly an inch, they were sealed with ice and turned into sculptures. Then theke water beneath them rippled, and they were devoured. Vanished without a trace. Also turned into ice sculptures were all of their fellow traitors.

    When the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators saw that, their hearts filled with reverence, and they bowed their heads.

    Looking around, Xu Qing continued, ¡°I hereby call on the name of Moonrebel to suppress all injuries, subdue all curses, and prolong life force and turn it into a tribtion of death!¡±

    When the words left his mouth, the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s mountain shook, like it had when Xu Qing and the Captain were blessed. Power that had been building up for years erupted out and rushed into the bodies of the Moonrebel cultivators.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as hundreds of thousands of cultivators felt their wounds being suppressed and their curses being subdued.

    ¡°Dispel the Moonrebel seal; release the battle prowess of antiquity; any who die will be reborn in the Moonrebel Congregation, eternally indestructible!¡±

    As Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone, the entire Moonrebel Congregation trembled, and all of the statues looked around with spirited expressions as they were augmented.

    The statues were like out-of-body incarnations, or suits of armor. On a substructural level, they were extensions of the Moonrebel Congregation, and thus, contained the terrifying power of the congregation.

    As Xu Qing undid the Moonrebel seal, and released the power, the statues erupted with terrifying battle prowess.

    ¡°Kill them!¡± Xu Qing shouted, and the statues shot toward the cathedral cultivators, bursting with an ancient aura, with the will of Moonrebel, and with the desire to exact revenge. A great battle began. Even the spirit automaton strode forth, then shot toward the pontiff. In the shortest of moments, the shocking sound ofbat, ughter, and magical techniques grew deafening.

    Looking out at the fighting, Xu Qing said, ¡°I hereby pronounce an amnesty to all cultivators from this epoch who failed the archbishop trial!¡±

    Ripples sprang into being in front of him, whereupon numerous ice sculptures representing various species appeared in front of him and the Captain as their true selves.

    Thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s amnesty, the ice started cracking, and then a terrifying aura erupted out.

 Chapter 678: Yet Another Godly Ascension Ceremony

    Chapter 678: Yet Another Godly Ascension Ceremony

    Energy erupted. Winds howled. Everything became hazy around the cracking statues of various species.

    No one could see exactly what was happening. However, it was possible to tell that there were a total of twenty-three statues!

    All cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains were shaken. The various energies being released mixed together to dramatic effect. It was the same to the cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation. That was especially true of the old-timers, who were looking very closely to see what was happening. The cathedral cultivators were also moved, and for a moment, there was a lull in the fighting.

    However, within that terrifying conglomeration of energies, there was one flow of Nascent Soul fluctuations.... It seemed unusual among the rest of the types of energy. In some respects, it stood out, but in others, it didn¡¯t.

    The first of the statues to fully awaken stepped out of the haze.

    It was the Captain¡¯s fleshly body. His appearance on the scene caused some surprise. Many people were very confused about why someone with a cultivation base like that would end up sealed.... Considering the terrifying energy of the other statues, this person seemed like the opposite of the center of attention.

    As everyone looked on, the Captain stared around for a moment, then hurried over to Xu Qing¡¯s side. There, he fused with his soul projection, then opened his eyes and stretched.

    ¡°That feels better!¡±

    Xu Qing nced at him but didn¡¯t say anything. As for all the onlookers, they were even more surprised than before, and if it hadn¡¯t been for the fact that there was a battle going on, people would have started whispering back and forth amongst themselves with various spections.The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and he was about to say some deliberately mystifying things. But then, cracking sounds grew louder behind him, and a second statue walked out into the open.

    It was a nonhuman with a body covered in scales and blue hair. Looking around, he said, ¡°I¡¯m... awake.¡±

    As he spoke the words, fluctuations of the second stage of Void Returning erupted from him. The awakened nonhuman could already sense what time period he was in, and the reason why he had awoken. He looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I am willing to fight for Moonrebel!¡±

    A third figure strode out from the haze. It was another nonhuman, and every step he took caused thunderous booms to echo out, as if his footfalls were made of heavenly thunder. He was tall and burly, with hair like snakes and a long tail made of bone. The moment he appeared, exmations of shock could be heard.

    ¡°A Heavenghost!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that species still exists!¡±

    Heavenghosts were a species that had long been exterminated in the Moonrite Region. Legend had it that the Heavenghosts had once produced generation after generation of godheralds. And theymanded the power of thunder and lightning. Yet for some unknown reasons, they had chosen to rebel against the Red Moon Cathedral. As a result, the cathedral wiped out their entire species.

    ¡°I¡¯m finally awake,¡± the burly Heavenghost murmured, his voice rumbling like lightning. Once out in the open, he looked in the direction of the cathedral cultivators and the pontiff. Eyes shining with burning killing intent, he looked at Xu Qing and frowned. ¡°You¡¯re the Archbishop of Moonrebel? A frail, weak human? How could you have assumed this office?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze remained tranquil as he looked at the Heavenghost. He was about to respond when, all of a sudden, a cold voice rang out from the haze.

    ¡°Why couldn¡¯t a human serve as Archbishop of Moonrebel, huh Little Ghosty?¡±

    The voice sounded like metal scraping against rock, and as soon as it could be heard, both the Heavenghost and the blue-haired nonhuman looked over with surprise on their faces. In the outside world, Fourth Vice-Bishop heard the voice and looked over anxiously.

    A fourth figure strode out from the haze, apanied by a sound like a huge weapon being dragged along the ground.

    This fourth person was human! He was an old man in a tattered robe, with a massive scar that ran from his forehead down to his waist. He radiated a shocking ferocity, and dragged a huge, corroded saber behind him as he walked. That saber emanated a baleful aura, and seemed capable of shattering heaven and earth with a single blow. Everyone who saw him reacted with surprise.

    The pontiff¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°So, you¡¯re not dead after all, Li Xiaoshan!¡± [1]

    Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s eyes went wide with shock. Voice trembling, he said, ¡°Master!¡±

    This old man was indeed Fourth Vice-Bishop¡¯s Master. Heart pounding, Fourth Vice-Bishop thought back to when his Master passed away into meditation. Before his passing, he had entrusted him withmand of the fourth temple.

    The old man looked at Fourth Vice-Bishop and nodded. ¡°Well done. You sessfully inherited my fourth temple. In reality, I didn¡¯t die. When I failed to break through to Smoldering God, the curse red up in me. I had no choice but to ask the spirit automaton to seal me away to be awakened at a critical moment.¡±

    With that, Li Xiaoshan looked at the two nonhumans, who quickly bowed their heads and stepped back respectfully.

    Li Xiaoshan snorted coldly. Then he turned to Xu Qing, whereupon his expression softened and he nodded.

    ¡°The Moonrebel Congregation finally has an archbishop in this epoch.¡±

    He sped hands and bowed.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t dare to be arrogant, so he quickly replied. ¡°Well met, Senior.¡±

    ¡°You can just tell me what to do. I¡¯m an old geezer, but I can still fight.¡± With that, Li Xiaoshun turned to look at the pontiff, his eyes filling with coldness.

    Xu Qing was actually feeling a bit excited. He¡¯d had no idea that there would be people like this sealed in the ice sculptures.

    Next, more figures emerged from the haze, all of them pulsing with powerful energy and a feeling of ancient time. Though none were as impressive as those who hade before them, they were all terrifying. These were the cream of the crop from the Moonrebel Congregation in this epoch. They had been sealed, but they were also a form of protection. They were all nonhumans. As soon as they looked around, they realized the situation they were in. They saw the fighting outside, and they saw Li Xiaoshan. All of them exercised restraint.

    That said, these figures instantly caused immense pressure to weigh down onto the hearts of the cathedral cultivators. The blood sea whipped into a frenzy, and the sky rippled.

    Eventually, there was only one ice sculpture left in the haze.

    The cracks spread out across the surface of this sculpture more slowly than the others. Eventually, it burst open, and a most ancient of auras spread out, like a wind from antiquity.

    For the second time, the pontiff¡¯s face flickered, and with even more intensity than when heid eyes on Li Xiaoshan. From the sharpness of his gaze, it seemed as if he had suddenly spotted an archenemy.

    It was a nonhuman woman. She had a third eye on her forehead, which was bright red, as if fire burned within it. As she emerged, the fire red, bing a sea of mes. In midair above her, a giant face manifested, which seemed to contain an entire world. Surrounded by fire as she was, she seemed like a lord of mes. Her fluctuations bordered on the Smoldering God level, as if all she needed to do was exercise a thought to form a major world and be a Smoldering God. After emerging, she stood there for a moment, her eyes wide and nk.

    Everyone was shaken by her arrival, yet no one seemed to know who she was, not even the old-timers from the Moonrebel Congregation. Apparently, all traces of her existence had been erased from this epoch. She seemed extremely old, as if just looking at her would allow you to see the passage of time. Even the other unsealed ice sculptures were unfamiliar with this woman.

    Only Li Xiaoshan knew who she was. Bowing his head, he softly said, ¡°Well met, former Archbishop of Moonrebel.¡±

    The words smashed into the hearts and minds of everyone present, with the exception of Xu Qing and the Captain. The moment the two of them became the Archbishops of Moonrebel, they knew about her.

    In this epoch, Xu Qing was one of the Archbishops of Moonrebel. But this wasn¡¯t the first time in all history that a position had been filled. And though not every epoch had an Archbishop of Moonrebel, over the countless years that had passed, there have been multiple instances of archbishops showing up. Unfortunately, the resistance movements they led ultimately failed.

    The final ice sculpture was one of the Archbishops of Moonrebel from the past. It wasn¡¯t her true form, but rather, a clone. She had secretly used a special magic of the Moonrebel Congregation to avoid being devoured by Crimson Mother. And she had left behind this clone as a gift for the next Archbishop of Moonrebel.

    Expression very grave, the pontiff slowly said, ¡°The Archbishop of Moonrebel from the previous epoch. Madam Godfinch!¡±

    The nk look in Madam Godfinch¡¯s eyes vanished, to be reced by coldness. She looked at the pontiff.

    ¡°A patchwork body with a mishmash of a world,¡± she said calmly. ¡°And two eyes that aren¡¯t from this time period. All to tap into the might of a Smoldering God. Do you even remember who you are?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m the pontiff of the Red Moon Cathedral!¡± he replied instinctively, his eyes going wide.

    ¡°In my epoch, the Red Moon Cathedral didn¡¯t have a pontiff.¡± Shaking her head, Madam Godfinch sighed and looked at the Captain. ¡°They¡¯re your eyes.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s expression flickered as he looked closely at the woman. He didn¡¯t say anything.

    Madam Godfinch¡¯s gaze shifted to Xu Qing, and her eyes shone. A cold energy erupted from her. The sea of mes still burned around her, except the mes had changed color. They were now ck.

    ¡°How very strange you are....¡± Madam Godfinch looked at him closely for a long moment, but didn¡¯t say anything further. She turned to look outside. ¡°The final battle of this epoch is already starting, huh? Seems a lot more interesting than my epoch. I¡¯m just a clone, and I¡¯m not as strong as my true form was back in the day. I can¡¯t help much. But I¡¯ll do my best. <em>Gods are by no means eternal; hope exists from time immemorial and into forever</em>.¡±

    Taking a step forward, she left the Moonrebel Congregation and appeared over the blood sea. With the wave of her hand, she sent boundless mes down toward the sea. Instantly, the entire sea was engulfed in mes.

    The pontiff¡¯s expression flickered as he extended his right hand and pushed out. The major world behind him stirred.

    But then Li Xiaoshan took nine steps forward with his rusty saber. As he slid through the gap between reality and illusion, nothing could stop him. When he took the ninth step, he arrived in front of the pontiff. Raising his saber high, he chopped down! Heaven and earth went dim. The pontiff tumbled backward. Li Xiaoshan also tumbled backward. Thetter coughed up blood, and his aura declined. However, he recovered only a momentter. Looking up with calm eyes, he started dragging his saber forward again.

    The pontiff¡¯s face fell as the fire started evaporating the blood sea. It didn¡¯t take long for the entire sea to disappear. But the mes weren¡¯t done yet. Next... they shot up toward the pontiff.

    At the same time, inside the Moonrebel Congregation, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glowed with cold light. Taking control of the mirror, he sent dazzling light out to bless all Moonrebel cultivators. The nonhuman cultivators who had been unsealed all shot out and unleashed the power of their cultivation bases as they joined the other Moonrebel cultivators.

    The fighting resumed.

    The unsealed nonhumans all unleashed astonishing attacks. The blue-haired nonhuman left behind puddles of water wherever he went. And those puddles sucked in any nearby cathedral cultivators, where they would enter the reflection of the water and experience pain and suffering.

    The burly Heavenghost was surrounded by an area of thunder and lightning. And the countless bolts of lightning became vicious ghosts who ripped to shreds anything nearby. The more killing he did, the more vicious ghosts appeared.

    One of the unsealed cultivators was more gruish than the others. When the cathedral cultivators tried to kill him, he didn¡¯t fight back at all. He let themnd deadly blows on him. However, each time that he died, the attacking cultivators would suddenly die. Then the nonhuman would possess the corpse and continue his ughter....

    Meanwhile, the statues of the Moonrebel Congregation were amazing. Not only did they bolster battle prowess, but they made the cultivators unafraid of dying. If they did die, then another statue would appear inside the mountain temples, and they would reemerge and start fighting again. That was the might of the Moonrebel Congregation as a domain treasure!

    In a very short period of time, everything turned around.

    Though the cathedral cultivators weren¡¯t weak, they just couldn¡¯t gain the upper hand in a situation like this. It was to be expected. After all... they were facing the strongest group of people from the Moonrebel Congregation in this epoch.

    ***

    Far away in the middle of the Moonrite Region was ake. And in the middle of thatke was an ind. Atop the ind was a massive, kneeling statue. From a distance it looked like it was holding up the sky. As you got closer, you could see that there was a templeplex beneath the statue. The temples were so small they were like ants.

    That statue was none other than the Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua!

    On the statue¡¯s head was a church temple that emitted constant pressure onto the statue. It was the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s Godchild Temple, and it also served as their headquarters.

    Inside of Godchild Temple was a huge throne, atop which sat a person. He appeared to be a young man, and though he seemed apathetic, his facial features were clearly simr to those of the statue outside. His aura went back and forth between strong and weak. He was clearly injured. And those injuries were obviously the work of the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. It was obvious who this person was.

    In front of him was an illusory projected image that depicted the battlefield in the Bitter Life Mountains. Eventually, the young man stood and walked deeper into the temple. His steps seemed to propel him through the void and into another world.

    In that other world, the sky was dusky, and thends were covered with ake of blood. Seated cross-legged atop the still water were twelve corpses. Each one resembled the young man. If you looked closely, you would see that the corpses actually didn¡¯t have any flesh or blood. They only had an outeryer of skin. They were created in a circle on the surface of theke, as if they were participating in some gruish ceremony. The circle, however, was iplete.

    The young man walked out onto theke to the empty spot, then sat down cross-legged as the thirteenth corpse. The circle was nowplete.

    A golden eye appeared in the air, which scattered golden light onto theke, causing the reflections of the corpses to appear in the water. What was very gruish was that the reflections actually didn¡¯t match the corpses. The reflections revealed eight men and five women. From their facial features, it was obvious they were all children of the Imperial Sovereign.

    They included the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. However... all of them looked younger, as if they were versions of themselves from the past. All of the brothers and sisters were there except for the fourth.

    Then, a crafty and bizarre voice echoed out in this world.

    <em>¡°There was once a big dolly; with a bunch of little dollys; ten little dollys one two three; bloodshot eyes with hair gray and dusty; one day they didn¡¯t say a word to me; the big kids looked around and yelled for mommy; the little kids shouldn¡¯t think it¡¯s that scary....</em>

    <em>¡°Then suddenly something happened when; big dolly got sick and second dolly tended him; third dolly bought meds and fifth dolly prepped them; sixth dolly died and seventh dolly grinned; eighth dolly dug a pit and ninth dolly jumped in; tenth dolly asked why they were cryin¡¯...</em>

    <em>¡°Fourth dolly¡¯s lost and won¡¯te back again!¡±</em>

    Theke surface churned, as if something in its depths was about to break the surface. A terrifying aura wasing.

    1. Li Xiaoshan: Li is listed #2 on the top 100 surnames. Xiao means ¡°firmament, heaven.¡± Shan means ¡°mountain.¡± Madam Deathde says it¡¯s an impressive name that parents would give a child they have high hopes for. He¡¯ll ¡®climb high mountains and fly through the sky.¡¯ ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Yes, this chapter was significantly longer than an average chapter</blockquote>

 Chapter 679: I Donâ€™t Qualify??

    <h4>Chapter 679: I Don¡¯t Qualify??</h4>

    Bitter fighting was ying out in the Bitter Life Mountains. Deaths urred constantly. Meanwhile, the sea of blood had dried up, leaving behind a huge basin. Heavenly fire continued to spread.

    Thanks to the blessing from the domain treasure, the statues of the Moonrebel Congregation were augmented with astonishing battle prowess. When one of them died, the Moonrebel Congregation would tremble, and the cultivator who had died would emerge from the mirror again to start fighting.

    Even when the cathedral cultivators used their curse magic, it did no good. With the Moonrebel Congregation around, the curse was temporarily suppressed. As a result, the tide of battle favored the Moonrebel Congregation.

    The more than twenty ancient cultivators who had been unsealed were all chosen members of this epoch. All had gruish techniques, and were abundantly familiar with carrying out ughter. All were mighty enough to surpass enemies in the same cultivation level as themselves, and as a result, wherever they went, the cathedral forces were forced into retreat.

    There was immense pressure weighing down on the pontiff. He was up against the two strongest cultivators of all. And the nonhuman Madam Godfinch was especially difficult to deal with, as the mes she released were sublime to say the least. What was more, they constantly changed colors, and every time they did, they released astounding mightiness. Her attacks could immte heaven and earth, and contained the power of a Smoldering God. Even the pontiff was taken aback. If she had been alone, the pontiff could have handled her.

    But Li Xiaoshan was there as well, and that really put the pressure on. He didn¡¯t use his saber constantly. He would race around the pontiff, his saber whistling through the air as he picked up speed. Then he would asionallyunch an attack that would shatter the air and release a terrifying beam of saber light.

    The pontiff was really starting to get rmed. ¡°This fight needs to end!¡±

    Eyes narrowing, he lifted his right hand and pointed out with his index finger. The illusory world behind him shot forward to block the saber. Then, rumbling sounds echoed out as the pontiff made a grasping gesture with his left hand.

    Instantly, Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk appeared again. H¨¥r presence caused heaven and earth to ripple and distort.

    The battlefield was shaken, and Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted. The main thing he had been preparing for was this. Now that the mortal husk was back, Xu Qing tapped into his powers ofmand. The Captain did the same. As the Archbishops of Moonrebel, both of them had a measure of control over the huge mirror, which started shining brightly. The light spread out to fight back against the power of Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk.

    Every sh released deafening booms and gale force winds. Cultivators on both sides of the conflict had no choice but to fall back in the face of the brutal shockwaves.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with killing intent, and he was about to release more of the domain treasure¡¯s might, when suddenly, a new type of wind appeared. It smelled like blood, and as it seeped across the battlefield, a bizarre and gruish voice spoke into the ears of everyone present.

    <i>¡°There was once a big dolly....¡±</i>

    It was the godchild, and he sounded gruishly childish. This wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing this rhyme. It was the same thing he¡¯d heard when they rescued Fifth Sister.

    The line which had made the deepest impression on him was thest one.

    <i>¡°Fourth dolly¡¯s lost and won¡¯te back again!¡±</i>

    As the rhyme drifted out, the dome of heaven seemed to reverse itself again. It became crimson, as if ake of blood were being projected into the sky. Theke of blood seethed, as if some terrifying entity were inside of it, about to crawl out. A terrifying aura settled onto the battlefield.

    Xu Qing and the Captain both reacted with shock. That was more the case with the Moonrebel cultivators. All of them felt deep astonishment, even the top experts who had just been unsealed. Li Xiaoshan¡¯s saber trembled slightly in his hands. Madam Godfinch¡¯s fire flickered. All of them looked with iparable seriousness at theke of blood in the sky.

    In sharp contrast, the cathedral cultivators breathed sighs of relief. The only one who didn¡¯t was the pontiff, who frowned. It was impossible to determine what exactly he was thinking. Then, a sound emerged that drowned out the nursery rhyme as it exploded thunderously.

    It was a heartbeat.

    <i>Thump-thump. Thump-thump!</i>

    The moment the sound rang out, arge number of Moonrebel cultivators screamed in agony as their statues suddenly exploded. It was as if the sound itself could wipe out anything and everything.

    Theke of blood overhead seethed more violently as a huge ck hand slowly stretched out, covered in tentacles. It was apanied by a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering mightiness. The hand had seven fingers with razor-sharp nails at the end. As the tentacles swayed back and forth, they shattered the sky around them. And though it seemed like the hand was descending, the reality was it was actually growingrger. There was no way anyone could fight back against this or stop it.

    The huge hand caused the mutagen levels to rise dramatically, and forced everyone to back away. Eventually, the massive, god-like hand closed around the cathedral forces. That included the pontiff and Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. The hand grabbed them and then sucked them inside.

    After, it slowly retracted into theke of blood, taking the cathedral cultivators with it. Itsing had been unstoppable. And it left unhindered.

    Xu Qing, the Captain, and everyone else could only watch wide-eyed as the huge hand disappeared in the blood. After, a pair of golden eyes appeared in theke water, staring coldly down at thends below, then shifting to gaze at the canopy of heaven. Finally, the golden eyes closed, and theke of blood vanished.

    The battle was over. The sky returned to normal, and the mightiness of the god¡¯s hand vanished. But the hearts of the onlookers continued to pound out of instinctual fear because of the golden eyes.

    <i>Who was that...?</i> That was the question almost all of the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators were thinking. They all knew the answer, yet they couldn¡¯t believe it was true.

    ¡°The godchild...¡± said Li Xiaoshan in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°In my day, the godchild wasn¡¯t so terrifying,¡± Madam Godfinch said with a frown. ¡°I get the sense that he¡¯s immeasurably close to bing a god.¡±

    Silence reigned.

    They had won a victory. However, the arrival of the godchild¡¯s hand left everyone feeling unprecedentedly powerless. Eventually, their gazes naturally shifted to Xu Qing and the Captain. It didn¡¯t take long before their expressions became those of disappointment and helplessness. Two Archbishops of Moonrebel had appeared, butpared to those from the past... they were just too weak.

    One was in Spirit Trove, the other Nascent Soul. How could people with cultivation bases like that serve as the Archbishops of Moonrebel? How could they lead the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators on a path to defy the heavens....

    That wasn¡¯t even to mention the fact that the red moon was already half risen, which meant that Crimson Mother would arrive in less than two months. When sh¨¥ started h¨¥r session of devouring, all living beings would have no choice but to wallow in bitterness and hopelessness. Even if these two did havemand power as Archbishops of Moonrebel, there was no way their cultivation base was high enough for them to win the hearts of the people. And thus, as the moments ticked by, the Moonrebel cultivators looked away from Xu Qing and toward Fourth Vice-Bishop, Third Vice-Bishop, Li Xiaoshan, and Madam Godfinch.

    That included the unsealed chosen. That group had mixed feelings when it came to the position of archbishop. In the final analysis, they didn¡¯t think that Xu Qing and the Captain qualified.

    Looking at Xu Qing, Third Vice-Bishop said, ¡°Many thanks, Archbishops. You pulled me and my subordinates into the Moonrebel Congregation just in time. However, I would like to ask for an additional blessing. Send us back to the northern ice ins. There aremoners there who deserve to be apanied in theirst moments of life.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply.

    Taking a few steps forward, Fourth Vice-Bishop frowned and said, ¡°Third Vice-Bishop, the Moonrebel Congregation has filled the archbishop position. It¡¯s the perfect time for us to rise to prominence. You¡ª¡±

    ¡°Do you have hope, Ol¡¯ Fourth?¡± interrupted Third Vice-Bishop. He sighed. He looked exhausted. ¡°Given the cultivation base of the two archbishops, they might qualify to fill the position, but they can¡¯t resist the red moon. What¡¯s more, we have no idea who these two archbishops even are. Maybe they aren¡¯t even from our region.¡±

    Many Moonrebel cultivators looked on, feeling very confused.

    Third Vice-Bishop turned again to Xu Qing. ¡°Archbishop, please unleash the blessing. If you¡¯re not willing, then I¡¯d like to be sealed.¡±

    From his wording and attitude, it was obvious that he wasn¡¯t going to defy Xu Qing, but at the same time, didn¡¯t approve of him. Behind him, his hundreds of thousands of subordinates all bowed their heads. They had followed him this far, and they would continue to follow him going forward.

    Seven or eight of the unsealed cultivators stepped forward and echoed simr sentiments.

    ¡°I feel the same.¡±

    ¡°Archbishop, the critical moment is almost here. Is there any point to all this?¡±

    Li Xiaoshan seemed like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain and simply sighed. Their cultivation bases were just too low.

    Madam Godfinch looked on with no facial expression. She said nothing.

    Fourth Vice-Bishop struggled to control his breathing. Then, he walked over to Xu Qing and stood by his side.

    Other Moonrebel cultivators did nothing. All were hesitant, and were still waiting to see how things yed out.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes shot up and he opened his mouth to speak. But before he could, Xu Qing stepped forward and looked at Third Vice-Bishop.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, my cultivation base is too low. And I am an out-of-region cultivator.¡±

    His words caused an immediatemotion among the Moonrebel cultivators. How could the local cultivators possibly ept that some outsiders had won the spot of Archbishop of Moonrebel?

    ¡°So, you really aren¡¯t from this region,¡± Third Vice-Bishop said.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what region he¡¯s from,¡± Fourth Vice-Bishop said, his expression somber and his voice full of determination. ¡°That¡¯s not important. He saved us in the middle of a deadly crisis. And he <i>is</i> an archbishop!¡±

    Third Vice-Bishop shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t need you to exin things to me. This is about strength. He doesn¡¯t meet the standard and he doesn¡¯t have a sufficient reputation. I refuse to acknowledge him, nor do my subordinates. In fact, I think a lot of fellow daoists in the Moonrebel Congregation feel the same. I would rather feel regret than follow a lost cause.¡±

    He shook his head again and turned and started walking back to the Moonrebel Congregation. His subordinates followed him. Many other Moonrebel Congregation cultivators sighed in their hearts and did the same thing.

    Rather than spend their final two months of life hopelessly following a Spirit Trove cultivator, they would spend their final moments in peace and quiet. They weren¡¯t fools, and they knew that they couldn¡¯t remain safe by staying sealed in the Moonrebel Congregation. If that were a possibility, then there would be a lot more people from past epochs besides Madam Godfinch. Obviously, only archbishops qualified to do that.

    The atmosphere grew more tense as more people started walking back to the Moonrebel Congregation. Among them were some of Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s followers, including the statue of the heroic young woman. They hadn¡¯t spotted the grandmaster among the pirs, which indicated to them that Grandmaster Pill Nine had perished.

    However, just as everyone started walking back to the Moonrebel Congregation, Xu Qing spoke in a calm voice.

    ¡°You think my cultivation base is too low? I can ept that. But you also said I don¡¯t meet the standard, and that my reputation is insufficient.... So let me ask you something. Considering that I unsealed the Heir Apparent from the bottom of the Heavenfire Sea, and also woke up Princess Brightblossom in the northern ice ins, does that meet the standard? If not, then how about freeing Princess Fifth from Mount Eternal Centipede? Or going to the ancestralnd of the Doorites to release Eighth Highness? Does that meet the standard?¡±

    All of the cultivators who had been walking toward the Moonrebel Congregation shivered and looked anxiously over their shoulders at Xu Qing.

    Third Vice-Bishop stopped in ce. Eyes shining, he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°I had my spections about why you appeared here in the Bitter Life Mountains. So, you saved some of the children of the Imperial Sovereign. You¡¯ve performed an immense service for this generation. But that still doesn¡¯t give you the power to rally supporters behind you. It doesn¡¯t meet the standard.¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing his disguise to vanish, thus revealing his true features.

    ¡°A few months ago, in the Land of God Decapitation, I stoked the fires of resistance. I called for people to not abandon hope. My sparks lit a wildfire. Does that meet the standard?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, ripples flowed through the dome of heaven as the majestic God Decapitation Altar appeared behind Xu Qing. It was magnificent and astonishing.

    Third Vice-Bishop¡¯s pupils constricted. All Moonrebel cultivators¡¯ faces flickered with emotion. As they looked at Xu Qing¡¯s face, and then the God Decapitation Altar, they thought about the images they had witnessed those months ago. Xu Qing was definitely the person from the broadcast!

    ¡°It¡¯s him!!¡±

    ¡°The one who called us to action was actually the archbishop!¡±

    ¡°This.... That broadcast was what lifted us out of despair!¡±

    A buzz of conversation filled the air.

    Next, the Captain spoke. ¡°Interesting. You say we don¡¯t meet the standard? Our reputation is insufficient? Considering that in my past life in this region, I actually took a bite out of Crimson Mother, does that meet the standard? I was once the Grand Dancer, but I betrayed the red moon. Does that meet the standard? The Red Moon Cathedral dismembered me and scattered my corpse. They built church temples on my organs. Does that meet the standard?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s words provoked a simr buzz as Xu Qing¡¯s words. It was as if hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts were crashing down in the area.

    Everyone was shaken to the core. The Moonrebel Congregation cultivators were visibly astonished, and were having trouble breathing stably. Even Third Vice-Bishop was shaken. Li Xiaoshan, Madam Godfinch, and the unsealed chosen were all moved.

    Finally, Xu Qing looked out at the Moonrebel Congregation.

    ¡°Given that I stole some of Crimson Mother¡¯s red moon godsource, and took it for my own, does that meet the standard? I concocted countless pills for you Moonrebel cultivators, thus helping you to alleviate the suffering of the curse. Does that meet the standard? And what¡¯s more, you said I don¡¯t have a sufficient reputation.... Considering that I¡¯m Pill Nine, does that meet the standard?¡±

 Chapter 680: Moonrebel Killing Intent Coiling Around Heaven and Wrapping Around Earth

    Chapter 680: Moonrebel Killing Intent Coiling Around Heaven and Wrapping Around Earth

    Both the Captain¡¯s proud words, and what Xu Qing had said earlier, were so lofty that they rose high into the heavens, and would have a hard time ever touching the earth.

    Biting Crimson Mother? Stealing the red moon¡¯s essence? Rescuing the children of the Imperial Sovereign? All of that... left the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators stunned. However, none of it had anything to do with them personally. Those aplishments were things that almighty figures would carry out, and though they were exciting to hear about, they weren¡¯t enough to truly move the hearts of the people.

    That is just one facet of human nature. When it came to walking the line between safety and danger, most people worried about their own situation, and cared about things that rted to themselves personally. A good example was how the people of Sea-Sealing County didn¡¯t care very much who exactly served as the governor. They were mainly worried about having been poisoned. And Xu Qing took advantage of that to tap into the destiny aura of the citizens in the county capital. It was the same here in the Moonrebel Congregation.

    And that was why Xu Qing¡¯s final statement dering himself to be Pill Nine had a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling effect on the Moonrebel cultivators. Themotion surpassed the intensity of everything from before. Virtually every single Moonrebel cultivator was visibly taken aback. And inside, their hearts were in chaos as they looked incredulously at Xu Qing.

    The Pill Nine name was of deep significance to all Moonrebel cultivators. A year ago, he had been the one to give them hope. Acting on his own, hepletely changed the painquelling lozenge paradigm. He was able to take the ridiculously expensive painquelling lozenge and turn it into a medicinal pill that anyone could afford, with a price dozens of times lower than before.

    There seemed to be no end to his virtuous achievements, and it caused a major stir. There were a lot of cultivators who had been dealing with extreme mental and physical anguish because of the curse, and now felt deeply grateful to Pill Nine.

    Vice-bishops and ordinary cultivators alike all felt deep reverence for Pill Nine.

    Even Third Vice-Bishop, who had been so skeptical of Xu Qing, had gone searching for Grandmaster Pill Nine a few times. He had even personally gone to Pill Nine¡¯s temple in the hopes of recruiting him into his own army.

    And there was no need to go into detail about everyone else he had helped. Of the surviving Moonrebel Congregation cultivators, it was safe to say that about sixty percent of them had consumed some of Pill Nine¡¯s medicines.Most noteworthy of all was the cursequelling lozenge that Grandmaster Pill Nine had invented. It struck the congregation like a bolt of lightning when everyone realized that it could actually reduce the curse. When that pill was released, it pushed Pill Nine¡¯s names to the heights of fame. Everyone said that he was the epitome of benevolence and morality, and was a benefactor to all. Such sentiment wasn¡¯t limited to the Moonrebel Congregation. Cultivators on the outside had heard of him and felt simrly.

    Even the Red Moon Cathedral took him very seriously.

    Thus, Xu Qing¡¯s words caused exmations of shock and expressions of astonishment to fill heaven and earth.

    ¡°Grandmaster Pill Nine!¡±

    ¡°The Archbishop... is actually Grandmaster Pill Nine!¡±

    ¡°This is incredible! Is this real? If it¡¯s real, then we really do have hope!¡±

    ¡°If the Archbishop is also Grandmaster Pill Nine, then I fully support him! I¡¯m only alive now thanks to Grandmaster Pill Nine¡¯s medicinal pills!¡±

    ¡°He has my support!¡±

    Everyone was shaken to the core, and instinctively edged closer to Xu Qing. Fourth Vice-Bishop was equally excited and looked at Xu Qing with deep emotion on his face.

    Third Vice-Bishop just stood there with a nk look on his face; to him, this new information was monumental. His subordinates had all stopped walking. Some people present seemed more excited than others, to the point where they trembled, and their eyes shone as they looked at Xu Qing.

    The most excited of all was Xu Qing¡¯s neighbor, the one who looked like a burly man in the Moonrebel Congregation, but was actually a young woman who was the leader of his followers. She was staring at him in disbelief. She well remembered that, not too long ago, he had asked her if she would even be able to recognize Pill Nine if she found him. She remembered how she had answered him. And now that she hadid eyes on Xu Qing, even though he hadn¡¯t offered any proof to back his im, her instincts were telling her... that he was definitely the Grandmaster Pill Nine she had been following. [1]

    <em>My judgment was correct! The white wind is from this desert, so this is where the grandmaster had to be! The only reason I didn¡¯t identify him, and the only reason his statue wasn¡¯t summoned earlier, is that... the grandmaster has another identity!</em>

    Of course, though everyone was astonished, it was inevitable that some people would be hesitant or suspicious. After all, anyone could make ims like that. The important thing would be to back them up with facts.

    Xu Qing was well aware of that. He waved his hand, and a chunk of flesh flew out, along with a host of medicinal nts. As everyone from the Moonrebel Congregation watched, Xu Qing started a concocting session.

    His hands danced back and forth as some cursequelling lozenges took shape in front of him. He had concocted this type of pill many, many times, so he was veryfortable with the process. Before long, nine medicinal pills had formed. Using his taboo poison gaze, he changed their internal structure.

    These pills were no longer the type that could reduce the curse by fifty percent. Given the boost to Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base, and the formation of his secret trove, he now had insights about the curse. And thus, this specific batch of pills could reduce the curse by seventy percent. When the nine pills came out of the furnace, wild colors shed in heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing took a step forward and changed the appearance of his statue. He became Pill Nine. Then he flicked his sleeve and sent the nine pills flying out. One went to Li Xiaoshan, while another flew toward Madam Godfinch. The third went to Third Vice-Bishop, and the fourth went to Fourth Vice-Bishop. Two dropped down toward the crowd in general. The rest... went to his followers. His neighbor, the ¡®burly man,¡¯ got one of them.

    The mere presence of the pill affected the entire area; as soon as they were out in the open, all of the Moonrebel cultivators could sense the curse inside them bing sluggish.

    You didn¡¯t need to consume the pill to understand what that evidence indicated. One by one, the Moonrebel cultivators gasped in shock. Those who had the pills in hand looked at them with serious expressions, and then, without the slightest hesitation, consumed them. Instantly, their personal auras improved, and the curse power within them declined!

    Third Vice-Bishop stood there silently. Madam Godfinch¡¯s eyes shone brightly.

    Most shocked of all was Li Xiaoshan; as the curse dropped within him, his Smoldering God aura improved. He was visibly moved. The entire reason he had failed to be a Smoldering God in the first ce was because of the curse. Right now, he could sense that... it was now possible for him to achieve that breakthrough.

    ¡°It reduces the curse by seventy percent....¡± His hoarse voice spread out, causing a tempest of astonishment in the hearts of everyone who heard.

    Xu Qing¡¯s neighbor was the first one to take action. Rushing out, she sped hands and bowed to Xu Qing. ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster!¡±

    After her, other followers excitedly rushed over to bow in greeting. Then, all of the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators joined their voices, creating a massive wave of sound that swept over the mountain.

    ¡°Greetings, Grandmaster!¡±

    Li Xiaoshan took a deep breath, looked at Xu Qing, then sped hands and bowed.

    Madam Godfinch nodded, her eyes gleaming with approval.

    Among those in the crowd who bowed to Xu Qing were Third Vice-Bishop¡¯s subordinates. As for Third Vice-Bishop himself, he was so overwhelmed with astonishment that he was just staring at Xu Qing. He felt the urge to say something, yet no words woulde out of his mouth.

    The standard had been met. The reputation was sky-high.

    Third Vice-Bishop stood there for a few breaths of time, then took a few steps forward. ¡°Archbishop, sir, you said that you stole some of the red moon¡¯s essence...?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He waved his hand, and his secret trove formed behind him. Within it glittered a violet moon. The authority of the red moon was also there in the form of fresh blood. As the aura spread out, it led to further thunderous shock.

    Off to the side, the Captainughed coldly.

    ¡°See that?¡± he said proudly. ¡°That¡¯s the real reason my little Junior Brother can concoct those cursequelling lozenges. He stole some godsource! He¡¯s the only one who can deal with Crimson Mother¡¯s curse!¡±

    Third Vice-Bishop looked at the violet moon in the secret trove, and his eyes began to shine brightly. However, he suppressed his excitement. ¡°The red moon is on the way. How do we deal with it? Forget Crimson Mother. Even just the Red Moon Cathedral is too much for us to deal with. And the godchild is nearly a god....¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question. The Captain did. Smiling grimly, he said, ¡°What if the Red Moon Cathedral wasn¡¯t around?¡± With a flourish, the Captain produced a white strand of hair, which pulsed with the aura of a god. ¡°Well, we also have a god. This is an authentication device that I can use at any time to open a pathway to get help from a god!¡±

    The Moonrebel Congregation went absolutely silent. Both Li Xiaoshan and Madam Godfinch looked on with wide eyes.

    Third Vice-Bishop struggled to control his breathing, and the excitement within him was building to the point where he was losing control of it.

    ¡°When Crimson Motheres, how do we fight?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and he was about to answer.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s sigh interrupted him. Then Xu Qing said, ¡°Why did you join the Moonrebel Congregation to begin with? Wasn¡¯t it to fight back? To give it your all? Now you have that chance. If I, a person not even from this region, can risk my life, then what are you sitting around hesitating for? If your hearts aren¡¯t strong, then you can feel free to leave.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words struck everyone directly in the heart and mind. Third Vice-Bishop¡¯s hands clenched into fists, and his eyes shone with determination. sping hands, he bowed to Xu Qing and prepared to speak. However, before he could, another voice spoke from the sky, and it crashed like heavenly thunder.

    ¡°When Crimson Mother arrives, my father will live!¡±

    Along with the words, a face appeared in the canopy of heaven. It was the face of a young man, handsome, with long hair that swayed like snakes. This was what the Heir Apparent actually looked like. Next to him was Princess Brightblossom, d in a suit of armor, a river of time flowing beneath her feet. Fifth Sister was also there. She looked old, yet pulsed with extremely gruish fluctuations. And then there was Eighth Sib, whose violent power spread out and influenced all living beings in the area.

    In addition to those three, there was another person present. He was a young man d in a ck robe. His facial features were simr to the Heir Apparent¡¯s, and as he hovered in midair, his eyes seemed to contain suns and moons being constantly destroyed. At the same time, he emanated an iparably baleful aura. In fact, his baleful aura was so strong that he could surpass any one of his brothers and sisters. With him present, even the redness in the sky began to go dim.

    He was Ninth Sib!

    The words that were spoken as these children of the Imperial Sovereign appeared caused everyone in the Moonrebel Congregation to tremble from head to toe. Everyone bowed their heads, including Li Xiaoshan and Madam Godfinch.

    Xu Qing was the only one who stepped forward, bowed, and said, ¡°Well met, Grandpa Heir Apparent, Grandma Third, Grandma Fifth, Grandpa Eighth, and Grandpa Ninth.¡±

    Princess Brightblossom nodded. Fifth Sister smiled. Eighth Sibughed heartily. And Ninth Sib looked closely at Xu Qing. The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes shone with praise. Then he looked at the assembled cultivators.

    ¡°Your ancestors were all citizens under my father. They fought by his side. Then cmity struck. Countless years passed. Many epochs went by. During that time... all of you suffered. But now Xu Qing has brought hope to us. We can end this loop of predestination. We can end the bitter cycle of reincarnation. We... are here to help.¡±

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s words caused the hearts of the Moonrebel cultivators to swell. After everything that had just yed out, their eyes now shone with determination.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the Heir Apparent said, looking at him, ¡°please inform us of the n you, your Elder Brother, and your Master havee up with!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and looked at the Captain. They exchanged a nce, and could see the determination and craziness in each other¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°We will topple the cathedral!¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°We¡¯ll awaken the Imperial Sovereign, drive away all evildoers, and devour Crimson Mother! First on the list is to topple the cathedral!¡±

    They were words that caused heaven to pulse with killing intent and earth to thrum with murderous thoughts. The sky trembled, mountains and rivers shook, dragons and snakes writhed. The Moonrebel cultivators also burst with madness and killing intent!

    It was a case of the dome of heaven, thends below, and all living beingsbining their killing intent. And as it raged, it focused on... the Penitence Steppes! Specifically, on the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral!

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s question, and her answer, was in chapter 669. ?

 Chapter 681: Nine Suns Cover Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 681: Nine Suns Cover Heaven</h4>

    Fighting spirit had to be mustered before a war, otherwise there wouldn¡¯t be much momentum, and the will to fight would die out. That¡¯s what was happening in the Moonrebel Congregation right now. The Heir Apparent¡¯s speech,bined with Xu Qing¡¯s words and the Captain¡¯s bravado, stoked the spirits of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators in the Moonrebel Congregation. Determination gleamed in their eyes as they firmly decided to put their lives on the line.

    ¡°Kill!!¡±

    It was hard to say who said it first. But soon, everyone was passionately shouting the same thing, from the depths of their souls. It was as if they could wipe away all of the bitterness and defiance of their life by venting that word.

    Rationality wasn¡¯t important right now. Schemes and strategies wouldn¡¯t mean muchpared to such a fighting spirit. Everyone had be recklessly courageous, and when people like that were furious, blood would spill!

    The truth was clear to them now. Crimson Mother wasing, and before, it had seemed like it would end in death for everyone. But now there was hope. And it was a greater hope than had appeared in countless years. As of this moment, even the cowardly would feel the valor of the recklessly courageous.

    Besides, how could people who joined the Moonrebel Congregationck courage and valor? The entrance subtests were specifically designed to weed out people who weren¡¯t truly suitable. Brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth as the cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation shouted, their cries imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing took a deep breath and strode into the Moonrebel Congregation. Together with the Captain, he entered Paramount Temple. As they did, the Mirror of Moonrebel, which served as the canopy of heaven, glittered brightly.

    A shockwave rolled out. It was a power in the Moonrebel Congregation that only the Archbishops of Moonrebel couldmand, to create a region-wide teleportation.

    As the teleportation began, the Captain¡¯s voice rang out.

    ¡°Let all of the statues... make their way back!¡±

    Outside, one Moonrebel cultivator after another rushed toward the Moonrebel Congregation in statue form. Li Xiaoshan was among them, as was Madam Godfinch and all the other unsealed cultivators.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings didn¡¯t need to go inside. All areas of the region were essible to them with a mere thought. The ordinary cultivators in the Bitter Life Mountains were not asked to fight. Therefore, as Ning Yan, Ling¡¯er, and everyone else looked on, a ripple passed through the dome of heaven, and the Mirror of Moonrebel vanished.

    It was moving in the direction of the Penitence Steppes, and the headquarters of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    As the saying goes, <i>speed is a crucial asset in war!</i>

    ***

    The Penitence Steppes were in the middle of the Moonrite Region. They created a vast in without any mountains. Thends were covered with red grass, and as the wind blew across it, it looked like a crimson sea. In the very middle of the in there was argeke. It looked like blood and reeked of gore, making it very reminiscent of the Yin Sacrifice River.

    In the middle of thatke was an ind, atop which was a giant who could prop up heaven and earth. He had been forced into a kneeling position. However, that posture couldn¡¯t prevent his mighty stature and powerful aura from creating a terrifying, invisible pressure.

    Beneath the giant was a templeplex full of many buildings. However, none of that was very easy to see considering the bright red light shining down. It came from the dome of heaven, and the red moon. From a distance, it was possible to see red light covering the entire ind.

    There was a huge difference between the redness here and that outside. Everything outside was also red, but it was faint. But this area seemed to be the subject of a far more intense red color. Heaven and earth were crimson, and the boundless redness that converged on the ind was like a curtain of blood pulsing with the aura of Crimson Mother. There was something else here that was differentpared to normal. Usually, the ind was filled constantly with the sound of worship, of people singing the praises of Crimson Mother. But now... the ce was silent.

    There was no chanting or singing. The bright red light had surpassed everything. Then a thunderous rumbling filled the sky, breaking the silence and causing the air to ripple and distort, as if some gargantuan thing was about to be teleported into the redness. But as the red light flickered, the teleportation failed.

    A momentter, the Mirror of Moonrebel appeared in midair above the ind. As it grewrger andrger, numerous gazes locked onto the ind below, filled with killing intent.

    Next to it were the Heir Apparent and his siblings. As they stepped out of nothing, their expressions flickered.

    ¡°The aura of a god....¡±

    Ninth Sib¡¯s expression was cold as he suddenly raised his right hand. A long, illusory sword formed there. It was pitch ck and emanated a baleful aura that made all heaven and earth darken. Stepping toward the curtain of blood, he shed out with his sword.

    The sword seemed like it could sh open heaven. The sky shook, tempests sprang up everywhere, the earth quaked, and the surrounding bloodke sank down. Then the sword reached the curtain of blood. A deafening rumble erupted from the curtain, and caused the blood-colored light it cast to be thin. The might of that sword was shocking to all.

    However, only a momentter, it was possible to see through the thinned curtain of blood to what was beyond it. Everyone¡¯s gazes hardened. Beyond the blood curtain was the statue of the Imperial Sovereign, which was now a bit clearer. And surrounding the statue... were innumerable Red Moon Cathedral cultivators.

    They weren¡¯t on the ground below. In fact, there was no one on the ground. All of the cultivators from the cathedral headquarters were hovering cross-legged in midair around the statue, almost as if they were guarding it. There were so many of them that it was almost impossible to count how many there were.

    The weakest among them had Nascent Soul cultivation bases. There were quite a few Spirit Trove cultivators, and plenty of Void Returning experts. Almost all of them wore the god robes of cathedral cultivators. The pontiff was there, looking out at the Moonrebel Congregation cultivators. These people came from various species and sects that adhered to the Red Moon Cathedral, and were waiting inbat readiness. They were there to stand guard over Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk.

    The mortal husk had long since been freed. The ugly physical body was like an unraveled intestine that had been wrapped around the head of the Imperial Sovereign,pletely covering it.

    It twitched and wriggled in a very prescribed motion, almost in ord with the beating of a heart. Pulses of a godly aura emerged from the mortal husk, spreading out. Given that, and the vicious exterior of the husk, itbined with the blood-colored light from the sky to create a very gruish effect.

    Looking at the scene, the Heir Apparent said, ¡°Looks like we¡¯re just in time. Fourth Sib is going through with the godly ascension ceremony right now!¡±

    The gazes of the Moonrebel cultivators grew even harder.

    In Paramount Temple in the Moonrebel Congregation, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. Xu Qing, meanwhile, was frowning. And that was because of what the trembling Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was telling him.

    <i>¡°Milord, this isn¡¯t good. Based on all of the novels I¡¯ve read, whenever the destined main character is about to achieve a critical breakthrough, the viins will show up. Right now, it seems we¡¯re in the role of the viins. Given what usually happens in novels, the viins never seed. The destined main character will always break through at thest minute and kill everyone else....¡±</i>

    After hearing the whole exnation, Xu Qing ignored the patriarch.

    Outside of the Moonrebel Congregation, Eighth Sib seemed to be getting impatient. ¡°You¡¯re really full of crap, Big Sib. Nobody can see what¡¯s going on in there. What are you talking about? Let¡¯s fuck that bitch up!¡±

    Without any further ado, he rushed toward the blood curtain, clenched his right hand into a fist, andunched a blow. Smoldering God fluctuations rolled out everywhere. A world formed. A mighty shout echoed out as the blownded.

    Princess Brightblossom¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent as she advanced. A river of time appeared, turning into a long spear that she grabbed. She swung the spear, and it stabbed from past into present.

    Fifth Sister closed her eyes, causing halos to spring into being over her head, spreading out in concentric circles, then contracting rapidly and unleashing crushing pressure.

    The Heir Apparent cast a re at Eighth Sib, then waved his hand, causing a nail to fly out from within him that emanated the might of a god. It was none other than the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail. Destructive power swept toward the curtain of blood, shattering the air as it went.

    Ninth Sib didn¡¯t utter a word. But he stepped forward, and ck swords made of killing intent appeared around him. Every single one abounded with a baleful aura, and altogether, they created a sky-obfuscating,nd-enshrouding rain of swords that shot toward the red light.

    On the other side of the curtain of blood, the pontiff¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. All of the cathedral cultivators surrounding him unleashed the power of their cultivation bases to bolster the curtain of blood. It would make sense to conclude that thebined attacks of five Smoldering Gods, the nail of an Imperial Sovereign, and Ninth Sib¡¯s fierce swords, would pierce through any defenses that could be found in this world. But this curtain of blood was unique.

    The curtain of blood was a god formation formed by the power of Crimson Mother. It contained the blessing of Crimson Mother, and was considered a reserve power of the Red Moon Cathedral. It was designed to defend against Smoldering Gods, and that was under normal circumstances. Now, when the red moon was in the sky, it was adding a further blessing. What was more, there was a host of cultivators also bolstering it....

    And thus, a deafening boom rang out as the curtain of blood distorted. It blocked Eighth Sib¡¯s fist, stood strong against Fifth Sister¡¯s divine ability, and only allowed Princess Brightblossom¡¯s spear to pierce into it a few inches. It simrly held strong against the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail.

    It was only Ninth Sib¡¯s swords that managed to punch through it. However, in the blink of an eye, the blessing of Crimson Mother caused the blood curtain to repair itself.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings looked on with grim expressions. This wasn¡¯t about them being weak; there was just no way they could easily prate the blessings of a god. Tapping into their cultivation bases, they erupted again. Ninth Sib lifted his hand, and a baleful aura converged as he prepared to unleash a trump card.

    However, that was when the Captainughed heartily and strode out from the Moonrebel Congregation into the sky.

    ¡°Grandpas! Grandmas! There¡¯s no need for you to waste time on a measly god formation like this. I¡¯m an expert in all of this. Let me handle it! I¡¯ve been preparing for this moment for a long time. Watch and see how I break this god formation!¡±

    The Captain had a proud look on his face and inside he felt very excited. <i>The time hase for me to shine!</i>

    Throwing his right hand up, he said, ¡°Little Roundy, Medium Roundy, Big Roundy! Little Boxy, Big Boxy! All Roundys and all Boxys. Listen to mymand and get out here!¡±

    As the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, the dome of heaven trembled, and a host of artificial suns appeared. In total, there were five. Some were big, some were small. They were all unique. Among them were the two that Xu Qing had helped drag onto the shore of the Yin Sacrifice River. [1]

    Three beams of light appeared on the horizon. Shockingly, they contained three artificial suns, which had left the species that controlled them and screamed toward the Captain in response to his summons. Eight suns could be seen in the canopy of heaven, shining brightly, and burning dazzlingly. All heaven and earth suddenly became immeasurably bright.

    ¡°The first thing I did when I came to the Moonrite Region was search for suns. And all of that was in preparation for today!¡± Looking extremely proud, he shouted, ¡°Little Junior Brother, lend me the sun you have on your belt!¡±

    Xu Qing emerged from the Moonrebel Congregation and looked at the eight suns. Without any hesitation, he took the metal sphere off his belt and threw it up into the air. The moment the metal sphere was off him, his aura soared. From inside to out, he felt incredibly rxed. At the same time, his gaze glittered brightly. As the metal sphere rose up into the sky and joined the other eight suns, it began to burn, bing far brighter than before.

    Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain waved his hand and sent a strand of hair flying up into the dome of heaven.

    That strand of hair came from a High God. As it ascended, it grewrger andrger until it pierced through the nine suns, connecting them like a bracelet.

    It was a terrifying bracelet that covered the crimson light in heaven and earth.

    Then, it erupted!

    1. Xu Qing helped drag the suns out of the river in <u>chapter 593</u>. Incidentally, ¡®Big Boxy¡¯ was mentioned in that chapter. ?

 Chapter 682: The Hope of the People Summons Deceased Souls

    <h4>Chapter 682: The Hope of the People Summons Deceased Souls</h4>

    Over countless years in the Moonrite Region, powerful species had created artificial suns for their own use. In total, there were eight such suns. When adding in the oldest sun of all from Xu Qing, the nine suns were exceedingly brilliant.

    Never before had anyone awoken all nine of these suns at the same time. They all rose to brilliance at different time periods, and for various reasons, one after another fell from the sky. But today, the ancient suns were giving forth their light. Each one let off dazzling brightness that illuminated heaven and earth.

    They were stupefyingly mighty, and with their light shining, the redness in the dome of heaven was surpassed. The formations in the ground were shaken. What made them even more powerful was the hair stringing them all together. That strand of hair from High God Moonfire contained the power of a god. And with h¨¥r using those nine suns, they would be blessed. They would be the suns of a god. Their light would be the light of a god, and their mes would be the mes of a god.

    A sea of light pulsed, and fire seethed. In the blink of an eye, the crimson light from the red moon was neutralized, and faded away. From a distance, the Moonright Region still looked red, but within that redness there was arge empty spot! It looked extremely ghastly.

    Theke of blood also changed because of the sea of light, and instead of being crimson, was turbid and cloudy. It was possible to see countless skeletons rising up from it, almost as if <i>they</i> were the true form of theke.

    However, the ind itself was still being bolstered by the god formation, so the Captain proudly waved his hand.

    Instantly, the bracelet of nine suns exerted crushing pressure onto the god formation. Heaven-rending, earth-crushing power caused theke water to explode, and shook the ind violently. Cracking sounds rang out in all directions.

    The Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s spell formation was clearly on the verge of copsing. Not only was it thinning, but also, irregr cracks were spreading out over it.

    At that point, the Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes glittered, and his hands shed in an incantation gesture. The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail surged with mountain-toppling, sea-draining energy, and it mmed into the god formation like a boulder crushing a drinking ss. A cracking sound rang out as a huge section of the god formation crumbled!

    Princess Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib all unleashed their attacks one after another. Sustained cracking sounds rang out as the god formation crumbled even further. Ninth Sib¡¯s eyes shone with cold light as he made a grasping gesture. The air shattered, then converged into the shape of a greatsword. Pointing it toward the god formation, he stabbed out viciously.

    The god formation had already been put in great danger by the bracelet of nine suns. Then the Heir Apparent and his siblings crushed it further. Finally, Ninth Sib¡¯s sword put it on the brink of destruction.

    A deafening boom rang out. The god formation shattered, revealing a host of grim cathedral cultivators inside.

    Many of them looked very surprised. Clearly, the god formation had been destroyed far more quickly than anyone had anticipated it would.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t see thating, did ya?¡± The Captainughed heartily. ¡°This isn¡¯t my first time facing your god formation, fools! I got through it back in the day, and ever since then I¡¯ve been nning how to destroy it. I came extremely prepared, didn¡¯t I?¡±

    As the Captain¡¯sughter drifted out, the Heir Apparent ignored him and rushed toward the ind. Ninth Sib followed, with Princess Brightblossom at his side, and Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib close behind.

    The five of them became five beams of light that shot like lightning into the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s headquarters. Not pausing for an instant, they headed right toward the twitching and writhing mortal husk of Crimson Mother.

    They had no time to deal with the surrounding cathedral cultivators. Based on the godly fluctuationsing from the mortal husk, the Heir Apparent and his siblings knew that Fourth Sib was there... and it was in a critical stage of godly ascension. Time was of the essence, and they had to stop him. If Fourth Sibpleted the godly ascension ceremony, then dealing with him would be vastly moreplicated.

    As they closed in, Princess Brightblossom¡¯s hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and then she pushed them out in front of her. Instantly, the river of time appeared, surging with waves as it surrounded them and then mmed into the mortal husk. Ordinary methods couldn¡¯t get them into the mortal husk. Only by using a dao of time such as this could they get inside!

    In the blink of an eye, the Heir Apparent and his siblings went with the river of time into the mortal husk. They vanished from sight.

    The mortal husk twitched and wriggled, then suddenly contracted. Next, ear-piercing sounds rang out from inside, along with deafening shockwaves. It happened almost instantly. The cathedral cultivators were visibly shocked. After all, their mission had been to prevent any outsiders from entering the mortal husk until the godchild emerged.

    Seeing that their efforts had failed, they shot to their feet. The pontiff frowned, and was about to order all of the cathedral cultivators to employ their god magics to help the godchild.

    Beyond the ind, the Mirror of Moonrebel suddenly elerated. Shooting into the dome of heaven over the ind, it covered Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. Fluctuations rolled off the mirror¡¯s surface, bing a crushing power that locked down the mortal husk. And then statues emerged from the temples in the mirror, looking like fiendish gods. As they shot out of the mirror, they surged with determination and killing intent as they shot toward the cathedral cultivators.

    From a distance, hundreds of thousands of statues shot out, shattering the air around them. Natural and magicalws were unleashed colliding to create a tempest of raging killing intent.

    Unfortunately,pared to the cathedral¡¯s forces, they were few in number. This was the cathedral¡¯s headquarters, and it wasn¡¯t just cathedral cultivators who were present; there were all sorts of supporting organizations. For example, the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect was on call.

    As the battle began, the cathedral experts gathered, and one Void Returning expert after another shot toward the Moonrebel forces. Third Vice-Bishop and Fourth Vice-Bishop, along with their subordinates, raced forward to intercept the Void Returning enemies. Their fighting caused shockwaves to spread out in heaven and earth, making it seem like the end of days hade.

    The unsealed cultivators from the Moonrebel Congregation also advanced to meet their counterpart experts from the Red Moon Cathedral. Every single sh caused storm winds to rage.

    It wasn¡¯t just the Void Returning experts who began fighting. There were even more Spirit Trove cultivators who engaged inbat. Individually, such fighting would have been impressive, but given the battlefield as a whole, they didn¡¯t stand out much.

    Of course, there were vastly more Nascent Soul cultivators. Because of all the various factors at y, casualties and deaths immediately urred. Blood fell like rain, along with mangled corpses. Insane and defiant shouting rang out left and right.

    Given how much of an advantage the Red Moon Cathedral cultivators had in numbers, it didn¡¯t matter that the Moonrebel cultivators were able to be resurrected after dying. They clearly weren¡¯t a match. Yet all the Moonrebel Congregation had to do was buy time and stop the cathedral cultivators from helping their godchild. That, they could do.

    After all, the true battle which would decide everything was being fought inside Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. Yet the vast disparity in numbers ensured that the Moonrebel cultivators were approaching a crisis situation.

    That said, it was only natural that Xu Qing and the Captain would havee prepared. Seeing the dangerous situation, Xu Qing unhesitatingly activated another of the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s divine abilities.

    The Mirror of Moonrebel vibrated. Then, in locations throughout the entirety of the Moonrite Region, the numbmoners, who were simply waiting to die, suddenly found themselves witnessing the battle taking ce at the Red Moon Cathedral headquarters. The bitter scene was hair-raising to say the least.

    The same voice that had narrated the events at the God Decapitation Altar then spoke into their minds.

    ¡°This is the final battle with the Red Moon Cathedral! It will decide your life and death. It will decide your survival! People of Moonrite, you don¡¯t have toe here to fight. But... we need your strength for this battle! Everyone, extend your hand in the direction of the Penitence Steppes and offer your faith to bolster the Moonrebel Congregation!¡±

    Few people held back from raising their hands, especially considering how they could hear the bitter cries of the Moonrebel cultivators, and could see people dying everywhere. As the living beings of the region lifted their hands, streams of white light emerged from their palms, turning into motes that were very reminiscent of what yed out at the God Decapitation Altar. The white motes rose into the air, then shot toward the Moonrebel Congregation. It was the power of the people! This was the final hope of all living beings. The hottest blood that burned in their hearts!

    This was the divine ability of the Moonrebel Congregation, which was a domain treasure that contained the will of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua that survived his death. And it could gather the hope power of the masses. And that power could summon the souls of the Moonrebel cultivators who had died in battle from ancient times until now!

    In the blink of an eye, that hope power became a multitude of white motes that shot into the Mirror of Moonrebel.

    Once inside, the old spirit automaton atop theke waved his hands out in front of him. Theke waters boiled as soul shadows from many previous epochs rose up. Every soul shadow was a Moonrebel cultivator from a previous time. When they had been alive, the Heir Apparent and his siblings were sealed, and couldn¡¯t help. Nor could they benefit from Xu Qing¡¯s curse-quelling assistance. Most relevant of all, Crimson Mother hadn¡¯t been asleep during their time. When the red moon came, h¨¥r gaze could vanquish all resistance. Therefore, they had no way to escape defeat at the hands of the Red Moon Cathedral, and ultimately be crushed and devoured. But they had not been forgotten by the Moonrebel Congregation. And the only thing that could summon them was the hope of the people. Today, they were making their debut!

    One battle soul after another rose from theke. When their eyes opened, they glowed with mysterious light. And then they shot out to the battlefield. When they had been alive, they fought for freedom. And now that they were dead... they were doing the same thing!

    Bitter fighting yed out on the battlefield surrounding the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s headquarters.

    Li Xiaoshan and Madam Godfinch shot at high speed toward the pontiff from two directions. They hadn¡¯t finished theirst fight with the pontiff, and were more than happy to continue it here.

    Fighting wasn¡¯t just happening at the headquarters. At cathedral subsidiary bases throughout the region, various species and sects were rushing tobat. The entire region was being turned upside down.

    And yet, though the Moonrebel Congregation had numerous divine abilities to unleash, the Red Moon Cathedral had been harvesting this region for generations. And thus, they also had reserve powers. Though they might not be on the level of Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, they could still shake Smoldering Gods.

    And thus, as Li Xiaoshan and Madam Godfinch closed in, the pontiff¡¯s eyes glittered with blue light. Expression calm, he extended his right hand and pushed down toward the ground.

    ¡°Blood guardians of the Red Moon Cathedral, hear the orders of a god! Execute all who spheme against our god!¡±

 Chapter 683: Like a Monarch or King

    <h4>Chapter 683: Like a Monarch or King</h4>

    As the pontiff¡¯s words echoed out, the ind trembled. Numerous temples shook violently. Among them were nine that glowed with bright light. They were organized into a chart of nine stars.

    Because of the nine suns shining overhead, the area had already lost its brilliant crimson color. Only Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk retained that color, as did the pontiff himself. But now, nine beams of red light appeared. They emerged from those nine temples, and all seemed profoundly ancient. Blood flowed like rivers and baleful auras erupted.

    Nine figures emerged.

    The first was a four-armed nonhuman. It was impossible to tell if this being was male or female. It was only possible to see that they had long, withered hair, and emanated a sensation of time and rot. Of the nonhuman¡¯s four arms, three were bound and rotting. However, the fourth arm was dark gray and gripped a long spear, the tip of which dripped with blood.

    The second figure was human. He wore a blood-colored suit of armor, and inside his armor burned bright red eyes. He also had a long spear in hand.

    The rest included humans and nonhumans, and all wore the same armor, whichpletely covered their bodies and heads. The armor was covered with magical symbols and Crimson Mother totems. Though these neers were as red as blood, they imparted a holy sensation.

    All of them rode blood-red stallions. The nine stallions were also d in battle armor, and visible beneath it was crimson muscle, with no skin on it at all. It was as if they had been skinned alive. As they moved forward, they left behind trails of blood. The horses¡¯ eyes were red, and they had sharp fangs. Though they resembled horses, the reality was that they were demonic creatures. And instead of having four legs, they had six.

    Nine figures. Nine horses. Their arrival threw the battlefield into a bigmotion. The forces of the Red Moon Cathedral were ted, while the Moonrebel cultivators were shocked.

    These were the ¡®blood guardians¡¯ that the pontiff had summoned. Their cultivation base fluctuations were extremely intense, and as they proceeded forward, they pulsed with mountain-toppling, sea-draining auras. They were clearly on the verge of bing Smoldering Gods. In fact, you could even say that with half a step, they would enter the Smoldering God level.

    When it came to reaching Smoldering God, cultivation base wasn¡¯t the only factor. There were other requirements. That was why, other than the Heir Apparent and his siblings, countless years had passed in the Moonrite Region with Smoldering Gods being <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>.

    Even Madam Godfinch¡¯s clone was only half a step into Smoldering God. As for the level of her true self, the details had been lost in history. Currently, the only person to reach Smoldering God was the pontiff. That said, he was a Smoldering God because of blessings and augmentations, which left him with fatal ws.

    As a result, the arrival of the blood guardians was obviously going to have a huge effect on the battle. If they joined, then whatever advantage was brought by the Moonrebel battle souls would crumble.

    However, Li Xiaoshan stopped in ce, turned, and shot toward the blood guardians. As he did, he ignited himself. That was to say, he didn¡¯t ignite his flesh, but his inner self. As he burned, his facial features transformed. He was no longer old and decrepit. Instead, he was middle-aged, and his aura reached the highest point it had in his life.

    ¡°I, Li Xiaoshan, have experienced seven thousand deadly battles. For the first thousand, I fought people in the same level as myself. Butter, when I came to understand the essence of ughter, I fought enemies stronger than me! You blood guardians are all in the same level as me, so I¡¯ll fight you all myself!¡±

    With a roar, he elerated, turning into nine afterimages, each of which shot toward one of the blood guardians. In the blink of an eye, he arrived. Hoisting his huge saber overhead, he chopped down. As a deafening boom rang out, blood sprayed out of Li Xiaoshan¡¯s mouth. He staggered backward and lurched to a halt. However, the nine blood guardians also stopped in ce.

    Next, one of the horses shivered as it was splitpletely in half. The nonhuman mounted on it found his armor splitting and cracking, until it exploded, revealing his fleshly body. His fleshly body couldn¡¯t sustain the force. A red line appeared, which rapidly extended from his head down until... the nonhuman was sliced in half just like his horse. One of the nine temples below suddenly faded and then copsed. That was how terrifying one of Li Xiaoshan¡¯s saber strikes was.

    As Li Xiaoshan wiped the blood from his mouth, his battle spirit grew stronger. As of now, he didn¡¯t care about living or dying. He knew that there was a limit to the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s resurrection abilities. And he had already passed that limit. But he didn¡¯t care. With the flourish of a saber, he attacked again.

    Off to the side, Madam Godfinch¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless as she stood atop a sea of fire and raced toward the pontiff.

    And yet, there were still more reserve powers at the disposal of the Red Moon Cathedral.

    Looking very calm, the pontiff extended his right hand and pushed down toward the ground again.

    ¡°Where are the blood generals?¡±

    The ground rumbled. Three distinct areas sank down, and then three ancient temples emerged. Each temple was different, but each gave the sensation of being profoundly ancient. And that was exactly the case. These temples were among the earliest to have been constructed.

    When their doors opened, the most ancient of sensations flooded out. Three blood-colored coffins emerged, flew out into midair, and then copsed, allowing three wizened zombies to step out. A wind blew, and their bodies transformed. In the blink of an eye, they became three old men.

    Close examination revealed that, in terms of aura, they were very simr to the pontiff. As their eyes snapped open, they looked at Madam Godfinch.

    Madam Godfinch¡¯s expression flickered. Then, the three old men pierced through the air to appear around her. With the wave of their hands, worlds appeared.

    As it turned out, they had Smoldering God cultivation bases. However, their major worlds weren¡¯t corporeal. They were illusory, which meant that their battle prowess wasn¡¯t truly in the level of a Smoldering God. That said, they could easily crush all Void-Returning cultivators.

    Thankfully, Madam Godfinch was no ordinary individual. Given that she served as the Archbishop of Moonrebel, and had sealed her clone in the Moonrebel Congregation for all this time, it was obvious she had shocking methods at her disposal. She was at a disadvantage fighting these three old men on her own, yet she managed to force them to keep their attention on her alone.

    Unfortunately, as the three old men fought, their major worlds gradually crept from being illusory to corporeal. The more they woke up, the more their battle prowess increased, putting the Moonrebel forces into increasing danger.

    But even more shocking was that figures were starting to wake up within those major worlds. That provoked a reaction on both sides of the battlefield. The cathedral forces were excited, while the Moonrebel forces trembled in dread.

    Deadly fighting was sending out shockwaves in all directions, shaking the entire region, and causing fluctuations to affect sky andnd alike.

    The cathedral cultivators seemed proud as they unleashed their god magics to crush everything in their path. The cathedral''s subsidiary forces were fighting very hard. That included Gloomites and Soundseekers, as well as members of the Yin-Yang Betwixt Flowers Sect, who used arts of the sacrificial dance as their weapon. Obscuring fog swept over the Moonrebel cultivators, and whoever it touched suddenly stood there with a nk look on their face. Though some awoke, others did not. The Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s advantages were fading away. All they could do was buy time and wait for the battle inside Crimson Mother mortal husk to y out.

    Seeing all of that, Xu Qing sent the spirit automaton out to fight the pontiff.

    The pontiff had been there for the battle in the Bitter Life Mountains, and was now very wary of dealing with the Moonrebel Congregation. Up to this point, he hadn¡¯t actuallyunched any attacks of his own. Looking at the spirit automaton, he yet again extended his right hand and pushed down.

    Eyes shining with mysterious light, he said, ¡°Blood children, wake up!¡±

    The ind rocked back and forth. With the exception of the three ancient temples and the eight remaining red temples, all other temples copsed and transformed into spinning vortexes. Those vortexes then turned into caves. Looking around the ind, there were thousands of caves.

    Astonishingly, beams of red light shot out of the caves as a host of bloodbeasts emerged, the very same type that Xu Qing had encountered in the past. They all looked vicious and iparably fiendish.

    Collectively, they transformed into a never-ending sea of beasts. It was almost as if the entire interior of the ind was a gigantic cave filled with infinite bloodbeasts. Out in the open, they released vicious howls containing madness, hunger, and greed. Coming from all directions, they joined the fighting.

    Everywhere they passed became crimson. As for the forces of the Moonrebel Congregation, they looked on with hearts pounding and eyes grim.

    The Captain nced at the pontiff, then projected a message to Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Little Ah Qing, this old codger is too cautious. We need to think of a way to draw him over here. Then you can see what I have in store for the damned eye thief!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking at the never-ending sea of bloodbeasts, his eyes suddenly gleamed with blood-colored light.

    He was very familiar with bloodbeasts. It was only a few months ago that he had bred a lot of bloodbeasts. And back when he first met them, he was still in Nascent Soul, yet could use his authority to get many bloodbeasts to drop down in obeisance and acknowledge allegiance to him. Now, his cultivation base was far beyond that level. Therefore, he didn¡¯t hesitate at all to use the red moon authority in him. Instantly, his secret trove appeared behind him.

    The eye-catching moon inside of it then flew out to hover directly above Xu Qing. As the moonlight shone down, turning everything red, the bloodbeasts stopped in ce and instinctively looked in the direction of the Moonrebel Congregation. They fidgeted impatiently, as if struggling or fearful. It was as if they were looking at the most paramount entity possible to them.

    Both sides of the battle were shocked. And for the first time, the pontiff¡¯s expression flickered. He looked in the direction of the Moonrebel Congregation.

    As he did, Xu Qing floated out of the Mirror of Moonrebel, like a monarch or king.

 Chapter 684: Nose, Mouth, Head, Limbs, Organs Return!

    Chapter 684: Nose, Mouth, Head, Limbs, Organs Return!

    As Xu Qing floated out, the bloodbeasts on the battlefield got antsier. Emotions of struggle and fear became more apparent on them. They roared instinctively, and the rows of spikes covering their bodies bristled and stood on end. Countless blood-red pupils constricted, and some even prostrated on the ground, trembling.

    This was the result of the suppression by the red moon authority, which was akin to a bloodline function. In the past, only Crimson Mother and the godchild could exercise control over the bloodbeasts, and spur them to action with orders. No other person could do so, not even the pontiff.

    But Xu Qing was here, and he qualified to do what only Crimson Mother and the godchild could do. Back in the Greenhair Bands, Xu Qing had done testing. Now that his cultivation base was higher, and he had a one-trove cultivation base, his red moon authority was even more epassing, making it even more obvious that he was in a superior position.

    As Xu Qing left the Mirror of Moonrebel, innumerable droplets of blood swirled out around him to form a blood-colored vortex. As it rumbled, a superior aura spread out through all heaven and earth. All of a sudden, the blood-red color staining thends ceased to be a protection and blessing to the cathedral cultivators. Instead, it became a source of boundless terror and confusion.

    Not all cathedral cultivators had heard about Xu Qing. In fact, the majority had no idea who he was, and therefore, weren¡¯t aware of the significance of his presence.

    As a result, the fact that Xu Qing was emanating a crimson glow, and an authority that seemedparable to the personhood of the godchild, left those cultivators reeling in astonishment.

    Countless expressions of shock were visible on the battlefield. The cultivators of the Red Moon Cathedral could sense the faith within them stirring dramatically, telling them that the person in front of them was actually the object of their faith. It was a preposterous sensation, and instantly sent the hearts of the cathedral cultivators into chaos.

    Compared to them, the bloodbeasts, who had much simpler minds, and acted primarily based on instinct, the effect was even more dramatic. The bloodbeasts settled down and offered allegiance. One by one, they bowed their heads deferentially to Xu Qing. Looking around, it was possible to see countless bloodbeasts in all directions prostrating, either on the ground or while floating in the air.

    The bloodbeasts had poured out of the ground like fiendish monsters from hell. However, right now, it didn¡¯t matter how bloodthirsty, violent, or hungry they were... they all instinctively bowed in worship as if they were facing a monarch or king.The object of their worship, Xu Qing, hovered outside the Mirror of Moonrebel, his hair swaying in the wind. His handsome facial features were cold, making him look like a perfectly sculpted statue. Combined with the blood-colored vortex.... Out of nowhere, people started saying the same thing.

    ¡°Godchild?¡±

    Right now, Xu Qing really did seem exactly like a godchild.

    The pontiff stared at Xu Qing with a very serious look, his eyes glimmering with killing intent.

    Xu Qing ignored him. He hovered, silently looking around at all the bloodbeasts. Then he sent out some divine will to mark all the nearby cathedral cultivators.

    ¡°Devour them.¡±

    In response, all the bloodbeasts looked up at the surrounding cathedral cultivators, even the pontiff. Eyes lighting up with blood-colored light and madness, they charged, roaring.

    The tide of battle instantly changed. Chaos broke out, filled with screams, shouts, and howls of rage.

    The Moonrebel forces obviously experienced a surge in morale. With the bloodbeasts on their side, much of the pressure on them was relieved, and thus, they quickly reformed ranks and then pressed the attack.

    However, that was when muffled booms reached everyone¡¯s ears. They came from Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, which was now rapidly shrinking. Then it was just barely possible to make out an anguished scream. There had clearly been a development in the fighting in the husk.

    To the cathedral cultivators, it was a case of <em>adding hail to snow</em>. All of them reacted with visible consternation.

    As for the pontiff, his eyes finally gleamed with determination. The reality was that he had no interest in personally fighting. Back in the Bitter Life Mountains, he had a full taste of the tactics of the Moonrebel Congregation, and they left him feeling very fearful. What was more, Madam Godfinch¡¯s words had unsettled him. That was especially true considering what she said about the eyes. It didn¡¯t matter that Madam Godfinch seemed to be in a bad position in the fighting; that still didn¡¯t make the pontiff any less eager to get close to Xu Qing.

    And that was because the young man standing near Xu Qing was the very same person Madam Godfinch had mentioned, in other words, the previous owner of the eyes.

    Of course, after returning to the headquarters, he had done a bit of research into the details. But the Moonrebel Congregation had acted too quickly, and the godchild had chosen to attempt his breakthrough. As a result, the pontiff didn¡¯t have time to get the information he sought. Most importantly, because of a unique magic he had, he had overheard what that person just said to Xu Qing via projection....

    Unfortunately, he had no other choice right now other than to act. That said, he didn¡¯t actually move from where he stood. Remaining in position, he lifted his right hand and pointed at the dome of heaven.

    ¡°Heavenfire Sea!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, rumbling filled the sky as he began an astral redirection. The sky rippled like water, and then became like a canvas being pulled to the side. That caused the sky over the Heavenfire Sea to move into a position over the ind. In the blink of an eye, a massive rift opened up, and endless heavenfire poured out like a waterfall. As it fell, the pontiff controlled it, causing it to form into a gigantic finger that shot toward the Mirror of Moonrebel.

    It was a case of ¡®moving heaven¡¯!

    However, the might of the pontiff was not yet fully revealed. Looking coldly at Xu Qing, and the Captain next to him, the pontiff performed another incantation gesture. Instantly, something very dramatic happened in the northern ice ins. Everything began to get cold asyer afteryer of ice from the north was teleported onto the ind. Then, a massive finger of ice stretched up from the ground toward the Mirror of Moonrebel.

    It was a case of ¡®shifting earth¡¯!

    The pontiff¡¯s eyes narrowed. With the Heavenfire Sea overhead and the northern ice ins underfoot, he reached out with a snatching gesture. A boundless wind sprang up in heaven and earth. It stoked the heavenfire, causing the sea of mes to surge wildly. And it swept over the icy ins, causing frigid energy to proliferate. The boundless wind converged around the pontiff, where it created a tempest that connected heaven and earth. Then, filled with the power of both ice and fire, it swept toward the Mirror of Moonrebel like a huge finger.

    It was a case of ¡®chasing the wind¡¯!

    People reacted with visible shock as the pontiff then waved his hand in the direction of all the Moonrebel cultivators, including Xu Qing and the Captain. That action caused the Moonrebel cultivators to shiver. Though none of them were obstructed in any way, the shadows beneath their feet, because of the illumination of the heavenfire, faded into nothing. All of the shadows were being seized, and then dragged to the pontiff¡¯s right hand, where they made a ck cloud. From there, they spread out to form an enormous shadow finger that jabbed toward the Mirror of Moonrebel.

    It was a case of ¡®clutching at shadows¡¯!

    Moving heaven and shifting earth. Harnessing the wind and clutching at shadows! From this it was possible to see the power of a Smoldering God! [1]

    The only exception was with Xu Qing, whose shadow remained beneath his feet, struggling visibly.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± The pontiff¡¯s gaze sharpened. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to be paying attention to things like that. The four fingers he had summoned rumbled toward the Mirror of Moonrebel with the power to destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth.

    When that attack hit, the Mirror of Moonrebel might survive, but it would significantly affect the Moonrebel cultivators. It took only a brief moment for a deadly crisis to form.

    And yet, at that very moment, the Captainughed. Striding forth with an excited expression, he licked his lips.

    ¡°Hey, Eye Thief! You finally made a move, you patchwork freak! Did you really think I wasn¡¯t aware that you were eavesdropping on my conversation with my little Junior Brother? I did that on purpose. You see, I wasn¡¯t waiting for your mere presence. I was waiting for you to use your divine ability!

    ¡°You¡¯ve been influenced by my eyes! What you¡¯re seeing, and how you react to it... is exactly what I wanted you to see.¡±

    Laughing heartily, the Captain strode forward with a crazy look building on his face, as if he was about to takeplete control of the battle situation. Raising his right hand, he pointed toward the empty sky above.

    ¡°Nose. Neck. Get over here!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. The air rippled as a huge nose appeared, along with a neck. They were both covered with countless sealing marks, and they even had church temples on top of them. As soon as they were summoned, the church temples copsed, and the sealing marks exploded. Then the nose and the neck sped toward the finger made from the Heavenfire Sea... and mmed into it.

    A boom rang out as the fiery finger stopped in ce. Meanwhile, the Captainughed crazily.

    ¡°Get over here, head!¡±

    A huge head appeared out of thin air. It did not have any eyes, ears, nose, or mouth, nor any hair. As soon as it appeared, it thrummed with mighty energy as it shot toward the finger of ice.

    ¡°Arms. Legs. Body. Also my five yin organs and six yang organs! Past-life god body, return!¡±

    The pontiff¡¯s expression was one of madness as he heard the Captain¡¯s cries. In the shortest of moments, the shattered remnants of the Captain¡¯s past life body popped out of thin air. Among them were two golden kidneys, one of which was the very same one Xu Qing had helped him retrieve from the y fox. As the pieces reappeared, they shot toward the remaining two fingers made of wind and shadows.

    Next, the Captain looked at the pontiff, his eyes gleaming with a strange look.

    ¡°Left ear!¡±

    Intense rumbling sounds could be heard as a huge ear popped into being. Next, the Captain waved his hand, causing a blue coffin to appear. Inside of it was a corpse, which was the very same one he and Xu Qing had retrieved at Mount Heavenly Ox. All of a sudden, the corpse stepped out of the coffin, whereupon it melted into the shape of a right ear! [2]

    In his past life, the Captain had managed to get a mouthful of Crimson Mother¡¯s blood. As a result, Crimson Mother detested him and had his body dismembered and turned into the foundation of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temples. Previously, there had been no way for the Captain to control those body parts. All he had been able to do before was get help from Moonfire to get one of his ears.

    It was only recently that, by means of the blessing of the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s power, he was able to sense the location of all his organs and body parts, establish contact with them, and summon them to him. All of these things, from getting the artificial suns to bing the Archbishop of Moonrebel, had been part of his n. Now, everything wasing together.

    The Captain watched excitedly as his past-life body arrived. Then he pointed at the pontiff, who was uneasily backing away in the opposite direction.

    ¡°Now, where are you, my mouth? I want you to devour this Eye Thief right now!¡±

    A sound like heavenly thunder echoed out as a huge mouth appeared in the canopy of heaven. As the Captain¡¯sughter rang out, the mouth shot toward the pontiff. The mouth opened ridiculously wide as it loomed over the pontiff.

    The pontiff breathed heavily in rm.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes looked crazier than ever. ¡°Okay, you damned Eye Thief. Yesterday, you stole my eyes. Today, I¡¯m going to take away your body!¡±

    1. The four different <em>it was a case of</em> exnations collectively form two different idioms. The first two <em>moving heaven and shifting earth</em> is actually a variation on a moremon idiom which is <em>moving heaven and shifting the sun</em>. The other idiom is <em>chasing the wind and clutching at shadows</em>. The figurative meaning of the idioms is not really relevant here, as they are being used literally, sort of like if there was a literal rolling stone that refused to gather moss, thus harkening to <em>a rolling stone gathers no moss</em>. ?

    2. You may or may not remember that when the Captain told his version of the story of his past life in chapter 598, he mentioned that he cut off one of his ears and left it behind. That exins why that ear was in a coffin and not used by the Red Moon Cathedral to put a church temple on. ?

 Chapter 685: Heâ€™s Coming Out

    Chapter 685: He¡¯s Coming Out

    The pontiff acted, using the techniques of moving heaven, shifting earth, harnessing the wind, and clutching at shadows! Majestic energy surged as the abilities of a Smoldering God were made manifest.

    The Captain struck back with his past-life organs and body parts. He acted in a very gruish style, but his past-life might was enough to astonish ghosts and gods.

    When it came to the forces of the Red Moon Cathedral, virtually everyone had seen some of those terrifying body parts and organs, as they flew around with the church temples, and could be used as weapons. Every single one of them contained dreadful power. One of them was the very same heart that Xu Qing had seen at the Heavenfire Sea. Over the countless years that had passed, there had been all sorts of spections in the Moonrite Region about those organs and body parts. Therefore, it was literally impossible that anyone could have predicted that they were actually the past life body of someone who appeared to only be in the Nascent Soul level! After all, this particr past life of the Captain had urred multiple epochs ago. A lot of time had passed since then, and people who were still alive now that had witnessed that time period were <em>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</em>.

    As all of these developments unfolded, cultivators on both sides of the conflict looked on with shock and bewilderment.

    That was especially the case as the Captain looked on with a crazy look as the huge mouth opened wide and closed in on the pontiff. Massive amounts of saliva poured out of the mouth, almost like rain that fell to the ground below. The saliva was thick and sticky, and stood straight up when it hit the ground. There, it exuded a will of rot and sealing that locked down the surroundings.

    The pontiff¡¯s expression flickered dramatically as a sense of profound unease rose in him. He was about to fight back when, all of a sudden, searing pain filled his eyes. The pain was so intense it interrupted his magic. His view of the world blurred, and he suddenly saw a host of blurry figures snapping at him.

    Those blurry figures were all the Captain.

    The pontiff¡¯s expression turned grim. ¡°These eyes might have belonged to someone else before. But as of now, they¡¯re mine!¡±

    The pontiff snorted coldly. Ignoring the pain in his eyes, he backed up and circted his cultivation base, causing a field of golden light to spring up around him. As it spread, it turned into innumerable sealing marks that began to converge on each other.As that process continued, blood oozed out of his eyes. Then, shockingly, faces appeared in each of his pupils. Those faces belonged to none other than the Captain. The faces were smiling gruishly. In the pupils of those face¡¯s eyes were more faces, all the same, and that pattern continued. It was impossible to say how many faces there were, but all of them had that same gruish smile.

    When the faces appeared, rumbling sounds filled the pontiff, and his divine ability was interrupted. In fact, his entire person locked in ce. But he was the pontiff, after all. No one knew where he came from. What was more, his cultivation base and body were all patched together. At the moment, that wasn¡¯t relevant, as he began to utter an enchantment.

    <em>¡°Activate the life talisman; punishment from the deepest caverns; demons, devils, and evil ghosts; bound and delivered to the impoverished spring!¡±</em>

    As the words left his mouth, his entire body erupted with blinding golden light. The sealing marks around him clumped together to form the projection of a gigantic, golden rhinoceros. It threw its head back and roared, causing everything to shake violently. Then the golden rhino charged toward the enormous mouth.

    A boom rang out as the mouth chomped down onto the rhino. Crunching sounds rang out, but the rhino held strong, and the Captain¡¯s past life mouth was unable to chew it up in a short time.

    Taking advantage of the moment, the pontiff red with golden light that converged on his eyes, causing the faces there to ripple and distort. The faces seemed no match for the golden light. As the light faded, the faces were slowly wiped away, and the pontiff¡¯s aura grew stronger. It seemed that the situation with the eyes was about to be reversed.

    The Captainughed coldly.

    ¡°You measly patchwork Eye Thief!¡± Throwing his hands out, he shouted, ¡°Past-life body, sealed by me, converge into a body, lock and seal the soul! Head. Facial features. Limbs. Torso. Organs.... Go!¡±

    Blue light surged off of the captain, creating a sea the color of blue. At the same time, he performed a right-handed incantation gesture and pointed at the pontiff. All of his past-life body parts and organs vibrated and shot at high speed toward the pontiff, closing in with shocking speed and momentum.

    The pontiff was currently fighting against his own eyes. When he realized what was happening, he reeled mentally. A sensation of deadly crisis again rose within him. At that critical moment, he suddenly exploded, turning into a beam of golden light that turned to flee.

    However, that was when Li Xiaoshan somehow managed to extricate himself from the blood guardians. Striding forth, he lifted his huge saber and, eyes glimmering with killing intent, chopped down.

    The saber shattered the air and hewed out a huge gully. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth.

    The blownded on the golden light. Blood sprayed out of Li Xiaoshan¡¯s mouth. He had put everything he had into that attack, and even sustained the resulting bacsh attack. As a result, his body was instantly covered in bloody wounds, and he tumbled backward, gasping for breath.

    However, that saber attack had no small effect. The golden light was cut in half, and an agonized scream rang out. The light stopped moving.

    That was all the time it took for the Captain¡¯s organs and body parts to arrive. First were his four limbs. The Captain¡¯s past-life limbs blurred and entered the pontiff¡¯s body. Next came the five yin organs and six yang organs, the neck, the torso, the head, the ears, and the nose.... Finally was the huge mouth, which crushed the golden rhino, then lunged forward and swallowed the pontiff.

    All of this takes some time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. That was how long it took for the Captain¡¯s past life body topletely vanish. All of the body parts... fused with the pontiff¡¯s body.

    As of this moment, every part of the pontiff, from the limbs, to the organs, to the head and facial features, were all from the Captain¡¯s past life. It was the same with the eyes, which sent glittering blue light raging in all directions. Most shocking was that the facial features of the Captain¡¯s past-life body shifted until they looked exactly like the current Captain.

    As wild colors shed in heaven and earth, the surrounding cathedral cultivators looked on in abject shock and disbelief. Countless eyes locked onto the pontiff, who had been taken over by the Captain¡¯s past life body. His fluctuations were extremely unstable, and he seemed to be struggling as he stood there in ce.

    ¡°You think my eyes are that easy to control? Let me tell you the truth, fool. Whenever I¡¯m born again, I ce warding spells all over myself on a daily basis. And when I have time, I refine my body. Over a long period of time, it makes my bodies so strong that even I fear them. Long story short, you ignoramus, my bodies are my biggest weapons! All I need to deal with you today is one of them. But if you fight, then trust me, I¡¯ll call <em>all</em> of my past-life bodies here to crush you!¡±

    Xu Qing was paying close attention to his Eldest Brother¡¯s words. Truth be told, he wasn¡¯t surprised that the Captain had seeded. After all, the Captain had prepared for a very, very long time for this day.

    But what did surprise Xu Qing was the information about the Captain cing warding spells on himself, and also his body refinement.... Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but look a bit closer at the Captain¡¯s present-life body.

    <em>Seems like his present life is missing a lot of those warding spells. It makes sense considering that whenever he does a big job, he ends up losing most of his body except for his head</em>.

    When the Captain noticed Xu Qing looking at him, he could guess what he was thinking. He cleared his throat.

    Xu Qing nodded, a strange expression on his face. Then he looked at the unmoving pontiff.

    ¡°Is he¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± the Captain said, sping his hands behind his back proudly. ¡°The Eye Thief¡¯s soul isplicated, but he¡¯s dreaming if he thinks he can escape the restraints ced by my past-life body. Once my body finishes assimting him, then I¡¯ll be inplete control!¡±

    The situation on the battlefield had beenpletely reversed. With the defeat of the pontiff, the cathedral cultivators¡¯ morale copsed. Many of them just turned around and ran. In contrast, the Moonrebel forces went on the offensive, going all-out to fight for their hope, their freedom, and their future. Everything seemed to be going well. But then, something dramatic unfolded.

    A boom like heavenly thunder erupted from Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk, sending a frantic sound wave rolling out in all directions. Wherever it passed, the Moonrebel cultivators coughed up blood. Some were ripped to shreds. The same thing happened to the cultivators of the Red Moon Cathedral, with many of them being destroyed in body and soul. Everyone on the field of battle backed away from the mortal husk.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered as he turned to look in that direction. The Captain did the same.

    Cracks were spreading out on the surface of the mortal husk, from within which beams of blood-colored light emerged.

    The mortal husk exploded with a boom, and five figures tumbled out of it. They were none other than the Heir Apparent and his siblings. They had serious expressions on their faces, and all of them were injured. That was especially true of Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib; their faces were sttered with blood, but their eyes shone with killing intent. The Heir Apparent¡¯s chest had caved in, and in the spot where his heart should have been was a gaping hole. His heart... was missing.

    A very unsightly expression could be seen on Princess Brightblossom¡¯s face. She was also seriously injured. Only Ninth Sib seemed to be rtively unharmed. The battle spirit in his eyes burned brightly as he offered protective cover to his siblings.

    ¡°Back up, h¨¥¡¯sing out!¡± Ninth Sib barked.

    All of a sudden, massive amounts of blood shot out from the mortal husk. It was like a sea of blood had been tapped into, as it flowed down the statue of the Imperial Sovereign and spread out on the ground below.

    A terrifying aura began to spread. It wasn¡¯t the aura of a cultivator. Rather, it contained the fluctuations of a god. Once again, the canopy of heaven turned crimson, as did thends below.

    Next, countless gazes converged on a figure casually stepping out from Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk. Mountain-toppling, sea-draining pressure crushed down on everything, and as mutagen flourished, the surroundings blurred.

    This was the arrival of a god!<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thank you to <strong>mmfpa </strong>for the review!</blockquote>

 Chapter 686: Taboo Magic

    <h4>Chapter 686: Taboo Magic</h4>

    The arrival of a god provoked a variety of reactions.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. The Captain narrowed his eyes. The Moonrebel forces were bewildered, while the cathedral cultivators were not as excited as they might have imagined they would be.

    As blood continued to pour out of the mortal husk, all of the cathedral cultivators felt their blood and cultivation bases slipping out of their own control. It was as if every aspect of them was being sucked away.

    As everyone reeled in fear, the Heir Apparent and his siblings shot in five different directions to form a pentagonal formation. The light shining off of them connected, creating a five-pointed star. Then they shifted positions, forming a square shape above the star.

    The Heir Apparent was on the left, Eighth Sib was on the right, Ninth Sib was in front, and Fifth Sister was in the back. As for Princess Brightblossom, she stood in the middle, her eyes zing with killing intent.

    ¡°He didn¡¯tpletely seed at his godly ascension ceremony,¡± she said grimly. ¡°We interrupted him earlier, and thus, his godfire isn¡¯tpletely ignited! Right now, he might seem like he has the aura of a god, but he¡¯s also weaker than ever, and is suppressing the bacsh from the failed ceremony!

    ¡°But if he tries again and seeds at igniting his godfire, then we won¡¯t be able to stop him! This is going to be our only chance! I¡¯m going to unleash a taboo magic. I¡¯ll use time as the source to unlock the fetters of a heavenly dao. We¡¯ll use a past magic to behead him, throw his aura into chaos, and sustain the full bacsh of the failed ceremony. In that way, he¡¯ll kill himself!¡±

    As the words left Princess Brightblossom¡¯s mouth, the figure emerging from the mortal husk neared.

    Below, blood roiled like a sea, with huge waves rolling across its surface. It extended out to the bloodke surrounding the ind, and caused everything to once again turn crimson. The stench of gore grew strong, overpowering everything.

    The figure approaching through the crimson was immense, and every step h¨¥ took caused booming thuds to echo out. The sound shook everything, especially the hearts and minds of the surrounding cultivators.

    Cathedral cultivators. Moonrebel cultivator forces. Everyone paled upon hearing the sound of those footsteps. The sound seemed to rece their heartbeats, one step at a time. People instinctively edged backward, their souls trembling, their bodies shaking. Virtually everyone was unable to control the impulse to drop onto their knees and kowtow. It was a pressure from a higher level of life, and the fear felt by the weak toward the strong.

    Innumerable eyes focused on the figure emerging from the mortal husk, which grew clearer and clearer with every moment that passed.

    The figure was some 30 meters tall andpletely red, with no skin, only bloody muscle. What was more, multiple faces were visible. Every face looked different. In total, there were thirteen, and they represented the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s other sons and daughters, with the exception of Fourth Sib. The Heir Apparent, Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth and Ninth Sibs were all there. It was iparably gruish.

    The figure looked incredibly vicious, with flesh and blood that contained an irregr pattern of golden speckles. It looked extremely ugly. It had four eyes with dual pupils, and as h¨¥ looked out at heaven and earth, h¨¥ seemed to think that nothing around h¨©m was important. H¨¥ had a row of sharp spikes that ran from h¨©s head, down h¨©s back, and along the tail that stretched behind h¨©m. The tail waspletely golden, and left behind a streak in the blood sea.

    H¨©s hands looked human, except instead of five fingers, there were four. In h¨©s right hand was a beating heart which, as h¨¥ walked along, he squeezed. Then, after fully emerging from the mortal husk and ncing at the surroundings, h¨¥ crushed the heart. It exploded with a popping sound.

    Blood sprayed out of the Heir Apparent¡¯s mouth, and his face went deathly pale. ¡°His godly ascension ceremony focuses on time. The point of the ceremony is to tap into the points in time in the past when his rtives of the past experienced breakthroughs to higher cultivation realms. By devouring that specific time and converting it into personal power, he can use it as fuel to light his godfire!

    ¡°If he seeds, he¡¯ll be a convergence of us all. There were fourteen of us brothers and sisters. That¡¯s why the ceremony has fourteen nexuses. Each of the fourteen nexuses has a different time shadow! Each time shadow corresponds to a different cultivation base. And only by destroying them all can his ceremony be considered a failure.

    ¡°We managed to destroy five, which means there are nine left! Next, we have to destroy another five, but don¡¯t have the ability to deal with the remaining four. Li Xiaoshan, if you can fight, then you can deal with one of them. Madam Godfinch, you get another!

    ¡°Only people with Smoldering God qualifications, or the authority of a god, can meddle with this ceremony. We have two left.... Xu Qing, you have the proper authority. And, Erniu, you¡¯re a god bastard. Can you get thest one?¡±

    Li Xiaoshan was mangled and bloody, but he stillughed heartily, and his eyes shone with determination. Madam Godfinch nodded as she continued to fight.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged a nce and could see the desire to do battle in each other¡¯s eyes. At that point, the Heir Apparent¡¯s formation red to life, and numerous energies swirled into a vortex.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the Heir Apparent and his siblings standing on the star formation, organized into a square configuration, with supernatural images rising up all around them.

    The supernatural image tied to Fifth Sister was a huge flower basket full of swaying flowers that emanated soft light. Eighth Sib¡¯s supernatural image was a gruish face thatbined all sorts of human emotions and desires. Its expression changed constantly. The Heir Apparent had a vague projection of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua that pulsed with energy that could crush everything. As for Ninth Sib, he had a de that could sever heaven and earth. It was not a sword, but rather, a guillotine! It was... a manifestation of his enlightenment of the God Decapitation Altar!

    After those four projections formed, they connected to form major worlds.

    In the middle of those major worlds was Princess Brightblossom. As she stood there with time flowing around her like a river, she sent projections of herself into each of the major worlds. It seemed like there were countless such projections, and all of them were looking at Crimson Mother¡¯s mortal husk.

    Once again, the sea of blood within the husk erupted, and the godchild emerged further. Heaven and earth were overwhelmed with crimson, which further affected the blood of the surrounding cultivators.

    The forces of the Red Moon Cathedral and the Moonrebel Congregation felt their blood and cultivation bases goingpletely out of control. It was as if they were about to burst out from inside them. Some with weak cultivation bases lost control and exploded, whereupon their blood would stream toward the godchild. That included cathedral cultivators. The cathedral forces began to hesitate, and none of them dared to get too close.

    As of now, the godchild didn¡¯t care about taking sides in the conflict, and was focused solely on godly ascension. Even though the cathedral forces were backing up, they were easy to target, and thus, many of them exploded and became streams of blood. As that blood flowed to the godchild, the aura of a god grew stronger, and began to affect the surroundings.

    The sky distorted, the air rippled, and thends shook. And the effects didn¡¯t stop there.

    The godchild, who was like an actual god, looked around coldly before fixing h¨©s gaze on the Heir Apparent and the other siblings.

    ¡°Father picked the wrong path. The only correct path in this world is to be a god. As for me, I was born after he had be a god, but before he extinguished his godfire. Thus, I am different from the rest of you.

    ¡°You only exist to be a part of my godly ascension. And my purpose is to finish walking the path that our father abandoned. That¡¯s why I chose Crimson Mother. Sh¨¥ is my future fellow daoist.¡±

    The godchild extended his left hand toward the mortal husk and made a grasping gesture.

    The mortal husk shivered, then flew out and wrapped around the godchild, transforming into a full-body suit of blood-colored armor. Then the godchild strode toward the Heir Apparent and the others. The moment h¨©s footnded, the Captain¡¯s eyes shone with brilliant light. He waved his hand urgently, and the dome of heaven darkened. The bracelet of nine suns then dropped down, exerting immense pressure onto the godchild.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain said.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing activated the powers of the Mirror of Moonrebel. He knew full well that the Captain didn¡¯t generally <i>shoot without aiming first</i>. Since he had chosen to use the nine suns, and had asked for Xu Qing¡¯s help, he obviously had something in mind. The surface of the mirror shifted, and glittering light shone onto the godchild. The mirror vibrated, and the bracelet of nine suns rotated.

    The godchild ignored all of that. To h¨©m, Xu Qing and everyone else were like bugs. As of this moment, the only people h¨¥ cared about on the battlefield were the Heir Apparent and his siblings. H¨¥ took a second step, and as h¨¥ did, the Mirror of Moonrebel trembled, and the bracelet of nine suns started to crumble.

    Meanwhile, Princess Brightblossom, who was in the middle of the formation, as well as the numerous projections of her in the major worlds, all opened their eyes. Their gazesbined, and she spoke, her voice drifting out from the void, from the past, and from all directions.

    <i>¡°Directly pacify the sun of earth; bury the will and conceal the dao; pacify ordinary time with this location!</i>

    <i>¡°Directly determine the sun of wood; nourish the present and smolder the ancient; determine ancient time with this door!</i>

    <i>¡°Directly grasp the sun of water; expend years and effect a return; grasp the path of life and death!</i>

    <i>¡°Directly pierce the sun of fire; immte memories and ignite souls; pierce the shackles of the heavenly dao!</i>

    <i>¡°And I am the metal; bury nourishment and expend immtion; pacify, determine, grasp, pierce!¡±</i> [1]

    As the words left Princess Brightblossom¡¯s mouth, the cosmos shifted, heaven grew dim, and all living things blurred. A magnificent seven-colored river erupted from nowhere and flowed out over everything. Not even the godchild could avoid it, and was overwhelmed. The power of time was active in an unheard-of way.

    From a distance, the ind looked like it was being wiped out of existence, sent into the ancient past. Left in its ce was an incredibly ancient door sitting above the river of time. The door slowly opened.

    1. I have to admit that I spent a massive amount of time tranting these lines even though they don¡¯t really have any function in therger story. I took a long time to get all of the different repeated terms to line up. Hope you enjoyed this part! ?

 Chapter 687: Golden Crow and Heavenly Rhino; Imperial-Class Faceoff

    <h4>Chapter 687: Golden Crow and Heavenly Rhino; Imperial-ss Faceoff</h4>

    Something else that the river of time swept over were all the living beings present. If there were a pair of eyes belonging to a god that were located high above and could look down, those eyes would see a river of time that contained the ind, the statue of the Imperial Sovereign, and innumerable cultivators.

    All were inside, unmoving. For everyone, time had been stopped right then and there. They were neither alive nor dead, as they were locked in ce just like the time in the area.

    But there were nine cultivators who were exceptions: the Heir Apparent and his four siblings, Li Xiaoshan, Madam Godfinch, Chen Erniu, and Xu Qing. They weren¡¯t affected at all.

    When the great door of ancient time opened, Princess Brightblossom used her taboo magic to send them into the past times of the godchild, each one to a different node.

    In order to ensure their sess, each person was sent to an ancient time period that corrted to their own cultivation base. For example, the Captain went to the time node in which the godchild broke through from Gold Core to Nascent Soul. Li Xiaoshan went to the point when the godchild went from Spirit Trove into Void Returning. Madam Godfinch went to the point when the godchild broke through to Smoldering God. Xu Qing was sent to the node where the godchild broke out of Nascent Soul and into Spirit Trove.

    If they could cut down the godchild in those nodes, then they would vanquish the ceremony and cause the godfire to extinguish itself. The reason that each node was rted to the early stage of a cultivation level was that it was a requirement of the godly ascension ceremony. The godchild needed the power of time from those specific siblings¡¯ breakthroughs.

    That power of time was actually the first step of his ceremony. The second step was tobine those different times and break through from a weak spot to a strong one. It was a snowball effect. Starting in Qi Condensation and proceeding through the fourteen nodes, invincible energy would be gathered. In the end, all of that power from the different siblings would converge, break through time, andplete the final step of the godly ascension ceremony. That was his method to smoothly be a god!

    The technique was different from Crimson Mother¡¯s godly ascension ceremony. However, it was just as miraculous, such that ordinary people could never hope to seed at it.

    Unfortunately, the Heir Apparent and the other siblings had shown up, causing the godchild¡¯s ceremony to shift in an unexpected way. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the river seethed. Foamy waves provided glimpses of antiquity. The Heir Apparent and the other siblings were visible in it, as was the Captain.

    Carried by one of the crashing waves, Xu Qing, who had just vanished from outside, popped into being. He immediately rotated his cultivation base and looked around vigntly. He was in an unfamiliar world. The sky was sunny and cloudless. The never-ending blue color imparted a sense of freeness and rxation. A wind blew, carrying with it the sweet fragrance of nts and vegetation. There was a sense of life that seemed capable of seeping deep into one¡¯s heart and mind. Everything was verdant, with lush vegetation and strong spirit energy. In some ces, the spirit energy was so strong it formed a visible mist, which made the entire world seem like an immortal paradise. Spirit beasts frolicked everywhere, and immortal birds soared in the air. Everything seemed natural and harmonious. There were rivers visible, with clear waters and fat fish jumping here and there.

    This world was like a garden the likes of which Xu Qing had never seen in his entire life. He lived in a world full of mutagen. It was the dwelling ce of gods, where the spirit energy was poisonous and living beings live lives as tragic as livestock. This ce was different.

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven.

    ¡°The broken face of the god...¡± he murmured. The monstrous, colossal face that existed in his memories as far back as they went... was not here! This was before the broken face of the god arrived.

    <i>This node is before the Revered Ancient maind experienced catastrophe. This was when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity ruled all of Revered Ancient, and humans... were the top species in existence.</i>

    Xu Qing started moving. He needed to find the location where the godchild was experiencing a breakthrough. As he moved forward, some of the immortal birds flew past him, then started circling around him. They seemed friendly. All of the spirit beasts acted like that. When they saw Xu Qing, they would let loose amiable cries that almost seemed like worship. It was because he was human.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to pound as he realized that, then thought about how humans had such a contemptible ce in the outside world. Everything in this node of time was different. The mountains were green and the waters were blue. The spirit beasts and immortal birds were all peaceful and auspicious.

    Xu Qing looked around. He was sorely tempted to just look around at what the world was like before the catastrophe. However, he understood that it was far more important to cut down the godchild. Taking a deep breath, he blurred into motion. With no metal sphere on him, he was capable of astonishing speeds. He sent out divine sense to search for his target, and also had the shadow spread out. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing suddenly stopped in ce and looked to the east.

    ¡°There!¡±

    In that direction, he could sense Spirit Trove fluctuations.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing shot in that direction like a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, he traveled 500 kilometers, until he saw a huge low-lying basin up ahead. It was about 50 kilometers from one side to the other, and appeared to have been formed when some massive extraterrestrial rock mmed into the ground. It was surrounded by crevices snaking out in all directions. In the middle of the basin was a gigantic ck rhinoceros.

    The rhino was massive, and was imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers. It emanated terrifying fluctuations as it threw its head back and let loose a long cry, a deafening sound like metal scraping on rock that caused ripples to flow out in all directions, and auspicious light to descend and cover the rhino over like armor. It was just barely possible to see a secret trove within the rhino¡¯s body.

    The rhino detected Xu Qing¡¯s arrival, and turned to face him. Steam shot out of its nostrils as it looked at him coldly.

    The two of them locked gazes.

    To Xu Qing, this rhino was illusory. He could see that, deep within it was a young man d in a ck robe. He was handsome, with a cold expression, and he emanated a sensation of danger. What was more, he was surrounded by a river of time. That river wasn¡¯t his. Rather, it was the manifestation of Princess Brightblossom¡¯s taboo magic.

    ¡°Insect,¡± the ck-robed young man said, waving his finger at Xu Qing.

    The ck rhino roared and then rapidly grewrger. When it was fully 30,000 meters from end to end, it started charging toward Xu Qing like a meteor. Heaven and earth shook violently as a terrifying aura exploded from the rhino, filled with mountain-toppling, sea-draining power.

    This was an imperial-ss technique! And it was mightier than any imperial-ss technique Xu Qing had ever seen.

    Xu Qing had just broken through from Nascent Soul to Spirit Trove, making him confident to deal with just about any other person. But this person was the son of an Imperial Sovereign. It didn¡¯t matter that his cultivation base was the same as Xu Qing¡¯s. There was no way Xu Qing was going to be careless. That said, he didn¡¯t shrink back either. His eyes shone with the desire to do battle. He wanted to know which of them was stronger, given the reserve powers he had umted on his path of cultivation.

    As the battle spirit within him surged, he raised his right hand and performed an incantation gesture. He waved his finger, and the golden crow tattoo started burning. Then a piercing cry could be heard as the golden crow flew out into the open. It had a thousand tails spread out in all directions, and a ck body that emanated terrifying might. Burning mes created a sea of fire around it as it shot directly toward the rhinoceros.

    mes sted out in all directions as the ck rhino closed in on the golden crow. As it arrived, it found a thousand razor-sharp tails waiting for it. At the same time, the golden crow opened its mouth and used its spirit-assimtion powers to suck in everything around it.

    A tremor passed through the ck rhino. At the same time, the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son frowned slightly from his spot in the middle of the basin. He snorted coldly.

    ¡°Howling Moon!¡±

    ck light erupted from the rhino, turning into a ck hole around it. Throwing its head back, it roared and shook off the golden crow. The sky shook as a white moon formed above, connecting to it and destroying everything around it. The golden crow had no choice but to fall back. This was the essence of the imperial-ss technique of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son. It was called Heavenly Rhino Roars at the Moon. Normally speaking, it wasn¡¯tmon for people to develop an imperial-ss to this level. That was especially true for people who were only in Spirit Trove.

    Next, Xu Qing calmly performed an incantation gesture, which caused the golden crow to wither rapidly. Its flesh and blood disappeared, and in its ce was revealed a long, ck spear. As it formed, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and thunderous rumbling sounds echoed from above, like the cry of a heavenly dao. The sound echoed out across the entire area, as if to dere that the spear wasn¡¯t allowed toe. The spear came anyway.

    Xu Qing had also gained enlightenment of the essence of his imperial-ss technique.

    The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son had a very serious expression on his face. Even more surprising to him was that the destructive power of the spear mmed right into the ck rhino.

    The white moon blocked the attack, but it wasn¡¯t enough. A deafening boom rang out as concentric white halos shattered. The moon copsed, and the spear stabbed right into the rhino. Entering its forehead, it pierced through its entire body and impaled it to the ground.

    The rhino howled in anguish. The ground shook. The battle spirit in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes soared, and he started walking toward the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son. Meanwhile, a cold gleam appeared in the fourth son¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was speaking to Xu Qing internally.

    <i>¡°Milord, based on all the novels I¡¯ve read, people who talk as pretentiously as this are usually big viins that are destined to be defeated. Our victory is assured! Keep it up, milord!¡±</i>

    The patriarch was actually feeling rtively helpless. He got the feeling that if he didn¡¯t shine soon, he was going to be turned into cannon fodder. Therefore, he had been wracking his brains trying toe up with ways to show how important he was.

    Ignoring him, Xu Qing shot toward the basin with astounding speed.

    The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son was also capable of incredible speed. Suddenly shooting up into the air, he dodged Xu Qing, then shoved his hand into the sky and made a grasping gesture. Then he pulled with full force, tearing open a rift in the canopy of heaven. ck smoke poured out of it, within which was a ck rattle-drum. It had two drum faces, one decorated with an evil ghost, the other with an image of countless species wailing in agony. It was very gruish. [1]

    It descended, and the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son grabbed it. Then it erupted with an ink-like energy that corroded everything it touched. It even affected spirit energy, causing it to undte wildly. He waved it casually, and the thunking sound of the drum echoed out. Wherever the sound went, living things withered. It was a poison curse magic.

    ¡°How amusing,¡± Xu Qing said calmly, his eyes turning ck.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior gasped and was about to warn Xu Qing to watch his words. But then he changed his mind.

    <i>¡°When you talk like that, milord, it¡¯spletely different. The feeling isn¡¯t the same at all. Let¡¯s shatter themon perceptions and win this thing!¡±</i>

    1. Traditional Chinese rattle-drums look <u>like this</u>. ?

 Chapter 688: Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse

    Chapter 688: Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse

    The sound of the drum thumped out, filled with poison as it spread out in all directions. It was a taboo curse magic that could invade all living things. Irregrly shaped rings of rot started spreading through the air, and it was the same with thend. As the wind screamed in all directions, a ck fog formed.

    The fourth son of the Imperial Sovereign stood within the miasma, looking coldly at Xu Qing, the drum in his hands swishing back and forth. The poison fog surged as if with huge waves as numerous vicious beast projections formed within it, howling loudly.

    The beast projections were varied; some had bottle-shaped bodies covered with countless eyes; some looked like gruish conglomerations of swirling hair; some looked like draconic turtles covered with spikes; some were humanoid but had p¨¡ramit¨¡ lilies growing on their foreheads. [1]

    There were many, many varieties. All were extremely poisonous, and were notmonly seen in the era of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son, much less in Xu Qing¡¯s time. Virtually all of them were actually from extinct animal species. The moment they took form, the fog surged outward, and the poison grew stronger, bing so hypertoxic it could invade Spirit Trove experts and damage their secret troves and furnaces.

    The poison raced toward Xu Qing, whose expression didn¡¯t change at all. He didn¡¯t seem even remotely surprised. In fact, this fight had been rtively easy for him so far.

    And that was because this Imperial Sovereign¡¯s son wasn¡¯t turning out to be as mysterious and unpredictable as he had anticipated. He could definitely be considered a chosen cultivator, yet he had his limitations.

    Xu Qing also had the essence of an imperial-ss technique. And when it came to the dao of poison... Xu Qing shook his head. His eyes became pitch ck as the taboo poison within him filled his gaze. He calmly looked forward. Colors shed and winds roared. The area around him rippled and distorted, and the poison fog spasmed and started to disperse.

    There were some poisons in the world that could provoke a reaction from Xu Qing. But this wasn¡¯t one of them. On a substructural level, Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison was different from ordinary poisons. It was a type of mutagen, or the curse of a god, and it could invade the life force and substructure of all living beings and entities. Compared to it, the poison from the rattle-drum¡¯s sound waves was interesting, but just couldn¡¯t match up in terms of personhood.

    The poison fog was falling apart! The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son looked surprised. The rattle-drum stopped moving.Xu Qing¡¯s gaze rapidly pierced through the poison fog as he looked at the fourth son. That gaze caused all the fourth son¡¯s hair to stand on end. A sense of deadly crisis rose up within him, yet he was no ordinary individual. Without the slightest hesitation, he shot backward, tossed the rattle-drum out in front of him, and performed an incantation gesture.

    The rattle-drum, which was an extremely precious treasure, exploded, creating a sound wave full of extremely strong poison that rushed forward to block Xu Qing. It was an effective tactic. Xu Qing had no problem dispelling the drum¡¯s poisons. But the soundwaves caused by the drum¡¯s detonation also stopped him in ce.

    Taking advantage of the bought time, the fourth son shot backward about 3,000 meters. His expression was grim, as he could tell how serious the situation was. He had no choice but to admit that the person facing him had simr methods, all of which were slightly stronger than his own.

    Killing intent flickered in the fourth son¡¯s eyes. He had no interest in ying around, and was still convinced he could end this fight quickly. He quickly performed a right-handed incantation gesture, then moved his index finger toward his forehead. However, instead of touching his forehead, he held his finger a few inches in front of it.

    ¡°Bloodline Underworld Curse!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth,plex ck designs appeared everywhere on his skin. If you looked closely, you would realize that the convolutedwork of dark lines represented his blood vessels. The dark lines bulged and shifted in ce on his skin, especially on his face, where they created the image of a vicious ghost face.

    The fourth son¡¯s finger touched his forehead and the ghost face there. Instantly, the ghost face lit up like amp. In fact, from a distance, it actually looked exactly like amp. Themp had fused with his face, creating an extremely gruish sight. At the same time, his aura skyrocketed, making him grow several times stronger than before.

    A sense of unease rose up in Xu Qing. Sending out more poison through his gaze, he burst into motion, heading toward his opponent at top speed.

    The fourth son¡¯s eyes narrowed. Continuing to move backward, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, causing the rhino to appear around him again and block the invading poison. Then he waved his hand, sending a host of hair flying forward to entangle Xu Qing and block his forward path.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he elerated again, bing a string of afterimages that pierced through everything toward the fourth son. This was speed that surpassed Spirit Trove, and was all thanks to the tempering of the Heir Apparent, which had involved Xu Qing carrying around a sun all the time.

    The fourth son¡¯s expression flickered. He opened his mouth, and a beam of white light shot out toward Xu Qing. The white light spread around him in aplextticework, intertwining and ovepping.

    Xu Qing arrived a momentter. As his secret trove manifested behind him, he clenched his fist and punched. Lands shook and mountains rocked. Booms filled the dome of heaven.

    Thetticework copsed into hundreds of fragments that scattered everywhere. However, it was a mysterious magic. Unexpectedly, the fourth son appeared within every single one of those hundreds of fragments, making it very difficult to tell which version was real among all the fakes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened as he sent his shadow flying out, along with a host of heavenfiend clones, to invade thetticework and find the true body.

    Meanwhile, within thetticework, the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son reached up and put his finger on his shoulder. At that spot, the ck veins merged together to form a second burningmp. Next, he touched the other shoulder, then his dantian region, then his legs, and finally, his heart. All of the incantation gestures were performed in the blink of an eye.

    Seven mysteriousmps alive with underworld fire were now burning within the fourth son¡¯s body. And every singlemp caused his aura to skyrocket. His entire person seemed to burn, causing his energy to surge, and sending terrifying fluctuations everywhere.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow and heavenfiend clones were spreading through thetticework looking for the hidden fourth son. Rumbling sounds echoed out astticework exploded left and right.

    Finally, the fourth son stepped out into the open, his body ame. He waved his finger, and the sky shattered. The air copsed, and the surrounding heavenfiend clones were ripped to shreds.

    ¡°I underestimated you,¡± he said coolly. ¡°Whether in your time period or my own, in this cultivation level, you... have exceptional talent.¡±

    His right hand danced through the air, causing the sevenmps to sway. That swaying motion caused a sensation of intense danger to fill Xu Qing. He had no choice but to stop in ce, a serious expression on his face. He had never heard of any kind of magic like this before. It wasn¡¯t a divine ability from his own time period, but rather, a taboo magic that came from Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua.

    Of all Li Zihua sons and daughters, only his fourth son had been able to cultivate it sessfully, due to a variety of unique factors.

    This taboo magic had a name. It was... Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse!

    The reason it was considered taboo was that, in addition to being able to significantly boost the strength of the user, it was also a curse. And it was the type of curse that resulted in death! Extinguishing themps extinguished the enemy!

    As killing intent zed in the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son, he opened his mouth to speak.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know the details of this magic. But at the same time, he didn¡¯t like to waste words. Regardless of what his opponent said, he wouldn¡¯t trust it. Thus, he nned to force the fourth son¡¯s hand, and give him no choice but to unleash his trump card as quickly as possible.

    Seeing that, the fourth sonughed coldly. Acting in response to his thoughts, the sevenmps within him swayed, and projections of Xu Qing appeared within the mes. It was as if his mind was trapped within the fire of themps.

    As Xu Qing neared, the fourth son directly extinguished one of the sevenmps. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s five yin organs and six yang organs experienced a burst of pain. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his body rapidly deteriorated as if with age. His clothing started rotting, the me of his life force faded, and his expression flickered. At the same time, the fourth son extinguished the secondmp.

    Cracks spread out over Xu Qing¡¯s skin, and blood oozed out. His hair withered and fell out, his cultivation base declined, and a sensation of imminent death filled him.

    Next came the third, fourth, and fifthmps.... In the shortest of moments, six of the sevenmps had been extinguished.

    Xu Qing fell out of the sky and mmed into the ground. Sweat poured off of him like rain, and gruishly, the sweat contained corrosive properties that started melting his body. Indescribable pain filled Xu Qing, causing his expression to turn nk. As the sensation of death filled him, the noxious odor surrounding him grew intense. Indecision filled him. Apprehension. Terror. All sorts of negative emotions.

    The fourth son looked at Xu Qing from above and coolly said, ¡°You might have exceptional talent. But insects will always be insects.¡±

    With that, he extinguished the finalmp. When that happened, Xu Qing¡¯s aura was suddenly wiped out.

    ¡°It¡¯s over,¡± the fourth son said, turning to leave. But then his expression flickered, and he turned to look at Xu Qing¡¯s corpse. And what he saw was the manifestation of five lifemps. They were like sundials, and all the gnomons were pointing in the same direction. Then they turned back, and the time surrounding Xu Qing went backward.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing rose into the air, and the deadly effects of the curse vanished. His melted flesh recovered, and he hovered in the same spot as before,pletely unharmed. This was the divine ability that came with his sundial lifemps!

    ¡°You!¡± the fourth son blurted, his pupils constricting and his heart starting to pound. ¡°You have an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s bloodline?¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked squarely at his enemy. He had just died. And if he hadn¡¯t used his lifemp divine ability at exactly the right moment, that would have been permanent. That process of dying had given him a very detailed understanding of how the sevenmps magic worked.

    ¡°That¡¯s a nice magic,¡± he said softly, licking his lips. ¡°Very nice.¡±

    Daybreak light erupted from him, illuminating the surroundings with seven colors. And as the light formed, it gradually took the shape of sevenmps burning with underworld fire. It was a copy! Using the daybreak light¡¯s method of myriad magics, he had copied the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse!

    1. The ¡®p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily¡¯ is what I tranted as ¡®resurrection lily¡¯ in ISSTH. Honestly, if I could go back in time I probably wouldn¡¯t call it ¡®resurrection lily.¡¯ In any case, the concept of p¨¡ramit¨¡ is so ubiquitous in Chinese mythology and fantasy novels that seeing this kind of flower doesn¡¯t inherently imply some sort of connection to ISSTH or other stories. ?

 Chapter 689: Just Stronger Than You!

    <h4>Chapter 689: Just Stronger Than You!</h4>

    Xu Qing had unlocked the abilities of daybreak light even when he was in Nascent Soul. It could be used to scan countless magics. Thanks to the tips from the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom, Xu Qing had gained enlightenment of how to use it to duplicate myriad magics. Later, when he broke through from Nascent Soul to Spirit Trove, he used it to form countless living beings and terrain features in his secret trove.

    As of now, its imitation abilities were even more extraordinary than before. And thus, it glittered around Xu Qing as sevenmps with underworld fire formed, one after another.

    The same ghost face ignited! Though it was blurry, and obviously not quite on the same level as the version used by the fourth son, it was still able to give Xu Qing a boost. Rumbling sounds echoed out as his aura climbed. After that happened seven times, he pulsed with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force as he hovered in midair with his eyes closed, looking like a god. Daybreak light glittered around him, all while the sevenmps rotated around him, burning with gruish underworld fire.

    That,bined with Xu Qing¡¯s handsome features and long hair, made it so that if youpared him to the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son... Xu Qing actually seemed more like the son of an Imperial Sovereign. He seemed imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and it caused the sky to flicker with bright colors, and gale-force winds to whip around him.

    When the sevenmps were fully manifested, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked closely at the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son.

    The first thing he did waspletely unleash his taboo poison magic. Mutagen flourished, taboo poison spread, and the curse of a god descended. Those were just primers to make the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse more perfect.

    Next, the sevenmps swayed, and projections of the fourth son appeared in their fire!

    When the fourth son saw that, his heart pounded, and his eyes filled with incredulity. He felt like his mind was being struck by lightning bolts. There was simply no way he <i>couldn¡¯t</i> be astonished. This was his magical technique, yet it had been copied and was being used by someone else. He had never before encountered someone with powers of understanding like this.

    There was no time to contemte the situation. With a double-handed incantation gesture, he summoned thetticework again, going all out to defend himself while simultaneously falling back. He acted toote.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with killing intent as he extinguished three of the sevenmps.

    The fourth son spasmed. Latticework shattered around him, revealing his true body. His hair was withering, he was shaking, and blood sprayed out of his mouth.

    Xu Qing unhesitatingly extinguished the four remainingmps.

    The fourth son shrieked miserably, and then coughed up blood seven or eight times in a row as he staggered backward. His aura was gone, and he no longer looked magnificent. His clothing was rotten like a maggot as he mmed into the ground.

    Yet he wasn¡¯t dead! After all, this was an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s taboo magic, and not even Xu Qing¡¯s daybreak light could make a perfect copy. The best he could do was make a copy that was about thirty percent faithful. But even thirty percent was enough to make a deadly curse. And the addition of Xu Qing¡¯s own poison made it even more terrifying.

    The fourth son was seriously injured in body and soul. As the power of taboo poison spread through him, his flesh decayed, his mind was crushed, and ck energy filled him along with an aura of death.

    But Xu Qing¡¯s killing move wasn¡¯t finished yet. Now that his opponent had been weakened, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes became colder as he waved his right hand. Instantly, the bluegreen dragon roared and flew up into the air, bing a white beam of light that took the shape of a heavenly saber. Xu Qing dropped his finger tomand the de, which chopped down toward the fourth son. The dao contained in the saber split the dome of heaven and severed the earth.

    The fourth son¡¯s expression flickered dramatically. Xu Qing had attacked with lightning speed, and hadn¡¯t given him any breathing room at all. He was now feeling overwhelmed by a feeling of potential death. At that moment of crisis, the fourth son¡¯s expression turned vicious. Reaching up, he smashed his hand onto his face, and dragged his fingers down viciously, creating five ghastly and bloody wounds.

    Blood flowed, but not much. What was more, it was now possible to see through those wounds; his flesh beneath wriggled and twitched, while simultaneously letting off a crimson glow.

    This was a time period before the broken face of the god arrived. It was also before Crimson Mother reached gods and spirits. And yet, when the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son scratched his face, the light that shone out clearly contained the aura of a god. It was the power of red moon authority, manifested as blood-colored light that spread out and created a blood sea around him.

    ¡°Die!¡± the fourth son howled, waving his arm out.

    The blood sea churned as innumerable heads rose from the blood, revealing only their eyes. Everything from their noses down was submerged and impossible to see. The eyes were closed, yet they imparted a terrifying sensation, especially considering how many of them there were.

    Next, the eyes all opened and looked at Xu Qing. The red moon curse instantly surged.

    The heavenly saber shivered and became blood-red thanks to the gazes of those eyes. In fact, even Xu Qing¡¯s daybreak light was infected and became red. Any other Spirit Trove cultivator would be powerless to fight something like that. After all, this was the power of authority. But Xu Qing looked at the fourth son and actually felt very curious.

    <i>Whatever he can do, I can also do....</i>

    As the thought passed through his mind, he took a step forward. When his footnded, endless blood spread out beneath his feet. In the blink of an eye, it created a blood sea very simr to the fourth son¡¯s. Then, it surged viciously in the direction of the other blood sea. A deafening crash rang out.

    From a distance, it was possible to see two very simr blood seas smashing into each other. Waves exploded everywhere as authority battled authority and curse battled curse.

    Xu Qing hovered above his own blood sea, his green robes pping in the wind.

    Not too far away from him, the fourth son hovered above the other blood sea, his expression grim. He was no longer capable of releasing any more red moon authority. That said, his killing intent hadn¡¯t been reduced at all. Lifting his right hand, he pointed up into the sky.

    ¡°Heaven as the de!¡± he said, and the dome of heaven trembled. Countless rifts appeared as one entire section formed into a long saber. It was shocking to the extreme!

    ¡°Earth as the altar!¡± The earth shook. Soil rose up into the air, clumping together to form an enormous altar of execution.

    ¡°Connect to the sun and moon!¡± Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies appeared, connecting the heavenly saber and the execution altar. And thus it came to be that... the God Decapitation Altar appeared!

    This was the divine ability of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. Clearly, Ninth Sib wasn¡¯t the only one to master it. Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son also couldmand that very same divine ability. A shocking baleful aura surrounded him as he howled and sent the god-decapitating de chopping down.

    Xu Qing looked up with great curiosity at the god-decapitating saber. Then a timescape bottle appeared in front of him.

    The bottle opened, releasing the power of the timescape. The Ghost Emperor mountain appeared, turning into the altar. Then the destiny aura from D-132 became the de trough! The heavenly dao bluegreen dragon roared in the form of the heavenly saber. Taboo power and the curse of a god filled the edge of the de, while daybreak light formed the de light! The golden crow formed the connection, and the violet moon sealed it tight. The sundial lifemps added strength. And then, Xu Qing¡¯s God Decapitation Altar appeared in heaven and earth.

    Two huge God Decapitation Altars faced off.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    The power of decapitation swept out with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force!

    A deafening cracking sound rang out as the fourth son¡¯s God Decapitation Altar split in two and was sent spinning off to the side. Then it shattered.

    Xu Qing¡¯s God Decapitation Altar vibrated violently, then faded away. However, it remained whole the entire time. Xu Qing backed up a few paces, his face flush, blood oozing out of the corners of his mouth. He was already recovering.

    In this sh of divine abilities, Xu Qing came out on top!

    The fourth son¡¯s face was extremely pale as he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. Then he red at Xu Qing, his heart pounding.

    <i>Whatever I can do, he can also do....</i>

    He was thinking almost exactly the same thing Xu Qing had just been thinking.

    ¡°Fine. Secret trove!¡± As the fourth son¡¯s eyes shone with the desire to do battle, he performed an incantation gesture. A huge secret trove then rose up behind him from within the sea of blood.

    The interior of the secret trove seemed like a world, except it had no heaven. Instead, it was a sprawlingnd like the Nine Serenities. The ground seemed like it had been soaked in blood, creating a crimson mud. The very middle of it was bright red, with everything around it somewhat faded. And along the edges, white mes burned constantly.

    Countless figures were visible, buried in the blood-colorednds as well as in the white fire, and they constantly moaned and screamed in agony. The screams seemed to be attempts to please someone. It was a very sinister secret trove, almost like a hell. And as soon as it appeared, it shot toward Xu Qing as if to crush him.

    As the hellish secret trove closed in, Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless. Then he shoved his right hand out, and deafening rumbling sounds echoed out as his own secret trove appeared. Within it, the golden crow was the sun, and the violet moon was the moon. Taboo poison formed the clouds, and the Ghost Emperor mountain made thends. The waters were the timescape, and the heavenly dao made the naturalws. Daybreak light made the nts and animals, while D-132 propagated living beings. Sundials governed the passage of time.

    When it appeared, it ovepped with the fourth son¡¯s secret trove, whereupon both of the secret troves began to fight with natural and magicalws as they attempted to overtake each other.

    The ovepping secret troves trembled violently as they affected each other. Within them, suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies manifested. Wind, rain, lightning and thunder appeared. The howls of two heavenly daos echoed everywhere.

    The battle seemed incredibly dangerous; defeat meant death, and the critical life-or-death moment was here. However, the reserve powers Xu Qing had been building up in recent years were inherently superior. Gradually, his secret trove began to overtake the fourth son¡¯s secret trove.

    The fourth son¡¯s bloody soil sought to overtake thend in Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove. But it was too slow.

    As the naturalws shed, the fourth son¡¯s secret trove began to show signs of copse. Its heavenly dao howled defiantly as the light of Xu Qing¡¯s sun and moon appeared within its hell. That light melted and devoured everything it passed....

    Thend in the fourth son¡¯s secret trove was copsing.

    And yet, just as that happened, Xu Qing suddenly saw what the fourth son¡¯s secret trovends were really like!

    Thosends were anything but ordinary. The very middle, the crimson part, was like the pupil of an eye. And the white mes were the whites of that eye. Thends in the secret trove... were actually a gargantuan eyeball. The moment Xu Qing saw that eyeball, he realized it was very familiar.

    <i>Is that... Crimson Mother¡¯s eye??</i>

 Chapter 690: My Past is Your....

    <h4>Chapter 690: My Past is Your....</h4>

    Xu Qing clearly remembered how the statues of Crimson Mother always had hands covering the eyes, with blood flowing down from those spots. And now, as Xu Qing saw a huge eye in the secret trove of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son, and sensed the strong aura of Crimson Mother, his heart started pounding.

    Thinking back to the nursery rhyme, which mentioned ¡®fourth dolly¡¯ being lost, he recalled the Heir Apparent talking about how his fourth brother became Crimson Mother¡¯s godchild. And he also thought about the ancient scene he had witnessed during the events at the God Decapitation Altar, and the first thing Li Zihua said to Crimson Mother.

    <i>¡°The song you were singing was just too unpleasant to hear. It interrupted my fourth son¡¯s dream.¡±</i> [1]

    It seemed everything was backed up by history.

    Perhaps Crimson Mother¡¯s song didn¡¯t just interrupt the dream of Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son. Perhaps it had imnted an eye into that dream.

    Perhaps <i>this</i> was that eye, and it was the reason why sh¨¥ could be resurrected after being beheaded before reaching godly ascension.

    Perhaps Li Zihua knew all of that, yet for some unknown reason didn¡¯t tell anyone, and also didn¡¯t stop it from happening....

    Perhaps that was why Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son, who was born before his father reached godly ascension only to extinguish his own godfire, had ultimately be the godchild.

    The Moonrite Region was the ce where Crimson Mother grew h¨¥r food. It was h¨¥r Spirit Garden. And the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son was also Crimson Mother¡¯s Spirit Garden. He was growing an eye for h¨¥r.

    Xu Qing had no way of knowing whether any of his spections were correct or not. They made sense, logically speaking. And because of how logical they seemed, Xu Qing was deeply shaken.

    Eventually, the secret trove worlds faded away into nothing....

    Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove had crushed the fourth son¡¯s secret trove. It had wiped out everything. And then the river of time swept away all the pieces. In the end, Crimson Mother¡¯s eye didn¡¯t release any special power. It wasn¡¯t a huge surprise to Xu Qing. After all, in this time period, Crimson Mother still hadn¡¯t reached godly ascension. Besides, sh¨¥ was only a projection thatcked any familiar karma.

    <i>However, in the outside world, the godchild presumably has a fully matured eye in him.... I¡¯m sure the others have realized this.</i>

    Xu Qing let himself be swept along by the river, until he eventually vanished. The river continued flowing off into the distance. It left the time period, and then returned to where it had started on the ind.

    As Xu Qing appeared, thunder rumbled overhead, and he heard a familiar voice teasing him from behind.

    ¡°What took you so long, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing turned to see the Captain sitting on the waves of the river of time, fiddling with the nine artificial suns, which had been shrunk down to the size of pearls. He was smiling enigmatically.

    ¡°The grandmas and grandpas obviously weren¡¯t taking me very seriously,¡± the Captain said. ¡°They arranged for me to go back to when the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son broke through from Gold Core to Nascent Soul. All I had to do was wave a finger to wipe out that arrogant brat. I even had time to remove one of my seals.¡±

    The Captain looked very pleased with himself as he pulsed with a wave of energy, and a ck secret trove appeared behind him.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very surprised that his Eldest Brother had experienced a cultivation base breakthrough. Back when the two of them had been blessed by the Moonrebel Congregation, he had been able to tell that his Eldest Brother was ready for a breakthrough but was holding back.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°did you intend all along to go to the fourth son¡¯s Nascent Soul time period?¡±

    The Captain grinned and was about to reply when the waves surged and Madam Godfinch appeared in the froth. As soon as she was out in the open, her body withered significantly.

    ¡°The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son is now dead in the time period I went to,¡± she said. ¡°My mission isplete. This clone of mine... won¡¯tst for much longer. Going forward, it¡¯s all up to you two.¡±

    Madam Godfinch¡¯s clone had not shown any emotion at all up to this point, not even now, when she was fading into nothing. That was the price she had paid to leave this clone behind. And it was also a manifestation of her determination and her mission. She was a former Archbishop of Moonrebel, and when she failed to lead the people of her era into freedom, she had sighed in sorrow and then defiantly created this clone. Now, though she still sighed in sorrow, she had reached the end of the line.

    After looking around onest time, she sighed and closed her eyes. The wind blew, and she faded away, turning into ash that blew out into heaven and earth, leaving behind only the sound of her echoing sigh.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed.

    The Captain said nothing. He also bowed.

    Before long, the waves surged again, and Fifth Sister appeared. She was staggering, and she kept coughing up mouthfuls of blood. She looked older than before. After noticing Xu Qing and the Captain, her eyes flickered with gratitude, and she nodded. Not speaking a word, she settled down cross-legged, whereupon motes of white light drifted off her and into the river. She was sacrificing her own life force in order to help her brothers and sisters.

    As the white motes of light entered the river, the water seethed with greater intensity, and Eighth Sib emerged from the waves. He was missing his lower half, but the white motes of light were already gathering to heal him. As he dragged himself out of the water, he spat out some phlegm and then grinned.

    ¡°I never liked Fourth Sib. Always wanted to give him a good thrashing. It felt great!¡± He waved his hand, and the white motes of light surrounding his missing lower half moved away and returned to Fifth Sister. ¡°You don¡¯t have much longevity. Don¡¯t waste it on me. I¡¯ll be fine!¡±

    Fifth Sister looked at him but didn¡¯t object.

    ¡°Erniu,¡± he said, ¡°are you really looking at your Eighth Grandpa in this state and not offering some help?¡± He looked at the Captain andughed heartily.

    Chuckling, the Captain hurried over, offered Eighth Sib an arm, and sighed admiringly.

    ¡°Grandpa Eighth, you¡¯re extraordinarily valorous. I previously believed that I was the only person in this world who had your level of determination and boldness. How could I have ever guessed that there would be another heroic individual around such as you, Grandpa Eighth!¡±

    Eighth Sib looked very pleased, and was about to say something when the river of time rumbled loudly. The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom emerged, followed a momentter by Ninth Sib.

    Ninth Sib arrived with astonishing grandeur. Most noteworthy was that the sharp de he wielded dripped with golden blood. Of the nine who had gone to different time eras, he had gone to the one when the godchild was strongest.

    ¡°He¡¯s been executed,¡± Ninth Sib said, his face expressionless.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom breathed sighs of relief. Clearly, they had also seeded.

    Everyone was back with one exception.

    Li Xiaoshan.

    ¡°He perished, but seeded in the process,¡± Princess Brightblossom said, looking at the river of time. She waved her hand, and the river of time faded away.

    The statue of the Imperial Sovereign appeared once again. A figure knelt on the head of the statue.

    As the waters receded, the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral and the Moonrebel Congregation slowly opened their eyes. At first, they looked confused, then amazed. All of them were looking up at Xu Qing and the others, as well as the figure on the head of the statue.

    That figure was the godchild¡¯s true form. His vicious expression and terrifying body were no different than before. But his aura was unstable. Shivering, he opened his eyes. Golden fire burned in his eyes as he looked into the canopy of heaven.

    The Heir Apparent and everyone else looked down at him.

    Xu Qing and the Captain backed up a few steps. The battle was clearly nearing an end. If their sess didn¡¯t stop the godchild from reaching godly ascension, then it didn¡¯t matter what they did next. Eventually, the godchild slowly got to his feet and spoke in a smoky, hoarse voice.

    ¡°To other people, our father was the Imperial Sovereign who safeguarded heaven here. He waspletely loyal to the Ancient Emperor, and took pity on all living beings. But the reality is that he was a very contradictory person. And also ruthless.¡±

    The Heir Apparent shook his head. ¡°It sounds like you don¡¯t understand our father.¡±

    The godchild was silent for a moment. Looking at the Heir Apparent, he quietly continued, ¡°Big brother, you and I don¡¯t see our father in the same way. When you were born, you saw him as an Imperial Sovereign. When I was born... I saw h¨©m as a god.¡±

    The Heir Apparent seemed like he had more he wanted to say, yet was unable to find the words.

    Princess Brightblossom¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as she said, ¡°That¡¯s not why you chose to betray and torture your own rtives.¡±

    The godchild turned to look at Princess Brightblossom. Then he looked at Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib. Finally, his gaze fell onto Ninth Sib.

    ¡°Third Sister. Fifth Sister. Eight Brother. Ninth Brother.... I want to ask all of you a question. What¡¯s more tragic, to be the only one sober while everyone else is drunk... or to be the only one drunk while everyone else is sober?¡±[2] [3]

    There was no right or wrong answer to the question.

    The godchildughed self-deprecatingly. Then, golden fire spread from his eyes, covering his face, then flowing down over his entire body. mes scorched thends and illuminated the dome of heaven. The holy sensationing off the godchild grew even more intense.

    It was... godfire.

    The fact that the fire was ignited didn¡¯t indicate that the godchild had seeded in his ceremony. Instead, it was a bacsh.... As the mes spread, he looked at the Heir Apparent and the others. And he looked at the Captain, a profound look in his eyes.

    The Captain met his gaze, and a crazy expression appeared on his face as he suddenly extended his right hand. All of a sudden, the nine artificial suns he had been ying with shot forward and surrounded the godchild. Streams of golden godfire seeped off the godfire and into the nine suns.

    The Heir Apparent and others looked on with serious expressions. As the godfire entered the nine artificial suns, they experienced a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformation. They turned golden.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, this is why your Eldest Brother worked so hard to recover these artificial suns here in the Moonrite Region. With godfire in them, tell me, do these nine suns remind you of the Dawning Suns? With nine mini-Dawning Suns, that shrew Crimson Mother¡¯s big ceremony is going to be rocked to the core!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised by the Captain¡¯s crazy words. Right now, his focus wasn¡¯t on the nine suns, but rather, on the godchild.

    That was because, as the godchild burned away, thest thing he looked at was Xu Qing.

    ¡°All of this happened because you showed up,¡± the godchild said. ¡°You¡¯re the reason for it all. There are far too many simrities between you and me. Could that really be a coincidence? Could it be that my past is actually your future...?¡±

    The mes roared, and the godchild vanished from the head of his father¡¯s statue.

    Heaven and earth trembled. Wind screamed. The clouds seethed. The red moon loomed on the horizon, sending out a blood-colored light that formed into the face of Crimson Mother.

    A god wasing.

    1. Li Zihua spoke those words in <u>chapter 639</u>. ?

    2. As you all know, Chinese distinguishes between older and younger brothers. For the sake of pithiness, I generally just trante them as brother and sister. In this case, the more urate (and longer) trantions are: ¡°Third Elder Sister, Fifth Younger Sister, Eighth Younger Brother, Ninth Younger Brother....¡± ?

    3. The drunk/sober question is based on a rtivelymon saying which is ¡°Everyone else is drunk, and I am the only sober one,¡± which is a somewhat arrogant way of proiming one¡¯s superiority. ?

 Chapter 691: Guyue Ningyan

    <h4>Chapter 691: Guyue Ningyan</h4>

    Rain fell. It was like tears or blood, except, it wasn¡¯t red. It was the color gold. Golden tears. Golden blood. It fell from the sky onto all of the Moonrite Region. Yet it wasn¡¯t real. The illusory rain seemed to be infected with the aura of the river of time. Though everyone could see it falling, it was actually falling in the ancient past, or perhaps in the future....

    It was brought about by the unique characteristics of a god. Few people in the Revered Ancient maind could exin what exactly gods were. They existed on a higher life level, and possessed indescribable features. Though the godchild failed to break through, for one brief instance, he did have some of the characteristics of a god. And thus, before h¨¥ died, it was only natural that the blood rain of a god would appear. There was also a will domain of utter sorrow that seeped into the hearts of all living things.

    It became a fully articted sentence: <i>¡°What¡¯s more tragic, for me to be the only one sober while everyone else is drunk... or for me to be the only one drunk while everyone else is sober?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Those words echoed in his mind. But they weren¡¯t the only ones. He was also thinking about the godchild¡¯sst words before he died.

    <i>¡°Could it be that my past is actually your future...?¡±</i>

    Those words were branded into Xu Qing¡¯s heart, and had seeped into his soul. After a long moment passed, he looked up at the distant red moon. From his vantage point, the red moon looked like a crimson asteroid, halfway into the sky, filling the world with the color red. ¨©t also brought an immense pressure that filled heaven and earth. And the illusory blood rain was starting to blur thanks to the arrival of the red moon.

    All of a sudden, the dome of heaven seemed to cave in. The heavens had to retreat, and all natural and magicalws copsed. They couldn¡¯t exist in the presence of the red moon.

    It was the same on thends below. The tides were at their strongest. Mountains copsed. The ground cracked. Rivers flowed backwards. It was as if the end of days hade.

    The Captain stood next to Xu Qing, looking off at the red moon. Licking his lips, he called the nine artificial suns back to him, then fiddled with them as he said, ¡°¨©t¡¯s going to be here sooner than expected. At the most, it¡¯ll be three days from now.

    ¡°About what he said to you before dying, little Junior Brother, I wouldn¡¯t pay much attention to it. As you know, people often like to be deliberately mystifying when they¡¯re about to die. They just want people to remember them.

    ¡°It¡¯s actually not a bad habit to get into. I¡¯m nning to do the same thing. I¡¯ve already thought of the exact lines. Just before I die in the future, I¡¯m going to say... ¡®<i>Next time the eyes of the broken face open, I¡¯m going to return to see my little Junior Brother</i>.¡¯

    ¡°What do you think? Slick words, huh? They really embody our friendship. Hahaha! What¡¯s more, whoever hears them will starting up with all sorts of theories, and might even start to think that <i>I¡¯m</i> the god with the broken face.¡± The Captain looked at him and blinked a few times. ¡°I¡¯ve alsoe up with the perfect lines for you. Next time you bite the dust, remember to utter these words with your dying breath.... ¡®<i>Eleven years after my Eldest Brotheres, I¡¯ll also return</i>.¡¯¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°Thank you so much, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re wee! Who could be closer than us two, right?¡± The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as heughedcently.

    ¡°In that case, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing continued, ¡°what exactly happened when you fought the godchild just now?¡± At longst Xu Qing gave voice to the question he was wondering about.

    In response, the Captain smiled, though his eyes somehow seemed to glitter in a very meaningful way. ¡°Li Zihua extinguished his godfire before his fourth son¡¯s third Nascent Soul tribtion.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. ¡°In other words, in the time period you went back to, Li Zihua was still a god!¡±

    The Captain nodded. Xu Qing looked at him but didn¡¯t ask anything further.

    Now that the godchild was dead, the surrounding Moonrebel cultivators looked incredibly excited. Although the red moon was still on the way, the events of this day were unprecedented in the history of the Moonrite Region. The godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral had been destroyed! And the pontiff had been sealed. All of this represented one thing: hope!

    In sharp contrast to the Moonrebel cultivators, the forces of the Red Moon Cathedral were panting for breath, and their hearts were pounding. The red moon was visible in the sky. But to them, all that meant was that death was on the way. They had lost their godchild and their pontiff. The red moon would arrive in three days. And the Heir Apparent and his siblings were now the top entities in the Moonrite Region. One word could determine those cultivators¡¯ fates!

    Up in the canopy of heaven, the Heir Apparent looked at the red moon with a very serious expression on his face. Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister were doing the same, as was Eighth Sib. Only Ninth Sib remained expressionless, his eyes cold with killing intent.

    ¡°We only have three days,¡± the Heir Apparent said. He looked away from the red moon to Xu Qing and the Captain. ¡°The critical moment has arrived. Whether or not you two really have a Master nning all of this, I want to ask you a question. Do you really have a way to resurrect my father?¡±

    He and his brothers and sisters all looked at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°Grandpas and grandmas, don¡¯t worry at all,¡± the Captain said with <i>decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron</i>. ¡°I, Chen Erniu, have never been the kind of person who brags about things. If I say I can resurrect something, then I can. That said, I¡¯ll need your cooperation. You know, to do some magic, give some blood, et cetera....¡±

    After hearing that, the Heir Apparent and the others chose to look at Xu Qing instead. They were inherently distrustful of anything Chen Erniu said. However, they viewed Xu Qing much differently. He was almost an apprentice to them, and therefore, they took his words more seriously.

    The Captain looked a bit embarrassed at that, and looked pleadingly at Xu Qing. As of that moment, he understood that if he wanted the cooperation of the Heir Apparent and his siblings, a hundred of his own words weren¡¯t worth a single word from Xu Qing.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing looked at the Heir Apparent and his siblings and respectfully said, ¡°Seniors, if my Eldest Brother says he can do something, then I trust that he can!¡±

    After a moment, the Heir Apparent nodded. ¡°Three days from now, we¡¯ll do everything we can to help you. If it doesn¡¯t work, then... I¡¯ll personally take you out of the Moonrite Region, Xu Qing. You can alwayse back to handle matters hereter on when you¡¯re able.

    ¡°As for you....¡± The Heir Apparent looked at the Captain. ¡°You¡¯ll stay here.¡±

    The disparity in how they were being treated left the Captain feeling a bit helpless. That said, he knew that he came across as being incredibly sincere; when you acted like that, it often resulted in people believing that you weren¡¯t reliable.

    <i>Ai. It¡¯s not my fault I¡¯m so sincere. It¡¯s one of my strong points!</i>

    The Captain still felt somewhat indignant, but still kept a fawning expression on his face as he continued, ¡°Grandpa, I¡¯d love to stick around here working with you. But the truth is that I really can resurrect the Imperial Sovereign. To do it, I¡¯ll need help from my little Junior Brother, plus I have to take advantage of every single asset I¡¯ve prepared up to this point. I can¡¯tck a single one. The requirement for the next step is one of my little Junior Brother¡¯s specialties!

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, I need your cursequelling lozenges. I want to cleanse all living beings in the Moonrite Region, and reduce the curse within them. At the very least, it needs to be a thirty percent reduction. What do you need to make that happen?¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    ¡°I need the red moon power inside them.¡± He pointed at the cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral.

    The cathedral cultivators wilted.

    ¡°I need that red moon power to act as the medicinal primer. And I need the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s spirit automaton to act as the pill furnace.¡±

    When Xu Qing was done speaking, the Captain looked at the Heir Apparent.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment. They waved their hands downward. The might of five Smoldering Gods then swept over the cathedral cultivators. Rumbling echoed out and the ground trembled. Screams erupted from their mouths as they first spasmed, then copsed. It didn¡¯t matter what cultivation base they had, there was no way they could fight back against a Smoldering God.

    Blood sprayed out of their shattered bodies, rising up into the air to form a blood sea that shot toward Xu Qing. The strongest of the cathedral cultivators, such as the blood guardians and the three blood generals, did little more thanst a bit longer than the others. Not even they could escape catastrophe, and were ripped apart, whereupon their blood joined the sea above. The scene looked like hell on earth, and yet not one person felt any sympathy for them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was calm as he sensed the red moon power in the sea of blood. He waved his finger through the air, and the Mirror of Moonrebel appeared in front of him, glittering brightly. Then, the scene that had yed out when he was being assessed by the spirit automaton urred again, but this time in reality!

    Xu Qing started concocting!

    There was one big difference this time. Instead of concocting pills, he was concocting a rainstorm! By borrowing the power of the Mirror of Moonrebel, he was creating a cursequelling rain to enter the hearts of the people.

    Before long, the blood around him was boiling. As Xu Qing concocted, the blood transformed. Eventually, he ordered the bloodbeasts to add their blood into the mix. And in the end, he added his red moon authority. Finally, he said, ¡°Curse subduing!¡±

    When Xu Qing spoke, his words were to be strictly enforced. The surrounding blood sea exploded and rushed into the Mirror of Moonrebel. After, a blood-colored tempest appeared within the hearts and minds of the surviving living beings in the Moonrite Region.

    Instantly, they shivered, and regardless of what species they were or what cultivation base they possessed, they felt the curse within them reacting like ice to boiling water. It started melting!

    ¡°Next is step two,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Grandpa Heir Apparent, to awaken the Imperial Sovereign, I need the blood of you and your siblings as the instigator. By putting your Smoldering God blood into the statue, we can awaken the flesh and blood!¡±

    The Heir Apparent exchanged a nce with his siblings. Then they all closed their eyes and opened their foreheads, causing blood droplets to fly out that contained their life force and cultivation base. The blood flowed into the statue.

    ¡°Next is the third step, in which the hope power from the purified people will converge in the statue of the Imperial Sovereign, and summon him into consciousness!¡±

    The Captain floated up into the air, his hair whipping about him, his eyes shining with a crazy look. He let loose a shout, which entered the Mirror of Moonrebel and echoed into the minds of all living beings. In response, countless motes of light flew up into the air, pierced through the air, and appeared around the ind. Then they raced to the statue and merged into it. Then, for the first time in countless years... the statue moved.

    Innumerable dust particles rained down as thends shook and mountains were rocked. However, nothing more happened after that. The statue shifted slightly, then went still. It didn¡¯t wake up.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were still sending their blood into the statue. Seeing what was happening, they looked at the Captain.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem the least bit anxious. Instead, the crazy look in his eye got even crazier. Looking at the Mirror of Moonrebel, he shouted, ¡°Little Ah Qing, help me get Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu over here!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and quickly performed an incantation gesture. The Mirror of Moonrebel glittered, and Ning Yan and Wu Jianwu, who were in the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the Bitter Life Mountains, were teleported away.

    When they materialized, they looked around in confusion. After realizing what was going on around them, Ning Yan gasped and Wu Jianwu let loose an exmation of shock.

    <i>¡°I knew not that grandpa was overhead; the shock hath nearly struck me dead!¡±</i>

    Eyes widening, the Captain shouted, ¡°Wu Jianwu, call out those pets of yours. Their bloodes from a good friend of the Imperial Sovereign. Have them kowtow to aid the summoning!

    ¡°Ning Yan, I know you¡¯re really from the Imperial Region. Your father is the reigning emperor, isn¡¯t he? That means your surname isn¡¯t Ning. It¡¯s Guyue! Kowtow to the statue! You¡¯re a descendant of an Ancient Emperor, so based on that status, kowtow and aid the summoning!¡± [1]

    Wu Jianwu was so stunned he just stood there doing nothing. As for Ningyan, his expression flickered with surprise and uncertainty.

    Xu Qing looked at them coldly. ¡°Get to work!¡±

    Ningyan ducked his head. He feared the Captain, but feared Xu Qing even more. Instinctively adopting a fawning expression, he nodded. ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll just get on my knees then....¡±

    1. Guyue Ningyan: We now know that Ning Yan is actually Guyue Ningyan. As we learned in <u>chapter 510</u>, the imperial n has the surname Guyue, or at the very least, the princes have that surname. Guyue is apound surname invented by the author. Gu means ¡°ancient.¡± This is the same character from things like Revered Ancient and Ancient Emperor. Yue is a character with many meanings. It can mean ¡°exceed, climb over, surpass.¡± But it¡¯s alsomonly associated with peoples and states in south China or South Asia in general. I exined the name Ning Yan in <u>chapter 370</u>. As I mentioned back then, Ning does not appear on the list of the top 100 mostmon Chinese surnames. So maybe it¡¯s not that much of a surprise to find out it¡¯s not actually a surname. It means ¡°peaceful, tranquil.¡± Yan means ¡°me, zing, power, etc. Now, to be clear, I obviously knew a long time ago that Ning Yan was actually Ningyan. But as is indicated by the Captain, even the people around him assumed that Ning was his surname. Now that we know the truth about his name, going forward, he will be Ningyan when not referred to by his full name of Guyue Ningyan. Madam Deathde says it¡¯s a cool-sounding name. If you want to dig further, revisit the links above to see her original reactions to the surname and ¡°Ning Yan.¡± ?

 Chapter 692: I Also Have Backup

    <h4>Chapter 692: I Also Have Backup</h4>

    In the Moonrite Region, the entire ind that housed the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s headquarters trembled as intense winds swept out in all directions. The source was none other than the statue of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. The statue, which had been forced to remain in a kneeling position, started shaking. Dust and rubble poured off of the statue as cracks spread out to cover its surface.

    At the same time, the white motes that represented the hope power of all living beings continued to pour into the statue, awakening its flesh and blood. The trembling of the statue grew more intense.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings sat in cross-legged positions surrounding the statue. Their foreheads all split open, and drops of blood slowly emerged.

    All of those drops of blood had the same origin, and as they entered the statue of their father, the signs of awakening grew more prominent. Clearly, waking up the Imperial Sovereign was no simple task.

    In response to the words of Xu Qing and the Captain, a fawning expression appeared on Ningyan¡¯s face. Subconsciously, he was imitating his father¡¯s court eunuchs.

    However, inside, he was incensed.

    <i>I¡¯m a damn prince! These people are going way overboard! Big Bro Xu is a bit more tolerable. After all, he wasn¡¯t aware of my true identity. And he even saved my life before. He¡¯s always treated me fairly well. But not that infernal, goddamned Chen Erniu! He knew all along who I really am, yet he still dares to treat me like this? You just wait! Once I¡¯m back in the Imperial Region, I¡¯ll definitely show you how awe-inspiring an imperial prince can be!</i>

    As Ningyan fumed inwardly, the Captain narrowed his eyes and smiled woodenly.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, little Ningning?¡± he said coldly. ¡°Why do I get the feeling you¡¯re cursing me inwardly?¡±

    Ningyan shivered. Bowing obsequiously, he shook his head and said, ¡°There¡¯s no way, Elder Brother Erniu! My debt to you is as weighty as a mountain. Forget about talk of kneeling. If you asked me to toss my head to you, I¡¯d do it without even thinking about it. The highlight of my entire life has been getting involved with you, Elder Brother. Nothing has been more wonderful than the feeling of flying free.¡±

    Ningyan had never excelled at brown-nosing. But aftering to the Moonrite Region, things had changed....

    Xu Qing nced at Ningyan and thought back to the first time he¡¯did eyes on him at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir, and how stubborn he had seemed. That stubbornness had long since disappeared.... [1]

    Though Xu Qing hadn¡¯t beenpletely sure of his identity, he had known he had a special bloodline. Also, given how the Captain had dragged him along on so many important tasks, it was obvious there was something unique about him. Given all his previous spections, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised at all to hear the truth revealed by the Captain.

    Ningyan didn¡¯t dare to dally. Hurrying up to the statue of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed. ¡°Oh venerable Senior, I am a 3,915th generation descendant of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, Guyue Ningyan. I hereby kowtow to offer you never-ending peace!¡± [2]

    The fawning expression had already left Ningyan¡¯s face, to be reced with something far more solemn. His voice also seemed different from before, deeper and full of more dignity. As he knelt, he kept his back perfectly straight, and also circted his cultivation base, making it just possible to hear a sound like the cry of a dragon.

    Though he was still dressed like a shop worker, he now seemed fundamentally extraordinary. Eyes glimmering with determination, he reached out and sliced his forehead, drawing out a drop of blood. The air behind him churned as figures became visible there, every single one d in imperial robes, with imperial crowns on their heads.

    Xu Qing did a double take, and the Captain blinked a few times but said nothing.

    Looking profoundly majestic, Ningyan looked at the statue of Li Zihua and said, ¡°I havee to the Moonrite Region on the orders of the human emperor to assist you in waking up, Imperial Sovereign. Therefore, please... return to us!¡±

    As Ningyan solemnly kowtowed, the drop of blood flew out, sucked in all of the projected images of the emperors, then shot up and fused into the forehead of the statue.

    The statue trembled even more violently, and the sensation of awakening grew stronger. That drop of blood contained the power of the human emperor¡¯s bloodline, and was supreme among all humans.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. As the statue of Li Zihua trembled, Wu Jianwu refused to be outdone. With a flourish of outstretched arms, he said, <i>¡°Oh innumerable descendants of the son of heaven; return from all prefectures to your father¡¯s side!¡±</i>

    As his words echoed out, bloodline fluctuations rolled out in all directions as a host of animals flew to Wu Jianwu¡¯s side. There were bears, tigers, turtles, dogs, and all sorts of other animals. Including a parrot. Ultimately, dozens of them gathered around, sending out powerful fluctuations as they looked at Wu Jianwu.

    <i>¡°I risk my life, the heavens to defy; children, venerate the Imperial Sovereign on high!¡±</i>

    Unfortunately, most of Wu Jianwu¡¯s animal children just looked back at him in confusion. Despite how long they had been following him around, few of them could actually understand what he said.

    Eyes flickering with displeasure, Wu Jianwu looked at the parrot.

    Standing with back ramrod straight, the parrot loudly squawked, ¡°Kneel! And call out!¡±

    The animals all dropped to their knees and howled as loud as they could. They were using their voices, and their bloodline status, to try to call out to Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. More rumbling echoed out from the statue, and more cracks spread out over its surface. Rubble rained down, and the sensation of awakening grew stronger.

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and the distant red moon seemed to shiver. And yet, the sensation of awakening was notplete, and was also unstable, shifting back and forth between strong and weak.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered.

    ¡°People of the Moonrebel Congregation, the time hase to aplish your mission. The Moonrebel Congregation contains some of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s divine will from before he died. That divine will became hundreds of thousands of temples. Now, let all of the statues... make their way back! Help me, little Ah Qing!¡±

    They seized control of the Mirror of Moonrebel. Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to join in. Both of them were required to fully operate the mirror; it wouldn¡¯t work with one of them missing.

    As that power was released, the Mirror of Moonrebel shifted to face the statue of the Imperial Sovereign. The light of the mirror shone on the statue, and it transformed. It seemed to turn into a mountain covered with countless vortexes. Every single one of the vortexes contained the faint image of a temple.

    The Moonrebel Congregation cultivators took deep breaths. Eyes shining with determination, they let themselves be filled with the willingness to wake up the Imperial Sovereign as they flew toward the vortexes.

    This time, they weren¡¯t returning to the temples in the Moonrebel Congregation. Instead, they were returning to the temples in the vortexes surrounding Li Zihua.

    In the blink of an eye, countless Moonrebel cultivators vanished, only to reappear inside Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. As the statues materialized, they sat down cross-legged, circted their cultivation bases, and sent power into the statue.

    They were now the power source to fuel the awakening of the statue. As the power of the cultivation basesbined, the sensation of awakening grew stronger and more stable.

    The momentum of awakening became a cycle. It was like a me that was fully ignited. As long as it kept burning, it would scorch all of heaven and earth.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings all looked excited. They could see what was going on.

    ¡°Now all we need is the final link,¡± the Captain said, nearly out of breath as he looked at the red moon on the horizon. ¡°In only two days, the red moon will appear in full. At that time, the red moon power being released will be at the peak.

    ¡°That peak level of red moon power, plus the aura of Crimson Mother, will be profoundly stimting to the statue. When that timees... the venerable Imperial Sovereign will erupt with the power of awakening, and will... return!

    ¡°What we need to do is keep calling out to him. Make sure the will of the Imperial Sovereign is constantly being woken up. Do not let the mes be extinguished!¡±

    The Heir Apparent nodded, closed his eyes, and continued calling out in his heart.

    Princess Brightblossom and the other siblings all did the same. The hundreds of thousands of Moonrebel cultivators also called out in their hearts. What was more, thanks to the Mirror of Moonrebel, the scene ying out was already visible to all living beings in the Moonrite Region.

    The scattered cultivators from the Red Moon Cathedral were in a state ofplete terror. But to the bitter survivors who still clung to life, all of it represented an unprecedented level of hope. And thus, throughout the Moonrite Region, it was possible to hear people calling out at the tops of their lungs.

    ¡°Return, Imperial Sovereign!¡±

    ¡°Return, Imperial Sovereign!!¡±

    ¡°Return, Imperial Sovereign!!!¡±

    The voices swelled, growing louder and louder, filling heaven and earth in the Moonrite Region. Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as he looked at the red moon on the horizon, and then the statue of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua.

    Turning to the Captain, he said, ¡°Eldest Brother, do we have enough backup for when Crimson Motheres? I still have one helper to call on....¡±

    ¡°You mean that slutty fox?¡± the Captain asked, looking around proudly at his handiwork. Then he turned to Xu Qing and blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Another one.¡±

    Surprised, the Captain looked closely at Xu Qing for a time. Looking conflicted, he finally lowered his voice and said, ¡°Little Junior Brother, the truth is that I don¡¯t really know if we have enough backup. If you can get some more help, that would be great. I¡¯m just worried that if we have too much backup, it will be difficult to split up the rewardster.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°The rewards aren¡¯t important. What¡¯s important is killing Crimson Mother! Besides... considering how many people are already around, my helper won¡¯t push things too far. And if we don¡¯t get help....¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain licked his lips and said, ¡°What are you waiting for, little Junior Brother? Make your request!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and took a jade slip out of his bag of holding. The jade slip almost seemed alive, and felt slick in his hand, almost as if it were made from flesh and blood. It emanated an ancient aura, as if it had the personhood of a god in it. Despite the chaotic fluctuations in the area, as soon as it was in the open, it pulsed with something very domineering.

    The Captain looked at it, and then his eyebrows shot up and heughed.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing crushed the jade slip. Mysterious light exploded out of it and covered Xu Qing.

    Then he vanished.

    1. Ningyan attacked Xu Qing during the pir-climbing event in <u>chapter 359</u>. We did not know his name at that time. He was originally introduced without a name in <u>chapter 357</u>. In the original introduction, he was said to have a nose ring. ?

    2. Ningyan is in the same generation as Seventh Prince, whose name is Guyue Zhang¡¯an. Guyue Zhang¡¯an mentioned his generational standing in <u>510</u>, and it was reiterated in <u>chapter 530</u>. In my original trantion, I mistakenly interpreted Seventh Prince to be the 3,915th descendant, as opposed to himing from the 3,915th generation. I¡¯ve since fixed the previous instances. ?

 Chapter 693: Crimson Mother Comes; Imperial Sovereign Awakens!

    <h4>Chapter 693: Crimson Mother Comes; Imperial Sovereign Awakens!</h4>

    Somewhere in the depths of the Revered Ancient maind was a secret location that wasn¡¯t the Nine Serenities, yet was just as full of darkness and gloom. No one knew exactly where it was. In fact, not even the heavenly daos could find it.

    That was because many years ago, after Emperor Ancient Spirit conquered Revered Ancient, the ancient heavenly daos cursed him. Afterward, he took his people into hiding.

    The name of that location was Spirit Abyss. It was located atop the head of a gargantuan, rotting snake, which carried it along while traversing the void. Interred in that world of death were innumerable corpses, making the ce like a Yellow Springs hell. It was full of deceased souls and zombies, and it had a dusky sky and darknds. Sound had no meaning there. The entire world was like a painting.

    Inside of that painting were numerous imperial pces, within each of which were mountains of flesh and blood. And above each of those mountains floated a huge eye. Th¨¥y were closed tightly, as if nothing could possibly happen that would disturb th¨¥ir peaceful rest. However, th¨¥y were surrounded by undting golden dragons, which were magical symbols that formed dreams. If those eyes went undisturbed, then th¨¥y would never awaken.

    A vortex popped into being, and one of the eyes stirred. Then ¨©t seemed to sense something extremely detestable. The eye suddenly opened. A surge of divine will rippled out that was capable of epassing the entire Ancient Spirit world. Spreading out from the eye, it locked onto the vortex.

    Xu Qing materialized in the vortex. Stepping out, he looked around at the familiar world, and then the furious eye. Looking very calm, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Long time no see, Your Majesty.¡±

    <i>¡°It hasn¡¯t been that long! I barely had time for a nap!¡±</i>

    A cold harrumph echoed from within the eye. The eye was very bloodshot as ¨©t stared at Xu Qing, surrounded by the sound of the rushing waters of the Yellow Springs. Emperor Ancient Spirit was salivating.

    <i>¡°I told you that the next time you came to visit you would have to pay interest in the form of a crippled god! If you don¡¯t have one, then I¡¯ll eat you instead!¡±</i>

    Inside of Xu Qing, the god¡¯s finger shivered and pretended to be asleep....

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the finger¡¯s terror. Looking up at the eye, he made sure to seem very amiable as he said, ¡°It¡¯s a given that I remember that, Your Majesty. I actually came here to tell you something. There¡¯s a huge feasting up, and I thought you might be interested.¡±

    The eye above the mountain of flesh focused more intently on Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Feast? What¡¯s on the menu?¡±</i>

    ¡°The sleeping Crimson Mother!¡±

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s words the entire Ancient Spirit world trembled. All of the imperial pces vibrated, and all of the eyes hovering above the mountains of flesh and blood opened and focused on Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°What did you just say??¡±</i>

    Years ago, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t have been able to withstand such a disy of godly might. But his cultivation base was as different from then as the sky was from thend. Although he felt slightly ufortable, he definitely was not as weak as before.

    Maintaining the same calm facial expression, he said, ¡°I teleported here from the Moonrite Region, Senior. Over there, Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua is waking up. We also have two gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, as well as some Smoldering Gods.... Beforeing here, I pointed out to everyone that Your Majesty should really join the big feast. Therefore, sir, they asked me toe here and ask... would you like to join?

    ¡°You might be wondering if I¡¯m telling the truth, Your Majesty. Given your mightiness, you can just check my aura for the details.¡±

    As Xu Qing spoke, the huge eye blinked anxiously, and rumbling sounds filled thends, like a thudding heartbeat.

    Xu Qing¡¯s words really were profoundly impactful to Emperor Ancient Spirit. H¨¥ really could never have guessed that Xu Qing would pay his interest in such a dramatic way. After all, h¨¥ had previously just asked for a crippled god. Yet Xu Qing was offering him Crimson Mother.

    H¨¥ knew Crimson Mother, and knew the High Gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. And thus, h¨¥ had already confirmed from Xu Qing¡¯s aura... that he was telling the truth. Yet at that moment, h¨¥ didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem anxious. He just waited patiently.

    In that manner, a day passed.

    ¡°Your Majesty, if you¡¯re not interested in an interest payment like this, then I¡¯ll take my leave. It¡¯s almost time to start eating.¡±

    Xu Qing slowly backed away toward the vortex. But then the vortex suddenly locked in ce. Xu Qing didn¡¯t get rmed. He just looked at the eye representing Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    ¡°I¡¯m the chef, so if I don¡¯t get back soon, they¡¯lle looking for me.¡±

    The eyes remained fixed on Xu Qing, as if measuring him up. A momentter, the vortex started spinning again.

    Just as Xu Qing was about to step inside and disappear, a drop of ck blood flew out from Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye toward Xu Qing. Along the way, it transformed into a ck cloak that settled onto his shoulders. In the middle of the cloak was an extremely vicious-looking eye.

    Next, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s voice echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    <i>¡°If this feast of yours is real, then I¡¯ll show up when it starts.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Your Majesty, after the feast is over, I need one of those Ancient Spirit destiny aura dragons.¡±

    ¡°Very well!¡±

    Heaven and earth rippled. Rumbling sounds echoed out. And Xu Qing disappeared into the vortex to reappear in the Moonrite Region in front of the statue of Li Zihua. The moment he stepped out, the Captain looked over at him. The Heir Apparent and his siblings opened their eyes and did the same. All of them noticed the ck cloak.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye was rapidly shrinking down.

    The first thing h¨¥ saw was the statue of Li Zihua. H¨¥ could sense the terrifying power in the statue, as well as the increasing sensation of awakening. Next, h¨¥ looked up into the dome of heaven at the red moon, which was growing increasinglyrger, and was almostpletely over the horizon. H¨¥ trembled inwardly. Finally, h¨¥ looked at the Heir Apparent and his siblings. His gaze lingered on Ninth Sib.

    Turning to the Heir Apparent, Xu Qing respectfully said, ¡°Senior, this is my honored guest.¡±

    The Heir Apparent simply nodded. During the day that had passed, the Captain had apparently exined the situation to them. Meanwhile, Ninth Sib looked at the ck cloak and suddenly surged with a frigid will.

    ¡°This child has shown us great favor.¡±

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye constricted. H¨¥ could sense a consummate baleful auraing from Ninth Sib. In fact, it was so strong that it probably ranked in the top three h¨¥ had encountered in h¨©s entire life.

    <i>What a chosen.... And his sword can threaten gods!</i>

    Emperor Ancient Spirit knew full well that the words just spoken by Ninth Sib were both a threat and a warning. In h¨©s prime, h¨¥ could have looked down on such words. But things were different now. What was more, everything h¨¥ was seeing conformed to what Xu Qing had said earlier. In terms of the High Gods, h¨¥ could sense a very strong aura on the person standing next to Xu Qing.

    <i>That shifty fellow has a door that can lock onto the position of a god.</i>

    Feeling borderline flustered, Emperor Ancient Spirit spoke via divine will.

    <i>¡°He is a believer of mine, so of course I won¡¯t harm him.¡±</i>

    Hearing that, Ninth Sib looked away. However, his baleful aura continued to pulse.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye narrowed and looked over at the awakening Imperial Sovereign.

    Xu Qing remained calm the entire time. He had not gone to invite Emperor Ancient Spirit to the feast without a backup n ready to go. That included measures to ensure Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t cause any trouble.

    In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.

    The living beings in the Moonrite Region continued to call out, and the red moon grew brighter on the horizon.

    To Xu Qing, the red moon seemed huge, to the point where it seemed to upy more than half the sky. The canopy of heaven was being overtaken by the moon, to the point where its craters and terrain features were visible to the naked eye. As the red moon¡¯s aura covered thends, rivers evaporated, mountains copsed, and storm winds blew as the aura of a god filled everything.

    Mutagen flourished. The world rippled and distorted. And it was all focused on the statue of Li Zihua.

    Theke of blood filled in again. Everything was red as far as the eye could see, as if the entire world were being covered by the sea of blood. All living beings trembled as a feeling of uncontroble despair filled them.

    Li Zihua¡¯s aura of awakening grew even more intense, causing heaven and earth to tremble, and filling the air with thunderous rumbling. However, it didn¡¯t matter how loud those sounds were. They couldn¡¯t do anything to stop the red moon froming.

    The red moon continued to fill the sky. It cast sinister shadows on the ground and sent mutagen levels soaring.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings had extremely grave expressions on their faces, and their eyes glimmered with hatred. The Captain looked nervous.

    All of the preparations. All of the years of work. Everything wasing to a head!

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye on the cloak narrowed.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit uneasy. The red moon authority within him was unprecedentedly active, as if it were being tugged at by the red moon.

    Everyone was feeling different things, but everyone¡¯s emotions were at their peak. And then, as heaven and earth wallowed in darkness, the immeasurablyrge red moon, pulsing with infinite tideflow power and terrifying godly might... appeared in the sky directly above the statue of Li Zihua!

    It was in the middle of the sky! Crimson Mother wasing!

    The intense aura of a god spread out like ink from the sky.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings coughed up blood. As their bodies withered, ck energy seeped out of them, the manifestation of the curse. The Captain couldn¡¯t stand up to the power without surrounding himself with the light of suns. Xu Qing had the cloak of Emperor Ancient Spirit, which allowed him to stand up to the powerful energy. And yet, it was clear that none of them could hold out for very long.

    The Moonrite Region trembled. The earth quaked. All living beings cried out in anguish. Doomsday had arrived!

    If the scene were a painting, then the Moonrite Region would be depicted in pure misery. The statue of Li Zihua knelt in penitence, just like the name of the surrounding ins, the Penitence Steppes. Going far into the past, every epoch was like this in the Moonrite Region.

    However, this time... there was a difference!

    As all living beings felt the weight of suffering, white mes suddenly erupted around the statue. They were the mes of awakening, and they had been stimted by the spreading aura of Crimson Mother¡¯s godly might.

    The mes grew stronger, rising high into the sky. And then, a pair of arms, which had been dead for aeons, suddenly reached up into the sky, apanied by a deafening roar of defiance. Two enormous hands seemed to fill the sky as they reached up... andtched onto the red moon!

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua was awake!

 Chapter 694: Soil of the Red Moon

    <h4>Chapter 694: Soil of the Red Moon</h4>

    In that instant, heaven and earth filled with dramatic storm winds.

    In that moment, all living beings trembled to the core of their being.

    In that second, the hearts of all entities raced.

    Rising above the Penitence Steppes was the statue of an Imperial Sovereign. From ancient times until modern, through many sessive epochs, he knelt there unmoving, but now... he was moving!

    His two arms were like pirs that could prop up heaven and earth. Moving with devastating momentum, they reached up, causing dramatic winds to spread out. The wind screamed and the air shattered. Natural and magicalws were reduced to ashes by the momentum of the arms.

    They were not the arms of a cultivator. They were more like the arms of a god. And the two hands at their end made a sound that could shake ancient times as they mmed onto the surface of the red moon! They gripped down hard, forcing the red moon to stop in ce in the sky.

    Intense rumbling echoed out from the struggling moon. In all the countless years that had passed, this was ¨©ts first time encountering resistance. The moon tried to keep moving, but the arms of Li Zihua were as solid as rocks! The two caused each other to shake violently.

    As a result, more rumbling sounds swept out from the moon. Blood-colored light shone brightly. The statue of Li Zihua trembled, and more rubble fell from its surface.

    Gradually, a thumping sound like a heartbeat erupted from inside the statue.

    <i>Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump!</i>

    As the heartbeat grew louder and louder, the white mes grew more intense. Everything in the area started shaking.

    From a distance, the statue of Li Zihua looked almost like an enormous human torch. Its dazzling light surpassed that of the moon. The fire spread out in all directions, covering thends, filling them with fire. But it couldn¡¯t touch the sky....

    The red moon in the dome of heaven was like a forbidden region that excluded the white fire! The crimson color and the white fire created a sharp contrast with each other.

    Li Zihua was waking up. But he wasn¡¯t fully awake yet. What had awoken was his aura and his heartbeat. His eyes had not opened. Yet that alone was enough to shake the entire Moonrite Region, and to dispel much of the godly pressure that came with the red moon.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were already recovering. Nine golden suns orbited around the Captain as he hovered in midair, his eyes filled with a crazy look as he stared at the red moon and drooled. As for Xu Qing, it turned out that Emperor Ancient Spirit was a reliable ally, as h¨©s cloak form blocked much of the pressure weighing down on Xu Qing.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± the Heir Apparent said, bursting into motion along the arm of his father¡¯s statue up toward the red moon. Princess Brightblossom flew by his side, followed by Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib. Ninth Sib was the fastest. With a single step, he overtook the Heir Apparent, bing like the tip of a sword shooting toward the red moon.

    The Captain and Xu Qing followed. Considering they were the ones that had brought about this entire war, it was only natural that they would follow along.

    Anxiously speaking via divine will, the Captain said, <i>¡°It won¡¯t be long before the Imperial Sovereign is fully awake. In the meantime, we need to get into the Moon Pce. The moment wey eyes on Crimson Mother will be the moment the Imperial Sovereign wakes up!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded, and the two of them raced closer and closer to the red moon.

    A battle against a god... was about to begin!

    However, getting onto the actual red moon wasn¡¯t a simple task. It didn¡¯t matter that the Imperial Sovereign had grabbed the moon and locked it in ce, preventing it from moving. The closer one got to the red moon, the more terrifying the pressure it exuded. The tideflow power alone was enough to rip anything and everything to shreds.

    The surrounding air shattered. Rifts spread out in all directions. Even the Heir Apparent and his siblings were having trouble as they made their approach. The Captain experienced difficulty as well. The only one who remainedpletely and utterly calm was Ninth Sib, who resolutely strode closer and closer.

    Xu Qing had his ck cloak, but even more relevant, the red moon authority within him. The pressure and resistance others were feeling actually seemed familiar to him, even friendly. And that sensation increased the closer he got. It almost felt like a warm embrace.

    Upon realizing that, Xu Qing sent the red moon authority out and around him. As the red moon shone down, a red glow appeared around him, growing stronger by the moment.

    <i>My red moon authority is being augmented!</i>

    As his eyes shone with red light, blood spread out around him, creating a vortex that spun more and more rapidly. Thus, Xu Qing closed the distance with the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

    The Captain was in the very back, all alone....

    When Emperor Ancient Spirit saw what was happening, h¨©s eyes narrowed. <i>This kid has some major karma with Crimson Mother....</i>

    Meanwhile, the Captain was starting to get nervous. <i>This won¡¯t do! It took a lot of hard work here in the Moonrite Region for me to establish my dignity as the Eldest Brother, and make sure little Ah Qing followed my lead. Now that the red moon is right in front of us, if I get left behind... it¡¯ll be far too humiliating!</i>

    As the Captain stewed in anxiety, the Heir Apparent and his siblings exchanged determined nces, then performed incantation gestures. Opening their mouths, they exhaled sharply in the direction of the red moon.

    In response, the statue of Li Zihua trembled even more dramatically, and despite his eyes staying closed, he opened his mouth in the same manner as his children, and exhaled in the direction of the red moon. The breath became white steam that raced toward the moon and mmed into it. As the loud echoing boom rang out, the pressure from the red moon suddenly decreased, albeit for only a moment.

    However, they all took advantage of that brief lull to follow the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s arm even closer to the red moon.

    Unfortunately, the red moon was extremely ancient. It was also the home of Crimson Mother¡¯s divine pce. Even though its pressure was reduced temporarily by the Imperial Sovereign, Crimson Mother¡¯s aura was like a thick fog that couldn¡¯t be prated.

    Li Zihua¡¯s hands were actually pressing down onto that barrier, and it was so enormous that it couldn¡¯t easily be broken.

    Seeing that, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered and he prepared to unleash the power of his suns. Before he could, the Heir Apparent and the others extended their left index fingers and pointed toward the moon. Instantly, intense bloodline fluctuations rolled out from them.

    Simultaneously, the statue of Li Zihua shivered, then erupted with boundless power. His left arm then shifted, pulling away from the moon. With it gone, the red moon rumbled to life, as if it might start moving again.

    Xu Qing, the Heir Apparent, and the others, settled onto Li Zihua¡¯s left hand.

    The left hand¡¯s index finger extended, then stabbed into the red moon! It moved with incredible speed, and was backed by a destructive force that could ravage the world. White mes also covered it, protecting everyone beneath. A rumbling boom rang out as the finger pierced through the foggy barrier covering the red moon. The barrier shattered, and the finger continued through to smash into the soil of the red moon.

    The entire moon shook violently.

    Anyone standing on the surface of the red moon would be able to look up from that red soil and see the cloud cover overhead vanishing, especially around the huge hole above, through which poked a massive finger.

    When the finger hit the ground, the ground shattered. Shockingly, within the white mes covering that finger were the Heir Apparent and the others. They had finally arrived on the actual soil of the red moon! The white mes were already flickering out, to be reced by the crimson color cast by the moon.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as he stood on the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s finger and looked around. In the past, the red moon had been something he could observe or feel. It wasn¡¯t somewhere he could go. But now... he was actually on the moon.

    Thends were red. The clouds were red. Everything was the same color. There were mountains and craters. There were rivers of blood. This red moon... was an entire world. Incredibly intense mutagen filled that world, bing the only aura present. Looking off into the distance, everything seemed distorted.

    Within those distortions were countless shadowy figures that constantly popped in and out of existence. Those figures included humans and nonhumans, and they seemed to exist in a state that was neither life nor death. They didn¡¯t seem intelligent. They were more like illusions. Some gathered in groups, others were alone, but as one, they knelt with their hands covering their eyes. Most gruish of all to Xu Qing was that every time he blinked, the figures would switch locations. And if he didn¡¯t blink, they remained in ce,pletely unmoving. They didn¡¯t seem to care at all about the arrival of the gigantic finger. They just continued to offer worship, chanting in low-pitched, sinister voices.

    <i>¡°The red moon,dy to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Offered freely,dy to me; no bitterness for me; from bitterness I¡¯m free; undecayed for all to see.</i>

    <i>¡°Crimson Mother,dy to me; Brilliant Heaven escapee; heavenly daos all asleep; the ancient path clear and free.</i>

    <i>¡°Souls offered,dy to me; p¨¡ramit¨¡ an actuality; sing with joy when you see; the return to our world ends happily.¡±</i>

    The lyrics of the song were clearer than they had been in the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s church temple. And instead of being sung out loud, the words were sung from the soul, echoing out to infinitude. [1]

    1. The first line was previously uttered by Red Moon Cathedral cultivators in <u>chapter 572.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 695: I am the New Moon; Call Me Violet Lord!

    <h4>Chapter 695: I am the New Moon; Call Me Violet Lord!</h4>

    A red world. Gruish figures. Sinister chanting. Intense mutagen. Heaven and earth distorted. Unfamiliarity everywhere. That was how to describe the world of the red moon.

    It was... Crimson Mother¡¯s godly habitat.

    Any cultivators who came here would have a hard time resisting the mutagen invasion. Their souls would decay because of the song, and their minds would be affected, causing them to feel unending piety toward Crimson Mother. The cultivation base level was irrelevant.

    The first to be affected was Fifth Sister. She shivered from head to toe as her garments turned crimson. Eighth Sib reacted simrly, and even the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were visibly affected. The Captain didn¡¯t have it any better off. As he breathed heavily, his eyes shone with a crazy look. Within them, faces within faces appeared, glowing with blue light.

    Only Xu Qing... stood there looking the same as ever. The blessing of the red moon made this entire world seem unprecedentedly familiar to him. In fact, he got the feeling... that he could actually influence the world around him, to a degree.

    Just when he was about to experiment in that regard, Ninth Sib strode forward and lifted his sword. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a beam of ck sword light swept forth. The sword light shattered everything it touched, shredding countless of the shadowy figures into nothing. But a momentter... everything was the same as before.

    The singing continued.

    The invasion went on.

    The Heir Apparent and the other siblings looked on with grim expressions. Ninth Sib¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he prepared to attempt the same thing again.

    ¡°That won¡¯t do any good in a godly location like this,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Crimson Mother is still asleep, so her will can¡¯t affect much. Otherwise, all it would take would be a thought from her, and everything here would be buried. Back then, I managed to get a mysterious drop of blood that let me transform into a mosquito. That was how I got through this area. But that blood has long since been used up....

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡¯re the only one of us who hasn¡¯t been affected. Next, you need to use your authority to find the Moon Pce!

    ¡°The Moon Pce is the oldest structure on this moon. And its location isn¡¯t fixed in one spot. It can show up anywhere, even on a grain of sand or in the void itself. And Crimson Mother... is sleeping in the depths of the Moon Pce! If we can find the Moon Pce, I¡¯ll be able to open it up. And then... we can get inside!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. This might be Xu Qing¡¯s first time here, and even the first time for the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

    But the Captain... had been here before.

    ¡°Let me try,¡± Xu Qing said with a nod. As the Heir Apparent and everyone else looked on, he started walking.

    With each step forward, he released some of the power of his red moon authority. More blood spread out, making the vortex around him evenrger. And more than ever, Xu Qing felt a sensation of familiarity in his heart. At the same time, he felt the strong desire to... change the color of this moon!

    He forced such wild thoughts away, though. Closing his eyes, he sent his authority out over the red moon to look for the Moon Pce. As time passed, the Heir Apparent and everyone else continued to sumb to the invasion. And Xu Qing found no trace of the Moon Pce. He frowned. All of a sudden, he felt a power of expulsion building in the red moon. The ground shook. Clearly, the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s strength wouldn¡¯t hold out forever. It was not an easy task to lock the red moon into ce on its orbital track.

    The Captain sighed and looked at the Heir Apparent. ¡°We have no other option than to wake up the Imperial Sovereign early. Otherwise, we won¡¯t be able to find the Moon Pce. And if this deadlock continues, it won¡¯t work out well for us. Unfortunately, whether we wake up the Imperial Sovereign or try one of my other methods, it¡¯s going to be hard to avoid waking Crimson Mother from¡ª¡±

    <i>¡°I can help you find it!¡±</i> interrupted the voice of Emperor Ancient Spirit from Xu Qing¡¯s cloak. <i>¡°Once I make a move, it will also wake up Crimson Mother. Also, if it works, I want fifty percent of the spoils of war!¡±</i>

    The Captain looked at Emperor Ancient Spirit. The Heir Apparent and his siblings all narrowed their eyes. Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t seem anxious. He just waited for a response from the group.

    That was when Xu Qing finally spoke. ¡°If finding the Moon Pce is going to result in Crimson Mother waking up no matter what, then... I have another method I can try!¡±

    With that, he strode forward until he reached one of the shadowy figures. He looked up at the canopy of heaven, then at the surroundingnds. And finally he looked at the figure in front of him. As he heard the chanting of the song, he slowly released his hold on the impulse he had suppressed earlier.

    ¡°Red moon authority cannot have two masters!¡±

    Eyes slowly turning red, Xu Qing released his hold on godliness, and fused with the red moon.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings looked on with serious expressions, while the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit was even more moved. <i>This kid has red moon authority! For him toe to the red moon has apletely different meaning than for everyone else! That¡¯s especially true... considering that Crimson Mother is still asleep!</i>

    As everyone looked on with varying levels of surprise, Xu Qing closed his eyes. Blood-colored light red everywhere, and his entire body blurred. At the same time, he seemed to be one with the crimson color around him, until he was hardly visible.

    The entire red moon trembled. The chanting suddenly stopped, and countless shadowy figures looked up. Though their eyes were covered with their hands, they seemed to be attracted to Xu Qing¡¯s authority, and were ¡®looking¡¯ at him.

    Shortly thereafter, Xu Qing opened his eyes and spoke in a low voice that echoed far and wide.

    ¡°I am the new moon, born in Revered Ancient. Let all living beings call me Violet Lord.¡±

    The blood-colored light surrounding Xu Qing transformed, bing violet. As the effect grew stronger, it turned into a violet moon!

    And as Xu Qing rose up into the canopy of heaven, the violet moon... rose! Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. The red moon trembled and quaked, and the surrounding shadowy figures shivered. More intense red moon power erupted from the moon, bing a violet-tinged tempest that swept across everything. All of the shadowy figures shook violently.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were visibly moved. Even the normally taciturn Ninth Sib was looking at Xu Qing with a very serious expression on his face.

    ¡°He¡¯s tampering with Crimson Mother¡¯s lyrics!¡± the Heir Apparent said. ¡°The red is turning into violet!¡±

    Shocked, Emperor Ancient Spirit detached his cloak form from Xu Qing and backed away. ¡°Amazing destined opportunity. Incredible good fortune!¡±

    The Captain was smiling, his eyes shining with both joy and mncholy. <i>It¡¯s been a really long time since I¡¯ve seen that violet moon....</i>

    As the violet moon rose, all of thends and living beings that had been stained red now had a bit of violet in them. As the violet color spread, filling the dome of heaven, the shadowy figures in the area also began to change, slowly turning violet. At the same time, the words they sang changed.

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.</i>

    <i>¡°Offered freely, lord to me; no bitterness for me; from bitterness I¡¯m free; undecayed for all to see.</i>

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord; from the Revered Ancientmunity; all living beings far and near; as Violet Lord do address thee.</i>

    <i>¡°Souls offered, lord to me; p¨¡ramit¨¡ an actuality; sing with joy when you see; the return to our world ends happily.¡±</i>

    The lyrics were different, and as the shadowy figures turned violet, so did the moon itself!

    Not only did everyone on the moon see that, so did people in regions throughout the Revered Ancient maind! The arrival of the red moon was an event closely observed by the areas surrounding the Moonrite Region.

    In fact, in the Holytide Region, in the pce atop the white sand, Grand Duke Holytide, who had recently stepped from Void Returning into Smoldering God, opened his eyes from meditation. As he did, a pair of huge eyes formed in the canopy of heaven over the Holytide Region, and they looked in the direction of Moonrite.

    <i>Violet has appeared within the red moon! Crimson Mother¡¯s authority is being transformed.... What... is going on over there?</i>

    A simrmotion was ying out in the Nightshade Region.

    When the Imperial Region unleashed Dawning Sun, it resulted in severe casualties among the Nightshades, and locked down both of the regions they controlled. Since then, the Nightshades had been constantly carrying out ceremonies and sacrifices hoping to attract the attention of their god. They never got any response. As of right now, the Nightshade priests and priestesses felt rmed in an unprecedented way. Every single one of them saw the same thing in their mind. It was a vision of the red moon being changed.

    They weren¡¯t the only ones affected in that way. Another region that bordered Moonrite was the one controlled by the Firemoon Darkheavens. The cultivators there could sense the red light in the Moonrite Region, and noticed when streaks of violet appeared within it.

    If those were the reactions in bordering regions, there was little need to mention what was happening within Moonrite itself. People throughout the region were trembling in apprehension. Shaken, they watched as heaven and earth slowly changed color.

    The red moon in the canopy of heaven was slowly turning into a violet moon. If that process continued, and Xu Qingpletely reced the red moon, turning it into a violet moon, then he... would be a new god.

    Of course, that couldn¡¯t actually happen as long as Crimson Mother was still alive. Crimson Mother had not woken up even when the Nightshade species suffered a grievous defeat. Sh¨¥ had not awoken to stop the destruction of the Red Moon Cathedral. In fact, sh¨¥ didn¡¯t even stir when Li Zihua woke up and grabbed the red moon with both hands, then poked a finger through its defenses to touch the moon¡¯s soil. Clearly, devouring wless Hell, Lord of the Nine Serenities, was not as easy of a task as it seemed for Crimson Mother.

    However, now that the red moon was changing colors, sh¨¥ had no choice but to interfere. A terrifying aura exploded onto the red moon, filling it entirely. At the same time, a blood-colored pce materialized overhead.

    It was... the Moon Pce!

    The extremely ancient pce was crafted from stone. It was pure crimson and radiated profound godly might. On the closed door of the pce was a huge totem. It depicted a vicious face. That face was not that of Crimson Mother. Instead, it was a face with six eyes, all of which were opened, and were staring down at the people below, particrly Xu Qing.

    ¡°All who spheme against our god will experience the tribtion of ten thousand deaths!¡±

 Chapter 696: A Godâ€™s Mouth Snatching Food

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes glittered; clearly, he recognized this six-eyed individual. ¡°It¡¯s You Dingmu, the patriarch of the Gloomites!¡±

    He wasn¡¯t the only one. All it took was a single nce for his brothers and sisters to reach the same conclusion.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he grinned slightly. Obviously, he was also aware of the identity of this totem. After all... he had been here in his past life.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened as he thought about the story the Heir Apparent had told him as they traversed the northern ice ins and encountered the Gloomites. Patriarch Gloomite had been a subordinate of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua, but had turned traitor and joined Crimson Mother. Later, the Imperial Sovereign ughtered him in the northern ice ins, and crushed his major world. Xu Qing had acquired a fragment of that very same major world, which had once belonged to the face in this totem. [1]

    That ughtered subordinate of an Imperial Sovereign was now visible on the main door of the Moon Pce. H¨¥ was a door god now, obviously having been resurrected somehow by Crimson Mother.

    <em>And thus, Eldest Brother went to the ice ins to get a copy of that fingerprint....</em>

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back proudly, clearly proud to have his formidable nature recognized.<em> Little Ah Qing has had plenty of chances to show off. Now it¡¯s my turn!</em>

    Raising his voice, he said, ¡°Seniors, there¡¯s a process involved in Crimson Mother awakening. And we need to get to her resting ce before she¡¯s fully conscious! As for this door god, if you just help me buy some time, I have a way to crush it!¡±Xu Qing looked at the Captain; it seemed as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, decided not to.

    Meanwhile, the arrival of the Moon Pce caused thends to shake and rise up, all while the canopy of heaven tilted down, as if they were being pulled by some invisible force. From a distance, it was possible to see the ancient stone Moon Pce covered withplex designs that only emphasized its general feeling of luxury and extravagance. It had vermillion walls and crimson roof tiles. The structures were all richly ornamented, and the decorative eaves featured extremely lifelike depictions of scenery and animals. As it hovered in the blood-colored fog, its silhouette seemed unusually silent and solemn. It was the core of this entire world, and everything around it was drawn toward it, whether that be heaven or earth... or anything else.

    The sky rippled and thends distorted. The entire world trembled loudly. The Moon Pce was the center of all attention, and the blood-colored light it emanated spread out to fill the red moon. In fact, the red moon seemed to be offering worship to it. The shadowy figures that Xu Qing had altered went back to being fully crimson, and they started chanting the old version of the lyrics.

    As the crimson light became more prominent, the face in the totem snarled angrily at Xu Qing. ¨©ts gaze was somber and deste, and ¨©ts growl was like heavenly thunder that crashed in all directions. Crimson snowkes spread out in all directions, converging into the shape of armored skeletons that rushed toward Xu Qing and the others.

    Seeing all that, the Heir Apparent snorted coldly and took a step forward. As his foot fell, the power of a Smoldering God swept out, bing a gigantic hand that reached out and closed into a fist.

    The air rippled and the armored skeletons shivered and exploded. Yet an instantter, they formed together again, this time into beasts that were nothing more than crimson bones. They were apparently eternal entities; no matter how you destroyed them, they would alwayse back, and when they did, they were stronger than before.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings obviously weren¡¯t weaklings, especially when they worked together. Therefore, Princess Brightblossom performed an incantation gesture, causing a river of time to spring forth. Eighth Sib let loose a roar that tapped into all of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures. In fact, that power could give emotions to those who didn¡¯t have emotions. As a result, the beasts immediately began to fidget in fear. Before they could get control of their emotions, the river of time arrived and swept them away.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t sitting on hisurels. Taking out a patch of skin from his bag of holding, he shouted at Xu Qing to help him. Each of them grabbed one side of the patch of skin and then stretched it out between them.

    In the blink of an eye, the patch of skin was opened up to reveal a huge fingerprint. It was a strange fingerprint, the mere sight of which would induce hair-raising terror. That fingerprint belonged to the Imperial Sovereign, and was left behind when he crushed Patriarch Gloomite.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, send your taboo poison inside!¡± the Captain called. Then he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the patch of skin. Instantly, the fingerprint started glowing and emitted a terrifying pressure.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eye turned pitch ck as he sent out the power of his taboo poison into the fingerprint. Off to the side, the Captain kept spitting out one mouthful of blood after another. The pressure emanating from the fingerprint grew stronger.

    When Xu Qing saw the Captain spitting up so much blood, he felt like saying something. But considering how excited the Captain was, in the end, he decided it was better to bite his tongue.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings weren¡¯t finished. After dealing with the blood-bone beasts, they rose into the air toward the Moon Pce.

    However, the totem guarding the door leading to Crimson Mother wasn¡¯t just going to let them inside. ¨©ts six eyes glittered, causing six beams of crimson light to shoot out, which turned into six streams of red muddy y that shot toward the siblings. It was no ordinary y. It contained the will of a god. Moving with blinding speed, the y swept out to cover the five siblings, leaving an extra stream to shoot toward Xu Qing.

    However, before that sixth stream could reach him, a ck sword appeared in front of him to block its path. Ninth Sib had nted himself in front of Xu Qing, and was thus covered with two streams of muddy y from Patriarch Gloomite.

    ¡°Hurry it up!¡± Ninth Sib said grimly, his back to Xu Qing and the Captain as the blood-colored y covered him.

    The Captain nodded. ¡°Seven breaths of time at the most!¡±

    More blood sprayed out of his mouth. At the same time, Xu Qing kept his taboo poison rushing forth. As the process continued, the two of them floated up into the air. Thanks to the blood and the poison, the patch of skin rapidly gotrger. With the two of them pulling it, it reached a size of 9 meters. Then 30 meters. Then 120 meters....

    The fingerprint became clearer and clearer, and the energy it emanated was increasingly terrifying.

    The face in the totem saw that, and ¨©ts six eyes snapped shut. As that happened, six soul shadows popped into being. Looking at them closely, those six soul shadows actually represented the Heir Apparent and his siblings, with Ninth Sib being represented twice. When they appeared, the blood-colored y caking the five siblings exploded, spinning off to the side where it clumped back into a group of y people that looked exactly like the Heir Apparent and his siblings.

    They had broad, gruish smiles, and their cultivation bases pulsed with the power of Smoldering Gods. Without any hesitation, theyunched themselves toward the siblings.

    Meanwhile, the totem¡¯s forehead split open, revealing a seventh eye that focused on Xu Qing, the Captain, and the patch of skin with the fingerprint. The seventh eye narrowed, and the totem rippled, peeling off of the door to appear in the world as a gigantic face of y. ¨©t took the form of a conglomeration of blood-colored y, which rushed toward Xu Qing and the Captain with ¨©ts mouth opened wider and wider.

    However, just when the face of blood-colored y appeared, and before ¨©t had a chance to devour Xu Qing and the Captain, a stream of ck light appeared. The ck light had been very craftily hidden, and it chose just the right moment to sneakily appear. It was as if ¨©t had been waiting all along for the face to remove itself from the door.

    ¨©t closed in, pulsing with uncontroble greed and hunger. ¨©t was surrounded by the water of the Yellow Springs, which was actually... Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s saliva. That ck light was the cloak form of the Ancient Spirit. In the blink of an eye, the cloak shot toward the gaping maw of the totem¡¯s face.

    Filled with countless years of hunger, Emperor Ancient Spirit ravenously started gobbling up the face.

    Miserable screams erupted from the face of blood-colored y. ¨©ts eyes filled with terror as ¨©t abandoned all thoughts of devouring Xu Qing. Instead, ¨©t tried to flee back to the door. Sadly for ¨©t, Emperor Ancient Spirit had been waiting in hiding this entire time all for the purpose of having a meal. Therefore, there was no way some delectable food was going to be allowed to flee. Bite after bite was followed by horrendous chewing sounds. Saliva flowed, bing a river apanied by the muffled rumbling caused by intense hunger.

    Stunned, the Captain checked on his own incredible counter measure, then looked at the face of blood-colored y. He seemed depressed.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. He wasn¡¯t very surprised at all about what was happening. Given what he knew about Emperor Ancient Spirit, it would have been strange if things <em>didn¡¯t</em> y out in this way. Truth be told, he had been thinking of reminding the Captain. However, he knew how difficult it could be to dissuade the Captain when his mind was set on something. Besides, saying something out loud could have resulted in Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s ambush being ineffective.

    As the Captain wallowed in sadness, Patriarch Gloomite screamed miserably. Finally, h¨¥ exploded, sending chunks of blood-red y in all directions. It quickly flew back together. Unfortunately... the blood-colored y was only about forty percent of its original volume. The other sixty percent were now a host of eyes that pulsed with avarice.

    Those eyes belonged to Emperor Ancient Spirit now.

    The terrified Patriarch Gloomite tried to rush back to the Moon Pce with the forty percent of himself that remained. However, the Captain was there to take advantage of the moment.

    Releasing the patch of skin, he shouted, ¡°Be sealed!¡±

    Xu Qing also released his grip. The fingerprint on the patch of skin erupted as if with natural and magicalws. Heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fluctuations rolled out as the fingerprint shot directly toward Patriarch Gloomite. If that fingerprint had belonged to anyone else, it might not have been very effective. But the owner of that fingerprint had previously crushed Patriarch Gloomite to death. As a result, it contained a lot of karma, and therefore, Patriarch Gloomite started shaking violently.

    Then the patch of skin arrived, wrapping up the patriarch. It rolled itself up like a scroll painting and shot back to the Captain.

    1. Xu Qing learned the story of the Gloomites in chapter 569.1. ?

 Chapter 697: Long Time No See, Xu Qing!

    <h4>Chapter 697: Long Time No See, Xu Qing!</h4>

    The Captain snatched the scroll painting out of the air,ughed heartily, and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Suppress him in the world fragment, little Junior Brother. This counts as our first battle trophy!¡±

    Xu Qing immediately suppressed Patriarch Gloomite in the world fragment. Because of being connected to the fingerprint by karma, the Captain¡¯s patch of skin and the world fragment were more than enough.

    Everything came down to karma. And a sealing method like that would be very stable. That was especially true considering that Patriarch Gloomite had already been seriously injured, and had lost sixty percent of h¨©mself. Suppressing that remaining forty percent didn¡¯t cause any big waves.

    One thing had to be said: the Captain had obviously prepared very thoroughly for this mission to deal with Crimson Mother.

    That said, considering Emperor Ancient Spirit was present... what he had just done was <i>snatching food from the tiger¡¯s mouth</i>!

    And that was why Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t look very happy; h¨¥ wasn¡¯t full. Of course, h¨¥ knew that this was just a little appetizer. Snorting coldly, h¨¥ looked over at the Heir Apparent and his siblings fighting the y figures. Now that Patriarch Gloomite had been sealed, the y figures¡¯ minds went nk. They turned back into ordinary muddy y, then copsed into ashes.

    Next, everyone turned to look at the door of the Moon Pce. As of now, there was no totem there. Of course, everyone present was fully aware that just because the doorcked a door god, it didn¡¯t mean that it was going to be easy to open.

    Laughing heartily, the Captain walked up to the door, his head high and his chest out.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen of the Senior generation, please, give me some room. And also, provide backup. Of everyone here, I¡¯m the most experienced at opening doors. Little Junior Brother, you don¡¯t need to do anything right now. I¡¯ll bust open this thing!¡±

    The Captain extended his hand, and the nine artificial suns flew out.

    The suns were wreathed in golden mes, and emanated a godly aura. As for the fire... it was the absorbed godfire of the godchild, and with its augmentation, the nine artificial suns were like mini Dawning Suns!

    Although the Heir Apparent and his siblings were unfamiliar with the Dawning Suns, they could sense the terrifying nature of these nine suns. In fact, they had been paying attention to them all along. As a result, they backed up. Emperor Ancient Spirit took a close look, then went back into hiding.

    Seeing all of that made the Captain feel more pleased with himself than ever. With a flourish, he loudly said, ¡°Little Roundy! Open up the shrew¡¯s door for me!¡±

    One of the burning artificial suns flew out, pulsing with a terrifying aura. It left a streak of gold behind it as it shot directly toward the door of the Moon Pce.

    ¡°Cover me!¡± Acting very much like a child who had just lit some firecrackers, the Captain raced madly back toward Xu Qing. He knew full well that the safest spot possible would be right next to Xu Qing. The Heir Apparent and the others might not protect the Captain, but they would definitely keep Xu Qing safe. He was absolutely correct. Ninth Sib flew over to stand protectively in front of Xu Qing, his sword raised. The Heir Apparent and the rest of the siblings also flew over.

    The moment they arrived, the sun mmed into the door. A deafening boom rang out, causing the entire red moon to tremble. The air in the area rippled. Through the distortions, it was possible to see that the artificial sun had smashed into the door and turned into waves of golden fire that spread out over the Moon Pce to vie with the crimson color.

    The aura being released was so horrendously powerful that even the Heir Apparent and the siblings felt threatened. That was especially true considering that the power of godfire was on disy. The Moon Pce trembled as tempestuous fluctuations spread out over the red moon.

    Though the Heir Apparent and the siblings were able to block the fluctuations, they continued to spread around them in a semi-circr shape. The effects quickly spread out to the Moonrite Region as a whole.

    It took a very long moment before the tempest died down. Xu Qing looked up. The Moon Pce rose up in front of him just like before. The golden fire covering it was receding in the face of the growing crimson color. And the door... though damaged, was not open.

    Looking a bit anxious, the Captain rose up with a crazy look in his eyes and shouted, ¡°Medium Roundy!¡±

    In the blink of an eye, an artificial sun that was farrger than the first one flew forth, simrly leaving behind a streak of golden mes. It was clearly a lot more majestic than Little Roundy. It screamed through the air toward the door, then mmed into it with a deafening boom that seemed to surpass all sounds in the world. The red moon shook again, and the entire Moonrite Region trembled. In fact, even people in surrounding regions heard the heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound.

    The eruption of godfire stained the entire red moon the color of gold. And even though the Moon Pce¡¯s door contained godfire, it still sumbed to the terrifying blow, and opened by a crack.

    The Captain looked very excited, and Xu Qing was watching the door closely. But then, a cold harrumph echoed out, and the voice was very familiar.

    At the same time, the godfire covering the door winked out. The same thing happened to the godfire covering the rest of the Moon Pce, as well as the mes that had spread across the entirety of the red moon. That one cold harrumph extinguished all of it.

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s expression flickered as he backed up. Princess Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib all reacted with surprise. In fact, Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib both coughed up huge mouthfuls of blood.

    The only one who reacted differently was Ninth Sib, whose baleful aura red as he shed his sword out in front of him. The piercing sound of an explosion rang out as the sword shed through the air and shredded the invisible pressure. However, as the sword descended, the sword itself wasn¡¯t able to stand up to the force, and shattered. Ninth Sib¡¯s face waspletely expressionless as he made a grasping gesture. A second sword appeared in his hand as he looked up at the Moon Pce¡¯s door.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with blue light as he ignited the remaining artificial suns. He recognized the identity of the person who had let loose the cold harrumph.

    So did Xu Qing. As he remained in ce silently, the previously unopened door slowly swung open. It made no sound. And it didn¡¯t open just a bit. It opened wide, almost as if to invite everyone inside.

    Past the door was the interior of the Moon Pce. It didn¡¯t look like a pce hall. Instead, it was a massive sea of blood. It seemed to go on forever, with its blood-red glow illuminating the canopy of heaven.

    Within that red glow, standing tall above the sea, were numerous hulking figures. One looked vaguely humanoid, except with three heads and six arms. One very bizarre one was madepletely of bones, and was unnaturally tall. Another had a body shaped like a b of meat, which was covered with tentacles. Yet another was a conglomeration of mist filled with innumerable tiny fingers.

    These strange figures lookedpletely different from the species which inhabited Revered Ancient. And every single one emanated terrifying godly auras that filled the blood sea. Even just one of these figures could bring about a bloody reign of terror if it were released onto the maind.

    Because all of th¨¥m... were gods!

    There were 37 of them in total!

    Xu Qing even spotted the god from Forbidden by the Immortal! It looked like a fish, just as he remembered.

    Based on the auras Xu Qing could sense, there were at least a dozen or so gods who surpassed the fish god. And based on what Xu Qing could tell, two of them... were roughly on the same level as Crimson Mother, with godly might that could shatter the mind of a mortal who simply looked at them.

    Th¨¥y weren¡¯t corporeal, but rather, were projections. This ce was a hell for gods.

    ¡°This is a bit different from thest time I was in the Moon Pce,¡± the Captain said in a low voice. ¡°The Moonlight Sea should be deeper inside. But now it¡¯s right here.... The Moonlight Sea is full of projections of the various gods Crimson Mother has devoured!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he looked into the depths of the sea. There... he saw a huge flower that the 37 gods were arrayed around.

    It was an extremely beautiful flower, and yet, that beauty was filled with a sensation of death. Bright red, with numerous swaying stamens and oddly bent leaves, it drifted back and forth as if dancing to music. The flower was blooming. The petals slowly opened. This entire world seemed filled with the cloying reek of blood and gore.

    From a distance, the lily flower rose up from the blood hell like the vicious wed hand of a ghost, attempting to snatch any and all living things.

    A figure sat cross-legged on the flower. The figure was male, and was covering h¨©s eyes with both hands. Unmoving, h¨¥ almost seemed asleep. Long red hair drifted about, covering the flower itself. The hairs connected to the stamens, making it hard to distinguish the difference between the person and the flower. And the flower was more beautiful as a result.

    The male figure wore a red robe, which was the same color as the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily, and made it seem... as if the two of them were one. [1]

    H¨¥ was extremely good-looking, but at the same time, seemed empty. If Xu Qing didn¡¯t recognize this person, he would have had a hard time determining if h¨¥ was male or female. It was a fatal type of beauty, or perhaps, a deathly beauty that living beings couldn¡¯t possess. Just like the flower.

    Atop this person¡¯s blood-colored hair was a crown of thorns, the thorns of which pierced the skin, but at the same time, added to the beauty of the image. A host of tormented faces were weaved into the crown of thorns, and they constantly shifted into the form of different faces. At the same time, they all emitted noiseless howls of grief. Those howls of grief echoed out to be the music the flower swayed to.

    ¡°Zhang Siyun...¡± murmured Xu Qing.

    This person was indeed none other than Zhang Siyun!

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised to see him here. Although he never got to know Zhang Siyun very well, he had dealt with him on multiple asions. He had personally witnessed Zhang Siyun be possessed by Crimson Mother, devour the god from Forbidden by the Immortal, and then vanish back to the red moon. [2]

    The moment Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell on Zhang Siyun, Zhang Siyun¡¯s eyshes fluttered, and h¨¥... opened h¨©s eyes. They were as red as blood and as cold as ice. They were Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes but they also looked like Zhang Siyun¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Long time no see, Xu Qing.¡±

    1. What I¡¯m tranting as ¡°p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily¡± is the same Chinese term as the ¡°resurrection lily¡± from <u>ISSTH</u>. If I could go back in time, I would use ¡°p¨¡ramit¨¡¡± in ISSTH as well, but that ship has long sailed. Although anything is possible, I don¡¯t think the flower here is supposed to be connected to ISSTH. The concept of p¨¡ramit¨¡ and p¨¡ramit¨¡ flowers is just toomon in xianxia/xuanhuan. Literally speaking, p¨¡ramit¨¡ means ¡°to arrive at the other shore,¡± which is presumably why the author often links p¨¡ramit¨¡ to seas, shores, etc. If you want to dig into the actual concept of p¨¡ramit¨¡, <u>here¡¯s a link</u>. ?

    2. Zhang Siyun did all those things in <u>chapter 525.2</u>. If you go back to read the reference, note that in the final moment when he jumps into the portal, he is not referred to as Zhang Siyun, but rather, as ¡°Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger.¡± ?

 Chapter 698: God Magic; Destiny Manipulation!

    The red moon trembled through and through.

    As Zhang Siyun¡¯s voice echoed out, it became innumerable bits of sound that echoed like thunderps. It sounded like the chanting of all living beings, which pierced into Xu Qing¡¯s mind, and left the Captain, the Heir Apparent, and all the siblings visibly surprised. What was more, the fact that Zhang Siyun spoke Xu Qing¡¯s name went to show that, though h¨¥ was Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger, h¨¥ also retained his old memories. The two had beenbined.

    ¡°Crimson Mother didn¡¯t devour his mind,¡± the Captain said in a serious tone. ¡°She left him behind as an independent person. He¡¯s Zhang Siyun, but at the same time, is also Crimson Mother! What¡¯s more, he¡¯s even stronger in this form!¡±

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings looked on with coldly flickering eyes. Meanwhile, Ninth Sib took action. He became a stream of scintiting sword light that shot toward the door, shattering the air along the way. The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom also went on the offensive, followed by Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib. Xu Qing and the Captain camest.

    The door of the Moon Pce had opened of its own ord. Though there was still a lot of danger to be aware of, there was no way that everyone would just give up because Zhang Siyun showed h¨©s face.

    In the blink of an eye, they were all closing in on the door. At that point, red-robed Zhang Siyun looked calmly at them from h¨©s position on the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily. Moonlight rippled out, causing h¨©s beautiful features to seem nobler as h¨¥ slowly raised h¨©s right hand. H¨©s skin was as fair as white jade, and contained no palm print. Palm prints were an aspect of destiny, and when it came to gods and destiny, well, th¨¥y existed outside of destiny.

    ¡°God magic...¡± Zhang Siyun said quietly, then tapped h¨©s thumb on the first digit of h¨©s forefinger.

    The moment they made contact, a noise echoed out like the ssh of a water drop. The sound then became two words that resounded in the minds of Xu Qing and everyone else.

    <em>¡°Destiny Maniption.¡±</em>A faint wind blew, stirring the Moonlight Sea and eventually touching the Heir Apparent and everyone else that was entering the door of the Moon Pce. It caused their clothing to sway, and also caused their destiny to ripple.

    Ninth Sib was in the lead position. A tremor passed through him as he stopped in ce and found himself unable to move forward. Then something extremely shocking happened. Countless projections appeared, superimposed over him. They were images from his past, including those from when he had been suppressed and tormented. They also contained beautiful memories from before his father had perished. Nothing from his past was hidden. Everything appeared around him as images, superimposed over his body. This was his past destiny.

    It wasn¡¯t just happening with Ninth Sib. Images of the past appeared around the Heir Apparent, Princess Brightblossom, Fifth Sister, and Eighth Sib. Countless such images formed, bing like individual pages that made a book!

    Xu Qing and the Captain were not exempt.

    The Captain shivered as images appeared that went all the way back to the moment of his birth. However, they didn¡¯t include images from his past lives, only his present life.

    Likewise, images of Xu Qing appeared, starting from when he was very small. Joys and sorrows appeared. All the vicissitudes of life. However, the broken face of the god was not visible, nor were any images of his older brother! Xu Qing didn¡¯t have the mental bandwidth to consider what that meant. Seeing the countless images of his past caused a host of emotions to fill him. What was happening now wasn¡¯t the work of a cultivator, but rather, the power of a god.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression was the same as ever as h¨¥ looked at everyone present. Next, h¨©s thumb moved from the first digit of his index finger to tap on the second, whereupon another sound rang out like the sshing of a water drop.

    The wind picked up. Destiny stirred again. It was impossible to fight against or avoid. In the hands of a god, destiny was like a ything that could be manipted or adjusted. And now... as h¨©s thumb moved down h¨©s finger, and as the sound of water echoed out.... Everyone felt their minds spinning, as if they were being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts. The images of the past went wild. It was as if they were being inspected. The aura of a god grew stronger, filling the entire world around them.

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s eyes were bright red as he stood there trembling and trying to fight back. His siblings were all in simr situations. Yet nothing did any good. They couldn¡¯t stop their past destiny from being rifled through.

    The only exception was Ninth Sib, whose aura seethed as the flipping of pages slowed. Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t able to stop it entirely.

    The Captain and Xu Qing didn¡¯t have the sufficient cultivation base to provide any resistance.

    As the memories were flipped through, images began to pop out one after another. Once in the open, they flew toward Zhang Siyun. Each and every one of those images, without any exception, came from a moment of extreme pain and torment.

    For the Heir Apparent and his siblings, they were memories of being forced to devour the flesh and blood of their brothers and sisters. They were images of them being suppressed and tormented, as well as other instances of extreme grief and anguish.

    The Captain shivered. The images of his past rted to moments of incredible hunger when he released seals within himself. Of course, there were also scenes that, up to this point, had been secret. In one of them, the Captain walked through gloom and darkness, heartbroken and weeping loudly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face was distorted, blue veins bulged out on his forehead, and he was breathing heavily. However, the pain of having memories torn out of him couldn¡¯tpare to the torment of one particr scene.

    In that scene, he was in a forested area while rain fell down from above. He knelt on the ground, filled with pain, anguish, despair, and madness. Lying on the ground in front of him was a skewer of blood-colored candied fruit. It was a memory that Xu Qing didn¡¯t even want. It was the moment when his older brother appeared in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and told him the truth about everything. It was one of the worst moments in Xu Qing¡¯s entire life up to this point. Compared to that, all the bitterness he had endured as a youngster didn¡¯t count for much. The memory was ripped out of him, bing an image that shot toward Zhang Siyun.[1]

    Before long, such memories of pain and torment were proliferating in front of Zhang Siyun, where they became images that circted around h¨©m.

    ¡°Living beings only experience pain because of the contrast it forms with beauty...¡± Zhang Siyun said softly. As h¨¥ did, he tapped h¨©s thumb on the first digit of h¨©s middle finger.

    A crisp sound rang out into the minds of everyone present, a ripple that turned into a tempest. An intense rumbling sound exploded out as the memory images around them began to copse! They shattered!

    All the beauty. All the happiness. All the cherished moments. All the love.... All of the past crumbled. Rumbling sounds filled the minds of everyone present. As the images copsed, they turned into illusory blood that prompted uncontroble shrieks of mourning to fill heaven and earth.

    That was when the resistance began.

    The Heir Apparent¡¯s hair flowed around him like innumerable snakes. They pierced into the memories of the past, using his perception-altering powers to bolster the images. A river of time flowed around Princess Brightblossom, strengthening the images of the past around her. Eighth Sib used emotions to make happiness and joy a constant that spread out in all directions. Ninth Sib¡¯s method was the simplest. Swords emerged from his memories, which shed out in all directions. Swords copsed constantly, but new swords always appeared to rece them....

    As the Captain¡¯s facial expression distorted, frigid energy exploded out of him to lock down the past. And Xu Qing¡¯s sundials activated. His will domain of amnesia stirred, and his authority exploded out. That was when he came to realize why those images didn¡¯t contain the broken face or the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    It was because, for some unknown reason, when Zhang Siyun used h¨©s god magic of Destiny Maniption, the images of those two beings appeared inside of Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal!

    When the images became clear, Xu Qing¡¯s mind filled with an explosive rumbling that far surpassed the sound of beautiful memories shattering.

    The first image was in the ruins of the slums. He was looking up into the sky as the broken face¡¯s eyes opened and looked down in his direction....

    The second image was from Peerless City.... A blood rain fell as a younger version of himself sat on the ground, hugging his knees and weeping. From what Xu Qing remembered, he had wept for a long time before ultimately leaving the vanishing city.

    And yet, the image within the violet crystal showed something different!! In that image, a familiar person floated down from midair to stand in front of the weeping Xu Qing. That person reached out and put his hand on Xu Qing¡¯s head.

    <em>¡°Don¡¯t cry, lil¡¯ bro.¡±</em>

    The moment those words echoed out in the image, Xu Qing¡¯s head exploded, and his body turned into a mass of gore that sshed into the ground.

    He was dead.

    Xu Qing shivered as waves of shock swept through him. All of the ¡®pages¡¯ of memories outside of him crumbled, leaving behind... a bookpletely empty of pages. Everyone fought back, but it couldn¡¯t stop the same thing from happening to them.

    ¡°Without beauty, there can be no contrast, and thus... there is no purpose in grief.¡± Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression was tranquil in the moonlight. H¨¥ did not emanate even the slightest emotional fluctuation. H¨©s beautiful face seemed like a statue as h¨¥ stared at everyone and moved h¨©s thumb to the second digit of h¨©s middle finger and tapped it there.

    Instantly, the images of pain and torment stopped rotating around him and began to vibrate. At the same time, it seemed as if they were being copied, as countless versions of the same images started to appear.

    Seeing that, Zhang Siyun smiled faintly. Then h¨¥ tapped h¨©s thumb on the first digit of h¨©s ring finger. When h¨¥ did... the images suddenly flew back toward where they came from. They shot back into the empty books and began to fill them in. However... those pasts now contained no beauty. They were filled only with pain and suffering.

    All the good memories were copsing.

    This was the power of a god. This was a god magic.

    1. Xu Qing encountered his brother in chapters 314 and . ?

 Chapter 699: Destiny, Detonate!

    <h4>Chapter 699: Destiny, Detonate!</h4>

    In the past, there had been many cultivators from a variety of species who were willing to fight back against the gods. But now... such people were <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>.

    The reason was that the people who fought back were all dead now. In the vast majority of instances, only gods could rival other gods.

    Over the countless years that had passed, the only instance in which a cultivator ughtered gods was in the epoch when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity waged war before ultimately departing. After that... it never happened again. Gods were paramount above all else, not to be sphemed and not even to be looked at directly.

    Gradually, the concept of ughtering gods came to be viewed as impossible to members of all species. In fact, even just imagining something like that was fear-inspiring. Gods were more terrifying and powerful than cultivators could evenprehend. Gods also surpassed the scope of the divine abilities cultivators could use, and even existed outside of their perceptions.

    The two... almost didn¡¯t exist in the same dimension.

    To the vast majority of cultivators, any given god was beyond understanding. Gods were omniscient and omnipotent, and mysterious and gruish to a degree that defiedprehension.

    Meanwhile, in the eyes of the gods, all living beings were excessively simplistic. A single nce could reveal their past and future. And even the many potentialities in their futures could be seen through. That was just a manifestation of a higher level of personhood. Only cultivators who reached the absolute pinnacle of cultivation could possess simr personhood, and thus be taken somewhat seriously by gods. Unfortunately... very, very few cultivators ever reached that pinnacle.

    When it came to gods, there were both postheaven gods and natural-born gods. Therefore, when cultivators relied on magical techniques as their trump cards, and used things like wind, rain, thunder, lightning, metal, wood, water, or fire, they were essentially meaningless to gods.

    Gods acted simr to the way Zhang Siyun had just acted. The mere raising of h¨©s hand allowed h¨©m to calcte and manipte the destiny of all living beings.

    To gods, there was little difference between cultivators and mortals. The slightest tap of a finger could alter destiny. Power like that could drive people to despair.

    Right now, everyone from the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom to the Captain and Xu Qingcked any memories of the past. In fact, they didn¡¯t even seem capable of perceiving each other.

    The only things that existed for them were unending torment and pain. There was no beauty to create a contrast with it. There was only suffering. In fact, from a certain perspective, it almost didn¡¯t make sense to call it suffering. That wasn¡¯t urate. The torment brought by such memories seemed never-ending. It was indescribable and impossible to endure.

    For example, Xu Qing... who was immersed in his earliest memories of everything copsing. He wanted to free himself, but the images in his memories created a cycle of past and future from which there was no escape....

    Everyone was currently standing just outside of the Moon Pce on the red moon. None of them had stepped inside. It was as if their previous thoughts of ughtering a god were nothing more than a joke.

    ¡°Mortals ughter a god?¡± Zhang Siyun shook h¨©s head, then lifted h¨©s thumb and tapped it onto the second digit of h¨©s ring finger. A sound like a breaking bottle echoed out, crisp and clear.

    <i>¡°Destiny: Detonate.¡±</i>

    H¨©s voice echoed out with a level ofmand that had to be obeyed.

    The Captain shivered as cracks spread out over him. Not even the blue light that emanated out of him, forming a sealing ice, could stop it from happening. He eventually copsed, turning into a mass of blood and gore that sshed onto the ground.

    Xu Qing shivered, his heart and mind nk thanks to the second image that had appeared in the violet crystal. He had sunk into a world of endless darkness in which nothing else existed. It was just like what happened in the image after the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan lowered his hand.

    Next was Eighth Sib, who trembled from head to toe as the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures that came close to being the power of a god were actually wiped away. With nothing to hold him up, Eighth Sib fell onto the ground.

    The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were both Smoldering Gods, but even their major worlds were full of grief, pain, and bitterness. Even their life force was turning dim.

    Ninth Sib struggled to hold strong. Slowly looking up, he summoned a sword into his right hand. It was his final life force sword. It was also his strongest sword, the ultimate sword that Emperor Ancient Spirit had glimpsed earlier. Yet what Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t realize was that Ninth Sib¡¯s final sword wasn¡¯t a sword of killing, but one of defense.

    Up ahead, the door of the Moon Pce slowly closed. From atop the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily, Zhang Siyun shook h¨©s head and closed h¨©s eyes. H¨¥ seemed disinterested in what was happening, and settled down as still as an emotionless statue.

    Everything was over.

    Ninth Sib didn¡¯t speak. Behind him, Fifth Sister had her eyes closed. Her age-wracked face was pale and ashen, and she pulsed with a strong aura of death. Without Ninth Sib there protecting her, she would already have perished. Then she opened her eyes and looked at her older brother. Then she looked at everyone else in the throes of death. Her eyes closed.

    Gradually, a florescent light began to seep out of her, where it took the form of a flower. The flower had numerous stamens that seemed to burst with life and beauty. The moment the flower appeared, the closing door of the Moon Pce stopped moving.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s eyes snapped open.

    The new flower was also a p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily! It looked just like the one Zhang Siyun was seated upon. The difference was that this one was the color white.

    As the flower bloomed, Fifth Sister withered. She was burning herself, just like she had when she was born, when she had used her own life force to save her brother. Throughout her life, she had burned away her life force to save others. Even in ancient times, while all her brothers and sisters looked young, she looked old and full of decay.

    As she knew, that was her mission. As she knew, that was her purpose. In the past, she had hated that truth. But in the end... she chose to have no regrets.

    As the flower was set free, and its fragrance spread, the Heir Apparent¡¯s body stitched back together. It was the same with Princess Brightblossom, Eighth Sib, the Captain, and Xu Qing. Everyone was restored. Their bodies formed again, and their energy erupted. Their emotions stabilized. Most strange of all was that all of the memories that had been destroyed by the god magic were returned.

    It was not a reversal of time. When dealing with the god magic of a god, only someone with corresponding personhood could do that.

    Fifth Sister¡¯s p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily was a blessing! Simr to godly curses, godly blessings were an extreme rarity.

    Zhang Siyun was visibly moved. Looking at Fifth Sister, h¨¥ said, ¡°Very impressive of Li Zihua to do something like this. He sealed a god in your future body! In the future, you¡¯ll have a god inside of you, and gods cannot be defied. It¡¯s like karma. That¡¯s why, until you actually have that god sealed inside of you, you won¡¯t die!

    ¡°Therefore, you can use a mortal body to unleash unlimited god magics. It¡¯s a curse for you, but a blessing to others.... You even kept me in the dark. However, though you won¡¯t die, you will grow old.... And when you grow old enough, your body will be a mindless shell. Very interesting. Now I¡¯m curious what god this body of yours was prepared for.¡±

    Zhang Siyun had openly described Fifth Sister¡¯s secret! As h¨©s voice echoed out, the Heir Apparent and everyone else outside the Moon Pce looked over at Fifth Sister.

    Her aura was extremely weak. She seemed profoundly old, and was full of an aura of death. Blood sprayed out of her mouth.

    However, she was smiling. Voice hoarse, she said, ¡°This is the purpose of my existence.¡±

    When those words reached the ears of everyone present, Xu Qing shivered, and his eyes went wide. It was as if everything from before had just been a bad dream.

    The Captain opened his eyes and exhaled. HIs expression was grim, and in very rare fashion, he pulsed with a baleful aura. At the critical moment, he had called out to a High God for help, only to be refused.

    <i>I should have killed this indecisive crippled god sooner!</i>

    Heart pulsing with fury, he looked at Zhang Siyun on the Moonlight Sea, and his eyes became as cold as ice.

    It was the same with the Heir Apparent and the other siblings. Their gazes shifted from Fifth Sister to Zhang Siyun.

    And then the Heir Apparent took action. He raised his right hand, within which appeared a ck nail. It was none other than Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua¡¯s nail! The moment it appeared, the Heir Apparent spat out a mouthful of blood. Within it appeared the image of a world that entered the nail. It was his major world, and he was using it to augment the nail!

    Princess Brightblossom and Eighth Sib tapped deeply into their cultivation bases before spitting out their own mouthfuls of blood to augment the nail. And thus, in the shortest of times, that nail gained the projections of four worlds!

    The ck outeryers of the nail began to peel off, revealing a white nail underneath. Off to the side, Ninth Sib¡¯s eyes gleamed with aggressive light as he reached out, grabbed the nail, then stabbed his own palm with it. Blood poured out.

    In short order, a fifth and sixth world appeared in the nail.

    With the addition of those worlds, the ck surface of the nailpletely fell off, revealing its pure white interior. It was as if a seal was being undone, revealing the true might of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s nail.

    Prismatic energy surged. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. The red moon trembled. A terrifying aura exploded out. Then Ninth Sib let loose a shout and waved his blood-slicked right hand through the air. A thunderous boom rang out as the air shattered and the nail turned into a white streak of light that shot toward the door!

    The Heir Apparent and the other siblings began to speak in low voices.

    ¡°Use the power of perception to ensure the nail hits the target!¡±

    ¡°Use the magic of time to pierce through both past and future!¡±

    ¡°Use the energy of longing to allow human nature to resist a god!¡±

    ¡°Use the dao of ughter to guarantee bloodshed!¡±

    The white nail pierced through time and hit the door with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Then it shot across the Moonlight Sea. The sea churned. The air shattered. The nail crushed everything in its path as it headed right toward Zhang Siyun atop the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily!

 Chapter 700: A Stubborn Sense of Existence

    <h4>Chapter 700: A Stubborn Sense of Existence</h4>

    The Moonlight Sea shattered. The blood-water swept to either side, freezing into two cliffs. In the middle of them was a huge trough so deep the bottom wasn¡¯t visible!

    The white nail, within which flickered six major worlds, shot forth, seemingly heedless of the fact that the surrounding god projections were racing to intercept it. It crushed everything in its path. Thunderous booms rang out as three god projections shattered.

    Then the nail was right in front of Zhang Siyun, emanating terrifying pressure as it headed toward h¨©s forehead. It seemed just about to hit the target. However, Zhang Siyun was a doppelg?nger of Crimson Mother, with a life force that existed on an unfathomable level. Reaching out with h¨©s right hand, h¨¥ put a finger on either side of the nail and then squeezed down.

    H¨©s fingers didn¡¯t move after that. Nor did h¨©s arm or his body. But h¨©s clothes began pping as if being blown by storm winds. H¨©s red hair also whipped around behind h¨©m as the air shattered and rifts spread out in all directions.

    ¡°Excellent,¡± Zhang Siyun said calmly. Then h¨¥ prepared to wave h¨©s arm and send the nail flying back to where it came from.

    Except... that was when something unexpected happened!

    Although the white nail had been grabbed, the reality was that its function wasn¡¯t to stab. Instead, it began to change color, turning from white to green. At the same time, it melted, turning into numerous green threads. There were over ten thousand of them, and they quickly wrapped around Zhang Siyun¡¯s fingers, then swept with rapid speed toward h¨©s face.

    Even just one of those threads could be considered a magical treasure. They pulsed with a terrifying aura, and were unimaginably sharp. In the shortest of moments, they reached Zhang Siyun¡¯s face and were about to stab into h¨©m.

    Frowning, Zhang Siyun exhaled. H¨©s breath was the color of blood, and hit the threads like a cloud. Most of the threads from the nail copsed. However, four of them didn¡¯t.

    Hidden among all the other threads, they pierced through the blood mist andnded on Zhang Siyun¡¯s face! Zhang Siyun tried to dodge out of the way, but the four threads were blessed by the Heir Apparent and his siblings, and they were impossible to evade.

    In the blink of an eye, they stabbed into Zhang Siyun¡¯s face. No blood flowed out. However, the four threads burrowed into h¨©s flesh like bugs, then started boring through his body. During the process, the Heir Apparent and his siblings unleashed divine abilities to wreak withering and destruction.

    Zhang Siyun was a doppelg?nger of Crimson Mother, but h¨¥ still had the body of a mortal. It had been altered, but on a substructural level, it was still mortal. A momentter, Zhang Siyun¡¯s body rippled as though it might copse. However, h¨©s eyes remained calm, and h¨¥ didn¡¯t seem to be reacting at all to the pain. What h¨¥ did do was stand and back up. As h¨¥ did, h¨¥ ripped open h¨©s throat and stuck two fingers inside to try to grab the threads and extract them. At the same time, h¨¥ used his other hand to wave at the Moonlight Sea.

    The surviving god projections there opened their eyes and looked in the direction of the door. 34 gods emanated powerful fluctuations, filling the Moonlight Sea with such destructive fluctuations that any living being present would be killed in body and soul.

    Yet that didn¡¯t stop the Heir Apparent and his siblings from stepping through the door and into the Moon Pce, where they unleashed attacks on the intercepting god projections.

    The Heir Apparent was visible in his true form, and his major world was out in the form of a huge eye that looked at Zhang Siyun. It wasn¡¯t the eye of a god. But it was simr. The spot where it looked rippled and distorted, and perceptions there changed ording to his thoughts. That even affected the projections of gods. After all, th¨¥y were already dead, and existed only as projections.

    Princess Brightblossom was equally terrifying. A long spear appeared in her hands, and a suit of armor rippled out to cover her. Time flowed beneath her feet, and killing intent surged within her.

    Eighth Sib roared, his voice booming like a drum to create something like a fiendish devil. As it dug into the god projections, it became human nature which drove away the godliness. Ninth Sib strode forward quietly, his sword gleaming with cold light as he shed it out.

    Unfortunately, there were just too many god projections. And thanks to Zhang Siyun¡¯s quick actions, h¨¥ had already extracted one of the threads and was looking for the second. It wouldn¡¯t be long before h¨¥ got all four of them out.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing and the Captain, who were just about to walk through the door, stopped in ce. It wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t want to enter. Rather, the terrifying power sweeping about therein was too much for their cultivation bases to handle.

    The Captain looked embarrassed. ¡°Little Ah Qing, are you getting the sensation that this whole thing... basically has nothing to do with us? Our presence doesn¡¯t seem to have any effect at all!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded silently.

    ¡°That said, we¡¯re the ones who made everything happen. We¡¯re the instigators. And I have everything under control! Without us, none of them would even be here. Things can¡¯t continue as they are!¡± The Captain gritted his teeth. The fact that he had been refused by that High God was very embarrassing, and thus, he snorted coldly and prepared to do something to prove his worth.

    He took out two of his Dawning Suns. He gave one of them to Xu Qing.

    Hefting the other one, he projected a message to Xu Qing. <i>¡°You throw one of them too. Let¡¯s make our existence known!¡±</i>

    With that, the Captain threw his sun, then turned and ducked away from the door to hide.

    The light of dawn shot forth, and even as the Captain howled and leaped away from the door, it exploded, creating a terrifying shockwave along with blinding light. Because of that light, the god projections blurred briefly, but that was it. Th¨¥y returned to normal a momentter.

    When nothing much resulted, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he was about to shout to Xu Qing to throw his sun out. However, Xu Qing was currently looking at the projected figures that had blurred and were now turning clear again. The figures were pitch ck, and because of that, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t paid much attention to th¨¥m before. But after the light of the Dawning Sun shone, it got Xu Qing thinking.

    ¡°Hold on a moment, Eldest Brother.¡±

    All of a sudden, blood began to rise up around him. Although he had no way of entering the Moon Pce, his authority could. Taking control of the blood, he sent it forward into the Moonlight Sea. Waves rose up on that small portion of the water, which spread out, though it didn¡¯t affect the fighting in any way.

    That said, Xu Qing¡¯s goal wasn¡¯t to directly attack anything. Under his control, the blood spread with his authority, spreading out in the Moonlight Sea. It got thinner and thinner, but he was going all out. And therefore, he managed to spread that blood over about half of the surface of the water. ¡°Eldest Brother, take three Dawning Suns out, but don¡¯t detonate them. Let their light shine. Fill this ce with sunlight!¡±

    Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t hesitate if the Captain asked him to do something. Neither did the Captain hesitate now. He immediately took out three of his Dawning Suns and threw them through the door.

    Instantly, the blinding light of three Dawning Suns shone onto the Moonlight Sea. As the light spread, the Moonlight Sea brightened. At the same time, the god projections blurred. It was as if th¨¥y couldn¡¯t maintain th¨¥ir forms with the bright light shining on th¨¥m. Ordinary projections couldn¡¯t survive this. But these weren¡¯t ordinary projections. Apparently, th¨¥y were existences... that were simr to Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    Meanwhile, veins bulged on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead as, using his blood as the medium, he used the Mirror of Moonrebel... to enter the blood on the surface of the Moonlight Sea!

    The mirror used Xu Qing¡¯s blood to pass through the door, and thus, the gigantic mirror appeared above the sea. The moment the mirror appeared, the world became one of even more dramatic brightness. The mirror shone down with dramatic effect, covering everything with light.

    The only thing left behind was light. Thanks to that light, the god projections shrank away and began to hide.

    Yet not even that was enough to fundamentally change the entire situation. The light onlysted for so long, and then it began to fade. When that happened, the god projections returned.

    However, to the Heir Apparent and the other siblings, the brief disappearance of the god projections bought them precious time. As the light shone, they elerated rapidly toward Zhang Siyun.

    For the second time, Zhang Siyun frowned. Of the four threads that had entered h¨©m, h¨¥ had already extracted three. But thest one was deeply buried, and h¨¥ needed more time to find it.

    ¡°Even bugs can do a thing or two,¡± h¨¥ said coolly. Then, instead of backing up further, h¨¥ stretched h¨©s left hand out, palm open, and pushed down toward the Moonlight Sea.

    ¡°Red moon.¡±

    Rumbling sounds filled the sea, and huge waves started rolling out across its surface. They grew taller and taller, until they were higher than Zhang Siyun h¨©mself! Endless amounts of seawater rolled up into the air to form the shape of a hand! The blood-colored hand was supremely shocking. It went as high as was possible and as low as was possible, and did not have any palm print on it. It was both Zhang Siyun¡¯s hand, and also, the hand of a god.

    Then, mountain-toppling, sea-draining force swept toward the iing siblings. Nothing could stand up to it. Thanks to the pressure of a god that it exuded, the Mirror of Moonrebel started to crack.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings reacted with surprise, and quickly fell back. At that point, the Captain inhaled sharply. Blue light shone in his eyes as he shouted, ¡°Moonfire! If you don¡¯t get the eff out here right now, your food¡¯s going to be gone!!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was very serious as he backed away further. Taking a deep breath, he focused on the violet crystal.

    Although Zhang Siyun¡¯s god magic of Destiny Maniption had been negated, and Xu Qing¡¯s memories had been restored, those two specific images were still there in the violet crystal. And he had the feeling that he... could take those two images of the past and release them....

    <i>If I do release them, what will happen?</i>

    Xu Qing stood there thoughtfully.

 Chapter 701: You Canâ€™t Even Imagine My Past (1)

    As the thought urred to him, the enormous blood-red hand rumbled forth. It moved at high speed, and within a moment, was bearing down on the Heir Apparent and his siblings. The ex-wife the Captain had mentioned still hadn¡¯te.

    When Xu Qing saw that, his eyes flickered with determination. He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if he summoned the images from within the violet crystal. But considering that the Heir Apparent and the others seemed powerless to defend themselves, all he could do was help in whatever way possible.

    Yet even as the violet crystal started to glitter, the Heir Apparent and the other siblings unleashed trump cards, causing an ancient aura to pulse off them explosively.

    ¡°Father!¡± the Heir Apparent shouted. Princess Brightblossom and the others echoed his call.

    Beneath the red moon, the statue of Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua stirred. The sensation of awakening was now extremely intense, and the statue¡¯s eyelids twitched as if they might open. Breath escaped the statue¡¯s mouth, swept over the surface of the red moon, and entered the Moon Pce, as if for the express purpose of blessing his children there.

    Inside the Moon Pce, time glittered, magicalws descended, and sword light shone brightly. The power of the Heir Apparent and the others converged in the form of six world projections that smashed into the blood-colored hand. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering boom rattled out with destructive force. The six major worlds withered.

    Blood sprayed out of the Heir Apparent¡¯s mouth. Princess Brightblossom¡¯s armor shattered. Eighth Sib¡¯s flesh was shredded. And Ninth Sib¡¯s sword crumbled as blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. But the blood that sttered everywhere then converged, fusing with the breath of the Imperial Sovereign and transforming into an enormous, illusory finger. Radiating a terrifying aura, it jabbed toward the huge hand.

    When they collided, the red moon shook. The Moon Pce rocked back and forth. And the blood-colored hand stopped in ce. Up above, even louder cracking sounds drifted out from the Mirror of Moonrebel. Then the mirror shattered, causing mirror shards to fall everywhere.

    The destruction of the mirror affected the hand. It was shredded to bits by the falling fragments, and then those bits tumbled down and once again turned into a blood sea. The world of the Moon Pce was now filled with a host of mirror fragments. They floated everywhere, creating a very shocking sight.The Heir Apparent and his siblings were running on fumes. Off in the distance, Zhang Siyun had two fingers jabbed into h¨©s neck, where they hadtched onto the final thread. H¨¥ started pulling it out.

    Seeing that, Ninth Sib inhaled deeply. Then his eyes glimmered with sharp light as frigid energy rose up around him. As he stood there with his back straight, he looked like a deadly sword. His gaze was locked onto Zhang Siyun as he slowly lifted his right hand and took control of the surrounding fragments of the Mirror of Moonrebel. They shifted, with each fragment tilting at a different angle to shine light onto Ninth Sib.

    In the blink of an eye, every single fragment contained a reflection of him. Countless versions of Ninth Sib all raised their right hands. Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies appeared everywhere. Threads of magicalw floated around him. And on each of his shoulders was a major world.

    Then those worlds started to burn. As fire raged over them, all the living beings within them lifted their hands. Within each of those hands was a sword. Their sword energy converged, filling the worlds, and filling Ninth Sib. Then it came together at his right hand, where it formed... a sword! The arrival of that sword caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth.

    And it wasn¡¯t just Ninth Sib himself that was holding a sword. Thanks to the countless fragments of the Mirror of Moonrebel, there were many versions of himself that all held swords. And then all of them looked at Zhang Siyun.

    Zhang Siyun paused with h¨©s fingers stuck into h¨©s neck. Also looking up, h¨¥ focused on Ninth Sib. When their gazes locked, Zhang Siyun waved h¨©s left hand. Yet again, the Moonlight Sea seethed, and a new blood-colored hand formed that shot toward Ninth Sib.

    ¡°Execute,¡± Ninth Sib said in a low voice.

    It was one word. And the moment it left his mouth, the sword in his hand shed down. At the same time, the swords in the hands of all the living beings in the major worlds also shed down. So did the swords in the mirror fragments.

    One sword could shock heaven. A myriad of swords could shock gods. In every single mirror fragment, sword light gleamed, sweeping forth to form an enormous, astonishing sword. Sword light red with boundless power as it shed toward Zhang Siyun.

    Winds screamed. The world shook. The air shattered.

    This was Ninth Sib¡¯s strongest sword attack. Blessed by the power of the Mirror of Moonrebel, it became a violent, explosive force that mmed into the blood-colored hand.

    Rumbling booms echoed out as the five fingers of the hand bent as if to grab the iing sword. But then the hand lost control. The palm exploded, causing blood to rain down. The five fingers were vaporized, creating a blood mist that roiled out in all directions.

    And yet, the power of the sword had not yet faded away. After destroying the hand, it continued onward with unstoppable momentum toward Zhang Siyun. Right before it hit, Zhang Siyun lunged backward, and the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily beneath h¨©s feet rapidly bloomed to create a protective barrier.

    Intense rumbling sounds swept out of the Moon Pce to fill the red moon. The gruish, blood-colored p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily was unable to stop the sword, and was ripped apart. At the same time, it managed to dispel the mightiness of the sword. When the sword light reached Zhang Siyun, h¨¥ shoved h¨©s left hand out in front of h¨©m.

    As a result, Zhang Siyun shook from head to toe. H¨©s clothing was ripped to shreds, and h¨©s hair whipped about h¨©m wildly. The air around h¨©m shattered as h¨¥ staggered backward, a huge wound opening up on h¨©s palm, out of which flew a drop of golden blood. After taking five steps backward, h¨¥ stopped moving and looked up.

    ¡°That¡¯s a stunning sword move,¡± h¨¥ said softly. As everyone looked on, the sword light in front of h¨©m faded into nothing.

    The gleam in the eyes of everyone present faded along with the sword light. From the look of it, talk of killing gods was little more than a joke.

    After the words left Zhang Siyun¡¯s mouth, h¨¥ pulled his right hand away from h¨©s neck, and there was a thread locked between h¨©s two fingers. That was thest thread within h¨©m. After extracting it, h¨¥ squeezed his fingers together, and the thread copsed into ash. Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression became calm again as h¨¥ looked at everyone. The shattered fragments of the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily swept toward h¨©m and attached to h¨©s clothing like embroidery. Next, h¨¥ took a step forward.

    No one could stop h¨©m from taking that step. The Heir Apparent and the siblings backed up, yet they weren¡¯t able to escape.

    In the blink of an eye, Zhang Siyun was in front of Fifth Sister. H¨¥ thrust out his finger.

    She looked at h¨©m bitterly. But then, the severely injured Eighth Sib chuckled harshly. All of his feelings copsed, causing the power of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures to sweep forth in a five-colored beam of light. It was a very gruish technique.

    Even as Zhang Siyun¡¯s finger moved through the air, Eighth Sib swapped positions with Fifth Sister. She vanished, and he appeared where she had been standing, ring at Zhang Siyun. Zhang Siyun¡¯s finger touched Eighth Sib¡¯s forehead.

    It was a light touch. But it caused Eighth Sib to shiver before exploding into a haze of blood.

    Eighth Sib¡¯s death infuriated the Heir Apparent and the other siblings. They wanted to interfere, but they couldn¡¯t even touch Zhang Siyun. Next, Zhang Siyun blurred forward again, and a momentter, h¨¥ was once again standing in front of Fifth Sister.

    ¡°You have a god sealed in you in the future,¡± Zhang Siyun said softly, ¡°and therefore, you can¡¯t die in this irreversible situation. However... I am also a god.¡±

    Once again, h¨©s finger swept through the air.

    The Heir Apparent howled in rage. Princess Brightblossom¡¯s face was a mask of sorrow. As for Ninth Sib, he reached up, touched his forehead, and from there, extracted his final life essence sword. Then, all three of them closed in on Zhang Siyun.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as h¨©s head spun in ce, turning around to look calmly at the three siblings.

    ¡°One. Two. Three.¡±

    As the words left h¨©s mouth, a power of restraint swept out.

    The Heir Apparent, Princess Brightblossom, and Ninth Sib all stopped in ce and were unable to move.

    Blood oozed out of the Ninth Sib¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he struggled to move forward. Nothing prevented Zhang Siyun from reaching out to touch Fifth Sister¡¯s forehead with h¨©s finger.

    But then, Zhang Siyun frowned, pulled h¨©s hand back, and fell back.

    Fifth Sister blurred as a ck cloak appeared around her. It was Emperor Ancient Spirit, who had been concealed up to this point.

    H¨¥ feared Crimson Mother, and thus had held back from doing anything. Even when Zhang Siyun was injured by Ninth Sib¡¯s sword, h¨¥ cautiously remained invisible. But now h¨¥ chose to act. H¨¥ hade to realize what Fifth Sister could do, and h¨¥ also knew why Zhang Siyun was intent on killing h¨¥r. Therefore, h¨¥ had to interfere. It wasn¡¯t because h¨¥ wanted to help the Heir Apparent and the others. Rather, h¨¥ really did want to devour Crimson Mother.

    The eyes on the cloak opened, as did a huge mouth. And h¨¥ lunged toward Zhang Siyun to devour h¨©m. A cracking sound rang out as the mouth snapped down onto nothing.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet; the ck cloak swept forward. Ignoring Zhang Siyun¡¯s godly might and personhood, it swept over h¨©m.

    At the same time, Zhang Siyun¡¯s line of sight was broken, freeing the Heir Apparent and the others from their restraints. With Ninth Sib in the lead, they attacked Zhang Siyun again.

    A momentter, the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom were tumbling backward. Bloody wounds crisscrossed Ninth Sib as he also fell back. As for Zhang Siyun....

 Chapter 701: You Canâ€™t Even Imagine My Past (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 701: You Can¡¯t Even Imagine My Past (part 2)</h4>

    As Zhang Siyun was wrapped up in the ck cloak, h¨¥ sent blood-colored light pulsing out nine times in a row. A scream rang out from the cloak, and then it transformed into the color of blood. A momentter, it flew in the opposite direction. However, at the same time, a loud gulping sound could be heard, and then Zhang Siyun¡¯s voice suddenly changed in pitch and timbre.

    ¡°I smelled you earlier. How could I have guessed that you would be patient enough to wait until now to act?¡±

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s pupils constricted as a crown of thorns suddenly appeared overhead. Within the crown were countless eyes, filled with anguish and anticipation as they looked at Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    The crown fell.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eyes blurred. H¨¥ was a person who had once conquered all of Revered Ancient, so there was no way h¨¥ would get flustered in a crisis. After staring at Zhang Siyun briefly, h¨¥ self-detonated, transforming into a huge pile of flesh and blood.

    At the same time, Zhang Siyun transformed as well. The neck wound which had just healed burst open again, spreading out across most of h¨©s body. The sword wound inflicted by blocking Ninth Sib¡¯s attack also broke open and spread. In the blink of an eye, Zhang Siyun was covered in blood. H¨¥ was severely injured and looked like h¨¥ might not be able to hold on for very long.

    This was the power of Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s authority! Under that gaze, small wounds could turn into grievous injuries, and horrific wounds could cause death. H¨©s personhood was high enough that not even Zhang Siyun could do anything to stop h¨©m.

    Zhang Siyun was bedraggled and badly wounded. Yet, just as before, h¨¥ swallowed h¨©s saliva back down, looked off into the distance, andughed.

    ¡°You¡¯re definitely delicious,¡± h¨¥ said. And the broken-down Zhang Siyun turned to look at Princess Brightblossom.

    The air behind Princess Brightblossom rippled as a river of time appeared. Fifth Sister was in it, as well as the dead Eighth Sib. Thanks to the blessing of Fifth Sister, he was being resurrected.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s where you were hiding her. That¡¯s fine. At least now I have all of you together.¡±

    Looking away, h¨¥ lifted his shattered arm and touched h¨©s forehead with h¨©s finger.

    Instantly, a host of images appeared around h¨©m. Shockingly, they were images of h¨©s past. Not the past of Crimson Mother, but of Zhang Siyun.

    They started when he was born. In fact, Xu Qing even spotted Yao Yunhui. [1]

    All of Zhang Siyun¡¯s life was there. However, they didn¡¯t stretch all the way to the current moment. Instead... they stopped when Crimson Mother emerged from the blood-colored sky in Forbidden by the Immortal. That was the moment when Zhang Siyun¡¯s destiny changed, and no longer belonged to h¨©m.

    Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change upon sensing h¨©s past. H¨¥ reached out, grabbed thest memory image, and dragged it close. In that image, the canopy of heaven was the color of blood, and Crimson Mother¡¯s finger was shocking and ghastly.

    After looking at it, Zhang Siyun waved h¨©s arm. The image vibrated, then suddenly started expanding rapidly.

    It was overtaking the existing sky, spreading out over the sea, and filling the world! The sky was endless blood and thends... were all ruins. It was as if they were back in Forbidden by the Immortal in Sea-Sealing County.

    Beyond the door, Xu Qing and the Captain were swept up in the effect, and were soon looking around in shock at familiar surroundings.

    There was no way Xu Qing could possibly forget what things were like around him the first time he saw Crimson Mother.

    Back then, sh¨¥ had possessed Zhang Siyun, and was fighting with the fish god in Forbidden by the Immortal. More precisely, it wasn¡¯t really a fight. Sh¨¥ just came to eat. Just before sh¨¥ finished eating, the fish god called out to ¨©ts master, High God wless Hell of the Nine Serenities.

    And then... Crimson Mother¡¯s true form arrived. Images of that event superimposed with reality. Fluctuations rolled through the dome of heaven, along with the color crimson. Countless rifts opened up, then closed, bing innumerable magical symbols. When the sky waspletely red, it began to spin, moving faster and faster until a blood-colored vortex appeared.

    A moon appeared within the vortex.

    A red moon!

    It was extremely gruish. Xu Qing knew that he was actually on the red moon, but when he looked up, he could see that very same moon in the vortex.

    On that red moon was a statue, kneeling with ¨©ts hands covering ¨©ts eyes. The hands slowly lowered. The statue¡¯s mouth stretched wide in a greedy grin.

    This was Crimson Mother¡¯s true self!

    The world shook as the Crimson Mother from Zhang Siyun¡¯s memories of the past slowly rose, then emerged from the vortex. As sh¨¥ stepped out, an infinitude of blood poured out of the vortex, pulsing with godly might that vastly surpassed Zhang Siyun.

    In the face of this, not even Smoldering Gods qualified to take action. The Heir Apparent and his siblings trembled; the mere waves of energy forced them to fall back.

    Death covered all. Withering became eternal. Decay became irreversible. There was no way to resist, nor any way to fight back.

    In that moment of deadly crisis, the Captain suddenlyughed viciously, and his eyes flickered with a crazy look.

    ¡°My freaking ex-wife is so unreliable! Guess I¡¯ve got to man up and handle this myself!¡±

    The Captain red with blue light, and faces appeared in his eyes. A host of mouths opened up all over his body, making him look extremely gruish. He floated up into the air, throwing his arms wide. As he bore the brunt of Crimson Mother¡¯s godly might, his skin was yed. Pain and decay built up in him, but the crazy look in his eyes only intensified.

    ¡°Past life!¡± he shouted. As his voice echoed like thunder, blue light erupted into a vast sea. Then a corpse stepped out of the light. It was abination of the pontiff of the Red Moon Cathedral and his past-life body, which he had fused together. Looking extremely fierce, the Captain shouted, ¡°I¡¯m going for broke, little Junior Brother!¡±

    With that, he blurred into motion toward his past-life body. Reaching it, he shot inside. Then the past-life body¡¯s arms stretched out, and the cultivation base of a Smoldering God erupted. Terrifying fluctuations spread out, all while the projected image of an enormous mosquito appeared behind it. The vicious mosquito had blue, greedy eyes.

    After it wasplete, the Captain¡¯s past-life body charged toward the emerging Crimson Mother. Frigid energy pulsed in all directions, covering the past-life body and the mosquito. In the blink of an eye, the mosquito turned into an ice sculpture that rushed into the vortex.

    The Heir Apparent and the others looked on with flickering expressions.

    Unfortunately... the Captain¡¯s past-life body failed to do anything to Crimson Mother. Crimson Mother¡¯s gaze alone caused the ice sculpture of the mosquito to shatter.

    However, the past-life body continued onward. There was more. In the blink of an eye, the past-life body shattered and turned into a host of blue bugs. The bugs sprouted the wings and mouthparts of a mosquito. Then they madly raced toward Crimson Mother.

    Some of the flying bugs spat out threads that turned into hairs, which in turn formed into the shape of a door.

    An ancient, wooden door was forced to appear. Then, the bugs raced toward the door and started devouring it. It took only a moment for the door to be falling apart, whereupon a howl of rage erupted from inside. All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint.

    Some of the blue bugs raced toward Crimson Mother, while some formed a wooden door, while some devoured the door.

    Thebination of all those things caused the Crimson Mother from the images of the past to stop moving. It onlysted a moment, though. Then sh¨¥ took another step, and everything vanished.

    The iing blue bugs screamed as they were reduced to ashes. The same thing happened to the bugs that formed the door. However, the door was a different type of existence, and the howl from inside didn¡¯t stop. In fact, it became something like booming thunder filling the surrounding world.

    And yet, the entity inside the door didn¡¯te out. Sh¨¥ intentionally remained hidden, and then the door started to ripple as if it was about to flee.

    Meanwhile, something was brewing inside Xu Qing¡¯s heart that could shake all gods and transform the Revered Ancient maind! He currently stood off to the side, seemingly unimportant in every way. But a tempest was building in him!

    When his Eldest Brother said he was going for broke, Xu Qing sent his divine sense into the violet crystal within him, where it made contact with the first image there.

    It was an image of the broken face¡¯s eyes opening. Xu Qing didn¡¯t know what would happen if he brought that image out. But right now, his mind was made up. Using his divine sense to control the violet crystal as best he could, he forced that image to be clear.

    Gradually, it filled the entire violet crystal, then spread out into Xu Qing¡¯s body, until finally... it appeared outside!

    A wind suddenly blew. A sound like the chime of bells filled the shattered world around him.

    The images from Zhang Siyun¡¯s past that filled this area began to tremble because of the wind. Thends began to transform as well.

    The ruins of Forbidden by the Immortal melted like paste. The surrounding area was no longer Forbidden by the Immortal. Instead, it was a small city, deste, silent, and filled with death. The wind changed the sky also. Blood-colored rain fell, drop by drop, and it had nothing to do with red moon authority. Everything withered and decayed.

    Crimson Mother stopped walking. Sh¨¥ was shaking.

    The door stopped fleeing, and seemed rooted in ce. The howling from inside stopped. Sh¨¥ was also shaking.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings simrly trembled.

    A trembling exmation of shock could be heard, and it came from Zhang Siyun.

    Everything shook, and it was thanks to... what was happening in the canopy of heaven. There was a supreme entity there that could crush all of Revered Ancient, and could cause gods to feel reverence.

    ¨©t was a broken face. ¨©t was a human face that loomed over the entire world and all living beings in it. The face was cold, with ¨©ts eyes closed and hair draped down around ¨©t. Beneath ¨©t, the living beings of the world were like bugs. Insects. And the fate of the creatures in the world were ruled by that face, and existed thanks to ¨©ts whims.

    And right now, h¨¥... was opening h¨©s eyes.

    1. Yao Yunhui is Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother. Initially introduced in <u>chapter 374</u>, we learned her name in <u>chapter 393</u>. Shest appeared in <u>chapter 539</u>. ?

 Chapter 702: What Happens When the Broken Face Looks at a God Domain?

    The broken face¡¯s eyes didn¡¯tpletely open. They only cracked open slightly.

    But the moment they cracked open, Xu Qing shivered as indescribable pain swept through him in a furious wave. Shredded strips of bloody flesh flew off him in all directions. His blood vessels copsed, and his bones shattered. Unable to keep standing, he copsed to the ground. His soul and cultivation base both dimmed as though they might cease to exist. He was like a burning candle that powered the broken face¡¯s eyes. Unfortunately, his cultivation base wasn¡¯t sufficient, and thus, even after the eyes had only cracked open, he was already drained to the point of being empty.

    However, the eyes just cracking open was enough to cause the entire world inside the Moon Pce to go deathly silent. The projection of Crimson Mother from the past howled in grief, then began to melt, bing a red mist that rapidly vanished. The wooden door trembled and decayed, letting off a ck steam along with a cry of terror.

    ¡°The Father God....¡±

    The Heir Apparent and the siblings were shaken to the core. Their faces were pale as their bodies experienced serious invasion. This move from Xu Qing affected everyone equally. As long as they were within this world, they were affected.

    The Captain was no exception. He had entered his past-life body and then turned into a host of blue bugs, most of which had been fighting Crimson Mother or devouring the door. But there were a few that were in hiding on the ground below. They had been in the process of merging together to make a new body, but now... they screamed, and their eyes shone with terror.

    However, that terror wasn¡¯t because of the broken face of the god in the dome of heaven. Rather, it was because of the red moon itself.

    Specifically, as the Captain howled, he looked at thends of the red moon... and seemed like he wanted to say something. Except, in a very gruish development, no words woulde out of his mouth. If someone was able to look down from an extremely high position, and take in all of the red moon at once, they would see that the world of the Moon Pce was also being affected.

    A ruined city was visible over all thends, blurry, almost as if it were a ghost city. And a rain of blood fell onto it. The sky was dark, with bolts of lightning streaking across it. There was no thunder. And the rain fell without sound.High above was the broken face of the god, h¨©s expression one of neither joy nor sorrow. It was cold and apathetic, as if to h¨©m, cultivators, mortals, and even gods... were all the same.

    Mutagen from the broken face surged, invading everything. It was domineering and terrifying in a way that surpassed all other gods. In other words, even other gods would be invaded by it.

    After all, in Revered Ancient, h¨©s gaze would make a forbidden region. And when h¨¥ looked at a forbidden region, it would be a forbidden ground. If h¨¥ looked at a forbidden ground, it would be a god domain!

    The Moon Pce was a type of god domain.... And no one knew what would happen if the broken face looked at a god domain. From the time the broken face had appeared in Revered Ancient until now, it had never happened. Never would the broken face look at something more than three times.

    H¨©s gaze could make god domains. But after a god domain formed, h¨¥ wouldn¡¯t look at that spot again!

    The broken face that had appeared came from Xu Qing¡¯s memory images. But the broken face¡¯s personhood was just too advanced. Even though the image wasn¡¯t on the same level as the true form, it still had godly might. In all of the countless years of history in the Revered Ancient maind, this waspletely unprecedented.

    The broken face¡¯s eyes were fixed on a god domain.... The Moon Pce and the red moon itself seemed to freeze in ce... and then they transformed!

    That transformation was profoundly mysterious and abstruse. The first thing that happened was that the Moon Pce and the red moon itself seemed to separate from the same time that governed Revered Ancient. The pce and the moon decayed, then formed back anew.

    Mountains. Boulders. Pces. The moon itself. All of them were changing. And that change had to do with time itself.

    The flow of time on the red moon exploded dramatically! The moon would suddenly look incredibly ancient, only to then copse into destruction, and then would be restored. It was as if it were jumping back and forth between different time periods.

    It was only happening on the red moon. Everything beyond the moon was normal. Everyone present was shaken to the core by the dramatic developments.

    Then High God Moonfire cried out from the wooden door.

    ¡°Stop! If the Father God looks at a god domain, something terrifying will happen! Stop!!!¡±

    High God Moonfire¡¯s voice became a shrill scream that sounded like metal scraping against rock.

    However, because the red moon was jumping back and forth between different points in time, h¨¥r voice couldn¡¯t travel very far. And thus, sh¨¥ eventually had no choice but to project a message to the Captain.

    The Captain, whose body had just reformed and was nowying there shivering, was unable to stop himself from screaming. Eyes filling with terror, he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Stop, little Ah Qing! If the broken face looks at a god domain... it¡¯ll turn into a <em>god world</em>. God worlds are iprehensible and absolutely terrifying!¡±

    The Captain started crawling anxiously toward Xu Qing.

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing¡¯s mind was a nk right now. He had no sense of self or soul. It was on instinct alone that hey there looking at the transformations urring to the red moon. As he perceived it, time was like a string with a fixed beginning and a fixed end. But the red moon had no permanent position on that string, and was jumping back and forth between different positions. Every time it moved, it went somewhere different, and the frequency of movement elerated until it was a blur. As the blur intensified, transformations began to ur in the outside world.

    Outside of the red moon, a second red moon became visible! Then a third and a fourth.... Soon, countless red moons filled the void.

    ¡°Space-time... is out of control...¡± the Captain murmured, his voice trembling. ¡°At first, the broken face¡¯s gaze caused the red moon to fill with the concept of time. Then it erupted into movement. After that... it was assigned a fixed point in space. Then countless points of space appeared, along with countless red moons. Thatbined into space-time. Actually, it could be one, or it could be many.¡±

    Moaning, the Captain kept crawling forward.

    There was no end. Originally, all of the red moons were moving in space-time. In other words, they all flickered in their own time. But with an innumerable amount present, they... no longer conformed to their own individual ce in space-time. As they moved, their space-time interfered with each other, creating ovepping superimpositions. They scattered, sometimes bing dozens, sometimes bing hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands. As they swirled, they interacted chaotically.

    There was no order or rule at y!

    Xu Qing and everyone else felt immense pressure. As of this moment, gods and cultivators were on the same level! This was something they couldn¡¯t face and couldn¡¯t resist. Everyone was copsing, bleeding, reeling.

    Eventually, the countless red moons fused with each other, turning all of their space-time into a haze. And behind that haze... there was something.

    Xu Qing looked on in astonishment. And when things became clear, he shivered from head to toe. At the same time, all of the red moon¡¯s heaven and earth froze in ce and ceased to move. It wasn¡¯t just the red moon where Xu Qing was. All of the red moons went still.

    Then, they stopped building their power, and instead began to destroy themselves! One red moon after another copsed and dissipated. They were wiped out as if they had never existed to begin with. Eventually, the only left was the one Xu Qing was on. And then the concept of time disappeared from it.

    However everything appeared before, that was how it went away. In an instant, the red moon was back to normal. The Moon Pce was restored. Everything went back to the way it was before. The surrounding ruins vanished. The broken face disappeared.

    From beginning to end, h¨¥ only opened h¨©s eyes a sliver. Xu Qing¡¯s power couldn¡¯t sustain h¨©m, and thus... h¨¥ closed h¨©s eyes. As of now, the violet crystal did not contain any image of the broken face of the god.

    As everything went back to normal, the time surrounding Crimson Mother from Zhang Siyun¡¯s memories shattered, and along with it, sh¨¥ turned into ash. Time vanished, and Zhang Siyun was revealed. H¨¥ hovered there trembling, h¨©s expression no longer calm and tranquil. He looked terrified. And h¨©s body was rapidly withering as if with age. The trembling wooden door of High God Moonfire was rapidly disappearing. The Heir Apparent and the siblings were unconscious.

    The Captain... had climbed over to Xu Qing, and had opened his mouth as if to bite Xu Qing awake. Seeing everything returning to normal, his eyes went wide.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± he said in a low voice, ¡°you¡¯ve got to promise me not to use that move in the home of a god....¡±

    Xu Qing looked exhausted. Gasping for breath, he struggled into a seated position. Lingering fear spread through him. Moments before, he¡¯d had no idea the reasons for what was happening, but he had definitely felt immense terror.

    With some effort, he looked up at the Captain, and then at the distant Zhang Siyun.

    Zhang Siyun was crumbling into nothing. H¨©s legs vanished. H¨©s arms disappeared. H¨©s torso started copsing into dust. Ultimately, h¨¥ was wiped out of existence. Xu Qing watched h¨©m disappear. The crown of thorns on h¨©s head emitted cracking sounds as it crumbled, ultimately leaving behind... a single section!

    That small section glittered with violet light. Based on what Xu Qing could sense, it was somehow simr to his violet crystal. As it shone, Zhang Siyun appeared within the light, and h¨¥ spoke in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°So close. Xu Qing... you came so close to wiping my true form out of existence.... But in the end, my true form is still here. I¡¯m unharmed.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, but his facial expression didn¡¯t change much. That was because he was the type of person who always liked to have a backup n.

    ¡°Your Majesty,¡± he said softly.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit materialized directly in front of Zhang Siyun. He was not there to fight. Instead, he had something in his hands that he shoved toward Zhang Siyun¡¯s face.

    Then he disappeared. As he faded from view, he couldn¡¯t help but nce at Xu Qing, his gaze filled with apprehension.

    Meanwhile, Zhang Siyun¡¯s expression transformed. Something had been put onto h¨©s face.

    It was a mask. More precisely, it was the facial skin of an old man, his expression one of sorrow, his face full of wrinkles.

    The mask¡¯s name... was Mercy.<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    There is a detailed exnation of the significance of this mask in the

    </blockquote>

 Chapter 703: Someone Used a Fragment of My Time

    Back in Forbidden by the Immortal, Master Seventh took his two apprentices to a location to look for immortal skills. From the many skin masks there, he had picked two, one each for Xu Qing and the Captain. [1]

    Those two skin masks were, in fact, immortal skills. One of the immortal skills was the Heavenly Dog, which suited the Captain¡¯s personality. The other didn¡¯t really suit Xu Qing, but in consideration of his good friend the head, he had taken it. That skill was called Mercy.

    It had a simple function. Whoever put it on would rece the subject of their gaze in whatever they were experiencing.

    Xu Qing had previouslye up with the idea of having the head wear the mask. Then, when Xu Qing himself was facing some deadly crisis, the head could share the burden with him. However, from that time until now, Xu Qing had never encountered the proper circumstances to use the mask¡¯s function.

    Until now.

    Immortal skills and god magics were different in many ways. But in the final analysis, they were both gruish types of magic. In fact, Master Seventh had mentioned that, ording to the ancient records, such techniques had once been called forbidden magics. Later on, the name was changed to ¡®immortal skill¡¯ to sound better.

    That said, Xu Qing was aware of the side-effects of the Mercy immortal skill. And that was that it didn¡¯t require a sustained gaze.... A single look was enough.

    Therefore, as soon as the skin mask settled onto Zhang Siyun¡¯s face, Xu Qing unhesitatingly looked away from his Eldest Brother and instead focused on the second image in the violet crystal.

    He hadn¡¯t been able to get the broken face¡¯s eyes to open all the way. And he had also lost a lot of life force. But that was because the broken face of the god had a personhood that was far superior to his own. But the second image featured the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, whose personhood was obviously a long way from being the equal of the broken face. Thus, Xu Qing was going to attempt to release that second image. And the reason he was doing it was because of the Captain¡¯s gaze.The two of them had known each other for so long that they often didn¡¯t need to speak to each other. A look was often enough for them to reach an understanding. And thus, the Captain leaned forward and bit into Xu Qing¡¯s arm.

    This bite was not for the purpose of devouring. It was a bolstering.

    The Captain sent life force streaming into Xu Qing. He definitely didn¡¯t have enough life force to sustain the broken face. But when it came to the second image, he could try.

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing as the violet crystal flickered brightly. He then became like a light source casting violet light in all directions. He could have considered concealing the light in some way, but he didn¡¯t. In fact, not only did he not cover it up, but actually, he unleashed as much light as possible. The glow was very simr to thating from Zhang Siyun¡¯s crown of thorns.

    It all happened in the briefest of moments. As violet light shone off Xu Qing, Emperor Ancient Spirit put the skin mask onto Zhang Siyun.

    Zhang Siyun shivered inwardly. H¨¥ was a doppelg?nger of Crimson Mother, and had some degree of omniscience and omnipotence. However... Emperor Ancient Spirit had the same personhood as h¨¥ did. And because of that, Zhang Siyun¡¯s omniscience and omnipotence slowed down.

    In a moment like this, such slowing could be fatal. After all, h¨¥ had no idea what that skin mask would do. Most importantly, the violet lighting off Xu Qing attracted h¨©s notice, as it stimted the crown of thorns h¨¥ was wearing. As a result, h¨©s gaze automatically focused on the violet lighting from Xu Qing.

    The moment h¨¥ looked at Xu Qing, h¨¥ shivered as an image filled h¨©s mind.

    H¨¥ wasn¡¯t the only one who saw it. The Captain and Emperor Ancient Spirit also saw that image floating in the Moon Pce.

    The dome of heaven was overtaken, turning dark, and filling with a blood rain. Thends became ruins, and Xu Qing was standing in the middle of them. He was superimposed over a young boy in the image. That boy was crying and confused. Helpless. Terrified. And all of those feelings passed from him, into Xu Qing, and beyond.

    Lightning snaked through the sky, but there was no broken face in the image. Instead, there was a young man in a ck robe. He was extremely good-looking, very simr to the older version of Xu Qing. Looking at Xu Qing, he sighed and walked forward.

    The blood rain parted for him as he approached Xu Qing from behind. Looking tenderly at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t cry, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    His warm, kind voice caused both Xu Qing and the boy to turn around. But then... a destructive force exploded in the boy¡¯s head. A boom rang out as the boy¡¯s head exploded, and his body flopped onto the ground, dead. Xu Qing shivered, and cracks spread out over him. That was especially true of his head, which looked like it was about to copse into pieces.

    But then, Zhang Siyun, who was watching all of this happen, moaned in agony. And the crown of thrones atop h¨©s head erupted with violet light. H¨¥ was fighting back!

    What h¨¥ was observing then entered h¨©s body, as the immortal skill of Mercy made h¨©m substitute for the injuries and death. This was mercy via substitution.

    What happened to the boy in the image was transferred to Zhang Siyun. H¨¥ screamed in agony as the world rumbled, and the Moon Pce shook violently. Zhang Siyun¡¯s newly reformed body had just been injured by the broken face, leaving h¨©m extremely weak. To be suddenly hit with such destructive force caused h¨©s body to start copsing again, from limbs to torso to head. H¨©s eyes filled with pain, confusion, and disappointment. Those were the emotions from the boy.

    Then Zhang Siyun¡¯s head exploded. The crown of thrones vibrated and then copsed, until only the tiny violet section was left, which fell to the ground.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger didn¡¯t exist anymore. Zhang Siyun was really and truly dead.

    The mask faded away.

    In the blink of an eye, the Captain¡¯s body of worms lunged forward with incredible speed toward the violet section of the crown of thorns.

    Off to the side, Emperor Ancient Spirit suddenly appeared, and also lunged forward. H¨¥ seemed like h¨¥ was about to grab the section of the crown, but then the Captain howled and summoned a projection of a heavenly dog. The dog lunged forward with mouth gaping wide.

    Next, blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. Blood also poured out of countless wounds on his body. As he staggered backward, he saw what was happening, and the violet light around him surged.

    ¡°That¡¯s mine!¡± he said.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit stopped in ce. If any other person had said those words, h¨¥ would have ignored them. Having seen Xu Qing unleash terrifying power twice in a row, h¨¥ was very leery of him. Thinking about the feast toe, h¨¥ held back.

    The Captain in heavenly dog form pounced on the section of the crown, gobbled it up, then raced back toward Xu Qing, all while glowering at Emperor Ancient Spirit.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at the Captain and then Xu Qing. H¨¥ seemed about to speak, when all of a sudden, a shriek of rage erupted from the depths of the Moon Pce. It was not a sound that a cultivator could make. Its reverberations caused red light to erupt all over the red moon. The ground melted, turning into a sea of blood.

    The reek of gore filled heaven and earth. The aura of a god was erupting.

    At that moment, all of the Moonrite Region shook.

    It was... the voice of Crimson Mother. Sh¨¥ was actually waking up!

    ***

    Several regions away from the Moonrite Region, in the very middle of the Revered Ancient maind, was a region that humans considered something like a holynd.

    Its name was: the Imperial Region.

    It was so far from the Moonrite Region that a cultivator who tried to fly between the two locations could spend an entire life doing so and notplete the journey. In the middle of the Imperial Region was a magnificent city that was asrge as an entire county. It was full of countless amazing buildings, as well as innumerable humans. And the most prominent building in the city was the luxurious imperial pce.

    In a grand hall in that pce, two people sat ying Go.

    One of them was a middle-aged man in a yellow robe. His hair was bound with a pin engraved with a dragon, and he sat in a way that suggested hemanded ultimate power. He pulsed with incredible pressure, and the imperial aura that surrounded him caused projections of dragons to swirl around, exhaling the light of daybreak.

    He was the reigning emperor!

    He was naturally impressive, with austere facial features and eyes that seemed to contain heavenly bodies. Fiddling with one of the white game pieces, he calmly said, ¡°Imperial Preceptor, what do you think about how the war with the Nightshades ended?¡±

    He was about to ce the game piece on the table when his eyes flickered and he looked at the person seated across from him.

    ¡°Preceptor?¡±

    Seated on the other side of the board was a young man wearing a long violet gown. He was bewitchingly handsome, with long hair that reached the ground, each strand of which seemed to contain suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies.

    If Xu Qing were here, he would recognize this person immediately. He was... the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan! He looked at the ck game piece he held, and it was as if a cloud had passed through his glittering eyes. Hearing the emperor¡¯s voice, he dispelled the cloud.

    ¡°Sorry, Your Majesty. Someone just used a fragment of time that belongs to me.¡±

    A profound look flickered in the emperor¡¯s eyes. He put the white game piece onto the board, and then was about to speak when, all of a sudden, his expression flickered. He looked outside and into the sky.

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan also looked up with narrowed eyes. There was a huge dragon in the sky, which unleashed a roar that echoed far and wide as it looked up into the sky.

    They weren¡¯t the only ones to react like that. A terrifying aura exploded from somewhere within the imperial capital, quickly locking down the dome of heaven.

    All gazes were fixed on one thing.

    The broken face of the god. The broken face¡¯s eyes were closed, but just now, the head in general had shifted directions. The broken face was now facing south! That was the direction of the Holytide Region, as well as the Moonrite Region. In other words, it was the direction of the red moon.

    Numerous species noticed what happened. In the shortest of moments, all of Revered Ancient was thrown into astonishment. Not many people understood why the broken face would do such a thing. Because of Crimson Mother¡¯s authority, no one had any way of checking to see what was happening in the Moonrite Region.

    Regardless, h¨©s movement caused top experts throughout Revered Ancient to reel in shock.

    1. The arc in which Master Seventh got immortal skills for them started in chapter 520.1. ?

 Chapter 704: Li Zihua and Crimson Mother

    <h4>Chapter 704: Li Zihua and Crimson Mother</h4>

    Among those reeling in shock were the Nightshades, including the Smoldering Gods there.

    That said, something very dramatic was happening in Nightshadends as well. War had broken out!

    When the human emperor unleashed two Dawning Suns in a row on the Nightshades, they were spectacrly defeated. There were countless casualties, and the Nightshades were ultimately forced to retreat all of their forces into the interior of theirnds. There, they activated their own domain treasure to defend themselves. Human forces fell back, but kept the light of the Dawning Suns shining over the Nightshades, which ensured that casualties continued to mount. In the years that had passed, countless Nightshades had died, and very few had been born to rece them. The war had been extremely costly to the Nightshades, to the point where their very foundation as a species had been shaken. What was more, their god had apparently abandoned them; despite endless calls for help, no assistance had been provided.

    The Nightshades had thus been driven into despair. Because of their unique physical characteristics, life had been extremely difficult. They had absolutely no strength left to continue waging war, and had been focused on simply surviving the bleak times.

    But then, despite the fact that they had tired of war... war came.

    Aggression came from the Holytide Region in the form of an army gathered by the humans and Grand Duke Holytide. That army managed to pierce a hole in the Nightshades¡¯ defenses. Once that hole was opened, armies poured in.

    The leader of the human forces wasn¡¯t Seventh Prince.... Instead, it was a powerful expert from his mother¡¯s n, one of the thirty-three heavenly kings of humankind.

    King Heaventide!

    He was Seventh Prince¡¯s maternal uncle! He personally led the armies to wage war on the Nightshades, and he was also the one who used a precious treasure to break through the Nightshade defenses.

    Even Grand Duke Holytide was respectful when dealing with King Heaventide! That was because every single one of the thirty-three heavenly kings... was a Smoldering God!

    Even as the bitter fighting and ughter yed out, aggressors and defenders alike in the Nightshadends looked up into the dome of heaven at the broken face. It didn¡¯t matter the level of cultivation base involved.

    ***

    In the Moonrite Region, on the red moon, inside the Moon Pce... the aura of Crimson Mother surged.

    Thend inside the Moon Pce had turned into a viscous sea of blood. As the sea of blood churned, the Heir Apparent and his siblings woke up one after another and backed up to where Xu Qing was located. All of them were extremely weak. Xu Qing was also badly hurt, as was the Captain. All of them were likemps without much oil left to burn.

    ¡°We can¡¯t do much about what happens next,¡± the Captain said hoarsely.

    Xu Qing nodded as he looked out at the blood sea.

    The sea seethed, causing rumbling sounds to spread out as it formed a vortex, out of which emerged a figure. The figure was not humanoid. It appeared to be made of countless fleshy wings all stuck together, interlocking to create a host of tentacles that swayed back and forth. In the middle of the tentacles was a face. However, the face had no skin on it. It was only bloody flesh that twitched and wriggled as it emanated a terrifying aura.

    Surrounding the face were row upon row of eyes, somerge and some small. The image of Xu Qing and the others could be seen reflected in those eyes. It was extremely gruish.

    Sh¨¥ had no arms or legs, and was more like a statue made of flesh and blood. Terrifying pressure caused the Moon Pce to ripple and distort, and the effect soon spread to the red moon and the Moonrite Region as a whole.

    This was Crimson Mother¡¯s true form!

    Xu Qing and everyone else felt pain mounting in their skulls. It was as if they couldn¡¯t even tolerate this presence. In fact, their eyes automatically adjusted the physical appearance of this god.

    To them, Crimson Mother transformed into a woman with long, blood-colored hair and a matching robe. H¨¥r face had no eyes, only two gaping, bloody holes. Blood flowed down, covering h¨¥r body. A vine of thorns encircled h¨¥r, and as sh¨¥ walked, the thorns pulsed as if they were absorbing h¨¥r blood. Behind h¨¥r was a host of blood-red p¨¡ramit¨¡ lilies.

    Every step sh¨¥ took caused a new flower to appear. Shockingly, within every flower was an image that resembled h¨¥r in every way. They danced and swayed, superimposing with each other... just like the scene that had yed out earlier on the red moon.

    When sh¨¥ appeared, a godly might arose that far surpassed anything from Zhang Siyun, and seemed capable of toppling mountains and draining seas. In fact,paring the two was likeparing the full moon to a firefly!

    ¡°You can¡¯t look directly at a god...¡± the Captain said. ¡°That¡¯s why we instinctively protect ourselves, our perceptions altering to reflect something we <i>can</i> look at.¡±

    Xu Qing watched Crimson Mother approaching, and mused that if he didn¡¯t look at h¨¥r eyes, sh¨¥ was actually quite beautiful. It was a beauty that ordinary living things couldn¡¯t possess. However, as sh¨¥ walked, h¨¥r features changed.

    asionally, sh¨¥ would look like someone else, a man, with facial features distorted in pain as if h¨¥ was being digested. At the same time, h¨¥ pulsed with godly might. That face belonged to the High God that Crimson Mother had devoured, wless Hell.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings closed their eyes. They had chosen not to act, but instead, to wait.

    The Captain took a deep breath. He also chose to simply wait.

    Xu Qing knew who they were waiting for.... Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua.

    As it happened, the aura of awakeninging from the enormous statue of Li Zihua on the Penitence Steppes suddenly vanished.

    He opened his eyes. Those eyes contained the passage of countless years as he looked out at the Moonrite Region. His gaze caused the region to light up. The blood-colored rifts in the sky turned into rosy clouds. The violently shakingnds calmed, bing towering mountain ranges. The withering vegetation changed, bing lush nts and towering trees as far as the eye could see. Everywhere he looked teemed with hope and life.

    Only the red moon was the color of blood.

    Li Zihua looked up at the red moon that he held in his hands. He let it go.

    The red moon didn¡¯t go anywhere. It just hovered in midair.

    Li Zihua took a few breaths, then walked toward the moon. His every step caused golden ripples to spread out, forcing the red light to dim. Stepping onto the moon, he walked toward the Moon Pce. By the time he arrived, Crimson Mother had fully emerged from the blood-colored vortex. Sh¨¥ looked at him.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time,¡± he said.

 Chapter 705: Secrets of Deep Earth and Brilliant Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 705: Secrets of Deep Earth and Brilliant Heaven</h4>

    Li Zihua¡¯s voice contained immense profundity. Though he spoke softly, the entire red moon trembled as a result. And the sound waves caused the blood sea surrounding Crimson Mother to go still.

    Xu Qing and everyone else breathed sighs of relief as they backed up. They all knew that the fight toe wasn¡¯t something they could participate in. Not even Smoldering Gods qualified.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s face was expressionless. mes burned to life in the bloody pits that were h¨¥r eyes. Apparently, sh¨¥ didn¡¯t seem surprised at all to find that Li Zihua had awoken.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s voice didn¡¯t contain even a scrap of emotion, neither joy nor sorrow, as sh¨¥ said, ¡°Dark Serenity left. Time itself changed. It¡¯s pointless for you to have woken up, Li Zihua.¡±

    The scene ying out was different for everyone.

    Each person¡¯s perceptions changed to amodate what they could sustain. For example, the Heir Apparent and his siblings saw Crimson Mother as a vicious, evil, terrifying humanoid figure covered with feathers. And instead of fire burning in h¨¥r eye sockets, sh¨¥ had two stars. That was how gods worked. Because of existing on a much higher level of life, gods would look different to the eyes of different living beings.

    If a god wanted to destroy a world, it was simple. The god just needed to reveal their true image into the eyes of the living beings, and death woulde. That alone made it clear how terrifying the broken face of the god was, as all living beings, regardless of the level of their cultivation base, perceived h¨©m in the same way.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s voice echoed like thunder in the ears of Xu Qing and the others. In the blink of an eye, they were rendered powerless.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings used various methods to be able to sustain the force.

    As for Xu Qing, he unhesitatingly took out a clump of y and held it out in front of him. It was from the y fox.

    Next to him, the Captain took out a strand of hair, which was the authentication device from High God Moonfire. Although the High God had already left, the Captain still had that hair.

    Only Li Zihua didn¡¯t need anything like that. He stood silently in the Moon Pce, looking at Crimson Mother. A long moment passed.

    ¡°The mission still stands,¡± he said.

    Those four words seemed to be profoundly irritating to Crimson Mother. More blood than ever flowed down h¨¥r, and the vine of thorns tightened. The countless versions of h¨¥r visible in all the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lilies suddenly looked furious.

    ¡°Mission? Do you mean Brilliant Heaven¡¯s mission? Or are you talking about Deep Earth¡¯s mission? Have you forgotten what happened in Brilliant Heaven, Li Zihua? We were originally born as gods. So who sealed our ancestors, ensuring that all their descendants lost their position as gods?¡± [1]

    Li Zihua closed his eyes and shook his head. ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten.¡±

    Crimson Mother red with blood-red light as sh¨¥ started walking toward Li Zihua. ¡°Who was it that hoisted the heavenly daos over our godlynds to suppress us? And who was it that banished us beneath the Revered Ancient maind, and then built a cultivation world on our godlynds?¡±

    As Crimson Mother¡¯s voice echoed out, h¨¥r spectacrly beautiful female features transformed. Cracks covered them, and blood-colored feathers began to rece the flesh.

    ¡°I chose godly ascension, Li Zihua, and it was no mistake. When you left, you were the same as me. Yet for some reason you chose to extinguish your godfire and betray our bloodline! You¡¯re from Brilliant Heaven, but you chose Deep Earth instead! Well, I¡¯m from Brilliant Heaven, and I still chose to represent Brilliant Heaven!¡±

    As thest of h¨¥r words left h¨¥r mouth, sh¨¥ appeared directly in front of Li Zihua. As of now, sh¨¥ looked different to Xu Qing. Instead of looking like a woman, sh¨¥ seemed like the same terrifying conglomeration of bloody flesh from before. And now, all of the feathers opened up, revealing an interior of blood, flesh and feathers. In the middle of it all... was a huge eye socket with no eye inside of it, only endless blood pouring out.

    As Crimson Mother spoke and neared, Li Zihua did nothing but sigh. Then he lifted his right hand and pushed it toward the dome of heaven.

    The sky shattered. As the pieces fell, they transformed, bing heaven-shaking, earth-shattering streams of energy. In the end... they turned into a host of shadowy figures.

    There were suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies, as well as animals that resembled dragons, phoenixes, and other primordial spirits. Xu Qing even spotted a golden crow. As they appeared, and as the energy swept out, the fluctuations of imperial-ss techniques rose up. All of them were imperial-ss techniques, from countless species. There were roughly 10,000 of them, and with one wave of his hand, Li Zihua summoned all of them.

    The moment the over 10,000 imperial-ss techniques appeared, they revealed their taboo essences. In the blink of an eye... it was as if the imperial-ss techniques were all unsealed. Countless weapons and other objects appeared, including the destructive spear Xu Qing had found in his golden crow.

    They were taboo weapons!

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled out as they all shot toward Crimson Mother.

    Xu Qing had previouslye to understand the secret of imperial-ss techniques by studying the golden crow within him. He knew that each imperial-ss technique was actually a sealed item that had been prohibited by the heavenly daos. Seeing them all right now caused his heart to pound. A divine ability like this seemed unimaginable. Not even Smoldering Gods could do something like this. Only an Imperial Sovereign would be able to unleash such shocking power.

    Whether it was Crimson Mother¡¯s attack or Li Zihua¡¯s counter attack, they both surpassed what anyone present could understand. Xu Qing and everyone else coughed up mouthfuls of blood as they backed away. And the scene ying out continued to change ording to what they could sustain.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see Li Zihua or Crimson Mother. The shattering of the canopy of heaven was overtaken by another image. That image was made up of two colors: red and white.

    The two colors crissed and crossed, then separated. The canopy of heaven was in motion as it transformed into a massive vortex. In the middle of the vortex was a solitary white eye with no pupil, but instead, a blood-red heart, the beating of which sounded like heavenly thunder. The eye was surrounded by innumerable eyshes that were like tentacles, swaying back and forth. asionally, they would touch each other and form blurry shapes of a third color. That color was ck, and the shapes were irregr. The moment they appeared, they would devour each other.

    That was what Xu Qing saw happening in this godly battle. The fighting surpassed his own personhood, and therefore, to his eyes, the battle between Li Zihua and Crimson Mother looked like an abstract painting.

    The red represented Crimson Mother, and the white represented Li Zihua. The third color was beyond Xu Qing¡¯sprehension, as if it rted to the shadows of Li Zihua and Crimson Mother.

    It made Xu Qing think of his own shadow.

    The Captain was firmly gripping Moonfire¡¯s hair, all while staring up into the canopy of heaven. ¡°Little Ah Qing, remember what you¡¯re seeing. This is a sh between two peak levels of life. A cultivator and a god! On one side you have the ultimate height you can reach when walking the path of cultivation. On the other side you have godly ascension, in other words, the source of great catastrophe for Revered Ancient.

    ¡°The former involves practicing cultivation until you reach the peak of life. Such cultivators are referred to in different ways. In some universes, people who reach that level are called paragons. In others, they¡¯re called immortals. In Revered Ancient, peak cultivators like that are called Imperial Sovereigns. It¡¯s the life dream of all cultivators.¡±

    As the Captain spoke, his voice seemed to contain a profound level of age. ¡°Little Junior Brother, did you know that there¡¯s an even older legend in Revered Ancient...?¡±

    ¡°Legend?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s heart started racing.

    ¡°ording to that legend, a really long time ago, the Revered Ancient maind didn¡¯t look like it does now. There were no cultivators, no naturalws, no magicalws, and of course, no heavenly daos.

    ¡°The cultivators came from lower worlds. In those lower worlds, cultivators who reached the highest level of cultivation reached the Immortal level. They traveled among countless universes and worlds, unhindered and unthreatened. They controlled all naturalws, and were enlightened regarding all manners of essence. They could pierce through space-time with ease, transform all beings, and create all sorts of living things.¡±

    Hearing this, Xu Qing felt shaken.

    Looking up at the canopy of heaven, the Captain continued, in a low voice. ¡°Immortals. Imperial Sovereigns. In some ways, they¡¯re eternally indestructible, with longevityparable to heaven itself, and different thoughts and desirespared to when they began their journey. And the daos they pursue are actually a starting point when they reach the end of the path of cultivation.

    ¡°Based on their unique experiences, perceptions, and ideals, those starting points are different for everyone. Some immortals go far beyond that, while others remain stuck in ce. That¡¯s why, in the previous era, only immortals could be a threat to immortals.

    ¡°In fact, as they made progress... they broke through the barriers of their world. They advanced from the lower worlds to the higher worlds, which was when the immortals came to know about another type of apex entity. The gods. That was when everything changed.

    ¡°They were told that the countless universes and worlds they knew actually didn¡¯t belong to cultivators. The past, the present, and the future. Anything and everything. In the final analysis, it all belongs to the gods. And the gods had divided the worlds into the lower and higher.

    ¡°The lower worlds were called Deep Earth. The higher worlds were called Brilliant Heaven. At that time, the most appropriate way to describe cultivators was <i>frogs in a well</i>. And that... was when war broke out. The immortals and the gods battled each other. The lower worlds fought the higher worlds. In other words... it was a war between Deep Earth and Brilliant Heaven.¡±

    The Captain stopped talking for a moment.

    ¡°How did it end?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°The immortals won,¡± the Captain said. ¡°But they also lost. Brilliant Heaven fell, and became forbidden and sealed. The heavenly daos rose up. Naturalws brought new meaning. That was how the immortals won. But at the same time, all the immortals from the lower worlds came to realize a desperate truth.

    ¡°The massive Brilliant Heaven was just one of many major god worlds. The vast and boundless higher worlds... contained many, many such major god worlds. Brilliant Heaven was only the tip of the iceberg. And it wasn¡¯t the strongest of them. It really and truly did belong to the gods.¡±

    The Captain turned and looked Xu Qing in the eyes.

    ¡°Li Zihua and Crimson Mother... are both from Brilliant Heaven.¡±

    1. As mentioned in the footnote in <u>chapter 568.1</u>, the term ¡®Brilliant Heaven¡¯ also appears in <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>, although in that novel, it¡¯s always paired with the same term that came up in <u>chapter 642</u> of this novel, ¡®star ring.¡¯ Deep Earth is also mentioned in AWWP. It¡¯s also paired with ¡®star ring.¡¯ In other words, AWWP mentions the Brilliant Heaven star ring and the Deep Earth star ring. Both termse up veryte in the novel. From what I can tell, Brilliant Heaven is also tranted as Brilliant Heaven in that novel. However, Deep Earth is tranted differently. It,bined with the ¡®star ring¡¯ term, is rendered as ¡®thick Saturn ring.¡¯ That rendering is just horrifying MTL, as the original Chinese is a four-character term that, if parsed incorrectly, has the word for ¡°Saturn¡± in it. However, that¡¯s thepletely incorrect way to parse the characters and interpret the term. Although the immediate context cannot prove one way or another if these terms imply a connection between the novels, it seems like the majority of Chinese readers think it does imply a connection. ?

 Chapter 706: Why Didnâ€™t You Call Me Over Earlier?

    <h4>Chapter 706: Why Didn¡¯t You Call Me Over Earlier?</h4>

    Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua and Crimson Mother fought back and forth in the dome of heaven, and to those below, it still seemed like an abstract painting.

    As for Xu Qing, his heart was pounding. <i>Immortals... Imperial Sovereigns... Deep Earth... Brilliant Heaven... major god worlds....</i>

    The Captain''s words struck his sea of consciousness like bolts of lightning. This information was new to Xu Qing. During his enlightenment of the God Decapitation Altar, he hade to realize that Li Zihua and Crimson Mother weren¡¯t from Revered Ancient, and instead came from a forbidden world. As it turned out, that ce really was known as Brilliant Heaven.

    And though Xu Qing had longe to realize that the Captain knew a lot of things, at the moment, he couldn¡¯t help but inhale deeply and ask, ¡°How do you know so many secrets, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain smiled enigmatically. ¡°I said it was a legend, little Junior Brother. What, you actually think it¡¯s all true?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. ¡°How many lives have you lived, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times. He was actually very pleased to see Xu Qing reacting like this. Inside he was thinking, <i>Oh, little Junior Brother, at longst you¡¯reing to realize how awesome your Eldest Brother is, huh?</i>

    The Captain cleared his throat. <i>¡°Before heaven existed, I was there; when there was no earth, I had already been born.¡±</i>

    ¡°I think you need to stop hanging around Wu Jianwu so much, Eldest Brother.¡± Xu Qing looked away from the Captain. It didn¡¯t matter whether or not the Captain¡¯s story was a legend, and it also didn¡¯t matter how many lives he had lived. What was important was what was happening right now.

    Xu Qing looked up into the sky at the battle of the gods. Because of his personhood and perceptions, he couldn¡¯t see what the fighting was actually like. But he knew that this battle was both critical and meaningful. After all, this was a battle between a cultivator and a god, which was something very few cultivators would ever be able to witness.

    Heart filling with determination, he stimted the violet crystal so that its healing powers spread through his body. Then he gathered taboo poison in his eyes. In the shortest of moments, his eyes turned pitch ck.

    There was more than that, though. He also unleashed his red moon authority, causing blood to swirl around him and form a vortex.

    With those two godly powers, he looked up into the sky. The ¡®painting¡¯ up above changed! The abstract image shifted, almost like a flower blooming. As the effect spread, the two colors within the image intersected. That intersectionsted for a very long time, and at the same time,sted only for an instant.

    Next, the image blurred, and within that blur, Xu Qing saw a person.

    It was Li Zihua. He was in human form as he fought Crimson Mother. Every single attack involved hurling naturalws of Revered Ancient at Crimson Mother.

    The heavenly daos were like furnaces that constantly bolstered his battle prowess. Their fight was not taking ce in a single aspect of space-time. Instead, there were countless aspects of space-time in which they attacked. The scene was very simr to what happened when the gaze of the broken face affected the red moon.

    Numerous taboo weapons screamed toward Crimson Mother with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. Just before striking the target, the weapons would change. Instead of looking like weapons, they looked like gods. It was as if they had actually been gods in the past. Now they had been unsealed and driven to action!

    The fighting seemed simplistic, but Xu Qing realized that was because of the limitations of his perception. If he actually saw the real fighting, he would be destroyed in body and soul. That said, watching Li Zihua in action was deeply moving to Xu Qing.

    <i>I never realized the naturalws of heavenly daos could be used in this way. That makes sense considering that heavenly daos act like furnaces in the secret troves of Spirit Trove cultivators. But in reality... in the hands of high-level cultivators, the ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient can also be furnaces.</i>

    <i>ording to the Captain, Revered Ancient¡¯s ancient heavenly daos were created by the earliest inhabitants.... In that case, that means heavenly daos are actually precious treasures created by cultivators!</i>

    <i>Wherever cultivators go, the first thing they need to do is create heavenly daos! Doesn¡¯t that indicate that once your cultivation reaches a certain level, you can take your heavenly dao and put it into the orbital track of your world... just like the godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral when igniting his godfire?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove appeared behind him, and based on this understanding, he started making some adjustments.

    The bluegreen dragon was there, and it wasn¡¯t just a furnace. It was also a weapon.

    But Xu Qing had learned more than just that.

    <i>As it turns out, the taboo weapons can change in another way. The weapon form is only their exterior shell, not their essence! Their essences... look like gods! Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s because the taboo weapons sealed inside the imperial-ss techniques are actually gods that were defeated in the war between immortals and gods that the Captain just mentioned?</i>

    Xu Qing felt like his mind was tearing apart. What he was seeing, and the thoughts that filled him, made him feel like he was being pushed to the limits of his ability. Yet again, the blurred image he was seeing changed into an abstract painting. Xu Qing once more looked at the fighting between Li Zihua and Crimson Mother.

    Crimson Mother was no longer beautiful like before. H¨¥r form was difficult to describe. Simply put, Xu Qing perceived h¨¥r as being abination of a human body and a mass of fleshy feathers dripping with blood. Sometimes sh¨¥ was more like a woman, sometimes more like the fleshy feathers. Thebination was profoundly gruish. Red threadworms swirled around h¨¥r, vicious in appearance, with terrifying auras and the power of the red moon. Apparently, they were manifestations of red moon authority. Actually, it wasn¡¯t appropriate to use the word ¡®apparently.¡¯ The proper word was ¡®definitely¡¯!

    When Xu Qing looked at them, he experienced a sensation of familiarity. And he also got the distinct sensation that the threadworms were looking at him. His mind spun and blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. As he staggered backward, he coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, and his body began to decay, with bits of flesh sloughing off him everywhere.

    The canopy of heaven was already like an abstract painting, and as he looked down, he saw everything rippling and distorting. Although the sensation ended almost as soon as it began, Xu Qing still felt like his mind was being ripped apart.

    ¡°Red moon....¡±

    Looking down at the ground beneath his feet, he realized he could never forget what he had just seen.

    Based on what he had just seen, the red moon wasn¡¯t made up of soil and rocks. It was made of countless red threadworms! It was like air of worms! And beneath all of the countless red threadworms that made up the red moon, in the very depths, there was a gaze.

    That gaze was cold, yet it felt familiar to Xu Qing. But as everything rippled and went back to normal, Xu Qing had no way to probe for further details. He focused on the power of the violet crystal, coughing up blood as he recovered. As he stabilized, the fighting above changed again.

    Apparently, the rightbination of determination and opportunity had arrived, as High God Moonfire¡¯s ancient wooden door was back. The door was muchrger thanst time, so much so that it seemed like the entire sky was the door.

    And then the door opened!

    A huge figure emerged. At first nce, the figure was the size of a normal person. With the next nce, the figure was iparablyrge, sorge that it seemed impossible to determine its actual size. Countless antlers like that of a deer grew out of h¨¥r head, so many of them that they almost resembled the branches of a tree. In the middle of the antlers was a gray moon that pulsed with a sensation of destruction and death. The head didn¡¯t appear to be either male or female. It was a skull with empty eye sockets that burned with gray fire. And the mouth was nothing but a jagged hole. The body was humanoid, with hands covered in so much blood it looked like a pair of red gloves. The body was covered with gray hair that swayed back and forth like clothing. The only part with no hair was the belly, which was a ck hole that contained starlight, as if it was its own universe.

    This was High God Moonfire.

    Like Crimson Mother, it wasn¡¯t possible for Xu Qing and the others to look directly at h¨¥r, so their perceptions automatically changed until sh¨¥ looked like a middle-aged woman in a gray robe. The woman had pronounced cheekbones and an ice-cold expression. Sh¨¥ had very unique features that some people would find beautiful, while other people wouldn¡¯t.

    High God Moonfire strode to the abstract painting, and as soon as sh¨¥ touched it, the painting changed. There was now another color inside. Gray, which mixed with the white and red. As a result, a third shadow appeared.

    The Captain backed up until he was standing next to Xu Qing. Looking up at the painting in the sky, he proudly said, ¡°My ex-wife is a real foodie. I was sure she would show up eventually. What do you think? Is my ex-wife pretty or what?¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the Captain and kept his eyes on the painting.

    The Heir Apparent and the others had serious expressions on their faces as they watched the fighting and simrly ignored the Captain. Thanks to the blessing of Fifth Sister, Eighth Sib had returned to life in Princess Brightblossom¡¯s river of time. Though he was incredibly weak, he couldn¡¯t help butment on the situation.

    ¡°We¡¯re not blind. We can see what the old freak looks like. Erniu... I never realized you had such unusual taste. You can even ept something like that...? That said, I¡¯m curious. That hole in h¨¥r belly. Did you do that?¡±

    Eighth Sib¡¯s tongue was as sharp as ever despite him being injured. When the Captain heard his words, his face twitched.

    Turning to Eighth Sib, he said, ¡°Well, Grandpa Eighth¡ª¡±

    ¡°So, it <i>was </i>you,¡± Eighth Sib said with a thoughtful nod. ¡°No wonder sh¨¥ hates you so much. In fact, she didn¡¯t even look at you just now. Come on, Erniu, you¡¯ve got to spill the beans. What other offensive things did you do to her? If we handed you over, would your ex-wife be happy? Would she fight a bit harder?¡±

    Fifth Sister and Princess Brightblossom both looked over thoughtfully at the Captain.

    Looking visibly rmed, the Captain said, ¡°You¡¯ve got it all wrong. I was actually joking around before. High God Moonfire isn¡¯t really my ex-wife. I just said that randomly....¡± As if to prove his point, the Captain quickly took out a peach and bit into it. ¡°I love peaches! And my Lady Peachy is waiting for me back in Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    Eighth Sib looked at him suspiciously. At this point, even the Heir Apparent was looking at the Captain.

    ¡°I think we should take Eighth Sib¡¯s suggestion seriously,¡± the Heir Apparent said.

    The Captain inhaled sharply, and was about tounch into another exnation when Ninth Sib suddenly spoke up.

    ¡°Another one¡¯sing out!¡±

    The sky suddenly changed color again, as if a sheet were being drawn over it. On that sheet was a painting.

    Thest time Xu Qing saw that image, it had been dark and shadowy, but this time it shone with warm light. It depicted a blue sky and a vast sea. In the sky flew innumerable fish. Whales even floated along. It was extremely beautiful. In the sea below, countless birds swam through the water, adding to the beauty. A divine likeness sat cross-legged between the sea and the sky. [1]

    The statue was arge y fox, d in a red robe, emanating golden light that illuminated the sea and the sky with holiness. The fox appeared to be the ruler of that world,manding ultimate respect.

    H¨¥r eyshes fluttered, and h¨¥r eyes opened. Then, sh¨¥ walked forward, swaying out of the painting with seductive grace. As sh¨¥ emerged, h¨¥r appearance changed. Now sh¨¥ looked like a charming, beautiful young woman. The gauzy dress was draped over fair skin in a very attractive manner. Sh¨¥ had an ample chest, long legs, and a tail that swished back and forth behind h¨¥r. All-in-all, sh¨¥ was profoundly flirtatious. H¨¥r soft curves and innate charming nature were unforgettable, and sh¨¥ was so tantalizing that any man who looked at h¨¥r would be filled with temptation.

    After walking out of the painting and into the Moon Pce, sh¨¥ looked around, and h¨¥r eyes focused, not on the battle of gods, but on Xu Qing. Sh¨¥ smiled charmingly.

    ¡°Ever since you left, you naughty little boy, my entire life has consisted of two things. Thinking about you, and waiting for you. Why didn¡¯t you call me over earlier? I¡¯ve been waiting this whole time!¡±

    H¨¥r words, coupled with h¨¥r bewitching gaze and the way h¨¥r lips curled into a faint smile, made it clear sh¨¥ was trying to seduce him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The Captain, meanwhile, was very taken aback. He looked at the gray color in the sky, and then at the flirtatious woman. He was really at a loss for words.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings all looked at the Captain, especially Eighth Sib, who sighed loudly.

    ¡°The two definitely aren¡¯t on the same level.¡±

    1. Xu Qing previously saw this image in <u>chapter 663</u>. ?

 Chapter 707: Attack of the Giant Baby!

    The Captain opened his mouth to speak, but no words woulde out.

    The y fox above was already swaying forward seductively, h¨¥r curves more than prominent as sh¨¥ approached Xu Qing. H¨¥r beautiful eyes shimmered with tender affection as sh¨¥ softly said, ¡°You¡¯ve lost weight, you naughty little boy. Did you miss me while we were apart?¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then rose and bowed. ¡°Well met, High God Starfire.¡±

    When the y fox heard his words, the look in h¨¥r eyes turned into one of hidden bitterness. ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t miss me, naughty boy.¡±

    H¨¥r arrival had caused the Heir Apparent and his siblings to go fully on guard.

    The Captain seemed deeply forlorn, and instinctively looked up at the gray color in the canopy of heaven. He couldn¡¯t help but muse that life really wasn¡¯t worth it. After all, there were two High Gods here, but they could hardly be more different from each other. One of them was indifferent toward him, and actually wanted him dead. The other was obviouslypletely obsessed with his little Junior Brother. If that had been all there were to it, he might have been able to ept it. But what was worse, one of them wasn¡¯t very good-looking, while the other was extremely attractive.

    Though his heart was in chaos, when he heard the words being spoken, he came to the conclusion that, as the Eldest Brother, he should step in to help Xu Qing respond. Walking forward he cleared his throat.

    ¡°Big Sis Starfire, my little Junior Brother is rtively shy. I can answer the question for him. Of course he missed you! He missed you very, very much!¡±

    The y fox frowned and looked at the Captain disdainfully. ¡°Don¡¯t say one word to me, Kidney Boy. I¡¯m worried my naughty little friend might misunderstand. In fact, please get the hell back. Put some distance between the two of us.¡±The Captain inhaled sharply. Neither in past lives nor in the present life had anyone called him Kidney Boy. And if someone called him that who he could beat in a fight, he would instantly get very angry. But considering the level disparity, all he could do was bow his head and back up until he was behind Xu Qing, all while musing that considering the difference in cultivation level between himself and Grandpa Eighth, it was definitely Grandpa Eighth who should have spoken up just now.

    Meanwhile, the y fox looked at Xu Qing and licked h¨¥r lips. Sh¨¥ was about to say something further when rumbling filled the dome of heaven, and the voice of High God Moonfire echoed out.

    ¡°Stop wasting time, you slutty fox. Get over here!¡±

    The y fox smiled faintly at Xu Qing. ¡°I have a quick fight to attend to, naughty boy. We¡¯ll continue our date a bitter.¡±

    Sh¨¥ turned and shot up into the abstract painting. When sh¨¥ entered it, another color appeared. Pink. Now a total of four different colors were shing in the sky. The vortex in the painting was spinning faster and faster. It looked like the red color inside was under a lot of pressure.

    But Crimson Mother was strong. Even with Li Zihua, High God Moonfire, and High God Starfire all attacking h¨¥r, sh¨¥ still wasn¡¯tpletely shaken.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were watching with serious expressions.

    As for the Captain, he was starting to get nervous. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, ¡°When the critical moment arrives, I still have to rely on myself! My ex-wife is just too weak! Little Junior Brother, help me out here. I need you to take this and smack me in the head with it. Hard!¡±

    The Captain took out a scepter and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it. Looking down at it, he saw that it waspletely blue, but also somewhat blurry. And the longer you looked at it, the more you felt drawn into it. This was the very same scepter the Captain¡¯s past-life body, the one formed from his heart, had wielded at Mount Heavenly Ox.

    ¡°This is the Dream Scepter of the Grand Dancer!¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± the Captain said, his eyes gleaming with a crazy look. ¡°I¡¯m going to use that thingy to send the dream shadow of my past life into Crimson Mother. Maybe by awakening h¨¥r human nature, I can disrupt the stalemate!¡±

    A blue worm suddenly flew out from the Captain andnded on the ground in front of him. Then the Captain¡¯s sleeves snapped as he started performing a very strange dance. It looked as if some sort of sacrificial offering was being made right here in the Moon Pce. As the dance proceeded, the Captain started chanting a song. It was impossible to make out the details of the lyrics, but it conveyed a veryplicated sensation.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings noticed what was happening, and in particr, Eighth Sib¡¯s eyes gleamed with a curious light.

    ¡°How interesting....¡±

    As the Captain sang and danced, billowing mist built up around him, shing with seven colors. Within the hazy mist, it was just possible to make out some indistinct images. Those images were dreams. They were dreams of beauty, sorrow, pain, and confusion, and all of them contained human nature. To cultivators, those dreams seemingly contained countless lives, and when they poured into the mind, they were like reincarnation. Anyone who experienced them would feel like they were living over and over again. If the effects became serious, that cultivator might be lost forever.

    But to gods, dreams meant something different than they did for cultivators. For preheaven gods, it might not be as serious of a situation. But postheaven gods had to bnce human nature, animal nature, and godly nature. And if that bnce was disrupted, it could cause everything toe crashing down. In other words, to postheaven gods, dreams of human nature were like a deadly poison. Normally speaking, such poison, though harmful, could be wiped out by godfire rtively quickly. By suppressing them with godliness, the bnce could be restored.

    But Crimson Mother was fighting Li Zihua and two High Gods. Therefore, a loss in bnce could be very dangerous.

    Xu Qing had picked up on that, as had the Heir Apparent and his siblings. All of their eyes began to shine.

    After some thought, the Heir Apparent exhaled, sending his perception-altering powers into the Captain¡¯s mist. The mist seethed as it absorbed that power and became stronger as a result.

    Princess Brightblossom muttered something under her breath and sent out a river of time, giving a sensation of space-time to the dream mist.

    Eighth Sib added in his powers of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures, which made the dream¡¯s human nature even more realistic. In fact, his assistance was much more useful than that from the Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom. After all, Eighth Sib¡¯s authority was rted to emotions, which were a fundamental embodiment of human nature. The mist instantly became much more colorful and dazzling.

    As everyone assisted, the Captain¡¯s dancing sped up, and the mist grew thicker with the power of a dream. From that it could be seen how well the Captain had prepared in his past life here. Eventually, all the dream elements coalesced, and the Captain went stock still. Then his voice echoed out from within all of the dreams, right into Xu Qing¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to heft the scepter and then lunge into the dream mist. Because of the blue light emanated by the scepter, he wasn¡¯t dragged into the actual dreams. Piercing through one dream after another, he eventually reached the Captain. There, he raised the scepter and then brought it crashing down.

    Because the Captain had asked him to use force, he didn¡¯t hold back at all. When the scepter hit the Captain with a thump, his head exploded. However, there was no blood or flesh. Instead, bubbles erupted from his head, which swept through the mist and into the sky. In the blink of an eye, they reached the vortex above, where they split up into a host of smaller bubbles.

    Each smaller bubble caused the vortex in the painting to spin faster, and provoked agonized shrieks from inside. Thanks to the bubbles, the vortex was soon a mass of chaos.

    The eye inside bled. The blood-colored heart began to race. The irregrly shaped eyshes transformed into shadowy shapes that began to devour each other.

    The Captain¡¯s actions had significantly changed this battle of gods. Then, the shadow form of the Captain sped back to the wriggling blue worm, merged into it, then appeared back by Xu Qing.

    ¡°These dreams of human nature are going to make that shrew Crimson Mother suffer!¡± the Captain said proudly.

    It was at that exact same moment that Emperor Ancient Spirit chose toe out of concealment. This time, he wasn¡¯t just a single eye. He was a host of blood-soaked eyes, all of them pulsing with greed as they shot toward the blurry vortex above. As he entered it, the vortex acquired another color.

    With h¨©m in the vortex, the image blurred even further, but at the same time, coalesced into a more cohesive scene. The fleshy feather form of Crimson Mother was visible. The antlered Moonfire was there. Starfire was also present. Starfire, though somewhat different in appearance than before, hadn¡¯t changed as dramatically as Crimson Mother and Moonfire, and was still incredibly charming. Most noteworthy was Li Zihua. From beginning to end, he had maintained the same form. Just now, he had lifted his right hand and pointed out toward nothing.

    The Moon Pce trembled as an enormous, shadowy figure smashed through the barriers of space-time to arrive in the canopy of heaven. It was an enormous me beast, with the body of a horse, the head of a crocodile and the tail of a dragon. A sea of mes spread out beneath its feet, and its eyes shone with incredible majesty. The ancient aura that spread out from it was full of the lineaments of natural and magicalws.

    Next, a second simr beast appeared. This one was a headless giant with two pitch-ck eyes on its chest. Radiating a sense of fury, it carried an entire sea on its back as it stomped forward. It also emanated a profoundly ancient aura.

    After that came a third, fourth, and fifth beast.... And more continued, all of them pulsing with ancient auras as they showed up one after another in the sky. They included solemn humanoid figures, seemingly illusoryherworld souls, and golden magical symbols. There were all manner of ferocious nonhumans that seemed no weaker than gods.... They just kept popping into being until there were a total of ny-nine of them.

    ¡°Ancient heavenly daos!¡± the Captain growled. The dome of heaven seethed with the arrival of the ny-nine ancient heavenly daos. And then, another one appeared.

    It was a huge baby, crawling on hands and knees.... The baby whimpered, though it sounded like thunderps. Tears leaked out of the corners of its eyes, which dripped down its face and nose like rain, then fell to create puddles beneath it. It was crawling from some distance away.

    When the Captain saw the huge baby, his eyes shone brightly, and he turned to look at Xu Qing. Xu Qing also noticed the huge baby, and all of a sudden, his eyes gleamed with a strange light.

    ¡°Son?¡± the two of them said at the same time.<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to <strong>muchysio </strong>and <strong>Azakinu </strong>for the reviews!</blockquote>

 Chapter 708: How Dare You Hit My Daddy!

    <h4>Chapter 708: How Dare You Hit My Daddy!</h4>

    Legend had it that the ancient heavenly daos had been created by the victors in the war between immortals and gods, by means of some boundless magic. By sending them into the world, they bore the brunt of the mission of protection and suppression. That meant suppression of Brilliant Heaven, concealment of all taboos, and the protection of cultivators and conversion of all creation into something suitable for cultivation.

    Each one had a very long history, as well as their own associated myths. They had terrifying power, and years ago, had been converted into natural and magicalws of Revered Ancient. Because of them, cultivators could live, propagate, and be rulers of this world. In the countless years that had passed, the guardianship of those ancient heavenly daos resulted in one species after another rising to glory.

    Every single Ancient Emperor that had ever conquered Revered Ancient was someone that was approved of by the ancient heavenly daos. In some respects, the ny-nine ancient heavenly daos were the protectors of all of the Revered Ancient maind. Time passed. Imperial dynasties came and went, and species rose and fell. But the ny-nine ancient heavenly daos remained constant, bearing witness to Revered Ancient as it flourished over and over again.

    Of course, some situations arose that enraged the heavens. For instance, Emperor Ancient Spirit conquered Revered Ancient and then went insane and tried to possess an ancient heavenly dao. That angered the ny-nine ancient heavenly daos so much that they came in person to crush Emperor Ancient Spirit. As a result, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s dynasty copsed, and the Ancient Spirits were cursed. Of course, Emperor Ancient Spirit suffered the most.

    From that it could be seen where the ancient heavenly daos stood in terms of Revered Ancient as a whole.

    When the broken face of the god arrived, everything changed. The broken face existed on a higher level than the heavenly daos, and was in some ways an expression of the standoff between immortals and gods. The result... was that though the ancient heavenly daos continued to exist, they were severely suppressed and weakened. They did not recover their previous strength, and thus, mutagen invaded Revered Ancient, bringing catastrophe.

    The broken face changed everything. All living things experienced something like the Awakening of Insects. The heavenly daos struggled to continue their mission, but could not prevent the invasion of their own destiny. [1]

    That was why, though Li Zihua had the power to summon heavenly daos, he still died in battle. The heavenly daos were weak.

    But things were different today. Although the ny-nine heavenly daos were still weak, just like they had been back in the day for Li Zihua, this time, it wasn¡¯t Li Zihua fighting Crimson Mother alone. High God Moonfire had joined the fight, and High God Starfire also arrived. Emperor Ancient Spirit came as well. Combined with Li Zihua¡¯s battle prowess, it ensured that Crimson Mother was in a very rare but deadly crisis.

    Crimson Mother was terrifyingly strong, and had already devoured three High Gods. Unlike most gods hidden in Revered Ancient, sh¨¥ had revealed herself openly. Because gods could devour each other, most gods weren¡¯t willing to do that. That was the case with wless Hell, the fish skeleton god, and all the other gods Xu Qing had encountered.

    Only Crimson Mother, being so incredibly powerful, chose to ignore that custom.

    However, sh¨¥ wasn¡¯t invincible. For h¨¥r to face so many other gods at the same time was dangerous. Of course... the characteristics of gods ensured that the chances of multiple gods joining forces was very slim.

    But today, that very rare development was ying out right in front of Crimson Mother. Two High Gods, a weakened Ancient Emperor, and an Imperial Sovereign were all teaming up against h¨¥r. And for the ancient heavenly daos to show up right at the critical moment made that danger even more fatal.

    That said... the number of the heavenly daos wasn¡¯t correct! Crimson Mother noticed it. Li Zihua noticed it. The two High Gods noticed it. And Emperor Ancient Spirit seemed the most surprised of all. He was more familiar with the cultivation of the ancient heavenly daos than anyone else, and he was the first to notice that there was actually an extra ancient heavenly dao!

    ¡°A hundred?¡±

    Emperor Ancient Spirit hesitated for a moment. Down below in the Moon Pce, the Heir Apparent and his siblings were shaken. All of them were well aware that there had always been ny-nine heavenly daos. There was no way their memories could be mistaken, and yet, there were a hundred present.

    Thest heavenly dao to appear looked like a baby. It had greenish skin covered with countless ancient symbols. It also had spikes covering it, and wed hands. Just looking at it would cause one to grow cold in the heart. It was obviously still growing. And it crawled slowly, as if it wasn''tpletely sure which direction to go. Unlike the other ancient heavenly daos, it couldn¡¯t respond with pinpoint uracy to Li Zihua¡¯s summoning.

    It was almost like this ancient heavenly dao had been sleeping when Li Zihua called. That call had stirred its mission, and woken it up. Yet its eyes were still blurry as it instinctively crawled along.

    However... as it crawled, it clearly didn¡¯t know exactly where to go, as it was still a great distance away. And then, the next moment, it was even farther away in space-time, and continuing on in the wrong direction.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings were stunned. And then they heard the words spoken by Xu Qing and the Captain. However, none of them seemed to be able toprehend the connection. After all... calling an ancient heavenly dao ¡®son¡¯ seemed like apletely preposterous and even impossible thing.

    Regardless, the other ny-nine heavenly daos had already begun to unleash a force of suppression. They shot toward the abstract painting, merged inside, and then began crushing Crimson Mother in ways that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t evenprehend. asionally, the red color in the painting seemed like it might copse. It would grow dark, and miserable screams would echo out that sounded like metal scraping against rock.

    As the battle raged, the giant baby was still crawling off into the distance....

    As the Captain and Xu Qing looked at the huge baby, they struggled to control their breathing.

    Finally, the Captain couldn¡¯t hold back from shouting, ¡°Son, daddy¡¯s right here!¡±

    He reached out and grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s arm, indicating that he should do the same thing.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing sent a divine will projection. ¡°I¡¯m right here!¡±

    As the battle raged in the painting, the huge baby off to the side suddenly stopped crawling. Then his eyelids flickered as if he was struggling to open them. He raised his head, and his ears twitched. His expression was one of confusion.

    The Captain started to get excited, and called out again in a loud voice. Xu Qing did the same via divine will.

    Soon, the confused expression on the huge baby¡¯s face turned into one of excitement, as if he were finally hearing the voice of his family. Turning, he started crawling in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain.

    After locking onto his family, the huge baby surged with strength. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, all while winds screamed. The giant baby then appeared in the sky just over the Moon Pce. Having crawled to that point, he turned in the direction of Xu Qing and the Captain and squealed happily. The sound was like heavenly thunder, and it caused Xu Qing and the Captain to both cough up mouthfuls of blood.

    Suddenly, the giant baby heaved itself up onto two legs, then started running toward Xu Qing and the Captain with open arms, as if he sought a hug....

    However, before he could get close, the terrifyingly destructive fluctuations rolling off it smashed into Xu Qing and the Captain, shoving them backward. Even the Heir Apparent and his siblings backed away in surprise. It was only possible to imagine the terrible fate that awaited them if that destructive power got too close to them.

    Seeing all that, the Captain anxiously called, ¡°Son. Son! Don¡¯te over here. There¡¯s a baddy you need to hit. The red one. She¡¯s the bad one!¡±

    The huge baby stopped in ce and looked at Xu Qing and the Captain, his expression both pouty and confused. He was about to make another squealing sound when the ny-nine ancient heavenly daos provoked a miserable shriek from Crimson Mother, which pierced through space-time to leave the abstract painting.

    The moment that sound reached the outside, the Heir Apparent and everyone else trembled as if they might copse. The Captain¡¯s fleshly body exploded, turning into a host of worms that struggled to form back together. Although Xu Qing had a god body, the piercing sound was too much for him to take. In the blink of an eye, half of him copsed into ash, and despite the power of the violet crystal, intense pain filled every corner of him.

    When the giant baby saw that, it trembled, and its face became a mask of rage. Obviously, seeing Xu Qing and the Captain hurt was provoking a reaction of fury from it. The baby turned and locked its gaze onto the red color in the vortex. It squealed again, this time in pain, then started crawling rapidly toward the abstract painting.

    In the blink of an eye, it disappeared inside. That made things even worse for Crimson Mother.

    High God Moonfire, High God Starfire, and Emperor Ancient Spirit took advantage of the moment to unleash their godsource, using a method Xu Qing couldn¡¯t even perceive. A momentter, the abstract painting went still!

    It wasn¡¯t just the painting. It was the entire Moon Pce. The naturalws. The magicalws. Space-time. It was as if all of them had been sealed. It was the same with the life force of Xu Qing and everyone else. The entire red moon went still. The concept of time disappeared, making it impossible to determine how much of it had passed. Perhaps one moment had passed. Perhaps a lifetime.

    Then, a crack appeared in the abstract painting. The crack became the only moving thing, as it rapidly extended in length. Upon looking closely, one would realize that the crack... was on the red part!

    The red was crumbling! Ultimately, the painting fell apart, and all of the red inside of it... was reduced to ashes and disappeared!

    A pulse of intense grief erupted from within the Moon Pce, spreading out over the red moon and filling the Moonrite Region. Off in the distance, all sorts of godly entities and gods sensed what was happening.

    It was caused by the perishing of a god. A god had fallen!

    However, the most intense sorrow wasn¡¯t on the red moon, though, but in the Nine Serenities. As the god perished, a howl of intense grief echoed out from there. The Nine Serenities trembled, and countless deceased souls were thrown into chaos. The howls of grief turned into a tempest that screamed through all eternity.

    1. Quick reminder that volume one is named Awakening of Insects, which is one of the sr terms. <u>Sr terms reference link</u>. ?

 Chapter 709: A Space-Time Transaction

    In the sky above the Moon Pce, the red color copsed, but the abstract painting didn¡¯t fade away! It existed just as before. Then, it slowly began to move.

    The red moon itself trembled. And Xu Qing, thanks to his red moon authority, realized that¡­ The source was still there! The red moon authority he had shared with Crimson Mother had not disappeared! That caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to reel.

    The Captain, meanwhile, managed to form his head again, and as he looked around, he took a deep breath.

    ¡°What perished wasn¡¯t that shrew Crimson Mother! It was actually High God wless Hell of the Nine Serenities! In the critical moment, the shrew stopped devouring wless Hell and then forced him to substitute for her in death!¡±

    Almost exactly as the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, a grim voice spoke from within the painting.

    ¡°Did you really think I wasn¡¯t aware of the truth, Li Zihua? The year you reached godly ascension, you saw the future, didn¡¯t you...? As for me, I¡¯ve always had the personhood of a god, and therefore what you wish for is provided by me! I had a premonition that I would face a cmity in this life, and in order to prepare for it, I devoured the bodies of other powerful gods.¡±

    As the voice echoed out, the entire Moon Pce turned red. And that red color spread out, covering everything, including Xu Qing and everyone else. Their blood went out of control, and everything around them rippled and blurred. Boundless mutagen rose up everywhere. The gray color in the painting started fading away. The pink color darkened. Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eyes started copsing.

    The heavenly daos summoned by Li Zihua started disappearing from view. In the days before theing of the broken face, Li Zihua would have had greatermand of the heavenly daos, and would have been able to continue using them in this fight. But right now... one attack with the heavenly daos was all he could manage. Their mission was to safeguard Revered Ancient, and since they still had to resist the broken face, they were extremely weak. As of now, their mission made it impossible for them to continue. And thus, they faded away.

    The son of Xu Qing and the Captain was still snarling angrily, yet was also growing weak. He wasn¡¯t fully grown yet, and thus he closed his eyes and disappeared.Next, a huge blood-colored tentacle appeared in the abstract painting, which then shot down and mmed into the ground. The tentacle was covered in feathers and also dripped with blood, making it ghastly in appearance while simultaneously pulsing with godly might. A second tentacle appeared, then a third and a fourth. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred tentacles stabbed into the ground. The blood-red color grew more intense.

    A power of awakening pulsed out of the painting, and at the same time... the same thing filled the red moon. The red moon trembled as great rifts opened up on its surface. Red light seeped out, and at the same time, blood-red tentacles covered with feathers spread out from inside!

    Rifts spread, and the tentacles grew more numerous. From a distance, the red moon looked like a giant ball of feathers. As the feather-covered tentacles swayed back and forth, they imparted a gruish and fear-inspiring sensation. It was as if some even more terrifying entity was waking up in the red moon, sending its energy off the moon and into the Moonrite Region below. Astonishingly, it was... Crimson Mother¡¯s energy!

    Li Zihua and the others had been fighting Crimson Mother. But what existed inside the red moon was also Crimson Mother. The red moon trembled violently, and more cracks spread out over its surface. As the energy spread, the surface of the red moon became like a blood-soaked mud of flesh.

    Soon, the red moon... was like a sphere of flesh, almost like a head. It was possible to see the facial features, and they were those of Crimson Mother, including two empty eye sockets. In the forehead position was the Moon Pce, with the eyes beneath that portion. Meanwhile, the abstract painting copsed, and a second head that looked exactly the same emerged.

    High God Moonfire and High God Starfire fell back from that position, their expressions very serious. High God Moonfire stepped over to the area, pulsing with terrifying might and pressure.

    Speaking via divine will, sh¨¥ said, <em>¡°Will the same thing happen as when you people originally summoned the Father God?¡±</em>

    H¨¥r gaze fell on Xu Qing, and sh¨¥ reached out toward him. In the blink of an eye, a clump of pink y popped up in front of High God Moonfire, blocking h¨¥r arm.

    High God Starfire appeared in front of Xu Qing, a smile on h¨¥r beautiful face, but h¨¥r eyes were cold.

    ¡°Sister, he¡¯s mine.¡±

    High God Moonfire¡¯s eyes were just as cold as sh¨¥ looked at Starfire. ¡°Crimson Mother is just on the edge of the High God level, with godfire burning brightly. Sh¨¥¡¯s half a step from erecting h¨¥r god altar. If we don¡¯t stop h¨¥r right now, then this entire fight will have been pointless.¡±

    The Captain, whose head had only just formed back together, looked on with narrowed eyes that glimmered with a crazy look. He turned to Xu Qing. ¡°Little Junior Brother, remember Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    Xu Qing looked in the direction where the giant baby had disappeared. ¡°When you say ¡®Sea-Sealing County,¡¯ Eldest Brother, do you mean the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. The old governor of Sea-Sealing County during the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was named Bai Xiaozhuo.¡± The crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eyes intensified.

    Xu Qing turned his head to follow the Captain¡¯s gaze. ¡°Back in the day, Bai Xiaozhuo used a magic of sacrifice to get the broken face¡¯s eyes to open....¡±

    Hearing that, the Captain chuckled, then lowered his voice. ¡°Little Junior Brother, do you me me for dragging you to the Moonrite Region and getting you involved in all this? At the moment, it seems more and more likely we¡¯re going to lose. I prepared for a long time for this day, but maybe I didn¡¯t prepare enough.¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Eldest Brother, whenever you take me on big jobs, do we ever get through them without unexpected twists?¡±

    If there was no unexpected twist, then it wouldn¡¯t be one of the Captain¡¯s jobs. On the very first asion in which Xu Qing did something with the Captain, he hade to realize that the Captain was crazy. Working with him was always risking your life.

    When the Captain heard Xu Qing¡¯s response, heughed heartily, and the craziness in his voice intensified. ¡°This time, there won¡¯t be any unexpected twist! Little Junior Brother, didn¡¯t you ask me before if I¡¯d intentionally held back from a cultivation base breakthrough, all with the intention of going back to when the godchild was in Nascent Soul?

    ¡°Well you were right! My n was to go to the time period when the godchild was in Nascent Soul. The reason was that I wanted to make a deal with Li Zihua, who was a god at the time! Later on, before we actually stepped onto the red moon, I gave a crazy mission to Fourth Vice-Bishop and the others.¡±

    Rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven as Emperor Ancient Spirit fell back and summoned a ck hole to use as an escape route.

    Only Li Zihua didn¡¯t retreat. He stared at the head of Crimson Mother in front of him, all while pulsing with an energy of destruction and intensely burning mes. He was burning his cultivation base, and everything else about him, as he strode toward Crimson Mother.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s head of flesh and blood emerged from the rift, speaking in a rumbling voice that sounded like all living beings speaking at once.

    ¡°You chose Deep Earth, Li Zihua. You abandoned the path of the gods to be a cultivator. That means you have a weakness that can be exploited. You... are old. You couldn¡¯t stop me back in the day, so how do you think you can stop me now?¡±

    Then, the head shot toward Li Zihua to devour him.

    Li Zihua¡¯s expression remained the same as ever. Fire burned around him, as he allowed Crimson Mother to devour him. And yet, there was something tender in his eyes.

    ¡°Back when I left Brilliant Heaven,¡± he said, ¡°the god ancestor told me that you¡¯re much more suitable for igniting godfire.¡±

    Crimson Mother was about to respond when, all of a sudden, sh¨¥ sent her divine will down to the Moonrite Region. To h¨¥r, the region was nothing but food, so up to now in the conflict, sh¨¥ hadn¡¯t paid any attention to it. But as of now, when h¨¥r divine will swept over the region, sh¨¥ suddenly pulsed with emotional fluctuations.

    At the same time, the fleeing Emperor Ancient Spirit stopped in ce and also looked at the Moonrite Region. High Gods Moonfire and Starfire did the same.

    The Moonrite Region, which had gone unnoticed by all the gods up to this point, was experiencing a dramatic event!

    The Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s Fourth and Second Vice-Bishops, as well as all of their Void Returning subordinates, had note with the Heir Apparent and everyone else to the red moon. They had stayed behind down below. And they had been waiting for this very moment to carry out their mission. They had sealed the cultivation bases of all the Red Moon Cathedral cultivators, and had collected them in seven locations.

    Thergest group was located in the cathedral headquarters on the Penitence Steppes. The other six locations were various church temples located throughout the Moonrite Region. After the Red Moon Cathedral copsed and the godchild died, the rest of the cathedral cultivators were easily captured. And thus, there were a lot of them detained in those seven locations. There were also plenty of captives from the organizations that had sided with the Red Moon Cathedral. The top experts among them had their cultivation bases sealed, and they were now held at those seven locations.

    Taking in the number of captives as a whole, they weren¡¯t as numerous as the living beings Bai Xiaozhuo had sacrificed, in other words, the entire poption of a county. What was more, their varied cultivation bases were also a far cry from what Bai Xiaozhuo had used.

    But that didn¡¯t matter.... In the past, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had single-handedly offered a sacrifice to open the eyes of the broken face of the god. The numbers involved weren¡¯t important. What was more important was the person making the sacrifice.

    As the cathedral cultivators trembled, the spot on the Penitence Steppes where the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s statue had once stood was now wide open.

    And in the middle of that open square was an explosion of white light. The light came from the void. From space-time. From the past. As it appeared, it turned into a majestic figure.

    It was Li Zihua, although not the same Li Zihua that Crimson Mother was currently devouring. Instead, the Li Zihua that had just appeared actually burned with godfire. H¨¥ was from the past! H¨¥ was from the point in time when the godchild was in the Nascent Soul level!

    The Captain became the coordinates that allowed h¨©m toe to this point, although it wouldn¡¯tst for long.

    The moment h¨¥ appeared, Li Zihua looked up with cold eyes at the red moon. And then h¨©s gaze shifted upward to look at the broken face of the god.

    ¡°I, a child of Brilliant Heaven, the first to reach godly ascension after the arrival of the immortals, hereby offer a sacrifice!¡±

    H¨©s voice echoed like heavenly thunder, shaking the nine heavens and rocking the ten earths![1]

    1. My original novel series <em>Heirs of Sun and Storm</em>, which is a mashup of cyberpunk and xianxia-style cultivation,rgely takes ce in a setting called the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. It''s always cool to see the term in context in the works of Er Gen! Incidentally, the final installment of the series was already released as an exclusive novel on another reading app, but it will be on Amazon sometime early next year! ?

 Chapter 710: A Nursery Rhyme from the Ancient Past

    <h4>Chapter 710: A Nursery Rhyme from the Ancient Past</h4>

    Li Zihua¡¯s voice echoed through the Moonrite Region, shaking everything like thunder.

    The broken face remained still and unmoving. Though facing in the direction of the Moonrite Region, the eyes were not opening.

    The cultivators of the Red Moon Cathedral in the seven locations were all wailing in grief. To them, Li Zihua¡¯s words signified absolute destruction. In the shortest of moments, the cathedral cultivators and all of their allies were trembling in fear. Their skin started to split apart, causing blood to gush everywhere as their bones copsed onto the ground into piles. The final thing to fall were their fleshless skulls. From a distance, all seven locations had innumerable piles of flesh and bone. Collectively, there were seven small mountains of flesh, with the stench of gore rising up like signal smoke.

    The broken face in the canopy of heaven remained unmoving.

    Until... Li Zihua¡¯s body also started ripping apart. As of now, h¨¥ was a god. For h¨©m to be ripped apart caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. As h¨©s flesh and blood fell to the ground, it created an eighth mountain.

    It rose taller and taller. Seemingly endless amounts of flesh and bloodbined to create a towering mountain. It rose until it was on the same level as the red moon. And in the end... the flesh and blood of Li Zihua¡¯s head copsed, creating the summit of the mountain. H¨©s expression was cold and apathetic, bereft of any emotional fluctuations. When h¨©s skull finally stopped moving, ¨©ts vacant eye sockets were looking up into the canopy of heaven.

    At that exact moment, the eyes of the broken face... opened!

    It was very different from the version inside Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal. This time, the broken face¡¯s eyes really did open, revealing golden pupils that were calm and cid.

    As the gaze fell, the Moonrite Region rippled and distorted. A blood rain fell on Li Zihua¡¯s mountain of flesh. Doomsday came to the Penitence Steppes as... the ce changed.

    It was an irreversible change. A mutagen that surpassed all other gods rose up, changing thends, changing the living beings. Changing everything.

    The Penitence Steppes was turning into a new forbidden region, and gruish life forms were already starting to spread there. The mountain of flesh was rapidly bing the foundation of the forbidden region,plete with a new life force and a new intelligence.

    All living beings in the Revered Ancient maind trembled. It didn¡¯t matter where they were. All of them could see the broken face of the god, and knew what was happening.

    Terror. Confusion. Astonishment. Countless negative emotions flitted through the minds of everyone.

    The vague, shadowy images of heavenly daos appeared in the sky over the maind, looking down as if they desired to stop what was happening. But there was nothing they could do other than wail silently in sorrow. Some of them were even perishing. These were the 100,000 heavenly daos of Revered Ancient, and they were different from the 100 ancient heavenly daos. Whenever the broken face¡¯s eyes opened, they were affected, and some of them were destroyed.

    The red moon was also affected. It was within the field of view of the broken face, located as it was directly above the Penitence Steppes. The moon trembled violently as events yed out that were simr to when the broken face appeared from Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal.

    The first time the god¡¯s gazended on a location, it became a forbidden region. The second time, it became a forbidden ground. The third time, it turned into a god domain. The fourth time... it would be called a god world!

    The red moon started pulsing to an irregr rhythm on its timeline. Then, in countless instances of space-time, innumerable additional red moons appeared.

    They intersected and ovepped, over and over again, as something urred the likes of which Xu Qing had never witnessed before! In the middle of all of the countless red moons was a rapidly expanding haze that was slowly covering all of the moons.

    As it did, it transformed into a majestic face! It was none other than Crimson Mother¡¯s face, made up of endless red moons from different instances of space-time. As they interacted and intersected, they created the facial features of the face. The movement of the face made it seem extremely lifelike. It was as if each expression represented a change in thought, and that each thought could be made a reality in a different instance of space-time.

    That was why so many red moons would appear in so many instances of space-time. Different thoughts provoked more and more instances of space-time. They were like choices. And every time the face made a choice, a different instance of space-time would appear, and a new world would be created in ordance with that choice.

    This was a god world.

    As of now, the Penitence Steppes had be a forbidden region, and the red moon had be a god world.

    The broken face¡¯s eyes closed.

    In the red moon, Crimson Mother trembled. Li Zihua, whom sh¨¥ was devouring, still seemed calm and tranquil. Looking at the pain-wracked Crimson Mother, he waved his hand.

    Instantly, Xu Qing and the Captain, as well as the Heir Apparent and his siblings, all vanished. An instantter, they materialized in the Moonrite Region outside of the Penitence Steppes. The moment they left, Crimson Mother¡¯s cries of anguish became a tempest that swept out, destroying every part of the Moon Pce it touched.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s body was copsing! The god world face was changing. No longer did it look like Crimson Mother. The facial features melted away until it was nk.

    The broken face of the god had transformed the red moon into a god world. But Crimson Mother didn¡¯t survive the transformation. It was like how a powerful tonic could be a poison if administered in too high a dosage.

    <i>Too far is as bad as not enough!</i>

    Therefore, sh¨¥ copsed, falling into pieces. Destroyed. And then the red moon started disappearing!

    Inside the Moon Pce, Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eyes glittered with greed as h¨¥ raced out into the open, transforming into a host of eyes. Each eye had a mouth, and they all raced to devour Crimson Mother.

    An agonized shriek rang out as countless eyes copsed. However, some of them managed to rip off chunks of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, whereupon they disappeared back into the Moon Pce.

    All told, Emperor Ancient Spirit managed to devour flesh equivalent to about ten percent of Crimson Mother¡¯s entire body.

    It wasn¡¯t that h¨¥ didn¡¯t want to devour more. Rather, h¨¥ couldn¡¯t.

    Next, Moonfire and Starfire threw all caution to the wind as th¨¥y closed in and started ripping off flesh to consume. Each of th¨¥m got more than ten percent. Simrly, th¨¥y wanted to continue, but knew that staying on the vanishing red moon would be extremely dangerous.

    But what sealed th¨¥ir decision was Li Zihua¡¯s weak voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get greedy.¡±

    The gazes of Moonfire and Starfire glittered, and then th¨¥y unhesitatingly vanished. The moment th¨¥y disappeared, the red moon dimmed as though it were being erased from the sky.

    Meanwhile, down in the Moonrite Region just outside the Penitence Steppes, the Captain, whose body had formed anew after being sent away by Li Zihua, suddenly exploded. A momentter, it formed back together. His eyes gleamed with excitement as he looked at Xu Qing standing there looking very serious. The Captain quickly blinked three times in a row.

    Xu Qing understood the meaning. The Captain was imparting three numbers to him. However, now wasn¡¯t the time to discuss details about the message. The red moon faded away, not just from above the Moonrite Region, but from above the Revered Ancient maind. After it was gone, Revered Ancient was permanently missing another moon.

    <i>Except, it¡¯s actually still there</i>... Xu Qing thought, looking up into the sky. Because he had a portion of red moon authority, he could sense, albeit vaguely... that the god world version of the red moon was now very, very far away from Revered Ancient. It was somewhere in the starry sky outside of Revered Ancient, far away in the void....

    ***

    In that location, there were a host of innumerable vortexes. Some were small, and some wererge. All were different colors, and they all glittered in different ways as they orbited around each other. No one knew exactly what that location was. Apparently, no cultivator had ever been there.

    At the moment, a new vortex was popping into being among all the other innumerable vortexes.

    It was very smallpared to the other vortexes. And it was red. Inside that vortex were a host of red moons that made up a very pale face. In that face¡¯s forehead was a section of space-time that had a red moon in it, burning with golden mes.

    It was godfire, not from Crimson Mother, nor from Li Zihua. Close examination would reveal that the energy conformed to that of the Red Moon Cathedral¡¯s godchild, who was also Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son. There was something inside of the godfire that formed its core.

    An eyeball.

    It was the very same eyeball that Xu Qing had previously spotted inside the godchild¡¯s secret trove. [1]

    It was... Crimson Mother¡¯s left eye. Within the pupil of that eyeball, it was possible to see Crimson Mother, growingrger andrger to upy every part of the eyeball. Then flesh started to grow outside the eyeball.

    The flesh piled up rapidly, forming a new body for Crimson Mother.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s eyes opened. Previously, both of h¨¥r eye sockets were empty, but now there was an eyeball in the left socket. A boundless majesty pulsed off h¨¥r, spreading out into the local space-time. Then it attempted to expand into other instances of space-time to change them.

    But then, a miserable shriek erupted from h¨¥r mouth, interrupting the process.

    ¡°Li Zihua....¡±

    As the bitter words left Crimson Mother¡¯s mouth, the image of Li Zihua appeared in h¨¥r left eye. H¨¥ quickly overtook that eye, and then spread out to the rest of Crimson Mother.

    Crimson Mother trembled as sh¨¥ fought back, except it didn¡¯t do any good. H¨¥r facial features changed. H¨¥r body changed from female to male. In the end, sh¨¥ became Li Zihua.

    As the process went on, h¨¥r bitter voice filled the Moon Pce.

    ¡°So this was your n. You knew all along how I¡¯d set things up. So you sacrificed your fourth son in your final plot to bury me.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that you didn¡¯t want to be a god, Li Zihua. You just didn¡¯t want to bear the karma of godly ascension. That¡¯s why you beheaded my mortal husk, but didn¡¯t actually kill me. You wanted me to reach godly ascension, that way I would be forced to sustain the karma, only for you to be resurrected within me.¡±

    Crimson Mother¡¯s voice grew weaker and weaker. As Li Zihua¡¯s features took over, sh¨¥ closed h¨¥r eyes, h¨¥r voice trembling with defiance, rancor, and confusion. In the very end, sh¨¥ sighed.

    ¡°I¡¯m giving you what you want, big brother....¡±

    Crimson Mother perished. Eventually, h¨¥r eyes opened.

    And Li Zihua was back.

    ¡°Fourth Sister,¡± h¨¥ murmured, ¡°the path of Brilliant Heaven is incorrect.... But so is the path of Deep Earth. Immortals and gods, in reality... can be one. That¡¯s why I said the mission still stands.¡±

    H¨¥ looked off in the direction of Revered Ancient for a moment. Then h¨¥ closed h¨©s hand into a fist. The red moon god world shrank down, turning into an eyeball that h¨¥ grabbed and shoved into h¨©s right eye socket.

    Turning, h¨¥ made his way quietly out into the void. Further and further away. H¨¥ began to sing in a voice that thrummed in a strange pitch.

    <i>¡°There was once a big dolly; with a bunch of little dollys; ten little dollys one two three; bloodshot eyes with hair gray and dusty; one day they didn¡¯t say a word to me; the big kids looked around and yelled for mommy; the little kids shouldn¡¯t think it¡¯s that scary....</i>

    <i>¡°Then suddenly something happened when; big dolly got sick and second dolly tended him; third dolly bought meds and fifth dolly prepped them; sixth dolly died and seventh dolly grinned; eighth dolly dug a pit and ninth dolly jumped in; tenth dolly asked why they were cryin¡¯...</i>

    <i>¡°Fourth dolly¡¯s lost and won¡¯te back again!¡±</i>

    Perhaps it was the case that the ¡®fourth dolly¡¯ in the song wasn¡¯t actually the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s fourth son. Maybe it was h¨©s fourth sister.... [2]

    1. Xu Qing saw the eyeball in the secret trove in <u>chapter 689</u>. ?

    2. Given this line, plus the part of the nursery rhyme that says ¡°big dolly got sick,¡± some people might want to review the final lines of <u>chapter 640</u>.... ?

 Chapter 711: The Meaning of Moonrite

    <h4>Chapter 711: The Meaning of Moonrite</h4>

    The transformations to Moonrite began after Crimson Mother reached godly ascension and fought Li Zihua. Perhaps their battle did not end as neatly as people in subsequent epochs believed. Perhaps their fight pierced through space-time from the ancient past until modern times, continuing all along in a way that ordinary people couldn¡¯tprehend. Perhaps it went on for countless years....

    But in the end, the battle concluded, and the final exmation point was added. The dark haze that had covered the region for too many years to count finally disappeared along with the red moon.

    Where did the red moon go? Was Crimson Mother actually dead? Would Li Zihua appear again...?

    No one knew the answers to such questions, not even the people who had personally participated in the battle.

    To all the other living beings in the Moonrite Region, the main thing that was certain was that the battle was going to be a thing of legend, talked about from generation to generation in the years toe. It was also possible to imagine how, years in the future, people born in this region would read about the battle in various ancient records. There, they would read about how their region had once been afflicted with a curse. They would also learn about how the curse was ended by that legendary showdown.

    If, one day,ter generations in the region earned the qualification to step through time, maybe they would return to this day to see how the Moonrite Region changed when the red moon disappeared.

    Living beings began to recover. Hope had returned. The waters of the Yin Sacrifice River were already changing. They were no longer blood-red, but rather, clear. The innumerable corpses that once filled the river turned into silt that sank to the bottom. The people no longer had the red moon curse in their blood. There was no need for painquelling lozenges, nor any need for cursequelling lozenges. The people were no longer forced to stay inside the region. Once again, the people of Moonrite had freedom.

    And yet, after the countless epochs of torment and despair, even though they now stood at the beginning of a new era, and were cheering excitedly, that couldn¡¯t erase the exhaustion in their hearts. They were tired. Moonrite needed to rest and recover.

    The Heir Apparent stepped forward. Given his identity, he had to live up to his responsibility and mission. His cultivation base was up to the task. As hope returned to everyone, the Heir Apparent epted the power and authority that had once belonged to his father. He would be the ruler of Moonrite. [1]

    The Heir Apparent had a new Moon Pce built in the Bitter Life Mountains. Henceforth, that is where he would rule from, and it was the location from where he would safeguard the entire region.

    In the depths of the Moon Pce was an ordinary medicine shop. No special exnations were necessary regarding the shop. It was part of the entire legend, going back to the very beginning. The owner of the medicine shop wasn¡¯t the Heir Apparent. It was a person named Xu Qing.

    In terms of the Moonrite Region¡¯s allegiance, the Heir Apparent chose not to join with the rest of humankind. His region would be independent.

    The name Moonrite remained the same. However, the meaning was different.

    The ¡®rite¡¯ wasn¡¯t about a rite of sacrifice. It was a rite of offering. And the offering <i>was</i> the red moon! That was the decision made by the Heir Apparent and his siblings, and it was a decision backed by the people of the region.

    Princess Brightblossom had her set of responsibilities. She went to the northern ice ins, to the spot where she had been previously sealed. There in the north, she established an educational establishment called the Northbright Pce. In the years toe, she would teach the people everything she knew.

    Fifth Sister had her own mission. She tapped into her abilities to repair the Mirror of Moonrebel. After the work was done, she lifted it high into the canopy of heaven over the Moonrite Region. It became a sun. She chose to enter the Mirror of Moonrebel and sit there in meditation for all eternity. By releasing her authority and making herself part of the light of that sun, it ensured that the sunlight that shone onto the Moonrite Region was full of nourishment and life force.

    The cultivators of the Moonrebel Congregation were free again. They could now choose their own path. Some of them decided to end their affiliation with the Moonrebel Congregation, and return to their species to lend their strength to the recovery efforts. Others chose to stay in the Mirror of Moonrebel, gain unlimited life force, and stand as guardians of the sun. The final portion chose to join the Heir Apparent in standing guard over their home.

    Eighth Sib made a different choicepared to his siblings. His personality didn¡¯t suit a sedentary life, and his years in imprisonment had given him a unique view of the transformations in the outside world. Thus, he chose to wander. He left the Moonrite Region to see all the familiar and unfamiliar things out in the Revered Ancient maind.

    Then there was Ninth Sib.... As the strongest of the siblings, he went to the Penitence Steppes to find the mountain of flesh that had once been his father, and was now the foundation of the forbidden region. There, he sat down cross-legged and unmoving. His divine will filled the forbidden region, then spread out through the Moonrite Region. He was working on his cultivation, but at the same time, seeking to find the path his father had once walked.

    And thus, events wound to a conclusion in the Moonrite Region.

    Everyone who had participated in the final battle with Crimson Mother benefited in different ways. Such details weren¡¯t made public. But everyone seemed pleased with how things turned out.

    Emperor Ancient Spirit didn¡¯t seek out Xu Qing. Clearly he had benefited handsomely. Moonfire and Starfire didn¡¯t show up again either. There was no doubt that they had profited as well.

    The Heir Apparent and his siblings didn¡¯t talk about that subject. But given what they did after things were over, it seemed likely that they had received additional benefits from their father.

    As for Xu Qing and the Captain.... On the surface, it seemed like they benefited the least of all. All they got was Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger, Zhang Siyun. They had both worked incredibly hard in this effort, whether Xu Qing with his red moon authority, or the Captain with his past-life body or his Dawning Suns. Therefore, though the rewards they received were appropriate given the level of their cultivation base, it wasn¡¯tmensurate with their overall effort.

    As a result, the Captain repeatedly pleaded his case to the Heir Apparent and his siblings. He attempted to magically summon High God Moonfire in the hopes ofying out his argument. He even went so far as to ask Xu Qing to talk things out with Emperor Ancient Spirit and the y fox. The Captain was like a worker hounding the boss for his paycheck. Sadly for him, High God Moonfire ignored him. Emperor Ancient Spirit never responded.

    And after some thought, Xu Qing decided not to reach out to the y fox.

    However, the Heir Apparent and his siblings ended up looking at the Captain in the same way that an adult would look at a child who had behaved well.

    Just about anyone else would probably be embarrassed having others look at them that way. But not the Captain. He just kept trying to convince them, all while looking resentful and sighing constantly. Eventually, the Captain took Xu Qing to a remote area, where he took out his two remaining Dawning Suns. Then he begged Xu Qing to bring out his own remaining sun. Still not convinced they were safe, the Captain spat out several mouthfuls of blood, sealed the area, then had Xu Qing unleash his red moon authority.

    Although the red moon was gone, Xu Qing¡¯s authority... was still there! There were some differencespared to before, although Xu Qing would need to do some research and study to figure out the specifics. Regardless, with that hard work done, the two of them had a safe ce to split up the rewards they did have.

    Eyebrows dancing up and down, and his face full of excitement, the Captain said, ¡°Did you pick up on all that, little Ah Qing? We want everyone to think we didn¡¯t make out with much in terms of rewards. That way, they won¡¯t get jealous. Gods might be omniscient and omnipotent, but when ites to Crimson Mother and Li Zihua, those effects are greatly diminished. And therefore... after this, we need to make a huge deal about not getting our fair share!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had known all along the Captain was putting on an act. Truth be told, although he wasn¡¯t sure exactly how they had benefited, the way the Captain had blinked three times made it clear that they had done well.

    ¡°This time, little Ah Qing... we made out like bandits!!¡± The Captain¡¯s voice trembled, and he was breathing heavily. Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, he lowered his voice and continued, ¡°Our reward isn¡¯t just Crimson Mother¡¯s doppelg?nger Zhang Siyun. We also got this!¡±

    With a flourish, the Captain produced three fingernails....

    ¡°Do you know what these are, little Ah Qing? They¡¯re Crimson Mother¡¯s fingernails! They¡¯re from a god body! These surpass any kind of precious treasure, even the fish bone weapons the old man gave us. They¡¯repletely beyond theparison of anything like that. Once we get back and the old man sees how we made out, he¡¯ll be drooling nonstop. Hahaha!¡±

    The Captain smiled proudly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly at the three fingernails. Then he looked up at the Captain. He said nothing.

    The Captain blinked a few times and then cleared his throat. ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you know what the greatest pleasure in life is? It¡¯s called being pleased! You should learn a bit about that. You see, I¡¯m the kind of person that¡¯s easy to please. Think about it. Crimson Mother is a High God. Not only did we eliminate any threat from Crimson Mother, but also, we got her doppelg?nger. And even better than that, we got these three fingernails. They¡¯re rare items, and yet, since you¡¯re my Junior Brother, little Ah Qing, it¡¯s my job to take care of you. Therefore, I¡¯ll give you two of them. One¡¯s enough for me.¡±

    Looking like the epitome of generosity, the Captain gave Xu Qing two fingernails. Then he turned to leave.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression had remained extremely calm the entire time. After taking the two fingernails and putting them away, he took out a bamboo slip and started carving something onto it.

    When the Captain noticed that, his heart suddenly started pounding. Hurrying over to Xu Qing¡¯s side, he looked at the bamboo slip and saw his own name.... He blinked a few times and then cleared his throat.

    ¡°I was just joking around with you, little Junior Brother! Hahaha! Put that bamboo slip away... you really don¡¯t need it.¡± Expression turning serious, the Captain lowered his voice again. ¡°Our real reward obviously couldn¡¯t just be three fingernails. It¡¯s actually....¡±

    The Captain once again waved his hand out in a flourish. Three bubbles appeared on his palm, within each of which was a finger covered with bloody feathers made of flesh. It was hard to say which finger was gorier than the other, but the godly power they emanated was incredibly intense.

    1. Just to rify, the ¡®authority¡¯ mentioned here is not the magical authority that hase up a lot recently. It¡¯s the generic/mundane word for authority as wielded by governmental figures, leaders, etc. ?

 Chapter 712: Brothers With Unique Abilities

    <h4>Chapter 712: Brothers With Unique Abilities</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at the fingers in the bubbles. Then he looked up at the Captain.

    The Captain looked back at him with a sincere expression. ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? We really did well, didn¡¯t we? Hahaha!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. He tapped into his cultivation base, causing his energy to surge. At the same time, a secret trove appeared behind him, causing everything around them to tremble. His eyes became pitch ck as taboo poison spread. A sun and moon rose in his secret trove, and the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon roared as mes rose up around it. The furnace was burning.

    At the same time, threads of naturalws spread through the secret trove, surrounding Xu Qing. The natural and magicalws of his secret trove were turning the entire area around him into his own personal battlefield. As he stood on that battlefield, he pulsed with a heavenly dao sensation. Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Mutagen flourished around him, the aura of taboo poison.

    The Captain saw all of that, and though it caused his heart to sink, he stered a ring expression onto his face.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing! Are you telling me you don¡¯t trust me, your Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain tapped into his own cultivation base, causing a secret trove to appear behind him as well. His secret trove was different from Xu Qing¡¯s. It didn¡¯t contain a world, but rather, a pitch-ck hell like the Nine Serenities. It echoed with howls that could shake the heart and mind, which created personal naturalws for him that spread out and squared off against Xu Qing¡¯s magicalws.

    ¡°Apparently, little Ah Qing, I need to assert my dignity as the Eldest Brother!¡± The Captain waved his hand, and his eyes glittered with blue light.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t done yet. The violet moon glittered as it rose out of his secret trove and into the sky. As it rose, it cast violet moonlight down. It wasn¡¯t made of ordinary beams of light, but rather... violet threadworms. The threadworms filled heaven and earth, sometimes revealing their original form, other times appearing as mere moonlight. It was extremely gruish.

    When the light touched the Captain, his mind spun. His blue light was being covered by violet light! And yet, he was the Eldest Brother, so he quickly unleashed a new power. Faces appeared within his pupils, which also had faces in their own pupils, and so on. Blue light shone brightly, spreading out to cover him. And where it touched him, blue worms appeared, their eyes glittering with anticipation.

    ¡°The two of us haven¡¯t fought each other in a long time, little Ah Qing. Thest time was on the Forbidden Sea! Come,e. Let¡¯s see who will win and who will¡ª¡± [1]

    Before the Captain could even finish speaking, thunderous rumbling sounds echoed out from Xu Qing. Violet light exploded as he lifted his right hand and pointed at the sky. He was pointing directly at the broken face of the god. It was very reminiscent of the scene back in the Moon Pce when he had summoned the broken face from inside his violet crystal. It almost looked like he was doing the same thing over again. Except there was no image of the broken face inside the violet crystal.....

    That said, the Captain didn¡¯t know that. Eyelids twitching and heart racing, he swallowed his words, blinked a few times, and thenughed heartily.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so impulsive, little Junior Brother. I just have a bad memory, that¡¯s all. Ahemmm.¡± The Captain¡¯s hand snapped out in front of him to reveal three feathers.

    ¡°There were six, not three,¡± Xu Qing said, the violet light growing more intense.

    The Captain¡¯s heart rate increased yet again, all while his confidence fell. Keeping a serious look on his face, he took out three more feathers from his bag of holding. ¡°Errrrm, right. Well, anyway, little Ah Qing, this really is all we got.¡±

    The Captain sighed, calmed his cultivation base, and then looked helplessly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s energy also faded away. The violet moon returned to his secret trove, the secret trove faded away, and everything went back to normal.

    Seeing that, the Captain breathed an inner sigh of relief, but at the same time felt very pleased with himself. <i>Oh, little Ah Qing. You¡¯re just too inexperienced</i>.

    Despite all that, the Captain managed to keep a helpless expression on his face. ¡°Little Ah Qing, how about... you take seventy percent! I was in the wrong here. I shouldn¡¯t have been greedy.¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then looked at the Captain. Gradually, his gaze changed. He looked bleak, even lonely. The look in his eyes caused the Captain¡¯s heart to seize.

    ¡°Eldest Brother...¡± Xu Qing began softly, finally breaking his silence.

    The Captain listened, trembling.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want any of it, Eldest Brother,¡± he murmured in a hoarse voice. ¡°You can have all of it. I just miss Sea-Sealing County. I¡¯m going back now.¡±

    With that, he slowly turned and started walking off, looking more and more lonely, more and more bleak, more and more deste.

    Apparently, the Captain didn¡¯t realize that he had used a very simr tactic on Xu Qing in the past.... As the Captain watched Xu Qing walking away, his heart filled with guilt. He suddenly realized that he had pushed things too far. If he wanted to get greedy with random people, that was one thing, but what need was there to get greedy with his little Junior Brother? Although it was a natural instinct for him, considering how Xu Qing was reacting, the Captain had no choice but to stamp his foot.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, I apologize!¡± The Captain waved his hand again, and this time, a host of feathers poured out into a pile. Terrifying godly might surged in the area, far surpassing what happened when he took out the six feathers. The majesty of this pile of feathers was astonishing to say the least. Throwing caution to the wind, the Captain yelled, ¡°Thirty percent! This is thirty percent of Crimson Mother¡¯s total flesh. All here! We do things the same as ever. 50/50!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped walking. Adjusting his facial expression, he turned around and looked at the Captain. Eyes shining with sincere gratitude, he softly said, ¡°Eldest Brother!¡±

    Breathing a sigh of relief, the Captain quickly waved at Xu Qing toe over and collect the loot. Soon, the two of them were standing next to the pile of flesh. After dividing it cleanly in half, the Captain gave Xu Qing a special leather bag of holding to store it in. The flesh of a god couldn¡¯t be kept inside an ordinary storage device. As for the bags the Captain used for that purpose, they appeared to be made from his own skin....

    Seeing the actual results of all the hard work in the Moonrite Region, Xu Qing actually started to get excited.

    Sensing the sudden change in Xu Qing¡¯s mood, the Captain looked over suspiciously at him. ¡°Little Junior Brother, were you pulling a fast one on me just now? Why does this whole situation seem so familiar....?¡±

    Xu Qing quickly suppressed his excitement. Looking the Captain very sincerely in the eyes, he shook his head.

    The Captain hesitated, as something seemed very strange about the situation. Finally, he blinked a few times. <i>Hey, I can do the same thing!</i>

    Suddenly, his facial expression became one of loneliness. He opened his mouth to speak.

    But then, Xu Qing¡¯s expression became pure bitterness.

    The two of them looked at each other silently.

    Finally, the Captain sighed.

    ¡°You¡¯ve picked up some bad habits, little Ah Qing....¡± He cleared his throat. ¡°Well, anyway, down to business. There¡¯s no way our rewards could possibly be limited to just this. There¡¯s more.¡± After looking around again to make sure they were alone, he lowered his voice. ¡°Everything so far is from Crimson Mother. But we got something from Li Zihua as well. H¨¥ promised toe backter on and give us a god world!¡±

    Hearing that caused Xu Qing¡¯s gaze to harden. ¡°A god world?¡±

    ¡°A god world!¡± the Captain said, nodding earnestly.

    At first, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to believe the Captain. However, the Captain seemed very serious. Although Xu Qing had some suspicions, he didn¡¯t give voice to them. And with that, they had a friendly discussion. Xu Qing ultimately didn¡¯t want Zhang Siyun¡¯s flesh and blood. However, he did take the violet thorn from the vine that had been wrapped around Zhang Siyun.

    The Captain was fine with that distribution. After everything was split up, the Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, we¡¯re pretty much done here in the Moonrite Region. Just wait for me for a couple days. My ex-wife hasn¡¯t returned any of my messages, but I know sh¨¥¡¯s still around. I¡¯m going to find h¨¥r to catch up on old times. Once I return, we can head back to Sea-Sealing County!¡±

    Licking his lips, the Captain waved and vanished off into the distance.

    After watching the Captain leave, Xu Qing settled down cross-legged. The area had been sealed by the both of them, using the Captain¡¯s blood, making it a very suitable ce for a session of secluded cultivation. What was more, the Heir Apparent and his siblings were watching over the Moonrite Region now, so things were rtively safe.

    Not bothering with anything else, Xu Qing looked down at the violet thorn in his hand. It glittered with a light that looked very simr to what the violet crystal emanated. Most importantly, holding that violet thorn caused the violet crystal to pulse with distinctive fluctuations.

    <i>They must have the same origin.</i>

    Eyes shining with determination, he tapped into the violet crystal. Violet light surged around him, spreading to cover him and everything in the area. Then, the violet thorn glittered as he absorbed it. Violet light scattered as Xu Qing looked at his empty hand. Eyes gleaming, he focused on the violet crystal.

    The crystal didn¡¯t look very differentpared to before. Except... the inside of the crystal didn¡¯t have a gauzy mist like it usually did. Instead, there was a vortex. The vortex spun silently. There was no way to tell where it led.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very sure what this change meant. He inspected the violet crystal with divine sense, but the vortex seemed to go on forever. No matter how far he sent his divine sense into it, he couldn¡¯t find the end. However, as he got deeper, he felt a sensation of danger. It was almost as if there were gazes inside that were shifting in his direction. After a short time, he retracted his divine sense. He didn¡¯t want to do anything rash.

    Taking a deep breath, he took out the bag the Captain had given him.

    <i>Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh can provide powerful nourishment for other gods. But it can be considered massive good fortune for me as well. The only question is how much it will benefit my cultivation base to put it in my secret trove and burn it in the heavenly dao furnace.</i>

    His heart filled with anticipation. After everything he had experienced in the Moonrite Region, and after personally witnessing a battle between gods... Xu Qing was more determined than ever to be stronger.

    That was especially true considering... what Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son had said to him before dying.

    <i>¡°Could it be that my past is actually your future...?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing sat there quietly as his secret trove thrummed behind him. His eyes glittered coldly. Only by getting stronger could he qualify to search for the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan and kill him. Only by getting stronger could he delve into the secrets of this world, and uncover the truth about everything. Only by getting stronger could he qualify to turn everything around!

    Xu Qing hefted the bag and put it into his secret trove!

    1. The Captain and Xu Qing¡¯s fight on the Forbidden Sea started in <u>chapter 182</u>. ?

 Chapter 713: A God in the Trove

    <h4>Chapter 713: A God in the Trove</h4>

    The moment the bag entered the secret trove, it opened, and a chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh flew out. It was a clump of fleshy feathers covered with blood, which emanated a glow that was a mixture of golden and red. It instantly erupted with boundless godly might. Heaven and earth blurred. All living things distorted. Everything shook as gale force winds blew.

    The sun in Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove was currently the golden crow in its original form. It released a piercing cry that echoed throughout the secret trove, filled with unprecedented longing. At the same time, the violet moon blurred, vibrating as the flesh tugged at it. The fact that they had the same origin resulted in amon resonance. The Ghost Emperor mountain made up thends in the secret trove, and the arrival of the chunk of flesh caused thosends to tremble. Daybreak light flickered dazzlingly. The power of taboo poison, D-132, and the timescape bottle all stirred, filling the world of the secret trove with tempest-like winds.

    Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove rumbled loudly as everything that made it up erupted, and transformation began.

    It was all because of the chunk of flesh. The moment the fleshnded on the ground, a sound like a bell filled the world, echoing in every corner of the secret trove. Crimson Mother was a High God, with the ability to change the face of heaven and earth. Even though that chunk of flesh was very small, it still contained terrifyingly majestic power. Ordinary magics couldn¡¯t be used to absorb it, and thus, ordinary cultivators couldn¡¯t pay the price to do so. Even a Void Returning expert who did so would need to take things very slowly.

    That said, it would be incredibly helpful. In fact, a fourth-stage Void Returning expert who absorbed this piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh would instantly break through all barriers and likely step into the Smoldering God level.

    Although Xu Qing was only in the first stage of Spirit Trove, his secret trove was anything but ordinary! It contained the violet moon, which already had the same origin as Crimson Mother. Plus he had the taboo poison, which had an even higher level of personhood. The overall structure of his secret trove surpassed anything that an ordinary person couldpare to. And thus, Xu Qing experienced something very unique.

    That wasn¡¯t even to mention his heavenly dao, which had close ties to one of the 100 ancient heavenly daos. In fact, as the heavenly dao bluegreen dragon appeared, it spread out, covered with mes as it served as the world¡¯s furnace. Added in was the blessing of the violet moon and the taboo poison, as well as the power of all living beings in the world.

    The burning of the furnace caused Crimson Mother¡¯s feathery flesh to slowly start melting, releasing pulses of terrifying power that nourished the secret trove! It was the power of essence! Every aspect of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and blood turned into pure essence.

    The golden crow went wild to absorb it. The Ghost Emperor mountain trembled as it did the same. Everything else the world also joined in. To Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove, that flesh was a massive destined opportunity, a massive good fortune, and a massive bolstering.

    The golden crow¡¯s tail fanned out as it changed colors from ck to golden. As it hung high in the secret trove¡¯s canopy of heaven, it was like a golden statue filled with holiness. Thends below also turned golden. It was the same with the mountains and the rivers!

    The daybreak light transformed, with its multiple colors changing into something golden. The entire secret trove changed!

    At first, the changes were just on the surface. But as Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh burned, those changes went deeper. It was easy to imagine what would happen when Xu Qing fully seeded. When that happened, his secret trove would be golden from the inside to the outside. Even the fire was turning golden.

    When it wasplete, it would be different in terms of both substructure and essence. The dramatic process continued.

    Xu Qing could sense that, as his secret trove changed, his energy grew more and more majestic, far surpassing anything from before.

    <i>My secret trove is changing in a very fascinating way....</i>

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he was struck with the premonition that, when this transformation to his secret trove wasplete, he would be on an entirely different level. Except... the process only went on for a short while before it wound down and stopped. The golden color that had overtaken both sky andnd started to fade, and everything began to return to its previous state.

    Xu Qing frowned as he tried to ascertain why it was happening.

    Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh had been half burned away. After that, it wouldn¡¯t burn any more, and the essence resonance was breaking down. Muttering to himself, he looked into the bag and pulled out a second piece of flesh. Everything trembled as the flesh fell into the sea of mes. Nothing changed. Looking down at the two chunks of flesh, Xu Qing realized what was going on.

    <i>The fire isn¡¯t strong enough.</i>

    As everything in the secret trove rapidly returned to its original state, Xu Qing came up with a way to resolve the situation.

    <i>If the fire isn¡¯t strong enough, then I should add some better fuel!</i>

    Eyes gleaming, he thought back to how they had dealt with Crimson Mother¡¯s totem on the door of Paramount Temple. Sending out his divine will, he caused chasms to open up in thends of his secret trove, out of which poured numerous bloodbeasts. Lunging into the fire, they self-detonated.

    The explosions resulted in muffled booms that caused the secret trove¡¯s furnace to burn even hotter. At the same time, the fire burned with the color of blood. The beasts were connected to Crimson Mother, and they also were inherently corrosive, so they seemed like the perfect fuel as far as Xu Qing was concerned. Endless streams of the bloodbeasts served as oil, causing the mes to rage madly around the two chunks of flesh.

    Only a momentter, the two chunks of flesh disappeared, and massive amounts of essence power swept out into Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove. The color gold appeared everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the exterioryer of everything became gold again. At the same time, the effects seeped deeper. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing¡¯s entire secret trove was golden from inside to out!

    A golden secret trove. A golden world! Golden mes flickered, and the power of essence reached a peak level. It was domineering and absolutely paramount!

    Just sensing it caused Xu Qing to feel deeply moved.

    This was godsource! And it was a godsource that didn¡¯t belong to any god. ¨©t belonged to Xu Qing, and had been brought about because of him. ¨©t contained Xu Qing¡¯s energy and life force. Because of ¨©t, Xu Qing¡¯s secret trove rose to a higher level. It went from being a secret trove to a god trove! ces where gods were born were god troves!

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as, before he could even examine the god trove closely, the sea of mes pulsed with a domineering godsource that filled the entire god trove.

    It was obviously establishing sovereignty. The golden crow bowed its head. Thends did the same. The dome of heaven went silent, and the rivers flowed obediently. The heavenly dao joined, and all the living things approved. Even the god¡¯s finger in D-132 trembled and prostrated obsequiously. Only the violet moon seemed to have a conflict with the godsource, and was forced out of the god trove. Next came the taboo poison mist, which was also driven away by the domineering godsource.

    After being upgraded, the world of Xu Qing¡¯s god trove contained godsource created solely by him. Thus, power from any other gods were forced to either submit or leave the god trove.

    Xu Qing could sense what was happening, and it caused his heart to pound. He could tell that this god trove belonged solely to him, and that the power vastly surpassed the old version. It was like the difference between a mortal and a cultivator.

    <i>So do I cultivate the path of the immortal, or do I cultivate the path of the god? I¡¯m obviously in the Spirit Trove level of the cultivation system. But I have godsource manifested as a god trove! It¡¯s not because of authority, but rather, because of the godsource that was born....</i>

    Xu Qing suppressed the shock in his heart and looked at the taboo poison power and violet moon authority that had been ejected.

    <i>Regardless, I can sense that I¡¯m stronger thanks to this god trove. In that case... can I make another god trove?</i>

    Eyes narrowing, he thought back to when he first gained enlightenment of the red moon authority, and the illusory god trove that had appeared. Later, he merged that authority into his secret trove, where it became moonlight.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with determination as he took out a third chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, which he put into the violet moon. Violet color erupted, apanied by a thunder rumbling sound. Once again, the same illusory god trove from before appeared. And it was rapidly turning from illusory to corporeal! Although it had no heavenly dao, with Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon authority being of the same origin, they had no problem fusing together.

    Seeing that he was going in the right direction, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to take out a fourth chunk of flesh. Then a fifth. The god trove trembled as it transformed even more rapidly. Then, as Xu Qing¡¯s energy soared, terrifying fluctuations erupted as the violet moon god trove formed!

    This god trove was different from the world of Xu Qing¡¯s first god trove. It contained towering violet light, as well as an indistinct roar as a furnace formed.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing was very different from before. He sat cross-legged, his hair whipping about him, two god troves behind him, like god mountains sucking in everything around them.

    Within each god trove it was just barely possible to make out a figure seated cross-legged in meditation. The figure in the world of Xu Qing¡¯s first god trove looked divine and holy, bursting with magnificent energy and a domineering air. Within the violet moon god trove, the figure was blurry. It was possible to see flesh and feathers clumped together into wings that slowly pped. And there was a pair of very cold eyes. It was a ghastly sight that few would stare at directly.

    <i>Might as well move on to the third!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened, then filled with pitch ck as taboo poison power erupted. Behind him, a poisonous miasma built up.

    Xu Qing took out two more chunks of flesh and fed them into the miasma. The poison cloud exploded in all directions. But then the poison exploded with power, and the taboo element surged. Deafening howling sounds swept out in all directions. About an hourter, a pitch ck god trove could be seen within the poison mist!

    Inside of that god trove was a seated figure, with underworld fire for eyes, and a ck suit of armor. It looked like a world-shaking devil. Together with the other two shadowy gods, it would protect whoever was in front of it.

    Seated cross-legged up front was an exceedingly attractive young man. His facial expression was cold, and his gaze was hidden in the mist. ck hair swirled around him, and he emanated a faint violet color.

    Like an immortal. Like a god.

 Chapter 714: Xu Qingâ€™s God States

    The secret trove was the defining characteristic of the Spirit Trove level. Building the secret trove was as significant as lighting life mes in Foundation Establishment. A Foundation Establishment cultivator without a life me was really just a pumped up Qi Condensation cultivator. Only by igniting life mes could a cultivator truly achieve a significant transformation.

    It was simr in Spirit Trove. The secret trove provided aprehensive improvement. With a heavenly dao inside burning as a furnace, the cultivator could unleash astonishing power. It allowed the Spirit Trove cultivator to use naturalws, and also provided terrifying battle prowess.

    At least, that was Xu Qing¡¯s previous understanding about the secret trove. Today, now that he had a true god trove, his perception changed. He could tell that the difference between the life me and the trove was more like the gap between mortals and cultivators. As for the precise usage of the trove, he would need to do more practice and study before he gained full mastery. At the moment, he had a very basic understanding, which informed him that all he could do was use his trove like a basic secret trove to crush all living things.

    <em>I doubt that¡¯s the right way to use it.</em>

    Xu Qing looked around. The sealing marks in the area had already crumbled, and his surroundings had been scorched bare.

    <em>Understanding of the true function of my god trove wille over time.</em>

    He stood. Now wasn¡¯t the time for study and research, as he had something far more important to do. There was still more of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh in the leather bag, but he put it away for the time being as he knew he was in a bottleneck, so it wouldn¡¯t do any good. He needed a fourth god trove to continue.

    <em>This flesh is so valuable it¡¯s hard to even measure. But once I can begin that fourth god trove, it will form almost instantly.</em>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, made sure the leather bag was secure, adjusted his clothing, and then started walking. Every step he took seemed to cause thend around him to shrink down. It was an effect of naturalw, which caused everything around him to transform ording to his thoughts.In that manner, Xu Qing could do things that ordinary cultivators couldn¡¯t even imagine. And thus, he took a hundred steps. That was all it took for him to reach the border of the Penitence Steppes.

    Previously, this ce had featured a sea of blood with an ind in the middle. But after the battle of gods, and Li Zihua¡¯s sacrifice, it had turned into a forbidden region. Where once had been a sea of blood now existed an overflowing mass of vegetation, as dark as night, and coldly sinister. The mutagen was very strong here, and as a result, the forbidden region was already giving birth to endless mutated life forms. The ruins of the Red Moon Cathedral were in the depths of the forbidden region.

    As Xu Qing stood on the border, he looked inside for a time, then started walking toward the middle of the forbidden region. The nts looked like demonic monsters, and they were so dangerous they could instantly kill any mortal who got close to them. And if cultivators threatened them, they could use mutagen as a weapon to kill them.

    But to Xu Qing, traveling around here was as easy as traveling around in the outside world. The gruish nts would tremble when he got near, and some of them would even move away from him. They didn¡¯t want to even be close to him. It was the same with the other gruish life forms. There was one pitch-ck creature that resembled a flying snake, which failed to move away from him quickly enough. As a result, it turned into a skeleton..... Its life force, mutagen, and aura were extracted, swept toward a spot behind Xu Qing, and then vanished.

    If you looked at that spot behind Xu Qing, you wouldn¡¯t see anything unless you had a cultivation base. But if you did have a cultivation base, you would sense something like three massive ck holes behind him, devouring everything. Perhaps it was the case that, from the perspective of this forbidden region, Xu Qing was himself a forbidden region.

    Xu Qing continued forward through what had once been the blood sea to what had once been the ind. Eventually, he stood in front of the mountain of flesh. There, he stopped, sped hands, and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Grandpa Ninth.¡±

    This mountain of flesh was like abination of ck and red. It was part of the forbidden region, and also formed its nucleus. It was the foundation of the forbidden region.

    It was made from Li Zihua¡¯s flesh, which had been given new life thanks to the gaze of the broken face. At the moment, it twitched and wriggled, though that didn¡¯t indicate it was awakening, but rather, that it was deeply asleep. Even still, its terrifying pressure spread out, causing the surroundings to ripple and distort.

    A person sat cross-legged atop the mountain. He wore a ck robe, and had stern facial features as cold as ice. Resting on his knees was a long sword.

    He was Ninth Sib.

    He opened his eyes and looked calmly at Xu Qing. Noticing what was behind Xu Qing, his eyes gleamed with surprise.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± he said coolly.

    Xu Qing knew that Ninth Sib had a cold personality, and wasn¡¯t given to words. Most of the time he didn¡¯t say anything. But Xu Qing also knew that his heart was quite the opposite of his cold exterior.

    ¡°Grandpa Ninth, when I first arrived in the Moonrite Region, I epted an apprentice. She died unexpectedly. Back then, someone told me that the souls of the dead in the Moonrite Region don¡¯t enter the cycle of reincarnation, but instead, they gather at the Red Moon Cathedral. Senior, I came here hoping to find the soul of my apprentice.¡±[1]

    ¡°What¡¯s her name?¡± Ninth Sib asked tranquilly.

    ¡°Shi Panyan,¡± Xu Qing replied softly. ¡°Her name is Shi Panyan.¡±

    Ninth Sib closed his eyes and cast his senses out. A momentter, he opened his eyes, reached out, and closed his fingers in a grasping motion. The forbidden region trembled as a huge vortex materialized.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as a stream of white light slowly emerged and floated over to Xu Qing. In the white light was a little girl, her arms wrapped around her knees, her eyes closed as if she was asleep. Her brow was furrowed, and her expression was one of terror. She was Shi Panyan.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze softened and he reached out to her. ¡°Panyan.¡±

    His voice entered the white light and touched the girl¡¯s soul. She shivered, and her eyshes stirred. She slowly opened her eyes, confused. After looking at Xu Qing for a moment, her little face lit up with joy.

    ¡°Master....¡±

    She stood, sped hands, and bowed. Her soul was clearly very weak, making it difficult for her to even move.

    ¡°Master is here to take you home,¡± Xu Qing said. He reached gently into the white light. Shi Panyan¡¯s eyes closed again, and she went back to sleep. Unlike before, she wasn¡¯t frowning, and she didn¡¯t look terrified. In fact, she seemed peaceful and happy. After taking the sleeping Panyan, Xu Qing turned to Ninth Sib and bowed again. Then he turned to leave.

    ¡°You have three god troves behind you,¡± Ninth Sib suddenly said.

    Xu Qing stopped walking and looked back.

    Ninth Sib¡¯s face was as cold as ever. However, his gaze contained even more surprise than before as he looked deeply at Xu Qing.

    ¡°One is yours. Another is made from red moon authority. And thest was formed from a god curse. Unfortunately, you have no way of fully fusing with th¨¥m. As a result, you can¡¯t unleash th¨¥ir true potential. So I¡¯m going to help you out.¡±

    Ninth Sib¡¯s sword floated off his knees and shifted to point at Xu Qing. A sword energy pulsed off it that could shake heaven and earth. It caused everything to tremble as, pulsing with extermination and destruction, the sword energy shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as a sensation of deadly crisis filled him. The blood in his body seemed to coagte, his cultivation base sank under the pressure, and his flesh went rigid. It was like he was sealed in ce. However, the god troves behind him became clearer in his mind. And then... the first god trove appeared in the open.

    It caused wild colors to sh everywhere, and shook the surrounding forbidden region. Inside of it was a holy figure, facing the outside world and howling to fight back against the sword energy. The sword energy faltered.

    ¡°Not enough!¡± said Ninth Sib in a cold voice. More sword energy raged toward Xu Qing.

    Facing such deadly crisis caused Xu Qing to tremble. But his cultivation base was suppressed, meaning that this god trove was all he had to deal with the threat. Veins bulged on his forehead as he focused all of his attention on his god trove. As the sword energy neared, the god trove erupted like volcanoes, sending terrifying godsource directly into Xu Qing. All of a sudden, a roar escaped Xu Qing¡¯s lips that could shake the dome of heaven. As the godsource flowed through him, his body seemed to rip apart. New flesh spread out as he grew taller, bigger, and more astonishing.

    A momentter, a majestic figure stood in front of the mountain of flesh. Upright and tall, this figure looked simr to the Ghost Emperor, except with Xu Qing¡¯s face. On his head was an imperial crown, which was made from D-132. Blinding, golden light shone off it, except, that golden light was actually made of seven colors. Where the heart would be was a heavenly dao furnace, thumping with thunderous volume. And it sent out burning mes that covered the entire figure. Even more noteworthy was the long, ck spear in the figure¡¯s right hand, which was covered with lightning.

    As the figure¡¯s fingers tightened around the spear, his eyes opened. He was Xu Qing!

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded. Never could he have imagined that his god trove would actually work like this. He could sense that this state was like a different form of body, a state like that of a god. His battle prowess rose dramatically, such that if he faced Spirit Trove enemies right now...

    <em>I could crush all of them!</em>

    Xu Qing looked up at Ninth Sib. Heart racing, he sped hands and bowed deeply.

    Eyes still glittering, Ninth Sib nodded. ¡°That¡¯s more like it. However, this is only the first level of your god state. Since you have three god troves, then theoretically speaking, you should have three god states. Unfortunately, your foundation isn¡¯t sufficient to support that now.¡± Ninth Sib looked thoughtfully at Xu Qing for a moment. ¡°I can help you experience it early, though. It¡¯ll be a bit of a waste, but at least it will give you an idea of the direction to pursue.¡±

    With that, Ninth Sib waved his hand, sending a fleshy feather toward Xu Qing. It was Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Before it could get near, and before Xu Qing could say anything, Ninth Sib¡¯s sword energy swept forth, causing the flesh to detonate into a mist of blood, which surrounded Xu Qing.

    ¡°Take that flesh and put it into your god trove. Bring out your second god state. Remember, don¡¯t bring it out alone. Instead... you need to add it to your first-level god state! Combine them!!¡±

    Reeling mentally, Xu Qing watched as the blood mist swept into his taboo poison god trove. An instantter, the god trove erupted with clouds of ck smoke that roiled toward Xu Qing. In the blink of an eye, it fused with Xu Qing¡¯s first-level god state body.

    Next... a terrifying aura shot out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, along with a bitter howl.

    1. Xu Qing epted Shi Paynan as an apprentice in chapter 558.2. In chapter 566.2, Duanmu Zang exined that her soul was probably still at the Red Moon Cathedral. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thank you to <strong>Francois Denis</strong> for the review!</blockquote>

 Chapter 715: Your Majesty, Do You Mind Paying the Meal Fee

    <h4>Chapter 715: Your Majesty, Do You Mind Paying the Meal Fee</h4>

    The moment the terrifying aura emerged, the entire forbidden region trembled. All the grues in the forbidden region fell to the ground and prostrated in the direction of the mountain of flesh. Clouds appeared in the dome of heaven, which swirled together into a rumbling vortex. A tempest filled the forbidden region, connecting to the vortex in the sky, creating a terrifying scene.

    Being the source of it all, Xu Qing was in the middle of the tempest, below the vortex. His body, rippling and distorting, he shook violently as he howled in a voice that almost didn¡¯t seem human. Indescribable pain filled him in body and soul, the type that could destroy the heavens and crush the earth, as his god body was ripped apart and infused with poison mist.

    The mist grew thicker and stronger, until Xu Qing¡¯s first-level god state waspletely covered by it. Then, he became an even taller figure. As he slowly stood up, he found that his head was on the same level as Ninth Sib atop the mountain of flesh.

    The moment the body wasplete, it was obvious there was no skin visible on it. It was coveredpletely by a pitch-ck suit of armor. Even the head and face. Where the eyes would normally be were two convergences ofherworld me, cold and extremely prominent.

    The first impression people would get upon seeing it was that it was a manifestation of ancient darkness and gloom.

    ck steam rose off the armor, which converged behind it to form a cloak that could hide the sky and cover the earth. As the cloak swayed, decay and poison spread out everywhere. Any living thing that stood in front of his suit of armor would decay and die. It was like the ultimate devil. Now there was only the violet moon god trove behind Xu Qing.

    Ninth Sib was visibly moved.

    Xu Qing¡¯s first-level god state had prompted a nod from him. But the second one was shocking to him.

    <i>I feel like... I¡¯ve seen this before.</i>

    Looking down at Xu Qing, he closely assessed his soul fluctuations. He muttered an exmation of astonishment, then said, ¡°Tell me your real name.¡±

    His voice contained a mysterious type of power that made everything in the area vibrate. Ninth Sib wanted to confirm whether or not the person in front of him was really Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood there with Ninth Sib looking at him. Eyes flickering with underworld fire, he spoke in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°Xu Qing.¡±

    Ninth Sib nodded. ¡°What do you feel right now?¡±

    Xu Qing took a moment to sense this new state. He felt a sense of cold apathy with no desires or requirements. It feltpletely analytical. It immediately made him think about god-glimpsing.

    Voice cool, he said, ¡°Very good.¡±

    After a moment of thought, Ninth Sib produced another piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Looking at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Want to see what the third-level god state is like?¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand to produce his own chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, which was the same size as the piece in Ninth Sib¡¯s hand. ¡°I can handle it.¡±

    Without any hesitation, he sent the chunk of flesh into the violet moon god trove behind him. The moment it entered, the god trove emitted thunderous rumblings. Next, the violet moon god trove erupted, sending its godsource pouring into Xu Qing, filling him, and yet again causing his body to rip apart. He stood there, unmoving.

    It wasn¡¯t because he didn¡¯t feel pain. Instead, he used hispletely analytical mind to suppress the pain. Then, his body started to transform. The hair beneath his armor started to grow, bing so long it reached the ground. And it kept growing, spreading out around him. Its color was deep violet. Even more shocking was that his back split open, and it looked like feathers were about to appear there. It also seemed as if a violet moon were about to rise above him. An aura vastly more terrifying than the second-level god state exploded out. Violet bolts of lightning crashed above, imparting a sense of forbidden taboos.

    Ninth Sib shot to his feet atop the mountain of flesh, looking at Xu Qing with shock in his eyes.

    <i>He¡¯s... rising to a higher level??</i>

    As Ninth Sib reeled, Xu Qing shivered. His body was showing signs of imminent destruction, to the point where bits of flesh were peeling off him and copsing into ash. The third-level god state hadn¡¯t reached itspletion, but Xu Qing had reached his limit.

    ¡°My soul and body can¡¯t take this,¡± he said calmly, almost as if he weren¡¯t talking about himself. ¡°If I keep going, I¡¯ll be reduced to ashes.¡±

    With that, he exhaled some violet energy. As a result, time seemed to flow backward. His hair grew back, the violet moon set, and his energy declined. A momentter, he was back in the second-level god state. The godsource within him left, returning to the violet moon god trove.

    The third-level god state had failed. Given Xu Qing¡¯s current foundation, not even Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh could sustain the third-level god state.

    Meanwhile, his second-level god state had reached the limit as well. The armor melted, turning into taboo poison godsource, all while the taboo poison within him retreated. The taboo poison god trove returned.

    Only his first-level god state remained. Thanks to those transformations, Xu Qing¡¯s human nature returned. Breathing heavily, and heart pounding, he looked at Ninth Sib, sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Many thanks, Grandpa Ninth!¡± he said in a serious voice.

    Thanks to Ninth Sib¡¯s help, though he hadn¡¯t fully manifested the third-level god state, he had experienced something extremely valuable. Not only had he learned how to use his god troves, but also, he had an advanced look at the mental state that came with a god state. What it meant for Xu Qing was that the next time he unleashed his god states, the process would be much easier.

    And then there was his first-level god state. Xu Qing could already sense that it was a good trump card, even though he couldn¡¯t maintain the state for long.

    Ninth Sib looked closely at Xu Qing, then nodded and closed his eyes.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t disturb him any further. Taking out one of his own pieces of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, he ced it off to the side. After some more thought, he put down a second piece. Then he left. Along the way, his appearance transformed again. He left the first-level god state and returned to his original form. Then he vanished from the forbidden region.

    The mountain of flesh remained there just as before, with Ninth Sib atop it, still and unmoving. Though his expression seemed the same as ever, inside, he was filled with astonishment. Xu Qing¡¯s body transformation had given Ninth Sib a new line of thinking to consider.

    <i>What happened with this kid¡¯s states ispletely and totally unprecedented. It seems like a new path. Or, I wonder... did father actually walk the same path?</i>

    He opened his eyes and looked in the direction Xu Qing had left. Then he looked down and saw the two chunks of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. A bit of warmth appeared in his cold eyes.

    <i>He¡¯s a good kid.</i>

    Sometimes, liking a person is something that happens suddenly. But more often than not, it¡¯s because of the tiny details. And getting to know them better involves those same tiny details.

    Xu Qing¡¯s path in life had taken him from Peerless City to the Moonrite Region. The fact that proper etiquette and gratitude were built into his personality was why he had received so much help along the way. Sadly, it didn¡¯t matter what world or what era you referred to, people like that weren¡¯t verymon. What was more, there would always be people who didn¡¯t match up to him in that regard that saw his behavior and hated it. That was just human nature, and a revtion of the ignorance that existed in the hearts of many.

    But Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about any of that. As he walked through the forbidden region, he looked off in the direction of Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°It¡¯s time to go home,¡± he murmured. Turning, he headed toward the Bitter Life Mountains. His n was to get Ling¡¯er, and then go home.

    Just when he was about to enter the mountains, he stopped in ce. He had just remembered something.

    <i>Emperor Ancient Spirit promised to give me some imperial energy.</i>

    Eyes narrowing, he took out themand medallion given to him by Emperor Ancient Spirit and fiddled with it for a moment. Previously, he had acquiesced to the Captain¡¯s wishes and tried to contact Emperor Ancient Spirit with divine will. He¡¯d never received any response. After some more thought, he sent some divine will into themand medallion.

    <i>¡°Your Majesty, sir, are you going to join the next meal?¡±</i>

    There was no response from themand medallion. He might as well have <i>thrown a stone ox into the ocean</i>. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he waited for about ten breaths of time. Then he sent another message with divine will.

    <i>¡°Since Your Majesty didn¡¯t respond, I guess that means you won¡¯t be joining us for the next meal.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ll join!¡±</i> Emperor Ancient Spirit responded immediately in h¨©s ancient voice.

    Sounding very respectful, Xu Qing said, <i>¡°In that case, Your Majesty, do you mind paying the meal fee now? It¡¯ll be one bit of imperial energy.¡±</i>

    There was no response from themand medallion. That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a rush, so he just waited quietly.

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, themand medallion vibrated, and a stream of imperial energy appeared, which turned into a small dragon. The dragon didn¡¯t look very happy, and was taking its time emerging.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t mind. He grabbed the dragon of imperial energy and dragged it out despite its struggles, and then tossed it into one of his god troves.

    Feeling satisfied, he continued into the Bitter Life Mountains. Eventually, he entered the Moon Pce, and shortly after, was at the Green Spirit Pharmacy.

    Upon stepping inside, he saw the Heir Apparent sipping tea in his usual spot. Ningyan was scrubbing the floor, Nethersprite was boiling water. Wu Jianwu had recently lost his job because of all the changes. Sprouty was there, dancing like always, and the parrot was featherless off to the side.

    Ling¡¯er threw down her ounting book and rushed over to him.

    ¡°What took you so long, Big Bro Xu Qing?¡± she said, her eyes red as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. She had been thinking a lot about Xu Qing recently, and had been constantly looking out the door hoping to see him returning.

    Xu Qing smiled and tousled Ling¡¯er¡¯s hair. Then he took out the imperial energy and put it in her hands.

    ¡°A gift for you,¡± he said.

    Her eyes lit up and she let loose an exmation of surprised shock. Ling¡¯er was easy to please. As long as her Big Bro Xu Qing was around, she was happy. And whatever gifts he gave her made her even happier.

    When the Heir Apparent saw all that, he smiled and took another sip of tea. A gleam of reminiscence appeared in his eyes, as if he were thinking about something from his own past.

    Off to the side, Wu Jianwu shook his head, and though he was inclined to keep his mouth shut, couldn¡¯t help but recite a poem.

    <i>¡°Man and snake make heaven shudder; are they even a good match for each other?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing turned to look at Wu Jianwu, his eyes cold.

    Wu Jianwu shivered and quickly said, ¡°They¡¯re a good match!¡±

    Ningyanughed coldly, and was about to help the boss teach a lesson to Wu Jianwu when, all of a sudden, the Captain¡¯s voice filled the shop.

    ¡°Hahaha! I¡¯m back! And would anybody like to guess who I happened to run into on the way here? Little Ah Qing! Your father-inw is here to see you!¡±

    The Captain strode along looking very pleased. In his arms was a bruised and battered figure that was currently unconscious. He was none other than the innkeeper from nkspring Way.

 Chapter 716: Iâ€™ll Accompany You Back to Sea-Sealing County

    <h4>Chapter 716: I¡¯ll Apany You Back to Sea-Sealing County</h4>

    Upon stepping into the medicine shop, the Captain dumped the innkeeper onto the floor and walked over to Xu Qing. Throwing his arm over his shoulders, he grinnedcently.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you want to know what happened when I met up with my ex-wife?¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the Captain and looked at the innkeeper. Ling¡¯er had already let loose an exmation of shock and rushed over to him. Hoisting him up, she looked at him with an expression of mixed surprise and worry. She also stuffed some medicinal pills into his mouth.

    ¡°Papa!¡±

    The medicinal pills were extraordinary in nature, and they even included some painquelling lozenges. It only took a moment for the innkeeper¡¯s aura to stabilize.

    Xu Qing could tell that he was suffering from nothing more than flesh wounds. It didn¡¯t look like he had been attacked and beaten, more just jostled around. As for why he had been unconscious, it looked like a situation in which he sumbed to the invasion of the red moon curse. Later, the curse departed, but that just left behind room for more mutagen to enter him. Most relevant of all was that he had a special body constitution.

    <i>His constitution attracts mutagen.</i>

    Xu Qing could tell that now because of the level of his cultivation base. Thinking back, he remembered the time in Seven Blood Eyes when he had shed with the innkeeper. The old man¡¯s face had split open, revealing that he was actually a nonhuman. What was more, the old man¡¯s inn was actually a grue. Later on, Xu Qing came to find that the innkeeper had an ability that could put grues to sleep and seal them. He had moved that inn to Seven Blood Eyes in order to sell it to the First Peak. Beyond that, the innkeeper had helped bolster the Captain¡¯s seals in the early days. [1]

    That said, the innkeeper seemed like he was fine, so Xu Qing wasn¡¯t too worried. Looking at the Captain, he saw a look of keen anticipation. Clearly, the Captain wanted Xu Qing to treat him like the Eldest Brother he was. So Xu Qing asked, ¡°Did sh¨¥ ask to get back together with you?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed, and he threw his head back andughed loudly. He had been waiting for Xu Qing to answer his question, that way he wouldn¡¯t have to soliloquize. ¡°You really are a smart one, little Junior Brother. You¡¯re totally right. Sh¨¥ might be a god, and sh¨¥ might have made a promise that would have ensured I didn¡¯t need to do any fighting for the next ten thousand years. BUT. In the end, I refused. My past-life affairs are gone with the wind. And in this life, I don¡¯t care about riches or power. I just care about my Lady Peachy!¡±

    The Captain was clearly trying to look sorrowful, but couldn¡¯t prevent himself from smiling radiantly.

    Xu Qing was well aware that the Captain often said the opposite of what was true. But the truth didn¡¯t matter in this situation. As long as his Eldest Brother was happy, that was what mattered. And thus, Xu Qing stered a look of surprise onto his face. That made the Captain even happier, and he was about tounch into some further bragging.

    But then the innkeeper coughed up some impure vital energy and opened his eyes.

    ¡°Papa!¡± Ling¡¯er said happily. Of course, she also looked a bit nervous. After all, when she parted with the innkeeper, she had snuck away without saying anything.

    Xu Qing and everyone else looked over at the innkeeper.

    At first, the old man looked confused, and had no idea where he was. But then he saw Ling¡¯er, and emotion swelled within him.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er! I finally found you!¡± He pulled his daughter into a hug and checked to make sure she was okay. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the shop. He saw the Captain. He saw Ningyan. He saw Wu Jianwu. And he saw Nethersprite.

    The first three weren¡¯t much of a surprise, but he was definitely not expecting to see Nethersprite. Then he spotted Xu Qing, and his eyes widened into a re. He was about to start speaking, but then happened to notice the Heir Apparent sipping tea off to the side. The innkeeper¡¯s eyes went wider, and then his pupils constricted. He instantly retracted all of his energy, and without even thinking about it, turned to his daughter.

    ¡°Ling¡¯er, where are we?¡±

    Seeing what her father was looking at, Ling¡¯er quickly exined, ¡°We¡¯re in the Bitter Life Mountains, Papa. This is Grandpa Heir Apparent!¡±

    The innkeeper hadn¡¯t just arrived in the Moonrite Region. During the process of searching for Ling¡¯er, he had naturallye to learn about the battle of gods. Though the names of Xu Qing and the Captain hadn¡¯t been included in the story, he had obviously heard about the Moonrebel Congregation. And the Heir Apparent and his siblings had also been a part of the story. He also knew about the Bitter Life Mountains, and was well aware that they were now the core of the entire region. Ling¡¯er¡¯s words caused him to start blinking like mad.

    Then Ling¡¯er, hoping to brush over the fact that she had run off with Xu Qing,unched into a long exnation.

    ¡°Papa, things used to be really busy around here. We had Third Grandma and Fifth Grandma. There was also Eighth Grandpa, too. They all treated me really well. Oh right, we have a whole bunch of chickens in the backyard. I¡¯ve been doing great here, Papa. Me and Big Bro Xu Qing opened this medicine shop together!¡±

    The innkeeper felt like his mind was being struck by lightning. After all, the stories he had heard about the Bitter Life Mountains also mentioned that there was a medicine shop there that most people viewed as a holynd. Now that he wasing to find out the true story behind that medicine shop, he started shaking from head to toe.

    ¡°By the way, Papa, it¡¯s very safe here. I¡¯ve been totally fine. And guess what? Big Bro Xu Qing just gave me a gift!¡±

    Ling¡¯er waved her hand to reveal some of the imperial energy that she¡¯d just absorbed.

    ¡°There¡¯s more,¡± Ling¡¯er said proudly. ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing is super ferocious. A while back, Crimson Mother and h¨¥r people came and surrounded this whole area. But Big Bro Xu Qing drove them away. After that, Big Bro Xu Qing and all the grandpas and grandmas went to the moon and actually destroyed Crimson Mother!¡±

    Her words were like repeated bolts of lightning striking the innkeeper directly in the heart. Eventually, it felt like 1,000,000 lightning bolts battering his soul. Around the point where Ling¡¯er mentioned the ¡®grandpas and grandmas,¡¯ he gasped. Struggling to his feet, he bowed to the Heir Apparent.

    ¡°Well met, Senior!¡±

    The Heir Apparent nodded. Looking the innkeeper up and down, he said, ¡°You¡¯re one of the ancient Hex-Sealers? Your species always coexisted with emperors. Every Ancient Emperor had an official Hex-Sealer on call, who could use imperial energy to seal the many heavens. They were very important people. But your bloodline doesn¡¯t seem pure.¡± [2]

    The innkeeper bowed his head. Sounding very bitter, he said, ¡°When the gods came, my species changed. Instead of being Hex-Sealers, we called ourselves Nether-Sealers. What¡¯s more, since there are no Ancient Emperors anymore, our species has nowhere to use our skills.¡± [3]

    ¡°Is that why you chose Ling¡¯er?¡± the Heir Apparent asked, ncing at Ling¡¯er.

    For some reason, Ling¡¯er¡¯s eyelids had closed, as if she didn¡¯t understand what was being talked about. Then she yawned.

    As the innkeeper looked on in surprise, Xu Qing hurried over, scooped up Ling¡¯er, and checked to make sure she was okay. As it turned out, the imperial energy within her was in the process of being absorbed.

    The Heir Apparent smiled and took another sip of tea, but didn¡¯t say anything further.

    Seeing that, the innkeeper breathed an inner sigh of relief. Just being in the presence of the Heir Apparent put a lot of pressure on him. Turning to Xu Qing, he suppressed his feelings of irritation and sighed.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I didn¡¯t juste here looking for Ling¡¯er. Marquis Yao also wanted me to pass a message to you. He said... to stay away from Sea-Sealing County for a while.¡±

    Upon hearing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes suddenly glittered. Off to the side, the Captain frowned and suddenly pulsed with a faint pressure.

    ¡°Marquis Yao?¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°What happened in Sea-Sealing County?¡±

    The innkeeper sighed again. Then he went into a detailed exnation of everything that had happened in Sea-Sealing County and the Holytide Region while Xu Qing was away.

    After Xu Qing, the Captain, and everyone else left, the political situation in the Holytide Region was stable for a while. Because Grand Duke Holytide didn¡¯t have the backing of the Nightshades, he fully submitted to the human emperor and didn¡¯t dare to act out.

    But Seventh Prince¡¯s army still upied about half of the region. Meanwhile Princess Anhai was put in charge, as a way of keeping Seventh Prince in check. Because of the unusual circumstances that had yed out in Sea-Sealing County, the ce was unique. It was autonomous. But because of the general peace and stability, Seventh Prince and Princess Anhai were epted by the county.

    However, all of that changed dramatically thanks to the political undercurrents affecting the imperial capital. It started with Princess Anhai suddenly being called back to the Imperial Region. She gave up leadership of the Holytide Region, and handed all authority over to Seventh Prince. It didn¡¯t take long for news to spread in Sea-Sealing County about why that happened. Seventh Prince¡¯s mother came from a very important n in the Imperial Region, and they somehow brokered a deal with the emperor regarding the imperial prince. It resulted in the emperor recalling Princess Anhai, which was a tacit show of approval, allowing Seventh Prince to have the position and authority to control the Holytide Region.[4]

    At the same time, someone else came from the Imperial Region to take over the military in the Holytide Region. He was one of the backbones of the n that Seventh Prince¡¯s mother came from. He was Seventh Prince¡¯s blood uncle, and was one of the thirty-three heavenly kings of humankind.

    He was King Heaventide, a Smoldering God with a very high rank in the human species. After bringing his troops to the Holytide Region, he took control of all the forces there, then waged war on the Nightshades. That was what he had agreed with the emperor to do, and it was also the agreement that had been brokered between his n and the emperor. He was to pave the way into Nightshadends from the Holytide Region, all in the name of the emperor. When the Nightshades were at their weakest, he would devastate them and help the emperor to expand human territory.

    When face-to-face with the majestic King Heaventide, even Grand Duke Holytide had to back down and meekly obey orders.

    As for Sea-Sealing County... although it was technically autonomous, that didn¡¯t matter much to King Heaventide. When he showed up, a simple order was enough to shake the county so badly it became like a leaf on an angry sea. Everyone was scared, and almost overnight, numerous species, sects, and organizations chose to acknowledge allegiance to the heavenly king.

    That included the president of the Eight Sect Coalition. Without any hesitation at all, he abdicated his position in the Eight Sect Coalition and took his closest followers to switch loyalties to King Heaventide.

    After that, King Heaventide issued a call of recruitment to cultivators from all species in the region to go to the field of battle and ughter the Nightshades. Since Sea-Sealing County was part of the region, there were no grounds to refuse the call.

    ¡°Around the time I left, Sea-Sealing County had already sent three waves of reinforcements. They all died in battle. It¡¯s basically a war of attrition in which King Heaventide is throwing human forces against the Nightshades to wear them down.¡±

    As the innkeeper¡¯s words echoed in the shop, Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression turned cold. The Captain narrowed his eyes. Everyone else maintained silence. That was especially true of Ningyan, who opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it.

    ¡°That¡¯s why Marquis Yao told me to warn you not to return. If you do... Seventh Prince will definitely try to conscript you. And if that happens....¡± The innkeeper was about to sigh again, but then he looked at the Heir Apparent sipping tea, and suddenly realized that, based on what he had heard and what Ling¡¯er said, maybe he didn¡¯t need to sigh. ¡°Uh... so, that¡¯s how things are.¡±

    Xu Qing looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County for a moment. Then he turned to the Heir Apparent and sped hands.

    Smiling, the Heir Apparent put down his tea and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, a cold voice swept through the Bitter Life Mountains.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go with you to Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    The voice sounded like a sword, full of ughter, capable of shaking heaven and earth. When the Heir Apparent heard that voice, he sighed and picked up his tea again. That voice came from Ninth Sib!

    1. The innkeeper was revealed to be nonhuman in <u>chapter 64</u>. We learned that the inn was itself a grue in <u>chapter 96</u>. Exactly one hundred chapterster in <u>chapter 196</u>, we learned that the innkeeper was strengthening the Captain¡¯s seals. ?

    2. Commenters in Chinese drew connections between this passage and <i><u>I Shall Seal the Heavens</u></i>. Somementers even spected that the innkeeper is somehow rted to (perhaps a descendent of) Meng Hao, or an inheritor or member of the League of Demon Sealers from ISSTH. The section in this passage that talks about ¡°sealing¡± the ¡°heavens¡± uses the exact same characters as those from ISSTH (with the addition of the character for ¡°many,¡± which is why I included that). That said, the top-votedment in Chinese also concluded that there was no connection, and that it¡¯s just a matter of simr Chinese characters. There is no doubt that Er Gen likes to troll people, so take that into consideration in your analyses. ?

    3. <u>Chapter 240</u> was entitled <i>Nether-Sealing Blood</i>, and it also went into some of the history of ¡°Nether-Sealing.¡± There were a couple other chapters that mention ¡°Nether-Sealing.¡± It¡¯s hard to say if that passing lore from almost 500 chapters ago is supposed to be rted to the innkeeper from nkspring Way. Probably not? But the Chinese characters are the same, so I¡¯m tranting it the same in both instances. ?

    4. Back in<u> chapter 556.2</u>, Duanmu Zang spected that Seventh Prince¡¯s mother and/or n was somehow important. ?

 Chapter 717: Returning to Sea-Sealing

    <h4>Chapter 717: Returning to Sea-Sealing</h4>

    The canopy of heaven had long since turned dark. However, countless stars illuminated the night, sending starlight cascading down onto the river that surrounded the Moonrite Region. The starlight was reflected on the water, creating a dazzling scene that made it seem like the stars were falling into the mortal world. It was actually hard to tell what was in the sky and what wasn¡¯t.

    This was the Yin Sacrifice River. It had once been as red as blood and filled with countless corpses, as well as gruish river spirits. But now that the red moon had disappeared, and the curse with it, the river was different. The grues were gone. The fetters had vanished. And what was left behind was a peaceful, beautiful river.

    The sound of gurgling water could be heard as a huge ship sailed across the water toward the Holytide Region.

    Wu Jianwu sat on the boom, looking quietly off into the distance, where another, smaller ship was fading from view. Looking at the distant ship, Wu Jianwu sighed disconstely.

    Ningyan was at the bottom of the boom. He had a hemp rag in his hand which, out of force of habit, he was using to scrub the deck clean. He had never been a germaphobe. However, his time in the Moonrite Region had left him with a new habit that allowed him to spot even the tiniest speck of dirt or dust around him. After finishing with his scrubbing, he looked up at Wu Jianwu. He considered making a sarcastic quip, but considering the mood Wu Jianwu was in, he shook his head and held back.

    He knew exactly why Wu Jianwu was acting like this. Six hours ago, they had still been in the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the Bitter Life Mountains. But because of the situation in Sea-Sealing County, they were now on this ship.

    In what appeared to be a big coincidence, shortly after they set off, they encountered a smaller ship, upon which sat a young woman. In the past, she had been called by the name Mistress Rosyclouds.

    Wu Jianwu had looked at her. She had looked at Wu Jianwu.

    Then she closed her eyes.

    Sighing, Ningyan said, ¡°<i>What is love, I¡¯d like to know...?</i>¡±

    ¡°<i>It depends on who''s the first to say no!</i>¡± Wu Jianwu snapped bitterly. He produced a jug of alcohol and took a drink, resulting in a few dropsnding on the deck.

    Irritated, Ningyan started scrubbing again.

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged at the prow of the ship, his expression serious. The Captain leaned on the rail next to him, shaking his head as he sized up both Xu Qing and the water.

    ¡°Well, little Ah Qing, it seems someone didn¡¯t want you to leave so soon! But that¡¯s fine. Ling¡¯er¡¯s not here. Hahaha!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered in anticipation of what was about to happen.

    As he had said, Ling¡¯er wasn¡¯t onboard. Neither was the innkeeper from nkspring Way. It wasn¡¯t that Ling¡¯er had declined toe with Xu Qing back to Sea-Sealing County. Rather, absorbing Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s imperial energy had put her into a deep sleep. She needed time. It was as if she was in secluded meditation, and wasn¡¯t to be disturbed.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had left her in the Green Spirit Pharmacy. As expected, the innkeeper chose to stay with her. Nethersprite also stayed behind, not because of Ling¡¯er, but because she had no intention of returning to Sea-Sealing County.

    Because of that, there were only the four of them on the ship.

    In response to the Captain¡¯s words, Xu Qing frowned. He knew what the Captain was talking about. This ship was a gift from the Heir Apparent, and it should have been able to make the trip across regions in a very short time. But almost as soon as they set off, some muddy y started building up on the hull of the ship. As it gathered, it pulsed with a miraculous power that caused the ship to slow down dramatically.

    Ninth Sib never showed up at the shop, and even after they set sail, he was nowhere to be seen.

    Given the circumstances, Xu Qing was fairly certain he knew who had caused the ship to slow down. His spections were soon confirmed. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, enough y had built up on the hull that the ship stopped in ce.

    ¡°Get ready!¡± the Captain said, his eyes glittering.

    Xu Qing looked up.

    After the ship stopped, the y fell off, swept across the water to the front of the ship, and then formed into a huge y fox. Though made from y, the fox emanated a seven-colored glow, as well as a holy sensation that would make anyone it touched feel the urge to bow in worship.

    This was a god. H¨¥r arrival caused the river water to go still. The waves died down. The sky went dark. It was as if the y fox were the only thing left on the river. Sh¨¥ was the source of everything.

    Wu Jianwu was so startled he fell off the boom and onto the deck below. Ningyan wasn¡¯t sure what to do, and just trembled, his face a mask of terror. They had no idea who this y fox was.

    Only the Captain was looking forward keenly to what was toe. As he looked on intently, the y fox¡¯s eyes opened. They were phoenix-like eyes, inherently seductive and deeply charming. Ignoring the Captain, the y fox looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Why did you run away, you naughty little boy? You didn¡¯t even say goodbye. Don¡¯t tell me you forgot about me?¡±

    The tender voice caused magicalws to back away and naturalws to go into hiding. Even space-time was affected, as all four seasons appeared at the same time in the area, along with what appeared to be suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies. Godfire burned, releasing a terrifying aura, and causing everything to ripple and distort. Mutagen appeared in the sky.

    The y fox seemed even stronger than during the battle of the gods. Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh had clearly benefited h¨¥r a lot.

    Seeing all that, the Captain cleared his throat and quickly said, ¡°Big Sis, the reality is¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Kidney Boy!¡± the y fox interrupted in a flirtatious voice. ¡°Say one more word and I¡¯ll take both kidneys this time.¡±

    The Captain gasped and then snapped his mouth shut.

    Xu Qing hesitated, then opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, the y foxughed softly and gave Xu Qing a profound look.

    ¡°Li Zihua saw the future upon reaching godly ascension. When I reached godly ascension, what future do you think I saw, naughty boy?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered.

    The y fox was already fading from view, and in the end, left behind only some words spoken in a flirtatious voice.

    ¡°Take care of your primal yang, naughty boy. When you have the time,e to the Firemoon Darkheaven people and find me. We can have some fun together.¡±

    Shortly after, the world returned to normal.

    As Ningyan shivered, Wu Jianwu gaped, and the Captain muttered under his breath, the ship blurred. Then, a thrumming sound rang out over the water as it burst forward with incredible speed, entering the Holytide Region and racing toward Sea-Sealing County.

    The Holytide Region was covered by a beautiful starry sky. The glittering stars were like scattered flower petals. Also in that sky was a figure keeping pace with the ship. He had a ck robe and long ck hair. He had stars in his eyes, a body like a sword, and an expression like ice. He was none other than Ninth Sib.

 Chapter 718: Swordsages, Report For Duty!

    <h4>Chapter 718: Swordsages, Report For Duty!</h4>

    The Revered Ancient maind was a vast ce. The Holytide Region, which was located in the south, was only a small corner of therger continent. And it was far from the central region. Before the catastrophe of the broken face, it was rtively famous. It was connected in the north to the Spiritsky Region, in the west to the Moonhope Region, in the northwest to the Firedark Region by means of an ancient desert road. It bordered the Sea of Endlessness both in the south and the east, and thus, was very wealthy because of shipping and products that came from the sea. In its heyday, it was one of the top ten regions controlled by humans.

    However, after the broken face of the god came, everything changed. The never-ending Forbidden Sea didn¡¯t bring abundant wealth to the Holytide Region anymore, but instead, nonstop mutagen and other dangers. And that was just the beginning. The brilliant light of the Holytide Region faded into darkness. The human species declined, and as the human emperors came and went, they ultimately became weak.

    The Moonhope Region became the Moonrite Region. Spiritsky Region became the home of the Nightshades, and came to be called the Nightspirit Region.

    As for that ancient desert road that led to the Firedark Region, it became a no-man¡¯snd. That was because the Firedark Region... didn¡¯t belong to humans anymore. Instead, it was a frontier region connected to thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    Eventually... the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan rose up, and what hade to be a region of darkness and gloom again shone with dazzling light, striking fear into the hearts of the countless other species in Revered Ancient. But that glory was short-lived. After the ignominious death of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, human splendor drifted away like smoke in the wind.

    Eventually, Seventh Prince came, and as humans and Nightshades warred, Dawning Suns were unleashed. The Nightshades were defeated, and the reigning Grand Duke Holytide chose to return to humanity. That said, this development wasn¡¯t very monumental. When taking into consideration Revered Ancient as a whole, it didn¡¯t attract much attention. Things like that weren¡¯t enough to give rise to a storm of controversy.

    No one knew what would happen in the future. No one knew if the Holytide Region would manage to cast dazzling light over Revered Ancient, the way that the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan had done in the past.

    At the moment, war was spreading like wildfire north of the Holytide Region, in the Nightspirit Region, which had once been called Spiritsky. Beneath what was now a brightly shining sky, the Nightshade species suffered setback after setback. Although the Nightshades had many top experts, the fact was that Dawning Suns were profoundly debilitating to them. In fact, Emperor Nightshade and other top-level experts were actually assassinated by a mysterious cultivator.

    All of that put the Nightshades in a passive position. Then the red moon disappeared, and though it would take time before outsiders knew the truth of what happened, there were plenty of pious Nightshades who sensed it immediately. To the Nightshades, that development was like <i>hail added to snow</i>, and sent them into a state of deep sorrow and grief.

    The Nightshades were in a position of unprecedented weakness. In contrast, the warring humans shone with scintiting majesty. King Heaventide wasn¡¯t the only one on the warpath. The human emperor had sent a total of thirteen heavenly kings to surround the Nightshade¡¯s two major regions.

    Then, they invaded those two regions, from thirteen different directions.

    Most notable was King Eastcauldron, who was a heavenly king from the maternal n of Princess Anhai. His battle prowess was astonishing, and he personally led his troops into battle, leaving the Nightshades feeling deeply oppressed.

    At the same time, he put pressure on King Heaventide, whose n paid a huge price to earn tacit approval from the emperor for Seventh Prince. There was a stiption in the agreement, and that was that King Heaventide needed to conquer half of the Nightspirit Region. That was why King Heaventide conscripted so many cultivators after arriving at the Holytide Region. To him, it didn¡¯t matter if the humans in the Holytide Region lived or died. Worst case scenario, the poption could be replenishedter. The most important thing was to win the war. Only in that way could Seventh Prince permanently secure his fiefdom.

    The subordinates King Heaventide had brought with him weren¡¯t sufficient to secure victory. To do that, he needed to gain ess to taboo immortal skills. And those techniques required the blood and souls of countless living beings.

    Therefore, Seventh Prince issued conscription orders one after another, and sent conscription officers throughout the region to gather troops. Seventh Prince was notified of anyone who refused to cooperate, and he would send troops to deal with the offenders.

    This had already been going on for about half a year. Living beings from countless species in the Holytide Region were giving their lives to push the Nightshades back inch by inch. That included the forces of Sea-Sealing County.

    Considering that this war was being waged for the honor of humankind, and that there was a heavenly king involved, there was no way Sea-Sealing County could refuse to cooperate. It didn¡¯t matter that King Heaventide was holding back his own elite troops, and was using blood to unlock the taboo magic; they still couldn¡¯t do anything.

    During the half year that had passed, five waves of troops had been sent to the battlefield. Of those five groups, about half were swordsages.

    There were many sects and species in Sea-Sealing County who, after the bitter war that had been fought, and all the other tumult, didn¡¯t hesitate to offer loyalty to Seventh Prince.

    It had reached the point in which Sea-Sealing County couldn¡¯t muster a sixth wave of troops, unless... they sent the best scions of the sects and swordsages. But if they did that, Sea-Sealing County wouldn¡¯t have a future. Sadly, Sea-Sealing County wasn¡¯t in the position to question orders.

    Right now, a conscription contingent sent by Seventh Prince was closing in on the county capital of Sea-Sealing County.

    The group was made of over 10,000 troops organized into two sections. The group in the front wore ck robes embroidered with golden swords. Over half of that group was made of humans, although there were also nonhumans. They were all cultivators from sects that had once been part of Sea-Sealing County.

    They had chosen to switch loyalties to Seventh Prince, and thus, their identities had changed. They now took orders from him, effectively making them imperial envoys. And they hade to conscript troops. They were all very rxed, and were even chatting andughing with each other. Most looked in the direction of the county capital with disdain in their eyes, and some even cracked sarcastic jokes.

    The second group, which followed behind them, was made of warrior cultivators d in blood-red armor and robes. They had cold expressions, and pulsed with baleful auras. Wherever they went, they were like dark clouds who weighed down oppressively on everyone around them. They were not cultivators from the Holytide Region, but rather, from the imperial capital. They were members of the imperial guard that Seventh Prince had brought with him. They rode gigantic ck monitor lizards who were d in ck armor, and pulsed with a domineering air of pure destruction.

    Among this conscription force was a white flying elephant with a fancy canopy over it.

    Seated on the white elephant was a middle-aged cultivator wearing a suit of armor. He wasn¡¯t very good-looking, and his eyes flickered with cold, sinister light. He was nked by about a dozen figures in golden armor, each of which pulsed with terrifying Void Returning fluctuations that caused dark clouds to swirl around them.

    There was also an old man seated on the elephant. His face was a mass of wrinkles, and his eyes had streaks that resembled shooting stars. He was looking at the distant statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity holding the county capital, his expression one of venom and hatred.

    ¡°Sir Bloodsmelter!¡± he growled through gritted teeth. ¡°Zheng Kaiyi! And that scum Xu Qing!¡±[1]

    Clearly, the desire for revenge burned hot in his heart.

    The middle-aged man looked over at him and smiled faintly. ¡°You have a lot of old friends here, don¡¯t you, Soaring Cloud?¡±

    The old man quickly ducked his head down, sped hands and bowed. ¡°High Commander, I hope you can allow me to have a very nice reunion with my <i>old friends</i>.¡± [2]

    When the old man said ¡®old friends,¡¯ he was virtually gnashing his teeth.

    The highmander smiled and nodded.

    The old man was none other than Master Shengyun¡¯s grandfather, Patriarch Soaring Cloud from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect in the Eight Sect Coalition.

    Because of what happened with Master Shengyun, he had been ousted from the senate and punished in other ways. However, after King Heaventide showed up and the coalition¡¯s president defected, the president personally gave amnesty to the patriarch. Aftering to understand the situation, Patriarch Soaring Cloud chose to follow the president and seek asylum with Seventh Prince.

    He had pleaded fervently to be allowed toe along to the county capital. He wasn¡¯t worried about running into trouble. Given his current circumstances, anyone who defied him would end up dead. In fact, he was actually looking forward to arriving.

    <i>Defy me, and you¡¯ll die! Don¡¯t defy me, and you¡¯ll just dy your death! My poor grandson was clearly on the path to bing an Ancient Emperor. But that scumbag Xu Qing was jealous and viciously persecuted him!</i>

    <i>And my son died a horrible death thanks to Zheng Kaiyi! But the ultimate source of it all is Sir Bloodsmelter! The whole lot of you can just go ahead and die!</i>

    Killing intent glittered in Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s eyes. ring at the county capital, he waved his right hand. The clouds in the dome of heaven churned as lightning bolts formed, streaking together to create a lightning dragon. With a deafening roar, it shot toward the county capital. It was clearly about to tear the county capital to bits.

    Just as the lightning dragon was about to hit the county capital, a figure appeared in front of it. The figure reached out and touched the dragon. The dragon struggled in resistance, but it did no good. An instantter, it exploded, bing a shower of sparks that rained down onto the city below.

    All of the streets and alleys in the capital were silent and empty. The mortals had been told to stay indoors. Only cultivators from the three pces were visible, as well as elite experts from the sects that had remained loyal to Sea-Sealing County. Eyes burning with anger, they looked up into the sky.

    Among them were Yao Yunhui, Li Shitao, as well as Seven Blood Eyes disciples. There were plenty of people that Xu Qing would recognize. [3]

    Kong Xianglong was nowhere to be seen. [4]

    As the oppressive army loomed overhead, the dark clouds seethed. From a distance, the county capital looked like a rowboat in angry waves, just on the verge of capsizing.

    Within that army, the highmander atop the white elephant yawned and then said, ¡°You know more than me what reserve powers Sea-Sealing County has. I¡¯ll give you an incense stick¡¯s worth of time to conscript the troops. I want to get moving to the next stop.¡±

    With that, he took out a book and started reading; clearly, he wasn¡¯t interested at all in what happened next. The warrior cultivators all held their positions with cold expressions.

    In contrast, the former Sea-Sealing County cultivators let loose wild war cries. That included Patriarch Soaring Cloud. He looked down at the person who had destroyed his lightning dragon, his eyes pulsing with killing intent.

    ¡°Zheng Kaiyi!¡±

    The person who had stopped the lightning was none other than Master Seventh. Looking up at the army with a grim expression, he waved his hand, dispelling the sparks that were raining down. At the same time, the air behind him rippled as several people appeared.

    First was Marquis Yao, followed by the three pce lords, the honor guards from the various pces, and the top experts from numerous sects. Every single one of them was a Void Returning expert.

    Sir Bloodsmelter was there with Yanyan¡¯s grandmother Guru Easher, along with three sect leaders from the Eight Sect Coalition. [5]

    All of them had serious expressions on their faces.

    There were fewer people than before Xu Qing left. Some had switched loyalties, others had died in battle.

    Also in the crowd was a woman wearing a plum-colored gown. She looked like a blooming bauhinia tree, and was spectacrly beautiful. She was none other than Plumdark. She stood out from the crowd, making it obvious that her position was far above those around her. However, there was a touch of worry visible on her brow, making her seem anxious. At the same time, she wore a cold frown as she looked up at Patriarch Soaring Cloud and the army with him.

    The county capital was silent. The arrival of the army had cast a pall over the city. It wasn¡¯t that the people of Sea-Sealing County weren¡¯t willing to help the war effort. Rather, they had already given everything they could.

    ¡°Yao Tianyan! Zheng Kaiyi! You two have got a lot of gall!¡± Patriarch Soaring Cloud strode off the elephant to hover in front of the army. His eyes pulsed with killing intent, but inside, he was feeling wonderful. He smiled coldly. ¡°It¡¯s been seven days since Seventh Prince sent you new conscriptions orders. Here in Sea-Sealing County, you just watch while the forces of humankind suffer on the battlefield. All you know how to do is protect yourself! You refuse to send even one soldier to the front lines! Behavior like that makes you the same as the enemy! You people are the garbage of humanity!

    ¡°The highmander personally led his forces here, yet you obstinately persist in going about things the wrong way. Are the people of Sea-Sealing County even human anymore? Do you still serve the emperor? Do you still care about humankind?¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud had a lot of experience in life, and was both astute and circumspect. Every single word he spoke carried a lot of meaning, and emphasized loyalty to humankind. There were few people who couldpare to him.

    As his proudly spoken words echoed out, the High Commander on the white elephant looked at him with praise in his eyes.

    Meanwhile, the people of Sea-Sealing County were starting to get angry. The cultivators from the three pces gritted their teeth, their faces ashen and their eyes burning with fury.

    Up above them, Marquis Yao stepped forward, his expression one of fury. ¡°You say that Sea-Sealing County only knows how to protect itself? That we¡¯re not willing to give one soldier? Over the past half year, we¡¯ve sent five waves of troops to the front lines. That¡¯s millions of our young ones. We also sent the pce lord from the Administration Pce, as well as numerous honor guards from all of the pces!

    ¡°The millions of young ones we currently have here are the future of Sea-Sealing County, and they¡¯re the only reserve troops we have! Every sect, especially the human ones, aremps about to run out of oil. You¡¯re turning ck into white here!

    ¡°You talk of a war of honor? Let me ask you, of the five waves of young ones we sent, how many are still alive? The pce lord of the Administration Pce died in battle! Multiple honor guards have died and been buried in foreignnds. Didn¡¯t they die honorably?

    ¡°In recent years, Sea-Sealing County has dealt with many things. We fought back against the Holytides all on our own! We had three pce lords die at almost the same time! The governor died mysteriously, and then Seventh Prince swooped in and reaped the rewards. On the surface, it seemed like he wasing to the rescue, but everybody knows what really happened!

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it enough that millions of young ones from Sea-Sealing County have died? Don¡¯t tell me you want to take our final wavering spark and extinguish it?¡±

    Marquis Yao stood tall and straight. As he spoke, he wasn¡¯t looking at Patriarch Soaring Cloud, but rather, at the highmander. He spoke from his heart, clear and loud for everyone to hear.

    Then Master Seventh stepped forward. Looking at the white elephant, he calmly said, ¡°We all care about the honor of humankind. And we can make sacrifices. But only if it¡¯s worth it. High Commander, let me ask you something. How many of Seventh Prince¡¯s subordinates have been sent to the battlefield?¡±

    The highmander didn¡¯t even look away from his book. Speaking to Patriarch Soaring Cloud, he said, ¡°You have half an incense stick left.¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s eyes shed. After looking over the county capital, his gaze came to focus on Master Seventh and Marquis Yao.

    ¡°Swordsage Pce. Administration Pce. Justice Pce. All three pce lords. All of the deputy pce lords. All honor guards. Every single swordsage cultivator. However many of you there are, that¡¯s how many will mobilize. The sect leaders of all sects will fight.

    ¡°Also... in His Majesty Seventh Prince¡¯s first conscription order from half a year ago, he demanded that Xu Qing participate in the fighting. You made the excuse that he was in seclusion, but this time, that won¡¯t work. Xu Qing must fight! You have the time it takes half an incense stick to burn. Xu Qing and everyone else I just mentioned must be assembled in ranks by then!¡±

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud took a step forward. That step resounded like heavenly thunder. Winds screamed as a huge vortex spun into existence above. Below, everyone in Sea-Sealing County seethed with anger.

    Meanwhile, Marquis Yao¡¯s eyes gleamed with determination as he shared a nce with Master Seventh.

    ¡°Three pces!¡± he said. The three pce lords floated up into the air, where they called out simr orders to muster their forces.

    Most noteworthy was Pce Lord Li Yunshan of the Swordsage Pce, who had been the deputy pce lord not too long ago. Speaking in a somber and deste voice, he called, ¡°Swordsages, report for duty!¡±

    As his words echoed through the county capital, figures appeared one after another.

    ¡°Swordsage Sun Chenwu, reporting for duty!¡±

    ¡°Swordsage Zhang Hao, reporting for duty!¡±

    ¡°Swordsage Lu Tao, reporting for duty!¡±

    As the voices rang out, they were joined by a particrly distinct voice that echoed like thunder into the ears of everyone present.

    ¡°Swordsage Xu Qing, reporting for duty!¡±

    1. Last time I saw a lot ofments from readers who forgot that Zheng Kaiyi is Master Seventh. So... here¡¯s another reminder. West heard his name in <u>chapter 538</u>. That chapter has links to the previous references. ?

    2. The title that I¡¯m rendering ¡®highmander¡¯ is a title that was primarily used by provincial military governors during the early Republic of China. It does not contain any of the same characters used in the titles that I¡¯ve rendered as ¡®governor¡¯ or ¡®lieutenant governor¡¯ in this trantion, so I¡¯m refraining from using ¡®governor.¡¯ It¡¯s basically a military title of very high rank. ?

    3. Yao Yunhui is Zhang Siyun¡¯s mother. Shest appeared in <u>chapter 701.2</u>. That chapter has links to her previous appearances. Li Shitao is ¡°Lady Peachy,¡± the friend of Plumdark who is the Captain¡¯s love interest. She was introduced in <u>chapter 428</u>, andst appeared on screen in <u>chapter 528</u>. ?

    4. The author mistakenly made a reference to ¡°Second Elder Brother.¡± In thements, the Chinese readers jumped all over this to point out that it¡¯s a mistake. Perhaps Er Gen was thinking about Second Highness a.k.a. Second Sib a.k.a. Second Elder Sister who is with Huang Yan. Many Chinese readers jumped to that conclusion, while simultaneously pointing out it wouldn¡¯t make sense to expect her to be present in this scene anyway. The other possibility is that he was thinking of Third Elder Brother. Either way, it¡¯s a clear mistake on the part of the author so I edited it out. ?

    5. Thest we saw Yanyan¡¯s grandmother was in <u>chapter 542.1</u> and <u>542.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 719: A Spring-Like Breeze

    <h4>Chapter 719: A Spring-Like Breeze</h4>

    They were only six words spoken among a cacophony of other voices. But Xu Qing¡¯s name was deeply meaningful! In Sea-Sealing County, and especially to the swordsages there, his name carried profound significance! He was a fellow veteran who had fought life-or-death battles by their side! He had experienced the cruel baptism of war with them! He was a hero to all of Sea-Sealing County, and was also its future governor. It was the same with the mortals. No one could possibly forget his name for a moment. In an instant, the swordsages who had been furious and ready to die fighting were all shaken to the core. The person they had all been thinking about was now out of seclusion!

    Excited expressions appeared everywhere as people looked around for the figure that they all remembered clearly. It wasn¡¯t just the swordsages who reacted in that way. The cultivators from the other two pces were just as stunned, and the elite cultivators from sects throughout Sea-Sealing County were all shaken. There were plenty of people who had never seen Xu Qing, but knew his name well.

    If that was the reaction from the crowd in general, it was easy to imagine the shock visible on the faces of the three pce lords, Marquis Yao, and everyone else hovering in midair.

    That one name struck astonishment into the hearts of countless citizens of Sea-Sealing County. Meanwhile, an even more majestic vortex appeared overhead, sorge it filled almost the entire dome of heaven. Intense rumblings were apanied by the crash of thunder. Winds screamed everywhere, connectingnd and sky in a huge tempest.

    To the shock of everyone present, a massive ship emerged from the vortex! It was pitch ck and pulsed with terrifying pressure. Innumerable streams of ck mist surrounded it, like tentacles that formed together into a pair of massive wings.

    The prow was carved to look like a dragon in motion, with a vicious, domineering expression. The dragon had six-wed hands, making it profoundly noble. It was the type of dragon that would strike fear and shock into the hearts of anyone who saw it. [1]

    Someone had written two characters on the ship¡¯s sail.

    <i>Jicang!</i>

    Few people could possibly understand what those characters meant. But the calligraphy was mighty and domineering. The truth was that this ship had been given to Xu Qing as a gift by the Heir Apparent, who had personally written those characters onto the sail. They were his name! [2]

    The moment the ship appeared, heaven and earth seemed to shatter, and thunder crashed. Everyone in Seventh Prince¡¯s army was shocked. The highmander seated on the white elephant put down his book and looked up, bewildered.

    In the lead position was Patriarch Soaring Cloud, who waspletely stunned. However, before the patriarch could even react, the gigantic ship shot directly toward him with heaven-subduing, earth-startling force.

    There was no way to avoid it and no way to block it! The ship had been created by the Heir Apparent, who had stupefying personhood. As a result, it was capable of unimaginable speed. It appeared on the scene so suddenly that it could only be described in the following way: although it took quite a while to describe, in reality, it happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint!

    In the blink of an eye, the stunning ship became like an actual dragon, raging with fury and murder as it bore down on Patriarch Soaring Cloud. The air shattered because of the violent pressure weighing down. At one moment, the ship was high in the sky. The next moment, it was right in front of Patriarch Soaring Cloud, about to crush him.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud was a first-stage Void Returning expert, yet his face still fell from the sense of deadly crisis that filled him. He screamed and tried to defend himself, unleashing the wild power of his cultivation base, causing the falling stars in his eyes to shoot out into the open in the form of a thousand dao lineaments. But those dao lineaments copsed, as did everything around them.

    The traitors behind him didn¡¯t have cultivation bases near the patriarch¡¯s, so they didn¡¯t stand a chance of fighting back. Screams rang out everywhere as the air around them copsed, and they were destroyed in body and soul. A cloud of gore floated through the air in the opposite direction. Then, an even greater mightiness swept toward the white elephant and the troops surrounding it.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s face was as pale as death. Then it turned red, and blue veins bulged out everywhere. Finally, blood sprayed out of his mouth along with an agonized shriek as he was sent tumbling down toward the ground. As he fell, his body cracked and split. His chest caved in. Blood sprayed constantly out of his mouth. And his cultivation base deted permanently. At the same time, he was being pulled at by the ship, so though he tried to fall back, he had a hard time doing so.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. After the ship seriously injured Patriarch Soaring Cloud, a figure emerged from it. Shining with scintiting blue light, he shot toward the patriarch like a blue meteor.

    A proud voice echoed out.

    ¡°Swordsage Chen Erniu, reporting for duty!¡±

    As the blue meteor closed in on the patriarch, the Captain¡¯s face became visible. There were faces in his eyes, the eyes of which also had faces, and that pattern continued. Tentacles appeared, made of blue bugs, which converged into the shape of a right fist.

    The Captain used that fist to punch Patriarch Soaring Cloud. More blood sprayed out of the patriarch¡¯s mouth. He wanted to fight back. To defend himself. But in the blink of an eye, a second figure emerged from the ship. At first, he was the same size as an ordinary person. But then flesh split apart as he turned into a majestic giant.

    He was none other than Xu Qing in his first-level god state! He had the body of the Ghost Emperor, iparably grand, with an imperial crown on his head. He looked as dignified as an emperor. Blinding golden light shone off him, causing everything around him to gleam with seven colors. A heavenly dao furnace burned in his heart, its every beat sounding out like heavenly thunder. And intense mes surrounded him from head to toe.

    He had a long, ck spear surrounded by lightning, which he threw straight toward Patriarch Soaring Cloud. A thrumming sound echoed out as the spear pierced through the air, crushing everything in its path, and bringing destruction with it as it stabbed into the patriarch¡¯s chest and came out the other side.

    A shrill scream escaped the lips of Patriarch Soaring Cloud as a massive hole appeared in his chest and his dao lineaments were scattered. Indescribable pain filled him as his eyes turned crimson. The sensation of deadly crisis grew so intense his mind went nk. All he could think to do was flee for his life. However, before he could tap into whatever remained of his cultivation base, the Captain stepped in.

    After the spear shot through the patriarch, the Captain transformed into a heavenly dog that shimmered with blue light. His jaws mped down onto the patriarch.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud shivered from head to toe as he rapidly transformed into an ice sculpture. Life force poured out of him, entering the Captain. The patriarch began to go mad. However, it did him no good.

    Xu Qing closed in andunched a full-force blow onto the ice sculpture.

    The sculpture exploded with a pop. Blood sprayed out of Patriarch Soaring Cloud as his hair becamepletely disheveled. Never before had the patriarch been in a position as bad as this.

    The Captain went in for another attack. He and Xu Qing worked together perfectly, attacking one after the other. In a very short time, they had unleashed mountain-toppling, sea-draining force on Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    The highmander and his forces were about to interfere, but then Master Seventh and everyone else surged with energy.

    Patriarch Soaring Cloud let loose a deafening howl as he went all-out with everything he had left. However, it wasn¡¯t an attack. Instead, he tried to escape. From that it could be seen how shocking the attacks of Xu Qing and the Captain were. But he actually had no opportunity to escape.

    The Captain shivered, and as blue light red around him, he turned into countless blue worms, forming a vast sea. The worms converged, bing a huge blue hand that swept toward Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    Next to him, Xu Qing erupted with ck energy that quickly surrounded him, turning into a ck suit of armor. His eyes burned with fire of the underworld as his energy rose to an even more shocking level.

    This wasn¡¯t theplete version of the second-level god state, only a partial version. It wasn¡¯t worth it to waste another chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to unleash the full version of the second-level god state, if the purpose was only to kill Patriarch Soaring Cloud.

    In the blink of an eye, the two of them erupted with power, causing heaven and earth to shake and filling the sky with the sound of heavenly thunder. Closing in on the patriarch, Xu Qing lifted his right hand, causing ck energy to swirl around the long spear, transforming it into a heavenly saber.

    The saber then shed through Patriarch Soaring Cloud¡¯s neck, severing his head. Taboo poison raged, causing the patriarch¡¯s body to rapidly decay. Soaring Cloud moaned in agony as even his dao lineaments began to dpose.

    Simultaneously, the Captain¡¯s gigantic blue hand grabbed the patriarch¡¯s severed head and crushed it into a bloody paste. Then the Captain¡¯s face appeared in the hand and he opened his mouth to devour what was left of the head. But then he realized it was full of poison and decided not to.

    The blue light faded away, and the Captain¡¯s true form appeared, glowering at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing rapidly transformed as well. He went from the second-level god state to the first level. Then he hovered there, pulsing with a baleful aura as he stared at the army.

    Everything was very quiet. Countless eyes were now focused on Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The sudden, ferocious development left everyone shaken. Spirit Trove had vanquished Void Returning. This... was something that should have been impossible. Yet everyone present saw it with their own eyes!

    The 10,000 cultivators with the highmander all shivered. And the highmander himself looked out with a grave and somber expression.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh chuckled, and his eyes shone with approval. He looked thoughtfully in the direction of the Moonrite Region, then nced up at the sky. He said nothing.

    Sir Bloodsmelter stroked his beard, his expression one of great pride. In some ways, he looked very much like the Captain often did.

    Marquis Yao looked surprised, especially by the name written on the ship¡¯s sail!

    Everyone had different facial expressions. The three pce lords, the honor guards, and the experts from the various sects were all paying rapt attention to the events. Down below, Yao Yunhui¡¯s heart was in chaos. In recent times, she often found herself thinking good thoughts about Xu Qing, to the point where it was a permanent aspect of her. Right now, she had a nk look on her face.

    Meanwhile, the slim, graceful Plumdark wasn¡¯t looking at the ship or the people in the area. She was looking at one person who was everything to her.

    <i>As long as he¡¯s back, that¡¯s all that matters.</i>

    Her face, which was beautiful enough to move entire nations, gradually ceased to be anxious. Somehow, she seemed even more beautiful than before. Her smiling eyes seemed to contain blossoming flowers and a spring-like breeze.

    1. Considering that the number of ws on the various dragons has been important in the story before, I figured it¡¯s worth noting that this dragon has six ws. Historically speaking, the emperor would normally have a five-wed dragon, so it seems unusual that this one has six ws. Out of curiosity I checked thements, and sure enough there was some discussion among Chinese readers about this. Some people were confused. Some people pointed out that six ws surpasses the normal five ws of the emperor. Some made other humorous or incorrectments. In any case, there is no extra information to exin it in the chapter, so you can draw your own conclusions. ?

    2. Li Jicang: Although it¡¯s not spelled out here, given that we know the Heir Apparent¡¯s father¡¯s name is Li Zihua, it follows logically that the HA¡¯s surname is also Li. That would make his name Li Jicang. Li is the #2 mostmon Chinese surname on the list of 100 surnames. It also means ¡°plum¡± (not the same as the character from Plumdark. Plumdark¡¯s name, as I exined in the very beginning, actually contains the character ¡®violet¡¯). Ji means ¡°continue, follow after, seed¡± and Cang means ¡°dark blue, deep green.¡± By implication, Cang can generally imply the sky or heaven. Cang ismon, especially in the writing of Er Gen, as it is oftenbined with other characters to form words you¡¯re definitely familiar with. For example, the term I usually render as ¡°dome of heaven¡± has this character in it. Azure dragons are ¡°cang¡± dragons. And in ISSTH, we have ¡°Vast Expanse¡± which is ¡°cang mang.¡± So, if youbine the two characters, it creates a fairly obvious meaning that Madam Deathde summarized in this way: ¡°He¡¯s the sessor of heaven? That¡¯s freaking royal! He¡¯s an alpha male. An alpha alpha male.¡± I think at this point we all agree that the Heir Apparent is a pretty cool character, so it¡¯s nice to know that he has a pretty badass name. ?

 Chapter 720: The Stars Fade; Suns and Moons Cower (1)

    As Xu Qing and the Captain made their stand, a feeling of excitement spread. The hearts of the swordsages surged as they were reminded of the dramatic day of the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup.

    Now as then, Xu Qing hovered in midair, visible to the eyes of everyone present. The only difference was that on this day, he was vastly more grand and majestic.

    As the excitement built, the swordsages flew up into the air and gathered around Xu Qing, forming a growing crowd. As of this moment, all of Sea-Sealing County pulsed with a desire to do battle.

    Although Master Seventh and Marquis Yao were superior to Xu Qing in terms of cultivation base, they were the type of lofty and distant people that ordinary cultivators wouldn¡¯t even dare to approach.

    But Xu Qing was different. Xu Qing was a fellow veteran. He had walked the line between life and death with them. They were familiar with them, and they backed his decisions and attitudes. That was why they treated him, not just with incredible respect, but also, with deep familiarity. Every single swordsage present rose up and took a ce by Xu Qing¡¯s side.

    Looking around his fellow veterans, Xu Qing¡¯s heart swelled. He would never forget what Plumdark told him back when he first got to Sea-Sealing County. Back then, he didn¡¯t know much about the swordsages, and thus, didn¡¯t care much about them one way or another. He wasn¡¯t even sure he wanted to be a swordsage. Plumdark said that when he developed a bit of admiration for the organization and the people in it, and then turned that admiration into respect, he would figure things out. [1]

    That admiration came as he began to understand the swordsages. And the respect came because of Pce Lord Kong Liangxiu of the Swordsage Pce.

    A host of emotions rose up in Xu Qing, but he took a deep breath and suppressed them. Now wasn¡¯t the time to sit around reminiscing. This crisis for Sea-Sealing County hadn¡¯t yet been resolved.

    The only people who had died were Patriarch Soaring Cloud and a few of the Sea-Sealing County traitors. They were people who had thought a lot of themselves, and believed that they could <em>call the wind and summon the rain</em>. They also thought of themselves as being important. But the reality was that to the highmander on his white elephant, they were little more than rustic country bumpkins. To him, a person from the Imperial Region who was used to lording it over everyone else, they weren¡¯t important at all.The only one he valued even slightly was Patriarch Soaring Cloud. But only a little bit. Therefore, the sudden development caused a serious expression to overtake his face. Xu Qing and the Captain were only in Spirit Trove, yet they had just cut down a Void Returning expert. Even in the Imperial Region, that was so rare as to be unheard-of.

    As a result, he was thinking, <em>Only the superpowers in Revered Ancient can do things like that, and even then, it¡¯s </em>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns<em>.</em>

    The highmander looked at Xu Qing and the Captain through narrowed eyes. He had heard the name Xu Qing before, and knew its significance in Sea-Sealing County. He had to admit that a chosen cultivator like this really did deserve his reputation in the county.

    <em>He¡¯s not far from reaching his potential. But as for this guy next to him, I¡¯ve never heard of him before.</em>

    With such thoughts on his mind, he casually said, ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing? Beforeing here, I heard about you from Seventh Prince. He had good things to say. What¡¯s more, your 30,000-meter light during the Grand Emperor¡¯s assessment caused even His Majesty to heap praise on you.

    ¡°Because of that, I¡¯m not going to hassle you over killing Soaring Cloud. You earned grade-one battle credit, a goldenmand medallion, a yellow robe, and the right to attend the Imperial University. Given that, you obviously know what honor means.

    ¡°Therefore, I¡¯m putting you in charge of conscripting troops in Sea-Sealing County. I want you to lead your forces to the field of battle. Turn your crime into a service. Are you willing to do that?¡±

    As the words left the highmander¡¯s mouth, the over 10,000 warrior cultivators on the monitor lizards inched forward. Their slight movement instantly created a very perilous situation. Even the dome of heaven reacted, as the winds swirled to create a tempest. A somber and deste aura built; one order, and these people would level everything in their path.

    On the other side, killing intent intensified among the forces of Sea-Sealing County. The swordsages were drawing their swords; all they were doing now was waiting for orders from Xu Qing. The cultivators from the other two pces, plus the elites from the sects, also waited somberly.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t immediately respond to the highmander. He turned to look at the swordsages, and then all the other cultivators from Sea-Sealing County. Finally, he turned his attention to Master Seventh and Marquis Yao.

    The praise in Master Seventh¡¯s eyes grew stronger. He smiled. ¡°You¡¯ve grown up.¡±

    That simple statement made clear how he felt. He would let Xu Qing make the decision.

    Marquis Yao looked at Xu Qing, and he felt slightly dazed. All of a sudden, he realized that Xu Qing reminded him a lot of Kong Liangxiu. Smiling, he nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve already performed amazing services for the people of Sea-Sealing County. If your cultivation base was a bit higher, you could officially take over as the governor. Before, when you had yet to grow up, your Master and I were running things in Sea-Sealing County. But now... you can decide the future of the county.¡±

    After those two spoke, everyone else, including the three pce lords, all the honor guards, and the experts from the other sects, all looked at Xu Qing, their gazes warm.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and bowed to Master Seventh and Marquis Yao. Then he took a moment to look over the crowd of Sea-Sealing County cultivators. The look in their eyes told him their attitude. Eyes glittering, he turned to the highmander on his white elephant.

    ¡°The emperor issued orders naming Sea-Sealing County as autonomous. Therefore, sire, please excuse our inability toply with your demands!¡±

    The spirits of Sea-Sealing County surged in response to his words. Xu Qing had given voice to the thoughts that everyone in the county had been forced to suppress instead of speak out loud. When Xu Qing spoke them, they echoed out like heavenly thunder.

    The High Commander¡¯s eyes shone with cold light. ¡°Arrest Xu Qing and send him to the heavenly king to be dealt with. Any who interfere with the arrest will be considered traitors and can be executed on the spot.¡±

    The warrior cultivators in blood-red armor surged with baleful energy. Staying in tight formation, they emitted mountain-toppling, sea-draining force as they faced off against the forces of Sea-Sealing County. From a distance, they collectively resembled a gigantic monitor lizard, howling a deafening howl toward Sea-Sealing County. The noise of it shattered the air and caused a tempest to spring into being. In the blink of an eye, thends quaked, the clouds seethed, and the sun and moon faded.

    However, the forces of Sea-Sealing County had been holding things in for too long. They also erupted with energy, which rose up into the air to create three spell formations, one for each of the three pces. The energy from the Swordsage Pce created a formation that looked like a sword, so fearsome it could sever mountains, rivers, and all living beings. The Administration Pce and Justice Pce had their own impressive formations. A host of huge puppets also appeared, each of them piloted by a team of cultivators. Overhead, a massive appeared, which was the manifestation of Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure. Many other sects also activated their taboo treasures to bolster it.

    Humans in other regions didn¡¯t have much experience with full-scale war. At the most, they had participated in small battles. But it had only been a few years since the cultivators of Sea-Sealing County had been part of a huge war. And the survivors were all elite veterans. They were very familiar with war.

    As killing intent rose from both sides, Xu Qing looked up to the sky and bowed, hoping that Ninth Sib would do something. He got no response.

    He sighed inside, but at the same time, knew that Ninth Sib wasn¡¯t the type of person you could just summon to get help. Much of it would depend on how powerful an enemy was involved.

    And thus, rumbling filled the battlefield. The High Commander¡¯s subordinates in the golden armor flew out from their positions by the white elephant, their eyes gleaming coldly and their Void Returning cultivation bases surging. Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, and everyone else in the same level also flew forward.

    The Void Returning experts started fighting fiercely.

    The Sea-Sealing County traitors who had not been killed by Xu Qing¡¯s previous attack with the ship could see the fighting breaking out, and it filled them with deep anxiety. However, they had already made their decision, so they cleared their minds and joined the fighting.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed, then he burst into motion, heading right toward the iing group. The air around him shattered as he appeared in front of a Spirit Trove cultivator.

    Xu Qing¡¯s first-level god state was simply too fast. His shocked opponent couldn¡¯t even back up before Xu Qing¡¯s left fist descended. Before the fist could make contact, it transformed the surrounding magical and naturalws, whichtched onto the Spirit Trove cultivator and turned his motion of retreat into the opposite.

    In the blink of an eye, the Spirit Trove cultivator coughed up a mouthful of blood. His own naturalws were fighting back, but they couldn¡¯t stop what was happening. He was pulled violently toward Xu Qing, and could do nothing but watch in despair as a ck spear shot toward him. There was no way to evade or block the attack. The taboo spear stabbed through his neck, unleashing explosive power as it did. The cultivator¡¯s body and secret trove both shattered. He had been destroyed in body and soul.

    Without a pause, Xu Qing turned and killed another enemy.

    The Captain was already in motion. He sent blue light to surround an enemy, and when that light faded, the enemy disappeared along with it. The Captain licked his lips, then lunged in another direction.

    There were swordsages present who had been part of the original Secretariat Division. They had taken it upon themselves to act like Xu Qing¡¯s personal guard, and were keeping pace with him and the Captain as they all unleashed ughter.

    The traitors were already suffering grievous casualties, and many unleashed bitter curses before they died.

    ¡°Seventh Prince must have known this would happen! We¡¯ll be waiting for you in the Yellow Springs, Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°When King Heaventide returns, he¡¯ll put you all to death!¡±

    Xu Qing was unmoved by their words. After ughtering the traitors, he looked up at the fighting above.

    The fighting had only been going on for a short time, but thanks to the taboo treasures and the elite skills of the Sea-Sealing County cultivators, it was clear that the Sea-Sealing side had a huge advantage.

    The warriors in blood-red armor were on the defensive the entire time. It was the same with the fighting between the Void Returning experts.

    When the highmander saw how things were ying out, his eyes glittered coldly. He now realized that he had underestimated Sea-Sealing County. That said, it wasn¡¯t a big deal to him. As the highmander, he hade from the main battlefield to conscript troops, and he had never intended to rely on his own forces to establish authority. Rather, he was here on orders from King Heaventide. Therefore, he calmly raised his hand, revealing a golden jade pendant that emitted dazzling light.

    1. Plumdark gave him advice about the swordsages in chapter 414. That advice was mentioned again in chapter 510. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Thank you to <strong>RookieCookie23 </strong>and <strong>munkew </strong>for the reviews!</blockquote>

 Chapter 720: The Stars Fade; Suns and Moons Cower (part 2)

    Chapter 720: The Stars Fade; Suns and Moons Cower (part 2)

    Blinding golden light spread out rapidly, causing Smoldering God pressure to weigh down heavily. The dome of heaven dimmed. The air blurred. Thends quaked. Hearts trembling, the Sea-Sealing County cultivators backed up. Though they were furious, their cultivation bases were being restricted, and their souls were being affected. That was how weak they were in the face of a Smoldering God aura.

    ¡°Do some piddling sparks dare to vie with the full moon?¡± the highmander said coolly from his white elephant. As he looked out coldly, a host of gigantic golden characters formed in front of him. ¡°The people of Holytide Region are hereby conscripted to fight in the war.¡±

    Twelve golden characters appeared, all of which pulsed with the aura of a Smoldering God, causing everything around them to shake.

    That was the moment in which Xu Qing chose to again look up into the sky, sp hands, and bow.

    ¡°Grandpa Ninth. Please.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, a beam of heaven-sundering sword light dropped down from the dome of heaven. This was a dazzling sword that could overturn heaven and undermine earth! This sword could make the stars fade, and the sun and moon cower. Heaven split open, a massive rift appearing like a ck hole. All light. All sound. All thoughts. All feelings. The sword tugged on all of them and pulled them into the ck hole. Everything disappeared. Time went still.

    The sword light descended noiselessly, filled with breathing, consummate power. And then it reached the Smoldering God energying from the jade pendant in the hand of the High Commander.

    King Heaventide¡¯s aura copsed, and the golden light faded into nothing but normal light.

    The twelve characters in front of the white elephant that had been shaking everyone to the core were suddenly made incapable of emitting light. They crumbled like dried weeds before turning into drifting ash.

    The jade pendant was hit next. That pendant contained orders from King Heaventide, yet cracks spread out over its surface before it copsed into dust in the hand of the highmander.

    The highmander himself couldn¡¯t stand up to the force. He started shaking, a look of astonishment in his eyes as he looked up into the sky. He saw nothing. But he could imagine what type of entity was up there.

    ¡°I¡ª¡±

    He tried to speak, but didn¡¯t have the chance. A breeze hit him, and he copsed into ash.

    He was the only one that died. The white elephant wasn¡¯t harmed. Trembling, the elephant dropped down in prostration. The warrior cultivators in blood-red armor were not harmed either.

    That was how Ninth Sib operated. His sword skill was at such a high level that, with a single thought, it could eradicate entire armies. Or, it could bypass the army and kill a single person, leaving everyone else unhurt. Clearly, Ninth Sib valued humankind deeply, and didn¡¯t want to see people die needlessly.

    One was enough.

    The sword light vanished. The highmander had been wiped away. Everything went quiet. The highmander¡¯s subordinates shivered in obvious terror and astonishment. They had seen the sword attack, and they knew what it signified. And that realization left their minds empty of everything except fear.

    It was the same with the forces of Sea-Sealing County. The swordsages, the cultivators from the three pces, and the sect elites were all shaken to the core, their hearts pounding with astonishment. The gathered sect leaders, the pce lords, and the honor guards reacted the same. They were absolutely bbergasted, and looked at Xu Qing with disbelief in their eyes.

    Thinking back, they vaguely remembered that, just before the heaven-shaking, earth-shattering sword descended, Xu Qing had bowed to the sky and called out to someone named Grandpa Ninth....

    Plumdark was stunned, and looked at Xu Qing with a nk expression.

    Marquis Yao¡¯s heart was pounding. The name ¡®Jicang¡¯ written on the sail of Xu Qing¡¯s ship had seemed familiar. He was from the aristocratic n of a heavenly marquis, and though his n was in decline, they still had a lot of ancient records. When he thought about where Xu Qing had been recently, he recalled that many, many years ago, the heir apparent of the Imperial Sovereign of the Moonrite Region was named Li Jicang! What was more, that Imperial Sovereign¡¯s ninth son had been an expert in the sword.... Having reached this point in his train of thought, his heart started pounding even more.

    Master Seventh had an odd expression on his face as he looked up into the dome of heaven. Looking wistful, he sighed, shook his head, and then turned to Xu Qing and his senior apprentice, his eyes filled with praise.

    The Captain noticed that, though Xu Qing didn¡¯t. Xu Qing was focused on the trembling warrior cultivators in blood-red armor.

    Ninth Sib obviously didn¡¯t want to kill them, but that left Xu Qing wondering what to do with them. After a moment of silence, Xu Qing looked back at the huge ship.

    Ningyan and Wu Jianwu were there, crouching behind the rails and secretly watching what was happening outside. Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s gaze caused Ningyan to blink a few times. Grimacing, he looked down, not daring to meet Xu Qing¡¯s gaze. That said, he couldn¡¯t pretend that he didn¡¯t notice Xu Qing looking at him.

    Seeing that caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to grow colder. He frowned.

    The Captain looked over and smiled enigmatically.

    Ningyan¡¯s heart raced. He feared the Captain, but he feared Xu Qing even more. The Captain might bite him, but even when they had only just met, Xu Qing nearly killed him.

    Considering that both of those people were looking at him, Ningyan knew that he had no choice but to follow orders. It seemed like a lose-lose situation, but he still sighed inwardly, gritted his teeth, and rose to his feet. He stepped off the ship.

    Off to the side, Wu Jianwu blinked a few times. He knew what Ningyan was doing, and he immediately startedposing some poetry.

    At first, nobody had been paying attention to Ningyan. But as he stepped off the ship, his bloodline activated, causing a golden umbre to appear over his head. His bloodline also caused a four-wed golden dragon to appear, swirling in the air and roaring in a way that shook heaven and earth. That golden dragon was enough to shake everyone. But next, an imperial robe appeared on Ningyan, instantly making him the center of all attention.

    The cultivators of Sea-Sealing County all looked at him, their expressions those of utter shock. Even more shocked were the terrifying Void Returning subordinates of the High Commander, plus the warrior cultivators in blood-red armor. That one sword move put them in an impossible situation. And now, seeing Ningyan, they were even more shocked.

    Ningyan¡¯s bloodline fluctuations, plus the four-wed golden dragon, was something that they, people who hade from the Imperial Region, werepletely familiar with. They knew the aura of the imperial n.

    The army cultivators weren¡¯t sure what to do. None of them recognized Ningyan. Although he was one of the emperor¡¯s sons, he had never stood out much. Therefore, Ningyan just hovered in midair feeling embarrassed. And since it would be strange for him to introduce himself, he just remained in ce releasing as much of his bloodline aura as possible. Gradually, the aura grew stronger, and the imperial n¡¯s fluctuations spread out majestically in all directions.

    That was when the Captain flew up to stand a few paces behind Ningyan. ring down at the army in blood-red armor, he snapped, ¡°How dare you people! You¡¯re looking right at Twelfth Prince but you¡¯re not offering formal greetings?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s words only increased everyone¡¯s shock. As for Ningyan, he breathed an inner sigh of relief. Maintaining a somber facial expression, he looked out at the army and coolly said, ¡°I am indeed Guyue Ningyan, twelfth son of the human emperor. Presumably you people know my name.¡±

    Ningyan¡¯s words caused a stir among the imperial forces. That was especially true when it came to the Void Returning experts. When they thought about the imperial princes, they remembered that there was one whose mother died shortly after childbirth. That prince very rarely appeared in public, and he was Twelfth Prince. There was no way to fake his bloodline fluctuations, and what was even more noteworthy was that the huge monitor lizards were all bowing their heads to the golden dragon. No further proof was needed.

    After a brief moment of hesitation, they also bowed their heads and sped hands to Ningyan.

    ¡°Well met, Twelfth Prince!¡±

    The forces of Sea-Sealing County were just as stunned, and they also offered formal greetings by bowing. Marquis Yao did the same.

    Seeing all that caused pride to well up in Ningyan¡¯s heart. He even stuck his chin up a bit. In fact, he almost forgot his standing in Sea-Sealing County until the Captain cleared his throat, bringing Ningyan back to his senses. Immediately squashing any feelings of arrogance, Ningyan looked over the imperial forces.

    ¡°My father the emperor issued orders proiming Sea-Sealing County as autonomous. Although you were tricked, you stillmitted grave offenses. Bind yourselves. I¡¯ll submit an official request to the court and let my father make the final decision about what to do with you.¡±

    The army was silent in response to his words. First came the shocking sword, then the sudden arrival of an imperial prince. Whether on an emotional level or a rational one, they had no choice but to follow orders.

    The reality was that they were all breathing sighs of relief. If you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off, and they had been in a very delicate and deadly situation. Following the lead of an imperial prince was obviously the best choice. Without the slightest hesitation, they sealed their own cultivation bases and began tying each other up. It didn¡¯t matter that they were the trusted followers of a highmander. What was important was that... a single sword move had stricken them to the core.

    Having aplished that, Ningyan secretly nced at Xu Qing out of the corner of his eye. Seeing that Xu Qing had no expression on his face got him worried, so he looked at the Captain.

    The Captain threw his arm over Ningyan¡¯s shoulders and chuckled grimly. It was a clear message that Ningyan had performed well.

    Ningyan let loose a sigh of relief. Given the current circumstances, this was the ideal way to wrap up the situation. Before long, Marquis Yao had made arrangements for the Sea-Sealing County cultivators to take the captured imperial forces to the Corrections Division. They weren¡¯t to be mistreated. After all, they were all humans.

    In that manner, a big crisis in Sea-Sealing County was handled. Next, Marquis Yao made an announcement proiming to the entire county that Xu Qing would be acting as the new governor.

    Because of the delicate political circumstances, there was no formal ceremony. But Xu Qing was the hope of Sea-Sealing County, and also its reserve power. So there wasn¡¯t really a need for a ceremony. For all intents and purposes, he was now the governor of Sea-Sealing County.

    Some of the cultivators from the various sects, or from distant parts of Sea-Sealing County, only had vague memories of how Xu Qing had acted in the past. In their hearts, they believed that someone with a cultivation base as low as his couldn¡¯t possibly be the governor. But after seeing that sword fall from the sky, such doubts were shattered.

    It just made Xu Qing seem more mysterious. And then there was the way Twelfth Prince treated Xu Qing. That made them even more curious. Xu Qing didn¡¯t refuse the honor. He knew what kind of a responsibility it was to be the governor, and he was ready to ept it. After taking his rightful ce in the Governor¡¯s Mansion, he issued a string of dharmic decrees.

    First: everyone in the county was to prepare for war.

    Second: the taboo treasures were to be kept active.

    Further orders were given, sending swordsages out to quell the unrest in the county. And preparations needed to be made for the arrival of Seventh Prince and King Heaventide.

    Sea-Sealing County had been in a state of confusion. But the new orders brought life back to the county, and unified the hearts of the masses.

    The great bird Qingqin chose to leave seclusion. That night, he soared in the sky above the county capital, where he looked down at the Governor¡¯s Mansion and let loose a long, crisp call.

    ¡°CAAAAAWWWW!¡±

 Chapter 721: The Blessing of Becoming an Immortal

    In Sea-Sealing County¡¯s county capital, security was very tight on the Governor¡¯s Mansion in the very center of the city. Swordsages stood guard, but they weren¡¯t alone. There was an entire contingent of the city guard specifically assigned to the Governor¡¯s Mansion as well.

    The mansion itself existed in two states. The first state was the part visible inly in the outside world. But that was only one of the eight majestic pces that made up the mansionplex. The rest was in a void world.

    Teleportation into that void was controlled by the Governor¡¯s Medallion. At that moment, Xu Qing stood in a building in the Governor¡¯s Mansion, looking at amand medallion. On one side of the medallion were the characters Sea-Sealing, while the other side was a map of the county. This was Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Governor¡¯s Medallion.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t alone. Marquis Yao and Master Seventh were both present, and they were currently ying a game of Go. The Captain stood obediently at Master Seventh¡¯s side, watching the game and looking for opportunities to tter his Master.

    ¡°I already removed my personal branding mark from the Governor¡¯s Medallion,¡± Marquis Yao said as he picked up a game piece. ¡°All you have to do is send some divine will inside, and it¡¯ll be yours.¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing¡¯s still young,¡± Master Seventh said. ¡°Don¡¯t rush him, Marquis Yao. Sea-Sealing County still has us around.¡± Smiling, he put a piece down onto the board.

    As soon as the piece clicked down, the Captain¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Well-yed! Very well-yed! Master, you¡¯re truly incredible. Even in my dreams I could never havee up with a move like that. Amazing! Completely amazing! I¡¯m going to remember this move!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes widened into a re and he snorted coldly, a clear sign that he didn¡¯t like ttery. That said, his eyes glittered with approval, and he felt wonderful inside.

    Marquis Yao cast an expressionless nce at the Captain, then ignored him.Meanwhile, Xu Qing sent some divine will into themand medallion. At roughly the same time, Master Seventh looked outside into the dome of heaven. Marquis Yao¡¯s expression flickered as he did the same. So did Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Outside, clouds seethed in the night sky as the great bird Qingqin appeared. He made a few excited cawing sounds that echoed out in all directions.

    Master Seventh¡¯s lips twitched. ¡°This Qingqin.... Xu Qing, while you were gone, the bird remained in hiding. But he flew back out as soon as you came back.¡±

    Xu Qing looked out at, smiled, and sped his hands in a respectful bow. Harnessing the daybreak light within him, he sent it glittering out to cover him. That made Qingqin even happier, as he also harnessed his life essence light and sent it shining out. After circling over the county capital a few times, he went back up into the clouds to hide.

    After Qingqin vanished from view, the night became very still. Inside the building, Marquis Yao carefully ced a piece onto the board.

    ¡°Erniu,¡± he said, ¡°what did you aplish in Moonrite?¡±

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Noble Marquis, you want to know what I aplished in the Moonrite Region? Well, I just did a few minor things. For example, I took Little Ah Qing to the red moon to look around, and also casually summoned that son of a bitch broken face. After h¨¥ opened h¨©s eyes and looked at that shrew Crimson Mother, sh¨¥ died. Oh, I reunited with my ex-wife, and also made some new friends.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s tone of voice remained very rxed as he rted some heaven-shaking, earth-shattering matters.

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t speak.

    Meanwhile, Marquis Yao¡¯s eyelids twitched briefly, and he said nothing for a long moment. When he did speak, he changed the subject. ¡°The god of the Nightshades, Crimson Mother, will sh¨¥...e back to life?¡±

    The Captain thumped himself on the chest. ¡°There¡¯s no way! Sh¨¥ waspletely and utterly destroyed. From here on out, the gods do not include Crimson Mother!¡±

    Marquis Yao looked deeply at the Captain, then turned to Xu Qing.

    Sensing the look, Xu Qing nodded. ¡°Crimson Mother has indeed perished.¡±

    Marquis Yao¡¯s hand trembled slightly.

    Marquis Yao was hesitant to believe things that the Captain said, but his attitude was different with Xu Qing. It was a struggle to control the shock he felt in his heart. He didn¡¯t know how the Captain and Xu Qing had aplished such an impossible task, nor was he inclined to inquire. Everyone had their secrets, and prying too deeply wasn¡¯t appropriate. Besides, he already hade up with an idea of what might have gone on in Moonrite. Whether it was the ship named Jicang, or the fight in which Xu Qing called for ¡®Grandpa Ninth,¡¯ it gave plenty of food for thought.

    Struggling to maintain hisposure, Marquis Yao stood. ¡°It¡¯ste. I don¡¯t want to interfere with this reunion between Master and apprentices.¡±

    With that, Marquis Yao turned and walked off. Some distance away, he vanished from the Governor¡¯s Mansion and materialized in Yao Mansion.

    Once there, he looked back in the direction of the Governor¡¯s Mansion.

    <em>Someone who can produce two apprentices like that can¡¯t possibly be some ordinary Master. Master and apprentices alike are anything but simple. And that¡¯s a good thing for Sea-Sealing County.</em>

    Thinking back to the news he had just heard about the Moonrite Region, his heart pounded.

    <em>There are a lot of unknowns. There must have been someone behind the scenes pulling the strings. Otherwise, things wouldn¡¯t have gone so smoothly.</em>

    Back in the Governor¡¯s Mansion, Master Seventh was alone with Xu Qing and the Captain. Now that there was no one else present, Master Seventh¡¯s expression turned grim and he cast a re at the Captain.

    ¡°You think you¡¯re ready to spread your wings? If you want to go around acting suicidal, that¡¯s your thing. But do you need to drag your little Junior Brother along to die?¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to defend the Captain, but Master Seventh interrupted him.

    ¡°Fourth Sib, I know you¡¯re a kind person. But this time, your Eldest Brother acted far too impulsively. Entities like Crimson Mother are not to be taken lightly, especially to people with cultivation bases like the two of you. And you went alone! If you run off like that again, and make even the slightest mistake, you¡¯ll end up killed in body and soul! There won¡¯t be anyone there to save you!¡±

    Master Seventh¡¯s tone of voice caused Xu Qing to shiver inwardly. As of now, he didn¡¯t dare to step in for his Eldest Brother. That said, he got the impression that his Master¡¯s concern was only partly over himself and his Eldest Brother. The other aspect seemed to be... that Master Seventh was irritated they hadn¡¯t brought him along as well.

    The Captain shivered as he suddenly got a very bad feeling. He dropped to his knees.

    ¡°Master, I missed you so much!¡± he wailed fawningly.

    Master Seventh snorted coldly.

    Seeing that, the Captain blinked a few times. Eyes bloodshot, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Master, my little Junior Brother and I actually had another goal in the Moonrite Region. And that was to prepare a birthday gift for you. That¡¯s why we couldn¡¯t bring you with us. We wanted the gift to be a surprise, of course!¡± [1]

    With that, the Captain suddenly produced... two fleshy feathers.

    Worried that Xu Qing might blurt out too many truthful details, he quickly continued, ¡°My little Junior Brother and I managed to get four feathers in total. We each took one, and left the final two for you, Master, as a filial expression of birthday well-wishes. Master, we would like to offer you congrattions early. We hereby hope your longevity matches heaven, and that you receive the blessing of bing an immortal!¡±

    Master Seventh didn¡¯t even look at the two feathers as he continued to re at the Captain. He was very familiar with how his apprentice operated, and knew full well that two mere feathers could only be a drop of water in the oceanpared to whatever other loot he acquired.

    Seeing the look in his Master¡¯s eyes, the Captain cleared his throat.

    ¡°Master, we weren¡¯t alone earlier, so it wasn¡¯t convenient to go into much detail about what happened. But rest assured, my little Junior Brother and I aplished some big things in the Moonrite Region. The most important of all is that, as we always do when we aplish big things, we made sure to boost our Master¡¯s divine reputation!¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Master Seventh said.

    The Captain could sense his Master¡¯s tone of voice softening, so he quickly kept on speaking. ¡°First, we made it very clear that our Master was the one who made sure Crimson Mother was asleep. After making sure your banner was hoisted high for all to see, we woke up the Heir Apparent and his brothers and sisters.

    ¡°We told them that our Master is unparalleled under heaven, and that he not only put Crimson Mother to sleep so deeply sh¨¥ couldn¡¯t wake up, but also, he had sent us on a secret mission to destroy Crimson Mother. Master, you might not have been there, but your name turned out to be our biggest safeguard.

    ¡°Am I right, little Ah Qing?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and earnestly said, ¡°Master, the Heir Apparent gave us a message to pass along to you now that we¡¯re back.¡±

    With that, Xu Qing took a golden jade slip out of his bag of holding and respectfully offered it to Master Seventh.

    On the way back, both Xu Qing and the Captain had closely examined that jade slip, only to find it was impossible to pry into the contents without destroying it.

    Expression neutral, Master Seventh epted the jade slip.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had been unable to open it, but he opened it withplete ease. After checking the contents, Master Seventh looked surprised. Then his gaze softened, until he finally revealed a look of pride.

    When Xu Qing and the Captain saw that, they breathed sighs of relief.

    The Captain even crawled over to Master Seventh¡¯s side and quietly said, ¡°Master, in the end, little Ah Qing and I managed to unify the Moonrite Region. We even summoned Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua. I invited a High God to help us, and the amazing little Ah Qing also invited one.¡±

    Xu Qing refrained from adding anything.

    The Captain blinked a few times and continued, ¡°Ultimately, a past version of Li Zihua stepped through time, sacrificed himself, and caused the broken face¡¯s eyes to open. The red moon became a god world, and disappeared from Revered Ancient!

    ¡°Master, things went very smoothly because of Li Zihua.... Although it seemed like the two of us made everything happen, the reality is that in researching every step of the n, I found evidence of Li Zihua¡¯s hand. I actually made a deal with him in the past, and got a simr feeling. It was like... he was waiting for me this whole time.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s expression looked very serious.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing the Captain talk like this, and it was very thought-provoking.

    Master Seventh put the jade slip away and didn¡¯t ask any more questions. He took the two feathers, then suddenly reached toward the Captain and made a grasping gesture.

    The Captain shivered as a blue scepter emerged from his forehead and flew over to Master Seventh¡¯s hand.

    Next, Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing and made another grasping gesture. The Spike of Misfortune flew out andnded in Master Seventh¡¯s hand.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to take these feathers and integrate them into your weapons. It will push them to a higher level, and will also benefit the spirit automatons.¡± Having said that, Master Seventh stood. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m leaving now. Going forward, you two, remember that when you go on big jobs, you have to be careful. Don¡¯t be impulsive!¡±

    With a final cold harrumph, Master Seventh turned, walked off, and vanished into thin air.

    When he materialized, he was in the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Mansion. He was alone there, and it was very quiet. Standing with his hands sped behind his back, he looked up into the dome of heaven.

    After a while, the wind blew, stirring his hair and robes, and making him feel like he might drift away with the breeze. A veryplex expression finally overtook Master Seventh¡¯s face. It almost seemed like he wasn¡¯t even looking at the canopy of heaven over Revered Ancient, but rather, the endless starry sky beyond it.

    ¡°Li Zihua did it...¡± Master Seventh murmured.

    1. The specific words the Captain uses for birthday and birthday gift here are sort of unique. They¡¯re not themon word for birthday, but rather, a special term used for the birthday of a respected elderly person. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to <strong>Heavenly Piyo Emperor</strong> and <strong>kkaliff </strong>for the reviews!</blockquote>

 Chapter 722: As Moonlight Falls, She Arrives

    <h4>Chapter 722: As Moonlight Falls, She Arrives</h4>

    The dim light of night stirred in the wind. That wind blew across thends, sweeping through the buildings of the county capital, whimpering as it kicked up bits of dust. It stirred the hem of Master Seventh¡¯s garment as it continued on its way to the Governor¡¯s Mansion.

    There, it caused Xu Qing¡¯s hair to sway. Xu Qing looked out into the night, his heart calm. It was a type of calm he hadn¡¯t been able to experience in the Moonrite Region. After everything he had experienced in Sea-Sealing County over the years, the ce wasrgely his hometown. He felt like he hade home, and that put him at ease. Of course, as usual, there was a voice that prated that calm.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, what was that thing you gave the old man that you imed was a jade slip from the Heir Apparent?¡± The Captain seemed very curious. ¡°I noticed just now that when he looked at it, he smiled like a blooming chrysanthemum....¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but clear his throat and instinctively scan the surroundings.

    The Captain waved his handcently. ¡°You don¡¯t need to check anything. The old man isn¡¯t here. If I was to guess, I would imagine that the jade slip probably contained praise for the old man from the Heir Apparent. Given how well I know the old man, that would definitely exin why he looked so pleased. How shallow! How oh so very shallow!¡±

    The Captain shook his head in a very disapproving manner.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, and was convinced he shouldn¡¯t weigh in at all on this topic. After all... if their Master was around and heard....

    The Captain clearly didn¡¯t feel the same way, as he lowered his voice and prepared to borate on his opinions. However, that was when Xu Qing suddenly detected a very familiar aroma drifting inside along with the wind.

    Along with that fragrant aroma came a slim, refined figure, who approached the building with graceful steps. She wore a long white gown, and was wlessly beautiful, with flowing ck hair that danced in the wind and eyebrows like crescent moons. Her lovely eyes, straight nose, and tender cheeks made her immactely attractive. As she neared, moonlight faded. Her skin seemed so fair the wind might make it shatter, and would cause anyone who looked at her to be lost and unable to break free.

    There weren¡¯t very many people who could enter the Governor¡¯s Mansion unannounced. Master Seventh was one and Marquis Yao was another. Other than those two, there was only one other. Plumdark. Her arrival seemed to brighten the building. It was as if the moonlight was automatically drawn to her presence.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to race.

    As for the Captain, he blinked a few times and, thinking about Ling¡¯er and the y fox, started to do a bit of analysis.

    <i>Ling¡¯er is pure and simple. The y fox is slutty and coquettish. Plumdark is elegant and flirtatious.... Who else is there? Oh right, that psycho Yanyan. And of course Ding Xue, who¡¯s dead set on winning Xu Qing. And how could I forget Qing Qiu?</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, the Captain sighed as he came to the realization that all of those women were beautiful and had their own merits. A prickle of jealousy suddenly appeared in his heart.

    <i>Now that I think about it, though, little Ah Qing is actually in a bad position with so many tigresses focused on him. It must be so stressful! Exhausting! The slightest mistake could end up in a hellish ughter!</i>

    <i>I¡¯m different. I¡¯m free! Unrestrained and unfettered. Only I can enjoy the winds of freedom. Only I can soar to the highest heights in heaven and earth. Here in Revered Ancient, neither the lowest mortal nor the highest god could ever put shackles on a noble figure like myself. I will be free forever and ever!</i>

    The Captain was really feeling proud of himself, and marveled at his own virtuous way of thinking. He cleared his throat. The more he convinced himself of how virtuous he was, the more he realized that his way of thinking was correct. Heart swelling with pride, he looked down his nose at Xu Qing. His gaze containedpassion, as well as a gleam of wisdom regarding his understanding of life. In fact, he was just about to exin his most recent enlightenment to Xu Qing when Plumdark¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    ¡°Erniu. Li Shitao wants to see you.¡±

    The moment the words left Plumdark¡¯s mouth, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. He looked like a blooming flower as his heart started racing. ¡°Lady Peachy wants to see me right now? In the middle of the night?¡±

    The Captain licked his lips excitedly. As of that moment, thoughts of enlightenment, virtue, and freedom didn¡¯t seem very important. Looking like a fire had been lit within him, he hurried away, havingpletely forgotten about his analysis of Xu Qing. As far as he was concerned, meddling in the affairs of others wasn¡¯t nearly as entertaining as his Lady Peachy. As he rushed off, he took out a peach and helped himself to a bite.

    <i>I¡¯m on my way, Peachy!</i>

    Xu Qing watched the Captain disappear, unsure of what to say. Nor was he in the mood to pay much attention to the Captain. His heart was currently racing as Plumdark slowly walked up to him.

    Xu Qing had grown up a lot... but in the presence of Plumdark, he acted just the same as he always had. He stepped back. Then back again. Eventually he reached the edge of the room and couldn¡¯t go back any further. Steeling himself, he sped hands.

    ¡°Greetings, Arch-Immortal.¡±

    Laughing softly, Plumdark approached, until she was standing right in front of him.... Her sweet fragrance filled the building, entering Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart. The wind couldn¡¯t dispel it.

    As she looked into his eyes, it seemed like time froze. His mind went nk, and he felt incapable of moving. He had never felt this way around Ling¡¯er, and wasn¡¯t even sure why he always reacted this way around Plumdark.

    ¡°Turn around,¡± she said softly.

    Xu Qing turned so his back was to Plumdark.

    Plumdark smiled gently. Reaching out with her delicate hands, she collected Xu Qing¡¯s hair together and bound it with a headband. Once it was in a ponytail, she took a moment to make a few adjustments.

    It felt strange to Xu Qing. However, if any other person had been there to look at him, they would have been stunned. This hairstyle was perfectly suited to Xu Qing, as it entuated his handsome features and also made him seem more carefree and uninhibited.

    ¡°That looks good.¡± She stepped to his side and looked with him off into the night.

    The falling moonlight cast their shadows long behind him. It was a beautiful night. The building was quiet.

    Then Plumdark quietly asked Xu Qing about how things went in the Moonrite Region. Gradually calming down, he started telling the story. She listened intently, asionally turning to look at him. She didn¡¯t seem even slightly distracted. Time passed. It was very reminiscent of the time the two of them went out on their own traveling.[1]

    For some reason, Xu Qing gradually started to feel even morefortable. As the night grew deep, he got to the end of the story about the events in Moonrite Region.

    Next, Plumdark told him about what had happened in Sea-Sealing County while he was gone. ¡°I¡¯ve been focused mostly on the Green Dark Sect. With your Master and Marquis Yao here to run Sea-Sealing County, things were getting back to normal. If only King Heaventide hadn¡¯t shown up, your return would have been quite an amazing event. All of the initial work in setting up the Green Dark Sect is done. It¡¯s already established a bit of a reputation in Sea-Sealing County.

    ¡°Incidentally, your Master and Marquis Yao opened up Forbidden by the Immortal again. Since there¡¯s no god there, the mutagen levels have dropped, and a lot of ancient records and other items have appeared. Sea-Sealing County¡¯s reserve powers are going to grow. As for me... I went into Forbidden by the Immortal a few times.¡±

    Plumdark looked at Xu Qing, and the wind caused a few strands of her hair to brush against his face. His heart raced. ¡°There are some very special ruins in there.... I could sense them calling to me.¡±

    Confusion appeared in Plumdark¡¯s eyes. She had been ruminating on this issue for a while, and hadn¡¯t spoken about it to anyone. But today, in front of Xu Qing, she was talking about it openly.

    Her voice very low, she said, ¡°Xu Qing, do you still remember how I talked about a dream I keep having? Those ruins give me the same feeling that I experience in that dream. It¡¯s like I was actually in that ce a very, very long time ago. I can¡¯t be sure though.... Sadly, they¡¯re nothing but ruins now.¡±

    Looking at how confused Plumdark appeared to be, Xu Qing thought back to the dream she had mentioned. Then he thought about Forbidden by the Immortal. That said, he hadn¡¯t been to very many ces in Forbidden by the Immortal, and wasn¡¯t sure which one Plumdark was referring to. [2]

    After all, Forbidden by the Immortal was full of ruins. That said, he did remember that phoenix-like temple where he had acquired the timescape bottle. Although the memories didn¡¯t contain anything specifically rted to Plumdark, he did remember that when he put that timescape bottle into his twelfth heavenly pce, he had briefly heard a sigh that sounded somewhat like her.[3]

    His heart skipped a beat, and he was about to ask something when Plumdark started speaking again.

    ¡°While I was in those ruins, I found some evidence that indicated you had been there.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. ¡°I didn¡¯t go to many ces in Forbidden by the Immortal,¡± he said. ¡°But there was one ce that, the closer I got to it, the clearer it got. Eventually, it turned into a pceplex with nine pces that resembled a phoenix. Upon walking away from it, it reverts to a bunch of ruins.

    ¡°I lost three days of memories while I was there, but I ended up getting a timescape bottle. Afterward, the ce really did turn into ruins. If you found evidence that I¡¯d been there, then I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly likely the ruins you just mentioned are the same ce I went.¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand, causing a god trove to appear behind him. The timescape bottle within it slowly floated out toward Plumdark. A sensation of time spread out that would immediately attract the attention of anyone present. Light shimmered from it, mixing with the moonlight to make everything even more beautiful.

    As it shone on Plumdark¡¯s face, her eyes glistened and her eyshes quivered. Her feelings finally shone through her fair skin, causing it to turn slightly pink. Her lips glistened like dew on roses.

    A long moment passed, after which she exhaled softly. Looking away from the timescape bottle and into Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, she said, ¡°Shall we take a trip there together?¡±

    1. Plumdark and Xu Qing went traveling starting in <u>chapter 297</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing¡¯s visit to the ruins began in <u>chapter 522.1</u>. Plumdark exined her dream in <u>chapter 380</u>. ?

    3. He heard the sigh in <u>chapter 523.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 723: Together We Open, Our Hearts in Unison

    <h4>Chapter 723: Together We Open, Our Hearts in Unison</h4>

    Forbidden by the Immortal, which was located in the depths beneath the old Corrections Division, was one of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s old pces. There were other such locations throughout Revered Ancient, and in the ancient past, every single one of them was considered a holy pce. Only the imperial n was allowed inside.

    Forbidden by the Immortal was the only such pce located in the Holytide Region. After the broken face of the god arrived, and Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left, it became the resting ce of the fish skeleton god. That was when the imperial n¡¯s Immortal Estate became Forbidden by the Immortal.

    The many treasures inside becamepletely inundated with mutagen. Neither mortals nor cultivators could get inside easily. Later, Emperor Eastglory didn¡¯t want to risk starting a war with the god inside, and thus kept the ce sealed.

    Some years ago, the reigning emperor ordered Forbidden by the Immortal to be opened. That was when Crimson Mother awoke in the form of Zhang Siyun to devour the god inside. After that event, humans once again had full control of Forbidden by the Immortal. It was only natural that, after Sea-Sealing County gained autonomy, they decided to explore the ce. Although the majority of the treasures inside had been taken away by Seventh Prince, there were still some left behind that were extremely valuable.

    Xu Qing and Plumdark currently stood at a formation located beneath the old Corrections Division that formed the entrance to the ce.

    There was no way Xu Qing could have refused Plumdark¡¯s offer. That was especially true considering he really wanted to know why that timescape bottle had a familiar sigh inside. The sigh almost didn¡¯t seem real, but as Xu Qing thought back to that moment, he was certain he had heard correctly.

    What was most relevant was the fact that he had lost three days of memories there. Even now, his memories of that phoenix-shaped templeplex weren''t very clear. Everything seemed to revolve around the timescape bottle. It was a very thought-provoking sensation. After everything he experienced in the Moonrite Region, especially gaining enlightenment of the will domain of amnesia, he had a much better understanding of memory.

    <i>I must have encountered something there that was too much for me to actually look at, and therefore, I don¡¯t remember it.</i>

    He told everything he knew to Plumdark along the way. Upon arriving, they didn¡¯t hesitate at all to drop down. A momentter, a majestic underground pce appeared below them.

    It looked a bit different than thest time Xu Qing saw it. Back then, the mutagen was so dense it was like a mist that distorted everything around it, and most of the ground had been covered by creeping flesh. As of now, the mutagen was ny percent gone, and the ground didn¡¯t have any of that flesh covering it. That said, there were few pce structures that were whole. Most had copsed. The sensation of ancient time filled the entire ce. There were numerous pirs that loomed over thendscape, casting out brilliant light to illuminate everything.

    Apparently Plumdark had been here on more than just a few asions, as she knew her way around very well. Taking a deep breath, she headed in one specific direction, and Xu Qing kept pace. They moved quickly. Before long, a crumbled section of ruins appeared up ahead.

    ¡°This is the ce,¡± Plumdark said softly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was already pounding. This was definitely the ce where he¡¯d acquired the timescape bottle. After looking around, he walked forward without saying a word. He approached until he was standing right in front of the ruins. The strange effect he had discovered on his first visit didn¡¯t ur again.

    <i>After I took the timescape bottle, the effect went away. It doesn¡¯t transform as you get closer. It¡¯s an actual ruin now.</i>

    Looking at the crumbling walls, he felt a sense of familiarity and a sense of unfamiliarity, both at the same time. Within the familiarity, there was unfamiliarity. And within the unfamiliarity, there was familiarity. More than ever, he got the feeling that his memories had been altered. Eventually, he recalled how the stone lion and the head retrieved the timescape bottle.

    He looked back at Plumdark. She stood a short distance away, her garments whiter than snow, her features beautiful but somewhat cold. Her eyes were like ck jade, within which swirled a mist of confusion. She seemed extremely lonely.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped. A long moment passed.

    ¡°Plumdark.¡± This time, he didn¡¯t use the title Arch-Immortal.

    She slowly turned to look at him.

    ¡°This is where I got the timescape bottle. I¡¯m not sure what will happen if I put the bottle back in its spot. Maybe my memories will be affected again. Are you sure you want to find out why this ce is familiar to you? Is it possible the only reason you feel that way is because of that dream? What if you <i>wanted </i>to forget about everything from the past?¡±

    Plumdark didn¡¯t seem sure how to respond at first. Eventually, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at Xu Qing with eyes that glistened like the deep waters of ake. ¡°The dream has been bothering me for years. I want to know... what exactly thatmp has to do with me.¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes. A momentter, his god trove rumbled as the timescape bottle flew out from it, drifted over, andnded on the spot where it had once been. The moment it touched the ground, the bottle trembled and emitted a field of dazzling light that illuminated the surrounding ruins. Instantly, everything blurred.

    Phoenix-like pces with bright red walls rose up. A courtyard formed. And there was one pce that wasrger than all the others, which formed the center-most pce. There were a total of nine pces.

    As Xu Qing looked at the scene, splitting pain filled his head. It was as if what he was seeing was awakening a memory within his sea of consciousness.

    Plumdark trembled as she looked at the big phoenix pce and everything around it. Her heart was racing.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been here before...¡± Plumdark murmured. ¡°I came here in my dream....¡±

    She walked forward slowly, passing the other pces as she walked toward therge, central pce. In front of it, she stopped and looked back at Xu Qing.

    Speaking in a tremulous voice, she said, ¡°I think... I used to live here once.¡±

    The biggest secret in her life was that recurring dream of darkness. Because of that dream, she had always been seeking light, in the hopes that it would drive the darkness away and bring warmth. And now, it seemed that the source of that dream was right in front of her. Yet for some reason, all she felt was sadness building up within her. The sadness got stronger and stronger, turning into a deep loneliness that threatened to overwhelm her.

    Her words struck Xu Qing to the core. His gaze shifted from her to the big pce, and all of a sudden, it was like a lightning bolt shed through his mind, illuminating memories that had previously been erased. They were the lost three days of memories from this ce.

    Within those memories, Xu Qing saw himself walking through the entrance of that big pce. The memories of whaty inside were nk.

    Xu Qing looked at Plumdark and saw that she was shaking physically. It was hard to take the sight of it. In his mind, Plumdark was emotional, but confident and peerlessly graceful. She took the initiative in things, and was definitely not the type of person you would use the word ¡®weak¡¯ to describe.

    But right now, he was seeing a different side of Plumdark. She was like a little girl, trembling in anxiety, nervousness, and fear. What was more, she seemed profoundly lonely.

    Xu Qing walked to her side, reached out, and took her delicate hand in his, using the warmth of his body to dispel the icy cold in her.

    She turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. She squeezed his hand like a drowning person clinging to life. In fact, she squeezed so hard that her hand turned white, and she didn¡¯t give any sign that she wanted to let go.

    After a long moment passed, she took in a shaky breath and then forced a smile onto her face.

    ¡°Forgive me for being so rude.¡±

    He shook his head. He didn¡¯t release her hand.

    Plumdark closed her eyes for several breaths of time. When she opened them, all signs of weakness were gone. She seemed determined. And with that, she put her hand on the door to push it open.

    Xu Qing reached out with his other hand and put it on the door next to hers.

    ¡°Together,¡± he said.

    Heart racing, she looked at him. He looked back at her. Finally, they pushed it open together, and a loud creaking noise filled the courtyard as the door opened.

    The dark, inky interior swallowed them up.

    ***

    What had once been the capital city of Emperor Heavengale in the Holytide Region now belonged to Seventh Prince. He had made the ce his government headquarters, and it was now full of his countless subordinates. In addition to his personal attendants, there were also many people present from his mother¡¯s n. That, coupled with the godly might of King Heaventide, ensured that there was no other ce like this in the Holytide Region. It really was just like a personal fiefdom.

    Even Grand Duke Holytide had to back down in the face of King Heaventide. Although it wasn¡¯t a case of outright servitude, the rtionship between the two was very peaceful.

    The only thorn in Seventh Prince¡¯s side was Sea-Sealing County. It had once been a random county that Seventh Prince didn¡¯t care much about. But Sea-Sealing was different now. That was the ce where he had suffered his first major setback. That was the ce where a person named Xu Qing was from.

    Because of that, Seventh Prince had been paying very close attention to Sea-Sealing County during the conscription efforts. Everything had been going ording to n; the county had slowly been fractured, making it ripe for invasion.

    As the Nightshade war went on, Sea-Sealing County had been put into the position to either acknowledge allegiance or be crushed.

    When the conscription forces there were routed, Seventh Prince was surprised, but at the same time, not very surprised. Because information was locked down, he didn¡¯t know the details of what happened to the armed forces he had sent there. That was what he found surprising. Obviously, Sea-Sealing County had been holding reserve powers in secret this whole time. What wasn¡¯t surprising was the choice made by the county. He had predicted all along that something like this might y out. Therefore, when he received news that his army had disappeared without a trace, he ordered his subordinates to pass the news on to King Heaventide. Then he looked outside of his pce.

    There were two people there waiting for an audience, dressed in schrly fashion. One of them was the president of the Eight Sect Coalition.

    ¡°Sir Dust-Sun!¡± Seventh Prince said in a cool voice.

    The president immediately bowed at the waist and stepped into the pce. There, he sped hands reverently. ¡°Here, sir!¡±

    Fiddling with a jade slip, Seventh Prince continued, ¡°You can go ahead and fetch that cauldron you mentioned from Sea-Sealing County. I¡¯m curious to see if it¡¯s as profound as you im.¡±

    Sir Dust-Sun wasn¡¯t eager toply, but at the same time, felt somewhat relieved. Smiling, he bowed again.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

 Chapter 724: Reaching Out to the Sun

    <h4>Chapter 724: Reaching Out to the Sun</h4>

    After that final bow, Sir Dust-Sun respectfully left. It wasn¡¯t lost on him that Seventh Prince had actually been watching him closely the entire time. That was why he hadn¡¯t made any effort to conceal his reactions. Whether it was his reluctance, or his feelings of relief, he allowed them all to show inly on his face.

    After he was out of the pce and some distance away, he straightened up, smiled, and headed in the direction of his residence. Along the way, he would call out friendly greetings to people he recognized.

    He didn¡¯t use his second-stage Void Returning cultivation base as a reason to be arrogant. From beginning to end, he carried himself in a gentle and refined manner. Once inside his residence, he lit some incense, then sat down at his Go board to y a casual game with himself. If you looked closely at his eyes through the swirling smoke of the incense, you would see something innately sinister. It was like a viper hidden in the belly of a sheep!

    <i>The first day I came, I mentioned the cauldron issue with Seventh Prince. Back then, he didn¡¯t seem to care.... But today, he suddenly summoned me and brought it up again....</i>

    Sir Dust-Sun smiled warmly. That was an instinct of his. Whenever he pondered tricky situations he would always smile.

    <i>The High Commander and his army, along with Soaring Cloud... went missing in Sea-Sealing County. And now, Seventh Prince wants me to go get the cauldron....</i>

    His smile became even warmer, and the sinister look in his eyes became even more deeply hidden.

    He was fully aware that Seventh Prince was no simpleton. The prince was young, but he was born into the imperial n, and as a result, had learned from a young age how to be a profound schemer. In other words, there were always going to beyers hidden beneathyers.

    <i>On the surface, it seems like he wants me to get the cauldron. But the reality is that I¡¯m just a pawn. He¡¯s using me to probe Sea-Sealing County and see what¡¯s really going on there. He hopes to use me to figure out what happened to his missing army. As for him, he puts himself in the position to either attack, retreat, or defend at will. And if something happens to me, he can im that I was acting on my own.</i>

    Sir Dust-Sun smiled and picked up a game piece. Then, though he didn¡¯t actually make a move, two pieces appeared on the board in front of him.

    Although that might not seem impressive, if another Void Returning expert had been present, they would have been shocked. That was because that simple action contained magicalws so sublime in their usage that they surpassed the level of Transform 10,000 Veracities.

    The Void Returning level consisted of the following stages: Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos; Transform 10,000 Veracities; 100,000,000 Thoughts Split Heaven; 1,000,000,000 Magics Combined.

    ¡°I really like the number three,¡± Sir Dust-Sun murmured with a warm smile.

    ***

    Back in Sea-Sealing County, in the underground Forbidden by the Immortal, the door of therge phoenix pce opened. As it did, darkness swallowed up everything. It wasn¡¯t just the physical forms of Xu Qing and Plumdark that were engulfed. Their minds were also made one with the darkness. Then, they saw a scene ying out that they had no way to confirm the reality of.

    The hall was spacious, and also as empty and cold as a dungeon. In the middle of it was a statue. It depicted a middle-aged woman who resembled Plumdark to a degree, but obviously wasn¡¯t her. The woman¡¯s features were elegant, and she was smiling faintly. Her eyes seemed merciful, and she had crow¡¯s feet visible at the corners of her eyes. She was looking down at her hands in front of her.

    In her hands she held amp.

    Themp seemed to be an incredibly valuable treasure to her. Perhaps the most valuable. It was made of violet stone, and resembled a blooming bauhinia flower. Resting atop the flower was a violet phoenix with its wings spread. It was very life-like.

    Upon seeing themp, Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled as his lost memories suddenly returned. He turned to look at Plumdark, all while thinking back to the images he had seen that rted to her. He remembered seeing a young woman standing in front of this statue that looked exactly like Plumdark. He also remembered the door opening and a man walking in. He remembered them talking. That man... was Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s son! All of that entered Xu Qing¡¯s mind, bing like a lightning bolt that smashed into his psyche.

    Meanwhile, Plumdark trembled as she looked at the statue. Her expression was one of sorrow as she released Xu Qing¡¯s hand and murmured, ¡°In my dream, everything is dark except for amp. It¡¯s extinguished, but I imagine that it looks like a blooming bauhinia, with a violet phoenix resting atop it. This is the samemp from my dream. My dark, lightless dream. The world of the dream is this ce.¡±

    Plumdark¡¯s voice seemed somehow empty, as though it were being projected into this life from countless years in the past. She walked forward to stand in front of the statue. At the same time, the version of Plumdark that Xu Qing remembered seeing... suddenly appeared.

    She was an illusion, and she was currently standing in the same spot as the real Plumdark, so the two were superimposed. She looked at the statue, her eyes full of both admiration and bitterness.

    The same scene yed out that Xu Qing remembered. The imperial prince appeared, walking through Xu Qing to stand in front of Plumdark. He wore an imperial robe with a four-wed dragon on it, and an imperial crown with nine pearls. Overall, he seemed impressive and mighty.

    The imperial prince said something, but Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear it. All he could see was Plumdark looking out at the world beyond the pce, her eyes full of sorrow and the reluctance to part.

    This time, something different happenedpared tost time. He could hear Plumdark speaking.

    ¡°I¡¯m not leaving!¡± she said furiously. ¡°Father is making the wrong decision. He¡¯s abandoning the people and abandoning our home. He¡¯s turning the heaven beyond heaven into a holynd. But what¡¯s the point of living out there all alone? He¡¯s turning a blind eye to the catastrophe striking Revered Ancient all just to save his own life? He... doesn¡¯t even deserve to be an Ancient Emperor!¡±

    Her words caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to pound.

    After a long moment passed, the imperial prince reached out, as if making one final attempt to convince her. Plumdark decisively shook her head. In the end, the deste prince took out a violet bottle and used it to ce a few drops of liquid onto themp in the hands of the statue. Depositing the bottle on the ground off to the side, he turned and left, his face a mask of sorrow and bitterness.

    He left, walking through Xu Qing, and then making his way off into the distance.

    After he was gone, the doors of the hall slowly closed. The pce waspletely and utterly silent. However, the me in themp burned, issuing a soft hissing sound as it illuminated the pce hall.

    It also illuminated the sorrowful face of Plumdark as she approached the statue, knelt in front of it, and wept silently.

    This was where Xu Qing¡¯s memories stopped. However, there were more events ying out now.

    Time didn¡¯t seem to have any meaning in this pce. It slipped by silently, until anguished wailing could be heard outside. Blood-colored light spread everywhere. People screamed for help.

    Plumdark stood. A suit of armor appeared on her as she strode through Xu Qing and out of the pce.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t do anything other than watch. Time passed, and the sounds from outside faded away. Plumdark appeared again. She looked exhausted and weak as she trudged back into the pce. Her armor was battered and mostly broken. She was covered in wounds. But she had the head of a fish in her hands. The moment Xu Qing saw it, he realized it was the head of the god that had been sleeping in Forbidden by the Immortal.

    Holding the head, Plumdark walked back up to the statue. Her face was ashen, but her expression was tender.

    ¡°Mother,¡± she said softly, ¡°all I could do was behead the outsider god once. Years from now, h¨¥¡¯ll awaken here. That said, when h¨¥ does, h¨¥¡¯ll no longer have the personhood of a High God. What¡¯s more, I used the curse you taught me to make sure that h¨¥¡¯ll die the same brutal death again in the future. Sadly... I won¡¯t be here to see it.¡±

    Plumdark wanted to pick up the violet bottle and use it to add some oil to themp. Unfortunately, she was too weak. In the end, all she could do was slump down in front of the statue and close her eyes. Her spiritual souls took flight. Her physical souls dissipated. Themp continued to burn, but without any oil added to it, the mes dimmed and eventually winked out. The pce once again became pitch ck. With the fire gone, the cold returned. Darkness devoured everything.

    Time passed. Years and years went by. After an indeterminable amount of time in Forbidden by the Immortal, everything suddenly trembled. A will of awakening appeared, joined by the howl of a god. Flesh appeared in Forbidden by the Immortal, spreading out, covering all the pces.

    More time passed. A lot of it. One day, in the darkness of that pce, in front of the statue, a violet circle of light appeared. The moment it did, an intense rumbling filled Forbidden by the Immortal.

    A roar of rage echoed out, along with a terrifying divine will that filled the depths of the ce. As the divine will swept out, a hand reached out of the violet circle of light. It grabbed the extinguishedmp and dragged it into the circle. The hand wanted to grab the violet bottle, but didn¡¯t have time, as the divine will of the god arrived with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. It mmed into the circle and the hand.

    The circle shattered, bing innumerable fragments that dissipated into the air. The hand shivered, and though it kept its grip on themp, the wick fell off and disappeared into nowhere.

    Everything ended.

    Xu Qing¡¯s vision ceased. Everything vanished, including the pce and the statue.

    The entire area became ruins once again. Like a dream.

    With the dream over, everything was gone except for Plumdark, standing there in the ruins, like a lone plum in a snowy ravine. It didn¡¯t matter whether or not there was someone else present looking at her. She looked like the picture of loneliness as she looked up into the sky, her expression deste.

    After a long time, she said, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Xu Qing walked over to her. And together, they left Forbidden by the Immortal. Neither of them spoke.

    They hade when it was nighttime. When they emerged, it was daytime, several dayster. The sky was azure, and the sun shone down brightly.

    Xu Qing looked at Plumdark as she walked away forlornly.

    ¡°Plumdark,¡± he said.

    She stopped and looked back at him.

    ¡°Can I see your palm?¡±

    As the sun shone down, she held out her hand. Every line and crease was visible. Like fate.

    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s in your palm?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Confused, she shook her head.

    Looking into her eyes, he said, ¡°Sunlight.¡±

    Her eyebrows fluttered as she looked at her palm. And then... she smiled.

 Chapter 725: Past and Present in the County

    <h4>Chapter 725: Past and Present in the County</h4>

    <i>Spring has flowers, autumn has the moon. Summer has cool breezes, winter has the snow</i>. [1]

    That saying was a perfect encapstion of beauty. But right now, the sunlight outside the old Corrections Division seemed ordinary in nature. The only beauty present was a woman in a white garment, her dimples visible as she smiled.

    Plumdark couldn¡¯t help but smile. Her face was slightly flushed, like a blooming peony. A gentle fire could be seen in the depths of her eyes as she looked deeply at Xu Qing. Then she turned and started walking away. After only taking about seven steps, though, she stopped and looked back at him.

    ¡°You¡¯ve picked up some bad habits, Xu Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how to respond.

    Seeing Xu Qing react that way caused her beautiful eyes to fill with tenderness. Her smile was like a crescent moon as the haze of emotion within her was cleared out, leaving her mind and heart clear. That change filled her, causing her to again seempletely elegant and refined. She once more was so beautiful that anyone who looked at her would experience feelings of inferiority. And she was so charming that anyone would feel drawn to her.

    This was the Arch-Immortal Plumdark that Xu Qing remembered.

    ¡°Why are you just standing there?¡± she asked.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart once again started racing, and he quietly walked over to Plumdark¡¯s side. As she smiled, they returned to the city. Maybe it was the breeze, or maybe it was the emotion, but either way, a few strands of Plumdark¡¯s long, ck hair drifted over to intermingle with Xu Qing¡¯s ponytail.

    At the same time, Plumdark spoke in a soft voice. ¡°Xu Qing, I don¡¯t remember that past life, not even after what just happened. So I¡¯m not sure if my past life was as the daughter of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, or as the wick of thatmp. If I had a choice, I would choose thetter. Therefore, let¡¯s just assume it is thetter. Okay? I can sense thatmp. It¡¯s... very far away. And based on the direction, I¡¯d say it¡¯s probably in the Imperial Region. One day in the future, I¡¯m going to go get it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you!¡± Xu Qing said.

    ***

    Time passed. Over the following half-month, Xu Qing was very busy.

    He had learned a lot when he was a swordsage, and he also had the help of Master Seventh and Marquis Yao. Unfortunately, Sea-Sealing County was a huge ce, and there were constantly matters that the governor needed to attend to. There were many things that Xu Qing needed to learn.

    For most of the half-month that passed, Xu Qing was immersed in official business, for instance, going through reports that came in from all over. At the moment, the pce lord of the Administration Pce was in the Governor¡¯s Mansion giving a report, along with some of the honor guards. After they left, Xu Qing picked up his cup of tea. However, he only managed to take a single sip before a swordsage entered.

    The pce lord of the Justice Pce hade for an audience.

    Xu Qing cleared his mind and then went out to personally receive the pce lord, who was an old woman. As the afternoon sun shone down, the pce lord arrived, led by a swordsage, and apanied by another woman.

    This pce lord had previously been a deputy pce lord. She had in features and a stalwart personality; she was a meticulous person. Xu Qing had seen her before, but wasn¡¯t very familiar with her. The moment heid eyes on her, he couldn¡¯t help but think of the old pce lord of the Justice Pce, who had died in battle along with the pce lord of the Administration Pce. Bai Xiaozhuo had turned their corpses into puppets. After the Lieutenant Governor¡¯s Coup, those two puppets¡¯ soul remnants had been freed, and they had chosen to remain as reserve powers for Sea-Sealing County.

    Sighing inside, Xu Qing somberly sped hands and bowed to the pce lord. Xu Qing had a Spirit Trove cultivation base, and was also the governor. His act of bowing was a show of respect.

    Seeing that, she hurried forward and returned his bow. ¡°Greetings, Governor.¡±

    ¡°Please,e in,¡± Xu Qing said courteously, leading the way into the pce hall. As he sat down, he seemed to emanate a calm dignity, and his eyes glittered like starlight. That was the majesty of the governor. Not everyone could do that. What was more, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t doing it intentionally. It all camepletely naturally.

    Of course, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been born like that. Rather, he had learned a lot from his experiences in the Moonrite Region. Not very many people had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Smoldering Gods, much less save their lives. Besides, he was also one of the Archbishops of Moonrebel, and had participated in the battle with the godchild and the fight with Crimson Mother. How could someone who had beheaded gods possibly not be calm and dignified?

    The pce lord was actually surprised. This was her first time personally meeting with Xu Qing, and it was turning out a bit different than she had expected. Seeing how calm he was caused her to shift her way of thinking in some regards. And thus, she went into her report about thetest work going on in the Justice Pce.

    Xu Qing listened attentively. After the report was over, Xu Qing felt like he knew a lot more about the Justice Pce.

    ¡°Next, Governor, we¡¯d like you to review ourtest recruitment roster.¡±

    The pce lord looked at the woman standing next to her.

    That woman was none other than Yao Yunhui. She was now an honor guard in the Justice Pce, and she worked closely with the pce lord. That was why she hade along on this formal visit to the governor. She had been nervous from the very beginning. She was no stranger to Xu Qing, and in fact, the very first conflict Xu Qing experienced upon arriving at Sea-Sealing County was all because of her. [2]

    Never in her wildest dreams could she have guessed what would eventually happen in Sea-Sealing County. Xu Qing had risen to the highest heights, the point where she could only look up at him. She had mixed feelings regarding Xu Qing, and it was especially confusing to her that she always thought good things about Xu Qing.

    When the pce lord indicated that she was to take action, Yao Yunhui took a deep breath, suppressed herplicated feelings, and respectfully held out a jade slip with both hands.

    Xu Qing looked at Yao Yunhui.

    Yao Yunhui had clearly taken time to put on makeup. Her lustrous ck hair swayed behind her. She had delicately curved eyebrows, a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and lips like glistening cherries. Overall, she was extremely attractive. However, her expression was very serious, and she wore the official ck-and-white daoist robe of the Justice Pce, which was a symbol of righteousness and made her seem even more solemn. However, the daoist robe couldn¡¯t hide her sensuous curves, and that contrast created a sensation of taboo beauty.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t affected by that. Taking the jade slip, he scanned it with divine sense.

    Yao Yunhui struggled to deal with theplex feelings inside of her. As she looked at Xu Qing, her mind was in chaos.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, had no way of knowing what she was thinking. He was focused on the list of names in the jade slip.

    The list contained the names of cultivators who had joined the Justice Pce over the past few years. Every month, thirty people were selected from various sects to be new members. The three pces in Sea-Sealing County had the right to handle their own recruitment and training, but it was also customary to let the governor have a say.

    After scanning the jade slip, Xu Qing was about to hand it back, when something caught his eye. About a year before, there was one particr month in which the Justice Pce didn¡¯t get thirty new members, but rather, twenty-nine. And there was one name in that list that Xu Qing recognized.

    Ding Xue.

    Looking at Yao Yunhui, Xu Qing asked, ¡°Why was there one fewer recruit than normalst year in the seventh month?¡±

    Yao Yunhui again suppressed anyplicated feelings within herself. Thinking back to the month Xu Qing had asked about, she remembered that there were people from Seven Blood Eyes in the list. Given that, it made sense that he was asking about that specific month. After recalling the details of why they had one less recruit than normal, a strange look appeared on Yao Yunhui¡¯s face.

    ¡°Exalted Governor,¡± she said, ¡°in the seventh month ofst year, we originally did have thirty recruits. One of them was named Zhao Zhongheng. He should have passed inspection with no problems. Unfortunately, in an attempt to be assigned to the same department as a female cultivator named Ding Xue, he was caught attempting to bribe one of the department managers. In fact, it was Ding Xue who reported him. As a result, Zhao Zhongheng was stripped of his qualifications.... To date, he¡¯s still in the probation period.¡± [3]

    Xu Qing shook his head. The moment he saw Ding Xue¡¯s name on that list, he had thought about Zhao Zhongheng. And to think that the trouble was all caused because Ding Xue reported him.... Xu Qing actually felt bad for Zhao Zhongheng. That said, it wasn¡¯t his ce to interfere, so he handed the jade slip back to Yao Yunhui.

    Then he discussed a few more matters with the pce lord. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the pce lord left with Yao Yunhui. Xu Qing personally escorted them out.

    As for Yao Yunhui, after she was some distance away, she couldn¡¯t help but look back at the pce. Xu Qing stood there, the sun shining down on him, creating an image she would never forget.

    In the following days, work slowed down a bit for Xu Qing, giving him time to finally catch up with old friends.

    The first person he went to see was Zhang San.

    Given how the county capital was such a bustling and prospering ce, there was no way that Zhang San, who had really good business sense, would stay away from it. Using the profits from their port in Seven Blood Eyes, he had opened up a handful of flying ship dealerships in the capital. Years ago, there had been a change to the Seven Blood Eyes dharmaships. There were now two versions. One version was the type disciples would use in their cultivation, while the other version could be sold to outsiders as magical devices.

    Because of who Master Seventh and Xu Qing were, the Seven Blood Eyes flying ships were nowmon, not only in the county capital, but also in surrounding prefectures. As a result, the number of dealerships in the capital skyrocketed.

    Zhang San was very excited to see Xu Qing, but at the same time, acted somewhat reserved as he led him into the back courtyard of the dealership.

    Only after catching up for a bit did Zhang San start to get a bitfortable. That said, he still maintained a bit of formality. The reality was that, over the past half a month, he would constantlyugh himself awake from dreaming. That investment from years ago had been paid back in droves....

    Rubbing his hands together, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Gov¡ª um, I mean, Elder Brother Xu Qing, a few days ago the Captain came to visit. And he had a really beautiful girl with him.¡±

    Xu Qing grinned. He hadn¡¯t seen the Captaintely, and it didn¡¯t take much guesswork to conclude that he was probably with Li Shitao. Just like years before he squatted down next to Zhang San.

    Zhang San shivered as he looked at Xu Qing. Then he took out a pipe and started puffing it furiously. As the smoke swirled, he sighed. Within that smoke, he could almost see himself and the Captain back in Seven Blood Eyes, and a youngster cautiously approaching them. [4]

    <i>I never could have guessed it would turn out like this. Never, ever....</i>

    1. This line of poetry actually originates in the Southern Song Dynasty. ¡°Moon¡± and ¡°snow¡± rhyme in Chinese, so the Chinese version rhymes. I couldn¡¯t think of a good way to make it rhyme in English withoutpletely mangling the other aspects of the poem. ?

    2. The situation with Yao Yunhui causing trouble for Xu Qing started in <u>chapter 393</u>. ?

    3. Long story short, Zhao Zhongheng is the one who has been romantically pursuing Ding Xue (unsessfully) for the entire novel. He first appeared in <u>chapter 65</u>. West ¡°saw¡± him in <u>chapter 542.2</u> when, as expected, he was chasing after Ding Xue. ?

    4. The Captain introduced Xu Qing to Zhang San in <u>chapter 55</u>. ?

 Chapter 726: Milord... Obedient... Me

    <h4>Chapter 726: Milord... Obedient... Me</h4>

    In the swirling smoke, Zhang San saw that young man from the past. Xu Qing saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The smoke slowly dissipated, and the two of them looked at each other.

    Xu Qing grinned. Zhang San grinned back, tapping his pipe onto the ground to clear the ash from inside.

    ¡°What am I going to make for you this time?¡± Zhang San asked.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, causing his dharmaship bottle to appear. He put it down in front of Zhang San. He hadn¡¯t used his dharmaship much in recent years. Given how high his cultivation base had climbed, dharmaships weren¡¯t of much use. That said, he didn¡¯t want to abandon it. Thus, he hade to Zhang San, not just to catch up on old times, but also to ask for his help in making a significant change to the dharmaship.

    Zhang San looked at the dharmaship and didn¡¯t need any exnation from Xu Qing. Just looking at the dharmaship, he could tell it hadn¡¯t been used much. His eyes glittered.

    ¡°Dreadnaught?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    Zhang San rubbed his hands together excitedly. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to do it myself. I¡¯ll need help from the Sixth Peak experts. Except not even that will be enough. I¡¯ll need spell formations.... Xu Qing, making a dreadnaught for you is probably going to require the cooperation of all of Seven Blood Eyes!

    ¡°For most people, that would be a difficult thing. But all you need to do is say the word. The most critical aspect of a dreadnaught is its power source. Using a magical treasure will do. But if you have some flesh from a godly entity, that would be perfect.¡±

    As Zhang San puffed on his pipe, Xu Qing took out a feather and put it down in front of Zhang San. The feather caused a wave of majestic godly might to explode out in all directions. Thankfully, Xu Qing was prepared, and made sure that little happened other than some ripples.

    Zhang San¡¯s eyes went wide, and the smoke from his pipe spilled out of his mouth. He even dropped his pipe, which hit the ground and ttered to the side. He looked like his head was about to explode, and to him, it felt like his heart was being struck by 1,000,000 bolts of lightning. He had seen flesh from godly entities before on more than one asion. For instance, there was Joine¡¯s flesh from years ago. But this feather was so terrifying that he knew he had never encountered anything like it. In fact, everything else he had seen in the past was now like trashpared to this feather.

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡± Zhang San shivered a few times before clearing his throat. He could hardly look away from the feather.

    ¡°It¡¯s the flesh of a god,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    Zhang San¡¯s expression becamepletely nk. A long moment passed, and he picked up his pipe and puffed it so hard that sparks tumbled down onto him. His face was turning red, and his eyes werepletely bloodshot. After a long moment, he spoke in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°That¡¯ll do! Xu Qing, I can make you a dreadnaught the likes of which no one has ever seen before. With that feather as the power source, trust me, your dreadnaught will definitely¡ª¡±

    ¡°Elder Brother Zhang San,¡± Xu Qing interrupted, ¡°what I actually want is for you to design the dreadnaught based on the feather¡¯s aura. As for the power source... it¡¯s not the feather.¡±

    Stunned, Zhang San looked at Xu Qing, then the feather. Then he thought about how the Captain usually operated... and he understood. That understanding left him rooted in ce, so still he looked like he¡¯d been petrified. He didn¡¯t recover until after Xu Qing was gone. Inhaling deeply, he thought about the conclusions he had reached, and he shivered.

    <i>He thinks the feather won¡¯t make a good power source. That seems to indicate he has more of those feathers. There are a lot of ways to get a little bit of a god¡¯s flesh. But to get a stockpile.... Could it be that they actually killed a god?</i>

    A wave of excitement swept through Zhang San, but he immediately suppressed it. As he well knew, there were some things that were fine to know about, but there were other things that he definitely shouldn¡¯t know about!

    After leaving Zhang San that evening, Xu Qing strolled through the county capital. He didn¡¯t conceal his aura. However, the fluctuationsing off of him ensured that mortals couldn¡¯t see him. As he walked through the bustling crowds, he became calm. He saw cultivators, swordsages, and mortals.

    And at one point, he saw Yanyan stalking down the street angrily. She didn¡¯t notice him. Wrapped up in thoughts of death, she walked right past him. Xu Qing followed her for a short time, then turned and left.

    After he walked off, Yanyan stopped walking, turned around... and then quietly bowed her head.

    It was night, and the crowds were thinning. As Xu Qing continued on his way toward the Governor¡¯s Mansion, he stopped in ce and looked over his shoulder.

    Some 300 meters away, a person squatted in the street. From the way he carried himself, he almost looked like a dog. He had stopped in ce the moment Xu Qing stopped walking. He seemed suspicious as he looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. He actually couldn¡¯t see Xu Qing. But he could sense his aura. That was an innate ability of his. Though he couldn¡¯t see Xu Qing, he could follow him. However, only a momentter, the aura he had sensed vanished. It caused his mood to sink as he squatted in the street feeling abandoned.

    Little did he know that Xu Qing was actually standing right next to him, looking at him.

    This person was the Mute.

    Xu Qing had long since sensed him, and could tell that his cultivation base had reached the level of three life mes. He had opened a lot of dharma apertures and was only two away from his fourth me. Given his qualifications, he would be considered a top chosen in most sects. Considering the scars that crisscrossed him, he had obviously done a lot of fighting and killing. Add in his innate ability that allowed him to sense things that others couldn¡¯t, it ensured that the Mute had a promising future.

    ¡°You can form heavenly pces at any time,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    When the Mute heard those words on the seemingly empty street, he shivered and kowtowed, knocking his forehead onto the ground with significant force.

    However, a gentle force lifted him up. He could sense Xu Qing now, and his eyes filled with reverence. Lifting his hands, he extended all five fingers.

    Xu Qing understood immediately.

    The Mute was saying that he wanted to ignite five life mes. He wanted to follow in Xu Qing¡¯s footsteps.

    Xu Qing nodded. He was more than willing to have someone from Seven Blood Eyes follow in his footsteps. It would be an extremely difficult path to follow. After considering the matter briefly, he turned and left.

    As he did, a jade pendant appeared in the air in front of the Mute. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed into the Mute¡¯s mind.

    <i>¡°When ites time to open your final dharma aperture, take this jade pendant to the Seazombiends to seek the spot between life and death. If you seed in igniting your fifth life me, and then forming a heavenly pce, go to the Corrections Division to be a jailer.¡±</i>

    A tremor passed through the Mute as he took the jade pendant. Gripping it tightly, he looked off into the distance, his eyes gleaming with determination. He had long worshiped Xu Qing, and still did, which was why he wanted to walk the same path. It was also why he sought Xu Qing¡¯s approval. He wanted to walk by his side. That was especially true considering that the terrifying entity in Xu Qing¡¯s shadow that he had sensed in the very beginning, though still terrifying, was not as terrifying as before. And that was because that entity now looked at Xu Qing with reverence. It even seemed pleading.

    Xu Qing returned to the Governor¡¯s Mansion. Sitting down in one of the buildings there, he looked out at the night sky. Everything was peaceful, and the wind stirred his ponytail. His heart also stirred.

    <i>I don¡¯t have as many old friends as I imagined. So many have continued on their way in life.</i>

    He closed his eyes. He had seen Zhang San and the Mute today. And also Yanyan.

    Yanyan was a swordsage now. Xu Qing had not interacted with her. But he had seen the source of her illness. From the very beginning, Xu Qing had witnessed her cruel personality. She treated herself cruelly, and her enemies even more cruelly. She wasn¡¯t just sadistic, she was masochistic. That seemed to be the only way for her to be happy.

    In the past, Yanyan¡¯s grandmother, Guru Easher, had told Xu Qing that Yanyan was ill. Back then, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure of the reason. But now he knew. In all the years that had passed, Yanyan was the only person Xu Qing had ever encountered that had absolutely no mutagen in them. If there were people whocked mutagen, it was because they had purged it all. But that was only temporary. The mutagen always came back. That wasn¡¯t the case with Yanyan.[1]

    Yanyan¡¯s body had never had any mutagen in it. That was because with Yanyan, the mutagen went straight into her soul, invading it, infecting it, and turning her mad. She became twisted and masochistic. It was easy to imagine that, as time passed and she grew up, she would be more and more demented. That was why her grandmother doted on her. She knew that her granddaughter wasn¡¯t going to live for very long.

    However, after everything Xu Qing experienced in the Moonrite Region, he could see that Yanyan¡¯s infected soul actually had scraps of godly characteristics. And that was why, though he hadn¡¯t interacted with Yanyan, he had carefully inserted one of Crimson Mother¡¯s feathers into her soul. After he walked off, he had left her with a few words to encourage her to cultivate the power of the feather.

    <i>¡°You would make a good god cultivator.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked off in the direction of the Ghost Emperor mountain in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Master Seventh had left three days ago in that direction. Third Sib was there working on his cultivation, along with that gruish boy.

    As the wind blew, Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts wandered. He recalled old times and thought about old friends. For instance, Qing Qiu, who was currently in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    Finally, Xu Qing looked toward the continent of South Phoenix. At that point, the wind died down. Xu Qing settled his thoughts.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been begging me constantly since I got Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh,¡± he said coolly. ¡°And ever since my Master took Master Freespirit away, your eyes have been shining. So... are you hungry?¡±

    In the moonlight, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow twitched, then spread out to form a ck coffin. A host of eyes stared out from within. Every single one of them radiated reverence and even pleading. And then the emotional fluctuations reached Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°Milord... obedient... me.... Eat, eat... strong... I... offer sacrifice.... Godfire....¡±</i>

    1. Xu Qing noticed Yanyan¡¯sck of mutagen when they first met in <u>chapter 200</u>. ?

 Chapter 727: Me, Dark Nethervoid

    <h4>Chapter 727: Me, Dark Nethervoid</h4>

    ¡°Godfire?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at his shadow beneath his feet. The shadow twitched a few times, then cautiously sent out some more emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°Fire... rummmmbbble....¡±

    Xu Qing frowned slightly and realized he actually missed Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior a bit. asionally he could understand the shadow¡¯s fluctuations, but more often than not, he wasn¡¯t sure what they meant.

    What was more, ¡®godfire¡¯ was a very sensitive term. Based on what Xu Qing had learned in the Moonrite Region, one of the paths to godly ascension involved lighting godfire. Both Crimson Mother and the godchild walked that path. That said, the former seeded, while thetter didn¡¯t manage to fully ignite the godfire, and ended up burning himself to death. Therefore, hearing the shadow say ¡®godfire¡¯ was a surprise to Xu Qing.

    ¡°You can form godfire?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The shadow nodded, then shook its head. Suddenly getting nervous, it added something.

    ¡°Ruuuummmblee....¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. After considering the matter, he took steps to secure the area, then took out one of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh feathers.

    When the shadow saw the feather, it got excited and spread out on the ground, until the building¡¯s ground floor was like a ck pond.

    After sensing the emotions from the shadow, Xu Qing tossed the feather toward it.

    Before the feather could reach the ground, the shadow stretched up, forming arge mouth that devoured the feather. It became like a ck hole that could consume anything and everything. The feather disappeared in the blink of an eye, and then the shadow started twitching and expanding.

    Xu Qing paid close attention the entire time. About an hourter, the shadow¡¯s fluctuations started dying down. The shadow seemed to get anxious, shrinking back to gather beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet. Then it sent him fluctuations of iparable longing.

    ¡°Delicious... devour... need....¡±

    After some more thought, Xu Qing checked his stockpile of Crimson Mother flesh. Though it pained him slightly, he took out another fist-sized chunk. To see a piece thatrge caused the shadow to instantly surge with tion. It formed a host of shadow spikes that undted up and down, and its numerous eyes shone with excitement. It also opened its mouth wide, from within which drifted the sound of flowing saliva. In fact, in the hope of securing a shot to eat the flesh, the shadow made a shadow tail for itself, which it wagged back and forth almost like a puppy.

    It was hard to know what it had devoured in the past that gave it the idea to do this.... Regardless, it was an effective tactic.

    After noting the shadow¡¯s wagging tail, Xu Qing tossed the meat to it.

    Instantly, the shadow spikes pierced the flesh and dragged it down, where vicious swallowing sounds could be heard. The shadow¡¯s fluctuations were ebullient by this point.

    Unfortunately, it actually proved difficult for the shadow to handle such arge piece. Soon, it started to destabilize, until a boom rang out and the shadow exploded, shattering into hundreds of pieces that sttered around like ink onto a table. The piece of flesh the shadow had just swallowed was now in the open. A fraction of a momentter, the hundreds of pieces of the shadow became like starving wild dogs that lunged back onto the flesh and started devouring it again. They exploded again. The cycle continued after that as the shadow stubbornly persisted.

    The night passed. Around dawn, after the shadow had exploded numerous times, it finally devoured thest bit of flesh. It had to struggle, but it managed to prevent itself from exploding. Yet it didn¡¯t seem satisfied. While managing to stay whole, it sent some fawning fluctuations to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord... obedient... I... need....¡±

    ¡°You ate a whole piece and yet didn¡¯t transform,¡± Xu Qing replied coldly. ¡°What good are you?¡±

    Xu Qing was convinced that there was a distinct possibility the shadow actually <i>could</i> transform, but was holding back. And that didn¡¯t please Xu Qing at all. He was just about to tap into the violet crystal and force the shadow to spit up what it had devoured, while simultaneously teaching it a hard lesson.

    Seeing the violet light build up on Xu Qing, the shadow shivered and quickly sent out pleading fluctuations.

    ¡°Not that... no eat... forbidden region... can do.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the shadow. Violet light surged out from him and mmed into the shadow, which let loose a howl of grief. Then the shadow exploded, and a half-chunk of flesh appeared.

    Xu Qing reached out to grab it.

    The shadow trembled anxiously as it watched its food about to be taken away. Then it began swirling anxiously around Xu Qing, forming a ck vortex.

    ¡°Devour... devour.... Ruuuuuuumble. I... stronger... useful!¡±

    Xu Qing looked coldly at the anxiety-wracked shadow. ¡°You don¡¯t need more flesh?¡±

    ¡°No... forbidden region... can....¡± the shadow cautiously projected.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t ask any more questions. Based on the previous times the shadow had reached a higher level, he could only conclude that its breakthroughs were rted to mutagen. Mutagen existed in other ces than in this flesh. Any forbidden region would have a lot of it.

    Considering it rted to the shadow reaching a higher level, and also given Xu Qing¡¯s spection about the use of the term godfire, he quickly vanished and materialized outside of the county capital. As soon as he appeared, he started moving. It was as if the ground beneath his feet were contracted significantly, as every step he took propelled him a vast distance. Spirit Trove cultivators were able to take initial forays into manipting natural and magicalws.

    Two hourster, Xu Qing was far from the county capital, and was nearing another prefecture. This prefecture was named Spiritsoil, and it was the smallest prefecture in Sea-Sealing County. It was so-named because it had a number of forbidden regions with spirit soil inside.

    In this case, the ¡®spirit¡¯ in the name didn¡¯t refer to spirit energy, but rather, to departed spirits of the dead. Those forbidden regions were like ygrounds for grues and spirits. Usually, cultivators could traverse the outer regions, but going too far inside would be risking almost certain death. Only cultivators in Nascent Soul or higher, who also had a bit of luck, coulde out alive. This was also a route taken by the ghost galleons that traveled between ghost wards. [1]

    Upon arriving, Xu Qing actually saw a ghost galleon. Though it was currently daytime, the ck clouds covering the sky, and the thick mist filling the air, reduced visibility and light in all directions. The massive, dpidated ghost galleon appeared through the mist, making its way through the dome of heaven.

    Xu Qing observed it, his facial expression the same as ever. His cultivation base wasn¡¯t anything like it was years ago. His status and identity werepletely different as well. As the governor, he could draw on the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County. Besides, he wasn¡¯t interested in causing any trouble for the ghost galleon.

    Meanwhile, the ghost galleon treated Xu Qing with deep respect. After detecting him, the mist around it went still, and then a host of ghostly figures rose up from the ship and bowed deeply to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded, passed it, and headed into the spirit soil forbidden region. After he was gone, the mist around the ghost galleon seethed again, and it continued on its way. It vanished, and the dome of heaven turned bright again.

    Sometimeter, Xu Qing spotted the spirit soil forbidden region up ahead.

    In Spiritsoil Prefecture, there were a total of thirteen spirit soil forbidden regions. Every one of them was ancient, with a history going back countless years. ording to certain ancient records, these forbidden regions went back to the time of Emperor Eastglory. At one time, it was actually a spirit soil forbidden ground. But then something changed. Overnight, the forbidden ground copsed and turned into thirteen smaller forbidden regions. The ancient records didn¡¯t go into the reasons for that. However, there were certain bits of evidence left behind, andter analysis led people to the conclusion that it was probably the result of a battle between gods. The truth of the matter was buried in history.

    The forbidden region up ahead wasn¡¯t very different from the forbidden regions back in South Phoenix that always had scavenger basecamps near them. From a distance, it looked like a ck jungle. All nts and vegetation within it were the color ck, and they emanated a sensation of decay. The mutagen was strong, making a ck fog that filled the forbidden region. From within it came howls that touched the soul. Even just getting close, it was possible to spot skeletons trudging about in the jungle. There were also a variety of grues.

    As Xu Qing stood on the border, he noticed an old woman inside.

    She wore burial garments, and had a paleplexion. Grinning, she rushed toward Xu Qing. Her grin turned wider, until her gaping mouth opened to reveal a host of fangs. The noxious stench of a corpse surrounded her.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He had encountered many, many grues on the path that he had walked, and wasn¡¯t surprised by those here. They could all be considered food for his shadow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you one chance. If you don¡¯t achieve a breakthrough, then I¡¯ll have no further use of you.¡±

    The shadow shivered, then sent out fluctuations of determination. Without hesitation, it spread from Xu Qing¡¯s feet and into the forbidden region.

    The moment the shadow appeared inside, the old woman who had been rushing toward Xu Qing stopped in ce. Suddenly seeming like she had spotted a deadly archenemy, she turned to flee. She was too slow. The shadow sped into the forbidden region, swept over her, and swallowed her up. The shadow didn¡¯t stop there. As chewing sounds rang out, it spread out in all directions.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t follow. He stood outside the forbidden region, using his connection with the shadow to monitor its actions. Soon, his expression became one of curiosity.

    <i>What¡¯s it doing?</i>

    Based on what he could sense, the extent to which the shadow could spread was now far beyond its previous limit. In fact, it was almost unbelievable. The shadow had filled the entire forbidden region! And then, the forbidden region blurred as though the entire ce was being devoured. It only took a moment for Xu Qing to realize that it didn¡¯t ¡®seem¡¯ like the ce was being devoured. Rather... it <i>was </i>being devoured!

    It grew fainter and more blurry, and then the border regions started to disappear. A dayter, Xu Qing was stunned by what was right in front of him. It was... absolutely empty. The forbidden region was gone!

    As of that moment, Spiritsoil Prefecture didn¡¯t have thirteen forbidden regions. It had one less!

    The shadow had devoured the entire thing. Thends were gray, without a scrap of life force. Nor did it contain death, or any energy at all for that matter. The entire world was just gray.

    There was also a writhing ck shadow. Chanting like that of a god drifted out from it.

    ¡°Three primordials nurture nine energies make up five earthly things form into seven stars as apertures; all beings¡¯ souls reach the peak of threews with starlight shining on me, Dark Nethervoid.¡±

    1. Ghost wards were introduced in <u>chapter 246.1</u>. Ghost galleons were introduced in <u>chapter 389</u>. ?

 Chapter 728: A Fishing Expedition in Sea-Sealing County

    <h4>Chapter 728: A Fishing Expedition in Sea-Sealing County</h4>

    The voice seemed simultaneously proud, restrained, rushed, and slow. Thebination made the voice extremely gruish. Clearly, the shadow was inherently a grue! The moment it spoke, the sky shifted colors, rumbling sounds echoed out, and all the nts and vegetation outside the forbidden region were ripped to shreds.

    Because of the forbidden region in this area, there weren¡¯t many people who lived nearby. But there were animals and even bugs. The animals and bugs who lived nearby were changed by the presence of the forbidden region. Mutagen would build up within them, and they would eventually mutate, bing much stronger. And now, as the chanting spread out, they devolved into madness. From a distance, it was possible to see countless bugs and animals burrowing out of the ground, surrounding Xu Qing and letting loose shocking and ghastly cries.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change. After looking around at the bugs and animals, he realized that the shadow was controlling them. The shadow¡¯s powers of control now had a much greater range, and could affect arger number of targets. Most importantly, it didn¡¯t require the shadow to possess the target. Instead, its chanting provided the control.

    ¡°You can devour forbidden regions and use sound to exercise control....¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at the graynds in front of him, and the writhing shadow.

    As time passed, the shadow¡¯s writhing slowed down, and it eventually became calm again. Its form was now stable, and it looked like a head. And despite being pitch-ck, the head clearly had a totem on its forehead. Its shape was exactly the same as the forbidden region that had just been devoured.

    <i>Wait, it¡¯s not a totem. It¡¯s....</i>

    As Xu Qing studied the shadow¡¯s forehead, he was shaken to realize that it wasn¡¯t a totem there, but rather, the actual forbidden region. The forbidden region that the shadow had devoured became a part of it.

    This realization was so shocking that Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. What was more, in the very middle of that tiny, shrunken forbidden region, there was a tree that looked different from all the other trees. It was the very first form the shadow had assumed, that of a huge, shadowy tree. There was a coffin hanging from the tree, which was the shadow¡¯s second form. The coffin rocked back and forth almost like a huge bell, and from within it came two sounds: that of ws scraping against wood, and more chanting.

    ¡°I, Dark Nethervoid spirit umtion body perfection soul missing god birthing starry light descending destruction living beings follow orders!¡±

    As thest words echoed out, a boundless spirit power swept out of the coffin and headed right toward... Xu Qing!

    Xu Qing did react visibly. He stood there looking coldly at the shadow, his eyes turning pitch-ck as taboo poison built up. In response to his gaze, the boundless spirit power lurched to a halt only a few meters in front of him. It twitched as if struggling between a rising malicious intent and the refusal to take further action.

    Xu Qing snorted coldly.

    The terrifying spirit power then shot up into the sky, where it caused the clouds to form into a short message.

    <i>Milord is a good person.</i>

    Then, the shadow sent fawning fluctuations to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Milord... obedient... me....¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow and realized that it could chant fluently, but when it tried to speak normally, it had trouble. Apparently, its speaking ability didn¡¯t improve automatically with its general level.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in teaching a lesson to the shadow right now. What he was mostly interested in was the godfire it had mentioned.

    ¡°What about the godfire?¡± he asked calmly.

    A mouth cracked open on the shadow, and it howled, ¡°Sacrifice!¡±

    As the word echoed out, the countless bugs and animals controlled by the shadow shivered. And then, they viciously lunged at each other and started ripping each other apart. Agonized shrieks and howls of anguish rang out. This was a case of ¡®self devouring self,¡¯ and it waspletely brutal. The process continued without pause as they ripped each other apart. After about a dozen breaths of time, all of the bugs and animals around Xu Qing were dead. They had sacrificed themselves!

    Xu Qing looked on with a serious expression as brown motes of life emerged from the corpses and rushed toward the shadow.

    Based on what Xu Qing could sense, those motes of light were simr to the power provided by the living beings of the Moonrite Region, just different substructurally. However, the differences weren¡¯t necessarily visible to the naked eye. It was a cultivation base reaction, and wasn¡¯t easy to notice. But Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was full of taboo poison, so he saw the differences.

    The brown motes of light merged, bing a ball of light roughly the size of a fingernail. Glittering brightly, it expanded and then contracted rapidly, as if it were unstable. But what was really shocking was that it affected the canopy of heaven. The clouds turned dark, thunder rumbled, and lightning bolts snaked back and forth.

    The fluctuations from the shadow grew more submissive. Then it breathed in the direction of the ball of light, causing it to move toward Xu Qing until it floated in front of him. Thunder crashed overhead, and it seemed locked onto the movement of the ball.

    Xu Qing frowned slightly. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what was happening, but he could sense danger. In fact, it was as if every inch of his flesh and blood had independent thought, and was screaming at him that he was in danger.

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow.

    The shadow summoned the tail again, and even created a ck tongue to loll out of its mouth. It really did look like a puppy. Looking at Xu Qing, it nodded repeatedly.

    ¡°Milord... sacrifice... milord... good... godfire.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t trust the shadow at all, and the sense of danger was causing him to look suspiciously at the brown ball of light. Taking a few steps back, he prepared to lift his hand. But even then, he didn¡¯t feel safe enough, so he backed up another few hundred meters. Finally, he lifted his right hand and pushed it gently toward the ball of light.

    The brown ball of light floated off into the distance. Finally, the thunder overhead seemed to reach a peak level of fury. In the blink of an eye, a host of lightning bolts shot down like rain, mming the ball of light into the ground.

    The already-unstable ball of light exploded. Terrifying lightning mes erupted in all directions, along with a sensation of godliness. It quickly turned into a tempest that raged in all directions, destroying everything it touched.

    The level of power was incredibly majestic. Even with Xu Qing¡¯s current cultivation base, he felt shaken, and kept backing up as quickly as possible. That said, he was a bit toote to act. Despite how cautious he was, and despite how far away he was, when the brown ball of light burst with surpassingly ferocious energy, he was caught up in the effects.

    Glittering light surrounded him as he entered the first-level god state, and raced back a few hundred more meters.

    As the brown light dissipated, the roughly 30,000 meters in front of him became visible, and there was a huge crater there.

    Fear still lingered in Xu Qing¡¯s heart. Meanwhile, the shadow had used some sort of concealment ability to avoid being hurt. Now it appeared again on the ground, unharmed. At the same time, the fawning fluctuations it sent to Xu Qing contained a big dose of pride.

    ¡°Fierce... I¡¯m... badass!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression became grimmer. ¡°That¡¯s the godfire?¡±

    The shadow immediately nodded. Sensing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very pleased, it then switched to shaking its head, as if it wasn¡¯tpletely sure. It started to get more anxious. And then, it had no other choice....

    ¡°Ruuuuuumble! Ruuuuuumble! Ruuuum¡ª¡±

    ¡°Enough rumbling!¡± Xu Qing said coldly.

    The shadow looked slightly confused, as if it wasn¡¯t sure what it had done to provoke Xu Qing. Finally, it looked embarrassed.

    Seeing that reaction caused Xu Qing to sigh. <i>I really do miss Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.</i>

    As of this point, he realized why the shadow had mentioned the ¡®ruuuuumble¡¯ when describing godfire. When the brown ball of light exploded... it made a big rumbling sound, right?

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow and decided not to try to get more answers. Instead, he went in the direction of the spot where the brown ball of light had exploded.

    <i>The moment it exploded, the ball of light emitted some godliness....</i>

    He floated into the center of the crater, then reached down to touch the soil underfoot. A thoughtful expression appeared on his face. Then he looked at the clouds dissipating overhead, and a new idea urred to him.

    <i>It¡¯s a sort of taboo material that¡¯s inherently unstable. It can provoke lightning, but even if the lightning didn¡¯te, it would eventually copse even under the force of the wind. A piece the size of a fingernail unleashes terrifying power.... Could it be possible that it... is actually fuel that can ignite godfire?</i>

    The moment the thought took hold in Xu Qing, his eyes started shining, and he thought back to the way the shadow had acquired the fuel.

    <i>Sacrifice. All of the gods I know about require some sort of sacrifice.... Don¡¯t tell me that I¡¯ve discovered the reason why gods like sacrifices?</i>

    Xu Qing had no way to confirm his theory, but was nheless shaken by the fact that the shadow¡¯stest breakthrough gave it the ability to proactively create a sacrifice.

    <i>Firstes control. After that is the forced sacrifice....</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the shadow.

    The shadow emitted pleased fluctuations. ¡°I... am... useful!¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t think of a counter argument. This transformation for the shadow was a big one, whether it was the ability to devour forbidden regions, or the ability to control things with its voice, or the final ability of sacrifice. All of them were extraordinary. They were godly abilities.

    <i>So what exactly is the shadow?</i> Xu Qing thought, his eyes narrowing. After a time, he stopped worrying about that question.

    ¡°Get the hell back here,¡± he said coolly.

    The shadow looked very happy as it flew back toward Xu Qing¡¯s feet, where it turned back into an ordinary shadow. Without another word, Xu Qing flew up into the sky and then headed back in the direction of Sea-Sealing County.

    Due to the bright sunlight, as Xu Qing flew in the sky, his shadow flitted across on the ground beneath him. As he flew up, it grewrger andrger, until it was several thousand meters wide. The forbidden region on its forehead was blurry. It had two rows of blood-red eyes, and when its mouth split open, it cackled. It was like a devilish god. Anyone who saw it would be shocked to the core. After all, Xu Qing was the one raising this devilish god.

    ***

    Sometimes resultse only as time passes. Sea-Sealing County was preparing for war thanks to the actions of Seventh Prince and King Heaventide. Those two were like sharp des hanging above the heads of the local cultivators.

    Xu Qing had previously wanted to make an announcement about the situation to calm down the popce. But both Master Seventh and Marquis Yao had tactfully prevented him. They... were in the middle of a huge game of Go. Although they didn¡¯t go into details about the game and the game board, after everything Xu Qing had experienced, he had an idea of what they were doing.

    Master Seventh and Marquis Yao were on a fishing expedition. And on this day, they hooked the first fish.

    News came from the Nightshade front lines that the five waves of Sea-Sealing County cultivators who had been sent to war, though having experienced many deadly war missions, were not wiped out.

    There were about 10,000 survivors.

    Of 5,000,000 Sea-Sealing cultivators, only 10,000 remained. After their deadly experiences, and all the pain and suffering they went through, they were ultimately cast aside. Kong Xianglong and a number of swordsages were among them. Eventually, they managed to escape from the danger, and instead of returning to King Heaventide¡¯s war camp, they decided to go back to Sea-Sealing County.

    It was strange and illogical. In fact, it seemedpletely unexinable. It was as if a pair of shadowy hands were guiding them from behind, ensuring that the survivors had a way forward. Regardless, news reached Sea-Sealing County, and there were even recording jade slips that showed their exhausted forms on the move.

    They were being chased by King Heaventide¡¯s personal guard. They had been used of serious crimes, and had just barely made it out in time. But now they were surrounded and had no choice but to wait to die.

    Sea-Sealing County had a choice to make. Save the survivors? Or don¡¯t save them? How should the situation be handled? And how should the news be presented publicly?

    Saving them was obviously the right thing to do, but would involve taking a concrete stand on certain issues. What was more, it wouldpletely erode the morale in the county to just stand by and watch them be executed.

    ***

    <i>Therefore, Zheng Kaiyi and Yao Tianyan... what choice will you make?</i>

    In Seventh Prince¡¯s imperial capital, former Eight Sect Coalition president Sir Dust-Sun sat in front of a nk Go board. He put a piece down.

    <i>Based on what I know of your style and how you make decisions, I think you¡¯ll choose to save them. But considering they¡¯re in such a remote location, you won¡¯t be able to rescue them with ordinary methods. The person who actually goes to their aid... needs to be a powerful expert. And one won¡¯t be enough.</i>

    <i>Therefore, who will you send? Will Plumdark be with them, perhaps? If so, then you¡¯ll be falling into a trap of your own making. Things will be very simple.</i>

    Sir Dust-Sun chuckled. The reality was that he didn¡¯t care at all about what happened with the trapped Sea-Sealing forces. It would be ideal if Plumdark showed up. And if she didn¡¯t, then he would have to <i>lure the tiger from its domain in the mountains</i>.

    <i>In all of Sea-Sealing County, the only two people who I couldn¡¯t defeat inbat are Zheng Kaiyi and Marquis Yao. One of them will probablye along, otherwise the rescue effort will be doomed to fail. And then there¡¯s those two puppets.... I should n how to deal with them as well.</i>

    Eyes gleaming with anticipation, Sir Dust-Sun looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County. There was no way he would recklessly go to Sea-Sealing County himself. That said, Seventh Prince¡¯s mission had to be aplished.

    <i>Surround the enemy.</i>

    <i>Pull them into a trap of their own making.</i>

    <i>Lure the tiger off the mountain.</i>

    Those three tactics formed an overall strategy that he could use to amodate any potential developments. In the end, he would be inplete control.

    ***

    Back in the county capital, Xu Qing stood with Master Seventh and Marquis Yao, looking in the direction of Seventh Prince¡¯s imperial capital, which had once been the Kingdom of Heavengale.

    ¡°What do you think, Xu Qing?¡± Master Seventh said coolly.

    ¡°Master, I think we¡¯ve already hooked the first fish,¡± Xu Qing replied softly.

    Master Seventhughed heartily, his eyes overflowing with praise.

    Marquis Yao looked at Master Seventh. ¡°So... do you go? Or do I?¡±

    ¡°You do it,¡± Master Seventh replied. ¡°I want to see what our opponent¡¯s second move will be. After all, if we both go, he¡¯ll suspect things are going too smoothly. Remember to bring those puppets. And don¡¯t get careless.¡±

    Marquis Yao nodded. As one of the old guard in Sea-Sealing County, he always acted with caution. Taking a step forward, he vanished. Before long, the Administration Pce and the Swordsage Pce, along with their respective pce lords, were making their way over the horizon with Marquis Yao.

    A few dayster, Master Seventh received news about the second move they¡¯d been waiting for.

    More sects in Sea-Sealing County had turned traitor. They were scattered throughout different prefectures, yet they acted in unison. Rumors spread like mad. The sparks of a great fire were now burning. There was more. Quite a few nonhumans on the Forbidden Sea had mobilized their forces, and were makingndfall in coastal regions. That included Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. In addition to that, lots of Forbidden Sea nonhumans were gathering outside Seven Blood Eyes¡¯ port in the continent of South Phoenix. There were even Void Returning experts among them. The people of Sea-Sealing County trembled with fear at the prospect of more war breaking out.

    Because of the crisis, swordsages were deployed, personally led by Master Seventh. Because he left right after Marquis Yao, the county capital seemed uncharacteristically empty.

    ***

    ¡°Things are going too smoothly...¡± said Sir Dust-Sun, putting down a second game piece. After mulling it over, he put down a third game piece.

 Chapter 729: A Gift for the President

    <h4>Chapter 729: A Gift for the President</h4>

    A few dayster, after Marquis Yao and Master Seventh were gone, and the three pce lords and loyalist sects were working hard to deal with the uprisings, news started toe back.

    For example, details were filtering in about the extent of the rebellion, the circumstances with the Forbidden Sea nonhumans, and the real reason the Sea-Sealing County survivors had fled the Nightshade front lines.

    It was all rted to the Lunisr Dao Pce from the Eight Sect Coalition! The former president wasn¡¯t the only one to have sought asylum with Seventh Prince. He took the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect and the Lunisr Dao Pce with him.[1]

    After joining Seventh Prince, the forces of the Lunisr Dao Pce, which excelled in the use of spell formations, were sent to the front lines to handle formation maintenance. That, of course, was a very safe assignment. Ultimately, when they saw the other troops from Sea-Sealing County in such a bad position, with heavy casualties being suffered by the roughly 5,000,000 front line cultivators, they secretly gave Kong Xianglong and the survivors a way to get through the spell formations. That was how they made their escape.

    Normally speaking, it wouldn¡¯t have been easy to uncover the truth of what happened. However, sentiment was mixed in the Lunisr Dao Pce. Some members couldn¡¯t stand what was happening in Sea-Sealing County, but others were already loyal to Seventh Prince.

    The result was a sh of personal ideals and a storm of power struggles. It was forces in the Lunisr Dao Pce itself that were the first to reveal how the survivors escaped. me was immediately directed toward the sect leader. That infuriated both the Lunisr Dao Pce¡¯s patriarch and Seventh Prince. A cleanup operationmenced in which all guilty parties were executed. However, the sect leader, who was named the ringleader of the operation, went missing.

    As rumors spread, the matter became the focus of a lot of attention.

    Around that time, because of the fact that Marquis Yao and Master Seventh had left the county seemingly defenseless, a person arrived at the capital. He was an old man in a brown daoist robe. He looked exhausted, and he was heavily injured, travel-worn, andpletely vignt. The moment he stepped into the county capital, he contacted two people.

    One was Plumdark. The other was Sir Bloodsmelter. They had stayed behind to defend the county, and as soon as they received their respective messages, their expressions flickered. They knew who this person was.

    He was the same sect leader of the Lunisr Dao Pce that Seventh Prince was searching for. He was in the great circle of Spirit Trove, and was known as Sir Lunisr. Any other person who just showed up in the county capital and asked to see Sir Bloodsmelter or Plumdark, they would have a hard time doing so. But war loomed, and things were different.

    Sir Lunisr of the Lunisr Dao Pce had made efforts to save the lives of many Sea-Sealing County cultivators on the Nightshade front lines. His allies in his sect had been executed by Seventh Prince. Over a thousand people were dead, and blood had flowed like a river. It was extremely brutal and tragic. As for Sir Lunisr, he barely escaped with his life, and even then, was seriously injured.

    He was seeking asylum, leaving no choice for them but to honor his request for a meeting. What was more, he imed to be privy to a huge secret.

    Before long, Sir Lunisr appeared at the Governor¡¯s Mansion, where Xu Qing, Sir Bloodsmelter, Plumdark, and other leaders from Sea-Sealing County were waiting for him.

    His injuries were obviously serious. His internal organs were mostly shattered, and he was struggling just to stay in the Spirit Trove level. After catching sight of Xu Qing and the others, he looked somewhat dazed. Clearly, he was thinking back to the first time heid eyes on Xu Qing.

    ¡°Greetings, Governor!¡± Sir Lunisr suppressed his feelings of regret and respectfully bowed. Inside, he was trying hard to prevent his injuries from ring up, causing his face to be extremely pale.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, sending out a gentle force that lifted Sir Lunisr from his bow. Then he courteously offered some medicinal pills.

    ¡°Many thanks for your assistance on the Nightshade front lines, Sect Leader. We heard what happened with the Lunisr Dao Pce. These are healing medicines from the county capital, including a heaven pill. Take them first and focus on stabilizing your wounds.¡±

    Sir Lunisr epted the pills graciously. As he did, he noticed Sir Bloodsmelter and Plumdark looking at him. Though their gazes weren¡¯t hostile, he knew full well that they were suspicious of him. Without the slightest hesitation, he consumed all of the pills, not bothering to check if they were safe.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes narrowed. Plumdark looked at him expressionlessly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remained the same the entire time. After watching Sir Lunisr consume the pills and then sit down cross-legged, he refrained from saying anything further.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Sir Lunisr opened his eyes. His injuries were less severe now, making them easier to suppress. Taking a deep breath, he once again bowed deeply to Xu Qing. His expression was one of sorrow and guilt.

    ¡°How time flies. It¡¯s already been more than a year.... I remember when you first arrived in the Eight Sect Coalition, Governor....¡± Sir Lunisr sighed and shook his head. ¡°Unfortunately, my Lunisr Dao Pce followed the wrong person. Step after incorrect step....

    ¡°Governor, I escaped with my life and came here for one reason. I have news. As for what you do with it, that will be your choice.

    ¡°First. I hated to see the miserable situation of the Sea-Sealing County cultivators on the Nightshade front lines. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t able to take disciples of my sect to rescue them, nor could I personally take action. The only reason I managed to save the final 10,000 was that the spell formation was malfunctioning. During the repair process, there was an opportunity for people to use it without being detected. And even were they to be detected, it shouldn¡¯t have led back to me. That¡¯s why I chose to help.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way any outsider could have figured out what happened. In fact, not even people from the Lunisr Dao Pce should have realized the truth so soon. Unfortunately, almost as soon as the 10,000 survivors left, word started spreading in the Lunisr Dao Pce. In the resulting ughter, I barely escaped with my life. That¡¯s when I realized that it was all a big trap. Someone had used my soft-heartedness to set me up.

    ¡°Someone wanted those Sea-Sealing County survivors to escape, then use them as a bargaining chip. They wanted to force Sea-Sealing County toe to their rescue; <i>pull them into a trap of their own making</i> and <i>lure the tiger down from the mountain</i>.¡±

    Not a word could be heard in the room.

    Eyes bloodshot and teeth gritted, Sir Lunisr said, ¡°That ¡®someone¡¯ is the former president of the Eight Sect Coalition, Sir Dust-Sun!¡± Hanging his head bitterly, he continued, ¡°That¡¯s the second piece of news I have, and it rtes to all of you here. The chaos in Sea-Sealing County, as well as in the Forbidden Sea, is all the work of Sir Dust-Sun. I know this because... I was previously tasked with facilitatingmunication with the Forbidden Sea nonhumans.

    ¡°The third piece of information is from the front lines. King Heaventide¡¯s army will soon return victorious! The Bloodsport immortal skills he sought have been found and set up. By unleashing the might of immortal magic, he¡¯s sent the Nightshades reeling with setback after setback.

    ¡°As of now, King Heaventide¡¯s army has used the Bloodsport immortal skills to advance into the underbelly of the Nightspirit Region. The mission will be aplished soon, and afterward, the army will return. Then, all it will take is a word from Seventh Prince to send Sea-Sealing County... into grave danger!¡±

    Xu Qing and the others present were surprised. This was their first time hearing such information.

    However, Sir Lunisr wasn¡¯t finished yet. ¡°The fourth piece of news is rted to Sir Dust-Sun. His primary mission is to uncover Sea-Sealing County¡¯s true strength before the return of King Heaventide. And he has another goal, specifically, Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Sir Dust-Sun wants to capture her.¡±

    As his words drifted through the hall, Plumdark¡¯s expression turned grim, and Xu Qing narrowed his eyes.

    Sir Bloodsmelter looked at Sir Lunisr. ¡°What does all of this have to do with Fellow Daoist Plumdark?¡±

    Sir Lunisr hesitated briefly, then gritted his teeth and exined everything he knew. ¡°When Sir Dust-Sun defected to Seventh Prince, he mentioned that Arch-Immortal Plumdark has a unique background and unusual cultivation methods. Practicing dual cultivation with her as the cauldron can cause both cultivators to break through the shackles of the next cultivation level. After that, Seventh Prince told Sir Dust-Sun to bring Arch-Immortal Plumdark to him. And that¡¯s what led to all of this.¡±

    Plumdark¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, but his aura turned extremely cold.

    Everyone from Sea-Sealing County present in the hall pulsed with baleful auras. Sir Bloodsmelter evenughed coldly.

    Sir Lunisr¡¯s injuries suddenly twitched, causing him to gasp for breath as he tried to suppress the effects.

    ¡°The fifth piece of news is that this time¡ª¡± Before he could finish speaking, his eyes went wide and his belly expanded dramatically. In the blink of an eye, his clothing ripped as he became a huge ball of flesh. It was extremely ghastly! A bloodcurdling scream filled the hall, causing everyone to react with shocked surprise. And then Sir Lunisrpletely exploded!

    Sir Bloodsmelter quickly threw out some defenses, as did everyone else.

    The rumbling boom sent an invisible shockwave in all directions, carrying with it the shredded flesh and blood of Sir Lunisr. The shockwave rapidly spread out, leaving the pce and sweeping through the entire county capital. It didn¡¯t contain deadly power, but instead, seemed to be searching for something.

    After the search wasplete, the flesh and blood in the hall rose into the air and turned into a blood-red vortex. All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but in reality, from the time Sir Lunisr exploded until the vortex formed, hardly enough time passed for a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

    ***

    Far away in the imperial capital, in a very secure residence, Sir Dust-Sun looked at the game board and smiled.

    <i>As it turns out, there really aren¡¯t four Void Returning experts in Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    A blood-colored vortex hovered above the game board, projecting an image of what had just happened in the hall in Sea-Sealing County. Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s smile widened. Everything was happening ording to n, from beginning to end. He had controlled everything, and it was all pointing to an impending victory for him.

    <i>Now I just have to pluck the fruit.</i>

    Looking very calm, he reached into the blood-colored vortex above his game board.

    ***

    To everyone¡¯s shock, a pitch-ck hand stretched out of the vortex in the hall in Sea-Sealing County. It hardly looked human. It was more like the wed hand of a bird. It was, in fact, a golden crow w. [2]

    Whether in terms of energy or might, it surpassed Xu Qing. The moment it appeared, it unleashed incredible pressure and terrifying fluctuations as it singled out Plumdark in the crowd and headed right toward her!

    The pressure of the third stage of Void Returning swept out from the w. Heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing force surrounded it.

    Blood sprayed out of Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s mouth, and simr things happened to everyone else. There was no way they could fight back against third-stage Void Returning. It was the same with Plumdark.

    Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure flickered, and Qingqin let loose a cry of rage from the dome of heaven. But the expanding shockwave ensured that none of that was fast enough to help.

    The huge hand was just about to grab Plumdark.

    But then the destiny aura of Sea-Sealing County erupted from Xu Qing, dispelling the pressure. He stood from his chair. Face calm, he produced a small ball that he threw toward the vortex from which stretched the hand.

    That ball had a name. It was called Medium Roundy. Some people even called it a mini Dawning Sun.

    1. The Lunisr Dao Pce was first mentioned in <u>chapter 227</u>. It came up on a few other asions, most notably an important development in <u>chapter 294</u>. Considering what happened in 294, it¡¯s not very surprising to hear they defected along with the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.... ?

    2. We learned way back in <u>chapter 110</u> that the president, who we now know as Sir Dust-Sun, was one of the few other people other than Xu Qing who has the golden crow imperial-ss technique. Don''t forget that, from almost the moment Xu Qing got the technique, we knew that his version was superior to the president''s. ?

 Chapter 730: How Ruthless You Are, Xu Qing!!

    Medium Roundy¡¯s explosive power had always been impressive. It had always had its limits. However, back in the Moonrite Region, when it absorbed some of the godfireing off the godchild, it resulted in heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformations. Those transformations affected its internal structure, and gave it even more of the characteristics of Dawning Sun.

    As of now, its mightiness had reached a terrifying level. When Xu Qing threw it out, it ignored all obstacles, including the pressureing off the golden crow hand, to pierce right into the blood-red vortex. It appeared in the imperial capital above Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s Go board. There, it rotated a few times, all while emanating bright white light and a terrifying aura.

    Sir Dust-Sun had beenpletely confident, and had looked very rxed. Everything had been going ording to n, and he was certain his n would work. But when he looked at Medium Roundy and sensed the auraing off it, his pupils constricted, and his heart pounded as loudly as thunder. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what he was looking at, but the intense sensation of life-or-death crisis it caused made his hair stand on end.

    Danger. Incredible danger! Every inch of his flesh and every scrap of his bones trembled as a sensation of critical danger filled his heart and mind. Death loomed over him.

    He knew there wasn¡¯t enough time to react. He knew he couldn¡¯t fight back. His only hope of survivingy with the Go board itself.

    The moment the white light red, he decisively severed the arm that he had stuck into the vortex. But before he could do anything else, a sea of white light swept out from Medium Roundy with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power.

    It instantly filled Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s chamber. Everything in his residence, including the walls, the furniture, the Go board, and Sir Dust-Sun himself, were incinerated. The heat was so intense that even the ashes were destroyed.

    And the explosion of white light had only just begun. The sea of light filled Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s residence and then continued expanding in all directions. Soon, it had swept over the nearby buildings. And it kept going. Buildings were incinerated. The sky turned red. The sea of light destroyed everything in its path.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the sea of light expanding like a dome, wiping out everything within its borders. And it just kept expanding.The imperial city that had once been the Kingdom of Heavengale actually didn¡¯t have any mortals in it. They had long since been relocated. The only people in the city now were Seventh Prince¡¯s subordinates and other organizations that supported him. There was nock of powerful experts among them, including Void Returning cultivators. There were even more in Spirit Trove. They were eitherpletely loyal to Seventh Prince from the beginning, or had thrown their lot in with him out of practicality. Regardless, they were the foundation Seventh Prince nned to use to carve out a power structure for himself.

    Every one of them was important to his future ns. That was why he hadn¡¯t sent them to the front lines, and had instead kept them in reserve here. But now, as the light exploded out, unleashing terror, the entire imperial capital erupted into chaos. Astonishment filled the hearts of all as they sensed impending doom.

    In the imperial pce, Seventh Prince had called a meeting to discuss the current situation on the front lines.

    One person in attendance was from Sea-Sealing County, and was currently in the middle of speaking. ¡°I¡¯m certain that Sea-Sealing County can provide all the supplies needed for the front lines. After all¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, a terrifying aura erupted from Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s residence, causing the sky to turn bright red. Thends quaked. Everyone in the meeting hall looked around with surprise. Then a massive heat wave swept past them, causing their hair to catch on fire.

    Seventh Prince instinctively shot to his feet and looked off into the distance, shock on his face. In his pupils could be seen the reflection of an ever-growing dome of light.

    ¡°Dawning Sun???¡± he blurted hoarsely.

    The disaster continued. The burning sea of light surged out, quickly covering half of the city. And then... it spread out through the rest of the capital, covering everything.

    The Kingdom of Heavengale¡¯s taboo treasure was activated. But it onlysted for a short time before being destroyed. Countless cultivators tried to flee. They hardly made it into the air before the sea of light swept over them, wiping them out of existence.

    The heat wave expanded, devouring everything and burning people alive. Anguished howls rose up into the sky. The city had be a hell on earth. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the light dissipated, leaving behind lingering heat and the smell of cooked flesh.

    The imperial capital... didn¡¯t exist anymore. It was scorched earth, with no buildings and no corpses. Everything had literally been incinerated.

    The amazing capital of the Kingdom of Heavengale, which had stood proudly for countless years, had beenpletely wiped out in a day. There weren¡¯t even a thousand survivors. Seventh Prince was among them, of course, but he waspletely bedraggled and obviously severely injured.

    Looking around at everything with disheveled hair, he didn¡¯t look even remotely under control. He was shaking physically, his eyes bloodshot as his emotions surged out of control. His normal demeanor, his pride, and his superiority... had all been shattered.

    ¡°Aaaaggggghhhh!! Who did this? Who?? Who unleashed a Dawning Sun here??¡±

    His eyes werepletely bloodshot and he had totally lost hisposure. He couldn¡¯t possibly keep his cool. Even now, he almost couldn¡¯t believe what had just happened. He couldn¡¯t ept it. What had moments ago been a magnificent city was now nothing but ruins.

    What was especially noteworthy was that he had kept nearly a million loyal followers here. They were the subordinates he had nned to use to level all opposition. That included the forces of the groups and species that had sought asylum with him. They were precious resources that he had prepared.

    But right now... they didn¡¯t exist anymore. His years of preparation had been flushed down the drain!

    Pain filled him. His face turned ashen. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as he stood there trembling, veins bulging on his forehead. Then he screamed a scream that came from the raw pain in his marrow and soul!

    He couldn¡¯t imagine how this had happened. He didn¡¯t understand. Why? Why... had a Dawning Sun been detonated here to destroy everything that was his?

    Fear lingered in his heart. Terror. Dread. Just now... <em>he</em> had almost perished. He was an imperial prince who had taken over an entire region. He had a bright future. He had never even considered that he might die. But today... death came very, very close to him. Were it not for some measures taken by King Heaventide, he might not have seen the next day!

    As Seventh Prince trembled in anguish, his subordinates were already investigating. It didn¡¯t take long to determine where the st originated.

    A figure appeared in the rubble behind Seventh Prince. Kneeling, he wiped the blood from his lips and grimly said, ¡°Your Majesty, we discovered where the st started....¡±

    Seventh Prince swiveled. ring, he grabbed his subordinate and growled, ¡°Tell me!¡±

    ¡°The Dawning Sun explosion started... at Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s residence.... He was working on a mission you assigned him regarding Sea-Sealing County. Maybe... this was a case of revenge....¡±

    The subordinate didn¡¯t dare to say anything further. Given the level of Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s cultivation base, no self-detonation of his could have released power like that of a Dawning Sun. Therefore, considering the mission he was on, it wasn¡¯t hard to make some spections about what happened. That possibility left the subordinate terrified, and caused fear to well up in the hearts of all the survivors.

    Seventh Prince¡¯s hand shook, and his heart was beating out of control. As he looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County, his eyes raging with killing intent. If looks could kill, or if they could turn into a Dawning Sun, then Sea-Sealing County would already be half razed to the ground. Unfortunately for Seventh Prince, looks couldn¡¯t do that.

    <em>Sea-Sealing County must have the ability to make Dawning Suns! Maybe they¡¯re not as powerful as the original, but they¡¯re still strong enough to shake heaven and earth. This... this is why the High Commander¡¯s army went missing in Sea-Sealing County!</em>

    Seventh Prince wanted to calm down. He wanted to dispel the pain in his heart. But he was shaking so hard, and he was so deeply terrified that his true inner nature was revealed. He was afraid.

    <em>I just wanted him to bring Plumdark to use as a cauldron. I wanted to probe Sea-Sealing County.... But then Sea-Sealing County went and detonated a Dawning Sun.... This was definitely Xu Qing¡¯s doing. He¡¯s warning me not to provoke him and not to touch his woman.... How ruthless of you, Xu Qing!</em>

    The mere thought caused blood to spray from Seventh Prince¡¯s mouth. Though he wanted to look away, he couldn¡¯t stop from looking at the scorched earth around him. Finally, he gritted his teeth.

    ¡°We¡¯re leaving. We¡¯re going into hiding... until my uncle returns!¡±

    Seventh Prince felt humiliated. But his fear overwhelmed that humiliation. He was worried... about a second Dawning Sun being unleashed on him. He didn¡¯t want to cause any trouble for Sea-Sealing County before King Heaventide returned. In fact, he didn¡¯t dare. As far as he was concerned, he was dealing with a bunch of lunatics. A bunch of lunatics who could unleash Dawning Suns.

    ***

    A great distance away in Sea-Sealing County, the blood-red vortex copsed. Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s golden crow hand fell to the ground, where it writhed as it turned into Sir Dust-Sun himself.

    He was incredibly weak. However, after your cultivation base reached a certain level, you could experience theplete destruction of your body while still having the ability to regenerate. The cost was incredibly high.

    Sir Dust-Sun hadn¡¯t been left with any other choice. His only option in the heat of the moment had been to sever his arm and use that as the foundation for regeneration. That was his only way out of a lose-lose situation. However, after his body formed anew, Sir Dust-Sun scrambled backward, his face pale, his gaze vignt. Looking in shock at the crumbling vortex, he then turned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°W-what... what did you throw in there?¡±

 Chapter 731: The Extremely Experienced Grandpa Ninth

    <h4>Chapter 731: The Extremely Experienced Grandpa Ninth</h4>

    At first, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel inclined to answer Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s question. But then he noticed the look on Plumdark¡¯s face, and he thought about everything this ¡®president¡¯ had done. He also noted the expressions on the faces of the other Sea-Sealing County cultivators present.

    Voice cool, he said, ¡°A Dawning Sun.¡±

    Every person present in that hall in the Governor¡¯s Mansion reacted with open shock. Sir Bloodsmelter. Plumdark. All the Sea-Sealing County cultivators. Numerous gasps and expressions of disbelief appeared.

    ¡°Dawning Sun?¡±

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    There was a minor uproar. And yet, the ear-piercing exmation of Sir Dust-Sun drowned them all out.

    ¡°DAWNING SUN?? Y-y-you...¡± A tremor passed through Sir Dust-Sun. At first, he didn¡¯t believe it. But then he thought about that destructive st, and what he had witnessed in the final moments, including that terrifying heat. And in the end, he couldn¡¯t fool himself.

    Then he thought about the fact that he had been located in Seventh Prince¡¯s imperial capital.... He thought about the nearly 1,000,000 loyal subordinates Seventh Prince had gathered there, along with sects from throughout the region who had sought asylum with him. He thought about Seventh Prince¡¯s personal staff, and all the countless ways he had prepared over the years....

    Sir Dust-Sun shivered uncontrobly from head to toe, and goosebumps broke out all over him as his heart raced. It was easy to imagine the detonation of a Dawning Sun affecting the entire imperial capital. The deaths and other casualties had to have been terrifyingly severe.

    And though Sea-Sealing County was responsible, the fact was that his own blood-red vortex had been a major factor. Actually... if people started naming him as an aplice, iming that his ¡®surrender¡¯ had really been part of aplex n to humiliate Seventh Prince, then it would bepletely believable.

    There was no question that Sir Dust-Sun would be in a very tenuous position going forward. King Heaventide¡¯s wrath would be vented on him without question. Most importantly, what if Seventh Prince perished...?

    ¡°How could you dare do such a thing?¡± Sir Dust-Sun shrieked. ¡°And how did you get a Dawning Sun??¡±

    He hadpletely lost hisposure, and was looking at Xu Qing with disbelief, all while mountain-toppling, sea-draining terror battered him from inside. Blood sprayed out of his mouth and he staggered backward, his heart full of overwhelming bitterness. He felt humiliated, wronged, and worst of all, helpless. All of his own ns had worked out very smoothly. But in the end, the unthinkable happened.

    ¡°I was just testing you out! But you... y-you actually unleashed a Dawning Sun?¡± More blood sprayed out of Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s mouth.

    There was something else in his heart that he wanted to say, but couldn¡¯t. <i>Xu Qing, if you wanted to use a Dawning Sun on me, that¡¯s one thing. But how could you possibly use one on Seventh Prince? Now that you have, do you really think you can avoid trouble? Why...?</i>

    His thoughts led him only into further bitterness. Thanks to his true form crumbling, his cultivation base was in severe decline. He had dropped from third-stage Void Returning down into the second stage, and even that second stage was unstable. His aura was in such chaos that he was actually in between the first and the second stage. What was more, he wasn¡¯t going to be able to sustain himself in that position for very long.

    Therefore, it was without the slightest hesitation that he turned to flee. It didn¡¯t matter that he could technically start fighting right now if he wanted to. His cultivation base declined, and Xu Qing¡¯s ruthlessness filled him with fear. It was a fear that came from his bones and his soul. He was worried about a second Dawning Sun. And he was worried... about Qingqin in the sky, as well as Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure. After seeing how much his cultivation base had dropped, he knew that this day was the biggest crisis he had ever faced.

    The moment he turned to flee, Sir Bloodsmelter lunged forward, joined by Plumdark. Qingqin let loose a loud caw from the sky, and sent down a fearsome energy that locked down on Sir Dust-Sun and his surroundings. Qingqin was descending.

    An instantter, Qingqin appeared over the hall, sending pressure down in all directions. He let loose another powerful caw.

    Considering that, Sir Dust-Sun had no choice but to suppress his terror.

    Expression flickering, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, don¡¯t you know that I¡¯m the one who set free those 10,000 Sea-Sealing County cultivators? I marked all of them with a special soul-sealing symbol. If I die, they¡¯ll all be killed in body and soul! Maybe you can negate those symbols, but it¡¯ll take time. And if you try to capture me, I¡¯ll self-detonate my soul! And when that happens, they¡¯ll die with me! But let me go, and you¡¯ll still have plenty of time to remove the symbols. Letting one person live can save the lives of 10,000 Sea-Sealing warriors. That¡¯s a fair price!¡±

    Sir Dust-Sun was a cautious person, and was skilled at schemes and ns. Even at a moment like this, he still had moves to make. Upon hearing his words, Sir Bloodsmelter and everyone else stopped in ce.

    Even Qingqin was hesitant to kill Sir Dust-Sun at that point. He was just a bird, and wasn¡¯t exactly proficient in dealing with sealing symbols.

    The situation seemed to have evolved into a deadlock. However, Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as he ignored the pleading of Sir Dust-Sun and looked up into the sky.

    Others might be hamstrung, but Grandpa Ninth could resolve the situation as easily as turning over his hand. All Xu Qing needed to do was ask. But then, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered slightly as he received a response from Ninth Sib. It was only words, but it still caused a very odd expression to appear on Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    Then he looked at Sir Dust-Sun, who was backing away from him hysterically, his hairpletely disheveled. And Xu Qing decided to just listen to Ninth Sib.

    ¡°p him!¡± he said coolly.

    Instantly, the sky changed colors, the wind picked up, and lightning crashed. The world blurred. A majestic force descended, causing the entire hall to tremble, and provoking looks of astonishment from the onlookers.

    At the same time, Sir Dust-Sun trembled from head to toe, and his face fell. It seemed as if Xu Qing¡¯s voice contained natural and magicalws, plus the will of heaven. When he gave orders, they had to be strictly enforced. And thus, the swell of force turned into an invisible hand which viciously pped Sir Dust-Sun.

    A boom rang out along with a miserable scream from Sir Dust-Sun, as the p turned half of his face into a meat paste and sent him flying backward. It was a terrifying sight, and everyone could virtually feel the pain he was experiencing. He screamed instinctively, his mind going nk. He felt like he had been struck by an unimaginable force, something like an entire mountain. He couldn¡¯t fight back or evade. Before he could react, and as he was still tumbling backward, Xu Qing spoke again.

    ¡°p him again!¡±

    Naturalw descended. Another boom rang out along with another howl of anguish from Sir Dust-Sun. This time, the other side of his face was struck, and it nearly ripped his head off his shoulders, making him hard to identify as human. The p sent him flying from off in the distance back to Xu Qing. As blood poured out of his mouth and neck, a golden crow appeared around him, only to quickly crumble into nothing.

    After struggling for a moment, he weakly said, ¡°Using naturalws like that? W-w-what... what cultivation base do you have??¡±

    His face was a mask of terror, and his head was about to fall off his shoulders. He was more astonished now than earlier when he had first heard about the Dawning Sun. And that was because he knew that when it came to naturalws, magicalws, and the will of heaven, they were things that could only be used in this way by Void Returning experts....

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer his question. He just calmly said, ¡°Kneel.¡±

    Sir Dust-Sun shrieked in agony as his legs shattered. However, they didn¡¯t disappear, they just bent at awkward angles, forcing him to kneel.

    ¡°Smoldering God...¡± Sir Dust-Sun said, his mind crumbling. He looked at Xu Qing, then looked at Plumdark, his eyes pleading. ¡°Junior Sister, for the sake of us being fellow disciples, and out of respect for our Master, let me off the hook, just this one time....¡±

    Plumdark said nothing. She just shook her head.

    Despair and madness filled Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s eyes as he prepared to self-detonate and end things in mutual destruction.

    ¡°Strip it away!¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    Heaven and earth rumbled as another huge hand formed. It grabbed Sir Dust-Sun, who screamed as his body shattered, and spirit energy poured out of him. As of that moment, his cultivation base had been stripped away. Left behind was only a puddle of blood and gore. And a soul.

    ¡°Let the flesh be the candle. Let the soul burn.¡±

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s words, Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s flesh rippled, squished together, and then took the shape of a candle made of bloody flesh! The candle lit up, using the soul as the wick. Agonized screaming rang out from the burning me of the candle.

    Xu Qing picked it up, turned, and walked over to Plumdark. He held the candle out to her.

    After a brief moment of hesitation, he said, ¡°A gift for you.¡±

    Plumdark looked at Xu Qing feeling slightly surprised. This wasn¡¯t the way he usually did things. But that was fine. An unusual feeling rose up in her. She epted the candle, her eyes shining brightly. Her n was to ce the candle above the outer door of her mansion grotto, to serve as amp that burned day and night.

    The hall waspletely silent save for the screaminging from the candle.

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyes gleamed with praise as he looked at his grand-apprentice. He was truly impressed with Xu Qing, who reminded him a lot of himself when he was young, and knew what ¡®blood-red romance¡¯ was all about.

    As everyone looked on, Xu Qing turned to the sky and bowed.

    Simultaneously, he heard the cold voice of Ninth Sib speaking into his mind.

    <i>¡°Some enemies need to be put to the sword. But when someone makes a move on your woman, killing them too quickly can be unsatisfying. Instead, torment them brutally, and ultimately, offer them as a gift. That¡¯s the way to move a woman¡¯s heart. I have experience in this. Back in the day, I helped quite a few people in this same way.¡±</i>

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. He had never heard Grandpa Ninth talk so much, nor could he have guessed that the ice-cold Grandpa Ninth would have such experience.

    All he could do was nod. But then he noticed the look in Plumdark¡¯s eyes, and realized that Grandpa Ninth was clearly right. That said, he still felt the best thing to do was kill your enemy as quickly as possible, and not drag things out.

    <i>This¡¯ll be the only time,</i> Xu Qing thought.

 Chapter 732: Someoneâ€™s Mount Grew Up

    <h4>Chapter 732: Someone¡¯s Mount Grew Up</h4>

    After Sir Dust-Sun was turned into a candle and Seventh Prince went into hiding, the crisis facing Sea-Sealing County was temporarily abated. The uprisings in the county were quickly put down.

    One aspect rted to how Master Seventh struck like lightning. But the bigger reason was how a Dawning Sun had been used to wipe out the imperial capital in the old Kingdom of Heavengale. There was no way such an event could be kept under wraps; before long, rumors were raging throughout the Holytide Region. Even nonhumans out on the Forbidden Sea heard about it, and they were left trembling and terror-struck. More than ever, they feared and respected Sea-Sealing County.

    All species were pessimistic to a certain degree. And a Dawning Sun was particrly effective on the pessimistic. It was a threat that could destroy any and all ns. It could shake everyone to the core. And of course... when unleashed, it would kill anyone present to see it.

    No one could figure out how Sea-Sealing County managed to create Dawning Suns, nor did anyone know how many they had left. And no one wanted to gamble to find out.

    When the Dawning Suns first appeared, there had been a species that gambled on it. They were called Nightshades. They suffered severe losses, to the point where they nearly faced extinction. That alone was a message to any speciester on who might think about gambling with Dawning Suns.

    As a result, the nonhumans who had besieged Seven Blood Eyes quickly retreated. And they did so very respectfully, by offering gifts of rpense in the hopes of dispelling any potential grudges.

    But could things really be resolved that easily? War wasn¡¯t a situation in which you could just attack someone whenever you wanted, and then go back to being peaceful just because you felt like it. Therefore, Master Seventh personally visited most of the nonhuman species and forced them to enter into some very one-sided treaties. After all was said and done, those nonhumans ended up in a worse position than the Merfolk Isles had been in years ago. They werepletely under the control of Sea-Sealing County. In a very short time, Sea-Sealing County¡¯s prestige in the Holytide Region skyrocketed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s name once again made the rounds, and not just in Sea-Sealing County, but in the Forbidden Sea, in South Phoenix, and in the Holytide Region as a whole.

    Around that time, it urred to historians from many species that these circumstances were very simr to something else that happened years ago. It was akin to an earlier era, when the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan existed, and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was just as famous as Emperor Mirrorcloud. Now, after countless years, Sea-Sealing County was rising to prominence again. And Xu Qing... was also rising to prominence.

    What was more, because the ¡°Qing¡± in Xu Qing¡¯s name was the same character as ¡°Cyan¡± from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, some species started to specte if his bloodline stretched back to that ancient kingdom. Of course, it was only a guess.

    Meanwhile, Marquis Yao and his people easily rescued Kong Xianglong and the 10,000 Sea-Sealing County cultivators. Considering the deadly trials those cultivators had faced, it was no surprise that Xu Qing met them outside the city, joined by the cream of the crop from Sea-Sealing County.

    When the two groups caught sight of each other, excited cheering rang out in all directions. Most of the survivors had assumed that they would all end up dead. Therefore, being able to return to Sea-Sealing County was like a dreame true. In fact, tears flowed as they looked at their home.

    As for Xu Qing, his heart swelled with emotion, as he recognized many fellow veterans in the crowd, as well as a good friend.

    That friend was Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong had been injured badly, and he looked a lot older than before. His personality had changed as well. He wasn¡¯t wild and unruly like before. He seemed old-school and solemn. When Xu Qing looked at him, it almost seemed like he was looking at Pce Lord Kong.

    Kong Xianglong had long since experienced a cultivation base breakthrough. As the former number one chosen in Sea-Sealing County, it made sense that he was in the great circle of Nascent Soul, and was half a step into the dao begetting phase. Cultivation progress like that was secondary only to Xu Qing. From that it could be seen how hard he had worked over the years. He must also havee across some destined opportunities.

    Spotting Xu Qing, his eyes glittered, and he made his way through the crowd. Xu Qing also walked forward. Excited cheering swelled as Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong met each other and embraced.

    Then Kong Xianglong took three steps back, dropped to one knee, and offered a formal swordsage salute.

    ¡°Greetings, Governor!¡±

    The entire army behind him dropped to their knees and said the same thing.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, looked out at the crowd, and nodded.

    ¡°Wee home!¡±

    The cheering became deafening. As of this moment, everyone in Sea-Sealing County was united.

    On the seventh day after Kong Xianglong¡¯s return, Xu Qing received word from Zhang San that his dreadnaught was ready.

    Zhang San wasn¡¯t capable of crafting such a dreadnaught on his own, so he had returned to Seven Blood Eyes to build a team. And after that, he¡¯d gone to the Seazombiends. It was with the help of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure that he had crafted Xu Qing¡¯s dreadnaught.

    Although Sir Dust-Sun¡¯s schemes and the Forbidden Sea nonhuman uprising had caused some setbacks, in the end, the construction process went fairly smoothly. After the construction wasplete, the only thing the dreadnaughtcked was a power source from Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing got the news, his heart filled with anticipation. He¡¯d had a dharmaboat from the very beginning of his path of cultivation, and thus, they were very significant to him. After all, in the past, he had lived on his dharmaboat, and it had helped him to resolve many crises.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing left the county capital, standing atop Qingqin as they whistled through the air toward Seazombiends. Qingqin was very pleased to be able to head out with Xu Qing once again. His constant thunderous caws as they flew along made it seem like he was chatting with heaven. Xu Qing was in a good mood as well, and asionallyughed out loud. The two of them matched well. asionally, Qingqin would harness light and then release it in all directions, and Xu Qing would harness his seven-colored light to augment it. Qingqin was very pleased.

    It only took about a day for them to cross most of Sea-Sealing County. Along the way, they passed the Ghost Emperor mountain. Xu Qing looked at it from a distance and sighed in his heart. He knew Third Elder Brother was there working on his cultivation, though it wasn¡¯t possible to spot him from this far away.

    Xu Qing was very different than he had been in the past. As of now, he knew exactly how powerful a Smoldering God was that could shoulder two major worlds. The Heir Apparent only had a single major world, while Princess Brightblossom and Ninth Sib each had two. The Ghost Emperor was obviously like Ninth Sib, being an expert in battle. A second-stage Smoldering God who was an expert in fighting and had such incredible battle prowess was obviously terrifying.

    <i>¡°He doesn¡¯t have two major worlds!¡±</i> Ninth Sib said, his voice cold. <i>¡°He has lingering traces of an additional three major worlds. Sadly, they were all destroyed. But in his prime, he was a five-world Smoldering God! He¡¯s not a cultivator from my era. He cameter. Regardless, he¡¯s breathtaking.¡±</i>

    Though Ninth Sib¡¯s voice was cold, it also seemed somewhat mncholy.

    <i>¡°He wasn¡¯t killed by a god, but rather, by an Imperial Sovereign. Xu Qing, since you¡¯ve taken up his mantle, it¡¯s entirely possible that you might provoke karma from him when you travel in foreignnds in the future. That said, his soul experienced a catastrophe before you came along. Remember. If one of his physical or spiritual souls dies, you need to get back to Moonrite immediately.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing shivered as he looked at the Ghost Emperor mountain.

    Qingqin didn¡¯t appear to notice anything. They passed the Ghost Emperor mountain, reached the Forbidden Sea, and eventually arrived at the Seazombie ancestralnds. In the past, the most eye-catching thing there was the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure, which was formed from all the Seazombie ancestor statues. That included the enormous blood-red mirror hovering in the sky with its nine closed eyes.

    But now there was something that surpassed that by far.

    It was a huge sphere, about half as big as the entire ind itself. It was violet, and it glowed brightly with dazzling light. It looked almost like a sun that had descended into the mortal world. It also emanated intense heat in all directions. Tempest winds circted around it, carrying the heat with it. It was actually correct to say... that this thing <i>was</i> a sun.

    The construction wasplete. Also on the ind were 100,000 Seven Blood Eyes cultivators who were assembled and waiting for Xu Qing to arrive.

    When Xu Qing caught sight of the sun, his jaw nearly dropped. But then, as expected, he caught sight of the Captain standing next to Zhang San. The two were talking to each other. When they spotted Xu Qing, the Captainughed heartily and walked over to him.

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing?¡± the Captain said proudly. ¡°Are you pleased with this dreadnaught, or are you pleased?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the huge violet sun, and realized that he could sense within it the very same ancient sun he had carried at his waist for so long.

    The Captain had taken it before the battle with Crimson Mother, except, when he released the Dawning Suns, he hadn¡¯t used it.

    Off to the side, Zhang San chuckled wryly. ¡°My original design didn¡¯t look like this,¡± he said with a sigh. ¡°But the Captain said you like suns.... So he took out something called Big Roundy to serve as the core. He said it¡¯s one of the Dawning Suns.... I didn¡¯t believe it at first, but now I do.¡± Pointing at the violet sun, Zhang San said, ¡°This thing really is a Dawning Sun now!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The Captain threw his head back andughed uproariously. Looking very pleased with himself, he threw his arm around Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders and loudly said, ¡°From now on, whenever we go traveling, we¡¯ll take this thingy. I look forward very much to seeing who would dare cause problems for us while we¡¯re riding a Dawning Sun. It¡¯ll cause all light to dim, and will cast terror into the hearts of countless species.

    ¡°Now, you usually blow up your dharmaboats, right? Well, that¡¯s fine. You can blow it up any time you want! If anybody causes problems for us, then you can just blow them the hell up! Furthermore, I heard that some species in the Holytide Region have been iming that we <i>don¡¯t</i> have a second Dawning Sun. Well, who the hell would dare to say that now, huh? We can just take this Dawning Sun and put it right on their doorstep, the fools!¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak, but realized he wasn¡¯t sure what to say. On the one hand, he had to admit that riding a Dawning Sun around would be impressive. But it would also be dangerous. After all, what would happen if it really did explode...?

    This definitely was not the dreadnaught he had imagined. It was more like a fortress. That said, having something as threatening as this... really was astounding.

    Qingqin gasped and made a few cawing sounds. This time, Xu Qing understood what he meant. Qingqin was calling it ¡®terrifying.¡¯

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, I already thought of a name for it. It¡¯s called Violet Roundy. Good name, don¡¯t you agree? And now, Violet Roundy just needs a power source. I know what you¡¯re going to use. Hahaha! I can¡¯t wait to see what happens when you put some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into Violet Roundy. Then it¡¯ll really shine!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone brightly and without an ounce of fear.

 Chapter 733: God of the Nightshades

    <h4>Chapter 733: God of the Nightshades</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at the enormous dreadnaught, then walked toward it. As he neared, its reflection appeared in his eyes. mes surrounded it, with the high heat causing everything to ripple and distort. The fluctuationsing off it seemed to epass two aspects.

    The first aspect was Xu Qing¡¯s mark that came from his old dharmaship. Although the old ship had been dismantled in preparation to make the dreadnaught, those pieces had been reused as the new foundation.

    The second aspect of the fluctuations were that of the ancient sun. Xu Qing had carried that ancient sun at his waist for a long time in the Moonrite Region, and had therefore developed a close connection to it. After sensing the fluctuations, Xu Qing realized that the dreadnaught didn¡¯t seem anything at all like a stranger. All he had to do was mark it as his own,bine the two aspects of the fluctuations, and then he would have full control of what was essentially the same ancient sun as before, just upgraded.

    As everyone looked on, he floated up until he was over the ancient sun, then took a deep breath and sent his divine sense into the sun. There was no resistance at all.

    In hardly more than ten breaths of time, Xu Qing¡¯s divine sense filled it, causing rumbling sounds to echo out from inside. It was like a gigantic sleeping beast waking up. The mes surged, and the energy grew more shocking. The sun trembled as it floated up, passing Xu Qing like an actual rising sun.

    Xu Qing hovered there, his hair whipping about, his aura connected to the huge violet sun, causing him to feel great pressure. Everyone looking on felt immense weight pushing down on them.

    Around then, the Captain spoke. ¡°Keep it up, little Ah Qing! It¡¯s time to witness a miracle! Although Violet Roundy is mighty, it¡¯s not quite on the level of a real Dawning Sun. The explosion of a Dawning Sun can take out half a region! But if Violet Roundy detonates, it won¡¯t take out more than half a prefecture.

    ¡°But that¡¯s fine. Based on my calctions, after it absorbs some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, it will be vastly more powerful. Although, I suggest you don¡¯t do any experiments here. Let¡¯s go somewhere else. Perhaps Forbidden by the Zombie?¡±

    The Captain licked his lips, and his eyes shone bright with craziness. Truth be told, because that violet sun had Xu Qing¡¯s fluctuations, he was the only one who could actually control it. The Captain had already confirmed that personally.

    Xu Qing looked down at the Captain, then blurred into motion. An instantter, he appeared atop the sun.

    A throne rose up beneath him, and he sat down. He sent his divine will out. The ancient sun rumbled loudly, like a roaring god.

    The anxious Captain quickly flew up to join Xu Qing, and then the sun zipped away, quickly leaving the Seazombie ancestralnd. The violet sun was gone, leaving behind only a few expanding ripples.

    When it appeared again, it was far out over the Forbidden Sea, in the air above Forbidden by the Zombie. Though there was no blood visible in the ck seawater, a powerful stench of gore filled the air. The mutagen here was different from other ces, roiling with such intensity that it formed a mist on the water. In the past, that mist was so thick it blocked out the sun. But the events which yed out not too long ago had affected the forbidden ground significantly.

    ¡°This ce¡¯ll do. Alright, it¡¯s go time, little Ah Qing! Let¡¯s see what that piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh will do.¡±

    The Captain nced down at Forbidden by the Zombie, the craziness in his eyes shining more brightly than ever.

    Xu Qing turned to the Captain. ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± he said coolly, ¡°does this positive attitude of yours have something to do with certain ns you have regarding Forbidden by the Zombie?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s expression suddenly became very somber. ¡°Little Junior Brother,¡± he said solemnly, ¡°how could you say something like that? I¡¯m your Eldest Brother, so of course I¡¯m interested in you improving your battle prowess. In fact, I¡¯m more concerned about your own breakthroughs than my own.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face remainedpletely without expression. He didn¡¯t believe the Captain¡¯s nonsense. And given how well he knew the Captain, he could easily guess what was really going on. After Xu Qing just looked at him for a very long moment, the Captain awkwardly smiled.

    Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, there¡¯s no one in charge of Forbidden by the Zombie right now, so it¡¯s the perfect ce for experimentation. After all, what happens on the off chance that... Violet Roundy explodes? It could very well break open their of the previous master of this forbidden ground. And that fellow must have a ton of treasure stockpiled!

    ¡°Now, I¡¯ll give it you that if Violet Roundy doesn¡¯t power up and instead explodes, it would be dangerous. But what in life <i>isn¡¯t</i> dangerous? And could that danger possibly surpass dealing with Crimson Mother? I¡¯m not scared! Worst case scenario, this life ends, and I have to start a new life. And when I do, I¡¯ll resurrect you!¡±

    Licking his lips, the Captain thumped himself on the chest. ¡°Besides, based on my spections, after you put Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh inside, there¡¯s only a thirty percent chance that Violet Roundy will explode. And that means there¡¯s a seventy percent chance of sess! Think about what sess would mean! This thingy would be more powerful than an actual Dawning Sun. You won¡¯t even need to worry about cultivation! You could use it alone to crush countless species.¡±

    The more the Captain talked, the more excited he got. ¡°You¡¯ve got to take the chance, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s face twitched slightly. He knew the Captain was crazy, and he knew the Captain liked to risk his life. But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in putting his own life on the line for something as meaningless as this.

    Just as he was about to refuse, the Captain suddenly pulled out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and jammed a golden jade slip into it. It surged with teleportation fluctuations.

    Xu Qing looked at it.

    The Captain cleared his throat, then removed the jade slip and tossed it to Xu Qing. ¡°That¡¯s a new invention of mine. After absorbing Crimson Mother¡¯s godsource, it can sustain the pressure of personhood and allow for safe teleportations away. Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t die.¡±

    Xu Qing mulled it over. He looked at the jade slip, and then at the violet sun. The reality was that he was really interested to see what would happen after he put Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into the sun. And a look had appeared in his eyes that mirrored the Captain¡¯s craziness.

    Finally, his eyes shone with determination and he lifted his right hand. A violet worm emerged from his palm and entered the teleportation jade slip. The worm teleported away safely. After the cultivation base reached a certain level, all cultivators could be reborn through regeneration to a certain extent. Having aplished that, Xu Qing took out a fist-sized piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Mutagen instantly erupted. Colors shed in the sky and winds kicked up.

    Looking enlivened, the Captain backed up and took out a second golden jade slip. Noticing what Xu Qing did, he sent a blue worm into the jade slip, and sent it teleporting away.

    Seeing that the Captain was ready, Xu Qing took a deep breath and prepared to send Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into the violet sun. Before he could, a cold voice echoed out.

    ¡°Do you two have a death wish? If so, you picked a good spot. The feng shui makes this a very unique location. It¡¯s the perfect ce for two graves.¡±

    As the Captain blinked a few times, Xu Qing looked in the direction the voice came from. Ninth Sib appeared, floating down toward Xu Qing. Looking at the violet sun, he nodded.

    ¡°Not bad. If you add Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, then it¡¯ll definitely be enough to send you on your way. In fact, I¡¯d say there¡¯s a ny-nine percent chance that will be the oue. You might have sent some of your godsource away, but your true forms will be wiped out in an instant, so whether or not you end up regenerating will be up to chance.

    ¡°That said, you do have those teleportation jade slips. They should get some of your treasure away. I have to admit, the two of you are really skilled at being suicidal. By the way, do you two have anyst words?¡±

    Ninth Sib looked at Xu Qing and then the Captain.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything, but he put away the piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and dispelled any thoughts of putting it into the sun. If the chances of it detonating were that high, then it made more sense to explode the sun in a ce where it would make a difference. It wasn¡¯t something that should be wasted.

    Most importantly, he needed to be far enough away to be safe. Either that, or make sure he could teleport away before the detonation.

    The Captain shrank back a bit. He hated to admit it, but Ninth Sib¡¯s prediction seemed a lot more reliable than his own. If the chances of sess were that small, then putting his life on the line didn¡¯t make that much sense. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, the Captain smiled sarcastically.

    Ninth Sibughed coldly. ¡°So you¡¯re not going to attempt suicide?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. The Captain was just as quick to do the same.

    Ninth Sib snorted coldly, then vanished into thin air, leaving Xu Qing and the Captain behind on the open sea. The two of them looked at each other.

    The Captain sighed. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°What a pity. Howe I feel like a kid that was caught by the adults before he could set off some fireworks? I mean, if we¡¯d seeded, then we would have such an amazing destructive force to use as a threat! Even the emperor would have had to treat us politely! I just can¡¯t ept this!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He also felt it was a pity. With the wave of his hand, he pulled the ancient sun toward him. It shrank down into a little sphere that dropped onto his palm. After hanging it at his waist, he looked around and then projected a divine will message to the Captain.

    <i>¡°Be patient, Eldest Brother. With some additional preparation, and a bit more confidence, we can try again!¡±</i>

    The Captain nodded earnestly. <i>¡°You¡¯re absolutely correct, little Junior Brother. I¡¯ll make some additional preparations. And when we have the chance, we can go visit my ex-wife. We can put on a really big fireworks show for h¨¥r!¡±</i>

    With that, he threw his arm over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders, and the two of them made their way off into the distance.

    ***

    Up in the air, Ninth Sib sighed. As far as he was concerned, these two really were far too suicidal. That said, the two of them had plotted for years against Crimson Mother, and had gone up against h¨¥r with mere Nascent Soul cultivation bases.... Thinking of it in those terms, he realized things weren¡¯t as dramatic as he¡¯d imagined.

    ***

    In the Nightspirit Region, on the front lines with the Nightshades, the war had reached a critical juncture. King Heaventide had led his forces against the Nightshade cultivators. Blood flowed like rivers, and immortal skills descended like rain. Deceased souls floated up constantly.

    After suffering defeat after defeat, the Nightshade forces had gathered together. In the middle of the army were seventeen Nightshade priests in long violet robes, who prostrated to the canopy of heaven in some sort of ritual.

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.</i>

    <i>¡°Give myself to my Lord, no bitterness for me, from bitterness I¡¯m free, undecayed for all to see.</i>

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord; from the Revered Ancientmunity; all living beings far and near; as Violet Lord do address thee.</i>

    <i>¡°Souls offered, lord to me; p¨¡ramit¨¡ an actuality; sing with joy when you see; the return to our world ends happily.¡±</i>

    When King Heaventide saw that, he sneered. ¡°Trying to summon a god? Your god is asleep and can¡¯t pay any attention to you.¡±

    Despite his words, King Heaventide was shaken. After all, he had heard the litany and realized that Crimson Mother wasn¡¯t mentioned. Instead, there was some new figure named Violet Lord.

    His eyes narrowed, but at the same time, he didn¡¯t want any dys. With the wave of his hand, he sent hordes of cultivators surging forward to wipe out the Nightshade army. Yet at that exact moment, the sky which previously contained the glow of a Dawning Sun now shone with a violet glow. Then, a huge violet moon appeared in the sky, pulsing with terrifying pressure.

 Chapter 734: Losing Oneâ€™s Head to Greed

    <h4>Chapter 734: Losing One¡¯s Head to Greed</h4>

    Waves surged across the surface of the Forbidden Sea as Xu Qing and the Captain went back toward Sea-Sealing County. All of a sudden, Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked off into the distance. He felt like he could hear a voice in his mind, and could just barely make out some images floating in front of him. Unfortunately, the images were blurry, like runny ink.

    When Xu Qing suddenly stopped in ce, the Captain looked over in surprise. Then he followed Xu Qing¡¯s gaze off into the distance. He didn¡¯t see anything.

    Curious, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on, little Ah Qing? Did you see something?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond at first. After seeing Xu Qing just looking nkly off into the distance, the Captain was about to ask another question. That was when Xu Qing¡¯s expression returned to normal.

    Realizing he was looking in the direction of the Nightspirit Region, he said, ¡°It seems like something is calling out to me. Something I originally assumed didn¡¯t exist.¡±

    ***

    On the Nightshade front lines, a violet moon descended, casting violet light in all directions, and causing the previously bright canopy of heaven to suddenly dim. Down below, all living beings trembled as the violet light grew stronger. At the same time, a terrifying aura spread from the violet moon. From a distance, it looked like the violet moon took up about half of the sky. Cultivators on both sides of the conflict could look up and see all the various craters and depressions that covered its surface. A huge stone stele could be seen on the violet heavenly body, shining with shocking, dazzling light.

    A godly aura caused heaven and earth to distort. It blurred the world as clouds of mutagen rose up, within which could be seen innumerable violet worms that seemed to phase back and forth between illusory and corporeal.

    Down on the battlefield, King Heaventide and his subordinates were deeply shaken. Many gasped for breath, and many trembled physically.

    On the Nightshade side, the priests in the violet robes looked more pious than ever, and they raised their voices exuberantly. The other Nightshades also started to get excited, and one by one, they dropped to worship the violet moon. To them, the arrival of the violet moon indicated that their god hadn¡¯t abandoned them. They...still had a god!

    In contrast, King Heaventide was struck as if by countless bolts of lightning. He was a Smoldering God, so he knew how terrifying actual gods were. What was more, he knew that his own battle prowess didn¡¯t qualify him to even fight back against a real god.

    ¡°How could this be?? Don¡¯t tell me Crimson Mother woke up? No, that can¡¯t be. They weren¡¯t chanting about Crimson Mother. They mentioned Violet Lord! I¡¯ve never heard of this Violet Lord before. Could he be an embodiment of Crimson Mother? Or maybe some ancient god nobody has heard of before?¡±

    King Heaventide was particrly shaken considering that he could sense how true and real this violet moon was. The pressure it exuded, and the mist of violet threadworms, couldn¡¯t have been more real.

    This really was like the arrival of a god! The fluctuations and the feelings became a tempest in his heart, raging out of control. Without any hesitation, and without any regard for the lives of his subordinates, he found himself thinking of only one thing: run away! He had to run away before this Violet Lord arrived. That was his only chance to survive.

    Gritting his teeth, he shouted, ¡°Withdraw!¡±

    Turning, he shot off into the distance at top speed. He was a Smoldering God, and as one of the eighteen heavenly kings leading the fight against the Nightshades in this war, he had no desire to die.

    As he well knew, humankind was bringing the fight to the Nightshades from over a dozen directions. As the war was fought over two huge regions, each heavenly king was in charge of one line of offense. In other words, a defeat here wouldn¡¯t be a fatal blow. It would make things a bit more difficult in his attempt to earn the emperor¡¯s approval, and for Seventh Prince¡¯s ns to be the true leader of the Holytide region. Butpared to dying... those things seemed trivial.

    In the shortest of moments, King Heaventide vanished from beneath the violet moon. After he was gone, the subordinates he¡¯d left behind looked around with bitterness and despair before following him. Unfortunately, they were also aware that the chances of them escaping from a god were minuscule.

    The Nightshades didn¡¯t take advantage of the moment tounch a counter attack. After finishing with their chanting, they withdrew from the battlefield under the cover of the violet moon.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Eventually, the Nightshades were long gone. King Heaventide¡¯s forces were still in retreat, yet they seemed confused, as... they hadn¡¯t seen any god at all. In fact, the violet moon above was starting to ripple and fade into nothing. Apparently, it had done little more than release some mutagen. It had not been as deadly as its aura and pressure made it seem like it would be.

    Apparently it was... <i>as unreal as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water</i>. In fact, it wasn¡¯t long before the violet moon disappeared altogether, and everything went back to normal.

    King Heaventide¡¯s subordinates looked around in confusion. However, it didn¡¯t take long before people realized what had happened. They... had been tricked! There had never been a god on the way. It was simply an illusion.

    However, that realization shook them to the core. Then, rumbling filled the sky as King Heaventide returned. He was scowling deeply, and his eyes burned with rage. His baleful aura couldn¡¯t have been more intense as he raced along at top speed. He had fled on instinct, but after getting a certain distance away, he realized that something was off. After carefully checking behind him, he realized that the violet moon was gone. As of that moment, he realized that he... had fallen into a trap!

    Eyes bloodshot with fury, he red off into the distance. There, he saw the fleeing Nightshade army with their seventeen high priests. Were it not for his big mistake in judgment, that army would already have been wiped out. And the seventeen priests that had been his main target would be dead. At that point, he would have aplished his mission in the war.

    He would have heard the approval of the emperor, and Seventh Prince would have acquired the Holytide Region as his personal fiefdom. And in the end, he would have returned triumphant. But then this unexpected turn of events urred.

    Under the eyes of all present, he had fled in fear from the Nightshades. It was a humiliation. An outright humiliation. That thought caused his fury to burn. Some of it was because of the terror he had felt, and some of it was because of how much face he had lost.

    King Heaventide immediately issued new orders.

    ¡°Everyone, heed mymand. Chase down the Nightshade stragglers. Kill any Nightshade cultivators youe across. All of them! Leave none alive!¡±

    His subordinates did not respond with the same excited fervor as before. The sight of King Heaventide turning and running away left them with very mixed feelings. However, the orders came from a Smoldering God, so they had no choice but toply.

    That said, the deputy general in charge of the immortal skills couldn¡¯t help but fly up to King Heaventide. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Heavenly King, the immortal skills can¡¯t reach that far. We need more time. Chasing the enemy now will be risky....¡±

    King Heaventide¡¯s face was as cold as ice as he looked at the deputy general. ¡°Are you refusing to obey orders?¡±

    The deputy general bowed his head. ¡°Your humble servant would never.¡±

    ¡°Then get moving!¡± King Heaventide shouted in a voice as loud as heavenly thunder. The army immediately surged into motion to chase after the fleeing Nightshades.

    King Heaventide led the charge.

    However, things didn¡¯t go very well. The Nightshades were relying primarily on teleportations to make their escape, so pursuing them meant constantly tracking the lingering teleportation signals. And thus, after three days of pursuit, King Heaventide¡¯s forces found themselves deep inside the Nightspirit Region, surrounded by thick, dark fog.

    Clues they hade across on their journey seemed to indicate that the Nightshade army were preparing to make theirst stand, and that included the seventeen high priests.

    King Heaventide looked out into the fog for a time. Upon sensing the fluctuations of teleportations, his eyes shone with determination and he issued more orders.

    Before long, he and his army were racing through the fog. The fog seethed as it swallowed them up.

    Seven dayster, the fog in that part of the Nightspirit Region churned. Rumbling sounds rose into the dome of heaven. And then a deafening boom echoed out, apanied by a huge mushroom cloud.

    A group of bedraggled figures stumbled out of the fog, led by King Heaventide. He no longer looked as awe-inspiring as before. His eyes glittered defiantly, but his armor was smashed and hisplexion wan. He was clearly wounded, and was bleeding all over. His subordinates were all in the same condition, being severely injured and extremely weak. As for the size of his army... only one in ten had survived. Ny percent of his forces were noting back.

    Looking back at his subordinates, his heart burned with fury. Then he thought about what happened after they raced into that fog, and his fury rose to such a high level that blood sprayed out of his mouth.

    <i>First the Nightshades summoned an illusory god to startle me, making me lose face and lose the initiative. Then, allowing anger to surpass reason, I chased them past the range of the immortal skills to this spot. The immortal skills were what prevented the Nightshades from detonating weapons withrge areas of effect. As it turned out, they had domain treasure fragments here that they could detonate at will.</i>

    King Heaventide felt deep regret. Considering how badly he was injured, he was now worried about what else the Nightshades might have nned. Gritting his teeth, he focused on getting to safety.

    After reaching the border of the Holytide Region, he had his army set up camp. Then he stewed in his defiance, rage, and regret as he tried to decide how to exin all of this to the emperor.

    It was at that exact same moment that he was finally given a few jade slips that had been sent by Seventh Prince. The first one was a message exining that the High Commander had gone missing in Sea-Sealing County, and that Sea-Sealing County had refused to send further troops. The second one notified him that Sea-Sealing County had some Dawning Suns, and that Seventh Prince¡¯s garrison had been wiped out, resulting in severe casualties. Those two jade slips caused killing intent to erupt in King Heaventide. However, he now had a way to exin this disaster to the emperor.

    It was all Sea-Sealing County¡¯s fault. Because they didn¡¯t send reinforcements, he wasn¡¯t able to fully deploy the immortal skills in time to foray into the Nightspirit Region. That left his army somewhat stranded, and thus led to the big defeat.

 Chapter 735: Kicking an Iron Block

    ¡°Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    King Heaventide put down the jade slip, closed his eyes, and started mentally calcting the probability of seeding at what he was now nning. Sometimeter, he opened his eyes, and they shone with cold light as he looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County.

    He needed a justification. Something to sweep his own failures under the rug. A way to exin things to the emperor. The justification didn¡¯t need to be perfect. After all, the emperor was the type of person who would be able to poke holes even into a perfect exnation. That wasn¡¯t important. As one of the heavenly kings, much of his exnation woulde in the form of his attitude. He needed to do something that made his attitude toward the emperor very clear.

    Furthermore, what the emperor cared most about was winning the war. If he could recover from his losses and quell the chaos, then his ¡®problem¡¯ wouldn¡¯t be a problem anymore. Most importantly...

    <em>Sea-Sealing County has Dawning Suns! They¡¯re not quite as impressive as the real Dawning Suns, although that¡¯s only what we know on the surface. They could have more assets that we don¡¯t know about.</em>

    King Heaventide looked down at the jade slip, and his eyes grew colder.

    <em>Sea-Sealing County wasx in sending reinforcements, which is one of the main reasons I was defeated. And though I don¡¯t know how they made their Dawning Suns, that¡¯s an even greater crime. I have to go to Sea-Sealing County, confiscate their illicit Dawning Suns, thene back here and break the stalemate with the Nightshades. That¡¯s my only option.</em>

    Havinge to the conclusion that this was definitely the best course of action, King Heaventide immediately issued orders, and his army started the return trip to the Holytide Region, and within it, Sea-Sealing County.

    It was a given that King Heaventide had already considered the possibility that Sea-Sealing County would detonate a Dawning Sun to kill him and end things in mutual destruction. That didn¡¯t seem likely to him, as long as he didn¡¯t push them too far and make them think they were going to be wiped out. He needed to put some pressure on them, offer to exempt them from punishment over the Dawning Suns issue, and recognize their autonomy.If he did that, Sea-Sealing County would bend the knee. That was, unless they were nning to rebel against humankind. If that was the case, it wouldn¡¯t have anything to do with him.

    <em>Just putting the right amount of pressure on them should do the trick.</em>

    Wrapped up in such thoughts, King Heaventide led his army toward Sea-Sealing County.

    From a distance, it was an army millions strong, capable of destroying anything in their path. War banners snapped in the wind as they made their way along, organized into over a dozen legions. Each legion was different. Some were mounted on enormous birds. Some sat cross-legged atop mutant beasts. Some soared along in clouds and fog.... In the back was a legion of nonhumans, including giants fully 300 meters tall, d in armor from head to toe, their every step shaking thends.

    Up front was a 30,000-meter ck dragon that snaked through the clouds, pulsing with stupefying power. Seated cross-legged on the dragon¡¯s head was King Heaventide, his eyes closed, his expression cold and somber.

    Wherever the army passed, heaven and earth trembled. It crossed right through Grand Duke Holytide¡¯s territory, then reached the ruins of the imperial capital in the oldnds of the Kingdom of Heavengale. From his position atop the ck dragon, King Heaventide surveyed the area thoughtfully. Then he closed his eyes, and the army moved on.

    Eventually it reached the border of Sea-Sealing County, specifically, the three prefectures that Seventh Prince had originally taken, but been maneuvered into returning. The living beings in those three prefectures trembled in fear. That included mortals and cultivators alike. The grim army swept through with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, kicking up wind and dust, and trampling the terrain.[1]

    The three prefectures¡¯ spell formations were crushed in an instant, and any species, organizations, or sects who found themselves in the way of the army were smashed. The Swordsage Divisions in those prefectures were no exception.

    Tyrannical. Mighty. Invincible.

    Words such as that described the advance of the army as they got closer and closer to the county capital of Sea-Sealing County. Almost overnight, Sea-Sealing County was thrown into a very unstable and dangerous situation.

    Of course, Sea-Sealing County had long since received news of King Heaventide¡¯s impending arrival. And no one was really surprised by what was happening. From the moment the High Commander¡¯s army was captured, everyone in the county knew that this day woulde. Therefore, war preparations hadn¡¯t ceased.

    Once the news came in about King Heaventide arriving, Sea-Sealing County¡¯s taboo treasure was activated. The magical treasures from all the subsidiary sects were also turned on, causing a huge to cover everything for 50 kilometers around the county capital. Cultivators from all three pces put on their armor and made preparations to fight back. Spell formations were set up that glowed with the light of divine abilities. Magical devices designed for warfare were activated, and could be used at any moment. War puppets were activated.

    Master Seventh¡¯s dreadnaught glided in the air amongst a host of flying ships from a variety of sects. What was more, a huge pce floated in the sky, within which were Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, the three pce lords, and Void Returning experts from different sects. Xu Qing and the Captain were also there. They were all looking toward the horizon.

    In contrast, the various organizations in the Holytide Region were looking in their direction. In the past, everyone would have assumed that Sea-Sealing County was about to be erased from existence. But then Sea-Sealing County went and used a Dawning Sun, and that shook everyone to the core.

    Everyone wanted to see what happened when King Heaventide showed up, and what course of action Sea-Sealing County would take to weather the storm.

    Grand Duke Holytide was the one who was taking the most open interest in the proceedings. He himself wouldn¡¯t ever provoke King Heaventide, but he was actually very interested in Sea-Sealing County¡¯s Dawning Suns. He actually didn¡¯t care who came out on top of this sh. He was more interested in taking advantage of the situation to see who the superior force really was.

    <em>Sadly, Sea-Sealing County just isn¡¯t strong enough. If they were a bit more daring, maybe they would detonate all of their Dawning Suns. That would be interesting.</em>

    Grand Duke Holytide smiled faintly. None of this had anything to do with him as far as he was concerned. Nor did he think it would affect him going forward. Unless... Sea-Sealing County got truly daring. However, that would beplete madness, and seemed incredibly unlikely. So in the end, he just sighed and waited.

    Of all the people watching to see how things would y out, there was one person who was more excited than anyone else, and that was Seventh Prince. He knew that Sea-Sealing County shouldn¡¯t be underestimated. However, he had faith in his uncle, who was, after all... a Smoldering God. He was very much looking forward to seeing how it all turned out.

    <em>What will you choose to do this time, Xu Qing?</em>

    And thus, everyone in the Holytide Region looked on with various attitudes as King Heaventide¡¯s army arrived outside the county capital. Their arrival caused Sea-Sealing County¡¯s sky to dim and itsnds to tremble violently. The seemingly innumerable soldiers exuded a pressure that shook the hearts of all the cultivators observing the situation.

    Most shocking of all was the cross-legged figure seated atop the head of the ck dragon. On the Sea-Sealing County side, everyone was silent. No one spoke. Everyone focused on the imposing, middle-aged man atop the dragon. As all gazes focused on King Heaventide, he opened his eyes. They were like two furnaces that caused everything in the area to shake.

    A cry of rm echoed out from the sky as Qingqin backed up rapidly, not daring to be subjected to that gaze.

    A majestic major world appeared over the county capital, bing its sky, blocking out all light and casting the city into shadow. But then fire started to burn within that major world, and it was apanied by never-ending screams as if from devils and monsters. All living beings who heard it were shaken.

    Instantly, Sea-Sealing County was illuminated by the fire from King Heaventide¡¯s major world.

    The city¡¯s taboo treasure emitted piercing sounds as it started to crumble, then struggled to rebuild itself. The cultivators in the city were in a simr situation. Every single one could feel the terrifying power of a Smoldering God, and stimted their energy to resist.

    Unfortunately, that did no good in the face of a Smoldering God. If King Heaventide wanted to, he could exercise a single thought to wipe out everything in front of him. That said, it was obvious he hadn¡¯te for purposes of destruction and extermination. Nor did he want to push Sea-Sealing County into unleashing their Dawning Suns, and end things in mutual destruction.

    Though he was emitting immense pressure, he wasn¡¯t actually using it to crush Sea-Sealing County. It was only a warning.

    Behind King Heaventide, a general in a suit of ck armor emerged from the army. His mount was a flood dragon, and he had a fourth-stage Void Returning cultivation base, which caused an illusory world to appear overhead.

    He flew out until he was between the two armies. There, he looked up at the forces of Sea-Sealing County, aplicated expression on his face.

    Sounding very calm, he said, ¡°Governor Yao Tianyan of Sea-Sealing County. Lieutenant Governor Zheng Kaiyi. You are hereby ordered to ept the punishment of a heavenly king. You havemitted five crimes.

    ¡°The first is that of disrespecting the imperial n.

    ¡°The second is failure toply with conscription orders.

    ¡°The third is your suspected involvement in ambushing the conscription army of the highmander.

    ¡°The fourth is ordering your troops to <em>flee on the eve of battle</em>.

    ¡°The fifth is, by means of the above actions, dying the war and affecting the war effort in a major way, and thus aiding and abetting our enemies!¡±

    With that, the general looked up at the figures in the floating pce. ¡°Do you admit to your crimes?¡±

    Behind him, the cultivators in King Heaventide¡¯s army shouted, ¡°Admit your guilt!¡±

    Their voices crashed like thunder, shaking everything, and even stirring the garments of the Sea-Sealing County forces.

    Everyone was shaken. However, nobody said a word. Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he stared at the army.

    The silence caused King Heaventide¡¯s eyes to turn even more cold and grim. It was the same with the gaze of the general.

    ¡°Because the heavenly king recognizes you as humans,¡± the general continued, ¡°and does not wish humans to kill each other, he is issuing four orders that you mustply with. If you do, you can turn your crimes into deeds of merit.

    ¡°One. Transfer all deserters into our custody forter trial and judgment.

    ¡°Two. Immediately release the highmander¡¯s army.

    ¡°Three. Yao Tianyan and Zheng Kaiyi will join the army forthwith, conscript 1,000,000 troops, and go to the front lines.

    ¡°Four. Deliver all of your Dawning Suns to us.¡±

    With that, the general backed up into his original position in the army. Meanwhile, the forces of Sea-Sealing County remained as silent as before. Seeing that, King Heaventide rose to his feet on the head of the ck dragon. Looking down at the county capital, he spoke in a voice that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°If we win the war with the Nightshades, I will personally exempt Sea-Sealing County from all punishment. Furthermore, Sea-Sealing County can remain autonomous as part of the Sea-Sealing County fiefdom. But if you refuse to cooperate....¡±

    King Heaventide¡¯s eyes turned colder, and his Smoldering God cultivation base caused the sky to shake. With a single thought, he could devastate the county capital and put all the people there in a terrible situation.

    In the floating pce, Master Seventh turned to Xu Qing. Marquis Yao did the same. Everyone did. The Captain, of course, looked more proud of himself than ever.

    King Heaventide noticed that and he frowned slightly. He had sensed earlier that something unusual was going on in Sea-Sealing County, and that feeling was now stronger than ever. He let loose a cold harrumph.

    ¡°Apparently you have additional assets you feel confident in relying on. Fine. Bring them out. I¡¯m curious to see what they are.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he looked, not at the imposing King Heaventide, but rather, at the sky. sping hands, he bowed.

    ¡°He¡¯s calling you out, Grandpa Ninth.¡±

    1. The incident of maneuvering Seventh Prince into returning the provinces was in chapter 548.2. ?

 Chapter 736: Three Swords Execute Heaventide

    King Heaventide calmly sent some divine will into the dome of heaven. He was curious to see what assets Sea-Sealing County had to rely on other than their Dawning Suns.

    Regardless of what those assets were, they didn¡¯t rte to him. He was a heavenly king, not because of his n standing, but because of his Smoldering God cultivation base. Although he wasn¡¯t the strongest of the thirty-three heavenly kings of humankind, his identity, position, and battle prowess left him feeling confident that he could deal with whatever circumstances might arise.

    That was especially the case considering he was in this backwater Holytide Region. As he knew, before Grand Duke Holytide became a Smoldering God, it had been countless years since any Smoldering Gods had existed in the Holytide Region. To the people here, Smoldering Gods... were almost no different from real gods. Both were as mighty as heaven, and simply couldn¡¯t be defied or shaken.

    He also knew that humans were thest species to conquer all of Revered Ancient. Although they had experienced a lot of setbacks, they could still be considered one of the top species. And whenpared to the Nightshades, they had more Smoldering Gods.

    In the past, if humankind had wanted to forcibly retake the Holytide Region from the Nightshades, it would have been simple. The enves they had in other areas would also enable them to retake other regions if they wanted. That said, such actions would be very costly, and the overall political situation made it challenging. There were a lot of nonhuman species that put pressure on humans.

    The seven counties they controlled in other regions were embroiled inplicated circumstances. What was more, all of the regions involved were controlled by major species with domain treasures.

    In the past, humankind didn¡¯t have a domain treasure, and thus, had to be patient. It was only by having a domain treasure that a species could truly have the power to protect itself.

    That was why humans had so many problems with the nonhumans back when Sea-Sealing County first went to war. However, after the first Dawning Sun was unleashed, the other species trembled and backed down.

    Of course, just having a domain treasure wasn¡¯t enough on its own. What surpassed a domain treasure in terms of importance was a god. Gods were what truly decided if a species was strong or not. When a god became involved, Smoldering Gods and domain treasures didn¡¯t count for much. That was why, though the Nightshades actually weren¡¯t as strong as humankind, they were still able to make humans tremble in fear. Gods could overturn anything and everything.The ultimate reason for the Nightshades¡¯ defeat was that their god, Crimson Mother, was put to sleep thanks to aplicated plot hatched by the human emperor. <em>As one force declines, another will flourish</em>. And thus, it was no surprise that humans started getting stronger.

    Of course, there were many other factors at y that foolish people couldn¡¯t see. Such people had simple ways of thinking, and would often ask ridiculous questions such as: if humans were so strong, why didn¡¯t they take back the Holytides sooner? Only intelligent people with good observation skills and all the right information would be able to see the truth.

    <em>So, what is this asset that Sea-Sealing County is relying on?</em>

    King Heaventide hadn¡¯t actually looked up into the sky, but rather, was scanning it with divine will. He looked as calm as ever.

    However, just as he was about to scan even more deeply, a cold snort echoed out, piercing into his divine will in domineering fashion. It turned into something like heavenly thunder crashing into King Heaventide¡¯s mind.

    His expression turned serious as he looked up into the canopy of heaven. There, above his major world, the sky emitted a massive cracking sound as a huge rift appeared on its surface. It obviously hadn¡¯t appeared naturally. It was perfectly straight, almost as if it had been cut out by a de. In terms of the size, it was roughly 30,000 meters long.

    Looking from below, that rift was extremely prominent. But even more shocking was the heaven-shaking, earth-shattering stream of sword energy that emerged from within it and spread out in all directions.

    Clouds copsed. Thend shook. Living beings trembled. Everything else seemed to disappear, turning dark and blurry. The only thing visible was that stream of sword energy emerging from the rift.

    It was as if a heavenly sword had shed into King Heaventide¡¯s major world above the county capital.

    Instantly, the major world trembled violently, emitting deafening rumbling sounds that resembled 10,000,000 thunderps all happening at the same time. The outer walls of the world crumbled, turning into an infinitude of debris that rained down into the terrain of the world like falling meteors.

    The world shook, and yet, the sword energy didn¡¯t stop. After shing through the outer walls, it pierced through its sky and then hewed into itsnds. The mark left by the sword caved in on either side. Mountains copsed, rivers evaporated, and living beings howled in anguish as they turned into the color of blood.

    However, this sword energy was truly mighty and terrifying. It continued on, its effects spreading until... the entire major world was cut clean in half by the sword! The world had been destroyed! From a distance, it was possible to see two halves of a major world, slowly separating in the sky above the county capital.

    It was a shocking and ghastly scene. The two blood-red halves of a major world were filled with howls of anguish and falling debris. Then the two halves became transparent and started falling down. As they fell, they copsed. The ground shook as King Heaventide¡¯s major world became a hail of rubble that fell down into Sea-Sealing County. All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it all happened in an instant.

    As the major world copsed, everyone in Sea-Sealing County was stunned. Also stunned were King Heaventide¡¯s subordinates. Everyone in the army was shaking as badly as if they were witnessing the end of days. Their minds wereplete nks. What they had just witnessed was so terrifying and so sudden that they couldn¡¯t possibly have been prepared mentally. What was more, even if they had been prepared mentally, it still wouldn¡¯t have been possible to watch the major world of a Smoldering God be destroyed with one sword move and react with anything but disbelief.

    More shocked than anyone else was King Heaventide. His heart was battered by waves of astonishment, and he also felt a sensation of unprecedented danger. He stepped off the ck dragon, which howled in anguish as it was unable to sustain the mighting off him.

    As the dragon fell to the ground, King Heaventide grewrger. He went from being the size of an ordinary person to being 300 meters tall. Then 3,000. Then 30,000, making him like a giant that could prop up heaven and earth. Compared to him, the county capital of Sea-Sealing County looked like a child¡¯s bouncy ball. However, King Heaventide wasn¡¯t calm because of his extraordinary size. Instead, his expression was very serious.

    ¡°Who are you, Fellow Daoist? Are you really trying to start a war with humankind?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, King Heaventide reached toward the rift in the canopy of heaven and made a grasping gesture.

    Boundless pressure erupted from him. Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies swirled around him. Countless natural and magicalws appeared. It was as if he was heaven. It was as if he was the dao.

    The response he got was a cold snort.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to see me?¡±

    A second sword fell! Scintiting sword light formed a dazzling sea that rushed toward King Heaventide. King Heaventide¡¯s heart raced as natural and magicalws converged on his palm and then surged forward. However, the sea of light disregarded everything in its path, passing through King Heaventide¡¯s palm attack and entering into his body. A tremor passed through him, and his eyes suddenly lit up with disbelief.

    ¡°Second stage¡ª?¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, a sword emerged from his mouth. Then a sword emerged from his legs and his hands. Then his legs, his torso, his neck, and his head. Countless swords stabbed out from inside of him. After innumerable swords were stabbing out of him everywhere, he exploded.

    It was the same thing that happened to his major world. He couldn¡¯t even stand up to one sword move. His fleshly body had been destroyed.

    Heaven and earth shook. All living beings were astonished.

    As the blood and flesh fell down, King Heaventide¡¯s god soul flew out. A god soul was different from an ordinary soul. It looked just like the fleshly body, although, if you studied it closely, you would see that it was actually made up of magical and naturalws. [1]

    Terror appeared in King Heaventide¡¯s eyes. He had never encountered a sword that sharp, and had also never met a second-stage Smoldering God who was this terrifying. Without any hesitation, he fled in god soul form. He wanted to get far, far away. He had sensed the impending arrival of death, and he didn¡¯t want to die.

    However, before his god soul could back up more than 30,000 meters, a wall of sword energy rose up to block his path, rising high into the sky.

    King Heaventide¡¯s expression flickered, and he turned to flee in a different direction. A second wall of sword energy appeared to stop him. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. In the shortest of moments, King Heaventide had nowhere to run to. He waspletely surrounded by walls of sword energy.

    From high above, it was possible to see five walls of sword energy formed into a pentagonal shape. In the middle of it was King Heaventide in god soul form, trembling in despair and disbelief.

    He just couldn¡¯t believe that he, a Smoldering God and a heavenly king... was actually about to die.

    ¡°Who are you??¡± he screamed shrilly.

    The only response he got was a single word. ¡°Execute!¡±

    The five walls of sword energy shrank toward King Heaventide¡¯s god soul. In the blink of an eye they converged, and he was shed through by the sword energy. His god soul had been destroyed!

    Heaven and earth dimmed, and rumbling echoed out like the roar of heavenly daos. There were no clouds overhead, yet a blood rain began to fall. The effect spread rapidly until it was roughly the size of half a prefecture. That area was filled with a rain of blood, which made it seem like the dome of heaven was weeping. The blood rain nourished thends it fell on, ensuring that they would be very different going forward.

    This was the spot where a Smoldering God had perished, and the fragments of that Smoldering God¡¯s major world had be spirit energy. As a result, that half-prefecture sizednd now abounded in spirit energy.

    There were also mountains rising up in that area. They were made from the flesh of King Heaventide. They were bing spirit mountains! King Heaventide¡¯s shredded god soul turned into the spirit foundation for a century of children born in that area. Their spirit foundation would be different from other people. All of them would conform to the dao of King Heaventide.

    That was what happened when a Smoldering God died, simr to what happened in Sea-Sealing County when the Ghost Emperor passed away into meditation. The effects weren¡¯t as pronounced as with the Ghost Emperor, but they would still provide nourishment to countless living beings.

    1. The trantion ¡®god soul¡¯ is a very literal trantion. It¡¯s not rted to ¡®nascent souls.¡¯ If you want to really get into the weeds, the ¡®ordinary soul¡¯ is the mostmon word for soul in Chinese. Itbines the character I normally render as ¡®spirit¡¯ with the character for ¡®hun soul¡¯ or the ¡®spiritual soul.¡¯ In contrast, the ¡®god soul¡¯ reces the ¡®spirit¡¯ character with ¡®god.¡¯ To make things really confusing, ¡®god soul¡¯ is sometimes used by the author synonymously with the ¡®ordinary soul.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 737: A Leader in Holytide!

    <h4>Chapter 737: A Leader in Holytide!</h4>

    A rain of blood fell amidstplete silence.

    King Heaventide¡¯s army of subordinates were shaken to the core, and stood there in shock, almost as if they were frozen. Something momentous had urred! They couldn¡¯t believe what they had just seen. It seemedpletely impossible that a heavenly king had perished in such a simplistic fashion. Based on their understanding, the Holytide Region didn¡¯t have anyone strong enough to be a threat to King Heaventide. As a result, it really should have been impossible for the heavenly king to die. Yet it happened right in front of them!

    It was easy to predict that King Heaventide perishing would cause a hugemotion in the Holytide Region. It would definitely shake the Imperial Region, and would almost certainly result in a violent tempest in the imperial capital. The rage of the emperor and the fury of King Heaventide¡¯s n would shake everything near and far. It really surpassed imagination.

    The army forces were deeply bbergasted. Also shocked were all of the other groups from the Holytide Region who had been watching things y out.

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡±

    ¡°K-King... King Heaventide was actually executed!¡±

    ¡°Three sword moves! All it took was three sword moves....¡±

    ¡°A Smoldering God! Sea-Sealing County also has a Smoldering God! And it¡¯s an almighty expert even among Smoldering Gods!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that Sea-Sealing County has such impressive backing!¡±

    All species in Sea-Sealing County who were capable of observing the fight were stunned to witness King Heaventide die right in front of them. It overwhelmed them and left them trembling in fear.

    King Heaventide had given his life to ensure that all the other forces knew that Sea-Sealing County didn¡¯t just have Dawning Suns. They also had... a Smoldering God!

    ***

    Blood sprayed out of Seventh Prince¡¯s mouth. He trembled, and his eyes went ck. All of a sudden, he felt even more uneasy than he had when that Dawning Sun detonated. The way Sea-Sealing County established their strength sent him a clear message. And that was... his schemes, his strategies, and his calm attitude were all useless in the face of someone with enough power.

    He¡¯d experienced a simr sensation when the Dawning Sun exploded. But even then, he¡¯d still felt confident in himself. After all, his uncle would eventuallye and crush all obstacles. He could never have guessed that things would actually turn out this way. How could he ept that a heavenly king had perished? How could he face this oue?

    Terror and bewilderment filled him like a storm, threatening to send him into an abyss of hopelessness. But he was Seventh Prince, after all. Even in the depths of despair, he would still struggle as hard as necessary to get a chance to fight back.

    <i>Sea-Sealing County. Xu Qing.... Maybe you do have a Smoldering God on your side that can ughter heavenly kings. But that doesn¡¯t have anything to do with me. This rtes to humankind as a whole. My father won''t just let this slide. Whether for the dignity of humankind or his personal face, this... is going to cause a major upheaval!</i>

    Seventh Prince red in the direction of the county capital. Ultimately, he suppressed his reluctance, defiance, and heartache. Taking out an ancient jade slip, he crushed it. That jade slip was not a product of modern times. It was a treasure from the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and it was a life-saving asset of Seventh Prince¡¯s. Its function was to teleport the user to the Imperial Region, regardless of where they were.

    Items like that were extremely valuable and also extremely rare. They were disposable, so when one was used, there was one less in the world. Even back in the time period in which they were created, they were considered extraordinary precious treasures. Normally speaking, not even Seventh Prince would qualify to have an item like that. But given the battle credit earned by his mother¡¯s n, he had been able to take one from the imperial treasury.

    ¡°Things aren¡¯t over between us, Sea-Sealing County. I¡¯ll be waiting in the imperial capital... waiting for you to be reduced to ashes!¡±

    An ancient light swept out from the broken jade slip, which surrounded Seventh Prince. He disappeared. He was the only one to leave, as the jade slip could only teleport one person. All of his followers were left behind in the Holytide Region.

    ***

    As everyone trembled in response to Ninth Sib¡¯s actions, the subordinates of King Heaventide were swept up in a maelstrom of terror and unease.

    Down on the ground, King Heaventide¡¯s ck dragon moaned in anguish. With some struggle, it got to its feet and kowtowed to the sky. In response, a cold snort shattered the air. Ninth Sib emerged from the rift in heaven and hovered over thends below. The ck dragon ducked its head and remained in ce unmoving. The humans in the army trembled.

    Face expressionless, Ninth Sib looked at the army, then turned his attention to Xu Qing. His gaze caused anyone he looked at to bow with respect and fervor. Marquis Yao was no exception.

    There were only two people who caused Ninth Sib¡¯s gaze to pause momentarily.

    The first was Master Seventh. Ninth Sib looked at him closely for a long moment, then nodded slightly. It was deliberate but so faint that, other than him and Master Seventh, no one noticed.

    The second person was Xu Qing.

    ¡°You should be able to gain enlightenment of those three sword moves,¡± Ninth Sib said.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. His heart was currently pounding. Although he had seen Ninth Sib in action before, the highmander had been too weak. As a result, Ninth Sib didn¡¯t need to unleash his true battle prowess. In contrast, Crimson Mother had been too strong, making it fundamentally impossible to tell how mighty Ninth Sib really was. But it only took three sword moves for him to execute King Heaventide! All of a sudden, Xu Qing realized why the godchild had sealed Ninth Sib with more force than all of the other siblings. Ninth Sib was just too strong!

    After the fight with Crimson Mother was over, and Li Zihua departed, Ninth Sib had obviously benefited as much as Xu Qing had. That said, Xu Qing knew that it wasn¡¯t time to sit around pondering the situation. The most important thing right now was what to do with the huge army.

    Thankfully, he had already discussed the matter with his Master and Marquis Yao. Thus, Xu Qing turned and stepped back to make way for someone.

    It was Ningyan.

    He was dressed in the robe of an imperial prince, with an imperial crown on his head. He pulsed with the bloodline fluctuations of the imperial n, and had an incredibly grave expression on his face. Seeing that Xu Qing had stepped aside, he strode forward proudly until he was hovering in midair above the army.

    ¡°I am Guyue Ningyan, the reigning emperor¡¯s twelfth son!¡±

    When the cultivators in the army sensed Ningyan¡¯s bloodline fluctuations, and then heard his words, they were visibly moved. That was especially the case considering that Ningyan was hovering right in front of the statue of an Ancient Emperor. To them, it was almost as if Ningyan and the statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity were one and the same.

    ¡°My brother, Seventh Prince, used imperial troops to benefit himself. He disregarded the needs of humankind and caused chaos in the Holytide Region. Therefore, I had no choice but to detonate one of my Dawning Suns to stop him.

    ¡°King Heaventide, despite being a heavenly king, was incredibly selfish. After suffering a huge defeat in battle, he tried to frame Sea-Sealing County to cover his mistakes and bully those weaker than him. Heaven and earth cannot tolerate such behavior. Thus, at my behest, he was executed! The causes and effects of karma all point back to me personally!¡±

    This wasn¡¯t exactly what Xu Qing had asked Ningyan to say. But Ningyan had taken inspiration from his instructions and had gone a bit further, as he believed that there were some things that he needed to take personal responsibility for.

    Surprised, Xu Qing looked at Ningyan. Marquis Yao and Master Seventh did the same, their expressions both thoughtful and approving.

    As for the huge army, they were even more shaken than before.

    Taking a deep breath, Ningyan moved forward until he was right in front of the army. He was one person facing 10,000,000.

    ¡°Henceforth, you do not belong to Seventh Prince. Nor do you follow the orders of a heavenly king. You are warriors of humanity! You are your own masters!

    ¡°And your swords and sabers shouldn¡¯t be pointed at fellow humans. They should be pointed toward the enemy! Our war with the Nightshades isn¡¯t over. If you¡¯re willing... then follow me and fight for humankind! Let us wage war on the Nightshades!¡±

    Ningyan¡¯s speech ended in a loud battle cry.

    As the sound echoed out, the army stood there quietly for about ten breaths of time. But then someone sped hands and bowed. Then another and another, until finally, every cultivator in the army of 10,000,000... bowed and joined their voices in a mighty shout.

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

    Just as with the 10,000 troops led by the highmander, as long as there was a human government in existence, then status was very important. For example, if Ningyan had tried to motivate Sea-Sealing County, it wouldn¡¯t have worked, as he wasn¡¯t the governor. As for Xu Qing, though his words werew in Sea-Sealing County, he couldn¡¯t do so much as get the army to offer greetings to him. Only an imperial prince had the status to deal with the imperial army.

    As King Heaventide¡¯s subordinates saluted Ningyan, the clouds seethed as a figure rushed through the sky at top speed. In the blink of an eye, that figure appeared in the sky over Sea-Sealing County.

    It was none other than Grand Duke Holytide! Face pale, he appeared in front of Ninth Sib, toward whom he bowed formally.

    ¡°I am your humble servant An Mn. Greetings, Prince Ninth of Moonrite!¡± [1]

    Grand Duke Holytide was acting very respectfully. In fact, his eyes showed a hint of fear. Given his words, it was very obvious... that he knew exactly who Ninth Sib was. And considering he knew that, it went without saying that he knew what had yed out recently in the Moonrite Region.

    In fact, it was likely that powerful experts throughout the Revered Ancient maind had sensed what happened. After all, the red moon had vanished from Revered Ancient.

    From the way Grand Duke Holytide nced at Xu Qing, it was obvious that he had only juste to realize what happened. Deeply moved, he bowed to Ninth Sib, then took a deep breath and continued, ¡°Holytide forces will follow the lead of Twelfth Prince. We will send out troops against the Nightshades. We will follow Twelfth Prince as his subordinates!¡±

    Though his words were directed to Ningyan, he was looking at Xu Qing the entire time. Based on his experience and intuition, he... could see why Sea-Sealing County had publicly revealed their ties to Twelfth Prince.

    <i>A session struggle is about to begin!</i>

    1. An Mn: An does not make it onto the list of 100 mostmon surnames. It means ¡°peace.¡± Mu means ¡°wood.¡± Lan means ¡°swelling water, billow, tide,¡± and is the same ¡®tide¡¯ character from Holytide. Incidentally, this Mn is not the same as the famous Chinese heroine from legend, Hua Mn. ?

 Chapter 738: Xu Qing Is Your Younger Brother, Right?

    <h4>Chapter 738: Xu Qing Is Your Younger Brother, Right?</h4>

    In any other situation, Grand Duke Holytide wouldn¡¯t ever have participated in any sort of session struggle. In any time period and among any species, session struggles were always a huge gamble. If you won, you would bask in endless glory. But if you lost, you ended up damned by myriad tribtions.

    To Grand Duke Holytide, remaining unfettered and free in the Holytide Region was obviously the best decision. But he didn¡¯t have that luxury right now. At this point, Sea-Sealing County basically represented the Holytide Region. It wasn¡¯t an option for the grand duke to stand independent. What was more... the Holytide Region was right next to the Moonrite Region.... He really had no choice. He was inextricably tied to Sea-Sealing County. And that was where King Heaventide had died.

    <i>That¡¯s how Sea-Sealing County rises above the rest.... In any other location, the death of a heavenly king would be a big deal. But after what happened in Moonrite, everyone is shaken. Even the emperor won¡¯t casually make a move. And if you add in a session struggle, then as long as the emperor and the imperial capital get a good exnation as to why the heavenly king died, then it won¡¯t mean much.</i>

    <i>The fight between Sea-Sealing County and King Heaventide is actually a fight between Twelfth Prince and Seventh Prince.... To the nobility, this is a family matter rting to the imperial n. Sea-Sealing County has someone really important now!</i>

    And thus, Grand Duke Holytide chose to acknowledge allegiance. With him added into the mix, all of the Holytide Region was now united!

    As of now, Sea-Sealing County was the core of the Holytide Region. No organization or species in the region had the ability to resist, or even the will to do so. When dealing with absolute power, one had no other option than to acknowledge allegiance.

    It went without saying that, now that Sea-Sealing County had an army of 10,000,000, plus the forces of Grand Duke Holytide, it was at the ultimate peak in the region.

    When it came to Xu Qing, it was as the saying went: <i>when the tide rises, the boat floats</i>. He now stood at the ultimate peak of the Holytide Region.

    Thus it was that a dharmic decree spread from Sea-Sealing County out into the region as a whole.

    <i>¡°All species and all sects will heed the call to fight against the Nightshades!¡±</i>

    Not one sect or species in the region dared to ignore the orders. In the past, Grand Duke Holytide probably would have scorned such a dharmic decree. But after what happened in the Moonrite Region, and after finding out that High God Crimson Mother was dead, things were different. Xu Qing had yed a role in that event. Because of that, the grand duke didn¡¯t have an ounce of scorn in him.

    In fact, it went beyond that. As far as Grand Duke Holytide was concerned, there was something very mysterious about Xu Qing. He simply couldn¡¯t imagine how a Spirit Trove cultivator could reach the point of being revered by so many people.

    <i>There¡¯s definitely something miraculous going on. This Xu Qing... is no ordinary individual!</i>

    Eighty percent of King Heaventide¡¯s army was mobilized.

    Time passed. The unified Holytide Region sent cultivators from numerous sects and species to the front lines. Master Seventh and Marquis Yao nned everything. Once again, the mes of war burned bright....

    Word spread of what happened in Moonrite. There were two reasons why rumors began to spread so fast. One was that people finally discovered that the red moon was gone. The other... was that a message had been sent out of the Moonrite Region via jade slip.

    The message was written by the Heir Apparent, and it was a notice to all of the Revered Ancient maind. Humans and nonhumans alike all received a copy. It exined that Crimson Mother was dead and that Moonrite¡¯s Imperial Sovereign had been awakened.

    It caused an instant stir in Revered Ancient. There were even hidden gods who, after finding out what happened, were worked up into a frenzy. It was easy to confirm the truth of the news. After all, everyone had noticed earlier when the broken face¡¯s eyes opened, and everything changed in the Moonrite Region.

    ***

    As expected, one of those jade slips was sent to the humans¡¯ Imperial Region.

    Inside the imperial pce, in a building that rose tall into clouds and wind, the emperor stood looking off into the distance.

    Behind him was a table with two jade slips on it. One of them was from the Heir Apparent in the Moonrite Region. The other was from Seventh Prince. He looked neither pleased nor angry, and his gaze was focused on the swirling sea of clouds outside.

    If you looked closely, you would realize that he was looking at something absolutely gargantuan, though it was hidden beneath a thick cloud cover. It was almost like... an iparably massive. As the clouds rolled over it, it resembled a majestic painting.

    After some time passed, a calm voice spoke from behind the emperor.

    ¡°Your Majesty, I finished looking through both jade slips.¡±

    The emperor didn¡¯t look over his shoulder. ¡°What do you think?¡±

    At some point, a person had appeared on the other side of the desk. His face was as fair as jade, and he had long violet hair that flowed down his back like a cloak. He wore a white robe as he sat there, his expression tranquil. He was the imperial preceptor.

    ¡°I noticed on that very day that someone had borrowed some of my time power,¡± the imperial preceptor said. He lifted his cup of tea, took a sip, then softly continued, ¡°Isn¡¯t that what you wanted to see, Your Majesty?¡±

    The imperial preceptor looked at the emperor and smiled faintly.

    For a long moment, the emperor didn¡¯t respond. Then he said, ¡°How confident are you in seeding?¡±

    The imperial preceptor smiled. ¡°One hundred percent. All you need to do is nod, Your Majesty, and the transaction can bepleted.¡±

    The emperor looked deeply thoughtful as he continued to stare out at the clouds. The room waspletely silent for a long time. Then the emperor walked out, leaving behind only some coldly spoken words that could onlye from the mouth of a superior.

    ¡°That Xu Qing is your younger brother, right?¡±

    The imperial preceptor¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change at all. He finished his tea, put the cup down, and smiled as he disappeared into thin air.

    The wind blew, causing the sea of clouds to slowly sweep over the pce.

    ***

    In the Holytide Region, cultivators from all sects and species waged war with the Nightshades. This time, Seventh Prince and King Heaventide had nothing to do with the fighting. This time, it was Xu Qing who issued the orders, and Twelfth Prince who led the troops. It was time to finish things with the Nightshades.

    The humans had a lot more cultivators this time, thanks to Grand Duke Holytide joining the war effort. Master Seventh and Marquis Yao split the armed forces into three legions that invaded the Nightspirit Region.

    Though King Heaventide had been defeated, his reserve powers were still in ce. The immortal skills could still be used, and considering how muchnd King Heaventide had already taken, the Nightshades were already under a lot of pressure. Besides, the Nightshades had to fight on many fronts, which meant they couldn¡¯t expect reinforcements on any particr front line. All they could do was hold their own as best they could.

    The reality was that if the Nightshades really wanted to fight back in the Nightspirit Region, the war would have been much more brutal. But strangely enough... the Nightshades hardly fought back against the invasion from the Holytide Region. Things were different than when they faced King Heaventide.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t go to fight on the front lines. He stayed on the border of the Nightspirit Region and the Holytide Region to process the reportsing in.

    As time passed, and the army advanced smoothly, Xu Qing came to a realization about the Nightshades¡¯ overall battle prowess.

    The Nightshades controlled two regions. One was called Nightspirit and the other Nightshade.

    Their emperor, along with many of their other top experts, were killed by a mysterious individual before the fighting even started. Because their leadership had been taken out, when the war did erupt, the Nightshades suffered defeat after defeat.

    Their species was facing the threat of extermination, but they had no strong leaders, and thus, they ultimately split into three factions.

    One faction was led by the Nightshades¡¯ imperial n. The army they gathered was the one who faced the humans¡¯ main forces in the Nightshade Region.

    The second faction was led by the nobility. They didn¡¯t do much in the war, and instead went into hiding. They hoped to negotiate with the humans, and were active in both the Nightshade Region and the Nightspirit Region.

    The final faction was the one who had been fighting King Heaventide, and they were led by the Nightshade priesthood.

    Nightshade priests had godly authority, which normally meant they were superior to the emperor himself, and were the highest-ranking members of Nightshade society. But when their god magics stopped working, they suffered huge defeats. Their god was ignoring them, and soon, rumors spread that their god was sleeping.

    As a result, the priests weren¡¯t as respected as before. They were now extremely weak, and wereing to be hated by their fellow Nightshades.

    In the end, they chose to gather in their main temple in the Nightspirit Region, and make their stand there. They and the divine guards that formed their troops were constantly reaching out to their god to ask for help. They were the first ones to sense that Crimson Mother had died. They were also the ones who issued a dharmic decree telling the Nightshade forces to make way for Xu Qing¡¯s army, and let them enter thend of fog where their temple stood. It was the same spot where King Heaventide had been ambushed.

    Having learned from the previous disaster, Master Seventh, Marquis Yao and the other leaders of the Holytide Region forces were careful not to charge in blindly. They cleared the way with the immortal skills, and also sent scouts ahead.

    However, before any further arrangements could be made, someone emerged from the Nightshades¡¯ fog. He had no hair and wore a violet robe. After stepping out, he bowed to the Holytide army and then made one request.

    The priests wanted Xu Qing toe personally. They wanted to meet him.

    As long as Xu Qing came, then whatever happened after, they would surrender.

    Grand Duke Holytide was hesitant toply, and in the past, he would have outright refused. After all, they were talking about a mere Spirit Trove cultivator. But things were different now, as he knew who gave orders in Sea-Sealing County now.

    Therefore, he deferred to Master Seventh and Marquis Yao.

    Xu Qing, who was still on the border between the two regions, received a voice message from Master Seventh.

    It made Xu Qing think of how he had sensed something calling out to him recently while out on the Forbidden Sea. Before long, he was heading into the interior of the Nightspirit Region.

    A few dayster, he stood in front of the Holytide army, just outside the fog. He was experiencing a very strange sensation. In the depths of the fog, he could sense... his own authority.

    The moment he appeared, the fog seethed, and a dozen Nightshade high priests emerged wearing violet robes.

    When they saw Xu Qing, they instantly got excited and bowed at the waist. In the lead was the old man, who spoke to Xu Qing in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°Please, return to your rightful position, Violet Lord!¡±

 Chapter 739: The Majestic Grace of a God

    <h4>Chapter 739: The Majestic Grace of a God</h4>

    The Holytide Region army was gathered in great numbers at the edge of the fog. War banners snapped. Animals breathed heavily. The cultivators¡¯ energy pulsed. All of it together created an aura that rose high into the sky and caused powerful winds to sweep across thends. Because of this mighty army, the entire world seemed still and silent.

    There were powerful experts in the army from all sorts of sects and species. They were part of Grand Duke Holytide¡¯s forces, as well as the Sea-Sealing County army in general. Hovering in midair, they exuded immense pressure. Among them were Master Seventh, Marquis Yao, and Grand Duke Holytide himself.

    Blood-colored light swirled in all directions, bing a blood-red sea that threatened to overwhelm the fog. Those were the immortal skills.

    Xu Qing stood in front of the army, facing the seventeen violet-d Nightshade high priests, his gaze focused on the old man bowing in front of him.

    Xu Qing was naturally familiar with the term ¡®Violet Lord.¡¯ And it was very thought-provoking to hear it uttered by a Nightshade priest. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with profound light as he looked from the bowing old Nightshade to the fog behind him. Xu Qing could sense his own authority there, which caused the fog to fluctuate and churn.

    The Nightshades outside of the fog had initiated a ceremony involving Xu Qing himself, and it was almost over.

    As the entire army looked on, and the seventeen priests stood there silently, Xu Qing spoke.

    ¡°How do you know my official title?¡± He didn¡¯t beat around the bush. Given his current status, he was qualified to directly ask such questions. There was no need for guesswork.

    The old Nightshade priest had a face full of wrinkles, and an expression of full piety. ¡°Crimson Mother perished in a battle of gods,¡± he said softly. ¡°A new lord was born out of h¨¥r godly corpse. That¡¯s how the reincarnation of gods works.

    ¡°When Violet Lord was born, h¨¥ became our new lord. H¨¥ seized the authority of the red moon and is to be worshiped by all living beings. From that moment, the moon was no longer red. A violet moon hangs in the sky, and all subservient species and godservants have a new mission as a result. We came to know all of this because of the repeated sacrifices to plead for help from the moon.¡±

    The Nightshade looked up at Xu Qing, his eyes burning with zeal.

    ¡°What mission?¡± Xu Qing asked calmly.

    ¡°To assist our lord to return to the heaven of the gods, and to help the violet moon toe to our world. All who provide aid will be given fruit of the gods, but those who perform the most meritorious service will have a ce before the gods!¡±

    Xu Qing looked deeply at the old man.

    The old man¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. His face remained wrinkled and full of piety.

    Xu Qing looked away from him. Perhaps other people would be fooled by such guileful words, but not Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t believe any of it. He was inclined to believe a much different exnation....

    The Nightshade priests knew that they were going to lose this war, and would likely be exterminated. After realizing the truth of the situation, they learned about what happened in the Moonrite Region. Coupled with what they knew about Xu Qing¡¯s background and cultivation level, they realized that their only hope was to surrender. Of course, there needed to be a good story to go along with their surrender. Xu Qing really had changed the red moon litany with the help of authority. In the end, his effort failed, but he had definitely left behind evidence of what he did.

    The Nightshades, who for generations had worshiped the red moon and offered sacrifices to Crimson Mother, had likely sensed the change to the litany. That was how they learned about Violet Lord.

    To the priests, this ¡®surrender¡¯ wasn¡¯t actually a form of surrender. Now as before, they were still servants of a god. As for the mission, it seemed most likely that they had fabricated that on their own. These priests were no fools. In fact, it was entirely possible that the priests weren¡¯t even sure that he was the real Violet Lord.

    But that didn¡¯t matter. Crimson Mother had perished, so the most important thing to them was staying alive. And maintaining some dignity while doing it was of utmost importance.

    Therefore, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care whether or not the Nightshade priests really believed that he was their Violet Lord. They would change their litany, and going forward, they would convince themselves that he was. After all, there was no one around to argue with them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change. Everything was pure spection, and he had no way to determine what the truth was right now. However, what he did know was that since the Nightshade priests were surrendering in this way, he needed to intimidate them in some way.

    That would be simple for Xu Qing. The best way to fool people like this was through direct force from a god. Xu Qing released the power of his authority, sending it into the fog to ensure that the ceremony waspleted promptly.

    The moment that happened, the seventeen high priests shivered, and the old man looked up with astonishment in his eyes. Rumbling sounds echoed from the depths of the fog. The fog seethed, and chanting sounds could be heard from inside.

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.</i>

    <i>¡°Give myself to my Lord, no bitterness for me, from bitterness I¡¯m free, undecayed for all to see.¡±</i>

    Along with the chanting came violet light. As it shone, the dome of heaven trembled violently, and then ripped apart as if being torn by two huge hands. Godly might descended.

    A violet moon appeared in the sky. ¨©t started blurry, but rapidly became clear, until everyone could see ¨©t. ¨©ts arrival caused a huge stir in the Holytide forces, and countless animals trembled.

    Even after what happened with King Heaventide, and even knowing ¨©t was an illusion, the arrival of the violet moon still caused everyone present to tremble.

    As for the seventeen high priests, all of them immediately bowed to the violet moon above. As the pressure weighed down, everything blurred and shook. Violet light shone from the moon down onto everything below.

    The fog rapidly dissipated, revealing what had been hidden beneath it. Not far ahead of the army was an ancient temple. It was majestic, and had clearly seen the passage of many years. For most people present, it was their first time seeing a magnificent temple like this. But Xu Qing and the Captain... had seen a temple like this before! It looked exactly like the Moon Pce! Even the totem on the door looked exactly the same. It was and-based Moon Pce! And of course, it was considered a holynd to the Nightshade priests. Inside of it was a statue of Crimson Mother.

    There were currently over 1,000,000 Nightshade priests prostrated in front of the temple, all of them d in violet robes, and all of them chanting. As the violet moon descended, their chanting grew louder and clearer, until it was possible to see a stone stele on the moon.

    That stone stele shone with violet light, and though its back was nk, the front had writing on it. If you looked closely, you would see that the words were the same as the litany they were chanting!

    Both the Holytide army and the Nightshade priests were shaken. Eventually, the violet moon descended as far as it would go, and was perfectly clear. Xu Qing walked toward it. He walked past the seventeen high priests, then ascended into midair toward the violet moon.

    Many gasps could be heard as everyone focused on Xu Qing. The ripples and distortions caused by the moon didn¡¯t affect Xu Qing at all. The fact that it looked real but was really illusory didn¡¯t matter to Xu Qing either. This moon had been made by him. Whether it was illusory or real didn¡¯t change anything.

    He stepped onto the moon and walked up to the stone stele. Then he looked back down to thends below, and his gaze was like that of a god. The Nightshade priests all trembled, including the seventeen high priests. Finally, he looked at the old priest.

    ¡°Tell me your name.¡±

    The old priest shivered but didn¡¯t hesitate to respectfully reply, ¡°I am the senior high priest of the Nightshades, You Sang.¡±

    Xu Qing waved his right hand, causing the name You Sang to appear on the back of the stele. It was very, very small. It was so small, in fact, that it was about 1/10,000th the size of the stele itself. However, the implication of the name was profound.

    The stele vibrated, and the violet moon shook. The priests below were shaken to the core. The million priests prostrated on the ground breathed heavily, and their eyes shone with unprecedented fervor. They looked at Xu Qing, they looked at the stele, and they looked at the name, and their hearts and minds were filled with an indescribable tempest. What was happening surpassed what any of them had anticipated. For the servant of a god to have their name inscribed in a location belonging to that god was the highest honor!

    The seventeen high priests who had originallye out of the fog were so deeply shaken that their minds werepletely nk. From ancient times until the present, things like this almost never happened.

    Most deeply shaken was You Sang, whose face was crimson as he stood there shaking physically. He felt like he was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts. How could he ever have guessed that Xu Qing would do something like this? When he looked at his name on that stele, he felt like he had years ago the first time he offered worship to Crimson Mother. He felt astonishment, reverence, and more than anything else, excitement.

    Xu Qing had judged everything correctly. More than anything else, the Nightshade priests just wanted an excuse to surrender.

    Many people below didn¡¯t understand the significance. But the old man wasn¡¯t just a priest. He was a high priest, so he understood the significance. Priests needed a god. And Xu Qing met all the prerequisites. As for whether or not Xu Qing was actually Violet Lord, they still had their suspicions. After all, his cultivation base was too weak. But in the end, that wasn¡¯t important.

    Thus they came up with their guileful talk of a mission. They were just reacting to the circumstances. None of them could ever have imagined that Xu Qing would ask for You Sang¡¯s name, and then carve it onto that stone stele.

    That act shattered all of their preconceived notions. It perfectly conformed to their holy ceremonies, and it told them that... Xu Qing was Violet Lord!

    That was when Ningyan strode out from the army. ¡°Assist Violet Lord to return to the heaven of the gods. Help the violet moon toe to our world! All who provide aid will be given fruit of the gods, but those who perform the most meritorious service will have a ce before the gods!¡±

    The priests all bowed and loudly said, ¡°Greetings, Violet Lord!¡±

    The seventeen high priests, and the senior high priest, were all shaken to the core as they dropped and prostrated.

    ¡°Greetings, Violet Lord!¡±

    As their voices echoed out, the statue of Crimson Mother crumbled to the ground.

 Chapter 740: Decree from the Human Emperor

    <h4>Chapter 740: Decree from the Human Emperor</h4>

    After the Nightshade priests acknowledged allegiance, the war continued. But there was no more fighting in the section of the war theater that had been assigned to King Heaventide. Half of the Nightspirit Region was absorbed into the Holytide Region.

    Most of the army went home, but some forces were garrisoned to oversee the Nightshade priests.

    As for the senior high priest You Sang, he became the emissary of Xu Qing¡¯s godly identity. He was extremely fervent in the way he prostrated to Xu Qing and exined his mission. In the future, he nned to build temples to the violet moon in all the prefectures of that half-region, with the purpose of gathering more and more adherents of the violet moon. Beyond that, he wanted to go to the Holytide Region, to the Moonrite Region, and to other regions to build temples there as well, to spread his gospel and make more disciples.

    His identity was different now. He was the first pope of the Violet Moon Church. Of course, that was just what was visible on the surface. The Nightshade priesthood had as many powerful experts as the sky had clouds. There were even multiple Smoldering Gods among them.

    That said, the priests operated differently than cultivators. They didn¡¯t cultivate the dao. They were devoted to their god, and for the most part, their strength was a gift from that god. Because Crimson Mother was dead, they had be immeasurably weak, likemps with almost no oil left to burn. It was a struggle for them just to stay alive.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival brought new hope for them. Because of his elevation in status, and because the violet moon had turned from illusory to corporeal, the weak Nightshade high priests were once again able to reach a peak level of power.

    Xu Qing epted that oue, and then left the Nightspirit Region. He kept the immortal skills active. They formed a red cloud cover over the Nightspirit Region, which blocked the light and heat of the Dawning Sun. As a result, that half of the region was able to start recovering.

    The war wasn¡¯t over, though. In the other half of the Nightspirit Region, as well as the Nightshade Region, were both embroiled in death and fighting. However, none of that had anything to do with Xu Qing. The Holytide Region wasn¡¯t responsible for the war in the Nightshade Region, only one part of the interspecies war.

    Of course, King Heaventide had taken advantage of his part in the war to try to secure the Holytide Region for Seventh Prince. Despite him perishing, the Holytide Region still yed its part in the war perfectly.

    Going forward, the Holytide Region was going to be far more important than before. And Sea-Sealing County essentially had the power of one-and-a-half regions. As the governor, Xu Qing was more powerful than any previous governor in history. It was no exaggeration to call him royalty.

    Most importantly, he had Ningyan at his side. Ningyan¡¯s presence meant that Xu Qing¡¯s actions were considered righteous. No one could use him of usurping imperial authority. The same principle applied when it came to the death of King Heaventide. When Ningyan took center stage and said the things that he said, it transformed the entire incident into friction between imperial princes.

    Although there were plenty of people who realized the truth, there were some facades... that couldn¡¯t be touched. For instance, a conflict between princes. If the facade were lifted, then all the events in the Holytide Region, the Nightspirit Region, and the Moonrite Region would turn into a dangerous conflict within humankind itself. The heavy price to be paid for such a conflict woulde from whoever removed the facade. But the emperor didn¡¯t want that facade touched, and thus... no one would touch it. The entire thing was a big,plicated game. A series of checks and bnces. And just like an actual fight between cultivators, it all came down to the question of ¡®is it worth it?¡¯

    Because of that, it was only about half a month after the events in the Nightspirit Region that two imperial edicts were issued in the Imperial Region and sent to the Holytide Region.

    The first imperial edict was sent to Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°By the grace of the immortals, and backed by the Mandate of Heaven, these art the words of Emperor Dark War. Since ancient times, the ancestral emperors who did rule the world were aided by benevolent ministers. East Victory hadst Yan. Mirrorcloud hadst his loyal officials Zhu Xi and Chen Ken. Dao Life recruited Wang Xu due to that which he dreamt.</i>

    <i>¡°When the ministers art responsible and the monarch just, the world is governed rightly. It hasteth to my attention that a virtuous individual hath arisen in yond Holytide. He ruleth Sea-Sealing, bringeth order to Holytide, and createth peace in Nightspirit. He is calm and kind, hast protected thends of humankind, and hast taken responsibility to expandeth our territory.</i>

    <i>¡°I, the emperor, do admire his heart, value his virtue, and love his character. What is more, Holytide is where the Ancient Emperor hath built his foundation; it can well beest called the cornerstone of ournds, and is of singr strategic importance. Therefore, I hereby summon the virtuous Xu Qing to the great Imperial Region, where he shalt maketh the Imperial Academy his home, and from there issue his own rulings and promations. Thus speaketh the emperor.¡±</i>

    The second imperial edict was sent to Ningyan. Thenguage was much simpler than the first imperial edict, and it was obviously a form of rebuke.

    <i>¡°My Twelfth Son Yan is stubborn and mischievous. He is restless both mentally and physically, and he selfishly fled the imperial capital in a very reckless act. He should have been watched over closely and not allowed to behave badly. That said, he¡¯s still a child, and his mother passed away young. I, the emperor, failed to discipline him properly. With virtuous education and moral guidance, he will be suited to assist in the administration of Holytide.</i>

    <i>¡°But first, he will return to the imperial pce. I shall tolerate no disobedience in this. If anything suspicious happens on the return journey, I, as the emperor, will be informed immediately. Should that happen, he will be executed forthwith, and I will not offer any chance for forgiveness.¡±</i>

    In a building in the Governor¡¯s Mansion in Sea-Sealing County, Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the two edicts.

    Master Seventh and Marquis Yao weren¡¯t present. Xu Qing was joined only by the Captain and Ningyan.

    The Captain munched on a peach as he looked at the two imperial edicts. Then he clicked his tongue and looked over at Ningyan, who was standing there looking a bit reserved.

    ¡°Your dad isn¡¯t bad at all, Little Ningy. He started out by cursing you, but in the end, he med himself.... He¡¯s basically helping you take ownership of the King Heaventide incident. That said, your dad really is quite ruthless. Thatst sentence shows you how strict he is. If you mess up even a little bit, you¡¯re dead!¡±

    Ningyan looked fawningly at the Captain, then nced out of the corner of his eye at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Captain,¡± he said in a low voice, ¡°please, don¡¯t joke around with me, sir. My dad... doesn¡¯t treat me that well. He just said those things for the sake of Biggest Bro. He had no other choice. In my heart, the only people who matter are Biggest Bro and the Captain. I don¡¯t care about anyone else. And I¡¯ve already made up my mind. I don¡¯t want to go to the Imperial Region. But if Biggest Bro and the Captain go, then Little Ningy won¡¯t refuse. I¡¯ll go back immediately.¡±

    The Captainughed heartily, stepped over, and threw his arm over Ningyan¡¯s shoulders. He took out an apple and ced it in Ningyan¡¯s hand.

    An excited expression appeared on Ningyan¡¯s face. Taking the apple, he looked thankfully at the Captain. As they looked into each other¡¯s eyes, it seemed like they connected and, in that moment, became very close friends.

    Xu Qing looked at them and chose not to spoil the moment by pointing out the truth.... Regarding the summons from the emperor, he knew that he had no choice but to go. If he didn¡¯t, then the Holytide Region would be at risk. Furthermore... based on what Plumdark could sense, hermp was in the Imperial Region.

    Both emotionally and rationally, he had to go. Besides, he was curious to see what the imperial capital was like. What type of chosen were there? What was the scenery like?

    Also... Seventh Prince had escaped, which meant there were definitely going to be repercussions for what happened. That caused Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent to stir. There had to be a reckoning, both for what happened to Pce Lord Kong, and also for Seventh Prince¡¯s other actions.

    <i>What¡¯s more, the Grand Emperor is also there....</i>

    He looked in the direction of the Swordsage Division in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He had never stopped thinking about the assessment of the heart when he became a swordsage, and the majestic image of the Grand Emperor.

    <i>I need to go pay respects.</i>

    His eyes gleamed with determination. That said, he knew that the journey to the Imperial Region was going to be a long and arduous one, and it might be a while before he returned.

    Therefore, before he left, he needed to take a trip back to the continent of South Phoenix. He needed to clean Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave, and also visit Sergeant Thunder. And of course, he needed to see Huang Yan.

    There were some questions that he had alreadye up with answers to, and thus, he wanted to go to South Phoenix and chat with his old friend. As he was thinking about such things, a voice spoke into his mind.

    <i>¡°Fear not, milord. Master Freespirit will make sure to keep you safe and in good health on this trip to the Imperial Region. If anyone dares to harbor malicious thoughts about you, milord, I¡¯ll immediately turn them into a ghost!¡±</i>

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior¡¯s words were spoken with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron. The patriarch flew out and started circling around Xu Qing, shining with brilliant light.

    Xu Qing looked at him.

    A few days ago, Master Seventh had finished ensorcelling the Spike of Misfortune. The spike was dramatically different than before, being a much higher quality and much mightier. It also pulsed with an ancient aura.

    Xu Qing¡¯s iron skewer had started out as an extraordinary item, yet had been nothing more than a prized treasure. When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was its spirit automaton, it became stronger. And after experiencing lightning tribtion, it became even mightier. But in the end, it was still made from ordinary materials.

    However,bining it with the fish bone from Forbidden by the Immortal transformed itpletely. Adding Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to it, and under the skilled workmanship of Master Seventh no less, it had reached an astonishing level.

    It could still be called an iron skewer, but it wasrger now. And instead of just being a little spike, it was more like a fiendish club, with a sharp tip and a thick end. It was pitch-ck and emanated an icy aura that locked down the surroundings. It also shone with dazzling light. There were three carvings on its end. One of them was the god from Forbidden by the Immortal, the other was Crimson Mother, and the third was the face of Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. The first two had their eyes closed and their godly might reigned in. But the third had a ttering look that didn¡¯t seem to match the spike as a whole. [1]

    Seeing the patriarch floating around him caused Xu Qing to think about what his Master had told him a few days ago.

    <i>¡°Fourth Sib, this thing has the bones of the god from Forbidden by the Immortal and flesh from Crimson Mother. But the soul automaton is somewhatcking. That said, the foolish thing should manage if it works hard. In some ways, it¡¯s fundamentally an embryonic god.</i>

    <i>¡°So I reforged it using a Summer Immortal magic I found in some ancient records. As a result, you can call it an immortal weapon now!</i> [2]

    <i>¡°Just remember that one of the key features of immortal weapons is that if you detonate them, they release terrifying force. This spirit automaton is foolish enough that it can be easily tricked. So you should be able to take advantage of that. The best would be to get it to self-detonate. That¡¯ll lead to the best results.¡±</i>

    Of course, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior hadn¡¯t heard any of that. He just said, <i>¡°I¡¯ll do the same to the crappy shadow if I have to. If it dares to revolt, I¡¯ll poke a thousand holes in it! I¡¯ll make sure it knows it ranks second around here!¡±</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing offered a look of praise.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior got even more excited.

    1. The ¡®club¡¯ mentioned here is a Chinese character that can have many meanings. Most noteworthy in this context, it¡¯s the charactermonly attached to ¡°golden vajra¡± when that word is used to describe a ritualistic weapon. I think that¡¯s noteworthy considering the patriarch¡¯s name contains that same term. In weapon form, the ¡°vajra¡± has different looks, but in one version there is something like a dagger at one end with a head(s) and face(s) on the other. My guess is that the author envisions something like that for this upgraded version of the iron skewer. Here¡¯s what such <u>vajras look like</u>. ?

    2. The character ¡®Summer¡¯ is themon character for summer, and also the same character as the Xia Dynasty, the very first dynasty of Ancient China, whose existence is somewhat debated by schrs. In any case, the character here involves some wordy that I cannot exin without getting into spoilers. Just stay tuned for more details toe. ?

 Chapter 741: As Before, Water Flows Amidst the Flowers

    <h4>Chapter 741: As Before, Water Flows Amidst the Flowers</h4>

    It was spring in South Phoenix. It was an overcast day, so despite being noon, the oppressive clouds clustered together, spreading as far as the eye could see and blocking out the sunlight. A chill filled everything. Though it was a season of awakenings, there seemed little signs of life. In fact, a vague sense of pressure weighed on a certain ancient city there.

    That city had existed for a very, very long time. If you searched through various ancient records, you would find that it had been built during the time period of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. Of course, this Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was not the famous one from history, but rather, the one that had existed in South Phoenix.

    Legend had it that the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan in South Phoenix was actually started by survivors of the ancient and mysterious kingdom of the same name. Apparently, that kingdom had been cursed, and rumor had it the two characters ¡®Violet¡¯ and ¡®Cyan¡¯ inherited that prohibition. Thus, the South Phoenix version of the Kingdom of Violet and Cyan didn¡¯tst for very long. After a period of rebellion, eight noble ns took over. That was how the Violet Lands came to be.

    Countless years had passed since then, but the capital city had the same architecture as the early days. Not many people could be seen on the streets of the city. In the extremely rigid hierarchical Violet Lands, the majority of people were treated like animals. That was just how this world worked, and such things couldn¡¯t be changed easily. Even if you forced a change, things would eventually go back to how they were before. After all, behind any civilization, you would find both oppression and repression.

    Xu Qing quietly walked along the streets in the Violet Lands, passing ancient buildings. He took in the architecture and the people, the wind stirring his hair as he walked. He had old friends in this city. And his Teacher was in this city as well. When it came to his old friends, Xu Qing scanned the city with divine will to make sure they were well. That was good enough.

    As for his Teacher... Xu Qing spotted a flower shop near the public cemetery that specialized in funerary items. The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man who smiled obsequiously upon spotting Xu Qing. Xu Qing was dressed well and was very handsome, and thus, ordinary people would instantlye to the conclusion that he was someone important. If Xu Qing were to guess, this shopkeeper probably thought he was an important young person from one of the eight ns. And of course, the shopkeeper wouldn¡¯t cause any problems for people like that.

    Xu Qing bought a bundle of white gardenias, then entered the cemetery and found Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. When he saw how many other flowers were on the grave, his gaze softened. Putting the flowers down, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed.

    ¡°Rest well, Teacher,¡± he said softly. He closed his eyes.

    The clouds above shifted, creating an opening that allowed a stream of sunlight to shine down onto the cemetery. It was like the beautiful light of dawn, and it made the cemetery like a paradise in the middle of doomsday. It was as if spring had finallye.

    Of course, that shining light quickly caught the attention of people in the Violet Lands. Streams of divine will converged. The cultivators of the Violet Lands were shocked, as nothing like that had ever happened at that cemetery. By that point, there was no one at Grandmaster Bai¡¯s grave. There was only a bundle of white gardenias, slowly blooming. In thenguage of flowers, that meant that spring hade. Xu Qing was long gone.

    ***

    Not much time had passed since the incident in the Violet Lands, but the sky was different, and the season was different. It was spring in the Violet Lands, but in the east of South Phoenix, winter was just starting. The frigid wind shed thends like a de, causing snowkes to swirl. Everything was gripped by merciless cold. Out in the wilderness, it was possible to see unmoving, shadowy forms. They were people who had been forced to migrate, but sadly froze to death in the cold. The world hadn¡¯t changed just because Xu Qing became the ruler of a region. After all... the broken face existed eternally in the dome of heaven.

    Xu Qing quietly entered the old scavenger basecamp. It looked just like before. For the most part, everyone he¡¯d known here before was dead, and their houses had been taken over by others. The neers continued the same old work of going into the forbidden region to harvest seven-leaf clovers. The camp was dirty, cold, and reeked of blood. The tents with the feathers were there just like before.

    Xu Qing studied the camp briefly, then proceeded into the forbidden region. The moment he entered it, the entire ce filled with rumbling sounds. The fog that filled it grew thicker and filled with bolts of red lightning. The trees trembled along with all of the beasts.

    The sudden development caught the attention of the scavengers in the basecamp. Then, threatening howls emerged from the depths of the forbidden region. They sounded like a vicious beast that was backing away from a dangerous enemy. The howls of an animal facing a threat were the most powerless imaginable.

    Zither music drifted everywhere as if to stop Xu Qing from proceeding. But it did nothing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. However, his every footstep caused the forbidden region to shake. Soon, all of the beasts in the ce chose to prostrate to him.

    However, the zither music didn¡¯t stop. Xu Qing was starting to get annoyed. He red coldly into the depths of the forbidden region.

    ¡°Pipe down.¡±

    His shadow spread out from his feet, and a greedy salivating sound drowned out the zither music.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out and floated in midair, his pointed tip aimed straight at the center of the forbidden region. He seemed like he was ready to punch countless holes into anyone who didn¡¯t follow Xu Qing¡¯s orders. The zither music finally stopped.

    The flowers and nts parted for Xu Qing. Trees uprooted themselves. And before long, a straight path was visible in front of him. At the end of the path was arge tree with a lone gravestone in front of it.

    Xu Qing calmly walked up to the grave, leaned against the tree, and sank to the ground. A bottle gourd appeared in his hand. He took a drink, then poured a bit out onto the grave. He didn¡¯t say anything because... he didn¡¯t need to. As he sat there, he felt at peace. He could almost see Sergeant Thunder sitting there drinking with him and looking into the sky. The afterglow of the setting sun was visible in the distance.

    When Xu Qing finally did speak, his voice was hoarse. ¡°Sergeant Thunder, I finally found that lifespan flower for you....¡±

    His words contained reminiscence, regret, and other emotions that were difficult to express with words. They also contained the helplessness of life.

    Finally, he sighed and drained thest bit of alcohol from the gourd.

    The sun had set. The moon had risen.

    Xu Qing kowtowed to the grave, then stood and walked off. The flowers and nts quickly grew back to cover the grave.

    The wind carried Xu Qing¡¯s voice back after he¡¯d left. ¡°I won¡¯t wipe you out of existence as long as you stand guard here.¡±

    As his voice echoed out, a shadowy figure appeared by the grave. It wasn¡¯t Sergeant Thunder¡¯s wife. It was an old woman. If you looked very closely at her, you would realize that she had a zither inside of her with its strings broken. She was thedy of this forbidden region. As Xu Qing left, she bowed her head, indicating that she would respect his wishes.

    Xu Qing flew through the sky under the light of the moon. Wherever he went, the light of the moon changed. It became violet.

    The violet moonlight created a halo that made Xu Qing seem like a divine being as he flew through the night. He soon arrived at the only forbidden ground in the continent of South Phoenix. What was more, it was also... thergest forbidden ground Xu Qing had ever seen.

    Forbidden by the Phoenix. It took up more than half of the continent, and if me Phoenix wanted, it could easily swallow the rest of it. Because the forbidden ground was sorge, it was home to many species of grues. In fact, there were so many species living there that no one really knew the true extent of it.

    Outsiders had to abide by me Phoenix¡¯s rules. They couldn¡¯t initiate any harm. That said, if any outsiders caused trouble, they wouldn¡¯t be shown any mercy. Because of the terrifying nature of Forbidden by the Phoenix, many of the species of Revered Ancient hade to call the lord of the ce me Phoenix, or sometimes, in a show of even greater respect, South Phoenix. H¨¥ was mysterious, ancient, and was one of those rare entities who was kind toward other living beings.

    When Xu Qing arrived at the edge of Forbidden by the Phoenix, hended on an outcropping in the Mountains of Truth.

    There was someone who had obviously known he wasing, and hade to wait for him there. It was a fat young man who was casually sucking on an egg. Looking very proud of himself, he leaned up against the side of the mountain singing a little song.

    <i>¡°It¡¯s not that I love this mortal coil, but I see the threads of past fate;</i>

    <i>¡°The flowers bloom and fall as, waiting for my wife, I slowly turn to stone;</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ll go if I must, but I might not linger there;</i>

    <i>¡°Adorn my head not with mountain blossoms, and ask me not where I truly belong!¡±</i>

    As Huang Yan sang, Xu Qing approached and sat down next to him.

    Huang Yan grinned and tossed him an egg. Eyebrows dancing up and down, he winked and said, ¡°Your sister-inw hasn¡¯t given birth yet, and her temper is just out of control. Ai. It¡¯s a good thing you came to have an egg with me.¡±

    Just like in the past, Xu Qing poked a hole in the egg and took a sip. It was sweet beyondpare.

    ¡°How much longer until Second Elder Sister gives birth?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Huang Yan patted his belly, looking very pleased with himself. ¡°My kind surpasses mortals by a long shot. We¡¯re naturally born as preheaven spirits. So it¡¯s only natural we have a very long gestation period. My guess is that she¡¯ll give birth in the next few decades.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. If that was the case, he would probably be able toe back before Second Elder Sister gave birth.

    In that manner, Xu Qing and Huang Yan sat together, drank from their eggs, and talked about what they¡¯d been up totely. Huang Yan exined that he was very excited at the prospect of bing a father. Xu Qing told him all about what happened in Moonrite, and how he had to go to the imperial capital.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Eventually the sun rose. The two of them looked at each other and chuckled.

    Xu Qing straightened out his garments and stood. He didn¡¯t ask Huang Yan if he was me Phoenix. That wasn¡¯t important. What was important was that Huang Yan was his friend.

    Since Huang Yan didn¡¯t bring it up either, it didn¡¯t need to be discussed. However, before Xu Qing left, Huang Yan, after a moment of thought, took out a bag of holding, as well as a red feather. He handed them to Xu Qing. The feather was sparkling and translucent, almost as if it was made from jade. It emanated a faint heat, and contained a strong godly might. It was different from the auras of gods that Xu Qing had encountered in the past. Furthermore, it seemed very, very ancient.

    ¡°A gift for you. On the way to the imperial capital, you¡¯ll pass through Southtrust County. I have a younger sister who lives there. She visited South Phoenix a while back and liked the fruit here. Unfortunately, the harvest wasn¡¯t very good back then. But this year the harvest is great, so if possible, I¡¯d like you to deliver some of the fruits to her. My little sister has a really bad temper. But she¡¯s like me. She has a spirit of loyalty and self-sacrifice.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded in agreement, then looked at Huang Yan. ¡°Take care of yourself.¡±

    With that, he flew up into the sky.

    Huang Yan stood on the outcropping looking at him go. He seemed a bit sad.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡± he called. ¡°Remember what I said before. If you don¡¯t like it out there you can alwayse back to South Phoenix. You¡¯ll be safe here!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded solemnly, then made his way off into the distance.

    Huang Yan faded away. As he did, a pair of huge eyes suddenly opened in the depths of Forbidden by the Phoenix, letting out an aura that caused all living beings in the forbidden ground to bow.

    Looking off into the distance, h¨¥ murmured, ¡°Take care of yourself.¡±

 Chapter 742: A Leisurely Trip Afar; the Dao Exists as Long as Suns and Moons

    Xu Qing had visited everyone he needed to visit in the continent of South Phoenix.

    After arriving back at Sea-Sealing County, a month passed. During that time, Marquis Yao and Master Seventh made all of the necessary arrangements for the transfer of power in the Holytide Region and the half of the Nightspirit Region that they controlled.

    At the same time, seven magnificent bridges were erected across the Yin Sacrifice River, connecting the Holytide Region to the Moonrite Region. Those bridges ensured that the two regions were now closely connected. Already, merchant caravans could be seen crossing both ways. The bridges made things a lot more convenient for low-level cultivators. Teleportation portals were also constructed connecting the two regions.

    In some respects, the southern parts of Revered Ancient now contained two-and-a-half regions all joined together thanks to Xu Qing. It was a rare thing among the countless species of Revered Ancient. Humans were now far more than just feudal lords, which was quite a shock to many nonhumans.

    Meanwhile, all of the developments ensured that new power structures were rising up in various counties and prefectures. For the most part, the new leadership all came from Sea-Sealing County. Grand Duke Holytide cooperated, so everything went very smoothly.

    Eventually, a regional capital was established. Xu Qing was nominated as the region lord, not because of his cultivation base, but because he had formed an alliance with Moonrite, forced Grand Duke Holytide into submission, and earned the veneration of the Nightshade high priests. It would have been hard for any other person to turn Moonrite, Holytide, and Nightspirit into a unified whole.

    However, it wasn¡¯t possible for a single mind to manage an entire region, so a council was formed in the regional capital. Marquis Yao, the three Holytide emperors, and Pope You Sang were on the council, along with a representative from Moonrite. There were also members from smaller species and groups throughout the various regions. They would handle the day-to-day affairs of the two-and-a-half regions.

    Anything that surpassed them would be escted to the regional senate. The senate didn¡¯t have many members. They included: Grand Duke Holytide; Ninth Sib; a Nightshade high priest who was entirely wrapped in cloth; and Master Seventh. In addition to those four, there were the Heir Apparent and Xu Qing.

    With those structures in ce, the Holytide Region, Moonrite Region, and half of the Nightspirit Region truly began to flourish. They worked together, both to thrive, and to keep each other safe.After everything was set up, the time came for a long journey; Xu Qing and Ningyan set off for the Imperial Region to meet with the emperor.

    It was very different from the way Xu Qing and the Captain snuck off to the Moonrite Region. For one thing, they had very different statuses now. Given who Xu Qing was, and the power he wielded, there was no way he could sneak around on his own. They departed with a lot of ceremony and pomp.

    Swordsages from Sea-Sealing County would apany them. And the party would be led by none other than the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce, Li Yunshan. Kong Xianglong was alsoing along. Plumdark joined as well. Originally, Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t want toe, but in the end, couldn¡¯t resist Ningyan¡¯s enthusiasm, and reluctantly agreed toe.

    Of course, there was one other personing along that couldn¡¯t be left behind. It was the Captain.

    After all of the arrangements were meticulously made, the traveling party left for the Imperial Region.

    The Imperial Region was a great distance away from the Holytide Region. Because of the fact that Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had conquered all of Revered Ancient, it was located in the center of the continent. Long ago, countless species had made pilgrimages there, as it was the pinnacle of Revered Ancient, and also a holynd. That region didn¡¯t just have a special significance. It also had very unique geographical features. In order to travel there using normal means, it would take many years, and you would have to pass through thends of countless species.

    Therefore, traveling to the Imperial Region required the use of long-range teleportation portals, and the journey needed to be made along a specific route. That route had existed even in the days of the Ancient Emperor. It was called Dark Serenity¡¯s Ancient Road. [1]

    Humankind had seven counties built along the ancient road. That route was how Seventh Prince, as well as King Heaventide and his army, were able to travel from the imperial capital to Holytide so quickly. Each of those seven locations had massive teleportation portals. Of course, using them required the approval of the regions on both sides of the teleportation. A unteral teleportation wouldn¡¯t work.

    Also, getting <em>to</em> the imperial capital was quite different thaning <em>from</em> it. When imperial forces came from the capital, they could bypass the dual-region controls, which made the process much faster. The opposite didn¡¯t work.

    Considering that these teleportation portals could cross entire regions, it was a given that it took a long time to prepare them for use. What was more, it was outrageously expensive. And Xu Qing had to pay for it. Thankfully, the imperial edict made it so that the Holytide Region was a lot more important than before, so all of the negotiations went smoothly.

    The Holytide Region had one of those teleportation portals as well; it was located in Peaceful Prefecture, where it took up almost half of the entire prefecture. In recent years, it had only been activated once, when Seventh Prince arrived. He was the only person who had the authority to use it. However, the huge teleportation portal was in such a state of disrepair that Seventh Prince refused to use it again. As a result, a second portal was built in the Holytide Region. King Heaventide had arrived via that second portal.

    At that moment, Xu Qing and the rest of the traveling party were standing on that very same portal. It was also roughly the size of half a prefecture, making it sorge you couldn¡¯t see to one end from the other. It was made from green jade and covered with countless magical symbols.

    The green jade glowed, and the magical symbols flickered. Rumbling sounds echoed out like heavenly thunder. And then blinding light as bright as the sun rose up from the portal.

    As the portal activated, the Captain¡¯s face was a mask of anticipation. He had plenty of ns and arrangements for this, his first visit to the Imperial Region.

    <em>The Imperial Region is huge! I haven¡¯t visited it in this life yet. Though I did visit it in a few previous lives, every tomb-raiding effort I attempted ended in failure. Let¡¯s see if I seed this time!</em>

    He licked his lips, and a crazy look appeared in his eyes.

    Wu Jianwu stood next to the Captain, and when he saw that look, he snorted coldly and proudly lifted his chin. <em>¡°Your fiery heart counts for naught but zero; I¡¯m going to the capital to worship a hero!¡±</em>

    The main reason he¡¯d agreed to join Ningyan on this journey was that he wanted to visit Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s imperial pce and see if there was any poetry from the Ancient Emperor there. He felt he¡¯d reached a bottleneck in his own poetry, and the solution was to read more of the Ancient Emperor¡¯s work. The mere thought caused Wu Jianwu¡¯s eyes to glitter.

    Ningyan saw the looks in the eyes of the Captain and Wu Jianwu, but didn¡¯t pay them much heed. Many thoughts were running through his head, many of them tinged with regret. He thought about the reason why he¡¯d secretly fled all those years ago. He thought about how cold and unforgiving the imperial capital was. And he thought about how much he didn¡¯t want to go back, although staying away was unrealistic.

    <em>With Biggest Bro around, I should be fine.</em>

    Taking in a deep breath, he instinctively looked over at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood with Plumdark and Kong Xianglong. Pce Lord Li Yunshan was also there, and he was talking to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Region Lord, the journey to the Imperial Region will involve seven teleportations, and we will pass through all of the other six human counties. Extreme long-range teleportations like this can be unsettling. After each one, we¡¯ll need to take time to rest.

    ¡°The first stop will be Extreme Peace County, which is part of the Audeng Region. In that region, there are a lot of conflicts between human factions. As a result, over the years, Extreme Peace County hasn¡¯t seen anything resembling extreme peace.¡±

    Li Yunshan knew that he was responsible for keeping the traveling party safe, and had done a lot of research. As a result, he sounded very confident.

    ¡°That said, Extreme Peace County and Sea-Sealing County have had dealings through the years, somunication went well. They¡¯ve already made preparations to allow us to teleport in. In a moment, the process will begin.

    ¡°In order to y things as safely as possible, we¡¯ll travel in three groups. The first group will consist of myself and the swordsages. The second group will be all of the peopleing with you, Region Lord. Finally, you¡¯lle through.¡±

    Xu Qing courteously nodded. He didn¡¯t find anything unusual about Li Yunshan¡¯s arrangements. He was looking forward to this trip to the imperial capital.

    Plumdark smiled, reached out, and took Xu Qing¡¯s hand. He looked at her as the green light of the teleportation portal grew brighter and brighter, and the rumbling sounds grew more intense. The first teleportation was beginning. A wind kicked up, stirring Plumdark¡¯s long, dark hair, and making her seem even more beautiful.

    As the wind died back down, Plumdark¡¯s voice reached his ears.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I have a premonition that this trip to the imperial capital is going to be very meaningful for you.¡±

    As she looked into his eyes and smiled, she, along with Ningyan and the others, disappeared in the second wave of teleportations.

    Xu Qing was left standing alone on the portal. Taking a deep breath, he looked up into the canopy of heaven.

    Ninth Sib appeared there, looking down at him. He would not be going with Xu Qing to the imperial capital. At a certain point, the baby eagle needed to stretch its wings and grow up. You couldn¡¯t follow it around for its entire life. Sometimes, letting go was the only option. He had already exined his reasoning to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing understood. sping hands, he bowed toward the sky, then bowed to Sea-Sealing County.

    Green light red, covering everything. When it faded, everything became still and quiet, and Xu Qing was gone.

    Ninth Sib began the trip back to Moonrite.

    Meanwhile, Master Seventh stood in a building in the county capital of Sea-Sealing County, looking in the direction of the teleportation portal. He looked a bit mncholy, like a parent watching children leaving for a long trip.

    <em>Big Sib died enough times in previous lives to know what the imperial capital is like. I don¡¯t need to worry about him. If he wants to keep courting death, then death wille.</em>

    <em>Fourth Sib... really does need to go to the imperial capital. There are things about the history of Revered Ancient that I could tell him, but he¡¯ll understand better if he sees them himself.</em>

    <em>That¡¯s especially true of Summer Immortals.</em>

    Master Seventh closed his eyes.

    1. Chapter 226 was entitled ¡®Dark Serenity¡¯s Ancient Road¡¯ and basically described things the same as they¡¯re described here. ?

 Chapter 743: A Huge Life Form in Extreme Peace County

    <h4>Chapter 743: A Huge Life Form in Extreme Peace County</h4>

    Revered Ancient was astonishinglyrge. In the era of the Ancient Emperors, a survey revealed that it contained a total of 365 regions.

    After the great catastrophe, many of them were divided up. What was more, tectonic shifts resulted in even more changes. As species divided thends up, people lost track of how many regions there were in total. That said, based on the understanding of many species, about thirty percent of Revered Ancient were deadnds where life didn¡¯t exist.

    Eventually, five god domains came to exist, with three of them being in those deadnds. Of course, even outside of the deadnds, the regions were so huge that cultivators couldn¡¯t traverse them in a lifetime. Only by using long-range teleportations was it possible for people to travel long distances. That said, because those teleportation portals were controlled by different species in different regions, traveling from one to the other was difficult. And there were many regions that couldn¡¯t even build such portals.

    Generally speaking, teleportation routes had to be set up between two portals controlled by the same species. In other words, traveling amongst portals in one small area was usually easy. But going between portals controlled by different species was the opposite. Thanks to the advantage humankind had long ago, they managed to maintain control of the ancient road that led from the Imperial capital all the way to the Holytide Region.

    The next stop on the route after leaving the Holytide Region was the Audeng Region. That name had existed even in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and had not changed since then. In fact, it was even possible it had existed before then. There were many stories about its history, but among them, one was the mostmonly repeated.

    It rted to the name of a heavenly dao. Supposedly, the very first heavenly dao in Revered Ancient had started out as a cultivator who eventually sacrificed himself to stand guard over the continent. His name was Audeng, and the region that bore his name now was his hometown. The region was now controlled by three major species, all of whom imed to be descendants of Audeng. All of them had many other species that worked for them, and were constantly at war, viewing the other species as foreigners and outsiders.

    Because of the endless war, themoners had rough lives. Thends were all in varying states of decay, and it was a struggle just to stay alive. However, that was the reason why the humans were able to keep control of Extreme Peace County. The downside was that they had to pay rent to the three greater species.

    Those three species collectively had a single domain treasure. The domain treasure was faulty, and needed blood sacrifices to keep it working. And control of it was split between the three species. Its functionality was primarily defensive, which meant that the interior of the Audeng Region could be controlled easily, but expansion wasn¡¯t really possible. However, that was enough.

    When it came to the rent that had to be paid, for reasons of face, the Imperial Region didn¡¯t make any statement about it. But the sessive governors of Extreme Peace County knew that, in order to keep the county safe, they had to cooperate.

    However, once humankind revealed their Dawning Suns, everything changed. When that happened, humans everywhere lifted their heads proudly. In the administrative districts outside the capital, the effects were pronounced. For instance, Extreme Peace County stopped paying rent to the three species of that region, and those species didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    In Tranquil Sun Prefecture in Extreme Peace County, the night sky was suddenly illuminated by the glittering light of teleportation. From a distance, the cultivators of Extreme Peace County were waiting inbat readiness, their expressions somber as they looked in the direction of the teleportation portal. Although they weren¡¯t unfamiliar with Sea-Sealing County, neither were they particrly close with them. Regardless, news about the things happening recently in Sea-Sealing County had spread like wildfire through Revered Ancient. Thus, they were paying very close attention to teleportationsing from Sea-Sealing County.

    As a glittering sea of light expanded, a group of 30,000 swordsages appeared on the tform, led by Li Yunshan. The moment they appeared, all of them revealed varying degrees of difort. Despite how severe such symptoms were, the swordsages kept them under control. Following Li Yunshan¡¯s arrangements, they scattered, forming into ranks and then staring around vigntly.

    After it was clear the situation was safe, the next group came in,posed of Plumdark, Ningyan, and the others. After that was finished, Xu Qing arrived.

    A very dry wind blew. Xu Qing was used to South Phoenix, Sea-Sealing County, and the Holytide Region, all of which were close to the sea, with climates that were generally cool and humid. Even the Moonrite Region was mostly cold. Therefore, being in andlocked ce like Extreme Peace County, the climate difference was immediately noticeable.

    In terms of a reaction to the long-range teleportation, Xu Qing had a god body, so he didn¡¯t feel ufortable at all.

    ¡°Extreme Peace County,¡± the Captain said, stretching his arms. ¡°What a good name! Little Ah Qing, what do you say we change the name of Mount Heavenly Ox? We could call it Mount Extreme Ox! I feel like the ¡®extreme¡¯ character is really impressive.¡±

    Seeing how excited the Captain was at the prospect, Xu Qing gave it some serious thought. ¡°We could try that.¡±

    The Captain smiled broadly. Off to the side, Ningyan nodded, and even went so far as to thump his own chest.

    ¡°No problem, Captain,¡± he said. ¡°If I can build my power base, then we can add the character Ox to everything in the region!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up, and he dragged Ningyan off to the side to discuss the details.

    Xu Qing ignored them. Looking up into the sky, he saw that the moon here was different than in the Holytide Region. It was very far away, and it wasn¡¯t circr. It was actually triangr, almost like a mountain in the sky. What was more, it cast blue light down onto thends below.

    This was the third moon Xu Qing had ever seen. After gazing at it for a bit, he turned his attention to the Extreme Peace County cultivators off in the distance watching the teleportation portal. Li Yunshan had already flown over to talk to them.

    After teleporting in, Plumdark had been focused on the actual portal beneath their feet. A strange expression could be seen on her face as she approached Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± she said, ¡°something¡¯s off about this teleportation portal.¡±

    As the lingering glow of the teleportation illuminated Plumdark in the dark of night, she seemed like an immortal being, her skin as fair as snow, the long sleeves of her garments swaying in the wind. Her eyes resembled limpid autumn waters, and she almost seemed to shimmer, making her stand out among the crowd.

    In response to herment, Xu Qing looked down at the teleportation portal. He sent his shadow spreading out underneath the moonlight to check, and a momentter, excited fluctuations reached him.

    ¡°Huge... life....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. Meanwhile, Li Yunshan flew back from his meeting with the Extreme Peace County cultivators.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid we need to wait here for a time,¡± he said.

    ¡°Because of the teleportation portal?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Li Yunshan nodded. ¡°There are certain things about Extreme Peace County that are a mystery to us in Sea-Sealing County. This teleportation portal is one of them. Preparations need to be made in order to activate it again. It normally would take about seven days. However, in three days, something will happen that the portal will need half a month to recover from.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s... alive?¡± Plumdark asked suddenly.

    Her words were noticed by Ningyan and Wu Jianwu. Kong Xianglong also looked curiously at the portal underfoot. It didn¡¯t look any different from any other teleportation portal. As for the Captain, his eyes glittered as he squatted down and touched the tform curiously.

    Li Yunshan took a deep breath. He had only just now learned this information from the Extreme Peace County forces, and it had been very surprising.

    ¡°ording to what Extreme Peace County told me, this ancient teleportation portal was looked at by the broken face. Strangely, though, this location didn¡¯t turn into a forbidden region. However, when that happened, the ancient teleportation portal... gained consciousness. The invasion brought life to it. Put simply, it is indeed alive.

    ¡°Every half month, the portal will transform, turning into a vicious beast that roams Extreme Peace County looking to amuse itself. Wherever it goes, it randomly teleports people to other locations. The teleportations are limited to this county. The living portal has a temperament simr to a child, and is not malevolent. As a result, the locals view the whole thing simr to weather changes.

    ¡°There are some benefits. Whenever the living portal goes back to sleep, the teleportations can be carried out for free. As a result, the county doesn¡¯t do anything about it. And that¡¯s why we need to wait for half a month before the next teleportation.¡±

    When Li Yunshan finished his exnation, he looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Plumdark, the Captain, and Li Yunshan discussed the matter a bit more, and ultimately decided to just wait. And thus, they set up a camp about 50 kilometers away from the portal.

    The local cultivators kept distance between themselves and Xu Qing¡¯s group. They were clearly staying on guard. It wasn¡¯t just them. The county capital of Extreme Peace County was nearby, and they were on guard as well. In fact, so were all of the species and organizations in the county. All species issued orders to stay away from Tranquil Sun Prefecture.

    Xu Qing made sure not to disturb the locals. After the camp was set up, he closed his eyes and focused on meditation. So did everyone else, except for the Captain, who went out curiously to look at the ancient teleportation portal.

    Late in the night three dayster, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering rumbling sound echoed out from the portal. The quaking ground caused Xu Qing to open his eyes and walk out of his tent.

    Plumdark, Ningyan, Li Yunshan, Kong Xianglong, and everyone else also stepped out and looked off into the distance. Before long, they saw something spectacr.

    The huge teleportation portal shone with dark blue light. At the same time, the moonlight dimmed, as if all of it were being sucked into the portal. Blue hairs grew off the portal, more and more of them, like a coat of fur. As the rumbling sounds continued, the portal... uprooted itself. The ground shook, and the sky turned dark. The portal floated up, t and covered with drifting hair. It didn¡¯t look dangerous. It was almost like a big, hairy mooncake. A haircake....

    And when it opened its two, huge eyes, it actually looked somewhat cute. It made a happy little noise, then floated off into the distance. Birds in the sky scattered in fear, but they weren¡¯t fast enough, and as the portal passed them, they were teleported to other locations. That seemed to make the portal happy, and it continued off into the distance.

    ¡°This huge world really is full of extraordinary things...¡± Li Yunshan said with a sigh.

    Plumdark¡¯s eyes glittered with reminiscence as she looked at the haircake floating off into the distance.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing. Over the years that had passed, he had seen many mysterious and fantastic things in Revered Ancient. Every time it was different. After all, what Revered Ancient could reveal to him personally was just the tip of the iceberg.

    As everyone looked on in surprise, the Captain licked his lips, and his eyes shone brightly.

    <i>This thingy looks like a real treasure. And since it appeared to me, that means we¡¯re connected by destiny!</i>

 Chapter 744: Chen Erniu the Sleazeball

    <h4>Chapter 744: Chen Erniu the Sleazeball</h4>

    Xu Qing had no way of hearing what the Captain was thinking. But he noticed the look in the Captain¡¯s eyes, and it was quite familiar. It reminded him of the time back when Seven Blood Eyes had just established itself in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, and they caught sight of Nethersprite flying along in some very luxurious clothing. The Captain had the same look in his eyes as when he looked at Nethersprite¡¯s clothing back then. Showing off in front of the Captain would only result in attracting his attention. [1]

    Xu Qing shook his head. He was used to this sort of thing, and decided not to even say anything. What happened over the next few days with the Captain proved that Xu Qing¡¯s spections were correct....

    The Captain had obviously taken a liking to the haircake. Perhaps he was just curious, or maybe he wanted to make a friend. Either way, the Captain snuck away to follow it around. On more than one asion, he tried to get close to it.

    ¡°Hold on, Big Hairy. I only have half a month! I just know I¡¯ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don¡¯t at least say hi and get to know you a bit. There are a lot of Hairys in Revered Ancient, but you¡¯re the most special of them all.¡±

    Maybe it was because the Captain¡¯s words didn¡¯t seem sincere, or possibly it was the impure look in his eyes. Either way, before the Captain could ever get very close, light surrounded him and he disappeared as he was teleported away.

    However, the Captain knew how to persevere. In fact, that was essentially the foundation of his crazy personality. Therefore, he just rushed back and picked up where he left off. This time, he made sure to call out a very warm greeting to ensure he didn¡¯te across as being malicious. In fact, to make himself seem even more sincere, he casually took out a peach and started eating it. After all, it was only when eating peaches that he could reveal the true tenderness in his heart.

    ¡°Hello there! You¡¯re so very ssy! That¡¯s why I wanted toe over and get to know you!¡±

    <i>Swish!</i>

    The haircake zipped off, but not before teleporting the Captain away.

    About two hourster, the Captain raced back, waving his hand the entire way. ¡°Don¡¯t run! Don¡¯t you know that you bear a striking resemnce to an old friend of mine! My very best friend, actually. I¡ª¡±

    <i>Swish!</i>

    He disappeared again. Seven dayster after innumerable kind words, and the same amount of teleportations, Big Hairy finally took notice of the Captain. Suspicion glittered in its eyes as it let the Captain get within about 30 meters of it for the first time.

    The Captain immediately started to get excited. It actually felt simr to how he had been able to slowly get closer and closer to Li Shitao. Trying very hard to seem tender and gentle, he munched on a peach, issued continuous words of pacification, and slowly tried to get even closer.

    However, the haircake was clearly vignt, as it sent light swirling around the Captain to teleport him away.

    Suddenly feeling very anxious, the Captain said, ¡°You dropped something, Big Hairy! I just want to give it back to you!¡±

    Ignoring the distress it caused him, the Captain took out a small piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, about the size of a fingernail. Holding it out, he inched forward. The moment that flesh was in the open, the haircake¡¯s eyes went wide, and it let its guard down a bit. The Captain took advantage of that to get closer.

    He tossed the little chunk of meat into the haircake¡¯s mouth. Then, he pounced, reaching out to grab a handful of blue hairs. He yanked his hand back, and a ripping sound could be heard as several hundred pieces of hair ripped out. The haircake shivered, and blinding light spread out in all directions.

    Even the clouds in the area were teleported away, as was the Captain. However, this was a bit different than anything from before, as the haircake didn¡¯t go back to ying around after the teleportation. As soon as the teleportationpleted, it rushed off in a very specific direction.

    What followed over the next few days was that people in Extreme Peace County frequently saw a very shocking scene ying out in the sky. The haircake was surrounded by a sea of light as it chased a shadow figure. Whenever it caught up, it would open its mouth and start chewing, only to quickly realize it hadn¡¯t caught the true form of its quarry. Looking angry, it would continue searching.

    The same thing happened over and over again. The screams from the quarry echoed out far and wide.

    When the Sea-Sealing County cultivators saw what was happening, strange expressions appeared on their faces. Ningyan and Wu Jianwu sighed, but didn¡¯t seem very surprised. Plumdark didn¡¯t pay any attention.

    Xu Qing also sighed. Eventually, when it was nearing time to leave, he saw a blue worm wriggling in front of him.

    ¡°Was it worth it, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The blue worm was about the size of a thumb, and it had the Captain¡¯s head. It was, in fact, the Captain. And he looked very pleased with himself.

    ¡°Of course it was!¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m fine. Totally fine! As I guessed, that haircake is actually female. It¡¯s only natural she would have a bit of a temper. So I prepared a few clones for her to y around with. Considering what I acquired, it was totally worth it!

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, this teleportation portal is aplicated thing. Normally, the gaze of the broken face produces forbidden regions. For that gaze to turn something into a new life form is very rare. It¡¯s almost like a child of the broken face! And that means it must have some of the broken face¡¯s characteristics!

    ¡°Trust me, spending that bit of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh wasn¡¯t a waste at all. Getting a handful of those hairs is extremely significant!¡±

    ¡°As long as you¡¯re happy,¡± Xu Qing said. Not feeling inclined to pay any more attention, he closed his eyes and went back to meditating.

    The Captain wriggled off to the side in worm form, where hey and thought about how he would make use of the amazing hairs he had acquired.

    The haircake continued to rampage for a few more days. It still seemed angry, but at the same time, it was getting close to time for it to sleep again. Although it wasn¡¯t ready to give up, it had no choice but to return to Tranquil Sun Prefecture, drop back down to the ground, suck all of its hairs back up, and then turn back into an ordinary portal.

    The time hade for Xu Qing and everyone else to leave. Keeping their guard up the entire time, they went to the portal, where light red as the teleportation began. When that happened, the portal vibrated a few times, as if the sleeping haircake had sensed a familiar aura and wanted to wake up. Unfortunately, it couldn¡¯t awaken. In the end, the teleportation light begrudgingly wrapped everyone up and sent them away.

    The next leg of the journey involved taking multiple teleportations across multiple regions. There were some dys, but overall the journey went well. Three days after that long trek, they reached thest major teleportation portal in thest county.

    This county was called Southtrust, and it was the closest administrative district to the Imperial Region. It was located in the Gray Sea Region.

    There was a sea in the Gray Sea Region, but it was different from ordinary seas. In this region, there was a type of flying flower that was simr to a dandelion. During most parts of the year, they caused the ground to be covered with something that resembled gray cotton. It looked almost like a sea. That was how the ce got its name. In some ways, it resembled the white wind in the Bitter Life Mountains, although it was fundamentally different.

    When Xu Qing and everyone else appeared, it was in the peak season of the flying flowers, so everywhere they looked, gray cotton filled the sky and covered thend, creating a gray sea. It looked beautiful. However, to the people who lived in this area, it was actually a miserable disaster. If you breathed in that gray cotton, your life force would rapidly wither away. Therefore, the people who lived here had to constantly keep protective shields around them, or they had to dress in all-epassing clothing.

    As a result, the inhabitants of this region tended to be quiet and taciturn. Xu Qing and the others could sense that when they arrived.

    This ce was different than Extreme Peace County. The people here weren¡¯t on guard like they¡¯d been over there. What was more, they were much more scattered.

    Actually, that trend wasn¡¯t unique to Southtrust County. The further they got away from Sea-Sealing County, the less people seemed to be on guard. Apparently, the Holytide Region was so far away that word hadn¡¯t spread very far; what rumors had reached this distance didn¡¯t affect things very much.

    Since Southtrust County was so close to the Imperial Region, it made sense that they had close ties to the imperial capital. In fact, there were even influential people from the capital who, havinge out on the bottom politically, settled down there.

    That wasn¡¯t of much concern to Xu Qing and his traveling party. After leaving the teleportation portal, they nned to just wait until the portal was ready for use again, then finish thest leg of their journey. They were now one teleportation away from the Imperial Region.

    <i>We¡¯ll be there soon</i>. Xu Qing looked off into the endless grayness in the direction of the Imperial Region. <i>This is the county where Huang Yan¡¯s sister lives.</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t even sure how to search for that sister. ording to what Huang Yan told him, that feather would attract her attention and bring her to him.

    After thinking about it for a time, Xu Qing looked around until he spotted Ningyan.

    Ningyan looked different than he had in any other county. He seemed ill at ease, even nervous. Realizing Xu Qing was looking at him, he took a deep breath and walked over.

    ¡°Biggest Bro, I can sense the bloodline aura of my third sister.... She¡¯s not trying to hide it. Presumably she¡¯s sensed me as well.¡±

    ¡°Princess Anhai?¡± Xu Qing asked, thinking back to the imperial princess he had seen sitting next to Seventh Prince. [2]

    ¡°I have an idea of why she¡¯s here. There¡¯s an elderly person here that she knows well. It¡¯s her wet nurse, who was also the wet nurse of Fifth Prince. Because she and Fifth Prince did so well after they grew up, the emperor made special arrangements for their wet nurse to retire here, which is also her hometown.¡±

    Even as Ningyan exined these things, a figure appeared, floating through the gray sea to appear in front of Xu Qing and his traveling party. She was a handmaiden with piercing eyes and a profound cultivation base. The first thing she did was nce at Li Yunshan and Plumdark. Then she looked at Xu Qing. Finally, she turned her attention to Ningyan.

    Curtseying formally, she said, ¡°Well met, Your Majesty Twelfth Prince. The princess is currently having a meal with Nanny Sun. When she sensed your aura, she arranged for me to invite you to join her.¡±

    1. The Captain noticed Nethersprite¡¯s clothing in <u>chapter 273</u>. ?

    2. Princess Anhai was introduced in the short arc that started in <u>chapter 547.1</u>. Going forward, she¡¯s often referred to as Third Princess. However, for rity¡¯s sake, I¡¯m going to refer to her (mostly) as Princess Anhai. Trust me, there¡¯s going to be enough to keep track of in terms of numbers that doing it this way will make this a lot easier for you readers. ?

 Chapter 745: Seven-Colored Empress Spirit Aurora

    <h4>Chapter 745: Seven-Colored Empress Spirit Aurora</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t know much about Princess Anhai. On the day of that banquet with Seventh Prince, she hadn¡¯t said more than a few things. That said, considering how things yed out in the Holytide Region after that, she was clearly a very sharp individual. What was more, even back then, Seventh Prince had seemed leery of her.

    The way her handmaiden acted was also telling. She was neither servile nor overbearing, and acted very respectful, both in the way she carried herself and in her choice of words.

    Xu Qing looked at Ningyan. Ningyan hesitated. The handmaiden didn¡¯t say anything further. Bowing to Ningyan and Xu Qing, she left.

    Ningyan sighed. Looking at Xu Qing with some hesitation, he cautiously said, ¡°Biggest Bro, that Nanny Sun is very close friends with Third Sister¡¯s mother and Fifth Brother¡¯s mother. Rtionships around here are veryplicated. I should probably go. Would you mind apanying me, Biggest Bro?¡±

    The closer Ningyan got to the Imperial Region, the more nervous he felt. It was clear how torn he was about going back.

    Xu Qing thought about it. There were still a few more days before the teleportation portal would be ready, and Ningyan¡¯s request seemed sincere. Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± he said.

    Ningyan immediately brightened up. With Xu Qing around, he would be a bit more confident.

    Plumdark and Li Yunshan needed to keep the defensive spell formation operational, so they wouldn¡¯t go along. And the Captain, after months of researching the haircake¡¯s hair, didn¡¯t have the energy to join them.

    So Xu Qing and Ningyan took a contingent of swordsage guards with them and went to Nanny Sun¡¯s residence. There was no need to get directions. Ningyan could sense Princess Anhai, and thus, it didn¡¯t take long before they reached an outer courtyard that resembled a garden. It wasn¡¯t veryrge, and was full of flowers. It also had a permanent spell formation that kept the gray cotton out. There were ornamental rocks made from jade, as well as a spirit spring that filled the courtyard with spirit energy that surpassed anything from ordinary sects in Sea-Sealing County.

    A banquet was taking ce in the middle of the courtyard. In the seat of honor was an old woman with an amiable smile on her face and fine clothing. She wasughing and chatting with a young woman dressed in court attire.

    There were two other rows of tables filled with guests. People toasted each other, ate, and enjoyed themselves. At the same time, a host of handmaidens drifted amongst the tables, clearing away dirty dishes and bringing new food.

    In the very middle of it all were nine athletic-looking cultivators all fighting each other. The magical techniques, and their resulting shockwaves, were extraordinary, and it made for a very entertaining fight.

    Because of the bloodline fluctuations, Princess Anhai noticed immediately when Ningyan and Xu Qing arrived. She leaned over and said something to the old woman, who nodded in response.

    As Xu Qing and Ningyan neared, the courtyard¡¯s spell formation opened to let them in. Ningyan took a deep breath, nced at Xu Qing, and then forced himself to remain calm. Along with Xu Qing, he walked through the spell formation and into the courtyard. The fighting stopped briefly, as the cultivators respectfully made way.

    Ningyan hurried forward. Stopping in front of the old woman, he said, ¡°Well met, Nanny Sun.¡±

    Nanny Sun looked Ningyan up and down coolly, then nodded. After that, she seemed to ignore him. She didn¡¯t even bother looking at Xu Qing before going back to talking with Princess Anhai.

    Princess Anhai engaged Nanny Sun in conversation, but also shed an apologetic nod to Ningyan and Xu Qing.

    Ningyan hardly seemed to notice, as if he were used to being treated apathetically. In fact, he seemed to think things were going well so far. Picking a spot at the far end of one of the tables, he sat down.

    Xu Qing was even less concerned with people being apathetic. All he cared about was if someone was being malicious. Face calm, he sat down next to Ningyan.

    The banquet continued. Their arrival had been noticed by the other guests. Some discussed their presence, some smiled and nodded at them, others looked at them disdainfully. After everything Xu Qing had experienced in life, he knew that in some cases, the facial expressions revealed by people like this did reflect their actual disposition. But most of the time... they were just masks. Therefore, paying attention to facial expressions wasn¡¯t very useful.

    Picking up the gon of alcohol, he took a drink. When he did, his eyes narrowed. <i>This alcohol tastes a lot better than the kind from Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    It was clearly alcohol, but had a very full body when consumed. It made Xu Qing think of themon idiom <i>a rare beverage, an elixir of jade</i> used to describe fine liquor. After his first sip, he decided to take a few more sips.

    Next to him, Ningyan blinked a few times then quietly said, ¡°Biggest Bro, after we get to the imperial capital, I can take you to a few breweries I know of. They have some very fine alcohol there that I can get for you.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Then he sat there sipping the alcohol and waiting for the banquet to conclude.

    Time passed. There were more performances, and many of the guests chatted with each other in a very lively fashion. asionally, Princess Anhai would say something that pleased Nanny Sun, and everyone would smile. Xu Qing just sat there enjoying the alcohol. Ningyan apanied him. When they ran out, Ningyan would call a handmaiden over to bring more.

    Princess Anhai didn¡¯t seem to have any ill intentions. On a few asions, she tried to pull Xu Qing and Ningyan into the conversation. Such attempts all failed. Nanny Sun, though not hostile, didn¡¯t seem to care about them, and continued to treat them indifferently. Finally, Princess Anhai seemed to realize she wasn¡¯t going to be able to talk with them, and sent a handmaiden over with a message.

    ¡°Please, don¡¯t misunderstand,¡± the handmaiden said quietly. ¡°The princess has good intentions. However, even though Nanny Sun isn¡¯t in the imperial capital anymore, she still has deep connections there. She has close friends among the family of many princes, princesses, and other royalty. With her approval, it would be possible to smooth out many threats to His Majesty Ningyan. The princess was originally hoping to do just that.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and lifted his cup in a toast to Princess Anhai. Princess Anhai nodded. As it turned out, she did have good intentions, it was just that Nanny Sun clearly didn¡¯t like Ningyan very much.

    Soon, it was nearing sunset, and the clouds above were a rosy red color. After all the drinking, Xu Qing belched slightly. He felt veryfortable after the drinking, and was just about to take Ningyan and leave.

    But then a sound like heavenly thunder filled the sky. The clouds seethed, parting to reveal a seven-colored beam of light, almost like a multicolored waterfall. Within that seven-colored waterfall was a huge peacock, sorge it seemed to fill the entire sky. After appearing, it became clear that the seven colors actually came from its tail. This peacock was unusually mighty and beautiful, so much so that the sky andnds seemed to be dull in its presence. Much of Southtrust County was shaken by what was happening, and that included the courtyard where the banquet was taking ce. Everyone stood and looked up into the sky. That included Nanny Sun, whose eyes shone with delight as she looked up.

    ¡°Empress Spirit Aurora!¡±

    The Gray Sea Region had a lot of forbidden regions, but it only had one forbidden ground. Its name was Light Tomb. That forbidden ground had an empress named Aurora, who treated all species with kindness. Also being terrifyingly powerful, the species in the Gray Sea Region were mostly able to live peacefully. [1]

    As a result, she came to be known as Empress Spirit Aurora. She didn¡¯t make public appearances often, but whenever she did, her seven-colored light would purify the gray cotton, making it even more beautiful. As a result, throughout the Gray Sea Region, her presence was considered an auspicious sign.

    She¡¯d had dealings with Nanny Sun in the past. In fact, years ago, she had shown favor to Nanny Sun, which added anotheryer of protection in the eyes of many people.

    When Nanny Sun saw her benefactor arriving, she smiled respectfully. Then she prepared to watch Empress Spirit Aurora leave. After all, she was well aware that Empress Spirit Aurora didn¡¯t appear publicly very often; the fact that she was here now must mean she had something important to do. As far as she was concerned, Empress Spirit Aurora was surely just passing by, not here to see her specifically.

    Only momentster, though, shock filled her. And it wasn¡¯t just her. Everyone else in the courtyard, including Princess Anhai, became deeply astonished.

    That was because the incredibly auspicious Empress Spirit Aurora didn¡¯t depart as they expected. Instead, she approached the courtyard. As she did, she transformed, leaving her peacock form and taking human form. She was graceful, with a cold, elegant facial expression. She was very beautiful, like a plum flower in winter. Her looks would capture the attention of anyone who saw her, and might make them forget that even small twigs can have sharp thorns. Her long, ck hair was coiled and bound with a hairpin, the pearls of which emanated a seven-colored glow as she approached. She wore pce attire and resembled an immortal, graceful and proud, with phoenix-like eyes that would incline anyone who looked into them to bow their head. Her violet garment swayed in the wind, making her seem even more attractive and elegant.

    Nanny Sun looked very serious as she respectfully said, ¡°I offer respectful greetings, Empress Spirit Aurora.¡±

    Everyone else in the courtyard, even Princess Anhai, sped hands and bowed. Ningyan inhaled sharply, and was clearly entranced by this woman¡¯s beauty. It was hard to say if his face was red because he was blushing, or because of the glow being emitted by Empress Spirit Aurora.

    The immortal-like Empress Spirit Aurora looked calmly at everyone bowing to her. She nodded at Nanny Sun, then ignored her as she entered the courtyard. As everyone watched, she walked to the far end of one of the tables.

    Ningyan stood there getting more and more excited as he assumed that she was looking at him. But then, he was shaken with the realization that she wasn¡¯t looking at him. She was looking at... Xu Qing.

    Empress Spirit Aurora stopped in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡± she said. ¡°Huang Yan told me about you.¡±

    Everyone present felt like they were being struck by lightning, and stared at what was happening with utter disbelief.

    That was especially true of Nanny Sun. She had heard of Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t care much about him. And even if she did think of him as being important in some ways, considering their difference in age, there was no need for her to try to make friends with him. If they were kindred spirits, then their acquaintance woulde naturally. If they weren¡¯t kindred spirits, then he was nothing more than a passerby. But then, the rarely seen Empress Spirit Aurora specifically came to visit this Xu Qing. Nanny Sun¡¯s entire way of thinking was shaken.

    As for Xu Qing, he was a little surprised, but at the same time, this was within the realm of what he had expected could happen. He quickly sped hands and bowed, then took out the feather Huang Yan had given him, as well as the bag.

    Empress Spirit Aurora nced at the feather, then took the bag. Opening it, she found a red fruit which she put into her mouth. After looking around, she sat down next to Xu Qing and indicated for him to sit as well. Xu Qing obedientlyplied. She took out another fruit and offered it to him.

    ¡°Want something to eat?¡±

    He epted the fruit and put it in his mouth. His eyes lit up. The fruit had a very unique vor that was even more pleasurable than the alcohol he had just consumed.

    Everyone else in the courtyard looked around awkwardly. Ningyan, his heart racing, looked at Xu Qing and exulted in his heart.

    <i>This is what the Biggest Bro is supposed to be like!</i>

    Chest swelling, he sat down.

    After a moment of awkward silence in the courtyard, Nanny Sun arranged for the performances to continue. This time, everything proceeded with much more solemnity, and many a nce was cast in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    The smile gradually returned to Nanny Sun¡¯s face. She looked at Xu Qing, then Ningyan, and after some thought, kindly said, ¡°Your Majesty Twelfth Prince,e over here and let me take a look at you, boy. Time really has flown by. I can still remember like yesterday that time years ago when your mother moved in to the pce. The ceremony put on by His Majesty was spectacr.¡±

    1. ¡°Hey, Deathde, did you know that female peacocks are called peahens?¡± Yes, I know. ¡°Hey, Deathde, did you know that female peacocks don¡¯t actually have colorful tails?¡± Yes, I know. ¡°Hey, Deathde, does Er Gen know that female peacocks, which are most properly called peahens, don¡¯t actually have colorful tails?¡± I honestly have no idea, but I suspect he does. This is a mythological fantasy universe, not real life. ?

 Chapter 746: What Was Once the Number One Region in Revered Ancient

    <h4>Chapter 746: What Was Once the Number One Region in Revered Ancient</h4>

    Nanny Sun¡¯s words caused the guests of the banquet to look down to hide their facial expressions. There were some people who were taboo.... Not to be mentioned....

    Princess Anhai¡¯s eyes glittered. She was fully aware that her former wet nurse had been a very connected person when she was young, and had plenty of tactics to deal with court politics. If she hadn¡¯t been like that, she would never have been a wet nurse to both Princess Anhai and Fifth Prince. Nor would she have survived in the imperial pce, or been rewarded by the emperor with a retirement in her hometown.

    It went without saying that Nanny Sun was very intelligent and also fiercely loyal to the emperor. Given her experience and breadth of knowledge, she was keenly aware of how words could sometimes be weaponized, or used to tacitly exin your attitude. Sometimes, a few short words could be packed with meaning. And of course, the words she had just spoken were just like that: profoundly meaningful.

    Princess Anhai looked thoughtfully at Nanny Sun with her kind facial expression. The truth was that Princess Anhai had never been able to dig up any information about Nanny Sun¡¯s life before she entered service in the imperial pce. Apparently, nobody knew anything about her. No amount of digging by Princess Anhai had resulted in any information. All she knew was that she¡¯d had a daughter who died young. Then her own mother had submitted an official request to the court for her to enter service in the pce as Princess Anhai¡¯s wet nurse.

    Of course, wet nurses in the imperial pce had a lot more to do than just breast-feed babies. They upied a very special position. In order to prevent political friction between the harem and the imperial n, the emperor¡¯s household used the tactic of keeping the princes and their birth mothers from bing very close. And the wet nurses were an important part of that tactic.

    They would actually live with the imperial princes and princesses, apanying them and acting as teachers from the time they were young until they were considered adults. They essentially took over the role of mother, spending almost all their time with the princes and princesses. The wet nurses would shape the world view of the young ones, thus greatly influencing their future, their attitude, and the way they went about handling matters. In the imperial household, the wet nurses were also teachers and mothers.

    As Princess Anhai considered those things, Nanny Sun reached out and patted her arm. Princess Anhai looked up, then smiled instinctively and turned to Ningyan.

    Ningyan had aplicated facial expression. Nanny Sun¡¯s words obviously made him think of his own mother, dredging up a sense of mncholy along with many old memories. He had already reached the point where he couldn¡¯t quite remember what his mother looked like. Her name was taboo in the imperial capital. People didn¡¯t even talk about her. In fact, he didn¡¯t remember even hearing her name until after she had passed away.

    Ningyan took a deep breath, walked up to Nanny Sun, and bowed.

    Nanny Sun looked at Ningyan and kept the kind smile on her face as she indicated he should sit at her side, opposite Princess Anhai. After he sat down, she reached out and sped his hand. Inside, she was sighing. She¡¯d known all along why Anhai had brought Ningyan to the banquet. However, after Nanny Sun left the imperial capital, she¡¯d always been reluctant to meddle with affairs there.

    After all, the death of King Heaventide, and the emperor¡¯s imperial decree, were both deeply meaningful. However you looked at it, it seemed to indicate that a tempestuous session struggle was about to strike the imperial capital.

    There was another relevant factor rted to Ningyan.... Something that had been buried in history and that few people knew about was that Nanny Sun had personally watched Ningyan¡¯s mother as she rose to prominence. Nanny Sun had witnessed her outstanding talents, but had also been there when, overnight, everything ended in blood-soaked tragedy. An imperial prince had even died during that time. That prince was Ningyan¡¯s older twin brother. From that day on, Ningyan had been alienated by most people in the pce. Her previous indifferent attitude toward Ningyan and Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been born of malice. Rather, it was a case of <i>I¡¯ll mind my business, you mind yours</i>.

    But when Empress Spirit Aurora came, that changed everything. Nanny Sun wasn¡¯t going to take any desperate risks. But on the other hand, she had to do something. And thus, she spoke the words she did, and acted as she had.

    Everyone in attendance at the banquet had connections in the imperial capital. Rumors about her words and actions would quickly spread. And that was enough.

    The banquet proceeded until the moon hung high in the sky. At that point, Empress Spirit Aurora stretched, rose, and left. Xu Qing also got up and bid farewell to Nanny Sun.

    Nanny Sun looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then took out three jade slips and held them out to Ningyan. She exined that she wanted him to deliver them to three of her old friends in the capital. Ningyan looked instinctively at Xu Qing, who nodded at him. Taking a deep breath, he solemnly took the three jade slips. With that, they left.

    The moon shone down on them as they walked back to the teleportation portal. Thoughts of the past had caused Ningyan¡¯s mood to sink, and he just walked quietly alongside Xu Qing.

    About halfway back, Xu Qing reached out and sped Ningyan¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. Regardless of anything, you¡¯re always going to be a swordsage from Sea-Sealing County.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words warmed Ningyan¡¯s heart. He sighed softly. ¡°Thank you, Biggest Bro. Actually, you¡¯re right. I just don¡¯t want to lose any face for you. The reality is that the position of imperial prince isn¡¯t much of a position at all. I¡¯ve long been sidelined, and nobody wants to have anything to do with me.

    ¡°I know why. It¡¯s my mother. In the imperial capital, she¡¯s a taboo subject.... I used to have an older brother. My twin. He was a lot more decisive than me. And smarter. He was basically better than me in every respect. He was a bit taciturn, but there wasn¡¯t anything that could knock him down. He always treated me amazingly. When we were young, and I was especially weak, he would keep me safe. But he died the day after my mother died. So did everyone else in the house at the time, except for me, the most useless of all.

    ¡°After that, I felt lost in the imperial capital. All I could do was carefully try to navigate things on my own. Oh how <i>amazing </i>the imperial capital is....¡± Ningyan shook his head bitterly. ¡°Some yearster, my father issued an imperial decree sending me to Sea-Sealing County. I was supposed to go undercover there and keep records about everything going on. That was when I ran into you, Biggest Bro.¡±

    Ningyan looked over at Xu Qing in the moonlight. He had never talked to anyone about these things before. It was because, along his journey, he had somehow started to feel like Xu Qing was an older brother to him.

    Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven, as if he was thinking about someone.... Finally, he reached over and tousled Ningyan¡¯s hair. ¡°If you¡¯re not happy in the imperial capital, then we¡¯ll go back to Sea-Sealing County together.¡±

    ¡°Okay!¡± Ningyan said, nodding firmly.

    Xu Qing smiled, and they continued on their way.

    A few dayster, the Southtrust County teleportation portal activated. Xu Qing and the traveling party entered it, and this time they had an additional member of the party.

    Princess Anhai.

    Before the portal was activated, she had requested to go back to the Imperial Region with Xu Qing¡¯s group.

    ***

    Three regions away from the Gray Sea Region, on a vast in, was a massive teleportation portal that currently red with glittering light. It was at least three timesrger than any of the other ancient portals Xu Qing had seen on the journey. What was more, the entire thing was crafted from the highest quality spirit stone. A host of monolithic stones surrounded the portal, all of them carved with magical symbols that emitted terrifying fluctuations.

    Some distance away was a military encampment. They were responsible for standing guard over the teleportation portal. In fact, soldiers from there patrolled the area constantly.

    There wasn¡¯t just one teleportation portal present. There were many, and all of them went to different locations. What was more, there were military encampments for all of them. This entire area was circr in shape. In fact, it was like a huge ring,rger than some small-sized regions. And this was only one part of the Imperial Region. There was an outer ring, separated by a sea of nothingness, followed by a slightly smaller ring. Then another, and another. In total there were about a hundred.

    And in the middle of those rings was a gargantuan. Even from a great distance, it was possible to see its shape. It wasn¡¯t covered with solid matter, but rather, gas! Its surface was covered with clouds, out of which vortexes would asionally appear, along with crashing lightning. This was a gas giant! The had rings around it, which were concentric continents. Beneath the was a pitch ck abyss.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s party appeared on the outermost ring, Princess Anhai began to speak.

    ¡°Wee to the Imperial Region! The entire region is actually suspended in midair. Beneath it is an abyss so deep that nobody knows what¡¯s inside. Legend has it the abyss leads to a ce called Brilliant Heaven.

    ¡°The Imperial Region is actually an astonishing gas giant. Years ago, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity pulled it here from beyond the heavens and turned it into the imperial pce. Nowadays, it¡¯s considered an ancestralnd for all humans.

    ¡°Not even children of the imperial n are allowed to go inside the gas giant. Only the emperor and the crown prince can go inside to offer ancestral sacrifices.

    ¡°The gas giant is surrounded by a hundred rings, which is where themon citizens live. Right now, we¡¯re standing on the outermost ring. Although it looks like solid ground, it¡¯s actually pure light, solidified by means of a divine ability.

    ¡°As you get closer to the, you¡¯ll find that the rings are increasingly formed from gas. Of course, the qualifications to live on the rings increase as you get further in. The innermost ring... is the imperial capital.¡±

    Everyone from Sea-Sealing County was stunned. It didn¡¯t matter the level of their cultivation base, or how worldly wise they were. Princess Anhai''s description struck everyone to the core.

    The only exceptions were the Captain, who sneered slightly, and Plumdark, who looked at the with her eyes glittering. Everyone else, despite being shaken, managed to recover theirposure quickly. Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked at Princess Anhai and nodded.

    Princess Anhai¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. However, she was secretly surprised. Considering that the Imperial Region had once been the number-one region in Revered Ancient, when ordinary people saw it for the first time, they usually had a hard time processing what they were seeing. But these Sea-Sealing County cultivators had recovered very quickly.

    Suppressing her surprise, she led Xu Qing and everyone else onward. A few dayster, thanks to Princess Anhai¡¯s arrangements, they were nearing the inner ring that was the imperial capital.

    The gas giant became clearer and clearer. The clouds on its surface swirled endlessly. asionally, they would part, revealing an astonishing statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    The statue sat cross-legged on the, and though it wasn¡¯t alive, it looked extremely lifelike.

 Chapter 747: Revered Ancientâ€™s Last Summer Immortal

    ¡°The has a name. Ancient Emperor! It¡¯s not just the imperial pce constructed by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. There¡¯s also a legacy in it that, supposedly, only people with imperial energy can gain enlightenment of. To this day, none of the sessive imperial ns have seeded at it.¡±

    As Princess Anhai led them along, she continued to introduce the Imperial Region to everyone. ¡°I once had the chance to read some ancient records that talked about the origin of the huge statue of the Ancient Emperor that rests on the. It wasn¡¯t always there. After the Ancient Emperor left, that statue was brought from beyond the heavens by Emperor Mirrorcloud. Along with it came a dharmic decree from the holynds. The ancient records I was reading didn¡¯t exin what was in that decree. Few people know the details.

    ¡°Although Ancient Emperor is considered the ancestralnd of all humankind, it¡¯s also a restricted area. You can only go inside to seek enlightenment during special time periods.¡±

    As Xu Qing and everyone else learned more about the Imperial Region, they got closer and closer. Everyone was listening very closely to the information. As for the Captain, he looked at Ancient Emperor with deep longing hidden in his eyes.

    <em>Damn. In my attempts to get in there, I died multiple times in past lives... and never seeded.</em> Then his gaze fell to the abyss, and he sighed again. <em>I never got in there either.</em>

    Plumdark had aplicated expression on her face. She looked at Ancient Emperor with reminiscence flickering in her eyes. It wasn¡¯t lost on her that the up ahead was her home in a past life.

    Although Ningyan didn¡¯t know as much about Ancient Emperor as Princess Anhai, he had grown up here, so he was used to the general concept. As she exined all the history and other information, he nodded frequently.

    Wu Jianwu was visibly excited, and was convinced that he had an eighty to ny percent chance of improving his poetry here. He could only imagine what poems might be there to be found in the imperial pce chambers.

    As for Xu Qing, his attention wasn¡¯t focused solely on Ancient Emperor. He was looking through the rings to the abyss beneath the Imperial Region.Princess Anhai had mentioned a legend that this very abyss led to a ce called ¡®Brilliant Heaven.¡¯ Although few people could know what Brilliant Heaven was, after what Xu Qing had experienced in the Moonrite Region... he had an idea of what it was. It was the original home of both Crimson Mother and Li Zihua. It was also a highly suppressed taboo in Revered Ancient.

    As Princess Anhai continued with her introduction, she started talking about something thatpletely interrupted Xu Qing¡¯s train of thought. ¡°Legacies have been left behind on the by various heavenly marquises, heavenly kings, and Grand Emperors who died in battle over the years. There are also legacies from heavenly marquises and heavenly kings who left for the holynds.

    ¡°Thest person to leave behind a legacy was Grand Emperor Swordsage, who was the veryst Grand Emperor of humankind. In order to make sure humanity wasn¡¯t wiped out in war, he left a clone behind in the Imperial Region. The legacy left behind by the Grand Emperor is The Emperor¡¯s Sword. It¡¯s located in the depths of Ancient Emperor, where it has remained buried for countless years....¡± [1]

    Xu Qing looked back at Ancient Emperor. To him, Grand Emperor Swordsage had deep significance. One of his main goals for this trip was to find the Grand Emperor and bow to him.

    ¡°Your Majesty Anhai,¡± he said suddenly, ¡°is Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s clone on Ancient Emperor, or....¡±

    It was the first time he¡¯d spoken since arriving at the Imperial Region.

    Princess Anhai was more than happy to answer his question. ¡°Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s clone turned into a statue, but it¡¯s not on Ancient Emperor. It¡¯s outside, where it forms the final line of defense for the ancestralnds of all humankind. It¡¯ll take a few more teleportations to reach the inner ring, and the imperial capital. Once we¡¯re there, you can see it for yourself.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded as they continued on their way.

    Time passed. Because of having Princess Anhai with them, they were able to proceed through the Imperial Region without any trouble. Three more teleportationster, which was early in the morning of the next day, they finally saw the imperial capital.

    That was also where Xu Qing spotted... Grand Emperor Swordsage!

    The entire inner ring was the capital. Along its borders were numerous towering ck towers, along with a host of statues. They circled around the entire Ancient Emperor. Each statue was different in style and form. All were human, and they included men and women, old and young. They all had varying facial expressions. The seven emotions and six sensory pleasures were all visible on different statues.

    ¡°The ck towers are part of the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation. The statues, with the exception of the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage, were all built byter generations. They¡¯re the saints and emperors who have died in the years since the time of the Ancient Emperors.

    ¡°Among them are the original one-hundred-and-eight heavenly marquises, the thirty-three heavenly kings of the past, and nine Grand Emperors.

    ¡°Unfortunately, humankind fell into decline. Later on, Emperor Eastglory had twenty-seven heavenly kings who qualified to be statues here. But after the Darkheaven Rebellion, humankind truly fell into dark times. During Emperor Sageheaven¡¯s time, only five heavenly kings could qualify. Things seemed to go well during the reign of Emperor Mirrorcloud, yet there were only six heavenly kings who qualified then.

    ¡°By the time Emperor Dao Life came, no one qualified other than the emperor himself. Now here we are, in the Dark War calendar, and things haven¡¯t changed.¡± Princess Anhai sighed softly.

    Off to the side, Kong Xianglong, who had been silent the whole time, couldn¡¯t hold back from asking, ¡°What cultivation base is required to qualify?¡±

    ¡°Imperial Sovereign. In the time of the Ancient Emperors, only Imperial Sovereigns could serve as heavenly marquises. The so-called heavenly marquises were like nobility from heaven, who could crush all thends of an entire region.

    ¡°Only peak Imperial Sovereigns could be heavenly kings. Heavenly kings could crush multiple regions, or just one, depending on their whim. And the orders of heavenly kings could only be surpassed by those of the emperor.¡±

    At this point, Princess Anhai looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Senior Li Zihua of the Moonrite Region was an Imperial Sovereign, and thus, he was one of the heavenly kings that served the Ancient Emperor of the time. He has a statue here as well.¡±

    ¡°What about the Grand Emperors?¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°In the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, many species would produce Grand Emperors. That said, they were rtively rare. Only humans, who benefited from the destiny aura of Revered Ancient, were able to produce nine. Their cultivation base surpassed that of the Imperial Sovereigns. As a result, they were also called... Quasi-Immortals. After the time of the Ancient Emperors, even now, there are no species who have produced Grand Emperors.¡± [2]

    ¡°Quasi-Immortal...¡± Xu Qing murmured, his eyes gleaming as he looked in the direction of the inner ring. He saw all the statues there, and also noticed that, in front of all the other statues, there was one particr statue that looked different.

    It depicted a middle-aged man who initially seemed like a schr. But if you looked closer, you would see a sharp glint in his eyes. He seemed domineering, as if his anger could shatter the ground in front of him and set the dome of heaven aze. It was as if his gaze was the type that could even kill gods. His hands were sped behind his back, and a towering sword energy pulsed from behind him, bing dazzling white light. All-in-all the statue was extremely realistic, as if he was a real person standing there. He was thest Grand Emperor of humankind, and also the only one who didn¡¯t leave with Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. He stayed behind to make sure humankind wasn¡¯t wiped out in war. He was Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    As Xu Qing looked at the statue, he took in a deep breath and inclined his head respectfully. At the same time, he asked Princess Anhai a question that he had wondered about for a long time. ¡°What cultivation base did Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity have?¡±

    Everyone else looked over. The Captain seemed extremely curious. Only Plumdark kept her gaze on Ancient Emperor.

    Anhai was silent for a moment. Then she sighed.

    ¡°Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s cultivation base is a bit of a mystery. That said, there are some imperial records that contain a description of him.

    ¡°Toward the end of the rebellion, the emperor came from the south. When he stepped onto Receiving Prefecture, thends quaked to meet him. The heavenly daos blessed him from the dome of heaven, calling him a Quasi-Immortal. Three thousand yearster, humans were once again in power. Countless species offered worship, and Grand Emperors bowed their heads, all of them calling him a Summer Immortal.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    ¡°Summer Immortal!¡± Plumdark said from off to the side. ¡°Despite all the species that exist and all the years that have passed, he was... thest Summer Immortal in Revered Ancient.¡±

    Everyone in the group suddenly looked over at Plumdark. Even Princess Anhai did so. Plumdark closed her eyes and said nothing further. Everyone stood there silently.

    Xu Qing had long since noticed that Plumdark seemed to be wrestling old memories, and thus chose not to ask any further questions. They proceeded on their way. As they neared, the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage became easier to see. As for the ck towers in between the statues, they glittered with mysterious light that spread out, connecting all of the towers and encircling the imperial capital.

    Meanwhile, streams of divine sense emerged from the inner ring, along with numerous gazes. All of them locked onto Xu Qing and his group. The divine will and gazes contained different sensations. Some of them were on guard, some had mixed feelings, some were simply curious, some were hostile, and some seemed judgmental....

    Although Xu Qing had never been to the imperial capital before, his name had long since reached these parts.

    He was the most respected person in his region, backed by multiple Smoldering Gods, and the leader of the Nightshade high priests. He had participated in the killing of a god, and was also responsible for the death of King Heaventide.... Because of that, the imperial princes, princesses, and other nobility had no choice but to take him seriously. And of course, from the moment he stepped onto the teleportation portal to begin his journey, intelligence reports about him had circted, which many people studied closely. Now, he had finally arrived.

    They stopped at the void that led to the inner ring. As they stood there, Xu Qing could sense the terrifying power of the grand spell formation protecting the imperial capital. It contained a boundless mightiness, as well as the power to inspect anyone. If you entered the bounds of that spell formation, every secret within you would be revealed, including anything in your bag of holding. Normally speaking, such a high level of security wouldn¡¯t be used outside of extraordinary circumstances. After all, just about everyone who came and went from the imperial capital had lots of secrets.

    Xu Qing frowned and looked at Anhai.

    She also frowned, took out a jade slip, and sent a message. She didn¡¯t look very happy. ¡°A few days ago some nonhuman agents showed up and triggered the grand spell formation. Since then, it¡¯s been on high alert, scanning everything....¡±

    The Captain sidled over to Xu Qing, smiled, and said, ¡°It¡¯s a pretext that no one could possibly find fault with. They want to use the imperial capital¡¯s spell formation to scan us. Interesting. Seems the people here really are clever and shrewd. And dangerous.¡±

    1. The name of the legacy technique is the same as the imperial-ss technique used by the swordsages that Xu Qing learned a while ago. It¡¯s not exined outright, but I think the idea is that this is the ultimateplete version of that technique, or perhaps a parent technique to it. ?

    2. I try to avoid what I call ¡°term cross-over¡± in which one English word is used as a trantion for two different Chinese characters/words. But sometimes it happens, and it¡¯s very evident here. The author actually uses a few different characters that I¡¯m all rendering as ¡®emperor.¡¯ Not only do we have some ¡®emperor¡¯ uses that are referring to cultivation levels, but also, we have the actual ruler of humankind, who is also ¡®emperor.¡¯ Generally speaking, I capitalized cultivation levels, so that¡¯s one way to easily tell the difference. The lower-case ¡®emperor¡¯ is referring to the rulership title, not anything rted to cultivation. To make things more confusing, I¡¯ve been capitalizing Ancient Emperor, yet as you will find out in this chapter, that¡¯s not exclusively understood to be a cultivation level per se. I feel like I¡¯m already getting into the weeds here, so to make things simple, just refer to the information in the narrative of this chapter to understanding the cultivation levels, and also, remember that the human emperor¡¯s title isn¡¯t necessarily indicative of the level of his cultivation base. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    Many thanks to <strong>Hofner1962 </strong>and <strong>Lord Deshy</strong> for the reviews!</blockquote>

 Chapter 748: A Storm Gathers

    <h4>Chapter 748: A Storm Gathers</h4>

    The fact that the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation was powered up to its highest level of scanning right when Xu Qing came could either be a very big coincidence, or it was as the Captain had said, and it was all intentional.

    The reality was that the Captain was right. As Xu Qing and his group stopped outside of the grand spell formation, there were people inside the imperial capital who were chuckling coldly. And there were many organizations in the capital who were watching to see what would happen.

    To them, Xu Qing and these people from Sea-Sealing County were all strangers. Though they knew some of them had impressive backgrounds, all of their information came solely from intelligence reports. None had interacted with any of them personally. In the imperial capital, where rtionships were extremelyplicated, and it was always hard to tell what people were thinking, one had to be very careful around strangers.

    Therefore, most organizations in the capital wanted to just wait to see how things yed out. They were more than happy to watch the results of other people meddling. That would also give them a good idea of how they should act in the future. After all, there was no ck or white in this world. Alliances and loyalties. Profits and losses. Those were the things which drove action. Friendship and hatred were like masks that could be switched on a whim.

    Sometimes such changes happened in an instant, other times they took a long time. But everything was always done out of expediency. It was the same with humans and nonhumans alike. It was just the natural order of things, and also a key factor in any society.

    As they became the center of attention, the Captain smiled and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What do you think, little Junior Brother?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral as he looked at the spell formation. ¡°Since people want a show, let¡¯s give it to them.¡±

    He walked toward the spell formation. He had faith in the violet crystal. Neither Emperor Ancient Spirit nor Crimson Mother had noticed it, so he doubted this spell formation would be able to either. Other than the violet crystal, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have anything he felt the need to hide.

    As he entered the range of the spell formation, ripples flowed out, covering him. The scanning... had begun.

    The moment the power of scanning was unleashed, the spell formation vibrated and sent out a stream of dazzling blue light. That blue color was the spell formation¡¯s way of indicating the threat level of the person being scanned.

    Xu Qing could sense that this development was because of his god body. Clearly, his fleshly body was provoking a reaction in the spell formation.

    Inside the imperial capital, various parties looked on thoughtfully. When they saw the blue light, they were surprised. However, as Xu Qing continued walking, and the scanning power went deeper, the spell formation color changed. It went from blue to yellow. Loud rumblings sounds rose up!

    Xu Qing could sense why it was happening. It was because of his god troves. In fact, the air behind him rippled as his god troves became visible.

    The nobility in the capital would have been fine with such an oue. Yellow light was eptable. But then, in the blink of an eye, their hearts leaped into their throats as the spell formation scanned a little metal ball that Xu Qing kept at his waist. As soon as the spell formation touched that ball, it floated up and emitted blinding light!

    The imperial capital¡¯s spell formation made a loud whining noise, almost anxious. That instantly captured the attention of everyone looking on. What was more, the spell formation changed from yellow to orange!

    It was a strong warning, indicating that the subject of the scan was extremely dangerous!

    Princess Anhai¡¯s expression flickered, and as she looked at Xu Qing in the spell formation, she felt deep astonishment.

    <i>He really does have a Dawning Sun!</i>

    But things were far from over yet. Xu Qing took another step forward, and Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh in his god troves and bag of holding caused blood-colored light to glitter around him. That blood-colored light filled the surroundings with the aura of a god. In response, the spell formation erupted, and all the nearby ck towers shook violently. This time, the lighting from the spell formation turned pure red! The color red was a huge warning sign!

    All organizations in the imperial capital were now watching very seriously. The parties who had secretly arranged for this to y out were looking on with grave expressions.

    ¡°Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh!¡±

    ¡°ording to the stories, he just helped out a bit. But that¡¯s obviously nonsense! You can tell just by looking at him right now!¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t just participate in killing Crimson Mother. He got some actual flesh!¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had begun the process ofbining some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh with the ancient sun, leading to an even more astounding result. This was not simply a matter of adding one thing to another....

    In the blink of an eye, the spell formation¡¯s color went from red to ck!! Allnds in the imperial capital were shaken. All of the defenses for this core area of humankind red to life. Ancient bells and drums rang out in the capital.

    <i>Ding... dong... ding....</i>

    The ancient bells shook heaven and earth. The hearts of everyone raced. All parties in the imperial capital were visibly taken aback.

    Next, a host of terrifying auras from within the imperial capital locked down the area.

    The Captain was startled, and everyone from Sea-Sealing County looked around with grim expressions. Li Yunshan¡¯s eyes shone with cold light, and Plumdark¡¯s eyes glittered mysteriously as she looked at Ancient Emperor. The cloud cover on the stirred imperceptibly. It seemed like a catastrophe could strike at any moment.

    That was when the Captain raised his voice and said, ¡°The region lord of our Holytide Region hase here at the behest of the emperor himself. And yet people are using this spell formation to humiliate him? To try to force him to tap into his reserve powers? What¡¯s the meaning of this?

    ¡°Could it be that someone wants to sow discord between the Holytide and Imperial Regions? Does someone really want to fracture humankind at a time like this? How... devious and malicious!¡±

    The people who had orchestrated this behind the scenes were stunned. The truth was that they had hoped to probe Xu Qing. However, the result was far, far beyond anything they had predicted would happen! In fact, it had reached a level they couldn¡¯t deal with.

    They had just wanted to intimidate Xu Qing a little bit, not unleash a tempest. In fact, things had already reached the point of slipping out of control, which they couldn¡¯t let happen. The ck-colored warning indicated an extremely dangerous threat. What was more, people could tell that everything was happening because of the spell formation¡¯s reaction; Xu Qing wasn¡¯t doing anything to make it happen.

    An instantter, various people took steps to end the interference with the spell formation. Tongueshings were given. And the Administration Division, which was responsible for maintaining the spell formation, stepped in. Almost instantly, the fluctuationsing off the grand spell formation died down. After only a few breaths of time, the spell formation was back to normal, and was no longer scanning anyone.

    The Captain, Li Yunshan, and Plumdark rushed over to Xu Qing, who stood there with his eyes closed. There, they performed incantation gestures to keep the surroundings under control.

    As all parties were closely watching Xu Qing, his eyes opened. He had ceasedbining Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and the ancient sun.

    The Captain took a deep breath, looked at Xu Qing, and smiled wryly. He wasn¡¯tpletely sure what Xu Qing had been nning to do, but the thought scared him. Regardless, he had been able to sense that Xu Qing was about to do something crazy. As for the various groups in the Imperial Region... they sensed it too.

    Plumdark didn¡¯t say anything. She helped Xu Qing straighten out his garments. Her gaze was soft but determined as she looked into his eyes. He smiled and nodded at her. Then he looked at the Captain, blinked a few times, and finally turned his attention to the path ahead. The now-calm spell formation opened up for him, allowing him and the others from Sea-Sealing County to enter without hindrance.

    Once inside the imperial capital, Xu Qing looked ahead and saw a roadway of white jade stretching out in front of him. There were actually over a thousand such roadways in the inner ring. They shone like suns, casting out dazzling light as they linked together the urban areas with everything else.

    That distant urban area was made of countless buildings. They had roofs with white tiles, and came in all sizes. Though they seemed ancient, they were also grand and magnificent. The architectural style alone was impressive. Scattered randomly were five-sided, three-story buildings that seemed especially unique. Everything was beautiful and refined, and whenbined with the amazing architecture, it was no wonder this was the most imposing city that humans controlled.

    There was one particr building that stood out among all the others. Though it was very far away, it was possible to see that it was an eight-sided tower, pure white, like a temple of heaven amongst the clouds. It was even taller than all of the statues.

    With its peak among the clouds, and surrounded by swirling mists, it was just barely possible to see that the huge building was surrounded by flying animals. It looked very auspicious.

    Princess Anhai took a deep breath, regained herposure, and walked over to Xu Qing. Noticing what he was looking at, she quietly said, ¡°That¡¯s the residence of the imperial preceptor. It¡¯s called Star-Plucking Tower. The imperial preceptor is very mysterious, and generally refuses audiences except when summoned by my father, the emperor. In fact, I myself have onlyid eyes on him once from behind.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Star-Plucking Tower and nodded.

    ¡°The imperial capital has the imperial pce, of course. But there are also the ten divisions, specifically, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions and the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions. [1]

    ¡°It¡¯s a very ancient system. Most of the other administrative districts have pces associated with the Five Greater Celestial Divisions. Specifically those are: Swordsage, Justice, and Administration. But there¡¯s also Special Operations, which handles foreign affairs and other special circumstances. Last is the division responsible for immortal skills and gods. The Creation Division. The Five Greater Celestial Divisions wield immense authority over humans, and also protect us against threats from the outside.

    ¡°As for the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions, they primarily focus on internal affairs. They include the Spiritual Governance Division, the Public Safety Division, the Official Affairs Division, the Education Division, and the People¡¯s Division.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted from the Star-Plucking Tower to somewhere else off in the distance.

    At the very far side of the urban area up ahead, he saw a road made of a rainbow. It was massive and shocking, and it rose off of the inner ring, through the void, and onto Ancient Emperor.

    Located at the end of that road, right where it met Ancient Emperor, there was a massive, shocking imperial pce. The pce floated in the void, incredibly awe-inspiring as it glittered with golden light. It was filled with beautiful statues and paintings, bejeweled jade pces, and intricate buildingplexes. It almost looked like a huge spell formation, and at the same time, served as the main entrance to Ancient Emperor!

    Even from a distance, it was possible to sense the boundless aura of Ancient Emperor. And the imperial pce was part of that, making it very eye-catching.

    As Princess Anhai continued with her introductions, and Xu Qing looked at the imperial pce, there was a gaze that originated in that very pce andnded on Xu Qing. That gaze then swiveled to Plumdark. After a time, it retracted.

    ***

    In the looming Star-Plucking Tower stood the imperial preceptor, d in a long, violet robe, his violet hair cascading down his back. His gaze was soft and warm as he looked down at thends below. He smiled.

    ¡°You¡¯re finally here, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    ***

    Somewhere else in the city was a very busy, very loud, and very extravagant brothel that featured extraordinary architecture and fantastic building materials. Deep in the shrine hall of that brothel was a household shrine. Inside of it was a y fox.... The y fox stirred. H¨¥r nose twitched.

    <i>I smell your primal yang, you naughty little boy....</i>

    1. There are two bits of editing being done here that bear mentioning. First of all, the author did establish several hundred chapters ago that the imperial capital had ¡°divisions¡± that oversaw the ¡°pces.¡± In this chapter, he seems to forget that, and just calls the imperial-level organizations ¡°pces.¡± Given that this was brought up several times previously, and also to make things crystal clear, I¡¯m going to refer to the versions in the capital as ¡°divisions.¡± The second thing is that, in a past chapter, the author had a different number of the ¡°lesser¡± divisions, and also called them by a different name. For whatever reason, that changed as of this chapter, so that there are five ¡°greater¡± and five ¡°lesser¡± divisions. Since this particr point was only mentioned once before, I went back and changed the previous chapter for continuity¡¯s sake. ?

 Chapter 749: Lending Requires Repayment

    <h4>Chapter 749: Lending Requires Repayment</h4>

    They reached the end of the white jade road, and were now situated just outside of the capital city of humanity. Li Yunshan and the 30,000 swordsages couldn¡¯t proceed any further. Compared to the imperial capital as a whole, their numbers didn¡¯t count for much. But their rtive unimportance didn¡¯t mean they could overstep authority.

    Li Yunshan understood that, so after escorting Xu Qing to the end of the white jade road, he took most of the swordsages back to set up camp. Kong Xianglong, along with a hundred swordsages, were assigned to stay with Xu Qing as he entered the capital city with Princess Anhai.

    Because of the dramatic situation with the spell formation, the streets in the capital weren¡¯t as busy as before. Although the situation had ultimately been resolved, many people still chose to remain indoors. That said, the ce was still more bustling than Sea-Sealing County. And as time progressed, more and more people filled the streets.

    As Princess Anhai led Xu Qing and the others through the capital, she continued exining things to them.

    ¡°Xu Qing, the imperial capital has the Five Greater Celestial Divisions and the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions. But there are other things you need to be cautious about.

    ¡°For instance, the fact that the Mansion of the Thirty-Three Heavenly Kings... now has only thirty-two heavenly kings.¡± Princess Anhai hesitated briefly, then continued, ¡°In addition to that, you have all the important officials from the imperial court, such as the prime minister, master of records, and the minister of war. [1]

    ¡°There are also the imperial princes, who have the authority to establish their own government offices, although their power is limited to the capital city itself.

    ¡°After that, you have the ten superpower sects of humankind. Those sects have profound reserve powers, and some of them have a history tracing all the way back to the time of the Ancient Emperors.¡±

    Hearing that, the Captain blinked a few times and looked at Princess Anhai. ¡°I heard that one of the most famous of those sects is called... the Summer Immortal Pce?¡±

    The name caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to nearly skip a beat. He looked at Princess Anhai.

    Ningyan, though obviously familiar with this ce, didn¡¯t know as much about matters as Anhai, so his ears perked up as well. Wu Jianwu looked excited as well; anything that had to do with Dark Serenity was something he was interested in.

    In contrast, Kong Xianglong didn¡¯t seem very interested in the subject, and was instead taking his responsibility seriously, as he was keeping an eye on the surroundings to make sure there were no threats to Xu Qing.

    Princess Anhai nodded in response to the question. ¡°The ten superpower sects are... the sect founded by Grand Emperor Starry Sky, the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect; the sect from which came Heavenly King Emptyspirit, the Godharvest Deep Universe Sect; the sect that wields the dao of the underworld, the Ghostwyrm Nethersect; and the sect the imperial preceptores from, the Prehistoric Cyan Moon Sect.

    ¡°Thene the organizations that have more modern origins: the House of the Nine Deviations of Darkfire; the organization that does business in many major regions, the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion; the terrifyingly powerful religious group called the Church of Departure; the sect that worships the broken face, and has long been searching for godchildren, Words of Truth; and finally, the sect located in the abyss beneath the Imperial Region, who has a very special mission, the Hidden Earth Society.¡± [2]

    Princess Anhai had provided a lot of information. It seemed that every one of the superpower sects had their own unique characteristics. As for the Church of Departure, Xu Qing had long known that they wielded power all throughout Revered Ancient. They preached about departing from Revered Ancient and searching for the holynds. It had adherents among all species, and though its leadership was generally mysterious, Xu Qing remembered that its leader was called the Arbiter of Destiny. [3]

    When it came to the Hidden Earth Society, not even Princess Anhai knew the details of their mission. After all, she didn¡¯t know much about Brilliant Heaven. But after hearing about them, Xu Qing already had some spections. It seemed likely that a sect located in that abyss would likely have a mission that didn¡¯t focus on the outside. Rather... they were standing guard over the main entrance.

    Xu Qing had also heard of Words of Truth, even way back in the continent of South Phoenix. However, they were quite a mystery to him, as he¡¯d never had any dealings with them. It was only now that he learned they were one of the superpower organizations in the imperial capital.

    ¡°Words of Truth worships the broken face?¡± Xu Qing asked, suspicion flickering in his eyes.

    Princess Anhai sighed. ¡°Some people revere the broken face. Some people loathe the broken face. So it¡¯s only natural that some people worship the broken face. That¡¯s the case among all the countless species that exist, including humans. Words of Truth is simr to the Church of Departure, in that they have adherents of all types.

    ¡°Their doctrines revolve around finding godchildren.... They believe that anyone who survives being looked at by the broken face is the family of a god, and has the potential to be a godchild. That¡¯s why they look for such people all over Revered Ancient.

    ¡°From what I¡¯ve heard, they highly value any living person out there who has sustained the gaze of the broken face many times, yet hasn¡¯t died. And they believe that person isn¡¯t just the family of a god, but rather, one of the godchildren they seek. By finding such people, killing them, and sacrificing them as food, they can acquire god power.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    ¡°The final superpower sect,¡± Princess Anhai continued, ¡°is the one you mentioned, the Summer Immortal Pce.

    ¡°It¡¯s a very unique organization. Supposedly, the Summer Immortal Pce was the very first sect to arise among all the species in Revered Ancient. In fact, in the early days, the Summer Immortal Pce didn¡¯t just have human members. Eventually, it broke apart, and nowadays, all major species have a Summer Immortal Pce.

    ¡°Legend has it that back in the time of Emperor Ancient Spirit, the Summer Immortal Pce worked closely with the heavenly daos, and in some cases could surpass imperial authority. That¡¯s why Emperor Ancient Spirit tried to supnt the heavenly daos, because of conflict with the Summer Immortal Pce.

    ¡°After the time of Emperor Ancient Spirit, it was Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity who went on to conquer Revered Ancient. After he did, he got rid of the Summer Immortal Pce system, ensuring that nothing could surpass imperial power. He also put treaties in ce regarding the Summer Immortal Pces among other species.

    ¡°After that, the Summer Immortal Pce closed their doors and ceased to regrly deal with the outside. Every few thousand years, they¡¯ll send out a disciple, not to participate in fighting or wars, but to wander thends and record the history of the species. Down to this day, the Summer Immortal Pce still abides by the treaties put in ce by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.¡±

    Around this time, they reached an eight-sided pagoda constructed of white wood. The entire structure was surrounded by a white wall; from the fluctuations pulsing off of it, it was clearly designed to keep out intruders.

    ¡°The imperial preceptor, whoes from the Prehistoric Cyan Moon Sect, is usually here in the Star-Plucking Tower. But even most of the highest ranking nobles and officials have never seen him. Only father and Fourth Prince know what he looks like.

    ¡°Fourth Prince is the imperial preceptor¡¯s apprentice. People say the imperial preceptor has truly celestial abilities, and is a genius when ites to strategy.¡±

    Princess Anhai looked up at the clouds surrounding the auspicious tower surrounded by flying beasts.

    Xu Qing nodded. It was clearly an expression of goodwill for Princess Anhai to escort him this far, and offer so many exnations.

    At the moment, she was looking at Xu Qing. ¡°Young sir, I need to return to my pce. Things can change in an instant here in the imperial capital. People here areplicated, and the rtionshipworks are even moreplicated. Young sir, I just hope you can stay on guard and be cautious.¡±

    She gave a curtseying bow. Xu Qing bowed back to her. It was obvious she wanted to make friends with him, and when people were kind to him, he would return the gesture.

    ¡°I hope everything goes well for you, Princess. As long as I¡¯m here in the imperial capital, I¡¯m happy to help you with anything. Just say the word.¡±

    Anhai smiled and left.

    As they watched her depart, Ningyan blinked a few times and was about to say something. Then he nced at Plumdark and decided to keep his mouth shut.

    Of course, Plumdark noticed that. Voice cool, she said, ¡°Ningyan, let¡¯s go to your mansion.¡±

    Ningyan quickly nodded, then led the way further into the imperial capital.

    When imperial princes came of age, they earned the right to live outside the pce. As a result, all of them had personal mansions in the capital city. Ningyan¡¯s was located in the north district, which was some distance away. It could even be considered a quiet corner of the city.

    The mansion was by no means small. It had three main levels, and on the outside, there was a cidke that was integrated into the architecture of the mansion. Both in terms of the scenery and the atmosphere, it was very stylistic. The architecture was delicate and refined. Bells hung from the eaves of the buildings, which chimed in the wind. That wind would stir up little waves on theke, and would also cool down the surroundings.

    Plumdark looked around and was clearly very pleased.

    Xu Qing could see that this ce looked different from the other residences they had passed along the way.

    Off to the side, the Captain let loose an exmation of praise. ¡°A lovely breeze. Rippling waters. The sounds fill the heart and the mind. Very unique. Usually, ces like this have some nice treasure sitting around.¡±

    He looked at theke and licked his lips.

    Looking with mncholy at the mansion, Ningyan quietly said, ¡°Mom had this ce built before she died. She designed everything.¡±

    He led them inside, not via flight, but by walking directly across theke.

    As he stepped onto the water, a seven-colored koi fish breached the surface. The sunlight shone onto it in glittering splendor, and its whiskers whipped through the air as it sshed back down. The water droplets made for a very beautiful scene. There were actually many such koi fish in the water, and they seemed intelligent. Recognizing their master, they leaped in and out of the water as they escorted the group to the shore.

    Sadly, as soon as they stepped onto solid ground, the dreamy sensation from earlier vanished as they saw how dpidated the mansion was.

    From a distance, it looked fine. But getting close, it was clear that being uninhabited for years, the mansion was in disrepair. The red door was covered with mottled mold. The bells were rusty. And upon opening the main gate, the inner courtyard was full of weeds. It looked very deste.

    Despite the bitterness in his heart, Ningyan forced a smile onto his face and turned to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°I¡¯m home.¡±

    Xu Qing sped Ningyan¡¯s shoulder.

    At the same time, the Captain waved his hand dismissively. ¡°You have a nice home, Little Ningy. Come. Let¡¯s clean it up together. The feng shui here is clearly amazing. Based on my calctions, it all conforms to the pattern of hidden dragons! And that means your future is going to be anything but simple, ya little punk!¡±

    Heart swelling with appreciation, Ningyan nodded. And thus, they went to work cleaning up the mansion. It didn¡¯t take very long. With everyone working together, it only took a short time before the mansion was spotless. Kong Xianglong took the swordsages to patrol the area and make sure everything was safe.

    After looking through all the rooms, Ningyan felt more down than ever, and just stood there, almost in a daze.

    ¡°You okay?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Ningyan hesitated, and then decided to just exin how he felt. ¡°There¡¯s something missing. Something rted to my mom. I left in a hurry all those years ago, and couldn¡¯t take it with me, so I left it here.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see it here now, so I just sent a message to Third Sister asking if she had any info. She asked around and found that Tenth Prince personally took it away.

    ¡°Tenth Prince¡¯s motheres from the n that produced King Firecrusher, the number-one heavenly king of humankind. Ol¡¯ Tenth has a domineering personality, and though the number-one heavenly king never liked him much, few people would dare provoke him. Since he took that thing, it¡¯s not going to be easy to get it back.¡±

    Xu Qing mulled Ningyan¡¯s words over quickly, then turned to look at Kong Xianglong.

    Kong Xianglong looked back with glittering eyes. He could tell what Xu Qing was thinking.

    ¡°Big Bro Kong, send a jade slip to Tenth Prince at his mansion. Tell him he has one day to return that item.¡±

    1. The minister of war was mentioned in <u>chapter 547.1</u>, and his grandson yed a significant role for a brief moment back in that part of the story. ?

    2. Words of Truth was previously mentioned in <u>chapters 89</u>, <u>104</u>, <u>206</u>, and <u>545.1</u>. ?

    3. The Arbiter of Destiny was mentioned previously in <u>chapter 104</u>, which was when we got the first real description of the Church of Departure. Incidentally, there was a mention at some point that the Church of Departure was a subsidiary of something called (iirc) the Daoist Rite of Departure. Except, that never got mentioned again, and now that we¡¯re actually here in the capital, it¡¯s just called the Church of Departure. At some point I¡¯m going to go back to change that earlier mention of the daoist rite to maintain continuity with what actually happens. ?

 Chapter 750: Grand Emperor Awakening

    <h4>Chapter 750: Grand Emperor Awakening</h4>

    Every movement and action taken by Xu Qing and his group was being observed by various organizations in the imperial capital. Everyone was watching. From the moment they entered the Imperial Region, they had been under observation, and that was more the case now that they were in the city.

    As soon as Kong Xianglong sent the swordsages out, countless gazes locked onto them. They instantly noted that the swordsages went to Tenth Prince¡¯s mansion. Based on various clues and information channels, it didn¡¯t take long for people to determine the reason.

    Twelfth Prince had lost something that had been stored in his mansion, and it turned out Tenth Prince had taken it without notice. Tenth Prince had a domineering personality, which was why the number-one heavenly king from his mother¡¯s n didn¡¯t like him very much. Given that personality, it seemed a given that he would ignore the jade slip delivered to him by the swordsages.

    ¡°How interesting. I wonder how Xu Qing and his friends from Sea-Sealing County will handle this?¡±

    ¡°When peoplee to the imperial capital, they either keep a low profile or make a big ssh. We¡¯ll be able to learn a lot about this Xu Qing based on what happens.¡±

    ¡°Maybe the number-one heavenly king doesn¡¯t like Tenth Prince very much. But in the end, they¡¯re on the same side. This is actually kind of funny.¡±

    Organizations and government offices throughout the capital chose to simply observe. That was how they usually dealt with unknown entities. It was essentially an instinct, and generally speaking, it was the most correct course of action.

    Xu Qing had sensed what was going on the moment he entered the city. Therefore, as everyone stood by and did nothing, he stepped out into the afternoon light. As he walked down the street, he could sense people watching him from every direction. There were spies in the crowd, and also streams of divine will locked onto his location. There was no question that everything he did here in the imperial capital would be observed by someone. He understood the situation, and knew there was nothing he could do to change it. So he kept his expression neutral.

    In terms of what happened after that jade slip reached Tenth Prince, the reality was that Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. He had already determined how to resolve the situation.

    If Tenth Prince epted the jade slip, fine. If he didn¡¯t.... Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. He had already chosen to make a ssh. After dealing with the misery of life as a youngster, he had learned through experience. Growing up in the slums, he had made it a practice of killing people who tried to harm him, then hanging their heads on his door as a warning. [1]

    In short, he was ruthless. But in addition, he was patient. Patient and vicious. Those qualities came out in different ways depending on the circumstances. And based on Xu Qing¡¯s experiences, he felt that, as a neer, making a ssh right away was the best way to settle conflicts. That was why he hadn¡¯t done anything to restrain the ancient sun back when dealing with the spell formation.

    So he ignored the people watching him from afar and the spies shadowing him on the street. He walked along calmly, taking in the unfamiliar city that was the top location for all humankind.

    Ningyan also went out, as did Plumdark and the Captain, though none of them went with Xu Qing.

    Before leaving, Plumdark had exchanged a nce with Xu Qing, and he immediately understood that she was going to start looking for hermp. Plumdark waspletely different from Ling¡¯er. If Ling¡¯er were here, she would want to stay as close as possible to Xu Qing. Not Plumdark. She did things her own way, and had her own way of thinking.

    The Captain worked all of the shiftiness out before leaving. Based on his behavior, Xu Qing had no trouble guessing what he was up to. He was going to start figuring out where all the treasure was in the imperial capital. Either that, or he was going to work on tracking down traces of his past lives.

    Xu Qing shook his head. As the afternoon sunlight filtered down, he walked past building after building, street after street, all while nning out what to do going forward. This was what he usually did in unfamiliar environments. He kept his guard up and stayed vignt. It didn¡¯t matter how high his status had climbed, that fundamental aspect of his personality hadn¡¯t changed. That said, he didn¡¯t let it show. He kept everything hidden, just as he had learned to do from others in Seven Blood Eyes. [2]

    Tense on the inside, rxed on the outside. That was his mental state. From an outsider¡¯s perspective, he seemedpletely calm. As he walked, he mentally reviewed everything Princess Anhai had told him about the state of the imperial capital, including the details of the important officials and the imperial children. Afterbining that with information that Ningyan had given him, Xu Qing felt that he had a pretty solid understanding.

    <i>Three imperial daughters. Twelve imperial sons. Grand Princess and Second Princess entered into marriage alliances with nonhumans... and aren¡¯t in the capital.</i>

    The emperor had fifteen children. And in many respects, they were the foundation of what happened with all the other organizations. Just about everyone had connections to the imperial children.

    <i>Of the imperial daughters, only Anhai has the right to establish a mansion in the city. However, she didn¡¯t choose to do that. She stuck close to the emperor. She has a lot of organizations that back her. The patriarch of her mother¡¯s n is the number-two heavenly king, King Eastcauldron, who is actually themanding officer in the current hostilities with the Nightshades. Now, after the imperial daughters, we have the imperial sons....</i>

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully in the direction of the Nightshadends.

    <i>Grand Prince is an aplished warrior, but is reckless and disorganized. His mother is a Firemoon Darkheaven, which is a bit awkward for him. He¡¯s either hated or viewed with suspicion. Even the emperor doesn¡¯t seem to like him very much. After all, despite how his son is such an avid warrior, he hasn¡¯t sent him to the front lines, but instead kept him here in the capital.</i>

    <i>Second Prince keeps a low profile, and is known to be humble and kind. His grandfather was prime minister in his time, and worked hard to help Emperor Dark War ascend the throne. Although Second Prince¡¯s n never produced a heavenly king, followers of the prime minister can be found in all parts of society.</i>

    <i>Third Prince is extremely talented, and is a font of knowledge. He has vassals from all over working in his mansion, including quite a few nonhumans. He¡¯s an erudite learner, and thus, it¡¯s no surprise he holds a position at the Imperial University.</i>

    <i>Fourth Prince is cultured and refined. He¡¯s friendly, likes to help others, and is well-liked by his brothers and sisters. Though his mother is amoner, he earned the approval of the Prehistoric Cyan Moon Sect, and took the imperial preceptor as Master.</i>

    As Xu Qing thought about such things, he found himself looking in the direction of the Star-Plucking Tower. He didn¡¯t have much information about the imperial preceptor, so it was hard to form any impression of him.

    <i>Fifth Prince... has the same mother as Seventh Prince. He has the most impressive battle prowess among the imperial sons, second only to Grand Prince. He¡¯s also brave and good at fighting, and has earned the notice of the emperor, who arranged for him to be the apprentice of the number-one heavenly king. Along with the first heavenly king, he¡¯s stationed on the Firemoon border, and rarelyes back to attend court. Because of my past with Seventh Prince, I probably ought to treat Fifth Prince as a potential enemy.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he continued with his assessment.

    <i>Both Ningyan and Anhai said that Sixth Prince is a real yboy. That said, he treats people well. All the young women in his mansion arepletely obsessed with him. In fact, Anhai even mentioned a rumor that the only female heavenly king among the thirty-three heavenly kings, King Wildmist, is also infatuated with him.</i>

    <i>And then there¡¯s Seventh Prince.... After the death of King Heaventide, he returned here to the capital and hasn¡¯t appeared in public.</i>

    Xu Qingughed coldly.

    <i>Eighth Prince is known as the richest of all the imperial sons. His mother¡¯s n is the wealthiest merchant n among all humankind. Eight Prince has financial support from multiple fronts, and is richer than many entire nations.</i>

    <i>Ninth Prince is intelligent and skilled. He cares little for the outside world, and focusespletely on matters rted to creation. The emperor assigned him to the Creation Division, where he wasrgely responsible for... creating the Dawning Suns!</i>

    As for Tenth Prince, the most important thing about him was that he ranked higher than Eleventh and Twelfth Prince.

    Eleventh Prince was Ningyan¡¯s twin brother. However, after he died, that left behind only Ningyan. It was all rted to their mother. And that was taboo in the imperial capital.

    When Princess Anhai hade to that part of her exnation, she transmitted some information to Xu Qing so that Ningyan didn¡¯t hear.

    <i>¡°Ningyan¡¯s mother was a mortal! She had no talent for cultivation at all. However, she was devastatingly beautiful, and the emperor was deeply in love with her. After she died, he had her portrait hung in the imperial pce, and he takes time every day to look at it. When he does, his expression is one of pain and sorrow. Since then, he hasn¡¯t had any other children, and he hasn¡¯t let any other wives or daoist partners wait on him. Her death is actually a mystery. Not even I know the details of what happened.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He had longe to realize that Ningyan¡¯s whole story revolved around his mother. Because of his mother, Ningyan experienced a lot of hardship. At the same time, there were still unexined mysteries.

    Xu Qing stopped and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked up into the sky, where the setting sun was turning red. Somehow, he had already walked around the city for about four hours. He had even used teleportation portals a few times. After reviewing all the information he knew about the imperial children, he had a general understanding of the big picture in the capital. That said, he also knew that what he knew was only the surface. Everyone wore masks, though they were usually manifestations of their inner attitudes.

    Xu Qing rubbed his own face.

    <i>I suppose I¡¯m the same.</i>

    Overhead, the red light from the setting sun created a rosy glow in the clouds. Sunsets like this were beautiful, but at the same time, seemed filled with the color of blood. It made Xu Qing think of a certain day back in Seven Blood Eyes when the same color in the sky had heralded a very tragic event. [3]

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze fell onto a huge statue right in front of him.

    Without even realizing it, he had walked to the eastern part of the city, close to the rainbow road. And he was standing right in front of the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    Looking at the statue, he thought about the assessment of the heart, and what the grand emperor had shown to him... how the broken face¡¯s true body encircled the Revered Ancient maind. He thought about what was said during that assessment, especially thest thing Grand Emperor Swordsage told him.

    <i>¡°I hope that no matter what happens... you never change!¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing looked at the statue, there were numerous spies in the crowd behind him, watching his every move and keeping others informed of his whereabouts. Divine will proliferated. Numerous government departments were using a variety of methods to keep track of Xu Qing and his actions. After all, he was basically a walking Dawning Sun.

    <i>¡°The subject has gone through three districts and has stopped to study neen buildings.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°The subject seems to be memorizing theyout of the city.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°The subject teleported.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°The subject is standing in front of the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage. He¡¯s just looking at it.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°The subject... is bowing to Grand Emperor Swordsage.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°The statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage... is moving!!!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°What¡¯s going on here? The Grand Emperor... is about to wake up??¡±</i>

    As messages sped to different corners of the city, a buzz began to build. All eyes widened with shock and disbelief.

    From a distance, the statue of the grand emperor towered high into the sky, as if to guard all humans. Down below, Xu Qing, d in a green jerkin, respectfully bowed. One of them was massive, the other tiny, and they were separated in life by countless years. But then a hoarse voice echoed out, seemingly from nowhere, filled with ancient time. It echoed through heaven and earth, thrumming with mightiness.

    ¡°You¡¯re here.¡±

    1. It was in <u>chapter 53</u> that we first heard the story of Xu Qing hanging a head outside his door as a warning. ?

    2. Another callback to the early parts in the story. In <u>chapter 51</u>, when Xu Qing first joined SBE, he was told to be like <i>a needle concealed in silk</i> after being told he telegraphed his abilities too much. ?

    3. The reference here is to the Blood-Soaked Performance. The red sky was mentioned in <u>chapter 310</u>, which was basically when the ¡®performance¡¯ began. ?

 Chapter 751: Grand Emperor Swordsage

    As the fluctuations of the voice spread through the imperial capital, buildings vibrated, spell formations red to life, and auspicious rainbows appeared in the dome of heaven. Within the various organizations in the city, countless powerful experts looked on with serious expressions. In fact, many people couldn¡¯t prevent shock from appearing on their faces.

    Xu Qing had hardly been around for a day, and already, he was shaking people to the core. From their perspective, he had umted astonishing levels of influence, resulting in a heavenly king perishing. He had upied half of an entire region, formed an alliance with the Moonrite Region, and had participated in the extremely rare event of killing a god. Any other person who had done even one of those things would be considered extraordinary in every way, much less Xu Qing, who had done all of them.

    The way he had confidently strode through the spell formation went to show how he handled himself. He even shocked everyone with a Dawning Sun. After that, he went to bow to the statue of the Grand Emperor. Despite all the countless years which had passed, this was only the fourth time Grand Emperor Swordsage woke up and spoke.

    Because of all those things, Xu Qing was theplete center of attention right now.

    At the moment, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was sighing deeply. He was starting to get nervous, although he didn¡¯t dare to transmit a message to Xu Qing at the moment. In the ancient records he had read in the past, protagonists usually didn¡¯t act like this. Generally speaking, they kept a low profile.... In fact, it was most often the viin, who usually was a member of a superpower sect, that would win a big victory and then return triumphantly to the city, where everyone would be shaken to the core. The patriarch had studied many scenes like that, and knew that they were generally designed to highlight how terrifying the viin was. But it also gave the protagonist a target. Step by step, the protagonist would ovee various setbacks, and thus, the readers would experience the joy of seeing a nobody defeat an important person.

    <em>This¡­. My lord and master is doing everything backward....</em>

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was trembling inwardly. More than ever, he wasing to realize that Xu Qing was definitely not doing things the way they usually happened in ancient records. If <em>he </em>felt that way, there was little need to mention all of the people in the imperial capital who didn¡¯t understand Xu Qing.

    There were very few people who had shaken the entire capital city during the Dark War calendar. What was more, an instance of Grand Emperor Swordsage awakening was something that would ultimately be recorded in the historical annals of humankind. In the ancient records of history, the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage had always been asleep, and usually only sent out divine will during assessments of the heart for the swordsages.

    In the past, the statue had awoken three times.The first time was in the era of Emperor Eastglory. After the humans suffered a huge defeat, Pce Lord Chenshu Yan of the Swordsage Division, just before dying, called out to the Grand Emperor and begged him to awaken. That was the first time Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s statue woke up. Because of that, the Firemoon Darkheaven people, due to the hindrances of karma, didn¡¯t exterminate humankind.[1]

    The second time was during the reign of Emperor Mirrorcloud. Division Lord Wang Ken of the Swordsage Division entered the pce when the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was beset from all sides in ambush. The division lord... never came back out. On that day, Grand Emperor Swordsage woke up, looked to the south, and sighed.

    The third time wasn¡¯t very long ago. It was when Emperor Dark War ascended the throne. At that time, the Grand Emperor woke up and looked at him, his gaze hard but full of anticipation. ording to the ancient records, the Grand Emperor sent a message to Emperor Dark War at that time. However, no one knew what that message was. People just said that Emperor Dark War was silent for a few breaths of time before sping hands and bowing to the Grand Emperor.

    Today was the fourth time. In an instant, countless gazes, along with innumerable streams of divine will, came from all parts of the city and converged on that spot like a tempest. Verbal discussions and inaudible transmissions swept out like waves on the sea. To the residents of the capital city, it wasn¡¯t exactly hard to get intelligence reports about Xu Qing. And of course, that included information about the assessment of the heart. As a result, it didn¡¯t take long for people to realize what was going on.

    ¡°Probably the most important detail in Xu Qing¡¯s information is that he¡¯s the first person during the Dark War calendar to be given a 30,000-meter pir of light during the swordsage assessment of the heart! That must be why the Grand Emperor is waking up!¡±

    In the imperial pce, inside the Phoenix Sun Pavilion, Princess Anhai stood at the window, looking in the direction of Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s statue and thinking about everything she knew about Xu Qing. Finally, she looked away.

    <em>The Grand Emperor is waking up because of him. This... initially makes it seem like the Grand Emperor is taking care of him. But why does it seem to me¡­ that it¡¯s more like Xu Qing being bequeathed with an important responsibility?</em>

    Meanwhile, in Seventh Prince¡¯s mansion, Seventh Prince himself sat with his eyes closed. Behind him were a few dozen cultivators, all silent and unmoving. The entire building was quiet. If you looked closely, you would find that Seventh Prince¡¯s hands were clenched very tightly in his sleeves.

    In Tenth Prince¡¯s mansion, the prince that everyone thought to be arrogant, despotic, and erratic was in the middle of losing his temper in front of his servants. However, deep in his brutal gaze, in a ce where no one could see it, was a glimmer of something cleverly devious.

    The other imperial princes were all reacting in various ways in different locations. As for whether their physical reaction matched their internal reaction, no one knew.

    There were some important officials and heavenly kings, including the prime minister and people like him, who had very calm facial expressions that didn¡¯t reflect the turbulence in their hearts. Most of them looked thoughtfully at the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage, and then at the imperial pce. The Grand Emperor woke up when Dark War took the throne. Yearster, when Xu Qing came, the statue woke up again....

    ***

    In the imperial pce¡¯s Heaven-Gazing Pavilion, the emperor¡¯s face remained expressionless as he looked, not outside, but at the game board in front of him. After a moment, he ced a white game piece onto the board.

    Sitting opposite of him was the imperial preceptor, who smiled and put down a ck piece. ¡°Your Majesty, I already answered your question. You, sir, have not yet exined to me what Grand Emperor Swordsage said to you on the day you ascended the throne.¡±

    The emperor looked up calmly at the imperial preceptor. ¡°The Grand Emperor told me that he regrets what happened with the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. And he said that, if I could manage it, I should return that skull that Mirrorcloud buried himself with. Didn¡¯t you get it already?¡± [2]

    The emperor spoke in a casual tone, but his every word was packed with meaning.

    The imperial preceptor said nothing for a long moment. Then he smiled again. ¡°To run into a person like you in this life, Your Majesty, well, it ensures I won¡¯t be lonely.¡±

    The emperor didn¡¯t react, and instead just picked up another white game piece to y. However, before he could put it on the board, a majestic voice echoed out to fill all heaven and earth.

    ¡°Come to the Swordsage Division, young friend. I¡¯ll be waiting for you there.¡±

    The game piece remained between the emperor¡¯s fingers as he slowly looked up. The imperial preceptor¡¯s eyes glittered as he also turned to look outside.

    Within the crowds in the city were powerful experts, all of whom were stunned. It was the voice of Grand Emperor Swordsage who had just spoken. What was more, there was a big difference between the Grand Emperor waking up and him summoning someone. That was especially true in the Swordsage Division, where everyone from the division lord to the ordinary swordsages were visibly taken aback.

    At the foot of the statue, Xu Qing looked up, his heart pounding. After a long moment passed, he took a deep breath, bowed again, then turned in the direction of the Swordsage Division. He knew the general direction to walk. Along the way, any patrolling swordsages who spotted him would give him formal swordsage salutes, and would help clear a path for him.

    Xu Qing was also a swordsage.

    It took about two hours before a very unique buildingplex appeared up ahead. Numerous pce structures were grouped together into the shape of two huge swords. One of themy directly on the ground, the other was stabbed into it. They were so massive that they could easily fit millions and millions of people inside. This was the Swordsage Division headquarters.

    As Xu Qing neared he found that almost all of the swordsages assigned to the headquarters were outside waiting for him. Also present was the middle-aged Division Lord Zhou Hengzhi, who was one of the heavenly kings.

    The summons from the Grand Emperor was an important thing, and there was no way that the swordsages, who valued strict adherence to thew, would dare to take the situation lightly.

    Among the crowd was a person who had met Xu Qing in the past. He was Huang Kun, who, ording to Seventh Prince¡¯s introduction, had a grandfather who was an honor guard in the Swordsage Division. [3]

    Huang Kun¡¯s heart was racing. He was one of the few people in the imperial capital who had seen Xu Qing before. And he almost couldn¡¯t believe what had happened in the Holytide Region after that banquet. The awakening of the Grand Emperor was being taken seriously by everyone in the Swordsage Division, and only emphasized to Huang Kun how far apart he was from Xu Qing. Years ago, when they both sat at the same banquet together, Huang Kun hadn¡¯t thought much of Xu Qing. After all, Xu Qing was just a random swordsage from some backwater location. Even though he was special in Sea-Sealing County, that didn¡¯t have much to do with Huang Kun. As for whether or not Xu Qing would ever make a name for himself, that had been an unknown.

    But now... as Huang Kun looked around at his fellow swordsages, he could only sigh. He was now just one of countless swordsages, and all of them were looking at the same approaching figure.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t even notice Huang Kun. He was struggling to stay calm and collected despite the respect shown to him by the Grand Emperor, and the sensation that it was shaking the entire dynasty.

    When Xu Qing saw all of the swordsages gathered outside the Swordsage Division, he stopped in ce. Taking off his green jerkin, he produced a swordsage uniform from his bag of holding and put it on. Upon donning the same pure white clothing as everyone else, Xu Qing truly looked like he belonged. The gazes of the swordsages changed slightly at that point, and that included the division lord and other swordsage leaders. They nodded slightly.

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing continued walking past all the swordsages until he was standing in front of the division lord himself. Looking very serious, he offered a formal swordsage salute.

    ¡°I am Swordsage Xu Qing, here at the summons of the Grand Emperor.¡±

    Division Lord Zhou Hengzhi gave Xu Qing a serious look, then nodded.

    ¡°Please, go ahead,¡± he said. He gestured, and a vortex sprang into being at the main entrance of the division. The sword energy that pulsed out of it caused the swordsages¡¯ Emperor¡¯s Swords to vibrate.

    Looking very solemn, Xu Qing entered the portal. The moment he stepped in, he found himself inside the pce, in what was considered a restricted area.

    It was a simple cave that contained only an altar, atop which sat a withered old man. He looked almost like a corpse, and he emanated a strong sense of decay. However, the spot where his heart existed pulsed with life. He had innumerable shocking and ghastly wounds covering him. They were, of course, injuries he had sustained while keeping humankind safe. Every single one pulsed with godly might; they were all wounds that had been inflicted by gods.

    This was the actual clone of Grand Emperor Swordsage. He was thest Grand Emperor of humankind, and he... was the only Grand Emperor who had refused to leave Revered Ancient, and had been safeguarding humankind ever since!

    When Xu Qing saw the Grand Emperor and all his wounds, he felt a sensation of intense respect well up in him. Dropping to his knees, he kowtowed.

    The Grand Emperor¡¯s eyes slowly opened.

    1. This is a very obscure reference, but you might remember that in the imperial edict in chapter 740, it was mentioned that Emperor Eastglory had a loyal official named ¡°Yan.¡± It¡¯s the same Yan from Chenshu Yan, leading us to the seemingly logical conclusion that it¡¯s the same person mentioned here. ?

    2. The skull here is presumably the bowl mentioned in chapter 530.2 and 533.2. ?

    3. Huang Kun: Huang is #7 on the list of 100mon Chinese surnames. It also means ¡°yellow.¡± Kun is one of the eight trigrams, and though it has a lot of meaning, it is generally associated with yin things. Huang Kun was mentioned briefly in chapter 547.1. You might also remember a character from earlier in the story named Huang Yikun. The two names are exactly the same except that one of them has the ¡°yi¡± character in it, the other does not. ?

 Chapter 752: The Bequeath of the Grand Emperor

    In the dim, dark cave, the opening of the Grand Emperor¡¯s eyes caused scintiting, multi-colored light to spread everywhere. It was like an astral redirection, in which all living things transformed. The cave itself was hidden by the light, as a huge starry sky took over everything. Xu Qing felt as if he had been dragged outside of Revered Ancient and into the starry sky beyond. There, dazzling starlight glittered everywhere, like a great, starry river.

    The countless bits of starlight merged together to form a huge figure. The figure of starlight wore a resplendent imperial robe and had a shining imperial crown. His facial features were threatening without being angry. He was none other than the Grand Emperor. The Grand Emperor made of stars sat cross-legged, his might filling the universe and covering Revered Ancient.

    Seeing this, Xu Qing felt as small as a grain of dust. He inclined his head, sped his hands, and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Tell me, what is the original purpose of the Swordsage Division?¡± the Grand Emperor asked, his voice echoing through the starry sky and causing the void to tremble.

    Xu Qing looked up at the Grand Emperor, and respectfully answered, ¡°The Swordsage Division was intended to lead humankind to the heights of glory, and to bring about a golden age of peace. That was its original intention.¡±

    ¡°What is the mission of a swordsage?¡± the Grand Emperor asked.

    ¡°To swordsages, the sword means life. We protect all living beings, swear to sever the doom of dawn, and cause the light of heaven and earth to blossom.¡± [1]

    In response, the starlight-formed Grand Emperor glittered brightly as if in approval.

    ¡°What do you do if nonhumans try to stop you?¡± The words contained something profoundly aggressive about them.Expression somber, Xu Qing calmly said, ¡°Execute them!¡±

    ¡°What do you do if other humans try to stop you?¡±

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing said, ¡°Execute them! An emperor represents 10,000 citizens. But an emperor is only one person. That illustrates why the Swordsage Division can execute judgment on anyone except the emperor!¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by emperor? What kind of emperor?¡± There was killing intent in the Grand Emperor¡¯s glittering eyes, and it caused the starry sky to turn cold.

    Upon hearing the question, Xu Qing bowed his head. He needed to think. A momentter, he looked up, and his eyes glittered.

    ¡°Is it an Ancient Emperor?¡±

    The Grand Emperor didn¡¯t respond. Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. A long moment passed. Finally, the Grand Emperor spoke in an ancient voice.

    ¡°To the swordsages, that ¡®emperor¡¯ could be an Ancient Emperor or it could be the emperor of humankind. To swordsages, that ¡®emperor¡¯ is no single person. The purpose of an emperor is to ensure the survival of a species. In other words, an emperor... is whatever makes sure a species survives.

    ¡°The true meaning of ¡®can execute judgment on anyone,¡¯ as far as the Sword Division is concerned, means that anything which can negatively affect the survival of our species... can be executed by the swordsages! Even if that¡¯s the emperor himself!¡±

    A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and he struggled to control his breathing. This was actually different from his understanding of the swordsages.

    Based on the Grand Emperor¡¯s choice of words, Xu Qing now understood that there was a difference between the <em>Swordsage </em>Division and the <em>Sword </em>Division. The very earliest swordsages actually came from this Grand Emperor¡¯s Sword Division.

    ¡°However, there have to be limits to power. And thus, after my Sword Division turned into the Swordsage Division, I issued a dharmic decree stating that, after my death, all generations had to have a Sword Division sessor. His responsibility is... to supervise. And only the Sword Division sessor has the power I just mentioned to you.

    ¡°The Summer Immortal Pce has another responsibility other than maintaining historical records, and that is to oversee the Sword Division sessor. It¡¯s a cyclical rtionship.

    ¡°That said, my dharmic decree has not yet taken effect. The reason is that this clone of mine still has a scrap of life force left. After all... things have changed a lot since my day, and I¡¯m not ready to let go yet....¡±

    Xu Qing felt shaken to the core. He now understood that the Sword Division sessor was really thest bit of insurance to ensure the survival of humankind. The Grand Emperor looked at Xu Qing but didn¡¯t say anything further. Then he closed his eyes. Apparently, the only reason he woke up was to tell Xu Qing this information.

    The starry sky blurred. The stars went dark. The cave returned. The Grand Emperor once again became a withered corpse with only a tiny scrap of life force in it.

    Xu Qing lowered his head, bowed respectfully, then turned to leave.

    That was when the Grand Emperor suddenly said, ¡°Do you remember what I told you during the assessment of the heart?¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and nodded.

    ¡°No matter what happens... never change!¡± The Grand Emperor said nothing further after that.

    Xu Qing vanished from the dark cave.

    The Grand Emperor went back to sleep. The red color was fading from the sky.

    After Xu Qing returned to the Swordsage Division, it was as if everything from before was a dream. His return caused another convergence of gazes and divine will.

    All organizations in the imperial capital were paying attention. They had no idea what the Grand Emperor said to Xu Qing. They only know that he returned to the Swordsage Division after the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

    The surrounding swordsages looked at him as well, and that included the division lord. The pce lord didn¡¯t ask him any questions. He just looked at him long and hard, then walked back into the Swordsage Division. The other swordsages backed up and also returned to the Swordsage Division. However, as of this day, Xu Qing had left a deep impression in all of their hearts.

    Eventually, he stood alone outside. He had his eyes closed as he reyed what just happened with the Grand Emperor. Gradually, he felt sorrow.

    <em>Is the Grand Emperor going to perish...?</em>

    Xu Qing could sense that he had been bequeathed by the Grand Emperor with an important responsibility. And that responsibility was humankind. Xu Qing opened his eyes, bowed to the Swordsage Division, and left with mixed emotions.

    The dome of heaven was dark. The moon was bright and the stars were faint. A breeze blew as Xu Qing walked the streets, his garments swaying along with his long hair.

    The wind here was different from the wind in Sea-Sealing County. Instead of being humid, it was very dry. It was a strange sensation.

    As Xu Qing walked along silently, he contemted everything that took ce after he arrived at the imperial capital. It had been one thing after another, and he still needed time to process it all.

    Time passed. Eventually, Xu Qing caught sight of Ningyan¡¯s mansion and theke. Beneath the light of the moon, theke looked like a mirror, reflecting the canopy of heaven. If you stared long enough, you might get the mistaken impression that the moon in theke was real, while the moon in the sky wasn¡¯t real.

    Back inside the mansion, Xu Qing meditated for the rest of the night. The next morning at dawn, he looked in the direction of the Swordsage Division and sighed.

    A response came from Tenth Prince¡¯s mansion.

    Tenth Prince refused. He said that the request wasplete nonsense.

    It didn¡¯t make sense. Given Xu Qing¡¯s actions upon arriving, most people with a brain would choose not to stick their heads out. They would only end up as test fodder for others to determine where Xu Qing¡¯s bottom line was. That was especially true considering what just happened with the Grand Emperor waking up. The most logical thing for Tenth Prince to do would be to return the items. That would be the norm for human nature, and is what anyone but a fool would have done.

    Xu Qing shook his head. He didn¡¯t believe Tenth Prince to be an idiot, so clearly there had to be some reason that this action would benefit him.

    <em>The imperial capital really is aplicated ce full of convoluted rtionships. Everyone wears a mask, and a different one at that.</em>

    Eyes glittering coldly, he stood, called Ningyan, Kong Xianglong and the others, and left the mansion. The Captain and Plumdark had long since gone out on their own, and were nowhere to be seen.

    On the way to Tenth Prince¡¯s mansion, Ningyan looked at Xu Qing with reverence and respect. He was obviously aware of what happened with the Grand Emperor.

    After thinking about Tenth Prince¡¯s actions, he leaned closer to Xu Qing and quietly said, ¡°Biggest Bro, just so you know, Tenth Prince is somewhat simple-minded. He has ordinary talent and an average cultivation base. When he was small, his mother¡¯s n didn¡¯t seem to like him very much, nor did my father. It was my mother who took pity on him and cared for him for several years. Unfortunately, after my mother passed away, he <em>forgot favors and vited justice</em>.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d like to see him for myself,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    Ningyan didn¡¯t offer any more exnations.

    Eventually, the group reached the east part of the city, where a spectacr mansion rose up in front of them. The mansion glittered with gold and jade, almost as if it were worried people might not believe it to be worthy of respect. The guardian animal statues outside the mansion were made from spirit stone. There was a buzz of conversationing from inside the mansion; clearly a banquet was underway. Laughing and chatting could be heard, along with the sound of music.

    Two guards were stationed out front, and when they saw Xu Qinging, they got visibly nervous. Their cultivation bases red as if they were facing a big enemy.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t attempt to burst inside. He stopped at the main entrance and waited for the guards to announce his presence. But after a long moment passed in which the guards didn¡¯t do anything, he thought about it for a moment, then continued forward.

    The two guards moved to block his path, but before they could, their vision swam, and Xu Qing was past them. Having reached the bright red main door, he put his hand on it. When he pushed, the door rumbled, and a host of cracks spread out across its surface. Then it exploded.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as the splinters of the door swept into the mansion, causing a cloud of dust to rise up. Almost immediately, a group of about a hundred cultivators rushed toward Xu Qing.

    ¡°Halt! Who goes there!?¡±

    ¡°This is Tenth Prince¡¯s mansion! How dare you be disrespectful here!¡±

    Though these cultivators were clearly enraged, they were actually moving quite slowly. And before they could even get close, Xu Qing and the others had crossed the courtyard and had arrived at the banquet.

    It was a gathering of dozens of silkpants from the imperial capital. There were a host of handmaidens everywhere, all of them acting very licentiously. In the middle of it all was a young man in the robe of an imperial prince. Looking very domineering, he red at Xu Qing and Ningyan as he produced a unique bag of holding and put it on the table in front of him.

    ¡°Get the hell out of here.¡±

    Everyone looked on to see what would happen.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he waved his right hand and sent his ancient sun out into the open. The face of every banquet attendee froze. Tenth Prince¡¯s expression turned cold, and he stood. However, before he could speak, Xu Qing blurred into motion, appearing right in front of him.

    Xu Qing reached out and pushed him, tapping into his god troves. A terrifying aura swept forth, causing Tenth Prince¡¯s pupils to constrict. Then blood sprayed out of his mouth as he stumbled backward and passed out.

    Ningyan hurried forward to the table, grabbed the bag of holding, and scanned it. Then he looked at Xu Qing and nodded excitedly.

    Xu Qing looked at the unconscious Tenth Prince, then turned and walked back to the entrance. There, he looked back briefly, his eyes glittering with profound light.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Tenth Prince¡¯s eyes flickered open. When others told him what had happened, he flew into a rage.

    Seeing that, the guests were quick to say their farewells. Meanwhile, Tenth Prince cursed his guards, screamed at everyone, then stormed into his sleeping chamber. After the door was closed, and when he was sure no one could see, he let the fury fade away. In its ce was an expression of sorrow.

    <em>Aunt Qing, there was only so much I could do. I kept your belongings safe for Ol¡¯ Twelfth... and now they¡¯re back where they belong.</em> [2]

    When Tenth Prince thought about that particr member of the Senior generation, he felt sorrow and bitterness. In the imperial pce, where familial love was looked down on, he would never be able to forget the only person who had ever shown him motherly love.

    <em>Sadly, this is my only option. I can¡¯t let people realize how sentimental I am. And I promise, Aunt Qing, I¡¯m going to figure out how you really died!</em>

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s response echoes the swordsage oath from chapter 399. ?

    2. The ¡®Qing¡¯ character here is different from the character in Xu Qing¡¯s name. That said, the character from his name is aponent of that different character. You can see that here: this is the character from Xu Qing¡¯s name Çà, while the character from Aunt Qing is Çç. As you can see, the character from Xu Qing¡¯s name is squished to the right. Interestingly, the characterponent to the left is the character for ¡®sun.¡¯ I honestly do not think any of that is significant, but it is interesting. Or who knows, maybe it IS significant! Seriously, it could be either. ?

 Chapter 753: Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion

    After thinking about everything that happened from the moment he broke down the door, to the seemingly contrived banquet, to the way Tenth Prince arrogantly took out the bag of holding, Xu Qing was left thinking one thing.

    <em>It seems entirely possible this Tenth Prince isn¡¯t the silkpants everyone thinks he is....</em>

    Although it seemed like a case of Xu Qing making a big ssh and Tenth Prince acting domineering, the reality was more nuanced. There were deeper things going on.

    That said, in many instances, one isted incident isn¡¯t enough to make a broad judgment. The only way to determine if Tenth Prince really had set the entire thing up would only be apparentter as he took other actions. Given that, Tenth Prince¡¯s actions actually made a lot of sense. He didn¡¯t care if people other than Xu Qing and Ningyan realized what was really going on, as the power of words could ovee many obstacles.

    As Xu Qing thought about those things, Ningyan was at his side, his eyes also flickering thoughtfully. As an imperial prince, Ningyan was naturally not an idiot, and he had picked up on some of the same clues. He looked over at Xu Qing, and Xu Qing looked back and nodded. Together, they returned to Ningyan¡¯s mansion.

    Back inside, Ningyan took Xu Qing to the mansion¡¯s shrine hall. There, he opened the bag of holding to reveal a scroll painting. There was nothing else inside. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t something that would normally be stored in a bag of holding, as it took effort to extract it without destroying the bag itself and losing the scroll to spatial rifts. The scroll painting was wrapped up in a special package that was designed to facilitate its storage in the bag of holding.

    All of that made it abundantly clear the Tenth Prince had been meticulous in making preparations that required a lot of time and effort to handle properly.

    That was another reason why Ningyan had been in such a hurry to leave, and hadn¡¯t bothered checking thoroughly what was inside the bag of holding.

    After taking out the scroll painting, Ningyan felt a bit shaky. He rubbed the painting with trembling hands, his eyes glimmering with reminiscence. Finally, he unfurled it and hung it on the wall of the shrine hall.It depicted a young woman. She wore a simple yet elegant blue gown. Her hair was not bound and her smile seemed shrewd and even crafty. She wasn¡¯t stunningly beautiful, and in fact, there were many people in the world more attractive than her. But there was no doubt that she had a strong personality. The light in her eyes shone through even in the painting, making it clear how vivacious she was.

    Looking more mncholy than ever, Ningyan approached the painting, lit some incense, and bowed to his mother.

    Xu Qing solemnly stepped forward, lit some incense, and bowed. Then, as he looked at the painting, and specifically Ningyan¡¯s mother¡¯s eyes, his expression flickered.

    He had no idea who had painted this image, but they executed it in a very lifelike way. For example, he had gone to the trouble of painting the pupils in the eyes. But it wasn¡¯t just the pupils that were painted in detail; there were also reflections in the pupils. Although they were somewhat blurry, the general shape was visible, and at first, it seemed like an altar.... But if you looked more closely, you would realize it was actually a building. The specific details of the building weren¡¯t clear.

    Xu Qing decided to revisit the matterter. Looking to the side, he saw that Ningyan was lost in thought as he looked at the painting. Xu Qing, having experienced moments like this himself, knew that Ningyan probably wanted to be alone. He left the shrine hall, being careful not to disturb Ningyan. As he made his way through the mansion, he encountered asional patrolling swordsages. Other than them, the mansion was rtively empty. A faint breeze blew, causing the bells hanging from the eaves to chime. That only added to the emptiness.

    Plumdark hadn¡¯t returned, nor the Captain. Both of them were handling their own matters in the imperial capital. Kong Xianglong went out to pay a visit to Li Yunshan.

    That meant that the only people left in the mansion with Ningyan were Xu Qing and Wu Jianwu.

    Some distance away, Wu Jianwu sat at the edge of theke reciting some poetry in the breeze.

    <em>¡°The water ripples, mortality is tangible; a koi fish roasts here in the capital!¡±</em>

    ¡°Great poem. Really great poem!¡±

    The poem was recited by Wu Jianwu, and the praise came from the parrot.

    Xu Qing scanned theke with divine will and saw Wu Jianwu sitting there, looking thoughtfully at the surface of the water. As he continued to recite more poetry, the parrot didn¡¯t just spout praise. It had taken on an additional task. It was keeping a record. It was recording all of Wu Jianwu¡¯s poetry in a jade slip, for when Wu Jianwu asionally needed to reference them.

    Seeing how much fun they were having, Xu Qing chose to just sit down on the stone bs of the courtyard. The sensation of the breeze, and the sound of the chiming bells, caused him to gradually rx. As he reviewed all of the information ofte, he came to the realization that he was probably going to be in the capital for a while. After all, he was here, yet the emperor hadn¡¯t summoned him yet.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a hurry. After getting his thoughts in order, he closed his eyes and started working on his cultivation. The spirit energy in the capital was stronger than in Sea-Sealing County. And though there was still mutagen, it existed in much lower levels. For mortals, it meant that their longevity was very close to normal. For cultivators, it meant that cultivation progress came a lot quicker, and the chances of mutation were infinitely smaller.

    Therefore, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to waste this opportunity, and immersed himself in cultivation. As of now, he had three god troves. Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t even sure of how to progress with his fourth. It was something he needed to put some thought into going forward. Other than that, he had his god states.

    The god state associated with his first god trove was easy to sustain. But his second-level god state needed Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, and that was a big waste, especially considering the god state didn¡¯tst for long. There was little need to mention his third-level god state.

    <em>I need to figure out a way to change that.</em>

    Beforeing to the imperial capital, he had asked Master Seventh about the situation. His Master had told him that he would be able to find the answer in the imperial capital.

    <em>Where do I find this answer?</em>

    Xu Qing looked up into the canopy of heaven for a time, then closed his eyes and went back to breathing exercises.

    Days passed. Half a monthter, there was less attention being focused on Xu Qing than before, mostly because he hadn¡¯t left the mansion the entire time.

    The story about the incident between Xu Qing and Tenth Prince had long since made the rounds in the capital. What was more, after the event, when the banquet continued, Tenth Prince had made a point of repeatedly mentioning how Xu Qing was his enemy now.

    There was something else that had distracted the prying eyes. A major development urred in the war with the Nightshades. A few days previously, a grand prince of the Firemoon Darkheavens was invited to the Nightshade¡¯s imperial capital. It was a very sensitive situation, and it resulted in a temporary ceasefire in which tensions mounted.

    Xu Qing hardly saw Plumdark or the Captain during the half month that passed. He spent most of his time in the courtyard seated in meditation.

    One evening when Ningyan was away, two people that Xu Qing had met before sent a message saying that they wanted to visit. Shortly after, they were escorted into the courtyard by two swordsages.

    ¡°Long time no see, Xu Qing! Hahaha!¡± One of them smiled broadly as he casually entered and sat on a stone bench near Xu Qing. The other one seemed more cautious as he approached the bowed respectfully.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at them. It took a moment for him to realize who they were.

    ¡°Brother Meng. Brother Huang.¡±

    The cautious fellow was the swordsage Huang Kun, while the casual one was Meng Yunbai. [1]

    He had been introduced to both of them when he went to Seventh Prince¡¯s banquet. And Meng Yunbai, who was the grandson of the minister of war, had actually been sitting right next to Xu Qing, and had given him additional information about some of the other guests. In fact, Xu Qing had talked with Meng Yunbai more than anyone else that day.

    Laughing heartily, Meng Yunbai continued, ¡°I knew from the moment we met that you had limitless potential, and that we would definitely meet again one day. Of course, I had no idea it would be here in the imperial capital.

    ¡°I wanted toe see you earlier, but my n said I couldn¡¯t. They said too many people are watching. But thanks to the developments in the Nightshade war, attention has shifted, and I was finally permitted to make contact.¡±

    Meng Yunbai¡¯s personality hadn¡¯t changed since that banquet. He seemed carefree, as if he would say anything that came to mind. And when he talked, he got to the point.

    Off to the side, Huang Kun nodded. ¡°It¡¯s the same over at the Swordsage Division. Actually, there are a lot of swordsages who want to pay a visit to you, Xu Qing....¡±

    Meng Yunbai blinked a few times, then lowered his voice and adopted a mysterious tone of voice. ¡°You see, someone invited Huang Kun and I over to the Red Dust Pavilion today. Then we thought of you, and decided to ask you toe along. What do you think, Xu Qing? Want to join us for a drink?

    ¡°By the way, the Red Dust Pavilion is a great ce. You¡¯ve heard of the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, one of the ten superpower sects, right? When I say Red Dust Pavilion, that¡¯s what I mean.

    ¡°It¡¯s different from most sects. The disciples are primarily women, and their cultivation revolves around withdrawing from society and suppressing emotions. Of course, if you want to withdraw from society, you have to be a part of society first. And if you want to suppress emotions, you have to release them first.

    ¡°That¡¯s why their sect opens Red Dust Pavilions in many ces. It¡¯s a very expensive ce, and they have strict requirements based on status, position, and cultivation base. If you don¡¯t meet the qualifications, then regardless of anything, you won¡¯t be allowed inside. For all intents and purposes, going there will leave you broke for a month. While we go there for fun, the Red Dust Pavilion disciples practiced cultivation there.

    ¡°However, they offer entertainment andpanionship, nothing more. Nobody would dare try to use force on them. No, they¡¯re treated very well. After all, the god they worship is supposedly High God Starfire of the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    ¡°When ites to the female cultivators from there, each one is more good-looking than the next, and each one has a hotter body than the next. And if we guests are charming and dashing enough, then you can get intimate and practice dual cultivation. Now <em>that</em> is true bliss!¡±

    Meng Yunbai licked his lips, and his heart burned with passion. However, seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very interested, and was about to reject his invitation, he quickly continued, ¡°Incidentally, the gathering today is being hosted by the junior emperor from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. He¡¯s also a descendant of Grand Emperor Starry Sky. You know, now that you¡¯re here in the imperial capital, you probably feel like your head is spinning. I know you might want to stick to yourself, but the reality is that there are some good people around here. Besides, you can take advantage of this situation to learn first-hand how things work here.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it. What Meng Yunbai said did make sense. He needed to personally observe more about the imperial capital so that he could make his own judgment about things.

    Finally, Xu Qing nodded, got to his feet, and left the mansion along with Meng Yunbai and Huang Kun. Meng Yunbai talked just about nonstop, telling Xu Qing all about the customs in the capital. Combining that with what he already knew gave Xu Qing an even deeper understanding of the capital.

    Soon, it was evening, and yet the streets were no less crowded than before. In fact, they were busier. As in most human cities, nighttime was often more vibrant. In the east of the city was a courtyard structure. It featured extravagant architecture, precious building materials, ornamental rocks, and decorative streams. A light buzz of conversation could be heard inside. Above the main entrance was calligraphy <em>as mboyant as dancing dragons and swirling phoenixes</em>.

    Red Dust Pavilion.

    There were rednterns everywhere, and a lot of foot traffic in the area. The open-air courtyard was filled with small buildings separated by ornamental rocks and connected with meandering paths. The little buildings all had spell formations that could be used to create privacy.

    Meng Yunbai was obviously a regr here, as he was immediately noticed by the granny in charge, who walked over with a smile on her face. She was called ¡®granny,¡¯ but was actually an attractive middle-aged woman. She had a flirtatious look in her eyes, but if you looked closely, you could see a cold glint there. Being hot on the outside but cold on the inside was one way to make yourself a lot more attractive.

    Meng Yunbai casually slipped his arm around the ¡®granny¡¯s¡¯ waist and then pointed at Xu Qing. ¡°Recognize him?¡±

    The ¡®granny¡¯ looked Xu Qing over, and the pupils in her beautiful eyes constricted. She smiled. ¡°Young Sir Xu! Who hasn¡¯t heard about you?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he looked around. He wasn¡¯t veryfortable in ces like this. As for Huang Kun, though he had started out being reserved, being in this familiar environment, he started to loosen up a bit. As Meng Yunbai continued tough and chat, the ¡®granny¡¯ led them onward.

    The smell of perfume filled the air, lending a sense of romance to the ce. It was a really nice brothel, that was clear. Some of the buildings had guards, and when they spotted Meng Yunbai, they sped hands and bowed.

    There were beautiful, alluring women everywhere. When they noticed Xu Qing, almost all of them stopped and stared. In sharp contrast, Xu Qing ignored them.

    Before long, the ¡®granny¡¯ had led the three of them to one particr building which waspletely empty except for a young woman ying a zither.

    However, as Xu Qing got closer, it was like walking through a sheet of water and into an otherworldly paradise. Within that otherworldly paradise was a huge immortal hotspring. The spirit energy a dense mist that filled the area and cleared the mind. Not too far away were a dozen or so young men, toasting each other and chatting. Each young man had a beautiful woman at his side, each of whom was attractive in a different way.

    Seated in the very middle was a young man in a ck robe embroidered with a starry sky. He was extraordinary, being very handsome, with sword-like eyebrows and eyes that sparkled like stars. He was currently chatting with the woman next to him. He was obviously the host of this event, the junior emperor of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. Music drifted about, and there were dancers performing. The atmosphere was very warm.

    When Xu Qing, Meng Yunbai, and Huang Kun entered, everyone in the immortal hotspring looked over. Meng Yunbai stepped forward, sped hands to the young man in the starry sky robe, thenughed heartily.

    ¡°Brother Peng, sorry that Huang Kun and I haveete, but we brought a new friend with us. I don¡¯t think I need to introduce Xu Qing to any of you. You¡¯ve all heard of him.¡±

    All gazes shifted to Xu Qing. Some people even rose, smiled at him, and sped hands.

    Junior Emperor Peng looked at Xu Qing and nodded. His expression wasn¡¯t cold, but neither was it warm. It was neutral.

    Xu Qing nodded to everyone, then found a ce to sit down. Meng Yunbai chatted for a bit, then went over to Xu Qing to exin who everyone was. They were either nobility or disciples from major sects. They were sizing Xu Qing up while he did the same to them. Regardless of what they were thinking on the inside, they were all smiles on the outside.

    Eventually, some beautiful girls arrived, and one of them, who was fairer than any of the others, gracefully sat down next to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Young Sir,¡± she said with a smile, ¡°you look a bit out of sorts.¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t necessarily out of sorts. It was just his first time being in a situation like this.

    ***

    In the Red Dust Pavilion¡¯s shrine hall, the y fox stirred, and h¨¥r eyes suddenly glittered.

    <em>Should I go have a look at the naughty little boy...?</em>

    1. We met Meng Yunbai in chapters 547.1 and 547.2. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter was much longer than average, being around 4,500 Chinese characters instead of the standard 3,000.

    ALSO!

    Starting with this chapter, I''m uploading a ton of chapters in preparation for my trip to China. I want to make sure there are plenty on the WW end in case I experience travel dys or inte issues. As a result, there are going to be about a week of chapters with NO shoutouts for reviews. Once I''m in China, back on line, and start uploading chapters to WW again, the shoutouts will resume. Thank you for your patience!</blockquote>

 Chapter 754: Romance and Drunken Immortal in the Red Dust

    <h4>Chapter 754: Romance and Drunken Immortal in the Red Dust</h4>

    Within that otherworldly paradise in the Red Dust Pavilion, chatting,ughter, and music drifted about as the young men and women interacted, and emotions began to build.

    Xu Qing¡¯s keen senses told him that, as emotions grew stronger, there were spell formations at work. Those formations were simr to the spirit convergence formations from his early days. They were designed to gather the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures.[1]

    Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the alcohol in the cup in front of him. It was a deep amber color, and had a very unique fragrance. From the sip he had taken earlier, he could tell this alcohol was extraordinary.

    ¡°That¡¯s a specialty of our Red Dust Pavilion,¡± the young woman seated next to him said. ¡°Mortals can¡¯t drink it. Even one drink will kill them. Its name is Drunken Immortal, and though it has some amazing ingredients, people under Void Returning will have trouble digesting them. In fact, to them, it could well be considered a poison.

    ¡°That said, it won¡¯t hurt you. It¡¯s actually considered very precious. As you know, the process of cultivation transforms our fleshly bodies into something incredible, and sometimes, that makes it hard to get drunk. Drunken Immortal is the only alcohol that can really get you feeling drunk. And that makes it easier to release your emotions.

    ¡°The spell formations here in the Red Dust Pavilion are designed with cultivation purposes in mind.¡± [2]

    Xu Qing looked around and tried to wrap his mind around what she was saying. To him, poison was something for killing people. It seemed strange that people would use it to get drunk. It was something that didn¡¯t ur either in South Phoenix or Sea-Sealing County.

    <i>Maybe that¡¯s just how things work in the imperial capital.</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really approve, but wasn¡¯t inclined to voice his opinion. He had already sensed that the spell formations here were collecting emotions, and he could also sense that the women of the Red Dust Pavilion were absorbing the power of those emotions.

    It really wasn¡¯t a suitable environment for Xu Qing. Looking around, he saw Meng Yunbai drinking and having fun. Huang Kun was off to the side, his eyebrows dancing up and down as he whispered something to the girl next to him.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel like he fit in here. Not wanting to waste his time, he prepared to leave when, all of a sudden, dazzling light appeared. A bright red teleportation portal appeared over the surface of the immortal hotspring, out of which emerged two figures. Both were women. The one in the lead position was someone Xu Qing recognized. It was the ¡®granny¡¯ who had led the way here.

    The second person caused the entire otherworldly paradise to go dim and colorless because of her mere presence. All eyes locked onto her. The junior emperor from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect looked at her with eyes that burned with passion. She was why he hade. The cotton veil on her face revealed only her eyes, which glistened like a pond in spring. She wore a gauzy pink garment with a silk sleeveless coat of red and green, embroidered with a phoenix. The garment perfectly entuated her slender waist and graceful wrists.

    Her figure was hinted at by the fabric of the garment, making her incredibly alluring. She carried an ancient pipa with her, and her hair was bound atop her head and secured in ce with a peony. [3]

    She was a spectacr beauty, the type that could make all flowers look colorless, and could liven all living beings. She walked gracefully onto the shore next to the immortal hotspring, and approached the gathering. After giving a curtsying bow, she sat on a small jade pir and started ying music with her delicate fingers.

    The song started out graceful and tinged with regret, as if it were telling a story that would never end.... As it continued, the rhythm picked up, like a butterfly dancing gracefully in the wind, or the gurgle of spring waters running down a mountain. It was as if the young woman were thinking about beautiful times spent with her paramour. Everyone was moved by the beauty of it.

    But then the song changed, and became about departures and the sorrow of parting. Apparently, the paramour was going off to war. He had no choice but to leave, and left behind nothing but memories. The tone of the music changed to that of sorrow, as if the song was telling the paramour... <i> ¡°Wherever you go, your aura remains. When you¡¯re here, the music ys. When you leave, the music bes you.¡±</i>

    Everyone was even more deeply moved.

    Gradually, the pipa music changed again. This time, it became lively and heroic. Even aggressive. It also caused drifting snowkes to appear. The roof in the otherworldly paradise became pitch-ck, and then glittering stars appeared, which swirled together to be a gravestone.

    Emotions stirred in the audience as they realized that the woman had learned her paramour died in battle. The music was angry, and it contained a helpless hatred of the world.

    It was just like the poem:

    <i>For ten thousand miles, no one is around to collect the bones. All houses in the city call the souls to be buried.</i>

    <i>The husband died in battle while the son is unborn; the wife still lives, but is like a candle in the day</i>.[4]

    The immortal hotspring and the otherworldly paradise werepletely silent. Some people were thinking about the Nightshades. Some thought of humankind. Others thought of their ns¡¯ patriarchs.

    In the end, the music stopped, and thest note lingered until it transformed into the same note which had begun the song. It was as if the song had traveled through time, returning to the past to once again sigh as life began again....

    ¡°Amazing!¡± the junior emperor said, standing, his eyes glittering. Everyone else joined him, rising to their feet and offering words of praise.

    Even Xu Qing was moved. He had listened to music before, but never anything like this. It was like listening to aplete story thatpletely drew him in.

    The young woman bowed her head, then picked up the ss of alcohol in front of her, lifted it to the crowd, and then took a drink.

    That action caused her veil to shift to the side, revealing her face. Her skin was as fair as jade and as beautiful as a flower, and the fair skin of her wrist as she lifted the drinking vessel was equally as enticing. Her lips were as red as cinnabar, and as she put the drinking vessel back down, she smiled alluringly.

    Everyone watching her struggled to remain calm.

    Seeing all the emotions at y, the ¡®granny¡¯ smiled. ¡°Young sirs, this beautiful immortal is Miss Ling Yao. Normally speaking, Miss Ling Yao doesn¡¯t make public appearances, but upon finding there was a special guest today, I issued her an invitation which she epted. Young sirs, I¡¯m sure all of you know the rules by which Miss Ling Yao operates.¡±

    Hearing that, Junior Emperor Peng nodded. ¡°Of course we know. Miss Ling Yao will sit next to whoever she fancies. No one can force her to sit where she doesn¡¯t wish.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he cast a meaningful look in Ling Yao¡¯s direction. He hade here this day for her, and it wasn¡¯t his first time showing interest. What was more, based on the information he had ess to, she was also interested in him.

    Most importantly, the female cultivators in the Red Dust Pavilion all cultivated the dao of suppressed emotions. Of course, before you could suppress emotions, you had to release them. And a release of emotions couldn¡¯t just happen randomly. As it rted to their first time practicing dual cultivation, men could be very useful to these women. And the higher the level of cultivation base involved, the more incredibly shocking that usefulness became.

    <i>By borrowing power from Ling Yao, I can have a much better chance of stepping from the great circle of Spirit Trove and into Void Returning. In fact, my chances will improve exponentially.</i>

    As Junior Emperor Peng thought such things, Ling Yao picked up the pipa. Her dark eyes glittered, and her charm overflowed, capturing the soul. She scanned the crowd, and then focused on Xu Qing. Smiling, she walked over and, as everyone looked on, sat down next to him.

    Xu Qing went stiff from head to toe. At the same, he put his guard up. He didn¡¯t recognize this woman, and given that they had never met before, there was clearly meaning behind her action of sitting next to him. Frowning, he turned to look at her.

    Ling Yao¡¯s eyes gleamed as she looked back at him and quietly said, ¡°What are you looking at me like that for, young sir?¡±

    Her gentle voice caused Meng Yunbai¡¯s heart to pound. As for Junior Emperor Peng, he looked away expressionlessly, took a drink, then put the cup down and closed his eyes. Everyone else present had different expressions on their faces as they looked at Xu Qing, then the junior emperor. They exchanged meaningful nces.

    Shortly after, the young man sitting next to the junior emperor looked at Xu Qing andughed heartily. ¡°Brother Xu, you¡¯re really a dragon amongst men. It¡¯s your first time here, yet Miss Ling Yao has taken a liking to you already. I have to offer my congrattions, Brother Xu. In fact, let me offer you a toast. Going forward, we should keep in touch regrly!¡±

    He lifted his drinking vessel politely and took a drink.

    Both his wording and his demeanor were very courteous, so Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any good reason to refuse the toast. Raising his drinking vessel, he also took a drink. The moment he did, another of the guests raised his cup.

    ¡°Brother Xu, you¡¯re a man of striking appearance and talent. You¡¯re also the acting governor from one of the border regions. I¡¯ve heard a lot about you over the years, and now that I can see you in person, I¡¯m even more impressed. Allow me to toast you three times in a row.¡±

    The young man drank to Xu Qing three times in a row. Xu Qing realized what was going on. Before long, everyone else was toasting him, all of them speaking very courteously and keeping their expressions warm and weing. It was obvious what their goal was, and there wasn¡¯t much that could be done to stop them. At a certain point, Meng Yunbai seemed about ready to stand up and intervene, but Xu Qing prevented him. [5]

    This ¡®poisoned¡¯ alcohol might get other people drunk, but not Xu Qing. As long as something had ¡®poison¡¯ in it, he didn¡¯t need to worry about it at all. Therefore, he didn¡¯t refuse any of the toasts, and instead drank ss after ss. After all of the drinks were done, a lot of the other guests were swaying back and forth, while Xu Qing looked the same as ever. Everyone was now looking at him curiously.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing had taken care to memorize the names and faces of everyone present. Then he smiled.

    ¡°I¡¯m very happy to have met all of you amazing heroes today,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re the pirs of humankind, and are geniuses all of you. People like us are responsible for continuing the glory of all humanity. Given that, why don¡¯t we start drinking one <i>jug </i>at a time?¡±

    He looked at the ¡®granny.¡¯

    The ¡®granny¡¯ was clearly surprised, but she immediately called a handmaiden over and told her to bring in enough jugs of alcohol for everyone.

    The other guests hesitated. None of them would dare to drink too much of this alcohol. Sometimes, alcohol itself could be considered a weapon.

    Remaining calm inside, Xu Qing smiled in the way his Eldest Brother had taught him to.

    ¡°Please, drink!¡±

    A lot of the other guests were hesitating. Finally, the junior emperor opened his eyes, looked at Xu Qing, and then got to his feet.

    ¡°I¡¯m tired. Let¡¯s get together again another time.¡±

    Everyone else stood as well. Seeing that, Meng Yunbai cast an apologetic nce in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, then frowned and opened his mouth to speak.[6]

    Before he could, light glittered above the immortal hotspring as a white-haired old woman stepped out. Her expression was grave, and her eyes serious. Everyone was stunned to see her there. All of the female cultivators stood and bowed to her.

    ¡°Big Boss.¡±

    Even the junior emperor and his friends all looked very serious as they bowed to her. That went to show how important she was. She was actually a grand eldress in the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, and was in charge of all sect affairs in the city. She nodded at the junior emperor and the others. As far as she was concerned, they were basically children that weren¡¯t worth paying attention to. Her gaze quickly reached Xu Qing, whereupon her expression turned warm.

    ¡°You must be Young Sir Xu?¡±

    1. Another callback to very early chapters. Spirit convergence formations were first mentioned in <u>chapter 51</u>. ?

    2. It may or may not be worth noting that ¡°Drunken Immortal¡± is also the name of a type of alcohol that Bai Xiaochun drank in <i><u>A Will Eternal</u></i>. Specifically it was in <u>chapter 1029</u> and <u>1032</u>. I don¡¯t think this is supposed to imply that it¡¯s literally the same alcohol. For one thing, the name, though not generic, is not very unique. What¡¯s more, in both that novel and this one, the name only appears a couple times, which makes me disinclined to believe that it¡¯s important to the author. Or who knows, maybe it <i>is</i> the author¡¯s intent to create a connection between the two novels.... It¡¯s also true there was a character named ¡°Red Dust¡± in AWE. The term ¡®red dust¡¯ is a Buddhist term often seen in xianxia that refers to the mortal world. It¡¯s fairlymon, so its appearance here doesn¡¯t necessarily indicate any connectoin to AWE, but simr to Drunken Immortal, who knows.... ?

    3. If you want to learn about the traditional Chinese instrument ¡®pipa,¡¯ and also hear what it sounds like, <u>here¡¯s a great video</u>. Incidentally, the video has a joke that isn¡¯t exined in the subtitles, which rtes to the loquat fruit. In Chinese, loquats are ¡®pipa fruits¡¯ presumably because they resemble the general shape of a pipa. Not that it¡¯s relevant to the story, but Madam Deathde was long obsessed with loquats because they aren¡¯tmonly grown in North China where she is from and where we lived. By chance, my parents happen to have a loquat tree in their backyard, so when she came to visit, she went crazy eating them. To this day, my dad will still give her bags of loquats whenever the tree produces fruit. In fact, he gave us a bag of loquats just a few days ago. Alright, enough random stories.... ?

    4. From what I can tell, the lines of poetry here are from Tang Dynasty poet <u>Zhang Ji</u>. I couldn¡¯t find any trantion of the poem itself, so consider yourselves the first in the English-speaking world to be able to read this ancient Chinese poem. Although, who knows, maybe it does exist in tranted form in some printed book somewhere. I wasn''t able to easily find it online. ?

    5. This scenario is not unusual when dealing with Chinese men in drinking situations. I don¡¯t want to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say, when someone offers a toast to you in China, you are (for the most part) obligated (in terms of face) to drink with them. This is emphasized when Xu Qing can¡¯te up with a good reason to refuse. The toaster is usually the one to determine how much is drunk (whether a sip or the entire cup). So what can happen in banquet situations is that arge group of people can initiate a mass-toasting of one person to get them drunk. This happened to me once at apany dinner in China. I was the head teacher, and all the Chinese co-teachers (who were all young women by the way, and I¡¯ll get to what that could entail in a second), suddenly initiated a mass-toasting on me. There were something like twelve of them, so that involved me basically doing twelve shots of hard liquor all in the space of about 4-5 minutes. Like I said, it¡¯s possible to get out of those situations if you have serious health problems or there is some other situation that makes a good excuse. But for the most part, a healthy able-bodied man shouldn¡¯t refuse toasts lest he embarrass himself. Suffice it to say, I got pretty dang drunk that night. Considering it was a bunch of 20¡¯s-something young women trying to get me to drink, it obviously was an unusual situation, and I imagine if I had been thinking on my feet, I could have extricated myself from the situation. But I wanted to prove my drinking prowess, of which I already had something of a reputation at the time. The fact that I was a foreigner also yed into it, as foreigners are often exempted from themon social customs, or at least, not expected to behave in the most proper way. Would the girls have tried that trick on their Chinese male boss? I¡¯m not sure. Would a male Chinese boss have humored them? Questionable. Was it cool for me to do that, or was it actually embarrassing? Good question! And at this point it¡¯s time to stop rambling on this subject.... ?

    6. On the one hand, it¡¯s somewhat rude for the junior emperor to get everyone to leave after Xu Qing has invited them to drink. On the other hand, you could look at it a different way: the junior emperor and his friends were obviously trying to embarrass Xu Qing by getting him drunk. Their n backfired when it didn¡¯t work. But worse, he then turned the tables and put them in the position to getpletely smashed if they keep drinking. So in some respects, the junior emperor is probably making a smart decision to just end things before they turn really crazy. As the host, he has that prerogative. ?

 Chapter 755: The Wind Fills with Deadly Blades; Water Rises to Take Lives

    <h4>Chapter 755: The Wind Fills with Deadly des; Water Rises to Take Lives</h4>

    ¡°Young Sir Xu,¡± the big boss said respectfully, ¡°we¡¯re honored by your presence. If you¡¯re displeased with any aspect of our service, please don¡¯t hesitate to notify me. If you have the time, do you minding with me, young sir? A Senior member of our sect asked me to bring you in for an audience.¡±

    With that, she looked expectantly at Xu Qing.

    Surprise was visible in the eyes of everyone present. They all knew about Xu Qing¡¯s background, which was why they had ¡®toasted¡¯ him, but not done anything too outrageous. Nor had they done anything openly humiliating. After all, there was no need to do anything like that just because of Ling Yao.

    However, their intelligence reports didn¡¯t mention anything about Xu Qing having connections to the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion. That was especially noteworthy considering that though it was one of the human superpower sects, it was actually backed by one of the gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. As for how deep the sect was connected to that god, it was hard to say. Regardless, even the emperor himself had no choice but to tacitly approve of the sect.

    Therefore, the fact that this sect was treating Xu Qing so respectfully was nothing short of a shock. And it immediately led to spection about which Senior member of the sect the old woman was referring to.

    Junior Emperor Peng¡¯s eyes narrowed, and his pupils constricted. He had originally thought of Xu Qing the way people from all the other organizations did. He didn¡¯t want to offend him, but also wasn¡¯t interested in getting close to him. As a result, though it had been quite a shock to see Ling Yao go sit next to Xu Qing, he hadn¡¯t done anything dramatic. His own status, plus the circumstances in the Red Dust Pavilion in general, prevented him from doing that.

    However, he had lost some face, which was why he had allowed his friends to ¡®toast¡¯ Xu Qing. At a certain point, he didn¡¯t want things to get pushed too far, which was why he had been preparing to leave. But then the big boss showed up, and that changed what he thought about Xu Qing on many levels.

    Meng Yunbai and Huang Kun looked at Xu Qing in surprise.

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly. He was already fairly certain he knew what was going on. Back when Meng Yunbai introduced the Red Dust Pavilion and mentioned the associated god, Xu Qing had understood the situation. That said, they were in the imperial capital of humankind. There was a difference between worshiping a god, and a god actuallying. Based on his experience dealing with Crimson Mother, he knew that all too well.

    After the events in Moonrite, Xu Qing was confident that High God Starfire wasn¡¯t an enemy, at least for the time being. And that meant dealing with this situation shouldn¡¯t be too difficult. In fact, all of that had yed into his decision toe along. But his presence had been noticed, so after thinking the matter over, he sped hands to the big boss and agreed to go with her.

    And thus, as everyone watched, she escorted him away. Ling Yao also disappeared.

    After he was gone, the guests left, all of them thinking different things. News of what happened was going to spread quickly in their respective organizations, and it was easy to imagine how quickly everyone else in the capital would learn of it, and how that would affect their perspective on Xu Qing.

    Junior Emperor Peng looked thoughtfully at the teleportation portal Xu Qing had just disappeared into.

    Meng Yunbai blinked a few times. He¡¯d previously believed that he knew Xu Qing well thanks to the intelligence reports he¡¯d read. But now he realized that everything he knew was just surface-level. Xu Qing¡¯s true strengthy underneath.

    ¡°Very interesting....¡± Meng Yunbai murmured as he left with everyone else.

    Meanwhile, after Xu Qing followed the big boss into the teleportation portal, he was whisked away from the immortal hotspring and the otherworldly paradise. When he materialized, he was in front of a shrine hall.

    The big boss respectfully bowed, then backed up a few steps all while indicating that Xu Qing should enter.

    He looked at the door and took a deep breath. Then he pushed the door, and it slowly swung open, allowing pink light to spread out from inside. As it surrounded Xu Qing, he saw a shrine inside, within which was a y fox.

    Looking at the y fox, he sped hands and bowed. ¡°Well met, High God.¡±

    Coquettishughter echoed in the shrine hall. ¡°You were so aloof back in Moonrite, you naughty little boy. Back then, I never could have imagined I would see you here. I know full well what kind of ce this is, you know. Thankfully, I woke up in time, otherwise you might have been swallowed whole by those slutty wenches.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Are you happy to see me, naughty boy? Are you surprised?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Not surprised. High God, you were right next to me just now, weren¡¯t you?¡±

    Glittering with bright light, the y fox¡¯s eyes opened and locked onto Xu Qing. ¡°You¡¯ve got sharp eyes, naughty boy. You actually sensed my slip of divine sense on Ling Yao. What did you think of Ling Yao, by the way? She¡¯s my god daughter that I personally selected. I have another god daughter in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people,ter on I¡¯ll have her find you to spend some time together. If you¡¯d like, I could permit you to split a drop of your primal yang between them.¡±

    Xu Qing was used to the y fox¡¯s teasing, so he didn¡¯t react. Instead, he politely said, ¡°High God, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s an important reason you summoned me.¡±

    The y fox¡¯s eye twitched slightly as a slightly displeased expression appeared. ¡°Your facial expression.... If it weren¡¯t for you humans¡¯ Grand Emperor Swordsage keeping this city locked down, I wouldn¡¯t have been so badly injured by his sword when I came here in my true form. And then I wouldn¡¯t need your primal yang, you naughty little boy. Ah, whatever. Time is of the essence. If I stay awake too long, your Grand Emperor Swordsage will sense me sooner orter. You see, I called you here because I wanted to warn you about something.

    ¡°Your human emperor... is doing something that no human emperor has ever done from ancient times until now!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    The y fox smiled, and instead of going into more detail, looked off into the distance. ¡°Also, you need to be careful of the imperial preceptor here.... He¡¯s dangerous. Very, very dangerous.¡± The y fox¡¯s voice was very serious. ¡°You know, you¡¯re very simr to him....¡±

    Xu Qing looked up and was about to speak when a terrifying wave of divine will swept out from the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    The y fox snorted coldly and a bit defiantly. But then the fox¡¯s eyes closed and it reverted into an ordinary statue. At the same time, a surge of gentle force pushed Xu Qing out of the shrine hall. After that, the divine will dispersed.

    The big boss gave Xu Qing a meaningful look. As the servant of a High God, she knew that there were statues of the same god in all of the Red Dust Pavilions. But they were just statues. Very rarely did any of them wake up like this. And it was even rarer for one of them to wake up for a single person. On the other hand, she also knew that there were many things in which <i>not </i>understanding was a lot better than understanding clearly. Bowing her head slightly, she led Xu Qing out of the Red Dust Pavilion.

    Once outside, Xu Qing looked back briefly before heading out into the night. It was getting close to midnight, and the capital city was wreathed in darkness. There were no stars in the sky, as there was a thick cloud cover, within which could be heard the muffled sound of thunder.

    The city was lit byntern light, although that wasn¡¯t the case on every single street. There weren¡¯t a lot of pedestrians out thiste, and most were on their way home. Some walked alone, some in groups of up to five people.

    Perhaps because of the thunder, and the sense of moisture building up, most people hurried on their way. The whimpering wind had picked up. It was cold as it scraped across the ground and the eaves. When it touched Xu Qing¡¯s face, the chill made him realize that the seasons were changing.

    <i>Autumn is here.</i>

    Walking alone down the street, he contemted the two things the y fox had told him.

    <i>What big thing is the emperor up to?</i>

    After he had been walking for some time, he heard the pitter-patter of raindrops striking the ground. Then lightning crashed, and it started raining harder.

    A shimmering light could be seen surrounding Xu Qing, which kept the rain away, so he didn¡¯t stop walking. Nor were his thoughts interrupted. At the moment, he waspletely absorbed in the y fox¡¯s final words.

    <i>¡°Be careful of the imperial preceptor.... You¡¯re very simr to him....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing had never seen the imperial preceptor. But it didn¡¯tfort him to know that he was simr to him.

    <i>I doubt High God Starfire meant that we¡¯re simr to each other in being dangerous. There¡¯s no way sh¨¥ thinks of me as being dangerous. So maybe the simrities sh¨¥¡¯s talking about... are aura and physical appearance.</i>

    As the rain fell and the wind blew, he stopped walking, and a grim expression appeared on his face. Eyes shining coldly, he looked down the street. It was a long street with buildings lining it both tall and short. None were lit up. As the rain pinged onto the rooftops, it dripped off the eaves, forming little rivulets that flowed into the street. The asional bolt of lightning illuminated the area.

    The wind wasn¡¯t normally visible. But this heavy rainstorm was able to give shape to the wind. Within the coldness and the moisture, there was something very sharp, which soon turned into a host of knives shing toward him.

    In the blink of an eye, something that looked like a fiendish club flew out of Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding. Of the three heads on it, the one that resembled Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had its eyes opened, and he howled with rage as he shot into the wind. He moved faster than the wind or rain could, and a momentter, a sound like weapons shing echoed out. Then, a host of des formed from water were sent spinning off to the side.

    As the iron skewer circled back around to Xu Qing, the rain started falling harder, and the little rivulets merged to create something like ake.

    The naturalws in this area had been transformed by someone. The heavy rain blurred the surroundings, and the only light came from asional bolts of lightning. The ke¡¯ beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet was rising dramatically. It seemed like it might cover everything soon.

    Even more astonishing, within that rippling water appeared something like a hand that shot out and toward Xu Qing. Some distance away, it was possible to see shadowy figures lurking in the water. Their features weren¡¯t clear, but they looked like life forms made from water itself. And they were rushing toward Xu Qing, each and every one of them pulsing with killing intent.

    Then the dark buildings on either side of the street transformed, bing like cross-legged statues, pitch-ck and bald, with eyes open as they spoke in gruish voices.

    <i>¡°Hear the edict of the ghostly spirits; thine lonely soul mourns; monsters of the eight divisions; four lives filled with rancor; those with heads die; those without heads live; the wind fills with deadly des; water rises to take lives; treat injustice as kindness; treat unjust death as goodness; the young man who lives; kneel before mine altar; eight trigrams lose light!¡±</i>

 Chapter 756: The Strategy of Yin-Yang Water Fiends and Ghostly Apparitions

    <h4>Chapter 756: The Strategy of Yin-Yang Water Fiends and Ghostly Apparitions</h4>

    The sound of the dao curse became streams of ck mist that emerged from the mouths of the bald statues, then intertwined in midair to form a ck talisman. The talisman was long and thin, and as the rain hit it, ck ink dripped off it, pulsing with a sinister, corrosive energy. Then it elerated toward Xu Qing to seal him.

    In that moment of crisis, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned pitch-ck as taboo poison converged there. Whatever he looked at would be cursed, and right now, he was looking at that ck talisman.

    After one breath of time had passed, the magical talisman vibrated, then began to fade. As poison filled it, mysterious light erupted from the talisman as it tried to fight back. After two breaths of time had passed, the poison built in intensity, releasing a poison gas that became a host of blurry ghost faces, howling in anguish. After three breaths of time had passed, the talisman began to crumble and decay. It hadn¡¯t even reached a position nine meters away from Xu Qing.

    Next, poison erupted from within Xu Qing. It didn¡¯t juste from his eyes. It swept out in all directions like a tempest, enveloping the talisman.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out. The talisman almost seemed to possess its own life force; instead of being suppressed, the talisman melted of its own ord, turning into a host of countless smaller talismans that scattered in the street. From a distance, it almost looked like money for the dead, creating a road between life and death, and locking down a myriad of ancient souls.

    Heaven turned gloomy, and the earth went dark. As everything was locked down, the entire street seemed to be separated from the imperial capital, until it was its own unique dimension. Within that dimension, naturalws were transformed, and magicalws were deeply influenced. Everything was different from the outside world.

    The water on the street had long since be an entireke, and the water level was still rising. It had already reached Xu Qing¡¯s legs, and was now rising to his waist, as if to drown him.

    The curse originally contained fifty-two characters, which was exactly the same as the number of statues. As the statues continued to curse the area, they rose from their cross-legged positions, then sshed through the water as they charged toward Xu Qing. [1]

    The watery life forms that had appeared earlier weren¡¯t cultivators, but rather, manifestations of a divine ability. They also surged with killing intent as they closed in on Xu Qing. What was more, a hand formed from water emerged, pulsing with destruction, ughter, and the will of ghostly spirits.

    Taking in the scene as a whole, it looked like death was hemming Xu Qing in from heaven, from earth, from the left, and from the right. Rain poured down, soaking his garments and hair. Strong killing intent seeped into his body and soul.

    The water in the street chaotically covered everything. This was an attack using the strategy of ¡®water fiends and ghostly apparitions.¡¯

    At the minimum, someone would need a cultivation base in the great circle of Spirit Trove to unleash an attack like this, and they would need help to set up a spell formation. More likely than not, whoever was behind this was in Void Returning. That was the only way a deadly scenario such as this could be unleashed so quickly.

    Furthermore... that person most likely was not present, but was using some remote method to unleash the magic. They obviously wanted to end this incident very quickly. What was more, they had to know Xu Qing well, as they had obviously set things up on this specific street.

    As all of those thoughts raced through Xu Qing¡¯s mind, his face turned grim and his eyes cold. It had been a long time since he felt any true sense of danger. In fact, he hadn¡¯t felt anything like this since Moonrite. It would be simple to resolve this situation if he just detonated his ancient sun. But he couldn¡¯t quite make himself do that. Most importantly... detonating that sun would affect the entire imperial capital. That... might be what his enemy was trying to provoke him into doing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as his cultivation base surged. Three god troves appeared behind him, the furnaces within them roaring to life with mes of godly might.

    Intense heat filled the area, causing the water on the ground to rapidly evaporate into steam. Then Xu Qing tapped into the power of his god troves to shoot up from the water. Beneath him, water seethed, and the hand stretched toward him.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing pushed his right hand downward. In response, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow spread out from him in all directions, causing mutagen to flourish. As it spread and covered everything, it released the forbidden region it had consumed. It spread out, obscuring the sky, and turning the area above Xu Qing into a spinning ck vortex. The ground was covered with water. The sky was covered with a shadow. And Xu Qing was in the middle. Because this area was now cut off from the outside, releasing the shadow¡¯s forbidden region was perfectly suitable.

    Using godly powers to suppress the magical techniques of cultivators was definitely a valid battle strategy.

    As the shadow spread out, the dimension trembled. At the same time, the shadow rippled as it turned into a hand just like the water below.

    This was a pitch-ck hand with a tree in the middle of the palm, from which hung a coffin that swayed back and forth like a bell. Cacklingughter rang out like a sinister chant. As the shadow affected the dao curse, Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent surged, and he shoved his right hand down. The hand made of shadow descended, passed through Xu Qing, and then mmed into the hand made of water.

    A deafening sound wave rolled out in all directions, smashing into the water and affecting the life forms. The fifty-two statues lurched to a halt.

    At the same time, Xu Qing bent at the waist before shooting forward like an arrow from a bow, heading right toward the statues. The iron skewer flew toward the destabilized life forms of water.

    The sh happened in the blink of an eye.

    Thanks to Master Seventh¡¯s unique crafting technique, the iron skewer was now shockingly mighty. The three faces on it all had their eyes open now, including the face of Crimson Mother and the god from Forbidden by the Immortal. With their bolstering, the fiendish club shot through one of the life forms after another. Each one exploded, losing its life force and turning into ordinary water.

    Xu Qing was even more impressive. He shot forward with such incredible speed that the rain was sted aside. His first god trove emitted thunderous rumblings as it broke into countless fragments that merged into Xu Qing. That was godsource. As it fused with Xu Qing, his body copsed, flesh grew out, and he became taller andrger.

    He now looked like the Ghost Emperor,plete with an imperial crown. Blinding golden light shone off him, transforming into a seven-colored glow. The heart of the heavenly dao furnace thumped, with each beat like heavenly thunder. At the same time, intense mes swept out over him. A ck spear appeared, covered with innumerable bolts of lightning. As Xu Qing hefted it, he appeared in front of the first statue. One swipe of the spear caused the statue to explode and turn into countless fragments that showered down.

    Xu Qing was in his first-level god state, which dramatically boosted his battle prowess, and made his taboo spear even more terrifyingly strong. Moving with blinding speed, Xu Qing pierced through a few dozen statues in one shot. Every single one exploded.

    And yet, Xu Qing was already frowning.

    When he destroyed thest statue, an intense sensation of deadly crisis filled him. Without any hesitation, he gripped the spear tightly and then threw it toward the end of the street.

    Next, he took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    Meanwhile, the ck spear screamed through the air, shooting to the end of the street and stabbing into the air there. At that point, it stopped moving.

    That was the border of a sealing magic. At the point where the spear pierced it, there was a bit of ck cloth visible. Clearly, someone had been concealed in invisibility there....

    A sinister voice suddenly filled the street.

    ¡°We underestimated you. But you underestimated the dao curse.

    ¡°The Dao Paragon asks: why are the four lives filled with rancor, and why do those with heads die? We do reply: the fallen statues lock down the heavenly body!¡±

    As those words echoed out, the shattered remnants of the fifty-two statues emerged from the water, transforming into fifty-two chains that snaked toward Xu Qing. No matter how deftly he dodged back and forth, he couldn¡¯t avoid them, and was quickly wrapped up. Each of the fifty-two chains had one end wrapped around Xu Qing and the other end in the water. From a distance, it looked like some fiendish devil had been physically tied up.

    ¡°The Dao Paragon closes his eyes and asks: how and where does the wind fill with deadly des, and the water rise to take lives? We do answer: of course, water can seal any and all minds!¡±

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. The water in theke became like threads, each of them with a chain inside. They shot toward Xu Qing, wrapping around him, locking down his divine sense, and in fact, sealing off all of his sensory organs, including his eyes.

    ¡°The ted Dao Paragon again asks: treat injustice as kindness, treat unjust death as goodness, invert the cosmos and the universe, question chaos in the world, but how can it all be reconciled? We do exin: a dao curse can impale the soul!¡±

    Fifty-two pitch-ck nails flew out of the water. Looking closely, it was possible to see that atop each nail sat a tiny version of one of the ck, bald statues. They moved with shocking speed toward Xu Qing and stabbed into him. Every ce they stabbed corresponded to a meridian connected to his soul. This was an attempt to impale his soul and lock it out of reincarnation.

    ¡°The Dao Paragon closes his eyes and sighs: a hundred ghosts calmly stand, ready to serve the dukes of hell, souls condense, five serenities filled with filth, a hundred dark wines injected, seven liquids cannot replenish, impermanence without limit, assimted by order ofw.¡±

    Chaos rose up everywhere. Countless shadow figures, the souls of a myriad species, all manifested, bing streams of ck mist that once again formed the same ck magical talisman as before, which then shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s forehead.

    Most shocking of all was that the street that had been separated out into its own dimension also began to change.... It was no longer a street. Astonishingly, it was a massive paper talisman as big as the entire street itself!

    There were two talismans, one bright and one dark, one for yin and one for yang!

    The end of the street was the end of the talisman, and it curled up... moving in Xu Qing¡¯s direction as if to connect to the ck talisman. It... was really going to seal him.

    A sensation of deadly crisis filled Xu Qing. And yet, he still didn¡¯t choose to detonate his ancient sun. Instead, he crushed the piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. His second god trove appeared, copsed into ck mist, and fused with him. In an instant... a terrifying aura swept out in all directions.

    A bitter howl escaped Xu Qing¡¯s lips, like the cry of a fiendish devil, shattering everything around it. The talismans trembled, and the water filled with ripples.

    1. The curse, which was thest paragraph of thest chapter, did contain fifty-two Chinese characters. I did not attempt to make it the same number of English words. ?

 Chapter 757: Whoâ€™s Playing Go?

    <h4>Chapter 757: Who¡¯s ying Go?</h4>

    As the terrifying aura spread out, the isted dimension filled with infinite fluctuations. Theke water rose up, the air distorted, and the rain vibrated. Clouds appeared in the sky of the dimension, rapidly swirling into a rumbling vortex. It connected with the misting off theke, thereby linking heaven and earth like a tornado. A ghastly pressure weighed down on everything as rain poured down in torrents.

    Thanks to the spinning tornado and the terrifying aura, the ck talisman shivered. Cracks spread out across it, and they leaked pitch-ck blood.

    Simrly, cracks appeared on the long street, which was now a talisman. The mist seethed, releasing a terrifying power that surpassed either of the two talismans. Then something unimaginable happened.

    A blurry face appeared on the talisman, ring at Xu Qing in the mist. Though its facial features weren¡¯t clear, its grim expression was intense. At the same time, the fifty-two chains stretching out of theke water began to sway. As howling sounds emerged from the mist, seven of them started copsing!

    Rumbling sounds emerged from theke water as the chains shattered and turned into ash. The threads of watering out of theke were also ripped to pieces.

    Seeing that, the face in the ck talisman scowled defiantly and then spoke in a gruish voice.

    ¡°The Dao Paragon asks: water fiends cross over, eradicating ghosts and driving out monsters, but how can it be done? We do answer: they who ignore our orders lose their heads!¡±

    A sound like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves echoed out in all directions. The water rippled violently as a saber emerged from it, which aimed at Xu Qing and then shed down. It moved with incredible speed, slicing through raindrops, cutting apart the air, and shattering space with destructive power. At the same time, the ck talisman burst into green mes that bolstered it as it tried to seal Xu Qing.

    The street-talisman also erupted with power as it closed in on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing, who was the focus of everything, was in the middle of the violently churning mists. Trembling, he threw his head back and unleashed a roar that hardly sounded human. Indescribable pain wracked him in both body and soul. It felt like his god body was being ripped apart, causing poisonous gas to spill out everywhere. In the blink of an eye, all of the chains emitted cracking noises, and seven more of them copsed.

    Forty of the nails that had stabbed into him were forced out, where they spun off to the side amidst loud popping sounds. Then they sped out of the mist toward the water saber. Loud pinging sounds could be heard as forty holes were punched into the saber. Then the nails continued toward the ck talisman and the street-talisman. They pierced through them.

    The ck talisman was now riddled with damage, and the street-talisman lost an entire section. As a result, the sealing power within them diminished, and the mist seethed more violently. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out continuously as the remaining chains, threads, and nails copsed one after another.

    The dpidated water saber continued forward, but couldn¡¯t reach the mist before shattering. In the end, the final chain, the final thread, and the final nail copsed, and the mist expanded explosively. Then, as more rumbling sounds could be heard, the mist contracted, shrinking in on itself to reveal a shocking figure.

    Ancient. Dark. Deadly. Those were the sensations this figure emanated. There was no skin visible, only ck armor. That included the head. Especially terrifying was that, in the location of the eyes were two glowing balls ofherworld fire. The figure seemed icy cold andpletely fear-inspiring. ck streams of mist rose from the armor, gathering behind it to form a massive ck cloak. As the vortex in the canopy of heaven covered everything, boundless poison and decay filtered down. This figure looked like a fiend or devil!

    This was Xu Qing in his second-level god state. In this state, all living beings would wither and die in his presence. That also applied to the yin-yang water fiend strategy.

    Xu Qing looked up and started walking forward. Everything trembled. Appearing in front of the ck talisman, he reached out with an armored hand. The talisman burst into mes, emitting ck streams of smoke like ck dragons. They roared and snapped at Xu Qing, but before they could even get close, they emitted agonized shrieks.

    In Xu Qing¡¯s current state, his poison was so incisive that it could infect all things. The ck dragons screamed as they copsed into nothing. Xu Qing, with this pitch-ck helmet and armor, with only the eyes visible as glowingherworld fire, ignored the screaming dragons as his hand mped down onto the talisman. A cracking sound rang out as the talisman copsed, and the dragons turned into ck ink that fell into the water below.

    Xu Qing knew that he couldn¡¯t stay in this state for very long, so after destroying the talisman, he turned his cold gaze onto the street.

    At the far end of the dpidated street was a shadowy figure. It was very gruish, as it wasn¡¯t made from flesh and blood, but rather, from ck paper. It stood at the end of the street-talisman, its painted eyes glimmering with cold light as it stared at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I present the ghostly spiritherworld magic; rivers,kes, suns, m¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t wait for the confusing words to be fully spoken. Without hesitation, heunched himself toward the paper person with terrifying speed.

    The paper person¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change as he bent backward and merged into the talisman. There, he continued speaking.

    ¡°¡ªmoons, mountains, rivers, stars, and heavenly bodies are all within mymand. I let bright be bright, and dark be dark. Let the curse be enforced likew forthwith!¡±

    By the time Xu Qing arrived, the voice was already dispersing. At the same time, the street-talisman rippled, with both ends curling up and racing toward Xu Qing.

    They were like two waves backed by terrifying force.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing extended his right hand and then shoved it downward. When it hit the surface of the water, the entire dimension trembled, and everything began to decay.

    The water turned ck as even the naturalws were infected. Everything became a part of the poison, and thus, under Xu Qing¡¯s control. The vortex descended, connecting to the poison mist, and then crushing down onto the paper person.

    A boom rang out like the nging of a bell, apanied by a sound like shattering ss. The sealing of the yin-yang water fiends copsed.

    The world returned to normal. The street was a street. The rain water fell down.

    At the same time, strips of ck paper fell down, mixing with the rain. Xu Qing reached out and grabbed a handful of them. His body returned to normal, and now that he was leaving his god state, blood oozed out of his mouth.

    Whistling sounds reached his ear. This fight had taken ce in the middle of the imperial capital, and though magical techniques had been used to conceal it, it was a given that it would be noticed eventually.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t move. Keeping his guard up, he looked around, all while taking out a jade slip and sending some voice messages.

    Momentster, several swordsages arrived. They were assigned to patrol this area, so they were the first to show up. When they saw the bits of ck paper falling down around Xu Qing, their expression flickered and they exchanged nces. Clearly, something big had just urred!

    After all, this was the imperial capital. Attempted assassinations were a big deal, especially considering the target was Xu Qing. That made this entire thing even uglier.

    The swordsages immediately began looking for clues.

    Before long, two prismatic beams of light appeared, shooting through the air toward the street where Xu Qing stood. One was Plumdark, the other was Li Yunshan.

    When Xu Qing saw the two of them, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    Li Yunshan¡¯s expression was grim as he scanned the area. Plumdark looked furious, though after confirming Xu Qing wasn¡¯t hurt, her expression softened. Li Yunshan opened his mouth to speak, but Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°I¡¯ll exin in private.¡±

    Li Yunshan nodded. Escorted by the two of them, Xu Qing went back to Ningyan¡¯s mansion. The trip went without incident.

    Once inside, they activated all of the defenses. The Captain, who had been gone for a few days but was now back, had a very serious expression on his face. He, along with Plumdark and Li Yunshan, looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°It was a wellid trap,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Meng Yunbai invited me to go with him to the Red Dust Pavilion. He knew the general way I would return, so he¡¯s definitely a suspect. In the Red Dust Pavilion, I met the junior emperor from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. He and I had a bit of a conflict, so he¡¯s also on the list. Everyone else that was there, including Huang Kun, should be looked into. That said, they¡¯re too obvious as suspects.

    ¡°There are probably other forces lurking in the shadows as well, possibly with different reasons for attempting an assassination. Seventh Prince obviously has a motive.

    ¡°The assassin was a paper person without any life force. He looked more like an avatar of some sort, with a cultivation base beyond Spirit Trove. It was actually Void Returning.... What¡¯s more, the magical technique he used was, by his own words, a dao curse. It involved ghostly spirits. That said, it was all too obvious, and seems like a possible misdirection.

    ¡°Additionally, there are some things about the assassination attempt that seem suspicious.

    ¡°First, why try to kill me here in the imperial capital? If I died, it would be a bad thing for many parties here. That said, those parties seemed slow to notice what was going on.

    ¡°Second, although the assassin seemed strong, whoever orchestrated this had to know about my Dawning Sun, as well as all of my various aplishments. Why would they only deploy a single assassin?

    ¡°Third, during the fighting, I got the impression that the assassin was expecting to die. He wanted me to use my Dawning Sun. That said, I¡¯m not sure if the assassin wanted me to think that, or if it was just a random thought.¡±

    Xu Qing went into a detailed exnation of every aspect of the assassination attempt. When he was done, he held out his hand, within which was a piece of ck paper.

    ¡°In the end, I feel like this assassination attempt wasn¡¯t actually an attempt to kill me. I think it was an attempt to turn me into a game piece, and guide me into a course of action to benefit the mastermind.¡±

 Chapter 758: Using a Compass to Confirm

    <h4>Chapter 758: Using a Compass to Confirm</h4>

    When Xu Qing finished speaking, everyone stood there silently. They had not personally witnessed the assassination attempt, but based on Xu Qing¡¯s detailed description, they understood the fundamentals of what happened. The suspicious aspects that Xu Qing had mentioned were indeed odd, no matter how you analyzed them.

    ¡°What organization has the resources to attempt an assassination like this in the imperial capital?¡± the Captain said. ¡°They prevented all the other organizations from realizing what was going on, not to mention the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation. I guess the real question is what organization could cause everyone else in the capital to be so slow and unresponsive?¡±

    Xu Qing had no answer, but Plumdark and Li Yunshan both looked in the direction of the imperial pce.

    It really seemed like the only person in the capital who could do all of that would be the emperor himself. The only other possibilities would be Grand Emperor Swordsage or some other terrifying organization that even the emperor feared.

    Unfortunately, theycked sufficient information to even guess what kind of organization the emperor would fear.

    What was more, Grand Emperor Swordsage was asleep. Though he woke up when Xu Qing arrived, he couldn¡¯t stay awake constantly. Besides, he had no logical reason to carry out an assassination attempt.

    Then Plumdark asked, ¡°What if... Ah Qing had actually detonated his Dawning Sun? What would have happened?¡±

    ¡°The capital would have descended into chaos,¡± Li Yunshan replied, frowning. ¡°There would have been countless casualties. Every organization would have been shaken to the core. Not only would the capital and everyone in it have lost a lot of face, they would have be aughingstock to countless species. And regardless of who was really responsible... we would have had a hard time avoiding responsibility. We would have lost any advantage and initiative. It¡¯s hard to predict what would have happened in the end. It would alle down to the emperor¡¯s attitude.¡±

    ¡°Very interesting,¡± the Captain said, smiling grimly. ¡°The mastermind clearly has a way of keeping close tabs on little Ah Qing¡¯s whereabouts, as well as the resources necessary to actually attempt the assassination. What¡¯s more, this whole thing needed to benefit them even if little Ah Qing didn¡¯t die.

    ¡°All the clues and conflicts point in one direction, except... why does it seem like this whole thing is a lot moreplicated than it seems?

    ¡°Is it possible that this event is supposed to be a wedge? To drive conflict between multiple parties? Or perhaps the mastermind just wants to foster doubts in our minds, so that no matter what we do next, we feel like we¡¯re just game pieces in arger game?

    ¡°I think we should analyze this from a different angle. Forget who the mastermind is. Let¡¯s think about things from our perspective. Given everything that¡¯s happened, what do we do now?¡±

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing, then Plumdark, and finally Li Yunshan.

    ¡°The first thing we do,¡± Li Yunshan said, ¡°is assign more Sea-Sealing County swordsages in the city to protect Xu Qing, as well as to investigate. At the same time, we need to report the matter to the Holytide Region.¡±

    The Captain shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea. However, the more people we involve, the more likely we¡¯ll be used of overstepping authority. That would just make everything more chaotic. On the other hand, we can¡¯t just do nothing.... This assassination attempt on little Ah Qing was a message....¡±

    Li Yunshan didn¡¯t respond, and the Captain clearly didn¡¯t have anything more to say.

    The courtyard was very quiet. The wind blew, and the rain fell, and the dark clouds in the sky blocked out any sunlight.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t offered any input so far. But after hearing everyone analyze the situation, and based on what he had experienced, his thoughts eventually led him to what the y fox had said about the imperial preceptor.... And he also thought about the conclusions of his own analysis from earlier.

    Eventually, Plumdark looked away from the imperial pce. ¡°The emperor was approved by the Grand Emperor, and generally acts how you expect the human emperor to act. It¡¯s hard to make a determination right now. In the end, Xu Qing, you have to decide what to do. Your decision is the most important thing here.¡±

    Xu Qing looked in the direction of the imperial pce, then nodded. ¡°In that case, submit a petition to the emperor in the name of the Holytide Region. Whatever conclusions we¡¯ve reached, the emperor and the other parties in the capital will surely have considered it as well.

    ¡°We have no way to specte what the mastermind actually wants to do. So we can only wait to see how the emperor handles the aftermath.¡±

    Plumdark agreed. Li Yunshan, after some thought, said nothing in contradiction.

    The Captain blinked a few times, then lowered his voice and said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you remember back when we first arrived in Sea-Sealing County? You made a good decision back then. However, I still think we should have cried a bit more. Made more of a scene. That would have been a lot better.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing thought about it, then made sure his face looked paler, so that he seemed like he¡¯d been seriously hurt....

    ¡°That¡¯s not quite good enough, little Ah Qing. Here, I¡¯ll help.¡±

    As the Captain eagerly approached Xu Qing, the stunned Li Yunshan looked away.

    Meanwhile, Plumdark cast a cold nce at the Captain, who shrunk back a bit, then forced a smile onto his face. Inside, he was sighing regretfully.

    ***

    By the next morning, news about the assassination attempt on Xu Qing had spread like wildfire through the city. Many people questioned whether the news was real, but regardless, the numerous organizations in the capital were all shaken.

    Along with news of the event, rumors also spread about Xu Qing himself. He had gritted his teeth against the injuries, but after he returned to his residence, they red up, and he passed out. Thankfully, he had a scrap of life force left, and the forces of Sea-Sealing County were standing guard over him and treating him.

    As the news rocked the city, Meng Yunbai and Huang Kun were the first toe visit. They didn¡¯ty eyes on Xu Qing, but rather, were received by the Captain. That said, they were clearly nervous, and obviously wanted to make sure they weren¡¯t suspected of being involved.

    The junior emperor of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect sent some medicinal pills to demonstrate goodwill. Everyone else who had been present at the banquet at the Red Dust Pavilion did the same. The Red Dust Pavilion even sent people to visit.

    In addition, after Master Seventh and everyone else in the Holytide Region received the news from Li Yunshan, they deployed forces to look into the matter on their end. In the half of the Nightspirit Region they controlled, a host of priests mobilized, causing rumbling sounds to fill heaven and earth.

    Even more astounding was that in the direction of Moonrite, the Heir Apparent¡¯s Smoldering God aura erupted. Smoldering God fluctuations also rolled out from Princess Brightblossom and Fifth Sister in the Moonrebel Congregation. Ninth Sib¡¯s sword energy exploded out. Thebined energy from the Moonrite Region made it abundantly obvious how furious they were.

    Back in the imperial capital, the petition submitted via jade slip by Xu Qing and the others from Sea-Sealing County made its way up the chain ofmand until it was presented to the emperor.

    The jade slip contained a personal description of the event from the perspective of the victim, and it was delivered along with a piece of ck paper.

    The swordsages weren¡¯t recalled to the mansion. They remained on the outside. As for Xu Qing and everyone else, they couldn¡¯t do anything but report the matter in full to the emperor.

    It didn¡¯t matter who the mastermind was or what they wanted. Sea-Sealing County¡¯s decision was to remain steadfast but also be flexible. The emperor was actually the biggest suspect, therefore... reporting the matter to the emperor meant that everyone in the imperial capital, both Xu Qing and the other organizations, were all waiting to see how he reacted.

    About two hours after the jade slip was delivered to the emperor, a stern voice echoed through the imperial capital.

    <i>¡°The Greater Celestial Swordsage Division, Justice Division, and Special Operations Division have one month to conduct an investigation and get to the bottom of the situation!¡±</i>

    That was the imperial decree.

    Light erupted from the Swordsage, Justice, and Special Operations Divisions, which rose into the sky and took the shape of terrifying illusory figures that bowed in the direction of the imperial pce.

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡±

    Next, a holy pill was sent from the imperial pce to Ningyan¡¯s mansion. The pill was crystalline and strangely fragrant. Even the pill bottle that contained the pill was extraordinary, crafted as it was from pure bone.

    ¡°That¡¯s a heaven-immortal pill!¡± Ningyan eximed upon seeing it. ¡°Those pills are rare even in the imperial pce. Supposedly, their main ingredient is something that, after the catastrophe in Revered Ancient, can only be found in the holynds.... The restorative properties of this pill are astonishing. They¡¯ll even work well on heavenly kings. This pill ispletely priceless!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, and he instinctively licked his lips. Xu Qing took the pill and examined it closely, whereupon his heart started pounding.

    Based on his skill in the dao of medicine, he could tell this pill waspletely extraordinary. He wasn¡¯t familiar with the concocting method, and what was more... just taking the pill out of the bottle resulted in all the surrounding mutagen being suppressed. The godsource in Xu Qing even stirred in response.

    <i>There are some very mysterious elements to this pill.</i>

    As the Captain stared longingly, Xu Qing put the pill away.

    The Captain blinked a few times, and was already trying toe up with a n to scam the pill from Xu Qing.... In the end, though, he had to sigh. <i>Little Ah Qing has really gotten clever. He¡¯s not easy to fool.</i>

    After that, the Swordsage, Justice, and Special Operations Divisions worked very hard in their investigation. They even went to the Ghostwyrm Nethersect.

    The mood in the imperial capital got tense very quickly. Younger people everywhere were trembling in fear, even though they had nothing to do with the event.

    Clues began to turn up. However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to any of that. During the half month that passed, he focused on recovering from his ¡®injuries.¡¯ The first time he made a public appearance, he did so with Plumdark. After the assassination attempt, Plumdark abandoned the search for hermp, and spent her time making sure Xu Qing recovered well. But after they started going out together, they would scour the imperial capital, and Plumdark would stop frequently to try to sense themp.

    ¡°There are nine locations where I can sense traces of themp. Three are near the imperial pce. Two are underground. Four are on Ancient Emperor. In order to determine its exact current location, I need to use something to narrow down the search. Xu Qing, I can craft that item myself, but I¡¯ll need to concoct a special blood pill made from my own blood to unleash its full potential.¡±

    She looked at him. He nodded.

    ¡°I can concoct it.¡±

    And thus, the two of them bought all the required ingredients, then went back to Ningyan¡¯s mansion, one of them to craft an item, the other to concoct a pill.

    The blood pill was unique, and thus, it couldn¡¯t be concocted in one session. The pill needed to remain in the pill furnace for a specific period of time, all while adding in cultivation base power and special medicinal nts.

    Xu Qing paid very close attention to everything. Another half a month passed. When the blood pill was almostplete, another imperial decree came to Ningyan¡¯s mansion. The imperial decree shook everyone, because... the emperor had called for an audience!

    <i>¡°I hereby summon Xu Qing of the Holytide Region for an audience!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I hereby summon my twelfth son Guyue Ningyan for an audience!¡±</i>

    1. How could we forget the epic <u>chapter 394</u>, which was entitled ¡®Xu Qing Strikes Back.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 759: No Need for Alarm with Plumdark Around

    <h4>Chapter 759: No Need for rm with Plumdark Around</h4>

    It was only a few hours away from dawn.

    For any human, a meeting with the emperor was a very solemn asion. Humans, of course, had all sorts of ceremonies that went along with important situations, and audiences with the emperor were no different.

    Therefore, the imperial edict was sent along with a set of formal court attire for Xu Qing. The court garb wasplicated. It had a lot of decorative embroidery, including a five-wed sable dragon and lots of magical symbols. From head to toe, it included over a hundred items, which meant that it was virtually impossible to put on unless you knew what you were doing. [1]

    When Li Yunshan, Kong Xianglong, and everyone elseid eyes on the outfit, they were stunned. None of them knew how to dress in such an outfit, but they could tell that every piece was extraordinary.

    Even the Captain, who had lived many lives, looked with wide eyes at the clothing, and was initially at a loss for words. One thing was for sure: this clothing was far more precious than any of Nethersprite¡¯s clothing from back in the day. It was imbued with immortal energy, flickered with faint light, and looked like a free-flowing magical treasure.

    <i>It¡¯s worth so much!</i> The Captain licked his lips enviously as he pondered how to get an outfit like this for himself. After all, he was the Eldest Brother, and it would be a big loss of face for him to not have something like it.

    Of course, not even Ningyan could enter the presence of the emperor wearing ordinary clothing. However, his garment was unique to him, and he had no idea how the important government officials would don their attire. He could only shake his head and wave his hand.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to put it on. But I could send a message to Third Sister. She coulde help.¡±

    ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary,¡± Plumdark said coolly. ¡°Etiquette is required in human culture in order to propagate rationality. Spring represents the dynasty, autumn represents the court. The former is scarlet, thetter is sable.

    ¡°A golden dragon represents the emperor, with five ws for respect. The sable dragon represents the region, also with five ws for respect. This is an ancient restriction ced on the heavenly marquises to control them. Given the nature of the imperial edict, and the gift of this outfit, it¡¯s clear the emperor is being courteous. We need to respond in kind.

    ¡°In terms of how to don this outfit, it corresponds to ancient divination methods. It conforms to the arts of the five elements and the nine pces. Combining that with the movement of the stars in heaven, it has a total of forty-nine differentbinations that can be formed, each one appropriate for a different setting and ceremony.

    ¡°When visiting the emperor today, Xu Qing, you will be representing the Holytide Region. Therefore, you should dress in the manner of an ancient feudal lord when having an audience with the emperor. ording to the ancient customs, someone being rewarded for military service to the emperor doesn¡¯t need to kowtow to him. The emperor will first nod three times, then offer a seat. The heavenly marquis will then ps hands nine times in thanks.¡±

    Ningyan, the Captain, Li Yunshan, and everyone else eyed Plumdark with respect. Even though they didn¡¯t quite understand what she meant, they were impressed.

    Although Plumdark¡¯s understanding could certainly havee by reading a lot of books, there was something about her exnation that seemed slightly moreplicated than that....

    As everyone spected what that might mean, Plumdark looked at the ck court attire. She waved her hand gently, and all one hundred pieces of the outfit rose into the air and floated to surround Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at the clothing. From a young age he had been aware that there were ceremonies and etiquette that had been around since ancient times. However, he wasn¡¯t familiar with such things. That said, he wasn¡¯t worried. And that was because... in the imperial capital, there were few people who could understand ancient times as well as Plumdark. In fact, Xu Qing got the feeling that Plumdark had very likely worked with court attire like this, long ago.

    ¡°All of you leave and wait outside,¡± Plumdark said in a voice that was both cool and dignified.

    Li Yunshan and everyone else immediately bowed their heads and left. The Captain and Ningyan fundamentally feared Plumdark, so they were quick to depart.

    Before long, Xu Qing was alone with Plumdark.

    ¡°Court attire isn¡¯t easy to put on, Ah Qing,¡± she said. ¡°Close your eyes. I¡¯ll help.¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and obediently closed his eyes.

    Next, Plumdark waved her hand, causing Xu Qing¡¯s clothing to fly off his body. Even as he shivered, other clothing startednding on him, linking together in a specific way.

    As Plumdark dressed Xu Qing, she spoke into his ear. ¡°The court attire of a heavenly marquis is primarily ck in color, which is why the outfit is called a ¡®square-cut sable garment.¡¯ Coupled with the square-cut sable garment is a curved headpiece. In ancient times, the hat was constructed from the bones of skyswallowers.

    ¡°Nowadays, skyswallowers have gone extinct, so instead, ck immortal jade is used. Because this specific outfit is abination of the square-cut garment and the curved headpiece, it eventually came to be called a ¡®curved and square-cut outfit.¡¯ That¡¯s the official court name for it.¡± [2]

    The more Plumdark spoke, the more certain Xu Qing was of his previous spection. He could feel the clothing attaching itself to him, and though it seemed bulky, it was actually veryfortable. It even caused his cultivation base to circte more smoothly, making him feel free and rxed. It was almost as if magical and naturalws were being influenced to bless him.

    ¡°You can open your eyes now,¡± Plumdark said.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and the first thing he noticed was the look of praise on Plumdark¡¯s face. He lifted his arm, and mist formed in front of him to make a mirror.

    He wore a ck garment with a square cut and lots of embroidery. The five-colored sable dragon looked very lifelike, flowing along with the movement of the garment as if it were alive. It was even possible to hear the faint roar of a dragon. He wore boots with slightly curved toes with three circles on the tips. He had a hat of sable jade, a belt of jade with a cloud motif, and a jade pendant. All of them looked like part of a set. Inbination with Xu Qing¡¯s unusual good looks, it was a spectacr sight.

    Looking very pleased, Plumdark smiled and said, ¡°Excellent. If you attend an audience with the emperor in ordance with etiquette like this, and he doesn¡¯t understand the deeper meaning, then he¡¯s an ignorant fool.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times but didn¡¯t say anything.

    After looking him up and down, Plumdark approached to make some minor adjustments. Then she sped his hand and led him out.

    When everyone saw him dressed in that way, they were stunned.

    Li Yunshan wasn¡¯t sure what to say. The first thing he felt was pressure, and it wasn¡¯t from the cultivation base, but rather, the court attire. The Captain struggled to control his breathing, and his heart filled with the intense desire to have his own court attire. Kong Xianglong took a deep breath and then bowed his head. Ningyan waspletely taken aback. As far as he could tell, if Biggest Bro went out dressed like this, he would drive countless girls in the capital crazy. In fact, if Biggest Bro took a liking to any individual girl, then even Sixth Prince would have to acknowledge defeat.

    <i>People say that looks aren¡¯t important to cultivators. But... but... with such freakishly good looks, is Biggest Bro even human?</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to the reactions. At the moment, he could sense his cultivation base stirring wildly in response to the court attire. He had never worn clothing as symbolically significant as this, and it felt a bit strange. That said, the outfit was also veryfortable.

    And thus, about two hourster, they left the mansion for the imperial pce, with Ningyan in the lead wearing his imperial prince¡¯s attire.

    It wasn¡¯t bright outside yet, and because of the nearing of autumn, the weather was bone-chillingly cold. Few people were out and about. About an hourter, the sun rose, bringing some warmth with it. More people were on the street as Xu Qing and the others reached a teleportation portal that took them to the rainbow bridge behind the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    Only when court was in session could the government officials use the bridge. On other asions, only people summoned directly by the emperor could cross it. Plumdark and everyone else from Sea-Sealing County were prohibited froming along.

    This particr audience was held during a session of the imperial court. Therefore, as Xu Qing and Ningyan crossed the rainbow bridge, they weren¡¯t alone. There were other figures dressed in court attire, including both men and women. All had serious expressions on their faces, and they pulsed with extraordinary cultivation base fluctuations.

    Most of them wore blue garments, with some of them having red clothing. In terms of ck attire... Xu Qing only spotted seven other people dressed like that. All seven of them had cultivation bases in the fourth stage of Void Returning. Some walked alone, others were escorted by groups. All stood out.

    As Xu Qing studied them, they studied Xu Qing. And of course, his ck court attire was very eye-catching. That said, since he wasn¡¯t familiar with anyone else, nor they with him, they merely made eye contact ording to etiquette, and didn¡¯t converse.

    Xu Qing saw that at the very end of the rainbow bridge, there was a pce floating in the air.

    Behind it was Ancient Emperor, and thebination of their auras was boundless and majestic.

    Xu Qing flew across the bridge with Ningyan close behind him. As they got closer to the imperial pce, Ningyan started to get increasingly nervous. However, Xu Qing¡¯s calm rubbed off on him a bit.

    The pce became increasingly clear to their eyes. There were richly ornamented buildings, ornamented with jade and jewels. On either side of the main entrance were two giants in golden armor, each of them holding a greatsword, their eyes glittering as they scanned everyone crossing the bridge.

    When Xu Qing and Ningyan arrived outside the entrance, the giants looked at them but didn¡¯t block their path. They allowed them to pass inside to the Immortal Reception za. From there, they looked up the staircase of 10,000 steps to the magnificent pce at the top.

    There were already several hundred people standing in the Immortal Reception za now when Xu Qing and Ningyan arrived. Many of them looked over at the two of them. Shortly after that, as the sun was rising in the distance, a somber voice echoed out from the pce at the top of the stairs.

    ¡°All of you may enter the court!¡±

    Golden dragons flew out of the clouds, swirling above and issuing draconic roars. All of the statues in the imperial capital unleashed auspicious light, causing heaven and earth to fill with a multicolored glow.

    All of the cultivators in the Immortal Reception za flew up into the air and toward the main pce, moving in ranks ording to the color of their garments.

    Heavenly kings didn¡¯t need to attend court, so people in ck garments floated up first, followed by those in red, then blue, and finally green....

    When Xu Qing saw a few dozen people in ck court garments flying up, he took a deep breath. Then, his expression somber, he also flew up to the top of the stairs. Looking through the opened doors of the pce, he saw the emperor sitting there on the Dragon Throne!

    1. Ancient Chinese court attire could be veryplicated. <u>Here¡¯s a chart</u> showing one type of ancient court garment. You can see how many pieces there are (maybe a hundred is a xianxia exaggeration, but still...) ?

    2. This outfit is a mix of reality and fantasy. The ¡®square-cut sable garment¡¯ is a real thing. There is no existing trantion for it as far as I know. It¡¯s generally transliterated as ¡®xuanduan.¡¯ The other footnote in this chapter, with the chart showing the parts of a garment, actually depicts that specific historical garment. Here is another link with <u>a handful of pictures</u> of what it looks like in real life. ?

 Chapter 760: Attitudes in the Imperial Court

    <h4>Chapter 760: Attitudes in the Imperial Court</h4>

    It was the exact moment of dawn. Suns didn¡¯t rise from the east in every part of the Revered Ancient maind. But in the Imperial Region, the sun did rise from the east, like a huge furnace, baking heaven and earth with a red glow as it climbed into the air. The night fractured and fell apart as light illuminated the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage, whose cast shadow covered the rainbow bridge and the imperial pce.

    From a distance, it was possible to see thick violet smoke swirling up from the Immortal Reception za in front of the imperial pce, all within the shadow of the grand emperor.

    There was also arge bell that rose up into midair exactly as night and day transposed. It was the Immortal Questioning Bell. From the days of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity until the present, it had existed in between yin and yang. When the sun came out, it was revealed. When the sun set, it disappeared. Its function was to certify the heart. From the very beginning, whenever a government official was called into question, they could ring the Immortal Questioning Bell to certify the state of their heart. It had been that way since ancient times. That said, during the reign of Emperor Dark War, the bell was rarely used.

    At the moment, all of the officials in the sable garments, including Xu Qing, were entering the building. What met Xu Qing¡¯s eyes was a majestic pce hall. It wasrge enough to fit several thousand people. The open areas were lined with pirs carved with auspicious animals. [1]

    The hall was lined on either side with guards in golden armor, who stood stock still, their heads slightly bowed in a show of respect for the officials.

    At the far end was a staircase with nine steps, each of which were some 300 meters from end to end and a good 30 meters wide. At the top, just beyond the ninth step, was a fantastic Dragon Throne.[2]

    Seated atop it was a person. He was something of a blur, making it impossible to make out his features clearly. However, he was definitely wearing a golden imperial garment, and was boundlessly glorious. He wore an imperial crown with twelve tassels on the front and back. The tassels were made from multi-colored immortal thread and sun-moon pearls, and they symbolized how the sovereign emperor was both visible and invisible. He sat there, the core of the entire pce hall, the core of the Imperial Region itself, and the core of humankind in the Revered Ancient maind.

    Even more astonishing was the destiny aura. It was the destiny aura of all humanity, focused solely on the emperor, bolstering and blessing him. All it took was a single nce for Xu Qing to be filled with a boundless sense of mountain-toppling, sea-draining pressure.

    His eyes were outstandingly piercing. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t felt anything like it, not even from the Heir Apparent and his siblings back in the Moonrite Region. It didn¡¯t have anything to do with cultivation base, but rather, destiny aura. With that destiny aura, the emperor could destroy the heavens and crush the earth with a mere thought.

    Xu Qing bowed his head and thought back to what Plumdark had told him about the etiquette that needed to be observed.

    <i>¡°When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity conquered all, that includednds of the living as well as theherworld of the dead. He ignored the north and focused south, sitting in the west to face the east. That symbolized how the fate of all species rested in the palm of humankind.</i>

    <i>¡°From then on, whether in a major session of court or a minor one, the emperor would always face east.</i>

    <i>¡°The emperor, the heavenly kings, and the pce lords of the Greater Celestial divisions need not attend minor court sessions. But during major sessions, they¡¯re all required to attend. The Grand Emperors sit on the sixth step, the heavenly kings on the third. The heavenly marquises take the first step, while the three dukes stand directly beneath the first step, also facing east. </i>

    <i>¡°The deputy envoy of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions sticks to the north while facing west, while the deputy envoy of the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions sticks to the south while also facing west. Members of the imperial n are stationed on the right side of the entrance gate, while the grand servant and all the grand servant¡¯s subsidiary officers are stationed on the left side of the entrance gate.¡±</i>[3]

    As Xu Qing considered all of that, the more than ten cultivators wearing ck court attire who had entered at the same time as him ascended to the first step, where they stood and looked back at the entrance.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and did the same. The others looked at him, though in most cases it was a brief nce. And thus, Xu Qing came to stand at the very end of the first step.

    At the same time as Xu Qing reached the first step, all of the other officials filtered in and began to take their spots ording to court etiquette.

    The entire hall was silent.

    In terms of the three dukes¡¯ position beneath the first step, Xu Qing noticed that there was only one present. He was an old man dressed in red court attire, with long white hair that draped down past his shoulders. He stood tall and straight, his expression threatening without being angry. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure exactly who he was, and could only guess that he was a chief minister. As prescribed by Dark Serenity, sessions of court were presided over by a chief minister.

    After the crowd had assembled in all solemnity, the old man in red looked everyone over, then turned to face the direction of everyone on the first step, including Xu Qing. His gaze paused for a fraction. He wasn¡¯t just looking at Xu Qing to see what he looked like. Instead, he seemed shocked that Xu Qing¡¯s clothing was all correct down to the finest detail. He could tell that every aspect of Xu Qing¡¯s attire corresponded to the most ancient, traditional style. Although most ordinary people wouldn¡¯t pick up on that, this old man most certainly did. His gaze rested on Xu Qing for only the briefest of moments before he turned to the emperor on the ninth step. sping hands, he bowed.

    ¡°Your Majesty, court etiquette has been maintained.¡±

    Everyone in the crowd bowed their heads. In ordinary minor sessions of the court, the emperor would stand and return the respectful salute, thus ending the opening ceremony.

    But this time, something different happened....

    The emperor slowly rose from his throne, pulsing with dramatic pressure that spread through heaven and earth thanks to the destiny aura.

    The clouds outside seethed as golden dragons roared from within them. At that point, the emperor, instead of saluting the gathered officials, turned his head and looked through the pearl tassels at Xu Qing. He nodded three times.

    Speaking on behalf of the emperor, the chief minister said, ¡°For services rendered, let the acting governor be given a seat!¡±

    The stairs rumbled as a seat carved with a sable dragon slowly rose up.

    Looking very respectful, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed nine times in thanks. He did not fumble any of the etiquette, with even his posture conforming to the ancient traditions.

    When everyone in the crowd saw that, they didn¡¯t react visibly, but inside they were surprised. And now, they viewed Xu Qing with slightly more importance than before, as they knew that he was backed by someone who was deeply familiar with all aspects of human etiquette.

    At that point, the emperor saluted the gathered officials, then sat back down on his throne. Xu Qing sat as well. The other cultivators in ck court attire simrly sat down, though they sat cross-legged on the ground.

    A bell tolled, and the session of court formally started.

    Someone stepped forward, and official business began. It started with the affairs of themon citizens. Next were various things rted to humankind as a whole, including criminal proceedings as well as matters rted to finance, foreign affairs, and the like.

    The emperor rarely spoke. Most things were handled by the chief minister. When certain very important things came up, the chief minister would ask for input from the emperor, who would usually just give a few words. After all, the words of the emperor surpassed everything else.

    Considering that this was Xu Qing¡¯s first time attending court and seeing all theplex rules, it was no surprise that he was a bit shaken, and had a hard time remaining as calm as usual. He sat with his back to the emperor, looking out at the hall.

    Everyone else in attendance kept their faces nk, making it impossible to tell what they were thinking. As different people had their say, Xu Qing came to a true understanding of the idiom <i>each word spoken is a gem</i>; everyone spoke concisely, but at the same time, in a way that made their words open to interpretation.

    <i>Only dragons and phoenixes among men could be in a ce like this....</i>

    As Xu Qing contemted such thoughts, the reports being made to the emperor touched on foreign affairs, and specifically, the war with the Nightshades. As various officials spoke their mind, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze came to rest on the right side of the hall, where the imperial n was gathered.

    There weren¡¯t many people in that group, and most were elderly. None of the imperial princes were present other than Ningyan, who stood there cautiously and clearly afraid of his father.

    Xu Qing looked away. That was when he heard the chief minister speaking again.

    ¡°Now, Governor Xu Qing of Sea-Sealing County will give further details about the Nightshade activity in the Nightspirit Region.¡±

    All eyes shifted to Xu Qing. He stood, bowed formally to the emperor, then said, ¡°The Nightspirit Region is divided into north and south. The north half is still controlled by the remnants of the Nightshades¡¯ imperial n. The south is mostly controlled by the Nightshade priests.

    ¡°When Crimson Mother perished, the priests fell from grace and lost the blessing of their god. My Sea-Sealing County forces have now taken them as subordinates, and have given them something new to worship.¡±

    In response to his words, a middle-aged man wearing blue court attire suddenly stepped forward.

    ¡°Governor Xu, what is this object of worship that you have provided to the Nightshade priesthood?¡±

    The crowd reacted visibly, albeit subtly. It was open knowledge that the Nightshade priests now gave faith to Violet Lord. And it was alsomon knowledge that Violet Lord was somehow connected to Xu Qing. However, it was also a sensitive subject that shouldn¡¯t have been mentioned publicly. Therefore, the fact that this man had asked the question in this way was deeply meaningful on multiple levels.

    Xu Qing looked over at the middle-aged man. ¡°You¡¯vemitted a breach of decorum.¡±

    When the middle-aged man saw the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he stepped back into line.

    The way Xu Qing quickly resolved the situation was thought-provoking to the crowd, and many people were starting to specte about who was giving him advice behind the scenes.

    The chief minister nodded slightly. ¡°The acting governor has performed great services, wears the court attire of a heavenly marquis, and is seated on the first step. Zhao Tianyi, you interrupted Governor Xu, which is inappropriate in terms of the ancient etiquette. You have indeedmitted a breach of decorum.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Zhao Tianyi said, his head bowed to hide whatever emotion was on his face.

    Xu Qing ignored him. Facing the emperor, he bowed, then sat back down.

    The hall went quiet. Then, another person stepped forward, simrly dressed in blue court attire. After bowing to the emperor, he turned to face Xu Qing.

    ¡°Since Governor Xu is seated, I have a question, and it won¡¯t count as a breach of decorum. Governor Xu, the Dawning Suns are the greatest secret of humankind. Therefore, Governor Xu, how did you learn of them, how did you get them, how many do you have, and why did you bring them into the imperial capital and the imperial pce??¡±

    This was another sensitive question, and it was spoken in a voiceced with killing intent. It immediately caused the mood in the hall to turn tense. The guards in golden armor all seemed to be more vignt than before.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stand. He let a few breaths of time pass, then calmly said, ¡°The Heir Apparent of the Moonrite Region has nine of them. Because I helped him kill Crimson Mother, he gave me six as a gift. I brought them with me to the imperial capital because I fear death.¡±

    The official who had asked the question said nothing further. He stepped back in line.

    The chief minister looked at that official. Although it seemed like the official had been giving Xu Qing a hard time, there was another possible side to the coin: he had given Xu Qing a chance to exin himself. His actions could be considered benevolent, or they could be considered malevolent. It depended on perspective and opinion. That said, it had nothing to do with the chief minister himself, so he simply looked at the emperor.

    The emperor sat on his throne, his face expressionless, but a stiflingly dangerous energy pulsing off him, filled the entire hall with pressure and coldness.

    About ten breaths of time passed. Finally, the emperor said, ¡°Chief Minister, please exin the results of the investigation into the assassination attempt here in the imperial capital.¡±

    The chief minister bowed his head. He understood full well that the emperor was choosing not to pursue the matter of the Dawning Suns. That was also a signal that everyone else in the crowd understood.

    The chief minister looked up and turned to face the outside of the hall, his eyes cold and full of killing intent.

    ¡°Bring in everyone connected to the assassination attempt!¡±

    1. This isn¡¯t really important, but the concept of the pirs with auspicious beasts caught my imagination. I did some image searching in Chinese and found <u>a good example</u> of what such pirs might look like. I believe the picturees from apany in China that makes such things for modern-day consumers, so don¡¯t consider them historical. ?

    2. Historically speaking, the ¡°Dragon Throne¡± could refer to the actual throne, or it could refer to the emperor or the government itself (sort of simr to the White House in America). <u>Here¡¯s a picture of the real historical Dragon Throne</u> on disy at the Forbidden City in Beijing. And yes, I have been there in person to see this! I think what struck me the most is that the throne is a lot different than I¡¯d imagined it before seeing it in person. In my imagination, the throne was just a big seat in a room, sort of like the Iron Throne in GoT. Instead, the actual seat is just part of the overall structure of the throne. I¡¯m talking historically here. Also, though I¡¯m not an expert of Chinese history, and haven¡¯t actually researched this point, I¡¯m fairly certain that there was not one specific Dragon Throne that got passed around between dynasties and emperors. But I could be wrong about that. That¡¯s just my general impression. ?

    3. Historically speaking, sessions of court in Ancient China would be like this, with different people standing in certain spots depending on their rank, status, etc. <u>Here are a couple pictures</u>. I feel like I¡¯ve shared at least one of those pictures before, perhaps in another trantion, but I can¡¯t remember exactly where. ?

 Chapter 761: Title Conferment

    <h4>Chapter 761: Title Conferment</h4>

    As the chief minister¡¯s cold voice echoed out, an affirmative response rang out from beyond the entrance.

    Momentster, five imperial guards in golden armor entered, pulsing with baleful auras. Though they looked young, they seemed surrounded by the aroma of blood and gore. What was more, the way they kept their energy linked as they walked forward showed how skilled they were at the use of formations. Each imperial guard was in charge of a prisoner. The prisoners included men and women, and all had bleak facial expressions. They were all wounded, and had clearly been ruthlessly interrogated. Their cultivation bases had been crippled.

    The imperial guards strode up to the chief minister, where they bowed their heads and forced the prisoners onto their knees. No amount of struggling on the part of the prisoners did any good. With the imperial guards¡¯ hands mped firmly atop the prisoners¡¯ heads, they had no choice but to prostrate on the ground.

    Xu Qing sat on the first step just above them. Looking down at the five prisoners, he ultimately focused on the first of them, who was on the left-hand side.

    He was a middle-aged man whose skin had been peeled off to reveal ck paper underneath. The paper was torn, as if someone had ripped a piece off it to use as evidence.

    As Xu Qing looked at the man, the man forced his head up and looked back. When their gazes met, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold; he could tell that this was the very same person who had attacked him. He could sense the aura clearly.

    As for the other four, Xu Qing had never seen them before.

    The chief minister cupped his hands in obeisance, then pointed to the middle-aged man on the left-hand side. ¡°Your Majesty, the investigation into the assassination attempt isplete. This person¡¯s name is Pyrrole. He¡¯s half-human, half-demon, and he joined the Ghostwyrm Nethersect at a young age. He has passabletent talent, but because of some bloodline issues, wasn¡¯t able to ess his core. His Master wanted to investigate the situation, but a sixty-year-cycle ago, Pyrrole stole the ck Paper Taboo Magic and used it to betray his sect and disappear. He was never seen again after that.

    ¡°On the day of the assassination attempt, he used the ck Paper Taboo Magic both to orchestrate the attack and then to flee the imperial capital. It took half a month for the Swordsage Division to track him down and arrest him in the Ninewilds ins. I¡¯ve already rified all the details of the case.¡±

    With that, the chief minister bowed his head and waited for the emperor to speak.

    The hall was quiet. Everyone was looking at the five criminals and Xu Qing, with different thoughts running through their heads. As for Pyrrole, he was looking at Xu Qing and regretting that he¡¯d failed to kill him. That failure was a tarnished spot on an otherwise amazing record.

    ¡°Execute him,¡± the emperor said from the ninth step.

    The imperial guard standing behind Pyrrole lifted a saber and shed it through his neck. That saber was a precious treasure with a mighty power of extermination in it. The moment it passed through Pyrrole¡¯s neck, his entire body copsed into a gory sludge. Even his soul was severed.

    The guard lifted the head and showed it to the crowd. The criminal had been destroyed in body and soul. It only took a few moments for the head to copse into ash.

    The chief minister then pointed to the second criminal, who was an old man. His head was bowed, making it impossible to see his facial expression. However, he was severely injured, and also had some spikes driven into his flesh.

    ¡°The second to stand used is Lin He, who operates under the secret codename 379. He currently serves as the deputy envoy of the Ministry of Supervision in the Special Operations Division. He attempted to cover for the guilty party during the investigation, and was also the one to provide details about Governor Xu¡¯s whereabouts on the night of the assassination attempt.¡±

    ¡°Execute him,¡± the emperor said calmly.

    The guard behind him shed down with his saber, killing Lin He in an instant. Momentster, his head copsed into ash.

    ¡°The third to stand used is Daoist Fire from the House of the Nine Deviations of Darkfire, where he serves as an honor guard. He was responsible for setting up the spell formations in advance. He also used deadly fire magics to facilitate the strategy of water fiends.

    ¡°The fourth to stand used is Sir Fatedark from the Prehistoric Cyan Moon Sect, who ranks even higher than the other three conspirators. He¡¯s an elder in his sect, and on the night of the assassination attempt, he used a special item to prevent any fluctuations from leaving that specific street. That item was a heavenly king medallion!¡±

    The chief minister¡¯s words struck shock into the hearts of everyone present. Some of them allowed that surprise to show on their faces, while others hid their reaction. The case so far had involved three of the superpower sects, plus the Special Operations Division of the Greater Celestial Divisions. What was more, the Prehistoric Cyan Moon Sect was the home sect of the imperial preceptor. But what was most shocking of all was that the chief minister had mentioned a heavenly king¡¯s medallion! That obviously implied that a heavenly king was involved.

    ¡°Whose medallion was it?¡± the emperor asked.

    ¡°That of King Heaventide.¡± The chief minister bowed his head.

    The hall remainedpletely silent.

    As for Xu Qing, his face had remainedpletely emotionless for the entire time, and he hadn¡¯t said a single word. He had listened to the chief minister and watched the executions almost as if he were an outsider.

    Meanwhile, all gazes in the hall were now fixed on the fifth prisoner.

    Based on what the chief minister had exined, the group of prisoners included the actual assassin, the person in charge of the spell formations, the person who had revealed Xu Qing¡¯s whereabouts and route, and someone who had interfered with the investigation. But for that medallion to mask fluctuations in the imperial capital meant that it was no ordinary item. Therefore, what he wanted to know now was who had been giving orders to these five conspirators.

    The fifth prisoner was an old woman with gray hair, her body covered with wounds. However, her expression was one of boundless wisdom and insight. She gave them the impression that a single nce from her would reveal to her everything about you.

    When Xu Qing looked at her, the old woman looked back at him and smiled.

    ¡°The fifth to stand used wasn¡¯t directly involved. However, all four of the other conspirators were connected to her in some way.... This person is named Dao Po, and she¡¯s from...¡± The chief minister hesitated briefly. Even when mentioning the heavenly king, he had spoken as smoothly as ever. It was only at this point that he faltered. But then he took a deep breath and continued speaking. ¡°... the Star-Plucking Tower!¡±

    The crowd looked on solemnly.

    A momentter, the emperor¡¯s voice rang out from the ninth step.

    ¡°Go ahead and execute them all.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Three guards raised their glittering sabers, and a momentter, lifted up three heads. The bodies copsed into gore, and then the heads crumbled into ash.

    At that point, the emperor rose from the Dragon Throne.

    Everyone in the crowd bowed their heads solemnly. The heavenly marquises in ck court attire rose from their cross-legged positions. Xu Qing also stood, his expression somber, but his heart pounding.

    ¡°Xu Qing from Sea-Sealing County,¡± the emperor said coolly.

    Xu Qing took a step forward then swiveled to face the west. sping his hands, he bowed deeply.

    ¡°As my loyal subject, you have governed Sea-Sealing well, put Holytide in order, quelled the chaos in Nightspirit, maintained peace and tranquility, safeguarded humannds, and expanded territory dutifully. You are hereby officially appointed as region lord of Holytide, and will receive the full support of the heavenly marquises. What¡¯s more, after you attend Imperial University, you will be appointed as a heavenly marquis.¡±

    Outside, the dragons roared and exhaled dazzling light.

    Massive amounts of destiny aura formed, then rushed into the hall and surrounded Xu Qing. In fact, the clouds on Ancient Emperor stirred, and destiny aura rushed from there to Xu Qing. As the destiny aura converged on Xu Qing, he emanated a five-colored glow. The sable dragon on his court garment flew out into the open, devoured the destiny aura, and then roared to heaven.

    This was the traditional human way of conferring titles! It meant that, as of this moment, Xu Qing was being officially protected by the destiny aura of humankind. Of course, he was only being given the title of region lord. Based on what the emperor had said, after Xu Qing went to the Imperial University for training, he would officially be given the title of heavenly marquis. It could only be imagined how shocking the destiny aura would be then.

    Outside of the imperial pce, past the rainbow bridge, the Captain and Plumdark sat in a building waiting for Xu Qing.

    When the auspicious signs filled heaven and earth, Plumdark nodded slightly. That said, she could sense that the destiny aura was somewhatcking. <i>Only five colors, not seven. And there¡¯s no umbre of destiny aura, nor the projections of past sages... the emperor is being a bit stingy.</i>

    The Captain, meanwhile, was salivating like mad. As he looked at the destiny aura, his heart raced. <i>So much destiny aura.... If I got that, I would easily be able to remove three seals. I want to join the court too!!</i>

    The Captain and Plumdark weren¡¯t the only ones to see the auspicious signs. All humans in the imperial capital looked up at the transformations, and soon, a swell of conversation filled the city.

    Meanwhile, everyone in the pce hall looked at Xu Qing and cupped hands to salute him ording to etiquette. Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as he sensed his cultivation base rotating faster than ever. This level of destiny aura was providing a big blessing to his battle prowess. As long as he was in human territory, he would be far stronger than before. In fact, he could sense that, mortals or not, as long as there were a lot of humans nearby, that blessing would be immense.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, then bowed to the emperor ording to etiquette. At the moment, it didn¡¯t matter who the mastermind behind the assassination plot was, or whether or not the executions had just been for show. He would have to look into all of thatter. The emperor¡¯s conferring of a title put the investigation to an end.

    Xu Qing could tell that this title was a true blessing to him. Of course, people would all have their own opinions on what was really going on behind the scenes. There were some things that were a lot more meaningful before they were revealed publicly than after. Furthermore... Xu Qing was getting the feeling that the emperor was ying a game of Go with someone.

    As for the identity of that person, based on today¡¯s events, plus what the y fox had warned him about, he got the feeling it was the imperial preceptor, in other words, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan!

    Maybe the mastermind behind the assassination attempt was the emperor, or maybe it was the imperial preceptor. Either way, a sessful assassination had never been the true goal. It had just been one move on the game board.

    <i>In that case, if one person has made a move, it goes without saying that the other person will also make a move....</i>

    As Xu Qing contemted that, the destiny aura and auspicious signs faded away. At that point, the emperor¡¯s voice once again rang out, reaching the outside world, and echoing throughout the imperial pce.

    ¡°There is another matter that my people must know about.

    ¡°King Eastcauldron has won a great victory, and has nowid siege to the Nightshade imperial capital. More than half of the Nightshade Region is now upied by our human forces!

    ¡°When I ascended the throne, I asked Grand Emperor Swordsage to promise that humankind would win great glory in my lifetime. Ipleted the work on the Dawning Suns, and thus, the Nightshades that so badly tormented previous emperors are about to be wiped out!

    ¡°To celebrate this historic expansion of humannds, I hereby open Ancient Emperor, and allow the elites of humankind, plus the imperial princes, to seek enlightenment of the ancient dao legacies there! Any young one who receives a legacy from a Grand Emperor will receive a dragon pendant from me!¡±

    The emperor¡¯s words crashed like thunder in the imperial capital, causing a mountain-toppling, sea-drainingmotion. Countless chosen cultivators were shaken to the core.

    Ancient Emperor is being opened for legacy seeking! This is the first time in three hundred years!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m definitely going to get a legacy!¡±

 Chapter 762: Sit Facing the East; Observe the Stars

    <h4>Chapter 762: Sit Facing the East; Observe the Stars</h4>

    This could be considered one of the major ceremonial events of humankind. Ancient Emperor was normally not opened up outside of use for ancestral sacrifices. In order to bring the ancient out of a state of sleep, arge amount of human destiny aura needed to be spent. What was more, much of the ancient¡¯s reserve powers needed to be used.

    Back when humans conquered Revered Ancient, that was the location of the imperial pce. Before the broken face arrived, countless species would travel there as a pilgrimage. It was even featured in the art of many species. It represented heavenly might, and was considered a holynd to all.

    When Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity and his subordinates left, that still maintained its lofty status. That was because it contained the legacies of 108 heavenly marquises who followed the Ancient Emperor, as well as the astonishing daos of the 33 heavenly kings of that time. For example, Li Zihua¡¯s legacy was still there.

    What generated the most anticipation, though, were the sealing marks left behind by the nine Grand Emperors.

    The time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was a golden age for humanity, when human destiny aura was at its peak. Because of that, nine amazing Grand Emperors rose up during that time. Any human who acquired the legacy of a Grand Emperor would achieve a seismic change in status and position. What was more, their cultivation would be dramatically affected.

    Sadly, Ancient Emperor wasn¡¯t opened up very often. As a result, not many people had been able to gain enlightenment of the legacies of the heavenly marquises or heavenly kings, although there were a few cases of sesses. As for the Grand Emperor¡¯s sealing marks, none had seeded in acquiring them. Most of the time, the sess stories involved the legacies of the heavenly marquises, or lower than that, such as daoist magics left behind by heroic humans who had died in battle.

    The numerous organizations and groups in the imperial capital were immediately shaken to the core....

    ***

    In the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect¡¯s Heaven-Gazing Pavilion, Junior Emperor Peng, the same one who had hosted the banquet at the Red Dust Pavilion, opened his eyes.

    <i>The emperor is opening up the ancient. All human chosen can seek enlightenment of the ancient daos!</i>

    His eyes glittered brightly.

    <i>Ling Yao has rejected me so many times. Forget her primal yin. As a junior emperor with the bloodline of a Grand Emperor, I¡¯ll have a huge advantage with the legacies of Ancient Emperor. If I can get one, then I¡¯ll get that dragon pendant and the protection of destiny aura. With that, I can easily step from Spirit Trove and into Void Returning. In fact, if things go well, I could very well reach Smoldering God.</i>

    ***

    In the northwest of the imperial capital was an ancient temple. From the outside, it looked like any ordinary temple, albeit mottled with age. However, there was another dimension inside, filled with numerous otherworldly paradises.

    In one of those otherworldly paradises was a cultivator who resembled a monk. He was middle-aged, with no hair and a tattooed face. Close examination of the tattoos revealed that they depicted the broken face.

    A voice spoke to the man, saying, ¡°Burning Star, when Ancient Emperor opens, you will represent Words of Truth to seek enlightenment there.¡±

    The middle-aged man opened his eyes and crossed his arms. ¡°Understood,¡± he said. He stood, put on a fresh white robe that included a voluminous hood, and started walking.

    With his first step, he blurred. With his second step, he vanished. With his third step, he appeared on the rainbow bridge outside the imperial pce. There, he waited.

    ***

    Simr scenes yed out in all ten of the superpower sects. Out of the Red Dust Pavilion came Ling Yao. Other chosen emerged from the other sects.

    In the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, qualified individuals who had been groomed for greatness emerged one by one. It was the same with the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions, and the children from the nobility.

    Of course, it was also the same with the imperial princes and princesses.

    Grand Princess and Second Princess had entered marriage alliances, and weren¡¯t in the imperial capital. Fifth Prince was with the number-one heavenly king, who was guarding the border with the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Grand Prince, who was beloved by the emperor, was not present. Nor were Eighth and Ninth Princes, who had all withdrawn their names immediately. But with those exceptions, all other princes and princesses would participate.

    Most people wanted the dragon pendant because of the destiny aura it would provide, and the immense blessings it would bring. As for the imperial princes and princesses... they were more concerned with what the dragon pendant symbolized. After all, this was the first time since Emperor Dark War¡¯s ascendancy to the throne... that he was offering the dragon pendant, which symbolized the emperor himself, as a reward.

    The implications were profound. And not one person who qualified to participate in this event was a fool. They all understood.

    ¡°The emperor is offering his dragon pendant.... If this is real, does it mean that the emperor is going to choose a crown prince?¡±

    ¡°Regardless, though it seems like this event is being put on for all the elites, the reality is that most people will be ying minor roles. The true centers of attention... will be the imperial princes.¡±

    ¡°The emperor is going to be assessing his sons to see which one is most deeply approved by the ancestors!¡±

    ¡°Of course, if someone can stand out in seeking enlightenment, then it will be a big opportunity for them!¡±

    As the buzz of conversation filled the city, numerous figures started gathering on the rainbow bridge. Before long, there were several thousand of them.

    Inside the imperial pce, the emperor looked out from the ninth stair. With the slight flick of his sleeve, he started walking down the steps.

    ¡°My dear subjects, please apany me as I inspect the future pirs of humankind. The current era is ours, while the future era belongs to them.¡±

    The emperor¡¯s voice contained rare emotion.

    Everyone in the pce hall smiled, and their expressions contained simr levels of emotion. Seemingly mirroring the feelings of their monarch, they followed as the emperor led the way outside.

    Xu Qing was among them. As for Ningyan, he purposely slowed down a bit until he was walking next to Xu Qing. The two of them exchanged a nce, and Xu Qing could see the loneliness in Ningyan¡¯s eyes. He knew that Ningyan feared the emperor, and also knew that everything which had just yed out during the session of court had left Ningyan feeling nervous. Most relevant of all was that, during the entire time, the emperor hadn¡¯t even looked at Ningyan, nor said a single word. It was no wonder Ningyan was feeling lonely.

    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine,¡± Xu Qing said with a nod.

    Ningyan breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Qing felt like the big brother he¡¯d never had, and he always felt safe by his side. In fact, he even made sure to step a bit closer to Xu Qing as they walked together. Inside, he felt bitter and sorrowful. On the one side was his own father, on the other side was his friend. And the entire time, his father acted as cold as winter. His father, always mighty and grand, and cold, without a bit of warmth for Ningyan. In contrast, his friend was amiable and trustworthy.

    The hundreds of people emerging from the pce instantly attracted the attention of the chosen gathering on the rainbow bridge. With solemn expressions on their faces, they bowed in the direction of the pce hall.

    The emperor extended his right hand and pushed it up toward the sky. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. Golden dragons roared. And boundless destiny aura swept from the imperial pce toward Ancient Emperor. As it wrapped around the surface of the, dragons roared, almost as if they were cheering.

    The destiny aura cheered, and the humans cheered. Ancient Emperor¡¯s clouds swirled, moving faster and faster until a heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling sound could be heard.

    Then Ancient Emperor began to open, like a massive eye. The moment it happened, heaven and earth went dim as boundless auspicious light erupted. The sea of clouds went wild as projected images of countless human heroes appeared in them. A huge vortex formed, out of which spread a shocking gravitational force.

    The chief minister, who stood right behind the emperor, looked out at the rainbow bridge and called,  Ancient Emperor is hereby opened. All elites of our species, you have one day. If you don¡¯t seek enlightenment now, when will you?¡±

    The thousands of human chosen on the rainbow bridge took to flight immediately, rising into the air and into the gravitational force of Ancient Emperor. They became like meteors shooting through the air. Before long, thousands of figures were just outside of Ancient Emperor. Some sat atop the clouds, others sank into them. All closed their eyes to seek enlightenment. Princes and chosen alike mingled together.

    There were different levels to which Ancient Emperor could be opened, and on this asion, it was limited to the first level. At this level, people couldn¡¯t actually enter the and reach its surface, but rather, could seek enlightenment in its cloud cover.

    The seeking of enlightenment revolved around the legacies that drifted there. They looked differently and behaved differently, with some being very active on the outeryers, while others slept deep within the.

    As a result, the seeking of enlightenment was like a two-way street. Although the cultivator¡¯s own qualities were important, what was of more importance was which legacy from Ancient Emperor approved of them the most.

    Xu Qing looked up at the thousands of people on Ancient Emperor, and then he looked at Ningyan. ¡°You should participate.¡±

    Ningyan hesitated, looked at Xu Qing, looked at the distant emperor, and then gritted his teeth and flew up toward the. A momentter, he was in the clouds above the, his expression serious as he settled down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

    The emperor¡¯s gaze drifted across Ancient Emperor, not stopping on anyone in particr. Eventually, he turned to look at Xu Qing.

    ¡°My dearest subject Xu Qing, given your age and cultivation base, if you wish to seek enlightenment, you may.¡±

    Xu Qing considered the matter. Under normal circumstances, he definitely would have attempted to seek enlightenment. After all, ancient legacies would alwayse with immense benefits. But he had other things to consider. He had been working for half a month on the blood pill Plumdark needed, and it was getting close topletion. Until it was done, he needed to check on it regrly and make adjustments.

    <i>I need to go check the pill furnace within about four hours. If I don¡¯t, all my work up to this point will have been a waste....</i>

    Having reached a decision, he bowed to the emperor.

    ¡°Many thanks, Your Majesty, but my powers of understanding are ordinary at best. I don¡¯t want to waste the destiny aura of humankind.¡±

    The emperor didn¡¯t make any attempt to persuade Xu Qing to change his mind. Instead, he looked at his guards. The guards knew exactly what that look meant, and they hurried to produce a row of tables outside the pce. When it was done, the emperor sat down, joined by the hundreds of officials who had attended court.

    Immortal fruits and fine alcohols were served, allowing the emperor and his officials to watch the younger ones seeking enlightenment. The mood quickly became jovial. Many people chatted andughed as they assessed the chosen from the various ns and organizations. Most words were those of praise.

    Xu Qing suddenly noticed an old man standing next to him d in blue court attire. The old man sped hands and smiled.

    ¡°Exalted Xu, are you sure you don¡¯t want to seek enlightenment? It would be a shame to miss out on a rare opportunity like this.¡±

    Xu Qing returned his salute and politely said, ¡°Sadly, I have limited aptitude.¡±

    The old man was about to reply when the emperor¡¯s voice rang out.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, there is no distinction between emperor and official here. Which of my sons do you think is most suitable to be the crown prince?¡±

    Nobody said a word in response. A long moment passed.

    Then the chief minister quietly said, ¡°The imperial preceptor assesses astrological phenomena and measures destiny aura. He must surely have an opinion.¡±

    The emperor turned his head slightly to the left. There was nothing there, but the emperor still said, ¡°What do you think, Imperial Preceptor?¡±

    The moment those words left the emperor¡¯s mouth, Xu Qing looked up at the spot to the emperor¡¯s left.

    He saw faint fluctuations, indicating a person was there who couldn¡¯t be seen clearly.

 Chapter 763: A Call from Planet Ancient Emperor

    <h4>Chapter 763: A Call from Ancient Emperor</h4>

    There are some things that, even if you¡¯re absolutely convinced they will happen, will still impart a sense of shock and wonder when they actually y out. Of course, the level of shock and wonder ismensurate to how much the people involved care about what¡¯s happening. Very dramatic events will lead to greater shock and wonder.

    Although the spot to the left of the emperor seemed empty, faint fluctuations emanated from there, along with a gentle voice.

    ¡°I think you already know the answer, Your Majesty. Could the words of any other person actually cause Your Majesty to change his mind?¡±

    As the voice echoed out, a person appeared in the empty space next to the emperor, attracting the attention of everyone present. He wore a white daoist robe, looked elegant and refined, and had a head of long violet hair. He seemed magical, like an impermanent spirit in the wind.

    When Xu Qing heard that voice, and saw that person materialize, his face remainedpletely expressionless. However, his right hand slowly clenched into a fist, so hard that veins bulged on its surface. There was no need for any further confirmation or corroboration. Based on the voice and appearance of this person... Xu Qing knew who he was.

    A month ago, the y fox had warned him about this imperial preceptor, causing him to start specting who he was. And yet, seeing him in person caused surprise and shock to assail him like a tempest.

    He had no idea why this person had be the imperial preceptor, or why he had revealed his presence so casually. He also had no idea what sort of rtionship this person had with the emperor, or what deals they might have made. He only knew that this person was from Torchlight. He was the one responsible for the death of Master Sixth, had orchestrated the coup in Sea-Sealing County, and... was Xu Qing¡¯s mortal enemy who he couldn¡¯t stand to live under the same sky with!

    He only knew that this person... was that very same crow he¡¯d sworn to kill! [1]

    Xu Qing was not like he¡¯d been in the past, when a single look at the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan would cause him to experience a breakdown. He could control his emotions much better now, and was able to conceal them in the depths of his heart. Therefore, though Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened and he inhaled deeply, he just listened to what everyone else was saying.

    ¡°Greetings, Imperial Preceptor.¡± Everyone in the crowd bowed hands and respectfully uttered the same greeting.

    In traditional human society, imperial preceptors didn¡¯t have any true power, but they were very important, and were generally second only to the emperor and the Grand Emperors.[2]

    The emperor waited for everyone to greet the imperial preceptor, and then he smiled faintly as he looked at Ancient Emperor.

    Meanwhile, the imperial preceptor turned slightly in ce to reveal that he was wearing a mask. It was a white mask featuring a smiling face. It looked very gruish, and yet most people who looked at him wouldn¡¯t even notice the mask, as his eyes were so radiant that they captured all attention. As he looked at the gathered officials one by one, he nodded in greeting, until... his gaze reached Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at him.

    The imperial preceptor smiled. He was arrogant in his own way, and did things the way he liked. If some other person was the imperial preceptor, they might choose not to reveal their true body the way he had. But he was the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan! He wasn¡¯t the type of person who would hide in the shadows, nor would he let his own goals influence how he acted. Therefore, he slowly reached up and took off his mask, revealing his true face to all of the officials.

    It was the first time these officials had ever seen his face. Previously, only the emperor knew what he looked like. Up to this point, the most anyone else had seen was a white robe and a smiling white mask. But now, as he took the mask off and revealed his face, many people couldn¡¯t prevent shocked and bewildered looks from appearing on their own faces.

    That was because... he looked about seventy-percent the same as Xu Qing! His face was somewhat paler, and also colder and more nefarious. Yet his radiant eyes didn¡¯t seem to contain even a trace of impurity. He had heroic, sword-like eyebrows, thin pursed lips, and angr features. Altogether, the imperial preceptor looked like a white dragon, incredibly beautiful, but also profoundly cold.

    No one in the crowd said or did anything, but their minds were all racing. After all, the imperial preceptor and Xu Qing didn¡¯t just look simr physically. There was something else about the way they carried themselves that was very much alike.

    Although such simrities could technically be the result of various magical techniques, that wasn¡¯t something the imperial preceptor would do considering his status. Therefore... there was only one exnation.

    And that exnation caused everyone to think deeply about what was going on. Then people started thinking about the assassination attempt, whereupon many furtive nces were cast in the emperor¡¯s direction.

    Meanwhile, the imperial preceptor ignored the gazes of the crowd. Smiling warmly at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°We meet again, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    Xu Qing looked back calmly at the imperial preceptor, not saying a word.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t behind the assassination attempt,¡± the imperial preceptor continued. ¡°Such things are beneath me. I would never do something like that.¡±

    Turning, he sat down next to the emperor and looked up at the chosen on Ancient Emperor. The officials all did the same.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change. It was almost as if he hadn¡¯t even seen the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He just sat there as if nothing had happened, all while keeping his attention on Ningyan. He also calcted how long it was before he needed to leave. He had to do those things to control the tempest in his heart.

    Everything was as quiet and still as ake with no wind or waves. Yet every single person was shocked, to the point that, if their shock could all bebined, it would turn into an astonishing tidal wave. As the quiet persisted, time passed. Eventually, two hours had gone by.

    At that point, there was finally a development among the various chosen seeking enlightenment on Ancient Emperor.

    Among the thousands of cultivators seated cross-legged in the clouds, there were some around whom auspicious signs appeared, turning into supernatural phenomena that shone with dazzling light. That indicated that the person had either seeded, or was about to. And the amount of auspicious phenomena and shining light would indicate how deep their enlightenment was.

    There were many more people who were still in the middle of the process. Those who seeded had not gained enlightenment of any of the heavenly marquises¡¯ legacies, but rather, the legacy daos of heroes who had died over the years in war. They included divine abilities, techniques, and the like. Though they weren¡¯t on the same level as the heavenly marquises¡¯ legacies, they were still destined opportunities.

    ¡°That¡¯s thebined sword technique of Chen Qinghai, themander of 10,000 men who was a close follower of Grand Emperor Swordsage. Not bad. Not bad at all. The chosen sent out by the Swordsage Division are extraordinary. That legacy is second only to one from a heavenly marquis!¡±

    ¡°The heroic martyr Chen Qinghai isn¡¯t the only one whose legacies have been acquired. Look over there, everyone. See that yin-yang statue? You can find a description of that in certain ancient records. It¡¯s the ck-White Fiendification Art. I¡¯m not familiar with whoever¡¯s gaining enlightenment of it. Based on their outfit, they¡¯re presumably a disciple from the Godharvest Deep Universe Sect.¡±

    As the officials chatted about the proceedings, the atmosphere started to grow lively. More and more disciples were gaining enlightenment. Auspicious, multicolored light shone up constantly from the. Whenever someone seeded in gaining enlightenment, they would be teleported off Ancient Emperor and back to the rainbow bridge. Each person only had one chance to seek enlightenment.

    Xu Qing was looking in Ningyan¡¯s direction. By the time two hours passed, nothing had happened with Ningyan. He was obviously working very hard, yet hadn¡¯t had any sess. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried. Ningyan had good aptitude, and even if he didn¡¯t acquire something on the level of the heavenly kings, he would surely benefit somehow.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing looked away from Ningyan and at the others, all while trying to dispel the tempest in his heart. For the most part, he didn¡¯t recognize any of the chosen participating in the enlightenment session. That said, based on their clothing, he could identify the imperial princes. Plus, there were a few people he had seen before.

    For example, there was Princess Anhai, as well as Seventh Prince. As for thetter, it was Xu Qing¡¯s first time seeing him since arriving in the imperial capital. When Xu Qing spotted Seventh Prince, his gaze turned cold. However, seeing that he wasn¡¯t surrounded by any auspicious signs or dazzling light, he decided to check closer on Princess Anhai.

    But then, his heart surged, and he suddenly shifted his gaze to a spot in the clouds where no one was seeking enlightenment. The swirling clouds there seemed thinner than in other locations, making it just barely possible to make out some mountains of Ancient Emperor beneath it.

    Those mountains were what attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention. It was a great distance away, and it was only the top cloudyer of Ancient Emperor that had been opened. No one could actually go to the surface of the. And yet, Xu Qing could sense some faint fluctuationsing from thends of the. Despite how faint they were, they seemed to be calling out to him.

    As Xu Qing examined the area with the thin clouds, he saw that though there were people seeking enlightenment nearby, none were actually in that specific area.

    It was almost as if... they couldn¡¯t sense that call because it was too specific.

    <i>What is that...? Is it a legacy?</i>

    From what Xu Qing could tell, the bits of enlightenment sought and received by everyone else were like thoughts drifting among the clouds. In contrast, this call from the mountains was a unique energy from a physical object of some sort.

    As Xu Qing pondered what that meant, the clouds on Ancient Emperor shifted again, rising up to cover everyone except for one person.

    The dramatic motion of the clouds attracted the attention of the onlookers. Everyone looked over to see a huge vortex forming around the one person that was visible. A most holy sign appeared around that person as well, 30,000 meters tall. What was more, golden fire spread out around him.

    ¡°The legacy of a heavenly marquis!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the daoist magic of Exalted Celestial me Halberd, who ranked number ten among the 108 heavenly marquises.¡±

    ¡°The person gaining enlightenment... is the grandson of the minister of war. It¡¯s Meng Yunbai!¡±

    Within the imperial capital, people from powerful organizations and rogue cultivators alike were looking at Ancient Emperor and were visibly moved. Even many of the other seekers of enlightenment opened their eyes and looked in the direction of Meng Yunbai, their eyes glittering with surprise, confusion, envy, and defiance. Outside of the imperial pce, the gathered officials smiled, and the emperor¡¯s eyes shone with praise.

    Xu Qing was the only one who, after briefly ncing at Meng Yunbai, shifted his attention back to that area of thinning clouds with the mountains beneath it.

    <i>The call is getting a lot stronger....</i>

    1. The main ¡°crow¡± references are <u>chapter 380</u> and <u>402</u>. There might be some others, but unfortunately, because of how often golden crow stuffes up, it¡¯s hard to search for the references. ?

    2. In real life, the imperial preceptor was essentially a high-ranking religious leader in the Yuan Dynasty, who would have a lot of power and influence over religious matters, and who would advise the emperor, but who didn¡¯t have much political or military power. The second character in the two-character title is themon character for ¡®teacher.¡¯ As far as how the position works in a xianxia setting, well, that is up to interpretation and the whim of the author. But the description here roughly matches with the real-life description of the position, in as far as it rtes to the rtive power wielded by this person. If you want to learn some about how the real-life imperial preceptors worked, <u>here¡¯s the wiki link</u>. ?

 Chapter 764: Dancing in Vain to the East Wind

    <h4>Chapter 764: Dancing in Vain to the East Wind</h4>

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. He was getting the sensation that, as more of the chosen seeded at gaining enlightenment, the summoning call from Ancient Emperor was getting stronger. He couldn¡¯t be absolutely certain. But it felt like the clouds and auspicious light were somehow strengthening the call.

    Xu Qing had no idea why that might be happening. Nor did he know what was in those mountains. But there was one thing he was certain of. Whatever was in the mountains was astounding.

    He tried to respond to the call. To sense more about it. No such efforts amounted to anything. It didn¡¯t have anything to do with his physical position. After all, he hadn¡¯t gone to seek enlightenment, so he didn¡¯t need to be seated cross-legged in the clouds. Besides, his current position could also be considered very close to the.

    As a result, the biggest obstacle to any response from Xu Qing were the sealing marks covering the itself. The emperor had only opened the outeryer of seals. Beneath thatyer were many more sessiveyers, almost like egg shells, one after another. Those outer shells couldn¡¯t stop the summoning call, but they could block Xu Qing¡¯s response to it.

    As Xu Qing continued to ponder the situation, he sensed the call increasing in intensity again. Eyes narrowing, he looked at the as a second vortex suddenly appeared.

    The first cloud vortex had sprung up for Meng Yunbai when he acquired the heavenly marquis legacy. The second was forming around a bald, middle-aged cultivator wearing a hemp robe.

    He was from Words of Truth, and his name was me Star. At the moment, he was surrounded by the projection of a crimson scorpion. Even from a distance, it was possible to see the scorpion howling to heaven, its tail swaying. It even formed afterimages as it rocked back and forth. The scorpion even influenced the outside world, sending out a fiendish aura in all directions. The vicious thing also emanated a terrifying aura that was no weaker than the holy sign caused by Meng Yunbai¡¯s enlightenment. What was more, it seemed far more brutal.

    The two vortexes were in two different locations on Ancient Emperor, and though they exerted an influence on each other, they were also limited to their own specific area. That said, they did affect the other chosen, causing them to be covered over by clouds.

    ¡°It¡¯s only been two hours, but there are already two chosen who¡¯ve gained enlightenment of heavenly marquis legacies. It seems this Nightshade war has really bolstered our human destiny aura.¡±

    ¡°What a pity one of them is from Words of Truth....¡±

    ¡°People from Words of Truth really are entric weirdos. On an individual basis, they¡¯re sometimes tolerable. After all, they mostly focus on painstakingly practicing cultivation all the time. But if you start getting into their teachings, you¡¯ll find that they¡¯re even more insane than the Church of Departure.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay much attention to the chatter around him. He was focusedpletely on the summoning call. As of now, he was convinced that the sesses at enlightenment were strengthening the call, especially the heavenly marquis legacies.

    <i>Whenever someone seeds at enlightenment, it¡¯s as if something inside Ancient Emperor is absorbing the streams of consciousness. And that process is loosening the seals on the. That¡¯s why the call is getting stronger.</i>

    As Xu Qing came to that understanding, he kept a close eye on the clouds, all while hoping that more people seeded at gaining enlightenment.

    That was when a familiar voice spoke from next to the emperor, which drifted out and reached Xu Qing¡¯s ears.

    ¡°Your Majesty, not much time has passed, and already, some of our human chosen have gained enlightenment. Why not open up another sealing level? Although it will reduce the amount of time, it should also increase the chances of sess.¡±

    The person who had spoken was none other than the imperial preceptor.

    Everyone looked over at the emperor. When Ancient Emperor was opened up, each sealingyer made the legacies in the clouds stronger, but at the same time, reduced the overall length of time that the seals would remain open.

    The emperor turned his head slowly to look at the imperial preceptor.

    The preceptor smiled.

    A long moment passed, and then the emperor said, ¡°Very well.¡±

    When the emperor gave orders, they would be strictly enforced. The moment the words left his mouth, intense rumbling sounds echoed out from Ancient Emperor, and the destiny aura became countless golden dragons. Another sealingyer was being opened up.

    More clouds seethed, and radiant light spread to cover the entire ancient. What was more, thanks to the boost provided by the opening of the sealingyer, dozens of chosen almost instantly seeded at gaining enlightenment. And there were two of them who acquired heavenly marquis legacies.

    One of them was Junior Emperor Peng from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. As a vortex sprang into being around him, his expression was one of defiance; he actually wasn¡¯t pleased, yet wasn¡¯t in the position to give up.

    The other person was one of the imperial princes. Sixth Prince!

    Many people took note of the fact that Sixth Prince was the first of the imperial princes to gain enlightenment. Sixth Prince was normally a licentious yboy whose mansion was filled with beautiful girls, and who seemed to have little interest in life other than throwing big parties. In fact, many people hardly associated Sixth Prince with the concept of cultivation. He didn¡¯t seem to care about power and influence, and only cared for romance. What was more, his rtionship with the female King Wildmist was unusual and somewhat suspicious. Yet today, he was the first to seed at enlightenment.

    The heavenly marquis legacy he acquired was different from any of the others. It came from the dao of Marquis Flowermidst, and was primarily a dual cultivation technique....

    ¡°It actually fits perfectly with Sixth Prince¡¯s personality and temperament. That must be why he seeded at enlightenment.¡±

    Within the crowd, some people smiled and some people frowned. The emperor revealed no facial expression at all, making it impossible to tell if he was pleased or not. The imperial preceptor smiled faintly.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to Sixth Prince and his sess. Because the second sealingyer on the had been opened, the summoning call had be even stronger. In fact, after the two heavenly marquis legacies, the call grew shockingly intense to Xu Qing¡¯s senses. What was more, he could now tell for certain that the call was targeting him specifically. No one else had sensed it.

    <i>What exactly is it...?</i>

    As Xu Qing pondered that question, time passed.

    Thanks to the second sealingyer being opened, sesses urred almost constantly. Over the course of an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, the eyes of all the participants began to shine brightly.

    A storm was building on Ancient Emperor, spreading to cover the entire, and even covering the vortexes caused by the heavenly marquis legacies. Within that storm was visible a figure, seemingly walking out from ancient times, step by step. He was burly and tall, with a suit of blood-red armor, long crimson hair, and a pressure that caused the entire imperial capital to tremble.

    ¡°Heavenly king!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s King Nightughter!¡±

    ¡°He was a close follower of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and waged war against 137 species. Every single battle he fought was a massacre. Eventually, the emperor appointed him as the leader of five regions. I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s King Nightughter!¡±

    Everyone in the crowd was stunned, and the popce of the imperial capital was shaken to the core. This was the first time in a thousand years that the legacy of a heavenly king had appeared!

    The person gaining enlightenment of this heavenly king legacy wasn¡¯t a chosen from one of the sects. It was the talented and erudite Third Prince who was currently assigned to a position at the Imperial University. From a distance, it was possible to see the tempest surrounding Third Prince, causing his hair to whip around him wildly. His facial features were delicate, yet heroic. Within his narrow eyes swirled streams of light that added luster to his appearance.

    His sess caused smiles to appear on the faces of the officials, and resulted in many words of praise. The emperor even nodded slightly.

    Of course, no one had any idea if all of this was happening naturally or if it had been set up.

    Regardless, the nod from the emperor revealed his attitude, and to many people, it was a signal.

    Yet even as Third Prince made a scene, another loud rumbling sound echoed out from Ancient Emperor. This time, it came from a different direction. It came from Fourth Prince. There, a massive tornado sprang up, suppressing all of the heavenly marquis vortexes and those gaining enlightenment within them.

    It was the second heavenly tempest to spring up on the.

    The projection of another heavenly king appeared, striding forward. Before the figure could even be clear, Fourth Prince opened his eyes from within the storm and viciously pped his own chest. That blow caused blood to spray out of his mouth, which transformed into a blood-red umbre that floated over his head, preventing any enlightenment.

    The heavenly king stopped walking, then slowly faded away along with the tempest. That scene caused the eyes of many onlookers to glitter. Some distance away, Third Prince noticed what was happening and scowled.

    ¡°He actually rejected that heavenly king legacy!¡±

    ¡°You only get one chance at enlightenment, and if you ept something, it means you can¡¯t ept anything else. Fourth Prince stopped the enlightenment before it really began, which means he actually has another opportunity.¡±

    ¡°Not even that is satisfactory for him? I guess that means he wants the legacy of a Grand Emperor. If it works, people will call him courageous. But if it doesn¡¯t work, he¡¯ll be called a moron!¡±

    Fourth Prince¡¯s actions made him quite the center of attention. Many in the audience looked over to see how the imperial preceptor was reacting. After all, Fourth Prince was the imperial preceptor¡¯s sessor apprentice. And when you consider how the emperor had reacted to Third Prince¡¯s enlightenment, there were obviouslyyers of meaning to unpack.

    The atmosphere outside the pce was lively. However, just as before, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to any of that. He was still focused on that summoning call. And he was frowning.

    When Fourth Prince seemed on the verge of seeding at enlightenment, that summoning call had surged like the tide. But then Fourth Prince gave up, and that tide ebbed.

    Xu Qing looked at Fourth Prince briefly. He instinctively disliked him, but at the same time, had to admit that his powers of understanding were shocking.

    After about an incense stick¡¯s worth of time had passed after Fourth Prince abandoned the heavenly king legacy, intense ripples spread out on Ancient Emperor. Numerous golden dragons roared, and the destiny aura surged like the sea. Blinding light erupted from the, suppressing the tempests of the heavenly king legacies, and attracting the attention of everyone in the imperial capital. Outside the pce, many officials rose to their feet with serious expressions on their faces.

    ¡°Those fluctuations....¡±

    ¡°They surpass those of heavenly king legacies. Don¡¯t tell me....¡±

    The imperial pce went silent. The popce of the imperial capital all had grave expressions on their faces. And Fourth Prince was incapable of concealing how excited he was as he looked up.

    Shockingly, a host of figures were appearing in the sky of Ancient Emperor. They were illustrious figures from the past, including heavenly marquises and heavenly kings. As they appeared in dazzling glory, it was to the shock of all onlookers that they faced Fourth Prince and bowed!

    That struck the onlookers to the core. After all, ording to the ancient records, that was the sign of sessful enlightenment of Grand Emperor sealing marks! This was the first time anything like this had happened during the reign of Emperor Dark War!

    Then it became obvious that the illustrious figures from the past weren¡¯t bowing to Fourth Prince. Rather, they were bowing toward Ancient Emperor, where a spectacr mountain was rising up. As the mountain floated up into the air, it crumbled, revealing something sharp that had been concealed inside.

    It was a sword! The sword of Grand Emperor Swordsage!

    Emperor Dark War¡¯s expression was grave as he shot to his feet and looked at The Emperor¡¯s Sword. The officials behind him reacted simrly, their eyes shining brightly as they looked at Fourth Prince. The other imperial princes were simrly moved.

    This dramatic legacy ensured that Fourth Prince stood out above all others.

    Then, as Fourth Prince excitedly reached up to The Emperor¡¯s Sword, Xu Qing, who had also risen to his feet, looked at the sword and realized that the call wasing from it. And then... he extended his hand.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword rising from Ancient Emperor vibrated and then emitted a sound like metal scraping against rock. It burst into motion, shooting past Fourth Prince. Fourth Prince was stunned as the sword whistled by, creating such a strong wind that he was shoved away from it. Yet his gaze followed it as it shot toward the imperial pce....

 Chapter 765: Bear The Emperorâ€™s Sword, Walk the World

    Chapter 765: Bear The Emperor¡¯s Sword, Walk the World

    Images of illustrious individuals from the past congregated on Ancient Emperor. The seething clouds erupted, creating blooms like flower blossoms that turned into canopies. Dazzling light illuminated the canopies with five auspicious colors. Golden dragons swirled in the air, inhaling and exhaling energy, whichpletely obscured the other chosen seeking enlightenment.

    The chosen, sensing what was happening, opened their eyes and looked in the direction of the dazzling light shooting toward the imperial pce. Everyone was bewildered.

    Ningyan was in the group, his eyes wide and his mind spinning. His gaze was focused on that dazzling light, and within it, The Emperor¡¯s Sword. The sword was made of ancient bronze, had decorative patterns carved into it, and seemedpletely domineering and overwhelming.

    It happened so suddenly that people didn¡¯t really have a chance to react before the heaven-rending, earth-crushing Emperor¡¯s Sword had arrived in front of the imperial pce. Without even a slight pause, the sword shot toward the group gathered there. The air shattered, and the pce trembled. Much of the pce crumbled, to the shock of everyone present.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The majestic sword pulsed with the destiny aura of humankind, and contained something profoundly ancient. It passed by the emperor himself, went along the right-hand side of the chief minister, and shot through the crowd toward... Xu Qing¡¯s right hand.

    In the blink of an eye, the sword lurched to a halt right above Xu Qing. An intense thrumming sound filled the air, and the sword, as if seeking its own master, slowly lowered into Xu Qing¡¯s hand. He closed his fingers around the hilt. The moment he did, thunderous rumbling echoed out. The illustrious figures from the past were allpelled to follow the ancient ceremonial forms, and sped hands submissively.

    All of the officials gathered in front of the pce were cultivators, and regardless of their personality or cultivation base, they could be considered dragons amongst men. But right now, they were shaken to the core as they looked at Xu Qing and the sword he held.

    The bronze Emperor¡¯s Sword was four feet and seven inches long, with an incredibly sharp edge and a domineering sword energy. It seemed like a sword that could sever heaven. It glittered as Xu Qing held it, sending out towering sword light that stirred the wind and clouds. Everyone who could see it with their own eyes felt drawn to it. That sword light would cause all other divine weapons to turn dark, and could force an army of a thousand into retreat.

    The ground quaked as ancient sword light became a force that could topple the ages. White light contained suns and moons, while violet energy harnessed the constetions of the Dipper and Ox. [1]

    Everyone was deeply shaken. As of now, the thousands of chosen seeking enlightenment were irrelevant. It didn¡¯t matter how they gained enlightenment or what kind of show they put on. Xu Qing was so superior that he was on apletely different level. All of them had gained enlightenment of legacies, while Xu Qing had waved his hand and summoned The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    It was especially noteworthy because it was the sword of Grand Emperor Swordsage! The meaning was profound.

    Grand Emperor Swordsage had been the founder of the Sword Division, and after that, the Swordsage Division. He defended humankind down to the very end. What was more, his sword could be used to cut down anyone who posed an obstacle to the development of humankind. Even the emperor!

    It didn¡¯t take long for people to realize what sword this was, and what its background was. And then they thought about how, when Xu Qing first arrived in the imperial capital, he had caused the Grand Emperor to wake up. Now it seemed obvious that these two separate events were connected.

    ¡°The sessor of the Sword Division!¡±

    The gathered officials looked at Xu Qing and they looked at The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Although various thoughts ran through their heads, all of them looked respectful, although it wasn¡¯t directed at Xu Qing specifically, but at The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was also shaken as he looked at the sword. Then he thought about what Grand Emperor Swordsage had said to him when they met. Everything... fit together. That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t exactly happy. The moment he took hold of that sword, his suspicion from earlier was confirmed. The Grand Emperor was going to perish, and Xu Qing was being bequeathed an important responsibility. Maybe he wasn¡¯t the only one the Grand Emperor would bequeath with responsibility, but either way, the sword was extremely important.

    Inside, Xu Qing sighed and prepared to put the sword away. But before he could, sword light red, creating a sea of light thatpletely surrounded Xu Qing. Then the sword flew out of his hand and shot toward his forehead. In the blink of an eye, The Emperor¡¯s Sword and its sword light vanished inside. A tremor passed through him as his three god troves rumbled into being behind him, emanating terrifying pressure.

    At the same time... a fourth secret trove appeared! It was only a vague outline, but it was there. And it caused Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base to rise and his energy to improve. The fourth secret trove was nothing but a mass of mist, but if you looked closely, you would see The Emperor¡¯s Sword inside of it. It was powering up, all while emanating a shocking sharpness that could cause ghosts and gods alike to weep. This was an Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove!

    The moment it appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s three god troves trembled and emanated godly might. The Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove wasn¡¯t outdone, as it pulsed with astonishing sword might.

    Unlike Xu Qing¡¯s god troves, it had nothing to do with gods. But The Emperor¡¯s Sword still had terrifying power, and also a very high level of personhood. That said, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t unleash it yet, as he couldn¡¯t control it.

    That was because it contained a sword with a mission. It wasn¡¯t something that human willpower could manipte. Rather than saying that it had recognized Xu Qing as its lord and master, it was more proper to say that the Grand Emperor had chosen him as the bearer of the sword.

    He was to carry The Emperor¡¯s Sword out in the world. The sword was actually waiting. It needed an appropriate moment to attend to its mission, whereupon it would fly out from the secret trove with deadly force.

    Of course, as the bearer of the sword, Xu Qing would benefit greatly from the sword will and energy it emitted. As Xu Qing looked at the Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove, he gained understanding in his heart. The sword thrummed as the secret trove faded and disappeared along with the three god troves. Heaven and earth went silent.

    The emperor looked at Xu Qing deeply, then smiled. ¡°Well done.¡±

    Next to him, the imperial preceptor¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change. The smile didn¡¯t leave his face.

    Xu Qing looked at the imperial preceptor and attempted to summon The Emperor¡¯s Sword. If it worked, then he would use its power right here and now. Sadly... the Emperor¡¯s Sword didn¡¯t stir. Xu Qing sighed inwardly.

    When the sword disappeared, the fluctuations on Ancient Emperor died down. The images of the figures of the past faded away, and everything went back to normal. The legacy storm around Third Prince reappeared. Everything was just like it had been before The Emperor¡¯s Sword appeared. The rest of the chosen seeking enlightenment couldn¡¯t help but feel defeated. Only a few of them maintained an even keel.

    Ningyan was one of thetter. He had been shocked at first, but knowing what he did about Xu Qing and his background, it was actually not very surprising.

    Another who continued on as before was Third Prince. He was more than happy to see Xu Qing take action. After all, if Fourth Prince had seeded at gaining enlightenment of a Grand Emperor¡¯s legacy, then the entire event would have centered around Fourth Prince¡¯s unparalleled aplishments. Things had actually turned out perfectly as far as Third Prince was concerned.

    Of course, everything that yed out really stirred up Fourth Prince emotionally. He normally looked cultured, refined, civilized, and benevolent. But today... as he sat there cross-legged in the clouds, he looked in the direction of the imperial pce with a grim look on his face. He knew that he had just lost a lot of face. What was more, he came out looking like a moron. Aughingstock. His legacy had been whisked away from him, and in the presence of his own Master and father.

    However, after only a few breaths of time passed, his expression returned to normal. He once again looked cultured and refined. He even sped hands in the direction of the imperial pce, which was a show of respect to The Emperor¡¯s Sword and also an expression of congrattions to Xu Qing. Having a disposition like that only made him more likable to most people.

    Though Fourth Prince looked calm and rxed, there were other people who didn¡¯t seem ready to abandon the opportunities presented to them.

    Therefore, even as Xu Qing was calcting the time and preparing to use The Emperor¡¯s Sword as a pretext to take his leave, someone stood up on the rainbow bridge, just in front of the guards in golden armor. sping hands, he bowed in the direction of the imperial pce.

    ¡°Greetings, my Emperor! I am your humble servant Tuo Muwei, born in the Dropcloud Region, and returned to my people a sixty-year-cycle ago. Just now, I personally witnessed Region Lord Xu steal Fourth Prince¡¯s legacy in front of a huge crowd. I simply can¡¯t let this stand!

    ¡°We cultivators need a clear mind to make progress. What¡¯s more, you previously announced to the public that humankind needs to improve its martial abilities. Therefore, your humble servant would like to be so bold as to ask Region Lord Xu for some guidance in that regard.

    ¡°Please, grant me permission, Emperor!¡±

    Tuo Muwei was a burly man wearing a long hemp robe. He was tall and muscr, with free-flowing hair and sharp eyes that pulsed with death. He emitted the fluctuations of the great circle of Spirit Trove. He had five secret troves behind him, and clearly specialized in body refinement. As he stood there, his energy and blood surged, and the secret troves behind himbined to make a blood cloud that spread in all directions.

    The moment he spoke, all eyes outside the imperial pce turned to focus on him.

    Up on Ancient Emperor, Fourth Prince suddenly looked up, and his eyes glittered with killing intent. Tuo Muwei was actually part of his organization, but Fourth Prince hadn¡¯t put him up to this. In fact, this was actually a very unfavorable development for Fourth Prince. Although a clever person would realize there was more going on here than met the eye, the reality was that even baseless rumors could have a profound effect.

    What was more, if his father became displeased, then it wouldn¡¯t matter if the usations were false. He could still be affected. Thus, killing intent burned in Fourth Prince¡¯s heart. Rising to his feet, he bowed in the direction of the imperial pce.

    ¡°Tuo Muwei!¡± he shouted. ¡°How dare you harbor evil intentions! Back down immediately!¡±

    Tuo Muwei bowed his head. ¡°Orders received. I, Tuo Muwei, have acted impulsively. However, Region Lord Xu¡¯s actions are truly malevolent and greedy to the extreme. He doesn¡¯t deserve the title he was conferred with, and definitely does not deserve to have The Emperor¡¯s Sword!¡±

    His words caused Fourth Prince¡¯s face to be a mask of fury. Though Tuo Muwei had bowed his head, the words he spoke were actually like a deadly weapon. Fourth Prince was just preparing to berate him further when the emperor spoke in a cool voice.

    ¡°For throwing the ceremony into chaos, you shall be executed.¡±

    Two of the guards in the golden armor hefted their sharp swords and then shed them down. When the emperor gave orders, they were strictly enforced. And thus, the swords sliced into Tuo Muwei... and chopped him into four pieces, which flopped onto the ground. Everyone maintained reverent attitudes.

    As for Xu Qing, he had been calm the entire time, as none of this was his responsibility. Now, he sped hands to the emperor.

    ¡°Your Majesty, after acquiring The Emperor¡¯s Sword, my secret trove is somewhat unstable. I hereby request permission to leave and stabilize my enlightenment.¡±

    ¡°Permission granted.¡± The Emperor looked up at the.

    Xu Qing turned, nodded to the crowd, and then walked across the Immortal Reception za and out the door,pletely ignoring the corpse on the ground.

    The wind blew as he calmly left.

 Chapter 766: Planet Ancient Emperorâ€™s Mysterious Ceremony

    Chapter 766: Ancient Emperor¡¯s Mysterious Ceremony

    As Xu Qing walked out of the main entrance of the imperial pce, his audience with the emperor was officially over. However, his heart was in turmoil. He felt like there was a wild animal inside of him trying to break out. He did his best to maintain control, keeping his facial expression calm as he walked toward the Captain and Plumdark, who were waiting for him outside. He even smiled.

    The Captain seemed distracted, presumably by Xu Qing¡¯s performance. In contrast, Plumdark remained focused.

    Therefore, all it took was a single look at Xu Qing for Plumdark to make the decision to leave with him. The Captain stayed, iming that he wanted to wait for Ningyan. However, given the way the Captain was eying Ancient Emperor with such longing, Xu Qing could imagine that he was probably nning some big job. The look in his eyes was the one that appeared when he was gathering information.

    Xu Qing¡¯s audience with the emperor had resulted in significant gains. First, he acquired a title that came with a lot of destiny aura. Second, he confirmed the identity of the imperial preceptor. And third, he acquired The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t pleased with his performance, as some things hadn¡¯t gone smoothly. Of even greater significance was that he couldn¡¯t allow his thoughts to calm down. If he did that, his mind would fill with killing intent toward the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    Plumdark, with her keen senses, had picked up on that. It didn¡¯t matter how Xu Qing tried to hide it, she could sense... that there was a tempest raging within him. Thus, she took his hand just as he had done with hers in Forbidden by the Immortal. Warmth seeped into him.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go home,¡± she said.

    They exchanged a nce as the wind stirred their hair. Xu Qing took a few breaths, then started walking. As he did, he quietly exined all the details of what had happened.

    Plumdark listened attentively. When they got back to Ningyan¡¯s mansion, they stood on the shore of theke. Plumdark spoke, her voice soft and gentle.

    ¡°You handled yourself well when you saw the crow. And I agree with your conclusions. There¡¯s no way the emperor doesn¡¯t know the crow¡¯s true identity. And that means... the two of them must have some sort of deal with each other.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ¡°The fact that the sword wouldn¡¯t stir against the crow isn¡¯t very surprising. The sword is intended to benefit the public, not be used for private situations. It can sense transformations to the destiny aura of humankind, and can be used in critical moments to prevent catastrophes.

    ¡°The areas you¡¯re not content with during your meeting with the emperor are, frankly, harmless. I suspect the emperor and the crow are ying a game of Go with each other, and each is focused on their own game pieces.

    ¡°When ites to your killing intent toward the crow, the reality is that until you¡¯re absolutely certain you can kill him, you need to keep yourself safe. Endure the killing intent. That¡¯s the most important thing.

    ¡°Our trip here to the imperial capital is destined to be full of twists and turns. But remember, Ah Qing, you¡¯re not in this alone. Whatever you do... I¡¯ll be here with you. If you want to kill the crow, then let¡¯s wait until the right opportunityes along, and we can do it together!¡±

    The surface of theke shimmered as a fish jumped out of the water, then sshed down, causing ripples to flow out in all directions.

    Xu Qing looked at Plumdark and nodded.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Plumdark said with a smile. ¡°I know you came back early because you¡¯re worried about that pill. Why don¡¯t we go check the pill furnace?¡± As the sunlight shone onto her fair skin, it was like a veil that perfectly highlighted her beauty. She was like a blooming orchid, consummately beautiful.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started beating faster as Plumdark sped his hand and walked with him to the pill concocting workshop. The pill furnace in the workshop was in good condition, and the pill was fine. Another weight slipped away from Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    Time passed. Soon it was evening, and the sky was filled with red clouds.

    The session of enlightenment on Ancient Emperor had originally been scheduled tost for a day. But after the secondyer of sealing was opened, that time shrank down. By the time evening arrived, the event was over. After, news spread quickly about the results of the enlightenment.

    After Xu Qing¡¯s departure, three more heavenly marquis legacies appeared. What was more, there was an additional individual who gained enlightenment of a heavenly king legacy.

    It was Tenth Prince! That news caused quite a stir.

    As for Ningyan... he came out empty-handed. When he came back, Ningyan didn¡¯t look the least bit dejected. He was actually in high spirits, thanks to what happened with Xu Qing. After all, Xu Qing¡¯s glory would rub off on him. That said, if you looked deep into his eyes, you would see disappointment lurking there. The desire to prove himself to his father was something that had long existed in his heart.

    Considering how much Xu Qing had on his mind, he was in no position to offerfort.

    On that night, there were quite a few people in the mansion who couldn¡¯t sleep.

    Xu Qing and Plumdark were working on the medicinal pill, which had reached the final, critical stage in the concocting process. If everything went well, the pill would be finished by the following night.

    The Captain was lost in thought, and asionally took out a jade slip to record notes. He also drew a lot of pictures, all of them rted to the research he had started doing on Ancient Emperor. This was a rtively rare situation for him. When he nned big jobs, he would usually gather a lot of information, but wouldn¡¯t necessarily n things out in detail.

    But this was different. After all... in all of his previous lives, he had always failed and died at Ancient Emperor.

    Ningyan spent the night in the shrine hall, where he sat cross-legged in front of the portrait of his mother. Speaking in an undertone, he talked about what had urred after she passed away. And though he never said the words, ¡°I miss you,¡± it was obvious from everything he said about how he felt.

    Kong Xianglong was also in a contemtive mood. He had witnessed most of what happened with Xu Qing, and already heard stories. Although he was truly happy, he also had a goal for himself. He wouldn¡¯t allow himself to fall behind Xu Qing.

    The only person who didn¡¯t have a lot on their mind was Wu Jianwu. Not being in the mood for cultivation, he just snored the night away.

    The night passed without incident.

    The sun rose and a new day began. Everyone seemed to have cleared their minds during the night. Ningyan was in high spirits, and remained in the shrine hall working on breathing exercises and cultivation.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down as he rushed out to gather more information.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pill wasplete. When he opened the pill furnace, a blood-red pill floated out, covered with golden striations.

    Plumdark inhaled sharply. Eyes gleaming with anticipation, she waved her hand and simultaneously took out a geomanticpass. Thepass was what she had been working on recently, and it was designed to bolster her senses. Taking the blood pill, she put it into a slot in the middle of thepass. As soon as the pill clicked into ce, blood-red light red, and thepass vibrated. The concentric rings on thepass began to rotate, whereupon Plumdark sat down cross-legged, put both hands on thepass, and then cast her senses outward.

    Her senses were immediately boosted dramatically, and everything around her seemed to vanish except for that onemp connected to her by destiny. In fact, thatmp... was now clearer than ever.

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged off to the side to act as dharma protector. At the same time, he considered what he would be doing next.

    For one, I need to help Plumdark find thatmp. But also... I should go visit the Imperial University.

    The Imperial University was the most prestigious educational establishment for humans. Xu Qing had heard about it a lot recently, and knew that whether it was the imperial princes or the officials, they had all spent time studying there. And it wasmon for chosen disciples from the superpower sects to long for such qualifications.

    In some respects, the Imperial University was actually like a sect of its own. However, it was the most orthodox type of sect imaginable, meaning that it did not foster sectarianism. All techniques and all types of knowledge were there to be studied.[1]

    On the way here, Princess Anhai mentioned the Imperial University and said that it emphasizes different schools of thought.... There are several thousand different schools of thought, some more prominent than others. All of them have their own dao, and their own systems of understanding regarding the world and cultivation.

    By using different methods and different directions, they seek to identify the most suitable paths for humankind to use to rise to prominence in cultivation.

    The different schools of thought don¡¯t have entrance requirements. As long as you qualify to go to the Imperial University, you can join any of them. Everything is set up to further the academic interests, so your background and status don¡¯t matter there.

    The Imperial University is a standalone dimension; when you enter it, you¡¯re automatically d in a special daoist robe and mask that covers your aura. You¡¯re also prohibited from revealing who you really are. It¡¯s only when you graduate that your true identity is revealed. If you have the ability, you can even establish your own school of thought, with the goal of attracting students and earning approval of your theories....

    These rules for the Imperial University were established by Emperor Dark War, despite many objections. But over the years, the university has churned out countless techniques, as well as one chosen disciple after another. It¡¯s a ce where human philosophy can flourish, where a hundred flowers can blossom, and where people can talk freely about their personal dao.... [2]

    Thinking back to everything Princess Anhai had told him, and then considering what he had seen in the presence of the emperor himself, Xu Qing had to admit that he really didn¡¯t understand Emperor Dark War.

    The y fox said that the emperor is up to something big. But what is it...?

    After a while, a new thought urred to him.

 Chapter 767: Imperial University

    Chapter 767: Imperial University

    Plumdark leaned up against the railing of the pill workshop in Ningyan¡¯s mansion, looking off at the in the distance. ¡°Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s original imperial pce is now the location where all human ancestral sacrifices are offered. I can sense that themp... is there. In the depths of Ancient Emperor.¡±

    It was evening, and the cloud cover on the was the golden color of dusk. There were golden dragons drifting through the clouds, inhaling and exhaling flows of energy that were both holy and mysterious.

    ¡°I tried calling out to it, but it didn¡¯t work. Themp is protected by a very powerful warding spell that keeps it very firmly in ce.... If I want to get it, I¡¯ll have to go to the itself.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ¡°Based on what I could sense, the sealing marks covering the consist of some that always existed, and some that were added inter generations. If I try to force my way in, it will cause a big scene. If I want to get it without anyone realizing it, I need to find an opportunity to get onto the unnoticed.¡±

    Plumdark frowned. Opportunities like that weren¡¯t exactlymon. But what was of greater significance was the question of... what was themp doing on Ancient Emperor? Plumdark looked at Xu Qing and refrained from asking that most pertinent of questions. She didn¡¯t want him distracted by it.

    Xu Qing was also looking thoughtfully at Ancient Emperor. Plumdark had found themp, only for it to be located somewhere that was virtually impossible to reach. It was a far too sensitive and important ce, and it was kept under tight guard. He literally couldn¡¯t go there.

    Taking into consideration all humans, there was only one person who could go to Ancient Emperor. And that was the emperor. Only he could open the seals.

    The reality was that Xu Qing had already started thinking about the things that Plumdark had held back from saying out loud. Someone had taken thatmp and ced it on Ancient Emperor. It was a strange affair. If you analyzed the situation from the very beginning, there were many possibilities regarding who might have taken themp. But in the end, there was only one type of person who could have put it on Ancient Emperor, and that was an emperor. Had an emperor taken themp? Perhaps not. But... it was definitely an emperor who put it on the. And asking the reigning emperor for themp obviously wasn¡¯t an option.

    After some thought, Xu Qing said, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s another person who can go to Ancient Emperor.¡±

    Plumdark turned to look at him.

    ¡°On the way here,¡± he continued, ¡°Princess Anhai mentioned that there¡¯s someone besides the emperor who can participate in the ancestral sacrifices. The crown prince. Except that there¡¯s no crown prince right now. If there was, and that crown prince was willing to help, then we might have that chance to get onto the.¡±

    Xu Qing looked away from the ancient.

    Plumdark smiled. Turning to look in the direction of the mansion¡¯s shrine hall, she softly said, ¡°There¡¯s a way to get onto the without causing a stir, but I need to make some preparations. As for your idea, if you¡¯re thinking of trying to help Ningyan be the crown prince, that seems difficult. He¡¯s a good kid, but an effort like that is nothing to take lightly.¡±

    As for Ningyan, he had just finished a session of cultivation and was seated cross-legged in front of his mother¡¯s portrait in the shrine hall. After resting for a bit, his eyes gleamed with determination, and he started another cultivation session. For him, the experience of seeking enlightenment on Ancient Emperor had been an unforgettable experience. All his brothers and sisters had all benefited in some way, albeit not all of them got heavenly marquis legacies. In contrast, he hadn¡¯t acquired anything. Although it seemed on the surface that he didn¡¯t care about that, the reality was that he wasn¡¯t willing to settle for nothing.

    Seven days passed.

    Getting the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp wasn¡¯t something that would happen overnight. It required meticulous nning. Xu Qing even consulted the Captain about it. After all, given what Xu Qing knew about the Captain, it seemed highly likely that he was already working on a n regarding the.

    He was right. The Captain was very excited to hear about the situation, and in the end, he thumped his chest and said that he would definitelye up with a way to help.

    Plumdark was working on her own idea, while Ningyan was focused more on cultivation than he ever had been. He spent just about every day in the shrine hall meditating.

    After the enlightenment event on Ancient Emperor, the imperial capital settled down.

    The Nightshade war was going smoothly. The involvement of the Firemoon Darkheavens wasn¡¯t as much of an obstacle to humankind as had previously been imagined. They seemed more interested in putting on a show of involvement, but were actually holding back to see how the humans would react.

    Xu Qing had no idea how the emperor was dealing with the situation. Having handled all pressing matters, including stabilizing The Emperor¡¯s Sword, he made the decision to go to the Imperial University. After all, he hade to the imperial capital with the necessary qualifications, and he was interested to see what kind of knowledge was avable in Emperor Dark War¡¯s Imperial University.

    Xu Qing had always ced high value on knowledge. He was well aware that,pared to the collective knowledge of humankind, what he knew was a mere drop of water in the ocean. He wanted to learn more, and also wanted to see what sparks might fly when different schools of thought shed.

    It was early in the morning when Xu Qing arrived in the north of the imperial capital, where the Imperial University was located. The university was massive, almost like a city of its own, filled with numerous white towers. It was very clean and orderly, and there weren¡¯t many people visible inside.

    There were two statues at the entrance. One depicted a tall old man in a schr¡¯s robe, the other was a short youngster in a simple hemp garment. The old man seemed ancient and wise, and he had his hands sped in front of him. The youngster seemed lively but respectful, and was bowing at the waist. They seemed to be greeting each other.

    It represented decorum shown between young and old, as well as the passing on of knowledge. The youngster bowed, and the old man sped his hands, indicating that there was no difference in status between them, other than their age. It showed that there was no selfish clinging to legacy, and absolutely no sectarian differences. What was more, they were clearly wishing each other well.

    The emperor himself had arranged for these statues to serve as the entrance to the Imperial University. Between them was a shimmering light that served as the main door leading inside.

    Behind the door were the orderly white towers. There was a bustle of activity as people entered the door, including powerful and important people as well as coarse and ignoble individuals. It didn¡¯t matter who anyone was, once they went through that door, they were the equal of everyone else. They were all students. Some people found ways to make sure others knew who they were. But overall, people in the Imperial University abided by the rules set forth by Emperor Dark War.

    Xu Qing could sense that when he walked through the door. Walking through the door didn¡¯t lead to the area of white towers that was visible in the imperial capital. Instead, it was a massive standalone dimension that was really like a huge city. The architectural style was the same, and there were many white towers of varying sizes. As it turned out, what was visible on the outside was actually a miniaturized projection of the real Imperial University.

    There were many students inside, all of them dressed alike. They wore the same type of hemp garment worn by the statue of the youngster outside. All wore masks, which would change one¡¯s voice and hide one¡¯s true gender.

    It was all controlled by the university itself. Even the auras were masked. And when one entered, it was by random teleportation that they went to a different location each time. As a result, it was impossible for people to determine the true identities of everyone else.[1]

    Xu Qing materialized in the southwestern part of the Imperial University. As he walked through the crowds, he saw that some people made their way along in groups of between three to five. Others hurried on their way alone. Some people simply sat cross-legged in open areas, seemingly lost in thought.

    The white towers were the different schools of thought that made up the Imperial University. The height of each individual tower corresponded to how many people were members of that specific school of thought. Some of the tallest towers had people streaming in and out constantly. There were other towers that most people walked past without even looking at.

    In some cases, students would stand at the entrance of their own tower and try to get others to join them.

    ¡°Hey, you! Come check out our Spirit Forging School. The technique of spirit forging is all about the concept of the soul taking flight. Our fleshly bodies are mere vessels. Only by cultivating the soul to the highest level can we reach true transcendence and create heavenly daos.¡±

    ¡°Of all the schools of thought in the Imperial University, our Heavenly Person School is one of the most profound. There are three types of people: heavenly, earthly, and mortal. They correspond to three levels. If youe to the Heavenly Person School, you can transform from mortal to earthly, and then rise from earthly to heavenly. You can gain enlightenment of all living things and all types of nts and vegetation!"

    ¡°ording to the old saying, there are a total of 3,000 daos, none of which are stronger or weaker than the others. Even though the dao of nts and vegetation is considered unorthodox, it can still be used to pluck stars. We wee you toe learn about our Grand School of nts and Vegetation!¡±

    As Xu Qing walked along, he heard a cacophony of voices, and there were even some asions in which people blocked his path to introduce their school of thought. There were some schools of thought who had philosophical differences with others, leading to spirited discussions.

    At first, Xu Qing felt very out of ce. He had never been anywhere like this. After a while, he decided to go into some of the towers. Though he didn¡¯t officially join any of them, he was still able to study the information inside. They were like libraries, and the official members were also willing to answer any questions.

    Xu Qing was immediately moved. Inside the Grand School of nts and Vegetation, he saw information that he¡¯d previously studied, but also some unique perspectives that were new to him. In the Spirit Forging School, he encountered some concepts about cultivation that he found very thought-provoking. There was one location called the Tamer School that was very unique. They focused on taming, not beasts, but rather, the destiny aura of nonhumans.

    Xu Qing quickly came to realize that the Imperial University was a very interesting ce deserving of a lot of respect. It was impossible to say whether the knowledge here would stand the test of time. But the sparks of information and inspiration were certainly driving innovation.

    As he proceeded along and got familiar with the Imperial University, he eventually reached what was known as the biggest school of thought there. The God-Merging School. Roughly thirty percent of all students were members.

    The school focused on transforming the body. The process involved taking flesh from godly entities and grafting it onto one¡¯s own body. Then, after slowly getting used to the change, one could slowly learn to control the godliness. In the end, after all of one¡¯s flesh was reced with godly flesh, then mutagen... would no longer be harmful, and could be treated just like spirit energy.

    The ultimate goal of this school was ¡®god-merging.¡¯ By merging with the flesh of gods, one could achieve godly ascension.

    The schoolmaster was a very sophisticated middle-aged man who wore schr robes that were different from the other students. Though his mask made it impossible to see his facial features, there was something very schrly and refined about him.

    By chance, when Xu Qing stopped in front of that school¡¯s tower, the schoolmaster appeared.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    There was something about this person that reminded him of someone from Sea-Sealing County.

 Chapter 768: Not Quasi-Immortal, But Rather, Xeno-Immortal

    <h4>Chapter 768: Not Quasi-Immortal, But Rather, Xeno-Immortal</h4>

    This person reminded Xu Qing of Bai Xiaozhuo, the original governor of Sea-Sealing County in the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. When the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was destroyed, Bai Xiaozhuo sacrificed all of the people in the county to open the eyes of the broken face. Then he followed the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan in reincarnation.

    Just before Bai Xiaozhuo was devoured by Emperor Ancient Spirit, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan arrived and demanded back the fragment of time that Bai Xiaozhuo had taken. [1]

    Xu Qing averted his gaze slightly. Considering that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was the imperial preceptor, it wasn¡¯t a stretch to imagine that he might have brought Bai Xiaozhuo back to life and set him up as the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be certain that the seemingly imusible scenario was as he imagined it. However... the concept of ¡®god-merging¡¯ made him think about Master Shengyun and his father. Given how new Xu Qing was to the Imperial University, he wasn¡¯t familiar with all the details of ¡®god-merging.¡¯ He would need time to learn more, and thus, he melted into the crowd.

    Given that he wore the same clothing and mask as everyone else, and his aura was masked, it only took a moment for him to disappear.

    ***

    The schoolmaster of the God-Merging School stopped in ce and scanned the crowd, his eyes glittering thoughtfully.

    He had sensed that someone nearby was looking at him in an unusual way. However, thanks to the unusual characteristics of the Imperial University, there was no way for him to determine who it was. After a bit of consideration, he put such thoughts aside and went into the tower.

    ***

    Xu Qing left the God-Merging School and spent more time exploring the Imperial University. That was what he usually did.

    As he went along, he asionally went into some of the towers to scan the knowledge therein. The more Xu Qing looked around, the deeper his respect grew for the Imperial University. The wealth of information here would be almost impossible to collect in one ce in the outside world. And if it were collected, it would likely be stolen.

    Yet in this ce, there were no doors or locks. All of the knowledge was there for the taking. In one tower belonging to the Myriad Magics School, he saw secret techniques from Sea-Sealing County sects.

    There was even one school of thought that focused on the research of taboo treasures. It specialized in cognitive methods, and would use the power of gods to mass-produce magical treasures. Although the learning curve was incredibly steep, Xu Qing had to admit that they had some very innovative ideas.

    A student outside was trying to draw in neers. ¡°Magical treasures that get infused with enough mutagen will experience strange transformations. The sess rate is very low. However, in the course of our research, our school has discovered that the process can be carried out artificially!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s interest was piqued, so he went inside to learn more. Time passed as he went here and there in the university. Eventually, night fell.

    Although there were still people around at night, there weren¡¯t as many as during the day time. Xu Qing had spent an entire day visiting dozens of the different schools of thought. He was very pleased. The information he had taken in was extremely eye-opening, and gave him a lot to think about.

    <i>This ce is amazing!</i>

    Before leaving, he looked out at the seemingly endless white towers, and his eyes gleamed with determination. He had already decided to spend all of theing days here.

    Half a month went by.

    During that time, Xu Qing immersed himself in study in the Imperial University. In the evenings he would return to Ningyan¡¯s mansion to work on his cultivation, but other than that, he spent all his time at the university. Of the thousands of schools of thought, he had already familiarized himself with about a thousand.

    He soaked up the knowledge like a sponge thrown into the sea. Thanks to his studies, his understanding of cultivation techniques changed on a fundamental level. And thanks to the sparks that flew because of the sh of ideas, he wasing to a deeper understanding of his own path of cultivation.

    This would never have been possible for him in Sea-Sealing County. And even if the information had been exined to him, without experiencing the process himself, and digging in deeper, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to truly grasp it all.

    Most importantly of all, as he amassed more knowledge, he gained a much deeper understanding of the techniques that humans had developed after the departure of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. He felt like he was standing on the shoulders of giants, and thus glimpsed the distant path to be walked.

    <i>From the look of it, most of these schools of thoughts are seeking... a path to breaking through!</i>

    Xu Qing was currently in the Myriad Magics School reading a jade slip, a thoughtful expression on his face. That was when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

    ¡°We meet again, Sir Dark-Thunder.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over his shoulder to see a student approaching. Although the university masked everyone¡¯s aura, after spending enough time in the ce, most cultivators were able to use certain clues to recognize familiar people.

    ¡°Elder Brother Dustcloud,¡± Xu Qing said politely.

    This was a friend he had made in the Myriad Magics School. Over the past half month, they had run into each other several times. At first, they had just nodded to each other in greeting. But eventually they struck up a conversation. At this point, Xu Qing had conversed with Elder Brother Dustcloud more than anyone else in the Imperial University. They had exchanged names, although both knew that they were only code names for use in the Imperial University.

    ncing at the jade slip in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, Dustcloud smiled and said, ¡°Looking at some ancient magics?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I was just thinking that most of these schools of thought seem focused on breakthroughs.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve hit the nail on the head. As a matter of fact, that¡¯s actually the original reason why the emperor set up the Imperial University.¡± Dustcloud had long since realized that this ¡®Sir Dark-Thunder¡¯ was new to the Imperial University. People like that weren¡¯t verymon. Usually, only a few dozen people per month were allowed in. That said, he didn¡¯t feel any need to pry. ¡°The cultivation path of humankind has been severed. Actually, after the broken face of the god arrived, the cultivation path of all species was severed.¡± He sighed. ¡°Specifically, what was severed was the method of bing an Imperial Sovereign.

    ¡°The heavenly daos were affected, and mutagen entered the world. To the mortals, it¡¯s basically poison. To low-level cultivators, it¡¯s a torment. And to high-level cultivators, it¡¯s a severed path.

    ¡°Only people with ancient bloodlines have a chance to force their way into the Smoldering God level and then be an Imperial Sovereign.

    ¡°But even that¡¯s a dead end. It¡¯s basically impossible to break through from Imperial Sovereign to Grand Emperor. And that¡¯s why so many schools of thought have spent time and effort researching that topic. They want to reestablish the path to Imperial Sovereign. And the really ambitious ones theorize how to reopen the path to Grand Emperor.

    ¡°The God-Merging School is the best example. A lot of people put stock in their theories, which is why they¡¯re the number-one school of thought despite being rtively new. That said, I don¡¯t agree with them.¡± Dustcloud shook his head.

    ¡°What was the ancient path?¡± Xu Qing asked. He hadn¡¯t seen any ancient records in the Myriad Magics School that discussed this subject.

    ¡°That of the Summer Immortal,¡± Dustcloud said. He looked at Xu Qing, gathered his thoughts, then continued, ¡°But the ancient path isn¡¯t favored in the Myriad Magics School. If you want to learn more about it, you¡¯ll need to visit the Xeno-Immortal School. That school... used to be the number-one school of thought, back when the Imperial University was first founded. Later on, their theories came to be viewed as unrealistic, and they slowly fell into decline.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, said farewell, and left to find the Xeno-Immortal School.

    ***

    After Xu Qing was gone, another student that knew Dustcloud walked over to him. Looking at Xu Qing walking off into the distance, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Elder Brother Dustcloud, do you have any idea who that Sir Dark-Thunder really is? It seemed like you spent more time talking to him just now than you have in the past.¡±

    Dustcloud smiled beneath his mask and sped the other student¡¯s shoulder. ¡°In all likelihood, he¡¯s a very important person who became a student here recently. Either way, it¡¯s still good to make friends.¡±

    The other student nodded thoughtfully.

    ***

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing thought about what Dustcloud had told him, all while searching for the Xeno-Immortal School. He also pondered why Dustcloud had told him so much. It was actually the third time that Dustcloud had volunteered so much information. Xu Qing already had an idea of why. After all, everyone in the imperial capital knew that he¡¯d earned a ce in the Imperial University. Anyone who put any thought into the matter would be able to surmise that he would go there eventually.

    <i>He¡¯s clever and circumspect. He¡¯s probably someone important.</i>

    With a final nce at the Myriad Magics School, he disappeared into the crowd. About two hourster, he found himself looking at a specific white tower in the east of the Imperial University. On the outside, it didn¡¯t look different from the other towers. However, while most of the towers were bustling ces, this one seemed bleak and empty. In fact, it almost looked abandoned.

    Xu Qing was actually surprised. This was the most depressing tower he had seen in the past half month. After walking inside he found that there were only three students inside, sitting there looking bored. They didn¡¯t even look up when he entered.

    There were a lot of jade slips in the Xeno-Immortal School, but they weren¡¯t organized. Instead, they were just piled up in the corners.

    The schoolmaster was present. In most other schools of thought, you would only see a schoolmaster if you randomly encountered them. Most of the time, they would stay in the top levels of the towers. But here....

    The schoolmaster was squatting in front of a pile of jade slips, which he was rifling through as if looking for something.

    Xu Qing looked around for a moment, then said, ¡°Excuse me, do you have any jade slips that talk about the ancient path of the Summer Immortal?¡±

    ¡°What would be the point of that?¡± one of the threezy students said, sounding annoyed. ¡°Get lost, buddy. We¡¯re not fans of strangers here.¡±

    Xu Qing frowned and looked over. Meanwhile, the schoolmaster pulled a jade slip out of the pile and threw it over to Xu Qing.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have any real information about Summer Immortals here, just spection fromter generations. If you want to take a look, go ahead. But then you can beat it. I¡¯m not a fan of strangers here.¡±

    Xu Qing took the jade slip and started looking through the information.

    The slip didn¡¯t go into detail about Summer Immortals, other than spections. And even then, the information was vague. There was only one section of text that was rtively straightforward.

    <i>¡°A thought from a Summer Immortal can transform an immortal body.</i>

    <i>¡°Think of it as a concept. However, the Immortal path has been severed, and there¡¯s no way to pursue it. After Imperial Sovereign is Quasi-Immortal. That said, alternative means might be possible.</i>

    <i>¡°I have a theory. Temper the soul to make threads. Use the sea of consciousness to weave the image of a god. Use the soul as the control. Use thoughts as the body. When the image of the god isplete, it could possibly be used to control the same source.</i>

    <i>¡°The mental god can be used as nutrients to restore Immortals!</i>

    <i>¡°Sess in this method might lead to, not Quasi-Immortal, but rather, Xeno-Immortal!¡±</i>

    1. The part about the crown prince taking back the ¡°time¡± from Bai Xiaozhuo was in <u>chapter 536.2</u>. ?

 Chapter 769: Favor in This Life leads to Success in the Next

    <h4>Chapter 769: Favor in This Life leads to Sess in the Next</h4>

    This was the Xeno-Immortal School!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. The jade slip didn¡¯t contain a lot of information, but what information it did contain was magnificent. It concisely expressed the basics of the Xeno-Immortal School. Although the jade slip didn¡¯t go into detail about the specific techniques involved, the description was enough to give Xu Qing a general understanding.

    <i>The technique seems simr to that of the God-Merging School. One of them stores up godliness, the other merges with it. The former involved using aplete human body, then creating the outline of a god in the sea of consciousness. The goal was to use that god-storing technique to make oneself into a Xeno-Immortal.</i>

    <i>Thetter involves abandoning one¡¯s human body, and recing it with the body of a god. The ultimate goal is to achieve pure godly ascension and be a human god.</i>

    <i>This line of thinking... is astounding. No wonder Dustcloud said that the Xeno-Immortal School used to be the number one school of thought in the Imperial University.</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing looked around at the empty school and realized that there was a very fatal w. And that fatal w led to the downfall of the Xeno-Immortal School.

    <i>The requirements to practice this kind of cultivation are terrifyingly high! You have to use your soul to create threads, then use them to form the outline of a god or a godly entity. That alone is inherently dangerous. Furthermore, progress is going to be slow.</i>

    <i>That¡¯s why Dustcloud said that this school¡¯s theories were unrealistic. Or could it be that no one actually seeded with it?</i>

    After some more thought and analysis, Xu Qing turned to the schoolmaster, who was still rifling through the jade slips. ¡°Is it true that no one has ever seeded with your technique?¡±

    ¡°Who said nobody ever seeded?¡± the schoolmaster said, sounding displeased. He snorted coldly, then proudly continued, ¡°Eight thousand years ago, our Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s Li Xuanfeng sessfully wove an earthchild that manifested physically, bolstering his battle prowess to an astonishing degree.¡± [1]

    Almost as soon as the schoolmaster stopped talking, one of the threezy students said, ¡°Riiiiight. It only took Patriarch Li Xuanfeng<i> a thousand years</i> of cultivation to weave that godly earthchild. It took so long he nearly ran out of longevity. He really was awesome!¡±

    The schoolmaster turned and red at the student. ¡°It might have taken a while, but after Patriarch Li Xuanfeng seeded, he used the god-storing technique in his sea of consciousness to dramatically boost his battle prowess!¡±

    ¡°Exactly!¡± eximed one of the other students. ¡°Exactly!! And then he got killed by a Spirit Trove nonhuman who had only practiced cultivation for five hundred years. Amazing!¡±

    The schoolmaster¡¯s re grew even more intense. He was clearly very displeased. ¡°Also, wasn¡¯t it only five thousand years ago that our school¡¯s Patriarch Chen Daoze also seeded? With one thought, he could summon a godly entity from within him, leading to a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering transformation.¡± [2]

    ¡°Oooh, right!¡± said the student seated in the middle of the other two. ¡°Except that afterward, he couldn¡¯t transform back.... We still have his body here in the tower. Teacher, the God-Merging School mentioned that they want to buy it. Why don¡¯t we sell it to them?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t even mention the God-Merging School to me. Their theories are a bunch of hogwash. Is a monkey wearing human clothing actually a human?¡± The schoolmaster flicked his sleeve, making it very clear how much he disdained the God-Merging School.

    The three students all sighed. Then the one in the middle looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°I suggest you get out of here while you can. The three of us are stuck. Years ago, we foolishly came here thinking there might be some valuable things that other people had missed out on. We even thought we could turn this ce around and make out like bandits in the process.... But then this old codger tricked us into believing that only ¡®conve disciples¡¯ could study with him. We ended up signing a contract for life!

    ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re stuck as members forever. You¡¯re probably not from the imperial capital, are you? Otherwise you¡¯d know all of this stuff. Seriously, you don¡¯t want to get involved with this ce.¡±

    Perhaps it was because the schoolmaster knew that his facial expression was hidden by the mask that he¡¯d picked up the habit of snorting coldly a lot. With just such a cold snort, he squatted back down and started rifling through the jade slips again.

    The tower went silent again.

    Xu Qing looked at the three students, then the schoolmaster. ¡°I¡¯ll take my leave now,¡± he said.

    After he was about 300 meters away, he turned and looked back at the Xeno-Immortal School. Given its location in the east of the Imperial University, he could imagine how bustling the ce must have been in the past. But now it was empty, a shell of its former self that few people went inside.

    There were only three students there. From what Xu Qing could tell, their story seemed authentic. They really had been tricked into joining the school, which was why they seemed full of rancorous energy. As for the schoolmaster, he probably had a guilty conscience, which was why he went around snorting coldly all the time, hoping to keep hisst scraps of dignity as the schoolmaster.

    <i>So, two people seeded in the past, and were able to weave godly projections in their sea of consciousness, then manifest them externally. I wonder what that looked like?</i>

    Thinking about such things, Xu Qing disappeared into the crowd.

    In the blink of an eye, another half a month went by.

    Xu Qing had visited most of the schools of thought in the Imperial University, and had already umted a lot of knowledge. That said, most of it wascking in detail. Given the time he had on his hands, he couldn¡¯t gain a deep understanding.

    In the end, he chose not to formally join any of the schools. The main reason for not making a choice was that he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about Summer Immortals. The term seemed to possess a strange power that made it impossible for him to get it out of his mind.

    Ultimately, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t forget what his Master had mentioned after upgrading Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    <i>¡°I reforged it using a Summer Immortal magic I found in some ancient records. As a result, you can call it an immortal weapon now!¡±</i> [3]

    The moon currently shone brightly, making the stars less visible. Xu Qing sat in the courtyard in Ningyan¡¯s mansion, looking up into the sky at the moon and thinking about everything.

    <i>Back when Master first mentioned the term Summer Immortal, I didn¡¯t understand what he meant. I assumed it was some special theory rted to magical devices. But aftering here to the imperial capital, and chatting with Princess Anhai, I started to suspect there was more to it. And that trend continued during thest month I spent studying in the Imperial University, and especially after going to the Xeno-Immortal School....</i>

    The light of the moon fell onto Xu Qing like a gauzy veil, making it seem like he was wreathed in moonlight. Although, the light shining off him quickly turned violet.

    <i>How could Master know of Summer Immortal techniques.... And how could he be proficient in their use? Now that I think about it, it seems like he was nting a concept in my mind with what he said. A seed that would sprout as my understanding expanded here in the capital.</i>

    Xu Qing took out the Spike of Misfortune and studied it.

    Time passed. About two hourster, he heard the sound of footsteps apanied by someone humming a little tune.

    The Captain swaggered out a momentter. He was in a good mood, and had obviously been drinking. When he caught sight of Xu Qing in the moonlight, he grinned.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing! How have things been at the Imperial University? I feel like I haven¡¯t seen you in days. Let me tell you, I found a <i>really</i> great ce recently. Have you heard about the Red Dust Pavilion?¡±

    Xu Qing could smell the alcohol as the Captain sat down next to him and pped him on the shoulder.

    ¡°Well,¡± the Captain went on, ¡°the Red Dust Pavilion is amazing.¡±

    Xu Qing looked up at him. ¡°I¡¯ve been there. I was on the way back when the assassination attempt happened. I told you.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and thenughed. ¡°Of course I remember! I mean, I went there for the specific purpose of looking into the assassination attempt.¡±

    The Captain produced a jug of alcohol and handed it to Xu Qing.

    In order not to ruin the Captain¡¯s mood, Xu Qing decided not to mention the y fox. He sipped some of the alcohol, and almost immediately felt slightly dizzy. It was, of course, the Red Dust Pavilion¡¯s famous Drunken Immortal.

    ¡°Something on your mind?¡± the Captain asked, taking back the alcohol and sipping some.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment. ¡°Eldest Brother... do you know our Master¡¯s background?¡±

    The Captain had been about to tilt the jug back to take another drink, but he stopped and looked at Xu Qing.

    Noticing the serious expression on Xu Qing¡¯s face, the Captain chuckled. ¡°The old man? He has a mysterious background. I mean, look at the apprentices he takes. There¡¯s me, the number one chosen in all of Revered Ancient.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times and then nodded earnestly.

    Looking very pleased, the Captain continued, ¡°And then there¡¯s you, the number two chosen in all of Revered Ancient. Second Sib, heh heh. Well she was destined to get married, which is great. You probably guessed that, right? I was a bit doubtful, sost time I was back in Sea-Sealing County I checked in to make sure.

    ¡°Finally there¡¯s Third Sib, that damn miscreant. Believe me, even though he seems like he¡¯s keeping a low profile, that guy is a schemer through and through. And he has plenty of secrets. In fact, I suspect... that he has something to do with the Ghost Emperor!

    ¡°The thing is that nobody knows what species the Ghost Emperor is, or where he came from. But his weapon contains the sealing mark of a god domain, and he killed god domain cultivators. So, you tell me. How could a top expert like that not have an amazing history? Therefore, given everything, I have a very outrageous spection, which is that he actuallyes from....¡±

    The Captain pointed up to the dome of heaven.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. The dome of heaven contained the broken face of the god, and beyond that, the starry sky. And there was more.

    ¡°The holynds!¡± The Captain burped and thenughed. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s pure spection on my part. As for Master, well, let me tell you a little secret. In one of my past lives, I met someone who was very much like the old man. They didn¡¯t <i>look </i>alike. It was more like a feeling....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    ¡°Another thing. In this life, when I had just be an apprentice, I remember feeling like I had seen him before on more than one asion. That said, I have a lot of missing memories.¡± Shaking his head, the Captain stood and stretched. ¡°Don¡¯t think too much into it, little Ah Qing. Be like me. Just focus on being happy. Live every day to the fullest. That¡¯s the best way to live.¡±

    Swaying a bit as he walked, the Captain headed toward his room. However, after taking only about seven or eight steps through the moonlight, he stopped with his back to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you remember what I said to you back in Seven Blood Eyes when you became an apprentice?

    ¡°One bow for the Ancient Emperor. Three bows for heaven and earth. Nine bows for the Master.

    ¡°Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity is the great founder. All humans owe him a single bow of respect.

    ¡°Heaven, earth, celestial, terrestrial. They bear the weight of all. All humans owe them three bows of respect.

    ¡°However amazing the Ancient Emperor was, he did not show you favor. Heaven and earth, and all other living beings in this sea of suffering, have done nothing to save you. Only Master will ascend to heaven and descend to hell for you. Only he will show you favor. Only he will save you. Only he will expend all effort so that you can walk a great dao. Therefore, you owe him nine bows of respect!¡± [4]

    As the moon shone down in the courtyard, the Captain¡¯s voice seemed to echo from the ancient past into the current life.

    ¡°In this life, it¡¯s not just you and I who¡¯ll travel the world together. We¡¯ll do it with Master too.¡±

    1. Li Xuanfeng: Li is listed #2 on the 100mon surnames list. Xuan means ¡°dark, ck¡± and is the same character from things like Plumdark, Dark Serenity, Dark War, etc. Feng means ¡°wind.¡± Incidentally, thebination of xuan and feng is also one way to say ¡°cockatiel¡± in Chinese. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s relevant here, but it is interesting. Madam Deathde says this sounds like a cool and interesting name. ?

    2. Chen Daoze. Chen is #5 on the list of 100mon surnames. Dao is the same dao from ¡®heavenly dao.¡¯ Ze has a lot of meanings, but in this novel it appears mostmonly as w¡¯ in the sense of natural and magicalws. Madam Deathde says this name makes her think of someone who always follows the rules and tries to do the right thing. ?

    3. Master Seventh uttered those words in <u>chapter 740</u>. ?

    4. Xu Qing became an apprentice in <u>chapter 263</u>. For the most part, all the quotes in this chapter are directly from that chapter. ?

 Chapter 770: The Tempest Builds

    <h4>Chapter 770: The Tempest Builds</h4>

    <i>Eldest Brother has many past lives, and has been reincarnated many times. He¡¯s profoundly mysterious. Second Elder Sister found a destined opportunity in Huang Yan. And being loved by me Phoenix has its own extraordinary aspects. Third Elder Brother... is connected to the Ghost Emperor. Either that or he¡¯s from the holynds. And then there¡¯s me.... What¡¯s so unique about me?</i>

    Even after thinking about it, Xu Qing couldn¡¯te up with anything about himself that was very unique and special, with the exception... of his rtionship to the crow.

    There were also the scenes in the violet crystal he had witnessed when he faced Crimson Mother, except he wasn¡¯t even sure if they were real. He had seen a time period in which he died, which was an image that conflicted with his actual experience.

    ¡°Have I really died before?¡± Xu Qing murmured into the moonlight. His words disappeared into the darkness.

    It was almost as if the cloud cover sensed that, and then there was a sh as lightning fell noiselessly. Shortly after, the thunder caught up. Rumbling booms filled the imperial capital as fat raindrops started falling. It rained the whole night. When dawn came, there was still a haze that filled the air and made many people want to just stay inside where it was warm and dry.

    It started raining again in the afternoon.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t go to the Imperial University. He had already visited all the different schools of thought, and now he just had to make a choice.

    Besides, he also had an appointment. He had been invited to meet with Princess Anhai. If it had been anyone else, he could have refused. But considering how kind she had been when escorting him to the imperial capital, he didn¡¯t think it would be appropriate to decline, not even if he did so tactfully. That was just his personality.

    The rain still poured down when evening came, so Xu Qing left the mansion with an oil-paper umbre in his hand. A cultivator could rely on their cultivation base to keep the rain away. But sometimes when walking among mortals, there was no need to stand out as different. It was an aspect of mental cultivation that Xu Qing had gained enlightenment of from the Mental State School in the Imperial University.

    Xu Qing walked the streets of the imperial capital, keeping an eye on the other pedestrians as he contemted the various schools in the Imperial University. He also mused about what was going to happen at this meeting.

    Rain pattered onto the umbre, then turned into streams of water pouring down. On the way down, the wind would hit the streams of water, causing them to bend and sway. In the end, the water once again turned into raindrops that fell to the ground with all the other rain.

    <i>The raindrop is a raindrop. Then it isn¡¯t a raindrop. Then it bes a raindrop again.</i>

    Xu Qing looked up into the canopy of heaven. Gradually, his muddled mental state from learning about his Master¡¯s origin and everything his Eldest Brother had talked about began to calm down.

    <i>Life is wonderful because of the unknown. I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter if I died before or not. What¡¯s important is that I¡¯m still alive. And if I can make my life a little bit better, that would be great.</i>

    That had been Xu Qing¡¯s dream when he lived back in the slums, and still was. That part of him hadn¡¯t changed. Keep on living. Only by staying alive could he eventually remove the veil from his eyes and find out the truth. And then... he could travel the world... with his Master, his Eldest Brother, and his other fellow apprentices.

    He took a deep breath and started walking through the rain again. The sky was dark by the time he reached the southwestern part of the capital. There he found a pce with a phoenix theme. He stopped and looked at it.

    This was Princess Anhai¡¯s mansion outside of the imperial pce.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the only oneing to this meeting. There were other elite cultivators from the Imperial Region, including close friends of the princess and other outstanding individuals. Xu Qing knew that this entire event was a show of kindness on the part of Princess Anhai. She was arranging to introduce him to more people.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t an expert in social niceties, but when people showed kindness to him, he epted it. Just as he stepped into Princess Anhai¡¯s mansion, a loud crack of thunder echoed out. Heaven and earth trembled. It was almost like the shout of a god, causing the raindrops to explode and turn into mist. It was loud enough to cause the hearts of many to pound.

    Xu Qing frowned, stopped walking, and looked up into the pitch-ck canopy of heaven.

    Of course, a thunderp couldn¡¯t do anything to him. But the uneasy feeling he¡¯d been experiencing grew stronger because of the thunder. It was a warning from his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon.

    That was noteworthy, as his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon hadn¡¯t even provided a warning about the assassination attempt. But now he could sense it clearly.

    <i>Something big is about to happen. But what...?</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, he entered Princess Anhai¡¯s mansion.

    ***

    In the northern part of the imperial capital, there was a mysterious buildingplex built of a host of neatly arranged ck towers.

    The tall towers formed the borders, with the shorter ones being in the middle. The borders were tightly guarded by patrolling cultivators, and there were shocking spell formations. In fact, this ce was a focus of the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation.

    It was one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, the Creation Division, which focused on the research of immortal skills and the study of gods. It was also the ce where all the research and development of the Dawning Suns had urred. When it came to humankind as a whole, this division had a big responsibility. [1]

    The Creation Division itself was important, but there was more. The emperor had assigned his ninth son a post there. When Ninth Prince epted the post in the Creation Division, he swore an oath to refrain from any of the session struggles to secure the spot of crown prince. Nor would he pick sides with any of the others involved in such struggles. That was why he hadn¡¯t participated in the enlightenment event at Ancient Emperor.

    As far as he was concerned, the most important pursuit he could focus on was research of gods and immortal skills. In the end, he lived up to the emperor¡¯s expectations, and his work on the Dawning Suns was dered a major meritorious service. Normally speaking, he wouldn¡¯t go out in public unless he was summoned by the emperor. But today... as thunder crashed in the sky and rain poured down, he could be seen staggering out of one of the inner buildings in the Creation Division. His expression was one of rm, even terror. He was shaking, and didn¡¯t do anything to stop the rain from soaking him.

    ¡°As the ninth son of the emperor, and the keeper ofw and order in the Creation Division, I hereby order this ce to be locked down immediately! Nobody is to leave. Any who vite thismand shall be executed immediately!!¡±

    As his voice echoed through the booming thunder, the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation created a sealing power that descended on the Creation Division. All the other cultivators present looked around in bewilderment.

    Ninth Prince ignored them. Pulling out a jade slip, he sent a voice message. Finally, he stood in ce, guarding over the Creation Division as he waited... for the emperor to arrive.

    At the same time, other high-ranking leaders in the Creation Division came out into the rain, their faces ashen and unsightly.

    ***

    Back at Princess Anhai¡¯s mansion, a lovely banquet was underway. Princess Anhai sat in the position of honor, with Xu Qing next to her, and everyone else seated in rows on either side.

    There were a few dozen people present, including both men and women. They were either important government officials or elite chosen. Meng Yunbai was there, and was chatting enthusiastically with those around him. Princess Anhai had put a lot of thought into every invitation she sent, all with the goal of ensuring that nothing inappropriate happened during the event. All of the people present liked Xu Qing to a degree, and also respected him.

    Xu Qing was in the same generation as these cultivators, but he had a special status. It was also profoundly significant that he had acquired The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Therefore, even though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t very adept at formal asions like this, he still got along well with everyone.

    After three rounds of drinking were done, the atmosphere was noisy and energetic. At that point, Princess Anhai steered the conversation in the direction of the Imperial University.

    ¡°Did everyone hear about the announcement from the God-Merging School? In half a month, they¡¯re going to have a conve trial to pick a hundred people to join their conve.¡±

    ¡°When you talk about the God-Merging School, you have to talk about its schoolmaster. Except the schoolmaster¡¯s identity is a big secret.... That said, ording to what I¡¯ve heard, he¡¯s merged eighty percent of his body, but covers the effects with a magical treasure.¡±

    ¡°His battle prowess ispletely astonishing. I heard that the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School would only need one palm strike to crush a first-stage Void Returning godly entity.¡±

    ¡°For a chosen like that to keep such a low profile hints at some amazing future developments.¡±

    People sighed in amazement. The discussion continued, touching on some of the other schools of thought, such as the Spirit Forging School, the Myriad Magics School, the Mental State School, and the Tranquil Treasure School. People talked about the students and schoolmasters from those schools, and everyone generally sighed in admiration. There were many opinions on the true identities of the schoolmasters, with some people even specting that some of them were imperial princes. It was abundantly clear that the big schools of thought from the Imperial University exerted influence that went far beyond the university.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s a pity that the God-Merging School has be the most orthodox school in the university. All the other schools of thought have fallen behind. In other words, the chances of outright shes between schools of thought is minimal. Some of the ancient records I read about the Imperial University indicate that throughout the history of the university, there have been four instances of a school war. Every single time, the emperor gets involved, and the ramifications are profound.¡±

    Some people sighed. Others nodded. The conversation went on. Eventually, someone mentioned the Xeno-Immortal School.

    ¡°I¡¯m actually a lot more interested in the Xeno-Immortal School than any of the other schools of thought. Sadly, the ce is basically deserted. In the final analysis, their cultivation methods are too difficult, and their standard fortent talent is too high. Although, all of that could be overlooked. What¡¯s of even greater significance is that they¡¯ve never produced a single person who seeded.¡±

    The person who had brought up the Xeno-Immortal School was a young man named Mu Nan. He looked elegant, with a warm smile. Based on Princess Anhai¡¯s introduction when he arrived, he was from the main headquarters of the human branch of the Church of Departure.

    ¡°Granted, they have two heroes who died for their cause by partially seeding. One of them was killed. The other transformed his body but couldn¡¯t reverse the process. I¡¯m pretty sure they enshrined the body of thetter. However, after all their years of istion, nobody has actually seen the body. That said, I saw some recorded images at the Church which show Chen Daoze¡¯s soul-weaved state.¡±

    With that, he nced casually at Xu Qing.

    Looking back at him cidly, Xu Qing said, ¡°Any chance you can share that image with us, Fellow Daoist Mu Nan?¡±

    Mu Nan grinned. ¡°It¡¯s top secret in my church, so normally speaking, outsiders aren¡¯t allowed to see it. But you¡¯re different, Region Lord Xu.¡±

    Mu Nan took out a jade slip and sent it floating through the air toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing took it and focused on it. Instantly, an image appeared in his head. It showed a middle-aged cultivator in a daoist robe. He waved his hand, and a massive amount of mutagen poured into him. As that happened, he transformed, turning into an extremely vicious godly entity.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react physically to what he was seeing, but his heart started pounding. And that was because it looked very simr to his god states!

    At that exact moment, bells started tolling in the imperial capital, so loud that they surpassed the volume of the thunder. They rang nine times.

    Everyone at the banquet froze briefly, then got to their feet.

    ¡°The imperial bells rang nine times. That means something big is happening!¡±

    A grave expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. The warning from his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon had left him unsettled, and that feeling was only growing more intense. All of a sudden, a crashing boom could be heard from outside Princess Anhai¡¯s mansion.

    A momentter, a squad of imperial guards stormed in, their golden armor shing.

    A somber and deste aura filled the banquet hall. As everyone looked over in confusion, the leader of the squad looked coldly at Xu Qing. After bowing at the waist, he said, ¡°Region Lord Xu, you have been invited to the imperial pce for an audience with the emperor!¡±

    1. We originally heard about the Creation Division (and its connection to the Dawning Suns) in <u>chapter 547.1</u>. It was mentioned in passing in the couple of chapters after that one as well. ?

 Chapter 771: Stolen Dawning Suns!

    Chapter 771: Stolen Dawning Suns!

    The phoenix pce went absolutely silent. Numerous gazes locked onto Xu Qing. Meanwhile, Princess Anhai¡¯s expression flickered.

    The imperial bells almost never rang nine times. But just now, they had, indicating that something momentous had happened. There would obviously be major repercussions. Then, at almost exactly the same moment, a contingent of imperial guards showed up and told Xu Qing toe with them to the imperial pce. Though it seemed like an invitation, the somber and deste aura of the guards made it clear it was more than that.

    Most importantly in this maelstrom of events was that, though it might seem far-fetched, ack of caution could lead to death. It didn¡¯t matter that Xu Qing had a shocking background and also controlled one-and-a-half regions. If something very dramatic happened that rted to the survival of humankind as a whole, then there was no question about which of the two the emperor would view as more important.

    At first, Princess Anhai looked confused. But then her eyes filled with determination. Rising to her feet, she coldly said, ¡°How impudent!¡±

    The golden-armored imperial guards didn¡¯t so much as twitch in response to her words. They kept looking at Xu Qing. However, one of them stepped forward, faced Princess Anhai, and bowed.

    ¡°Your Majesty, these are orders from the emperor.¡±

    Frowning, Princess Anhai said, ¡°What happened that requires Region Lord Xu to go to the imperial pce?¡±

    She was hoping to get some more information for Xu Qing about why this was happening. That was about all she could do. If he knew the reason, then at least he could prepare himself for what was toe.

    The guard who had stepped out hesitated, looked around, and then shifted his gaze back to the frowning Princess Anhai. Taking a few steps forward, he projected a message to her that no one else could hear. In response, Princess Anhai gasped and shivered. Her face fell, and she looked at Xu Qing with aplicated expression.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    When Xu Qing saw that, he wondered more than ever what had gone wrong. Although he had no idea, he kept his expression neutral as he rose and walked over to the imperial guards.

    They quickly got into formation around him. Although it looked like they were providing a respectful escort, there was also something about it that made it seem like they were arresting him.

    Just as he was about to step out of the hall, Princess Anhai gritted her teeth and projected a message to him.

    ¡°The guard didn¡¯t tell me much. Just that... the Creation Division has been locked down. It seems there might have been something stolen from there!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce, turned, and sped hands respectfully to her. Then he left her mansion and went in the direction of the imperial pce.

    It was night, and it was still raining. Thunder crashed overhead. Under normal circumstances, few people would go out in such inclement weather. But this night was different.

    Xu Qing saw imperial guards hurrying around everywhere. They all seemed to be going in different directions, such that an ordinary person wouldn¡¯t have any idea what they were up to. But Xu Qing got his start in the Violent Crimes Division, so he could pick up on the clues.

    They¡¯re expanding the range of the lockdown. Are they locking down the entire imperial capital?

    Thinking back to the message from Princess Anhai, Xu Qing immediately thought about his Eldest Brother. Given everything he knew about the Captain, it seemed entirely possible that he might have tried to steal something from the Creation Division. However, if that was true, the Captain would definitely have been careful not to leave behind any clues that point to Xu Qing. As such, Xu Qing eliminated that as a possibility.

    With that possibility out of the way, I have to wonder what exactly was stolen that would cause the emperor to summon me for an audience.

    The only thing connecting him to the Creation Division were the Dawning Suns. Except, he had exined that situation already, so it didn¡¯t seem likely that was why he was being summoned.

    Could it be because of someone else I¡¯m connected to?

    Unfortunately, he had too few clues to work with to get him anywhere close to an exnation.

    As Xu Qing pondered the situation, lightning crashed around them. Eventually, they crossed the rainbow ridge and reached the imperial pce. In the illumination provided by the lightning, Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he realized there was another person being escorted into the pce.

    It was Ningyan. That caused everything to click. Ningyan was somehow connected to the Creation Division. And the item that had been stolen was almost certainly a Dawning Sun.

    Yet there were things that didn¡¯t add up. First of all, Xu Qing knew for certain that Ningyan had been spending all his timetely working on cultivation. Second, Ningyan¡¯s cultivation base was too low for him to do something so dramatic and somehow escape.

    What was more, it seemed almost preposterous that a Dawning Sun could have been stolen. The Dawning Suns were prized treasures of humankind, and weren¡¯t things that could be easily lost. They would definitely be under tight guard. And it didn¡¯t seem necessary to store them at the Creation Division itself.

    As he pondered such matters, his gaze turned grim. Walking into the imperial pce, he soon reached the Immortal Reception za in front of the main pce hall. There were golden-armored cultivators everywhere, all of them pulsing with killing intent. It created a very stifling atmosphere. That, coupled with the crash of thunder, created a pressure that caused even the raindrops to tremble.

    Ningyan was also trembling. Two guards mped their hands onto his shoulders and forced him into a kneeling position in the za. Rain poured down, soaking him. He was nervous and also confused. He had no idea what was happening, as he had been working on his cultivation in his mother¡¯s shrine hall when the guard burst in and dragged him away.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one present. There were others. All were cultivators from the Creation Division, a total of a few dozen people.

    Also present was Ninth Prince, who had likewise been forced into a kneeling position by two imperial guards. His head was bowed, and his expression was one of pure bitterness.

    When Xu Qing arrived, the gazes of numerous imperial guards locked onto him as he was escorted over to the other ¡®guests.¡¯

    When Ningyan saw Xu Qing, his eyes glittered with both hope and surprise.

    Xu Qing looked at him and nodded. Not saying anything, he stood to the side.

    The guards behind him were about to put their hands on his shoulders when he looked over his shoulder at them, his gaze calm. That gaze caused the guards to sp hands and step back.

    Xu Qing was now the only new arrival left standing. The rain didn¡¯t touch him.

    Time passed, and the thunder grew louder.

    asionally, people would hurry into the pce and enter the hall. Inside the hall,mplight indicated that some ceremony was underway. The imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation was fully activated, covering the entire city so that it was possible to enter, but not leave.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and pondered the matter further, trying to inwardly confirm whether his spections were correct.

    Eventually, when the sky turned bright, an old man emerged from the pce hall. It was the chief minister. He looked down at the za and all the kneeling figures in it.

    ¡°Earlier in the night,¡± he said in a grim voice, ¡°the Creation Division was robbed. A Dawning Sun, which had been ced in a special spell formation here for research purposes, was lost. All of you here are suspects in the preliminary investigation. And that¡¯s especially true of Twelfth Prince.¡±

    Hisst sentence coincided with a loud crash of thunder that shook everything.

    Ningyan shivered, his expression one of disbelief. ¡°That¡¯s impossible! I¡¯ve never even been to the Creation Division. I¡ª¡±

    He was interrupted by a cold harrumph from inside the pce hall. It was even louder than the thunder, shaking the za and causing the minds of everyone present to spin.

    ¡°Chief Minister, show the evidence to this unfilial son of mine!¡±

    The chief minister waved his right hand, causing a jade slip to fly out. As it hovered in midair, it projected an image for all to see. The image depicted some top secret location. Most of it was blurry, but there was a person, visible clearly from behind. That person looked very much like Ningyan. In fact, just as the recorded image was about to end, that person slowly turned, revealing the side of his face.

    He looked exactly like Ningyan! Then the image vanished. Next, the chief minister performed an incantation gesture, causing a stream of energy to appear. It was Ningyan¡¯s energy.

    ¡°That image was extracted from the past by the use of a heavenly king divination magic. It shows exactly what happened in the Creation Division. The energy was collected by the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation, also extracted from the past of the Creation Division. The emperor himself bore witness to the process.¡±

    After the chief minister was done speaking, the emperor spoke again in a cold voice. ¡°What do you have to say for yourself, you unfilial son?¡±

    The stunned Ningyan was at a loss for words. He hadn¡¯t done anything, but that image and that energy really did point to him as the culprit.

    Far off on the horizon, the sun was rising. Though there were still a lot of clouds, as well as rain, the light of the sun still spread, eventually reaching the Immortal Reception za. Even as darkness and light transposed, a bell appeared in midair above the za. It was the Immortal Questioning Bell.

    If Ningyan wished to speak, he could do so in the presence of the Immortal Questioning Bell. However, the evidence against him was so overwhelming that all he could do was smile bitterly.

    Xu Qing looked up at the pce hall. He had seen the image from earlier, but still felt that something suspicious was going on. He refused to believe that the emperor would be careless enough to overlook important evidence. So he walked forward until he was next to Ningyan.

    Before Xu Qing could speak, however, Ningyan tightly grabbed the hem of his own robe. He slowly looked up, his expression twisted and his eyes full of disappointment and also fury at this outrageous situation.

    ¡°Father, I know you don¡¯t like me,¡± he said loudly. ¡°I know that in your heart, you think of your twelfth son as dispensable. I don¡¯t have much natural aptitude. I¡¯m not eloquent. I¡¯m not charming and charismatic. Nobody wants to get too close to me. Well, I don¡¯t care about all that!¡±

    Ningyan¡¯s emotions stirred as he slowly rose from a kneeling position until he was on his feet! His action of standing was profoundly meaningful. It showed that he had suppressed any sense of fear or reverence he had for his father. He had crushed his tendency to be a yes-man, and as the rain poured down, he gave voice to the pressure that had existed in his heart for years.

    ¡°Father,¡± he said loudly, ¡°you exist high above everyone else, like the clouds in the sky. To you, I¡¯m like a useless nobody. I might as well be mud. But... so what? This ce is my home, but at the same time, it¡¯s not. I actually like Sea-Sealing County a lot better. I know all imperial princes have the surname Guyue, but I prefer to be just in old Ningyan!

    ¡°If you hadn¡¯t forced me toe back, I never would havee! Therefore, if you want to baselessly pin this crime on me... well I won¡¯t stand for it! I, Ningyan, didn¡¯t have anything to do with it! And I¡¯ll prove it with the Immortal Questioning Bell!¡±

    Ningyan jumped up and viciously rapped his knuckles on the bell. The bell tolled, deep and resonant. It could confirm the truth of words, and it could verify the condition of the heart.

 Chapter 772: The Other Sideâ€™s Turn

    Chapter 772: The Other Side¡¯s Turn

    The Immortal Questioning Bell could be used to assess the heart. When truth was expressed from the heart, the bell would toll, as it had just now in response to Ningyan¡¯s deration.

    Ningyan¡¯s act of standing was part of the process of an internal transformation. Then he struck the bell. As it tolled, his soul experienced a baptism. It was a brutal baptism, like that of a caterpir turning into a butterfly. Blood oozed out all over him. His five yin organs and six yang organs trembled, and it was only with great effort that he managed to look up in the direction of the pce hall. He could just barely see the emperor seated inside, his facepletely expressionless.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do it,¡± Ningyan said hoarsely. As everyone looked on, he slumped and then passed out.

    Xu Qing grabbed him before he fell and gently lowered him to the ground. Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding. Despite whatever evidence pointed to Ningyan as the culprit, Xu Qing didn¡¯t believe that Ningyan was responsible. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have the ability or opportunity to prove that. He felt certain that the emperor wouldn¡¯t overlook important evidence, and yet... the emperor¡¯s actions were clear.

    That said, based on everything Xu Qing had experienced in life, he felt certain that in most situations, there was more than met the eye. And that was definitely the case with the emperor¡¯s actions here. Xu Qing then recalled the imperial edict sent to Ningyan after the death of King Heaventide. Although that edict had seemed harsh, there was actually deep meaning in it. What was more, the emperor had used the words ¡®stubborn and mischievous.¡¯ [1]

    What if this is the emperor¡¯s way of protecting Ningyan?

    Xu Qing thought back to some things his Master had told him about how to analyze things. By putting himself in the emperor¡¯s shoes, he could evaluate the situation from a different perspective.

    If I was the emperor, and the evidence implicated my son, what would I do...? The emperor is not just an emperor to a single person. He¡¯s the emperor of all humankind. Nor is he simply a father....

    There¡¯s something else to consider. When the chief minister came out, it happened to be exactly at sunrise, when the Immortal Questioning Bell appeared. Was that done on purpose, to hint to Ningyan to use the bell? Were they intentionally provoking Ningyan into being decisive?

    Of course, there¡¯s another possibility. Maybe it¡¯s true that the emperor thinks of Ningyan as being dispensable. The evidence points one way, so the emperor focuses on that. Maybe Ningyan is being framed, but that doesn¡¯t exculpate him from involvement. And maybe there are more clues pointing toward him or people he knows. Perhaps that¡¯s why I was summoned as well. There¡¯s also the possibility that something else entirely is going on, and I just haven¡¯t thought of it.

    No amount of pondering on Xu Qing¡¯s part would reveal what the emperor was actually thinking.

    As the sound of the bell dissipated, the chief minister stood in front of the pce hall with his head bowed as he waited for an imperial edict. He didn¡¯t have to wait long. Momentster, the emperor spoke in an emotionless voice.

    ¡°Everyone connected to the Creation Division incident will be imprisoned in the Celestial Earthly Prison. Guyue Bixuan and Guyue Ningyan will be imprisoned in the pce¡¯s Heavenly Prison.

    ¡°The imperial capital will remain on strict lockdown. Keep all the spell formations active at the highest level. Shut down all teleportation portals. Impose a curfew starting tonight. Everyone from the Five Greater Celestial Divisions will perform independent investigations. In twenty hours, I want full reports from everyone. Find out who stole the Dawning Sun!¡±

    The Celestial Earthly Prison was located outside of the imperial pce, and was operated by the Swordsage Division. Normally speaking, only the most violent and dangerous criminals were locked up there. The pce¡¯s Heavenly Prison was very different from the Celestial Earthly Prison, as it was designed for members of the imperial n.

    As the imperial edict was uttered, thunder crashed, and the imperial guards sprang into action to take Ningyan and everyone else away.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t stop that. Nor did he have any reason to. He watched Ningyan being led away, and came to the conclusion that the pessimistic take would be to say that this was going to be a deadly catastrophe for Ningyan. But if he was being optimistic, then... it was a protection.

    As people were being led away, the chief minister suddenly said, ¡°Region Lord Xu, His Majesty would like you to enter the hall.¡±

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing walked over to the stairs. Stopping in front of the chief minister, he sped hands and bowed.

    The chief minister nodded, then turned and led him up the stairs and into the hall. The people who had previouslye into the hall now left, and even the chief minister backed up several paces, waved his hand, and sealed the hall.

    In the blink of an eye, the only people present inside were Xu Qing and the emperor.

    Looking at the emperor, Xu Qing sped hands and bowed at the waist. ¡°Well met, Your Majesty.¡±

    The emperor sat on the ninth step, emanating a powerful pressure that caused the air to ripple and distort. That made the emperor impossible to see clearly, except for his eyes, which shone like bright pearls. They were as cold as winter, such that anyone he looked at would feel the urge to shiver.

    ¡°Xu Qing, take out that Emperor¡¯s Sword from your secret trove and use it to attack me!¡±

    As the emperor¡¯s voice echoed in the hall, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He would never have been able to guess that the emperor would summon him for a private audience and then say something like that. He looked at the emperor¡¯s eyes.

    A momentter, he called out to the Emperor¡¯s Sword from his secret trove. The sword... didn¡¯t respond.

    The emperor sat in ce just like before, his energy fluctuations the same as before. Without any change to his gaze, he calmly said, ¡°Do you know why the Emperor¡¯s Sword won¡¯t respond?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    ¡°Because I have a clear conscience when ites to humankind, and I have a clear conscience when ites to the Grand Emperor. You and I are not enemies!¡±

    After that, the emperor closed his eyes. He was done chatting with Xu Qing.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    A moment passed, and then Xu Qing bowed again. He turned to leave, and just before he was about to push open the door, the emperor said one more thing from behind him.

    ¡°Ningyan chose you. So going forward, I¡¯m putting him in your hands.¡±

    The door opened.

    Xu Qing stood there for a few breaths of time, then nodded. He walked out of the hall and into the za. Standing beneath the huge statues that formed the entrance, he looked back at the pce hall.

    Just what kind of person is the emperor really?

    There was no answer to the question.

    Xu Qing looked away from the pce hall and walked out into the rain. He didn¡¯t return to the mansion. Instead, he went to the Swordsage Division to offer his help with the investigation into the disappearance of the Dawning Sun.

    The Swordsage Division epted his help. Their investigation was carried out with lightning swiftness. And the first ce they focused on was the ancestorial cemetery! Specifically, they went to the ancestorial cemetery, not the ancestral graveyard! Thetter was where emperors were interred after death. The former was where other members of the imperial n were buried.

    That was where the Swordsage Division checked on one specific tomb. It was... the tomb of Eleventh Prince, who was Ningyan¡¯s twin brother! [2]

    After all, the only hard evidence in y was the image of Ningyan and his energy which had been extracted from the past. Then Ningyan used the Immortal Questioning Bell to prove the truth of his words. That meant there was only one other possibility. And that was that the person who had appeared in the Creation Division was someone who looked like Ningyan and had the same energy as him, but wasn¡¯t Ningyan.

    There were magical techniques and other ways of altering one¡¯s physical appearance and aura. Even mortals could do things like that. But in Revered Ancient, only someone with an astounding cultivation base could possibly fool the magical technique of a heavenly king, plus the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation. There was little need to mention that the emperor had personally observed the time magic being used.

    As a result, Ningyan¡¯s twin brother was first on the list to be investigated. They needed to find out if that specific imperial prince had actually died. Although the death of Ningyan¡¯s brother was an old case, they still had to dig up the details.

    The result came in quickly enough. By means of a variety of techniques, they were able to confirm that Eleventh Prince really had died, and was interred in his tomb.

    One of the Swordsage Division investigators suggested that they look into Eleventh Prince¡¯s original cause of death, thinking that it might provide them with some new clues. However, the division lord prohibited it.

    ¡°It rtes to secrets of the imperial family,¡± he said gravely. ¡°And it has nothing to do with this case. Unless the emperor himself gives orders, we don¡¯t want to get near that.¡±

    As one of the investigators, Xu Qing looked closely at Eleventh Prince¡¯s tomb and thought back to what Ningyan had told him about his older brother and mother dying. It rted to secrets of the imperial family, which meant that getting more details was going to be difficult. That line of investigation came to an end.

    But there were other angles to explore. Next, the Swordsage Division investigation focused on Ninth Prince and the Creation Division itself. The division lord himself went to the Heavenly Prison to interrogate Ninth Prince.

    Meanwhile, other divisions were carrying out their own investigations. In some cases, the investigations ovepped. In some cases they didn¡¯t. Regardless, the results needed to be reported to the emperor, who would make the final judgment. There were ups and downs to that method of running the investigation. But in the end, the downsides weren¡¯t very numerous. The most important thing was that it made it almost impossible for anyone to practice favoritism and engage in cronyism. Every detail needed to be investigated.

    Ten hours passed.

    During that time, the entire imperial capital was locked down tight. Imperial guards and members of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions looked closely into everything. One clue after another started umting.

    ¡°Three months ago, Second Prince went to the Creation Division looking to strengthen his personal taboo treasure. He wanted to borrow the power of a Dawning Sun, except his petitions were all rejected. He expressed anger on numerous asions. ording to our investigation, his taboo treasure can inflictrge-scale casualties.¡±

    ¡°Grand Prince left the city in a rush yesterday on a diplomatic mission to the Firemoon Darkheaven people. The Firemoon Darkheavens have repeatedly requested that we humans give them a Dawning Sun as tribute. The fact that Grand Prince left when he did is something that should be taken into consideration.¡±

    ¡°People from Seventh Prince¡¯s mansion have repeatedly been seen in the vicinity of the Creation Division over the course of thest month. What¡¯s more, he¡¯s secretly been in correspondence with Fifth Prince, who is currently with the heavenly king securing the border region....¡±

    ¡°The aura of a Dawning Sun was recently detected in the mansion of Tenth Prince.¡±

    ¡°Seven days ago, some nonhumans approached Eighth Prince and proposed a secret deal to acquire a Dawning Sun. We¡¯re not sure of the final result.¡±

    ¡°Ten days ago, Third Prince paid a secret visit to the Creation Division and had an hour-long discussion with Ninth Prince.¡±

    The clues might have seemed benign individually, but when looked at more closely, they revealed some shocking truths. There was a lot going on behind the scenes! Questions started to rise up in the minds of Xu Qing and everyone else involved in the investigation. Other than Fourth Prince and the yboy Sixth Prince, all the other imperial princes were connected to the case in some way or another. It couldn¡¯t be exined away as a coincidence.

    It seems like someone is manipting things from behind the scenes, as if using this investigation to reveal a lot of previously private matters.

    Xu Qing found himself thinking back to the day he¡¯d firste to the imperial pce and seen the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Someone had made a move on the Go board, and now... the other party was about to make a move.

    In the end, the division lord of the Swordsage Division shook his head. ¡°A war of session is being carried out in secret. But now the details are being forced into the open. And someone is using us to do it. His Majesty is being forced to make a choice. If he doesn¡¯t... then everything will blow up in his face. Maybe someone is trying to push Twelfth Prince into the limelight. Or maybe they¡¯re using him as a threat.¡± The division lord looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing, do you want to go pay a visit to Ningyan?¡±

 Chapter 773: Crown Prince Incense

    Chapter 773: Crown Prince Incense

    The investigation into the missing Dawning Sun entered its twelfth hour. It was dark. There was no rosy evening glow, only dark, oppressive clouds that made it hard to tell if the sun had already set or not. Rain still fell, and thunder rumbled. That, coupled with the oppressive atmosphere created by the imperial guards, made the entire imperial capital seem somber and deste. It was destined to be a sleepless night for most.

    The investigation being carried out by the Five Greater Celestial Divisions continued to broaden. The scope went beyond the imperial princes and to the people closely connected to them. More than half of those people had already been arrested.

    Some were in cultivation facilities. Some were in their sects. Some were at home. All were people who had no choice but to bow their heads to show respect for the emperor. Any who fought back were killed on the spot.

    Blood mixed with rainwater, until the entire city seemed to reek of gore.

    Xu Qing was d in his swordsage uniform as he headed in the direction of the Heavenly Prison. Given his mood and the situation, it was no wonder he was in a hurry. After participating in the Swordsage Division¡¯s investigation, and seeing all the clues and evidence, he could sense that there was a lot going on behind the scenes with the imperial princes.

    Something doesn¡¯t add up.

    He looked through the rain at the imperial pce off in the distance. The Heavenly Prison was in the imperial pce, but it wasn¡¯t essed by means of the rainbow bridge. Instead, there was a side door that led to it.

    These imperial princes are all extraordinary in their own ways. There¡¯s no way that they would leave behind such obvious evidence. Unless... there¡¯s somebody manipting everything. The imperial preceptor perhaps? The emperor was also unusually quick to issue orders.

    Xu Qing frowned. Ever since arriving in the imperial capital, he¡¯d had the feeling that there was a missing piece to the puzzle.

    I wonder if there are more than two people ying Go....

    Xu Qing stopped in ce just as a lightning bolt snaked through the sky, illuminating both the imperial pce and the thoughtful look on his face. He closed his eyes.

    When he opened them a momentter, his expression was as cid as ever. He continued toward the side entrance to the imperial pce. With his Swordsage Division documentation, he quickly passed through the inspection. Then, three imperial guards in ck armor led him into the dungeon beneath the imperial pce. The air around him felt sinister and cold. Every floor tile had warding spells or magical symbols on them. Xu Qing could tell that this was the most secure location in the imperial capital.

    Even with his official documentation, he still had to go through numerous detailed inspections. Only after he was cleared over and over again was he let into the presence of Ningyan.

    The imperial pce¡¯s Heavenly Prison had nine levels. The further down you went, the more important were the people locked up, and the more mysterious they were. Everything after the sixth level was locked down tightly.

    Ningyan was detained on the third level. He was bound with shackles that had sealing marks built into them that made him almost like a mortal. There was no way he could possibly escape. Aplicated facial expression could be seen on his face as he sat in the middle of his cell.

    Sensing Xu Qing¡¯s arrival, he looked up. ¡°Biggest Bro....¡±

    Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and looked around. ¡°It¡¯s not bad in here,¡± he said. ¡°Definitely not as dirty as I¡¯d expected.¡±

    Ningyan smiled wryly.

    ¡°It¡¯s quiet, too,¡± Xu Qing continued. ¡°A good ce to think clearly.¡±

    Ningyan said nothing.

    ¡°If you think clearly, you might be able to remember some things you forgot to mention before.¡± Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything after that. He just looked at Ningyan.

    Ningyan had already been nervous to begin with; to have Xu Qing looking at him that way left him with the urge to avert his gaze. Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn.

    Ningyan¡¯s head remained bowed. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were closed. Everything was quiet.

    After another incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, Xu Qing stood. ¡°If you have nothing you want to tell me, I¡¯ll leave.¡±

    He turned.

    Ningyan watched him walking away, the hesitation and confusion in his heart intensifying. After Xu Qing took five steps, Ningyan gritted his teeth.

    ¡°Biggest Bro.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped walking.

    ¡°Although it¡¯s possible someone was just impersonating me, I think it¡¯s more likely that... it was my older brother. Eleventh Prince.¡±

    Xu Qing turned around and looked through the warding spell barrier at Ningyan. ¡°Eleventh Prince¡¯s tomb has already been checked. He¡¯s dead.¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Ningyan¡¯s expression became moreplicated. Rubbing the floor of the cell, he spoke in a very quiet voice. ¡°Biggest Bro... me and my older brother used to y a game together.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened.

    ¡°We would y hide-and-seek. Every time we yed, he would find me right away. It didn¡¯t matter where I hid, he would know where I was. I was never sure why that was. I asked him once, and he told me that I would understand after I grew up. Except, we were twins, and he was only born a few moments before I was. It was only today, after I was sent here¡ª¡± Ning Yan looked up at Xu Qing ¡°¡ªthat I understood. He and I have a special connection, and that¡¯s why he was always able to find me. Right now, I can sense that connection.¡± He pointed down at the floor. ¡°My brother¡¯s aura is down there.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart suddenly started racing.

    ¡°His aura is unusual. I¡¯m not sure how to exin it. I just know that... it¡¯s familiar, but at the same time unfamiliar. And gruish. I tried calling out, but didn¡¯t get any answer.¡±

    Ningyan felt bitterness, pain, and otherplex feelings. This day had been a big blow to him. That was especially true after he hade to sense his brother¡¯s aura. He almost couldn¡¯t think straight. After all, he very clearly remembered how his brother and mother died. Yet here in the Heavenly Prison, he could sense his brother¡¯s aura. He had no idea how or why it was happening. However, he wasn¡¯t a child anymore. He knew... that there was obviously some monumental secret at y.

    Xu Qing looked down at the ground quietly. They were on the third level, which meant there were six more levels beneath them.

    This ce was the Heavenly Prison in the imperial pce, which meant that only orders from the emperor himself would result in someone being locked up here.

    There¡¯s a dead person who apparently isn¡¯t dead after all. Yet he¡¯s here in the Heavenly Prison, where only the emperor could send him.... And it seems like this Eleventh Prince, who really isn¡¯t dead, is the one who stole the Dawning Sun. His motivations are unknown. It¡¯s uncertain whether he¡¯s really dead or not.

    Xu Qing rubbed the bridge of his nose. All of a sudden, he found himself thinking about the portrait of Ningyan¡¯s mother. From the look of it, everything was somehow connected to her death.

    The emperor was keeping a big secret. So was the imperial preceptor.

    Eventually, Xu Qing left the prison and went back to the Swordsage Division. He didn¡¯t tell anyone what he had learned.

    Because talking to Ningyan didn¡¯t yield any results, the investigation couldn¡¯t proceed any further. Sixteen hours after the investigation began, in the middle of the night, the Swordsage Division submitted its results. The other four divisions followed suit one after another.

    As the emperor went through the various reports, which all analyzed the situation from different angles, thunder crashed above. The emperor seemed about ready to erupt with fury. But in the end, the fury never came. He closed his eyes for a few breaths of time. When he opened them, he somehow looked older. That said, his gaze seemed matchlessly domineering. The emperor seemed more majestic than ever, and more determined. At that point, he issued a shocking imperial edict.

    Twelve sticks of ¡®crown prince incense¡¯ were erected outside the imperial pce. Each of them was 299 meters tall, and there were roughly 30 meters between each of them. They were all crimson.

    Princesses Anran and Anbei were left out. But soul blood from the other twelve imperial children, including Princess Anhai, was infused into one of the sticks of incense to mark it as their own.

    ¡°The lot of you want a session struggle, and even want so far as to secretly hatch plots that caused chaos in the capital. Better to do things openly.

    ¡°Starting today, these twelve incense sticks will be lit. They will burn based on the performance of the imperial princes and princess. Good performance will cause the incense to burn slowly. Poor performance will cause the incense to burn faster. In one year, the person with the most incense left... will be the crown prince!¡±

    The imperial edict was quite a shock to the city. People and organizations everywhere were deeply moved. The emperor was truly being decisive when it came to the matter of the crown prince. By doing so, he put an end to all the secret subterfuge, and instead made the session struggle a public affair.

    The incense sticks were there for all to see. Whoever wanted to be the crown prince had to make sure their incense stick burned the most slowly. That was the way to achieve greatness. Doing nothing wasn¡¯t an option, as the incense would burn no matter what went on.

    Instantly, the imperial children who had been paying such close attention to the Dawning Sun investigation now had bright light shining in their eyes. The imperial edict effectively put an end to the matter of the lost Dawning Sun. No one would bring it up again.

    Ningyan and Ninth Prince were set free. The imperial pce closed its doors. Court wouldn¡¯t be held for seven days.

    Back at the mansion, Ningyan, whose personality had changed after the events, locked himself in the shrine hall.

    Xu Qing could tell that Ningyan needed to be alone. As he looked at the shrine hall, he thought back to everything that happened in the past day. He hade to his own conclusions about what everything meant.

    One of the people ying Go came out on top of this interchange.

    ***

    After the imperial pce was sealed tight, the capital was opened up, and everyone reeled in shock about the crown prince incense.

    A strong wind blew through the Heavenspan Pavilion in the imperial pce. The emperor stood there, his hands sped behind his back as he looked at the massive Ancient Emperor.

    The air behind him rippled, and the imperial preceptor materialized. sping hands to the emperor, he smiled.

    ¡°Congrattions, Your Majesty. You finally made a decision and severed thest fetters.¡±

    The emperor¡¯s eyes glittered. Not bothering to turn his head, he said, ¡°You might be the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, but you haven¡¯t fully recovered yet. Considering the strategic position I upy, if I wanted to kill you, it wouldn¡¯t be very difficult.¡±

    The imperial preceptor¡¯s expression was mild as he replied, ¡°I¡¯m just helping you fulfill your dream, Your Majesty. Besides, you know full well that I was just pushing things along. There¡¯s someone else operating behind the scenes. As for who it is, I think you know, Your Majesty.¡±

    The emperor¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change.

    ¡°Your Majesty, there are already gods paying attention to this affair. You need to hurry up. After all, this deal... is without parallel in history.¡±

    The imperial preceptor smiled and disappeared into the wind.

    The Heavenspan Pavilion fell silent. Only the sound of the wind could be heard.

    As the wind blew, the emperor¡¯s gaze pierced through the clouds and into the depths of Ancient Emperor....

 Chapter 774: Someone Weâ€™ve Waited Thousands of Years For

    Chapter 774: Someone We¡¯ve Waited Thousands of Years For

    It rained for three days straight in the imperial capital. On the fourth day, the rain turned to snow. Winter came, just like that. As the snow fell, everything started to get cold. Just about overnight, ayer of shimmering silver came to cover the city. Ice caked the eaves of the buildings.

    As Xu Qing looked at the snowkes falling from the sky, and felt the cold wind, he thought back to Sea-Sealing County and South Phoenix. He thought back to his early life.

    He had reached a point in his cultivation where he didn¡¯t really feel the sensation of cold. He was essentially inocted to mortal feelings like that. Yet right now, he did feel a touch of coldness. It came from his memories. The experiences of his childhood had be part of his soul, and would be with him for his whole life.

    As he walked toward the Imperial University, he tugged his garments a bit tighter around him to protect against the wind. Eventually, he made it through the university entrance.

    The investigation into the missing Dawning Sun had been dropped. The Dawning Sun¡¯s actual whereabouts were unknown. You would think something like that would weigh on the hearts of the various organizations in the capital, but... nobody seemed to care much.

    Xu Qing could imagine why.

    It¡¯s because of the emperor.

    To the human species, the emperor was a person who ¡®propped up heaven.¡¯ He could calm people down.

    Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t really sure what to make of the emperor. Upon first arriving at the capital, the emperor had been little more than a concept for him. A symbol. A nk te with no information on it. But after some time, and after learning a bit more about the emperor, that te was starting to get some color on it. Unfortunately... there were actually too many colors, resulting in a blurry image.

    Xu Qing shook his head. He did what he usually did when he didn¡¯t understand something. He put it in the back of his mind to analyze over time. Hopefully, as time went by, more clues and evidence would be avable to make the picture clearer. Once he had enough clues, the truth would reveal itself in his heart. All Xu Qing knew for the moment was that the most important thing for him to focus on was cultivation base.

    I¡¯m going to pay another visit to the Xeno-Immortal School!

    The moment he entered the Imperial University, the cold and wind were cut off. It was winter on the outside of the university, but on the inside it was the same as before. There were still bustling crowds and the sound of talking and discussion.

    Considering how many times he had visited the university in the past month, Xu Qing was used to the surroundings. He hurried through the crowd, attracting as little attention as a water drop in the ocean. Soon he was in front of the white tower in the east of the university that was the Xeno-Immortal School.

    Back at Princess Anhai¡¯s banquet, that fellow Mu Nan from the Church of Departure showed an image of Chen Daoze from the Xeno-Immortal School. That image looked very simr to me when I¡¯m in one of my god states. Is the soul-weaving of the Xeno-Immortal School a different method with the same final result?

    Xu Qing was excited to learn more. His god states were the result of his own luck and destined opportunities, and he had never seen anyone else with anything like them. Not even Grandpa Ninth had been familiar with the specifics of them. Ever since then he had been hoping to find out more about how to further his cultivation in terms of his god states.

    If using the second-level god state required wasting some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh every single time... that would be untenable in the long term. And that wasn¡¯t even taking his third-level god state into consideration.

    My first state can unleash powerparable to the great circle of Spirit Trove or possibly the first stage of Void Returning. You could consider that a very big power up. The second state is more like second-stage Void Returning.... Maybe not exactly at that level, but close enough. The third state....

    Xu Qing thought back to the demonstration for Grandpa Ninth, and thenpared that to the powerful experts he had encountered. That gave him a general idea of the level of power involved.

    Battle prowessparable to third-stage Void Returning! In other words, the focus of my cultivation should be to get control of the third-level god state. That, and finish my fifth secret trove.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Xu Qing thought about all that as he strolled through the white towers. Eventually, about an hourter, he reached the Xeno-Immortal School. It was busy on the street outside, but was very quiet inside. Virtually deserted. No one was inside asking questions. It was as if this ce had been eliminated from favor by the sands of time.

    There weren¡¯t three students in the tower this time, there was only one. He sat there, yawning as the schoolmaster berated him.

    ¡°Look outside! See how many people there are out there? Why not go drag some in here? If things keep going the way they are, we won¡¯t have enough people to staff this ce. See how many ancient records there are? Don¡¯t you know how much time I spend every day organizing things?

    ¡°I know our Xeno-Immortal School isn¡¯t in a good spot now, but we can restore our glory! All you people do is sniff around for gossip to put in that silly tabloid of yours! What the hell good is that going to do?¡±

    Looking annoyed, the berated student waved his hand. ¡°Enough! If you keep yelling at me I won¡¯te back tomorrow. The whole reason we put out the tabloid is to make money. It¡¯s not like you¡¯re helping us out financially. Besides, all we do is report thetest gossip. What¡¯s that got to do with you? Maybe you should try to earn some money for some things. For instance, you could charge a fee to those idiots whoe to study our ancient records.¡±

    ¡°You!!¡± the schoolmaster snapped angrily, and nearly went into another tirade, except in the end, he really was worried about the student not returning. His chest heaved as he tried to decide what to say next. That was when Xu Qing arrived. Snorting coldly, the schoolmaster turned to Xu Qing.

    The berated student also looked up at him. ¡°Wee to the Xeno-Immortal School. We charge 100 spirit stones per jade slip that you want to study.¡±

    Given that everyone wore the same outfits, this student clearly didn¡¯t realize that Xu Qing had been here before. The reality was that unless you interacted with someone multiple times in the Imperial University, you generally wouldn¡¯t be able to recognize them.

    Xu Qing looked around and was about to say something when the schoolmaster looked him up and down with surprise in his eyes.

    ¡°What are you doing back here?¡±

    When the student heard that, he started and then looked more closely at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was also a bit surprised. sping hands to the schoolmaster, he said, ¡°Teacher, I want to know more about the Xeno-Immortal School.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing!¡± The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes glittered, and he couldn¡¯t hold back from excitedly rubbing his hands together. Grabbing Xu Qing by the arm, he dragged him into the tower, as if he were afraid he might run off.

    Xu Qing felt a bit out of sorts. As for the other student, he simply sighed and looked away.

    ¡°You¡¯re an intelligent person,¡± the schoolmaster said. He sighed. ¡°I sensed that the first time you showed up. If you choose the Xeno-Immortal School, it¡¯ll be like the call of destiny. The inevitable furtherance of fate. You know, if my spections are correct, you¡¯re probably new to the Imperial University. Am I right?¡±

    As the schoolmaster thought, he made some calctions with the fingers on his left hand. Then a gleam of shock appeared on his face. He looked at Xu Qing a bit more closely.

    Xu Qing looked back at him. These were the kinds of tricks the Captain tried to pull, and Xu Qing had long since grown used to them.

    After seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to rise to the bait, the schoolmaster cleared his throat.

    ¡°Anyway, back in the heyday of the Xeno-Immortal School, our founder looked out into the world and saw a vision of the future. Afterward, he uttered a prophecy. ording to that prophecy, a student wille to us one day to join the Xeno-Immortal School, and that student will lead us to prominence.

    ¡°Last time when Iid eyes on you, I felt a strong sensation in my heart, though I wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it was. On this second asion of seeing you, I¡¯ve suddenly found myself thinking about that prophecy. Now I realize that it¡¯s highly likely you are the person the Xeno-Immortal School has been waiting thousands of years for!¡±

    The other student pursed his lips beneath his mask. He had heard this kind of speech before. In fact, it was the same speech the schoolmaster had given him when he first showed up. And it was the same with the other two students who had been herest time Xu Qing came.

    Couldn¡¯t he at least change up his wording?

    That said, the student also realized that if they could sucker someone else into joining them, it wouldn¡¯t be such a bad thing. Therefore, he made sure to look at Xu Qing with very wide eyes as he let loose a hoarse exmation of astonishment.

    ¡°Oh my god!¡± he said loudly.

    When Xu Qing witnessed this exaggerated behavior, he started to wonder if the Xeno-Immortal School was actually a good fit for him....

    The schoolmaster was very pleased to see his student cooperating. Whipping out a jade slip, he put it in Xu Qing¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Child, pour your divine will into that jade slip. It¡¯ll make you a conve student of the Xeno-Immortal School. After that, everything will be opened up to you, and the future of the Xeno-Immortal School will be in your hands!

    ¡°Our techniques are very unique, and were authorized by the emperor back in the day. That said, the emperor also allowed us to decide how the techniques are passed on. Therefore, our founder made the rule that only conve disciples can learn them. Come, join us! Open a new door in your life!¡±

    The schoolmaster only seemed to be getting more worked up.

    Xu Qing looked at the jade slip. The reality was that he had already made his decision beforeing here, therefore, he unhesitatingly put his mark on the slip.

    The jade slip glittered, and Xu Qing officially became a conve student of the Xeno-Immortal School.

    ¡°Hahaha! Wee to the Xeno-Immortal School!¡± The schoolmaster was clearly very excited. The other student was as well. In fact, the two of them exchanged a nce, and they could both see how thrilled they were to have snagged another student into their fold.

    The former thought of it as a way of strengthening his school of thought. The other was just d to have someone to share the workload with.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really care about any of that. sping hands, he asked, ¡°Schoolmaster, can I take a look at the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques?¡±

    ¡°No problem.¡± Chuckling heartily, the schoolmaster grabbed about a dozen jade slips from the piles around him and pressed them into Xu Qing¡¯s hands. ¡°All of our techniques are in there. Take your time looking through them. There¡¯s no hurry.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and started looking through the jade slips. Beneath his mask, his eyes glittered thoughtfully. The jade slips were full of a wealth of information. All of the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s cultivation methods were exined in great detail.

    Generally speaking, all of this school of thought¡¯s techniques had cultivation requirements. For one thing, the cultivator needed to have impressive soul power. Only someone like that could generate the amount of soul threads needed to, theoretically speaking, be able to weave aplete godly entity. Without enough soul power, it was possible that the weaving process could result in one¡¯s spiritual and physical souls all dispersing. What was more, it required one to visualize the totem of a godly entity and use the soul threads to make itplete. The process went differently for different people, but in most cases, it went slowly.

    As Xu Qing studied the new information, the schoolmaster continued introducing the school.

    ¡°The main point of our school is to visualize a godly entity. All the possibilities are in there. Over the years, members of our school have picked from countless godly entities and found the ones most suitable to the Xeno-Immortal School. You¡¯ll find details in there about how many soul threads are required, and the associated technique. That¡¯s really the quintessence of our school.

    ¡°That said, make sure not to bite off more than you can chew. If you¡¯re not able to make enough soul threads, don¡¯t try to force the visualization.¡±

    As the schoolmaster gave his warnings, Xu Qing studied the jade slip with the godly entities and found that there were indeed thousands of them. The depictions were very lifelike.

    The soul thread requirement was listed inly for all of them. Thergest number of threads he saw was 100,000. The lowest was around 50,000.

    He decided to test out the cultivation method. Immediately, his mind went hazy, and his eyes fogged with confusion.

    When the schoolmaster saw that, he shook his head. Then, given that this was a brand new member, he decided to give some advice.

    ¡°Cultivating the techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School requires deep focus. You need to be in a spell formation that cuts off the outside world and leaves you inplete peace and quiet. It¡¯s no surprise to see you fail right here and now.

    ¡°Normally speaking, it takes about a month to squeeze out one soul thread. If you have good talent, you might get three. Even the most amazing chosen might get ten or more. That¡¯s more on the patriarch level!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated, as he saw that in his sea of consciousness... there were about 10,000 soul threads slowly spreading out.

 Chapter 775: Xeno-Immortal Body

    <h4>Chapter 775: Xeno-Immortal Body</h4>

    The schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School was still giving a steady stream of details about their cultivation methods. He was clearly very passionate about it. It seemed as if he had imagined moments like these many times, but had rarely had a chance to make them reality. Now, with Xu Qing here, he could be a real teacher again.

    ¡°Years ago,¡± the schoolmaster continued proudly, ¡°Patriarch Li Xuanfeng was the type of chosen that onlyes along once in a thousand years. In only one month, he gained enlightenment of 13 soul threads! He¡¯s the one that truly set the standard for the Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    The other student was, very uncharacteristically, not contradicting anything the schoolmaster said, and instead just offered a few sighs now and then. Clearly, though he had been tricked into joining the Xeno-Immortal School in its time of decline, he clearly approved and cared for the school.

    ¡°And then there was Patriarch Chen Daoze, who was also incredible. A few thousand years ago, he was a very rare and elite expert. In one month, he gained enlightenment of 19 soul threads!¡± Sounding very sincere, the schoolmaster looked at Xu Qing and continued, ¡°Therefore, you need to work hard. Focus on your cultivation. If you can make at least 10 soul threads in a month, then you could well be the future schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    With that, the schoolmaster sped Xu Qing on the shoulder, then took out some more jade slips and stuffed them into his hands. Then the schoolmaster left to organize some of the other jade slips piled up in the tower.

    Xu Qing stood there feeling a bit hesitant. He could see that there were definitely about 10,000 soul threads in his sea of consciousness. Given what the schoolmaster had just told him, he got the feeling something unusual was going on.

    When the other student saw Xu Qing just standing there, he walked over. Sighing, he said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did his speech get you all riled up? You listen to me. Ignore his nonsense. When me and the other two students joined, he said the same thing. Every single word. The same. I tried to warn youst time, but you just wouldn¡¯t listen to me. Well, what¡¯s done is done. You¡¯re a conve student now.... And that means you¡¯re thoroughly tied to the Xeno-Immortal School going forward.¡±

    The student¡¯s eyes glittered with sympathy. ¡°But now that you¡¯re here, there¡¯s no room for regrets. Going forward, stick with me. With you on board, we can finally start putting out our tabloid more often.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the student. Being curious, he asked, ¡°What tabloid?¡±

    ¡°As you know, there are a lot of schools of thought in the Imperial University. And there are always things going on. Understanding all of that can be very time-consuming, so tabloids have be amon thing here.

    ¡°They usually talk about decisions made by the schools of thought, the things their well-known students are up to, et cetera. Because the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i> is one of the oldest tabloids, and also because we¡¯re in a good location in the university, we actually have a veryrge distribution, even though we don¡¯t have a great reputation. Because we mostly report on gossip and things like that, we¡¯re actually quite popr.¡±

    The student was obviously very proud of the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a little business run by me and the bros. Now,e with me, I¡¯ll show you the ropes.¡±

    With that, he dragged Xu Qing further into the white tower, to a location filled with a lot of nk jade slips. Those jade slips were the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>. The business basically involved putting sensational news into the jade slips and then selling them. The stories, of course, all came from anonymous sources.

    Xu Qing picked up one of thepleted <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirers</i> and scanned it.

    <i>¡°Last night people heard screaminging from inside the God-Merging School. If you want to know who was making a demon in the middle of the night there, pick up thetest copy of the </i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer<i>!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°</i>She<i> is the schoolmaster of the nts and Vegetation School!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Do you want to know the true identity of Dustcloud from the Myriad Magics School? Years of reporting have finally uncovered the truth!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Xu Qing from the Holytide Region has joined the Imperial University! Do you want to know which school he picked? Read all the details of our undercover reporting!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing said nothing as he looked through the jade slip.

    The student chuckled. ¡°What do you think? Is the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i> interesting or what?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s great,¡± Xu Qing replied calmly. The reality was that he didn¡¯t have any negative feelings at all about this ce. As the saying went, <i>when you enter a vige, follow local customs</i>. Since he was a member of the Xeno-Immortal School now, he had no reason not to help this new Elder Brother to get his tabloids ready. And thus, they got to work imprinting thetest edition.

    The schoolmaster came to check on them a few times. Seeing that Xu Qing was already involved with the tabloid caused him to sigh. However, he didn¡¯t interfere or say anything.

    Time passed. Around evening time, Xu Qing left the Xeno-Immortal School.

    Snow was still falling outside as he made his way back to the mansion, all while thinking about the new techniques. Once he was back, he sat down cross-legged to meditate.

    <i>The techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School involve extracting soul power and then using a special spell formation to make soul threads. The soul requirements are high. If you extract too much, you could destroy your soul. These techniques are virtually suicidal.</i>

    <i>That¡¯s one reason why they take so long to cultivate. On the one hand, you have to do the cultivation, but at the same time, you have to nourish your soul. And then there¡¯s the soul thread count....</i>

    Xu Qing took out the jade slip with the information about godly entities and looked through it. As far as he was concerned, the godly entities in the jade slip were mostly average. After all, he had seen more than his fair share of actual gods, let alone just godly entities.

    The reason why he had been able to instantly form 10,000 soul threads became clear to Xu Qing during the day when he was working on the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>.

    <i>I have godsource. The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques are, in the final analysis, an imitation of godsource techniques. And it¡¯s also an imitation to use one¡¯s soul threads to weave the image of a godly entity.</i>

    <i>This type of method actually adds the characteristics of godsource to the soul. Then, you manifest it almost like a suit of armor.... With a single thought, you can change everything about your body. That¡¯s why they have the saying: the Summer Immortal¡¯s lone thought brings the immortal body into y.</i>

    <i>If I cultivate this to the limit, then theoretically speaking, it should be possible to, bit by bit, take a godly entity and weave an actual god.... I already have godsource, so I don¡¯t need to imitate it. With a single thought, I can produce a whole bunch of soul threads. And every single one is a manifestation of godsource.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he realized that his previous spections were correct. His god states and the Xeno-Immortal School techniques really were different methods that led to the same result. That said, the body formed by the Xeno-Immortal School was fundamentally the manifestation of cultivator energy. And if you looked closely, you would see the evidence of the soul threads. When in a god state, the pressure emanated by his godliness, though it seemed integrated, was actually something illusory turned corporeal. He could sense that very obvious difference.

    What was more, there were all sorts of cultivation techniques among humans. When you added in the countless years that gods had been around, it was a given that there had been a lot of research done into godly entities and how to use them. Therefore, it was no surprise something hade along that was very simr to Xu Qing¡¯s god states.

    That said, deeper research would reveal some big differences on a substructural level with most of them. It was only the Xeno-Immortal School... that was simr substructurally.

    <i>In that case, these Xeno-Immortal School techniques should be able to improve my control over my god states.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly.

    <i>In the past, my god states are manifested by means of my god troves. But if I could empty the godsource from my third god trove and turn it into soul threads, then use the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s soul-weaving techniques, I could probablyplete my third-level god state....</i>

    <i>Theoretically, I could bypass whatever deficiencies exist for my god states, especially the third one.... And the reason is that I wouldn¡¯t be supporting them with the god troves, but rather, the weaved godsource.</i>

    <i>At the same time, I wouldn¡¯t be limited to a third state. I could possibly weave a fourth state. As long as I have enough soul threads, a mere thought could lead to unlimited results!</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes, performed a double-handed incantation gesture, and then used the Xeno-Immortal School techniques to start making soul threads. In the blink of an eye, his first god trove appeared behind him. Threads of godsource emerged, flying into Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, where they began to amass.

    Before long, there were about 100,000 of them.

    <i>Gotta keep going!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s second god trove appeared, and the threads of godsource emerged.

    130,000. 180,000. 250,000.... Ultimately, a total of 300,000 soul threads appeared.

    It took effort for Xu Qing to manipte so many godsource soul threads, but he knew that it was because he still wasn¡¯t very good at using the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s weaving techniques.

    At a certain point, he stopped to consult the information from the Xeno-Immortal School. Then he started again.

    Although he still needed a lot of practice, his godsource soul threads were so numerous that a session of terrifying figures that pulsed with godliness appeared around him. If the students from the Xeno-Immortal School were here to see what was happening, they would be stunned. After all, as far as they were concerned, being able to form godly entities was somethingpletely theoretical. Yet Xu Qing was actually doing it.

    Every single one was extremely realistic, and emanated terrifying pressure that surpassed what should have been possible for godly entities.

    But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t content. As far as he was concerned, this was just good practice. He continued to use the soul threads to form godly entities for a time. Then he sent out a single thought that caused them all to copse. They turned back into 300,000 soul threads, which converged back inside him.

    Then Xu Qing thought about his first-level god state and tried to form it.

    Given his understanding of it, and his current level of familiarity with the soul-weaving techniques, he quickly entered the first-level god state. As he stood in the private chamber, terrifying pressure rolled out. However, the pressure was different from when he used his first-level god state in the usual way.

    It contained the feeling of a god, but also, the characteristics of the Xeno-Immortal School. Most importantly, Xu Qing found that he could ignite it with a single thought. By turning it into a st of power, he could break through shackles and obstacles, and thus further his cultivation base. That realization caused him to breathe heavily as his eyes snapped open.

    <i>The Xeno-Immortal School really does have unusual techniquespared to everyone else! Although they seem to be about weaving soul threads or godliness, that¡¯s only the surface. In reality, they¡¯re even more terrifying....</i>

    <i>They can take the essence of a god and use it to break through to higher levels! By igniting the image of a god in a timely fashion, it can be turned into a shocking power that can st through the obstacles that severed the path of immortals. This is a brand new path that borrows from gods to reach immortal ascension. So this is what a Xeno-Immortal is.</i>

    It was around that time that Xu Qing heard someone knocking on his private meditation chamber.

    ¡°What are you up to, little Junior Brother? It¡¯s a windy, snowy night. Very cold. In that case... it¡¯s perfect for a little activity I have nned. I need someone to help me keep an eye on the wind. Any chance you¡¯re avable?¡±

 Chapter 776: Fellow Daoist Ergou, You Frightened Me!

    <h4>Chapter 776: Fellow Daoist Ergou, You Frightened Me!</h4>

    The Captain had clearly learned some unusual technique that allowed him to figure out where Xu Qing was and what he was doing; the door to the private chamber swung open, and the Captain strolled in looking very pleased with himself.

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? This technique is specifically designed to open the doors of private chambers sealed with warding spells and spell formations. Very amazing! I actually learned it from a good friend of mine that I made after arriving here in the imperial capital. <i>She </i>taught it to me.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and then the door of the private chamber. He had to admit he was intrigued. After all, the private chamber was sealed, not only with a powerful warding spell, but also, some of Xu Qing¡¯s own methods. Although it couldn¡¯t be consideredpletely wless, it still wasn¡¯t supposed to be easy to open the door. Yet the Captain had opened it with seemingly no effort at all.

    ¡°What technique is it?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain seemed very pleased to hear such a question. ¡°I, your Eldest Brother, have been going out every day since we got to the imperial capital. I wasn¡¯t just fishing for information. I actually assumed a secret identity, then went and made a bunch of friends. And one of them is extremely mysterious.

    ¡°Of course, you know me. How could I possibly be the kind of person just anyone bes friends with? Therefore, I initially refused her. However, she was so anxious to be my friend that she taught me the technique. But, enough of that. You¡¯re done with your cultivation, right? Come with me.¡±

    With a face full of anticipation, the Captain grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s arm. There wasn¡¯t much Xu Qing could do. There weren¡¯t many people in the world who he couldn¡¯t refuse, but the Captain was one of them.

    ¡°What are you up to this time?¡± he asked as he rose to his feet.

    Pushing Xu Qing toward the door, the Captain answered, ¡°I need you toe with me to the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. To steal something.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. ¡°Count me out.¡±

    He had no choice but to refuse. After all, he wasn¡¯t looking to get killed.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°It¡¯s one of their branch sects. Not the main headquarters. Look, it¡¯s no big deal. The strongest person there is a Void Returning expert. As long as we don¡¯t make a big scene and attract the attention of their main headquarters, we can be in and out before anyone realizes it.¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it briefly, then agreed.

    It was dark outside, and there was a strong breeze. Waves rippled across the surface of Ningyan¡¯s pond. Xu Qing and the Captain sped out of the mansion.

    ¡°I already set the time and ce with this mysterious friend of mine. Tonight, we¡¯re going to a restricted area in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect branch sect to get that item.¡± The Captain took out a mask and tossed it to Xu Qing. ¡°Put that on. I liberated it from the old man¡¯s stockpile before we came to the imperial capital. It can conceal your identity. As long as you keep your aura reined in, you can temporarily prevent anyone from recognizing you.

    ¡°After all, I¡¯m not really sure who this mysterious friend of mine is. She¡¯s probably just using me to keep her true identity secret. And she probably has other motives as well. But in the end, it doesn¡¯t matter, as I really have to get into that restricted area. I need something from there for our next big job.

    ¡°Incidentally, I¡¯m not worried about her at all. I¡¯m pretty sure she has no idea who I really am. But just to be safe, I¡¯m bringing you along to watch my back. If it turns out she¡¯s nning to betray me, you need to put her to death immediately! What¡¯s more, after she and I go in, if shees out alone, then you need to stop her. I¡¯m worried that she might try to sell me out.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and put on the mask. The mask¡¯s special construction ensured that it fitfortably onto Xu Qing¡¯s face immediately. He rubbed it as he sped along with the Captain. This wasn¡¯t his first time doing things like this with the Captain. As he continued on his way, he thought more about the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques, and how to use the different weaving methods.

    <i>Theoretically speaking, my godsource soul threads should be able to weave my second-level god state. That said, my control over the soul threads isn¡¯t at that level yet. I need more practice with the weaving techniques. But with additional training, I¡¯ll be able to do it.</i>

    <i>Of course, the first state is actually very simple. I have enough soul threads, and I can weave it almost instantly. I can even transform into that state.... This is actually perfect for the imperial capital, as there are some situations in which I want to hide my identity.</i>

    Xu Qing did some weaving in his sea of consciousness, causing his aura to transform. The Captain noticed what was happening and looked over in surprise, although he didn¡¯t ask any questions.

    And thus, the two of them sped through the night in full concealment. About two hourster, they reached the northwestern part of the capital. It was a rtively remote mountainous area that was currently choked with snow. One of the mountains in the mountain range seemed capable of absorbing starlight. It glittered brightly, and created a seven-colored glow in the snowkes. This was the location of a branch sect of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. It obviously contained a different dimension, and this was the entrance.

    ¡°Finally here.¡± As the Captain looked at the dazzling mountain, he squatted, licked his lips, and looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and continued working on the weaving in his sea of consciousness. His aura was nowpletely different from before.

    Sensing that transformation, the Captain couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What are you up to, little Ah Qing? I told you to rein in your aura, notpletely change it! How are you doing that anyway? That change to your aura is so dramatic that, with the mask on, I really can¡¯t tell it¡¯s you....¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a technique I learned recently,¡± Xu Qing said, opening his eyes. He gave no further exnation.

    The Captain was very curious and was about to ask some follow-up questions when a faint whistling sound reached them. The Captain and Xu Qing both looked up.

    A young woman approached, her facial features average, her clothing a ck robe. Striding through the wind and snow, she reached the Captain and Xu Qing. After looking Xu Qing up and down, she said, ¡°Who¡¯s this, Chen Daqing?¡±

    Upon hearing the name, Xu Qing looked over at the Captain. Clearly, ¡®Chen Daqing¡¯ was the Captain¡¯s assumed name. [1]

    The Captain blinked a few times and said, ¡°This is my good friend Ergou. He was worried about me doing this alone, so he came along.¡±[2]

    The young woman said nothing further on that subject. With a final nce at Xu Qing, she shifted her attention to the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. ¡°Well then, shall we begin as agreed?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± The Captain took a deep breath, gave a final nce to Xu Qing, and then flew into the air.

    The young woman followed, and together, the two of them approached the dazzling mountain.

    Xu Qing watched as they got closer and closer until they blurred and disappeared. That wasn¡¯t surprising. Given what the Captain was capable of, if he said someone was mysterious, that person had to be extraordinary. What was more, considering they were targeting the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, there was no doubt this person was at least somewhat trustworthy.

    Then again, considering the Captain¡¯s suicidal personality, Xu Qing was actually slightly concerned. With that, he flew over to another nearby mountain to wait.

    Time passed. Things seemed quiet in the Star Emperor Preeminence¡¯s branch sect. About two hourster, the air outside the dazzling mountain rippled, and the young woman appeared. Without any hesitation, she burst into motion. However, she¡¯d hardly moved when Xu Qing appeared in front of her, blocking her path.

    ¡°Why are you in such a hurry to leave, Fellow Daoist?¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°I think the safest thing would be to wait until Daqinges out.¡±

    The woman frowned and her eyes turned cold. ¡°Screw off!¡±

    She waved her hand, releasing a dangerous energy that converged in front of her to make a mirror. The mirror swept over Xu Qing, then shattered. Meanwhile, the woman unhesitatingly continued on her way. However, only a momentter, her pupils constricted as Xu Qing materialized in front of her again.

    ¡°Stop right there,¡± he said.

    Her pupils constricted again. After looking him up and down again, she lifted her right hand and pushed out in front of her. The falling snow slowed, then transformed into a host of ice needles that shot toward Xu Qing.

    His face remained expressionless as he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand. Instantly, ck fire erupted around him and shot toward the woman. They shed, exchanging magical techniques back and forth over the space of several breaths of time. It didn¡¯t take very long for them to exchange over a hundred blows.

    That said, both were being careful not to make too much noise or release any big fluctuations that might attract attention.

    After ten breaths of time, the woman was starting to get anxious. Looking impatient, she said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to Chen Daqing after we went inside. There¡¯s no point in you stopping me. If you don¡¯t buzz off... I¡¯ll kill you!¡±

    ¡°You can leave once hees out,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    ¡°Looking to die!?¡± the woman snapped, her eyes turning ice-cold. Suddenly, her forehead split open, and a white needle shot out, looking both graceful and extremely fast as it closed in on Xu Qing. The aura was different from what you would expect from cultivators. It was more like the pressure of a god. That said, it wasn¡¯t exactly that of a god. However, the domineering nature of it was shocking to say the least. It was the type of force that, on a substructural level, was superior to everything else.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted as he sensed sudden danger. Without any hesitation, he unleashed 310,000 soul threads from his sea of consciousness, which swept out to form a vicious projection around him. It looked like a huge beetle, pulsing with fluctuations of godliness that seemed very close to that of an actual god. This was the ¡®earthchild¡¯ that he had learned from the information from the Xeno-Immortal School. Earthchildren never got higher than the Spirit Trove level in their cultivation. But this one was actually in Void Returning, simply because it was formed from Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads. As soon as it appeared, the conglomeration of 310,000 soul threads mmed into the iing needle.

    The woman¡¯s eyes went wide, and she backed up. ¡°Stop! Fellow Daoist Ergou, things will turn bad if we keep fighting. I can already see weaknesses in the warding spells I set up in the area. Let¡¯s stop fighting. I¡¯ll wait here with you!¡±

    Even as she spoke, she nervously waved her hand to recall the white needle.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Waving his hand, he dispelled the earthchild and concealed his soul threads. That said, he could call them back at a moment¡¯s notice if necessary.

    Snow continued to fall on the two of them as they stood there quietly.

    After about a dozen breaths of time passed, the woman looked at Xu Qing. Not attempting to conceal her surprise, she took a deep breath and cautiously said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Ergou, were you just using the techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School? Those tens of thousands of soul threads... were very frightening.... I can¡¯t believe someone advanced Xeno-Immortal School cultivation techniques to that level. Can I ask... who are you?¡±

    1. Chen Daqing: Chen is the Captain¡¯s actual surname. Da means ¡°big, grand¡± and Qing is from Xu Qing¡¯s name. I think you get the picture.... ?

    2. Ergou: Er is the same Er from the Captain¡¯s name, which means ¡°two, second.¡± Gou means ¡°dog¡± (as opposed to the Niu ¡°ox¡± from the Captain¡¯s name). I think you get the picture.... ?

 Chapter 777: The Xeno-Immortal School Is About to Get Popular

    <h4>Chapter 777: The Xeno-Immortal School Is About to Get Popr</h4>

    This young woman that the Captain had called ¡®mysterious,¡¯ was currently breathing heavily as she looked at Xu Qing as if he were some sort of freak. The reality was that she had nned from the beginning to sell out ¡®Chen Daqing¡¯ and make him the scapegoat. She had been very careful to keep her own identity secret, so there was no way her aplice could betray her or seek revengeter.

    But right now, her heart was racing like mad. She was familiar with the Xeno-Immortal School. In fact, the truth was that she knew about all the schools in the Imperial University. That was partly because of her status as a student, and also because of her background. She knew about the schools in the university, and she was also more familiar with the superpower sects than most other people. And yet, it was that very understanding which left her deeply shaken right now.

    <i>Hundreds of thousands of soul threads...? Neither Li Xuanfeng nor Chen Daoze were able to do that! Supposedly, Li Xuanfeng reached a total of about 50,000 soul threads, and though Chen Daoze had slightly more, it couldn¡¯t have been more than 70,000.</i>

    <i>What if... the two of them didn¡¯t actually die? If they were still alive, maybe one of them could pull this off....</i>

    <i>But that¡¯s impossible. Li Xuanfeng lived 8,000 years ago. Only Smoldering Gods with heavenly daos and naturalws might be able to live that long. Wait, could it be possible... that this person is Chen Daoze? Word on the street is that Chen Daoze turned into a godly entity and couldn¡¯t transform back. Later, he passed away into meditation and became a specimen for study. But is that story true?</i>

    The woman was deeply shocked by what she had seen today. It subverted her understanding in a major way. Hundreds of thousands of souls threads really were frightening. Because of her shock, the expression on her average-looking face didn¡¯t match her tone of voice. Her face seemed stiff and rigid, which seemed to provide further proof that she was wearing a mask to disguise herself. She was currently keeping a close eye on Xu Qing in the hopes of getting some more clues to lend weight to her spections.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained unchanging as he looked at the young woman.

    He didn¡¯t care that she was surprised. They were <i>strangers who had met by chance, like patches of drifting duckweed</i>. As such, he didn¡¯t owe her any sort of exnation. In fact, he finally looked away from her and back at the branch sect off in the distance. He sent some divine sense out to lock onto the young woman; if she tried to do something underhanded, he would be ready.

    At the same time, he began to analyze what he had aplished using Xeno-Immortal School techniques. It was his first time using the techniques during a fight. The soul-weaving methods didn¡¯t necessarily seem to make him a lot stronger, but they did a great job of transforming his aura.

    And it was very easy to use it to summon his first-level god state. Most importantly, he could break through barriers if he had enough soul threads.

    <i>The upper limit was previously based on the state itself. The first-level god state would normally require millions of ordinary soul threads. After all, the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s soul threads are imitations of godsource. In contrast, my soul threads are made from godsource, so for me, 200,000 is enough.</i>

    <i>But my second-level god state is far stronger than the first level. And that makes things moreplicated. Based on what I can tell, I would probably need 500,000 soul threads to do the weaving. That¡¯s why I usually have to use Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to reach the second-level god state.</i>

    Xu Qing was currently using the Xeno-Immortal School techniques and his own god states toprehend new things, and deepen his current understanding.

    <i>I don¡¯t have nearly enough soul threads.... After I get back tonight, I¡¯m going to try absorbing some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and see if I canbine it with the Xeno-Immortal techniques to make more soul threads!</i>

    Meanwhile, the young woman wasing to the conclusion that Xu Qing was a lot more enigmatic than she¡¯d realized. He was currently focused on his thoughts, and wasn¡¯t saying a thing, which only added to the effect. That just made Xu Qing seem more mysterious to her.

    Time passed quietly.

    About an hourter, as the pre-dawn sky turned even darker, a frown slowly appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face as he looked at the branch sect. Based on what he knew about the Captain, he usually didn¡¯t like dys. Most of the time, he acted quickly and decisively. But things were really taking a long time today.

    Seeing that dawn wasing, the woman hesitated, then said, ¡°I think something might have happened to your friend....¡±

    But even as she said that, the dazzling mountain red, and a figure shot out.

    It was none other than the Captain. He was in bad shape, covered with huge wounds that gushedrge amounts of blood. That said, he looked excited.

    He gave Xu Qing a look that Xu Qing immediately understood. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing waved his hand, causing 310,000 soul threads to surge out into the form of the godly earthchild. He held nothing back.

    The huge beetle emanated a terrifying pressure, along with godly fluctuations on the outside and cultivator power on the inside. With a loud roar, it sent immense pressure toward the mountain behind the Captain.

    A momentter, intense rumbling sounds emanated from the dazzling mountain. Dozens of people shot out, their expressions full of rage and killing intent. However, the moment they appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s earthchild of soul threads descended and mmed into them. A huge boom echoed out.

    Even more shocking, Xu Qing sent out another thought, and the soul threads assumed a different shape. This was another godly entity, specifically, a shadefiend.

    Shadefiends were a type of godly entity native to the western parts of the Revered Ancient maind. They resembled spiders, except they had long, thin bodies simr to centipedes. To some extent, they were like abination between a spider and a centipede. As soon as the shadefiend appeared, it opened its mouth and spat out numerous streams of ck silk, which turned into a web that settled down on the dazzling mountain. As a result, the pursuers were blocked.

    With that aplished, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to smash a teleportation jade slip, causing him to disappear. With the time Xu Qing had bought, the Captain made his escape. He also crushed a teleportation jade slip and vanished.

    There weren¡¯t any words spoken between the two of them. All it took was a single shared nce....

    The young woman hadn¡¯t nned things out, but she also reacted quickly, and faded away into invisibility. But then, only a momentter, blinding blue light erupted from her, making her inly visible in the night.

    Her expression flickered. There was no need for her to analyze the situation. She immediately came to the conclusion that it was the handiwork of either Chen Daqing or Ergou, with Chen Daqing being the most likely suspect.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± she blurted. She tried to go invisible again, but the blue light kept shining brightly. Starting to get nervous, she tapped into a secret magic, spitting out some blood that finally managed to suppress the light.

    Meanwhile, the dazzling mountain red with light as a powerful expert inside smashed through the sealing barriers, causing the soul threads to dissipate.

    A white-haired old man emerged. He wore a robe depicting a starry sky. His face was ashen with fury. Looking at the spot where the woman and the blue light had disappeared, he spoke in a voice that thrummed with killing intent.

    ¡°Check the whole area. Find any and all clues. That¡¯s especially true of that area with the blue light. Also, report the matter to headquarters. We have to find the thieves!¡±

    The group of roughly a dozen disciples looked at each other awkwardly, then voiced their assent and started searching the area. The majority of them focused on the area where the young woman had disappeared.

    The old man only seemed to be getting more angry. Looking back at the mountain, he noted the lingering traces of the magical techniques that had been used, and gradually started to look more and more suspicious. He was getting the vague sensation that he had seen traces of a magical technique like this before. Waving his hand, he pulled some of them toward him, causing a handful of Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads to fly into his hand. After looking at them closely, his expression became one of incredulity. Now he knew where that familiar sensation came from.

    ¡°Xeno-Immortal School soul threads?¡± he murmured.

    The Xeno-Immortal School had once been the number one school in the Imperial University. It was now in decline, but was still very well-known. What was more, from ancient times until now, many people had studied Xeno-Immortal techniques.

    As a result, most top experts in the imperial capital were familiar with them. Though nobody special hade out of the Xeno-Immortal School in years, and few people did more than dabble in their techniques. That was why it took some time for the old man to realize what he was looking at. Now that he was thinking about the Xeno-Immortal School, the old man thought back to the earthchild and the shadefiend, as well as the godly entity fluctuations that they had released. All of a sudden, his heart started pounding.

    <i>Someone achieved major sess in the Xeno-Immortal School!</i>

    He turned to look off into the distance, then took out a jade slip and sent a message to his headquarters, informing them about the involvement of the Xeno-Immortal School. When the response message came in, his confusion built. Then he thought back to the two godly entities he had seen, and then the information in the response, and his mind started spinning.

    <i>50,000 soul threads is the threshold of major sess. 100,000 soul threads is the peak of major sess.... But based on the fluctuations, the godly entities that appeared here weren¡¯t limited to 100,000 soul threads. They were made of hundreds of thousands! This....</i>

    The old man burst into motion to head toward his sect headquarters.

    ***

    The sun rose, and the darkness of night slowly disappeared from the sky.

    Back at Ningyan¡¯s mansion, Xu Qing was back, but the Captain was nowhere to be seen.

    Xu Qing was used to that sort of thing, so it didn¡¯t surprise him. The Captain had definitely teleported safely away.

    As for what the Captain had stolen, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t particrly curious. Right now, he was mainly focused on the Xeno-Immortal School techniques.

    <i>This was the first time I used the Xeno-Immortal School arts inbat, so it doesn¡¯t seem likely I blew my cover. Right now, the most important thing to do is see if absorbing more of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh can make more soul threads.</i>

    Xu Qing went into his private chamber, sealed the area to conceal his aura, then took off the ancient sun and had it hover overhead to lock down the area further. At that point, he sat down cross-legged and took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Fluctuations of godliness immediately rolled out.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing started working.

    Time passed.

    It was dawn outside, and it was still snowing. The imperial capital looked very calm and quiet. However, as the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect continued with its investigation, word of the event started to spread.

    And that meant that a big tempest was about to strike the Imperial University.

 Chapter 778: Iâ€™m Standing in Front of You

    <h4>Chapter 778: I¡¯m Standing in Front of You</h4>

    ¡°The Star Emperor branch sect got robbed!¡±

    ¡°I heard they lost a bunch of stuff, including a stone book that was in a restricted area. The book is ordinary in nature most of the time. But during nighttime thunderstorms, it produces a blurry projection.¡±

    ¡°The Star Emperor Preeminence Sect has been studying that thing for a long time. Eventually, they determined that it was carved off an ordinary photosensitive rock. The blurry projection inside is that of an ancient Core Formation cultivator. Other than a bit of archaeological value, it¡¯s worthless.¡±

    ¡°Honestly, who cares if the stone book went missing? The other things that were stolen are what really seem outrageous.... I heard that one area had thirty percent of the trees, floor tiles, and buildings all cleared out. In some areas, everything was scraped clean down three inches, almost as if a storm of locusts passed through....¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s even more unbelievable is that among the stolen items was some clothing!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the deal...? Why steal things like that?¡±

    This branch sect of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect wasn¡¯t very big. But in the end, it was part of one of the top ten superpower sects of humankind. Therefore, it was under constant scrutiny, so there was little wonder a robbery incident rted to them would be such a hot topic.

    And of course, the things that had been stolen were strange to say the least. Rumors swirled the next morning about the robbery. More and more people were talking about the situation, and every single one of them was bewildered.

    Gradually, back-channel information eventually made it out to the public. And when that news hit, it was as explosive as a drop of cold water hitting some boiling oil.

    ¡°One of the thieves used a highly-developed technique from the Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    ¡°Based on the analysis of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, this person had hundreds of thousands of soul threads! That¡¯spletely unprecedented! That¡¯s more than either of the past two patriarchs of the Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible. I did my research into the Xeno-Immortal School, and their cultivation methods are extremely slow. If you wanted to get hundreds of thousands of soul threads... forget about the question of whether or not the soul could handle that. Just the process alone could take something like 10,000 years!!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s preposterous!¡±

    Byte morning, the news had be a tempest spreading through the entire imperial capital. And of course, word began to spread in the Imperial University.

    Since the Xeno-Immortal School was at the heart of all the rumors, by noontime, there were entire crowds of students looking dubiously at the school and whispering to each other about it. And that was because a representative from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect had already gone inside, and had been there for a while. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, the representative walked out with a scowl on his face. He hurried off without a word to anyone.

    He had been escorted out by the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s schoolmaster and three students. The masks also concealed their emotional fluctuations. But when the four of them exchanged nces, they could see that all of them were shaken, but still calm. Inside, they hadplicated emotions including astonishment, stupefaction, excitement, and zeal.

    They had heard about the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect situation earlier, but hadn¡¯t paid much attention to it. But when the news broke about the enigmatic Xeno-Immortal School master, they were shocked.

    Then the representative came from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. He gave more details about the situation, and asked for details about everyone who practiced Xeno-Immortal School techniques. That was when they realized that the situation was very serious. They couldn¡¯t have been more shaken up at the moment.

    The Star Emperor Preeminence Sect¡¯s investigation didn¡¯t lead anywhere. For many years, there had never been more than four conve students of the Xeno-Immortal School. That said, the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques were public knowledge.

    After all, the entire point of the Imperial University was tobat sectarianism and make it easier for people to gain knowledge. Therefore, even though the Xeno-Immortal School had a rule limiting their techniques to conve students, the reality was that they ignored that rule a lot of the time. From ancient times until modern, there had been a lot of people who learned about Xeno-Immortal School techniques. In fact, identifying one of them in particr would be as difficult as <i>fishing a needle from the sea</i>.

    Analyzing the situation critically would lead just about anyone to the conclusion that it was highly likely the person who had mastered the school¡¯s techniques was the schoolmaster. However, the enigmatic cultivator in question... could also be someone who had been in hiding for thousands of years and was only now appearing publicly.

    As for who that person could be, opinions differed. That included the four longtime members of the Xeno-Immortal School and outsiders as well.

    As the schoolmaster stood outside of the white tower, his heart pounding, he tried to remain calm as he looked over the three students present. Inside, he was sighing endlessly.

    <i>For years, the Xeno-Immortal School has been ignored. There have never been so many people watching us....</i>

    He was very excited about the prospect of some enigmatic person having mastered the Xeno-Immortal School techniques. He also felt proud. Raising his voice, he called, ¡°I have no idea why the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect provoked some Senior member of our school of thought, and thus forced that Senior to mete out a bit of punishment. Regardless, the Xeno-Immortal School will take responsibility!

    ¡°From ancient times until now, there have been a lot of people who studied Xeno-Immortal School techniques. They¡¯ve been passed down from generation to generation. As a result, it¡¯s fair to say that humankind has a lot of Xeno-Immortal School experts.

    ¡°Previously, I didn¡¯t want to make this fact known publicly, as our school likes to keep a low profile. We prefer to stay out of mundane conflicts, and hold back from dealing with the outside world as representatives of our school of thought. But today... a Senior member of our school had no choice but to take action. Therefore, we won¡¯t hide the truth any longer.

    ¡°The rumors are true! The person in question is a top expert of our school of thought!¡±

    The schoolmaster¡¯s words provoked an immediate buzz of conversation among the surrounding students. Amidst the mor, the schoolmaster sped his hands behind his back and strode back into the white tower with his head raised high. The three students excitedly followed him. After they were inside, the door shut behind them, whereupon they couldn¡¯t suppress their excitement any longer, and started talking to the schoolmaster in trembling voices.

    ¡°Teacher, what¡¯s going on here?¡±

    ¡°Teacher, does our Xeno-Immortal School really have a bunch of top experts as members?¡±

    ¡°Hundreds of thousands of soul threads...? How is that even possible?¡±

    The schoolmaster looked up and coolly said, ¡°Imbecile!¡±

    Normally speaking, the three students would talk back. After all, the schoolmaster never dared to talk to them in this way for fear of them leaving and nevering back. But today, the three of them were acting very obediently. One of them hurried forward to massage the schoolmaster¡¯s shoulders. Another fanned him, while the third went over to start organizing the jade slips. All were looking at the schoolmaster with fawning expressions.

    The schoolmaster was feeling wonderful, as he had actually never been treated in this way before.

    ¡°Ah, whatever,¡± he said. ¡°The three of you have made a few mistakes here and there over the years, but you¡¯ve never truly screwed up. In that respect, you pass muster. Therefore, I don¡¯t mind telling you a few things.¡±

    The three students¡¯ ears perked up, and their hearts started pounding. Seeing that caused the schoolmaster to feel even more pleased. From that point on, he started bragging even more.

    ¡°I¡¯m naturally aware of the identity of this Senior member of our school. Everything I said out there just now was true. Our school of thought used to be very glorious. The center of attention. And that wasn¡¯t very conducive to cultivation. So our patriarch left secret instructions forter generations of students to keep a low profile, and act like normal people when outside the school. In other words, our school of thought <i>intentionally</i> fell into decline.

    ¡°The reality is... that the Xeno-Immortal School went from bright to dark on purpose. We actually have many members with hundreds of thousands of soul threads. In fact, there¡¯s even one with 1,000,000! Remember, this is top secret. You can¡¯t tell anyone! Now, hurry up and sort those ancient records! Organize them by category and put them all together neatly!¡±

    The schoolmaster gave a cold snort.

    The three students all sighed and nodded. Inside, they were very incredulous. However, their attitudes were already changing, and therefore, they were quick to do whatever the schoolmaster asked them to do....

    And thus, as the Xeno-Immortal School took responsibility for the incident, the storm of rumors about them continued to spread in the Imperial University and the capital itself.

    An entire day passed.

    The next morning, Xu Qing opened his eyes in his private chamber. During the night that had passed, he had been experimenting with using Xeno-Immortal School techniques to absorb the flesh of Crimson Mother. Most of his efforts had failed, but in the end, he did achieve a small measure of sess.

    <i>The conversion rate is pretty low....</i>

    Xu Qing frowned. Based on what he could sense, he had about 500,000 soul threads in his sea of consciousness now. The additional several hundred thousand came from absorbing about fifty pieces of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Truth be told, one chunk of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh was enough for him to activate his second-level god state. Because of that, Xu Qing could tell that the conversion rate of flesh to soul threads was far too low.

    Thankfully, when he absorbed a piece of flesh, the flesh itself didn¡¯t disappear. It shriveled up. However, some of the godsource remained behind even when that happened. Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh was simply too densely structured for the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques to fully drain them.

    <i>It¡¯s worth it!</i> he thought, his eyes shining. At this point, he could control the soul threads to form the second-level god state without using any of the power of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    <i>I still have about a hundred chunks of flesh.... I need a higher level of Xeno-Immortal School technique to fully utilize them. After all, the third-level god state requires a lot of godsource soul threads.... A million probably won¡¯t be enough.</i>

    After some thought, Xu Qing got to his feet and walked out of the mansion into the dawn light as he headed toward the Imperial University.

    The Captain still hadn¡¯t returned. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about that. He hurried on his way, and before long, had teleported into the Imperial University. Once inside, he was d in the unique robe and mask that all students wore.

    Things inside were a lot more lively than usual.

    After getting his bearings, he started walking in the direction of the Xeno-Immortal School. Along the way, he heard a lot of chatter, most of it people debating the identity of the enigmatic cultivator from the Xeno-Immortal School. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised.

    He slipped through the crowds until he saw the Xeno-Immortal School some distance ahead. The area looked very different than before. There were now dozens of students making polite inquiries about the school¡¯s techniques.

    The schoolmaster stood in the front, looking very much like the center of attention. The other three students proudly answered questions. When the schoolmaster saw Xu Qing approaching, he gave him a slight nod. The other three students quickly called him over.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t youe yesterday? Did you hear about the huge thing that happened in our Xeno-Immortal School?¡±

    ¡°Let me tell you, our Xeno-Immortal School has been hiding its strength this entire time. We¡¯re actually incredibly powerful! And that Senior member with the hundreds of thousands of soul threads is indeed one of our patriarchs!¡±

    The students were about to keep gushing when the schoolmaster cleared his throat.

    ¡°Sir Dark-Thunder, it looks like we have a new group of inquiring students. You go receive them.¡±

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully. The student who had been talking moments ago closed his mouth briefly, then said, ¡°There are going to be questions you can¡¯t answer considering you¡¯re so new. Just do your best. Remember, we... are truly awesome!¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. Truth be told, he had been expecting something like this to happen. Trying to look excited, he nodded and looked over to the entrance, where a group of about eight students had just entered.

    Xu Qing walked over to them. ¡°How can I help you? If you want to know about the Xeno-Immortal School, I¡¯d be happy to give you some information.¡±

    Because of how things worked in the Imperial University, all of these students looked exactly the same. However, Xu Qing noticed that one of them looked a bit more cautious. While Xu Qing was talking, that student was sizing up everyone else, including Xu Qing. Eventually, that student¡¯s gaze came to focus on the schoolmaster.

    <i>People are saying that the enigmatic Xeno-Immortal School cultivator in question is an old fellow that¡¯s thousands of years old. But when I shed with him on that day, he didn¡¯t seem like an old person at all. What¡¯s more, he didn¡¯t talk much, which hints that he¡¯s somewhat introverted. I wonder if that Ergou... is actually the schoolmaster!</i>

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, the student casually looked at Xu Qing and said, ¡°I¡¯m interested in joining the Xeno-Immortal School, and would like to know more about it. For example, your schoolmaster seems like something of an introvert. At the same time, he doesn¡¯t seem very old....¡±

    Hearing that, Xu Qing looked over, a sense of caution rising up within him.

 Chapter 779: 1,000,000 Transformation

    <h4>Chapter 779: 1,000,000 Transformation</h4>

    Unfortunately, the students in the university all wore the same outfit and type of mask. Their auras and magical technique fluctuations were changed. Even their voice and general physical stature was altered so that one¡¯s identity waspletely secret. It wasn¡¯t even possible to identify gender differences.

    Therefore, though Xu Qing felt the need to be on guard, he actually had no idea who this person could be. After all... after this big development for the Xeno-Immortal School, there were a lot more people paying attention to them. And there were obviously going to be multiple people digging for information.

    Looking at the student who had asked the question, Xu Qing said, ¡°I¡¯m a new member, so there¡¯s a lot I don¡¯t understand. But now that you mention it, I guess our schoolmaster is like that.¡±

    The student looked thoughtfully at the schoolmaster, then back at Xu Qing. Although this was her first time looking at Xu Qing up close, given how few people were actually members of the Xeno-Immortal School, she had long since dug up a bit of information about all of them. Although she didn¡¯t know the true identities of any of the members, she did know how long they had been members and what they were known for aplishing within the university grounds. In fact, that wasmon knowledge by this point.

    And of course, her information mentioned this new student who called himself Sir Dark-Thunder. She knew that he had just joined this school of thought, and though she had some suspicions regarding his identity, she put them aside. Based on her personal experience from that day, she was certain that the enigmatic master everyone was wondering about couldn¡¯t be a brand new member.

    Beyond that, she wasn¡¯t interested in who Sir Dark-Thunder really was. Right now, she was thinking about the handful of words she had exchanged with that master from the Xeno-Immortal School. Taking a few steps forward, she faced the schoolmaster, who was sitting there with his eyes closed. sping hands, she bowed at the waist.

    ¡°Schoolmaster, I would like to join the Xeno-Immortal School.¡±

    Everyone else in the tower looked over. Although a lot of students hade to ask about the school recently, this was the first who had actually asked to join.

    Beneath his mask, Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and the vignce in his heart grew more intense. It made sense that so many people hade around seeking information. But for someone to suddenly ask to join was unusual.

    Even the schoolmaster seemed surprised as he opened his eyes and looked at the group of students.

    He looked dignified, but at the same time, extremely happy. That said, he sounded very rxed as he said, ¡°Our school of thought has a rule. Only conve students can learn our techniques!¡±

    Eyes shing with determination, the young woman said, ¡°That¡¯s fine! But I have three questions that I¡¯m hoping you can clear up for me, schoolmaster.¡±

    The schoolmaster looked closely at the group of students to identify the one who was asking the questions. He smiled.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°My first question is about souls. I heard that your school of thought teaches a technique to make soul threads. And that requires the constant improvement of the soul. So, does the Xeno-Immortal School have any unique or unusual soul-nourishing techniques?¡±

    As she spoke, she kept her attention focused closely on the schoolmaster¡¯s eyes.

    His eyes remainedpletely calm as he answered, <i>¡°The Summer Immortal¡¯s lone thought brings the immortal body into y. This concept bes as deep as the sea, the soul will reach fruition.¡±</i>

    Everyone in the tower hesitated. In the past, most people would have scoffed at such words, as they were seemingly nothing more than jibber-jabber. But considering that a true master had emerged from the Xeno-Immortal School, someone with hundreds of thousands of soul threads, people were now paying close attention to such things. Even the three conve students all seemed to bemitting the words to memory.

    Only Xu Qing reacted, blinking a few times.

    The young woman frowned under her mask, thought for a moment, then asked her second question.

    ¡°Schoolmaster, is it true what people are saying, that it takes a really, really long time to make soul threads?¡±

    That was the question most inquiring students were most keenly interested in. Even the three existing conve students were interested to hear the answer to this question.

    The schoolmaster lifted his chin arrogantly. Soundingpletely confident, he said, ¡°A thousand years ago, our school of thought changed our techniques. We now have private and public versions. ording to the rulesid forth by our patriarch, conve disciples who study for a certain number of years will be taught the private technique. The public version is indeed very slow. But the private technique is incredibly fast!¡±

    The listeners stirred. Although most of them still weren¡¯t fully convinced, when they thought about that secret master with the hundreds of thousands of soul threads, they hesitated.

    It was the same with the young woman, who was now frowning with even deeper anxiety than before. She was starting to get the feeling that this schoolmaster was no slouch. The answers he gave were given in such a way that he revealed no pertinent information.

    After some more thought, she decided not to ask her third question. Instead, she bowed.

    ¡°I have no further questions, and I sincerely want to be a conve disciple of the Xeno-Immortal School.¡±

    The schoolmaster nodded, all while thinking, <i>So, you¡¯re here probing for information about the enigmatic master, huh?</i>

    The reality was that, as the schoolmaster, he had quickly seen through her two questions. He wasn¡¯t rmed. Not even he knew the identity of the enigmatic master. But that didn¡¯t curtail his desire to use this event to increase the prestige of the Xeno-Immortal School. After all, that enigmatic master really did use the soul threads of the Xeno-Immortal School. That was enough for him. As for the enigmatic master, he would surely reveal his identity when it was appropriate. He also wasn¡¯t concerned that this person had angered the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect by stealing from them. The schools of thought from the Imperial University were incredibly important.

    With such thoughts on his mind, he waved his hand, sending a jade slip flying over to the new student.

    She caught it and put her mark on it.

    ¡°Go stand with your Elder Brothers,¡± the schoolmaster said. He closed his eyes.

    Seeing all this happen caused Xu Qing¡¯s guard to go up to the highest level.

    <i>Based on this person¡¯s questions, either they¡¯re really interested in the Xeno-Immortal School, or they might have ulterior motives. It¡¯s hard to say. The one exnation that would cover everything, and is most logical, is that this person... is the same one I shed with. But who exactly is she?</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the student with narrowed eyes.

    Just like that, a day went by.

    Xu Qing, the new student, and the other three students met with hundreds of inquirers. The young woman kept an eye on Xu Qing and the others, and asionally asked some questions. However, for the most part, she seemed to be focusing mostly on the schoolmaster.

    She was watching the schoolmaster. Xu Qing was watching her.

    As time went by, Xu Qing became more convinced that his suspicions were true. There was probably a fifty to sixty percent probability that she was the person he had fought with that night. He was also convinced that, as time went by, that probability would increase as he got more information. After all, though this person was clearly clever... so was he.

    That night, he bid farewell to the schoolmaster, left the white tower, and went back to the mansion. After thinking back to everything that had happened, he closed his eyes, took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, and began a session of cultivation.

    Half a month shed by.

    The identity of the enigmatic master from the Xeno-Immortal School continued to be the subject of a tempest of rumors. However, because no further incidents urred, the schoolmaster¡¯s proud announcements of a revival of the school turned out to be empty words.

    After all, any kind of excitement will die down after the passage of enough time. At first, hundreds of students a day were visiting the school to ask for information. But soon that number dwindled to dozens.

    Even still, the school was dramatically busier than before. Nine more students joined, bringing the total student poption up to thirteen. The students were a very mixed lot that came from a variety of backgrounds. At first, they asked a lot of vague questions, but eventually their questions became more direct. Xu Qing and the other four students stuck close to the new arrivals and had a lot of discussions with them.

    Half a month of observation had convinced Xu Qing that the fifth student to join... was definitely the mysterious young woman he had fought. He remembered her aura when she attacked. It had seemed like part-cultivator, part-god. It was almost a different type of power that was as domineering as a cultivator and as aggressive as a god.

    <i>What am I dealing with here?</i> In all of the research he had done in the various schools of thought in the Imperial University, he hadn¡¯t found any clues that might exin the situation. Eventually, he put the matter aside.

    His cultivation of soul threads reached an even higher level. The Xeno-Immortal School actually did have a higher-level method of soul cultivation that went a lot faster than the ordinary method. In order to prove that he was telling the truth, the schoolmaster demonstrated the technique, although only to Xu Qing and the other four conve students.

    He was careful to exin that it was a transitional technique, and wasn¡¯t the actual private technique. He said he would exin the real techniqueter based on the age and qualifications of the students.

    His words seemed effective. As a result, the spies from the various other organizations gained a renewed interest in the subject.

    The technique was definitely more effective, but in the end, didn¡¯t provide a very significant boost. To the other three conve students, it might result in an extra one or two soul threads in an entire month.

    But things were different for Xu Qing. By using the higher-level technique with Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, he was able to significantly increase the production of soul threads.

    As a result, during the half month that passed, he absorbed almost everything possible from Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. The result was that he was very close to 1,000,000 soul threads.

    He only needed three more. That night, he had nned to go all out to make those final threads.

    At the moment, he was thoughtfully contemting the nearlyplete set of godsource soul threads. They weren¡¯t active like they had been in the past. It was as if they took themselves more seriously. What was more, they were pulsing with an aura of transformation.

    Xu Qing pondered the situation. He got the feeling that if he reached 1,000,000 soul threads, a dramatic transformation would ur. He wasn¡¯t sure of the details, and there wasn¡¯t any information in the technique description. From ancient times until now, no one in the Xeno-Immortal School had ever umted such a terrifying level of soul threads. In fact, not even the creator of the technique had ever cultivated it to that level.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as the sensation of transformation became stronger.

    <i>What¡¯s going to happen...?</i>

    Focusing on the techniques, he continued with his cultivation.

    After an incense stick of time passed, a soul thread appeared in his sea of consciousness, glittering brightly. When it appeared, all of the other soul threads vibrated. The aura of transformation grew stronger.

    Xu Qing kept working. About an hourter, a second soul thread appeared, and Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness vibrated loudly. Two hourster, the final soul thread appeared. He had aplete set of 1,000,000 soul threads!

    And that was when a transformation without parallel in history began in his sea of consciousness!

 Chapter 780: Xeno-Immortal Soul Seed

    <h4>Chapter 780: Xeno-Immortal Soul Seed</h4>

    1,000,000 soul threads erupted in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, spreading to fill his mind, soul, and body. Ultimately, a rumbling vortex came into being in his sea of consciousness.

    At the same time, thunder crashed in the sky over the imperial capital. Bolts of lightning formed, snaking across the sky. It seemed as if some forbidden thing wasing into existence, drawing the attention of the heavenly daos. However, that onlysted for a short time before things went back to normal. It was as if the heavenly daos weren¡¯t sure what this thing was, and thus stopped paying attention to it. In fact, it almost seemed as if they were covering it up, as the thunder transformed into snow.

    That said, the lingering glow of the lightning illuminated the night.

    People meditating in private chambers were shocked. People on the street stopped walking and looked up in surprise. People in the Imperial University stopped talking. People in big buildings suddenly looked very serious, and there were even people in the imperial pce who looked into the sky.

    But in the end, the heavenly dao seemed to cover over all traces of what was happening. Other than a few people who were still paying attention, most people just went back to what they were doing, whether that was meditating or doing something else.

    One important person in the Imperial University did just the same, retracting his senses and focusing on the group of 39 students seated in front of him.

    ¡°Schoolmaster, what just happened?¡± one of the students asked.

    ¡°I just had a sudden strange feeling, that¡¯s all. It¡¯s fine. Continue, all of you.¡± The schoolmaster wore a hemp robe and had the standard mask that concealed his cultivation base and everything else about him.

    This particr white tower belonged to the God-Merging School.

    The students nodded in response, then continued with the conversation topic at hand, which was a discussion of the things that had been happening recently with the Xeno-Immortal School.

    If it was some other school of thought, then given the current status of the God-Merging School, they wouldn¡¯t have paid much attention. But the Xeno-Immortal School was different. Fundamentally speaking... the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School were as opposed as fire and water. One of them weaved the image of a god in the mind, and emphasizedpleteness. The other reced the fleshly body and slowly got rid of all vestiges of humanity other than the mind. Ultimately, one had the goal of bing a Xeno-Immortal, the other was about transforming into a human god.

    They were two fundamentally opposed viewpoints, which meant that, in the end, only one of the schools of thought could thrive. That was one of the reasons the Xeno-Immortal School had fallen into decline. Forgetting about their internal issues, the rise of the God-Merging School had just hastened their weakening. It was little surprise, then, that when an enigmatic master appeared who had hundreds of thousands of soul threads, it defiedmon understanding, and attracted the attention of the God-Merging School.

    Though only half a month had passed, the Xeno-Immortal School had already be incredibly popr. However, the enigmatic master never made a second appearance. If he did, it was only possible to imagine how much more popr the Xeno-Immortal School would be. If that happened, it would bepletely possible for the Xeno-Immortal School to truly rise to prominence again.

    That was the subject currently being discussed at this meeting in the God-Merging School. All of the highest ranking students were in attendance. Some seemed nervous, while others discounted all the rumors. There were a lot of different opinions being expressed.

    In the end, the schoolmaster raised his hand, causing silence to prevail in the tower. All of the high-ranking students turned to look at him. The respect in their eyes was clear.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the situation with the Xeno-Immortal School. Today... a very esteemed individual will be publicly joining the God-Merging School. With that person as a member, it will be <i>adding flowers to the brocade</i> of our school of thought. Everyone, start getting ready. Our new arrival will being in three days.¡±

    The schoolmaster¡¯s cid words left the high-level students with no choice but to calmly nod.

    The meeting ended.

    Outside, the thunder had ceased. Back in Ningyan¡¯s mansion, Xu Qing opened his eyes in his private chamber. His eyes gleamed with suspicion and confusion. He frowned.

    <i>What is this...?</i>

    Xu Qing lifted his hand, and a violet snowke emerged from his palm to float in front of him. The vortex of 1,000,000 soul threads in his sea of consciousness continued to spin without end. As it spun, a frigid coldness emerged, causing more snowkes to dance around. There weren¡¯t many snowkes, only 100. Exactly 100.

    Upon sensing what was going on in his sea of consciousness, Xu Qing retracted his divine will and focused on the snowke in front of him. After some contemtion, he took out a transmission jade slip and messaged some swordsages he knew. Before long, a vicious wolf-like creature was delivered to him.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing waved his hand, sending the snowke flying toward the beast¡¯s forehead. It pierced into the beast, which shivered and unleashed a bloodcurdling scream.

    The snowke almost seemed to possess life force. It soon integrated into the beast¡¯s flesh and blood,pletely disappearing from sight.

    Gruishly, the wound in the beast¡¯s forehead quickly healed until there was no indication it had ever been there. The wolf beast closed its eyes and stopped moving, making it look dead. However, its aura was still there. After a short time passed, its eyes opened and it looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart leapt in his chest. Based on what he could sense, he was now connected to the wolf beast. And the basis of that connection was the violet snowke. It hadn¡¯t actually disappeared. It was actually inside the wolf beast. It had merged with its flesh and blood, bing part of it.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with a strange light. Reaching out, he made a grasping gesture, pulling the beast over to him. After probing it with divine sense, his expression flickered. He could sense soul threads inside of the beast....

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting.¡±

    Next, he ripped the wolf beast¡¯s body open and inspected its flesh. Before long, the violet snowke emerged from the body of the beast and floated in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then called for ten more beasts. He performed the same snowke experiment on all of them. After doing numerous such experiments through the night, he emerged from his private chamber in the morning with a much deeper understanding of the 100 snowkes that had been formed by his 1,000,000 soul threads. There had been a price to pay to get that understanding. The private chamber now reeked of gore, and was filled with the dismembered bodies of numerous wolf beasts....

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about that. His eyes currently gleamed with understanding as he made his way to the Imperial University and simultaneously analyzed the 100 violet snowkes within him.

    <i>Those 100 snowkes constitute seeds! Putting a snowke into a wolf beast doesn¡¯t do anything. The beast is still normal afterward. It doesn¡¯t even seem ufortable, and its life force isn¡¯t affected. But it starts producing soul threads.</i>

    <i>Those soul threads are made from its soul. The big side-effect is that, if the soul in question isn¡¯t strong enough, it withers and dies.</i>

    <i>The snowkes... seem soft and gentle, but are actually very domineering. They can be sent out like weapons, to devour the soul of the enemy... and turn them into soul threads for me. At the same time, they can act like parasites. If someone who cultivates the Xeno-Immortal School techniques merges with a seed like that, then theoretically speaking, their cultivation speed should increase dramatically. The prerequisite is having sufficient soul power.</i>

    <i>However, I¡¯m inplete control. With a mere thought, I could extract the seed. Although it won¡¯t affect the target¡¯s life force, they¡¯ll lose all the soul threads they made in that way. I still don¡¯t understand the snowkespletely enough. It¡¯s going to take more experimentation to get a deeper understanding.</i>

    Until he knew a lot more about them, he resolved not to casually use them. Upon entering the Imperial University, he settled his thoughts and went to the Xeno-Immortal School.

    There were nine more students present. The ce was a lot livelier than before, to the point where the schoolmaster didn¡¯t have to do any of the daily chores. The students all did that to earn credit.

    Xu Qing and the original three students were in a simr position. With so many new students showing up, they didn¡¯t have as much to do. Therefore, they started working hard on the next edition of the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>.

    Three days passed. Every day, Xu Qing went back to the mansion in the evening to experiment with the snowkes. On the fourth day, a new rumor was spreading in the Imperial University.

    Seventh Prince had publicly announced that he was going to join the God-Merging School. In fact, on that very afternoon, he was going to formally visit the God-Merging School¡¯s tower and pay respects to the schoolmaster there. It wasn¡¯t permitted to reveal one¡¯s identity inside the Imperial University. But those rules didn¡¯t govern what happened outside with imperial princes.

    The situation was especially noteworthy considering the twelve sticks of ¡®crown prince incense¡¯ on the rainbow bridge. This was the first time any of the imperial princes had done anything noteworthy since the incense was set up, so the development was noticed by a lot of people. It caused a lot of heated debate in the Imperial University, and it caused a lot of excitement among the students of the God-Merging School. After all, this was the first time in the history of the Imperial University that something like this happened. In the past, no one ever revealed their true identity, so even if an imperial prince did join a specific school of thought, no one would ever know.

    But Seventh Prince was making a big deal of it. Clearly, there was something unique to this situation. And it was obvious that Seventh Prince was tying himself deeply to the God-Merging School.

    Sure enough, that afternoon, Seventh Prince entered the Imperial University and, escorted by a host of excited students, walked in the direction of the God-Merging School. Along the way, they passed the Xeno-Immortal School.

    Xu Qing looked at the students clustered around Seventh Prince. Despite how he wore the ordinary student clothing, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but think about how Seventh Prince looked when he and his force of saviors had entered the capital of Sea-Sealing County. Back then, Xu Qing had been watching from afar. It was very simr to now. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes looked the same as ever, but his heart was as cold as ice.[1]

    The other conve students of the Xeno-Immortal School were in the white tower looking out thoughtfully at themotion. The three students who had joined before Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem to think much of it. They quickly went back to working on the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>. Before long, they dragged Xu Qing over to participate.

    Meanwhile, the schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School was starting to get very anxious. It felt to him like the Xeno-Immortal School had a good opportunity to rise to prominence, yet nothing he did seemed to be making that happen. He had done a lot of work to try to figure out who the enigmatic master was, but hadn¡¯t had any sess.

    <i>This isn¡¯t going to work long-term. I shouldered a lot of the responsibility for this Senior¡¯s actions. Logically speaking, he shoulde offer formal greetings at some point....</i>

    As the schoolmaster, he had put together a lot of clues to reach the conclusion that this enigmatic master must have some methods that no one else knew about. Otherwise, it didn¡¯t seem possible for him to have hundreds of thousands of soul threads.

    <i>If nothing else, I just hope this Senior can exin how he cultivated hundreds of thousands of soul threads. If he does, the Xeno-Immortal School will definitely rise to prominence! If we could have a few dozen masters with hundreds of thousands of soul threads each... or even just a handful, then Xeno-Immortal techniques would be incredibly famous, and our theories would be proved correct!</i>

    As he stewed in anxiety about the enigmatic master, he helped the students produce copies of the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>.

    <i>¡°Shocking secret! As it turns out, Seventh Prince joined the God-Merging School because of HER!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Unexpectedly, the schoolmaster of the nts and Vegetation School has a secret rtionship with the head student there!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Is this crisis with the head student at the God-Merging School a matter of twisted humanity or degraded morality? For more information, check out thete night edition of the </i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer<i>, and the article entitled: Where Did My Baby Go?¡±</i>

    1. Seventh Prince entered the capital triumphantly in <u>chapter 509</u>. ?

 Chapter 781: A Two-Month Prophecy

    <h4>Chapter 781: A Two-Month Prophecy</h4>

    For the God-Merging School, having Seventh Prince publicly join was definitely like <i>adding flowers to the brocade</i>. The students of the school felt especially proud. Imperial princes were very special, so having one as a public member was like free advertising. The God-Merging School, which was already the most popr school of thought in the Imperial University, got even more applicants. After all, the fact that an imperial prince was willing to join that school was like a signal to everyone else.

    Of course, Seventh Prince immediately became like a spokesperson for the God-Merging School, someone that everyone would be paying attention to.

    That was exactly what Seventh Prince wanted. After King Heaventide was killed and Seventh Prince returned to the imperial capital like a bedraggled stray dog, he had lost a lot of his former glory. He had been left with no choice but to stay out of sight and avoid Xu Qing. However, the venom in his heart only grew more and more intense as time passed.

    For this entire time, he had been waiting for his fifth brother to return. He and Fifth Prince had the same mother, and as a result, they were a lot closer to each other than most imperial princes were to the others.

    What was more, Fifth Prince had battle prowess that was second only to Grand Prince. He was brave, a good fighter, and was favored by the emperor. He was the one who was apprenticed to the number one heavenly king, whom he had joined on a military campaign on the border of Firemoon territory. He rarely made the trip back to the capital.

    Seventh Prince had recently received a secret intelligence report indicating that his fifth brother would be back soon. It was an exciting development. Therefore, Seventh Prince had followed along with Fifth Prince¡¯s arrangement for him. He had joined the God-Merging School, and even started cultivating different techniques that aligned with the dao of god-merging.

    The God-Merging School was quick to take advantage of the situation. They provided a lot of help to Seventh Prince, to the point where the schoolmaster himself assisted him in changing his dao and recing his flesh and blood.

    In the month that passed after Seventh Prince joined up, he advanced by leaps and bounds. He had already reced about thirty percent of himself with godly flesh, pushing him from Spirit Trove into the first stage of Void Returning. On the day he achieved the breakthrough, all eyes were on him. The students in the Imperial University who hadn¡¯t joined the God-Merging School all looked on with excitement.

    Virtually overnight, the God-Merging School¡¯s position in the university became set in stone. Their numbers swelled, and their reputation as the number one school of thought spread into the outside world, such that lots of cultivators in the capital started getting interested in the dao of god-merging. The Xeno-Immortal School had only experienced things like that back when they were at their height of poprity. A storm of ¡®god-merging¡¯ was building in humankind.

    Thanks to events in the God-Merging School, things in the Xeno-Immortal School started to quiet down significantly.

    Of the various students who had joined recently, five had suddenly stopped showing up. Only the mysterious young woman and the four people who had joined after her continued to appear daily. Unfortunately, there was no momentum keeping things going. The three conve students who had joined before Xu Qing had originally believed everything the schoolmaster said. But gradually, that belief started to devolve into suspicion. What they were mostly interested in was publishing the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>, and they dragged Xu Qing along with them as they did.

    The schoolmaster... spent all day sighing. He was still determined to somehow restore the glory of the school, but seeing how quiet things were getting, it was hard to say how long he would hold on to his convictions.

    Unless something dramatic happened, the Xeno-Immortal School was destined to return to its previous state. Unexpectedly, just such a thing happened, and... the fuse was the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>.

    The goal of the tabloid as set by the three students wasn¡¯t to be practical and realistic. They wanted to have sensational news, funny anecdotes, and the like. Appealing to human nature was the best way to get sales. Normally speaking, because the Xeno-Immortal School ranked so low among the different schools of thought, they were never worried about repercussions of publishing sensational stories. As the saying went, <i>those who have nothing to lose do not fear those in power</i>.[1]

    There had been instances before in which people came in person toin. But the Xeno-Immortal School was as stubborn and difficult to deal with as <i>a rock stuck in atrine</i>. In the end, suchiners would storm off without aplishing anything. After all, the Xeno-Immortal School was known to be <i>poor and culturally void</i>, so there was little that could be done about them. [2]

    In fact, the bigger the scene you created, the more you would amuse the staff of the Xeno-Immortal School. And then, the next day, there would likely be even more sensational stories about you making the rounds. Eventually, most people stopped paying attention to such things.

    But after a true master appeared in the Xeno-Immortal School, they couldn¡¯t be described as ¡®having nothing to lose.¡¯ Quite the opposite; they now had a lot of power. Therefore... after a few sensational reports were published about the God-Merging School, that school finally came to make a scene.

    The person who led the charge was no ordinary member. It was a very famous student who was second only to the chief student, and along with him came a group of several hundred ordinary students. As they walked through the streets, they garnered a lot of attention. They looked very angry, and as soon as they stepped into the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower, the atmosphere became very tense. The students in the Xeno-Immortal School all stopped what they were doing and looked at the angry students from the God-Merging School.

    ¡°You¡¯ve gone too far this time, Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    ¡°You might have been a famous school of thought in the past, but now you¡¯ve fallen into disgrace. How could you be so shameless? You make up vulgar stories for augh, just to sell your little tabloid!¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s especially true of yourte night edition!¡±

    ¡°We demand an exnation from the Xeno-Immortal School immediately!¡±

    These students were yelling angrily, and they had bloodshot eyes.

    In response to their words, the students who had recently joined the Xeno-Immortal School turned to look at Xu Qing and the other disciples in charge of the tabloid.

    Xu Qing just stood there calmly. In contrast, the other three conve students edged backward looking somewhat guilty.

    Thete night edition of the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i> was rtively new. A month ago when the school was spiking in poprity, they added it as a way to bring in some more ie. The contents were even more outrageous and explicit than the normal version. And the reaction to its publication had been very positive....

    The schoolmaster looked very irritated as he red at Xu Qing and the other three students. Then he turned to look at the angry crowd of students from the God-Merging School. He snorted coldly.

    ¡°Pipe down!¡±

    The students from the God-Merging School bowed their heads. After all, ording to the rules, the position of schoolmaster was to be respected. However, one student who had been the subject of the sensational stories wasn¡¯t going to keep his mouth shut.

    ¡°For years now, the Xeno-Immortal School has been publishing all kinds of ridiculous stories about the God-Merging School. In fact, any popr school of thought or student in the Imperial University eventually gets targeted by your rumor-mongering!

    ¡°Shameless behavior like that is going to harm the dignity of the Xeno-Immortal School. In fact, once that enigmatic master hears about this, he¡¯ll probably call your school of thought filthy and despicable! Or maybe the reason that enigmatic master hasn¡¯t shown his face is <i>because</i> of your little tabloid. If I were that Senior, and I saw the Xeno-Immortal School acting like this, I would be too humiliated to be associated with you!

    ¡°The Xeno-Immortal School hasn¡¯t just lost its former glory. It¡¯s also lost any respect it has from the students in the Imperial University. It¡¯s be the scum of the university! Aplete disgrace!

    ¡°Therefore, we hereby demand that the Xeno-Immortal School make amends!¡±

    The student spoke in a very loud voice. Once he was finished, the other students behind him started saying simr things. Already, a crowd was gathering outside the tower.

    The members of the Xeno-Immortal School were wrapped up in different thoughts. Based on what Xu Qing was seeing, he got the feeling there was more to this situation than met the eye. It seemed like someone was using this as an opportunity to feel out the Xeno-Immortal School, and possibly crush them into the dust in their moment of declining fame.

    The young woman was secretly getting excited. This seemed like a perfect situation to get new information, and she was keeping her eyes on the schoolmaster.

    The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes narrowed. Naturally, he had also picked up on what was going on. Leaning forward slightly, he looked at the students from the God-Merging School.

    ¡°What do you mean by ¡®make amends¡¯?¡±

    The student looked back at the schoolmaster and slowly said, ¡°Close the Xeno-Immortal School and carry out aplete investigation into the matter!¡±

    ¡°Preposterous!¡± the schoolmaster said with a coldugh. Standing, he looked at the God-Merging students, and then outside. ¡°You people obviously came here hoping to get information about our Senior member. You could have just asked directly, instead ofing up with flimsy excuses.

    ¡°The enigmatic master from our Xeno-Immortal School hasn¡¯t made an appearance because he¡¯s in secluded meditation, trying to break through to the level of 1,000,000 soul threads!

    ¡°Before going into seclusion, the venerable Senior told me that he woulde out within three months. On that day, 1,000,000 soul threads would swirl in the dome of heaven over the imperial capital. It would form a Xeno-Immortal sign, causing millions of beams of dawn light to illuminate the Xeno-Immortal School and return it to glory! As of this point, there are only two months left. If you want to confirm whether I¡¯m speaking the truth or not,e back in two months to see with your own eyes.

    ¡°But as for now, you can kindly leave the Xeno-Immortal School!¡±

    The schoolmaster¡¯s voice thrummed with determination and pride. Then he flicked his sleeve, causing the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower to rumble. A force of expulsion quickly locked onto all of the students from the God-Merging School and forced them out. Having aplished that, the schoolmaster tilted his chin arrogantly and sat back down. Although he looked calm, inside he was feeling extremely helpless. He had the opportunity to bring the Xeno-Immortal School back to the heights of prominence, but until that Senior member showed up, there wasn¡¯t much he could do.

    In the end, he had to grit his teeth and resort to bragging to try to keep morale up. As far as the consequences for the bragging, he couldn¡¯t worry about that now. The situation in the Xeno-Immortal School couldn¡¯t be changed, and if it ended up being destroyed, then so be it.

    Meanwhile, his words provoked quite a reaction from the students in the Xeno-Immortal School. The young woman¡¯s eyes glittered. As for the God-Merging School students who had been ejected from the tower, their eyes glittered brightly. It was the same with the students who had gathered as bystanders.

    Xu Qing nced at the schoolmaster, then checked the 1,000,000 soul threads in his sea of consciousness.... From what he could tell, the schoolmaster still had no idea who he actually was. That said, his words had been very convincing.

    In the end, the students from the God-Merging School exchanged nces and left. Their attempt at probing for information had yielded some results.

    The enigmatic master from the Xeno-Immortal School would reveal his face in two months. The news spread rapidly through the Imperial University, ensuring that the short-lived enthusiasm for the Xeno-Immortal School once again began to rise.

    Around evening, when Xu Qing was leaving, he bowed to the schoolmaster. That was when he noticed the anxiety in the schoolmaster¡¯s eyes. And the way the schoolmaster shooed him away seemed to confirm that the man had no idea of Xu Qing¡¯s true identity.

    <i>I suppose... I can do some experiments with my soul seeds now.</i>

    Seven dayster, when the other conve students were getting ready to leave, an anonymous courier student arrived with a sealed bag that he presented to the schoolmaster.

    The schoolmaster didn¡¯t ask any questions about it. In fact, it almost seemed like he had been waiting for this. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened the bag. Inside was a jade slip and a bottle with a violet snowke inside.

    When the schoolmaster saw those two things, he inhaled sharply. He wasn¡¯t sure what the snowke was, but he could sense the fluctuations of the Xeno-Immortal School. Excitedly picking up the jade slip, he scanned the contents. Sometimeter, his expression flickered as he put the jade slip down and looked at the bottle. Then... determination filled his eyes. He crushed the bottle, and the violet snowke floated into his palm, where it sank into his flesh.

    Soul threads began to proliferate explosively inside of him.

    1. The original Chinese idiom here is kind of cool, but it¡¯s a bit too clunky to render directly, and without exnation, it wouldn¡¯t really make sense. The direct trantion is <i>those with bare feet are not afraid of those who wear shoes</i>. ?

    2. My dictionaries are telling me that this idiom <i>poor and culturally void</i> was invented by Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi to characterize China as a nation that was economically poor and culturally nk, thus ripe for change. That said, I¡¯m not sure Chairman Mao actually created the idiom or just poprized it. In any case, this has nothing to do with the story, I just thought it was interesting. ?

 Chapter 782: Branches Grow, Leaves Sprout

    <h4>Chapter 782: Branches Grow, Leaves Sprout</h4>

    The moment the schoolmaster absorbed the violet snowke, Xu Qing, who was in his private chamber in Ningyan¡¯s mansion, opened his eyes. He looked in the direction of the Imperial University.

    <i>The schoolmaster really is a decisive individual.</i>

    Obviously, he had been the one to send that bag. The jade slip exined the pros and cons of using the snowke. He hid nothing, and made it very clear that he could take the soul seed away with a thought.

    That was something the schoolmaster could ept. After all, there was no one besides him who was so interested in seeing the Xeno-Immortal School return to the peak of glory. He was willing to sacrifice everything to see that happen. In reality, he had been waiting for that bag of holding for a while now. In the hopes of getting it, he had takenplete responsibility, and had pushed himself into a corner from which there was no retreat. He had done that on purpose. He had used his actions to create something like a blood tribute for the enigmatic master!

    Xu Qing had witnessed all of that. Therefore, he sent a soul seed as a gift. And through the connection created by that soul seed, he was now able to sense the schoolmaster¡¯s progress assimting it, and his cultivation.

    That sensation was one-way. Xu Qing¡¯s recent research had given him a much more thorough understanding of soul seeds and how domineering they were. After they were absorbed, it was difficult to trace them to their source. In contrast, the person who absorbed them was clearly visible to the senses of the source.

    <i>Based on what I can tell, after the schoolmaster absorbs the soul seed, he¡¯ll experience a huge increase in soul threads.... Of course, that¡¯s assuming his soul is strong enough. From what I can tell, his upgrade will also benefit me.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with determination. A short timeter, he closed them and began meditating, absorbing mutagen from his surroundings and converting it into godsource. That was the best method he was aware of to make more soul threads. The only downside was that it was a slow process.

    Time passed. The schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School currently trembled excitedly as he used his techniques to make new soul threads. He could sense the number of threads within himself increasing dramatically. He started with 30,000, and with every second that passed, the number increased by several hundred. It was a freakish level of speed that left himpletely blown away mentally.

    <i>This is what Xeno-Immortal School cultivation is supposed to be like!</i>

    He continued with his cultivation, full of vim and vigor. There was no question that the schoolmaster was the most suitable person in the Xeno-Immortal School to use a soul seed. He had done more research than anyone else into Xeno-Immortal School techniques. Though his ordinary cultivation didn¡¯t produce soul threads very quickly, his focus on soul nourishment over the years had resulted in his soul being very tough.

    That was one of the unique things about the Xeno-Immortal School. That said, there was another school of thought who operated simrly. The God-Merging School. Because the God-Merging School required a godly body, it also involved strengthening the soul beyond what wasmon for ordinary people.

    Due to the soul seed, the schoolmaster¡¯s soul vibrated for four straight hours. During that time, his soul thread count went from 30,000 to 40,000. At that point, the process slowed down, though it didn¡¯t stop.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing, who wasn¡¯t even in the Imperial University, used his soul thread connection to keep track of what the schoolmaster was aplishing.

    Thanks to the schoolmaster¡¯s rapid power up, the soul thread vortex in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness began to rotate more forcefully. Slowly but surely, a thread of godsource began to appear in the vortex. Although it was only one thread, to Xu Qing, that was a big boost. It was far superior to godsource formed by slowly absorbing mutagen and converting it. In fact, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.

    <i>It really does work!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with further anticipation as he continued his cultivation.

    The next morning at dawn, Xu Qing went to the Xeno-Immortal School tower. In a bit of a deviation from the norm, the schoolmaster wasn¡¯t present in the lower levels of the tower, which was quite a surprise to the other conve students. Normally speaking, the schoolmaster rarely went to the top level. He preferred his chair in the main hall.

    Only Xu Qing knew what was going on. The schoolmaster was still working on his cultivation. During the night, his soul thread count had already reached the level of 45,000.

    <i>Given that rate of speed, it will only take a few days for him to break through to 50,000. That¡¯s the weaving requirement for an earthchild.</i>

    As Xu Qing thought about that, he was roped into working on the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>. Thanks to the schoolmaster¡¯s two months of passionate promotion of the school, they were getting loads of hot tips for the tabloid. The mysterious young woman was now part of the group. She had taken the initiative to join the <i>Enquirer </i>team, and was currently pumping out tabloid jade slips and asionally asking Xu Qing and the others for cultivation tips.

    Three days passed.

    At noon on the fourth day, as Xu Qing was browsing some of the ancient records in the Xeno-Immortal School, an astonishing shockwave rolled out of the top level of the tower. The shockwave contained godliness, and it caused every student in the Xeno-Immortal School to look up in shock.

    That included Xu Qing. Beneath his mask, he was smiling. He could sense that the schoolmaster had broken past the level of 50,000 soul threads.

    Next, a howl swept through the tower. A momentter, a massive godly earthchild flickered into being above it, right in mid-air above the Imperial University. It had a ck body and a very strong aura, and caused widespread shock in the university. Students from numerous schools of thought looked over, and exmations of astonishment could be heard everywhere.

    The godly earthchild emanated intense pressure for a short time before transforming back into the form of the schoolmaster.

    Themotion in the university grew even more intense.

    ¡°Is that... the schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School??¡±

    ¡°He actually weaved a godly earthchild!¡±

    ¡°Another instance of major sess in the Xeno-Immortal School?¡±

    The conve students of the Xeno-Immortal School rushed out and looked up at the schoolmaster, the astonishment visible in their eyes. Xu Qing had already grown used to assuming a surprised look.

    The mysterious young woman was shaken to the core. <i>I knew it! The enigmatic master in question isn¡¯t the schoolmaster! But I¡¯m going in the right direction. This Xeno-Immortal School... has some really big secrets!</i>

    When the schoolmaster saw that he was the center of attention, he sped his hands behind his back. And when he spoke, the cultivation base breakthrough thanks to the soul threads ensured that his voice echoed loudly for all to hear.

    ¡°You have just witnessed the private techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School! Those who cultivate the private techniques of our school of thought will, in three months at the most, form 50,000 soul threads. Of course, that¡¯s assuming your soul is strong enough.¡±

    All of the students who heard his words were shaken to the core.

    Seeing that, the schoolmaster took a deep breath. Eyes shining with determination, he said, ¡°Furthermore, starting today, the Xeno-Immortal School will break from tradition. We¡¯re opening our tower and epting conve students to learn our techniques. We want to open up a path for all human cultivators to walk!¡±

    With that, the schoolmaster vanished.

    Almost instantly, the entire Imperial University was abuzz with talk about the schoolmaster¡¯s transformation, and the fact that the Xeno-Immortal School was epting new students.

    The reputation of the school had been starting to plummet, but now it was rising again. The schoolmaster¡¯s huge measure of sess, coupled with everything from before, merged into a tempest that affected all the schools of thought in the university.

    Word quickly spread to the imperial capital. In no time at all, the Xeno-Immortal School became incredibly popr. In fact, Xu Qing and the other twelve conve students soon had no personal time at all, as they were forced to deal with a constant stream of studentsing to inquire about the school. That said, there weren¡¯t many people who were truly interested in bing conve students. Although the students were obviously moved, it was going to take more time, or some other dramatic event, to get them to make a final decision. For example, if another person appeared who achieved major sess with soul threads, or if some of the students experienced dramatic progress in their cultivation.

    Therefore, Xu Qing started to consider giving out another soul seed.... Before he could decide who to give it to, he sensed something about the schoolmaster through the soul seed.

    On the third day after the schoolmaster seeded with the earthchild, Xu Qing sensed the schoolmaster¡¯s soul seed forming a vortex. Although it wasn''t as impressive as Xu Qing¡¯s, it still produced snowkes. They weren¡¯t violet, but rather, green, indicating that they were on a lower level. But they worked all the same. And given that Xu Qing was the ultimate source, he could influence them.

    That actually surpassed what Xu Qing had predicted would happen, and it was quite a surprise. Before he could analyze the situation deeply, the schoolmaster sent down a dharmic decree from the top level of the tower, calling Xu Qing and the original three conve students up. He gave each one of them a bottle.

    ¡°Inside those bottles are dao seeds from the private technique of our Xeno-Immortal School. Absorb them and you¡¯ll qualify to learn the private technique!¡±

    The other three conve students were visibly excited. Meanwhile, Xu Qing scanned the bottle and found that it contained a single soul seed snowke.

    ¡°The dao seed from the private technique is the result of countless years of research in our school of thought,¡± the schoolmaster continued. ¡°The reason I never gave them to you before is that they contained potential cmity. But I¡¯ve resolved that, and they¡¯re now perfectly safe. Absorb them, then use the Xeno-Immortal School techniques you know, and your progress will elerate dramatically.¡±

    The schoolmaster didn¡¯t mention that after they absorbed the soul seeds, he would still be able to control them. Eyes glittering like lightning, he looked at Xu Qing and the others.

    ¡°Break the bottles and absorb the seeds. I¡¯ll stand as dharma protector for you while you do.¡±

    The three conve disciples exchanged nces, then looked at the schoolmaster. It was impossible to tell exactly what they were thinking. But in the end, they chose to break the bottles, take out the green snowkes, and absorb them.

    Upon seeing the three students absorb the snowkes, the schoolmaster nodded. Then he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Sir Dark-Thunder, aren¡¯t you going to ept the dao seed?¡±

    Though Xu Qing felt it was a very strange situation, he didn¡¯t hesitate to break the bottle and then absorb the tiny green snowke. Though no one could sense it, not even the schoolmaster, the snowke immediately melted. The vortex within Xu Qing sped up a bit.

    Looking very pleased, the schoolmaster dismissed them and went back to meditating.

    Xu Qing sped hands respectfully, then left with the others. Later, on the way back to the mansion, Xu Qing confirmed that the green snowke was actually subsidiary to his violet snowkes.

    <i>I never could have guessed that something like this would happen. And how could I have known that the schoolmaster¡¯s subsidiary soul seeds would be so limited in number. If there were a hundred of them....</i>

    Xu Qing turned and looked back at the Imperial University. He suddenly had the premonition that the Xeno-Immortal School was going to experience a dramatic change thanks to his violet snowkes. The school was definitely going to rise to prominence. If things went as normal, and the school didn¡¯t vite human morality, then he was more than happy to watch it climb to glorious heights. But if they did vite human morality, he would put an end to it immediately.

 Chapter 783: The Xeno-Immortal School is Infected with True Evil

    <h4>Chapter 783: The Xeno-Immortal School is Infected with True Evil</h4>

    A cold winter wind blew through the capital, picking up scattered bits of snow from the ground and sending it dancing into the air. The wind blew on the three conve students who had absorbed the schoolmaster¡¯s green snowkes as they raced toward the university. All of them had started a new life recently.

    Previously, they all had hundreds of soul threads, but now those numbers were increasing. As the original conve students in the Xeno-Immortal School, they didn¡¯t have any special techniques, but their years of cultivation had made their souls a lot tougher than normal. As the morning sun rose, driving away the darkness and sending light out to illuminate everything, the three of them already looked a lot different than before. Their cultivation bases rose, and their gazes sharpened.

    The soul fluctuations of the Xeno-Immortal School rolled off them. Even the student who made the slowest progress now had 3,000 soul threads, while the one who made the best progress... had 6,000.

    When the three students reached the Xeno-Immortal School, the other nine conve students, including the mysterious young woman, all looked at them in surprise.

    The schoolmaster sat in his chair, his eyes overflowing with praise as he examined them.

    The three students exchanged nces, and then, hearts overflowing with gratitude, they said, ¡°Many thanks, Teacher!¡±

    Despite the potential for hidden cmities, the fact that their soul threads had experienced such a dramatic increase left all of them feeling excited and determined.

    ¡°You did well in absorbing those Xeno-Immortal dao seeds,¡± the schoolmaster said with a nod. ¡°Next, you need to improve the durability of your souls. They need to be stronger! Remember, the tougher your souls, the more soul threads you¡¯ll be able to umte.

    ¡°My Xeno-Immortal dao seed is an important part of Xeno-Immortal School techniques. Our school¡¯s techniques are simr to imperial-ss techniques, which as you know require a dao seed to cultivate!¡±

    When the conve students heard that, their hearts swelled with excitement. The young woman struggled to control her breathing, and was about to ask some questions.

    But then, Xu Qing appeared outside the tower. As he walked in, all eyes and all senses focused on him. The other three students who had received dao seeds were visibly taken aback. The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes glittered brightly as he rose to his feet. The other nine conve students were even more shaken.

    Xu Qing pulsed with even stronger soul thread fluctuations. Based on what everyone could sense, he clearly had at least 10,000.

    ¡°Excellent. Excellent! Sir Dark-Thunder, the first time Iid eyes on you, I could sense you had an extraordinary future. Now it¡¯s obvious that you¡¯re truly suited to being in our Xeno-Immortal School.¡±

    The schoolmaster threw his head back andughed heartily. Based on what he could sense, the soul seed he had given to Xu Qing had been fully absorbed. And by means of that soul seed, he could sense that Xu Qing¡¯s soul was very strong. Given how smoothly the absorption process had gone, it was clear that this Sir Dark-Thunder was a natural talent when it came to soul strengthening.

    People like that weren¡¯t exactlymon. That said, they weren¡¯t incredibly rare either, especially considering that people who qualified toe to the Imperial University were all inherently unique in some way.

    Xu Qing bowed at the waist, all while feeling a bit helpless. This wasn¡¯t how he had intended things to go. That said, he wasn¡¯t ready to reveal his true identity, and thus, he had to make at least some soul threads lest he cast suspicion on himself. He had attempted to make a few ordinary soul threads to obfuscate the truth. But his godsource soul threads were so amazing that even just releasing a bit of their energy resulted in fluctuations equivalent to over 10,000 ordinary soul threads. And he couldn¡¯t take back that energy now.

    The result was the scene ying out right now. Despite the annoying turn of events, Xu Qing was very pleased with what he had aplished the previous night.

    After the three conve students began cultivating their soul seeds, it resulted in more godsource appearing in the vortex in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness.

    However annoyed Xu Qing was at the moment, the schoolmaster was even more excited. Feeling very proud of Xu Qing and the other three students, he turned his attention to the remaining nine members of the conve.

    ¡°Are you people watching? I know that all of youe from different organizations, but that¡¯s fine. You¡¯re all very lucky to be part of the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s rise to prominence.

    ¡°The Imperial University is a tolerant ce. And despite what our Xeno-Immortal School says about conve students, we¡¯re also tolerant. Therefore, going forward, if you behave well, then whichever of you is the first to recruit an additional 100 conve students will be the first to get one of these Xeno-Immortal dao seeds!¡±

    The nine students, including the mysterious young woman, all bowed in response. Although some of them had some suspicions, the fact remained that Xu Qing and the other three had clearly seeded. And that was a big impetus.

    Just like that, a big recruitment drive began in the Xeno-Immortal School. In the following days, news of the sess experienced by Xu Qing and the other three spread through the Imperial University. More people than ever showed up to make inquiries. And as more students personally confirmed the truth of the rumors... a tempest began to fill the university.

    Many people rted personal ounts and experiences proving that the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s private techniques were real. And thus... a fourteenth conve student joined. Then a fifteenth. In seven short days, the number of conve students in the Xeno-Immortal School broke past the watershed point of 100. The school really was experiencing a revival.

    During that week, Xu Qing and the other three students continued to progress, with the least progress being 5,000. Xu Qing and one other student both reached the level of about 13,000.

    The other conve students saw that, and their eyes became bloodshot as they worked even harder on their task. Regardless of anything, the enticement of the dao seeds was gripping the entire Imperial University.

    Eventually, on the evening of the twelfth day, one of the conve students seeded in personally enticing a 100th person to join.

    In the presence of all the conve students, the schoolmaster held a solemn ceremony that emphasized the precious nature of the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds. Not giving any chance for hesitation, the schoolmaster handed over the dao seed and had him absorb it. It wasn¡¯t just the new conve students who were paying close attention to the event. Schools of thought from throughout the Imperial University were watching.

    As everyone looked on, the new conve student shivered. Then soul threads erupted from inside of him. After about two hours passed, the soul thread count had surpassed 1,000.

    As the soul thread aura spread, the tempest caused by the Xeno-Immortal School grew more intense in the Imperial University. The Xeno-Immortal School was now the hottest conversation topic around. New conve students were joining on a daily basis, and they immediately began to recruit more students to join them. Thus, as time passed, more and more conve students got dao seeds and officially started Xeno-Immortal cultivation.

    The repeated sesses created a vortex that sucked in more and more students. That said, not every conve student was so devoted. There were some who had juste to watch from the sidelines. Those people simply wanted to see what was happening, and were obviously hesitant and curious about the dao seeds. The mysterious young woman was one of them. Such people got the sense that the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds probably contained some sort of deadly side-effects.

    That said, the way the schoolmaster hadpared Xeno-Immortal dao seeds with imperial-ss techniques was enough of an exnation for most people. After all, cultivating imperial-ss techniques really did result in the appearance of a seed.[1]

    As a result, though people suspected that there could be side-effects, they were nothing more than that: suspicions that couldn¡¯t be proven.

    When Xu Qing looked around at the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower, and thought about how it had once been deserted, he had to admire the schoolmaster. Xu Qing knew full well that his soul seed was just a turning point. The schoolmaster¡¯s perseverance and hard work were also integral to the school¡¯s rise to prominence.

    In terms of the reality of how soul seeds worked, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried. He had studied the green snowke and could tell that, though it was somewhat strange, it was very high quality. In fact, it was perfect. What was more, it contained shades of a heavenly dao, as if it had actually been blessed by a heavenly dao.

    As more conve students came along and absorbed the green soul seeds, the schoolmaster received the benefits. After giving out over 90 soul seeds, his soul thread count reached the level of 80,000.

    As the ultimate source, Xu Qing benefited even more. Godsource proliferated in the vortex in his sea of consciousness, turning into soul threads on a daily basis. As of now, he had gone from 1,000,000 soul threads to a total of over 1,100,000. When someone absorbed a soul seed, it would send something like roots throughout them, the point of which was to nourish the seed.

    <i>If one of these students eventually cultivates 50,000 soul threads, will it result in a branch appearing?</i>

    Xu Qing felt a lot of anticipation about that.

    Thus it was that the Xeno-Immortal School, which had fallen into decline in the Imperial University, experienced a revival. Organizations throughout the imperial capital were now paying very close attention to it.

    Of course, the other schools of thought in the university were paying even closer attention. That was especially true of the God-Merging School.

    The Xeno-Immortal and God-Merging Schools were essentially two diverging concepts that were nearly as ipatible as fire and water. If one rose to prominence, it would obviously have a negative effect on the other.

    Therefore, as the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s revival picked up speed, a meeting was held in the God-Merging School¡¯s tower. The goal was to n action against the Xeno-Immortal School.

    The attendees included the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School, as well as other high-ranking members. In total, there were a hundred people present, all seated in an orderly fashion.

    Seventh Prince was there, seated at the right hand of the schoolmaster and facing the other students. His eyes were now red, which indicated that he was now a chief student of the God-Merging School.

    The discussion didn¡¯t begin with talk about the Xeno-Immortal School. Instead, it began with a summary of recent situations in their own school of thought, plus updates on personal cultivation. Since Seventh Prince was now the spokesperson for their school, he exined some about his own cultivation progress.

    After the introductory elements were finished, the schoolmaster nodded. Casting an encouraging look at the crowd, he turned to Seventh Prince. ¡°You are truly endowed with impressive talent, Seventh Prince. It¡¯s perfect for the dao of god-merging. If you keep up your cultivation in this way, then after a sixty-year-cycle, you¡¯ll have incredible results.¡±

    Seventh Prince waved his hand dismissively but said nothing. He didn¡¯t seem impressed or moved.

    The schoolmaster smiled faintly, then turned to look at the chief student on his other side. ¡°Sir Spiritsoul, take out the dao seed you got from the Xeno-Immortal School. I¡¯d like to inspect it.¡±

    The other chief student with the red eyes waved his hand, causing a green snowke to appear in front of him. Voice calm, he said, ¡°One of the conve students from the Xeno-Immortal School dug this out of himself and gave it to me. Please, take a look, Schoolmaster.¡±

    He flicked his sleeve, sending the snowke flying to the schoolmaster.

    The schoolmaster reached out with his finger, stopping the snowke in midair. Eyes glittering, he looked at it closely. He bent over the snowke, and then red threads emerged from his eyes. Well over a hundred of them appeared and stabbed into the snowke. The snowke vibrated, then copsed into nothing. The schoolmaster seemed to be taking the situation very seriously. Shortly after, the red threads retracted. The schoolmaster closed his eyes.

    The tower waspletely silent as everyone looked at him.

    Finally, he spoke in a hoarse voice. ¡°That thing is fiendish, evil, and domineering. It can consume the souls of all living beings. The Xeno-Immortal School is infected with true evil!¡± He slowly stood. ¡°Come with me. We¡¯re going to personally see what¡¯s going on over there!¡±

    1. The connection between imperial-ss techniques and seeds was delved into in <u>chapters 177</u>-<u>180</u>. There may be other references out there as well, those were the ones that came to mind first. ?

 Chapter 784: God-Merging Raises Difficult Questions

    <h4>Chapter 784: God-Merging Raises Difficult Questions</h4>

    It was evening, so the crowds of students in the Imperial University were thinning. Though there were some students who would stay in the university long-term, most of them left around evening. After all, what happened in the mortal world created fetters that held tight onto the heart. Severing them wasn¡¯t easy.

    At the moment, a group of people from the God-Merging School was making its way through the emptying university. They were clustered around their schoolmaster, who walked at a steady pace, looking very schrly and refined. Given his status in the university, wherever he went, students would stop and salute him respectfully. He would look at them kindly and nod. When he encountered students from his own school of thought, he would stop, assess their cultivation, and give them some friendly tips. His words and actions conformed perfectly with what the university expected of a teacher. It was one of the reasons why the God-Merging School¡¯s schoolmaster was so respected.

    HIs actions drew the attention of many of the other schools of thought. Soon people realized that he was heading to the east. That was where the Xeno-Immortal School was located.

    Many students who had been nning to leave were now swept up in the moment, and started following to see what was going to happen. Many already had spections. It wasn¡¯t really hard to guess what would y out shortly. After all, the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School were really at odds in their ideals. And that was especially noteworthy considering the recent revival going on in the Xeno-Immortal School.

    More and more students joined the crowd following the God-Merging School as they eventually arrived at the Xeno-Immortal School.

    Xu Qing and his fellow students had just said their farewells and were about to leave. When he looked outside, his eyes glittered with a mysterious light, and he quickly backed up and stood behind someone else.

    There were a few dozen conve students working on their cultivation. All of them had green snowkes inside them, and with that blessing, were able to producerge amounts of soul threads. The entire tower was full of the aura of Xeno-Immortal techniques, creating a pressure that even people outside could sense.

    When the God-Merging School arrived, their godly aura entered the tower and shed with the aura of the Xeno-Immortal techniques. The two seemed to be devouring each other, causing muffled rumbling sounds to echo out, like heavenly thunder.

    The conve students in the tower immediately noticed what was happening and opened their eyes. When they saw the God-Merging School outside, their expressions flickered, and they shot to their feet.

    The schoolmaster of the God-Merging School stopped outside the tower.

    The high-ranking members of the school, including Seventh Prince and the other chief student, entered ahead of him. The godly fluctuationsing off of them created something like a tempest that suppressed the Xeno-Immortal aura. The entire white tower filled with intense pressure, causing the Xeno-Immortal students to subconsciously back up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. To him, it felt like a group of powerful grues from a forbidden ground, disguised in human skin.

    ¡°As it turns out, the Xeno-Immortal School <i>is </i>full of true evil,¡± Seventh Prince said, his eyes cold.

    Xu Qing looked back at him with simrly cold eyes.

    The eyes of the other conve students of the Xeno-Immortal School glittered as they looked at the people from the God-Merging School. Though none of them had been members of the Xeno-Immortal School for long, and thus couldn¡¯t really say they endorsed the ce, it was a fact that the dao seeds had helped them a lot. In fact, no other school of thought couldpare in that regard. The benefits were real, and none of them were inclined to abandon them. Therefore, this overtly rude and aggressive act immediately made them think of the people from the God-Merging School as enemies.

    ¡°It doesn''t matter if you¡¯re an imperial prince on the outside,¡± one of the students said. ¡°In the Imperial University, everyone is a student. Please, conduct yourself with dignity and speak with respect!¡±

    Seventh Prince looked around apathetically, then took a few steps back to clear a path. The other high-ranking members of the God-Merging School did the same. Then their schoolmaster appeared. He looked calm as he walked into the tower. He didn¡¯t so much as nce at any of the students present, but instead, focused his gaze on the higher level of the tower.

    ¡°Schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School, we¡¯vee from the God-Merging School to pay a formal visit.¡±

    He didn¡¯t speak very loudly, but his voice contained immense pressure. All of the students of the Xeno-Immortal School had no choice but to bow their heads.

    Xu Qing was in the crowd, and he was surreptitiously examining the schoolmaster from the God-Merging School. This was his second time seeing the schoolmaster, and the feeling of familiarity fromst time once again appeared.

    <i>There¡¯s something fishy about this person.</i>

    A momentter, a tremor passed through Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts, and he shifted his gaze to the higher level of the tower. He had just sensed the fluctuations of another green soul seed.

    <i>Is that...?</i>

    Around then, the schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School spoke from the higher level.

    ¡°We have different daos. What¡¯s more, I¡¯m too busy to see you. Please leave immediately and don¡¯t disturb the cultivation of the students here.¡±

    While the schoolmaster from the God-Merging School spoke in a calm and tranquil way, the schoolmaster from the Xeno-Immortal School spoke in a wild and arrogant way. Some of that was a result of rank and status. The God-Merging School was the number-one school of thought, so they needed to be calm and tranquil. And since the Xeno-Immortal School was rising to prominence, it made sense for them to be somewhat arrogant.

    The words that had just been spoken prickled the ears of the people from the God-Merging School. However, their schoolmaster¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change, as if he didn¡¯t care at all what the other schoolmaster just said. Looking around at the Xeno-Immortal students, he spoke in a kind tone that seemed almost like a sigh.

    ¡°The Imperial University is a ce where <i>a hundred flowers bloom</i>. Differing views can be expressed freely here. I congratte the Xeno-Immortal School on their revival. It¡¯s only by the fiercepetition between schools of thought that new innovation can ur. It¡¯s the only way to find a truly suitable dao for humankind.

    ¡°However, if a revival is instigated by true evil, with no regard for the safety of the students, then I can¡¯t ept that. Neither can the Imperial University. Neither can humankind.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been studying various ancient records to confirm certain historical truths. ording to my findings, the Xeno-Immortal School never had anything like a ¡®Xeno-Immortal dao seed.¡¯ That¡¯s a new development. And the dao seeds all of you have in you have some very serious problems.

    ¡°I personally studied one such dao seed, and I saw clear evidence of evil. If you absorb them, then going forward, your life force, your cultivation base, and your thoughts will be under the control of someone else. What¡¯s more... with a single thought on the part of your leaders, you¡¯ll be made to pay the ultimate price. At best, your soul will dim, at worst, you¡¯ll lose your life.

    ¡°Therefore, I came here today to provide a warning. The Xeno-Immortal School needs to stop using this method. Beyond that, I encourage all students here to extrude their dao seeds, lest they provoke true cmity on themselves.¡±

    His words caused no small amount of shock in the Xeno-Immortal School. The truth was that many students had wondered about this very possibility. However, the simrities between these dao seeds and those from imperial-ss techniques were such that they¡¯d been able to overlook that possibility. But now, a person as important as the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School brought up the same point. They couldn¡¯t help but start thinking deeply about the situation.

    Xu Qing had to admit that this schoolmaster from the God-Merging School, who seemed so familiar, had a way with words. It made sense that his little speech had already caused people to feel unsettled.

    <i>I wonder how our schoolmaster is going to resolve this situation.</i>

    Xu Qing looked toward the upper level of the tower.

 Chapter 785: Second Violet Soul Seed

    <h4>Chapter 785: Second Violet Soul Seed</h4>

    The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s white tower waspletely silent. However, after only a moment passed, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmasterughed coldly from the top level.

    ¡°What a disgrace for the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School to utter such ridiculous nonsense!¡± The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster appeared, walking slowly down into the main hall. Looking coldly at the God-Merging schoolmaster, he said, ¡°You were reading ancient records? Confirming historical truths? You im that the Xeno-Immortal School never produced dao seeds before? In that case, take a look at this and tell me what it is?¡±

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster pointed toward the top level of the tower. Instantly, terrifying soul thread fluctuations spread out, surpassing anything before. It seemed like the level of about 300,000.

    As the fluctuations rolled out, a shimmering field of light appeared, upon which was visible an enormous figure. Shockingly, it was a godly earthchild.

    However, it was different from the one the schoolmaster had weaved before. This earthchild seemed far more ancient, with a profound aura that surpassed any other earthchild. It seemed like Void Returning, and not ordinary Void Returning. The fluctuations werepletely terrifying. What was more, within the earthchild was a green snowke, glittering brightly as it connected to all the soul threads. It was a dao seed.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster looked at it silently. All the other cultivators from the God-Merging School, including Seventh Prince, had slight frowns on their faces.

    Meanwhile, the Xeno-Immortal students were astonished. It only took a moment for someone to guess where this earthchild came from, and it was mind-blowing to say the least.

    ¡°That is Patriarch Chen Daoze of our Xeno-Immortal School!¡± the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster said, his voice echoing throughout the tower. ¡°Most people on the outside believed that the patriarch achieved a major level of sess by weaving an earthchild, only to die afterward of nirvanic extermination. They believed that he became a desated corpse that we kept stored here in the Xeno-Immortal School. But do you really think that our patriarch could die so easily?

    ¡°The reality is that Patriarch Chen Daoze chose to enter a deep state of sleep to study his dao seed! The patriarch always had a dao seed inside of him. So where exactly did you get information iming we never had dao seeds before?

    ¡°Furthermore, since our patriarch himself fused with a dao seed, then who is the ¡®leader¡¯ you mentioned whose mere thought could lead to disaster? Please, tell me who the ¡®leader¡¯ of our patriarch is?¡± The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster flicked his sleeve proudly and turned to his own students. ¡°Look closely at the sleeping patriarch and tell me, are you looking at an illusory projection? You should be able to tell. And is the dao seed inside of him the same as the one inside all of you?¡±

    The Xeno-Immortal students were shaken to the core. They had all noticed the green snowke inside the patriarch¡¯s head, and the fact that it looked exactly like their own snowkes. As the saying goes, <i>facts speak louder than words</i>, and what was more, they could topple all sorts of rumors.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. Now he realized where the strange feeling from before came from. It was actually a bit of a surprise to him to find out that Chen Daoze wasn¡¯t actually dead.

    <i>Chen Daoze... must have a far stronger soul than the schoolmaster. Probably by many times over. Sadly, the blessing of the green snowke would be very limited for him. If he had a violet snowke, then he should definitely be able to break past the 500,000 soul thread level.</i>

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster had no way to rebut the words of the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster. Everyone from the God-Merging School was currently just standing there with serious looks on their faces. Seeing that, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmasterughed coldly.

    ¡°When I mentioned someone being in seclusion, I was talking about our patriarch! In a month, he¡¯s going to being out of seclusion. If you have suspicions, just wait a month. If you dare, we can have a dao debate then!¡±

    His words immediately caused a stir, not just in the students in the tower, but in the other schools of thought that were paying attention to the situation.

    In the Imperial University, dao debates were the highest form of intellectual interchange. In fact, they were the foundation of the university. Schools of thought were actually encouraged to have dao debates as a way to improve their level of persuasion and influence, and also to attract new recruits. In the early days of the Imperial University, dao debates happened all the time. There were even asions in which dao debate between major schools of thought attracted the attention of the imperial n. There were even times when the emperor himself attended. Over the years that had passed, and especially since the God-Merging School became popr, dao debates became less frequent. But now, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster had openly proposed a dao debate. [1]

    His words came across like a general drawing his sword. The Xeno-Immortal students immediately got very excited. In contrast, the people from the God-Merging School stood there grimly.

    A moment passed, whereupon the God-Merging schoolmaster looked away from the screen of light and directly at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster.

    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± he said coolly. ¡°In a month, when your patriarches out of seclusion, a dao debate will be held here in the Imperial University!¡±

    The God-Merging schoolmaster turned and walked off. The high-level members of his school looked around grimly and then followed him.

    The atmosphere in the Xeno-Immortal School was exuberant. Looking around proudly, the schoolmaster waved his hand to indicate that everyone should go back to what they were doing. Then he sped his hands behind his back and went back upstairs.

    Xu Qing looked long and hard at the departing cultivators from the God-Merging school, especially Seventh Prince and the schoolmaster. Then he looked up toward the top part of the Xeno-Immortal School tower.

    <i>Should I give out another soul seed?</i>

    He looked at the 99 violet snowkes he had. After some thought, he left.

    Later that night, a bag that looked exactly like the previous bag was delivered to the Xeno-Immortal School. The schoolmaster sensed it being delivered, but didn¡¯t immediately rush out to get it. After waiting a short time, he went downstairs. He wasn¡¯t concerned with who delivered it. He was fully aware that the enigmatic master he was dealing with didn¡¯t want to be revealed. Therefore, there was no reason to pry. What he cared about was whether or not the bag contained a violet snowke. With the bag in hand, he hurried back into his private chamber.

    As predicted, the bag contained a violet snowke. The schoolmaster¡¯s heart leapt with excitement. A momentter, he took a deep breath and ced the bottle into the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s restricted chamber, right in front of the sleeping Chen Daoze.

    ***

    That very night in the God-Merging School, something profoundly significant was taking ce.... In the top level of their tower, in their Technique Library, Seventh Prince was looking through jade slip after jade slip.

    Due to the unique characteristics of the Imperial University, the God-Merging School¡¯s Technique Library was a special ce. That was where each student would record information about their cultivation. That way,ter generations could learn from their experiences, and avoid making any big mistakes.

    Seventh Prince wasbing through those very records. He could have left whenever he wanted. But after returning from the Xeno-Immortal School, he thought about what his own schoolmaster had mentioned to him about the sixty-year-cycle.

    <i>He said I¡¯d have incredible results after a sixty-year-cycle.... Unfortunately, the crown prince incense is going to burn out in a year. I don¡¯t have the option of waiting that long.</i>

    Though Seventh Prince had experienced a breakthrough recently, he still felt like he was advancing too slowly. He hated Xu Qing and wanted to get revenge, which fueled his desire to be the crown prince and gain control over humankind. In the past, everything had seemed possible thanks to having King Heaventide as an uncle. But now....

    <i>If I can have a shocking cultivation base... then all my problems will be easily solved!</i>

    Feeling somewhat fidgety, Seventh Prince kept thinking and reading. He wanted to find a shortcut! He had asked the schoolmaster for advice, but hadn¡¯t received any response.

    About two hourster, Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at the jade slip in his hand. It contained insights into cultivation from a Senior member of the God-Merging School in the past. It talked about a theoretical method of taking the souls of fellow humans and using them to elerate the godly entity transformation. It was a brutal technique that vited the moral norms of human nature, which was why it been abandoned. The person who came up with the idea ultimately used it on a small scale when dealing with personal enemies.

    After some thought, Seventh Prince walked out of the Technique Library. He left the jade slip exactly where he found it.

    Shortly after, in the peaceful Technique Library, the God-Merging schoolmaster appeared out of nowhere, standing in the exact spot where Seventh Prince had just stood. Looking down at the jade slip, he smiled faintly.

    1. The term I¡¯m rendering ¡®dao debate¡¯ is a real-life term that refers to some sort of serious debate or discussion about some philosophical or other deep matter. It does have the character ¡®dao¡¯ in it, but when used in real-life contexts it doesn¡¯t necessarily have anything to do with Daosim. Obviously the use of the term in this context is uniquepared to how it¡¯s normally used. 1) because of this being xianxia, 2) for the sake of brevity, and 3) to differentiate it from themon word for ¡®debate,¡¯ I¡¯m using ¡®dao debate.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 786: Heâ€™s a Xeno-Immortal

    <h4>Chapter 786: He¡¯s a Xeno-Immortal</h4>

    It was a calm and peaceful night for many. But for others, the wind pierced deep into their souls.

    For example, there was Seventh Prince. After returning to his mansion, he seemed to simply go into meditation. But the truth was that his heart pounded as if he had been possessed. He just couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the content of that jade slip.

    And then there was the patriarch of the Xeno-Immortal School, Chen Daoze. When the violet snowke floated into his earthchild body, he experienced a dramatic proliferation in soul threads. His soul was stronger than the soul of any other person in the Xeno-Immortal School, and had long ago reached an astonishing level. That was why even the puny green snowke had pushed his soul threads to the level of 300,000.

    But now, with the violet soul seed, his soul thread count quickly climbed to 400,000. Then 500,000. And soon it approached 600,000.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster activated a spell formation to keep the fluctuations concealed, otherwise it would have caused a bigmotion. The schoolmaster had no choice but to cover those fluctuations. After all... this speed of cultivation was uncanny. When kept within reasonable bounds, fast cultivation would attract some attention. But heaven-defying speed could provoke terror. Thankfully, the schoolmaster was ensuring that no prying eyes noticed what happened.

    Of course, he couldn¡¯t block Xu Qing¡¯s senses. That night, Xu Qing opened his eyes several times and looked in the direction of the Imperial University. His expression flickered between various emotions, and his heart was in turmoil.

    <i>I can¡¯t believe Chen Daoze¡¯s soul has reached a level like this....</i>

    By means of the soul seed, Xu Qing could sense the soul threads increasing in number. Of course, the godsource increase that he experienced as a result was also shocking.

    Overnight, Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads increased by tens of thousands.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster also experienced a dramatic night. As he personally watched the patriarch power up, it gave him a deeper understanding of soul seeds, but at the same time, struck fear into his heart. Although his words from earlier seemed perfectly reasonable, and also very convincing, the reality was that he had known the truth about soul seeds from the beginning, thanks to Xu Qing. But in the end, this was a chance to truly revive the Xeno-Immortal School, so even if the soul seed had been pure poison, he still would have consumed it. Maybe his decision would create a rocky future for the Xeno-Immortal School. He had no way of knowing. He just knew that the ce was quietly dying, and thus, he¡¯d chosen to make a dramatic gamble.

    Even still, what was happening right now was shocking and fear-inspiring. Slowly but surely, Chen Daoze¡¯s earthchild form opened its eyes, and the schoolmaster suppressed his fear.

    ¡°This is godsource,¡± a profound and ancient voice said.

    ¡°Greetings, Patriarch!¡± the schoolmaster said, bowing excitedly.

    ¡°Someone... has tread the path ahead of us, and thus proven that our Xeno-Immortal School techniques are feasible on a theoretical level. We use soul threads to imitate godsource. But this person reverse-engineered our process. They used the result to determine the method. And in doing so, they used Xeno-Immortal School techniques as a personal blessing.

    ¡°Either a god or an immortal, determined with a single thought. Or perhaps... this is what a xeno-immortal truly is.¡±

    Chen Daoze¡¯s huge earthchild form blurred. Then rumbling sounds echoed out as the body became innumerable soul threads that shrank down and ultimately disappeared, revealing his true body, which hadn¡¯t been seen for 5,000 years. He had deeply sunken eyes and a face full of wrinkles, a testament to the years of hardship he had experienced. His hair was light gray, and he was very skinny. Yet his eyes glittered with bright light; he had such indescribable wisdom that he could burn all souls and see through the substructure of humanity.

    After speaking, he checked his body, and then a wistful look appeared in his eyes. He really had never imagined that he would wake up. He had long since resigned himself to slowly sinking away into death.

    But now that he was awake, his heart filled with determination. Striding over to the schoolmaster, he sped the man¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to think too much into this. In your heart, think of him as a xeno-immortal. Then all thoseplicated thoughts will be made much simpler.¡±

    ¡°Xeno-immortal...¡± the schoolmaster murmured. Nodding, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to forget about his fear and suspicions. When those attachments disappeared, and he truly opened his heart, the violet snowke transformed again, this time bing more deeply bound to him.

    At the same time, his soul thread count increased. Breaking past his previous shackles, he reached the level of 100,000.

    ¡°You can¡¯t go past that,¡± Chen Daoze said. ¡°You¡¯ve already surpassed the limitations of your soul. Given the nature of your soul, you previously wouldn¡¯t even have been able to reach 100,000. This is the blessing thates from those green snowkes of yours.¡± Chen Daoze seemed as if he could see into the very depths of the schoolmaster. ¡°If you want to break through, you should try to help those students absorb the green snowkes. See if their soul thread count can climb high enough for you to... form the next level of dao seed!¡±

    The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes glittered brightly, and he nodded.

    Seven days passed.

    Xu Qing kept the same routine during that time. He would go to the Xeno-Immortal School tower every day, work on cultivation with the conve students there, and benefit from the Xeno-Immortal School techniques. He had long sincee to realize that as more people cultivated these techniques, the fluctuations in the tower became increasingly beneficial to his breathing exercises. The vortex in his sea of consciousness rotated even more freely.

    As a result, Xu Qing liked this environment. He took note that the schoolmaster wasn¡¯t staying upstairs constantly. Instead, he came down to the main hall to give advice to students. It seemed almost as if he was trying to make some sort of decision.

    He included Xu Qing in that process, but apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation speed was too slow. What was more, he didn¡¯t act as fawningly as some of the other students. And thus, as everyone else worked harder, they slowly surpassed Xu Qing.

    That wasn¡¯t the case just with Xu Qing. There were other conve students who fell behind as well, whether they had hesitated about the dao seeds or not. As of now, there were actually hundreds of conve students in the Xeno-Immortal School, and there were plenty among them who had extraordinary souls. As a result, it was a given that some people would quickly catch up to the old guard.

    Whereverrge numbers of people gathered, different personalities could be found. And when you added in the fact that no one knew the true identity of anyone else, it meant that many people would reveal aspects of themselves that they normally kept hidden. For example, many people were much more ready to be disdainful or overbearing. Xu Qing had already experienced it a few times. That was especially true after the schoolmaster gave up on him. The new person the schoolmaster had chosen as his favorite would look at Xu Qing and the longtime students with pure arrogance.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really care. He had already guessed what the schoolmaster was doing, and was actually curious to see how it worked out. Would the schoolmaster be able to use the green soul seeds to make a more advanced type of soul seed? The person he chose for the experiment was indeed extraordinary. With the help of the schoolmaster, that person¡¯s soul improved dramatically. His soul threads increased as well. In a single day, he became the first person among all the students to reach the level of 50,000 soul threads.

    A tempest of soul thread fluctuations filled the tower, attracting quite a bit of attention. That was when the schoolmaster hurried that student up to the top level of the tower. No one had any idea what they discussed. But two hourster, that student came back down, and the schoolmaster announced that he was a chief student.

    All the other students bowed their heads respectfully.

    In any school of thought, the position of chief student was a very important one. Such a person¡¯s every word and action was as a representative of the school and its honor. Of course, chief students also earned instant respect from all the other students in that school of thought. The chief students were also quite the center of attention.

    Xu Qing observed from some distance away. As he studied the preening chief student, he realized something.

    <i>It worked. The schoolmaster made the next type of soul seed.</i>

    The chief student didn¡¯t just have a green soul seed now. He also had a white snowke, in the middle of forming.

    As the other students clustered around the chief student and offered well-wishes and congrattions, Xu Qing left the tower.

    The other longtime students left also. Among the group of students clustered around the chief student, some looked with disdain at those who were leaving. Others seemed outright hostile. Regardless, the Xeno-Immortal School now had a chief student, and that only attracted more attention. It also made one certain person even more determined than ever.

    And that was Seventh Prince.

    At the same time that the Xeno-Immortal student was forming 50,000 soul threads, Seventh Prince was in his mansion thinking about what the God-Merging schoolmaster had said about the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds.

    ¡°Evil....¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s eyes slowly closed, concealing the strange glow within them. He had made his decision. That night, he went to the northwest of the imperial capital.

    There, in a building near Grand Prince¡¯s mansionplex, faintmp light flickered. A figure was there, seated cross-legged at a wooden table. He wore a voluminous ck cloak that covered his facial features. At a certain point, he extended his arm, revealing a withered finger that toyed with the burning wick of themp. This person seemed like a ck hole; the flickering light wasn¡¯t capable of illuminating them, and instead, was sucked away. He sat there quietly. Waiting.

    Sometimeter, the sound of a breeze could be heard outside. Three people appeared outside the building. Pushing the door open, they entered, heads bowed, unspeaking.

    A raspy voice spoke from the depths of the dark hood.

    ¡°One. Don¡¯t try to figure out the identity of our employer. Not even I know.

    ¡°Two. Once this matter is concluded, all of you are free.

    ¡°Three. If anything unexpected happens, or if you¡¯re discovered, you must self-detonate your fleshly body and reveal the Xeno-Immortal dao seed inside of you. All clues need to point to the Xeno-Immortal School. You can make your own decision about how to best make that happen.

    ¡°Four. Our employer wants 30,000,000 human souls. It doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re mortals or cultivators, as long as they¡¯re human. Put them in these kettles and return them to me.¡±

    Themplight flickered as the cloaked individual disappeared into thin air, leaving behind three pitch-ck kettles.

    The three individuals looked silently at the kettles. Without a word, they picked them up, then vanished into the night. Each used their own ways of leaving the imperial capital, and going to other rings in the region, or even other regions....

    Around the time they left, Xu Qing, who was currently in his private chamber focusing on the white snowke, suddenly opened his eyes and looked off into the distance. He had just sensed three green soul seeds leaving the imperial capital.

 Chapter 787: A Violation of Human Morality

    <h4>Chapter 787: A Vition of Human Morality</h4>

    As the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster passed out green snowkes over the past two months, Xu Qing was able to use his connection to them to keep tabs on many of the students from the Xeno-Immortal School.

    If Xu Qing wanted to know their true identity, it would be a simple matter of course. That said, he wasn¡¯t interested in that. The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster had remained in the Imperial University this entire time. He hadn¡¯t left even once. As a result, Xu Qing had no idea who he actually was.

    These three weren¡¯t the only people he had sensed leaving the imperial capital after receiving Xeno-Immortal dao seeds. After all, members of the Imperial University were more than just students. They all had identities on the outside, and those came with various personal and public matters that had to be handled.

    After sensing the three people leaving, Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to breathing exercises. When the light of dawn shone over the city, he opened his eyes. Straightening up his garments, he pushed open the door of the private chamber and walked out. Snownded on his face, which quickly melted.

    He looked at the blue sky filling up with snow. He felt the cold wind. And he could hear the swordsages from Sea-Sealing County working on their breathing exercises. Xu Qing gradually came to feel absent-minded.

    The aura of winter was getting stronger.

    <i>It¡¯s been three months.</i>

    That was how long he¡¯d been in the imperial capital. When he arrived, it was autumn. Now, it was nearly the middle of winter. During those three months, he had done a few high-profile things. But after joining the Imperial University, he had gradually melted into the crowd. That was how Xu Qing liked to do things. A high-profile action could establish some prestige. But after that, he preferred to stick to the shadows.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one to fade from public view. The same urred with Plumdark and the Captain.

    Plumdark had been gone for half a month now. The difference between Ling¡¯er and Plumdark was clear. The former stuck close to Xu Qing, while thetter was independent. Plumdark had her own things to deal with. Her own life to live. After the Dawning Sun went missing, and the atmosphere in the imperial capital became tense, she had gone to one of the other rings in the Imperial Region.

    To her, this whole ce was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. And thus, she had gone to look for traces of the ancient past. She didn¡¯te to say goodbye to Xu Qing. But she left behind a jade slip that had some of her aura attached to it.

    Xu Qing respected her decision not toe in person, and didn''t reach out to ask any questions.

    After the big heist, the Captain vanished and had not yet shown up again. That made Xu Qing even more curious about what he¡¯d stolen from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. Given what he knew of the Captain and how restless he was, Xu Qing knew he couldn¡¯t hole up anywhere for long. And that seemed to indicate there was a good chance the Captain had assumed a new identity.

    As for what identity that was.... After some thinking, he looked in the direction of the branch sect of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect.

    <i>I¡¯d say there¡¯s a nine out of ten chance that he went back there. He probably wasn¡¯t aiming to steal only one thing.</i>

    Wu Jianwu and Kong Xianglong were both pursuing their own personal destined opportunities in the imperial capital.

    Wu Jianwu went to the Daoist Literary Academy, which was an academy originally set up by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. It had fallen into decline, and was mostly a historical archive now. But for some reason, it really captured Wu Jianwu¡¯s attention. For roughly two months now he had been doing odd jobs there.

    Kong Xianglong had chosen to pursue training at the Swordsage Division, in the hopes of following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

    Everyone was wrapped up in their own pursuits.

    In contrast to everyone else, Ningyan seemed very quiet. After the Dawning Sun incident, he spent most of his time in secluded meditation in front of his mother¡¯s portrait. He rarely came out. However, on this particr evening, because Xu Qing was heading out earlier than usual, they happened to pass each other. They exchanged a nod.

    Xu Qing could sense that Ningyan¡¯s time spent in the shrine hall had resulted in his aura changing.

    <i>Everyone is growing.</i>

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing strode off into the snow. He was also growing. The wind picked up. By the time he reached the entrance of the Imperial University, snowkes were everywhere.

    Just like that, half a month passed.

    Four more students in the Xeno-Immortal School reached the level of 50,000 soul threads. The schoolmaster treated them all with great importance, promoting them from the conve to being sessor students. They also earned the right to give lectures.

    Rankings for ordinary students were as follows: initiate, conve, sessor.

    And the sessor students were allowed to recruit initiates and give them dao seeds.

    ording to new rules set forth by the schoolmaster, there would be a chief studentpetition every three months. The chief students would be able to practice cultivation in the presence of the patriarch, and receive personal instruction. What was more, they had priority pick of items from the sect that bolstered the soul, as well as the chance to get upgraded dao seeds.

    Of course, such exciting possible rewards were guaranteed to lead to some chaotic developments. But at the same time, it led to rapid growth in membership for the Xeno-Immortal School.

    Soon, white dao seeds were being distributed. In the past, there hadn¡¯t been enough dao seeds to simply give them to every conve student. But now, as the Xeno-Immortal School expanded and white dao seeds appeared, conve students who previously didn¡¯t have the chance to absorb green dao seeds were now getting their chance.

    Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, more students than ever were hoping to join the Xeno-Immortal School. Xu Qing had just entered the Imperial University and noticed the new recruitment efforts. There was already a crowd gathered outside the tower.

    Soon enough, a hierarchy developed among the Xeno-Immortal students. Even when it came to daily cultivation routines, there were various cliques and groups. Xu Qing and the other older students did not bask in glory. Though they worked hard, it was a fact that the Imperial University was full of elite chosen. Therefore, it was only natural that the older students were ultimately surpassed.

    Though no one else reached the level of 50,000 soul threads, the sight of the sessor students advancing so dramatically caused many people to start getting nervous. As a result, some students¡¯ identity and status outside the university started to be relevant.

    Xu Qing noticed all of that and didn¡¯t interfere.

    The Xeno-Immortal School could make its own decisions about how it expanded. Besides, the more the school grew, the more he would benefit. During the half month that passed, his soul thread count reached the level of 1,300,000.

    <i>If I went all out, I could probably form my third-level god state. I just need toplete a secret trove, and I could step from Spirit Trove and into Void Returning</i>

    <i>As for Xeno-Immortal techniques, they¡¯re actually suitable for any cultivation level. Going forward, I¡¯ll be able to take the power of gods and the techniques of cultivators andbine them. The resulting blessing will be even more effective.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with anticipation. The Xeno-Immortal School was the best thing that happened to him since arriving in the imperial capital. The Emperor¡¯s Sword was different, as it represented a mission. But the Xeno-Immortal techniques were a way to constantly improve himself.

    Before finding the Xeno-Immortal School, his godsource waspletely independent. His cultivation base was also independent. Although they could bebined by means of his secret troves, that was only the first part of arger process. And fundamentally speaking, they were stillpletely unique from each other. But the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques changed that.

    <i>I guess I¡¯ll just wait for the dao debate. Given Patriarch Chen Daoze¡¯s soul thread count right now, even if they can¡¯te out on top against the God-Merging School, they¡¯ll still be in a good position. The Xeno-Immortal School is definitely on the road to a major revival.</i>

    Xu Qing was in a good mood that morning as he pondered such matters and walked toward the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s white tower. He was just getting ready to step inside and start working on breathing exercises when a voice interrupted him.

    ¡°The lot of you go to the daoist rite center and get everything set up. Upperssman Darkforest invited people from several schools of thought to a gathering. Make sure the incense is lit, the nice tea is ready, and that there isn¡¯t a speck of dust anywhere in the rite center.¡±

    The person speaking was a conve student with more than 30,000 soul threads, and he was giving instructions to a handful of new students who hadn¡¯t yet joined any faction in the school. The Upperssman Darkforest he had mentioned was one of the four newly promoted sessor students. The factionless students were initially inclined to refuse toply with his instructions. But considering it rted to a sessor student, they finally agreed.

    Xu Qing ignored them, walked over to his usual corner, and sat down cross-legged. Before he could even close his eyes to begin meditating, the conve student who had just given the orders looked at him. Considering that Xu Qing had been around since the beginning, he was obviously familiar with him.

    ¡°You too,¡± he said. ¡°You go with them.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he closed his eyes.

    Seeing that kind of reaction caused the conve student to frown beneath his mask. He then walked over to Xu Qing, which attracted the attention of many other students. Numerous eyes were fixed on the conve student as he stopped in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°I¡¯m talking to you, Sir Dark-Thunder!¡±

    Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes and looked calmly at the student in front of him. That single look caused the student to shiver from head to toe. All of his soul threads went intoplete chaos. Some of them seemed like they might explode, and it caused intense pain to strike the students'' internal organs. Shocked, the student backed up a few paces.

    The onlookers were surprised. They hadn¡¯t sensed a thing. All they saw was the conve student walk up to Xu Qing, and then suddenly back up looking surprised. There were already numerous theories in the minds of the onlookers.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to meditating.

    The conve student shivered. A moment ago, he¡¯d felt like the shadow of death was looming over him. His heart pounded with lingering fear, and he wanted to just drop the matter. But there were a lot of people watching, and as the saying goes, <i>if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off</i>.

    He turned in ce and quickly walked over to the spot where he and his faction usually meditated. There, he took out amunications jade slip unique to the Imperial University. With it, he sent a voice message.

    Not long after, someone walked into the tower. It was none other than the sessor student Darkforest. His arrival prompted many of the other students to get to their feet and bow to him. The conve disciple who had shed with Xu Qing hurried over, bowed, then whispered a few things into Darkforest¡¯s ear, all while pointing at Xu Qing.

    Darkforest turned to look coldly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°How amusing.¡±

    He started walking toward Xu Qing, his 70,000 soul threads pulsing out to create a powerful pressure in the area.

    Before he could take more than seven or eight steps, the sound of an explosivemotion rose up from the outside of the tower.

    ¡°Something big just happened in Heavenbright County! 1,000,000 mortals were sacrificed in some sort of ceremony!¡±

    ¡°The governor of Heavenbright personally went to investigate, and ended up executing the culprit. The murderer tried to destroy his own body, but the governor stopped him before he could. And guess what, a strange seed was found inside him!"

    ¡°People are saying that the governor of Heavenbright County suspects it¡¯s a Xeno-Immortal dao seed. The matter has already been reported to the emperor. And that dao seed is already on the way to the emperor to be inspected!¡±

    ¡°People in the imperial pce are absolutely furious!¡±

    As the words drifted into the Xeno-Immortal School, the students looked around in shock. Darkforest stopped in ce, then turned to look outside.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they shone with a steely light.

 Chapter 788: Cleaning House

    <h4>Chapter 788: Cleaning House</h4>

    For countless years, the border regions of human territory were rife with war. After all, humans had once been the top species in Revered Ancient, and as a result, just about every region had major human poptions. Later, when humans fell into decline, one border region after another was seized. Almost overnight, the humans there became outsiders and foreigners. As a result, ceremonies that involved sacrificing humans weren¡¯t umon.

    However... though war wasmon in the human border regions,rge-scale atrocities weren¡¯t verymon. What was more, it wasn¡¯t just one sacrificial ceremony that had been carried out in the Heavenbright County. It was three!

    As a result, the human lives taken weren¡¯t limited to hundreds of thousands. Instead, the death toll went into the millions. Most of the deaths were in mortal kingdoms, where their souls were extracted while they were alive, leading to brutal deaths. The vile nature of the atrocity shook humankind to the core.

    When news reached the emperor, he was furious. After all, the three events in Heavenbright County were most likely just the tip of the iceberg, and it seemed very likely that simr things would happen in other locations. Whether it was an outright sacrifice or a part of some cultivation technique, a few million souls wouldn¡¯t be enough. Perhaps the instances in other locations had been kept secret. Or perhaps the people in charge in those locations weren¡¯t paying attention, and thus hadn¡¯t noticed what was going on.

    The emperor immediately issued a dharmic decree calling for a thorough investigation of the border regions. What was more, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions were all mobilized to aid in the investigation.

    Next, another dharmic decree was issued regarding the Xeno-Immortal School.

    The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s white tower was to be temporarily locked down, and the schoolmaster and patriarch were to remain there in confinement.

    The decrees caused an immediate stir in the capital and the university. There were some people who started repeating what the God-Merging schoolmaster had said recently. In no time at all, lots of people were saying that there was something ¡®evil¡¯ about the Xeno-Immortal School. And all of the criticism was directed at the dao seeds.

    The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s revival was encountering a major obstacle. Whether it was the emperor¡¯s dharmic decree or the souring of public opinion, the school of thought was now under a lot of pressure. That was especially true... of those people who had already absorbed dao seeds. They were basically incapable of defending themselves. They knew more about the characteristics of dao seeds than any outsider. The dao seeds really could devour all types of souls.

    Devouring souls with dao seeds would strengthen the person doing the devouring, and it would also result in more soul threads.

    In the final analysis, it was at least theoretically possible for the souls of living beings to be absorbed into the dao seed to elerate cultivation. It was relevant to note that the souls needed by the dao seeds weren¡¯t limited to those of humans. The souls of all living species in Revered Ancient could be devoured. Unfortunately, that detail didn¡¯t count as evidence of anything.

    As time passed, and the situation developed, the Xeno-Immortal School went from being busy and bustling to being deserted again. The school went from a state of revival into a state of emptiness, like death. Some people even paid ridiculous prices to have their dao seeds extracted or transferred to others.

    When Xu Qing saw that all the work he had put into reviving the Xeno-Immortal School was now in danger of being negated, it provoked, not a sensation of crisis, but rather, killing intent. Because the entire situation was essentially instigated by him, he felt the need to investigate on his own.

    If the atrocities had really beenmitted by people with his own soul seeds, then it meant it was time to clean house, to take back the soul seeds of anyone who had left the capital, and make amends as best he could. But if the deed hadn¡¯t been done by the Xeno-Immortal School, and was instead a nderous attack, then he didn¡¯t care who was behind it. He would find them and wipe them out. Too many people had died.

    Xu Qing left the Imperial University and without any hesitation went to the teleportation portal to leave the imperial capital.

    Once outside, he no longer suppressed the fluctuations of his soul seed. He unleashed them, which provided a big blessing to his senses. It almost felt like his mind was being struck by lightning as, in an instant, hundreds of threads appeared in his mind, each one linking to someone with a dao seed. He could sense all of them, whether they were violet, green, or even white.

    The majority of the threads led to the imperial capital. But there were some leading to other ces... specifically, there were eleven of them.

    Some were nearby, some were far away. If the schoolmaster had been the one doing this, his limited range would have made it difficult to identify their specific locations. But Xu Qing was the ultimate source, so with work, he was able to trace the threads to their current locations.

    <i>There are ten of these soul seeds that have been fully absorbed. But one of them isn¡¯t.</i>

    It seemed logical to conclude that the soul seed which wasn¡¯t absorbed by anyone probably was the same one that the governor of Heavenbright County had extracted and was sending back to the capital.

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and used the thread to determine the exact location of the soul seed. At the same time, he thought back to when he noticed this soul seed leaving the capital.

    Shortly after, he opened his eyes.

    <i>More than half a month ago, this one left as part of a group of three. Now, the other two....</i> Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with an unusual light as he took a moment to lock onto the other two threads.

    One of them was located in the 97th ring of the Imperial Region. Another was even farther away, in one of the seven major counties controlled by humans, Ninestate County. Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent surged as he flew up into the air. Taking out his ancient sun, he shot with shocking speed toward the 97th ring.

    It was a distant location, but thankfully there were plenty of convenient teleportation portals along the way. By means of numerous teleportations, as well as the speed of his ancient sun, Xu Qing only took a day to travel from the Imperial Region¡¯s inner ring all the way to its distant 97th ring.

    There were a total of 110 rings in the Imperial Region. As for the 97th, it had arge poption of human mortals. When Xu Qing arrived, it was evening. The entire ring seemed peaceful and harmonious, with no hint that anything dramatic had yed out there recently. Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, put away his ancient sun, and followed the soul thread fluctuations to the west. [1]

    Red clouds covered the canopy of heaven, and as Xu Qing traveled through them, his killing intent built. Eventually, about an hourter, he reached the westernmost part of the ringnds.

    Thesends were expansive, featuring mostly ins and wide-open spaces. Within them were nine small human kingdoms. Although they were called kingdoms, the reality is that they were self-governing cities. Being part of the Imperial Region, which was the capital of humankind, things here were rtively peaceful.

    Looking around, Xu Qing identified one particr kingdom that was named Everfavor. Smoke from kitchen chimneys curled up into the air, and even from a distance, it was possible to hear the noise from the bustling streets. There were all sorts of people visible, from servants to businessmen. There were some cultivators present, but not many. Of those, the highest cultivation base present was Nascent Soul, and that was in the kingdom¡¯s royal pce.

    Xu Qing scanned the ce with divine will, then vanished from midair. When he materialized, he was on the streets of the city. As he walked around, neither mortals nor cultivators had any way to detect his presence. It was as if he didn¡¯t exist.

    That was one of the unique features of high-level cultivators. Because they had heavenly daos, they could form their own naturalws. And thus, if they didn¡¯t want people to see them, they wouldn¡¯t, unless they had a superior cultivation base.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in the mood to experience mortal life at the moment, so he immediately entered one of the shops on the street. It was a general store, operated by an old man who was currently asleep behind the counter, his head resting on his arms. There was also a young clerk present.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival attracted the notice of the clerk. As for the sleeping shopkeeper he shivered, then suddenly disappeared into thin air.

    Face expressionless, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°Get back here.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, naturalws transformed, creating a teleportation effect. Instantly, the shopkeeper returned, starting out blurry, but quickly bing clear.

    Looking overwhelmed with shock and horror, he shot to his feet. However, he couldn¡¯t possibly move quickly enough. Xu Qing flicked his sleeve and used an astral redirection technique to alter space. In the blink of an eye, he was outside of the city, some 5,000 kilometers up in the air.

    The empyrean winds whistled loudly as the shopkeeper hovered in front of Xu Qing, his face a mask of suspicion and fear. He had been acting very cautiously ever since hispatriot failed at his mission and was killed. In fact, he had abandoned his mission immediately, created a host of clones that he sent out to throw anyone off his tracks, and then went into hiding.

    His n had been to see how things yed out and wait for word from above before deciding what to do. And yet now, despite not one of his clones having been touched, this person had tracked down his true body.

    That alone was enough to put him on guard. But what was truly astonishing to him was Xu Qing¡¯s identity.

    It was only natural that he had seen Xu Qing before. But what was really terrifying was that the dao seed inside of him vibrated as if it didn¡¯t even belong to him. That was telling him that the true owner of the dao seed was this very person right in front of him, Region Lord Xu Qing, who was currently emanating a terrifying Xeno-Immortal aura.

    <i>He¡¯s the one secretly backing the Xeno-Immortal School!</i>

    The shopkeeper felt despair deep in his heart. There was no need for him to ask questions to confirm his theory. It was the only exnation.

    Death filled his eyes as, without any hesitation, he bit into a poison caplet hidden in his tooth. Instantly, his life force started decaying. A tremor passed through him as the poison he had prepared rapidly destroyed his fleshly body. At the same time, his soul also ignited into mes. All of these things were measures taken to ensure that he died and no incriminating evidence was left behind. After aplishing those things, and just before he died, the despair in his eyes vanished to be reced with derision.

    It was as if he was telling Xu Qing: <i>You found me? You¡¯re the ultimate source in the Xeno-Immortal School? Those things... don¡¯t matter at all!</i>

    Xu Qing looked calmly at the shopkeeper as he did those things. He didn¡¯t stop him. After watching expressionlessly as the shopkeeper took numerous steps to kill himself, Xu Qing then raised his right hand.

    The gnomons on his sundials moved, and a huge figure appeared behind him, out of which emerged 1,300,000 soul threads. From a distance, it almost looked like the arrival of a god.

    Half a month ago, Xu Qing had done some experiments in his private chamber. By using soul threads to imitate his sundials, he could surpass his previous limitations and affect an enemy for seven breaths of time. This could be considered the fourth ability rted to his sundials.

    It was time reversal. As he pointed out with his right index finger, the shopkeeper with his dimming soul suddenly went right back to normal. He was understandably stunned.

    ¡°This....¡±

    1. Please check myment in thements section about the 110 rings. ?

 Chapter 789: You Canâ€™t Keep Secrets from Gods

    <h4>Chapter 789: You Can¡¯t Keep Secrets from Gods</h4>

    The cultivator who looked like a shopkeeper was being battered by waves of astonishment. He had heard of techniques that could make time run backward. But in most cases, they were used to trace an event backward to observe what happened in the past. Such techniques weren¡¯t used to change anything. That was something only powerful Void Returning experts could do.

    But now... despite having taken steps to kill himself, including using a deadly poison, detonating warding spells in his fleshly body, and igniting his soul, he was still alive when he should have been dead. And... it was all done by the wave of Xu Qing¡¯s hand. That alone caused everything to reverse, and made time go back to seven breaths earlier. His mind reeled as the terrifying Xu Qing floated in front of him, and his soul trembled. Even his eyes stung.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t possible!¡±

    The cultivator shot backward and tried to do something else to kill himself. This time, he wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    Xu Qing stepped forward, and instantly, he was in front of the shopkeeper. Reaching out, he grabbed the man¡¯s chin and squeezed, causing all of his teeth to fall out along with numerous poison caplets.

    The cultivator¡¯s eyes gleamed with terror as he struggled to free himself.

    But then soul threads emerged from Xu Qing, which stabbed into the man¡¯s flesh like sharp swords. All of the warding spells within him were destroyed before they could be activated.

    The disguised cultivator grunted. At the same time, his soul seed seemed to turn traitor as it swiveled to face his own soul and suppress the mes that had been about to burst out. Every one of his ns had been thwarted by Xu Qing before they could even be used. It all happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint, and the entire time, Xu Qing¡¯s face remainedpletely expressionless.

    To this cultivator, everything that just happened seemed outrageous and gruish.

    To Xu Qing, it was all very simple. Having thwarted the cultivator¡¯s ns, he didn¡¯t feel like engaging in banter. This person¡¯s reaction earlier did more than enough to confirm his suspicions.

    Without any hesitation, he mped his left hand down onto the cultivator¡¯s head and sent divine will into him... in a soulsearch! In the cultivation world, a soulsearch was a very cruel and ruthless act. It was something that only high-level cultivators could use on low-level cultivators, and was often a punishment. When used carefully, the subject''s soul might dim, but nothing more. In serious cases, it could result in both spiritual and physical aspects of the soul being destroyed.

    When one was trying to get information, the soulsearch needed to be even more thorough, and could involve methods of slicing and extermination. That was what Xu Qing was doing.

    This cultivator disguised as a shopkeeper had a soul that immediately began to show signs of copse as soon as the soulsearch began. Cracks spread out on its surface, and the cultivator screamed miserably. It was like the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves. Any mortals who heard it would have nightmares for years afterward, and even cultivators who saw something like this would feel a chill running down their spine.

    Thankfully, they were 5,000 kilometers in the air, with no one around. It was a perfect situation in which no one could hear this man scream.

    As Xu Qing slowly wiped his soul out of existence, he saw all the man¡¯s memories, and before long, a picture emerged of this man¡¯s life. His background and identity became clear. But at the same time, his life was soplex that Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother trying to understand it. He simply skipped to the part about half a month ago. That was where he found the information he sought. Half a month ago, in a mysterious building, a ck-cloaked individual spoke.

    Xu Qing wanted more details, but before he could get them, the image disappeared. The cultivator¡¯s soul was thoroughly destroyed, and could never be restored. The only thing left behind was a lifeless, unmoving lump of flesh. Xu Qing frowned slightly.

    <i>This guy¡¯s soul is inherently defective... ensuring he couldn¡¯t sustain this level of soulsearching.</i>

    Xu Qing thought back to what he¡¯d seen of the man¡¯s life.

    <i>Years ago he joined an organization that was a mystery even to him. They gave him a new lease on life, but at the same time,pletely controlled him. As for the details....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he rifled through the man¡¯s bag of holding and found a ck kettle. After scanning it with divine will, he scowled. There were hundreds of thousands of souls inside....

    After some thought, Xu Qing blurred into motion. Vanishing from where he¡¯d been, he shot in the direction of some of the locations from the cultivator¡¯s memories. Each of those ces was a location he had set up for use in soul harvesting. However, after hispanion was discovered, and security everywhere increased, the cultivator had gone into hiding and not activated any of the other extraction locations.

    Xu Qing went to them one by one and destroyed them, though he kept a record of their existence to use as evidence.

    After he was done, he left that part of the 97th ring. Naturally, he took the body of the disguised cultivator to use as evidence.

    Five dayster, he reached Ninestate County in the Daoheaven Region.

    This was one of the seven main regions controlled by humans, and it wasn¡¯t particrly far away from the Imperial Region. Because of that, Xu Qing could use teleportations and other methods to get there fairly quickly.

    It waste at night when he arrived.

    Xu Qing had passed through this county on his way to the imperial capital, though he hadn¡¯t stayed here long. Now that he was back, his killing intent burned as he stepped off the teleportation portal. He immediately vanished and headed in the direction of the soul seed.

    Of the initial group of three operatives, one had been killed by the governor of Heavenbright County. The other had been exterminated by Xu Qing. That left one more, and he... was right here. Other people would find it very hard to track him down, but because he had that soul seed, Xu Qing could see every trace of him very clearly.

    It was time to clean house and find out what was going on. Xu Qing was nning to <i>cut the weeds and eliminate the roots</i>, but at the same time, he needed to do another soulsearch to try to identify that ck-cloaked figure.

    <i>This soul seed has been in one spot for quite a few hours without moving.</i>

    Xu Qing teleported into Ninestate County in the middle of the night. About an hourter, he reached a remote mountain range. The mountains were pitch ck, and the only sounds were the calls of the beasts and birds. There was also a wind that stirred the nts and vegetation. Other than that, everything was quiet.

    After looking around, he burst into motion again. Next, he became visible in the depths of the mountains, right outside a gigantic natural cave.

    He frowned. On the way here, he had sensed that something unusual was going on. Now that he was standing here, he could sense it even more clearly. Eyes glittering coldly, he waved his right hand, causing numerous hidden warding spells in the cave to deteriorate via mutagen. After they were disabled, he stepped into the cave.

    There was a spell formation on the ground, and it was currently operational. There was a personying in the middle of the formation. It was a middle-aged man with vigorous life force, except he wasn¡¯t moving. He waspletely naked, and there was a spot on his belly that wriggled and writhed; that was the location where Xu Qing¡¯s soul seed was.

    On the ground just outside of the spell formation was a jade slip.

    Xu Qing examined the formation, then the jade slip. After scanning it with divine will to make sure it was safe, he picked it up. When he looked inside, an ancient voice entered his mind.

    <i>¡°Whoever you are, the fact that you found this ce indicates that you are like me, and are investigating the dao seeds of the Xeno-Immortal School. Well, I¡¯ve already reached a conclusion in that regard. This person couldn¡¯t stand up to a soulsearch, and copsed. But I used this spell formation to keep him alive, and prevent his soul frompletely dispersing. He won¡¯tst much longer, so feel free to do whatever you wish with him.¡±</i>

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°Parlor tricks. Little Shadow, spread out. Lock down the entire area, and use whatever methods necessary to locate anyone hiding in the area.¡±[1]

    Little Shadow immediately sent out fawning fluctuations, while simultaneously spreading out in all directions. It soon covered the entire mountain range, and then extended even further beyond the mountains. Every single bird and beast in that area trembled as the shadow possessed it. It took over everything.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked at the person in the spell formation. He didn¡¯t believe the message in the jade slip. It seemed much more usible that the person he was after had used some mysterious method to extract the soul seed from within himself and imnt it into this person. In that manner, he could <i>slip out of a predicament like a cicada sloughing its skin</i>.

    It was possible this tactic wasn¡¯t specifically targeting Xu Qing. After all, his quarry had no idea that it was Xu Qing who was chasing him. But it could be something used to deal with all potential investigators. The message in the jade slip was probably deliberately mystifying.

    What was most important in this situation was that he had somehow extracted the soul seed without Xu Qing realizing it. That said, he could think of a way to do that. And that was... to not actually extract the soul seed at all. There was only one way to do that while also achieving this result.

    <i>It¡¯s a clone!</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the unconscious person in the spell formation, and his eyes glittered with cold light. If a clone was the one that originally absorbed the dao seed, and the true form apanied the clone the entire time, then it could easily lead to this very situation.

    The biggest w that jumped out to Xu Qing was that... no one else could have reached this location as quickly as he had. And that meant that whoever set up this situation had anticipated that the clone would be dead before anyone showed up, while the formation provided cover for the rest of the story. Not even using a time-reversal technique would reveal any clues. The culprit really did soulsearch his own clone, then set up the formation so that the clone¡¯s soul wouldn¡¯t copse, and the clone would stay alive for a time. However, by the time anyone came around and found the clone and the formation, it would be toote.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a short time. If his spections were correct, then his arrival this early was definitely outside of what the culprit had predicted. By extension, that implied that this hadn¡¯t been set up very long ago.

    <i>I can confirm it fairly easily.</i>

    Xu Qing sent his soul threads flying out, then used them to weave... his third-level god state. Rumbling sounds echoed out, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and winds screamed.

    A terrifying figure appeared behind Xu Qing, which he merged with to be a single entity. It was like the arrival of a god. The surroundings blurred, mutagen erupted, and the cave walls began to crumble. The mountains became like a graveyard. The nts and vegetation became skeletons, and the cave became a gigantic skull. It was all an illusion, yet few people would be able to see the reality.

    Within all the blurriness strode a figure. He had long, violet hair that draped on the ground behind him. He seemed fiendish to the extreme, with bones like crystal, and countless blood vessels filling his flesh. Violet feathers of flesh formed two huge wings on his back, and behind him was a violet moon. Shocking personhood roiled.

    It was none other than Xu Qing.

    H¨¥ stepped over to the formation and extended his hand.

    The unconscious figure flew up, and he grabbed him by the top of the head. This time, he didn¡¯t use a soulsearch. He used the power of his personhood to assess the unconscious person¡¯s life force, and follow the threads to his true form. He had sent Little Shadow out in case the hiding culprit got spooked and tried to teleport away.

    ¡°Life force traces, activate!¡± a godly voice said, shaking everything.

    1. In the past, ¡°Little Shadow¡± was almost always referred to as just ¡®the shadow¡¯ or ¡®Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.¡¯ There were a couple times where Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior called it Little Shadow. Starting at this point, it bes moremon for Xu Qing to use ¡®Little Shadow.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 790: An Unexpected Clue

    <h4>Chapter 790: An Unexpected Clue</h4>

    The moment the voice echoed out, heaven and earth in this mountain range filled with darkness and gloom. The mountains instantly became like a forbidden ground where the living weren¡¯t wee. And any living beings that were present were forced to prostrate. nts and vegetation withered, while all sorts of animals mutated. And the darkness spread. Wherever it went, the world transformed, as if a veil were being lifted away to reveal the truth of whaty underneath.

    From Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, everything seemed to be made of towering grave mounds, surrounded by rotting skeletons. He currently stood atop a massive skull that emanated a terrifying aura. His violet hair swayed, while strands of blood danced around him. The person he held in his hand in front of him was starting to slowly writhe.

    Murmuring sounds drifted out. The sky vibrated and thends shook.

    The stimtion forced the injured and unconscious person to suddenly open his eyes. He initially looked at Xu Qing with an expression of confusion, though that soon turned to surprise mixed with terror. He seemed like he wanted to speak, but when he opened his mouth, the only thing that came out was an agonized scream.

    His cries had already surpassed those of hispanion who had died a few days before. It wasn¡¯t just one scream. It was many....

    And that was because his body had superimposed itself, almost as if he was a book to be flipped through. Each page showed him and his past, as well as potential futures. And though all of them were in different times and ces, they were all screaming together. The screams of past, present, and future apanied each other in a way that was vastly more horrifying than any of them separately.

    Xu Qing in his god state looked on calmly. His godly nature was increasing, but thanks to the soul threads, his human nature hadn¡¯t disappeared. He was in a much more stable position than on previous asions. In this state, it was much easier to guide godly nature with the same will as human nature.

    The countless strands of blood stretching out of Xu Qing floated to the screaming figure in front of him and began to gently rifle through his past memories. Images flitted through Xu Qing¡¯s gaze, including those of the figure¡¯s deadpanion. This wasn¡¯t a soulsearch. And in fact, it was a lot more direct than a soulsearch, as it was a godly ability.

    By looking through his past, Xu Qing was able to get a fairlyplete idea of the life he¡¯d lived. Much like hispanion, this person was born without aplete soul. Apparently, whatever mysterious organization was behind them was good at recruiting people like that. That said, this person¡¯s innate abilities were superior to his deadpanion. Whether it was his cultivation base or his magical technique, they were all on a higher level.

    Xu Qing looked through the images until he found the specific one he wanted. He saw a building, within which was a ck-cloaked man with amp in his hand.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face waspletely expressionless as he looked at the image. The blood strands in front of him jerked backward, dragging the image away from him until it was floating in front of Xu Qing. Looking at the cloaked figure, Xu Qing chose not to do anything rash, and just put the image down at his side.

    Then he turned to look at the screaming clone. He exhaled, and a violet mist emerged, which spread out to cover the clone. Strands of mist emerged from his head and spread out in various directions. There was one for each person who existed in his memories. And one of them was a life essence thread that was attached to his true life force. That one... led to a location not very far away in the north.

    <i>So, he is a clone.</i>

    He waved his hand gently, and the life essence thread swayed back and forth until the motion eventually reached the true form.

    After finding various clues, Little Shadow locked onto a position, then turned into a long, streaming shadow that shot in the same direction as the life essence thread.

    Meanwhile, about 500 kilometers away from Xu Qing, a cultivator raced along in a gray robe. He was middle-aged, with ordinary facial features. There didn¡¯t seem to be much about him that was special, such that he could easily blend into a crowd and not be noticed. He had small eyes, and though they asionally glittered mysteriously, he kept that hidden. As he moved along, he analyzed his current situation and ns. Although everything was working perfectly so far, he knew that he couldn¡¯t afford to underestimate anyone. It was always possible someone coulde along and figure out what was really going on.

    <i>I can worry about all of thatter.</i>

    The gray-robed man elerated in the direction of the neighboring county. He nned to use nonhuman teleportation portals to go into hiding and wait for further instructions from his superiors. But right then, his heart thumped, and his vision blurred. Terror filled his soul. Next, he heard words echoing in his soul.

    <i>¡°So, he is a clone.¡±</i>

    The gray-robed man¡¯s expression flickered dramatically. Then, before he could even think of what to do, a powerful force flowed out of his soul, filling him and rendering himpletely immobile. He fell out of the sky down to the ground.

    He couldn¡¯t have been more shocked. At the same time, he wanted to fight back, except he didn¡¯t see any enemies nearby. And yet, that voice had been clear for him to hear, and the restraints immobilizing him were really there.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± the gray-robed man gasped. After mming into the ground and coughing up some blood, he found that he could move again. He jumped up with the intention of fleeing, except then he suddenly went immobile again.

    A fiendish, blood-colored eye appeared in his shadow beneath his feet.

    ¡°Found... you....¡±

    Back in the cave, Xu Qing looked away from the life essence thread. He didn¡¯t need it anymore. Now that he¡¯d found the true form, there was something he wanted to try out. Even if it didn¡¯t work, it wouldn¡¯t affect his goal of apprehending the true form. And it might get him some clues that would bring some rity to the situation.

    He looked back to the image he had ced to the side earlier. Specifically, he was looking at the cloaked figure with themp. As he stared, the violet moon behind him started shining more brightly.

    Next, all the blood threads around him shot toward the figure in the ck cloak. They pierced into the figure. This was using the past to verify the future. Nothing was impossible when using the power of gods. As long as something existed in memories, then it was possible to affect it directly.

    The cloaked figure started trembling, and then began to shift from illusory to material. As the process yed out, Xu Qing was able to use Little Shadow to see some of the cloaked person¡¯s life details.

    He saw the cloaked figure on an altar, prostrating to the dome of heaven.... However, because of the angle, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see exactly what he was worshiping.

    He added more godsource in the hopes of getting a moreplete vision. But then, without any warning at all, a power of will rose up within the cloaked person. It was like a parasite that was suddenly waking up. A cold snort echoed out from the cloaked person in the image. It directly entered Xu Qing¡¯s mind, where it turned into a surge of mutagen that swept through him. That mutagen seemed to have no foundation, as it came directly out of the illusory image.

    Within the image, a blood rain fell. Howls of anguish echoed out endlessly, and mutagen flourished in darkness and gloom. The image itself emanated intense pressure.

    Any other cultivator in this situation would have been in a tricky spot. But Xu Qing was in his god state, so he just sent more godsource out from his violet moon. Rumbling sounds echoed out as he took three steps backward while still in his god state.

    The mutagen that hade from the cold snort faded away. That said, this individual was extraordinarily mighty; though he couldn¡¯t affect Xu Qing directly, he could affect the surroundings. All of a sudden, the source of the past image shattered. The screaming clone shivered, then copsed into a pile of gore. The grave mounds that made up the mountains copsed.

    Within the rubble and the skeletons, Xu Qing stood, looking up into the sky, his eyes shining coldly.

    <i>The mutagen that came with that cold snort seems somehow familiar.... The image the mutagen formed was also very familiar.... The cloaked figure on the altar, worshiping the dome of heaven... now I realize why I recognize it. The mutagen is from the broken face. The image is from a moment in which the broken face¡¯s eyes opened. And the cloaked figure is bowing to that son of a bitch broken face!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was as cold as ice.

    Back in the continent of South Phoenix, he had learned of an organization that worshiped the broken face. They even called themselves believers. After arriving in the Imperial Region, he had again heard about that organization. He knew that their religious creed involved exercising faith in the broken face, all while searching for supposed godchildren. After finding those godchildren, they would slowly devour them, and use the process to get closer to their god.

    Thanks to the introduction provided by Princess Anhai, Xu Qing knew that this organization wasn¡¯t just one of the ten superpower sects in humankind. They were powerful among all species. They could be found throughout Revered Ancient, and had congregations everywhere.

    ¡°Words of Truth!¡± Xu Qing murmured as he slowly transformed, leaving his third-level god state. The darkness and gloom around him changed. Everything blurred, and then he reappeared, looking just as he had before.

    The rubble underfoot proved that everything that had yed out was real. That said, his hair was still violet; apparently the third-level god state extended a bigger influence on him than he realized.

    Around that time, a whistling sound could be heard as a gray-robed figure raced up behind Xu Qing. His expression was a mixture of fanaticism and piety, but at the same time, intense fear. After arriving, he dropped to his knees.

    ¡°Greetings to you, milord!¡± he said loudly. ¡°There¡¯s something your humble servant has long been wanting to say to you. I wish to express my sincerity, milord! Sir, you are a most esteemed and revered lord, a very wise and clever master, and your intelligence allows your humble servant to feel trusted and relied upon. With your direction, milord, I have made continuous progress, but at the same time, feel at ease,fortable, and reassured!¡±

    Little Shadow spoke in very sincere terms, although the eyes of the body it had possessed didn¡¯t match, as they were filled with astonishment.

    Xu Qing stood there in the night, his violet hair swaying in the wind.

    The gray-robed man was now kowtowing repeatedly.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s head back to the capital,¡± Xu Qing said, and he started walking.

 Chapter 791: Locking Onto the Source!

    <h4>Chapter 791: Locking Onto the Source!</h4>

    Time passed. It was now only a day before the big showdown between the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School. On the surface, things seemed calm in the imperial capital. However, the dao seed that had been sent by the governor of Heavenbright County to serve as evidence was causing a big storm to build. Right now, it was apparently the calm before the storm, and the atmosphere in the city was <i>as changeable as clouds and waves</i>.

    Everyone was waiting and watching. They were watching the emperor, and they were watching the Xeno-Immortal School.

    The Xeno-Immortal School was wrapped up in controversy both inside and outside the Imperial University. Now that their tower had been locked down, the previously bustling school of thought was like <i>a night cactus that only blooms once</i>. It was back to how it had been for so long before.

    People who had started practicing the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s techniques were now stewing in anxiety, and didn¡¯t dare to reveal their true identities.

    Many organizations were just waiting for the emperor to issue a dharmic decree. It was easy to imagine that when the dharmic decree came out, the Xeno-Immortal School would hit rock bottom. Their revival would be at an end, and they would end up even worse than before.

    Their previous decline could be chalked up to changing times. But now their cultivation methods were linked to an incident in which the souls were extracted from millions and millions of humans. That matter had been ced right out in the open, and now all of humankind was paying attention.... And everyone agreed it was a crime against humanity. That was especially true considering that the evidence seemed incontrovertible.

    It was actually the day before the appointed debate between the God-Merging School and the Xeno-Immortal School that a dharmic decree was released, which was what everyone had been expecting.

    <i>¡°The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower is hereby unsealed, and they¡¯re permitted to prove themselves in a dao debate with the God-Merging School!¡±</i>

    Some people were surprised by the decree, while others had expected it.

    The Xeno-Immortal School had been around for a very long time, since the founding of the Imperial University, in fact. They had a very storied history. What was more, from ancient times until now, there had been many human cultivators who cultivated Xeno-Immortal techniques. Though the school of thought fell into decline, the truth was that it had created many connections with other human organizations over the years. In fact, it was impossible to say how many people were loyal to the school in their heart. It seemed entirely conceivable that the decree was made for the sake of multiple parties. What was really happening beneath the surface would only be known by certain extraordinary people.

    The various deep connections the Xeno-Immortal School had made throughout the years were what bought it a chance. A chance to prove the school¡¯s innocence.

    Around evening on the day before the dao debate, the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s white tower in the Imperial University slowly opened. Since the schoolmaster had been confined inside, he was the first to appear. His gaze made him seem a lot older than before as he stood there quietly looking up and down the street in the Imperial University.

    Many surrounding students noticed what was happening and looked over. They had mixed emotions in their eyes. Some looked disgusted, some sympathetic, some angry, and some hesitant.

    After a short time passed, the schoolmaster turned and went back inside, where he sat down in the main hall to wait. Time passed by. No students entered the school. The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes seemed nk, but in their depths burned a fiery defiance.

    ***

    In the evening outside the Imperial University, a cold winter wind blew. It sounded like a poem, or weeping, or cursing. It swept over the ancient city walls, seemingly intent on scraping the streets free of dust and snow. With it came a sensation of bitter coldness that reached everyone in the capital. The wind was like an old poet,menting about the history of heaven and earth. Either that, or it was an emotionless observer, silently recording all the sorrow in the world.

    As the winter wind blew in the middle of night, a figure as dark as ink joined the poetry. The wind just barely defined the outline of a shadowy figure who was rapidly approaching a building near Grand Prince¡¯s mansion. The darkness cloaked that individual, and the cold wind masked his aura. As a result, he wentpletely undetected as he appeared in front of the building.

    This was Xu Qing, who had just returned to the capital. As he stood there, he cast his senses out.

    Xu Qing had used god magic to peer into the past of that ck-cloaked figure from Words of Truth. However, what he had seen was only a tiny fragment, an image of the figure worshiping on an altar. He hadn¡¯t been able to see the object of worship. He just knew that this person was from Words of Truth. That said, after investigating the two Xeno-Immortal School students who were now dead, Xu Qing knew that, in addition to Words of Truth, there was someone that had been referred to as the ¡®employer.¡¯ Perhaps the word ¡®employer¡¯ was a deliberately mystifying word choice.

    <i>Also, the ck-cloaked individual used my soul thread connection and hidden divine will to unleash a mutagen I found familiar. And then there was the snort, whose voice I also found very familiar....</i>

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing pushed the door open and walked into the room. It was pitch ck inside. However, Xu Qing could see clearly despite the darkness.

    The room was utilitarian, with only a bed, table, and chair. On the table was an oilmp.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing closed his eyes and reviewed what he had learned via the soulsearches and god magic. Based on what he could tell, this was the very location where a meeting had taken ce a month before.

    The ck-cloaked man had sat right there talking to three students from the Xeno-Immortal School. He had fiddled with themp while he spoke. No one present had seen his face.

    Eventually, Xu Qing opened his eyes, walked to the spot where the ck-cloaked figure had been seated, and sat down. He waved his hand, and an oilmp appeared in front him, lit.

    In the flickering, hazy darkness, Xu Qing reached out to fiddle with the me. Sending some violet moon power out from him, he was able to insert some of his own mutagen into themp. Gradually, themp¡¯s me grew stronger, until it seemed that it was on the verge of bing alive.

    That was another power of the gods. Mutagen could invade living beings. But it could also bring things to life, at least to an extent. That was why so many new species came into existence in Revered Ancient after the broken face arrived. It was the same with the core parts of forbidden regions. For example, the forbidden region outside the scavenger basecamp back in South Phoenix was actually formed from a zither that came alive.

    Xu Qing was now using that same method to bring thismp to life. It was true that no one in this room had seen the face of the ck cloaked figure. But... thismp had seen that face.

    This was magic that ordinary people couldn¡¯t pull off. That and rifling through time were things that almighty individuals might be able to imitate. But what Xu Qing was doing right now was something that only gods could do.

    Themp¡¯s me grew stronger and danced back and forth with more intensity. Eventually, the me started to split apart. Tentacles of me spread out, and eventually, facial features became visible. It was clearly very unstable, as it was already trembling and cracking apart.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fingers stopped moving.

    ¡°Show me the face of the ck-cloaked figure from a month ago. Now!¡±

    The me trembled violently as if it wanted to speak. But Xu Qing¡¯s words were like a dharmic decree that couldn¡¯t be ignored.

    Themp was starting to melt, though the fire still burned brightly. Then, just before themp faded from existence, thest bit of fire... revealed a face. It was the face of an old man, ancient, in, and unfamiliar.

    As far as Xu Qing could remember, he had never seen this person before. The face became very clear in the fire, but then the mes faded away. It was as if the fire had spent all the life force it acquired whening to life. Now it was sinking into oblivion.

    However, the significance of this moment was profound for Xu Qing as he leaned forward and looked closely at the face. Specifically, he was looking at the eyes! And that was because he saw four people reflected in the eyes!

    What was especially noteworthy was that the four figures from this month-old image were different from what Xu Qing had seen while soulsearching. During his soulsearch, and when he used the god magic, he only saw three students from the Xeno-Immortal School. But in reality... when you included the ck-cloaked figure, there had been five people present in the meeting.

    There was one more than he was seeing now.

    The three Xeno-Immortal students couldn¡¯t see that fourth individual. Only the ck-cloaked figure could see him, thanks to some mysterious connection between the two of them. And because of that, Xu Qing was able to see the same thing when he used this unusual technique of his.

    The additional figure wore a long white robe, as well as the mask of the Imperial University. He seemed unfamiliar. And yet, there was a certain charm or grace in his eyes that cause Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent to surge. The look in this person¡¯s eyes was something Xu Qing had seen on his very first day in the Imperial University, when he saw the schoolmaster of the God-Merging School. From that moment on, he had been suspicious about that schoolmaster. Now, when hebined the sound of that familiar cold snort from earlier, plus the look in this person¡¯s eyes, a very clear answer urred to him.

    <i>The schoolmaster of the God-Merging School really is... Bai Xiaozhuo!</i>

    He waved his right hand, causing the mes to wink out, and casting the room back into darkness.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been watching for a while now,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°Ready to show yourself?¡±

    His voice echoed into the room, then faded away. A few breaths of time passed. Then, someone spoke from the corner of the room in a raspy voice.

    ¡°Just what I would expect of Region Lord Xu. Not only did you find this ce, but your other methods... are astounding to say the least.¡±

    A ck-cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows. It looked exactly like the other ck-cloaked figure in every respect.

    Xu Qing turned to look at him.

    ¡°You¡¯re not him,¡± he said calmly. Based on what he could sense, this ck-cloaked figure was a different person.

    ¡°I¡¯m not. But I might be in the future.¡±

    The ck-cloaked figure stood there looking at Xu Qing for a long moment. His facial features were a blur. He seemed to be taking the situation very seriously, as was Xu Qing. The ck-cloaked figure extended his right hand, within which was a jade slip that he put down in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°My employer is Seventh Prince. All the proof is in there. I¡¯ve already organized it all for you. You can decide what to do with it.¡± He turned to walk out, and he began to blur.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s killing intent was burning. Ignoring the jade slip, he looked at the rapidly disappearing cloaked figure. He already had a theory about who this person was.

    ¡°If you have time,¡± Xu Qing said, ¡°go back and say hi to Ningyan.¡±

    The ck-cloaked figure shivered and looked over his shoulder at Xu Qing as he faded from view.

 Chapter 792: Imperial University Dao Debate

    <h4>Chapter 792: Imperial University Dao Debate</h4>

    After the ck-cloaked figure left, the room went back to beingpletely silent.

    Xu Qing picked up the jade slip off the table and sent some divine will into it. A momentter, his eyes turned even colder. Turning, he looked out the window into the dark night, and his gaze became like a brush. Using the night wind as a palette knife, the silence as a rhythm, the universe as the canvas, and starlight and moonlight as the ink, it was possible to paint a beautiful picture of dawn. Within the painting, Xu Qing slowly blurred until he vanished from sight.

    When he reappeared, he was outside of the painting, walking down the street toward the Imperial University.

    He had heard the news that the big showdown between the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School would continue as nned. He also knew that the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower had been unsealed the night before.

    As the dawn slowly reced the night, beams of light cut through the darkness and brought hope to heaven and earth. Everything was waking up and returning to normal.

    That included the Xeno-Immortal School. Inside the tower, the schoolmaster sat alone, as he had the entire night. Looking outside, he saw the waning darkness, and the burgeoning light of the sun. He also saw... a figure approaching. That figure stepped out of the light of dawn and into the tower.

    ¡°Schoolmaster,¡± Xu Qing said softly, bowing at the waist.

    The schoolmaster looked at Xu Qing and the sunlight framing him. The schoolmaster knew who this student was, and also knew that he had joined the Xeno-Immortal School back when it was still in decline. He remembered thinking that this student had some natural talent. Butter, as the Xeno-Immortal School revival picked up speed, plenty of talented people showed up, and he eventually stopped paying attention to this particr student. He could never have guessed that, after the Xeno-Immortal School was finally unsealed, this person... would be the first and only person toe back.

    As the schoolmaster heaved inward sighs, Xu Qing went over to one of the jade slip shelves. He wanted to find information about the God-Merging School. Considering that their philosophy was diametrically opposed to the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s teachings, it was only natural that there would be plenty of information about them.

    That was especially true of the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>. Although most of the stories in the tabloid were either contrived or based on hearsay, there were still kernels of truth to be found. His n was to go through all of the records he could find, with the goal of confirming some of his spections. At the same time, he would n what to do next. As far as he was concerned, Seventh Prince was already a dead man. However, Seventh Prince wasn¡¯t the only person he nned to deal with.

    <i>Bai Xiaozhuo....</i>

    After reaching the shelf, he started going through the various records.

    The schoolmaster looked at him as if he wanted to say something, but couldn¡¯t find the words. Eventually, he sighed.

    ¡°Sir Dark-Thunder, it¡¯s possible that there won¡¯t be a Xeno-Immortal School after today. You can shed your conve student status any time you want. And feel free to get rid of your dao seed, that way, your future path will be free of obstructions.¡±

    With that, he took out a jade slip and put it down off to the side. That jade slip could revoke his conve status. Having done that, the schoolmaster stood and slowly walked outside. It was dawn, and thus, the time had nearlye for the debate. As he looked off toward the horizon, the schoolmaster felt lonely and miserable.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if the enigmatic master would show up. Nor did he have any idea what fate had in store of the Xeno-Immortal School, or what to do. But regardless, he was the current schoolmaster. Thus, his eyes gradually began to shine with determination.

    <i>It doesn¡¯t matter what happens. Even if this is the end of the line... I won¡¯t let the Xeno-Immortal name be tarnished!</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster strode toward the Imperial University¡¯s daoist rite center.

    Back in the tower, Xu Qing watched as the schoolmaster walked off. Then he went back to checking the jade slips. Eventually, he heard bells tolling. Student poured into the university, and the buzz of conversation filled the air. At that point, Xu Qing put down the ancient records he had been studying. He¡¯d found the answer he had sought. He walked out of the tower and into the crowd.

    The dao debate between the two schools of thought was already the subject of a lot of attention. But then things went really bad for the Xeno-Immortal School, and now, this debate was going to be scrutinized even more closely. That was especially true considering... that the emperor had specifically issued amand indicating that the debate should be held. As a result, a lot of people were paying attention to the event, and not just students from the Imperial University. Organizations and groups from throughout the imperial capital were using a variety of means to make sure they could watch.

    There was only one ce in the Imperial University where dao debates were held. It was the university¡¯s only daoist rite center, which was in the middle of the university.

    It was arge facility that couldfortably hold hundreds of thousands of spectators. In years past, whenever high-profile dao debates were held, they would attract big crowds. At the moment, there were a lot of students converging on the daoist rite center. In fact, just about every student who lived in the imperial capital was nning to attend. The buzz of conversation filled the air as everyone looked up.

    High in the air overhead were two veryrge octagonal dao altars. They were ancient and refined, with one of them being white and the other ck, which seemed to hint at themes of purity and resolve. The eight-sided structures that formed their foundations signified the harmonious convergence of earth and heaven.

    As pressure built up, both altars emitted sounds like daoist chanting, which spread out in all directions along with dazzling light.

    The God-Merging School¡¯s schoolmaster sat on the ck altar. Behind him were his chief students and other high-ranking members, including Seventh Prince. Hundreds of people all sat there cross-legged. There were also a host of God-Merging students clustered down below.

    There was only one person on the white altar; the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster sat there all alone. He seemed bleak and deste.

    Among the organizations outside the university who were watching the proceedings, many shaking heads could be seen. After all... in years past the Xeno-Immortal School was the number one school of thought in the Imperial University. But now....

    Many people sighed in their hearts, and that included the Xeno-Immortal students who had gathered at the daoist rite center.

    Xu Qing was in the crowd. He could sense the mounting pressure, and as he looked up at the God-Merging School¡¯s altar, he saw Seventh Prince and... the schoolmaster. He looked at them calmly. For the time being, he did nothing to expose them. It seemed like a better idea to wait until the show reached a climactic juncture, then step in.

    Eventually, after the bells tolled for the ninth time, the sky over the Imperial University rippled, and two figures appeared, both wearing white robes.

    One was in the lead, the other followed. One was old, the other was young. In the lead position was an old man with a kindly face that was full of wrinkles, like furrows dug out by the passage of rivers over countless years of time. He could no longer stand tall and straight, but that just made him seem more wise and farsighted. This was the chancellor of the Imperial University. Behind him... was the current vice-chancellor, who was also Third Prince.

    They did not wear the masksmon in the university, which meant that their facial features were in for everyone to see. As soon as they appeared, the schoolmasters of both the God-Merging School and the Xeno-Immortal School stood. Along with all the other students present, they sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Greetings, Chancellor.¡±

    The chancellor had been personally appointed by the emperor, and he was known as a person of virtue and prestige. Whether it was erudite knowledge, status, or contributions, this old man possessed them all in spades. He had been around since the days that the Imperial University was founded, and over the years, had personally provided assistance to many of the schools of thought. He was a member of the imperial n as well. In terms of seniority and ranking he was actually the paternal uncle of the reigning emperor. That was why Third Prince walked behind him in a very respectful way.

    The chancellor stopped in midair, looked up into the canopy of heaven, and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Emperor.¡±

    His words caused a stir amongst the students below. Meanwhile, looking at the spot in the sky to which the chancellor had spoken, it was possible to see the air rippling as an image appeared. It provided a view of the imperial pce. The emperor was there, seated on his throne, looking very solemn.

    When the chancellor sped hands in greeting, the emperor rose and returned the salute. It wasn¡¯t a salute based on the etiquette of social standing. Rather, the emperor was representing humankind as a whole, which transcended everything else. The reason for him standing was that he wanted to show respect. It was respect for the chancellor of the Imperial University, and all of the work he¡¯d done over the years.

    Seated at a lower level than the emperor were thirteen figures who also stood and sped hands. Each of those figure pulsed with a shocking aura. In fact, all it took was a single nce for Xu Qing to confirm... that all of them were Smoldering Gods. It was self-evident who these people were. They were the heavenly kings who were currently in the imperial capital.

    After the ceremonial greetings, the emperor sat back down, as did the heavenly kings.

    Meanwhile, the chancellor turned his attention to the daoist altars, and to the people from the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School. Then he looked at the hundreds of thousands of students who had gathered. A kind smile appeared on his face.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I officiated over a dao debate in the Imperial University. I¡¯m very pleased that this is finally happening again.

    ¡°This dao debate will consist of three stages: first, <i>heavenly daos debate approval</i>. Second, <i>human hearts debate falsehood</i>. Third, <i>morning and night debate the hereafter</i>. The victor will not be determined by either of the schools of thought participating in the event. You students will decide. All of you possess wisdom and agency, and thus, the winner will be picked by whomever you approve in your heart.¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, a prismatic beam of light shot up from the God-Merging School¡¯s altar. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it rose high into the sky, glittering and bright. That beam of light was created by the hearts of the students. Its size and height was a visible manifestation of how much people approved of the God-Merging School.

    The Xeno-Immortal School also had a beam of light, but in contrast... it was only about 9 meters tall. The difference between the two was about as dramatic as the difference between heaven and earth.

    All groups and organizations took a long moment to take in the scene. The buzz in the Imperial University grew louder.

    Beneath his mask, Xu Qing frowned.

    Up in midair, the chancellor shook his head slightly. However, the dao debate had to go on. Clearing his throat, he said, ¡°And now, let the heavenly daos debate approval.

    ¡°Before two schools of thought can begin a dao debate, their techniques and thinking patterns must be approved of by a heavenly dao. That is a basic requirement for dao debates.

    ¡°In Revered Ancient, there are 99 ancient heavenly daos that are currently sleeping. Humans can¡¯t easily sense those heavenly daos. But there are also 100,000 ordinary heavenly daos, 3,000 of which blessed the creation of the Imperial University¡¯s daoist rite center. Therefore, this ce can be used to connect with those 3,000 heavenly daos.

    ¡°If the heavenly daos do not approve of you, the debate cannot continue, and that will indicate that the school of thought in question requires adjustments. At this point, both the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School can choose whether or not they wish to proceed.¡±

    On the ck altar, the God-Merging schoolmaster chuckled beneath his mask.

    ¡°God-Merging students.¡±

    The students from the God-Merging School released their auras, which merged together to create a huge shadowy figure looming overhead. It had three heads and six arms, and seemed to be made of a host of godly entities allbined into one. Thatbination created an iparable aura. Surrounded by ripples and distortions, it almost looked like a god.

    As the God-Merging schoolmaster looked up, the huge figure overhead lifted its right hand into the sky and pinched its fingers together. An intense rumbling sound echoed out. At the same time, the God-Merging schoolmaster stood and bowed.

    ¡°Please, let the heavenly daos debate approval.¡±

    All of a sudden, a host of rifts spread out in the sky,rge and small. They became a collection of cold eyes that opened and looked at the figure summoned by the God-Merging School.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    The voices of great daos echoed out loud for everyone to hear.

    The students down below were already starting to get excited. Even the chancellor had to nod.

    ¡°Of the 3,000 heavenly daos, 2,137 offered approval. What benevolence!¡±

    At the same time, the prismatic pir of lighting off the God-Merging altar climbed a bit higher.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster turned to the chancellor and bowed deeply. Then he turned to look at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster sighed inwardly. Then, bracing himself, he stood and released some of his aura. sping hands to the sky, he said, ¡°Please, let the heavenly daos debate approval....¡±

    He didn¡¯t sound very confident.

    Down in the crowd, Xu Qing looked up calmly at the dome of heaven.

 Chapter 793: Squeal!

    <h4>Chapter 793: Squeal!</h4>

    Numerous rifts in the sky became eyes. There were a total of 3,000 pairs. They were the heavenly daos that had been attracted to the Imperial University when it was constructed, thanks to the proliferation of destiny aura. And they had given it their blessing.

    As the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster¡¯s energy spread out, and as he spoke, a host of soul threads emerged to form the projection of a huge earthchild. It was madepletely of soul threads, and all of it was done so that the heavenly dao could sense what was happening and debate approval.

    However, whether it was in terms of their energy or pressure created by the earthchild, it couldn¡¯te close toparing to the projection created by so many students from the God-Merging School.

    The eyes in the dome of heaven stared down coldly. Then, in what was a surprise to no one, most of the eyes closed. Only about 20 remained open. It was the same with the voices of the great daos. They simply couldn¡¯tpare to the resounding scene from moments ago with the God-Merging School.

    The students gathered at the daoist rite center observed all of this happening. Those who were already leaning in the direction of the God-Merging School now felt even more confident in their decision, while those who had been siding with the Xeno-Immortal School could only sigh in their hearts.

    One side earned the approval of well over 2,000 heavenly daos, while the other side only got about 20....

    Inferior was inferior.

    Outside of the university, many of the spectators sighed at what they were seeing. This was only the first stage of the debate, and the Xeno-Immortal School had clearly lost thoroughly.

    The members of the God-Merging School on the ck altar all smiled arrogantly. As for their schoolmaster, he shook his head slowly, as if he were already losing interest in what was happening. That, of course, was making a mockery of the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster. It was essentially an attack.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster felt pain in his heart as he looked up into the sky. He had previously considered that something like this might happen, but to have to actually experience it was more difficult than he¡¯d imagined. After all, this was not the first time the Xeno-Immortal School had been in a dao debate. In its heyday, it would also receive approval from more than 2,000 heavenly daos when it came time for a debate. But now... hardly 20 of the heavenly daos approved. And that meant that the remainder did not approve of the dao of the Xeno-Immortal.

    <i>So, the heavenly daos have abandoned the Xeno-Immortal School...?</i>

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster bowed his head and seemed to age dramatically, and his eyes grew cloudy. However, he maintained his dignity, and bowed at the waist to the heavenly daos.

    Meanwhile, the chancellor of the Imperial University was sighing inwardly as he prepared to begin the second stage of the dao debate.

    ¡°Next is the¡ª¡±

    Just then, as Xu Qing stood in the crowd below, he frowned slightly beneath his mask.

    An intense rumbling sound filled the dome of heaven. Countless clouds swirled, forming together, then dispersing. It created a cycle in which ancient energy converged in the air above the Imperial University. Everyone could sense a feeling of grandeur.

    The development caused the chancellor to stop short and look up, an expression of disbelief and shock on his face. He wasn¡¯t the only one. Third Prince did the same, as well as all the other students present, as well as everyone from the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School. There were also people in the organizations outside the university who felt their hearts racing. The emperor and the thirteen heavenly kings all looked visibly surprised. The emperor leaned forward slightly.

    As everyone looked on, the ancient aura grew wilder and more intense. It eventually turned into heaven-shaking, earth-shattering thunder that crashed over the university.

    It seemed to rip open the dome of heaven, creating a massive rift that filled the entire sky. The other rifts couldn¡¯tpare to it at all in size. And then, as the rift opened... it revealed a huge eye.

    The eyepletely filled the sky over the Imperial University, until it was the only thing visible. It was like heaven¡¯s eye.

    It was made of two colors. It had a violet pupil surrounded by blue!

    The sky trembled violently as all of the other rifts, 3,000 of them in total, emitted cracking sounds as they opened up. Now, their gazes weren¡¯t cold, but rather filled with respect. Even worship.

    The ancient energy grew even more intense. Brightly colored light shed in heaven and earth, winds screamed, and lightning crashed. They were like the most primeval sounds possible, howling as unthinkable power was unleashed. And then all of the soundbined into one, tender voice.

    <i>¡°Squeal!¡±</i>

    The sound surpassed all of the great dao voices in every respect. What was more, the nature of the sound was clear to everyone who heard it. It was approval!

    ¡°An ancient heavenly dao??¡± the chancellor blurted, his heart pounding.

    Third Prince was shaken to the core. All of the other students felt simr. On the God-Merging School¡¯s altar, the leaders struggled to control their breathing. Only the schoolmaster looked on with glittering eyes. The reaction outside the university was the same, and even the emperor and the heavenly kings were shaken.

    Everyone knew that the 99 ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient were all asleep. None of them had even shown up when Emperor Dark War ascended the throne. Nor did they appear when the Imperial University was founded. But now... an ancient heavenly dao appeared and expressed approval of the Xeno-Immortal School for a mere dao debate!

    Astonishing treatment like this seemedpletely outrageous to most people.

    Even the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster was at a loss for words. He stared mutely at the ancient eye, and could hardly believe that in the debate of approval, the Xeno-Immortal School would be favored by an ancient heavenly dao.

    Down in the crowd, Xu Qing looked up at the eye and nodded slightly. It was hard to say if it was because the huge eye had detected that its father was pleased, but either way, it emitted an amiable sound. Then the eye shifted to look at something outside of the university before closing and fading from view.

    No one else could possibly guess what the eye had looked at. But Xu Qing got the feeling that his heavenly dao son had been looking at its other father.

    In fact, inside the recently robbed Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, there was an ordinary-looking disciple sweeping the floor who suddenly looked proudly in the direction of the Imperial University.

    <i>What a good son. You haven¡¯t forgotten you have another father.</i>

    Back in the Imperial University, everything was dead silent. But then, after the ancient heavenly dao departed, a hugemotion broke out. Countless students started moring excitedly about the unbelievable thing they had just witnessed.

    ¡°An ancient heavenly dao....¡±

    ¡°The Xeno-Immortal School actually earned the approval of an ancient heavenly dao!!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never even sensed an ancient heavenly dao before. That type of pressure is absolutely terrifying....¡±

    The uproar was even more dramatic when it came to the chancellor and the experts in the organizations outside the university. All were shaken to the core. At the same time, all of them were wondering about the same thing.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember the 99 ancient heavenly daos having one with blue eyes and violet pupils.... And that voice. It sounded so young and immature.¡±

    And yet, there was no question that the aura they had sensed was the pure aura of an ancient heavenly dao. That was something that couldn¡¯t be faked, and therefore, all spections about the matter had to be put aside.

    The emperor looked in the direction of the Imperial University with his eyes narrowed. His gaze swept over the crowd of students before finallying to rest on Xu Qing.

    At exactly the same time, another gaze emerged from the Star-Plucking Tower in the capital. It focused on the Imperial University, and specifically, the canopy of heaven above it. That gaze belonged to the imperial preceptor. He stood on the top floor of the Star-Plucking Tower, his hair swaying in the breeze.

    ¡°This is the second time you¡¯ve caught me by surprise, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    Down in the crowd, Xu Qing remained calm. He had known from the beginning that he would eventually have to reveal himself. That was fine. He hadn¡¯t expected to be able to stay in hiding for the whole day. At the moment, though, he was looking at the astonished Seventh Prince on the ck altar.

    The prismatic beam of lighting from the God-Merging School was still high in the sky, yet it had crept down a bit, and wasn¡¯t as bright as before.

    In contrast, the approval of an ancient heavenly dao caused the lighting off the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s daoist altar to rise from 9 meters to 300 meters. That was because of the restored confidence of the students of the Xeno-Immortal School, as well as the shifting opinions of other students.

    Excitement was building at this dao debate.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster took a deep breath. Eyes shining with confidence, he looked at the God-Merging School.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster looked back at him for a moment, thenughed softly. ¡°Please continue, chancellor.¡±

    The chancellor closed his eyes briefly, then opened them. As of now, he was a lot more interested in this dao debate than he had been before. Now he wanted to see... who would ultimatelye out victorious, the God-Merging School or the Xeno-Immortal School? He wasn¡¯t the only one thinking something like that. All the students and all the schools of thought in the university, as well as everyone in the organizations on the outside, were thinking the same thing. Before, it had seemed a foregone conclusion who would win and who would lose. But now things had changed.

    ¡°The second stage of the dao debate,¡± said the chancellor in a hoarse voice, ¡°is to debate falsehood. When speaking of the dao, there is true, and there is false. The human heart can be used to determine which is which.

    ¡°I will propose three questions to the Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School. Based on the topics given, you can debate your dao.

    ¡°The first question is... if the path of the immortal is severed, how should you proceed?¡±

    The Imperial University went silent again, and all eyes shifted to the two altars above.

    Seeing all the gazes shifting in his direction, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster loudly said, ¡°Our Xeno-Immortal School uses soul threads to weave the projections of godly entities. By developing them into spirits of godly ascension, we can gain nourishment, and then use the path of godfire as a reference point. Ignite the spirit of a god to continue on the path. On that path, one thought leads to gods, one thought leads to immortals. And that is what is known as a xeno-immortal.¡±

    His voice was loud and clear so that all students could hear, as well as people outside the university.

    That was the core of the Xeno-Immortal School. That was the essence of their philosophy. In the past, many people had agreed with the idea, except, the cultivation process was so slow that eventually people viewed it as unrealistic. But now things had changed with the advent of the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds. On the other hand, it was also the dao seeds that had pushed the Xeno-Immortal School to the brink of crisis.

    On the God-Merging School¡¯s dao altar, their schoolmaster shook his head. ¡°Evil arts are like starlight that can¡¯t possiblypete with the illumination of the full moon.¡±

 Chapter 794: Why Question a Bell When You Can Question a Sword?

    <h4>Chapter 794: Why Question a Bell When You Can Question a Sword?</h4>

    ¡°The heavens have spirits,¡± continued the schoolmaster of the God-Merging school, ¡°while living beings have gods. It¡¯s a cold, hard fact that gods havee to us, and over the countless years that have passed, have be part of Revered Ancient. They are a part of the system of power here. And people like us should take advantage of that. We can take things that have been infected by gods and use them as material for our own godly ascension.

    ¡°By taking such materials into our bodies like we would medicinal pills, we can take the initiative to transform ourselves. We can make godly bodies that are appropriate for our times and our situation. Mutagen doesn¡¯t need to be a poison. It can be a nutrient for cultivation, just like spirit energy. As a matter of fact, we in the God-Merging School call it god power.

    ¡°By using that as a cultivation technique, we humans can be iparably strong. At the same time, considering the path of the immortal is severed, why try to force things in that regard? Instead, let¡¯s make our own path to walk! The philosophy and goal of the God-Merging School can be stated as such: all humans will be gods!¡±

    The God-Merging schoolmaster didn¡¯t speak in wildly arrogant tones. But his words were still profoundly meaningful, and they became a tempest that struck the hearts of the students in the Imperial University. That was especially true of what he said about all humans being gods. That was the core of the God-Merging School, and it was also the reason it had grown so quickly. And the God-Merging schoolmaster expressed it with full confidence and conviction.

    ¡°Preposterous!¡± said the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster with a coldugh. ¡°Historically speaking, we humans have had our share of glory. We¡¯ve transcended the mortal world. We¡¯ve created huge civilizations. We¡¯ve also experienced tragic catastrophes. Regardless of what happens, we keep going. We¡¯re still human! Our blood still runs red!

    ¡°You speak of humankind, but what you¡¯re actually talking about is casting aside the human body. You¡¯re talking about discarding human dignity! I¡¯d rather just stay human than be some grotesque freak. You say that all humans will be gods? It sounds more like you want humans to <i>serve</i> the gods.

    ¡°Your methods are a way of exterminating a species! Everyone will be gods? If that happens, no one will be human!¡±

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster wasn¡¯t afraid to debate ideas with other schools of thought. In fact, he enjoyed it. And as he got worked up, his oratory skills seemed to improve. He became even more persuasive. As a result, there were already fence-sitting students who felt moved by his words. Even Xu Qing found himself looking twice at the schoolmaster. He never would have guessed that the man could speak so incisively. There were also students from the God-Merging School who, hearing his words, looked reticently at their own schoolmaster.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster didn¡¯t say anything in response. He just looked at Seventh Prince.

    Seventh Prince raised his eyebrows and coolly said, ¡°Your Xeno-Immortal School techniques are too conservative. Too traditional. You people are too stubborn! You hold on the glory of the past and won¡¯t let go, treating new things like enemies. And you¡¯re clearly prejudiced against our God-Merging School. Well, the students of the Imperial University are no fools. They can look at the facts and make their own decision.

    ¡°The reason I chose to join the God-Merging School is the same reason that all the other students in our school did the same.¡±

    His words met with quite a bit of approval among the students of the Imperial University. They were a new generation, and though they respected ancient traditions, they also thought they could be changed.

    There were also fence-sitting students who sighed in their hearts. They had to admit that Seventh Prince¡¯s status made his arguments even more persuasive. In fact, the prismatic beam shining up from the God-Merging School grew brighter as a result.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster looked at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster. ¡°See that? That¡¯s why your Xeno-Immortal School has fallen into decline. Times have changed.¡±

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster sighed softly but had nothing more to say. In the debate of falsehood, the Xeno-Immortal School had not achieved any major advantage. After a long moment of silence passed, the chancellor introduced the second topic.

    ¡°What is the dao of a species?¡±

    The first person to speak this time was from the God-Merging School, and in this case, it was their other chief student.

    ¡°In the Revered Ancient maind, there are tens of thousands of species and trillions upon trillions of living beings. As for humans, we have the interests of all species in our hearts. Our goal is to unify Revered Ancient. To merge the daos of all species together into our own dao. We can take the best from everyone else and make it our own. We can learn from the strengths of others to offset our weaknesses. And by doing so, we can achieve unparalleled results.

    ¡°Times have changed. There¡¯s no need to be stuck wallowing in the past. Embrace change. Embrace it thoroughly! In that way, we can make a bridge between the past and the future. We can leave the past behind and usher in new innovations!

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with saying that all humans will be gods? We will once again be the number one species in Revered Ancient. We can be tolerant of everyone. We can be in harmony with everything. And when that happens, then we can call ourselves Godfolk. We will be the unifiers of Revered Ancient. It¡¯s not some impossibility! And then the broken face in the sky will bring us, not destruction and hardship, but positive blessings! [1]

    ¡°Have any of you ever considered that even after the broken face came and changed everything, there were still living beings everywhere in Revered Ancient? Couldn''t it be possible that theing of the face was a destined opportunity? And if we seize that opportunity, then the broken face can be a weapon for us to wield.¡±

    His words struck like lightning bolts into the hearts and minds of the students. His words <i>vited the ssics and departed from the orthodox dao</i>. However, what he said was actually very logical. It made sense. All of a sudden, the students in the Imperial University were lost in thought. Among all the groups and organizations were people who looked down on words like this, but there were also people who were now considering them.

    The emperor looked closely at the God-Merging School.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster looked up and met the emperor¡¯s gaze. The reality was that the words which had just been spoken by the chief student were actually not directed at the other students in the audience, or even the Xeno-Immortal School. As far as the God-Merging schoolmaster was concerned, those words were intended for the person he was currently looking at.

    Xu Qing noted that.

    Meanwhile, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster barked out a harshugh. ¡°You ignorant child. You think the dao of a species is as simplistic as that? You couldn¡¯t be farther from the truth! The so-called dao of a species rtes to that species¡¯ soul, traditions, philosophies, civilization, and ideals. All of those things together!¡±

    At this point, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster was throwing caution to the wind. Standing up, he pointed at the emperor up in the air. Looking at all the gathered students, he shouted, ¡°Can anyone tell me why Emperor Dark War is referred to as ¡®human¡¯ emperor? Back in the day, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity was the emperor of <i>all </i>species, yet his official title was ¡®human emperor.¡¯ Why?

    ¡°Because we¡¯re human! Whether in ancient times or in the future, we¡¯re all human. It¡¯s in our souls, our traditions, our philosophies, our civilization, and our ideals.

    ¡°The broken face in the sky brought unending suffering and misery to us humans. We¡¯re natural-born enemies. You want to make apromise? To let down all of the countless humans who have died from mutation over the years? That¡¯s not the proper dao. That¡¯s outright betrayal!¡±

    His words were full of grief andmentation. Even hatred. The students in the university heard them and were shaken deeply. That was especially true when it came to his exnation of ¡®human emperor.¡¯

    The university became very quiet. The emperor closed his eyes.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster frowned beneath his mask. As he looked at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster, he once again got the sense that this person who he had previously looked down on as a nobody was actually a lot more difficult to deal with than he imagined.

    A long moment passed, and then the chancellor revealed the third topic.

    ¡°What is the proper dao?¡±

    Someone else on the God-Merging side prepared to answer, but then the schoolmaster raised his hand. Looking at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster, he calmly said, ¡°The proper dao is the dao that is orthodox. The dao that is righteous. [2]

    ¡°Our God-Merging School has a clear conscience in this world. We have a clear conscience among humankind. We do merge with godly materials, but we also scrupulously abide by the proper dao. It¡¯s your Xeno-Immortal School that is cruel, ruthless, and wicked. You torment fellow humans and absorb the souls of innocent cultivators. Everyone knows about this.

    ¡°Just now, you spoke with great confidence, saying ¡®humans h h h¡¯ and ¡®humankind this-and-that.¡¯ But if you look at such words in context, they¡¯re pure hypocrisy. The Xeno-Immortal School isn¡¯t worthy of the proper dao.¡±

    The words were spoken very calmly, but given everything that had been happening with the Xeno-Immortal School, they were a mortal attack. The thought-provoking words from the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster now seemed weak and ineffective.

    Then the God-Merging schoolmaster delivered the final death blow. ¡°When a person doesn¡¯t act properly, how can they possibly speak properly?¡±

    All the students in the Imperial University looked up at the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster. All the onlookers outside the university seemed to be sighing. The Xeno-Immortal dao seeds were just too evil. Because of that, the words spoken by the God-Merging schoolmaster were like a sharp de.

    The Xeno-Immortal School opened his mouth to speak, and yet he wasn¡¯t sure what to say. He wanted to offer a retort. But in the end he couldn¡¯t. Not even he could exin why the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds, which he believed to be a good thing, had led to ughter and killing. He had no exnation. During the time when he had been confined in the tower, that question had eaten at him.

    Only two stages of the dao debate had passed so far, but already, people were reaching the point where they wouldn¡¯t trust anything the Xeno-Immortal School said.

    The chancellor of the university sighed inwardly, then looked out and prepared to speak. However, that was when a cold voice echoed out from the crowd.

    ¡°It¡¯s only natural that someone who behaves improperly will speak improperly. Simrly, if the techniques are improper, then the school of thought is also improper.¡±

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s voice, and as it echoed out, the other students looked over in surprise. Meanwhile, Xu Qing floated out of the crowd and into the air. Everyone was looking at him, including the students and the spectators outside the university. The emperor also opened his eyes. Numerous streams of divine will locked onto him as he floated up onto the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar. He became the second cultivator from the Xeno-Immortal school to present himself publicly.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster was struggling to control his breathing when it happened. He looked over at Xu Qing with surprise and confusion. He recognized this student, but at the same time, that recognition was what made him realize there was something very unusual about him. And that sensation was growing stronger by the moment. How could he ever have guessed that the student named Sir Dark-Thunder would step out into the open and say something like that? He was actually somewhat stunned. Then, his daze turned into keen spection and anticipation.

    As Xu Qing settled onto the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar, his gaze seemed utterly calm. He was looking at the ck dao altar and the God-Merging School cultivators there. After scanning the group, his gaze came to rest on Seventh Prince.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster¡¯s pupils constricted as he looked at Xu Qing and realized he seemed familiar.

    Seventh Prince didn¡¯t feel any sense of familiarity. But he did feel a sense of danger. And when Xu Qing¡¯s gaze locked onto him, that sensation exploded within him.

    Next, Xu Qing spoke again in his cold voice. ¡°This seems like a good time and ce to clear up matters regarding the Xeno-Immortal dao seeds. Fellow students, Your Majesty, please bear witness.¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand, revealing a jade slip. He pushed down onto it.

    Instantly, beams of light shot out of the jade slip, intersecting in midair to form an image. It was an image of a private chamber, within which a person was practicing cultivation.

    That person was none other than Seventh Prince. Astonishingly, he was surrounded by masses of human souls. At a quick nce, there seemed to be millions and millions of them. They included old people and young. Men and women. Most were mortals, and they were screaming in anguish and horror. They were begging for mercy. But Seventh Prince¡¯s expression was cid, without any hint of mercy. He inhaled, and the souls of numerous fellow humans entered his mouth.

    He started chewing, and at the same time, used the magical techniques of the God-Merging School. As a result, the human souls smashed into the bottleneck in his God-Merging cultivation, and allowed him to absorb more godly materials.

    It was obvious that this process was very beneficial, and from his facial expression, he even seemed to be enjoying it. The contrast created between him and the screaming souls... made the scene shocking and ghastly. Anyone who saw it would bristle with anger.

    The jade slip was no ordinary item. It didn¡¯t just have an image on it. It also preserved the auras present when the image was captured, which could be used to confirm its authenticity. But that just made the evil scene worse.

    All students in the Imperial University felt their minds spinning. Their eyes became bloodshot, and rage built up within them, causing colorful winds to spring up everywhere.

    Amotion had erupted in the organizations outside the university. After all, it was bad enough that something like this was happening, but what was more shocking... was that it was being done by an imperial prince. This level of evil was beyond shocking.

    The emperor¡¯s face looked extremely grim, and frigid coldness emanated off him, filling the imperial capital. The dome of heaven darkened, and the rumbling of thunder could be heard.

    Trembling, Seventh Prince shot to his feet. Working hard to control his facial expression, he calmly said, ¡°Father, that image is a fake. Someone is setting me up! I hereby request to use the Immortal Questioning Bell to prove that the person in the image isn¡¯t me!¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s expression was calm, but he was shaking. It was one thing to swagger around doing as he pleased in Sea-Sealing County. But right now, he was in the imperial capital, right in front of the emperor. As a result, he felt terror and rm building within him.

    Of course, Xu Qing was here, and there was no way Xu Qing was going to let Seventh Prince overturn the game board. He waved his hand, and out came the student who had been possessed by Little Shadow.

    Before he could open his mouth to speak, Xu Qing pped his hand down onto his head. Instantly, an image from the student¡¯s memories appeared in the air above him. It depicted the image from that secret meeting, and everyone could see it.

    The storm began to intensify.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice as the storm raged. He red at the God-Merging schoolmaster.

    ¡°Who is it exactly that¡¯s tormenting fellow humans? Who is it exactly that¡¯s devouring human souls? Who is it exactly that¡¯s speaking with great confidence?¡±

    Those three sentences seemed to shake heaven and earth.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster was deeply shaken. As for the God-Merging schoolmaster, he was looking deeply at Xu Qing.

    Seventh Prince was also ring at Xu Qing. Flying up into the air, he prostrated himself to the emperor.

    ¡°Father, someone is targeting me by means of that image. Father, please give me a chance to prove myself. I can clear my name with the Immortal Questioning Bell!¡±

    Within the projected image of the imperial pce, the emperor looked coldly at Seventh Prince.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    His words counted as an imperial edict. And when the emperor spoke, people obeyed. But today... things were different.

    Xu Qing took a step forward. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary. Why question a bell when you can question a sword?¡± Xu Qing pointed up into the sky. ¡°The Emperor¡¯s Sword!¡±

    1. In Chinese, what I¡¯m rendering as Godfolk essentially takes the word ¡®god¡¯ andbines it with the same word for ¡®species¡¯ that appears in the names of all the various species we¡¯ve seen in the story, from the Seazombies to the Firemoons. It seems to imply that gods are a species. That said, the specific character (like just about every character in Chinese) can be interpreted in different ways. For instance, it could also be ¡°n.¡± However, given the context it seems that it¡¯s referring to gods as a species. Don¡¯t forget that the Holytides are a unique species, but are/were considered to also be human, or at least partly/formerly human. This is one of those things that could get some sort of wordy rification hundreds of chapters from now in a chapter that, as of tranting and uploading this chapter, hasn¡¯t been released yet. If that happens, I reserve the right to change this trantion choice if appropriate. ?

    2. The words rendered ¡°orthodox¡± and ¡°righteous¡± both share a character with ¡°proper.¡± In English, it would be akin to asking ¡°what is anti-war¡± and then the answer being ¡°anti-war means being anti-violence and anti-hatred.¡± ?

 Chapter 795: The Emperorâ€™s Sword Executes an Imperial Prince

    <h4>Chapter 795: The Emperor¡¯s Sword Executes an Imperial Prince</h4>

    The words ¡°Emperor¡¯s Sword¡± echoed out in all directions, shaking even the clouds. The sky above the Imperial University shook violently, and shock waves rolled out continuously. A boundless might appeared from nowhere, bing like a tempest that crushed down in the university.

    The white towers swayed back and forth, and numerous students¡¯ hearts pounded in fear. Everyone waspletely focused on the person atop the white daoist altar, who at the moment, looked exactly like everyone else.

    As of this moment, one person was the focus of a myriad of gazes.

    ¡°Did he just say... The Emperor¡¯s Sword?¡±

    ¡°Is that guy actually....¡±

    An uproar swept through the students, and a simr reaction urred among the observers outside the university.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster¡¯s eyes were filled with outright disbelief. Back when Sir Dark-Thunder stepped out into the open, the schoolmaster had wondered if he could be the enigmatic master. But things were happening so quickly that he almost couldn¡¯t react. This person... wasn¡¯t the enigmatic master, and yet, his identity was equally shocking.

    <i>It¡¯s him! How did I manage to recruit him into the Xeno-Immortal School?</i>

    The schoolmaster was starting to feel more happy than shocked. Although this wasn¡¯t the person he had been hoping would show up, his status and identity were still astonishing.

    Xu Qing stood tall and straight on the dao altar. He wore the white hemp robe of a student, plus the same mask as everyone else. He looked no different from any other ordinary student from the Imperial University.

    The Imperial University had special rules requiring everyone to dress exactly the same, specifically for the purpose of concealing everyone¡¯s true identities. But sometimes, the same article of clothing could look different when worn by different people. And in some situations, such differences can be blownpletely out of proportion. That was what was happening right now.

    However, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care what other people were thinking. He was thinking about one word: kill. He¡¯d been wanting to kill Seventh Prince for a long time now.

    That animosity had been building since years ago in Sea-Sealing County, when Seventh Prince monopolized all the glory and honor, while simultaneously forcing Pce Lord Kong into his death. From that moment on, Xu Qing had been thinking about putting an end to him. Of course, he¡¯d been unable to do it back then. But things were different now.

    His eyes contained a might like heaven or the dao. They contained the ideals of humankind, and they were ice-cold as they looked at Seventh Prince. Right now, he had the upper hand. And despite Seventh Prince being higher in the air, he had the opposite.

    An interesting thing about time is that, as it flows, it has the power to take people in high ces and make them low, or take lowly people and lift them up.

    When Xu Qing firstid eyes on Seventh Prince, he was riding a golden dragon through the sky, leading a magnificent army of countless men and horses. He was like a rising sun that illuminated the battlefield on the border of Sea-Sealing County.

    The second time he saw Seventh Prince was when a host of cultivators clustered around him as he made his way into the county capital. He was high-spirited and full of mettle that day, as all people bowed to him in worship. Xu Qing had been outside of the city in the army. Comparatively speaking, he had been unnoticed down in the mud, while Seventh Prince was in the clouds in heaven.

    The third and fourth asions were simr.

    Then Xu Qing got back from the Moonrite Region to find that things had changed. That led to this day... when everything was turned around.

    That was the fascinating power of time. That was why people would thirst for destined opportunities, and it was also why Xu Qing had never given up.

    In the past, Xu Qing had never been in the clouds. And today, Guyue Zhang¡¯an was the one in the mud.

    Seventh Prince was feeling something simr. It was now getting hard for him to keep calm; as his confidence eroded, his facial expression began to change. From his perspective, the person on the dao altar who had just talked back to the emperor was so high above himself that the difference between the two of them was like the difference between the clouds and the mud. He was shaking harder now than he ever had in the past, andplex feelings were overtaking him.

    As Xu Qing looked at him, his anger surged to manic levels.

    ¡°You¡¯re Xu Qing!¡± he growled in a raspy voice.

    People had already started to guess who Xu Qing really was from the moment he stepped out in front of everyone. But now, Seventh Prince was stating his identity out loud.

    The atmosphere in the Imperial University and the imperial capital suddenly got extremely tense.

    And that was because Xu Qing was anything but a simple person. He was the only region lord among humans, and he also bore The Emperor¡¯s Sword! Because of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, Xu Qing did qualify, in some respects, to talk back to the emperor. Having such qualifications, and actually using them, were two different things. Clearly, Xu Qing did dare to use them!

    There was no doubt about his status when he uttered the words, <i>¡°Why question a bell when you can question a sword?¡±</i>

    What was more, the might pulsing from his eyes became golden light that spread in all directions. In fact, it wasn¡¯t just his eyes. Golden light spread off every inch of him. In the blink of an eye, hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of streams of golden light surrounded Xu Qing, bing a sea of light.

    As the light became blinding, a huge sword appeared behind Xu Qing, in front of the eyes of everyone present.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a sword of ancient bronze, covered withplex designs, and pulsing with a paramount domineering sensation. This was a shocking sword that could sunder the heavens and crush the earth.

    The Imperial University trembled. The daoist rite center began to crack. All onlookers were astonished. Boundless destiny aura swirled into the forms of clouds above the imperial capital, and it gave all living beings in the imperial capital the urge to drop down and prostrate.

    This was a sword of humankind! This sword represented all the ideals and traditions of the human species.

    This was The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    The students in the university inhaled sharply and instinctively bowed to The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Even the leaders on the God-Merging School¡¯s daoist altar were so shaken that they chose to bow to the sword. The emperor looked at Xu Qing wordlessly.

    Seventh Prince was fully aware that Xu Qing had always wanted to kill him. That was why he had constantly been taking steps to see Xu Qing dead. But in situation after situation, Seventh Prince lost the initiative, and eventually, had no choice but to simply wait for the right opportunity toe along.

    Now, before that opportunity coulde, Xu Qing made a move. A deadly crisis had struck, and it was like thunder smashing into his mind.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡± he shouted desperately, ¡°how could you possibly use The Emperor¡¯s Sword for personal reasons?¡±

    Then Seventh Prince looked at the emperor, his expression full of admiration, respect, and love.

    ¡°Father, I¡¯m an imperial prince. Humankind has been in decline my entire life. Meanwhile, I¡¯ve watched you work yourself to the bone for the sake of the people. Their plight fills you with pain, and that¡¯s why you swore to devote your entire life to reviving our species.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I chose to save Sea-Sealing County. We need to expand human borders. I¡¯ve never forgotten all the things you taught me from a young age, sir, and therefore, how could I possibly behave in such an animalistic way? The person in that image is not your son!¡±

    Seventh Prince¡¯s voice thrummed with grief as it echoed out in all directions.

    The emperor¡¯s eyes flickered with more intensity than before, but he didn¡¯t speak. Pressure from him rolled out, weighing down on the entire Imperial University. He was the emperor. But he was also a father. Although he suppressed the second identity to the point where it was hardly recognizable, in the end, this was a case of someone threatening to kill his son right in front of him. As a father, how could he remain calm in a situation like that?

    The heavenly kings in his presence exchanged nces, then focused on Xu Qing.

    The university students were shaking, and the organizations out in the city were all taking the situation very seriously.

    A major event was ying out this day.

    What was more, the words spoken by Seventh Prince actually made sense.

    But then a cold voice pierced through all the various thoughts in the minds of the onlookers.

    ¡°Pipe down,¡± Xu Qing said, looking coldly at Seventh Prince.

    As the words left his mouth, the clouds seethed, parting to reveal numerous enormous figures that struck shock into the hearts of all, and filled everyone with the urge to drop down and bow. These... were the worthy sages of the past from all the ns and sects that made up humankind. And they were all appearing here and now.

    Their arrival was destabilizing and shocking. Everyone inside and outside the university looked on in shock. The doubts Seventh Prince had raised were being crushed.

    This was not using an imperial weapon for personal benefit. This was the blessing of the destiny aura of humankind, and the approval of the sages of the past. It was a manifestation of the dao of a species.

    Xu Qing looked up and sped hands to the sages above.

    ¡°On this day, I, Xu Qing, call upon the sages of the past to witness this judgment against Guyue Zhang¡¯an, the seventh son of Emperor Dark War!¡± Xu Qing¡¯s gaze dropped tond on the terrified Seventh Prince. ¡°Guyue Zhang¡¯an, you havemitted four crimes.

    ¡°Your first crime is that you colluded with Torchlight, as well as with the Holytide species. This crime is punishable by death!¡±

    As the words left Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, The Emperor¡¯s Sword behind him shone with a 30,000-meter light, causing the thrum of a sword to boom like thunder.

    ¡°The second crime is that of arranging for the death of Pce Lord Kong of the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County, all for the sake of earning military credit for yourself. You stood idly by while millions upon millions of Sea-Sealing County cultivators died, all to build yourself the reputation of a hero. This crime is punishable by death!¡±

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword vibrated, and the sword itself trembled as a powerful energy built up within it.

    ¡°Your third crime is that of participating in the conspiracy to murder the governor of Sea-Sealing County. This crime is punishable by death!¡±

    The trembling Emperor¡¯s Sword rose up into the air, and then tilted onto its side so its point was directed straight at Seventh Prince. Destiny aura powered into it, causing it to shine brightly and emanate the might of extermination.

    ¡°Your fourth crime is that, for the furtherance of the God-Merging techniques you cultivate, you devoured the souls of countless humanmoners. This heinous crime is punishable by death!¡±

    By the time Xu Qing finished exining the fourth crime, the killing intent in his eyes shone brightly. Pointing his finger at the trembling Seventh Prince, he calmly continued, ¡°Emperor¡¯s Sword, please execute this traitor against humanity!¡±

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword pulsed with such astonishing mightiness that the sky turned golden. Illusory pces rose up everywhere, and within them were projections of Grand Emperor Swordsage. The sword moved, shing toward Seventh Prince. It was backed with powers that could devour mountains and rivers, and could shatter the air. It was backed by the souls of countless fallen humans. It contained something profoundly ancient that could not be blocked or evaded.

    Seventh Prince was struck with terror. Rushing toward the emperor, he despairingly screamed, ¡°Father¡ª¡±

    His words were cut short.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword shed forth with the might to sever the heavens. Seventh Prince didn¡¯t stand a chance of fighting back. Before he could flee, his arms exploded, his legs shattered, and his torso blew up. His eyes contained terror and defiance in the moment before his head was ripped to shreds. He had been reduced to ashes. His soul wasn¡¯t in the position to escape cmity. It was wiped out of existence. He had been killed in body and soul. His spiritual souls were gone, and his physical souls had dispersed. The dao that he had cultivated for his entire life had gone up in smoke. The imperial bloodline would not be continuing with him.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword could even execute the emperor. In that case, what could it do to an imperial prince?

 Chapter 796: Display Item

    <h4>Chapter 796: Disy Item</h4>

    The dome of heaven was quiet. Thends were still. The entire world had be tranquil.

    All students in the university, and everyone outside of it, were feeling shaken by a tempest of emotion. All streams of divine will and all eyes had been focused on The Emperor¡¯s Sword in the sky above the Imperial University... and the spot where Seventh Prince had disappeared.

    Seventh Prince had been killed in body and soul. His physical form was no more, and his dao had dispersed. His spiritual souls were gone, and his physical souls had dissipated. He was deprived of any chance to enter the cycle of reincarnation. A mighty imperial prince had perished.

    This was the second time an imperial prince had died during the reign of Emperor Dark War. The first time was when Eleventh Prince had died. Back then, the emperor had been furious. The investigation of the matter led to a widespread rain of blood. Many people died. In fact, the entire matter took a whole year to die down.

    Today... another imperial prince died. This time, it happened right in front of the emperor as well as countless other witnesses, as he was executed with The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    What was especially noteworthy was that the emperor had approved Seventh Prince¡¯s request to use the Immortal Questioning Bell to clear his name, only to have Xu Qing interrupt and countermand the decision.

    The shock in the hearts of the onlookers turned into an oppressive aura. As they breathed heavily, the atmosphere grew tense, and the gazes became as weighty as mountains.

    It converged on the imperial capital, and then the Imperial University, and finally on Xu Qing. Beneath his mask, Xu Qing¡¯s expression hadn¡¯t changed at all. His eyes were calm. Floating down, hended on the white daoist altar, then turned to the sages above and bowed deeply. Next, he bowed to the students in the university. Then he bowed to the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster.

    Finally, he reached up, put his hand on his mask, and slowly removed it, thus voluntarily abandoning the rules of the university. He was revealing his face for everyone to see.

    It was a spectacrly beautiful, absolutely wless face. It was like the first rays of morning sun shining onto the Imperial University. Sword-like eyebrows framed eyes that seemed like bottomlesskes. They were like stars glittering in the dead of night, filled with a calmness that surpassed the mortal world. He had long hair that cascaded down his back like a waterfall, each strand of which brimmed with life force, strength, and the determination to kill.

    As Xu Qing stood on the dao altar, he shone like stars in the night. His student garment swayed in the breeze, like the streaming clouds that might be mentioned in poetry. Golden light shone off him, like the reflection of the moon in a pond during autumn.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword was already fading from view, but its mere existence was a symbol of Xu Qing¡¯s identity. He finally looked at the emperor in the imperial pce. He bowed at the waist.

    As a student of the university, he had bowed to the Xeno-Immortal School. After taking off his mask, he was a region lord bowing to the emperor.

    The emperor sat there silently. It was impossible to determine what he was thinking. But after a long moment of silence, he closed his eyes. The thirteen heavenly kings all seemed somewhat embarrassed. With eyes full of various emotions, they looked closely at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing said nothing further. After bowing, he walked back to the visibly astonished Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster and sat down next to him. He closed his eyes.

    The previous night when he grabbed the jade slip, he had already called out to The Emperor¡¯s Sword in his heart. And... The Emperor¡¯s Sword had stirred.

    That was how Xu Qing knew that Seventh Prince was going to die.

    When Seventh Prince opened his mouth and asked to clear his name with the Immortal Questioning Bell, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in hearing the result. It didn¡¯t matter whether the image was real or not.

    They weren¡¯t important. The fact that The Emperor¡¯s Sword had stirred proved everything.

    When Xu Qing closed his eyes, there was a long moment of silence in the Imperial University. Then people began to breathe again. For all of these people, it was the first time in their life personally witnessing the death of an imperial prince. It was iparable.

    There was one group of people who felt even more deeply shaken than the students in the university or the cultivators on the outside. And they were... the other imperial princes.

    Third Prince was currently in the Imperial University, and he was shaking uncontrobly. As he looked at Xu Qing, his gaze was one of fear and trepidation. He wasn¡¯tpletely pure and innocent either, and thus, he was afraid.

    Outside the university, Grand Prince, Second Prince, Fourth Prince, Sixth Prince, and Tenth Prince were also shaking. To them, this action by Xu Qing was like something that only the tutor of imperial princes could do. In fact, though such a tutor would have the power to punish, he definitely would not qualify to impose the death penalty. How could the imperial princes <i>not</i> be afraid? After all... when executing judgment, The Emperor¡¯s Sword represented the righteousness and virtue of humankind. The emperor couldn¡¯t interfere with that, much less anyone else.

    <i>He¡¯s... way too powerful!</i> That was what all the imperial princes were thinking, with the exception of Ningyan.

    What was more, it was very significant that, after everything yed out, Xu Qing sat down next to the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster.

    In the shortest of moments, the viewpoint of the students and the other cultivators regarding the Xeno-Immortal School changed.

    That was the school of thought that Xu Qing had selected. And in order to prove that the Xeno-Immortal School wasn¡¯t evil, he had executed Seventh Prince. He had used blood to rify any misunderstandings people had, as well as to clear away the reproach heaped forth by the God-Merging School. Everything that had yed out had caused shock to build upon shock in the hearts of everyone.

    The prismatic beam of light from the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar shot higher into the air. It went from 300 meters to 3,000 meters. All students who had previously joined the Xeno-Immortal School were now feeling immeasurably excited.

    There were still students from other schools of thought who didn¡¯t approve of the Xeno-Immortal School. And there were also people who had never had any dealings with Xu Qing or even seen him. But now, they had seen with their own eyes that he wasn¡¯t afraid to call on the might of The Emperor¡¯s Sword in front of the emperor. The development had a monumental effect on the younger generation.

    ¡°No wonder he¡¯s the lord of an entire region!¡±

    ¡°I heard that years ago in Sea-Sealing County, Xu Qing stepped out alone and blew the top off a huge conspiracy!¡±

    ¡°I heard that during the swordsage assessment of the heart, he got a 30,000-meter pir of light. That proves that he has good character and is trustworthy. I used to think those were just exaggerations and rumors. But now I can see why The Emperor¡¯s Sword chose him!¡±

    ¡°The Grand Emperor approved of him, and The Emperor¡¯s Sword picked him. Then he chose the Xeno-Immortal School. That means that this school of thought... is definitely extraordinary!¡±

    Meanwhile, on the white dao altar, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster¡¯s heart raced, and the daze that had enveloped him seemed to intensify. He felt like all the blood in his body was racing to his head, filling him with pulses of excitement. What had yed out today so farpletely surpassed anything he could have predicted. Even now, he almost couldn¡¯t believe it was real. Turning to look at Xu Qing, he opened his mouth to speak, yet couldn¡¯t think of anything to say. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked over proudly at the God-Merging School on the ck dao altar.

    All gazes from the God-Merging School were fixed on Xu Qing. They contained a variety of emotions. Some seemed regretful, others antagonistic. But when people looked from Xu Qing to the spot where Seventh Prince had perished, all they could do was sigh inwardly.

    The schoolmaster of the God-Merging School was having trouble organizing his thoughts. <i>What an impressive show put on for the emperor.... Seventh Prince was a game piece that I hadn¡¯t yet deployed properly. Nor was it time to get rid of him. But now he¡¯s gone. It seems to me that Xu Qing... probably realizes who I really am. Twice.... This time, I miscalcted twice.</i>

    The God-Merging schoolmaster sighed and looked off in the direction of Star-Plucking Tower. He suddenly felt ashamed, and at the same time, very cold.

    At that point, the chancellor of the university sighed. He could never have predicted that this dao debate would turn out like this. What was more, the dao debate... wasn¡¯t over yet. After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he looked at the emperor.

    ¡°Continue,¡± the emperor said. It was his first time speaking, and his voice was deep and grim.

    The chancellor hesitated briefly, as it seemed there was an additional meaning in the emperor¡¯s words. Then he looked out at the university.

    ¡°In the third stage of the dao debate, you will debate the hereafter.

    ¡°The ¡®hereafter¡¯ refers to the future. The Xeno-Immortal School and the God-Merging School have both made their way of thinking clear. But the fact remains that, as cultivators, we must see which of these two paths will lead to a great dao.

    ¡°We have the students here to bear witness. So, both sides of the debate will now reveal the dao of your techniques!¡±

    The moment the chancellor finished speaking, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster took a breath and stood. Unleashing his cultivation base, he sent more than 100,000 soul threads out, creating a rumbling vortex that turned into a godly earthchild. That was his personal limit. However, the Xeno-Immortal School... also had a patriarch around.

    An instantter, a howl erupted from the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s white tower. A rumbling like thunder filled the university as the tower¡¯s secluded meditation facilities opened, and a white-haired old man emerged, d in a daoist robe. He wore no mask, and his eyes gleamed with great spirit. He pulsed with a terrifying pressure as he strode through the air until he reached the dao altar.

    In the blink of an eye, he was on the altar. His arrival provoked a lot of hushed conversation among the onlookers.

    The chancellor looked at the new arrival and quietly said, ¡°Chen Daoze.¡±

    This person was the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s patriarch, Chen Daoze. As he stepped onto the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar, he didn¡¯t look at the schoolmaster, but rather, at Xu Qing. He nodded. Then he turned to the chancellor and bowed.

    ¡°Chancellor, I¡¯vee out of seclusion a bitte. In this round of debating the hereafter, I will be the first to reveal what I¡¯m capable of.¡±

    Rumbling sounds echoed out of Chen Daoze as soul threads spread rapidly from his sea of consciousness. 100,000. 200,000. 300,000. 400,000.... In the very end, 600,000 soul threads filled the sky over the Imperial University.

    Then, he waved them together into a shocking figure that pulsed with god power. Heaven and earth went dim, and mutagen proliferated.

    This image was that of a god! It was a god of ck bones that had long ago been ughtered by Grand Emperor Swordsage. The god wore a long ck robe and had the body of a pitch-ck deer, covered with scales. It had four eyes, all of which glittered like suns and moons. Its mere presence struck fear in the hearts of everyone.

    The students gasped in shock, and the cultivators outside the university were deeply shaken.

    To anyone who understood anything about the Xeno-Immortal School, 600,000 soul threads was a pure impossibility. It was almost like a fairy tale. Shock abounded.

    ¡°A god weaved from 600,000 soul threads...?¡±

    ¡°Th-this... this is the Xeno-Immortal School?¡±

    Gasps and exmations ensured that the scene surrounding the dao altars was one of pure chaos.

    Hearing the uproar, the God-Merging schoolmaster growled, ¡°It¡¯s just the form, not the spirit. When you use 600,000 soul threads with Xeno-Immortal techniques, this is the only thing you¡¯ll get.¡±

    He knew that he was reaching the end of the line. But at the moment, he didn¡¯t care whether or not he died. He just wanted to put on a good show.

    Unfortunately, his disy item had been destroyed before he could show off how valuable it was. Therefore... he would have to use himself as the disy item. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, the God-Merging schoolmaster rose to his feet.

    At that moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened. He looked at the God-Merging schoolmaster, doing nothing to hide the killing intent in his eyes, which became like an invisible, razor-sharp sword.

 Chapter 797: 1,000,000 Soul Threads Fill the Dome of Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 797: 1,000,000 Soul Threads Fill the Dome of Heaven</h4>

    The God-Merging schoolmaster¡¯s voice echoed through heaven and earth as he rose to his feet, took a step forward, and then floated off the dao altar and into the air. As he hovered there, he looked at Xu Qing briefly, then turned his attention to the image of the emperor. He bowed deeply at the waist, and a terrifying energy erupted from him. The energy streamed around him, spinning to create a visible vortex that spread out through the Imperial University. Fierce winds shook the dao altar, and everyone edged backward with serious looks in their eyes. There was no doubt that this energy was extraordinary.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened. He was familiar with Torchlight, and he had personally seen the experimental god bodies of Master Shengyun and his father, Chu Tianqun. What was more, his god troves could be used to enter god states. Because of that, he could see that the God-Merging schoolmaster¡¯s energy was a mixture of mutagen and godsource.

    As the God-Merging schoolmaster hovered there, the sensation of godly entities grew even stronger. It almost seemed like the presence of a god.

    ¡°In this debate of the hereafter, I will show the true meaning of our school of thought. The God-Merging School might not be perfect in every respect, but no techniques are closer to the gods than ours.¡±

    The schoolmaster extended his left hand and pushed it toward the dome of heaven. Suddenly, the flesh of his left hand burst into ck me. The skin copsed into smoke, which rose up to reveal his true left hand. It was pitch ck, and crystalline, as if it werepletely formed from gemstones. And it pulsed with fluctuations of godliness streaked with godsource.

    All onlookers were astonished. Numerous thoughts ran through the minds of the observers outside the university.

    The emperor looked neither happy nor angry. In fact, it was impossible to gauge what he was thinking; his eyes were as dark as an abyss. The thirteen heavenly kings all sat there quietly.

    The only sound to be heard was the voice of the God-Merging schoolmaster. ¡°This, my left hand, is the left hand of a god. It¡¯s an amalgamation of the crystallized cores of 1,798 godly entities.

    ¡°This merging technique is the result of 3,175 experiments by students of the God-Merging School, each of which involved different sequencing attempts. Ultimately, I tested out this version, and can confirm that the sequencing is correct. By using this technique, a low-level cultivator could produce a hand just like this in only a hundred years.

    ¡°For high-level cultivators, it¡¯s much easier and faster.¡±

    The schoolmaster then lifted his right and did the same thing. The skin fell off it, revealing another hand, also the hand of a god, but different from the other hand.

    This one was pure magenta. And it seemed to be wriggling. If one looked closely, they would see that the hand was made of numerous magenta threadworms. Every threadworm pulsed with fluctuations of godliness. Those fluctuations were so intense that they shook the Imperial University, causing everything to blur. The dome of heaven dimmed, and streaks of lightning appeared, sending out thunderous rumblings like the cry of gods.

    Whether it was the university students or the outside forces, all were visibly moved.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened further. From that hand, he could instantly tell that Torchlight¡¯s experimentation had already led them far past the point they had reached with Master Shengyun and Chu Tianqun.

    ¡°This, my right hand, is also the right hand of a god. Ites from an unknown god that perished in mutual destruction when fighting the emperor of the Flynill species.

    ¡°The techniques of the God-Merging School cannot be directly used to absorb anything from the corpse of a god. The body couldn¡¯t sustain that. Therefore, an equilibrium needs to be created. The first step is the left hand, after which, work on the right hand can proceed. The specific details of the method are recorded in the writings of the God-Merging School.¡±

    The God-Merging schoolmaster was speaking very precisely, almost as if his own body wasn¡¯t his own, but rather, was a disy item. He was like a shopkeeper exining his wares.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s the torso....¡±

    The God-Merging schoolmaster floated high into the sky. Then he reached down with both hands, grabbed his robe, and ripped it off, revealing the ferocious torso underneath.

    His entire torso was pieced together using different godly materials. In some ces, skulls stuck out. In other ces there were patches. It was possible to see reptilian scales, crystallized sections, parts that were earthworms, threadworms, and other types of bugs. Every single part of the torso pulsed with godly fluctuations.

    From a distance, it looked like someone had just overturned a palette of paint onto a canvas, then violently struck the canvas. It was a chaos of colors, with some areas clearly demarcated, and some areas clearly integrated. Yet if you looked at it for long enough, the chaos would seem to be orderly, and impart a sense of perfectpleteness. It was as if it were the master work of a genius creator.

    The energy being released caused the onlookers to react with astonishment. Heaven and earth changed color, winds screamed, and mutagen erupted.

    It almost looked like the Imperial University was about to be turned into a forbidden region. Everyone was shaken.

    A tremor passed through the emperor as he looked more closely. The heavenly kings were all visibly surprised.

    To Xu Qing, the situation only seemed to be graver as he realized Little Shadow was sending him emotional fluctuations of longing.

    ¡°Fragrant... eat... don¡¯t dare.¡±

    The strangest thing about the torso was in the chest... which was sunken in and clearly had no heart.

    ¡°This torso uses 9,785 types of godly materials. The sequence of use must be adhered to exactly, otherwise it will copse. After years of experimentation, I discovered the correct sequencing method, as well as substitute materials for lower-level individuals. All of the information is recorded in our school¡¯s writings.

    ¡°As for the heart, well as all of you can see... that part is missing.¡±

    The God-Merging schoolmaster reached up to rub the spot with the missing heart.

    ¡°That¡¯s thest step in our God-Merging School¡¯s techniques. It¡¯s also our biggest weakness. For a full merging, the heart of a powerful expert is required. With it in ce¡ª¡± The schoolmaster looked around calmly. ¡°¡ªI¡¯ll have the foundation of a god.

    ¡°At that time, someone in Void Returning who uses this technique will break through the limits of their qualifications, altering their dao to be a god cultivator.¡±

    Countless individuals in the imperial capital were shaken.

    ¡°Smoldering Gods can also use the technique to break the shackles of their bloodline, and switch to the dao of gods.¡±

    Those words caused the eyes of many of the heavenly kings to glitter.

    ¡°As for Imperial Sovereigns... well, by working in cooperation with some other special ceremonies capable of igniting anything and everything, they can continue on the path toward their goal, and when the critical moment of godly ascensiones, they can have one-colored godfire!

    ¡°In reality, god cultivators don¡¯t even have the Imperial Sovereign level, only different umtions of godfire. Before godfire, you have godliness, which though it can be strong or weak, is ultimately insufficient. Only by igniting godfire can you be like <i>the carp who jumped over the dragon gate</i>. Only then can you <i>change heaven from earth</i>, and improve yourself in all aspects. Then, you can be what all the living species call a god. In past eras, cultivators on that level were called Imperial Sovereigns, or sometimes, Demi-Immortals.

    ¡°Therefore, though it might seem that an Imperial Sovereign who converts to cultivating godfire might not be changing to a different level, the reality is that the future path of all Imperial Sovereigns has been severed. Once you be an Imperial Sovereign, you¡¯re stuck. And of course, you can never break through to be a Quasi-Immortal. However, after converting to godfire, then once you surpass the level of seven colors, you be a High God. That¡¯s simr to the peak of Imperial Sovereign.

    ¡°And if you can push your godfire past the level of nine colors, then you can be an entity which surpasses High Gods, just like the Quasi-Immortals of humankind, who were called Grand Emperors.

    ¡°This is how the God-Merging School debates the hereafter. And this is the gift our school of thought has prepared for humankind.¡±

    Having finished with his speech, he bowed to the emperor.

    Silence gripped the Imperial University. The spectators said nothing. The emperor¡¯s eyes were closed.

    Everyone was pondering the words of the God-Merging schoolmaster. The Xeno-Immortal School had summoned the projection of a god, but fundamentally speaking, that wasn¡¯t on the same level as the God-Merging School.

    The Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster was starting to feel a bit anxious. He looked at his school¡¯s patriarch, and noted his calm demeanor. The patriarch then reached up and made a gesture with his hand that dispersed the god projection. 600,000 soul threads returned to within him. Then, he turned to Xu Qing, ducked his head, and bowed at the waist.

    That bow caused an instant stir in the crowd.

    The schoolmaster¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and the thoughts he had dismissed earlier suddenly rushed back. He looked at Xu Qing.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me....</i>

    The chancellor of the Imperial University, Third Prince, and all the students present were thinking roughly the same thing. It was an outrageous and seemingly preposterous premonition.

    <i>Could it be...?</i>

    All onlookers suppressed thoughts of the God-Merging School, and instead focused on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing slowly stood.

    That motion struck fear into the hearts of many, especially the imperial princes. But then they noticed that neither his eyes nor his surroundings showed any of the golden light that indicated The Emperor¡¯s Sword mighte. That calmed them down a bit.

    Xu Qing had no intention of using The Emperor¡¯s Sword right now. That said, he also had no intention of hiding the truth about the Xeno-Immortal School soul seeds. If he was going to make a killing move, he would be thorough. If the Xeno-Immortal School was going to rise to prominence, it would rise all the way.

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing took a few steps forward. As he did, soul threads whipped out of him and rose into the sky.

    100,000. 300,000. 500,000. 800,000. 1,000,000....

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. 1,100,000. 1,200,000. 1,300,000!

    Fully 1,300,000 soul threads created a tempestuous storm in the dome of heaven, whipping about in all directions, causing dark pressure to weigh down from above. It was almost as if the end of days hade. It didn¡¯t take long for the soul threads to form a huge vortex that filled the sky. In fact, it overtook the sky! It <i>was</i> the sky!

    Everyone was deeply shaken. The students at the daoist rite center looked on withplete shock. At the same time, members of the Xeno-Immortal School started cheering.

    ¡°That¡¯s... how many soul threads is that?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s at least double the amount of Patriarch Chen Daoze!¡±

    Everyone outside of the university was battered by waves of shock.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing floated up into the air, his hair whipping around him. He stopped in front of the more than 1,000,000 soul threads. He looked down, then waved his hand. The soul threads swirled behind him and began to weave together. In the blink of an eye, his first-level god state formed right in front of everyone.

    Xu Qing stood in front of the god, his eyes glittering like heavenly bodies.

 Chapter 798: The Peak of Xeno-Immortal

    <h4>Chapter 798: The Peak of Xeno-Immortal</h4>

    In the canopy of heaven above the Imperial University, 1,300,000 soul threads swirled, converged, and crisscrossed like snakes as they created a shocking body some several thousand meters high.

    It looked like the Ghost Emperor and emanated shocking pressure on the world around it. Atop its head was an imperial crown that resembled D-132, making it seem like an emperor or monarch. In fact, its aura turned into numerous golden dragons that roared in all directions. The soul threads even seemed to be like imitations of daybreak light, surrounding the body like a living halo. The echoing roar of a bluegreen dragon could be heard from inside the body, like heavenly thunder that shook all onlookers in both heart and mind. The heavenly dao sensation was incredibly strong, making the body like a burning furnace.

    The mes of the furnace became like a seething sea of mes spreading out for 50 kilometers in all directions. The body stood tall in the middle of that fire. It reached out with one hand, and a long golden crow spear appeared. It pointed the spear out and down toward the God-Merging schoolmaster.

    At the tip of the spear was the image of a golden crow, very clear to see. It had sharp eyes, it breathed fire, and with the sea of mes in it, seemed as powerful as a god.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯splete first-level god state!

    It was differentpared to before. This time, ¨©t wasn¡¯t fused with Xu Qing, but instead, stood behind him, pulsing with godly might.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, stood in front of the first-level god state, above the mes. The contrast of the body behind him was dramatic, and looked very much like a person controlling an actual god. It was almost as if this god served as a foil to highlight the person.

    Everyone in the Imperial University was shaken and astonished. Even the emperor was watching very closely.

    The schoolmaster of the Xeno-Immortal School was extremely excited. Next to him, Chen Daoze struggled to control his breathing. The students of the Xeno-Immortal School were no longer trying to conceal their identities. Their eyes gleamed with anticipation for the moment Xu Qing would actually take action.

    This dao debate between these two schools of thought had unconsciously be a pedestal for Xu Qing himself. He had executed an imperial prince and revealed astonishing Xeno-Immortal powers. What was more, Xu Qing¡¯s current course of action made it self-evident that he had another identity.

    He was... the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s enigmatic master!

    That master, who had obviously achieved a high level of mastery with Xeno-Immortal School techniques, had been the subject of much discussion recently. He was known as the most powerful patriarch of the Xeno-Immortal School, and also the reason the school had risen to new heights recently.

    Therefore, Xu Qing¡¯s revtion right now filled the Xeno-Immortal students with keen anticipation. The conve students had been shaken just by the fact that Xu Qing was a region lord. But now that he was proving himself to be the foundation of the Xeno-Immortal School, their astonishment turned into an explosive tempest.

    The conve student who had glowered at Xu Qing suddenly went pale in the face, and the chief student who had shed with him started to get very anxious.

    The three conve students who had joined before Xu Qing were now looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers.

    ¡°The patriarch... worked with us on the <i>Xeno-Immortal Enquirer</i>?¡±

    One of the students in the crowd was the mysterious young woman from outside the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. She looked up at Xu Qing, her eyes full of confidence, her heart pounding.

    <i>So, it was you all along!</i>

    She gritted her teeth.

    As everyone looked on, Xu Qing stood in front of his first-level god state. Staring straight at the God-Merging schoolmaster, he calmly continued, ¡°The Xeno-Immortal School weaves soul threads to form godliness and make a godly projection.

    ¡°All of this is all just the surface. The Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s most useful technique is that of taking godsource and converting it into a power to break through cultivation levels!

    ¡°By burning the projection at the right time, and thus converting it into raw force, you can break through obstacles and barriers. It can also open up a new path. It uses the godly to create the immortal. That¡¯s what a xeno-immortal is.

    ¡°In the past, the Xeno-Immortal School fell into decline because people focused on the slow rate of progress. And the truth is that nobody ever managed to produce 1,000,000 soul threads. When you have 1,000,000 soul threads, you can make dao seeds. When students absorb those dao seeds, they can achieve rapid progress.

    ¡°Right now, you can see a god projection behind me. That¡¯s formed from only 300,000 Xeno-Immortal soul threads, and its equivalent to first-stage Void Returning. By burning it, I can break through to a higher cultivation base level.¡±

    Xu Qing looked over at Chen Daoze.

    Chen Daoze understood the look. Taking a deep breath, he sped hands respectfully, then looked very deeply and closely at the god projection behind Xu Qing.

    Considering he had been stuck in the Xeno-Immortal School for about 5,000 years, it made sense that his powers of observation had reached the point of perfection. Although Xu Qing¡¯s god projection wasplicated, Chen Daoze only needed to look at it for a moment to gain enlightenment. He extended his right hand.

    Instantly, 600,000 soul threads emerged, dancing about, weaving together behind him to form an outline. Ultimately... a god state body somewhat smaller than Xu Qing¡¯s appeared behind him. It looked exactly the same physically, and had the same aura. The difference was that Xu Qing¡¯s was more lifelike. They were obviously different on a substructural level. However, because of the use of the dao seed, they were very simr. And they were clearly both on the track to the same destination.

    Everyone was even more shaken. After all, observing and doing brought two different sensations.

    And the Xeno-Immortal students were getting excited because, if Patriarch Chen Daoze could imitate Xu Qing¡¯s god projection, then it meant that others who followed the same path could possibly do the same.

    Most excited of all was the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster, as his understanding of the techniques surpassed any of the students. The moment he saw what was happening, things clicked into ce, and he gained a much deeper understanding of what was happening.

    This was new ground for Xeno-Immortal School techniques, and obviously, existed on a much higher level. In the past, totem visualization in the Xeno-Immortal School was limited to 200,000. This was a step past that.

    Most ordinary students wouldn¡¯t have any way of grasping the significance of that. But in the organizations outside the university were almighty individuals who did understand. And they had very mixed feelings. After all, it seemed clear that the Xeno-Immortal School... would belong to Xu Qing going forward.

    Whether it was his status as the ultimate source of their power, or his service of building on the techniques of the school, they all pointed to him as the one who should have this school of thought as his own. Although a lot of people were thinking deeply about what was happening, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t finished with his debate of the hereafter.

    ¡°100,000 soul threads can weave an earthchild. 200,000 can make a heavenly hobgoblin. At 300,000 you have what¡¯s called the emperor god.... But there¡¯s more. Now we¡¯ll see what 500,000 can make!¡±

    Xu Qing closed his eyes, and the first-level god state behind him unraveled, once again causing 1,300,000 soul threads to fill the sky.

    As the evening light shone down, the soul threads converged, weaving together into a dark cloud of poison that was the body of a fiendish god. It was covered in armor from head to toe, and poison became a flowing cape behind it that connected to the dome of heaven. Rot and poison erupted from it, ck and awe-inspiring as it spread out.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes, and at the same time, the eyes of the god projection inside its helmet lit up with underworld fire as it looked out at heaven and earth.

    ¡°This is a fiendish god,¡± Xu Qing said in a hoarse, cold voice.

    Everyone looked at the fiendish god, and the mere sensation of its poison provoked looks of astonishment.

    The first god projection was tolerable. But the second imparted a sense of pure death. Before the sensation could get more intense, Xu Qing threw both of his hands out in front of him, and the second-level god state suddenly expanded and experienced a very gruish transformation.

    Violet appeared within the ck. It became hair, which spread out, reaching the ground, like a terrifying violet waterfall. The armor disappeared, revealing Xu Qing¡¯s features. The body was nefarious, with bones of crystal covered with flesh filled with countless blood vessels. There were also blood-red tentacles that spread out from the skin, swaying in all directions. Sprouting from his back were two huge wings covered with violet feathers of flesh that rippled in the wind.

    What was more, slowly rising up behind him was... a violet moon! As this state formed, mutagen erupted in the Imperial University, causing everything to blur. However, Xu Qing kept the mutagen under tight control, so that people could sense it, nothing more. This was the aura of a god.

    ¡°This god is a violet moon, and can be controlled with 1,000,000 soul threads. Everything you have seen is a Xeno-Immortal.¡±

    Xu Qing, standing in front of the third-level god state, looked out at the scene in front of him.

    As the surrounding cultivators were shaken to the core by Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon body, he spoke again.

    ¡°These are the techniques of the Xeno-Immortal School. You don¡¯t need to use godly materials to rece your own body. This way doesn¡¯t involve turning yourself into a hybrid monster. With one Xeno-Immortal School thought, heaven and earth can be transposed, and an immortal body can be formed. Weave gods to break through one¡¯s shackles, and be ¡®xeno.¡¯ Use thoughts to control a god, fight for oneself. That is immortal. This is the Xeno-Immortal School.

    ¡°That said, the God-Merging School does have one concept that I approve of: gods are tools. But we don¡¯t need to be gods. In the dao of immortals, they can be used as tools.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words echoed into the hearts of all present. As of this moment, whether it was in the eyes of the people or their hearts, Xu Qing¡¯s identity and status were rising. He was a region lord. He had The Emperor¡¯s Sword. He was the ultimate source of the Xeno-Immortal School. He had executed an imperial prince. He had revealed three terrifying gods. All of that,bined with the words he had just spoken, were pushing him to the ultimate heights.

    That was what Xu Qing had been hoping to do. If he could add enough weight to his words, then he could execute... people The Emperor¡¯s Sword couldn¡¯t touch.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword wasn¡¯t all-powerful.

    For example, if Xu Qing summoned The Emperor¡¯s Sword and tried to use it on the God-Merging schoolmaster, nothing would happen.

    That realization left Xu Qing with mixed feelings. He had full trust in The Emperor¡¯s Sword. However, he knew that the sword would only execute people who were actively harming humankind. The sword wouldn¡¯t be helpful when dealing with personal grievances.

    However, Xu Qing himself was not The Emperor¡¯s Sword. He didn¡¯t have such lofty ideals. What he cared about were family, friends, and Sea-Sealing County. He felt no sense of belonging in the imperial capital. And thus, though the God-Merging schoolmaster hadn¡¯t done anything to justify execution by The Emperor¡¯s Sword, that didn¡¯t mean that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t do it himself.

    Therefore, his gaze shifted to the emperor off in the distance. Then he looked toward the God-Merging schoolmaster, killing intent bubbling within him.

    ¡°As the former governor of Sea-Sealing County in the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, what do you think, Bai Xiaozhuo??¡±

 Chapter 799: Point Out Any Errors Iâ€™ve Made, Exalted Lieutenant Governor

    <h4>Chapter 799: Point Out Any Errors I¡¯ve Made, Exalted Lieutenant Governor</h4>

    Perhaps there were some people who knew the true identity of the God-Merging schoolmaster. But ny-nine percent of people in the imperial capital had no clue who he was. After all, the rules of the Imperial University were specifically designed to hide the identity of its students.

    What was more, Torchlight wasn¡¯t something people in the Imperial Region discussed a lot, at least until the events in Sea-Sealing County swept through humankind like a storm. After that, the emperor issued a decree listing all members of Torchlight as wanted. From then on, just about everyone knew who Torchlight was.

    To the vast majority of cultivators, Torchlight represented chaos, evil, and destruction. What was more, their Blood-Soaked Performances were viewed as appalling and horrid. The main character in Sea-Sealing County¡¯s big coup was Bai Xiaozhuo. A lot of stories had spread about him. Thanks to everything he had done, people hade to think of him as the poster child for Torchlight.

    As a result, when Xu Qing¡¯s words echoed out, they crashed like thunder, shaking the entire imperial capital.

    ¡°Torchlight?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible!¡±

    ¡°The God-Merging schoolmaster is that Bai Xiaozhuo fellow?¡±

    The astonished students in the university couldn¡¯t help but chatter. And the students from the God-Merging School were all shaken to the core.

    In fact, they didn¡¯t believe what they were hearing. Their first reaction was to judge Xu Qing¡¯s words as absolutely absurd. If it weren¡¯t for everything he had just done, including executing an imperial prince with The Emperor¡¯s Sword, then someone would already have stood up to start berating him viciously.

    But in the end, there was nothing the God-Merging students could do to prevent Xu Qing¡¯s words from striking them to the core. The leaders of their school of thought were all arrayed on the ck dao altar, and beneath their masks, their expressions were flickering wildly. Even as they reeled in disbelief, countless gazes from the numerous organizations in the imperial capital all came to focus on the God-Merging schoolmaster.

    The schoolmaster looked calmly at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing stood in ce looking back at him. ¡°Years ago in Sea-Sealing County, I bowed in gratitude to you, Exalted Lieutenant Governor, for the grace you showed in teaching one of my sses, and dispelling certain doubts I had. For that, I¡¯m grateful.¡± Xu Qing was describing a scene in which he was a very different person with a very different status. ¡°The situation back then was the same as this situation, Exalted Lieutenant Governor. Here, we meet again.

    ¡°Torchlight cultivators disdain lying. They value rationality. I said something simr back in Sea-Sealing County, but back then, you were untrue to your convictions.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing seemedpletely and utterly calm as he spoke.

    Meanwhile, aplicated look could be seen in the eyes of the God-Merging schoolmaster. Inside, he was sighing. Outside, he held his tongue.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Do you remember what I said to you back then, Exalted Lieutenant Governor? If this God-Merging situation is your Blood-Soaked Performance, then I feel the same as before. Sadly, this whole thing has been quite disappointing.

    ¡°To be specific, what¡¯s disappointing isn¡¯t the performance. It¡¯s you. Someone who vites their own standards like you doesn¡¯t deserve to be a member of Torchlight. And so I ask: are you going to be untrue to your convictions on this day as well? Please point out any errors I¡¯ve made, Exalted Lieutenant Governor.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s words echoed out for everyone to hear.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster closed his eyes, reached up, and put his hand on his mask. He paused for a second, then removed the mask to reveal his facial features. He was the same Bai Xiaozhuo that Xu Qing remembered.

    Numerous gazes were locked onto him. The entire Imperial University was silent.

    When it came to cultivators, physical appearance often wasn¡¯t enough to prove anything. One¡¯s aura was the most important. And Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s aura waspletely different than it had been back in Sea-Sealing County.

    Because of that, he could have tried to deny Xu Qing¡¯s usation. But, just like back then, Xu Qing¡¯s words were a death sentence.

    ¡°We meet again, Xu Qing,¡± Bai Xiaozhuo said, his voice calm and his facial expression cid. ¡°I won¡¯t disappoint you this time around. Yes, I am indeed the governor of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan¡¯s Sea-Sealing County! I am Bai Xiaozhuo!¡±

    His voice seemed to contain utmost confidence, and his words lead to an immediate tempest in the university. A frenzy of discussion broke out among the shocked students. The members of the God-Merging School were now starting to tremble. All of their trust crumbled as a result of the open confession they had just heard. They were now confused, shaken, and angry.

    The God-Merging schoolmaster was actually a despicable Torchlight rat that was universally hated. He was Bai Xiaozhuo, who had instigated the coup in Sea-Sealing County, and had led countless humans to their deaths!

    The monumentally shocking news struck all Imperial University students deeply. The leaders of the God-Merging School on the ck dao altar felt like their hearts and minds were beingpletely overturned. They couldn¡¯t believe it. They didn¡¯t want to believe it. Yet the facts were right there in front of them.

    Meanwhile, an even bigger tempest was brewing outside in the imperial capital. Many organizations were starting to stir anxiously. After all, Torchlight and Bai Xiaozhuo were things that shouldn¡¯t be allowed to exist in the world.

    Numerous streams of energy locked onto the dao altar. The Imperial University began to tremble. Countless gazes and streams of divine will locked onto the canopy of heaven. Killing intent abounded.

    The chancellor of the university stood there just like before. But his gaze had sharpened. As the university trembled, defensive formations activated, covering the dao altars to protect the students.

    Bai Xiaozhuo didn¡¯t care about any of that. Looking at Xu Qing, he spoke in a hoarse voice.

    ¡°Back in Sea-Sealing County, you stepped out alone to face me. And today, you¡¯re also stepping out alone. Doesn¡¯t that grieve you, Xu Qing? Do you really need a humankind like this? I bet you can¡¯t use The Emperor¡¯s Sword on me. What does that say? Do you understand what it implies?¡±

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s tooplicated. And I don¡¯t feel like thinking about it. What I do know is that the reason I stepped forward in Sea-Sealing County is because of an old man who I respected a lot. He might have died, but he still lives in my heart. Also, you clearly misunderstand what¡¯s happening today, Exalted Lieutenant Governor. I stepped out because I want to see you dead. Nothing more.¡±

    Bai Xiaozhuo chuckled and said the same thing he¡¯d said back then. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°What else did you expect?¡± Xu Qing¡¯s face remained expressionless as he also repeated his own words from that fateful day. [2]

    ¡°I guess I assumed you would have more to say this time.¡± The lieutenant governor chuckled again.

    ¡°I didn¡¯tst time. And I don¡¯t this time either.¡± Xu Qing dropped back down to the surface of the white dao altar, where he sat cross-legged. He paid no further attention to Bai Xiaozhuo. He¡¯d already done all he needed to. He had revealed the true identity of the God-Merging schoolmaster. And thus... there wasn¡¯t anything else left to do. When justice was on the line, it didn¡¯t matter what your personal feelings were, you had to take action. What happened going forward was the emperor¡¯s call. After all, this was the imperial capital, not Sea-Sealing County.

    Looking over at Bai Xiaozhuo, the emperor spoke in a majestic voice that embodiedw and order.

    ¡°Imperial Chancellor, arrest this fugitive Bai Xiaozhuo!¡±

    The chancellor of the university slowly straightened his wizened frame. His white hair turned ck, and the wrinkles on his face disappeared as he transformed from an old man to a middle-aged man. Cracking sounds rang out from within him as he became tall and burly. His aura erupted like a furnace, sending out powerful fluctuations in all directions. His eyes seemed to contain a thousand lineaments, and countless projections existed behind him. The sky changed colors as an illusory world appeared on his left shoulder.

    This was the great circle of Void Returning!

    Imperial blood coursed through his veins as a golden dragon appeared in the illusory world. Then it screamed out into the open, swirling around several times before charging toward Bai Xiaozhuo with a roar.

    The chancellor strode forward, and the fall of his foot seemed to invert heaven and earth. Countless natural and magicalws swept around him. Suns, moons, stars, and heavenly bodies became visible, as if an astral redirection were taking ce.

    Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s gaze left Xu Qing and turned to the dome of heaven. There was no way anyone could tell what he was thinking, or what he was looking at. But at that moment, his aura climbed high. Mutagen spread out. Godsource raged. His battle prowess fluctuations were on the same level as that of the chancellor. That said, this battle prowess didn¡¯te from his cultivation base, but rather, the godliness of his body.

    His left hand pushed toward the golden dragon, while his right hand swept through the air, causing mutagen to turn into the projection of a god. That projection then sent crushing pressure toward the chancellor.

    A rumbling boom exploded out. In the blink of an eye, the two of them began to fight. The air in the Imperial University vibrated and the sky went dark, making it seem like the end of days hade. Each sh was like the boom of heavenly thunder. It was a conflict between naturalws and godliness. Of magicalws and godsource. Of an immortal cultivator and a god cultivator.

    Xu Qing looked up and calmly observed.

    Bai Xiaozhuo was stronger than he had been in Sea-Sealing County.

    <i>But he should be even stronger. I guess he hasn¡¯t used his puppet arts yet. Nor has he revealed the core of God-Merging.</i>

    The sky shook as a majestic figure took shape and reached out with the hand of a god toward the chancellor of the university.

    The chancellor¡¯s face was expressionless as the world on his left shoulder began shining with dazzling light thatbined with the countless projections.

    Rumbling booms rang out. Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s face remained expressionless as he waved his hand, causing five vortexes to appear in the air behind him. Five puppets stepped out from them.

    They didn¡¯t look human, as their bodies were pieced together from all sorts of godly materials. They pulsed with godsource power that caused the mutagen levels to rise rapidly. Each one that emerged pulsed with fourth-stage Void Returning battle prowess. They also had illusory worlds. However, the worlds were all dead, and if you looked closely at them, you would see statues of gods inside. After they appeared, they turned toward the chancellor with astounding killing intent.

    Of course, the Imperial University was located in the stronghold that was the imperial capital. The chancellor wasn¡¯t the only powerful expert around. In the blink of an eye, eight individuals rushed forth to nk him. Shockingly, they were various schoolmasters from other schools of thought. For them to join the battlefield went to show how chaotic things were in the Imperial University right now.

    Thankfully, the air in the university was stable, and the defensive spell formations were fully activated. As a result, the students weren¡¯t injured, although in some cases, blood oozed out of the corners of their mouths beneath their masks.

    Meanwhile, in the imperial pce, one of the heavenly kings looked up at the emperor. The emperor said nothing. That heavenly king looked back at the battle unfolding, and did nothing.

    Xu Qing also just watched.

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s usation regarding lying and rationality was in chapter <u>532.2</u>. Incidentally, this chapter (799) shares almost exactly the same title as chapter 532. ?

    2. The interchange of "that¡¯s it¡± and ¡°what else did you expect¡± was in <u>chapter 534.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 800: Demarcating the World for the Gods

    <h4>Chapter 800: Demarcating the World for the Gods</h4>

    Xu Qing knew that, given his current level of strength, he obviously wasn¡¯t a match for Bai Xiaozhuo, who was in the great circle of Void Returning.

    That was, unless he used his ancient sun. But doing that would have far-reaching ramifications. It could possibly destroy the entire dimension in which the Imperial University existed. And it could even bring catastrophe to the imperial capital. Furthermore... Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel that Bai Xiaozhuo deserved to be killed by an ancient sun. It was better to have that sun around as a threat and deterrent.

    <i>It would be a lot simpler if I could use The Emperor¡¯s Sword.</i>

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly. Unfortunately, the sword wasn¡¯t stirring at all. The best thing he could do was employ the method of <i>using four ounces to move a thousand pounds</i>. By exposing Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s true identity, he could rely on the justice of humankind to exterminate him.

    It wasn¡¯t time to deal with the crow yet. Given Xu Qing¡¯s current power and influence, he didn¡¯t dare to try to make a move on the imperial preceptor.

    Therefore, he sat on the white dao altar inside the spell formation, next to the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster and Chen Daoze. Along with all of the students below, he simply watched the fighting y out. Xu Qing looked very calm. In contrast, the God-Merging forces had mixed emotions, and by now were unable to suppress the terror and anxiety they felt.

    Even the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster waspletely shocked. Not even he could ever have guessed that the God-Merging schoolmaster was actually Torchlight¡¯s Bai Xiaozhuo. And that enabled him to see a brilliant future. He knew that after this battle was over, no one would be able to stop the Xeno-Immortal School from rising to prominence. The God-Merging School would probably be disbanded, and the high-level members would all be investigated to see if they were Torchlight conspirators. All of it was happening because of this Patriarch Xu Qing. As countless thoughts ran through his head, the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster looked at Chen Daoze, who nodded back at him.

    The schoolmaster¡¯s eyes shone with determination as he looked at Xu Qing, his gaze one of deep respect.

    However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the schoolmaster. His senses were focusedpletely on the battle. It wasn¡¯t often one got to witness fights like this. It could obviously provide deep insights into the Void Returning level. To Xu Qing specifically, though, the fight was even more meaningful than that. After all, it was also a fight between an immortal cultivator and a god cultivator.

    Although they weren¡¯t on the same level as Smoldering Gods, even just fourth-stage Void Returning experts were enough to cause the canopy of heaven to blur. People with cultivation bases too low wouldn¡¯t be able to see what was happening. They would only hear rumbling and see shes of light.

    Spirit Trove cultivators, on the other hand, would be able to see a lot more. They could sense the transformations to the natural and magicalws. They could sense the naturalws turning corporeal, and the magicalws turning into ancient, shadowy figures. And all of that was shaking the Torchlight godliness.

    This was observing the dao. Depending on one¡¯s experience and focus on cultivation, they would perceive the natural and magicalws differently, and thus, the fight would look different. Some people could see clearly, others couldn¡¯t see very clearly at all.

    The students in the university held their breaths as they came to varying levels of enlightenment. Only people who were in Void Returning would be able to perceive the true significance of the fight. They would be able to see all of the natural and magicalws, as well as the flow of the great daos.

    To Void Returning eyes, it was like watching a battle from the ancient past. Every single boom contained the magic of great daos.

    At the same time, numerous rifts opened up in the air over the university. Close examination revealed that the rifts contained naturalw transformations, which could shake observers deeply and provoke deep thought on their part. Only those in the same level or higher would be able to perceive the true nature of what was happening.

    But Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was different from anyone around him. He was an immortal cultivator. But he was also a god cultivator. As a result, this fight looked different to him. He saw the numerous colors interlocked in the canopy of heaven, almost like an abstract painting.

    In that image, Bai Xiaozhuo was like a god, sometimes clear, sometimes blurry. Every flicker of light revealed something different.

    Meanwhile, the chancellor of the university had a terrifying cultivation base. That was especially true since he had the blessing of the imperial n¡¯s bloodline, which made him about thirty percent stronger than an ordinary person in the great circle of Void Returning.

    Every attack he unleashed contained millions upon millions of great daos that worked in concert with the golden dragons. He could change any naturalws with ease. asionally, dazzling sunlight would erupt out. asionally, ancient war chariots would rush forth. asionally, ancient beasts would form. All sorts of attacks were pressing Bai Xiaozhuo.

    Even though the schoolmasters from the other schools of thought weren¡¯t very far behind these two in cultivation, they were still astonished by what they were seeing.

    The five nonhuman God-Merging puppets fought with such vigor that heaven and earth dimmed. All of them were injured in some way. In any species, the great circle of Void Returning counted as one of the highest levels possible.

    In fact, there were many species without Smoldering Gods who viewed such people like actual gods. Therefore, it was only natural that there were some very unique things about cultivators in the great circle of Void Returning.

    For example, when they bled, it turned into crimsonkes. Just the sound reverberations from the fighting could shatter thend. Thankfully, this area was protected by spell formations, which meant that all the students were kept safe and allowed to seek enlightenment without interruption.

    Xu Qing was doing that. He was staring straight at the fighting, numerous thoughts running through his mind. And he was starting to get a deeper understanding of immortal cultivators versus god cultivators.

    <i>God cultivators... don¡¯t use magical techniques. It seems more like th¨¥y just act on instinct. It¡¯s as if heaven and earth were both born for th¨¥ir sake. In this heaven and earth, th¨¥y have freedom and independence. Th¨¥y are unrestrained and unfettered.</i>

    <i>But immortal cultivators are different. They use the energy of heaven and earth, but in a different way than god cultivators. They turn natural and magicalws into threads that can be used to harness the energy of heaven and earth. It¡¯s like... they¡¯re enving heaven and earth! And what about heavenly daos?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as numerous thoughts raced through his head. There was deep meaning in what he was observing.

    <i>When heavenly daose into y, they create fetters that bind heaven and earth, and demarcate the world for the gods!</i>

    Xu Qing shivered inwardly as he wondered if his spection was correct. It made sense based on what he knew, and it seemed logical. If it was correct, then it made sense that the earliest cultivators to be immortals in ancient times would give rise to heavenly daos after they conquered Revered Ancient. Heavenly daos would be the best way for their descendants to further their cultivation.

    And that also exined why the technique system of cultivators involved producing heavenly daos in Spirit Trove.

    <i>By constantly bolstering the heavenly dao, the cultivator can keep that world under their control. If it¡¯s as I¡¯m specting, then this is a really unprecedented situation. It¡¯s taking world-controlling methods and merging them with the cultivation system of cultivators. What a daring concept....</i>

    Xu Qing inhaled deeply. Now more than ever, he felt deep respect for those early immortals. With that, he looked up into the canopy of heaven.

    The sky above the Imperial University didn¡¯t contain the broken face, but that didn¡¯t have a negative effect on Xu Qing¡¯s analysis.

    <i>Every time the broken face¡¯s eyes open, heavenly daos perish. And with every heavenly dao that perishes, the Revered Ancient maindes closer to being a world of gods. What¡¯s more, no matter how strong Revered Ancient gets, it will only be a tiny part of the starry sky. I wonder... what does it look like outside of Revered Ancient?</i>

    This was the first time Xu Qing felt truly curious about whaty beyond Revered Ancient.

    <i>I know the holynds are out there. And beyond that... is the ce where Li Zihua went to, which is also the location of the violet moon.</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and cast his senses toward the violet moon. It was far, far away. As Xu Qing sensed that, there was a development in the fighting. And it came from Bai Xiaozhuo. As flickering light surrounded him from his position in the sky, and as the chancellorunched deadly attacks at him, Bai Xiaozhuo threw both of his hands over his head and then bowed to the highest point in the sky.

    <i>¡°The energy of the ultimate yang of the two prities merges into the ancient eyes of the gods, bing the glittering light of the starry sky over Revered Ancient. Let the projection fall and incarnate into the domain of a god. Respected lord of the sun and many heavens of the universe, the holy Torchlight. Let the door descend!¡±</i>

    As the words left his mouth, heaven and earth in the imperial capital shook violently. A terrifying, indescribably mighty force weighed down, not only on the capital, but on the Imperial University.

    All of a sudden, a blurry image appeared in the sky over the university. It overtook heaven and overtook all daos. It overtook anything and everything.

    The image depicted a host of freakish, immense trees that emanated fluctuations of godliness. Godly, gruish beasts abounded. Ancient, unique temples appeared, emanating a sense of profound age. It was possible to see frozen seas and mountains that existed in gaseous states. There were freakish, humanoid clouds, spirits resembling octopuses that had lived for innumerable years. And there were huge birds with plumed wings that could obscure the sky and cover thends. They were gargantuan and strange in appearance. Tentacles writhed. It was apletely gruish and mysterious world.

    In the depths of that bizarre scene was a shocking figure that was a terrifying, 5,000-kilometer sphere. It was ck and covered with both writhing tentacles and gruish, blinking eyes that seemed capable of peering through both time and space. Deep, resonant voices spoke from within the sphere, like thunder that caused the clouds to seethe. As the sphere stirred, the world trembled, thends shook, the seas went wild, and the air burst into mes. The ck sphere¡¯s surface was covered with innumerable faces, all of which were singing the same words just uttered by Bai Xiaozhuo. Godly might abounded.

    It was just an image, but it caused all the students in the Imperial University to cough up blood. Some even started to show signs of mutation. It was the same in the imperial capital. An intense, domineering mutagen was spreading everywhere. Countless people shouted out in rm.

    As people from numerous organizations reacted with visible surprise, the emperor shot to his feet. The thirteen heavenly kings¡¯ facial expressions flickered dramatically, and their energy surged.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face turned incredibly grave as he stared at the projected world of Bai Xiaozhuo. It looked very simr, and felt very simr, to something he had sense before.

    ¡°God domain...¡± he murmured.

    In the shrine hall of the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, there was a statue of a y fox. The fox shivered, then suddenly came to life. Eyes opening, it looked in the direction of the Imperial University.

    <i>An unfamiliar god domain! A god is being born there... wait. No, this god... something¡¯s off here!</i>

    A shocking aura rose up at the front of the rainbow bridge leading to the imperial pce, where the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage stood. The Grand Emperor¡¯s eyes opened slowly, revealing something profound and ancient. Cracking sounds rang out as the Grand Emperor looked up in the direction of the Imperial University. Then a voice spoke that echoed like heavenly thunder.

    ¡°The sword hangs in the blue sky. Thou canst try it out.¡±

 Chapter 801: A God Domain Arrives

    <h4>Chapter 801: A God Domain Arrives</h4>

    The Grand Emperor¡¯s voice shook everything like ps of thunder. Hearts and souls trembled as if vibrating in unison with the voice. That voice surpassed all dharmic decrees. It surpassed all divine abilities. And it surpassed all other wills.

    The voice of the Grand Emperor represented the legacy of humanity, the culture and civilization of the human species, and the will of humankind. It was domineering and shocking.

    The imperial capital trembled as wild winds swept back and forth. Buildings rocked, and the hearts of the people were filled with rm. It reached the Imperial University, as the stentorian voice pierced through space. All students felt reverence well up within them, and without even thinking about it, turned and bowed in the direction of the Grand Emperor¡¯s statue.

    They offered greetings to the only Grand Emperor who remained in Revered Ancient after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left. They offered greetings to the one who had protected humankind down to this moment. It didn¡¯t matter that he had died in battle and left behind only a clone. He was still Grand Emperor Swordsage, and he still fought to keep humans safe!

    At the moment, everyone inside and outside the Imperial University, as long as they were human, instinctively bowed their heads. Even the emperor and his heavenly king subordinates had respectful looks on their faces as they bowed.

    Xu Qing did the same. However, there were additional words echoing in his mind.

    <i>¡°Lend me your sword, young friend.¡±</i>

    The moment the words entered his mind, he began to shine with golden light, which spread out rapidly to be a wide sea. The Emperor¡¯s Sword within him stirred, almost as if it was seeking his approval.

    That sword had once belonged to Grand Emperor Swordsage, but now... it belonged to Xu Qing. Xu Qing was the sword wielder in this generation.

    Grand Emperor Swordsage could have forcibly summoned it, but in his wisdom, he wouldn¡¯t do something so viting. He wouldn¡¯t allow the person he had personally selected to wield that sword to suddenly bear ill will toward him. Thus, he asked politely.

    Xu Qing gave his consent, and thus, The Emperor¡¯s Sword shot forth.

    Driven by the will of the Grand Emperor, it hung high in the sky. The tip of the sword pointed at the god domain. Its might spread out, causing rifts to spread out in the air above the Imperial University and the capital. Sword energy abounded, filling the Imperial Region. At the same time, the swords of all swordsages vibrated, flew up into the sky, and pointed toward the Imperial Region.

    In terms of how many there were, it was difficult to estimate. Perhaps the best word was: countless. Killing intent filled the hundred rings of the region, from inside to out, rising up everywhere and locking onto the Imperial University.

    The sound of rushing wind echoed out from Ancient Emperor. The sages of humankind manifested, and the¡¯s cloud cover seethed. The destiny aura of humankind converged, creating a massive face. It was the ancient, dignified face of Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    Up in the air above the Imperial University, Bai Xiaozhuo shivered.

    The projected image of the god domain that filled the sky suddenly lurched to a halt and ceased expanding. A sense of profound crisis filled everyone.

    The bizarre entities in the god domain looked up, filled with both danger as well as a sense of rising cruelty.

    The huge ck sphere also stopped moving. Then, a gargantuan, vertical eye appeared on it, pulsing with coldness as it peered toward the imperial capital and Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    The atmosphere was extremely tense. Fighting could break out at any moment. Countless people instinctively held their breath as a cold voice echoed out from Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    ¡°Screw off!¡±

    The expressionless face of Grand Emperor Swordsage spoke in a voice that struck the god domain like a tempest. Everything shook dramatically.

    The ck sphere in the god domain shivered a few times, and the eye continued to stare deeply at the Grand Emperor. Then the eye slowly started to close. That affected the god domain itself, causing it to also shrink down until it was nothing more than a rift in the air above the Imperial University.

    ¨©t was choosing to back away.

    That, in turn, affected Bai Xiaozhuo below. He looked in the direction of Grand Emperor Swordsage, sped hands, and bowed. Then he turned into a streak of light that shot into the rift above. He... was nning to make his escape! That was his real purpose for summoning the god domain. It was to provide a way out for himself.

    Grand Emperor Swordsage didn¡¯t say anything. The Emperor¡¯s Sword hanging in the air didn¡¯t stop Bai Xiaozhuo.

    Just as Bai Xiaozhuo was about to make it into the rift, Xu Qing frowned. However, there was someone else who didn¡¯t want Bai Xiaozhuo escaping, and he spoke in a very deep voice.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t revealed everything yet. There¡¯s no need to leave.¡±

    The person who spoke was the emperor. The moment the words left his mouth, he extended his hand toward the sky above the university and closed it into a fist.

    That grasping motion caused imperial will to explode. Fluctuations that surpassed Smoldering God spread out everywhere, suppressing everything. The sky above the university went as dark as night as a huge hand appeared. Even the finger and palm prints were visible as it hung over everything like a dark cloud. It covered the rift formed by the god domain, and thus blocked Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s path. It seemed like, if that hand fell, it could crush the Imperial University out of existence.

    The thirteen heavenly kings all bowed their heads. Everyone felt shaken deeply. The energy of the emperor was not the same as that of Grand Emperor Swordsage. But it surpassed everything else. This was... the power of an Imperial Sovereign!

    In the presence of this hand, all heavenly daos were <i>his</i> heavenly daos. All naturalws were <i>his</i> naturalws. All transformations and all power could be manipted with a thought.

    If the emperor wanted to, he could cause all cultivators beneath that hand to instantly be mortals. Destiny aura surged with great power in the hand, as scintiting light shone out, causing pressure to weigh down on the capital.

    Bai Xiaozhuo stopped in ce and hovered silently. Looking up at the emperor¡¯s hand blocking his path to the god domain, he sighed.

    ¡°Ah, whatever.¡±

    With that, he reached out and made a grasping gesture. Instantly, streaks of ck light emerged. They swept around his right hand, forming together... into the shape of a beating heart.

    Each beat of the heart was like heavenly thunder, sending mutagen and godsource out everywhere. ck blood oozed out of the heart, and shockingly, its aura was perfectly consistent with the god domain. Clearly, that heart came <i>from</i> the god domain.

    Bai Xiaozhuo looked briefly at the heart, then pushed it into his chest. The spot there which had previously been missing a heart was now filled in. He shivered from head to toe, and his eyes became so bloodshot they turned bright red. His aura skyrocketed. His battle prowess rose to shocking levels.

    Previously, he had been in the great circle of Void Returning, but not anymore. Boundless, immeasurable godsource filled him with every beat of that heart. Where it passed, the patchy nature of his body vanished, and it became whole. His entire appearance was transforming.

    He was pitch ck, just like the huge sphere, and also covered with countless writhing tentacles that clumped together to form limbs. Sickle-like appendages grew from his back, each one sharp enough to rip open space itself. His head no longer had a neck, but instead, floated out in front of his chest. Where his head had once been was nothing but an enormous eye, its pupil made, shockingly, of flickering sparks. They were not the sparks of an ordinary fire, as they imparted a sense of both holiness and terror. Behind him stretched a long body like that of a centipede. Altogether, he didn¡¯t look human at all.

    In fact, to anyone who hadn¡¯t seen the broken face¡¯s true body, Bai Xiaozhuo would seem very unfamiliar now. But to Xu Qing, this form was meaningful in a different way. It looked very simr to the broken face¡¯s true visage!

    It was profoundly distorted, but the fire in the eyes seemed iparably harmonious. It was as if... to heaven and earth in Revered Ancient, this form was perfect, true, and normal. The will of heaven and earth felt that way. But that wasn¡¯t true of the heavenly daos. As a result, there was a chaotic and gruish juxtaposition.

    A heavy price had to be paid to gain battle prowess like this that surpassed Void Returning, and became very close to the terrifying level of a Smoldering God. To immortal cultivators, the identifying mark of a Smoldering God was a major world. But to god cultivators, the signifying aspect of Smoldering Gods were the sparks of godfire. Bypletely igniting that fire, one could be a god. For example, Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son, the godchild of the Red Moon Cathedral, had been about to climb from the level of sparks. By using a special ceremony, he wanted to light his godfire and be a god.

    Sparks glittered as Bai Xiaozhuo in his god state pulsed with the battle prowess of a Smoldering God. To many people, he was blurry, which went to show how he had some of the characteristics of a god. He could not be looked at directly.

    The moment Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s god state was revealed, the god domain that had been blocked by the emperor¡¯s hand suddenly expanded. At the same time, a howl erupted from within it that shook the university and the capital city. As that howled echoed out, the emperor¡¯s hand shivered and was forced backward. The god domain rift was revealed, as well as... the ck sphere rushing out from it.

    The countless faces on the sphere were singing.

    <i>¡°The energy of the ultimate yang of the two prities merges into the ancient eyes of the gods, bing the glittering light of the starry sky over Revered Ancient. Let the projection fall and incarnate into the domain of a god.</i>

    <i>¡°Respected lord of the sun and many heavens of the universe, the holy Torchlight.¡±</i>

    As the gruish song filled the Imperial University, many of the students seemed to go into a daze and join in the singing. If you looked you would find that everyone who was singing was from the God-Merging School.

    The students were shocked. As for Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s sword, it turned and shot toward the ck sphere.

    At exactly the same moment, Bai Xiaozhuo in his god state suddenly burst into motion. His goal was not the emperor¡¯s retreating hand. Nor was it to use the god domain to escape. Instead... he headed toward Xu Qing on the white dao altar!

    Killing intent swirled in his eyes as he elerated rapidly. In the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint, he mmed into the Imperial University¡¯s defenses. A huge boom rang out as cracks spread out through the defenses. There was no time to repair the shields. They shattered, bing a host of fragments that rained down, most of them heading toward Xu Qing.

    But Bai Xiaozhuo moved faster than the fragments, arriving in front of Xu Qing an instantter. Without a word, he sent countless tentacles sweeping toward Xu Qing with deadly force.

 Chapter 802: Emperor, Please Brace Yourself

    <h4>Chapter 802: Emperor, Please Brace Yourself</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, but his facial expression didn¡¯t change. In the blink of an eye, he entered his third-level god state, and was even able to summon part of his fourth-level god state.

    It was also possible to see a shadowy sundial. The ancient sun rested atop it, glittering as it released terrifying pressure.

    Up in the sky, The Emperor¡¯s Sword shifted to point in the direction of the ck sphere of flesh emerging from the god domain rift. Because of the godly power of the ck sphere, the emperor¡¯s huge hand began to copse. Pressure from the god domain spread through the dimension containing the Imperial University. Most cultivators present coughed up mouthfuls of blood, and though their minds reeled, they were unable to move.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had crafted a very specific opportunity, and moved with lightning speed to take advantage of it. He appeared right in front of Xu Qing like a heavenly mountain, his tentacles pulsing with the blessing of Smoldering God battle prowess. That,bined with his terrifying godliness, made him extremely deadly. However, even if he had been more specific in creating this opportunity, and even if he had moved faster, and with more deadliness, there was just no possible way that he could kill Xu Qing.

    Truth be told, Bai Xiaozhuo knew that. Therefore, even though this seemed like a deadly strike, the reality was that he had a different goal. He wanted to see who would try to save Xu Qing. The Grand Emperor was preupied by the lord of the god domain, and had no attention left to spare. As Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s lord and master had suggested, there was likely a third party hidden in the imperial capital ready to take action. Or perhaps someone was present in the university.

    Regardless, this attack by Bai Xiaozhuo would hopefully force that person to reveal their identity, and thus give a slight advantage to his lord and master.

    Bai Xiaozhuo turned out to bepletely right. As he closed in on Xu Qing, the face of a Grand Emperor appeared on Ancient Emperor, eyes zing. Inside the shrine hall of the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, the y fox started glowing with bizarre, demonic light. Simultaneously, the students surrounding the dao altars in the Imperial University were not all immobilized by the power of the god domain. One of them strode forward with eyes shining coldly.

    However, there was one group whose interest in Xu Qing¡¯s survival surpassed all others. And as things reached a head, they would do whatever was necessary to make sure no one killed Xu Qing. Therefore, they acted before anyone else could.

    An angry voice echoed within the Imperial University, almost like thunder from heaven.

    ¡°Stop!

    ¡°Retreat!

    ¡°Copse!

    ¡°Enfeeble!

    ¡°Safeguard!

    ¡°elerate!

    ¡°Forever undying!¡±

    Eight words were spoken, and each one crashed louder than thunder. They contained the will of great daos, making them almost like the words of a heavenly thunder. The natural and magicalws they contained existed at the most exquisite level, making these words the embodiment of the idiom <i>once given, the orders will be strictly enforced</i>.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had Smoldering God battle prowess, but even he shivered as he lurched to a <i>stop</i>. Then he had no choice but to <i>retreat</i> a full step.

    As the associated word rang out, a tremor passed through Bai Xiaozhuo, and he suddenly started to <i>copse</i>. That was when his godliness erupted. Though he was being affected by the words spoken, the power of his momentum created an illusory finger in front of him that shot toward Xu Qing, shattering everything in its path.

    However, an instantter, Bai Xiaozhuo was <i>enfeebled</i>, causing his strength to instantly drain by at least half.

    The next word spoken caused an extremely tough suit of armor to appear on Xu Qing to help <i>safeguard</i> him against the power of Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s finger attack.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the armor copsed, taking the damage in Xu Qing¡¯s ce. It also boosted Xu Qing¡¯s speed significantly, allowing him to <i>elerate</i> rapidly as he backed away by about 3,000 meters.

    The final spoken word contained godliness. It caused the <i>forever undying</i> will of a god to settle over Xu Qing, bing a golden light that formed a face in front of him. The face bore the brunt of the remainder of the finger attack from Bai Xiaozhuo.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the face¡¯s forehead m into Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s finger attack. As the face copsed, a host of thousands of voices howled in grief. However, Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s finger couldn¡¯t remain whole. It fell to pieces.

    Xu Qing hovered in midair,pletely unharmed. Truth be told, everyone was surprised by this development, not necessarily that Xu Qing was unharmed, but rather, by who it was that intervened....

    ¡°Xu Qing... is a godchild of our church!¡± someone said in a soft and feminine voice that came out of thin air right in front of Xu Qing. A rift opened up in front of him which revealed an astonishing altar.

    The altar seemed to be located in a huge, open-air cave. High above the cave was the dome of heaven, within which hung the broken face. As for the altar itself, it was huge, with 999 steps leading up to it. Standing at the highest position on the altar was a cultivator in a ck cloak. On the steps were more ck-garbed cultivators. And there were even more of them seated cross-legged in the cave surrounding the altar.

    There were thousands of people in the cave, all of them had pools of fresh blood in front of them. Shockingly, they had sustained the force of Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s finger attack in Xu Qing¡¯s ce.

    Meanwhile, the ck-cloaked figure on the altar took a step forward, thus stepping through the rift and into the Imperial University. The figure stood in front of Xu Qing. All of a sudden, the power of a Smoldering God swept forth with dramatic brilliance, along with a scrap of the aura of the broken face. When this person stood in front of Xu Qing, it provoked quite a reaction from the various onlookers.

    ¡°That¡¯s one of the Words of Truth¡¯s grand sacrificers!¡±

    The group which had intervened to save Xu Qing was the Words of Truth!

    Bai Xiaozhuo frowned. Though it might seem like Torchlight and Words of Truth were simr, the reality was that they hadpletely different ideals, and to the former, members of thetter were insane.

    The emperor in the imperial pce looked on with narrowed eyes. He could have interfered earlier as well, but he had also chosen to observe. He also wanted to see who would step forward to save Xu Qing. At the moment, the emperor was even more surprised than Bai Xiaozhuo.

    Meanwhile, the grand sacrificer from the Words of Truth stood between Xu Qing and Bai Xiaozhuo, d in that ck cloak, which made it impossible to see any facial features other than two glowing red eyes.

    ¡°No one can touch a godchild of ours!¡± the figure said, and then turned to look at Xu Qing. The red eyes glowed with greed, and it was even possible to hear the sounds of salivating. The figure continued to speak, and by now it was possible to determine that the voice was that of an old woman. ¡°I waste, godchild. Sir, are you hurt? If so, it¡¯ll influence the vor. Adding in extra energies leads to a disgusting vor.¡±

    The sound of salivating grew more intense. Meanwhile, a simr sound could be hearding from the other ck-cloaked figures inside the rift. All of them were looking up greedily at Xu Qing.

    The creed of Words of Truth involved searching for people who survived the gaze of the broken face. They believed that such people were cherished by the broken face, and thus called them godchildren. Devouring a godchild would help them get closer to the gods. From ancient times until now, that was how they had operated. However, they had only ever been able to consume people who had survived the gaze of the broken face once. Never had they devoured someone who survived twice. There were rumors that in other distant ces, Words of Truth had managed to devour such people. But in the congregation here, they never had.

    Xu Qing was currently scowling. He could never have imagined that Words of Truth would step out in a moment like this. What was more, he could sense that, while he had used a god magic to look back through time and learn about Words of Truth, it was clear that others had done the same to him. And the result was that this pack of lunatics had shown up.

    The ck sphere of flesh in the dome of heaven howled. Because of the threat of The Emperor¡¯s Sword, ¨©t didn¡¯t dare to go on the offensive. Apparently, all of ¨©ts actions from before had been mere probing. Now that the probing had produced results, ¨©t was ready to retreat. The god domain rift wasn¡¯t growingrger. Instead, it was slowly shrinking and fading.

    As for Bai Xiaozhuo, the current developments werepletely outside of what he had predicted. He looked up at the emperor. The emperor looked back calmly, as if saying that he was still watching and waiting. As their gazes met, Bai Xiaozhuo suddenly found himself thinking of what Xu Qing had said back in Sea-Sealing County.

    <i>¡°You just don¡¯t deserve to be a follower of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.¡±</i> [1]

    Bai Xiaozhuo closed his eyes. ¡°You¡¯re right. Because I¡¯m... not pure.¡±

    Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s aura seemed to be ancient, but at the same time, livelier. His eyes became clear. Then he reached out and viciously pped himself on the chest. The heart from the god domain copsed, and a huge shock wave of godsource power swept out. None of it remained. His body burst into mes. Sparks flew around him like moths as hisst bit of glory in life was revealed.

    That eruption, that congration, pushed him to the peak. His aura erupted, boundless mutagen flowed everywhere, and the sensation of a god grew intense. Because of the mutagen, the canopy of heaven over his head blurred, and within that blurriness, a fiery flower appeared.

    It was... a lifespan flower! It started out with one petal. Then two petals appeared, and then three.... In the blink of an eye , the sky over the Imperial University turned into a huge lifespan flower. Looking up, it almost seemed like a massive scroll painting had been unfurled. It was boundless and endless, and also impossible to see clearly. It was madepletely of golden fire, each thread of which was exquisitely put together.

    Fire flowed down from the flower, spreading out on thend below. That fire was also a flower, but not a lifespan flower. Instead, it was a p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily. Its color was red.

    Boundless. Endless.... As the wind blew, ripples spread through the fire from the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily. It was almost like the music of reincarnation yed on an ancient zither.

    Lifespan above. P¨¡ramit¨¡ below. They created a sea of red and golden fire, constantly emerging, erupting, and burning! There were different ceremonies that led to godly ascension, and this was one of them. Once these fires came to exist eternally, that would be the moment godfire was ignited!

    Bai Xiaozhuo was blurring. And every time an observer blinked, he would look different to them. With the seas of flowers around him, his battle prowess was soaring. Sadly, igniting godfire wasn¡¯t exactly a simple task. In contrast, it was incredibly difficult.

    The red moon godchild failed. And Bai Xiaozhuo... was in too much of a rush for sess to be even remotely possible.

    The edges of the fiery seas of flowers began to show signs of being extinguished. That much made it clear what was happening. That said, there was no question about how impressive Bai Xiaozhuo¡¯s battle prowess was right now. Everyone looking on was astonished.

    It was hard to say if it was because of the fire, but the emperor¡¯s eyes were shining brightly.

    That was when Bai Xiaozhuo spoke, and his voice echoed like the chanting of a god through the imperial capital.

    ¡°Heaven and earth as the furnace. All living beings as the fuel. mes of gold and red to activate the fire of a god. Emperor, please brace yourself.¡±

    Bai Xiaozhuo swept up the lifespan flower, the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily, and the mes of red and gold. Then, like a burning meteor, he shot toward the emperor! Clouds seethed as the lifespan flower and p¨¡ramit¨¡ lilybined with the red and gold fire, casting brilliant light for 5,000 kilometers in all directions.

    1. Xu Qing uttered these words in <u>chapter 533.1</u>. ?

 Chapter 803: Flowers Bloom, Flowers Fall

    <h4>Chapter 803: Flowers Bloom, Flowers Fall</h4>

    A moth to the me. That was what came to the minds of many observers.

    The emperor was currently the only member of humankind who was in the Imperial Sovereign level. Other than Grand Emperor Swordsage himself, any person who the emperor faced, be they in Void Returning or Smoldering God, were a far cry from being on his level.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had ignited the heart from the god domain, burning his God-Merging body in exchange for burning power that surpassed the fiery flowers. Sadly, he was far from achieving eternal indestructibility. And this was definitely not a true igniting of godfire. It was not godly ascension. Without godly ascension... it was going to be very hard for him to defeat an Imperial Sovereign. In other words, the end of this fight was a foregone conclusion.

    However, Bai Xiaozhuo didn¡¯t just give up. His eyes were clear, and his heart was calm as he elerated. With the lifespan and p¨¡ramit¨¡ flowers, as well as the golden-red sea of mes, he could ignore spatial conventions.

    The emperor was visible in the Imperial University, but that was a projection originating in the imperial pce. And yet, right now, there seemed to be no difference between illusion and reality as far as Bai Xiaozhuo was concerned. He was like a meteor shooting through the highest heavens, speeding up as he pierced through the air to appear right in front of the emperor. There, he ced his hands together in front of him, with his two index fingers pointed straight out like swords.

    Then, he took all of his power, both internal and external, and ced them into that sword of two fingers. That included the golden and red fire, as well as the two flowers. He included his life force and his time. Everything about him. He closed in on the emperor, radiating heat waves in all directions. The world around him rippled, making it seem like the projected image of the imperial pce would be consumed by mes at any moment.

    The heavenly kings unleashed their energy and were about to take action. Before they could, the emperor stopped them.

    ¡°Very amusing,¡± the emperor said in a cool voice. He raised his right hand and pointed at the iing meteor and the surrounding sea of mes. The movement of his finger seemed ordinary in nature, as if it didn¡¯t contain any cultivation base power at all. No shadowy projection appeared as a result.

    However, the moment his finger touched the dual fingers extended by Bai Xiaozhuo, a deafening boom rang out. It was as if countless stars had all exploded at the same time. The entire world trembled! In fact, the Imperial University shook so violently it seemed like it might copse.

    Outside in the capital, wild winds sprang up everywhere, and the sky turned dark. ck clouds spread out, apanied by booming thunder and an indescribably terrifying pressure.

    The spot where the terrifying power originated was right between the emperor and Bai Xiaozhuo. As for the emperor, he hardly seemed affected by the st. His garments stirred, and a few strands of hair swayed. That was it.

    As for Bai Xiaozhuo, he shivered from head to toe, then began to blur. He was like a dandelion disappearing into the wind. However, his eyes were bright. Being so close to the emperor, he spoke in a voice like a chant.

    ¡°Between the lifespan and p¨¡ramit¨¡ burns the fire of a god.¡±

    The burning lifespan flower seemed to bloom again, reaching its peak. Then it withered, copsing into ash that gathered in front of Bai Xiaozhuo. The p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily did the same, bing incredibly brilliant, then copsing into nothing. The red and gold seas of mes shrank down until they were right in front of him.

    As that happened, a special and unique flower bloomed in front of Bai Xiaozhuo, a flower that contained the characteristics of both the lifespan flower and the p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily. It was a holy flower, the fire of which burned in incredibly dazzling fashion.

    It instantly caught the attention of the emperor.

    Bai Xiaozhuo gently exhaled. His breath reached the strange flower, causing petals to swirl forth and surround the emperor. With the emperor in the middle of the flower petals, he looked like he had be a flower.

    The emperor¡¯s eyes glittered with profound light.

    ¡°Decease.¡±

    The flower petals surrounding him swayed back and forth before exploding into countless fragments that became drifting ash.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had apparentlypleted his mission. He closed his eyes. His body... copsed into smoke. Countless mirror-like memory fragments shattered and became ash.

    Apparently the emperor didn¡¯t want to be tainted by such filthy remains, so he pulled his hand back and swished his sleeve. The gradually disappearing debris in front of him scattered, leaving behind no trace of its existence.

    An ancient sigh emerged from the god domain rift up above. Then the rift closed. It seemed everything was over.

    In the days of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, Bai Xiaozhuo had been a close follower of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He had been appointed as the governor of Sea-Sealing County, but most of his history was lost in the sands of time. Today, he had met his fate. From beginning to end, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan never showed up.

    In the outside world, the sky was no longer dark. The afterglow of evening spread out, covering the capital with amber light.

    The face of the Grand Emperor on Ancient Emperor looked at the Imperial University with a profound gaze. It was hard to say if he was looking at the emperor or Xu Qing. Or perhaps... he was looking at something in the god domain rift that no one else could sense.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart pounded as he looked at the rift disappearing. After everything that happened in Sea-Sealing County, it had beenpletely unexpected to actually run into Bai Xiaozhuo and the Crown Prince here.

    <i>Bai Xiaozhuo is first in line. Next in line is the crow!</i>

    The students in the Imperial University were unable to calm down. Some were excited, some conflicted, some anxious, and some confused. All sorts of thoughts were present.

    The dao debate was over.

    The emperor slowly sat back down on the Dragon Throne. The projection of the imperial pce blurred away. The Emperor¡¯s Sword made its way back into Xu Qing. Now that Bai Xiaozhuo was dead, his puppets slumped and fell to the ground.

    Seeing that the curtain was falling, the chancellor of the university looked around with a sigh in his eyes, and opened his mouth to announce the official conclusion of the dao debate.

    However, that was when some intense emotional fluctuations reached Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    <i>¡°Milord... eat... time soul... about to flee!¡±</i>

    Hearing that, Xu Qing looked up. His eyes turned pitch ck as the power of taboo poison erupted in them, giving him the vision of a god. However, looking around, he didn¡¯t see anything out of the ordinary.

    The sky looked normal. The rift was closing just like before. Everything looked ordinary.

    Little Shadow had been following Xu Qing for many years, so it naturally knew what to do. It fused with Xu Qing, converging on his eyes, almost like eyesses. Thebination of godsource power and the shadow¡¯s gruish abilities provided a view that few people could ever witness.

    It was blurry, and not very clear. But Xu Qing could still see... that there was a soul drifting toward the closing rift. More precisely, it wasn¡¯t a soul. Instead, it was a fragment of time, almost like a mote of dust.

    It was a very unique soul, such that, without the help of the shadow, Xu Qing would never have noticed it. It was the very same fragment of time from Bai Xiaozhuo that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had extracted years before.

    <i>That final swish of the emperor¡¯s sleeve seemed like it was scattering the ashes. But now it seems something unusual was actually happening!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes suddenly shed aggressively. There was no time to sit around contemting what the emperor¡¯s actions might imply. It wasn¡¯t a moment for hesitation. Xu Qing suddenly dispersed his god state, whereupon 1,300,000 soul threads appeared and shot into the sky.

    ¡°Get back here!¡± he said coldly. The soul threads shot toward the rift, and in the blink of an eye, had surrounded that soul.

    Little Shadow didn¡¯t want to be left out, so it shot forth as well. In the past, it wouldn¡¯t have mattered how much the shadow wanted to devour Bai Xiaozhuo, it wouldn¡¯t have dared. But that hunger had turned incredibly intense, causing Little Shadow to constantly be keeping an eye on Bai Xiaozhuo. Now, it clearly realized that this time fragment soul was vastly weaker than the terrifying Bai Xiaozhuo of before. In other words, there was no danger.

    To Little Shadow, it seemed even more fragrant than before. It was as if the catastrophe it had just been through purified the soul, and reverted it to its original state.

    The reason was just as he had said: heaven and earth as the furnace, all living beings as the fuel. It was a reforging, and a return to the natural state.

    That original state could transmigrate as a person. Or... if the conditions and circumstances were right, it could transmigrate into a natural-born god.

    That was why Little Shadow seemed to be going crazy.

    The sound of salivating could be heard as Xu Qing¡¯s numerous soul threads filled the sky and moved to snatch the time fragment soul. His actions were noticed by the various organizations and people in and out of the university.

    All of a sudden, the emperor¡¯s gaze emerged from the fading projection of the imperial pce.

    Under Xu Qing¡¯s control, the 1,300,000 soul threads quickly formed together into a cage.

    Meanwhile, Little Shadow wasn¡¯t holding anything back. It stretched out, filling the gap in the closing god domain rift, thus blocking any avenues of escape.

    With that done, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with cold light as he extended his right hand into the air and snapped it closed. The soul thread cage shrank down. In the blink of an eye, it became a fist-sized ck sphere that shot toward Xu Qing andnded on his palm. Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look at it, nor did he give it any chance to send out a stream of thought. He crushed his hand down onto it.

    A boom rang out as the 1,300,000 soul threads voraciously devoured the time fragment soul.

    The anxious Little Shadow rushed over to take some bites. However, it clearly wasn¡¯t capable of devouring things as rapidly as the soul threads. In the blink of an eye, the time fragment soul vanished. It didn¡¯t exist anymore. The power within it turned out to be astonishingly nourishing. Xu Qing could sense his soul threads splitting apart and transforming.

    1,400,000. 1,600,000. 1,800,000.... In the shortest of moments, the soul threads reached the astonishing level of 2,000,000.

    Xu Qing hovered within the 2,000,000 soul threads, his hair whipping around him and his garments pping. He looked like a fiendish devil, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Bai Xiaozhuo had been destroyed in body and soul!

    The emperor looked at Xu Qing as the projection of the imperial pce disappeared.

    Around that time in the Star-Plucking Tower, the imperial perceptor, who had been looking in the direction of the Imperial University, closed his eyes.

 Chapter 804: Lamp Lit, Flower Blooming

    <h4>Chapter 804: Lamp Lit, Flower Blooming</h4>

    The chaos in the Imperial University was over. The face of the Grand Emperor on Ancient Emperor sank into the clouds and disappeared. The head of the Grand Emperor¡¯s statue slowly turned away as the statue returned to its normal position on the rainbow bridge. Light shone off the imperial pce just like before. Inside the shrine hall in the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, the y fox smiled faintly. Eyes closing, the y fox went back to being a normal statue. The god domain rift in the sky above the university vanished.

    The confusion and disorder that the dao debate had descended into were now over. That said, the ramifications were still spreading, among both the organizations outside the university, and the students within it. Innumerable students had been injured to varying degrees.

    Silence and mixed emotions became the theme of the day in the university. That was especially true considering that the sky above the university had been severely damaged and was very weak in some spots. Some spots looked like melting ice, or corrosive ck holes, or blisters on skin. And the ground was in bad shape too. Although it hadn¡¯t been reducedpletely to rubble, there were plenty of ces that had copsed. Overall, it was a scene of devastation.

    As the chancellor looked out at the situation, the wrinkles on his face seemed to grow more numerous. Sighing, he pointed up to the sky.

    ¡°Reconstruct!¡±

    The schoolmasters of the various schools of thought cooperated with the chancellor. That included the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster. All of them raised their hands and called on their privileges as schoolmasters.

    In the blink of an eye, beams of light shot out from the white towers, sending out waves of energy as they illuminated the sky. From a distance, the numerous pirs of light were shocking to observe. Next, a host of magical symbols appeared. Each was pure white and octagonal, and there were so many they filled the sky.

    The magical symbols themselves assumed the shape of an eight trigrams diagram. There were concentric rings, all of which rotated ording to a distinct rhythm. As they rotated, the shattered sky over the university began to recover.

    It was the same with the ground. An eight trigrams diagram appeared there as well, also rotating.

    Heaven and earth rumbled as, over the course of an incense stick¡¯s worth of time... all damage to the sky andnd in the Imperial University was fixed. There was no rubble visible any more. Any towers that had copsed were back to normal. Everything was as it had been before the dao debate.

    ¡°The dao debate is hereby over. The Xeno-Immortal Schooles out victorious!¡±

    The chancellor¡¯s gaze swept the crowd, then reached the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar, and Xu Qing seated atop it. There was something prating about his gaze, almost as if he could read hearts.

    Regardless, his words brought an official conclusion to the dao debate. Then he turned to leave. Third Prince, who had been apanying the chancellor, would normally have done no more than smile to the students and offer some encouraging words before leaving. But now, he solemnly turned to Xu Qing and bowed deeply before leaving.

    As they left, the silence which had gripped the Imperial University shattered as the students from the Xeno-Immortal School all started cheering. Before the dao debate, they had been reluctant to identify themselves as students at the Xeno-Immortal School. But now they were very excited. They all knew that after this dao debate... the Xeno-Immortal School had exposed the God-Merging School in a vicious blow, and going forward, there would be nothing stopping them from reaching the highest heights.

    The great potential of the Xeno-Immortal School was about to be realized. That much was obvious from the pir of light rising from the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s dao altar.

    After the events of this day, many students who had been on the fence before were now very interested in the Xeno-Immortal School.

    In sharp contrast, the defeat of the God-Merging School had ensured its fate. The students from there, whether the chief students, the other leaders, or the ordinary students, all felt anxiety, confusion, and deep regret.

    Ultimately, it turned into fury toward Bai Xiaozhuo. Next, they would have to deal with the investigation into Bai Xiaozhuo that would be carried out in the Imperial University and the capital in general. Not one of the leaders of the God-Merging School would be able to escape that. And unless they could prove their innocence, then the end result would be death for them.

    The cheering swelled as ck-d university guards and city guards from the capital marched in. As all the students looked on, the leaders of the God-Merging School were arrested and taken away. The rest of the God-Merging students were prevented from leaving, meaning that they would need to stay in the university for the time being, until they were all thoroughly investigated.

    Meanwhile, the God-Merging School¡¯s white tower became just like the Xeno-Immortal School¡¯s tower in the past: it was sealed tight!

    Xu Qing stood. Together with the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster and Chen Daoze, he left the dao altar. Xeno-Immortal students then clustered around them as they returned to their white tower. Outside the tower, the schoolmaster took a deep breath, then turned and announced that the Xeno-Immortal School would be open again tomorrow.

    Amidst more loud cheering, the schoolmaster turned to Xu Qing and bowed deeply. Chen Daoze did the same.

    Xu Qing knew that they must have many questions, so he turned and entered the tower. The other two followed. Once they were inside, the tower doors closed.

    The students outside knew that it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to disturb them, so they bowed and hurried away excitedly.

    ***

    The tower was quiet inside. Lamp light illuminated the interior as Xu Qing stood in front of a shelf of jade slips. As he looked through the various ancient records, the schoolmaster and Chen Daoze stood respectfully behind him.

    They had many, many questions. But right now, even as they stood in Xu Qing¡¯s presence, they really weren¡¯t sure where to start. Considering that the ultimate origin of the Xeno-Immortal School was Xu Qing, they couldn¡¯t help but worry about what that meant for the future.

    When a word from one person can determine the fate of what is most precious to you, it¡¯s only natural to feel anxious and hesitant. That was how things worked with important people. That said, the term ¡®important person¡¯ wasn¡¯t necessarily unconditional. Many times, it was subjective.

    Xu Qing understood how they felt. His experiences in Seven Blood Eyes and Sea-Sealing County had facilitated his growth from a kid raised in the slums to a grown man. When he spoke, his voice filled the white tower.

    ¡°Xeno-Immortal dao seeds are actually formed from my soul seeds. The soul seeds have advantages and disadvantages, which I exined in detail in the first jade slip I sent to the schoolmaster.

    ¡°It¡¯s true that I can take back the soul seeds with a thought, as well as all the cultivation base transformations they¡¯ve wrought. But there¡¯s only one circumstance in which I would do that. And that is... if human morality is vited.¡±

    Xu Qing turned and looked at the schoolmaster and Chen Daoze with fiercely gleaming eyes.

    The two of them ducked their heads, sped hands, and bowed.

    Beforeing to know who Xu Qing really was, such words would have raised their suspicions, and they would have been cautious and fully on guard. Even if they ultimately submitted to him, it would only have been because of the potential benefits to them.

    But... things were different now.

    In addition to Xu Qing¡¯s ordinary identity, he had an even more important identity, and that was as the bearer of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. He was approved of by the Grand Emperor, and had been chosen to bear his sword. The Grand Emperor¡¯s opinion was naturally very persuasive.

    Because of that, both the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster and Chen Daoze fully trusted Xu Qing and what he said.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and from his remaining 98 violet soul seeds, three flew out.

    ¡°You can select some appropriate candidates to take these violet soul seeds. You can also decide the rules that govern their usage. As for me, I¡¯m going to make some new reference pictures and exnations here. Going forward, students can study them to help them move in the right direction.¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡± the schoolmaster said. After carefully collecting the violet soul seeds, he thought for a moment, then sped hands. ¡°Region Lord Xu, on the outside, I happen to work in the Administration Pce. If you ever need any help there, just issue the orders.¡±

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t asked about who he really was. But given how important the schoolmaster was to the school of thought, the schoolmaster decided to take the initiative to reveal the information.

    After a moment of silence, Chen Daoze said, ¡°Region Lord Xu, I¡¯ve been here in the Imperial University for 5,000 years. Thankfully, your soul seed restored my mind and gave me control of my body again. In the past, I was an operations elder in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. Considering how things have turned out with the Xeno-Immortal School, I n to finally return to my sect.¡±

    ¡°Star Emperor Preeminence Sect?¡± Xu Qing murmured. Thinking about his spection that the Captain was currently a member of one of their branch sects, he nodded.

    Now that Xu Qing had started a conversation, the schoolmaster and Chen Daoze started asking him questions about the cultivation method for the Xeno-Immortal School soul threads. Xu Qing actually didn¡¯t have much advice to give regarding the cultivation method. However, he did have information to give them about the core elements of the Xeno-Immortal techniques, as well as god states. Chen Daoze and the schoolmaster listened intently, and as they absorbed the deep meaning of his words, they were shaken.

    <i>Soul threads are actually an imitation of godsource....</i>

    <i>Burning a godly projection can break through barriers!</i>

    <i>The so-called Xeno-Immortal means being a god with one thought or an immortal with another....</i>

    So many thousands of thoughts were running through their heads that time seemed to slow down. Eventually, Xu Qing went back to the imperial capital. By that point, it waste at night. The sky was dark, and everything was quiet and peaceful. The stars glittered in the night sky, like mysterious eyes staring down at the world. As the wind blew down the empty street, the leaves on the trees rustled.

    Xu Qing suddenly stopped in ce. ¡°Thest group of people who secretly followed me around in the imperial capital ended up dead, down to thest one.¡±

    A woman appeared behind him in the moonlight. She was wearing a mask, and her gaze was a mix of suspicion and provocation.

    ¡°You can try,¡± she said. It was the very same mysterious girl he had met that night outside the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect¡¯s branch sect!

    Xu Qing turned, and the moonlight grew brighter, turning violet as it filled the street.

    ***

    At the same time, something very gruish happened on Ancient Emperor. The cloud cover there began to move.

    In the depths of the imperial pce, there was a pentagonal altar with five golden coffins on it, all of which emanated a terrifying imperial aura. The aura was pitch ck and could decay anything it touched. It was like a host of ck dragons, pulsing with death as they howled. There was amp in the middle of the altar.

    It was the color violet. It had previously been extinguished, but right now, there was a me dancing on its wick. The me was golden, but it was so weak it looked like the slightest breeze might extinguish it. Just barely visible in the me was something that seemed to have the characteristics of both a lifespan flower and a p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily.

    It was the very same flower that had appeared in the end for Bai Xiaozhuo. And it was the veryst thing in his life... that he hadpleted.

 Chapter 805: Withering Flame Demon Magic True Self Dao

    <h4>Chapter 805: Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao</h4>

    The night sky was like ink. The stars twinkled. The moon hung high, spilling moonlight down. However, it was only on that one street in the imperial capital that the moonlight became violet. It was like a gauzy veil.

    Outside that violet veil, a cold wind blew, causing dry leaves to rustle and distant trees to sway. It was as if they were telling secrets to the darkness of night. Inside the violet veil, a freezing wind screamed toward a retreating figure, as if it were infected with the momentum of superiority, and wanted to challenge the night to battle.

    Dirt exploded as the retreating figurended on the street. Then, two long furrows appeared as the figure slid backward about 30 meters before gaining a stable footing.

    The violet moonlight made it clear that this figure was the mysterious young woman. She didn¡¯t look like she had before. Her mask was cracked, and her eyes glowed as she looked up at Xu Qing approaching her.

    ¡°People say that you stole some of Crimson Mother¡¯s godsource. You haven¡¯t done much in the Imperial University, so I couldn¡¯t tell for sure. But considering how the moonlight changes color for you, I¡¯d say the rumors are true.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral. He seemed to be in his element in the moonlight. As he approached the young woman, the violet color grew more intense, filling heaven and earth, invading everything. It turned into a terrifying godly projection that could devour anything and everything, leaving behind only moonlight on the ground.

    ¡°However, that just makes me more interested in you. Last time, I didn¡¯t want to cause unnecessary trouble in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, so I held back my secret magics. But this time....¡±

    Unfathomable light flickered in the young woman¡¯s eyes, whereupon something bizarre and demonic happened. Within her left eye was a baby in the fetal position, while in her right eye was a stooped old woman. Both emanated a different type of energy thatbined into something very bizarre. It contained both life and death as it surrounded her. Behind the woman, the colors ck and white appeared. Each was semi-circr, one on the left, the other on the right, and as they spun, they affected the magicalws of heaven and earth, and the naturalws of the world.

    For the first time in this sh, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. Back in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, he had sensed that this person had a gruish aura. It was like a god, but not. Like a cultivator, but not. He had taken note of it back then, but now, it was even more evident.

    ¡°You talk a lot of nonsense,¡± he said calmly. He waved his right hand, and the violet moonlight shone brightly as it became material, transforming into long spears of light that shot toward the mysterious young woman. From a distance, it looked like tens of thousands of spears of moonlight closing in on her from all directions and moving as quickly as lightning. It seemed there was no way she could avoid it.

    In the final moment of crisis, the young woman¡¯s pupils constricted and she performed a double-handed incantation gesture. All of a sudden, the two semicircles of ck and white behind her enveloped her like wings. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the moonlight spears closed in with deadly, destructive force. The ck-and-white wings shifted to block the attack, yet the force still caused blood to spray from the woman¡¯s mouth. But she still managed to block the brunt of the attack.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with fierce light as he shot forward. His third-level god state appeared behind him, its vicious form rising high into the sky as it closed in with him.

    However, it was right then that the young woman¡¯s voice drifted out from the ck-and-white wings.

    ¡°One bloodline, transformed into three souls. Three souls tempered into nine divinities. Nine divinities refined into my true self. I am... Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao!¡± [1]

    The moment the woman¡¯s words echoed out, three illusory mountains appeared in midair. They were no ordinary mountains, as they hung upside down, with their tips pointing down. One mountain waspletely formed of ice and frost, making it light blue. It contained boundless coldness. One mountain was crimson red like blood, making it look like an immense pile of corpses. One mountain was made of molten rock, like fire, that brimmed with the most supreme dignity. [2]

    The moment they appeared, the three mountains dropped down toward Xu Qing, pulsing with a most ancient aura.

    <i>What divine ability is this? It seems so ancient....</i>

    Expression grim, Xu Qing exercised a thought, and more soul threads emerged from him as he summoned his first- and second-level god states to stand next to his third.

    It was an unprecedented scene as Xu Qing and his three god states appeared within the violet moonlight. Before killing Bai Xiaozhuo, there was no way Xu Qing could have done this. His soul threads wouldn¡¯t have been able to support it. But now he had 2,000,000 soul threads, and as a result, he could sustain all three god states at the same time.

    It was as if there were three gods standing in a triangr formation around Xu Qing. As they did, his hands shed in an incantation gesture, he pointed at the three descending mountains. Mutagen spread out, causing everything to blur, but intensifying the violet color.

    Xu Qing¡¯s first-level god state mmed a fist into the mountain of ice and frost. As the boom rang out, the second-level god state neared the second mountain. Pitch ck poison erupted from it, and as it turned into a gigantic monster, it opened its mouth to devour the mountain. The third-level god state hefted the violet moon, transformed into a, and mmed into the mountain of molten rock. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. And the three mountains trembled. Cracks spread across them, filling them, and then a boom rang out as they copsed.

    They were illusory to begin with, so when they copsed, they disappeared into nothing, leaving behind no traces of their existence. However, if you looked closely... you would see that when they disappeared, a seven-colored light flickered on all of the resulting pieces of rubble.

    The breaking of the divine ability caused a bacsh. Blood sprayed out of the mysterious woman¡¯s mouth, and her aura became much weaker as she staggered backward.

    <i>This fight should be noticed, whether by the spell formations in the capital, or by people from various organizations. There¡¯s no way people haven¡¯t noticed.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light.

    <i>But right now, things seem just as quiet as before.... Unless things are simr to the night of the assassination attempt, it means there¡¯s only one other possibility. This woman... has an extraordinary background!</i>

    With that thought in mind, Xu Qing burst into motion, and his three god states emitted godly might as he shot toward the woman.

    Though blood was oozing out of the mysterious woman¡¯s mouth, she obviously wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Her eyes still shone provocatively as she stared at Xu Qing. Then, she shut her right eye and kept her left eye open. The infant in her left eye stirred. That motion caused the white wing behind her to unfurl, revealing an image within it. The painting was simple. It showed a boundless, watery swamp.

    The moment it appeared, the woman growled, ¡°Waterswamp... Kingdom!¡±

    All of a sudden, heaven and earth seemed to change. The imperial capital seemingly disappeared. Xu Qing and the woman were no longer on a street, but instead, were surrounded by a vast, watery swamp. [3]

    An incredible sense of danger filled Xu Qing at that moment. Then, deep within the swamp, the roar of a beast echoed out. A huge spike appeared, rising up from the swamp like a mountain, and shooting diagonally toward Xu Qing. Swamp water sprayed everywhere as it viciously thrust toward him.

    At that moment of crisis, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate at all. Shooting up into the air, he threw his hands out and put his palms together as if in prayer. Instantly, his three god states shot toward him and merged into him.

    In the blink of an eye, thebination of all three god states appeared. Bones of crystal. Flesh of soul threads. Armor of poison. Stamped with a heavenly dao. Three furnaces burning in its chest. It was allpletely terrifying! The violet moon hung behind it, and even more shocking, behind the moon was an enormous sundial.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s shadow spread out, forming something like a forbidden region. In its depths was a dead tree upon which hung a coffin, swaying back and forth and emitting chanting sounds. This was the greatest level of strength Xu Qing could muster.

    He lifted his right hand, pushed down on the swamp, and then spoke in a voice that thrummed with holiness.

    ¡°Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao!¡±

    The moment the words left his mouth, seven-colored daybreak light erupted, swirling around him to form the same three inverted mountains from before.

    The mysterious woman¡¯s face fell, and her eyes shone with disbelief. ¡°You¡ª¡±

    Before she could finish speaking, seven-colored light glittered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and he waved his right index finger. The icy mountain fell with unstoppable force toward the spikeing out of the swamp.

    A deafening boom shook the swampynds. Next came the second mountain, followed by the third. The quick session of three mountains, and the crushing pressure they brought, caused the swamp and the dimension that contained it to be unstable.

    The final attack came as Xu Qing himself shot down like a meteor tond a fist strike onto the surface of the swamp. A defiant growl echoed out from the depths of the swamp. Whatever lurked beneath wanted to unleash a full attack, yet was seemingly blocked by something, and temporarily couldn¡¯t. The dimension copsed, and everything went back to normal.

    The white wing behind the woman shattered. Looking even more incredulous than before, she stared at the fiendish-looking Xu Qing and prepared to unleash the secret magic from her right eye.

    ¡°Fate, Lives and¡ª¡±

    However, the bacsh from before ensured that, just as the old woman in her right eye started moving, the ck wing behind her faded from existence. [4]

    Blood sprayed out of the woman¡¯s mouth, and as a sense of mortal danger rose up in her, she prepared to speak again.

    In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing vanished. Next, she sensed an immense force rocketing toward her. By going all out, she managed to avoid sustaining a fatal blow, but she still couldn¡¯t evade Xu Qing¡¯s fist-turned-palm attack.

    The palm hit her right on the side of the face. Her mask shattered, revealing a beautiful face. However, the blood and mud covering her marred her beauty as she was sent tumbling to the side.

    Before she couldnd on the ground, Xu Qing lunged after her. He appeared right behind her, pulled out a dagger, and shed it toward her throat. It didn¡¯t matter who she was. She had attacked him, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t used to letting attackers escape with their lives.

    Blood sprayed. A head flew. At the same time, a host of soul threads flew out toward the woman¡¯s severed head to devour it. The woman¡¯s fleshly body copsed into ash.

    And yet, Xu Qing was frowning. His soul threads had not devoured any soul at all. This body... didn¡¯t have a soul.

    Xu Qing then noticed that, in the spot where the woman had copsed into ashes, countless motes of dust had formed into a scintiting butterfly. [5]

    The butterfly was illusory and dazzling, as well as extremely beautiful. As it pped its wings, countless stars swirled down. Then it spoke in a clear voice.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    The soul threads mmed into it, and the butterfly copsed. But only a momentter, it formed anew.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold.

    The woman spoke again. ¡°Kill if you must. Have you calmed down yet?¡±

    Countless soul threads once again wiped the butterfly out of existence, but unsurprisingly, it returned a momentter.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough!¡±

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing was walking away, his face expressionless. The butterfly was following him.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got quite the temper. Still mad? I was just ying around with you earlier. If you want to keep fighting, you can destroy me another hundred and eighty times if you¡¯d like. Aiya, calm down! I¡¯m very curious about the techniques you used against me. And you¡¯re probably curious about my background.

    ¡°I¡¯m from the Summer Immortal Pce. The pce lord ordered me to invite you toe check out the Summer Immortal Pce.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    1. This line is exactly the same as the line in ISSTH <u>chapter 584</u>. This chapter¡¯s title is also exactly the same as that chapter title. You can read ISSTH here on Wuxiaworld, or you can get the edited <u>ebook version on Amazon</u>. ?

    2. The description of these three mountains is basically exactly the same as the demon mountains described in <u>chapter 585</u> of ISSTH. ?

    3. Those who have read <i>A Will Eternal</i> will be very familiar with the Waterswamp Kingdom. It was a factor throughout that novel. It was first mentioned in <u>chapter 86</u>, and came up in many dozens of other chapters, all the way up into the 1300s which was basically the end of the novel. You can read AWE here on Wuxiaworld, but it¡¯s also avable edited in <u>ebook format on Amazon</u>. ?

    4. Fate, Lives, and Death is something from <i>Pursuit of the Truth</i>. It¡¯s a bizarre trantion choice, and honestly not how I would trante that set of characters. For the sake of continuity, though, I¡¯m keeping the established version. UPDATE: I''m copying part of my response to one of thements in thements section asking about how I would trante it. The reality is that I don''t know. It would require research, understanding of the context, and time spent reading the novel to make a proper trantion choice. Chinese is heavily contextual, and that can be the sentence a word is in, the paragraph a sentence is in, the chapter a paragraph is in, and so on. To show someone a few Chinese characters, or even a passage, and expect them to trante it can be as realistic as showing someone a picture of some food and asking if they like how it tastes. All I can say is that, just ncing at how the technique name is constructed in Chinese, it seems the existing trantion was thrown together haphazardly. ?

    5. I never read <i>Pursuit of the Truth</i>, but based on thements on this part, it seems many Chinese readers think this butterfly is potentially rted to Su Ming. ?

 Chapter 806: Summer Immortal Palace

    <h4>Chapter 806: Summer Immortal Pce</h4>

    Not a sound could be heard in heaven and earth. A few clouds floated past the bright moon in the sky, creating an ethereal atmosphere. The color of the moonlight on one particr street grew increasingly violet, thanks to Xu Qing. At the moment, he had stopped walking and was looking at the butterfly.

    The Summer Immortal Pce. It wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s first time hearing about the ce. Back when he came to the imperial capital, Princess Anhai had mentioned it. [1]

    He remembered her saying that humans weren¡¯t the only ones who had a Summer Immortal Pce. There were other species in the Revered Ancient maind who also had the same organization. The pce was an ancient ce with a history that stretched back to the very beginning of Revered Ancient.

    In fact, the 99 ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient were actually creations of the Summer Immortal Pce. They were the ones who gave naturalws to the world, and who maintained a boundary against gods. They originated in a ce called Deep Earth, which was also sometimes referred to as the lower worlds.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with profound light. ¡°Every thousand years, the human Summer Immortal Pce sends out a disciple to wander thends. Are you that disciple for this generation?¡±

    The butterfly¡¯s wings pped, causing dusty starlight to drift down from it, then fade into nothing.

    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you,¡± came the crisp, clear reply. ¡°If you want to know, you¡¯ll have to¡ª¡±

    Without the slightest change to his facial expression, Xu Qing sent soul threads stabbing into the butterfly. The butterfly copsed with a thump, but reappeared only a momentter. Xu Qing repeated the process a few dozen times. When the butterfly reformed after the final time, the designs on its wings looked like eyes. And they looked angry.

    ¡°Still not calmed down? You¡¯re out of control! Stop! Fine, I¡¯ll answer your question. I do want to wander thends, but... the pce lord said that I¡¯m not strong enough yet. Ai. I guess that makes sense. Even you can beat me....¡± The butterfly sighed. ¡°So are youing or not? If not, then I¡¯ll just keep following you around. I really have no choice. The pce lord told me to invite you, and failing the mission isn¡¯t an option.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. I¡¯m not going to hurt you. Haven¡¯t you noticed yet that, despite our fighting, the spell formations didn¡¯t activate and nobody showed up...? Want to know why?

    ¡°It¡¯s because I represent the Summer Immortal Pce, and the Summer Immortal Pce... doesn¡¯t participate in the mundane affairs of any species. We record history, that¡¯s all. We don¡¯t have any enemies.

    ¡°That being said, I don¡¯t really know why the pce lord wants to see you. So, are you going, or not?¡±

    Xu Qing was actually feeling a bit annoyed. After the mysterious young woman turned into a butterfly, she became something of a chatterbox. Every sentence she spoke seemed to be followed by another sentence.

    That said, he was very curious about the Summer Immortal Pce. Considering how many prying eyes there were in the imperial capital, he wasn¡¯t really worried about the ce posing some sort of lethal threat. After mulling the matter over, he looked at the ancient sun hanging at his waist. That made him feel even better.

    ¡°Lead the way!¡± he said calmly.

    The butterfly squealed excitedly and started flying, leaving behind a beautiful, multicolored stream of light that served as a path through the starry sky. Xu Qing followed. After proceeding for a short time, they reached the north section of the imperial capital.

    The capital took up the entire inner ring of Ancient Emperor, which meant it was a veryrge ce. There were a variety of terrain features scattered about, from mountains to ins. The north had more open space than average. There weren¡¯t a lot of buildings, and considering it was nighttime, it felt empty and deste.

    Eventually, the butterfly stopped over a vast in that was illuminated only by glittering moonlight.

    Within that faint light it was just possible to see a temple. There were no other buildings present, just the temple. It was somewhat run-down, and imparted the sensation of countless years of time. What was more, it was constructed in an unusual way that made it seem like it existed in the space between reality and illusion.

    Xu Qing remembered having passed through this spot once, and there hadn¡¯t been any sign of this temple.

    <i>Is it like the Immortal Questioning Bell?</i>

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to specte,¡± the butterfly said. ¡°The Summer Immortal Pces all look like this, regardless of the species. They exist, but at the same time, they don¡¯t exist. And if youe looking for this ce, you¡¯ll never find it. The only way you¡¯ll ever see it is if the pce lord invites you.¡±

    The butterfly then shot toward the temple and disappeared inside. A momentter, the temple¡¯s main door slowly opened. The door was mottled with age, and seemed ancient. The interior of the temple seemed to emanate a sense of antiquity. Just looking at it made Xu Qing feel like he was glimpsing history.

    He closed his eyes and slowly tapped into his sundials. When he opened his eyes again, he could see a river of time flowing within the temple. That made the temple seem even more mysterious.

    After a time, he took a deep breath, straightened his clothing, and then bowed to the temple. Then, not pausing for even a moment, he walked inside.

    Looking around, he found that the temple seemed just as run-down on the inside as it did on the outside. It looked like nothing more than a run-of-the-mill temple. It was mostly empty, and very quiet, with the only sounding from the dancing mes on the candles.

    Specifically, there was an altar up front with nine candles on it. Three of them were extinguished, while six of them were lit. When the door opened, the candles flickered slightly. In front of the altar were three prayer mats of woven rush. They were quite worn, seemingly indicating that they were frequently used for meditation and worship. There were no divine likenesses enshrined in the temple. Instead, there were nine ancient paintings, one behind each candle. The paintings were blurry, making it impossible to see clearly who they depicted. Other than that, the walls of the temple featured frescoes illuminated by the dim, flickering candle light.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted from the altar to the walls, his heart started pounding.

    The frescoes contained historical images!

    In one of them, Xu Qing saw Emperor Dark War ascending the throne! The image was very detailed, and did a great job of imparting the majesty and grandeur of the asion. It was easy to get sucked into it and feel like you were actually there.

    Eventually, Xu Qing looked at some of the other frescoes. One of them depicted another of the human emperors ascending the throne. That emperor¡¯s facial features were unfamiliar to Xu Qing, but there was a text inscription exining who it was. Dao Life.

    Xu Qing walked a bit closer to the wall, and as he looked around, he saw the emperor who hade before Dao Life. It was Emperor Mirrorcloud!

    Xu Qing stopped in front of the Mirrorcloud fresco, and suddenly found himself thinking of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. As he knew, Emperor Mirrorcloud and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan were from the same generation. That time period was considered the golden age of humankind.

    Xu Qing walked around some more and found Emperor Sageheaven, as well as Emperor Eastglory, who, in his thirst to aplish extraordinary things, ended up losing almost half of all human territory.

    The various images of the human emperors ascending the throne depicted different levels of majesty and grandeur. Most astonishing of all was the fresco of Emperor Eastglory. He had a whole host of heavenly kings with him, as well as numerous Imperial Sovereigns. The prestige on disy, and the destiny aura, seemed impossible to top. At that time, humankind had terrifying reserve powers, as well as the might of the Ancient Emperors.

    But when it came to Dark War¡¯s ascension... humans were clearly in decline.

    The images created something like a river of history flowing in front of Xu Qing. Thanks to the frescoes, he got a clear view of what happened to humankind after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left.

    <i>Speaking of which, what about Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity? He was before Emperor Eastglory, right...?</i>

    Xu Qing continued following the frescoes until he encountered an image that surpassed anything from theter emperors.

    He saw... Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity ascending the throne. Ancient Emperor shone with dazzling, auspicious light. Heaven and earth were dim inparison. The 99 ancient heavenly daos were clearly prominent, and were bowing their heads to the imperial pce. A lone person stood in that pce, mightier than heaven. Beneath him were all the species of Revered Ancient, including their emperors, and they were prostrating respectfully. One person had conquered Revered Ancient. One person had campaigned across all heaven and earth.

    <i>Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity!</i>

    Xu Qing examined the fresco for a long time. Eventually, he settled his thoughts and decided to keep looking back. He wanted to see what humans were like before Dark Serenity.

    Humans had emperors before Dark Serenity. Some of them ruled for long periods of time. Others didn¡¯t reign for very long. The same went for the levels of glory they achieved. Eventually, after passing thirty-one emperors, Xu Qing found a fresco that depicted a ceremony that seemed to equal that of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    It was... another Ancient Emperor.

    Dark Serenity was not the first Ancient Emperor among humankind to conquer Revered Ancient. The name of that Ancient Emperor was ¡®Banished Immortal.¡¯

    She was actually an empress. She had a magnificent style that was unmatched inter generations, and was an object of veneration among all people.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing. This was history he had never learned about, and was careful to look closely at all the images. He moved on, and saw frescoes depicting an additional fifty emperors.

    Eventually, he found a fresco depicting... the very first Ancient Emperor of humankind.

    He was a young man standing in front of a very ancient imperial pce. Instead of wearing imperial garments, he actually wore a daoist robe. He was not looking down as countless species bowed to him. Instead, he was looking up into a starry sky. His expression was mncholy, conflicted, and thoughtful.

    There was an inscription naming him. Ancient Emperor Heavenly Peace.

    ¡°Ancient Emperor Heavenly Peace was the first human emperor. He was also the first Ancient Emperor.¡±

    The words were eloquently spoken from behind Xu Qing.

    He looked over his shoulder and saw that there was a woman on one of the prayer mats, facing away from him.

    She wore a white, homespun garment and had long ck hair. Because of the dim candlelight, Xu Qing felt like he was looking at an old painting. The person depicted in that painting seemed to exist within time itself. As Xu Qing looked at her, he wasn¡¯t sure if she was in the past or the present. Her aura was like that of a god, yet wasn¡¯t. It was like that of a cultivator, yet wasn¡¯t.

    <i>¡°Immortal...!¡±</i> said the trembling voice of the god¡¯s finger from within Xu Qing. <i>¡°I was only asleep for a bit! Why did you... bring me to see an immortal...?¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger was trembling, and instinctively shut ¨©ts eyes and tried to go back asleep. If ¨©t was asleep, ¨©t couldn¡¯t be afraid.

    Xu Qing ignored the finger and instead focused on the woman in the homespun garment.

    An ancient temple. A homespun garment. Underworld fire.

    The butterfly appeared next to her, fluttering around her beforending on her shoulder. The patterns on the butterfly¡¯s wings formed an eye that looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing, this is my Master, who is also the pce lord.¡±

    Xu Qing solemnly bowed. ¡°Well met, Pce Lord.¡±

    The ancient temple was quiet for a very long moment....

    Then the figure in the homespun garment spoke in a voice like water droplets falling onto limestone tiles. ¡°You have the aura of a Summer Immortal on you.¡±

    Her voice lingered in the ancient temple.[2]

    1. Princess Anhai mentioned the Summer Immortal Pce in <u>chapter 749</u>. Incidentally, Summer Immortals were also mentioned in <u>chapter 747</u>. ?

    2. If youpare the line ¡°An ancient temple. A homespun garment. Underworld fire¡± as well as this scene in general to the final part of chapter 1313 of <i><u>A Will Eternal</u></i>, it¡¯s little wonder that some Chinese readers spected that this woman could be Du Lingfei. The specific word ¡®ancient temple¡¯ used in this chapter appears only five times in AWE, and all are in <u>chapter 1313</u>. What¡¯s more, there is a level of uniqueness in the Chinese characters that make the simrities very obvious. However, other readers spected that, considering certain events which happened in <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>, plus the words about ¡®aura of a Summer Immortal¡¯ and how that could theoretically connect to the violet crystal, this woman could be Wang Yiyi from that novel. I never read AWWP so I''m not really sure what they''re talking about, but thements were pretty clear. Right now, all of this is pure spection. For all we know, this woman might be a brand new character, and all the theorizing about her connecting to other novels is tin-hattery. Now, off to the store to rece my diminishing stockpile of tin foil.... ?

 Chapter 807: Nine Summer Immortals!

    <h4>Chapter 807: Nine Summer Immortals!</h4>

    The ethereal voice echoed back and forth in the temple. The person who had spoken was clearly right in front of Xu Qing, yet for some reason, it seemed to him like they were separated by countless years. It was like a person in the past, plucking a zither, the sound of which carried with it the sensation of the timescape.

    The god¡¯s finger wasn¡¯t capable of sleeping, and could onlyy there trembling.

    As for Xu Qing, his heart was pounding as he looked at the pce lord of the Summer Immortal Pce, whose cultivation base he couldn¡¯t read. In fact, he couldn¡¯t sense anything about her. She seemed both illusory and looming at the same time. The older Xu Qing got, the less often things like this happened. He had dealt with beings as lofty as Imperial Sovereigns and as lowly as grues. He had seen just about everything. He even had multiple experiences dealing with gods. In other words, he had a lot of reference points to call on when assessing someone¡¯s aura. But right now... this pce lord was impossible to read. As a result, it didn¡¯t matter what reference points he had.

    In fact, the sensation of the mixture between past and present, and thebination of illusory and material, was growing stronger. All of these things created even more mystery within Xu Qing¡¯s heart. Because of that mysterious sensation, the pce lord¡¯s words seemed deeply meaningful. It was as if she spoke with the voice of all living beings.

    <i>Summer Immortal....</i>

    Xu Qing collected his thoughts, then waved his right hand, causing Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior to fly out. The iron skewer, which now looked more like a fiendish club,nded on Xu Qing¡¯s palm.

    ¡°Is this what you¡¯re sensing, Senior?¡± he asked softly.

    Silence reigned in the temple.

    The patriarch trembled on Xu Qing¡¯s palm, terror raging uncontrobly within him. He felt like he was in the presence of a god. Little Shadow was also trembling, though it managed to contain all of its emotional fluctuations. That actually gave Xu Qing a better idea of this pce lord¡¯s cultivation base.

    Again, she spoke in her ethereal voice.

    ¡°Yes. And no.¡± The woman in the homespun garments sat with her back to Xu Qing, speaking as if from ancient times. ¡°Do you know what a Summer Immortal is?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer immediately. Instead, he thought back to everything he knew about Summer Immortals.

    Finally, he said, ¡°Summer Immortal is a cultivation level.¡±

    The woman in the homespun garments slowly shook her head. ¡°Correct. But also incorrect. See for yourself.¡±

    She reached up and pointed to the first of the nine paintings behind the candles. The blurriness of the painting turned into rity, and the person depicted became visible.

    He was an old man, tall and burly, with white hair and a white beard. He seemed straightforward and even boorish, and in his hand he held a walking stick that was golden in color, except made from... a bone. It was not an ordinary bone. It was the bone of a god. Even though it was only a painting, the shocking energy that Xu Qing could sense seemed to surpass Crimson Mother! Though it was clearly an unmoving artistic depiction, the old man was so lifelike he looked like he might step out of the painting at any moment. The shabby clothing he wore didn¡¯t do anything to diminish his character. In fact, it made him seem more profound and ancient. His eyes seemed to contain stars, as if he could understand anything and everything.

    As Xu Qing looked at the painting, he tried tomit the details to memory, except that even that simple act wasn¡¯t possible. It was as if... the person in the painting could not be remembered by another.

    Once again, the voice of the woman in the homespun garment filled the temple. ¡°Gods cannot be looked at directly. Immortals cannot be remembered. You¡¯re looking at the first of the nine Summer Immortals of the Revered Ancient maind. He wasn¡¯t human, and no one actually knows what he looks like. That image is a depiction of the venerable master¡¯s mortal husk.¡±

    The woman¡¯s voice suddenly seemed to thrum with an even greater sensation of time. She reached out with her delicate hand and pointed at the second painting. It became clear.

    It also depicted an old man, but he was very different from the first. He was not domineering. Instead, he was schrly and refined. He wore the garment of an academic, and had a long, flowing beard. His face was ruddy, and his eyes were profound, as if they contained heavenly daos. His hair was neatly bound with a wooden hairpin, and his garment was covered withplex schrly designs. Every stitch and thread seemed full of an aura that surpassed anything mortal. It was the aura of a god. Shockingly, every stitch and thread contained a sealed god!

    ¡°You said that Summer Immortal is a cultivation level. That¡¯s correct. But that¡¯s more like a definition applied to the past by people in the present. The people in the present are the cultivators of Revered Ancient. They believe that after Smoldering Godes Imperial Sovereign, and that after Imperial Sovereignes Quasi-Immortal, also known as Grand Emperor. Break through from Quasi-Immortal, and you¡¯ll reach Summer Immortal.¡±

    The pce lord waved her hand, and the third and fourth paintings became clear to Xu Qing. They depicted a woman and a man respectively.

    She was graceful and elegant, with a face as beautiful as an immortal. Beautiful hair cascaded down her like a waterfall, and her eyes seemed like ponds during spring. She was the type of person whose every frown and smile could entrance anyone who looked at her. She was surrounded by countless glowing spheres. If you looked closely at them, you would realize that the spheres were actually stars.

    The man in the fourth painting was middle-aged. He seemed awe-inspiring, with raven-ck hair hanging down behind him. His eyes were profound, as dark as the night sky, and glittering with wisdom and insight. He had a prominent nose, thin lips, and seemed calm and thoughtful. Astonishingly, he stood atop a mountain of god corpses! Golden blood flowed into a stupefying sea at the base of the mountain. Just looking at the image caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to race. Even though it was just a painting, he could still sense the terror imparted by those gods. Some of them seemed no weaker than Crimson Mother, and there were some that were clearly stronger. And yet... every single god in this man¡¯s presence was nothing more than a corpse.

    The pce lord¡¯s voice once again echoed in the temple. ¡°The truth is that, in the early days, Summer Immortals weren¡¯t called that. In the Brilliant Heaven god world, the most famous people from Deep Earth were called Lower Immortals. Later, as time went on, Lower Immortals came to be called Summer Immortals.¡± [1]

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. This was information he hadn¡¯t heard before.

    The pce lord pointed at the fifth painting.

    As it became clear, Xu Qing saw a young man. He wore a white robe that swayed in the breeze, and he overflowed with immortal energy. His garment was embroidered with beautiful designs that emphasized how honorable he was. He had long, slender fingers that held a fly-whisk, the strands of which also drifted in the wind. And at the tip of every single strand, there was apparently an entire star system, each of which contained countless worlds and unending life. The young man didn¡¯t seem to be very old, yet his eyes contained something profoundly ancient, as if he had seen many things in life, and had experienced countless things. Despite that, he hadn¡¯t changed much. He had a smile as warm and gentle as a spring breeze, the type that would cause anyone who saw him to admire him greatly.

    ¡°There were nine of them in total, all from different species. During the heyday of humankind, there were five. And that¡¯s why humans in Revered Ancient produced three Ancient Emperors.¡±

    The pce lord pointed at the sixth painting. It depicted a woman with a smile as kind and gentle as a blooming white lotus. Her daoist robe swayed in the breeze, making her look like an immortal walking in the mortal world. She had long hair that flowed freely behind her, shapely eyebrows, almond eyes, and skin as fair as snow. Her eyes glittered like deep springs of clear water. Behind her floated a sword as ck as ink that pulsed with a sensation of destruction and death.

    ¡°The other three perished in the ancient war. Their immortal will transformed into 54 of the 99 ancient heavenly daos.¡±

    The pce lord sighed. She waved her delicate hand again, and the final three paintings became clear to Xu Qing. All of them seemed faded and old.

    One depicted a woman with streaming ck hair and fair skin. She seemed graceful and otherworldly, with crimson lips that entuated a beautiful face. She had the most attractive smile of all the people in the paintings. It was obvious that, when she was alive, her good looks were as refreshing as the warm spring sunlight. Sadly, she had long since died.

    Next was a young man with ordinary facial features but profound eyes. His face seemed full of the passage of time, and he wore a simple daoist robe that rippled freely in the wind.

    The final painting, despite having been revealed by the pce lord, depicted a figure that wasn¡¯t fully clear. It seemed to portray an old man. Though his features weren¡¯t possible to make out fully, the painting made him seem like the kind of person who could prevent the dome of heaven from copsing by holding it up with his hands. He was like an unshakable mountain.

    ¡°Thest one had no time to form a mortal husk. He could only leave behind a scrap of his aura before he perished.¡±

    The pce lord looked up at all the paintings.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, bowed deeply and solemnly to all of them. Then he looked back at the pce lord. ¡°Senior, might I ask why you summoned me here today?¡±

    ¡°Most people know of the Summer Immortal Pce¡¯s mission to record the history of Revered Ancient. But the truth is that the Summer Immortal Pce has another mission. And that is to keep a record of the techniques that changed the immortal essence of the Summer Immortal Pce.

    ¡°Your soul seeds created ripples in the immortal essence, and therefore, I would like to ask... if you would be willing to leave one behind here, to be stored for all eternity in the immortal essence of the Summer Immortal Pce? Consider it a contribution. And in return, you can seek enlightenment of any technique you find in the immortal essence.¡±

    The eyes on the little butterfly¡¯s wings suddenly glittered.

    ¡°What?¡± the butterfly said. ¡°That¡¯s what this is about? Master, it was his crappy technique that caused a stir in the immortal essence? This is immortal essence we¡¯re talking about!¡±

    The butterfly seemed both disbelieving and also envious.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment. He honestly could never have guessed that the Summer Immortal Pce was interested in his soul seeds. The reality was that none of this mattered much to him. That said, he was interested to learn some more about this ¡®immortal essence.¡¯

    ¡°Senior, what is this immortal essence you mentioned?¡±

    The person to answer him wasn¡¯t the pce lord, but rather, the butterfly. ¡°It¡¯s something created by the nine Summer Immortals after they elevated Revered Ancient. It¡¯s the only thing that surpasses the heavenly daos.

    ¡°In the never-ending worlds of Deep Earth, it serves as the source of all techniques and divine abilities. All magical techniques in Deep Earth actuallye from immortal essence, although they¡¯re all propagated in different ways. At the same time, the immortal essence is also responsible for collecting all rare and unique daos, then organizing them forter distribution. In that way, people from our homnd can practice cultivation for all eternity.

    ¡°This is outright preposterous! How could your soul seeds provoke a reaction from immortal essence?¡±

    1. This is the wordy I alluded to many chapters ago. The words ¡®lower¡¯ and ¡®summer¡¯ are pronounced exactly the same in Chinese. The word used in Chinese that I¡¯m rendering ¡®lower¡¯ could be interpreted in different ways, but there¡¯s a line in the text that I left out (because it¡¯s irrelevant linguistically due to how I¡¯m rendering the terms), which rifies that it was used pejoratively. In other words, ¡°Lower¡± was intended to be somewhat insulting or at least negative. In terms of the wordy, something simr in English would be: ¡°In the early days, they were called Profit Immortals, butter they came to be called Prophet Immortals.¡± The pronunciation doesn¡¯t change, but the meaning does. The idea seems to be that people changed the name so that it came across as something more impressive and respectful. As of yet, there does not seem to be any further exnation of this term in Chinese, but as of releasing this chapter, I¡¯m barely 200 chapters behind thetest release. There could theoretically be ater wordy exnation rifying some sort of hidden meaning for the term. If that happens, I might change ¡®Summer¡¯ to something else, or I might keep it and just use a footnote to exin. We¡¯ll just have to wait and see what happens. ?

 Chapter 808: Gains from Immortal Essence

    <h4>Chapter 808: Gains from Immortal Essence</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was racing. How could he ever have imagined that something as fantastic as immortal essence could exist in the world? Immortal essence surpassed heavenly daos, which itself seemed almost unbelievable.

    <i>It¡¯s the source of all techniques in Deep Earth....</i>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and instinctively looked down. He knew that whatever was sealed beneath the surface of Revered Ancient had once been part of Brilliant Heaven. He also knew that the starry sky beyond Revered Ancient was actually a part of Brilliant Heaven. And what was sealed by Revered Ancient was only one of many god worlds of Brilliant Heaven.

    Meanwhile, Deep Earth, which was even further down, was the homnd of the Summer Immortals, and was also the true origin of all of the countless species that lived on Revered Ancient. It was a boundless, majestic ce, filled with unending life.

    And now he knew that all of the divine abilities and magical techniques there actually came from the immortal essence created by the Summer Immortals. It analyzed, collected, organized, and disseminated. As a result, the flower of cultivation bloomed constantly in the countless worlds of Deep Earth. There were all sorts of techniques, and though most people acquired them by means of destined opportunities, the reality was that they all originated with immortal essence.

    Xu Qing was shaken just thinking about how something like that could be used. It defied description to the point that he could only think to call it amazing. All of a sudden, Xu Qing found himself thinking about the methods used by the butterfly while she was in human form. Whether it was the Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao or the Waterswamp Kingdom, both obviously came from immortal essence.

    <i>It¡¯s easy to imagine how people who use divine abilities like that at their highest level would be outstanding figures in Deep Earth. Does that mean that the Revered Ancient maind has something simr to immortal essence...?</i>

    As Xu Qing was lost in thought, the butterfly, apparently having guessed what he was thinking, said, ¡°I bet you¡¯re wondering if Revered Ancient has something akin to immortal essence. Well, I can exin. Because of the will of Brilliant Heaven, the reality is that immortal essence is of limited use in Revered Ancient. All it can do is collect. It can¡¯t evolve or disseminate.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, only the disciples of the Summer Immortal Pce from the various species have the authority to use it and seek enlightenment from it. Outsiders aren¡¯t ever given that chance. In fact, even I have to provide something of value to get a chance like that. All rules regarding immortal essence are fair and bnced!

    ¡°Back when we shed in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, I put everything on the line just to get a scrap of a treasure from the immortal essence. But you¡¯re getting the chance so easily!¡±

    From the butterfly¡¯s tone, she was clearly not quite convinced that Xu Qing was worthy. Somehow, that made the temple seem a bit livelier.

    Xu Qing looked at the pce lord. He looked at the butterfly. And then he started wondering if... the butterfly¡¯s liveliness was one of the reasons why the pce lord had epted her as an apprentice.

    This ce was immersed in a river of time. It had sunk deep into the past. It was extremely in and simple, and at the same time, lonely and profound. Anyone who spent a long time in an environment like this would naturally develop a sense of ancientness. But with the mission in ce, the sessive generations of the Summer Immortal Pce had no choice but to continue on.

    <i>Maybe one day when this butterfly is the pce lord... she¡¯ll be like the current pce lord, living in the present and existing in the past, traversing the ancient as part of her mission.</i>

    Xu Qing looked away from the butterfly. He wasn¡¯t interested in bickering with her. Looking at the pce lord, he sped hands and said, ¡°I understand what you mean, Senior. I think... I can agree to that. But I would like to respectfully ask to see the immortal essence first.¡±

    The pce lord didn¡¯t say anything in response. She just waved her hand gracefully in the direction of the candles on the altar. Instantly, the mes on the six lit candles grewrger. Though they were only mes from candles, as they expanded, they turned into a spinning sea of mes. Rumbling sounds echoed out as they grew far brighter than before, driving away the darkness in the temple and illuminating everything brightly. The emperors in the frescoes seemed more lifelike than before, and emanated true imperial majesty. That majestybined with the sea of mes, ultimately creating an image therein. It was hard to say where that image truly existed. It was almost as if it was visible through a window that gave a view into a resplendent void.

    Growing there was an enormous nt. It was... a dandelion.

    The stalk of the dandelion was covered with innumerable symbols, each of which emanated terrifying might. All of itbined to make the dandelion miraculous and one-of-a-kind.

    There was soil beneath it, which provided it with nutrients. If you looked closely, you would see that the soil was actually made of flesh and blood. Astonishingly, it was actually formed from the corpses of countless gods. Apparently... those nine ancient and powerful Summer Immortals had overthrown one of the god worlds of Brilliant Heaven, then killed and buried all the gods there. Th¨¥y had been turned into a dandelion that provided eternal power. The god souls of these gods were trapped, forced to bow, with no choice but to howl in terror and agony. Th¨¥ir godly voices just helped the dandelion to grow.

    This was immortal essence. Nine Summer Immortals had buried a god world to create it. Immortal essence!

    The soil made of the flesh and blood of gods still had well over a hundred corpses in it that had not fully dposed. Apparently, they were such astonishing entities that it wasn¡¯t even possible to calcte how much time they needed to break down. There was one corpse that caught Xu Qing¡¯s attention. When he saw it, his mind spun, and his body shook so hard it felt like he might copse. The godsource in him vibrated violently. He even gasped.

    ¨©t was thergest of the corpses stuck in the soil of flesh and blood. Unfortunately, because there was no frame of reference to gauge the size of what he was seeing, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t really sure how big the corpse was.

    But ¨©ts aura was the strongest Xu Qing had ever encountered. Compared to ¨©t, Crimson Mother was like a firefly. In fact, even Grand Emperor Swordsage was like a firefly inparison. That god had imperial energy!

    ¡°That was the former god emperor of this god world,¡± the pce lord said in her ephemeral voice.

    Mind spinning, Xu Qing looked back at the dandelion. It was in full bloom, with countless fluffy seeds growing out of it. They weren¡¯t white. Rather, the dandelion seeds were a mixture of red, yellow, and blue. And there were currently seeds detaching from the dandelion and drifting away into the distance. Presumably, those seeds were techniques and abilities that were being disseminated throughout the countless worlds in Deep Earth. Meanwhile, there were other seeds drifting from the void and merging with the dandelion. There, they would be absorbed, transformed, and then sent out again. It was an endless cycle.

    As Xu Qing observed it all, his respect for immortal essence grew even deeper. Taking out one of his soul seeds, he sent it drifting in front of him.

    The soul seed glittered with violet light. Under themand of Xu Qing¡¯s divine will, it floated through the ¡®window¡¯ and into the void that contained the dandelion. Once it was through the window, its appearance became that of a dandelion seed. Momentster, it was absorbed by the dandelion.

    Xu Qing¡¯s divine sense in the soul seed was immediately blotted out, causing the soul seed to be nk. But then the pce lord waved her hand, and the candle light red, interfering with the process and slowing it down.

    ¡°Outsiders can¡¯t directly seek enlightenment from the immortal essence. But when you make a contribution, you have a chance, albeit a fleeting one. Given the scope of my authority, I can make the will from your soul seedst for ten breaths of time. Everything is in your hands. Whatever divine ability you acquire will be up to your personal good fortune.¡±

    Xu Qing could hear the pce lord talking to him, but he couldn¡¯t respond. That was because his mind was currently in chaos. It sounded like endless thunderbolts crashing in his mind. He had entered a state that he didn¡¯t even know how to describe clearly.

    He felt like he was in the void with the dandelion, with the soil of flesh beneath him. Compared to the dandelion, he was like one of the seeds: insignificant. He was surrounded by an infinitude of dandelion seeds, each of which contained a host of blurry images that were divine abilities and magical techniques being used.

    It seemed that every one was avable for him to study. However, there were simply too many, and what was more, all the different levels of techniques were mixed together. Looking through them one by one was obviously not a realistic option. There was just no way that he would be able to identify an appropriate selection in the time at hand. Therefore... Xu Qing had no intention of looking through each one.

    Instead, he would survey them as a whole. Both those nearby and those far away were within the range of his divine sense, and thus, he scanned the dandelion seeds hoping to find what he was looking for.

    After a few breaths of time passed, his eyes narrowed. He had found one dandelion seed that was different from the others. Instead of flying out into the void, it was returning.

    There were figures inside, but unlike the other dandelion seeds which contained many figures, this only contained two. They were sitting cross-legged next to each other.

    Furthermore, when Xu Qing looked closely at the dandelion seed, the violet moon power within him reacted. Time was limited, so there was no time to sit around thinking. Thus, Xu Qing decisively sent his divine sense toward that specific dandelion seed.

    Unfortunately, things didn¡¯t go smoothly. The seed was some distance away. Most importantly, it was floating along near the corpse of the god emperor. Though it wasn¡¯t right next to the corpse, the corpse still exerted a huge influence in that area. If he waited for the seed to go along its natural course, he would run out of time. By means of his divine will, he could sense that time was running out.

    <i>Time to go for broke!</i>

    He elerated rapidly, slipping past all the other seeds. As he got closer, the corpse of the god emperor became clearer. Now that he had a frame of reference, he realized thatpared to the corpse, he was like one tiny hair! The might emanating from the god emperor corpse was terrifying. Despite Xu Qing being a good distance away, it still struck his mind like lightning, and caused his body of divine will to nearly copse.

    Before that could happen, he ignited himself, and used the destruction of his own divine will body to get even closer.

    He touched the floating dandelion seed. The moment he did, an ancient voice echoed in his mind.

    ¡°This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well....¡±

 Chapter 809: So, You Studied It For Nothing?

    <h4>Chapter 809: So, You Studied It For Nothing?</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun, and his senses copsed. Everything went nk. His divine will faded from the location of the immortal essence.

    The dandelion seed vibrated, then backed up slightly. Then it continued moving back in the direction of the dandelion. However, this time... it had three figures inside instead of two! The third figure was blurry, and asionally disappeared entirely, as if it was having trouble forming fully.

    Xu Qing¡¯s true body stood in the ancient temple, amidst the sea of mes, right in front of the ¡®window¡¯ leading to the immortal essence. His eyes were closed, and he wasn¡¯t moving.

    Off to the side, the pce lord sighed softly.

    The little butterfly heard it and knew what it meant. ¡°That Xu Qing is so greedy! He picked a returning seed that the immortal essence hadn¡¯t purified yet, which will make it a lot harder to gain enlightenment of. It would be much simpler to let the immortal essence purify it.¡±

    The butterfly actually seemed pleased and even happy. Inside, she was thinking that if Xu Qing hadn¡¯t killed her over and over again before, she might have told him this secret earlier.

    ¡°Master, you already gave him ten breaths of time that he normally wouldn¡¯t have. Yet he just didn¡¯t know how to take advantage of that. This is his destined opportunity, so there¡¯s no need for you to sigh. Don¡¯t worry, my powers of understanding are definitely better than his, so I won¡¯t have trouble surpassing him.

    ¡°The figure Xu Qing left in the seed will probably just dissipate on its own, which will prove that he failed at enlightenment. Even if his powers of understanding were on the same level as my own, he just doesn¡¯t have enough time.

    ¡°Besides, once that seed returns to the dandelion, any figures inside that aren¡¯t there permanently will be purified away. Therefore, Master, you really don¡¯t need to sigh with regret!¡±

    The pce lord shook her head. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sighing about Xu Qing. What I regret is picking an apprentice too soon and choosing you.¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s gaze came to rest on the dandelion seed that Xu Qing had chosen for his enlightenment.

    The butterfly was stunned, and initially didn¡¯t understand. Then her gaze followed her Master¡¯s to the immortal essence seed. She was about to ask for some rification when the eyes on her wings suddenly widened.

    The seed Xu Qing had picked was on its way back to the immortal essence dandelion. It wasn¡¯t very far. In fact, it looked like it would only take a few dozen breaths of time to reach its destination.

    But then, on the way back, the third figure inside suddenly began to be very clear! It became increasingly stable, until, in the end, it clearly resembled Xu Qing.

    The butterfly simply couldn¡¯tprehend such enlightenment speed. All of the seeds she had sought enlightenment from had been purified and were on their way back out. As a result, she always had plenty of time to work with. Normally speaking, it would take a day or two to figure out how to take control of it. That was the reason why she¡¯d said all the things she just had. Based on her own frame of reference, she didn¡¯t see how Xu Qing could seed. Therefore, what she was seeing now blew her mind.

    ¡°This....¡±

    Meanwhile, an astonishing tempest was erupting in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness.

    He was looking at a starry sky full of ripples. It looked like the surface of some body of water. Compared to the universe as a whole, that starry sky was like a well.

    He suddenly heard an ancient voice speaking. ¡°Everything is inside the well. All divine abilities, magical treasure, all states exist in the well....¡±

    Xu Qing immersed himself in the voice and the well water.

    The sensations he had experienced in the location of the immortal essence were long gone. His divine will had already disappeared from there. But that brief contact created a sensation that still lingered within him.

    Although there wasn¡¯t a lot, it was there. And of course, Xu Qing had incredible powers of understanding that had amazed both Master Seventh and the Heir Apparent on multiple asions. Just a little scrap of something in his sea of consciousness was enough for him.

    Xu Qing looked at the starry sky. The ripples were fading, and everything was turning calm, creating a much clearer reflection of what was above. Gradually, Xu Qing was able to glimpse himself within the starry sky reflected in the well.

    Within the water, he saw all of his god states, his heavenly dao, his magical devices, and everything from his Gold Core days. The god¡¯s finger. The Ghost Emperor mountain. D-132. Daybreak light.... But that wasn¡¯t it. All of the martial techniques, magical techniques, and divine abilities that he had practiced from the beginning of his cultivation journey were there. Golden Crow Assimtes Myriad Spirits, Within the Nine Springs, and everything else.... As for his reflection, it was iparably clear. At a nce, it was impossible to tell which was the reflection and which was real!

    <i>That¡¯s also me....</i>

    Xu Qing was experiencing a sensation that blended profundity and reality. As that sensation overtook him, Xu Qing felt like he had lost his ability to even move, as if he were fixed in ce, his soul transfixed by the water. Most noteworthy of all... was that the reflections in the water did not contain the violet crystal! That discovery struck Xu Qing to the core. Next, he heard that same ancient and domineering voice speaking to him.

    ¡°This divine ability of mine is... Fishing the Moon in the Well!¡±

    The moment the words rang out, something like an enormous, blurry hand appeared in the void. It reached down into the well, causing the water, and Xu Qing¡¯s reflection, to ripple. Then the hand fished something out from inside.

    ¡°The moonlight in the well is beautiful, and I wanted some. Now, I have some.¡±

    Within the illusory hand was an image of Xu Qing. The hand squeezed down, forcing the image of Xu Qing to remain in the palm.

    ¡°He is you! Did you master it?¡±

    As the words echoed out, the hand which held Xu Qing extended, revealing an entire person attached to it. It was a pale-faced middle-aged man d in a gray suit of armor, with eyes as peaceful as tranquil water! The armor was vicious, as if it had grown out of the man¡¯s flesh, and was part of it. Based on what Xu Qing could sense, it abounded with nefarious energy. Within that nefarious energy was something very domineering. The two things conflicted and yet were harmonious at the same time. And he was looking directly at the Xu Qing in the palm.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t capable of moving, nor could he use any magical technique. Apparently, even his god states had been taken away. The only thing he could do was think, and that meant he had no trouble seeking enlightenment.

    <i>So, the name of this divine ability is Fishing the Moon in the Well! What an amazing divine ability. If there is no moon in the well, one will appear, except it¡¯s a reflection of the moon in the sky. But in the hands of this person, it¡¯s a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering magic! The process of using it involves finding the gaps between reality and illusion, then using the power of time to reach into the mirror image and create something from nothing! It¡¯s about having supreme self-confidence, a domineering will, and superb willpower. </i>[1]

    As Xu Qing came to that understanding, his image in the dandelion seed grew even clearer, until it was almostplete. Soon, there would be a tripartite bnce of power with the other two figures there. As of this moment, it was definitely correct to say that Xu Qing had gained enlightenment of Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    But then, Xu Qing¡¯s heart flip-flopped. ¡°Wait. No!¡±

    <i>Immortal essence legacies can¡¯t be this simple. Everything from just now was probably just a generalization. My thinking is a bit too one-sided. The Heir Apparent and Princess Brightblossom once told me that the only thing limiting a person¡¯s advancement is imagination.</i>

    <i>In other words, Fishing the Moon in the Well might not be exactly as I just experienced.... It¡¯s probably a lot more profound. A lot more useful! It¡¯s only myck of perception and ability that prevents me from seeing it more clearly.</i>

    As these thoughts went through Xu Qing¡¯s mind, the image in the dandelion seed copsed and started fading away. When the little butterfly noticed that, she was stunned. She had assumed that Xu Qing already seeded, which was quite a blow to her. But now it looked like his image was copsing....

    ¡°Master, w-what¡¯s... what¡¯s going on?¡±

    The pce lord sighed again, this time more deeply. ¡°What a pity the rules of the Summer Immortal Pce clearly state that the pce can only have one sessor at a time.¡±

    The butterfly waspletely astonished.

    ¡°He wasn¡¯t happy with the divine ability,¡± the pce lord exined, ¡°so he decided to delve into its substructure.¡±

    ¡°Substructure?¡± The butterfly¡¯s eyes went wide.

    The pce lord was right. Xu Qing was now probing the ability on a substructural level. He had started thinking about how his initial contact with the seed had provoked a reaction from his violet moon. Given that, and considering the name of the divine ability, a very outrageous possibility had urred to him.

    <i>What¡¯s being fished out of the well isn¡¯t just a person¡¯s soul. Perhaps it¡¯s a whole bunch of souls. And floating within the well aren¡¯t just things like divine abilities, magical techniques, and magical devices. Those things are too simplistic. If the well has a moon in it, what if that moon isn¡¯t the actual moon in the sky? Who said that this ability has to be used on an enemy. It seems perfectly possible... to use it to fish the moon out of my own heart!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as he came to the conclusion that this new way of thinking was absolutely correct.

    <i>I get it now! That¡¯s why the cultivator in the gray armor said the moon was beautiful, and that he wanted some. He was warning me! What¡¯s more, he asked me if I¡¯d mastered it. That was also a warning! In fact, when he said ¡®he is you,¡¯ he was spelling things out for me as clearly as could be. He was basically asking me if I had mastered the substructure of the ability!</i>

    As this understanding filled Xu Qing, and the concept became clearer, the figure within the palm of the middle-aged man suddenly erupted with blinding, violet light. As the light spread out, the figure vanished, turning into... a boundless violet moon! It rested in the palm emanating astonishing mightiness. Then the palm started vibrating until it copsed. The man in the gray armor was also shredded into ash by the violet light. The entire well came to be filled with a violet moon, slowly rising up. This moon wasn¡¯t illusory. It was true and real! [2]

    It wasn¡¯t the moon that Li Zihua had taken out into the starry sky. Xu Qing had created it. It was the second violet moon to form in the Revered Ancient maind! The source was the same as Li Zihua¡¯s violet moon, but it belonged to Xu Qing!

    Xu Qing appeared on the violet moon and looked in the direction where the cultivator in the gray armor had disappeared. Outside, the seed was nearly at the dandelion. Just before it merged into it, the two figures inside copsed and disappeared, to be reced by another one-of-a-kind figure.

    It was none other than Xu Qing!

    1. Fishing the Moon in the Well is an ability from <i>Renegade Immortal</i>. In fact, that¡¯s the title of <u>chapter 1429</u> of that novel. In the Chinesements on Qidian, someone actually shared a screenshot of that chapter. Many parts from this chapter of BTT are exactly the same as that chapter. For example, the line from above ¡°Everything is inside the well...¡± and the things after that down to this line (and some of the subsequent lines) arergely the same. It seems to me the author probably copy and pasted a lot of it, then made tweaks and changes so everything made sense for Xu Qing¡¯s unique experience. That said, there are many things that are exactly the same without any changes at all. Generally speaking, I avoid critiquing the work of other trantors. For one thing, I wouldn¡¯t like it if people went through my trantion line-by-line and nitpicked it. However, there are some problems with the RI trantion in this chapter. For one thing, the name of the ability is tranted... not that well. The verb is to ¡°fish out¡± or ¡°pull out.¡± Really, it should be something more like Fishing the Moon from a Well or out of a Well. In English, if you¡¯re specifically going fishing for something, you don¡¯t say ¡°fishing XYZ.¡± E.g. If I¡¯m going fishing for tuna, I don¡¯t say ¡°I¡¯m fishing tuna.¡± That¡¯s not to mention that the point of this technique is not about ¡°going fishing¡± but rather about ¡°fishing something out¡± of the water. In any case, I¡¯m keeping the same ability name from RI to maintain continuity. Beyond that, there are other poor trantion choices. For example, the voice very clearly says that he likes the ¡°moonlight¡± in the well. But the RI trantion says that he likes the ¡°moon¡± in the well. In other words, it would actually make more sense for the ability to be named Fishing Moonlight From a Well. All of that is not to mention issues of tense, grammar, etc. In any case, in Chinese, there are more simrities between the two chapters than you¡¯ll see in English, mostly because I can¡¯t stand to have clunky English and inurate trantions if I can avoid it. ?

    2. I saw some spection from Chinese readers about who this figure in gray armor is. Considering the scant amount of evidence, I won¡¯t go into detail. Suffice it to say, if you¡¯ve read <i>Renegade Immortal</i>, you can probablye to the same conclusions as them. ?

 Chapter 810: Erniuâ€™s Determination

    <h4>Chapter 810: Erniu¡¯s Determination</h4>

    In the ancient temple that was the Summer Immortal Pce, the pce lord looked into the ¡®window¡¯ formed by the candlelight, and the dandelion seed connected to Xu Qing. Eventually the dandelion seed reached the dandelion and disappeared from sight.

    The little butterfly watched in a daze, her mind full of chaos. When she spoke, her words were no less chaotic.

    ¡°What? The only... I mean,e on! Master! He... he cheated!¡±

    ¡°For countless years in Deep Earth,¡± the pce lord said softly, ¡°exceptionally talented people havee to the conclusion that all techniques have an origin. And if someone upies that origin, cultivating the technique to the limit will be very difficult. Of course, they¡¯re not aware of the existence of the immortal essence. That¡¯s just the result of their own personal spection and analysis. Their spections are correct. But also incorrect.

    ¡°The techniques of Deep Earth really do have an origin. And rarely are they solely connected to a single person. But if that does happen, and if they¡¯re connected deeply enough, the immortal essence will respect that, and will leave that mark in ce forter generations of cultivators to study.

    ¡°That¡¯s what Xu Qing has done.¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s voice seemed less empty than before, and instead had a touch of admiration in it. With a gentle wave of her hand, she sent the candle me spinning back to the candles. She also sent the imperial energy back into the frescoes. The only thing left remaining was the faint echo of her words.

    The butterfly had regained herposure. After the exnation from her Master, she also felt admiration. Feeling slightly flustered, she prepared to give voice to her feelings.

    That was when Xu Qing¡¯s eyes slowly opened. There was no nkness or confusion in them. They were bright and clear, with a hint of violet still present, and something in his pupils that was reminiscent of starlight. Or perhaps it really was starlight.

    ¡°Many thanks, Pce Lord!¡± Xu Qing said, sping his hands and bowing with deep respect.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that,¡± the pce lord responded. ¡°cing your soul seed in the immortal essence was a virtuous deed for Deep Earth. Going forward, your soul seed will be stripped of its will and turned into a technique to be disseminated in the countless worlds in Deep Earth. Hopefully it will add a bit of colorful variety to the Deep Earth techniques.

    ¡°This virtuous deed of yours resulted in you gaining enlightenment of a divine ability from the immortal essence. As the saying goes, <i>every sip and bite is pre-ordained</i>. Consider it karma. Now, do you have any questions for me?¡±

    The pce lord was speaking more directly than before, a direct result of her admiration for Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing thought for a moment, then looked at the nine paintings above the altar. ¡°Pce Lord, I would very much like to know about the time when the Revered Ancient maind was founded. The venerable Summer Immortals who created the heavenly daos... where did they go? Given how much time the broken face of the god has been around, why haven¡¯t they returned?¡±

    The pce lord sighed. ¡°No one knows exactly where the six surviving Summer Immortals are. There¡¯s only some cursory information in the records of the Summer Immortal Pce. Some of them went into the depths of Brilliant Heaven. Some are in Deep Earth, recovering and healing. I don¡¯t know anything more than that. Too much time has passed at this point.¡±

    The pce lord¡¯s voice seemed particrly emotional at that point. After she finished speaking, she started fading from view. The butterfly, sensing her Master¡¯s dip in mood, also began to fade from view.

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing realized that it was time to go.

    After bowing again, he turned and walked to the entrance. Before walking out, he looked over his shoulder onest time at the ancient temple.

    What caught his attention wasn¡¯t the fading pce lord, nor was it the altar. Instead, it was the fresco depicting the first emperor, who was also the first Ancient Emperor. It was the young man looking up at the starry sky.

    After taking one final look, Xu Qing left the ancient temple. The moment he was outside, five-colored light swirled around the temple, and then it popped like a bubble. After it was gone, it seemed as if it had never even been there to begin with.

    Looking back, Xu Qing saw nothing but empty space. It was as if the entire thing had been a dream.

    The sun was just about to peek over the horizon. The dome of heaven was about to awaken, turning from dark to light. The scarlet glow of morning was iparably beautiful. A faint mist clung to thends, like fine gauze that made everything seem mysterious and unknowable.

    When the sun rose and light spilled onto thends, the mist evaporated. Sunlight reached Xu Qing. The night had passed. He looked at the red sun. As he exhaled, his breath turned into steam, and he thought about that fresco that he had examined twice. That very first Ancient Emperor of humankind, that young man... had seemed somehow familiar when he looked at him for the first time. Upon leaving, the feeling felt even stronger.

    <i>It¡¯s like I¡¯ve seen him before....</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing walked through the morning sun to Ningyan¡¯s mansion.

    About two hourster, the sky was bright, and Xu Qing reached theke outside the mansion. Xu Qing absentmindedly stopped walking and looked at the water, and suddenly realized why that person seemed familiar.

    <i>He sort of looks like Master.</i>

    Xu Qing slowly walked across theke and into the mansion. He wasn¡¯t sure what his Master looked like as a young person. But the young man in the fresco had eyes that looked very simr to his Master¡¯s eyes.

    Even as he pondered that, the Sea-Sealing County cultivators who had all been waiting for him in the courtyard burst into cheering. Ningyan was there, as was Kong Xianglong and Wu Jianwu. So was Pce Lord Li Yunshan, who had led the group here from Sea-Sealing County. Plumdark was back, a smile on her face. The Captain was even there. He had his arm thrown over Wu Jianwu¡¯s shoulders and was whispering something in his ear when he saw Xu Qing and smiled.

    They were cheering because of the revtion of Xu Qing¡¯s status in the Xeno-Immortal School, and the victory in the dao debate. They were also cheering because of how Xu Qing had executed Seventh Prince and ensured that Bai Xiaozhuo was dead.

    There were no greater viins to Sea-Sealing County cultivators than Seventh Prince and Bai Xiaozhuo.

    Xu Qing was a bit taken aback to see so many familiar faces all cheering. A lot had happened over the course of thest day. In fact, he was only just now realizing that... only one night had passed since the dao debate. His experience in the Summer Immortal Pce, and the sensation of the passage of ancient time inside the temple, had affected his perceptions. As a result, he had lost track of the actual passage of time. He quickly suppressed the sensation. Smiling, he bowed at the waist to the cheering crowd.

    Kong Xianglong was the first to rush forward, his eyes red and puffy. Stopping in front of Xu Qing, he prepared to drop to his knees. Xu Qing prevented him.

    Kong Xianglong hesitated, then threw his arms around Xu Qing and embraced him. ¡°Thank you, thank you, thank you....¡±

    Li Yunshan seemed just as emotional as he walked up to Xu Qing and bowed deeply. ¡°Thank you, Region Lord Xu. By executing that Bai traitor and killing Seventh Prince, you wreaked bloody vengeance on behalf of Sea-Sealing County. Pce Lord Kong is definitely watching from theherworld. Finally, he can rest in peace!¡±

    All of the swordsages bowed. Ningyan bowed more deeply than anyone else, although his excitement came for different reasons. Seventh Prince¡¯s death, and Xu Qing¡¯s awe-inspiring performance, also brought glory and honor to Ningyan.

    Xu Qing returned all of the salutes. Then, as the Sea-Sealing County cultivators continued to revel in excitement, he walked over to Plumdark.

    In the morning light, Plumdark¡¯s face was like a hibiscus, her eyes were like glistening water, and her lips were like vermilion. She was as gentle and refined as flower blossoms drifting onto a stream. Her plum-colored gown made her seem graceful and gentle, like an immortal strolling through the mundane world. She was truly as beautiful as a blooming violet.

    ¡°Where were youst night?¡± she asked with an enigmatic smile. Looking him up and down, she continued, ¡°I sense the dust of antiquity on you. And also the faint aroma of pollen.¡±

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the Captain, who had been listening in, loudly said, ¡°Get over here, little Junior Brother! I have some big news for you. <i>Really</i> big news!¡±

    He rushed over and, before Xu Qing could say anything, grabbed Xu Qing¡¯s arm. Pulling him away, he looked at Plumdark and said, ¡°My dear Arch-Immortal sister-inw, the two of you will have plenty of time to catch upter. It wasn¡¯t easy for me to get back here, so allow me to share this very important news with little Ah Qing!¡±

    With that, he dragged Xu Qing away.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to do other than let the Captain pull him off. It didn¡¯t take long for them to reach a private chamber, where the Captain performed an incantation gesture to seal the area. Then he looked excitedly at Xu Qing.

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Do I react quickly or what? Let me tell you, I could smell that pollen on you from the moment you arrived. Oh, you! You¡¯re just too young and inexperienced. Remember, next time you have a snack on the side, remember to clean up afterward! Luckily, I was here to help out, but I won¡¯t necessarilye running every time this happens, right?¡±

    Xu Qing really wasn¡¯t sure what to say in response to that. Looking at the immeasurably smug Captain, he asked, ¡°Where have you been all this time?¡±

    ¡°Doing something big, what else?¡± The Captain sat down, stretched out his legs, and took out a peach. After tossing an apple to Xu Qing, he started eating. ¡°You listen to me, little Ah Qing, although you did something pretty impressive, it only affects the imperial capital, nothing else. You just wait until this big job of mine is finished. I guarantee your jaw will hit the ground.¡±

    Xu Qing was used to this sort of situation, and knew exactly what the Captain wanted to hear. stering a very curious look onto his face, he said, ¡°What¡¯s the job?¡±

    The Captain immediately perked up and leaned a bit closer to Xu Qing. Lowering his voice, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve been in that branch of the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect. You know, the one where I went in and stole something? Well, the night we went there, I actually didn¡¯t manage to get my hands on what I wanted. But I couldn¡¯t just give up. So I came up with a method of infiltrating the sect.

    ¡°As of now, I¡¯m an outer sect disciple. My assessment ising up very soon, and I¡¯m very confident that, once I pass it, I¡¯ll be an inner sect disciple! At that point, I can work things out to get close to my target!¡±

    Hearing all of that sparked some actual curiosity in Xu Qing. Whatever the Captain was after, he had obviously done a lot of work to get to it, which seemed to indicate it was something very special.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, what exactly are you trying to steal?¡±

    ¡°The Wordless Book of Stone!¡± the Captain said, his eyes gleaming with longing. ¡°That mysterious young woman I was working with wanted the same thing. And though it seemed like she seeded, the reality is that she¡¯s an idiot. What she stole was nothing but an empty shell. A piece-of-crap rock. What I want are the words in it!¡±

    ¡°Wordless Book of Stone?¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right. The Wordless Book of Stone.¡± The Captain smiled enigmatically.

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

    Staring at Xu Qing with keen anticipation, the Captain said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask me why something called the Wordless Book of Stone has words in it?¡±

    Xu Qing already knew the answer, but seeing the look on the Captain¡¯s face, he decided it was best to y along. ¡°I was just about to ask that.¡±

    The Captainughed heartily.

    ¡°The title of the Wordless Book of Stone,¡± he said mysteriously, ¡°is made up of four words. That dumb girl just stole the shell, so she has no idea that the four words already gained intelligence and escaped. They¡¯re hiding in the top level of the Magic Legacy Pavilion, in some random jade slip. Only by bing an inner sect disciple can I go to the top floor of the Magic Legacy Pavilion to find them!

    ¡°Those four words are rted to god domains. It doesn¡¯t matter what god domain you¡¯re talking about, they work there. And ording to what I heard, it won¡¯t be long now before the Firemoon Darkheavens open a god domain for their Great Hunt!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    Looking even more smug, the Captain continued, ¡°So what do you think? Amazing, right? Otherwise, why would your Eldest Brother work so hard and spend so much time wracking my brains to figure out a way to infiltrate the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect? I really put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this whole thing.

    ¡°That said, it¡¯s not a big deal. It¡¯ll all be worth it in the end. My assessment is in one month. At that point, I¡¯ll definitely get into the inner sect. Afterward, I¡¯ll take a trip to the Firemoon Darkheavens and use their Great Hunt to get into that god domain!¡±

    In both wording and expression, the Captain was clearly full of determination.

    ¡°God domain? Great Hunt?¡± Xu Qing asked. Although he knew a bit about the Firemoon Darkheaven people, he didn¡¯t know much about how god domains connected to their Great Hunt.

    ¡°Just wait until I seed, then I¡¯ll tell you all the details.¡± The Captain took a bite of his peach, then stood and wiped the dust from his rear end. ¡°Well, time to leave. I just came back to tell you to get nice and ready. Going forward... wish me luck!¡±

    The Captain took a deep breath and prepared to leave.

    As for Xu Qing, he hesitated briefly, then asked, ¡°Is it really that hard to just get a jade slip from the Magic Legacy Pavilion?¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem pleased to hear a question like that. ¡°You¡¯re really off your game right now, little Ah Qing. This is the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect we¡¯re talking about! Granted, it¡¯s a branch division. But the Magic Legacy Pavilion is a core element of their sect. They have a real monster there guarding the ce. Outsiders are absolutely not allowed inside. Otherwise, I would already havepleted the heist, and wouldn¡¯t need to go to all this trouble.¡±

    Thinking of Chen Daoze, Xu Qing took out a jade slip and sent a message via divine will....

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± the Captain asked curiously.

    ¡°Just wait a second, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°Let me see if I can help you get this done a bit more quickly.¡±

    The Captain looked stunned.

 Chapter 811: The Same Mother

    <h4>Chapter 811: The Same Mother</h4>

    ¡°Get it done a bit more quickly?¡± the Captain said doubtfully. He looked at Xu Qing, then rubbed his chin. Instinctively producing another peach, he took a few bites. ¡°Little Ah Qing, did you happen to make a friend in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect while I was away? Which girl is it? Is she good-looking? Is she hot? Could it be... that this girl is the one that left the smell of pollen on you?

    ¡°You know, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. Don¡¯t ever forget that you¡¯re the Junior Brother, and I¡¯m the Eldest Brother!¡± Sounding very serious, the Captain continued, ¡°Therefore, in the future, please allow me to handle things like this!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and considered exining, then decided he didn¡¯t feel like it. Therefore, he sat down, closed his eyes, and paid no further attention.

    Seeing Xu Qing react in that way caused the Captain to blink a few times. Then he sat down across from Xu Qing.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you saying anything?¡± he asked casually. ¡°It¡¯s all good! Whether or not your idea works doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ll remember your good intentions either way. I¡¯m just looking out for your best interests, that¡¯s all, little Ah Qing!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes remained closed.

    The Captain cleared his throat. Then, trying to look even more mysterious than before, he lowered his voice again. ¡°Little Ah Qing, do you want to know the background of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ Great Hunt, and how it rtes to god domains?¡±

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at the Captain.

    Seemingly very pleased with himself, the Captain kept munching on his peach while he said, ¡°As you know, the Firemoon Darkheaven people are very powerful, right? That said, they¡¯ve never been able to match what humankind did in the past, in other words, conquer all species in Revered Ancient.

    ¡°There are four reasons for that.

    ¡°First among them is that there are actually four other species in Revered Ancient who are just as powerful as the Firemoon Darkheavens. Among those five great species, the Firemoons only rank third.

    ¡°Second among the reasons rtes to the customs and lifestyle of the Firemoon Darkheavens. They actually have a rtively small poptionpared to the vast amount ofnd they control. Therefore, they wander a lot, establishing colonies and enving other species to wage war for them.

    ¡°Third rtes to their three gods of sun, moon, and star. Each one of those gods has an individual temple that influences the mortal world. Because of that, the Firemoons aren¡¯t truly united. They have three factions that are constantly contending with each other. They do have something called God Mountain, where the three gods¡¯ temples are headquartered. Surrounding God Mountain is a god region that is considered supreme among the Firemoon Darkheavens. In other words, they have three main camps that exist in a tenuous bnce, with the God Mountain in the middle.

    ¡°The fourth reason is that although the Firemoon Darkheavens have three gods, when ites to overall strength and power, they don¡¯t quite match up to other big species. Over the countless years, they¡¯ve maintained a hunting tradition that they use to train members of their species like venomous bugs in a jar. That¡¯s the main way they make their species so formidable, and also raise up powerful experts.

    ¡°Every sixty-year-cycle, they have a big hunting holiday. For a long time now, they¡¯ve felt that weaker species aren¡¯t good prey to hunt. So years ago, they set the final hunting ground as a god domain.

    ¡°And then, once every five sixty-year-cycles, they have their Great Hunt, when their three gods act together to open the entrance to the god domain. Then, the members of their species can enter the god domain and hunt the living beings inside.¡±

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing considered the information. It was his first time hearing any of this, and it gave him a much better idea of how formidable the Firemoon Darkheaven people were. Then he thought about how humankindpared.

    The Captain finished his peach and took out another.

    ¡°So now you know how their hunts corrte to god domains, right? By the way, I heard that every time the Great Hunt happens, the person whoes out on top of the various rounds of hunting will be conferred a special title by the God Mountain. And that title is darkheaven general!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with dreamy longing. ¡°In one of my lives, I participated in the Great Hunt. Sadly, something unexpected happened, otherwise I would have been named as a darkheaven general!¡±

    ¡°Even people who aren¡¯t Firemoon Darkheavens can win the title?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain nodded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter whether you¡¯re a Firemoon Darkheaven or one of their subsidiary species. In fact, you can even be an outsider from distantnds. As long as you meet the qualifications and attend the Great Hunt, you have a chance. That said, from ancient times until now, only cultivators who are actually from the Firemoons have be the darkheaven generals. My current n is to turn the Great Hunt into my chance to get into the god domain....¡±

    The Captain licked his lips and then looked in the direction of the door. ¡°Little Ah Qing, has your little lover returned your message yet? I¡¯ve been waiting quite a while. Remember, this is the Magic Legacy Pavilion we¡¯re talking about here. The old monster who guards it has a shocking cultivation base, as well as astounding senses. Every time I¡¯ve even gotten close, I feel like there are countless needles piercing into my soul. Do you really think this lover of yours can really help me get past the monster of a guard?¡±

    The Captain took a bite out of his peach and looked at Xu Qing. ¡°I guess it¡¯s not very realistic. There¡¯s no way that monster will ever leave the Magic Legacy Pavilion. What¡¯s yourdy friend going to do, just escort me inside? If this isn¡¯t going to work, I really need to get going.¡±

    Xu Qing looked expressionlessly at the door. ¡°Here we go.¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± the Captain said curiously, and was about to ask some more questions when the voice of a swordsage reached them from outside, exining that someone hade seeking an audience with Xu Qing.

    ¡°Let him in,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°Who is it?¡± the Captain asked, getting even more curious as he stared at the door.

    Before long, someone knocked on the door. Xu Qing waved his hand to open it

    An old man entered the private chamber. He had white hair and was dressed in a daoist robe. It was impossible to deduce his identity, but his Void Returning cultivation base was incredibly powerful, and his eyes shone brightly.

    The Captain¡¯s guard immediately went up.

    Meanwhile, the old man bowed deeply to Xu Qing, then took out a bag of holding. ¡°They¡¯re all there,¡± he said, putting it down in front of Xu Qing. ¡°I don¡¯t need them back for another seven days.¡±

    With that, the old man turned and left. He only said that one thing, and hadn¡¯t even cast a single nce in the Captain¡¯s direction.

    The Captain looked on doubtfully as he left, then turned his attention to the bag of holding. ¡°Who was that, little Ah Qing? He had a very profound cultivation base. What did he mean when he said ¡®they¡¯re all there¡¯...? What¡¯s in the bag of holding?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s breathing had turned a bit irregr, and he was starting toe up with a guess about what was in the bag. And yet, he felt like the chances of that possibility being true were minimal.

    ¡°All of the jade slips from the Magic Legacy Pavilion in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect are there.¡± Xu Qing flicked his sleeve and sent the bag of holding flying toward the Captain.

    ¡°Impossible!¡± The Captain leaned forward, grabbed the bag of holding, and scanned it with divine will. His eyes went wide and he looked at Xu Qing. His expression was one of pure disbelief.

    Upon scanning the bag, he found that there were more than a hundred thousand jade slips inside. Based on the information the Captain had gathered earlier, they really did contain everything from the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, and were truly from the Magic Legacy Pavilion.

    Most importantly, within those more than one hundred thousand jade slips was some of the aura of the Wordless Book of Stone. And that meant... that the missing words were somewhere in these jade slips.

    ¡°This...¡± the dumbfounded Captain said.

    Considering how much he knew about the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect, it was obvious that clearing out the Magic Legacy Pavilion of a branch division would be monumentally difficult. The only way it could happen would be if the leader of the branch division gave approval, or word came down from the sect headquarters. And whoever gave that word would need to be very important in the sect.

    The Captain looked nkly at the bag of holding and thought about all the hard work, and all the money he had spent, and how even with all that, he¡¯d needed another month to be able to reach his goal. And yet Xu Qing... did it by sending one single message. He didn¡¯t feel any of the tion he should have felt at seeding early. Instead, he felt a bit depressed. Then he looked up at Xu Qing with some hidden bitterness in his eyes.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say earlier that¡ª¡±

    ¡°You just told me today.¡± Xu Qing looked down, his facepletely expressionless.

    The Captain felt even more depressed than before. ¡°Who was that guy?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Xu Qing replied. ¡°Probably an elder in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no way!¡± the Captain replied. ¡°Even an elder from their headquarters couldn¡¯t get all those jade slips. He must rank higher than an elder!¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You got what you want. You just need to return them in seven days.¡± Xu Qing stood and walked out, feeling wonderful the entire time.

    The Captain held the bag of holding as he watched Xu Qing leave. He really was at a loss for words. Finally, feeling more depressed than ever, he started looking for the missing words in the jade slips. As of now, there wasn¡¯t any point in going back to the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect.

    <i>This kind of thing can¡¯t keep happening. As the Eldest Brother, it¡¯s too much of a loss of face....</i>

    His eyes gleamed with determination, and yet, he actually wasn¡¯t sure what specifically to do.

    <i>What a headache. In the past, it was all about cultivation base, so as long as I worked hard to undo my seals, I could always regain my dignity as the Eldest Brother. But what do I do now...?</i>

    As the Captain continued to search for the missing letters, he tried toe up with ideas. In the end, he ground his teeth.

    <i>This really can¡¯t keep happening! I guess I have no choice but to tap into the identity of my past-past-past-past-life!</i>

    ***

    Seven days had passed.

    During that time, the investigation of the God-Merging School continued. On a daily basis, students from that school of thought were taken away. Groups and organizations throughout the imperial capital were paying very close attention to what was happening.

    The death of Seventh Prince came about because he was found guilty and executed by The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Therefore, he received no funeral. He was even stricken from the imperial records, and was not interred in the imperial mausoleum.

    The historians were only allowed to mention something about him in passing.

    <i>¡°In the year 2936 of the Dark War calendar, Seventh Prince was found guilty of heinous crimes and was executed by The Emperor¡¯s Sword.¡±</i>

    That was the end of the matter. The incense stick on the rainbow bridge that represented Seventh Prince copsed into ash. Now there weren¡¯t twelve incense sticks. There were eleven.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s name spread both inside and outside the imperial capital.

    ***

    In the aftermath of Seventh Prince¡¯s execution, Fifth Prince was summoned back to the capital. He had been away for many years as he followed the number-one heavenly king around the border regions. But now he had an assignment in the capital.

    As news of the matter spread, discussions raged. That was especially true considering the death of Seventh Prince. Rumors went wild.

    And that was because Seventh Prince and Fifth Prince had the same mother.

    Days passed. One morning, bells tolled....

    Outside the east gate of the capital, an ancient spell formation red to life, sending dazzling light in all directions as an entire army teleported in. From a distance, it was possible to see war banners pping.

    Leading the army was a man mounted on a mutant two-headed ck dragon. He wore a ck suit of armor and stared at the capital with cold eyes. His long hair flowed freely behind him, and he pulsed with a baleful aura. Clearly, he had killed a lot of people. The army he led stood in ranks behind him, not making a single sound.

    ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± the ck-armored man said softly.

 Chapter 812: Guyue Qingji

    <h4>Chapter 812: Guyue Qingji</h4>

    On the spell formation outside the imperial capital, the smell of blood and gore surrounded the army. It was incredibly strong, having permeated their armor, their skin, their flesh, and even their souls. So strong it was that the sky turned dark and strong winds blew. Lightning crackled, and thunder boomed. Bells tolled in the capital, their sound prating the minds of everyone present.

    The weakest members of this army had Nascent Soul cultivation bases. None were ordinary people, and all had ughtered countless opponents in the years they spent patrolling the bordernds and defending humankind. They had led different lives than most cultivators in the capital. Most of them had been away for a full sixty-year-cycle. Their years of campaigning had made them apathetic to death, and as a result, hardly any emotion could be seen on their faces. And yet, the more apathetic they were, the more astonishing their killing intent became, until it was an instinct they couldn¡¯t suppress even standing right outside the capital.

    From the look of it... not even imperial authority was important to them. The only thing that could stir their hearts... were the war banners pping at the front of their army.

    There were actually two such banners. One of them was golden, and was embroidered with the two characters that made up Guyue. The other was pitch ck and had blood-red writing that read Firecrusher. Firecrusher was the moniker of the number-one heavenly king of humankind.

    Beneath the war banners was Fifth Prince, d in his ck armor. His expression was calm as he looked at the imperial capital. He had been away for seventeen years.

    <i>¡°Scenery remains, people change,¡±</i> he murmured. The bells in the capital tolled nine times, and then the east gate slowly opened. Officials from the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions came out to receive Fifth Prince. All of them bowed deeply to him.

    ¡°Congrattions, Fifth Prince!¡±

    Fourth Prince was there, d in a yellow robe with a four-wed dragon on it. He was there with an edict from the emperor, and was representing the imperial n to wee his younger fifth brother to the capital. Looking very solemn, he positioned himself 3,000 meters in front of the army and then spoke in a loud voice.

    ¡°Hear this decree, Guyue Qingji.¡±

    Fifth Prince looked away from the capital and fixed his gaze on Fourth Prince. Dismounting his two-headed ck dragon, he knelt on the ground. Behind him, the members of the army acted in unison to drop to their knees.

    Fourth Prince nodded slightly, then extended his right hand to unfurl an imperial decree.

    <i>¡°Fifth Imperial Prince Qingji hath performed outstanding services in keeping the border climatures safe. He hath martial prowess as well as moral aptitude, and is well-known to be an honorable warrior. He is: handsome, erudite and skilled; respectful in serving his military superiors; filial in serving his parents; loving when dealing with his siblings; decent in serving younger family members; authoritative when dealing with officials. He is the spitting image of his father, like the shadow of the emperor cast by sunset.</i>

    <i>¡°On this day, Fifth Imperial Prince Qingji is awarded with the right to have a majordomo manage his mansion, and the right to add 10,000 troops to his force of guards. So be it.¡±</i>

    When the reading of the decree waspleted, Fifth Prince stood. The army also stood.

    ¡°Congrattions, Fifth Brother,¡± said Fourth Prince. No longer was a serious expression on his face. He was smiling. ¡°Father is waiting for you. Hurry over to kowtow and express thanks.¡±

    Without a word spoken in response, Fifth Prince walked past Fourth Prince, through the east gate, and onto the rainbow bridge.

    The army pitched camp by the spell formation.

    Seeing that caused Fourth Prince to frown slightly. However, the smile quickly returned to his face and he hurried after Fifth Prince in the direction of the imperial pce.

    When the guards on the rainbow bridge saw Fifth Prince, they nodded and greeted him respectfully.

    There were a lot ofmoners gathered by the bridge to watch as Fifth Prince crossed it. It was hard to say who started cheering first, but soon the entire crowd was moring. If someone couldn¡¯t see the circumstances, they would probably assume that an army hade back victorious from a huge battle, or perhaps that the crown prince had been chosen. That was how passionate everyone was.

    Fifth Prince stopped in ce and looked at the crowd. He was silent for a few breaths of time, and then he bowed to themoners before continuing on his way.

    Fifth Prince reached the end of the rainbow bridge and stood before the main entrance of the imperial pce. He looked at the eleven huge sticks of burning incense, most notably the spot where there had once been an incense stick but was now empty. His expression was one of grief.

    ¡°Ol¡¯ Seventh¡¯s death caught us all by surprise,¡± a soft voice said from behind him. ¡°He had just asked to clear his name with the Immortal Questioning Bell, but....¡±

    The person who had spoken was Fourth Prince. Shaking his head, he stopped next to Fifth Prince.

    Fifth Prince didn¡¯t say anything. Looking away from the spot where his younger brother¡¯s incense had once stood, he looked through the gate, past the za, and at the steps leading up to the pce hall.

    ¡°Go in,¡± Fourth Prince said quietly. ¡°Father is waiting there with all the ministers, heavenly marquises, heavenly kings, and of course the region lord.¡±

    ¡°Enough with your games,¡± Fifth Prince said calmly. It was the first time he spoke to Fourth Prince since his arrival. ¡°Ol¡¯ Seventh¡¯s death is my business. I don¡¯t need you trying to fan the mes. Having all themoners show up and cheer was quite childish. I¡¯m not returning in triumph. Father is in the prime of his life and won¡¯t easily give in to suspicion. Children¡¯s games aren¡¯t befitting of you or anyone else.¡±

    Fifth Prince then strode into the imperial pce.

    The emperor sat in his ce in the hall. The thirteen heavenly kings were all there in their ces, as well as the heavenly marquises. Further down was the chief minister and the officials from the Five Greater Celestial Divisions. All were seated by rank, and looked very serious.

    Xu Qing was present as well, sitting in his own ce, his face expressionless. He had received an imperial edict the previous night indicating that he should attend court the following morning, which was when Fifth Prince would be returning. After discussing the situation with Ningyan, he came to understand a bit more about the rtionship between Fifth Prince and Seventh Prince.

    <i>They have the same mother.</i>

    In the imperial n, a rtionship like that surpassed just about everything else. In fact, it was sometimes considered more intimate of a rtionship than the love between a father and mother.

    <i>Fifth Prince is the apprentice of the number-one heavenly king. And he¡¯s also the only living apprentice. He¡¯s been following the heavenly king for years to defend the border regions. As far as humankind is concerned, he¡¯s performed more meritorious services than any of the other imperial princes.</i>

    <i>His battle prowess is second only to Grand Prince, who of course is half Firemoon Darkheaven. The two of them are equally brave and good at fighting....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s information came partly from Princess Anhai and partly from Ningyan. As Xu Qing pondered the situation, he heard cheering from outside. So did everyone else in the pce hall. Not one scrap of emotion appeared on the faces of anyone present. It was almost as if they hadn¡¯t heard a thing.

    <i>It seems he doesn¡¯t get along with all the other imperial princes.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze remained cid as he looked toward the entrance of the pce.

    Before long, a figure strode into view. He stood straight and tall, with a handsome face and ck suit of armor that made him seem very heroic. His cultivation base fluctuations were prominent. He was in the third stage of Void Returning. As he walked, traces of natural and magicalws swirled around him, affecting the surroundings. He was none other than Fifth Prince.

    As everyone watched, he walked past all the officials and stopped in front of the stairs. Kneeling to the emperor, he said, ¡°Greetings, Father.¡±

    The emperor nodded. ¡°Things have been rough for you.¡±

    Fifth Prince stood. He looked at the heavenly kings, then the heavenly marquises, and then Xu Qing. He revealed no emotion whatsoever. Then he bowed at the waist to his father.

    ¡°Father, the Firemoon border has been stable over the past seventeen years. During that time, I participated in ny-seven small-scale battles. The Firemoons never showed up for any of them. All incursions were by minor species. With King Firecrusher there to keep things in check, everything went smoothly.

    ¡°Overall, the Firemoon Darkheavens have been busy preparing for their Great Hunt, and haven¡¯t had as much attention to spend on hunting surrounding species. As for the incursions by other species, they were primarily training missions or scouting parties. Nothing major.

    ¡°In terms of casualties, roughly 379,000 people lost their lives over the past seventeen years. I have the name list right here.¡±

    Fifth Prince produced a jade slip which he handed to a guard to be given to the emperor.

    ¡°Compared to the past, whether in terms of the number of incidents or the amount of cultivators who sacrificed their lives, the total number is about half. It just goes to show that your n with the Dawning Suns seeded in creating a meaningful threat.¡±

    In response to those words, most of the officials present smiled approvingly.

    ¡°However...¡± Fifth Prince continued, ¡°there¡¯s bad news as well.

    ¡°First of all, the Firemoons¡¯ subsidiary species have, for some unknown reason, improved their battle prowess. This isn¡¯t just one species we¡¯re talking about. All of them have be inexplicably stronger. This presents a long-term disadvantage for humans, and the clues need to be examined thoroughly by the relevant government department.

    ¡°The second bit of bad news is that every time the Firemoons¡¯ Great Hunt is over, they pick a subordinate species to elevate to a higher status. Because of that, it¡¯s highly possible that the subordinate species will provoke military conflict in order to attract attention. Now that I¡¯m back, Father, I would like to submit an official request to the court to increase troop levels on the border. The Saia species, which is one of the top three most powerful subordinate species, seem to be getting restless. We should really be keeping a close eye on them.

    ¡°The third bit of bad news is that in recent years, the mutagen levels in Firemoon territory have tripled. King Firecrusher¡¯s assessment was that... the Firemoons are grooming a fourth god!¡±

    When he was finished speaking, silence prevailed. The officials were shaken, as news from the border regions was usually top secret, and few people knew much in the way of details. Most people had a general understanding at best, so for most people present, it was their first time hearing such specific information.

    As the officials pondered the new information, Fifth Prince once again bowed to the emperor.

    Normally speaking, the proper procedure would be for him to return to his spot in the hall. But after bowing, he didn¡¯t do that. Instead, he softly said, ¡°Father, I know that Ol¡¯ Seventhmitted heinous crimes and was executed by The Emperor¡¯s Sword. He was guilty, so he deserved to die.

    ¡°However, he was still my blood brother! If I don¡¯t speak up about this subject, my conscience will bother me. As a human, I value bloodline and familial love. That¡¯s what makes us human.

    ¡°As your own edict stated, father, I am loving when dealing with siblings. Therefore, if I disregard familial love, then I might as well not have family. Those are the ideals I¡¯ve fostered since childhood.

    ¡°Therefore, father, I would like to invite Region Lord Xu to fight. That way, regardless of who wins, I can stand by my ideals!¡± With that, Fifth Prince turned to look at Xu Qing, his eyes shing coldly. ¡°Shall we fight, Region Lord Xu?¡±

 Chapter 813: Corpse Fire Ignites All

    <h4>Chapter 813: Corpse Fire Ignites All</h4>

    The hall was silent. No one spoke as the echoes of Fifth Prince¡¯s words died away. There were no negative reactions to Fifth Prince¡¯s actions. After all, he had spoken in a very clear and direct manner as opposed to speaking cidly but with hidden malice. In an open and honest way, he had directly extended an invitation to fight.

    What was more, his wording was sound. He had stated clearly that Seventh Prince made mistakes and deserved his fate. But he also pointed out that as Seventh Prince¡¯s older blood brother, he had to take some sort of action, lest he develop internal hindrances. And considering how he¡¯d argued that familial love was what made everyone human, his points couldn¡¯t easily be refuted.

    As a result, the emperor chose not to say anything, thus overtly giving Xu Qing the power to decide how things would turn out.

    Xu Qing looked down at Fifth Prince. When their gazes met, it was as if ck mes surged in Fifth Prince¡¯s eyes, filled with an inauspicious sensation of death. That said, he clearly kept the effect under control as he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°This fight has nothing to do with your status and identity,¡± Fifth Prince continued. ¡°It¡¯s simply an older brother acting on behalf of his younger brother! When we were young, I was always the one to step in and handle matters when he was bullied by other princes.

    ¡°Xu Qing, my brother made mistakes and deserved to die. But since you killed him, I have to fight you!¡± The desire to do battle surged within him as he waited for Xu Qing¡¯s answer.

    A few breaths of time passed.

    Inside, Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding as he thought back to his own childhood, and the times when he believed himself to have an older brother like this....

    Closing his eyes, he calmly said, ¡°Okay.¡±

    Instantly, Fifth Prince ceased to suppress the battle spirit in his eyes, and it erupted. ck fire spread out around him, creating a sea of mes. At the same time, the entire imperial pce transformed. As if by astral redirection, it... disappeared.

    The only things visible were Xu Qing seated above and Fifth Prince standing below. Apparently, they now upied a standalone dimension of unlimited size.

    As a result, the ck fire from Fifth Prince continued to spread without cease, creating an infinite sea of ck mes. The temperature soared as the mes continuously climbed higher. Fifth Prince himself also grewrger, and his aura skyrocketed as he unleashed all of his cultivation base power and started walking toward Xu Qing. His ck suit of armor also burst into mes, making him like a human torch that could devour mountains and rivers. Every step he took caused the dimension to tremble violently. And with every step, he elerated, until he was like a shooting star closing in on Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, soul threads streamed out of Xu Qing, weaving together in the blink of an eye to form his third-level god state. He had bones of crystal, and flesh of soul threads, with a blood-red cape, plus a violet moon hovering overhead. Mutagen spread out, blurring the surroundings and filling the area with the will of a god. The third-level god state was an independent entity, separate from Xu Qing, which allowed him to stride forward and meet Fifth Prince¡¯s attack. They shed, and an intense rumbling sound shook heaven and earth.

    Fifth Prince staggered backward in shock.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s third-level god state fell back.

    Fifth Prince was in third-stage Void Returning! That was the same level of battle prowess as Xu Qing¡¯s third-level god state, and as a result, in a simple sh between the two of them, neither one would clinch a victory.

    About 300 meters away, Fifth Prince stopped moving and looked up. Both of his hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture, whereupon one of the long hairs on his head turned gray as the ck color drained from it and turned into a mist in front of him. Seething, the mist became a ck oilmp with a me burning atop it. The me was golden!

    The shape of themp was simple and utilitarian. Something about it imparted the sensation of the underworld, as if thismp wasn¡¯t intended for use by the living. It was something normally enshrined to the dead. As for the me, it was turbid and ancient, and also contained a godly sensation. Astonishingly, this oilmp had obviously been crafted from the corpse of a god!

    Fifth Prince inhaled deeply, and then exhaled onto the wick of themp. Instantly, the fire jumped higher, then spread out in all directions, provoking a reaction from the surrounding sea of mes.

    The sea of mes began to pour into the oilmp.

    Ultimately, the fire converged into a shadowy figure. The shadowy figure constantly changed forms. It shifted between being a human, an animal, a grue, or sometimes just an incorporeal form. Regardless, the aura it emanated was shocking and ghastly. The godly aura became like oil thrown onto the fire as Fifth Prince used his divine ability, sending the shadowy figure elerating rapidly toward Xu Qing¡¯s god state.

    As the figure neared, a tremor passed through Xu Qing¡¯s god state, and then it erupted. Countless soul threads danced as the first-level god state and the second-level god state formed and merged with the other god state. With its energy surging, it raised its right hand and pointed at the shadowy figure.

    The two shed and blurred. Afterward, Xu Qing¡¯s god state returned to normal, while the shadowy figure disappeared.

    A popping sound rang out from the oilmp in Fifth Prince¡¯s hand. Seven cracks appeared on its surface, out of which blood flowed. However, the battle spirit in Fifth Prince¡¯s eyes only grew stronger. After falling back, Fifth Prince shouted and crushed the oilmp between his two palms, then shoved his hands toward the ground.

    <i>¡°me to sacrifice; earth altar rises; seal divine will; suppress heavenly heart!¡±</i>

    As his words rang out, the shattered bits of thempnded on the ground and exploded, adding a significant blessing to the surrounding sea of mes.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out and mes raged. At the same time, its form changed as it became churningva which swept out in all directions.

    Then a white altar slowly rose up from the middle of theva. There was something on top of the altar. It was a ck funerary urn! It was sealed with a corroded sealing strip, and it emanated a very gruish sensation. At the same time, it seemed profoundly inauspicious.[1]

    A brutal and tyrannical will pulsed from the urn, which locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s god state.

    Meanwhile, the expandingva rapidly filled the dimension.

    Xu Qing had never seen any divine ability like this before. It seemed like a magical technique, but at the same time, incorporated a magical treasure.

    <i>Is this the dao of King Firecrusher?</i>

    As the thought urred to Xu Qing, he sent his external god state shooting up into the air. There, it looked down and extended its right hand toward the altar. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, causing the dimension''s dome of heaven to blur as three mountains appeared. One was made of burning mes. One was made of frosty ice. One was made of crimson blood.

    As the three mountains appeared, the sea ofva below was whipped into a frenzy.

    This was the very same Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao that Xu Qing had learned from the little butterfly.

    As the god state¡¯s hand dropped, the three mountains descended, bringing with them terrifying pressure and impressive grandeur as they dropped down toward the sea ofva.

    Fifth Prince¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he shot forward, both of his hands waving out in front of him as he prepared to use theva to create a defensive barrier. Before he could aplish that, the god state performed an incantation gesture and pointed out. In response, a spiderweb of cracks spread out to cover the three mountains, and then they exploded.

    A rain of rubble turned into meteors that shot down toward the sea ofva.

    Fifth Prince had led with an aggressive onught, yet he had still underestimated what Xu Qing¡¯s god state was capable of. The god state quickly performed another incantation gesture, and then three new mountains appeared in the dome of heaven. After that came another three. All of them exploded and created a mass of rubble. After that came yet another three. Xu Qing¡¯s god state ultimately used the magic ten times!

    No matter how Fifth Prince tried to put up a defense, it didn¡¯t work. Theva exploded, and the mes went dark. Countless bits of rubble smashed down onto Fifth Prince. Ultimately, the sea ofva and the altar werepletely buried. But then a furious howl erupted from underneath the uneven surface of the rubble. An instantter, the rubble exploded upward.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s god state then mmed down onto the field of rubble. The god state¡¯s right hand shoved down violently, causing a mass of innumerable soul threads to spread out everywhere. Wherever it passed, the rubble was cleared, until... everywhere was t and level.

    The soul threads then continued to expand, forming a magical sealing symbol.

    That was when it urred to Xu Qing that things were too simple. The power of the funerary urn hadn¡¯t yet been fully revealed. Until now.

    ¡°You were careless, Xu Qing,¡± Fifth Prince said, his voice calm.

    As the words echoed out, the sealing mark on the ground vibrated. Then, over a hundred locations on its surface copsed as the ashes from the urn turned into bone chains that shot up from the soil. [2]

    Most of the chains swept out over thends to suppress the soul threads and lock them in ce. The remaining bone chains shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s seated true form. They moved with incredible speed, quickly surrounding him and turning into a vortex.

    ¡°Xu Qing, as a region lord, you¡¯re very important to humankind, so I won¡¯t kill you. However... I will extract your god soul. I will also take one spiritual soul from among your three spiritual souls and seven physical souls, to burn in my god corpsemp. Whenever you feel capable of defeating me inbat, you cane take it back!¡±

    As Fifth Prince¡¯s words echoed out, he appeared in midair. However, there wasn¡¯t just one of him. There were eight of him, and each of them was holding one of the bone chains that surrounded Xu Qing. All of them yanked forcefully on the chains. A mysterious and profound power emanated from the bone chains, and in some unknown manner, they borrowed power from Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads to start extracting his god soul from within him. All Fifth Prince had to do was maintain bnce and control.

    Instantly, afterimages of Xu Qing sprang up around him as his god soul prepared to emerge from within him. Except... his expression remainedpletely calm as he opened his eyes and looked at Fifth Prince.

    ¡°That¡¯s a nice magical technique. Since you want to extract my soul, I might as well do a little test.¡±

    Xu Qing extended his hand from within the bone chain vortex. Pushing out gently, he spoke in a voice that might as well have been a simple exhtion.

    ¡°This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well....¡±

    1. Chinese funerary urns don¡¯t really look much different than funerary urns from the West. That said, the sealing strip aspect interested me, so after quite a few minutes of image searching to find an example of what it would look like, I found <u>a good picture</u>. I don¡¯t think the urn in the picture is actually a funerary urn, but close enough. You can at least see how the sealing strip would probably be applied. It¡¯s not all that different from the picture of sealing strips I included in a footnote a few hundred chapters ago. ?

    2. It¡¯s notable that the word for ¡®funerary urn¡¯ in Chinese has the character for ¡®bone¡¯ in it. It¡¯s literally a ¡°bone ash urn.¡± So when the ¡°ashes¡± from it turn into ¡°bone chains,¡± it makes a lot of sense visually and linguistically. ?

 Chapter 814: Blood-Red Dark Swallow

    <h4>Chapter 814: Blood-Red Dark Swallow</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice seemed toe from ancient times, or to pass through deep waters. Every word contained meaning, and as theybined, they created a mysterious water droplet of daoist magic thatnded on the surface of the water.

    It created a very crisp and clear sound.

    <i>Ping....</i>

    The sound expanded, creating ripples that spread through the dimension. It was almost as if the entire ce... had be the surface of a body of water.

    Fifth Prince was on that surface of water. All eight versions of him looked absolutely shocked to the core. He had never seen any divine ability like this! Nor had he experienced any sensation like this before. However, the majestic aura that filled the dimension gave him the sensation that it was some type of dao essence. But what was most astonishing to him was that he realized that, all of a sudden, he had lost his ability to move. He was locked in ce, even his cultivation base and magical techniques. Everything about him had turnedpletely still.

    His look of astonishment was also frozen in ce. His mind still worked, but that didn¡¯t help him much. Next, Xu Qing spoke again, and an even more shocking scene unfolded.

    ¡°Everything is inside the well. All divine abilities, magical treasures, all states exist in the well.... That includes the true you.¡±

    As even more ripples spread out on the surface of the water, Fifth Prince looked down to see himself reflected there.... It wasn¡¯t just him. It was all of his magical treasures, as well as the mes from his magical technique. And there were other magical techniques, including everything he had ever cultivated. Even his heavenly dao was there, as well as all of the natural and magicalws he had gained enlightenment of. He also saw the altar and the funerary urn. Everything that belonged to him and all his secrets were there, whether they were illusory techniques or material items.

    Fifth Prince was shaken to the core, as he suddenly came to the conclusion... that if his reflection sustained damage, the same would happen to his true form. That premonition prompted him to struggle to free himself, except that he couldn¡¯t move a muscle. The version of himself in the water grew clearer.

    Meanwhile, though it seemed like he and Xu Qing were fighting in a standalone dimension, the reality was that they were still in the imperial pce. It was just that the pce¡¯s spell formation had interfered to keep the effects of their fighting isted. As a result, everyone in the pce could both sense and watch everything that was happening. They saw Fifth Prince¡¯s gruish corpse fire, and they saw the bizarre bone chains from the funerary urn. They also saw Fifth Prince attempt to extract one of Xu Qing¡¯s souls.

    At the same time, they saw Xu Qing¡¯s actions. On the day of the dao debate, Xu Qing had done some fighting. But all he had done was reveal his god state. Now, seeing his god state unleash magical techniques was a big shock to many people.

    And the three falling mountains was only one reason for that. After all, on the day Xu Qing shed with the butterfly, there had been people who sensed what was happening. But what really shocked everyone was the ability currently being unleashed. Not one person had ever seen anything like it!

    The thirteen heavenly kings were moved, and the emperor leaned forward slightly, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

    As everyone paid close attention, Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out again.

    ¡°He is you.¡±

    The words caused Fifth Prince¡¯s mind to spin, and his view of the world to blur. It felt like water was flowing around him, obscuring his vision. Within that blurriness, he looked at himself, unmoving and surrounded by all of his magical techniques, naturalws, and magical treasures.

    What shook him even further was the realization that... what he was looking at wasn¡¯t under the surface of the water. He was looking at his true form outside the water. Unbeknownst to him, he had somehowe to be in the body beneath the surface of the water. In other words... he had be part of the reflection of himself.

    He couldn¡¯t fight back! He couldn¡¯t resist!

    Fifth Prince felt shaken to the depths of his being. He wasn¡¯t willing for this to happen, and yet there was no way for him to stop it. He wanted to struggle, yet had no will to make it happen.

    Then he saw a hand. It was Xu Qing¡¯s hand, slowly reaching down into the water to fish something out. That simple motion seemed to contain a boundless daoist magic. There wasn¡¯t a scrap of any technique aura. It seemed like a fresh breeze.

    After all, Xu Qing had gained enlightenment of how to use Fishing the Moon in the Well to fish the moon out of his own heart. After that, using it to extract souls from other people was downright simple. He had been spending time recently thinking about what other transformations existed within Fishing the Moon in the Well. To some extent, it was a daoist magic that could be used to fish out anything that existed, not just moons. The moon was just a reference point.

    And thus, he reached his hand into the water to Fifth Prince, and gently fished out his soul. The rumbling dimension copsed. The bone chains locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s souls had no one controlling them, so they crumbled into nothing.

    The same thing happened to the chains swirling around Xu Qing himself. The seven projected versions of Fifth Prince faded from midair as the entire dimension disappeared.

    As the astral redirection concluded, Xu Qing once again saw the imperial pce around him.

    Fifth Prince stood motionless in the same spot as before, his face pale and his eyes listless. His soul was gone. His fleshly body remained, but without a soul, he was like a walking corpse.

    Xu Qing had not even stood up from his chair, and his expression had hardly changed. He was currently looking down at the palm of his hand. He wasn¡¯t the only one. Everyone else in the pce hall had shifted their gazes to look at the same spot. Fifth Prince¡¯s soul rested on his palm.

    ¡°Guyue Qingji,¡± Xu Qing said quietly, ¡°as an imperial prince who guards the border regions, you¡¯re very important to humankind. Nor have youmitted any grave crime. Therefore, I won¡¯t give you a hard time. I¡¯ll simply take one of your magical techniques. Whenever you feel capable of defeating me inbat, you cane take it back!¡±

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and Fifth Prince¡¯s soul became a host of threads that shot back to Fifth Prince. The only thing that remained behind was a funerary urn. Xu Qing¡¯s hand closed around it.

    Fifth Prince shivered. The nkness in his eyes faded and he looked at Xu Qing with aplicated expression. Then he bowed at the waist, took a few steps backward, then returned to his assigned spot in the hall. There, he closed his eyes.

    The pce hall was absolutely silent, but everyone present was deeply shaken. The events that had just yed out changed what many of these members of the human nobility thought of Xu Qing. He seemed more mysterious than before. Turning heaven and earth into a surface of water, then fishing a soul from within it, was virtually iprehensible to them.

    <i>Unless you have a higher cultivation base than this Xu Qing, or have some very unique item....</i>

    <i>A divine ability like that clearly has a very profound dao umtion. It contains a very ancient will. I¡¯d say it¡¯s not a magic from any recent era.</i>

    <i>What a majestic divine ability. There¡¯s no way something like that could have appeared in history and yet not be mentioned in any historical records....</i>

    As the people in the hall pondered the situation, some people thought about the Summer Immortal Pce.

    One of the heavenly kings attending court was a woman wearing a daoist robe, and she had a blurred face. Looking at Xu Qing, she said, ¡°Does that daoist magic have a name?¡±

    ¡°Fishing the Moon in the Well,¡± Xu Qing replied with a neutral facial expression.

    ¡°Good name,¡± she replied, nodding. She asked no further questions.

    This session of court was reaching its end.

    The chief minister, who was officiating, looked at the sky outside, then at the gathered officials. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, if there¡¯s anything further, please submit your petitions to the emperor. Otherwise, court will be adjourned.¡±

    Everyone bowed their heads.

    The chief minister scanned the crowd again, then turned to the emperor. After a short moment passed, he said, ¡°In that case....¡±

    The chief minister nodded and was about to proim court adjourned. But then, a blood-red beam of light appeared in the dome of heaven outside the imperial capital.

    It was visible first. But a momentter, a deafening scream filled the air. Everyone heard the intense sound, which was so loud it shook the entire imperial capital. It shot toward the imperial pce with incredible speed that bordered on teleportation. It didn¡¯t seem as if any spell formation or defensive obstacle would block its progress. As a matter of fact, the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation didn¡¯t just open up, it actually blessed it with further speed. Within the blood-red beam was the aura of a Dawning Sun, which made it seempletely unstoppable. Anything that tried to block it would be reduced to ashes.

    The first people to notice what was happening were those in the imperial pce. The emperor looked up, and in very rare fashion, his gaze flickered dramatically.

    In humankind, there was a very high-levelmunication method that resembled a blood-colored dark swallow. As long as it was used within human territory, it could span any distance to carry a secret message to its target. The blood-red beam in the sky was exactly that.

    The heavenly kings¡¯ auras surged. The heavenly marquises¡¯ expressions flickered. The other officials were visibly moved as they turned to look at the blood-red beam of light that shot screaming into the imperial pce, where it transformed into a blood-colored dark swallow thatnded on the emperor¡¯s hand. Then it surged with light like blood as it turned into a blood-red jade slip.

    The emperor looked closely at it for a long moment. Then his expression turned grim, and a stifling pressure weighed down on the imperial pce.

    Simultaneously, more blood-red dark swallows appeared on the horizon, all flying toward the pce. There were a total of nine of them, all of which entered the pce and turned into jade slips. The emperor flicked his finger, sending one of them into the hands of the chief minister.

    The chief minister scanned it, and then his eyes glittered. He crushed it.

    Voice hoarse, he said, ¡°One of the three major subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheavens, the Saia, have amassed an army 10,000,000 strong and have encroached on our northwestern border to wage war!

    ¡°Also, the Whitemarsh species, another of the Firemoons¡¯ subsidiaries, has mobilized for war. They teleported to the front lines of our conflict with the Nightshades to provide backup. As a result, King Eastcauldron was severely injured.

    ¡°The Nightshade war has reached a critical point, while the northwest border is in severe danger.¡±

 Chapter 815: The Wind Stirs the Firemoon God

    <h4>Chapter 815: The Wind Stirs the Firemoon God</h4>

    The chief minister¡¯s words resulted inplete silence in the pce hall. Then, a momentter, auras erupted everywhere.

    The thirteen heavenly kings all stood. Further down on the stairs, the heavenly marquises did the same.

    The northwest border was a very important and significant area. That was where humannds connected to the territory of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. For an area to be directly facing such a powerful species was a big weight. That was especially true considering that the Saia were one of the top three subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheavens. In other words, there was no way they would take any important action without the endorsement of the Firemoon Darkheavens. If this situation wasn¡¯t handled properly, it could lead to widespread destruction.

    Furthermore... the armies of humankind hadmanded the upper hand against the Nightshades for some time now. But with the Whitemarshes added into the mix, things were clearly going to get much more difficult. Now the armies were entrenched and couldn¡¯t easily retreat. Clearly, this was going to have a big effect on the overall situation for humans.

    The gathered officials exchange nces, from the heavenly kings on high to the ordinary officials below. Humankind was made up of all sorts of disparate forces, and contained many important ns. As a result, there was always secret infighting going on. But right now... even officials who were in conflict with each other could see the determination in each other¡¯s eyes. No words needed to be spoken. Every person who had somehow managed to earn a ce in this hall knew where they stood in a situation like this.

    At certain times, power struggles needed to be put to the side, and ideological differences with political rivals needed to be forgotten. Personal vendettas had to be temporarily sidelined. A crisis on the border and on the Nightshade battle lines superseded all. With enemies surrounding them, everyone had to pay the price to achieve some unity. Neither personal nor n affairs were important inparison.

    If humankind ceased to exist, then profits or losses of any kind would be meaningless. Members of the imperial court could never ept the option of seeking asylum with some other species.

    Therefore, requests for war assignments immediately filled the pce hall.

    ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯m willing to ept abat post! Please send me to the northwest border to lend a helping hand to King Firecrusher!¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty, my n has 80,000 deathmandos ready to sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. I can personally lead them to the Nightshade front lines to fight for humankind!¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty, sending armies onto the campaign trail is very costly. I¡¯m willing to contribute all of our n resources.... This war is the number-one priority!¡±

    ¡°The Five Lesser Celestial Divisions will devote all avable resources to the war effort.¡±

    ¡°Ah, whatever. I might not like King Eastcauldron very much, and have shed with him numerous times. But right now... I¡¯m willing to personally lead troops to the Nightshade front lines and serve under hismand!¡±

    Numerous such derations could be heard.

    Xu Qing was increasingly moved as he realized that the words being spoken were all sincere. This was what they really thought, and this was what they were really willing to do. It went beyond anything he could have predicted. He had previously believed the imperial capital to be a ce of chaos, with the emperor keeping a tight grip on the popce, but with everyone constantly at odds with each other. As a result, he was touched by what he was seeing.

    <i>Is this just another side to humankind that I never saw before?</i> <i>When there¡¯s no big crisis, everyone is out for their own good. It makes it seem like they all have evil intentions and are only seeking their own profit. But when crisis looms.... Every person and every group can put all of that aside and work together....</i>

    Xu Qing was visibly moved. Of course, words were words. What really mattered was actions. That said, Xu Qing¡¯s intuition was telling him that, in all likelihood, these people were being sincere.

    It wasn¡¯t just the court officials who were speaking up. The imperial princes were also stepping forward.

    Fifth Prince walked out and bowed to the emperor. ¡°Father, please permit me to return to the northwest border forthwith!¡±

    Fourth Prince took a deep breath and also bowed. ¡°Father, I¡¯m willing to go fight the Nightshades. I¡¯ll die in battle with them if I must! As an imperial prince, I have the warrior spirit of humankind!¡±

    He was speaking with full sincerity. Though the session struggle between the princes was still on, the prospect of war changed everything. As of now, it wasn¡¯t important to highlight who was right or wrong in various aspects. What was more important... was meritorious service!

    Third Prince, Tenth Prince, Princess Anhai, and all of the other imperial princes stepped forward and said simr things. That included Ningyan.

    ¡°Your Majesty, I¡¯m willing to fight the Nightshades!¡±

    The emperor didn¡¯t seem surprised at all by this. He was well aware of what humans were like, which was why he allowed internal struggles. That was his way of ruling. Looking off in the direction of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, his eyes flickered with deep meaning. Inside, he sighed.

    <i>This happened sooner than expected.</i>

    Only the emperor himself could hear his sigh. Others could not. They just saw the emperor sitting there with the same expression as usual. After all, being in the position he was, he had long since learned to prevent others from seeing what he was thinking. Any change in expression on his part would be analyzed by everyone who saw it. Most people who reached high positions were like that. Oftentimes, one¡¯s facial expression was one of the most important factors in one¡¯s method of ruling.

    ¡°I have heard your petitions,¡± the emperor said calmly. ¡°And now, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions will hear my orders.¡±

    Cultivators from the Five Greater Celestial Divisions immediately stepped out from the officials and bowed. At the same time, in the central headquarters buildings of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, majestic figures rose up and bowed in the direction of the pce.

    ¡°The five divisions will work with the chief minister to form war ns based on everything known about Nightshade war practices. Arrange for three potential war ns, to be referred to as War n I, War n II, and War n III. Deliver them to the pce within a day!¡±

    ¡°Your orders shall be followed!¡± the five figures said in unison along with the chief minister.

    ¡°Now the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions will hear my orders,¡± the emperor continued.

    The cultivators on duty at the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions appeared. They were also extraordinary in aura and appearance.

    ¡°You will assist in all matters rted to preparation for war, as well as any follow-up issues. No negligence will be tolerated. All human territories... are now officially in a state of war.¡±

    The emperor¡¯s voice resonated in heaven and earth. At the same time, the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation rumbled to life, causing all spell formations in the Imperial Region to do the same. As their powersbined, human territories were sealed off and protected from the outside.

    Court was not adjourned. No one left. Everyone waited for the chief minister and the Five Greater Celestial Divisions to release the ns for the war. There was a lot of work involved, including the overarching strategy, various calctions and inferences, as well as assessments.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely. Twelve hourster, War ns I, II, and III were presented to the emperor. After two hours of discussion, the emperor selected one of the war ns.

    Xu Qing observed the entire process but didn¡¯t say anything. This was his first time participating in anything like this.

    After the war n was approved, a series of imperial edicts were issued.

    First, the emperor issued five edicts rted to the Nightshade war.

    <i>Imperial Edict A: Four heavenly kings shall lead an army to provide backup to King Eastcauldron. The goal is to reverse the situation of the human forces pinned down by the Nightshades. Instead, they will pin down the Whitemarsh forces. When a stalemate exists, no one can take the initiative. Third Prince will join the action.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict B: The forces in Sea-Sealing County, the Nightspirit Region, and the Holytide Region will work together. Sea-Sealing County will lead. They will be the primary force operating against the Nightshades. Their mission is to take advantage of the moment when the Whitemarshes are pinned down to mount an invasion of the Nightshade Region.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict C: Five heavenly kings, along with Twelfth Prince Ningyan, will lead reinforcements to support Sea-Sealing County. They will bear with them three Dawning Suns.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict D: King Wildmist will work with the Special Operations Division to form a Spec-Ops Corps. They will infiltrate the Whitemarsh ancestralnd. Considering that the entire Whitemarsh species is mobilized for war, they will destroy the ancestralnd. Sixth Prince will participate. </i>[1]

    <i>Imperial Edict E: Xu Qing will travel to the Moonrite Region and petition the Heir Apparent and his siblings to provide assistance if a crisis arises. This will be the primary backup n in case something goes wrong.</i>

    Those five edicts covered all aspects of the Nightshade war. They seemed simplistic, but the reality was that they were quiteprehensive.

    When it came to the Saia invasion of the northwestern border, six imperial edicts were issued.

    <i>Imperial Edict 1: Fifth Prince will lead an army of 10,000,000 to the border.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict 2: Four heavenly kings will form a unified army that they will lead to the northwestern border to support King Firecrusher. Their mission is to secure the border.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict 3: Fourth Prince is authorized to participate in operations in the northwest. Furthermore, he will request that the imperial preceptor erect a Star-Plucking Tower in the northwest. As long as the imperial preceptor lives, the northwest will not fall!</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict 4: Seven lines of defense will be erected around the imperial capital. Every line of defense will be overseen by an imperial prince or princess. All requests for assistance shall be honored by all parties. Forces on the lines of defense will remain on permanent standby to ensure no one attempts to mount an invasion.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict 5: Grand Prince will leave immediately on a diplomatic mission to the Firemoon Darkheavens to investigate the reason behind the military activity. He will do everything in his power to end the war while there. If he can¡¯t, he will at least buy time.</i>

    <i>Imperial Edict 6: All important Firemoon representatives in human territory, as well as allmercial operations, will be put on immediate lockdown. They will not be freed until the war is over.</i>

    As a result of the eleven imperial edicts, humankind became like a huge weapon of war. A buzz of activity immediately ensued. The Five Greater Celestial Divisions took action, and the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions cooperated. Everyone acted ording to their assigned role, putting aside any personal conflicts to work together.

    This waspletely different from the previous war with the Nightshades. This time... virtually all of the imperial princes joined in the action. In fact, they were pirs of the war effort, drawing out the best of all the parties involved. Before long, the imperial capitals¡¯ teleportation portals were activated. In line with the various imperial edicts, the armed forces began teleporting away.

    Ningyan bid farewell to Xu Qing, although he would be representing Xu Qing on the way back.

    Xu Qing made preparations to leave. Before departing, he looked out at the wartime atmosphere of the imperial capital, and decided to visit the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion. The ce waspletely locked down at the moment, and seemed empty and deste.

    As he stood outside, a jovial voice reached his ears.

    ¡°You and your humans are suddenly very busy, you naughty little boy. Did youe here to plead for help from me?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment. He was familiar with gods, and because of that, he knew full well that gods weren¡¯t swayed by emotion. To gods, other living beings were like bugs. He himself was just a fleeting shadow in the very long lifespan of such figures.

    He shook his head.

    The y fox smiled. ¡°You just get me to like you more and more, naughty boy. Truth be told, despite the fact you said no to my question, I wouldn¡¯t mind helping you if it was a personal matter and you agree to give me your primal yang. But this is a war between two species, and there¡¯s some major karma involved. Unless you offered something even more incredible, then... I would have to refuse to help.¡±

    1. King Wildmist was mentioned in <u>chapter 750</u>. She is the female heavenly king who is rumored to be in a rtionship with Sixth Prince. I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly likely that she¡¯s the woman who spoke from among the heavenly kings in thest chapter. ?

 Chapter 816: Not As Good as Yanyan

    <h4>Chapter 816: Not As Good as Yanyan</h4>

    The dome of heaven over the imperial capital was like a mass of spilled ink, dark and monotonous. The afterglow of the setting sun was just as dim. What sunlight remained filtered onto thends like a gray cloak. The entire world seemed to sink down under the pressure. Even the clouds melted into the darkness of the sky.

    Pedestrians on the streets hurried on their way. Few people knew the details of the imperial edicts which had been issued, but they saw the blood-red dark swallows, and could thus guess that catastrophe loomed.

    And when the armies started moving, those guesses turned into reality. Humans of this time period had to deal with a lot of grief and sorrow. Darkness and gloom became the primary color theme in humannds. Then lightning crashed through that darkness, and heavy rainfall began. Though the wind did not contain the icy cold of winter, it did indicate that seasons were changing. Spring wasing. And yet those who it touched... still felt like the freezing winter would continue.

    Xu Qing felt it, but he had grown used to the cold. As he stood outside the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, he wasn¡¯t surprised at all by what the y fox said. He was more familiar with the behavior of gods than most people. He had other reasons foring here.

    ¡°Crimson Mother already perished,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    ¡°I¡¯m obviously aware of that,¡± the y fox said, sounding as seductive as usual. ¡°What is it you want to say, naughty boy?¡±

    ¡°But,¡± Xu Qing continued, his expression cid, ¡°the red moon is still around.¡± His voice provoked a ripple from the building in front of him. ¡°As you can sense, it¡¯s on its way back.

    ¡°I stole Crimson Mother¡¯s authority, so my senses can¡¯t be deceived in that regard. It won¡¯t be long before the red moon once again appears in the sky over the Revered Ancient maind. When that happens, the person standing atop it will be Li Zihua. Or perhaps it will be someone else.

    ¡°Regardless of who it is... th¨¥y will want to beplete. And it¡¯s likely that those of us who split up Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh will be th¨¥ir target. We will be like seeds that have sprouted and grown, and are ready to be harvested.¡±

    A momentter the y foxughed. ¡°That¡¯s very fascinating, naughty boy. Except that I can¡¯t see the future.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t quibble about gods being able to see the future. Voice calm, he continued, ¡°Crimson Mother was Li Zihua¡¯s little sister. They were both postheaven gods, which are different from preheaven gods.

    ¡°For example, Fifth Prince, despite knowing I was justified in executing Seventh Prince, was an older brother, and thus, he had no choice but to fight me. I also have an older brother, and if someone else tried to kill me, he wouldn¡¯t stop them. But if I did die, I¡¯m fairly certain that he would take action to sever karma.¡±

    The y fox thought for a moment, then spoke in a voice that was less seductive and more businesslike. ¡°That¡¯s a very interesting deduction. Though it seems very unlikely, you do make some good points. In that case... why did youe here today?¡±

    Xu Qing bowed at the waist. ¡°High God Starfire, I hereby request that you grant me the right to participate in the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ Great Hunt.¡±

    The y fox smiled. ¡°It seems I was right to be interested in you. You¡¯re very fun sometimes, naughty boy. You actually thought of a way to break the stalemate. If you can win the title of darkheaven general in the Great Hunt, then you¡¯ll have a reputation among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Darkheaven generals always get an opportunity to request a boon from the three major powers. I suppose you want to use that boon to stop the war between the Firemoon Darkheavens and the humans? Sadly, that isn¡¯t going to work.¡±

    The y fox spoke in a teasing voice; to h¨¥r, life was little more than a flower.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°If I seed, that won¡¯t be what I ask for.¡±

    ¡°Then what will you ask for?¡± the y fox asked curiously.

    Looking calmly at the building, Xu Qing softly said, ¡°Just wait until I seed, then you¡¯ll find out.¡±

    Laughter drifted out from inside. ¡°You rogue! Well, fine. For the sake of that primal yang of yours, I think I can agree to your request.¡±

    A pink stream of light emerged from the building and shot toward Xu Qing. It stopped right in front of him, where it coalesced into the form of a pink identity medallion. On the front was etched the image of a fox, while the back was a scene of mountains and rivers.

    Xu Qing took it and looked at it.

    Meanwhile, anguid yawn could be heard from inside the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion. ¡°I guess I might as well exin to you how the Great Hunt works. Just remember, I¡¯m doing this because I happen to like you so much. I wouldn¡¯t provide such details to anyone else.¡±

    The y fox suddenly seemed a lot more seductive than before.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and cupped hands respectfully. He knew that the information toe was going to be very important. As he had previously stated directly, this was the only reason he hade here. Xu Qing didn¡¯t n to go directly to the Moonrite Region. Given his rtionship with the Heir Apparent and his siblings, it seemed a foregone conclusion that if he pleaded for help, they would agree to step in. Considering what he knew of the aspirations of the Heir Apparent and his siblings, Xu Qing felt it would be better to try to handle the situation on his own. If it didn¡¯t work, he could always go to Moonrite afterward.

    There was another reason why Xu Qing wanted to go to the Firemoon Darkheavens first. And that was Ningyan¡¯s meritorious service. Only if Ningyan became the crown prince would Xu Qing have an opportunity to enter the ancestral to get the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp. And from what Xu Qing could tell, Ningyan¡¯s assignment in the Nightshade war wasn¡¯t going to be enough for him to earn that spot. But if Xu Qing could somehow arrange for Ningyan to resolve the situation with the Firemoon Darkheavens, that might be enough meritorious service.

    As Xu Qing thought about those things, the y fox spoke in anguid voice.

    ¡°The Great Hunt of the Firemoon Darkheaven people consists of three rounds. If you want to be a darkheaven general, you need to take first ce in at least one of those rounds. If you can take first ce in all three, then you won¡¯t just be an ordinary darkheaven general. You¡¯ll be the Grand Darkheaven!¡±

    Somehow, there was anticipation in the y fox¡¯s voice. ¡°That said, there hasn¡¯t been a Grand Darkheaven for many, many years. The first round of the Great Hunt is actually already half over. In the first round, you have to move mountains. And not just any mountains. Forbidden mountains.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Forbidden mountains?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Any mountain from a forbidden region qualifies.¡± The y fox chuckled. ¡°One forbidden mountain is the requirement. But that¡¯s the minimum. If you want to take first ce, then you¡¯ll need to have more forbidden mountains than anyone else.

    ¡°The process involves taking the forbidden mountains to God Mountain in the heart of Firemoonnds. Do that, and you¡¯ve seeded, regardless of how many forbidden mountains you fuse into God Mountain. During that time... all participants are allowed to fight, rob, and kill each other.¡±

    The y fox stopped speaking for a moment, and h¨¥r simple exnation seemed to cause the smell of gore to proliferate.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The y fox continued. ¡°The second round is a lot more interesting. It¡¯s the hunt of taming. The Firemoon Darkheavens have a lot of godly entities. Some are weak, and some are strong. Regardless, if you tame one and turn it into your darkheaven mount, then you meet the requirement for the second round.

    ¡°The stronger the godly beast you try to tame, the more difficult it is. But if you want to take first ce, then you can imagine how difficult of a task you face. The slightest mistake and you can be food. Therefore, naughty boy, make sure you think this through clearly. Make sure you don¡¯t die before giving me your primal yang. And remember, I can¡¯t really interfere to help you during the Great Hunt.¡±

    Xu Qing was finding these different rounds of the event to be very unique and interesting.

    ¡°The third round is actually very simple, but it¡¯s the most important.¡± Inside the shrine hall, the y fox licked h¨¥r lips, and h¨¥r eyes shone with a bewitching glow. ¡°And that¡¯s the hunt of the god domain! When the timees, my two older sisters and I will act together to open the entrance of a god domain. As for which specific god domain, I can¡¯t really tell you. But I¡¯m fairly certain... you¡¯ll like it.¡±

    The y foxughed softly. ¡°After the god domain is opened, all participants enter and kill the things inside to earn points. The more you kill, the better your chances of winning. At the same time, it¡¯s still a god domain.... Therefore, every Great Hunt involves about eighty percent of participants dying.

    ¡°Some of them end up mutating and turning into god flesh. Such god flesh makes great treats for the little cutie pies inside. In fact, if something really deliciouses along, I might even take a bite. It¡¯s a banquet, designed for the pleasure of gods. And if you¡¯re there, I¡¯ll definitely be paying much closer attention than usual. That said, I hope that if you do die, no one else gets your flesh. Therefore... I might use my god authority toy im to your flesh. What do you think about that, naughty boy?¡±

    The y fox¡¯s words were spoken gently, but they were chilling enough to be spine-tingling.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised. He nodded. ¡°Sure.¡±

    Inside the shrine hall, the y foxughed, and the shrine vibrated. In fact, the entire shrine hall shook. Then h¨¥r eyes glittered, and sh¨¥ licked h¨¥r lips.

    ¡°This time, naughty boy, I¡¯vee to realize... that I really do just like you more and more.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, and thought about how he had heard words like this, and felt something simr, when dealing with Yanyan in the past. In fact, in some ways, the y fox worded things more conservatively than Yanyan. Forgetting about levels of power, he actually thought that Yanyan was a bit superior.[1]

    Of course, he said nothing. After sping hands, he turned and walked off, slowly merging into the darkness of night and disappearing.

    After he was gone, the y fox looked up from within the shrine hall of the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion.

    ¡°Years ago, Second Sister fell in love with someone. I wonder if it was like this.¡±

    1. West saw Yanyan in <u>chapter 726</u>. ?

 Chapter 817: Firemoon Travelogue

    <h4>Chapter 817: Firemoon Travelogue</h4>

    The Imperial Region was a vast location that went on seemingly without end.

    It was the fifth day of war.

    A great wall had long since been constructed on the northwestern border of human territory, like an enormous dragon that kept nonhumans out. Known as the ck Wall, it was majestic, stretching from the west to the north, angling across thends, pitch ck in color and profoundly somber and deste. With the advent of war, the wall had been locked down tightly. Without orders from a heavenly king, no one was allowed to pass through it.

    Beyond the ck Wall werends governed by the Firemoon Darkheaven people. They weren¡¯t the actual ancestralnds of the Firemoons. Instead, there were various regions controlled by subsidiary species. Only by passing through seven such regions would one arrive at the ancestralnds of the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    The Firemoon Darkheavens were truly an impressive species.

    ***

    Anguid voice reached Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°The Firemoons and their subsidiary species control a total of 87 regions. Although the total geographic area actually can¡¯tpare to the Imperial Region we humans control, it¡¯s still astounding.¡±</i>

    About 5,000 kilometers away from the ck Wall was a huge flying ship pulled along by seven dragons. As the dragons roared, the wind whistled by. There were hundreds of cultivators on the ship. All were dressed in crisp uniforms and had somber facial expressions. They were clearly extraordinary.

    In front of them all was a man who appeared to be middle-aged, with a burly frame and a much higher stature than ordinary humans. He had inky ck hair bound with golden bands of cloth. He wore a brocade robe covered with intricate golden dragons. A pendant of white jade hung at his waist, making it clear how important he was. He did not have a delicate and pretty face. Instead, he seemed crude and straightforward. He hadrge eyes and bushy eyebrows, with thin lips. He seemed awe-inspiring, and from a distance, resembled the emperor of humankind to an uncanny degree.

    He was Grand Prince. There was no one else who resembled the emperor more closely than him, whether in facial features or disposition. He stood at the prow of the ship looking off into the distance. His energy and blood surged so mightily he was like a burning red sun that caused those behind him to shield their eyes from the stinging radiance.

    Grand Prince was carrying his orders from the emperor to act as an envoy to the Firemoon Darkheavens. Other than the troops already under themand of Grand Prince, those present included officials from the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions plus their associated guards.

    The person who had just spoken wasn¡¯t Grand Prince, but rather, someone else on the ship who was dressed like an ordinary bodyguard. This person had a serious expression and vignt eyes, and looked like the type of soldier who wouldn¡¯t hesitate to sacrifice his life in the line of duty. The words he had spoken were not directed outward, but instead, were transmitted into his belly....

    Inside of his belly was a field of bright red light, within which Xu Qing sat cross-legged, his expression a bit helpless.

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, are you dead set on sneaking in like this?¡±</i> Xu Qing asked, looking at their surroundings.

    A few days earlier, after leaving the Red Dust Emotional Suppression Pavilion, he had sent a voice message to the Captain letting him know about his travel ns. After all, the Captain was nning something big in thends of the Firemoon Darkheavens. Thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s efforts, the Captain had already resolved a big issue with his n, so he was quick to agree to travel together.

    That said, Xu Qing was working on his own, separate, ns.

    <i>¡°Of course we need to sneak in. You listen to me, little Ah Qing, my belly is a very safe and secure location. I would only allow someone I¡¯m very close with to hide in my belly.¡±</i>

    The ¡®guard¡¯ vigntly looked around while simultaneously having a conversation in his own belly.

    <i>¡°Little Ah Qing, given your status, it won¡¯t attract much attention if you go to Firemoon Darkheaven territory. But think a minute about me! I¡¯m different. I¡¯m actually quite famous among the Firemoons. In fact, there¡¯s no one there who hasn¡¯t heard about me. If we just went strolling in, I¡¯m worried that there would be far too much fanfare. As you know, I like to keep a low profile.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing nodded. He knew exactly what the Captain was talking about. Long story short, if the Captain revealed himself to the Firemoons, he would be summarily killed. Presumably, the Captain had done something extremely offensive and infuriating in Firemoon Darkheaven territory in a past life, and people were still angry about it. That made Xu Qing think about what the Captain had said about his rtionship with High God Moonfire.... [1]

    <i>¡°Sooo, that¡¯s why we have to sneak in. Look at this secret identity of mine. It¡¯s perfectly safe. I have ways of passing any inspections, and fooling any spell formations. Add in the shields protecting the imperial prince¡¯s guards, and it¡¯s a guarantee that nothing will go wrong.¡±</i>

    The Captain sounded very pleased with himself. Xu Qing became even more vignt.

    As the Captain talked to Xu Qing, the gigantic ship slowly got closer to the ck Wall. Xu Qing couldn¡¯t see that far, but the Captain could, and he had a perfect view of the majestic wall.

    <i>¡°It seems higher than thest time I saw it.¡±</i>

    Before long, the ck Wall¡¯s grand spell formation activated and scanned the ship. It didn¡¯t matter that Grand Prince was in charge, during war time, inspections like this were mandatory. Grand Prince didn¡¯t react visibly. He just let the spell formation scan his ship.

    As that happened, the Captain secretly bit down on a blood capsule hidden in his tooth. The spell formation fluctuations persisted for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. After that, everything went back to normal.

    A small gap opened in the ck Wall, turning into something like a tunnel that led to the other side of the wall.

    It didn¡¯t matter that the spell formation had cleared them. Grand Prince¡¯s orders indicated that he wasn¡¯t allowed to camp or even stop at the border. He had to go through the wall without pausing.

    Numerous auras had locked onto the ship. Because of those auras, even the seven golden dragons pulling the ship were locked down so tightly they couldn¡¯t move their scales. And in that manner, the ship entered the tunnel and headed toward the other side. After ten breaths of time passed, the ship emerged into what was no longer human territory. Behind them, the passage opened by the ck Wall¡¯s spell formation closed tightly. No one spoke the entire time.

    Without so much as ncing backward, Grand Prince said, ¡°Hoist the g of humankind.¡±

    A huge g rose up from the ship and started pping in the wind while simultaneously exuding immense pressure. Depicted on the g were all of the sessive emperors of humankind since Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Each one seemed profoundly dignified. The mere hoisting of the g seemed to cause heaven and earth to dim.

    At the same time, the seven golden dragons issued draconic roars as they elerated, turning the ship into a golden streak that shot off into the distance.

    It was going to be a very long journey to the main parts of Firemoon territory. The golden dragons could fly without rest, and the cultivators didn¡¯t need to rest either. But they were forced to make stops in various regions to handle paperwork and other formalities. If it had been any other diplomatic mission, they would have had to deal with all sorts of difficulties and dys. But with Grand Prince present, such things didn¡¯t happen. Although Grand Prince wasn¡¯t regarded very highly among humans, that wasn¡¯t the case with the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Because he was half-Firemoon, his bloodline ensured that he was treated with veneration by the subsidiary species they encountered. In fact, after leaving human territory, Grand Prince seemed more willing to reveal the true nature of his aura.

    The repeated stops for paperwork gave the Captain plenty of opportunities. It was after they had passed through the fourth region, and had once again dropped to the ground, that the Captain concealed his aura and snuck off. He wasn¡¯t worried about whatever investigation resulted. A few hours after he¡¯d made his escape, he spat Xu Qing out of his belly.

    Xu Qing reverted to his normal appearance, then turned to look at the Captain, who was preening proudly.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± the Captain asked. ¡°Is your Eldest Brother reliable, or is he reliable? If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I was worried I¡¯d be discovered after Grand Prince reaches his destination, I would have gone with them the whole way.¡±

    Xu Qing knew exactly what the Captain was waiting for, so he quickly stered a look of admiration onto his face.

    The Captain smacked his chest happily. ¡°Let¡¯s go, little Ah Qing. I¡¯ll take you to look for a forbidden region. You probably don¡¯t know the different rounds that make up the Great Hunt, but I can exin.

    ¡°There are three rounds. Later on, I¡¯ll tell you how I personally did in each round years ago. I came so, so close to bing a darkheaven general! But let¡¯s not talk about such trivial things. The important thing here is that you need to understand that the first round is about forbidden regions.

    ¡°In terms of qualifications, that¡¯s simple. The words from the Wordless Book of Stone can help us to change our auras. All we have to do is find two people who look at us the wrong way, kill them, and take their ce. That¡¯s why I picked this specific location. This area has a very unique forbidden region that meets all the requirements for the first round. Come on, follow me!¡±

    Looking very knowledgeable, the Captain started moving.

    Xu Qing followed. For some reason, he was getting the sense that the Captain¡¯s preparations for this job were different from his preparations for past jobs.

    <i>He does seem to be acting a lot more reliable than in the past.</i>

    That said, given how well he knew the Captain, he was still skeptical. He followed the Captain through these unfamiliarnds for a few days until they spotted a red forbidden region in the distance. In the middle of it towered a blood-red mountain. At this point, Xu Qing could sense the difference in this ce that the Captain had mentioned.

    ¡°See that mountain?¡± the Captain said, licking his lips. ¡°That¡¯s where we¡¯re headed.¡±

    Eyes gleaming with a crazy look, he shot directly into the blood-colored forbidden region.

    Xu Qing kept pace, noting the excited fluctuationsing from his shadow.

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s and the Captain¡¯s current battle prowess, ordinary forbidden regions weren¡¯t dangerous to them. Therefore, after entering, they charged forward without hesitation. The forbidden region shook, and the mutant beasts inside trembled. Then a tyrannical aura in the form of a red mist swept toward them from all directions, pulsing with the force of expulsions.

    As it neared, the Captain¡¯s blue eyes glittered, and the mist lurched to a halt.

    Then the mist sensed Xu Qing, and it seethed so violently it nearly copsed.

    Finally, it sensed Little Shadow, and the mist rumbled loudly as it was sent spinning off to the side. The shadow pounced like a hunter, chasing the mist with glee.

    The Captain chuckled mischievously and continued on his way.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to Little Shadow. After all, the shadow was like a natural-born enemy to all forbidden regions.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, they reached the blood-colored mountain in the middle of the ce. From a distance, it was red. But as they got closer, they saw more ck. As it turned out, the red color was because of the innumerable blood-colored mosquitoes that lurked on the mountain.

    When Xu Qing and the Captain showed up, the mosquitoes all started trembling.

    Xu Qing looked around and then prepared to seize the mountain for use in round one of the Great Hunt.

    But then the Captain did something totally unexpected. He waved his hand, and a strange aura spread out, provoking a strange reaction from the mosquitoes. They all suppressed their awe to fly into the air and buzz right toward the Captain.

    The Captain didn¡¯t avoid them. He allowed the mosquitos to cover him, and also let them stab into him and drink his blood. Even as he started to swell up, he said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, years ago I flubbed the first round because my body wasn¡¯t sturdy enough. Later on, I came up with this idea. By using the strange powers of these mosquitoes, I can temporarily bolster my fleshly body defenses!

    ¡°The first round is officially named Heaven Copses to Earth. It¡¯s a test of the fleshly body. Nowe on, you do the same. Just grin and bear it. The more of them you let bite you, the less your fleshly body will fear heaven copsing!¡±

    Stunned, Xu Qing watched as the Captain¡¯s flesh continued to swell up. He was really at a loss for words....

    1. The Captain exined his rtionship to High God Moonfire in <u>chapter 647</u>. ?

 Chapter 818: What Are You Doing, Little Ah Qing??

    <h4>Chapter 818: What Are You Doing, Little Ah Qing??</h4>

    ¡°What¡¯s with the nk look, little Ah Qing? As soon as we entered this forbidden region, I could sense a sealing mark of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. This forbidden region has been imed as personal property by someone.¡±

    The Captain struggled to ignore the itchiness and the sensation of his flesh swelling. Looking at Xu Qing, he continued, ¡°Hurry up! I¡¯m telling you, little Ah Qing, this actually feels great. And the stronger the feeling, the more it proves my body is receiving a blessing.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do well in the first round in the past. Do you want to know why it¡¯s named Heaven Copses to Earth? It¡¯s because everyone under the canopy of heaven for 50,000 kilometers surrounding God Mountain will feel great pressure weighing down on them, regardless of the level of their cultivation base.

    ¡°That¡¯s first. But there¡¯s more. Everyone involved in the first round will feel indescribable pain, from outside in and from inside out. All sorts of things will inflict incredible pain to stop you from advancing.

    ¡°Back then, I was too skinny, and my fleshly body wasn¡¯t ready. The pain itself nearly knocked me out. On the other hand, I saw some giants who cultivated very impressive fleshly bodies, and they had no trouble with this round. Afterward, I put a lot of thought into what I should have done. Finally, I came to realize that the mutant mosquitoes in this forbidden region I found have a special type of toxin that temporarily boosts the fleshly body.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, they make you lose any sensations of pain, which is a critical asset in the first round. Sadly, I ended up dying in that life, so I lost any chance I had at seeding. You¡¯ve got to trust me on this, little Ah Qing.¡±

    Even as the Captain spoke, he circted his cultivation base, causing sessive waves of mosquitoes to drop dead around him. Clearly, they had been poisoned by him. But the Captain was very determined, and was clearly not yet satisfied with his current state. Therefore, he summoned another huge group of mosquitoes....

    Seeing that, Xu Qing thought back to what the y fox had told him about the rounds of the Great Hunt. It seemed to him that... the y fox was a bit more reliable than the Captain in this regard. From what Xu Qing could tell, the Captain had be so obsessed with his earlier experience that he didn¡¯t realize the rules had changed. It made sense considering how far from the Firemoons that humans lived, and how difficult it must be to get news from such distantnds. Unless you used the resources of an entire species to gather information, it would be difficult to get timely news like that.

    Xu Qing opened his mouth to tell the Captain about what he¡¯d learned from the y fox. But before he could, the Captain threw out a medicinal pill bottle, whichnded in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t ever say that your Eldest Brother doesn¡¯t love you, little Ah Qing. <i>That</i> is my love. Just open that bottle, and you¡¯ll be able to attract the mosquitoes just like me. Inside of that bottle is a rare perfume that I prepared especially for you. My version attracts female mosquitoes, while yours attracts the males. Heh heh.¡±[1]

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing and winked mischievously. Unfortunately, his skin was swelling up so much that after he winked he couldn¡¯t open his eye again....

    Xu Qing looked at the bottle, and then looked at the Captain. He picked up the bottle and swallowed the words he had been about to speak. He no longer nned to tell the Captain about what he¡¯d learned.

    Turning to the blood-colored forbidden mountain, he looked up at its summit, then reached out and pushed his hand onto a rock in front of him that was part of the mountain. Unleashing his cultivation base, he sent terrifying energy out covering the mountain, causing it to tremble loudly.

    The mosquitoes on it were stunned, and flew off the mountain in waves that blotted out the sky and made the forbidden region even darker. The rumbling sounds grew even louder, and they soundedpletely horrendous.

    When the Captain saw what happened, and realized that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t trying to attract the mosquitoes, he wasn¡¯t sure what was going on.

    ¡°Huh? Hey, what are you doing?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. Keeping his cultivation base rotating at maximum levels, he sent out 2,000,000 soul threads. From a distance, it was possible to see soul threads connecting to the dome of heaven, which caused innumerable lightning bolts to form a huge vortex around the mountain.

    Then a massive hand appeared out of nowhere, reached down, and grabbed the mountain. It seemed intent on pulling the mountain up from the ground. The entire forbidden region trembled as the mountain shook.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide, but he didn¡¯t do anything as his heart pounded with doubt.

    He was about to speak when a sound rang out from the mountain like heavenly thunder. The mountain shook back and forth violently, and as the 2,000,000 soul threads pulled, cracks spread out in the ground.

    The mountain rose up by about seven inches! A liquid like ck blood started flowing out from the mountain. If you squatted down on the ground and looked at that spot, you would see that between the mountain and the ground were endless amounts of ck flesh.

    There were also bones. This was no mountain! This was actually a fleshly body! It was the fleshly body of the forbidden region!

    Xu Qing was actually caught by surprise. Mountains in forbidden regions were far heavier than mountains outside. What was more, Xu Qing knew more about forbidden regions than most people. Given the pressure emanating from this mountain, it was obvious that lifting it up was going to be very difficult. What was more, messing with the mountain would cause it to unleash a lot of mutagen. Most importantly, the mountain was an important part of the forbidden region, such that taking it away would be like slicing the skin off a living person.

    As soon as it was lifted up by only a few inches, the entire forbidden region reacted like a living being. All of the grass, all of the trees, all of the mutagen, and even the rocks suddenly erupted with an intense will of malice and expulsion that became like a mist of blood. The soil seethed as corpses of cultivators who had died in this forbidden region from ancient times until now crawled up and then charged toward Xu Qing.

    It was not willing!

    The entire forbidden region seemed to have its own consciousness, which locked onto Xu Qing. The wind kicked up, screaming in a way that almost sounded like voices.

    ¡°Leave!¡±

    ¡°Get out of here!¡±

    ¡°Die!!¡±

    The voices caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to grow cold. He could deal with the pressure. His soul threads could handle the weight. Mutagen didn¡¯t bother him. As for the body of this forbidden region and the mountain....

    <i>If you don¡¯t want to give it to me, then I guess I¡¯ll just have to take it.</i>

    Eyes gleaming with icy cold, he issued orders to Little Shadow. ¡°Devour this forbidden region!¡±

    Little Shadow had been waiting for those orders. Long ago, it wouldn¡¯t have done that. If it was hungry, it would eat. But after encountering Xu Qing, he became very afraid, and wouldn¡¯t dare to act disobediently. Therefore, it had been following along and thinking, but hadn¡¯t dared to actually devour anything. It feared making a mistake and being punished.

    After receiving Xu Qing¡¯s orders, Little Shadow exulted. Sending out exuberant emotional fluctuations, it turned into a massive shadow that rose straight up from the ground like a giant ck canopy.

    Within that canopy was a forbidden region! It was a jungle, in the depths of which was a massive tree covered with closed eyes. It was a gruish tree with a coffin hanging from it that swayed back and forth. It was the very first of the shadow¡¯s previous forms, the shadow tree. The coffin swayed like a huge bell, and from inside of it echoed chanting that sounded like fingernails scraping on wood. In unison, all of the eyes opened.

    It wasn¡¯t just the eyes on the tree. There were innumerable eyes throughout the ck canopy that also opened, bright red with avarice. And then an enormous mouth opened that emanated a strong sense of decay. Without hesitation, it shot toward the fleeing blood mist.

    Shrill howls of agony filled the forbidden region, which shook even more violently. Then chewing sounds drifted about that would cause chills to run down the spine of anyone who heard them.

    Next came the sounds of swallowing. Little Shadow in canopy form descended to the ground, then spread out in all directions. Whether nts or animals, living or dead, whatever it reached blurred. Thanks to the shadow, the soil was changing color. It was turning gray, as itcked either life force or death energy. Gray became the background color for everything. It was like a swallowed piece of meat.

    The rumbling and the wind grew more intense, like screams of agony. As the shadow spread, those screams grew louder.

    All of these developments were astonishing to the Captain. ¡°This.... Little Ah Qing, all we have to do is let the mosquitoes bite us a bit. Why... why are you trying to take the entire forbidden region?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. After confirming that Little Shadow was spreading out to devour the rest of the forbidden region, he pushed his hand harder onto the rock in front of him. Instantly, a loud rumbling sound could be heard as the mountain slowly rose up by another seven inches.

    The soul threads surrounding it pulled up, sending out a shock wave so powerful that it shredded all the nearby zombies to pieces. The forbidden region was being assimted. The forbidden mountain was being removed.

    That was when Little Shadow finally released some emotional fluctuations. It was a warning to Xu Qing. Next, the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered with blue light as he shifted his now-veryrge body to look behind them.

    Some distance away was a bright beam of light shooting toward them from the far end of the forbidden region. A domineering aura in the first stage of Void Returning became like an unstoppable ming meteor.

    There was a hulking figure within it. He looked human, except he was taller and burlier. He was fully six meters in height, almost like a giant. He had long, golden hair, and abounded with a sensation of grandeur. His eyes were also golden, which made him seem superior to others. Unlike humans, his pupils were vertical, like those of a dragon. The aura of his energy and blood was prominent. As he neared, he seemed like a volcano about to erupt, pulsing with shocking might and battle prowess that surpassed cultivators in simr levels from other species.

    What was more, it was apparently because of some bloodline ability that all the surrounding mutagen was pushed away. Clearly, this person was far superior to other species in the ability to defend against mutagen.

    ¡°A Firemoon Darkheaven!¡± the Captain said, licking his lips.

    1. "Hey Deathde, did you know that male mosquitoes don''t bite? The males feed primarily on nectar. The females are the ones that need blood. Females bite, and males don''t." Why yes, as a matter of fact, I did know that. "Hey Deathde, does Er Gen know that?" I have no idea. "Hey Deathde, based on your answer to the previous question, do you think the Captain knows that? Was this an intentional bit of subtle humor by the author, or rather, a simple mistake?" I have no idea. But in the end, this is a mythological fantasy universe, so it doesn''t really matter, right? ?

 Chapter 819: Nine Breaths Submission

    <h4>Chapter 819: Nine Breaths Submission</h4>

    Xu Qing looked on coldly. This was his first time seeing a Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator, and he knew what the Captain was getting at. This was not a member of a subsidiary species, but an actual representative of the Firemoon Darkheavens. Given what the Captain had said earlier about the sealing mark, it seemed logical to conclude that this was the person who had created it.

    Although Xu Qing had never seen Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators in person, he had learned a lot about them from the ancient records in the Xeno-Immortal School. Therefore, he knew that because of how rare Firemoon Darkheavens were inparison to the subsidiary species they ruled, every single member was considered highly esteemed in theirnds. That much had been obvious during their travels with Grand Prince, who was only half-Firemoon.

    Firemoon Darkheavens were simrly respected even outside of their own territory. No one would dare to offend a Firemoon Darkheaven, and because of that, their cultivators were always very confident and domineering, regardless of where they went. The source of their confidence was the strength of their species. And right now, that was even more the case inside of Firemoon territory.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as a face appeared in the sky above Xu Qing and the Captain. Then the apanying meteor mmed into the ground. The forbidden region shook violently, and incredible pressure weighed down.

    ¡°Humans?¡±

    The words caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. It was as if they contained power that activated naturalws, which settled onto Xu Qing and the Captain to exert control over them. In fact, the two of them could sense something about to rip them to shreds.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone with blue light, while inside, he was very excited. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was as calm as if he were looking at a corpse. Little Shadow, who was in the middle of devouring the forbidden region, only paused for a moment, then continued with the devouring.

    When the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator noticed that the two humans hardly reacted at all to his arrival, his eyes flickered with impatience. He had actually just arrived in this location, specifically because of the forbidden mountain. He was participating in the Great Hunt, and thus needed forbidden mountains. The more the better. Considering how fierce thepetition was, he¡¯d ordered some of his subsidiary species servants to travel to nearby forbidden regions and imprint them with his sealing mark. That sealing mark indicated that this area belonged to him, and anyone who tried to steal it from him would face death and destruction at his hands.

    On his journey to those various forbidden regions, he had experienced both sesses and failures. As a result, he was in a foul mood. And now, here he was in this specific forbidden region, only to encounter two trespassing humans. Still looking annoyed, he clenched his right hand into a fist andunched a punch at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    That blow seemed casual, but the Firemoon Darkheaven unleashed it with immense rage. Everything trembled as a huge golden fist appeared in midair, some 30,000 meters in size.

    The astonishing energy and aura kicked up a violent tempest that shook the entire forbidden region. As the fist fell, the Captainughed heartily and lunged forward with his bloated body.

    ¡°Perfect timing! Now I can test out how this fleshly body blessing works!¡±

    The Captain, like a huge mountain of flesh, screamed through the air until he mmed into the golden fist. A deafening boom rang out in all directions. The Captain dropped to the ground and bounced a few times. At the same time, the fist shattered into pieces.

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± the Captain said, looking up proudly.

    Xu Qing looked over at him and could sense that it wasn¡¯t just the Captain¡¯s fleshly body that had be stronger. It was hard to say when it happened, but he now pulsed with the might of Void Returning.

    <i>He undid more seals? Also, it seems like Eldest Brother is intentionally trying to piss off this Firemoon cultivator.</i>

    Meanwhile, the Captain hollered up into the sky, ¡°Bring it on!¡±

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator seemed surprised as he looked at the Captain. Then, seemingly taking the situation more seriously than before, he lifted his right hand and took a deep breath. That breath caused a wild wind to spring up. All of the mutagen and spirit energy, as well as the nearby natural and magicalws, rushed into his mouth. Rumbling sounds echoed out as he became the center of a shocking vortex.

    After inhaling deeply, the Firemoon Darkheaven grew to double his previous size, then heunched another fist strike. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the air shattered. Then a golden mountain that was vastlyrger than the fist appeared and dropped toward the Captain.

    The Captain looked up in disdain as he once again shot forward to meet the attack.

    A boom rang out as the Captain tumbled down. However, the mountain also copsed.

    This time the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator had a very serious look in his eyes as he red down at the Captain. He was about to speak, but before he could, the Captain interrupted.

    ¡°Way, way too weak!¡± The Captain burst outughing.

    Thatughter caused killing intent to surge in the eyes of the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator. Opening his mouth, he inhaled again, this time affecting an evenrger area. Everything for 500 kilometers in all directions, including mutagen and spirit energy, swirled toward him in a huge vortex. He inhaled.

    Meanwhile, the Captain mmed into the ground and bounced back up. Being also blessed with speed, he elerated dramatically, and in the blink of an eye, was right in front of the vortex of mutagen and spirit energy.

    Looking almost grateful, the Captain opened his mouth and viciously inhaled in the direction of the Firemoon Darkheaven. Instantly, the 500-kilometer vortex became like a gigantic deting balloon as the Captain devoured more than half of it. As that happened, his body expanded rapidly. His hair turned golden as did his eyes, making him look exactly like a Firemoon Darkheaven.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator¡¯s expression flickered, and he backed up rapidly.

    ¡°You¡¯re not human!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s not human!¡± the Captain said, ring. ¡°Your whole family isn¡¯t human. All you can do is hit people and curse them, huh? This is just the Firemoon Darkheaven specialty move called Nine Breaths Submission, right? When you use it, every breath you take causes your body to expand. What, just because I can devour some things means I¡¯m not human?

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not the one who said it. By the way, why can you only take three breaths? That¡¯s definitely not enough. Try again!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He had sensed all along that there was something unusual about the Captain¡¯s behavior. Now he realized it must be because the Captain could use some Firemoon techniques. Now that Xu Qing knew that, everything made sense.

    After all the time they had spent together over the years, Xu Qing was very used to how the Captain operated. In fact, if one day the Captain told him that he was actually a full-on god, Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t be too surprised.

    Therefore, Xu Qing stopped paying attention to the fight and went back to moving the mountain.

    Meanwhile, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator looked down grimly at the Captain and said, ¡°You¡¯re probably the most interesting human I¡¯ve ever encountered. Fine. Since you¡¯ve obviously mastered the Nine Breaths Submission technique, then perhaps you¡¯re familiar with our innate ability. Can you do that too?¡±

    With that, the cultivator lifted his hand to his forehead and pushed down. Instantly, his energy and blood surged, creating a blood mist that swept through the canopy of heaven. The sky vibrated as a vortex formed,plete with crashing bolts of blood-colored lightning. Within that vortex appeared something that would shock anyone who saw it. It was an unknown location in a great void. And within it was an enormous kunpeng bird! [1]

    A heavenly dao aura pulsed off it, and not an ordinary one at that. It was... one of the ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient! It was bound with countless chains, every single one of which was stabbed into its body. There was also a chain that served as an enormous whip that floated behind it andshed it constantly.

    It had innumerable wounds covering its body, making it look incredibly ghastly. Everysh of the whip sounded like the crack of heavenly thunder, and it provoked moans of agony from the ancient heavenly dao. It contained unimaginable pain, as well as a longing for death so intense it was difficult to put into words. The sound surpassed all natural and magicalws as it swept over Xu Qing and the Captain. Whatever it touched caused a sympathetic resonance, which carried with it pain and the desire to die.

    This was the innate ability of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. In the past, they didn¡¯t have an innate ability as a species, just extremely powerful fleshly bodies. But as the generations passed, that changed. As they grew more powerful, they generated a brand new innate ability.

    They could capture and enve ancient heavenly daos, and by whipping them could provoke howls of anguish. In turn, that anguish became destiny aura that bolstered their species. In terms of how many heavenly daos they had chained up like this, only their leaders and gods knew.

    The anguished cry from the heavenly dao ignored cultivation base or any other obstacle. It directly hit Xu Qing and the Captain, filling them with a sensation of pain and the desire to die.

    However... Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral, and the Captain was actuallyughing sarcastically.

    ¡°Son!¡±

    The Firemoon Darkheaven clearly misunderstood, as the coldness in his eyes grew more intense. But then, a crisp squeal echoed out from the void beyond the vortex. That sound contained astonishing personhood, and it immediately negated the kunpeng¡¯s agony and caused the vortex in the canopy of heaven to copse.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator¡¯s body went out of control, and he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. Eyes filing with astonishment, he blurted, ¡°What was that? What is that thing?!¡±

    Gasping for breath, he started backing up at top speed. He had no desire to continue this fight. The good-looking human didn¡¯t seem very impressive, but the extremely bloated and fat one was absolutely terrifying. Without any hesitation, he chose to flee.

    The Captain, meanwhile, shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t go! Let¡¯s fight a bit more!¡±

    Frowning, Xu Qing said, ¡°Stop fooling around, Eldest Brother.¡±

    Xu Qing reached out with his right hand and made a grasping gesture. A ck me appeared out of nowhere, which rapidly became a sea of mes. Then a cry rang out from the golden crow tattoo on Xu Qing as it shot out into the form of a ck spear. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the spear shot forth like a ck dragon that could destroy the world.

    In the blink of an eye, it was flying through the air. It looked like a spear and looked like a golden crow. Trailing fire behind it, it shot toward the fleeing Firemoon Darkheaven.

    1. I¡¯m sure many of you are familiar with kun and peng, or the ¡°kunpeng,¡± which is a mythological creature (or you could think of it as two creatures). It has a fish form and a bird form. In <u>ISSTH</u>, I tranted it as ¡°roc.¡± Ten years ago when I started working on ISSTH, I was much more inclined to localize the trantions. Though I still localize (and in fact its official WW policy to localize as best as possible when it makes sense), there are some areas in which my stance has changed over the years. And thus, in this instance I¡¯m transliterating this mythological creature as ¡°kunpeng¡± instead of calling it a roc. ?

 Chapter 820: The First Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 820: The First Mountain</h4>

    The scene from a distance was that of the canopy of heaven over the forbidden region trembling as a spear shot from Xu Qing like a dragon, surrounded by a ck glow of destruction. A sea of mes spread out around it, extending into the canopy of heaven. It moved with shocking speed, like a shooting star piercing through the air. The soul threads attached to the mountain flew after it, bolstering the sea of mes and the spear, and making the weapon unprecedentedly prating. It made it unavoidable and unstoppable!

    The Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s face fell. ¡°That aura... that¡¯s a taboo weapon!¡±

    Coming from a major species, he had a much moreplete understanding of history and rted subjects. Therefore, it only took a moment for him to realize what the spear was. And that realization caused his mind and heart to reel.

    That said, there wasn¡¯t time to sit around contemting the situation. An intense sensation of deadly crisis filled him, causing his flesh and blood to quiver. He felt impending death from outside in and from inside out. He wanted to dodge, but couldn¡¯t. His instincts were telling him that if he backed down an iota in front of this spear, it would overwhelm him.

    And if it overwhelmed him, he would die beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    That was because this spear was intolerable to heaven and earth, and not permitted by the heavenly daos. It was one of the most ancient taboo weapons of Revered Ancient, and had been sealed inside a technique from an imperial n. When facing an ancient taboo weapon like that, all he could feel was increasing fear as he felt destruction looming over him.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s eyes turned crimson and he let loose a howl apanied by a spray of blood that was a forbidden magic. The blood spray turned into a blood mist in front of him. It created a line of defense filled with no less than a thousand faces from numerous species, all of which were howling as they burned. But not even that was enough.

    In that moment of crisis, the Firemoon Darkheaven unleashed the full power of his fleshly body. As his arms grew massive, he shoved them forward. Golden light spread out from him, creating a halo that was a second line of defense. There was also a white glow that erupted from his forehead, which was a destiny god magic that caused a divine likeness to appear behind him.

    The divine likeness was humanoid, covered with feathers, and was pure white. It seemed holy as it stretched out both arms to ce the Firemoon Darkheaven in its embrace. The Firemoon Darkheaven wasn¡¯t holding anything back.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint. An instantter, the ck spear shattered the air as it arrived! Imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and crackling like thunder, it stabbed into the blood mist in front of the Firemoon Darkheaven.

    The mist seethed violently as it tried to fight back against the might of the spear. But it couldn¡¯t do anything. Even though all the faces inside of it were burning brightly, it did no good. In the blink of an eye, anguished cries rang out as they were dispelled by the spear like dust in the wind. The blood mist itself scattered.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven suffered an instant bacsh. His face turned ashen, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. And yet, things were just starting for him. The ck spear stabbed into his second line of defense, the golden light.

    A boom rattled out. The golden light filled with cracks, holding strong for only one breath of time before it copsed.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s face was as pale as death, and he couldn¡¯t prevent himself from coughing up blood. Then, the ck spear continued on with unyielding destructive power, stabbing into the destiny god magic in the form of a white statue.

    Immense power and majesty pulsed off the spear. ck fire. Red soul threads. A taboo weapon that could conquer every obstacle. Together, they formed a destructive attack that, although it wasn¡¯t literally impossible to block, was clearly... too much for the Firemoon Darkheaven to handle!

    A deafening boom filled the forbidden region as the Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s statue copsed like cheap pottery. It started with the arms, then continued to the torso and head. They shattered, with the bits spreading out to reveal the Firemoon Darkheaven within. His expression was just as astonished as before, having no time to change before the ck spear stabbed into his chest.

    It pierced deep. It sliced through skin, stabbed into his flesh, and poked out of his back! He had been...pletely impaled!

    However, it didn¡¯te all the way out of his back.

    The remaining momentum of the attack carried the Firemoon Darkheaven backward into the sky. Previously, this Firemoon Darkheaven had been the picture of majesty and grandeur. But now he looked like a rag doll that had been viciously ripped to shreds.

    Then, a momentter, the ck spear stopped, leaving the Firemoon Darkheaven impaled to the dome of heaven!

    It normally wouldn¡¯t make sense. The air wasn¡¯t a physical thing, so you couldn¡¯t impale people to it. But... that¡¯s exactly what was ying out right now. In the presence of this spear, the canopy of heaven became like a material object.

    Looking up, one would see the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator impaled in midair, blood flowing out of his chest, down his body, and to the ground below. Hisplexion was dispirited, and his expression was one of bitter pain. He was hardly strong enough to keep his eyes open, yet with some struggle, was able to look down at Xu Qing standing there calmly below.

    He would never forget that sight. Previously, he had mistakenly assumed that the bloated cultivator was the stronger of the two, and also the most mysterious. After all, he had used the Firemoon¡¯s own Nine Breaths Submission technique, which was enough on its own to be mystifying.

    But now he realized he had been mistaken. The strongest... was obviously the one with the spear.

    ¡°Taboo weapon...¡± he murmured. With one final look at Xu Qing, he closed his eyes.

    He was covered with countless wounds, all of which stretched back to his chest. And then he started to crumble, starting from those wounds. A thump rang out, and his body copsed into countless chunks that rained down onto the ground below. It appeared as if he had been destroyed in body and soul.

    But only a momentter, Xu Qing let loose an exmation of surprise as the ck spear suddenly jerked down.

    At the same time, the chunks of flesh and blood that had rained down from above experienced a transformation! They suddenly erupted with very unique fluctuations. They were being teleported away.

    Eyes lighting up, the Captain said, ¡°Still trying to run? Is that a new Firemoon art? I want to learn it!¡±

    Then the Captain inhaled deeply. There was a dark shadow on the ground that had been waiting for quite some time to make a move. It was none other than Little Shadow. And the shadow was working with the Captain!

    The ck spear also flew forth. It had long been Xu Qing¡¯s custom to make sure his enemies were dead, and to leave behind no survivors.

    The three of them erupted from three different directions, ultimately ensuring that there was no chance the flesh and blood could possibly escape. In the shortest of moments, about forty percent of the flesh and blood in the area was removed from the teleportation effect and was funneled into the Captain¡¯s mouth.

    Little Shadow¡¯s actions were particrly strange, as a chanting voice drifted out.

    ¡°Three primordials nurture nine energies make up five earthly things form into seven stars as apertures; all beings¡¯ souls reach the peak of threews with starlight shining on me, Dark Nethervoid.¡±

    The voice seemed simultaneously proud, restrained, rushed, and slow. Thebination made the voice extremely gruish. Thanks to it, about twenty percent of the flesh and blood ignited, bing mes that peeled away and into Little Shadow.

    The rest rushed toward Xu Qing¡¯s ck spear. ck fire spread out, apanied by soul threads,pletely destroying it. There wasn¡¯t one scrap of flesh that managed to escape. All of it was gone.

    Everything went silent. Then the Captain chewed a few times before looking at Xu Qing.

    ¡°He was just a clone.¡±

    Little Shadow was also sending emotional fluctuations to Xu Qing, indicating it would be able to sense their enemy within a certain range.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Xu Qing said softly. ¡°We¡¯ll kill him next time.¡±

    With that, he turned back, reached out with his right hand, and again pushed on the blood-red forbidden mountain. As rumbling sounds spread from the mountain, Little Shadow, who was already spread through the forbidden region, resumed madly devouring the ce.

    The forbidden region trembled, and the howls of grief slowly began to fade. The expulsion power also declined. It was now possible to see that the forbidden region was fading and bing blurry. Its borders were gradually disappearing.

    However, it wasn¡¯t happening very quickly, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t feeling patient, so he sent some soul threads to bolster Little Shadow.

    The Captain nced at what was happening and was clearly a bit surprised. However, he didn¡¯t ask any questions. Instead, he focused on digesting the Firemoon flesh and searching for a way to negate the teleportation effects.

    About four hourster, Little Shadow was done feeding.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were surrounded by empty space. The mountain now stood by itself, hovering about one third of a meter above the ground.

    The forbidden region had disappeared entirely! Thends were now gray. Within that grayness was a ck shadow that wriggled like a river as he flowed toward Xu Qing and collected beneath his feet. Next came a loud burping sound, after which it spat out a finger-nail sized wisp of brown me.

    The me wisp floated in front of Xu Qing, flickering dully. asionally, it expanded, then shrank down dramatically, as if it wasn¡¯t very stable. Because of its movement, the dome of heaven rapidly turned dark, and rumbling sounds echoed out. Light crashed everywhere.

    Then a soul power as boundless as the sea spread out from Little Shadow.

    ¡°Milord... full....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Knowing full well where the fire came from and how dangerous it was, he carefully put it away.

    Then he waved his hand, and the blood-red mountain floated up into the air overhead.

    ¡°Are there any mosquitoes left, little Ah Qing? If so, let them out. I still felt some pain, which indicates I need more of that blessing.¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing¡¯s shadow.

    Xu Qing turned to look at the bloated Captain. ¡°Eldest Brother, ording to what High God Starfire told me, the first round of the Great Hunt isn¡¯t a test of the fleshly body, it¡¯s about moving mountains....¡±

 Chapter 821: Darkheaven General

    <h4>Chapter 821: Darkheaven General</h4>

    As the cultivator¡¯s clone died, a big fight was nearing its conclusion in the sixth region belonging to the Firemoon Darkheavens, which was some distance away from Xu Qing and the Captain, in a forbidden region in the third region.[1]

    Thebatants were Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators. Both were dozens of meters tall, with golden hair and golden eyes that made them seem very holy. Both of them had three forbidden mountains each hovering above them, pulsing with strong mutagen. As they fought amidst wind and snow, the sound of theirbat drifted far and wide, and the surrounding natural and magicalws seethed.

    There were members of Firemoon Darkheaven subsidiary species in the area, watching the fight y out.

    A muffled thump could be heard as one of thebatants exploded. Blood sprayed everywhere as the otherbatant grabbed the head of his defeated foe and red at it.

    ¡°You knew full well that I staked a im to that forbidden region. Yet you still dared to take the forbidden mountain from it?¡±

    The surviving head looked back and growled, ¡°Sir Cloudmortal, you can have this clone of mine. But my true form will track you down as you make your way to God Mountain. Make sure to keep all my forbidden mountains safe until then.¡±

    The cultivator who had been referred to as Sir Cloudmortal didn¡¯t react visibly other than to throw the head onto one of the forbidden mountains overhead. The mountain rumbled, and the pressureing off it caused the head to start crumbling into ash. However, the ash didn¡¯t drift away. Instead, it and the chunks of flesh below all teleported away.

    Sir Cloudmortal didn¡¯t pay any attention to that. He clenched his hand into a fist, and the three forbidden mountains that had previously belonged to his opponent now flew over to him. From a distance, it was possible to see six mountains, all of them producing mutagen so strong it manifested as pulsing ck clouds.

    All of the onlookers bowed their heads. None of the subsidiary species qualified to engage inbat with actual Firemoon Darkheavens.

    That was especially true during the Great Hunt.

    When it came to the Firemoon Darkheavens, it was no exaggeration to say that every member of their species was outstanding, talented, and had shocking techniques at their disposal. That was one of the reasons why, over the years, the subsidiary species who acknowledged allegiance to them did so from the depths of their hearts.

    Sir Cloudmortal looked around at his surroundings. He didn¡¯t even bother studying the members of the subsidiary species. After scanning the area, he turned to leave. But then he suddenly lurched to a halt and looked off into the distance. His expression flickered as he sensed that his clone in another forbidden region had suddenly ceased to exist.

    Normally speaking, when a Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s clone died, it would automatically return via teleportation, just as had happened with the flesh and blood of the opponent he had just defeated. It was a tacit understanding between members of their species. Unless there was some deadly animosity between opponents, they would hold back from using full force. In most cases, they would save strength like that for going all out in the god domain round of the Great Hunt. For a clone to be wiped out of existence during the first round was rtively rare.

    ¡°Who¡¯s responsible for this?¡± growled Sir Cloudmortal as he started moving in the direction of his lost clone.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the Captain were flying through the air in a location a few regions away.

    The Captain seemed to be in a bad mood, and though he would asionally cast a nce in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, he wasn¡¯t talking at all.

    At first, Xu Qing didn¡¯t think much of it. But after he realized the Captain kept looking at him, he took a tangerine out of his bag of holding and tossed it over.

    ¡°Feel like a tangerine, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain instinctively caught the fruit. However, he couldn¡¯t suppress the feeling of grievance in his heart. Finally, he gravely said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, as a man, you need to rely on your own skills and abilities. Do you really think a true man needs to depend on a woman to seed? Do good looks put food on the table?¡±

    Upon hearing that, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but correct the Captain. ¡°Sh¨¥¡¯s not a woman. Sh¨¥¡¯s a High God.¡±

    The Captain took a deep breath and then disdainfully replied, ¡°High Gods aren¡¯t that amazing. I banged one once! Nothing special at all!¡±[2]

    Xu Qing had no response to such biting words.

    The Captain was still in a bad mood, so as they continued on their way, he would frequently say some very shocking things....

    And thus, half a month went by.

    Xu Qing and the Captain had nowid eyes on the interior of Firemoon Darkheavennds. Their quick rate of travel was thanks to the teleportation portals in the regions. Ordinary cultivators couldn¡¯t use such portals. They were only avable to people with special qualifications, for instance, those participating in the Great Hunt.

    ording to the Captain¡¯s original n, it was supposed to take much longer to reach the interior. But all Xu Qing had to do was take out a certain identity medallion....

    That was another reason for the Captain¡¯s sour mood. When they reached the interior, he was still bloated and swollen. Forcing out a sigh, he produced a peach and took a vicious bite. Then, before he could take another bite, his expression flickered and he looked up into the sky.

    Xu Qing also looked up. Even with the naked eye, it was possible to see that the dome of heaven over the interior was turning bright red. Terrifying pulses rolled out as the red color spread. Off in the distance, which was the source of the redness, there was some colossal object flying along at top speed. Before long, that enormous object became visible to Xu Qing and the Captain.

    It was a nonhuman head. It had brown skin, two horns, an oval face, and a prominent nose ring. There were seven eyes on the face, gray and withered, and within each it was possible to see a cultivator seated cross-legged in meditation. Each cultivator was a shocking Firemoon Darkheaven.

    The head was asrge as an entire city, making it easy to see even from a great distance. As for the red glow, it came from the top of the head.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what species this head represented, but based on the pressure it radiated he could sense the lingering will of a Smoldering God. From the look of it, this was the head of an actual Smoldering God!

    Of even greater significance was that there was also something about it that reminded him of actual gods, which caused fear to linger within him.

    At the same time, the head seemed to have been turned into a magical treasure. There was some withered hair drifting about the head, but there was one section on the very top of the head with no hair at all. In that spot, there were numerous buildings, plus crowds of bustling people. It was like some sort of market. In fact, people would asionally fly off the head and disappear in bright beams of light that shot off over the horizon.

    As the head neared, it caused a strong wind to blow across thends surrounding it. Xu Qing and the Captain had no choice but to drop to the ground and stop flying.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe we ran into a darkmoon ward,¡± the Captain said, his eyes gleaming, first with reminiscence, and then with delight.

    ¡°Darkmoon ward?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at the Captain.

    Upon hearing the question, the Captain stuck his chin up. ¡°That High God of yours didn¡¯t tell you?¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. He was aware that his Eldest Brother had been in a sour mood during their travels. He shook his head apologetically.

    The Captain felt a bit better when he saw that facial expression. Sounding pleased, he said, ¡°The darkmoon wards are a special kind of marketce unique to the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Their species don¡¯t settle down and live in one specific ce. Instead, they live nomadic lives as they follow the three ¡®steward tents¡¯ that form the basis of their culture.

    ¡°As for the darkmoon wards, they¡¯re specialmercial operations devoted to trade with other species. The head you¡¯re looking at has the aura of a god on it. I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly likely it originally came from a god domain.

    ¡°The Firemoon Darkheavens have a beloved custom of raiding god domains during their Great Hunt. You might call that suicidal, but it always works out for them. And if you think it¡¯s not suicidal, well, we¡¯re still talking about god domains.

    ¡°You never know when one of their three gods of sun, moon, and star might identally provoke some unprovokable entity and end up getting pped to death.¡± The Captain sighed. ¡°If that dayes, I hope one of them ps that shrew Moonfire to death, and another puts that slutty Starfire to death.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    The Captain was feeling better now that he could vent. ¡°You have a Great Hunt identity medallion, so we can go in. Let¡¯s go. Maybe we can find something useful.¡±

    With that, the Captain shot toward the darkmoon ward. Xu Qing followed.

    It was a loud, bustling ce. Even from a distance, Xu Qing could spot the numerous shops and vendor stalls. It reminded him of the ghost wards. There was a head. There was a marketce. There were definitely simrities between the two. Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if it was just a coincidence or if there was a deeper meaning to it all.[3]

    He took a moment to check Little Shadow. Back in that ghost ward years ago, that severed head had seemed interested in the shadow. After absorbing that forbidden region recently, Little Shadow was focused on digestion and was in a state of hibernation.

    And thus, Xu Qing and the Captain got closer and closer to the darkmoon ward. When they were only about 3,000 meters away, a shocking roar erupted from the ce, loud enough to split metal and rock.

    At the same time, a bizarre beast shot out from the darkmoon ward. It wasn¡¯t veryrge, only about 300 meters long. But the pressure it emitted was on the same level as the head itself. An ordinary cultivator who encountered it would be shaken to the core and feel like their soul was being ripped out of them.

    The beast had the body of a wolf, was greenish-ck, and had a turtle shell on its back. It had the face of an evil ghost with a head of long white hair. It looked very much like a grue of some sort. What was more, it didn¡¯t just have one evil ghost face on it. It had six. There were faces on each of its four kneecaps, and one at the tip of its tail. All of them were fear-inspiring in appearance, and all of them were howling loudly. What was beneath its feet was even more shocking; it was a sea of ghostly souls. Shockingly, the beast flew along on top of that sea, as if everywhere it went, it brought death and catastrophe.

    There was a person standing amidst the white hair on the beast¡¯s head. He was tall and burly, wore a suit of violet-gold battle armor, and had flowing golden hair. His eyes were like torches, as if a look from them could immte all living creatures.

    He pulsed with Smoldering God fluctuations, and was surrounded by the rumbling of thunder. Steering the beast by its head, he led it away from the darkmoon ward and off into the distance.

    The Firemoon Darkheavens in the darkmoon ward who saw all of that y out bowed their heads, their eyes burning with reverence.

    As Xu Qing reeled in surprise, the Captain lowered his voice and said, ¡°Do you know what that beast is called? It¡¯s a ¡®ghost chariot.¡¯ I¡¯ve never seen the guy riding it, but considering he¡¯s wearing violet-gold battle armor, he can only be one type of cultivator. A darkheaven general!¡±

    1. I have to point out that it was an oversight on my part to use ¡°region¡± in this way. The region from forbidden region and the region/county/prefecture geographical distinction are different. I try my best to avoid doing this, but sometimes I¡¯m either not paying close attention or just run out of synonyms to use. IIRC, when I originally came up with the two trantion choices, they weren¡¯t used in the same context, so they had already be trantion ¡°canon¡± by the time I noticed how they interacted. ?

    2. There is some wordy here that doesn¡¯t trante directly. The character I¡¯ve rendered ¡°high¡± from High God is a very versatile character that can also serve as a verb. By separating ¡°high¡± and ¡°god,¡± and then adding another character to turn ¡°high¡± into a past tense verb, it changes it into a somewhat vague but also clearly vulgar phrase that carries the meaning indicated in the trantion. ?

    3. Ghost wards were first mentioned in <u>chapter 246.1</u>, and came up in a few chapters after that. We also saw a ghost ward in <u>chapter 388</u>. ?

 Chapter 822: Please Permit Us to Have a Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 822: Please Permit Us to Have a Reunion</h4>

    ¡°Among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, violet-gold means something different than it does to us humans. They use destiny aura to forge gold, with materials taken from in entities in god domains. Combine that with sacrifices from their subsidiary species, they turned ¡®dark¡¯ into ¡®violet.¡¯ And the final result is a set of violet-gold darkheaven armor!¡± [1]

    As the Captain described the terrifying figure off in the distance, his expression was one of envy. ¡°Years ago, I got very, very close to getting my own set of violet-gold darkheaven armor.

    ¡°Believe me, little Ah Qing, among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, that type of armor isn¡¯t just a status symbol. It¡¯s actually a magical treasure that borders on the level of being taboo. As for how high the quality is, it depends on what type of beings were in in the god domain and used to make it.¡±

    The Captain was staring at the darkheaven general, his eyes full of longing so intense it was nearly corporeal.

    Xu Qing was looking in the same direction; he could sense how extraordinary that violet-gold armor was. In fact, the moment that armor appeared, his soul threads inside of him had reacted as if they were facing immense pressure. That also went to show how amazing the violet-gold darkheaven armor was.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s that ghost chariot. It¡¯s basically a treasure! The Firemoon Darkheaven people have a very special region that they call the Mountain and Sea Region. Despite the name being Mountain and Sea, the reality is that it¡¯s a ce where mutant beasts gather. If you ask me, it should really be called Beast Region.

    ¡°For countless years, the ce has been home to either native beasts, or beasts that the Firemoon Darkheavens collected from other ces and relocated there. There, they breed, mutate, and proliferate. The amount of beasts there is shocking, but what¡¯s even more shocking are the outrageous mutations.

    ¡°All sorts of wild beasts there have developed gruish abilities. The ghost chariot beasts are just one of them. Supposedly, they can actually devour souls. And once they reach a certain level of development, they can send their soul sea into one¡¯s dreams and kill you without touching you. That¡¯s why themoners often refer to them as nightmare beasts.¡±

    The Captain licked his lips. ¡°The most important thing, though, is that they¡¯re delicious! Maybe my information is somewhat outdated, but I remember from a previous life that there have been only two instances in recorded history of people taming ghost chariots.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he thought back to what the y fox had told him about the second round of the Great Hunt. Coupling that with the Captain¡¯s information, it seemed highly likely that the second round would take ce in the Mountain and Sea Region.

    Considering that, Xu Qing asked, ¡°Eldest Brother, are there any other well-known types of mutant beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region? Is there some kind of ranking system?¡±

    Thinking back to the wonderful vor of ghost chariots, the Captain swallowed hard. ¡°Ranking system? Sure. But too much time has passed for me to remember the details. Back in that life, ghost chariots ranked ninth. As for what ranked first, it was something called a ninedawns. Sadly, I never saw one, although from what I¡¯ve heard, hardly anybody has.

    ¡°That¡¯s why there aren¡¯t many physical descriptions of them. Even the information from the God Mountain just says something about them having ninenterns. There¡¯s no more detail than that.¡± [2][3]

    The Captain sighed. ¡°I used to daydream about what it would be like to wear violet-gold darkheaven armor and ride a ninedawns beast as a mount, all while munching on ghost chariot flesh and returning to humankind in full glory. Anyone who saw that would be shocked to the core. What a pity it never happened, all thanks to that old shrew!¡±

    The Captain gritted his teeth and muttered to himself a bit.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t weigh in. He knew what ¡®old shrew¡¯ the Captain was talking about....

    When the Captain talked about ¡®returning to humankind,¡¯ Xu Qing had a different understanding about how that would y out. As far as he could tell, returning to humannds looking like that would frighten a lot of people and probably result in a certain degree of inter-species animosity.

    That said, as long as the Captain was happy, Xu Qing was happy. Instead of bursting the Captain¡¯s bubble, he prepared to ask some questions about some other things. But then, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered, and he turned to look in the direction of the darkheaven general.

    A deafening wind had sprung up from that direction, causing rifts to fill the air, making it look like a mirror on the verge of shattering. The clouds were ripped to shreds as an anguished cry rang out, so deafening it could rip apart metal and rock. The ground quaked, and even the darkmoon ward trembled. Next, a figure appeared out of the windstorm. It was made of mist, making it seem illusory, and as soon as it appeared, it fled to the southwest.

    The darkheaven general was right behind it, pursuing on his ghost chariot. He wielded a spear of underworld fire, and had extremely cold eyes. His body was surrounded by golden light, making him seem like a sun. ring at the fleeing misty figure, he said, ¡°Go back and tell your lord that Little Ghosty is living a fine life with me. In fact, it¡¯s for Little Ghosty¡¯s sake that I refrained from wiping out your species three times in a row. Next time, I won¡¯t hold back.¡±

    Each word he spoke thrummed with the power of naturalws, bing sealing marks thatnded on the fleeing figure. It struggled not to copse, and in the end, managed to escape. After it was gone, the darkheaven general¡¯s ghost chariot howled. Then it turned and bore its master off into the distance in the blink of an eye. Heaven and earth returned to normal. The sky above the darkmoon ward went back to the way it was before.

    The Firemoon Darkheavens inside all had their heads bowed and respectful looks on their faces.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, had a look of anticipation on his face. He was thinking about what it would be like to have Smoldering God battle prowess one day.

    The Captain looked at him thoughtfully, then sped his shoulder. ¡°Ah, what¡¯s so impressive about that? If I threw caution to the wind and undid some seals, I could be like that too. As for you, little Ah Qing, you¡¯ve got plenty of time to work with. Don¡¯t be in a rush.¡±

    The Captain blinked a few times and then looked in the direction of the darkmoon ward. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go take a look around.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking away from the darkheaven general, he followed the Captain into the darkmoon ward.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t able to hide the forbidden mountain he had taken. However, upon entering the darkmoon ward, the mountain marvelously shrank down and started orbiting over his head.

    Entering the darkmoon ward was simple. You could just walk right in. Of course, there were requirements. Only Firemoon Darkheavens could enter whenever they wanted. All other outsiders required an identity medallion. Xu Qing¡¯s medallion ranked very high, and that was enough to get him inside. The Captain also had an identity medallion. Though it didn¡¯t qualify him to participate in the Great Hunt, it was enough to get into the darkmoon ward. After the warding spells scanned them, they were able to enter without any trouble.

    Looking around at the crowded streets, it was possible to see a few people with forbidden mountains orbiting around them. That was enough to prove that what the y fox had told Xu Qing was correct. The Captain sighed again.

    ¡°I guess the first round really is about moving mountains. Our tests along the way proved that you can¡¯t hide the mountain. But at least it shrinks down while we¡¯re in the darkmoon ward. I guess that just goes to show how difficult the first round is. Everyone who gets a mountain has to show it publicly, which makes it a lot easier for people to target and rob each other.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing, this first round is definitely going to be a bloody affair. Look! People are already giving us dirty looks for being human.¡±

    Xu Qing looked around the bustling market. He could see what the Captain was talking about. There were definitely some people looking at him. Well, to be specific, they were looking at the forbidden mountain.

    ¡°Keep your facial expression under control. We need to look scared and subservient. That¡¯s one reason I brought you here to the darkmoon ward. To do a little fishing....¡±

    The Captain looked very nervous. After some thought, Xu Qing made sure hisplexion was ashen. And thus, the two of them walked along, studying their surroundings.

    Xu Qing quickly came to see firsthand what a bizarre marketce this was. Though the buildings here were businesses, few people came in and out of them. Most people clustered around the vendor stalls. Just about everything imaginable could be found for sale.

    Xu Qing saw flesh from godly entities with impressive fluctuations. Among humankind, things like that would be considered very rare. And though they weren¡¯t avable literally everywhere, there were still enough types to provide for a variety to pick from. The Firemoon Darkheavens just controlled too vast of a territory. Because of that, their economy was all-epassing. There were even specialty items from other species that popped up regrly.

    It was the same with the species represented in the darkmoon ward. Just looking around, Xu Qing saw hundreds of species. If he somehow ended up in a ce like this before he started his path of cultivation, he would be convinced that he was surrounded by demons and devils.

    The Captain had a lot more experience than Xu Qing, and he knew quite a bit about the Firemoons. Therefore, after they had walked around a bit, the Captain shouted a quick goodbye to Xu Qing, then ran off to a vendor stall run by a green stone golem, with whom he started negotiating.

    Xu Qing kept walking along, scanning the various vendor stalls to look for interesting things.

    <i>I see a lot of poisonous nts for sale.</i>

    At one particr vendor stall, Xu Qing saw a collection of bottles as well as a host of dried medicinal nts. After looking through what was avable for about an hour, he sighed.

    <i>I just don¡¯t have enough spirit stones....</i>

    There were plenty of interesting wares avable, but unfortunately, the prices were shockingly high. Given the amount of spirit stones Xu Qing had on him, he really couldn¡¯t afford anything.

    That is, unless he sold some things. It had been a long time since he experienced the feeling ofcking spirit stones. It made him think back to his days in the continent of South Phoenix.

    <i>Prices in this darkmoon ward are a bit ridiculous.</i>

    Shaking his head, he was about to send a voice message to the Captain saying they should leave. However, that was when he suddenly received an excited message via divine will from the head in his D-132 god trove.

    <i>¡°Oh exalted, handsome, invincible, and merciful great jailer, I can sense the aura of some old friends. Please, permit us to have a reunion!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing stopped in ce. Despite all the years that had passed, there were still some empty spots in D-132. Two specifically: a scarecrow and a millstone. After the Corrections Division in Sea-Sealing County copsed, they had escaped, never to be seen again.

    In response to the head¡¯s words, Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up, and he looked around, eventuallying to focus on one specific vendor stall. There were random objectsid out for sale there, representing a wide variety of cultivation levels.

    One of them was a scarecrow, missing an arm and a leg,ying on a pile of random things, staring up nkly into the sky. Next to it was half of a millstone. [4]

    As Xu Qing approached, the scarecrow evidently sensed his aura and the aura of D-132. Its ssy, seemingly dead eyes suddenly turned to look at Xu Qing. At first it was stunned, but then, it was excited.

    1. I stared at this passage for a while trying to decipher some deeper meaning based on theponents of the Chinese characters and other things. I couldn¡¯te up with anything. It¡¯s possible I¡¯m just totally missing some cool point, but it seems to me like it¡¯s just supposed to sound dramatic, mysterious, and cool. In the grand scheme of things, this wordy isn¡¯t very important so I didn¡¯t bother asking Madam Deathde or someone else for a second opinion. ?

    2. There is a quasi-spoiler here, because the term ntern¡¯ here is actually slightly more vague in Chinese. Or more specifically, it¡¯s only one of the characters from ntern.¡¯ It could be interpreted in different ways (for instance basket or cage) depending on what other characters are paired with it. We don¡¯t get full confirmation untilter that it¡¯s meant to be antern. There will be more inter chapters, so I won¡¯t go into any more detail. ?

    3. There is more behind the term I¡¯m tranting as ¡°ninedawns.¡± If you transliterated it, it would be Jiuli. If you google that, you¡¯ll find that there was an ancient confederation of tribes in China called the Jiuli. Well, sometimes you¡¯ll find it transliterated as Jiuli. But more properly, it¡¯s the Nine Li tribe confederation, as it was made up of nine tribes that all used the surname Li. Now, let¡¯s talk about the ¡°Li.¡± This is not the same Li as the supermon surname (i.e. Li Zihua, Li Zimei, etc.). Instead, it¡¯s a character that can have numerous meanings. For one thing, it¡¯s a surname/n name, as rted to what¡¯s mentioned above. But the character also has literary meanings, including ¡°ck, multitude, many.¡± The reason why I¡¯m rendering it as dawn is twofold. 1) The specific meaning of the character is not important to the narrative, characters, plot, etc., so I feel there¡¯s wiggle room in how to render it. 2) When youbine the character Li with the character for ¡®brightness,¡¯ it bes themon literary term for ¡®dawn.¡¯ For instance, remember the swordsage oath? It mentions dawn, and uses that term. Ites up in other contexts in that way, even in other novels such as ISSTH. Of course, there is other stuff that yed into my decision thates fromter in the novel, and I won¡¯t get into spoilers now. ?

    4. The scarecrow and millstone were mentioned in <u>chapters 406</u>, <u>412</u>, and <u>660</u>. As I recall, the millstone was actually the ¡°illusory¡± form, while the real form was a bucket. However, it appears the author wants it to be a millstone going forward. Maybe it¡¯s an author mistake, or maybe you can assume that the millstone chose to remain in that form. ?

 Chapter 823: Heâ€™s Mine

    <h4>Chapter 823: He¡¯s Mine</h4>

    The scarecrow¡¯s experiences over the past few years had left her feeling like D-132 was nothing short of a paradise. Life there was carefree and without worries. If you died, it wasn¡¯t a big deal, as you woulde back to life. There were people to talk to there, plus, all the inmates got to work together to pull off a mystifying scam. Granted, it involved sleeping next to a god¡¯s finger, but that thing spent most of ¨©ts own time sleeping anyway. What was more, there were always jailersing and going that they could mess around with. Although she had asionally thirsted for freedom, after that freedom arrived, it didn¡¯t bring the happiness she had hoped for.

    Living in the outside world was pure bitterness, and once people figured out her undying characteristics, they always came up with plenty of ways to toy with her. It was almost too horrible to endure. By now, those special characteristics were fading away. She couldn¡¯t recover her lost limbs, and at best, could just hold on a bit longer until she, as well as the millstone, who wasn¡¯t in much better shape, would just naturally die.

    Given the rate of things, it seemed like it would only be a few dozen years until her undying characteristics were gone. When that happened, she would ultimately copse into ashes. She was simply waiting. Waiting to die.

    Thus, her eyes had long turned listless. Never in her wildest dreams could she have guessed that here in the interior of Firemoon Darkheaven territory, she would actually sense Xu Qing¡¯s aura! It seemed unbelievable. After all... they were ridiculously far away from Sea-Sealing County.

    Thus, she gaped, and then started to get excited. Using her one remaining arm, she reached over and patted the millstone. Sadly, the millstone didn¡¯t budge.

    However, her movement attracted the attention of the vendor who managed the stall. His head resembled a human cultivator, except his body was covered with white scales. What was more, he had three eyes. The center most eye was pure white, as if it were staring into a void. Astonishingly, he had a small mountain orbiting above his head. Clearly, he was participating in the Great Hunt. When he saw Xu Qing, and noticed the mountain orbiting his head, he sized him up, his eyes glittering mysteriously.

    ¡°Human? You don¡¯t see many of your kind in Firemoon territory.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He recognized what species this cultivator was.

    <i>Whitemarsh</i>.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t have a very good impression of this species. They had recently teamed up with the Nightshades in the Nightspirit Region to fight against humankind.

    Forgoing any conversation, Xu Qing walked up to the scarecrow. ¡°How much for this?¡±

    The Whitemarsh cultivator grinned. He made a grasping motion, and the scarecrow flew over into his scaled hand. He squeezed hard, and the scarecrow let loose an agonized shriek.

    ¡°This thing has a very low level, but at the same time, is very interesting. It contains some of the characteristics of a god. It also has an undying will, which is worthy of study. What¡¯s more, it has a soul sealed inside. A human soul. Specifically, it¡¯s the soul of a very good-looking female cultivator. I yed around to my heart¡¯s content already, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that she¡¯s very valuable.¡±

    The Whitemarsh cultivator looked at Xu Qing. Noting his facial expression, heughed. ¡°What, is she your friend or something? How about this? Give me that forbidden mountain of yours, and you can have her. That half of a millstone has the same origin as the scarecrow. Sadly, it¡¯s about to fade away into nothing. If you want, I can throw it in for free.¡±

    The Whitemarsh¡¯s words were noticed by some of the surrounding cultivators. Many of them looked over and started whispering sarcastically among themselves.

    Xu Qing had noticed some malicious gazes since he arrived in the darkmoon ward, but more than that, people seemed derisive. Because of the decline of humankind, there were powerful species who, though they didn¡¯t dare to view humans as scum, still didn¡¯t think very much of them. Whether it was bullying them or killing them, either were on the table.

    That said, the forbidden mountain orbiting above Xu Qing¡¯s head identified him as a participant in the Great Hunt. Because of that, most people would take him a bit more seriously. Although the rules of the Great Hunt allowed for fighting and killing among participants, that was only for people who qualified to participate. Others weren¡¯t allowed to make any moves on participants.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression remained calm despite the sarcastic whispers and derisive gazes. In the end, he shook his head and turned to leave. The price being asked for was something he couldn¡¯t ept.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was about to walk off, the Whitemarsh squeezed down harder on the scarecrow. This time, the scarecrow gritted her teeth and forced herself not to scream.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting,¡± the Whitemarsh murmured. Chuckling, he looked at the departing Xu Qing, his eyes narrowed. At the same time, his third eye flickered with an imperceptible white glow. Within it appeared an image of four secret troves.

    <i>Spirit Trove, with four secret troves....</i>

    The Whitemarsh cultivator¡¯s third eye returned to normal.

    ¡°Human Fellow Daoist! I could also ept a hundred catties of high-grade flesh from a godly entity. What do you say?¡±

    Xu Qing stopped walking and thought for a moment. He could sense that once D-132 wasplete, it would transform in some way. Besides,pleting D-132 in general was something he had long thought about. He was the jailer assigned to D-132, and the assignment hade directly from Pce Lord Kong.

    After some thought, Xu Qing took out a bag of holding. He had flesh from godly entities left over from the Moonrite Region. Although he didn¡¯t have a lot, his reserve contained a few hundred catties. After measuring out the appropriate amount, he tossed the bag of holding to the Whitemarsh.

    The Whitemarsh cultivator caught it, hefted it, and then nodded in satisfaction. With that, he tossed the scarecrow to Xu Qing. He also waved his hand to send the millstone flying over.

    Xu Qing flicked his sleeve to collect the scarecrow and the millstone. Then he turned and left.

    The Whitemarsh watched Xu Qing walking off, then licked his lips and started packing up his wares.

    Meanwhile, as Xu Qing walked along, he put the scarecrow and millstone into D-132. The moment they appeared inside, the head, the stone lion, and Sir Inkwell all got excited to varying degrees. The god¡¯s finger let loose some energy that immediately healed the scarecrow and restored the missing half of the millstone.

    ¡°Reunion time!¡± the head said,ughing.

    Next, D-132 shivered. With all the inmates back, the cell block that had been cursed by misfortune was now whole. And instantly, a sensation of transformation rose up. Seeing that, Xu Qing retracted his divine will. After briefly looking over his shoulder at the Whitemarsh¡¯s vendor stall, he continued on his way.

    Four hourster, Xu Qing and the Captain met back up.

    The Captain looked nervous, pleased, and also a bit guilty. Grabbing Xu Qing by the arm, he hurried down the street.

    ¡°I hooked seven or eight fish,¡± he said. ¡°And some of them I wasn¡¯t even trying to hook. What about you, little Ah Qing? Get anything good?¡±

    ¡°I got something,¡± Xu Qing replied.

    ¡°Something? Like what, something big?¡± The Captain blinked a few times.

    Xu Qing nodded.

    The Captain looked thrilled. However, neither said anything further as they left the darkmoon ward, making it seem like they were in a big hurry as they did so. After they were some distance away, time passed. They were keeping their speed within the realm of what Spirit Trove cultivators were capable of. Half a dayter, no one had caught up to them.

    The Captain was surprised. ¡°No way! Since when did the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators be so well-behaved? Don¡¯t tell me I didn¡¯t make things obvious enough? Or maybe I was too obvious!¡±

    Sighing regretfully, he looked over his shoulder.

    Xu Qing looked off into the distance himself. He also couldn¡¯t sense any signs of pursuers.

    ¡°There¡¯s another possibility. Maybe someone did something to scare off other pursuers. You know, sort of like how that forbidden region was marked.¡±

    Xu Qing lifted his right sleeve and ced some taboo poison onto it. What had looked like an ordinary sleeve moments ago now had a finger-nail sized mark on it, just barely visible.

    ¡°This was ¡®secretly¡¯ put here by a Whitemarsh cultivator who¡¯s participating in the Great Hunt. He checked my cultivation base, and detected my four secret troves. As for him, he¡¯s in the great circle of Spirit Trove. If we just wait a bit longer, another forbidden mountain will be delivered right to us.¡±

    Xu Qing flew over to a nearby mountain peak, where he sat down to wait.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. Licking his lips, he joined Xu Qing and stared up into the canopy of heaven.

    About two hourster, the Captain¡¯s eyes lit up when he noticed three beams of light shooting over the horizon. They moved with rapid speed, and it seemed they were homing in on something specific. Aftering over the horizon, they moved directly toward Xu Qing. When they were about 3,000 meters away, they stopped moving, revealing three figures.

    They were all Whitemarsh cultivators. On the right side was the very same vendor who had sold Xu Qing the scarecrow. In the middle was a cultivator with much nicer clothing than the others, and an aura that surpassed the vendor. He was in the first stage of Void Returning. The final person was in the great circle of Spirit Trove.

    The vendor pointed at Xu Qing, then turned and said a few things to the Void Returning Whitemarsh. Smiling just as he had back at the darkmoon ward, he said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter that you were fishing in the darkmoon ward, humans. As soon as Iid eyes on you, I nned to get some friends to help me deal with you.

    ¡°The forbidden mountain above your head sealed your fate. Furthermore, though I have no idea how you rank among humans, I don¡¯t mind giving you some news about humankind, free of charge.¡±

    The Whitemarsh¡¯s eyes never left the forbidden mountain above Xu Qing. He licked his lips. ¡°You humans suffered a huge defeat on the northwestern front. Your imperial preceptor managed to keep things under control, but the Saia high priest already showed up to provide backup. I also heard that the Shadowfiend species was persuaded to join the fighting.

    ¡°Your northwestern territory is in great danger. As for the Nightshade front lines, though you humans have kept my species pinned down, and though your Sea-Sealing County forces will soon take all of the Nightspirit Region, the reality is... we wanted you to pin us down.

    ¡°Human casualties on the two lines of battle are severe. Now, think of what would happen if someone tied both of your hands behind your back, then tried to stab you in the heart. Could you avoid the blow?¡± The Whitemarsh grinned broadly. ¡°In fact, even as I speak these words, it¡¯s possible that hundreds of humans have died on the battlefield.¡±

    The Whitemarsh looked closely to see Xu Qing¡¯s reaction. Clearly, he had a reason for providing this news; he wanted to draw Xu Qing and the Captain off the mountain peak.

    Given that he could sense their movements through the mark he¡¯d left on Xu Qing, and considering his cautious nature, he had alreadye to the conclusion that they might have set up a trap for him. Xu Qing and the Captain, who had plenty of experience in such things, knew that as well.

    ¡°He¡¯s mine,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    The Captain smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of the other two. I haven¡¯t sampled Whitemarsh flesh for a long time!¡±

    The two of them vanished. And then, brilliant light suddenly appeared all around the three Whitemarsh cultivators.

 Chapter 824: A Lamb Like a Devil

    <h4>Chapter 824: A Lamb Like a Devil</h4>

    The Whitemarshes were a subsidiary species to the Firemoon Darkheavens. They didn¡¯t really have a good reputation, and could hardlypare to the Saia people. There were many, many such species attached to the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    ¡°Normally speaking,¡± the Captain said very loudly, ¡°species like the Whitemarshes have one thing inmon. They¡¯re ruthless toward other species, but are more than willing to grovel and scrape to the Firemoons. In fact, when ites to currying favor, they don¡¯t have a bottom line. Considering they wouldn¡¯t dare try to rob other important participants in the Great Hunt, when they saw you, it¡¯s no wonder they took you to be a fatmb.¡±

    As the Captain jested, blue light red, and coldness spread out for 500 kilometers that could freeze even the air. Within that space, winter descended. Mountains andnds alike became covered in ice. nts and vegetation became ice sculptures, and the clouds became so heavy they fell out of the sky.

    There was little need to mention the Whitemarsh cultivators.

    ¡°However,¡± the Captain continued, ¡°there¡¯s a kind of beast from certain forbidden grounds that looks like amb, but is called a devil by the locals.¡±

    The Captain lifted his hand and pushed it toward the Whitemarsh cultivators.

    These cultivators in first stage Void Returning and the great circle of Spirit Trove were visibly surprised. The former reacted most quickly; given his Void Returning cultivation base, he had his ways of dealing with natural and magicalws. All the threads within him swept together to form a furnace, which raged to life.

    The Spirit Trove cultivator next to him had it worse off. No matter how he tapped into his five secret troves, he couldn¡¯t really stop the freezing effect. As the dramatic transformations urred around him, he lost the ability to move, and fell out of the sky along with the clouds.

    The two of them were stunned, and already, their hearts were pounding in their chests. As for the person orchestrating all of this, the Whitemarsh vendor, his face fell and he started backing up at top speed. He sensed a deadly crisis looming. The developments already underway were far, far from what he had previously predicted would happen. There was no time to sit around contemting the situation. He instantly released the power of the great circle of Spirit Trove. All five of his secret troves erupted with burning mes, and in his anxiety, he even burned some of his own life force.

    With that burst of speed, he quickly made it off into the distance. However, he wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    At the same time that the Whitemarsh vendor burst into motion, Xu Qing appeared right behind him. It didn¡¯t matter how much of a burst of speed was involved. It didn¡¯t do any good.

    There was no way he could shake Xu Qing for even a fraction of a second.

    Xu Qing¡¯s daoist robe pped in the wind, and his hair whipped back and forth. He raised his hand, but there was no explosive burst. Instead, his hand held a ck dagger with a shroud wrapped around the hilt, which emanated an intense aura of death. [1]

    The aura spread out in all directions, causing the Whitemarsh cultivator¡¯s heart to pound. The sensation of death became like the tide, washingpletely over him and making it impossible to move, let alone flee. He wanted to run. But the threat weighing down on him because of this human cultivator was such an intense pressure it felt like his five secret troves might copse at any moment. He tried to unleash the heavenly daos in the secret troves, but they were in embryonic form and could do nothing but remain in ce, trembling. Cultivation base, heavenly daos, and energy alike were all subject to immobilizing pressure.

    The Whitemarsh¡¯s heart filled with rm as Xu Qing viciously shed the dagger through his throat.

    It was just like back when Xu Qing was young. Blood sprayed everywhere. There was no agonized shriek, only a gurgling sound as the head... tumbled away from the torso. As itnded on the ground, soul threads shot out from Xu Qing, stabbed into the head and extracted the Whitemarsh¡¯s soul. In moments the head withered into a husk, while the soul was madly extracted, turning into more soul threads in Xu Qing¡¯s collection. The torso copsed into ash.

    Meanwhile, elsewhere on the battlefield, the Captainughed ferociously as he suddenly exploded, turning into countless beams of blue light, within each of which was a blue worm. The worms swept out and then closed in on the Void Returning Whitemarsh from all directions.

    Struggling and fighting back didn¡¯t do any good. In the blink of an eye, so many blue worms had smacked into the Whitemarsh that he looked like a huge blue ball of flesh. Only when looking closely was it obvious that the ball of flesh was made from worms. To apany the ghastly sight were horrifying chewing sounds and miserable screams.

    Xu Qing looked over and could tell that the Captain¡¯s current battle prowess was stronger than when they had shed with the Firemoon cultivator recently. Obviously the Captain had made some progress in their recent travels. Smiling, Xu Qing waved his right hand to retract all of his soul threads.

    Meanwhile, the screaming faded away to nothing inside the ball of flesh. The flesh then wriggled and changed back into the Captain, who licked his lips as he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Whitemarshes still taste delicious, little Ah Qing. By the way, I learned two interesting things from his memories.

    ¡°First of all, the one you picked just now was actually considered a chosen among Whitemarshes, and is an expert at concealment. The one I killed seemed stronger, but the reality is that he just stepped into Void Returning and hardly had any sess with his heavenly daos. In fact, he was recently beaten in an ambush when fighting with the one you killed. But the most worthless of all of them is this guy.¡±

    The Captain made a grasping gesture, and the final immobilized Whitemarsh flew over to him.

    Xu Qing nodded. He could already sense that there was something wrong with the returning soul threads. There seemed to be some missing.

    Given what the Captain had said, it seemed the Whitemarsh vendor had some lifesaving techniques, and had faked his own death. There were no fluctuations in the area, such that just about any other person would have been incapable of tracking down the concealed party. But things weren¡¯t that difficult for Xu Qing. His eyes turned pitch ck, and taboo poison spread out everywhere, filling the surroundings.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide.

    ¡°Throwing around more poison? Don¡¯t spoil my meal! It¡¯s delicious!¡±

    The Captain performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, causing blue light to flicker as thest Whitemarsh cultivator copsed into roughly a hundred green apples.

    As they tumbled down, the Captain swished his sleeve to collect them up. Then he turnedpletely blue and disappeared into thin air.

    As Xu Qing¡¯s poison spread, the air rippled, and a fist-sized eyeball appeared, white in color. The eye looked astonished, but at the same time, determined. He had been so close that he didn¡¯t dare to try to teleport away, for fear of the teleportation being noticed. He had previously nned to just wait until Xu Qing left, then stealthily sneak away. How could he have guessed that he would be discovered so quickly? Feeling no reason not to, he quickly resorted to a teleportation. As the teleportation fluctuations built up, the eye began to turn blurry.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze remained calm as he waved his right hand, sending out a host of soul threads. In the blink of an eye, they formed into the shape of a huge sundial. The gnomon was in motion as naturalws of time descended.

    Xu Qing looked at the spot where the eye was about to teleport away, and time reversed there. The blurry eye became very clear. Its expression was again one of astonishment.

    When the sundial¡¯s power faded, the eye trembled as it tried to initiate another teleportation. It failed. It tried to go invisible. That also failed. And then Xu Qing was in front of it.

    He pulled his hand back and then swatted the eye. The eye turned bloodshot and shrieked, but it didn¡¯t do any good. Resistance meant nothing. A pop could be heard as the eye exploded.

    The sundial copsed into soul threads, which then bored into the eye, causing more soul threads to appear in Xu Qing. From a distance, it was possible to see countless crimson soul threads swirling around Xu Qing, making him look like a devil.

    The Captain materialized next to him. Chuckling, he retrieved a green apple and took a bite.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look like one of the good guys at all, little Ah Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the apple in the Captain¡¯s hand. He said nothing.

    The Captain took out another apple and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing caught it and took a bite. It was very sweet. From a very young age, Xu Qing had always refused to eat human flesh. But he would eat just about anything else.

    Xu Qing¡¯s actions caused the Captain to sp his shoulder happily.

    ¡°I got more news. There¡¯s a member of the Firemoon Darkheaven nobility who wanted tomemorate the Great Hunt by opening up his personal forbidden regions. Now they¡¯re avable to all cultivators participating in the Great Hunt. This particr noble has five forbidden regions in his territory, one of which has more than twenty forbidden mountains in it. Based on the information I just got, they¡¯ll be opening up very soon. We should hurry over there.

    ¡°Since you have Great Hunt qualifications, we can definitely fuck them up! That way, it¡¯ll be much more reasonable for us to enter the god domainter to handle my big job. Besides... who knows, maybe you could end up as a darkheaven general! Little Ah Qing, your Eldest Brother is going all out to help you!¡±

    The Captain emphasized his words by smacking his chest. His eyes glittered. ¡°Just remember, if we ultimately seed, and you be a darkheaven general, you¡¯ll need to lend me your new outfit for a few years.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, then waved his hand, causing the forbidden mountain which had previously belonged to the Whitemarsh vendor to fly over to him. Now he had two forbidden mountains orbiting over his head. asionally, red lightning bolts would crash between them. asionally, the lightning bolts would hit each other, causing showers of sparks to illuminate the surroundings.

    Looking up at the two mountains, Xu Qing suddenly said, ¡°Eldest Brother, how many forbidden mountains do you think it would take to earn first ce?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know, a hundred maybe?¡± the Captain replied casually.

    ¡°Alright. A hundred.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes red with cold light as he burst into motion.

    The Captain blinked a few times, grinned, and then followed. The two of them disappeared over the horizon as they headed toward the Firemoon Darkheaven noble¡¯s forbidden regions.

    1. The shroud-hilt dagger was created by Xu Qing in <u>chapter 347</u>. He used it subsequently in<u> chapters 416</u> and <u>420</u>. Its foundation was a dagger the Captain gave to him as a gift in <u>chapter 338</u>. ?

 Chapter 825: This Time itâ€™s... Godherald of Starfire

    <h4>Chapter 825: This Time it¡¯s... Godherald of Starfire</h4>

    The Great Hunt was a very important event for their species. Participants included, not just their own subsidiary species, but outside cultivators as well. Everyone had a chance to earn the qualifications. Xu Qing was a good example. Because of that there was no set number of participants.

    However, there were a limited number of forbidden mountains. With so many cultivators participating, securing one of those forbidden mountains was no easy task. That wasn¡¯t to mention that the requirement to pass the round was three mountains. At a certain point, the only way to collect enough forbidden mountains was to fight with other participants. That was the only way to meet the basic standard.

    Of course, the Firemoon Darkheavens didn¡¯t want people who merely met the basic standard. They valued strength, and as a result, there would always be very fierce fighting. As the Firemoon Darkheavens tried to raise venomous bugs in a jar, things would happen such as what Xu Qing and the Captain had just heard about.

    Special forbidden regions were being opened.

    In the first round of the Great Hunt, there would always be participants who were members of the nobility subservient to one of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ three grand stewards. Depending on the requirements from the temples of the gods, they would open their personal forbidden regions for use in thepetition. And instead of discouraging fighting and robbing, they actually promoted it.

    Vortexes of flesh and blood could be found throughout Firemoon Darkheaven regions, which would lead directly to those forbidden regions. As a result, the first round of the Great Hunt was widely promoted, and would attract chosen among chosen.

    That said, due to terrain and travel limitations, it was almost impossible for all the participants to show up at one specific forbidden region at the same time. Normally speaking, local cultivators would get the news first, and would flock to be the first to enter.

    Right now, a vortex of flesh and blood had appeared in the northwestern part of the eighth region, in the territory of a Firemoon noble. The area was normally kept sealed, with an outeryer that shone with golden light, and indicated that the area was private property.

    The forbidden region inside was sorge it took up about half of an entire prefecture. The mutagen was so dense it formed a mist. There were arge number of mutant beasts as well. Taking in the forbidden region as a whole, it was actually not very far from bing a forbidden ground. It was filled with jungles, rivers of poison, viges of grues, as well as some astonishing forbidden mountains.

    Hovering in the air above the tallest of the mountains was a magnificent pce. There were two rows of statues leading into it. And in the depths of the pce hall, seated on a throne, was a hulking figure with his forehead resting on his palm. He seemed to be dozing. He appeared to be middle-aged, and glowed with golden light. He was mighty, with Smoldering God fluctuations that could crush worlds.

    He was the Firemoon noble who owned this forbidden region. He had opened the ce to honor the orders given by the temples of the gods. He also happened to be somewhat interested in the chosen cultivators participating in the event. That was why he hade in person to see what promising individuals might rise to prominence in his forbidden region.

    Of course, there were also some unwritten rules that everyone had toply by, which included him.

    As the appointed time neared, the Firemoon noble opened his eyes and sighed. That exhtion caused heaven and earth to dim, and kicked up intense winds. The golden barrier that covered the forbidden region then copsed.

    It turned into a golden mist that swept inward toward the pce hall. A momentter, it entered the hall, and the Firemoon noble inhaled it.

    Then the Firemoon noble spoke in a cool voice that echoed out in all directions like heavenly thunder. ¡°The forbidden region is now open. Put on a good show, ya little punks.¡±

    Chosen Firemoon cultivators who had been waiting in the area immediately started moving into the forbidden region at top speed.

    Almost instantly, fierce fighting broke out.

    No one would interfere with them, no matter whether they were fighting, stealing, or killing. Even the Firemoon noble in the pce just watched.

    Before long, there were deaths. Not everyone had chosen to instantly go after a forbidden mountain. After all, you could get the forbidden mountains by killing others. And hunting down others was a lot simpler than defending against mass onughts.

    That said, all of the shockwaves ofbat were kept within the forbidden region. No one on the outside could even see what was happening. The forbidden region was like a ck hole that devoured everything and didn¡¯t release even the tiniest fluctuation.

    Everything was quiet.

    Before long, seven days passed. More Great Hunt participants showed up on a daily basis and disappeared inside. There were also some people who chose to leave. Strangely enough, not much happened to any of the forbidden mountains.

    The Firemoon noble in the pce yawned and shook his head. <i>This is actually kind of boring.</i>

    That was around the time that Xu Qing and the Captain appeared in the canopy of heaven about 50 kilometers away from the forbidden region. They had been traveling nonstop for about seven days. Instead of having two forbidden mountains orbiting above his head, Xu Qing had three. He had acquired another one along the way.

    <i>That took a bit too long.</i>

    The journey took too long, and it also took too long acquiring that extra forbidden mountain. Xu Qing was getting the feeling that unless he managed to get a lot of forbidden mountains all at once, there was no way he would manage to collect a hundred in time. With such thoughts on his mind, he looked at the distant forbidden region, his eyes gleaming coldly. Then he started moving again, with the Captain in tow, his expression one of anticipation.

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the two of them reached the border of the forbidden region. Within moments the dense mist of mutagen swallowed them up.

    Once inside, Xu Qing concealed his aura. He would no longer move about so openly, and would instead favor stealth as he slipped through the jungle environment. He had spent so much time in forbidden regions in the past, and had interacted with so many of their denizens, that such behavior had long since be an instinct for him.

    Once inside the forbidden region, his forbidden mountains shrank down again, just as they had in the darkmoon ward.

    A strange light gleamed in the Captain¡¯s eyes as he watched Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t his first time witnessing how Xu Qing moved in forbidden regions, but it was the first time he had paid close attention. Gradually, he changed his own movements in imitation of Xu Qing. And before long, he was speeding through the trees of the forbidden region like a predatory cat. Because of the way they kept to the shadows and moved stealthily, they didn¡¯t run into anyone.

    Xu Qing quickly came to realize that this ce had a restrictive effect on divine will; its current maximum range was only about 300 meters. Most cultivators were used to using divine will to scan their surroundings, and thus felt out of sorts in such circumstances.

    Little Shadow was still asleep and couldn¡¯t help.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t too worried. He was familiar with how forbidden regions worked. What was more, he could pick up a lot of information from the surrounding nts and vegetation. As they hurried on their way, Xu Qing paid close attention to everything around him, including the mutant beasts. And it wasn¡¯t long before he noticed the mountains, and especially the golden pce floating in the air.

    ¡°That pce looks very out of ce,¡± the Captain said in a low voice. ¡°I¡¯d say it probably belongs to a Firemoon noble. Someone important must be here to watch the show. There have already been a lot of deaths here in the past seven days, little Ah Qing. I can smell the blood.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had just spotted some bloodspirit weeds nearby that looked unusually healthy. It was a nt that thrived by absorbing death auras. When things died near them, their leaves would automatically turn in that direction.

    In fact, as Xu Qing was looking around at the bloodspirit weeds, their leaves stirred and all pointed in one specific direction, whereupon they started wriggling as if absorbing something. Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything in response. However, the identity medallion the y fox had given him pulsed, and then caused him to turn invisible. Meanwhile, the Captain squatted next to a tree and transformed into a worm.

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, they detected sounds from not too far away.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he waited.

    A figure appeared, racing in their direction. It was a young Firemoon Darkheaven with a cultivation base in Spirit Trove. That said, his cultivation base was unstable, and he was clearly injured, with a listless expression and a mouth stained with blood.

    He looked anxious. As he got close to Xu Qing, he suddenly stopped and looked around. Seeing nothing seemed to make him even more nervous, and he opened his mouth to speak.

    That was when a sound rang out that sounded like metal grating against stone. A figure neared in a bright red sea of mes.

    ¡°Since we happened to run into each other, Master Gravesparrow,¡± he said in a sinister voice, ¡°why don¡¯t we settle our old grudge once and for all. Where do you think you¡¯re going to run to?¡±

    The speaker stopped in midair, revealing himself to be another young Firemoon Darkheaven. mes covered him, which was something Xu Qing hadn¡¯t seen among other Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators. Astonishingly, he had two forbidden mountains orbiting above his head.

    ¡°Old grudge??¡± snapped Master Gravesparrow, his eyes burning with fury. ¡°You know full well which of us started that grudge!¡±

    Master Gravesparrow suddenly turned to the side and bowed, his expression one of piety as he loudly said, ¡°I, Master Gravesparrow, chief legate of Steward Deepspirit of the Starfire Temple, offer respectful greetings to the godherald of Starfire!¡±

    The pursuing cultivator looked around in surprise. However, there was nothing more than silence after that.

    Master Gravesparrow¡¯splexion turned a bit more ashen. At the same time, the pursuing cultivator chuckled softly.

    The Firemoon noble in the golden temple opened his eyes. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting?¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he slowly pointed at the spot where Xu Qing stood invisibly in the forbidden region.

 Chapter 826: Crown Prince Brightsouth

    <h4>Chapter 826: Crown Prince Brightsouth</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to reveal himself. Although the identity medallion given to him by the y fox was vibrating so violently it was heating up, he chose to ignore it. In fact, he even intensified the concealing effects. There was no purpose or need to interfere in the affairs of the irrelevant. In terms of one of these people being a so-called godherald, Xu Qing was used to such rankings.

    Ever since he had impersonated a godchild in the Holytide Region, and both a godherald and a godchild in Moonrite, he had seemed to develop a special affinity for things like that. Now that he was in the territory of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, if simr circumstances arose, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to do the same thing again. After all, he even had an identity medallion from the y fox.

    That said, Xu Qing was still somewhat interested in this Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator with the two forbidden mountains orbiting overhead. Therefore, he had immediatelye up with the n to just wait until the two of them dealt with each other, then step in to take the mountains.

    But when the Firemoon noble in the pce pointed at him, he had to do something different. That gesture caused the concealment effects hiding Xu Qing and the Captain to slowly fade away.

    The Captain reverted from worm form to human form, and as he squatted at the base of the tree, he muttered to himself inaudibly.

    Xu Qing went from being invisible to visible. He stood beneath the tree, his expression calm, but his heart racing. The sensation of being forcibly revealed by someone else put him fully on guard.

    The two Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators who had been just on the brink of fighting were understandably taken aback.

    Being the one with a disadvantage, Master Gravesparrow naturally sped up until he was behind Xu Qing and the Captain. Chest heaving, he sped hands and bowed deeply at the waist.

    ¡°Well met, Godherald!¡±

    In a moment like this, it wasn¡¯t important that he was dealing with a human and not a member of his own species. The most important thing was this person¡¯s identity, which he had confirmed with his own senses. As far as he was concerned, someone with an identity like this might be able to save his life.

    As he bowed, his pursuer¡¯s face darkened. However, he was a member of a different temple, and thus, his senses weren¡¯t as acute as Master Gravesparrow¡¯s, especially considering that Xu Qing had been attempting to stay hidden. Furthermore, he couldn¡¯t help but be a little suspicious of the identities of Xu Qing and the Captain. He had never seen or heard of any humans that were godheralds in Starfire Temple. And the Firemoon Darkheavens viewed almost all other species in Revered Ancient as inferior.

    That included these humans here. If a member of an inferior species became a godherald, it would cause a big stir.

    What was more, Xu Qing had three forbidden mountains orbiting overhead, which obliquely proved some things. But if this person was really a godherald, why was he participating in the Great Hunt?

    That said, this Firemoon Darkheaven didn¡¯t want to take any unnecessary risks. Regardless of anything, the term ¡®godherald¡¯ was something that caused fear to well up in his heart. Therefore, he just backed up and looked at Xu Qing with glittering eyes.

    He still wanted to kill Master Gravesparrow. But he also wasn¡¯t sure if he should press the attack.

    The Captain looked at what was happening with no small amount of amusement. Here they had two Firemoon Darkheavens, one that was bowing to them, and one that was backing away hesitantly.

    <i>Plus there¡¯s someone up there watching the excitement....</i>

    The Captain looked up at the floating pce.

    Xu Qing was annoyed. Ignoring the bowing Master Gravesparrow, he looked at the other cultivator and coldly said, ¡°Put your forbidden mountains down and leave.¡±

    The cultivator¡¯s glittering eyes turned even colder. From what he could sense, this person was a Spirit Trove cultivator, as was the person standing next to him. Although he himself had the same cultivation base, the fact was that he was a Firemoon cultivator, and there were few cultivators from other species who could match up to him while in the same cultivation level. That was especially true of humans. He had done training in humannds, and had killed quite a few of their so-called ¡®chosen¡¯ cultivators. Because of that experience, he knew exactly how frail human cultivators were. That led to deep disdain on his part.

    The only reason he was hesitating was because of this person¡¯s identity. For that reason alone, he suppressed his killing intent, looked up at the golden pce in the dome of heaven, and bowed.

    ¡°Exalted One, for a godherald to show up in this round of the Great Hunt and demand a forbidden mountain is a vition of the rules. Please, Exalted One, you need to step in.¡±

    Those words caused Master Gravesparrow¡¯s heart to thump. He had also picked up on the same cues as the other cultivator. And his opponent¡¯s action of calling out to the Firemoon noble was a case of <i>raking the firewood from beneath the kettle</i>. It was the perfect move. ording to the rules of the Great Hunt, non-participants were forbidden from meddling. There were some ways around that rule, but they were very limiting.

    In the golden pce above, the Firemoon noble smiled faintly. Then he spoke in a dignified voice.

    ¡°This person is not a godherald¡ª¡±

    Before the noble could finish his sentence, the Firemoon cultivator who was surrounded by intense heat suddenly red at Xu Qing with open killing intent. Erupting like an actual volcano, he shot toward Xu Qing. Since the identity he had feared was now a moot point, all he cared about were the forbidden mountains.

    Oftentimes, the way things y out deviates significantly from assumptions.

    As the Firemoon cultivator closed in with aggressive decisiveness, Xu Qing disappeared from in front of him. All he saw was a cold sh of light pass by his eyes. Then his head flew off his shoulders. Because it happened so quickly, his body just kept moving in the same direction as before. Before he could feel anything other than shock, a host of red threads appeared out of nowhere, sweeping over both his body and his severed head. To him, the entire world became the color of blood. Then, he experienced the indescribable pain of having his soul devoured. Then his world became ck. All of it happened in an instant.

    ¡°¡ªexcept that you can¡¯t defeat him,¡± the noble finished. By the time the words left his mouth, everything was over.

    Xu Qing was visible again, his face expressionless. The cultivator whose soul he had just devoured no longer controlled his forbidden mountain, and thus, they floated over to orbit over Xu Qing¡¯s head. Before, he had three. Now he had five. It was like a crown of mountains.

    As for Master Gravesparrow, his heart was now racing. What he had just witnessed flipped his world upside down. The person that had been pursuing him was an old archenemy, and also an outstanding figure in their shared cultivation level. He was vicious and merciless, with plenty of tactics ready to unleash. But he had just died in an instant at the hands of this human.

    It was a blow that left him feeling stunned. And when Xu Qing turned to look at him, Master Gravesparrow shivered and bowed his head respectfully. Inside he was trembling with increasing intensity with every moment that passed. And that was because he could tell that Xu Qing¡¯s gaze brought with it an invasion.

    Xu Qing studied Master Gravesparrow to confirm that he really didn¡¯t have a forbidden mountain. Then he turned and walked off.

    The Captain jumped to his feet and hurried after him. Upon passing Master Gravesparrow, he smiled and said, ¡°You got pretty lucky.¡±

    As Master Gravesparrow watched the two of them leaving, he struggled with sensations of utter disbelief. Just when they were about to disappear in the distance, Master Gravesparrow gasped as he seemingly remembered something. Raising his voice, he called, ¡°Many thanks for your assistance, Fellow Daoists! I have two pieces of news about humankind that I can give you!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce and looked over his shoulder at Master Gravesparrow.

    Seeing that, Master Gravesparrow hurried after him. Stopping about 30 meters away, he respectfully continued, ¡°Fellow Daoists, there are a total of 27 forbidden mountains in this forbidden region. That said, not all of them can be won by fighting. There are only ten that are in that category. As for the other seventeen... they¡¯ve already been set aside.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow looked up at the golden pce floating in the air.

    ¡°Those seventeen forbidden mountains are to be distributed among chosen disciples, both from my species and from other species. All they have to do is go to those mountains and take them. And no one would dare to fight with them.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He was waiting for the Firemoon cultivator to get to the point. After all, nothing he had said so far had anything to do with humankind. And he hadn¡¯t mentioned anything about pontificating on the rules of forbidden mountains.

    ¡°Why does that matter?¡± the Captain asked.

    Lowering his voice, Master Gravesparrow said, ¡°It matters because I happen to know that one of those seventeen mountains was set aside for you humans¡¯ Grand Prince!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up with interest.

    ¡°When your Grand Prince arrived here in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, he went around... begging for help to resolve the situation with humankind. He didn¡¯t make any progress at all, so ultimately, he decided to join the Great Hunt. People from many species expressed admiration for your Grand Prince, and that includes me. In my opinion, he must want to be a darkheaven general, after which he can request that the stewards resolve the crisis with humankind.

    ¡°His Firemoon mother probably gave him some help, which is how he already has a forbidden mountain reserved for him.¡±

    Considering that Master Gravesparrow was a Firemoon Darkheaven, it was no wonder that he had ess to far better information than Xu Qing. And he wasn¡¯t holding back any details.

    ¡°Is there something else?¡± the Captain asked.

    Master Gravesparrow hesitated briefly, then quietly said, ¡°The thing is, your Grand Prince hasn¡¯te here yet. A few days ago, I was informed that while Grand Prince was on the way here to get his forbidden mountain, he ran into Crown Prince Brightsouth.

    ¡°King Brightsouth is king legate to Steward Heavencloud of High God Sunfire. His crown prince has shocking talent, battle prowess that can crush all members of his generation, and is considered one of the top chosen among us Firemoons. He¡¯s very famous. There were witnesses who saw him take Grand Prince captive along with a bunch of other humans. All of them... were forced into servitude as cart-pullers.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow gauged Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression before continuing, ¡°As a result, the forbidden mountain set aside for Grand Prince here is now unassigned.¡±

    Xu Qing quietly looked off into the distance. The Captain¡¯s expression turned grim.

    A moment passed.

    ¡°What¡¯s the situation with the forbidden mountains now?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Master Gravesparrow took a deep breath and respectfully answered, ¡°ording to the rules here, ten days have to pass before anyone can take forbidden mountains from here. The forbidden region has been open for seven days so far, so all the mountains are still there. That said, the news has spread, so there¡¯s surely some participants already camping there.¡±

    ¡°Lead the way,¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes turning cold.

 Chapter 827: Now THATâ€™S Xu Qing

    <h4>Chapter 827: Now THAT¡¯S Xu Qing</h4>

    When Master Gravesparrow saw the coldness in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he thought back to his enemy who had just died. Taking a deep breath, he nodded and immediately led the way.

    Xu Qing followed, his face grim. The Captain was right next to him, and he seemed to have shed the frivolity from earlier. Although the Captain wasn¡¯t a bleeding heart when it came to humans, the news from just now was moving even to him.

    ¡°Humans....¡± He sighed inwardly.

    And thus, the three of them delved deeper and deeper into the forbidden region.

    Within the golden pce above, the Firemoon noble smiled again. He seemed pleased.

    <i>Things are finally getting interesting. How could the Great Hunt be the Great Hunt unless there was some blood spilled and lives lost?</i>

    Time passed.

    Two dayster in the depths of the forbidden region, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Gravesparrow all stood atop a massive tree, looking off into the distance. The spot where they looked was covered by a faint, ck mist that made the ce seem locked in eternal gloom. The trees in that area were as withered and misshapen as demonic monsters.

    Beyond that withered jungle were numerous towering mountains. They looked like 27 crouching dragons, linked together to form a mountain range that covered nearly half of the forbidden region. Some of the mountains had ck fire that asionally red, sending out ck smoke everywhere. There was even ckva flowing down them.

    ¡°Those are the forbidden mountains in this forbidden region,¡± Master Gravesparrow said quietly.

    Xu Qing sensed the heat on the wind, and his eyes narrowed. He had seen a lot of forbidden regions, and generally speaking, they were cold. This was actually his first time seeing volcanoes in a forbidden region.

    ¡°Thest 10 are the ones the general participants of the Great Hunt can fight over. The 17 up in front are the ones that have been set aside. As for the mountain set aside for Grand Prince... it¡¯s the ninth.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow pointed at one mountain in particr.

    Xu Qing looked in that direction. He could sense a lot of auras in the mountains,ing from the various Great Hunt participants that had gathered in the area. He sensed them on all the mountains, with the majority on the final 10 mountains, where the auras were very mixed. It was the same with the mountain Master Gravesparrow was pointing at. From what Xu Qing could sense, the cultivators who had gathered here had <i>swords drawn and arrows nocked</i>. Most of them seemed to be waiting instead of fighting.

    ¡°In one more day, the forbidden mountains will be free for the taking. When that happens, chaotic fighting will definitely break out.¡± Master Gravesparrow¡¯s eyes gleamed with the desire to do battle. His mountains had been taken much earlier, and were now with Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t dare to try to rob Xu Qing, so he was hoping to pick up a new forbidden mountain here.

    On the way here, he had courteously requested of Xu Qing to be able to take a mountain. Xu Qing had agreed. Although he also needed forbidden mountains, it was true that Master Gravesparrow had given them some very valuable information.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu, all we need to do is be patient for one more day.¡± Master Gravesparrow rotated his cultivation base, and his eyes gleamed. He didn¡¯t n to make a move immediately. As far as he was concerned, that was pointless. Seizing a mountain now would require waiting around for a day, giving other cultivators plenty of time to notice andy in wait. That would obviously make things a lot more difficult and dangerous.

    ¡°Just wait until the final day goes by. Once the forbidden mountains have been seized, we can swoop in, steal the ones we want, and get out of here. That¡¯s the most likely path to sess. After all, with all the mountains up for grabs, people will be distracted.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the ninth mountain, then the other mountains. Eyes cold, he said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to make things soplicated.¡±

    With that, he flew into the air and headed toward the mountains.

    Behind him, Master Gravesparrow¡¯s expression flickered. He knew Xu Qing was strong, as he had witnessed it personally. But it didn¡¯t seem that he had battle prowess sufficient to fight everyone here at once. Given Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess, his n would guarantee with nearly one hundred percent uracy that they could get one forbidden mountain. Two wasn¡¯t out of the question. But rushing in blindly would attract too much attention and throw too many other variables into the mix.

    ¡°This....¡± Feeling very nervous, he was about to say something when the Captainughed and flew past him.

    ¡°You want one or two mountains,¡± the Captain said. ¡°But my little Junior Brother wants all of them.¡±

    ¡°All of them?¡± Master Gravesparrow¡¯s heart raced as he watched Xu Qing flying up into the air.

    Xu Qing reached up toward his left shoulder, then jerked his hand out. His totem tattoos red with ck fire that rapidly spread out into a sea of mes around him. At the same time, the golden crow flew out gracefully into the fire, then threw its head back and let loose a piercing cry. It was pitch ck, with the general appearance of a phoenix. Its numerous tails spread out, attracting the attention of all the cultivators waiting in the 27 mountains.

    As that happened, Xu Qing reached out and made a grasping motion toward the golden crow. The crow cried out proudly as it turned and shot toward him. As it neared, it crumbled down until it was a ck spear in his hands. The presence of that spear caused wild colors to sh, and lightning to strike repeatedly in the area. It was as if the canopy of heaven would be ripped apart. A howl rippled out of nowhere, like a warning to ward off the presence of the spear.

    It didn¡¯t do any good. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes just got colder as he hefted the taboo spear. Then, as the noble in the golden pce looked on, as did the astonished Master Gravesparrow and all the cultivators on the 27 mountains, Xu Qing hurled the spear toward the ninth mountain.

    The ck spear was like an unstoppable dragon piercing through the sky, leaving behind a ck streak. Lightning gathered around it, encircling it and bolstering it. And piercing winds swept out in all directions. It headed straight toward the ninth mountain. It was consummately domineering as it mmed into the peak of the mountain, causing intense rumbling sounds to fill heaven and earth. The mountain shook violently as a shockwave rolled out from the spot where the spear hit, and sparks flew everywhere, filling the mountain.

    The cultivators who had been camping on the mountain were visibly shocked as they tumbled backward. Though they were furious, none of them dared to do anything. The cultivators on the other mountains looked over with serious expressions. Quite a few of them already harbored malicious intentions.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s voice drifted down from above.

    ¡°Yield. In three breaths of time, everyone remaining on this mountain will be exterminated.¡±

    The domineering spear and the cold words were enough to shake the heart of any weaker person. However, these were Firemoon Darkheavens participating in the Great Hunt, and thus, it just stoked their killing intent. That was especially true considering they were looking at a human.

    A moment passed, and then roughly half of the hundred cultivators on the ninth mountain flew up into the air. Some of them spoke.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I saw a human as arrogant as this.¡±

    ¡°You overestimate yourself.¡±

    ¡°I really want to see how you n to kill us all if we refuse to leave.¡±

    Some of the cultivators charged directly toward Xu Qing as he hovered in midair. Eyes filling with more killing intent, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and pushed it toward the iing cultivators.

    An explosive boom ripped through the air as three inverted mountains appeared above and then dropped down. One was blood-red. One was frosty with ice. One was entirely ame. Even just one of those mountains vastly surpassed any of the forbidden mountains in the area. And their inverted shapes made them seem like aggressive swords, pulsing with incredible pressure. This was none other than the Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao that Xu Qing had mastered.

    The three inverted mountains descended toward the cultivators flying up from the ninth mountain. The pressure building up created a sealing function that caused blood to spray from the mouths of the weaker cultivators.

    However, there were quite a few stronger ones among them. In fact, there were over twenty who fought through the pressure to unleash divine abilities and magical techniques.

    Unfortunately... the Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao was not Xu Qing¡¯s only trump card. It had some limited sealing functions, that was all. Next, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned pitch ck. Mutagen levels in the forbidden region skyrocketed. Taboo poison rapidly built up on the ninth mountain. Some of the unlucky cultivators were hit right away, and started screaming. Given the level of Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison, it only took the blink of an eye for them to melt into bloody sludge.

    On the outside, Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison might be considered ordinary in nature. But in a forbidden region, the local mutagen only bolstered it! The poison mist grew incredibly dense, spreading out rapidly. Combined with the sealing effect of the three mountains, it gushed everywhere.

    All cultivators who hadn¡¯t left the mountain earlier were now trapped.

    From a distance, it was possible to see three mountains above and thends below. The mist was like a huge column, a giant tempest filled with howls of anguish.

    Xu Qing¡¯s seal wasn¡¯t limited to that, though. He waved his right hand, and a host of crimson soul threads shot out, filling the tempest of mist and blocking the path of any who were trying to flee. He was intent on killing all living cultivators on the mountain.

    The poison grew stronger. More mutagen rushed in from the surrounding forbidden region, bolstering it to a shocking level. The screams grew more piercing. One could imagine the despair of the cultivators trapped inside the mist as their bodies rapidly dposed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s poison was the power of a god. In fact, in the right circumstances, it could even invade an actual god. Even though Xu Qing couldn¡¯t unleash all of its power, with the blessing of this forbidden region¡¯s mutagen, only someone with a Smoldering God cultivation base could possibly survive its onught.

    The process didn¡¯tst for very long. Eventually, the Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao mountains copsed and disappeared, revealing that there were still four or five cultivators still alive. As the poison mist dissipated, it was revealed that all the other cultivators were pools of gore. From a distance, the ninth mountain seemed filled with a rain of blood. Combined with the ck color of the mountain, it looked violet. It looked extremely ghastly.

    Those handful of cultivators who had escaped were now screaming in agony as their flesh rotted away. Eventually, they also melted into bloody sludges.

    Xu Qing ignored them. As the cultivators on the other mountains looked on in shock, he strode over to the ninth mountain with its rain of blood. cing the spear down in front of him, he sat cross-legged.

    The wind blew, filled with the stench of gore. Xu Qing inhaled deeply. It was a familiar aroma that made him think of past ughters.

    He looked around. Everything was very quiet.

 Chapter 828: What Do You Mean All of Them

    <h4>Chapter 828: What Do You Mean All of Them</h4>

    There were 27 mountains in this forbidden region, and 26 of them were filled with Great Hunt participants who were looking in Xu Qing¡¯s direction with very serious expressions. All were people who had carried out many instances of ughter during their years of cultivation. But even they were shocked by what they had just seen. It was killing by istion and killing by poison.

    Killing by istion was ruthless, while killing by poison was ferocious. Thetter was especially noteworthy.

    Xu Qing¡¯s poison was ghastly to behold and truly imparted a sense of terror into those who witnessed it.

    When one¡¯s cultivation base reached a certain level, it came with natural resistance to most poisons. In many cases, it made onepletely immune. Theoretically speaking, the people who had just died shouldn¡¯t have needed to worry about poison. But today, they had witnessed a shocking poison that... surpassed what any of them thought possible.

    ¡°It stirred the local mutagen....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s no ordinary poison. That¡¯s a godly poison!¡±

    ¡°I heard about a magic associated with gods. It¡¯s called a god curse....¡±

    ¡°Only the magic of gods can negate god curses.¡±

    The cultivators looked at the ninth mountain with fear in their eyes. But in addition to the fear, they also felt greed. It was somewhat contradictory. The reason was that, as Xu Qing sat down cross-legged, numerous forbidden mountains orbited overhead.

    The people who hade here toy im to forbidden mountains included some who had already taken some forbidden mountains. Therefore, when Xu Qing killed the cultivators on the ninth mountain via istion and poison, all of their forbidden mountains became masterless. All he had to do was wave his hand to collect them. There were a total of 22!

    Given Xu Qing¡¯s original group of five, that meant that he now had 27 miniaturized forbidden mountains orbiting overhead. Lightning crackled between them, and they emanated mighty pressure. And of course, they were extremely eye-catching.

    As of this moment, Xu Qing himself was just as valuable as this entire forbidden region. The forbidden region had 27 forbidden mountains that people were ready to fight over. And yet Xu Qing alone already had 27 mountains.... As for what was easier to take, and what would be more worth it, opinions differed amongst those in the area.

    In the temporary silence that followed the event, the gazes locked onto Xu Qing became increasingly aggressive and greedy. That said, nobody made a move. Nobody knew how to deal with his poison, and that was enough to keep them at bay.

    Meanwhile, the Captain and Master Gravesparrow arrived at the ninth mountain next to Xu Qing. The Captain was familiar with the way Xu Qing carried out deadly ughters, so he wasn¡¯t really surprised at all. That being said, it had been a while since anything like this yed out. It actually got him a bit excited.

    As for Master Gravesparrow, he was stunned to the core, and could only stand there wordlessly. The smell of gore shook him to the core, and when he looked at Xu Qing, his expression was one of reverence. The Firemoon Darkheavens were a people who instinctively admired strength.

    In the golden pce, the Firemoon noble leaned forward to look more closely at Xu Qing.

    <i>I thought the little human was a hardened killer, but I never guessed... that he was actually a fiendish killer! This Great Hunt is getting more and more interesting. I bet the little Firemoon punks down there are really getting worked up now.</i>

    The noble smiled as he pondered the poison he had just seen. <i>I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. Given the aura, it must havee from a god domain. And it¡¯s quite vicious in the hands of that kid.</i>

    As the cultivators on the other mountains were looking at the 27 mountains orbiting over Xu Qing, he looked around to see how many forbidden mountains they had. There weren¡¯t many on the back ten mountains, and the number on the others were split up randomly.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Given how well the Captain knew Xu Qing, he noticed the look in his eyes and smiled. When he mentioned ¡®all of them¡¯ to Master Gravesparrow earlier, he hadn¡¯t been talking about just these 27 mountains in this forbidden region. He had been talking about all of the mountains that the cultivators had as well.

    <i>A total of 213 mountains.</i>

    Most of the cultivators in the area were in the Spirit Trove level. Although there were a few in Void Returning, the highest among them was second stage.

    Licking his lips, he quietly said, ¡°How many hours until the mountains are up for grabs?¡±

    Master Gravesparrow lowered his voice and replied, ¡°Another twenty-six hours!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and closed his eyes to wait. He wasn¡¯t an unreasonable person. In fact, being reasonable was a good habit. That was what Master Seventh had taught him. When you act reasonably, you can be calmer. Therefore, Xu Qing nned to wait for a bit, then ask everyone else present if they would be willing to just leave.

    In that manner, time passed. An entire day went by in which more and more people nced at the ninth mountain. That was especially true of the cultivators on the mountains that had been set aside. Some were alsomunicating via voice message. Master Gravesparrow was getting more nervous at that realization, and kept instinctively looking at the Captain. When he saw how rxed he looked, he wasn¡¯t sure how to react. None of this was ying out as he¡¯d imagined it would. Though these two humans were obviously very strong, it was also obvious that, after seeing the forbidden mountains orbiting above Xu Qing¡¯s head, the other cultivators in the area were probably calling for help.

    The more time that passed, the less likely that their opponents would be limited to the cultivators present at the moment. It was entirely possible that a truly amazing chosen cultivator could show up. At a certain point, he couldn¡¯t hold back any longer, and gave voice to his concerns.

    The Captain smiled but didn¡¯t respond.

    Xu Qing just sat there with his eyes closed. That said, he kept his divine will locked onto his ancient sun as he meditated.

    Eventually, when there were only about two hours left, someone chose to make a move!

    It wasn¡¯t one of the cultivators waiting on any of the mountains. Instead, a figure appeared off in the distance, flying at top speed. He was covered with white scales and had a third eye on his forehead. That made it obvious what species he was. Whitemarsh. His arrival instantly attracted the attention of the other cultivators present.

    ¡°Sir Heavenhark of the Whitemarshes!¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s him!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s one of the most famous chosen among the Whitemarshes, and from what I¡¯ve heard, has progressed rapidly in his cultivation. In less than a sixty-year-cycle, he reached Void Returning. People say that he¡¯s guaranteed to reach Smoldering God. He even had the outstanding luck to be able to pay a formal visit to Steward Heavencloud!¡±

    As the other cultivators reacted in different ways, Sir Heavenhark¡¯s aura spread out, filled with vicious ferocity that caused everything to turn gloomy and dark. He had naturalws flowing in his eyes, which also created a projected face behind him. He was in the second stage of Void Returning, and in the great circle of that stage. Shockingly, orbiting above his head were roughly a hundred forbidden mountains that emanated terrifying pressure.

    After arriving, the Whitemarsh Sir Heavenhark scanned the area, then looked coldly at the ninth mountain.

    Meanwhile, a few dozen Whitemarsh cultivators flew up from the surrounding mountains and joined him. After bowing in greeting, they said some things to him in hushed tones, then pointed at Xu Qing.

    Voice cool, Sir Heavenhark said, ¡°The poisoned curse of a god can be easily negated with an item connected to a god.¡±

    He waved his hand, and a bronze incense burner appeared above his head. It abounded with a sense of ancientness, and emitted fluctuations which spread out in all directions to suppress the local mutagen. It was clearly something connected to a god. The smoke from the burner spread out for about 300 meters in all directions, creating a smoky area with Sir Heavenhark in the middle.

    The other Whitemarsh cultivators¡¯ expressions burned with zeal, and they bowed reverently.

    Sir Heavenhark¡¯s expression was the same as ever. He looked like a godchild as he strode toward Xu Qing on the ninth mountain. All gazes came to be fixed on him. Hended on the mountain, and the billowing poison mist couldn¡¯t prate the smoke from his incense burner. As a result, he was able to walk through the poison uninhibited.

    All of the onlookers were shaken. That included Master Gravesparrow, who had heard of this neer. Although Master Gravesparrow was a Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator with a high status, he had to admit that Sir Heavenhark had an even more amazing reputation. In the past hundred years, no chosen had achieved faster cultivation progress than him. Master Gravesparrow couldn¡¯t help but look over at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The Captain seemed as rxed as ever. And though Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were open, he actually wasn¡¯t looking specifically at Sir Heavenhark. Instead, he was looking at the incense burner. Only after studying it closely did his gaze fall to look at Sir Heavenhark.

    Sir Heavenhark didn¡¯t show any reaction to that. He just kept walking forward, pressure mounting around him such that his every footfall caused the mountain to shake. The poison mist just parted for him, and posed no trouble whatsoever. Killing intent and a domineering air were both very prominent on him.

    However, the reality was that Sir Heavenhark was secretly shocked. He could sense that this poison was actually a lot more dangerous than he¡¯d assumed. Although it didn¡¯t appear to be causing any trouble for him, the reality was that it had already started to invade him. In fact, based on what he could sense through the incense burner, he knew that he would only have about one hour of protection, after which the incense burner would stop working.

    <i>This god curse is extraordinary. That said, an hour should be more than enough.</i>

    Sir Heavenhark¡¯s eyes grew colder, and when he was about 900 meters away from Xu Qing, he suddenly elerated, turning into a destructive meteor that shot forward. He was like a boulder crushing a drinking ss as he smashed everything in his path. The mountain shook. nts and vegetation were reduced to ashes. And all light seemed to fade away, making that meteor the most eye-catching thing in the area.

    Master Gravesparrow¡¯s face fell, and his cultivation base surged. The Captain yawned. Xu Qing¡¯s expression hadn¡¯t changed at all; he simply raised his right hand and ced his finger about three inches in front of his forehead.

    A mass of ck markings appeared there, some thick, some thin. They seemed to represent his blood vessels, and they soon interlocked to form a vicious ghost face. All of a sudden, the ghost face resembled amp, which lit up with underworld fire. From a distance, it looked like there was a ghostmp on Xu Qing¡¯s forehead!

    Sir Heavenhark was still 810 meters away.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s finger moved to his left shoulder. ck blood vessels converged there to form a second ghostmp.

    The underworld fire flickered as Sir Heavenhark reached a point 690 meters away. Next, Xu Qing moved his finger to his right shoulder, then his dantian region, then his legs, and finally to the spot above his heart. All of the incantation gestures were performed in the blink of an eye.

    Sevenmps with the fire of the underworld were now burning within him. His aura skyrocketed as curse power emerged from the seven ghostmps. They became seven ghost faces, each of which had a different facial expression, including joy, anger, anxiety, thoughtfulness, terror, and more. This was a taboo magic that Xu Qing had learned via imitation from Imperial Sovereign Li Zihua¡¯s fourth son. [1]

    The Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse! And it was the type of curse that resulted in death!

    Xu Qing looked with cold eyes at Sir Heavenhark, who was now about 30 meters away.

    ¡°Extinguish themp, extinguish the enemy.¡±

    1. Xu Qing encountered the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse in the chapter of the same name, <u>688</u>. ?

 Chapter 829: A Gate to Death

    <h4>Chapter 829: A Gate to Death</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s cold voice echoed out into the forbidden region, bringing with it a wind of death and the glow of an underworldmp that could attract the souls of the living. A mountain-toppling, sea-draining force built up on him as he sat on the ninth mountain, countless crimson soul threads spreading out behind him. The seven ghost faces emerged from within him and began to orbit around him in a very gruish fashion. That,bined with his unusually handsome features and long hair, made him look absolutely iparable. He seemed imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and it caused the sky to flicker with bright colors, and galeforce winds to whip around him.

    Sir Heavenhark saw him and reeled inwardly. His mind filled with thunderous rumblings, and his expression flickered. All of a sudden, a sensation of deadly crisis rose up within him like the waters of the tide. It swept through his mind like andslide, filling every inch of his flesh and every particle of his bones. Even his soul started screaming.

    <i>Danger. Danger! Danger!!</i>

    All of his senses were telling him that this was a deadly crisis. The smoke from the incense burner was starting to ripple and distort. The sensation caused Sir Heavenhark to start breathing heavily. He suddenly stopped in ce and then prepared to fall back in the face of this gruish human. He was too slow.

    Looking at Sir Heavenhark coldly, Xu Qing dropped his hand, causing all of the taboo poison mist on the ninth mountain to rush together and form a huge vortex. The ck tempest of taboo poison was destructive and terrifying as it blotted out the sun, eventually turning into the face of a vicious devil. Mouth gaping, it lunged toward the incense burner above Sir Heavenhark¡¯s head. The incense burner trembled as smoke tumbled out of it like a rippling waterfall.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. The invasion of poison mist intensified, sweeping around to cut off Sir Heavenhark¡¯s path of retreat.

    Meanwhile, as Xu Qing¡¯s seven glitteringmps shone onto Sir Heavenhark, Xu Qing... extinguished the first of them.

    When that happened, Sir Heavenhark¡¯s pupils constricted and his heart filled with waves of astonishment. Pain erupted in his five yin organs and six yang organs, as if they were being stabbed with a sharp dagger.

    A scream escaped his lips. Even after coughing up seven or eight mouthfuls of blood, he couldn¡¯t negate the effects. He staggered backward, his aura in shambles. He no longer looked grand and majestic. Instead, his clothing was filthy as he copsed onto the ground like an insect. Then he started to show signs of aging, as the me of his life force began to grow dim.

    ¡°Y-You...¡± he stammered, his heart pounding. Xu Qing then extinguished the secondmp.

    That caused another scream of anguish to erupt from Sir Heavenhark¡¯s mouth. Cracks started spreading out all over him, and the sensation was like that of being sliced apart by thousands of des. Blood flowed out of the cracks, covering his scales and soaking his garments. His hair withered, and then the same thing happened to his scales, which began to fall off and copse into dust. It was as if his cultivation base was being stripped away, causing his aura to diminish constantly.

    The sensation of death began to grow more intense within him. Thankfully, he still had his incense burner to provide some defenses, otherwise he would already have descended into ultimate despair.

    That said, he was still flustered if not terrified. He felt like a little rowboat being tossed about by raging waves, and was trying as hard as he could to just get away. He even burned his own life force in his attempt to flee the ninth mountain.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t try to stop him, because... it wasn¡¯t necessary. He looked coldly at the Whitemarsh chosen, especially the teetering incense burner above his head. Without any hesitation, he took the third, fourth, fifth, and sixthmps... and extinguished them.

    With everymp that was extinguished, the retreating Sir Heavenhark screamed again. His fleshly body and his soul were both extremely withered at this point. In the shortest of moments, six of the sevenmps had been extinguished.

    What was more, 1,000,000 soul threads swept out from behind Xu Qing toward the incense burner. A loud cracking sound rang out as the incense burner split down the side. Taboo poison, the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, and the soul threads were making it difficult for the treasure to hold strong.

    The rings of smoke surrounding it stopped moving, and then one of them disappeared. Taboo poison spread into it.

    Sir Heavenhark shivered from head to toe, and then fell out of the sky to m into the ground. He was now at the foot of the ninth mountain. Hey there sweating profusely, his sweat itself filled with rot that melted away at his body. Not only was his body and soul injured by the extinguishing of themp; the power of the taboo poison was eating away at his flesh and blood, delivering a devastating blow to his mind.

    Indescribable pain filled him, such that he was unable to even scream. The feeling of death filled him, along with an incredibly noxious odor. His mind was already overwhelmed with indecision, anxiety, and fear. It was as if there was nothing left in heaven and earth to keep him alive. The me of his life force was now just a tiny spark.

    In the past, he had thought about dying. But in his imagination, it would be after he reached the Smoldering God level. And he was certain he would die in battle, representing the Whitemarshes in war against other species. His death would leave a huge impression on fellow members of his species, andter generations would all talk about how once in the past, there had been an extremely powerful expert called Sir Heavenhark.

    As a result of that, what was happening now seemedpletely inconceivable. In his defiance and madness, the spark of his life force suddenly flickered as if to reverse the situation.

    Xu Qing extinguished any such hope as he extinguished the seventhmp and then closed his eyes.

    The moment themp went out, a wind blew and extinguished the spark of Sir Heavenhark¡¯s life force. All of his defiance became background noise. Every bit of his madness faded into calm.

    Extinguish themp, and thus extinguish the enemy.

    There was now only a corpse at the foot of the mountain. As the soul threads pierced into it, it copsed into ashes that drifted on the wind to the other mountains. Everything waspletely silent. However, this silence was different than before. It was... a stifling and deathly silence.

    Looks of dazed astonishment could be seen everywhere. The onlookers couldn¡¯t even move. They had been watching the ninth mountain the entire time, and Xu Qing had remained seated the entire time.

    Then, everyone started talking.

    ¡°Sir Heavenhark... is dead?¡±

    ¡°A Whitemarsh chosen....¡±

    ¡°Just who exactly is that guy? When did a chosen like this show up among humans?¡±

    ¡°That divine ability he used seems like something I remember reading about in one of the ancient records....¡±

    ¡°That was the magic of an Imperial Sovereign! You have to have Imperial Sovereign blood to use it!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s called the Seven Lamps... Underworld Fire Curse!¡±

    ¡°Back during the heyday of humankind, there was an Imperial Sovereign named Li Zihua. Ites from him!¡±

    As one of the superpower species of Revered Ancient, the Firemoon Darkheaven people were generally better informed than other species. As a result, the ancient magic Xu Qing had used in the end was quickly identified.

    Master Gravesparrow was unable to stop from gasping in shock. As he looked at Xu Qing, he was now fully convinced it was the right decision to acknowledge allegiance to him. He had no idea what other things this human was capable of, or exactly how strong he really was. The things that had yed out left him with the sensation... that this person was a mysterious ck hole that could devour anything and everything.

    Even the Captain was a bit surprised, and looked a bit more closely at Xu Qing. This was the first time he had seen Xu Qing use the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse.

    <i>The little punk has really mastered the art of being deceptive. No. No way! I have to work harder!</i>

    The Firemoon noble in the golden pce was looking down thoughtfully at Xu Qing. Even he was moved.

    <i>Something big happened with Li Zihua¡¯s statue in the Moonrite Region recently. There were a handful of humans who ughtered a god there....</i>

    As everyone watched in astonishment, a host of miniaturized forbidden mountains floated over to Xu Qing. Combined with the 27 forbidden mountains from before, he now had a total of 139. As they linked together via lightning, they became a unified body that emanated boundless pressure in all directions.

    The sight of so many forbidden mountains shocked everyone present. All of them knew that Xu Qing was strong, but the sight of more than a hundred such mountains was almost too much of a temptation. The cultivators who had mountains set aside for them were feeling particrly greedy. However, all of them chose to remain in concealment and wait untilter to make a move.

    It was at that exact same moment that the ten-day time period for the forbidden region expired. It was as if a huge cage had been lifted. The aura of the outside world flooded in, and thends quaked as all twenty-seven mountains were severed from the ground below.

    A voice rang out from the golden pce.

    ¡°You may now begin moving the mountains.¡±

    Those words were like a bugle call to ughter and robbery. No one paid any attention to Xu Qing; though they were still filled with greed, they all felt it would be better to deal with the other mountains first.

    And yet, even as their cultivation bases red, and killing intent filled their eyes... Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened. The time hade. He lifted his right hand and waved it through the air. The sky went dark, and clouds converged, sending out an aura and pressure that caused the entire forbidden region to tremble.

    Everyone in the forbidden region looked around in surprise. A massive ck cell block appeared overhead, filling the sky over the forbidden region. Countless lightning bolts danced here and there, apanied by faint howls of grief.

    Everyone felt a sensation of majesty, gloom, blood, and pressure. As soon as it appeared, it dropped down toward the ground with immense force. The ground quaked as the cell block passed through the mountains andnded. All 27 of the forbidden mountains were now within its bounds, and they were all locked up inside.

    Viciousughter rang out from the cell block. It was possible to see the actual cells inside, where the stone lion danced. The head rolled back and forth, crying andughing at the same time. The millstone turned, squeezing out endless quantities of blood. The scarecrow howled in grief, all while weaving pieces of straw together into tiny figures. The crazed Sir Inkwell swept his brush back and forth as heposed a painting of all the cultivators in the forbidden mountains dying. There was also... a huge finger that took up multiple cells. ¨©t pulsed with the explosive aura of a god. This was theplete D-132.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out. ¡°In three breaths of time, every living person here will be dead.¡±

    The main gate of D-132 opened.

    It was... a gate to death.

 Chapter 830: Misfortune and Amnesia

    <h4>Chapter 830: Misfortune and Amnesia</h4>

    The term ¡®gate of life and death¡¯ had multipleyers of meaning.

    Those who left the door within three breaths of time made a choice for life. Those who stayed behind were choosing death. That was the firstyer of meaning.

    The secondyer of meaning rted to the fact that thepleted D-132 had very unique powers. They were the godly authority of misfortune and a will domain of amnesia. The former, the godly authority, would ensure that those who remained behind after the doors closed would be thrust into infinite misfortune, which would ultimately end in death. Thetter, the domain of amnesia, would make it so that they forgot their own death. Thus, even though their bodies died, the overwhelming misfortune would transform them into bizarre entities simr to the head, the stone lion, and the others.

    To some extent, they would be something like an identalbination of gods and immortals. After all, godly authority was something from the gods, while will domains were the result of cultivators studying ways to defy the power of the gods. That was what happened when D-132 waspleted. In addition, D-132 had supreme sealing powers. Unless someone had some ability that specifically targeted misfortune and amnesia, or had battle prowess dramatic enough to st free, they would never be able to leave.

    At the same time, it all conformed to Xu Qing¡¯s very reasonable n. First, he would leave the door open and give the cultivators a chance to leave.

    As D-132 dropped down, the Firemoon noble in the golden pce looked on with glittering, narrowed eyes. It was only natural that he could see how extraordinary the cell block was. He could also sense a human will of ughter inside. Therefore, he had a choice to make. Should he stop what was happening?

    <i>Why should I stop it? The point of the Great Hunt is to find people with potential from any species. We live in a world where the weak are the prey of the strong, where fatees and goes. A human as strong as this is going to light a fire under all the other species, and bring out the best in the younger generation.</i>

    <i>Besides, I wonder if this human kid is under the tutge of someone powerful. He does things in a very orderly way. He even opened the door and gave everyone a chance to flee.</i>

    After some more thought, the Firemoon noble grinned and looked at Xu Qing with even more approval than before. He had the feeling that this little forbidden region of his was soon going to be soaked with blood.

    <i>Very interesting. I like it!</i>

    Outside D-132, the Firemoon noble chose not to interfere. Inside D-132, Firemoon cultivators as well as cultivators from other species were also faced with a choice.

    Leave, or stay?

    Before Xu Qing killed the cultivators on the ninth mountain via istion and poison, most people would have chosen to stay. They wouldn¡¯t have given any stock to Xu Qing¡¯s words. But they <i>had</i> witnessed him ughter all the cultivators on the ninth mountain. And then he used his gruish magic in which ¡®extinguishing themp extinguished the enemy.¡¯ After putting an end to Sir Heavenhark, everyone knew that he would follow through on whatever he said.

    What was more, the strange behavior of the head and the others in D-132, as well as the god¡¯s finger, created a gruish sense of unease within them. In the end, about thirty percent of the cultivators gritted their teeth and chose to abandon the fight. They fled as fast as they could through the exit of D-132.

    After all, not everyone was willing to take insane risks at a time like this. Nothing blocked their path, and in short order, they flew out of the cell block.

    However, the remaining seventy percent just stood there with cold looks in their eyes. Fundamentally speaking, all of them were confident, both in themselves and in the numbers they had on their side. They were willing to fight.

    As a species, Firemoon Darkheavens were raised to fight and kill. As long as there was a potential benefit, they would put their lives on the line.

    Xu Qing had enough forbidden mountains orbiting overhead to be more valuable than the entire surrounding forbidden region, and that was definitely enough potential benefit. There were some of the seventy percent who were actually hesitant, especially when they saw the others able to leave freely. Sadly, they ran out of time.

    Three breaths of time went by quickly. The entrance of D-132 closed with a loud boom, whereupon the head, the stone lion, and all the others started cheering at the new arrivals.

    Then a very gruish aura erupted in D-132.

    The god¡¯s finger suddenly shook back and forth, causing the entire cell block to shake. At the same time, the color of blood spread out from it in every direction. Wherever it went, D-132 changed, transforming into a blood-colored hell. A will of amnesia filled every inch of the cell block, seeping out into the surroundingnds. It invaded all twenty-seven of the forbidden mountains. In an instant, the god¡¯s finger absorbed the local mutagen and made it part of D-132.

    In terms of battle prowess, ¨©t was far from being on the level of other gods. And ¨©t had lived a very depressing life. But ¨©t was still a god, and was actually much more ustomed to acting like a god than Xu Qing was.

    In the shortest of moments, D-132 and everything in it became one unified whole. Misfortune exploded.

    There were several hundred people who had remained. Of them, some instantly started exhibiting very freakish behavior.

    For instance, there were some people who had long struggled with old injuries that they kept under control with their cultivation base. But now their cultivation bases were operating strangely, causing the injuries to re up. Although the probability of that happening was small, it cropped up here instantly. The injury re-ups caused blood to spray out of the mouths of such cultivators, leaving them both surprised and confused.

    There were also people who had just taken out magical devices to use. Unfortunately, though such magical devices only had a 1/10,000 chance of malfunctioning, there were plenty that exploded instantly.

    Some people had produced antidote pills to consume. But in a very gruish development, those antidote pills didn¡¯t do anything to help against the poison, and in fact, they did the opposite and poisoned those who consumed them. Some people flew up into the air only to be caught up in the explosion of magical devices. Though they evaded some of the sts, there were dozens if not hundreds of detonations, the terrifying power of which hit many.

    Yet other people howled as they unleashed divine abilities. Gruish misfires urred, which were normally a rarity, but not here. Beyond all of that, there were some people who managed to unleash extreme techniques or items that they could normally control easily. But here, they unexpectedly backfired.

    Within D-132, all of the Firemoon and nonhuman cultivators descended into chaos. So many unexpected things happened to all of them that, whenbined, it became one thing: misfortune. There were some who quickly realized that something was amiss. And there were others who were particrly experienced and knowledgeable that recognized what was going on.

    ¡°Misfortune.... This is godly authority!¡±

    Those words caused the faces of many cultivators to fall. In contrast, Xu Qing sat on the ninth mountain looking calmer than ever, while the Captain sat by smiling broadly. Master Gravesparrow looked downright lifeless.

    Meanwhile, the cultivators being affected quickly came up with a strategy.

    ¡°Kill the gruish human! That¡¯ll fix things!¡±

    Gazes full of killing intent locked onto Xu Qing as numerous cultivators flew in his direction. Unexpected things kept happening along the way. Some even got caught up in magical techniques, resulting in deaths here and there.

    But as a group, they were closing in on Xu Qing. Unfortunately... little did they know that misfortune was only one aspect of D-132¡¯s powers. The will domain of amnesia... had already started working.

    And the closer they got to Xu Qing, the stronger it became.

    The first to get within about 600 meters of Xu Qing was a Firemoon cultivator. Though he had dealt with numerous instances of misfortune, he was about ready to make his final charge. But then his expression became one of confusion, and he stopped in ce to hover in the air. He had forgotten what he was doing.

    More cultivators showed up, but thanks to the will domain of amnesia, they forgot about their goal. They forgot to look for Xu Qing, and some of them couldn¡¯t remember what they were doing in this ce to begin with. They even forgot about the Great Hunt....

    Confusion became the main theme. Some of them exchanged nces and would seem to be on the verge of recalling something important. But then the amnesia would grow stronger, and they would forget even more. Vicious misfortune once again swept over them. More deaths urred, and corpses dropped out of the sky like dead flies.

    However, some of these cultivators were able to rely on innate abilities, special treasures, or unique bloodlines to strengthen them against the misfortune and amnesia. Those ones managed to stay lucid.

    ¡°We¡¯re dealing with both misfortune and amnesia! Everybody split up! Don¡¯t get too close, and don¡¯t use any techniques you don¡¯t have to. Just keep one thing in mind and repeat it over and over. Kill the human! Shout it at the tops of your lungs. Use the sound to keep yourself awake and drive away the amnesia!¡±

    ¡°Kill the human!¡±

    ¡°Kill the human!!¡±

    ¡°Kill the human!!!¡±

    Thus shouted the Firemoon and nonhuman cultivators in the midst of the crisis, the death, and the gruishness. Some people who had already sumbed to forgetfulness heard the deafening shouting and started to act on instinct. Once again, they charged toward Xu Qing.

    Suddenly, the god¡¯s finger thrashed, causing thunderous rumbling to echo out. The stone lion danced excitedly. The head cackled more piercingly. The millstone spun so rapidly it was like a vortex. The scarecrow frantically weaved straw people.

    And Sir Inkwell looked insane as he put the finishing touches on a painting depicting everyone present. Then he spun to Xu Qing, bowed, and said, ¡°Oh great and exalted jailer, the prisoners are going crazy! Please get them under control!¡±

    The stone lion, the head, the scarecrow and the millstone all used their varying methods to execute a bow, and then cried the same thing.

    ¡°Oh great and exalted jailer, the prisoners are going crazy! Please get them under control!¡±

    ¡°Please get them under control!¡±

    Colors shed and winds screamed. Xu Qing got to his feet and raised his right hand. The ck spear in front of him spun up into his hand, pulsing with ck mes. Eyes cold, Xu Qing lifted his right foot... and took a step forward! He flew off the mountain!

    Behind him, the Captain stretchedzily and looked at Master Gravesparrow. ¡°If you don¡¯t make a move now, Little Gravesparrow, there won¡¯t be any more forbidden mountains for you to take.¡±

    Licking his lips, the Captain burst into motion.

    The ughter was just beginning.

 Chapter 831: Whoops, Sorry To Disturb You

    <h4>Chapter 831: Whoops, Sorry To Disturb You</h4>

    Heaven and earth were a dusky amalgamation of misfortune and amnesia. Mutagen flourished, causing the surroundings to blur. Anyone who saw it would wonder if they were seeing things, and would be struck to the core with shock. Howls of grief drifted about everywhere. Amnesia was like the wind, blowing here and there, dispersing the past yet not bringing the future.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s battlefield. D-132 had covered all 27 of the forbidden mountains, and as the godly authority and will domain spread, about sixty percent of the remaining several hundred cultivators perished immediately.

    As they died, they appeared in the cells of D-132. They had clearly perished, yet they¡¯d forgotten everything that happened, and were just confused. Now they were inmates of D-132, neither alive nor dead. The only thing they had to look forward to now was an eternal nightmare.

    The roughly one hundred who were still airborne were still holding strong. But as they were increasingly tormented by amnesia, they had to keep shouting loudly just to keep themselves lucid.

    At the same time, misfortune continued to swirl. Whether it was magical techniques or treasures, whenever they were unleashed, unexpected things would happen. The result was that for them to release even thirty or forty percent of their battle prowess would have been shocking. It was now possible to see exactly how terrifying D-132 was now that it wasplete.

    The cries from the stone lion, the head, and the others were gruishly fanatical as Xu Qing passed them with his ck spear. It was time to quell the chaos. He appeared in front of a Whitemarsh cultivator, and without the slightest pause, mmed into him. Rumbling echoed out as the confused Whitemarsh instinctively unleashed some magical techniques and treasures to fight back. Unexpectedly, the techniques went wild, and the magical treasures exploded.

    As amnesia and misfortunebined, Xu Qing swept past him. His body exploded. Blood sttered onto Xu Qing¡¯s silky hair. Bone fragments rained down. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he continued to the next cultivator. Sweeping his spear through the air, he sent a head flying.

    Booms rang out as some of the new prisoners tried to fight back. Others just shivered in terror, but in moments when the amnesia wore off, they tried to use various means to escape.

    One of them teleported away, and it worked! Except that when he materialized, he was still in D-132, right in front of the finger. The finger was waiting with an open mouth to devour him in a single bite. Teleportations were allowed in D-132. But the destination would be affected by the misfortune.

    Other cultivators used different trump cards to m against the cell doors and walls. But given their battle prowess, there was no chance of them seeding. D-132 was whole, and thus, breaking out of it would require destroying the entire thing.

    As of now, they were part of D-132. It was an endless cycle.

    Wherever Xu Qing went, screams rang out, blood rained down, and corpses fell. Heads tumbled through the air.

    The Captain was fighting too, and was clearly identifying specific targets. He wasn¡¯t interested in the nonhumans in general, but rather, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators. As of now, there were only a few dozen of them left.

    However, the Captain seemed excited. He obviously had a keen interest in Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators. His methods all revolved around fruits. It was as if he were storing up rations. He used different methods to different degrees, but the result was that, one after another, the Firemoon cultivators were transformed into apples, grapes, pears, and the like....

    In the past, the Captain had sealed people with blue ice. This... was much more gruish. It was clear that as the Captain undid more seals within him, he was slowly inching back to the cultivation base he¡¯d had in previous lives.

    That sight, plus the strange circumstances in D-132, and Xu Qing¡¯s cold demeanor, created a huge impact on Master Gravesparrow. He had previously believed that he was adept at ughter. But seeing Xu Qing and the Captain in action made him realize that everything from before was like child¡¯s y. Furthermore, his impression of humans had already changedpletely.

    <i>Who said humans are weak...? Who said humans are inherently timid and unbefitting of Revered Ancient...? Who said humans are only good at crafty plots and machinations...? This is weak? This is timid?</i>

    Master Gravesparrow thought back to all the stories he¡¯d grown up on, and it caused him to inhale sharply. People were dropping dead like flies in front of his own eyes in this huge cell block. Then he thought back to what the human called ¡®the Captain¡¯ had just said, and he suddenly started feeling a bit anxious. Without any hesitation, he flew out and joined in the ughter. Of course, given how this ughter was ying out, it couldn¡¯t possiblyst for long.

    Finally, the Captain pped two fleeing Firemoon cultivators into tangerines, and D-132 went quiet. Blood continued to rain down onto thends, only to be sucked back up into the air to fall again. Not one corpse or bit of flesh was visible on the ground.

    All of the hundreds of cultivators were now in their cells looking confused.

    The cheers of the head, Sir Inkwell, and the others echoed about.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and thought back to his experiences when he was younger. At the same time, he could sense that the addition of hundreds of cultivators made D-132 even more impressive than before. He looked down at the cell block.

    D-132 now had over a thousand cells, and more than thirty percent were upied.

    ¡°Whatcha thinking about?¡± the Captain asked, taking a bite from an apple. He tossed an apple to both Xu Qing and Master Gravesparrow.

    Xu Qing caught the apple. ¡°I¡¯m just thinking about the day when this cell block... will have a god as an inmate!¡±

    The Captain looked stunned, but then he startedughing.

    Master Gravesparrow took the Captain¡¯s apple and hesitated. He looked at these two terrifying humans, then looked down at the cell block. Then he unhesitatingly took a bite. It was unexpectedly sweet.

    Xu Qing put the apple away without taking a bite, then waved his hand, causing all of the new prisoners¡¯ forbidden mountains to fly over to him. Before long, they were orbiting over his head.

    Master Gravesparrow couldn¡¯t help but look over, and his vision swam. Despite having been prepared for the sight, it was just too shocking. There were too many mountains! There were close to 300 of them, all connected by lightning as they slowly orbited and emanated astonishing pressure.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Xu Qing¡¯s gaze swept over the 27 forbidden mountains in the area. When he reached out with a grasping motion, the ground shook as 26 of them flew over to him, pushing his total mountain count past 300.

    There was one mountain left. Xu Qing looked at Master Gravesparrow.

    ¡°You can have it.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow felt immense gratitude. Normally speaking, he wouldn¡¯t have felt excited about getting one single mountain. But given the circumstances, things were different....

    Having done all that, Xu Qing exercised a thought, and D-132 shivered and faded from view along with everyone in it. D-132 didn¡¯t take the blood with it when it went away. As a result, blood from hundreds of people sshed onto the ground below, filling the area with the stench of gore.

    As Xu Qing hovered there in the forbidden region surrounded by blood, he looked up at the golden pce and bowed.

    The Firemoon noble in the pce looked down at him with even more admiration than before.

    <i>In the Great Hunt Banquet toe, everybody¡¯s going to be talking about the fiendish killer that appeared in my forbidden region.</i>

    The noble smiled and said, ¡°Human child, allow me to share some information with you. At the moment... there are a few dozen participants who have more forbidden mountains than you. Given your performance, I¡¯m guessing you want to take first ce in the first round. If so, you need to keep working hard.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted, but he nodded and bowed again. ¡°Many thanks for your advice, Senior.¡±

    Laughter drifted out from the golden pce. Then the pce faded from view until it disappeared. The excitement was over, and thus, the Firemoon noble had chosen to leave.

    Xu Qing watched the pce fade away. Then he turned to the Captain and prepared to leave. But then he and the Captain suddenly looked off into the distance.

    A bright beam of light could be seen there, speeding into the forbidden region and racing aggressively toward them.

    This person qualified to be aggressive. From a distance, it was possible to see eight forbidden mountains shrinking down above him. This neer was the true self of the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator Xu Qing had taken his first forbidden mountain from. Xu Qing had killed his clone and prevented it from teleporting away, but he hadn¡¯t prevented it from transmitting information about itself. This cultivator received that information and was able to determine a general direction to travel in.

    In the past, Master Gravesparrow would have taken this situation very seriously. But now... he just shook his head.

    As he did, the arrogant and domineering figure in the beam of light seemed to notice them. He lurched to a halt in midair. The light around him trembled as if the cultivator were shaking. The mist in the area also moved in his direction, as if he had suddenly gasped.

    Clearly... he had burst into this forbidden region feeling very lofty. But then he realized that the forbidden mountains were gone, and in their ce was the strong aroma of blood.

    Then he saw Xu Qing with over 300 forbidden mountains orbiting overhead.... He wasn¡¯t an idiot, so he quickly came to a conclusion about what was going on.

    ¡°He killed all of them? Th-that... that....¡±

    As this realization struck the Firemoon cultivator, his heart started pounding uncontrobly in his chest. He shivered from head to toe a few times, and then, without the slightest hesitation, turned and fled.

    He already felt regret.... When he thought about how aggressively he had rushed over here, only to m head first into an iron b, he couldn¡¯t help but tremble inwardly. And now he just wished he could move faster....

    Xu Qing looked on indifferently while the Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. Grinning, the Captain said, ¡°An old friend!¡±

 Chapter 832: Grand Five Ox Merciless Dao

    <h4>Chapter 832: Grand Five Ox Merciless Dao</h4>

    ¡°This makes me think of an old saying. What is it?¡± The Captain licked his lips and grinned as he looked at the figure fleeing toward the horizon. ¡°Oh right, it¡¯s <i>souls born leagues apart will inevitably connect</i>. Am I right, little Junior Brother? Well, this won¡¯t do. He made a big ssh on his arrival, but there¡¯s no way he¡¯ll escape now.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded and waved his hand, causing ck fire to flow out. The ck spear that he had just put away appeared again. The tip of the spear burned with fire that could consume everything around it, all while little ck holes popped into being around it. It stirred the aura of blood, causing it to rise into the air. What was more, countless resentful souls appeared around the spear, screaming in defiance and rage. They had not entered the cycle of reincarnation, and it would be no easy task to escape. The horrifying sounds echoing out made the scene even more terrifying.

    The spear in Xu Qing¡¯s hand was like a mountain peak from theherworld, surrounded by ghostfire and ck me. It was so powerful it seemed about to turn the canopy of heaven into a sea of mes. At the same time, the ripples flowing out caused heaven and earth to turn gloomy.

    When the fleeing Firemoon Darkheaven saw all of that, his scalp went numb, and his heart raced as his entire person was filled with sensations of deadly crisis and regret. Now he finally realized why his clone ended up dying.

    <i>He definitely died because of that spear! I was being too impulsive! I shouldn¡¯t even havee here!</i>

    Face ashen, he took a few deep breaths and then tried to flee even faster. He also activated some teleportation techniques, except that they needed time.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he hurled the spear out in front of him. It was like a roaring dragon, flying with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force. Thunderous rumblings echoed out as it pierced through the air toward the fleeing Firemoon Darkheaven.

    The air shattered. The sky blurred. Only the spear was clearly visible, creating a vibrant streak as it closed in on its target. It was locked onto him and about to pierce him through.

    Meanwhile, D-132 suddenly appeared again, and the sight of all the inmates caused the fleeing cultivator¡¯s mind to tremble. As the cell block materialized, it was clearly about to seal him within it.

    He could well imagine what would happen when the process wasplete. Just like the old saying went, <i>if you¡¯re doomed, you¡¯re doomed</i>. He would be killed beyond the shadow of a doubt. And thus, in that moment of deadly crisis, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator did something audaciously daring. Without any hesitation, he struck himself hard on the top of his head. A boom rang out as a second version of himself appeared atop the original. He was attempting to flee in god soul form.

    He left behind his fleshly body, for use as a tool to absorb the blow of the ck spear.

    The spear mmed into his body, ripping flesh to shreds along the way. However, the spear didn¡¯t totally destroy his fleshly body. In contrast, the body mped down onto the spear, unleashing gruish power to lock it in ce. Though the spear was already destroying the flesh around it, its momentum had been halted.

    Next, the Firemoon cultivator made a second decision. He decisively abandoned his eight forbidden mountains. His god soul exhaled forcefully, and the resulting wind hit the mountains and sent them shooting toward the descending D-132. The eight mountains rapidly grewrger, pulsing with forbidden might as they flew forth. On the one hand, the cultivator was taking the initiative to hand over his mountains. But at the same time, he was hoping to use them to buy time when they mmed into D-132.

    Rumbling booms rang out as D-132 slowed down briefly. However, after only a moment, it sped back up.

    That moment was the only thing that turned things around for the Firemoon Darkheaven. The teleportation he had initiated moments agopleted, and he vanished into thin air. The flesh attached to the ck spear lost any power to fight back and copsed.

    The eight forbidden mountains were swept into the pressure of D-132, and were taken into the cell block.

    Xu Qing looked at the spot where the cultivator had vanished. The cultivator had reacted with lightning speed. If had been even a bit slower, he would have been trapped in D-132, whereupon his teleportation ability would have been rendered meaningless. That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t too worried. As the Captain had just said, there was no way that he would actually escape. Based on what Xu Qing knew of the Captain, those words hadn¡¯t been spoken blithely.

    Sure enough, after seeing the enemy teleport away, the Captain smiled proudly and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°I devoured some of these cultivators¡¯ flesh just now, right? After studying it just now, I figured a few things out. It made me think about an amazing divine ability I learned in a past life that was designed to target Firemoon cultivators. It¡¯s a very formidable divine ability that restricts teleportations. The general principle is about tracing essence back to its origin. It doesn¡¯t matter where he went, I can bring him back.¡±

    The Captain reached out and made a grasping gesture. Instantly, five bloody chunks of the enemy¡¯s flesh rose up from the ground and flew toward the Captain. The Captain flicked his sleeve, sending the chunks into a roughly pentagonal shape.

    ¡°The prerequisite is to have five chunks of something equivalent to essence from the target. Flesh and bones are the best option.¡±

    The Captain performed a double-handed incantation gesture and muttered some things. Ripples began to flow out from one of the chunks of flesh. Then from the second and third.... Then the ripples from all five grew more intense, connected with each other, and rose up into the air in the form of a ck vortex.

    The Captain looked at the vortex and shouted something in a voice that seemed incredibly ancient.

    <i>¡°Souls in heaven and earth shall return to their origin!¡±</i>

    The vortex spun more rapidly, and then the god soul of the Firemoon cultivator was drawn back and appeared in the vortex. At first, he looked blurry and distorted, but with every moment that passed, he became clearer. His expression was one of confusion, terror, and disbelief.

    The Captainughed viciously as he made a grasping motion in the direction of the vortex to extract the soul of the Firemoon cultivator.

    ¡°You¡ª¡±

    His god soul¡¯s eyes were full of despair. He was about to say something in the hopes of staying alive, but the Captain ignored him and viciously clenched his right hand into a fist. A pop rang out as the god soul copsed into an apple that fell to the ground.

    Master Gravesparrow was quick to react to the development, and hurried over to grab the apple and respectfully present it to the Captain.

    The Captain stuck his chin up and looked at Xu Qing. Noticing the surprise in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes left him feeling very pleased with himself.

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Is your Eldest Brother¡¯s magical technique awesome, or is it awesome?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking at the five chunks of flesh, he suddenly realized that they were pulsing with a somewhat familiar aura. ¡°That technique¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know what you¡¯re going to ask, little Ah Qing,¡± the Captain interrupted with a wave of his hand. ¡°You want to know the name of the divine ability. It¡¯s actually got a great name. It¡¯s called the Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao.¡±

    The Captain looked closely at Xu Qing to see how he would react.

    Xu Qing stered a look on his face that indicated the name was very awe-inspiring.

    The Captain was very pleased. ¡°Want to learn it? As your Eldest Brother, I can teach you. Once you master it, then you¡¯ll have a way to deal with fleeing opponents.¡±

    The Captain casually took out a jade slip and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing epted it. He figured it could possiblye in useful someday, so he nodded. ¡°Many thanks, Eldest Brother.¡±

    ¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re too polite. It was nothing!¡±

    This was exactly the reaction the Captain had been hoping for. Seeing Xu Qing act in this way was iparably pleasing to him.

    Meanwhile, the eight masterless forbidden mountains floated over to orbit above Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked up at them, all while analyzing the situation.

    <i>Based on what that Firemoon Senior in the golden pce said, if I want to take first ce in this round, I probably need something like a thousand mountains. I really do have to keep working hard.</i>

    He looked at the Captain.

    The Captain grinned. He could guess what Xu Qing was thinking, and thus, the two of them turned into two beams of light that shot off into the distance.

    Master Gravesparrow struggled to control his breathing. From what he could tell, having encountered these two was some sort of destined opportunity, and he didn¡¯t want to lose out. Therefore, he flew into the air and followed them.

    And thus, three figures flew out of the forbidden region and continued on their way to the interior of Firemoon territory. After they left, the forbidden region calmed down. The mutant beasts gradually came back out into the open. The spots which had previously been upied by the 27 forbidden mountains were already filling in with blood-red grass.

    A few hourster, cultivators appeared in the air. They were the cultivators who had escaped earlier, and had now returned to check on the situation. There were some who had regretted being scared so easily and running away. But after returning and seeing the changes to the area, their expressions turned grave.

    And when they saw that the spots previously upied by the 27 mountains were filling in with crimson grass, and smelled strongly of blood, many of them inhaled sharply.

    ¡°This ce....¡±

    ¡°How many people died to make this ce smell so strongly of blood?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t notice anyone else escaping. Don¡¯t tell me... that all the other cultivators here were killed?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡±

    Gasps filled the forbidden region. Some people didn¡¯t believe it could be true, and tried to usemunication jade slips to send messages to cultivators they knew had been here earlier. None got any responses. Gradually, they left looking astonished.

    Time passed. The survivors went their own way, taking with them the story about how a human cultivator had killed hundreds of Great Hunt participants. The story spread, from one cultivator to ten, and from ten to a hundred....

    The news spread like wildfire among the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    Many people were now paying close attention. Many people didn¡¯t believe the news at first. However, as people checked into the details, that changed.

    The Whitemarshes were incensed. After all, more of their people died than any others, including one of their top chosen. That said, the Whitemarsh experts couldn¡¯t do anything about it. Most of their forces were on the battlefield with the Nightshades, with only a small number left behind.

    That was less relevant, however, than the general rules of the Great Hunt, which none of them dared to defy. Only participants could attack each other.

    That said, it was virtually impossible to stop people from hatching devious plots. Therefore, storm clouds began to gather in the territory of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. A tempest wasing....

 Chapter 833: Iâ€™ll Just Wait For Him to Pull my Cart

    <h4>Chapter 833: I¡¯ll Just Wait For Him to Pull my Cart</h4>

    A few dayster....

    It was a scorching day in the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ fifth region. Blinding light shone down on an endless desert. These vast, destends were filled with dunes, which were like waves of sand that went over the horizon. They sometimes resembled the spines of sleeping dragons. Shimmering heat waves rose up everywhere in this climate that was so hot it felt suffocating.

    Off in the distance, a sandstorm brewed,plete with screaming winds. There were also mirages everywhere that seemed to contain hidden hope. But what primarily prevailed was... deathly silence.

    It was just like the deathly silent people moving within the sandstorm. There was an enormous, blood-red chariot screaming through the tempest, some 3,000 meters from front to back. The chariot itself looked like the head of an enormous dragon, with the spine drifting behind it. As a matter of fact, this chariot actually was crafted from the bones of a dragon. And every single bone was covered in sealing marks that pulsed with a terrifying aura.

    Astonishingly, more than 300 forbidden mountains orbited above the dragon chariot. The interior of the skull was decoratedvishly, and someone was lounging inside. It was a young Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator.

    He wore a white robe embroidered with golden thread that emanated boundless nobility. And yet, all of that was like a foil to the young man wearing the clothing. He had a beautiful face, eyes that glittered like stars, and an aquiline nose. The aura that surrounded him made it obvious that this young man was very important.

    Wherever he went, it wasn¡¯t just the subsidiary species who would prostrate to him. Most Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators would also bow their heads. He had such a high status that one word from him could result in an entire species being wiped out. At the moment, he seemed to be in a very good mood. He rested his head in one hand while fiddling with a jade slip in the other, all while smiling broadly.

    After a while, he looked out in front of the chariot and said, ¡°We¡¯re going too slow.¡±

    At the front of the dragon chariot were hundreds of ck chains that burned with fire that could immte souls and flesh. Each of the chains was stretched tight, and at their ends... were hundreds of human cultivators! Their clothes were in shambles, and they were wan and emaciated. Their eyes revealed the humiliation in their hearts, yet they had no choice but to drag the chariot behind them.

    In the very front of all the humans was someone taller and burlier than the others. He once wore a yellow robe, but it had been ripped nearly to shreds. His lips were smeared with blood, but his eyes gleamed with determination. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his chain along with everyone else.

    Thanks to their efforts, the dragon chariot sped through the sandstorm.

    If the human emperor or any of his officials were here, they would be able to instantly identify the humans pulling the chariot. They were the members of the diplomatic mission that had been sent to talk to the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    The young man in the front... was none other than Grand Prince.

    ¡°We¡¯re still going a bit too slow, Guyue Zhonghui,¡± said the young man lounging inside the dragon skull. He spoke neither quickly nor slowly, and yet his words were as cold as ice. ¡°At this rate, how long is it going to take you to pull this cart of mine to God Mountain? I already told you that if you got me to God Mountain fast enough, I would help you out by asking my father the king to cast a vote in your direction. To speak up for you. But this speed is really not making me happy.¡±[1]

    The hundreds of humans pulling the chariot bowed their heads to suppress their humiliation and helplessness. Grand Prince didn¡¯t say anything.

    After a few breaths of time, though, Grand Prince suddenly lurched forward. The chain stretching over his shoulder bit into his flesh, but the chariot sped up.

    The other humans gritted their teeth and also pulled harder, causing the chariot to speed up even more. Unfortunately, the harder they pulled the chariot, the more torment they endured, and the greater the weight that pulled against them. Sadly, as cart-pullers, they had no options or rights.

    As the dragon chariot zipped through the desert, the intense heat beat down on Grand Prince and the others, further burning away their dignity.

    ¡°That¡¯s better,¡± the young man said with a chuckle. ¡°You should know that from the moment you refused to forsake your status as a human, your mother¡¯s people gave up on you. Among all the Firemoon Darkheavens, only I took an interest in you, and that¡¯s why you have this chance. Therefore, Guyue Zhonghui, you really need to do well.¡±

    The humans didn¡¯t say anything. Grand Prince didn¡¯t say anything.

    Continuing to fiddle with the jade slip, the young man in the chariot said, ¡°By the way, I heard that one of you humans killed a bunch of Great Hunt participants in our eighth region. And they were very ruthless. A few of the victims worked for me.¡±

    Grand Prince was visibly surprised, as were the other humans. This was their first time hearing about what happened.

    The young man in the chariot smiled and waved his hand. Instantly, an additional several hundred chains appeared in front of the chariot, which began to sway back and forth like whips. Booms rang out as the chains struck the cart-pulling humans. Quite a few coughed up blood, although not Grand Prince.

    ¡°But that¡¯s fine. For every one he kills, I¡¯ll just whip you a thousand times! That will make things a lot more interesting, don¡¯t you think?¡±

    The sounds of whipping continued as the dragon chariot moved onward. After leaving the desert, it reached a verdant stretch ofnd.

    There were also cultivators visible in the distance. Whether those cultivators were Firemoons or other nonhumans, whenever they caught sight of the dragon chariot, they either dropped to their knees to kowtow or bowed deeply at the waist.

    The young man continued to smile. As everyone bowed and cheered, heughed and said, ¡°Say, Guyue Zhonghui, when that human kid finds out you¡¯ve be a cart-puller, do you think he¡¯lle looking for you? If he joins my team of cart-pullers, I bet I could get to God Mountain in just a few more days.¡±

    Grand Prince¡¯s expression flickered, and the other humans struggled to breathe steadily. Because of theck of detailed information, they had no idea who this human was, nor could they even begin to guess. However, there was no way they couldn¡¯t detect the malice in the young prince whose chariot they were pulling.

    The young man¡¯s jade slip glittered again as he sent out the details of his travel itinerary. Then he stretched and went back to whipping the humans. Many Firemoon cultivators were able to see what was happening. What was more, the young man intentionally sent out messages exining his position. Therefore, news quickly spread.

    A few dayster in the sixth region, Xu Qing walked out of a mountain range with his ck spear in hand. The number of resentful souls attached to the spear was now greater than before. He was surrounded by the strong smell of gore.

    The Captain was smiling broadly as he asionally checked his bag of holding. He seemed pleased with his gains.

    Meanwhile, Master Gravesparrow was following them, and he had long since turnedpletely numb. During the time spent traveling, he had learned a lot more about these two humans. The one called ¡®the Captain¡¯ looked like an ordinary person but used a gruish magical technique to turn nonhumans into fruit that he would eat.

    Master Gravesparrow hadn¡¯t had any choice but to sample a few of the nonhumans, and found that the vor... wasn¡¯t that bad. He had outright refused to eat members of his own species.

    In a world inhabited by gods, it wasn¡¯t surprising that the Firemoon Darkheavens had simr techniques that he had seen before, so that wasn¡¯t what shocked him. Rather, it was the fact that this ¡®Captain¡¯ referred to the other human as ¡®little Ah Qing.¡¯ He had known people proficient in ughter, himself included. But this ¡®little Ah Qing¡¯ carried out ughters that shocked him to the core. Unless he encountered Whitemarshes, he rarely took the initiative to attack. In fact, he didn¡¯t even try to steal mountains from people he saw. There was no need.

    The hundreds of mountains orbiting overhead were enough to strike fear into the hearts of most cultivators. There were always vicious cultivators who would use a variety of methods to try to kill him. But their fate was always to end up as corpses, and have their souls extracted and forbidden mountains taken. In fact, that was exactly what happened in the mountains they had just traversed.

    Things like that happened constantly on their journey, and as a result, Xu Qing¡¯s forbidden mountain count increased constantly. It was as if there was a massive vortex building, with Xu Qing in the middle of it.

    As Master Gravesparrow hade to find out, one reason for that vortex was that Xu Qing and the Captain were not very happy with the Whitemarshes. What was more, for humans to act like they were acting in Firemoon Darkheaven territory attracted a lot of attention.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem to care, and Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression never changed.

    At first, Master Gravesparrow didn¡¯t understand their attitude. But after thinking about it, he came to a realization.

    <i>This guy wants to be a darkheaven general! If it works, he could resolve the situation with humans! No wonder he¡¯s killing so many Whitemarshes. I bet if some Saias show up, he¡¯ll cut them down just as quickly.</i>

    Upon thinking about all of that, Master Gravesparrow decided that, in order to prevent any misunderstandings, he should ry some newly acquired information to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Fellow Daoists, um... I just got some news that I thought the two of you might want to hear. It¡¯s about your Grand Prince.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing put away his ck spear, nced at the hundreds of forbidden mountains overhead, then started walking. ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    Lowering his voice, Master Gravesparrow said, ¡°Grand Prince and his entire retinue were captured by the crown prince of King Brightsouth. Apparently they made some sort of deal that led to Grand Prince and his people pulling a dragon chariot by hand.... Firemoons everywhere are talking about it.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react visibly, and the Captain didn¡¯t seem very surprised. Master Gravesparrow had mentioned this situation before. What was more, if some deal had been struck, then it had nothing to do with the two of them, and there was no need for them to take action.

    Master Gravesparrow hesitated, then exined everything he knew. ¡°Fellow Daoist, some of the cultivators you killed were subordinates of King Brightsouth¡¯s heir. So he made a public announcement that for every Firemoon cultivator you kill, he¡¯ll whip Grand Prince and the other humans a thousand times. In addition to that, he¡¯s publicly revealed his travel itinerary.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped walking. The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Now the matter did rte to them.

    ¡°He intentionally revealed his travel itinerary?¡± Xu Qing asked, looking at Master Gravesparrow over his shoulder.

    Master Gravesparrow felt pressure just from Xu Qing¡¯s gaze. Taking a deep breath, he nodded. ¡°It¡¯s definitely intentional. He¡¯s in the fourth region right now. Fellow Daoist, he obviously wants you toe to him. Crown Prince Brightsouth has a very high standing among us Firemoon Darkheavens. His father is King Brightsouth, who is the king legate to Steward Heavencloud of the Sunfire Temple. The steward values him a lot, and whether it¡¯s his cultivation base or his power and influence, they¡¯re all sky-high....¡±

    ¡°How many mountains does he have?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    ¡°Supposedly more than 400,¡± Master Gravesparrow replied.

    ¡°Lead the way,¡± Xu Qing said, his eyes glittering coldly.

    Off to the side, the Captain grinned.

    Master Gravesparrow shivered and considered trying to persuade Xu Qing to change his mind. But when he saw the coldness in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, he just nodded.

    Three beams of light shot off toward the fourth region.

    1. Guyue Zhonghui: I¡¯ve already exined Guyue several times. Zhonghui: Zhong means ¡°loyal, devote, honest.¡± Hui means ¡°brightness, splendor.¡± Madam Deathde thinks the name sounds noble and honorable. ?

 Chapter 834: Thirty-Six Immortal Constellations

    <h4>Chapter 834: Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions</h4>

    Time passed.

    Half a monthter, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Gravesparrow had crossed the fourth region in their search for Crown Prince Brightsouth. They were now in the third region.

    The focal point of the first round of the Great Hunt was God Mountain, and they were now only two regions away from that.

    The terrain of the third region was primarily volcanic in nature. Countless volcanoes there erupted year-round, making the environment thick with ck smog. Meanwhile, the nds¡¯ were really just endless seas ofva. However, cold winds asionally blew, which caused solid roads to form. They would onlyst for a short time before they melted back intova. However, new roads would continuously appear based on the shifting of the wind.

    Because of that general instability, mortals couldn¡¯t move freely through the region. It would be logical to assume that, with terrain like that, the region wasn¡¯t suitable for habitation. But it was actually very suitable as far as the Firemoon Darkheavens were concerned. They considered the harsh conditions to be the perfect way to temper their fleshly bodies on a constant basis. And only tough surroundings like that could mold the hearts of truly powerful experts. That wasn¡¯t to mention that the very name of their species had the character ¡®fire¡¯ in it, which indicated their resilience when it came to fire.

    In the middle of the third region, where the never-ending eruption of the volcanoes created a thick ck cloud cover, the sound of whipping rang out as a bone dragon screamed along. It was moving at incredibly high speed!

    Stretching out in front of the bone dragon were hundreds of chains being pulled by Grand Prince and his subordinates. Their clothing was dpidated, their faces sallow, their bodies emaciated. In most cases, their eyes were full of despair. Any others simply gritted their teeth as they pulled the chariot with all the strength they could muster.

    Inside the chariot, Crown Prince Brightsouth smiled and said, ¡°How amusing. Maybe it¡¯s the whipping, or maybe the lot of you just came to your senses and want to reach our destination as quickly as possible.... Of course, there¡¯s another possible reason. Could it be you don¡¯t want that famous humanpanion of yours to catch up? Overall, you achieved an eptably fast speed.¡±

    Suddenly, a grim expression reced his smile, and his voice turned cold. ¡°That said, your attitude isn¡¯t eptable at all. Right now, I want you to go slow! But you... are going <i>too</i> fast!¡±

    Countless illusory whips appeared in front of the dragon chariot and startedshing the humans.

    Blood sprayed out of the mouths of some of them. There were a few who had suffered so greatly thanks to the fast pace and the whips that they breathed theirst and copsed into death.

    Some of the corpses fell down into theva and were swallowed up. Somended on the solid road below, where they withered up into desated corpses. After a certain period of time, the road would disappear, and those corpses would sink into theva.

    The dragon bone chariot slowed down. Humiliation and fury rose up in the hearts of the humans pulling the chariot, and yet, they were helpless to do anything....

    The strength of a species was the foundation of everything. The Firemoon Darkheavens were extremely strong, and thus, few other species could maintain any level of dignity in their presence. Falling behind in the race of species was the most fundamental of errors.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Gravesparrow were racing along beneath the same dark smog cover, some 5,000 kilometers away.

    ¡°Crown Prince Brightsouth is being very shy,¡± Master Gravesparrow said. ¡°He¡¯s not hiding his tracks at all. Based on thetest news, he was seen recently traveling toward the second region. By now, we shouldn¡¯t be very far away from his dragon chariot.¡±

    The Captain licked his lips. Xu Qing nodded and looked at the clouds stretching off into the distant smog, then down at theva-coverednds below. The atmosphere here in the third region was hot, making it seem like a steamer basket. Whether it was the fleshly body or the soul, that invasion of heat was iparably intense.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu, are you sure... you don¡¯t want to rethink this? Crown Prince Brightsouth has a shocking cultivation base. People say that he recently broke through from third-stage Void Returning into the fourth stage. He already has an illusory world.

    ¡°Also... Firemoon Darkheavens have stronger fleshly bodies than most other species. It¡¯s the same with magical techniques. Because of all that, plus the potential of our cultivation base, we¡¯re virtually invincible to members of other species in the same cultivation level as us.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow had been holding back from giving his opinion during most of the journey, but at this point, he couldn¡¯t hold back.

    ¡°Furthermore, his father is King Brightsouth, an almighty expert at the peak of Smoldering God. Rumor has it he¡¯s very close to the peak of the nine-world level. As a single child, Crown Prince Brightsouth was unusually talented and had great privilege growing up. Although he¡¯s not considered the number-one chosen of this generation, he definitely deserves a ce in the top ten.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never personally seen him in a fight, but I hear stories about him all the time. For example, he¡¯s really skilled in curse magic, forbidden magic, plus god magic. There¡¯s even a rumor saying that he mastered a handful of our Firemoon imperial-ss techniques, which are collectively referred to as the Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions!¡± [1]

    ¡°Normally speaking, mastering just one of them is equivalent to a peak imperial-ss technique among other species. Therefore, Crown Prince Brightsouth is not only terrifyingly strong, he also has an astonishing background.... If you get in a fight with him, you¡¯ll pay a heavy price whether you win or lose. It¡¯s just not worth it....¡±

    As Master Gravesparrow made his heartfelt plea, Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever. Meanwhile, the Captain grinned and handed Master Gravesparrow an apple.

    ¡°You¡¯re a good kid,¡± the Captain said, ¡°very easy to get along with. That said, you¡¯re only taking into consideration Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s background. You don¡¯t know about our background. Don¡¯t worry, that so-called King Brightsouth won¡¯t count for anything as long as little Ah Qing is willing to give up his primal yang to¡ª¡±

    Xu Qing turned and gave a look to the Captain.

    The Captain chuckled and said nothing further.

    Master Gravesparrow reacted with visible surprise. When it came to primal yang... it made hime up with quite a few theories. He nced at Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t dare to ask any further questions. As he continued to specte inwardly, their group of three continued to speed through the sky.

    Time passed.

    Two hourster, they stopped in midair. A momentter, they disappeared, only to reappear on a small path in theva below. The path had been formed by a cold wind that had recently shifted. The path was already starting to melt, and would soon be gone. There were some withered corpses on the path that were still mostly whole. They were human.

    Xu Qing studied the corpses, and the Captain eyed them closely.

    ¡°I recognize him,¡± the Captain said. ¡°He was one of Grand Prince¡¯s personal guards. It looks like he suffered a lot before dying. See the whip marks? He must have beenshed thousands of times.... His flesh and blood, his cultivation base, and even his soul are all in a state of corrosion. He died after he waspletely drained and had nothing left to keep him going.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow didn¡¯t dare to say anything.

    Xu Qing studied the corpses for a few breaths of time, then collected them up. He turned to Master Gravesparrow.

    ¡°They should be close. You don¡¯t need toe along for now. If you don¡¯t mind, please check the area and collect any other human corpses you find.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow immediately nodded.

    Without another word, Xu Qing flew up into the air. Then rumbling sounds echoed out as he shot over the horizon at top speed. He moved much, much faster than he had up to this point. Clearly, he had a specific direction to go in and was not holding back.

    Blue light red around the Captain as he followed. Seeing Xu Qing pulsing with killing intent filled him with anticipation.

    <i>Little Ah Qing is a born killer. He¡¯s been suppressing it in recent years. Except that¡¯s not a good thing to do long-term. Unleash the killing! Don¡¯t sit around thinking or suppressing. We cultivators need to have a psyche free from all shackles!</i>

    About an hourter, a bone dragon chariot became visible on the horizon, being dragged along by hundreds of humans. When Xu Qing saw it, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Eldest Brother, I want to handle this fight by myself. Let¡¯s see how strong this Firemoon Darkheaven chosen actually is. If I¡¯m not a match for him, then please step in and strip away his mountains.¡±

    The Captain grinned and nodded.

    Next, Xu Qing seemed to ignite like a shooting star. As he sped toward the chariot, deafening rumbling echoed out, and the stars seethed. The air shattered as he passed, and thends shook violently. Millions of soul threads swept out of him. As he closed in, they converged into his first-level god state. His energy then rose to a level equivalent to first-stage Void Returning.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. The first-level god state was only the foundation; soul threads swept everywhere as the second-level god state started to form. His aura rose higher, until it was equivalent to second-stage Void Returning.

    Then, the soul threads converged again as his third-level god state appeared! Battle prowess equivalent to third-stage Void Returning pulsed in all directions. From a distance, it was possible to see a vicious, hulking figure with a blood-red cloak and bones of crystal, surrounded by innumerable blood threads. As of now, Xu Qing looked like a fiendish god.

    An illusory violet moon hung behind him, with a sundial on its surface, slowly spinning. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and devoured it. Inside his body, the flesh exploded, and his god state erupted. Now, it looked somewhat like Crimson Mother, but if you looked closely, you would also sense Li Zihua.

    His aura climbed again, reaching... fourth-stage Void Returning! This was Xu Qing¡¯s highest level of battle prowess!

    The hundreds of humans pulling the chariot reacted with visible shock. Some of them could even recognize Xu Qing as he was in his god state, and that led to further astonishment. That was especially true of Grand Prince, who was shaken to the core when heid eyes on Xu Qing. He had never had any dealings with Xu Qing, but had glimpsed him from a distance on a few asions. It was only natural that he knew exactly who Xu Qing was and what his current mission was.

    Therefore, it was a big surprise to see him here in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. He was actually somewhat worried, and was about to cry out a warning when countless whips appeared and wrapped around him.

    His mouth was sealed tight, as was his divine will. In fact, every method ofmunication was locked down. Then,ughter rang out from within the chariot as Crown Prince Brightsouth disappeared from inside and materialized in midair. His eyes shone with enthusiasm as he looked at Xu Qing closing in on him.

    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you actually showed up. And how unexpected to see you using a magic to transform your state. Very, very interesting.

    ¡°It¡¯s normally not worth it for me to pay attention to human chosen. But for someone to kill so many fellow members of my species, and to use divine abilities like that, well I¡¯d say you¡¯re worthy to either pull my chariot or have your head mounted atop it as a prize.¡±

    Then Crown Prince Brightsouth moved directly toward the iing Xu Qing. Things were really heating up!

 Chapter 835: Peak-Level Confrontation

    <h4>Chapter 835: Peak-Level Confrontation</h4>

    Xu Qing closed in. The oppressive clouds hung overhead like a gargantuan beast, imparting a sense of impending dread to anyone who could see them.

    As Crown Prince Brightsouth strode forth, the clouds churned, like the ocean when huge waves rolled across its surface. Lightning bolts pierced through the sky like silver snakes, linking together to form ancient magical symbols. Intense rumbling sounds filled the sky, like the roars of an awakening beast!

    A massive tempest sprang up, connecting earth to sky around Crown Prince Brightsouth. Wild gusts of wind sliced like des through the sky, cutting apart the clouds and causing sprays ofva to fill the air. Even the dragon chariot was rocking back and forth because of the intense wind. The human cultivators, meanwhile, were like leaves tossed up and down in chaotic fashion.

    Xu Qing was heading right toward that tempest, causing a disdainful grin to appear on the face of Crown Prince Brightsouth. Without hesitation, he sent the tempest right toward Xu Qing. Heaven and earth became like a fiendish devil that could crush anything in its path as it prepared to devour Xu Qing.

    In his fourth-level god state, Xu Qing met the tempest head-on, mming into it with such force that Grand Prince and his subordinates were all visibly astonished. They had fought Crown Prince Brightsouth, and knew how terrifying he was. And though Xu Qing¡¯s aura wasn¡¯t weak, he seemed very tiny as the tempest swept over him.

    Within the tempest, rain fell in buckets, causing the world to turn into a blur. The wind was also so strong that thends below were cleared, revealing nothing but a massive empty basin. Anyone caught within the area of this tempest would bepletely insignificant.

    With the exception of Xu Qing.

    An instantter, a deafening boom rang out from the windstorm that was trying to devour him. Another mysterious power just as strong as the storm had erupted.

    It was a saber as high as the sky itself. It was cold and white, which made a perfect contrast with the ck color of the sky. It appeared within the tempest, then swept outward like a destructive wave.

    <i>RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!</i>

    de light shone, illuminating heaven and earth as it sliced right through the tempest. There was a psychic element to it that could cut through all bonds, sh through all naturalws, and crush all fetters. The sky trembled as countless clouds were ripped apart, creating a huge, 500-kilometer mark. It looked extremely ghastly.

    The tempest almost seemed to solidify before it shattered, sending both rain and fire showering down everywhere. Thends shook violently as a gully opened up. If a mortal had been able to stand at the edge and look down, they would see nothing but a bottomless pit.

    Void Returning battle prowess... was fully on disy.

    As the tempest was destroyed by the heavenly saber, Xu Qing was revealed, like a fiendish god. He burst out from inside with astonishing momentum. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of Crown Prince Brightsouth.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s eyes turned a shade more serious as he unleashed a fist strike. Thunderous booms rang out.

    The two of them shed, moving at such blinding speed that, in the shortest of moments, they exchanged thousands of blows. During that time, Crown Prince Brightsouth could be heard inhaling seventeen times. Each time he inhaled, he expanded. He was directly inhaling all of the surrounding energy of heaven and earth. As that happened, his fleshly body power visibly improved.

    Xu Qing had seen other Firemoon Darkheavens do something like this before. Whether it was the Captain¡¯s exnation or things said by Master Gravesparrow about Crown Prince Brightsouth, Xu Qing knew exactly what it was.

    This was the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ imperial-ss technique, known as Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions. In reality, the name of the technique was supposed to convey the fact that it was abination of thirty-six imperial-ss techniques, put together into the ultimate art. One of them was called Nine Breaths Submission. [1]

    There wasn¡¯t actually a limit of nine breaths, though. Different cultivators would ultimatelye to different understandings of how to use it. And thus, Crown Prince Brightsouth took seventeen breaths, each of which pushed his fleshly body battle prowess to a more terrifying level.

    But Xu Qing still fought back with everything he had. The psychic power in the shing heavenly de grew more intense and clear. Every single sh between them grew more deafening, and because it was happening in such a short time, the soundsbined into something that could end the heavens and crush the earth.

    The dragon chariot finally couldn¡¯t take any more, and was sent spinning off to the side. Countless craters opened up on the ground. The clouds in the sky continued to copse, until they were driven away, revealing the full dome of heaven. It was night, and the stars twinkled. Also visible was the broken face of the god!

    Beneath that broken face, Xu Qing and Crown Prince Brightsouth fought back and forth. Shockwaves spread out from them in concentric rings, each of which contained terrifying power.

    The Captain and Grand Prince were both watching from a distance, and both were astonished.

    <i>That saber contains psychic power.... Little Ah Qing has finally formed an embryonic dao! It¡¯s a dao that can cut through all bonds, sh through all naturalws, crush all things, and smash all conventions!</i>

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shone brightly.

    Grand Princecked the experience of the Captain, so he wasn¡¯t able to assess the situation with such finesse. But he was equally moved, if not shaken, by the psychic power in the de. He couldn¡¯t express it with words, but was feeling the same thing as the Captain. It was as if he had actually longed for this type of dao. As a result, his scalp tingled, not because of fear, but because of understanding!

    As the two of them felt shock deep within them, intense booms rang out in the canopy of heaven. Xu Qing and Crown Prince Brightsouth shed again and again before backing away from each other by about 300 meters.

    Xu Qing was in his god state, his gaze cold as he pulsed with boundless energy. However, if you looked closely, you would see that his god state¡¯s body was covered with innumerable wounds. Thankfully, soul threads wriggled within the wounds as they stitched together.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth no longer looked casual and confident. His expression was serious, and that serious tone filled him from head to toe. He was also wounded, although the wounds were being healed by flickering white light.

    ¡°You stood up to my Nine Breaths Submission.... That god state magic of yours is very interesting, human. But the real question is whether or not you can stand up to my¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, his expression flickered, and he shot backward. The instant he did, the spot he had just upied copsed.

    An iron skewer that glittered with gruish light shot through the shattered air, then curved around and returned to Xu Qing.

    ¡°You...¡± Crown Prince Brightsouth said, his face grimmer than ever.

    ¡°Pipe down,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. Then he shot forward like a lightning bolt, heading straight toward Crown Prince Brightsouth. Along the way, he waved his right hand in front of him, causing the cry of the golden crow to fill the sky.

    ck mes erupted all around Xu Qing, bing a golden crow behind him that inhaled and exhaled a sea of mes. The surface of the golden crow rapidly peeled away, revealing a ck spear underneath. Xu Qing grabbed it, then hurled it viciously toward Crown Prince Brightsouth. Countless ck lightning bolts surrounded the skewer as it also shot forward.

    Killing intent flickered in Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s eyes. He knew what his weakness was; as his father had often reminded him, he was too arrogant. Because of his status and the strength that came to members of his species, he might seem like the kind of person who had done a lot of fighting through the years. But the reality was that wherever he went, very few cultivators would ever dare to truly fight him with deadly force. He had lived a smooth life full of glory and honor, and yet, that also led to him having some big ws. That was one reason why he had joined the Great Hunt. He knew that it would include tough training, which was just what he needed. Only by experiencing some truly life-threatening fights could he turn his advantages into a truly great dao.

    Now, he was getting the feeling that the destined opportunity he had been waiting for was right in front of him. Thus, the grim look in his eye turned into surging killing intent. And as Xu Qing got close, he lifted his hand into the sky, opened the fingers wide, and then snapped them shut into a fist.

    Any remaining clouds in the sky were swept clean away as if by a huge hand. And the iing spear and skewer lurched to a halt as if they had run into an impassable barrier.

    The starry sky was now clearly visible overhead. There, nine iparably bright stars glittered prominently; given their visibility, it was clear that they formed the shape of a finger.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth then dropped his hand. Ignoring the spear, he pointed at Xu Qing. The starlight from the nine glittering stars surpassed everything, turning into a finger that pointed to the east of Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°The Big Dipper¡¯s handle points east; all under heaven bes spring.¡±</i>

    The gigantic finger emanated profound majesty; to Xu Qing, it felt like he was facing the entire starry sky, with himself being miniscule inparison. Power surrounded him, restraining him and slowing him down.

    <i>¡°The Big Dipper¡¯s handle points south; all under heaven bes summer.¡±</i>

    Shivering inwardly, Xu Qing tried to break free, but before he could, a second finger appeared, pointing south. The power of restraint then grew dramatically stronger! Next came the third finger!

    <i>¡°The Big Dipper¡¯s handle points west; all under heaven bes autumn.</i>

    <i>¡°The Big Dipper¡¯s handle points north; all under heaven bes winter.¡±</i>

    As Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s voice echoed out, a fourth finger appeared, pointing to the north of Xu Qing.

    From a distance, it was possible to see four fingers, each as high as heaven itself, pulsing with terrifying might in all of the directions surrounding Xu Qing. This was the star discementbat technique from the Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions imperial-ss technique belonging to the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It was called Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression.

    <i>¡°East, south, west, and north; spring, summer, autumn, and winter; the Big Dipper handle points; no living being can possibly flee!¡±</i>

    As the words echoed out, the four starry fingers dropped toward Xu Qing!

    1. Nine Breaths Submission was originally introduced in <u>chapter 819</u>. ?

 Chapter 836: Thank You

    <h4>Chapter 836: Thank You</h4>

    The finger pointing eastmanded life! Therefore, to Xu Qing¡¯s east, the finger of starlight pulsed with an intense sensation of life force power. Furthermore, all things can be pushed beyond their limit, and bring about a sensation of nefariousness rather than righteousness. In this case, the life from the finger was pushed to the brink, making it seem demonic.

    The finger pointing southmanded growth! It was simr here: fire rose high into the air, like the weapon of a god of fire that used me to seal and destroy heaven and earth.

    The finger pointing westmanded withering! There was no difference here, the sensation was that of defeat and error. It also contained the passage of time. And thus, it made it seem possible to see vicissitudes of time itself.

    Finally, the finger pointing northmanded death! It was as if death hade from theherworld itself.

    As the four fingers pointed, they unleashed life, death, withering, and growth. When Grand Prince saw that from a distance, his face fell, and his heart filled with anxiety. That was because he... had already been defeated by the star discementbat technique of Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression. Put precisely, his bloodline had enabled him to make an opening in the star discementbat technique. However, he had been defeated by the hidden killing move within it.

    <i>In other words, Crown Prince Brightsouth is hiding a killing move on the inside....</i>

    Grand Prince wanted to offer a warning, but he couldn¡¯t. Both his mouth and his divine will had been sealed tightly by Crown Prince Brightsouth, making that impossible. All he could do was watch as the four fingers descended.

    In contrast, the Captain just stood waiting. He had faith that Xu Qing wouldn¡¯t be killed so easily.

    He was right. Just when the four fingers were about to hit, Xu Qing, whose body was immobilized, actually opened his eyes. Instantly, they turned pitch ck!

    Back in the Moonrite Region, he had gained enlightenment of how to put taboo poison into his gaze. Now, that ability wasing into y at a critical moment. Taboo poison... swept through his gaze like water gushing through a tunnel. He looked at the finger to the east, and the power of taboo poison erupted. The massive finger shivered... and a dark spot appeared on its surface, almost like a ringworm infection, which then rapidly spread over its surface. The finger abounded with life force, yet it was like an ice cube, with the taboo poison being boiling oil. The life force melted very quickly.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. Xu Qing¡¯s gaze shifted to the northern finger that represented death. Taboo poison also represented death. In the blink of an eye, the northern finger shivered, and taboo poison swept through with the ease of a fish swimming through water.

    With two fingers having been infected, Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads twitched and then broke through their fetters into freedom.

    Without any hesitation, he lifted his right hand and pointed into the sky.

    The Withering me Demon Magic True Self Dao rumbled into life. Three enormous mountains appeared overhead and dropped toward the finger representing withering. Then, by exercising a mere thought, he caused the ck spear to swivel, then shoot toward the southern finger representing growth.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it actually urred in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

    All at once, the taboo poison, the demon mountains, and the spear rumbled into action, creating a heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling sound that resembled heaven and earth howling into the void.

    The eastern finger copsed. The southern finger was shredded to bits. The western finger shattered. The northern finger crumbled into ash. The nine stars overhead dimmed. No longer were they prominent, and in fact, their light began to fade away amidst the light of all the other stars.

    Xu Qing emerged from the rubble of the four fingers and shot directly toward Crown Prince Brightsouth.

    However... though the divine ability had been destroyed, Crown Prince Brightsouth actually didn¡¯t seem surprised. Chuckling scornfully, he said, ¡°Did you note that?¡±

    His question wasn¡¯t directed at Xu Qing. And the response came from everywhere. The sky, thend, the air, the clouds. Countless voices all spoke at the same time.

    ¡°Noted.¡±

    The countless voicesbined. They were voices of men and women, of the old and the young. Some were deep, some were piercing. There was crying andughter, along with shouting and murmuring.... All of the voices said the same thing.

    Ultimately, the nine fading stars in the sky shifted, creating a circle. As the starlight connected, it formed something like a ck hole, out of which spread terrifying power. It was not cultivator power. Instead, it was rife with the aura of a god. It contained boundless mutagen, the likes of which surpassed any forbidden region or even forbidden ground....

    It locked onto Xu Qing. He stopped in ce. He suddenly sensed that he couldn¡¯t continue forward, prompting him to look up at the ck hole of nine stars. He had sensed an aura like this before.

    It was... a god domain!

    At the same moment that Xu Qing realized that, something emerged from the ck hole of nine stars.

    It was a piece of yellow paper. It was money for the dead. The yellow paper drifted down, growingrger as it did. It seemed to move slowly, but in reality, was descending with incredible speed. Even more gruish, there was a face taking shape on the yellow paper.

    That face... was none other than the face of Xu Qing.

    When Grand Prince saw this happening, he got even more anxious. This was the point at which he had been defeated. Onlyter did hee to realize that the yellow paper was a gift to Crown Prince Brightsouth from his father. It wasn¡¯t from Revered Ancient, but instead, was from a god domain rife with gruishness and death.

    The star discementbat technique of Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression was only a facade. The deadly aspects of the technique actually weren¡¯t the point. The real objective was to use those killing aspects to make a copy of the enemy¡¯s god soul. It was all made possible by thebination of the yellow paper and the gruish voices. It would enable the god domain to remember Xu Qing¡¯s appearance. And then... his soul could be sealed and immted.

    He wanted to force himself into lucidity, but couldn¡¯t. As the yellow paper descended, it started burning. In just the way that living people will make sacrifices to the souls of the deceased, the paper burned like an offering.

    At the same time, an intense force emerged from the ck hole, wrapped around Xu Qing, andtched onto his god soul. Xu Qing lost all sensation of his fleshly body. At the same time, his god soul emerged, like an afterimage, and began to float upward. Numerous illusory chains dropped down from the ck hole, which encircled his god soul, further trapping it. His god soul struggled, but more chains just kept appearing, until there were hundreds of them, all pulling his god soul out of his fleshly body.

    ¡°That¡¯s all,¡± said Crown Prince Brightsouth as he hovered in midair. ¡°This fight has taught me something important. And that is... don¡¯t give your opponent any chances to make aeback. Therefore, despite the fact that your god soul has no way of turning things around, I¡¯m not going to even give you a chance to try. By the way... you¡¯re not the only one with taboo weapons!¡±

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s eyes gleamed with bizarre light as he inhaled deeply, bit the tip of his tongue, and spat out a mouthful of blood. Then his right hand shot into the haze of blood and performed an incantation gesture.

    The blood mist expanded as images appeared within them. They were almost like a sea of blood, filled with thirty-six huge vortexes. Upon looking closely, it was possible to see thirty-six weapons within those thirty-six vortexes. Every single one emanated the same type of taboo aura as the ck spear. These were the taboo weapons that were sealed inside of the Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions imperial-ss technique!

    Thanks to the incantation gesture performed by Crown Prince Brightsouth, three of the thirty-six taboo weapons rose up and emerged from their sealed state. One of them was a trident that emanated a raging godly might. The next was a ck saber with a cold, killing glow that would shock any onlookers. The third was a blood-red battle-ax, around which circled countless horrendous souls of the deceased.

    In order to kill Xu Qing, Crown Prince Brightsouth was willing to push any divine ability to its limit. And these three taboo weapons were no exception. He yanked his right hand back, and the three taboo weapons emerged from the illusory image. As they flew out, they materialized, causing taboo power to spread out everywhere.

    Normally speaking, the heavenly daos would have interfered. Unfortunately... this was Firemoon Darkheaven territory, and the Firemoons had the ability to suppress heavenly daos.

    The distant sound of rumbling thunder could be heard, but no lightning fell.

    As killing intent surged in the eyes of Crown Prince Brightsouth, the three terrifying taboo weapons swiveled to Xu Qing, whose god soul was half emerged from his fleshly body. The weapons then shot toward him. There was nothing to block their path or resist them. There was only a seven-colored light that flickered briefly a few times inside Xu Qing.

    Then the trident stabbed into his god soul, the ck saber shed into his neck, and the blood-red battle-ax chopped into his chest. His god soul shattered into motes of light that fell to the ground. His head flew off and tumbled down into theva. His fleshly body shattered into countless chunks of gore that rained down.

    Off in the distance, Grand Prince¡¯s facial expression was warped with grief. His eyes werepletely bloodshot, and he was trembling from head to toe.

    The Captain stood there with his eyes wide.

    Up in the air, Crown Prince Brightsouth breathed a sigh of relief, though he was actually notpletely pleased.

    ¡°It¡¯s honestly a surprise that, other than those handful of people, nobody in my generation can stand up to this move of mine. So boring.¡±

    He waved his hand, and nine stars faded away. Everything went back to normal. Reaching out with his right hand, he made a grasping gesture toward the spot where Xu Qing had fallen.

    But then, his expression flickered as he suddenly sensed an astonishing time power erupting from Xu Qing¡¯s mangled flesh and shattered god soul. Before the crown prince could figure out what was happening, a huge sundial appeared overhead, rumbling loudly as its gnomon spun.

    Time... was reversing! The chunks of fallen flesh and the remnants of the god soul all swept together. They came from thend, from theva, from the air, and they converged in the blink of an eye.

    What formed was Xu Qing¡¯s god state fleshly body and his god soul. Red soul threads waved back and forth. Crystal bones glittered. The vicious bodyplete with its beautiful good looks. Xu Qing stood there looking like a divine likeness. Glittering light shone everywhere. He waspletely unharmed.

    Off in the distance, Grand Prince stared in shock.

    The Captain¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he smiled.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth backed up a few steps. ring at Xu Qing, he said, ¡°Naturalws of time!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened and they erupted with seven-colored light. Looking calmly at Crown Prince Brightsouth, he said, ¡°This hasn¡¯t been easy, but I should definitely say thank you.¡±

    Xu Qing reached out and closed his right hand into a fist. What instantly appeared was a shocking ck saber, a terrifying trident, a blood-red ax filled with a sensation of ughter, and a ck spear that could conquer every obstacle.... Four taboo weapons all appeared around Xu Qing!

 Chapter 837: Reverse the Sky, Restore the Sun

    <h4>Chapter 837: Reverse the Sky, Restore the Sun</h4>

    Grand Prince and the other humans were reeling mentally, and their eyes shone with utter disbelief. Xu Qing¡¯s fighting methods really surpassed anything they could have predicted.

    To see the naturalws of time reversing death was shocking enough, let alone the fact that Xu Qing returned and immediately took control of four taboo weapons. Three of them were obviously the same weapons Crown Prince Brightsouth had used. Hardly any time had passed, yet now Xu Qing was using them. Every single observer was basically thinking the same thing.

    <i>Freakish hellion!</i>

    Only a freakish hellion could have terrifying powers of understanding like that! After all, ording tomon belief, not even daybreak light could reach such a terrifying level. It was all thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s personal godly qualities, plus his deep level of enlightenment regarding himself. All of that led to his current unbelievable level of mastery. Back in Moonrite, even the Heir Apparent and his sister had been shocked by what he aplished, let alone other people.

    As of this moment, Crown Prince Brightsouth felt like he was being struck by countless lightning bolts. Struggling to control his breathing and remain calm, he staggered backward, looking incredulously at the taboo weapons surrounding Xu Qing.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± He didn¡¯t have a chance to finish speaking.

    And that was because Xu Qing did something that was thoroughly andpletely astonishing to everyone present. He pointed up into the sky, resulting in a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound ringing out. It was like the howl of a god, echoing through the world, reaching out into the starry sky, and causing everything to dim.

    The only exception were nine stars. Starlight spilled down as four majestic fingers formed in the sky, surrounding Crown Prince Brightsouth from every direction.

    It was... Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s very own star discementbat technique from Thirty-Six Immortal Constetions. It was the Dao of the Nine Stars Killing Suppression!

    ¡°Impossible!¡± Crown Prince Brightsouth blurted, his face falling. ¡°Without having a dao seed, there¡¯s no way you can master an imperial-ss technique!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he took a deep breath.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as boundless power swept into Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. In fact, a massive vortex sprang into being around him, which exerted a powerful gravitational force. Power flowed from all directions into Xu Qing, boosting his fleshly body dramatically.

    It happened seventeen times in a row! Boost after boost urred, until finally, he pulsed with such might that anyone who saw him would tremble inwardly.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s expression turned grim as he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°That¡¯s not the real imperial-ss technique. It¡¯s an imitation. It¡¯s just the shape of it, not the quintessence! In any case, this fight is meaningless now.¡±

    Without any hesitation, Crown Prince Brightsouth turned and fled. He wasn¡¯t interested inbat now. Although he had other techniques to employ, including trump cards, he already had the feeling that nothing he could use would result in killing his opponent. He even had methods of turning death into life, but he didn¡¯t want to use them in a fight with Xu Qing. It was a disgusting feeling. And thus, he sped toward the horizon as fast as he could.

    Xu Qing looked at him, lifted his right hand, and waved it through the air. ¡°In a life-or-death battle, you think you can just fight or flee whenever you wish?¡±

    The four majestic fingers fell toward Crown Prince Brightsouth. East, west, south and north. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. They all descended.

    ¡°Be sealed!¡±

    His soul had been targeted, so fleeing or even teleporting away wasn¡¯t a possibility! Next, four beams of light that represented death itself screamed forth from Xu Qing, piercing through the air as they headed right toward the crown prince.

    There was more to Xu Qing¡¯s counter attack, though. The sky blurred as a massive, 500-kilometer cell block appeared overhead. It immediately dropped downward.

    Within the cell block were numerous jail cells, many of which were filled with inmates. Some looked around nkly, someughed foolishly, some howled in grief, and some wailed in sorrow. The head and the others from the original group of inmates let loose bizarre cries, all while the god¡¯s finger thrashed.

    The sealing power of D-132 erupted. Were it not for the sealing power of the four fingers of the east, south, west, and north, Crown Prince Brightsouth probably would have been able to escape. After all, D-132 needed time to use, which was a weakness.

    But Crown Prince Brightsouth couldn¡¯t escape. The sealing of the four fingers wasn¡¯t impossible for him to ovee, but it provided enough of a dy.

    D-132 had fully entered the mortal world.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    It covered a 500-kilometer area. It covered all directions. And it covered Crown Prince Brightsouth!

    Next, misfortune expanded and amnesia proliferated. The four taboo weapons closed in, and Crown Prince Brightsouth gasped for breath. As he felt the terror of the cell block, his hands shed in an incantation gesture, giving him a boost of speed. But then the four weapons closed in with destructive force. Rumbling booms echoed out everywhere.

    Next, the sound of voices could be heard from the cell block, and they included the piercing sound of the head.

    ¡°It¡¯s a prison break! A fugitive is trying to destroy the unity of the cell block!¡±

    The cell doors opened, and a host of figures blurred toward Crown Prince Brightsouth, pulsing with malice and greed. Most shocking of all was that D-132 began to shrink down, adding even more pressure to Crown Prince Brightsouth and making it even more difficult for him to move. The misfortune was fully unleashed. The amnesia was intense.

    At the same time, Xu Qing appeared in D-132, right in front of Crown Prince Brightsouth. Extremely disturbing fleshly body power surged as heunched a palm strike.

    A boom rang out, and the crown prince coughed up a mouthful of blood. But that didn¡¯t stop him from unleashing a divine ability counter attack against the four iing taboo weapons.

    Then the unexpected urred. Though he sessfully released the divine ability, it suddenly stopped in ce briefly. Though it continued almost immediately, in such a critical moment, that made it too slow. The ck spear moved faster than lightning to stab right into his back with explosive power.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth grunted, and a vicious expression appeared on his face. Then ck light erupted from him, forming a formation with an inner circle and an outer triangle that rotated in a prescribed fashion to block the other three taboo weapons.

    However, it couldn¡¯t do anything about Xu Qing¡¯s iing fist.

    The ck light shattered, and blood sprayed out of Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s mouth again. He wanted to perform an incantation gesture, except that nkness had filled his eyes. It was amnesia.

    The trident screamed through the air and stabbed right into the crown prince¡¯s abdomen. The ck saber shed through the air, de light flickering as it shed into his waist. Even as he was sliced in half, the blood-red battle-ax chopped down viciously.

    Intense pain filled him, along with a sensation of deadly crisis, that suddenly brought Crown Prince Brightsouth back to his senses. As a result, he managed to dodge to the side, preventing the battle-ax from hitting him in the face. Instead, it chopped into his shoulder.

    A rumbling boom rang out as the top half of his body separated from the bottom half. Blood erupted everywhere, apanied by a howl of grief from the crown prince¡¯s mouth. He again tried to perform an incantation gesture, only to have Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior swoop in and stab into his forehead. The force of the blow sent him spinning backward.

    Next, Xu Qing appeared behind him, eyes shing with killing intent. A dagger appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, which he viciously shed through the crown prince¡¯s throat.

    A head flew through the air!

    The attack had been carried out as smoothly as flowing water, without even the slightest dy. Xu Qing struck as fast as lightning, with ruthless cruelty. He directly beheaded him!

    As was Xu Qing¡¯s custom, he then waved his hand and sent out the power of taboo poison to cover the crown prince¡¯s corpse and start corroding it. D-132 stopped shrinking down. At the same time, the inmates began to cackle madly.

    And yet, that was when Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened. Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s soul hadn¡¯t appeared in any of the cells in D-132! That meant... he hadn¡¯t actually died!

    As coldness rose in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, wisps of green smoke suddenly appeared in the spot where the crown prince had been killed. As it converged, Crown Prince Brightsouth appeared again, apanied by a loud voice.

    ¡°Reverse the Sky, Restore the Sun!¡±

    Majestic power rose up from Crown Prince Brightsouth. It had nothing to do with time itself, but rather, seemed like some sort of blessing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened as he studied the situation closely. The blessing power of D-132 trembled, and Crown Prince Brightsouth opened his eyes. At the same time, his expression turned grim, and he looked at Xu Qing with pure killing intent.

    ¡°I¡¯ve also mastered the dao of reversing life and death. I just didn¡¯t want to keep fighting you, but as it turns out, you have a death wish.... Did you really think I had no way of dealing with you?¡±

    Crown Prince Brightsouth lifted his right hand to reveal a ck coin. Stooping over, he shoved the coin downward. The ground in D-132 trembled as a green spell formation appeared around the crown prince. It spread outward, a circle on the inside, and a triangle on the outside. As it rotated, it looked like some type of geomanticpass. It had countless magical symbols in it, all of which glittered with golden light, causing six magical symbols to rise up into the air and growrger andrger.

    They all looked different, and with close examination, it was clear they represented the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth of the heavenly stems, specifically, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui. As they appeared in formation, the air behind them rippled as ck stone gates appeared. Each gate emanated something profoundly ancient, as well as a sinister wind filled with death.[1]

    There were six magical symbols representing the heavenly stems, and there were seven gates. Thest gate appeared behind Crown Prince Brightsouth. And unlike the other gates, it didn¡¯t emit death, but rather, life.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re looking to get killed, human, let¡¯s see if your naturalws of time can prevent you from being killed by my forbidden magic, the Six-Stems Seven-Gates Hex!¡±

    His voice merged with the sinister wind as the six heavenly stems started moving. The gates behind them opened, and voices drifted out as if from theherworld. They were calling out. To Xu Qing!

    At the same time, images of Xu Qing appeared in front of the six gates, blurry, as if the gates were devouring them. The faster the six heavenly stems moved, the more quickly the devouring yed out. A tremor passed through Xu Qing. Cracking sounds rang out. Six marks appeared on him, piercing all the way into his soul.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Sitting down cross-legged, he ced his index finger three inches in front of his forehead. ck marks spread out from there, like blood vessels that soon formed a vicious ghost face. The moment the ghost face appeared, it lit up like amp in the sinister wind.

    This was none other than the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse! It was a curse magic that could suppress forbidden magic! It was now time to see who would die first! Or perhaps it was a test of who could hold out the longest!

    1. The heavenly stems is a system of ordinal numbers that first appeared during the Shang dynasty in 1250 BCE. As for what they mean, it¡¯splicated. Here¡¯s the <u>link to the Wikipedia article</u> on the subject. I don¡¯t think their meaning has any special significance in this passage, nor the fact that they are the 5th through 10th in the system. That said, maybe there¡¯s something about that specific set that didn¡¯t ur to me. If so, it¡¯s not immediately obvious. I think it¡¯s just supposed to sound cool. ?

 Chapter 838: Curse Magic, Forbidden Magic, God Magic

    <h4>Chapter 838: Curse Magic, Forbidden Magic, God Magic</h4>

    It went without saying that Crown Prince Brightsouth, who was a chosen among the Firemoon Darkheavens, had shocking battle prowess. Just about anyone else in the same generation as him would die trying to fight him. After all, his biggest superiority was his fleshly body.

    What was more, his magical techniques were both gruish and incisive. That was especially true of his blessing of Reverse the Sky, Restore the Sun. The result was the same as Xu Qing¡¯s time magic, and in some ways could be considered an undying magic. Opponents like that weren¡¯t easy to kill.

    At the same time, he had stoked Xu Qing¡¯s battle spirit. Xu Qing currently sat cross-legged, and even from a distance, it was possible to see the shocking ghostmp on his forehead.

    Next, Xu Qing¡¯s finger moved to his left shoulder. A second ghostmp appeared. The fire of the underworld flickered as Xu Qing¡¯s finger then shifted to his right shoulder, his dantian region, his two legs, and finally, the spot above his heart. In an instant, seven ghostmps ignited.

    As soon as they did, the image of Crown Prince Brightsouth appeared within them. The sensation of a curse grew strong. Crown Prince Brightsouth scowled deeply as he realized how difficult Xu Qing was to deal with. It was something he couldn¡¯t have predicted when the fight started.

    Most unexpected of all was that, simr to himself, Xu Qing not only had amazing recovery abilities, but he also had very gruish magics.

    What was very concerning was that Xu Qing could apparently copy his techniques. That meant that the longer the fight went on, the more he would be at a disadvantage. That was why he¡¯d been inclined to stop fighting.

    But <i>if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off</i>, and thus, he had no choice other than to fight. He gritted his teeth. Clearly, this human wanted to see which of the two of them could hold out the longest. Put more precisely, it was going toe down to who could recover the most times. Either that or... who would be first to vanquish the recovery powers of the opponent!

    Crown Prince Brightsouth was ready to throw caution to the wind. Eyes bloodshot, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, which caused life force to pour out of the gate of life behind him. As it entered him, the geomanticpass beneath him rotated rapidly.

    The six heavenly stems in the air did the same, and the images of Xu Qing on the death gates blurred even further. Xu Qing felt pain filling him, a deathly sensation like that of being ripped apart. Yet Xu Qing was ruthless, and he had been from a very young age. Staring coldly at the crown prince, he extinguished the first of the sevenmps.

    Blood sprayed from the crown prince¡¯s mouth. Gritting his teeth, he sped up his own efforts.

    Xu Qing shivered as he extinguished the second, third, and fourth of themps.

    The crown prince shivered as his body decayed. But the killing intent in his eyes only grew stronger.

    Of the blurry images of Xu Qing in front of the six gates, three disappeared. Cracking sounds echoed out from within Xu Qing as he began to split apart physically.

    That didn¡¯t affect the extinguishing of the ghostmps. In the blink of an eye, the fifth, sixth, and seventh of themps... were extinguished. It happened at the same time as the blurry figurespletely disappeared from in front of the six gates.

    A boom echoed out as Xu Qing crumbled to pieces, including his fleshly body and his soul.

    The same thing happened to Crown Prince Brightsouth. Thanks to the curse of the sevenmps, not even the gate of life behind him could send enough life force to sustain him. His body withered, his hair fell out, his life force was destroyed, and his fleshly body melted. He was killed in body and soul!

    Next, the power of blessing exploded within D-132, as well as a sundial with spinning gnomon.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth formed anew.

    Xu Qing¡¯s shattered fleshly body and soul swept back together. He was now unharmed.

    The two of them looked at each other.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± Crown Prince Brightsouth growled. Raising his right hand, he then shoved it back down toward the coin on the ground.

    However, that was when a ck shadow rose up next to him. Just as his hand fell, the shadow swept over the coin. Next, a howl echoed out as the shadow vanished along with the coin.

    When the coin reappeared, it was in Xu Qing¡¯s hand. The moment it made contact, it burst into mes, causing Xu Qing¡¯s hand to start melting. Clearly, it wasn¡¯t possible to use it for the moment. Xu Qing threw it back to Little Shadow. The shadow had been sleeping, but Xu Qing had forced it awake. Taking advantage of the time the crown prince needed to recover, he sent the shadow close to grab the coin in a critical moment. Unfortunately, a heavy price had already been paid to use the coin, and it was now dim.

    ¡°That¡¯s not something you can use!¡± the crown prince said, ring.

    In response, Xu Qing raised his right hand and replied, ¡°I also have a forbidden magic of death.¡±

    He pointed his hand up to the sky above D-132. It changed color.

    The heavenly dao bluegreen dragon roared into being, spreading out in the sky to form a massive heavenly saber de. Taboo poison, the curse of a god, spread out along that de, forming its edge. Daybreak light glittered in all directions as the de light. The moment the saber was out in the open, D-132 shivered and changed shape. It became a very long and narrow de trough.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s pupils constricted as he sensed the terrifying aura of the de, as well as the ancient time within it. Most importantly, he could sense that this saber had actually beheaded gods. His facial expression flickered dramatically.

    ¡°Is that...?¡±

    A sensation of crisis filled every fiber of his being. Without a moment of hesitation, he ced one finger at his forehead and one over his heart, then inhaled deeply. His body withered dramatically, making it obvious... that whatever magic he was using was actually harmful to himself as well.

    ¡°Curse magic! Seven Impaling Arrows!¡±

    The crown prince spat up seven mouthfuls of ck blood, each of which caused him to wither even more, until he looked like little more than a skeleton. The seven mouthfuls of blood became seven blood arrows, each of which contained deathly curse power. Pulsing with a terrifying aura, they began to move toward Xu Qing.

    To y things as safe as possible, Crown Prince Brightsouth coughed up more blood to further bolster the seven arrows.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s face was expressionless as he coldly said, ¡°Let the golden crow be the connection. Let the violet moon be the seal!¡±

    The golden crow danced in the air. The violet moon sent out rippling fluctuations. The god trovebined everything into one.

    ¡°Let the timescape be the container....

    ¡°Let the sundial lifemps be the catalyst....¡±

    Five sundials formed behind Xu Qing. Lifemp fire rose into the sky as the gnomons spun and the aura of ancient time spread out. Next, they all stopped at noon!

    ¡°When the sundials hit noon, heaven and earth will be severed together!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly as he looked at Crown Prince Brightsouth and sent the saber shing down. The heavenly saber descended from above, like a massive waterfall or a mountain, filling the sky and shaking thends below.

    At the same time, the crown prince howled at the top of his lungs, sending further bolstering to the seven arrows. They expanded, growing incrediblyrge as they shot toward the heavenly saber.

    Next, the god-decapitating saber made contact with the seven arrows.

    Rumbling sounds rose up as a tempest appeared in D-132. The seven arrows erupted with force as they fought back, but it didn¡¯t do any good. One by one, they started exploding. The unending godly might of the guillotine de sliced through the air until it struck the crown prince¡¯s head.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    A huge gorge appeared in thends, and a strong wind blew a baleful aura out on either side.

    Next, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the misfortune of D-132 to erupt, interfering with the blessing power. Amnesia spread, causing the blessing to be forgotten. Taboo poison descended, decaying everything. And sundials appeared, locking down the area and further impeding the blessing of recovery. It worked.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s recovery technique didn¡¯t work immediately. It took roughly ten breaths of time before it became effective. As his fleshly body formed anew, the heavenly saber fell again. A boom rang out as Crown Prince Brightsouth was once again killed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing hovered in the air, eyes cold as he performed another double-handed incantation gesture. Divine abilities descended. A hundred breaths of time passed, and the blessing powers appeared again. The crown prince again recovered.

    Everything from before yed out again. The crown prince was overwhelmed. The de fell yet again.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see how long you can keep this up,¡± Xu Qing said, waving his arms out in front of him. D-132¡¯s godly might spread out, bolstering the sealing effect and overwhelming Crown Prince Brightsouth with a fatal blow.

    The four fingers of east, west, south, and north appeared again. Four taboo weapons formed. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior prepared another mortal attack.

    In that manner, two hours passed.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth recovered thirteen times. Every time it happened, Xu Qing unleashed everything in response. The crown prince used a variety of methods to try to fight back, but none of them worked quickly enough. And every time, he had to wait longer before recovering.

    All of the onlookers were astonished to the point of being numb. They could sense how valiant Crown Prince Brightsouth was, and how difficult he was to kill. But at the same time... that only highlighted how terrifying and ruthless Xu Qing was. That was especially true when they thought back to the course of the fighting, and how it seemed... that Xu Qing had been in control every step of the way.

    Whether it was the way he initially felt out his opponent to determine his strengths, or the adjustments he made after identifying his undying properties. Xu Qing seemed to have been guiding everything. Every attack he made had a purpose.

    The curse magic was a way to test the undying abilities, and look for a hole in them. The deadly saber was used to create opportunities. And then, as everyone reeled, the blessing power once again appeared in D-132. As Xu Qing unleashed a host of attacks, an urgent stream of divine will emerged from the blessing and shot high into the sky.

    ¡°God magic! Sunfire¡¯s Sun!!¡±

    Crown Prince Brightsouth, who had been forced into a passive position and had died over ten times, could tell that death was around the corner, and had decided to go for broke. It seemed like a one-time eruption of blessing.

    As his voice echoed out, the blessing power surged out of D-132 and rose into the canopy of heaven. Ripples spread out through the sky of the third region.

    Then a massive rift opened up, out of which shone golden light. It was a huge eye! It wasn¡¯t that of the broken face, but rather... from High God Sunfire!

 Chapter 839: Dignity Canâ€™t Be Exchanged for Peace

    <h4>Chapter 839: Dignity Can¡¯t Be Exchanged for Peace</h4>

    ¡°So that¡¯s what¡¯s going on here!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glowed with mysterious light. During the numerous times he had attacked Crown Prince Brightsouth, only to have his opponent be resurrected over and over again, he couldn¡¯t help but think of the head and the stone lion.

    He had put on a lot of pressure with the specific purpose of putting the crown prince in a very tight spot, thus forcing him to go all out. And that was because... the blessing of a god was what enabled the crown prince to repeatedly die and be resurrected. It was simr to the inmates in D-132, who were eternally indestructible thanks to the influence of a god.

    To truly kill Crown Prince Brightsouth, it was necessary to break that blessing.

    ¡°High God Sunfire.¡±

    Outside of D-132, all of the humans, including Grand Prince, were visibly stunned, and were breathing heavily.

    A look of revulsion and displeasure shed across the Captain¡¯s face, and he narrowed his eyes as he looked at the huge eye in the sky. Golden light spilled out of the rift in the sky, sending out beams that touched thend everywhere. The clouds didn¡¯t even dare to form. Theva on the ground ceased churning and became solid. All of the naturalws were wiped away and all the magicalws became nothing. In the presence of a god, there were no suchws.

    As the rift opened, golden light shone from an eye that couldn¡¯t be looked at directly. It contained no emotional fluctuations, but rather, was supremely tranquil. It was as if everything else was dust when that eye looked at it.

    The power of mutagen spread through heaven and earth. Time and space intersected. Life force formed and was then extinguished. It was as if everything that formed could be instantly wiped away.

    No beginning. No end. No rise. No fall.

    Because of the gaze... a forbidden region was forming. Burning crimson vines stretched out from the solidifiedva, and as they whipped back and forth, faces appeared on them, wailing in agony. Mountains and rivers rose up. To a certain extent, this was very simr to what the broken face would do. However, the broken face would form a forbidden region from the briefest nce, and it was something that couldn¡¯t be reversed.

    Right now, High God Sunfire was creating an embryonic forbidden region. And because it had no foundation, once the gaze vanished, so would the forbidden region. Regardless, the gaze shook everyone and influenced everything.

    Grand Prince and everyone else started to show signs of mutation, causing looks of pain and disbelief to show on their faces.

    The Captain seemed to be working hard to restrain himself, and just allowed his body to start melting.

    Xu Qing was also affected. The gaze of the god caused him to blur, and made every inch of his flesh and blood feel like it wanted to rip off of him and be independent. Tendrils of flesh began to grow off his god state fleshly body.

    The gaze also caused the crimson vines to wrap around D-132. The god¡¯s finger trembled as the cell block blurred. Crown Prince Brightsouth was inside, and all of the magical techniques Xu Qing had been using on him went still. As of this moment, he was actually forming anew.

    However, though his situation seemed normal, the reality was that he had already lost his undying characteristics. There was nothing extraordinary about him now. His expression was vicious and distorted, and his eyes gleamed with the light of one who had barely survived a deadly ordeal. Heart filling with madness, he stared at Xu Qing, who was already showing the signs of mutation.

    ¡°I have a blessing from High God Sunfire, human! Underneath the gaze of a god... you¡¯re nothing more than a bug!¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the crown prince. He also ignored the flesh tendrils growing off of him, and the sensation of his flesh and blood trying to rip free and be independent. This wasn¡¯t the first time he had experienced something like that. Although it wasn¡¯t possible to say he was used to it, at the very least, he knew that once the source was gone, all that would ultimately happen would be the loss of a bit of life force.

    He looked up at the giant eye. Gods weren¡¯t to be looked at directly, but with Xu Qing¡¯s eyes pitch ck from taboo poison, he could look very briefly.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and then dispelled his god state. Millions of soul threads unwound rapidly, then converged into the shape of a new body.

    That body was that of a y fox! It was tall, impressive, and very lifelike. It was none other than High God Starfire.

    The moment it formed, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and produced the identity medallion the y fox had given him. He held it high. The medallion vibrated underneath the gaze of High God Sunfire. Then, boundless starlight spread out all around Xu Qing. It was like a river of stars, filled with twinkling light that became pink fire.

    The fire of stars abounded. Heaven and earth trembled. The crimson vines stopped moving, and the spreading mutagen was sucked into the starfire power. Thunderous rumbling erupted in the sky.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s face fell. ¡°Starfire¡¯s... godherald??¡±

    As the power of Starfire surrounded Xu Qing, he really did be a godherald. And the highest-ranking type possible. As he stood there, the starlight really did be a blessing, spreading out, moving, until it was a massive vortex.

    Xu Qing was gambling. He was betting that the eye of an actual god wouldn¡¯t really open for a mere Void Returning cultivator. This eye had been opened to signify the power of blessing, nothing more. When it came to the giving of blessings, gods wouldn¡¯t view Void Returning cultivators as any different than mortals.

    To a certain extent, it wasn¡¯t aplete gamble. Xu Qing understood gods more than members of most species. He was fully aware that, given the circumstances, using his soul threads to form a y fox, and then use the identity medallion, would be an effective line of defense. It shouldn¡¯t matter if the god¡¯s eye was real or not.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gamble... paid off!

    The cold gaze of the golden eyended on Xu Qing, and noted the identity medallion. Then... the eye slowly closed. The rift in the sky faded away into nothing. The eye was gone.

    If it came down to Xu Qing, who had an extremely high status as an actual godherald,pared to an unimportant servant, well, it was only natural that thetter could be discarded.

    The development caused Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s face to drain of blood. He looked at the eye disappear, then at Xu Qing. He felt defiance, grief, indignation, and a host of other emotions. His biggest secret weapon had turned out to be useless against this opponent.

    As of now, his special background seemedpletely meaningless. It was an oue he could never have predicted at the outset, no matter what powers of foresight he used. Xu Qing... was actually a godherald of Starfire.

    ¡°This...¡± Crown Prince Brightsouth murmured, ring venomously at Grand Prince and the other humans. Apparently, he believed that they knew all along about this, but had been pretending not to, thus leading to his mistake....

    It was toote now. He had lost his undying blessing. He had lost his secret weapon. And then he thought about how ruthless and vicious Xu Qing had been up to this point, and his heart started pounding. Without any hesitation, he turned, burning his energy and blood in a desperate attempt to escape. He wanted to take advantage of the moment the cell block was weakened to get away. In fact, he immediately resorted to a teleportation technique.

    Of course, there was no way Xu Qing was going to let him get away that easily. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent.

    ¡°Eldest Brother,¡± he said, waving his hand to send four taboo weapons flying out.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior emerged from hiding, chuckling viciously, either to bolster himself or to frighten the crown prince, it was hard to tell.

    The four majestic fingers formed and crushed down toward the crown prince.

    And the Captainughed as blue light red all around him, spreading through the sky to form a host of sinister mouths, like those of heavenly dogs. They shot directly toward Crown Prince Brightsouth. As the blue light spread, Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s teleportation activated. But then Xu Qing¡¯s divine abilities and taboo weapons arrived.

    Xu Qing came along. Together with the Captain, he closed in on the crown prince. One of them attacked viciously with a dagger. The other took a huge bite with his mouth. They didn¡¯t need to speak at all to coordinate their movements. It all came naturally.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth fought back with everything he had. But no matter how he tried to defend himself, it didn¡¯t do any good.

    Ultimately, he screamed as the four taboo weapons pierced through his body and blue light corroded his flesh. Then, a long red streak appeared on his throat.

    A head flew through the air.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior stabbed him through the forehead.

    Destruction!

    But there was no doubt that Crown Prince Brightsouth was an amazing individual. Extermination like this could destroy his fleshly body, but his soul still managed to slip out into the open. As it tumbled to the side, the power of teleport surged, and it disappeared.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried. He performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, whereupon the four taboo weapons vanished, as if they had already locked onto their target.

    The Captain grinned as he waved his hand. Five chunks of flesh appeared around him as he unleashed a magical technique. An instantter, the soul of Crown Prince Brightsouth appeared back in the very vortex he had just disappeared into. His expression was one of disbelief and despair as he opened his mouth to cry out. He wasn¡¯t fast enough.

    Four taboo weapons appeared around his soul. The saber shed. The battle-ax ravaged. The trident exterminated. And the spear immted.

    A scream rang out, but then faded away just as quickly.

    Total extermination!

    The Captain emerged from within the blue light, licking his lips. Turning to Grand Prince and the others, he smiled.

    Xu Qing then shot over to where Crown Prince Brightsouth had just died. Reaching out with a grasping gesture, he caused a host of forbidden mountains to converge overhead. They were Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s forbidden mountains, and there were nearly 400 of them. When added to the over 300 Xu Qing already had from before, he now had more than 700.

    This was <i>crushing all obstacles like chaff</i>. This was <i>a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers</i>. It was shocking and ghastly to say the least.

    The human cultivators were shocked to the core, and couldn¡¯t hold back from turning to Xu Qing and bowing. And yet, some of them also looked at the spot where Crown Prince Brightsouth had died, and they looked anxious.

    Though none were saying anything out loud, they were all thinking the same thing. Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s father was extremely powerful and influential. And it seemed highly likely that he would be furious with humankind for killing his son.

    Xu Qing was aware of that possibility as well. He looked at Grand Prince.

    Grand Prince didn¡¯t say anything for a few breaths of time. Then he looked at the whip marks on his subordinates, and thought back to the humiliation they had all suffered. His gaze softened, and he lowered his voice.

    ¡°This was my mistake. I exchanged dignity for disgrace. And that¡¯s not peace.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°There¡¯s no type of peace thates without shedding blood. It doesn¡¯t matter whether you¡¯re talking about an enemy or yourself. After enough blood has been shed, peace wille on its own.¡±

 Chapter 840: Champion Struggles

    <h4>Chapter 840: Champion Struggles</h4>

    The dome of heaven was peaceful. Thends below were calm. After the dramatic battle, the cloud cover was inplete disarray. Starlight trickled down chaotically from the starry sky, a dappled veil that made everything even more mysterious. Theva was covered with craters and gullies, but they were already filling in. The temperature was rising again. The dramatic battle was over, and things were going back to normal.

    The only sound was the lingering echo of the words the Captain had just spoken. It was rare for him to speak in such a proper and formal way. After he was done talking, he stood with his hands sped behind his back as he stared off into the distance.

    The wind drifted down, stirring the Captain¡¯s hair and clothing. Through the gaps in his flowing hair, it was possible to see a trace of reminiscence and mncholy in his eyes. It was as if he had experienced things that most ordinary people had not. As he stood there, he seemed like a lonemander standing in the middle of a battlefield. All the humans who could see him were moved.

    There were some people present who had heard of someone named Erniu. After all, though Xu Qing got a 30,000-meter light during the assessment of the heart, the Captain got only one meter. Truth be told, the Captain¡¯s achievement was without parallel in history and would likely never be repeated. It was obvious he must have done something very meaningful to lead to that.

    But now, as his words echoed out, the humans who heard them suddenly viewed this Erniu in a very different way.

    Grand Prince looked at him deeply, and after achieving a certain level of understanding in his heart, sped hands and bowed.

    Though the Captain¡¯s eyebrows moved up fractionally, his facial expression remained the same as before.

    Few people would notice that, but all it took was one nce for Xu Qing to realize that the Captain was striking a pose. Xu Qing did nothing to ruin the moment. Waving his hand, he sent one of the forbidden mountains to Grand Prince. It was the mountain which had previously been set aside for Grand Prince.

    ¡°See you at God Mountain,¡± Xu Qing said calmly.

    He hadn¡¯t interacted with Grand Prince previously, but was obviously aware that he was participating in the Great Hunt. And ording to the rules, there was no need to try to take first ce by getting the most forbidden mountains. Only one was required to meet the qualifications for the round. As for whether or not Grand Prince would be able to keep that mountain long enough, there was really no way for Xu Qing to make a prediction.

    After handing over the forbidden mountain, Xu Qing headed off into the distance. Continuing to sigh emotionally, the Captain went with him. The two of them were soon about to disappear over the horizon.

    As the humans watched them go, Grand Prince suddenly said, ¡°Region Lord Xu.¡± He sped hands and bowed at the waist! ¡°I wish you sess in your endeavors!¡±

    He could already tell that Xu Qing¡¯s goal was to be a darkheaven general. If that wasn¡¯t his goal, there was no need for him to have so many forbidden mountains. The other humans bowed their heads and bowed sincerely in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Xu Qing stopped and turned. A moment passed, and then he returned their salute. Then he and the Captain disappeared over the horizon. He took the dragon chariot with him.

    Afterward, Grand Prince and the human cultivators exchanged nces. Finally, all gazes came to focus on Grand Prince.

    As he looked in the direction where Xu Qing had disappeared, he said, ¡°Our new goal isn¡¯t to try to achieve peace. We need to focus on gathering intelligence for Region Lord Xu. Let¡¯s do whatever we can to make sure he has everything necessary to be a darkheaven general!¡±

    With that, Grand Prince made some new arrangements. Afterward, the humans scattered in different directions to start putting together the intelligence reports Grand Prince had mentioned.

    Time slipped by slowly but surely.

    News of Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s death wasn¡¯t possible to keep a secret, and within three days, everyone was talking about it.

    At first it was just a rumor that most people didn¡¯t believe. Some people even scoffed at the news, thinking that it was nothing but nonsense. Based on their understanding, given Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s background and battle prowess, there were few people who had the skill and courage to try to kill him. After all, he was the only son of King Brightsouth.

    But as the news continued to spread, suspicions began to die down, and were eventually reced by astonishment. That was especially true when people started to realize that Crown Prince Brightsouth hadn¡¯t been seen in public since the news started to spread. Before long, virtually all Firemoon Darkheavens were paying attention to what was now the hottest topic in theirnds.

    Crown Prince Brightsouth was a very influential figure among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Whatever he did, people paid attention. For him to suddenly disappear... was very telling in and of itself. Eventually, cultivators arrived at the spot where the crown prince had fought Xu Qing. As they scoured the area, they eventually turned up clues that proved the rumors true. With the truth confirmed, the news spread with even greater intensity.

    ¡°Crown Prince Brightsouth... could actually be dead!¡±

    ¡°Crown Prince Brightsouth¡¯s killer is a human cultivator!¡±

    ¡°Someone already figured out who the human cultivator is. His name... is Xu Qing!¡±

    In a very short period of time, a host of rumors raged. And before long, people unearthed details of Xu Qing¡¯s past. The more they learned and understood... the bigger themotion became. Even to the Firemoon Darkheaven people, Xu Qing¡¯s past was absolutely astonishing.

    ¡°He¡¯s in charge of the humans¡¯ Sea-Sealing County!¡±

    ¡°In the Moonrite Region, he participated in the killing of a god!¡±

    ¡°In the Nightspirit Region, they actually think of him as a god!¡±

    ¡°He killed Seventh Prince in the imperial capital of humankind! He was given a sword by their Grand Emperor!¡±

    ¡°One word from him can determine the glory or decline of an entire region!¡±

    ¡°People are saying that he has a demigod magic, a shocking poison, and violet moon authority!¡±

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t just have a Smoldering God as a dao protector, he also has the blessing of a real god!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s more... Xu Qing is a godherald of Starfire Temple!¡±

    Each new rumor that spread caused a huge stir. In a very short time, Xu Qing was bing quite famous among the Firemoon Darkheavens. When you added in the ughter he had carried out as part of the Great Hunt, it ensured that there wasn¡¯t a single other participant who didn¡¯t hear about him. Before he even reached God Mountain, he was well-known by everyone.

    There was one other important point that came to light, and that was regarding Xu Qing¡¯s forbidden mountains. As he got closer and closer to God Mountain, more and more people were paying attention to his progress. He really did have a huge amount of forbidden mountains. That,bined with his reputation and the strength that had enabled him to kill Crown Prince Brightsouth, made him theplete center of attention.

    There were some people who seemed indifferent, some who seemed antagonistic, some who seemed defiant, and some who were indignant. After all... from the perspective of the Firemoon Darkheavens, for a human cultivator to get so many forbidden mountains during their holy Great Hunt was the source of immense and even ufortable pressure. No one in their species would consider a lone valiant threat to be very noteworthy considering how weak humankind was in general. But in the hearts of the Firemoons, the pressure they were feeling became outright humiliation.

    Antagonism grew more intense. More and more people were paying very close attention to the situation. Soon, news started spreading about Xu Qing¡¯s whereabouts and activities.

    ¡°Xu Qing is traveling straight across the third region!¡±

    ¡°Some Whitemarshes tried to stop him, but they all got killed! He has almost 800 forbidden mountains!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing just entered the second region!¡±

    ¡°He killed more participants! His mountain count just went past 800.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s very close to the first region!¡±

    ¡°900 forbidden mountains!¡±

    ¡°He... is ughtering his way across the first region. He¡¯s only five days away from God Mountain!¡±

    ¡°There are people who saw him from a distance and said that he has a very rming baleful aura!¡±

    The more news spread, the more people started watching Xu Qing¡¯s every move. And quite a few Firemoon cultivators, upon seeing how quickly Xu Qing was rising to prominence, started looking in the direction of King Brightsouth. When all was said and done, his son had died, and that had the potential to be a major catastrophe. But strangely... King Brightsouth didn¡¯t do a single thing.

    However, as news spread of Xu Qing¡¯s progress toward God Mountain, there were Firemoon Darkheaven chosen who started getting very interested in him. People knew that Crown Prince Brightsouth was strong. But he wasn¡¯t the best of the best in his generation in the Firemoon Darkheavens. After all, there were more than a dozen cultivators in their echelon besides him.

    The true Firemoon chosen had a variety of personalities. Some were indifferent to fame and fortune. Some were arrogant and showy. Some kept a low profile. Some were coarse and wild. Some cared deeply about their reputation, and would maintain it at any cost. Some were quite the opposite, and cared only about getting stronger. Because of the variety of dispositions among the chosen, there were a variety of opinions about Xu Qing.

    ***

    About half a day¡¯s journey from God Mountain in the first region, a Firemoon cultivator strode across thends d in a rough hemp robe.[1]

    He was a lot taller than the average Firemoon cultivator. He was nearly 15 meters tall, which made him look almost like a giant. He was extremely muscr, with surging energy and blood. Walking along, he seemed like a small mountain, and imparted the sensation of being impossible to resist.

    Every step he took caused the ground to shake. What was more, he walked with earth-contracting maniption, giving him shocking speed.[2]

    What was most shocking of all was that he had over 900 forbidden mountains orbiting overhead. Thebination of all those things ensured that any who saw him felt shocked to the core, and instinctively bowed their heads.

    One reason for that was his identity. The other was because of his reputation.

    This person was none other than one of the top five consummate chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. His name was Tuo Shishan! [3]

    Most of the other chosen cultivators participating in the Great Hunt didn¡¯t care very much about bing the champion of the first round. But he was different. His main goal was to be the darkheaven general.

    The reason was that he was from the Darkheaven n. And his n had produced six darkheaven generals in the past!

    As he strode forth in his majesty, he eventually reached a mountain range. Standing atop one of the tallest mountains, he looked off toward the horizon, where he could see a golden glow. It wasn¡¯t possible to see any details of what was in that golden light. But that was the location of the Firemoons¡¯ God Mountain, which was the ultimate destination in the first round of the Great Hunt.

    ¡°I¡¯m finally here,¡± he murmured, smiling.

    Momentster, the air around him rippled as nine figures stepped out and bowed. ¡°We offer respectful greetings, Young Lord.¡±

    Tuo Shishan nodded and looked away from the horizon. ¡°How far away is Xu Qing? And how many forbidden mountains does he have now?¡±

    One of the nine figures replied, ¡°He¡¯s about six hours away. As for the forbidden mountains... he has a few more than you, Your Majesty.¡±

    Tuo Shishan licked his lips, and his eyes glittered with interest. Instead of continuing onward, he sat down on a nearby boulder to wait. Producing an earthen jar of alcohol, he took a long drink.

    ¡°Very good. The fact that he killed Crown Prince Brightsouth shows that he¡¯s worth his salt. I never liked that prissy crown prince. I¡¯m d he¡¯s dead. That said, there¡¯s only going to be one champion in round one, and it¡¯s going to be me.¡±

    1. The specific kind of robe mentioned could be the ¡°changshan¡± robe typical of Qing Dynasty China. <u>It looks like this</u>. Literally, it just means ¡°long robe.¡± I¡¯m hesitant to put a lot of stock into the specific words used by the author in describing clothing. I¡¯ve seen him use twopletely different words for ¡°robe¡± when describing the same set of clothing for one character. So it could just be that he¡¯s using the ¡°changshan¡± word in a general sense to mean a ¡°long robe.¡± Or perhaps he envisions the Firemoon Darkheavens having a fashion sense that conforms more to Qing Dynasty style than the more ancient style. Regardless, I think what¡¯s most significant is that he¡¯s wearing a robe of ¡°rough hemp,¡± which gives some insight into his personality. Given the description of the variety of Firemoon chosen in the previous paragraph, it¡¯s noteworthy that he¡¯s not wearing the extravagant or showy garment you would expect to see on someone who values glory or riches. ?

    2. The ¡°earth-contracting maniption¡± is a ¡°real¡± but legendary ability in Chinese/Daoist magic that allows the user to travel great distances with a single step. This type of ability gets mentioned asionally in Er Gen works, sometimes using differentbinations of characters. ?

    3. Tuo Shishan: Tuo is a surname that does not appear on the list of 100 mostmon surnames. It¡¯s also amon character that means ¡°to expand, to push, to develop¡± as well as ¡°to make a rubbing or inscription.¡± Shi means ¡°stone, rock¡± and Shan means ¡°mountain.¡± Madam Deathde said he sounds like a cold-hearted murderer. However, she also included a sarcastic joke like she often does. If you look at the character for Tuo ÍØ you can see how it includes the character Shi Ê¯ squished to the right. So his name contains the character for ¡°stone, rock¡± twice. And thus she said "he has so many stones in his name. I guess he¡¯s a stoner.¡± Ha. Ha. Ha. ?

 Chapter 841: Be Wary of Scams

    <h4>Chapter 841: Be Wary of Scams</h4>

    After Tuo Shishan¡¯s short soliloquy, he took a big drink of alcohol.

    The nine figures bowed, then stood aside motionless. All of them werepletely willing to follow this young lord¡¯s lead. Whether it was his personality, or the way he handled himself, the things they had been through together ensured that he had earned their respect.

    For instance, after learning that Xu Qing had more forbidden mountains than him, he could have called on the power of his n to get a few more mountains for himself. In fact, even without calling on the powers of his n, he could have relied on his reputation alone to have forbidden mountains literally handed over to him by others. If he had given the order, his nine subordinates could have used all sorts of methods to intercept Xu Qing and cause trouble for him. But they knew that their young lord disdained behavior like that. He was obviously interested in this human named Xu Qing, and was waiting for him here. He wanted to win the title of champion in an honest and above-board manner.

    The nine of them weren¡¯t worried about Tuo Shishan losing. As far as they were concerned, their young lord could crush someone like Crown Prince Brightsouth with hardly any effort. The Darkheaven bloodline was extraordinary to say the least.

    Thus, time passed. Around the time Tuo Shishan finished his seventh jug of alcohol, bright beams of light appeared off in the distance.

    Three people became visible.

    Tuo Shishan looked up and burped. Eyes glittering with strange light, he smiled.

    ¡°They¡¯re finally here,¡± he said.

    Xu Qing spotted Tuo Shishan on the mountain top.

    The Captain¡¯s expression turned serious. ¡°Little Junior Brother, this person... is no simpleton. Given the fluctuations of his energy and blood, it¡¯s clear his fleshly body has reached the great circle of Void-Returning. Looks like his cultivation base is the same.

    ¡°He¡¯s only half a step away from being a Smoldering God! Based on my understanding of Firemoon Darkheaven techniques, cultivators like this prefer to use the blood of godly entities to open up the path to bing a god!¡±

    Xu Qing had also noticed that this young Firemoon cultivator with his jug of alcohol was an extraordinary individual. His gaze was piercing, and his aura was like a scorching volcano. Xu Qing could already guess the rough level of his battle prowess. He had clearly ced himself in Xu Qing¡¯s path on purpose, as if to wait for him. Beyond that, he had more than 900 forbidden mountains. His goal was self-evident.

    ¡°That¡¯s Tuo Shishan!¡± said Master Gravesparrow, stifling a gasp.

    After aplishing the mission Xu Qing had given him before the fight with Crown Prince Brightsouth, he had met back up and continued along with Xu Qing. As a result, he knew full well how terrifying this human cultivator was. The death of Crown Prince Brightsouth had been quite a shock to him. At first, he had been worried about the potential ramifications, but at this point, he¡¯d stopped caring. That said, his calm heart was now more than a little disturbed.

    ¡°He¡¯s one of the top five chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Specifically, he ranks fourth! He¡¯s from the Darkheaven n. He was gifted even as a child, and was born with godly power. He was blessed on five asions by the Moonfire Temple, and High God Moonfire even promised to make him a dharma protector after he bes a Smoldering God. He... is one of the shining stars of this generation among us Firemoon Darkheavens!¡±

    Although Xu Qing was taking the situation seriously, his facial expression didn¡¯t change at all in response to Master Gravesparrow¡¯s exnation. Not slowing down at all, he headed right toward the mountain atop which Tuo Shishan waited.

    Tuo Shishan had fewer forbidden mountains than him, and God Mountain was so close that it was conceivable he could simply rush there and reach the finish line first. But there was no point in doing that.

    The mountain trembled as Xu Qingnded right in front of Tuo Shishan.

    The Captain and Master Gravesparrownded right behind Xu Qing.

    The Captain then projected a message to Xu Qing using a special divine will method. <i>¡°His nine attendants are no simpletons either. When you start fighting, just buy me some time and I¡¯ll capture them. Then, after you win your forbidden mountains, you can head straight toward God Mountain.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing scanned the area visually, then focused on Tuo Shishan, who was still sitting on the boulder.

    Tuo Shishan smiled and tossed him a jug of alcohol. Somewhat surprised, Xu Qing sent out some soul threads to catch the jug and keep it floating in the air in front of him. The fragrance of alcohol emerged from it. Given Xu Qing¡¯s skill in the dao of nts and vegetation, he was able to identify the key ingredients. It had obviously been brewed with the goal of bolstering the flesh and blood. Drinking it would provide both recovery and blessing to the fleshly body.

    ¡°I never liked Crown Prince Brightsouth,¡± Tuo Shishan said. ¡°The fact that you killed him shows that you¡¯re strong and daring. I¡¯d like to offer this jug of alcohol to you as a gift.¡±

    Tuo Shishan raised his own jug respectfully to Xu Qing, then took a drink.

    Xu Qing stood there quietly for a moment. This Firemoon chosen was different from the others he had encountered on his journey. However, that didn¡¯t mean he would casually drink the alcohol.

    Tuo Shishan didn¡¯t seem offended. After finishing his drink, he slowly stood. Eyes gleaming, he unleashed his aura, causing wild colors to sh in heaven and earth. Winds swept around him, forming a tempest like a tornado that swept in all directions. The canopy of heaven trembled as a huge vortex formed, filled with shocking bolts of lightning.

    Because of the close proximity to God Mountain, the supernatural phenomena immediately attracted the attention of the cultivators there. Numerous figures flew out from there, and streams of divine will settled on the area as they waited to see what would happen.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with mysterious light as soul threads spread to form a god state around him. His energy also shook the area.

    Tuo Shishan¡¯s eyes glittered with excitement as he studied Xu Qing¡¯s god state. After muttering to himself briefly, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s first set the rules and the stakes. Whoever loses the fight between the two of us gets to keep one forbidden mountain. All the others are up for grabs.¡±

    Xu Qing was even more surprised. It was now very clear that this Firemoon cultivator was definitely different from the others he had encountered.

    ¡°Furthermore, I think an ordinary fight wouldn¡¯t be very interesting. I heard you have an extraordinary sealing magic. I also have a sealing method. What if we both use our sealing methods to trap each other? I¡¯ll let you seal me, and you let me seal you. Then we¡¯ll see which of us can break free first. The person who seeds is the winner.¡±

    Tuo Shishan looked at Xu Qing with bright eyes. After sensing Xu Qing¡¯s aura, he got the sense that a fight between the two of them wouldn¡¯t be easily resolved. Most importantly, he didn¡¯t want to end up injured. After all, this was only the first round of the Great Hunt. He wanted to stay at his peak until the third round, which was when he should be able to get some very powerful godly blood.

    As Xu Qing considered what to do, the Captain rubbed his chin and projected another message.

    <i>¡°Be wary of scams, little Ah Qing.¡±</i>

    As Xu Qing thought about it further, he came to the conclusion that the Captain¡¯s idea from earlier was too unsafe. As for sealing magics....

    ¡°Let¡¯s do it,¡± he said calmly. He pointed up into the sky, which rumbled as a majestic aura spread out. Then a huge cell block appeared. It started illusory, but rapidly turned corporeal, with energy that poured down like a waterfall, rapidly forming godly might. It was none other than D-132.

    After it appeared, the entrance opened quietly. Strange cries and screams drifted out from inside. Its arrival attracted a lot of attention from the divine will of the observing cultivators.

    Tuo Shishan studied it closely for a time before taking out a three-colored pearl. The pearl glittered as it floated out into the air, rapidly growingrger until it was 300 meters across. It pulsed with sealing power, and was covered with glittering godly inscriptions. It seemed to contain intersecting darkness and light that expanded into a golden glow. Then a rift opened on the surface of the pearl, which expanded into a gateway.

    ¡°In that case, let¡¯s begin.¡± Even as he spoke, Tuo Shishan shot toward the entrance of D-132.

    Xu Qing also moved toward the opening in the three-colored pearl.

    Though Tuo Shishan seemed to be acting rashly, the reality was that he moved in concert with Xu Qing. And thus, they both reached the sealed areas at the same time. An instantter, the entrance of D-132 closed, and the gateway into the three-colored pearl disappeared. They were now both confined in the sealing area created by the other.

    Inside the three-colored pearl, Xu Qing found himself in a bizarre dimension. At first, everything around him was pitch ck, as if it were the middle of the night. That darkness was actually a sealing mark. After breaking through it, a second color would appear. ck. White. Red. Each color represented a sealing mark. Upon breaking through all the colors, a three-colored hex would appear, which formed an even more terrifying sealing mark. Every intersection of the three colors would make the sealing even more powerful. The overallbination was astonishing.

    Meanwhile, Tuo Shishan was facing misfortune and amnesia, plus the inmates and the god¡¯s finger. From his perspective, it was both fantastic and extraordinary. After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, neither of them had broken free. Rumbling booms echoed out from inside both of the sealed areas.

    An hour passed.... Two hours....

    Tuo Shishan¡¯s servants looked surprised. So did the Captain. He knew Xu Qing well, and thus came to the conclusion that for him to remain sealed for so long meant that he was up to something.

    When the sixth hour arrived, the Captain¡¯s expression flickered, and Tuo Shishan¡¯s servants looked very serious. Although it was impossible to see what was happening inside the sealed areas, given how much time had gone by, it was obvious that breaking free was difficult.

    Inside of D-132, Tuo Shishan could no longer remain calm and collected. His hair was disheveled, and he waspletely broken-down. What was broken-down wasn¡¯t his body, though, but rather, his mind. He had to work constantly to keep the misfortune at bay. But at the same time, he had to deal with the amnesia, which kept making him forget his main purpose. A feeling of nausea and embarrassment was bing increasingly stronger within him.

    The inmates were in good condition. He had suppressed and killed them numerous times already. As for the god¡¯s finger, he hadn¡¯t paid much attention to ¨©t. As far as he was concerned, a god as weak as that wasn¡¯t very noteworthy.

    <i>I might be having a tough time, but so is Xu Qing. Furthermore, there¡¯s no way he can break free from my sealing. After the three-colored intersection reaches a certain point, he¡¯ll find that the final obstacle is something that not even Smoldering Gods can break through. That¡¯s my big gift to him.</i>

    Such thoughts were what kept Tuo Shishan stable despite the torment he was suffering. Breathing irregrly, eyes bloodshot, he kept the ughter going. After ultimately suppressing the god¡¯s finger, he gasped for breath as he strode toward the entrance that had just be visible. Walking out would constitute breaking free of the sealing. Tuo Shishan startedughing.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing was having just as difficult a time in the three-colored dimension. He had used just about every method he could think of, but there seemed no end to the three colors. Worse, they just seemed to get stronger and stronger. Although he was able to break through, the intersection of the three colors happened over and over again. After seeding about three hundred times, he spotted a figure seated cross-legged up ahead.

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    ¡°Smoldering God!¡±

    Astonishingly, the final obstacle in this three-colored dimension was the soul of a Smoldering God. He looked like an old man, and he was guarding this ce. Without his approval, no one weaker than a Smoldering God would be able to leave.

    ¡°With me here, you won¡¯t be going anywhere,¡± he said coolly, opening his eyes and looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    Meanwhile, back in D-132, Tuo Shishan stood in front of the entrance. Above the doorway in front of him was a sphere. It was... an ancient sun connected to the door. If the door was opened, the power of a Dawning Sun would explode out.

    Upon recognizing what he was looking at, Tuo Shishan stared nkly for a moment, then gritted his teeth and cursed, ¡°How freaking vicious!!¡±

 Chapter 842: Donâ€™t Be Impulsive, Young Friend! If You Have Something To Say, Say It

    <h4>Chapter 842: Don¡¯t Be Impulsive, Young Friend! If You Have Something To Say, Say It</h4>

    A lot of cultivators were observing the two sealed areas not too far away from God Mountain. In fact, the streams of divine will only continued to increase. Most were various species associated with the Firemoon Darkheavens, although members of the main species were also represented. The fluctuations had attracted them, after which they were able to read the clues to see what was happening. The presence of the nine servants on the mountain peak ensured that everyone realized Tuo Shishan was involved. As a result, everyone felt fairly calm.

    They all knew that Tuo Shishan was from the Darkheaven n. He had been extraordinary since childhood, and was considered one of the top five chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Once he took action, there was no chance he would lose.

    It was true that Xu Qing had a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers, and had methods that no one could afford to underestimate. But <i>there are always people more important than you, and there is always a heaven beyond heaven</i>. There was no gifted person among humankind, not even one of their chosen, who couldpare to the Firemoon Darkheavens. The disparity was just too immense. However, as time continued to pass, their confidence began to waver. After four hours went by in which Tuo Shishan had not escaped, surprise began to build in their hearts, and spection ran wild.

    ¡°Something strange is going on here!¡±

    ¡°This Xu Qing¡¯s sealing methods... are not simple!¡±

    Tuo Shishan¡¯s nine servants were really starting to get worried.

    As far as they could tell, there was only one reason things could be ying out this way. And that was for something unimaginable to exist within Xu Qing¡¯s sealing area. There seemed no other exnation for why their young lord would have such trouble breaking free.

    Master Gravesparrow was also feeling a bit hesitant, and was thinking something simr to the nine servants.

    Only the Captain seemed more rxed than ever. However, inside was a different story.

    <i>That Tuo Shishan is definitely pulling some sort of scam. He seems heroic and honorable, but he could still be full of crap. Otherwise, why else would he have the crappy name ¡®Tuo Shishan?¡¯</i> [1]

    That said, the Captain still wasn¡¯t truly worried. Considering how long little Ah Qing had been following him around, he had long since transformed from a naive youngster into the type of person that even the Captain had a hard time scamming. Considering all the hard training the Captain had put him through, it seemed unlikely that a simplistic situation like this would be very troublesome for him.

    <i>I worked really hard to bring up little Ah Qing, and by now, he¡¯s got a broad depth of knowledge. He can suffer through just about anything. But there¡¯s one thing he won¡¯t suffer, and that¡¯s a loss. I bet that crappy Tuo Shishan is really starting to get worried.</i>

    The Captain¡¯s spection was absolutely correct.

    Inside of D-132, Tuo Shishan stood in front of the main entrance of the cell block, grinding his teeth and cursing constantly.

    ¡°Dammit!¡±

    The more he looked at the door, the more helpless he felt. He had already tried numerous ways of skirting the Dawning Sun to open the door. But every single one of his attempts had failed. No matter what ideas he came up with, there was no way to open the door without detonating the Dawning Sun. There were even a few times in which the Dawning Sun had started to pulse with the energy of self-detonation. Tuo Shishan couldn¡¯t be sure if it was a bluff, but it waspletely frightening and left him fearing for his life. At this point, he was starting to go slightly mad.

    <i>How shameless! I can¡¯t believe he put a domain treasure like that in here.... What kind of honorable person goes around with a domain treasure? How am I supposed to get past that thingy to escape? Xu Qing, oh, Xu Qing. I really underestimated you. I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re so sinister!</i>

    <i>That said, no matter how crafty you are, you¡¯re not on my level. I have the soul of a Smoldering God in my sealed area. There¡¯s no way you¡¯ll be able to get past that obstacle. Maybe I¡¯m trapped, but you can keep dreaming if you think you¡¯ll get free! Worst case scenario, we have a stalemate!</i>

    Tuo Shishan chuckled coldly.

    The same Xu Qing who had him grinding his teeth constantly was inside the three-colored sealing area, frowning as he looked at the three-colored glow ahead of him.

    Within that glow was a hale and hearty old man. He sat down cross-legged in the light, his expression indifferent, his gaze calm as he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Don¡¯t waste your energy, human child. With me here, you can¡¯t leave this ce.¡±

    Xu Qing stood there silently. He had employed a number of methods in his attempts to escape, but they were <i>as good as throwing a stone ox into the ocean</i> in dealing with this Smoldering God¡¯s soul. Whatever divine abilities he used, the old man could negate them with the wave of a hand. What was more, the pressure from the sealing grew stronger and stronger, almost as if it was connected to the old man. He wouldn¡¯t back down, and the seal wouldn¡¯t open.

    From all of this, Xu Qing could onlye to the conclusion that this wasn¡¯t the soul of an ordinary Smoldering God. That was especially true considering how closely tied he was to the sealed area.

    <i>I bet this ce is one of that Smoldering God¡¯s major worlds!</i>

    As Xu Qing thought such things, the old man smiled faintly. Sounding very casual, he said, ¡°You most likely already guessed that this ce was made from one of my major worlds. Outside of here, I was a Smoldering God. Therefore, inside of this major world, I am a god.

    ¡°That said, I won¡¯t go hard on you. Just be obedient and stay put. But if you don¡¯t pipe down....¡± The old man licked his lips, and suddenly, his gaze became malevolent. ¡°I¡¯ll eat you!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up and studied the Smoldering God soul for a time. His eyes began to glitter.

    Although he was confident that Tuo Shishan wouldn¡¯t be able to escape confinement, he also didn¡¯t want things to end in a tie, which was where things seemed to be heading. Furthermore, he didn¡¯t like having his life threatened. Eyes narrowing, he made a decision.

    There was one other thing he was prepared to try, and he felt reasonably confident it would work. With his decision made, he tapped his bag of holding to produce an object.

    Seeing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t giving up, the old Smoldering God¡¯s face flickered with displeasure, and his eyes gleamed with cold light.

    In his opinion, humans were just too stubborn. Just as he was about to snort coldly and crush the human, he sensed what wasing out of Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding, and it caused his eyes to narrow. Then, both his gaze and his divine will locked onto the object.

    It was amand medallion.

    ¡°Is that...?¡± The old man¡¯s heart started pounding. ¡°Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯sherworld medallion??¡±

    The tempest within him caused the light surrounding him to start rippling dramatically.

    Xu Qing was actually somewhat surprised, as he hadn¡¯t expected the old man to recognize the medallion. It was indeed the very same teleportation medallion Emperor Ancient Spirit had given him to deliver food. The fact that the old man recognized it was going to make this entire situation easier.

    Xu Qing held themand medallion aloft, looked straight at the old Smoldering God, and calmly said, ¡°This is a teleportation medallion that leads right to Emperor Ancient Spirit. The venerable Emperor Ancient Spirit has been starving for quite a while now. For the past few years, I¡¯ve been responsible for feeding h¨©m.

    ¡°Truth be told, Senior, you would make the perfect snack for Emperor Ancient Spirit. Because you have no fleshly body, h§Ö? won¡¯t get any food stuck between h¨©s teeth. Your soul is clearly plump and full of vor.

    ¡°That said, I¡¯d rather not cause any trouble for you. All you have to do is be obedient and let me pass. But if you don¡¯t pipe down....¡± His gaze hardened as he looked at the old man. ¡°I¡¯ll teleport you to Emperor Ancient Spirit to be the next meal!¡±

    The old man¡¯s heart raced as he realized Xu Qing was saying almost the exact same thing that he had just said earlier. He looked at Xu Qing. He looked at themand medallion. He hesitated.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever. Without giving the old man any time to think the situation over, he pushed down on the medallion, which instantly resulted in bright light shining out. A stream ofherworld energy rushed out, quickly turning into a ck vortex. Rumbling sounds echoed out, along with something eerie and corrosive. It was death energy. There was also a sigh that sounded both incredibly hungry and profoundly ancient.

    ¡°So hungry....¡±

    When the old man heard those words, he shivered dramatically.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed as he prepared to finish the teleportation.

    All of a sudden, a look of decisiveness appeared on the old man¡¯s face. Shooting to his feet, he blurted, ¡°Hey now, young friend, we can negotiate! Let¡¯s be friends.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him coldly.

    After a brief bit of negotiating, the old man stepped back, smiled, and let Xu Qing pass.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior.¡± Xu Qing was as polite as ever, so it was no surprise that he would bow thankfully before leaving.

    The old man¡¯s face hardened, but he kept smiling.

    The next instant, Xu Qing¡¯s view of the three-colored dimension blurred, and then he was outside. The moment he was out, numerous gazes locked onto him. Incredulous gasps rang out everywhere.

    Tuo Shishan¡¯s nine servants reacted with visible astonishment.

    Master Gravesparrow looked excited, and the Captain grinned.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that. As he hovered in midair, he looked at D-132. As the guard of the ce, all it took was a thought for him to check everything that was happening inside. Then he waved his hand. D-132 vibrated, then blurred. A momentter, Tuo Shishan appeared.

    ¡°You lose,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    Tuo Shishan looked at him, all while cursing inwardly. He was also a bit hesitant, as he wasn¡¯t sure how Xu Qing had freed himself. Based on his understanding, that should have been impossible.

    <i>Did the old man actually let him go?</i>

    Tuo Shishan was somewhat at a loss. However, he had spoken some very grand words earlier, and with so many people watching, he would lose all face if he went back on his own agreement. Face darkening, he waved his hand, sending over 900 mountains over to Xu Qing. He kept only one.

    Xu Qing waved his hand to collect them. Now he had over 1,800 forbidden mountains orbiting overhead in a truly shocking disy. Seeing that Tuo Shishan had kept his word, Xu Qing turned and flew off in the direction of God Mountain.

    The Captain chuckled and followed. Master Gravesparrow excitedly did the same.

    The shocked onlookers made way for them.

    After they were off in the distance, the depressed and suspicious Tuo Shishan took back his three-colored sealing pearl. Once it was in his hand, he sent a message inside.

    <i>¡°Old grandpa, why did you let him go?¡±</i> [2]

    Furious, the Smoldering God replied, <i>¡°Damn it all! That human brat had amand medallion from Emperor Ancient Spirit! He used it to threaten me! I had no choice! That codger Emperor Ancient Spirit has been starving for years. If I got sent to h¨©m, I¡¯d be nothing but a snack. You think this is my fault? What took you so long to get free?¡±</i>

    Tuo Shishan only felt more depressed now. <i>¡°He had the door sealed with a Dawning Sun! What was I supposed to do?¡±</i>

    The old grandpa inhaled sharply, but said nothing further.

    Tuo Shishan likewise said nothing further.

    1. The Captain makes a somewhat juvenile joke here that my kids would love. Actually, it¡¯s the kind of joke I would make and Madam Deathde would roll her eyes at. It¡¯s essentially impossible to render in trantion because it involves wordy rting to the specific characters in Tuo Shishan¡¯s name. The Captain uses different characters for Tuo and Shi than the actual characters from the name. The tones on the characters are not the same, but the general pronunciation is simr, and the pinyin is the same. Instead of the Tuo surname, the Captain uses a different character pronounced tuo that means ¡°lump, pile of.¡± And he uses a different character pronounced shi that means ¡°poop, crap, feces.¡± The Shan character (mountain) remains the same. So instead of the characters in Tuo Shishan¡¯s name being ¡®inscribe - stone - mountain¡¯ they be ¡®pile - crap - mountain.¡¯ The Captain will use this name a couple times, and in order to highlight it, I¡¯ll use the adjective ¡®crappy¡¯ along with it. Whenever you see the Captain referring to Tuo Shishan as ¡®crappy,¡¯ you¡¯ll know that he¡¯s using the dad-joke pun name. ?

    2. The term used here ¡®old grandpa¡¯ could theoretically imply that the old man is the grandfather or great-grandfather of Tuo Shishan. More likely, it¡¯s just a term of respect for an elderly person, simr to how the Heir Apparent was called ¡®old grandpa.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 843: The Fourth Statue. The God-Defiler

    <h4>Chapter 843: The Fourth Statue. The God-Defiler</h4>

    Above the sprawlingnds rose towering mountains. It looked like someone had casually scattered ink on rice paper, creating a beautifulndscape painting.

    Among all of the mountains was one specific mountain that rose higher than all the others. This was a holy peak to the Firemoon Darkheavens. It was called God Mountain. It looked almost like an ink brush pointing up into the dome of heaven. Countless clouds drifted past the base of the mountain, making it seem like a paradisiac ind of immortals floating in the air. The sun shone down on the boulders and lush vegetation on the mountain, making it unusually dazzling and glorious.

    The mountain created a clear contrast to the sky behind it, ensuring that whether it was viewed from near or far, it was shocking to behold. Any who got close to it would sense a mountain-toppling, sea-draining energy pulsing off it. It was clearly just one mountain, but its mere existence seemed to make the dome of heaven be dim inparison, to the point where it seemed capable of suppressing the sky itself.

    Xu Qing could be considered well-traveled, but even he had never seen anything like it. Its towering summit rose arrogantly high into the sky. It emanated golden light that, whether inherently or by the bolstering of the sun, spread out to fill the sky and cover the surroundingnds.

    Sensing the light caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to fill with a profound look. He could feel the power of gods in that golden light! It was a power that contained a certain level of mutagen. Although the mutagen was under control, it was free enough that it could be absorbed normally. He inhaled deeply, converting it into cultivation base power for himself.

    The Captain stood next to Xu Qing taking everything in, his eyes shining with reminiscence the entire time. He sighed.

    ¡°Back again...¡± he murmured in a low voice that only Xu Qing could hear. ¡°Let¡¯s go, little Junior Brother. You really need to see this ce.¡±

    The Captain patted Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder.

    Xu Qing suppressed his astonishment and nced up at the over 1,800 forbidden mountains orbiting over him. The closer he got to God Mountain, the smaller they shrank down, until they were little more than ck dots circling overhead. Though they were small, the vast number of them still made him very eye-catching.

    <i>With this many, I should take first ce, right?</i>

    Xu Qing elerated, bing a beam of prismatic light that shot toward the mountain range ahead.

    God Mountain grewrger andrger from Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, until he couldn¡¯t even see the summit. It made him feel minute and powerless.

    Near the bottom of the mountain was a floating city made up of three smaller sub-cities. Each sub-city was grand and magnificent. They were connected by golden chains, and the immense amount of vegetation growing off of them made them seem very ancient.

    The cities were all roughly circr, conforming to the architectural stylemon among the species of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s time. Nowadays, such architecture was rare, even among humankind.

    Sounding very excited, Master Gravesparrow said, ¡°This is the holy city of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It¡¯s called Heavenfire City! It¡¯s normally opened up to the public only during the Great Hunt and certain other important asions. I had the great honor of being able toe here three times in the past. This is my fourth time here.

    ¡°Flying is prohibited in Heavenfire City, and all whoe here are supposed to treat their visit like a holy pilgrimage.¡± [1]

    Master Gravesparrow continued to exin some of the other rules of the city as he led Xu Qing and the Captain toward one of the three small cities.

    Even from a distance, it looked like a bustling ce filled with plenty of cultivators. ording to Master Gravesparrow, the majority of the people present were visitors. For the most part, the permanent residents were members of the temples.

    Their arrival attracted a lot of attention. Truth be told... humans were very rare here. And there was little need to mention that Xu Qing was already famous. Then there was his sh with Tuo Shishan. As a result, his arrival was noticed immediately. The fact that he had over a thousand forbidden mountains made him even more eye-catching.

    Xu Qing was used to such things already. As hended in front of the city gates, his eyes shone. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward.

    The city gates obviously weren¡¯t designed with humans in mind. They were some 300 meters tall. Everything else in the city was simr. It was like a city made for giants.

    As Xu Qing looked around, he saw cultivators from hundreds of different species, many of them very bizarre and exotic. Firemoon Darkheavens, who were rare outside, were actually the mostmon cultivators here. The majority of them wore white robes, and wherever they went, they were shown a great deal of respect. They didn¡¯t need to make any effort to seem lofty and aloof. It came naturally.

    ¡°Even back in the day, I hated their attitude,¡± the Captain muttered.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Nor did he pay attention to any of the numerous gazes cast in his direction, many of which were hostile. He had something more important on his mind. And that was... to turn in his mountains! By going to God Mountain and handing over his forbidden mountains, he could solidify his ranking. And thus, he looked at Master Gravesparrow.

    Master Gravesparrow had been paying close attention to Xu Qing while leading him on his journey. As a result, he knew exactly what Xu Qing meant by that look. Hurrying forward, he led the way.

    As countless people looked on, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Gravesparrow proceeded through the city. Gossip immediately began to spread, and right about when they reached the halfway point, some Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators stepped out in front of them and issued a challenge. Clearly there were members of their species who weren¡¯t very happy that a human had acquired so many forbidden mountains in the first round.

    Xu Qing nced at them. Seeing that they had no mountains orbiting over them, he ignored them.

    A few hourster, as the sun was beginning to set... Xu Qing arrived in front of God Mountain.

    Nine huge chains connected Heavenfire City to the mountain. By following the chains with one¡¯s gaze, it was possible to see a huge zaplex high up on the mountain, where three massive divine likenesses of green stone existed. They represented the gods of sun, moon, and star. Behind the divine likenesses was a staircase that disappeared higher up on the mountain.

    ¡°There are three paths leading up God Mountain,¡± Master Gravesparrow exined. ¡°They begin at Heavenfire City and lead to the three god zas.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, looking away from God Mountain to the chains. Beneath them was a bottomless chasm. The wind caused the chains to slowly swing back and forth. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing walked forward and hopped onto one of the chains. After some thought, the Captain chose to follow Xu Qing on the same chain. Master Gravesparrow was initially surprised, but then he picked one of the chains and hurried after them.

    Nothing unexpected happened. Eventually, Xu Qing reached the zaplex where the three statues were.

    The first depicted High God Sunfire. It was hard to determine if High God Sunfire was male or female. The body seemed female, but the facial features were male. A sun rose behind the statue, and a host of evil ghosts were beneath its feet. The statue''s eyes were closed.

    The second statue was in no way unfamiliar to Xu Qing. It depicted High God Moonfire. Sh¨¥ was breathtaking, with an expression as cold as an iceberg. Sh¨¥ was actually quite different from what Xu Qing remembered from the fight with Crimson Mother. There was a moon behind the statue, which cast cold moonlight that made the statue seem holy.

    Xu Qing was very familiar with the third statue.... It was the y fox, with stars behind the statue. The statue seemed extremely flirtatious, making it hard to look away from.

    However, what attracted Xu Qing¡¯s attention was not the three divine likenesses. Rather... it was the fourth statue. That statue was bowing to High God Moonfire. It was skinless and covered with whip marks and countless other wounds. There were even some des stuck into the statue.... From the look of things, High God Moonfire hated this statue with a deep passion, and as a punishment, forced it to endure humiliation and torment.

    Upon looking at the statue, the Captain blinked a few times.

    Master Gravesparrow noticed that Xu Qing was looking at the fourth statue, so he quietly exined, ¡°That statue has a mysterious origin. It¡¯s been there for a very long time. My people call that statue the God Defiler. Legend has it that he defiled High God Moonfire andmitted a heinous crime, making him wicked beyond redemption. High God Sunfire personally executed him, then chopped his fleshly body into pieces and turned them into this kneeling statue. [2]

    ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be a warning against others. What¡¯s even more noteworthy is that the official teachings of the Moonfire Temple mention the event. There¡¯s even a special holiday in the Moonfire Temple dedicated to cursing the God Defiler.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain¡¯s facial expression remained the same, and in fact, he seemed very intent on just listening to Master Gravesparrow. When he noticed Xu Qing looking at him, he turned with great curiosity to look at the fourth statue.

    Master Gravesparrow naturally had no way to know what Xu Qing and the Captain were thinking about, so he decided to add something to his previous description.

    ¡°By the way, there¡¯s a rule when ites to Heavenfire City and God Mountain. And that rule is that it¡¯s prohibited to bring an ox here. It¡¯spletely taboo. I have no idea why that rule exists. But I do know that if anyone brings an ox here, it will get killed immediately. In fact, any species even rted to oxen in any way have mostly been exterminated by the Moonfire Temple over the years.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain again. Without a scrap of shame, the Captain continued to look very curious.

    Therefore, Master Gravesparrow continued, ¡°Another thing. There¡¯s a taboo against having the character ¡®ox¡¯ in your name. If you have that character in your name, you definitely shouldn¡¯t let anyone know about it. Say, Fellow Daoists, do either of you have the character ¡®ox¡¯ in your name?¡±

    During their travels, he had obviouslye to learn Xu Qing¡¯s name. However, he hadn¡¯t heard the name Chen Erniu at all. He just knew that Xu Qing called him Eldest Brother. [3]

    Xu Qing shook his head and looked yet again at the Captain.

    The Captain cleared his throat and quickly shook his head. Master Gravesparrow didn¡¯t think much of the situation and prepared to give some more information.

    ¡°Also¡ª¡±

    At longst, the Captain couldn¡¯t continue his act. ring at Master Gravesparrow, he interrupted, ¡°Alright, we get the picture. Keep leading the way. Why are you jabbering so much?¡±

    1. The author names the city, but then rarely refers to the actual name of the city. In some cases, I¡¯ll abide by his nomenture, but in other instances I¡¯m going to change the generic ¡°three cities¡± into the actual name of the city. I¡¯m doing that both for continuity and for ease of reading. There are many times when it makes the dialogue and narrative flow a lot more smoothly when the actual name of the city is used. Basically, it makes sense the way it is in Chinese, but when tranted with 100% uracy into English ites across clunky and weird in many cases. Incidentally, this is another instance in which I inadvertently created ¡°term crossover.¡± Earlier in the story in the Moonfire region, we had ¡°heavenfire¡± as part of the story. In the case of this city, the character for fire is actually different. I could render this city differently, but the characters in the city are the same as those from the name of the species (FIREmoon darkHEAVEN), so I think it¡¯s important to reflect that. In this case there are two different characters that both can mean ¡°fire,¡± which, if I had really been paying attention to, would have rendered differently (i.e. have one of them be fire and the other be me, or something like that). Sorry about this. This tends to happen when two termse up in different parts of the story, and my brain doesn¡¯t connect the parts until long after I¡¯ve already set the trantion choice. ?

    2. I want to rify that the Chinese term that I¡¯m rendering ¡®defile¡¯ does not inherently contain the same possible definition of the English term, i.e. ¡° to vite the chastity of.¡± I could have used other terms like ¡°profane, desecrate, disrespect, spheme.¡± I just felt that ¡°defile¡± sounded best in the context. And also, it theoretically <i>could </i>contain the above English definition. There isn¡¯t really a way to tell for sure without further context. ?

    3. I feel like the vast majority of you remember this, but for any who have forgotten, the Captain¡¯s name Chen Erniu has the character ¡®ox¡¯ in it. Niu means cow or ox. ?

 Chapter 844: Flags of Species on God Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 844: gs of Species on God Mountain</h4>

    Master Gravesparrow was both surprised and a little embarrassed at the Captain¡¯s angry outburst. <i>What¡¯s wrong with this guy? I wasn¡¯t talking about him!</i>

    All he had done was exin the rules of God Mountain, and therefore, couldn¡¯t figure out why Xu Qing¡¯s Eldest Brother would get so emotional. Then the spections started.... Of course, no matter what fanciful things he imagined, he couldn¡¯t possibly understand what was going on inside of Chen Erniu. However, it was obvious to him that the Captain was irritated in some way, so Master Gravesparrow simply put such thoughts aside and led them past the kneeling fourth statue and to the staircase beyond it.

    As Xu Qing walked past the statue of the God Defiler, he couldn¡¯t help but look over a bit more closely.

    The Captain was right next to him. He rubbed his nose, looked at Xu Qing, cleared his throat, then projected a message via divine will.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t stare, little Ah Qing. How could I have guessed that after all these years, that not-man, not-woman, heaven-damned old fart Sunfire would do something as infuriating as this? Completely preposterous!¡±</i>

    The Captain snorted.

    Xu Qing looked away from the statue as they neared the stairs. But then he couldn¡¯t suppress his curiosity and replied to the Captain with divine will. <i>¡°Eldest Brother, if Moonfire or Sunfire realize you¡¯re here, is it possible th¨¥y might p you to death...?¡±</i>

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. <i>¡°Why else do you think I got those Wordless words beforeing here? Don¡¯t worry. I have a foolproof n at work. Sunfire is always asleep, and Moonfire is still digesting Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. As for the slutty fox, it doesn¡¯t matter if h¨¥r statue wakes up, as h¨¥r true form is asleep. Besides, sh¨¥ likes a good show, so sh¨¥ won¡¯t interfere randomly. We¡¯repletely safe here.¡±</i>

    The Captain thumped himself on the chest.

    Xu Qing sighed and started preparing mentally for things to go awry. Taking a deep breath, he stepped onto the stairs.

    The moment his foot touched the first stair, one of his over 1,800 forbidden mountains disappeared. It turned into a bright beam of light that merged into God Mountain.

    As that happened, something fantastic happened to God Mountain. A host of gs appeared on it. It was a visual ranking system that stretched the entire length of the staircase. The gs were different colors and had different designs embroidered on them. They were also different sizes. The higher up the g, the bigger it was, and the easier it was to see. In fact, even people in the city were able to see therger gs.

    Most of the gs were toward the bottom. There were tens of thousands of them. It seemed that 100 stairs was a major dividing point, as there were only about 2,000 gs after that point. Looking higher, it seemed that 500 stairs was a second dividing point, as there were only about 300 gs after that. Beyond that, the biggest g was at about the 800th stair. It was huge and very eye-catching.

    With a bit of observation, it was possible to determine that once you passed stair number 300, about eighty percent of the gs belonged to Firemoon Darkheavens. Below that point were gs from all sorts of species.

    And now that Xu Qing had stepped onto the stairs, there was another g there. It was a red g, ordinary-sized and embroidered with mountains and rivers. However, the mountains and rivers seemed smashed and broken. That,bined with the blood-red color, made the g seem somewhat depressing. It was the God Mountain g that represented humankind! The moment it appeared, Xu Qing instinctively looked over at it.

    At the same time, Master Gravesparrow quietly exined, ¡°Thest part of round one in the Great Hunt is to put your forbidden mountains into God Mountain. Every step you ascend will cause one of your forbidden mountains to disappear and be part of your g of species.

    ¡°The g of species will move with the cultivator as they ascend the stairs. When thest forbidden mountain disappears, the g of species will be permanently located at that highest spot for that cultivator. The other gs of species are normally invisible. They only show up when someonees to hand over their forbidden mountains.¡±

    Master Gravesparrow¡¯s forbidden mountain had also disappeared when he stepped onto the first stair, and another Firemoon Darkheaven g of species had appeared on God Mountain.

    ¡°Normally speaking, one forbidden mountain is enough to pass the first round and get you into the second. Only cultivators who are trying to take first ce in round one will bother to collect a lot of mountains.

    ¡°The gs of species are automatically formed by God Mountain, and conform to the characteristics of the specific species.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking away from the human g of species, he rose to the second stair. As he did, another mountain disappeared from over his head.

    The red g with the mountains and rivers came with him and got slightly bigger. And thus, he walked all the way to stair number 100.

    At that point, the red g with the mountains and rivers was muchrger. It actually stood outpared to many of the other gs. Therger the g got, the more obvious it was that the mountains and rivers were broken. In fact, it was also possible to see corpses littering them.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to that, though. Looking up the stairs at the other gs of species, he continued climbing.

    200. 300. 400....

    When he reached stair number 500, there were tens of thousands of gs below him, and not many above.

    Because of how quickly he was ascending the stairs, all of the gs were clearly visible to everyone. And the fact that the bright red g was getting bigger and bigger ensured that everyone was looking at it. Although many Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators had prepared themselves mentally for this, seeing it happen with their own eyes was still a shock.

    ¡°It¡¯s Xu Qing!¡±

    ¡°I saw him earlier and could tell he was walking toward God Mountain....¡±

    ¡°What hubris! I can¡¯t believe a human is hoisting their g of species so high in our Great Hunt!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all the fault of our species¡¯ chosen cultivators! None of them even tried to stop him. Well, there was Tuo Shishan, but all he did waspete in sealing magic. If one of them had just stepped in, then this human wouldn¡¯t look so cocky!¡±

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators were obviously not very happy, and their antagonism was only growing stronger. Around that time, Xu Qing reached stair number 500. As he stood there with clouds drifting past, he looked up at the handful of gs higher up the stairs.

    <i>More than 1,300 stairs to go!</i>

    He started climbing again as fast as he could. Soon he reached stair number 600. Then 700. Eventually, he reached what was previously the highest stair with a g on it. He didn¡¯t stop. The red g had now surpassed all of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ gs of species, and was the most prominent g on the mountain. And Xu Qing still had more stairs to climb!

    900 stairs. 1,000 stairs.

    He moved quickly, and the red g moved with him.

    More and more Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators were watching. As the red g with the mountains and rivers got higher and higher, their hearts burned with increasing humiliation. As a superior species, it was only natural that the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators were a proud lot. But in a moment like this, that sense of solidarity and pride as a species would only lead to increased shame.

    What was more, the humans¡¯ g of species wasn¡¯t just visible to ordinary cultivators. The Firemoon leadership in Heavenfire City were all able to look up and see that g with the mountains and rivers. Many an odd facial expression could be seen.

    In particr, there was the Firemoon noble from the pce in the forbidden region. When he looked at Xu Qing on God Mountain, and sensed the hostility from the cultivators of his species, he smiled broadly.

    Time passed, and the g of mountains and rivers got higher and higher. 1,200 stairs. 1,400 stairs. 1,600 stairs....

    Finally, high above the clouds, on stair number 1,873, the red g with mountains and rivers pped in the wind. It was fully 3,000 meters wide, and was far beyond any of the other gs! Everyone could tell that countless heroic cultivators had been surpassed. And this seemed to be only a harbinger of what was toe! Nothing like this had ever happened in all of the Great Hunts that had urred throughout the years. Never had a human taken first ce in the first round.

    As the humans¡¯ g of species pped in the wind, Heavenfire City below waspletely silent. Countless eyes were fixed on the red g with mountains and rivers that was now clearly visible on God Mountain.

    Xu Qing looked at the g with a slightly dazed expression. He wasn¡¯t really sure how to describe his feelings. Eventually, he turned around and walked back down. As he descended, he could hear amotion building in the city below. He didn¡¯t pay any attention to that. At the bottom of the staircase, he found the Captain waiting for him.

    The Captain grinned. ¡°What did it feel like to stand there?¡±

    Xu Qing looked back at God Mountain. He shook his head. ¡°Sadly, I couldn¡¯t make it all the way to the top.¡±

    The Captainughed. ¡°You did well enough. You¡¯ve already pissed off the Firemoon Darkheavens to the point where they hate you. After all, you just nted <i>your</i> g on <i>their</i> mountain.

    ¡°But the Firemoon Darkheaven leaders have achieved their goal. The reason they permitted you to show up and ughter people left and right is that they want to light a fire under the current generation of cultivators here.

    ¡°To make a pack of wild dogs more vicious, you need a wolf toe in and rile things up. That¡¯s what¡¯ll really set them off. You, my friend, are the wolf. Or, as I like to put it, the one who stirs crap up. As you can well imagine, there are going to be a lot of people watching you in the second and third rounds. Which is fine, right? That way you can have plenty of enemies to kill along the way!¡±

    ¡°Youe up with some great analogies, Eldest Brother,¡± Xu Qing said coolly.

    The Captain blinked a few times. Truth be told, he felt very pleased with himself at his perfect analogies.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± the Captain said. ¡°Little Gravesparrow just told me that we¡¯ll have some downtime before the second round. We need to find a ce to stay. Sadly, things here are really expensive.

    ¡°The upside is that all participants in the Great Hunt get a free mansion grotto. And of course, I can stay with you. We definitely can¡¯t let something like that go to waste. By the way, I also found out that the second round will be just as I expected.

    ¡°The Great Hunt will continue in the Mountain and Sea Region!¡± [1]

    The Captain licked his lips. ¡°Believe you me, little Ah Qing, there are a lot of very delicious beasts in the Mountains and Sea Region. Once you have a taste, you¡¯ll never forget it!"

    1. The ¡°mountain and sea¡± reference here contains the same ¡°mountain and sea¡± characters from <i><u>I Shall Seal the Heavens</u></i>. However, that doesn¡¯t inherently imply a connection. For one thing, we already had a ¡°mountain and sea¡± reference in this very novel. Secondarily, the author draws very heavily on the <i>ssic of Mountains and Seas</i> throughout his various works. I¡¯m not saying definitively that there¡¯s no connection. But the mere mention is not sufficient to link the two. ?

 Chapter 845: Stranger in a Strange Land

    <h4>Chapter 845: Stranger in a Strange Land</h4>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure exactly how many delicious beasts there were in the Mountain and Sea Region. However, after arriving at the free mansion grotto the Captain had mentioned, he finally got a firsthand understanding of how supercilious the Firemoon Darkheaven people were.

    During the Great Hunt, when Heavenfire City was opened up, everything was extremely expensive. After all, this location was the central core of Firemoon Darkheaven culture. The prices here were not the type that ordinary cultivators could afford. That was why Great Hunt participants were given free amodations in the city.

    That said, residents in the city were housed based on strict requirements, and were actually categorized into first-ss, second-ss, and third-ss.

    Only Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators and some of the other superior species qualified to get first-ss mansion grottoes. Such mansion grottoes had individualized spirit energy, a blessing from God Mountain, and had their own private courtyards. Whether in terms of the luxury of the surroundings or the suitability for cultivation, they were the highest quality possible.

    The second-ss mansion grottoes were set aside for the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ subsidiary species, and were much more utilitarian.

    The third-ss mansion grottoes were simple and crude, and were meant for inferior species from the outside who were participating in the Great Hunt. It didn¡¯t matter that Xu Qing had ced his g of species at the highest spot on God Mountain, thus clinching first ce. He still didn¡¯t qualify for a first- or even second-ss mansion grotto. He had to pick from the third-ss ones.

    In some cases, the strength or weakness of a species would be reflected onto an individual member of that species. The only exception would be someone who was so incredibly strong they could rise above the reputation of their species. Unfortunately, Xu Qing was not yet at that level.

    To the Firemoon Darkheaven people, any species who refused to be subsidiary to them was considered an inferior species. Not even Master Gravesparrow could do anything to change that. Nheless, he officially requested if he could transfer his first-ss mansion grotto to Xu Qing.

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator in charge of the mansion grottoes was obviously not very pleased when Master Gravesparrow brought Xu Qing with him and asked to make an exception.

    Frowning deeply, he said, ¡°Absolutely not! He can stay in his assigned ce or he can find somewhere else. Those are the rules here.¡±

    The Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator tossed amand medallion to Xu Qing, then closed his eyes and ignored him.

    Master Gravesparrow sighed inwardly. Looking at Xu Qing, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu, it¡¯s gettingte. Once the sun sets, the night curfew will start... and that¡¯sing soon.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really care what kind of amodations he had. However, after hearing about the curfew, he scanned the surroundings with divine will. Though the sun was about to set, there were still a lot of people on the streets. It didn¡¯t seem very much like there was a curfew about to start.

    ¡°The curfew is for non-Firemoons, right?¡± the Captain said. He hefted the mansion grottomand medallion. ¡°It¡¯s free, so you have to stay there. If you don¡¯t, it would be a big waste.¡±

    Xu Qing retracted his divine will and nodded to Master Gravesparrow. With the Captain leading the way using themand medallion, they left.

    Master Gravesparrow sped hands and bowed, all while sighing inwardly. Having followed Xu Qing for such a long time, he was fully aware of the shocking level of his battle prowess.

    <i>It seems to me he¡¯s only in the great circle of Spirit Trove, but he already has fourth-stage Void Returning battle prowess.... If a chosen like that was a Firemoon Darkheaven, he would be extremely popr and would be considered favored by the heavens. What a pity. It¡¯s really too bad.</i>

    Master Gravesparrow sighed as he watched Xu Qing and the Captain disappear down the street.

    Eventually the sun set and the moon rose. Xu Qing and the Captain had already found the mansion grotto he¡¯d been assigned. In reality, it wasn¡¯t actually a mansion grotto. It was more like a simple apartment. And it was in a remote location. That said, Xu Qing had never been one to worry much about where he stayed. Even if the apartment had been more crude, it was much better than the hovel where he had lived as a kid in the slums in South Phoenix.

    Once inside, Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate.

    The Captain also didn¡¯t seem to care much about their amodations. He took out a jade slip and started sending messages to unknown recipients, and in that manner, the night passed.

    The next morning at dawn, the Captain winked and said, ¡°Good morning, little Ah Qing. I asked around and found out that the second round starts in a month. We¡¯ve got plenty of time on our hands. You just rest up while I work on gathering intelligence. I also have some personal matters to attend to.¡±

    The Captain licked his lips and his eyes gleamed with anticipation and excitement. It reminded Xu Qing of when he was young and saw people in the scavenger basecamp walking toward the feathered tents.

    ¡°Just be careful,¡± Xu Qing said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, seriously,¡± the Captain said, smacking his chest in the customary fashion. ¡°Thanks to the Wordless Book of Stone, no one can possibly detect my aura.¡±

    Rubbing his hands together, he left.

    Xu Qing shook his head and went back to meditating.

    A few days passed.

    Xu Qing never went out, and the Captain never came back. Thanks to the time spent resting and recovering, Xu Qing¡¯s exhaustion from all the ughter had finally passed.

    <i>Might as well go for a walk. I wonder what kind of information I can buy about the Mountain and Sea Region.</i>

    With that, he left his residence.

    During the days that had passed, more gs had appeared on God Mountain. Not one was as high as Xu Qing¡¯s. As a result, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators were bing increasingly irritated. To look up and see that g of mountains and rivers pping high above all the other gs filled them with discontent regarding Xu Qing. That negative attitude was inly visible in the eyes of the people who spotted Xu Qing as he strolled through the city.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. As he walked along, he heard bits and pieces of malicious conversation, but he chose to ignore them.

    The first round was almost over, and there wasn¡¯t any point in getting into fights without the possibility of getting more forbidden mountains. Besides... there were just too many people saying malicious things. Maybe he could kill some of them, but he definitely couldn¡¯t kill all of them. Quite a few people stepped out to challenge him, but he didn¡¯t think that any of them were worth it.

    ¡°Hey, human! Xu Qing!¡± All of a sudden, a jade slip flew out of the crowd to hover in front of him. Behind it, a young member of one of the Firemoons¡¯ subsidiary species stepped out and stared coldly at Xu Qing. ¡°How dare you walk around this holy city! I hereby challenge you to a fight to the death!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him, saw nothing of value, and kept walking.

    The young man hadn¡¯t actually been interested in fighting to the death. He was just taking advantage of the moment to earn some notoriety. He chuckled coldly as he watched Xu Qing walk away.

    Simr challenges urred frequently, and it was starting to annoy Xu Qing. That feeling intensified when he realized that the shops in the city were also categorized into grades and ranks, and there were some who refused to do business with him. The revulsion and malice being shown to him, and all the challenges, caused his gaze to turn ice-cold. He knew full well that all he had to do was take out the identity medallion from the y fox, and he could resolve any such situations instantly. That medallion would allow him to enter any shop and buy anything he wanted.

    But after ncing at God Mountain, he decided not to use the medallion. Instead, he sent a voice message to Master Gravesparrow. Then he returned to his residence. He was only there for a short time before Master Gravesparrow arrived with a host of information about the Mountain and Sea Region.

    They hadn¡¯t seen each other for a few days. After handing over the information, Master Gravesparrow bowed and left with aplicated look on his face. Xu Qing took note of that expression. It wasn¡¯t hard to put himself in Master Gravesparrow¡¯s shoes and understand the general reason for his disposition. He was a Firemoon Darkheaven, but he had spent a lot of time following around two humans that everyone seemed to hate. Presumably, he had dealt with the same type of sarcasticments that Xu Qing had heard over the past few days.

    As Xu Qing thought back to everything he had experienced so far in this city, he felt even more irritated. Finally, he started studying the jade slips Master Gravesparrow had brought with the information about the second round of the Great Hunt.

    The second round would be held in the Mountain and Sea Region. It was a special location because it wasn¡¯t inhabited by cultivators from any species. Instead, it was full of innumerable mutant beasts. Some lived isted lives, while others roved about in groups.

    For countless years, the Firemoon Darkheavens had been relocating beasts into the region, where they bred and proliferated. All sorts of mutant variations existed, including gruish creatures and animals that couldn¡¯t be found anywhere else. For instance, the ¡®ghost chariot¡¯ Xu Qing and the Captain saw sometime before came from there.

    The jade slip about the Mountain and Sea Region didn¡¯t contain any information about how the region came to be. There were only a few scattered passages that hinted at the origin, and they rted to some of the oldest legends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t particrly curious about such things. He mostly wanted to know about the most famous beasts from the ce, as well as information about their habitats. After perusing the information, Xu Qing identified the top-ranked beast.

    It was called a ¡®ninedawns.¡¯

    It had a special ce in Firemoon Darkheaven culture. Throughout the entire history of their species, there had only been one instance in which someone tamed a ninedawns. Specifically, it was the very first ancestral chief of the Firemoon Darkheavens, who was also the grand steward who led them to prominence. His mount was a ninedawns. After that time period, no one had ever seeded in taming one.

    Because of that, Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators held the ninedawns in the highest regard. Some even said that whoever tamed a ninedawns would earn the respect of the entire species, and would be worshiped by all the subsidiary species. There were a lot of stories about the ninedawns. However, none of them contained very many details. In fact, it wasn¡¯t even clear if the ninedawns was a solitary species or if they lived in groups.

    ording to the jade slip, there were some old-timers among the Firemoon cultivators who knew how to tame a ninedawns. However, their gods had set forth very specific rules regarding the Mountain and Sea Region.

    Specifically, it wasn¡¯t permitted to go into the region except on special asions. In fact, it was only during the Great Hunt that their gods would open the ce. That was when the Great Hunt participants could go in and find mutant beasts to tame as mounts. Because of that limitation, it had been many, many years since a ninedawns was even seen.

    The ninedawns were known to live in a location that hade to be called the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. ording to the jade slip, it was an extremely dangerous location that few people made it out alive.[1]

    <i>Ninedawns?</i>

    After going through all the information about the ninedawns, Xu Qing had the lingering feeling that some of the information was contradictory.

    <i>There¡¯s definitely more to this story. But what...?</i>

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    <i>What kind of beasts are these ninedawns? Do they really have something to do with ninenterns? </i>[2]

    1. The Ninedawns Forbidden Lands does not follow the same naming convention as the forbidden regions or forbidden grounds. However, it does contain the same ¡®forbidden¡¯ character, thus my trantion choice. As for what exactly it is, you¡¯ll have to wait to find out.... ?

    2. The final line is a reference to the information the Captain gave Xu Qing in <u>chapter 822</u>. The top-votedment for this passage was a screenshot from the Er Gen novel <i>A World Worth Protecting</i> chapter 955, in which the protagonist Wang Baole encountered a young man with violet hair surnamed Xu who had ninenterns floating around him. Most readers believe that this young man was Xu Qing, and that the ninenterns here are somehow rted to that. ?

 Chapter 846: Professional

    <h4>Chapter 846: Professional</h4>

    Xu Qing was very interested in this ninedawns. After all, taming a special and significant beast as a mount was the way to take first ce in the second round. And Xu Qing¡¯s goal wasn¡¯t just to be a darkheaven general, but to be the Grand Darkheaven. The only way to be the exceedingly rare Grand Darkheaven was to take first ce in every round of the Great Hunt.

    <i>Sadly... I don¡¯t see how I could tame a ninedawns.</i>

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but feel some regret. He tended to act decisively, and was even willing to be a bit crazy. But in most cases, he liked to weigh all the factors before acting, which made him a bit different from the Captain. Simply put, Xu Qing was a rational person.

    It was obvious that since this ninedawns beast hadn¡¯t even been seen for years, much less tamed, there was obviously some secret about it that no outsiders were aware of. It was also easy to imagine how dangerous it would be to go after one.

    Xu Qing retracted his divine will from the jade slip about the ninedawns, and went on to study information about other beasts, hoping to find a suitable target for the next round. Around then, his expression flickered, and he looked up.

    It was currently night outside, and it was already past the curfew time. The night was so dark it was almost like physical ink, seeping in through the door. Then the darkness converged and formed the Captain. It was definitely a special way of making an entrance. In fact, if the Captain hadn¡¯t made his presence known via divine will, Xu Qing might not have noticed him.

    Xu Qing even did a double take, which left the Captain feeling very pleased.

    ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Did your Eldest Brother make a stealthy return, or what?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    ¡°Like I said, you don¡¯t need to worry. Those Wordless words are inimitably profound. It definitely wasn¡¯t a waste of time for me to spend so much time in the Star Emperor Preeminence Sect.¡± In the end, it was a casual message from Xu Qing that got the words from the Wordless Book of Stone, but apparently the Captain was leaving that part of the story out. Looking very haughty, the Captain sat down in front of Xu Qing. Upon noticing the jade slips, he scanned them with divine will, then smiled mysteriously. ¡°Ninedawns? Those little darlings are very hard to tame, little Ah Qing.¡±

    Xu Qing looked closely at the Captain. ¡°Have you seen a ninedawns, Eldest Brother?¡±

    The Captain stuck his jaw out and was about to speak, when all of a sudden he looked in the direction of God Mountain and cleared his throat.

    ¡°Some things are best left unsaid in this city. They¡¯re too sensitive of a subject. If you had been born a few tens of thousands of years earlier, you might have been able to tame a ¡®ninedawns.¡¯ But right now... don¡¯t even think about it. In terms of information about them....¡±

    Pursing his lips, the Captain rummaged through his bag of holding for a bit before pulling out a shrimp. He pulled the shrimp apart into two pieces, then blinked a few times at Xu Qing.[1]

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    The Captain waved his hand to push aside the jade slip about the ninedawns, as well as all the other jade slips. Then he produced a ck bamboo slip that seemed incredibly ancient. ¡°Little Ah Qing, I didn¡¯t help you at all during the first round. To make up for that, I spent the past few days gathering some information. I also looked for some things I left lying around a while back. Trust me, I made out <i>quite</i> well!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows danced up and down happily. ¡°My thorough investigation has left me one hundred percent confident that you can take first ce in the second round. In fact, you don¡¯t have to worry about anything. I¡¯ll take care of it all!

    ¡°Next month when the second round starts, I need to go handle something alone. You can just go ahead to the Mountain and Sea Region on your own. Forget about me. Just wait until the second round is about to end and go to hillwormnds. I guarantee that you¡¯ll get a juvenile hillworm there!

    ¡°Hillworms are one of the top five beasts from the Mountain and Sea Region! They¡¯re superior to ghost chariots, so if you tame one of them, you¡¯ll definitely have the top beast in the round. Your Eldest Brother has you covered this time!¡±

    The Captain looked extremely proud of himself.

    Xu Qing smiled. It didn¡¯t matter to him if his Eldest Brother followed through on his promise or not. The mere fact that someone was watching out for him left Xu Qing with a warm feeling.

    ¡°Thank you, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain looked to be in a great mood as he hummed a little tune and took out a small knife, which he used to start carving the ck bamboo slip. asionally he would blow the wood chips off his hands. It looked like he was trying to craft some sort of ancient-looking object.

    Xu Qing looked closely but had no idea what the Captain was making. All he could see was something roughly crescent-moon shaped, with a lot of mysterious magical symbols on it.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    The Captain shed an enigmatic smile. ¡°It¡¯s a beast-tamer¡¯s medallion for the Mountain and Sea Region! Years ago, back when that old shrew Moonfire and I were on better terms, she had me make a lot of things for her.

    ¡°This medallion is a very useful thing. I might not have seeded with it years ago, but that doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m going to make a total of a hundred and eighty of them. I refuse to believe that if you toss them all out at once, you can¡¯t knock out one of those hillworms!

    ¡°You see, I¡¯m actually very good at making these thingies. Years ago, I secretly sold quite a few of them.... I even gave them an extremely badass name.¡±

    At that point, the Captain cleared his throat and focused on his carving work.

    Xu Qing looked on with a curious expression as the Captain did his carving. He was about to ask another question when his transmission jade slip vibrated. Taking it out, he checked it with divine will.

    The Captain looked up.

    ¡°It¡¯s Grand Prince,¡± Xu Qing said. ¡°He just arrived here and asked where we are. He wants to pay a visit.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the bamboo slip in the Captain¡¯s hands.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± the Captain said. ¡°He won¡¯t have any idea what this is. After all, it¡¯s from ancient times. Besides, even if he does recognize it, it¡¯ll be fine. I can just make a few extra for him.¡±

    Looking very rxed, the Captain continued with his work.

    After a bit of thought, Xu Qing told Grand Prince where they were.

    It didn¡¯t take long before Xu Qing and the Captain sensed that Grand Prince had arrived outside.

    ¡°Guyue Zhonghui is here to seek an audience with Region Lord Xu,¡± he said, bowing at the waist. His tone was respectful and polite.

    Before Xu Qing killed Crown Prince Brightsouth, there was no way Grand Prince would have treated him like this. Even though the emperor wasn¡¯t very fond of him, he was still an imperial prince. But after what he had gone through, his opinion of Xu Qing had improved significantly. As such, he was more than willing to act respectfully.

    The door opened quietly. Grand Prince took a deep breath, quickly adjusted his clothing, then hurried inside. Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Congrattions, Region Lord Xu. You¡¯re the champion of the first round of the Great Hunt!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Grand Prince and thought back to when they hadst seen each other. Grand Prince had been severely injured by Crown Prince Brightsouth. Since then, he had matured significantly. That, coupled with the fact that he looked so simr to the emperor, he now seemed <i>as vigorous as a soaring dragon or leaping tiger</i>.

    Xu Qing nodded and indicated for him to sit.

    Grand Prince sat down cross-legged and took out three jade slips, which he ced down in front of Xu Qing.

    ¡°Region Lord Xu,¡± he said quietly, ¡°after we parted, my subordinates and I scoured thends for information about the second round. We also looked for reports about the various chosen participating in the Great Hunt. I hope the information can be useful to you, Region Lord Xu. Furthermore, there¡¯s also news in there regarding the general situation in Firemoon Darkheaven territory.

    ¡°The first jade slip has an introduction to quite a few beasts, plus details about their habitats. There¡¯s a lot of information there that isn¡¯t avable publicly. I got it from my mother¡¯s n.

    ¡°The second jade slip contains the information about the various Firemoon chosen. I heard about your fight with Tuo Shishan, who is one of the top five chosen. There¡¯s information there about the other four, plus details about seventeen outstanding figures from subsidiary species.

    ¡°Given your battle prowess, Region Lord Xu, you probably don¡¯t need to do more than take a quick look at the subsidiary species. But the handful of Firemoon cultivators are worth paying attention to.... To them, status isn¡¯t really important at this point, as they¡¯re considered the top prospects of this generation.

    ¡°Sir Heavenink is in the third stage of Void Returning, but he has battle prowess equivalent to the great circle. He¡¯s officially ranked fourth in the Firemoon echelon, and is a member of the stewarded nation of High God Starfire. He has outstanding talent, and actually defeated Tuo Shishan inbat once.

    ¡°Fan Shishuang is also in the third stage of Void Returning, and he ranks third. He also has great circle battle prowess. In fact, he actually fought a battle to the death with an expert from another species who had just stepped into Smoldering God, and made it out alive. He¡¯s a member of the stewarded nation of High God Moonfire.

    ¡°Master Stillwinter is in third-stage Void Returning and ranks second in the echelon. He¡¯s a member of the stewarded nation of High God Sunfire. Known to be vicious and merciless, he fights to kill. He¡¯s cut down dozens of cultivators from other species, and refined them into blood clones that apany him wherever he goes. He¡¯s mastered many techniques. In fact, he even sessfully fought a Smoldering God prisoner. Granted, the prisoner was on hisst legs, but in the end, he was still a Smoldering God....

    ¡°Finally there¡¯s Sir Firedark. That¡¯s not his real name, of course; he inherited the daoist name Firedark. He¡¯s considered the number one chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people! He¡¯s crushed all other members of his generation in the entire species! He¡¯s only in first-stage Void Returning, but his battle prowess surpasses the Void Returning level. He actually has the power of the one-world Smoldering God level!¡±

    Grand Prince paused to take a deep breath.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was visibly moved. Although he hadn¡¯t actually fought Tuo Shishan, he had felt a lot of pressure when facing him. In fact, he had often wondered if he could actually beat him in a fight. And if it was a battle to the death, Xu Qing knew he would have to pay a heavy price to win. Xu Qing felt the same sense of pressure when hearing about these other four chosen, especially thest one....

    <i>My cultivation base is fundamentally not sufficient,</i> Xu Qing thought.

    ¡°These four aren¡¯t like Tuo Shishan. They don¡¯t care about bing a darkheaven general. They just want to get into the god domain to acquire the blood of godly entities, which will help them form the foundation of their major worlds earlier than usual.¡±

    Grand Prince was about to go into further details about the content of the jade slips, but before he did, he nced at the Captain. At first, he had just nned to look at him briefly. But then he swallowed the words he had been about to speak as his heart started racing and his eyes went wide. Upon looking at the bamboo slip the Captain was carving, his expression became one ofplete and utter disbelief.

    ¡°Is that...? A godlyw medallion??¡±

    Grand Prince¡¯s mind reeled as he shot to his feet. He had seen medallions like this in his mother¡¯s n, although they only had one of them. It was an ancient thing, and also considered godly, to the point where his people would consecrate them in shrines to the gods.

    1. There¡¯s some wordy here that doesn¡¯t trante into English, but is obvious enough in Chinese that there were quite a fewments about it from Chinese readers. In Mandarin, the character ¡®shrimp¡¯ is pronounced exactly the same as the character ¡®blind.¡¯ What exactly does the Captain mean by all this? That much isn¡¯tpletely obvious from the context, not even to Chinese readers. You¡¯ll have to wait untilter for a more detailed exnation.... ?

 Chapter 847: The Spirit Trove Path

    <h4>Chapter 847: The Spirit Trove Path</h4>

    Grand Prince soundedpletely incredulous as he looked at the bamboo slip in the Captain¡¯s hands. He had to look twice just to make sure he wasn¡¯t seeing things. Although he didn¡¯t go back to visit his mother¡¯s n very often, he was familiar enough with the special items enshrined there. And he was fully aware that the n elders and other old-timers were very respectful of such things. And their godlyw medallion came from the founder of their n, and had a history going back some ten thousand years. It had been awarded by High God Moonfire thanks to services rendered.

    It was a godly item, and in some respects, it represented a god. It was also considered a reserve power of the n, and was something outsiders weren¡¯t even permitted to look at. Therefore, even though Grand Prince was convinced he knew what he was looking at, he also didn¡¯t dare to believe it was true.

    It was really too monumental. To see something so amazing being hacked at by Chen Erniu....

    And yet... the aura was unmistakable, and it felt like something truly ancient. It even emitted special fluctuations that indicated... this couldn¡¯t be anything other than a godlyw medallion. Grand Prince was so shocked that hepletely forgot to continue exining the jade slips to Xu Qing. And then he was suddenly overwhelmed with the sensation that something extremely precious was being wasted.

    ¡°Stop! Fellow Daoist Erniu, that object... you can¡¯t just carve it up!¡±

    The Captain looked calm and even somewhat apathetic as he slowly looked up. Sticking his chin out slightly and lowering his eyelids a bit, he looked at Grand Prince.

    ¡°You do know a thing or two. You actually recognized this thing.¡± He suddenly made another cut with the knife, and a cracking sound rang out. A massive wave of shock mmed into Grand Prince¡¯s heart as he realized that... the knife stroke hadn¡¯t actually damaged the godlyw medallion. Instead, it caused its aura and fluctuations to grow stronger.

    ¡°This....¡± Grand Prince stood there, stunned.

    Looking even calmer than before, the Captain continued, ¡°The fact you recognized it indicates you¡¯ve seen one before. Not many holy objects like this are around anymore.¡±

    Grand Prince suppressed the confusion in his heart and sped hands to the Captain. ¡°I saw one in my mother¡¯s n. The n founder was given one as a gift for service.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°What¡¯s the surname of your mother¡¯s n?¡±

    ¡°Qingfeng,¡± Grand Prince said after a brief hesitation. ¡°We¡¯re subservient to the Moonfire Temple....¡±

    The Captain thought back for a moment, then smiled enigmatically and said, ¡°Qingfeng? You mean one of the three great ns of Moonfire? Your n¡¯s founder was named Qingfeng Lingkong, right?¡±

    Grand Prince was more than a little surprised. However, when he thought about how Chen Erniu had followed Xu Qing through Firemoon territory, and that they had been apanied by Master Gravesparrow, he realized it made sense that they might know some top-secret things.

    The Captain didn¡¯t say anything further, and just kept carving.

    As for Xu Qing, he had an odd look on his face as he thought back to what the Captain had said just before Grand Prince showed up. He¡¯d said... that in the past, he¡¯d sold ¡®hundreds of copies.¡¯ Xu Qing looked at Grand Prince and couldn¡¯t help but wonder where exactly the founder of his mother¡¯s n had acquired their bamboo slip.

    Considering how the conversation had just been derailed, Grand Prince was having a hard time regaining hisposure. That was especially true considering... that the Captain, whether intentionally or not, seemed to be making more noise with his carving than he had moments before.

    As the <i>scrape, scrape, scrape</i> sound echoed out, Grand Prince quickly finished his exnation about the jade slips. Then, still feeling unsettled, he stood and bid farewell.

    Before leaving, he gave amand medallion to Xu Qing and exined that there was a shop in the city run by his mother¡¯s n. All he had to do was go there, and he could acquire some necessary supplies for the second round. Although Grand Prince had refused to give his loyalty to the Firemoons, and had thus been forsaken by his mother¡¯s n, he obviously still had a lot of connections. That much was evident from the fact that a forbidden mountain had been set aside for him.

    When the Captain noted how circumspect Grand Prince was, he nodded. Then he tossed the bamboo slip to him.

    Grand Prince instinctively caught it. His expression flickered; obviously he knew the significance of a godlyw medallion, and was thus unsure of what the Captain meant by his action.

    ¡°Take it,¡± the Captain said proudly. ¡°Just remember not to tell anyone about it. With that, you shouldn¡¯t have any problem in the second round.¡±

    Grand Prince felt like his mind was about to explode. All of a sudden, his impression of the Captain changed. Now the Captain seemed incredibly mysterious to him.

    After a moment of hesitation, he said, ¡°It¡¯s too valuable.... You should give it to Region Lord Xu instead. That way¡ª¡±

    ¡°It is valuable!¡± the Captain interrupted. ¡°But you¡¯re worth it!¡± Standing, he walked over to Grand Prince and sped his shoulder. ¡°Never forget that you¡¯re human. Maybe this thing is invaluable. But as long as you¡¯re human, then it¡¯s worth it to give it to you!

    ¡°As for Xu Qing, well, he doesn¡¯t need it. He¡¯s a military man, and this whole thing counts as training for him. Therefore, when ites to the future of humankind, I¡¯m more interested in you.¡±

    Normally speaking, words like that wouldn¡¯t have much effect on Grand Prince. But now, things had changed. A tremor passed through him. Taking a deep breath, he nodded seriously, backed up three steps, and then bowed deeply at the waist to the Captain.

    The Captain sped his hands behind his back and nodded. Smiling, he watched as Grand Prince left. Only when he was gone did the Captain turn to Xu Qing and blink a few times.

    ¡°Back in the day, that Lingkong fellow from his n reacted the same way.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Looking down at the three jade slips, he picked up the second, all while mentally reviewing what Grand Prince had said about the four chosen. Upon sending his divine will into the jade slip, he was able to get a lot more information about them, including images.

    Browsing all the information helped Xu Qing calm down. The fact that his journey up to this point had been very smooth didn¡¯t cause him to take things casually, even if he was on a higher level than his contemporaries.

    That was especially true considering that, with the exception of the Captain, no one throughout the years had been able to keep up with his progress. In the end, he still wasn¡¯t satisfied.

    Back when he had lived in the slums, his dream had been to just find his parents and somehow stay alive. Maybe improve his life a bit. But then the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan came along and upended his world. That had changed Xu Qing in the depths of his being. Now he wanted to be stronger!

    <i>Only by dealing with a major species that surpasses humankind can you really understand how insufficient you are! Only by going toe to toe with nonhuman chosen can you push yourself to the ultimate limit!</i>

    Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing closed his eyes and went back to meditation. He was now focused on his secret troves. At the moment he had four of them.

    He had three connected to his god states, plus one connected to The Emperor¡¯s Sword. The fifth, which wasn¡¯tplete, was based on his sundials. Xu Qing thought about his path of cultivation.

    <i>I need to figure out a way toplete my fifth secret trove. That will give me a big boost to battle prowess.</i>

    There were some options to consider. One was to use soul threads to create an imitation of Crimson Mother. By fusing with that, he could be the true lord of the violet moon, and would be able to have aplete fourth-level god state. However, there were side-effects to consider, for instance, the unbreakable connection to the red moon.

    At the moment, it was hard to tell if Li Zihua was a friend or an enemy, and that meant there was always the possibility of a future deadly conflict. Another option would be to start a new fifth secret trove. However, that would require some additional items with godly personhood.

    After some thought, he started to lean in one specific direction.

    <i>Another problem I have is with heavenly daos.... Right now, I have my bluegreen dragon, but that¡¯s it. Thanks to my god states, my battle prowess isn¡¯t affected now. But if I don¡¯t have enough heavenly daos, then it will pose an obstacle to reaching Void Returning.</i>

    Xu Qing knew that the only way to actually reach Void Returning was to have a heavenly dao for each of his secret troves. It was very difficult for Spirit Trove cultivators to form heavenly daos on their own. That was why most of them tried to acquire minor worlds and then tame the heavenly daos within them.

    <i>Unfortunately, ordinary heavenly daos are going to have a hard time sustaining my god troves. The bluegreen dragon is connected to me, so it has a preheaven advantage in that regard. In that case, what kind of heavenly daos can I use to support my god troves...?</i>

    Xu Qing rubbed the bridge of his nose as he thought about his heavenly dao son. That didn¡¯t seem like a viable option, though. Opening his eyes, he looked at the Captain, who had taken out another bamboo slip and was carving it up.

    After Xu Qing exined what he had been thinking about, he asked for some input.

    The Captain thought for a moment and then smiled. ¡°Heavenly daos associated with god troves naturally need to have something to do with gods. Aren¡¯t you nning to participate in the third round of the Great Hunt after you finish the second?

    ¡°Whatever god domain ends up being opened, it¡¯ll still be a god domain. God domains all have godly entities inside. All you have to do is capture some godly entities and put them into your god troves. Their god souls can serve as your heavenly daos, right?¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and realized it was definitely a possibility.

    ***

    Days passed. There was now only half a month left until the second round began.

    The Captain was about half done with his counterfeit work.

    After Xu Qingbined his own realizations with the Captain¡¯s suggestions, he hade up with a good direction.

    On one particr afternoon, Xu Qing left his residence and headed to the shop run by the n of Grand Prince¡¯s mother. It was time to restock his medicinal pills and poisonous nts.

    The medallion Grand Prince had given him turned out to be very useful. Xu Qing found what he wanted and bought it with no trouble. He purchased some useful medicinal pills as well as some poisonous nts that weren¡¯t easy to find in humannds.

    On the way back, he heard more challenges from Firemoon cultivators. There were also a lot of dirty looks. Xu Qing ignored all that. Sometimes, ignoring people will make them think you¡¯re weak, and will only prolong the antagonism.

    Therefore, at one point on his way back, he suddenly stopped in ce. He had sensed some familiar fluctuations.

    Looking over, he saw an outdoor ve market. There were all sorts of species being sold, and every one of them was a cultivator. They were all weak, wounded, and in chains. They almost looked like animals. What was more... because of the wartime conditions, many of the ves were human. Somehow, they had ended up being sent through back channels to be property to be sold here. All of them were soldiers, and were clearly in bad shape. Most had numb looks on their faces.

    Grand Prince was present, grimly interacting with the lead ver in the hopes of purchasing the humans¡¯ freedom. Things clearly weren¡¯t going very well.

 Chapter 848: A Red Sky

    <h4>Chapter 848: A Red Sky</h4>

    The lead ver that Grand Prince was talking to was also a Firemoon Darkheaven. He wore expensive clothes and had a profound cultivation base, as well as a derisive sneer. He looked at Xu Qing standing some distance away, and then back at Grand Prince.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that I <i>can¡¯t</i> sell them to you. But I have to ask, are you human or Firemoon Darkheaven? In a ce like this, there¡¯s a big difference between the two. If you¡¯re human, then you don¡¯t qualify to buy ve cultivators. But if you¡¯re a Firemoon, I can do a bit of business with you.¡±

    The lead ver grabbed the nearest human ve, a prisoner of war, and forced his mouth open.

    ¡°See? Nice teeth, right? Definitely a good value.¡±

    The human prisoner of war¡¯s expression went from being numb to humiliated. Finally, he just closed his eyes. That is, until the lead ver jostled him so hard he had to open them.

    The lead verughed, then looked over at Xu Qing in a taunting manner. Considering that this ver had brought human prisoners from the Nightshade Region here to sell as ves, it was obvious that he had a spectacr background. As a result, he didn¡¯t care at all what the human Grand Prince thought. After all, everyone knew that Grand Prince had been forsaken by his mother¡¯s n. What the ver did care about was Xu Qing, the human who had taken first ce in round one of the Great Hunt and be the champion.

    Grand Prince¡¯s expression was one of grim fury. Unfortunately, he was dealing with a Firemoon Darkheaven, so he didn¡¯t have many options at hand. Taking a deep breath, he took out a jade slip and sent a message. He was prepared to use his own methods to buy the human ves¡¯ freedom.

    Things yed out as expected. Grand Prince had friends in thesends, and they might not be able to do anything incredibly dramatic for him, but in the trivial matter of buying some human ves, they proved useful. Before long, some Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators strode up and bought the human prisoners.

    Xu Qing watched the event y out. In the end, he slowly turned around and walked away with the lead ver looking on with a taunting scowl. He made sure to walk very slowly.

    The setting sun cast a red glow into the sky. As the light shone down onto the path he walked, everything looked like the color of blood.

    Within that red glow, two voices spoke inside of Xu Qing¡¯s heart.

    One voice was telling him that he didn¡¯t have some sort of deep connection to humankind. When he was young, he even saw humans eat other humans. The world was an evil ce, and in most cases, people were evil toward members of their own species. The imperial capital wasn¡¯t his home. His home was Sea-Sealing County. Family and friends would always be a soft spot. In this time and ce, the most important thing was to make sure those you loved stayed alive.

    But there was another voice speaking so softly that he couldn¡¯t hear all the words. Of those he made out clearly, there were two names: Pce Lord Kong and Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    Xu Qing walked back beneath that red glow. It was around the time the color left the sky that he arrived back at his residence.

    There were a host of jade slips piled up outside the door. They were fighting challenges from Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators, as well as cultivators from subsidiary species. During the half month that passed, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t epted any challenges, and thus, now people didn¡¯t just stop him on the street, they also sent jade slips to his residence. There were actually fewer today than usual.

    Upon seeing the jade slips, Xu Qing stopped in ce. He thought back to everything he had seen in this holy Firemoon city. The res. The hostility. Master Gravesparrow¡¯s loneliness. The taunting of the ver. He thought of the numb looks he had seen on the faces of the humans, or how the ver forced the prisoner¡¯s mouth open to assess his teeth.

    He closed his eyes.

    From a young age, he had always unleashed ughter because of killing intent. When someone threatened him, he would kill them to save his own life. That was why he hadn¡¯t been paying much attention in this ce. He didn¡¯t want toplicate matters.

    Before he had clinched the spot of round one champion, he¡¯d had a clear goal, and had killed his way to this spot. And now that he was here, he just wanted to rest until the second round started. He didn¡¯t want anyplications during that time.

    Although some of the challenges were surely sent by individuals, it was also clear that many of them came with moreplicated strings attached. There were obviously people who wanted him out of the city. Because this ce was a holy city, fighting wasn¡¯t allowed. To ept a challenge to a fight, one needed to leave the city.

    <i>It doesn¡¯t matter. I just need to bide my time.</i>

    Xu Qing looked away from the pile of jade slips and continued on his way into the residence. However, he walked very slowly and quietly.

    Inside, the Captain sensed him and was about to rise to his feet to go and see what was going on.

    Except, that was when the sound of footsteps could be heard behind Xu Qing. Along with the footsteps appeared five or six Firemoon Darkheaven youths who had stopped him on the street in recent days to issue challenges.

    They were all in Spirit Trove, and all of them had issued multiple challenges. As a result, they had earned a bit of a reputation among Firemoon Darkheavens of their generation. And they hade here together as a group to continue that trend by issuing challenges formally by jade slip.

    Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, one of themughed coldly and threw a jade slip that ttered onto the ground. Then he opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, Xu Qing stopped, nced at the jade slip, and then looked over his shoulder at the youth who had thrown it. The young man shivered from head to toe. And then, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze caused him to swallow the words he had been about to speak. Xu Qing¡¯s gaze was filled with something very cold that swept over him and filled him with an explosive sense of deadly crisis. Every scrap of muscle and flesh on his body trembled with a sense of danger, resulting in the young man taking a few steps back as he struggled to breathe.

    Hispanions, who had also thrown out jade slips of challenge, also shivered as Xu Qing looked at them one by one. All of them suddenly felt profoundly uneasy. It was as if everything around them had turned into winter.

    Blood-red snowkes manifested, drifting down to pick up all the jade slips and bring them to Xu Qing. He reached out and grabbed them.

    Around that time, the door opened and the Captain appeared. Looking at Xu Qing standing there, he opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to change what he had been about to say.

    ¡°Do whatever strikes your fancy, little Junior Brother. Thinking clearly is the key.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s hand mped down hard, causing all of the jade slips to shatter, which officially established the terms of the fight.

    Then Xu Qing spoke in a voice so cold the surrounding temperature dropped.

    ¡°I ept.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, Xu Qing started to blur into nothing. The Firemoon cultivators who had issued the challenges also vanished.

    Heavenfire City itself would take note of fighting challenges that had been epted, and would teleport people out ording to the details of the challenge.

    After Xu Qing vanished from his residence, he materialized in the air above the city.

    The dozens of Firemoon cultivators who had issued him challenges in recent days also materialized there. They were all breathing unsteadily. Some looked regretful, some astonished, and some rmed. Some even tried to turn and run.

    Most of them had issued their challenges to boost their own reputation. It didn¡¯t make sense at all that Xu Qing would ept the challenges, or at the very least, it hadn¡¯t urred to any of them that he would ept. For the past half month, he had beenpletely ignoring any fighting challenges. However, today... something unexpected happened.

    As their hearts raced, some of them opened their mouths to speak.

    An instantter, the coldness in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes erupted, and he stepped forward, appearing right in front of the youth who had thrown his jade slip outst.

    The difference in battle prowess between the two of them was like an impassable ravine. Before the young man could even react, Xu Qing¡¯s left hand stabbed into his throat. The young man¡¯s fleshly body withered into a husk as Xu Qing absorbed it. His soul flickered weakly before Xu Qing devoured it.

    The young man deted like a popped balloon. In only a short single breath of time, his life ended. An agonized shriek drifted out into heaven and earth.

    Everyone looking on was stunned. In their eyes, Xu Qing was no longer some random human who anyone could challenge. He had turned into a fiendish devil.

    In their astonishment, they immediately tried to flee. But it was toote.

    Xu Qing vanished and reappeared behind another cultivator. A dagger sliced through the cultivator¡¯s neck. Everything seemed to get even colder as the head flew through the air in a geyser of blood.

    From his perspective, the world was flipping end over end.

    A boom rang out as the body copsed and the head sttered onto the ground.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    All of the inner frustration that had been building in Xu Qing was erupting. He took another step forward and appeared in front of a third Firemoon cultivator. Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother even looking at him. He walked past, whereupon an anguished shriek rang out and all the blood exploded out of the Firemoon¡¯s body.

    That blood had been taken control of by another. It became a blood-colored flower that spun in the air as it descended toward Xu Qing and started rotating around him.

    From a distance, it looked both monstrous and beautiful at the same time.

    At the moment, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t doing any thinking or analysis. And the two voices that had been speaking in his heart hadbined to say one thing.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    Flowers of blood bloomed outside the city, apanied by screams of terror. Blood from the cultivators flowed through the air and converged around Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t stop moving, and wherever he passed, death came.

    Fleshly bodies exploded. Heads flew.

    In that moment, the purpose of their lives was to be sacrificed to the de. The dagger had a cloth made from a shroud, and it was now slick with blood. Its shing edge became thest light in their lives.[1]

    In the space of only about ten breaths of time, every single one of that group of dozens of cultivators... died!

    And Xu Qing¡¯s ughter was the fastidious type, so he didn¡¯t leave any corpses in the air above the city. As the blood swirled down, the crimson color in the dome of heaven shone down, making things even more red.

    Xu Qing looked out at the city without saying a word. His actions. His gaze. His imposing manner. They said it all.

    <i>Anybody want to challenge me? I¡¯m waiting for you.... Let¡¯s fight!</i>

    1. Xu Qing made the dagger with the shroud in <u>chapter 347</u>. ?

 Chapter 849: Top Chosen from Humankind

    <h4>Chapter 849: Top Chosen from Humankind</h4>

    There was quite an uproar in the city. Firemoon cultivators who had previously challenged Xu Qing looked on with glittering eyes. None of them did a thing. For most of them, issuing challenges was a way to earn some reputation. Nothing more. When you coupled the fact that Xu Qing hadn¡¯t epted any challenges with the reality that someone was trying to stir things up from behind the scenes, it meant that... none of them had actually considered doing any fighting.

    They had mostly been wanting to watch sparks fly. That said, there were some Firemoon cultivators who really did want to fight Xu Qing. They just couldn¡¯t ept having a human cultivator be superior to their species. It was a humiliation that became pure rage.

    Cultivators like that always had various trump cards to call on, as well as a lot of self-confidence. They had heard about Xu Qing¡¯s achievements on the road to God Mountain, and even the story about him killing Crown Prince Brightsouth. But... to them, the purpose of life wasn¡¯t necessarily to live a long time, but rather, to shine brightly. They would rather go out in a huge ze of glory than live quietly with their heads bowed. The Firemoon Darkheavens were an inherently valiant species, and weren¡¯t known for showing fear.

    Thus, it didn¡¯t take long for dozens of Firemoon cultivators to shoot up into the air. First-stage Void Returning auras pulsed as they flew outside of the city.

    Innate fleshly body abilities erupted, creating cyclones of energy and blood. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Streaks of light shot through the air as the power of dozens of cultivators became like a huge hand crushing down toward Xu Qing.

    This was giving a little glimpse into what reserve powers the Firemoons had on hand. In the remote territories upied by humankind, Void Returning experts were considered the cream of the crop. But among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, they were considered talented, but not necessarily elite.

    And thus, a host of first-stage Void Returning cultivators shot toward Xu Qing and unleashed destructive, crushing attacks.

    When Firemoon Darkheavens issued challenges, they didn¡¯t limit themselves to one-on-one fighting. They were well aware that powerful experts... weren¡¯t always able to fight enemies one at a time.

    A truly powerful expert would instill confidence by fighting one versus a hundred or even one versus a thousand. That was how they established dominance in their generation. Only cultivators like that were considered chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. That was why none of these cultivators hesitated for an instant. They became streaks of light shooting through the air like metallic dragons.

    Dozens of extraordinary magical treasures were unleashed, including a host of weapons. They also became blurred streaks heading toward Xu Qing. And of course, fleshly body power and divine abilities raged. Magicalws copsed and naturalws faded. Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning fell, while the chaotic vicissitudes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter yed out.

    Xu Qing looked up coldly. He could sense the magical and naturalws blurring, and he could feel pressure building up around him. He could sense himself being hemmed in. It was the feeling of his heavenly dao power being forcibly shoved away and reced by the heavenly daos of his enemies.

    However, he wasn¡¯t worried. Maybe the power of the four seasons was in chaos... but with enough strength, neither the wind nor the waves could shake him. Millions of soul threads shot out of Xu Qing, converging behind him in his first-level god state. Next came the second-level god state, followed by the third.

    Xu Qing formed them so quickly that his enemies didn¡¯t have any chance to react. Instead, he unleashed crushing pressure on them. That was his custom.

    As terrifying fluctuations rolled out from his third-level god state, taboo poison power erupted,bined with violet moon power and seething blood. The red glow from the sky mixed with the blood, staining everything.

    At the moment, numerous gazes and countless streams of divine will from Heavenfire City were all focused on what was happening above. Although it wasn¡¯t possible to see clearly what was happening in the red light there, the fluctuations were clear to the senses.

    There were some people who were holding back while others led the charge. All of them wanted to see Xu Qing¡¯s true battle prowess. That said, both inside and out, they were very calm and rxed. Although they were paying attention to what was happening, they weren¡¯t exactly shocked.

    They were Firemoon Darkheavens! They were one of the superpower species in the Revered Ancient maind. They were backed by three gods, and in all of the manynds they ruled, they were superior to everyone. What was more, their Great Hunt always attracted ambitious members of other species. The dignity of their species led to them feeling arrogant. Therefore, they never got nervous when fighting members of other species.

    Xu Qing was special because he was the champion of round one of the Great Hunt. He had aplished a few minor things.

    But... their calm, tranquil behavior onlysted for about ten breaths of time. That was when a blood-curdling scream rang out from the red glow. Then, things really started to change.

    Two Firemoons shot out from the red light, their faces masks of shock as they tried to flee. One of them barely moved any distance at all before a screaming sound closed in on him from behind. A blood-colored hand of countless soul threads raced up to him, and before he could fight back, wrapped around him and then burrowed inside of him. It jerked back, and the Firemoon cultivator could only wait in despair as he was dragged into the red light.

    The other cultivator fled toward Heavenfire City below, a look of terror on his face. If he could get into the city, he would be safe, as fighting wasn¡¯t permitted there. However, when he was only about 30 meters away, he lurched to a halt. Then, the terrified look on his face turned into a faint, gruish grin. His eyes, though, remained as terrified as before. Suddenly, his hands shot up to his own neck, and he jerked them to the side. A popping sound rang out, then he spun to the side as his cultivation base ignited and his entire body burst into mes.

    Some more deafening booms rang out, and then the red light copsed, revealing a host of mangled corpses. Hovering in the middle of them was a figure like a god, in the middle of ake of blood, countless blood-red tentacles swaying around him. He was just looking calmly down at the city below, not saying a word.

    The Firemoon cultivators in the city had very serious expressions on their faces. They were all in different parts of the city, but their hearts were all trembling at the sight of that one figure.

    One reason was because of how dozens of their fellow Firemoons had just been killed. But also it was because of... how calm Xu Qing looked. From beginning to end, he hadn¡¯t spoken. And now he was just hovering there. A subtle pressure began to radiate off him that seemed capable of crushing an entire era.

    At this point, some of the older Firemoon cultivators were really starting to feel shaken.

    ¡°A top chosen from humankind....¡±

    Humankind had once been the most powerful species in the Revered Ancient maind. Now they were in a period of decline in which each generation failed to surpass the previous. And yet, the afterglow of their former glory was something members of the older generation still remembered.

    Some of the chosen cultivators described in the second jade slip from Grand Prince were in the city. However, none of them chose to take action at the moment.

    Simr to Xu Qing, they wanted to get good mounts in the second round of the Great Hunt. With that boost to battle prowess, they would have a much better shot at seeding in the third round.

    Getting into a fight right now would be pointless. And they knew that if they got into a fight to the death with Xu Qing, even if they won, they would end up with injuries. That would affect thingster on in the Great Hunt, and wasn¡¯t worth it. Therefore, after checking the outside situation from the safety of their mansion grottoes, they ultimately retracted their divine will.

    That included all the top chosen that Xu Qing had learned about from Grand Prince.

    In the sub-city devoted to Starfire, a young Firemoon with a cold expression and fine clothing sat cross-legged at the top of a tall tower. A heavy ck sword rested on his knees that pulsed with the aroma of blood. The Firemoon wore a ck robe and had long hair, as well as mysterious markings that covered his entire body, including his face. They pulsed with terrifying fluctuations. His fleshly body had <i>surpassed the mortal and entered the saintly</i>, and his cultivation base was too profound to read directly. But from the fluctuationsing off him, he was apparently in the great circle of Void Returning.

    This person ranked fourth among Firemoon chosen. He was... Sir Heavenink. The mysterious markings and the heavy sword were his distinctive features.

    He was also looking outside the city at Xu Qing. He had heard some of the stories about Xu Qing, and was aware of who had been manipting things behind the scenes. He hadn¡¯t participated. Competing with other chosen wasn¡¯t the path he walked. He was just interested in blood from a god domain. Therefore, he simply looked at what was happening, and then looked away.

    In the sub-city devoted to Moonfire, a young Firemoon cultivator sat in a restaurant, d in a green schr¡¯s robe that resembled the fashion of humankind. He seemed gentle and refined as he sat chatting with two Firemoon girls.

    ¡°Is that the human you¡¯re talking about?¡± he asked, taking a sample of one of the dishes from the table. ¡°I heard about him. He¡¯s very interesting.¡±

    The two girls at the table were pretty, and also resembled humans to a degree. However, there was something unusual about the luster of their skin. What was more, they were sitting therepletely unmoving. There were other guests in the restaurant, so many that it seemed like the ce should be loud and busy. Except not one of those guests was moving. Off in the corner, the restaurant¡¯s host had his mouth open as if he were calling out something. There was even a waiter with his foot on the stairs as if about to run up them.

    However, if you took a closer look, you would realize that none of these people were alive. They were all puppets made of jade.

    In the entire restaurant, that young Firemoon was the only living being. There was one person among the Firemoon Darkheaven people who was known for his love of puppets. And that was the chosen who ranked number three... Fan Shishuang.

    After speaking those words so casually, he nodded. ¡°The two of you are right. His eyes really do remind me of your eyes. In that case, do you think we should have him join you?¡±

 Chapter 850: Violet Lord Cometh

    <h4>Chapter 850: Violet Lord Cometh</h4>

    The setting sun was no longer visible. It had made its departure for this specific day. The red glow went with it.

    And yet, the color of blood radiated off Xu Qing as the night took over. Crimson stained the sky. There was a vortex of fresh blood around Xu Qing, plus his soul threads, all of which emanated a sensation of ughter. As he stood there, he seemed like a devilish god who represented blood and death, just waiting for a sacrificial offering to arrive. In the silence, the sacrificial offering didn¡¯t fail to live up to the ughter that had preceded it. It arrived just on time.

    A middle-aged cultivator appeared. He wasn¡¯t a Firemoon Darkheaven, but rather... was a Whitemarsh!

    As he emerged from the city, his footfalls caused ripples to spread out around him like ck lotuses. He pulsed with the fluctuations of fourth-stage Void Returning, and gave off a sensation of power that surpassed that of Crown Prince Brightsouth. Meanwhile, he pulsed with a very strong baleful aura. That baleful aura didn¡¯t seem toe from pure ughter. Rather, it was left behind after participation in many wars. It was very reminiscent of the veteran cultivators from back in Sea-Sealing County. The third eye on his head was only half-open, and it contained cold apathy and bright self-confidence.

    This person was not a chosen cultivator. Instead, he had been recruited. He had been called from the Nightshade battlefield toe here and deal with Xu Qing! And his species had worked hard to make sure he had the qualifications to suddenly join the Great Hunt. This Whitemarsh was the result of the hands that had been manipting things behind the scenes in recent days.

    Normally speaking, a piddling Whitemarsh wouldn¡¯t be enough to cause any sort of scene. But there was more toe. That much became clear when another figure emerged from the city. He was tall and skinny, and obviously wasn¡¯t human considering he had six arms. The natural striations on his forehead, his bright red skin, and the gruish tattoos all over his body made him easy to identify. He was... the very same species that humans were dealing with in their border regions. He was a Saia.

    The Saia were one of the top three subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheavens. They had profound reserve powers, as well as very close connections to the Firemoons. In fact, they had people directly in the service of all three of the stewards. They were the sacrificial lords. And they were also among the people who had been manipting things behind the scenes.

    Xu Qing looked at the two cultivators without much surprise at all. In fact, based on his spections, the Whitemarsh and the Saia were obviously just the public face.

    The real masterminds were still out there, and were the same ones who had backed the cultivators Xu Qing had just killed. They were probably also the ones manipting King Brightsouth. That was one reason why Xu Qing had refrained from epting any challenges earlier.

    <i>Eldest Brother said that the Firemoon Darkheaven leadership view the Great Hunt as a way to raise venomous bugs in a jar. They use the most brutal methods to produce the strongest members of the new generation. Our role is simply to provoke the chosen.</i>

    <i>That¡¯s why they¡¯re letting all of this happen. However, if someone pushes things too far, it¡¯ll ruin their n. In that case... if I was a Firemoon leader, I would want the source of the provocation to stick around. It wouldn¡¯t make sense to lose it in the first round. I¡¯d want it to stay until thest round, to bring out the most potential.</i>

    Xu Qing remained calm both externally and internally as he looked at the two cultivators.

    The Saia cultivator stopped only about three meters out of the city, where he lifted his right hand and started an incantation gesture. The Whitemarsh cultivator with the baleful aura and killing intent elerated as he closed in on Xu Qing.

    Just as they took action, Xu Qing¡¯s third-level god state swept out. Millions of soul threads swirled, and a blood-colored vortex danced. Then it tightened around Xu Qing.

    In the blink of an eye, it formed violet feathers, which grew more and more numerous. This was a body that differed visibly from his third-level god state. It was 300 meters tall and covered with the violet feathers of flesh. It had two huge wings behind it, and pulsed with a sound like faint chanting. That was the voice of a god. It was not something that could be looked at directly, and thus, different cultivators throughout the city perceived it in different ways.

    At the same time, a violet moon appeared behind Xu Qing¡¯s strange god state, slowly rising. On its surface were innumerable figures, all of them bowing and chanting words of faith.

    <i>¡°The new moon, lord; from the Revered Ancientmunity; all living beings far and near; as Violet Lord do address thee.</i>

    <i>¡°Souls offered, lord to me; p¨¡ramit¨¡ an actuality; sing with joy when you see; the return to our world ends happily.¡±</i>

    As the sacrificial chant echoed out, the violet moonlight shone down, full of taboo poison.

    The moon currently in the dome of heaven dimmed as it was reced by Xu Qing¡¯s moon. And the world... filled with violet.

    There was an enormous sundial in front of it, the gnomon spinning, and the power of time it exuded causing everything to ripple and distort. Beneath him appeared a lotus throne, each petal of which represented one of his abilities. The golden crow, the Ghost Emperor mountain, and daybreak light were all represented.[1]

    The violet tentacles they formed swayed back and forth, making it seem like Xu Qing was atop a violet p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s fourth-level god state! It was called Violet Lord! Because of the origin of this god state¡¯s godsource, it was impossible to say if it would lead to future conflict with Li Zihua. But it was a simr situation to when Xu Qing first started his path of cultivation, and had to absorb mutagen.

    Now wasn¡¯t the time to worry about the possible danger in the future. Instead, it made more sense to focus on simply staying alive in the moment. Therefore, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t spent much time pondering the situation recently. He chose to simply use the Violet Lord as his fourth-level god state.

    The arrival of this state was like the arrival of a god. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed everywhere. This was Xu Qing¡¯s most powerful form. Fourth-stage Void Returning fluctuations rolled off him, pushing his battle prowess to the absolute limit.

    Every cultivator in Heavenfire City was shaken. Even the Firemoons from the older generation looked on with shining eyes. The older experts weren¡¯t so much interested in Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess as they were his godly potential. This god body was like a concave lens that could amplify a cultivator¡¯s battle prowess significantly. That was what they found most noteworthy.

    Yet Xu Qing still wasn¡¯tpletely happy, as he could tell that this new state was still half a step away from being as strong as the great circle of Void Returning. It was due to foundational limitations. He was still missing a secret trove, and it would take time toplete it. Only then could he turn his Violet Lord state into a god trove, which would truly ce him at the great circle of five troves.

    Normally speaking, the god trove came before the god state. The reason Xu Qing could do it backwards was the Xeno-Immortal School techniques. He was alsocking a heavenly dao, which put limitations on the magical and naturalws of Void Returning. It was only because of his heavenly dao son that he could ignore the naturalws of enemies.

    <i>In the end, using god magics should be enough to deal with these two.</i>

    Xu Qing extended his hand, performed an incantation gesture, and pointed at the Saia cultivator.

    All of a sudden, a projection of D-132 appeared over the Saia¡¯s head, shining brightly as it dropped down.

    The Saia¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, and he sneered. He had plenty of back-channel information about Xu Qing, and knew about D-132. As a result, he didn¡¯t get flustered at all, and instead performing an incantation gesture and looked up.

    The tattoos on him started shining brightly, and at the same time, flowing as if alive right into his mouth. After he swallowed them up, he spoke the following words.

    ¡°In this area, the air is sealed and everything destroyed!¡±

    The air was suddenly sealed tight, and everything was locked down with destructive power. The words that had been spoken created a binding restriction. D-132 trembled, then stopped forming as if it had beenpletely sealed in ce. Then it started cracking and crumbling.

    Down in the city, Grand Prince looked on nervously.

    In another part of the city, a cultivator sat on the eaves of a building, sipping alcohol and watching the fight ying out. There were nine other cultivators around him, also watching the fight. When D-132 appeared and the Saia cultivator sealed it, heughed sarcastically.

    ¡°Even I fell for this tactic, and you think you¡¯re going to seal the air? Do you really think Xu Qing has remained at the same level as before? What a joke.

    ¡°You know, I even suspect that Xu Qing¡¯s sealing technique actually doesn¡¯t drop down from above. That guy is devious, and I wouldn¡¯t put it past him to intentionally reveal a w as part of his n.¡±

    As the words left his mouth, the air around the Saia cultivator rippled and distorted as a host of prison cells rose up everywhere. Even as the Saia looked around, the crumbling D-132 started forming anew! Where moonlight fell, something coulde out of nothing!

    The sealing of the air had failed.

    Alcohol sprayed out of Tuo Shishan¡¯s mouth. ¡°Well, shoot! I was right!¡±

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing turned to the iing Whitemarsh cultivator, who was now only about 30 meters away. Xu Qing waved two fingers through the air.

    Boundless violet light erupted from him and the violet moon, creating a sea of light that surrounded the Whitemarsh. A tremor passed through the Whitemarsh as his energy and blood seethed. He tried to fight back, but blood sprayed out of his mouth as his blood cirction went out of control. Then, he started to age at an extremely rapid rate. Patches of decay broke out all over him as a result of the taboo poison in the moonlight.

    Most terrifying of all was that Xu Qing had closed his eyes. Then he opened his fingers to form a palm, which he gently pushed toward the Whitemarsh. Instantly, multiple versions of the Whitemarsh appeared superimposed over his body.

    They were his past and his future, all visible at the same time. They included all of his possible future deaths. Within one of those images was one in which he died and his dao was dispelled. And that specific image began to get very clear as it was drawn out into the open.

    The intense sensation of deadly crisis caused the Whitemarsh to shout at the top of his lungs. His cultivation base burned brightly, and his divine abilities raged. An illusory world appeared as well. As he fought back against Xu Qing, his eyes burned with killing intent, and his baleful aura surged. Then a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses surged out of his illusory world toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t move in response. Instead, the figures prostrating to him on the violet moon began to pray with increasing fervor.

    Very far away, in the vicinity of the Nightspirit Region, Sea-Sealing County, and the Holytide Region, numerous recently constructed temples... suddenly started to vibrate. The Nightshade high priests and all other violet moon believers could sense what was happening, and excitedly prostrated and began to pray.

    <i>¡°The violet moon, lord to me; Revered Ancient¡¯s true trustee; the living hosts suffer; they have a blissful guarantee.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Offered freely, lord to me; no bitterness for me; from bitterness I¡¯m free; undecayed for all to see.¡±</i>

    Countless voices offered blessings from the violet moon. They swept around Xu Qing and the Whitemarsh cultivator, turning into a great power that extracted that one image and pulled it out into the open.

    The Whitemarsh lurched to a stop in front of Xu Qing. His eyes were wide and filled with both bitterness and confusion. Next... the fleshy wings of Xu Qing¡¯s fourth-level god state spread out and wrapped around the Whitemarsh. They squeezed. Blood oozed out from between the feathers. Two breaths of time passed, and the wings slowly opened to reveal some clumps of mangled flesh that fell to the ground. It was the same as the image. He had died, and his dao had been dispelled.

    Everything was very quiet. Xu Qing frowned, feeling a bit regretful as he looked at the city below.

    A blurry figure appeared there, which rapidly turned into the dead Whitemarsh cultivator. The moment he appeared, blood sprayed out of his mouth and numerous wounds opened up on his body. His eyes glittered with astonishment.

    He couldn¡¯t control the decline of his aura, and as he staggered backward, blood sprayed from his mouth. His illusory major world vanished. His major world was what had died, and his dao had been severed. He would never make further cultivation progress, and in fact, going forward, his cultivation base would just decline. If it weren¡¯t for the rules of the city, he would actually be dead.

    <i>Given that, I wonder if... Crown Prince Brightsouth is actually still alive.</i>

    Xu Qing thought about it for a moment.

    1. As is sort of obvious from the description, a lotus throne is a throne that resembles a lotus flower, mostmonly seen in Buddhist and Hindu iconography. <u>Here are a few examples</u>. When I was in China recently, I went to a Buddhist temple that had a really cool lotus flower as part of a roughly 20-foot-tall statue of a Buddha (I believe it was Vairocana). Each petal of the flower (of which there were 1,000), was made of a smaller individual statue of the Buddha. It was really cool. I wanted to take a picture, but there are a billion signs posted prohibiting pictures inside any of the buildings, so I respected that and refrained. But trust me, it was cool. Okay, enough rambling. ?

 Chapter 851: A Coquettish Voice from God Mountain

    <h4>Chapter 851: A Coquettish Voice from God Mountain</h4>

    The sky became redder.

    Inside Heavenfire City, countless gazes and innumerable streams of divine will were focused on Xu Qing. Among the observers, it was possible to see expressions of surprise, shock, astonishment, and otherplex emotions.

    Silence reigned supreme.

    Xu Qing¡¯s actions had shaken everyone and proved how valiant he was. He definitely deserved to be the champion of round one! As of this moment, not one person flew out of the city to challenge him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s actions had truly shaken everyone deeply. If he had used the methods of cultivators, it would have been less dramatic. But he had used the power of gods. That left everyone feeling extremely disturbed. Cultivators had been dealing with gods for a long time, and there were even some who could use god magics. That was especially true of people known as godheralds.

    But Xu Qing had just taken the future image of the death of a fourth-stage Void Returning cultivator and turned it into a reality. That was something rarely seen. In fact, for many cultivators present, it was their first time witnessing anything like it.

    And the miserable fate of the Whitemarsh cultivator who had switched at thest moment before dying was still appalling. He couldn¡¯t stop the blood from spraying out of his mouth as his five viscera and six bowels decayed. And the withering to his soul was irreversible. Destroying his major world didn¡¯t just cause his cultivation base to decline, it also drained his life force. His body looked much older. And when he finally backed up by about 3,000 meters, other Whitemarsh cultivators clustered around him to help hold him up. At that point, he looked like an elderly second-stage Void Returning cultivator.

    Death energy abounded all over him, and his eyes shone with lingering fear and shock. Although he managed to escape with his life, when he thought back to the fight just now, he realized he had essentially already died once. If this was a battlefield, and the naturalw protections of the city weren¡¯t in ce, he would definitely be dying right now.

    That knowledge caused his lingering fear to intensify until he was shaking.

    What was more, as Xu Qing looked at him from outside the city, the Whitemarsh averted his gaze. He didn¡¯t dare to look at him directly.

    Xu Qing looked away. However, he had alreadymitted the details of the enemy¡¯s aura to memory. Later on, he would find an opportunity to <i>cut the weeds and eliminate the roots</i>. With such thoughts on his mind, he turned to look at the Saia cultivator trapped in D-132.

    He started walking forward. Every step he took caused ripples to flow out as if on the surface of water. Inside D-132, the power of misfortune was building up, and no amount of curse magic unleashed by the Saia cultivator did any good against it. All curse magic was dispelled by the misfortune. After all, the god authority of misfortune was a type of curse, and excelled at negating other simr divine abilities.

    The Saia was trapped and unable to break free. He could only devolve into destion and amnesia as the effects of misfortune built up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s approach elerated the process. He was already on top of D-132, causing violet moonlight to spill down from his fourth-level god state. It both covered D-132 and bolstered it.

    But then, the moonlight suddenly changed directions. Instead of falling down, it converged in front of Xu Qing in the form of a violet screen.

    Then a finger appeared out of nowhere, to be blocked by the screen of light. It was a faint touch. But ripples spread across the violet light, turning it white. In short order, it transformed... into a jade stone!

    From a distance, it was possible to see the light of the jade stone spreading. Wherever it went, it changed the violet moonlight. In hardly a breath of time, an arc-shaped jade stone appeared in midair. Having lost any of the power of the violet moon, it dropped down toward the ground.

    A thump rang out as it hit D-132 and shattered. Then, D-132 itself began to transform into the same jade.

    In response to the sudden and unexpected development, Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to back up and wave his finger out in front of him. Even as D-132 transformed into jade, it vanished into thin air. Some distance away, Xu Qing looked up, his eyes gleaming as he studied the area where the finger appeared.

    In that spot, glowing light revealed an extremely attractive young man in the clothing of a schr. He almost looked human.

    After materializing, he smiled at Xu Qing.

    ¡°My littlepanions have taken a liking to you, and they want you to be like them.¡±

    The young man¡¯s soft voice didn¡¯t contain even a hint of anger. It was as if he was just stating an incontrovertible fact about the future. His gaze even seemed soft and weing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t take any action, but his eyes glittered. Although it was only his first time seeing this individual in person, thanks to Grand Prince¡¯s jade slip, he knew exactly who he was. He thought back to the description.

    <i>¡°Fan Shishuang is also in the third stage of Void Returning, and he ranks third. He also has great circle battle prowess. In fact, he actually fought a battle to the death with an expert from another species who had just stepped into Smoldering God, and made it out alive. He¡¯s a member of the stewarded nation of High God Moonfire.¡±</i>

    In addition to the general description, there were also some images of him in action. Anyone who he touched would be turned into jade. That was Fan Shishuang¡¯s custom. He liked taking enemy cultivators and converting them into jade puppets that followed him around as attendants.

    <i>A Firemoon Darkheaven chosen that surpasses Tuo Shishan....</i>

    Xu Qing was taking the situation very seriously. Moment¡¯s ago, he had experienced an intense sensation of deadly crisis, and that was especially true considering that he had sensed godly power in the jade attack.

    As he looked around, one jade puppet after another appeared around him, each dressed in different clothing. All of them stood unmoving as they stared at him.

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you saying anything? I guess you¡¯re just agreeing to cooperate?¡± Fan Shishuang smiled as he looked Xu Qing up and down. He looked pleased. ¡°Turning that state of yours into a statue for my house would be perfectly suitable. I advise you to not struggle. If you identally ruined that state, it would be a big pity. Also, you¡¯re not a match for me.¡±

    Fan Shishuang smiled softly and gently swished his sleeve. A pulse of great circle Void Returning energy swept out, causing the sky to tremble and thends to shake. A tempest spread out from him, connecting the ground to the sky.

    Winds screamed, causing the night to undte. Just barely, it was possible to see streaks like meteors, which were dao lineaments. At first the effect wasn¡¯t very dramatic. But as the dao lineaments grew more numerous, they reached a terrifying level that made it seem like it was raining meteors.

    An iparable energy was building that Xu Qing had never seen on a Void Returning cultivator before, and it caused his pupils to constrict. A host of afterimages sprang up behind him, like legions of gods and devils. Every single one was extremely lifelike, and red downward with terrifying pressure.

    This was the hallmark of second-stage Void Returning. That said, Xu Qing had never heard of anyone forming images of gods and devils.

    Normally speaking, a third-stage Void Returning expert could convert divine will into illusory bubbles. But Fan Shishuang wasn¡¯t doing that.

    The bubbles weren¡¯t divine will. Instead, they were the gods and devils. They contained both life force and death itself, and as they formed, crumbled, and reformed, they created a massive tableau. It was a super-massive major world that filled the canopy of heaven, sending out endless fluctuations that surpassed those of ordinary Void Returning worlds by ten times over. It was illusory, but it still contained mountains and rivers, suns and moons, and living beings alongside natural and magicalws. It was just like an actual world. In fact, if it was just slightly more true and real, it would be the hallmark of a Smoldering God.

    As the scene developed, Fan Shishuang¡¯s aura spread, causing Xu Qing¡¯s expression to turn grim. That aura... surpassed the middle-aged Whitemarsh by many times over. Comparing the two was likeparing the full moon with some faint stars. Both were manifestations of fourth-stage Void Returning, but the battle prowess disparity was dramatic.

    ¡°In ten breaths of time, it will all be over.¡±

    Fan Shishuang grinned in a very nefarious way as he looked at Xu Qing, then extended his right hand and pushed out slowly.

    That motion caused thunderous rumbling to fill the canopy of heaven outside the city. Astonishingly, the sky was now emanating a jade-like glow. It was the same with thends below. It was all centered on Xu Qing, and was turning everything the color of jade. The jade light swept around, then shot toward Xu Qing with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

    A sensation of danger exploded within Xu Qing. His flesh trembled with pain, making him feel like he was facing an actual Smoldering God. At the critical juncture, Xu Qing took a deep breath. The desire to do battle started burning in his eyes. He wanted to know exactly where his limits were, and how far away he was from the number three Firemoon Darkheaven chosen.

    He lifted his right hand, and ripples spread out from beneath his feet, turning into a surface of water. It was none other than the beginning of Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    Countless gazes and streams of divine will from the city were closely watching the battle. The meaning of the fight had changed significantly once Fan Shishuang stepped in.

    However, just as Xu Qing and Fan Shishuang were about to sh, God Mountain suddenly trembled. It was a simple tremor, but it resulted in the sky shattering and thends cracking.

    Fan Shishuang¡¯s jade light dimmed, then disappeared. At the same time, the nefarious look on his face transformed into one of piety as he dropped to his knees and kowtowed in the direction of the mountain.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one. All cultivators in the city started to breathe heavily as they ducked their heads and bowed to God Mountain.

    Xu Qing, being unable to release any divine abilities, turned and bowed to God Mountain.

    At that point, a coquettish voice echoed through the sky andnds, reaching the hearts of all cultivators. It was a thrumming, godly voice. It was High God Starfire!

    ¡°The first round is over, so the idea was to give you all some time to rest. But since you seem so energetic, we can forget the resting. The second round of the Great Hunt will begin with a teleportation to the Mountain and Sea Region!¡±

 Chapter 852: The Pain Will Stop in a Moment

    <h4>Chapter 852: The Pain Will Stop in a Moment</h4>

    Though the voice was grand and majestic, it also was a touchnguid. It was as if there were invisible hooks in the sound of it, whichtched onto the hearts of cultivators and made them feel limp and numb both inside and out. The numbness came from the soul. To them, it felt as if their souls had been taken away, leaving them indescribably rxed. Some were weak in willpower, and ultimately passed out andy twitching on the ground.

    The stronger ones were able to weather the ripples that filled their hearts and minds. After all, they revered gods, so what was happening right now was just considered fate as far as the Firemoon cultivators were concerned.

    What was more, this was High God Starfire alone, and the words spoken did not contain much substance. This was just how gods could act. Then, a cold snort echoed out from Starfire, negating the effects of the spoken words. It was like a bucket of cold water poured into the hearts and minds of everyone present.

    ¡°Let the teleportation begin!¡±

    All hearts trembled as they recovered. Then thunderous rumblings filled the canopy of heaven. They grew louder and louder until they reached the point of being able to sunder the heavens and crush the earth. Rumbling echoed out, apanied by rolling shockwaves that quickly turned into a huge vortex. The vortex rotated as it seemingly peeled away sections of the air to reveal a beautiful, seven-colored tunnel made of naturalws.

    On the other side of that tunnel was a majestd full of mountains, rivers, strange nts and flowers, and energetic beasts. It looked like a wilderness. It was also filled with the cries of beasts. This was... the location of the second round of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ Great Hunt. It was the Mountain and Sea Region.[1]

    Seven-colored light erupted from the vortex, forming countless strands that descended into the city below to snatch up all the cultivators who qualified to participate in the second round.

    Grand Prince. Tuo Shishan. Master Gravesparrow.... All participants were covered by the seven-colored light. That included Xu Qing and Fan Shishuang, who were outside of the city.

    Three breaths of time passed, and then the teleportations began. Seven-colored light glittered brightly in the city. Any who looked up would clearly see numerous seven-colored flowers blooming in the sky. Every pulse of light would involve people being teleported away. This was an entropic teleportation, which meant that any cultivators who nned to meet up withpanions would have to find each other in the Mountain and Sea Region.

    Seven-colored light swept over Xu Qing and he vanished into thin air. Hundreds of thousands of cultivators were whisked away into the beautiful image formed by the light.

    Momentster, the seven-colored flowers became fewer and fewer. More than half of the cultivators who had been in Heavenfire City were now gone.

    God Mountain no longer trembled. The only sound to be heard was a softugh from Starfire, which echoed out into heaven and earth.

    ***

    The Mountain and Sea Region was shaped roughly like a bottle gourd. There was no tnd within it, only endless mountains covered with rainforest.

    The general environment, plus the year-round warm weather, and the fact that the area was sealed to outsiders, ensured that the Mountain and Sea Region was full of life. It was the perfect habitat for beasts to live and multiply. It was also home to numerous beasts that could only be described as fantastic oddities. That was especially true considering... that the mutagen here was very strong. It filled everything, affecting not just the animals, but also the nts.

    The entire Mountain and Sea Region was essentially one huge forbidden ground. However, it hadn¡¯t been created by the broken face of the god, but rather, by the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Because of being sealed most of the time, it contained plenty of living things that were extremely rare in the outside world. There were also ancient things that wouldn¡¯t have been possible to preserve in a normal setting.

    ***

    In the hignds of the Mountain and Sea Region, where the rainforest was thick and dark, there was a rotten, gnarled tree that was as dark as night. As it swayed back and forth, vines suddenly shot out from it to snag a white-colored deer from off in the distance. [2]

    The white deer struggled in vain. Vines wrapped all around it, pulsating as they absorbed its life force. The white deer let loose a few cries of anguish and pain. It was a miserable sight, as the deer¡¯s eyes clearly contained the longing to live.

    White deer weren¡¯t verymon in the Mountain and Sea Region. They were a symbol of beauty, and perhaps because of that, they were amon prey. However, there wasn¡¯t much about them that was inherently valuable, so no one bothered trying to breed them. As a result, their numbers had dwindled over the years.

    As the cries of the white deer shook heaven on high, seven-colored light sprang into being in the air next to the gnarled tree.

    A figure emerged, d in a ck robe. The moment he appeared, the tree shivered and then went still. The white deer also shivered, and instinctively stopped crying out. However, it was soon moaning softly as it clung to life.

    The figure who had appeared next to the tree heard the white deer and turned to look at it. He approached it. It only took two steps for him to be standing right above the deer. His mere gaze caused the vines wrapped around the deer to crumble into ash.

    The ck-robed figure squatted, reached out, and gently stroked the deer. Sadly, despite the vines having been removed, the white deer was too badly injured. It couldn¡¯t even stand. It could only express gratitude by the look in its eyes. However, the pain that wracked it made it impossible for it to stop shivering. The sensation of death was spreading through it.

    ¡°The pain will stop in a moment,¡± the ck-robed figure said softly. He stroked the deer even more gently than before. Hisfort caused the deer to struggle less. More gratitude appeared in its eyes. Eventually, it stuck out its tongue and licked the figure¡¯s sleeve.

    After it waspletely rxed, the ck-robed figure put his hand gently on the deer¡¯s neck and then snapped it. The pop rang out without any sounds of pain. The white deer spasmed once, and then it was dead.

    The ck-robed figure slowly stood and looked off into the distance. As rays of light filtered through the tree canopy, his features gradually became clear. He was a young man with his hair bound in a topknot, with a ck headband strapped across his forehead. The headband matched his ck robe as well as his ck boots. From head to toe, he emanated a very cold aura.

    Just barely visible around him were a host of blurry, crimson figures that almost looked like they were made from blood. They also emanated the stench of gore.

    Any Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator present would recognize this person. His name resounded with such fame that he surpassed Tuo Shishan and Fan Shishuang. Back when Grand Prince introduced the Firemoon chosen to Xu Qing, he had spent extra time introducing this young man.

    Master Stillwinter was in third-stage Void Returning, ranked second in their echelon, and was part of High God Sunfire¡¯s stewarded nation. His personality was cold and apathetic, and he was known to be vicious and merciless. He¡¯s killed dozens of cultivators from other species, and refined them into blood clones that apany him wherever he goes.

    He had mastered many techniques. In fact, he even sessfully fought a Smoldering God prisoner. Granted, the prisoner was on hisst legs, but in the end, he was still a Smoldering God....

    Even Fan Shishuang would be wary when facing him. On the three asions in which the two of them fought... Fan Shishuang lost every time. In fact, on thest asion, if it hadn¡¯t been for this generation¡¯s Sir Firedark interfering and mediating, Fan Shishuang would have been in danger of losing his life.

    Tuo Shishan had fought him as well, and had onlysted ten breaths of time before being crushed. It was one of the biggest regrets in his life, as that was the day he failed to win the Firedark daoist name. It was the biggest defeat he had ever endured on his path of cultivation.

    Master Stillwinter looked back down at the corpse of the white deer and softly said, ¡°You don¡¯t feel pain when you¡¯re dead.¡±

    Then he turned and walked off. A few paces away, he seemed to recall something.

    ¡°Spread news. If anyone sees Xu Qing, I want to be informed of his location.¡±

    Master Stillwinter calmly continued on his way. He needed to kill Xu Qing because King Brightsouth had asked him to, and had offered a very attractive deal to make it happen. For him, it woulde down to convenience. If he ran into Xu Qing, he would kill him. But he wasn¡¯t going to waste time looking for him.

    As far as Master Stillwinter was concerned, it wouldn¡¯t be anything challenging. Sir Firedark was the only enemy he wasn¡¯t confident in being able to kill. The others he could cut down with ease.

    Meanwhile, some of the blood-colored figures around him bowed at the waist, then vanished as they left to deliver his message. The other blood clones continued along with him.

    ***

    In another location in the hignds of the Mountain and Sea Region, in the very middle of the rainforest, Xu Qing moved along in the concealment of invisibility. He was being careful not to release any of his aura. He was obviously very used to moving around in rainforest environments, and dealing with mutagen. He actually liked ces like this.

    The Captain had not been teleported with him, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about the Captain. The Captain surely had his own ways of getting to the Mountain and Sea Region.

    <i>Eldest Brother said he arranged for me to get a hillworm.... But I can¡¯t ce all my hopes in his hands.</i>

    He had already abandoned any thoughts of going to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, which was located roughly in between the hignds and the londs. That legendary holy beast had only once been sessfully tamed, and Xu Qing didn¡¯t think there was anything special about himself that would break that trend. He would rather search for other beasts than waste his time trying to find a ninedawns.

    <i>I guess I should hunt for a hillworm!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered profoundly. That seemed like the best method to ensure he met up with the Captain as quickly as possible. It would also increase the chances of him sessfully getting a hillworm.

    He quickly reviewed the jade slip information about hillworms and their behavior.

    <i>They live in the northwest of the londs. I guess the first thing I need to do is get my bearings.</i>

    Xu Qing blurred into motion, disappearing into the rainforest.

    ***

    Three dayster, Xu Qing had passed through enough animal habitats to be able to determine his location. Now that he knew which way to travel, he started moving at top speed toward the spot where the londs turned into the hignds.

    <i>I should get there in about five days. I can skirt the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. From there, it should only take about half a month to reach hillworm territory. There¡¯s going to be a lot more fighting and killing here in the Mountain and Sea Region. I need to be on the watch, especially for... Fan Shishuang!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim. If it hadn¡¯t been for the start of the second round, he and Fan Shishuang would have begun to fight fiercely.

    Xu Qing was already feeling wary of Fan Shishuang. There weren¡¯t many opponents Xu Qing had faced in life that he wasn¡¯t confident in being able to kill, but Fan Shishuang was one of them.

    1. It¡¯s also worth noting that the ssic of Mountains and Seas is a bestiary that describes strangends and strange beasts. ?

    2. As was mentioned, the region is shaped like a bottle gourd, which is essentially like two circles, one smaller than the other. The parts of the region are said to have an ¡®upper¡¯ section and a ¡®lower¡¯ section that are described as being circr. I¡¯m going to render these as hignds and londs, and though it doesn¡¯t specifically say it, I think the idea is that the hignds correspond to the top part of a bottle gourd, which would have a smaller circle, with the londs corresponding to the bottom part, which would have arger circle. ?

 Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part One of Two)

    <h4>Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part One of Two)</h4>

    In the continent of South Phoenix, there was a restricted area to the east of Antlerville.[1]

    The dark cloud cover seemed like the hand of a giant, hanging over the ruins of a vige. It seemed like it could drop at any moment and crush the vige out of existence. The vige looked like it had been scraped clean by the winds of time. There was no color visible; everything was a deste gray.

    The only exception were some swayingnterns in the middle of the vige that were the color of blood. They also provided the only light, and added the oppressive, gruish atmosphere. Thenterns were like souls drifting about randomly. asionally, antern would stop in front of a withered corpse, from which it would extract a final drop of blood to make itself even redder.

    <i>Creak.</i>

    As one of the blood-rednterns stopped in front of a thatched hut, a hand suddenly shot out from the window, grabbed thentern, and pulled it inside.

    The owner of that hand was a young man of about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. His daoist name was Master Freespirit, and he was tall, muscr, and good-looking. However, there was a deep frown on his somewhat ashen face. He looked at the shriveled, blood-redntern in his hand, and his expression shifted to one of measured determination. As the saying goes, <i>when you start down a path, you have to walk it to the end</i>. Ripping open thentern, he found the blood core that formed the me and quickly devoured it. Instantly, some of the color returned to his face. Heaving a sigh, he leaned back up against the mottled wall of the hut.

    Across from him was a young man in a blue daoist robe, with a serious expression on his face as he vigntly scanned the area surrounding the hut.

    Master Freespirit sighed. ¡°We¡¯ve been waiting here all day. Seems Sergeant Zhou ran into some trouble.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t jinx us,¡± growled the young man in the blue robe. Looking disdainfully at Master Freespirit, he continued, ¡°Sergeant Zhou¡¯s cultivation base is already in the great circle of Qi Condensation. You think he¡¯s going to run into trouble chasing down some whoreson in the seventh level of Qi Condensation?¡±

    ¡°Ai, you don¡¯t get it. Back at the basecamp, I looked into Lin Tianhao. The whoreson grew up an orphan after his n was exterminated. He took it upon himself to avenge his n, and immediately showed signs that he might very well be a child of destiny.

    ¡°Beyond that, when he was twelve years old, he was bitten by a five-spotted adder, yet miraculously survived. In fact, that event resulted in an unprecedented blessing to his physique and cultivation base. He reached the seventh level of Qi Condensation by the time he was only fifteen, which was also when he became the vice-sergeant of Squad Dragonsong.

    ¡°Based on all the ancient records I¡¯ve read through the years, someone with amazing destiny like that is someone you should either A) make friends with, B) get away from, or C) go all out to kill as quickly as possible!

    ¡°But what did Sergeant Zhou do? He did everything the wrong way around and provoked Lin Tianhao. If things go as expected, Sergeant Zhou is going to end up nothing more than a grinding stone on that whoreson¡¯s path forward. And you and I? We¡¯re ying the role of the viin¡¯s minions.¡±

    Heart twinging with pain, Master Freespirit shook his head and sighed despairingly.

    ¡°You know what, Master Freespirit?¡± said the blue-robed young man. ¡°Could you just cut it with the jibber-jabber? All you do is sit around talking about who you think might be a child of destiny and psyching yourself out. Hey, take a look at me! Do I look like I might fit the bill?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Master Freespirit said solemnly. ¡°You¡¯re far too ugly.¡±

    The blue-robed young man red at Master Freespirit. Not really knowing what to say after that, he decided to change conversation topics. ¡°Just wait and see. After this mission is over, I¡¯ll finally be able to leave this little squad and join Seven Blood Eyes. That¡¯s where I¡¯m really going to be a badass bigshot!¡±

    The blue-robed young man pulled a tattered old map out of the fold of his garment. It featured an eye-catching red circle, which was their primary target on the squad¡¯s mission. There were some ruins there that had been around for so long nobody knew how old they were. But there were supposedly a lot of secret magics there that were suitable for equipment forging.

    If they could get some of those secret magics and turn them in at Seven Blood Eyes, they could earn a healthy amount of cultivation resources.

    Unfortunately, the same information had also fallen into the hands of their sworn enemies in Squad Dragonsong. And thus, the two squads shed when they ran into each other in the forbidden region.

    After that sh, the various members of the two squads split up.

    Master Freespirit, the blue-robed young man, and Sergeant Zhou were trying to track down Lin Tianhao and a few other members of his squad. Eventually, Sergeant Zhou went off on his own to try to take down Lin Tianhao, while Master Freespirit and the blue-robed young man were supposed to take care of the other two cultivators. After everything was taken care of, they were to meet at a rendezvous spot.

    Master Freespirit and the blue-robed young man had already taken down those two members of Squad Dragonsong, and had been waiting at the appointed spot for an entire day without seeing so much as a trace of Sergeant Zhou.

    As Master Freespirit stewed in anxiety, he couldn¡¯t help but jabber a bit more. ¡°Big Bro, you need to listen to me. Forget about being a badass bigshot. People like that die horrible deaths left and right. They always end up stepping stones for people trying to rise to prominence.

    ¡°If I were you, I¡¯d find a spot where there aren¡¯t any powerful experts at all. You could set up your own sect there, keep a low profile, and live like a king. Based on my experience reading many novels over the years, I can tell you that the most important thing is to just stay alive until the finale.¡±

    As Master Freespirit gave his kind advice, he started making some preparations for what was toe. Laid out in front of him were eleven defensive talismans, five flight talismans, a variety of white boluses, and a huge collection of healing pills.

    As Master Freespirit jabbered, the young man in blue looked at him derisively. Master Freespirit had been like this from the moment they met. He was obsessed with things like defensive talismans and flight talismans. He was extremely frugal with most things, and spent almost all of his money on defensive items. In fact, the young man in blue had never met another scavenger who was more afraid of dying than Master Freespirit.

    All of a sudden, Master Freespirit¡¯s face twitched, and a cold light shed in his eyes. He had just sensed some fluctuations from the mutant hos he had ced around the vige.

    Without a moment of hesitation, Master Freespirit activated a golden defensive talisman, which caused a host of golden magical symbols to spring up around himself and the blue-robed young man, forming a defensive barrier that resembled a golden bubble.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    A piercing whining sound could be heard before the thatched hut around them exploded. Countless blood-colored threads shed the straw to pieces before mming into the surface of the golden defensive barrier.

    Most of the blood-colorednterns in the area were shredded to bits by the shockwave, leaving behind bits of crimson light.

    Master Freespirit could already sense where the sneak attack hade from. Looking out at the gray trees, he saw a short but handsome young man striding out into the open wearing a white robe sttered with blood. He was none other than Lin Tianhao! And he was holding a severed head in one hand.

    ¡°Sergeant Zhou!¡± blurted the blue-robed young man.

    Never in his wildest dreams could he have guessed that Sergeant Zhou, who was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, would die at the hands of the whoreson Lin Tianhao, who was only in the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

    In contrast, Master Freespirit only seemed surprised for a split second. The scene that was ying out right now was almost exactly the same as a scene he had read in a novel once.

    sping hands subserviently, Master Freespirit said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Lin, it¡¯s true that we and Sergeant Zhou are all members of Squad Bloodscale. But we¡¯ve never had any issues with you! In fact, remember back when we first got to the basecamp and I gave you those three white boluses? That was how you got out of that entire deadly situation back then. Listen, how about the two of us just get out of this forbidden region and go back to the basecamp? Going forward, we¡¯ll mind our business and you mind yours.¡±

    <i>PLOP, PLOP, PLOP!</i>

    Before Master Freespirit even finished speaking, Lin Tianhao took out three white boluses and threw them onto the ground.

    ¡°You can have the white boluses back. As of this moment, I don¡¯t owe you anything. And sadly for you, <i>all</i> of Squad Bloodscale has to die.... That¡¯s the only way for me to be the ultimate bigshot in the basecamp.¡±

    Lin Tianhao¡¯s eyes surged with so much killing intent he looked like a bloodthirsty wild beast.

    Voice cold, the blue-robed young man said, ¡°How dare you <i>forget favors and vite justice</i>, you whoreson! Aren¡¯t you being a bit too cocky? You really think the two of us are justmbs waiting to be ughtered?¡±

    Yanking out two bright red curved daggers, he unhesitatinglyunched himself in the direction of Lin Tianhao.

    Master Freespirit would have intervened, but there wasn¡¯t time.

    300 meters away, Lin Tianhao grinned derisively. At the same time, a huge ghost head manifested behind him. It was vicious, with green skin and long fangs, plus blood-red hair that swayed about it in a sinister manner. As the blue-robed young man closed in, Lin Tianhao waved his finger through the air, and a blood-colored hair shot out of the fingernail and shed toward the blue-robed youth like a sharp de.

    Before the blue-robed youth could defend himself, he found, to his horror, that the hair had already shed through his daggers and had reached his legs. In the blink of an eye, his legs were cut off his body, and blood sprayed everywhere.

    <i>How could this be happening? Don¡¯t tell me this whoreson isn¡¯t in the seventh level of Qi Condensation anymore. Is he already in the eighth level? </i>The blue-robed youth was already overwhelmed with an intense sensation of deadly crisis.

    ¡°You think a bit too much of yourself,¡± Lin Tianhao said with a cold snort as he prepared to sh the blue-robed youth to bits.

    But then, Lin Tianhao¡¯s eyes went wide as a huge golden hand shot toward him from the side. Not daring to dally, Lin Tianhao shoved his own palm out to meet the attack. It was the color of blood.

    <i>SLAM!</i>

    A shockwave swept out into the forbidden region, leveling rotten trees and sending debris flying everywhere. At the same time, a green fog spread out from the golden hand.

    ¡°Poison?¡± Lin Tianhao blurted, pulling his hand back and falling back several paces.

    Taking advantage of the moment, Master Freespirit, who had been the one tounch the attack just now, quickly grabbed the blue-robed youth, pped a flight talisman onto his leg, and sped away into the forbidden region.

    It took a few breaths of time for the poison miasma to dissipate. Lin Tianhao looked at Master Freespirit fleeing off into the distance, then at the legs on the ground in front of him. He didn¡¯t look angry. In fact, he looked like he was having fun.

    ¡°You cowardly rogue. You really think you can escape from me?¡±

    Lin Tianhao began to casually pursue Master Freespirit.

    A few hours passed, and Master Freespirit was getting close to the heart of the forbidden region. That was also the spot indicated by the red circle on their map. The blue-robed youth wasn¡¯t bleeding anymore, but his face was pale, and he looked very weak.

    ¡°I owe you my life, Master Freespirit. Maybe you were right. Maybe that whoreson really is a child of destiny....¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Master Freespirit said calmly. ¡°I was wrong. Lin Tianhao is no child of destiny.¡±

    ¡°How can you be sure?¡±

    ¡°Based on my years of experience reading novels, I can tell you that anyone who <i>forgets favors and vites justice</i>, anyone who doesn¡¯t have a bottom line, and anyone with an extremely unlikeable personality definitely cannot be the main character of a novel. And thus, he cannot be a child of destiny.¡± Master Freespirit sounded very sure of himself.

    The blue-robed youth was at a loss for words.

    Eventually, after crossing a rather tall mountain, they found themselves looking at a veryrge and gruish set of ruins. It had once been a huge city, but now it was full of gray rubble. There were white souls of the dead floating here and there, all of which instinctively continued to do what they had done in life, and went through the motions of forging magical devices.

    ¡°This must be the ce. Definitely.¡± The blue-robed young man took out the tattered map to check their position.

    ¡°If the intelligence report Sergeant Zhou got was correct,¡± Master Freespirit said coolly, ¡°then there should be a treasure trove with a ton of equipment forging secret magics here. It should be right in the middle of these ruins.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget to be careful of the bright souls,¡± the blue-robed young man said. ¡°Thankfully there aren¡¯t very many of them. And remember that the terrifying dark souls often hide in the shadows. Their attack power is many times that of the bright souls, and they won¡¯t hesitate to try to possess any living thing they encounter.¡±

    Master Freespirit nodded, took out a good dozen defensive talismans and stered them all over himself.

    It was a very moving scene to the young man in blue. It was even beautiful. Never before had Master Freespirit seemed so reliable to him.

    Master Freespirit had spared no effort to facilitate their escape, burning through three flight talismans to put some distance between them and Lin Tianhao. If Lin Tianhao wanted to catch up to them, it was going to take at least two incense sticks¡¯ worth of time. And that meant they had a chance.

    To the young man in blue, the normally garrulous Master Freespirit suddenly seemed a lot taller and more muscr than before.

    Master Freespirit wasn¡¯t paying attention to the look in hispanion¡¯s eyes as he took out two more defensive talismans, one for each hand. Then the flight talisman on his leg glittered as he flew into the ruins, carrying the blue-robed young man with him.

    When Master Freespirit entered the ruins, it was evening. As the sky turned dark, a cold, sinister aura built up.

    At the same time, the souls drifting about could sense the life forceing from Master Freespirit, and they locked onto his position. Then, like a pack of wolves that had caught the scent of lonely antelope, they charged from all directions.

    Master Freespirit smoothly activated one of the defensive talismans, then handed a few to hispanion to be prepared.

    The mutagenced souls mmed into Master Freespirit¡¯s defensive barrier one after another, which caused them to explode into a white mist that kept eating at the barrier.

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, cracks started spreading out on the defensive barrier, and the talisman in Master Freespirit¡¯s hand was turning dark.

    ¡°Watch out!¡± the blue-robed young man said. Before anything else could happen, a dark streak swept through the bright souls and mmed into the golden defensive barrier.

    1. Antlerville was first mentioned in <u>chapter 5</u>. Since it didn¡¯te up very many times, here are all the other chapters it was mentioned in: <u>40</u>, <u>41</u>, <u>43</u>, <u>45</u>, <u>46</u>, <u>47</u>, <u>61</u>, <u>221</u>, <u>223</u>. ?

 Chapter 853: Mountain and Sea Region

    <h4>Chapter 853: Mountain and Sea Region</h4>

    Out of an abundance of caution, Xu Qing chose not to fly through the sky. Instead, he made his way through the rainforest itself, using it as part of his cover. He also had Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior circle around him to keep an eye on things.

    In that manner, five days went by. During that time, Xu Qing spotted a handful of cultivators participating in the Great Hunt. He noticed a few who had issued challenges to him. At the moment, he wasn¡¯t in the mood to deal with them. Before they could detect him, he moved on.

    He spotted quite a few beasts in the rainforest. Some lived in the trees, others hid in the muddy soil. There was no end to them.

    Some were very gruish in appearance. For instance, there was one asion in which the mountains trembled as a long-armed giant strode by in front of him. He saw suns that had arms and legs, somerge and some small, and they held hands as they raced around. He saw gigantic singing centipedes, as well as mushrooms that followed him around after they saw him, hopping up and down. He saw a huge tree that actually turned out to be the nose of some bizarre creature sleeping in the ground.

    On one asion, the wind caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to widen. That wind... seemed intangible, but the reality was that it was evidence of invisible entities. If Xu Qing¡¯s senses hadn¡¯t been as sharp, he wouldn¡¯t have noticed what he was dealing with, and would have been knocked to the ground. They were demonic grues, and a lot of them. There were flying heads, walking skeletons, and an intense coldness filled with singing. They were all invisible.

    From what Xu Qing could tell, this Mountain and Sea Region was a very unusual world, the beasts of which had abilities and appearances that upendedmon sense.

    There were headless animals. Hair that shot out of the mud. And there were also ancient, dpidated temples inhabited by withered, faceless beings that carried stone steles on their backs.

    At the moment, Xu Qing had just encountered a rippling sea of multicolored flowers in the middle of the rainforest. Any nts or animals that ventured into the undting sea would be devoured, and would ultimately be part of the sea.

    Close examination revealed that the sea of flowers was actually made of a host of colorful toads. The ripples that flowed across the sea were caused by toads jumping.

    But that wasn¡¯t what made the area truly terrifying. In the very middle of the sea was a crumbling divine likeness upon which a host of frogs sat. The bare-chested statue depicted a man with four heads, all of which had their eyes closed. With one hand, he cradled a baby at his chest, and with the other hand, he stroked his chin. A sound like snoring drifted out over the sea of flowers.

    The statue was in such bad shape that about half of it was missing. That included parts of the four heads as well as the infant he was holding.

    Xu Qing spotted the statue from a distance, and his gaze hardened. Over the past five days of travel, he had encountered seventeen divine likenesses. Each looked different, but all of them filled him with a sense of danger. It was the same with the temples. The statues were in such bad shape that it looked as if they had been deliberately damaged. In fact, the one he was looking at now was the mostplete statue he had seen so far.

    <i>What happened back in the day here in the Mountain and Sea Region...? Why are there so many temples and so many damaged statues...?</i>

    Feeling more curious than ever, Xu Qing skirted the sea of flowers before continuing on his way. About an incense stick¡¯s worth of timeter, his expression flickered, and he shot backward and up into the air.

    The moment he did, the air shattered in the spot he had just upied, and a huge ck hole appeared. The ck hole hadn¡¯t appeared randomly. It came from the ground.

    Laying in the swampy forest floor was a massive divine likeness some 30,000 meters from end to end. It was badly broken, but its head was clearly visible. What was more, its mouth wasn¡¯t damaged at all. And it was breathing. Every breath it took would cause that ck hole to appear. What was more, it exuded the threat of a higher level of life.

    Xu Qing had an extraordinary cultivation base and shocking battle prowess. He even had his god states. But this aura seemed so dangerous that he had no choice but to avoid the area.

    Meanwhile, the trembling voice of the god¡¯s finger echoed out from D-132.

    <i>¡°Th-this... this....¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped. <i>¡°Keep talking.¡±</i>

    The finger shivered and then quietly continued, <i>¡°There are dead gods here. And not just a few. A lot.... Holy crap. Howe I¡¯ve never heard about anything like this before?¡±</i>

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior zipped over and transmitted a message with divine will. <i>¡°Could it be because you were actually asleep when your true form arrived? Later, after you parted ways, you were suppressed and sleeping....¡±</i>

    The god¡¯s finger considered the question, and seemed about to offer a retort. However, the finger knew how important the patriarch was to Xu Qing. In fact, the patriarch was more important than the finger. So the finger just snorted and held back from responding.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to the patriarch. He was thinking back to all the divine likenesses he had seen so far. Looking out into the rainforest, he took a deep breath. The aura here didn¡¯t seem unusual. But considering how skilled Xu Qing was in medicinal matters, he detected the lingering aroma of blood.

    It came from the mud, the nts, the rocks, and in fact, from everything.... It was as if everything in this world reeked of blood.

    <i>A great battle was fought here.... A lot of gods died. But who were they fighting?</i>

    Xu Qing only knew some surface-level information about the Firemoon Darkheavens. There was a lot he didn¡¯t know, and therefore, he had no way toe up with a theory.

    After onest look at the huge statue on the ground, he prepared to go around it. But then he heard screaming winds as eight beams of light appeared in the distance. Just like Xu Qing, they were nning to travel in midair and skirt the huge statue.

    But then they saw Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing saw them.

    They included Firemoon cultivators as well as subsidiary species. There was one Saia present. Apparently, they had formed a small team out of convenience.

    After spotting him, the entire team reacted with shock. They stopped in ce and then backed up a good distance. A momentter, the Firemoon cultivator who was their leader bowed to Xu Qing, then changed directions and left. The other members of the team also bowed, then followed their leader. The Saia¡¯s eyes glittered, but he quickly ducked his head and bowed like the others. They had all witnessed the fight outside the city a few days ago, and it had been so shocking that they didn¡¯t dare to get close to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked at them coldly. Seeing that none of them had tamed any mutant beasts yet, he saw no reason to attack them. Turning, he flew on toward his destination.

    When the fleeing cultivators realized that Xu Qing had disappeared, they breathed sighs of relief. Then they exchanged nces, and could see the hesitation in each other¡¯s eyes.

    Only the Saia didn¡¯t hesitate for an instant. Taking out a transmission jade slip, he prepared to send a voice message.

    And yet, the instant he pulled out the jade slip, a cold voice spoke out of thin air next to him.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    All of the cultivators¡¯ faces fell, especially the Saia. Gasping, he tried to quickly send a voice message, but he was toote. A hand reached out and grabbed his hand. It clenched down, causing the jade slip to shatter, along with the hand itself, creating a paste of blood and bits of jade.

    A scream of pain erupted from the Saia cultivator¡¯s mouth. Xu Qing appeared in his fourth-level god state, and he grabbed the Saia by the neck.

    The other cultivators backed up, trembling. However, they weren¡¯t able to flee, as blood-red tentacles had snaked out from Xu Qing to block their path. With the slightest twitch, those tentacles could stab through their foreheads.

    They all stopped in ce and looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Everyone else bowed when they saw me, which makes sense,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. ¡°But you, Saia, had an odd look on your face. Most noteworthy... was that your expression was wrong. Now I remember why. You issued me a fighting challenge earlier.¡±

    Although Xu Qing had left earlier, a strange urge of caution had prompted him toe back to check on the cultivators he¡¯d just left. That was what led to him seeing the Saia about to send a voice message.

    ¡°Tell me who you nned to message,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    A look of rm filled the Saia¡¯s eyes, and he opened his mouth to speak.

    Before he could, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator blurted, ¡°I can tell you, Fellow Daoist Xu! Five days ago, Master Stillwinter sent out a message asking for information about your whereabouts. He said that anybody who spotted you was to send him a message. This Saia cultivator presumably has reasons for wanting to send that very message.¡±

    This Firemoon Darkheaven was an intelligent person, and didn¡¯t want to be dragged into the suicidal Saia¡¯s actions. He knew that Xu Qing was a decisive killer, and he also knew that if the Saia cultivator was the one to answer the question, the rest of them could easily end up dead. Therefore, he chose to speak up first, and hopefully, have a better chance at surviving. The other cultivators in the group quickly chimed in with simr information.

    Xu Qing looked at the trembling, terrified Saia. He had his answer. His right hand tightened, and a popping sound rang out as the Saia was killed in body and soul.

    The other cultivators stopped talking and looked at Xu Qing, trembling from head to toe. Xu Qing looked at them briefly, then waved his hand to send taboo poison seeds into them. When they sensed what was happening, their faces went pale.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t cause trouble,¡± Xu Qing said coolly, ¡°then you cane find me after the second round. I¡¯ll get rid of the poison.¡±

    With that, he turned and vanished.

    The other cultivators stood there silently and helplessly. After a short time, they also turned and left.

    After they were gone, Xu Qing appeared again. He frowned. ¡°Master Stillwinter, huh?¡±

 Chapter 854: Hunting Xu Qing

    <h4>Chapter 854: Hunting Xu Qing</h4>

    Xu Qing had neverid eyes on Master Stillwinter. But based on Grand Prince¡¯s information, he knew some about him.

    <i>He¡¯s ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ echelon!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim. Fan Shishuang was ranked third, but Xu Qing had sensed that, even going all-out, it wasn¡¯t guaranteed that he would win. And even if he did win, it would have been extremely draining, and would have required a significant recovery time. That wouldn¡¯t have been ideal with the second round pending. He had the recovery powers of the violet crystal, but damage to godsource and soul threads would require time to recover from.

    Xu Qing remembered that Master Stillwinter had fought Fan Shishuang three times and came out on top easily each time. What was more, the jade slip indicated that in their most recent fight, Sir Firedark interfered, otherwise, Fan Shishuang would have been killed.

    Xu Qing knew full well he wasn¡¯t a match for battle prowess like that. In the final analysis, his reserve powers weren¡¯t sufficient.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care that Master Stillwinter had asked for information about his whereabouts. It was already said and done. As for why exactly Master Stillwinter wanted to find him, well, there was plenty of room for spection.

    Xu Qing stayed quiet as he maintained his invisibility and stayed on guard. He really didn¡¯t want to run into enemies before finding a beast. For one thing, he didn¡¯t want to get involved in a life-or-death fight, and also, he had other ns.

    <i>I¡¯m currently about ten days away from my destination....</i>

    Xu Qing sped through the rainforest for another five days.

    During that time, he stayed out of sight as much as possible. He avoided any Firemoon cultivators, either by keeping his distance or by hiding in ce until they passed by.

    On some asions, he couldn¡¯t control how things yed out. Cultivators weren¡¯t the only thing to worry about in the Mountain and Sea Region. There were plenty of terrifyingly strong beasts and grues. As long as Xu Qing had Little Shadow around, it wasn¡¯t hard to either avoid or scare off the grues. As for the beasts... encounters with them came down to luck.

    But Xu Qing couldn¡¯t rely on good luck all the time. On the fifth day, he reached the spot where the londs of the Mountain and Sea Region rose into the hignds. That was also where the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands existed. In that location, Xu Qing encountered a flock of mountain sparrows.

    Upon spotting them, Xu Qing unhesitatingly got out of their way and hid off to the side.

    These ¡®mountain sparrows¡¯ were sparrows that carried mountains on their backs. They were enormous, and because they moved about with mountains on them, what cultivators normally saw first were the mountains floating through the air. It was simr to how the cultivators in the first round of the Great Hunt would carry around mountains.

    The ferocious mountain sparrows lived inrge flocks, and they hunted in groups, although they left their infants behind. Only the healthy and vigorous would go hunting, and they generally had Void Returning battle prowess, with the weakest being first-stage and the strongest being in the great circle.

    When you added in the advantage of numbers... any second round participants who encountered them knew they were trouble. After all, the mountain sparrows weren¡¯t picky eaters. In addition to other beasts, they would also eat cultivators.

    Xu Qing had just encountered a flock of hunting mountain sparrows. Given their unusual innate abilities, they noticed Xu Qing right away. Circling around, they flew right toward him.

    Xu Qing frowned as he looked at the group of well over a hundred mountain sparrows. After a moment of thought, he turned and fled as fast as he could.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the mountain sparrows gave chase. Astonishing fluctuations rolled out in all directions, apanied by piercing cries as they called out to others of their kind in the area.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly, then turned pitch ck. The violet moon rose behind him, and the threatening aura it sent out caused the pursuing mountain sparrows to slow down. Xu Qing took advantage of the time bought to elerate.

    Unfortunately, the mountain sparrows and their fluctuations had attracted the attention of passing cultivators. Those cultivators looked over in shock, and then flew in the opposite direction. They didn¡¯t dare to get too close. Among them were two Saias. Noting themotion, they quickly took out jade slips.

    They were obviously unique jade slips, as they were the color violet, and they pulsed with glittering light. After checking the jade slips, the two Saias¡¯ expressions flickered, gritting their teeth, they backed away and prepared to send some voice messages.

    But then a wind screamed, and a ck mist rose up around them. Taboo poison erupted, and hoarse screams echoed out. When the mist faded away, the only thing left behind were puddles of ck blood and a few bags of holding.

    Xu Qing sped along across the rainforest floor. Scooping up the bags of holding and the two unique jade slips, he shot off into the distance without so much as looking over his shoulder. Yet his brow remained furrowed.

    He had managed to kill the two Saia cultivators quickly enough that they didn¡¯t have time to send any messages. But the two violet jade slips gave him a very bad feeling.

    After examining them closely, he realized why. <i>They¡¯re made with the blood of violet moon believers, plus a special curse magic. And that allows them to sense me specifically</i>....

    He crushed the jade slips. As of now, he realized that it didn¡¯t matter if people ryed information about his position to anyone. There were jade slips that could be used to track him down, and he refused to believe that they didn¡¯t have an auto-transmit function built into them.

    <i>Maybe I¡¯m overthinking things. And I¡¯m only five days from my destination anyway.</i>

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing turned to look in the direction of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He wasn¡¯t very far from its border.

    From this distance, the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands seemed to be covered with gray fog that the sunlight couldn¡¯t prate. It gave off a sensation of age and decay. asionally, anguished faces would appear in the fog and emit noiseless screams. There were other images that were too blurry to make out, and were impossible to remember. But it was possible to hear despairing and insane screamsing from the fog.

    The sound of it could shake the soul and make one tremble in unease. Especially noteworthy was the fact that Xu Qing¡¯s godsource felt suppressed, as though godly power was incongruous with this location. The fog seemed extremely mysterious and iprehensible.

    ¡°Ninedawns Forbidden Lands...¡± he murmured.

    Though not much about the ce was visible, he could sense a stifling pressure. The wind from the ce carried with it a sensation of rot as it reached him and stirred his hair. Just the breeze caused his hair to start curling sickeningly, as if the life force was being sucked out of it. All of this only caused Xu Qing to feel even more leery of this habitat of ninedawns.

    He had been to many forbidden regions in his life, as well as some forbidden grounds. But this ce was different from any of them.

    <i>It seems like a graveyard.</i>

    After taking a final close look, he turned away and continued on his way to hillworm territory.

    He also tried sending a message to his Eldest Brother. He had been making such attempts on a daily basis. Unfortunately, he was out of range, and thus, sending voice messages was <i>as good as throwing a stone ox into the ocean</i>. He got no responses.

    Xu Qing shook his head, put away the transmission jade slip, and continued noiselessly through the rainforest.

    The next day, on the border of the londs, rumbling booms echoed out, and the surrounding mist seethed. A Saia stumbled out into the open, then copsed into a pool of blood.

    The mist faded, and Xu Qing appeared. Some distance behind him were a few dozen Saia cultivators, all of them dead. Xu Qing looked back at the dissolving corpses and scowled. He had been ambushed.

    The enemy had seemed very confident in knowing his location, and had seemedpletely suicidal. They had used all sorts of methods in their attack, eventually resorting to insane uses of self-detonation. From that, he could only surmise that they hadn¡¯t been trying to kill him, but rather, to buy time for someone else. What was more, every single one of them had one of those special violet jade slips.

    <i>I was right....</i>

    He looked in the direction of hillworm territory. He was now only four days away from it.

    <i>If these people were trying to buy time, it seems to indicate that Master Stillwinter is probably nearby. The next four days... probably won¡¯t go very smoothly. If he can really track me, then even if I reach hillworm territory, I¡¯ll have a potential cmity breathing down my neck. So that seems kind of pointless.</i>

    <i>I need to figure out a way to deal with this Master Stillwinter. And also how to avoid being tracked. Otherwise, things are going to get very difficult.</i>

    Xu Qing knew that turning around a deadly situation often involved lots of careful nning.

    After some thought, he looked away from hillworm territory and focused instead on the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. It was one of the most dangerous zones in the Mountain and Sea Region, and it was only a day away. After some more thought, his eyes shone with determination.

    <i>I probably can¡¯t match up to Master Stillwinter in battle prowess. But if you want to talk about survival skills....</i>

    Xu Qing took a moment to check the violet crystal, then calmed himself, turned, and shot toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    As it turned out, Xu Qing made the right call. About four hourster, a beam of light appeared. It reached the spot where Xu Qing had stopped earlier, then transformed into Master Stillwinter. As he hovered above the rainforest, he spotted the dead Saia cultivators. He closed his eyes and cast his senses out.

    ¡°He¡¯s heading toward the ninedawns?¡± he murmured. ¡°Very clever. However... it¡¯s still unlikely you can escape me.¡±

    Master Stillwinter turned, whereupon a sonic boom echoed out as he locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s position and headed in that direction.

    And thus, the chase began.

    Six hourster, Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered and he looked over his shoulder. He saw the clouds on the horizon shifting and seething. Then a blood-colored light swept out with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. It was like a blood sea, within which was a figure in ck, looking coldly at Xu Qing.

 Chapter 855: Looks Like a Fourth God

    <h4>Chapter 855: Looks Like a Fourth God</h4>

    A sea of blood filled the dome of heaven, covering the sky, and turning everything red. From a distance, it looked like an impending apocalypse. Within that sea of blood was a figure in ck, tall and imposing, and pulsing with an arrogant spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Down in the rainforest, Xu Qing¡¯s aura couldn¡¯tpare at all. The mere pressure he felt caused his head to spin. Every fiber of muscle and flesh quivered with an intense sensation of deadly crisis. At the same time, his heavenly dao was screaming to him that this enemy was strong. Very strong! This was the strongest chosen Xu Qing had ever faced.

    Neither Tuo Shishan nor Fan Shishuang imparted a sensation like this. The former he had defeated. Thetter he could probably fight to a draw. But Xu Qing knew without a doubt... that he wasn¡¯t a match for Master Stillwinter.

    Therefore, he backed up, fully unleashed his cultivation base, and sent countless soul threads spreading out to form his fourth-level god state. Then he fled at top speed.

    ¡°You¡¯re smart,¡± Master Stillwinter said coolly. ¡°But the moment you saw me, you lost the qualifications to stay alive.¡±

    He waved his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. That motion caused the sky-obfuscating sea of blood to seethe. Waves raced as it expanded to a 500-kilometer area, all while closing in on Xu Qing.

    The air shattered, and thends shook. It was all centered around Xu Qing. Blood rain fell, staining the nts red and turning the mud into a gory sludge. Within the 500-kilometer area, everything howled in anguish. Beasts. Grues. They all melted into pools of blood, which rose up to join the blood sea.

    From a distance, it looked like endless volumes of blood floating up to form a prison. Within the blood sea were hosts of shadowy, blood-colored figures who stared greedily at Xu Qing and let loose piercing howls. All it took was one move to shake heaven and earth, all while locking down the entire area.

    A sensation of deadly crisis exploded in Xu Qing, causing his expression to turn grim. He knew that he¡¯d been locked down, and thus abandoned thoughts of fleeing. The godsource of his fourth-level god state spread out, causing mutagen to flourish in the area.

    Then, a chanting like that of a god drifted from Xu Qing¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°Blood!¡±

    It was one word. But as it echoed out, the sea of blood trembled, and the blood rain stopped. A massive force of attraction came along with Xu Qing¡¯s blood authority, forming a powerful vortex around him. If the process waspleted, he would be able to take control of the sea of blood.

    ¡°Nice authority,¡± Master Stillwinter said, his expression calm. ¡°But what¡¯s your limit?¡±

    He waved his hand again, and the blood sea surged again. The shadowy figures inside all howled as they melted.

    It was a terrifying scene that was shocking even to Xu Qing.

    There were thousands of the shadowy, blood-colored figures, and after melting into blood, they made the surrounding sea even more astonishing. After having absorbed the shadowy figures, the blood sea spread out to a size of 3,000 kilometers. And it kept going.

    3,500. 4,000. 4,500.... All the way to 5,000 kilometers.

    A 5,000-kilometer blood sea raged. Its mere aura was full of destructive power, such that not even Xu Qing¡¯s blood authority could possibly influence it. That was even truer considering that 5,000 kilometers wasn¡¯t the limit. More blood-colored figures melted, and then it reached 10,000 kilometers.

    15,000. 20,000.... After thousands of the shadowy, blood-colored figures melted, the blood sea reached the terrifying level of 50,000 kilometers. The blood rain spread in kind.

    50,000 kilometers was a vast area. In fact, it was impossible to see from one end to the other. It really had supnted the dome of heaven. And it continued to expand as it dropped down toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing shivered as he sensed that he had reached his limit. His body was destabilizing, and pain wracked his soul. It was a moment of crisis, but thankfully, Xu Qing¡¯s fighting intuition came in handy at exactly the right time. Eyes shining with determination, he gathered his blood authority close to him, where it became a blood-colored light, and then, a spinning vortex.

    Within the vortex, he was also the color of blood. His body melted, copsing into blood that sshed everywhere. Since he couldn¡¯t fight back, he decided he might as well jump in head first.

    The blood sea smashed into the ground. Intense rumbling echoed out for 500,000 kilometers in all directions. All Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators in the area could sense it. Shaken, they turned to look off into the distance.

    The rainforest was incinerated. nts, beasts, and grues were all exterminated. The ground shook as craters appeared, which filled in with blood. The 50,000 kilometers of blood was so boundless it changed the terrain.

    At the same time, a host of blood droplets emerged from the sea and formed back into Xu Qing. The moment he appeared, blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his god state crumbled. Face turning pale, he rapidly fell back. At thest moment, he chose to merge with the sea of blood to save himself. But the power disparity was so immense that he still ended up being badly hurt.

    ¡°Thus it ends,¡± said a cold voice from just ahead of Xu Qing as he backed away.

    A finger appeared near Xu Qing, packed with the power of extermination as it shot straight toward him.

    Although Xu Qing was clearly in a very bad position, he remained calm and collected. He knew that every action was critical, and if he got rmed, it could have severe consequences. Next, his eyes turned pitch ck as taboo poison erupted from him, creating a boundless ck mist that swept toward the iing finger. ck spots immediately covered the finger, and it started to decay, slowing its momentum.

    But then a second finger appeared,ing from a different direction.

    Seven mes appeared around Xu Qing, which went out one after another. It was none other than the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse. As a result, the second finger crumbled before it could reach him.

    Xu Qing fell back even faster than before.

    An exmation of surprise echoed out. Clearly, Master Stillwinter hadn¡¯t been expecting Xu Qing to negate those fingers one after another so quickly.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this interesting?¡± he said with a softugh.

    Next to appear in front of Xu Qing were not fingers. Instead, it was an entire blood-colored hand! Explosive energy swept out that surpassed anything from before, seemingly unstoppable. In fact... it contained Smoldering God power!

    It ignored the taboo poison. It disregarded the underworld curse. And in the shortest of moments, it was the only thing in Xu Qing¡¯s field of vision. An unprecedented sensation of death filled him!

    He wanted to fight back, but was having a hard time holding himself together. He trembled as thest vestiges of his god state fell apart into countless soul threads. They quickly formed back together, but then copsed again. Copse, reform. Again and again. Eventually the soul threads couldn¡¯t form anew. They dissipated, and Xu Qing¡¯s true form was revealed, hovering there with his eyes closed.

    Master Stillwinter waved aside the soul threads and shoved his hand toward Xu Qing.

    Then Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened, revealing violet pupils. He had been waiting for this exact moment. Everything had been an attempt to weaken his opponent.

    A violet moon appeared between Xu Qing and Master Stillwinter¡¯s hand. It wasn¡¯t illusory. It was material. It started out small, but then rapidly expanded until a stone stele was visible on it, upon which were carved the names of a host of believers.

    At that moment, countless Violet Lord temples through the Nightspirit Region trembled. Innumerable believers there prostrated in worship, sending faith power out in the form of violet light. It all flickered into being right in front of Master Stillwinter in the Mountain and Sea Region.

    The hand suddenly turned violet and stopped moving. He tried to pull it back, but it was toote. The rapidly expanding violet moon shot toward it with unstoppable force. They shed, and a huge boom echoed out as the hand was sent flying backward.

    Shock waves spread out, which revealed the outline of Master Stillwinter some distance away. As he appeared, his expression was one of surprise. He was about to unleash another palm attack, except the violet moonlight erupted blindingly, surrounding him.

    Next, the soul threads that were the remains of his god state suddenly shot forth, not toward Xu Qing, but toward Master Stillwinter. Millions of them wrapped around him with restraining force.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe but happened in an instant. As Master Stillwinter was struck by the violet moon and then bound with soul threads, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes red with killing intent, and he thrust his hand toward Master Stillwinter.

    Rumbling echoed out everywhere, along with ripples that resembled the mouth of a well. The well water rippled as a reflection of Master Stillwinter appeared there, along with all of his magical techniques, plus images of his past and future. It also showed Master Stillwinter¡¯s soul!

    There were even secrets that Master Stillwinter had never revealed to anyone. For example, his soul....

    When Xu Qing saw it, his pupils constricted. Master Stillwinter didn¡¯t have one soul inside of him. He had ny-seven! And within every single soul was a golden god monument. Each of the ny-seven god monuments featured a carving of a different figure. None looked the same, but all emanated the aura of a god.

    Xu Qing was shaken to the core. The god monuments were carved with ny-seven gods! One of them was the same divine likeness he had seen in the rainforest earlier! It made it seem to Xu Qing that Master Stillwinter was more like a receptacle for god monuments! Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what ceremony this corresponded to, but it made him think back to what Fifth Prince had said in the emperor¡¯s pce hall.

    <i>¡°In recent years, the mutagen levels in Firemoon territory have tripled. King Firecrusher¡¯s assessment was that... the Firemoons are grooming a fourth god!¡±</i>[1]

    1. These words were spoken by Fifth Prince in <u>chapter 812</u>. ?

 Chapter 856: Seething Killing Intent

    <h4>Chapter 856: Seething Killing Intent</h4>

    It was no exaggeration to say that Master Stillwinter was currently stunned. He had never seen any divine ability or magical technique like this. Nor had he experienced a sensation like this. But he could clearly sense the majesty of the rippling water. A profound sense of deadly crisis rose up within him.

    He could sense that he had lost some of his ability to move, and his cultivation base was locked down and totally still. Combined with the pressure from the violet moon and the encircling soul threads, it meant that even if he did have some heaven-overturning, sea-inverting abilities, they couldn¡¯t be used at the moment. All he could do was think.

    Because of that, he was reeling at the thought of all his secrets being made visible. He looked down at the water and saw that everything about himself was reflected there, including the entire path he had walked so far in his journey of cultivation. Everything that belonged to him and all his secrets were there, whether they were illusory techniques or material items.

    He suddenly came to the conclusion... that if his reflection sustained damage, the same would happen to his true form. That premonition prompted him to struggle to free himself, except that he couldn¡¯t move a muscle.

    The version of himself in the water grew clearer. The sensation of death grew more intense.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. By means of the divine ability of Fishing the Moon in the Well, he had learned something very unexpected. And that rted to Master Stillwinter¡¯s reserve powers! Clearly, this was why he ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ echelon.

    Ny-seven god monuments. Totems of ny-seven perished gods!

    The sensation caused Xu Qing¡¯s chest to tighten. However, he knew that now wasn¡¯t the time to specte or analyze. Therefore, after a brief nce, he unhesitatingly reached out and closed his fingers into a fist.

    ¡°This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well...¡± he said, his voice thrumming as if with ancient time as it echoed over the water.

    Every word he spoke contained some of the dao. And the elementsbined into a water drop that was the beginning of the mysterious daoist magic.

    The water drop hit the surface of the water, and ripples spread out. They distorted the reflection of Master Stillwinter, as well as the ny-seven souls. The ripples became a huge hand, which then reached down, and grabbed the ny-seven souls to fish them out!

    Xu Qing wanted them all!

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s mind spun as a painful tearing sensation swept through him. At the same time, the ny-seven souls in the water trembled.

    As Xu Qing put more force into his effort to fish out the souls, they distorted, slowly bending up toward the surface of the water. It looked as though Xu Qing would fish them out into the open at any moment.

    But then, the god monuments that contained the souls flickered with golden light. The totems that depicted the various gods then opened their eyes as if they were alive. The golden pupils all locked onto Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started racing. Despite being separated by the water, it was no surprise the gazes of ny-seven gods caused him to immediately show signs of mutation. Fleshy tendrils sprouted all over him, and his soul filled with intense pain.

    At the same time, the ny-seven gods erupted with a force of expulsion, which instantly affected the well, and caused Xu Qing¡¯s fishing effort to fail for the first time ever!

    Simultaneously, Master Stillwinter started to struggle against the binding effects.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grave as he sent out godsource to maintain his current state. His eyes narrowed. He now had two theories regarding the ny-seven god monuments.

    The first theory was that they were some type of ceremony. And since he couldn¡¯t fish them all out, then maybe he would just try taking one. Perhaps that would interrupt the ceremony.

    The second theory was that one of the ny-seven souls was Master Stillwinter¡¯s life essence soul. If he could extract that one, it could be deadly.

    However, the difficulty level would be extreme, and he didn¡¯t have enough time to go slowly and carefully. Eyes glittering with cold light, he scanned the ny-seven souls, picked one, and then reached out with his right hand and unleashed the full power of Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    He focused on that one specific soul. A huge illusory hand appeared on the surface of the water. It dipped down, surrounded that one soul, and then jerked up.

    The sound of sshing water was apanied by the enraged roars of the other ny-six souls. That alone caused the hand formed by Xu Qing to start falling apart. The soul he¡¯d grabbed was struggling, and the other souls were rejecting his presence. Because of that, despite having grabbed onto that one specific soul, he couldn¡¯t get it out of the water.

    Seeing that nothing was working, Xu Qing took a deep breath, lifted his right foot, and then stomped it down onto the surface of the water. Muffled rumbling swept out as the water rushed toward the crumbling hand, entered it, and bolstered it. Because everything was focused on the hand, the entire well started to fade away.

    The hand continued crumbling; Xu Qing continued bolstering it. Eventually, just before the hand was about to copse into nothing, Master Stillwinter¡¯s ny-seventh soul broke through the surface of the water to appear in front of Xu Qing.

    When Xu Qing sensed it, he felt slightly disappointed to discover that it didn¡¯t contain Master Stillwinter¡¯s life essence soul. Yet it was without the slightest hesitation that Xu Qing then turned and fled.

    A piercing cry rang out behind him, apanied by the sound of sshing water.

    Fishing the Moon in the Well had disappeared!

    A terrifying aura erupted from Master Stillwinter, who was still howling loudly. Being able to move once again, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the fleeing Xu Qing. At the same time, fear lingered within him.

    Xu Qing had spected correctly. The ny-seven souls did contain one that was Master Stillwinter¡¯s life essence soul. If Xu Qing had fished that one out, Master Stillwinter would have been on his way to death now. It was the first time since he had begun practicing cultivation that Master Stillwinter had felt such an intense level of deadly crisis.

    What was more, though Xu Qing hadn¡¯t been able to extract the soul he wanted, it didn¡¯t change the fact that Master Stillwinter was now missing a god monument, which was equally damaging. The tearing sensation that filled him caused his face to distort. The only thing he could think of at the moment was to give chase, get that soul back, and put it back inside to make himself whole again. Though he still felt lingering fear, he also sensed raging killing intent within himself.

    ¡°Time to die!¡± he roared, taking a step forward. That single step took him all the way to Xu Qing, where he viciously shoved his hand out.

    Seeing the iing blow, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with mysterious light and he waved his left hand. His ancient sun appeared.

    This was a trump card that could be considered overwhelmingly powerful. Unleashing it would have terrifying consequences, and Xu Qing wasn¡¯t even sure if he would be able to evade the st if he detonated it.

    That consideration was the main reason that, after arriving here in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, he had only used the power of a Dawning Sun as a threat.

    The moment the ancient sun appeared, the pursuing Master Stillwinter directly referenced that very concern.

    ¡°A Dawning Sun! Xu Qing, if you dare to detonate a Dawning Sun here, you¡¯ll wipe out the Mountain and Sea Region. You might as well just dere war on the Firemoon Darkheavens! Based on my species¡¯ temperament, we¡¯ll immediately send troops against humankind. After all, you¡¯re human, and the Dawning Suns are humankind¡¯s domain treasures!

    ¡°Don¡¯t use the Dawning Sun, and you¡¯re just a dead person. But use it, and you¡¯ll still die, but so will the rest of humankind! Do you really dare to do something like that, Xu Qing?¡±

    Master Stillwinter was enraged, but managed to keep his cool. Having directly stated Xu Qing¡¯s biggest concern, he didn¡¯t hesitate to raise his hand and then drop it in an attack.

    Unfortunately, the presence of a Dawning Sun was not something he could just discount. Thus, he held back some of his cultivation base power in case he needed to defend himself. A boom rang out as Xu Qing was sent spinning back, blood spraying out of his mouth.

    He did not detonate the ancient sun. However, it wasn¡¯t because of anything Master Stillwinter had said. His entire reason for bringing the sun out to begin with wasn¡¯t to detonate it, but to use it as a threat. It was a message to Master Stillwinter that he had a trump card and was willing to end their fight in mutual destruction. He simply wanted to distract his enemy with misgivings. Those misgivings would limit how much his enemy could do overall.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change when he saw that his n was working. He hung the ancient sun at his belt, all while simultaneously backing up and pulling out the soul he had fished out. He squeezed his hand down onto the soul. He had been holding it ever since extracting it, as it was another trump card he could use. As he squeezed down on it, Master Stillwinter shivered, and intense pain swept through him.

    Next, Little Shadow and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior appeared. Along with the violet moon, they attacked Master Stillwinter.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t slow down at all. He just kept fleeing at top speed.

    Master Stillwinter was starting to get irritated, and his killing intent was intensifying. With the wave of his hand, he sent the shadow and the patriarch spinning away. Bypassing the violet moon, he continued his pursuit.

    However, after only ten breaths of time passed, Xu Qing clenched his right hand tighter onto the soul, which creaked as though it might shatter.

    Intense pain erupted from Master Stillwinter¡¯s soul. Howling shrilly, he prepared to make a move. But then Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned pitch ck. Looking over his shoulder, he sent a mist of taboo poison spreading out to cover Master Stillwinter.

    At the same time, he took out amand medallion and sent some divine will inside.

    ¡°Food¡¯s here, Your Majesty.¡±

    He threw themand medallion out to activate it. But only a momentter, the medallion tumbled right back into Xu Qing¡¯s hands. A fluctuation rolled out of it.

    <i>¡°Corpses of dead gods? No way! I only eat live food!¡±</i>

    Frowning, Xu Qing kept running.

    Master Stillwinter closed in again and was about tounch his attack. But then Xu Qing squeezed down harder on the soul in his right hand while simultaneously saying,

    ¡°This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well....¡± Heaven and earth distorted as water ripples appeared.

    Master Stillwinter instinctively stopped in ce. Except that, an instantter, nothing happened. The water vanished.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t possibly use Fishing the Moon in the Well twice in such a short period of time. His words had been a bluff. And he took advantage of Master Stillwinter¡¯s hesitation to shoot as far off into the distance as possible. At the same time, he kept crushing the soul in his hand.

    Master Stillwinter seemed on the verge of going mad. Blood-red light red off of him as he once again gave chase.

    But then a host of prison cells appeared overhead. It was D-132.

    Xu Qing knew how people thought. When people felt a sense of danger, only to find out they had been tricked, they would instinctively start to rx. At the same time, if you inflicted pain on the soul of the enemy, it would distract them and prevent them from thinking clearly. Attacking at a moment like that would bring the best chances of sess.

    It was why Xu Qing hadn¡¯t just crushed the soulpletely from the beginning. One big st of pain wasn¡¯t as effective as continuous pain. That said, it was something that couldn¡¯t be done repeatedly, as the enemy would quickly limate to the pain. Therefore, the best tactic seemed to be to keep up the continuous pain before releasing a huge st at the end.

    Sure enough, when D-132 appeared, it quickly surrounded Master Stillwinter.

    At the same time, the fleeing Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look over his shoulder. He just squeezed down with all his might, detonating the soul in his hand. The soul shattered, releasing a huge st of dangerous force.

    The god monument connected to the soul was covered by Xu Qing¡¯s godsource. Then Xu Qing, gritting his teeth against his own injuries, shot at top speed toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    Just as he disappeared over the horizon, howls of grief rose up from the inmates in D-132. The prison shattered in all directions, and Master Stillwinter appeared, his hair disheveled as he dragged a huge finger behind him. His expression waspletely ferocious. The pain from the shattered soul was hard to bear.

    The finger, meanwhile, shivered. Then a face appeared on ¨©ts surface, and ¨©t was clearly terrified.

    ¡°Don¡¯t kill me! I was forced to do all this. I¡¯ll help you! I¡¯ve been wanting to put an end to that fiendish killer for a long time now. Let¡¯s work together! We want the same thing!¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Master Stillwinter shouted, his killing intent spiking. Looking at Xu Qing disappearing, he gave chase at top speed.

 Chapter 857: Entering Ninedawns

    <h4>Chapter 857: Entering Ninedawns</h4>

    Xu Qing sped through midair as fast as possible. The Mountain and Sea Region was packed with mutagen. In addition, the sealing marks put in ce by the Firemoons¡¯ three gods made it difficult to perform long-range teleportations. And some teleportation items didn¡¯t work at all. However, after all of his sessive ns worked out, Xu Qing bought himself some time and put some distance between himself and his enemy.

    The price to pay had been significant. Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was injured. Little Shadow had faded significantly. And Xu Qing himself was hurt. Because of those things, the fight had reached the point where proceeding further wouldn¡¯t have been good.

    Then there was D-132.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He had left D-132 behind, but it wasn¡¯t gone. And as long as it bought him the time he needed, its loss would be worth it. And given enough timeter, he would be able to redevelop the D-132 cell block.

    As for the authority of misfortune from the god¡¯s finger, he had already mastered it. And the amnesia came from adding destiny aura.

    <i>It¡¯s too bad about the finger and the inmates. They¡¯re gone. Now I¡¯ll have to refill the cells.</i>

    He felt a bit of regret. But then he thought about how useless the god¡¯s finger usually was, and realized there was no point in worrying about ¨©t.

    After confirming he was going in the right direction, he shot forward. The path he picked was going to be very important at a moment like this. A day ago, if he had picked to continue on his way to hillworm territory, he would never have been able to escape like he was now.

    Things were different now, though. He was about three or four hours away from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, maybe even closer.

    <i>Before I pulled out my ancient sun, Master Stillwinter might have been able to catch up to me. But now... he¡¯s not going to risk getting too close. What¡¯s more, he¡¯s going to be worrying about what else I might throw at him....</i>

    Around that time, he sensed D-132 copse. His heart sank.

    <i>That quickly? That finger really is useless!</i>

    Expression turning cold, Xu Qing bit onto the tip of his tongue to get an added burst of speed.

    About two hours passed. Xu Qing was now only about an hour away from the edge of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. As he flew through the air, he suddenly dodged to the side.

    As he did, a beam of red light stabbed through the spot he had just upied, then exploded into a flower of blood. More blood flowers appeared, exploding one after another and turning everything bright red.

    A figure shot like lightning over the horizon.

    Xu Qing scowled as he dodged back and forth amongst the exploding blood flowers. There were so many that he knew eventually there would be one that he didn¡¯t notice or couldn¡¯t avoid. As the flowers exploded, they turned into strands of blood-colored light that swept toward Xu Qing.

    He blurred to the side, sending out soul threads to fight against the blood strands. Sadly, the blood strands were extraordinary. Though he destroyed a few, there were still plenty left to wrap around his waist. He had no choice but to lurch to a stop.

    As that happened, the pursuing Master Stillwinter shot forward with a burst of speed, piercing through the air to appear in front of Xu Qing.

    His expression was malicious, and his eyes burned with killing intent. But instead ofunching a blow, he quickly performed an incantation gesture.

    The exploding blood flowers all turned into blood-colored strands that whipped through the air to entangle Xu Qing. In the mere blink of an eye, they wrapped him up. Xu Qing¡¯s face was pale and his expression anxious as he saw the blood strands slowly forming a cocoon around him.

    ¡°You won¡¯t be getting away this time!¡± Master Stillwinter, whose soul still ached with pain, saw Xu Qing trapped, and his killing intent grew even stronger. Blurring forward, he entered the interior of the blood cocoon. As he did, he finally spotted Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    Strangely, Xu Qing didn¡¯t seem worried at all. Instead, his eyes shone with aggressive light as he lifted his right hand. Astonishingly, floating above his palm was a finger-nail sized, brown-colored me wisp. The me wisp flickered dully, asionally expanding and asionally contracting. It looked unstable. What was truly shocking about it was how it caused the clouds in the sky to turn ck. Thunder boomed and lightning crashed.

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s heart seized with a sensation of danger. Every scrap of his flesh and muscles suddenly seemed to be conscious, and screamed at him that this me was extremely dangerous.

    Without the slightest hesitation, he backed up. He was too slow.

    Xu Qing gently tossed the brown me wisp toward Master Stillwinter. As he shot through the air, it rapidly grewrger. At the same time, its unstable nature grew more prominent. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a sheet of brown fire erupted from the me wisp. Along with it came a terrifying aura. It was a destructive aura that seemed capable of immting anything and everything. As it spread, the blood cocoon couldn¡¯t stand up to the heat, and burst into mes. Bolts of lightning fell like rain, instantly smashing into the ground.

    As thunder crashed, the brown me expanded explosively. A terrifying me lightning swept out with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering force, destroying everything it touched. The force was so majestic that it even caused Master Stillwinter¡¯s heart to leap in his chest as a gray whirlwind swept over him.

    This fire was the very same mysterious fire that Little Shadow formed after devouring a number of forbidden regions. Its name was... ¡®Ruuuuuumble, Ruuuuuumble, Ruuuuuumble!¡¯ [1]

    Xu Qing had been prepared for what would happen; as soon as the detonation urred, he had Little Shadow spread out to cover him. Although Little Shadow issued a soul-piercing cry upon being burned, it still managed to naturally resist the fire. Therefore, though Xu Qing was affected to a small degree, he wasn¡¯t hurt.

    He didn¡¯t take time to look back and see the result. Though it was theoretically possible that the fearsome detonation had killed his opponent, Xu Qing had always been a cautious person, and didn¡¯t want to give his enemy room to pull a fast one.

    It was aplete unknown, and when dealing with unknown factors, the probability of sess or failure was always 50/50. But if he didn¡¯t go to investigate, then the chances of something unusual happening went down to 0. That was why he didn¡¯t hesitate to simply flee.

    ***

    Shortly after he was gone, the power of self-detonation erupted from the spot where Master Stillwinter had been inundated with the brown fire. It spread out for 50 kilometers in all directions, shaking everything. The power of the st wasn¡¯t on the same level as the brown me, but it was still incredibly destructive.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing was long gone, so he wasn¡¯t within the range of destruction.

    A momentter, as the shock waves died down, and the brown mes were wiped out, a huge crater was revealed. Everything within the range of the mysterious fire had been wiped out. And the 50-kilometer area was filled with the aura of self-detonation.

    At the same time, a figure could be seen zooming toward the area from over the horizon, looking down from midair, his expression grim. He was, of course, Master Stillwinter.

    <i>This Xu Qing is proving to be very hard to kill!</i>

    His eyes glittered with cold light. In his caution, he had sent a blood clone of himself out front, while keeping his true form further back. That was how leery he was of Xu Qing¡¯s gruish methods.

    It was the self-detonation of the blood clone that released such deadly power. He had been thinking that his tactic would at least result in Xu Qing being injured. But now he could see that this opponent was both more decisive and more gruish than he had anticipated. His own cautious nature was what led to the self-detonation of his blood clone being absolutely meaningless.

    ¡°Dammit!¡±

    He looked up in the direction Xu Qing had fled, his expression steely and his heart full of regret. He had previously believed that Xu Qing would be easy to kill. After everything he had done during the chase, he still felt like he had the upper hand. But Xu Qing just had too many tactics to deploy, which made it impossible for Master Stillwinter to be optimally effective.

    <i>Should I keep chasing him...?</i>

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s soul hurt. He took a deep breath, and his eyes glittered coldly.

    <i>You want to go into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands? In that case... I¡¯ll send you on your way!</i>

    As a top chosen in the Firemoon Darkheaven people, it was only natural that Master Stillwinter knew quite a bit about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He was fully aware it was a danger zone.

    There were always people in the Great Hunt who considered themselves favored by fortune, and would go into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. The reality was that no one could get out of that ce once they went in. It was a death trap.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Master Stillwinter continued the chase. However, he wasn¡¯t moving as urgently as before, and he suppressed his killing intent.

    ***

    Xu Qing sensed the change almost immediately. For a moment, hesitation flickered in his eyes, but it quickly turned back into determination. Now was not the time to change his mind. He would proceed ording to his original n to enter the ninedawns¡¯ territory.

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing rubbed his chest at the spot where the violet crystal was. He pushed down, causing his cultivation base to bubble to life and violet light to fill his body. The stimtion from the violet crystal caused him to regenerate more quickly.

    Not slowing down at all, he shot toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. About an hourter, it appeared in front of him, covered with gray fog. The fog seemed filled with anguished faces, and cries echoed out from within it, filled with despair and madness.

    Xu Qing took in the sights and sounds, then breathed in deeply and shot forward, disappearing into the fog.

    ***

    After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Master Stillwinter appeared outside of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Looking at the gray fog, he chuckled coldly.

    <i>This Xu Qing has probably heard about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Sadly, he doesn¡¯t know the dangers lurking inside. Only members of the echelon know the truth. If even a bit of that fog touches you, you can never leave the ce....</i>

    1. Little Shadow formed the fire in <u>chapter 728</u>. ?

 Chapter 858: The Gray Fog of Ninedawns

    <h4>Chapter 858: The Gray Fog of Ninedawns</h4>

    In the Mountain and Sea Region, the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands was both physically and figuratively the core of the region. From an outside perspective, it was covered with fog rife with both mystery and death.

    Every time the Great Hunt urred, there would be people who went inside and never came out. However, the stories that constantly spread about the ninedawns ensured that, from generation to generation, there was no end to the Firemoon cultivators that were drawn to the ce.

    Master Stillwinter could be considered among them. In the past, he had considered entering the ce to explore it. But the more he learned about the location, including secrets that weren¡¯t known to the public, the more spections cropped up.... In the end, he didn¡¯t dare.

    <i>Ninedawns... is a very special name.</i>

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s eyes gleamed as he looked into the fog. Thinking back to the fight with Xu Qing, he had to admit that, though Xu Qing wasn¡¯t on his level, killing him wasn¡¯t exactly something easy to do.

    <i>He definitely counts as this generation¡¯s number one chosen in humankind. Or at least... he was.</i>

    Master Stillwinter looked away and flicked his sleeve. A blurry blood clone appeared in front of him and bowed deeply.

    ¡°Go tell King Brightsouth that Xu Qing is dead,¡± Master Stillwinter said coolly. He turned, floated up into the air, and vanished. From his perspective, it didn¡¯t matter exactly when Xu Qing died. The fact was that he had entered the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, and thus, the infection of the fog would ensure that he could never leave.

    ***

    Xu Qing... had already picked up on that point!

    He was surrounded by gray fog, and his expression was dour. The moment he entered, the fog swept toward him with such greed and longing that it seemed alive. It seemed like it wanted to absorb him. The fog wasn¡¯t mutagen, but rather, something else.

    When Xu Qing¡¯s violet godsource touched the gray fog, it felt like it was permanently restricted. At the same time, his soul threads wilted listlessly. It was as if the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands was specifically antagonistic to gods, and thus, everything rted to gods was rejected by it. Xu Qing¡¯s god state began to melt away and destabilize.

    <i>My violet moon godsourcees from Crimson Mother.... Although it¡¯s notparable to her, on a substructural level, and a personhood level, it¡¯s the same. Yet this gray fog can suppress it!</i>

    Xu Qing had known from the beginning that the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands was aplicated ce, and now that was clearer than ever.

    If it was just a suppression of things rted to gods, it might not have been a big deal. But Xu Qing quickly realized that his cultivation base power was also being rejected and suppressed. The furnaces in his secret troves were about to go out. Even his heavenly dao... was unexpectedly going to sleep.

    <i>Everything is being rejected?</i>

    Xu Qing frowned. What was even more unexpected was that he was able to sense some of the special power of the gray fog. Like bonds of karma, he was restricted and bound... making it impossible to flee this ce.

    After some thought, he tried to take a step back. He unleashed all the strength he could muster to make it happen, but after taking only one step, felt like he couldn¡¯t even move.

    Then he experienced a sensation of deadly crisis hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times as powerful as he had sensed when dealing with Master Stillwinter. It filled him from head to toe and made him shake so hard he felt like he might copse.

    Then he heard whispering soundsing from the surrounding fog. All of the voices were saying the same thing, and their soundsbined became like the roar of heavenly thunder.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    The word contained infinite fury and rage. In fact, Xu Qing hadn¡¯t encountered killing intent as intense as this ever before in his life.

    He could sense that if he took another step back, then the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands would unleash destructive power that he couldn¡¯t possibly defend against. He would be killed in body and soul. However, because of the force of expulsion pushing against him, moving forward was going to be very difficult. And if the force of expulsion kept up, he would eventually be turned into a mortal. Going back meant certain death.

    It wasn¡¯t amon thing for Xu Qing to find himself in an impossible situation. Eyes narrowing, he suppressed his frustration and forced himself to remain calm as he studied his surroundings.

    He was currently in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, but had only just passed over the border. The fog here was thickpared to the outside, but was actually thinpared to the depths of the ce.

    Things weren¡¯t very clear, but they were clear enough to get a general idea of what was around him. There were no nts. There were no mountains. There was no mutagen! The ground beneath his feet was a spongy marsh. Within the ck marsh were countless skeletons. It was impossible to say how many years they had been there, untouched by sunlight.

    The entire area seemed both ancient and deste. The only sound to be heard was the sizzling of Xu Qing¡¯s god state as it continued to melt. That was the sound made by the invasion of the fog.

    As his god state continued to destabilize, he became less and less capable of defending himself.

    <i>If I just stand here, I might be able to resist the invasion for a bit longer. However, that¡¯s not going to resolve the situation. And since I can¡¯t go back, then... rather than sit around and wait to die, I might as well go in further. Let¡¯s see what these ninedawns are like. Maybe... I can figure out a way to survive.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he made his decision and started walking. He took every step with full vignce, taking care not to sink down into the muck, but at the same time, defending himself against the fog.

    Six hours passed.

    As Xu Qing trekked into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, he didn¡¯t see any signs of life. Nor did he find any of the ninedawns beasts.

    The ce was so huge it seemingly had no end. Other than the enveloping fog, it had nothing inside. The only change he noticed was that the ground got softer as he went in.

    Eventually, his speed declined. His fourth-level god state couldn¡¯tst any longer, and reverted to his third-level god state. After that he dropped to the second-level god state. And finally the first-level god state.

    Ultimately, all of his soul threads went still. The violet moon was dormant. Xu Qing¡¯s true form was now visible on the marsh. The fog invaded, while taboo poison spread from inside of him.

    The taboo poison personhood was on a higher level than Crimson Mother¡¯s godsource, so itsted longer. But as time passed, Xu Qing¡¯s anxiety increased as his taboo poison weakened. And then, under the pressure of the fog, the taboo poison... went dormant.

    Also dormant were Xu Qing¡¯s secret troves. They went dark one by one. Finally, the mes in the secret trove furnaces went out. The greed of the gray fog grew stronger, until it was like a fiendish devil stalking around him, looking for any opportunity to pounce on him.

    But then a bronze incense burner appeared atop Xu Qing¡¯s head. It lookedpletely ancient, and emanated strange fluctuations and streams of ck smoke. It was some 300 meters high in the air, and its ck smoke flowed down like a waterfall, surrounding Xu Qing and blocking the fog. This was the same incense burner Xu Qing had taken from the Whitemarsh cultivator named Sir Heavenhark, back during their fight over the ninth forbidden mountain in that forbidden region. [1]

    With that item, Sir Heavenhark was able to defend against Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison, and thus sessfully step into that ninth mountain. That alone made it obvious how formidable it was.

    With the protective smoke around Xu Qing, his dormant cultivation base and godsource stirred again. That karmic-like tug was only getting stronger; to a certain degree, it also reduced the pressure on Xu Qing.

    Unfortunately... he could sense that the incense ring inside the incense burner was being worn away rapidly, and wouldn¡¯tst very much longer. Given the intensity of the invasion, it wouldn¡¯tst much more than an incense stick¡¯s worth of time.[2]

    <i>I don¡¯t have that much time to get my godsource and cultivation base back to normal. But even that will only be a temporary solution....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim as he looked around. From what he could tell, he was fairly deep into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, but wasn¡¯t anywhere near the center. Other than fog, he hadn¡¯t seen much other than marsnds.

    <i>I wonder what¡¯s under the surface of the marsh?</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at the ck marsh and decided that he shouldn¡¯t be the one to experiment.

    ¡°Little Shadow,¡± he said. His shadow appeared beneath his feet on the surface of the marsh. It sent weak fluctuations his way and made sure to highlight the portions of itself that had been burned. It was clearly trying to remind Xu Qing that it was injured.

    Xu Qing ignored it. ¡°Go see what¡¯s below the surface.¡±

    Little Shadow felt it was very unfair, but after all the years, it hade to ept its fate. Thus, it sank into the muck below and then spread out.

    After going down only about 9 meters, the shadow suddenly spasmed and let loose a howl of grief. It even started to fade away.

    ¡°Pain... decay... disperse... afraid....¡±

    Xu Qing remained unmoved, and focused on just sensing what was below.

    When Little Shadow realized Xu Qing was ignoring it, there was no choice but to ignore the feeling of being dispersed and simply go deeper.

    Soon it reached a depth of 30 meters. 150 meters. Eventually it was 300 meters down. It was surrounded by muck. The sensation of fading into nothing was stronger than ever, but Little Shadow managed to send out some pleading emotional fluctuations.

    ¡°Continue... die... afraid... please....¡±

    Xu Qing mulled the situation over. ¡°If I die here, so do you. But if you help me get out of here, then I promise that after you die, I¡¯ll figure out a way to resurrect you.¡±

    Little Shadow could sense the determination in his voice. Shivering, it erupted with even stronger fluctuations as it dropped down further.

    600 meters. 900 meters. 1,500 meters....

    The sensation of fading into nothing caused Little Shadow to moan with agony. It began to crumble, until eventually turning into dozens of threads, one of which headed back toward Xu Qing. The rest kept going down further in a very suicidal fashion.

    The shadow threads crumbled one after another. The remainder interlocked like a web as they continued to descend. The howling and destruction continued. After about ten breaths of time passed. Little Shadow had copsed dozens of times, turning into hundreds of shadow threads. But eventually there was only one left that reached a depth of 3,000 meters.

    Just before it copsed, it transmitted an image into Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    When he saw that image, he shivered from head to toe. ¡°Is that...?¡±

    1. The incense burner was featured in the fight that took ce in <u>chapters 828</u> and <u>829</u>. ?

    2. There are many types of incense, and one is a type in which the incense is shaped into concentric rings. <u>Here¡¯s a picture</u> of an incense ring and the burner it fits in. ?

 Chapter 859: In the Depths of the Marsh

    <h4>Chapter 859: In the Depths of the Marsh</h4>

    The image transmitted to Xu Qing by Little Shadow was shocking beyondparison.

    3,000 meters down in the muck was an absolutely spectacr cave. From the perspective of the cave, the muck was the sky. And the cave itself was like an isted, standalone world. Everything was dark, but it was possible to see wisps of gray fog floating everywhere.

    However, that wasn¡¯t what had Xu Qing¡¯s head spinning. What shook him to the core was the gigantic shrine floating in the middle of the cave. [1]

    The shrine took up about ten percent of the entire space in the world of the cave. It was roughly rectangr, such that it initially could be taken to be a coffin.

    Rotten ribbons hung down from it, which swayed back and forth like tentacles. The long ones descended into the darkness below, while the short ones were still some 3,000 meters in length.

    The shrine was dark gold, but didn¡¯t shine at all, as if it werepletely corroded. It seemed to have existed for such a long time that it waspletely infused with ancientness.

    There was something terrifying enshrined within. It was a creature that resembled a spider. It had dark golden spots all over it, a male head, and sixteen legs. A tree branch had been stabbed into its forehead. Though the branch was old and faded, to Xu Qing, looking at it felt like looking at a sun. Four long ice spears pierced into the body of the spider, firmly locking it into ce in the shrine. Xu Qing¡¯s keen senses could detect moon fluctuationsing from all four spears. There was more. There were eight y pots on eight of the terrifying entity¡¯s sixteen legs. All of them exuded intense pressure that contained the aura of a god of stars.

    This terrifying entity had been sealed to death! This shrine really was a coffin! It gave off the sensation of both storage and sealing.

    Looking closely, it was also possible to see a host of sealing marks carved into the exterior of the shrine. Every one seemed to pulse with a godly sensation.

    Xu Qing was shaken. However, everything up to this point was only part of the whole. In fact, it could barely be considered half.

    What was the most shocking of all was... what was beneath the shrine. Underneath the shrine in the void of this cave world, where the mist swirled, there was something <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>. It was... a gigantic mountain made of gray-colored bone ash!

    It was slightly smaller than the shrine, but not by much.

    The mountain of bone ash emitted a constant stream of gray fog. Obviously, this was the source of the fog in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. [2]

    It was hard to imagine exactly what kind of entity could create a pile of bone ash like this after dying. Surrounding the main pile were nine smaller mountains.

    To be more precise, they weren¡¯t actually mountains. They were nine skulls! They looked almost like the skulls of dragons, beingpletely vicious and pulsing with a sensation of ancient wilnds. They had no flesh on them, but from the gaping maws, it was possible to sense how furious and insane they had been in life. They pulsed with an ancient feeling, while at the same time, the sensation of a sealing was very strong.

    The vision ended there.

    Back on the marshy surface of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, Xu Qing shivered, coughed up nine mouthfuls of blood, and staggered backward. Although he had only seen the image as sent to him by Little Shadow, it was still difficult for him to sustain.

    As for Little Shadow... it gave off no fluctuations at all, making it impossible to tell if it was alive or dead.

    At the moment, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to worry about Little Shadow. His expression flickered as he looked at the ground and pondered what he had just seen. He was already specting like wild.

    <i>That shrine is itself a sealing mark. And the spider inside of it is a god! ¨©t has the power of the three gods of sun, moon, and star on it. ¨©t was suppressed by those three, but still needs additional sealing techniques to deal with. How formidable. And then there¡¯s that pile of bone ash under the shrine....</i>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. He wasn¡¯t sure who that bone ash came from, but the nine skulls made him think of a name.

    ¡°Ninedawns?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure. Based on the information he¡¯d studied, the ninedawns resembled something with ninenterns, which wasn¡¯t exactly what he had seen just now. Xu Qing was starting to get the feeling that the information circting about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands wasrgely fictitious. That said, he wasn¡¯t sure what the truth really was.

    <i>Whether or not that thing is a ninedawns, the fact that it¡¯s here means it¡¯s important. If it is a ninedawns, and the ninedawns is the national animal of the Firemoons, and has special significance, then what is it doing imprisoned down there? And why is it being sealed even though it¡¯s obviously dead?</i>

    There was a scaffolding of sealing going on here. Three gods had sealed some unknown god, and that unknown god was sealing the pile of bone ash and the nine skulls.

    There had to be some karma at y, but Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what it could be. Frowning, he checked the bronze incense burner.

    <i>It¡¯s going to burn out soon....</i>

    Thanks to Little Shadow¡¯s work, it was now clear that the area 3,000 meters below the marshy surface was an important location in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    And now Xu Qing knew where the gray fog came from. As far as he was concerned, there weren¡¯t many options to pick from.

    <i>Maybe the key to getting out of here lies in the source of the gray fog. I wonder what would happen if I got some of that bone ash... or maybe one of those nine skulls....</i>

    It seemed like apletely crazy idea.

    Xu Qing mulled it over briefly, then checked his bag of holding.

    <i>There¡¯s another possibility that might help mest a bit longer here....</i>

    Xu Qing took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh and tossed it into the incense burner. The incense burner vibrated, then more smoke spilled out of it. However, in this environment, the only result was that the breakdown of the incense burner slowed. And a side-effect was that the fog beyond the smoke grew thicker.

    <i>Again, it¡¯s not a long-term solution. The more godly power I use, the stronger the confinement around me.</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the incense burner and sighed.

    Thanks to the barrier created by the smoke, his godsource power had recovered to a degree. After doing some time calctions, he thought back to what he had seen just now.

    <i>The mountain of bone ash is beneath the shrine, so it won¡¯t be easy to reach. The nine skulls, though, are further away from the shrine....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with determination and a bit of craziness. Looking at the marshynd beneath his feet, he unhesitatingly put away the surviving remnants of the incense burner.

    As the gray fog swept toward him, his godpower surged, and he sank down into the muck. The instant he was submerged, he felt intense pain. It was a feeling like corrosion, whether from the muck or the fog. And the invasion corroded both his body and his soul.

    Xu Qing forced himself to endure. With the help of his cultivation base and godsource, he dropped down. In the blink of an eye, he was at the 300-meter depth. The pain and corrosion were terrifying, and there were parts of Xu Qing¡¯s flesh that had simply disappeared.

    But he kept speeding downward. 600 meters. 900 meters.... When he reached the 1,200-meter depth, he looked like hardly more than a skeleton. Gritting his teeth, he dropped down another 300 meters. He was now at 1,500 meters.

    That was his limit. His body waspletely rotted away, and his soul was heavily damaged. In that critical moment, Xu Qing took out a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, put it in his mouth, and wolfed it down. The moment he did, something like the fire of a sun erupted in his belly. As it rippled through him, godsource proliferated within him.

    His emaciated form nearly copsed. Truth be told, in any other situation, directly eating some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh like that would cause Xu Qing to crumble to pieces. That was why he hadn¡¯t done so during the fighting with Master Stillwinter. But in this regard, the force of expulsion against godly things here plus the gray fog and the muck, were all helping Xu Qing. It was simr to how cing an overfull balloon under water could prevent it from popping.

    With the addition of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, he could continue a bit longer. Taking advantage of the new burst of force, he continued down.

    1,800 meters. 2,100 meters. 2,400 meters. Around that time, the extra energy provided by Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh was almost gone. 2,700 meters was another limit.

    Xu Qing knew that he couldn¡¯t just keep devouring Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. Even considering the environment, his body couldn¡¯t take that for long. Extending his nearly vanished right hand in the direction of the nearest skull, he then closed his hand into a fist. That grasping gesture caused a well to appear. It was hard to say if it was illusory or corporeal, but that didn¡¯t matter.

    Unfortunately... that area was sealed, plus, he was quite a distance away. Therefore, all Fishing the Moon in the Well did was cause some ripples.

    Xu Qing grasped nothing!

    The fishing failed!

    Xu Qing¡¯s body was truly starting to melt away now. It was as if the muck was devouring him. But then a lifemp flew out and turned into a sundial. It activated, and the power of time erupted out.

    Time reversed. Xu Qing vanished. When he reappeared, he was still in the muck. But instead of being at a depth of 2,700 meters, he was only at 300 meters. The environment affected everything here; even the time power of the sundial.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing shot up. When he burst out of the muck, blood sprayed out of his mouth. His body was in really bad shape. He quickly took out the incense burner to float overhead.

    Thanks to the barrier created by the incense burner, he could sit down cross-legged and focuspletely on recovery.

    Time passed. Every time the incense burner was about to burn out, Xu Qing would toss in a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to keep it going. It was an extravagant waste, but it kept the fog at bay.

    Unfortunately... he was out of options. It didn¡¯t matter that his current actions were like <i>drinking poison in the hope of quenching one¡¯s thirst</i>. There was nothing else he could do.

    Half a dayter, he opened his eyes. His injuries weren¡¯tpletely gone, but his godsource was on the way to recovery. His soul threads were also lively again thanks to consuming some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    His heart ached at how much he had wasted. But all he could do was suppress that pain and continue focusing on recovery.

    A day passed.

    When Xu Qing opened his eyes again, his godly power was about half restored. Looking down at the muck, he thought back to his earlier failure.

    <i>There¡¯s one more option... that could theoretically work!</i>

    1. This is the same word for shrine that has appeared a few times. It contains the character for ¡®god¡¯ in it. Here¡¯s a <u>link to the same pictures</u> I¡¯ve shared twice before for this type of shrine. ?

    2. In Chinese, the same character can mean both ¡°ash¡± and ¡°gray¡± depending on various factors. Because of this, I originally tranted the gray fog as ¡°ashy fog¡± or ¡°ash fog¡± for a few chapters. However, given the full context of this story arc (including things from uing chapters), the correct interpretation for the fog is that it¡¯s gray. Aparable example in English is the word orange. It could mean the fruit or the color, or both. If you read a story and it had ¡®orange-colored fog,¡¯ you wouldn¡¯t necessarily jump to the conclusion that the fog wasing from an orange fruit. But if youter found out it did indeede from an orange fruit, it would make sense. ?

 Chapter 860: Darkheaven Archmage

    <h4>Chapter 860: Darkheaven Archmage</h4>

    <i>Using fleshly body power, I forced my way down 2,700 meters. It¡¯s just too difficult doing it that way, not even with all the augmentations and blessings at my disposal. Of even greater significance is the fact that I only got out by using a sundial to reverse time. There are limits to that too. If I use it too often, I¡¯ll end up killing myself.</i>

    <i>Fishing the Moon in the Well failed. One reason was the interference of the gray fog, but the other is that... I was too far away for Fishing the Moon in the Well to actually work. Considering all that, I wonder if I could somehow create a tunnel that goes past 3,000 meters, all the way to that cave. Then I could try Fishing the Moon in the Well again....</i>

    His eyes flickered thoughtfully. If he could make that method work, it would be a lot safer and would also increase the chances of sess.

    <i>This tunnel wouldn¡¯t need to be very big. More like a crevice. A pinhole, really.</i>

    As Xu Qing looked at the muck, ideas came and went.

    The muck had its own special properties, and he also had to consider the gray fog. Most of the ideas he came up with didn¡¯t stand up to scrutiny, so he discarded them. Ultimately, he waved his hand to produce a brown me wisp!

    Little Shadow had created that me wisp after devouring a host of forbidden regions, and it was something akin to godfire. The terrifying fire was something not permitted to exist in the world, so if Xu Qing took it out anywhere but here, heavenly lightning would fall to destroy it.

    But this was the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, where heavenly daos were rejected. Thus, the me wisp could exist in the open without provoking heavenly lightning. Unfortunately, it seemed to stimte the gray fog, causing it to churn and seethe. There was also the sound of countless whispers and murmurs, which merged together into something like an echoing howl.

    The fog rushed toward Xu Qing with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, only to be stopped by the smoke. There it gathered, battering against the smoke as it tried to get inside and exterminate the me wisp. They seemed as incongruent as fire and water.

    Gaze hardening, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the incense burner. As a result, it started burning with more fervor, sending out more smoke to resist the violent fog.

    <i>Why¡¯s the gray fog reacting like this...?</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at the muck, then at the me wisp. He had started out with three such me wisps. He had used one on Master Stillwinter, leaving two behind.

    <i>I guess I¡¯ll test it out!</i>

    Eyes narrowing, he unhesitatingly threw the brown me wisp toward the muck. The instant it made contact, the muck melted like a snowke in boiling water! The me wisp dropped down with nothing to block its path.

    As it proceeded down, the muck melted. However, at the same time, the gray fog raced into the hole toward it. It took only an instant for it to sweep over the me wisp. It clearly wanted to extinguish it. However, the me wisp was an astonishing thing. Although it showed signs of instability, it didn¡¯t stop moving down. And as it went, it melted all the muck around it.

    300 meters. 900 meters. 1,500 meters. 2,100 meters....

    More fog rushed in.

    At the same time, the muck itself exerted a force of expulsion that was even greater than what Xu Qing or Little Shadow had dealt with.

    The brown me wisp grew fainter and fainter. Yet it was strong enough to reach the 3,000-meter point. Unfortunately, as it went down, the muck around it began to grow back, and the tunnel got smaller and smaller. Eventually, the me wisp reached the exact same cave that Little Shadow had projected an image of.

    The moment it reached the cave, all of the gray fog there exploded into a frenzy. Neverending gray fog overwhelmed the brown me wisp, extinguishing it in an instant. The moment it was gone, the tunnel in the muck closed up.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned serious. He had considered using his final me wisp, or possibly trying Fishing the Moon in the Well. But it seemed too risky, and the opportunity too fleeting. So instead, he just observed.

    What he had just done could be considered a test. And he had learned something vital.

    <i>One me wisp could work. But Ick something to follow it up with. It won¡¯tst long before the gray fog extinguishes it. Furthermore, the tunnel through the muck won¡¯tst long. Now that I¡¯m rested, I can use Fishing the Moon in the Well again. But to use it a second time would require rest and recovery for my soul.</i>

    Xu Qing mulled over the different options. After a short time passed, he looked at the muck.

    He had a way of dealing with the tunnel sealing up.

    <i>I can use sundial power to lock it in ce temporarily!</i>

    Given that he had already done something simr when he tried to descend into the muck, he was confident that it would work.

    <i>But how do I make the me wisp burn brighter and hotter?</i>

    ncing at the incense burner, he waved his hand to produce some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    <i>Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh works well with the incense burner. So theoretically speaking, it should be able to bolster the brown me wisp....</i>

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, he took a deep breath, produced his third me wisp, and sent it close to Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    He paid very close attention to every step of the process. This was his only hope. If it didn¡¯t work, then he would be down to hisst option, which would be to use all of his remaining Crimson Mother flesh to try to break free from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    As he watched very carefully, the me wisp made contact with Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh.

    Xu Qing was ready for something unexpected to happen. But after the long spate of bad luck, it seemed things were turning around. A hissing sound rang out, and then Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh showed signs of both igniting and melting. The brown me wisp didn¡¯t wink out. It kept burning, and at the same time, seemed to push the flesh further toward the point of melting. Eventually, a drop of golden liquid like oil emerged from the flesh. The sparkling and translucent oil pulsed with the aura of a god, and the fluctuations it sent out caused the gray fog to again seethe.

    Xu Qing was about to take the golden liquid, but then thought twice. Instead, he kept the me wisp burning, and before long, the golden liquid grewrge enough that it dropped down toward the muck. The muck melted just like it had for the me wisp, and the golden droplet fell down and down.

    Xu Qing¡¯s spirits lifted. Although this wasn¡¯t exactly what he had nned, it seemed to be achieving the same result. Thus, without the slightest hesitation, he kept the me wisp burning.

    The first drop of golden liquid dropped down several hundred meters before the gray mist destroyed it. And before the pinhole-sized tunnel could close up, a second golden droplet fell. It fell in the same spot, piercing through the muck like a hot knife through butter. All of the spots that had been about to close were destroyed. Then it reached the spot where the previous drop had stopped, and continued past that.

    The ground trembled. The golden droplet pulsed with the aura of a god, melting everything around it and dropping down to 2,100 meters.

    After that came a third, fourth, and fifth drop. All followed the same pattern. The tunnel was constantly opened and expanded. Eventually, it pierced all the way through the muck from top to bottom.

    Xu Qing instantly performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and pointed out. A sundial appeared behind him, and the time-freezing power erupted into the tunnel. The tunnel, which had already started sealing up again, froze.

    Taking advantage of the moment, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes zed with a crazy light, and he sent out a burst of cultivation base power and godsource. His fourth-level god state formed. With a double-handed incantation gesture, he pushed toward the tunnel.

    The entire world suddenly seemed to be a well. A boundless power surged out of Xu Qing, causing ripples to flow in all directions. Everything became the watery surface of a well. Thanks to the tunnel, the cave beneath, and everything in it, was now visible on the water. Although it wasn¡¯t extremely clear, it was better than before. At the very least... Xu Qing could now see the skull he had been targeting originally.

    However, Xu Qing¡¯s actions were like those of a mayfly trying to shake an oak tree. He had used a clever way of opening a passage with the golden oil, and had then locked it open with sundial power. But it wasn¡¯t a very stable solution. The sundial was already emitting cracking sounds, and gray fog was rushing into the tunnel like the tide from the sea.

    In that critical moment, Xu Qing reached out toward the reflection of the skull and forcefully fished it out! The motion caused a tremor to pass through him. The force opposing his grabbing action caused blood to spray out of his mouth.

    More cracks spread out on the surface of the sundial. The gray mist grew thicker and stronger. The tunnel was starting to close.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were increasingly bloodshot. Gritting his teeth viciously, he held nothing back in his attempt to fish out the skull. He shook from head to toe, and wounds opened up all over him, quickly soaking him with blood. He looked like he was about to copse. A howl escaped his lips.

    Finally, his trembling hand pulled up a bit of water. Reflected in the water was a skull!

    Then his sundial couldn¡¯tst any longer, and he had to dispel it. Endless amounts of fog shot up through the tunnel, and not even the drops of golden liquid could stop it. The tunnel closed.

    More blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth. He was covered in wounds and couldn¡¯t see clearly. However, it was withplete excitement that he looked down at his mangled right hand.

    His face fell. The water in his hand did have a reflection of a skull in it, but it was blurry and fading away. There seemed to be no way to stop it!

    Xu Qing was really getting anxious. It looked like the skull was about to disappear. Then, a crazy look appeared in his eyes as he opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. The reflection from the water zipped into his mouth. At the same time, he activated the violet crystal.

    Rumbling sounds filled him, along with an uncontroble power of self-detonation. Just before he exploded, violet light red from his chest, spreading out to cover him with sealing power. At the same time, an ancient voice echoed in his mind, like something from long, long ago. It was both defiant and bitter.

    ¡°Father-mage, your son Ninedawns truly let down our Darkheaven Archmage people!¡±

 Chapter 861: A Secret Kept by Gods

    <h4>Chapter 861: A Secret Kept by Gods</h4>

    The bitter voice caused Xu Qing to reel mentally as memories that weren¡¯t his bubbled up within him. They were fragmented and didn¡¯t connect, almost like random puzzle pieces. Many were missing, and as a result, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t really piece them together into a meaningful whole. However, there was one thing that came through very clearly.

    Many, many years ago, before the gods came to Revered Ancient, back in the time of Ancient time, the Firemoon Darkheaven people... weren¡¯t called by that name. Their species had a different name. They were... the Darkheaven Archmage people. They were both the subordinates of and among the greatest allies of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And there was no species that received more support from humankind. They had a very close rtionship with humans, and had worked hard to support Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity as he ascended the throne and conquered Revered Ancient.

    Back during those times, their leader, who was called the antemage, and Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity were the closest of friends. During the days before they both reached their peak, they wererades and confidants. Both had saved the other¡¯s life on multiple asions.[1]

    The antemage was shockingly powerful, and was called Dark Serenity¡¯s right-hand man. He had performed great services in the effort to unify Revered Ancient. The antemage¡¯s only son had even been given his name by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    Those memory fragments shed through Xu Qing¡¯s senses, shaking him to the core. His eyes opened, and they were full of surprise.

    ¡°Firemoon Darkheaven people,¡± he murmured. ¡°Darkheaven Archmage people....¡±

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing. Whether it was back in the imperial capital or here in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, he had never seen any mention of history like this. Now that he thought about it, all the historical records he had studied only went back to the time of Emperor Eastglory. There wasn¡¯t anything further back than that. It was almost as if the two species¡¯ interactions in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had been erased.

    Apparently, nobody had thought about it or had cared enough to look into the matter. Perhaps it made sense that there was no information. But it was still strange.

    <i>Understandings were influenced!</i> <i>And what else could influence two entire species over such a long time... other than the power of a god?</i>

    Xu Qing suddenly thought about the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ three gods.

    Finally, he looked down at the skull he¡¯d fished out. The memory fragments he¡¯d just witnessed were difficult to reconcile, but at the very least, they gave him food for thought about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    <i>Whoever spoke those words talked about ¡®father-mage.¡¯ The ¡®father-mage¡¯ must be that good friend of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, who was the antemage of the time. And the speaker was his son, whose name was Ninedawns.... Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity gave him that name. And this ce is called the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to race.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me... there actually isn¡¯t any animal called ninedawns! Rather... Ninedawns was the son of the antemage of the Darkheaven Archmage people? In that case, what did he mean when he said that he ¡®let down our Darkheaven Archmage people¡¯...?</i> [2]

    Xu Qing looked down at the muck and felt like he could almost see all the way down to that sealed cave.

    <i>Is that mountain of bone ash all that remains of Ninedawns¡¯ corpse?</i>

    For the first time, he was curious to know more about the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    After a short time, he cleared his thoughts and checked the violet crystal. Floating within the crystal was a skull that pulsed with mysterious light.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He looked up at the bronze incense burner and quickly made a decision. With the wave of his hand, he dispelled the smokeing from the incense burner. The barrier it had created disappeared. The gray fog surged in.

    But then something very unusual happened. Though it still caused terrifying pressure to weigh down on his godsource and cultivation base, when it came to his fleshly body and soul, the invasion was significantly reduced! That said, he still felt something like the tug of karma, and it was even stronger than before. It made him feel like he was so connected to this ce that he could never leave it.

    After sensing all of that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He pointed at the incense burner, and the smoke emerged again, creating the same barrier from before. Once again, his cultivation base and godsource were active.

    <i>The gray fog is from Ninedawns, and it¡¯s incredibly domineering. It can reject all other types of essence, and prevent any cultivators who enter this area from leaving. But after absorbing that skull, the gray fog doesn¡¯t oppose me as virulently. Does it mean... that it now recognizes me as having some of the same origin?</i>

    <i>Now the question is what will happen if I fish out the rest of the skulls? If I was fully part of the same origin as the gray fog, would it oppose me at all? Maybe the tug of karma would still prevent me from leaving.... But what if I took the gray fog with me?</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes and began to make preparations.

    A few dayster, he opened his eyes. He could sense that the sundial was close to fully repaired, and could also tell that he was in the position to use Fishing the Moon in the Well again.

    Without any hesitation, he moved to a spot that was, as best as he could remember, directly above the second skull. There, he performed an incantation gesture and produced the brown me wisp again. He connected it to Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, and soon the golden drops of liquid were falling down and melting the muck.

    Given his previous experience, sess came very smoothly. Although he still needed to worry about damage to the sundial and also his own body, once the tunnel formed, he activated Fishing the Moon in the Well. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as he fished the second skull out of the water.

    Just as before, he consumed it. And just like before, the power of the violet crystal swept out and sealed it. Yet again, he was assailed by a storm of memories. This time there were slightly more memory fragments.

    Xu Qing suppressed any thoughts of delving into the memories, and instead closed his eyes to rest and recuperate. It was in that manner that half a month passed.

    He used the same method repeatedly, and though he met with a few failures, overall, he was sessful.

    The violet crystal now had four skulls in it, which increased his connection to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands! In fact, that connection was so shockingly strong that he didn¡¯t need the incense burner anymore. The gray fog was no longer trying to invade him, but rather, just flowed around him in an almost friendly fashion. The pressure on his godly elements and cultivation base was still there, but he was able to fight against it to a certain degree.

    This was somethingpletely unheard-of among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. In fact, if Master Stillwinter were here and saw what was happening, he would definitely bepletely shocked. He might not even believe his eyes. It was downright freakish!

    Unfortunately... this was Xu Qing¡¯s limit. After the half month that had passed, the brown me wisp eventually went out. Without a me wisp, he couldn¡¯t melt Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into golden liquid, and he couldn¡¯t deal with the muck. Unless he came up with another method, getting more skulls would involve him personally digging through the muck to the cave.

    After some consideration, he decided not to do that. As he connected more deeply with the origin of this ce, he started to get the feeling that if he went down beneath the muck, the entity in that shrine might think he was actually Ninedawns.... And then he would end up trapped there. If that happened, he wouldn¡¯t have any hope of ever escaping. As for how to get more skulls, he was currently out of ideas.

    The memory fragments from the four skulls had clicked together in his mind, forming an image of history from countless years in the past. The curtain was being lifted on the secrets of gods.

    It was like a wind blowing from ancient times. It was the story of what happened after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left.

    The antemage of the Darkheaven Archmage people refused the invitation of his good friend Dark Serenity to leave Revered Ancient. To leave his home.

    Dealing with the gods had caused a very rare difference of opinion to ur between the two of them. When the Ancient Emperors left, and the broken face of the god arrived, heaven and earth went dark. Everything blurred. In addition to the broken face came a host of other terrifying gods. Almost overnight, the heavenly daos began to weep, and all living beings wailed in grief.

    The gods that descended on Revered Ancient did different things. Some chose to protect various species they interacted with. Some went into hiding in the depths of thend. All of them brought catastrophe.

    One of the gods that came with the broken face looked like a spider. That god had shocking personhood that surpassed most other gods. In that god¡¯s presence, all other gods bowed their heads.

    And h¨©s goal was clear. It was... the Darkheaven Archmage people. H¨¥ wanted to enve them and make them believers.

    But the Darkheaven Archmages didn¡¯t want to be ves. And thus, under the leadership of the antemage, they waged a bitter war against the spider god and the other gods who came with h¨©m. It was a war in which blood rained from the sky and thends shattered.

    The antemage was a close friend of Dark Serenity, and was fearsomely powerful. His species was simrly spectacr. Cultivating mage arts was different from what ordinary cultivators did. They focused on shapeshifting. Some could transform into giant humanoids, others could transform into giant beasts.

    The war shook heaven and earth. Countless Darkheaven Archmages died. As for the gods... it was the same with them. Many of them died, and their corpses fell onto thends below.

    In the end, the antemage sacrificed his life to mortally wound the spider god that all the other gods worshiped. That god was transformed into something called the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, which rejected all types of godly power. That formation¡¯s power was sent out to cover the entire species as a protection. Just before dying, the antemage passed his title on to his son. He told him to use the faith of the Darkheaven Archmage people to fight against the gods!

    That son''s name was Ninedawns.

    Ninedawns felt great sorrow. However, that was a time period in which gods filled the world, and he hadn¡¯t just epted the title of antemage and the faith of his species. He had also epted a great responsibility. And thus, he led all of the archmages of his species outside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation and waged war on the gods. He never backed down. He never made the decision to simply go home.

    To the Darkheaven Archmage people, there was no more qualified antemage than Ninedawns. As he and the other archmages fought the gods, time passed. Within thends of the Darkheaven Archmages, inside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, their species had time to rest and recover.

    A new generation of mage cultivators rose up, and one of them was spectacrly talented, and was a born leader. A new chief.

    The antemage waged war for such a long time that he became little more than a legend. And the species began to change. That talented leader made a name for himself, and eventually became the grand steward of the Darkheaven Archmage people.

    The antemage was in heaven, the steward of the mandate of heaven. The chief was in the mortal world, the steward of mortal authority. And thus, he came to be called the grand steward.

    The memories ended there. Xu Qing opened his eyes, and his expression wasplicated. That was because he had just recalled the information about Ninedawns that he had studied back at God Mountain.

    <i>¡°The top beast in the Mountain and Sea Region is called a ninedawns. It had a special ce in Firemoon Darkheaven culture. Throughout the entire history of their species, there had only been one instance in which someone tamed a ninedawns. Specifically, it was the very first ancestral chief of the Firemoon Darkheavens, who was also the grand steward who led them to prominence. His mount was a ninedawns.¡±</i>

    1. I¡¯m coining the one-word term antemage using the English prefix ¡®ante¡¯ from the Latin ¡®before,¡¯ to convey the idea of the ancestor or founder of the mages. There are lots of words in English that use ante as a prefix, such as Antebellum, antecedent, antechamber, or antediluvian. In any case, for a variety of reasons, it helps to have a one-word pithy term for this title, so ¡®antemage¡¯ it is. Ante can be pronounced in a variety of ways, including antuh, antay, and antee, depending on your preference. ?

    2. Unlike English, the Chinese written script does not have upper- and lower-case. Because of that, it¡¯s much easier to create intentional vagueness in thenguage between proper andmon nouns. For instance, if you had a character named Giraffe, but also had giraffes in the setting, there would be no difference between the two in Chinese. But in English we do make that distinction. It¡¯s furtherplicated by the fact that there are no plurals in Chinese. As a result, it¡¯s very easy for the author to create a fantastical animal name that ister revealed to actually be the name of a person. Up to this point, I¡¯ve been rendering ¡®ninedawns¡¯ as a lowercase, plural word because it was said to be a type of animal. In reality, we just found out it¡¯s most properly rendered in upper case and in the singr form. Going forward, I will do my best to mix and match the two versions depending on the context. For instance, when ites to dialogue from people who think that ¡®ninedawns¡¯ refers to a type of animal, I¡¯ll use the lower case. But in the case of Xu Qing, who knows it¡¯s the name of a person, I¡¯ll capitalize it. That said, there could be instances in which Xu Qing is referring to the incorrect ¡®animal¡¯ version of the word, in which case I¡¯ll render it ordingly. Things are furtherplicated by the fact that the author often uses that exact same term to refer to the physical location that has been referred to as the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Though the Chinese term is the same in all these instances, I will render them in the way that makes sense based on the context. ?

 Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part Two of Two)

    <h4>Rejecting the Cannon Fodder Fate, Embracing the Life of a Reader (Part Two of Two)</h4>

    <i>CRUNCH!</i>

    The golden defensive barrier shattered, and one of the talismans in Master Freespirit¡¯s hand went dark. Thankfully, hispanion in the blue robe was ready, and quickly activated the talismans he had to defend against the dark soul. In that manner, Master Freespirit took charge for whaty ahead while hispanion defended against whaty behind. After going through nine defensive talismans, they reached the very center of the ruins.

    There, they saw a tall white tower with a surface of zed tiles that resembled white jade. At the top of the tower was a white jewel that emanated soft white light to illuminate the surroundings.

    To Master Freespirit¡¯s surprise, the lighting off of the tower prevented any of the souls from getting closer than 300 meters.

    ¡°Looks like we¡¯re safe for the moment,¡± the blue-robed youth said in a weak voice. His injuries, plus the effort of using the defensive talismans, had been quite draining on him.

    ¡°We¡¯re notpletely safe yet,¡± Master Freespirit replied. ¡°And we don¡¯t have much time.¡± He had just noticed that the souls on the other side of the light had started racing off in a specific direction, which seemed to indicate that someone else had entered the ruins. And in all likelihood, that person was... Lin Tianhao!

    Not daring to hesitate, Master Freespirit quickly put a few mutant hos in ce, activated a defensive talisman, and then hesitantly entered the white tower.

    Once inside, Master Freespirit and the blue-robed youth were surprised to discover that the ce was a scripture repository. There was a staircase that circled up the tower, and the walls were covered with a dazzling lineup of ancient records. What was most surprising was that there was no mutagen present at all.

    Based on his experiences in forbidden regions, Master Freespirit knew that the good things wouldn¡¯t be on the bottom level of the tower. Quickly activating two more defensive talismans, as well as a flight talisman, he raced up the tower.

    After a few breaths of time passed, he and the blue-robed youth were at the top level. To their shock, they found themselves at the entrance of a small-scale pce room. In the middle of it were two statues who were holding something up between them. Gruishly, the statues had arms full of faces. Each face was bizarre, and they had expressions ranging from joy, to grief, to rage.

    The object they were holding up was a tattered book. Upon seeing it, the blue-robed youth¡¯s eyes lit up, and it took effort for him not to try to crawl over and grab the book. But in the end, he held back. He knew full well that it was already an expression of <i>extreme humanity and utmost virtue</i> for Master Freespirit to have spared his life. If he got greedy now, it would be an easy thing for Master Freespirit to kill him with a single blow.

    Master Freespirit looked at hispanion and could tell what he was thinking. ¡°Given the countless novels I¡¯ve read, I can tell you that people who get greedy and betray their friends never have a good end. That¡¯s why I haven¡¯t taken your life. But I want the majority of the stuff here. How about we split everything 70/30?¡±

    ¡°Sure, no problem!¡± the blue-robed youth said immediately.

    The two of them carefully approached the strange statues.

    When Master Freespirit finallyid hands on the tattered book, he found that it was iplete, and the name had long since faded from the cover. The contents were little more than a method of sacrificing yourself to be a spirit automaton. What was more, the chances of failure were high, and would result in instant death.

    As the blue-robed young man hung onto Master Freespirit¡¯s neck, he looked at the content as well, then pursed his lips disdainfully.

    ¡°Sacrifice yourself to be a spirit automaton? What the hell kind of bullshit technique is that?¡±

    In contrast, the contents of the technique caused Master Freespirit¡¯s eyes to glitter brightly. To him, it wasn¡¯t an iplete technique to be a spirit automaton, but rather, a way to have an extra life up your sleeve! Master Freespirit was the type of person who was very cautious in everything, and didn¡¯t like taking risks. In the chaotic world he lived in, his measly cultivation base counted for almost nothing. People like him often became whetstones for the children of destiny, and ended up dying miserably.

    But with a technique like this, things could be different. If he didn¡¯t reach his goals with his cultivation base, and somehow got killed one day, he could use this technique to be the spirit automaton of a child of destiny. After all, virtually all cultivators considered spirit automatons to be extremely important. Master Freespirit carefully took the treasured book and put it into his robe forter use.

    Then, he and hispanion worked as quickly as possible to clear out everything else in the room.

    In the end, they acquired a few dozen secret magics and over twenty treasured medicinal pills. Most amazing of all was that among the pills they discovered were a total of three foundation establishment pills!

    There were also two bags of holding. One of them contained a golden gauntlet that was apparently a magical device. It glittered with colorful light, and could bolster one¡¯s magical techniques and treasures!

    Master Freespirit excitedly put the gauntlet on and said, ¡°With this thing, all I need to do is find a remote ce to set up my own little sect! I already have the name ready to go. It¡¯ll be the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect!¡±

    The golden gauntlet immediately provided a blessing that made him far stronger than before.

    Meanwhile, the blue-robed youth got a single foundation establishment pill and some valuable secret magics. To his excitement, one of the books he found described how to create a magical device that was essentially a pair of mechanical legs.

    But then, the blue-robed young man suddenly looked worried. ¡°I just thought of something. How are we going to get out of here? We don¡¯t have enough defensive talismans left. If we try to fight our way out, we¡¯ll get too badly hurt, and then Squad Dragonsong will be able to just pick us off.¡±

    He frowned. But then he reeled in shock as he looked over at Master Freespirit and saw him fishing out a handful of dozens of defensive talismans from his leather armor.

    ¡°Th-that... you....¡± The young man simply couldn¡¯t fathom that someone would bring dozens and dozens of defensive talismans simply for a trip into a forbidden region. How could someone be so afraid of dying... no, wait. How could someone be so cautious?

    ¡°These are myst life-saving items. But considering how much we¡¯re going to profit, it¡¯ll be worth it.¡± With that, Master Freespirit looked up at the jewel that was set into the ceiling.

    It was also a treasure of some sort, but it was obviously on the verge of going dark forever, though it mightst for a few more years. But if he could somehow make it part of his future sect, then it would be a great way to attract new recruits, as it could stave off mutagen invasions. And he wouldn¡¯t need to worry about people trying to rob him of it, considering that it wouldn¡¯tst much longer anyway.

    Master Freespirit took out a bag of holding to put the jewel in, but then his expression flickered. He had just sensed some familiar fluctuations from the mutant hos outside the tower.

    Looking out the nearest window, Master Freespirit saw Lin Tianhao break through the masses of souls and approach the tower, his eyes burning with aggressive killing intent.

    It only took a moment for Lin Tianhao to catch sight of Master Freespirit. Although he had assumed this would happen, seeing someone take the treasure that rightfully belonged to him was infuriating.

    Suppressing his fury, Lin Tianhao called out, ¡°Master Freespirit! Drop all of my treasure and get out of here. If you do, I¡¯ll let you live.¡±

    Given Master Freespirit¡¯s extensive reading experience, he was now convinced that there was no way Lin Tianhao was any sort of child of destiny. Therefore, his eyes no longer flickered with fear, but rather, killing intent! Eyes narrowing, he activated the flight talisman on his leg and jumped out of the white tower. With the wave of his hand, he summoned the image of a golden vajra warrior behind him. Then, he shoved out his hand with the golden gauntlet on it, creating the projection of a massive golden hand.

    Master Freespirit was not the type of person who liked to risk his life. But he knew that if he didn¡¯t kill Lin Tianhao, he would never see a day of peace. Instead of shrinking back in fear, it would be better to give the fight all he had in the hopes of staving off any future misfortune.

    Lin Tianhao was more than a little surprised to see the normally timid and fearful Master Freespirit suddenly attacking him. But then his eyes gleamed with disdain. He had just killed Sergeant Zhou, let alone this pitiful Master Freespirit who was only in the eighth level of Qi Condensation.

    ¡°You¡¯re bringing about your own destruction!¡± Snorting coldly, Lin Tianhao tapped into all of the power of his cultivation base. The ghost face with the blood-red hair appeared behind him, and blood energy screamed around him. Even the nearby bright souls backed away from him. With the wave of his hand, he sent a blood-red fist rocketing forward! He was obviously holding nothing back.

    But then, Lin Tianhao felt his energy and blood gopletely out of control. Cracks spread out on his arm, and he staggered backward, his expression a mixture of ferocity and confusion.

    ¡°Back at the basecamp you acted like aplete pushover. How¡¯d you get so strong?¡± Lin Tianhao coughed up a mouthful of blood.

    Before Lin Tianhao could stabilize his position, Master Freespiritnded on the ground. As his eyes shed with killing intent, the golden vajra warrior behind him roared furiously. At the same time, Master Freespiritunched another palm attack!

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out. Master Freespirit was going all out. Closing the distance, heunched palm strike after palm strike. His current ferocity made him seem like apletely different person than the cautious cultivator he usually was.

    The repeated blows stopped all of Lin Tianhao¡¯s previous momentum, and had him staggering backward. His ghost face was even about to fall apart.

    ¡°Looking to die?!¡± Lin Tianhao roared, and his hands shed in a double-handed incantation gesture. The eyes of the ghost face started glowing bright red, and an immense pressure radiated out. Lin Tianhao opened his mouth, and a mass of blood-colored hair shot out from it which swept forth to rip Master Freespirit to shreds.

    But Master Freespirit wasn¡¯t showing any hint that he was ready to back down. He also performed an incantation gesture, which caused blinding golden light to shoot off the gauntlet on his right hand. It turned into a whip which he viciouslyshed in Lin Tianhao¡¯s direction. The air rippled and distorted as the whip snapped forth. When the blood-red hair and the golden whip collided, the hair was ripped to pieces. Then the whip continued on and mmed into Lin Tianhao. A bloody furrow opened up on his chest which went all the way down to the bone.

    However, things weren¡¯t over yet. Master Freespirit sent the whip spiraling around Lin Tianhao¡¯s neck, where it began to tighten rapidly.

    All of a sudden, a sensation of deadly crisis filled Lin Tianhao. ¡°Master Freespirit, I....¡±

    Before Lin Tianhao could say anything further, Master Freespirit mmed a foot down onto his chest. Without showing a scrap of mercy, he yanked on the whip and ripped Lin Tianhao¡¯s head off his shoulders.

    Up in the tower, the blue-robed young man watched inplete surprise as Master Freespirit unleashed a vicious streak that seemedpletely at odds with the usual garrulous, cowardly behavior. That was when the blue-robed youth noticed that the souls in the area were in a frenzy. Then, four members of Squad Dragonsong burst through to arrive by the tower.

    The young man in blue didn¡¯t give them a chance to do anything. Before the Squad Dragonsong members could react, he took out a bag of holding, grabbed the white jewel from the top of the tower, and put it away! When the white light vanished, there was nothing keeping the souls away, and they lunged at the members of Squad Dragonsong. Putting away the bag of holding, the young man in blue threw himself out of the tower.

    ¡°Catch me, Master Freespirit!¡±

    Having just finished looting Lin Tianhao''s corpse, Master Freespirit looked over and saw the blue-robed youth falling from the top of the tower. The flight talismans on his legs flickered as he shot over and caught him. Then he activated a defensive talisman and raced into the crowd of souls.

    The members of Squad Dragonsong didn¡¯t have such arge collection of defensive talismans, so they could only watch as Master Freespirit vanished from the ruins.

    Another way to put it was that, after having just witnessed Master Freespirit kill Lin Tianhao, none of these members of Squad Dragonsong were so stupid as to deliver themselves to death by giving chase.

    ***

    A few yearster....

    In a random corner of the continent of South Phoenix, a new sect had just been established. It was called the Golden Vajra Warrior Sect. The sect kept a low profile from the very beginning. Master Freespirit was now in Foundation Establishment, and he was the patriarch of the sect. The new form of address he preferred was Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    As for the young man in the blue robe who had lost his legs, he joined Seven Blood Eyes and eventually became an elder.... [1]

    1. Who is the young man in blue? If you want a refresher, you¡¯ll have to go back to <u>chapter 71</u>.... He appears in the first few paragraphs there. ?

 Chapter 862: Dirge of Betrayal

    <h4>Chapter 862: Dirge of Betrayal</h4>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Thanks to the history learned from the memory fragments, he now understood why there were so many corpses in the Mountain and Sea Region. He also knew about the long history of the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    That was assuming everything he¡¯d seen was true. If the history was correct, then the current Firemoon Darkheaven orthodoxy might as well be a mockery. Their antemage had died in war to protect their species, yet his story had been stricken from the histories. And then his son Ninedawns carried on his legacy, only to be defamed, with his name turned into the name of a beast mount. The so-called grand steward of the Firemoon Darkheaven people only managed toe into his own as a Darkheaven cultivator thanks to the protection provided by Ninedawns. It was very thought-provoking.

    Xu Qing sighed. His insides were telling him that all of this history was true.

    He wasn¡¯t a member of this species, but the memory fragments had allowed him to not just see events from countless years ago, but also feel them. To some extent, it was almost like he had gone through those things himself.

    <i>So how did Ninedawns die? And what did the grand steward do to change the Darkheaven Archmage species into the Firemoon Darkheaven people? Also... what history do the three gods of sun, moon, and star have with them...? Maybe the answers wille with the memories of the five remaining skulls.</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at the muck. Unfortunately, his brown me wisp had been extinguished, so he had no way to use Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh to get into the cave. That wasn¡¯t to mention the fact that he was now starting to run low on flesh.

    <i>I only have six pieces left.</i>

    Xu Qing checked the four skulls in the violet crystal, as well as the connection to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    By now, he didn¡¯t need the incense burner, and could dispel the gray fog with a mere thought. He no longer felt trapped. Based on what he could tell, if he wanted to leave, the gray fog would part for him and let him go.

    But there was a big problem with the idea of leaving. His cultivation base and godly powers were still gone. Could he really just give up on them? Let the gray fog fill him, enter his soul, and be a part of him?

    <i>If that happened, I wouldn¡¯t be a god cultivator anymore. I would be... a mage!</i>

    Xu Qing looked off into the distance.

    When it came to mages, Xu Qing felt a sense of familiarity and unfamiliarity at the same time. The unfamiliarity was because he had never actually interacted with a mage. The familiarity came because the gray fog originated with a mage. And now that Xu Qing had absorbed the four skulls, to some extent, he had epted the legacy of Ninedawns. But that wasn¡¯t the path he wanted to walk.

    <i>The original antemage died to seriously injure a powerful god.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the muck and kept trying toe up with a new n. He had an idea he thought would work, but the problem was that he needed five skulls to do it. Right now, he only had four.

    After some thought, Xu Qing said, ¡°Little Shadow.¡±

    No fluctuations came from underfoot. No emotions. It was as if Little Shadow was dead.

    Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression was the same as ever. After three breaths of time passed, he said, ¡°If you don¡¯t get out here now, then don¡¯t evere out again.¡±

    A very faint shadow suddenly appeared on the muck below, pulsing with very weak fluctuations.

    ¡°Go down past 3,000 meters. And turn into a subatomic particle that I can control with magic.¡± [1]

    Little Shadow¡¯s fluctuations seemed fretful and very resistant to Xu Qing¡¯s idea.

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure the gray fog doesn¡¯t cause problems for you,¡± Xu Qing assured. He waved his hand, and in ord with his will, the gray fog drifted away.

    That caused Little Shadow¡¯s fretfulness to diminish a bit, as well as any resistance.

    ¡°After you¡¯re done, I¡¯ll give you a piece of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh,¡± Xu Qing added calmly.

    Little Shadow was very fond of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh, and for the most part, was only able to watch as Xu Qing used it. It was not easy to get a taste. Therefore, Xu Qing¡¯s promise caused Little Shadow to hesitate slightly. The fretfulness and resistance faded even more.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t follow orders, then there¡¯s no reason to continue this lord-and-servant rtionship we have.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s voice had turned cold.

    It caused Little Shadow to shiver, and finally thebination of rewards and threats caused it to release fluctuations of pure abandon. In order to stay alive, and in order to get some meat to eat, it roared like a wild beast and then dove down into the muck.

    In the shortest of moments, it dropped down 300 meters. The gray fog couldn¡¯t get close, thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s interference. And thus, Little Shadow had no problem descending. Soon it reached the 2,400-meter mark.

    At the same time, Xu Qing could clearly sense the sealing power from below. That power was dormant, but he got the feeling that once his aura contacted it, it would immediately send out crushing force. Therefore, at a certain point, he didn¡¯t dare to use his aura to interfere with the gray fog.

    That was when Little Shadow¡¯s progress slowed, and it emitted a howl of anguish. However, it was still better than before. And Little Shadow was going all out. Ignoring the invasion of the gray fog, it dropped past 2,700 meters and then kept going. After all, on the previous attempt, it had split up over and over again, and had not yet recovered. It was currently much weaker.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing said, ¡°Two pieces of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh!¡±

    The words caused Little Shadow to tremble, then release some very crazy emotional fluctuations. With an amazing reward like that on the line, it viciously dropped down further. Rumbling sounds echoed out as it shot past 3,000 meters and entered the cave.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t release any of his aura there, so the fog immediately swept over Little Shadow, who howled piteously.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grave. He knew that this opportunity was going to be fleeting. Thus, it was without hesitation that he extended his right hand and unleashed Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    Ripples spread out, forming a surface of water. Five skulls appeared very clearly, and Xu Qing reached down and fished one of them out.

    As he put it in his mouth and sealed it in the violet crystal, Little Shadow copsed. It seemed dead, but there was still a strand of shadow that burrowed back up through the muck to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the shadow. Little Shadow was inherently cunning and deceitful. Everything from before was partly real, but also exaggerated. Therefore, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t worried about it at all. The fact that it had secretly preserved a shadow strand of itself was exactly what he had predicted it would do.

    That said, Little Shadow really hade very close to its ultimate limit. It actually looked like it was about to fall into a deep sleep. But then it struggled to stay awake, all while instinctively sending weak emotional fluctuations to Xu Qing, as if to ask for confirmation about something.

    ¡°Flesh....¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He could sense the state Little Shadow was in, and knew that it didn¡¯t matter whether or not he had flesh to give it. The shadow was clearly too weak to eat.

    That said, being the kind person he was, Xu Qing offered some cating words. ¡°I¡¯ll feed you when you wake up.¡±

    After hearing that, Little Shadow seemed content, and went to sleep.

    As for Xu Qing, he settled down cross-legged to focus on recovering. A few dayster he opened his eyes. He now had five skulls, and thus, he could employ the method he¡¯de up with earlier to get the others.

    This method did not involve making a tunnel through the muck. In fact, once he used the method, the remaining skulls below would automatically appear within Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    <i>I¡¯ll have to trust Eldest Brother on this one!</i>

    Eyes gleaming with determination, he tapped into the violet crystal. The crystal vibrated and then sent violet light streaming throughout his body. As the light spread out of him, the five skulls appeared, floating over his head in a pentagonal formation. Looking at the five skulls, Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture and started chanting.

    Ripples started to flow out from the first skull. Then the second and the third....

    Ultimately, all five of the skulls sent out ripples andbined, growing more and more intense until they were a ck hole vortex.

    Looking at the vortex, Xu Qing loudly said, <i>¡°Souls in heaven and earth shall return to their origin!¡±</i>

    His voice seemed to thrum with something very ancient. The moment they rang out, the vortex began spinning with great intensity. Gradually, it was possible to see four balls of fire inside, slowly emerging. Those four balls of fire had the same substructure as the skulls in the violet light!

    This was the very same technique the Captain had imparted to Xu Qing some time back. It was called the Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao.[2]

    The basic premise was to trace the essence of something back to its origin, then draw it out. The prerequisite was to have five pieces of the original.

    When the four balls of fire appeared, Xu Qing used Fishing the Moon in the Well to grab them. The four balls of fire shuddered, and three of them emerged from the vortex and appeared in the water in Xu Qing¡¯s palm. Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding with excitement. Although he wasn¡¯t able to fish out all of them, getting three skulls in one shot just went to prove how astonishing his Eldest Brother¡¯s technique was. He immediately consumed them.

    Memory fragments hit him like a tempest, filling his mind. They connected with the memory fragments from before, and also added new concepts.

    The ancient wind blew again, tattered and ragged like a funeral dirge.

    The lyrics of the dirge described the story of the grand steward, who had been approved of by Ninedawns as well as his whole species, and who had been entrusted as the leader inside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation. He deserved to be called chosen in every way. He had outstanding ability and grand vision, and under his leadership, the Darkheaven Archmages were united. They thrived and multiplied, and the new generation grew up inplete safety.

    On the outside, Ninedawns was very pleased, but eventually stopped paying attention to what was happening inside the formation. His energy and thoughts were all focused on the war with the gods. He had epted his father¡¯s mantle, as well as the spirit of the Darkheaven Archmage people. As a result, he would never back down.

    After all, his species existed behind him only because of his protection. If he died in battle, it would be without any regrets. That was because he had already found a sessor. In his heart, the grand steward was the one who would be the next antemage.

    Thus, it was without any fear for the future that he led his subordinate archmages during the long war vigil.

    Years passed, until eventually, a bloody banquet was thrown by the people he had sworn to protect.

    1. I¡¯m putting this footnote here to address the inevitablements of ¡°How dare you use a modern term like ¡®subatomic particle¡¯ in a xianxia trantion! It breaks the immersion!!!¡± Well, sorry about that, but if the author uses modern terms, then I also use modern terms in English. In this case, the author uses the name of a specific type of subatomic particle, and I¡¯m simplifying it to ¡®subatomic particle¡¯ to make it easy to understand. As for why the author does this, I haven¡¯t asked him. If I was to bet, he probably saw something on TV or Douyin (Chinese TikTok) about this type of subatomic particle and thought it would be cool to use it. It¡¯s no more ¡®immersion breaking¡¯ than having the cultivators take selfies, send voice messages, or run tabloids in their colleges. ?

    2. The Captain revealed his Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao in <u>chapter 832</u>. ?

 Chapter 863: The Ashes of Time

    <h4>Chapter 863: The Ashes of Time</h4>

    A lot can change in 3,000 years. As the new generation of Darkheaven Archmages grew, they reached great heights. The grand steward¡¯s leadership abilities became apparent. His governance made his species strong. Powerful experts cropped up like <i>bamboo after a spring rain</i>. Although their species hadn¡¯t reached the same level as the past, when taking in Revered Ancient as a whole, they were in good shape.

    But outside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the war continued. The spider god was asleep, and though all the other subordinate gods were strong, Antemage Ninedawns actually surpassed his father in terms of talent. With him inmand, the various archmages fought hard and even gave their lives to finally force the invading gods to retreat from the God-Rejecting Mage Formation. It was a victory to go down in the history books.

    While other species in Revered Ancient were experiencing catastrophe because of the gods, the Darkheaven Archmages sessfully repelled an invasion and kept their homnd safe.

    In order to celebrate the victory, the grand steward ascended the Revered Ancestor Altar and offered worship to the dome of heaven. His expression was one of piety and excitement as he invited the antemage and all the archmages back home. In preparation to receive the antemage, he worked with famous people from numerous species to prepare a great feast in the Steward¡¯s Lands.

    On that day, members of countless species joined the grand steward in shouting the words e home.¡¯ Those words shook the sky and spread through thends, reaching outside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation to be heard by Ninedawns and his subordinates. Everyone was feeling emotional. After 3,000 years of war, allbatants had lostrades in the fighting, and the survivors were weary to the bone. Normally speaking, they would have remained steadfast and not retreated an inch. But they had won an amazing victory. The gods were in retreat, and they were deeply homesick. They all had family in the mortal world, and all of them wanted to return to their homnd to see the people they had been keeping safe for 3,000 years.

    But in the end, Ninedawns said no.

    It wasn¡¯t the time to lead the archmages home. For all he knew, the gods might strike back. As long as he was alive, he wanted to do his best to make sure his species was safe for as long as possible. With an approving nce at his people inside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, he sat down cross-legged to guard the formation.

    Nine dragons manifested outside his body, which constantly swirled around him. That was his mage state. The other archmages suppressed their longing to return home and entered their own mage states. From a distance, it was like a host of huge beasts, guarding over their home with unswerving determination.

    Everyone dies, and they wanted to die fighting for their people. And if they perished, they wanted their souls to be part of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, just like theirrades who had fallen over the years.

    In life, they defended their species. In death, they would do the same.

    Time passed. This time it was 2,000 years. During that time, gods would asionally cause trouble. But with Ninedawns and the other archmages on guard, not one god made it through the formation. The whole world was in chaos, but thends of the Darkheaven Archmages were like a forbidden region to the gods.

    Around then, the grand steward led his officials and themoners to the Revered Ancestor Altar. From there, they offered worship to the dome of heaven. And they asked the antemage toe home.

    Countless voices echoed out into heaven and earth. They contained the passion and hope of all the people.

    Outside of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the archmages slowly opened their eyes. Behind them, on the other side of the formation, was their home. In that home were numerous statues. Statues that depicted <i>them</i>.

    5,000 years....

    In the end, they looked at their leader, Ninedawns. Ninedawns maintained silence for a long time. Then he opened his eyes. He wanted to say no, but when he looked at hispanions, and sensed how tired they were, he couldn¡¯t say the words. Sighing, he nodded and stood up. Taking most of the archmages with him, he went home.

    It was the first time since his father died and he left the God-Rejecting Mage Formation that he returned home. As he arrived at the Steward¡¯s Lands, cheering filled heaven and earth. Countless people bowed, and looks of excitement could be seen everywhere.

    The sight of it stirred Ninedawns¡¯ heart. He was exhausted after thest 5,000 years, but at the same time, felt warmth. How could he ever have imagined that the people who he trusted more than anything, that he had safeguarded for 5,000 years, and especially the sessor he had personally picked, would prepare a blood-soaked reception for him?

    He never came out of the Steward¡¯s Lands....

    The reality was that the Steward¡¯s Lands were a trap prepared specifically for him and his subordinate archmages. They were actually a burial ground.

    The people he had trusted ended up making a deal with the gods. And over the thousands of years that had passed, they had secretly constructed a god formation. It was a formation that could kill, that could seal, and that could summon gods.

    Once Ninedawns and his subordinates arrived, the formation was activated. On that day, the Steward¡¯s Lands became soaked with blood. On that day, the God-Rejecting Mage Formation that had protected the Darkheaven Archmage people... was breached. On that day, the spider god, who hadrgely recovered, returned, along with a host of subordinate gods. On that day, howls of anguish and screams of rage echoed out from the Steward¡¯s Lands.

    Death became the prevailing theme. Ninedawns¡¯ heart filled with grief, indignation, and madness. He had been stabbed in the back by the very people he had been keeping safe. It left him bitter, confused, and enraged. But his fate had been sealed!

    There was no God-Rejecting Mage Formation to offer protection. And the betrayal had been effected from both outside and in, with the help of his own people. All of his subordinate archmages died horrifically. Ninedawns fought ferociously, but all he could do was injure the spider god.

    Ninedawns himself ultimately died on the blood-soaked field of betrayal. His corpse was sealed in the depths of the ground, with the spider god suppressing him and slowly feeding on his flesh to recover.

    The flesh, blood, and mangled souls of his dead subordinates were piled into the Steward¡¯s Lands. The spell formation that had been set up stayed there for all time....

    The ancient wind slowly blew away, taking with it the dirge of betrayal.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes. His heart was still full of the rancorous energy from the memory fragments, as well as the pain of betrayal by one¡¯s own trusted people. They were not his emotions, but they were strong nheless. He could tell that they actually came from Ninedawns.

    It took a long time for Xu Qing to regain hisposure. Eventually, he suppressed Ninedawns¡¯ memories, but afterward, he still had aplicated expression on his face. Although he had suspected much earlier that the story ended like this, to experience it through the memory fragments gave him a much deeper understanding of Ninedawns and the surroundingnds.

    Although Ninedawns¡¯ memories ended with his death, Xu Qing could imagine what happened after that. In the years after his death, the remains of his archmages became food for the beasts that appeared there.

    They were bizarre in appearance, vile in behavior, and werepletely and utterly vicious. And it was because they were all full of rancorous energy. It didn¡¯t matter their physical form. The reality was... they bore simrities to the archmages who had died years ago. Their mage states inherently involved looking like a beast.

    Later, the ¡®Steward¡¯s Lands¡¯ got a different name. The Mountain and Sea Region. At longst, Xu Qing understood the background of the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region. Looking around, Xu Qing knew that this very ce had once been the Steward¡¯s Lands.

    After a long moment passed, Xu Qing took a deep breath and got rid of thest scrap of emotion from Ninedawns.

    He was Xu Qing. Not Ninedawns. His thoughts and emotions were back in order, but he still had a question. Based on the history from the memory fragments, the spider god ultimately chose to seal Ninedawns¡¯ corpse and absorb his flesh and blood to recover. But from what Xu Qing had seen, that spider god was eventually sealed by the three gods of sun, moon, and star.

    <i>There¡¯s more history involved here.... When did those three godse along?</i>

    After a while, he decided not to worry about it. It wasn¡¯t important right now. What he needed to do now was get that final skull.

    With eight skulls, he was already in the position to leave. He could even absorb the gray fog. But if he could get eight... then he didn¡¯t want to give up on the ninth. When you do something, do it all the way.

    His eyes glittered as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. The violet crystal thrummed, light spilled out, and eight skulls swirled out to form the Captain¡¯s formation. This time, he wasn¡¯t using five items to acquire his target, but eight!

    Ripples spread out from the eight skulls,bining to make a ck hole that revealed the ninth skull. Xu Qing performed another incantation gesture, activating Fishing the Moon in the Well. A watery surface formed, and he extended his hand to fish something out of it.

    However, just as he was about to grab the ninth skull, a terrifying fluctuation erupted from 3,000 meters down in the muck. The shrine had begun vibrating, and was now emitted a horrifying aura. That aura shook everything. The Ninedawns Forbidden Lands began to tremble, and the fluctuations quickly spread out to fill the entire Mountain and Sea Region.

    In the blink of an eye, the entire region was shaking. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, mutagen levels skyrocketed, and everything blurred. It was just like when the broken face¡¯s eyes opened!

    The countless beasts in the region shivered. Eyes crimson, they began to exude rancorous energy and howls of anguish.

    Hundreds of thousands of Firemoon cultivators participating in the Great Hunt, regardless of the level of their cultivation base, felt intense dread rising up within them. They looked around with wildly flickering expressions as they wondered what was happening.

    Master Stillwinter was among them. As he flew through the sky, the sudden upheaval urred, and he stopped in ce. Breathing heavily, he turned to look in the direction of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He could clearly sense that the source of fluctuations was that very location! Normally speaking he wouldn¡¯t have thought much of it. But right now, he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about Xu Qing entering the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. A sudden sense of unease rose up within him.

 Chapter 864: The Ninth Skull!

    <h4>Chapter 864: The Ninth Skull!</h4>

    In the Mountain and Sea Region, the sky had turned blurry, and powerful winds battered thends. Innumerable beasts in different habitats all threw their heads back and howled. The sounds joined together into something that shook the clouds and caused intense colors to sh. The howling was apanied by cries of rage, anguish, andint.

    It was as if they wereining that heaven was unfair and earth was unjust! They wereining about the betrayal of an entire species and their own misced loyalties. It made it seem like deep within these beasts¡¯ souls, the legacy of their bloodline still existed. Perhaps it was hidden extremely deeply. Maybe they weren¡¯t even aware of it. But the dramatic aura spreading through the Mountain and Sea Region woke up what was deeply hidden, and caused them to react on an instinctual level.

    One after another, the Great Hunt participants looked over with varying expressions. Some were shocked, some were aghast, some were taken aback. A variety of emotions assailed them with storm-like force.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s the Mountain and Sea Region acting like this?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s like the beasts are being stimted in some way!¡±

    It wasn¡¯t just the ordinary participants who were shaken. The Firemoon chosen in the region were reacting simrly.

    Fear still lingered in Master Stillwinter because of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. In another part of the region was Fan Shishuang, seated in meditation. His eyes opened, and his expression flickered as he turned to look in the same direction as everyone else. His expression turned serious, and his eyes narrowed.

    <i>It¡¯sing from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands! But... what¡¯s happening there?</i>

    Fan Shishuang suddenly felt very uneasy. He had never experienced nor even heard of anything like this happening. Sir Heavenink and Tuo Shishan were in different locations as well, and they were simrly shaken by what was happening. Everyone was feeling increasingly uneasy.

    ***

    In the londs of the Mountain and Sea Region, in hillworm territory, a figure was racing along frantically. He was moving so fast he was almost a blur. But if you looked closely, you would notice that he seemed very shifty. He was none other than the Captain.

    He could also sense the majestic fluctuations. He nced up at the sky.

    <i>Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with little Junior Brother?</i>

    He blinked a few times and mused that perhaps the reason his little Junior Brother hadn¡¯t met up yet was that he¡¯de across some amazing treasure....

    Even as those thoughts ran through his head, a shout rang out from behind him, specifically, from his pursuer, who was a young man with beautiful facial features.

    The youth didn¡¯t seem to care at all about the dramatic upheavals, and waspletely focused on chasing the Captain. Were there any other Firemoon cultivators present, they would instantly recognize this young man. He was actually the number one Firemoon chosen. He was the mighty and famous Sir Firedark!

    Being the number one chosen, with a position and status far above everyone else, there wasn¡¯t anyone among his contemporaries who would dare to provoke him. By extension, there were few situations in which he had chased someone like this. But here it was happening right out in the open.

    What was even more noteworthy was that Sir Firedark was clearly in bad shape. His expression was grim, and his eyes burned with killing intent, as if the Captain was so vile to him he couldn¡¯t stand to live under the same sky as him. For something like this to happen was extremely rare.

    Voice both vulgar and emotional, the Captain shouted, ¡°Little Swallow, what are you chasing a manly man like me for? My heart belongs to another! Just give up!¡±

    With that, he elerated through the rainforest, a crazy look just barely visible within his eyes. His words caused the pursuing Sir Firedark¡¯s eyes to turn even more bloodshot. Killing intent spiking, he gritted his teeth and continued the chase.

    ***

    A storm had hit the Mountain and Sea Region. And the middle of it was the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Xu Qing was also feeling shaken by the terrifying auraing from 3,000 meters beneath the surface of the muck. He felt like a rowboat in the middle of a raging sea, on the verge of being ripped to shreds.

    Clearly, taking the final skull had triggered this change in the shrine.

    Resolving the situation would be simple. Xu Qing could just put the skull back. But he wasn¡¯t willing to do that. He had already fished out eight, and this was the final one to make the setplete. Giving up just wasn¡¯t an option.

    What was more, Xu Qing had the strong premonition that fishing out the ninth skull would provoke some dramatic transformation to the other skulls. He had no way to know exactly what it would be, but it would surely be dramatic.

    The downside was that he was going to have to pay a heavy price to get the ninth skull. Forcibly fishing it out was provoking an absolutely terrifying aura from the shrine. This was a god that was superior to Crimson Mother, and Xu Qing knew full well that he wasn¡¯t in the position to fight against power like that.

    In the past, before he learned about the history of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, he wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to give up in a moment like this. After all, staying alive was the most important thing.

    But now... he understood the truth about Firemoon Darkheaven history. Because of that, Xu Qing felt that he was in position... to <i>seed at snatching food from the tiger¡¯s mouth</i>!

    Mentally, he reviewed the situation in the cave below.

    <i>The shrine was suppressed by three gods.... The fact that the spider god is stirring means that h¨¥¡¯s definitely affecting the sealing marks of those gods. Considering what I know about history, it seems there must be some animosity between the three gods and the spider god....</i>

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination, as well as a bit of the craziness that had just appeared in the Captain¡¯s eyes. Sometimes in life, you can¡¯t just <i>follow thepass and obey the measuring stick</i>. Sometimes, you have to put things on the line!

    The energy of Fishing the Moon in the Well had been affected by the upheaval, and was on the verge of copsing. Even the Captain¡¯s formation was in bad shape, and clearly wouldn¡¯tst much longer.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing unleashed all of his cultivation base and godly power. It became a surge of force that entered Fishing the Moon in the Well, grabbed the final skull, and viciously fished it up.

    As the sound of sshing water echoed out, Xu Qing shivered from head to toe. The force of fishing up the skull had nearly destroyed his body; he was now covered with so many wounds he looked like he was made of blood.

    By paying that price, he was now able to lift his soaked hand to look at the ninth skull resting on the palm. Without taking any time to think, he put it in his mouth, then shot straight up into the air as even more wild fluctuations rolled up from the muck.

    There was also an awakening will that began to spread out. The sky cracked. Thends crumbled. The end of days had arrived!

    A chanting from ancient times spread out in all directions, causing everything to tremble as a huge vortex formed.

    The spinning of the vortex kicked up masses of muck. And though it started slowly, and only about 3,000 meters across, in the blink of an eye, it was spinning rapidly, and had expanded to tens if not hundreds of thousands of meters. In fact, it quickly covered all of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, spinning faster and faster, and sending muck spraying everywhere.

    At the same time, the area 3,000 meters below the surface was made visible by the vortex. The cave was now open to the world!

    As for the shrine there, it began to float upward! It cast light that illuminated the dome of heaven, and from a distance, it was possible to see that the gray fog was being dispelled.

    The powerful fluctuations from the shrine carried the chanting to every corner of the Mountain and Sea Region. Instantly, the howling of the beasts intensified, causing the souls of the cultivators to tremble. The Mountain and Sea Region... was fully erupting! The source of it all, the spider god, was now showing even more signs of awakening.

    Sunfire¡¯s power was affixed to the spider¡¯s forehead. The spider¡¯s body had traces of Moonfire, and was surrounded by evidence of Starfire. But all of those things were weakening and clearly on the verge of being discarded.

    H¨©s eyes fluttered as if they were about to open. [1]

    Seeing that, Xu Qing started breathing heavily. He was currently right over the vortex, trying to get away. The gray fog swept up toward him, surrounding him and bolstering him. Unfortunately, that level of blessing didn¡¯t help very much when dealing with this spider god.

    As the sensation of awakening grew stronger, a gravitational force erupted, sweeping over Xu Qing and preventing him from fleeing. Instead, he tumbled in the opposite direction. Apparently, he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to leave unless he abandoned that skull.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me I was wrong! Are the three gods not connected to this spider god?</i>

    In that critical moment in which Xu Qing started pondering whether or not to give up, something dramatic happened!

    The branch from Sunfire that was stabbed into the spider god¡¯s forehead emerged by about an inch. But then, dazzling light shone out from it. It was like the light of the sun, filling heaven and earth. To Xu Qing, it felt as if an actual sun was emerging from the spider god¡¯s forehead.

    A howl of anguish erupted from the spider god. The sound entered Xu Qing¡¯s mind and caused blood to spray out of his mouth. It was too much for him to sustain. Thankfully, because Xu Qing¡¯s violet crystal now had all nine skulls, the gray fog was now like a part of him as well, and it helped dispel the force.

    Simultaneously, the four spears from Moonfire became sharper. Exuding a sense of frigid cold, they blurred into numerous afterimages, then once again stabbed into the spider god. A moan of agony echoed out.

    Finally, the eight y jars from Starfire seemed to get much heavier.

    The vortex spinning in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands suddenly stopped moving. The shrine that had been rising up shivered. Then thebined power of the sun, moon, and star gods forced it back down into the cave.

    The gravitational force faded.

    Xu Qing trembled. The moan from the spider god had filled him with intense pain, causing his fleshly body to crumble further, and his soul to go dim. Without the protection of the gray fog, he would have been destroyed in body and soul. Forcing himself to stay focused, he took advantage of the waning of the gravitational force to start moving at top speed.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as he broke free. Soon he was some 3,000 meters away. Without the slightest hesitation, he bit the tip of his tongue to prevent himself from going unconscious.

    When he was around 50 kilometers away, a huge shockwave rolled out thanks to the pressure from the three gods.

    Gasping for breath, Xu Qing turned around to take a look. The spider god¡¯s shrine was still above the vortex. Higher in the sky, something majestic and awe-inspiring appeared.

    There were three enormous shrines! One shrine was shaped like a chariot, and within it was enshrined a sun. One shrine had the form of a phoenix pce, and enshrined within it was a moon. One shrine looked like a red sedan, and enshrined within it was a star.

    When they appeared, golden light filled the sky. Then they viciously dropped down!

    1. In real life, spiders don¡¯t have eyelids and cannot open and close their eyes. But at the same time, in real life, spiders don¡¯t have sixteen legs. What¡¯s more, there are no spiders that are gods (at least not that I have personally met). Thankfully, this is a mythological fantasy world, not real life. ?

 Chapter 865: A Figure on a Mountain of Bone Ash

    <h4>Chapter 865: A Figure on a Mountain of Bone Ash</h4>

    Ripples spread through heaven and earth, going out in all directions.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was surrounded by countless wisps of gray fog. It was the essence power of the mages, and was the only reason he could stay so close and also watch what was happening.

    However, after only a quick nce, he turned back around and kept going. From a distance, it was possible to see the gray fog swirling around him, blessing him and augmenting his speed. Around ten breaths of timeter, Xu Qing vanished over the horizon.

    There was about thirty percent less fog in the area. More precisely, about thirty percent of the fog in the central area ended up leaving, as though it possessed a life of its own. It went with Xu Qing, making it seem as if the fog in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands had been split into two portions.

    About four hourster, the fog on the border of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands seethed and parted. The actual border was now visible to the outside world. Soon, a huge ball of fog shot out from inside. The fog was terrifying, and was so dense that it was like a huge gray vortex. The cultivators in the area who could see it werepletely stunned. The vortex of fog was nothing short of stunning. From the time the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands formed until now, it was the first time the fog had ever gone past the border.

    There was a figure in the vortex. It was none other than Xu Qing. He had sessfully emerged from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands!

    Those who entered the ce were forever bound by the karma of the gray fog. As a result, they could never leave. But Xu Qing came up with the idea of... taking the fog with him. As for the tumultuous upheavals deep inside, he didn¡¯t have time to consider their ramifications. The moment he appeared outside, he elerated and shot off into the distance.

    He desperately needed to find a ce to hole up and recover from his injuries. At the moment, he wasn¡¯t able to bring the gray fog inside of him, which made it very eye-catching. If things proceeded in this manner, he would have a hard time concealing himself. Given his current state, he would be in a very bad position if he ran into Master Stillwinter or one of the other major chosen. He needed more time to be able to absorb the gray fog.

    Dropping down out of the air, he mmed onto the ground and pierced down beneath the surface, taking the fog with him. When he passed the 3,000-meter point, there was no longer any trace of the fog outside.

    He finally breathed a sigh of relief. That said, he knew this location wasn¡¯tpletely safe, as he was still quite close to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    Gritting his teeth, he continued onward under the ground. About a dayter, he found a good hiding spot. It was a mountain range in the depths of the rainforest. The mountains were a good ce to conceal the gray fog, and also formed a natural protective barrier. Xu Qing carved out a cave under the mountains and settled down cross-legged.

    <i>There¡¯s no point in trying to find a different hiding spot. I need to stay out of sight of the other Great Hunt participants, not the three gods. If the three gods want to find me, it doesn¡¯t matter where I¡¯m hiding in the Mountain and Sea Region. Th¨¥y¡¯ll find me.</i>

    After weighing matters up, he closed his eyes and let the violet light from the violet crystal spread through himself.

    The time hade to focus on recovery. Three dayster, Xu Qing opened his eyes, and they glittered with a lingering violet glow. His external injuries were all healed, but his internal injuries were still in the process of recovering. He had sustained some very serious wounds; even the violet crystal needed time to fix them. That said, his battle prowess was in good shape.

    <i>Next up, I need to bring the gray fog into the violet crystal....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He was fully aware that the gray fog hadn¡¯t followed <i>him</i>, but rather, Ninedawns¡¯ nine skulls. After some thought, he sent his mind into the violet crystal in the hopes of having it absorb the gray fog.

    Considering it involved deeply studying the nine skulls, it wasn¡¯t something that happened quickly. But as he proceeded with his work, the gray fog slowly started to seep from the surrounding soil and into the violet crystal. Bit by bit, it entered his chest. It was a slow process.

    Two dayster, the violet crystal glittered brightly. He opened his eyes.

    <i>It took effort, but I got my mark onto all nine of the skulls. Now they¡¯re unified, and also, they aren¡¯t working against me!</i>

    He put his right hand in front of his chest.

    ¡°Mage essence!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, violet light red around him, within which were nine skulls. They looked vicious, but at the same time, were exuding a sensation that made them seem like they had the same essence as Xu Qing.

    ¡°Return!¡±

    He performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, then pushed it out.

    The gray fog meandering around him suddenly stopped moving. Then it went crazy, piercing madly through the soil toward the nine skulls.

    The fog diminished. Gray flesh started to build up on the nine skulls. Ultimately, as the fog continued to pour into the nine skulls, something big happened. They... becamenterns of flesh! They were gray in color, and the ¡®flesh¡¯ that covered them was actually gray fog. As they slowly rotated around Xu Qing, they also flickered with violet light.

    Xu Qing looked around at the ninenterns made from the Ninedawns skulls. He could sense that they had the same essence as him, although the connection to him was weak, as though it might be wiped away at any moment.

    In the final analysis, it was because they were sealed in the violet crystal. It wasn¡¯t that they were truly fused with him. In other words, they weren¡¯tpletely his.

    <i>They¡¯re still partially foreign to me....</i>

    At the same time, thanks to having all nine skulls, the memory fragments within his mind were nowplete. He now had aplete picture of that part of ancient history. For the most part, it all conformed to his previous spections. It was a story of betrayal and backstabbing.

    The memory fragments didn¡¯t contain any details about what happenedter in history. After all, the memories in the skulls ended with Ninedawns¡¯ death. The memory fragments didn¡¯t exin why the grand steward had done what he did. Nor was there any exnation about when the three gods of sun, moon, and star showed up, or why.

    Given the clues he had, it was hard to even specte what happened. Perhaps the three gods and the spider god were once part of the same faction. Or maybe they came alongter and just took over.

    Regardless, there was likely one particr day in which God Mountain appeared in the dome of heaven over the territory of the Darkheaven Archmage people. The mountain descended, and three gods emerged, mighty and glorious. Because of th¨¥ir arrival, the Darkheaven Archmages changed into the Firemoon Darkheavens. And then history led them to their current heights of glory.

    Given how things ended up, Xu Qing could onlye to the conclusion that this species had both upsides and downsides.

    Regardless of the downsides, in the end, the species survived and eventually rose to prominence.

    Regardless of the upsides, the betrayal that had yed out in the past was both tragic and sorrowful. That was especially true considering that, in the modern era, Ninedawns had been vilified and said to be the grand steward¡¯s mount. And the beasts that had descended from the in archmages suffered a simr fate.

    The fact thatter generations had fabricated their own version of history left Xu Qing sighing deeply.

    <i>Only those who survive qualify to write history. And thus, the grand steward made himself look like the hero. Apparently, the gods were willing to go along with that.</i>

    Xu Qing thought about how he¡¯d witnessed those three gods suppressing the spider god shrine. And then he thought about the enigmatic smile on the face of the Captain back in the city when Xu Qing had been doing research into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Back then, the Captain had pulled a shrimp apart into two pieces. Now Xu Qing understood. The shrimp represented a blind person, unable to see the truth of apletely fabricated story. [1]

    Xu Qing shook his head.

    As for when the three gods showed up, and whether or not th¨¥y were connected to therger conspiracy, it was frankly irrelevant to Xu Qing right now.

    <i>Right now, the most important thing... is that I have to take the Ninedawns skulls sealed in my violet crystal and convert them into battle prowess, or improve my cultivation base! I need to truly fuse with them!</i>

    Xu Qing already had an idea of how to do that.

    <i>I currently have three god troves, one Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove, and one iplete trove that¡¯s in the great circle. Previously, I could form it by entering a state like Crimson Mother. But thates with potential cmities.</i>

    <i>Right now... if I could turn Ninedawns into a secret trove, then I could solve all my problems. Ninedawns reached the peak of the dao of mages. Considering how seriously the spider god took him, it was obvious that his personhood must not have been any weaker than Crimson Mother¡¯s. In fact, it was probably higher.</i>

    <i>It would make perfect sense to use this for my fifth secret trove. In that case, it would be a mage trove! With it as a mage trove, it would obviously bepletely part of me. I wouldn¡¯t need to worry about losing it. And the Ninedawns fog could be a great asset to use!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered mysteriously.

    The intensity of the mage essence fog made it obvious that it rejected gods and cultivation base alike. It was extremely domineering. Having reached this point in his train of thought, Xu Qing rose to his feet, his expression serious. Turning in the direction of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, he bowed deeply at the waist.

    That bow was for karma, and it was an expression of respect for true glory.

    Then Xu Qing sat down, closed his eyes, and got to work!

    ***

    Some distance away in the depths of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, the three shrines hadpleted their task. Thus, they faded away, and the marsh went back to normal. Fog swirled, covering everything.

    Beneath the muck, the spider god¡¯s sealing marks were stronger than ever, and thest scraps of energy that had been released were about to fade away. The bone ash mountain was back to normal. It was as if nothing had happened.

    However, in the depths of that mountain, a sigh echoed out. There was a figure hidden in the depths of the bone ash.

    He was extremely ancient and unmoving, almost like a corpse. But just now, his eyes had opened.

    Were any Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator there to see him, they would bepletely and utterly astonished. He looked exactly like... the very same grand steward who had perished many, many years ago!

    1. As I mentioned in a footnote in <u>chapter 846</u> when the shrimp thing happened, in Chinese, the word for ¡®shrimp¡¯ and ¡®blind¡¯ are pronounced exactly the same. In this passage, an additional character is added to the ¡®blind¡¯ character to create themon word for ¡®blind person.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 866: Fifth Secret Trove - Mage Trove

    <h4>Chapter 866: Fifth Secret Trove - Mage Trove</h4>

    Seven days passed in a sh.

    The big stir in the Mountain and Sea Region ended after the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands was sealed again. The beasts in the region stopped howling. The struggle that had emerged from their souls and blood went away, and they went back to being animals.

    However, the Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators participating in the Great Hunt were unable to calm their hearts. All sorts of spections ran wild among them. Many of them used different ways to confirm the source of the upheaval. And as a result, most of them kept their distance from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    Because the mountains that were Xu Qing¡¯s hiding ce wereparatively close to the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, not many people passed through. Add in the fact that he was well-concealed, and the violet crystal had absorbed the gray fog, it ensured that nobody discovered him.

    Seven peaceful days passed in which Xu Qing was fully immersed in working on the Ninedawns mage trove. He wantedplete control of the Ninedawns skulls. They needed to be a part of him, and thus, he had no choice but to make them into a mage trove.

    However, it wasn¡¯t exactly a simple process. First, he needed to fully fuse with the nine skulls. And to do that, he needed the foundation of a secret trove in his sea of consciousness to put them in. The foundation was extremely important for this secret trove. For one thing, there needed to be a spot for the skulls. What was more, it would be integral to the fusion process.

    After some thought, Xu Qing made a decision. The flesh would be the foundation, and the bones would be the mountain!

    During the seven days that passed, he tapped into his own flesh, bringing it into his sea of consciousness to build the secret trove foundation. The process required a huge amount of flesh, so much so that normally speaking Xu Qing would never have been able to meet the requirement.

    At a certain point, he thought about the white wind from the Greenhair Bands in the Moonrite Region. It was a terrifying and chaotic wind that caused random growths of flesh and blood. Back in the Greenhair Bands, anyone who the wind touched would develop bizarre deformities that could ultimately lead to them bing a mountain of flesh, then dying. Xu Qing had done a lot of studying and experimentation before ultimately using that wind as the basis for his cursequelling lozenge. One thing he was certain of was that the deformed flesh was part of the body that grew it.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing gritted his teeth and took out some pills from his bag of holding that contained the white wind. He consumed them, and almost immediately, chaotic growths of flesh appeared all over him.

    Seven or eight arms. Dozens of legs. A few heads. In a very short time, his body becamerge and bloated. As the flesh grew, Xu Qing carefully cut it off. Thus, the secret trove foundation began to take shape in his sea of consciousness.

    The more white wind pills he consumed, the more chaotic flesh grew. It was very dramatic, and on a few asions it grew so quickly he nearly turned into a mountain of flesh. At the same time, he was assailed by sensations of weakness. Thankfully, the violet crystal was hard at work keeping his strength up.

    Ultimately, he built a 30,000-meter-tall mountain of flesh in his sea of consciousness. That was his limit. Every single bit of that flesh belonged to him, and as the foundation of his secret trove, it was naturally part of his essence.

    Atop the mountain of flesh were piles of his own bones, nine in total. From the look of it, the nine piles of bones were all made of skulls. He did it that way in imitation of the setup of the cave in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

    Thend was made of his own flesh. The bone mountains were made from his own bones.

    When it was done, he opened his eyes from his position underneath the mountain range that was his hiding ce. His face was pale, and he felt very weak. Even his eyes were dull. It had been extremely draining to do this.

    But at the same time, light glittered in his eyes.

    <i>The foundation of flesh and bone is done. Next, I absorb it!</i>

    Xu Qing looked up at the ninenterns floating around him. Lifting his right hand, he pointed out, and one of thenterns trembled and flew over to him.

    It touched his finger, and then was absorbed inside of him. It reappeared... in his sea of consciousness atop the 30,000-meter mountain of flesh, where itnded on one of the piles of bones.

    The instant itnded, the gray fog within it poured out and entered the pile of bones. When the process wasplete, the pile of bones trembled, and the gray fog transformed into flesh. At the same time, two ck mes appeared within the previously empty eye sockets.

    All of a sudden, the roar of an ox echoed out from the skull. Next, its shape transformed into that of an ox d in a golden suit of armor. It had a draconic head, and when it threw its head back and roared, the sound was like the chanting of a god.

    ¡°Mage Life: Ox-Dragon!¡± [1]

    As it appeared, its energy surged, and Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness trembled. It was nowpletely connected to him.

    What was more, Xu Qing realized that this ox-dragon was one of Ninedawns¡¯ mage states from long ago.

    <i>Nine skulls. Nine different mage states!</i>

    Seeing that this method worked, Xu Qing excitedly performed an incantation gesture, pulling the secondntern inside of him. It soonnded on the second pile of bones, where another animal took shape.

    It was a jackal-like animal with a draconic head. It emanated a sense of violence and brutality, and seemed to personify death. Its pitch-ck color and towering killing intent left Xu Qing feeling shaken. It was like the ultimate warrior. The shocking killing intent Xu Qing had experienced when facing Master Stillwinter was like nothingpared to thating off of this beast. Along with the killing intent came a deafening roar.

    ¡°Mage Life: Jackal-Dragon!¡±

    <i>Such formidable killing intent....</i> Xu Qing was truly shaken.

    A momentter, his sea of consciousness went calm, and he waved his right hand and pointed toward the next threenterns. After absorbing the threenterns, they flew toward the third, fourth, and fifth pile of bones. The moment they were in his sea of consciousness, an incredible tempest raged.

    Three fantastic creatures appeared, all of them imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Xu Qing trembled as though his body couldn¡¯t sustain the force, and he had to rely on the regenerative powers of the violet crystal. He also sent out soul threads, entering his third-level god state.

    Three beasts appeared. The first was somewhat blurry, making it difficult to see clearly. It left behind a string of afterimages as it moved with such speed it bordered on teleportation. It was just barely possible to see that it looked somewhat like a winged lizard. It was also surrounded by a constant, screaming wind.

    ¡°Mage Life: Phoenix-Dragon!¡±

    The fourth looked almostpletely like a dragon, except it was much smaller than the other beasts. It floated there peacefully for a moment, then suddenly opened its mouth and released a heaven-rending, earth-crushing roar.

    ¡°Mage Life: Roaring-Dragon!¡±

    The sound caused Xu Qing to shake from head to toe, and provoked instabilities in his third-level god state. He quickly entered the fourth-level god state topensate.

    The fifth beast waspletely and utterly shocking. It was shaped like a lion, and was surrounded by an aura of smoke and fire. It hovered above the fifth pile of bones, emanating incredible majesty that seemed to surpass everything in heaven and earth! Within the swirling joss me, it seemed like an actual god. Its deep roar echoed out in all directions.

    ¡°Mage Life: Lion-Dragon!¡±

    The sensation from the fifth beast caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to feel like it would split apart. It was just too strong!

    Although he still wasn¡¯t sure what any of these beasts could actually do, from their auras, he could sense that they were vastly more terrifying than the ghost chariot he had seen in the past.

    Eyes gleaming with determination, he calmed his sea of consciousness, then pointed at the rest of thenterns. The sixth, seventh, and eighth piles of bones surged with the fire of the underworld as additional beasts appeared.

    One of them had the head of a dragon and the body of a turtle. It pulsed with something extremely domineering, to the point where Xu Qing felt like his sea of consciousness might not be able to sustain it.

    ¡°Mage Life: Turtle-Dragon!¡±

    Next came a beast with the body of a tiger and the head of a dragon, with a mouth full of huge teeth. The moment it appeared, a sensation of sealing emanated off it, rippling through Xu Qing¡¯s mind and spreading to the outside. The entire mountain range blurred as it entered a state of being sealed. Within that sealed area could be heard an echoing chant.

    ¡°Mage Life: Tiger-Dragon!¡±

    Next came a beast that looked like a dragon, except that it was slender and elegant. As it swirled about, it emanated blue light that nourished the sea of consciousness. Xu Qing¡¯s soul felt cool and rxed, as if it had suddenly been encased in a suit of armor. It was a silent and constant blessing to his soul. His eyes shone brightly as he sensed the blessing, and realized... how astonishingly beneficial it was.

    <i>It¡¯s like the blessing of a god!</i>

    As he came to understand that, the beast¡¯s voice echoed out softly.

    ¡°Mage Life: Graceful-Dragon!¡±

    Next was the finalntern! After absorbing it, thentern appeared above the ninth pile of bones. The mountain beneath it trembled, and as the underworld me lit up, a creature appeared with the head of a dragon, the body of a lion, and the tail of a fish.

    There was no heaven-shaking, earth-shattering st of energy. There were no strange and gruish phenomena. But when it appeared, it looked at Xu Qing, and his fleshly body trembled. He felt his previous injuries beingpletely healed, along with his soul. It was as if they had received the ultimate blessing. What was even stranger was that all the fluctuations that had filled his sea of consciousness faded away. It was as if this beast¡¯s gaze caused everything to reverse.

    ¡°Mage Life: Fish-Dragon!¡±

    Ninedawns¡¯ nine skulls had fused with Xu Qing¡¯s flesh. His skulls formed the connection. The ¡®mage life¡¯ states had all appeared! Next, the foundation of flesh sank down, and rumbling sounds echoed out as the nine beasts roared in unison, the sound converging as if to light an enormous furnace.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    The fifth secret trove wasplete! The mage trove was finished! The aura of the great circle of Spirit Trove spread out from Xu Qing in all directions.

    1. The trantor note for this chapter contains information about the draconic beasts in this chapter. I suggest just reading the chapter first, then reading the background info in the note. ?

 Chapter 867: Target - Master Stillwinter

    <h4>Chapter 867: Target - Master Stillwinter</h4>

    The mountain range trembled. Cracks appeared in the boulders, spreading out rapidly from the spot where Xu Qing was holed up. They proliferated like a spiderweb, growing increasingly dense.

    After three breaths of time passed, the entire massive mountain copsed as surely as if it had been made from clumps of dust that lost their ability to adhere to each other. The wind blew, causing something like a sandstorm to spread in all directions. What also spread was the terrifying aura from the depths of the ground.

    There was something domineering about that aura, and also something as majestic as a god. It spread out like a shock wave. Wherever it passed, huge ravines opened up the ground. At the same time, the nts in the surrounding rainforest wilted and became part of the sandstorm.

    The same thing happened to any beasts nearby. The effects spread for about 500 kilometers before they stopped. At the very center of the sandstorm, in what had once been the mountain range, were countless ravines snaking out from a central crater.

    Floating up from the bottom of the crater was a person. He exuded a pressure that would shake anyone to the core, and caused the sandstorm to be even more violent. The wind affected the dome of heaven, which also transformed thanks to the emergence of this figure. ck fire radiated off him, filling the ravines and making the entire ce seem like the Yellow Springs, full of death and ughter. Countless soul threads whipped about, obscuring the sky and surrounding the figure.

    In the gaps between the fire and the soul threads, it was possible to see a young man. His facial features weren¡¯t clear, but he had a long head of hair that glittered with violet light within the fire. As he emerged from the crater and hovered in the sandstorm, his ck robe whipped in the wind, making him seem unusually fierce.

    He looked up. His features were spectacrly good-looking, like a god that no one would dare to profane. He had a cold, apathetic look in his eyes, and on his forehead glittered a nefarious, circr mark that was the sign of a mage!

    He was none other than Xu Qing.

    <i>Spirit Trove... great circle.</i>

    He looked down at the ravines below, then at the soul threads around him. He took a deep breath. He had spent more time in Spirit Trove than any other level. It wasn¡¯t because of the difficulty level, per se, but rather, because his secret troves were all different from the ordinary kind.

    Other people had secret troves. He had god troves, an emperor trove, and a mage trove. Because his standard was set so high, he had to take his time. Now, he had finally reached the great circle. However, in order to break through to Void Returning, he needed to meet a certain requirement.

    ¡°Heavenly daos....¡±

    His eyes glittered.

    What he wanted now was to go to the ce where his Eldest Brother said it was possible to acquire heavenly daos. And that was the third round of the Great Hunt, which was held in a god domain!

    <i>When the Firemoon Darkheavens open the god domain, I should be able to reach Void Returning! Right now, Ick four heavenly daos. However, it¡¯s a totally different picture when ites to my battle prowess.</i>

    After some thought, he stopped worrying about the future. He exercised a thought, and soul threads began to wrap around him. In the blink of an eye, he had formed his first-level god state. That gave him battle prowess equivalent to first-stage Void Returning.

    Next, the soul threads converged, and his second-level god state appeared. The fluctuations of second-stage Void Returning battle prowess spread out. More soul threads appeared as his third-level god state formed. Third-stage Void Returning power rocked the area.

    Things weren¡¯t done yet, though. As thest of his soul threads emerged, so did his fourth-level god state. The Crimson Mother form was the ultimate manifestation of the god state. The battle prowess of fourth-stage Void Returning swept through the sky, shook thends, caused the air to vibrate, and made mutagen flourish.

    This used to be his most powerful state, as itbined his cultivation base power and all the godly authority he had developed up to this point. Both his sundials and his violet moon were part of it.

    <i>This was my ultimate state before acquiring the Ninedawns skulls. But now....</i>

    He closed his eyes, and his fifth secret trove erupted like a volcanic furnace. The roars of the different Ninedawns skulls echoed out from within him. The sky trembled. The clouds split apart. The air vibrated. The nine skulls of Ninedawns appeared in the open, swirling about to create a huge vortex.

    Each one looked different, but they all worked together to form crushing power. It looked extremely ghastly.

    After the fluctuations couldn¡¯t get more intense, the ox-dragon emerged from the vortex, turning into an illusory totem that shot toward Xu Qing and formed a helmet around his head! It could bolster all of Xu Qing¡¯s abilities that were rted to sound. When Xu Qing was in his fourth-level god state, his voice sounded like the chanting of a god. With the blessing of the ox-dragon, that chanting became even more terrifying.

    Next, the phoenix-dragon flew out of the vortex and merged with Xu Qing. A pair of ck wings appeared behind him, each p of which sent gale-force winds out in all directions. It provided a huge boost to his speed!

    Next came the roaring-dragon, the tiger-dragon, and the fish-dragon. The roaring-dragon became vambraces and boosted divine abilities and magical techniques, and would thus improve his battle prowess dramatically. The tiger-dragon became a breastte, which would boost his sealing abilities. Whether it was D-132 or anything else, in this state, they would be far more terrifying. As for the fish-dragon, it was the backte, and it had a simple function. It could mitigate any type of disastrous attack!

    Next came the turtle-dragon and the graceful-dragon. The former filled in the rest of the torso armor, covering all other vital spots, and boosting Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body defense power. Going forward, Xu Qing¡¯s defenses would be astonishing. Thetter had a simr function, except not for the fleshly body, but rather, the soul. In this state, the undying graceful-dragon would make Xu Qing¡¯s soul unable to perish. Going forward, he would have defenses for his body and soul that were vastly differentpared to before.

    Most unique was the lion-dragon! Its function was a surprise even to Xu Qing. It didn¡¯t turn into armor, but rather, into smoke that floated behind him, connected to the dome of heaven, and blessed... his godliness! With its blessing, his fourth-level god state was improved from the godsource up. Xu Qing could only specte that the lion-dragon didn¡¯t do this before, but had experienced some sort of mutation after being suppressed and devoured by the spider god. That was the only exnation as to why the lion-dragon of Ninedawns would have something to do with gods.

    Forgetting about that for the moment, Xu Qing focused on the final of the Ninedawns skulls. It was the jackal-dragon. It turned into a terrifying mask that flew onto Xu Qing¡¯s face. It boosted ughter; going forward, all of his magical treasures and weapons would benefit from it and be more deadly and fierce. As it connected with his face, the canopy of heaven dimmed, rumbling echoed out, and lightning crashed like dancing silver snakes.

    The sandstorm became more violent as Xu Qing hovered there, lookingpletely different from before. He was now a gruishbination of a god state and a mage state.

    The grayish-ck dragon armor was somber, deste, and mysterious. The Ninedawns totems pulsed with an ancient, wild aura. He had wings behind him, and a violet moon hovering above. Beneath the dragon armor was a god body, thusbining the mage and the god. A thick gray fog spread out around him, filling heaven and earth, pulsing outward in a way that could shake the heart and mind.

    Being in this state gave Xu Qing a very unique feeling. He could turn the canopy of heaven ck with a thought. He could shatter thends with a gaze. He could eradicate all living beings with no effort. He could ignore naturalws with the wave of a hand.

    <i>So, this is the battle prowess of the great circle of Void-Returning....</i>

    Thinking back to the major chosen of the Firemoon Darkheaven people that he had encountered, his eyes gleamed. He could tell that with the full set of Ninedawns skulls blessing him, his battle prowess surpassed fourth-stage Void-Returning and reached the level of the great circle. Just like Tuo Shishan, Fan Shishuang and Master Stillwinter, his battle prowess existed at a peak level. This was Xu Qing¡¯s strongest state!

    <i>But it isn¡¯t the strongest state for my mage trove! Based on the memory fragments from the Ninedawns skulls, the mage state wasn¡¯t like this originally.</i>

    From what Xu Qing saw in the memory fragments, when Ninedawns sat outside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, he had a boundless gray fog behind him. In the depths of that fog was a colossal creature with a terrifying aura. It was something that could extinguish heaven and pulverize the earth, but it was not dragon-shaped. Rather, it was humanoid!

    <i>That was the true mage state of Antemage Ninedawns of the Darkheaven Archmages!</i>

    Moved, Xu Qing tried to pull more out from his mage trove, but no matter what he did, it didn¡¯t produce any sort of supernatural phenomena. It was as if certain imperceptible limitations had settled onto his heart and mind. It was an imprable barrier that he couldn¡¯t bypass.

    His eyes narrowed as he analyzed the situation.

    <i>I guess I¡¯m not strong enough to do it now.... Either that or I need to have four heavenly daos and break into Void Returning first. Maybe then I can truly unleash Ninedawns¡¯s mage state.</i>

    Having concluded that this was the best way to think of it, Xu Qing put such thoughts aside and looked off into the distance.

    Thinking back to everything that he had experienced in the Mountain and Sea Region, from when he encountered Master Stillwinter to the chase into the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, he had experienced a lot of deadly situations, but had also benefited greatly. Coupled with the true history he had witnessed, he felt indescribable emotions. After a time, his eyes shimmered with cold light.

    <i>Since I made it out of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, now... I need to find Master Stillwinter!</i>

    As killing intent appeared in his eyes and thunder crashed above, he shot off into the distance.

 Chapter 868: Waiting to Fight You

    <h4>Chapter 868: Waiting to Fight You</h4>

    The second round of the Great Hunt was destined to be soaked with blood. Things were on apletely different level than they had been in previous Great Hunts. For example, the dramatic events in the Mountain and Sea Region were totally unprecedented.

    Although the three god shrines had ultimatelye to suppress the heart of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, before that happened, the fluctuations of the spider god had caused all the beasts in the region to be filled with bloodlust. The Mountain and Sea Region, which had already been filled with fierce beasts, became even more brutal. There were even some areas where the beasts stampeded out of control.

    The result was that the cultivators participating in the Great Hunt had to be even more ruthless. On a nearly daily basis, there were Firemoon cultivators who died in the region, lending their flesh and blood to the soil as nutrients. Some people took advantage of the chaos to achieve sesses that normally wouldn¡¯t have been possible. Some of them won very precious mounts. But overall, the Mountain and Sea Region was doomed to descend into chaos.

    Xu Qing sensed it immediately once he left his session of secluded meditation in the mountains.

    The first thing he saw was arge group of beasts stampeding by. They looked like horses, except they had six legs and the heads of snakes. They were called firetreaders. The reason for the name was that when they galloped, green mes would appear beneath their hooves. Wherever they went, green fire abounded, and it could even immte souls. In the fire that surrounded them, it was possible to see the souls of both beasts and cultivators, trapped and shrieking in agony.

    As Xu Qing floated up into the air, the firetreaders exhaled green smoke and rushed in his direction.

    But then Xu Qing released a bit of the aura of Ninedawns. It was just a bit, but it caused the raging firetreaders to suddenly shiver, stop in ce, then prostrate toward the canopy of heaven while howling in anguish. Those howls weren¡¯t because of any injury they were sustaining, but rather, because of the bitterness and sorrow they felt in their souls. It was an instinct that came from their blood.

    The blood of Antemage Ninedawns was paramount in thesends. And most of the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region descended from Ninedawns¡¯s archmage subordinates. When they sensed Ninedawns¡¯ aura, it drew out memories from their blood.

    Xu Qing stopped and looked at the prostrating firetreaders, then shot off into the dome of heaven.

    As he traveled, simr scenes yed out repeatedly. For example, at one point, a flock of birds that normally didn¡¯t hesitate to unleash a storm of violence all stopped in ce when Xu Qing neared. Trembling, they bowed and let loose cries of anguish.

    It really emphasized to Xu Qing how sorrowful the beasts were, as well as the status Ninedawnsmanded. In fact, he gradually started to feel as if this entire area belonged to him. But that feeling was really the result of Ninedawns¡¯ emotion. Xu Qing didn¡¯t like being affected in that way, so he blotted out all of Ninedawns¡¯ emotions.

    He picked up speed. A few hourster, his eyes gleamed as he found what he had been looking for.

    It was a middle-aged Saia cultivator being chased by mountain sparrows. He clearly had some skills, because despite being chased by multiple mountain sparrows, he was about to make his escape. But then a calm voice mmed into his mind like a bolt of heavenly lightning.

    ¡°Be sealed.¡±

    It was a sealing magic bolstered by Ninedawns¡¯ tiger-dragon, which was unusually exceptional, and locked down the entire area surrounding the Saia cultivator. In the blink of an eye, he shivered, then stopped in ce. He was unable to move, with his fleshly body and his soul bothpletely immobilized.

    The pursuing mountain sparrows shivered as if they had just been given new orders. Turning in ce, they flew off into the distance.

    The Saia remained,pletely immobile in midair, his heart raging with astonishment. Then a figure appeared, strolling toward him, surrounded by ck fire. The moment the Saia cultivator saw his face, a tempest erupted within him. He recognized Xu Qing! Based on the information he¡¯d been given, Xu Qing was supposed to have been killed by Master Stillwinter! But here was Xu Qing right in front of him!

    The shock caused the Saia cultivator¡¯s body to instinctively want to tremble, except he was sealed so tightly he couldn¡¯t even do that. His eyes were absolutely pulsing with astonishment and terror. What was more, as Xu Qing neared and mes built up around the Saia cultivator, intense pain swept through his fleshly body. But what was most terrifying to him was the pressure radiating off Xu Qing. The pressure alone caused cracks to start spreading out on his skin. It felt like facing a Smoldering God!

    ¡°Where¡¯s Master Stillwinter?¡± Xu Qing asked coolly.

    The seal binding the Saia loosened slightly, but at first, the only thing that came out was a sharp gasp of shock. And he finally was able to tremble thanks to the sensation of imminent death. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t do anything to get rid of that deathly sensation. All he could do was shake his head, because he had no idea where Master Stillwinter was.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know?¡± Xu Qing asked, his expression cid. He waved his hand, and a soul thread spread out, wrapped around the Saia, and then viciously dragged him behind Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had only bound the Saia¡¯s cultivation base, not his ability to speak. What was more, the sealing was so incredible that it allowed Xu Qing to open his bag of holding and check what was inside. All he had was a transmission jade slip. Xu Qing didn¡¯t n to kill him right away. After all, it seemed a lot more convenient to get Master Stillwinter toe to him rather than try to track him down. That said, he needed the cooperation of the Saia cultivator.

    Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out and started circling around the Saia, asionally flying close enough to slice open wounds on his flesh. The sensation of frigid cold caused the Saia cultivator to tremble.

    A projection of the patriarch appeared, seated cross-legged atop the iron skewer. Looking at the Saia, he said, ¡°Are you going to save yourself? Or would you like me to help you? Just pick a spot and I can poke some holes there. You¡¯d better hope people like you, or else.... heh heh.¡±

    When the Saia cultivator saw the look in the patriarch¡¯s eyes, he unhesitatingly did as requested and sent some messages to fellow members of his species asking for them to save him.

    Xu Qing flew along, dragging the Saia behind him with soul threads.

    The Saia¡¯s messages included some devious tricks, but Xu Qing didn¡¯t care. The more people who came, the better. Unfortunately, whether it was because Xu Qing¡¯s reputation was too ferocious, or the Saia wasn¡¯t very popr, after several hours passed, not one member of his species showed up to save him.

    Xu Qing, starting to get impatient, elerated.

    A few days passed.

    During that time, the Saia¡¯s pleas for help grew weaker and weaker. It didn¡¯t matter how Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior threatened him; the Saia was helpless to do anything other than moan. Thankfully, the more people he contacted, the more word spread.

    As the days passed, Xu Qing asionally encountered Whitemarshes or Saias, and he would immediately attack them, bind them, and start dragging them behind him. He now had dozens of them....

    All of them were overwhelmed with despair. With Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior tormenting and threatening them, they kept sending out messages for help. At the same time, their cries grew increasingly hoarse.

    The very first Saia cultivator Xu Qing had captured saw more and more captives being gathered, and it only caused his terror to grow. Over the days that had passed, he hadn¡¯t just witnessed Xu Qing¡¯s ferocity. He saw with his own eyes how unusual the Mountain and Sea Region beasts were behaving! He saw numerous instances in which beasts that he would have personally fled from actually prostrated to Xu Qing. It didn¡¯t matter if they were alone or in groups. They always did the same thing.

    It was like government officials encountering a monarch or king! It was both astonishing and confusing.

    He had never heard of anything like this happening, not in any of the ancient records he had read. His understanding was that the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region were ferocious and cruel. Taming them required both strength and destined opportunities. Normally speaking, once you tamed one, taming a second was even more difficult.

    But right now... he had personally seen numerous beasts prostrating to Xu Qing, and many of them were the high-ranking variety that people longed to have as mounts. Regardless of their ranking, they bowed to Xu Qing, and some even ran over with the hopes of being able to follow him.

    <i>Th-this... this....</i> The mere thought of it caused the Saia cultivator to tremble.

    Six days went by. By that point, Xu Qing had captured well over a hundred Saias and Whitemarshes that he was dragging behind him. It was truly a shocking sight. All of them were sending voice messages asking for help.

    A hugemotion had struck the Mountain and Sea Region. By now, everyone was talking about the fact that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t dead. Word was also spreading rapidly that he was looking for Master Stillwinter. Whether it was Firemoon cultivators or those from other species, when they saw the scene from a distance, they were struck to the core.

    As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s name became even more deeply fixed into the hearts of the other participants. By his actions, Xu Qing was sending a clear message to Master Stillwinter.

    ¡°I¡¯m waiting for you!¡±

 Chapter 869: Encountering a Fiend

    <h4>Chapter 869: Encountering a Fiend</h4>

    Three days passed.

    During that time, the storm caused by Xu Qing only got bigger in the Mountain and Sea Region. With the exception of a few random people who isted themselves and didn¡¯t contact anyone else, just about everyone heard about the situation between Xu Qing and Master Stillwinter.

    Among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, Master Stillwinter was universally recognized as the number two chosen. Whether through direct experience or not, all Firemoons knew that he had terrifying battle prowess. Therefore, after hearing about the way Xu Qing was challenging Master Stillwinter, none of them put much stock in his ability toe out on top of a fight. Although Xu Qing was certainly making a dramatic show, it wasn¡¯t enough to change the minds of all those cultivators.

    After all, it was only two months before that word had spread rapidly about Master Stillwinter seeking Xu Qing. Then, an announcement was made that Xu Qing had perished. Although that proved to be incorrect, the fact that he went missing for that period of time seemed to be an indication of how the sh between them ended. How much could have changed in two months?

    But what many people found strange was that Master Stillwinter didn¡¯t respond to Xu Qing¡¯s challenge. In fact, many Firemoon cultivators came to the realization that nobody knew where Master Stillwinter was. That was very thought-provoking, and it didn¡¯t take long before spections began to run wild.

    The more than one hundred Saia and Whitemarsh cultivators that Xu Qing was dragging behind him only got weaker and weaker, while at the same time, they also started wondering what was going on. They had been doing everything they could, and had reached the point where they had sent messages to everyone they could think of. And yet, Master Stillwinter never showed up. In fact, not one person that they messaged ever came to their rescue. That actually wasn¡¯t surprising considering that... these people weren¡¯t idiots. None of them wanted to put their own lives on the line to save people unless they werepletely confident in seeding.

    But eventually, it did happen. At around noon, when the sunlight was brightest in the Mountain and Sea Region, yang energy flourished, and yin-based grues and beasts were normally resting.

    As the bright sunlight shone down, illuminating heaven and earth, Xu Qing suddenly stopped in midair and looked toward the horizon. The over one hundred cultivators behind him instantly ceased their wailing and moaning, and nervously looked in the same direction. Before long, they all caught sight of four beams of prismatic light shooting over the horizon.

    Within each of them was a cultivator with an exceptional demeanor and a powerful cultivation base. Three of them were Saias, and they had murderous looks on their faces.

    The fourth was a Whitemarsh with a powerful fleshly body. He was like a small mountain pulsing with an intense aura of energy and blood. The beating of his heart was like muffled thunder, and imparted the sensation of invincibility.

    Most shocking was that all four of them had extraordinary mounts. The Whitemarsh was riding a huge winged python that waspletely ferocious in appearance. The three Saias all had different mounts. One had the head of a lion and the body of a wolf, and emanated an aura that could stun the soul. The second looked like a turtle, and emanated a boundlessly powerful sensation. Unexpectedly, thest mount looked like an evil ghost. It was pitch ck, blurry, and iparably gruish. The mounts provided significant blessings to all of them. Powerful fluctuations rolled out in all directions, causing the dome of heaven to turn as dark as if it was stained by ink.

    When the captives saw these four cultivators racing toward Xu Qing, their hearts leaped with joy. These four were chosen cultivators from their own species, so it was only natural that they recognized them.

    The three Saias were the strongest representatives of their species in the second round of the Great Hunt. All of them had second-stage Void Returning cultivation bases, yet could unleash battle prowess equivalent to the fourth stage. Although they weren¡¯t as exceptional as Master Stillwinter, they were extremely respected by most species.

    As for the burly Whitemarsh, he had a fleshly body equivalent to fourth-stage Void Returning, and was also a member of the nobility. He was the second-born son of the leader of the Whitemarsh species!

    These four had received messages asking for help. Knowing that Xu Qing was involved, they had joined forces toe deal with him. The fact that they had shown up after all this time seemed to indicate that they were very confident in the chances of sess. The moment they appeared, it was without a moment of hesitation that they shot toward Xu Qing to attack him. They didn¡¯t even exchange any words.

    The first to arrive was the young lord of the Whitemarsh species. The burly young man had a cruel facial expression, and the fluctuations of energy and blood that pulsated off him created an intense pressure. As he closed in, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then shoved his hand out. The air around Xu Qing filled with the sharp sound of rifts tearing open. Natural and magicalws shattered, then formed anew in a way that conformed to the Whitemarsh¡¯s dao.

    Next, the third eye on his forehead opened, and it radiated a furious red color that spread out around him. An instantter, the projection of a blood-red giant appeared behind him. The giant had two horrid warhammers that caused wild colors to sh and winds to scream as it smashed them toward Xu Qing. At the same time, the Whitemarsh¡¯s mount opened its mouth in brutal fashion to snap at Xu Qing.

    Further back, the Saia cultivator with the evil ghost mount circled around to cut off Xu Qing¡¯s avenue of retreat. He simultaneously performed a double-handed incantation gesture and started chanting something. Countlessherworld souls appeared, quickly turning into a sea of souls that didn¡¯t just block his path, but also swept out to encircle him.

    As for the other two Saias, one of them appeared above Xu Qing, while the other appeared below him. The one above didn¡¯t unleash a divine ability. Instead, he produced a red candle that he ignited.

    ¡°Godly binding!¡± he said. Instantly, an image of Xu Qing appeared in the candle¡¯s me.

    The Saia beneath Xu Qing sat down cross-legged and performed an incantation gesture. Instantly, his body decayed as he unleashed a mysterious curse magic. It became a stream of gray light designed to infect the soul. It shot right toward Xu Qing.

    The four acted simultaneously with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. The Whitemarsh attacked in a way that couldn¡¯t be stopped. The first Saia blocked Xu Qing¡¯s path of retreat. The second used a special treasure to target Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body and make resistance difficult. And the third Saia used a trump card curse magic designed to corrupt Xu Qing¡¯s soul.

    Of course, the mounts of the three Saia¡¯s alsounched attacks.

    Meanwhile, the clouds seethed on the horizon as yet another figure appeared and raced toward them. This person¡¯s aura wasn¡¯t on the same level as Master Stillwinter, but it was very close. Because he was wreathed in clouds, it was impossible to make out his facial features, but he was clearly very domineering.

    For some unknown reason, as this mysterious neer neared, he suddenly stopped in ce within the clouds. His foot was almost frozen in ce, as if he didn¡¯t dare to proceed any further. Within the clouds, his expression was one of shock and astonishment, and all of his domineering attitude disappeared.

    The moment he stopped in ce, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes filled with gray fog. Then the gray fog erupted from within him, sweeping out to cover a 3,000-meter area and obscure both his over one hundred captives and the four would-be rescuers.

    The descending warhammers were affected, as was the sealing magic. Most shocked of all were the four mounts. They shivered, then suddenly switched sides and attacked their masters with unrelenting ferocity.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was calm as he looked up at the Saia cultivator with the red candle. Their gazes met, and Xu Qing shot upward.

    The Saia reeled mentally as the candle in his hand suddenly started burning much faster. It was as if it had been stimted into action, and in fact, over the course of only two breaths of time... it burned out!

    The Saia tried to fall back, but it was toote. Xu Qing appeared in front of him, reached out, and grabbed him by the neck. As an agonized howl echoed out, countless strands of gray fog entered the Saia¡¯s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, as well as all of his pores. He shivered from head to toe, all while screaming in agony. His cultivation base was rejected, his body decayed, and he was killed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing let him go and vanished. When he reappeared, he was in front of the Saia cultivator who had unleashed the sealing magic. The Saia backed away in terror as he realized that Xu Qing was not revealing Void Returning strength. It was more like Smoldering God! That unexpected twist filled him with the utmost terror.

    ¡°Brother Heavenink,¡± he blurted, ¡°you¡ª¡±

    Except, his longevity couldn¡¯t sustain him for long enough to finish speaking. He crumbled into pieces, all while countless soul threads emerged from him.

    Xu Qing vanished again, to reappear in front of the final Saia.

    The Saia shivered and turned to flee. But the gray fog exerted a karmic tug, making it impossible for him to do so. As Xu Qing approached, his eyes went wide with madness and he unleashed his curse power to the fullest extent possible.

    ¡°Die, die, DIE!!¡±

    Curses streamed out of him, causing his body to wither dramatically. Unfortunately, when those curses entered Xu Qing, they did as much good <i>as as throwing a stone ox into the ocean</i>. Nothing happened. Xu Qing approached him calmly and took his life.

    Finally, Xu Qing turned to the young Whitemarsh lord, who was currently trying to get away.

    With a single step, Xu Qing appeared in front of the blood-red giant. Ignoring the warhammers, he passed the giant and closed in on the Whitemarsh.

    The young Whitemarsh lord was astonished to the core. In fact, he had been shocked from the moment the gray fog appeared and the n they had agreed upon went awry as their fifth member failed to intervene. The fact that the three Saia chosen had died so quickly went to show the massive level disparity. And that crushed him mentally.

    <i>Dammit, dammit, dammit!! Didn¡¯t they say that Master Stillwinter chased this guy away when they fought? He... he¡¯s actually far more terrifying than Master Stillwinter! And that gray fog... it¡¯s from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands! How can he be using it here? Don¡¯t tell me... that he¡¯s got something to do with the dramatic events that went down there earlier!</i>

    Numerous thoughts ran through his mind as Xu Qing approached. Then the gray fog streamed into him, and all he could do was howl in agony as he was killed in body and soul. The gray fog disappeared. The over one hundred cultivators that Xu Qing had taken captive were no longer useful. They died.

    Sunlight streamed down, illuminating Xu Qing.

    Looking at the distant patch of clouds, he coolly said, ¡°Sir Heavenink.¡±

    The clouds dissipated, revealing a young Firemoon cultivator. He was in third-stage Void Returning, but had battle prowess in the great circle. He was listed as fourth among Firemoon chosen, and was part of the stewarded nation of High God Starfire. In the past, he had fought Tuo Shishan and defeated him, which went to show the quality of his battle prowess. Right now, he looked extremely respectful as he sped hands and bowed formally to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Greetings, Brother Xu! I, Heavenink, havee here today to give you two gifts. The first gift came in the form of those four flunkies. I hope you enjoyed venting your fury on them. The second gift is information about Master Stillwinter! I secretly carried out my own investigation, all for the purpose of helping you find him, Brother Xu!¡±

    Sir Heavenink took out a jade slip he had prepared moments ago and respectfully offered it to Xu Qing.

 Chapter 870: The Monarch Arrives

    <h4>Chapter 870: The Monarch Arrives</h4>

    As the jade slip floated over, Xu Qing looked at it coldly. He didn¡¯t reach out to grab it. Instead, he sent a soul thread over to pierce into the jade slip and shatter it. Most people who saw that would tremble inwardly thinking that it was a disy of overt killing intent.

    But Sir Heavenink was a top chosen. The reason he hadn¡¯t attacked Xu Qing earlier was because he had picked up on certain clues that caused him to hold back. He was perceptive. And thus, he maintained a very respectful attitude.

    ¡°That thug Master Stillwinter had originally been aiming to tame a hillworm,¡± he said. ¡°But then something unexpected happened, and about a month ago he went to the Ghost Chariot Wildwood. Based on the information I was able to dig up, quite a few cultivators have gone after ghost chariots. And that includes the followers of that bastard Fan Shishuang. But when you add the brutal beast Master Stillwinter into the picture, that changes things.

    ¡°That viin Fan Shishuang is a real schemer, and he made a lot of secret preparations for this Great Hunt. Because of that, when that sissy Master Stillwinter went into the Ghost Chariot Wildwood, he never came back out. It seems likely to me that those two jokers locked horns and got stuck at an impasse.¡±

    Sir Heavenink didn¡¯t hide anything. He exined everything he knew, and continuously managed to use insulting terms for both of the cultivators who had previously attacked Xu Qing. In fact, he didn¡¯t repeat any of the insults even once. He was clearly working very hard to make sure he put himself on Xu Qing¡¯s side.

    Of course, the reason he knew so much about the situation was that he had previously been nning to go into the Ghost Chariot Wildwood. He had been hoping to seek an opportunity once Master Stillwinter and Fan Shishuang were injured and tired.

    After finishing his exnation, Sir Heavenink did one more thing to y things really safely. Having heard that Xu Qing was a godherald of the Starfire Temple, he released some of the aura of that very temple.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained cid. Though he had used the soul threads to destroy the jade slip, he had also extracted the information from it by means of the soul thread. For all intents and purposes, it was the same as what Sir Heavenink had just divulged verbally. Whether it was his verbal attacks or the aura of the Starfire Temple, his intent was clear. Xu Qing obviously picked up on the fact that he was trying to present himself as an ally.

    Eyes gleaming with profound light, Xu Qing looked Sir Heavenink up and down. He really had no reason or justification to kill him considering everything so far. From beginning to end, Sir Heavenink hadn¡¯t done a single thing that could be considered courting death.

    Therefore, Xu Qing chose not to bicker with him over anything. He started moving. He passed Sir Heavenink, and in the blink of an eye, disappeared over the horizon.

    After he was gone, Sir Heavenink breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the spot where Xu Qing had disappeared, he felt relief at having survived, but also other conflicting emotions.

    <i>When this Xu Qing fought Master Stillwinter, I don¡¯t think he was intentionally holding back. He probably wasn¡¯t a match for Master Stillwinter. But in the two months that have passed, he experienced a cultivation base breakthrough. He¡¯s the kind of chosen who causes heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformations when he achieves breakthroughs.</i>

    <i>As for that gray fog.... I bet the dramatic events in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands were connected to him. And if he was able to bring the gray fog out of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, and even control it perfectly....</i>

    Sir Heavenink knew what that implied, and it caused a lot of spections to rise up within him.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me... that he tamed a ninedawns!</i>

    Sir Heavenink inhaled deeply. He was starting to get the feeling that in the final rankings of this Great Hunt, the number one spot wouldn¡¯t be taken by a Firemoon cultivator.

    <i>He already took first ce in round one. And he¡¯s probably going to take first in the second round. If he does the same in the third round.... Grand Darkheaven!</i>

    Sir Heavenink reeled mentally. It had been a very, very long time since the Grand Darkheaven appeared in the Firemoon Darkheaven people. In fact, thest time was ten thousand years in the past.

    <i>If the Grand Darkheaven appears this time....</i>

    Sir Heavenink¡¯s mind was racing. Eventually, his eyes shone with determination, and instead of going off in a different direction, he shot after Xu Qing.

    ¡°Brother Xu!¡± he shouted. ¡°Master Stillwinter is just as devious as Fan Shishuang! I¡¯d say there¡¯s a good chance the two of them will join forces. I¡¯d be happy to join you if that would help! It could save you some trouble!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up as he looked back at Sir Heavenink. Meanwhile, he received a projected warning from Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    <i>¡°Milord, something¡¯s fishy about this ruffian. He¡¯s definitely up to something. I suggest you cut down this snake right now!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing ignored him. After a final nce at Sir Heavenink, he neither refused his offer nor epted it. Turning, he continued on toward the Ghost Chariot Wildwood.

    Sir Heavenink¡¯s spirits lifted when he saw that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t rejecting him. In the hopes of creating an even better impression, he then went on to exin even more about the Mountain and Sea Region. Much of it was information that couldn¡¯t even be purchased on the outside, and was new to Xu Qing. For example, he learned about the characteristics of some of the unusual beasts, hidden dangers that could be encountered in the rainforest, and other such things. And thus, the two of them got closer and closer to the Ghost Chariot Wildwood.

    ***

    In the Mountain and Sea Region¡¯s hignds, in the part of the rainforest upied by the hillworms, a months-long chase was still ying out. It was different from the 5,000-kilometer chase in which Master Stillwinter pursued Xu Qing. Instead, this entire chase took ce in hillworm territory.

    The quarry was the Captain. The pursuer was Sir Firedark.

    The Captain had used some outrageous methods to lead Sir Firedark in circles, all while shouting very licentious things.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you tired yet? All I did was interrupt you when you were taming a beast! Who cares if you¡¯re neither a man nor a woman? What¡¯s your problem??

    ¡°My goodness, can you just stop chasing me? Look, I can introduce you to a daoist partner! How about that?

    ¡°Listen, I have a little Junior Brother....¡±

    Behind the Captain, Sir Firedark unleashed an attack that wasparable to the might of a Smoldering God, which blotted out the sky and caused immense pressure to weigh down.

    Rumbling booms echoed out as heaven and earth shattered. The Captain was ripped to shreds, but a momentter, a blue worm popped out of the mud. Momentster, the Captain was back in one piece and fleeing.

    The reality was that the Captain¡¯s attitude didn¡¯t match the wordsing out of his mouth. Things had not been going well for him over the past few months, and he was starting to fear that he had reached the end of the line.

    <i>Why hasn¡¯t little Junior Brother shown up?</i>

    ***

    In the londs of the Mountain and Sea Region, two figures sped through the sky toward a dark section of the rainforest.

    ¡°Brother Xu, that¡¯s the Ghost Chariot Wildwood. It¡¯s inhabited mostly by fierce and brutal grues that most people can¡¯t even defend against.

    ¡°It¡¯s also the primary habitat of the ghost chariots. They actually prey on grues. They have terrifying battle prowess, and some of them are even as strong as Smoldering Gods. Because of that,ing here to try to tame infant ghost chariots is actually very risky.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the jungle up ahead. All of the nts and vegetation were ck. Even the sky was filled with dark clouds, within which crackled red bolts of lightning. There was something very sinister about this part of the rainforest. From the outside, it was possible to sense something tugging at your soul, as if the jungle was a whirlpool.

    There were some cultivators present, but they were wandering around numbly like the walking dead.

    ¡°Those are cultivators who died here recently. After their souls were devoured, their fleshly bodies were resurrected, whereupon they wandered around looking for their souls.... Eventually, the nts and vegetation will cause their fleshly bodies to dpose and turn into nutrients.¡±

    The fear in Sir Heavenink¡¯s voice was clear. ¡°By the way, this ce is huge. That son of a bitch Master Stillwinter and that asshole Fan Shishuang have been inside for a while now. They¡¯re basically hiding in the shadows while we¡¯re out in the open. Things could get difficult.¡±

    Sir Heavenink looked at Xu Qing out of the corner of his eye and noticed that Xu Qing was just hovering there. He blinked a few times, then took out a stick of incense which he lit. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I came prepared. Any cultivator who wants toe here and tame a ghost chariot will get some incense like this. It¡¯ll protect your soul to a certain degree so that you can enter the Ghost Chariot Wildwood safely. I have seven or eight sticks after this one. That should be more than enough.¡±

    Xu Qing looked away from the Ghost Chariot Wildwood to Sir Heavenink. ¡°You can stop digging for information.¡±

    Sir Heavenink smiled woodenly. The truth was that though it seemed like he¡¯d been providing a useful introduction to the area, the reality was that he <i>had</i> been digging for information. He wanted to find out if the beasts in this area would prostrate to Xu Qing like all the others.

    Xu Qing ignored Sir Heavenink. He was aware that he couldn¡¯t hide the fact that he had seeded in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. It was only a matter of time before everyone found out. What was more, he also wanted to find the extent of what he could do thanks to ¡®taming¡¯ Ninedawns.

    Looking at the terrifying Ghost Chariot Wildwood, Xu Qing coolly said, ¡°Ghost chariots. Come here!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he unleashed the aura of Ninedawns.

    The clouds shattered and lightning crashed, sweeping down to create a web of electricity. The nts and vegetation in the dark jungle trembled and bent over as if bowing. The grues howled in agony, and the zombie-like cultivators dropped to the ground andy there unmoving. The ground began to tremble as the entire Ghost Chariot Wildwood seemed toe alive.

    Next, a host of heaven-shaking, earth-shattering auras spread out from the darkness of the jungle. An instantter, numerous vicious-looking ghost chariots charged out into the open.

    There were well over a hundred of them, somerge and some small. Their cultivation bases ranged from Spirit Trove to Void Returning, and they roared as they raced straight toward Xu Qing. They crushed everything in their path, and their eyes shone with underworld light as they stopped in front of Xu Qing and dropped to the ground. It was as if they had met their monarch.

    Their auras spread out,bining to create a dust storm that filled the area.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing stood in front of them, his expression cid.

    Sir Heavenink was stunned to the core. But what was truly astonishing was that things weren¡¯t over yet.

    As the ground shook, three terrifying Smoldering God auras erupted from within the rainforest. An instantter, three profoundly ancient and enormous ghost chariots appeared in the air. They looked in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Sir Heavenink gasped, and his hair stood on end as beads of cold sweat broke out all over him.

    Then Xu Qing spoke again. ¡°Show me the outsiders.¡±

    The ground shook as all of the nts and vegetation in this section of the rainforest suddenly bent down and to the side.

    As a result, all of the Firemoon cultivators who had been hiding in the jungle were revealed. All were trembling and had looks of disbelief on their faces. The events ying outpletely surpassed anything they could have imagined, to the point where it seemed like they were witnessing something from myth or legend.

    Some distance away were two cultivators who were facing off and were about 3,000 meters apart from each other. They were none other than Master Stillwinter and Fan Shishuang. Both were visibly shocked as they slowly turned to look at Xu Qing.

 Chapter 871: Making a Comeback

    <h4>Chapter 871: Making a Comeback</h4>

    The Ghost Chariot Wildwood had opened up, revealing hundreds of cultivators using different methods, techniques, and items in their attempts to capture juvenile ghost chariots. These cultivators were all outstanding figures in their generation. Had Xu Qing not shown up, some would have been killed, but others would have seeded.

    But now... Xu Qing had shown up and said one thing that got all of the ghost chariots to fly out into the open. And with the wave of his hand, he had figuratively opened the curtain in a dark room, revealing the positions of all the cultivators. Truth be told, that description was insufficient. He hadn¡¯t just opened the curtain. He had dismantled the room altogether, and the pieces had grown legs and walked away.

    The Firemoon cultivators present were all astonished to the core. In an instant, they had gone from hiding in the shadows to being exposed in the light, and it caused all of them to start breathing heavily.

    Master Stillwinter was the most stunned of all. After the dramatic situation with the Mountain and Sea Region, which was centered on the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, he had started to specte that Xu Qing might be involved. He had even considered the possibility that they might meet again one day in the future. But he could never have guessed that they would encounter each other in circumstances like this. He saw the ghost chariots prostrating as if to their monarch, as well as the three terrifying ghost chariots in the sky. In rare fashion, he started trembling, and a sensation of profound crisis was growing within him.

    3,000 meters away from him was Fan Shishuang, who felt simrly. He had been locked inbat with Master Stillwinter, but considering what was happening now, he was shocked to the core.

    All it took was a moment for all the cultivators present to be so shaken they just remained in ce unmoving.

    Outside of the Ghost Chariot Wildwood, Xu Qing didn¡¯t even look at Master Stillwinter. Instead, he turned his attention to the three Smoldering God ghost chariots.

    Those three were different from any of the other beasts he had encountered during his travels. They were not howling in anguish, nor were they prostrating. They were just examining him suspiciously.

    <i>When the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region reach Smoldering God, I wonder... if theirtent ancestral memories start to return.</i>

    That was the only exnation he coulde up with for the unusual gazes of the three Smoldering God ghost chariots. The looks in their eyes also revealed the limitations of his Ninedawns aura.

    <i>Without the mage state of an antemage, it won¡¯t be possible to control Smoldering God beasts.</i>

    Xu Qing shifted his gaze to take in the cultivators who had been revealed in the vegetation, before eventually focusing on Master Stillwinter. They were so far away from each other that with mortal eyes, it wouldn¡¯t have been possible to even see each other. But when the battle prowess and cultivation base of a cultivator reached a certain level, they could see things that were much farther away, thanks to divine sense and other instinctual abilities. And thus, their gazes locked.

    When that happened, the sense of crisis within Master Stillwinter grew more intense.

    Xu Qing took a step forward. A sound like muffled thunder echoed out as a host of red soul threads sprang out, creating a tempest as he entered a god state. He went directly to the fourth level! It was the Crimson Mother state, which could also be called the Violet Lord state! He was 300 meters tall, with violet feathers of flesh covering him and two huge wings on his back. The sound of chanting drifted out in all directions. A violet moon rose behind him, covered with countless figures prostrated in worship. In front of him was a huge sundial with its gnomon spinning. The power of time caused the surroundings to distort and blur. Underfoot was an enormous lotus throne, each petal of which represented one of Xu Qing¡¯s abilities. They spread out like violet tentacles, making the lotus look like a violet p¨¡ramit¨¡ lily.

    A godly sensation weighed down, causing the souls of all the cultivators to tremble. The ghost chariots all seemed agitated, and the three powerful ones above emanated intense pressure.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to that. Within his terrifying god state, he took a second step. As he did, ninenterns of flesh flew out and began circling around him. They were the Ninedawns skulls, and they roared as they suddenly shot toward Xu Qing and merged with his god state, covering him with a profoundly ancient suit of mage armor.

    The Ninedawns skulls appeared on the armor as Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess was blessed to a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling degree. When the jackal-dragon mask settled onto his face, wild colors shed in heaven and earth!

    This was something that had never before appeared in history. Part god. Part mage. Together on one person. At the same time, an indescribable aura pulsed off Xu Qing.

    The ghost chariots below trembled as they groveled, while those up above bowed their heads. The nts and vegetation in the rainforest bent in his direction, all while red lightning crashed in the sky.

    The Firemoon cultivators were unable to stand up to the force. Blood sprayed out of their mouths as they staggered in the opposite direction, their faces masks of horror.

    Even Fan Shishuang and Master Stillwinter were visibly astonished. There was no need for them to start fighting; they could clearly sense how amazingly strong Xu Qing was.

    Sir Heavenink struggled to control his breathing. Just like everyone else, it was his first time seeing Xu Qing in this state, and in his blood he felt the urge to offer worship.

    As everyone reeled, Xu Qing took a third step in hisbined god and mage state. That put him only 3,000 meters away from Master Stillwinter. The ground trembled. The sky shook. And the wild, killing aura of the jackal-dragon filled the world, causing violet snowkes to start falling.

    Fan Shishuang backed up. Given the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and the stories Fan Shishuang had heard about how Master Stillwinter tried to kill him, it was obvious what was going on here. Xu Qing was here for Master Stillwinter. It had nothing to do with him.

    As he backed up, Master Stillwinter burst into action. His hands blurred in a double-handed incantation gesture, and he shot backward, tapping into all of his great circle Void Returning battle prowess. He was ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ echelon. Maybe Xu Qing was putting a lot of pressure on him, but he wasn¡¯t the kind of person who just backed down. What was more, he knew full well that since Xu Qing hade here, there would be no avoiding a battle to the death!

    A huge rift opened in the sky, and a gigantic finger emerged, dropping down toward Xu Qing. The finger pulsed with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power. It was powered by all of Master Stillwinter¡¯s battle prowess, as well as countless natural and magicalws, not to mention his dao lineaments. The air rippled and distorted as the force bore down on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change as he looked at the descending finger. He lifted his hand and pushed out, causing rumbling booms to echo out as the huge finger stopped in front of him. Then it convulsed, and thunderous cracking sounds rang out. Next, the terrifying finger distorted dramatically in the middle as Xu Qing ripped it in half! Next, a second, third, fourth, and fifth finger descended.

    Master Stillwinter had used this same move on Xu Qing before. Back then, Xu Qing had been forced to pay a huge price to use divine abilities to escape it. Even then, he had ended up seriously hurt, and in the end, had been forced to use Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    On this day, things were different. He was facing the same divine ability, but his methods of dealing with it were different. He took a fourth step. More cracking sounds could be heard as the four fingerspletely failed to stop Xu Qing. He ripped all of them apart.

    The sight caused Master Stillwinter¡¯s expression to turn very serious. Backing up again, he performed another incantation gesture, causing the palm connected to the five broken fingers to obscure the sky as it crushed down toward Xu Qing.

    He looked up at the huge palm, and gray fog appeared in his eyes.

    The fog proliferated, and in the blink of an eye, had surrounded them. Then it shot toward the palm.

    When they shed, the palm was stopped in ce. In fact, it was pushed back. Then the gray fog rapidly converged into the shape of a gray nail which pierced the palm and shoved it toward the ground. Everything shook dramatically as the huge nail of gray fog impaled the palm to the ground.

    Nothing Master Stillwinter did could free the palm.

    Xu Qing looked away from the palm to Master Stillwinter. Without saying a single word, he took a fifth step. That put him only 300 meters in front of Master Stillwinter.

    Master Stillwinter struggled to control his breathing. At the same time, he turned red from head to toe as a host of blood clones emerged from him. Circling around him, they became a bloodke. Within the bloodke, blood clones copsed one after another, causing theke to expand dramatically and get closer to Xu Qing.

    As Master Stillwinter floated higher into the air, his eyes burning with killing intent, he waved both of his hands apart, causing even more blood and blood clones to erupt. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by a shocking sea of blood sorge that it wasn¡¯t possible to see where it ended. It filled the sky, turning all heaven and earth the color of blood.

    Master Stillwinter wasn¡¯t even visible in the middle of the sea of blood as he howled, ¡°Crush!¡±

    He threw his hands down, and the terrifying sea of blood dropped down. Previously, this move had surpassed the limits of Xu Qing¡¯s blood authority, and he had failed to counter it. In the end, he managed to escape, but did so with serious injuries.

    Upon seeing it unleashed again, Xu Qing lifted his right hand toward the red sea and closed his hand in a grasping motion. Cultivation base power spread through him, and godsource spread out. The Ninedawns skulls emerged into the open and roared.

    Being blessed to the limit, Xu Qing¡¯s blood authority surpassed anything from before. It had reached a much higher level. The sky-obscuring, sun-blocking sea of blood turned into a massive vortex. And the source of the vortex was Xu Qing¡¯s hand!

    The roiling sea of blood rushed to his palm, shrinking down rapidly as it did. From a distance, the sight waspletely and utterly shocking to all the observing cultivators. In the end, the previously majestic blood sea was sucked into Xu Qing¡¯s palm, where it turned into a spinning red sphere.

    The red glow it cast filled the sky and caused observers to feel pain in their souls. Its shocking aura seemed unstable, like it might detonate catastrophically at any moment.

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s mind felt like it was being struck by lightning, and he was shaking. He could no longer hide his astonishment. Then Xu Qing flicked his finger, sending the destructive blood sphere shooting through the air. It became a streak of red that shot straight toward Master Stillwinter!

 Chapter 872: One More Lash Brings Death

    <h4>Chapter 872: One More Lash Brings Death</h4>

    Blood-colored light filled the sky, turning everything crimson. The streak of red became like a scarlet curtain that covered all. Thends below were the same. They were like a hell of blood, with Xu Qing in control of it all.

    The blood sphere seemed unstable, pulsing with terrifying energy that could eradicate anything and everything. The Firemoon cultivators who could see what was happening backed up, their hearts pounding. It almost felt like their own blood was about to be taken over.

    Fan Shishuang¡¯s pupils constricted. It was obvious that Xu Qing was inplete control. Whether it was breaking the fingers or taking control of the blood, Fan Shishuang could tell that... he wasn¡¯t a match!

    <i>He hasn¡¯t even used any of his main divine abilities....</i>

    Fan Shishuang sped up as he backed away.

    Master Stillwinter, who was the focus of this situation, was visibly shaken as he hovered in midair. He knew his own divine abilities, and how threatening they were, and he could sense that the killing power of this blood sphere surpassed anything he had done up to this point. Heaven and earth was like a huge cage to him, and the all-epassing red was something he simply couldn¡¯t evade or withstand.

    At that moment of deadly crisis, his years of fighting experience took over. Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and exhaled sharply in the direction of the blood sphere. A stream of golden light shot out of his mouth. At the same time, he detonated his body, turning it into a host of blood clones that scattered in all directions.

    The golden light rapidly turned so dazzling it was blinding. And in the middle of that light was a ring. It was made of golden bone, and though most of the flesh had been scraped off, there was a face on it.

    That face¡¯s eyes were full of terror as it moaned, ¡°Milord, it¡¯s me! Lil¡¯ Fishy! We¡¯re on the same side here.... Milord, I¡¯ve missed you so much! It¡¯s all the fault of that god-damned Master Stillwinter....¡±

    The ring was the god¡¯s finger from D-132, which Master Stillwinter had ultimately captured. Afterward, Master Stillwinter had used a brutal refinement technique to turn the finger into a ring. And now he was using it to block the blood sphere.

    Maybe Xu Qing was thinking about old times, or maybe the finger¡¯s words were actually effective. Either way, the blood sphere actually passed right through the ring without hurting ¨©t at all.

    In fact, the moment it happened, Master Stillwinter¡¯s mark waspletely removed from the ring. The god¡¯s finger shivered from that near-death experience. As ¨©t flew toward Xu Qing, ¨©t was about to exin everything when Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly appeared and blocked ¨©ts path.

    ¡°Halt!¡± the patriarch said coolly. This definitely was one of the highlights of his life. After all, being able to say ¡®halt¡¯ to a god was something that most spirit automatons would never have a chance to do.

    The god¡¯s finger, despite being very irritated, didn¡¯t dare to cause trouble in a moment like this, and thus smiled ingratiatingly.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to either of them or their emotional reactions. He was looking up into the sky.

    Because of the distraction caused by the god¡¯s finger, Master Stillwinter¡¯s blood clones had scattered everywhere. Most were nearing the horizon, and though they hadn¡¯t fully escaped the canopy of blood that covered everything, they were close. Every single one of the over 1,000 clones looked exactly like Master Stillwinter. And every single one had a very serious expression on its face. Eyes shining with mad killing intent, they red at Xu Qing and all shouted the same thing.

    ¡°Sacrifice!¡±

    ¡°Sacrifice!¡±

    ¡°Sacrifice!¡±

    Their voices echoed in the air as five blood-red secret troves appeared above, like five volcanoes rumbling loudly. They were the secret troves that Master Stillwinter had formed when in the Spirit Trove level. Although he was now in Void Returning, the five secret troves were still his foundation. Now, having no other choice, he was holding nothing back.

    The moment the word ¡®sacrifice¡¯ echoed out, the heavenly daos in the five secret troves howled, and five figures emerged. One was a blood fiend with eight arms. One was a gobblewock with red scales. One was a patch of blood-colored skin. One was a crimson eyeball. And one was a stream of scarlet light. These were the heavenly daos that Master Stillwinter had subjugated in Spirit Trove.

    Upon appearing, they didn¡¯t shoot toward Xu Qing. Roaring decisively, they shot up into the air, sting open the blood canopy that stretched from horizon to horizon.

    The dome of heaven trembled. The vortex seethed, and blood-red lightning crashed everywhere in shocking fashion. Within the vortex, an image appeared. It depicted a vast void within which was a shocking kunpeng bird shackled with numerous chains. It pulsed with a powerful heavenly dao aura. This was the ancient heavenly dao that had been captured by the Firemoon Darkheaven people! [1]

    Looking closely, it appeared as if every chain was stabbed into the kunpeng¡¯s body. What was more, there was an enormous chain like a whip behind it thatshed it constantly, ripping its flesh into shreds. The whip was covered with numerous sealing marks that glittered brightly. And everysh of the whip caused a sound like heavenly thunder to echo out and mingle with the anguished howls of the ancient heavenly dao.

    The howls contained immeasurable pain, and seemed to be pleading for death. The sound surpassed natural and magicalws, and they caused Xu Qing¡¯s blood sphere to slow down and stop in midair.

    This wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s first time witnessing this ancient heavenly dao. However, unlike thest time, Master Stillwinter wasn¡¯t just drawing on the power of its sound. He was... sacrificing his own heavenly daos!

    In the blink of an eye, his five heavenly daos shot into the vortex, where they crumbled into fragments that merged into the whip, adding five sealing marks to it and increasing its power. It was a process that couldn¡¯t be reversed. Master Stillwinter had lost his five heavenly daos for all eternity, which would have a massive impact on his cultivation base. In fact, if he wanted to recover, it would require paying a stupefying price. That was the main reason he hadn¡¯t resorted to this tactic in hisst fight with Xu Qing.

    But making this sacrifice gave him a spectacr boost to his strength. In the blink of an eye, one of the chains binding the ancient heavenly dao came off. It shot through the rift in the sky, clinking down to appear above the Ghost Chariot Wildwood. Then it swept toward Xu Qing, backed by naturalws that couldn¡¯t be blocked or evaded.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    Xu Qing shivered as the chain smacked into him and knocked him back by 3,000 meters.

    The power of the chain then became a host of red lightning bolts that smashed into him. The Ninedawns mage armor blocked them, but the nine skulls roared as cracks spread out over them.

    Xu Qing¡¯s soul trembled, and a glimmer of surprise could be seen in his eyes. Inside, however, he waspletely taken aback. The power of that chain was so terrifying that it took all of the might of the mage armor to protect him. Although the Ninedawns mage armor seemed like it was about to copse, Xu Qing could sense that it was already repairing itself.

    Apparently, the chain itself had some of the essence of an antemage in it. What was more, Xu Qing had known all along that the Ninedawns skulls couldn¡¯t form a true mage state. He needed to break through to Void Returning before he could fuse the skulls to do that.

    <i>The chains binding that ancient heavenly dao are really effective....</i>

    Xu Qing looked at the ancient heavenly dao out in the void, and was suddenly struck with a realization.

    <i>The God-Rejecting Mage Formation....</i>

    His eyes narrowed, but he didn¡¯t pursue the train of thought.

    Noticing that the chain seemed to be on the verge of disappearing, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some blood. A tremor passed through him, and his god state began to show signs of copsing. From that he could tell that he wouldn¡¯t be able to stand up to a second blow like he had the first one.

    As for Master Stillwinter, he obviously had no information that could have informed him about how the chain would react to the Ninedawns skulls. Xu Qing was still alive, but <i>if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off</i>, and therefore, the faces of all his blood clones grimaced viciously.

    ¡°Sacrifice!!¡±

    This time, he was going to sacrifice his own life force.

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s body withered, and he went from looking young to elderly. In fact, half of him copsed into ash. As the powerful life force entered the void, a second chain dropped down.

    In the shortest of moments it swept toward Xu Qing in another devastating attack.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    Xu Qing coughed up three mouthfuls of blood as his god state copsed and his flesh was shredded, revealing bone beneath. His Ninedawns mage armor wasrgely ravaged and began falling off him. The wounds covering him made it clear that a third blow like this would kill him.

    Holding nothing back, he fled. He also seemed to be ready to take a risk, as though he had a trump card to unleash.

    As a result, the cautious Master Stillwinter didn¡¯t dare to get too close to him. He gritted his teeth. He had paid a massive price to take the fight to this level, and therefore, he wasn¡¯t going to give up until Xu Qing was dead, regardless of how negatively it affected him. He only had one life, and he didn¡¯t want to risk losing it. However, life force and heavenly daos could always be reced, as long as you survived.

    Therefore, his eyes shed with determination as he yet again said, ¡°Sacrifice!¡±

    This time he was sacrificing his cultivation base!

    His Void Returning cultivation base burst out of him. All of the daos he had assimted and all of the naturalws he had gained enlightenment of became like shooting stars that raced toward the ancient heavenly dao. After they were absorbed, a third chain appeared.

    ¡°Die!¡± screamed Master Stillwinter as the chainshed toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had been injured and was in retreat. It truly looked like a third chain blow would kill him.

    Master Stillwinter trembled in rage. He wasn¡¯t sure how Xu Qing had survived up to this point... but he had some suspicions. As he pulled his clones back and used them to restore the lost portions of his body, he forced himself to getposed and then shot after the fleeing figure off in the distance.

    The moment he did, thepletely bedraggled Xu Qing looked up and frowned. Thanks to Master Stillwinter, he had now fused halfway with the Ninedawns state. If he couldplete it, then he could truly enter the mage state. Yet his opponent had still not chosen to back down.

    ¡°Useless piece of trash.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as his injuries healed up. Having fused halfway with the Ninedawns skulls, he was even more terrifying than before. He stepped toward Master Stillwinter. ¡°Crushing you should be enough to finish the fusion process.¡±

    Off in the distance, a host of emotions exploded within Master Stillwinter, and he suddenly coughed up a massive mouthful of blood.

    1. This kunpeng heavenly dao appeared previously in <u>chapter 819</u>. ?

 Chapter 873: Suppressing in the Mage Trove

    <h4>Chapter 873: Suppressing in the Mage Trove</h4>

    <i>How is this happening??</i> Master Stillwinter could not prevent the stress, fury, confusion, and a host of other negative emotions from exploding within him. He simply couldn¡¯t understand what was going on. He had made a massive sacrifice to use the chains binding an ancient heavenly dao, and that should have resulted in a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering attack.

    After all, he wasn¡¯t the first Firemoon Darkheaven to use that method. The sacrificial technique was something that all chosen of his people could do. Because of the immense price that had to be paid, it was usually used as ast resort, which meant that it wasn¡¯t something used frequently. But it had been used.

    The chains that were summoned weren¡¯t real, but rather, were illusory projections. But even still, each use of that very special divine ability that was exclusive to the Firemoon Darkheaven people could be considered extremely effective.

    Cultivators from other species who could survive it were <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>.

    Yet despite summoning three of those chains, he had failed to kill Xu Qing. Not only that, but the chains apparently had helped him! Master Stillwinter couldn¡¯t help but feelpletely humiliated. That was especially true considering that Xu Qing¡¯s aura was now clearly stronger than it had been before. It was so bizarre that he couldn¡¯t wrap his mind around it. He just couldn¡¯t understand.

    He¡¯d gone all out, sacrificed his heavenly daos, life force, and cultivation base, yet it seemed like he¡¯d done nothing but provide a tailor-made blessing to his opponent. The pain in his chest became so intense that he coughed up another massive mouthful of blood.

    The words just spoken by Xu Qing caused Master Stillwinter¡¯s eyes to turn crimson, and caused his killing intent to surpass his desire to live. He was aware that this was a situation in which he was likely doomed. Unless an actual god interfered, he had very little chance of surviving.

    As one of the top chosen among the Firemoon Darkheavens, he was familiar with gods, and knew that the chances of that happening were slim to none. The Great Hunt was set up to be like raising venomous bugs in a jar. There was no way pleas for help would be answered. The gods existed on high, and were not given to sympathy. In the Great Hunt, life or death was the responsibility of the participant.

    ¡°Considering everything...¡± Master Stillwinter murmured. Heughed bitterly. Giving up on thoughts of fleeing, he red at Xu Qing, madness rising within him.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out from within him, followed by a very dangerous aura. Then terrifying fluctuations rolled out from him. The source of it all was his sea of consciousness!

    There were ny-six god monuments there, all of them trembling. The faces of the dead gods there roared in rage. Theirbined cries swirled out to form a massive vortex that spun around Master Stillwinter himself. The sound grew louder, and the force of attraction grew stronger.

    All of a sudden, the red sky shifted, turning blurry and dark. The entire world seemed to descend into theherworld, all while ancient chanting spread through the darkness.

    Master Stillwinter¡¯s aura began to grow stronger and stronger. However, only an instantter, cracking sounds rang out within him as he started to crumble. This level of explosive powerup was too much for his fleshly body to take. But he didn¡¯t care.

    He had sacrificed his heavenly daos, his life force, and his cultivation base, but he still had his soul. His true soul was actually hidden among the more than ny god monuments, and now, it glittered brightly. Master Stillwinter howled as it exploded, turning into a burst of force that swept over all the monuments. The true soul was the core of his sea of consciousness, and destroying it would affect everything else.

    With that stimtion, the host of god monuments began to tremble violently. Next, they all began to shine with holy golden light that filled Master Stillwinter¡¯s shattered body.

    One by one, streams of light shot up into the dome of heaven. From a distance, it was possible to see a total of ny-five beams of golden light shooting up into the dark sky to form ny-five enormous god monuments. As they hovered there emanating destructive force, they merged to create a huge face with closed eyes.

    The face was extremely ugly, and didn¡¯t have ordinary facial features, but rather, resembled something like a bug or reptile. It was very repulsive.

    Meanwhile, Master Stillwinter¡¯s fleshly body had reached the end of the line. As he crumbled into ash, he leered at Xu Qing and said, ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting for you in theherworld.¡±

    With that, he faded into nothing. The only thing left behind in his stead was the enormous face in the sky. The two eyes fluttered and then opened. An ancient wind blew, full of corrosion and death.

    Itnded on Xu Qing. Heaven and earth went dim as signs of mutation cropped up in Xu Qing.

    But this was not the Xu Qing of the past. He had faced many gods, and had thus developed a measure of resistance to them. What was more, when in his fourth-level god state he was like a god himself.

    Therefore, he had his ways of resisting the mutagen and energy of gods. A tremor passed through him as the spots that were starting to mutate burst into mes and then became soul threads.

    He looked up at the face in the sky, his eyes shining with a bizarre light. That action seemed like sphemy to the god above, who was enraged. The face¡¯s mouth opened and then inhaled sharply in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Heaven and earth crumbled. The air shattered. And a massive gravitational forcetched onto Xu Qing. Xu Qing¡¯s body wasn¡¯t under his own control as he flew up toward the face, which clearly sought to devour him.

    This was Master Stillwinter''s final trump card. He sacrificed his soul to revive the god monuments to a certain degree, and thus... end things in mutual destruction! That was the only thing he could do. No god was going toe save him. And death was death.

    What was more, if he could prove his value and show his determination when he died, then it was always possible that a god might resurrect him in the future.

    There was no way to tell if a god was pleased or displeased. But one thing was certain: Xu Qing currently looked pleased. All of this was going exactly how he¡¯d hoped it would.

    During the fight with Master Stillwinter months ago, he¡¯d be aware of the gruish nature of his sea of consciousness. When using Fishing the Moon in the Well, he saw the more than ny god monuments of deceased gods. Back then, he wasn¡¯t sure what it meant.

    But after gaining enlightenment from Ninedawns¡¯ memory fragments, he saw what happened years ago, and came to realize exactly what those god monuments were.

    They were gods that had died during the war between mages and gods. Despite being perished, and not being as dangerous as they were in life, they were still able to form a powerful trump card in Master Stillwinter¡¯s sea of consciousness. That led Xu Qing to the conclusion that they could be very beneficial nutrients for his mage trove.

    For that to happen, though, the god monuments needed to be active. Like they were now.

    <i>They¡¯re just monuments to dead gods, which means that the monuments... count as being dead!</i>

    If he was dealing with ny-five actual gods, then he wouldn¡¯t have any chance of seeding. He would be dead after a single nce. But these were monuments that were the remains of dead gods. Therefore, Xu Qing could at least attempt to subdue them.

    As he neared the huge face, the violet moon behind him shone with bright light, and the sound of chanting drifted out from it. The soul threads that formed his fourth-level god state wriggled, and as he waved his hand, they spread out. They became a sea of soul threads that was actuallyrger than the face, and became like a barrier between it and him.

    The gravitational force ceased to pull at him. Eyes glittering, he reached out with his right hand and squeezed the sea of soul threads. Millions of soul threads rumbled loudly, sending out boundless fluctuations as they spread out and surrounded the face.

    The face¡¯s eyes were listless and dead. But the opened mouth, instead of inhaling, suddenly spat out a golden mist. The mist had a corrosive effect on the soul threads, and for the first time ever, Xu Qing could sense them starting to pop out of existence.

    At the same time, the facial features of the face blurred from the effort of trying to free itself from confinement.

    Ny-five beams of golden light shot out, which turned into ny-five golden spears. The spears exploded in all directions, smashing through the soul threads in their way, which were powerless to stop them.

    That said, there was no way Xu Qing was going to let the face do whatever it wanted. And thus, he reached out to the blood sphere that had been thwarted by the arrival of the ancient heavenly dao. Instantly, it erupted into a huge sea of blood. Whenbined with the soul threads, it created a double perimeter that started shrinking down to crush the face.

    Xu Qing then took a deep breath and settled down cross-legged in the air. He ced his hands on his knees, and lowered his head. The mage mark on his forehead then glittered brightly.

    <i>Antemage!</i>

    His Ninedawns mage armor vibrated as boundless gray fog spread out and filled the surroundings. As the roiling gray fog covered him, a towering figure like a mountain became vaguely visible within.

    Long ago, that figure had stood watch outside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, protecting his species for ten thousand years. Later, he disappeared in the sands of history, remembered by few. Now, he was appearing again. This was the true antemage state of the Darkheaven Archmage people.

    Along with it came a truly astonishing and boundless aura. The Mountain and Sea Region trembled, and countless beasts howled. The blood of numerous cultivators was affected, and they felt the urge to drop down in worship. Sadly, the figure was still blurry, giving the sensation that it was only about halfplete.

    A peerless might appeared around the face that Xu Qing had trapped. Then it crashed down. A boom rattled out as the face copsed, transforming back into ny-five god monuments. They attempted to form back together, but there was no time.

    Millions of soul threads. A 50,000-kilometer blood sea. Half of an antemage state. Combined, they created something beyond exceptional. More rumbling echoed out as the gray fog seemed to be one with the huge figure.

    A momentter, the fog dissipated, and Xu Qing was revealed, hovering cross-legged in midair. The giant face was gone. It was now in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, suppressed in thends of his mage trove. He had seeded in acquiring incredible nutrients for his antemage state!

 Chapter 874: The Last One

    <h4>Chapter 874: The Last One</h4>

    Lingering fluctuations rolled through the dome of heaven, causing the clouds to ripple endlessly. From a distance, it looked like fish scales, as if some literal gargantuan fish was swimming through the sky like water. It was unsurpassably shocking.

    In front of the massive fish was Xu Qing, seated cross-legged, his long hair drifting around him as he emanated an ancient aura. He closed his eyes as he hovered there motionless. Surrounding him was roughly half of the image of an antemage. It was slowly fading away into the sky, disappearing into the distance along with the massive fish.

    Everything down below was silent. The observing cultivators were overwhelmed with astonishment. They had just borne witness to a battle in which the Master Stillwinter, listed second in the echelon of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, had perished! They couldn¡¯t stop themselves from trembling physically.

    When Xu Qing showed up, the ghost chariots bowed to him and the vegetation parted. That alone proved to them how powerful he was. In their hearts, they had all been absolutely convinced that Master Stillwinter was just as powerful. Yet from the beginning of the fight until the end, Master Stillwinter¡¯s tactics had been effectively useless. He had been outmaneuvered so badly that many of them experienced a misconception, and started to think that Master Stillwinter had actually been weak!

    But misconceptions were just that: misconceptions.

    Master Stillwinter hadn¡¯t been weak at all. It was just that he had been facing off against someone that was far, far too strong!

    That said, though Master Stillwinter¡¯s defeat shocked all of them, there was a limit to that shock. There was no way that an event like this could leave them truly destabilized on a deep level. But what was destabilizing was that as the gray fog around Xu Qing faded away, they were able to glimpse the disappearing figure behind him!

    That was obviously a source of deep shock, as they recognized that gray fog asing from the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. Though none of them recognized the figure, their bloodline contained an indescribably familiar resonance, as if... they were looking at their ultimate origin.

    Even as that sensation took hold within them, Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes. At the same time, the mage mark on his forehead flickered, and the antemage figure behind him pulsed with an even stronger wild and ancient aura.

    All of the cultivators trembled as they felt the urge to offer worship,ing from their blood, souls, and instincts. That included Fan Shishuang and Sir Heavenink.

    The prostrating ghost chariots were all wailing and howling. The sound drifted out, filling heaven and earth with a sensation of grief that affected the emotions of everyone who could hear it. And that sensation was amplified by the sight of the figure in the sky. It was like wailing that came from their souls and blood.

    Some of the cultivators dropped to their knees to kowtow. When Sir Heavenink did so, others followed his lead. Even Fan Shishuang felt an indescribable tug of emotion that caused him to bow his head and then kowtow reverently. The three ancient ghost chariots with Smoldering God fluctuations were no longer studying Xu Qing suspiciously. They bowed their heads.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing understood why the legends imed that a person woulde from Ninedawns and would be worshiped by the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It was built into their blood.

    <i>Sadly, I¡¯m only half-fused.</i>

    Xu Qing cast his senses into his fifth secret trove, the mage trove. There, in and created by his own flesh, were ny-five god monuments, currently being melted bynterns of flesh and a gray fog. In midair in the mage trove were nine mountains. Previously, nothing had existed in the middle of those mountains, but now there was a colossal figure.

    It was an image of half of an antemage. He floated cross-legged, pulsing with a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering aura. What was more, he clearly possessed life force, and was even doing breathing exercises. Every time he inhaled, the mage trove would shrink down. At the same time, the ny-five god monuments in thends of flesh would emit streams of golden smoke that would float over to be inhaled.

    They were nutrients that constantly bolstered the mage trove. Then the antemage would exhale, and the mage trove would tremble and expand. It became a cycle. With the god monuments and antemage present, the mage trove seemed almost like it was alive!

    Xu Qing took it all in before focusing on the half-antemage. He felt anticipation. Eventually, he returned his attention to all the bowing figures. He stood. As he did, fluctuations of teleportation began to build up in the Mountain and Sea Region. It was an indication that the second round of the Great Hunt was going to end soon.

    After a moment of reflection, Xu Qing shot over the horizon. When he was gone, the rainforest went back to normal. The ghost chariots ceased their howling and returned to whence they¡¯de.

    The cultivators¡¯ faces were ashen. Hearts filled with astonishment and otherplicated emotions, they left the area. They needed to take advantage of what time was left to get a mount.

    Thest to leave were Sir Heavenink and Fan Shishuang. They exchanged a nce, and then Sir Heavenink stuck his chin up, sped his hands behind his back, and left.

    Ultimately, Fan Shishuang was hovering in midair alone. <i>Ninedawns... out in the world.... This hasn¡¯t happened from ancient times until now....</i>

    Fan Shishuang took a deep breath, suppressed the shock in his eyes, and left.

    ***

    Time passed. There were two days left until the second round ended, and Xu Qing was currently in an unfamiliar area.

    It was the Hillworm Jungle.

    This was the spot where Xu Qing and the Captain had agreed to meet up.

    Hovering in midair, Xu Qing looked at the dense jungle in front of him. He could sense the Captain¡¯s aura, but didn¡¯t see him anywhere. Finally he took out a jade slip and sent a message. He got no response.

    <i>I see signs of a fight....</i>

    After some thought, he entered the jungle. As he did, the nts bent to the side to make a path for him. Expression cid, he proceeded for a while before finally stopping and turning to look at a fruit tree.

    The tree emanated a cold aura.

    <i>That¡¯s Eldest Brother¡¯s frigid energy.</i>

    Xu Qing walked up to the tree, reached out, and touched it. At the same time, he released both his Ninedawns aura and his divine sense.

    <i>Open your memories.</i>

    The memories of the nts and vegetation in the Hillworm Jungle became like threads that weaved together into aposite. Gradually, images formed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind.

    He saw the Captain fleeing as someone chased him. He also saw them fighting here in the Hillworm Jungle, both of them using a variety of techniques. In the end, the Captain fled off into the distance, leaving the Hillworm Jungle with the other cultivator in pursuit, pulsing with determination and a baleful aura.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes calmly. He wasn¡¯t worried about the Captain.

    Granted, Xu Qing already realized who was chasing the Captain. It was the chosen ranked first in the Firemoon echelon. Sir Firedark.

    Except....

    <i>Eldest Brother was tangling with him for quite a while, but survived. There¡¯s no way he¡¯ll die. It looks like Sir Firedark hates Eldest Brother down to the depths of his bones. Eldest Brother must have really done a number on him.</i>

    Xu Qing did some calctions and came to the conclusion that this round of the Great Hunt was about to end.

    Over the past few days, teleportation portals had been powering up all over the Mountain and Sea Region.

    ¡°No more than two days,¡± he murmured.

    Based on what he¡¯d learned about the second round, once the teleportations began, all the participants would be sent back to God Mountain.

    <i>The Captain figured out how to get in here, so he surely has a way to teleport away. And that means he¡¯ll be leaving soon too.</i>

    Xu Qing felt better when thinking about it that way. That said, considering his close rtionship with the Captain, it seemed best to spend the next two days looking for him.

    Floating up into the air, he picked a direction and started moving. Whenever he lost track of the Captain¡¯s aura, he would send out divine sense and the Ninedawns aura to check the memories of the rainforest. Then he would adjust his path and start moving again.

    Unfortunately, time was very limited. Even after searching for two days, he didn¡¯t actually find the Captain. Over the past two days, the teleportation fluctuations in the Mountain and Sea Region had be increasingly prevalent. At one point, Xu Qing even saw a Firemoon cultivator racing along in the distance, only to vanish via teleportation.

    <i>It¡¯s starting.</i> At that point, he found a mountain where he settled down cross-legged to wait for teleportation. As time ticked by, the sound of rumbling filled the Mountain and Sea Region. It became deafening, like the enraged roar of a god.

    Teleportation fluctuations filled the region like invisible waves.

    The first to be taken away were the cultivators who hadn¡¯t acquired mounts. Next came those with weak mounts.

    If one could stand in a position to observe the Mountain and Sea Region as a whole, it would be possible to see cultivators everywhere being caught up by the teleportation fluctuations. But there was one person who remained in ce despite all of the teleportations.

    Several hourster, when all of the other Great Hunt participants were gone, he was still there.

    Frowning, Xu Qing looked up into the sky.

    Rumbling filled heaven and earth. Because Xu Qing was the only person left in the region, the teleportation fluctuations all focused on his location. Up above him, they converged, creating a huge vortex that resembled a ck hole. However, no matter how loudly it rumbled, it didn¡¯t affect him. It couldn¡¯t teleport him away.

    It was a bit of a surprise.

    <i>If it can¡¯t take me away, then I guess I should take the initiative to enter!</i>

    Eyes narrowing, he stood and approached the vortex!

 Chapter 875: Ninedawns Enters the World!

    <h4>Chapter 875: Ninedawns Enters the World!</h4>

    Heavenfire City was a holy city at the foot of God Mountain in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It was made of three sub-cities that surrounded God Mountain, and at the moment, those cities were filled with rumbling sounds and golden light. From a distance, it was possible to see the light gathering at the peak of God Mountain, where it created a pir that rose into the canopy of heaven.

    Rumbling sounds could be heard as ripples spread in all directions in the sky. The golden light became increasingly dazzling, while at the same time, teleportation fluctuations grew stronger everywhere.

    After noticing what was going on, people began to step outdoors in the three holy sub-cities and look into the sky. More and more people appeared, until there were no less than a million.

    Most were Firemoons and their subsidiary species, all of whom were not participants in the Great Hunt. There were also elders and experts from various species. Many of them were associates of the participants who had gone into the Mountain and Sea Region, and were waiting for their return.

    As the fluctuationsing off of God Mountain grew stronger, everyone looked up hoping to see people they knew returning on precious mounts.

    ¡°The second round is about to end.¡±

    ¡°If nothing unexpected happens this time, we¡¯ll likely see Sir Firedark with a mount that can crush all others.¡±

    ¡°Well, Master Stillwinter ranks second in the echelon. He probably got an extraordinary mount as well.¡±

    ¡°I wonder if some dark horse came along this time. For instance, there¡¯s that human Xu Qing. I wonder how he did.¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing? He might be a chosen, and he did take first ce in round one. But that¡¯s only because none of our Firemoon chosen care about the first round. The second round is different. I bet Xu Qing either died, or at the very least, came to a true understanding of how inferior he is.¡±

    The buzz of conversation filled Heavenfire City. Clearly, no one was privy to details of what happened in the Mountain and Sea Region. After all, that region was isted and sealed off. But the fact that no one knew what happened inside only led to deeper curiosity about the results.

    About an hourter, the light from God Mountain was incredibly intense, and the rumbling had reached a peak level. Then, a heaven-rending, earth-crushing bang could be heard as a huge vortex opened in the sky. As the vortex spun, cultivators began to emerge.

    The roughly one million observers in the city below all looked up with keen anticipation. Countless gazes locked onto the several thousand people who were slowly bing visible. What they soon saw were people with ashen faces and varying expressions: some people were disappointed, some looked dumbstruck, and some were clearly just happy to be alive.

    The one unifying aspect to all of them was that none had tamed a mount. They constituted the first wave of returnees.

    ¡°Based on how the rules usually work, the return teleportation begins with people who didn¡¯t do well. After they¡¯re all here, subsequent waves will contain those who took the lead.¡±

    ¡°It seems like there are quite a few people this time who actually failed....¡±

    Those who had failed weren¡¯t very important to the onlookers, so most people just nced at them briefly.

    As a result, nobody noticed that one of the people who had returned was a cultivator whose eyes glittered with blue light. He quickly masked that and made sure to ster a disappointed expression onto his face. Once the teleportation wasplete, he scattered with the others.

    <i>Howe I didn¡¯t hear any news about little Junior Brother in the Mountain and Sea Region?</i>

    Of course, he was none other than the Captain.

    For the past few months, he had been fleeing for his life, and thus wasn¡¯t very aware of the events that had yed out. Upon looking around and determining that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t present among those who had failed, he felt very pleased.

    <i>Little Junior Brother didn¡¯t meet up with me, and he isn¡¯t in the first wave of returnees. That means he must have done well. Well, that¡¯s for the best. Without a point ofparison, it would be hard to highlight the superiority of the Eldest Brother.</i>

    The Captain sighed as he thought about what it was going to be like to present Xu Qing with some hillworm eggs. The shocked look on Xu Qing¡¯s face would be amazing.

    <i>Ai. I really envy little Ah Qing. How did he get so lucky as to have an Eldest Brother like me to back him up? Logically speaking, he should be moved enough to hand all of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh back over to me.</i>

    The Captain licked his lips in anticipation, then casually took out a peach and started eating it. He had been thinking about Xu Qing¡¯s portion of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh for a long time now. Normally speaking, it wouldn¡¯t have been easy toe up with a reason to ask for the flesh back. But now he had a good opportunity.

    Time passed.

    As fluctuations continued to roll off God Mountain, more figures emerged from the vortex in the sky. Some of them chose to hide the mounts they had tamed, while others were happy to show them off. That led to quite a bit of discussion among the onlookers.

    ¡°Master Heavyspirit from the Cloudgobbler species actually tamed a mountain sparrow. That¡¯s pretty impressive!¡±

    ¡°Look at Zhouxian from the Willspirit species. Given the shadowy figure floating around him, I guess he must have tamed some sort of grue.¡±

    ¡°Wait, something is off here. Why do all of these returnees have such strange expressions on their faces?¡±

    As the discussions continued, people started to pick up on various clues.

    Many of the returnees didn¡¯t depart after the teleportation. They remained in ce, looking back at the vortex withplicated expressions. It seemed as if they were waiting to confirm something.

    The onlookers were surprised, and some considered asking what was going on. However, the teleportations weren¡¯t over yet, so there was no way to send voice messages. That would have to wait until after things went back to normal. As people watched, more and more returnees appeared, and the mounts that were revealed became increasingly impressive.

    Eventually, two very familiar faces appeared. They were Tuo Shishan and Fan Shishuang!

    Their return attracted a lot of attention. Astonishingly, Tuo Shishan was riding a huge, ferocious ape that pulsed with ck energy. Fan Shishuang looked pale, and his expression was impossible to read. He was also leading an enormous ape.

    ¡°Those are fiend apes! They rank just under ghost chariots!¡±

    ¡°A fiend ape is a suitable mount for Tuo Shishan. But why does Fan Shishuang also have a fiend ape?¡±

    ¡°Given how the two of them rank, I expected Fan Shishuang to have a ghost chariot as a mount....¡±

    As the discussions raged, Tuo Shishan and Fan Shishuang exchanged a silent nce. Then, just like all the other returnees, they looked at the vortex.

    Everyone was starting to wonder what was going on.

    ¡°It seems like everyone is looking at the vortex and waiting. But for what?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s heart was racing, and he was starting to get a bad feeling. Meanwhile, the vortex rumbled as a figure slowly emerged, growing clearer by the moment.

    ¡°Sir Heavenink!¡±

    ¡°The mount behind him... it¡¯s....¡±

    ¡°A ghost chariot!¡±

    Sir Heavenink looked calm as he emerged from the vortex. Then he moved to the side and looked back with a solemn expression. The fluctuations which came out of the vortex next werepletely superior to those that apanied Sir Heavenink.

    Sir Firedark emerged, followed by a beast that seemed to have been born amongst mes and emanated a shocking might. This was something that ranked above ghost chariots. It was the number two beast! A hillworm!

    Sir Firedark¡¯s expression was very grim, and his eyes burned with killing intent as he scanned the crowd as if looking for something in particr.

    The Captain blinked a few times, but was confident in his disguise. He just let Sir Firedark¡¯s gaze sweep over him. And yet... he still had a very uneasy feeling, and it had only intensified with the return of Sir Firedark.

    <i>Little Junior Brother hasn¡¯te out yet.... Either he¡¯s noting out, or he¡¯lle out after the hillworm. That means....</i>

    As the Captain started to specte about what it all meant, the crowd reacted to Sir Firedark¡¯s hillworm.

    ¡°A hillworm!¡±

    ¡°Apparently all the other round two participants were waiting for Sir Firedark.¡±

    ¡°He has a hillworm, which means he¡¯s taken first ce in round one!¡±

    ¡°Hold on, why hasn¡¯t Master Stillwintere out?¡±

    ¡°Also, the teleportation isn¡¯t over yet. Look everyone, the vortex is still spinning!¡±

    ¡°Something¡¯s off here. Look at all the participants. With the exception of Sir Firedark, they¡¯re all still looking at the vortex. They¡¯re still waiting!¡±

    Everyone in Heavenfire City was shocked by what they were seeing.

    Up in the air, Sir Firedark had picked up on what was going on. Considering that everyone was looking at the vortex, he frowned and did the same.

    Heaven-shaking, earth-shattering rumblings wereing out of the vortex, as if the vortex was struggling. It was as if some iparably massive entity were approaching by means of the teleportation power, except that the teleportation was having difficulty amodating it. Wisps of gray fog emerged, filled with a wild and ancient sensation. As they spread, they caused immense pressure to weigh down. All of a sudden, the hearts of all the Firemoon onlookers were struck with waves of shock as they realized their blood was fluctuating.

    The top Firemoon experts looked especially serious, and some of them even flew up into the air to get a clearer read on the fog. Their expressions quickly became those of incredulity.

    ¡°Is that...?¡±

    As everyone looked on, and as their bloodline fluctuations grew more intense, a figure emerged from the vortex. His long hair swayed around him as he emerged into the world. All of the tamed mounts threw their heads back and howled, then dropped down in worship.

    Looking very excited, Sir Heavenink loudly said, ¡°I, Sir Heavenink, offer respectful greetings to the future Grand Darkheaven of the Firemoon people as he returns triumphant from battle!¡±

    With that, he bowed deeply at the waist.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes widened, and he nearly dropped his peach as he stared at the familiar figureing out of the vortex. As his emotions raged out of control, he thought, <i>The pretentious little jerk really knows how to put on a freaking show!</i>

 Chapter 876: A Godâ€™s Tacit Approval

    <h4>Chapter 876: A God¡¯s Tacit Approval</h4>

    Boundless fluctuations rolled through the sky above Heavenfire City and God Mountain. Bolts of lightning shot left and right, forming unusual supernatural phenomena. The intense rumbling left all the cultivators present feeling shocked. At the same time, the bloodline reactions of the Firemoon cultivators were getting more intense. All of them were visibly taken aback.

    Although the subsidiary species didn¡¯t experience any reaction in their blood, when they saw what was happening with the Firemoon cultivators, they started to get even more surprised.

    Up in the sky, Sir Heavenink wasn¡¯t the only one who was bowing. Next to him, Fan Shishuang did the same. As the figure emerged from the vortex, more than half of the round two participants instinctively bowed their heads. That included Tuo Shishan and all the other chosen. Sir Firedark¡¯s expression flickered as he looked at the vortex.

    As for the Captain... he looked around and sighed inwardly as his heart filled with a prickling sensation, along with deep incredulity.

    The cultivators in Heavenfire City were stunned. All of them now knew that the other participants were waiting for the person who was currently emerging from the vortex. As everyone watched, the vortex spun, and the figure inside strode out, bing clearer and clearer. Gray fog was like a sea spreading out through the air and filling heaven and earth. There was something wild and ancient about it, and it even kicked up a massive wind. Because of the bloodline reaction of many of the onlookers, the gray fog echoed with a sound that resembled the howl of a god.

    Soon, the Ninedawns skulls became visible around the emerging figure, surrounded by fog as they looked down at everything below. All Firemoon cultivators felt their blood reacting dramatically. It didn¡¯t matter the level of cultivation base involved. All cultivators of that species were unable to control the tug they felt from their blood.

    There were some older Firemoon experts who saw the nine skulls and were so stunned their jaws nearly dropped. They couldn¡¯t prevent the shock from being visible in their eyes.

    ¡°Are those...?¡±

    ¡°This....¡±

    The subsidiary species saw the nine skulls in the fog, and their expression flickered. Many had spections about what they were seeing, but the one exnation that made sense seemedpletely unbelievable.

    Before they could do anything to confirm their spections, the vortex rumbled loudly again. Fog poured out of it, spreading in all directions. The nine skulls emerged, bing visible to all. There was an ox-dragon, jackal-dragon, phoenix-dragon, roaring-dragon, lion-dragon, turtle-dragon, tiger-dragon, graceful-dragon, and fish-dragon. Nine of them swirled around, emitted powerful roars.

    Ninedawns, who had been confined for countless years of time, was now appearing in the world again! The antemage aura and the blood of the Darkheaven Archmages became an origin power that existed at the highest level.

    All of a sudden, the souls of the Firemoon cultivators began to tremble, and their blood filled with a very intense sensation that made them want to bow down to the nine heads. The subsidiary species did not have any bloodline reaction like that, but their spections were seemingly proved true.

    The level of incredulity at y was monumental. The legends surrounding the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, plus the sight of the Firemoon cultivators bowing, were so shocking that all of them chose to bow their heads. As of this moment, it didn¡¯t matter the level of cultivation base or the personal status or identity involved, everyone was bowing their heads.

    That was also when the figure finally emerged from the vortex. As he appeared in the dome of heaven, those bowing to him finally saw who he was.

    He had long hair flowing behind him like the River of Time. His eyes were like spirits in the starry sky, twinkling with countless heavenly bodies. His facial features existed at a higher level than all other life forms, and provoked shock as deep as the blood.

    He was none other than Xu Qing!

    The moment he appeared, the Ninedawns skulls¡¯ roars grew more intense, and they began swirling around him to form ninenterns made of flesh! Xu Qing sensed the connection of a shared origin between himself and the nine heads. Instead of looking at everything below, he turned to look back at the vortex.

    It had already begun fading away as he emerged. He could sense the Mountain and Sea Region on the other side of the vortex, and the numerous beasts there. An idea had just struck him.

    <i>If I¡¯m out here, but I unleash the Ninedawns aura, I wonder if I can summon things from the Mountain and Sea Region.</i>

    If he did that in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, though, it could have severe ramifications. For now, he buried the thought.

    As of now, no one was paying attention to anything other than Xu Qing and the ninenterns floating around him.

    Sir Firedark¡¯s mind was spinning, and he was breathing heavily. He didn¡¯t want to bow his head, but his blood was driving him to. Veins bulged out on his forehead as he resisted the urge, but in the end, he had no choice but to bow his head.

    Silence reigned in heaven and earth, but inaudible rumbling filled the hearts and minds of the bowing cultivators. It wasn¡¯t just the cultivators in the area who were affected. As the Ninedawns aura spread, all Firemoon Darkheavens, regardless of where they were, felt their blood seething.

    Meanwhile, as Xu Qing appeared outside of God Mountain, and everyone bowed to him, three shadowy objects appeared, pulsing with majestic energy.

    They were three iparably majestic tents! [1]

    Each one was like an entire city.

    The first pulsed with astonishing mes and contained the power of a sun. It was surrounded by a sea of fire, through which it was possible to see an enormous golden tent that was virtually a pce.

    The second was surrounded by moonlight, and emanated frigid coldness. The moonlight around it was like a mysterious veil creating a shimmering barrier, through which was visible a tent that resembled a moon pce.

    The third glittered with starlight, and was surrounded by a void that was like a starry sky. And at the end of that starry sky was a pce formed from starlight.

    These three ptial tents corresponded to the three stewards of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, who were like emperors or kings that ranked only beneath their three gods. Among the Firemoon Darkheavens, their authority was supreme. They consisted of: Steward Heavencloud, who served High God Sunfire; Steward Silvercreek, who served High God Moonfire; and Steward Deepspirit, who served High God Starfire!

    When they appeared, all of the Firemoon Darkheavens and the subsidiary species bowed even lower. Although they were only projections, the fact that the tents of all three stewards appeared at the same time was unusual. Normally speaking, they only came out for important ceremonies.

    As the three majestic tents appeared in projected form, they descended in unison. At the same time, three terrifying gazes emerged from them and locked onto Xu Qing. They were clearly examining him critically.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked at God Mountain. He was aware that no one on the outside was aware of him acquiring Ninedawns. But the three gods certainly knew. However, from beginning to end, the three gods hadn¡¯t intervened at all, which was what led to himing out of the vortex in the manner that he did.

    Couple that with the situation in the cave underneath the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, and it gave Xu Qing a fairly good idea of what was going on. The three gods tacitly approved of Ninedawnsing out into the world. In fact, it even seemed likely that they <i>wanted</i> someone to bring Ninedawns out....

    Though he couldn¡¯t be sure of the reason, the arrival of these three majestic tents seemed to confirm his theory.

    First to act was Steward Deepspirit, servant of High God Starfire. Starlight glittered around the tent as the gaze from within went from being critical to profound. Then, a calm voice echoed out.

    ¡°Ninedawns, as a sage of the Firemoon Darkheavens, I hereby bestow upon you a starglory robe of this tent!¡±

    Out from Steward Deepspirit¡¯s illusory tent flew a long robe of starlight. It was exquisite as it floated out to appear in front of Xu Qing. It almost looked like a map of the starry sky, as it contained the glittering radiance of unending heavenly bodies. All cultivators below, be they Firemoons or from subsidiary species, found this very meaningful. Starglory robes were profoundly significant on a symbolic level. Whoever wore such a robe had the right to seek an audience with Steward Deepspirit at any time. Throughout the history of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, few people had ever been given a starglory robe. Those who had were all extremely exceptional.

    Xu Qing sped hands and bowed. He knew his own limitations, and also knew how terrifying the Firemoon Darkheaven people could be. Therefore, he had no intention of acting arrogant because of Ninedawns.

    After Steward Deepspirit, the next to speak was Steward Silvercreek, who served High God Moonfire. His voice was as cold as ice as he said, ¡°You are bestowed with a silvercreek moon god medallion.¡±

    A gray identity medallion flew out from the tent, pulsing with moonlight and a mysterious will. It was actually a bone medallion, and the moment it appeared, the Captain¡¯s eyes went wide as he stood there in the crowd, and he struggled to control his breathing.

    Xu Qing again sped hands and bowed.

    Next, fire pulsed around the tent of Steward Heavencloud, who served High God Sunfire. Streams of fire came out, converged, and turned into a shortsword. It emitted dazzling sword light as it floated over to Xu Qing.

    Next, a stentorian voice erupted from within the tent. ¡°You are bestowed with a heavencloud srme sword.¡±

    A robe. A medallion. A sword.

    The symbolic significance couldn¡¯t be underestimated. And the fact that they had all been given at once defied description. There was no need to announce who had taken first ce in round two. The appearance of Ninedawns and the actions of the three stewards said it all.

    The projections of the three tents faded away into nothing.

    At that point, the voice of a god echoed out from God Mountain.

    ¡°In seven days, the final round of the Great Hunt will begin.¡±

    As the voice echoed out, the vortex in the sky disappeared. The second round of the Great Hunt was now over.

    ***

    In another area in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, high above the sky, illusory ripples spread out as a massive floating city appeared. Within the city were no less than 10,000 buildings, all of which glittered like stars. There were innumerable living beings in the city, which emanated terrifying fluctuations. In the case of some, their mere energy would be enough to cause all light to dim in heaven and earth.

    In the middle of the stars was a huge tent made of starlight. It was the tent of Steward Deepspirit, who served High God Starfire. Inside the tent was a figure seated cross-legged, who was currently looking in the direction of God Mountain.

    <i>Ninedawns is finally out in the world. The three gods tacitly approve. This kid is tied to some major karma....</i>

    1. The tents here are not like camping tents, but more like Mongolian yurts. To be clear, there is a specific word for ¡®yurt¡¯ in Chinese, and it¡¯s not used here. But if you do some image searches in Chinese for the term used here, virtually all of the results are yurts. There are many kinds of yurts, with some of them essentially being permanent structures. <u>Here are a few examples</u> from my Baidu image search. ?

 Chapter 877: Masterless God Domain

    Chapter 877: Masterless God Domain

    In Heavenfire City at the base of God Mountain, the god¡¯s voice faded away, and the vortex disappeared.

    The Firemoon cultivators who had returned via teleportation seemed deeply thoughtful as they looked at Xu Qing. It was the same with the onlookers in the three sub-cities below. They were looking at Xu Qing with surprise and otherplex emotions. This was different from Xu Qing bing the champion of round one. This time, it wasn¡¯t as much of a provocation.

    He had recovered Ninedawns and been given boons by the three stewards, which clearly demonstrated Xu Qing¡¯s qualifications. The bloodline fluctuations that everyone felt ensured that the Firemoons were able to overlook the fact that he was human.

    As everyone looked on with mixed emotions, Xu Qing descended toward the city.

    <em>Seven days to rest and recover. Next, the Great Hunt will resume in a god domain. That¡¯s the main point of this event.</em>

    Xu Qing could sense the Captain, but given the situation, he didn¡¯t acknowledge him. Then, just as he was about to disappear into the city, a cold voice rang out behind him.

    ¡°Hold on a moment!¡±

    The words were spoken like amand that couldn¡¯t be ignored. In fact, they stirred ripples as the natural and magicalws in the area were affected, and made the air suddenly seem to solidify. It was as if trying to move would provoke cmity from all directions.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked coldly over his shoulder.

    The person who had spoken was Sir Firedark. Although the bloodline reaction made Sir Firedark feel slightly out of sorts, he couldn¡¯t suppress his frustration and rage, and thus, they became a powerful force that pushed away everything else.

    As Xu Qing turned, their gazes locked.

    It was only one look, but it caused the air between them to vibrate as if it might shatter. Natural and magicalws crumbled, turning into threads that conformed to Sir Firedark¡¯s will to surround Xu Qing.

    The gray mist around Xu Qing seethed, pulsing with pressure as the Ninedawns skulls¡¯ eyes glowed with underworld light. Xu Qing looked at Sir Firedark with eyes narrowed; the sensation he was getting here surpassed that of Master Stillwinter by a lot.

    Sir Firedark¡¯s eyes also narrowed as he realized that this definitely wasn¡¯t the person he was looking for. The person he sought could be described as ¡®crafty¡¯ and ¡®frigid,¡¯ while this Xu Qing was clearly an expert in the dao of ughter. He looked away from Xu Qing and sent his icy divine will out over the other returnees.

    ¡°Nobody move!¡±

    The returnees reacted with visible surprise. Sir Firedark had a very noble identity, and was considered the most important person among Firemoon Darkheavens of the current generation. Therefore, though his divine will didn¡¯t provoke bloodline fluctuations like Xu Qing, it was still powerful and threatening.

    The only person to ignore him was Xu Qing, he turned back around and headed toward the city.

    Sir Firedark ignored Xu Qing. His focus was currently on all the other returnees, as he was now certain that the god-damned, good-for-nothing cultivator he was seeking was hiding among them. Therefore, he started inspecting everyone one by one.

    In the end, he didn¡¯t find anything. Short of ughtering everyone, there didn¡¯t seem to be any way to find his quarry.... He was so irritated that he was almost inclined to do that, except it wasn¡¯t realistic.

    Suppressing his killing intent, Sir Firedark spun and left.

    The other returnees went their separate ways wondering exactly what was going on. Some reunited with family. Some returned to the encampments of their various species. Regardless, all of the cultivators who had returned from the Mountain and Sea Region started spreading the news about what happened there as it rted to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Master Stillwinter... was killed by Xu Qing!¡±

    The news spread like a tempest among the Firemoon Darkheaven people. And it provided a lot of food for thought for many of the old-timers.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to any of that. As he made his way toward his residence, he started reviewing everything he knew about the next round of the Great Hunt.

    <em>The three gods will tear open a god domain and allow the participants to enter. There, we will hunt godly entities.... On the surface, it seems like it¡¯s meant to be training for the Firemoon cultivators. But after what happened in the Mountain and Sea Region, and learning the truth about their history.... I wonder what the real reason is that the three gods will tear open a god domain?</em>

    All of a sudden, he stopped walking and looked over his shoulder.

    Someone was racing after him at top speed. It was none other than Sir Heavenink, who stopped a few meters away from him.

    ¡°Congrattions, Fellow Daoist Xu! You¡¯ll almost certainly be the Grand Darkheaven soon!¡± Sir Heavenink looked both pious and fervent, and after he was finished speaking, he bowed formally to Xu Qing.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Xu Qing said, ignoring what Sir Heavenink had just said.

    Sir Heavenink blinked a few times but wasn¡¯t put off by Xu Qing¡¯s coldness. That was especially true when he thought about everything he witnessed Xu Qing do back in the Mountain and Sea Region. Given all that, Sir Heavenink was determined to make friends with him.

    Therefore, he quickly continued, ¡°Brother Xu, the third round of our Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ Great Hunt involves hunting in a god domain. I know you have a lot of connections as well as plenty of resources, so you probably know some of the details. But I noticed how that blowhard Sir Firedark was being so rude, and I¡¯m worried he might try to harm you in the god domain, Brother Xu....

    ¡°Therefore, I was thinking that you might benefit from some of the information I got about the god domain. Maybe it will help you deal with whatever despicable ns Sir Firedark is hatching.¡±

    An odd expression could be seen on Xu Qing¡¯s face. What stuck out to him most about Sir Heavenink was that he always had new ways to describe other people. Bastard. Sissy. Brutal beast. Joker. And now he used the words ¡®despicable¡¯ and ¡®blowhard.¡¯

    ¡°Go on,¡± Xu Qing said, continuing to walk.

    Seeing that Xu Qing was willing to listen, Sir Heavenink lit up and hurried after him. Lowering his voice he continued, ¡°Brother Xu, forget what you hear other people say. The truth is that from ancient times until now, us Firemoon Darkheavens have only opened up god domains three times.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    ¡°Every single time, it was the same god domain. The difference is that the opening was ripped in different spots. Because god domains are so huge, outsiders have no idea of the truth, and they think that each one was a different god domain.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted. ¡°It¡¯s the same god domain each time?¡±

    Sir Heavenink nodded. ¡°Exactly. Now, this god domain isn¡¯t listed in any of the histories of the Revered Ancient maind. In other words, it¡¯s<em>not</em>a postheaven god domain! No, it¡¯s... a preheaven god domain!¡±

    Xu Qing was definitely surprised. This was an important piece of information, and it wasn¡¯t anything he could have predicted.

    ¡°And that means that the god domain this time around will almost certainly be the same one,¡± Sir Heavenink continued in a hushed tone. ¡°There¡¯s no way of telling where the opening will be. But regardless, based on records of past events, the living beings inside can be categorized into different levels.¡± Sir Heavenink took out a jade slip. ¡°This contains details about what they look like and their levels. It¡¯s veryprehensive.

    ¡°By the way, the reason things went so smoothly in the past is that there¡¯s one very important feature about this ce. And that is... there¡¯s no god in charge!¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    ¡°Normally speaking, god domains have a god in charge. But not this one! My n analyzed the situation thoroughly and came to the conclusion that this particr feature is why the Great Hunt is always held there. Furthermore... there are probably other reasons for everything. Secret reasons.¡±

    Sir Heavenink nced at God Mountain, then looked back at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded. He understood what Sir Heavenink was getting at.

    ¡°It¡¯s not possible for us to dig up any details beyond that. But I can tell you that the next round is going to be very dangerous, but at the same time, will bring astonishing benefits. All of the living beings inside the god domain are treasures. Their souls can be refined into heavenly daos, or be used to nourish either flesh or cultivation base.

    ¡°There¡¯s also a big downside. Killing living beings in a god domain will cause you to be marked by a curse. The more you kill, and the higher the level of what you kill, the deeper the curse mark will go. But... because there¡¯s no god in charge, even a deep curse won¡¯t matter much. What¡¯s more, the way they determine who takes first ce is how deep the curse marks go.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Although he hadn¡¯t specifically experienced what it was like to be cursed because of killing living beings in a god domain, he had dealt with things like that. For instance, years ago in the event at the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, when he encountered the essence of Crimson Mother for the first time, he had acquired a mark like that. And that mark came because the Ghost Emperor killed a living being from a god domain.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± Xu Qing asked.

    Sir Heavenink excitedly went on to exin everything else he knew.

    And thus, by the time the two of them arrived at his residence, Xu Qing had quite a thorough understanding of what was toe.

    Sir Heavenink took a few steps back, sped hands, and bowed. ¡°Brother Xu Qing, I hope that you achieve a decisive victory in the god domain. Once you be the champion, you¡¯ll be named Grand Darkheaven!

    ¡°Also, Big Bro Xu, please stay on guard against the other degenerate participants. There are a lot of viins with malicious goals, for instance, that stupid cunt Sir Firedark. And if you have anything you need me to do, just say the word. Sir Heavenink will do what needs to be done!¡±

    Sir Heavenink cupped hands again and then hurried off.

    Xu Qing watched him go, all while thinking about the wealth of information he had just obtained. Then he stepped inside.

    The first thing he noticed was a familiar figure silhouetted against the window.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times as he realized that the Captain was about tounch into a performance. Sitting down, Xu Qing took out an apple, started eating, and waited for the show to begin. He didn¡¯t have to wait long before an ancient, deste, and emotional sigh drifted out into the room.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, you know... your Eldest Brother had it really rough this time around.... I¡ª¡±

    Before the Captain could finish speaking, Xu Qing took out the bone medallion he had received from the Moonfire steward. He tossed it over.

    ¡°I get it. Take that, Eldest Brother.¡±

    The Captain spun and caught it. He seemed a bit embarrassed as he looked at Xu Qing, and ultimately decided not tounch into the tragic tale he had been about to tell. But then he remembered his status as the Eldest Brother. Putting a mysterious look onto his face, he lowered his voice and said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, your Eldest Brother won¡¯t take things from you willy-nilly. Allow me to tell you a very, very interesting secret regarding Sir Firedark.¡±

 Chapter 878: Little Swallow in Lace

    <h4>Chapter 878: Little Swallow in Lace</h4>

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. Earlier when he had arrived, he¡¯d sensed that the Captain was lurking around. Then Sir Firedark searched the returnees with killing intent bubbling. And then there were the clues he¡¯d personally uncovered in Hillworm Jungle in the Mountain and Sea Region.

    All of it seemed to be pointing in one direction. His Eldest Brother definitely got into some heated conflict with Sir Firedark. And the one who came out on the short end of the stick was thetter....

    It didn¡¯t matter that Sir Firedark¡¯s cultivation base was equivalent to the Smoldering God level, or that he had a terrifying reputation. Xu Qing knew that the Captain could deal with any challenge. What was more, Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about learning Sir Firedark¡¯s secrets. However, he could see how excited the Captain was to share this news, so he decided to y along. He nodded.

    ¡°What secret?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up and he licked his lips. Squatting down in front of Xu Qing, he instinctively looked left and right to check the surroundings before lowering his voice and saying, ¡°Little Junior Brother, get this. Sir Firedark is a real gem!¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. It was his first time hearing his Eldest Brother use the word ¡®gem¡¯ to describe someone. Coupled with the way the Captain was licking his lips... it certainly created a thought-provoking image.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s reaction made the Captain even more excited to share his secrets. He chuckled, making him look even more sleazy than normal.

    ¡°You listen to me, little Ah Qing. Based on experiences from my past lives, I realized that this fellow Sir Firedark could be considered as valuable as a jewel to cultivators with certain proclivities. This person can either attack or defend, can advance or retreat freely, is capable of myriad transformations, and is impossible to defend against.¡± [1]

    The Captain smacked his lips as if he were about to start drooling with desire.

    Xu Qing was both surprised and confused to see such a look on the Captain¡¯s face. The reality was that although Xu Qing had experienced a lot in life, when all was said and done, there were some areas of life in which he was very naive. That was why, in response to the Captain¡¯s words, he found himself thinking about Sir Firedark and trying to remember the details of his aura or other special characteristics.

    When the Captain saw that Xu Qing was confused, he blinked a few times. As he realized that this conversation was a lot of fun, he suddenly felt a bit more arrogant than before. Moments like this were when his little Junior Brother revealed how pure and simplistic he was. As the Eldest Brother, it wasn¡¯t right to let his little Junior Brother go around with such a weakness. sping Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder, he began to speak in the sincere and earnest tone of an older person teaching a lesson.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t seen enough in life, little Junior Brother. Ah, whatever. I guess I should just spell it out directly. Sir Firedark....¡± The Captain paused dramatically. ¡°Can be a man <i>or</i> a woman! It¡¯s fantastic!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips again.

    His words mmed into Xu Qing¡¯s ears like a lightning bolt and caused his eyes to widen. Although there were too many weird and unusual things in Revered Ancient to count, the ability to change one¡¯s gender at will was not somethingmonly seen. But what was really shocking was the wording that the Captain was using in his descriptions.

    Everything in the conversation up to this point was causing Xu Qing to start connecting various dots. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, ¡°Eldest Brother, how... how did you find out about this?¡±

    The Captain stuck his chin up and assumed a derisive posture. ¡°Little Swallow just <i>doesn¡¯t understand the height of the heavens or the depths of the earth</i>, and had the audacious gall to steal my hillworm from right in front of me! Then, after sensing my presence, he told me to screw off! His expression and wording were like the picture of arrogance.¡±

    The Captain snorted coldly.

    ¡°So, after hearing his demand, I went and screwed off. However, the more I thought about what happened, the angrier I got. So, as he was working on getting the hillworm under control, I used all the godlyw medallions I¡¯d created to summon that hillworm¡¯s entire family. I¡¯m talking dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, et cetera. [2]

    ¡°And what happened...? Heh heh. Let¡¯s just say Little Swallow got into a real bad situation. His cultivation base and battle prowess might be extraordinary,parable to a Smoldering God even, but not even that will help much upon being surrounded by hillworms. Now, do you want to guess what I saw then?¡± The Captain rubbed his hands excitedly, and before Xu Qing could respond, continued, ¡°At a very critical moment, he used a very terrifying divine ability. In fact, maybe it¡¯s beyond a divine ability and is actually a god magic! So, yeah, it¡¯s a terrifying god magic! Maybe even the <i>reprimand</i> of a god!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    The more the Captain went on with his story, the more his eyebrows danced up and down. ¡°This magic has a side effect that, from Little Swallow¡¯s perspective, isn¡¯t really a side effect at all. Long story short, after you use that magic, for a short time period, your gender changes!

    ¡°Believe you me, little Ah Qing, I personally saw it happen every time he used it. He would turn into a woman, then a man, then a woman, and then a man again! So fun, right?¡±

    The Captain¡¯s enthusiasm caused a strange expression to appear on Xu Qing¡¯s face.

    By this point, the Captain wasn¡¯t paying attention to Xu Qing. He waspletely wrapped up in his excitement as he continued, ¡°What¡¯s more, every time he uses it and his gender changes, a pearl will form alongside him. As it orbits around him, it absorbs the aura of transformation and allows him to switch back. With one nce, I could tell that it was his personal life essence pearl. Obviously, it¡¯s very important to him.

    ¡°Now, as you know, your Eldest Brother is a very kind and generous person, willing to help others andpletely selfless in thought and action. And I really dislike seeing other people unhappy.

    ¡°Therefore, how could I possibly tolerate seeing him go through the pain of that transformation? After all, switching from man to woman involves changing even your meridians and blood vessels, let alone the physical external changes. As you can imagine, it¡¯s very painful.

    ¡°Therefore... I took advantage of a moment when he had turned into a woman to simply take that pearl away from him.... That way, he can¡¯t change back! It solves the problem entirely!¡±

    The Captain extended his hand to reveal a red pearl floating above his palm. Although it emanated dazzling light, there was a shimmering blue shield covering it and preventing any fluctuations from escaping.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± The Captain looked at Xu Qing, clearly very pleased with himself. ¡°The point is that you can¡¯t be fooled by Little Swallow¡¯s physical appearance. That girl is still on the inside. And she... won¡¯t be changing back. In fact, because of that, when we parted ways I made sure to leave her one of Nethersprite¡¯sce bodices.¡±

    Stunned, Xu Qing stared at the Captain. Then he thought about the fury and killing intent with which Sir Firedark had been searching through the returnees. Now he understood what was going on.

    ¡°No wonder...¡± Xu Qing sighed.

    The Captainughed heartily. Closing his hand around the pearl, he stood and stretched. The trip to the Mountain and Sea Region had been amazing, and he had benefited wildly. That said, thinking about how Xu Qing fared with Ninedawns made him hesitate. In fact, he couldn¡¯t suppress his curiosity and asked Xu Qing for some details.

    Xu Qing obliged.

    As the Captain listened to the story, his eyes widened. In the end, he stamped his foot angrily.

    ¡°Little Swallow held me back! I should have been part of that whole thing! I really lost out!!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond.

    The Captain sighed, squatted back down, and started thinking. After a short time, he apparently figured out a way tofort himself internally, because his eyes lit up.

    ¡°I might have missed out on a destined opportunity,¡± he murmured, ¡°but what happened still confirmed a theory of mine. And given what we have to do next, that¡¯s going to be a big help!¡±

    The Captain looked at Xu Qing, his eyes bright and full of expression, primarily craziness.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, when this god domain gets opened up, I was nning to do something big, except I was only about ten percent confident in seeding. But now, after what you just told me, I¡¯m a lot more confident!

    ¡°This time, your Eldest Brother is going to take you... on a <i>super </i>big job so amazing it¡¯ll surpass anything we¡¯ve ever done before!!¡±

    Xu Qing immediately went on guard. Whenever the words ¡®a big job¡¯ came up, he knew he had to start paying close attention to the Captain¡¯s wording. After all, when the Captain talked about such things, they often involved toeing the line with death.

    And the level of craziness of such jobs always seemed to increase. Thinking back, it all started with Joine¡¯s flesh. Then came the Seazombie ancestral statues, the Nethersprite clothing heist, the heavenly dao son incident, the Greenhair Bands and the Imperial Sovereign, and finally, ughtering Crimson Mother. Each event just got more and more dramatic. What was especially notable was that the Captain used the word ¡®super.¡¯

    Xu Qing¡¯s level of vignce couldn¡¯t be any higher. Looking at the Captain, he sighed. ¡°Eldest Brother, we¡¯re... not going to do anything suicidal, are we...?¡±

    The Captain smiled mysteriously. ¡°Don¡¯t worry at all. I¡¯ve been nning this thing for a very, very long time. And now that you¡¯ve confirmed my theory, we¡¯re going to bepletely and utterly safe.¡±

    The Captain thumped himself on the chest confidently.

    Hearing the Captain speak in such a way caused Xu Qing¡¯s hair to stand on end. His mind was spinning as he came to realize that the Captain was obviously nning something unprecedentedly terrifying.

    He was about to say something when the Captain zipped out of the room, leaving behind only a few words echoing in his absence.

    ¡°Calm down, little Junior Brother. I¡¯m going out to make some ns for the big job.¡±

    Xu Qing remained behind in the residence. After some thought, his eyes began to shine with determination. Based on what he knew of the Captain, he got the feeling that the best thing to focus on after entering the god domain was to search for heavenly daos and sealing marks. He was absolutely, positively not going to join the Captain in his next job.

    Xu Qing hade to the conclusion that his hobbies did not include the practice of risking his life for fun. Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes to meditate. His mage trove needed more work to get him in peak fighting condition, and thus, he needed to speed up the absorption of the ny-five god monuments.

    In that manner, time passed. Six days.

    ***

    It was morning, and there was only an incense stick¡¯s worth of time before the god domain was opened for the next round of the Great Hunt. Just as Xu Qing was getting ready to leave, the Captain returned.

    Before Xu Qing could even open his mouth, the Captain took out a bottle. Then, a swishing sound could be heard as the Captain crumbled into a host of blue worms that entered the bottle.

    ¡°Put me in your bag of holding, little Junior Brother! It¡¯s time to get going!¡±

    At the same time, shocking fluctuations rolled out from God Mountain with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Three terrifying streams of divine will had already covered the entire region. The aura of gods was present everywhere. Any life force who was under the level of a god began to tremble as a cold voice filled heaven and earth.

    ¡°The god domain will be opened. Participants, present yourselves.¡±

    Xu Qing put the bottle into his bag of holding, then left the residence. When he appeared in midair, he looked at the distant God Mountain and saw astonishing figures.

    Sunfire. Moonfire. Starfire.

    Three gods had emerged!

    1. These words are intended to have some vague innuendo attached to them, which bes more obvious as the content of this chapter unfolds. ?

    2. The godlyw medallions were mentioned in <u>chapter 846</u>-<u>847</u>. ?

 Chapter 879: An Original God Domain

    <h4>Chapter 879: An Original God Domain</h4>

    The auras of Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire spread from God Mountain, unleashing such dramatic force that it seemed as if the canopy of heaven might not be able to sustain it. It seemed like it was going to cave in. All three were visible as illusory projections.

    In the middle was High God Sunfire, apparently d in a golden robe. It was hard to determine if High God Sunfire was male or female. At first nce, sh¨¥ seemed female, but at the same time, had male features. Behind h¨¥r was a rising sun that emanated intense heat and godly might.

    On the right was High God Moonfire, d in a silver gown with a flowing skirt that spread out to cover the dome of heaven. H¨¥r face was so attractive it seemed to contain all the beauty in the world. The mere sight would leave one feeling stunned. However, h¨¥r expression was as cold as a mountain of ice. Sh¨¥ had one hand in front of her chest posed in an incantation gesture, while a moon hung behind h¨¥r, casting out cold, holy moonlight.

    On the left was High God Starfire. Sh¨¥ was not majestic like Sunfire or wlessly beautiful like Moonfire. Sh¨¥ looked like nothing more than an ordinary y fox. But any who looked at h¨¥r would feel their hearts starting to pound. Heat would spread through them, filling their bodies and affecting their hearts and minds. Behind h¨¥r was a glittering star, whose light spread out to form a sea of starlight.

    Three gods hade out.

    All cultivators who flew into the open in the holy city bowed their heads. It didn¡¯t matter their status or the level of their cultivation base. They all looked pious as they dropped to their knees and kowtowed.

    Further off in the distance was the projection of the three stewards¡¯ tents. And even the stewards emerged and bowed their heads to the gods.

    Xu Qing hovered in the air outside his residence, looking around, his heart pounding. As of this moment, he could see the difference between humans and Firemoon Darkheavens. The Firemoon Darkheavens were a species controlled by gods. In front of their gods, all living beings were like ves! Xu Qing frowned slightly. He was not a Firemoon Darkheaven, but he was in theirnds, and thus he bowed.

    Eventually, everything went still and quiet. The three gods on God Mountain looked around. When th¨¥y looked at Xu Qing, different expressions could be seen. Sunfire was apathetic. Moonfire¡¯s expression wasplex. And Starfire smiled.

    Next, the sun behind High God Sunfire shone with radiant light that caused the color of gold to fill the dome of heaven. It was godfire. As it burned, the sky started to melt awayyer byyer. Eventually, a void was revealed. And after enoughyers were gone, a ck hole could be seen. The burning continued.

    Thanks to the godfire, the ck hole copsed, and a new ck hole formed. It happened again and again in a cycle. During the process, thends quaked, and the angry howls of heavenly daos could be heard, as if they wanted to stop what was happening but were powerless to do so.

    In the end, a golden vortex could be seen spinning in the void. Within that vortex was a blurry membrane, beyond which it was just barely possible to make out another world.

    The moment the golden vortex appeared, High God Moonfire¡¯s hand lifted, and moonlight swept out to make a huge river that flowed right toward the vortex. Soon, different howls from other heavenly daos echoed out from within the vortex, as if they also wanted to stop what was happening. Moonfire snorted coldly, and all of a sudden, some of the aura of Crimson Mother appeared on h¨¥r....

    Xu Qing shivered. Next, the power of Moonfire entered the membrane, which transformed, bing clearer and clearer to reveal the world beyond. What was visible appeared to be a pure white world....

    Before anyone could study it closely, the y foxughed. Starlight erupted, transforming into two enormous y hands that reached into the vortex, grabbed the transparent membrane, and ripped it open!

    A heaven-rending, earth-crushing ripping sound echoed out, causing the minds of all cultivators to vibrate. The effects of the ripping spread, until, from the perspective of the people on the ground, the opening filled half the sky.

    It was like a wound. An aroma of rot and decay spread out, along with an ancient aura. It seemedpletely foreign. It, along with strong mutagen, emerged from the vortex along with howling and roaring. At the same time, the opening grewrge enough that it was possible to see some of the details of the world beyond.

    Xu Qing looked up, a thousand thoughts running through his mind thanks to what he was seeing.

    The world beyond the opening actually seemed familiar to him. Inside of the opening was an unfamiliar starry sky. And within the countless glittering stars was an enormous mass of... spider webs!! The webs were shocking and ghastly, and were filled with innumerables. Every single web strand was about one tenth the width of any of thes.

    This was the god domain that the Firemoon Darkheaven people were opening for the Great Hunt.

    <i>A god domain with no god in charge. It¡¯s been explored three times in the past. An original god domain....</i>

    Sir Heavenink¡¯s words echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Combined with the information from the jade slip, an obvious exnation urred to Xu Qing.

    <i>This is the god domain of the spider god from the cave in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands!!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he came to this understanding.

    Everything fit together. Something happened to the spider god, and ¨©t ended up being suppressed by the three other gods. As a result, ¨©ts god domain came to be masterless. Now it made sense why the three gods wanted the ce explored.

    As Xu Qing reeled inwardly, another godly voice echoed through the dome of heaven.

    ¡°Let the children hunt!¡±

    The word provoked a gravitational force, which spread from the opening in the rift. Guided by the three gods, it became tens of thousands of threads that shot toward the cultivators who had passed the second round.

    All of those cultivators, Xu Qing included, were pulled up into the sky, moving faster and faster until they were beams of light that shot into the opening. They entered the void that contained the god domain, and they entered an unfamiliar starry sky!

    Compared to the massive god domain, a few tens of thousands of cultivators were like nothing. What was more, the danger was going to be immense.

    As they were pulled into that starry sky, one of the participants shivered, screamed, and then exploded. Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere. The bits then exploded, until that cultivator was thoroughly destroyed in body and soul. He had been killed by a ck tentacle that had appeared in the nearby void.

    Whoever that tentacle touched would end up either injured or dead. At the end of the tentacle, Xu Qing spotted a 3,000-meter dposing fish. It was covered with a host of tentacles, some of which hung limp and some of which swept this way and that. It was a very gruish sight. The fish emanated an aroma of decay, plus terrifying fluctuations that struck fear into the hearts of the Firemoon cultivators. However, they quickly suppressed that fear. Clearly, they hade prepared. After all, they were going into a god domain!

    When the gruish fish appeared, everyone reacted quickly. They scattered, all while speeding in the direction of the god domain full of spider webs.

    Xu Qing personally witnessed some chosen from subsidiary species get hit by the tentacles and killed. That caused his pupils to constrict. This fish was something he had read about in the jade slip from Sir Heavenink.

    <i>¡°A god domain void spirit that looks like a rotting fish, with tentacles that can exterminate life. It will eat anything and everything. Strangely, its size varies depending on who is looking at it! Some people look at it and see something 300,000 meters in size. To other people, it¡¯s only 3,000 meters. There arerge numbers of these void spirits. They have undying bodies, so that if you kill them, they¡¯ll be resurrected soon after.¡±</i>

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing elerated, leaving that area and speeding through the starry sky while remaining fully on guard. Along the way, he saw several of the tentacled fish, and was very careful to avoid them.

    As he neared the spider webs, they got bigger and bigger. He passed a few areas full ofs that, based on his senses, were full of death. They were deads. They emitted no fluctuations of life force, and were simply ruins full of endless spider webs. Meanwhile, the spider webs got so enormous that the strands were like white roads going through the starry sky. Compared to the spider webs, Xu Qing was like a mote of dust.

    What was more, Xu Qing spotted numerous enormous objects wrapped in spider silk, dotting the spider webs. Inside were skeletons that must have been dead for countless years.

    A sense of danger was starting to build up in Xu Qing. After some testing, he found that the spider webs were terrifyingly sticky. If he threw something onto them, they would be permanently stuck. After that, silk would start to spread out and cover them.

    Now Xu Qing realized where all those skeletons came from.

    <i>I definitely cannot touch the spider webs!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he carefully flew through this gruish god domain and reviewed all of the information he had in the hopes ofing up with something that would help him in the moment. He also took out the bottle with the Captain in it.

    All of a sudden, his expression flickered, and he shot backward by about 30 meters. Soul threads whipped out, millions of them, which instantly turned into his fourth-level god state.

    Meanwhile, a shadowy form swept right past the spot where he had been a moment ago. It moved so fast it shattered the void. After pouncing in vain, though, it shot back to one of the enormous spider webs.

    That was where its appearance became clear. It was a spider! It was some 300 meters in size, with a speckled golden body and the head of an old man. The head¡¯s eyes were open, and the pupils were crimson as they stared coldly at Xu Qing. As for its mouth, it was filled with sharp, pointed teeth.

    The sight of this creature reminded Xu Qing of the spider god in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. They... looked very simr with the exception of the head. That said, this spider had none of the majestic pressure of the spider god.

    While Xu Qing studied it, it also studied him. Gradually, its eyes turned even redder, and then it howled and lunged toward him.

 Chapter 880: Eyes of Annihilation

    <h4>Chapter 880: Eyes of Annihtion</h4>

    The spider moved so quickly that it was a blur.

    In his god state, Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess was equivalent to fourth-stage Void Returning. He hadn¡¯t even tapped into the blessing of Ninedawns yet, and yet his current state was incredibly formidable. However, the spider¡¯s speed caused his pupils to constrict. He knew that this spider was only one of the many living things in this god domain that were listed in Sir Heavenink¡¯s jade slip. However, these spiders were fairlymon. And in terms of ranking how terrifying they were, there were many that far surpassed this type of spider. The fact that this spider was so fast, and yet was somon, went to show how astonishing the god domain was.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing shot backward by 300 meters to avoid the attack of the spider. He waved his right hand, and the golden crow appeared. It surged with ck mes as it turned into a ck spear, which Xu Qing hurled out in front of him.The ck spear streaked through the air, and the spider lurched to a halt as the spear pierced through it.

    The spider didn¡¯t try to dodge out of the way. The spear passed through it, and in gruish fashion, it didn¡¯t create any wound. In fact, it didn¡¯t seem to have any effect at all. It was as if the spider could ignore all magical techniques and divine abilities.

    The spider burst into motion again, closing in on Xu Qing with a piercing shriek that could shake the soul.

    Xu Qing frowned and thought back to the description of this type of spider from Sir Heavenink¡¯s information.

    <i>¡°The spider spirits are a type of guard that roam the fringes of the god domain. They can asionally be encountered alone, but usually stay in groups. They have strong levels of godliness and are very fast. They¡¯re impervious to all manner of physical attack. Their attacks can only be vanquished with divine abilities.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he realized that the information from the jade slip wasn¡¯t entirely correct. His ck spear was the manifestation of a divine ability, and the damage it inflicted wasn¡¯t from fleshly body power. Yet it was still ineffective. Either the information was wrong, or things had changed in this god domain.

    As those thoughts went through Xu Qing¡¯s head, the spider closed in again. Xu Qing clenched a hand into a fist andunched a blow, but the spider ignored it. Appearing right in front of him, it spat a mass of white spider silk out of its mouth. It quickly swept out to surround Xu Qing.

    His eyes glittered coldly; since neither magical techniques nor fleshly body power seemed effective, he needed to try something else to resolve the situation. Instead of dodging, he became a bright beam of light that shot forward.

    Moving with astonishing speed, he sted through the mass of spider web, arriving right in front of the 300-meter spider. However, he didn¡¯tunch an attack. He just kept going.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as he shot into the spider¡¯s body. Although it didn¡¯t actually hurt the spider, now that he was inside, his killing intent burned as he sent a host of soul threads out. In the blink of an eye, millions of soul threads swept away from his god state, filling the spider and instantly erupting with a soul-devouring ability.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s idea for how to kill the spider. Given that his soul threads were made from godsource, it actually worked quite well.

    The spider could ignore cultivator techniques, but it couldn¡¯t ignore godly might. The 300-meter spider shivered and then let loose a shriek of agony. Its body visibly withered, shrinking down faster and faster until it copsed in drifting ash.

    Xu Qing appeared, his expression quizzical. The moment he was out in the open, another shadowy form shot toward him. It was a second spider! There were more shadowy blurs in the distance, apanied by shrieking sounds. There were more than a dozen spiders there, all racing toward Xu Qing. Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s quizzical expression grew more prominent.

    He was thinking back to what Sir Heavenink said, that the living beings in god domains were said to be treasures. After absorbing the spider just now, he gained more than a hundred thousand additional soul threads.

    That level of increase surpassed anything he could have predicted. Most importantly, Xu Qing had sensed something like heavenly dao fluctuations on the spider. Though these spiders weren¡¯t heavenly daos, if they were ensorcelled, they could turn into heavenly daos.

    <i>I currently have something like 5,000,000 soul threads. All the ughter and devouring earlier on the outside increased my limit. And this ce... seems perfectly suitable to keep that trend going.</i>

    He licked his lips as he looked at the spiders closing in on him. Then he blurred, sending out a mass of soul threads to form a tempestuous vortex around him. Storm winds raged as the spiders bore down on him, shrieking the entire time. They entered the tempest.

    There were a total of seventeen of them. Once they were inside the vortex, their screams echoed out. In fact, one of the spiders managed to break free and tried to escape. It acted toote. The soul thread count increased, reaching the level of more than 6,000,000. As a result, the vortex expanded, bing like a gaping maw that devoured the fleeing spider.

    Sometimeter, the more than 6,000,000 blood-red soul threads shrank back down and turned into Xu Qing again. He waited around for a time, but no more spiders appeared. Sighing regretfully, he took out the bottle with the Captain in it and opened it.

    A blue worm flew out and started wriggling dramatically, turning first into what looked like a half-melted wax person, but eventually turning into the Captain. If anyone had been present to observe, they would find the scene gruish to the extreme. But Xu Qing was used to it.

    When the Captain opened his eyes and looked around, his eyes lit up and he startedughing uproariously.

    ¡°I finally got in here!! Little Ah Qing, we are now very, very close to our goal! Hahaha! Also, what a risk! Back when Sunfire looked at you, that not-male, not-female old fart, sh¨¥ very nearly noticed me. Luckily, I prepared very well, and had myselfpletely sealed from the beginning.¡± The Captain seemed to be getting more and more excited as he continued looking around. ¡°This ce is an original god domain without any master! Let¡¯s go, little Ah Qing. Follow me!¡±

    With that, the Captain started moving in a specific direction, as if he was familiar with this ce already.

    Xu Qing sighed. Based on howfortable the Captain looked, it seemed likely he had been here in a past life. Presumably, the big job he wanted to pull off was something he had failed at in the past. Now he wanted to get the job done.

    Xu Qing shook his head. Sometimes he really couldn¡¯t understand why the Captain was so fond of risking his life. It was almost like he worked hard in every life to toe the line with death. Apparently, he wouldn¡¯t rest until he was able to put his life on the line.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing made sure to keep his guard up, and reminded himself that he definitely was <i>not</i> going to participate in the Captain¡¯s big job. With that, he hurried after the Captain.

    As they sped along, the Captain decided the route. As he led Xu Qing into the god domain, they passed through gaps in the spider webs.

    Seven days passed. During that time, countless participants in the Great Hunt spread out into different parts of the god domain. Some hunted living beings, others turned out to be the hunted. If you could look down from a very high vantage point, and could take in all of the tens of thousands of cultivators, you would find that... people were dying constantly.

    The majestic god domain had lots of living beings in it. Every single one was outrageous and extremely gruish. That said, the cultivators who were participating in the Great Hunt were all confident for varying reasons, and simply had to find a bnce between self-preservation and hunting. Of course, there was also mutagen to deal with. It was incredibly strong, to the point where there wasn¡¯t any spirit energy present.

    To species other than the Firemoons, that could be fatal. But the Firemoon Darkheavens were a species consecrated to specific gods, and they had a natural resistance to mutagen.

    Unfortunately, the god domain also had all sorts of terrifying entities that, if you encountered them, would reduce your chances of survival significantly. For example, there was that tentacled fish at the very outset. Another example were the deads that the spider webs had grown over.

    Some of those deads would tremble as if having been struck with earthquakes. And then, thends would part... to reveal that thes had huge eyes in them. The eyes were white, and wherever their gazesnded, spider webs would proliferate. And whenever they blinked, all living beings and grues in the spot where they had been looking would be wiped out of existence.

    ¡°They call those the eyes of annihtion,¡± the Captain exined. ¡°The living beings in god domains are affected by the gods, and thus experience all sorts of mutations. Even thes are no exception. In one of my lives, I tried to graft one of them onto my forehead. Sadly, it didn¡¯t work.¡±

    The Captain sighed.

    As Xu Qing and the Captain proceeded along, one of the deads trembled, and then the eye opened. As it looked around, it seemed to notice something, and then swiveled to look at Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The moment that happened, the Captain took out some sort of invisible object and pressed it into Xu Qing¡¯s hands.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t resist. He soon sensed an invisible sealing mark on his hand, which caused the gigantic eye to lose focus and look in a different direction.

    Xu Qing looked down at his hand.

    ¡°Remember the Wordless Book of Stone? Heh heh. Trust me, little Ah Qing, I really prepared well this time around!¡± [1]

    The Captain lifted his hand and waved it in front of Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing nodded as he thought back to the time the Captain had carried out an undercover mission to get that book.

    ¡°The Wordless words can be used to conceal yourself with invisibility. That way, terrifying entities like the one from just now won¡¯t notice you. Let¡¯s go. Things should go smoothly from here on out. Our first goal is just up ahead.¡±

    The Captain excitedly flew ahead. Xu Qing shook his head and followed.

    A few days passed in which they passed through a lot of spider webs. That was when Xu Qing caught sight of a very unique area.

    It was a vast red sea. The sea water appeared to be frozen, and it went on forever. There were enormous shells sticking out of the water, some 30,000 meters tall. Some of them were open, revealing the enormous heads of beasts that resembled eagles.

    The Captain pointed out. ¡°We¡¯re here, little Ah Qing. This is the site of our first goal.¡±

    1. In <u>chapter 810</u>, the Captain exined that he wanted the words from the Wordless Book of Stone specifically for use in the god domain during the Great Hunt. ?

 Chapter 881: A Pearl in an Old Oyster

    <h4>Chapter 881: A Pearl in an Old Oyster</h4>

    The vast red sea seemed to go on without end. Because it was frozen, there were no waves to be seen. It seemed to be floating in the middle of the starry sky in between the spider webs. If you could take the scene and shrink it down, the red sea would actually look like a drop of blood within the spider webs.

    Within that blood drop of a sea, there were hundreds of huge bivalve shells, and they would open and close randomly. When they opened, it was possible to see huge eagles that would stretch out from inside and explore the surroundings. Apparently, the shells were part of the eagles¡¯ bodies. The eagles had scarlet feathers, and their eyes were closed as if they were sleeping. They emanated gruish auras, and even looking at them from a distance would make one feel uneasy down to the soul. They were like enormous deities in the middle of growing.

    The view gave Xu Qing an even deeper understanding of god domains. As he and the Captain had traveled, he had seen and sensed things that surpassed anything he had understood before. Most of them defied logic. Whether it was the tentacled fish floating through the void, or the enormous eyes of annihtion, or the spiders that could ignore magical techniques, they were all iparably gruish.

    ¡°See that, little Ah Qing? Those shells are amazing things!¡± The Captain stood next to Xu Qing, looking excitedly at the shells as he exined. ¡°Look closely, and you can see the fleshy parts inside the shells. Check this out: that flesh contains god pearls!

    ¡°Such pearls might not be useful to most people. But to us it¡¯s the opposite. Those thingies are going to be the foundation of the next step of the big job! Now, you know how kindhearted I am, and how I just can¡¯t stand to see others suffer. Do you see how, when those shells open up, they look like they¡¯re in pain? It¡¯s obviously because of the pearls!¡±

    The Captain licked his lips as he eyed some of the pearls. ¡°Ai. It¡¯s time for us to do a good deed and help them! We need to get those pearls out of there so the shells can have a bit offort!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the shells and then the red-colored sea. There was something terrifying about that sea, and it imparted a sensation of dangerous crisis. He could tell that this was a potentially deadly ce. Ignoring the Captain¡¯s introduction, he stayed firm to his original decision to refrain from participating. Turning, he prepared to leave.

    Seeing that, the Captain suddenly got very anxious.

    ¡°Don¡¯t go, little Junior Brother!¡± he said. ¡°I have a way to safely get the pearls! You¡¯ve already seen how well-prepared I am.¡±

    The Captain quickly took out a rope.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to tie one end of this rope around myself. You¡¯ll hold the other end. Then, you just find one of the open shells and throw me into it. After I dig out the pearl, I¡¯ll give you a signal, and you yank me back out. Simple! Given how fast I work, as long as you help out, we¡¯re guaranteed to seed!¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated as he looked at the rope. Something about it seemed familiar. At first it just looked like an ordinary rope, but if you looked closely, you would seeplicated designs on its surface. Xu Qing sighed inwardly as he realized what it was.

    The Captain grinned. ¡°Recognize it? Hahaha! See how hard I¡¯ve worked getting ready for this? Now, give me a hand, okay?¡±

    The rope was made from his skin. Simr to what he had done in the Moonrite Region, the Captain had sliced his own skin off and used it to make a rope. Given that level ofmitment, Xu Qing felt bad about refusing. Giving the Captain a deep look, he finally nodded.

    The Captain was thrilled at Xu Qing¡¯s agreement. With that, he discussed more of the details. He had really thought things out thoroughly. After making a few adjustments to the n, Xu Qing gritted his teeth, tied the rope around the Captain, and then hurled him out over the red sea.

    Before long, the Captain spotted an opened shell with an eagle inside. As the eagle leaned out of the shell, the Captain donned a special pair of gloves and shouted, ¡°That one right there!¡±

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing snapped the rope out in the direction of that specific shell.

    The Captain was sent flying down in a blue streak of light, moving at astonishing speed to shoot right into the opened shell.

    Maybe it was the Captain¡¯s ample preparations, or maybe it was the invisibility provided by the Wordless Book of Stone, but either way, the Captain flew right past the eagle without attracting any attention.

    As the Captainnded on the fleshy part inside the shell, his eyes glittered with blue light. Without any hesitation, he reached out with his gloved hands and started digging through the flesh. The special characteristics of the gloves ensured that the flesh actually moved away from them, and thus, the pearl was quickly revealed. The Captain excitedly wrapped his arms around the pearl, which was roughly as big as he was. Then he pulled forcefully.

    At the same time, Xu Qing yanked on the rope as hard as he could. As a result, the Captain burst out of the shell.

    Once back at Xu Qing¡¯s side, the Captainughed heartily. ¡°What do you think, little Ah Qing? Didn¡¯t I say that sess was guaranteed?¡±

    Xu Qing was slightly suspicious. It did seem to be going as smoothly as the Captain had said, with no dangerous developments. But considering how things usually went, Xu Qing still kept his guard up.

    The Captain shook his head and sighed. ¡°You need to trust me, little Junior Brother. Alright, let¡¯s keep going.¡±

    With that, the Captain pointed at another opened shell.

    For the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing helped the Captain collect pearls from over a dozen shells. Each and every attempt led to sess. There were no failures. There was even one instance in which the Captain got two pearls from one shell, and still made it back safely.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting to get a bit tired. Come, little Ah Qing. It¡¯s your turn. You give it a try.¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± Xu Qing said.

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Little Ah Qing, you¡¯re really not helping much here. Since when did you be such a scaredy-cat? Ah, whatever. I¡¯ll do it. We need to have a total of about a hundred of these pearls.¡±

    The Captain stuck his chin up disdainfully and indicated for Xu Qing to throw him out again.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t moved by the Captain¡¯s words. He had already made his decision to not get too involved. Therefore, just as before, he tossed the Captain out.

    On this particr asion... it took a while for something unexpected to happen. But it happened. As the Captain entered the shell, and before he could dig out the pearl, the eagle suddenly opened its eyes, and snapped its sharp beak down onto the rope. The rope snapped. The Captain¡¯s expression flickered dramatically, and he tried to back up. He was toote.

    The shell snapped shut. A boom rang out as it sealed tightly. The sea was quiet. There were no fluctuations.

    Xu Qing just hovered in midair looking out. He sighed. He¡¯d known all along something like this would happen. He looked at the shell where the Captain was trapped. Then he looked at all the other shells the Captain had visited up to this point. All were closed. Obviously, some time needed to pass before the shells opened again.

    <i>I can¡¯t just sit around waiting.</i>

    Xu Qing sighed and entered his fourth-level god state. The soul threads swept out around him and the Ninedawns skulls started rotating around him. Just to be safe, he tapped into his mage trove and summoned half of the projection of an antemage. At that point, he headed out over the red sea.

    The red sea vibrated, and the shells started rocking back and forth. Godly might seemed to build up, covering the area and causing a sensation of crisis to build.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in the mood to think things through very thoroughly, so he just tapped into all his strength to grab the shell that had swallowed the Captain.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out from the shell as Xu Qing struggled. In the end, he managed to open a small crack. It was small, but it was enough to see inside.

    ¡°Eldest Brother!¡± he shouted. Something blurred out of the shell.

    At that point, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hold it open any longer. He lunged backward, and the shell mmed shut loudly. Xu Qing reined in his aura, and the godly might that had been converging in the area faded away.

    The Captain was in bad shape. He was dripping wet and had patches of rotting flesh all over him, some of which reached down to the bone. That included his face. Apparently, if Xu Qing hadn¡¯t opened the shell as quickly as he had, the Captain would have beenpletely digested. There was even a pearlyyer of shell that had started to build up on him....

    Xu Qing looked the Captain up and down but didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Ahem. What just happened <i>wasn¡¯t</i> unexpected, little Junior Brother. That kind of thing happens all the time!¡± Although the Captain was actually very embarrassed, he would never admit it openly. ¡°I did it on purpose, actually. See this stuff covering me? It¡¯s the same stuff that makes the pearls. It¡¯ll be very usefulter.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Xu Qing nodded, nced one more time at the Captain¡¯s sorry state, and held back from berating him.

    Sadly, the look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes made the Captain feel like he had lost a lot of the dignity of an Eldest Brother. He looked furiously at the shell that had swallowed him, his eyes slowly filling with a crazy look.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, let me borrow that Dawning Sun of yours!¡±

    Xu Qing was about to refuse when the Captain blinked a few times.

    ¡°Rest at ease. I¡¯m not going to detonate it. That ancient sun of yours has one of my own treasures in it, and I need to extract it. All you have to do is hand it over.¡±

    Xu Qing sighed. Although he wasn¡¯t convinced the Captain was beingpletely forting, he took out his ancient sun and handed it to the Captain. Then he backed up by about 3,000 meters. Even then, he didn¡¯t feelpletely safe, so he backed up to 9,000 meters.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t very pleased to see Xu Qing backing up so far.

    ¡°What happened to the trust between us?¡± he murmured with a cold snort as he gripped the Dawning Sun. By this point, all of his emotions hadbined into pure craziness.

    Just as Xu Qing had suspected, the Captain didn¡¯t extract anything from the Dawning Sun, as there was nothing inside that he had left behind.

    ring at that one specific shell, the Captain squeezed the Dawning Sun with his hand, bringing it to life!

    Intense heat erupted from the Dawning Sun, as well as a terrifying aura and fluctuations that spread out to fill the entire red sea. The surrounding void started to distort and ripple; the heat of the Dawning Sun seemed like it could scorch anything and everything.

    Speaking in a crazed voice that echoed out in all directions, the Captain said, ¡°Alright, bitch. Usually I¡¯m the one who goes around biting things. This is the first time I¡¯ve run into something that bit me! And that¡¯s why I¡¯m going to boil you up, fool!¡±

    Off in the distance, Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened, and he backed up even further....

 Chapter 882: Gobsmacked Old Grandpa

    <h4>Chapter 882: Gobsmacked Old Grandpa</h4>

    The only thing Xu Qing could do in response to the Captain¡¯s crazy behavior was sigh. None of it was a surprise. When his Eldest Brother asked for that Dawning Sun, it exined everything. Xu Qing knew that he couldn¡¯t stop the Captain from acting suicidal, and that the best reaction was to just back away.

    On the frozen red sea, the Captain¡¯s eyes and facial expression were both masks of craziness. He was the one who went around biting things. But then this shell bit him! It left him feeling like he had lost a lot of face in front of his little Junior Brother.

    ring down at the shell, the Captainughed loudly. ¡°It¡¯s time for you to learn, fool, that you can¡¯t just go around biting anything you please!¡±

    The Dawning Sun continued to power up, emitting astonishing heat waves that rolled out in all directions. The shells were starting to glow red, and ripples were now visible on the surface of the water. That terrifying heat was rapidly spreading out across the entire sea.

    Despite being several thousand meters away, even Xu Qing could feel the intensity of the heat.

    That said, though the Captain was acting crazy, he didn¡¯t actually want to end things in mutual destruction with the shell. Or perhaps it was that the shell just wasn¡¯t very ferocious. Either way, the Captain was still thinking straight enough to just let out some of the heat from the Dawning Sun. He didn¡¯t truly detonate it.

    It really highlighted how familiar the Captain was with Dawning Suns. Originally, this sun started out as an ancient sun that the Captain fished out of a river. Of course, the Dawning Suns were also the domain treasures of humankind. And considering that Xu Qing had put some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into this one, it obviously surpassed ordinary Dawning Suns. Because of that, even just the mere heat it could radiate was astonishing, even inside of a god domain.

    Ripples were now visible everywhere as the frozen sea turned into an actual sea. As for the shells... they were all bright red, and the eagles inside of them were trembling. The heat of the dawn light, and the mutagen, were so strong that the entire world in the area was changing.

    Laughing madly, the Captain shot down to the shell that had bitten him, jumped inside, and quickly dug out the pearl inside.

    Then, he took advantage of the fact that the other shells were all open due to the heat. Moving at top speed, he raced from one to the next, digging out pearls.

    ¡°You trashy shells!¡± he said loudly. ¡°You couldn¡¯t just let me have the pearls, could you? Oh no. You just had to force my hand. Well, if you refuse to do things the easy way, we¡¯ll do them the hard way!

    ¡°Back in the day, I froze you and took the pearls as I wished. I had you locked down so tightly you couldn¡¯t fart! Well, my cultivation base isn¡¯t the same as it was back then, but I still have ways of dealing with you. This time, I can¡¯t freeze you, so I¡¯ll boil you!¡±

    The Captain felt wonderful. Looking over at Xu Qing, who was still carefully backing away, he called, ¡°Little Junior Brother! Don¡¯t be such a scaredy-cat! Come,e! Help me grab a pearl or two!¡±

    Xu Qing was 15,000 meters away, and he wasn¡¯t stopping. He didn¡¯t even look over his shoulder.

    The Captain shook his head. <i>Clearly, little Ah Qing needs some toughening up</i>.

    Humming a little tune, the Captain continued taking out pearls until he had more than a hundred....

    Meanwhile, the water was bubbling with more and more intensity as the heat increased. From a distance, the previously frozen sea now looked like a pot of boiling water. The shells were bright red, and the huge eagles inside of them had been stimted to the point of opening their eyes. Their eyes glowed ck, and they let loose piercing cries. For thousands of such shells to all be issuing such howls created a deafening sound wave that could end the heavens and crush the earth.

    Soon, the struggles of the eagles reached a peak level. The shells were rocking back and forth violently. Some of them even moved their bivalve shells like wings, and flew up into the air. Sprays of water shot up like geysers. The sea was mutating!

    Stunned, the Captain looked at the shaking shells.

    ¡°They can actually fly?¡±

    Based on what he remembered, this frozen red sea had never done anything like this, and the shell eagles definitely hadn¡¯t ever flown.

    As the Captain looked on in shock, the sea churned. Countless shells flew up into the air. In fact, all of them were flying. At the same time, the water erupted. Sea water shot up into the air!

    The cries of the huge eagles were both excited, angry, and murderous. And they were all ring at the Captain. And then they started racing toward him.

    Up to this point, none of this was too much to deal with. The Captain¡¯s eyes glowed with cold light.

    ¡°Who are you trying to scare?¡±

    Snorting coldly, he was about tounch an attack when, all of a sudden, something happened that made even him gasp....

    The entire sea was floating up, revealing that at the bottom of it was a mass of tentacles....

    The Captain looked on, stunned. Instinctively putting the Dawning Sun away, he turned and raced madly in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Off in the distance, Xu Qing could sense the terrifying fluctuations behind him, and eventually couldn¡¯t help but stop and turn around.

    What he saw floating up into the air wasn¡¯t sea water. Rather, it was an absolutely gargantuan red jellyfish! The massive jellyfish had just been resting there, with the huge sea being nothing but its head. Now it had been woken up, and had floated up into the air. Compared to it, the Captain was like nothing more than a mote of dust.

    The mere sight of the terrifying jellyfish caused Xu Qing¡¯s scalp to go numb. Turning back around, he fled at top speed. The Captain was behind him, moaning and groaning as he tried to catch up.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother...¡± he cried. Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, but he reached back with his right hand and lent some power to the Captain. As a result, the Captain achieved a burst of speed that put more distance between himself and the huge jellyfish and its tentacles.

    Gasping for breath, the Captain then threw out the rope of flesh. Xu Qing grabbed it and yanked it, pulling the Captain a bit closer.

    ¡°This was just a slight mishap, little Junior Brother...¡± The Captain said as he caught up. Xu Qing just kept going.

    They were now being chased by several thousand eagles as well as a floating jellyfish. Angry howls echoed out; from the sound of it, they wouldn¡¯t rest until the object of their animosity was dead.

    Thankfully, the spider webs were still around, and the jellyfish was gargantuan. It couldn¡¯t pass through the spider webs without having to worry about being stuck, and that slowed it down a lot. This also served to highlight how terrifying the jellyfish was, as some of the strands of spider web snapped due to its passage. Some of them ended up tossed aside by the jellyfish''s tentacles.

    Xu Qing was reeling from the sight of it

    Even the Captain was scared witless. ¡°This sea was never like this in any of my past lives! It¡¯s-it¡¯s-it¡¯s... it¡¯s actually a gigantic jellyfish??¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in the mood to reply. Gritting his teeth, he kept fleeing.

    In that manner, time passed.

    ***

    A few dayster, another person could be seen fleeing through the sky of the god domain just like the Captain and Xu Qing. He was none other than Tuo Shishan. His hair was disheveled, and he looked to be in pretty bad shape. He was being chased by two tentacled fish who were hot on his tail.

    <i>Why am I so unlucky?</i>

    Tuo Shishan felt like he was running out of options, and was starting to get anxious. After entering the god domain, things had gone smoothly at first. But the more time that passed, the less smoothly they went. He had even had to deal with eyes of annihtion. If he hadn¡¯t paid the price of putting the old grandpa inside of him to sleep, the eyes of annihtion would have killed him.[1]

    He had assumed his misfortune had passed after that incident, but had somehow ended up running into these two tentacled fish. And now the old grandpa was asleep.... Tuo Shishan sighed. Unless he had no other options, he didn¡¯t want to force the old grandpa to wake up. It would be too hard on the old man.

    <i>It¡¯s fine. I have other options. These tentacled fish will go away once they catch prey....</i>

    He started looking around for someone to transfer his cmity to. After searching hard for about two hours, the bedraggled Tuo Shishan saw two figures racing along in the distance.

    <i>Xu Qing? But who¡¯s that other guy? Another human?</i>

    Tuo Shishan¡¯s eyes lit up. For a short time, he wrestled with whether or not to cause trouble for Xu Qing. In the end, he gritted his teeth and reminded himself of the twomon sayings: <i>better you than me, fellow daoist</i> and <i>all</i> <i>great men are ruthless</i>. [2]

    <i>Oh, Xu Qing. We¡¯re not really friends, and thus, our meeting here... is just bad luck for you!</i>

    Without any hesitation, he tapped into all the strength he could muster to shoot rapidly toward Xu Qing, with the two tentacled fish right behind him.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the Captain were in rough shape. For several days straight, they had been pursued relentlessly by the giant jellyfish. Even when they tried to lead the chase through areas heavily congested with spider webs, the jellyfish never seemed to slow down. Apparently, the effects of the Wordless words didn¡¯t apply to the jellyfish.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that the invisibility stopped working,¡± the Captain exined. ¡°It¡¯s just that karma is bound too tightly. If we can just get far enough away from it for a few hours, then we should be able to sever the karma threads.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. Around then, they happened to spot Tuo Shishan flying toward them with two tentacled fish behind him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyebrows shot up.

    At the same time, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar echoed out from behind Xu Qing and the Captain as the jellyfish snapped through spider webs to chase after them.

    Whether because of its size or its momentum, the jellyfish shook everything in the area.

    ***

    Tuo Shishan had been focusing on Xu Qing as he attempted to get the tentacled fish to switch targets. But then he looked up. He immediately caught sight of the terrifying jellyfish and the host of shell eagles.

    One look was all it took to cause sweat to break out on his forehead. The two tentacled fish stopped in ce, shivered, then spun and fled in the opposite directions. In the blink of an eye, they were gone....

    As Tuo Shishan hovered there with his heart pounding, Xu Qing and the Captain got closer. They had clearly seen the two fish chasing him, which then fled.

    A sense of deadly crisis exploded within Tuo Shishan. Without any hesitation, he proudly called out, ¡°Fellow Daoist Xu Qing, I¡¯m here to lend a helping hand!¡±

    As the words left his mouth, he prodded the old grandpa inside of him, then waved his hand. Glittering light shone out as a projection of the old grandpa appeared. Looking confused, he flew straight toward the jellyfish.

    1. Back in <u>chapter 842</u>, when Xu Qing shed with Tuo Shishan, we learned that Tuo Shishan has a sealed Smoldering God that he controls. ?

    2. I just have to point out that the first phrase is indeed amon Chinese idiom that has the term ¡®fellow daoist¡¯ in it. The phrase can be interpreted different ways depending on the context, and though the meaning is as I have rendered it, the more direct rendering would be something like ¡®the fellow daoist dies, but this poor daoist (me) is not dead.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 883: Ancestral Emperorâ€™s Tomb

    <h4>Chapter 883: Ancestral Emperor¡¯s Tomb</h4>

    Tuo Shishan reacted with lightning decisiveness. He knew full well that, given the level of his cultivation base, he wasn¡¯t anywhere near a match for Xu Qing in close quarters fighting. After all, though he hadn¡¯t personally witnessed the death of Master Stillwinter, he had heard firsthand ounts and knew all the details. So he knew that if he didn¡¯t make it immediately obvious that he wanted to help, he might never have a chance to do so.

    And then there was the shifty-eyed fellow next to Xu Qing, who was obviously a scoundrel through and through. Now that Tuo Shishan thought about it, he realized that the sleazy-looking fellow had been with Xu Qing during their initial sh outside of the city. Any person who hung around with Xu Qing was obviously not going to be a weakling. All of that led him to the conclusion that he would be lucky to live through a conflict with these two.

    Then there was the fact that these two had somehow provoked something as terrifying as this jellyfish. That... wasn¡¯t something easy to do. It wasn¡¯t as if just anybody could get a reaction from an entity like that, and then end up being chased relentlessly.

    Because of all these factors, Tuo Shishan didn¡¯t hesitate to wake up the old grandpa and throw him toward the jellyfish. That was enough to show his attitude.

    The old grandpa shivered in the midst of his confusion. When heid eyes on the huge red jellyfish, he shivered from head to toe.

    <i>That little brat...</i> However, there wasn¡¯t time for anything else, so he unleashed his Smoldering God power in a blow toward the giant jellyfish.

    Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. The majestic jellyfish shivered slightly, but then just powered through the attack and kepting.

    <i>This thing is like a miniature god!</i> The old grandpa steeled himself andunched another attack.

    Behind him, the Captain and Xu Qing had somewhat odd expressions on their faces as a result of Tuo Shishan suddenly showing up and helping. And they could see how strong that old grandpa was.... Given how things had developed, it wasn¡¯t proper for them to take action against Tuo Shishan.

    ¡°Many thanks!¡± Xu Qing said with a nod, and then shot right past Tuo Shishan.

    Tuo Shishan was also fleeing in the same direction, although he clearly wasn¡¯t as fast as Xu Qing. All he could do was force a smile onto his face and say, ¡°We¡¯re bros, right? No problem!¡±

    The Captain looked surprised to hear such words. He also shot a nod in Tuo Shishan¡¯s direction, then sped after Xu Qing. And thus, the two of them vanished over the horizon.

    Tuo Shishan was also fleeing for his life, but he wasn¡¯t quite as fast. Meanwhile, the old grandpa was letting loose pained exmations as he used a variety of methods to try to buy time.

    Slowly but surely, Tuo Shishan managed to put some distance between himself and the jellyfish. When he was far enough away, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing that he was safe for the moment, he thought about the plight of the old grandpa and felt bitterness in his heart.

    <i>How did things end up like this?</i>

    In a different direction, Xu Qing and the Captain, despite having finally shaken the giant jellyfish, weren¡¯t slowing down at all. They kept going for several more hours. Then the Captain waved his hand to sever the karma threads connecting them to the jellyfish.

    Afterwards, they felt much more relieved. However, they kept flying for a few more days until all lingering traces of fear left them. The danger from the jellyfish was finally over.

    At the moment, they were resting atop a magical mushroom some several dozen meters tall.[1]

    Squatting there, the Captain exhaled softly. When thinking back to everything that had yed out, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°See? Didn¡¯t I say earlier that that crappy Tuo Shishan is a good guy?¡± The Captain reached down, dug out some of the flesh of the magical mushroom, and swallowed it down. ¡°Have some. This type of mushroom is one of the only safe things to eat in this god domain.¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked at the horizon. Only after confirming that there really wasn¡¯t any karma connecting him to the jellyfish did he start to calm down. He looked at the Captain.

    The Captain smiled wryly. ¡°A mishap. It was really just a little mishap.¡±

    The Captain dug out some more mushroom flesh and tossed it to Xu Qing.

    Though Xu Qing had long grown used to the Captain¡¯s crazy behavior, he still needed more time to regain hisposure. Taking the mushroom flesh, he unhesitatingly swallowed it down. Though the mushroom flesh looked dark and unappetizing, it was actually very sweet, and even provided some nourishment to the soul.

    ¡°What do you think, little Junior Brother? See, I was being serious! This mushroom is pretty good. Believe me, there used to be a lot of magical mushrooms like this around here. After I figured out how to make use of them¡ª¡±

    ¡°There were a lot fewer,¡± Xu Qing interjected bluntly.

    The Captain chuckled. He was quite an expert in calming Xu Qing down, so he ignored his surly tone. Throwing his arm over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders, he proudly said, ¡°Little Ah Qing, nobody understands me like you do. You¡¯re right. I ate about seventy to eighty percent of the magical mushrooms around here. They¡¯re really that amazing. And I guess they just don¡¯t grow back, which is why you don¡¯t see many of them now. Let¡¯s keep eating. When we¡¯re done, I¡¯m going to take you to see another amazing treasure.¡±

    The Captain took another bite.

    And thus, the two of them ate mushroom flesh for about two hours.... By that point, the gigantic mushroom was gone. They had eaten the entire thing. The Captain ate less than Xu Qing, and as a result, Xu Qing¡¯s mood was improving.

    Eating that much of the mushroom flesh provided a direct boost to the strength of Xu Qing¡¯s soul. In fact, it was about a forty percent boost, resulting in an even more clear understanding of the limitations of his cultivation base. Because hecked heavenly daos, his progress had slowed. However, the boost to his soul did help him to improve his connection to his five secret troves. What was more than clear was that his troves were empty, with the exception of the god state trove and the mage trove.

    <i>My first god trove has the bluegreen dragon, and the mage trove doesn¡¯t need a heavenly dao because... the antemage inside basically is a heavenly dao! In other words, I¡¯m currentlycking three heavenly daos.</i> [2]

    Having spent time in this god domain, he knew that the tentacled fish could serve as heavenly daos... and so could that huge jellyfish.

    Unfortunately, those two specific types would be too powerful for him to control.

    <i>The spiders would work, and maybe even those shell eagles. Except they¡¯re too weak. Furthermore, one of the most important things to consider is my Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove....</i>

    As Xu Qing pondered such things, the Captain blinked a few times and then smiled.

    ¡°Thinking about heavenly daos?¡± he asked as hey on the ground, rubbing his belly and burping asionally. ¡°The amazing treasure I¡¯m going to show you next can help you get heavenly daos. So don¡¯t put too much thought into it, little Junior Brother. The heavenly daos are just waiting for you!¡±

    The Captain stood and pointed off into the distance.

    The fact that the Captain had twice mentioned an ¡®amazing treasure¡¯ caused Xu Qing¡¯s vignce to skyrocket. He looked off in the direction the Captain was pointing.

    The spider webs there were denser than in other ces, and it was just barely possible to see a in their depths. It was wrapped up in countless spiderwebs, making it seem defeated. In addition, Xu Qing could see some nts that were new to him.

    They were actually withered trees that were growing on the spiderwebs, and on their dried up trunks were faces with their eyes closed as if sleeping. As they got closer, more and more such trees became visible.

    ¡°That¡¯s where your big job is going to take ce?¡± Xu Qing asked coolly. He had already firmly decided that he wouldn¡¯t be going in that direction. He would find somewhere else to get some heavenly daos.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother, I¡¯m afraid I need to correct you. <i>I¡¯m</i> not going on a big job. <i>We</i> are.¡± Seeing the determined look in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, the Captain cleared his throat and blinked a few times. ¡°Little Junior Brother, I¡¯ve looked at your god troves before, and... for secret troves like that, you need a heavenly dao that¡¯ll cooperate!

    ¡°That said, in the final analysis, getting a heavenly dao for a god trove won¡¯t be hard. What¡¯s going to be hard is your Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove! There¡¯s no heavenly dao that can qualify to enter a secret trove like that!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s expression was very serious as he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°That¡¯s why I need to take you to check out this treasure I mentioned. You can see it already. It¡¯s that!¡± He once again pointed off into the distance. ¡°You know what¡¯s inside that? An emperor¡¯s tomb!¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. He had been thinking about the Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove, and had essentiallye to the same conclusion as the Captain. Heavenly daos suitable for the Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove were anything butmon.

    Noticing Xu Qing¡¯s thoughtful look caused the Captain to brighten up. ¡°Based on the research I did, this god domain didn¡¯t always look like this. This ce actually used to be an entire world simr to the Revered Ancient maind. Granted, it¡¯s not and mass like Revered Ancient, but if you take a bunch ofs and put them together, it¡¯s almost the same thing.

    ¡°In the past, this ce used to have cultivators, civilizations, and countless species. But one day the spider god came along, devoured everything, and changed it into a god domain. All the living things here became grues, losing their intelligence and transforming into godly entities.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s face was a mask of reminiscence. ¡°As for our Revered Ancient maind, its personhood exists on a much higher level. But in the future... it¡¯s most likely doomed to be like this ce.

    ¡°And that¡¯s because the broken face of the god is far more terrifying than the spider god! Also, the tomb inside that is that of the ancestral emperor of thisary system. In terms of his identity and status, well, just imagine him as being like Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity! They¡¯re essentially the same.

    ¡°And that tomb definitely has something with the requisite personhood to serve as the heavenly dao for your Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove! I¡¯m telling the truth, little Junior Brother. If you can¡¯t find a suitable heavenly dao in there, then <i>you</i> can be the Eldest Brother from now on!¡±

    The Captain didn¡¯t avert his eyes. His tone was decisive. In order to get Xu Qing to join him, he was willing to throw caution to the wind.

    Xu Qing was visibly moved. He knew his Eldest Brother, and was thus aware of the vicious nature of the promise he had just made. He looked at the wrapped up in countless spider webs, and a crazy look appeared in his eyes. A few breaths worth of time passed, and he burst into motion.

    The Captain licked his lips and raced after him excitedly.

    A momentter, the two of them were whizzing through the spiderwebs.

    1. Because it¡¯s not relevant to the plot, and is only mentioned in this chapter, I¡¯m not going to get into the weeds when ites to the specific type of mushroom mentioned here. Surely some of you are used to the ¡®lingzhi¡¯ mushroom thates up in wuxia and xianxia a lot. The mushroom mentioned here is essentially a lingzhi mushroom, but it¡¯s a specific type with a different name. Again, the point is that it¡¯s an edible mushroom (that has magical properties if you¡¯re superstitious or live in a xianxia universe), so I¡¯m going to keep the trantion simple in this case. ?

    2. In a previous chapter, the author very specifically said that Xu Qing had two ¡®ordinary¡¯ troves, and then three that are god, mage, and emperor specifically. However, starting in this chapter, he switches to calling them all ¡°god troves,¡± at least most of the time. I didn¡¯t even notice this change until it was pointed out to me in proofreading, so there may be some inconsistencies in uing chapters. This is one author mistake (or shall we say inconsistency), that I¡¯m not going to attempt to edit away, as there are too many references, and frankly it doesn¡¯t seem super important. ?

 Chapter 884: A Statue Worshiping a Moon

    <h4>Chapter 884: A Statue Worshiping a Moon</h4>

    From their perspective, the spider webs just kept getting bigger and bigger. At the same time, the trees became easier to see.

    As the Captain zipped among the spider webs, he said, ¡°Slow down, little Junior Brother. The faced trees are actually the ancestral emperor¡¯s bodyguards, who were transformed by mutagen invasion. They¡¯re asleep, but they still have extraordinary battle prowess. What''s really surprising is that if you wake them up, they¡¯ll release a chant that can shatter the soul. And their chanting can also bring terrifying entities with it.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. He had been able to sense the gruish nature of the faced trees even from a distance.

    The faces were all middle-aged, and there were no women, only men. They seemed human, but the color of their skin was unusual. What was more, they had slits behind their ears that resembled fish gills. Their eyes were closed, but their expressions were distorted, and they seemed to pulse with both mutagen and rancorous energy. All in all, their expressions were those of defiance.

    ¡°People are like bugspared to the gods. They fought back, but sadly....¡± The Captain sighed as they passed among the trees, being careful not to touch any of them.

    After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, their invisibility as provided by the Wordless words enabled them to slip past the terrifying trees unnoticed. They passed throughyer afteryer of spider webs, almost like mosquitoes as they got closer to what was in the middle.

    Soon, the huge loomed just ahead. It was gray, and was covered with all sorts of rifts and crevices. It also pulsed with an aura of death, and had swirling vortexes on its surface, which were storms. What was more, there were roughly sixteen irregrly shaped craters visible on it. Each one was terrifying to behold.

    When Xu Qing spotted the craters, the sensation they imparted caused him to think back to the spider god he¡¯d seen in the shrine in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. That god had sixteen legs, which was a perfect match for the number of craters: sixteen.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing could see something in his mind; the terrifying and gargantuan spider god made a home on this gray-colored, with sixteen legs plunged into thends of the. That was how the sixteen craters formed.

    Looking at the, the Captain said, ¡°Based on what I found out back in the day, this was the main habitat of the master of this god domain. But then that master left and never came back, which was when this ce started devolving into ruin.

    ¡°Things in this spot are not as dangerous as elsewhere. But in the end, we¡¯re still in a god domain, and this is the core of the ce, so we can''t let our guard down. Of course, the more that¡¯s the case, the better the rewards are going to be!¡±

    Despite the crazy look in his eyes, the Captain didn¡¯t forget to offer a quick reminder to Xu Qing. ¡°This is where we¡¯ll find a heavenly dao suitable for your Emperor¡¯s Sword secret trove! Let¡¯s keep moving, little Junior Brother!¡±

    The Captain flew onward.

    Eyes gleaming with determination, Xu Qing followed. Since he had already made his decision, there was no need for hesitation.

    The most uptodate nove??s are published on fr§×ewebno?el.?o?.

    Eventually, they stepped onto the. The ground was gray and the sky was ck, although the storm clouds made everything dim and blurry. The deafening storms blew here constantly. This really seemed like a danger zone.

    The biggest storm Xu Qing had seen in his life up to this point had been in the Greenhair Bands in the Moonrite Region. But having stepped onto this and entered the storms that covered it, he could see that the two couldn¡¯tpare. These storms were vastly bigger than the one in the Greenhair Bands! It was as if the storms were the only thing here, scouring thends and making it difficult for Xu Qing and the Captain to make progress as they traveled.

    They were no ordinary storms. They contained the aura of a god, as well as astoundingly high personhood. They also contained the lingering remnants of imperial energy and god magic. It was easy to imagine what kind of heaven-shaking, earth-shattering battle had been fought here.

    Thankfully, Xu Qing had his god states. By tapping into godsource, he could make his way through the storm winds. The Captain had obviously been here before, and considering all the secrets he kept, it was no wonder that he was also able to force his way through the storms. It actually seemed like he was following a specific path.

    Time passed. Seven dayster they had forced their way through the storms, getting closer and closer to their destination. The two of them were really starting to feel the strain of fighting against the wind.

    What really struck fear into the heart of Xu Qing was that the storms seemed to carry with them the sound of a beating heart. It was as if... there was something alive in the middle of them.

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain. The Captain shook his head and said nothing.

    It was around the time the sixth storm spread out around them that the Captain led Xu Qing to a big crevice in the ground.

    After climbing down inside, it was no surprise to Xu Qing that they found a cave. It was impossible to say how long ago it had been carved out there, but the craftsmanship was superb, and it provided a great hiding spot to stay safe from the storm winds.

    Once inside, the Captain let loose a long sigh of relief. He looked around. ¡°This ce hasn¡¯t changed much at all, little Junior Brother. Let¡¯s rest here for three days. ording to my calctions, the storms outside willplete a cycle at that point. When that happens, the storms will get very weak for a time.

    ¡°As for what you were wondering about before, I''m not sure. In one of my past lives I did get sucked into the middle of one of the storms. I didn¡¯t die, but after I came out, I had no memories of what happened inside. Even now, I have no idea.¡±

    Xu Qing was shaken. The more he knew the Captain, the more he knew how to interpret his stories. And that left him shuddering at the thought of what terrifying things might lurk in the middle of the storms. After a bit more thought on the subject, he looked around the cave.

    ¡°How many times have you been here, Eldest Brother?¡±

    Stretching, the Captain chuckled and sat down next to the wall in what seemed to be a familiar spot. Leaning back against the wall, he held up three fingers and said, ¡°This is the third time!¡±

    Xu Qing looked deeply at the Captain for a long moment. It was obvious that only something really incredible would keep the Captaining back after having failed twice. Xu Qing also found himself thinking about the ¡®amazing treasure¡¯ the Captain had mentioned.

    ¡°What¡¯s the goal this time around?¡± he asked.

    The Captain blinked a few times, looked around furtively, then shook his head. ¡°I really can¡¯t say it, little Junior Brother. Just wait a bit.... All I can say for now is thatpared to this, the Crimson Mother situation will count for almost nothing! I¡¯ve been thinking about this ce for a long time. In fact, about half of all the preparations I¡¯ve made in this life are for here.

    ¡°I was previously thinking it might take four or five lives for everything to take shape. But then you came along, little Junior Brother, and things changed.¡±

    The Captain pped his thigh excitedly.

    Xu Qing sat there thinking. He knew that the Captain wasn¡¯t just being deliberately mystifying. There had to be a good reason for him holding back an exnation. After all, the Captain liked to show off, and would surely have loved to reveal his master n and revel in the look of shock it would elicit.

    <i>Whatever¡¯s making the Captain hesitate, I bet it has something to do with the three gods....</i>

    After all, there had to be a reason the three gods had set the Great Hunt here repeatedly. And then there was the fact that the spider god was sealed in the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. All of a sudden, a very dramatic possibility urred to Xu Qing.

    <i>Fourth god?</i>

    Pupils constricting, he refrained from saying anything else. Closing his eyes, he began to make adjustments to his cultivation base to keep himself in peak condition.

    The only sound in the cave was the wind outside, like a howling god. Sometimes it changed, turning into a whimper. Other times it seemed to contain struggle, or bitterness, or something else very gruish. The changes to the wind only served to remind Xu Qing of how terrifying this ce was.

    Three days passed very quickly.

    The Captain really did understand this ce well, because the sound of the wind started to die down. Then, after the third day was over, there wasn¡¯t any sound at all!

    ¡°It''s time!¡± the Captain said, his eyes glittering. Xu Qing followed him out of the cave to find that the ck sky was now visible again. The graynds around them were perfectly visible as well.

    There wasn¡¯t any trace of a storm.

    ¡°We only have two hours!¡± the Captain said, and he burst into motion, bing a bright beam of light that shot off into the distance.

    Xu Qing raced after him.

    Unfortunately, two hours wasn¡¯t a lot of time. Despite how fast they were moving, the wind gradually started to pick up again. Around the time that it really started to get loud, a strange mountain and a group of statues appeared ahead of them.

    The mountain was majestic and towered high into the sky. There was a circr cave in the middle of the mountain. Wind screamed in the area, and even in the cave, creating a piercing sound that shook the soul. There was also a very ancient feeling to the area that built up in Xu Qing as he looked around.

    At the foot of the mountain were a host of very old statues. The three-headed six-armed statues were looking up into the sky. They held enormous des in their hands, and emanated a terrifying pressure. What was especially noteworthy to Xu Qing was the fact that every one of the huge statues had a half-moon mark on their forehead. The statues on the edges seemed to be kneeling in worship to the sky.

    As Xu Qing took everything in, the Captain¡¯s voice drifted out with the wind.

    ¡°Those are the thirty-six princes of the ancestral emperor. Just before dying, they offered worship to the moon. Not Moonfire, and not the red moon. I''m talking about the most ancient moon there is. That moon is formless. It''s the yin from yin and yang.

    ¡°Some species even call it the ancestral moon. That mountain is what we¡¯re here for. That¡¯s the tomb of thisary system¡¯s ancestral emperor!¡±

    The Captain started heading toward the mountain, but when he realized Xu Qing wasn¡¯t following him, he looked back.

    Xu Qing was standing in front of one of the statues, studying it, his eyes shining. The bluegreen dragon had started sending out fluctuations as if to remind Xu Qing of something. And that reminder seemed to have to do with his third secret trove. That third trove was rted to moons. And it seemed to be pulsing with longing. Xu Qing could tell that this statue would be the perfect heavenly dao for his third secret trove.

 Chapter 885: A Lamp in the God Trove

    <h4>Chapter 885: A Lamp in the God Trove</h4>

    Xu Qing¡¯s life essence bluegreen dragon formed the heavenly dao of his first god trove. Being so familiar with it, it made the god trove very responsive, and also ensured that its natural and magicalws were the mostplete.

    His taboo poison formed his second god trove, and violet moon power made the third. Then he had the Emperor¡¯s trove, plus one trove that had no spirit at all.

    The ¡®spirit¡¯ was the heavenly dao. Without a dao in the trove, it would be very difficult to push it to the level of the great circle. In that case, the five troves couldn¡¯t erupt volcanically, in which case the natural and magicalws couldn¡¯t form spirit ash. Without the spirit ash, it wasn¡¯t possible to form void soil, which in turn would make it impossible to effectuate the return of dao lineaments. [1]

    That was why Xu Qing¡¯s most important goal during the god domain phase of the Great Hunt, other than winning the title of Grand Darkheaven, was to acquire heavenly daos.

    Up to this point, he had encountered quite a few living beings in the god domain that could have be heavenly daos. But for various reasons, he had rejected all of them.

    Until now!

    The three-headed six-armed statue with the moon mark emanated an aura that provoked a reaction from his third god trove. That was unprecedented, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to gleam!

    A momentter, the Captain¡¯s voice reached him. ¡°Hurry up, little Junior Brother. Time¡¯s ticking!¡±

    The Captain¡¯s voice was quickly caught up by the wind and scattered in all directions.

    Xu Qing nodded. Looking away from the statue, he nced around at the storm, and felt the sting of the infinitude of dust particles that it contained.

    A momentter, he shot after the Captain.

    When the Captain saw Xu Qing following him, he elerated toward the mountain that was the emperor¡¯s tomb.

    The wind was getting stronger, filling thend and sky, obscuring vision and bringing about a sensation of wickedness and destruction. The statues were already fading from sight because of the darkness of the storm. Even the mountain was starting to get hard to see.

    Thankfully, the Captain was thoroughly prepared, and knew exactly where he was going. As he got close to the mountain, he spat out a huge mouthful of blood. The word ¡®huge¡¯ was no exaggeration. In fact, it was so much blood that it contained more blood than existed in the body of an average human.

    At the same time, he waved his right hand, gathering up the blood and using it like ink to paint on the rocky surface of the mountain. He drew something that resembled an arc. However, that wasn¡¯t the end of it. He kept spitting out more and more blood, until he¡¯d done it a total of seventeen times. As Xu Qing looked on, he used that blood to paint aplete circle!

    Next, he began to sing a song that sounded more like weeping than singing.

    <i>¡°s, I mourn mine father; who caught ill and passed away.</i>

    <i>¡°I know mine father well, and know his toil; he loved us and protected us each day. </i>

    <i>¡°But he abandoned me and parted ways; drifting in theher, hearing troubled and vision astray; I recognize him not, weeping to the core, love changed into dismay.¡±</i>

    His voice thrummed with grief and sorrow. The wind even seemed to have trouble carrying the words away.

    Xu Qing felt moved by the lyrics. What was more, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that the Captain turned around and winked excitedly, Xu Qing might have assumed that the emperor buried here was actually the Captain¡¯s father.

    As the Captain¡¯s song reached a fever pitch, he shoved his right hand into his torso, ripped out his liver, and put it into the middle of the circle of blood.

    His voice suddenly sounded more sorrowful.

    ¡°This filial sacrificial offering is for my father in the underworld; please sample it, lest all be lost. Amen!¡±

    The rocky surface of the mountain trembled as the Captain ripped out his kidney, spleen, and lungs. One after another, he ced them in the circle of blood. Thest thing he added was his heart!

    Apparently, those things were his sacrificial offering! He was just waiting for the father toe eat!

    Heaven and earth rumbled. The mountain shook. The wind grew more terrifying. And as the Captain performed a double-handed incantation gesture, his eyes shone with crazy light. Taking a step forward, he mmed his head against the rocky cliff surface.

    ¡°Amen!¡± he said, holding nothing back. A cracking sound rang out as the Captain¡¯s head smacked into the rocky surface, causing a rift to open up.

    Xu Qing was visibly surprised.

    The Captain¡¯s actions caused the emperor¡¯s tomb to start shaking dramatically. After striking the circle of blood, a crevice opened up. The Captain¡¯s expression turned even more crazy as he threw his head back and then mmed it back onto the surface of the rock.

    ¡°Amen!¡±

    The mountain shook even more violently, and the existing crevice opened up further, while more crevices opened up.

    After executing nine strikes in a row, the blood circle copsed, revealing a tunnel leading into a cave. However, there was a glowing shield of light that created a final barrier into the cave.

    ¡°Hahaha! Finally got it open!¡± The Captain¡¯s face was slick with blood, and his expression was as crazy as ever. Having sessfully opened up the cave, he didn¡¯t forget to look back at Xu Qing andugh heartily. ¡°Little Ah Qing, this is a back door your Eldest Brother left behind in a past life. With the Wordless words, getting inside will be simple, plus the shield of light will keep out any dangers. Hahaha! The treasures are just waiting for us inside. Let¡¯s do this!¡±

    The Captain raced forward. However he only went a few steps before he realized that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t following him. He looked back, stunned.

    ¡°What are you doing, little Junior Brother?¡±

    Xu Qing had been nning to follow the Captain inside. But upon hearing what he said about ¡®keeping out any dangers,¡¯ his eyes gleamed with determination, and he activated his Violet Lord god state. Millions of soul threads spread out to take the shape of Violet Lord, backed by the blessing of Ninedawns. His battle prowess skyrocketed, and he shoved his hand in the direction of thest and nearest statue.

    Godsource spread out, making a huge hand that could crush anything in its path. Astonishingly, he was nning to kill one of the statues and use its soul as his heavenly dao!

    At the same time, he shed the invisibility from the Wordless Book of Stone.

    The statue shuddered. Its eyes snapped open, and they glowed with an underworld light. At the same time, the statue instantly transformed into a flesh-and-blood form. Opening its mouth, it shouted, ¡°Restrain!¡±

    Heaven and earth reeled as chains of white bone popped out of nowhere andtched onto Xu Qing¡¯s illusory hand, immobilizing it.

    ¡°Devour!¡±

    A reverse force of devouring then swept out of the statue¡¯s mouth and toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing grunted as the power mmed into him, forcing him to back up several steps. Next, wild energy fluctuations rolled out as the statue rushed toward Xu Qing, its three heads all ring angrily at him and its six arms all performing incantation gestures.

    Xu Qing remained calm as he negated the power of devouring. With eyes that shed like des, he looked at the iing statue, backed up, and then made a grasping gesture with his right hand. The air in front of him split open, and fire erupted out as a ck spear appeared. Xu Qing grabbed it. At the same time, a vicious beast with the body of a jackal and the head of a dragon emerged from within him and fused with the ck spear, bolstering it.

    It was none other than the jackal-dragon, who lovedbat and fighting!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with cold light as he hurled the spear at the iing statue! mes spread out in all directions. The Ninedawns jackal-dragon howled. The ck spear thrummed with a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound that was like a sun ripping apart the darkness of night.

    A boom rang out as the charging statue lurched to a halt and threw four hands out to grab the spear and stop its momentum.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to throw his left hand over his head. Four fingers pointed straight up, forming a pointed tip to the de that was his arm. At the same time, a vortex appeared in the sky, causing an ancient temple to appear. The temple revealed an altar with a divine likeness bearing a saber. The statue stepped forward, emerged from the temple, and shed the saber down. Heaven and earth lit up. That temple was called Supreme Vastness, and the statue had Xu Qing¡¯s face. The saber conformed to a heavenly dao, and was in fact a heavenly saber!

    Considering how high Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base had climbed, this saber was anything but ordinary. It was no longer a projection.

    The awakened statue shivered and lifted its remaining two arms like a weapon. At the same time, the three heads all opened their mouths and howled. Wild colors shed in the air as the heavenly saber descended, slicing the ¡®weapon¡¯ apart. The arms shattered, and one of the heads crumbled!

    The heavenly saber faded away.

    The statue, meanwhile, was flung backward by about 300 meters. Its four remaining eyes let off streams of ck smoke as they charged back toward Xu Qing, its four arms stretched out to grab him.

    Xu Qing frowned. Without any hesitation, he shot backward and managed to enter the screen of light in the cave just before the statue arrived.

    The statue closed in, and its four hands mmed into the shield. The shield trembled, but it kept the statue at bay.

    The Captain was right. The shield of light really did keep dangers away. The statue stood just outside of it, ring coldly at Xu Qing. Then, after a long moment passed, it returned to its spot and reverted to stone. That said, the portions where it sustained damage wouldn¡¯t easily be restored.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t wait for the Captain to say anything before striding back outside of the shield of light. There, he performed an incantation gesture and unleashed a torrent of divine abilities. The statue awoke again, and the fighting resumed.

    Booms rang out and terrifying shockwaves spread. Xu Qing asionally fell back and asionally pressed the attack.

    On the other side of the shield, the Captain watched. Though he was surprised, he now realized that Xu Qing wanted to use the shield of light as an area to seek refuge while he tried to wear down the statue.

    He was inclined to remind Xu Qing that the statues here couldn¡¯t be killed. He had done his own research into that, and knew that even if you managed to destroy one, it would cause other unexpectedplications. But then he realized that if he exined that, it would likely diminish his prestige as the Eldest Brother. And prestige was extremely important.

    Thus, he put a look of admiration onto his face and said, ¡°I¡¯ll help you, little Junior Brother!¡± With that, he rushed out and joined Xu Qing in trying to deal with the statue.

    Just like before, the statue continued to sustain damage, and eventually the heavenly saber appeared. But this time, something different happened.

    The heavenly dao was shaped like a saber, with the taboo poison of a god¡¯s curse as the body of the de, and daybreak light as the light of the de! The Ghost Emperor mountain formed a decapitation altar, and D-132 became the trough! The golden crow connected them, and the violet moon was the seal! The timescape was the container, and it was driven by the sundial lifemps!

    God Decapitation Altar!

    As the executioner¡¯s de fell, it severed the final remaining head on the statue and caused the rest of its body to copse. As the pieces fell to the ground, bits of moonlight erupted from within.

    Struggling to control his breathing, Xu Qing opened his third god trove, sending out a force of attraction that grabbed the moonlight and sucked it in. All of a sudden, amp appeared in the darkness of the god trove!

    ***

    On another part of this strange, on the other side of the mountain that was the emperor¡¯s tomb, a person was beginning a very gruish and mysterious ceremony. The ceremony used a sun as its origin, a moon as its strength, and a star as the force of attraction. That was why there was a huge triangr totem on the ground.

    Wild winds screamed around the totem, within the middle of which a person was seated cross-legged.

    This person wore voluminous clothing that looked like it was tailored for a man. However, the wind caused the cloth to press tightly against what was obviously a very voluptuous form. Her features were exquisite, and featured skin as fair as snow. However, the facial expression that was visible contained coldness and murder.

    This person was none other than Sir Firedark.

    The ceremony being carried out caused glittering light to sh, not up into the sky, but down into the ground. It pierced through the and then connected to the emperor¡¯s tomb.

    In the blink of an eye, Sir Firedark vanished without a trace.

    1. This note is regarding ¡®void soil¡¯ which rtes to the Void Returning level. The author did something really wonky with the ¡®Void Returning¡¯ cultivation level. Specifically, there are two Chinese characters that look very simr and are pronounced simr. One of them means ¡®void¡¯ and the other means ¡®ruins.¡¯ For the majority of the novel, he uses the ¡®void¡¯ character, which is why I rendered the cultivation level as Void Returning. For roughly the first 800 chapters up to this point, he uses that character something like 300 times, with only a few instances of using the ¡®ruins¡¯ character (seemingly just typos). However, starting in this chapter, he switches to using the ¡®ruins¡¯ version of the character more often. Later on, he goes all-in on the ¡®ruins¡¯ interpretation, even linking some of the exnations of the cultivation level to the ¡®ruins¡¯ interpretation. Thankfully, at least ¡®void¡¯ and ¡®ruins¡¯ both conjure a simr sensation of ¡®a ce that has nothing (much) in it.¡¯ I¡¯m not sure why the author did this. Perhaps he changed his mind about which character to use. Perhaps he didn¡¯t think much about this level, and then the typo became the reality, and when it came time to exin the cultivation level, he forgot what he¡¯d originally decided. Or who knows what else it could be. It¡¯s not as big of a deal in Chinese, because the characters look almost identical. If I had known several hundred chapters ago about this, I might have named the cultivation level something different. But given how many hundreds of chapters and references there are, I¡¯m going to maintain the original continuity. This means that there might be some small tweaks made in editing so that everything sounds correct. I¡¯ll include footnotes as necessary about that. ?

 Chapter 886: Five Trove Gates

    <h4>Chapter 886: Five Trove Gates</h4>

    Outside of the emperor¡¯s tomb on the imperial in the god domain, something dramatic was ying out.

    The moment Xu Qing shattered the statue with the God Decapitation Altar, all of the other statues in the area shivered and opened their eyes. As ck light flooded out from their eyes, they began to transform from stone to flesh, starting with their heads. All of them were waking up.

    A terrifying aura rose up, stirring the winds and clouds. It turned into a huge vortex with the emperor¡¯s tomb in the middle as it swept out violently in all directions. ck lightning crashed within it, making it look like something painted by a god to represent all the killing and death in the world.

    Meanwhile, outside of the, the withered trees growing on the spiderwebs started swaying back and forth. The faces on their surfaces opened their eyes, which were crimson, and screams erupted from their mouths. It was a sound like metal scraping against rock, filled with shocking power and a boundless rancorous energy. If the doors of the Yellow Springs were opened, and a sound drifted out from hell itself, it would be like this, something that could make both ghosts and gods wail.

    Their voices merged, caused wild colors to sh as the surrounding tempest slowed down and stopped.

    At the same time, the vortex that had just formed split open like a massive eye. It was almost as if the itself was waking up and was intent on destroying anything and everything around it.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were both stunned by the development. Without a word, they fell back. However, they couldn¡¯t avoid the violent fluctuations caused by the awakening of the. Xu Qing¡¯s god state copsed, his defenses shattered, and his organs vibrated painfully. The Captain was in simr trouble as the violent fluctuations nearly ripped him to shreds. A sensation of death hung over them, as though they might be wiped out of existence at any moment. Thankfully, they were close to the mouth of the passageway, and as the fluctuations built in intensity, they were able to pass to the other side of the shield of light.

    Once inside, Xu Qing coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. Every part of him, from head to toe to soul, screamed with intense pain. Dropping to a cross-legged position, he focused on healing.

    The Captain couldn¡¯tst any longer. His body copsed into a mass of blue worms. Momentster, though, the worms formed his body again, and he stood there with his face ashen.

    After some time passed and the two were recovering, they exchanged a nce.

    The Captain cleared his throat. ¡°Little Junior Brother, what you did just now was utterly crazy. Granted, that¡¯s how I also do things, except... next time could you give me a little heads up beforehand...?¡±

    The Captain was feeling odd for a few reasons. For one thing, he had expected something to happen to the statues, but it hadn¡¯t urred to him at all that their actions could wake up the entire and unleash the power to destroy everything. What was more, <i>he</i> was the one that usually went and did something suicidal, all while dragging Xu Qing along with him. But this time it went the other way around.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing looked back at the Captain quizzically. ¡°Eldest Brother, you never give me a heads up!¡±

    The Captain smiled wryly. ¡°That¡¯s because, as your Eldest Brother, I always worry you might chicken out.¡±

    Xu Qing nodded. ¡°I was worried about the same thing happening with you.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up. <i>Little Ah Qing has picked up some bad habits. This won¡¯t do! I think I need to show him what it really means to be unafraid! What it really means to not fear death! What it really means to do something crazy!</i>

    Looking very solemn, he said, ¡°I have to offer you some constructive criticism, little Junior Brother. The things out there are scraps, nothing more. I¡¯m taking you to a ce where acting crazy will earn you <i>big</i> rewards. Now, let¡¯s get moving!¡±

    The Captain shot to his feet and charged forward with unstoppable momentum and astonishing courage.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing sighed. It looked to him more like the Captain wanted topete with him in acting suicidal. He slowly followed. As he went along, he looked over his shoulder at the shattered statue out in the storm. He hated to give up like this, but also knew that he couldn¡¯t continue to hunt statues. Looking back, he continued after the Captain.

    They were walking through an artificial tunnel that had been carved through the rock. The walls were covered with unusual designs that asionally pulsed with light. There were a lot of twists and turns in the tunnel, as well as numerous side tunnels, which made their path seem meandering. It was almost like they were traversing a maze.

    However, the Captain continued leading the way heroically, as if he knew exactly where he was going. He never slowed down an iota.

    Considering that, Xu Qing didn¡¯t pay attention to the path they were taking. He just followed along, all while keeping his focus on his sea of consciousness.

    Astonishingly, there were five huge ¡®trove gates¡¯ hovering above his sea of consciousness! Each door was 30,000 meters tall, outstandingly majestic, and pulsed with a matchlessly ancient aura. They were configured to face in five different directions.

    The first gate was wide open. On the other side was a majestic world, inside of which swirled a bluegreen dragon that asionally roared loudly. That was Xu Qing¡¯s first god trove!

    The second gate was closed, but it pulsed with a sensation of taboo poison, unease, and fear.

    The third gate was also closed. Within it was a violet moon power, like a burning furnace.

    The fourth gate was different. Though it was closed, it pulsed with an imperial will, something majestic, like a monarch ready to ughter everything in his path.

    The fifth gate, which was for the mage trove, was halfway open. It was just barely possible to see that, on the other side, there was a hulking figure lurking in a dark abyss, propping up heaven and earth, all while surrounded by howls of anguish. Those howls came from Master Stillwinter.

    The five trove gates were like gods hanging in a paramount position over his sea of consciousness. They were the trove gates of the Spirit Trove level, although in the case of Xu Qing, they were for his god troves, imperial trove, and mage trove.

    The Spirit Trove level involved forming trove gates in the sea of consciousness for every secret trove. If a trove had a heavenly dao, the trove gate would open. But without a spirit inside, it would remain closed.

    Of Xu Qing¡¯s five trove gates, one was open, one was half-open, and the other three were closed.

    But right now, Xu Qing¡¯s third trove gate, which was connected to his third god trove, was experiencing something dramatic as moonlight seeped into it.

    It was like light from the ancestor of all moons, and contained the yin dao of the moon. It made the violet moon power in the god trove even more ancient, and caused a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound to fill the trove.

    The rumbling from the third trove gate filled Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, surpassing anything and everything until... the third trove gate opened by a crack. It was a very small crack, but even that small progress on the track from nothing to something was tremendous!

    On the other side of the opening, in the violet dusk of the god trove, a faint white sphere appeared. The sphere seemed profoundly ancient, as if it was the embodiment of that word.

    It was surrounded by a frigid energy that seemed capable of freezing space and time. In fact, this moonlight seemed like it could freeze great daos. It was the embryonic form of the third god trove¡¯s heavenly dao!

    It was a form of the supreme yin, which in ancient times was known as theherglimmer. [1]

    The moment it appeared, thanks to the third trove gate opening, a volcanic eruption of force urred. A mountain-toppling, sea-draining aura spread out over Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, filling his entire body as it cleansed and blessed him. As Xu Qing made his way through the maze-like tunnels of the tomb, a tremor passed through him, and he suddenly erupted with cultivation base power that surpassed anything from before. He quickly concealed it, leaving behind only a fierce and extraordinary light gleaming in his eyes.

    Up ahead, the Captain stopped in ce and turned around to look at Xu Qing. Then he took a step forward and vanished into the wall ahead of him.

    Expression serious, Xu Qing unhesitatingly walked through the wall as well, almost as if it wasn¡¯t even there. On the other side was a vast cave.

    Unlike the maze, this cave seemed to have been formed naturally. It was dark, and also empty, save for nine spinning vortexes of starlight up above. They looked like nine openings leading to nine different worlds.

    As Xu Qing studied them, the Captain said, ¡°Outside of the emperor¡¯s tomb is a primal-chaosbyrinth. Without knowing the correct path to take, not even a Smoldering God could get through it easily. But to me, it¡¯s as easy as walking home. We¡¯re in the middle of thebyrinth now. Those nine vortexes up there are nine paths. Five of them lead to life, and four to death. They change randomly, which makes it very hard to survive an encounter with them.¡±

    The Captain sped his hands behind his back as he hovered in midair. Looking proudly at the nine vortexes, he continued, ¡°However, based on all the research and preparations in my past lives, I¡¯m confident that no matter which vortex I pick, it won¡¯t lead to death. No, any path I pick will automatically be a path of life!¡±

    With his chin stuck up, the Captain flicked his sleeve. <i>Wow, even I¡¯m impressed by what I just said. It was nothing short of amazing. Considering how quick-witted little Ah Qing is, he¡¯ll soon give voice to his astonishment and admiration.</i>

    He waited for a while. When he realized that no one was speaking, he looked down in surprise.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t even looking at him. Instead, Xu Qing was looking at the seventh vortex, and his eyes were glittering thoughtfully.

    The Captain cleared his throat and said, ¡°That¡¯s a path to death! In fact, none of the paths are more deadly than that one. Don¡¯t even look at it.¡±

    Xu Qing ignored the Captain. His eyes were burning with increased curiosity as he realized that, even though he had no idea what was inside that seventh vortex, one thing was certain. And that was... as soon as he¡¯d arrived in this location, his second god trove, that of taboo poison, started emitting the same kind of fluctuations that his third god trove had released in the presence of those statues.

    Those fluctuations contained intense longing!

    The Captain¡¯s eyebrows shot up and he was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a figure emerged from another one of the tunnels. This figure pulsed with a terrifying and domineering aura, and was d in a voluminous daoist robe.

    The strong wind pressed the robe tightly against the body of the neer, revealing some very pronounced and attractive curves. The dramatic rise and fall of the curvature, coupled with the daoist robe, would cause any onlooker to feel a very mysterious sensation.

    This person was none other than Sir Firedark.

    Upon stepping out, she looked at Xu Qing and then the Captain. First, she looked surprised, but then her eyes zed like heavenly bodies as shocking killing intent rose up within her.

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    The Captain¡¯s jaw nearly dropped, and then he inhaled sharply. ¡°Holy fuck, what are you doing here?¡± [2]

    The Captain turned to run. At the same time, Sir Firedark¡¯s killing intent zed to the highest heights, and an aura as terrifying as a Smoldering God¡¯s spread out, filling the cave. Sir Firedark took a step forward, instantly arrived next to the nine vortexes, andunched a fist strike at the Captain.

    ¡°Die!¡±

    1. 1) Themon word for sun in Chinese is literally ¡°supreme yang.¡± Lessmon, but at the same time sort of obvious, you have ¡°supreme yin,¡± which refers to the moon. 2) What I¡¯m tranting as herglimmer¡± is a word for a type of creature that I can¡¯t find in any of my C>E dictionaries. Even on the Chinese inte there is very little information on it. From what I can tell based on that online search, it¡¯s a divine beast rted to the moon. As those of you who read my footnotes probably know, I dislike using transliterations unless absolutely necessary, so I''m coiningherglimmer to describe this creature. ?

    2. In reality, this line was censored in Chinese, so it¡¯s impossible to know 100% for sure what the Captain said. I checked the Chinesements, and as you can imagine there were a lot of suggestions for what it might be. There were twoments that got dozens of times as many upvotes as any of the otherments, so I used those to make an educated guess. If the hundreds of Chinese readers were correct, then there was a clever bit of profanity disguised in inte lingo. Chineseizens are alwaysing up with new ways of disguising prohibitednguage, but of course, the authorities are always figuring out the new ng terms and banning them. If the author self-censors by using euphemisms, then I select corresponding English euphemisms such as freaking, heck, shoot, crap, etc. If the author uses ¡°approved¡± profanity, then I use simr English profanity. In this case, I feel that the author intended for there to be real, non-euphemistic profanity, but got thwarted by the censors, and therefore, I¡¯m un-thwarting the censors by having the English trantion conform to his original intent. ?

 Chapter 887: A Very Tough Adversary

    <h4>Chapter 887: A Very Tough Adversary</h4>

    The figure next to the vortex had beautiful hair and a daoist robe that couldn¡¯t cover her voluptuous curves. Her face was extremely beautiful, but wasced with a baleful aura that added a bit of manliness to it. When she attacked, the entire cave trembled as though it might copse. Sir Firedark¡¯s hatred had really pushed her cultivation base power to something like that of a Smoldering God. The fist caused space to distort and interfered with time itself, piercing forward with the power of extermination.

    Before Xu Qing could even interfere, the Captain screamed as Sir Firedark¡¯s fist hit his body and caused it to explode. Chunks of flesh and gore intermingled with a spray of blood that spread out for dozens of meters.

    Sir Firedark¡¯s killing intent still burned, and thus, after delivering the blow, she didn¡¯t stop. Taking a step forward, she released another destructive blow onto the Captain¡¯s gory remains.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened, and even as Sir Firedark¡¯s second blow was being delivered, he burst into motion. He instantly went to his fourth-level god state. The Ninedawns skulls appeared, turning into mage armor that covered him from head to toe. His battle prowess instantly shot to a levelparable to the great circle of Void Returning.

    He rapidly performed some incantation gestures, causing taboo poison to surge and the violet moon to appear. His Violet Lord god magic was unleashed, slicing apart the air. A heavenly saber also appeared. An ancient temple appeared in midair, its main entrance opened, and a divine likeness strode out and shed down with the saber.

    Prismatic saber light spread out as the canopy of heaven seemed to tilt on its side. The light bolstered the battle prowess of Xu Qing¡¯s god state, and with the blessing of Ninedawns, his fluctuations surpassed what they were when the trove gate of his third trove opened. With that, he shot toward Sir Firedark.

    Sir Firedark stopped in ce, then spun, shifting the target of her attack from the Captain¡¯s remains to the iing heavenly saber. A deafening boom rang out as fist met saber. The fist wasn¡¯t harmed at all, but the saber shattered!

    Sir Firedark¡¯s battle prowess waspletely and utterly terrifying. To Xu Qing, it didn¡¯t feel like fighting a Void Returning enemy, but rather, a Smoldering God!

    When it came to the Void Returning level, Sir Firedark ranked first in the echelon of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Though she hadn¡¯t pushed her cultivation base to its limit, her spectacr talent and boundless reserve powers ensured that her battle prowess had reached the ultimate height!

    The fist didn¡¯t just destroy the saber. It caused a domineering will to sweep over Xu Qing, which felt like countless mountains mming into him. His mage armor cracked, and his god state began to copse into millions of soul threads. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth as he fell back by several dozen meters. That said, he had managed to buy some time for the Captain.

    Up in midair, the Captain¡¯s gory remains clumped together, and in the shortest of moments, he was back. From some distance away, he looked at Xu Qing fighting Sir Firedark. His expression was grave, and his eyes were filling with killing intent.

    ¡°Let¡¯s crush this pansy, little Junior Brother!¡±

    Within the Captain¡¯s crazy eyes could be seen two faces. And the pupils of the two faces had faces in them, and that pattern continued endlessly. At the same time, a very gruish aura spread out from the Captain. Boundless frigid energy erupted as he waved his right hand. Instantly, the flesh on his hand transformed into a blue ice de.

    The slightest movement of that de could slice the air open. Striding toward Sir Firedark, he raised his de and then chopped it down. As he delivered the blow, he also performed an incantation gesture with his left hand. Blinding blue light erupted into a huge sea filled with never-ending cold. It froze everything it passed, causing loud cracking sounds to ring out as it neared Sir Firedark.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was simrly serious. This was his first time fighting Sir Firedark, and though he¡¯d only managed to unleash one saber strike, the domineering aura he had sensed from the enemy¡¯s fist strike reminded him of someone.

    Master Shengyun!

    They didn¡¯t look alike at all. Nor could they reallypare to each other. The reason Xu Qing found himself thinking about Master Shengyun was that this whole situation with Sir Firedark reminded him of his sh with Master Shengyun in Forbidden by the Phoenix. [1]

    Both opponents were powerful, mighty, and seemingly invincible! And yet, back then, Xu Qing still defeated Master Shengyun, preventing him from eventually bing invincible. Today, facing Sir Firedark caused battle spirit to rise within Xu Qing.

    The desire to do battle surged in his sea of consciousness, causing his trove gates to tremble and his cultivation base to churn. His god state formed again, and the mage armor returned. The Nine skulls became ninenterns of flesh, and the heads of the dragons roared. Three inverted mountains appeared. The ck mes of the golden crow spread out, bing a ck spear that Xu Qing grabbed. Then, he joined the Captain to attack Sir Firedark.

    An instantter, the three of them mmed into each other. A deafening boom filled the cave.

    It was instantly clear how formidable Sir Firedark was. Instead of meeting thebined attack of Xu Qing and the Captain with a divine ability or magical treasure, she used only her fist!

    One fist sted the Captain¡¯s de into pieces. One fist sent the ck spear tumbling backward. One fist shattered the Captain¡¯s ice, rendering it useless. One fist caused the three mountains to crumble!

    It was as if her fist could crush anything in its path. Then she took a step forward, and she pulsed with such terrifying and unyielding momentum that she really did seem invincible. Clenching her hand into a fist, sheunched another blow at the Captain.

    All of a sudden, D-132 appeared to lock her in ce.

    Surging with a domineering aura, Sir Firedarkunched a blow that shattered D-132. Then she turned and attacked Xu Qing.

    One step. One punch. That was all it took to shatter the Ninedawns skulls and ravage Xu Qing¡¯s god state. He staggered backward, coughing up blood. Sir Firedark was obviously crushing them with ease. Meanwhile, the countless faces in the Captain¡¯s eyes opened their mouths and issued a piercing cry that could shake the mind and soul.

    Sir Firedark stopped in ce.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes filled with a crazy look as he suddenly let loose a loud shout. Astonishingly, an ancient and illusory staircase appeared as a result. There were a total of nine stairs that made it up, and they seemed like they came from the most ancient of times. The Captain lifted his foot, stretched it out, and stepped down. Every step he took caused him to tremble, especially his chest, which wriggled visibly. After the ninth step, a skeletal hand made of blue ice burst out of his chest. Pulsing with terrifying and ancient energy, it grabbed toward Sir Firedark, carrying a wind of death with it!

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, hadn¡¯t slowed down a bit. He extended his right hand, and his heavenly dao became the body of the de, the taboo poison became the razor-sharp edge, daybreak light became the de glow, the Ghost Emperor mountain became the altar, and the destiny aura of D-132 became the trough! The golden crow, violet moon, and timescape bottle became the container, while the sundial lifemp urged everything into action.

    The God Decapitation Altar descended. The de shed, glittering, right toward Sir Firedark.

    As the two consummate attacks closed in with deadly force, something serious shed through Sir Firedark¡¯s eyes. It was only a sh!

    Lifting her hand, she tightened her fingers, causing the air to shatter.

    Golden light red all around her, covering her from head to toe, filling her bones, and forming an undying sensation that gathered in her hands to be... the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist![2]

    One blow hit the Captain. The skeletal hand shattered, and the Captain exploded into a cloud of gore. The other blow hit Xu Qing, and the God Decapitation Altar, which had always been unstoppable, emitted loud rumbling sounds. No head flew through the air. Instead, the altar copsed, leaving Xu Qing tumbling backward, soaked in blood.

    That said, it wasn¡¯t as though the attacksunched by Xu Qing and the Captain werepletely ineffective. Though the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist shook heaven and earth, Sir Firedark was also left pale in the face, with blood oozing down her chin.

    Unfortunately, her killing intent and domineering aura were stronger than ever as she took a step toward the Captain.

    Her main target had always been the Captain. She was not going to give up on that.

    As her footnded, she clenched her hand into a fist. But then a hoarse voice spoke behind her.

    ¡°This world of heaven and earth can be considered a well.... Everything is inside the well....¡±

    As the voice echoed out, ripples filled the air in the cave, covering Sir Firedark as well.

    Sir Firedark stopped in ce. Beneath her feet was a surface of water with reflections on it.

    Xu Qing had no time to wipe the blood from his mouth. Eyes shining with the desire to do battle, he extended his right hand and fished out one of the reflections beneath Sir Firedark¡¯s feet.

    A tremor passed through Sir Firedark, and for the first time, she felt a deathly sensation. And yet, hardly a moment passed before she sent golden light into the reflections. The golden light transformed into a sun, which then rose out of the water! Terrifying heat emanated from the sun in all directions, causing air and water alike to evaporate into nothing.

    Fishing the Moon in the Well had been defeated!

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun. His eyes were crimson, and his soul ached painfully. But he could deal with pain like that. The moment Fishing the Moon in the Well was vanquished, his third trove gate trembled as a white sphere mmed into it.

    The trove gate shuddered and opened a bit more, and the frigid energy of theherglimmer erupted out. It was the power of the supreme yin. The power of the ancestor of all moons. And it could even freeze the power of time. It converged in front of Xu Qing in the shape of a finger, which he stabbed toward Sir Firedark.

    Sir Firedark¡¯s pupils constricted, and for the first time during the fight, she backed up.

    However, as she did, the Captain¡¯s gory remains transformed into a host of 100,000 blue worms, all with the Captain¡¯s face on them. Bursting into motion, they appeared around Sir Firedark. The Captain¡¯s faces opened their mouths and spat out blue frigid energy at Sir Firedark. The frigid energy grew more and more intense,bining with Xu Qing¡¯s supreme yin finger attack. The air froze. Space-time froze!

    Cracking sounds rang out as a huge block of ice appeared in the air. It was sorge that the top touched the roof of the cave, and the bottom touched the floor below.

    Inside of the block of ice was Sir Firedark. Astonishingly, she had been sealed tight and couldn¡¯t even move.

    All 100,000 of the worms then spoke at the same time as they began to form back into the Captain. ¡°She won¡¯t stay trapped in there for long. A very tough opponent, wouldn¡¯t you say, little Junior Brother? Let¡¯s scram. Follow me onto one of the automatic paths of life, and this shrew definitely won¡¯t be able to follow us!¡±

    The Captain was back, bedraggled but whole. Without any hesitation, he shot toward the third vortex.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate to follow. However, just before stepping into the third portal, he looked over at the seventh portal. His eyes shone with determination.

    ¡°I¡¯m going there instead, Eldest Brother!¡± he said, heading toward the seventh portal.

    ¡°No, don¡¯t¡ª¡± the Captain said, stunned. Yet before he could even finish speaking, Xu Qing was gone. The Captain looked over at the block of ice, which was already starting to twitch. Turning, he raced toward the third vortex. ¡°You¡¯re on your own, fool! I got my own business to take care of. Good luck, everybody!¡± [3]

    As the two of them disappeared into the vortexes, something dramatic happened with the block of ice. Astonishingly, the projection of a major world appeared behind Sir Firedark. It contained heavenly bodies, a heaven and earth, and life.

    Figures could be seen within it, over a hundred of them, and they were all Sir Firedark!

    Over a hundred versions of Sir Firedark all clenched their hands into fists andunched blows at the ice. The ice exploded. At the same time, Sir Firedark suffered a major bacsh, causing most of her clothes to be shredded to bits, and revealing the fair, tender skin beneath....

    Yet it was without hesitation that she raced toward the vortex, her eyes full of killing intent.

    1. His fight scene with Master Shengyun started in <u>chapter 251</u>. I¡¯m sure most of you remember it, as it was the longest fight scene in the novel up to that point,sting almost ten chapters. ?

    2. The ¡°Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist¡± is also the name of one of the signature moves of Bai Xiaochun from <i>A Will Eternal</i>. It was also associated with the color gold. Chinese readers picked up on this. It first came up in AWE in <u>chapter 670</u>, although he didn¡¯t use it in a fight until <u>chapter 696</u>, the title of which shares the name of the technique. In AWE, the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist was part of a whole set of Undying techniques, so seeing it in istion here (and also described slightly differently) doesn¡¯t necessarily prove that it¡¯s connected to AWE. Nor does it disprove it. You can read AWE here on Wuxiaworld or you can check out the <u>edited version on Amazon</u>. ?

    3. The Captain uses one half of an idiomatic expression that I''m rendering as ¡®you¡¯re on your own.¡¯ The direct trantion is iprehensible, but interesting when you understand the meaning behind it. Literally it¡¯s ¡°the father died, so the mother got re-married.¡± It can mean a few different things. Primarily it¡¯s about personal and family responsibility. The idea is that it would be a very challenging thing for a mother in ancient times to get remarried, especially if she had children. Used in that context, the saying is essentially a statement of fact about that mother¡¯s situation. Beyond that meaning, it¡¯s taken on the meaning of anyone ¡°being on your own¡± in the sense that you have your own things to do that aren¡¯t rted to the person you¡¯re speaking to. In the end, the basic concept is, as I have rendered, ¡®you¡¯re on your own now.¡¯ ?

 Chapter 888: Northyear Greenwood

    <h4>Chapter 888: Northyear Greenwood</h4>

    As the trees with faces wailed, the statues awoke, and the vortex formed overhead, the that was the emperor¡¯s tomb was still covered with a terrifying storm. It was apocalyptic, like a heavenly punishment that caused the entire to tremble.

    <i>Dammit, what bastard messed with the godwardings here??</i>

    A person was currently seated cross-legged in a hide tent that offered protection from the wind. It was hard to say what beast the hide was from, but it allowed the tent to stand tall despite the storm. In fact, it kept the windpletely locked down in that specific area.

    Of course, the tent couldn¡¯t lock down the heart of Fan Shishuang. As he sat in the tent, he gnashed his teeth and looked outside, his eyes glittering with apprehension. He had two main goals in this god domain. The first was to push his cultivation base to the great circle. The other was to hunt the beings that lived here. Both goals centered on the that was the emperor¡¯s tomb. His n had prepared long and hard for this event. And thus, as soon as he entered this god domain, he had rushed without stopping to this specific ce.

    How could he have guessed that, as soon as he arrived, the entire would suddenly wake up? What was more, he still had not yetpleted all the steps to carry out his n to get inside.

    <i>I just have to go for broke!</i>

    Gritting his teeth, Fan Shishuang looked down and performed a double-handed incantation gesture as he unleashed a secret magic his n had prepared.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one doing something like that. There were two people elsewhere on the who were also cursing whoever had stirred up the godwardings.

    They were Sir Heavenink and Tuo Shishan. The former had arrived earlier, while thetter expended a huge amount of effort to escape that huge jellyfish.

    When you included Sir Firedark in the mix, it was clear that the top five chosen from the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ echelon all had chosen this ce as their goal. Each had different ways of getting into the emperor¡¯s tomb, and had prepared years in advance for this moment. But because of the dramatic developments, all were having trouble dealing with the. Now, they had to pay a steeper price and also deal with far more danger.

    The person they were all cursing was Xu Qing, who, in the interests of pleasing his second god trove, had entered the seventh vortex in the cave.

    The moment he entered, it was like stepping through a membrane into a vast void. It was dark, cold, and unfamiliar, and it seemed to go on forever.

    None of the senses that worked on the outside seemed to be present here. There were no directions. No paths. No heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing even felt his consciousness slowly fading, as if everything around him were turning into darkness and gloom. The natural and magicalws were different from the outside.

    It was as if sleep and dormancy were the great daos here, and every person who entered had to conform to this ce¡¯s will.

    Xu Qing was no exception. He felt his divine will fluctuations fading into nothing. It was as if his mind was falling asleep. The only thing that burned with any intensity was the desire from his second god trove. It was like a bright fire that served as a focal point for Xu Qing¡¯s senses.

    Relying on those senses, Xu Qing made his way forward on instinct, like a fish swimming through the darkness.

    He wasn¡¯t sure how much time passed. Maybe a century. Maybe a single breath of time. But the longing from his second god trove grew more and more intense, until eventually that little fish breached the surface of the water. He had passed through the void and had now arrived at a scintiting starry sky.

    The moment he saw the starlight, his senses all went back to normal. His divine will stirred again, and his dormant thoughts returned.

    As he looked into the starry sky, he saw two beings that were so majestic they were almost impossible to describe.

    One was an enormous tree that seemed to represent life. The other was a majestic beast that personified terror and evil.

    The tree was so huge it took up half of the starry sky. Its gnarled surface was covered with vein-like markings. Branches spread out in all directions, all of them covered with lineaments that seemed to contain naturalws and great daos. There were dao fruits on the tree, asrge ass. Or perhaps it was correct to say that they <i>were</i>s.

    From a distance, it was possible to see its branches spreading out as if to fill the starry sky, while its roots anchored it firmly to the universe around it. That said, it wasn¡¯t a lush tree. It was withered, including both its branches and the fruits. It was as if its life force was in decline. Despite being withered, each branch of the tree still radiated a terrifying might that shook the starry sky and influenced the universe.

    As for the huge beast, it wasn¡¯t asrge as the tree. In fact, it was about half the size. It had the body of an ox and was surrounded by a poison miasma. Appallingly, each of its hairs had a corpse tied to it, creating something like a suit of armor. Its head was the color white, which created a bizarre contrast with the starry sky. It had a single eye that covered most of its face, with a vertical pupil that radiated something nefarious. In addition, it had a tail that was a gigantic snake whose howls could destroys.

    The huge beast was locked inbat with the tree. The fighting was nearing a peak, with each sh shattering portions of the starry sky, and making it seem like the end of days hade.

    Xu Qing looked around, stunned.

    Whether it was the huge tree in the starry sky or the terrifying beast, to him they were like gods that he couldn¡¯t possibly resist or affect. He wasn¡¯t sure why they were fighting, but the longing from his second god trove was clearly focused on... the enormous beast!

    The moment that Xu Qing¡¯s gaze took in the battle taking ce, the terrifying beast¡¯s snake tail whipped around and red at Xu Qing briefly before striking at him. Its mouth was open as if it wanted to devour Xu Qing and everything around him.

    Pupils constricting, Xu Qing shot backward. At the same time, the huge tree stirred, and an enormous leaf dropped down in front of Xu Qing. The leaf was like an entirendmass, but it was mostly withered, with only about twenty percent of it containing life force.

    As it passed in front of Xu Qing, his vision swam, and he heard an echoing roar that faded into nothing. When he could see clearly again... the starry sky was gone. The tree was gone. The beast was also gone.

    A world stretched out in front of Xu Qing. The sky andnds alike were the color gray. He saw mist in every direction, but nothing alive. Only ruins.

    Xu Qing looked around as a thousand thoughts ran through his head. He remembered what he saw after stepping into the seventh vortex, whether that was the icy void or the starry sky with the tree and the beast. Even now, the world in front of him almost didn¡¯t seem real. The only real thing for him was the longing of the second god trove.

    <i>That beast elicited a response from the taboo poison god trove.... As for that leaf that dropped down in front of me....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if this world <i>was</i> that leaf, or if it was just the next stop on the journey through the vortex. After a short time passed, he cleared his thoughts, looked around at the gray around him, then cast his senses into the mist. The mist was poisonous.

    Xu Qing started moving quickly. A few dayster, Xu Qing stopped on a listing tower in some ruins.

    <i>This is a withered world with no life. I¡¯d say it¡¯s highly likely it¡¯s actually that leaf.... What¡¯s causing the world to wither is the poison. Long ago, this world was a flourishing ce. But now... it¡¯s just collecting dust.</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at the mist. He looked around at the ruins. He saw the broken pathways, the skeletons of the buildings, the copsed temples, and the crumbling statues. Taking it all in, he could almost visualize what this world had been like in its heyday. Now, it was empty and bleak.

    Eventually, his gaze came to rest on rubble that had been piled in front of the tower. It was possible to see inscriptions on some of the stones. He waved his hand, and the rubble floated up into the air and pieced together into an enormous, 30,000-meter-tall stone stele. It wasn¡¯t easy to put all the pieces together correctly, but gradually, the stele took shape. From a distance, it was like a beacon of civilization within a world of pure poison.

    As that glimmer of civilization appeared, the symbols on the stele became clear. It was hard to make sense of the symbols by just looking at them. But by examining them with divine sense, they became possible to understand.

    They exined the history of this ce.

    This world had once been called Northyear Heaven. It was one of the nine heavens subordinate to the immortal emperor. The immortal emperor made the Greenwood the dao of Northyear, charged with protecting the world and all the countless living beings in it. But the immortal emperor perished. Gods invaded, the nine heavens copsed, and catastrophe came to all worlds.

    Later, an evil spirit tainted the world. It tormented the living beings, caused a gue to spread, filling Northyear, enfeebling its heavenly dao in an attempt to devour it. Most of the living beings in the world fell to the gue, including the cultivators.

    There was resistance, including three full-scale revolts. But they all ended in failure.

    In the end, the leaders of the world went all out to try to break open the sky. When the rift opened, a beast descended. It had a white head, the body of an ox, and a serpent for a tail. The moment it appeared, the entire world withered and fell into destruction.

    As Xu Qing stood atop the listing tower and took in the information from the inscriptions, he came to understand this world, and why it was withered. As for the immortal emperor that the histories mentioned, it seemed likely that he was the one buried in the tomb.

    ¡°Northyear and the Greenwood...¡± he murmured, thinking about the enormous tree he¡¯d seen.

    The description of the evil beast was also the same as what he had seen out in that starry sky.

    Xu Qing waited a bit longer to see if anything further was going to happen. When nothing did, he prepared to retract his divine will.

    But then an ancient voice spoke, from the sky, thend, the air, the stele, and from everything else in this world.

    ¡°That evil spirit had a name. Hellfei. When the immortal worlds copsed and the outside gods invaded, the seven negative emotions from all the living beings that died converged. Young friend from the outside, you¡¯re the first cultivator toe here since the immortal emperor died.... Please. Can you help me?¡± [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained neutral. He didn¡¯t look surprised at all. Looking up into the canopy of heaven, he said, ¡°Who are you?¡±

    ¡°The immortal emperor gave me the name Greenwood. I was to protect Northyear as this world¡¯s heavenly dao.¡±[2]

    1. The creature being described is a ¡°fei¡± or ¡°fei beast¡± from Chinese mythology. The author adds the hell/underworld character to it to create a somewhat unique name for it. The mythological description is exactly as is described in this chapter, a white head, the body of an ox and a snake for a tail. Here are a few images of artistic depictions. Incidentally, my original novel Legends of Ogre Gate has an entire section of the story about a fei beast. The fei beast in my novel is not the size of a lol, but other than that, it¡¯s very simr to the mythological version and the version in this chapter. It¡¯s ox-like, with a snake tail and a poison miasma around it. ?

    2. There was a ¡®Greenwood¡¯ tree in <i>I Shall Seal the Heavens</i>. Same Chinese characters, which is why I¡¯m rendering the name the same here. It was relevant in many chapters (too many to list as links), and had some wolves connected to it. I don¡¯t see anything indicating the Greenwood tree in this chapter is supposed to be the same or be connected to the one in ISSTH. Although ¡®Greenwood¡¯ seems fairly unique in English, in Chinese, it¡¯s less so. That said, anything is possible. For example, there is also ¡°green wood¡± mentioned in <i>Renegade Immortal</i> in a few chapters. What¡¯s more, in RI, there is a section in which Wang Lin assumes the name Qing Mu (asionally incorrectly rendered as Qian Mu), which is the transliteration of this term. ?

 Chapter 889: The Perfect Specimen

    <h4>Chapter 889: The Perfect Specimen</h4>

    As the raspy voice entered Xu Qing¡¯s mind, he looked down slightly. ¡°Sire, I¡¯m afraid your humble servant is too weak to be of any help in your fight with Hellfei.¡±

    <i>¡°That¡¯s the precise reason I need your help, young friend,¡±</i> the heavenly dao said. Its voice seemed very old, but at the same time, pleading.

    <i>¡°My fight with the evil spirit is taking ce in the starry sky, but the struggle is also in the myriad worlds, as we vie for heavenfate and daosoil.</i>

    <i>¡°This world is the origin of Northyear, and is also where the evil Hellfei first appeared. It contains Hellfei¡¯s original dao shadow form, which has already usurped most of the heavenly dao authority here. Young friend, can you please lure out the Hellfei¡¯s dao shadow form and kill it at least a hundred times?</i>

    <i>¡°Every time it dies, it will drain some of Hellfei¡¯s essence power. That will be a big help in the fight in the starry sky, as it will give me an opportunity to use heavenfate!</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯m ashamed that I haven¡¯t been able to live up to the immortal emperor¡¯s mission to protect the living beings here. I¡¯m struggling on death¡¯s door, and only hope that I can use this opportunity to end things in mutual destruction. My life will end, and my dao will beplete. The responsibility of the heavenly dao will be met, meeting with the immortal emperor¡¯s grace.</i>

    <i>¡°In return, young friend... when Hellfei and I die, I will bestow upon you Hellfei¡¯s lone eye. Your trove iscking a heavenly dao, and also contains a unique will. Hellfei¡¯s eye was born out of resentment of the catastrophe wrought by the gods. You could call that eye the source of resentment against the gods. And it will benefit you a lot.</i>

    <i>¡°What¡¯s more, it¡¯s the only way for you to get out of here.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just looked up at the misty sky.

    That mist contained poison, and it poured down into heaven and earth like a waterfall. Though it didn¡¯t initially seem very impressive, it was still majestic enough to be called sky-obscuring and sun-blocking.

    The words of Greenwood, who imed to be the heavenly dao of this world, seemed to make sense. Xu Qing knew that his second god trove was made of taboo poison, which meant that living things could have the personhood to serve as its heavenly dao.

    As Xu Qing hade to understand clearly over the years, on a substructural level, the taboo poison was the curse of a god. That was why he had decided to take a risk and enter the seventh vortex. If the hidden rancorous energy here was really because of how the living beings hated the destruction wreaked by the gods, then to a certain degree, it did meet the qualifications to be the heavenly dao of the taboo poison god trove.

    He could confirm that both from the fluctuationsing from the god trove and also from what he had seen of Hellfei out in the starry sky.

    But....

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered for a moment before he calmly said, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    <i>¡°Many thanks to you, young friend. I¡¯m not able to say much to you right now, as I must concentrate on fighting Hellfei. Just provoke some fluctuations from this ce and attack with deadly force. Hellfei¡¯s form will definitely try to interfere. When you aplish this task of mine, I promise that Greenwood will never forget you!¡±</i>

    Countless motes of light rose up everywhere, which seemed to be representations of Greenwood¡¯s divine will. Gathering together, they shot up into the sky.

    After they disappeared, Xu Qing, who still stood atop the listing tower, looked down. His expression contained neither joy nor sorrow. It was as profound as deep waters, andcked any confusion. He looked very closely at the stone stele in front of him.

    A moment passed, and he waved his right hand, dispelling the power of the stone stele. The historical stele copsed, reverting into a pile of dusty rubble.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and sat down on the tower. ording to Greenwood, he was supposed to catch the attention of Hellfei¡¯s dao shadow form, then attack it with destructive force.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to make things soplicated,¡± he murmured. His eyes turned ck, his second trove gate rumbled, and the power of taboo poison gathered in his eyes.

    Wherever he looked, taboo poison flourished. He looked at the ruins, and everything blurred from buildings to roads. Taboo poison became a mist that spread out everywhere, spreading ripples and distortions. He looked at thends, and the gray soil turned as ck as if ink were being sttered onto it. The ck steam that rose up joined the existing poisonous mist.

    He looked into the dome of heaven, and the sky seethed as the mist there was joined by the poison mist. They didn¡¯t mix, and in fact, the reaction was like cool water poured into a vat of boiling oil. Everywhere Xu Qing looked, the curse of a god arrived.

    Heaven and earth rumbled. Winds screamed. The mists went wild.

    Before long, everything he looked at was covered with a taboo poison mist. As it gathered around the listing tower, it began to reject the world¡¯s local mist, until there was a clear demarcation between the two. Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere.

    There were two vortexes in the sky. One was in the middle, and it was made of Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison. The other vortex surrounded the first, and was made of the world¡¯s poison, which was also spinning dramatically. The two vortexes rotated opposite of each other, causing an intense grating sound to spread out, apanied by the crash of lightning.

    As time passed, things grew more intense and violent. Winds screamed left and right, filling the world. From a distance, it looked like the world was falling apart.

    Yet Xu Qing remained on the tower, his expression cid, his gaze fixed on the sky. The storm winds caused his hair and garments to p wildly. He looked almost like an immortal or a god.

    All of a sudden, a bellow echoed out like that of an ox, deafening and terrifying.

    It pulsed with thunderps rife with natural and magicalws. Wherever that sound reached, the sky ceased copsing and the earth no longer crumbled. Even the vortexes stopped moving.

    The wind went still!

    But the mist seethed, falling from the sky like a waterfall or a flower blooming in reverse. Within it was a creature. It had the body of an ox, with a white face that featured a single eye with a vertical pupil. Its tail was a ferocious snake. Wherever it went, pestilence surrounded it, making it like an ancient source of poison that could spread gues everywhere. When it went through the sky, the sky rotted. When it went across thends, even the air was eaten away.

    A poison gue spread everywhere and rushed toward Xu Qing with killing intent. It looked exactly like the version of Hellfei Xu Qing had seen out in the starry sky, except much, much smaller.

    If a mortal could see this beast, they would be terrified to the core. But it was different for Xu Qing. He could see that though it had a very astonishing poison, this dao shadow form of Hellfei only had battle prowess equivalent to the first-stage of Void Returning.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t actually surprised at that. As Hellfei¡¯s roiling poison closed in on him, he snapped his right hand out in front of him. Heaven and earth trembled as countless soul threads emerged, connecting in midair to make a huge hand. Then, like the hand of a god, it thrust forward with crushing momentum. Its fingers closed, and the Hellfei which would have struck terror into the hearts of a mortal was crushed out of existence.

    However, as the hand of soul threads opened back up, about thirty percent of them shivered as they transformed from being red into being ck! And they started pulsing with a rancorous energy.

    That energy spread rapidly out into the rest of the hand.

    It was fei poison!

    For the first time, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered in surprise. Ignoring the hand in midair, he reached out with his free hand and closed the fingers on each other. Instantly, one of the ck soul threads flew over to him.

    Xu Qing had deeply studied the dao of poison, and also had plentiful practical experience. Therefore, as soon as he looked closely at the ck soul thread in his hand, it only took a moment of thought before he inhaled deeply. The ck thread was sucked into him.

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing¡¯s expression changed. He looked slightly dazed. At the same time, a violent reaction began to build up within him. He quickly suppressed it by sending taboo poison throughout his body. As a result, the ck soul thread was purified, then faded away.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned even more quizzical.

    <i>This poison actually targets godliness!</i>

    He already had a deep understanding of Hellfei¡¯s poison. Because that poison was born out of resentment of the gods, it could infect godliness. It could make godliness lose its majesty, and cause its personhood to decline. It was a rare poison that was actually designed to target gods.

    The soul thread Xu Qing had just studied closely was only a solitary thread, yet the poison had still destabilized the godly nature, human nature, and animal nature within it.

    ¡°How interesting.¡± Xu Qing licked his lips. It was his first time encountering something that was on roughly the same level as his taboo poison. Although they weren¡¯t exactly the same on all levels, its method of targeting godliness was very unique.

    He unleashed the taboo poison in his gaze. Looking at the hand of soul threads, he sent the taboo poison to sh with the fei poison. The hand became the battleground.

    Heaven and earth rumbled again in response to Hellfei dying. Mist converged again, and Hellfei started forming again. When it wasplete, its battle prowess was greater than before. Howling, it charged toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing reached out with his right hand and made a grasping gesture. This time, it wasn¡¯t soul threads that converged. Rather, he tapped into his battle prowess to grab Hellfei and drag it over. Hellfei struggled, but couldn¡¯t do anything other than spit out poison mist. However, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in studying Hellfei¡¯s poison. As soon as it was in front of him, he shed down with a saber, splitting open its body to study it. He wanted to see Hellfei¡¯s physical makeup, as well as the makeup of its soul, to see if he could understand its poison on a substructural level.

    Even Hellfei was shocked by this development. It struggled even more mightily, but the difference between the two was so immense that it was powerless to do anything to Xu Qing other than use poison.

    And its poison was indeed formidable. After it had spat out seven or eight mouthfuls that could infect godliness, Xu Qing frowned. He waved his hand, and his ck spear appeared, which he stabbed through Hellfei¡¯s head, killing it again.

    <i>It has an illusory form, with a blurred soul. It really was born from resentment. And yet the way the resentment circtes within it is very interesting.... I need to do some more dissections to understand what it¡¯s really like inside.</i>

    His eyes glittered with anticipation as he looked at the spot where Hellfei had died. After a few breaths of time passed, another version of Hellfei appeared in front of Xu Qing. It was about to roar, but then Xu Qing¡¯s hand shot out. He quickly began slicing it apart, separating its torso, its snake tail, and its limbs. And then, with the true spirit of a student, he started studying it....

 Chapter 890: Five Filths of the Gods

    <h4>Chapter 890: Five Filths of the Gods</h4>

    Time passed.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t feeling anxious. He killed Hellfei quickly the first time, but the roughly dozen times after that... he took his time dissecting and studying it. The reason he needed a dozen times was partly because his careful study often led to Hellfei¡¯s death in the name of research. But more often than not, Hellfei would spit out some poison that infected the area, including Xu Qing¡¯s godliness. And that caused an obstacle for his research.

    In the end, it didn¡¯t matter. Whenever Hellfei died, it only took a few dozen breaths of time before it was back. That provided Xu Qing plenty of opportunities to lure the poison out of it using his soul threads. That was the best way he coulde up with at the moment to deal with Hellfei¡¯s poison. After all, the poison targeted godliness, and the source of Xu Qing¡¯s godliness was his soul threads.

    At the same time, he also continued to use his own poison to vie with Hellfei¡¯s poison. The result was that the ruins he upied were filled with more and more soul threads.

    Even still, Xu Qing continued with his study. The biggest downside... was that even after Hellfei had died dozens of times, its battle prowess continued to climb with each death. At a certain point, it came back to life with second-stage Void Returning battle prowess.

    Its roar was like a god, and his poison was even more capable of spreading pestilence....

    That didn¡¯t change how things worked, though. Even with Hellfei¡¯s increased battle prowess, Xu Qing just reached out, grabbed it like before, and dragged it in front of him. As before, he dismembered, dissected, and studied.

    Xu Qing had always been an earnest devotee of study and research. It was very simr to the way he experimented on prisoners in the Violent Crimes Division back in Seven Blood Eyes. Those experiments were one of the main reasons for his amazing achievements in the dao of poison. When all was said and done, Xu Qing really valued knowledge.

    Xu Qing summoned his ck spear and put an end to Hellfei before it could self-detonate.

    <i>Hellfei... has a very unusual body structure. That said, I now understand a bit about how it forms that poison....</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were narrowed in thought as he used soul threads to draw out Hellfei¡¯s poison from within him. Then he looked back at the spot where Hellfei had just died, and prepared for another round of research. Next, he wanted to study Hellfei¡¯s soul.

    As the mist in the world churned like a great, wild sea, Hellfei returned again. This time, the aura of third-stage Void Returning swept out, shoving the mist aside as it bore down furiously on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened as he hurled his spear at Hellfei¡¯s head. But Hellfei, who had already been killed by that spear many times, blurred, dodging to the side to avoid the spear. Then it appeared right in front of Xu Qing, where it spat out some poison mist.

    But then, a heavenly saber fell. It was only one sh. But Hellfei was chopped in half, whereupon the pieces copsed into nothing.

    As it died, Xu Qing¡¯s golden crow emerged from his back, faced the spot where Hellfei had just died, and inhaled deeply.

    The gory remains of Hellfei did nothing. The golden crow looked confused.

    Xu Qing frowned.

    He could sense that the golden crow hadn¡¯t managed to absorb even a scrap of a soul. What was more, this action seemed to have touched on some sort of taboo, as the mist in the world went absolutely wild. Overhead, the massive vortex suddenly emitted deafening rumbling sounds. Lightning bolts snapped back and forth, the sky rippled, and thends shook. At the same time, Hellfei¡¯s howl echoed out as it stepped from the illusory to the corporeal.

    Next, the vortex above surged as a version of Hellfei emerged that was some 3,000 meters long. Whether in body or aura, this Hellfei surpassed the previous versions by every metric. And its roar was a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound that spread out in all directions.

    Before Xu Qing could evenunch an attack, it opened its mouth and inhaled deeply.

    The mist in the world swept into Hellfei¡¯s mouth. In fact, in the blink of an eye, it absorbed every scrap of mist there was. It was a dramatic and majestic sight. Hellfei didn¡¯t just absorb the mist. It also sucked in all of its body parts that wereying around.

    Its 3,000-meter-long body began to shrivel down, while at the same time, its single eye grew brighter and brighter until it was the most eye-catching thing in the world. And it was staring at Xu Qing.

    He looked at it curiously.

    <i>It doesn¡¯t want me to study its soul....</i>

    Around then, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and everything shook. The ancient voice of the Greenwood reached Xu Qing, and it sounded anxious.

    <i>¡°Young friend, your assistance has already been something of a miracle. But be careful. Pushing that evil spirit into a corner will force it to send more power into that form. Then it will unleash its life essence divine ability to crush it. It¡¯s called... Five Filths of the Gods!</i>

    <i>¡°Young friend, can you buy a bit more time? Drain Hellfei some more? This battle in the starry sky is reaching a critical point.¡±</i>

    Almost as if to emphasize that point, wild shockwaves swept down from the starry sky beyond the dome of heaven. The entire world shook so violently it seemed like it might copse. The ground split open, causing irregrly sized chunks of earth to rise up into the air. At the same time, ripples rolled across the sky. The world really did seem like it was heading into a doomsday.

    Yet again, Xu Qing rose to his feet on the listing tower. The moment he did, Hellfei¡¯s vertical pupil went wide! An iparably evil and ancient power began to build up. At the same time, five mysterious dao chants filled his mind.

    ¡°First filth: godfire¡¯s smoke rises; godfire is inherently smokeless; gather smoke and converge impurities; create uncleanness.

    ¡°Second filth: god soul¡¯s desire builds; the god soul is inherently desireless; gather desire and converge mortality; shed omniscience.

    ¡°Third filth: god body decaying; the god body is inherently undecayed; gather decay and build rot; never eternal.

    ¡°Fourth filth: god shrine covered in dust; the god shrine is inherently without dust; gather dust and lose brilliance; sever joss me.

    ¡°Fifth filth: godly nature is filth; godly nature is inherently without filth; gather filth and lose wisdom; decline personhood.¡±

    These were the Five Filths of the Gods.

    Each of the five dao chants caused a tremor to pass through Xu Qing. He had no godfire, yet the signs of the first filth still presented. Hissing ck smoke appeared, filled with impurities. It created a profoundly unclean sensation. Then, his soul trembled as his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures went out of control. They were like a rising tide that overwhelmed all of his senses.

    However, there was more. His body began to decay, and his life force faded. Rot began to fill him. Next, the soul threads within him, which had godsource as their foundation, filled the role of the god shrine that was mentioned. Dust began to cover them, causing them to lose their brilliance. Finally was his godly nature. As it burned brightly, he lost control of his human nature and animal nature, which caused his personhood to decline.

    Even Xu Qing was taken aback by these developments. He could sense that this... was a poison specifically designed to target gods!

    Based on what he was experiencing, Xu Qing now understood why Hellfei would be a very suitable heavenly dao for his taboo poison. The Five Filths of the Gods was a perfect match for his god curse. In fact, his curse would make a great sixth filth.

    <i>God¡¯s life fully cursed; a god¡¯s life is inherently curseless; gather the curse to sever life; eradicate godsource.</i>

    As Xu Qing thought those things over the course of just a few breaths of time, the ferocious Five Filths of the Gods exploded in intensity.

    A mysterious light flickered in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and then the projection of a huge sundial appeared behind him. The gnomon spun, and it was as if a river of ancient time had been unleashed. And the waves rolling across its surface were from five breaths of time in the past. Time... was moving backward in ordance with the spinning of the gnomon!

    The smoke of impurity from the first filth rapidly vanished. The seven emotions and six sensory pleasures that had cropped up in his soul wentpletely calm. His senses became clear again. The decay to his body was reversed, and the rot went away.

    His soul threads no longer had dust on them, and instead were brilliant. His godly nature, human nature, and animal nature all returned to a state of bnce.

    It looked like time had been reversed and Xu Qing was back at the point before the five filths had been unleashed. But after the sundial faded away, he frowned. He had just realized that though the sundial had indeed caused time to reverse, resulting in his body recovering, that time reversal didn¡¯t actually change the Five Filths of the Gods.

    The poisonous origin of the five filths was still around.

    However, that power didn¡¯t do anything. It seemed to be converging. Building up. It was easy to imagine what would happen shortly when it was fully powered up. It would bepletely unleashed on Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing had lots of experience working with poison. Sometimes he had Little Shadow devour it. Sometimes he sent it into the god¡¯s finger. Sometimes he opened a portal to Emperor Ancient Spirit and sent it there. Those were all possibilities right now. He could even use his own godly curse inbination with his sundial to try to build up an immunity to this new poison.

    But he didn¡¯t do any of those things. Instead, he lifted his right hand and used a technique he hadn¡¯t used in a long time. His entire hand turned as semitransparent as a Gruegloom.

    Then, withplete decisiveness, he reached his hand into his chest, and shoved it all the way into his sea of consciousness to the second trove gate there. Clenching his hand into a fist he punched the gate with full force. Though there was no heavenly dao behind that gate, the force Xu Qing had unleashed was enough to crack it open slightly.

    The moment that happened, a gravitational force erupted,tching onto the origin of the poison and dragging it toward the trove gate.

    Only a momentter, the trove gate mmed shut again. However, the poison''s origin had already been sealed inside.

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing looked up. Hellfei, whose filth poison had suddenly just disappeared, looked surprised as Xu Qing then hefted his ck spear and summoned his heavenly saber. Saber and spear were unleashed simultaneously, bringing attacks from both heaven and earth.

    The mighty Hellfei shivered before exploding. The crumbling world also exploded like a mirror that had been shattered. The starry sky was revealed.

    The enormous Hellfei¡¯s true body howled in grief. It became incredibly weak as it looked venomously at Xu Qing. It wanted to fight back, but had no strength left. The ancient Greenwood tree sent branches wrapping around it viciously, ensuring that all of its struggles were useless.

    Eventually, the branches pierced into Hellfei¡¯s body, causing blood to rain down. Then branches popped out from its skin in various locations. It was a brutal sight as it wentpletely still.

    The starry sky trembled as the source of the resentment disappeared, and everything turned bright and clear. However, the enormous tree had gone all out, and was now like amp without much oil left.

    ¡°Many thanks. I now have no regrets.¡± As branches wrapped around the face of Hellfei¡¯s corpse, the head exploded. Only the solitary eye remained. A branch wrapped around it and threw it to Xu Qing. ¡°As promised, young friend, here is your reward.¡±

    From beginning to end, Xu Qing had remained calm and silent. But as the eye flew toward him, he lifted his right hand. A heavenly saber appeared there, and without any hesitation, he shed it down. The eye was shed to pieces!

    ¡°Done with the act?¡± Xu Qing asked quietly.

 Chapter 891: This Path Does Not Lead to Death

    <h4>Chapter 891: This Path Does Not Lead to Death</h4>

    The bits of the eyeball fell down into the starry sky.

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed coldly through the void. His facial expression hadn¡¯t changed much during this entire incident, and even now, he was just looking calmly at the huge, decaying tree wrapped around the eyeless corpse of Hellfei.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, young friend?¡± the Greenwood said in a weak, ancient voice. It seemed confused.

    The only answer it got from Xu Qing was a ck spear surrounded by a sea of mes. It shot through the starry sky like a fireball, heading right toward the huge tree.

    A rumbling boom rang out as the battlefield the Greenwood and Hellfei had been fighting on suddenly superimposed with itself. It was as if... it was actually a bubble created by an illusion. The spear pierced right into it, causing the bubble to start copsing. An aura of rot and death immediately emerged and spread through the starry sky.

    At the same time, the eye that Xu Qing had shed apart copsed into strands of ck smoke, filled with poison and filth, which swept back toward Hellfei and turned back into an eye.

    It red at Xu Qing.

    ¡°How¡¯d you figure it out?¡± said a deep voice that resonated with resentment.

    Xu Qing was right. Everything he had seen was an act.

    It was trickery that could be considered Hellfei¡¯sst resort. It really was incredibly weak. And it was true that during the catastrophe of the gods many years ago, it gave birth to the rancorous energy of this immortal world. In a critical moment, it had indeed entered the Northyear Heaven to devour the Greenwood heavenly dao. From that point on, this ce was its resting spot.

    Where the story deviated from reality was the part about Hellfei being locked inbat with the Greenwood. That battle had actually ended countless years ago.

    The Greenwood had used a trump card to end that fight in mutual destruction, although in the end, it died, while Hellfei survived, albeit with a serious injury.

    As the guardian of Northyear, the Greenwood had been given a mission by the immortal emperor, and therefore, it was only natural that it was extraordinary in various ways. The trump card it used was extremely formidable, and though it didn¡¯t sessfully pull off mutual destruction, it inflicted an injury that sealed Hellfei and would make it very difficult to recover.

    In fact, that wound would never fully heal, and would get worse over time. Because of the sealing, Hellfei was essentially imprisoned for all eternity.

    Later, when the world became a god domain, that prison became even more of a prison, and led Hellfei into further depths of despair. There was no life force here. There were no visitors. There was no nourishment in this dead world. And thus, Hellfei just got weaker and closer to death.

    It wasn¡¯t willing to just give in, though. It wanted to be free, and to return to its previous peak. But as countless years passed, it just weakened further and began to wither up.

    At the very end, as itsst sparks of life were about to vanish, Xu Qing arrived. His arrival brought hope to Hellfei. It envied his physical body, except that it was so weak it couldn¡¯t easily possess him.

    And that was what led to the trickery.

    The moment Xu Qing showed up, it created an illusion that showed Xu Qing what it wanted him to see. Then it sent him into the world of that decaying leaf.

    There, itmunicated to Xu Qing in the guise of the Greenwood, telling him things that were half true and half fiction. Its goal was to get Xu Qing to trust it.

    Although the Hellfei dao forms that Xu Qing yed in that illusion weren¡¯t real, they did contain some real poison. It hoped that, as Xu Qing fought those forms, he would unwittingly end up infected by the poison. If the ploy worked, then Hellfei could use that poison to possess Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body, then finally gain freedom.

    How could it have guessed that this opponent would actually have a way to deal with its poison? In fact, in a shocking development, this opponent used Hellfei for research purposes! He even wanted to study its soul!

    Fearful of being exposed, Hellfei put everything on the line by using Five Filths of the Gods. It was another attempt to possess Xu Qing, except it also failed. He dealt with Five Filths of the Gods as well.

    Its trickery wasn¡¯t limited to those things, though. Its final n was to let Xu Qing think he had seeded, then give its eyeball as a reward.

    If Xu Qing simply absorbed that eyeball, Hellfei could possess him.

    Unfortunately... Xu Qing¡¯s quick action with the saber ended everything.

    ¡°When did you realize the truth?¡± Hellfei asked.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t reply. He lifted his right hand like before. The ck spear swept forth, surrounded by fire, sending fluctuations rolling out into the starry sky.

    The bubble illusion copsed. The truth was revealed. There was no starry sky. It was nothing but a void.

    A spherical hovered in the void. It was shockinglyrge, and if you looked closely at it, you would see that it was made up of countless dead and rotting branches. They were all intertwined to create a massive,-sized... wooden cage!

    Inside of the wooden cage was Hellfei¡¯s true body!

    Hellfei was stabbed through and through by countless branches. It was withered to the point of looking like a corpse, even its head. The armor that had once covered it had turned into innumerable resentful souls that constantly devoured Hellfei both inside and out.

    The only thing about it that remained intact was its solitary eye. It looked at Xu Qing with pain and despair. There was no vigor left in it. Its spirit was fading and was about to disappear forever.

    ¡°How¡¯d you figure it out...?¡± it said again, determined to know the answer.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a trusting person,¡± Xu Qing replied. He strode forward. It took only a step to bring him to the wooden cage. There, his taboo poison god trove thrummed with boundless longing as he reached out with his right hand toward the solitary eye. All of the taboo poison within him erupted, and all sense of life in the eye faded. It turned gray, floated out of Hellfei¡¯s corpse, and became a stream of mist that flowed into Xu Qing¡¯s taboo poison god trove.

    The trove pulsed slightly, and then erupted with the aura of a heavenly dao. At the same time... the second trove gate opened! A terrifying mightiness exploded out.

    On the other side of the trove gate was a huge eye. Six ancient sealing marks swirled around it, imparting a mysterious sensation that seemed full of hatred for gods.

    The eye was a heavenly dao. The six sealing marks were the Six Filths of the Gods. Without that eye, Hellfei¡¯s corpse copsed into ash. The-sized wooden cage copsed along with the corpse. Together, they turned into a vortex in the middle of the vast void.

    That was the path out. The fate of Hellfei and the Greenwood was sealed. Karma had been consummated. They were both destroyed in body and soul.

    The only thing left behind were a few echoing words that were all that remained of Hellfei¡¯s determination.

    ¡°How¡¯d you figure it out...?¡±

    The words echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind and heart as he stepped through the exit vortex. Speaking softly, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen sacrificial dances before.¡±

    Compared to the sacrificial dance for a god, which couldpletely change perceptions and cognition, Hellfei¡¯s trickery didn¡¯t count for much.

    Xu Qing stepped through the portal and vanished. The seventh path didn¡¯t lead to death. It led to life.

    ***

    The tomb of the ancestral emperor, which could also be called the immortal emperor¡¯s tomb, did not have aplicated structure. The periphery was made of thebyrinth. Next came the five paths of life and four paths of death. Finally there was the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. That was where the immortal emperor¡¯s corpse rested.

    The mausoleum was so massive it formed its own dimension. It was like a major world hanging in the vast expanse. There was a heaven. There was an earth. Visible in the sky were 108 sealeds. They hung there in the starry sky over the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. Thes were all very gruish as they cast starlight down constantly. [1]

    Behind them, there was a terrifying face. A voice full of anguish and grief chanted, the sound of it spreading through the emperor¡¯s mausoleum like a funeral dirge.

    Looking closely, it was possible to see that within the starlighting from the 108s were several figures seated cross-legged. They included Sir Firedark, Tuo Shishan, Sir Heavenink, and Fan Shishuang.... All of them were seated cross-legged on differents, looking down at the emperor¡¯s mausoleum with expressions of vignce. They were waiting for something. Clearly, the ns and organizations that backed them had provided them with plenty of resources to get them here.

    The Captain was also present. Compared to the others, he looked very anxious, and was shifting his attention between the unupied stars and the emperor¡¯s mausoleum.

    As everyone looked on, the starlight spilled down and converged into the form of nine dragons. Though made of starlight, they were extremely lifelike as they twisted and turned.

    There were two additional heavenly bodies above that were brighter than the others. They were the sun and moon that had been sealed here, and they moved on a specific orbital track. When the sun came around, it emanated the golden power of a sun, which was iparably hot. When the moon came around, it emanated the silver power of the moon, which was endlessly frigid.

    In between thends below and the sun and moon above, there was an enormous, seven-colored umbre canopy that covered more than half of the ground! Crystal bells hung from the umbre. As the umbre slowly rotated, the bells chimed, a sound like the chanting of immortals. Combined with the anguished chanting that filled the starry sky, it created something very holy.

    There were also banners, bells, and gongs. All were massive as they floated in midair. They were burial items.

    The nine starlight dragons swirled among the burial items, guarding over them.

    Thends below weren¡¯t made of soil. Instead, it was a patchwork of skin, which included pieces from humans and nonhumans alike. Countless patches of skin made up all of the terrain features. There were bones piled together to make mountains and rivers that were pure blood. What was more, there were rows upon rows of armored soldiers and warhorses, all of them pulsing with murderous auras. There seemed no end to them.[2]

    In the middle of these terrifyingnds, right underneath the huge umbre, was a massive altar! Atop the altar was a golden coffin! It was carved with worshipful throngs and the geography of an entire nation. It was the coffin of the immortal emperor.

    High above the emperor¡¯s mausoleum, one of the 108s that was currently unupied suddenly trembled. Then... a figure stepped out onto it. It was none other than Xu Qing. The moment he appeared, he saw the emperor¡¯s mausoleum as well as the familiar faces on the others. He got the feeling he¡¯d arrived a bitte.

    Numerous eyes shifted to look at him, and many strange expressions could be seen.

    As for the Captain, as soon as he spotted Xu Qing, his anxious expression vanished. Eyebrows dancing up and down, he waved enthusiastically and sent a message via divine will.

    <i>¡°You¡¯re finally here, little Junior Brother! I was really starting to think you¡¯d croaked!¡±</i>

    1. This entire section gets a bit wonky, because the author uses a nebulous term that can mean star,, sun, or basically any heavenly body. In this section, ¡± is the correct interpretation, however, the Chinese term actually contains themon character for ¡®star¡¯ in it. This isn¡¯t really unusual. Most Chinese ¡°words¡± are made of two characters, and the meaning of the word often supersedes that of the individual characters. What I mean is that just because it has the character for ¡°star¡± in it doesn¡¯t inherently mean that the word needs to have the English ¡°star¡± in it. I have an entire chapter on this in my little handbook <u>Understanding Chinese Fantasy Novels</u>. In any case, the presence of that character makes it extremely easy to have all sorts of ¡®star¡¯ rted wordy or at least word connections. For example, in this chapter, the s¡¯ are said to emit light, which is subsequently called ¡®starlight.¡¯ All of this makes sense in Chinese, simply because of how thenguage works. To exin what I mean using another set of words, take the English: train, horse-drawn carriage, windmill, bicycle. In English, those words don¡¯t really have any <i>linguistic </i>elements connecting them. But in Chinese they all have the character for ¡®car¡¯ or ¡®vehicle.¡¯ A train is a fire-vehicle, a horse-drawn carriage is a horse-vehicle, a windmill is a wind-vehicle, and bicycle is a self-operating-vehicle. Because of that, if you said something in Chinese akin to ¡°if you want a windmill, take the fire away from the train and you¡¯re halfway there,¡± it would make no sense tranted directly into English but perfect sense in Chinese. We have a simr situation here in which s¡¯ will emit ¡®starlight.¡¯ When teaching Elementary-level science in Chinese, it was always a challenge to be precise about different heavenly bodies, simply because so many of them contain that ¡®star¡¯ character. In mythological/xianxia settings, it¡¯s easy for the author to lean into that vagueness to create fantastic atmosphere that intentionally doesn¡¯t conform to physical reality. ?

    2. The ¡®soldiers and warhorses¡¯ here is the same wording used to describe the famous Terracotta Army of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China. Simply google the term and you can find countless pictures of the army, which includes chariots and warhorses among many other things. ?

 Chapter 892: Itâ€™s Not Too Late; Iâ€™m Here

    <h4>Chapter 892: It¡¯s Not Too Late; I¡¯m Here</h4>

    The Captain¡¯s words reached Xu Qing mind.

    Xu Qing smiled. Apparently he hadn¡¯t arrived toote.

    That said, though it was no surprise to see Sir Firedark and the Captain here, he hadn¡¯t expected to see Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, or Fan Shishuang. After all, this wasn¡¯t the first time the Firemoon Darkheavens opened this god domain. And it was a given that the top five chosen from the Firemoon echelon would have impressive backing. They would surely have been preparing for this event for a long time.

    The fact that these people were all here went to show... that this spot was where the best good fortune and destined opportunities were in this god domain! And it also proved that the Captain really had a nose for sniffing out big jobs.

    After nodding in response to the Captain, Xu Qing looked around at everyone else. Sir Firedark snorted coldly, Sir Heavenink looked surprised, Tuo Shishan looked annoyed, and Fan Shishuang averted his gaze.

    No one spoke. Apparently, Xu Qing¡¯s arrival wasn¡¯t an unexpected turn of events to them. In fact, it was almost as if they had expected to see him, and would have found it unusual if he <i>didn¡¯t</i> show up.

    Looking around, Xu Qing already had a sense of how this ce worked. For example, the 108s in the starry sky above the mausoleum all had invisible barriers surrounding them. They couldn¡¯t be seen with the naked eye, but touching them with divine sense imparted a sense of incredible might. They were like sealing marks that prevented anyone from leaving thes.

    Though the divine abilities built into those barriers could keep people like Sir Heavenink restrained, Xu Qing could sense that both the Captain and Sir Firedark could break through without much effort. And yet... both of those two were still waiting on thes.

    <i>They don¡¯t want to move? Or has the right time not arrived yet?</i>

    He soon got an exnation.

    Beneath thes were the muchrger sun and moon, endlessly orbiting on their tracks. The moon was just now shifting away while the sun was approaching. The canopy of heaven was in motion.

    Scorching, domineering, and wild power emanated out, filled with terrifying mightiness. The iing sun was like a burning ball of fire that cast glittering light into the starry sky. The closer it got, the more intense its power. The barriers around the others filtered the terrifying heat, converting it into pure sun power that passed through the barrier.

    Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Sir Firedark shivered as they absorbed the sun power to refine their fleshly bodies and souls. As they did, their auras climbed.

    This was why Sir Firedark hadn¡¯t broken through the barrier! And this was why everyone was seated cross-legged on one of thes. The barriers sealed them in, but were also a defense for them. They made thes like dao altars, where it was possible to safely absorb the power.

    <i>¡°This is supreme yang power!¡±</i> the Captain said to Xu Qing via divine will projection. <i>¡°When the moones, it will emanate supreme yin power. Like I said to you before, little Junior Brother, there¡¯s treasure in this emperor¡¯s tomb. You didn¡¯t believe me, so you risked your life for those statues outside. But look. Don¡¯t you agree there¡¯s far more supreme yin power here?¡±</i>

    The Captain shook his head, sighed, and looked at Xu Qing with great pity.

    Xu Qing looked over at the moon. Because the sun was approaching, he couldn¡¯t sense much about the moon. But given the level of supreme yang powering off the sun, he got the feeling the Captain was right. It really did seem like that fight with the statues was essentially meaningless.

    The Captain seemed very pleased at Xu Qing¡¯s reaction, and was about to continue the conversation.

    But then, Tuo Shishan shivered, and a bright light appeared near his dantian region. It looked almost like the glow of a. As that appeared, a host of dao lineaments became visible around it.... The dao lineaments rapidly turned into a bubble that grewrger andrger, until it was like an illusory major world. The starlighting from his dantian region formed an illusory major world, and then that major world started to seem true and real. It was as if it had life force filling it up.

    Next, an astonishing aura spread out that shook everything in a way that surpassed the Void-Returning level. It was... a Smoldering God aura.

    Tuo Shishan was using the supreme yang power toplete his dao, illuminate his path, and form his own major world. If he seeded, he would be a Smoldering God!

    This was his true reason foring to this god domain. As a top chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, the Void-Returning level wasn¡¯t the end of the line for him. He had long since nned out things beyond that. He knew that he wasn¡¯t on the same level as everyone else, and therefore, instead of trying to vie with them for equality, he sought to push himself to his own limit.

    Now, he had reached that limit, and therefore... it was without hesitation that he proceeded with the breakthrough! And there was no better ce than here to illuminate a major world. Supreme yang power represented life and limitless possibility. What was more, he knew that this sun in this emperor¡¯s tomb... was actually the original sun in this world! It was the origin of everything, the supreme yang, and though it was weaker than the ancestral sun of Revered Ancient, its personhood was the same type.

    Tuo Shishan wasn¡¯t the only one who chose this path.

    Sir Heavenink did the same. As a second re of starlight appeared on Tuo Shishan, the upon which Sir Heavenink sat also red with light, and a terrifying aura and mightiness spread out from it. He was also rising to a higher level.

    In the blink of an eye, both of thoses were rumbling loudly.

    As Xu Qing realized what was happening, he looked over at Sir Firedark.

    Sir Firedark wasn¡¯t a Smoldering God, but Xu Qing had personally experienced how strong she was. The fact that Tuo Shishan and Sir Heavenink were the first to achieve their dao didn¡¯t mean that they were the strongest. Rather, it was because they had limited potential. Among the Firemoon Darkheaven chosen, the only one who seemed to have nearly limitless potential was Sir Firedark. That was why she needed much more supreme yang power.

    Almost exactly as Xu Qing looked over, rumbling sounds echoed out from Sir Firedark¡¯s head as five extremely ancient but luxurious trove gates appeared. All five were open, and they exerted immense gravitational forces. Massive amounts of supreme yang power flowed into Sir Firedark, entering the five gates. Almost immediately, dao lineaments, bubbles, and void soil appeared.

    The dao lineaments expanded constantly. The bubble gotrger. And the void soil... umted rapidly, and surpassed the limitations of the major world. It was starting to form a supersized major world! Although there was a limit to the extent of thends in the supersized major world, its corresponding heaven... couldn¡¯t quite cover it all.

    However... if a heaven appeared that corresponded perfectly to thends in the major world, then in the moment of Sir Firedark¡¯s breakthrough to the first stage of Smoldering God, she would reach the peak instantly. That was because her world surpassed all others by far. It was something rarely seen even in ancient times. All of this went to show how talented and determined she was.

    Seeing these three Firemoon chosen heading toward breakthroughs suddenly made Xu Qing think back to something someone once said to him in Seven Blood Eyes.

    <i>¡°An era of great struggle ising in which chosen proliferate. And it might be thest chance for the heavenly daos of Revered Ancient to save themselves.¡±</i> [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    An instantter, the sun passed and the moon began its return. Supreme yin power drove away the supreme yang power.

    Fan Shishuang looked up, determination in his eyes and firmness in his heart. After watching Xu Qing kill Master Stillwinter, he hade to realize he wasn¡¯t a match for Xu Qing, much less Sir Firedark. But that was the past. He was firmly convinced that a wonderful, eternal future awaited him. There was nothing guaranteeing who would be strong and who would be weak in the future! With that conviction bolstering him, he went crazy absorbing as much supreme yin power as possible. As moonlight gathered on his forehead, it turned into a that spread light in all directions. He was also starting to break through.

    The other person absorbing supreme yin power was the Captain, who was actually a bit more domineering than Fan Shishuang. It was as if he wanted to surpass Sir Firedark¡¯s absorption style. A momentter, a swath of mist appeared above the Captain¡¯s head. The mist seethed as the head of a huge dog emerged from it, which also started to absorb the supreme yin power.

    It was... the immortal skill named Heavenly Dog. And it could devour heaven and earth. In an instant, massive amounts of supreme yin power flowed toward the Captain, which he ravenously devoured.

    Fan Shishuang shivered, and as he realized he wasn¡¯t going to be able to proceed, his expression turned very grim.

    The Captain, meanwhile, looked very pleased with himself, as if to say ¡®if I can¡¯t do it, who can?¡¯ He cast a derisive look at Sir Firedark, then sent a very smug message to Xu Qing via divine will.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, all you have to do is ask me very, very nicely, and also give me a thousand promissory notes, and I¡¯ll save twenty percent for you. What do you say?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing ignored the message and focused on the approaching moon. Inside of himself, he could sense the same gravitational force that had been attracted to the statues outside, causing his third trove gate to crack open. On the other side of that trove gate was a power that had the same origin as this moon. It also had supreme yin power, and it was also an ancestral moon!

    Intense longing rushed into Xu Qing¡¯s mind. Who said that fight outside the tomb was pointless? He had acquired something during that fight. A seed! Looking at this iing moon, Xu Qing understood it all. Standing, he took a step forward. As he did, his second trove gate emitted a deafening sound.

    Inside of it was Hellfei¡¯s eye. It opened, and the Six Filths of the Gods erupted from Xu Qing¡¯s eyes and mmed into the barrier.

    The Six Filths of the Gods could taint gods! Almost instantly, the barrier began to decay. The invisible obstacle became visible, and then it exploded like a balloon that had been inted too much.

    Xu Qing¡¯s footnded, and he disappeared from the to appear outside in the starry sky.

    Power from the emperor¡¯s mausoleum rushed in from all directions, crushing down onto Xu Qing. However, his facial expression was the same as ever as he unleashed the power of Ninedawns and his god states. The six filths grew more intense.

    As everyone looked on in surprise, he moved in the direction of the approaching moon. Then he stepped onto its surface... and sat down cross-legged. The violet moon trove gate within him burst open, and unleashed an unheard-of gravitational force.

    1. This quote does not appear in any previous chapter, but it doesbine a few different things that were mentioned earlier in the story, mostly by Master Seventh, but also echoed by other characters. The further we get into the story, the more I¡¯m finding mistaken references on the part of the author, tiny mistakes, or continuity errors. I¡¯ll do my best to edit them, but in some cases I don¡¯t think it¡¯s appropriate, such as here. ?

 Chapter 893: Fierce Competition

    <h4>Chapter 893: Fierce Competition</h4>

    The violet moon trove gate trembled, and the bit of power that was the seed of that trove gate, the supreme yinherglimmer, vied with the glory of the moon. His violet moon authority, which was born out of the red moon, but now belonged to Xu Qing, provided a linking element. Therefore, though the two moons weren¡¯t the same, because of all the rted factors, what he was doing seemedpletely and utterly logical.

    The instant he sat down and the violet moon trove gate mmed open, all of the supreme yin power from the local moon rushed toward him. There was some brief difort, but after that, it was all his!

    Whether in terms of absorption method or quantity, Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang were hardly consequential. Even Sir Firedark and the Captain only had the five opened gates and Heavenly Dog. Were there nothing topare to, it might not have been a big deal. But now it was obvious who was superior and who was inferior.

    Xu Qing was seated atop a moon, as if he were the lord of that moon!

    Next... both Tuo Shishan and Sir Heavenink began to pay attention with divine will, despite being in the middle of breakthroughs. Fan Shishuang was also absorbing the supreme yin power, but now he was struggling to breathe steadily as Xu Qing¡¯s actions filled him with both rm and helplessness.

    Even the Captain was getting anxious. For one thing, he really needed that supreme yin power. What was more, he was increasingly getting the sensation that his little Junior Brother was stealing the limelight on this big job.... He¡¯d had this same feeling before in the past.... It really felt like a huge challenge to his dignity as the Eldest Brother.

    Therefore, he shouted, ¡°Little Junior Brother! My dear, beloved little Junior Brother.... Can you leave a bit for me?¡±

    Even with the Heavenly Dog, the Captain wasn¡¯t able to absorb any of the supreme yin power now. Upon realizing that yelling at Xu Qing wasn¡¯t going to be enough, he gritted his teeth, stood, and raced toward the barrier. As he neared, he began spitting out so much blood it hardly seemed like his own. As it sshed on the barrier, it stained it red and also froze it.

    The Heavenly Dog also lunged forward and snapped at the barrier. A crashing sound rang out as the barrier copsed. The Captain immediately leaped toward the moon.

    That said, his original ns hadn¡¯t included this action, and hisck of preparation meant that he was hit with a force of rejection. No matter how many times he got close, he was always pushed away as if by violent storm winds.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother....¡± he yelled.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes remained closed as he focused on absorbing the supreme yin power. However, he did wave his hand in the Captain¡¯s direction.

    It was as if the Captain was an anchor, with an invisible cord linking the two of them. With that help, the Captain struggled against the force of rejection. pping like a kite in the wind, he stayed in ce and started absorbing supreme yin power. What was more, in the hopes of restoring some of his dignity as the Eldest Brother, he started exining some things to Xu Qing.

    ¡°You listen to me, little Ah Qing. Out of all the people here today, I was the first to get to the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. And I finished setting some things up even before the others arrived. This supreme yin power is nothing. An appetizer, really. When the momentes, you¡¯ll understand why your Eldest Brother actually came here. The main course is still on the way!¡±

    Xu Qing nodded as his violet moon trove gate kept absorbing the supreme yin power, which caused the heavenly dao aura to grow stronger. As the third trove gate cracked open even more, the power of frigid coldness seethed inside. The embryonicherglimmer heavenly dao also became clearer and clearer. At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s aura grew stronger!

    As he and the Captain shared the moon, it continued on its path, and the sun began to approach again.

    As a result of their efforts, Fan Shishuang wasn¡¯t aplishing anything. Finally, he gritted his teeth, performed an incantation gesture, and summoned a host of illusory flying swords. The swords mmed into the¡¯s invisible barriers. All of them focused on the same spot. He wasn¡¯t trying to break down the barrier, just punch a small hole in it! That would keep him safe but would give him the ability to more easily absorb supreme yin power from outside. Although... it wouldn¡¯t be much. The upside was that Xu Qing gotte enough a start that Fan Shishuang had already absorbed nearly the amount he needed.

    In contrast, Sir Heavenink and Tuo Shishan were feeling quite relieved. After all, they needed supreme yang power, not supreme yin power....

    However, their relief didn¡¯tst for very long. Sir Firedark frowned and snorted coldly as she stepped to the barrier, lifted her right hand, and used the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist to unleash a blow. The entire barrier shattered into countless pieces. There was no limit to how domineering that fist strike could be. She stepped off the in the direction of the iing sun. However, simr to the Captain, she hadn¡¯t actuallye prepared to do something like this.

    As a result, the rejection power of the sun pushed her away from it.

    But Sir Firedark was Sir Firedark. Despite being pushed away, when she looked at the two people she hated most, she refused to believe that she couldn¡¯t match up to them. Despite the terrifying nature of the rejection force, she advanced with each step she took and each blow sheunched. Her fist was both undying and domineering. That was her dao. Advance courageously. Tolerate no resistance!

    Deafening booms rang out as, to the shock of Sir Heavenink and Tuo Shishan, she got closer and closer to the sun. Next, she unveiled her five trove gates and her void soil. As her major world appeared, she used the pressure they created... to sit down on the sun.

    The Captain looked over with a sour feeling in his heart.

    <i>This Sir Firedark is really impressive. Not quite on the same level as me. But maybe the same as little Junior Brother.</i>

    Sir Firedark¡¯s actions led to some other developments.

    Sir Heavenink wasn¡¯t willing to be outdone, so he took out a bottle made of white jade, opened it, and blew onto the mouth of the bottle. A stream of starlight emerged from the bottle. It wasn¡¯t like the other starlight in the surrounding world. As soon as Sir Heavenink blew on it, the starlight shot toward the barrier. It pierced the barrier, creating a vortex that sucked in any nearby supreme yang power. He was doing the same thing as Tuo Shishan.

    They couldn¡¯t do anything about thepetition between Xu Qing and Sir Firedark, nor did they want to cause trouble for either of them. Therefore, their best option was to try to get whatever extra scraps of power were floating around.

    After all, both had the same goal: to be a Smoldering God.

    It would only be possible to continue exploring the emperor¡¯s tomb if they first rose to a higher level. That was what they were all apparently waiting for.

    Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang all wanted to be Smoldering Gods. Therefore, they had to wait for the right opportunity to transcend. They had to wait to break open the void soil, make illusion reality, and illuminate their major worlds.

    And the Captain was waiting for the opportunity he had mentioned. No one knew exactly what his goal was. However, Xu Qing had been on enough big jobs with the Captain to be able to specte what it might be.

    Sir Firedark was also waiting. There was no way her goal was simply to be a Smoldering God. What the other Firemoon cultivators would consider a destined opportunity in the emperor¡¯s tomb, Sir Firedark wouldn¡¯t consider very important.

    As a result, Xu Qing came to the conclusion that everyone else here could be categorized into three levels.

    As for him, he was also waiting. He was waiting for his violet moon god trove¡¯s heavenly dao toplete. He was waiting for the same thing to happen to his Emperor¡¯s Sword trove. He wanted all five trove gates to open so he could step into Void Returning. He was also waiting to see what happened with the Captain.

    In that manner, time passed.

    As the sun and moon orbited, the auras of Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang grew more majestic, and the might of a Smoldering God built up on them. The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed with mysterious light as something truly crazy grew within him.

    Sir Firedark opened her eyes as she sat there on the sun. She wasn¡¯t looking up, but rather, at the beneath her.

    As for Xu Qing... his violet moon god trove finally emitted a deafening rumbling sound as the violet moon trove gatepletely opened! On the other side of the gate was the supreme yinherglimmer, with a frigid energy that could freeze time itself. Of his five gates, three were open!

    Xu Qing¡¯s aura skyrocketed, surpassing anything from before. At the same time, coldness spread to fill him from head to toe, making it seem like he was connected to the moon.

    But then...!

    Something happened below. There, where the immortal emperor¡¯s coffin rested on an altar in the middle of a patchwork of skin, surrounded by an umbre, bells, and nine huge starlight dragons.... The sound of a heartbeat rang out.

    <i>Thump-thump!</i>

    It was louder than thunder, such that even the expression ¡®heaven-rending, earth-crushing¡¯ couldn¡¯t quite describe it. It was because heaven had already been filled with the filth of gods, and thends had degenerated into a kingdom of gods. As a result, this heartbeat sounded like a god. If an immortal domain is filled with filth, then the corpse of the emperor... would have nowhere to run to.

    The sound shook the emperor¡¯s mausoleum, filling the tomb, spreading out across the, and eventually echoing the length and breadth of the god domain. This... was what Sir Firedark and the others had been waiting for!

    Without the slightest hesitation, Sir Firedark shot off of the sun and toward... the gigantic, luxurious, and holy golden umbre that covered more than half of thends below! That umbre was the precious treasure of an immortal emperor. And she wanted it... to be the heaven of her major world! She wanted something to surpass anything and everything from history. She wanted to have a supersized major world!

    In a world withnds made from void soil, it would normally be difficult to find a corresponding heaven. This was Sir Firedark¡¯s goal.

    She even managed to suppress her hatred and killing intent for the Captain. Screaming forth, she unleashed the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist to st herself past one of the starlight dragons that charged toward her. The starlight dragon exploded. Sir Firedark coughed up blood. But that didn¡¯t slow her down. In the blink of an eye, shended on the umbre.

    The moment she sat down, her five trove gates appeared, void soil descended, and she started assimting the umbre. It would serve as her Smoldering God canopy, and would allow her to step right to the peak. Her daring ambitionpletely surpassed that of Sir Heavenink and the other Firemoons. And there was no one to stop her. It took very little time for her to start fusing with the seven-colored umbre. Her aura immediately began to rise.

    From a distance, it was like a flower of the gods blooming in the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. The flower contained the sun and moon plus 108s. Beneath the flower were seven-colored roots... which connected to the coffin, where the heartbeat wasing from!

    It was impossible to say whose handiwork had produced the god in that coffin. It was impossible to say who had ced it there as a backup option, or to gain new life....

    Right now, Sir Firedark wanted to reach the peak. And that didn¡¯t mean Smoldering God... it meant actual god!

 Chapter 894: Get Over Here!

    <h4>Chapter 894: Get Over Here!</h4>

    This type of boldness was befitting of the Firemoons¡¯ number one chosen. This type of domineering attitude was perfectly suited to the chosen whose daoist name harkened to the name of the species itself: Sir Firedark.

    She didn¡¯t want to be a Smoldering God. She wanted to be... an actual god! By using the immortal emperor¡¯s body as nutritional materials, she could ignite her godfire! She wanted to reach godly ascension in one smooth step!

    That thoroughly surpassed anything that Sir Heavenink or the other Firemoons would think of doing. And it formed the most eye-catching thing in the entire emperor¡¯s mausoleum at the moment. And for multiple reasons, it quashed any thoughts the other three chosen had about trying to vie for supremacy in the future. With a person like this, it didn¡¯t matter how you tried topete with them, how you tried to gain victory, or how you tried to fight them.

    Sir Heavenink sighed. Tuo Shishan bowed his head. Fan Shishuang looked on bitterly. None of them wanted to just give up. Although Sir Firedarks¡¯ goal was something beyond them, they still had their own paths to follow, and their own breakthroughs to achieve. Now, they wanted all that more than ever!

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at Sir Firedark.

    Even working together, he and the Captain couldn¡¯t defeat Sir Firedark inbat. They could only pin her down. She was one of the rare chosen Xu Qing had met who could be considered beyond exceptional.

    Back in the imperial pce of humankind, when Fifth Prince came back from his border campaign, he had brought some shocking news with him. The Firemoon Darkheavens were apparently trying to... establish a fourth god for themselves. Xu Qing had originally assumed it was Master Stillwinter. After all, Master Stillwinter¡¯s soul had more than ny god monuments in it, which seemed like a ceremony of godly ascension.

    That was why he had killed Master Stillwinter and thrown him into his mage trove to use as kindling. Only after killing him did Xu Qinge to realize that Master Stillwinter was not the fourth god the Firemoons had been grooming. Put most precisely, Master Stillwinter was an unfinished product. Perhaps he could even be considered a failed tool.

    Now that Xu Qing could see what Sir Firedark was doing, it seemed... that she was the fourth god the Firemoons were grooming.

    <i>But... is it really her?</i>

    He suddenly felt inclined to look at the Captain.

    The Captain was surrounded by freezing mes. His eyes had a crazy look in him that made it seem like he had been starving for tens upon tens of thousands of years, and was about to do some binge eating.

    The opportunity Sir Firedark had been waiting for... was the same opportunity the Captain had been waiting for!

    ¡°Finally... the time is here!¡± the Captain said, licking his lips. Suddenly looking quite mad, he threw his head back andughed. ¡°Little Ah Qing, look over at that crappy Tuo Shishan and the others. They¡¯re like wimpy little sparrows, nothing more! All they want is some supreme yin and supreme yang. They just want to be solid Smoldering Gods. Talk aboutcking ambition!

    ¡°On the other hand, Little Swallow has really got some guts. She¡¯s using the umbre as heaven, the corpse of a god as fuel, all to reach godly ascension in a single step. But even she only counts as a medium-sized sparrow. Who the hell goes around ignoring food that¡¯s right in front of you?

    ¡°As for this big job, little Junior Brother, we¡¯re going way past the sparrow level... to the eagle level!¡± At that point, the Captain loosened his hold on the rope connecting him to Xu Qing. Taking advantage of the rejection power of the moon, he grinned wildly and pointed at one of the 108 heavenly bodies. ¡°Hey you... get over here!!¡±

    The emperor¡¯s mausoleum trembled due to the soundsing from the starry sky above. It came from... behind the 108s!

    They had one part facing thends below, and that was theirary surface. But on the other side... each of them had a bitter, anguished face! In the past, the 108 faces had nothing upying their foreheads. But as the Captain performed an incantation gesture, light flickered dramatically as... a pearl appeared on the forehead of each face! Those pearls were the very same items the Captain had taken from the shell-eagles. There were 108 of them! That was one of the first steps the Captain had taken to prepare for this moment.

    The pearls erupted, one after another, releasing spectacr energy. The entire starry sky rippled, and the river of stars passing through it grew dim! And thanks to the pearls and the Captain¡¯s strange methods, the detonations caused the 108s... to start moving.

    Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out as the 108s, including those upied by Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang, turned around to reveal their faces! They looked down at the emperor¡¯s mausoleum, their wails of grief growing explosively loud.

    Thanks to the stimtion of the pearls, it caused the faces¡¯ screams to turn piercing. Their cries joined together into one unified cry, and the explosive sound locked the sun in ce but sped up the moon. It was capable of shaking the starlight dragons, crushing the sacrificial objects, and shaking everything under heaven! The dramatic development caused looks of surprise to appear on the faces of everyone present.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing shot off the moon and appeared next to the Captain, his eyes glittering from the starlight, but his expression neutral as ever. This development fell roughly in line with what he had expected would happen. That was especially true of how the terrifying sound of the faces¡¯ wailing caused the sun to lock in ce but the moon to speed up....

    <i>Next is step two of the Captain¡¯s n. I bet he wants the sun and moon to collide!</i>

    As Xu Qing pondered that, he watched the moon elerate rapidly. As it got closer and closer to the motionless sun, a tideflow power built up,pletely changing the structure of the emperor¡¯s mausoleum.

    The Captainughed madly. ¡°Little Junior Brother, I bet you¡¯ve been curious all along about what this big job is. I couldn¡¯t say anything before, because this ce and everything around it is connected to a god.

    ¡°Saying a single word could have caused unpredictable variables. But now that everything is in motion... nothing anybody says can change how this job will turn out! Little Junior Brother, my target here is the fleshly body of the ancestral emperor in that coffin on the altar!¡±

    The Captain pointed at the altar and licked his lips. ¡°Or perhaps it¡¯s best to use the term ¡®lord of this god domain.¡¯ You see, that body down there was prepared as a new body by the spider god that was sealed countless years ago by the three gods of the Firemoon people.

    ¡°I want that fleshly body! If I suppress it and fuse with it, then I can get the approval of this god domain! Get it? I¡¯m going to take advantage of this opportunity to make myself the ruler of the god domain!

    ¡°As for you, your target is going to be the emperor¡¯s soul, which is also the soul of a god. I take the fleshly body, you take the god soul to be a heavenly dao. If you seed, then you¡¯ll get the same benefit as me. You can be one of the rulers of this god domain. With authority of the god domain, the two of us will reach a much more profound level together!

    ¡°I¡¯ve been preparing for this for a long time! I can¡¯t seed alone because the god soul will interfere. And that¡¯s why I need your help, little Junior Brother!¡±

    As the Captain¡¯s voice echoed out, the intense sound of the faces¡¯ wailing was so intense it overwhelmed everything else. And yet, Sir Heavenink and the other chosen heard him, and the details of his plot left thempletely taken aback. They were plotting to be Smoldering Gods. Sir Firedark was plotting to reach godly ascension. But these two humans... were plotting to be the rulers of an entire god domain! This was the Great Hunt of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, sanctioned by their three gods. In fact... those three gods were obviously plotting the same thing!

    The chosen considered interfering, if not for their species then for their own sake. If things went on like this, it could have a huge negative effect on their own breakthroughs.

    The umbre that Sir Firedark sat on was also releasing a deafening wail. As it shook back and forth, Sir Firedark¡¯s eyes opened wide and pulsed with killing intent.

    Only Xu Qing seemed unsurprised by all this. After all, there were two idioms that perfectly encapsted the Captain¡¯s style. The first was <i>snatching food from the tiger¡¯s mouth</i> and the second was <i>dancing on a knife¡¯s edge</i>. Based on how well Xu Qing knew the Captain, from the moment they arrived in the god domain, he had spected that something like this would happen.

    Given all that, it probably wasn¡¯t best to say this was a ¡®crazy¡¯ thing to do. Instead, it was a very ¡®Erniu¡¯ thing to do. It wasn¡¯t something that could be stopped easily, not even by the other cultivators present in the emperor¡¯s mausoleum.

    With the sun locked in ce, the orbit of the sun and moon had been altered. And there was no way to stop the momentum of the moon. Terrifying and boundless coldness raced right toward the sun.

    108s wailed, their screams spreading in all directions as the sun and moon collided! Heaven and earth shattered. The starry sky shook violently. Space copsed. Fire and ice smashed into each other, and a dark, terrifying light of destruction began to spread. The sun shattered. The moon copsed. Countless chunks of ice and burning sparks sprayed in all directions. Fire rained down in the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. So did ice and even stars.

    The only safe spot was where Xu Qing and the Captain stood.

    Everywhere else, the mausoleum shook dramatically! The entire surrounding trembled! The whole god domain was shaken violently! A massive wind swept out that was the result of ice and fire destroying each other, or yin and yang joining together in formlessness. It was the direct result of the sun and moon colliding. It was... a tempest of primal-chaos that descended on the entire mausoleum. The starlight dragons went dim and copsed within the wind. The bells tolled, sounding out a dirge of death. The drums and gongs resonated as they woke the souls of the deceased. And the wind caused the gigantic umbre to shift, revealing... the holy coffin on the altar below it!

    Surrounding the altar were thends made of the skin patchwork. Among those patches of skin was one in particr that had a pair of eyes. The eyes opened, and in response, all of the soldiers and chariots arrayed in the mausoleum woke up one after another! However, that didn¡¯t matter, as the path had already been cleared!

    As the wind blew, the entire starry sky seemed to tilt onto its side as if to impede Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang. It was already impossible to stop events from ying out, so the main thing to do now was worry about self-preservation.

    But Sir Firedark, whose breakthrough had been interrupted thanks to the Captain, felt that old hatred rising up again in her. She took a step forward.

    Despite everything that was happening, Xu Qing still didn¡¯t look surprised. Things really weren¡¯t very much different than he¡¯d expected. And he also knew that his Eldest Brother probably had more tricks up his sleeve. As for what trick wasing next, Xu Qing was fairly certain he knew. After all, he had loaned something to the Captain that the Captain hadn¡¯t returned yet. Therefore, Xu Qing didn¡¯t do a thing as Sir Firedark closed in.

    Next to him, the Captainughed madly. He had set up this entire situation in a previous life, so seeing it y out in front of him was very gratifying. And of course, how could he not be prepared to deal with Sir Firedark?

    As Sir Firedark closed in, the Captain looked up proudly, then threw his right hand out with a flourish.

    When Sir Firedark saw what was in that hand, her face fell.

    ¡°You¡¯re crazy!!¡± she blurted, reversing course and racing backward at top speed.

    The Captain was holding something in his hand that almost looked like a pearl. It was an ancient sun, also called a Dawning Sun, which was a domain treasure of humankind!

    ¡°Get over here!¡± the Captain said to the retreating Sir Firedark. Laughing maniacally, he hurled the Dawning Sun toward the altar below!

 Chapter 895: Dawning Light Rends the Seal

    <h4>Chapter 895: Dawning Light Rends the Seal</h4>

    The Dawning Suns of humankind made their debut to the countless species of Revered Ancient when the Nightshades invaded human territory several years ago.

    During that war, the Nightshades and other nonhuman species surrounded the humans and brought mes of destruction to theirnds. They even advanced as far as the Imperial Region. Humans had been teetering on the verge of annihtion. In fact, most species hade to the conclusion that humans had no hope of surviving that war. Most assumed that humans wouldn¡¯t end up wiped out as a species, but would probably lose half or more of their Imperial Region. As for the smaller administrative districts, the seven counties, they would just have to ept what fate had in store.

    Who could ever have guessed that, in the most critical moment, the Dawning Suns would devastate heaven and earth, and shake Revered Ancient with their terrifying might?

    The other species looked on silently as the Nightshades were driven into retreat. The species allied with the Nightshades to join the siege were shaken to the core.

    That was the war in which everyone in Revered Ancient heard about the Dawning Suns. As a result, even powerful species such as the Firemoon Darkheaven people became deeply interested in the Dawning Suns. And they all started doing research to figure out how to deal with them.

    As the number one chosen among the Firemoon Darkheavens, it was no surprise that Sir Firedark knew a bit about the Dawning Suns. Therefore, when she saw the Captain pull one out, she instantly knew what it was. Her pupils constricted, and her mind and heart shook with an intense sensation of deadly crisis. Without the slightest hesitation, she fell back.

    If a domain treasure like that detonated, the effects would be very widespread. Although the emperor¡¯s mausoleum seemed like it existed in its own reality, the truth was that it had specific borders. If a Dawning Sun was detonated here, the st would cover everything. The mausoleum was inherently built in a superior way, and had its own immense pressure weighing down everywhere, so it was possible it might be able to contain the detonation. But every flesh-and-blood being inside would definitely be in unprecedented danger.

    Sir Firedark wasn¡¯t the only one to react in that way. Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang were deeply shocked. Their hair stood on end, and every inch of flesh and bone within them began to quiver as a sense of immeasurable danger filled them.

    Danger. Danger!

    Without the slightest hesitation, they interrupted their breakthroughs and used various defensive strategies to flee and seek a way to escape. The situation in the mausoleum had changed dramatically.

    The Dawning Sun fell past the starlight dragons that had been knocked to the side by the sound waves. Then it dropped past the umbre. Because of the explosive sound wave from before, the altar was now clearly visible, and there was nothing blocking the way to it.

    Thus, the Dawning Sun dropped right onto the golden coffin!

    It immediately released blinding light. That ancient sun had been crafted in the manner of a Dawning Sun, but it was far mightier than average. That was especially true considering that Xu Qing had put some of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into it.

    Considering the terrifying might in the Dawning Sun, it could definitely be considered a trump card for Xu Qing and the Captain. That said, because it could only be used once, it usually worked best when used as a threat.

    As of now, it could no longer be used as a threat, as it had been truly activated! Boundless and terrifying might erupted, so dramatic it was difficult to put into words. Blinding light spread out in all directions, bringing raging heat that illuminated the starry sky and spread out over the surroundingnds.

    The dome of heaven began to turn crimson. Thends heaved. The wailing of the 108 faces suddenly ceased. The faces¡¯ expressions became pained, and as the light and heat swept over them, they were reduced to ashes. It wasn¡¯t just the faces that were wiped out. The 108s weren¡¯t able to hold on for long before they were wiped out of existence by the light and heat.

    What was more, the detonation of the Dawning Sun had just begun. A sea of light spread out to cover everything. That included the bells, gongs, umbre, and starlight dragons. Also affected were the altar, the terrain, the horses and soldiers, and everything else. Everything was turning crimson as the heat waves and sea of light sought to wipe everything out.

    It was easy to imagine how, if nothing happened to stop it, the entire emperor¡¯s mausoleum would be reduced to ashes. In fact, the that housed the mausoleum would likely also be affected.

    Everyone inside the mausoleum felt themselves hovering on the brink of death. Sir Firedark¡¯s hair was disheveled, and she kept coughing up blood. Howling, she released fist strike after fist strike to block the light and heat as she tumbled in the opposite direction. Clearly, not even she wouldst very long before she ended up dead.

    It almost wasn¡¯t necessary to mention Fan Shishuang and the other two. The three of them were already severely injured, with their souls on the verge of being wiped away. It was withplete madness, and a host of varied techniques, that they tried to save themselves. Nothing seemed to work.

    There was no doubt that the Captain had done something extremely ruthless. And he didn¡¯t just treat others ruthlessly. He also treated himself that way.

    He and Xu Qing were both within the range of the Dawning Sun. Both of them were instantly overwhelmed with a sensation of deadly crisis.

    However, advanced preparations ensured that the Captain was able to hold out longer than average. As the Dawning Sun detonated, he opened his mouth and looked at Xu Qing.

    There was no need formunication. Xu Qing knew exactly what to do. Without any hesitation, he turned into a stream of light that shot into the Captain¡¯s mouth. Once inside the Captain, Xu Qing unleashed his cultivation base, sending out defensive power as well as supreme yin power. He used every item and divine ability he could think of.

    The Captain did the same. Faces appeared in his pupils, and a vortex sprang up in his chest. At the same time, four blue arms burst out from inside of him, rapidly performing incantation gestures. Their powerbined with Xu Qing¡¯s to form into a block of protective ice.

    Meanwhile, the Captain¡¯s eyes filled with a crazy look as he took outrge masses of human skin. They were, in fact, pieces of his own skin, which he threw over his shoulders like a cape. Then he took out a green jade slip, which he crushed between his fingers. A st of time power erupted from the jade slip.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain shouted. Inside of him, Xu Qing unleashed his sundial to bolster the time abilities of the jade slip. Together the two of them bolstered each other defensively.

    And yet, the explosion of the Dawning Sun shattered the block of ice. The time power rippled and distorted, and the Captain¡¯s skin burst into me. Bloody wounds opened up all over him, and the four blue arms copsed.

    Xu Qing suffered simrly. Cracks spread out over his sundial, and his cultivation base trembled. None of the defenses seemed enough to dispel the crisis at hand; they only seemed capable of buying time.

    But Xu Qing trusted the Captain. The Captain acted crazily sometimes, and often courted death. But every time... he survived! He didn¡¯t actually have a death wish. And that was the case this time as well!

    As the Dawning Sun detonated and threatened to destroy the emperor¡¯s mausoleum and everything else... the mausoleum finally fought back!

    This was the tomb of an immortal emperor, and the mausoleum of an ancestral emperor. Though it couldn¡¯tpare to Revered Ancient, on a personhood level, the entity buried here couldn¡¯t have been more noble and majestic. That wasn¡¯t even to mention that everything here had been set up by a god.

    The bells, which were crimson from the heat, began to ring. The burning altar shivered and started to pulse in unison with the drums. The starlight dragons emitted deafening howls as they charged forth. From a distance, it looked like eight huge fingers! The bells were the fingernails. The drums were the white crescents on the nails. And the dragons¡¯ bodies formed the fingers.

    Thends below were made of patches of skin that were currently burning. All of a sudden, eyes opened up on all of the patches of skin. The gazes that exploded out caused the fingers to be covered with skin!

    The countless soldiers and horses, which were also burning now, began to move. Energy surged as they rose up into the air and turned into the palm of the hand.

    One palm. Eight fingers! Mountains, rivers, and other terrain features rose up, bing the prints on the palm and fingers! Most shocking of all was that the altar emitted ck light that represented destruction. It infected the heat and light spreading from the Dawning Sun, and also poured into the palm itself, turning the entire hand pitch ck.

    As all of that happened, it was again possible to hear a heartbeat from inside the coffin.

    <i>Thump-thump. Thump-thump!</i>

    The heartbeat seemed to awaken the huge hand that had formed overhead, as it lurched toward the Dawning Sun. As of this moment, the light was covered up! As of this instant, the heat was cut off!

    The enormous ck hand covered everything. But the Dawning Sun was a domain treasure, and this was an extraordinary version. Not even a counterattack by the personhood of the emperor¡¯s mausoleum was enough to wipe it out.

    Next, as the ck hand contacted the heat of the Dawning Sun, an intense conflict erupted. Shortly after, a thunderous boom rang out that rocked the entire mausoleum.

    The ck hand vanished, and the Dawning Sun faded. The terror from the Dawning Sun had ultimately been driven away.

    Up in the air, Sir Firedark looked to be in very bad shape, and was sttered with blood. Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang were all in one piece, but they were incredibly weak and were still filled with lingering fear. All of them hade very, very close to dying.

    The Captain was simrly bedraggled. He had used every trick he had, yet was still on the verge of copsing. When he saw that Sir Firedark and the others had all survived, he seemed a bit disappointed. But then his eyes glittered as he looked down.

    Xu Qing flew out from inside him, looking weak and exhausted. He also looked down.

    The emperor¡¯s mausoleum looked very different. The bells, drums, soldiers, horses, and terrain features... were gone. The altar was cracked and crumbling, and even the coffin was damaged. In fact, the coffin had split in two, and each piece had rolled off to the side. Visible inside the coffin was a withered corpse wearing a burial suit of gold and jade! The body waspletely withered, but it had an imperial crown, and the gold and jade burial garment was actually shaped like an imperial robe.

    The raiment imparted a sense of majesty, but not as much as this person would havemanded in life. And that was because there was a spider on his face. It had fused with the corpse so that they were inseparable.

    That spider¡¯s face had be the corpse¡¯s face.

    ¡°A soundwave to break the barrier. Dawning light to rend open the seal. Finally... the coffin of this world¡¯s ancestral emperor is open! Let¡¯s go, little Junior Brother!¡±

    The craziness began to build again in the Captain¡¯s eyes as he shot down toward the corpse. Xu Qing viciously gritted his teeth. Given that things were reaching a climax, there was no way he was going to give up right now. Eyes looking simrly crazy, he shot toward the corpse.

    Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang were powerless to do anything. Seeing what Xu Qing and the Captain were doing caused their hearts to pound. They quickly backed up. They were scared and tired.

    As for Sir Firedark, her hatred hadpletely erupted, and thus, she raced after the Captain. It didn¡¯t matter what he did. She had one n: kill the bastard!

    As the three of them got close to the corpse, the spider face of the corpse suddenly opened its eyes! They were golden eyes. They were the eyes of a god!

 Chapter 896: A Promise from Within Time

    <h4>Chapter 896: A Promise from Within Time</h4>

    The only thing to be seen in the god¡¯s eyes was apathy. It was as if to ¨©t, all experiences in life were devoid of both joy and sorrow. Life was fine. Death was also fine. Everything was just part of the simple cycle of reincarnation. When to awaken. When to return. ¨©t could ¡®see¡¯ everything.

    Fate itself was like a host of particles that formed a river, and every single wave and ripple on its surface was something ¨©t was aware of. Therefore, to the eyes of a god, calmness was the most unchangeable factor of time. It was as if from the moment ¨©t gained consciousness, ¨©ts gaze never faltered. It was that way when ¨©t fought the human antemage, and it was also that way when ¨©t was suppressed by the three gods.

    And it was the same today, when ¨©t used the corpse of the emperor to awaken within the god domain and get a chance to change the situation in the Mountain and Sea Region. It didn¡¯t matter that ¨©t was extremely weak right now. Whether the result was sess or failure, it would all bring valuable experience.

    And thus, ¨©t looked around at the area in which ¨©t had awoken. The canopy of heaven was shattered. Thes had be dust and joined the tempest. Time in this ce had stopped moving. All of the natural and magicalws had lost their essence.

    Even the air seemed still and unmoving. There was little need to mention... the ants charging toward ¨©t.

    Xu Qing. The Captain. Sir Firedark.

    When ¨©t gazed at them, it was as if they weren¡¯t even moving. It was like they were paper cutouts standing motionless in time. Both flesh and soul withered. Fate and karma dimmed. The gaze of a god could wipe out all such things.

    But to ¨©ts omniscient gaze, it was the same whether any of those things happened or not. Therefore, ¨©ts gaze did not focus on the three pieces of paper. Instead, ¨©t looked outside of the mausoleum to something that ¨©ts omniscience revealed to be a different fate. It was ¨©ts only option. In ¨©ts omniscience, it understood that there actually was no true and absolute omniscience in the universe. Some of it was rtive, and some of it only covered certain areas or levels.

    Thus, ¨©t had long sincee to be engaged in a fight with those three gods from ater generation. And it was a godly fight that spanned time. That fight could be considered god karma. And that was ¨©ts enemy.

    Now, as ¨©t woke up here, ¨©t could give up on the godsource of ¨©ts true self in the Mountain and Sea Region. If ¨©t could recapture its status as the lord of this god domain, then ¨©t could achieve victory in the battle. ¨©t could crush the three gods and devour the god karma they turned into.[1]

    That experience could be used to develop a god altar, which ¨©t could ascend to reach a higher level as a god. As ¨©t recreated everything, and as time changed because of it all, ¨©t returned to the time ¨©t fought the antemage years ago, in order to sever the unfavorable fate from the past. The only fate left behind after that would be the god altar.

    This was ¨©ts path of godhood. Cross time. Sever contrary fate. In that manner, ¨©t could go from the Godfire level to the Altar God level! In ¨©ts omniscience, ¨©t understood that to gods, the god altar was a necessary obstacle.[2]

    When ¨©t ¡®looked¡¯ at fate, it was only natural that it saw the obstacle formed by the three mysterious gods. That was why ¨©t had long decided to pick this god domain as the battleground. That way, ¨©t could inextricably link ¨©tself to th¨¥m, and thus... form god karma together.

    Except... as ¨©t knew, the omniscience of gods wasn¡¯t absolute. It was rtive. Therefore, ¨©t looked out of the mausoleum at something that existed outside of the fate and time that ¨©ts omniscience could see. It was something unexpected hidden within the fate and time that ¨©t could see.[3]

    It came when ¨©ts gaze passed through the ants. It came from the Captain¡¯s and Xu Qing¡¯s time. Perhaps the most urate way to put it is that it came from another area or level of time that existed outside of ¨©ts omniscience.

    Long ago in the Moonrite Region, Xu Qing had asked the Captain a question.

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, during the battle with the godchild, you were responsible for a time period in which Li Zihua was alive. So... did you actually run into him there?¡±</i>

    As the Captain had exined, he made a deal with the Li Zihua of the past. [4]

    Back then, Xu Qing had assumed it was all rted to Crimson Mother. But now he realized that since the deal was made in the past, it had to ur in the past.

    And now, Li Zihua wasing. Thising was the deal h¨¥ had made with the Captain. It was a finger that emerged from Xu Qing and the Captain¡¯s time. It was a finger that had seemingly always been there. When first looking at the seemingly indescribable finger, ¨©t looked to be formed from fate, or the stars, or the will convergence of the universe. ¨©t contained all light, all power, and all knowledge.

    The entire mausoleum became irrelevant and dispensable. The entire became an insignificant decoration. The entire god domain transformed into a forgettable backdrop.

    Nothing could match up to this glory. Upon second nce, ¨©t looked ordinary, like any other finger. ¨©t was neither too refined nor too rough. ¨©t had prints on ¨©t, and seemed simplistic in nature. ¨©t appeared within the gaze of the god, and then... ¨©t touched the spider on the face.

    It was a light touch, but the spider shivered violently, and the eternally apathetic look in ¨©ts eyes copsed. The never-ending calm there shattered. This god actually did have emotions!

    Apathy transformed into stupefaction. Calmness became confusion.

    As of this moment, ¨©t understood that the obstacle to bing an Altar God wasn¡¯t the three gods. Rather, it came from... this finger, which camepletely unexpectedly.

    ¡°So, it¡¯s a springboard.¡±

    Unsurprisingly, the spider shattered into pieces that copsed into dust. Unsurprisingly, the emperor¡¯s corpse didn¡¯t fight back at all. The altar turned into an abyss, and the corpse fell down into the depths!

    The remaining soul couldn¡¯t do anything, and was crushed! ¨©ts world became ck.

    It wasn¡¯t just here that everything went dark. It was also in the Mountain and Sea Region....

    ¨©ts world went dark, but in the mausoleum, Xu Qing and the Captain saw bright colors. The paper vanished, and they became flesh and blood again. For once, the Captain hadn¡¯t disappointed Xu Qing.

    ¡°The sound wave destroyed the barrier. The dawning light destroyed the seal. A finger from time crushed the god. Little Junior Brother... our time has arrived!¡±

    Laughing heartily, the Captain became a streak of light that shot toward the corpse of the emperor that Li Zihua¡¯s finger had crushed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart was pounding. It was the first time it happened since he came to the god domain. He and the Captain had done so many big jobs together that to a certain degree, Xu Qing was inocted to surprise. But right now, he was deeply shaken. And without any hesitation, he burst into motion along with the captain.

    One went to the dantian region. The other went to the forehead!

    Of course, there was a third party closing in at top speed. It was none other than Sir Firedark.

    From beginning to end, she had been hit with shock after shock. All she¡¯d been able to do was staunchly stick to her convictions. And it didn¡¯t matter whether she ended up stopping the Captain or robbing him, she wasn¡¯t going to let this opportunity pass by. She was just on the verge of entering the corpse along with Xu Qing and the Captain.

    That was when the Captain performed an incantation gesture and pointed off into the distance. Outside of the mausoleum, in the crumbledbyrinth, a pearl appeared. Dazzling light flowed on its surface, light that could solidify yin and yang. There was an ancient aura within it, and a life source origin that made it clear it was a precious treasure. But at the same time, it looked like a fish that had been taken far from water, and was starting to dry out.... It started to crack, to crumble, and to die. In fact, if that fish wasn¡¯t returned to the water soon, it would cease to exist.

    Instantly, Sir Firedark, who had been just about to enter the emperor¡¯s corpse, shivered from head to toe. She could sense the aura of that pearl, and knew that it was her life essence pearl. That was why she hated the Captain so much. There was nothing more important to her than that pearl. From that it could be seen why she hated him so dearly.

    And thus, she had to make a snap decision. Would she... continue into the corpse, or give up and try to retrieve her pearl?

    That was exactly the position the Captain had intended to put her in.

    Sir Firedark really had no options. Eyes turning crimson, she turned and raced off in the direction of her life essence pearl.

    As she left, Xu Qing and the Captain and dropped down and entered the corpse.

    Then the corpse disappeared into the abyss below. Above, the emperor¡¯s mausoleum copsed into rubble. It wasn¡¯t just limited to the mausoleum. The entire that had contained the tomb copsed.

    As for Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang, they teleported away in their fear.

    After everyone was gone, the spot in the center of the god domain that had once held a now became home to a ck hole. As it spun noiselessly, it exerted a tug on the entire god domain. Beyond the borders of the ck hole, the three chosen looked back wordlessly.

    Three gods also appeared above the ck hole in the god domain. Th¨¥ir auras spread out, and th¨¥ir godlight shone brightly in all directions.

    ¡°The opportunity has arrived,¡± Sunfire said coolly.

    Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, and Fan Shishuang bowed their heads. All were conflicted inwardly. Earlier, they had all been wondering why... the three gods hadn¡¯t shown up. Now there didn¡¯t seem to be any question about that.

    Sir Firedark appeared, having retrieved her pearl. She looked on silently. As of now, she understood that both she and the other Firemoon chosen had been nothing more than game pieces in this god domain.

    <i>So who¡¯s going to y the next game piece?</i>

    She looked down into the ck hole. Its reflection slowly filled her eyes as it grewrger, and it contained nothing but darkness.

    ***

    In the depths of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands in the Mountain and Sea Region, a pair of eyes opened up in the darkness. They quickly began to suck all of the darkness into them, as if they were whirlpools.

    ¡°Has the opportunity arrived?¡± he said in a raspy voice. It was like a voice that blew out of an ancient abyss, waking to fulfill a promise of godly ascension from within time. He slowly stood up. Then he made his way toward the god shrine above him, which suppressed Ninedawns.

    Inside the shrine was the withered spider god, which was starting to rot into nothing.... The connections of fate ensured that he grew clearer and clearer as he neared. He was absorbing everything about the spider god.

    1. There are several ys on words that go into what I¡¯m rendering as ¡®god karma.¡¯ Sadly, there is no way to maintain all of these different word elements in the trantion, thus this footnote. The first rtes to the ordinary word for karma. As I¡¯ve mentioned before, and presumably many of you know, the wordmonly tranted as ¡®karma¡¯ in xianxia consists of two characters that could be rendered ¡®cause and effect¡¯ or ¡®because and result¡¯ or other simr things. In this case, the term I¡¯m rendering ¡®god karma¡¯ takes the ¡®effect/result¡¯ character andbines it with ¡®god.¡¯ So while normal karma could be ¡®cause and effect¡¯ or ¡®because and result¡¯ in this case, the invented term is ¡®god and effect¡¯ or ¡®god and result.¡¯ But the reality is that the literal breakdown is actually not how this term should be understood. However, the exnation doesn¡¯te untilter, so I¡¯ll leave off on that note for now. One other thing: the character for effect/result could also be rendered ¡®fruit.¡¯ So when it talks about him ¡®eating¡¯ the god karma, it involves that element of wordy as well, and could even be interpreted as ¡®god fruit.¡¯ ?

    2. In Chinese, the cultivation level of Altar God is actually in the reverse order. In other words, the level is simply ¡®God Altar.¡¯ However, as ismon with cultivation levels, the author often uses the name of the level to describe the people in that level. To make the English work properly, it would be necessary to say things like ¡°the God Altar god clenched his fist,¡± which (imho) is clunky. This sort of thing works when you add ¡®cultivator¡¯ to the end of a cultivation level, but when the level itself contains the word for ¡®god¡¯ and its used to describe a god... it¡¯s just weird. A simple fix is to switch the order, as I¡¯m doing. For ease of reading, I¡¯m going to use Altar God to refer to the individual, and use ¡®god altar¡¯ to refer to the thing. ?

    3. In Chinese, this paragraph includes an extra line that starts with ¡°it was just like¡± and then offers an exnation based on ancient divination techniques from the <u>Book of Changes</u>. Essentially, there is a concept that there is a certain number of fixed oues with one variable that¡¯s secret. The idea with this saying is sort of like ¡°there is always a slight ray of hope.¡± I¡¯m leaving that sentence out because it doesn¡¯t make sense on its own when tranted directly, and if you convert it to its intended meaning, it basically just means the same thing as what¡¯s stated in the previous sentence. ?

    4. I¡¯ve changed this section a bit. The author made a slight mistake here. Not only did he get the quote wrong, but also, he forgot when exactly the Captain told Xu Qing this information. I¡¯ve edited it to match what actually happened, which was in <u>chapter 709</u>. ?

 Chapter 897: Take the Stage!

    <h4>Chapter 897: Take the Stage!</h4>

    A drama was ying out in the god domain as Sunfire¡¯s voice swept through the withered world like turbulent waves.

    A tempest formed, reaching every corner of the god domain, purging the lingering spiderwebs and driving away the dust that had built up over the years. Then, in one particr location, in the spot of a ruined, an ancient stone stele appeared. It was mostly intact, although the words carved on the surface weren¡¯tpletely legible. In fact, there were only four words that could be read using divine will.

    North Immortal Emperor World.

    That was the name of this world, which had long since been lost in the sands of time. It had its glory days. And given that it existed in a universe that also contained gods, it was no surprise that it had stories rted to gods. Naturally, there were names associated with its rise to prominence.

    Now, though, all that remained were deste ruins, the lonely tomb of the emperor, the depressing devastation, and the mindless godly entities. This world fundamentally didn¡¯t have anything to do with the Revered Ancient maind. In fact, taking in the starry sky as a whole, this world was actually immeasurably far away from Revered Ancient.

    It was only after the immortal emperor died that the spider god invaded the ce and infected its aura. At that point, this immortal world of the north turned into a god domain. And then, because the broken face came... the North Immortal Emperor World appeared in the rifts of Revered Ancient. It came to be a game board that various yers conspired over. You could also say it was an embodiment of god karma.

    As the stone stele floated in the dust and rubble, a hand of moonlight reached down from the starry sky to fish it up and pull it to the very center of the god domain, to the ck hole, where the three gods were.

    The three gods looked at it silently.

    What happened next was possibly because of how Xu Qing and the Captain had entered the emperor¡¯s corpse, or perhaps it was because of the power of th¨¥ir godly might. Either way, th¨¥ir gazes contained a special energy that cleansed the stele.

    As that happened, the illegible words were restored to their ancient form.

    ¡°When the emperor knew his longevity neared its end, and the Arbiter of Destiny was about to perish, he realized that catastrophe was imminent. In order to leave a way out, on the day of his death, he vited themands of the ancestors. He consumed the god karma and refined sun, moon, and star into three souls. He took the initiative to deal with his own soul.

    ¡°Using his body as the joss me, he sent the three souls into reincarnation, severed providence, and concealed karma. Afterwards... people were people, immortals were immortals, gods were gods. The emperor perished... and his soul departed.¡± [1]

    The ancient text recounted a secret history. Before Sir Firedark and the other Firemoon chosen could read the text with their divine will, it vanished again.

    The stone stele was the same stone stele from before. The history it represented was now truly buried in time. However, the beauty of the moment, and the karma buried within, had returned silently into the fates of the three gods.

    And thus, in that moment, authority over the god domain was split into five parts. One went to Sunfire. One went to Moonfire. One went to Starfire.

    As for the other two, one part went into the Mountain and Sea Region, while the other went... into the emperor¡¯s corpse.

    ¡°The portion that went into the emperor¡¯s corpse is locked,¡± Sunfire said coolly. ¡°But the lock is opening.¡±

    ¡°Do they have enough time?¡± Starfire asked.

    ¡°The opportunity has arrived,¡± Moonfire replied calmly, ¡°so it¡¯s not important. We can start.¡±

    Starfire smiled faintly. ¡°Our big sister is still wrapped up in hatred. But I have the feeling... they have enough time.¡±

    The three gods had been waiting for an opportunity.

    Beneath the surface of the Mountain and Sea Region, the grand steward, who had stabbed Ninedawns in the back and takenplete control of the Darkheaven Archmages, had been waiting for that promise from within time.

    Now, the moment hade that th¨¥y had all been waiting for. A curtain that had remained in ce for countless years was now being opened. The stage was being revealed. The y was about to begin.

    In a corner that the curtain still obscured were others who were ready to y the game. Or perhaps it was better to say that they had no choice but to y. They were Xu Qing and the Captain, and they were making their move. That said, the true game was being yed between the three gods and the grand steward. As such, they wouldn¡¯t disturb the opportunity, but neither would they sit around and just wait for it to pass.

    Therefore....

    The stage was there. The strategy was in ce. Whether the other yers had time to make their move and take the stage... would depend on their own fate.

    ***

    ¡°Fate isplete nonsense!¡±

    It was a dark, red world in which the sky was crumbling.

    Atop a blood sea, the Captain threw his head back andughed maniacally. He was currently glowing with bright blue light. Protruding from his chest were several vicious-looking blue arms, stretching out to hold up the sky. The arms became huge pirs of ice that rose up constantly from within the Captain. The pirs of ice climbed higher and higher in their attempt to prop up the sky. In fact, they were proliferating so rapidly it seemed they wanted to freeze the dome of heaven. There were also innumerable blue worms that spilled off the Captain, spreading into the sea of blood, which they devoured ravenously.

    However, the world was crumbling, and it didn¡¯t seem possible to stop it from happening. As the sky fell, the sea howled. The pirs shattered, and the worms copsed.

    But then another ice pir appeared, and more worms came out. One who could prop up the sky could be called an ancestor. One who overturned the sea could be called a lord. By propping up flesh and overturning blood, one could enter the corpse of an immortal emperor.

    However, there were two particrly difficult elements.

    The first was that he wanted to subjugate this world. The second was that he wanted to subjugate even more worlds.

    The crumbling world was an abstract representation of the fleshly body of the emperor¡¯s corpse. As for the sea of blood, it was only one drop of the blood that existed in the emperor¡¯s corpse. And the falling sky was only a tiny portion of the total flesh.

    Li Zihua¡¯s finger reduced the difficulty of the second task, as it could transform the sea of blood in this world from being one drop of the corpse¡¯s blood into all of it. And it could transform the falling sky from one portion of flesh into all of it. By subjugating one world, it was possible to subjugate all of them.

    That reduced the level of difficulty. But even still, and even if the Captain seeded, there were other things to consider. Because... the emperor¡¯s corpse had been infected by a god. Or perhaps it was even correct to say that the god had fused the immortal emperor¡¯s discarnate soul. A full sess would involve both the fleshly body and the soul. The dantian and the forehead.

    And thus, while the Captain had to go crazy, Xu Qing also had to put everything on the line. There were also two difficult aspects to suppressing the discarnate soul.

    The first was that he needed to take the emperor-god¡¯s terrifying soul and absorb it into his Emperor¡¯s trove. The second was that, once in the Emperor¡¯s trove, he needed to figure out how to actually subjugate it.

    Li Zihua¡¯s finger proved to be a huge asset, as it crushed the discarnate soul and wiped out much of its terrifying nature. That would make it a lot easier to bring it into the Emperor¡¯s trove.

    It was, after all, the soul of an emperor-god. Despite being crushed, it also had plenty of deadly aspects.

    It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration at all to say that Xu Qing was putting everything on the line. In the middle of an immortal pce was a Dragon Throne, atop which was the discarnate soul, which was staring fixedly at him. Using his Gruegloom hand, he forced open the Emperor¡¯s Sword trove gate, revealing it openly and sending it directly toward the discarnate soul with one goal: melt the discarnate soul, send it into the Emperor¡¯s trove.

    The discarnate soul hadn¡¯t been resisting because, in contrast to the fleshly body that the Captain was dealing with, the soul was intelligent. It knew that the true victory or defeat in this matter wouldn¡¯t be settled by the fleshly body. It would be settled here. If it could flip things around in the trove gate, then it could possess its attacker. And then... the situation could be turned into a victory.

    Upon entering the trove gate, the discarnate soul immediatelyunched its counterattack. The Emperor¡¯s trove trembled, and cracks spread out on the gate. That was the sign that it might not be able tost much longer.

    Xu Qing had a decision to make. He closed his physical eyes, while his soul eyes opened. Rising from his sea of consciousness, he rushed aggressively into his Emperor¡¯s trove in soul form.

    Inside that trove were a sprawling heaven and earth. Thunder crashed in the sky as silver lightning danced. Thends quaked violently. A sword rose from the earth and into the sky. The light of the sword glittered brightly, illuminating everything. It was bronze, and pulsed with the destiny aura of humankind. Normally speaking, the sword would be 4.7 feet long. But in the Emperor¡¯s trove, it was 47,000 feet long. [2]

    The edge of the de was oppressive. The sword energy was unstoppable. It could sh heaven, sh earth, and sh man. It could execute anyone who wasn¡¯t an Ancient Emperor. It was... The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Next to the sword was a soul d in an imperial robe and wearing an imperial crown. Its face waspletely expressionless. At first nce it looked like an emperor, but at the same time, it resembled a god. It would look like an emperor, then suddenly seem to be a spider. It was currently looking at The Emperor¡¯s Sword, eyes full of praise.

    ¡°A wonderful sword for an emperor!¡± It turned to look murderously at Xu Qing. ¡°You want me to serve as the spirit automaton? As the heavenly dao? To be able to control this sword?¡±

    The soul lifted its hand and reached out toward The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    ¡°No one can use that sword without my permission,¡± Xu Qing said quietly. The Emperor¡¯s Sword trembled, emitting a thrum that caused heaven to dim. Sword light shone out in all directions.

    The hand of the emperor¡¯s soul stopped moving, then retracted.

    ¡°You can¡¯t use it either,¡± the soul said, then blurred into motion toward Xu Qing.

    A battle of souls was about to take ce! The Emperor¡¯s trove filled with rumbling sounds that spread out to fill Xu Qing¡¯s body. Of course, his body couldn¡¯t move, which made the situation very dangerous.

    Meanwhile, the Captain was really going crazy. Whether in the fleshly body or the discarnate soul, whether in the dantian region or the forehead, intense violence had broken out.

    Xu Qing¡¯s childhood experiences taught him to be decisive. His life in Seven Blood Eyes taught him to be deceptive. In Sea-Sealing County, he mastered how to be strategic.

    But it was his Eldest Brother that taught him how to fight! Fight heaven. Fight earth. Fight people. Fight gods! And also to fight fate.

    And thus, as the emperor¡¯s corpse fell through the abyss, a voice echoed in its dantian region.

    ¡°Open my seals. Awaken the Nine Serenities. Summer Immortal leaves the world. Everything frosts over!¡±

    A blue ice flower emerged from the dantian region, rapidly spreading to cover the emperor¡¯s corpse, from its torso to its limbs.

    At the same time, Xu Qing¡¯s voice echoed out in the fallen emperor¡¯s forehead. ¡°In my swordsage days, I cultivated a certain magic. It¡¯s an art that all swordsages learn, which can be cultivated by anyone. But it was in my Emperor¡¯s trove that I came to understand its true nature.

    ¡°So listen up. The truth is... I <i>can</i> use that sword!

    ¡°I have a sword....

    ¡°Its name is The Emperor¡¯s Sword!¡±

    The sword rose up in the trove, disdainfully shed through the void, piercing into the abyss, unstoppable on its way to the forehead of the emperor¡¯s corpse. The forehead caved in, astonishing space-time and shing the fictional! The emperor¡¯s corpse shivered and lurched to a halt. It hovered in the middle of nothing. And as the sword light grew dazzling, the corpse¡¯s eyes opened! They did not belong to the immortal emperor, nor to the spider god.

    They were the Captain¡¯s eyes and Xu Qing¡¯s gaze. The void rumbled as a return was dered. The abyss shattered as a new lord was proimed. The fifth aspect of the authority over the North Immortal Emperor World, which had turned into a god domain, fell into the fates of Xu Qing and the Captain.

    In the Mountain and Sea Region, the person who had been walking forward looked up.

    In the god domain, the three gods looked down at the ck hole.

    ¡°Looks like I was right,¡± Starfire said with a slight smile.

    1. What I¡¯m rendering as ¡®providence¡¯ is essentially a fancy word for fate or destiny. Its function in the story doesn¡¯t necessarily correspond to its real-life usage. I¡¯m assigning it ¡®providence¡¯ so that it sticks out among other usages of words like destiny or fate. ?

    2. This is one instance in which I¡¯m not worrying about converting the ancient Chinese measurements into modern-day measurements. The whole point of this passage is to contrast the 4 and the 7 and to make it sound impressive. ?

 Chapter 898: True Fire, Karma Fire, Tribulation Fire, Flawless

    <h4>Chapter 898: True Fire, Karma Fire, Tribtion Fire, wless</h4>

    Of the five portions of authority over the god domain, four were already ounted for.

    High Gods Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire all looked away from the ck hole and toward the Mountain and Sea Region. Next, the final bit of authority determined the direction of th¨¥ir gazes. It was the same as how th¨¥y didn¡¯t interfere when the emperor¡¯s corpse fell into the abyss. Whether Xu Qing and the Captain seeded or failed, lived or died, was up to fate. When fighting against fate, one had to ept what fate would bring.

    To the three gods, the fight over the emperor¡¯s corpse constituted the opportunity th¨¥y had been waiting for. It was the lock that would allow the curtain to open.

    The fight in the Mountain and Sea Region passed through time, connecting the North Immortal Emperor World with the Revered Ancient maind, by means of karma. The shape and connection had already formed. Therefore, if failure urred in the Mountains and Sea Region right now, they likewise wouldn¡¯t provide assistance.

    Regardless of karma or fate, and regardless of the promise from within time, th¨¥y would need to see if the promisee¡¯s providence could be sustained.

    If the party from the Mountain and Sea Region had sufficient providence, then th¨¥y would be happy to keep the promise. They would <i>add flowers to the brocade</i> and provide the chance for godly ascension. If that party could not sustain the providence or the karma, then the fifth portion of authority would bless the three gods. The promise would be kindling, to pierce through the fate of tens upon tens of thousands of years, and provide a personal dao of the gods. It could also be considered god karma.

    If that happened, the party in the Mountain and Sea Region would have no recourse. There would be no one else to me except for fate itself. Therefore, there really was no foreordained destiny. There was only... the fact that the spider god would definitely die.

    If not in the Mountain and Sea Region, then at the hands of the three gods.

    Time passed.

    The party in the Mountain and Sea Region had yet to decide. In the god domain, the destiny aura fell into the providence of those with the authority. Thus, the auras of High Gods Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire all rose dramatically. In fact, a god shrine vortex appeared, which rapidly became more and more majestic. Th¨¥ir personhood also began to oscite, and th¨¥ir respective golden godfire burned brightly. Eventually, it reached a peak level in which a hidden ck me opened a sealing mark within the gold.

    It was strongest with Sunfire, with Moonfire in the middle and Starfire the weakest.

    ¡°Finally. Tribtion fire.¡±

    Sunfire¡¯s eyes closed. Moonfire said nothing. Starfire waited with anticipation.

    ***

    Those with authority included those in the emperor¡¯s corpse deep in the abyss.

    Thus, destiny slowly converged in the corpse¡¯s river of fate. Because h¨©s fleshly body was under the Captain¡¯s control, while the soul was under Xu Qing¡¯s control, the two of them stood at the ends of the river, and could thus control the direction of that fate. As a result, the destiny aura belonged to both of them.

    The Captain chose to take the god domain¡¯s destiny and turn it into a furnace to burn the words from the Wordless Book of Stone. He also took out two hairs to burn as well. It was a type of forging. This type of forging was extremely rare, to the point where, if word spread, it would shake all of Revered Ancient. All in all, of all the cultivators in Revered Ancient, there were few who could have the good fortune to use an emperor¡¯s corpse as the fire and the destiny aura of a god domain as fuel. Forging things in that way was definitely a luxury. And of course, whatever was forged by that process would be extraordinary. Wordless words were like the one thing that escapes notice when practicing divination. The fact that two people were able to rely on such a thing on such a long journey went to show how extraordinary it was. An item from a teleportation portal that came alive. A wonder of creation, typifying the changes wrought to Revered Ancient. It was fundamentally miraculous. Its hairs were, of course, astonishing. Ordinary materials can be used to forge extraordinary things, so there was little need to mention what could be done with extraordinary materials.[2]

    As the Captain forged, a crazy feeling built within him, and he muttered via divine will:

    <i>¡°Come on, burn! Faster! Work! Oh lovely spirits of heaven and lovely spirits of earth, with the blessing and protection of the Summer Immortals, Dark Serenity, Master, myself, my little Junior Brother... this has to work!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing picked up on what the Captain was saying via divine will. He didn¡¯t want to see or hear what the Captain was doing or saying, but he had no choice. Based on how well he knew the Captain, he had an idea of what was going to happen after the Captain finished.

    The Captain¡¯s ambitions weren¡¯t limited to what was happening here. He had acquired this corpse. He had authority over a god domain. But... the Captain had inly said that he had a ¡®super¡¯ big job. Clearly, what had happened so far really didn¡¯t match up to the craziness you would expect with something like that. All in all, what they had acquired wasn¡¯t theplete destiny aura of the god domain.

    By now, Xu Qing could sense through the destiny aura that authority over the god domain was split into five parts.

    He and the Captain had jointly acquired one of those portions.

    Perhaps other people would consider that a shocking destined opportunity or an extreme level of good fortune. But based on what Xu Qing knew, his crazy Eldest Brother definitely wouldn¡¯t be satisfied with something like that. Considering the Captain was using the destiny aura to forge something... Xu Qing knew that his spections were correct.

    Yet he wasn¡¯t paying very close attention to that. What was most important to him now wasn¡¯t his Eldest Brother¡¯s crazy actions, but rather, the chance he had for a cultivation base breakthrough.

    His life essence trove gate was already open. Within it, the bluegreen dragon was the heavenly dao, swirling about and roaring. His taboo poison trove gate was also open. Hellfei was there with its solitary eye and its Sixth Filths sealing marks. The violet moon trove gate had long since opened, as it had absorbed the supreme yin power and gained theherglimmer as its heavenly dao. The Emperor trove had also reached the highest level. Thanks to The Emperor¡¯s Sword, the discarnate soul inside had be the heavenly dao, as well as a unique spirit automaton for the sword.

    Of his five trove gates, four were open. There was only one that had not yet beenpletely opened. And that was... the gate of his mage trove.

    That one didn¡¯t need something from the outside to serve as a heavenly dao, as it had an actual Darkheaven Archmage inside to fill that role.

    What it needed was a convergence of Darkheaven Archmage power to open the trove gate. And Xu Qing knew that he could substitute the destiny aura of a god domain for that power! It was not a transient solution. Authority over a god domain was something eternal, so all he had to do was guide it into him to provide the blessing. Next, as the formless destiny aura entered his fate, he directed it with divine will toward the mage trove!

    The mage trove rumbled as the form of the antemage filled in, growing taller andrger.

    The Ninedawns skulls howled as they entered as well, creating a figure that could prop up heaven and earth, while simultaneously releasing an aura that spanned countless years of ancient time. It loomed like a giant within the mage trove.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    The half-opened mage trove gate then swung all the way open!

    In that instant, the five trove gates erupted with dazzling light that filled Xu Qing¡¯s entire sea of consciousness. All five gates were open!

    A majestic power flowed out from the five trove gates, filling Xu Qing. His cultivation base began to climb, and his soul flourished. His battle prowess rose without cease, and his personhood became like <i>the carp that leaped over the dragon gate!</i>

    Above the five gates, the bluegreen dragon threw its head back and roared, the eye of Hellfei looked down with cruel disdain, theherglimmer ascended on high, the soul of an emperor wielded a sword, and the antemage¡¯s eyes shone like the sun and moon! The heavenly daos were all out in full force!

    Heaven-shaking, earth-toppling transformations were underway in Xu Qing. With all five heavenly daos out, his five trove gates were like burning furnaces. Rumbling booms became as loud as heavenly thunder. Volcanic ash fell like snow as the five furnaces roared. The volcanic ash was really dust formed from daos and fate. They were the lineaments of everything Xu Qing had experienced in life. It was actually called... void soil!

    As it piled up in Xu Qing¡¯s sea of consciousness, it became void soil filled with dao lineaments. This was the hallmark of the foundation of Void Returning!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he realized that there were now no obstacles preventing him from breaking through from Spirit Trove into Void Returning. He could do it with ease. However, given what he knew about how the Captain¡¯s big jobs usually went... Xu Qing decided to calm his sea of consciousness and settle the five furnaces. He could now break through at any time, but wasn¡¯t in a hurry.

    That was around the time he heard the Captain¡¯s voice drifting to him.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother....¡±</i>

    The Captain was actually feeling disappointed. His n had been to interrupt Xu Qing in the moment of his breakthrough, thus asserting his position as the Eldest Brother. He had even nned exactly what he was going to say, and had worked everything out to be able to use this situation to ckmail Xu Qingter on. How could he ever have guessed that Xu Qing would take the initiative to dy his breakthrough....

    <i>It doesn¡¯t matter. Maybe he¡¯s slowed down, but I still have all the big pieces in ce!</i>

    With that thought in mind, the Captain cleared his throat. As the two of them absorbed the emperor¡¯s body from different positions, he continuedmunicating via divine will.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, don¡¯t be anxious to break through. I can see that you have a wondrous physical makeup and a cultivation that can only be considered unique and amazing. As it happens, I have an ancient, spectacr bit of good fortune here. Want it?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing could tell what the Captain was thinking, so he nodded in agreement.

    The Captain looked pleased.

    <i>¡°Remember what I said earlier, little Junior Brother? Our time hase! Your Void Returning can¡¯t be as simplistic as that! Bing the lords of a god domain is only the appetizer to the big job I¡¯ve nned. Consider that the mere qualifications to move to the next step....</i>

    <i>¡°Just wait a bit. In short order, your sister-inw on the outside, as well as that little lover of yours, plus that dog-fucking, pig-fucking, bastard-fucking Sunfire, are going to put on a big show, and we can sweep in and benefit from the process! Just remember, this time, your Eldest Brother had been preparing for a really long time, and has paid a </i>huge<i> price. So, you have to promise me that¡ª¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Alright.¡±</i> Xu Qing interrupted with a nod.

    <i>¡°Huh? I didn¡¯t finish saying what I wanted you to promise me....¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Eldest Brother, as far as I¡¯m concerned, as long as I¡¯m capable of doing something, I¡¯ll promise to do it for you.¡±</i>

    The Captain could sense the determination in Xu Qing¡¯s words, and it filled his heart with unprecedented warmth. All of a sudden, he felt a bit guilty about the ckmail n he¡¯de up with earlier. Then he felt his sense of duty and responsibility as the Eldest Brother rising within him.

    <i>¡°This is going to help you too, Junior Brother. There¡¯s no need to negotiate anything. Your Eldest Brother was just joking around with you! Alright, let¡¯s move on from that.</i>

    <i>¡°Let me exin my n to you.</i>

    <i>¡°First, little Junior Brother, you need to understand that you can categorize gods based on godfire. Anything that doesn¡¯t have godfire is nothing more than a godly entity. But once you have godfire, you can properly be called an actual god.</i>

    <i>¡°The Godfire level is broken into three levels. They are: true fire, karma fire, and tribtion fire.</i> [1]

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart thumped. This was the first time he had heard any exnation about gods and what happened after igniting godfire.

    <i>¡°Remember that fish in Forbidden by the Immortal in Sea-Sealing County? That was the true fire level, so you could call that fish a Low God. When true fire turns into karma fire, it¡¯s the mark of a High God. Now, ¡®High God¡¯ is actually a very epassing level. It includes karma fire as well as tribtion fire. If you can push tribtion fire to the great circle, that¡¯s the mark of a wless God. That brings with it the possibility of forming a god altar. Li Zihua is currently an Altar God.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing was listening very attentively. As he listened to this exnation from the Captain, he felt like he was hearing information from the ancient past.

    <i>¡°The tribtion fire level involves an unbounded improvement to omniscience. However, it¡¯s also iparably dangerous, as you have to undergo a personal tribtion.</i>

    <i>¡°That tribtion exists outside of the omniscience of the god in question. A god that fails to pass the tribtion is wiped out of existence. The path to godhood is over. Everything bes dust. Only by bing a wless God can you reach the point where you don¡¯t have to worry about tribtion, and can then focus fully on breaking through to Altar God.</i>

    <i>¡°That spider god is in the third level, and very far along in that level. But the spider god is not a wless God, and thus, still has to deal with tribtion.</i>

    <i>¡°The three gods, plus you and I, are ¨©ts tribtion.</i>

    <i>¡°Years ago, it was the same with Crimson Mother. Sh¨¥ was a High God who had reached the highest point of the tribtion fire level. In other words, h¨¥r personhood was the same as that of the spider god. Unfortunately, sh¨¥ was not quite at the wless level.</i>

    <i>¡°Back then Li Zihua, you, and I were h¨¥r tribtion. Even further back in Li Zihua¡¯s life, Crimson Mother was his tribtion.¡±</i>

    Feeling quite shaken, Xu Qing asked, <i>¡°What about the three gods?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Based on what I know from past lives, th¨¥y stopped caring about getting stronger once th¨¥y reached the tribtion fire level. They sealed th¨¥ir tribtion fire, and thus, despite the fact that th¨¥y are High Gods, th¨¥y were actually weaker than Crimson Mother.</i>

    <i>¡°As for right now, I think... that the three gods¡¯ ultimate goal is probably to skip the danger of the tribtion fire level and directly be wless Gods. By directly opening that path, they could have to hope to be Altar Gods!¡±</i>

    The Captain was going to continue, but his voice faltered. Xu Qing sensed why. The corpse of the emperor looked up. Within the eyes of the corpse, godlight flickered, piercing through the ck hole... to the outside world. Something dramatic was unfolding!

    ¡°The wind ising!¡± the Captain said madly.

    1. The character ¡®karma¡¯ here is actuallypletely different from the one I normally render as karma. However, it definitely is, without a doubt, karma, at least in the Buddhist sense. I toyed with the idea of using a different word, but in the end, I¡¯m rapidly running out of words rting to karma, fate, destiny etc. Given how this word is used going forward, in this case I¡¯m just going to keep the same English word even though the Chinese characters are different. ?

    2. The hairs mentioned here are the hairs taken from the living teleportation portal in chapters 743-744. The author mistakenly called them feathers in this chapter, which confused me. I originally tranted them as feathers, only to realize something like 100+ chapterster that the author meant the things taken from that portal. I have edited this part (and future references) to maintain continuity. ?

 Chapter 899: I Have No Regrets!

    <h4>Chapter 899: I Have No Regrets!</h4>

    That wind came from the Mountain and Sea Region, sweeping through space-time and passing through world borders. It blew from the mortal world into the god domain, from Revered Ancient into North Immortal, to the three gods. Thunderous rumbling filled the god domain, along with a formless, shing power. Sustaining tens of thousands of years of karma, and seeking the promise from within time, it revealed an astonishing sharpness that shed through everything.

    A huge rift opened up that was inly visible to the three gods. It seemed to have no beginning or end, and from a distance, looked almost like an opening eye. There was something very magnificent about it. Wind emerged from the rift, spreading like a blooming flower in front of the cold eyes of the three gods.

    They now saw the choice made by the party in the Mountain and Sea Region... and it made everything clear.

    On the other side of the rift was the Mountain and Sea Region in Firemoon Darkheaven territory. And in the middle of it all were the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. The entire area was copsing, making it possible to see the sealed spider in the shrine in the cave.

    However, the glowing from the shrine was dim, and the spider god was trembling visibly while simultaneously withering. What was withering wasn¡¯t just ¨©ts flesh and blood, but also ¨©ts karma. Even the time within ¨©t was quietly fading. All of it was being taken away by the hand that existed right in front of ¨©t.

    It was ck and withered, and belonged to a person d in a ck, hooded robe. The robe pped wildly, but concealed the face of the person within it, though they emanated a sense of profound ancientness. As he stood in front of the spider god, his own hand began to fill in with flesh, all while the spider god shriveled up.

    ¨©t wanted to struggle, but ¨©ts fate had already been set, and ¨©t couldn¡¯t do anything to change that.

    Around the time the spider god crumbled into ash, the hand had gone from being dead to alive. It had returned from many years in the past, and was now a ruddy, healthy color. Then the wind finally lifted the hood of the cloak, revealing a head of gray hair and an ancient face.

    Because of all the years that had passed, the individual looked like both a person and a ghost, but at the same time, resembled neither. After absorbing the spider god, though, his face filled in with flesh. Despite still being covered with wrinkles, it was still possible to see some of the majesty of the statue of him that existed among the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    Tens of thousands of years ago, this person had united the Firemoon Darkheavens, and had been venerated for ages. He was... the grand steward!

    As he looked at thends around him, it was as if he was looking into the history of the countless species that existed. He saw the Firemoons rise to prominence. He saw the wars that raged between the species. He saw the times the Firemoons fought with humans. He saw how the three gods watched over and protected the Firemoons. And he saw where the Firemoons stood now in Revered Ancient.

    That gaze took in all of the history from ancient to modern. At the same time, his aura surged, bing stronger and more intense. It filled the Mountain and Sea Region, spreading out to affect the rest of Firemoon territory, and causing dramatic effects in heaven and earth.

    All Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators felt their blood react. That was especially true of the three stewards, who stepped out of their tents, their expressions those of shock. As they looked in the direction of the Mountain and Sea Region, they could sense that one of their most ancient ancestors had appeared. To the Firemoon Darkheaven people, this grand steward who had once unified their species upied a ce in their hearts that was equivalent to that of a god. All of them instinctively bowed in worship.

    As they did, the grand steward looked up into the dome of heaven. Then he took a step, causing him to rise toward the rift in the sky.

    He hadn¡¯t just absorbed the time and flesh of the spider god. He had also taken... the spider¡¯s authority over the god domain.

    As he strode forth, that authority swept into his fate, bolstering his providence, and filling in any gaps. Sparks that had been extinguished tens of thousands of years ago were now restored. With each step he took, his personhood and life force both rose. Eventually, he reached the rift, and as the three gods watched, he stepped into the god domain.

    Looking at the three gods, he spoke in a raspy voice.

    ¡°Sorry to keep you waiting.¡±

    That voice rumbled like thunder out into the god domain, and it soon reached Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react. He recognized who this person was; within his mage trove, he could sense an immense grief that had been there for many years. In Ninedawns¡¯ memory, the backstabbing was still very clear.... As of now, the karma of that backstabbing seemed to grow ever clearer.

    Outside of the ck hole, Sunfire and Moonfire did nothing as the grand steward approached. Starfire, meanwhile, looked at the ck hole and coolly said, ¡°We might as well begin.¡±

    The grand steward looked around at the god domain. ¡°There¡¯s something I¡¯ve been wondering about for many years,¡± he said. ¡°And now I want to ask. Based on what I¡¯ve heard the three of you say, this god domain was once your home. In that case, the infected godly entities here must have once been your people. Will you... miss them?¡±

    The one to answer was Moonfire. ¡°The North Emperor perished. Karma has been resolved. He is us. We are him.¡±

    The grand steward asked nothing further.

    Then Sunfire spoke in a voice full of majesty, which spread through the god domain and pierced into the voice.

    ¡°He whomands the Ancient is not empty; he is the Living Destion. Sleeping until now, but disseminating time.

    ¡°All in the star ring are considered children; thus, myriad worlds use the address ¡®father.¡¯

    ¡°Today, the children of the North World¡ªSun, Moon, and Star¡ªmake five sacrifices to he whomands the ancient, an offering to the Father God!¡±

    Sunfire¡¯s voice swept through the god domain, each word provoking violent trembling, which built and built until it seemed all of Revered Ancient was being affected dramatically. Then, a huge sun rose up. Off to the side, Moonfire¡¯s eyes were closed as a bright moon ascended. And Starfire¡¯s eyes opened, causing boundless stars to fill the sky in the god domain.

    The three gods were going to make a sacrifice to the broken face!

    As of now, the wind wasn¡¯ting. The wind... was here!

    Below within the ck hole, the emperor¡¯s corpse also trembled, all while the Captainughed. Now Xu Qing understood everything.

    The three gods¡¯ goal was now inly visible! Th¨¥y wanted to make a sacrifice to the broken face of the god. When the broken face¡¯s eyes opened, they would look at this god domain. When the broken face looked at something, it turned into a forbidden region. When the face looked at a forbidden region, it turned into a forbidden ground. When the face looked at a forbidden ground, it turned into a god domain. But... things were different when that gaze focused on a god domain!

    Xu Qing had learned this information back at the red moon. When a god domain rose to a higher level, it became a god world!

    Of course, that process would also involve an increase in level to whoever was lord of the god domain!!

    Combined with what the Captain had said earlier, Xu Qing now understood that this was the path sought by the three gods. Th¨¥y wanted to use identities as lords of a god domain to subsequently raise the god domain to a higher level, and thus skip the entire tribtion fire level and step right into being wless Gods.

    That way, they wouldn¡¯t have to deal with tribtions like those suffered by Crimson Mother or the spider god. With consummate providence, th¨¥ir path to the Altar God wouldn¡¯t have any obstacle on it! As long as th¨¥y could stockpile enough resources, th¨¥y would definitely have hope when it came to Altar God!

    It was a monumentally shocking level of destined opportunity, but it also came with a terrifying level of danger. After all, Crimson Mother had failed to do the same thing.

    That said, there were differences between the three gods and Crimson Mother. In Crimson Mother¡¯s case, the situation came without invitation. In the case of the three gods, th¨¥y were the ones setting up the situation. One involved no preparation at all, while the other involved meticulous preparation.

    <i>How very impressive!</i> Xu Qing was deeply moved. Back in the Crimson Mother incident, his cultivation base had been too weak, and thus, he had no way to be involved with something of this level. But now... things were different.

    Meanwhile, things outside were still developing.

    Sunfire¡¯s voice echoed in the god domain.

    ¡°First sacrifice. Offer all living beings from seven regions!¡±

    Sunfire¡¯s shocking words reached Revered Ancient, spread into the seven regions that had ultimately been conquered by the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Secret preparations that had been carried out for years were nowing to fruition.

    The seven regions took up a huge area. And now, within those seven regions, royal Firemoon Darkheaven auras surged, changing fate and altering karma.

    Taking in the seven regions as a whole, the Firemoon army was like a dark cloud causing sky-obscuring, sun-blocking pressure to weigh down everywhere.

    In front of the gathered armed forces were innumerable prisoners of war. Shockingly, each region featured prisoners of war from a different species. Seven species. Seven groups of prisoners. There were no exceptions! The prisoners were on their knees as Sunfire¡¯s voice again echoed throughout the seven regions with royal dignity.

    ¡°Let the blood sacrifice begin! Execute them!¡±

    Thatmand caused a great massacre to unfold in the seven regions. In the shortest of moments, countless deaths urred. It wasn¡¯t necessarily something unprecedented and unduplicated in all history, but it was definitely something rarely seen even within a period of tens of thousands of years.

    Rivers of blood flowed. Deceased souls filled the sky. Some tried to escape. Some tried to fight back. But they couldn¡¯t break free. Their fate had been sealed.

    What was more, as the event was carried out, it became evident that there was something else special about those specific seven species. Each had a different color blood!

    Red. Orange. Yellow. Emerald. Green. Blue. Violet. One color for each region.

    In the region where the blood was red, the ughtered species were not humans. However, it was possible to imagine that, given how domineering the Firemoon Darkheavens were, it was entirely conceivable that they had originally intended to get prisoners from human territories. In hindsight, it now made perfect sense why the Nightshades had originally marshaled their troops.

    Had that original war led to the defeat of the humans.... Had the Dawning Suns not been unleashed.... Had Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s final sword attack not been carried out....

    Except, history isn¡¯t about possibilities, it¡¯s about results.

    As the seven types of blood from seven species flowed in seven regions, corpses were piled up and seas of blood spread out. Deceased souls created something like a world of ghosts. That... was the sacrificial offering!

    High above Revered Ancient was the most paramount of entities, the one that could crush all cultivators, species, lives, and even all other gods. The broken face. And right now, h¨©s eyes were twitching.

    Next, another voice rang out from the god domain.

    ¡°Second sacrifice. Offer the countless souls that have fallen in battle!¡±

    That voice didn¡¯te from Sunfire, but rather... from the grand steward.

    That was because this sacrificial offering was that of the heroic souls of the Firemoon Darkheaven people who had died in battle over the past many tens of thousands of years! The Firemoons also had to make a sacrifice! It was a mark of sincerity. And it was the mark of a true sacrifice!

    There was only one person from ancient times until now who could talk of offering souls that had fallen in battle, and that was not one of the three gods. The only one who could conform to that karma was the very first grand steward of the Darkheaven Archmage people, who could only be reced by one of the current stewards if he truly died.

    In an instant, the shrine halls associated with the three stewards trembled as heroic spirits swept out. They were souls that had fallen in battle over tens of thousands of years, and they were all willing to be sacrificial offerings!

    Members of the Firemoon species looked on silently. From the stewards to themoners, they felt grief building within them. However, this was fate!

    Their fates were the same as the fate of the grand steward who had stepped out of history. When he made his backstabbing choice, it was partially because of the promise of godly ascension, but also, it was for the long-term good of his people. He knew that the legacy of Ninedawns the antemage wouldn¡¯t be enough to kill the spider god. And he didn¡¯t want the fate of the Darkheaven Archmage people to rest solely on the mages¡¯ ancestral grand spell formation.

    ¡°Ninedawns made a choice that could protect our people temporarily. I chose to protect our people from generation to generation in the future! History isn¡¯t about possibilities, it¡¯s about results! And thus, I have no regrets!¡±

 Chapter 900: What If This Whole Thing Works?

    <h4>Chapter 900: What If This Whole Thing Works?</h4>

    As of this moment, the souls of countless deceased heroes rose up from shrine halls in thends of various species in Firemoon Darkheaven territory. Converging from all directions, they created a huge river of souls that floated up into the canopy of heaven above Revered Ancient. The higher the river rose, the smaller it got, until it was a ck thread approaching the broken face. Then the river disappeared.

    There were many locations in Revered Ancient where no one noticed what was happening. The only exceptions were species with extremely powerful experts, plus the gods hidden in various locations.... As those powerful experts looked up to see what was going on, the sacrificial offering continued in the god domain.

    ¡°Third sacrifice. Offer the kunpeng heavenly dao!¡±

    Sunfire¡¯s voice echoed through the god domain, every word echoing like heavenly thunder, splitting the air, and shaking the ¡®heaven¡¯ of the Firemoons. In this case, that ¡®heaven¡¯ wasn¡¯t the starry sky. Instead, it was the source of the innate abilities that existed in the blood of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. That ¡®heaven¡¯ was the very same heaven that forms one of the characters in the word ¡®innate ability.¡¯ [1]

    As of this moment, the ¡®heaven¡¯ of the Firemoon Darkheaven people was copsing. All Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators suddenly felt dazed. As the ¡®heaven¡¯ of their innate abilities copsed, the instincts that had been ced in their minds, blood, and life force by the three gods were stripped away from theirter generations.

    And it was because somethingpletely outrageous and unthinkable was happening. Those instincts, those innate abilities... were connected to a heavenly dao!

    What appeared above Revered Ancient in that moment was the very same ancient heavenly dao that looked like a kunpeng bird, which the three gods had captured and inserted into the destiny of the Firemoon Darkheavens. A howl of anguish echoed out over Revered Ancient, along with the clinking sound of the pitch ck chains covered with magical symbols. After the chains appeared, a massive kungpeng bird appeared, its body covered with countless bloodycerations.

    ¨©t howled in grief and anguish as it was dragged slowly up toward the broken face. No matter how much ¨©t wanted to struggle, it did no good. No one was going toe to help, and that was because... the broken face had stirred!

    The kunpeng heavenly dao could do nothing as the chains dragged it higher and higher. Eventually, it copsed into death. A final cry rang out across Revered Ancient.

    Revered Ancient went silent. As of that moment, anyone who cultivated natural and magicalws rted to the kunpeng had eternally lost their dao. The natural and magicalws that had been attached to it were wiped out forever, and they would never be seen again. High overhead, the broken face of the god suddenly blurred.

    When it became clear, h¨¥ had turned to face in the direction of the Mountain and Sea Region in Firemoon territory! Specifically, it was the spot where there was a connection between the god domain and Revered Ancient.

    That was when the fourth sacrifice appeared in the god domain.

    ¡°Fourth sacrifice. Offer all the godly entities in the North Emperor god domain!¡±

    All of the godly entities that had been transformed after the god invasion countless years ago were now being sacrificed by the three gods. After offering seven species from seven regions, a host of Firemoon souls, and the kunpeng heavenly dao, it was all the godly entities in the god domain that wailed in despair.

    Spiders exploded. Mutant beasts shattered. Trees with faces copsed into ash. The huge sea in the god domain dried up. Stars vibrated. Death and withering spread everywhere.... In the blink of an eye, the god domain turned into a graveyard! Even the extremely powerful entities Xu Qing had encountered, for instance the tentacled fish, the jellyfish, and whatnot... all died!

    Because of that, the eyes of the broken face of the god cracked open.

    That was when the three gods made the final sacrifice.

    ¡°Fifth sacrifice. Offer the North Emperor god domain!¡±

    The actual god domain was th¨¥ir final sacrifice! Th¨¥y went so far as to sacrifice th¨¥ir people, even though they had already mutated into ravenous godly entities. Th¨¥y sacrificed their homnd, even though it had already been turned into a god domain. Such actions were both insane and decisive!

    That was why the grand steward had asked the three gods if th¨¥y would miss th¨¥ir people.

    The three gods had already provided an answer. After reaching godly ascension, people weren¡¯t people.

    The entire god domain began to tremble violently, and the starry sky vibrated as a formless power descended and ripped the god domain out through the rift in Revered Ancient. It appeared... in the dome of heaven above Revered Ancient, right in front of the broken face. As of that moment, countless species in Revered Ancient, plus all the powerful experts and gods, could sense what was happening!

    The three gods¡¯ five sacrifices were over. And the eyes of the broken face were fully open.

    However, right then... in the very heart of the god domain, in the abyss into which the emperor¡¯s corpse had fallen, the bbergasted Xu Qing heard the Captain shouting something.

    ¡°Sixth sacrifice. Offer the essence of a god!¡±

    As the words left the Captain¡¯s mouth, over a hundred marites flew out from inside of him. Each looked the same, and each had a different name carved onto its face. The Captain kept control of them as he sent them out of the emperor¡¯s corpse. Then he took control of the emperor¡¯s hand to reach out toward the marites to crush them. That image, plus the Captain¡¯s word, formed a very magnificent sight.

    However, the marites seemed very cheap. What was more... Xu Qing recognized some of the names.

    Lord of Forbidden by the Zombie. Crimson Mother. Sunfire....

    <i>¡°Is your Eldest Brother impressive or what, little Junior Brother? Hahaha! Normally speaking, I wouldn¡¯t sacrifice these enemies like this. But this is too good of an opportunity to pass up.¡±</i>

    As the Captain¡¯s voice echoed in Xu Qing¡¯s mind, Xu Qing looked at the cheap marites and couldn¡¯t sense even a single godly fluctuationing from them. They seemed like nothing more than simple puppets with some names carved onto them. That said, the sheer number of them went to show how many enemies the Captain had.

    But in the end, Xu Qing didn¡¯t see the point of a sacrifice like this.

    Apparently the Captain could sense what he was thinking, as he cleared his throat. <i>¡°I just want to make sure my name is in the mix. Think about it. What if this whole thing works?¡±</i>

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing realized that he agreed with the Captain. What if the whole thing did work out?

    ¡°Seventh sacrifice. Offer the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan!¡±

    It was impossible to say whether or not it had anything to do with the sacrifices offered by Xu Qing and the Captain, but what followed was that the Revered Ancient maind trembled loudly as the broken face¡¯s eyes opened and looked directly at the Mountain and Sea Region. That gaze caused the river of stars to distort and seemed to overturn the entire starry sky. Heaven and earth in Revered Ancient rippled, and cracks spread out everywhere, seemingly without end. The ground quaked, mountains copsed, and the water of rivers and seas rose up into the air in shocking fashion.

    Clouds and wind swept into vicious tempests. The whole world seemed like it was being struck by lightning and thunder.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    All living beings sensed the dramatic events. This time, the opening of the broken face¡¯s eyes was different than anything in the past. And that was because the sound of a heartbeat reached the ears of all living beings.

    <i>Thump-thump. Thump-thump!</i>

    The broken face¡¯s eyes were open! Those huge eyes contained destroyed starry skies, infinite worlds, unending will, never-ending daos, all umtions, reincarnation, and the beginning of the universe. All life existed therein, along with karma and destiny.

    What h¨¥ looked at conformed to h¨©s will. That was... omniscience!

    Xu Qing¡¯s thoughts seemed to stop. All concepts vanished from his mind, leaving nothing but a nk. It was the same with the Captain. As for the grand steward and the three gods outside of the ck hole... all of their life force was put on pause.

    And then, somethingpletely inconceivable happened to the god domain! Under the gaze of the broken face, that god domain didn¡¯t seem like a three-dimensional space.

    Instead, it was like a painting. Thes, thend, the three gods, Xu Qing, and everything else was like ink on the painting. Then thes made of ink faded and disappeared. The same thing happened to the entire world. Then the painting rose into the sky, getting closer and closer to the broken face. As it neared, it began fading into nothing.

    That was when all of the powerful experts in the Revered Ancient maind, as well as all the gods, regardless of where they were sleeping, awoke and looked up. All of them saw the broken face looking at a god domain that looked like a painting! They were all shocked. That was because the painting-like god domain wasn¡¯t just vanishing. ¨©t was... rising to a higher level!

    A terrifying aura swept out, so strong that it caused even the gods to tremble with fear. Blinding golden light shot out in all directions, surpassing the brilliance of a sun, and in fact, causing all suns and moons in Revered Ancient to go dim inparison. This new world was what happened when a god domain rose to a higher level. It was... a god world!

    And it waspletely eye-catching. At the same time, everyone who had some level of authority over that god-domain suddenly found themselves also rising to a higher level!

    The spark inside the grand steward exploded, rushing out to create a god body around him. And it spread into his soul with the intention... of turning it into the soul of a god. As that fire erupted, the grand steward¡¯s face became a mask of pain. However, his eyes shone with determination, decisiveness, and also anticipation.

    He was going through godly ascension!

    This was the culmination of tens of thousands of years of nning on the part of the three gods, who had paid an enormous price. Now it was paying off as th¨¥ir godsource erupted and th¨¥y ceased to suppress the tribtion fire within them. Th¨¥y were using the rise of a god domain into a god world as th¨¥ir opportunity to bypass the extreme danger of the tribtion fire level! Th¨¥y were skipping right past tribtion fire to be wless Gods! If th¨¥y seeded, then the path to the Altar God level would be clear, and they wouldn¡¯t have to face any tribtion or cmity.

    This was something that all gods dreamed of! For example, not even Crimson Mother had reached this step. Sh¨¥ had be a guide to the broken face to reach godly ascension and get close to being a wless God, but then sh¨¥ had been forced to devour other gods in the hopes of building a path to walk. Another example was Li Zihua, who ultimately severed the fire of his godly ascension and instead cultivated the dao of immortals. Then, he hatched a n that took tens of thousands of years to leap from the ancient past into modern times and prove his dao.

    The spider god wasn¡¯t as daring as the three gods. Because of how it devoured god karma, it ended up perishing.

    From all of this it could be seen how extraordinary the three gods were!

    1. Sorry, but this is one casual bit of wordy that I never could have anticipated. The word I have tranted ¡®innate ability¡¯ for years now actually contains the character ¡®heaven¡¯ in it. Normally speaking, it conveys a sense of something being ¡°natural,¡± i.e. a naturally-urring ability inherent to a person or species. But in this case the author is using a slightly different interpretation to create this bit of wordy. Outside of this little one-liner, this ¡°heaven¡± connection to ¡°innate ability¡± isn¡¯t important or even mentioned again. ?

 Chapter 901: At Long Last, Void Returning!

    <h4>Chapter 901: At Long Last, Void Returning!</h4>

    The grand steward was experiencing godly ascension and the three gods were skipping an entire stage of cultivation.

    However, there were five portions of authority over the god domain.

    Inside the ck hole in the god domain, the Captainughed madly; the opportunity he had been waiting for was finally here now that this god domain was rising to a higher level.

    <i>¡°What do you think about this destined opportunity, little Ah Qing? Believe me, everything in heaven and earth, in fact, everything in the universe, exists for us to use. Even that son-of-a-bitch broken face!</i>

    <i>¡°Back when Crimson Mother¡¯s moon rose to a higher level, I was so jealous it¡¯s impossible to describe. But I wasn¡¯t fully prepared, and also, things happened so suddenly that I couldn¡¯t possibly have predicted how they would turn out.</i>

    <i>¡°But this time...¡±</i> The Captain¡¯s heart raced with excitement. <i>¡°This time, we need to get on board and enjoy the scenery!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered.

    <i>¡°And now, little Junior Brother, the time hase for me to tell you one of Revered Ancient¡¯s biggest secrets! It has to do with you, and with me, and with Master!¡±</i>

    When Xu Qing heard the Captain mention their Master, his heart pounded.

    <i>¡°Given your path of cultivation, you surely realize that in the cultivation realm of the gods, you start with godliness, then move to godfire. After you be a wless God in the Godfire level, you reach the Altar God level. But do you know what¡¯s after that?</i>

    <i>¡°Well, I¡¯m going to tell you. It¡¯s something equivalent to the personhood of a Summer Immortal. It¡¯s... a True God!¡±</i>

    The Captain¡¯s words mmed into Xu Qing¡¯s mind like lightning bolts.

    <i>¡°After True God is God Lord. After God Lord is God Paragon. And after God Paragon is Living God! </i>[1]

    <i>¡°It¡¯s a very neat and orderly progression. And whether you talk about Crimson Mother or the three gods, all are walking the same path.</i>

    <i>¡°Li Zihua was first in line. Back in the day, he reached the Imperial Sovereign level of the cultivator path. By converting Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh into karma, he leaped tens of thousands of years from the past to the present and reached the peak of the Altar God level in a single step!¡±</i>

    Some of these things Xu Qing knew already. Some conformed to spections of his. But most of it was new information. At longst he had an understanding of the cultivation system of the gods.

    Having finished his exnation, the Captain took control of the emperor¡¯s head and turned it up to look out of the ck hole, past the god domain, and at the broken face.

    <i>¡°See the broken face, little Junior Brother? Do you know why Sunfire¡¯s sacrificial chant included the line: </i>He whomands the Ancient is not empty; he is the Living Destion<i>. Why did h¨©s essence cause time to scatter? Why did h¨©s arrival cause Dark Serenity, thest Summer Immortal in Revered Ancient, to turn tail and run?</i>

    <i>¡°It¡¯s because h¨©s name is Destion! And h¨©s level? He¡¯s half a step into Living God! Put precisely, after failing to break into Living God, h¨¥ went to sleep until now!</i>

    <i>¡°Now, why aren¡¯t cultivators able topete with gods...?¡±</i>

    The Captain stopped talking for a moment.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond, though he already had an idea of the answer.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, do you know what the first thing the broken face did upon arriving? H¨¥ devoured the number one ancient heavenly dao! That was the most powerful heavenly dao in Revered Ancient, who was originally... the strongest of the Summer Immortals who came from the lower worlds to ughter the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk in Revered Ancient!</i>

    <i>¡°After that immortal conquered the local Godfolk, he looked up into the starry sky and wept, saying that fate had abandoned immortals, that gods were on the rise and immortals had fallen.</i>

    <i>¡°Therefore, that immortal closed his eyes and cast off his immortal husk, transforming his immortal soul into the first heavenly dao of Revered Ancient, all in the hopes of changing the universe. That very first ancient heavenly dao had all the information about the cultivation system of cultivators like us. He had the legacy of the immortals!</i>

    <i>¡°But he ended up being devoured by the broken face. And that¡¯s why the path of the immortals ends with Imperial Sovereign!¡±</i>

    The Captain couldn¡¯t prevent his tone from turning a bit gloomy.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing felt quite shaken. Based on what he had learned in the Imperial Region about the immortal path being severed, he had always assumed it was just because the Summer Immortals had vanished. But now he knew the real reason: the legacy of the dao of immortalsy with the very first heavenly dao the broken face devoured!

    <i>¡°That¡¯s whyter generations in Revered Ancient never produced any Grand Emperors, and it¡¯s also why everyone wants to restore the path. From that time on, the path of the Smoldering God was also severed, and the cultivation path of forming nine Smoldering God worlds became pointless.</i>

    <i>¡°After Dark Serenity, there weren¡¯t any species that could even be a quasi-Grand Emperor, which is a personhood simr to the Altar God level. And of course, there¡¯s no need to even mention anyone bing a Summer Immortal.</i>

    <i>¡°But the truth is that even if the first heavenly dao hadn¡¯t been devoured, cultivators wouldn¡¯t have been able to make much more progress than now. And that¡¯s because... there¡¯s nowhere to go. Summer Immortal was always the highest level cultivators could reach.¡±</i>

    The Captain sighed. Xu Qing stood there in silence.

    <i>¡°That said, there are some stubborn people who believe that Summer Immortal isn¡¯t the end of the line with cultivation.¡±</i> The Captain¡¯s tone of voice had perked up. <i>¡°Do you know why they¡¯re called Summer Immortals? Because ¡®summer¡¯ and ¡®lower¡¯ are pronounced the same!</i> [2]

    <i>¡°Immortals from the lower worlds were called Lower Immortals! And if there are Lower Immortals, it makes sense that there would be Higher Immortals, right? But from ancient times until now, no cultivator from any species ever reached a Higher Immortal level.</i>

    <i>¡°Eventually, people stopped believing that there was anything after the Lower Immortal level.</i>

    <i>¡°And because the word ¡®lower¡¯ sounds inauspicious, people started calling them Summer Immortals instead. But I¡¯ve believed all along that if you have Lower Immortal as a level, then there has to be a Higher Immortal level. The peak of that level would be an Immortal Paragon, and after that... there¡¯s probably even more!</i>

    <i>¡°I¡¯ve been walking that path from one direction, and Master has been walking it from another. And of course, there are people from all sorts of species in the Revered Ancient maind who are also walking it.</i>

    <i>¡°All of them are probing. Testing! And now you¡¯re joining the mix! That¡¯s why I told you to hold off on your breakthrough. Because Void Returning is a very important watershed point!</i>

    <i>¡°Actually, before we left for Firemoon territory, Master actually came to the Imperial Region to meet with me.¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Master came?¡±</i> Xu Qing asked, clearly surprised. Of course, he had long sincee to the realization that both the Captain and his Master had mysterious histories. Or perhaps it was most urate to say that they were both pursuing paths unique to them. The Captain¡¯s path had something to do with all the lives he had lived in the past. As for his Master¡¯s path, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure, but he got the feeling it had something to do with recovery.

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s question, the Captain said, <i>¡°Yeah, he came. And he¡¯s the one who wanted me to tell you to wait a bit when you reached the critical moment. The reason he didn¡¯t want to tell you personally in advance is that he worried it would affect your path.¡±</i>

    His words seemed to carry deep meaning.

    <i>¡°Next, little Junior Brother, you have to choose whether or not you want to follow a path of your own. If you don¡¯t, then relinquish your authority from the god domain, and continue with your breakthrough.</i>

    <i>¡°But if you do want to explore that unique path, then use the power of the god domain upgrade as wind to propel you forward. The path will be dangerous, from now and into the future. And who knows how far you¡¯ll make it. You... need to think about it and make your own decision.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing said nothing, and the Captain didn¡¯t add anything further. Should he take this destined opportunity to start walking his own path, and reach out in the hopes of finding his own dao?

    <i>A path of my own....</i>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes to gather his thoughts. There wasn¡¯t really any need for a lot of consideration. It had been years since he knew that he wanted to walk his own path! His time in the Imperial University with the Xeno-Immortal School had made that absolutely clear. His path... was to use gods as kindling. By burning gods, he could strip out their godly authority and turn it into godsource.

    Then, he could burn godsource as kindling to form Xeno-Immortal soul threads. Soul threads could be used to create just about any god body imaginable. In fact, the imagination was the only limit to this dao.

    What was more, by gathering godly authority, it was possible to be like a god among gods. Thus, his decision was to use his own ideas to create a path that borrowed elements from both gods and cultivators!

    That was what it meant to be a Xeno-Immortal!

    <i>In that case, my Void Returning really is going to involve a void... by assimting gods into nothing!</i>[3]

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes widened.

    His five trove gates, which had been immobilized, suddenly came back to life, rumbling loudly and erupting like massive volcanoes. A heaven-rending, earth-crushing rumbling filled Xu Qing as volcanic ash started filling his sea of consciousness.

    Though that volcanic ash seemed to be the same as the ash that ordinary cultivators would generate when stepping into Void Returning, the reality was that it was different. Xu Qing had god troves and godsource, therefore, his Void Returning was going to be fundamentally different. The volcanic void ash he was generating had a godly aura. But right now... the godly aura he had wasn¡¯t sufficient for the path he wanted to walk.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate for an instant. A wail of grief echoed out from D-132 as the god¡¯s finger exploded, turning into nutrients that Xu Qing quickly absorbed and sent into the five volcanic trove gates. After it was ignited, more volcanic void ash spewed out, filled with an even stronger godly aura.

    Next, he used his god domain authority over the emperor¡¯s corpse to start absorbing terrifying power from the outside. As it entered the corpse, it was split into two parts, one of which went to Xu Qing and the other to the Captain. Xu Qing¡¯s portion went right into the void ash.

    It was god world power. And since god worlds corresponded to god altars, it was correct to say that it was... Altar God power! That power turned into void ash, which was a void where it was possible to bury assimted gods!

    <i>RUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!</i>

    Intense rumbling filled every inch of Xu Qing, reaching heaven-shaking, earth-toppling proportions as his entire sea of consciousness filled up with void ash. In fact, his sea of consciousness was no longer a sea. It was so full of void ash that it had be... void soil!

    It was boundless, never-ending, majestic, and spectacr!

    If another Void Returning cultivator could see the void within Xu Qing, they would be astonished, and that was because the extent of Xu Qing¡¯s void soil was many tens of timesrger than that of ordinary Void Returning cultivators.

    And the quality was astounding. When the void ash became soil, it formed a foundation that Xu Qing¡¯s heavenly pces and five trove gates could drop down and upy. The moment they connected to the void soil, Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base experienced a breakthrough!

    He was stepping into Void Returning! Put precisely, his Void Returning featured apletely unique void that conformed to his path. It could even be called Void God!

    Terrifying fluctuations rose up from Xu Qing as he reached a higher level, and his battle prowess increased dramatically. That said, his Void Returning wasn¡¯tplete. He had void soil, but still didn¡¯t have dao lineaments.

    Because his void soil was so astonishing, his dao lineaments would be different from those of ordinary cultivators. And the reason for it all was the substructural difference. Whether it was Xu Qing or the Captain, the grand steward going through godly ascension, or the three gods skipping tribtion fire and going right to wless God... they were all trying to do something incredibly dramatic.

    And when things like that happened, it was a given that something would try to stop them. That was when a powerful force of resistance rumbled outside the ck hole!

    1. Hundreds of chapters ago, Xu Qing¡¯s brother mentioned the term ¡®living god.¡¯ Back then, it wasn¡¯t clear what that meant, either in the setting itself, or to me the trantor. Chapter 901 didn¡¯t even exist at that time. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t capitalize it back then. Even still, I¡¯m not going to go back to capitalize it, as I think it would be too much of a hint that it¡¯s a cultivation level, which the author obviously wanted to keep vague until this point. ?

    2. Just to reiterate what I mentioned in the footnote in <u>chapter 807</u>, the words I¡¯m rendering as ¡®summer¡¯ and ¡®lower¡¯ are pronounced exactly the same in Chinese, but arepletely different characters. For more details, see the 807 footnote. ?

    3. This is the point where the author really goes in on the Void Returning terminology situation that I mentioned a while back. Whether it was an oversight or intentional, he switches from the character that means ¡®void¡¯ to the one that means ¡®ruins.¡¯ In other words, if I followed the same naming pattern, the level would actually be Ruins Returning. That said, at least ruins and void are simr enough that virtually all of the exnations still make sense. The reality is that, though I think Er Gen is amazing, he does make a lot of mistakes (no knock on him, I do the same in my original writing). In many cases I can fix the mistakes without anyone realizing it. For instance, if this chapter had been in existence when I first coined the cultivation levels, I could have nned ahead. In this case, it didn¡¯t work out, and I don¡¯t feel like going back to change the hundreds of previous instances of Void Returning, especially after the name has already be part of the lexicon of the trantion. So... Void Returning it is. Just know that in most instances in this chapter as well as in many subsequent chapters, the actual character means ¡®ruins.¡¯ And to furtherplicate things (or perhaps... uplicate them?)... he actually does go back to using the ¡®void¡¯ characterter, so take that for what it¡¯s worth.... ?

 Chapter 902: Gods Show Up

    <h4>Chapter 902: Gods Show Up</h4>

    In the dome of heaven, the eyes of the broken face slowly closed. However, the upgrade to the god domain because of the sacrificial offering didn¡¯t just stop. In fact, deafening rumbling sounds continued to rise up. Yet even as the process continued, things started to look unstable in the god domain. Formless sparks raged, slowly engulfing the ce. Apparently, they were thoroughly burning away all impurities that existed there.

    When a god domain became a god world, it involved a heaven-shaking, earth-toppling change to its substructure. It was no simple event. The broken face¡¯s power was iparably mighty, yet... another critical factor was the god domain¡¯s ability to sustain the change. As for this god domain, though the three gods had been preparing for this event for tens of thousands of years, it seemed that it actually wasn¡¯t capable of sustaining the upgrade.

    The red moon had also been upgraded, but that moon had started out as one of the thirty-six moons of Revered Ancient. It possessed some of Revered Ancient¡¯s authority, and beyond that, Crimson Mother was at the peak of the level of tribtion fire, and was halfway to being a wless God.

    What was more, Li Zihua had also been perpetuating a n that started in ancient times.

    Most important of all was Crimson Mother¡¯s status. Sh¨¥ was the first person to reach godly ascension after the broken face arrived in Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s time. Karma associated with the broken face was intense, and beyond that, as a half-wless God who had devoured other gods, sh¨¥ was the type of person even other gods feared. That was why no other gods hade to help h¨¥r during h¨¥r tribtion, which turned out to be an auspicious development for Li Zihua. It was only due to abination of many factors that a good opportunity had presented itself.

    But the situation with the three gods was different. And thus, as the broken face¡¯s eyes closed, the resistance began.

    In the Ninepeaks Region in Revered Ancient there was a swamp that covered about a third of the entire region. There, a massive golden eye opened up and looked in the direction of the god domain where the three gods were.

    In the Paleosaint Region was a massive mountain that was worshiped by all species in the region. Currently, the mountain was changing from being ck in color to golden. What was more, it was slowly rising up from the ground, like a gigantic golden horn.

    In the Allpeace Region was a vastke covered with raging waves. A divine likeness was currently emerging from the water. It had six arms and three heads, with those heads being those of a beast, ghost, and god respectively. The six armsmanded reincarnation and death. As the water of the vastke swirled around to form the statue, it took a step forward.

    ***

    Bizarre situations like that yed out all over the Revered Ancient maind. The terrifying will of gods appeared everywhere, and then began to converge on the god domain and the three gods. The dome of heaven over the god domain rippled and distorted. Time shattered. Greedy will erupted. It was clear what was happening. Th¨¥y wanted to stop the three gods and rob them of what they had gained. Countless species across thends trembled in fear from what seemed to be an impending catastrophe.

    However... the three gods had prepared for this moment for tens of thousands of years. And those preparations were very thorough. There was no way they wouldn¡¯t have considered that something like this would happen. And thus, as the wills of dozens of gods closed in on the god domain, the three gods all opened their eyes simultaneously.

    A majestic spell formation glittered into being, spreading out to cover the area with five-colored light and innumerable magical symbols. The symbols conveyed a profoundly ancient feeling, and the formation they made seemed simrly ancient.

    This formation had a name. It was the God-Rejecting Mage Formation!

    Many years in the past, the antemage of the Darkheaven Archmage people had sacrificed himself to create this formation, all for the purpose of safeguarding his people. Later, it became part of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands, and became even more powerful. When the three gods came, they acquired it and refined it for tens of thousands of years. They also used it to imprison one of the ancient heavenly daos, not just forter use as a sacrificial offering, but also, for the purpose of using its blood to strengthen the formation.

    It was all for this moment!

    When the God-Rejecting Mage Formation activated, the other gods were stuck on the other side. Of course, though the formation was amazing, and had been bolstered over the years, it could only be a temporary obstacle to so many attacking gods. It was a given that the three gods would have prepared something besides this formation.

    But a temporary obstacle was all the three gods needed. After this, the three gods¡¯ godliness skyrocketed. A sun, moon, and star appeared above the heads of the three gods, pulsing with immense majesty. Then theybined, turning into a huge dagger-axe. It was 300,000 meters long, and was made from over 100,000 crafting elements. In addition, it was full of innumerable deceased souls. It was a precious weapon that the three gods had forged over tens upon tens of thousands of years, using the souls in by the Firemoon Darkheaven people during their countless war campaigns. [1]

    By adding in the destiny aura of the Firemoon Darkheavens, it was shaped into its current form. It was something that surpassed a domain treasure, and could even be called ¡®evesting.¡¯ It could easily be used to wipe out an entire species, and could also be used to y gods. This was the true reserve power of the three gods!

    The Evesting Dagger-Axe seemed like it could cleave apart heaven and earth. The might it radiated caused the approaching gods to react with shock as sensations of danger filled them.

    The three gods exercised a thought, and the terrifying dagger-axe shed through the dome of heaven toward the iing host of gods. The mere presence of its destructive power caused the souls of the gods to be unstable, and caused more than half of Revered Ancient to tremble violently.

    The advancing gods fell back, covering the distance of an entire region beforeing to a stop. At the same time, the voices of the three gods rang out like thunder.

    ¡°Screw off!¡±

    In the regions where these gods hailed from, th¨¥y were matchlessly lofty. But now, all th¨¥y could do was look silently at the dagger-axe, and ultimately try to slink away. Thebination of the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the terrifying dagger-axe, and the fact that th¨¥y had no real karma connecting th¨¥m to the three gods, ensured that, though th¨¥y would interfere if it benefited th¨¥m, th¨¥y wouldn¡¯t interfere if it involved immense risk. After all, if th¨¥y had been watching the three gods from the shadows, it was a given there were other entities watching th¨¥m from the shadows. And thus, th¨¥y went back into hiding.

    The three gods watched expressionlessly as th¨¥y left, but inside, th¨¥y were staying vignt. Th¨¥y were at a critical point in breaking through, and creating a destined opportunity like this wasn¡¯t something that could be easily repeated. Slip-ups couldn¡¯t be tolerated.

    But there was no stopping what was toe. And, as expected, there were entities with karma connected to the three gods.

    At the edge of the Revered Ancient maind was a region with no name. It was covered with silver fog, and didn¡¯t havends made of soil. Instead, it was a massive, ancient mirror.

    The mirror itself formed thends. This region had no mountains in it, nor any species inhabiting it. All such things had been wiped away, leaving the mirror untainted by even a speck of dust. Within the mirror was silver moonlight. And if there had been someone present to look, they would be shocked to find that there was no moon in the sky there, only a golden sun. There was a golden sun in the dome of heaven and a silver moon in the mirror.

    They blurred, then vanished, and when they reappeared... they were right above the god domain and the three gods.

    Gold-Silver Sun-Moon had arrived!

    Then a deep voice shook heaven and earth. ¡°I wasn¡¯t nning on stopping you. But a struggle for godly authority is inevitable.¡±

    Terrifying godly might erupted from Gold-Silver Sun-Moon. Cracking sounds emerged from the God-Rejecting Mage Formation as rifts opened up all over it. Gold-Silver Sun-Moon alone was far more terrifying than the host of gods from earlier.

    Looking very dignified, the three gods exercised a thought, and the dagger-axe swiveled to face Gold-Silver Sun-Moon. However, th¨¥y didn¡¯t use it to attack. As the weapon pointed at Gold-Silver Sun-Moon, the three gods¡¯ eyes glittered with determination. Th¨¥ir tens of thousands of years of preparation wasn¡¯t limited to what had yed out so far. Th¨¥y also had domain treasures from numerous species in Revered Ancient.

    Th¨¥y also had treasures from the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And the god domain itself had treasures from North Emperor.

    All of that constituted the three gods¡¯ second reserve power. At this decisive moment, th¨¥y unleashed all of them.

    From a distance, it was possible to see 108 domain treasures glittering with many colors.... They floated up as their might was unleashed, not in a devastating explosion, but in the form of numerouss. The front of thes had soil made of starlight, while the backs had agonized faces on them. Each face was slightly different and conformed to the species the domain treasure hade from! They were all species that the three gods had wiped out.

    This scene looked very simr to the starry sky in the emperor¡¯s mausoleum. Their mightbined with the crumbling God-Rejecting Mage Formation and the terrifying dagger-axe to form something profoundly resplendent. The devastating formation formed starlight. The dagger-axe created a river of stars. The 108s shone with dazzling light. Together, they made a starry sky that swept over Gold-Silver Sun-Moon!

    Then, Sunfire and Moonfire shot toward Starfire. The three gods merged together, and then th¨¥y unleashed a secret magic that was tens of thousands of years in the making!

    Nobleplexus starry sky! [2]

    By using a starry sky to seal an outside sun and moon, time could be bought.

    In the blink of an eye, the terrifying Gold-Silver Sun-Moon and the Nobleplexus starry sky vanished from above the god domain. However, before the three gods could rx, a cold voice echoed out from nowhere.

    ¡°Zhu Ling and I have some karma, therefore, I¡¯ll interfere this once.¡±

    In the endless Forbidden Sea beyond Revered Ancient, there was a deep sea chasm filled with endless darkness. But then, a spark of red light appeared there. Shockingly, within that light, it was possible to see a host of countless paper people made from red paper. One of those paper people floated out of the chasm, appeared in the god domain, and shot toward the three gods like a sealing mark.

    Intense fear rose up in the hearts of the three gods, as well as in the grand steward. Inside the ck hole, Xu Qing and the Captain shivered.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe h¨¥¡¯s still alive!¡± the Captain said hoarsely.

    ¡°H¨¥? H¨¥ who?¡± asked Xu Qing. He had no idea who this ¡®h¨¥¡¯ was that the Captain was referring to, but he could sense that this simple paper person was vastly more terrifying than Crimson Mother.

    Before the Captain could answer, the three gods¡¯ faces fell. Even the normally cid Sunfire looked very serious. Then, godfire erupted from all three gods. Th¨¥y... were actually burning their own godsource!

    That fire came in three colors: red, blue, and ck! As the three colors erupted, the red paper person closed in and contacted the fire!

    The three gods chose that moment to merge th¨¥ir power and unleash the might of th¨¥ir past life. Fire raged, unleashing a sensation like that of reincarnation. As it covered the three gods, it suddenly became possible to see a figure that seemed to be stepping out from ancient time....

    1. A dagger-axe is a traditional weapon from ancient China that is often tranted as polearm or halberd. I personally like the term dagger-axe, as it makes sense descriptively and also makes it clear this is a unique Chinese weapon. For a picture and more information, here is the <u>link to the Wikipedia article</u> about it ?

    2. Nobleplexus. This term is sort of rted (linguistically at least) to ¡°Allheaven¡± from ISSTH. If you added ¡°heaven¡± to the end of this word, it could be tranted as ¡°nobleplexus heaven¡± or ¡°noble/grand allheaven¡±. In real life, the ¡°nobleplexus heaven¡± or ¡°grand allheaven¡± or ¡°grand overarching heaven¡± is essentially the highest heaven in the hierarchy of Daoist heavens, and is like a ¡± or ¡°mesh¡± that covers over all the other heavens. I¡¯m using ¡°plexus¡± because it means a work¡± or plex structure¡± and because it would be too hard to create a functional term using the ¡°all¡± interpretation from ¡°Allheaven.¡± To be clear, there does not seem to be any connection between this term and Allheaven from ISSTH, thus the reason why I don¡¯t feel the need to trante them simrly. That said, if it turns outter on that there actually is a connection to Allheaven, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising. In a disastrous scenario in whichter wordy exnations necessitate, I might theoretically change this term. Hopefully not. ?

 Chapter 903: Mysterious Cultivator

    <h4>Chapter 903: Mysterious Cultivator</h4>

    In order to achieve sess, the three gods were pulling out all the stops. Whether it was the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, the dagger-axe made from tens of thousands of years of stockpiled materials, the 108 domain treasures and the destiny aura of many species, or the Nobleplexus starry sky. Any of them could be considered extremely precious treasures. That was especially true of the Nobleplexus starry sky, which was absolutely terrifying, and surpassed the level of domain treasures to the point of being evesting. All of that made it very clear how determined the three gods were to seed in bypassing the tribtion fire level.

    And yet all of that didn¡¯t seem quite enough. The resistance th¨¥y were facing... was shocking to the extreme. This mysterious red paper person was so astonishing that even the Captain seemed terrified of h¨©m.

    That being said, the three gods weren¡¯t out of options yet. As th¨¥y burned th¨¥ir godsource to create a fire of god fate, th¨¥y fused, reaching into time to bring th¨¥ir past life into the world. From th¨¥ir souls, from th¨¥ir memories, and from the fires of reincarnation emerged a dramatic and majestic figure.

    He wore imperial robes and an imperial crown. His facial features weren¡¯t possible to see clearly, but there was something noble and imperial about him that could shake the cosmos.

    He was none other than... North Emperor!

    As he emerged from the fire, he lifted his right index finger in the direction of the red paper person.

    When the red paper person made contact with the finger, no sound came out. There was no wild tempest. But a white-colored hole appeared! It came out of nowhere and imparted a spine-chilling sensation to everyone present. That white-colored hole did not conform to any natural or magicalws. It was not something that the omniscience of gods could perceive. It was not part of any known dao or magic.

    Then, like something that shouldn¡¯t even exist, it vanished from reincarnation, from time, and even from the memories of everyone who had witnessed it. Along with it went the red paper person! None of them existed any longer.

    Outside the god domain, the gods in hiding all shivered and looked at the figure that had emerged from the fire as if he were an extremely dangerous enemy.

    North Emperor was still blurry and impossible to see clearly. As he hovered in the air, he looked down at the three gods and sighed. Suddenly, he chopped his hand down to sever, not the dome of heaven, but his connection to the three gods.

    The three gods shivered as the mes once again turned into three different versions with three colors that swept back to the respective gods. The three of them opened th¨¥ir eyes and looked at North Emperor withplicated expressions.

    ¡°From this point on, our karma is severed.¡± North Emperor sighed and looked up at the dome of heaven over Revered Ancient. ¡°I have three breaths of time left, so I might as well lend a helping hand.¡±

    North Emperor stepped out of the god domain. His footfall caused intense rumbling to echo out along with endless lightning. All of the gods who were hiding in the area grunted and fled. The surroundings were nowpletely empty! The resistance had been cleared away!

    Then, North Emperor took another step, entering the void to pursue the red paper person. It was impossible to say how that would end. After he was gone, the aura of the three gods once again began to climb. The resistance was gone, but th¨¥y weren¡¯t in very good shape. Th¨¥ir faces were ashen, and th¨¥ir god souls seemed extremely weak.

    And then... another dramatic event unfolded.

    Fire sprang up in the dome of heaven, raging wildly, bing like a huge spear that stabbed toward the three gods with sky-obfuscating,nd-enshrouding force! It seemed shocking and unstoppable, like a force that could destroy anything and everything. In the blink of an eye, it was right above the three gods.

    It was just barely possible to see an illusory figure behind the spear, pulsing with astonishing fluctuations. The figure looked at the three gods and then spoke in a godly voice.

    ¡°By the authority of Netherworld, Northfate, and Rend Nobleplexus, I hereby notify Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire that the Firemoon people are not permitted to produce a fourth god!¡±

    Moonfire¡¯s eyes glittered mysteriously. Starfire said nothing. As for the grand steward, he sighed inwardly.

    Meanwhile, in the emperor¡¯s corpse in the abyss, Xu Qing, who was in the middle of forming his dao lineaments, heard the Captain speaking to him.

    <i>¡°The Netherworld Chasmcorpses. The Northfate Kings. The Rend Nobleplexuses. Those three species are all in the top five most powerful species in the Revered Ancient maind!¡±</i>

    Almost at the same time that the Captain offered that exnation, Sunfire spoke.

    ¡°Grand Steward, as you can see, we have done everything we possibly can to live up to our promise from years ago. Back then, we told you that unexpected circumstances might arrive, and they have. Th¨¥y don¡¯t want a fourth god among the Firemoon Darkheaven people.

    ¡°On the one hand, you could exterminate your species but be a glorious god like us. Or you could perish, and entrust us to safeguard the Firemoons for as long as we exist. Do you choose the species? Or do you choose godly ascension? It¡¯s up to you.¡±

    The grand steward closed his eyes. None of this was a surprise to him. Just as Sunfire had said, when they made their deal years ago, this possibility had been discussed.

    Three top species had determined that he wasn¡¯t allowed to experience godly ascension. Th¨¥y didn¡¯t want the Firemoons to have a fourth god. Were he not the grand steward, he could have chosen to sever his connections to the Firemoons and be a god. But he couldn¡¯t just abandon his identity.

    The truth was... he had already made his choice, long ago. It didn¡¯t matter what words he spoke. He knew in his heart that his act of betrayal years ago had been for the sake of his people, but also for himself.

    But now, for some reason, he was having trouble making the decision. It was hard to say if the three gods had nned for things to work out this way, but in the end, it didn¡¯t matter. In the end, the three gods were letting him decide what he wanted to do.

    ¡°Ah, whatever....¡± Sighing, he thought back to the look in Ninedawns¡¯ eyes when he died. It was an expression of pain, bitterness, and regret. He remembered what he had said to Ninedawns at that moment. <i>¡°The end of your line will bring hope to the species.¡±</i>

    Numerous scenes from back then were ying out in his mind. He saw himself in ancient times, inside the God-Rejecting Mage Formation, rising to the position of grand steward step by step. Eventually, he took over as ruler of his species and gradually lifted them from despair to glory. Eventually, he saw Ninedawns¡¯ return. This time, the words he had spoken back then seemed toe out of Ninedawns¡¯ mouth.

    <i>¡°Like reincarnation....¡±</i>

    A few breaths of time passed, and he bowed his head. ¡°There are some things,¡± he murmured with a faint smile, ¡°that if you say them enough, you actually start to believe....¡±

    The grand steward closed his eyes andpleted the godfire within him. It erupted, spreading out to cover him, burning his flesh, his soul, and everything else about him. At the same time, all members of the Firemoon Darkheaven species felt the connection to their ancient bloodline stirring, and realized that they were about to burst into mes and die. But then, the fire within the Firemoons went out.

    The grand steward¡¯s fire raged, engulfing him until... he turned into ashes. He had ceased to exist. It didn¡¯t matter what he had thought in the past. When the moment came to make that difficult decision, he ultimately decided... to give up on godly ascension!

    What was more, he took his authority over the god domain and turned it into a god talisman that glittered brightly as it shot toward Sunfire. That god talisman was something that was even more precious than the most precious treasure, as it contained the godhood power of a god domain!

    He also left behind a few words. ¡°I hope... that you keep your promise.¡±

    ¡°We always keep our word,¡± Sunfire replied. ¡°That¡¯s the foundation of being a god.¡±

    When Xu Qing perceived all of these things, he felt mixed emotions. However, there wasn¡¯t time to analyze the situation right now. The void soil within him was seething as a critical moment had arrived in forming his dao lineaments. When the dao lineaments formed, that was true Void Returning.

    Meanwhile, as the ashes of the grand steward faded away, the huge, ming spear over the three gods also vanished. So did the godly figure that hade with it. Heaven and earth went back to normal. It was as if nothing had happened to begin with.

    The three gods closed th¨¥ir eyes. Th¨¥y were just about to skip past tribtion fire and be wless Gods. The eyes of the broken face were now almostpletely closed as well.

    But then... the dome of heaven suddenly went dark!

    A huge ck hand appeared, taking advantage of the moment to lunge viciously toward the three gods. It was attempting to snatch the three gods¡¯ destined opportunity, and seize th¨¥ir god karma!

    The arrival of the hand caused all three gods to react with shock.

    The hand had arrived at precisely the right moment, which was when the three gods were just about to achieve sess. After all the resistance that had cropped up, the three gods were left feelingpletely drained. As the hand dropped toward th¨¥m, though, a mysterious figure suddenly stepped out of nowhere to appear right in front of the ck hand.

    This person did not have the aura of a god. It was a cultivator!

    It was impossible to see which species the cultivator was from. And in a shocking development, nine major worlds appeared! After the nine worlds appeared, they turned into nines! Scattered amongst thes were a host of twinkling stars. It was aary system!

    This was what came after a Smoldering God formed nine worlds. It was the Imperial Sovereign level!

    This was the current limit of the cultivation system in Revered Ancient, and was something simr to a god. If someone reached the peak of Imperial Sovereign, they could battle with a god in the tribtion fire level.

    The arrival of this cultivator caused all onlookers to be shaken to the core. That was because, as far as all the onlookers knew, in the Revered Ancient maind, Imperial Sovereigns were extremely rare. What was more, any who did exist weren¡¯t very far into that level.

    In the current cultivation system, the path after the Smoldering God nine-world level had been severed. The only way to be an Imperial Sovereign now was to make use of bloodline legacies, destiny aura, or some other forms of heaven-defying destined opportunity.

    But this mysterious cultivator already had the beginnings of aary system, which wasn¡¯t the beginning of the Imperial Sovereign level. No, that was the hallmark of being halfway into the peak of Imperial Sovereign!

    Even in ancient times, cultivators like that would be considered profoundly domineering. In fact, the historical records of most species didn¡¯t even mention people like that! The only possibility seemed to be... that some powerful person in ancient times had faked their death and remained in hiding until this moment.

    As for this cultivator¡¯s identity... everyone was already starting toe up with spections.

    When the cultivator appeared, theirary system rumbled, and the iing hand shivered. At the same time, the auras of the three gods climbed rapidly higher.

 Chapter 904: Now THAT is a Super Big Job

    <h4>Chapter 904: Now THAT is a Super Big Job</h4>

    In the shortest of moments, countless gazes and countless streams of divine sense locked onto the half-peak Imperial Sovereign above the three gods, who was currently blocking the enormous ck hand. The cultivator arrived at exactly the right moment, just before the three gods were about to achieve sess.

    In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that, without the mysterious cultivator, the three gods¡¯ efforts, despite all of the work th¨¥y put into preparation, would have resulted in th¨¥ir sess being <i>as unrealistic as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water</i>. Even if th¨¥y still had some tricks up th¨¥ir sleeves, using them would have been counterproductive and probably would not have resulted in an overall sess. In the end, th¨¥y would have been forced to abandon their destined opportunity.

    Clearly, the arrival of this mysterious cultivator must have been part of the three gods¡¯ n! What was more, it was very thought-provoking to consider the ramifications of a cultivator providing assistance to gods. Perhaps if it had been a low-level cultivator, it would have made sense. But given the high levels involved, it seemed to indicate that there was some very profound karma at y.

    Whether it was the countless species looking on or the other gods, no one had any idea who this cultivator was. That was especially true because the cultivator¡¯s clothing had the miraculous capacity to prevent anyone from deducing clues about the wearer¡¯s identity. The best exnation that anyone coulde up with was that this was a cultivator from ancient times.

    And the cultivator¡¯s arrival bought exactly the amount of time the three gods needed. The three gods¡¯ auras skyrocketed as th¨¥ir tribtion fire began to turn wless. Everything wasing together!

    Meanwhile, in the ck hole in the god domain, Xu Qing was just on the verge of being able to carve his dao lineaments. To do that required a deep understanding of one¡¯s personal dao, not just a cursory bit of knowledge.

    That was why Xu Qing had needed time after the forming of his void soil. He needed to be clear about his dao to be able to understand his lineaments. That was the way to walk his path. But to actually carve them, he needed to make use of the power of the god domain¡¯s upgrade.

    The power released by the god domain¡¯s rise to a god world had formed his void soil, so it only made sense that it would help him carve the lineaments. Xu Qing was fully aware that the first stage of Void Returning for ordinary cultivators was called Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos.

    When a cultivator broke through from Spirit Trove to Void Returning, all of the techniques they had cultivated would affect that cultivator¡¯s dao. They would materialize and form dao lineaments in the void soil. On the outside, they would look like shooting stars. That was the case with all first-stage Void Returning cultivators Xu Qing had encountered. There were no exceptions.

    One needed 1,000 magicalws to be considered in the great circle and then break out of first-stage Void Returning. That was why that stage was called Space-Shattering 1,000 Daos.

    As Xu Qing considered that, he remained calm both inside and out. He knew that the path of cultivators conformed to his own dao, but also didn¡¯t. The reason it did conform was that his first lineament was formed with a thought in his void soil.

    A heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound rang out as the lineament appeared in his sea of consciousness. It contained traces of the dao of mages, the dao of emperors, and all of the cultivation techniques Xu Qing had used. The Xeno-Immortal School techniques were the most dominant.

    As the carving proceeded, it went around all of the void soil, eventually returning to its starting point to create a huge circle. This was Xu Qing¡¯s first dao lineament, and it was his life essence lineament. Having been carved, it created the border of the void soil world, and could also be considered a Xeno-Immortal lineament!

    Meanwhile, to say that ordinary Void Returning <i>didn¡¯t</i> conform to Xu Qing¡¯s dao was because this lineament already contained everything. That was because he didn¡¯t n to form his second lineament in the same way as ordinary cultivators. He was going to use godly authority!

    All of a sudden, his void soil emitted loud rumbling sounds as well as blinding violet light. In fact, it was that violet light that began to carve a moon-shaped lineament. And it emanated terrifying fluctuations. This lineament was formed from his violet moon godly authority!

    ¡°Next...¡± he murmured. The void soil in his sea of consciousness started rumbling again.

    After the violet moon, he unleashed his taboo poison on the void soil. It created a poison miasma that spread out and radiated terrifying might. Ultimately, the poison miasma gathered together, entered the void soil, and formed a vicious face. This was his third lineament, a lineament of a godly curse!

    Next, the power of misfortune spread into the void soil, taking all the remnants of the god¡¯s finger. That was his fourth lineament, created by the godly authority of misfortune.

    He started with a life essence lineament, then created three more based on godly authority. From ancient times until now, there had never been a cultivator who used godly authority on void soil. That was because their void soil couldn¡¯t sustain something like that, nor could their daos.

    From this point forward, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t be considered like them.

    The moment the fourth god lineament appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes snapped open, and it was possible to see the lineaments within them like shooting stars. Though he only had four lineaments, they werepletely beyond theparison of the lineaments of ordinary cultivators.

    Next, Xu Qing exercised a thought, and the four lineaments rumbled loudly as a massive amount of soul threads shot out from them.

    In total... there were 40,000,000! The soul threads spread out through the void soil, unleashing a terrifyingly powerful aura.

    Despite being mentally prepared, Xu Qing was still visibly taken aback.

    <i>One god lineament can form millions upon millions of soul threads! In the past, I only had a few million soul threads, and it got harder and harder to get more, until I eventually thought I had reached my limit. But now I¡¯vepletely blown past that limit!</i>

    Xu Qing breathed heavily as he felt unprecedented strength flowing through him.

    Soul threads could be used to make any and all things, therefore, his divine sense, fleshly body, his magical techniques, and everything else about him was rising to a higher level.

    <i>I guess that means my god states... will no longer have the same limitations.</i>

    His eyes shone with bright light, and his heart surged with passion as he studied his void soil. However, that was when a sudden sensation of hunger exploded within him. He shivered as he suddenly felt like he waspletely empty. Madness began to build within him. His eyes became bloodshot and he struggled to control his breathing as he looked left and right. He wanted to devour gods, godsource, and <i>everything</i>!

    If an ordinary Void Returning cultivator could look into his eyes right now, they would be shaken to the core, and their cultivation would instantly destabilize. There wouldn¡¯t even be a need to wonder if a person like that could stand up to him in a fight. In fact, not even someone in the great circle of Void Returning could match up to Xu Qing right now.

    Before, Sir Firedark had such terrifying battle prowess that Xu Qing and the Captain had to work together to have a chance at surviving. But right now, Xu Qing would simply devour Sir Firedark. The same would happen if he faced a Smoldering God opponent.

    The source of the hunger within him was the void soil. The godly void soil in his sea of consciousness was writhing with indescribable longing.

    Hungry!

    Hungry!!

    Hungry!!!

    The sensation only grew increasingly intense.

    In his youth, Xu Qing had experienced situations in which he was so hungry he would eat just about anything, even dirt. And then there was what he had experienced in the Greenhair Bands. Thanks to those experiences, he was able to take a deep breath and violently suppress the hunger. However, the hunger also gave him clear insight into his path.

    <i>My void soil needs gods for food, godsource for nutrients, and godly authority for the lineaments. I wonder how much godly authority, exactly....</i>

    He wasn¡¯t sure. However, the hunger within him made it clear that his path was going to be about... ying gods!

    <i>That is my personal dao!</i>

    Of course, the power of the upgraded god domain didn¡¯t bring only these benefits. As Xu Qing¡¯s void soil seethed, a god talisman was forming, filled with the terrifying power of the upgrade.

    That was the upgrade power that he hadn¡¯t used. It was the same as how the grand steward formed a talisman upon dying. Although Xu Qing¡¯s wasn¡¯t as dazzling, to the gods in Revered Ancient, it would be considered a precious treasure!

    When he reached the right time, he could fuse with it to do the same thing the three god¡¯s had done, and gain a destined opportunity to pass by the tribtion fire level.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath as he examined the god talisman with his divine will. Around then, he heard the Captain.

    <i>¡°Hungry, little Ah Qing? I¡¯ve got something good to eat. Want it?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing looked up. Thanks to the Captain¡¯s words, the hunger he had been suppressing seemed like it might explode out of control. After all, he was hungry. Iparably hungry.

    <i>¡°Heh heh, you really look a lot like me right now. That hunger... is something I¡¯m familiar with. Don¡¯t worry, little Junior Brother. I¡¯m going to take you to a big feast!¡±</i> The Captain swallowed. <i>¡°Do you remember I mentioned taking you on a super big job?</i>

    <i>¡°Well, going into a god domain, winning some authority over it, then </i>snatching food from the tiger¡¯s mouth<i> by taking some of the power of the god domain¡¯s upgrade to a god world... none of those things count as ¡®super.¡¯</i>

    <i>¡°Do you know why I borrowed that destiny, got the Wordless words, and those hairs? Do you know why I used the upgrade power to improve the words and the hairs? Do you know why I added in so much of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh?</i>

    <i>¡°It was all for the sake of the super big job! The Wordless words provide concealment, while the hairs provide escape!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he started to realize what the Captain was talking about. It seemed absolutely crazy.

    <i>¡°Little Ah Qing, this time, my n... is to get the number one treasure in all of Revered Ancient! And that is... that son-of-a-bitch broken face!¡±</i>

    By this point, the Captain¡¯s craziness had reached such a high level that not even he could control his breathing. He actually looked nervous.

    <i>¡°Let me tell you, I¡¯ve been paying attention over my past several lives. Only about half of the broken face is left, but all of those wounds are surrounded by flesh! There¡¯s also the fine hair and the head hair.... Therefore, our goal is to get the blood, flesh, fine hair, and head hair of the broken face of the god!</i> [1]

    <i>¡°That¡¯s a half-step Living God! H¨©s flesh and blood doesn¡¯t really count as flesh and blood anymore. It¡¯s a precious treasure! And it contains h¨©s essence!</i>

    <i>¡°It¡¯s definitely delicious! And that is the super big n I told you about! Everything before this was a mere appetizer. Those little sparrows out there aren¡¯t even worth paying attention to. Skipping right to wless God? Who the hell cares about that crap?</i>

    <i>¡°What I want is the flesh of a Living God! Are you in, little Junior Brother?¡±</i>

    The Captain¡¯s crazy words battered at Xu Qing¡¯s mind like tidal waves. However, crazy though they might be, Xu Qing¡¯s hunger was only getting more intense.

    Gritting his teeth, and his eyes crimson, Xu Qing said, ¡°I¡¯m in!¡±

    1. In Chinese, ¡®fine hair¡¯ basically refers to body hair and potentially facial hair as well. It¡¯s apletely different set of characters than the word for ¡®head hair.¡¯ So although in English it¡¯s notmon to differentiate between different types of hair that grow on the body, it ismon in Chinese, so I¡¯m going to use the terms fine hair and head hair to distinguish between them. ?

 Chapter 905: Two Kids Going All Out

    <h4>Chapter 905: Two Kids Going All Out</h4>

    The moment the Captain heard Xu Qing¡¯s hoarse response, he got excited.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t worry, little Junior Brother. This time, your Eldest Brother is one hundred percent certain that nothing will go wrong!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes had gone bloodshot with the decision to join the Captain. But after what the Captain just said, his heart started to pound.

    The Captain, however, only seemed to be getting more excited. <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, from the year I figured out what these three gods were trying to do, I started nning this thing out. I put everything on the line to get a chance to join this ride!</i>

    <i>¡°Before we ran into that living teleportation portal, I wasn¡¯tpletely confident. I have plenty of escape items, and was nning to ensorcell them as well. I justcked some of the materials. But then we ran into the living portal, and it was like heaven was helping me!¡±</i>

    The Captainughed heartily.

    <i>¡°Even the original plot to deal with Crimson Mother rtes to this moment. Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh is an amazing thing. Sh¨¥ was the first person to reach godly ascension in Revered Ancient, and is the one who called out to the face to begin with. That just goes to show that sh¨¥ has some major karma with the broken face.</i>

    <i>¡°That karma, plus the blessing of one of those hairs, is theoretically speaking enough to carry out a special teleportation! Unfortunately, the power required to perform the teleportation is beyond terrifying. And that¡¯s what led to our trip to the god domain.</i>

    <i>¡°Now, you know how hard it is to tap into the power of a god domain upgrade. It¡¯s a very, very rare opportunity! What¡¯s more, because the god domain is high in the sky, it¡¯s close to the broken face for a short time.... But not even that would be enough without a heavenly dao to guide the way! And that¡¯s where our son is going toe into y!</i>

    <i>¡°Finally, with the concealment of the Wordless words, we¡¯ll bepletely unnoticed. We also have the power of the emperor¡¯s corpse. With help from gods and emperors blessing us, you and I have the chance to pull off a super big job!</i>

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, you and I are on the same page, and therefore, nothing could go wrong!¡±</i>

    The Captain¡¯s words got crazier and crazier until he burst out into maniacalughter.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t interested in listening any further. The more the Captain talked, the more dangerous the situation seemed. However... given how far they hade along, he wasn¡¯t ready to just give up.

    Forcefully suppressing the hunger within him, he asked, <i>¡°When do we get started?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°In just a moment! When the god domain copses, that¡¯s when we start the teleportation. We just¡ª hold on, wait. We start now!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened.

    In Revered Ancient¡¯s dome of heaven, the broken face¡¯s eyes finally shut. When that happened, the god domain quietly started crumbling into ash, beginning from the outside edges. As that happened, it got closer to the broken face.

    From down below, the god domain was getting smaller and smaller.

    The three gods sitting there cross-legged all opened th¨¥ir eyes. Th¨¥y then vanished from the crumbling god domain, taking with them the unconscious Sir Firedark as well as all the other cultivators.

    When they materialized, th¨¥y were outside of the god domain, in midair above Revered Ancient. At the same time, th¨¥ir aura shot past the level of the tribtion fire and stepped into the wless level.

    That massive upgrade came without any tribtion. Now th¨¥y had hope of reaching the level of Altar God. In Revered Ancient, that was the hope of all gods, but sadly, it was an incredibly difficult task. Taking in all of the Revered Ancient maind, the number of gods who had be wless Gods was extremely limited. For example, even Crimson Mother had only reached the halfway point.

    Now, godfire burned with great intensity in the three wless Gods, making their aura far more terrifying than that of Crimson Mother. It was easy to imagine how three wless Gods mightpletely change things in Revered Ancient. Th¨¥ir gazes were bright and full of life as th¨¥y looked up at the crumbling god domain, which was the final aspect of their sacrificial offering.

    The dramatic event was ending.

    Except then, Sunfire¡¯s expression flickered, and h¨¥r pupils constricted. Starfire frowned. Th¨¥ir gazes were focused on the god domain as it flew toward the broken face. Only the very middle of the god domain remained, and even that part was starting to crumble into ash.

    But then a burst of teleportation power appeared. It was dazzling and magnificent, and its aura surpassed even a hundred ancient teleportation portals all being activated at the same time. That made itpletely eye-catching. In fact, it filled the sky!

    The three gods weren''t the only ones who were watching. All the gazes and streams of divine will that had been watching the three gods now shifted focus.

    As they looked on... a figure appeared within the terrifying teleportation light. It was the emperor¡¯s corpse, within which were Xu Qing and the Captain!

    Shock spread among the countless onlookers.

    <i>What are they doing?</i> That was what everyone was thinking.

    Aplicated look shed through Sunfire¡¯s eyes, though itcked surprise. ¡°Guess they¡¯re feeling suicidal.¡±

    Starfire¡¯s heart was pounding, and sh¨¥ had a very unusual expression on h¨¥r face.

    To the shock of all, as the teleportation light red, the emperor¡¯s corpse lifted its right hand. Held between the fingers was an extraordinary golden hair! The light of teleportation was actuallying from that hair. The Captain had ensorcelled it several times, which filled it with godly might. As it appeared, the light of teleportation rose high into the sky.

    ¡°Son!!¡± the emperor¡¯s corpse said in a booming voice.

    The dome of heaven trembled as the cry of an infant echoed out over Revered Ancient. As a result, some minute changes urred as the light of teleportation shifted to a specific point.

    ¡°Crimson Mother karma!¡± the emperor¡¯s corpse said.

    A mass of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh flew out, joining the teleportation light and filling it with red streaks. The teleportation received further fine tuning. Karma was being used to lock down on a specific location.

    At that point, the god domain around the emperor¡¯s corpse copsed. A deafening rumbling sound filled heaven and earth. It grew louder and louder until it was the only sound, as the god domain... vanished from the dome of heaven.

    The sacrificial offering of a god domain was over. Perhaps it did turn into a god world. Just because it disappeared didn¡¯t mean it didn¡¯t exist. But there was another possibility, that being that the god domain couldn¡¯t survive the process.

    It didn¡¯t matter either way. What was important... was that it had been sacrificed to the broken face. The three gods¡¯ n of tens of thousands of years had been carried out topletion.

    This was the shedding of karma! The power of the broken face was used for the upgrade, and then the sacrifice was given to the broken face, closing the loop. It was the closing curtain for the three gods.

    However... it was simply the opening curtain for Xu Qing and the Captain!

    The moment the god domain crumbled into ash, thest bit of the upgrade power... fully activated the teleportation. The hair turned into countless golden motes of light. The emperor¡¯s corpse had already vanished within them.

    Inside the corpse, Xu Qing could hear the Captainughing madly.

    ¡°Little Junior Brother... let¡¯s goooo!¡±

    ***

    Beyond the Revered Ancient maind was a sprawling starry sky. If you could stand in that starry sky and look down at Revered Ancient, you would be able to see how vast it was.

    Shockingly, there was also a golden spine outside of Revered Ancient. It was extremely long, such that itpletely wrapped around thend mass like a golden centipede. There were no arms, no torso, and no legs. Just that golden spine, and the half of a broken face that hung down from it. The broken face¡¯s hair swayed down, brushing the cloud cover of the continent below.

    The broken face had wounds covering it, which were surrounded by torn flesh, blood, fine hair, and bits of head hair....

    H¨¥ was astonishinglyrge. From the perspective of Revered Ancient, that size surpassed that of the sun and moon. What was more, looking from the perspective of the starry sky, h¨¥ seemed even bigger.

    Cultivators were like nothing inparison to even one of the fine hairs. It was the same with the head hair. They were so thick as to stand as their own heaven and earth, and exuded indescribable pressure.

    The torn flesh was equally terrifying. Even the smallest drop of blood was like a sea, stretching forever and for all eternity.

    Countless years had passed since h¨¥ floated from the depths of the starry sky and wrapped around Revered Ancient. There didn¡¯t seem much change to the broken face during that time. However, if you could pass through the River of Time and go into the past, you would find... that the golden spine was slowly wrapping tighter and tighter around Revered Ancient.

    What was more, though the Revered Ancient maind seemed vast, the reality was that it was smaller than before. It was in the process of being devoured. This was the broken face of the god that everyone saw when they looked up.

    The face had a name: Destion.

    The face was paramount above all. From the moment h¨¥ had arrived in ancient times until now, there hadn¡¯t been a single living being in Revered Ancient who hade into h¨©s presence. It was as if, to h¨©m, all living things, and, in fact, all things, were just passing by in time.

    Until... today. A tiny mote of light appeared in the void just next to one of the wounds and next to one of the drops of blood. If someone in the starry sky could zoom in on that mote of light, they would see a figure inside, d in an imperial robe.

    The moment the figure appeared, it blurred. A force too terrifying to describe mmed into it, something that surpassed what anyone could possibly imagine.

    It took only a moment for the corpse to start falling into pieces. Yet in that moment, the corpse had apletely crazy facial expression. It was as if nothing in existence could surpass what was in front of it, leading to the ultimate levels of craziness and greed.

    Naturally, that expression came from the Captain.

    The eyes of the emperor¡¯s corpse shone brilliantly, like the ghost of someone who had starved to death and then been hungry for tens of thousands of years, and would do anything just to get a bite of food.

    That gaze came from Xu Qing.

    As of this moment, the two of them werepletely in sync, both in thought and action. Lookingpletely crazy, and disregarding their crumbling bodies and fading souls, they rushed toward the nearest sea-sized drop of blood.

 Chapter 906: I Want More!

    <h4>Chapter 906: I Want More!</h4>

    The area high above the cloud canopy of Revered Ancient had been empty for aeons. But after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left and the gods came, something came to exist at the peak of the Revered Ancient sky. It was a godwarding. It was like a hex, invisible and undetectable, but as functional as a lid that made it impossible to get in or out of the world.

    Only someone like Li Zihua, who was an Altar God, could surpass it. There were no other exceptions. After Dark Serenity and the emperors of other species left to establish the holynds, people who reached the Altar God level were so rare as to be nonexistent.

    Even wless Gods could only long to reach that level. Although they didn¡¯t have to deal with tribtions that came from beyond their omniscience, the requirements to seed were still staggering.

    In these circumstances, the only way to seed at Altar God would be to wage war on other gods and devour the losers.

    Wars between gods weren¡¯t things that happened casually. Gods didn¡¯t start wars lightly, and unlike cultivators, were not used to dealing with suffering.

    But to the living beings of Revered Ancient, their home was, just as the Church of Departure taught, like a prison cage. And the godwarding was the cage door. It cut off freedom and made it impossible to be unrestrained. The living beings had no choice but to wait until the day Revered Ancient waspletely devoured. Death was the only way to escape from the sea of bitterness. There was no fighting back. There was no escaping.

    That was Revered Ancient¡¯s fate, as decided by the broken face of the god. H¨¥ devoured heavenly daos, surpassing all else. H¨¥ was like the will of heaven to Revered Ancient, and the decider of fate. Who could possibly defy the will of heaven itself?

    But today there was an exception. Someone had turned the impossible into the possible. In an outrageous and daring act, they borrowed power from an upgrading god domain as well as karma from Crimson Mother, to burrow through the sky, defy heaven, and escape from within the prison cage! It was essentially a jailbreak!

    When the emperor¡¯s corpse, which was under the control of Xu Qing and the Captain, appeared in front of the broken face, there were powerful experts from many species on Revered Ancient who couldn¡¯t stop shocked looks from appearing on their faces. Many of them emerged from their secluded meditation facilities and flew up into the air looking bbergasted. They were shocked first by the jailbreak, second by the recklessness on disy, and third by the entire scenario.

    Some cultivators cried out in astonishment.

    ¡°Someone got out!¡±

    ¡°This....¡±

    ¡°What a waste! An opportunity like this is unheard-of. If we got a chance like this we would definitely escape this cage!¡±

    ¡°What a pity. What a real pity! This will probably never happen again!¡¯

    The three gods all had different facial expressions. Sunfire looked grim, with cold eyes. Moonfire¡¯s face shed back and forth between different expressions. Only Starfire had a thoughtful expression.

    The focus of all those gazes and streams of divine will, the emperor¡¯s corpse, was being guided by the Captain and Xu Qing right toward one of the drops of blood. They didn¡¯t waste any time. In the blink of an eye, they closed in, one full of craziness and greed, the other full of excitement and hunger.

    When the corpse entered the blood, an immense force of resistance sprang up along with terrifying pressure. A will that could wipe out all else erupted wildly. The terrifying power didn¡¯t juste from the sea of blood. It also came from the holy broken face so close by. This spot was so close to the broken face that no living being had ever been here before. Naturally, the broken face¡¯s aura was horrifying. Even if the three gods were here, they would onlyst for a certain amount of time before they were destroyed in body and soul.

    The Captain hade fully prepared, yet he was already showing signs of physical copse.

    Given the limited time, the Captain and Xu Qing were going all out. They could sense the extreme danger around them, yet their course had already been set.

    It took one breath of time to enter the sea of blood. By the time the second breath of time arrived, the Captain had already opened his mouth wide to start madly devouring whatever was on the outside.

    However, after only one mouthful, the Captain exploded. He formed anew in an instant. Looking pale and a bit taken aback, he opened his mouth again. But this time, it seemed he was preparing to use a different method rather than direct absorption. At the same time, he looked like he was ready to risk being smashed to death as long as he could absorb enough of what he wanted.

    Xu Qing was also going crazy. After taking in one mouthful, his void soil went wild, and his cultivation base rose dramatically. Most shocking of all was that over a hundred lineaments of godly authority appeared in his void soil. Up to this point, he¡¯d only built up four lineaments. Yet one mouthful of blood provided over a hundred! It just went to show how terrifying the blood was!

    Unfortunately, the lineaments of godly authority were faint. In fact, they weren¡¯t even material. They were faint projections that would require enlightenment to fully manifest. Even still, they were exceptional!

    Xu Qing had been prepared for something amazing, but this was such a shock he couldn¡¯t have been more excited. His hunger was already gone! In fact, he was now feeling full!

    Now, all of this takes a bit of time to describe, but the reality is that it happened in an instant. Gritting his teeth, Xu Qing ignored the fact that he was full and continued to put everything on the line. There was no way he would be satisfied with only one bite. After the second breath of time ended, the third began, and he opened his mouth and took another big mouthful.

    At the same time, he fully tapped into the violet crystal. If there was anything that could sustain the personhood of the broken face, it was the violet crystal! If the violet crystal couldn¡¯t do it, then Xu Qing would feel regret, but wouldn¡¯t have any other options.

    Violet light red around Xu Qing, and then blood started rushing toward him. It was a sess!

    Full of excitement, Xu Qing kept working hard. Unfortunately, time was extremely limited.

    Although this entire situation seemed like it was taking a long time, so far, only three breaths of time had passed. When the fourth breath of time arrived, the Wordless words that were keeping them concealed... copsed. Though they were extraordinary, and had received multiple ensorcellments, they had their limits.

    Without the concealment of the Wordless words, the only defense left was the emperor¡¯s corpse. Xu Qing and the Captain were startled, but they didn¡¯t stop devouring the sea of blood. Thanks to their ravenous devouring, they had already reduced the sea of blood by about thirty percent.

    Unfortunately, the emperor¡¯s corpse was constantly crumbling into ash. This corpse was extraordinary. It was hard to say exactly how strong his cultivation base had been in life, but it seemed that it was at least in the Grand Emperor level. Add in the authority over the god domain, and it was definitely a powerful defense for Xu Qing and the Captain. But the emperor had ultimately perished, and was only a corpse. It was like a tree with no roots, and thus, the aura of the broken face was breaking it down rapidly.

    The aura of the broken face could exterminate anything and kill everything. The emperor¡¯s corpse was slowing it down, and from how fast it was happening, it was obvious that without the corpse, Xu Qing and the Captain probably wouldn¡¯t be able tost for a single breath of time.

    As the sixth breath of time arrived, the deadly crisis was reaching a climax. Death was on nigh. Forty percent of the blood sea still remained.

    <i>¡°Got any other tricks up your sleeve?¡±</i> Xu Qing asked via divine will, suppressing his greed. <i>¡°If not, we should get out of here!¡±</i>

    <i>¡°I do!¡±</i> the Captain replied. <i>¡°I¡¯ve got one more strategy!¡±</i> Instead of taking out a hair to teleport away, the Captain madly projected a message via divine will. <i>¡°Master, if you don¡¯t show your face right now, you won¡¯t have any apprentices left!!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes lit up.

    What was happening in the dome of heaven was an absolute shock to any cultivators who could see it. The jailbreak itself was astonishing enough, but what was even more gasp-inducing was how greedy Xu Qing and the Captain were. In fact, that greed couldn¡¯t even be described with the word ¡®crazy¡¯ at this point. It was such an over-the-top situation that it was definitely worthy of being recorded in the histories of Revered Ancient. Whether gods, cultivators from elite species, or other powerful experts, people throughout the maind felt overwhelmed by tempests of astonishment. It was shocking to a river-drying, sea-draining, rock-smashing, heaven-startling level!

    Living God Eminent Destion, whose spine was wrapped around the Revered Ancient maind, and who existed as half of a face, had always been iparably holy, whether in the past or the present. In h¨©s glory days, h¨©s name was known in thirty-six star rings in the universe, as well as countlessary systems. Being half a step into Living God, he was very close to the peak of being a god. Myriads of worlds offered h¨©m worship, and living beings could have their fate determined by h¨©s mere thoughts.

    Though h¨¥ ultimately met with failure, and copsed because of an unimaginable bacsh, h¨¥ was still an entity that no one would dare to offend. When a whale dies, it can provide a foundation for countless living things to flourish. The same principle applied to someone with personhood like h¨©s.

    After h¨¥ fell, countless years passed in which numerous gods arose. In fact, wherever h¨¥ went, gods followed.

    That was why h¨¥ was respectfully called Father God. From that it could be seen how paramount h¨©s personhood was. That was why, from ancient times until now, though many people had coveted h¨©s flesh and blood, not one person had ever dared to try to get it.

    Cultivators couldn¡¯t get past the godwarding, so obviously they couldn¡¯t get any of that flesh and blood. Besides, gods were so revered that no one would try. In the past, taking a bite out of h¨©m was literally impossible. That wasn¡¯t even to mention that the broken face¡¯s aura was enough to wipe out countless living beings.

    Today, under the eyes of many onlookers, two people were goingpletely crazy. Not only did they go out to the broken face, but they went right into one of the sea-sized drops of blood. It wasn¡¯t really appropriate to describe the actions of Xu Qing and the Captain with the idiom <i>snakes devouring mammoths</i>. A more urate way to put it was <i>ants devouring dragons</i>. Most important, it seemed as if... even if they seeded, they would still be killed.

    As of this moment, everyone was watching closely. How crazy! How rash! How suicidal.... That was exactly the way to describe it. All streams of divine will and all gazes were watching closely, and waiting for them to die.

    But right then....

    A huge golden hand appeared outside of the godwarding, high in the canopy of heaven! It was a majestic hand that, as soon as it appeared, unhesitatingly swept the area clear.

    It grabbed a huge chunk of flesh from the broken face, then snatched the drop of blood that held Xu Qing and the Captain. Next, it grabbed another chunk of flesh!

    All the gods who were watching this event were astonished! The three gods in particr were taken aback. The broken face¡¯s eyshes twitched.

    All of a sudden, the huge hand copsed. Golden blood sprayed everywhere. But clearly, this gigantic hand was a font of greed. After copsing, it clumped back together into a huge mouth that took a vicious bite of flesh before fleeing.

    The price to be paid was huge, though, as the hand copsed again. The fingers shattered, and the only thing left behind was a bit of golden light that swept up Xu Qing and the Captain and then sped away in retreat.

    Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t fast enough. That golden light was also wiped out of existence. As it did, Xu Qing and the Captain heard someone shouting into their minds.

    <i>¡°What are you two suicidal brats lounging around for? I can¡¯t hold on much longer, you dolts!!¡±</i>

    Even as those words exploded into their minds, a hair activated in the emperor¡¯s corpse, which was still inside the sea of blood, only one-tenth of which remained. Thanks to the protection of the golden light, the power of teleportation red. Within the dazzling light, Xu Qing excitedly directed the emperor¡¯s corpse to check the golden light. The golden light faded away.

    Relieved, Xu Qing was about to look away when, all of a sudden, his gaze sharpened.

    Far off in the distance in the starry sky, he could see hundreds of stars on the move. They were like shooting stars, and they were getting closer!

    They were so far away that Xu Qing couldn¡¯t tell what they were. He would have examined them closer if he could, but there wasn¡¯t time.

    The next instant, the corpse he was in vanished as it teleported away!

 Chapter 907: The Final Trump Card!

    <h4>Chapter 907: The Final Trump Card!</h4>

    The dome of heaven was quiet. The dazzling light of teleportation winked out above the clouds. The broken face¡¯s eyshes had twitched thanks to the actions of Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Seventh, but for some unknown reason, the eyes never opened. After the emperor¡¯s corpse vanished along with Xu Qing and the Captain, and the golden hand faded into nothing, everything went back to normal. It almost seemed like nothing happened at all just now.

    However, the powerful experts and gods who had been watching the events y out would never possibly forget what they had just seen.

    What was more, the golden hand that appeared in the end clearly had a close connection to the two audacious individuals in question. Perhaps the background of the yers involved would eventually be revealed, but regardless, that huge hand¡¯s actions were something all the onlookers refused to take lightly.

    Although the person behind the hand hadn¡¯t personally broken through the godwarding, but rather, had been hidden on the person of one of the two crazy cultivators, the hand had made it obvious it possessed astonishing battle prowess.

    ¡°It was like a cultivator, but not a cultivator. And like a god, but not a god.¡±

    ¡°It was abination of immortal and god. An amalgamation formed by some unique magic used by this unknown yer.¡±

    ¡°Although this unknown expert is strong, his level of greed is too excessive. All three obviously suffered serious injuries. That said, that level of greed did get them some of the Father God¡¯s flesh and blood. As for how much... only time will tell.¡±

    ¡°I wonder if that was the same mysterious cultivator that appeared earlier??¡±

    ¡°The unknown expert and the mysterious cultivator who helped the three gods definitely aren¡¯t the same person!¡±

    Different parties had different takes on what happened based on their perspective. No one agreed on all the details, and few people would be debating their viewpoint with others.

    ¡°See yourself out,dies and gentlemen,¡± Sunfire said coldly to the surrounding streams of divine sense, in a voice that boomed like thunder.

    The gazes and streams of divine will scattered. Both the mysterious cultivator and the unknown expert were obviously daring and rash, and also very thought-provoking.

    Considering that the three gods had seeded in th¨¥ir effort, there was no need for anyone to keep observing. That was especially true considering... that with the three gods having be wless Gods, the political structure of Revered Ancient was almost certainly going to change. It was time to make preparations for that.

    The area emptied of auras. No one was hiding and looking on. At that point, Sunfire turned to look at Moonfire and Starfire, and was even about to speak. But then, h¨¥r gaze shifted to a spot off in the distance. Sh¨¥ blurred and disappeared.

    Moonfire noticed the same thing. Facepletely expressionless, sh¨¥ also disappeared.

    Meanwhile, Starfire smiled faintly. ¡°You¡¯ve got some guts to teleport back here. Ah, whatever. You do owe me some primal yang, after all.¡±

    Suddenly looking ethereal and charming, Starfire a step forward, h¨¥r garment swirling around h¨¥r as sh¨¥ vanished into thin air.

    ***

    Some 5,000 kilometers away, but still in one of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ regions, the light of teleportation exploded in a deste mountain range. A dazzlingly bright ring expanded out with tempestuous force. It spread for 3,000 meters in every direction, ttening mountains, wiping away nts and vegetation, and leaving thends scorched and barren. The source was a mangled corpse. The moment it appeared was also thest moment the corpse could remain intact. It copsed, and two figures shot out from the remains.

    They were none other than Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Xu Qing staggered a bit. Blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth, and his face was pale white. He had a mass of wounds all over him, and yet he kept his cool and used divine will to scan the surroundings. After confirming from the local aura that he was still in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, his expression darkened.

    ¡°Something must have gone wrong with Master!¡± he said in a hoarse voice. That much seemed obvious. If Master Seventh had been in good shape, he surely would have adjusted the teleportation to take them away from the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    The Captain was in no better shape than Xu Qing. He had gaping wounds all over him, and at the moment, was justying on the ground gasping for breath. However, he did manage to wave his hand dismissively and chuckle roguishly. ¡°It¡¯s fine. If something went wrong with the old man, for instance him dying or something, then as the Eldest Brother, I¡¯ll just take over as the new Master Seventh!¡±

    Upon hearing such disgraceful and offensivenguage, Xu Qing instinctively looked around to see if they were alone.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes darted back and forth as he did the same. After a few breaths of time passed, he blinked a few times, sighed, and said, ¡°Seems that the old man really isn¡¯t around. But seriously, it¡¯s fine. He¡¯s amazing enough that we don¡¯t need to worry about him. There¡¯s no way he took action without backup ns in ce. Don¡¯t worry. He¡¯s gone on many more big jobs than either of us. He won¡¯t die.¡±

    Xu Qing decided that what the Captain said made sense. He nodded.

    The Captain struggled to his feet and threw his arm over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulders. Eyes glitteringcently, he said, ¡°Well, what do you think, little Junior Brother? Was this job worth it?¡±

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and checked his void soil. There were over a hundred very faint lineaments, each of which was made from godly authority.

    He needed to gain enlightenment of them one by one before they could be material. But considering he was walking a path of cultivation that was without parallel in history, it seemed good to consider that just a first step in the right direction. It couldn¡¯t be called anything other than good fortune.

    Of course, his battle prowess had increased dramatically. What was more, he still had some of the god domain upgrade power in the form of the god talisman. It could also be considered a precious treasure, and contained terrifying might. If Xu Qing reached a bottleneck in Void Returning, it could be used like a god pill to make his cultivation path much smoother.

    Or, if he waited until he was at the peak of Smoldering God to consume it, he might be able to do what other cultivators could only do if they had a bloodline legacy or a lot of destiny aura: he could break the shackles to be an Imperial Sovereign!

    And yet, that couldn¡¯t be considered the best way to use it. The best would be for Xu Qing to wait until the day that he was in the Imperial Sovereign level, and consume the talisman. At that point, he could have the chance... to use that terrifying power to force his way into the quasi-Immortal level, also known as Grand Emperor. Though the chance of thetter seeding was slim, if he added in the blood of the broken face....

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart raced as he checked the violet crystal and confirmed that it had a drop of golden blood sealed inside! God blood was usually gold. Butparing this drop to others he had seen, it was clear that the others were impure. Only this drop could be considered golden blood of the highest level of purity. Looking at it was like looking at the universe itself, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s mind to reel. Then, that ¡®universe¡¯ blurred and transformed into an enormous broken face.

    That broken face was, of course, the Living God from the dome of heaven over Revered Ancient. Though h¨©s eyes were closed, there was still profound karma connecting to Xu Qing.

    That sensation of karma provided Xu Qing with some enlightenment. He could tell that absorbing the god blood of the broken face could be considered a peak level of god blood, but at the same time, contained astonishing cmity and tribtion. The broken face¡¯s eyes would asionally open. However, that didn¡¯t mean the face woke up. It was just an instinct.

    If h¨¥ actually did wake up one day, then anyone connected to h¨©m by karma would be the first ones taken to be nutrients. To Xu Qing, though, that didn¡¯t matter. All living beings in the Revered Ancient maind were locked in a cage, and were all fundamentally already nutrients for the broken face.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. ¡°It was worth it!¡±

    Hearing that, the Captainughed heartily. Then he took out an exquisite phoenix hairpin clearly designed for a woman. He handed it to Xu Qing. Before he could say anything else, the dome of heaven turned dark, and terrifying pressure spread out, cutting the area off from time and everything else.

    The spot upied by Xu Qing and the Captain was like a lone rowboat in a violent storm.

    The three gods had arrived.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank. Looking very serious, he turned to the canopy of heaven and bowed in greeting. ¡°Well met, three gods.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t exactly panicking. He knew that devouring that blood created karma between him and the broken face. He also knew that this good fortune could also be considered something taboo!

    The Captain was also aware of that reality. Apparently, the Captain had also prepared for this moment, as he cleared his throat, and not looking rmed at all, waved cheerily to the three gods and opened his mouth to call out a greeting.

    Before he could, Sunfire red down at him and Xu Qing.

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain shivered from head to toe as a sensation of extermination filled them, and their life force showed signs of withering up. Apparently, resistance or refusal would not be tolerated.

    But then, a terrifying personhood power rose up within them, causing the will of extermination to pause. Although it wasn¡¯t very strong, considering they had both consumed the blood of the broken face, which had a paramount level of personhood, it was correct to say that, inparison, Sunfire was like some ordinary waterpared to a 10,000-year-old cier. Unfortunately, that cier was just too small, while the water was as vast as an endless sea.

    At that moment of crisis, when Sunfire was just about to take action, the Captain shouted something absolutely astonishing.

    ¡°Moonie! Sweetheart! My wife!¡±

    Those words caused wild colors to sh in heaven and earth.

    Starfire blinked a few times. Sunfire¡¯s eyes burned with rarely-seen anger, as well as deadly extermination. But then... Moonfire unexpectedly took a step forward. Along with that step came a burst of godly might that blocked the power of Sunfire.

    Facepletely expressionless, Moonfire looked at the Captain.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, was reeling. He had expected the Captain to do something, but could never have guessed it would be this....

    The Captain wasn¡¯t done shouting. ¡°Sweetheart, Niuniu was in the wrong....¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned even stranger upon hearing the Captain call himself Niuniu.

    The Captain didn¡¯t seem to care about that. Lookingpletely intoxicated, even in love, he continued, ¡°Do you know what, sweetheart? Everything I¡¯ve done in this life was so that, just like in that past life, I could be close to you!

    ¡°I risked death, acted crazily, and held nothing back, all because of my love for you. I¡¯m still that same little Niuniu who gave up everything for love! In that past life, I didn¡¯t know how to cherish things. But in this life, it doesn¡¯t matter whether or not God will give me an opportunity, I¡¯m going to fight for the right to stand next to your true form!

    ¡°For that purpose, I used 10,000-year-old ck gold, plus an eternal gem, as well as strength from my Junior Brother, to form two phoenix hairpins, each of which is a perfect gift for one¡¯s true love. All I want to say to you today, Moonie, is... please ept my hairpin. And please... let¡¯s make up!¡±

    With that, the Captain took out a hairpin that looked almost exactly like the one he had given to Xu Qing. Hands trembling, he held it up to the dome of heaven. At the same time, he bowed his head nervously, as if he didn¡¯t dare to look Moonfire directly in the eyes. Apparently, he feared seeing anything like rejection or cold apathy.

    Xu Qing had already reached the point where he didn¡¯t want to hear anything further. However, it was a dangerous situation. So he just watched to see what the Captain would do. However, only a momentter, he realized that the Captain was looking at him meaningfully out of the corner of his eye.

    Xu Qing, being so familiar with the Captain, almost instantly knew what that look meant. Then he thought about the hairpin.

    On any other asion, he would refuse to go along with the Captain¡¯s idea. But today....

    Sighing inwardly, Xu Qing looked at Starfire, braced himself, and said, ¡°High God Starfire, on the way here, I prepared a gift for you....¡±

 Chapter 908: Abandoned Wasteland

    <h4>Chapter 908: Abandoned Wastnd</h4>

    An incense stick of time passed. Xu Qing and the Captain were just barely visible making their way toward the edge of the thousands of meters of barrennd that had been carved out by the power of teleportation.

    The three gods silently watched them leave. Th¨¥y knew that the flesh and blood of the broken face could be considered a precious treasure, and would be very useful to th¨¥m. But th¨¥y also came to the same conclusion as Xu Qing that it woulde with catastrophic karma. It was good fortune, but also something taboo.

    Considering th¨¥y had just seeded at bing wless Gods, and now had hope of reaching the Altar God level, th¨¥y didn¡¯t want to stain themselves with such karma. All in all, th¨¥y were gods. The Revered Ancient maind was nutrients for the broken face, and everyone there was doomed to be devoured. But not th¨¥m.

    What was more, when th¨¥irst connection to North Emperor was severed, th¨¥y truly became gods. Even after Revered Ancient disappeared, th¨¥y could continue on as subservient gods to the broken face.

    Of course, there had been other options for them. For instance... th¨¥y could have killed Xu Qing and the Captain. Or th¨¥y could have taken the Father God¡¯s blood and offered it back as a sacrifice.

    Thus, as Xu Qing and the Captain made their way off into the distance, Sunfire¡¯s expression remained icy and grim. H¨¥r killing intent was still there.

    ¡°What do you two think of that crazy ox?¡± Sunfire asked coolly, looking over at Starfire and Moonfire, but primarily Moonfire.

    Moonfire said nothing, making it impossible to tell what sh¨¥ was thinking. Sh¨¥ hardly seemed to have even looked at the phoenix hairpin floating in front of h¨¥r.

    In contrast, Starfire was already fiddling with the other hairpin. Sh¨¥ smiled. ¡°In the end, the two of them helped us a lot. What¡¯s more, though their arrival was within the scope of our omniscience, we can¡¯t see what happenster, thanks to that crazy ox. I think it¡¯s all very interesting. Why not allow some good karma to be sown with them?¡±

    Sunfire frowned. ¡°I can deal with Moonfire¡¯s attitude. But as for you, Starfire, you and that idiot asshole are¡ª¡±

    Before sh¨¥ could finish speaking, Starfire''s eyes turned cold, and sh¨¥ interrupted in a sharp tone. ¡°His name is Xu Qing. He¡¯s not an idiot and he¡¯s not an asshole!¡±

    Sunfire¡¯s eyes narrowed, but before sh¨¥ could say anything else, Moonfire spoke up. ¡°Cut the crap. If you want to kill the scumbag, then do it. Given your omniscience, you know what could happen if you do.¡±

    Having said that, Moonfire vanished into thin air. The hairpin vanished as well.

    Seeing that, Sunfire held back from speaking. Given her omniscience, sh¨¥ <i>could </i>see what might happen. But there were too many variables in that result. Moonfire and Sunfire were involved, and sh¨¥ couldn¡¯t see th¨¥m with h¨¥r omniscience. What was more, the golden hand that had shown up earlier was also unclear in h¨¥r omniscience, as if it were being blocked by some mysterious shielding screen. Because of that, sh¨¥ wasn¡¯tpletely sure of what would happen.

    Meanwhile, Starfire was looking deeply at the reticent Sunfire. ¡°Weren¡¯t things decided once <i>that</i> person came to help? Besides, that person¡¯s Master is on the way.¡± With that, Starfire faded away, leaving behind a few words as sh¨¥ did. ¡°By the way, I¡¯m going to say it one more time. He¡¯s not an idiot, and he¡¯s not an asshole. His name is Xu Qing.¡±

    Now Sunfire was left alone. After a moment passed, sh¨¥ shook h¨¥r head. ¡°Gods are supposed to be emotionless. But you two....¡±

    Sh¨¥ sighed. As sh¨¥ well knew, though the three of th¨¥m were walking the way of the gods, the reality was that th¨¥y hadn¡¯t started out as natural-born gods. As a result, th¨¥y were very nearly as emotional as Crimson Mother.

    ¡°Omniscience. Is there anyone that can truly have omniscience?¡± Sunfire closed h¨¥r eyes and faded into thin air.

    ***

    Some 30,000 meters away, Xu Qing and the Captain were hurrying away at top speed. They raced along as blurs of light for three days before stopping at a low-lying mountain.

    Xu Qing immediately scanned the area, then looked up into the sky. The anxiety within him was only just starting to loosen.

    Although the broken face¡¯s blood came with karma, he was confident that his Master hadn¡¯t just thrown them into enemy territory for no reason. Besides, he and the Captain had already done everything they could do in terms of Moonfire and Starfire. There were still a lot of unknowns, but by now, he was fairly certain the three gods had actually let them go.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s fine,¡± the Captain said with a sigh. ¡°It was really irresponsible for the old man to toss us here. Thanks to my innate skills, plus your rtionship with the slutty fox, we actually made it out fine!¡± The Captain was actually worried inside, but he wasn¡¯t showing it. Sticking his chin up proudly, he continued, ¡°What do you think, little Junior Brother? Am I right, or am I right?

    ¡°By the way, I need to give you some constructive criticism. Your wording when you offered that phoenix hairpin was simply too blunt. Especially how you addressed h¨¥r. You sounded like a lump on a log! I guess you just need some more practice. You need to put some emotion into your words! Make sure sh¨¥ knows you¡¯re a hot-blooded young man who¡¯ll travel to the ends of the earth for the sake of love!

    ¡°Come on, I¡¯ll teach you. You need to say something like, ¡®Oh little Starry, my true love and soulmate....¡¯ Come on, say it with me a few times so you¡¯ll have it ready to go next time.¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t help but think back to how the Captain had called himself Niuniu. An odd expression appeared on his face, and he felt like he was going to get goosebumps.

    The Captain wasn¡¯t very pleased to see Xu Qing refusing to cooperate. ¡°Little Ah Qing! You¡¯re still just too inexperienced, sort of like me back in the day when I was dealing with your sister-inw. I called h¨¥r Little Moonie, and sh¨¥ called me h¨¥r precious Niuniu. Ah, good times. Good times....¡±

    Xu Qing cleared his throat. He really, really wasn¡¯t interested in continuing this line of conversation, and seeing that the Captain was probably going to keep going, he decided to interrupt. ¡°Eldest Brother, it looked to me like Master got two chunks of the broken face¡¯s flesh....¡±

    The way Xu Qing changed topics worked well on the Captain. The Captain suddenly seemed to wake up. Eyes shining, he said, ¡°That¡¯s right. I noticed the same thing. We can¡¯t stand for it! We need to get back to human territory immediately, track down the old man, and throw a tantrum until he agrees to share.¡±

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. ¡°I doubt throwing a tantrum will do much good. It would be better to suck up to him.¡±

    The Captain had to admit it made sense. After some thought, he started thinking of ways to suck up to Master Seventh.

    Seeing that the Captain was back to normal, Xu Qing finally started to feel calm. Looking off in the direction of human territory, he thought about Plumdark and everyone else he knew back in the Imperial Region.

    ¡°We need to get back,¡± he murmured. He and the Captain hadn¡¯t been gone for very long, but a lot had happened during that time. Now that everything was over, he wanted to get back more than ever.

    However, before returning, there was something to take care of. In fact, it was the entire reason he hade to Firemoon Darkheaven territory to begin with. After taking the flesh and blood of the broken face, it had seemed unlikely he would seed at that. But the attitude of the three gods had given him new hope. With that thought in mind, his eyes shone.

    <i>Grand Darkheaven!</i>

    In the final analysis, he hade here to participate in the Firemoon Darkheaven¡¯s Great Hunt. In the first round of moving mountains, Xu Qing took first ce. In the second round in the Mountain and Sea Region, he acquired Ninedawns, while simultaneously crushing the otherpetitors and taking first ce. As for the third round, the hunting in the god domain, although things eventually got out of hand... whether it was Sir Heavenink, Tuo Shishan, or Fan Shishuang, it didn¡¯t seem likely that any of them would disagree that Xu Qing had taken first ce.

    The only one who might not be willing to concede to that was Sir Firedark.

    <i>That¡¯s fine. If she has a problem, I¡¯ll beat her into giving in.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. He hadn¡¯t really been paying much attention to Sir Firedark, so he wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d ultimately seeded at bing a Smoldering God.

    If she wasn¡¯t a Smoldering God, then Xu Qing waspletely confident that he could crush her. And even if she was a Smoldering God, as long as she only had one world, he was certain that, given his current battle prowess, he would stille out on top.

    With that, he exined his n to the Captain. The Captain thought about it and then gave his wholehearted approval.

    What Xu Qing wanted to do was going to be dangerous, but it was necessary. In order to forestall any mistakes, the two of them discussed the n and prepared some contingencies in case they needed to flee for their lives. That included preparing a few teleportation hairs. Though those hairs hadn¡¯t been ensorcelled, given that the two of them had the blood of the broken face, it wasn¡¯t hard to give them a big boost. Furthermore, they had the emperor¡¯s corpse as a trump card. Although the corpse waspletely mangled, it was still the fleshly body of North Emperor!

    That said, considering what they had just aplished, even further preparations weren¡¯t going to be enough topletely guarantee their safety.

    Luckily, as long as they were in the territory of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, and the three gods didn¡¯t want to kill them, then other gods wouldn¡¯t dare to get greedy and make a move on them.

    ***

    A month passed. During that time, various species in Revered Ancient stayed on guard against the Firemoon Darkheavens. Some prepared for war. Everyone was waiting to see how the status quo would change.

    There had already been an announcement regarding the banquet set to mark the end of the Great Hunt. The same thing happened at the end of every Great Hunt. Rewards were given to all cultivators who had earned a ce in the rankings. What was more, considering how all three gods had risen to a higher level, the banquet was going to be even more amazing than usual.

    It was to be held in Heavenfire City at God Mountain! The three stewards were alling, as were all the powerful experts among the species. When the banquet started with a disy of magical techniques and divine abilities that filled the sky with auspicious colors, Xu Qing and the Captain quietly arrived.

    Rumbling booms echoed out like heavenly thunder. The auspicious images in the sky included holy beasts, dazzling flowers, and battle gods. It was truly an amazing sight.

    ***

    Little did anyone realize that, at the same time, outside of the godwarding in the starry sky... the hundreds of motes of starlight that Xu Qing had observed were getting very close! They were actually a host of asteroids covered in magical symbols and pulsing with ancient and terrifying auras.

    As they neared Revered Ancient, they avoided the broken face. Using various concealment techniques, they prevented their auras from spreading, ensuring that no one could observe them, either with divine sense or the naked eye.

    Then they pierced through the godwarding, which was a one-way trip. Without any fanfare, they headed to different locations in Revered Ancient....

    One of them crashnded on a barren mountain that existed roughly in between Firemoon and human territory. The mountain was reduced to ash, and there was nothing left behind other than a gaping crater. Cold energy seeped out of the crater, freezing everything in the area. At the same time, a voice could be heard speaking.

    ¡°Finally here. A barren world with hardly any spirit energy. And there are signs of god invasion everywhere.... ording to the legends, this is the wastnd we from the holynds abandoned back in the day.¡±

 Chapter 909: Holy Lands Cultivators

    <h4>Chapter 909: Holy Lands Cultivators</h4>

    Fardark County in the Revered Ancient maind had belonged to humans in ancient times. In fact, it was actually a satellite county to the humans¡¯ Imperial Region. It got its name from the fardark fruit, which was widely known to be very helpful when seeking enlightenment of magicalws.

    But then the broken face brought catastrophe. The aura of a god invaded heaven and earth, changing everything. The fardark fruits were never seen again after that. What was more, that county sustained a particrly severe invasion, and ended up with mutagen levels many times stronger than in other locations. As a result, it became unsuitable for habitation by intelligent species, and gradually turned into barren wilderness.

    That said, because of the mutagen, there were plenty of mutant beasts and grues who lived there. The species who had once called the ce home were forced to migrate to bordering locations, where they were constantly harassed by the mutant beasts and grues. It wasn¡¯t that such species preferred to stay there. But heaven and earth were so immense that, for small species like them, there wasn¡¯t really anywhere to go. After all, ces without a lot of mutagen were already upied by much stronger species.

    Besides, though they lived in dangerous circumstances, they could at least stick together and defend themselves against the grues and mutant beasts.

    That was especially true considering that the county was in a unique location, positioned as it was between the Firemoon Darkheavens and the humans. It was actually a buffer zone between those two species, which brought some distinct advantages to the minor species who lived there.

    In the east of Fardark County, one man and two women were traveling through the unending wilderness. They weren¡¯t human, but they were very simr to humans. The main difference was that they had fleshy wings growing from their backs, and they all had a third eye on their forehead.

    The person who had spoken earlier was the young man. He wore a ck robe with golden embroidery. The gold threads glittered with light that automatically caused rifts to open up in the air nearby. That alone went to show how extraordinary the garment was. Wherever he went, an icy wind blew, making it seem like he was an emissary from a gloomy abyss.

    He was taller than the average cultivator, and so well-built he looked like a mountain. Overall, he was intimidating. His facial features were stalwart, with a jaw as sharp as a saber. He looked firm, persistent, and cold. His eyes were as dark as midnight, but within his pupils glittered something cunning, callous, and brutal. It made it hard for most people to look him in the eye.

    As he walked along, he toyed with a red eyeball. The eyeball was bloodshot, and struggled against him, emitting a red glow along with piercing howls of grief. Unfortunately, it waspletely incapable of escaping the young man¡¯s grasp.

    If there were locals here to see that eyeball, they would recognize it immediately as a very terrifying monster that lived in the area called a freakeye demon. Freakeye demons were experts at escaping danger, and they were also very hard to track. What was more, they had an innate ability that allowed them to target the souls of their prey. Even a Void Returning cultivator who ran into one would be concerned.

    But today... this young man was simply toying with the freakeye demon. In fact, after it howled in anguish a few more times, he finally just squashed it.

    The young man didn¡¯t seem to be in a very good mood as he coldly said, ¡°This dirty wastnd makes you just want to throw up. I refuse to believe this is where our holynds originated. Whatever species lives in a ce like this must be dirty vermin, no different from mindless wild animals.¡±

    But then a cold voice rang out from behind him. ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng, you¡¯re being a bit excessive. You know full well this ce is like this thanks to Eminent Destion. The holynds had no choice but to leave back then. And most of the species here have rtives in the holynds.

    ¡°We¡¯re in heaven, while they¡¯re on earth living lonely, challenging lives. And thus, those high and mighty words of yours are pushing things a bit too far.¡± The person who just spoke was the young woman behind the young man. She was slender, with silver wings and extremely fair skin with a very faint pink sheen to it. She also wore ck clothes with golden embroidery, except on her, that clothing seemed like something worn by an immortal in a painting. She had deeply arched eyebrows, eyes like calm, clear water. They were the type of eyes that would cause anyone who looked into them to like her, and at the same time, not dare to lust after her.

    It looked like the young man wanted to say something back to her, yet was too nervous to do so. Instead of responding, he just looked up at the broken face high in the sky.

    The other young womanughed softly. ¡°You¡¯re not quite right, Fellow Daoist Yue Dong,¡± she said to the first young woman. ¡°When the Grand Emperor and emperors of the various species left, all the talented and qualified people went with them. Those left behind were either people with ordinary talent or outright criminals. [1]

    ¡°Inferior people will always be inferior. This ce has been infected with a godly aura for tens of thousands of years. The fact that they managed to keep reproducing after all these years is interesting. If you feel bad for them, Immortal Fairy Yue Dong, maybe you should find one of the inferior cultivators and do some dual cultivation. You could even leave some descendants here.¡±

    This second young woman was delicately beautiful, with long ck hair. Her waist was especially eye-catching, being as slender and supple as a willow tree. Her long, slender legs were just barely visible beneath her dark garment, but that only made her seem more attractive. That said, her words were biting and sarcastic.

    The young woman named Yue Dong looked over at her coldly. ¡°Are you looking to die, Lan Yao?¡± [2]

    She pulsed with Smoldering God fluctuations. As for the young woman named Lan Yao, her eyes also glittered with killing intent, and from her cultivation base fluctuations, she was also a Smoldering God!

    Strangely, though it seemed like they hade from the same ce, there was also something that seemed different about them.

    Seeing the two young women ring at each other, the young man frowned. Looking at Yue Dong, he coldly said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Yue Dong, this is a joint operation backed by multiple holynds. We need to follow the orders given by the holy lord of my species and set up the homing signals for thoseing from the other holynds. So why are you stirring up trouble? Don¡¯t tell me you have ulterior motives?

    ¡°In any case, you can¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you. If you insist on continuing to act like this, Fellow Daoist Lan Yao and I will have no choice but to arrest you!¡±

    Frigid yin energy spread out, turning into a host of illusory banners that caused bright colors to sh in the area, and resulted in a divine ability warding spell to appear.

    Lan Yao smiled as she made a grasping gesture in front of her. A seven-colored sand swept into existence, turning into a vortex that spun overhead. It spread for thousands of meters, and was clearly ready to drop down at any moment.

    Seeing that the two of them were locking her down, Yue Dong¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Since we have different daos, let¡¯s just focus on the mission. I¡¯ll go handle my part.¡±

    With that, Yue Dong blurred out of existence, reappeared some distance away, then vanished again.

    Noting the direction Yue Dong had taken, the young man surnamed Feng and Lan Yao exchanged a nce.

    The young man, whose name was Feng Lintao, chuckled coldly. ¡°She¡¯s at least sensible enough to leave on her own. That¡¯ll save me some effort. Otherwise, given her personality, she¡¯d definitely cause trouble for us going forward.¡± [3]

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng,¡± Lan Yao said with a sweet smile, ¡°I helped you get rid of Yue Dong. But I can tell you, if you were lying about what you told me before we came here, I¡¯m not going to y along.¡± Despite her sweet tone, her eyes were as cold as ice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry at all,¡± Feng Lintao said. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for that secret I learned from one of the ancient records in my n, I wouldn¡¯t have taken the initiative to join this mission. After all, there are gods in this ce.¡± Feng Lintao again looked up at the broken face. Then he looked back at Lan Yao. ¡°Besides, I showed you the evidence. What¡¯s more, considering your daoist partner¡¯s position back in our holynd, how could I possibly do anything to deceive you?¡±

    Continuing to smile, Lan Yao nodded.

    Looking off into the distance, Feng Lintao said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get moving. Based on the information I got from that weird beast, I learned that there are some lesser species around here. They¡¯ll make the blood sacrifice we have to do a lot easier.¡±

    ¡°Blood sacrifice? Fellow Daoist, surely you don¡¯t look down on the Revered Ancient maind <i>that</i> much. Do you really think there aren¡¯t any powerful experts here at all?¡± Lan Yao smiled enigmatically.

    ¡°I¡¯m not that stupid,¡± Feng Lintao replied. ¡°I said all that because of Yue Dong. I¡¯ll naturally be cautious. But that weird eye confirmed that these lesser species don¡¯t have any Smoldering Gods.¡± Feng Lintao started walking, then stopped and looked over his shoulder. ¡°By the way, if Yue Dong is actually following us and tries to stop us, you know what to do. Right, Fellow Daoist Lan Yao?¡±

    ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± Lan Yao smiled and started walking. Together, the two of them vanished.

    ***

    Asteroids fell in many other locations in the Revered Ancient maind. Cultivators emerged and scattered to handle various missions from the holynds. Many had their own agendas. But all of them would also do everything necessary to aplish their missions as quickly as possible. All in all, when it came to leaving.... It was possible to enter the godwarding, but it wasn¡¯t possible to leave it!

    Obviously, there was some reason why all these people had willinglye here. As for whether or not there were some species who had known all along that this event would take ce, and had prepared to offer assistance, that was impossible to say. Regardless, roughly a hundred asteroids fell, and the cultivators of what seemed almost like a scouting force secretly spread out into Revered Ancient....

    ***

    The secret invasion didn¡¯t do anything to affect the grand banquet being carried out at God Mountain in thends of the Firemoon Darkheavens. Rumbing booms rang out as auspicious signs continued to appear in the sky. God Mountain glittered brightly, and the sounds of bells rang through thends.

    The three stewards hovered in front of the statues of the three gods on God Mountain, emanating profound majesty. The divine likenesses were behind them, and the exuberant Firemoon people were in front of them. They were organized into three camps, and were also structured based on their cultivation base and status. There were nobles and powerful experts in great numbers, which was evidence of how terrifyingly powerful the Firemoons were in Revered Ancient.

    Beyond the Firemoons were the subsidiary species, who were all behaving very solemnly but with great power and majesty as well. Beyond them were the random cultivators who didn¡¯t qualify to get any closer, and could only watch the festivities from a distance.

    This was a Firemoon ceremony, and there wasn¡¯t anythingplicated or luxurious about it. Their species had always been domineering and straightforward. It started with the godpriests offering words of worship. Next, representatives of the nobility did the same. Then the orders of the stewards were issued by the master of ceremonies.

    Xu Qing and the Captain were in disguise among the random cultivators, watching from a distance. When they heard the orders issued by the master of ceremonies, they conferred via projection.

    <i>¡°Did you think it through, little Ah Qing?¡±</i>

    <i>¡°Yeah. I need to get the Grand Darkheaven title. No matter what.¡± </i> Xu Qing had put a lot of thought into it on the road, and he was just about to fly out into the open to try to im his title when the master of ceremonies¡¯ tone and wording changed.

    ¡°Next, wee to the darkheaven category of the Great Hunt! The person who took first ce in the first round, that of moving mountains, was the human Xu Qing! The person who took first ce in the second round, that held in the Mountain and Sea Region, was the human Xu Qing! The person who took first ce in the third round, that held in the god domain, was the human Xu Qing!

    ¡°With approval given by the High Gods, he is hereby awarded with the title of Grand Darkheaven! Xu Qing, please approach the podium for a meeting with the three stewards of our species!¡±

    There was an immediate uproar. After all, though everyone already knew how the first two rounds ended, few people were aware of the details of the third round.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times.

    The Captain chuckled. ¡°Looks like that silver hairpin worked wonders, huh?¡±

    1. Yue Dong: Yue is not amon surname. It¡¯s a sort of fancy word for ¡®pearl,¡¯ specifically a kind of legendary magical pearl. Dong means ¡®winter.¡¯ It doesn¡¯te across as amon Chinese name, but at the same time, doesn¡¯t seem like a daoist name. Madam Deathde says that she initially thought this was a male name. Given that it¡¯s a female name, she says it sounds like a manly girl or a tomboy. ?

    2. Lan Yao. Lan is not on the list of 100mon surnames, but it is indeed a surname. It also means ¡®orchid.¡¯ Yao is a fancy character that means ¡®jade, precious stone, nacre, mother-of-pearl.¡¯ Madam Deathde says that given the flower and jade, it sounds like a feminine and beautiful name to her. ?

    3. Feng Lintao: Feng is not on the list of 100mon surnames, but it is a surname, though slightly rare. It means ¡®wind.¡¯ Lin means ¡®wood, woods, forest¡¯ and Tao means ¡®big wave.¡¯ Madam Deathde says that thebination of characters rted to nature make her think of someone that¡¯s connected to nature somehow. She literally said, ¡°nature man¡± lol. Quasi-spoilers here! In reality, this character¡¯s name is not introduced in this chapter. We don¡¯t find out his name untilter, and until then, he¡¯s just called ¡®the young man surnamed Feng.¡¯ There is no reason for his name to be kept a secret, the author just seemed to do it randomly. It¡¯s much easier in Chinese to do that kind of thing. But in English, it makes things very awkward. If it¡¯s once or twice, it¡¯s not a big deal, but whole scenes, including action scenes, which just have ¡®the young man surnamed Feng¡¯ are a pain both to trante and read. What¡¯s more, even after introducing his name, the author continues to <i>mostly </i>just call him ¡®the young man surnamed Feng.¡¯ In Chinese, it¡¯s only one additional character, so it¡¯s not as clunky. In any case, not only am I revealing his name slightly early, both for your sake and mine, I¡¯m also going to <i>mostly </i>refer to him by his actual name, simply for ease of trantion and reading. ?

 Chapter 910: Grand Darkheaven!

    <h4>Chapter 910: Grand Darkheaven!</h4>

    The Captain appeared to be smiling, but inside had felt a very sour feeling.

    <i>Look at that High God Starfire! Now that¡¯s what I call love!</i>

    The Captain sighed inwardly as he thought back to the life in which he pursued High God Moonfire. Despite expending <i>the strength of nine bulls and two tigers</i>, he nearly went crazy in that pursuit. He drained himself mentally and paid an immense price on multiple asions, including giving so many gifts he lost track of how many and setting up countless romantic scenarios. It was only at that point, after sinking to the depths of shamelessness, that he finally got a return on his investment. It was hard to even think about it nowadays.

    Xu Qing, in contrast, hadn¡¯t done hardly a single thing this entire time....

    <i>Wait. Could it be that female gods don¡¯t like you to take initiative, but at the same time, expect you to not just sit around doing nothing? Could it be that they don¡¯t like you to set your targets on them, but at the same time, expect you to have a target? Simply put, they don¡¯t like you to pay too much attention to them, but at the same time, you can¡¯t just ignore them!</i>

    The Captain shivered as he was struck with sudden enlightenment.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. He wasn¡¯t paying attention to the Captain¡¯s facial expression, and of course had no idea what sort of enlightenment the Captain was experiencing. His attention was focused on the three stewards in the canopy of heaven. He was determined to get the title of Grand Darkheaven, and had done a lot to make sure that happened. Therefore, he was prepared to deal with any obstacles that might block his path.

    Contrary to expectation, everything just worked out in his favor. It actually seemed suspicious. That said, he didn¡¯t see any need to do any of the things he¡¯d nned to do at this moment. He just struggled to ept the reality that things were going so smoothly. From the time he was small until now, he had very rarely been in situations in which there weren¡¯t unexpected twists and turns.

    That was especially true after he joined Seven Blood Eyes and got to know his Eldest Brother.... After that, just about everything he did involved toeing the line between life and death.

    Xu Qing was actually used to setbacks and obstacles. Without taking risks and endangering his life, it didn¡¯t seem possible to acquire anything rewarding. The end result was that experiencing this sudden and smooth victory actually left him feeling somewhat unsettled.

    The Captain, having just gained enlightenment of a major dao, looked over and noticed the look on Xu Qing¡¯s face. He blinked a few times. He could guess what Xu Qing was thinking, and it reduced the sour feeling in his heart by a bit and reced it with a pleased sensation.

    <i>Thanks to my leadership, little Junior Brother has finally developed some proper instinctive responses.</i>

    Sounding somewhat lofty, the Captain said, ¡°I¡¯m very proud of you, little Junior Brother. As you know, we cultivators should disdain handouts. Hmmmphh! If we want something, we take it with our two hands. It¡¯s all about having that life-risking psyche! That¡¯s how you get stuff. Only then can victory truly be sweet!

    ¡°If I were you, I would outright refuse to ept this. Then, I would use my carefully nned stratagem to get what I want. The alternative is <i>to reap without sowing</i>, and a victory like that isn¡¯t going to be sweet at all.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the Captain and could tell what he was thinking. Voice cool, he said, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s not sweet. But it still smells good.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes shot open and he was about to offer a retort. Before he could, the Firemoon master of ceremonies hovering in midair in front of the three stewards tents repeated his words from moments before.

    ¡°Xu Qing, please approach the podium for a meeting with the three stewards of our species!¡±

    The second utterance of those words caused all of the Firemoon Darkheavens around God Mountain, plus the subsidiary species, to calm down a bit instead of being so shaken. One by one, they looked up into the canopy of heaven.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with determination as he unhesitatingly flew up into the air, bing a bright beam of light that shot toward the master of ceremonies.

    The moment he appeared, countless gazes and innumerable streams of divine sense locked onto him. Among those who looked on, some had mixed feelings, some were shaken, some were antagonistic, and some felt admiration. Virtually every facial expression imaginable was present, and everyone stirred inwardly.

    Grand Prince was present, and he couldn¡¯t have been more excited. As the leader of the human diplomatic mission, it was only natural that he was present to witness the ceremony at the end of the Great Hunt. After meeting with failure in the second round, he hadn¡¯t qualified to join the third round in the god domain, and thus, all his hopes had been pinned on Xu Qing.

    Although he hadn¡¯t been very confident that Xu Qing would seed, he hadn¡¯t given up hope. Now that everything was materializing, he was feeling very stirred up. From ancient times to modern, it was rare for any species other than a Firemoon to win the title of darkheaven general. But... never before had any foreigner be the Grand Darkheaven. After all, it was the greatest honor that any member of the Firemoon Darkheaven species could receive.

    Now, as countless people looked on, Xu Qing stopped in front of the master of ceremonies and nodded.

    The master of ceremonies looked at Xu Qing curiously for a moment before turning in ce.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. During this ceremony, he was essentially in the presence of the full terrifying strength of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. Though the three gods weren¡¯t present, and though the Firemoons could be said to have as many powerful experts as the sky had clouds, there was no doubt that they were many, many cultivators. No wonder they could dominate so many other species and upy such a high position in Revered Ancient.

    That was especially true considering that Xu Qing had no way of knowing what percentage of their total number of top experts were present at the ceremony.... What was more, ording to historical records, after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, humankind wasn¡¯t necessarily considered weak, yet had still been dominated by this species. That seemed to indicate that the forces they had on disy now didn¡¯t constitute the totality of their assets.

    Back in the god domain, the three gods had expended massive resources to be wless Gods, but Xu Qing got the feeling the species still had a lot more to tap into.

    However, now wasn¡¯t the time to contemte all of that. Maintaining a somber facial expression, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the statues of the three gods, and the three grand stewards seated there. sping hands, he bowed.

    ¡°I, Xu Qing, offer formal greetings to the three stewards.¡±

    The three stewards, who represented the apex of royal authority among Firemoon Darkheavens, consisted of an old man, a middle-aged man, and a youngster. All wore imperial robes and were the picture of majesty.

    The old man was tall and burly, like a mountain. The terrifying pressure he emanated made it seem like he had endless strength. His expression was one of unswerving determination and courage, as if no amount of hardship would shake his decisive nature. His eyes were so piercing it seemed they could see into the hearts of all people, and clearly perceive all things in the world.

    The middle-aged steward was schrly and refined, like a gentle spring breeze. His expression was cid, and his eyes seemed to contain boundless wisdom. He seemed as genial as the warmth of the sun in the morning, making hime across as gentle and amiable.

    Finally was the youngster, who didn¡¯t look anything like the other two. Physically, he looked young, but his expression was mighty and domineering, like a mountain lion prowling down out of the mountains. His eyes were as sharp as sabers, instilling fear into anyone he looked at.

    The three stewards, all of whom were very different from each other, simultaneously looked at Xu Qing as he bowed to them.

    Their gazes caused Xu Qing to shiver. Those gazes were as sharp as swords and seemed to prate into the depths of his being.

    But then, four bits of godly authority glimmered within his void soil, and over a hundred illusory bits of godly authority rose up. It was as if they sensed something offensive, and were automatically rushing to resist.

    The three stewards¡¯ expressions flickered and their gazes dimmed. As of that moment, they could no longer see any of the deep truths in Xu Qing. At the same time, faint exmations of surprise could be heard in the crowd. Those exmations came from the various members of the nobility arrayed beneath the tents of the three stewards.

    If that were all there were to the situation, it might not have been a big deal. But then Ninedawns manifested outside of Xu Qing. Nine skulls appeared, all of them roaring loudly. The deafening sound echoed out like heavenly thunder. The skulls turned intomps, which slowly rotated around him. An antemage aura surged.

    Below, all Firemoon cultivators felt their bloodline power reacting to varying degrees. It didn¡¯t matter the level of cultivation base. It didn¡¯t matter if they were a random, ordinary cultivator or one of the stewards. Every single one was affected.

    Facial expressions flickered everywhere, and the nobility suddenly looked very serious. The master of ceremonies, who was the closest to Xu Qing, literally gasped out loud. No longer was he looking at Xu Qing curiously. Instead, he seemed bewildered. It was true that something simr to this happened after Xu Qing finished the second round. But the difference between that and this was like the difference between earth and heaven.

    The previous asion resulted in a slight stir to the bloodline. But this time... the Firemoon blood was seething in everyone! That was obviously because the antemage in Xu Qing¡¯s fifth trove, the mage trove, had be a heavenly dao, and also because he had broken through from Spirit Trove to Void Returning.

    ¡°Ninedawns....¡±

    Complicated expressions could be seen in the eyes of the three stewards. Clearly, they knew the details of the grand steward who had unified their species. In fact, maybe it was possible that they knew about the deal the grand steward had made with the gods. Therefore, a host of thoughts ran through their heads as they looked at Xu Qing. Ultimately, they didn¡¯t say anything. They just nodded to him.

    Noting the stewards¡¯ silent approval, the master of ceremonies once again spoke in a loud voice.

    ¡°The human Xu Qing is hereby awarded with the title of Grand Darkheaven of the Firemoons. Let all of the sundry species in Revered Ancient be notified!

    ¡°He is awarded with the Grand Darkheaven Armor, making him invincible in heaven and earth!

    ¡°He is awarded with fiefdoms in the form of nine counties, to nourish him in cultivation!

    ¡°He is awarded with the Spirit-Devouring Dagger, to make him even more incisive!

    ¡°He is awarded with the blessing of Starfire, and is thus a general of the Starfire Temple!

    ¡°He is awarded with a Darksage medallion, giving him equal standing to the nobility. All Firemoons will support him, and all subsidiary species will kneel to him. No member of any of the countless species will dare to disobey his orders!¡±

    With each statement came a new reward, shaking all of the cultivators present to the core. These rewards really were the highest honor. The Grand Darkheaven Armor was said to be a precious treasure. Although it wouldn¡¯t literally make him invincible, once he donned it, even Smoldering Gods would have trouble prating it. Fiefdoms in the form of nine counties was equivalent to roughly half of a region. The Spirit-Devouring Dagger was even more shocking. It was such a deadly weapon that merely hearing about it would cause most enemies to go weak at the knees from terror.

    And there was little need to mention the blessing of Starfire. Being a general of the Starfire Temple made it obvious that he had the grace of a god. Finally was the Darksage medallion, which made him equal to the nobility among other species.

    Even Xu Qing was surprised by these rewards, and it brought mixed emotions to his eyes. He was fully aware that all of this was happening because of High God Starfire. What he didn¡¯t understand was why High God Starfire had been helping him from the moment they met. He refused to believe that it had anything to do with his primal yang. And yet, he had no idea what karma or situation could exin it all.

    Even as thoseplicated thoughts went through his mind, a cold voice rang out from the Firemoon Darkheaven people below.

    ¡°I request that the stewards honor my petition to fight Grand Darkheaven Xu Qing!¡±

    A figure flew out of the crowd and into the air. He wore a robe as red as fire, and had hair that seemed to be formed from the dao. He had facial features that weren¡¯t necessarily wlessly beautiful, but were still extremely handsome. His slender frame pulsed with a terrifying aura, and above his right shoulder was a ball of white fire. Shockingly, that fire pulsed with the aura of a major world. This person was none other than Sir Firedark, who no longer looked like a woman.

    His eyes glittered with the desire to do battle as he looked at Xu Qing. ¡°Grand Darkheaven Xu Qing, do you dare to fight me?¡±

    His words shed through the area like a de.

    All of the surrounding Firemoon cultivators looked on with serious expressions. The cultivators from the subsidiary species exchanged surprised nces. The three stewards looked thoughtful, and even God Mountain reacted, as it glowed with golden light.

 Chapter 911: Xu Qingâ€™s Path

    <h4>Chapter 911: Xu Qing¡¯s Path</h4>

    God Mountain glittered with golden light, but no godly decree was issued. Meaningful looks could be seen in the eyes of the three stewards, but they said nothing. The surrounding Firemoons and the subsidiary species, as well as everyone else looking on, seemed full of excitement and anticipation. Although some people were clearly surprised by the development, there weren¡¯t many. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t a surprise at all for Sir Firedark to challenge someone during the Darkheaven part of the ceremony.

    It was almost as if it was expected among the Firemoon Darkheavens. Throughout all the countless years that had passed, there had never been arge number of Firemoons. In order to keep their species¡¯ battle prowess strong, a certain amount of infighting was eptable. In fact, the way the Great Hunt was set up conformed to that custom. By raising venomous bugs in a jar, they fostered the warlike blood that pumped through their veins. And in the brutal ¡®survival of the fittest¡¯ environment, the strongest experts emerged. That was why, whenever the Great Hunt happened and someone was named a darkheaven general, it was eptable for others to challenge them to fight, although only on that one specific day. Those were the rules.

    Throughout the history of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, such challenges were rare, but they had urred. That was why no one was particrly surprised by Sir Firedark¡¯s challenge.

    What was more, Sir Firedark openly acknowledged that Xu Qing was the Grand Darkheaven, which ensured that the dignity of the ceremony wasn¡¯t vited, and that the fairness of the decision wasn¡¯t called into question. He was submitting a challenge in ordance with the rules.

    That said, to challenge someone even after they had be the Grand Darkheaven... was something that had never happened before. After all, the glory of the Grand Darkheaven surpassed that of the ordinary darkheaven generals.

    The Grand Darkheaven had such a superior position that, if he wanted to refuse the challenge, he could do so with a word. Of course, that would be a big blow to his reputation, and would reduce the glory of the Grand Darkheaven. What was more, challenging the Grand Darkheaven required paying a price. If the challenger lost, then they would have no choice but to deliver a drop of their soul blood as a penalty. That soul blood couldn¡¯t be used to kill them, but it could be used by the Grand Darkheaven as a life-saving item in a moment of crisis.

    On the other hand, if the Grand Darkheaven lost, he wouldn¡¯t have to pay any price. It might seem unfair, but that was simply an understanding that needed to be epted when someone in an inferior position challenged a superior.

    As Sir Firedark¡¯s words echoed about, numerous gazes flitted to Xu Qing to see how he would react.

    Xu Qing said nothing. He looked calmly at Sir Firedark, taking note of the burning white fire above his right shoulder. Within it was a shocking major world, and yet... Sir Firedark was not a Smoldering God!

    <i>Second-stage Void Returning</i>. Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. If Sir Firedark had been a Smoldering God, then a disy of strength like this wouldn¡¯t have been surprising. In fact, it would have been expected. But for someone who wasn¡¯t a Smoldering God to have the same type of major world that a Smoldering God would have... was different.

    In fact, based on what Xu Qing understood, it didn¡¯t make sense. Based on his initial impression back in the mausoleum in the god domain, that unprecedented major world meant that Sir Firedark was only a step away from being a Smoldering God. That alone was enough to confirm to Xu Qing that Sir Firedark was extremely daring.

    A major world was enough to step into Smoldering God, converge one¡¯s magicalws, and form the void soil dao foundation of Transform 10,000 Veracities! By taking the steps to reach the great circle of Void Returning, it could be considered, not necessarily one-of-a-kind, but unique in the current generation in Revered Ancient.

    <i>Definitely befitting of the number one chosen among the Firemoons!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were already gleaming with the desire to do battle. He knew he had to take an opponent like this seriously, and the fight would be a rare challenge. There was no need to state outright whether or not he would ept the challenge. His eyes made his answer clear.

    Seeing Xu Qing¡¯s battle spirit rising caused Sir Firedark¡¯s battle spirit to also get stronger. His aura began to grow stronger, and the white mes on his shoulder burned hotter than ever.

    ¡°Xu Qing, I¡¯m in second-stage Void Returning, while you¡¯re in first-stage. You might be extraordinary among Void Returning cultivators, but my Void Returning contains good fortune of heaven and earth. Furthermore, because I¡¯m a Firemoon Darkheaven and you¡¯re a human, I have a superior fleshly body. Therefore, I will fight this battle with my left hand held behind my back!¡±

    Sir Firedark extended his left hand and then put it behind his back. He had no intention of using it during the fight. Perhaps it was foolish to do that, but that was how powerful experts thought.

    It wasn¡¯t a concession to Xu Qing, but rather, a way to preserve his own dignity and majesty. What was more, if he lost in this way, it would be losing a fight, not losing his heart. From a young age he had fought countless battles, many of them to the death. Bearing the name Sir Firedark, he had crushed fellow members of his generation one by one, cowing all the other chosen and winning glory with a clean conscience.

    Because of that, his heart was strong. He knew that the path of cultivation was apetition amongst all living beings, and a fight against the many heavens. Xu Qing¡¯s actions in the god domain had left him astonished. If he won and dispelled that astonishment, then he could continue walking his path of invincibility. If he lost, then that astonishment would be a motivating force to try to catch up! But if he didn¡¯t fight at all, he would never dispel the astonishment.

    Sir Firedark lifted his right foot and took a step in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. When his foot fell, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. The white mes above his right shoulder leaped into the sky and then spread out in all directions.

    It moved with blinding speed, spreading 50 kilometers in the blink of an eye and 500 an instantter. A sea of mes spread for 500 kilometers, shockingly hot. At the same time, the major world inside of the fire became more majestic. However, it was still in the process of shrinking down. 500 kilometers was only the manifestation of the major world shrinking down by a small portion.

    The sight of it caused all the onlookers to react with surprise.

    ¡°That world....¡±

    ¡°That mighty world isn¡¯t Smoldering God. It¡¯s Void Returning.... How¡¯d he do that?¡±

    ¡°Now <i>that</i> is the number one chosen of the Firemoon Darkheaven people!¡±

    It was truly a majestic world, the type that few people present had ever seen. Xu Qing had personally watched that world form, so he knew first-hand that it was a spectacr major world that surpassed anything ancient or modern.

    Sir Firedark hovered in the air, voice booming like thunder as he said, ¡°Before going to the god domain, I was in first-stage Void Returning, and this world was only in embryonic form. Back then, I could fight one-world Smoldering Gods, though survival wouldn¡¯t be certain.

    ¡°But now, I could crush a one-world Smoldering God with ease. Even most ordinary Smoldering Gods with two worlds couldn¡¯t match up to me. And I could even handle a Smoldering God at the peak of the two-world level.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to name this world the Firedark World. If you can stand up to this, <i>then</i> you and I canpare divine abilities!¡±

    He shoved his hand in Xu Qing¡¯s direction. Beneath him, the major world in the 500-kilometer sea of fire rumbled loudly and emitted terrifying pressure that rumbled directly toward Xu Qing. That pressure caused anyone lower than a Smoldering God to suddenly feel destabilized in mind, body, and soul.

    Facing such astonishing pressure caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter. However, he didn¡¯t back down an inch. After all, this was going to be his first fight after stepping into Void Returning. This fight would help him toe to understand what Void Returning was all about, and would also give him a clear idea of the level of his battle prowess.

    As he hovered in midair, he lifted his right hand and pushed it out in front of him. That motion caused the boundless void soil within him to erupt. Soul threads shot out, spreading around him rapidly. The number of soul threads was astonishing. It created an entire sea of soul threads, within which lightning crashed.

    1,000,000. 10,000,000.... Eventually 40,000,000 soul threads could be seen in the dome of heaven, and as they weaved together in the manner of a Xeno-Immortal, they formed... a major world! The size of this world was 500 kilometers, and was also in the process of shrinking down. The aura and pressure it emitted werepletely terrifying. This was a case of creating something from nothing!

    Xu Qing had taken the enlightenment of the founders and then carved out his own path. It was an unprecedented... dao of Xeno-Immortals!

    Most astonishing was that in the major world formed from Xeno-Immortal soul threads was a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound as a hundred illusory pirs rose up in different areas. The pirs pulsed with godly might, as th¨¥y were formed from the blood of the broken face that Xu Qing had devoured. Th¨¥y formed illusory godly authority, and though Xu Qing had not yet gained enlightenment of them, th¨¥y were still materializing.

    Despite being illusory, th¨¥ir presence provided a blessing to the major world. In fact, that blessing made Xu Qing¡¯s world seem like... a god domain!

    Even more terrifying was that in the middle of the major world were four pirs that weren¡¯t illusory. Th¨¥y were true and real, and th¨¥y were covered with mysterious magical symbols. The symbols flickered with hair-raising might that surpassed all of the myriad magics and daos in heaven and earth. They were no symbols of a cultivator. Rather, they were Xu Qing¡¯s... godly authority lineaments!

    The first was connected to his life essence. The second to the violet moon. The third to the god curse. The fourth to misfortune! When th¨¥y appeared, Xu Qing¡¯s world of soul threads experienced a dramatic rise in aura, and made it even more impressive than the pressure of Sir Firedark¡¯s majestic world.

    The scene caused a wave of astonishment to rock the onlookers.

    ¡°Is that even Void Returning??¡±

    ¡°Void Returning.... Before, I would never have believed that Void Returning could be like this!¡±

    ¡°Also... there are two of them!¡±

    Xu Qing looked up. The world of soul threads rumbled loudly as it smashed into the Firedark World.

    The power of two worlds erupted. The dome of heaven seemed like it might shatter. Thends seemed about to crumble. At that critical moment, the stewards took action, creating a standalone dimension where Xu Qing and Sir Firedark could fight, separated from Revered Ancient.

    ¡°Great!¡± Sir Firedark said,ughing heartily. He waved his right hand, and his major world rumbled again, growing into a world of ten thousand worlds, with surging destiny aura that seemed on the verge of forming the will of a world.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he exercised a thought, causing soul threads to separate from the world and turn into the huge eye of a god. It was an imitation of Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eyes, which Xu Qing had created.

    The eye looked at Sir Firedark¡¯s major world, and the world trembled. Then the destiny aura in the world began to circte in the opposite direction. More soul threads flew out, turning into Crimson Mother, who stared coldly at Sir Firedark¡¯s world. Everything trembled violently. Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Next, Li Zihua appeared in soul thread form, and he stepped into Sir Firedark¡¯s major world. Even the fish god appeared and did the same.

    In addition, what also appeared was the eye of the unnamed god Xu Qing had seen in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture beneath the Ghost Emperor¡¯s weapon. After it formed, it entered Sir Firedark¡¯s major world.

    A host of gods hade!

    The sight was astonishing to everyone, especially considering that Xu Qing was the onemanding the host of gods!

    Within the crowd, the Captain was actually getting excited. <i>So, this is little Junior Brother¡¯s path!</i>

 Chapter 912: Divine Ability Weakness

    <h4>Chapter 912: Divine Ability Weakness</h4>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the first person in history to practice cultivation that conformed to both immortals and gods. Others included Master Seventh and Li Zihua. And there were others Xu Qing had never heard of who walked that path. It was a path that, whether now or in the future, could be considered the most orthodox path, and was actually not very hard to walk.

    However, because of that, it was actually the most difficult path. Though many people had walked it, none had reached the end. It was a path with many forks in it, and since no one had walked it to the end, it was hard to say which of those possible forks was the right one to take. The Captain¡¯s path couldn¡¯t be said to conform to this dao, but instead, was something to the side of it.

    What was more, Xu Qing¡¯s path was slightly different. It looked like he was cultivating something that conformed to both immortals and gods, but the reality was that his foundation came from Xeno-Immortal techniques. Walking his path involved devouring gods, imitating gods, and then using them as servants.

    On his path, gods were nutrients. And the entire purpose of it all was to be a xeno-immortal! An immortal who used gods for food.

    On this asion, his first fight after reaching Void Returning, Xu Qing was able to confirm the details of his path. Eyes shining, he used soul threads to make one god after another and send them into Sir Firedark¡¯s major world.

    Instantly, the mountain peaks in the major world started crumbling as something dramatic happened. From a distance, it was possible to see Li Zihua, a figure that could prop up heaven and earth, iparably gigantic. Wherever he went, heaven crumbled and the earth shattered. Crimson Mother¡¯s majestic form sent a blood mist out in all directions, causing all living things to howl in anguish as they withered up. The eye that was suppressed beneath the Ghost Emperor¡¯s weapon floated in the air, innumerable tendrils surrounding ¨©t in all directions, whipping about violently. Wherever it went, the world turned into paper, and it was just barely possible to hear gruish singing. As for the fish bone god, ¨©t entered the waterways of the world, reversing the rivers and turning the water pitch ck. Emperor Ancient Spirit¡¯s eye absorbed the destiny and defiled it, transforming the very substructure of the major world. This was a case of godsunching an invasion that transformed everything.

    It was actually simr to what happened to Revered Ancient long ago, although on a vastly smaller scale, and with Xu Qing taking the role of the broken face. Everyone was shaken to the core.

    The arrival of the gods caused an instant explosion of mutagen in Sir Firedark¡¯s major world. A godly aura spread out, invading the sky, invading thends, and invading everything within the major world. It was bing a forbidden region!

    If the processpleted, then everything in the world would experience something like the Awakening of Insects. Fate would be changed, and living beings would transform. The ce would be a world suitable for gods.

    Most terrifying was that as the process of transformation into a forbidden region went on, soul threads appeared within Sir Firedark¡¯s majestic major world. They were new soul threads, not the 40,000,000 from before! Although there weren¡¯t many, only a few tens of thousands, they were proliferating rapidly. In the blink of an eye, they reached the level of several hundreds of thousands! The world wasn¡¯t just being invaded, it was being devoured!

    This made it obvious how terrifying Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess and divine abilities were after forming the godly void soil.

    However, Sir Firedark was the number one chosen among the Firemoon Darkheaven people, and was known to be extraordinarily daring. Naturally, he was no weakling. Seeing that his major world was suffering an invasion, his pupils suddenly filled with innumerable heavenly bodies. As they flickered, his major world trembled. Rivers, mountains, living things, and anything and everything else seemed to suddenly possess their own wills. Seeminglying to life, they started fighting back.

    Included in that resistance were five burning suns that rose up and emanated their unique natural and magicalws. They were his heavenly daos!

    Thanks to the arrival of the heavenly daos, the will of the awakening world, which had suffered interference from Emperor Ancient Spirit, continued manifesting. It was a battle of gods.

    At the same time, Sir Firedark looked at Xu Qing with eyes bursting with killing intent. He took a step forward, shattering the air as he raced toward Xu Qing, imbued with a spirit that could conquer mountains and rivers.

    Xu Qing¡¯s battle spirit also erupted, and he took a step forward with power that could destroy heaven and extinguish the earth. As the two worlds rumbled, the two cultivators raced directly toward each other.

    Sir Firedark moved with astonishing speed befitting of his major world. And as he closed in on Xu Qing, terrifying fleshly body power surged. Sonic booms rang out as the two of them shed over a hundred times in the blink of an eye. Every sh sent destructive shockwaves out in all directions.

    Sir Firedark took a deep breath, causing boundless energy to rush into him. Next, he didn¡¯t pull off any shy moves. Instead, he barreled toward Xu Qing, leading with his shoulder. It was a smashing attack, but it contained a great dao, which meant that it wasn¡¯t possible to evade it. It could only be faced head-on.

    Xu Qing''s eyes narrowed. He could sense the mountain-like forcee from the blow, and he met it with a fist strike.

    A deafening boom rang out.

    Xu Qing flew backward. Meanwhile, Sir Firedark¡¯s eyes were bloodshot. Ignoring the injuries from the bacsh, he again attacked with explosive force. Closing in on Xu Qing, he reached out toward Xu Qing¡¯s throat and clenched his hand down into a fist.

    He was trying to crush Xu Qing¡¯s throat!

    <i>What divine ability is this?</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grave. He could sense a type of great dao in this technique as well, and it caused his eyes to flicker coldly. All of a sudden, three mountains appeared in front of him.

    One was frigid gold. One was as red as blood. And one was engulfed in me.

    The three mountains copsed an instantter, and Xu Qing tumbled backward. However, Sir Firedark was still on a mad offensive. The hand he had used to try to crush Xu Qing¡¯s throat transformed into a fist, and heunched a blow. It was the very same Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist he had used to shatter the Captains body back in the emperor¡¯s mausoleum.[1]

    The moment it appeared, wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and a berserk aura erupted, along with an indescribably domineering sensation.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. Seemingly building on all the momentum from before, the moment the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fistnded, Sir Firedark suddenly erupted with golden light.

    That light emerged from his skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and blood! The skin was the outer barrier. The muscles were like a heavenly king. The tendons provided extra strength. The bones were the foundation. The blood was the essence. [2]

    Combined, they formed....

    ¡°Undying Five Elements!¡±[3]

    Sir Firedark glowed with boundless golden light as he moved with explosive speed and mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. He was seemingly unstoppable in this peak state of momentum, and as he closed in, all of his fleshly body techniquesbined into a fist that could destroy the cosmos. That fist shattered naturalws, ravaged magicalws, and shocked all living beings.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone brightly, as if with the light of daybreak. Sir Firedark¡¯s series of divine abilities seemed breathtaking to Xu Qing.

    <i>I want them!</i>

    As the enemy closed in, Xu Qing unhesitatingly sent Ninedawns outside in an external manifestation. It swept over him, turning into ancient mage armor. The will of the antemage filled the form, causing it to expand and grow, until it became a modern-day antemage. As tall as a mountain, with a head in the dome of heaven, it emanated a sensation of time itself, as well as a legacy from antiquity. The nine dragon skulls swirled around the armor, making it seem even more domineering. All of the beasts in the Mountain and Sea Region howled as their blood seethed.

    An ancient and wild sensation filled heaven and earth, and it all came from Xu Qing. He thrust his palm out toward Sir Firedark¡¯s iing fist. The force from the fist and the palm collided from a distance.

    A tremor passed through Sir Firedark. His fleshly body wasn¡¯t affected at all, but his mind began to crack as intense pain flooded his brain. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his face turned pale. A look of intense defiance filled his eyes, yet he couldn¡¯t stop himself from tumbling backward.

    In the spot of the actual sh, the air shattered inyers, forming into a ck hole that caused both of the two worlds to tilt in its direction. Infinite draconic lightning bolts snaked out, forming a massive lightning that covered everything.

    One of the twobatants used a consummate divine ability. The other used the peak of the mage dao. That sh was so destructive that both sides were wiped out. The only thing left behind was a raging tempest that would even cause Smoldering Gods to do a double take.

    Within that tempest, Xu Qing was like an immortal devil, his hair whipping about him as he strode forth. He looked somewhat excited, with his eyes glittering. He could now see that this wasn¡¯t a case of Sir Firedark¡¯s divine ability being inferior to his dao of the antemage. Instead, his opponents¡¯ technique... was damaged and iplete. That was a far cry from his own, which was aplete, intact legacy.

    The enemy¡¯s technique was extreme, but it only benefited the fleshly body, not the soul. It wasn¡¯t that Sir Firedark¡¯s soul power was insufficient. Actually, his soul power surpassed that of most people in his generation. But when youpared how much the technique boosted fleshly body power, the soul aspect just couldn¡¯tpare.

    That was the reason why Sir Firedark had lost this exchange. That said, he was still terrifying.

    Xu Qing got the feeling that the technique could be used by any level of cultivation base. And it improved as one¡¯s cultivation base got higher, getting more and more terrifying. In fact, it didn¡¯t seem to have a limit!

    However, when being cultivated to the level of Sir Firedark and Xu Qing, it had ws. And those ws created a weakness.

    Thus, as Xu Qing¡¯s heart filled with coldness, he stepped toward Sir Firedark. The mage armor had already fallen off of him, turning into streams of light that faded into the air. The antemage will also departed from Xu Qing. Astonishingly, when it reappeared, it was right above the head of the fleeing Sir Firedark.

    Sir Firedark¡¯s face fell as the antemage will became corporeal and crushed down onto him. What was more, the Ninedawns skulls pierced through the air to surround Sir Firedark, with a gaping mouth that emitted a shrill sound that targeted souls along with the antemage. It created a power that could lock the body in ce!

    Sir Firedark shivered. He knew that he had a weakness, but the fact that Xu Qing honed in on it so quickly left him feeling very anxious. He wanted to fight back, but before he could, Xu Qing suddenly extended his right hand. Ripples spread out in all directions, turning into a surface of water.

    Everything was reflected on it. It was none other than Fishing the Moon in the Well. It was a divine ability that could lock down the soul, and with the blessing of the antemage, it did so instantly.

    Meanwhile, sevenmps appeared behind Xu Qing, all of them glimmering with underworld light. It was the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, in which extinguishing themps extinguished the enemy. At its core, it also targeted the soul!

    When it came to talking about experience in battle, it was true that Xu Qing was young, but from the moment he became a cultivator, he had fought people, fought heaven, and fought gods. Countless life-or-death experiences had honed his battle instincts to an incredibly shocking level. If he found a weakness in your technique, you died. Therefore, he unleashed all of his soul-targeting techniques to the maximum level. What was more, within his major world of soul threads, the god authorities of misfortune, the violet moon, and the god curse all went wild.

    Although it seemed unlikely he needed to use all of that godly authority, he was the type of person who, once he identified a weakness, could attack it with everything he had. He wouldn¡¯t give his opponent any chance to turn things around.

    1. Sir Firedark¡¯s ability bears many simrities to Bai Xiaochun¡¯s Undying techniques from <u>A Will Eternal</u>. Many readersmented on this in Chinese. Considering that in <u>chapter 887</u> Sir Firedark used the ¡°Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist¡± (which was one of BXC¡¯s go-to techniques), well.... ?

    2. In AWE, the ¡°Undying¡± set of techniques more or less has five parts that correspond to the sections listed here. That¡¯s especially true of the ¡®heavenly king¡¯ part, which is the same set of characters that could be rendered as ¡®golden vajra warrior.¡¯ This is a good point to expound on trantion choices. In AWE, the ¡°heavenly king¡± trantion choice basically makes sense, but when put into the context of BTT, it¡¯s not as congruous. Trantions choice can change depending on context, even with the same author. ?

    3. Allments rting to Captain will result in permanent IP, GPS, and DNA bans from Wuxiaworld. Thank you. ?

 Chapter 913: Iâ€™m Back and Invincible

    Chapter 913: I¡¯m Back and Invincible

    Summoning the Ninedawns armors, using the antemage to suppress the enemy, activating Fishing the Moon in the Well, implementing the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, and calling on three types of godly authority. All of this takes a while to spell out, but in reality, it urred in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

    In the blink of an eye, Sir Firedark, with his terrifying fleshly body, ended up locked in ce in body, mind, and soul. His iplete nature was rtive, not absolute. But as far as Xu Qing was concerned, it was still a deadly weakness.

    What was more, Xu Qing had no interest in sparing an opponent with the intention of using them as a recement in deathter down the line. It was a much better choice to just kill them up front.

    Therefore, he didn¡¯t hold back at all in his attack. He went all out. He extended his right hand, which created the projection of a huge palm that reached toward Sir Firedark. It seemed illusory, but not, real, but not, as if it was formed from pure fate. And it contained an indescribably mysterious will that became the sky over the watery surface, and made more ripples flow out over it. There was no sound as the water sshed, and the soul in the reflection of Sir Firedark was fished out by the massive hand.

    The moment it happened, Sir Firedark¡¯s fleshly body lost its vibrant sheen of life. He became like the walking dead. In Xu Qing¡¯s hand, his soul was glittering and multicolored, but at the same time, listless.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he flexed his fingers in preparation to crush it.

    But then something unexpected happened. The previously listless soul didn¡¯t struggle. Instead, it blurred as some heaven-defying technique was unleashed. Then it vanished from Xu Qing¡¯s hand.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. The moment Sir Firedark¡¯s soul escaped, themps of underworld fire behind him all went out. When themps were extinguished, the curse exploded. A grunt rang out from thin air as Sir Firedark¡¯s soul was suddenly forced out into the open. It was no longer glittering and bright, but dim.

    Simultaneously, Xu Qing¡¯s three types of godly authority erupted, bing three golden threads that sliced through the air, through fate, and through life and death, heading straight toward the dimming soul. They locked onto karma to kill fate as they appeared right in front of the soul. Three golden threads interlocked and swept out in deadly fashion.

    As the dome of heaven flickered and thends shook, Sir Firedark¡¯s soul was sliced into pieces, bing numerous glowing motes that scattered into the air.

    Xu Qing¡¯s efficient actions put his decisiveness fully on disy. And yet, he wasn¡¯t done yet. As Sir Firedark¡¯s soul was eradicated, Xu Qing stepped forward to his fleshly body and chopped his hand down.

    Sir Firedark''s body was a lifeless husk, so it was no surprise when the head flew off the corpse and the rest of the body copsed into chunks of gory flesh. Then ck fire swept over all the chunks of flesh, burning them into something unrecognizable.

    Although Sir Firedark had a fleshly body that couldn¡¯t easily be reduced to ashes, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to restore the body to its original condition after this immtion.

    All of these things happened so quickly that the Firemoon cultivators looking on were visibly shocked. In fact, many couldn¡¯t believe what they were seeing. However, the Firemoon nobility included some of the most powerful experts in their species. Also, the three stewards were present. And none of them seemed particrly surprised, and in fact, were just watching calmly.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    What was more, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel any sense of victory at having killed Sir Firedark. Frowning, he turned to look at the spot where Sir Firedark¡¯s fleshly body had been burned up. His pupils constricted.

    Right there above the chunks of the fleshly body was an illusory projection. Within the projection was a mausoleum. It was the emperor¡¯s mausoleum from the god domain, and within it was Sir Firedark, seated cross-legged beneath an enormous Nobleplexus umbre. An instantter, the projection blurred, then became clear again. Sir Firedark was still there, but the surroundings were different. Sir Firedark was now in the Mountain and Sea Region. In a very short period of time, the illusory projection shifted several hundred times, and every time, Sir Firedark was in the middle.... Put precisely, it was the Sir Firedark from several hundred different specific times in the past.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t interfere. He just watched with glittering eyes as Sir Firedark, who took seemingly no defensive precautions, unleashed a gruish ability that seemed to be very close to a god magic. After each illusory image appeared, it copsed into countless motes of light, then formed back into a huge circle of light.

    Astonishingly, this was a very intense time power!

    After seven or eight breaths of time passed, Sir Firedark stepped out of the light in physical form. The chunks of flesh floating in the area copsed into ashes, then the circle of light shrank down, turning into a pearl that dropped into Sir Firedark¡¯s palm.

    Sir Firedark looked exactly the same as before, but was also different in a certain way. Although Sir Firedark had always been good-looking, it was in a steadfast and resolute way that would normally be described as ¡®handsome.¡¯ But now... those good looks were more properly called elegant and beautiful.

    He had be a she. The same change could be noted in the physical body, which now had an ample chest, slender waist, and long legs that were barely visible beneath a flowing skirt. There was nothing steadfast and resolute to see here, only cold elegance.

    This was what Xu Qing remembered Sir Firedark looking like.

    The crowds went silent. Those who knew about Sir Firedark¡¯s unusual divine ability weren¡¯t very surprised, but those who weren¡¯t aware of it were bbergasted.

    The Captain blinked a few times and then chuckled darkly.

    Xu Qing hovered in midair, looking thoughtful.

    <em>Eldest Brother mentioned that in the Mountain and Sea Region he saw Sir Firedark use an amazing divine ability that was close to being a god magic, and that after using it, one¡¯s gender would change. I guess this is that same divine ability.</em>

    <em>It really is close to being a god magic. It can force a reincarnation based on what happened in the past, yet maintain the current cultivation base and battle prowess.</em>

    As Xu Qing pondered those things, Sir Firedark walked out of the circle of light, looked at him, and sighed inwardly. She could have unleashed her divine ability more quickly, but had intentionally gone slowly in the hopes that he wouldunch an attack. If he did attack at that time, she could have sucked him into the divine ability, then infected him with its power. That would have taken all of the terror in his memories and turned it into a devilish fire that would burn his body and soul.

    <em>Unfortunately, my legacy technique only contains the Undying Codex and only some of the Time Immemorial Codex. I¡¯m missing the Live Forever Codex and the second half of the Time Immemorial Codex. What¡¯s more, my Undying Codex is damaged. Though I grafted other magics toplete the suite of techniques, it led to some side-effects when using thetter part of the Time Immemorial Codex. That said, if Xu Qing had tried to interrupt my Sutra of Former Reincarnation, I might have had a chance at winning!</em>[1]

    With such thoughts in mind, Sir Firedark¡¯s killing intent burned. Taking a step forward, she extended her right hand. The life essence pearl glittered, whereupon a host of light rings appeared around her that looked just like the one from before.

    Next, figures stepped out from the light rings.

    All were Sir Firedark. They were all weaker in cultivation base than the true form, but considering they could all act and think in unison, they were extraordinarily formidable. As Sir Firedark¡¯s battle spirit skyrocketed, her bodies from the past did the same, and they all rushed toward Xu Qing from different directions. They weren¡¯t any weaker or slower than before, and in fact, were superior.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered as he lifted his right hand, then dropped it. The golden thread from the godly authority of misfortune vanished, then mysteriously appeared within Sir Firedark¡¯s fate. The power of misfortune filled her providence.

    The facial expressions of all of Sir Firedark¡¯s past bodies changed dramatically. Some of them, as they charged forward, suddenly found themselves facing rifts in the air, like mouths waiting to devour them. Some of them suddenly found themselves going dim from head to toe as their cultivation bases were mysteriously thrown into chaos. In some even more dramatic cases, their divine abilities backfired, inflicting serious injuries. There were others who, because of the chaos inflicted on their divine will, had their connections to Sir Firedark severed. As a result, their eyes turned bloodshot, and they spun and attacked each other.

    The gruish nature of this development caused waves of shock to fill the hearts of the cultivators in the area.

    Some of the members of the nobility even murmured, ¡°The power of misfortune.¡±

    Sir Firedark¡¯s expression flickered, but she knew that now wasn¡¯t the time to get distracted. With her battle spirit still at a peak level, she shot toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were as cold as ice. At this point, he had a fair understanding of Sir Firedark¡¯s divine abilities. Yet that wasn¡¯t what he had set out to aplish. From the very beginning, he had been trying to end the fight as quickly as possible. Though he knew his opponent had a soul weakness, he wasn¡¯t nning to target it again.

    After the misfortune was unleashed, Xu Qing¡¯s godly authority of taboo poison raged out in a ck mist. Within it came a shocking roar. A huge projection of Hellfei appeared within it, like a god that could crush heaven and earth. A solitary eye flickered and turned to look at Sir Firedark, who was about 300 meters away from Xu Qing.

    The Six Filths of the Gods erupted.

    ¡°First filth: godfire¡¯s smoke rises and converges impurities; create uncleanness.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s words were like amand being uttered through Hellfei¡¯s mouth, converging the cosmos and forming the sound of a great dao.

    The moment the words echoed out, Sir Firedark shivered from head to toe as countless impurities appeared inside her. They became innumerable ck splotches that spread out over her body and face. The sudden development caused her to shiver.

    ¡°Second filth: god soul¡¯s desire builds and converges mortality; shed omniscience.¡± Xu Qing¡¯s cold words sounded like the voice of heaven. Sir Firedark¡¯s face fell as all sensations vanished for her.

    ¡°Third filth: god body decaying and building rot; never eternal.¡± The ck splotches started rotting, and in the blink of an eye Sir Firedark looked like a person, but not. Like a ghost, but not. As her flesh decayed and fell off, rotting bones were revealed.

    ¡°Fourth filth: god shrine covered in dust and losing brilliance; sever joss me.¡± Her dao foundation copsed, and a howl of agony escaped Sir Firedark¡¯s lips. Her cultivation base was now trembling.

    ¡°Fifth filth: godly nature is filth loses wisdom; decline personhood.¡± Her soul dimmed, and the power of eradication loomed.

    ¡°Sixth filth: godly fate births curses and severs life; eradicate godsource!¡± Killing intent burned in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as his voice rang out like thunder.

    The Six Filths of the Gods were making their first appearance in Revered Ancient. Because of its power, Sir Firedark¡¯s fleshly body copsed in an instant. Her soul was wiped out, and all of her bodies from the past dissipated. Just then, the power of time again erupted, and an illusory figure appeared again. Sir Firedark was once again using the same secret magic from before. Xu Qing looked on with an icy expression.

    He had been looking for a weakness in the technique, and he had found it! He wasn¡¯t interested in wearing down the enemy by killing her over and over again. He wanted... to wipe her magic out in one shot.

    He dropped his right hand, and the violet moon godly authority red. It became a violet moon, whose moonlight shone down onto the illusory form of Sir Firedark and entered her fate. Within the illusory figure, a violet-colored moonlight appeared. That moonlight also entered Sir Firedark¡¯s past, filling every corner of it. Moonlight tapped into every aspect of Sir Firedark, causing something akin to omniscience to appear within Xu Qing.

    Sir Firedark wanted to struggle, but Xu Qing shook his head. The thrum of a sword emerged from within him, along with cold light that was imperial will. A heaven-sundering surge of energy shot out, causing the dome of heaven to flicker with white, glorious light.

    It was a sword projection! It was none other than The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    By using the soul of North Emperor to grasp Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s sword, he couldn¡¯t quite summon the full sword materially, but he could form a sword projection.

    With the violet moonlight as the tether, he shed the sword down! This sword could eradicate reincarnation, sever the past, and slice away the present. Within the illusion, all of the versions of Sir Firedark coughed up blood, and their facial expressions became those of madness. The surrounding crowds devolved into an uproar, and the nobility were visibly taken aback.

    The three stewards¡¯ eyes glittered, and the youth among them vanished. Astonishingly, he appeared within the illusory versions of Sir Firedark¡¯s past, standing in front of each version, where he raised his hand to block the innumerable projections of The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    Xu Qing made a quick judgment call. Flicking his sleeve, he caused all of the glorious Emperor¡¯s Swords to suddenly vanish. The sword disappeared, the surrounding energy went back to normal, and heaven and earth went calm.

    Xu Qing calmly sped hands and bowed to the young steward. Then, paying no further attention to the situation, he turned and walked toward the Captain.

    With the canopy of heaven back to normal, and the sword projections gone, Sir Firedark¡¯s secret magic finished working. With a new body formed, she stood there with aplicated expression on her face as she looked at Xu Qing walking off.

    ¡°I concede. In the future, I¡¯m willing to rece you in death one time!¡± She reached up, touched her forehead, and then sent a drop of soul blood flying toward Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing epted it without a word.

    The young steward standing next to Sir Firedark looked at Xu Qing with a profound gleam in his eyes.

    ¡°Omniscience?¡± he said grimly.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°Not full omniscience. Just omniscience about her.¡±

    His words were met with silence.

    1. And here we go. All of these techniques were those used by Bai Xiaochun in A Will Eternal. Considering how long it took Bai Xiaochun toplete all of the techniques described here, there are obviously far too many references to list as links. If you don¡¯t remember the details, or have never read AWE before, you¡¯ll have to go back and start at chapter 1?? ! I have to be honest, I flipped my lid when reading this. So cool! And I also have a confession to make. When Sir Firedark originally used these abilities, I didn¡¯t think it was the same technique from AWE, and assumed it was just something with a simr name. In fact, my original footnote said something along the lines of ¡°This seems simr to Bai Xiaochun¡¯s ability from AWE, but there is no evidence to assume it¡¯s the same ability.¡± Obviously I had to change that footnote considering what ultimately happened. In any case, I feel like I have a special connection to both Meng Hao and Bai Xiaochun considering that I tranted their stories. So the developments in this chapter are very cool to me! ?

 Chapter 914: The Creditor Awakens

    <h4>Chapter 914: The Creditor Awakens</h4>

    The Dreamflow region was one of the five regions that formed the southeast border of Firemoon Darkheaven territory. It was a strange region that sometimes featured verdant mountains and crystal waters. But sometimes it was full of impurities, with the mountains dark and the waters filthy.

    The reason was because of the gruish clouds that drifted about in the region. There weren¡¯t individual clouds. Rather, the clouds flowed endlessly like a mighty river. When the clouds were white, thends beneath were bright and full of energy. But when the clouds turned ck, demons and devils abounded, and mutagen invaded all living things. That was the natural state of the region, in other words, its climate.

    The local species had a name for the phenomenon: dream clouds.

    At the moment, a very unique dharmaboat was flying through the white clouds in the sky over the Dreamflow Region.

    The ship didn¡¯t look ordinary in any way, as it was shaped like a person. In fact, it looked like an old woman in a ck robe, with countless tentacles swaying around her. However, her form was mostly hidden within the clouds. Any mortal who happened to spot the old woman would think that a god was patrolling the sky.[1]

    Two people were seated cross-legged on the head of the god-like old woman.

    ¡°What do you think of this region, little Ah Qing? Let me tell you, there¡¯s a legend associated with this ce.

    ¡°Supposedly, many years ago there was a godly ox that fell asleep while passing through this area. The ox dreamed a beautiful dream, and then, upon waking up, sneezed. That sneeze caused the beautiful dream toe out in the form of water vapor that eventually became the cloud cover.

    ¡°Not long after that was when the dream clouds appeared in the region.¡±

    The person speaking looked like a young man with ordinary facial features but unusually bright eyes. In fact, if you looked into them, they were like vortexes that could devour anything and everything. His hair was a mess, and his general appearance wasn¡¯t much better. But he wore a bright red robe that made him look very shy and eye-catching. Anyone who caught sight of him from afar would feel inclined to look closer at him. After all, it wasn¡¯t just his robe that was red. He also had red shoes and red pants.

    The young man in red looked very pleased with himself as he spoke proudly to the person seated next to him, who was another young man.

    The second young man posed quite the contrast to the first. He wore an ordinary green jerkin that didn¡¯t seem fancy at all. His face was so extraordinarily beautiful that anything he wore apparently wouldn¡¯t even dare to vie for attention. The extremely attractive young man opened his eyes and looked down at the pleasant scenery below.

    ¡°That legend started back in the day when you were in Firemoon Darkheaven territory. By you. Am I right, Eldest Brother?¡±

    His voice was clear and pleasant.

    Of course, these two people were Xu Qing and the Captain, who were on their way back from God Mountain.

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s words, the Captain chuckled. Looking at the distant horizon, he stretchedzily. ¡°That¡¯s right. I just wanted to illustrate a point. A universal truth. And that is... historical truths often need a bit of embellishment!¡±

    The Captain looked more proud than ever.

    ¡°Years from now, how do you think the history books will portray our aplishments in Firemoon territory? And how will they describe the amazing things we aplished in the name of humankind? Well, I¡¯ve already figured out what the history books should say.¡±

    The Captain¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°In the year 2939 of the Dark War calendar, the exceptionally heroic humans Chen Erniu and Xu Qingpletely dominated a host of Firemoon Darkheaven chosen, seized the title of Grand Darkheaven, and became famous in all of Revered Ancient. [2]

    ¡°Then, during the most important ceremony of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, they had the three Firemoon stewards issue orders to all of their subsidiary species, prohibiting them from invading human territory for 1,000 years. With one word, the Nightshades were put in their ce!

    ¡°For humankind to have two exceptional individuals like this was nothing short of an amazing honor. It proved that humans in Revered Ancient could make aeback, and indicated that the destiny aura of Revered Ancient still acknowledged humankind.¡±

    Xu Qing looked oddly at the Captain but didn¡¯t say anything. Although the Captain had been exaggerating slightly, in essence, what he had just said was true.

    The two of them had left the ceremony before it was even over. But after defeating Sir Firedark, Xu Qing, who was the Grand Darkheaven, had the right to make a request of the three stewards. Of course, that was the entire reason why Xu Qing hade to thends of the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    The three stewards had issued orders instructing all of their subsidiary species to withdraw from the fighting with the humans. What was more, the Firemoon forces would no longer support the Nightshades in their conflict.

    Xu Qing was surprised at how smoothly everything went. It was almost like the entire war was just a child¡¯s game. He had even had other strategies prepared in case his gambit didn¡¯t work.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, I¡¯ve had the feeling for a while that the Firemoons were always going to pull back their troops. It¡¯s as if our actions just gave them the justification to do what they wanted to do from the beginning.¡± Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

    The Captain waved his hand dismissively. ¡°You¡¯re overthinking it. Forget about why it happened. We get to bask in the glory, that¡¯s all that matters.¡±

    Xu Qing grinned. What the Captain said made sense. Since there was no way to find out the details, there was no point in thinking about it too much for the time being. What mattered most was that the result was positive. Having reached this point in his train of thought, he looked down at the shadow cast beneath him by the sun.

    Because the sunlight was filtered through the clouds, it became mottled, and Little Shadow wasn¡¯t very distinct. But Xu Qing could clearly sense its cautious emotional fluctuations. It was exining that it didn¡¯t want its lord and master to be worried, so it had been pretending to be dead.

    Little Shadow had actually awoken five days ago, and had pretended to be dead for only an incense stick¡¯s worth of time before Xu Qing noticed.

    At first, Xu Qing had assumed it really was dead. Back in the Mountain and Sea Region, the effort to seed with Ninedawns resulted in Little Shadow sustaining grievous injuries. Later, its will dispersed, and it went so deeply dormant it seemed dead.[3]

    <i>It has a very resilient life force.</i>

    He was actually pleased to see Little Shadow awake, and he even smiled. Presumably, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior wasn¡¯t as happy.

    As for Little Shadow, it had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was d to be alive. But after the danger it had faced, it could only wonder what further dangers awaited it in the future.... It didn¡¯t dare to express that sentiment, though, and just cautiously sent out some happy fluctuations. Then it sent out something more concrete.

    ¡°Milord... promised... Crimson Mother... flesh?¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile faltered.

    Little Shadow shivered slightly.

    ***

    As Xu Qing and the Captain made their way back toward humannds, the news about Xu Qing bing the Grand Darkheaven was already starting to spread rapidly through Revered Ancient.

    Considering that the three gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people had be wless Gods, everyone was paying much closer attention to them. After all, the development was definitely going to change the power dynamics of Revered Ancient. In fact, every minor development among the Firemoon Darkheavens was subject to scrutiny. Naturally, that included them appointing a new Grand Darkheaven.

    The fact that the Grand Darkheaven was a human, regardless of whether it was coincidental or intention, was obviously very noteworthy. What was even more noteworthy, though, was that a lot of people had seen that very same human trying to take some of the flesh of the broken face.

    In almost no time at all, species all across Revered Ancient started seeking information about Xu Qing and Chen Erniu. Their names became fixed in the minds of countless powerful experts. It was the same among humankind.

    Long before Xu Qing and the Captain even returned, the news about them reached the capital in the Imperial Region. It was like a tempest that astonished heavenly kings, heavenly marquises, and all the other important officials. That included the imperial princes.

    ¡°The Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯... Grand Darkheaven!¡±

    ¡°In all the history of the Firemoons, this is the first time a human ever became Grand Darkheaven!¡±

    ¡°This... this is inconceivable!¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing fought the number one Firemoon chosen, and if one of the stewards hadn¡¯t interceded, that chosen would have died!¡±

    ¡°The Exalted Xu issued a request that the Firemoons withdraw their troops, and that the Nightshades surrender to humankind!¡±

    ¡°What peerless ability! It¡¯s heavenly!¡±

    Most of them knew Xu Qing but were unfamiliar with the Captain. As the news spread, it was obvious that the person named Chen Erniu wasn¡¯t the main character. Most of the attention was focused on Xu Qing.

    Bewilderment. Incredulity. All sorts of emotions ran high in humannds.

    It was the same in the Imperial University. The Xeno-Immortal School had already risen to prominence, but now Xu Qing¡¯s name was even more famous, and that brought even greater dividends. To the excitement of the Xeno-Immortal School students, their school of thought was climbing to the peak of peaks.

    Even more excited than them were the swordsages who hade with Xu Qing from Sea-Sealing County to the imperial capital. Xu Qing¡¯s glory shone far and wide, and that reflected on them. All the pressure that they had been feeling thanks to Xu Qing going missing was long gone. In fact, all of the cultivators from Sea-Sealing County felt swept up in the glory and majesty.

    That was especially true of Ningyan. He knew full well how Xu Qing¡¯s meritorious service would reflect on himself. Of the eleven sticks of crown prince incense that stood in the capital, his wasn¡¯t necessarily burning the fastest, but he wasn¡¯t in a good position. Thankfully, because of the war, the crown prince selection had been dyed. As a result, he was brimming with anticipation regarding Xu Qing¡¯s return.

    After hearing the news about Xu Qing, Kong Xianglong of Sea-Sealing Countyughed heartily. He was happy for Xu Qing, and he was happy for Sea-Sealing County. By now, he realized that he would never catch up to Xu Qing. But that was fine, as he had realized he had his own path to walk.

    In the days Xu Qing had been gone, Pce Lord Li Yunshan had been training Kong Xianglong. It was clear that the old-timers in Sea-Sealing County wanted the position of pce lord to be handed down to a descendant of a previous pce lord.

    Wu Jianwu was also excited that Xu Qing was returning, but at the same time, had some negative feelings. In order to make himself seem like he was on the same page as everyone else, heposed a special poem.

    <i>¡°When creation began, Qing was there. Who is luckiest among the people of Revered Ancient? I should also have been a Darkheaven; instead that Ox stole my prize.¡±</i>

    The poem had picked up some speed, and was actually quite popr already.

    Among the group from Sea-Sealing County was a woman who was very special to Xu Qing. She was currently seated cross-legged in a building with a jade slip held in her delicate hand. She was smiling. Elegant, she was like an exquisite ceramic vase, with the fairest skin possible. She had eyebrows that curved like mountains, eyes like limpid autumn waters, a straight nose, crimson lips, and pearly teeth. She had a slender, attractive frame that was as supple as a willow tree swaying in the breeze. Her every move abounded with feminine beauty and charm.

    <i>The young man has really grown up.</i>

    She blinked, then lifted a piece of green cloudcake and put it in her mouth.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the Captain had crossed the Firemoon Darkheaven border and were now in Fardark County.

    There, the smell of blood mixed with mutagen to fill heaven and earth.

    1. Xu Qing¡¯s old dharmaship resembled the Merflok ¡®god¡¯ Joine. It was originally described in <u>chapter 551.1</u>. ?

    2. Thest time the specific date was mentioned was in <u>chapter 539</u>. The first time was in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

    3. Little Shadow fell asleep in <u>chapter 862</u> and hasn¡¯t been mentioned since then (other than one passing mention in <u>chapter 890</u>). ?

 Chapter 915: The Suspicious Fellow Daoist Feng and Two Shysters

    <h4>Chapter 915: The Suspicious Fellow Daoist Feng and Two Shysters</h4>

    <i>Hold on. Something doesn¡¯t make sense.</i>

    As Xu Qing¡¯s dreadnaught flew into the sky over Fardark County, the smell of blood caused his eyes to narrow.

    Standing next to him was the Captain, looking disheveled and messy. Eyes flickering, he muttered, ¡°The smell of blood is strong. At the very least, a million living beings must have died to create such an odor.¡±

    ¡°A million?¡± Xu Qing felt a sense of vignce rise up within him as he scanned the surroundings.

    Two years ago, when they were traveling in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, they hadn¡¯t ever passed through this area. In fact, it was only a few days ago that they had chosen to travel this way, thinking it was the most prudent option. And that was done after they hadpared the various bits of information they had about the ce. Based on their understanding, the border regions of this county were upied by random, scattered species. Because those species lived in the small border region between two more powerful species, they were generally cautious, and also showed respect to both humans and Firemoon Darkheavens.

    But now this ce was full of the smell of blood, and it caused Xu Qing¡¯s and the Captains¡¯ hearts to sink.

    ¡°Is it blood from animals? Or from the local species?¡± Xu Qing exchanged a suspicious nce with the Captain.

    Regardless of where the smell of blood came from, it indicated that something dramatic had taken ce in Fardark County. And that meant this ce wasn¡¯t safe anymore.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me some god or some old codger is nning to ambush us here?¡± the Captain murmured.

    ¡°If so,¡± Xu Qing replied grimly, ¡°then we wouldn¡¯t be smelling any blood. That would just <i>beat the grass and startle the snake</i>. Also, gods usually don¡¯t operate like that.¡±

    If there really was an ambushing, it would mean there were people in hiding, or perhaps restrictive spells about to be unleashed. Except, other than the smell of blood, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

    In response to Xu Qing¡¯s assessment, the Captain nodded. ¡°It¡¯s also not how those old codgers operate. They don¡¯t act so crudely.¡±

    After some further discussion, the Captain was of the opinion that they could just keep going. Xu Qing, in contrast, wanted to skirt the area. Turning around now would result in some wasted time. What was more, every bit of time that passed increased the general danger they were in.

    They were currently very close to human territory. At their current rate of travel, they would be there in seven days at the most. But upon discovering that something was amiss in this ce, there was no way that someone like Xu Qing would just barrel on ahead. After reaching an agreement about what to do, they backed out of Fardark County and picked another route. It would take two to three times longer, but it would be a lot safer.

    ***

    Some distance away from the spot where Xu Qing and the Captain had turned around, there was a small city of nonhumans. The city had been sealed tight, and was currently a scene of bitter horror. Corpses littered the ground, and blood pooled together into rivers andkes. It was shocking to see how many people were dead.

    Hovering in the air over the city were a few powerful experts from that species, and all of them had expressions of horror, anxiety, and despair on their faces.

    They were currently locked inbat against clouds of bugs. Specifically, they were ck centipedes as long as an arm, with ghost face markings on their backs. They were extremely ferocious, and let loose piercing howls constantly. There were no less than tens upon tens of thousands of them.

    The ghost-face centipedes had surrounded the Void Returning patriarchs of the species, and it was obvious they wouldn¡¯t be able to hold out for very long. In fact, one of the patriarchs withered up, and the venomous bugs pounced on him. As they burrowed into him, he died screaming.

    Higher above them in the air were two figures. One was male and one was female. They were the very same Feng Lintao and Lan Yao who had descended from beyond the heavens earlier.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng,¡± Lan Yao said coolly, ¡°those ghost-spirit darkipedes are profound to say the least. Given their appearance, I¡¯d say it won¡¯t be long before they can evolve into heavenpedes.¡±

    Hearing that, Feng Lintao chuckled. ¡°Don¡¯t be so quick to praise me, Fellow Daoist Lan. It¡¯ll take a few hundred years before the darkipedes can evolve. In fact, even if¡ª huh?¡±

    Before Feng Lintao could finish speaking, his expression flickered and he looked off into the distance.

    Lan Yao noticed that, and her eyes glittered. ¡°What is it, Fellow Daoist Feng?¡±

    ¡°Nothing noteworthy,¡± he replied. ¡°You must have noticed the same thing, Fellow Daoist Lan. Out of an abundance of caution, I set up some void eyes from the holynds. They¡¯re considered secret treasures, and though they¡¯re not <i>that</i> amazing, they are very good at remaining invisible. Given theye from void beasts, they¡¯re foreign to Revered Ancient and don¡¯t conform to the local naturalws. As a result, outsiders can¡¯t detect them. Just now, a void eye happened to spot two local cultivators.¡± Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°However, the two of them seem to be very cautious. Instead of proceeding on their way, they backed up and chose a different route. I¡¯m not in the mood to intercept them at the moment, and considering we have more important matters, I guess they just got lucky.¡±

    Lan Yao smiled faintly. ¡°You always act so cautiously, Fellow Daoist Feng. Apparently, the words you spoke earlier to drive away Yue Dong were not exactly urate. You <i>do</i> take this ce seriously.¡±

    When Feng Lintao declined to respond to Lan Yao, her eyes glittered, but she didn¡¯t press for further information.

    ***

    Xu Qing and the Captain had already left Fardark County. At a certain point, Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture to transform the dreadnaught so that it no longer looked like an old woman. Instead, it became invisible, and at the same time, sped up by several times over.[1]

    Leaving no sign of their passing, they sped along.

    Although they no longer smelled blood, both were still on high alert. After a few days passed in which nothing happened, the two of them reached a point about three days from the border of human territory. That was when they saw something like a red mist on the horizon, and once again smelled blood. It obviously had formed recently, and was still spreading.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grim, and the Captain¡¯s eyes glittered menacingly. The two of them rotated their cultivation bases as they looked at the blood mist.

    Blue light spread from the Captain¡¯s eyes, while Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned pitch ck. Both used their respective vision methods to pierce through the mist. What they saw was a scene from hell.

    ¡°That¡ª¡± the Captain said, cutting himself off in surprise. Xu Qing was frowning. Both could see the source of the mist.

    It was a small city belonging to a minor species. The city had been overrun by the blood mist. Not a sound could be heard inside, and there were no signs of life. Shockingly, massive amounts of corpses had been piled together to create ny-nine towers. Every single tower seemed to be made from nearly 10,000 corpses.

    The minor species had been ughtered to make those towers. At the same time, the third eye that every member of the species had in their forehead had been dug out. The smell of blood wasing from the corpses of this three-eyed species. And when it got strong enough, it turned into a blood mist.

    ¡°A blood sacrifice!¡± the Captain murmured. ¡°Their souls have been extracted already. This isn¡¯t the type of blood sacrifice offered to a god. No, this looks like something used to create some sort of unique treasure.¡±

    Looking at the city, Xu Qing said, ¡°Presumably the smell of blood from earlier was caused by something simr.¡±

    The Captain nodded. Looking closely at the blood mist, he suddenly said, ¡°Except this blood mist hasn¡¯t been taken away. Whoever made it isn¡¯t finished yet.... This has nothing to do with us. We should just keep going and worry about it after we get back to human territory. There¡¯s no need for us to meddle in affairs here.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel some sort of overwhelmingpassion for nonhumans, so he nodded in agreement. The two of them then put away the dreadnaught, tapped into their cultivation bases, and became two shadowy figures that shot forward.

    ***

    A short distance away, the two cultivators surnamed Feng and Lan, who were responsible for the blood sacrifice, were piercing through the air.

    ¡°Most of the blood sacrifices are finished,¡± Feng Lintao said. ¡°All the requirements are met. Anyone who enters those areas won¡¯t be able to cause any trouble now.¡± In his hand was a blood-red pendant that he looked at, his eyes flickering with excitement.

    ¡°20,000,000 souls,¡± Lan Yao said coolly, ¡°including those of mortals and cultivators, used to summon a sea of blood and corpses. In the holynds, methods like that are major taboos. If you got caught, you¡¯d have your soul extracted and your mind destroyed. Fellow Daoist Feng, you¡¯re really being reckless in your attempt to acquire <i>that</i> thing.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. There¡¯s no need for mockery, Fellow Daoist Lan. I¡¯m not just doing this for myself. When I get <i>that</i> thing, you¡¯ll benefit a lot as well. I wouldn¡¯t dare to do something like this in the holynds. But things are different here. And don¡¯t forget the agreement we made, Fellow Daoist Lan. If you suddenly feel regret and fail to live up to your word, well....¡± Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at her.

    She smiled faintly. ¡°You¡¯re overthinking things, Fellow Daoist Feng. If everything ys out as you said it would, then I won¡¯t have any need to back out of our agreement.¡±

    Feng Lintao nodded and was about to say something further when his expression darkened, and he turned to look off into the difference. ¡°They¡¯re back. When it happened a few days ago, I assumed they were just passing by. Contrary to expectation, they picked another route leading right to us.

    ¡°Despite their probing, they¡¯re not choosing to leave. Maybe they are just passersby, or maybe... they have ulterior motives! Furthermore, now that they¡¯ve detected the blood sacrifice, we can¡¯t risk them leaving and spreading word.¡±

    Feng Lintao frowned. He was suspicious and even paranoid by nature, and this n of his was extremely important to him. To see people suddenly showing up and acting like this was just too unusual. Ultimately, killing intent rose up within him.

    ¡°Better to y it safe than sorry. These two Void Returning cultivators need to be exterminated!¡±

    Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, Feng Lintao blurred into motion, rocketing off into the distance at incredible speed. Eyes glittered, Lan Yao followed. In the briefest of moments, the two of them vanished.

    ***

    The next day, Xu Qing and the Captain were only two days away from the border of human territory. That was when the sky suddenly turned dark and a host of lightning bolts descended, apanied by a shocking tempest that roared in all directions.

    A cold voice rang out.

    ¡°Halt, you two!¡±

    A handposed of wind and lightning stretched out of the tempest toward Xu Qing and the Captain. It was so big it filled half the sky, and seemed capable of crushing anything in its path. The infinite lightning dancing within it was shocking to the extreme.

    Stunned, Xu Qing and the Captain stopped in ce then fell back. Unfortunately, they reacted too slowly. The huge hand dropped down, grabbed Xu Qing and the Captain, and then squeezed down violently. A rumbling boom rang out as Xu Qing and the Captain exploded.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    Almost as soon as they exploded, an expression of surprise could be heard from the tempest. Then two people emerged. They were none other than Feng Lintao and Lan Yao.

    Looking at the flesh and blood in the huge hand, Feng Lintao¡¯s expression turned grim. ¡°Blood puppets. Not true bodies. But do they really think methods like this will enable them to escape me?¡±

    Feng Lintao snorted coldly, then performed a single-handed incantation gesture. He blurred, then reappeared and began to give chase.

    About half a day away, Xu Qing and the Captain were speeding along.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. ¡°Those two blood clones I left behind to cover our tracks were destroyed. Someone has a whole lot of killing intent directed at us. We¡¯re still two days away from the border. I¡¯m afraid we aren¡¯t going to make it in time.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. Looking around, he spotted a low-lying mountain off in the distance. Flying over, hended on it and then waved his hand to send soul threads flying out in all directions. In the blink of an eye, warding spells popped up, creating a cloak of concealment.

    The Grand Darkheaven Armor appeared to cover him, and he flicked his wrist to summon a blood-red dagger. The dagger was covered with mysterious designs that formed a vicious face, the mouth of which opened and bit into Xu Qing¡¯s palm. Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he allowed the vicious face to drink a mouthful of his blood. That caused the face¡¯s expression to turn fanatical before it sank down into the dagger. Then the dagger disappeared into his palm. The only thing that remained was a sound like that of breathing,ing from his hand. Hoarse and filled with longing, it was extremely gruish. This was the Spirit-Devouring Dagger that Xu Qing had acquired after bing the Grand Darkheaven.

    With those things aplished, he looked up, his eyes pulsing with killing intent. ¡°I guess this means we¡¯re going to have a little fight.¡±

    Grinning viciously, the Captain dropped down next to Xu Qing, sat cross-legged, and began to glow with blue light. After it spread out about 50 kilometers, it flickered and vanished. Then, gruish faces appeared in his eyes. This time, though, they didn¡¯t stay inside, but appeared outside of his eyes, turning into over a hundred illusory faces that circled around him, and concealed him in invisibility.

    Next, he struck himself in the chest, whereupon a mind-shaking roar echoed out from behind him as an enormous tumor rose up, then burst open, allowing a blue, skeletal hand to emerge. That hand shook even Xu Qing and filled him with a sense of danger. The moment the hand flew up into the air, it disappeared into invisibility.

    And yet, the Captain still wasn¡¯t done. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his spine at the neck and twisted it, ripping out his own backbone. His body immediately went limp, but then quickly straightened up. He grinned maliciously.

    ¡°There¡¯s something I didn¡¯t mention before, little Junior Brother. I smell the aroma of a treasure! A very delicious treasure!¡± The Captain licked his lips as a crazy look gleamed in his eyes.

    Xu Qing, meanwhile, felt moved. After a bit of thought, he performed an incantation gesture, causing his shadow to blur and spread out. At the same time, sevenmps appeared behind Xu Qing, which merged into him. Then he closed his eyes and sat there silently.

    About two hourster, Xu Qing opened his eyes. The crazy look in the Captain¡¯s eyes looked even stronger. The two of them peered up into the dome of heaven. Up above, a blood cloud appeared, which spread out amidst thunderous rumbling sounds. Then a man and a woman appeared.

    1. This appears to be an author mistake. Xu Qing''s dreadnaught never looked like "an old woman," in other words, Joine. That was actually his spirit cruiser (reference chapter 555.1). That said, I don''t think it''s beyond the realm of possibility that Xu Qing could make it look however he wanted. Except it was never mentioned that he had changed it from being a sun to an old woman. Many chapters from now, the "old woman" version of the dreadnaught gets mentioned again, so whether it''s a mistake or not, that is how the author wants it going forward apparently. ?

 Chapter 916: Green Ox Tramples the Wind [Qing & Niu Trample Feng] (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 916: Green Ox Tramples the Wind [Qing & Niu Trample Feng] (part 1)</h4>

    The blood mist seethed, connecting to the dome of heaven for no less than 500 kilometers. Lightning crackled within it like writhing crimson snakes. Rumbling thunder sounded like heavenly daos roaring to shake the cosmos. Thends beneath the blood mist were under insurmountable pressure, which caused boulders to tremble and start floating up into the air. It was almost as if there was some horrific evil in the clouds that was exerting influence over all living beings.

    Even the low-lying mountain where Xu Qing and the Captain waited was affected by the power of the blood mist, and started trembling. It was truly an astonishing sight.

    The man and woman that walked out of the blood mist seemed like rulers of all heaven and earth. They abounded with power, and they pulsed with sky-obfuscating,nd-enshrouding auras.

    The man was like a mountain. He was tall and burly, with an oppressive pressure that radiated off of him and a facial expression that was both cold and filled with unswerving determination. At the same time, his eyes shone with grim and unfeeling brutality.

    The woman was as beautiful as an immortal, with hair that swayed in the wind, a waist as supple as a willow tree, and enticing curves that would cause anyone who looked at her to palpitate with desire.

    These two weren¡¯t human. Though they were both extremely good-looking, both had wings on their backs and natural third eyes. They were dressed exactly the same. Both wore ck robes embroidered with golden thread. And the golden thread flickered with light that created spatial rifts around them as they moved! It was horrendous to say the least!

    They were none other than Feng Lintao and Lan Yao.

    Once out in the open, Lan Yao shed an enigmatic smile as she looked down at Xu Qing and the Captain. Her gaze seemed to linger a bit longer on Xu Qing.

    As for Feng Lintao, his expression was cid as he hovered overhead. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you two pieces of trash running away?¡±

    Xu Qing and the Captain both looked up grimly, their hearts pounding with the desire to do battle. This person was obviously intent on chasing them down. And despite the fact that they had never met before, much less had any reason for a grudge, he... still wanted to kill them! They intended to return that favor! There was no hesitation on their part. They lived in brutal times in which killing wasn¡¯t just the result of grudges or conflicts.

    What was more, it was obvious this person wanted to kill them because they had encroached on his blood sacrifice. In response to this person¡¯s rather extreme behavior, Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a single word. That was just his personality. He wasn¡¯t the type of person to quibble. He was the type of person who took action, and when he did take action, he killed!

    He looked at the two nonhumans, first to confirm that they were a different species, and second to try to identify any weaknesses they might have. As far as he could tell, their biggest weak spot was their throat.

    In contrast, there was no way the Captain could hold back from offering some sharp words. Laughing derisively, he said, ¡°What, you think having chicken wings makes you bird people or something? Listen up, you three-eyed little chickens, watch your tongue when you speak to your superiors!¡±

    In response to the Captain¡¯s words, Lan Yao frowned, and her gaze turned colder. Feng Lintao¡¯s expression turned grim, and he suddenly looked at the area surrounding Xu Qing and the Captain.

    ¡°So,¡± Feng Lintao said coolly, ¡°you entrenched yourself and even set up some crude warding spells. No wonder you dare to use suchnguage when addressing an important person like myself. Sadly, it doesn¡¯t matter what methods some trifling Void Returning cultivators use. You¡¯re still <i>frogs in a well</i> who clearly <i>don¡¯t know the height of the heavens or the depths of the earth</i>.¡±

    Feng Lintao took a step in their direction, and it caused the blood mist to rumble and weigh down with greater pressure. The ground quaked, and the boulders floating in the air shattered. It seemed that, in the blink of an eye, the entire area was locked down, making all natural and magicalws conform to his will.

    When that will settled onto Xu Qing and the Captain, their expressions flickered, and they rotated their cultivation bases as if they were fighting back with everything they had to muster.

    Feng Lintao¡¯s expression was cool and apathetic as he took a second step. A great cracking sound echoed through the dome of heaven, as if the sky had split open. The ground shook even harder. The low-lying mountain couldn¡¯t stand the pressure anymore and started crumbling beneath Xu Qing and the Captain.

    As the rubble of the rocks floated higher into the air, Feng Lintao lifted his right hand and then pushed it down. An immense force gathered, crushing down on everything, like a gale force wind sweeping onto a pile of leaves to crush them out of existence.

    The shattered rubble of the low-lying mountain became ash, and even the air began to crumple so that it looked like a wrinkled piece of cloth. And it was all gathering around Xu Qing and the Captain. Rumbling sounds echoed out as Xu Qing and the Captain were ripped to shreds, causing blood to spray everywhere.

    Feng Lintao¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. Apparently, he didn¡¯t think killing a couple of Void Returning cultivators was worth reacting to. Then, just as he was about to turn and leave, his expression flickered, and he looked back at the spot he had just attacked.

    The moment he did, the air filled with hundreds of thousands of magical symbols. Specifically, they didn¡¯te out of nowhere. They came out of the crushed rubble of the boulders, and they instantly spread out to fill the area.

    They were the result of the warding spells Xu Qing had set up. After they appeared, the hundreds of thousands of magical symbols shed three times, then erupted.

    A deafening rumbling sound could be heard as the power of hundreds of thousands of warding spells created a huge tempest that swept over Feng Lintao. His facial expression still didn¡¯t change. The golden embroidery on his ck robe suddenly expanded, forming a shocking defensive spell that blocked all external attacks. Eyes derisive, he prepared to fight back.

    But then his face fell as the tempest formed from warding spells revealed over a hundred gruish faces within it. The vicious faces looked extremely greedy as they smiled eerily and bared their teeth, which were long and pointed. All of them pulsed with terrifying auras.

    They had been hiding in that wind, but Feng Lintao didn¡¯t realize it until now. With mouths gaping, they lunged toward Feng Lintao. They moved with incredible speed, and at the same time, glowed with blue light that allowed them to pass right through the fluctuations emitted by Feng Lintao¡¯s robe. As they pounced, they started biting into him.

    ¡°What the hell are these things?¡± Feng Lintao blurted, shaken. He immediately went into a double-handed incantation gesture, causing his Smoldering God cultivation base to erupt. Something like mercury swept out, covering him and fighting back against the faces.

    However, that was when Xu Qing appeared, hovering in midair outside the tempest. Instantly, the sevenmps within him flickered. They were none other than the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse, which targeted the enemy¡¯s soul. The moment themps flickered, they all simultaneously went out.

    Extinguish themp, extinguish the enemy.

    The curse instantly swept over Feng Lintao. He was first inhibited by the warding spell tempest and then got tangled up with the Captain¡¯s gruish faces. He was terrifyingly strong, and was already in the process of exterminating the faces. But Xu Qing attacked with extreme precision, and cooperated perfectly with the Captain.

    As the underworld curse erupted, Feng Lintao¡¯s expression flickered dramatically. A power of extermination stabbed into him, piercing to his soul. As the pain filled him, he was overwhelmed by a sensation of withering. As a result, his effort of dealing with the gruish faces slowed.

    Taking advantage of the moment, the Captain¡¯s gruish faces looked even crazier as they started self-detonating.

    Huge booms rang out, shaking heaven and earth. Immense force struck Feng Lintao in both his soul and his fleshly body, immediately putting him into a very bad state. That said, he came from the holynds, and had a lot of techniques at his disposal. A blow that might have been fatal to others simply wasn¡¯t capable of killing him.

    He was preparing tounch his counter attack, but there was no way that a killing move from Xu Qing and the Captain would be as simple as this.

    The next moment, Xu Qing closed in, surrounded by glittering light and terrifying might as he clenched his right hand into a fist. Then heunched a blow that could shatter the air and pierce through thend. It formed an undying body and an indestructible will, something domineering andpletely extraordinary.

    It was none other than Sir Firedark¡¯s Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist!

    Were Sir Firedark here to witness this happening, he would bepletely astonished. Back during the fight with Sir Firedark, Xu Qing had been paying very close attention, and had already begun to make an imitation of the technique in his mind and heart. After the battle, he gained further enlightenment, and was now able to use it in a magnificent way.

    As the fist descended, Feng Lintao¡¯s expression flickered again. And yet, the true killing move from Xu Qing and the Captain had yet to appear.

    The Captain had taught Xu Qing how to act in a truly crazy manner. But the Captain had also learned some things from Xu Qing. He had learned from Xu Qing that it was fine not tounch an attack. But if you didunch an attack, you should go all out, and not hold anything back. That was Xu Qing¡¯s style.

    Therefore, the moment Xu Qing unleashed the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist, a blue, skeletal hand appeared out of nowhere and snatched viciously toward Feng Lintao¡¯s heart from behind.

    The blue skeletal hand was extremely eerie, as if it was from another world. And the piercing howl it emitted could shake the mind and cause the emotions to reel. It would cause someone to feel terror and fear that couldn¡¯t be blocked, and would make one tremble both in soul and fleshly body. A will of decay erupted, as if this skeletal hand were from a dead god, and could infect anything and everything with something incredibly inauspicious.

    In the blink of an eye, the blue skeletal hand pierced through everything to join Xu Qing and unleash the power to destroy souls.

    All of this takes some time to describe, but in reality, it happened in an instant. From Feng Lintao¡¯s perspective, he had been just about to seize victory, only to suddenly find himself in a truly deadly crisis. That sudden change caused him to gasp. That was especially true of the skeletal hand behind him, which caused his hair to stand up on end.

    That said, he had abundant experience in battle. And to be a part of this missionunched by the holynds, it was a given that he was considered an extraordinary person there. Therefore, in that moment of crisis, he didn¡¯t hesitate to open his mouth and spit something out. It started out only about an inch long, but as it flew out, it grew bigger, until it was fully three meters.

    It was a ck shield!

    It was sturdy and ancient, and didn¡¯t have any sort of magical symbols or designs on it. It looked ordinary in nature. However, it emanated an ancient sensation that made it seem like it had been steeping in a river of time for endless years. The moment it appeared, it created defenses all around Feng Lintao.

    And it immediately pushed back against Xu Qing¡¯s Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist, the Captain¡¯s blue skeletal hand, the tempest, the exploding faces, and the power of the underworld curse. Deafening booms echoed out and wild colors shed in heaven and earth.

    Xu Qing and the Captain both shivered as they tumbled backward several dozen meters before lurching to a halt.

    At the same time, a dazzling red light flickered around Feng Lintao as a blood-colored form charged out and raced to a position some 300 meters away. Countless red streams of light shot out of the ck shield to prevent anyone from chasing after the blood-colored form.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face darkened, and a crazy look gleamed in the Captain¡¯s eyes. They were both looking at that blood-colored light as it came to a stop 300 meters away. It was Feng Lintao.

 Chapter 916: Green Ox Tramples the Wind [Qing & Niu Trample Feng] (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 916: Green Ox Tramples the Wind [Qing & Niu Trample Feng] (part 2)</h4>

    At the veryst moment, Feng Lintao used the extraordinary ck shield and a secret magic to get to safety and put some distance between himself and his opponents. Of course, he paid a heavy price to do so. He got closer to hisrade, but not too close. Keeping a few dozen meters between the two of them, he shivered and then coughed up a mouthful of blood. His face was pale and his expression grim. From the look of it, his vital energy had been damaged.

    Lan Yao hadn¡¯t made a single move up to this point. She was actually shocked at what was happening, but suppressed that. ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng, can you really not handle two simple Void Returning cultivators?¡±

    Feng Lintao snorted coldly. ¡°There¡¯s no need to ask such questions, Fellow Daoist Lan. You saw with your own eyes that these two little punks aren¡¯t ordinary individuals. What¡¯s more, they¡¯re obviously used to working together. You¡¯re just trying to get me worked up, aren¡¯t you?¡± He smiled grimly. ¡°In the hopes of seeing what trump cards I have? Well, there¡¯s no need for trickery like that.¡±

    Lan Yaoughed softly. ¡°You¡¯re thinking too much into it, Fellow Daoist Feng. I was just curious! Our deal is still in ce. Why would I do something like that?¡±

    Feng Lintao didn¡¯t provide any reply other than another cold snort. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all that Lan Yao hadn¡¯t stepped in to help him. They were working together, nothing more. And yet, for her to ridicule him in his current bedraggled state was very irritating, which was why he had ceased to be so polite.

    As of now, he was taking Xu Qing and the Captain very seriously. He was a cultivator from the holynds, with a Smoldering God cultivation base. Granted, his cultivation base had been sealed before he came to this ce, which limited him to two-world strength. But to him, even Void Returning cultivators with powerful trump cards should have been easy to wipe out. Except, things were different now.

    He wasn¡¯t the only one who had assessed the situation in that manner. That was why hispanion Lan Yao had stood to the side and refrained from interfering. Even she had assumed that Feng Lintao would have no trouble in this situation.

    They really couldn¡¯t be to me for that. If the two of them had been facing one of Revered Ancient¡¯s Smoldering Gods, they wouldn¡¯t have acted so casually. But Xu Qing and the Captain looked like nothing more than first-stage Void Returning cultivators. Given that, it might not have made sense to disregard them, but it definitely didn¡¯t make sense to take them very seriously. Because of all that, what actually happened left both of them shocked.

    Eyes glittering as he sized up Xu Qing and the Captain, Feng Lintao projected a message to Lan Yao. <i>¡°These two must be extraordinary individuals in the Revered Ancient maind.... Even in the holynds, they would be considered chosen. Fellow Daoist Lan, aren¡¯t you fond of strangling chosen to death? Why don¡¯t we work together on this?¡±</i>

    Lan Yao chuckled. <i>¡°They¡¯re human. It¡¯s not strange at all for humans to have chosen like this. As for working together to fight them, well, you went out of your way to try to kill them, Fellow Daoist Feng. That has nothing to do with me! That said, considering our deal, I guess it makes sense for me to lend a helping hand.¡±</i>

    Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at Xu Qing and the Captain. All of a sudden, he waved his right hand, causing intense rumbling sounds to echo out as a host of ck clouds appeared. Shockingly, the ck clouds were actually formed of numerous ck centipedes with ghost faces on their backs, all of them roughly the size of an arm. They were iparably ferocious, and their piercing cries hurt Xu Qing¡¯s ears, and caused a very serious expression to appear on the Captain¡¯s face. There were no less than tens upon tens of thousands of them.

    After they appeared, Feng Lintao waved his hand, and the ghost-face centipedes massed together and swept toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Little Shadow was there on the ground, but its range seemed to be affected by the massive pressure.

    The moment the ghost-face centipedes began their charge, the Captain raised his hand, and the blue light that had been concealing him flickered and rose into the air. Wherever it went, a power of frigid coldness spread out, freezing heaven and earth, and sealing all living beings.

    The centipedes bore the brunt of the attack, and they slowed down. That said, they didn¡¯t seem any less ferocious than before, and they even fought back, spitting out fire that spread everywhere. The frigid power was exceptional, but there wasn¡¯t quite enough of it to deal with so many of the centipedes and the seas of fire that they spat out.

    As the two forces shed, countless shadows on the ground spread out to target... the shadows cast by the cloud of centipedes!

    The power of possession suddenly erupted!

    Next, Xu Qing and the Captain shot forth, one from the left, the other from the right. Both closed in directly on Feng Lintao. After things went poorly earlier, Feng Lintao had clearlye to think of these two opponents as equals. As a result, he had not only unleashed the ghost-face centipedes, but had also tapped into his cultivation base. All of a sudden, two ck balls of fire appeared above his shoulders! Astonishingly, he had a major world on each shoulder, glittering as they pulsed with terrifying auras.

    Even more astounding was that he had three additional balls of ck fire, one above each hand and one above his head. However, those three fireballs were dim, as if they were covered with fog, or perhaps sealed. It was the same with the major worlds within the balls of fire.

    ¡°Five-world Smoldering God!¡± Xu Qing said with a sharp inhtion.

    ¡°But three worlds are sealed. Why?¡± The Captain was surprised, but that surprise was quickly overtaken by curiosity. After exchanging a nce with Xu Qing, he sped up.

    As the two of them closed in, they unleashed divine abilities. The Captain¡¯s blue light shone with unprecedented brightness, to the point where it almost seemed possible to discern a major world within it. As for Xu Qing, he had unleashed 40,000,000 soul threads, which quickly formed the same amazing world he had used in his fight with Sir Firedark.

    It was a majestic world filled with a hundred godly pirs to prop up heaven, and it had three extraordinary types of godly authority. As the might of the world surged, it joined the Captain to race toward Feng Lintao with deadly force.

    Seeing that, Lan Yao¡¯s expression suddenly became far graver than before.

    It was the same with Feng Lintao, whose pupils constricted. And yet, killing intent still proliferated in his eyes.

    ¡°So you really <i>are</i> chosen. Each of you is a Void Returning cultivator who can summon the world of a Smoldering God! Well, that¡¯s fine. Now I¡¯ll just have to show you what happens when an inferior offends a superior!¡¯

    The two worlds above Feng Lintao¡¯s shoulders rumbled as they shot forward in illusory form toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    At the same time, Feng Lintao took a deep breath, then exhaled a stream of silver light that spread out to cover him until he looked like he was pure silver. After that, the silver light erupted, turning into something like a sharp de that shed out with terrifying pressure. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s soul threads that made up his major world started rumbling. Unexpectedly, it looked like the silver light was capable of cutting through them. It was the same with the blue light of the Captain¡¯s world. The silver light was truly spectacr.

    ¡°It¡¯s the light of the holynds, little Junior Brother!¡± the Captain blurted, his pupils constricting. ¡°Fall back!¡±

    He immediately shot backward at top speed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression flickered. He had no idea what the ¡®light of the holynds¡¯ was, but he did know that the term ¡®holynds¡¯ represented something monumental. That said, he could tell that there was something a bit off about the Captain¡¯s behavior. Based on what he knew of the Captain, this just wasn¡¯t something the Captain would do. After all, they still had more trump cards, most notably, the emperor¡¯s corpse!

    <i>Eldest Brother must have some trick up his sleeve....</i> With that thought in mind, Xu Qing stered a shocked look onto his face and started fleeing.

    ¡°So you know about the light of the holynds. Interesting.¡± Feng Lintao, who looked like he was made from silver,ughed coldly. Suddenly, he vanished, only to appear right in front of the Captain. He thrust his hand out.

    The blue light surrounding the Captain copsed, and the Captain himself seemed to vanish from existence.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes glittered as he vanished again. This time, he reappeared right in front of the fleeing Xu Qing. He thrust his hand out again.

    Power surged around Xu Qing, and the world of soul threads in front of him copsed as the hand smashed through it andnded on his chest.

    At the same time, a thump rang out as Xu Qing was sent flying back several hundred meters. His face was pale, but he didn¡¯t seem to have any injuries. The glittering Grand Darkheaven Armor wasbined with the Ninedawns skulls that circled around him, as well as his god body. Coupled with the copied version of the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist and the fleshly body blessing it provided, Xu Qing¡¯s defenses were at a terrifying level.

    Feng Lintao waspletely and utterly shocked. ¡°Such defenses... Fine, let¡¯s see you survive some magicalws without getting hurt!¡±

    He snorted coldly as he made a grasping gesture. In response, innumerable threads appeared in the air, swirling around to form an immense web. The web was made from naturalws, and the silver light made itpletely silver as it spread out. It shed through anything in its path.

    Xu Qing¡¯s cultivation base was in full rotation, and the power of his defenses were at the limit. When he made contact with the web, piercing sounds rang out as his fleshly body power fought back. However, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from being forced backward.

    As the web shot forward, Feng Lintao focused on the spot where the Captain had disappeared, and tried to force the Captain out into the open.

    The moment the Captain appeared, he self-detonated, turning into a host of innumerable blue worms that surrounded the skeletal hand. Then, the hand shot toward Feng Lintao with shocking speed. It moved with astonishing speed and force. Frigid coldness spread out as the skeletal hand smashed through the silver light, closed in on Feng Lintao, then viciously grabbed him. At the same time, the worms opened their mouths and spat out frigid energy.

    In the blink of an eye, the light of the holynds was pierced through, and Feng Lintao¡¯s face fell. Though he managed to block the skeletal hand, he couldn¡¯t stop the all-enveloping frigid energy. Unending coldness spread out, instantly affecting him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered with killing intent as he unhesitatingly lifted his right hand. A blood-colored dagger appeared, with a vicious face on it. He shed the dagger toward his enemy.

    A swishing sound rang out. The of magicalws was shed apart by the dagger. And then, in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint, Xu Qing appeared right behind Feng Lintao. The dagger shed through his throat!

    Feng Lintao¡¯s face fell even more dramatically. At the same time, Lan Yao, who had only been watching up to this point, narrowed her eyes and lifted her hand. Instantly, a host of flower petals covered the spot where the other three were fighting.

    Lan Yao took a step forward. Clearly she was nning to join the action.

    However, there was no way Xu Qing and the Captain would let Lan Yao do something like that. The moment she began to take action, a blue spine materialized in front of her andshed viciously toward her.

    At the same time, the ghost-face centipedes that were spitting out fire to deal with the blue light suddenly switched to face Lan Yao. They had been taken over by Little Shadow!

    All of a sudden, the blue light shifted, turning into a barrier that surrounded Lan Yao!

 Chapter 917: Spirit of the True World

    <h4>Chapter 917: Spirit of the True World</h4>

    The field of battle in the dome of heaven had been separated into two parts by the freezing wall of blue light!

    To the left of the blue light, Xu Qing and the Captain were unleashing devastating trump cards. The Captain transformed into innumerable blue worms that belched out frigid energy to freeze all things. With the blessing of the blue skeletal hand, it became a terrifying might that could smash through everything with astonishing killing intent. Xu Qing was like the emissary of death itself, with the Spirit-Devouring Dagger in his hand, backed by a will of death and a destructive wind as heunched his attack.

    To the right of the blue light, Lan Yao was locked in ce and facing innumerable ghost-face centipedes, all of which had been taken over by Little Shadow and were belching ck mes that became a sky-obscuring, sun-blocking poisonous gas. Because of all that, Lan Yao had no way to interfere.

    But what really struck fear into her heart was the gruish blue spine, which writhed in front of her like a gigantic blue centipede. In fact, it looked very simr to the host of smaller ghost-face centipedes, and pulsed with an incredibly terrifying aura. From a distance, it seemed like the Captain¡¯s centipede was the king of all the other centipedes, leading the sea of bugs to shake heaven and earth.

    The aura cast by that sea of centipedes was something Lan Yao had never encountered before, and left her filled with a sense of crisis. As of now, it was hard to tell whether she was actually trapped in ce, or whether she was simply unwilling to risk trying to help Feng Lintao.

    Next, Feng Lintao, whose fleshly body had been frozen in ce by the Captain¡¯s worms, was hit by the skeletal hand. It was like a hammer crushing an ice cube as his fleshly body was ripped to shreds. Then the hand grabbed his heart and squeezed down on it. His heart was clearly about to explode.

    At the same time, the de light of Xu Qing¡¯s Spirit-Devouring Dagger sliced through the light of the holynds and reached the skin of Feng Lintao¡¯s throat. A swishing sound rang out, and a huge wound opened up, shing all the way through Feng Lintao¡¯s neck to the point where his head was nearly severed.

    Lan Yao¡¯s eyes shed as she flew backward and defended herself against the blue spine.

    <i>He¡¯s probably going to use his trump card now, right...?</i>

    At that critical moment, as death seemed to wrap up Feng Lintao, and a bitter cry escaped his lips, his eyes also gleamed with determination. Then, his five major worlds, three of which were empty and two of which were real, suddenly shed brightly.

    The terrifying power of a Smoldering God erupted, billowing out in all directions. The skeletal hand that had been crushing his heart could no longer exert any force at all. It was as if the heart, which had been about to crumble, was now a chunk of hardened iron.

    Xu Qing¡¯s dagger stopped in ce and could inflict no further damage.

    The facial expression of both Xu Qing and the Captain flickered as five-colored light rose up from Feng Lintao¡¯s five worlds. At the same time, a feather emerged from each of them. Feathers even came from the sealed worlds, as if the sealing that affected the worlds couldn¡¯t do anything to the feathers. Each feather was a different color, but all were roughly a foot long. The moment they emerged, they pulsed with a chaotic, primeval aura, something incredibly strong and intense.

    In fact, that aura seemed very simr to the aura of a domain treasure. It seemingly contained the power of essence, which was something that could shake flesh and blood, all while causing the soul to shiver.

    ¡°Spirit of the True World!¡± the Captain blurted, his pupils constricting. He decisively disengaged frombat and flew backward, all while giving Xu Qing a meaningful look.

    Looking shaken, Xu Qing unhesitatingly withdrew the Spirit-Devouring Dagger and flew backward several meters.

    The moment the Captain recognized the feathers, and the two of them fell back, the aura of the feathers shot up into the sky, turning into a five-colored tempest that connected the dome of heaven to thends below. The five colors shoved aside the clouds and caused terrifying might to whip violently everywhere. Ultimately, the five precious feathers fused together, turning into a five-colored feather fan that pulsed with such an explosive energy it could shake the world and rock the ancient past. [1]

    Feng Lintao grabbed it, whereupon his gaze turned icy cold. All of a sudden, hisplexion did not look hale and ruddy. Apparently, using this precious treasure inflicted serious damage to his vital energy. Now wasn¡¯t the time to worry about that, though. Gripping the five-colored feather fan, he waved it toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The result was a massive wind that shook heaven and earth. It was a wind that could sweep aside anything as if it were a loose leaf. The air shattered, and blood sprayed out of the mouths of Xu Qing and the Captain.

    The Captain¡¯s body was ripped to shreds. The flesh and blood formed back, only to be ripped apart again. It happened several times, and whenever he formed anew, the same thing would happen.

    Xu Qing had it a bit better off, as his fleshly body was incredibly tough. Whether it was because of his god body, his Grand Darkheaven Armor, or the blessing of the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist, his fleshly body was unusually durable. Though he still coughed up an enormous mouthful of blood as he tumbled backward, his body didn¡¯t copse. Unfortunately, the glow of the Grand Darkheaven Armor went dim, and pain filled him from head to toe.

    At the same time, the blue wall blocking Lan Yao fell back, as did the blue spine and the countless possessed ghost-face centipedes.

    However, it didn¡¯t seem that Feng Lintao could sustain further use of the five-colored feather fan. The fan once again turned back into five feathers, which returned to his five major worlds. At that point, all of his worlds went blurry. It looked like their essence had been badly damaged.

    Silver blood sprayed out of Feng Lintao¡¯s mouth, and his face turned iparably pale. He now looked profoundly weak. Staring grimly at Xu Qing and the Captain, he hoarsely said, ¡°You actually forced me into the position of opening my essence.... I underestimated you two and had no choice. What a pity three of my worlds were sealed. If I¡¯d been able to use five-world power, I could have ughtered you in an instant.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cold and grim. Saying nothing, he looked at the wound on Feng Lintao¡¯s neck, which was already healing up. The sight caused his heart to sink. This fight had really impressed upon him what kind of reserve powers a Smoldering God could have. Although he still had a few moves left... it wasn¡¯t lost on him that this opponent still had an ally with simrly terrifying battle prowess.

    In contrast, the Captain simply chuckled derisively. ¡°Any chance you could refrain from talking such rubbish, Chicken Wing? What, you really think that using five-world Smoldering God power to kill two Void Returning cultivators is something to write home about? You¡¯re from the holynds. You have the light of the holynds, and you cultivate the Spirit of the True World, a signature ability of the Devilbird species!¡±

    After revealing who this opponent was, the Captain licked his lips.

    Xu Qing said nothing. He had alreadye up with various spections when the Captain mentioned the ¡®light of the holynds,¡¯ so he wasn¡¯t very surprised.

    Feng Lintao said nothing for a few breaths of time. Looking hard at the Captain, he then said something that filled the two of them with even deeper anxiety. ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s nothing worth writing home about. I wasn¡¯t thinking straight. But going forward, I will be.¡±

    Feng Lintao had nearly died twice. He had lost a lot of face, and had also damaged his vital energy and essence. As the words left his mouth, he seemed incredibly calm, and his expression turned even darker. He now looked very cold and apathetic. Few people in his position could do something like that, and it just went to show how terrifying this Feng Lintao was.

    Next, Feng Lintao turned to Lan Yao, sped hands, and bowed. ¡°Fellow Daoist Lan, I¡¯m aware that you were holding back on purpose, all with the goal of getting a glimpse of my trump card. Well, now you¡¯ve seen it.

    ¡°In the final analysis, the two of us made a deal to work with each other. I admit that if I want to kill these two, I either have to undo my seals, or I have to use more of my essence power. If I undo my seals, then I¡¯ll immediately face expulsion by the heavenly daos. After all, the holy ancestors haven¡¯t yete, so the heavenly daos don¡¯t approve of us....

    ¡°What¡¯s more, if I use more of my essence, it¡¯ll affect the deal we have in ce. And therefore, I hereby request your assistance, Fellow Daoist Lan!¡±

    Feng Lintao was being very sincere, to the point where he waved his hand, sending the blood pendant that was the result of the blood sacrifice directly over to Lan Yao.

    ¡°That item rtes to our efforts. I¡¯ll hand it over to you for safe keeping, Fellow Daoist Lan. Consider it an expression of my sincerity.¡±

    Feng Lintao could have transmitted all of his words, but instead he spoke them out loud. That was how confident he was.

    As a result, Xu Qing and the Captain could hear everything very clearly.

    Xu Qing cleared his thoughts. He hadn¡¯t used any god magic. He still had The Emperor¡¯s Sword, plus the emperor¡¯s corpse. And yet, that was when the Captain blinked a few times and projected a message.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t do anything impulsive, Little Junior Brother. These two Chicken Wings aren¡¯t simpletons, and we¡¯re actually not a match for them. We need to get out of here and back to the sect. Once we¡¯re with Master and the prime elders, we¡¯ll be safe.¡±</i>

    The Captain spun, collected all of his items, and then raced off into the distance. In fact, he apparently spat out a few mouthfuls of blood to initiate a blood escape art and gain some speed. Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate at all to collect the ghost-face centipedes and then race away at top speed. In the blink of an eye, the two of them became prismatic beams of light that disappeared over the horizon.

    Feng Lintao didn¡¯t stop them from leaving. Instead, he looked calmly at Lan Yao.

    Lan Yaoughed softly. Grasping the blood pendant with her delicate hand, she hefted it a few times and sighed inwardly. The truth was that she had been holding back, for the exact reason Feng Lintao had mentioned. She¡¯d wanted to get a glimpse of his trump card. Now that she¡¯d seen his five-colored fan, she was convinced that he actually had even bigger assets that he hadn¡¯t revealed. Based on what she knew of him, there seemed to be a very high likelihood that he had even deadlier tools at his disposal.

    That said, it didn¡¯t seem like a very smart strategy to continue holding back in the hopes of learning about them.

    <i>What¡¯s more, those two humans are definitely chosen. They¡¯re not simpletons.... Just now they were projecting messages to each other in which they mentioned a Master and some prime elders. Whether or not that was a trick, it¡¯s something we should take into consideration. If it¡¯s not a trick... then it means they¡¯re backed by a terrifying organization. And that seems very usible. After all, it¡¯s not as though some random group could groom even one top chosen like that, let alone two.</i>

    <i>If I keep forcing Feng Lintao to act on his own, it¡¯ll cause too much of a dy. Furthermore, if we make too much of a scene, it could lead to unintended consequences, and could affect therger mission. Another thing to consider is that if I piss off this Feng fellow too much, then given his personality, he might start guessing at the truth. After all, a bit of probing makes sense, but if I push it too far.... Well, as the saying goes, </i>too far is as bad as not enough<i>, right?</i>

    Having reached this point in her train of thought, Lan Yao nodded. ¡°How can I help?¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°Ideally,¡± he replied coolly, ¡°you could have personally taken action, Fellow Daoist Lan. Presumably, once you saw what they were capable of, you didn¡¯t want to take that risk.¡±

    Lan Yao didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°In that case, Feng Lintao continued, ¡°I would like to request that you let me borrow a drop of Nobleplexus good fortune serum. With that, I can unleash my Nobleplexus Holy Hex, and thus assimte those two humans.¡±

    ¡°Nobleplexus Holy Hex?¡± Lan Yao first looked surprised, then she chuckled. ¡°You really are taking them seriously. Using the Nobleplexus Holy Hex is a bit over the top, isn¡¯t it? Besides, given your current level of strength, even using some Nobleplexus good fortune serum will only allow you to unleash a small portion of the true might of the Nobleplexus Holy Hex. And even that will be terrifying. That said... I guess it might be worth it to assimte the two of them with that hex.¡±

    Lan Yao nodded and waved her hand, sending a jade bottle flying out.

    1. Traditional Chinese feather fans are how you would probably imagine them. A fan made of feathers. That said, they do have a sort of typical look and feel. <u>Here are a few pictures</u>. ?

 Chapter 918: Donâ€™t Worry About Me, Little Junior Brother, Just Get Out Of Here!

    <h4>Chapter 918: Don¡¯t Worry About Me, Little Junior Brother, Just Get Out Of Here!</h4>

    The jade bottle was so white and sleek it almost looked like the fat of amb. It was even surrounded by a glowing white halo, making it seempletely extraordinary. Feng Lintao reached out, caught it, scanned it with divine will, and then nodded.

    Voice cool, Lan Yao said, ¡°The Nobleplexus Holy Hex is a secret magic that only direct bloodline n members of my species can learn. Rumor has it that if you unleash its full potential, you can even assimte a god. Those two humans are anything but simple, and we don¡¯t have time to waste, so this is all I can do.

    ¡°The truth is that it¡¯s not a rumor. You¡¯re only a half-blooded Devilbird, so you have no way of knowing all the details. Truth be told, back when the holy ancestor led my people away from the Revered Ancient maind, it was technically before Eminent Destion arrived, yet other gods had already appeared. Back then, the holy ancestors used the hex to assimte a number of High Gods.¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s expression flickered as he nodded. ¡°Many thanks for the information, Fellow Daoist Lan. Given that the two humans now have a bit of a lead, I need to unleash the magic right away.¡±

    With that, Feng Lintao took a deep breath. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened the jade bottle, whereupon a drop of milky white liquid flew out. It didn¡¯t emanate any spirit energy fluctuations. However, the entire area immediately became extremely dry, as if all the water had vanished. It was almost as if no other liquids could exist in the presence of this serum.

    Both Feng Lintao and Lan Yao released the light of the holynds around them, causing them to be covered in silver. Apparently, that protected them from the serum.

    A serious look could be seen on Feng Lintao¡¯s face as he looked at the white serum in front of him and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. As a result, a host of sealing marks flew out toward the serum. A gruish scene resulted. Each sealing mark that reached the serum would pass through, then growrger, reaching a size of 300 meters as it flew up into the sky. There, it would disappear. By the end, a total of 108 sealing marks did this.

    Apparently, that was Feng Lintao¡¯s limit. By the time the final magical symbol vanished into the air, it had be translucent. Also, the dryness in the area disappeared.

    Feng Lintao looked at Lan Yao and said, ¡°Alright, those two can¡¯t get away now. Let¡¯s go see how it ys out.¡±

    Lan Yao smiled dly as the two of them strode off through the air.

    ***

    A few thousand kilometers away, Xu Qing and the Captain were speeding through midair. They had not said a single word to each other so far, and were focusingpletely on their escape.

    A momentter, a 300-meter magical symbol appeared in the sky overhead, then screamed down to intercept them. An instantter, its shocking speed brought it right down in front of them. The air shattered, turning into innumerable fragments that, from a distance, looked like a blooming flower.

    Actually, it really was a flower! It was as white as a lotus, and was slowly rotating in ce.

    Both Xu Qing and the Captain suddenly looked very grim. Without any hesitation, they changed directions. Just as they did, a second magical symbol appeared in the dome of heaven. Then a third and a fourth....

    Eventually, more than thirty were falling toward them. Rumbling sounds echoed out nonstop as the air shattered, with fragments whipping about wildly into the form of a storm.

    It was a storm of numerous white lotuses, which were surrounding and hemming in Xu Qing and the Captain.

    At the same time, even more 300-meter magical symbols appeared in the sky. In the blink of an eye, a total of 108 white lotuses had surrounded the 50-kilometer area, and they spun madly as they created a terrifying sealing power. Even more shocking, each rotation caused green threads to appear.

    They contained scorching power and might to eradicate the world as they swept noiselessly toward Xu Qing and the Captain. Before long, Xu Qing and the Captain were surrounded by countless green threads. And as the precious lotuses rotated, more threads appeared.

    From a distance, it was possible to discern that the green threads were actually creating a gigantic, 50-kilometer green lotus!

    All of the water vapor in the area had vanished, to be reced by scorching heat that baked thends. A sensation of assimtion rocked heaven and earth. This sealing magic was like a massive furnace!

    Inside, Xu Qing and the Captain both had serious looks on their faces. An intense sensation of crisis filled both of them. They exchanged a nce, and then both resorted to different methods of escape.

    The Captain shivered as a host of blue worms appeared, which spat out frigid energy. The spine and the skeletal hand flickered within that energy as theyunched a vicious attack straight ahead. A rumbling boom echoed out like heavenly thunder, and the gigantic lotus furnace shivered. However, it didn¡¯t crumble.

    As for Xu Qing, his Spirit-Devouring Dagger could slice through naturalws, but it couldn¡¯t cut through this wall of assimtion, only shake it slightly.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing looked silently at the Captain. Their eyes met, and they didn¡¯t need to exchange any words. Both knew what the other was thinking.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Xu Qing asked in a low voice.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure!¡± the Captain replied, licking his lips and blinking a few times.

    A blue worm appeared in Xu Qing¡¯s hand, which he absorbed. Then, without another word, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and smacked it toward the top of his head. That blow caused rumbling to sweep through his body. His god soul flew out from his fleshly body, which then opened its mouth and devoured his fleshly body.

    The Captain did the same thing. His god soul flew out, which he used to contain countless worms.

    Xu Qing, in his god soul body, shoved his hand out in front of him. That caused ripples to surround him, and despite theck of any water vapor in the area, it suddenly looked like a surface of water. The ripples spread out. Unfortunately, the Nobleplexus Holy Hex was truly terrifying. Though Fishing the Moon in the Well could be used anywhere, it was being gravely affected in this circumstance. The moment the water ripples appeared, they almost instantly began to dry up.

    Xu Qing in god soul form didn¡¯t take time to sit around and contemte things. Taking advantage of the time bought by using Fishing the Moon in the Well, he waved his hand toward the surface of water. What he fished up wasn¡¯t a lotus, but rather, the Captain¡¯s soul.

    Next, a huge hand appeared outside of the massive lotus. It contained immeasurable power, as it was made from a river of stars. It reached down and made contact with the lotus, whereupon the hand shivered, and the lotus shone with bright light.

    Sadly for the lotus, the illusory power of Fishing the Moon in the Well was very unusual. That was especially true since Xu Qing had be one of the essence sources of Fishing the Moon in the Well, providing it with very powerful personhood.

    As a result, the huge illusory hand rumbled loudly as it pierced deeply into the massive lotus. It dropped down to fish out the god souls of Xu Qing and the Captain. Grasping them in its palm, it forcefully pulled them up.

    It looked like Xu Qing was going to seed at using an unimaginable tactic to break free. But right then, a cold snort echoed out. Countless flower petals swept through the air tond on Xu Qing¡¯s Fishing the Moon in the Well hand.

    The cold snort came from Feng Lintao. The flower petals came from Lan Yao. Both of them looked surprised, and were clearly taking the situation seriously. Obviously, neither of them could have ever guessed that Xu Qing could do something so outrageous.

    An instantter, Feng Lintao waved his hand, and a rumbling storm wind turned into a five-colored peacock with a ck horn, which lunged toward Xu Qing¡¯s hand. Lan Yao¡¯s flower petals converged, turning into a sword of flowers that could sever heaven. It chopped down!

    Instantly, Xu Qing¡¯s massive hand trembled on the verge of copse. It seemed incapable ofsting much longer. In that moment of crisis, a desperate howl erupted from the palm of the hand.

    The Captain¡¯s god soul burst out into the open, spat up his fleshly body, and then fused with it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me, Little Junior Brother, just get out of here! Go tell the sect what¡¯s happening!¡±

    The Captain, looking like he was ready to die, threw all caution to the wind. He spread his arms out wide, and dazzling blue light became a host of worms that erupted wildly. Combining with the spine and the skeletal hand, they turned into a humanoid obstacle that blocked the path of the five-colored peacock and the heaven-severing sword of flowers.

    ¡°Eldest Brother!!¡± Xu Qing cried, his eyes shing with fury. But in the end, there was nothing he could do. Taking advantage of the time the Captain had bought, he allowed the massive hand to pull his god soul free.

    Outside of the massive green lotus, the huge hand vanished, and Xu Qing¡¯s god soul appeared. There, he spat out his fleshly body andbined with it, then turned to flee.

    That was when a cold voice echoed out from the massive lotus. ¡°If you leave, your Eldest Brother¡¯s god soul will be destroyed! It¡¯s your fault he¡¯s in this position!¡±

    As the voice echoed out, the lotus became transparent, revealing Lan Yao and Feng Lintao inside.

    Feng Lintao currently held the Captain by the neck. The Captain¡¯s eyes were closed and he wasn¡¯t moving. It looked like he was unconscious. He was limp and covered with blood, as if he had been seriously injured.

    Xu Qing looked down, his expression one of grief and indignation, but also, decisiveness. All of a sudden, godly authority red around him. The violet moon rose, Hellfei appeared, and the power of misfortune surged. There was more. The Emperor¡¯s Sword within him thrummed as the emperor¡¯s soul seized it. What resulted wasn¡¯t a terrifying sword projection as urred in the fight with Sir Firedark. Instead, it looked like signs of putting everything on the line. The Grand Darkheaven Armor shone dazzlingly. Everything Xu Qing was doing was indicating that he was ready to die fighting. In fact, a host of ghost-face centipedes appeared, all of them pulsing with the power of self-detonation.

    When Feng Lintao and Lan Yao saw that he seemed ready to throw caution to the wind, their hearts sank. Although they still had things they could do to continue this fight, the reality was that they both had their own agendas, and they had to be on guard against each other.

    As a result, neither wanted to take action casually. Although these humans were only in Void Returning, they had already unleashed some astonishing techniques. For example, the huge hand just now had contained dao reverberations, and was clearly nothing to take lightly. Getting free from it wasn¡¯t going to be an easy thing. What was more, this person had just revealed a godly aura that was so terrifying they could hardly imagine what trump card it represented. And then there was that sword will.... Feng Lintao and Lan Yao could both sense the faint aura of an emperor within it.

    <i>He has an Emperor¡¯s Sword!</i>

    That was what both of them were thinking as they struggled to control their breathing. Based on their past experiences, they could onlye to the conclusion that if Xu Qing unleashed all of his battle prowess, it would be risky to try to contain him. And it was hard to say which of the two of them might get injured by the sword. They were now actually starting to get scared, and were starting to realize this situation wasn¡¯t going to be resolved easily.

    They couldn¡¯t let Xu Qing go free, and it wasn¡¯t going to be easy to capture him. And killing him would be even less easy. Unfortunately, <i>if you ride a tiger, it¡¯s hard to get off</i>.

    The only upside was that they had his Elder Brother captive in the Nobleplexus Holy Hex. But in the end, it was still something of an impasse.

    Feng Lintao¡¯s heart continued to sink, and his gaze flickered unstably.

    As for Lan Yao, she looked at Xu Qing then suddenly said, ¡°Fellow Daoist, you must have an idea of how strong we are after all this fighting. And we can see how strong you are. We have your Eldest Brother captive, and at the same time, we can¡¯t let you go free. Since we¡¯re in a deadlock, why don¡¯t you consider... joining us on our task?¡±

 Chapter 919: Donâ€™t Work With Shysters

    Chapter 919: Don¡¯t Work With Shysters

    ¡°As for your Eldest Brother, after we finish, you can have him back.¡± Lan Yao spoke in a calm, light tone, but her words were so shocking that both Feng Lintao and Xu Qing reacted with visible shock.

    And Feng Lintao immediately snapped, ¡°That¡¯s not going to happen!¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Lan Yao said with a sweet smile. ¡°Could it be that you have other tactics at your disposal, Fellow Daoist Feng, plus the confidence to kill this person without ending up hurting yourself? If so, then I¡¯m on board.¡±

    Xu Qing said nothing. He just looked down with glittering eyes.

    Feng Lintao hesitated as numerous thoughts ran through his head. But in the end, he had to admit that Lan Yao was right, and her idea seemed the best way to end the impasse. In fact, it was the perfect way to resolve things. They feared Xu Qing¡¯s trump cards, but also couldn¡¯t let him go. It wasn¡¯t a simple situation to deal with, nor something that could be resolved with ordinary tactics. Fighting wasn¡¯t the solution either. Bringing Xu Qing in as an ally seemed the best option.

    As for what would happen further on down the line, that would depend on how everything unfolded.

    The biggest worry Feng Lintao had was that Lan Yao had other motives. But there wasn¡¯t anything he could do about that. Plus, he was the one who had this little punk¡¯s Eldest Brother captive.... In other words, he had the initiative and the upper hand. After some thought, the grim look on Feng Lintao¡¯s face vanished, to be reced with a smile.

    ¡°That makes sense, Fellow Daoist Lan. Given this person¡¯s battle prowess, he definitely qualifies to work with us. What do you think, human Fellow Daoist? Are you willing to join us? It will be an immense good fortune for you!¡±

    His grip on the Captain¡¯s neck loosened. The Captain shivered, and a frown appeared on his face, as if he were feeling pain despite being unconscious.Xu Qing looked at the Captain and mulled the matter over. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he had full faith in the Captain¡¯s acting abilities, and knew him very well, he would actually believe that the Captain was hovering on the brink of death. Of course, he gave no indication of what he was thinking. As for the current situation....

    Inside, Xu Qing wasughing coldly, but outside, he grimaced, making it look like had no desire at all to join them, but for the sake of a fellow disciple, he was <em>hesitating to shoot the rat for fear of breaking the vases</em>.

    ¡°How do I know you¡¯ll actually let my Eldest Brother go after the job is done?¡± he asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s simple,¡± Lan Yao said. ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng can swear an oath.¡± She looked at Feng Lintao.

    Feng Lintao said nothing, making it hard to determine what he was thinking. But in the end, he nodded. Looking at Xu Qing, he quickly swore an oath that came with some serious negative effects if he vited it. Of course, the oath would only go into effect after Xu Qing agreed to join them.

    Xu Qing still hesitated. ¡°How do I know you don¡¯t have some secret ways of getting around your oath without ramifications?¡±

    Lan Yao frowned. So did Feng Lintao.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression of suspicion wasn¡¯t exactly surprising. In fact, if he hadn¡¯t said something like that, they would have found it suspicious. And either of them would have said simr things were they in his position.

    That said, Feng Lintao made sure to look displeased and even angry. He snorted coldly. ¡°Don¡¯t push things too far! We¡¯ve already made some concessions. If you keep being stubborn, then don¡¯t me me for just killing your Eldest Brother. And if it wasn¡¯t for me worrying about getting hurt, I¡¯d do the same to you! If you insist on trying to wheedle out more advantages, then maybe I¡¯ll just risk injuring myself to put an end to you!¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s killing intent began to bubble along with his cold words.

    Lan Yao said nothing, but her eyes turned extremely cold, which indicated her attitude.

    After a long moment passed, Xu Qing said, ¡°I guess an oath is good enough. So, what is this mission of yours, Fellow Daoists?¡±

    Upon hearing that Xu Qing would ept the oath, Feng Lintao¡¯s face softened a bit, and Lan Yao smiled.

    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear,¡± Lan Yao said. ¡°As of this moment, we¡¯re on the same side. May I ask your esteemed name, Fellow Daoist?¡±

    ¡°Sir Firedark,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a good ce to discuss the details, Fellow Daoist Firedark,¡± Lan Yao continued with a broad smile. ¡°Why don¡¯t we continue traveling, and we can exin along the way?¡±

    Xu Qing sighed softly but nodded.

    The three of them turned into bright beams of light that shot off into the distance. Of course, they all kept some space between each other.

    Along the way, Lan Yao exined what they were doing, though it was impossible to say how much of her exnation was real and how much was fake. A few dayster, the three of them reached a huge ravine in the southwestern part of Fardark County.

    The ravine was massive, like an enormous ck scar across thend, going down so far it was impossible to see the bottom. Mists swirled within it, and the mutagen levels were very high. Everything in the area was withered, and it was possible to asionally hear screams echo from the ravine that would cause one¡¯s soul to tremble.

    Feng Lintao alighted at the edge of the ravine, still holding the Captain in his hand. He hadn¡¯t loosened his grip any further during the journey. Looking down into the ravine, his eyes glittered with excitement.

    ¡°This is the ce.¡±

    Lan Yao took a few steps forward until she was standing at the very edge of the ravine. She looked down.

    Xu Qing stood several dozen meters away looking at the ravine, thinking about the mission the two of them had exined along the way.

    <em>Fardark nectar, huh?</em>

    He had never heard of such a thing before. Based on what Lan Yao and Feng Lintao had said, fardark nectar came from the quintessence of the fardark fruit tree. Before the broken face came, it was considered a precious treasure, and was even more effective than the fardark fruit. It was also considered a holy object to the Fardark species.

    Back then, the Fardark species built a necropolis beneath the Fardark Fruit Tree, formed from the innumerable roots of that tree. That was also the location of something called Fardark Cistern. Every hundred years, the cistern would be opened, allowing the fardark nectar to be harvested. That said, it only amounted to a few hundred drops of the nectar.

    The nectar did the same thing as the fardark fruits, except that it was hundreds of times as effective: it would provide indescribable benefits to anyone seeking enlightenment of magicalws. In fact, it was so effective that, in the past, people would go to great lengths to get a single drop. Unfortunately, after the Fardark Fruit Tree was destroyed, the nectar became even more valuable.

    Fardark County really was known to produce fardark fruits in the past....

    As Xu Qing contemted all that, Lan Yao spoke up.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng,¡± she said, ¡°if you hadn¡¯t allowed me to take a look at the ancient slip with your bloodline legacy information, I would never have believed that precious treasures like that even existed!¡±

    ¡°Back before the Fardark species left Revered Ancient,¡± Feng Lintao said coolly, ¡°they really did drain the cistern and destroy the tree. As a result, fardark fruits and nectar became extinct in Revered Ancient. Their n was to take the branches of the tree and rent them in the holynds. Unfortunately, the renting efforts in the Fardark holynd ended up failing. As it turns out, the tree couldn¡¯t grow outside of Revered Ancient.

    ¡°Later, Holy Ancestor Fardark unexpectedly perished, resulting in the Fardark holynd breaking up and being distributed among different parties. I¡¯m a half-blooded Farkdark, and my paternal grandfather happened to survive the catastrophe. Only by activating my Devilbird bloodline was I able to reach the Devilbird holynd.

    ¡°What¡¯s more, no one had any idea that I¡¯m actually a descendant of the very same person responsible for wiping out the tree. And during the chaos of his mission back then, he secretly spared some of the tree roots.... He did it all in the hopes of staging aeback for his line of the species. Before he passed away into meditation, he passed this secret on to someone else. Right now, I¡¯m the only person who knows the truth.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything as this conversation yed out. Instead, he tried to determine how much of the story was true and how much wasn¡¯t.

    Meanwhile, Lan Yao nodded, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. ¡°The ordinary fardark nectar doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s worth much, Fellow Daoist. What sounds really interesting is the <em>holy </em>fardark nectar you mentioned.¡±

    Feng Lintao grinned. ¡°I¡¯d say there¡¯s a high likelihood it¡¯s here! After all, tens of thousands of years have passed, and my ancestor hid those roots very well. Unless something truly unexpected happened in the meantime, there should be a big stockpile of fardark nectar. And after itys settled for long enough, it will turn into holy fardark nectar.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Feng Lintao nced at Xu Qing and then looked back at Lan Yao.

    ¡°Once we¡¯re down inside,¡± he went on, ¡°I¡¯ll open the warding spell. All you need to do, Fellow Daoist Lan, is act as my dharma protector. Also, you need to make sure you honor the deal we made.¡±

    Lan Yao smiled and tucked away a stray hair that the wind had blown loose. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Fellow Daoist Feng,¡± she said in a leisurely tone. ¡°The whole reason you came to me for help is that you needed that item of my husband¡¯s, right? Of course I would never go back on the deal we made.¡±

    Feng Lintao nodded. Saying nothing further, he waved his hand, causing an immense wave of force to spread out. It turned into the image of a five-colored peacock, which dropped down into the ravine.

    Rumbling sounds filled the ravine as the ck mist roiled to the side. A path opened.

    Feng Lintao shot down into the depths.

    ¡°After you, Fellow Daoist Firedark,¡± Lan Yao said, looking at Xu Qing.

    Saying nothing, Xu Qing walked forward and dropped down into the path through the mist. A momentter, there was no sign of him.

    Xu Qing¡¯s cautious manner caused Lan Yao¡¯s eyes to glitter. After ncing off into the distance, she stepped forward and dropped down the path.

    ***

    Sometime after the three of them were gone, the mist closed back up and everything went back to normal. However, the screamsing out of the mists briefly grew more intense. Then things wentpletely silent.

    A few hourster, a figure approached the ravine from off in the distance.

    It was a woman. She was beautiful and had a gentle disposition, along with fair, wless skin. Behind her graceful frame were two wings. Her clothing was exactly the same as that worn by Lan Yao and Feng Lintao. It was ck with golden embroidery. Combined with her immortal-like appearance, it made her seem unusually lofty. Especially noteworthy were her glittering eyes, and the sharp gaze with which she studied the area.

    <em>That Feng Lintao really is paranoid. He didn¡¯t just set up void eyes here, he also left behind a will of space-demolishing, and also some Nobleplexus holy energy.... He really wants to be able to tell if anyone shows up in this area. Of course... with the preparations I¡¯ve made, none of that will do anything.</em>

    This woman was the very same person who had previously been with Feng Lintao and Lan Yao. Her name was Yue Dong! Eyes shing, she walked forward and dropped down into the misty ravine, where she disappeared without a trace....

 Chapter 920: Three-and-a-Half People Journey Through Fardark

    <h4>Chapter 920: Three-and-a-Half People Journey Through Fardark</h4>

    <i>The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind</i>. As far as Feng Lintao and Lan Yao were concerned, the oriole was none other than the young woman named Yue Dong.[1]

    In the massive ravine in Fardark County, mists swirled, and rumbling sounds echoed out constantly. Howls pierced through the mist, some of them shrill and anguished, some of them cruel and fierce.

    Shortly thereafter, a number of loud thumping sounds could be heard, like objectsnding on the ground. Then a storm wind swept through the ravine. As the wind blew, the mists in the ravine were dispersed, almost as if a huge hand were waving them away. As a result, the bottom of the ravine was revealed! Sprawling ruins were visible.

    The ruins were all that remained of once ancient and utilitarian buildings. There were towers, streets, houses, and all sorts of other buildings visible everywhere. Put precisely, this ce had once been a small city. It was easy to imagine how many people had once lived here. Now the buildings had mostly crumbled into rubble. Few were intact. What was more, the effects of mutagen were clear to see everywhere.

    That said, there wasn¡¯t a single ancient corpse visible. Instead, there were the blood-soaked bodies of strange, two-headed birdsying around here and there. A few of them weren¡¯t dead yet, and were howling in anguish as they struggled weakly to rise. A figure dropped down from the mists above,nding right on top of one of the struggling birds. As a result, the bird exploded into a cloud of gore.

    That person was none other than Feng Lintao.

    Two additional figures dropped down after him. They were Lan Yao and Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked around at the ruins, his expression the same as ever, but his heart full of vignce. After taking in his surroundings, he focused on the Captain, who was still in Feng Lintao¡¯s grip. The Captain was still unconscious.

    Xu Qing looked away at the bird corpses.

    At first, their descent had gone smoothly, at least until they were ambushed by strange beings that seemed to be part of the surrounding mists. It was as if they were able to slip back and forth between illusory and corporeal.

    It was a given that Xu Qing didn¡¯t make an all-out effort to fight them. But Feng Lintao seemed to be anxious, and immediately took out his five-colored fan. A single swipe of that fan forced the majority of the ambushers into the open, and killed many of them. Then Lan Yao took action. With Xu Qing assisting, they killed over a hundred. Of course, the ambushers were the strange birds.

    Looking around somberly, Feng Lintao said, ¡°This world really is a dirty and dangerous ce. Even ordinary sparrows ended up infected by the aura of the gods, and mutating into this form. Fellow Daoist Lan, going forward, we¡¯ll encounter more creatures like this. If you keep holding back like you did just now, I¡¯m afraid this journey is going to take far too long. And eventually... something very unfortunate could happen.¡±

    Feng Lintao looked at Xu Qing. ¡°What¡¯s more, Fellow Daoist Firedark, if I take point and end up running into anything really difficult to deal with, it will be hard to avoid using your Eldest Brother as a shield.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as he looked back at Feng Lintao and said, ¡°I¡¯m more than willing to continue our previous fight to the death, even here!¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes narrowed as a frigid will pulsed on him, spreading out in all directions. His grip on the Captain¡¯s neck tightened. The Captain¡¯s legs twitched, and an expression of pain appeared on his face.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression turned grimmer.

    Noting the hostility, Lan Yaoughed softly and stepped between them. ¡°Alright, alright. Fellow Daoist Firedark, it¡¯s true that you didn¡¯t expend much effort earlier. You can¡¯t me Fellow Daoist Feng for being a bit displeased about that.

    ¡°That said, Fellow Daoist Feng, considering we¡¯re working together, there¡¯s no reason to be so overbearing. How about this: if we run into any tricky situations going forward, we can all act in unison. But if something less challenging urs, we can take turns handling matters.¡±

    Feng Lintao snorted coldly, then started moving forward at top speed. As he did, he eased his grip on the Captain, causing the Captain¡¯s legs to stop twitching.

    Xu Qing watched him go, not saying a word.

    Lan Yao looked over at him. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Fellow Daoist Firedark.¡±

    Xu Qing knew full well that the two of them would never allow him to bring up the rear. Maintaining silence, he started moving. And thus, the three of them sped through the ruined city, with Feng Lintao taking the lead. They kept a good distance between each other, with Lan Yao staying a few hundred meters behind Xu Qing, and Feng Lintao staying a few thousand meters ahead of him.

    As they went along, Xu Qing got a much clearer picture of the ruins. For instance, he soon realized that there were masses of tree roots in the spots between most of the buildings. There were many, many roots, although most of them were broken. On the edges of the city, many of the roots had grown into the rocks that made up the ravine¡¯s walls. Apparently, this city had been built within the tree roots.

    In his mind¡¯s eye, Xu Qing could visualize the mighty tree that must have grown out of this ravine. It had surely been something that could prop up the sky, or perhaps, had spread out to make a sky of its own. The roots filled the ground below.

    As for the city, long ago, it must have existed in what was then a huge cave. Then one day a very powerful person came along who hewed out a huge channel, creating the ravine and revealing the cave.

    <i>In that case, was the tree... taken away by the Fardark species? Or did it just disappear into time? There are still roots here, which seems to indicate the tree didn¡¯t just disappear. There aren¡¯t any traces of the tree on the outside, though. I guess the most likely possibility is that they did take it away. And those responsible... were either the Fardarks or some other species that came alongter.</i>

    It was only natural that Xu Qing didn¡¯t immediately believe Feng Lintao¡¯s story about what happened in the past. When dealing with the unknown, Xu Qing preferred to believe in his own powers of observation and judgment. The only exception would be if the person giving the information was someone he truly trusted.

    Xu Qing kept his thoughts to himself as he studied the surrounding ruins. The style of the buildings was reminiscent of human architecture, although there were some differences in the details. That was understandable. Back in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, humans were the top species in Revered Ancient, and nonhuman species tended to imitate their aesthetics.

    Xu Qing kept studying his surroundings as they got closer and closer to the city center. At one point, a loud boom echoed out up ahead from Feng Lintao¡¯s position. At the same time, a shockwave rippled through the ravine.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze hardened as he flew up to a higher position in the hopes of seeing what was happening. Lan Yao did the same. From that height, everything ahead was clearly visible. Xu Qing could see that, in the very center of the ruins, a vicious face had appeared on the ground. Being on the ground, the face had been concealed, which was why they hadn¡¯t noticed it. But after Feng Lintao flew over it, the face appeared. Now, a huge, rotten tongue stretched out of its mouth and was attacking Feng Lintao.

    Feng Lintao had already grabbed the tongue. As his Smoldering God cultivation base power surged, he blurred, turning into a five-colored peacock that snorted coldly and attacked the face.

    The peacock smashed into the face, which was obviously some extraordinary and freakish beast. However, the beast was weak, and copsed into pieces as soon as Feng Lintao attacked it. After it was destroyed in body and soul, the only thing left behind was a huge pit.

    Feng Lintao reverted from the five-colored peacock form into his ordinary self. Standing at the edge of the pit, he looked back at Xu Qing and Lan Yao.

    ¡°Now it¡¯s your turn,¡± he said coolly.

    Lan Yao smiled and flew into the pit.

    Feng Lintao didn¡¯t move a muscle. He looked coldly at Xu Qing. Xu Qing said nothing as he flew into the pit. Seeing that, Feng Lintao also stepped forward and entered.

    The pit was extremely cold inside. There were crystals embedded in the walls, and the deeper they got, the colder and darker it became. Of course, the three of them were all extraordinary cultivators, so they could see clearly despite the dark surroundings.

    Things went much more smoothly than before. Enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, and they didn¡¯t encounter any dangerous situations. However, the pit was truly deep. Despite moving down at a high rate of speed, they didn¡¯t reach the bottom.

    Unfortunately, things only went smoothly for a short time. Before the second incense stick¡¯s worth of time had passed by half, the area in front of Lan Yao suddenly erupted with flower petals. The flower petals seemed weak, but they contained terrifying might. As they spread, rumbling sounds echoed out, and a snake-like creature whizzed out into the open near Lan Yao.

    It had been hiding in the hopes of ambushing her, but she somehow detected it and used her flower petals to force it out into the open. Its appearance was shocking and ghastly. It wasn¡¯t actually a snake. Instead, it was something that resembled a long, wriggling intestine. It immediately tried to flee, but before it could, Lan Yao snorted coldly. The flower petals then converged, turning into a seven-colored peacock!

    The peacock had a horn, and it was pure white! If you added the color white, then this peacock was actually made of eight colors! Whether its aura or the purity of its bloodline, it was superior to Feng Lintao¡¯s peacock by many times over.

    After forming, it shot toward the intestine.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t offer any help. Instead, he felt the urge to look at Feng Lintao. As he did, he noticed a look of avarice flickering in Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes as he gazed upon the peacock.

    When Xu Qing looked at him, Feng Lintao looked back at him and his expression darkened.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react, and ultimately looked away. Meanwhile, the eight-colored peacock shone with bright light as it closed in on the strange intestine, ripped it to shreds, then returned to Lan Yao.

    Lan Yao turned and looked at Xu Qing and Feng Lintao with an enigmatic smile. Eventually, her gaze focused solely on Xu Qing.

    ¡°And now, it¡¯s your turn.¡±

    1. I¡¯m sure most of you are familiar with the mantis/cicada/oriole idiom. But do you know its origin? Ites from the <i>Zhuangzi</i>, one of the most important ssic texts of Daoism. <u>Wikipedia link here</u> with more information about the <i>Zhuangzi</i>. ?

 Chapter 921: Full-Blooded Fardark

    <h4>Chapter 921: Full-Blooded Fardark</h4>

    As Lan Yao spoke, Feng Lintao looked at Xu Qing.

    Though Xu Qing had astonishing battle prowess, these were two Smoldering Gods looking at him. Most relevant of all, the Captain was still their captive. And now his legs were twitching again.... No matter how he looked at it, he was in a passive position.

    Without speaking a word, Xu Qing moved into the lead position, flying past Lan Yao and heading deeper into the pit. The Grand Darkheaven Armor glittered brightly, and his godly fleshly body power surged. The antemage armor covered him, and the ninemps circled around him. With his long hair and green robe, Xu Qing seemed extraordinary in every way. What was more, the wave of his hand summoned a host of ghost-face centipedes, which moved ahead of him into the depths of the pit.

    When Lan Yao saw that, her eyes glittered. As for Feng Lintao, he looked at the centipedes, his gaze stony. In the end, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    And thus, Xu Qing led the other two down into the pit. He didn¡¯t move slowly, nor did he hold back like before. In fact, he moved at about the same speed as Feng Lintao and Lan Yao. Perhaps Xu Qing just got lucky, or perhaps the actions of the eight-colored peacock had a threatening effect, as they didn¡¯t encounter any resistance. Yet again, enough time passed for an incense stick to burn. At that point, they reached the bottom of the pit.

    Astonishingly, there was a cave there. It was smaller than the cave above, and there were fewer buildings. In fact, there were only nine towers. They were in very good shape, with ancient symbols covering them. It was easy to imagine how those symbols must have glowed brightly in the past. The nine towers were also arrayed into a warding spell. However, because of the passage of so many years, and the invasion of mutagen, they seemed dormant.

    Though there weren¡¯t many buildings here, there were far more withered roots than above. They were everywhere, even on the ground and walls. The area above the towers was full of roots as well.

    Xu Qing¡¯s arrival seemed to bring with it an outside aura, and as a result, the tranquility of this location was altered, and strange transformations began.

    The first to be affected were the roots, which crumbled into ash. The ash didn¡¯t dissipate into nothing. Instead, as Xu Qing watched, it converged into a host of dark and swarthy children. They appeared to be no more than five or six years old, and there were hundreds of them. As they appeared, theyy on what roots hadn¡¯t copsed, and stared at Xu Qing with pitch ck eyes and looks of hunger and avarice.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as whistling sounds grew louder behind him due to the arrival of Lan Yao and Feng Lintao. The other two scanned the area visually and quickly noticed the gruish children. They did nothing.

    Xu Qing was well aware that it was his turn to handle the situation. As a native of the Revered Ancient maind, Xu Qing knew exactly where these children came from. At a nce, he could tell that they... were spirits of the dead who had been affected by mutagen and turned into grues. Grues like this might be difficult, if not impossible, for other people to deal with. But Xu Qing had killed too many things like this to count. And the easiest way to deal with them was Little Shadow.

    That said, though he had relied on Little Shadow recently, that had only been the shadow¡¯s possession abilities. Neither Feng Lintao nor Lan Yao knew any other details about what it could do. At the moment, Xu Qing didn¡¯t want to reveal anything further to them. Therefore, he didn¡¯t use Little Shadow. What was more, he sent out the ghost-face centipedes to defend himself from any potential sneak attacksunched by Feng Lintao or Lan Yao.

    Having aplished those things, he thought back to the look of greed in Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes earlier, and the nces he had exchanged with Lan Yao.

    <i>Although I don¡¯t want to reveal too much about the shadow¡¯s abilities now... there are still some things it might be able to do....</i>

    With such thoughts in mind, Xu Qing stepped forward. As for the dark children on the withered branches, they suddenly opened their mouths, unleashed piercing cries that could shake the soul, and then lunged toward Xu Qing.

    Just before they arrived, Xu Qing sent soul threads exploding out. In the blink of an eye, more than 10,000,000 stabbed forth. They moved with incredible speed, and were astoundingly piercing.

    Every gruish child they reached stopped in midair. They had been pierced by the soul threads. Because of the soul threads connecting all of them, they were like a dark sea fixed in ce in midair.

    When Feng Lintao and Lan Yao saw all of that, their eyes glittered.

    The soul threads had created something almost like the web of a spider, with Xu Qing in the middle and hundreds of dark, gruish children around him, unmoving.

    Suddenly, the surrounding walls began to tremble, and the gruish children copsed into ck streams of energy. After, the 10,000,000 soul threads shrank back into Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression remained the same as ever as he stood to the side to make way. Looking at Feng Lintao, he said, ¡°Your turn.¡±

    Feng Lintao looked back at him and said, ¡°Those soul threads are very strange. What are they made of?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t answer the question. Instead, he asked one. ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng, those five feathers of yours are very strange. What are they made of?¡±

    Feng Lintao frowned. ¡°You think I would tell you?¡±

    ¡°I was going to say the same thing in response to you,¡± Xu Qing said quietly.

    Feng Lintao flicked his sleeve, and without another word, led the way onward. Upon reaching the fifth of the towers, he performed an incantation gesture to unleash a secret magic.

    Lan Yao flew toward Xu Qing, but didn¡¯t get too close. Making sure to keep her eye on Feng Lintao, sheughingly said, ¡°Fellow Daoist Firedark, those five feathers are collectively called Spirit of the True World. It¡¯s a Smoldering God secret magic, although not all Smoldering Gods have it.¡±

    Up ahead, Feng Lintao barked, ¡°You¡¯re being too talkative, Fellow Daoist Lan!¡±

    Lan Yao¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. ¡°Fellow Daoist Feng, you use the secret magic of Spirit of the True World. Meanwhile, I inherited the legacy of the Devilbirds. I¡¯m not subservient to you. So why does me saying one little thing equate to being too talkative? Watch your wording, Fellow Daoist Feng!¡±

    Feng Lintao snorted but didn¡¯t say anything further. He just kept working on his magic.

    Lan Yao, meanwhile, was apparently extremely irritated at him calling her too talkative, and red at him icily. That said, she didn¡¯t say anything further to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times. Apparently, Lan Yao had actually been treating him with a bit of friendliness. He was just about to continue the conversation on his own when the fifth tower rumbled loudly and emitted bright white light.

    The white light erupted from the top of the tower, flowing like water as it surrounded the tower and then moved along the withered roots. Most of the roots didn¡¯t seem affected by the light at all. They just flickered dimly; clearly, they didn¡¯t have any life force in them to stimte. However, there was one that glittered brightly, then revealed a white thread within it.

    As the white thread spread through the root, it attracted the attention of all three cultivators. As they watched, the white thread spread through the root before vanishing. The root apparently still had no life force.

    However, Feng Lintao looked very excited. Quickly performing a double-handed incantation gesture, he activated his legacy magic, causing the tower to once again flicker with bright light. After doing that nine times in a row, he lifted his hands and performed some calctions based on where the different bits of light appeared.

    The sight of it made Xu Qinge to the conclusion that if Feng Lintao¡¯s story was true, it meant his ancestor had expended a lot of effort to make such thorough preparations. Anyone who wasn¡¯t aware of the secret would definitely have had a very hard time uncovering any of the clues.

    As Xu Qing contemted such things, time passed. Eventually, after making many calctions, Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes lit up and he looked over at a spot on the nearby wall of the cave.

    ¡°It¡¯s there!¡±

    He leaped in that direction and pushed his hand against the wall. Loud rumbling sounds echoed out as the wall sank in and cracks appeared. There was nothing there.

    Feng Lintao wasn¡¯t deterred. He quickly bit down on the tip of his tongue and spat out some blood. When the blood sshed onto the wall, the depressed spots glowed with red light. Then the dirt on the wall began to disappear, although the process was clearly going to take a long time.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Lan, I¡¯m only a half-blooded Fardark, so the power of my bloodline doesn¡¯t fulfill the requirements set forth by my ancestor. Quickly take out that blood pendant and give it to me! The blood of the species I sacrificed contains remnants of the Fardark bloodline. With 20,000,000 or so sacrificial subjects, it should be enough to stimte my blood and open the warding spell!¡±

    At longst Xu Qing found out the purpose of the blood sacrifices from earlier. That itself wasn¡¯t a surprise, but it was a surprise to him that Feng Lintao would sacrifice members of his own species. Clearly, the people he had sacrificed counted for little more than livestock to him.

    Lan Yao had apparentlye to simr conclusions, yet didn¡¯t seem very surprised. She took out the blood pendant, nced at Feng Lintao, and then began to activate the magic. At the same time she said, ¡°Turns out you¡¯re quite an extraordinary individual, Fellow Daoist Feng. You sacrificed 20,000,000 of your own people! How <i>very </i>decisive. I get the feeling you¡¯re going to rise to <i>great </i>heights in the future.¡±

    Lan Yao was clearly still irritated at how he¡¯d called her talkative, and was being sarcastic.

    Meanwhile, the blood pendant rumbled, emitting a blood mist that contained innumerable souls that flew toward Feng Lintao.

    In response to Lan Yao¡¯s words, Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes glittered coldly. However, he held back from doing anything. Grabbing the pendant, he sucked the souls into himself. Next, the wings behind him vanished, as did the third eye. As of now, there was no indication at all that he was a Devilbird. In fact, the skin over his entire body wriggled as a second head popped out of his neck. The Fardark species was two-headed!

    With that done, Feng Lintao took a deep breath and spat out more blood. When itnded on the earthen wall, the dissolving process which had begun earlier sped up significantly. After a few dozen breaths of time passed, a small passage was visible!

    An excited expression appeared on Lan Yao¡¯s face. It was the same with Feng Lintao. Acting in unison, they prepared to rush into the passage. Except... that was when something unexpected happened!

 Chapter 922: Ulterior Motives All Around

    <h4>Chapter 922: Ulterior Motives All Around</h4>

    An intense corpse energy spewed out of the just-opened passageway, along with two figures.

    Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes shed, and he stopped in ce, but didn¡¯t fall back.

    Lan Yao quickly performed an incantation gesture to activate a defensive barrier. Next, a boom rang out as Lan Yao retreated in the face of two puppets that resembled corpses. Both figures had two heads, bloodthirsty eyes, and mouths full of sharp teeth. They also emanated terrifying pressure.

    Just as Lan Yaounched an attack, one of the puppets changed directions and shot toward Xu Qing. Fighting broke out instantly, and Xu Qing¡¯s heart sank a bit. This puppet had seemingly inexhaustible strength and a very tough body. It also seemed resistant to divine abilities. It was obviously an extraordinary puppet.

    However, as they fought, Xu Qing looked at the passageway and then sent a thought out to the centipedes. He didn¡¯t do so by means of divine will, but rather, through the violet crystal, which made it impossible for anyone else to detect. The ghost-face centipedes converged around Xu Qing and met the puppet head-on. Clearly, they weren¡¯t worried about dying, and some of them even self-detonated.

    Lan Yao¡¯s heart pounded as she struggled to deal with the puppet attacking her.

    In the briefest of moments, both Xu Qing and Lan Yao found themselves in difficult situations.

    As for Feng Lintao, the two puppets seemingly ignored him. That caused Lan Yao¡¯s expression to darken. Then her eight-colored peacock appeared and lunged toward Feng Lintao.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, Feng Lintao? Before I set out, I made sure my husband knew where I was going and what I was doing!¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s eyes glittered. He was almost convinced to leave Lan Yao behind, but after some consideration, he offered an exnation.

    ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand, Fellow Daoist Lan. I¡¯m now a full-blooded Fardark. And my ancestor set all of this up! It¡¯s a given that the traps don¡¯t pose a threat to me now. Whether you believe it or not, Fellow Daoist Lan, I had no idea these two corpse puppets were here. It seems to me they were created by my ancestor using members of our own species. They¡¯re the guards here.

    ¡°If members of other species hadn¡¯te today, they wouldn¡¯t have done anything. But I was careless. Calm down, Fellow Daoist Lan. I¡¯ll just go in and get the holy fardark nectar. Once I¡¯m out, I¡¯ll give you your fair share.¡±

    With that, Feng Lintao rushed into the open passageway.

    Unfortunately, there were a lot of shockwaves rippling out, plus Lan Yao was in the middle of fighting. Because Feng Lintao had been paying attention mostly to Lan Yao, he didn¡¯t notice that a shadow flitted out from beneath one of the exploding centipedes and slipped right into the passageway....

    Lan Yao watched grimly as Feng Lintao left her behind. She unleashed an attack, but the puppet in front of her blocked it. Clearly, there was no way she would get free from the puppet anytime soon. A murderous look appeared in her eyes as she took out a seven-colored pearl and put it in her mouth. Her cultivation base then surged, and a shadowy projection appeared above the top of her head. The projection was blurry and difficult to make out clearly, but the cultivation base power it emitted was astonishing. The moment it was out in the open, it shot toward the puppet.

    The puppet attempted to dodge out of the way, butpletely and utterly failed. The shadowy figure mmed into it, and the extraordinary puppet exploded into bits. The projection also dissipated.

    Lan Yao¡¯s face looked very pale, but she didn¡¯t fall back. Not even looking at Xu Qing, she raced into the passageway.

    Xu Qing watched it all happen, and though he was surprised by her secret magic, he quickly recovered from his shock. Then he continued to fight with the puppet, not bothering to use any of his trump cards.

    A few dozen breaths of time passed. Then, whistling sounds could be heard from the passageway. Lan Yao and Feng Lintao shot out into the open. Their expressions flickered dramatically as they came to a stop and went into incantation gestures, as if they expected a dangerous foe to emerge behind them.

    Shortly after, rumbling sounds rose up, and a stream of golden light shot out after them.

    It was an enormous, golden rat! Its fur was standing on end, it had glittering, golden eyes, and a host of razor-sharp teeth. In between the fur on its body were numerous faces growing out of its flesh, snarling viciously. The moment it appeared, its glittering eyes fixed on Feng Lintao and Lan Yao. It howled. All the faces on its body howled as well, creating a sound that could shake the soul. Then it suddenly vanished, only to reappear right in front of Feng Lintao, where it opened its mouth viciously.

    Feng Lintao¡¯s face fell as he lunged backward. He waved his hand, and a shield appeared in front of him, the very same one he had used during his fight with Xu Qing.

    A boom echoed out as the golden rat hit the shield. However, the shield, which had easily blocked Xu Qing, instantly shattered, and the pieces were sent flying in all directions.

    At the same time, the golden rat seemed to be shaken, although that didn¡¯t reduce its ferocity. In fact, it seemed to get more ferocious. Just as it was about to press the attack, Lan Yao¡¯s eyes shed, and she took advantage of the moment to rush back toward the passageway. Howling, the golden rat vanished, then reappeared in front of Lan Yao to block her path. Golden light shone brightly around it. Lan Yao¡¯s eight-colored peacock blocked the light, but in the process was ripped to shreds.

    Xu Qing watched all of this with an expression of shock on his face. He could tell that this golden rat was a godly entity, and that it had very strong godliness. In fact, it seemed just on the verge of igniting godfire.

    <i>Hold on, no. It¡¯s not about to ignite godfire. It already did that in the past. Yet somehow the godfire was extinguished. Now it¡¯s built up enough reserves that it¡¯s on the verge of doing it again.</i>

    Xu Qing had dealt with enough gods that he could make such a determination at a nce.

    Meanwhile, Feng Lintao scowled as he performed an incantation gesture and said, ¡°Are you just going to stand around, Fellow Daoist Firedark? This godly rat got into the area with the holy fardark nectar from a different direction. It¡¯s obviously been holed up in there for a while. It was asleep.

    ¡°I ran into it and it started chasing me. If we don¡¯t kill it or at least trap it, then we have no chance of getting the holy fardark nectar! Although I didn¡¯ty eyes on the holy fardark nectar earlier, I could smell it. It¡¯s definitely still in there! We have to go all out if we¡¯re going to have a chance. Also, I have a secret magic I can try to use to control that puppet a bit!¡±

    Through all of this, Feng Lintao hadn¡¯t forgotten to keep the Captain at his side to use as a threat. The truth was that he was feeling very down. Though he had been the first into the passageway, he hadn¡¯t even reached the Fardark Cistern when he unexpectedly ran into the golden rat.

    The rat hadn¡¯t been put there by his ancestor, and it wasn¡¯t something he had nned to deal with. Now, though, he had no choice other than to deal with it. Gritting his teeth, he spat some blood out of his mouth and activated a secret magic. The puppet engaged inbat with Xu Qing shivered, backed away, and then shot toward the golden rat.

    Lan Yao saw all of this happening and realized there was no time to continue trying to one-up Feng Lintao. Backing up, she continued fighting and simultaneously said, ¡°He¡¯s telling the truth, Fellow Daoist Firedark!¡±

    A look of hesitation appeared on Xu Qing¡¯s face, although he already knew that Feng Lintao was telling the truth....

    Finally, he said, ¡°I want thirty percent of the holy fardark nectar!¡±

    Feng Lintao gritted his teeth. ¡°Fine!¡±

    Lan Yao knew this wasn¡¯t a time to quibble, so she nodded.

    Xu Qing was inclined to say something further. But knowing there wasn¡¯t time, he quickly pulled out the Spirit-Devouring Dagger and leaped forward to help Feng Lintao, Lan Yao, and the puppet to fight against the golden rat.

    At the same time, he nced at the passageway and sent a secret message to Little Shadow.

    <i>¡°Don¡¯t take all of it. Leave some behind!¡±</i>

 Chapter 923: A Small Film

    <h4>Chapter 923: A Small Film</h4>

    Inside the cave, Xu Qing became a streak of light that shot toward the golden rat. 40,000,000 soul threads swept out to form a major world, giving him stupefying momentum.

    Feng Lintao took a deep breath as five major worlds appeared around him, three illusory and two corporeal. All of them shone with different colored light as he closed in aggressively on the golden rat.

    Lan Yao acted in kind. A storm of flower petals spun around her, turning into an eight-colored peacock that threw its head back, sucked in the surrounding energy of heaven and earth, expanded to a size of 300 meters, and then shot toward the golden rat.

    The corpse puppet, not concerned with dying, charged toward the enemy.

    Attacks came from four different directions, all them directed at the golden rat. There was an impressive amount of killing force on disy. Rumbling sounds echoed out, and the walls of the cave shook so violently it seemed they might copse. The ruins below crumbled and fell, and countless withered roots copsed into ashes.

    Yet the golden rat showed no sign of fear. Whether in terms of its fleshly body or its godliness, it was at the peak of what a godly entity could be, and was just a sliver away from being able to form godfire. Destructive power converged on the golden rat, but golden light surged out explosively to protect it.

    In the blink of an eye, the entire cave was stained with the color gold. Devastating mightiness existed within that golden light.

    When it hit Xu Qing¡¯s major world of 40,000,000 soul threads, it copsed. Then the light¡¯s mountain-toppling, sea-draining force mmed into Xu Qing himself, causing blood to spray out of his mouth as he staggered backward. The golden light also ripped Feng Lintao¡¯s major worlds to shreds, then hit him and threw him backward.

    It was the same with Lan Yao. Her eight-colored peacock was wiped out, and her face drained of color as she fell back and did her best to defend herself.

    As for the corpse puppet.... It shivered when the golden light struck. Then the golden rat appeared in front of it, opened its mouth, and bit down with its pitch ck teeth. A loud crunching sound rang out. The rat gobbled down half of the entire corpse puppet, then head-butted the remaining half, sending it smashing into the nearby wall. It was destroyed.

    Xu Qing and the other two cultivators were shocked by the sight of it.

    After wiping out the puppet, the golden rat didn¡¯t continue fighting with Xu Qing and the others. Instead, it looked back at the passageway, its eyes shining fiercely.

    ¡°If that¡¯s all the two of you can do,¡± Xu Qing said grimly, all while backing up, ¡°then I might as well bow out now!¡±

    This golden rat was just too terrifying for him to deal with. If he kept fighting, he could easily end up dead. Just that sh of light moments ago had crushed his major world. Then the rat destroyed that puppet. While Xu Qing could probably hold his own for a while, the price to pay would be enormous.

    ¡°Hold on a moment, Fellow Daoist Firedark,¡± Feng Lintao said, looking at the rat. ¡°There¡¯s something off about this golden rat. It seems like it¡¯s only concerned with blocking our path. Perhaps there¡¯s something inside the Fardark Cistern that it values. Or maybe it also wants to get into the cistern.¡±

    Xu Qing stopped in ce.

    Lan Yao was still breathing heavily, and her eyes shone with eight-colored light as she also looked at the golden rat. ¡°There¡¯s something else that seems strange. This creature is at the peak of godliness, just on the verge of igniting godfire. It¡¯s essentially equivalent to a cultivator at the great circle of Smoldering God. However, though it has fearsome battle prowess, it¡¯s actually not quite as terrifying as an actual peak Smoldering God....

    ¡°Wait, now I get it! It used to be a god, but its godfire was extinguished, severely injuring it and destabilizing its foundation. And it¡¯s probably still suffering from the very same internal injuries it received in that battle! It hasn¡¯t recovered yet. What¡¯s more, it recently gave birth, which means... it¡¯s iparably weak right now!¡±

    The eight-colored light in Lan Yao¡¯s eyes gave her incredible vision, which allowed her to see many important things. As it turned out, her words conformed to what Xu Qing already knew. By means of Little Shadow, he knew that there were two eggs in the passageway....

    ¡°That said,¡± Lan Yao continued, ¡°the creature is beyond our ability to deal with. Thankfully, I have a secret treasure that should be able to trap it temporarily. It will take time to activate the treasure. Fellow Daoist Feng. Fellow Daoist Firedark. I¡¯m going to need you to cover me during that time.¡±

    Feng Lintao nodded and then looked coldly at Xu Qing, all while tightening his grip on the Captain¡¯s neck. Cracking sounds echoed out. There was no need to give voice to any sort of threat.

    Xu Qing scowled for a few breaths of time. Then he took a deep breath and said, ¡°I¡¯ll stand guard for an incense stick¡¯s worth of time. After that, if you haven¡¯t trapped the creature, then I¡¯ll leave and be done with this entire matter. And if I do leave, Fellow Daoist Feng, you need to release my Eldest Brother.¡±

    Feng Lintao nodded decisively. As long as Xu Qing didn¡¯t demand that the Captain be freed immediately, he could ept the terms.

    Seeing that both Xu Qing and Feng Lintao had agreed, Lan Yao didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment. Dropping down into a cross-legged position, she took out a mirror and ced it in front of her. After performing a double-handed incantation gesture, she touched the mirror, causing bright light to shine as nine eyes appeared on its surface. The eyes were gruish to the extreme and pulsed with strange auras.

    ¡°Nine-Eyes Darkfiend Mirror!¡± Feng Lintao eximed, clearly somewhat taken aback. All of a sudden he felt a lot more confident in Lan Yao.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes also glittered with strange light. <i>That mirror reminds me a lot of the Seven Blood Eyes taboo treasure....</i>

    The moment the aura of the mirror spread out, the golden rat shifted its attention to Lan Yao. Its eyes gleamed fiercely, the golden light around it flickered brightly, and its body blurred. Then, a whistling sound filled the air as the rat sped toward Lan Yao.

    Feng Lintao didn¡¯t hesitate to rush forward and block the rat¡¯s path.

    Xu Qing gritted his teeth and joined in the effort. Explosive booms rang out. Xu Qing was shaken from head to toe, and couldn¡¯t see anything but golden light rushing toward him in terrifying fashion. Then he was tumbling back, blood spraying out of his mouth. Cracks had already appeared on his Grand Darkheaven Armor, as well as the Ninedawns mage armor. His god body was trembling, and his five yin organs and six yang organs were shaking.

    Feng Lintao was also having a tough time, and blood sprayed out of his mouth constantly. However, as a critical moment developed, he begrudgingly took out a violet disc that he activated to create a defensive barrier. The barrier was astounding. Though it immediately started to fill with cracks, in the end, it did block the golden rat¡¯s attack.

    Face ashen, Feng Lintao urgently said, ¡°Sir Firedark, pour your cultivation base power into the disc!¡±

    Even as he spoke, he poured his own cultivation base power into the violet disc, causing the defenses to hold strong. The violet disc was a trump card he had prepared for this mission. He had hoped to save it forter on, but was out of options at the moment, and had no choice but to use it.

    Xu Qing said nothing. Just from looking at the violet disc, he could tell it was an extraordinary item. Therefore, he didn¡¯t hesitate to tap into his cultivation base and pour power into the disc. Instantly, the disc expanded. Outside of the defenses, the rat sent golden light smashing into the barrier with terrifying force.

    Rumbling booms echoed out as the barrier flickered. More cracks appeared. Both Xu Qing and Feng Lintao coughed up blood, but they were still able to keep the rat at bay.

    The golden rat was starting to devolve into madness. Suddenly lurching to a halt midair, its golden hair stood on end, then began to shoot off its body like golden needles that headed directly toward Xu Qing and Feng Lintao. They moved with incredible speed, bing like a golden tempest of destruction. More booms rang out as the violet barrier held strong for a few breaths of time. But then the cracks spread out so extensively that it copsed.

    The faces of Xu Qing and Feng Lintao fell. Neither one knowing whether the other had much strength left, they both fell back. As of now, it was going to be difficult for them to stand as dharma protectors.

    Meanwhile, the golden needles bore down on Lan Yao. Just when it seemed like they might hit her, she opened her eyes. Looking furious, she waved her hand, causing the nine eyes on the mirror to also open. Considering that she was taking action right when necessary, it obviously called into question the truthfulness of her previous statement about needing a certain amount of time.

    When the nine eyes on the mirror opened, nine streams of ck light shot out, gazes that turned from illusory into corporeal in an instant. At the same time, a majestic force filled the area, causing the golden needles to stop moving.

    The gazes locked onto the golden rat, and it shivered as it was locked into ce in midair. Its aura surged as it struggled to break free.

    ¡°I can only keep it trapped for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. And if anything touches it during that time, it will break free!¡± Lan Yao spat out a mouthful of blood onto the mirror, and the nine eyes became even more demonic in appearance. Then she backed up, ignoring the mirror as she rushed toward the passageway.

    Feng Lintao did the same, moving as fast as he could. Xu Qing blinked a few times, then followed.

    In an instant, they disappeared, bing streaks of light piercing through the passageway.

    The golden rat wasn¡¯t there to block their path, but time was limited. Neither Lan Yao nor Feng Lintao had any duplicitous ns, and thus, everyone went through the passageway without any trouble. It didn¡¯t take long to reach the end of the passageway.

    There, they found a cave. It wasn¡¯t veryrge, only about 300 meters from end to end. The walls were covered with crude marks that were evidence of the hasty manner in which the cave had been dug out years ago.

    In the middle of it was a small cistern of liquid that was hardly more than a meter wide, above which hung a green root. As the three of them entered, a drop of liquid fell from the root into the pool. A pinging sound echoed out.

    Xu Qing, Lan Yao, and Feng Lintao looked at the ripples that then spread across the surface. There was an egg in the cistern. What was more, the liquid of the cistern emanated a fragrant aroma that filled the area.

    Xu Qing inhaled deeply, and suddenly felt his mind be very clear. In fact, the godly authority in the void soil within him stirred as a result. Countlessws of godly authority swirled within his mind and heart. Even Xu Qing was amazed by the effects.

    ¡°Holy fardark nectar!¡± Feng Lintao murmured. He and Lan Yao were both struggling to control their breathing.

    However, as all three of them looked at the cistern, various expressions shed across their faces. After all, it looked like there wasn¡¯t very much holy fardark nectar inside.... In fact, there was only a small film at the bottom.

 Chapter 924: Whoâ€™s the Oriole??

    <h4>Chapter 924: Who¡¯s the Oriole??</h4>

    The small cistern had been umting liquid for tens of thousands of years.... Although holy fardark nectar required arge buildup of ordinary fardark nectar, it seemed inconceivable that after all the years of time that had passed, there would be such a small amount. Normally speaking, though it wouldn¡¯t be reasonable to expect the cistern to be overflowing, there should have been tens of times the amount that was present.

    Except there was clearly only a small film of the nectar at the bottom of the cistern. No wonder a variety of facial expressions could be seen on Feng Lintao and Lan Yao. After all, they had paid a huge price to get this holy fardark nectar. They had madeplicated ns, had hoodwinked each other back and forth, and had carried out devious plots. Though the end result was better than nothing, it was still a far cry from what they had expected.

    ¡°It must be the fault of that damned golden rat!!¡± Feng Lintao growled through gritted teeth. He¡¯d had a bad feeling from the moment heid eyes on that rat, and though he had been prepared for bad news at the end of the tunnel, that didn¡¯t stop him from feeling absolutely furious.

    Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do other than narrow his eyes at the egg in the water.

    Lan Yao said nothing, but her expression was steely.

    As for Xu Qing, he was also frowning. After looking at the cistern, then the rest of the cave, he nced back at the passageway. Not giving any hint as to what he was actually thinking, he started walking around the cave as if to look for other items of value.

    Feng Lintao sneered at Xu Qing¡¯s behavior. With the exception of the golden rat, Feng Lintao knew about everything that was in this area. Considering that there wasn¡¯t anything present, he didn¡¯t bother keeping an eye on Xu Qing.

    Lan Yao nced at Xu Qing, then focused her gaze on the water. ¡°There¡¯s no time to waste. Maybe there¡¯s not a lot, but it¡¯ll still be useful. As for that egg, I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s what the rat was guarding.¡±

    As the words left her mouth, she hurried toward the cistern. Feng Lintao joined her, and Xu Qing followed. As the three of them neared, something dramatic happened!

    The soil around the cistern caved in, and four shadowy figures jumped out. Astonishingly, they turned out to be four enormous puppets that resembled mantises. They were severely withered, and emanated powerful mutagen. What was more, their auras were unstable, and their gazes didn¡¯t contain even a scrap of intelligence. Apparently, they were acting on lingering instinct.

    Upon appearing, one attacked Xu Qing, while the other three... all bore down on Lan Yao.

    The moment they attacked, Feng Lintao spun, his aura ring and his cultivation base rumbling as heunched an attack on Lan Yao. There was more! A shadowy form emerged from Feng Lintao¡¯s sleeve, which rapidly shot toward Lan Yao. That shadowy form was an intestine! It was the very same thing they had run into earlier. All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t have it so bad, as he was just facing a single mantis. But Lan Yao had to deal with three mantises, and as they reached her, they all self-detonated. At the same time, the gruish intestine was wrapping around her, and Feng Lintao had alsounched an attack. A huge boom rang out, along with a destructive shockwave, as Lan Yao exploded.

    However, before Feng Lintao could manage to look pleased with the oue, the remnants of Lan Yao¡¯s body transformed into a talisman of animal skin that floated off to the side. Then, fluctuations rolled out as Lan Yao formed anew. It was almost as if she had anticipated that this would happen.

    Xu Qing immediately fell back. As he did, the mantis that had been fighting him returned to Feng Lintao¡¯s side.

    Lan Yao smiled faintly. ¡°You¡¯re not exactly living up to your word, Fellow Daoist Feng.¡±

    Feng Lintao smiled sarcastically. ¡°Not quite, Fellow Daoist Lan. You¡¯re the one with ulterior motives. Did you really think I wouldn¡¯t notice?¡±

    It didn¡¯t seem he was surprised at all that Lan Yao survived his attack. Turning to the entrance of the passageway, he coldly continued, ¡°You¡¯ve been following us this entire time, Fellow Daoist Yue Dong. Why not show your face? I¡¯ve known all along that you and Lan Yao were secretly working together!¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s words caused Lan Yao¡¯s smile to harden, and her eyes to glitter.

    ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this, Fellow Daoist Feng?¡± Xu Qing asked, his eyes narrowing.

    Feng Lintao chuckled coldly as he reached out and pointed toward the entrance of the passageway.

    Rumbling sounds could be heard as, astonishingly, a figure flew out of the passageway. It was a woman. She was lithe and beautiful, and though she had a gentle disposition, her eyes were as cold as ice.

    ¡°Everyone says that you¡¯re both paranoid and clever, Feng Lintao. I guess they¡¯re right.¡± This woman was none other than Yue Dong.

    Lan Yao, seeing no more need to hide the truth, nodded. ¡°I really didn¡¯t think Feng Lintao would figure out the truth....¡±

    With another person in the mix, Xu Qing blinked a few times, then looked at the Captain in Feng Lintao¡¯s grip. He backed up a few steps to indicate that he didn¡¯t want to be a part of what was happening.

    ¡°Lan Yao and Yue Dong of the Devilbird species,¡± Feng Lintao said. ¡°Although it might not seem like the two of you have much to do with each other back home, I¡¯ve known the truth for a long time. Your rtionship is anything <i>but</i> that. And who could ever have guessed that you two, who have such a good reputation, would stoop to doing something as greedy and despicable as this? It seems that you don¡¯t intend to abide by the terms of our agreement, Fellow Daoist Lan.¡±

    Gritting his teeth, Feng Lintao turned to Xu Qing. ¡°Do you see what¡¯s happening here, Fellow Daoist Firedark? I¡¯m afraid I need to ask for further help from you. If you do, I¡¯ll reward you handsomelyter!¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. He knew that he was the key to the entire situation. If he helped Feng Lintao, then Lan Yao and Yue Dong wouldn¡¯t be able to achieve victory quickly enough. After all, the golden rat outside would only stay trapped for so long.

    Lan Yaoughed coldly. ¡°There¡¯s no need to paint yourself as a victim, Fellow Daoist Feng,¡± she said. ¡°Do you actually think I believed what you said? I¡¯ve known all along that the deal you made with me was just an excuse. The only reason you told me about the holy fardark nectar was to lure me down here. Your goal in this mission isn¡¯t just the nectar. You also want sacred Devilbird blood.

    ¡°It¡¯s possible to enter Revered Ancient, but not leave it, so you clearly have a clever n in the works! Fellow Daoist Firedark, you¡¯re a smart person. Don¡¯t let yourself be fooled. As long as you refrain from interfering here, everything will work out fine for you. Your Eldest Brother might be captive, but Fellow Daoist Feng won¡¯t dare harm him. If he kills your Eldest Brother, then he knows he¡¯ll be up against all three of us.¡±

    Lan Yao burst into motion, heading right toward Feng Lintao. At the same time, Yue Dong waved her hand through the air, causing a sealing mark to appear and cover the entrance of the passageway to prevent anyone from leaving. Then she took a step toward Feng Lintao. Performing an incantation gesture to unleash a divine ability, she joined Lan Yao in the attack. Within moments, the deafening sound ofbat filled the cave.

    As the two women pushed Feng Lintao into retreat, he looked grimly at Xu Qing. ¡°Fellow Daoist Firedark, if you don¡¯t do something, I¡¯ll tell everyone your secret! Were you under the impression I don¡¯t know why there¡¯s so little holy fardark nectar here?¡±

    Feng Lintao¡¯s words caused the faces of Lan Yao and Yue Dong to flicker.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change at all as he said, ¡°Complete nonsense. I¡¯ve been with you two this entire time. I know you want to drag me down with you, but you could at leaste up with a better excuse. Go ahead and say anything you want, Fellow Daoist Feng.

    ¡°Just keep in mind that I¡¯m not going to get involved with the situation between the three of you. Since you said you knew all along that someone was following us, then I can only assume that you made preparations to handle the situation, and don¡¯t actually need my help.¡±

    Xu Qing kept backing up until he was at the entrance of the passageway, where he coldly watched the fighting.

    Lan Yao¡¯s eyes glittered at this development. As she fought, she chuckled and said, ¡°Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist Firedark. You¡¯re right. This Feng Lintao definitely has more tricks up his sleeve.¡±

    Lan Yao summoned her eight-colored peacock, and Yue Dong formed a body of ice and snow. As the temperature plummeted, she produced a spear of ice that she stabbed toward Feng Lintao. At the same time, five major worlds appeared around her, two of them corporeal and three illusory. That pressurebined with Lan Yao¡¯s eight-colored peacock formed a truly deadlybination.

    Though Feng Lintao still seemed calm and collected, and obviously had a lot of magical treasures left, he still fell back. There was nothing flustered about him. In fact, he was sneering.

    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Since you people guessed that I have more tricks up my sleeve, I won¡¯t waste any more time here. You¡¯re right, Lan Yao. I do have multiple goals. The holy fardark nectar. Your blood. And I also want Fellow Daoist Yue Dong¡¯s primal yin. All of that wille in very handy in forming my sixth world!¡±

    As he spoke, Feng Lintao kept one hand on the Captain, but used the other hand to pull something out into the open.

    It was a vine! It was golden, and sparkled in an extraordinary manner. It was as thick as an arm, three meters long, and astonishingly intelligent. The moment it was out in the open, it erupted with a shocking aura, filling the cave with a tempest. What was more, the vine caused the projection of a starry sky to appear above Feng Lintao. It looked like an endless starry sky filled with infinite heavenly bodies. There was also an amazing vine in it, piercing through the river of stars as it traversed the starry sky.

    The vine in Feng Lintao¡¯s hand was covered with innumerable mysterious magical symbols, which all came about naturally. It also had fruit attached to it which looked like stars. It was a truly shocking sight.

    When Lan Yao and Yue Dong saw the vine and the starry sky, they were shocked to the core.

    Lan Yao even blurted, ¡°A sageheaven god vine! Born in the starry sky, when it matures, it can traverse star systems. Yours is in an infant form! It might be in infant form, but even that¡¯s incredible. How can you possibly have something like that?? Holy Lord Fardark was killed by that vine! And it even destroyed the Fardark holynd? You....¡±

    Although Xu Qing had never seen this item before, he could sense how majestic the vine was, and it caused his expression to flicker.

    Feng Lintao looked at Lan Yao and Yue Dong, and thenughed cruelly.

    ¡°The two of you don¡¯t need to know how I got it. It will be an honor for you to be killed by a sageheaven god vine. However, the first person to receive such a karmic blessing will be the person I¡¯m holding in my hand. Whenever a sageheaven god vine is used, it requires a living sacrifice.¡±

    Feng Lintaoughed maniacally. He was no longer hiding his true intentions. Though it seemed like he had been holding the Captain as a hostage, the reality was that he¡¯d been keeping him ready to use as a living sacrifice!

    As heughed, he sent some divine will into the golden vine. The vine instantly red with golden light, and then a mouth opened up at its end, making it look like a snake. It lunged toward the Captain.

    However... as it neared, something unimaginable happened!

    The Captain¡¯s eyes opened, and they gleamed with unprecedented craziness and greed. He opened his mouth... and bit down onto the vine! Then he inhaled deeply, and the terrifying vine, for some unknown reason, began to tremble. It was as if the vine had encountered an archenemy and wanted to struggle free. However, the Captain¡¯s eyes red with blue light as he sucked the entire vine into his mouth.

    This development waspletely and utterly astonishing to everyone present, except Xu Qing.

    The Captain suddenly vanished, then reappeared next to Xu Qing, where he burped contentedly.

    ¡°The only reason I let myself be captured was that I smelled that vine. I¡¯ve been waiting this whole time for you to take it out! What a long wait!¡±

 Chapter 925: Letâ€™s Do This Together, Everyone!

    <h4>Chapter 925: Let¡¯s Do This Together, Everyone!</h4>

    Silence reigned in the cave.

    Lan Yao stood there with a nk look on her face. Yue Dong¡¯s mind reeled as she feltpletely stunned.

    ¡°He... he ate it?¡±

    Both of them felt like what they had just witnessed wasn¡¯t even real, despite having seen it y out with their own eyes. It had been shocking to see Feng Lintao produce such a rare and powerful item. In fact, they had instantly been overwhelmed with a sensation of profound danger, to the point where they had been preparing to simply flee and give up on any hope of achieving their goals.

    That was a sageheaven god vine! A matured version of that vine had wiped out an entire holynd. Its terrifying nature was a thing of legend, and was so well-known among the other holynds that no one would ever dare to take it lightly.

    And yet... a terrifying sageheaven god vine had just been eaten right in front of them.... Granted, it was an infant form. But for someone to swallow it down so casually was something neither of the women could ever have imagined possible. In fact, it led them to wonder if Feng Lintao had actually been using a fake sageheaven god vine.

    If they reacted in that manner, there was little need to mention how Feng Lintao reacted. His expression was one of nk astonishment. His eyes couldn¡¯t have been wider, and he was sopletely and utterly thunderstruck that his mind contained nothing but deafening rumbling sounds. His mind seemed to empty of all thoughts, until there was nothing left behind. He looked stupefied as he stared dully at the Captain¡¯s mouth....

    Considering how much of a paranoid and distrustful person Feng Lintao was, the only time he could possibly enter a state like this would be when gaining enlightenment of magicalws. In other words, it required a very special destined opportunity, along with the perfect circumstances, for him to empty his mind of all thought. It was a mental statecking any impurities, and needed an immense level of good fortune to achieve. Truth be told, this was actually the first time he had ever entered a state like this.

    Thankfully for him, that state didn¡¯tst for long. After a brief moment in which hecked any thought in his mind, everything turned around, and he was filled with a myriad of conflicted thoughts.

    Distracting thoughts filled him until he was shaking. When the effect reached his throat, he started breathing unstably. And then it reached his soul, and he started to suspect that maybe he hadn¡¯t pulled out that vine to begin with. But then he checked to see, and he found....

    ¡°Ahem,¡± the Captain said, blinking a few times. Then he continued in a tone of voice that could drive anyone into a fury. ¡°There¡¯s no need to check, Little Fengfeng. I can confirm that you didn¡¯t make a mistake. The vor was very, very pure.¡±

    Murder. Execution.

    The Captain''s words perfectly provoked those two concepts.

    When Feng Lintao heard his words, he started shaking even more violently, and his mind filled with an unending host of thoughts. Fury. Regret. Anxiety. Humiliation. Jealousy. Depression. All of them raged within his heart and mind. Pain filled his head, causing blood vessels to bulge on his forehead. Immense pressure and heat began to build within him. His chest felt like an empty hole that could devour anything and everything.

    His face first turned pale, then bright red, then green, and finally as ck as night. It was easy to imagine what was going on inside of him for his face to change between so many colors in such a short amount of time. Next, Feng Lintao coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, then emitted a scream that could destroy the heavens and crush the earth! It was filled with raging animosity and iparable madness.

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna kill you!!!¡±

    Feng Lintao was devolving into insanity. In fact, his aura was surging so wildly that his three sealed major worlds suddenly showed signs of being unsealed. Surging with power and momentum, heunched himself at the Captain.

    Seeing the maddened Feng Lintao rushing toward them caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter coldly. sping his right hand into a fist, he took a step forward andunched a vicious blow.

    The Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist rocketed forward. Simultaneously, The Emperor¡¯s Sword¡¯s shed ruthlessly toward Feng Lintao.

    The Captain, meanwhile, snorted coldly and cocked his head. As a result, a green vine shot out from the top of his head. It was several meters long, and as it whipped from one side to the other, it shattered the air.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fist mmed into Feng Lintao, and a boom rang out. Xu Qing grunted as he was shoved backward. As for Feng Lintao, he ignored any possible injuries as he lunged forward again.

    But then The Emperor¡¯s Sword shed. Sword light swept forth, and blood sprayed everywhere as half of his arm was sliced off. Then the Captain¡¯s vineshed into Feng Lintao with terrifying force. A huge boom echoed out in all directions. Blood sprayed out of Feng Lintao¡¯s mouth as he was sent spinning off to the side.

    The Captain cleared his throat, smiled, and said, ¡°I only just ate it, so I don¡¯t have much control.¡±

    It was hard to tell if even he believed what he was saying.

    Meanwhile, Lan Yao and Yue Dong, though astonished by the developments, were still extraordinary individuals. Suppressing their surprise, they took advantage of the moment. Killing intent surging, they shot forward. Given how everything had yed out, one thing was for sure: these two women were dead set on killing Feng Lintao. An eight-colored peacock shot toward him, surrounded by an eight-colored wind, eight-colored rain, and eight-colored clouds. From Yue Dong came an ice spear that destroyed everything in its path like a boulder crushing a drinking ss.

    Seeing all of that caused a sensation of deadly crisis to explode in Feng Lintao. At the same time, it forced him to regain some of the mental rity he had lost thanks to the Captain. He had no choice but to suppress some of the random thoughts in his mind. However, whether it was the madness or the humiliation, he couldn¡¯t control all of the emotions. When your life was on the line, some things... just had to be sidelined!

    Of course, most people mighte to that realization but be unable to follow through. After all, given how much had been lost, the resulting emotions were nearly uncontroble. But Feng Lintao was inherently paranoid and cautious, and was also unusually intelligent. As a result, he could make snap decisions.

    Eyes glimmering with cold light, he unhesitatingly went into an incantation gesture. Instantly, one of his three sealed major worlds suddenly blurred, then copsed. That copse caused a terrifying power to spread out violently in all directions. Astonishingly, he was choosing to detonate one of his sealed major worlds!

    It was an immense price to pay. After all, because it was sealed, the power of detonation couldn¡¯t reach its full potential. At the very best, it might be half of what it could be. What was more, because it was in a sealed state, that power couldn¡¯t be used to bolster himself. It was essentially like a one-off detonation of a magical treasure.

    Furthermore, this act would reduce the number of major worlds he had by one. That would result in an actual drop in cultivation base, and recovering from it would be immeasurably difficult. In fact, it was even possible it <i>couldn¡¯t</i> be recovered from. When all was said and done, it was a ruthless decision for him to make.

    Neither Lan Yao nor Yue Dong would have been able to do something like this, even in a moment of deadly crisis. Both would need to take time to think things through before going through with it. Even though only a portion of the detonation power could be released, and even though it could only be done once, it was still a violent and terrifying act. After all, this was an entire major world. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a violent shock wave spread out in all directions.

    Lan Yao and Yue Dong were facing the brunt of the attack, and there was no way either one of them wanted to put everything on the line. Both chose to avoid the st as best they could.

    As for Xu Qing and the Captain... they didn¡¯t do anything to follow up on their first attack.

    Feng Lintao, meanwhile, had already given up on trying to kill Xu Qing and the Captain. He was using the detonation of his major world as a way to try to escape with his own life. In the blink of an eye, he shot toward the entrance of the passageway. Reaching the obstacle Yue Dong had put up, heunched a fist strike.

    He wanted out!

    At the same time, the coldness in his eyes grew more intense. Though he had chosen to flee, he wasn¡¯tpletely ready to just give up on everything. He was nning to free the golden rat on his way out! If he could add it to the chaos, then he had a chance to <i>take advantage of a crisis for personal gain</i>. Perhaps byunching a deadly counter attack, he could actually reverse the situation. That was what made it worth it to detonate his major world.

    Meanwhile, the other four people involved were all intelligent in their own ways. That was obvious when it came to Xu Qing and the Captain. It was also clear with Lan Yao, considering how she had plotted against Feng Lintao and turned the tables on him.

    Although Yue Dong hadn¡¯t done very much so far, the fact she could do something akin to <i>asking a tiger for its skin</i>, went to show how extraordinary she was.

    The moment Feng Lintao detonated his major world and made a break for the passageway, the others could guess what he was nning to do.

    In the blink of an eye, the Captain¡¯s vine whipped through the air, and he shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s do this together, everyone! We¡¯ve got to kill him! If he lets loose that rat, we¡¯re all in deep trouble!¡±

    The Captain seemed like he was ready to throw caution to the wind as he shot toward the passageway. Lan Yao and Yue Dong gritted their teeth and followed him.

    It seemed like they were all going to focus on killing Feng Lintao. But then, an instantter, three out of the four people suddenly seemed to be moving a bit slower than the others....

    Only Yue Dong actually closed in on Feng Lintao as he battered at the barrier to the passageway.

    Xu Qing stopped in midair.

    Lan Yao made an initial lunge toward the passageway, but then stopped and went back to the Fardark Cistern. There, she waved her hand to collect all of the holy fardark nectar plus the golden egg.

    Yue Dong actually didn¡¯t seem surprised by the developments.

    However, Lan Yao wasn¡¯t the only one to look back at the pool. The Captain¡¯s vine also did the same.

    It shot with astonishing speed toward the golden egg, wrapped it up, and then scrambled to get some of the liquid from the pool. Unfortunately, because of targeting the egg first, the vine only managed to get about twenty percent of the nectar. The other eighty percent went to Lan Yao.

    Although Lan Yao wasn¡¯t happy about losing the egg, when she thought about what she¡¯d seen the Captain do moments ago, she looked at the vine, then backed away with her guard up.

    The Captain was likewise not very happy to lose the rest of the nectar. However, he knew they were in a tight situation, so he didn¡¯t do anything to Lan Yao. That said, he did manage to collect the remnants of the destroyed mantis puppets.

    By the time those things were aplished, Feng Lintao and Yue Dong had reached a critical moment in their fight.

    Thanks to Yue Dong¡¯s interference, Feng Lintao had failed to break open the barrier.

    That said, Feng Lintao¡¯s decisiveness wasn¡¯t limited to what he had done already. Eyes shining with cold light, he suddenly detonated another of his sealed major worlds! As the devastating shockwave spread out, Yue Dong was thrown in the opposite direction. At the same time, the barrier crumbled.

    Panting for breath, Feng Lintao unhesitatingly shot into the passageway.

    At that exact moment, dark mist built up in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes, and the godly authority of taboo poison spread out. Hellfei appeared!

    ¡°Six Filths of the Gods!¡±

 Chapter 926: Pulling Back the Curtain

    <h4>Chapter 926: Pulling Back the Curtain</h4>

    Hellfei was terrifying, surrounded by roiling ck mists of poison. As for the words that had just been spoken, they came out of Xu Qing¡¯s mouth, but simultaneously, out of Hellfei¡¯s mouth.

    <i>First filth: godfire¡¯s smoke rises and converges impurities.</i>

    Feng Lintao, who was speeding through the passageway after having just destroyed the barrier, suddenly shivered. Then his face fell as he realized that ck splotches of impurity were popping up all over him.

    <i>Second filth: god soul¡¯s desire builds and converges mortality.</i>

    Next, he felt like all of his sensations were being stripped away.

    <i>Third filth: god body decaying and building rot.</i>

    The ck splotches on his body began to rot, and his flesh started falling off. His bones started to decay.

    <i>Fourth filth: god shrine covered in dust and losing brilliance.</i>

    Feng Lintao screamed as he sensed that his dao foundation, which was already unstable thanks to the recent detonations, was crumbling. And yet, the curse wasn¡¯t over yet.

    <i>Fifth filth: godly nature is filth loses wisdom.</i>

    <i>Sixth filth: godly fate births curses and severs life.</i>

    A power that could eradicate the soul rose within him. Feng Lintao felt like an evil ghost as his flesh blurred and rotted, and he began to emanate a stench like that of a corpse. But then, he abruptly lifted his hand and smacked it down on his chest, causing a mass of rotting blood and innumerable howling souls to burst out of him in terrifying fashion.

    It was the blood and souls of 20,000,000 fellow members of his species that he had sacrificed and assimted to be a full-blooded Fardark. Those that still remained had to be abandoned at this moment.

    As the blood and the souls spread out, new wings formed behind him, and a third eye appeared on his forehead. The rest of the curse began to dissipate naturally, thanks to him forcing it out. Then he pped his wings and shot toward the end of the passageway.

    Though he had sessfully suppressed Xu Qing¡¯s deadly curse, his momentum had been interrupted. Therefore, just as he was about to burst out of the passageway, Yue Dong also pped her wings and chased after him. She also performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing dozens of warding spells to appear in the passageway. She had obviously put them in ce when she came through the passage as thest to enter. And now they were being activated to block the path of Feng Lintao.

    Despite being slowed down by the warding spells, Feng Lintao had bought enough of an advantage to reach the other end of the passageway his ancestor had created. Except....

    The moment he burst out into the open, Yue Dong elerated dramatically, passing him and nting herself between him and the golden rat.

    His n was foiled. Acting without even thinking, he simply fled.

    However, that was when Lan Yao appeared and blocked his path upward.

    Next, Xu Qing and the Captain appeared. However, instead ofunching deadly attacks at Feng Lintao, they shot toward the cave above. For them, this entire scenario involving the other three was simply a good opportunity to make an escape. As a matter of fact, it had all been set up by Xu Qing and the Captain in the passageway.

    Otherwise, Xu Qing would never have used Six Filths of the Gods. He actually didn¡¯t want Feng Lintao to simply die. Keeping him alive was the best option, that way he could buy time while also preventing Feng Lintao from freeing the golden rat.

    As for how the fight ultimately yed out with the others, it didn¡¯t matter to Xu Qing. He and the Captain knew that they had already profited handsomely, and now was the time to get away before the situation turned bad.

    However, even as Xu Qing and the Captain flew up into the air and were about to make their escape, a barrier appeared noiselessly in front of them. It was a silver web made of innumerable sparkling and translucent white threads. And it covered the entire top of the cave. It pulsed with a terrifying pressure as well as the power of an incredible sealing mark. In fact, it seemed even stronger than the power unleashed by Feng Lintao¡¯s major world detonations.

    If that were all there was to it, it might not have been a big deal. Xu Qing and the Captain still had the emperor¡¯s corpse. If they entered it and used its power, they could break free if they paid enough of a price. Except... that there was a paper talisman on the sealing mark. It was silver, and the words on it were very clear to see. However, the meaning of the words was difficult to decipher, although it was clear that the thing was pulsing with a very holy aura. It wasn¡¯t the aura of a god. Rather, it was... the aura of a Grand Emperor!

    Xu Qing and the Captain both reacted with visible expressions of surprise. They didn¡¯t need to take time thinking about where this sealing mark came from. It was obvious that it had secretly been put in ce by Yue Dong.

    She and Lan Yao had acted in perfect unison to carry out their n. Given the effects of karma, it seemed very unlikely that she had acquired a treasure like this by stealing it. After all, a talisman like that was simply too valuable.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be in a rush to leave, Fellow Daoists,¡± Yue Dong said coolly. ¡°That sealing mark isn¡¯t there to target you. It¡¯s to make sure Feng Lintao doesn¡¯t escape. Once the two of us kill Feng Lintao, I¡¯ll remove it and let you go. By the way, if you can lend a helping hand, we should be able to kill him faster. That would be ideal. After all, the golden rat... is going to break free soon.¡±

    Behind her, the golden rat was visibly struggling. Although Lan Yao had said she could keep it trapped for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, it was clear the mirror wouldn¡¯t hold out much longer.

    Xu Qing and the Captain both felt their hearts sink. Both of them had to admit that these three cultivators from the holynds weren¡¯t just strong, and didn¡¯t just have a lot of magical treasures. They were also extremely clever, and all of them had harbored many ulterior motives that they kept hidden until thest minute. Even one slip-up when dealing with people like this could ultimately lead to death.

    Meanwhile, Feng Lintao saw what was happening, and his face grew more ashen. His eyes also gleamed with despair. Laughing bitterly, he said, ¡°A holy ancestor¡¯s sealing talisman? It takes a lot of battle credit to buy even one of them back home.... How could I ever have guessed that you would actually purchase something like that just to deal with me, Fellow Daoist Yue Dong?

    ¡°We have a slight conflict rting to profit and loss. You already have the prize in hand. Yet you¡¯re still using a sealing mark like that to try to kill me? It¡¯s truly a surprise. We don¡¯t have any deep animosity between us!!¡± By the time Feng Lintao finished speaking, his eyes were crimson and he was nearly shouting.

    ¡°No deep animosity? Is that so?¡± Yue Dong¡¯s eyes shone with killing intent. There was no longer any trace of gentleness in her expression, just profound hatred. In fact, she looked ready to eat someone alive. ¡°You have Devilbird blood, Fellow Daoist Feng! And the two of us sisters figured out years ago exactly where you got it!

    ¡°Did you really think you could keep it a secret? That no one would find out? The truth is... she had two older sisters! Us! She just didn¡¯t tell you! The reality is that all of the treasures on this mission were secondary. Our main goal was to deal with you!¡±

    Lan Yao gritted her teeth, then shot toward Feng Lintao. Yue Dong did the same. Booms rang out as the three of them started fighting.

    Feng Lintao was already badly injured, and though he was able to defend himself, he coughed up one mouthful of blood after another.

    Up in midair, just beneath the sealing mark and the web, Xu Qing and the Captain looked on grimly. They didn¡¯t want to get involved, but they could see the golden rat struggling with increasing vigor. If it broke free.... They exchanged a nce, and could both tell what the other was thinking. They had that egg, and if the golden rat broke free, they would be first on its list to destroy.

    There seemed to be only one way to get free, and that was to help Lan Yao and Yue Dong.

    Furthermore... it seemed that there was some karma at y between the two young women and Feng Lintao. Although the details weren¡¯t clear, it seemed that they were trying to avenge their younger sister, and that gave a glimpse into their character.

    Xu Qing and the Captain exchanged another nce. The two blinked, and then their eyes shone with determination.

    ¡°Bastards like that deserve to die!¡± the Captain shouted. Then he added, ¡°Immortaldies, we¡¯ll just stand here and wait!¡±

    In response, Feng Lintao¡¯s face turned even paler. In his practice of cultivation up to this point, he had experienced many deadly crises. But he hadn¡¯t faced many crises as deadly as this one. Given his personality, he was usually the one targeting others. But now it seemed he was the target. And it was all because his sageheaven god vine had been eaten....

    The thought caused veins to bulge on his forehead, and more pressure to build up inside him. He again forced the pressure away, and made himself stop thinking about things that would drive him mad. As he fought back, he was shoved backward over and over again. He coughed up numerous mouthfuls of blood, and looked like he was about to sink into the depths of despair.

    However, at the same time, he was rapidly analyzing the situation, and came to the conclusion that if he wanted to free the golden rat, he was going to have to detonate another major world. Except, he had already detonated two. If he detonated a third... his cultivation base would truly be at the two-world Smoldering God level.

    Given that he might die, he could theoretically ept that. Except, if he detonated that third world, and then managed to free the golden rat, then he would be even weaker than he was right now.

    And that meant that the possibility of <i>taking advantage of a crisis for personal gain</i> would be smaller than ever. The more likely oue would be that he would be <i>spinning a cocoon around himself</i>, and would ultimately end up dead at the hands of the golden rat. And there would be other prices to pay for a detonation.

    If there was really no other option at hand, he would do it. At the very least, he could make sure to take a few of his enemies out with him. In fact, between the detonation of a major world and the golden rat, he might even be able to kill all of his enemies here.

    <i>Except, those two humans are intriguing.... Do they really have an idea of what¡¯s going on? And given what they just said.... Was that for my sake? Are they trying to reveal that they know I can get free??</i>

    Eyes glittering, Feng Lintao spat out a pearl, which was a life essence magical treasure. The moment it appeared, it started spinning rapidly as it shot toward Lan Yao and Yue Dong.

    Then Feng Lintao spun in ce and shot toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Lan Yao and Yue Dong acted in unison to destroy the life essence magical treasure. However, it did its job of blocking their path.

    Feng Lintao was coughing up blood like mad, and his aura was weakening dramatically as he flew toward Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Yue Dong spoke in both grief and indignation as she said, ¡°Fellow Daoists! Please, will the two of you help us? We don¡¯t need you to kill him, just stop him!¡±

    She and Lan Yao were already chasing after Feng Lintao.

    Killing intent red in the eyes of Xu Qing and the Captain as they chose to help the two young women. Bothunched attacks at Feng Lintao.

    As for Feng Lintao, his eyes burned with madness. He was taking a huge risk! There were some things he couldn¡¯t speak out loud, as if he did, it would reveal his trump cards. He was betting that these two would be able to read the bigger picture. After all, if they helped the two women kill him, then they would immediately be facing the two women as enemies. They were sealed in here, and also had to consider the golden rat. But if Feng Lintao survived and escaped, then the two women would have to chase after him. It was really the only way for the two humans to ensure their survival.

    Just as Feng Lintao ran into the attacks of Xu Qing and the Captain, the two of them dodged to the side to clear a path.

    Yue Dong and Lan Yao were visibly shocked.

    Feng Lintao didn¡¯t hesitate at all. He barreled forward to the sealing mark, where he detonated his third major world. At the same time, he waved his hand to produce a Grand Emperor¡¯s talisman that looked just like the one in the sealing mark.

    Backed by the power of the world detonation, it became a stream of silver light that smashed into the sealing mark and punched right through it. Feng Lintao reached it in an instant.

    Xu Qing and the Captain didn¡¯t hesitate to turn into bright beams of light that shot through the opening.

    And thus, the three of them escape into the open.

    As they sped off into the distance, Yue Dong and Lan Yao appeared outside the sealing mark. Looking at the three fleeing enemies, their expressions became very unsightly.

    ¡°Was my wording too on the nose?¡± Yue Dong said grimly. ¡°Or did I seem insincere because I don¡¯t actually have any younger sister? Or did they detect my innate ability?

    ¡°If the two of them believed me at all, then my innate ability should have convinced them that I was after revenge. They shouldn¡¯t have realized I was plotting against them, and I should have been able to use their emotions to control them. And my innate ability seemed to be working on them before.

    ¡°As for the secret treasure in Feng Lintao¡¯s soul, it¡¯s the legacy of the Fardark holy ancestor, which is why my innate ability is only partially effective on him. He probably believed that I have a sister who he stole blood from. But once he starts thinking about it, he¡¯ll suspect the truth.

    ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve met someone in my own cultivation level who my innate ability failed to work on, much less someone lower than me....

    ¡°What a pity. Those two humans would have made great flesh puppets. And I¡¯d say there¡¯s an eighty to ny percent chance they¡¯re the ones responsible for the missing holy fardark nectar! What a pity. What a real pity....¡±

    She turned to look at Lan Yao with cold eyes. It was as if, to her, Lan Yao wasn¡¯t a person, but rather, a flesh puppet whose emotions she could control.

    Lan Yao didn¡¯t seem to hear Yue Dong¡¯s ramblings. She gritted her teeth and looked angrily in the direction Feng Lintao had fled.

    ¡°Those two humans deserve to die. And Feng Lintao deserves to die even more. Thankfully, we dug up that evidence about him. We¡¯ll definitely put him to death and avenge our sister!¡±

    Her eyes were crimson and full of vicious hatred.

 Chapter 927: Master Deluo

    <h4>Chapter 927: Master Deluo</h4>

    Yue Dong looked off in the direction in which Xu Qing and the Captain had fled. Although she was loath to let them off the hook, in the end, she decided not to pursue them. Right now, the most important thing to her weren¡¯t more flesh puppets, nor the holy fardark nectar. Rather, she needed the Fardark holy ancestor legacy in Feng Lintao¡¯s soul. After all, that was the legacy of a Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor!

    <i>I can¡¯t give Feng Lintao time to recover. Furthermore, he has one of my emotion seeds in him. Tracking him will be as easy as following a bright torch in the middle of the night.</i>

    Yue Dong¡¯s eyes glittered as she made her decision. Without any hesitation, she flew at top speed over the horizon. Lan Yao gritted her teeth and followed after Yue Dong. As for the Grand Emperor¡¯s talisman, it faded away and was taken with them.

    ***

    The cave waspletely silent. Only a few moments passed, and then the mirror emitted some cracking noises. Then an enraged roar echoed out, followed by a stream of golden light.

    It was none other than the golden rat. The moment it broke out into the open, it emitted a shrill, miserable scream. It shivered from head to toe, as if immense pressure were weighing down on it and trying to force it out of thesends. Before long, the pressure turned into countless magical sealing marks that resembled blood vessels within it. Even its head was full of numerous magical symbols. The magical symbols seemed ancient, and they pulsed with godly fluctuations. Clearly they had been there for many years, and were the reason the golden rat had been unable to leave the cave. It had been suppressed there!

    Intense stimtion filled the rat, causing its god soul to tremble, and provoking more shrill screams. As it struggled, the sealing marks almost seemed toe alive, flowing through its body and ultimately converging on its head, where they stabbed deep into it. They surrounded its mind and crushed down on its soul, wiping away any scraps of intelligence and making it like nothing more than an animal.

    Most gruish of all was that signs of a paper talisman could barely be seen on its forehead. It was as if further struggle would cause its flesh and blood to turn into paper. It would be a paper rat. Its blood-red eyes stared up into the sky, and then it unleashed an astonishing roar of defiance.

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. And then the entire sky seemed to turn into a massive vortex, within which was visible a cold eye staring down at the golden rat.

    The strange eye almost looked like a painting. Even more strange, the magnificent vortex in the sky, if you looked at it closely... looked like it was made from paper.

    A deep voice echoed out.

    ¡°Sir Nightcrusher, you have been refined for 30,000 years, and your godfire has been extinguished by me many times. Yet you still aren¡¯t willing to be a night god under mymand?¡±

    The golden rat¡¯s eyes grew even redder, and it shook even more violently. Then its pupils suddenly filled with a bit of intelligence. A moment passed in which it said nothing, and then it spoke in a hoarse voice that seemed to contain irreconcble enmity.

    ¡°Master... Deluo...!¡± [1]

    With a roar, the golden rat spun, rushed back into the cave and the passageway within.

    Up above, the eye in the vortex turned even colder. ¡°Fine. I still have plenty of time.¡±

    As the voice echoed out, the vortex blurred and then disappeared.

    All heaven and earth went back to normal.

    ***

    Of course, the scene which yed out there was visible only in that limited location. Xu Qing and the Captain were so far away that they couldn¡¯t see it, nor could the fleeing Feng Lintao nor Yue Dong or Lan Yao. That said, they were all extraordinary individuals, and thus, they could at least sense that something strange was going on behind him.

    In fact, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder as he flew through the air, and his expression was one of suspicion. Next to him, the Captain looked up into the sky, looking simrly suspicious. They exchanged a nce, and didn¡¯t need to exchange any words to know what each other were thinking. They sped up.

    Three days passed in a sh.

    Xu Qing and the Captain used various methods of concealment and invisibility. As a result, they didn¡¯t run into any trouble. Before long, they left Fardark County and entered the border of the Imperial Region of humankind.

    Eventually, they caught sight of a human city on one of the outer rings of the imperial Region. The familiar scenery and aura entered their hearts, and they felt like a great weight had been lifted off them. That said, they didn¡¯t let their guard down. Truth be told, the things they had witnessed in the past few days left them both feeling very shocked.

    Once in the Imperial Region, they kept up the same pace as they traveled forward. As a result, they ended up passing over both mortal cities as well as asional sects located atop lofty mountain peaks. The former weren¡¯t anything worth paying attention to. No mortal city would ever cause any trouble for Xu Qing or the Captain. Thetter did asionally contain powerful cultivators who noticed the two of them speeding along. Most of them felt fear in their hearts, and pretended not to notice them.

    But asionally there were some mighty individuals who weren¡¯t pleased by the intrusion.

    In fact, as Xu Qing and the Captain were flying over a bright red mountain range, a cold snort echoed out.

    ¡°Who goes there? How dare you look down on our Crimson Blood Sect by just flying right over us! Stop right there!¡±

    Along with the voice came a blood mist that rose from the mountains into the air to block the path of Xu Qing and the Captain.

    Xu Qing frowned and was about to say something.

    Before he could, the Captain red at the blood mist and yelled, ¡°How dare you! This is Region Lord Xu of the Holytide Region, the respected Grand Darkheaven of the Firemoons! In the presence of Heavenly Marquis Xu Qing and his Eldest Brother, people like you should back down immediately!¡±

    He finished his sentence in a voice that boomed like thunder and was filled with immeasurable pride. What was more, his words came out very smoothly, as though the Captain had been practicing them in his heart for a long time. In fact, it was almost as if he had been just waiting for something like this to happen.

    The blood mist lurched to a halt.

    The Captain snorted coldly, then continued on his way. Xu Qing said nothing. And thus, the two of them flew on without so much as slowing down.

    After they left, the blood mist shrank down until it turned into an old man with red hair. He looked hesitantly off to the horizon. The truth was he hadn¡¯t dared to block the path of those two passersby. After all... the identity of the person the Captain had announced waspletely spectacr!

    That was especially true considering that this Patriarch Crimson Cloud was not the type of person who spent all his time in secluded meditation. He was very well aware of what was going on in the world, and over the past few years had heard a lot about the new region lord of the Holytide Region. He had also heard about him being named a heavenly marquis.

    At the same time... thanks to the announcement sent out into Revered Ancient by the Firemoon Darkheaven people, he had heard the shocking news about a human bing their Grand Darkheaven.

    And the name of that esteemed person was none other than Xu Qing.

    ¡°Xu Qing...¡± he murmured. Although he couldn¡¯t be absolutely sure if the person who had passed by was actually Xu Qing, he didn¡¯t dare risk offending him either way.

    After all, if he <i>wasn¡¯t</i> Xu Qing, it wouldn¡¯t benefit Patriarch Crimson Cloud. And if he was, it didn¡¯t make sense to do something inappropriate just in order to earn a tiny bit of face. In the end, all this person had done was pass by without calling out formal greetings.

    <i>So what if he passed through without being very polite? That¡¯s not a big deal.</i>

    Clearing his throat, Crimson Cloud turned back into a blood mist and returned to his mountain.

    In that manner, Xu Qing and the Captain spent a few days flying through the outer rings of the Imperial Region. As they went on their way, they finally started to calm down a bit. In this territory, they were generally safe. If the people they had been dealing with really wanted to cause trouble for them, they wouldn¡¯t do it here. For all intents and purposes, the danger had passed.

    After quite a bit of travel, they caught sight of their target destination. It was a huge, ancient teleportation portal, and it led to the inner rings of the Imperial Region.

    Because of being located in a strategic location, it was guarded year-round. There were currently about 1,000,000 troops stationed there, and they were overseen by a heavenly marquis with a Void Returning cultivation base.

    As Xu Qing and the Captain approached, vicious wills rose from the area. The heavenly marquis on duty flew out and hovered in midair looking very serious.

    When he saw who was flying in his direction, his expression flickered, and his heart surged with emotion.

    ¡°Xu Qing!¡±

    This heavenly marquis had once sat with Xu Qing in the imperial pce during court. He recognized Xu Qing, and had heard about how he became the Grand Darkheaven. Though that startling news hade several days ago, he still felt very excited. A Grand Darkheaven was the type of majestic person that ordinary individuals could only dream about meeting. Even more importantly, the Firemoons upied such a high level of glory that countless other species could only bow to them in subservience. But most importantly of all, the conflict between humans and the Firemoons had been ended by a single request on his part.

    Power, position, and status like that made him like an unmatchable star to humankind! That wasn¡¯t to mention that he was the lord of an entire region! Although his cultivation base was only in Void Returning, this heavenly marquis had heard that he had fought the number one chosen among the Firemoons, the Smoldering God Sir Firedark. And he had crushed him!

    Because of all of that, this heavenly marquis¡¯s heart was racing. However, he kept his facial expression neutral as he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Well met, Heavenly Marquis Xu!¡±

    Xu Qing and the Captain approached and stopped in midair. Their arrival, thanks to the words spoken by the other heavenly marquis, caused all of the 1,000,000 human cultivators in the area to look over. Although not all of them knew what Xu Qing looked like, they had all heard of Heavenly Marquis Xu. As a result, every single one of them excitedly sped hands respectfully to him.

    Over the past few days, it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that just about everyone in Revered Ancient had heard stories about Xu Qing.

    ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t Heavenly Marquis Wang,¡± Xu Qing said, giving the other heavenly marquis a faint smile. ¡°I¡¯m trying to get to the imperial capital and was hoping to use this teleportation portal.¡±

    Heavenly Marquis Wang immediately nodded his head. ¡°Heavenly Marquis Xu, your return is a momentous event for humankind. All teleportation portals are avable for your use!¡±

    With that, he gave some orders, and his subordinates scurried about as if they were dealing with a heavenly king. In fact, they even treated the Captain with great respect. The Captain enjoyed that quite a bit. As the work went about, countless human cultivators couldn¡¯t help but secretly look over at Xu Qing.

    Soon, the teleportation portal activated. After bowing in farewell to Heavenly Marquis Wang, Xu Qing and the Captain stepped into the teleportation portal. The light of teleportation red, and the two of them vanished. Although they were gone, everyone was still talking about him.

    ¡°That¡¯s the number one chosen of humankind!!¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s young, and he¡¯s got exceptional talent! Hahaha! Hey, once word gets out, maybe I¡¯ll start getting famous too. I¡¯m the one who activated the teleportation portal for Heavenly Marquis Xu!¡±

    Heavenly Marquis Wang looked at the empty teleportation portal and listened to the excited talk spreading among the troops. He sighed in his heart.

    <i>I bet the next time I run into him, he¡¯ll be a heavenly king at the very least!</i>

    1. In chapter 955 of <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>, in the scene which most people believe features Xu Qing, he mentions a Master Deluo, saying that he pursued him for three months, killing millions of his clones in the process. There is not much more information than that in that chapter. As of tranting this chapter, there is very little information about this person, even in uing untranted chapters of BTT. In <i>A World Worth Protecting</i> the name is rendered in MTL style as De Luozi, which is most likely incorrect. When the ¡°zi¡± character is at the end of a two-character name in xianxia/Daoism, it¡¯s almost always a title (that I usually render as Master or Sir). The other two characters ¡°De¡± and ¡°Luo¡± can be interpreted many ways. Usually the first one is something rted to morals or morality. Luo means or sieve, and is a character that appears in ¡°Allheaven¡± from ISSTH and also the term Nobleplexus I coined for this trantion. For the time being I¡¯m going to simply transliterate the name as Deluo. Later on if/when we get further information about what the name means, I mighte up with a trantion for it. ?

 Chapter 928: Green Ox Return (Qing Niu Return)

    Chapter 928: Green Ox Return (Qing Niu Return)

    The Captain and Xu Qing soon appeared in a teleportation portal in the inner ring of the Imperial Region¡­. Simr to the portal Princess Anhai had used when leading Xu Qing and the others from Sea-Sealing County, this particr portal didn¡¯t lead directly into the imperial capital. Before the guard staff at the portal outside the capital could even clearly see who hade through, Xu Qing and the Captain had flown off into the sky.

    Some distance away, they hovered in the air, looking in the direction of the capital. The first thing that they noticed were all the statues lining the capital.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mental state was very differentpared to the first time he hadid eyes on those statues. Sighing inwardly, he looked at the rainbow bridge leading to the imperial pce, and far beyond all that, at Ancient Emperor.

    ¡°Finally here,¡± Xu Qing murmured as he thought back to all the familiar faces he would soon see. He smiled.

    When the Captain noticed Xu Qing¡¯s expression, he shivered with excitement and said, ¡°Say, little Junior Brother, back in that cave, remember what¡¯s-her-face... Yue Dong? Her words made it very clear that she deeply values her sisterly rtionships. Given that we set that Feng fellow free, we¡¯re going to have to be very careful going forward.¡±[1]

    The Captain blinked a few times at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing looked back at him. ¡°You don¡¯t seem very sorry about it.¡±

    The Captain chuckled darkly. ¡°I get the feeling that shrew was just putting on a show for the other shrew, Lan Yao. Lan Yao looked pretty angry. And the whole cave seemed full of the sensation of revenge. HOWEVER! Given my very perceptive eyes, I could tell from the get-go that the shrew Yue Dong is a bad person. Of course, there¡¯s a reason I could sense that.¡±

    The Captain lifted his chin arrogantly. ¡°It¡¯s because of my special constitution. You listen to me, little Ah Qing. From the time I was young until I grew up, and from ancient times until modern, I have been the person to hoodwink others. Cultivators. Gods. It doesn¡¯t matter! I can hoodwink anyone!¡°After you hoodwink people so many times you lose track, you¡¯ll automatically gain some enlightenment of that type of great dao. And thus, I unconsciously developed an immunity to the hoodwinking of others. Anyone who dares to try to pull a fast one on me will be found out instantly! What about you? What clued you in to the fact that something suspicious was going on?¡±

    The Captain was actually extremely curious about this point, and had thought it over quite a bit during their travels. The entire time, he had never been able toe up with a good way to ask about it.

    Xu Qing looked his Eldest Brother straight in the eyes and said, ¡°Thanks to spending so much time with you, Eldest Brother, I¡¯ve also developed a bit of an immunity.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯ve never tried to hoodwink you!¡± the Captain said. Clearing his throat, he decided to change the topic. He smacked his forehead, and a green vine emerged, barely more than a meter long. He opened his mouth, then snapped his teeth shut, chomping the vine in half. He gave one half to Xu Qing. ¡°Take it. Consider it a gift from your Eldest Brother. As bros, we should always split the loot 50/50!¡±

    He looked anxiously at Xu Qing with an expression that indicated he was expecting Xu Qing to act simrly in return.

    Xu Qing chuckled. In reality, he didn¡¯t care if the Captain split the vine with him. There hadn¡¯t been time to discuss it on the way, and now that they were back in human territory, he¡¯d been nning to split up the loot he¡¯d acquired, regardless of what the Captain said or did. For all intents and purposes, there wasn¡¯t any sort of loot whatsoever that the two of them couldn¡¯t split.

    Xu Qing waved his hand, and the air in front of them rippled. Little Shadow appeared, then dutifully spat up arge amount of holy fardark nectar. There was so much that it could definitely have filled a huge cistern.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°Little Ah Qing, although I predicted from the beginning that you were the one who secretly drained the pool, I never could have guessed... that you took so much!!!¡±

    Xu Qing was pleased with the results. Taking out two bottles, he split the holy fardark nectar into two parts, one of which he gave to the Captain. Then he looked at Little Shadow, who was obediently emanating some very cute fluctuations.

    ¡°Eldest Brother, do you have any more of Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh?¡±

    Unfortunately, Xu Qing didn¡¯t have any left, which meant that he was going to have a hard time settling ounts with Little Shadow.

    The Captain was at first stunned, but then he looked at the shadow, smiled, and gave three pieces of flesh to Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing waved his hand. The shadow swelled excitedly as the three chunks of flesh tumbled into its mouth. It swallowed them, then swirled on the ground beneath Xu Qing¡¯s feet looking very happy. A momentter, it opened its mouth and spat out an egg. It was golden and pulsed with a godly resonance.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°There¡¯s another one? That rat must have been an amazing thing to have things like that. I neverid eyes on it personally, but I can sense how extraordinary it is.... That¡¯s especially true considering what we felt after we made our escape.¡± He reached out to grab the egg. ¡°Sadly, I¡¯m not very good at incubating eggs....¡±

    The Captain sighed begrudgingly. That was when Xu Qing suddenly thought of a certain person who he had seen furtively incubating some mutant beasts.

    ¡°Wu Jianwu is good at it,¡± he said.

    The Captain¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s right! He <em>is</em> good at it. I think we should loan these two eggs to Wu Jianwu and let him handle the incubating!¡±

    ¡°Good idea, Captain.¡±

    ¡°Captain?¡± the Captain said. He thought for a moment, then took a deep breath. ¡°I think I¡¯m ready to retire ¡®the Captain.¡¯ Going forward, it¡¯s Erniu. What do you think?¡±

    Xu Qing looked at him. He nodded. [2]

    Erniu also nodded. Then he put away the two eggs and was just about to say something further when glittering light rose up from the distant imperial capital. Pulses of light shot up into the sky, forming auspicious clouds that filled half of the canopy of heaven. Bells tolled from within the capital, deafening and majestic.

    They tolled twelve times! The sound resounded in the ears of everyone in the capital. It was a ceremony that surpassed anything for heavenly kings. Only when humans achieved a great victory, or were performing ancestral sacrifices, would the bells ring in that way. Today, though humankind hadn¡¯t necessarily achieved a great victory, it had at least resolved a big crisis. Furthermore, Xu Qing had amassed great glory. Though he was only one person, he was human, and therefore, that glory spread out to shine on thends of humans as a whole. The bells tolled twelve times for a single person!

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. Erniu¡¯s chest swelled as if he were a dragon or tiger, as if he were the one responsible for everything.

    He quickly projected a message to Xu Qing. <em>¡°Little Junior Brother, release Ninedawns! Put on the Grand Darkheaven Armor! My dream is going to be fulfilled today with your help!¡±</em>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t really have many options. He knew what his Eldest Brother¡¯s dream was, and that was to return triumphantly to humankind as a darkheaven general. Normally speaking, it wasn¡¯t something Xu Qing would ever do. But since his Eldest Brother had asked....

    The Grand Darkheaven Armor formed around him. The Ninedawns skulls howled as ninemps appeared, which began to orbit around him. At the same time, his energy surged, causing wild colors to sh in the sky, and winds to scream.

    Among them were the important government officials of all rankings. There were nobles and other powerful experts, most of whom Xu Qing had seen before. Leading them was a dignified and imposing middle-aged man. He wore a long blue robe embroidered with white clouds, and was tall and burly, making him visually impressive to anyone who could see him. He had stalwart facial features, with eyes like torches that could see through everything, and would elicit feelings of respect in anyone. His prominent nose and thin lips made him seem full of unswerving determination. There was something very domineering about him, almost as if he was someone who had been born a leader.

    This person led the way, flying forward like the wind, but not imparting a sense of calmness. His cultivation base? He was an eight-world Smoldering God! He was the number one heavenly king of humankind, King Firecrusher. He was a legend among humans, even a myth!

    As the number one heavenly king, he was the strongest human expert that there was other than the emperor. He was like a needle in the oceanpared to humankind as a whole, and was like a god to the armed forces.

    As the only human Smoldering God with eight worlds, and during a time when it was not appropriate for the emperor to leave the capital, and considering Grand Emperor Swordsage only had one sword left to use, King Firecrusher was responsible for handling any wartime affairs outside of the capital.

    Although King Firecrusher had also done a lot to maintain the border with the Firemoon Darkheavens, he had also participated in countless other military operations. Whenever humans achieved a great victory, he yed a part in it. And when things got tough, he never shirked his duties. Over the countless years he had lived, he had faced injury and death on too many asions to count. And he had killed enough nonhumans to form a sea of corpses.

    He had essentially spent his entire life in military service! He was now back, and he was the one who personally came out to receive Xu Qing! It went to show how seriously humankind was taking Xu Qing¡¯s return. And it was also a clear sign of how much the emperor and King Firecrusher valued Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing was taken aback. Although he had never seen King Firecrusher, he had heard a lot about him in the capital. From the way everyone treated King Firecrusher, and from his terrifying cultivation base, which seemed to pulse with an aura of endless ughter, it was possible to guess who he was. He was a heavenly king who had lived a life in military service. As such, Xu Qing respected him greatly.

    Without any hesitation, and without paying any further attention to Erniu, Xu Qing put away the Grand Darkheaven Armor and Ninedawns skulls, then hurried forward solemnly. sping hands, he bowed.

    ¡°Well met, King Firecrusher. I am Xu Qing.¡±

    King Firecrusher¡¯s eyes glittered as he looked at Xu Qing. Then, his normally grim face broke out into a smile. ¡°A 30,000-meter pir of light in the assessment of the heart. Given a sword by the Grand Emperor. Lord of the Holytide Region. Respected by Firemoon Darkheavens. You¡¯re the perfect example of what a human chosen should be like!¡±

    King Firecrusherughed heartily, his eyes overflowing with praise that came from the depths of his being. The nobles behind him might have been keeping their true thoughts hidden. But on the outside, they smiled as they respectfully bowed.

    ¡°You tter me, Heavenly King,¡± Xu Qing replied in ordance with etiquette. ¡°I don¡¯t dare to im credit for such things. In fact, without the help of my Eldest Brother here, I would never have seeded.¡±

    King Firecrusher¡¯s gaze flitted to Erniu. ¡°You schemed against three gods. You seized a god domain. You devoured the blood of the broken face. Just what I would expect of Chen Erniu! Maybe the Firemoon Darkheavens didn¡¯t give you any Grand Darkheaven Armor, nor any glory. But on behalf of humankind, I offer you my full respect!¡±

    Erniu¡¯s eyes went wide and his heart started racing. Not only did this King Firecrusher understand him, but also seemed to know what he was truly thinking. <em>This guy is no simpleton. All it took was a single nce for him to realize how amazing I am. That I¡¯m a child of destiny! That I¡¯m outstanding!! He understands how worthy of admiration I am!</em>

    Erniu rushed to bow in thanks.

    King Firecrusherughed again as he looked at Xu Qing and Erniu. Then he lifted his hand in a beckoning gesture.

    ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go home.¡±

    1. The Captain uses the wrong character for one of the characters in Yue Dong¡¯s name, although it¡¯s pronounced the same. I¡¯m honestly not sure if it¡¯s intentional or a typo. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any joke involved, so I¡¯m not sure what to make of it. It seems likely it¡¯s a typo. ?

    2. As I mentioned in a previous trantor note, the author stealthily switched from using ¡®the Captain¡¯ to ¡®Erniu¡¯ without any exnation either within the narrative or in author notes. I¡¯m going to make more of a hard transition. As a result, I added this brief section to create a narrative reason for the switch. It takes ce roughly around this period, and this section seems like the perfect ce for that change. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    In case you missed it, the tReading the Path of Heaven did a great podcast on Beyond the Timescape. You can find the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, above is the YouTube link. It''s more geared toward people who understand xianxia and cultivation novels, so if you know people who are fans of the genre but are not reading the story yet, think about sharing it with them! The hosts'' enthusiasm is contagious!</blockquote>

 Chapter 929: King Skycrusher!

    <h4>Chapter 929: King Skycrusher!</h4>

    Home. It was a word packed with meaning.

    When it came to ¡°going home,¡± Xu Qing remembered Master Seventh saying something like that before. ¡®Home¡¯ generally means the same type of thing to most people, but at the same time, everyone would have their own unique interpretations.

    When Master Seventh said home, he meant Seven Blood Eyes. When King Firecrusher said home, he meant humankind. To Pce Lord Kong, home was Sea-Sealing County.

    As for Xu Qing, his path had taken him from the continent of South Phoenix to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, then to Sea-Sealing County, then to the Holytide Region... and finally to the imperial capital of humankind.

    As time passed, ¡®home¡¯ came to mean different things to him.

    He went from his shack in the slums to Sergeant Thunder¡¯s residence in the scavenger basecamp. He moved on to Seven Blood Eyes, the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County, and now he was a resident in the imperial capital.

    Without even realizing what was happening, Xu Qing had long since ceased to be that kid from long ago. The years hadn¡¯t taken away his good looks. But his life had continued. Thankfully... the timescape hadn¡¯t marched on fruitlessly.

    What was past in the timescape couldn¡¯t be brought back. But the experiences of life were always there, and they became part of memory and part of fate. This process had a name. It was called ¡®growing up.¡¯

    Thirty years. From the time Xu Qing piled up all those corpses in the ruins of that city until now, thirty years had passed. [1]

    King Firecrusher''s words caused Xu Qing to enter something like a daze. In his mind¡¯s eye, he suddenly saw the inside of Ningyan¡¯s mansion. He saw a beautiful woman there, whose memory had long since be a part of him, deep in his heart.

    He remembered the first time he saw her in the middle of the night, like a violet floating down from the canopy of heaven. He would never forget their journey on the Evesting Immortal Profundity River. He could almost hear the familiar melody of <i>Parting with Sorrow</i>. It reminded him of the jianghu, and its tale of a lifetime of sorrow which culminated in a jug of unfiltered rice wine.[2]

    Alone, one drank. Ripples spread through one¡¯s heart.

    Those ripples reflected onto a woman who was on the bank of the river, her arms wrapped around her knees as she murmured, ¡°Maybe there is amp in this world....¡±

    Thatmp had a name. It was the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp, and it had borne witness to the parting of sorrow back in that pitch-ck phoenix pce. Its existence was like a cycle. The past became a vivid image.

    ¡°Home?¡± Xu Qing murmured, smiling. He had grown up. He might have been naive and ignorant in the past, but he was not that way anymore. Thus, he took a deep breath, and with Erniu looking doubtful off to the side, they followed the smiling King Firecrusher toward the imperial capital.

    Auspicious signs were visible in the sky. Flowers covered thendscape. King Firecrusher walked with them, and the host of nobles and officials followed.

    Once inside the capital, they saw hordes ofmoners waiting to catch a glimpse of Xu Qing. When they did, their cheers rose high into the sky. Their adtion came from the depths of their hearts. Themoners were simple and sincere. If they believed someone to be a good person, they wouldn¡¯t hold back their praise and adoration. And any human who managed to establish prestige over nonhumans made them a hero to the people. It led to this spontaneous wee right on the streets.

    Of course, the fact that the nonhumans involved were Firemoon Darkheavens made things even more significant, and that was without even mentioning the Grand Darkheaven situation. To top it all off, the war had ended, thus ensuring that the glory which had been won wasn¡¯t limited to a single person, but became like auspicious clouds that covered everyone.

    The end result was that Xu Qing got a hero¡¯s wee. Destiny aura flowed toward him along with the cheers of the crowd, nourishing his void soil and The Emperor¡¯s Sword.

    There were familiar faces in the crowd. For example, he saw Wu Jianwu, Kong Xianglong, as well as swordsages from Sea-Sealing County. They all nodded in greeting to him. Xu Qing didn¡¯t spot Plumdark, which caused his heart to start beating a bit faster.

    Striding forward, he greeted Wu Jianwu and Kong Xianglong with the wave of a hand.

    Kong Xianglong smiled and hurried toward him. Wu Jianwu didn¡¯t dare to misbehave in such circumstances, so he quickly followed Kong Xianglong¡¯s lead.

    ¡°Congrattions, Region Lord!¡± Kong Xianglong said, his smile turning into a serious expression as he sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to act like that around me, Big Bro Kong,¡± Xu Qing said, smiling as he lifted Kong Xianglong up from his bow.

    Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu opened his mouth to speak, but before any words coulde out, Erniu was there, sliding his arm around Wu Jianwu¡¯s neck and pulling him close.

    ¡°How badly did you miss me, Little Jianjian?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t bother watching to see how Wu Jianwu would react. Focusing on Kong Xianglong, he hesitated for a brief moment and then asked, ¡°How has Ningyan been doingtely? And what about... Arch-Immortal Plumdark?¡±

    An odd expression could be seen in Kong Xianglong¡¯s eyes. ¡°After Ningyan got back, he spent time working hard for the sake of the people. He¡¯s been focused on cultivation, and finally reached the point of breaking out of Nascent Soul and into Spirit Trove. He¡¯s been in seclusion trying to achieve the breakthrough.

    ¡°As for Arch-Immortal Plumdark. Ahem. By the time I got back, the only thing left of her was a message she sent me to pass along to you. She said that if you came back and didn¡¯t ask about her, I was to tell you that she left the capital recently.... And she said that if you did ask about her, I was supposed to tell you... to do your own thing, and that she woulde find you eventually.¡±

    Kong Xianglong studied Xu Qing briefly, then cast down his eyes and said nothing further. Of course, just about all the old-timers from Sea-Sealing County had heard rumors about Xu Qing and Arch-Immortal Plumdark, and his good friend Kong Xianglong was no exception....

    Xu Qing smiled and asked nothing further. Clearing his thoughts, he looked in the direction of the imperial pce.

    Upon entering the city, King Firecrusher had exined to Xu Qing that the emperor wanted to see him immediately. The heavenly marquises, heavenly kings, chief minister, and all the other officials were waiting in the pce for him. Despite the glory and cultivation base progress Xu Qing had achieved, he still couldn¡¯t get a read on the emperor.

    Looking at the rainbow bridge, he spotted the eleven huge sticks of incense. Smoke curled up from them and drifted high into the sky. They were the sticks of crown prince incense!

    When Xu Qing left the capital, all eleven of the sticks of incense had been burning down at roughly the same rate. But now... the stick representing Ningyan wasn¡¯t burning the fastest, but at the same time, was close to being inst ce. No wonder Ningyan had been working so hard on his cultivation.

    There were three sticks that were burning the slowest. One of them represented Fourth Prince, who was subordinate to the imperial preceptor. Another represented Fifth Prince, who was associated with King Firecrusher. The third represented Grand Prince! Those three were roughly equal in terms of the standings.

    Xu Qing studied the incense sticks thoughtfully. Fourth Prince was the apprentice of the imperial prince, and had clearly performed some amazing services. Fifth Prince was serving well in his duties to control the border. As for Grand Prince, he had obviously performed worthy services among the Firemoons.

    Wrapped up in thoughts of what it all meant, Xu Qing followed as King Firecrusher led the way into the pce. Before long, they were in front of the main entrance. The two statues guarding them had their heads bowed reverentially.

    Xu Qing¡¯s gaze pierced through the entrance, past the za, and toward the grand hall that represented the highest element of human will. The moment he did, an imposing gaze emerged from within the hall to look upon Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing bowed his head, sped hands, and bowed in the direction of the hall.

    An instantter, a voice echoed out from the pce. ¡°Heavenly Marquis Xu and Chen Erniu are hereby admitted for an audience with the emperor!¡±

    Every syble uttered by the voice resounded with the echoing might of heaven.

    Xu Qing and Erniu exchanged a nce. Without the slightest hesitation, they entered the imperial pce.

    King Firecrusher smiled faintly as he entered with them. The other nobles who qualified to enter did so, with the rest waiting outside.

    After about ten breaths of time had passed, Xu Qing and the others had walked up the stairs and into the crowded hall.

    Officials were gathered solemnly on either side. Up ahead, on the dais, were the heavenly marquises, and above them, the thrones of the thirty-three heavenly kings! For the most part, all of the marquises and kings were present. Further above them, at the highest spot above the gathered officials, was the Dragon Throne. There, the emperor¡¯s eyes glittered like the sea as he sat there, face expressionless, looking at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing respectfully bowed at the waist.

    Erniu blinked a few times. Thinking about what King Firecrusher had just said, he decided to imitate Xu Qing and bow deeply.

    ¡°Xu Qing,¡± the emperor said coolly, his low voice echoing in the hall. ¡°You were in Firemoon territory for some years. During that time, you could observe Firemoon culture, witness the profundities of Darkheaven practices, and gain enlightenment of the dao of mages. You also encountered their grand steward. What was your impression of him?¡±

    The emperor¡¯s words were followed byplete silence as everyone looked over at Xu Qing.

    Stories about the Firemoons¡¯ three gods had long since spread throughout Revered Ancient. Although many secrets had been maintained, things were a bit different when it came to humans, and they had learned more than others.

    Upon hearing the question, Xu Qing thought about Ninedawns being stabbed in the back. He thought about the grand steward longing for godly ascension, and how the three gods sacrificed the heroic souls of countless Firemoon Darkheavens. And finally he considered the grand steward¡¯s dismal end, and how he chose to sacrifice himself. They were such monumental things that Xu Qing didn¡¯t think it was possible to simply recount his ¡®impressions¡¯ of them.

    After a long moment passed, Xu Qing spoke. ¡°If you can¡¯t control your own life, how can you guide the fate of a species? In the end, such thinking is as <i>unrealistic as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water</i>. One moment you¡¯re on top of everything, the next, you¡¯re dead.¡±

    The emperor said nothing. A moment passed. Then the emperor raised his hand in a signal to the chief minister.

    The chief minister stepped forward. Eyes sparkling, he looked at Xu Qing and loudly announced, ¡°These are the words of Emperor Dark War, who hath epted the Mandate of Heaven and hath been enshrined by immortals. The destiny of humankind hath stirred. Region Lord Xu Qing of the Holytide Region has descended into the mortal world to bring peace to the conflict with the Nightshades, to sweep aside the rebellious nonhumans, and to establish the might and glory of humankind.

    ¡°Due to his propitious aplishments and superior potential, he is hereby awarded with a greater spirit mansion. Furthermore, he is appointed... as King Skycrusher. He is also appointed as the ¡®tutor of imperial princes!¡¯[3]

    When the imperial edict was read out loud, most people in the hall, with only a very few exceptions, were shaken to the core. In fact, it took a lot of willpower on their part to not react visibly.

    Truth be told, Xu Qing¡¯s aplishments were befitting of an appointment to the position of heavenly king. But for him to be given the heavenly king name that had the character ¡®crusher¡¯ in it was monumentally significant. Heavenly kings with the character ¡®crusher¡¯ in their names were considered apex among heavenly kings. In fact, up to this point in the history of humankind, there had only been one such heavenly king.

    That was shocking, let alone the fact that Xu Qing had been appointed as the tutor of imperial princes. It wasn¡¯t necessarily a very high position, but it did give him authority over the children of the imperial house. Going forward, any imperial prince who encountered him would need to bow in greeting. Beyond that, once a crown prince was named, historical custom dictated that the tutor¡¯s meritorious services would lead to him being promoted to ¡®tutor of the crown prince.¡¯ That was a position very simr to that of ¡®mentor of the emperor.¡¯

    Everyone was astonished, including Xu Qing. And yet, the chief minister was not finished with the imperial edict.

    ¡°The righteous patriot Chen Erniu is supremely honorable and upright, with courage and insight far above the masses, talent to span heaven, and martial heroism of extraordinary quality. Therefore, the Creation Mansion has been specially tasked with using profound darher iron, nineheavens ice crystal, and a total of fifteen other spectacr crafting materials to forge him a suit of Grand Zodiacist Armor![4]

    ¡°In humannds, heavenly kings and anyone of lower ranking are required to offer him formal greetings upon meeting.¡±

    Although the reward seemed impressive, the truth was that it didn¡¯t contain any official position. And yet, Erniu¡¯s eyes shone brightly, and he was nearly trembling with excitement. Raising his voice, he said, ¡°Long live the emperor!!¡±

    1. I was tempted to remove this line from the text (as an edit), because I¡¯m fairly certain it¡¯s wrong. In <u>chapter 914</u> we were told it¡¯s the year 2,939. We were introduced to the calendar date in <u>chapter 401</u>, when it was 2931. That¡¯s only 8 years. Although we weren¡¯t given calendar dates before that, we were able to track time via the seasons and other clues, and I really don¡¯t think 22 years passed between <u>chapter 3</u> (when Xu Qing piled up the corpses), and chapter 401. That said, maybe I missed something when ites to the dates. I¡¯ll leave ament in this chapter, please feel free to respond to it if you have further information that I missed. In the end, the author¡¯s intention seems to be for 30 years to have passed. That''s especially true in uing chapters. There are quite a few parts of the story where it''s obvious based on various descriptions that many years are supposed to have passed. So I¡¯ll honor that intention and leave the ¡°thirty years¡± reference in here as he wrote it. ?

    2. Xu Qing first saw Plumdark in <u>chapter 278</u>. They journeyed on the river starting in <u>chapter 297</u>, during which time he learned Parting with Sorrow in <u>chapter 299</u>. ?

    3. The position of ¡®tutor of imperial princes¡¯ was mentioned previously in <u>chapter 796</u>. I will also render it as ¡®imperial tutor¡¯ when appropriate. ?

    4. The armor is more specifically rted to the Big Dipper. However, for reasons which will be made slightly more clearter, I''m coining the term Zodiacist to go along with the armor. ?

 Chapter 930: When the Big Dipper Points to Yi and Bright

    <h4>Chapter 930: When the Big Dipper Points to Yi and Bright</h4>

    Erniu didn¡¯t care about appointed positions as long as his reward in general was good enough. Of course, he was also a swordsage. Though neither King Firecrusher nor the emperor had mentioned that, Erniu didn¡¯t care. As far as he was concerned, prestige trumped all. The reality was that, though he was deeply connected to humankind, he actually didn¡¯t count as being fully human. As for what exact species he was, not even he knew for sure.

    <i>Ai, things were so rough for me in my past lives.</i>

    Sighing proudly, Erniu looked instinctively at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing sensed his gaze and looked back with a smile of congrattions.

    Erniu was very pleased by that. Then he thought about his Grand Zodiacist Armor and got even more excited.

    After exining Erniu¡¯s reward, the chief minister paused for a moment to let everyone digest the information. Then he continued speaking.

    ¡°Humankind has destiny on its side; the Dawning light shook nonhumans in all directions. Then Sea-Sealing County waged war in Holytide, then expanded human territory into the two regions of the Nightshades.¡±

    These words caused the eyes of the gathered officials to glitter with excitement.

    The previous imperial edict had named Xu Qing a heavenly king, and that had been somewhat expected. But as for the words uttered just now... everyone could tell that they were leading to something special.

    Opening words like that couldn¡¯t indicate anything else, and now everyone was guessing what was toe.

    ¡°The war has ended with a formal letter of surrender from the Nightshade Region. What¡¯s more, all subsidiary species of the Firemoons have retreated and ceased hostilities. In a matter of days, an emissary will arrive to discuss a peace treaty tost a thousand years.... What¡¯s more, we¡¯ve sessfully acquired the Moonrite Region as allies.

    ¡°For countless years, humankind has worked toward the goals put in ce by our ancestors. And today... we finally see the light of dawn!

    ¡°As of today, humankind has truly expanded. No longer do we have one region and seven counties. We now have four regions and seven counties!

    ¡°The Imperial Region, Holytide Region, Nightspirit Region, and Nightshade Region!

    ¡°Now we must make sacrifices to our ancestors, provide offerings to the souls of the fallen heroes, and to inform all under heaven of the existence of humankind!

    ¡°These are the words of Emperor Dark War, who hath epted the Mandate of Heaven and hath been enshrined by immortals.

    ¡°In the year 2,939 of this dynasty, humankind will hold the ancestral sacrifices which have not been observed for the past 800 years. They will be held one hundred days from now, when the Big Dipper points to Yi and Bright. At that time, the ancient will be opened, and we will go to the Temple of Heaven. There, the emperor will bear the destiny of our species to once again offer sacrifices to the ancestors!¡±[1]

    As the chief minister¡¯s words rang out, the gathered officials¡¯ hearts started racing.

    Ancestral sacrifices were an extremely important ceremony to humans. In fact, it was essentially the most important formality there was. There was nothing more solemn. And normally speaking, they were only carried out when one emperor died and another took the throne, or humankind in general aplished some heaven-shaking, earth-shattering deed.

    After all, opening up Ancient Emperor required a vast amount of precious resources. Even during the reign of previous emperors, when humankind was considered much stronger, their ancestral sacrifices would attract the attention of other species throughout Revered Ancient.

    At the moment, humans were far from being as strong as they had been in the past. But they were rising to prominence. As a result, it was a given that their ancestral sacrifices would be the focus of many nonhumans. The mere thought of what was toe left everyone in the hall shaken.

    However... as the imperial edict had indicated, humans really had achieved some unheard-of aplishments. To call for ancestral sacrifices... waspletely reasonable and logical.

    Xu Qing was also shaken by what he was hearing, although there was no trace of surprise visible in his eyes. He hade back to the Imperial Region for the official purpose of reporting for duty. But he also had personal matters to deal with!

    And that was Plumdark and her Plumdark Evergreen Lamp! He also wanted to lend Ningyan a helping hand. After all, thatmp... was on Ancient Emperor. Ancient Emperor was humankind¡¯s most profound reserve power. It had a terrifying spell formation on the outside and even more astonishing things on the inside. That was why truly opening it could only coincide with ancestral sacrifices.

    With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing shivered mentally.

    Meanwhile, the chief minister began speaking again. ¡°During these ancestral sacrifices, there are certain individuals who have proven to have integrity and talent. They have selflessly devoted themselves to public interest, and as such, they will be given special glory. They are: Grand Prince Firemoon, who performed meritorious services; Fourth Prince, who earned renown in bloody battle; and Fifth Prince, who loyally defended the border. These three imperial princes performed spectacrly, and therefore, will be allowed to stand with the emperor during the ancestral sacrifices.¡±

    With that, the chief minister turned to face the emperor before bowing deeply.

    The emperor nodded his head but said nothing.

    As per etiquette, the chief minister held his bow for nine breaths of time before straightening up. Then he looked out at the gathered officials with gleaming eyes.

    ¡°Are there any other petitions to be submitted to the court today? If not, then this session is adjourned.¡±

    The officials bowed their heads.

    However, that was when Xu Qing took a step forward and bowed to the emperor.

    ¡°I, Xu Qing, have a petition to submit.¡±

    His words caused all eyes to turn in his direction. The emperor looked at him, his gaze like the sea. The heavenly marquises and heavenly kings were looking at Xu Qing simrly. Even King Firecrusher looked very serious. Considering Xu Qing¡¯s current status and identity, whatever words came out of his mouth couldn¡¯t possibly be trivial.

    Looking very serious, the chief minister said, ¡°King Skycrusher, what petition would you like to submit?¡±

    After a moment of thought, Xu Qing decided not to speak the words aloud. He took out a jade slip, within which he inscribed the details of what he had seen in Fardark County, including the three cultivators from the holynds, their actions, and other pertinent details. The only thing he left out was the information about how the holy fardark nectar was distributed. Then he waved his hand to send the jade slip flying to the chief minister.

    The chief minister scanned the jade slip with divine will. His expression flickered and his eyes went wide. He looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Heavenly King Xu, this report¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s absolutely true,¡± Xu Qing replied in a low voice.

    The chief minister¡¯s reaction, and Xu Qing¡¯s affirmation, caused everyone in the crowd to look on with even more serious expressions than before.

    Only Erniu could possibly guess what Xu Qing had put into the jade slip. Smiling, he went back to fantasizing about what it would be like to parade around in the Grand Zodiacist Armor.

    The chief minister, meanwhile, took a deep breath. Normally speaking, his willpower would prevent him from reacting in this way. But the news Xu Qing had just handed over was far too monumental. People hade from the holynds!

    Without any hesitation, the chief minister sent the jade slip to the emperor. The emperor also scanned it with divine will. He betrayed no reaction via facial expression, but there was something that glimmered deep in his eyes as he sent the jade slip to King Firecrusher. After King Firecrusher studied it, his expression darkened. He passed the slip to the other heavenly kings.

    As the moments ticked by, anticipation built among the congregated officials. After all the heavenly kings had looked at the jade slip, their expressions were as solemn as stone. They did not pass the jade slip down to the heavenly marquises.

    ¡°This matter,¡± the emperor said, ¡°does not need to pass beyond the heavenly kings.¡±

    Of course, everyone was more curious than ever. But the officials had no choice but to bow their heads and continue to wonder what was going on.

    The sky outside suddenly seemed to turn steely and forbidding. A rumble of thunder echoed out, and rain started to fall from the clouds.

    As the sound of gurgling water became louder, Xu Qing stopped thinking about the situation with the holynds. As far as he was concerned, that was something that people more important than himself needed to worry about. He was a mere Void Returning cultivator, and the holynds were too monumental to be of concern to him. What was more, there was something left for him to handle that was far more important than any of the holynds.

    Therefore, he opened his mouth and said, ¡°The main reason I went to Firemoonnds was for the sake of Ningyan. Imperial Prince Ningyan might not have personally aplished much in terms of meritorious service. But whether it¡¯s his morals or his devotion to public interest, he ranks among the best. Since Your Majesty has appointed me as the tutor for imperial princes, I would like to rmend that Ningyan be given the honor of standing with you during the ancestral sacrifices. I hope Your Majesty will approve this humble request.¡±

    Xu Qing bowed at the waist.

    There wasn¡¯t a bit of insincerity in his words. Everyone knew about the rtionship between Xu Qing and Ningyan, so it was no surprise. It only took a moment for the emperor to respond.

    ¡°Approved!¡±

    After the words rang out, the emperor blurred before vanishing into thin air.

    The session of court had been adjourned.

    As everyone left the grand hall, most of the officials smiled, sped hands respectfully to Xu Qing and Erniu, and offered some sincere words. It seemed as if everyone was pleased about what happened with the two of them.

    The reality was that there were plenty of them who weren¡¯t pleased at all. But expressions of goodwill were by far the majority. It was a result of status and human norms. When someone reaches extremely high heights, those who looked up to them generally did so with benevolence. After all, they could end up paying a very high price if they caused conflict. If the rewards had been even greater, maybe things would have been different. Maybe... not everyone would have reacted so pleasantly.

    Xu Qing was aware of all that. <i>That¡¯s just how humans are. We¡¯re the same species, but it¡¯s only because humans are in the spotlight right now that they act so kindly.</i>

    After the imperial guards delivered a greater spirit mansion medallion to Xu Qing, he said his farewells to everyone and then left the imperial pce with Erniu. Bearing oilskin umbres, they walked down the street toward the greater spirit mansion.

    The rainwater turned into threads that spilled down over the edges of the umbres. All heaven and earth was misty because of the rain. There weren¡¯t many pedestrians about. The crowds that had gathered to wee Xu Qing had dispersed thanks to the rain. Therefore, he and Erniu were able to thread their way through whatever people remained on the streets, all while having a casual conversation.

    ¡°And therefore, little Ah Qing, we have to keep working hard! Now¡¯s not the time to fall behind. Trust me, you don¡¯t want to see what humans can be like if that happens.¡± Erniu sped Xu Qing on the shoulder.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. ¡°I¡¯ve seen it already.¡±

    ¡°Right. Forgot about your childhood. You really did see a lot of the ugly side of the world.¡±

    The two of them walked along listening to the rain, looking at the clouds, and enjoying the peace and quiet after everything that happened in Firemoon territory.

    About two hourster they caught sight of the greater spirit mansion that Xu Qing had been given as a reward. It was one of only 108 greater spirit mansions in the imperial capital. At the moment, most were empty and sealed. Only heavenly kings could upy such mansions.

    Every single protective spell formation was astronomically expensive. After all, they were built onto the very spell formation nodes that powered the grand protective spell formation. Because of that, they had much higher levels of spirit energy than surrounding areas. Whether it was the construction materials or the furnishings, they offered the peak of what humankind was capable of providing. Of course, the built-in spell formations were astonishing.

    What was more, each greater spirit mansion had unique aspects. For instance, Xu Qing¡¯s mansion had a spirit pond inside, which would provide a significant boost when working on the fleshly body or ordinary cultivation. Beyond that, spending long periods of time here could nourish the soul. That was why this particr greater spirit mansion was ranked in the top ten among the total 108. It went to show how much the emperor was favoring Xu Qing with the rewards.

    Erniu bid farewell after they reached the entrance of the mansion.

    ¡°I won¡¯t be joining you,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m going to try to track down the old man. I¡¯m curious if he¡¯s still hanging around in the Imperial Region. After all, he got a lot of flesh from the broken face.... As our Master, he can¡¯t hog it all!¡±

    Erniu hadn¡¯t mentioned anything about this on the return trip, but clearly he had been thinking about it. Erniu puffed up his chest and strolled away. Xu Qing watched him go.

    Just before Erniu was about to disappear around the nearest corner, Xu Qing remembered something.

    ¡°Hold on, Eldest Brother!¡±

    Erniu stopped and turned around, a perplexed look on his face.

    Xu Qing, doing his best to not reveal even a scrap of emotion in his facial expression or tone of voice, said, ¡°Do you happen to have any extra hairpins?¡±

    1. Quasi-spoiler here. The line ¡°when the Big Dipper points to Yi and Bright¡± is a dating system from ancient China thatbines the position of some of the stars in the <u>Big Dipper</u> with the <u>Heavenly Stems</u>. The date when ¡°the Big Dipper points to Yi¡± corresponds to the <u>sr term</u> ¡°Clear and Bright,¡± which is when Tomb-Sweeping Festival is held (also known as Clear and Bright Festival). To be clear, I had no idea about this until researching this chapter. Later, the author will outright exin that the specific date is Tomb-Sweeping Festival, which leads me to suspect that most Chinese readers didn¡¯t understand this part. That ancient dating system is notmon, and nowadays seems to only be used in very specific contexts referring to specific dates. The Big Dipper is a big part of Chinese mythology and mysticism, and based on what I can tell, its usage here does not indicate some connection to our real-world constetions. ?

 Chapter 931: A Secret and Intimate Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 931: A Secret and Intimate Meeting</h4>

    ¡°Say what now?¡± Erniu said, lookingpletely taken aback. He really could never have guessed that Xu Qing would yell out to him and then say something like that. However, Erniu was someone who had definitely been around the block, so he recovered quickly. Eyes gleaming, he hurried over to Xu Qing¡¯s side. ¡°I need details, little Ah Qing. Are you nning something big? Aiyaaaa. Howe I feel like I¡¯m more excited about this than you?¡±

    Apparently Erniu had already forgotten all about their Master.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t like Erniu staring at him that way, but he maintained the same facial expression as before. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡±

    Erniu chuckled darkly, then quickly pulled out a collection of roughly a dozen boxes. He offered them all to Xu Qing. ¡°These are very high-quality hairpins. For the most part, they¡¯re all unused. To this day I¡¯m not sure why Big Spritey was so obsessed with things like this. All of them are crafted from exquisite materials, and I¡¯d originally been nning to give them away as gifts. But you can take them. Take them all!¡±

    Erniu¡¯s face glowed with excitement as he looked over Xu Qing¡¯s shoulder at the entrance of his mansion.

    Xu Qing felt a headacheing on as he took the hairpins. ¡°Eldest Brother, do you think it¡¯s possible Master will just leave after hearing we¡¯re back? Maybe he¡¯s going to abscond with all of that Father God flesh.¡±

    Erniu smiled enigmatically. ¡°That won¡¯t work on me, little Ah Qing. Come on, you can¡¯t be so obvious! Talking like that won¡¯t do a thing to me. After all, our Master has true vision!¡±

    Despite his words, Erniu actually felt his stomach rumbling.

    Xu Qing blinked a couple times, then added, ¡°Well, the Creation Mansion has a lot of nice things that they can use to make that Grand Zodiacist Armor. I¡¯m sure many of the materials will be priceless, although I doubt you¡¯ll be able to tell that just by looking at the final product. And even if you can tell, it¡¯ll be hard to reproduce. After all, I doubt the emperor will be giving out any more rewards.

    ¡°If I were you, Eldest Brother, I would keep a close eye on the whole process. This is the first time you¡¯re getting a custom-made suit of armor. Obviously the materials are going to be very important.¡±

    Xu Qing rarely spoke so much at one time.

    In fact, it was a shock to Erniu. He actually hadn¡¯t thought of things in that way, and now that it had been proposed, he started to get a bit nervous.

    Suddenly, light flickered around Xu Qing as his Grand Darkheaven Armor appeared. ¡°You can take this armor with you, Eldest Brother. Use it as a point ofparison. And make sure that the Creation Mansion doesn¡¯t ck off in any way.¡±

    Erniu looked at the amazing Grand Darkheaven Armor, and then thought about his dream. Finally, he looked back at Xu Qing.

    ¡°You little punk,¡± he said. ¡°Ah, whatever.¡±

    Erniu could tell that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t inclined to go with him. At the same time, he had to admit that what Xu Qing said made sense. So he took the Grand Darkheaven Armor, suppressed his doubts, and sped off.[1]

    After confirming that Erniu was really leaving, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Looking away, he turned to his mansion. After a moment passed, he pushed therge red door open. Spirit energy billowed out, causing his hair to stir. He could immediately sense how strong the spirit energy was. He stepped inside.

    The moment he was inside, he activated the spell formation from the inside, cutting himself off from anyone on the outside.

    ***

    As the spell formation fluctuations rolled out, a wriggling blue worm appeared in midair.

    <i>Little Ah Qing is being such a stickler!</i>

    The worm wriggled helplessly. It could sense a faint connection to its clone in Xu Qing¡¯s bag of holding, but the spell formation barrier was too strong for anything else. Sighing, the worm had no choice but to leave.

    ***

    Outside of Ningyan¡¯s official residence, a figure in a plum-colored garment carried a white oilskin umbre out onto the street, then began walking slowly in the direction of Xu Qing¡¯s greater spirit mansion. She was graceful and attractive, and had clearly spent a lot of time on her makeup.... That said, her cheeks were flush, and her expression was a strange mix between nervousness and anticipation.

    The rain fell harder. An incense stick of time passed.

    ***

    As was his custom, Xu Qing inspected the entire greater spirit mansion to make sure it was safe. After the ce was secure he went to the spirit pool and began to think back to everything that happened in Firemoon territory.

    It started with moving mountains. Then there was the Mountain and Sea Region, and after that the god domain. Finally, on the way back, he ran into three cultivators from the holynds. The resulting dog-eat-dog twists and turns had left him feeling exhausted to the core. Now that things had calmed down, he could take advantage of the quiet in his mansion to sit next to the water, enjoy the spirit energy, and allow the warmth emanating from the pool to sink into him.

    ¡°I really need to get some rest,¡± he murmured. ¡°But I also need to visit the Xeno-Immortal School. It¡¯s time to study the legacy jade slips there again.¡±

    After confirming the path he was to follow, he realized that the Xeno-Immortal School had be the foundational element of his cultivation. Therefore he needed to spend some more time seeking enlightenment about it.

    Only bypletely and thoroughly absorbing the legacy of the Xeno-Immortal School could he use that information to <i>push out the old and bring in the new</i>.

    <i>The Xeno-Immortal School is just the beginning of the path. No one has walked that path topletion, so there are no techniques there to master. There are only concepts.... Aftering to aplete understanding of everything, I¡¯ll have to create something new.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly. Truth be told, that was how the path of cultivation usually worked. To a certain extent, the techniques created by people in the past couldn¡¯t be <i>too</i> heaven-defying, otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have survived through time.

    If you wanted to go past a certain point, you had to do it on your own. If your cultivation base was too low, such acts of creation would require the help of others. A good example was how Master Seventh helped Xu Qing create his techniques.

    Now that Xu Qing had stepped into Void Returning, then at least on a theoretical level, he qualified to create his own techniques. That said, the difficulty level would be high. After all, creating techniques required both destined opportunities and enlightenment.

    <i>Thankfully, I have the holy fardark nectar!</i>

    Xu Qing made a grasping gesture, and a small white bottle came to appear over his palm. The holy fardark nectar was apparently an extremely rare and precious material. If it weren¡¯t, there wouldn¡¯t have been three holynds cultivators vying over it. It was particrly helpful and effective when seeking enlightenment.

    When Xu Qing thought back to the events in that cave, he remembered that the mere smell of the nectar had caused his more than 100 void lineaments to stir.

    <i>Might as well see how it works.</i>

    He opened the bottle, and a fragrant aroma wafted out, filling the mansion. The water in the pool in front of him began to bubble.

    Moved, Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then put a drop of it into the pool.

    When the drop fell into the water, it seethed. A dense mist spread out, causing the spirit levels in the pool to rise dramatically. Although the aroma grew slightly less strong as a result, it still filled the entire area.

    After some more thought, Xu Qing shed his clothing, revealing his muscr body. After stepping into the pool, he settled into a cross-legged position.

    Boundless spirit energy poured from the pool into Xu Qing. Within it was the drop of holy fardark nectar. Though it was diluted, some became part of the spirit water, and some became part of the spirit energy. As a result, he was able to absorb it. Afortable sensation spread through his body and soul. He rxed, slowly, until eventually all of his sensations became nk.

    Time passed. Two hourster, he slowly opened his eyes. He looked dazed at first, but his eyes quickly became clear. Checking his void soil, he saw that the void lineaments there seemed a bit clearer than before.

    <i>Although I didn¡¯t gain anything specific, that feeling from just now....</i>

    Thinking about the sensation of emptiness, he cleared his mind and prepared to go back to seeking enlightenment. But then his expression flickered, and he sent his divine will into the mansion¡¯s spell formation. In that manner, he caught sight of a beautiful woman approaching.

    She had an oilskin umbre in one hand, but that didn¡¯t obscure her elegant good looks. Given the water on the ground, it was as if each step she took caused lotuses to bloom. In short, she was lithe and elegant as she reached the entrance of the mansion. Her graceful bearing and charm were enough to entrance anyone who saw her.

    When Xu Qing scanned her with divine will, she lifted the umbre slightly, revealing a scintiting smile.

    ¡°Why haven¡¯t you opened the door yet?¡± she asked in a soft voice.

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart started to race. Getting out of the water, he quickly put some clothes on. Unsure of exactly what emotions he was experiencing, he finally waved his hand.

    The door cracked open.

    A graceful hand pushed it fully open. Then she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. The spell formation activated again.

    ***

    A blue worm appeared out of nowhere in midair. Erniu hadn¡¯t left after all...

    ¡°This ispletely outrageous!¡± Erniu grumbled begrudgingly.

    ***

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t hear him. He was focused on the beautiful woman in the plum colored gown who had appeared in front of him. He was already so nervous he felt like he couldn¡¯t move.

    ¡°Well met, Arch-Immortal Plumdark,¡± he said in a somewhat hoarse voice.

    She stood in front of the spirit pool, looking almost like she existed in a painting. Her charming eyes and beautiful smile were things no one could forget once they saw them. She looked at Xu Qing, then at the spirit pool. Her phoenix-like eyes glittered strangely for a moment, then went back to normal.

    Smiling, she asked, ¡°Howeying eyes on me makes you act so unnatural? Don¡¯t tell me that in the years Heavenly King Xu spent apart from me among the Firemoon Darkheavens, he encountered other, more beautiful and entrancing scenery on his path of life?¡±

    As she spoke, she reached the edge of the water. After taking off her shoes, she sat down at the edge and slipped her feet into the spirit water. When she swished her feet back and forth gently, ripples spread out over the surface of the pond.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure what to say, so he said nothing. After all, he was normally quiet to begin with, let alone in a situation like this. Finally, he waved his right hand to produce a dozen boxes that he put down in front of her.

    Plumdark smiled mysteriously. The wave of her hand caused all the boxes to open, revealing the hairpins within....

    Xu Qing had given her the entire set of hairpins from Erniu.

    Even Plumdark was surprised by the sight. ¡°So many! And they¡¯re all for me?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded.

    She blinked a few times, looking at him with soft, cherry-red lips that fluttered ever so slightly, making her seem even more flirtatious than before. ¡°Who gives so many hairpins as a gift?¡±

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure how to answer, so he didn¡¯t.

    Sheughed softly as she collected up the hairpins. Leaving one out in the open, she looked back at Xu Qing. ¡°Xu Qing, you dummy. Aren¡¯t you going to ask why I came here?¡±

    Xu Qing felt like he was shaking as he instinctively said, ¡°Arch... Arch-Immortal Plumdark, why did youe here?¡±

    ¡°To take a bath,¡± she answered softly.

    As the mist built up, it became harder and harder to see Plumdark, until only her flushed cheeks were visible.

    1. This is what I was referring to earlier, although even in this chapter it''s not totally clear. The two types of armor are supposed to be simr in that they are armor named after a specific person and their title. The Grand Darkheaven Armor is for the Grand Darkheaven, while the Grand Zodiacist Armor is for the Grand Zodiacist. ?

 Chapter 932: When the Young General First Rides the Horse

    <h4>Chapter 932: When the Young General First Rides the Horse</h4>

    The flirtatious voice merged with the mist, bing charming and gentle as it spread.

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t stop his heart from racing, and he was so incredibly nervous that his mouth had gone dry. Yet he couldn¡¯t help but stare at Plumdark.

    Within the swirling mist, her beautiful face was like a blooming flower. Her eyes, glittering, bright, and deep, seemed to contain myriads and myriads of worlds. They revealed the bashfulness and purity of a young woman, but at the same time, the profundity and wisdom of a maturedy. It made her both mysterious and fascinating. She blinked slowly, and it was like the bright glimmer of starlight on a dark night.

    No one could look away from something like that. And in the process of looking, no one could miss the pale skin in the hazy atmosphere, or the faint flush on her cheeks. It was something delicate and tempting, and the mist only served to entuate the effect.

    In fact, as the mist grew thicker... Xu Qing¡¯s head felt like it was going to explode.

    Plumdark slowly entered the water, leaving her plum-colored garment behind at the edge of the pool. Her unclothed form was as fair as snow, but also slightly flushed. Just when it seemed she might disappear in the mist, she turned around and smiled. It was just like the famous line of poetry: <i>¡°If she but turned her head and smiled, there were cast a hundred spells; and the powder and paint of the Six Pces faded into nothing.¡±</i> [1]

    Her tender beauty and charming good looks were such that they could topple the heart of just about anyone. Then she spoke.

    ¡°Are you going to join me, Xu Qing...?¡±

    She only spoke a few words, and in very rare fashion, her voice actually trembled. Then the mist wrapped her up, and she disappeared. Xu Qing also disappeared.

    The water rippled. The mist seethed. No one knew what happened within, as no one could see.

    The night passed.

    ***

    Outside of the mansion, the blue worm wriggled valiantly in an attempt to break inside and cause a ruckus. All such attempts failed. The only option was to begrudgingly wait.

    That waitsted... seven days.

    ***

    After Plumdark entered Xu Qing¡¯s greater spirit mansion, seven days passed in which no one emerged. At dawn on the eighth day, the mansion¡¯srge door slowly opened, and Plumdark walked out in her long gown.

    She looked like a blooming orchid. The sun shone down onto her, illuminating legs as exquisite as porcin. Her skin was as pure as the waters of a flowing spring, and she seemed both refreshed and rxed. Seven days before, her long, ck hair had flowed down around her like a waterfall. But now it was coiled on top of her head and secured in ce with a golden phoenix hairpin.

    Of course, that revealed some of her exquisite neckline. When the morning breeze blew, the pearls in the hairpin clinked against each other. She really looked like an immortal beauty descended into thends of mortals. Some of the flush was still visible on her face, and the flirtatious look in her eyes hadn¡¯t disappeared. All of it made her look even more beautiful than before.

    As the door opened, she looked back at Xu Qing and spoke in a heavenly voice. ¡°So, we have a deal?¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Xu Qing replied. Taking a deep breath, he nodded.

    Plumdark smiled radiantly, then turned to leave. However, she only managed to take a few steps when she suddenly seemed ufortable. And yet her cheeks flushed even more deeply....

    Xu Qing appeared to be in somewhat of a daze as he watched her leave.

    Before he could start considering what happened during the past seven days, Erniu raced in. And he wasn¡¯t alone. He had Wu Jianwu with him.

    ¡°Oh! Little Ah Qing! What a coincidence to see you here! It¡¯s a good thing you provided me with that reminder a while back. I went to the Creation Mansion and kept an eye on them for seven days and seven nights. I didn¡¯t take one step away, and as a result, they didn¡¯t have any chances to skimp on the job.¡±

    Wu Jianwu looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated. Not wanting to cause any trouble, he just kept his mouth shut.

    Xu Qing turned to look calmly at Erniu. The dazed look in his eyes was gone.

    ¡°It really is a coincidence, Eldest Brother.¡±

    Erniu blinked a few times, then quickly looked Xu Qing up and down. Seeming very curious, he even walked a few circles around Xu Qing, his eyes glittering as he clucked his tongue. From what he could tell, Xu Qing looked calm, but his skin was unusually flushed....

    ¡°Something strange is going on, little Ah Qing. Something about you seems different.¡± Erniu smiled enigmatically. ¡°What¡¯s more, I¡¯m fairly certain I spotted someone leaving your mansion just now.... Heh heh.¡±

    Xu Qing cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak.

    Before he could, Wu Jianwu, whose spirits seemed to have lifted, suddenly said, <i>¡°When the young general first rides the horse, only heaven knows how long he¡¯llst in battle; it seems he ran dry after seven days, but who knows how often he rested during that time!¡±</i>

    The moment after the words left his mouth, a wild wind suddenly swept through the area, picking him up and sending him flying off into the distance.

    Xu Qing let out a cold harrumph.

    Erniu cleared his throat. Seeing that Xu Qing felt somewhat embarrassed, he decided to help out.

    ¡°Ridiculous! That Wu Jianwu was just asking for a beating!¡± Raising his voice, he yelled, ¡°Hey, Wu Jianwu. Remember to get back as quickly as possible!¡±

    Then Erniu looked around Xu Qing¡¯s mansion.

    Although Xu Qing couldn¡¯t do much when it came to his Eldest Brother, he had long since learned how to clean up after himself. Looking even more calm than before he asked, ¡°Did you find Master?¡±

    The mention of their Master caused Erniu¡¯s mood to suddenly shift. Gritting his teeth angrily, he said, ¡°Don¡¯t even mention Master. The old man ran off!! You were right all along. A few days ago, I used some special methods to track him down. Unfortunately, by the time I found him, the old brat was long gone. He¡¯s obviously nning on hogging all the loot!

    ¡°Since when does a Master act like this, huh? It¡¯s outrageous! I¡¯m definitely going to demand an exnation. In fact, I already thought of what to do next. Soon enough, you and I are going to take a trip back. As the dignified Eldest Brother, I¡¯ll summon Second Sib and Third Sib, and the four of us will finally confront Master!

    ¡°If he refuses to split the loot with us, then we¡¯ll all refuse to be his apprentices anymore. Let¡¯s see how the old man likes being all alone!¡±

    Erniu spoke in an astonishinglymanding and proud voice, as if he had truly decided on a course of action.

    Xu Qing blinked a few times, then quietly said, ¡°Is it really a good idea to¡ª¡±

    ¡°If he wants to make us mad, he can¡¯t me us for wanting to get even!¡± Erniu snorted coldly. ¡°I¡¯ve already nned everything out. When the timees, we just have to stay united!¡± [2]

    By this point, the two of them had walked out of the mansion and sat down in the front veranda. Erniu was clearly brooding over the situation with their Master, and it wasn¡¯t until Wu Jianwu returned a short timeter that he managed to divert his attention to something else. Wu Jianwu¡¯s face was swollen and bruised, but he was behaving well. [3]

    He feared Xu Qing most, and after Xu Qing, Erniu. Earlier, he had let his mouth get the better of him and spouted some poetry without thinking. After that, Xu Qing taught him a lesson. Though he was actually feeling quite irritated, he didn¡¯t let it show, and acted very obedient. Sitting down in front of Xu Qing and Erniu, he kept his mouth shut tight.

    ¡°Little Jianjian,¡± Erniu said in a serious tone, ¡°I really have to thank you for what you agreed to do a few days ago. Don¡¯t worry. I, Chen Erniu, always do things in a fair and equitable manner. Your assistance will not be in vain! How about this? After the eggs hatch, you can keep the shells!¡±

    With that, Erniu took out his egg and ced it down in front of Wu Jianwu. Xu Qing expressionlessly took out his egg.

    Although Wu Jianwu waspletely confident in being able to hatch the eggs, the reality was that the situation was a bit embarrassing. Earlier, he¡¯d had no choice but to agree to Erniu¡¯s offer, but now that he was looking at the eggs in person, he felt hesitant.

    Seeing that, Erniu smacked his shoulder. ¡°Believe me, these two eggs are anything but ordinary. Th¨¥y¡¯re the children of a god! Th¨¥ir eggs are not made from ordinary eggshells! They¡¯re <i>god </i>shells! Most importantly, you already have experience incubating gods, so this will give you unheard-of experience for raising future pets.

    ¡°I know you have ambition. But those random pets of yours can¡¯t have anything more than an Imperial Sovereign bloodline. Think about it. What if you could simply wave your hand and produce, not the bloodline of an Imperial Sovereign, but rather, some actual, full-grown god pets! Now that would be impressive!

    ¡°At that time, if you want some relics of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, what species in Revered Ancient would possibly dare to refuse your request?¡±

    It was hard to say which of Erniu¡¯s arguments pushed Wu Jianwu over the edge. But by the end, his eyes shone with determination. Gritting his teeth, he agreed. Xu Qing nodded, and Wu Jianwu took the eggs and sped off.

    After Wu Jianwu was a good distance away, his eyes started shining.

    <i>God pets....</i>

    He struggled to control his breathing as a sense of determination rose up within him. If his Master from years ago had been present, he would definitely have had very mixed emotions. The reality was that... years ago in Seven Blood Eyes, Wu Jianwu had started out as a top chosen from the First Peak. But after acquiring a certain item, his dao had changed. And he hadpletely changed as well.

    After Wu Jianwu left the greater spirit mansion, Erniu smacked the top of his head, causing a green vine to snake out. As it swirled in the area, it seemed intelligent.

    ¡°This little baby is a true treasure, little Ah Qing. You should really fuse with the one you have. If we raise them to maturity, heh heh... we¡¯ll bepletely ferocious.¡±

    Xu Qing looked at the vine and could sense the strange power in it. He nodded. Waving his hand, he produced his own vine.

    After some thought, he decided not to devour it. Instead, he pierced his skin and put a drop of blood onto the vine. The vine absorbed it, glittered, then shot into the wound. Soul fluctuations rolled out.

    A momentter, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly went on guard, and Little Shadow shivered.

    Erniu licked his lips. ¡°Back in that cave, I got those random puppet parts. They¡¯re all broken, but they still have some impressive fluctuations. After a lot of thought, I realized they¡¯re still valuable. If we could only figure out how to put all the pieces back together, we might be able to make a full mantis... and that would be a very impressive weapon.¡±

    Erniu waved his hand and a host of spare parts flew out. Together with Xu Qing, he started studying them.

    ***

    Meanwhile, the teleportation portal outside the Imperial Region activated, and a group of figures appeared there.

    The surrounding human cultivators looked on seriously, and Heavenly Marquis Wang seemed fully on guard.

    The cultivators who had just teleported in had been at war with humankind not very long ago. They were a subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. They were Whitemarshes and Saias! Both species looked very different from humans, which made them stand out. All of them were scowling; clearly, none of them were happy with how the war ended.

    However, there was nothing else they could do but carry out this mission, which was to sign a treaty with humankind.

    Traveling with them was a Firemoon Darkheaven cultivator whose scowl was even deeper. He was Fan Shishuang! He looked irritated and felt even more irritated. But there was nothing he could do. He was acting as the inspectionsmissioner for the Firemoons, and hade along with these two species to bear witness to the ceasefire agreement.

    <i>I heard Xu Qing is back already. Why did I get such an unlucky assignment!</i>

    1. The poetry herees from a famous poem by Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi. There is an entire <u>Wikipedia page about the poem</u>. As I¡¯ve mentioned before, if I¡¯m able to use existing trantions of poems, I do. If you want to read a trantion of the poem (from which I took the quote in this chapter), <u>you can go here</u>. ?

    2. When Erniu talks about ¡°getting even,¡± he uses a riff on an idiom here that makes no sense if tranted directly. Literally, it trantes as ¡°if he does something on the first of the month, he can¡¯t me us for doing something on the fifteenth of the month.¡± The exnation behind the idiom is frankly tooplicated for me to put here. In this context, the meaning, as I think I¡¯ve conveyed in the trantion, is that one person doing something will lead to another person doing something in response, presumably out of anger or for revenge. ?

    3. What I¡¯m rendering as ¡®veranda¡¯ is literally the ¡®front hall¡¯ of a building. Normally speaking, such locations do not have chairs or other seating locations, so I imagine they¡¯re sitting on the steps. That said, the narrative is not very clear. Here are a few <u>results from an image search</u> that show this part of a building. ?

 Chapter 933: Immortal Cleansing

    <h4>Chapter 933: Immortal Cleansing</h4>

    Time passed. Eventually, a month went by.

    During that time, the imperial capital bustled with more noise and excitement than ever before. Although it wasn¡¯t urate to say that literally every person had a smile on their face, there was no doubt that most people were very stirred up. There was less illegal activity in the marketces, and more peace, order, and kindness than there had been among humans in hundreds of years.

    There were four reasons.

    The first reason was Xu Qing¡¯s glorious return. Back when themoners spontaneously weed him with loud cheering, it wasrgely due to that glory. When he was appointed as a heavenly king, themotion grew even more intense. As the saying goes, <i>fame follows merit</i>.

    Humans had been under immense pressure for many years. Although the Dawning Suns allowed everyone to hold their heads high, most people still felt depressed deep in their hearts. A decline of tens of thousands of years was not something that even Dawning Suns could get rid of easily.

    After all, there were some very powerful nonhumans out there, and everyone from cultivators to mortals knew that. Humans, whether in terms of fleshly body or innate abilities, were simply not on par. Thetter was especially noteworthy.

    For some reason, the vast majority of human chosen didn¡¯t have any sort of innate ability, unless they acquired them via destined opportunity. But that was different from being born with such abilities. It was almost as if modern humans just didn¡¯t have any sort of inherent divine abilities. However, the historical record made it clear that in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, humans absolutely did have an inborn innate ability.

    It was called... the Spirit Ancestor Transformation. Nowadays, that innate ability didn¡¯t seem to be anywhere in the human bloodline.

    Because of that, Xu Qing¡¯s rise to prominence was like a wave of heat that sted through humankind. In the final analysis, humankind... needed a hero. Xu Qing came along at the right time and in the right circumstances, and made his debut to the entire species.

    As far as the second reason for the mor of excitement in the imperial capital, it was because of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ subsidiary species, the Whitemarshes and the Saias.

    The previous month, those two species sent high-level representatives to humankind to finalize a 1,000-year peace treaty. Things like that had happened many times in the era of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, and it ultimately led to humans conquering all of Revered Ancient.

    But after Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left, humans steadily fell into decline. Every treaty they entered was as the passive party. But this time it was different. In the imperial capital, cultivators and mortals alike felt the glory of their species, and were starting to get increasingly excited. The students in the Imperial University were high-spirited and full of mettle. Morale surged.

    The third reason for the atmosphere in the capital was that the Clear and Bright sr term wasing. Ancestral sacrifices were amon thing among all humans, and households everywhere were making preparations for their own sacrificial offerings. [1]

    The imperial edict rted to the ancestral sacrifices was actually the fourth reason for the atmosphere.

    The emperor would carry out ancestral sacrifices!

    The ancestor of the emperor was Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, who lived during humankind¡¯s peak level of glory. ording to custom, it was only when something momentous happened that the emperor would carry out such ancestral sacrifices. Unless something momentous happened, a minor sacrifice would be offered every 1,000 years, and a major sacrifice would be offered every 10,000 years. The most recent sacrifice was 800 years in the past.

    But now... the imperial edict stated directly why sacrifices were being offered 200 years early. The news spread very rapidly through the Imperial Region, the seven other counties controlled by humans, as well as the regions of Holytide, Nightspirit, and Nightshade. The news even reached the Moonrite Region. The date was set at 100 days after the edict was issued. When ¡°the Big Dipper points to Yi and Bright¡± was mentioned in the imperial edict, it referred to Clear and Bright. A month had already passed, which left only two more months. Humans everywhere were making preparations.

    As for Xu Qing, he only left his greater spirit mansion once during the month that passed. The ce he visited was one of the Five Greater Celestial Divisions, specifically, the Swordsage Division. It was the headquarters for all swordsages in humannds, and it wasn¡¯t Xu Qing¡¯s first time visiting it. But everything about this visit was differentpared to thest time. All of the swordsages presented themselves in ranks, and though their expressions were solemn, all looked at Xu Qing with excitement in their eyes.

    Every glorious thing Xu Qing had aplished was rted to one of his identities. He was a swordsage. And he was the bearer of the sword for this generation. He bore The Emperor¡¯s Sword as he walked the world of mortals. That identity gave him a level of prestige among swordsages that was difficult to describe.

    There were eight deputy sword lords, and all looked very solemn as they bowed to Xu Qing. As for the grand sword lord, he also served as a heavenly king. He was King Cloudwar, and he was present to personally receive Xu Qing.

    ¡°King Skycrusher,¡± he said with a faint smile, sping hands respectfully to Xu Qing.

    Considering that Xu Qing was dealing with a heavenly king, there was no way he would bex in etiquette. He also sped hands respectfully, then exined why he hade. He wanted to pay respects to Grand Emperor Swordsage. It was a request that no one in the entire Imperial Region would befortable making, with the exception of the emperor himself. And if anyone had made that request other than the emperor, King Cloudwar would have rejected it. He wouldn¡¯t even have made an exception for King Firecrusher or the imperial preceptor. But Xu Qing was different. He was essentially the sessor of the Grand Emperor, and because of that, was even more closely connected to him than the Swordsage Division itself.

    As a result, King Cloudwar only considered the request for a brief moment before nodding. Then he personally escorted Xu Qing into the restricted area in the Swordsage Division. King Cloudwar stopped outside of the private chamber, and stood there with a solemn expression. Not even he dared to enter.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath and walked in. He had questions that he wanted to ask the Grand Emperor. Whether it was about his thoughts on what was toe on Ancient Emperor, or the transformations to the Emperor¡¯s Sword and the emperor¡¯s corpse he had experienced, all were unclear areas to him.

    There weren¡¯t many people in the imperial capital that Xu Qing truly trusted. But his Eldest Brother couldn¡¯t provide the answers he needed, and his Master wasn¡¯t around. Therefore, Xu Qing came up with the idea of asking Grand Emperor Swordsage for help.

    A few dayster, Xu Qing left with a thoughtful look on his face. He had some answers.

    When it came to the first question, the Grand Emperor had remained silent for an entire day before giving Xu Qing a very simple answer.

    ¡°Wait and see.¡±

    In response to the second question, the Grand Emperor thought for two days before saying, ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s just fate. If so, then the sword... will naturally respond to your heart and mind. Remember what I told you the first time we met? Never change.¡±

    As Xu Qing thought about what the Grand Emperor had told him, he found sadness rising within him. He had seen clearly that Grand Emperor Swordsage was in a much weaker state than before. Although it wasn¡¯t quite appropriate to say that he was like an oilmp about to run out of fuel, he was getting closer to that stage.

    <i>The Grand Emperor... is struggling to hold on....</i>

    When Xu Qing thought about Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s life, he sighed. sping hands, he bowed deeply to the private chamber.

    After returning to his greater spirit mansion, he didn¡¯t step out again for the rest of the month.

    At first, Erniu came often to visit. He and Xu Qing researched the sageheaven god vines as well as the scattered parts of the puppets. Sadly, they never achieved any sess. Erniu wasn¡¯t ready to give up, though. He took the puppet parts away in the hopes of finding someone who could help put them back together. At the same time, he didn¡¯t give up on trying to find Master Seventh.

    In the days that followed, Xu Qing spent most of his time in the spirit pool, seeking enlightenment of the godly authority in his void soil. The holy fardark nectar was very helpful during the process. It was simr to the help that a Foundation Establishment cultivator could give to a Qi Condensation cultivator seeking enlightenment. It was deeply profound.

    Every time Xu Qing sought enlightenment, he was able topletely clear his mind. And he was able to proceed from the most basic foundation of Void Returning into a much stabler and higher ce. Progress in this level varied from person to person. Some people might seed in ten years, others might need decades. With the holy fardark nectar, Xu Qing¡¯s progress was rapid.

    As he worked on his cultivation in the spirit pool, and as he absorbed more and more of the holy fardark nectar, he would asionally find himself in a very profound and mysterious state. It always seemed to happen by ident.

    The sixth time it urred, Xu Qing started to realize what was going on.

    <i>I should go to the Xeno-Immortal School and go through their legacy jade slips again.</i>

    He had the feeling that strange state was definitely worth further study. And studying had been something Xu Qing enjoyed from a young age. It didn¡¯t matter that his cultivation had reached such a high level; he still had that same thirst for knowledge.

    The ancestral sacrifices were still sixty days away when Xu Qing left his greater spirit mansion and went to the Imperial University. Soon, he walked into the Xeno-Immortal School. His arrival caused a big uproar in the university in general, and an even bigger uproar in the Xeno-Immortal School.

    All of the students looked at him worshipfully as the schoolmaster received him formally. This schoolmaster was the very one who had used Xu Qing¡¯s Xeno-Immortal soul thread as his own foundation. Uponying eyes on Xu Qing, his expression was one of pure astonishment. Last month when Xu Qing returned, the schoolmaster had spotted him through the crowd. At that time, Xu Qing seemed like a spectacr, unsheathed de. But this time when heid eyes on Xu Qing, he couldn¡¯t assess his cultivation base at all. In fact, he had no fluctuations whatsoever, to the point where he seemed mortal.

    In fact, as Xu Qing approached, the schoolmaster could just barely detect a fragrant aromaing from him.

    <i>Immortal cleansing??</i>

    The schoolmaster inhaled sharply. There was something else he could sense. Though Xu Qing still seemed mortal, there was also something indescribably profound and mysterious about him, something that seemed like it was part of his soul. The schoolmaster had no way of knowing the cause. As a matter of fact, Xu Qing didn¡¯t really understand it either. The reality was that holy fardark nectar did more than just help with enlightenment.

    Using it for long periods of time would result in imperceptible changes and indescribable benefits. But fardark nectar was rare even years in the past, much less now. And even more relevant... this was fardark nectar that had percted for tens of thousands of years to be holy fardark nectar!

    Furthermore... other people who had the chance to use holy fardark nectar wouldn¡¯t use as much as Xu Qing had used. They would treat it like a precious treasure, and would asionally use a single drop when seeking enlightenment. No one would do what Xu Qing had done, which was add a drop to his spirit pool every day, and then bathe in it. Behavior like that would obviously increase the rate in which the holy fardark nectar¡¯s marvelous qualities were revealed.

    And thus, as the schoolmaster stood there with his heart pounding, Xu Qing climbed to the top floor of the Xeno-Immortal School. That was where all of the school of thought¡¯s ancient records were housed. Though some were copied inscriptions, many were originals.

    Xu Qing went into seclusion as he studied the records. He went through each jade slip in great detail. His goal was to gainplete and utter mastery of all the Xeno-Immortal School legacies and histories.

    <i>That¡¯s the only way I¡¯ll be able to create something new....</i>

    After some thought, he took out some holy fardark nectar. It wasn¡¯t the original nectar, but rather a spirit elixir he had created by mixing it with spirit water. After taking a drink, his mind became very clear, and he immersed himself in studying.

    In a sh, a month passed.

    At that point, an imperial edict was sent to Xu Qing, by means of an imperial guard who raced into the Xeno-Immortal School in the imperial university. That was when Xu Qing¡¯s session of seclusion ended.

    1. ¡¯Clear and Bright¡¯ (transliterated Qingming) corresponds to a time period in spring. There has already been one volume of this novel with that name, specifically, Volume 6. Clear and Bright is also associated with Qingming Festival (also called Tomb-Sweeping Festival, Pure Brightness Festival, or you could also call it Clear and Bright Festival). It¡¯s a traditional festival in which families visit the tombs of their deceased family members to clean the tombs and offer sacrifices to the ancestors. <u>Sr terms link</u>. <u>Qingming/Tomb Sweeping Festival info</u>. Culturally speaking, it makes perfect sense that the aforementioned ancestral sacrifices would take ce during this time period, and in fact, on the specific festival day historically associated with such sacrifices. ?

 Chapter 934: Making a Scene as Ordered

    <h4>Chapter 934: Making a Scene as Ordered</h4>

    The imperial edict had to do with the emissaries from the Whitemarshes and Saias. Simply put, things weren¡¯t going smoothly with the peace treaty. In fact, on a few asions, it seemed like war might break out again. Although that couldn¡¯t actually happen, the two species were being surly and unreasonable, and were making a lot of ridiculous demands. If the deadlock continued, it would ovep with the ancestral sacrifices, and that would mar the event.

    Therefore... someone at court suggested that Xu Qing be sent to resolve the situation. A consensus was reached among the officials, and the result was an imperial edict.

    Although Xu Qing was in seclusion doing research, he couldn¡¯t refuse toply with an imperial edict. That was especially true considering that he was uniquely qualified to resolve the situation. After considering the matter, he left the Xeno-Immortal School, emerged from the Imperial University, and headed in the direction of the Foreign Affairs Pavilion, which was where the negotiations were taking ce.

    He set afortable pace, and as he walked, took time to consider the gains he had made in thest month. He had already thoroughly studied all of the legacies and ancient records of the Xeno-Immortal School. He had found some diagrams that depicted godly transformations. He had alsoe across plenty of information about his predecessors¡¯ experiences and aspirations regarding the school of thought. All those things were like nutrients that he had soaked up.

    Gradually, a vague idea had begun to form in his mind, little more than an outline. That outline rted to a way to create the perfect technique for himself while using Xeno-Immortal methods in Void Returning. That act of creation was going to be very difficult, especially considering that it would contain so many thoughts and concepts from the Xeno-Immortal School. In fact, all of those things would make the level of difficulty even higher.

    That said, Xu Qing wasn¡¯t in a hurry. At least he had a direction to pursue.

    <i>It needs to be perfect. I have to do more tests before I can make a final decision....</i>

    As he considered the matter and walked along, he asionally lifted his hands and made calctions based on his thought process. As he did, something gruish began to happen.

    His entire person would asionally blur, asionally be clear, and asionally superimpose over itself. Sometimes he would disappear altogether, only to reappear shortly after.

    What was more, the extremely profound and mysterious aspect of him that the Xeno-Immortal schoolmaster had noticed started growing more prominent. In addition, threads of magicalws would form in the air around him and circle around him.

    That said, he didn¡¯t try to take hold of any of them. He just sensed them and observed them. Time passed as he slowly proceeded on his way.

    ***

    Intense negotiations had been going on in the Foreign Affairs Pavilion for more than a month.

    Inside the pavilion, the humans sat on the left side, with Grand Prince in the lead position. He was ultimately responsible for signing the agreements and negotiating the terms. He was being assisted by personnel from the Foreign Affairs Division. There was even a heavenly king present to supervise.

    That heavenly king happened to be a woman. She was the very same King Wildmist that was rumored to have an intimate rtionship with Sixth Prince. King Wildmist sat there with her eyes closed, looking very calm. But everyone else had grim expressions on their faces, and some even looked angry as they stared at the nonhuman cultivators across from them.

    On the right side of the pavilion were the Whitemarshes and the Saias. There were a few dozen of them in total. All had cold, arrogant expressions on their faces. Though none of them said anything antagonistic, they pulsed with killing intent and deste auras.

    Each species had one representative who emanated a particrly amazing aura. Those two were the heavenly kings who hade with their respective species. They were Smoldering Gods, but none had arge collection of worlds. More along the lines of one or two. Both of them were looking derisively at King Wildmist. The representatives who had been chosen to speak for their species were all sharp-tongued. Thanks to them, there hadn¡¯t been any progress with the treaty, and in fact, they just kept making increasingly aggressive demands.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to even discuss that. We Whitemarshes are never going to return the territories we captured!¡±

    ¡°Captives? We Saias will only return one of your captives for each that you return to us. However many are left over, we¡¯ll sell them back to you at a price we deem fit. How could you high and mighty humans be so stingy when ites to buying your own people back?¡±

    ¡°You know, we¡¯re entering into this thousand-year treaty all to deepen the friendship between our species. Therefore, when ites to the interchange of secret magics, it¡¯s only natural that we demand to exchange them one-for-one!¡±

    All of the demands caused the humans to look very grim. Grand Prince took a few breaths, then responded to them as if he were a Firemoon. Eyes shing like lightning, he said, ¡°If your two species do not return every square meter of the territories you captured, we humans will be happy to deliver a Dawning Sun to your doorstep. Want to test us out? We¡¯re happy to y things out all the way to the end!

    ¡°As for buying back the captives, you have ridiculous prices, and yet... we can agree to that!

    ¡°However, when ites to the exchange of secret magics, we humans have a very long history. We once ruled all of Revered Ancient! Do you really think that we would just exchange our secret magics one-for-one with some random subsidiary species of the Firemoon Darkheavens? Don¡¯t make meugh! The exchange rate will be thirty-for-one!¡±

    When the Whitemarsh and Saia emissaries heard Grand Prince¡¯s response, they bristled with anger, and their eyes shone with cold light. As far as they were concerned, it was already a big favor for them to simply stop the war. And in the end, they weren¡¯t really happy about that. It was only because of their respect for the Firemoons that they had agreed.

    Given their attitude, it was no wonder the negotiations were going poorly, and their arrogant attitude was really to be expected. In fact, as far as they could tell, if it hadn¡¯t been for the Firemoons stopping them, the war would have continued, and though they might not havepletely devoured humankind, all it would have taken was a few more subsidiary species to join as allies, and they would definitely have inflicted a brutal defeat on the humans. That was why the two nonhuman heavenly kings present had eyes full of killing intent.

    At the same time, King Wildmist wasn¡¯t backing down an inch. She was a woman, but she had a very violent personality. In fact, she was more bloodthirsty than most men. Especially noteworthy was the fact that when she led troops into battle against nonhumans, she never came back with prisoners. That was because whatever enemy troops she captured were summarily executed.

    In order to achieve victory, she had massacred entire cities of nonhumans, and wouldn¡¯t even hesitate to sacrifice her own troops. In fact, she wouldn¡¯t hesitate to sacrifice herself if that was the price that needed to be paid. Because of that, when nonhumans heard the name of King Wildmist, they thought of madness and blood.

    ¡°Let¡¯s cut the crap,¡± King Wildmist said. ¡°We¡¯ve been torturing ourselves for a month here. I don¡¯t have that kind of time on my hands. Go ahead and send out the orders to start the war up again. I didn¡¯t get my fill of ughter during the fighting.¡±

    Her hoarse voice seemed to fill the entire hall with blood and death. The heavenly kings from the Whitemarshes and Saias surged with battle spirit as they rose to their feet.

    Seeing that things had devolved to this point yet again caused Grand Prince¡¯s head to ache. It had already happened five times during the past month. Over and over again, things seemed like they would explode. Grand Prince knew that resuming the war wasn¡¯t an option, but he was still worried about the remote possibility of it somehow happening. After all, no one could be 100% certain of how things would turn out.

    That was especially true considering that the supervisor from the Firemoons hadn¡¯t shown his face other than on the first day. If he came to the negotiations, things wouldn¡¯t end up like this. He represented the Firemoon Darkheavens, and the ceasefire orders hade from all three of the Firemoon stewards.

    <i>Could it be that Fan Shishuang is actually hiding from Xu Qing?</i> Grand Prince wasn¡¯t sure of all the details, but he was starting to get suspicious about Fan Shishuang¡¯s actions. As both sides seemed about to explode, Grand Prince could only steel himself and prepare tounch into the same conciliatory speech that he had used in the past.

    But right then... a calm voice drifted in from outside the Foreign Affairs Pavilion.

    ¡°What¡¯s this racket about?¡±

    The voice caused the humans¡¯ expressions to brighten. Grand Prince shot to his feet and hurried outside as quickly as if he had been going to receive the emperor.

    The Whitemarsh and Saia cultivators reacted in the opposite manner. Their faces all fell. The two heavenly kings jumped up and hurried toward the door, their hearts pounding.

    Everyone watched as a figure entered wearing a green jerkin, with long hair flowing down his back. He had extremely beautiful facial features, making him look like a wandering immortal. As the evening sun shone down, creating a halo around him, he looked calm and tranquil. He was none other than Xu Qing.

    Grand Prince hurried up to him and bowed in the manner of a student offering respect to someone in the elder generation. ¡°Greetings, Imperial Tutor.¡±

    The other human cultivators all bowed.

    ¡°Greetings, King Skycrusher,¡± King Wildmist said, reigning in her killing intent. Keeping her facepletely expressionless, she nodded in Xu Qing¡¯s direction.

    Xu Qing nodded in response, then looked around the hall. His gaze eventually reached the nonhumans on the right side.

    The Whitemarsh and Saia cultivators said nothing for a few breaths of time. Then, as Xu Qing¡¯s gaze turned colder and colder, they stepped out from behind their tables and knelt to bow. It didn¡¯t matter the level of cultivation base involved. Even the heavenly kings bowed! Though they balked internally, there was no level of irritation or resistance that could prevent them from bowing. That was because this was the Grand Darkheaven!

    ¡°Greetings, Grand Darkheaven!¡±

    Subsidiary species were required to bow in the presence of the Grand Darkheaven! Even the two heavenly kings had toply. As long as they cared about their species, they had to respect the Firemoon Darkheavens, and follow their rules. Breaking the rules was grounds for execution.

    When the humans saw this happening, they were struck to the core with shock. Although they knew how impressive the Grand Darkheaven was, to see it y out in person waspletely different. As of this moment, how could they not be astonished by Xu Qing?

    Even King Wildmist was moved, and looked at him with shining eyes.

    Xu Qing looked over the cultivators from the Firemoon subsidiary species, and then focused on one in particr.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Fan Shishuang?¡± he asked. Thanks to the imperial edict, he was well aware of who the Firemoons had sent to represent them.

    ¡°Grand Darkheaven, I believe King Fan is... in seclusion.¡± The Whitemarsh that Xu Qing had fixed his gaze on was currently trembling inwardly. He had personally witnessed the battle between Xu Qing and Sir Firedark, and thus knew exactly how terrifying Xu Qing was.

    Declining toment any further on the situation, Xu Qing walked over to the human side of the hall and sat down in the corner.

    ¡°Carry on,¡± he said.

    With that, Xu Qing closed his eyes and focused on how to create something new with his understanding of Xeno-Immortal School methods. It almost looked as if he wasn¡¯t interested at all in the negotiations. But of course, his mere presence made his true attitude very clear.

 Chapter 935: King Wildmist Harbors Hidden Intentions

    <h4>Chapter 935: King Wildmist Harbors Hidden Intentions</h4>

    After Xu Qing sat down, there wasn¡¯t a sound to be heard in the entire hall. About a dozen breaths of time passed.

    Eventually, the Whitemarsh and Saia representatives got back to their feet and returned to their table. Their attitudes were now the opposite of before. They seemed to be astonished by Xu Qing, but at the same time hate and fear him. Of course, thetter two emotions were the most prevalent.

    There were a few of the representatives who had personally witnessed the ughters he carried out in the Mountain and Sea Region during the second round of the Great Hunt. Back then, if it weren¡¯t for Xu Qing killing Master Stillwinter, none of them would have had any chance of making it out of the situation alive. It was really only by chance that they actually survived.[1]

    When you added in everything else Xu Qing had done among the Firemoon Darkheavens, you could say that he had crushed an entire generation of cultivators. To a certain extent, it was correct to say that the Firemoon side of the room understood Xu Qing better than the human side.

    But the real nail in the coffin was the fight with Sir Firedark. Before that fight, there were still some among the Firemoons who weren¡¯t convinced that the rumors about Xu Qing were true. That fight ended such suspicions. The Whitemarshes and Saias knew all of that, and it was bolstered by what they had picked up on from Fan Shishuang. Fan Shishuang was obviously hiding from Xu Qing.... Therefore, it was very distressing to the Whitemarshes and Saias to have Xu Qing just sitting there.

    Obviously, the humans felt the opposite. Every single human cultivator present felt very excited. And that was especially true when they realized that the previously aggressive and overbearing nonhumans across from them had changed their attitude.

    Grand Prince was no exception. He was already sighing with relief in his heart. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he outright revered Xu Qing, he would never have personally gone to the emperor to suggest calling him in. If anything, he wished he hadn¡¯t waited so long to rmend the imperial tutor for the job. Now that he had some of his courage back, he stuck his jaw out and looked across the room. He didn¡¯t speak.

    <i>I should let them stew for a bit. Once the pressure has really ratcheted up, and the negotiations are about to end for the day, that will be the best point to start talking.</i>

    Having reached the conclusion that this was definitely the best idea, Grand Prince respectfully walked over to Xu Qing and poured him a cup of tea. Then he sat down next to him, looking very much like a student sitting in the presence of his teacher. Truth be told, he <i>was </i>a student. Because Xu Qing was the tutor for imperial princes, that meant he was their teacher. All imperial princes and princesses were required to defer to him.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at Grand Prince.

    Grand Prince bowed his head.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. However, based on his experiences, he could tell what Grand Prince was thinking. Xu Qing picked up the tea and took a drink.

    About an hour passed.... The people on the human side were obviously not fools. All of them could tell that the tables had turned. And all of them knew the best way to take advantage of that reversal. All of them kept their gazes down and didn¡¯t say a single thing.

    King Wildmist was just meditating.

    The Whitemarshes and Saias felt the pressure mounting until they were screaming inside. They knew what was going on, and they knew that they weren¡¯t in the position to simply ignore the developments.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mere presence caused the pressure to increase with every moment that passed.

    About two hourster, the Whitemarsh heavenly king sighed.

    At that point, Grand Prince decided that the time was just about right. Looking at the nonhuman representatives, he said, ¡°Your two species will have half a month after the treaty is signed to return all the territory you took. All of it needs to be in perfect condition. Any damage inflicted on thendscape or resources plundered must be reversed.

    ¡°I already agreed to your offer to sell human captives back to us. We won¡¯t be going back on that point. As for the exchange of secret magics, it will be as I said before. Thirty-for-one. If you agree to these terms, we can sign the agreement today and be done with this matter. It¡¯s already been a month, after all.¡±

    The Whitemarshes and Saias sighed inwardly. The reality was that because orders had been given by the Firemoons, the war <i>couldn¡¯t</i> go on. However, based on their understanding of the Firemoons, they also knew that they wouldn¡¯t be stopped from trying to extract as much benefit from the humans in the ceasefire negotiations. If they failed to extract any benefit, they wouldn¡¯t be able to me anyone. It was a delicate affair to bnce, but also very important. As of right now... they could tell they wouldn¡¯t be getting any benefits at all.

    Xu Qing was the Grand Darkheaven, and Fan Shishuang was obviously scared of him. If they kept dragging things out, then eventually Fan Shishuang would want to leave, and they might end up getting a worse deal than they already had. After all, in the past few days, Fan Shishuang had been urging them to hurry up.

    With such thoughts in mind, the Whitemarsh and Saia representatives exchanged nces. Then they gritted their teeth, stood, and sped hands to Xu Qing.

    ¡°Fine. We agree!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re ready to sign right now!¡±

    Grand Prince exulted in his heart that things were going so smoothly. So did the other human cultivators. And thus, they got down to work finalizing the details of the treaty.

    Xu Qing just sat there with his eyes closed, contemting matters and seeking enlightenment.

    After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, they signed the agreement. Then the Whitemarshes and Saias bowed to Xu Qing and hurried away.

    At that point, Xu Qing opened his eyes and politely declined the invitations from the other humans to join them in celebration.

    Just as he was about to leave the Foreign Affairs Pavilion, King Wildmist suddenly stepped forward.

    ¡°Please wait a moment, King Skycrusher.¡±

    Xu Qing turned to look at her, the only female cultivator among the heavenly kings. ¡°How can I help you, King Wildmist?¡±

    ¡°King Skycrusher, I¡¯m going to be leaving the imperial capital after the ancestral sacrifices. I¡¯ll be stationed at the border of Soulwolf Skydemonnds. I¡¯d like to invite you toe with me, King Skycrusher. You can settle down there for a while....¡±

    Xu Qing frowned. Her words sounded like an invitation, yet it wasing out of nowhere. Also, considering King Wildmist¡¯s reputation, there was no way he could agree to such an invitation.

    ¡°With my weak cultivation base,¡± he said calmly, ¡°there seems little point in going there. Furthermore, I have other matters to attend to.¡±

    It was a polite refusal. And yet, King Wildmist seemed topletely ignore his refusal, and just kept talking. ¡°The Soulwolf Skydemons aren¡¯t a very strong species, but they have a lot of resources that will be helpful in humankind¡¯s rise to prominence. My n is to provoke them into attacking us so that we can send troops into theirnds. King Skycrusher, you are both a heavenly king of humankind and the Grand Darkheaven. I don¡¯t need your strength. I need you to use your status as the Grand Darkheaven.¡±

    King Wildmist''s words were as unyielding as before. Apparently, she had already made arrangements for Xu Qing before even talking to him.

    Xu Qing had dealt with quite a few Smoldering Gods through the years, but it was his first time encountering someone like King Wildmist. That said, he didn¡¯t feel the need to pay any attention to her. He turned to leave.

    But then, King Wildmist frowned. ¡°King Skycrusher, this matter rtes to the interests of humankind as a whole. Why are you refusing to help? For the moment, stay put so we can talk this over.¡±

    She reached out to grab him. The grasping motion caused magicalws in the area to glitter as a massive restraining force erupted. Behind them, Grand Prince and the others were just making their way out of the hall. When they saw what was happening, their faces fell.

    ¡°King Wildmist, what are you doing?¡± Grand Prince blurted.

    ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything,¡± she replied coolly, her hand continuing to move forward. ¡°I¡¯d just like King Skycrusher to stay and talk things over, that¡¯s all.¡±

    Heaven and earth shook as King Wildmist¡¯s magicalws formed a huge hand. Just when it seemed the hand would reach Xu Qing, a green vine shot out of his palm, moving with blinding speed. A wild, deste will erupted, along with the aura of a starry sky. It became an astonishing might that barreled toward the huge hand of magicalws.

    It was none other than the sageheaven god vine that Xu Qing had absorbed two months ago! After two months of nourishing it, the vine had formed an initial level of battle prowess. It also had other terrifying aspects, such as the fact that when it wasshed out, it could ignore magicalws.

    A boom rang out as the hand shattered to pieces.

    Xu Qing looked coldly at King Wildmist.

    King Wildmist frowned as she looked back at him.

    Grand Prince and the others rushed forward to stand between them. Then Grand Prince looked furiously at King Wildmist.

    ¡°King Wildmist,¡± he said, ¡°you might be a heavenly king, but you just attacked the imperial tutor right in the capital! I have no choice but to report this to my father!¡±

    King Wildmist didn¡¯t say anything in response.

    Xu Qing stood there with narrowed eyes. He could tell there was some deeper meaning to King Wildmist¡¯s actions, but at the moment, he couldn¡¯t figure out what it was. It was impossible to tell what King Wildmist was thinking as she stepped past Grand Prince and rose up into midair.

    ¡°King Skycrusher, I bear you no ill will. I just wanted you to stay behind and talk. And now I¡¯m going to say the same thing again. Stay. I want to talk with you about what I just mentioned a moment ago.¡±

    As the words left her mouth, King Wildmist again waved her hand. Again, her cultivation base surged and more magicalws formed. This time, they made a cloud that resembled a face, which then shot toward Xu Qing.

    As it neared, an astonishing sword will shot up from Xu Qing. The Emperor¡¯s Sword appeared, glittering brightly. It shed the face into two parts which tumbled to the side before copsing into nothing.

    The sword projection didn¡¯t pause for a moment as it continued on toward King Wildmist.

    For the first time, King Wildmist¡¯s facial expression changed.

    ¡°The Emperor¡¯s Sword!!¡±

    She fell back at top speed. Unfortunately, that sword was like a hammer crushing an ice cube. Not only did it not slow down as it neared, it actually sped up.

    Just when it was about to hit, a sigh echoed through the air and King Firecrusher appeared in between Xu Qing and King Wildmist. He had his back to Xu Qing as he used himself to block the sword.

    Xu Qing respected King Firecrusher a lot, so he sighed and waved his hand. The sword vanished, leaving behind nothing but a rushing wind.

    King Firecrusher didn¡¯t turn around. Instead, he looked coldly at King Wildmist. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you really wanted help from King Skycrusher, or if you actually just wanted to use him as bait to win an advantage in the war. Maybe you even have backers who asked you to probe for information. Regardless, King Wildmist, I¡¯m hereby notifying both you and your backers that, if this happens again, I¡¯ll <i>crush</i> you!¡±

    King Wildmist said nothing. She just turned and left.

    Eyes narrowed, King Firecrusher calmly continued, ¡°I said I would crush you next time. But I didn¡¯t say you could leave now without providingpensation. One arm. And you can¡¯t have it back for a hundred years, unless full-scale war breaks out again!¡±

    King Wildmist stopped in midair, reached up her right hand, and then ripped her left arm out of the socket. She threw it down, then disappeared.

    1. Xu Qing killed Master Stillwinter in <u>chapter 873</u>. ?

 Chapter 936: Hidden Currents Flow Again

    Chapter 936: Hidden Currents Flow Again

    Erniu had said that when you reach a certain level of sess, the people you meet all treat you with kindness. Unfortunately... it wasn¡¯t true kindness. In reality, those people were suppressing their true feelings, and not daring to reveal the truth.

    From beginning to end, humankind had never been scintiting and perfect. Whether it was everything Seventh Prince did, or the arrogant King Heaventide, or the various human factions that had somehow managed to survive over the tens of thousands of years.... All had their own way of thinking, and all were out for their own interest. Under normal circumstances it wasn¡¯t umon for humans to cheat each other, fight each other, and struggle for power.[1]

    Only when the emperor stepped in and forced everyone to cooperate did people get along and act united. But the reality was that such unity was only visible when the species was in mortal danger. Either that or... someone like Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity appeared who could put all the factions in line, suppress wickedness and rece it with virtue, and smooth out all theplications. It would also require crushing any who didn¡¯t cooperate!

    But without such special circumstances, the brightness of day would turn into the darkness of night. Distractions, evil intentions, and personal profit would always exist.

    Xu Qing understood that truth, and the scene which had yed out today only deepened that understanding. It wasn¡¯t really important why King Wildmist had done what she did. Keeping his expression calm, Xu Qing turned to King Firecrusher.

    King Firecrusher looked at him and quietly said, ¡°Revered Ancient is cloaked in the darkness of night. You. Me. All living beings. We¡¯re all stuck in that darkness.... Some be mired in it. Others struggle to be free.... And that is because their hearts lead them in the direction of the light.¡±

    Sighing, King Firecrusher turned and walked toward Xu Qing.

    As Xu Qing contemted the words that had just been spoken, King Firecrusher continued speaking.

    ¡°Of course, there¡¯s another possibility. It could also be that King Wildmist chose this moment to assess <em>my</em> attitude....¡±Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered brightly.

    Around then, Grand Prince and the others reached Xu Qing. They looked rmed and angry, especially Grand Prince, who was clearly furious with King Wildmist.

    ¡°Tutor...¡± he began.

    Xu Qing interrupted with the shake of his head. ¡°It has nothing to do with you.¡±

    Xu Qing turned and then vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he was on the street not too far from the Foreign Affairs Pavilion. As he walked along, he thought back to what had just yed out, and also what King Firecrusher had said.

    Before long, he was back at his greater spirit mansion. For the time being, he wasn¡¯t going to worry about the events that just yed out. Instead, he thought back to when he had first arrived in the imperial capital, and some of the things he had unwittingly been dragged into.

    For example, there was the time he was ambushed on the street in the rain. There was the theft of the Dawning Sun. And then there was the case of the God-Merging School in the Imperial University. And of course, who could forget the strange figure he had seen in that room. Xu Qing found himself thinking about all those things.[2]

    <em>The emperor and the imperial preceptor are working on a deal. And at the same time, they¡¯re ying Go.... But there¡¯s a third party in the mix....</em>

    In the past, he himself had been a mere game piece on the board. Even though he had The Emperor¡¯s Sword, as long as he was in the Imperial Region, it would be impossible to escape that game board. Right now, his status and battle prowess only seemed to make him more desirable as a game piece.

    Soon, he was standing outside of his greater spirit mansion. From there, he looked in the direction of the imperial pce. And he could see Ancient Emperor hovering in the night. His eyes glittered.

    <em>I have the feeling all of the hidden currents wille to the surface when the emperor offers the ancestral sacrifices.</em>

    Lightning crashed, sending thunder rumbling out over the city, and stirring the clouds. The sky was changing. [3]

    The clouds seethed as rain started to fall. The rain quickly grew heavy and monotonous.

    Xu Qing pushed the door open, and as he stepped in, a figure rushed toward him through the rain.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on, little Junior Brother? I was just trailing a fellow that looked a lot like Master. I was just about to leave the city when I sensed the fluctuations of your sageheaven god vine. Did something happen?¡±

    Erniu¡¯s arrival caused a smile to appear on Xu Qing¡¯s grim face. After witnessing firsthand theplicated elements of the world, as well as the malice that existed everywhere, it led to a very strange feeling on Xu Qing¡¯s part. To follow that up with a simple and sincere expression of concern from Erniu was really something precious. It didn¡¯t matter that that simplicity and sincerity would only be directed toward a few people. To Xu Qing, it was a blessing to just be one of those people.

    Xu Qing¡¯s smile was one of joy. ¡°It was a small, unimportant matter.¡±

    Erniu gaped at Xu Qing for a moment, then smiled. ¡°Well in that case, I guess there¡¯s nothing to worry about. That said, little Ah Qing, normally speaking <em>I¡¯m </em>the one that takes <em>you </em>on big jobs. And that means that if <em>you¡¯re</em> nning something big, you need to let me know. Otherwise your Eldest Brother is going to get pissed off!¡±

    If nothing else, Erniu had a very, very sharp sense of smell.

    Looking Erniu in the eyes, Xu Qing nodded. Then, he led Erniu into the spirit mansion. Once in the main hall, Erniu started brooding about the person he¡¯d been following.

    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, little Ah Qing, that person resembled the old codger by about seventy percent!¡±

    Erniu had changed the way he referred to Master Seventh. He¡¯d started with Master, then went to old man, then old brat, and finally old codger.

    Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then said, ¡°I¡¯m sure Master has his own things to worry about, Eldest Brother. It¡¯s really not necessary for you to spend all your time looking for him....¡±

    ¡°No way!¡± Erniu said sharply. ¡°If I don¡¯t track down that shifty geezer fast enough, we¡¯re going to start losing out on the flesh and blood of the broken face!¡±

    Xu Qing could tell that Erniu had made his mind up. There wasn¡¯t much to be said. That said, he felt deep down that there was no way their Master would hog all the loot. There had to be some other reason from him to be acting this way.

    After grumbling and cursing for a bit, Erniu finally waved his hand to produce a puppet. It was... extremely ugly. The various pieces had obviously been forced together, and there were many parts that didn¡¯t line up properly. As a result, the puppet just barely resembled a recognizable form.

    Xu Qing looked at it and saw that it would only take a single blow of ordinary Spirit Trove strength to destroy it.

    ¡°It was too hard.¡± Erniu sighed bitterly. ¡°This was the best I could do. If I had known something like this would happen, I would have spent more time in past lives learning puppet arts.

    ¡°However, doing the work made me realize how interesting this puppet is. Very useful too. Remember how well things went for Feng Lintao when he could control the puppets? Giving up just isn¡¯t an option. I definitely have to figure out a way to fix the thingy. I guess I¡¯ll just have to keep asking around about who in the capital is really good with puppet arts.¡±

    Looking at the jury-rigged puppet, Xu Qing thought back to the events of the day. Then he said, ¡°Eldest Brother, I might know someone who can help with puppet arts.¡±

    Erniu immediately looked up.

    ¡°Fan Shishuang,¡± Xu Qing said.

    Erniu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°I vaguely remember him. He was the one who rushed out very dramatically outside of God Mountain, right? The wave of his hand produced a host of puppets that he tried to use to crush you? That¡¯s the crappy Fan Shishuang you¡¯re talking about? He¡¯s obviously skilled with puppets. But we can¡¯t go all the way back to Firemoon Darkheaven territory just to talk to him!¡±[4]

    Erniu¡¯s timetely had been spent on researching puppets, keeping an eye on his Grand Zodiacist Armor, and trying to track down their Master. Considering how cautious Fan Shishuang had been since arriving, it was little wonder that Erniu had no idea he was around.

    Xu Qing smiled. ¡°He¡¯s here in the capital!¡±

    Erniu¡¯s eyes lit up.

    ***

    Elsewhere in the capital, a massive bolt of lightning shed through the dark clouds, providing a brief moment of dramatic illumination. Then came the deafening boom of thunder. The thunder was so loud that it shook the ground and reached the ears of everyone in the capital.

    That included Fan Shishuang. He felt a surge of shock within him, and the drinking vessel in his hand trembled. Given his level of cultivation base and will, it was impossible for him to be so shaken by some simple thunder.

    All of a sudden, the music around him grew louder, and a gentle voice pierced through the buzz of the crowd.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist Fan, I heard that you¡¯re leaving tomorrow. Therefore, I invited my Third Sister here to join our farewell banquet.¡±

    Fan Shishuang looked up. He was currently in arge hall, on either side of which were seated dozens of people. All were human chosen, and based on the introductions from earlier, Fan Shishuang could onlye to the conclusion that they all came from noble houses or important sects. As far as he was concerned, such people weren¡¯t even important enough to talk to. They might as well have been a flock of sparrows.

    Seated next to him was the Third Princess of the humans, whose name was Anhai, as well as Fourth Prince, who was the apprentice of the imperial preceptor. At the most, they were people Fan Shishuang might pay slightly closer attention to. And they also qualified to invite him to drink together.

    Of course, there was another reason he had epted the invitation. His mission had been aplished and he was leaving the next day, so it didn¡¯t seem likely that Xu Qing woulde looking for him to cause trouble. Aftering to humannds, he hadn¡¯t seen anyone or even gone outside. Though he had announced he was going into seclusion to practice meditation, the reality was that he felt like he had lost face. And once word got back to the Firemoon Darkheaven people, he would surely be made fun of. Thus, he chose to make a public appearance on this day.

    Looking at the kind and amiable Fourth Prince smiling at him caused Fan Shishuang to suppress the strange feeling of trepidation he had just experienced. Smiling, he grunted an acknowledgment of Fourth Prince.

    Fourth Prince didn¡¯t find anything unusual about that reaction. He knew full well that this was an echelon cultivator from the Firemoon Darkheavens who had stepped into the Smoldering God level with near-record speed. And of course, he would eventually be an apex expert in that level. In fact, he had recently been named one of the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ heavenly kings. It made sense for someone like that to be proud and arrogant. Fourth Prince looked at Princess Anhai.

    For some unknown reason, she had been spending a lot of time with Fourth Prince recently. Though she wasn¡¯t very pleased with this Firemoon chosen, she kept a smile on her face as she lifted her drinking vessel in a toast.

    Fan Shishuang¡¯s gaze remained neutral as he tilted his drinking vessel in her direction as a response.

    Everyone else present noted what had just happened, and though they didn¡¯t react visibly, the interchange was very noteworthy to them.

    The human chosen sat there, contemting the developments. All of them felt a lot of pressure at that moment. Though they seemed like they were just enjoying the music and dancing, the reality was that everyone single one of them was paying close attention to Fan Shishuang. After all, he was the most important guest.

    1. King Heaventide was mentioned a lot, but the important part featuring him was primarily from chapter 733-. ?

    2. Xu Qing was ambushed in the rain starting in chapter 755. The Dawning Sun theft was in . The God-Merging school situation obviously spanned many chapters, although the resolution started with the dao debate in . The strange figure in the room was actually in the chapter before that, . ?

    3. In this case the description is about the weather change in the sky. However, as you probably know, the character usually tranted as sky can also be tranted as heaven. To talk about heaven changing is a metaphorical way of saying that the government/ruler will change. That doesn¡¯t necessarily mean the author is trying to hint at something here. Maybe he just literally means that the weather is changing. Or is it foreshadowing? There¡¯s really no way to know. I checked thements on this part in Chinese and noticed some readers making the connection to a change in rulership, but others did not seem to interpret it that way. ?

    4. Remember many chapters ago how Erniu switched some of the characters in Tuo Shishan¡¯s name to make fun of him? He does the same thing here, and even inserts the same character for ¡°poop¡± into it. The new characters create a name that sort of means ¡°unparalleled poop.¡± Incidentally, Fan Shishuang and his puppets faced off against Xu Qing in chapter 851. ?

 Chapter 937: Flipping Out at the Mere Mention of Xu Qing

    <h4>Chapter 937: Flipping Out at the Mere Mention of Xu Qing</h4>

    Pipa music filled the hall like a great sea.

    The person ying the pipa was a famous master musician from the capital. She wasn¡¯t very old, and wore a long white gown. She had a semitransparent veil covering her face, which made her seem even more elegant. Her good looks matched the depth of her music. Because of her skill, it was usually only high officials and noble persons that could afford to hire her. Ordinary mortals would likely never hear her music, and no one could convince her otherwise.

    Today, she had been invited by Princess Anhai and Fourth Prince to y here. All it took was a nce for her to determine who the main guest was. Although guests were important, they didn¡¯t affect her very much. Over the years, she hade to realize that most people who listened to her music didn¡¯t understand it. There were few who did. In fact, perhaps there was only one person.

    To most people, she was just useful as background decoration, nothing more. She was well aware of that fact. And thus, she kept her eyes closed and focused on ying her pipa.

    As her delicate hand swept across the strings, soft music flowed out, apparently telling a story from ancient times.

    The music contained deep and profound meaning that could only be described as moving, and was the perfect apaniment to the graceful dancing of the handmaidens in the hall. The onlookers almost looked drunk as a result.

    That was just an act, though. Perhaps on another asion, the people present really would have been slightly drunk. But right now... they were all mentally focused on the position of honor, where Princess Anhai and Fourth Prince were apanying Fan Shishuang.

    Everyone was thinking something different. Some people wanted to curry favor. Some were wondering how to take advantage of the situation. Others were just trying to figure out what was going on behind the scenes. Perspectives differed based on the status and affiliations of the individual.

    Princess Anhai and Fourth Prince were no exception.

    Princess Anhai was pondering how to proceed without making any enemies.

    Fourth Prince had different thoughts. Though nonhumans weren¡¯t allowed to meddle in matters rted to imperial authority, in the end... if he could turn a Firemoon Darkheaven chosen into an ally, then he could at least bring Grand Prince down a notch or two. Grand Prince¡¯s aplishments among the Firemoons had propelled him from a position of rtive obscurity to the point of surpassing all the other imperial princes. In fact, he was one of the three rising stars. As a result, the other imperial princes were now paying much closer attention to him.

    Fan Shishuang could tell what these people were thinking. He had suffered a loss to Xu Qing, and even feared him. But that didn¡¯t mean he was fundamentally inferior. In fact, as a chosen from the Firemoon echelon, he would be the center of attention whether among his own species or others.

    In fact, scenes such as were ying out right now were old hat to him. People were always chasing after him, trying to use him, and trying to curry favor with him. He had long since be used to enjoying the perks provided because of the strength of his species and his own admirable qualities. That was just who he was, and it was part of his dao.

    His dao was that of puppets, and also of all living beings. Therefore, he always tried to read the hearts of people he dealt with. It didn¡¯t matter if they were simple orplex, good or evil. Whatever they were, he could find ways to use that to his benefit. And it would help him continue on the dao of puppets for a long time.

    The major worlds he had created were not as magnificent as those created by Sir Firedark. Nor were they as wondrous as Xu Qing¡¯s. But they were very unique.

    They were puppet worlds. All of the living beings in the world were actually puppets that imitated real life, that yed parts in a script that had long been arranged for them. If he ever reached the level of the nine-world Smoldering God, then his puppets could be created out of nothing. They would be extensions of his life force. At that time, he would use the identity of a creator to be an Imperial Sovereign! That was his dream. His path.

    Although the way to Imperial Sovereign was severed, he had faith that the way could be opened again. And if it was unable to be repaired that way, he would make a new one.

    <i>Godly ascension!</i>

    Fan Shishuang¡¯s eyes narrowed as he ran his index finger along the decorative patterns on the side of his drinking vessel. Inside, he wasughing coldly. All it took was a nce for him to know what the other people present were thinking. It was an ability that had given him a tremendous advantage. In fact, without it, he wouldn¡¯t have survived the incident in which he provoked Xu Qing.

    Tuo Shishan had never treated Xu Qing with hostility. Sir Heavenink was also quick to side with him. But Fan Shishuang and Master Stillwinter.... Thetter had died, but even if he didn¡¯t, there would have been others who reached Smoldering God first and be one of the Firemoons¡¯ heavenly kings.

    <i>But why can¡¯t I get rid of this unsettling feeling...?</i>

    After arriving here among the humans, his first day had been spent discussing matters with the two subsidiary species. Other than that, he spent his entire time in seclusion. This was only the second day he had appeared in public.

    Even as Fan Shishuang pondered the situation, the music suddenly picked up in tempo. It became more impassioned, more prating, as if it contained the rhythm of life itself. Theplicated thoughts of the listeners faded away thanks to the vigorous music. Then, the music slowly faded away, leaving behind only a faint echo.

    For the first time, Fan Shishuang felt moved on an emotional level. He looked over at the young woman who had been ying the pipa.

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Su Yue,¡± she replied softly. Without another word she gave a curtseying bow, then returned to her assigned seat.

    Fourth Prince watched all of this happening with glittering eyes. He suddenly had an idea. Smiling, he raised his drinking vessel in a toast to Fan Shishuang.

    Fan Shishuang¡¯s expression was the same as ever as he took a drink. The banquet got more exciting after that. Many people stood to offer toasts, and there was a buzz of conversation in the air. Fan Shishuang wasn¡¯t paying any attention to that. After all, these so-called chosen were like sparrows, while he was like a mighty eagle.

    <i>I really don¡¯t understand how someone like Xu Qing coulde out of an environment like this!</i>

    Just thinking about Xu Qing made Fan Shishuang feel more depressed, and it caused his uneasy feeling to grow stronger. He still remembered how shaken he had been to personally watch Xu Qing kill Master Stillwinter. Later, in the god domain, he was shaken even more deeply. Then, during the ceremony at God Mountain, he also watched Xu Qing defeat Sir Firedark. Because of all that, Xu Qing had be an insurmountable obstacle to him.

    As he mulled such matters over, thunder boomed in the clouds outside.

    <i>It wouldn¡¯t be suitable to stay here for much longer....</i> The unease within Fan Shishuang was spiking again. Of course, he didn¡¯t dare to reveal his unpleasant feelings to the people who were toasting him, so he kept a smile on his face.

    And yet, there are always people willing to dig for information, or at least, people who feel the need to prove how smart they are. At the moment, one of the young nobles was speaking.

    ¡°King Fan, we humans also got a new heavenly king recently. He¡¯s King Skycrusher, also known as Xu Qing. He¡ª¡±

    The mere mention of Xu Qing¡¯s name caused Fan Shishuang¡¯s heart to leap into his throat. His guard instantly went up.

    Before the young noble could even finish speaking, Fan Shishuang looked up, his eyes zing as he barked, ¡°Shut up!¡±

    His voice boomed in the hall like thunder. The young noble¡¯s face went pale, and he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood as he lurched backward in shock.

    Fan Shishuang was scowling deeply, and his eyes were shining with vignce. He had no desire whatsoever to provoke Xu Qing, and was convinced that the young noble had brought him up on purpose in the hopes that Fan Shishuang would say something disparaging. If word got to Xu Qing, then Fan Shishuang would quickly find himself in a lot of trouble. Convinced he was doing the right thing, Fan Shishuang did his best to hide what he was thinking. Snorting coldly, he stood to leave. He had no intention of staying any longer.

    Everyone else present was surprised in some way. Some were confused, some looked on with glittering eyes, and some were already thinking of how to take advantage of the development.

    Seeing that Fan Shishuang was leaving, Fourth Prince realized he needed to take action. Quickly rising, he opened his mouth to speak.

    However, right then...

    Thunder crashed loudly outside, even as the rain crashed down, two figures stepped into the hall.

    They brought water vapor with them, which spread out around them, making them even more eye-catching. When they saw who hade, all of them reacted with visible surprise.

    Princess Anhai got to her feet. After a moment of hesitation, so did Fourth Prince.

    ¡°Well met, Tutor,¡± they both said.

    The other nobles all reacted simrly, saying, ¡°Well met, King Skycrusher.¡±

    Fan Shishuang stood stock still, neither continuing on his way nor going back to his seat. Inside he was reeling.

    ¡°Hahaha! It looks like those Whitemarshes were right, little Junior Brother. Little Fanfan is right here!¡±

    Of course, the new arrivals were Xu Qing and Erniu. And right now, Erniu looked very pleased. Back in the greater spirit mansion when Xu Qing brought up Fan Shishuang, the two of them immediately went out to look for him. They first went to the Whitemarsh and Saia garrisons, only to be unable to find Fan Shishuang. Thankfully, some friendly questions asked by Xu Qing got the details they needed.

    As Erniu spoke, Xu Qing looked around, ncing at Fourth Prince, giving a nod to Princess Anhai, and then turning grimly to Fan Shishuang.

    ¡°You¡¯reing for a little walk with me, Fan Shishuang.¡±

    All eyes shifted to focus on Fan Shishuang.

    Face was important to Fan Shishuang. However, it was also important to take timing into ount, as well as the person you were dealing with.... And in these circumstances, he wasn¡¯t even capable of considering matters of face. Upon hearing Xu Qing¡¯s words, his expression flickered. Then his heart started pounding as he thought back to the death of Master Stillwinter and the brutal defeat of Sir Firedark. A feeling of shame and humiliation began to fill him.

    Struggling to control his breathing, he said, ¡°Xu Qing, you¡¯re... you¡¯re pushing things too far!! You might be the Grand Darkheaven, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can go out of your way to embarrass me! We don¡¯t have any grudge between us. Furthermore, I don¡¯t have any ulterior motives for this visit to human territory!

    ¡°My presence is just a formality! Furthermore, after I came here I spent my entire time in seclusion! A moment ago someone brought up your name as part of some conspiracy to frame me, but I immediately stopped him from talking!! If you¡¯re going to throw your weight around, Xu Qing, you... you at least need to be reasonable!¡±

    Fan Shishuang felt so humiliated that his words came across as being very sincere.

    Xu Qing listened with a strange look on his face. He could tell that Fan Shishuang was embarrassed. And considering he hade to ask for help, he let his face rx a bit and made sure to speak in a gentle tone.

    ¡°I came looking for you to ask for a favor.¡±

    Fan Shishuang hesitated suspiciously. ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Really,¡± Xu Qing replied with a curt nod. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    He turned and walked out. Erniu nodded eagerly and made sure to look very sincere.

    Fan Shishuang still hesitated. He knew that he didn¡¯t have the right to refuse, though. So despite the fact that he still didn¡¯t believe what Xu Qing just said, he gritted his teeth and walked out of the hall. Along with Xu Qing and Erniu, he disappeared into the rainy night.

    Thunder crashed, lightning fell, and the rain came down harder.

    ***

    In a residence some distance away from that hall, an ancient sigh echoed out into the darkness.

    ¡°Why did <i>he</i> have to show up all of a sudden...?¡±

    The person to reply spoke in a cold, high-pitched voice. ¡°So, are we still going to kill Fan Shishuang? He doesn¡¯t seem to like toe out in public very often. Or should we... kill them both?¡±

    Silence reigned for a short time. Then a third voice spoke, this one as cold as ice. ¡°Xu Qing can¡¯t be touched. Let¡¯s wait until Fan Shishuang is alone again. Then we make our move.¡±

    ¡°But all the arrangements were already made,¡± the high-pitched voice said. ¡°If there are too many dys¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll say it again,¡± the cold voice interrupted with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron. ¡°Don¡¯t touch Xu Qing!¡±

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 938: A Gift From Zi Qing

    Chapter 938: A Gift From Zi Qing

    Xu Qing led the way through the rain, followed by Fan Shishuang, with Erniu in the rear.

    Their positioning made Fan Shishuang nervous. And considering he was in human territory without any backup, his anxiety only continued to mount.

    ***

    After the three of them left, Fourth Prince¡¯s banquet hall waspletely silent. Everyone looked around without saying a word. Of course, that silence was only a foil to the tempests raging in their hearts and minds. They were shocked. Incredulous. And there were many other emotions assailing them.

    They only knew how Xu Qing¡¯s time in Firemoonnds ended. They hadn¡¯t heard about what led up to Xu Qing bing the Grand Darkheaven. They also had no idea what sort of tensions hade to exist between him and the Firemoon chosen.

    What had just yed out gave them some clues. After all, when all was said and done, it wasmon knowledge that Xu Qing had defeated Sir Firedark to secure his spot as the Grand Darkheaven. But clues were just clues, and they could really only guess at what exactly had happened that would make Fan Shishuang afraid of Xu Qing¡¯s mere presence.

    After all, Fan Shishuang was a Smoldering God! He was an amazing chosen from the Firemoon Darkheaven echelon, and he was famous throughout Revered Ancient. Though he had spent almost his entire time with humankind in seclusion, which was slightly suspicious, there also wasn¡¯t anything incredibly unusual about it. As a cultivator who had just stepped into the Smoldering God level, he was in a critical time period, so it actually made sense for him to spend time in meditation.

    What was more, he wasn¡¯t required to take part in the negotiations. He was only there to oversee matters and certify the signed treaty. The fact that he had reacted so quickly to prevent someone from talking about Xu Qing had onlye across as him being displeased in some way. Anyone who didn¡¯t know the full story would probably assume that there was some major conflict between Xu Qing and Fan Shishuang.

    But now... the truth was revealed! The reason Fan Shishuang had been in seclusion the entire time was that he was avoiding Xu Qing!What was more, the displeasure he had revealed when stopping that young noble from talking about Xu Qing was real. The conflict was real. But the truth was that, in his vignce, Fan Shishuang was very sensitive to anything that could cause further friction with Xu Qing. As everyone present reached simr conclusions, they were struck to the core.

    <em>When Xu Qing was with the Firemoon Darkheavens... he must have done some really terrifying things!</em>

    Princess Anhai looked a bit dazed as she thought back to all the times she had interacted with Xu Qing. It began in the Holytide Region at the banquet thrown by Seventh Prince. The next time she encountered him, he was already the region lord of Holytide. She was the one who escorted him into the Imperial Region.... She had witnessed him being summoned by Grand Emperor Swordsage, leading the Xeno-Immortal School to prominence, killing Seventh Prince, and in general, shaking the imperial capital to the core.

    She had previously assumed that Xu Qing had already reached his peak. But then he became the Grand Darkheaven, was appointed as King Skycrusher, and was also named tutor for the imperial princes.... All of that made her feel like all she could do was look up and catch a glimpse of Xu Qing from behind.

    Today, she had yet again witnessed how terrifying Xu Qing was. She and everyone else at the banquet had been careful to act appropriately around Fan Shishuang, and had been nervous in his presence. She could only imagine what kind of fearsome reputation Xu Qing must have won when he was with the Firemoon Darkheavens.

    Fourth Prince¡¯s thoughts were in chaos, and his expression was flickering. However... there was a very strange gleam in his eyes.

    <em>Some people wanted to use me as bait to draw out Fan Shishuang. Master already saw through the whole situation and set everything up for me to seed. But then Xu Qing showed up out of nowhere. I wonder... if he¡¯ll die as well!</em>

    Fourth Prince was already wrapped up in weighing all of the pros and cons.

    There was another woman in the crowd who looked as surprised as everyone else. She was currently looking outside of the hall. She was none other than the famous master musician Su Yue. <em>So, he¡¯s the brother of that certain person, huh...?</em>

    ***

    Xu Qing had no way of noticing what was going on behind him. Before long, he had led Fan Shishuang and Erniu back to his greater spirit mansion. Once inside, he sat down calmly and looked at Fan Shishuang, who was trying his best to look dour and forbidding.

    As for Erniu, he was smiling broadly. ¡°Brother Fan, back when I was in Firemoon Darkheaven territory, I saw how spectacr you are. You really have the highest level of mastery possible when ites to puppets.

    ¡°Given that, I¡¯m certain you won¡¯t disappoint me. After all, if I end up disappointed, then my little Junior Brother will also be disappointed. And if we¡¯re <em>both</em> disappointed, well... then you¡¯ll be disappointed too.¡± Erniu cleared his throat. Before Fan Shishuang could even say anything in response, Erniu quickly took out the jury-rigged puppet and put it down on the ground. ¡°Please, Brother Fan, can you help out with this? Fix it? Do your best... to get it back to its original condition?¡±

    Erniu licked his lips. Xu Qing looked down, his facepletely expressionless.

    Fan Shishuang had been cursing inwardly, but showed no sign of that on his face. Now he could breathe a sigh of relief. As it turned out, they really did want him to do them a favor. There was no other hidden agenda. If he had been dealing with someone else, he might have dragged things out. But right now, he just wanted to leave as quickly as possible, and that meant both this mansion and thesends.

    Therefore, it was without a word that he looked down at the jury-rigged puppet. He waved his hand, and the puppet copsed into a pile of parts. He picked up one of the parts, took a deep breath to calm himself, and started studying it.

    After taking a look, his expression flickered.

    ¡°This is old. Very old. I¡¯d say that, at the very least, it¡¯s been around for tens of thousands of years. It¡¯s infected with corpse energy.... You know, this looks like the workmanship of the Fardarks. They were around in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.

    ¡°Their puppetry involved living sacrifices. They would use blood as food, meridians as connective elements, bones as building materials, and then would use a host of other items to create puppets of flesh and blood.¡±

    Fan Shishuang was really living up to his reputation of being a grandmaster of puppets, as he knew the entire history of the thing almost immediately.

    Erniu let loose sighs of admiration, then followed them up with a loud cheer. Xu Qing made sure to put some praise into his gaze as well.

    Fan Shishuang didn¡¯t react visibly to those expressions of appreciation, but inside he couldn¡¯t help but feel both proud and pleased.

    Erniu blinked a few times. ¡°Brother Fan, you¡¯re absolutely incredible! It seems to me you¡¯re not going to have any trouble getting this puppet back into perfect working order!¡±

    Fan Shishuang coolly replied, ¡°It¡¯s going to be difficult. But as long as you just give me all the materials, I can do it.¡±

    Erniu smiled. ¡°Unfortunately, these are all the materials we have. But given your level of skill, Brother Fan, I¡¯m sure you can make at least seven or eight versions. Er. Never mind. You know what, just keep it to five. That¡¯ll do. Whatever you make beyond that you can just keep as a reward!¡±

    Fan Shishuang was cursing even more vehemently inside. <em>These two damned idiots! Not only do they want me to work for free, but also, I have to provide the materials? This is beyond outrageous!</em>

    ¡°The materials here aren¡¯t even enough to make one puppet. I¡¯m going to need equipment forging materials such as earthlike megacrystals and crimsonsoul iron. Those types of things.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have any of that,¡± Erniu said with a re.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression darkened.

    Gritting his teeth, Fan Shishuang looked at Erniu and then Xu Qing. After a moment he took a deep breath. ¡°Both of you have to promise that, after this, we have apletely clean te!¡±

    When Erniu saw that apromise had been reached, he smiled. ¡°Agreed!¡±

    Xu Qing thought about it and then nodded.

    Fan Shishuang gritted his teeth and waved his hand to summon a host of equipment forging materials. As Xu Qing and Erniu watched, he started rebuilding the puppet.

    ***

    A month passed in short order.

    During that time, Fan Shishuang went above and beyond. As Xu Qing and Erniu watched closely, he slowly put all the puppet pieces back together and made sure they operated smoothly. He used a lot of equipment forging materials.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say much, but Erniu offered a lot of encouraging words and expressions of praise.

    Although Fan Shishuang started to get annoyed with all that, it did result in him using more and more materials. In the end, he even took out some of the flesh, blood, and souls of various vicious beasts he had killed. By adding those elements into the puppet parts, he was able to make them very agile and lifelike.

    On the final day, he performed an incantation gesture to finish the job. There were now two gigantic puppets d in ck armor standing in front of them. Both puppets emanated cold auras and terrifying pressure. Surprisingly, they were actually stronger than the versions Xu Qing had fought in the cave.

    ¡°That¡¯s the Smoldering God fleshly body level!!¡± Erniu said, looking visibly moved.

    Truth be told, puppets like these were unheard of in humannds. In fact, even in all Erniu¡¯s past lives, he didn¡¯t remember seeing anything like them.

    ¡°It¡¯s my first time ever making puppets of this caliber,¡± Fan Shishuang said. The reality was that even he felt a bit jealous of these puppets. Being a puppet grandmaster, he knew better than anyone how valuable they were.

    <em>Unfortunately, with these two watching me like a hawk, there¡¯s nothing I can do.... I had to use a lot of my valuable materials to push the puppets to this level. But in the end... the spare parts they provided had already been ensorcelled, and were very valuable. Whatever cultivator made these puppets originally was, at the very least, a Smoldering God, and maybe even an Imperial Sovereign.... Only someone like that could craft Smoldering God puppets. Without more spare parts... it won¡¯t be possible to make a third.</em>

    Fan Shishuang sighed inwardly and stowed any greedy thoughts. Standing, he looked coldly at Xu Qing and Erniu.

    ¡°Can I go now?¡±

    Erniu hurriedly got to his feet and offered some more words of praise.

    Xu Qing also shed a smile. ¡°Fellow Daoist Fan, you truly are amazing!¡±

    Fan Shishuang betrayed no change in facial expression. However, inside he actually felt pleased with how Xu Qing and Erniu were treating him. A bit of excitement red within him, only to be overwhelmed by grief. Actually, he had experienced a lot of mood changes like this in the past month. Right now, all he wanted to do was leave, so without another word, he flew out of Xu Qing¡¯s mansion and headed back to his garrison.

    The two subsidiary species had long since left the imperial capital....

    Naturally, Erniu and Xu Qing each took one puppet. Erniu left looking very pleased. He nned to study the puppet further, as he had specifically asked Fan Shishuang to add some tracking functions to it.

    After leaving Xu Qing, Erniu grinned and licked his lips. <em>I¡¯m definitely going to find you, you old codger!</em>

    In that manner, time passed.

    Soon, there were only two days left until the ancestral sacrifices.

    Around that time, Xu Qing, who was in the spirit pool in his mansion, opened his eyes and looked outside.

    Someone had delivered a wooden box. It was waiting at the front door. The person delivering it was a boy.

    ¡°I¡¯m here on orders from the imperial preceptor to give you this item,¡± he said. With that, the boy bowed and left.

    Shortly after, the box crumbled to pieces, revealing what was inside.

    It was a cloth doll that wasn¡¯t the work of a cultivator. Rather, it was from the mortal world. From the look of it, it had been ripped apart into many pieces, then put back together. Its facial expression made it seem like it was crying.<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    In the title of this chapter, you can see that I¡¯ve introduced the name Zi Qing. This is the transliteration of the Chinese that I¡¯ve been rendering ¡°Violet and Cyan.¡± I will continue to use ¡°Violet and Cyan¡± both as part of the full title and the name of the kingdom. However, in uing chapters, it sometimes uses those characters on their own as the name of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Not only will transliterating it as a name make the reading a lot smoother, but also, it is a good visual reminder that these two individuals have the same character ¡°Qing¡± in their name. In the case of the name of the kingdom and the associated title, I render it as ¡°cyan.¡± That character could also be rendered as Green, such as I did with the Green Spirit Pharmacy. I don¡¯t want to get into the weeds by providing a long exnation for why I¡¯ve chosen to render these various terms and characters this way. Suffice it to say, I put a lot of thought into it, although some of it is also intuition and guesswork, as when I coined all of these terms, none of theseter chapters had been written. From the very beginning, and even now, it¡¯s not really clear whether the name of the kingdom preceded the character¡¯s name, or in contrast, was named after him. The way it treats ¡°Zi Qing¡± or ¡°Violet and Cyan¡± did not initially sound like a name to me. To sum this all up: there is a certain point in some uing chapters in which the crown prince will be referred to simply as Zi Qing, and I figured now was as good a point as any to introduce the concept.</blockquote>

 Chapter 939: A Holy Ceremony

    <h4>Chapter 939: A Holy Ceremony</h4>

    Seeing the cloth doll didn¡¯t provoke any change to Xu Qing¡¯s facial expression. But inside, he was assailed by waves of astonishment, because... he recognized it.

    Back when he was a child in Peerless City, his big brother gave it to him as a birthday present. Later, catastrophe struck. Being only six or seven years old, Xu Qing had clutched the doll to him as he wept in the blood rain, crying out for daddy, mommy, and big brother. At a certain point he passed out. Upon awakening, the cloth doll was nowhere to be found. But here it was today. There was obviously significance to it.

    <i>He sent me this to get me thinking....</i>

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything.

    There were some things that he knew didn¡¯t make sense. For instance, during the fight against Crimson Mother back in the Moonrite Region, he had seen some memories in the violet crystal that shed with what he remembered happening in the past....

    In that image, a hand hit him in the head. Except what Xu Qing actually remembered didn¡¯t involve any hand at all. He had just passed out.

    This patchwork doll was another example. Why had it been repaired and then delivered to him on this day? How did it end up being ripped apart?

    Eventually, Xu Qing closed his eyes. He didn¡¯t pick up the cloth doll. He just left it lying outside the door.

    Time passed. The wind picked up that night, kicking up dust that settled on the cloth doll. The wind brought coldness with it, and as a result, the patchwork doll looked like it was shivering. It was like that boy years ago, huddling against the cold in the slums.

    A day passed.

    There were now only twenty-four hours left until the ancestral sacrifices. All aristocrats and officials were at home, bathing and cleansing themselves in preparation for the event. That was the ceremonial process for ancestral sacrifices. Whether or not they qualified to go to Ancient Emperor, that was what they did.

    That was because there was a public and a private aspect to the ancestral sacrifices. The private aspect would be held on Ancient Emperor, while the public would watch from off the.

    Six hours before the ancestral sacrifices began, everyone would gather at sunrise at the Supreme Temple.[1]

    Normally speaking, the Supreme Temple didn¡¯t even exist. Six hours before the ancestral sacrifices, it would appear outside the imperial pce in a special district that existed in its own spot in time.

    Eight hourster, when Xu Qing left his mansion, it was nighttime. When he was about to walk past the cloth doll, he stopped and looked down at it. Then he looked away and continued walking.

    He made good time and arrived at the Supreme Temple just as it was making its appearance. The sky was dark, but there was still colorful light visible. A magnificent, scintiting temple appeared out of time to hover in a spot east of the imperial pce.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t the first to arrive. Everyone showed up at almost the same time looking very solemn.

    Being a heavenly king, Xu Qing was able to stand up front. King Firecrusher was next to him.

    Behind the heavenly kings were the heavenly marquises, and after them, the other government officials. There were thousands of them, but no one made any noise.

    Everyone was looking toward the front. There, six figures stepped out of thin air.

    One of them was the emperor, and the others were the imperial princes who qualified to join him. The emperor wore an unprecedentedly extravagant ceremonial garment. Behind him stood Grand Prince, Fourth Prince, Fifth Prince, and Twelfth Prince.

    Ningyan spent most of his time in seclusion. But today could be considered a profoundly important element of cultivation, so he had to attend. Both he and the other princes were dressed differently than normal. They also wore extremely extravagant ceremonial clothing.

    What had caught everyone by surprise was the fact that there was someone standing next to Twelfth Prince Ningyan. Unexpectedly, there was a fifth imperial prince there.

    He was Tenth Prince! Naturally, he was only there because the emperor had permitted him to be present. And yet there hadn¡¯t been any imperial edict announced to that effect. That said, no one could im to be an expert about how everything worked with imperial princes. As the tutor for the imperial princes, Xu Qing could probably have asked for more information, but he wasn¡¯t inclined to do so.

    After about ten breaths of time passed, the emperor looked over the group of officials.

    The emperor seemed to be in a different emotional state than usual. Normally speaking, he didn¡¯t reveal the slightest thing in his eyes, but right now... there was something glimmering there. It was as if his gaze just now had taken in all of the mountains and rivers in humannds, all of the people, and also the distant statue of the Grand Emperor. The emperor took a deep breath, whereupon his gaze and facial expression returned to normal. He turned around.

    As the five imperial princes bowed their heads and backed up slightly, the emperor looked at the Supreme Temple. He walked toward it.

    When he had walked about 30 meters, the five imperial princes somberly followed him.

    During this six-hour period, the customs of the ancestral sacrifices dictated that the emperor would sit cross-legged in the Supreme Temple and wait. The imperial princes who had been graced with the right to also be present in the ancestral sacrifices would be with him, kowtowing as they waited for dawn.

    Both inside and outside the Supreme Temple, those six hours went by in silence. In fact, the entire imperial capital waspletely quiet. As time ticked by, the sky started to grow light. Then, a zing light on the horizon became a sea of mes that spread through the dome of heaven. It was as if some enormous giant had reached out and ripped away the veil of night.

    The light of dawn shone out in all directions, covering everything. Then the chanting voice of the master of ceremonies echoed out, ¡°The time of sacrifices has arrived!¡±

    Outside of the Supreme Temple, everyone from the heavenly kings on high to the minor officials below dropped to their knees.

    ¡°Open the imperial!¡±

    Magnificent bells tolled, creating a somber sound that echoed out everywhere. The light of dawn shone in the sky, while the destiny aura of humankind was like a swirling dragon, flying above the imperial capital and spitting out auspicious clouds. The images of all the famous sages of the past appeared in the canopy of heaven, and they bowed in the direction of the imperial pce. They weren¡¯t bowing to the reigning emperor, but rather, to... Ancient Emperor.

    Ancient Emperor glittered with bright light, and intense rumbling sounds echoed out from it. Then, it shockingly rose up into the air, growingrger andrger from the perspective of all the onlookers.

    The mist that covered the surface of the then seethed, causing seven colors to be visible. In the form of a rainbow, it stretched toward the Supreme Temple. In the end, it actually connected directly to the temple! The seven-colored mist became a path. A bridge.

    From his ce in the Supreme Temple, the emperor stepped out onto the seven-colored mist bridge and started walking. The five princes followed 30 meters behind.

    A profound look gleamed in King Firecrusher¡¯s eyes as he walked forward. Along with all the other heavenly kings, he stepped onto the bridge. Xu Qing was among them, his expression solemn.

    After them came the heavenly marquises and then all the other officials of varying ranks. Keeping organized into small groups about 30 meters apart from each other, they all slowly walked onto the bridge.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a solemn group of thousands of humans, led by the emperor, walking closer and closer to Ancient Emperor.

    Themoners in the capital, as well as the many cultivators who didn¡¯t qualify to go to the Supreme Temple, looked up at the magnificent scene.

    Then the chanting voice of the master of ceremonies once again pierced the silence with the names of some of the people in the procession.

    ¡°King Firecrusher, King Skycrusher....¡±

    As the group proceeded along the rainbow bridge, the names continued to ring out. Not all the heavenly kings were named, nor all the heavenly marquises. And it was the same with all the other officials.

    After the ny-ninth name was announced, the voice spoke no more names.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, all those whose names were just mentioned are qualified to enter the imperial to personally bear witness to the ancestral sacrifices.¡±

    As those words echoed out, the emperor reached the end of the bridge and, without so much as a pause, entered Ancient Emperor. The five imperial princes followed him, and then all of the aristocracy and officials who had been called out by name.

    Xu Qing was one of them. After he walked off of the bridge and onto Ancient Emperor, the trembled and the surrounding mists seethed, making it just barely possible to spot a magnificent altar below. At the same time, the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation activated and went into defensive mode.

    Those who didn¡¯t qualify to go to the waited worshipfully on the bridge. They were there to bear witness.

    The altar on Ancient Emperor was massive. As it rose up, it became clearer to see, until it was fully visible hovering in midair.

    It became the Temple of Heaven![2]

    The group of qualified participants appeared at the base of the Temple of Heaven.

    Xu Qing instinctively looked around and thought, <i>So this is... Ancient Emperor.</i>

    What jumped out to him immediately was the iparable power of destiny aura here, plus the imperial bloodline fluctuations. In addition, there was also a spectacr spirit energy. It would be hard for it to have been more intense. It became spirit streams that swept through Ancient Emperor like magnificent spirit dragons.

    There wasn¡¯t time for Xu Qing to sit around studying things, as the ancestral sacrifices were already beginning.

    The chanting voice once again rang out.

    ¡°The emperor shall don his armor.¡±

    The ancestral sacrifices were a ceremony carried out by the emperor. As everyone watched, he walked forward, and as the sunlight shone down on him, he donned a rough hemp robe.

    ¡°Starting in ancient times, the emperors have epted the orders of the immortals and ruled the cosmos. Therefore, when the emperor removes his crown and sheds his imperial shoes, it signifies a return to heaven and earth.¡±

    The emperor closed his eyes and the imperial crown on his head flew off, and his shoes vanished. Streams of destiny swept toward him, which he received with open arms.

    Thus, without any crown on his head or shoes on his feet, the emperor started walking forward.

    ¡°Light the incense of human destiny aura; allow the ancestors to observe and enjoy.¡±

    The destiny aura in front of the emperor transformed into arge cauldron. Then three incense sticks appeared in the emperor¡¯s hand, which he ced into the cauldron. The incense lit up and smoke rose into the air. Rumbling sounds caused the clouds to tremble. Lightning crashed.

    And then, a host of illusory doors appeared. They hovered in the air almost as if they existed in a different dimension of time. ck smoke pulsed out of them, as if they contained strange and marvelous entities that, upon sensing the incense of destiny aura, they wanted to break out of the doors and turn into demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters.

    Yet as the doors trembled, streams of even more terrifying energy rose up from Ancient Emperor beneath the Temple of Heaven. They were extremely domineering as they swirled through the area. Pressure weighed down, like that of an entire sea, and it was just possible to hear indistinct chanting. The shocking chanting caused all heaven and earth to tremble. The Temple of Heaven was an exception as everything else in the area, including the illusory doors, was shattered by the chanting, transforming into a spirit rain that fell down onto the.

    To Xu Qing, who had never witnessed a ceremony like this before, it was astonishing.

    After lighting the incense, the emperor continued on his way up the stairs toward the tallest part of the Temple of Heaven. Behind him, Ningyan and the other imperial princes all had rough hemp robes made from destiny aura. They also had taken off their headgear and shoes. They stepped onto the Temple of Heaven.

    1. What I¡¯m rendering as Supreme Temple bears the same name as a real-life location usually tranted as Imperial Ancestral Temple. The reason I don¡¯t want to render it as Imperial Ancestral Temple is that it doesn¡¯t contain the word ¡®imperial¡¯ or ¡®ancestral¡¯ in Chinese. Functionally speaking, its English version describes perfectly what it does. But to maintain some trantion uracy, I¡¯m calling it by a more direct version that corresponds to what it actually is in Chinese. ?

    2. The Temple of Heaven here bears the same name as the real-life historical Temple of Heaven, which is where the emperors of the time would go to offer sacrifices. You¡¯ve probably seen pictures of the round temple building (I shared one a few hundred chapters ago). In reality, that building is only one part of therger Temple of Heavenplex, which features a number of different buildings, altars, etc. <u>Here¡¯s the wiki</u> for more info if you¡¯re interested. Based on the descriptions in the story, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s supposed to be the actual same building or set of buildings as the real-life version. ?

 Chapter 940: Astonishing Developments

    <h4>Chapter 940: Astonishing Developments</h4>

    Outside of Ancient Emperor on the bridge of rainbow mist, there were several thousand aristocrats and officials who did not qualify to go to the. They stood there solemnly with their heads bowed. Beyond the bridge were even more cultivators kneeling in worship.

    It was generally the same throughout the imperial capital. Destiny roared like a dragon as bright light shone in the sky. The grand spell formation was active, bringing brilliance to humannds.

    It wasn¡¯t just like that in the capital itself. It was the same... in the Imperial Region, the seven counties, as well as Holytide, Nightspirit, Nightshade... and the border areas as well. There were solemn sacrifices being made everywhere. The governors and military forces throughout humannds had long since been notified. This was a grand ceremony for all humankind. Thus, people in all territories that knew what was happening were now all looking in the general direction of the Imperial Region.

    All nonhumans who were in humannds now, as well as any organizations with unsavory elements, didn¡¯t dare to cause any trouble on this, the day of the human ancestral sacrifices. They wouldn¡¯t even cause minor bits of trouble. Trouble of any variety on a day like this would constitute disrespect for humankind in general. None of the nonhumans wanted to do something like that.

    Within humannds, destiny aura surged. And because of the bloodline fluctuations, the sky above Revered Ancient trembled, and the clouds spread dramatically.

    Allies everywhere were abiding by their treaties and agreements to offer simr sacrifices.

    The Whitemarshes and Saias weren¡¯t worth mentioning. But in the Moonrite Region, the Heir Apparent and his siblings sighed deeply as they ascended the Moonrite Altar and looked in the direction of the imperial capital. They were independent and had set down their own roots. However... that didn¡¯t mean they wanted to be separate from humankind.

    Outside of the borders of humannds, neighboring nonhumans were shaken, and sentrge amounts of troops to the border. It wasn¡¯t that they nned tounch invasions. Rather, they feared the possibility of humans using their ancestral sacrifices as a distraction tounch invasions.

    The stronger species in the Revered Ancient maind were all looking in the direction of the humans¡¯ imperial capital. Many thoughts went through their heads. The truth was... some very dramatic things had happened to the Firemoons, and then almost immediately afterward, the humans carried out their ancestral sacrifices. In one short year, it was as if dramatic things were happening... one after another.

    How could the powerful species <i>not</i> pay close attention? All of them were getting the sensation that dramatic events were on the horizon. On this day, humans were the focus of attention throughout Revered Ancient.

    Myriads and myriads of wills converged. Myriads and myriads of minds were focused. Myriads and myriads of eyes watched. If there was some ceremony that could shake everything... then the wills, minds, and eyes of everyone in Revered Ancient were ready.

    Meanwhile, streams of energy were emerging from the mysterious Ancient Emperor. The remaining fragments of the strange time doors were swept up into a huge vortex. Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere.

    In the middle of the vortex, which was the focus of all gazes on Revered Ancient, was the majestic Temple of Heaven, as well as a hundred somber cultivators, the five imperial princes, and the emperor... alone at the front!

    He wore no crown and had no shoes on his feet. That symbolized that he was one with both heaven and earth, and could carry out the ceremony with all sincerity. As he walked up the stairs of the altar, chanting apanied his footfalls.

    ¡°The Forefathers of Deep Earth opened Revered Ancient. Services to the universe; blessings of celestial spirits; moral cultivation and martial might; thepassion of myriad species; generations continue; itsts long and far.

    ¡°Strive for self-improvement; sacrifice and chant; tens upon tens of thousands of years pass; this is the east of Revered Ancient. Millions upon millions of descendants, spreading through the Big Dipper.¡±

    The words echoed left and right. Whether it was the people on the bridge or the cultivators on the. All were shaken. Xu Qing also looked up. Everyone looked surprised.

    It was because... the speech about the ancestral sacrifices didn¡¯t mention Ancestral sacrifices. Instead... it mentioned the Forefathers!

    The so-called Forefathers were the earliest immortals toe to the Revered Ancient maind some tens upon tens of thousands of years in the past. They included members of many species, and one of them was human. They were the ones who established thesends, set up the first Ancient Emperor, and made sure that humans and nonhumans alike flourished.

    Sacrifices which were made, not to Dark Serenity, but to humankind in general, were rare, though notpletely unheard-of. In fact, this was how ancestral sacrifices were done during the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And now Emperor Dark War was continuing that practice.

    Everyone was shaken, yet that didn¡¯t stop the emperor from continuing to climb the stairs. The chanting continued with a bit of trembling in the voice.

    ¡°And thus... in the ancient past, heaven lost authority, and earth lost reincarnation. After the Forefathers, events yed out, species rose and fell, enemies shed. Wars were fought and suffering abounded. There was 10,000 years of torment and the spilling of blood. Though Dark Serenity had risen up, the gods came. They wreaked havoc with their superior strength.

    ¡°Mountains and rivers were shattered. Living beings were plunged into misery and suffering. Chaos reigned. Dramatic events yed out as neighbors went to war and society fell into great difficulty. Who was responsible for East Victory''s failures? Who caught sight of Mirrorcloud weeping?

    ¡°Later, Crimson Mother of the Nightshades ran rampant, bringing darkness, coldness, and blood. But our troops went into battle, released the power of the sun at dawn, banishing humiliation and punishing the Nightshades. The heroic spirit of humankind was lit.

    ¡°Heaven and earth trembled. Opportunities presented. The cosmos opened and heroes appeared, ready to create glory for humans.¡±

    The words echoed like thunder as the emperor... reached the top of the Temple of Heaven! There he stood, the center of all attention.

    The sound of chanting drifted out again, but this time it didn¡¯te from the master of ceremonies. Instead, it came from the mouth of the emperor himself. It was his first time speaking up to this point.

    ¡°Constetions drift and time passes. The ancient slowly turns modern. Thendscape bes more beautiful, the people more elegant. As we strive through time toward the future, we are ready to face tribtion and war. Time and tide wait for no man.

    ¡°The mission is in my heart, and responsibility is my cloak. I, Dark War, can offer sacrifices with a clean conscience. I will live up to the dreams of my ancestors and fulfill the desires of my offspring. I swear to lift humankind up to the highest heights!

    ¡°Let the three sacrifices be carried out!¡±

    The emperor looked up into the cosmos, through the void, and beyond Revered Ancient. There was a strange light in his eyes, and his expression was unusual. It was as if he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

    ¡°First sacrifice. Map of Humankind!¡±

    The emperor waved his right hand, causing a convergence of destiny aura that manifested into the form of a huge map. That map depicted all known human territory. That included the four regions.

    ¡°Second sacrifice. Register of Heroic Spirits!¡±

    As the words left the emperor¡¯s mouth, arge number of stone steles rumbled into existence. There seemed no end to them, and each one was covered with names. They were the names of all the cultivators that had died in the endless years since Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left. It wasn¡¯t even possible to calcte how many names there were.

    Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he noticed that on the stone stele in the very front, there was a familiar name. It was... the pce lord of the Swordsage Pce in Sea-Sealing County. Kong Liangxiu! Grief rose up within Xu Qing, as it did within the hearts of many of the other humans. All of them could see the names of family members and ancestors, which bore witness to the misery humankind had experienced through the years.

    ¡°Third sacrifice. Wind and Rain!¡±

    When the emperor spoke those words, a great wind began to blow, apanied by heavy rain. The wind was the wind of humankind, which had blown through countless years of time, across endless wars and battles. It had been collected from within time itself. The rain was the rain of humankind, which had fallen over countless years, bearing witness to the development of human society, bearing witness to sorrow and grief. It had been gathered from many different generations.

    Then they were put together to be delivered on this day. The meaning conformed to the idiom... <i>a fitting wind and favorable rain</i>, expressing the hope for good harvests and general prosperity.

    Although, was it possible this entire thing was a mockery? After all, this wind didn¡¯t fall from the sky. It blew from thends up into the dome of heaven. And this rain didn¡¯t fall onto humans. It swept from the human world up into the canopy of heaven.

    As of this moment, even the most dim-witted person could tell that something strange was going on. As Xu Qing stood on the ancient, his heart raced. The gathered officials struggled to control their breathing, and their eyes shone with astonishment. It was the same outside the. The officials on the bridge were trembling as anxiety filled them. Not all of themoners had reacted yet, but there were some among them who were very perceptive, and were visibly rmed.

    The ancestral sacrifices continued.

    ¡°I can only hope the Forefathers will bless my offspring. Sacrifice to the spirits as if they are present, offer all sacrifices without vition.¡±

    After handing over all the sacrificial items, the emperor looked up into the dome of heaven, to the area beyond Revered Ancient... and kowtowed. Once. Again. And yet again! Every kowtow was performed with great decisiveness.

    One bow. Three bows. Nine bows! Every single bow contained great determination! It almost seemed like this was a bidding of farewell!

    Three kowtows and nine bows. In the world of Revered Ancient, the human¡¯s three periphery regions weren¡¯t affected much, but thends in the Imperial Region started trembling. Mountains crumbled and rivers were rerouted.

    And then... on the Temple of Heaven on Ancient Emperor, illusory mountains rose up and river after river began to flow. That meant that the spirits of the mountains and rivers in the region were on the move!

    Next, something like a sigh echoed out from the terrifying streams of energy in the area, as they started grouping together to form a host of shadowy figures. They approached the sacrificial offerings as if to partake in them. At the same time, an incredibly strong destiny aura erupted, covering the entire imperial capital, and forcing everyone to bow their heads from the great pressure.

    The emperor looked at the mountains and rivers, and then the shadowy figures. He looked at the sacrificial offerings. Then he spoke in a voice that was raspy and soft.

    ¡°Please, ept these....¡±

    He was nning to say the formal lines that indicated the sacrifice was over: <i>please ept these sacrificial items</i>. Except, before he could get halfway through the statement... something astonishing happened!

    A voice rang out from behind the emperor.

    ¡°Dark War, are you really worthy to be the emperor of humankind? The ancestors havee, and heaven has opened. All humankind bears witness. And thus, as your son, I will wield the de of humankind to put an end to you, you tyrannical, immoral, inhumane, and ipetent ruler who has brought nothing but violence and misery to the people!¡±

    The voice echoed out into the void with a touch of madness. The world shook.

    Xu Qing looked up. He knew instantly who that voice belonged to....

    Atop the Temple of Heaven, the emperor slowly turned around. Of the five imperial princes standing behind him, four looked shocked, and were instinctively backing away. There was only one who stood there looking coldly at the emperor.

    It was none other than... Ningyan!

 Chapter 941: Is That All?

    <h4>Chapter 941: Is That All?</h4>

    The words hade right out of Ningyan¡¯s mouth! As they echoed out, they became a tempest in the hearts of everyone who could hear.

    Xu Qing looked at Ningyan and sighed inwardly. Given how well he knew Ningyan, he could already see the clues pointing to who this person really was.

    <i>No wonder he¡¯s been spending all his time in seclusion....</i>

    ¡®Ningyan¡¯ took a step forward, his eyes shing like des as he looked at the emperor.

    ¡°Did I say something incorrect, father?¡±

    All of a sudden, the bloodline fluctuations of the imperial n surged out of him, rising into the air and sweeping the destiny aura of humankind with it into a seething maelstrom. He took another step, and as he did, a ck band of silk swirled out around him, circling around a few times before flying up into the air.

    ¡°On this day, I have three gifts I want to offer as sacrifices to you!¡±

    As his words rang out, the silk band spread out into the sky like a ck dragon, growingrger andrger until... it was a scroll! Countless images could be seen within the scroll, and all of them depicted the pain and grief of humankind!

    It was possible to see people resorting to cannibalism in times of famine, corpses that had frozen in winter, mortals burning to death in fires, and even children wracked by the pain of mutation. There was piging, murder, and rape. The weak were the prey of the strong, and as chaos filled the mortal world, all living beings suffered. It was endless.

    People starved to death. People died to be living treasures. Children were killed to be offered as sacrifices. There were good people whose kind deeds got them killed. There were evil people who were brutally killed by people even more evil than themselves. There were brutes who wreaked havoc. There was insaneughter echoing into the sky.

    Every single image... was appalling and horrid.

    Xu Qing looked at the images and saw things that he himself had experienced as a child. Back then, he had been confused and numb, wondering why people were like this, and why the world was this way.

    Why did people look out and see only evil and more evil? Why had mere survival be his own dream in life? Where was the light...?

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. Everyone was quiet. The entire world was quiet.

    Except for ¡®Ningyan.¡¯ His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the emperor, his teeth gritted as he said, ¡°This is the Painting of Grievances, and it depicts the grief and suffering of all the humans who have lived during your reign. Their weeping. Their pain. Their confusion. Today... the time hase for you to listen well, emperor!

    ¡°This is the result of your being emperor!! This is the result of your pompous sacrifices to the ancestors!! This is the result of how you shamelessly take credit for everything!! On this day, I say NO. And all of the citizens who have died over the past 3,000 years also say NO!¡±

    ¡®Ningyan¡¯ waved his hand, and the canopy of heaven rumbled as the Painting of Grievances copsed, turning into countless ck dots that entered the surrounding destiny aura. The destiny aura seethed furiously, transforming into a vortex that spun above the Temple of Heaven. Intense fluctuations rolled out into heaven and earth.

    ¡°You, Dark War, actually dare to say that you will live up to the dreams of your ancestors and fulfill the desires of your offspring? Does the Map of Humankind you sacrificed describe the suffering of the people? Does the Register of Heroic Spirits record the brutality inflicted on their children? Does the Wind and Rain really bring good harvests and general prosperity? If so, where are they?¡±

    The voice of ¡®Ningyan¡¯ was mournful as it echoed out, shaking the and causing the Temple of Heaven to tremble. Then, immense pressure erupted from the ck spots that were the remnants of the Painting of Grievances.

    And yet, up to this point, the emperor hadn¡¯t said a single word in response. Nor had his facial expression changed. He was just looking calmly at ¡®Ningyan.¡¯

    Seeing that, the eyes of ¡®Ningyan¡¯ grew even more bloodshot as he took another step forward.

    ¡°Since you aren¡¯t willing to say anything, then as your son, I¡¯m going to offer you the second gift!¡±

    Another scroll appeared in ¡®Ningyan¡¯s¡¯ hand, and then it flew up into the air. It was crimson, and as it unfurled, it also revealed innumerable images. Astonishingly, they were... government officials of all ranks and descriptions, and they were engaged in countless acts of greed, crime, and murder! The emperor ruled over ns that hadmitted unending criminal acts for the sake of personal profit, differing opinions, and conflicting purposes. Some of the images were so shocking that they made people bristle with anger.

    This was the Mural of Corrupt Officials!

    The sight of it caused many of the officials in the crowd to react with flickering expressions, pounding hearts, and open shock. Uneasy feelings began to rise up in many of them.

    ¡°Is this the country you govern, Dark War? Is this the society you oversee?¡±

    ¡®Ningyan¡¯ suddenlyughed harshly as the long, crimson scroll copsed, bing a host of ck spots that rushed into the destiny aura. The destiny churned more violently, until it seemed to reach a peak level. It was like an ancient giant, roaring toward the Temple of Heaven. And it seemed to be asking a question.

    Yet the emperor still seemedpletely calm, and had not yet spoken. He was just looking at ¡®Ningyan.¡¯

    Seeing that, Ningyan took a deep breath and produced his third gift. It was a blood-red bone! And it was human. From the look of it, it wasn¡¯t the bone of an adult, but rather, a child. It had blood on it that apparently had been converged in life, only to wither in death and stain the bone red.

    Gripping the bone, ¡®Ningyan¡¯ looked at the emperor. Grinding his teeth together, he said, ¡°I doubt you recognize this bone, Dark War. But that doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ll exin exactly what it is.¡±

    ¡®Ningyan¡¯s¡¯ gaze swept the crowd, passing over Xu Qing, taking in Ancient Emperor, and thening to rest on the vortex of destiny aura.

    ¡°Let all the ancestors and forefathers bear witness. Let the destiny aura of humankind bear witness. And let all of the people bear witness! Do you know how Emperor Dark War managed to reach the level of Imperial Sovereign?¡±

    A surge of curiosity swept through the crowd. After all, the emperor had be an Imperial Sovereign before he seeded as the emperor....

    ¡°Most people probably think that Dark War¡¯s bloodline is how he broke through from Smoldering God to Imperial Sovereign. But the truth is... that he secretly sacrificed nine counties from foreign regions to achieve the breakthrough. Maybe that wouldn¡¯t be a big deal if they were all nonhumans, right? But those sacrificed from those nine counties weren¡¯t just nonhumans. There were also human citizens as well!

    ¡°Dark War is the emperor, and that means he¡¯s the emperor of all humans! Even citizens living in foreign regions are still citizens! Yet he didn¡¯t even care that his own citizens were killed! An affair as cruel and brutal as this deserves outrage both in heaven and among men!

    ¡°He reached the Imperial Sovereign level with the blood of my people! With the souls of my people!¡±

    The voice of ¡®Ningyan¡¯ echoed as deafeningly as thunder through the imperial capital. Then he threw the blood-colored bone up into the sky, where it merged into the vortex of destiny aura.

    ¡°And now, destiny aura of humankind, please judge this matter!¡±

    As the bone vanished, all eyes instinctively focused on the vortex. An instantter, a dragon of destiny aura flew out of the vortex, faced the emperor, and howled. It was a profoundly mournful howl.

    Everyone was shaken, both mentally and physically.

    As the dragon howled, the ck and red vortex began to spin faster, sending out rumbling sounds that could shake heaven and earth. It was as if the vortex was being stimted by the mournful howl, and as the saying goes <i>while the waters may keep the boat afloat, they may also sink it.</i>

    As the thunderous booms grew louder, ck and red chains swept out of the vortex and then shed down. There were no less than a thousand of them. They shot directly toward the emperor atop the Temple of Heaven, and the emperor did nothing to stop them. Loud nking sounds could be heard as they wrapped around him and then dragged him up into the air. Next, more chains came out of the destiny aura vortex, ratcheting up the pressure and the punishment from the destiny aura!

    As ¡®Ningyan¡¯ watched that happen, he red at the emperor.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t deign to open your mouth earlier, but what about now? Are you struck speechless?¡±

    The emperor¡¯s expression remained calm. He was suppressed by the pressure of the destiny aura and was wrapped up in chains. It was as if all he could do was look at ¡®Ningyan¡¯ and wait for what was toe next.

    The gathered officials were paying very close attention to everything that was happening. As for ¡®Ningyan,¡¯ his heart was starting to sink. But he had made a lot of preparations for this moment and was fully confident. He was like a nocked arrow that had to be shot!

    Eyes turning even more bloodshot, he shouted, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you doing anything?¡±

    Those words clearly weren¡¯t being directed at the emperor.

    What happened in response caused Xu Qing to gasp. King Firecrusher, who was standing next to him... suddenly vanished.

    Then a rift appeared in the dome of heaven. King Firecrusher stepped out of it, his face expressionless. The power of an eight-world Smoldering God erupted from him, creating massive pressure. He stepped forward, lifted a saber in his hand, and... chopped it toward the emperor! That saber strike was backed by the power of eight major worlds. It caused the cosmos to shake, and its de light was strong enough to destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth.

    All of this happened so quickly that no one on Ancient Emperor had any time to react. For King Firecrusher to suddenly turn traitor and try to kill the emperor was something no one could have possibly predicted would happen.

    It was theoretically possible for anyone to turn traitor. But in the minds of everyone, King Firecrusher was someone who had championed humankind for countless years. He had worked himself to the bone to serve humanity. How could he possibly betray the emperor? And yet... that seemingly impossible development was ying out in front of everyone.

    He was ¡®Ningyan¡¯s¡¯ secret weapon.

    Everyone was overwhelmed with astonishment, and there wasn¡¯t time to sit around contemting the situation. Cultivators both on Ancient Emperor and off it saw that the emperor was about to be assassinated, and they immediately leaped into action to try to stop it.

    The first to appear in front of the emperor was an old man dressed in the clothing of a court eunuch. It was almost as if he had been there the whole time, as he appeared in the blink of an eye. And he immediately reached out toward the descending saber of King Firecrusher.[1]

    The power of a nine-world Smoldering God cultivation base erupted from the old eunuch. Astonishingly, this person was a powerful expert that had been hiding in humankind, and was thus an unknown to everyone!

    His action caused heaven and earth to rumble as he directly blocked King Firecrusher¡¯s saber. And yet, even with nine-world power, he still staggered backward and coughed up a mouthful of blood. That went to show how amazing King Firecrusher was!

    More cultivators began to arrive from beyond Ancient Emperor. Unfortunately for them, the spell formation was preventing them from entering. The was not just open to anyone! It kept out the uninvited. Some who were on the also took action, but King Firecrusher¡¯s saber shoved them all back.

    However, King Firecrusher was now incapable of doing anything further, as he had a nine-world expert to deal with.

    Xu Qing watched all of this happen and then looked at ¡®Ningyan.¡¯

    ¡®Ningyan¡¯s¡¯ eyes glittered with killing intent as he shot toward the restrained emperor. As he flew forth, a long spear appeared in his hands.

    But then, the emperor shifted in ce, and a rumbling boom echoed out as one of the chains copsed. Next, as the emperor¡¯s energy rose to terrifying levels, the chains could no longer hold tight, and began to snap one after another. The emperor looked up expressionlessly at ¡®Ningyan,¡¯ and for the first time, he spoke.

    ¡°Is that all, Little Eleventh?¡±

    1. As I¡¯ve mentioned in rtion to other outfits described in the story, it¡¯s often hard to determine what exact type of clothing the author is thinking about. Clothing was very important in the history of China, and it was generally easy to identify who someone was by the clothing they wore, be they an emperor, government official, soldier etc. It¡¯s the same with the court eunuchs. However, fashion changed from dynasty to dynasty, and with a history of thousands of years, there is no one specific outfit eunuchs wore throughout time. If you <u>check this link</u>, you can see a few pictures Ipiled of different eunuch outfits from varying time periods. In my imagination, this court eunuch looks like the first image in the set, but again, the author doesn¡¯t give much information about the specifics of the fashion. ?

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 942: Checkmate!

    <h4>Chapter 942: Checkmate!</h4>

    The words echoed like thunder in the dome of heaven, instantly reaching the crowds gathered both on and off Ancient Emperor.

    That said, people weren¡¯t struck to the core. All of the things that had already happened today were already shocking enough. First there was the sudden betrayal by ¡®Ningyan,¡¯ then his sacrifice of three gifts. Even more shocking was how the destiny aura of humankind created a punishment, forming chains that bound the emperor. To see destiny aura behave in that way indicated... that what ¡®Ningyan¡¯ said was true.

    The most unbelievable thing of all, however, was that saber attack by King Firecrusher. People could hardly believe it. No one could ever have predicted that the cautious and conscientious King Firecrusher, who had served in the human armed forces for so long, would actually turn traitor. It seemedpletely and utterly illogical.

    No one could even guess what reason King Firecrusher could possibly have to try to kill the emperor! After all, King Firecrusher had reached such incredible heights that few people in existence could do anything to him. And there was no doubting that he had truly fought hard for the sake of humankind, especially in recent years. He had very nearly died on numerous asions, and had been seriously wounded multiple times. He had also killed plenty of nonhumans, and that... was something that couldn¡¯t be faked. He was a towering, noble soul, someone who became a heavenly king and served humankind, and yet... he had clearly tried to kill the emperor with his saber. It was truly bbergasting to everyone.

    But considering that he was standing with ¡®Ningyan,¡¯ his true status and identity weren¡¯t even important. In fact, there were some longtime government officials who already realized what was going on. There were still people who had very clear memories of everything that happened not so long ago when Ningyan was investigated. However, the matter of Ningyan¡¯s older brother, who was actually Eleventh Prince, had been made a taboo subject by the emperor. Few people would willingly talk about it.

    As the chains snapped and crumbled, the emperor spoke in a voice that echoed across Ancient Emperor.

    ¡°Your presence here today is no surprise to me. But what was a shock was King Firecrusher¡¯s actions. King Firecrusher, do you have an exnation for all this?¡±

    The emperor looked at King Firecrusher, who was locked inbat with the court eunuch.

    King Firecrusher didn¡¯t say anything as he fought. Booms rang out and saber light shed through heaven and earth.

    The person to provide the answer to the emperor was Ningyan¡¯s older brother, Eleventh Prince.

    ¡°He chose to execute you for the sake of humankind! For the sake of justice! Father, as the emperor, you are a malignant tumor to humankind. You don¡¯t deserve to be the emperor! It¡¯s been a very long time since I heard you call me Little Eleventh. Back in the day, that form of address made me feel warm inside. But now... for you to say those words is the epitome of hypocrisy!¡±

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s face was distorted with rage, and his bloodshot eyes exuded hatred. He didn¡¯t seem surprised at all when the emperor called out his true identity. In his opinion, identity and status didn¡¯t matter. All he cared about... was killing the emperor! To achieve this goal, he had worked and prepared for many years.

    The emperor looked away from King Firecrusher and to Eleventh Prince. His face was still expressionless, and there was no hint of sarcasm as he said, ¡°When did you possess Ningyan?¡±

    Eleventh Prince roared withughter, his expression slowly bing one of pure madness. He was normally dour and aloof, not full of emotion. But today he was different. He had been keeping things hidden for too long, and prepared too thoroughly. Today was the day when everything would explode and he would get his revenge.

    ¡°Well, exalted father, it was obvious when you put that idiotic little brother of mine into Heavenly Prison. In order to make that happen, I intentionally left that image of myself to be found as evidence.

    ¡°That was the only way I could get Ningyan implicated. I even guessed that Ningyan would use the Immortal Questioning Bell to prove his innocence, but that you would be too wrapped up in personal matters to pay attention to that. Locking him up was your only option. And then I was able to use our n¡¯s Heavenly Prison to sessfully possess him with my will.¡±

    Xu Qing listened thoughtfully. <i>The mysterious cloaked figure in that room... really was Eleventh Prince.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. Back when he was soul-searching people during his investigation of the Xeno-Immortal School situation, clues took him to a certain building. In the room in that building, he encountered a figure in a ck cloak. That very night, he found himself thinking about what Ningyan had told him in the prison, about sensing familiar fluctuations beneath him.... [1]

    It made perfect sense why Eleventh Prince wanted to possess Ningyan. As Eleventh Prince, he had to remain in hiding, but as Ningyan, he could openly get close to the emperor. Furthermore, killing the emperor in the capital itself would have been iparably difficult. In order to achieve sess, and needed to be in a location where outsiders couldn¡¯t interfere.

    The best battlefield imaginable was Ancient Emperor during the ancestral sacrifices. At that time, no outsider could enter without the right qualifications. And the qualifications could only be given by the emperor using destiny aura. At the moment, the destiny aura had been used to create chains to bind the emperor. Without extracting himself from that situation, the emperor couldn¡¯t draw on destiny aura for help.

    Clearly, Eleventh Prince had put a lot of thought and effort into his n. And he had been waiting for the ancestral sacrifices.

    Perhaps before Ningyan returned, Eleventh Prince had other ns that didn¡¯t involve the ancestral sacrifices and Ancient Emperor. But once Ningyan returned, possessing him became an obvious choice. Or perhaps it was best to say that possessing Ningyan was just one option. And after Xu Qing rose to prominence among the Firemoons, it was the best option. It was by means of Xu Qing¡¯s rmendation that Eleventh Prince got ¡®Ningyan¡¯ onto Ancient Emperor, where he was able to stand right behind the emperor.

    However, Xu Qing still had questions.

    <i>Was Ningyan aware of all this? And more importantly... did he go along with it? Also, as an Imperial Sovereign and the peak will in all humankind, was the emperor really unaware of what was going on? Or... did he know all along?</i>

    Xu Qing remained calm and collected. After everything he had experienced in life, he knew that there was no such thing as only pure good and pure evil among humans. Human nature was aplicated thing, and it often shifted based on the circumstances.

    What was very strange was that the emperor still seemed extremely calm, and there was even a meaningful smile on his face.

    ¡°It seems you have quite a deep connection with your little brother. Everything you¡¯ve said so far was carefully worded to create distance between the two of you. Are you worried about dragging him into the situation? I won¡¯t cause problems for Ningyan, so there¡¯s no reason to be worried about me misunderstanding. The reason you made your debut in this manner, and the reason you¡¯ve been talking so much, is that you¡¯re trying to buy time.

    ¡°Whatever it is you¡¯re waiting for, there¡¯s clearly more you want to say. So I¡¯ll give you the time it takes an incense stick to burn to speak your mind. After all, it takes a good exnation to justify patricide and regicide.¡±

    From beginning to end, the emperor didn¡¯t sound surprised at all when he talked.

    Eleventh Prince was scowling, yet he was still confident in his preparation and his backing. His facial expression quickly returned to normal as he stared at the emperor.

    ¡°Good exnation? Don¡¯t you understand already why I¡¯m doing this? I was there the day you gave the orders for my mother to be killed. I watched her heart break before she died! Dark War, you and I are enemies who cannot live under the same sky!

    ¡°I have a hatred for you that eats away at me every moment of every day. I knew all along that you knew I was alive. And I know why you spared me! You wanted to use me as bait. Right? When the right time came, you wanted to use me to see who you could hook!

    ¡°Well I¡¯ll fulfill your desire! If I don¡¯t kill you, then I¡¯ll never be able to think clearly. If I don¡¯t kill you, then I¡¯m an unworthy son. And if I don¡¯t kill you, I don¡¯t deserve to live!¡±

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s words echoed out for all to hear.

    A sh of reminiscence appeared in the emperor¡¯s eyes. Clearly, what Eleventh Prince had just said caused him to think of that event, and the beautiful portrait that he had spent time every day looking at afterward. It turned into a sigh. The sigh contained all the emotions of the past, and it restored the emperor¡¯s heart to a state of calm.

    ¡°You must have other tricks up your sleeve, right? Go ahead and continue.¡±

    ¡°As you wish!¡± Eleventh Prince said, and he looked down at Ancient Emperor with a cold look in his eyes.

    All of a sudden, muffled rumbling could be heard from below. Something dramatic was obviously happening on the below. This was obviously why Eleventh Prince had been trying to buy time. Next, something happened that no one on or off Ancient Emperor could ever have predicted, and it struck them all to the core.

    As thunderous rumbling echoed out from the, the misty depths of the surged with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fluctuations. As they reached a fever pitch... a pentagonal altar was dragged out of the depths of Ancient Emperor by some immense force!

    The altar was what shocked everyone so deeply.

    And that was because there were five huge coffins on the altar. Every single one of the coffins pulsed with a terrifying, apex-level imperial energy. There was also a shrine by each coffin. There were no statues in the shrines, only spirit tablets. Each tablet had something different written on it: Eastglory; Sageheaven; Mirrorcloud; Dao Life.... Thest one read: Dark War.

    It was a mysterious ceremony that could rock Revered Ancient to the core.

    In the middle of the five coffins was amp. It was made of violet stone, and had a violet flower atop it, as well as a violet phoenix that was extremely lifelike.

    Themp was covered in cracks. It also spat out crimson fire that covered the coffins, experienced some unknown transformation, and then poured into the coffins. By mixing with the imperial energy, that fire changed colors. It turned golden. It hissed and popped as it burned. The aura of a god spread out from the mes.

    It was godfire. Put precisely, it was godfire on the verge of beingpleted.

    ¡°Oh exalted father, I¡¯m going to make you a living sacrifice for the godly ascension ceremony I¡¯ve been secretly preparing. And everyone will see it. So... is this a good enough exnation for why I¡¯m going to kill you?¡±

    Eleventh Princeughed coldly.

    1. Xu Qing visited Ningyan in prison in <u>chapter 773</u>. He encountered the ck-cloaked figure in <u>chapter 791</u>. ?

 Chapter 943: A Sword Versus an Altar

    <h4>Chapter 943: A Sword Versus an Altar</h4>

    The appearance of the altar was shocking to the extreme. Outside of Ancient Emperor, the officials looked on with bated breath and anxious expressions. All of them felt like they were being torn apart inside.

    There was one official who lookedpletely and utterly thunderstruck as he blurted, ¡°Those are the coffins of the past emperors! Th-this... this really is a godly ascension ceremony!!¡±

    Everyone feltpletely and utterly mind-blown. After all, to the numerous species that inhabited Revered Ancient, the gods were the most deadly adversaries in existence! Revered Ancient experienced endless grief and suffering thanks to the gods, and what was more, their lives were slowly being suffocated because of them.

    In the countless years that had passed, there were a good number of species that agreed to bend the knee and even be ves, all in the hope of gaining some perks and eventually bing a top species. The Firemoon Darkheavens were a perfect example of that.

    But ves were ves!

    Humans... had conquered Revered Ancient on more than one asion and were a proud species. From beginning to end, they had never bent the knee! For generations, the emperors had dealt with all sorts of situations, yet none of them cast aside the true heart of humankind. For generations, the emperors followed Dark Serenity¡¯s teachings, adhered to the directives of the holynds, and stuck to the traditions of the Summer Immortals.

    Of course, it was impossible to stop people from researching the gods. That was what led to things like the God-Merging School. But deep in their bones, humans felt that they could not coexist with gods.

    And that was because it involved different daos! To humans, godly ascension was an uneptable solution. Never had an emperor chosen something like that. It was about determination, principles, and bottom lines. From generation to generation, every human who grew up in the Imperial Region felt the same.

    But now, the aura of godfire was unmistakable. And that was especially true considering the shrines, and the fact that the five coffins had names inscribed on them. It was no stretch of the imagination to conclude that four of the five coffins actually had the corpses of the past emperors in them.

    Emperor Dark War was obviously nning to use the power of the corpses of the past emperors as kindling to achieve his own godly ascension! It was something the government officials simply couldn¡¯t ept. In the end, this was a far more unfilial form of betrayal than anything done by Eleventh Prince!

    Although past emperors had their faults, they had also aplished great things. It wasn¡¯t appropriate to disturb them after their death. Yet here, their corpses were obviously being prepared to be used like kindling to betray the human species. It was the most disgraceful behavior imaginable.

    Thus, cries of anguish began to drift out from beyond Ancient Emperor.

    ¡°Your Majesty, sir, you can¡¯t do this!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re the descendants of cultivators! We walk the path of cultivation, not the route of gods!¡±

    ¡°If the emperor chooses godly ascension, then are we humans... even human anymore?¡±

    ¡°If the human emperor bes a god, then humankind will be lost! When the holynds in heaven find out, they¡¯ll be bitterly disappointed....¡±

    ¡°Your Majesty, please reconsider!!¡±

    ¡°Gods have been our enemies for generations! If the human emperor turns around and bes a god... then what¡¯s the point of all those years of sticking to our ideals? And what would be the point of all of the secret help the holynds have given us over the years?¡±

    It wasn¡¯t just the officials who voiced such anguish. Even the people who had been permitted toe onto Ancient Emperor were feeling moved emotionally.

    When Eleventh Prince lifted up that altar, he provoked endless waves of drama!

    The only exception was Xu Qing. He didn¡¯t care whether or not the emperor attempted godly ascension. That was because, the moment that altar rose up, he becamepletely and utterly focused on themp! At a single nce, he knew... that it was the verymp he hade here to get.

    It was Plumdark¡¯s life essencemp! The Plumdark Evergreen Lamp!

    Themp was now covered in cracks, and when Xu Qing sensed that, he got a very uneasy feeling. Struggling to control his breathing, he tried to wrap his mind around what it meant.

    <i>The ceremony... has already started! Thatmp... is burning essence! Once the essence is exhausted, the ceremony will be a sess. Themp will shatter. And if that happens...</i>

    Xu Qing eyes glowed with light that couldtch onto the soul.

    Meanwhile, Eleventh Prince started talking again.

    ¡°Emperor Dark War is a deranged maniac! Instead of following the teachings of the Ancient Emperors, instead of abiding by the instructions of the holynds, he ensorcelled the corpses of past emperors to use as kindling for a godly ascension ceremony!

    ¡°This is aplete deviation from the dao of immortals! It¡¯s a betrayal of humankind and an act of utmost cruelty! Dark War is disrespecting the ancestors and disturbing themoners! The great heaven can see it. The destiny aura can sense it. This emperor... does not deserve to be an emperor!!¡±

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s voice shook heaven and earth. Every word struck deeply into the hearts of the officials. And then, Eleventh Prince suddenly turned to look at Xu Qing.

    ¡°King Skycrusher, I know you need thatmp! As you can see, it¡¯s about to crack into pieces. Why not charge in there, disrupt the ceremony, and take themp?¡±

    Without a word, Xu Qing took a step forward.

    The court eunuch who was fighting King Firecrusher suddenly tried to lurch away and block Xu Qing¡¯s path. King Firecrusher didn¡¯t let him.

    ¡°King Skycrusher!¡± the eunuch shouted in a high-pitched voice. ¡°There¡¯s deep meaning in the emperor¡¯s actions! Don¡¯t let this traitor bewitch you! Back down!¡±

    The only response he got was a cold nce from Xu Qing, who took another step forward. That step caused heaven and earth to rumble loudly. Xu Qing¡¯s aura surged as tens of millions of soul threads erupted from him to form his major world. The thrum of a sword echoed out from within him, causing the sky to seethe as a huge sword projection appeared in the dome of heaven above Ancient Emperor.

    Upon seeing that, Eleventh Prince smiled. And yet, even as the smile broke out on his face, Xu Qing turned to look at him. His cold eyes caused Eleventh Prince¡¯s heart to lurch. Xu Qing said nothing, and looked away a momentter.

    At the moment, he didn¡¯t have time to try to figure out how Eleventh Prince knew the details of themp. On the one hand, it seemed as though he had an opportunity to easily and quickly acquire the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp. However, it was also obvious that there was more going on. That said, such considerations weren¡¯t important right now.

    Xu Qing¡¯s foot touched the ground, and he propelled himself toward the altar. He wasn¡¯t interested in helping Eleventh Prince. Nor did he want to participate in the emperor¡¯s affairs.

    Simply put, he needed thatmp, even if it was part of the emperor¡¯s godly ascension ceremony.

    An instantter, he appeared at the edge of the altar and the mes that surrounded it. Above, The Emperor¡¯s Sword slowly inclined with the canopy of heaven. Then it shed down toward the altar!

    The court eunuch looked shocked, and clearly wanted to interfere. But he couldn¡¯t. Everyone else on Ancient Emperor looked on with hesitant expressions. If this was any ceremony other than godly ascension, all of them would have tried to stop Xu Qing.

    But now.... Everyone stood there silently.

    They saw Xu Qing¡¯s imposing manner coupled with the image of The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Heaven-sundering, earth-rending power was unleashed, crushing everything in its path.

    Eleventh Prince burst outughing and looked at the emperor, who had remained silent from the moment the altar appeared.

    ¡°You have lost your way, father!¡±

    The emperor still didn¡¯t say anything. As the chains continued to snap and crumble, he simply looked over at Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t just him. Everyone else was also doing the same thing. Under the eyes of all present, The Emperor¡¯s Sword shed through the fire surrounding the altar. The mes swept together, converging into the form of a huge face.

    Unexpectedly, the face was that of Dark War! The moment it appeared, The Emperor¡¯s Sword hit it!

    Deep rumbling sounds echoed through heaven and earth. The sword projection faded away. The face vanished. The fire flickered wildly, as though a great wind was blowing over it.

    Without a moment of hesitation, Xu Qing took advantage of the moment to elerate, bing a blur of afterimages that shot toward the altar.

    And yet, before he could actually reach the altar, a host of innumerable figures appeared within the fire. They included humans, nonhumans, beasts, and even gods. They were formed from the essence that the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp was burning, which came from the surplus energy in the corpses of the past emperors.

    As the figures formed, they seemed to power up as they shot toward Xu Qing.

    But then, the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp in the middle of the altar shivered. It was almost as if it was reacting to Xu Qing¡¯s presence. The figures charging toward Xu Qing were affected by that, and instantly slowed down.

    Strange light gleamed in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes as he elerated again. His major world of 40,000,000 soul threads gave him an inexhaustible well of power, plus he had his void soil and the glimmerings of godly authority. ck smoke spilled out around Xu Qing, apanied by the roar of Hellfei. The violet moon appeared over his head, illuminating the world with violet light. The power of misfortune spread out in all directions. Not even the lifeless forms in the fire could avoid the effects of the spreading misfortune. The Grand Darkheaven Armor appeared, as well as the ninenterns. As thenterns orbited around him, draconic faces bulged out of them, howling noiselessly.

    At the same time... Xu Qing¡¯s hand turned semitransparent. He plunged it into his chest, into his sea of consciousness, into his void soil, where he opened the trove gate leading to The Emperor¡¯s Sword. There, he fused with the soul of the emperor and... grabbed The Emperor¡¯s Sword! The sword rumbled loudly but didn¡¯t resist.

    After Xu Qing bowed to the Grand Emperor, the words spoken by the Grand Emperor indicated that he approved of Xu Qing, and had granted him the right to wield the sword. There were no restraints in ce anymore. Theoretically speaking, as long as Xu Qing was strong enough, he could use The Emperor¡¯s Sword whenever he wished.

    Unfortunately, he <i>wasn¡¯t</i> that strong right now. And yet... though he couldn¡¯t take out The Emperor¡¯s Sword in its true and full form, he was able to take out a stream of sword energy.

    As that sword energy emerged, it took the form of a sword projection. It looked exactly the same as the sword which had appeared in the sky earlier, except more corporeal. And sharper.

    As Xu Qing gripped it, his eyes glittered with killing intent. He raced toward the figures in the mes. From a distance, Xu Qing looked like an unstoppable dragon! Intense rumbling sounds echoed out.

    Wherever the sword passed, the figures copsed. Godly authority spread out, creating massive pressure in all directions. At the same time, a vine whipped around Xu Qing.

    It didn¡¯t affect any of the projected figures. Instead, it devoured the mes! As it did, it emanated emotional fluctuations of rejoicing. Little Shadow didn¡¯t want to be left out, and it flew out into the mes, as happily as a fish swimming through water.

    Everyone who could see what was happening was shocked to the core.

    This was Xu Qing¡¯s first time bing the absolute center of attention in humannds! And it was his first time calling on all of his battle prowess!

 Chapter 944: Grabbing the Lamp From the Fire

    <h4>Chapter 944: Grabbing the Lamp From the Fire</h4>

    On Ancient Emperor, all eyes were focused on the strange altar the emperor had prepared for godly ascension. As of this moment, that altar had be the center of all the dramatic events surrounding the ancestral sacrifices.

    From a distance, it was possible to see the greenish-ck pentagonal altar, pulsing with a sense of iparable ancientness. Taken in as a whole, it looked like it had been extracted from ancient time, or taken from the depths of the underworld. It was covered with countless totemic designs, but of course, most prominent were the shrines and the coffins.

    The ancient coffins emanated a sensation of profound imperial will. The corpses of the past emperors each represented the imperial bloodline, which went all the way back to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. And of course, that bloodline was approved by the heavenly daos of the Revered Ancient maind.

    There couldn¡¯t be a more respected bloodline in Revered Ancient. The shrines were constructed in a very extravagant manner. Shockingly, they were crafted from the bones of gods! Naturally speaking, they could be considered reserve powers of humankind. But the emperor had taken them and used them to make five shrines. Because of the unusual construction material, the five shrines pulsed with a very prominent godly energy.

    At the moment, that energy was converging on the mysterious tablets within the shrines, causing profound transformations in the area. All of it was the epitome of extravagance. Other than the imperial n, there was no way any other cultivators could do something like this.

    Godly ascension required igniting godfire. And that process required a ceremony!

    Of course, there was no set requirement for exactly how the ceremony was carried out. In fact, every individual who wanted to be a god would do it differently.

    Back beneath the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, Xu Qing had seen a group of five-elements zombies. That was one such ceremony. Another was in Moonrite Region, when Crimson Mother¡¯s godchild set up a ceremony that spanned time itself. That was the second Xu Qing had seen. The third was in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, when the grand steward reced the spider god.

    The extraordinary setup here on Ancient Emperor had been orchestrated by the human emperor as another type of godly ascension ceremony. In reality, neither the coffins nor the shrines were the focus of the ceremony. Instead, it was the violetmp. That was the true core of it all. The aura it exuded shook heaven and earth. It was the aura of an immortal!

    It created a wind of the destiny aura of a species. It used the bones of gods as a furnace, the immortal aura of the ancientmp as the fire, the past emperors as the fuel! In that manner, it burned away both that which was immortal and that which was godly! It was a level of majesty that surpassed anything Xu Qing had ever seen before. This was how the human emperor was attempting to reach godly ascension. This was his ceremony.

    Within the spreading sea of mes, the figures formed from nearlyplete godfire conformed to a state that was like a mystery among mysteries. It didn¡¯t conform to immortal cultivators. It didn¡¯t conform to the gods. It was something between immortals and gods.

    Though they were iplete, and didn¡¯t have full battle prowess or cultivation bases, they did have shocking personhood that could suppress cultivators. Thanks to that pressure, and thanks to the burning godfire...

    Any cultivator who entered this fire and interacted with those figures would experience an instant skyrocketing of mutagen. Then they would either die or be one of the figures.

    But Xu Qing was different. He was no longer a cultivator. And he wasn¡¯t a god. His was a path no one had ever walked before. In fact, he could be considered a pioneer. He had the cultivation base of a cultivator, but the authority of a god, plus the soul threads of a xeno-immortal. What was more, he had a god body. That wasn¡¯t to mention that he had devoured the blood of the broken face, and also had more than a hundred types of godly authority in his void soil.

    As for the level of his personhood, it really wasparable to that of a god. There was also the fact that the figures in the sea of mes had some sort of resonance with the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp, which kept them suppressed.

    Therefore... the moment Xu Qing entered the sea of mes, a series of deafening booms echoed out, along with something like a raging tempest. Whether it was The Emperor¡¯s Sword in his hand, or Little Shadow, or the vine. All were part of the tempest.

    Wherever Xu Qing went, everything was crushed. The vine whipped about joyfully, devouring the fire and sweeping up one figure after another. It was almost as if it recognized them as food. The mes were delicious, and the figures were as sweet as candy. Little Shadow didn¡¯t want to fall behind, and quickly scattered into a host of smaller shadows. If you put all of those smaller shadows together, they would form a huge tree covered with eyes, with coffins hanging down from it.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing himself charged forward with The Emperor¡¯s Sword in hand. As he sped forth, the very same hunger he had experienced in the god domain reappeared. It had been suppressed thanks to the blood of the broken face. But apparently, the surrounding godfire drew it out again.

    Hunger....

    The sensation caused Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to turn crimson. As he shed left and right with The Emperor¡¯s Sword, he inhaled sharply, causing one of the approaching figures to be sucked into his mouth. His void soil shivered as the figure made of godfire turned into a rain of fire that provided nourishment, but at the same time, just made Xu Qing feel hungrier.

    <i>Tastes pretty good.</i>

    Xu Qing licked his lips and continued onward. Reaching another figure that Little Shadow had locked in ce, he again inhaled deeply. The figure vanished. Little Shadow looked stunned. Xu Qing moved on, devouring as he went.

    Seeing that, Little Shadow leaped up and down excitedly. In the blink of an eye, all of the versions of Little Shadow in the fire opened their mouths and began to devour the surrounding figures. The vine looked very anxious and increased its devouring efforts.

    And thus, an absolutely shocking scene developed under the eyes of everyone looking at the sea of mes. Not only were the figures in the fire growing fewer in number, but also, the sea of mes itself was shrinking.

    The process didn¡¯t evenst for as long as it takes an incense stick to burn. By that point, all of the figures in the sea of mes were gone!

    Little Shadow and the vine ended up fighting over thest one and ripping it to pieces.

    The struggle resulted in some fiery emotions. Little Shadow called back all the smaller projections of itself, and in astonishing fashion, turned into a gigantic, gruish tree right in the middle of the sea of mes. The eyes on the tree were all open, and they stared with cold irritation at the vine.

    The sageheaven god vine was an uncharacteristically rare object that originated in the starry sky. Its mature form could devour actual gods, so it was only natural that it wasn¡¯t a timid thing. Despite being in infant form right now, it still whipped about like a dragon, sending terrifying energy toward Little Shadow. The leaves on the vine were covered with mysterious striations that flickered constantly and even created starry sky projections. It also pulsed with an iparably vicious aura.

    Everyone who was able to see what was happening waspletely taken aback.

    Both Little Shadow and the sageheaven godvine could be described as very gruish. However... their brutal, gruish nature transformed into charming obedience the moment Xu Qing stepped between them.

    Little Shadow swayed back and forth, its eyes opened wide in a way that made it look very cute. The vine cautiously swirled around Xu Qing, looking openly servile. That scene was nothing but a profound shock.

    There was Xu Qing, surrounded by violet light, his hair swaying around him, his facial features extremely good-looking. Next to him was a cute shadowy tree and a very charming vine.

    Quite a few of the cultivators in the crowd instinctively gasped. As Revered Ancient cultivators, they had all lived lives of death and killing. They knew full well what was entailed in turning brutal beings into things that were cute and charming.... It required a level of brutality that surpassed them!

    This Xu Qing was quite a bit different from the one they were used to seeing. It made sense considering that, even aftering to the imperial capital, Xu Qing had kept a rtively low profile. For instance, when he killed Seventh Prince, he didn¡¯t do it in a way that revealed how brutal and ruthless he could be. But now everyone was getting a sense of what he was truly capable of. Now, people were looking at him very seriously, and some even seemed outright reverent.

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t paying attention to the reactions of the crowd. He passed in between Little Shadow and the vine, keeping his eyes fixed on the altar. The edges of the fire were surrounded by golden mes that were even more intense than the sea of mes in general. In fact, it was astonishingly hot.

    After all, that fire was being fed by the corpses in the coffins. As a result, the golden fire formed a barrier that prevented passage.

    Through that barrier, Xu Qing could see more cracks spreading out on the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp. It wasn¡¯t going tost for much longer. Eyes shing, Xu Qing shot directly toward the mes surrounding the altar. But then, an instantter, the mes rumbled loudly, and Xu Qing backed away.

    He was on fire, his skin drying up and melting, revealing blood and flesh beneath. Even with all of his assets, including his god body, he wasn¡¯t able to pass through those mes.

    But Xu Qing wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Ignoring the pain from his burning flesh, he waved his hand to send a host of divine abilities rumbling out along with godly authority. After a dozen or so breaths of time passed, though, nothing had changed. The mes simply couldn¡¯t be touched.

    Face turning very grim, Xu Qing shed out with The Emperor¡¯s Sword. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as a huge sword projection appeared in the air and shed down toward the fire. The fire shivered, and an opening appeared. However, the mes then roared with more intensity, and the sword energy dissipated.

    <i>It¡¯s really impossible to break open?</i>

    Xu Qing watched as more cracks appeared on themp. He was really starting to get very anxious.

    Given the godly ascension ceremonies he had seen in the past, Xu Qing knew that they were impossible to disrupt unless you came at them withpletely majestic and overwhelming force. The only other option was to use trickery.

    Suddenly, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone with a crazy light, and he sent some divine will to Little Shadow and the vine. Little Shadow hesitated briefly, but the vine didn¡¯t at all. It shot directly toward the golden fire and tried to devour it. The force of devouring was so great that the fire just started flowing toward the vine. As a result, the mes in front of Xu Qing grew thinner.

    However, there was a price to pay. The vine burst into mes, and immediately started withering. It obviously couldn¡¯t keep this up for very long.

    Seeing all of that caused Little Shadow to throw caution to the wind. Rushing forward, it burst into mes, but at the same time, became like a ck waterfall that instantly caused the mes in front of Xu Qing to weaken further.

    Little Shadow shrieked in agony and writhed from the pain. Yet it didn¡¯t dare to back away. It could only ferociously endure as it felt like it would be ripped apart. Then it managed to pry open a narrow crevice!

    Xu Qing rushed forward in a blur of speed, reaching the crevice just as it seemed Little Shadow wouldn¡¯t be able to hold out any longer. His right hand became as transparent as a Gruegloom¡¯s as he reached through that crevice and into the fire itself! Holding back nothing at all, he reached out to grab the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp!

 Chapter 945: First Step, Complete

    <h4>Chapter 945: First Step, Complete</h4>

    After Xu Qing¡¯s hand went through the Gruegloom transformation to be transparent, there were still five drops of blood within it that formed a pentagonal shape. Even after the Gruegloom transformation, it wasn¡¯t possible to hide those five drops of blood. Just a nce at them revealed that they were spectacr.

    The moment Xu Qing¡¯s hand entered the altar, the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp vibrated, then rose up into the air and flew toward him.

    But then, the five coffins trembled, and corpse energy erupted out. Pulsing with the aura of the imperial bloodline erupted, it merged with the surrounding mes to make arge golden hand. It reached out toward the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp to grab it.

    Meanwhile, howling sounds that sounded human drifted out from the coffins, and the lids began to shake as if they were about to break open. Simultaneously, the surrounding mes grew more intense. The terrifying heat was joined by a godly aura that could suppress the soul.

    Xu Qing¡¯s Gruegloom hand burst into mes. His Grand Darkheaven Armor and god body were already having a hard time dealing with the high temperature. And the flesh on his hand was starting to crumble into ash. Only his godly authority was able to stand strong. However, it couldn¡¯t stop his right hand from slowly being destroyed.

    It seemed that his right hand was just on the verge of turning into nothing but sparks. And yet, without pausing for a moment, Xu Qing unleashed the power of the five drops of blood.

    The blood drops shot through the burning mes and toward the five coffins. As they did, an even purer and more ancient form of imperial bloodline fluctuations shot out from the drops of blood. They formed a bloodline suppression!

    The golden hand formed from the energy from the coffins couldn¡¯t do anything to stop the blood drops. They shot through the hand andnded right on the coffins. The shuddering of the coffin lids ceased, and the howling stopped. Everything went quiet. Then the golden hand went stiff.

    As for Xu Qing, he used the crumbling remains of his right hand to reach out toward the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp!

    Grabbing it, he pulled it back through the crevice. The moment it left the altar, the five coffins started shaking again, and the howling resumed, this time, with unparalleled levels of defiance. However, the five drops of blood glittered and kept the coffins suppressed.

    Xu Qing¡¯s right hand crumbled into nothing. But he quickly sent his left hand shooting out to grab themp before falling back at top speed.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but from the moment Xu Qing managed to make an opening into the fire until the moment he fled, hardly enough time passed for a spark to fly off a piece of flint.

    Little Shadow couldn¡¯t hold on any longer. It dimmed and copsed into countless smaller shadows that scattered in all directions. The vine reached its limit. Looking very withered, it retreated. Without any power disrupting the mes, they went back to their original position.

    Even more furious howling erupted from the five coffins, all while they shook so violently cracks started spreading across their surface. Fluctuations of instability were now surging out of the altar. The altar had lost itsmp. It had lost its immortal element. And the godly aura was going wild. Without any stability or bnce... the ceremony was heading toward a destructive bacsh! Terrifying pressure grew within the mes.

    Seeing that caused Eleventh Prince to startughing uproariously. The officials looked on silently. The court eunuch let loose a moan of anguish.

    Xu Qing ignored all of that as he sped backward. He put away the cracked Plumdark Evergreen Lamp, all while his right arm started to repair itself thanks to the unique qualities of his god body. Though he felt weak, he was also sighing with relief.

    Months ago in his greater spirit mansion, he had talked with Plumdark about how to retrieve themp. Plumdark had been the one to suggest this tactic, and Xu Qing had agreed wholeheartedly. Plumdark was able to keenly sense themp. And in the years Xu Qing had been away from the capital, though Plumdark had seemingly been in seclusion, the reality was that she had used a secret magic to go out and gather a lot of information.

    The five drops of blood were actually Plumdark¡¯s essence blood. They had been prepared specifically to use against the five coffins if necessary, to keep them suppressed. That was what made it possible to retrieve themp smoothly. They had discussed other possibilities and options. However, the godly ascension mes had made most of those other options impossible to use. Therefore, Xu Qing had been forced to take a big risk.

    After acquiring the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp, Xu Qing felt a very strange sensation within him.

    <i>It seemed like it was risky, but it also seemed like... it went very, very smoothly. Maybe too smoothly.</i>

    Eyes narrowing, he collected Little Shadow and the vine and kept moving backward. As he did, the altar continued to shake, and the howls continued to echo out. Then, the coffins started crumbling to pieces. Before any corpses could emerge, the golden fire surrounding the altar went into chaos.

    The bacsh was beginning. The temperature spiked, and rumbling sounds echoed out as the fire swept over everything. The five coffins were hit first. The bacsh of godfire instantly incinerated them, as well as the corpses inside. Even the altar was reduced to ashes. Everything suffered from the bacsh of golden mes, and was wiped out....

    But then the golden fire had nothing to feed it, and it went out. The aura of godly ascension dissipated. Heaven and earth went back to normal. The emperor¡¯s ceremony of godly ascension had been interrupted! As a result, it failed!

    Eleventh Prince¡¯sughter rang out, full of merriment. He looked at the emperor.

    The officials both on and off Ancient Emperor hadplicated expressions. Some were breathing sighs of relief. However, they couldn¡¯t stop from feeling anxious about the future.

    But then, Eleventh Prince¡¯sughter suddenly stopped as a feeling of unease rose up within him. And that was because he didn¡¯t see any reaction on the face of the emperor! The greater part of the chains were still binding the emperor, and his godly ascension ceremony had just failed. Yet he seemed as calm as ever. The unease within Eleventh Prince grew more intense, and he opened his mouth to speak....

    Before he could, the ashes of the altar and the corpses converged together and shot toward the emperor. He inhaled, and the ashes... flew right into his mouth.

    Intense rumbling sounds rose into the dome of heaven. Ancient Emperor started shaking. Destiny aura surged at peak levels. An aura of godly ascension vastly more intense than anything from before suddenly erupted out! The source of the eruption wasn¡¯t the ashes of the altar. Instead... it was from Ancient Emperor itself!! The was burning!

    This aura went beyond anything from earlier. And the golden mes that spread out from Ancient Emperor seemed capable of burning anything and everything.

    The imperial capital shook, and all of the Imperial Region trembled. There was no doubt... that this reemergence of the godly ascension was monumentally terrifying.

    All of the human government officials, whether on Ancient Emperor or off it, reacted with visible astonishment. But what shook them to the core more than anything... was what happened with King Firecrusher and the court eunuch, who were still in the middle of fighting. Even as they seemed about to rip each other to shreds, they both backed away from each other. King Firecrusher returned to Eleventh Prince¡¯s side, his facial expression the same as ever.

    The court eunuch returned to the emperor. Standing there, he respectfully said, ¡°Congrattions, Your Majesty, on sessfullypleting the first step of the godly ascension ceremony.¡±

    His words resulted in numerous involuntary cries of shock. As of this moment, everyone realized that the court eunuch¡¯s attempt to stop Xu Qing, whether by word or action, had all been an act. One of the most critical aspects of the entire thing was Xu Qing destroying the godly ascension altar!

    Now Ancient Emperor itself was erupting, which went to show that the destruction of the pentagonal altar wasn¡¯t just something that the emperor had nned. It was also... a crucial element of the ceremony itself!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were narrowed. Although it had seemed like he was in a dangerous situation, the reality was that he had sensed all along that things were going smoothly. Now he realized his senses had not been deceiving him.

    And yet, none of that influenced his decisions. He was not going to actively participate in anything going on here, nor would he cast judgment on the parties involved. Getting the Plumdark Evergreen Lamp was enough for him. Backing up a bit, he sat down cross-legged.

    As the chains on the emperor continued to snap and crumble, he maintained the same calm facial expression as he looked at the astonished Eleventh Prince.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± the emperor asked calmly.

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s face drained of blood, and his eyes turned very grim.

    At his side, King Firecrusher coolly said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for a facial expression like that, Ningchang. All of this is within the realm of what we predicted could happen.¡±[1]

    The strange look on Eleventh Prince¡¯s face disappeared, to be reced by a smile. ¡°Although we did predict this possibility, I still wish it hadn¡¯t presented itself. That said, he is the emperor. No matter what emotions I tried to reveal, he¡¯s remained calm this entire time. How dull. In any case, there¡¯s no need for dramatic emotional disys now.¡± Sighing, Eleventh Prince sped hands and bowed to the emperor. ¡°Father, if you want to see what else I¡¯ve prepared, then... please allow me to proceed.¡±

    Eleventh Prince then hit himself on the top of the head and spat out a massive mouthful of blood. Then he waved his hand, causing eleven little bottles to appear, which shattered, revealing that they all contained blood. Combined with the mouthful of blood he had just spat out, that was twelve globs of blood. The moment they were out in the open, the twelve globs of blood erupted with imperial bloodline fluctuations.

    Further back at the very edge of the Temple of Heaven stood Grand Prince, Fourth Prince, Fifth Prince, and Tenth Prince. All of them lookedpletely shocked. After all, they could sense the presence of their own blood. They weren¡¯t the only shocked ones. All of the other children of the emperor who hadn¡¯t entered Ancient Emperor felt simr sensations.

    ¡°This,¡± Eleventh Prince said softly, ¡°is the blood I secretly collected from my brothers and sisters over the years. Mine¡¯s in there too. Today, I will use the blood of the imperial princes and princesses to open the way through the vortex of destiny aura, bypass the grand spell formation of humankind, and surpass the limitations of the imperial... to open a heavenly gate!¡±

    Eleventh Prince performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then waved his hands out. Instantly, the twelve globs of blood shot up into the air over Ancient Emperor, where they became a massive blood-colored vortex.

    Deafening rumbling sounds swept out as a shocking gravitational force erupted from the vortex as a passageway opened up! A terrifying aura then spilled out.

    1. Guyue Ningchang. We now know that Eleventh Prince¡¯s given name is Ningchang, which means his full name is Guyue Ningchang. I¡¯ve already exined Guyue before. Ning is the same as the character from Ningyan¡¯s name. It means ¡°peace, calm.¡± Chang means ¡°prosperous, flourishing.¡± Madam Deathde said, ¡°It makes me think of peace and prosperity, like this is a calm guy with big hopes for a chaotic world.¡± Incidentally, since I haven¡¯t mentioned it in a while, I¡¯d like to reiterate that Madam Deathde is not familiar with these characters or the story. Her reactions are basically instinctive reactions to what the names ¡°sound¡± or ¡°feel¡± like to her in Chinese. ?

 Chapter 946: Four Esteemed Heaveneaters

    <h4>Chapter 946: Four Esteemed Heaveneaters</h4>

    The Heaveneater species didn¡¯t count as one of the top species in Revered Ancient. At best, they were second-tier. Unlike the first-tier species, theycked reserve powers, had insufficient destiny aura, and even more relevant, didn¡¯t have the backing of any god. In order for them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the most powerful species, they would have to work hard and pay a very, very steep price.

    Their home, the Heaveneater Region, was located far away from the humans¡¯ Imperial Region. Even a Void Returning expert would need decades to make that journey by flight. As a result, the Heaveneaters had never gone to war with humans.

    However, they weren¡¯t happy with their current state of affairs. The reigning Emperor Heaveneater was a person of outstanding ability and grand vision, and had already led his people to new heights of glory. In fact, using some unknown method, Emperor Heaveneater had actually broken through the limits of the Smoldering God level, bing the first of his species since the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity to be an Imperial Sovereign.

    As they grew strong, the Heaveneaters grew more ambitious. All they needed to do now was devour a suitable species to boost their own reserve powers and destiny, thus earning the qualifications to offer a sacrifice to a god. Then they would be on the path to bing one of the top species.

    Considering that humans had once been one of the most powerful species, they were the perfect target for the Heaveneaters. After all, humans were suitable both when it came to their reserve powers and their destiny aura.

    That said, though humankind wasn¡¯t one of the top species anymore, they did have Grand Emperor Swordsage, whose might resounded even now. What was more, all of the sessive emperors of humankind were Imperial Sovereigns, which caused even the most greedy scoundrels to avoid them.

    Emperor Heaveneater hade to the conclusion that targeting humanity would require doing things in a very secretive and clever way. It would also require... waiting for the right opportunity. After years and years, that opportunity had finallye. That said, the opportunity wasn¡¯t fully ready to take advantage of, until today. The emperor was waiting for... the fulfillment of a pledge.

    Four majestic figures stood in the za outside the Heaveneaters¡¯ imperial pce. Each was some 300 meters tall. Their faces didn¡¯t look human, as they only had one eye in the middle of their forehead. Their skin was greenish-ck and very coarse, while simultaneously pulsing with astonishing fleshly body power. They were d in battle armor, and were so impressive that wild colors shed in heaven and earth.

    Above the shoulders, heads, and other body locations on each of them were, astonishingly, at least seven worlds. And the two strongest among them had nine worlds!

    These four were high-level Smoldering God cultivators. They were the Heaveneaters¡¯ four heavenly kings, and they were considered the species¡¯ most precious and powerful assets.

    They stood silently in the za, looking into the depths of the imperial pce, at a figure even more majestic than themselves.

    It was their emperor! He was fully 3,000 meters tall, with a majestic aura that seemed like that of a god. He stood looking up into the canopy of heaven, as if he were currently receiving orders.

    The za waspletely and utterly silent.

    A moment passed, then rumbling filled the sky. Blood-red bolts of lightning crashed left and right, eventually forming a gigantic magical symbol that covered everything for 5,000 kilometers. The flickering, blood-red color spread from the symbol to form a vortex. As it rotated, it rumbled loudly, while simultaneously exerting a huge gravitation force that covered the Heaveneaters¡¯ imperial pce. Throughout all of that, the four heavenly kings didn¡¯t move a muscle.

    Until....

    Among the countless blood-red lightning bolts appeared a silver bolt of lightning. It shot from the horizon toward the 3,000-meter-tall emperor and pierced into his head. He exhaled a stream of energy, which pierced through the air, opening up a pocket dimension.

    ¡°The fulfillment of their pledge...¡± Emperor Heaveneater said calmly. ¡°Gentlemen, for the sake of the future of our species, please take a visit to humannds!¡±

    The four heavenly kings surged with battle spirit. Without saying a word, they turned into deadly streaks of light that shot up toward the blood-colored vortex. Within moments, they disappeared inside. As teleportation fluctuations rolled out, Emperor Heaveneater looked up at the crimson sky and sighed.

    ¡°As long as the fulfillment of their pledge brings enough value.... Maybe this opportunity really is just about us being a weapon used for an assassination. But that¡¯s eptable! After all, they¡¯re the ones who made the promise.¡±

    Emperor Heaveneater smiled. As he continued to look up into the sky, his gaze pierced through the clouds and off into the distance.... Far, far off into the distance....

    ***

    In the humans¡¯ Imperial Region, on Ancient Emperor, twelve globs of blood hovered in front of Eleventh Prince. As the blood-colored vortex spun faster and faster in the sky, a nonhuman aura spilled out. It was an unfamiliar aura to everyone present, but it was obviously terrifying and powerful. Just sensing it left everyone feeling shaken.

    An instantter, a 300-meter-tall armor-d figure shot out of the vortex, apanied by deafening rumbling sounds. He dropped down with the power to sunder heaven and earth as he appeared on Ancient Emperor! The arrival of this figure caused the cosmos to tremble, and sent the human destiny aura seething.

    The 300-meter-tall giant had a single eye in his forehead that he used to look around. A cruel grin could be seen on his face as more rumbling emerged from the vortex, along with a second, third, and fourth figure.

    All were about 300 meters tall, d in armor, and surrounded by a fiendish aura. They were the four heavenly kings of the Heaveneater species!

    Countless gasps and expressions of astonishment could be heard outside of Ancient Emperor.

    ¡°What species are they?¡±

    ¡°Nine-world Smoldering Gods!¡±

    Even the people on Ancient Emperor were shocked. Maybe the emperor was attempting godly ascension, but... the arrival of these nonhumans made everything else much less important. Numerous auras locked onto the neers. Behind the emperor was the court eunuch, whose gaze had suddenly be extremely sharp.

    Then Eleventh Prince¡¯s voice once again rang out.

    ¡°Wee. Now, please abide by our agreement... and kill the human emperor!¡±

    When the four Heaveneaters heard that, they didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment. Circting their cultivation bases, they started advancing on the emperor, who was still not fully freed from the chains.

    The court eunuch scowled as he moved out to block their path.

    At the same time, a good number of the heavenly kings near Xu Qing shot forward. In an instant, deafening booms filled the skies of Ancient Emperor. Everything blurred as fierce fighting broke out. The air was thrown into chaos and time shattered. At the same time, the aura of godly ascension on Ancient Emperor started to falter.

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was extremely grim. As of now, this situation had changed from an internal human affair into a nonhuman invasion.

    As the booms rang out, Eleventh Prince looked at the emperor, whose face was still calm. Taking something out of his sleeve, Eleventh Princeughed and said, ¡°Father, I¡¯m sure you recognize this Dawning Sun. And you must know why I¡¯m really here.¡±

    The object he was holding was the very same Dawning Sun that went missing![1]

    ¡°I¡¯m curious about something. Since you knew all along that I was the one who took the Dawning Sun, what exactly did you prepare to deal with it today?¡±

    Eyes suddenly shing with cruelty, Eleventh Prince suddenly hurled the Dawning Sun... right into the depths of Ancient Emperor!

    The Dawning Sun immediately began to shine with dazzling light. A sun was exploding!

    1. The situation with the missing Dawning Sun started in <u>chapter 771</u>. Well, technically it started in the chapter before that, but the relevant aspects were in 771. ?

 Chapter 947: A Parent

    Chapter 947: A Parent

    The moment Eleventh Prince took out the Dawning Sun, Xu Qing started backing away at top speed. He also pulled out the emperor¡¯s corpse. Erniu wasn¡¯t around, and it took both of them to operate the corpse. Xu Qing had not notified Erniu of what was going on, and would have a very hard time doing anything with it by himself. But the defenses it provided would work regardless.

    Xu Qing was the type of person who would asionally want to face certain things alone. As for facing a Dawning Sun, he had a bit of experience. And there were certain clues he had already picked up on.

    Although this Dawning Sun had simr characteristics to his own ancient sun, there were also some big differences. For one thing, his version was abination of an ancient sun and Crimson Mother¡¯s flesh. It was actually inherently unstable, which meant that being hit by it would be very dangerous.

    The true Dawning Suns of humankind weren¡¯t like that. They were a very stable source of power. Although they couldn¡¯t be mass produced, they could be reliably created using a specific method. That was why they counted as the domain treasure of an entire species. Of course, they also required a certain amount of raw materials.

    When a Dawning Sun was detonated, it created blinding light so terrifying that it made people think of a sun rising in the morning. Like a rising sun which would dispel the night, the Dawning Suns could ignite the world and dispel the darkness. They could bring radiance and light to everything, and crush all darkness and gloom. And yet... this Dawning Sun was controlled by Eleventh Prince, and thus, the ¡®darkness and gloom¡¯ was actually humankind and Ancient Emperor.

    The next instant, boundless light and heat spread out like an angry tempest, causing Ancient Emperor to shake violently. It was as if an actual sun were rising over the!

    In fact, it seemed as if the point was to supnt Ancient Emperor and turn into an actual sun of Revered Ancient. Thanks to its immense and mighty power, the godfire forming from the Ancient Emperor ceremony began to flicker violently. Terrifying fluctuations spread out. A destruction aura proliferated. It was like the end of days.

    On Ancient Emperor, most cultivators reacted with open shock. All were experiencing explosive sensations of deadly crisis and astonishment.

    However... it was different with the four Heaveneaters as they battled with their human heavenly king counterparts. The Heaveneaters¡¯ facial expressions never changed. From the moment they entered the vortex, they knew in the bottom of their hearts that they had a mission to aplish. For their species, and for the fulfillment of the pledge, they were willing to be assassin des. Their mission... was to kill the target and then self-destruct.Resurrection formations had already been set up back home, and therefore, they werepletely ready to blow up both their bodies and their cultivation bases.

    To them, the detonation of the Dawning Sun was a signal. The four Heaveneaters exchanged nces and could see the determination in each other¡¯s eyes. They didn¡¯t hesitate. An instantter, a terrifying aura began to build up in them. A Dawning Sun plus four self-detonating heavenly kings could form a very deadly weapon!

    As of this moment, Ancient Emperor had plunged into unprecedented danger! Death seemed like it was only an instant away.

    Beyond Ancient Emperor in the imperial capital, all cultivators werepletely stunned. The grand spell formation flickered as it tried to keep everything under control. Unfortunately... it was no use. Unless some vastly powerful force came along that could disregard a Dawning Sun, then the ancestral sacrifices were over. And that would signal doomsday for humankind.

    Some people instinctively looked in the direction of the statue of Grand Emperor Swordsage.... Right now, it seemed that Grand Emperor Swordsage¡¯s final sword move was the only thing that could resolve the situation. Except... Grand Emperor Swordsage did nothing.

    Xu Qing sighed inwardly. Even after everything that had yed out up to now, he was still convinced there was more going on that hadn¡¯t been made public.

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, who seemed to have ties of some sort to the emperor, hadn¡¯t done anything yet. The emperor himself had remainedpletely calm the entire time. The destructive might filling Ancient Emperor was reaching a crescendo.

    But then... the emperor <em>did </em>do something. Though his face still remained expressionless, he lifted his right hand. As he did, many of the destiny aura chains snapped and crumbled. Pressure began to radiate down from his hand.

    At the same time, a gargantuan hand appeared, taking over the entire sky of Ancient Emperor, and covered all thends. In the blink of an eye, screaming winds sprang up, and the sky dimmed. A terrifying aura that surpassed the Smoldering God level spread out. Everything trembled.

    Then he gently pushed his hand down. The air shattered. Thends heaved.

    The four Heaveneater heavenly kings, who were in the middle of self-detonation, all shivered as an immense force settled down on them. As they howled in anguish, the power of self-detonation that had been just starting to spread out of them... was forced back inside!

    The immense force caused blood to spray out of the mouths of the four heavenly kings. Trembling, they were shoved down to the ground. After they mmed down, they were kept in ce, twitching but unable to move. Their major worlds were simrly suppressed. Trying to fight back against power as overwhelming as this was pointless.

    They weren¡¯t the only ones affected. The detonating Dawning Sun trembled, and then the light and heat it was emanating was crushed. All of it went right back where it came from, and the Dawning Sun reverted to its original form. However, the cracks that covered it went to show that it was now unstable. Eventually, the Dawning Sun disappeared.

    Up in midair, the emperor waved his hand. The dome of heaven went silent. Earth became as still as death.

    Countless eyes came to be fixed on the emperor.

    Some looked surprised. Some looked nk. Some seemed incredulous. Some were terrified.

    The emperor was the only Imperial Sovereign among humans. Everyone knew it to be a fact, except that... in the 3,000 years since he had seeded to the throne, he had never taken action in public. For the most part, humans¡¯ understanding of Imperial Sovereigns came from simple descriptions left behind in ancient records. After all, most humans in existence had never even seen a second Imperial Sovereign. And considering that gods existed, many people weren¡¯t very impressed with the Imperial Sovereign level.

    Until now.

    ¡°Imperial Sovereign....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the power of an Imperial Sovereign!!¡±

    ¡°To a presence like this, Smoldering Gods are like ants! If an Imperial Sovereign is like this, imagine what a god would be like....¡±

    Many sharp inhtions could be heard.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed with mysterious light as he watched the emperor. This was also his first time seeing the emperor in action.

    <em>This is far from the level of Li Zihua. But it is Imperial Sovereign battle prowess....</em>

    Looking as calm as ever, the emperor took the Dawning Sun and then looked back at the glowering Eleventh Prince.

    ¡°Is that all, Little Eleventh?¡± the emperor said coolly.

    ¡°I have no idea if he has more tricks up his sleeve,¡± a cold voice ran out. ¡°But I certainly do!¡±

    The voice came from behind the emperor on the Temple of Heaven. Numerous gazes shifted in that direction and locked onto the speaker. Most of those gazes were filled with surprise.

    The person who had spoken was not Eleventh Prince. It was... a person standing with Grand Prince and Fourth and Fifth Princes. It was... Tenth Prince!

    For this entire time, Tenth Prince, who had been allowed to join at thest minute, had watched all of the events ying out with a look of incredulous disbelief on his face. But now, his expression was one ofplete calm.

    The emperor looked over his shoulder. He didn¡¯t seem surprised. ¡°So you ultimately decided to try to fight me? You had other options.¡±

    Tenth Prince waited for two breaths of time before coolly responding, ¡°I realized what was happening when you suddenly asked this imperial prince that I parasitized to join the ancestral sacrifices. You wanted to force me out into the open to fight you. You¡¯re right, I had other options. But the fulfillment of the pledge to me left me with no choice. Given that, and given their desires, I decided to test out your battle prowess.¡±

    As ¡®Tenth Prince¡¯ spoke, his body blurred and his face distorted. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering energy swept out of him, along with a sensation of restoration. Wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed.

    The energy caused Ancient Emperor to shake, and the disruptions spread beyond the as well. It caused Void Returning to tremble and Smoldering God to feel great pressure weighing down on them. It was because it was... an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s aura. In fact, it was almost exactly the same level of power the human emperor had just unleashed.

    After a few breaths of time passed, ¡®Tenth Prince¡¯s¡¯ face went still. He looked different now. He only had one eye in the middle of his forehead, and greenish-ck skin. In fact, he looked almost exactly like the four Heaveneaters!

    ¡°Emperor Dark War,¡± said ¡®Tenth Prince.¡¯

    ¡°Emperor Heaveneater,¡± Dark War replied calmly.

    Two types of Imperial Sovereign energy shed in the dome of heaven, shattering the air and shaking the cosmos. It looked like fierce fighting might break out at any moment.

    But then, Eleventh Prince¡¯s eyes shone with mysterious light as he pulled out a small silver bottle.

    ¡°Father, I prepared a little something to make this fight between you and Emperor Heaveneater even more perfect. You might not have taken action in public since you seeded to the throne, but before then, you fought battles to the death with many nonhumans. Over the past few years, I¡¯ve paid an incredible price and suffered untold hardships to track down a drop of your blood! With that blood, I created a life force curse!¡±

    With that, Eleventh Prince crushed the silver bottle. As it shattered, a drop of blood appeared.

    Instantly, the bloodline fluctuations of the imperial n of humankind rolled out in all directions. All who could sense it were visibly taken aback. It really was the emperor¡¯s blood!

    The shattered remnants of the bottle didn¡¯t fall to the ground. They swirled in the air around the blood, moving faster and faster until they turned into a host of silver maggots. Shrieking loudly, the maggots burrowed into the blood. As they madly devoured the blood, one of the maggots transformed into a centipede, which devoured the other maggots.

    Then the centipede flicked its tail, which fell off and turned into an eerie-looking skeleton. The skeleton opened its mouth and devoured the centipede. Then the skeleton copsed into pieces as a pitch-ck imp burrowed out from inside. The aura of a god raged as the imp looked at the remnants of the skeleton and belched out a mouthful of ck smoke.

    As the smoke settled on the skeleton, the imp burst into mes, then dove into the bones. The ck smoke shrank down on itself and everything else as it turned into... a drop of ck blood.

    A noxious, rotting odor spread out from the blood. Just barely visible within that ck blood was a blurry figure. He was none other than the emperor! A powerful curse was forming inside the blood. And it was no ordinary curse!

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed as he recognized the terrifying elements of a god curse!

    Eleventh Prince grinned broadly as he looked at the emperor. ¡°Father, I still have two more gifts for you. This is only one of them. If youst long enough, you¡¯ll be able to see thest one. However, I have the feeling that the curse will affect your life force enough that you won¡¯tst long in your fight with Emperor Heaveneater.¡±

    Eleventh Prince quietly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and then pointed at the blood. The ck blood started burning.

    Next, the figure of the emperor in the blood began to twist and distort, and the sounds of anguished screaming rang out. Ultimately, it turned into a single thread of fate which flew toward the chains binding the emperor. It pierced into him, and then... the thread of fate emerged from the emperor¡¯s forehead. It was as if it couldn¡¯t find what it was looking for! Next, it whipped around for a moment before shooting toward Ancient Emperor

    At that point, the curse was sessful.

    Everyone who had witnessed this turn of events was shaken to the core, including Xu Qing. It seemed unbelievable. Impossible. Beyond the realm of what was realistic. Every single person was stunned by the seemingly unpredictable development.

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s face fell, and this time, the expression was infinitely more realistic than any of his previous facial expressions. He felt like he was being struck by lightning. Trembling, he staggered backward a few steps, his eyes shining with disbelief. At the same time, a preposterous sensation was howling within him.

    ¡°Y-you... you¡¯re... you¡¯re just standing there.... The curse locks down on fate. Why would it go somewhere else...? Don¡¯t tell me you have some way to transform threads of fate? Or could it be that you...? Impossible!¡±

    In the end, he couldn¡¯t shake that sensation of preposterous incredulity.

    During this entire time, the emperor hadn¡¯t cast a single nce at Eleventh Prince. Gazing calmly at Emperor Heaveneater, he said, ¡°The kid has a bit of a temper. It¡¯s honestly a bit embarrassing. That said, it¡¯s time to end the tantrum. Since they wanted you toe test out my true battle prowess, I suppose I¡¯ll show it to you. Pay attention.¡±

    As the emperor spoke calmly, chains of destiny aura snapped one after another.

    Each snapped chain released an explosive burst of energy. In the blink of an eye, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. A great wind blew as terrifying pressure radiated off the emperor.

    ¡°From the time I achieved my dao until now, I¡¯ve never fought anyone publicly. Today, Fellow Daoist Heaveneater, you¡¯ll be able to see me make one, single move.¡±

    As thest words came out of the emperor¡¯s mouth, thest of the chains snapped. A majestic aura immediately surged out in all directions. Ancient Emperor trembled violently.

    The emperor lifted his right hand in the same way he had when suppressing the Dawning Sun. However, this time... what he took control of was the canopy of heaven over Ancient Emperor. And also... whaty beyond that!

    The sky over the imperial capital instantly turned pitch ck as a hand appeared, sorge that it wasn¡¯t possible to take in the whole thing with one¡¯s eyes. And it caused an indescribably majestic aura to weigh down.

    The air shattered. The sky cracked. Thends quaked. Mountains sank down. One hand covered the entire sky! That included any gods as well! Then the hand dropped down with indescribable speed onto Ancient Emperor.

    In the shortest of moments, it snatched up the entire. Then it started squeezing, and the shook. Everyone on the felt like the world was shaking around them.

    Emperor Heaveneater was visibly stunned. He was breathing heavily, his face pale and his eyes full of incredulity. He even started backing up, and his face blurred as though he were trying to leave the body he¡¯d parasitized. A will of teleportation even rose up.

    He immediately decided to just flee!

    Clearly, he didn¡¯t act fast enough.

    The majestic hand that grabbed Ancient Emperor descended without hurting anyone until it was right in front of Emperor Heaveneater.

    ¡°Allow me to send you on your way!¡± the emperor growled.

    <em>RUMBLE!</em>

    A shadowy figure was forced out of Tenth Prince¡¯s body. It quickly turned into Emperor Heaveneater, except he was crumbling and reforming constantly as he tumbled off to the side. The cycle of crumbling urred over a thousand times, until Emperor Heaveneater¡¯s soul shadow was ripped to shreds.

    ¡°Today, I will destroy your soulclone,¡± the emperor said coolly. ¡°If you don¡¯t deliver your species¡¯ domain treasure to me within half a month, then I¡¯ll rip apart space itself and personally go visit your species.¡±

    As of this moment, he was being matchlessly domineering!

    Among the humans, no one spoke a word. Everyone felt like their minds had been turned intoplete nks. They all knew the emperor was strong, but... the fact that he was strong enough to easily outmatch another Imperial Sovereign came as aplete shock to them. In fact, this wasn¡¯t just outmatching. It was absolutely crushing!

    Xu Qing was shaken to the core. After all, he had seen another Imperial Sovereign! Li Zihua was also an Imperial Sovereign.

    Imperial Sovereigns came in different levels. Early, mid,te and peak. Each of them had wildly different levels of battle prowess.

    <em>The sense I got from that huge hand... was very simr to what I sensed from Li Zihua.... I can¡¯t believe it! The emperor of humankind... is a peak Imperial Sovereign!</em>

    Xu Qing was really having a hard time believing that it was real. Based on his understanding, in the modern-day Revered Ancient maind, the Imperial Sovereign level required both the proper bloodline and the right destiny aura to be able to make progress. But that was all in the early stage.

    As for the peak stage... given that the top species in Revered Ancient were paying very close attention to such things, they basically didn¡¯t exist.

    For instance, when the Firemoon Darkheavens¡¯ three gods of sun, moon, and star achieved their major breakthrough, a peak Imperial Sovereign had appeared to act as a dao protector. To the various species of Revered Ancient, that was an incredibly shocking development. Afterward, many investigations were carried out. Whether it was the top species or their gods, everyone wanted to know who that peak Imperial Sovereign was that was able to avoid the omniscience of other gods!

    In the cultivation system of cultivators, Imperial Sovereigns were already rare. Those in the peak of that level... were generally not permitted to exist by the gods.

    Xu Qing looked at the emperor. <em>Don¡¯t tell me¡­.</em>

    Meanwhile, the emperor now floated to the very top of the Temple of Heaven. That was the ce where he had previously been carrying out the ancestral sacrifices. At that spot, he turned and looked down at the dazed and bedraggled Eleventh Prince. It was almost like everything had gone back to the very beginning of this whole event.

    ¡°Is that all, Little Eleventh?¡±<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    The meaning of the chapter title is not exined fully until the

    </blockquote>

 Chapter 948: Once My Flower Blooms, a Hundred Flowers Perish

    <h4>Chapter 948: Once My Flower Blooms, a Hundred Flowers Perish</h4>

    Those very same words... had been spoken by the emperor on multiple asions this day. Every single time, it caused Eleventh Prince¡¯s heart to sink. By now, it had reached the point where he couldn¡¯t control his emotions. His face was as pale as death as he staggered backward several paces, shaking from head to toe, his eyes shining with disbelief.

    The emperor looked as calm and collected as ever. That hadn¡¯t changed this entire time. No matter what Eleventh Prince did, regardless of what secret weapons he pulled out or trump cards he used, the emperor still seemed to be thinking of this entire event as a tantrum.

    That was why the emperor hadn¡¯t called for anyone to deal with Eleventh Prince. He just let the tantrum happen.

    It seemed as if, in his mind, it was all nothing more than a child acting out in front of a parent. If the parent didn¡¯t care, then the tantrum could happen. The child could cry and get angry, but then just go back to being obedient.

    But if the parent wasn¡¯t pleased, then the child could be in for a world of hurt. Once the lesson was taught, and the child learned how to be afraid, they would go back to being obedient. Maybe the child could call for help. But that wouldn¡¯t matter either. In fact, it could be considered fishing. And whoever got fished up would be dealt with by means of a p of the hand.

    The emperor¡¯s attitude, and his eyes, caused Eleventh Prince to feel choking despair. He felt like he couldn¡¯t breathe easily, and his chest felt tight. All of his previous confidence was crumbling. A sense of powerlessness swept over him, filling his broken heart until all he could do was cough up a huge mouthful of blood.

    <i>How can this be happening...? How could you be a peak Imperial Sovereign...? Why did the curse fail like that...?</i>

    Eleventh Prince lookedpletely down and out, with his eyes bloodshot as he stood there trembling. All of his preparations were apparently useless. Even the nonhumans he had allied himself with were defeated with hardly any effort. Everything he had prepared, from the Painting of Grievances to the cursed blood, were like nothing more than children¡¯s toys.

    The emperor was still standing there. And he was like a mountain that could prop up heaven and earth! As long as he never fell, then humankind would stand!

    Eleventh Prince wasn¡¯t the only one experiencing intense emotions. The surrounding officials as well as all themoners in the capital were feeling simr things.

    And yet, Eleventh Prince was still not willing to give up! His eyes were crimson as he stared at the emperor. The emperor¡¯s calm gaze made Eleventh Prince feel like he was on fire inside.

    The emperor lifted his right hand and waved it through the air. An ancient scroll painting unfurled in front of him.

    The painting depicted a woman. She wore a simple yet elegant blue gown. Her hair was not bound, and her smile seemed shrewd and even crafty. She wasn¡¯t stunningly beautiful, and in fact, there were many people in the world more attractive than her. But there was no doubt that she had a strong personality. The light in her eyes shone through even in the painting, making it clear how vivacious she was.

    It was the very same painting from Ningyan¡¯s mansion that depicted his and Eleventh Prince¡¯s mother! It was impossible to determine who had painted it, but it was very lifelike, to the point where reflections were visible in her pupils. The reflections weren¡¯t perfectly clear, but there was enough of a shape to determine that they were reflecting some sort of altar....

    When Xu Qing saw the painting, he sighed in his heart as he thought back to Ningyan weeping in front of it. Then he took a second look, and was suddenly shaken to the core as he realized that the vague shape of that altar was actually familiar. His pupils constricted. The altar was pentagonal, and looked... almost exactly like the altar he had just destroyed moments before.[1]

    Xu Qing waspletely taken aback.

    ¡°Dark War!¡± Eleventh Prince shouted, his face twisted with fury. At this point, he was ready to throw caution to the wind.

    The emperor said nothing as he looked from Eleventh Prince to the painting. The sight of that woman caused his expression to flicker. His eyes filled with reminiscence.

    ¡°This is thest gift I prepared for you, Dark War!¡± Eleventh Prince said, his voice as sharp as a de. ¡°Everything I did today, from colluding with nonhumans to paying the immense price I paid, was all for the sake of avenging my mother¡¯s death! I don¡¯t care what species are involved. I don¡¯t care about righteousness. I don¡¯t need to be an imperial prince. I know that my actions will cause countless humans to disdain and hate me. But I... don¡¯t care about that!

    ¡°Heaven and earth can all crumble for all I care. Every species in the world can die! What¡¯s that got to do with me? The only thing I¡¯ve cared about this entire time is making sure that I see you dead!¡±

    As Eleventh Prince shouted, a sensation of bloodlust began to build in his words. ¡°Today, right here, I, Ningchang, want to ask a question of the government officials!

    ¡°The Dawning Suns were first suggested by Emperor Mirrorcloud. In the tens of thousands of years since then, none were ever made! The development couldn¡¯t have gone more slowly. It was my mother who, thanks to her spectacr innate talent, restructured her mortal body to create the framework!

    ¡°It was my mother who didn¡¯t hesitate to waste her own life force and longevity to, for the sake of humankind, and the emperor, and all of you... advance the development of the Dawning Suns by at least 30,000 years! It was my mother who took all the Creation Mansion¡¯s research into gods and pushed it to a levelmensurate with a top species!

    ¡°It was my mother who repaired the grand spell formation, pushing it to the absolute peak, all to protect you people! But... how did things end for her? She became nothing but nutrients for the emperor!! She turned into mere nourishment for the revered emperor of all humans to achieve his dao!!

    ¡°Dark War, you have such ordinary talent that you had to sacrifice entire foreign regions to be an Imperial Sovereign. After that, you becamepletely demented. You lusted after my mother¡¯s talent so badly that youpletely ignored your love for your daoist partner... and devoured her!! You don¡¯t deserve to be an emperor. You don¡¯t deserve to be a husband. And you don¡¯t deserve to be a father!¡±

    Eleventh Prince then devolved into bitterughter that rang out everywhere. The officials maintained silence.

    The emperor closed his eyes.

    Although Xu Qing had never actually seen Ningyan¡¯s mother, he had heard Ningyan talk about her after they came to the Imperial Region. Ningyan hadn¡¯t gone into a lot of detail, but what little he had said left Xu Qing with the distinct impression that this woman was extraordinary. Unfortunately... after she died, both her name and her story had been made taboo by the emperor. As a result, few people were willing to even mention her. What actually happened all those years ago became something of a mystery.

    As the officials looked on silently, Eleventh Prince dropped to his knees in front of the scroll painting and began forcefully kowtowing. Tears poured out of his eyes. It was as if he were saying farewell. Then he reached up, cut open his fingertip, and sent a drop of blood flying toward the painting.

    The emperor did nothing to stop him.

    When the blood fused into the painting, Eleventh Prince¡¯s mother¡¯s eyes slowly seemed to fill with grace and charm. They even started shimmering with light. The light emerged from the painting, swirled to a stop in front of Eleventh Prince, and turned into... a firefly flower! Unfortunately, it was in a very withered state.

    When Eleventh Prince looked at the flower, his heart filled with bitterness and other deep thoughts. All of sudden, he found himself thinking about his mother¡¯s smile.

    ¡°This is my mother¡¯s life essence flower. My mother might have been a mortal who, for various reasons, could never practice cultivation. But in terms of talent, she was the best among all humans! Back when she was researching the Dawning Suns, she gained enlightenment of a special technique that allowed her to create a life essence flower even though she had no cultivation base.

    ¡°With her bloodline and the flower, she created the life essence flower to give to me and Ningyan. Back then, I didn¡¯t understand. But thinking back, I realize that mother must have known how things would end for her, so she created the flower to give to me and my brother. To protect us.

    ¡°To a certain extent, you can say that this flower is the earliest version of a Dawning Sun. The essence of the Dawning Sun! Whenever a Dawning Sun shines on someone, their karma bes inextricably linked to it. When the Dawning Sun withers, they flourish. When they flourish, the Dawning Sun withers.

    ¡°That, Dark War, is why I stole that Dawning Sun! You might have prevented it from detonating, but the moment you took hold of it, you were exposed to its light! And now... let¡¯s see how you escape this deadly trap I prepared for you!¡±

    Even as Eleventh Prince¡¯s words echoed out, the withered firefly flower in front of him stirred, and the petals began to move. Despite being withered up, the flower... was opening! It was almost like life force blossoming!

    All of a sudden, the light of dawn appeared in the dome of heaven. Intense heat began to rise up everywhere, burning everything. The wind went still.

    Everyone, whether they were in the imperial capital, on the bridge, or on Ancient Emperor, suddenly began to glow. The glowing light was like karma from the Dawning Sun, pulsing through their blood.

    The light rose up slowly, to the shock of everyone, until it formed a blooming flower! It illuminated the world and stirred the hearts of the people. Its light entered the world of mortals like the light of a true heavenly body, bringing life force and strength to all. It was iparably majestic. It was just like the line of poetry: <i>Waiting for autumn toe, on the eighth of the ninth month; once my flower blooms, a hundred flowers perish</i>.[2]

    All of a sudden, a sensation of withering rose up within all people, all living things, and within the dome of heaven! Ultimately... it converged on the emperor!

    The emperor opened his eyes. His gaze was one of reminiscence, fond recollection, and mixed emotions. And it all came together in the first sigh that had escaped his lips in many years.

    As he sighed, he lifted his hand. He made a beckoning gesture at the flower.

    That gesture was absolutely shocking to everyone present. Eleventh Prince felt like he was being struck to the core.

    The blooming flower floated over to the emperor,nded in his hand, and then... merged into his palm! It didn¡¯t fight against him. It didn¡¯t slow down. It was almost as if the flower was returning to its source. It was almost as if the flower and the emperor were one.

    Heaven and earth went deathly silent. Countless gazes were filled with confusion and spection as they focused on the emperor. If those gazes could have been made corporeal, they would have been raging waves that could overwhelm an entire region.

    But the most intense of them all came from Eleventh Prince. He felt like he was being struck by 1,000,000 lightning bolts. He trembled, gasping for breath, his face first pale then flushed.

    ¡°Impossible. This... this isn¡¯t possible! That¡¯s my mother¡¯s life essence flower. It couldn¡¯t possibly merge into another person. Th-this... this... you....¡±

    Xu Qing was just as shaken as everyone else. At the same time, a new thought urred to him, somethingpletely different from any of his previous spections.

    As everyone struggled to control their breathing, and as silence reigned, fire burned on Ancient Emperor, and pressure weighed down everywhere....

    The emperor¡¯s gaze left his palm and shifted to Eleventh Prince. Then he reached up and touched his own forehead. An instantter... his facial features blurred, and his skin fell away, revealing the true features underneath!

    It was a woman.

    She was refined and beautiful, with an elegant disposition. She seemed inherently noble, with eyes as bright as stars. In fact, they glittered with wisdom and seemed capable of prating the hearts of people. Her eyebrows seemed gentle but firm, making her seem like a distant, mist-covered mountain that imparted a sense of calm and determination.

    She stood as tall and straight as a cypress in a winter wind, as if she could maintain her dignity no matter what was happening. Her graceful bearing made it seem like she was constantly in the process of writing her own legend. The facial features were exactly the same as those on Ningyan¡¯s painting, except that this woman seemed a bit older and a bit more dignified.

    Everyone was absolutely shaken to the core.

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s mind spun until it was nk.

    ¡°Mother...?¡±[3]

    1. The painting was originally described in <u>chapter 753</u>, including the part about the reflection in the pupils. ?

    2. This poem is by Tang-era rebel <u>Huang Chao</u>. I found different versions and exnations of this poem. The exnation that made the most sense to me imed that the poem uses the chrysanthemum flower as a symbol of the oppressedmoners, while referring to the reactionary and decadent feudal ruling group as the hundred flowers. Maybe the author is intentionally tapping into some of that meaning, or maybe he just wanted to have a cool flower-rted poem. What do you think? ?

    3. Specifically, Eleventh Prince uses a form of address that princes (either of an empire or monarchy), would use when addressing their mother, who is the wife of the leader but not the actual leader, something like a Queen Mother or Empress Dowager depending on the circumstances. ?

 Chapter 949: Empress

    <h4>Chapter 949: Empress</h4>

    There was now an exnation for everything.

    Why had that curse, which was made from the emperor¡¯s blood, actually not honed in on the emperor, but instead flew to the depths of Ancient Emperor? Why did the godly ascension ceremony feature a pentagonal altar with a coffin and shrine for Dark War? Why did Xu Qing¡¯s action of taking thatmp cause corpse energy toe out of all five coffins and form a hand with five fingers and not four?

    Why had Eleventh Prince¡¯s extremely unfilial and rebellious behavior provoked little more than cold indifference from the emperor? Why had the emperor notunched into an attack? Why had the emperor acted like a parent the whole time? Why had Emperor Heaveneater, who parasitized Tenth Prince but was under the emperor¡¯s control the entire time, had his soulclone killed, all while Tenth Prince¡¯s physical body remained unharmed?

    The answers to all those questions were provided the moment the emperor¡¯s mask came off.

    This woman was not Dark War! She was Dark War¡¯s daoist partner, and also the mother of Eleventh Prince and Ningyan. What was more, considering her position years ago, she had only been a step away from bing the empress consort.

    Everyone, down to thest one, was bbergasted to the core, including everyone on Ancient Emperor, everyone outside the, and everyone in the imperial capital. There was no denying... that this was a monumental development that surpassed imagination and what the senses could impart.

    In fact, it was really aplete impossibility. Everything the emperor said and did, down to his daily routine, did not give even a scrap of a clue pointing toward this oue.

    In fact, it was correct to say that the act had been perfect. No one had even been able to guess that this was the truth until Dark War¡¯s coffin appeared on that pentagonal altar. And yet, most people just instinctively assumed that Dark War¡¯s coffin was empty.

    The entire matter was terrifying to think about. That was especially true... when the corpse energy rose up from the five coffins. Even then, no one spected about what was really going on....

    It was almost as if the idea that the reigning emperor wasn¡¯t actually Dark War had been suppressed by some terrifying power, interfering with the perceptions of everyone in the world. And that same power seemed to help peoplee up with reasonable exnations for all sorts of unreasonable situations.

    Until now.

    That veil had been pulled to the side by this woman. And the truth waspletely and utterly astonishing.

    After all, though it might be possible for a god to create an effect that could secretly alter the perceptions of so many people, in the end, it would only be a powerful High God. Although... there was actually one other individual who could do something like that. Only he could pull something like this off wlessly.

    That individual was... Grand Emperor Swordsage!

    He knew from the very beginning what was going on. And because Grand Emperor Swordsage approved of the ¡®emperor,¡¯ it made sense why The Emperor¡¯s Sword didn¡¯t react when Xu Qing tested it out. That was because... her presence, and everything she was doing, was approved of by Grand Emperor Swordsage![1]

    This line of thinking didn¡¯t just pop up in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. It urred to many others at the same time.

    At the moment, it was impossible to say what this spectacr woman had gone through. What twists and turns had been involved in her rtionship with Dark War. Did Dark War help her achieve her goals? Or did he actually devour her, only for her to be resurrectedter, and then somehow turned into the emperor...? Or was it the case that she had <i>always</i> been impersonating the emperor...?

    Right now, no one knew. It was a mystery that was impossible to solve.

    While virtually everyone in the crowd was reeling in astonishment, as well as fear and unease for the future, there were three people whose facial expressions were the same as ever.

    The first was the chief minister, who stood silently in ce on Ancient Emperor. Stepping forward, he dropped to his knees in front of the woman.

    ¡°My respects, Empress!¡± [2]

    The second person was the court eunuch who was a nine-world Smoldering God. He also bowed his head and dropped to his knees.

    ¡°My respects, Empress!¡±

    The third person was someone that no one in the crowd could have guessed would step forward. But once they saw him, it only took a moment to realize why his actions made sense. He was none other than... King Firecrusher. Expression cid, he stepped away from Eleventh Prince¡¯s side, walked up to the woman, looked her in the face, and with eyes flickering full of memories, he bowed and dropped to his knees.

    ¡°My respects, Empress!¡±

    In reality, he had never turned traitor! He had just been ying along with the act.

    The reason was that this entire thing was aplicated plot, hatched years ago by the talented woman who had reced Dark War. When she began making preparations for the godly ascension ceremony, she knew that her actions would meet with disapproval by many factions. That was why she kept her true battle prowess hidden the entire time.

    She couldn¡¯t reveal that she had a peak Imperial Sovereign cultivation base. Not even if nonhumans invaded. Not even if humankind was in great peril. The only exception would be if the species was in true threat of extinction....

    Otherwise, revealing a peak Imperial Sovereign cultivation base would just put humankind in the position to be invaded by a host of gods. There was no way the gods would allow any peak Imperial Sovereigns among the species of Revered Ancient. And if she did reveal that peak level of strength, it could only be within human territory. Even outside of human territory, it was a big taboo to even step halfway into that peak level.

    She could only wait patiently. She had to wait for the right opportunity to reveal her battle prowess. And she also needed to be confident in being able to keep that opportunity under control.

    That was also why she had to be aloof to Ningyan and his brother. She needed them to be on their own, nursing hatred toward Emperor Dark War. It was the perfect distraction for the prying eyes of any nonhumans.

    It was also something of a fishing expedition. When the opportunity arrived, whoever was poking around the fishing lure would be taken out in one fell swoop. As of this moment, she had seeded.

    Considering that the chief minister, court eunuch, and King Firecrusher himself were all active participants, all the other shocked government officials could ultimately... just bow their heads.

    Xu Qing was feeling rocked to the core. Things really were turning out ording to his earlier expectations. But to see it ying out with his own eyes was still iparably shocking. Of course, what was most shocking of all was that this mother of Ningyan had a peak Imperial Sovereign cultivation base.

    Inside, Xu Qing sighed. He had just thought back to the time when he first arrived at the imperial capital and gained the sense that Grand Emperor Swordsage was dying. Now everything made sense.

    <i>Could it be that the Grand Emperor provided a secret magic to this empress to help her do all this, either as a gift or a legacy? And then he gave The Emperor¡¯s Sword to me...?</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure if his spections were correct. Lifting his head, he looked at the statue of the Grand Emperor outside of Ancient Emperor.

    Meanwhile, Eleventh Prince was struck as mute as a wooden chicken. He stood there trembling, looking drained and nk.

    Finally, the empress said, ¡°Stop causing trouble. Back down.¡±

    Eleventh Prince seemed to get excited by the words. He bowed his head, but couldn¡¯t prevent tears of joy from flowing down his face. All evidence of his immature temper was gone.

    The empress turned. Her eyes were full of determination and courage. Her expression and bearing seemed full of power and resolve. She seemed to be telling the world that she was the ruler here, and that she had the strength to change anything and everything.

    ¡°I am the empress of humankind. My dear ministers and officials, do you have any objection?¡±

    A few breaths of time passed in which there was only silence. But then the officials both on and off Ancient Emperor sped hands and bowed.

    ¡°Our respects, Empress!¡±

    Their voices crashed like thunder.

    Next, Ancient Emperor rumbled, and the destiny aura of humankind seethed as it converged on the empress. As it blessed her, it formed an imperial crown over her head. The destiny aura was confirming its approval of the current office holder!

    All eyes focused on the empress as she stood atop the Temple of Heaven, looking into the dome of heaven with her true facial features.

    ¡°After the ancestral sacrifices are the heavenly sacrifices!¡± she said, her eyes shining brightly. All of a sudden, she seemed even more confident than before.

    The first part of the grand ceremony was concluded. The second part... was now officially starting!

    1. Xu Qing tested the sword on the ¡®emperor¡¯ in <u>chapter 771</u>. ?

    2. The actual title here is the same title for all the sessive emperors of humankind. It¡¯s literally ¡®human emperor.¡¯ Of course, as I mentioned previously, the character for emperor isn¡¯t gender specific. If you wanted to go really literal, it could be ¡®human imperial person.¡¯ In any case, the author does include the gender tag for the empress on numerous asions to rify that she is a ¡°female emperor.¡± Just as with the (male) emperors, I¡¯m generally going to leave out the ¡®human¡¯ part unless it¡¯s relevant to the story. ?

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 950: I Do Invite Thee to Partake

    <h4>Chapter 950: I Do Invite Thee to Partake</h4>

    From ancient times until now, formalized sacrifices among humans were divided into two parts.

    First came the ancestral sacrifices. Then came the heavenly sacrifices. The ancestral sacrifices, as the name implied, were supposed to be for Dark Serenity. Though the empress actually didn¡¯t mention Dark Serenity, but rather the Forefathers, it fell within the realm of what was reasonable, and didn¡¯t count as a usurping of proper authority. For the leader of humankind to offer sacrifices to the Forefathers of humans just barely fell within the scope of etiquette.

    However, the ¡®heavens¡¯ from the heavenly sacrifices could not be changed. Before Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity left, the ¡®heavens¡¯ referred to the ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient.

    After the departure, word spread that the meaning of the ¡®heavens beyond¡¯ had changed. Starting with Emperor Eastglory, those ¡®heavens¡¯ referred to the holynds. That wasn¡¯t just the case for humans. All species in the Revered Ancient maind who weren¡¯t connected to a god would conform to that view of the ¡®heavens beyond.¡¯ Their heavenly sacrifices also involved worshiping their bloodline as it existed in the holynds. <i>Not </i>offering worship was considered an act of defiance. Species who did things like that always ended up being destroyed somehow.

    People from the holynds were notmonly seen in Revered Ancient. They existed in the heavens beyond, lofty and above all else. However, they could still use special techniques to affect the hearts and minds of the species in Revered Ancient.

    For generations, the human emperors had used the ceremonies of the heavenly sacrifices to make offerings to the holynds. Apparently, the empress was not going to be an exception.

    She stood on the Temple of Heaven, straight and tall as a mountain, as if she could provide protection to all living beings in heaven and earth. Destiny aura swirled around her, and with her imperial robes and crown, she lookedpletely dazzling. Her facial expression seemed rxed, but her eyes were piercing, as if she could see through the dome of heaven and all the way to the holynds. She seemed to fairly pulse with determination.

    When the officials saw that, they felt very calm at heart. The truth was that the events that had yed out so far made it seem like this day hadsted half a lifetime. The things that happened in front of their eyes were profoundly astonishing.

    And yet, every single person present also felt... that the sacrificial event was only just getting started, and that what was toe would be even more of a violent tempest. As for what exactly that tempest would be, it was impossible for them to predict. After all, nobody had any clue what this empress had been nning over the years.

    Did she love Dark War, or did she hate him? How did she assume the throne? What setbacks and torments had she endured? Presumably, only she knew the details. However, there was one thing that seemed obvious to everyone: she was not the kind of person who bowed her head to fate.

    She was wise and valorous, and over the years that had passed, had created her own legend among the histories of humankind. Not only was she a woman, but also, she didn¡¯t have any imperial blood. And yet... the aristocracy and government officials both on and off Ancient Emperor were fully convinced of her right to rule.

    At the moment, everything was silent.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind was racing. As he thought back to everything, he realized that the empress had obviously been expecting him to take action.

    <i>I bet she knew from day one exactly what I was here for.</i>

    Breaths of time ticked by, until exactly forty-nine had passed. At that point, the court eunuch looked up, his eyes shining incisively and his expression extremely solemn. Then he continued with the same chant from the ancestral sacrifices.

    ¡°Sacrificing gifts to heaven brings prosperity to humankind. The sacrificer loses a year of life, and thus forty-nine is the limit.[1]

    ¡°First gift... the War Banner of Humankind!¡±[2]

    As the words left his mouth, heaven and earth shook violently. The blooming flower of destiny aura in the dome of heaven tumbled to the side as numerous beams of blood-colored light shot up from Ancient Emperor.

    One after another they appeared, until there were a total of forty-nine arrayed above. They seemed to rip apart the sky, shred the air, and tear destiny as they revealed a huge banner that had been hidden as if in time itself.

    The banner was now visible. As it unfurled, it covered the sky. In fact, it became the sky, with ripples flowing across it like majestic waves! As thends went dark, life force mes appeared both inside and outside of Ancient Emperor. They even formed in the imperial capital. Each one corresponded to a specific human! And that was because this was the War Banner of Humankind! It represented the will of humankind, the species¡¯ battle spirit, and the dignity of all humans.

    This banner wasn¡¯t actually the most ancient version, but it was still profoundly meaningful.

    The most ancient War Banner of Humankind had been created by Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. It actually consisted of one main banner and 360 smaller banners. That set of banners had apanied him as he conquered Revered Ancient. When he left Revered Ancient, he took them with him.

    Humans of that time had used innumerable precious materials to forge their own new set. Thister War Banner of Humankind apanied Emperor Eastglory on the campaign trail, and contained the blood of countless nonhumans.

    Ultimately, Emperor Eastglory suffered a huge defeat. Although the war banner never fell, it was ripped into many pieces that ended up being scattered throughout Revered Ancient. Even one tiny piece contained immense power. As those scattered fragments spread, some disappeared, some were collected up by nonhumans, some were acquired by human cultivators. Collecting all of them would be a monumentally difficult task.

    As far as humans were concerned, it made more sense to just make a new banner than to expend all the effort required to collect the pieces of the old one. That was why they had ultimately given up on collecting the pieces.

    Later, when the new banner was crafted, sessive human emperors would use it when they waged war.

    Over the countless years that had passed, that banner became a symbol of humankind. It was sttered with the blood of nonhumans, and thus, when it was unfurled, the aura of blood spread out into the world. At the same time, the will of humankind as a species surged. It provoked a strong reaction in the blood of all humans, as if calling out to them.

    That included Xu Qing. When he looked up into the dome of heaven at the War Banner of Humankind, he thought back to the version of the banner he¡¯d seen back in Seven Blood Eyes.[3]

    Though Xu Qing didn¡¯t know the full story about what happened with the original banner, he could see at first nce that the two of them were constructed simrly. In fact, they probably had the same origin. However,paring the might and majesty of the two, one was like the full moon, while the other was like a firefly.

    As Xu Qing studied the War Banner of Humankind, the court eunuch¡¯s chanting again rang out.

    ¡°The war banner is presented. Let there be sacrifices! Allnds and all parties, open up your heavenly prisons! Sacrifice them to the War Banner of Humankind!¡±

    As the eunuch¡¯s voice echoed out, thunderous rumblings echoed out from the War Banner of Humankind. As the deafening sound shook everything, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions in the imperial capital opened their prison doors. Squads of human cultivators escorted out innumerable nonhuman prisoners and dragged them up into the sky. There were millions upon millions of them.

    At the moment, the cultivators in the imperial capital were looking up into the sky with solemn expressions. The people on Ancient Emperor acted the same, including Xu Qing.

    Meanwhile, teleportation portals within the imperial capital activated, connecting to prisons throughout the surrounding region. All of them received the same orders. They opened their prison doors and sent out the captives.

    If someone could look down on the Imperial Region from high above, it would be possible to estimate that, after all the prisons were opened and emptied, there were probably somewhere around 50-60,000,000 prisoners. They were nonhuman cultivators who had been locked up during the empress¡¯ rule. Most of them, however, had been taken captive after humans revealed their Dawning Suns.

    The empress said one thing in a calm voice.

    ¡°Execute them!¡±

    The cultivators standing behind the captives raised their sabers, and then screams rang out in heaven and earth. Millions upon millions of heads flew into the air. Millions upon millions of corpses fell to the ground. Innumerable quantities of blood fell like rain. However, it didn¡¯t fall into the mortal world. A gravitational force erupted from the War Banner of Humankind, turning into a vortex that sucked up all of the corpses and blood.

    At the same time, the teleportation portals surged, causing all of the corpses there to be teleported to the spot. All of them were also pulled into the War Banner of Humankind.

    As of now, the War Banner of Humankind was a deeper crimson than it had ever been, and it was ghastly to behold. It was a blood-soaked event, but it was just further evidence of how the species of Revered Ancient lived brutal lives.

    It wasn¡¯t just human sacrifices that were like this. All species offered living sacrifices. It was a world in which the weak were the prey of the strong. That was the paramount magicalw in Revered Ancient.

    After the flesh and blood was absorbed, turning the war banner bright red, the way the banner stirred seemed to indicate... that there was a second phase about to begin.

    It was the sacrifice of souls.

    Next, the souls of the millions upon millions of executed prisoners were locked down and prevented from entering the cycle of reincarnation. They couldn¡¯t leave, and thus, they could only gather and wait. Millions upon millions of nonhuman souls swirled in the air, making it seem like evil ghosts were invading the mortal world. Though the mortal world was a ce of weakness, there were some situations in which devil ghosts couldn¡¯t do anything more than howl and shriek.

    Then the War Banner of Humankind pped, and thunderous rumblings could be heard as the vast host of nonhuman souls were absorbed. All of them were sucked in to be nutrients for the banner!

    At that point, the shrill voice of the eunuch again rang out.

    ¡°The sacrifice to the banner isplete. Let the empress officiate!¡±

    Facepletely expressionless, the empress reached up and made a grasping gesture toward the sky.

    In response, the dome of heaven trembled and distorted, bending in the direction of the empress as the enormous War Banner of Humankind flew toward her.

    An instantter, she snatched it out of the sky! With her hand gripping the gpole, she hefted the war banner, looked up at the canopy of heaven, and then waved the banner forcefully.

    It rippled like waves, filling the air above the imperial capital. And then it turned into a bright red vortex.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet, though. She once again waved the banner. The blood-colored vortex grew more intense. After it spun nine times, it was like a red tornado raging in the sky, shattering the air as it spread out. It looked like something was opening up!

    Unfortunately, the heaven of Revered Ancient was sealed. It was possible to get in from outside, but not possible to get out from the inside. To do so required paying an astronomical price. Xu Qing and the Captain had only managed it by tapping into the power of a god domain.

    Seeing that the empress was apparently doing something simr caused Xu Qing¡¯s pupils to constrict.

    Deafening rumbling swept out as Ancient Emperor shook violently. Destiny aura was like a dragon, shooting up toward the vortex before mming into it. As the dragon continued to roar, terrifying fluctuations erupted from Ancient Emperor. Specifically... they came from the golden godfire burning on the.

    Although the fire wasn¡¯tplete, it did have the aura of a god in it. As Ancient Emperor rumbled, the fire rose up into the sky toward the blood-red tempest. It looked like a shocking ancient stream of mes that could burn anything in its path!

    And yet, things still weren¡¯t over. Next, the empress swept her hand out, throwing the War Banner of Humankind like a spear toward the sky.

    As a spear, it shot forward like a hammer crushing an ice cube. Nothing could stop it as it shot forth, backed by the fate of humankind, with a will to defy all odds.

    At the same time, the empress took a step toward the canopy of heaven. When she appeared up above, she became the destiny aura and the will of humankind. Drawing on her imperial title and her daring personality, she clenched her right hand into a fist... and punched it toward heaven!

    She seemed to be doing all of this to break open heaven! Using the vortex banner, the will of humankind, the dragon of destiny, the banner as the spear, the might of godfire, and her peak Imperial Sovereign battle prowess, it was possible to break open heaven and sunder the earth!

    Intense rumbling and cracking sounds spread out. Heaven was splitting open!

    A huge rift could be seen tearing through the canopy of heaven. The starry sky that existed beyond the world was now visible, along with a shimmering band of silver light.

    That band was enormous, as it started in the starry sky above the Imperial Region and stretched out... far into the deeper starry sky. Far out in the imperceptible starry sky was a holy that waspletely silver in color!

    The wasn¡¯t anywhere near as big as Revered Ancient. But it was still majestic. And if you looked closely at it, you would realize it looked a lot like Ancient Emperor.

    It was... the very same ce that Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity had carved out years ago. It was... the Dark Serenity holynd!

    As for the great silver band, it was apparently a path leading there! As of now, that path was visible!

    The empress stood outside of the path, her eyes full of determination.

    ¡°I am the current empress of the humans in Revered Ancient. Today, I offer forty-nine imperial jade seals made from the nourished destiny aura of humankind as sacrifices to the Dark Serenity holynd.¡±

    The empress waved her hand, and a host of glittering jade seals flew out of the destiny aura on Ancient Emperor. Each jade seal was obviously a precious treasure, and contained immense amounts of human destiny aura, as well as the will of humankind. Because humans were currently rising to prominence, they were unusually sparkling and brilliant.

    They even seemed to pulse with the power of faith. Now they were being respectfully offered by the empress to the holynd.

    As everyone looked on, the empress inclined her head and bowed at the waist. The forty-nine jade seals flew into the rift and onto the silver path. Thus waspleted the ceremony of the heavenly sacrifices.

    Each sacrifice to heaven involved offering gifts to the holynd above. In the past, though the offerings were always jade seals made from destiny aura, there were usually not so many offered, nor was the canopy of heaven ripped open. Instead, it was done via an ancient method passed down by the holynds.[4]

    This time, though, things were different. Also different was how, as the forty-nine jade seals shot rapidly across that band of silver light, a force of rejection appeared. Ripples spread through the silver light, as if an inspection was being carried out. Then the forty-nine jade seals suddenly shivered.

    Next, as all the human cultivators watched, something astonishing happened. The sacrificial offerings in the form of the forty-nine jade seals began to crumble from the outside, revealing what was inside.

    There were forty-nine objects that resembled suns.

    There were forty-nine balls of me like hell.

    There were... forty-nine Dawning Suns!

    Looking up, the empress coolly said, ¡°Would the holynd please enjoy the gift? I do invite thee to partake!¡±

    1. The second line in this paragraph is extremely hard to decipher, even in Chinese. I enlisted Madam Deathde to help, and we both read all thements and did our own various bits of research and checking to try to determine the meaning. My interpretation is a fairly direct trantion, and thus, it¡¯s kind of vague. Normally speaking, I will trante the text in a way which either includes some of the unstated meaning, or makes it easy to guess. But in this case, since I can¡¯t really determine exactly what it means, I¡¯m leaving it vague. Personally, I think it means that the act of carrying out these sacrifices causes the person making the sacrifice to lose a year of longevity, and that it somehow rtes to her being 49 years old. Though the time frames were never stated outright, if Ningyan is roughly the same age as Xu Qing, and he was born when his mother was in her 20¡¯s, then she could well be about 50 years old right now. However, some Chinesementers seemed to think it meant she was 490 years old, which I don¡¯t think makes sense. Of course, maybe there are some things I haven¡¯t thought about or am remembering incorrectly. In any case, it doesn¡¯t seem to be very important other than to highlight that there is some formal/ceremonial justification for using the number 49 in this chapter. ?

    2. The War Banner of Humankind was mentioned a few times in early chapters, specifically, <u>122</u>, <u>219.1</u>, <u>219.2</u>, <u>220</u>, <u>326</u>. ?

    3. See the previous footnote for all the references to the time the banner appeared in 7BE days. ?

    4. This part sort of pokes a hole in my argument that 49 is rted to the empress¡¯ age. However, for the life of me I can¡¯t think of how a reduction of one year is relevant to anything, nor can I figure out how 49 or 50 is relevant to this section. Sorry guys, usually I can decipher the vague parts and exin them, but in this part I am falling short in that regard. The upside is that it¡¯s only relevant in this chapter, and doesn¡¯t seem to be deeply rted to therger plot. ?

 Chapter 951: I Will Shoulder the Responsibility!

    <h4>Chapter 951: I Will Shoulder the Responsibility!</h4>

    The development urred too suddenly. All human cultivators present had been aware that the empress was surely going to do something extremely dramatic, they had assumed it would be a move made against nonhumans. There was no way anyone could have imagined... that the tempest would be aimed at the holynds! Cries of rm and surprise rang out instantly.

    The holynds were far, far away from Revered Ancient. But for countless years, the holynds still held sway. That was especially true for humans.

    After all, the most important person in the holynds, and in fact, their leader, was Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Despite the fact that he had been gone for countless years, his name, aplishments, and majesty were still known throughout all of Revered Ancient. The worse things got for humans, the more they remembered past glories. The more bitterness humankind faced, the more they longed to connect again with the holynds. The passage of countless years had resulted in the holynds bing a symbol of hope for all humans.

    Although, it was true that their ultimate ancestor had abandoned them, there were reasons it happened, and humans hadn¡¯t forgotten that. And starting with Emperor Eastglory, humans had used the heavenly sacrifices to maintain that connection with the Dark Serenity holynd, and the humans there.

    Most humans weren¡¯t really aware of how much help and hope the holynds provided. But the top government officials and experts of their level did know. Because of that, the empress¡¯ actions left all of them shaken and numb. There were also traces of anger and fear in them. Their emotional reaction didn¡¯t change anything.

    In the dome of heaven beyond the rift that had been torn open, the Dawning Suns that had been revealed within the forty-nine jade seals, all started to glow brightly and heated up. And then, one after another... they detonated.

    All of a sudden, the sky over Revered Ancient became iparably bright. Even distant regions could clearly see the unprecedented event. Blinding light and boundless heat waves spread out from the forty-nine specially-prepared Dawning Suns. And not one bit of light or heat went in the wrong direction.

    Shockingly, it all converged to create a massive spell formation.

    It had a name: Dawning Formation.

    It had two purposes: convergence and attack!

    The power of the forty-nine detonating Dawning Suns converged, creating a beam of incredibly intense light and heat. It shot across the silver light, heading with indescribable speed directly toward the Dark Serenity holynd! The pathway of silver light began crumbling.

    As the beam of light from the forty-nine Dawning Suns shot forth, the surrounding starry sky shattered, and the universe was illuminated. It was like a long spear, packed with the strength of the empress and the madness of the Dawning Suns, and it was flying right toward the Dark Serenity holynd.

    Terrifying rumbling sounds echoed out, like that of some enormous star-faring beast. Crumbling fragments of the silver path fell through the rift in the sky, bing like bits of light that illuminated the imperial capital. This was a type of light that was foreign to Revered Ancient. It was the light of the holynds.

    The empress¡¯ voice then rang out into the ears of the terrified and confused onlookers. It was a voice that was majestic, but also hoarse, as if it had traveled through countless years and to tell a story of the ancient past.

    ¡°Minsters, citizens, and living beings of humankind....

    ¡°The ancestral edicts of humankind state that the ruler obeys the orders of the heavens. Those heavens are the holynds. And all of it traces back to the holy ancestor. The ancestral edicts dictate that the emperor of humankind may not profane the holynds and may not walk the path of gods. Gods are enemies for all time.

    ¡°Those edicts were approved by humans throughout history, and were always respected. People suffered. People died. And no one felt regret. However... there are certain matters that you people aren¡¯t aware of!¡± The empress¡¯ voice was now trembling.

    ¡°When the broken face came, who focused on self-protection? The holynds. Who benefited from tens of thousands of years of our sacrifices, all while looking down on everyone else? The holynds.

    ¡°In the year 37,938 of the Eastglory calendar, the historical records indicate that Emperor Eastglory sought to achieve extraordinary things. He led our species to war against the Firemoon Darkheaven people, only to meet with a resounding defeat. The resources we humans had stockpiled for tens of thousands of years were lost forever. It came to be called the Darkheaven Rebellion. However, that¡¯s not the truth of what happened![1]

    ¡°The truth is that Emperor Eastglory received a mission from the holynds, calling for him to lead a military campaign against the Firemoons, all with the goal of learning their deepest secrets. After going through countless trials and tribtions, the holynds abandoned Eastglory and us humans. We had to face the rage of the Firemoons alone, and that was when our downfall began.

    ¡°Eastglory did not wish to shame the holynds, so he epted it without a word ofint. After his death and down to this day, he was reviled and cursed. Except who was really responsible? The holynds!

    ¡°When Emperor Sageheaven took the throne, traditions changed. Sacrifices were dutifully offered to the holynds year after year. We did not plead for the holynds to help us expand our territory. We only begged that they safeguard humans in times of weakness.

    ¡°But the holynds kept their doors locked! They only <i>took </i>from us. Never did they ask about our safety or concern themselves with our survival. They didn¡¯t care that humans lost thirty-nine regions. They didn¡¯t mind that billions upon billions ofmoners became destitute and homeless, and ended up scattered throughout Revered Ancient, where most became ves to nonhumans.

    ¡°Some yearster during the Mirrorcloud calendar, humankind had a chance to rise to new heights. Emperor Mirrorcloud was wise and capable. But the holynds feared him, so they secretly sent agents here to suppress our species.[2]

    ¡°After that, Emperor Dao Life continued to carry out Mirrorcloud¡¯s ambitions. He wanted to break ties with the holynds. However, he unexpectedly died a violent death, a murder mystery that has remained unresolved for tens of thousands of years. Well, who was behind all of that?

    ¡°The humans in the holynds are human. Are we here on Revered Ancient <i>not </i>human?

    ¡°Why do the holynds fear the possibility of the humans in Revered Ancient rising to prominence? Is Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity even present in the holynds now? Who exactly is in charge of the holynds nowadays?

    ¡°Today, the emperor of the Heaveneaters came with four of his heavenly kings. They shouldn¡¯t havee here, yet they did. To probe for information. Why? Because someone made a pledge to them. But who? Who gave them that pledge?¡±

    All humans present maintained silence.

    There were some of the officials who wished to speak, except their words stuck in their throat. There were some things thatmoners weren¡¯t aware of, but that they, as aristocrats and important officials, were deeply familiar with. They were just careful to never bring those things up.

    ¡°On this day, I am going to vite the ancestral edicts! I will bring down this holynd and walk the path of the gods. I will sever all connections with the holynds! After I do this, I don¡¯t hope to live for all eternity. I only hope that I can give humankind a chance to flourish. A chance to once again be glorious in Revered Ancient!¡±

    The empress¡¯ eyes shone with bright light and a boundlessly domineering spirit. And her voice echoed to fill the imperial capital. She reached out, and the light of the holynds that was spilling down toward the imperial capital changed directions and shot toward her. Apparently, the light of the holynds was important during this key moment of godly ascension. As it descended, it seemed to ignite an opportunity!

    Ancient Emperor rumbled loudly as five vortexes appeared around it, slowly orbiting it. Astonishingly, each vortex had a Temple of Heaven in it. Seated cross-legged atop each temple was a figure in an imperial robe. They were the corpses of the past emperors, Dark War included. What had been in the coffins earlier were only small representations of them. The true corpses were now being revealed.

    Imperial energy raged to the sky. All had godfire, and with Ancient Emperor forming the nexus, it started burning.

    The empress raised both of her hands as if to lift the overhead. Then she spoke in a dignified voice that boomed like thunder.

    ¡°On this day, I do not seek godly ascension for myself. No, I will take all of these past emperors and reach godly ascension together!

    ¡°Going forward, these five emperors will be zombie gods! Though they willck thinking faculties, they will have godly might. They will possess the will of humankind, and they will follow the direction of human destiny aura. They will protect all of our interests, and strike fear into the hearts of the nonhumans.

    ¡°As for me, I will be a human god, ready to safeguard humankind and bring peace for generations toe! My actions will result in karma that will bring catastrophe and tribtion. But as the empress... I will shoulder the responsibility!¡±

    The empress held her head high as she looked into the sky of Revered Ancient, her voice reaching the heavenly daos as she uttered her oath.

    An instantter, Revered Ancient began to tremble, and the heavenly daos began to appear. Thunderous booms rang out.

    1. Just a quick note to point out that the date corresponds to the historical date mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u>. ?

    2. As mentioned in <u>chapter 401</u> and expanded onter in the narrative, Mirrorcloud worked together with the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. ?

 Chapter 952: The Bright of Dawn, the Dark of Night

    <h4>Chapter 952: The Bright of Dawn, the Dark of Night</h4>

    It was currently dawn as the five vortexes slowly spun around Ancient Emperor. The corpses of the past emperors emanated shocking imperial energy. Though these emperors were dead, thanks to the vortexes, their auras were still heaven-shaking and earth-shattering.

    They became five gigantic beams of light that shot up into the clouds. They formed a pentagonal shape with Ancient Emperor in the middle. From a distance, it almost looked like a huge pentagonal altar. Although it was somewhat simr to the previous altar, whether it was in terms of the size or the structure, it was absolutely beyondparison.

    This was the empress¡¯ true godly ascension ceremony. Something else that was differentpared to before was that this ceremony contained something unimaginably clever. It was as if... the ceremony itself possessed life force!

    Xu Qing had never seen anything the likes of this before.

    All of the godly ascension ceremonies he had seen in the past were vaguely simr in the sense that they were just ceremonies. None of them had imparted a sensation of life force. This was the first he had ever witnessed like this.

    <i>She¡¯s going to be a human god, and the past emperors will be zombie gods.... Now this is daring and bold!</i>

    Xu Qing was visibly moved. He had run into domineering people before. And he had seen people who were bold and daring. But most of them were men. In this case, the empress was doing something that countless men would have trouble pulling off. That was definitely a rarity! That was especially true considering she wanted to break ties with the holynds. That was essentially the definition of being hard and unyielding.

    The revtion of forty-nine Dawning Suns was something Xu Qing could never have predicted. In fact, no one could have predicted that. This was a level of imposing loftiness that surpassed the word ¡®emperor.¡¯

    Beyond all of that, there seemed to be something else forming the ignition source for this ceremony.

    <i>The silver light from that holynd formed the passageway. But it was ripped to shreds, and the fragments became light!</i>

    Xu Qing looked up at the closing rift in the dome of heaven. Just now, fragments had fallen through that rift and turned into light over the imperial capital. Then the empress gathered that light and made it part of the ceremony. That was when the ceremony seemed to gain life force.

    It was light from beyond the heavens. More precisely, it was light from the holynds. And the empress took advantage of it at a key point in the godly ascension ceremony.

    The entire thing was astonishing, not just to Xu Qing, but also to all the other humans in the area. The shocking events of this day were like sessive waves crashing on the beach.

    Meanwhile, the empress¡¯ words boomed like thunder or the eruption of volcanoes. As it turned out, these were the details of Emperor Eastglory¡¯s story. As it turned out, this was the source of Emperor Mirrorcloud¡¯s grief. As it turned out, this was why Emperor Sageheaven was so bitter. As it turned out, Emperor Dao Life¡¯s death was an unsolved mystery.

    No one knew how to react. No one but the empress, who hovered in midair amidst the five beams of light, looking up into the sky.

    Beneath her, Ancient Emperor burned with intense golden light. When that golden color becameplete, it would indicate that the ceremony was sessful. At that time, the five past emperors would be gods, and the empress¡¯ sess would ensure that she became a legend.

    At that point, the empress¡¯ gaze became profoundly sharp. It seemed intense enough to pierce heaven and shake the earth! Wild colors shed in heaven and earth, and intense, thunderous rumblings shook the sky. That noise didn¡¯te from the dome of heaven itself, but rather... from beyond the dome of heaven! As it entered Revered Ancient, it became a majestic voice that filled the entire imperial capital.

    <i>¡°These are the words of the Ancient Emperor, who hath epted the Mandate of Heaven and hath been enshrined by immortals. This false emperor is not surnamed Guyue, does not have a pleasant disposition, and is cruel and vicious at heart. Once the concubine of Dark War, she served as a mortal, selfishly convinced Dark War to withdraw from the public eye, and plotted to earn special favors in the imperial harem.</i>

    <i>¡°She has the heart of a venomous insect and the personality of a jackal. She befriends corrupt officials and bewitches the kind and loyal. She is hated by men and ghosts. She is rejected by heaven and earth.</i>

    <i>¡°There is no doubt she harbors evil intentions, going so far as to lust after the ancestral relics. But today, we will find out who is truly in charge of this region!</i>

    <i>¡°The promises of the humans of Revered Ancient still ring loudly in my ears. For the sake of Revered Ancient¡¯s destiny aura, and in order to save the entire realm, this woman must be deposed!</i>

    <i>¡°Let everyone from mortals to the nobility abide by this universal decree!</i>

    <i>¡°If one harbors improper attachments and wanders the incorrect path, one will ignore the ominous omens and suffer the punishment of execution! Thus speaketh the Ancient Emperor!¡±</i>

    The words struck the humans like thunderbolts, causing countless cultivators to tremble. A tempest built within them, arising from within their blood and exploding into their minds. The power of human destiny aura surged, spreading out in all directions to create a force of expulsion targeting the empress.

    The empress¡¯ imperial robes were ripped to shreds, and her imperial crown was torn apart. That was because these words came from beyond the heavens, and they were a true imperial edict! It was an edict from an Ancient Emperor! Such an edict couldmand a species and determine life or death with a word. It could affect all humans and control all destiny aura.

    As the hearts of all humans pounded, the gigantic dragon of destiny aura turned to the empress and roared. The projections of the countless sages of the past turned and red angrily at her. Simultaneously, the destiny aura seethed as the spirits of human heroes appeared, people who had died over the years waging war against the gods. They quickly filled heaven and earth, forming a shocking power. All of them seemed furious as they looked at the empress.

    They wanted to remove her imperial title and prevent her from reaching godly ascension! This was the counterattack from the holynds!

    In response to all of that, the empress¡¯ gaze remained as incisive as ever. As the destiny aura formed innumerable heroes around her, she spoke in a calm voice.

    ¡°All of you witnessed Eastglory¡¯s fate. All of you observed Mirrorcloud¡¯s grief. All of you understood Sageheaven¡¯s bitterness. All of you perished just like Dao Life.

    ¡°You are all sages and heroes. You lived as humans and you died as such. I offer you my respect. However... I cannot see what is wrong and ignore it. I cannot understand the truth but speak deceitfully.

    ¡°And I cannot base my thinking and actions all on some edict from beyond the heavens! For tens of thousands of years, humans have suffered. Themon people have been unprotected, dying constantly, filling thends with their corpses. They have been like ves. Livestock. Their lives have been a spectacle too horrible to endure....

    ¡°Today I rise to prominence so that I can protect my people. I will bring home all those who are lost and wandering. I will safeguard ournds near and far. I refuse to let humans be weak. From now on, we humans will be able to stand strong and tall!

    ¡°Heaven and earth can bear witness to my intentions. All Revered Ancient can hear my words. In that case... what basis does the destiny aura of humankind have to devour me?¡±

    The empress¡¯ voice was as sharp as a de as it cut through heaven and earth before stabbing into the destiny aura. The destiny aura seethed more chaotically, as though the heroes and sages were contemting what had just been said.

    The empress lifted her foot and took a step forward. Intense rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as she continued to speak in a thunderous voice.

    ¡°Humankind has been weak and feeble. In decline. And through it all, the holynds just make demands. They don¡¯t care at all whether our species lives or dies! We struggle while powerful species abound around us, always longing to wipe us out forever!

    ¡°Ever since I seeded to the throne, I have been cautious and conscientious. I haven¡¯t dared to rx for a moment. I created the Dawning Suns and created alliances, all while treading thin ice. The slightest misstep could result in theplete extinction of the human species. What else could I have done?

    ¡°Oh, heroes and sages, what advice would you have given me? Do you really want to just stand by and watch as humankind is wiped out? Will you just casually observe humans descending into the most terrible of situations? Do you really want <i>all </i>existing humans to be spirits of the dead like you?¡±

    The empress¡¯ foot touched down, and everything shook. The destiny aura was in chaos as the expressions of the faces of the heroes and sages filled with intense pain. They no longer looked angry.

    ¡°Well, I refuse!¡± the empress said. As of now, her voice was the only thing that could be heard. ¡°And therefore... the only option is godly ascension! I¡¯ve be empress, and now I¡¯ll be a god. All is karma. I will shoulder the responsibility, all for the glory of humankind. I hereby ask heaven, ask earth, ask the heart, and ask the heroes and sages in the destiny aura of humankind: is there anything wrong with what I¡¯ve done?

    ¡°The holynds don¡¯t care about humankind, but I do! Heaven and earth do not pity humankind, but I do! Heroes and sages of human destiny aura, considering my stance... why are you fighting me?¡±

    The empress¡¯ words seemed to shake the entire world. She was tapping into karma to form grand aspirations! She had an honest and upright heart, and spoke with a clear conscience as she asked her questions of the destiny aura, of the heroes, and of the sages.

    Why are you trying to devour me?

    Why are you fighting me?

    The destiny aura erupted with sounds like howls of grief. The heroes and sages all stood there. And then, all of the heroes and every one of the sages inclined their heads and kowtowed to the empress.

    ¡°Empress!¡±

    Their voices filled the world.

    The destiny aura surged as a new imperial robe appeared on the empress, along with a new imperial crown. They were even more majestic and impressive than before. Thends, will, history, and destiny aura of humankind were all blessing the empress! A terrifying aura began to build up on her.

    After the departure of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, in all the countless years of human history, nothing like this had ever happened among the sessive Ancient Emperors. Down below, Ancient Emperor was aze.

    ***

    As human momentum built within the dawn, something else was happening in the darkness of night in a very distant region. Everything happening was the exact opposite.

    It was happening in the Heaveneater Region.

    Outside of their imperial pce was the 3,000-meter-tall Emperor Heaveneater. At the moment, he was crumbling. Countless bits of blood and flesh rained down in all directions.

    The Heaveneaters surrounding him had looks of shock and anxiety on their faces. But they were powerless to do anything. The sensation of weakness emanating off of their emperor was clear for everyone to see.

    A momentter, Emperor Heaveneater slowly opened his eyes.

    ¡°I am well,¡± he said in a hoarse voice.

    Everyone could see that he was most definitely not well. In fact, he was in a very serious situation. He was so badly wounded that he obviously needed to go into seclusion immediately. And that was his n as he gritted his teeth against the pain of the injuries.

    ¡°All of you¡ª¡± he said, but before he could finish the sentence, a sensation of profound crisis exploded within him. He looked up into the dark dome of heaven, his expression one of shock. ¡°Is that...?¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, a chanting voice filled the canopy of heaven.

    <i>¡°The energy of the ultimate yang of the two prities merges into the ancient eyes of the gods, bing the glittering light of the starry sky over Revered Ancient. Let the projection fall and incarnate into the domain of a god.</i>

    <i>¡°Respected lord of the sun and many heavens of the universe, the holy Torchlight. Let the door descend!¡±</i>[1]

    As the words erupted, heaven and earth in the Heaveneaters¡¯ imperial capital shook violently. A terrifying, indescribably mighty force weighed down, not only on the capital, but on the entire Heaveneater Region.

    All of a sudden, a blurry image appeared in the sky over the head of Emperor Heaveneater. It overtook heaven and overtook all daos. It overtook anything and everything.

    Within the image was an extremely gruish and mysterious world. It was possible to see a host of freakish, immense trees that emanated fluctuations of godliness. Godly, gruish beasts abounded. Ancient, unique temples appeared, emanating a sense of profound age. It was possible to see frozen seas and mountains that existed in gaseous states. There were freakish, humanoid clouds, spirits resembling octopuses that had lived for innumerable years. And there were huge birds with plumed wings that could obscure the sky and cover thends. Each seemedrger than the next, and all were bizarre in appearance and form.

    In the depths of that bizarre scene was a shocking figure that was a terrifying, 5,000-kilometer sphere. The sphere was ck and covered with both writhing tentacles and gruish, blinking eyes that seemed capable of peering through both time and space. Deep, resonant voices spoke from within the sphere, like thunder that caused the clouds to seethe. As the sphere stirred, the world trembled, thends shook, the seas went wild, and the air burst into mes.

    The ck sphere¡¯s surface was covered with innumerable faces, all of which were singing the same words that had just been chanted.

    This was... Torchlight¡¯s god domain!

    Next, a host of innumerable tentacles erupted from the ck sphere. Each one pulsed with the power of godly authority, and could ignore magicalws.

    Emperor Heaveneater¡¯s face fell, and he backed up at top speed. At the same time, he lifted his hand to call upon his Imperial Sovereign¡¯s might. Doing so, he changed the face of heaven and earth. It was as if he had carved out his own chunk of space-time. His own universe.

    And yet the tentacles glowed with ck light as they stretched out hungrily from the ck sphere of flesh that was a god domain.

    Innumerable tentacles writhed out to bind the emperor. In the blink of an eye, the seriously injured Emperor Heaveneater was dragged into the god domain.

    The other surrounding Heaveneaters cried out in rm as shadowy figures flew out of the Torchlight god domain and into theirnds. There were hundreds of thousands of them!

    They abounded with baleful auras and were iparably fierce. Some hadpletely expressionless faces, others had faint, warm smiles. There were all sorts of temperaments on disy, and numerous different species represented. The one unifying element to them was that they were all chosen cultivators who had carried out Blood-Soaked Performances.

    They were Torchlight agents from all parts of the Revered Ancient maind!

    In addition to them, there were some even more gruish entities. They were dressed in ck cloaks that covered them from head to toe. Yet the cold, terrifying auras they exuded made them seem like they were ancient ghosts from theherworld. They pulsed with ck smoke that swirled around them and took the form of horrendous monsters. Even more noteworthy, their bodies seemed to be made of nts. They were either tall and burly, or very gruish. Some looked humanoid, but others resembled beasts. All of them pulsed with the mutagen of gods.

    If Xu Qing were present, he would have recognized them immediately. They were all experimental god bodies! As they descended, these vile cultivators¡¯ eyes glowed with underworld light. They cackled viciously.

    ¡°Is this the location the crown prince selected for us?¡±

    ¡°The aura here is actually wonderful....¡±

    ¡°I suppose we should start the ughter. Follow the crown prince¡¯s orders. Turn all living beings here into building materials of flesh and blood!¡±

    With that, they charged down.

    ***

    While humans became the focus of countless gazes, a shocking massacre took ce in the imperial capital of the Heaveneaters. And that massacre quickly spread to fill the entire region.

    Without their emperor or their heavenly kings, the previously extraordinary Heaveneaters were now forced to face the Torchlight organization, including their experimental god bodies, some of which were capable of self-detonation. And in the end, they were facing a god domain....

    It was easy to imagine what fatey in store for them. That was especially true considering... that the gruish entities which descended from that god domain brought with them pure terror.

    A devastating catastrophe had struck the Heaveneater Region.

    1. This words are a verbatim repetition of what we heard in <u>chapters 800</u> and <u>801</u>. ?

 Chapter 953: Human Heavenly Daos Awaken

    <h4>Chapter 953: Human Heavenly Daos Awaken</h4>

    That night¡¯s catastrophe brought havoc to all living beings in the Heaveneater Region. Meanwhile, the light of dawn shone in the sky over the humans¡¯ imperial capital. As of this moment, the contrast between light and dark was very prominent in Revered Ancient.

    However, while there was struggle in that dark night, there were also obstacles to ovee within the dawn light.

    In the human imperial capital, on Ancient Emperor, the destiny aura was rejecting the holynds. It created a new imperial robe and crown for the empress, all while scintiting godfire burned on the below. The fire was bing increasingly golden.

    The five vortexes with the corpses of the past emperors were the same. The golden fire within them made the emperors seem increasingly full of life. Even the blood within their withered bodies was showing signs of awakening. A godly aura was increasingly prominent.

    Most shocking of all was the empress herself. Her aura was startlingly outstanding, making her seem like the lord of all heaven and earth. She seemed like an actual god of this world, possessing omniscience, and boundlessly majestic. What was more, she shimmered with more and more golden light. Even from a distance, she seemed like a bright sun in the sky!

    As she powered up, it affected the destiny aura. The destiny aura was in motion, rising, causing the boundless clouds to form infinite auspicious shapes.

    As of this moment... there was no one among humankind who wanted to speak out against godly ascension.

    As the godly might of the past emperors erupted, it shook the cosmos, fusing with the majesty of the empress to create something like a dazzling godntern that cast light all throughout Revered Ancient. Countless species could sense it. Innumerable gods felt it. Many streams of divine will came from all directions to converge on the imperial capital.

    There was no denying that the empress¡¯ aura was astounding to the point of being stupefying. Her actions were profoundly domineering. Her heart could strike fear into the hearts of all.

    Peak Imperial Sovereign was a terrifying level that was analogous to a tribtion fire High God. Although it wasn¡¯t quite on the level of a wless God, it was extremely close. What was more, for someone like that to shift their dao to that of the gods was something that was extremely rare from ancient times until now.

    If it worked... then after igniting godfire, that power would be iparably close to wless!

    There was even the possibility that, like Li Zihua, wless God could be skipped, allowing the empress... to step right into Altar God! That wasparable to the Quasi-Immortal level in the Summer Immortal cultivation system!

    It was hard to say for sure. But one thing was certain: although this was an extremely rare destined opportunity, there was definitely a chance for sess!

    Li Zihua proved that!

    How could the inhabitants of Revered Ancient <i>not</i> be astonished? Granted, there was only a small chance at sess. But the gods of Revered Ancient had long since prohibited the existence of any god like that. And considering what happened recently with the Firemoons, the other top species in Revered Ancient obviously didn¡¯t want another powerful species rising up. Therefore, the empress¡¯ attempt at godly ascension was going to get a lot more resistance than the actions of the three Firemoon gods.

    There were many aspects of karma at y. What was more, because the Firemoons had already been one of the top species, and their gods all High Gods, to a certain extent, they had already qualified to have wless Gods. But humankind did not have any such qualifications. What was more, during that event, it was only the Firemoons¡¯ grand steward who was attempting godly ascension. But with humankind... if you counted the empress, there were six attempts at godly ascension going on!

    Most importantly of all, the Firemoons were not subservient to any holynd. With humans, it was entirely different.

    Put precisely, the holynds had always lorded it over humankind, and had controlled them from afar. Whether it was Eastglory or Sageheaven, all had bent the knee to the holynds. Dao Life had contemted breaking ties. But he had been mysteriously killed, and the case had never been solved. That made it abundantly clear how much control the holynds had over Revered Ancient.

    The empress¡¯ choice to attempt godly ascension indicated that humans on Revered Ancient wanted to be independent. They refused to be controlled. But even the fact that forty-nine Dawning Suns had been unleashed didn¡¯t change things for the Dark Serenity holynd!

    After all, they had made a promise to the Heaveneaters, resulting in their emperor being used like a de to see how strong the human emperor was. When all was said and done, the opposition to humankind came from the gods, the top species, and the holynds! It was no exaggeration to say that no one would ever allow humans to do this!

    That was the reason for the imperial edict from the holynds, which had stirred the destiny aura against the empress.

    However, that was only the first counterattack. The holynds¡¯ second counterattack was already on the way.

    The holynds existed beyond the dome of heaven, making it difficult for them to interfere directly. Their options were limited. However, they did have forces in ce that were astonishingly powerful.

    Suddenly, intense ripples flowed out across the sky above the imperial capital, apanied by thunderous booms. An astonishing figure appeared, piercing through the air to fill the sky. It was an enormous beast with the body of a dragon and the face of a human. It was so huge it blotted out the sky, and caused all cultivators¡¯ hearts to pound. A worshipful sensation filled their souls and spread out, causing their expressions to flicker.

    This terrifying entity turned to face the empress, eyes cold and bereft of even a scrap ofpassion. It was impossible to tell the gender of the face, but it exuded heavenly might. Every scale pulsed with magicalws that shook the very cultivation foundations of all the cultivators present.

    It was a heavenly dao. In fact, it was one of the original ny-nine ancient heavenly daos of Revered Ancient! And it wasn¡¯t alone! An instantter, a second heavenly dao manifested in the dome of heaven.

    This second heavenly dao was a nine-headed lion that approached from afar, kicking up wind, rain, thunder, and lightning into a massive tempest.

    Things weren¡¯t over yet. An instantter, an enormous pitch-ck statue appeared out of nowhere, pulsing with the power of sealing. After that was a snow-white crane that let loose a crisp, clear cry as it soared from over the horizon to circle above humannds. All were heavenly daos.

    The final heavenly dao to appear didn¡¯t look like a living thing. Instead, it was an enormous sealing stamp that pulsed with a sensation of ancient time. It was carved with andscape representing Revered Ancient, along with countless humans. In fact, the final image depicted humankind waging war with the gods.

    This was... the Seal of Humanity!

    It was the sealing stamp of the very first Ancient Emperor to exist in the Revered Ancient maind, which waster sent into the dome of heaven to be one of the heavenly daos.

    Including the sealing stamp, there were now five of the ancient heavenly daos arrayed in the sky above humankind. These were the reserve powers left in ce in Revered Ancient by the Dark Serenity holynd, and they were being called on to stop the empress.

    Wild colors shed in heaven and earth as the mightiness of the heavenly daos created a pressure ofw that weighed down everywhere. The ground shook so hard that cracks opened up, all while countless sealing marks surrounded the empress.

    In the imperial capital, mortals and cultivators alike, including the aristocracy and government officials, were all visibly stunned. There were only a handful of people whose facial expressions remained the same as before.

    One of them was the empress. She hovered in midair, pulsing with might as she resisted the suppression of the heavenly daos. It seemed as if no obstacle could do anything to her unswerving determination. No amount of force could bend her spine. No person in existence could make her bow her head.

    As her phoenix-like eyes took in the five ancient heavenly daos, she lifted her right hand and waved it in front of her. Instantly, a gigantic war drum rumbled into existence atop Ancient Emperor.

    The drum was made from the verynds of humankind, and contained a peak level of human will. Its power came from the bloodline of humanity, and the moment it appeared, it pulsed with a majestic energy that embodied the idiom: <i>human wisdom can prevail over heaven</i>.

    This was none other than the War Drum of Humankind!

    ¡°King Skycrusher,¡± the empress said coolly. ¡°Given your status, you are most suited to stand in for me. Strike the drum and crush the heavenly daos!¡±

    Her voice swept across Ancient Emperor and reached Xu Qing.

    After making a move earlier, Xu Qing had held back and simply watched the spectacle of the godly ascension ceremony. He had heard everything the empress said, and was well aware that there was significance to her calling him out just now. Presumably she knew about him having a heavenly dao as a son, and thus had a deep karmic connection to the ancient heavenly daos.

    Xu Qing silently took in the empress¡¯ boundless power and knew he couldn¡¯t refuse her. He burst into motion, heading toward the dome of heaven. As everyone looked on, he came to stand atop the enormous War Drum of Humankind. He tapped into his cultivation base, and 40,000,000 soul threads shot out to form his major world. Next came the Grand Darkheaven Armor and the Ninedawns skulls, pushing his aura to the absolute peak.

    Eyes glittering brightly, he lifted his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and struck down onto the drum.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    The fist contained world-shaking might that resulted in a deafening boom when it hit the drum! The sound shook the air and caused thend to quake. All buildings in the imperial capital shook back and forth, and thends beyond the capital trembled. Rivers seethed and roared, joining with the sound of the drum to create a unified resonance. It was the ultimate sound that ripped through the canopy of heaven toward the five ancient heavenly daos. Especially relevant was that the sound of the drum contained some of the karma between Xu Qing and the ancient heavenly daos. In fact, it was just barely possible to hear the squeal of a child within it.

    The five ancient heavenly daos were all shaken.

    The bacsh from striking the drum swept through Xu Qing¡¯s fist and into his body. Cracking sounds rang out as terrifying force surged through his flesh, meridians, bones, and even his soul. ck blood sprayed out of his mouth. It was extremely noxious, as if it were poisoned and full of infinite filth.

    After coughing up the blood, Xu Qing had a sudden sense of rity and lightness filling him, something veryfortable. It caused his heart to leap and his eyes to shine. All of his years of deadly battles had left him with many hidden injuries. But the bacsh from the War Drum of Humankind was like a baptism that left him almostpletely cleansed.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing again lifted his hand, called on his cultivation base, and struck the War Drum of Humankind.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    The sound of the drum swept through the canopy of heaven, shaking the hearts of the humans. Streams of destiny floated out of all humans, which then joined the dragon of destiny aura above.

    As the dragon grewrger and stronger, it threw its head back and roared at the heavenly daos. Also within that roar were the heroes and sages that had acknowledged allegiance to the empress. Flickering light glittered off of them, along with a boundless sense of ughter. A magnificent army was attacking the heavenly daos! In life, they had fought for humankind. In death, they were dao protectors to the empress!

    <i>¡°DIE!!¡±</i>

    Heaven and earth went dim. The five heavenly daos shivered in unison, and their power of sealing began to show signs of imminent copse.

    Xu Qing felt hidden injuries disappearing thanks to the bacsh baptism. In fact, his fleshly body power seemed to be on the verge of rising to a higher level. And the sense of fusion between his body and soul imparted a sense of profoundpleteness to him.

    It was a sudden feeling, and now was not the time to ponder the situation. Therefore, eyes glittering, he struck the drum a third time.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    The sound of the drum shattered heaven and earth, reaching the hearts of humans in the Imperial Region, the seven counties, the Holytide Region, the Nightspirit Region... and humans stranded and wandering everywhere in Revered Ancient. It didn¡¯t matter what they were doing at that moment. They all felt their blood stirring and their wills rising.

    As the saying goes, <i>a single spark can start a prairie fire</i>.

    The wills of humans throughout the Revered Ancient maind responded to the sound of the drum. Together, theybined, resulting in the will of humankind releasing a powerful shout.

    ¡°Jian!¡± [1]

    It was a very extraordinary word. In ancient times, it was the name of the underworld. Later, after the heavenly daos were established, and with the exception of a few that were made from inanimate objects, they were all created from heroic spirits who had died in battle. Therefore, the Summer Immortals took to using ¡°Jian¡± as the official name that collectively described the heavenly daos. Supposedly, when a person died, they became a ghost. When a person saw a ghost, they feared. When a ghost died, it became a jian. When a ghost saw a jian, it retreated. That was what the heavenly daos were.

    As of this moment, the wills of all humans shouted that word, from earth to heaven, from human to dao. It was an attack on the heavenly daos!

    The heavenly daos of Revered Ancient existed because of the wills of countless species. They protected the living things in the world. And now... humankind, which had once been the most powerful species, and which had conquered Revered Ancient multiple times, shouted that true name as an attack. And the essence of the heavenly daos trembled.

    The five heavenly daos under the control of the holynds needed to obey the demands of their essence, and thus, they shivered and fell back!

    The empress¡¯ eyes began to shine brightly.

    Back when the three gods achieved their breakthrough, they had a host of domain treasures collected by the Firemoon Darkheavens, as well as the Evesting Dagger-Axe. Those were their reserve powers.[2]

    As for humankind... they originally had a lot of reserve powers. Unfortunately, their years of decline resulted in having few of them left over. However... the will of humankind still existed in the brutal Revered Ancient.

    The war drum aroused that will. The sound echoed out to shake the cosmos.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing¡¯s energy was building up, and he felt moreplete than ever as heunched a fourth blow.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    The sound of the drum resonated with the shout of humankind¡¯s will, the destiny aura, all thends, and the blood of the people. And... it connected to the ancient past and ancient glory, as something appeared.

    It was a territorial map! It had been drawn out of time itself by the sound of the drum.

    The regions of Revered Ancient all housed many species. The species of Revered Ancient all had to bow in worship.

    The empress extended her hand to take the ancient territorial map.

    ¡°Years ago, we humans took the lead in forming the heavenly daos. Other species provided assistance in the creation process. For you heavenly daos toe here today... is a show of disrespect to your superiors!

    ¡°Never forget that we humans have a heavenly dao of our own. Other than the heavenly daos formed from the Summer Immortal ancestors, ours ranks first! When the broken face came and Dark Serenity left, that heavenly dao went to sleep, and has remained asleep until now. Today, the time hase to awaken it!

    ¡°Xu Qing. Strike the drum!¡±

    As the empress¡¯ words boomed like thunder, she waved her hand, sending the territorial map flying toward Xu Qing. Along the way, it transformed into a huge mallet.

    Xu Qing took a deep breath. As his cultivation base filled his body with power, his energy and blood surged, and he reached out to grab the mallet formed from the most glorious territorial map of human history. Then he struck the War Drum of Humankind!

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    It was the fifth beating of the drum! The sound echoed throughout Revered Ancient, like a roar from ancient times.

    Everything turned gold. And then, a seven-wed golden dragon appeared within the clouds.

    1. The Chinese character used here is unusual and rare. It¡¯s dictionary definitions include: a spirit dying a second time, the ghost of a ghost. Because of how it''s defined in the narrative itself, I¡¯m leaving it transliterated. ?

    2. The Evesting Dagger-Axe was mentioned previously in <u>chapter 902</u>. ?

 Chapter 954: Gods Cometh

    <h4>Chapter 954: Gods Cometh</h4>

    The coiling dragon filled the dome of heaven, unleashing unprecedented might. It was like a starry river, full of life force power. Every scale that covered it was like an exquisitely crafted jewel, glittering with mysterious light. The densely packed scales were arranged neatly, making them like a huge suit of armor.

    The dragon¡¯s head was matchlessly majestic. It was like the embodiment of the quintessence of heaven and earth. Its eyes shone like stars, and were full of abstruse wisdom that could see into the depths of all things. Its sharp teeth were fear-inspiring, and it had long whiskers that were like golden bands of immortal energy.

    Most eye-catching were the dragon¡¯s horns. It had two long horns curving out from its forehead as if guide markers to provide direction to the species under its care.

    Its arrival caused the entire world to tremble. Mysterious. Majestic. Powerful. Those were the defining elements of the dragon. In its presence, the heavenly daos all prostrated, with the exception of the heavenly dao made from the sealing stamp.

    This was humankind¡¯s heavenly dao! It had long been asleep, and thus, humankind¡¯s innate abilities were also asleep. But now... as humankind¡¯s destiny aura, will, and blood called out, joined by the ancient territorial map as a mallet to strike the war drum.....

    It was awake! It was shaking the world!

    An instantter, the prostrating heavenly daos blurred and chose to back away. As for the sealing stamp of humankind, it glittered brightly as it floated toward the golden dragon. The golden dragon swallowed it up. Originally, the sealing stamp was inside the golden dragon. But when the dragon went to sleep, it spat the sealing stamp out. Now they were together again.

    The heavenly dao golden dragon surged with majestic energy as it floated above the imperial capital.

    All humans in the capital gasped.

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind reeled. Just looking at the seven-wed golden dragon gave him a deep understanding of the glory humankind had experienced in the past.

    Eyes glittering, the empress said, ¡°Xu Qing, strike the drum again!¡±

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing took a deep breath and hit the drum as hard as he could with the mallet.

    <i>BOOM!</i>

    The sixth drum strike reverberated in heaven and earth, causing Xu Qing to tremble as cracking sounds rang out from him. At the same time, his skin started to rip apart in many ces. Those wounds weren¡¯t fresh. Instead, they were like old scars. As they spread out, it seemed like the Xu Qing of the past must have been ripped apart and then put back together. But thanks to the sound of the drum, all of those scars were disappearing. As they healed, a sense of warmth spread through Xu Qing, and the sensation of wholeness grew even more intense.

    Xu Qing shivered. Based on what he could sense of the wounds, some were actually unfamiliar.

    All of a sudden, he thought back to that patchwork cloth doll....[1]

    However, there wasn¡¯t time for deep contemtion. After the sixth strike on the drum, the seven-wed golden dragon issued a roar that echoed in the minds of all humans.

    That roar could bring light to the darkness of night! As it echoed in the hearts and minds of the humans, it seemed to shatter certain chains and break certain shackles. As a result, energy that had long been asleep began to wake up.

    Cheers erupted from the mouths of many humans in the imperial capital. Some people began to glow with brilliant light. And their auras were blessed as they not only grew stronger, but also bigger.

    They turned into giants of varying heights! The tallest were hundreds of meters tall, while the shortest were dozens. Terrifying fleshly body power surged through them.

    The sight caused all humans to breathe heavily. Some of the longtime government officials, who were familiar with the ancient records, looked stunned.

    ¡°Humankind¡¯s innate ability....¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the Spirit Ancestor Transformation!!¡±

    Humankind did have an innate ability! When the seven-wed golden dragon woke up and roared, that innate ability was awakened within the blood of humankind.

    The holynds¡¯ second counterattack had been neutralized. The empress pulsed with godly fluctuations, and the godfire on Ancient Emperor was burning with great intensity.

    However, that was when a cold snort echoed through the sky and mmed into the humans like a bolt of lightning.

    Revered Ancient had five top species!

    Two of them led the pack by a wide margin. The remaining three were all roughly on the same level. They were the Firemoon Darkheavens, the Rend Nobleplexuses, and the Netherworld Chasmcorpses!

    Following the cold snort, a sea of mes spread through the sky, covering everything. Looking up, it was only possible to see red mes.

    Within that sea of mes was a god. This god wore a fiery-red robe that itself looked like fire. It had exquisite fire motif designs that entuated h¨©s status and glory. H¨¥ was tall and burly, like a mountain, with broad shoulders that could hold up worlds. H¨©s hair was as red as fire, almost likeva gushing out of a volcano. Each strand of h¨©s hair seemed to burn wildly, and seemed alive as h¨¥ strode forth. H¨©s expression was cold and apathetic. H¨©s eyes seemed devoid of emotion. However, h¨¥ seemed confident and rxed, as though h¨¥ knew h¨¥ could trample anyone in h¨©s presence.

    H¨¥ was one of the three gods of the Rend Nobleplexus people. H¨¥ was the god zeme.

    ¡°Humankind is not permitted to achieve godly ascension,¡± h¨¥ said in a voice that brooked no disobedience. It echoed out with the force ofw, sealing heaven and earth, andnded on the empress, the godfire on Ancient Emperor, and the five corpses of the past emperors. Instantly, the godfire dimmed, and the corpses of the emperors seemed less lifelike. The orders of a god surpassed magicalws.

    At the same time, darkness as ck as ink spread out over the sky above humannds, dividing it into two parts. In the night part of the sky were countless corpses piled up like mountains. They emanated a noxious stench, as well as terrifying mutagen and godly might.

    Standing atop all the corpses was another god. This god wasn¡¯t humanoid. Instead ¨©t looked like a lump of rotting flesh, oozing all sorts of disgusting fluids. ¨©t was also covered with eyes, and all of them were looking at the empress.

    Terrifying fluctuations rolled off of ¨©t. This was the god Nightcorpse.[2]

    Because of that godly might, the seven-wed dragon roared, and the humannds blurred. It was as if an apocalyptic fog were covering the world.

    ¡°The Rend Nobleplexuses and Netherworld Chasmcorpses,¡± the empress said calmly.

    The god zeme took a step forward, sending masses of fire rushing toward the empress. In the western sky, which was as dark as night, countless corpses surged, almost like a gigantic ball of flesh that rushed toward the empress. It looked like a battle with gods was about to begin.

    But then, a shining moon split the sea of mes and the dark of night. Moonlight shone down, sending the mes lurching to the side, and causing the dark night to melt. Along with the moonlight came a god as beautiful as an immortal but as cold as frost.

    It was one of the Firemoons¡¯ three gods.... It was High God Moonfire!

    After sh¨¥ appeared, the canopy of heaven glittered with the light of heavenly bodies. Starlight descended everywhere, along with a soft chuckle. As that happened, a y fox materialized in midair. Seated atop the y fox was a god, spectacrly beautiful, and matchlessly flirtatious. Naturally, it was High God Starfire.

    Two wless Gods had appeared to block the path of the sea of mes and the darkness of night.

    Smiling, Starfire said, ¡°Who said humans can¡¯t achieve godly ascension?¡±

    The sealing created by the orders of zeme began to crumble.

    ¡°You may!¡± Moonfire said coolly.

    The sealing mark copsed. The godfire on Ancient Emperor raged, and the corpses of the past emperors once again looked lively. The entire time, the empress¡¯ face didn¡¯t register an ounce of surprise.

    1. The doll first appeared in <u>chapter 938</u> and was described in <u>chapter 939</u>. ?

    2. In reality, the author does not use this name untilter. He switches back and forth between a variety of different descriptors before ultimately settling on a specific name. For many chapters, it¡¯s not even clear if this god is supposed to have a name. However, several chapters down the line, the author specifically does identify the god¡¯s name and use it multiple times. I¡¯m bringing the name in a bit early for a smoother reading experience. ?

 Chapter 955: Looking to Die? If So, Come Here!

    <h4>Chapter 955: Looking to Die? If So, Come Here!</h4>

    The scene developing in front of Xu Qing confirmed his previous theory. Back when the three gods achieved their breakthrough, a mysterious cultivator arrived to block a sudden attack in the form of a giant hand. That mysterious cultivator was the empress.[1]

    <i>No wonder things went so smoothly when the Firemoons called for a ceasefire. I felt all along like I was just serving to provide an excuse for them to do what they already nned to do. And now it makes sense why High God Starfire was around in the imperial capital.... Even back then, sh¨¥ and the empress were working out a deal.... </i>[6]

    The entire situation just made him feel increasing admiration for the empress.

    <i>I hope... that she seeds.</i> Xu Qing couldn¡¯t think of any reason not to wish her well, especially after what he had experienced in striking the drum.

    The empress was supremely confident and a model ruler. No matter what happened, she could deal with it. She could ovee any problem, and look calm the entire time.

    Back before joining Seven Blood Eyes, Xu Qing¡¯s understanding of the world, and his experiences, were very limited. Perhaps back then, he would have understood her calmness in a different way.

    But given everything he had been through, he knew that, because of her status and position, she couldn¡¯t afford to reveal any emotions. In everything she did, she kept humankind as a whole in mind. She was the ultimate source of inner strength for all humans in Revered Ancient. If she became afraid, humankind would be afraid. If she got rmed, humankind would be rmed.

    What was more, it was impossible to determine how many experts from the top species were watching this spectacle y out among humans. The same went for gods. It was easy to imagine how every facial expression, word, and action would be noticed and analyzed by such people.

    And if omniscience were applied to that, it could lead to extreme danger. It would truly be <i>walking on thin ice</i>. That was why she had to remain calm.

    As Xu Qing contemted those things, deafening booms rocked the dome of heaven, and the sensation of cracking grew more intense. The world seemed like a furious sea, with humankind as a lone rowboat, struggling against the wind and waves to stay afloat.

    Intense rumbling could be heard from the sea of mes above. Within it, moonlight spread, bing pulses of godly authority. At the same time, High God Moonfire¡¯s domineering aura and extreme coldness crushed everything around it.

    A battle of gods, especially gods the likes of Moonfire and zeme, was something that ordinary people couldn¡¯t observe with the naked eye. And other senses would be distorted as well. In the canopy of heaven, the sea of mes and the moonlight mixed together to make an abstract painting. Within that painting, it was possible to see the moon spreading and the mes retreating. The difference between ¡®wless¡¯ and ¡®tribtion fire¡¯ was clearly evident. Truth be told, if Moonfire wished, sh¨¥ could crush a tribtion fire god with ease. Obviously, sh¨¥ didn¡¯t wish that.

    It was the same with the y fox. As sh¨¥ strode through the darkness of night, y and mud flowed above and below h¨¥r, as if turning everything into a statue. In front of h¨¥r, Nightcorpse fell back repeatedly.

    Apparently, these two gods hade to act as dao protectors. They would obstruct andunch a few blows. That was enough. It wasn¡¯t that they weren¡¯t capable of killing two tribtion fire gods. Rather, humankind wasn¡¯t in the ce to pay for a service like that. That would surpass the deal that was in ce.

    The empress watched it all happening. Apparently, she had predicted in advance that she would have to face zeme from the Rend Nobleplexuses, as well as Nightcorpse from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses. And her action in helping the three gods during their breakthrough had been like a dry run for the difficulties she knew she would faceter.

    Today, the three gods were paying her back for the help she had provided in dealing with that huge hand. Though the three gods weren¡¯t going all out, their attitude was clear. The empress knew full well that they were just fulfilling their end of a bargain.

    Historically speaking, the Firemoon Darkheaven people had always been enemies of humankind. But as far as humans were concerned, enemies... could be turned into allies. In that regard, the background of the three Firemoon gods made them even more suitable than other Revered Ancient gods.

    The empress looked away from the canopy of heaven and toward the five vortexes orbiting Ancient Emperor. Specifically, she focused on Emperor Eastglory. Years ago, he was the emperor who had followed the orders of the holynds to wage war on the Firemoon people, all in the hopes of learning about their three gods. Although he had reported the results to the holynds, he had also passed on the information to his sessors. The empress looked toward the horizon. Her godfire was reaching a very critical point.

    ¡°There¡¯s one more element to this deal,¡± a resonant voice said from off in the distance.

    The sound of the voice shook everyone to the core. The sky dimmed, and the ground seemed like it might vanish. The entire world shook. It was as if some terrifying entity wereing. The air shattered as a rift opened sorge it seemed endless.

    Out of that rift blew what seemed to be a north wind. It was so freezing cold it could exterminate life force. It grew in intensity, whimpering loudly, like a storm that could crush time itself. It looked extremely ghastly.

    Both zeme and Nightcorpse trembled as th¨¥y looked at the tempest. Th¨¥y both watched as two figures emerged.

    One of them wasrge, the other small.

    Therge one was fully 3,000 meters tall and d in a golden suit of bone armor that seemed to be a part of h¨©s body. H¨¥ pulsed with a very clear sense of holiness. H¨¥ wore a helmet, but there was no face covering. However, that only made h¨©m seem more gruish, as... h¨¥ had no facial features at all! There was only a ck hole! Behind h¨©m were innumerable golden lightning bolts that spread out to form a pair of wings! A terrifying pressure pulsed off h¨©m as h¨¥ arrived.

    H¨¥ was followed by a smaller figure who appeared to be a servant d in a gray robe. The servant pulsed with gray fog filled with howling sounds. Astonishingly, h¨¥ was actually a High God! Although he hadn¡¯t reached the level of tribtion fire, he was clearly at the top of the karma fire level. The fact that someone like that was a mere servant only served to highlight the astounding level of personhood of the figure in the golden bone armor.

    ¡°Tempest of the Northfate Kings!¡± the empress said calmly.[2]

    In the Revered Ancient maind, the Northfate Kings were the number-two species. Though they weren¡¯t quite as strong as the number-one species, they had long been far superior to the Firemoon Darkheavens. Considering Revered Ancient as a whole, they were one of the most powerful species in existence.

    As for this god, h¨¥ was one of the leaders among all the gods of all the species. H¨¥ was at the peak of the wless God level! When h¨¥ arrived, zeme bowed h¨©s head, Nightcorpse backed down, and Starfire and Moonfire looked at h¨©m with serious expressions. Though thetter two were also wless Gods, Tempest was obviously a lot closer to being an Altar God than th¨¥y were.

    ¡°It is not impossible for a Revered Ancient cultivator to convert to being a god,¡± Tempest said. ¡°However, Northfate has other important matters to handle at the moment. Empress of humankind, you will dy your godly ascension ceremony for 3,000 years. After that period of time has passed, you may resume the process.¡±

    H¨©s voice echoed through Revered Ancient, bing a directive that sealed heaven and locked down earth. With that, h¨¥ looked at the empress in a way that made it seem like h¨©s every word was an order that wasn¡¯t even possible to ignore.

    The empress didn¡¯t say anything. But her godfire on Ancient Emperor didn¡¯t diminish. In fact, the fluctuations pulsing out of her grew more intense. The rumbling sounds were only getting louder.

    Seeing that, the leader god from the Northfate Kings lifted h¨©s hand. The tempest around h¨©m screamed even louder as it elerated toward the empress and Ancient Emperor.

    But at that exact moment, a sun appeared between the empress and the leader god. As it cast dazzling light into heaven and earth, the tempest stopped moving. Then a figure emerged from the sun. Its body seemed to be that of a woman, but it had the face of a man. It had the sun behind its back, and the ghosts of countless species beneath its feet.

    This was High God Sunfire, the strongest of the three Firemoon gods. Not only did Sunfire block the attack of the Northfate King leader god, sh¨¥ also waved her hand to send a seven-colored god talisman flying toward the empress.

    ¡°We three gods of the Firemoons value promises more than anything else. Though we won¡¯t do anything we didn¡¯t agree to do, when ites to things we agreed upon, we never back down. We did everything we could to help the grand steward, but he still failed. Therefore, that talisman belongs to you now. Our deal for the future remains the same, empress of humankind!¡± With that, Sunfire started walking right toward Tempest. ¡°Northfate Kings, this is the east of Revered Ancient, not the north, where you hold sway. You... have stretched your hand too far.¡±

    The sun behind Sunfire red, sending blinding light out to cover the frowning Tempest.

    As the seven-colored god talisman neared, the empress grabbed it. None of the humans present recognized that god talisman. Except for Xu Qing, who recognized it immediately. He and the Captain had used a talisman exactly like it in the past. It was... the very same talisman that had been formed by the grand steward when he died.[3]

    It was made from the authority of a god domain, and contained the converged power of a god domain upgrade. After the god domain vanished, the talisman remained behind. It was useful... because it contained astonishing power, and could be very useful during godly ascension.

    The empress¡¯ eyes gleamed brightly after she took the talisman. After looking at it closely to confirm it was safe to use, her eyes shed with determination. She waved her hand, and the talisman disappeared, to reappear a momentter in the depths of Ancient Emperor.

    The talisman crumbled, turning into fuel. At the same time, Ancient Emperor rumbled loudly, and the godfire there experienced a tenfold increase in intensity and heat.

    The godly ascension process was immediately elerated dramatically. Shocking fluctuations rolled out from the corpses of Dark War and the other past emperors. There was now nothing stopping the process frompleting.

    But then, as Sunfire¡¯s sun shone brightly, a gray figure shot out. It was Tempest¡¯s karma fire godservant.

    Sunfire could have easily stopped the godservant. But as sh¨¥ said, sh¨¥ would only operate within the parameters of the deal. And the deal had already beenpleted. As for how humankind would deal with developments going forward, that was up to them. The three gods were also interested in seeing what reserve powers humans had, and whether they truly qualified to work with th¨¥m going forward.

    Of course, if the empress asked for help, they could theoretically strike a new deal.

    But the empress said nothing. Her face remained calm as the gray god closed in on her. That was when an ancient figure suddenly shot forth from next to the empress. It was the old court eunuch who had been protecting her from the very beginning. As he flew forth, he transformed, as his entire body turned semitransparent. He actually wasn¡¯t human. He was a Gruegloom![4]

    His species was a very rare one, and each individual member was an independent entity. Early in his life, he had taken advantage of the special characteristics of his species to live as an assassin. On many asions, he had nearly died. On the worst of those asions, he made it out alive, only to pass outter. The empress, who was a young girl at the time, came across him and saved his life. From that point on, he became her follower.

    In the years that followed, he watched as she grew up and reached incredible heights. Without even realizing it, he came to deeply care about her. When she eventually became empress, she gave him boundless good fortune. By allowing him to make use of the destiny aura of humankind, as well as certain reserve powers and priceless secret magics, he was able to break through his personal barriers and eventually reach the nine-world level.

    Unfortunately, because of that process, he was much weaker than people who reached the nine-world level on their own. And he couldn¡¯t progress any higher than that. Though his bloodline wouldn¡¯t let him reach the Imperial Sovereign level, being a nine-world Smoldering God was essentially the peak of the modern cultivation system. As a result, he felt no regrets.

    And now, as he saw that little girl he had followed for a lifetime just about to reach the ultimate peak, he decided to use his own life to defend her onest time. All of a sudden, he burst into mes, all while pulling out a violet skull.

    The skull emanated a perverse energy, and contained boundless resentment and rancor. It even seemed to cause noiseless howling to fill the world, like the final expression of someone¡¯s anguish before they died. Thunderous rumbling echoed out as a host of countless heavenly daos appeared. All of them also seemed to be wallowing in grief as they looked at the skull.

    They looked at... the spectacr and peerless skull of someone who had once been thest hope of Revered Ancient. It was the skull of the past life body of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan! It contained shocking power that ordinary cultivators could never use. Only a nine-world Smoldering God could possibly qualify to do so. The court eunuch was burning his own life force, and the innate ability of his species, plus all of his cultivation base, to tap into a bit of the skull¡¯s power.

    In the blink of an eye, he vanished. His spiritual souls were gone, and his physical souls had dissipated. He had been destroyed in body and soul.

    Meanwhile, the skull shone with boundless and shocking violet light. It contained an endlessly insane howl that seemed toe from the depths of time itself, from tens of thousands of years in the past! That howl contained resentment, defiance, grief, madness, and unending hatred, all of which turned into a destructive tempest that shot toward the gray godservant.

    The godservant suddenly sensed a deadly crisis, and backed away in retreat. However, he wasn¡¯t fast enough. The tempest swept over him.

    Instantly, the godservant began trembling, and then he unleashed a desperate scream of anguish. It was as if he were experiencing the exact same death that had been experienced by the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    Then he exploded. A god had been killed.

    The empress looked up at the spot where the court eunuch had disappeared, and her face, which had remained expressionless for so long, suddenly looked sad. She sighed as she thought back to the time she had asked a question of Xu Qing.

    <i>¡°You also encountered their grand steward. What was your impression of him?¡±</i>

    Xu Qing had answered, <i>¡°If you can¡¯t control your own life, how can you guide the fate of a species? In the end, such thinking is as </i>unrealistic as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water<i>. One moment you¡¯re on top of everything, the next, you¡¯re dead.¡±</i>

    The sorrow on her face disappeared, and in its ce was determination.

    The godfire grew more intense!

    The corpses of the past emperors in the five vortexes seemed livelier than before. In fact, as they sat cross-legged, their hands were moving in incantation gestures. However, those incantation gestures were not those used by cultivators, but rather, those used by gods.

    The first to form godly authority was Emperor Eastglory. His eyes opened, and they were pitch ck and pulsed with a sensation of destruction and power. It was a godly authority that was rted to battle.

    Next came Emperor Mirrorcloud. His eyes opened, and he looked confused. Then he became calm, and a sensation of protectiveness spread out from him to fill the world and cover all humans.

    After that was Sageheaven. Soft, gentle light spread out from him. It didn¡¯t contain any attack power, but rather, was something that could nourish the body and soul. It was a godly authority rted to healing!

    Next, godly authority erupted from Emperor Dao Life. It was a godly authority that was very different from all the others. As a result, the vortex he was in pulsed with curses, poison, and pestilence. It was a power of damnification! A corrupting and terrifying aura spread everywhere.

    Next was Dark War! His godly authority was even more terrifying. It was boundless death, like theherworld itself!

    When the five emperors'' embryonic godly authorities appeared, it indicated that the godly authority ceremony was nearing its conclusion.

    Meanwhile, the empress was also starting to pulse with godly authority. And yet, before that could happen, another obstacle manifested! A cold voice suddenly filled the Imperial Region.

    ¡°Grand Emperor Swordsage, I¡¯m very curious to see your final move!¡±

    As the voice filled humannds, a red glow rose up. Countless mountains copsed and turned into a red fog. Rivers reversed course as their waters turned crimson. Everything in the Imperial Region started turning red. From a distance, it almost looked like the hem of a garment.

    A god wasing, with a red robe and a body so immense it could prop up heaven. The god covered thends and terrain, filling the sky with red. A single step was all it took for the god to appear in the sky above the imperial capital. H¨¥ looked like a handsome middle-aged man with long hair, every strand of which glowed with bright light. H¨¥ pulsed with godly authority that could dim the sun and moon, striking fear into the hearts of other gods. Even more shocking was the fact that there was an illusory sword stabbed into h¨©s chest. It wentpletely through h¨©m, and was dripping with blood, which was why h¨©s robe was crimson.

    At a single nce, Xu Qing could tell that the illusory sword was none other than The Emperor¡¯s Sword!

    Voice hoarse, the man in red said, ¡°Time slips by. Things change. But sadly, Grand Emperor Swordsage, you are not the same as you were in years past.... Back when we fought, I fell from the Altar God level, and still have not recovered. Today, the day in which you perish, I havee to see things through and sever our karma!¡±

    The next instant, another ancient voice spoke from within the imperial capital, filled with immense power that could surpass time itself. It surpassed the sounds of nature, and became the only thing in the world. It spanned time, and was immeasurably holy. As the voice spoke, the heavenly daos all bowed their heads. All living beings prostrated.

    ¡°Yu Liuchen. Looking to die? If so,e here!¡±[5]

    The voice came from the Swordsage Division in the imperial capital, and was filled with a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering aura.

    Even the Firemoon gods were shaken.

    A huge beam of light appeared, made of countless streams of sword energy. Shooting out of the Swordsage Division, it headed right toward the man in red. It became a path.

    All h¨¥ had to do was step onto it. But h¨¥ hesitated.

    1. The mysterious cultivator showed up in <u>chapter 903</u>. ?

    2. Simr to Nightcorpse, it¡¯s not clear in Chinese whether this god has a name or not. Eventer context is vague in this regard. In other words, it could be a name, or it could just be a descriptor that he is ¡®a god in a tempest.¡¯ That said, he is listed beside the other three gods, and the sentence structure and context implies that it is his name. In addition, the author refers to Tempest with an invented title that essentially implies that he is a leader of some sort (presumably a leader amongst gods in Revered Ancient, but it could theoretically be referring to his leadership position in the species he represents or maybe in a faction). The title is never exined and is only used a couple times. Plus, it¡¯s been clearly established how high-ranking and powerful he is. For ease of tranting and reading, I¡¯m going to just use his name. ?

    3. The talisman was formed by the grand steward in <u>chapter 903</u>. Xu Qing formed one in <u>chapter 904</u>. ?

    4. Grueglooms were introduced in <u>chapter 206</u>. Their species ability was also described in that chapter. ?

    5. Yu Liuchen. Yu is not on the list of 100mon surnames. It means ¡°jade.¡± Liu means ¡°precious stone, colored ze.¡± Chen means ¡°dust, dirt¡± and in xianxia often is rted to ¡°mortal¡± things. Madam Deathde says, ¡°It sounds like the name of a pure-hearted individual living in the dust of the mortal world.¡± ?

    6. The y fox showed up in the imperial capital in chapter 753 but didn''t have any screen time until 755 she was in a few other scenes after that. ?

 Chapter 956: I Am At the Peak of the World, and I Question the Immortals

    <h4>Chapter 956: I Am At the Peak of the World, and I Question the Immortals</h4>

    Yu Liuchen once had a god altar. Years ago, when h¨¥ followed the broken face to the Revered Ancient maind, the world had been a very different ce. Being an Altar God, countless other gods would tremble and prostrate to h¨©m. If h¨¥ felt like it, h¨¥ could easily cause a wless God to be full of ws, and experience profound tribtion. And that tribtion was h¨©m. It was even truer with other living beings besides gods. From the earliest times, h¨©s godly name shook Revered Ancient and prompted countless gods to bow their heads reverently. What was more, h¨¥ had actually reached the peak of Altar God, qualifying h¨©m to break through to bing a True God.

    But then a middle-aged man with a seven-foot-long bronze sword strode over the horizon and entered h¨©s god domain. If h¨¥ hadn¡¯t detonated h¨©s god domain at a key moment in the battle, h¨¥ likely would have perished. Though h¨¥ escaped that battle with h¨©s life, h¨¥ ended up severely injured, with h¨©s god altar shattered into pieces.

    Afterward, h¨¥ had no other choice than to go into hiding and spend h¨©s time in a deep sleep. H¨¥ never dared to show h¨©s face in the world again. And despite being someone who didn¡¯t feel any emotions, h¨¥ did feel fear when thinking about that figure with the sword. It was an instinct. Over the countless years that had passed, that fear became so deeply rooted that h¨©s cultivation base couldn¡¯t recover. It was... a mental tribtion.

    Therefore, when h¨©s omniscience detected Grand Emperor Swordsage facing his own deadly tribtion, h¨¥ came. H¨¥ wanted to see him on his way. But when the Grand Emperor spoke just now, his words became a final obstacle to ovee....

    In the end, h¨¥ was deeply afraid of the only Grand Emperor who chose to stay behind when all of the other powerful experts left Revered Ancient.

    H¨¥ knew that, though this Grand Emperor was never a Summer Immortal, he definitely qualified to carve out a holynd for himself beyond the heavens. To a certain extent, he was unfettered, and didn¡¯t need to trouble himself with the red dust of the mortal world. But unexpectedly, he chose to stay behind to safeguard humankind.

    In a world full of gods, he had remained, for tens of thousands of years. And humans had managed to survive through all that time. In fact, were it not for this Grand Emperor, it was entirely likely that humans wouldn¡¯t even exist. And even if they did exist, they would have been scattered and weak. They would have been a minor species subsidiary to other species, and they definitely would not have any of their own regions. During that time, the Grand Emperor ughtered many gods. Sadly, the price to pay was immense.

    His true form had long since perished, and the only thing left behind was a clone.

    ¡°Grand Emperor Swordsage, you are the cultivator I admire the most in the Revered Ancient maind. There is no other.¡± Yu Liuchen¡¯s gaze followed the road of sword energy all the way to the Swordsage Division. Passing through all barriers, it eventually reached a figure seated cross-legged in a private chamber. ¡°But are you strong enough for one more sword move?¡±

    Yu Liuchen¡¯s red robe spread through heaven and earth, casting bright red light everywhere, and making h¨©m seem like the lord of all the cosmos. As the words left h¨©s mouth, h¨©s energy began to build dramatically. As the wind blew, the entire canopy of heaven turned the color of blood. As of that moment, everything paled inparison to h¨©s aura, from the sea of mes to the darkness of night, to the three gods of sun, moon, and star.

    Yu Liuchen lifted h¨©s foot to begin walking. A sea of blood raged in h¨©s eyes, and h¨©s robe spread. Then h¨¥ stepped forward. H¨©s robe now covered the entire imperial capital.

    But then the grand spell formation of humankind rumbled to life, sending out powerful fluctuations to resist Yu Liuchen. The spell formation was designed to fight back against any invader with powermensurate to the invader¡¯s level. At the moment, the threat level was about as high as it could possibly be, so the spell formation erupted with greater force than ever in the past.

    Blinding light shot out, filled with innumerable magical symbols. As a result, a barrier of light sprang up to block Yu Liuchen¡¯s path. What was more,s appeared within the spell formation, a total of forty-nine of them.

    They were all Dawning Suns! It was the entire stockpile of Dawning Suns that humankind had on hand. After all of the catastrophes humankind had experienced, they essentially had no reserve powers left, other than Grand Emperor Swordsage and the Dawning Suns.

    The fluctuationsing from the Dawning Suns caused wild colors to sh everywhere. And yet, Yu Liuchen justughed.

    ¡°Apparently you aren¡¯t strong enough for a final sword move.¡±

    Without any hesitation, h¨¥ lifted h¨©s other foot and prepared to step onto the path of sword energy. But then, a roaring sound filled the blood-colored canopy of heaven. A ripping sound echoed out as the color of blood was shredded apart. A roar echoed out from humankind¡¯s heavenly dao, the seven-wed dragon, and it shone with dazzling light that made it seem like a golden sun.

    Then the heavenly dao shot into motion... toward the imperial pce! Its target seemed to be the shadow cast by the statue of the Grand Emperor there.

    Purple smoke was currently rising up from that shadow. Amidst the thick, swirling smoke, a bell floated up to hover in midair over the za.

    It was the Immortal Questioning Bell.

    The bell had a history going back to the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. It normally existed in a spot between yin and yang, and would only appear when the sun rose. It couldn¡¯t be moved to another location, as it was part of the imperial capital. Put more precisely, it was part of the imperial pce, with a history as long as the capital itself. Its purpose was to confirm the condition of the heart.

    From the very beginning, whenever a government official was called into question, they could ring the Immortal Questioning Bell to certify the state of their heart. Ningyan had used the bell for that purpose in the past.[1]

    Over all the countless years it had existed, the bell had never been used for any reason other than that. Gradually, most humans forgot about its existence, and those who did remember it just considered it a mysterious old artifact.

    But today, it was being awoken by humankind¡¯s heavenly dao. In fact, the heavenly dao was merging with the Immortal Questioning Bell....

    The bell shivered, as if it were waking up from a very deep sleep! The carvings on the bell, which depicted mountains, rivers, and countless living beings, all seemed toe to life. They flowed across the surface of the bell, which glittered with dazzling light that illuminated everything around it. A wild and ancient aura also spread from the bell. The dome of heaven shook. The blood energy cracked. The cosmos shifted.

    That aura, apanied by the shocking imperial aura, made the most unsurpassable will in heaven and earth. It could crush even the most ancient and domineering will, and formed a resonance with the dao of Revered Ancient itself.

    It was... the aura of an Ancient Emperor!

    However, it was not the aura of the person that everyone had heard of, Dark Serenity! This aura was even more ancient than that. Dark Serenity was not the first Ancient Emperor in Revered Ancient. Before him, Revered Ancient had countless other Ancient Emperors. For instance, there was Emperor Ancient Spirit. And there were Ancient Emperors from other species that had ultimately conquered Revered Ancient.

    ording to the oldest legends, before the Summer Immortals left, they personally appointed the very first Ancient Emperor in Revered Ancient. And that Ancient Emperor was human. The bell came from him! The aura spread out, shaking heaven and earth, rocking all of Revered Ancient.

    Yu Liuchen¡¯s expression flickered, and h¨¥ held back from lowering h¨©s foot.

    As the Immortal Questioning Bell hovered in midair, it tolled, sending out an ancient sound like something from the distant past, floating right out of the river of time and into the world. The sound of the bell seemed simplistic, but mournful, as if it were calling out to question the immortals that had departed....

    <i>When will youe back? Alone in heaven and earth, abandoned in the world of mortals, I question you. When is the hour of your return?</i>

    Yu Liuchen¡¯s face fell, and a tremor passed through h¨©m. As the bell tolled, cracking sounds rang out, and h¨©s blood-red robe began to crumble. It looked extremely ghastly. H¨¥ pulled back h¨©s foot and simultaneously shot backward by about 30 meters.

    ¡°What is that thing??¡±

    Not even the omniscience of an Altar God could reveal anything about the Immortal Questioning Bell. It seemed like it was hidden within time itself, concealed from the perceptions of others. That made sense considering it would only appear when the sun and moon switched positions.

    Yu Liuchen wasn¡¯t the only one to let loose an exmation of shock. The god zeme, the god Nightcorpse, and the three gods Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire were simrly astonished.

    Humankind really didn¡¯t have any more reserve powers. That was because Grand Emperor Swordsage had hidden his true reserve power even before the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. Today, at the most critical of junctures, the bell regained consciousness.

    The empress¡¯ facial expression didn¡¯t change. The Grand Emperor didn¡¯t react.

    As Yu Liuchen¡¯s heart raced, the Immortal Questioning Bell tolled a second time. The majestic sound echoed throughout heaven and earth.

    <i>Time passes. The living move on. Here in my homnd, I question you. Why the bleak destion?</i>

    Yu Liuchen started shivering dramatically, and h¨©s face fell even more. Then the wound in h¨©s chest opened up, having been stimted by the toll of the bell. H¨¥ involuntarily staggered backward 300 meters.

    Then the Immortal Questioning Bell emitted a dazzling 30,000-meter pir of light, then once again tolled, a third time, a sound full of sorrow. It was the final question asked of the immortals....

    <i>The immortal path is slow, fate seems distant. I am at the peak of the world, and I question the immortals... where is the dao?</i>

    Yu Liuchen¡¯s mind spun as the toll of the bell caused h¨©s body to shatter. H¨¥ recovered a momentter, and kept retreating. After falling back 3,000 meters, h¨¥ was still unstable as h¨¥ stared at the bell.

    The bell contained an extremely terrifying will convergence, a will of dao-searching and a will of immortal-seeking. It was almost as if, at some point in the past, some peak entity of Revered Ancient had used a boundless cultivation base to strike the bell and question the immortals!

    Yu Liuchen was fully aware that if only three tolls of the bell had forced h¨©m to retreat in this manner, then a fourth toll of the bell might reverse the scant bit of recovery h¨¥ had experienced of the years, and actually make h¨©s injury worse.

    That said, h¨¥ refused to believe that striking an object as terrifying as this could be done without paying a price. And the price had to bepletely enormous. The likelihood that it would be struck again... seemed small.

    Yet h¨¥ didn¡¯t dare to bet on it. Even if h¨¥ bet and won, h¨¥ wasn¡¯tpletely confident that h¨¥ could face Grand Emperor Swordsage. And if h¨¥ bet and lost, h¨¥ would be even less confident. Therefore, h¨¥ said nothing.

    The bell hung in midair, vibrating as though it was preparing for another toll.

    Seeing that, Yu Liuchen quickly said, ¡°Today I will do nothing more than observe the ceremony!¡±

    The Immortal Questioning Bell seemed to pause. Then a cold voice echoed from within the Swordsage Division.

    ¡°Screw off!¡±

    The words surged out with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force.

    The words didn¡¯t just target Yu Liuchen. They spread out in all directions like thunder that could shake the cosmos, like a massive wave sweeping through the dome of heaven. In an instant, numerous streams of divine will that had converged to observe the godly ascension ceremony were revealed.

    They all fled.

    Whether or not humankind¡¯s Grand Emperor Swordsage was strong enough for another sword move, no one knew. However... none of them dared to bet on it. The astonishing bell was simply too fear-inspiring.

    Yu Liuchen looked down at the Swordsage Division. A few breaths of time passed, and then h¨¥ blurred and disappeared. H¨¥ had also chosen to flee.

    The godfire on Ancient Emperor burned with more intensity than ever.

    ***

    A great distance away from the Imperial Region was the Holytide Region, in which was Sea-Sealing County.

    In the north of that county, there was a sprawling in filled with snow and wind. Amidst the snowkes that drifted like goose feathers was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering pir rising above the ice ins. It was surrounded by a host of countless tents that formed a city.

    It was none other than the Supreme Beginning Netherflight Pir. A small portion of the pir was buried in the ground. And beneath it was a mysterious ghast hollow.

    At the very bottom of that subterranean cave was a gigantic eye. The eye was currently closed and unmoving.

    Above the eye was a pentagonal log cabin, hanging in the air and secured to the walls by means of five chains. At each of the five corners of the log cabin was a five elements zombie.

    Inside the cabin was a brightly-shiningmp. It was a lifemp.

    Through the gauzy curtains in the window it was possible to see a young woman wearing a red wedding dress, seated cross-legged. She looked almost like a mortal. She released no cultivation base fluctuations, and did not have even the scrap of an aura of a god. It wasn¡¯t possible to see her facial features clearly. But by looking at the shadow cast on the curtain, it was possible to determine that she had just coughed up three mouthfuls of blood.

    In a very gruish fashion, her blood turned into paper money, which floated out of the cabin and spread through the ghast hollow, where the countless ghasts would fight amongst each other to devour them.

    The timing of her three mouthfuls of blood coincided with the three times the Immortal Questioning Bell tolled in the imperial pce!

    The woman wiped the blood from her lips and murmured, ¡°The deal isplete. And yet it¡¯s still not time for me to leave.¡±

    Then, eternal singing began to drift about.

    <i>¡°In past lives forlorn, always reborn, sever lovesickness and endlessly mourn....¡±</i>

    <i>¡°In a life of hesitation, in a future of frustration, who is it that waits for me in reincarnation....¡±</i> [2]

    The five elements zombies at the corners of the cabin swayed in time with the singing.

    ***

    Meanwhile, another chanting song echoed out in the Heaveneater Region.

    It didn¡¯t take long for the Torchlight invasion to end. With the Torchlight god domain having taken over the dome of heaven, almost all living beings in the Heaveneater Region had be a sacrifice of blood. It didn¡¯t matter if they were cultivators or mortals. And it didn¡¯t matter what species they were.

    This was a full-scale attack by Torchlight, and it was also the first time the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan revealed how truly strong he was.

    Death struck the region like an unavoidable lightning bolt. Countless corpses and innumerable amounts of blood were gathered in thends around the Heaveneater imperial pce. Fresh blood mingled with the mud. Deceased soul swirled everywhere. And the ughter continued.

    However, the ughter itself wasn¡¯t the point. As the blood and corpses gathered around the Heaveneater imperial pce, a grand ceremony was taking ce. It was being carried out by the god domain¡¯s huge ball of flesh that hovered in midair.

    There were five vortexes surrounding it, within which sat five cross-legged corpses. They were the past emperors of the Heaveneaters!

    Taking it all in, it looked... almost exactly the same as the ceremony being carried out in the human¡¯s imperial capital! There was an imperial capital. There was an imperial pce. The ball of flesh was like Ancient Emperor. And there were five past emperors as corpses.

    A shadowy projection filled heaven and earth. Within it was visible the empress and her godly ascension. Everything within the image was being duplicated below!

    Countless Torchlight cultivators were present, along with a host of ck-robed figures, all of them prostrating with zeal in their eyes.

    A chant drifted out.

    <i>¡°The energy of the ultimate yang of the two prities merges into the ancient eyes of the gods, bing the glittering light of the starry sky over Revered Ancient....</i>

    <i>¡°Theherworld souls in all parts will drink of the water of time, creating a tide to awaken from the dream of ancient times....¡±</i> [3]

    1. Ningyan used the bell in <u>chapter 771</u>. ?

    2. This song first appeared in <u>chapter 364</u>. It was repeated in a few subsequent chapters, notably <u>676</u>. ?

    3. The words in the first line are a repetition of what we heard in <u>chapters 800</u>, <u>801</u>, and <u>952</u>. The second line is new. ?

 Chapter 957: Why Bother?

    <h4>Chapter 957: Why Bother?</h4>

    Sunset neared.

    The empress¡¯ godly ascension was an astonishing event in which many individuals yed an important part. They included the empress herself, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, along with everything he had prepared in the Heaveneater Region. The three gods of sun, moon, and star yed a role as it rted to th¨¥ir future ns as well.

    The holynds also revealed their stance. There were other parties as well, ones who had made deals with the empress, but didn¡¯t show their faces.

    For example, there was the young woman in the wedding dress in the ghast hollow.

    It was easy to imagine howplicated it had been to orchestrate everything. There was little need to mention how much karma had been involved, including the predestined fate of the Grand Emperor.

    Grand Emperor Swordsage had killed countless gods in his life, and seriously injured even more. Once it became possible to predict that he would perish, it was only natural that the karma would attract many gods.

    All of the different interests at y made the situation veryplicated. Something as shocking as this was a rarity in Revered Ancient! It attracted the attention of the entire maind!

    And down to the very end, Grand Emperor Swordsage never used his legendary final sword move. That sword seemed to hang above the heads of numerous parties. There were top species and gods as well who feared it. None of them wanted to risk being killed by it.

    That was why someone as strong as Yu Liuchen ultimately chose to flee. Although it seemed like h¨¥ had been stopped by the Immortal Questioning Bell, in the final analysis, what h¨¥ was really scared of was Grand Emperor Swordsage. H¨¥ didn¡¯t want to tempt fate!

    If no one else chose to probe for information, then the ceremony, which was nearing its end, would conclude with the empress¡¯ sess.

    At that point, the peak Imperial Sovereign empress would be a god. In addition, the five past emperors would be gods. And then it would be impossible for anyone to test out Grand Emperor Swordsage. Right now, the only thing to do was see if there was anyone else out there who wanted to prohibit the empress from bing a god.

    And thus....

    ***

    In the imperial capital of humankind, most of themoners were nervously looking up at the empress in the canopy of heaven.

    In the east of the city on Nine-Nexus Boulevard, there was a bookshop that had been around for generations. Someone inside the shop sighed. Given how unique of a day it was, the shop didn¡¯t have any customers. A handful of employees were gathered at the entrance, where they sat looking into the sky and quietly discussing what was happening.

    Behind them at the counter was the shopkeeper, whose name was Zhao Youde. He wore a long, yellow robe and was reading from a bamboo slip. He looked up.[1]

    The sigh came from his mouth.

    There was nothing out of the ordinary about Zhao Youde¡¯s physical appearance. He had graying hair that, as the wind blew through the shop, swayed like reeds in autumn. He was old. Time had left his face full of wrinkles, and yet, he also seemed kind and benevolent. His eyes did not sparkle brightly, but there was something profound about them. And right now, they seemed a bit helpless.

    ¡°What¡¯s the point?¡± he murmured.

    Zhao Youde was the seventeenth-generation shopkeeper in this bookshop. He was also the owner, and lived in the back courtyard. He had a wife who died of illness years ago. Other than that, though, there wasn¡¯t much about his life toin about. His parents were still alive, his children were all very obedient, and business was good.

    As a mortal, he had every reason to be content with his life. He enjoyed reading, especially ssic writings. Given all that he had read and pondered, he had quite a grasp of different philosophies. Normally speaking, he called on those philosophies to guide his life. He also loved to give advice to those around him. All of his neighbors showed him a great deal of respect.

    He liked his life. But today, he knew... that things were about to end. Sighing, he sped his hands behind his back and walked out from behind the counter, his posture somewhat slumped. He looked around the bookshop onest time, then shook his head and walked toward the door.

    Upon reaching the threshold, the employees sitting there looked at him in confusion.

    ¡°Boss, there are a lot of people on the streets. It¡¯s pretty chaotic. Sir, are you...?¡±

    Zhao Youde stopped and looked at the employees, his expression one of reminiscence.

    ¡°Twohound, you look more and more like your grandfather every day. And you, Lil¡¯ Locust. Going forward, you need to spend more time reading and studying. Your families.... have been with me for generations. I¡¯m leaving the shop to you. Take good care of it.¡±

    The employees were stunned. The two he had called out by name rose to their feet to speak. Before they could, the shopkeeper had vanished.

    Zhao Youde walked along Nine-Nexus Boulevard beneath the setting sun. He was invisible as he headed toward the imperial capital.

    He walked along, sighing. ¡°What¡¯s the point...?¡±

    Zhao Youde sighed again. He liked the world of mortals. He liked humankind. Over the countless years that had passed, he had assumed different identities as he ran the bookshop, and had interacted with many human customers. He had a lot of fond memories about them. He had long assumed that life would just continue in that way.

    ¡°The holynds have made mistakes. But there¡¯s no reason to rebel against them.... Ai.¡±

    His parents and children in the back courtyard of the bookshop all seemed like real, living people. But then he sighed, and they shivered and issued simr sighs. All of them blurred and vanished, bing motes of silver light that swept invisibly along Nine-Nexus Boulevard until they reached Zhao Youde. They merged into him.

    He stood up a bit straighter. His aged face gradually started looking younger.

    Then a terrifying cultivation base power surged within him. Foundation Establishment. Nascent Soul. Void Returning. Smoldering God, and then... Imperial Sovereign! The rise in power stopped when he was at the peak of the half-Imperial Sovereign level! That was a shocking level of power, yet he didn¡¯t reveal any of it externally.

    As he walked in the afterglow of evening, he looked unusually lonely. He was thinking about his life. He had been born in the holynds, where he had been given a mission in Revered Ancient.

    That mission was to kill Emperor Dao Life! He had seeded in that mission, but afterward, had been unable to leave. And thus, he settled down among humankind. During the entire time since then, he had never revealed who he was. He had remained in hiding. The reason was that he feared Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    With yet another sigh, Zhao Youde took a step forward. That step took him out of the imperial capital, past the imperial pce, and onto Ancient Emperor. His target... was the godfire on the!

    He had no desire to fight with the empress. Nor did he want to personally see how strong Grand Emperor Swordsage was now. He had to live up to his ideals by... extinguishing the godfire.

    He appeared without any introduction or fanfare. There was no thunderous rumbling. No shocking fluctuations. It was almost as if he was invisible. But the moment he appeared and lifted his hand, the empress detected his presence. Everyone looked over in shock.

    He was reaching out to pluck away the godfire!

    Yet before he could, a calm voice echoed around him.

    ¡°Shopkeeper Zhao, that fire is not to be extinguished.¡±

    Along with the voice appeared a figure. He wore a violet robe, had violet hair, and facial features that looked like a work of art. They were iparably exquisite, with long, arched eyebrows that resembled distant mountains. As for his eyes, they were full of wisdom and profundity.

    It was none other than the imperial preceptor! The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.

    He appeared in front of Zhao Youde, with his back to the godfire. Yet not even the fire could diminish his presence. He actually looked like a scintiting heavenly body illuminating the sky of Revered Ancient. His lips curved up so that he always looked like he was slightly smiling. As he spoke in his calm voice, he lifted his right hand and pushed it out.

    Zhao Youde¡¯s hand neverpleted its movement. The arrival of the imperial preceptor caused many human cultivators to breathe sighs of relief.

    The imperial preceptor was mysterious, and yet that fact made him seem capable of almost anything.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say anything. He wasn¡¯t surprised at all that this person hade. He looked on calmly. He was very interested in seeing just how powerful the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan really was.

    Upon realizing that Xu Qing was looking at him, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan looked away from Zhao Youde. He smiled warmly.

    ¡°Did you receive my gift, lil¡¯ bro?¡±

    Xu Qing looked down, his facepletely expressionless.

    The crown prince smiled again, then looked back at Zhao Youde. ¡°I saw the time that belongs to you.¡±

    Zhao Youde¡¯s face fell. He was half a step into Imperial Sovereign, and back in the holynds, he had been a powerful overlord. Other than the empress and Grand Emperor Swordsage, there wasn¡¯t anyone among humankind that he feared. Until now. In facing the imperial preceptor, he suddenly came to the realization that he couldn¡¯t see this neer clearly. He had never noticed him before.

    ¡°Since you¡¯re interested, lil¡¯ bro,¡± the crown prince continued, ¡°you should watch closely. I¡¯m going to sever his time and free them.¡±

    As the crown prince¡¯s voice rang out, the area around Zhao Youde began to ripple. His life and his past were not under his control. They were like a painting with him in the middle. It contained an image of him killing Dao Life. It also showed scenes of the bookshop, his incarnated family, and the times when he was an ancestor or a son. All of his life in the Revered Ancient maind was revealed.

    As Zhao Youde¡¯s face sank further, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan waved his hand to manipte time. In the blink of an eye, the countless versions of Zhao Youde in the past, no matter what they were in the middle of doing, bowed their heads. Within the past, it was possible to see the present.

    Next, all of the versions of Zhao Youde lifted their feet to step forward.

    Intense rumbling echoed out. The aura of a great dao descended. The great River of Time appeared out of nowhere.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered. It wasn¡¯t his first time seeing the River of Time. Back in the Moonrite Region, Princess Brightblossom, who was adept at manipting the magicalws of time, had also summoned it.[2]

    Inparison, though, the version Princess Brightblossom had summoned was more like a little creek. The version right now was like a mighty river flowing from ancient times. It covered the imperial pce, the imperial capital, and in fact, the entire region. In the blink of an eye, the entire world was covered by the River of Time.

    Within that river were innumerable versions of Zhao Youde, almost like fish in water. They traveled from the past and into the present, where they hovered in midair. Then all of them faced Zhao Youde and attacked.

    ¡°Pay attention, lil¡¯ bro,¡± the crown prince said gently. ¡°Each of them is a past version of Shopkeeper Zhao. If they kill him, then Shopkeeper Zhao will no longer exist. If he doesn¡¯t exist, then his past will be <i>as unrealistic as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water</i>. In contrast, if Shopkeeper Zhao kills them, then it¡¯s equivalent to him killing himself in the past. Without a past, there can¡¯te to be the present. If it were you, lil¡¯ bro, what would you do?¡±

    1. Zhao Youde. Zhao is #8 on the list of 100mon surnames. You means ¡°to have.¡± De means ¡°virtue, goodness, morality, ethics.¡± Madam Deathde says it sounds like the name of a virtuous person (I guess that''s kind of an obvious conclusion....) ?

    2. Back in the Moonrite arc, Princess Brightblossom used the River of Time in too many chapters to list as references. Back then, the wording led me to mistakenly think that it was ¡°a river of time¡± not ¡°the River of Time.¡± I''ve since gone back to change those references to reflect the fact that, as directly stated in this chapter, she was indeed tapping into THE River of Time. ?

 Chapter 958: Raise the Sword

    <h4>Chapter 958: Raise the Sword</h4>

    Fiddling with time. Severing the past. Cultivators could do such things, but not with such finesse as this. That was because this was the authority of a god. That was because this was true omniscience. In the eyes of gods, it was easy to see a person¡¯s life, including all of their past.

    The River of Time seethed as it filled the world of mortals. Countless past versions of Zhao Youde were all racing in his direction.

    However, in the cultivation system, Imperial Sovereigns were second only to Quasi-Immortals. And this was Zhao Youde, who had spent years among humankind, and was now at the peak of being a half-Imperial Sovereign. His cultivation base made him almost as strong as a god.

    Upon facing this inexplicable godly authority, his expression turned dark, and then he stretched out his right hand toward the canopy of heaven and made a grasping motion. The movement of his hand caused the dome of heaven to shift, as if a new heaven were being brought in.

    A vast starry sky began to take over. The starry sky was so massive it covered everything. It was almost as if it nned to take this section of Revered Ancient away, as if... it was bing a universe for Zhao Youde alone. Within that universe, there were countless past versions of himself, and yet, there were far more stars and heavenly bodies than that.

    The countless heavenly bodies all twinkled brightly, and in response to Zhao Youde¡¯s thoughts, they lit up and were extinguished.

    The extinguishing of countless heavenly bodies caused the unique universe to quickly teeter on the verge of copse. As it copsed, it sank in on itself, giving rise to a massive gravitational force. It was like an actual universe transforming into a majestic ck hole.

    All of a sudden, all of Zhao Youde¡¯s past lives were sucked up by the gravitation hole, and devoured by the copsing universe.

    Not one was left over!

    Severing time. Causing past lives to try to devour the true self. It was something difficult toprehend. If none could be allowed to perish, there was only one way to resolve the situation. Crush. Seal. And return everything to the beginning.

    All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint. After all of the past lives were sucked into the copsing universe, Zhao Youde closed his hand into a fist.

    Heaven and earth went back to normal. His universe shrank down, turning into a ck pearl that dropped down in front of him. Without any hesitation, he looked up at the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. At the same time, he flicked the pearl out.

    It flew up into the sky. At the same time, he vanished, to reappear high in the air atop the pearl.

    ¡°Be crushed!¡± he said grimly.

    The ck pearl exploded, spreading out to again overtake heaven.

    However, this time it turned into a river of stars. It shot down, heading toward the crown prince¡¯s River of Time, to crush it. It was a river of stars versus the River of Time.

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan smiled. ¡°How amusing. You can crush your own time. But what about my time?¡±

    The crown prince reached up and touched his forehead. The moment he did, the air around him distorted as his own past appeared. The biggest difference was that it was blurry and impossible to see clearly. It was only possible to sense endless rancor and madness, apanied by extreme defiance. All of that turned into the most extreme howl imaginable.

    However, the crown prince looked as warm and gentle as always. Lifting a finger, he casually made a beckoning gesture at the surrounding blurry images. Astonishingly, he was severing a section of his own time from a past life, then depositing it into the River of Time. The majestic river surged violently. Immense waves rolled across its surface.

    Within the water there appeared an enormous finger of white jade. It seemed capable of destroying anything as the water parted around it. Sweeping up past-life power, it shook the daos of heaven and earth as it emerged from the river. From a distance, it seemed capable of propping up heaven and earth.

    The finger then elerated toward the river of stars.

    The river of stars trembled and shone with dazzling light before ultimately copsing, revealing the grim-faced Zhao Youde. The shocking finger of white jade continued onward without stopping.

    Just before it was about to hit, Zhao Youde took a deep breath and went into a double-handed incantation gesture. His fingers blurred as he went through a whole host of hand signs. Then he stopped with both hands in front of his chest with thumbs and index fingers touching to form a diamond shape. He pushed his hands in the direction of the iing finger of jade.

    Instantly, his universe erupted. The power of a great dao within the river flowed out to meet the finger. That great dao contained spatial power.

    This was Zhao Youde¡¯s dao, and it was also the reason why he had been able to remain undetected among humankind for so long. The destructive power of the great dao caused the white jade finger of the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan to tremble.

    In an instant, the sky transformed into a painting. The painting was blurry, as though it might copse at any moment.

    Breathing heavily, Zhao Youde shoved out again with his double-handed hand sign. The picture that depicted the white finger superimposed with the power of the great dao. It turned into a white thread.

    Eyes bloodshot, Zhao Youde shoved his hands out a third time. The white thread then shrank down into a white dot!

    Zhao Youde was about to shove his hands out for a fourth time when, all of a sudden, heaven-shaking, earth-shattering fluctuations rolled out of the white dot, apanied by deafening rumbling sounds. Then it detonated.

    The white jade finger shredded the space around it as it emerged from inside. It was now right in front of Zhao Youde. Blood sprayed out of Zhao Youde¡¯s mouth as he stumbled backward. A very serious look could be seen on his face as bloody wounds opened up all over him.

    ¡°Jade Capital Immortal Finger! You... you¡¯re the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan from back in the day! But now... you¡¯re not human or cultivator or god! You¡¯re not alive or dead. You don¡¯t exist!¡±

    Zhao Youde¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Simrly shaken were all of the cultivators looking on. Everyone knew that the imperial preceptor was incredibly mysterious. But his battle prowess already surpassed anything they could imagine. And now his true identity had been stated outright....

    The words ¡°Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan¡± struck everyone like lightning. Not everyone was aware of who the imperial preceptor was. As a result, the vast majority of the government officials were astounded.

    Xu Qing stood there with a cold look on his face. He had seen what he wanted to see, and it confirmed his suspicions.

    The empress, in contrast, wasn¡¯t paying attention to the crown prince. Her godfire had reached a critical point, and majestic godly authority was now erupting.

    Grand Emperor Swordsage remained silent.

    Seeing that, Zhao Youde spun to leave. He now realized that there was no way he would be able to extinguish the godfire.

    But the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan didn¡¯t seem willing to let this half-Imperial Sovereign simply leave.

    ¡°First a universe, then a great dao,¡± the crown prince said softly. ¡°You see, the reason I spoke at such length with you is that my ultimate goal was to get a glimpse at your destiny. Now I¡¯ve seen it.¡±

    He reached up toward the dome of heaven and made a grasping gesture. Blood erupted out of Zhao Youde, then floated over to the crown prince¡¯s palm. Squeezing his hand closed, he forced the blood into the shape of a red thread.

    Next, as everyone watched, and as Zhao Youde¡¯s face fell, the crown prince put the thread into his hair. It became one with him. He absorbed it.

    Then a gruish and unbelievable scene yed out in front of all present.

    Zhao Youde shivered from head to toe and let out a scream of anguish. He became iparably weak, as though something very precious to him was suddenly gone.

    The destiny the crown prince had seen had been taken away.

    In that moment of crisis, Zhao Youde reached up and touched his forehead. His body turned into a painting, then a thread, then a dot. And then... he disappeared.

    ¡°Some of his providence was taken away!¡± Sunfire said. It was something profoundly mysterious that only a wless God could see the truth of. ¡°Using destiny to absorb the enemy¡¯s providence.... That¡¯s a god magic with a different approach but the same oue as the technique the Father God is using to devour Revered Ancient.¡± Sunfire looked at the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan with a very serious expression. ¡°That must be how you n to recover your cultivation base from your past life.¡±

    The crown prince smiled but didn¡¯t say anything in response. Then he lifted his foot to step up into the canopy of heaven.

    There was no way he was going to let a specimen like Zhao Youde get away. With that, he disappeared to pursue Zhao Youde.

    Everything went calm above humannds. The gods who hade to interfere, whether zeme, the night god, or the gods from the Northfate Kings, all backed away quietly. There was no way to stop the process now. Fighting was pointless.

    The godfire on Ancient Emperor was now ny percent golden. The past emperors in the five vortexes were experiencing a constant rise in godly authority. The empress was also in a simr position. There was now only one incense stick¡¯s worth of time left in the ceremony.

    That was when a piercing sound filled the sky. It was the sound of a great wind blowing over Revered Ancient. It came from the humans¡¯ imperial capital.

    Someone outside of Revered Ancient and within the Dark Serenity holynd, looked in the direction of Revered Ancient and shed down with a saber.

    That saber spanned the starry sky, severed the ancient from the modern, and contained boundless momentum. It had the power to crush everything in its path, as if it wished to exterminate heaven and earth. And it appeared in the sky right above the humans¡¯ imperial pce in Revered Ancient.

    It created a massive rift some 500,000 kilometers in length. The projection of the de was like a true heavenly saber. The sky shifted colors and winds blew as a stifling will appeared.

    There was one force that wanted more than anyone to stop the empress from reaching godly ascension. They wanted it more than the gods of Revered Ancient and more than the top species of Revered Ancient. That ce was a holynd among many holynds. It was... the Dark Serenity holynd!

    Thus arrived the might of a Grand Emperor! Thus came the saber of a Grand Emperor!

    From within the wind came a sigh.

    Inside the Swordsage Division, a withered figure opened his eyes. His final sword move could be used on a god. Or it could be used... on a holynd!

    ¡°You finally made your move,¡± he murmured in a voice hoarse with ancient age and filled withplicated emotions.

    Then....

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword in Xu Qing thrummed with unprecedented vibrations. And boundless sword light erupted from him and up into the sky.

 Chapter 959: Grand Emperor!

    <h4>Chapter 959: Grand Emperor!</h4>

    In the imperial capital, inside the Swordsage Division, was a private chamber. Inside was Grand Emperor Swordsage, who had remained with humankind to defend it. He sighed.

    A blurry soul shadow emerged from his withered frame and took a step forward. He was middle-aged, not burly and tall, not bold and powerful. But there was something unshakable about him, as if he had epted the responsibility of supporting all heaven and earth, thus earning him the ultimate level of respect. He took one step, which took him outside of the Swordsage Division and all the way to Xu Qing¡¯s side on Ancient Emperor.

    As of this moment, wild colors shed in heaven and earth! As of this moment, humankind was shaken. For the first time, emotions flickered across the empress¡¯ face. All gods in the area were paying very close attention. In that instant, the sky and thends... became a mere backdrop for the voice which spoke and the sword will that emerged.

    ¡°Young friend,¡± he said, ¡°let me use your body this once. And I need to borrow your sword.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s mind spun as The Emperor¡¯s Sword within him emitted a sword resonance that resounded to the highest heaven. Then, he shivered as a warm sensation spread through him. He sensed a will as majestic as the starry sky fusing with him. It wasn¡¯t domineering, and it didn¡¯t harm him in any way. It was just temporarily making use of his body. He didn¡¯t resist, and in fact, just let the will spread through him.

    As all gods and all people looked on, Xu Qing... slowly looked up. His eyes were profoundly ancient.

    There was also something boundlessly majestic about him. As the wind blew and the cosmos shook, the canopy of heaven seemed to list, and mountains and rivers shook. The heroes prostrated, and the sages all bowed.

    A majestic stream of human destiny aura converged around Xu Qing, bing like a dragon that coiled around him endlessly.

    As the dragon converged, it formed a 3,000-meter body around him! He had mountains for bones, rivers for blood, thends as skin, sprawling forests as hair, and the canopy of heaven as armor. Flesh of destiny aura formed the ultimate Grand Emperor body, with all living things bolstering it as the soul.

    The Grand Emperor was back in the mortal world.

    Facial features formed. They were like an ancient bronze statue, with eyes that sparkled with life, almost as if the brightest heavenly bodies on the night sky were shining. As he stood there, the dome of heaven went dim, and all the gods present faded. He was the only Quasi-Immortal to ever appear in Revered Ancient!

    And after Dark Serenity left, he was the only Grand Emperor to stay behind!

    He had protected humankind for tens of thousands of years. He had ughtered countless gods. And though he was only a clone with a bit of life left, he was still the same Swordsage who had carved out generations of peace for humans. He was fully deserving of the title Grand Emperor of humankind! This was a level of majesty unsurpassed!

    Grand Emperor Swordsage hade to the mortal world!

    ¡°Grand Emperor!¡± the empress said with unprecedented reverence as she bowed her head. However, her eyes were full of sorrow, as she knew that for the Grand Emperor to appear like this meant that he was about to perish.

    With hisst breath, he would serve as the dao protector to safeguard humanity.

    The government officials could hardly breathe, and their hearts raced as they dropped to their knees. The scene ying out in front of them was almost unbelievable, and every single one of them felt deep respect for the Grand Emperor.

    Themoners in the imperial capital reacted simrly, calling out, ¡°Grand Emperor!¡± as they kowtowed with utmost piety.

    Seeing what was happening, the three gods chose to bow th¨¥ir heads.

    The gods from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses, Northfate Kings, and Rend Nobleplexuses didn¡¯t dare to do anything rash. Th¨¥y were gods, but the might of Grand Emperor Swordsage was something all of th¨¥m were familiar with. And th¨¥y had all witnessed him killing gods in the past.

    As Grand Emperor Swordsage received respect from everyone, he nced over the humans he had safeguarded for tens of thousands of years. Then he lifted his right hand. His hand closed, and The Emperor¡¯s Sword rumbled out. He grasped the hilt.

    Sword energy severed space. The sword light shone through all time. The thrum of the sword contained longing, grief, and a reluctance to depart....

    ¡°Time for onest journey, old friend,¡± Grand Emperor Swordsage said with a smile. He took a step up into the dome of heaven, and the sky shattered. However, there was no thunder. It was almost as if thunder didn¡¯t dare to show up.

    The Grand Emperor strode forth alone toward the 500,000-kilometer saber projection. His every step contained profound power that could shake the cosmos. The might of his gait caused all humans to suddenly feel a profound sense of peace and respect.

    With the Grand Emperor around, humans were safe. He looked like heaven itself, with the setting sun framing him against the dark of night. To humans, he seemed like an expression of radiance and light.

    Countless people were shaken to the core. Almost all of them had grown up hearing stories of Grand Emperor Swordsage, and had looked to him as an example. To them, Grand Emperor Swordsage was the greatest human imaginable. An eternal legend.

    As everyone looked on, Grand Emperor Swordsage reached the peak of heaven and the destructive heavenly saber, which represented the punishment of the holynds.

    There he stood, with sword in hand. With that sword, he severed heaven!

    The sword light raged, the heavens cracked. The sword glow flickered, and illuminated the ancient past! The sword projection could shock gods. The sharpness of the sword astonished the heavenly saber!

    The heavenly saber and The Emperor¡¯s Sword shed high above Revered Ancient. Infinite sparks exploded. Magicalws were destroyed. A force that surpassed the universe erupted, like predestination itself. It created a dazzling field of light. A majestic rainbow spread across all of the regions of Revered Ancient, unstoppable, full of ancient might, never-ending, capable of overlooking all obstacles.

    That light united Revered Ancient. In the blink of an eye, the sky above Revered Ancient was as bright as day. Dazzling light was even visible outside of Revered Ancient. It illuminated the surrounding starry sky, and even shone around the broken face.

    From a distance, the rainbow was like a huge dragon shaking the sky, releasing wild energy that caused the heavenly daos to tremble, and resulted in all species in Revered Ancient craning their necks in shock.

    In the end, The Emperor¡¯s Sword and the heavenly saber destroyed each other. They became a massive cloud of stars that pulsed in and out of existence. Vortexes appeared everywhere. It was like a huge scroll painting that formed the heaven over Revered Ancient. It remained in ce for a long time before fading away. Countless rumbling noises echoed out into the hearts of humans.

    Then rain started to fall in many regions. The sight caused numerous individuals in the imperial capital to let loose exmations of shock.

    ¡°That¡¯s peak Altar God power!¡± numerous gods murmured.

    The Grand Emperor hovered in the canopy of heaven, looking at the cloud of stars. He said nothing. Then, after a long moment passed, an ancient voice echoed from the holynd.

    ¡°Swordsage, what is your determination?¡±

    The Grand Emperor calmly answered, ¡°The moment you people departed this ce, this day was foreordained. I said nothing in East Victory¡¯s time. I also said nothing when Mirrorcloud rose up. And when Dao Life died, I was silent. But I won¡¯t hold my tongue forever. And I hereby permit the empress to be a god!¡±

    There was no response from the holynd except for a fading sigh.

 Chapter 960: The Karma is Severed

    <h4>Chapter 960: The Karma is Severed</h4>

    The sky was still. The world of mortals was peaceful.

    The wind blew for a few breaths of time, then faded away. It was almost as if there had never been a wind to begin with. In the canopy of heaven, the painting of stars turned into a host of scintiting vortexes that spun noiselessly. They would remain there for a time, a reminder of the epic battle that had just taken ce.

    The holynds were gone.

    The gods from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses, Northfate Kings, and Rend Nobleplexuses were now aware that it wasn¡¯t possible to stop the empress from seeding. Th¨¥y chose to leave, castingplicated, fearful nces at the projection of the Grand Emperor as th¨¥y did. Although th¨¥y still weren¡¯t very pleased, and wished th¨¥y could interfere, th¨¥y had no idea of knowing what would happen if th¨¥y took action.

    Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire had lived up to the deal. Th¨¥y looked at the Grand Emperor in the dome of heaven, and traces of reminiscence could be seen on th¨¥ir faces. It seemed likely that what they were thinking about, however, wasn¡¯t the Grand Emperor in front of th¨¥m, nor anything to do with Revered Ancient¡¯s current state of affairs. Perhaps th¨¥y were thinking of the North Immortal Emperor World, and the North Emperor.

    Everything was quiet.

    All gazes, including those of the empress, the gods, the government officials, and themoners in the imperial capital, and even the streams of divine will hidden in the area, were focused on the spectacr figure in midair who had just used his final sword move in stunning fashion.

    In that moment of silence, the Grand Emperor slowly turned around. His ancient eyes took in humankind and the world of mortals. He sighed softly. Then his body of destiny gradually began fading away. He blurred, until there was only an outline remaining, within which was Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body. That fleshly body floated down until itnded on the War Drum of Humankind.

    During the process, a blurry soul shadow stepped out of Xu Qing, then floated up into the air. It was the Grand Emperor¡¯s soul. It was fading away, never to return. He had safeguarded humans for tens of thousands of years. He had fought countless battles and killed innumerable gods. Today... he was tired.

    Exhaustion slowly spread out from his soul.

    His life force had actually been extinguished many years ago, leaving him to exist in clone form down to this day. Now, his life was truly reaching its end. Fatigue had set hold in him many years ago, and had only grown stronger over time. He could have had unlimited longevity. He could have existed at the heights of glory. He could have avoided bing so exhausted.

    To do all that, he just needed to put himself above his people. But instead, he chose his people over himself.

    Sometimes people make critical choices that lead to dead ends. Whether those choices are correct or not, they can¡¯t be undone. The only question is whether they will regret those decisions.

    The Grand Emperorughed. It had been a long time since heughed.

    <i>I don¡¯t regret any of it,</i> he thought in his heart. He had lived among humankind, defending them and ughtering gods. That was a much better life than running away to beyond the heavens to flounder on death¡¯s door.

    With such thoughts in his mind, the Grand Emperor looked at the imperial capital, the region, and all humannds. In the end, he focused on two people.

    One was Xu Qing, whom he had chosen to bear his sword going forward. He had no intention of trying to force Xu Qing to do anything. However he nned to continue onward, he would be free to do so. The sword... could ughter and kill whoever he wanted it to.

    <i>The kid has so much karma attached to him.... His past and future alike will probably leave him more exhausted than I am.</i>

    The second person was the empress. As a young woman, she wept while being devoured by Dark War. She had also paid an enormous price for the sake of humankind, and it had struck the Grand Emperor to the core. It made him think of his own daughter, who had been devoured by a god. Thus, he had saved her.

    <i>Not all rulers of humankind are such good people.... But at least, upon my departure, </i>she <i>is good.</i>

    Anticipation could be seen in the Grand Emperor¡¯s eyes as he looked at the empress wreathed in godfire. He wanted to see what explosive result would ur when a peak Imperial Sovereign used destiny aura to convert from the dao of cultivators to the dao of gods. Would she reach the peak of wless God, or would she... take a step into the Altar God level??

    The ancestral edicts from the holynds prohibited humans from bing gods. He had respected those edicts. That was why he had never attempted godly ascension for himself. But what would his people do after he left? When he was no longer around, who would continue to safeguard humankind...?

    The Grand Emperor didn¡¯t want to consider such questions anymore. He wanted hisst moments to be spent in one final act of protection for his people. Therefore, he would try to catch one more fish....

    An instantter, as his soul shadow faded, the empress¡¯ expression flickered, and Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened.

    A figure appeared behind the Grand Emperor, moving in a blur tounch a devastating blow.

    ¡°I¡¯ll send you on your final journey, Swordsage!¡±

    It was none other than Yu Liuchen! H¨¥ had not truly departed, but had instead been hiding in the hopes of finding an opportunity. And when h¨¥ found it, h¨¥ took advantage of it! As the faces of all onlookers flickered dramatically, Yu Liuchen¡¯s hand descended.

    The Grand Emperor¡¯s facial expression didn¡¯t change, though. He simply threw his hand behind himself.

    As he did, boundless power swelled up within him, and the vortexes of stars up in the dome of heaven went wild. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out. Apparently, everything from before was a sham, and the Grand Emperor had been waiting for this moment to snag a fresh fish!

    An even more shocking tempest erupted, creating a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force that bore down on Yu Liuchen.

    Yu Liuchen shivered as a massive amount of golden blood sprayed out of h¨©s mouth. The sword embedded into h¨©s chest erupted with unfathomable sword energy, which swept through Yu Liuchen, annihting the flesh and blood that it touched. Yu Liuchen screamed in agony.

    ¡°You still have one move left? You people... what are you doing? Why aren¡¯t you interfering??¡±

    H¨©s voice caused heaven to crack and crumble, and then h¨¥unched himself once more at Grand Emperor Swordsage.

    At almost the exact same instant that Yu Liuchen¡¯s words echoed out, a great wind sprang up in the sky again. It was icy cold, and wherever it passed, everything turned white and filled with snow.

    Clouds. Mountains. Rivers. Living beings. Even natural and magicalws were frozen by the wind. And that was because this was a wless wind created by a god.

    It came from the godly authority of one of the wless Gods from the Northfate Kings.

    A god approached within the wind. It wasn¡¯t possible to see this god clearly, as if the god did not have a set shape. Within that wind, h¨¥ took the form of a huge hand that shot right toward the Grand Emperor.

    From a distance, it was possible to see Yu Liuchening at the Grand Emperor from one side, and the god of frigid wind from the other. Both terrifying gods stretched th¨¥ir hands out. Then the air shattered as eight additional gods pierced through the air. Th¨¥y had also been hiding this entire time, waiting... to make th¨¥ir move. Th¨¥ir goal was to acquire the life essence light from thest Quasi-Immortal to exist in Revered Ancient.

    The humans present saw what was happening. The empress shivered. She wanted to do something, but wasn¡¯t even able to move. In this final moment of the creation of godfire, she was at her weakest. There wasn¡¯t anyone else who qualified to fly up and join in the fighting.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes were bloodshot. After awakening, he could sense that there was something different about himself, both his body and his soul. The sense ofpleteness he had experienced when striking the drum had once again appeared, and this time, it was stronger than before.

    The Grand Emperor had meticulously healed him of all wounds, be they internal or external, be they visible or invisible. He was now thoroughlyplete. Not just that, but the Grand Emperor had removed all final traces of himself from The Emperor¡¯s Sword. The sword was alsoplete now, without any potential cmities lurking within. It was all Xu Qing¡¯s!

    In addition to that, there was a legacy in his mind.

    Swordsage Style!

    That was the name of the legacy.

    It was the Grand Emperor''s final and most precious skill. It was his mantle! It was the very same move he had used to deal with the heavenly saber earlier! It was a kindness so profound that Xu Qing knew he would never be able to repay it. And sadly, he simply wasn¡¯t strong enough to help the Grand Emperor in this moment. But that didn¡¯t matter. Even if he didn¡¯t qualify, he could still bare his sword. However, that was when a cid voice drifted down from above.

    ¡°Calm down,¡± said Grand Emperor Swordsage. The tranquility in his voice spread among the humans, and it had the same effect as the countless years he had spent safeguarding them. They became calm.

    The empress and Xu Qing alike suddenly felt at ease. Grand Emperor Swordsage didn¡¯t look surprised at all. It was almost as if being attacked by a group of so many gods was inconsequential.

    He stretched his right hand toward Yu Liuchen and began closing his fingers. That grasp caused Yu Liuchen to shiver from head to toe. Then the illusory sword in h¨©s chest emitted a shocking thrum as it burst out of h¨©m. It was the first time in tens of thousands of years that the sword hade out of Yu Liuchen¡¯s chest.

    Glittering with dazzling sword light, and pulsing with astounding sword energy, it returned to the Grand Emperor¡¯s hand.

    Then the Grand Emperor shed the sword at the freezing hand! Sword light filled heaven and earth. The hand wasn¡¯t remotely strong enough to offer a defense. ¨©t was severed. Unending amounts of god blood showered down as the freezing wind shattered. The god from the Northfate Kings turned and fled without any hesitation.

    The attack continued, causing every single one of the gods who had sprung out of hiding to tumble backward with blood spraying out of th¨¥ir mouths.

    Unexpectedly, the Grand Emperor actually had an additional sword move left! He had left a sword in Yu Liuchen¡¯s chest tens of thousands of years ago, and today... he took it back.

    Everyone was stunned.

    The gods retreated. Yu Liuchen fell back at top speed. However, h¨©s eyes were shining, and h¨©s previous shock and terror were gone. H¨¥ looked unprecedentedly calm.

    ¡°Years ago, you held back from killing me. Now we¡¯re even.¡± H¨¥ hade to see the Grand Emperor on his way, and also to give him back his sword! Now, the wound that had prevented h¨©s recovery for so many years was gone. H¨¥ turned in ce, h¨©s red robe swishing as h¨¥ strode off into the distance. ¡°The karma is severed now, Swordsage.... And now, farewell for all eternity.¡±

 Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 1)</h4>

    Sunset and sunrise are separated by the night. But they can still be considered to alternate between each other.

    Xu Qing looked at the statue of the Grand Emperor, and then at the empress up in the air. Countless thoughts ran through his head, and he felt like enlightenment was brewing within him. There was a tug on his mind, and among the more than one hundred faint lineaments in his void soil, there were a handful that were clearly fluctuating.

    At that moment, the sun was rising. Multicolored dawn light spilled out, driving away all of the darkness and gloom.

    Ultimately, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze focused on the empress, and the dazzling light that surrounded her like a seven-colored garment. The light seemed to connect all living beings and make them part of Revered Ancient.

    Five godly auras pulsed from the vortexes on Ancient Emperor.

    Eastglory. Mirrorcloud. Sageheaven. Dao Life. Dark War....

    The five emperors were under the control of destiny aura. They wore imperial robes and crowns, and glittered with different types of godly authority as they floated up from the vortexes. They arrayed themselves behind the empress. Their majesty towered into the heavens.

    Wild colors shed, winds screamed, and the terrain in humannds trembled. All humans felt their blood surging. All of it converged into a will that rose high into the sky. It was as if notice was being given to everyone everywhere in Revered Ancient that... humans had gods now. And humankind was going to rise to prominence.

    All human heavenly kings prostrated. The heavenly marquises joined them. So did all the government officials. The Five Greater Celestial Divisions. The Five Lesser Celestial Divisions. Cultivators. Commoners. Countless human sects. All of the human armed forces in the Imperial Region. All of them bowed to the empress and the emperors!

    ¡°Empress!¡±

    The voices of countless humans drifted out. The dome of heaven shook and destiny aura swept back and forth everywhere. They were giving voice to the will of humankind. As that voice spread out, and the light shone, forces throughout Revered Ancient were shaken. And that was true of the gods of many species.

    Especially when... the empress looked up, sending Altar God pressure and energy into the world.

    ¡°Today, imperial blood was spilled. But not enough god blood flowed.¡±

    As those two sentences were spoken, killing intent surged into the heavens. Frigid coldness upended the cosmos. Each word cracked like thunder and shook the canopy of heaven.

    All of a sudden, the various gods that hade to interfere with the proceedings, whether th¨¥y were hidden or not, were rattled deeply. Without any hesitation, th¨¥y turned to flee.

    zeme from the Rend Nobleplexuses. Nightcorpse from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses. Tempest from the Northfate Kings. All three shivered. The fire was sent spinning off to the side, the corpses tumbled backward, and the tempest dissipated.

    It was even more dramatic with the gods in hiding. Some of th¨¥m still harbored malicious intentions, and weren¡¯tpletely certain of the empress¡¯ battle prowess and godly authority. But as the peak state of humankind¡¯s will raged, th¨¥y didn¡¯t dare to cause trouble.

    Unfortunately for th¨¥m, humankind was different than it had been in the past. Although Grand Emperor Swordsage had perished, there was now a new Grand Emperor. And that meant that these gods couldn¡¯t juste and go as th¨¥y pleased.

    It was just as the empress had said. Not enough god blood had flowed.

    The empress lifted h¨¥r hand. Altar God power surged. Sh¨¥ reached out and closed h¨¥r hand into a fist.

    The dome of heaven sank down. It was almost as if heaven had be a curtain, and the empress had grabbed it and pulled it to the side. Infinite starlight poured down from beyond the heavens, gathering above humannds to form the hand of a god.

    It could crush anything, even space and time!

    Revered Ancient trembled. The dome of heaven crumbled. And the entities hidden in cracks in space and time unleashed intense fluctuations, tapping into godly authority and power. Th¨¥y joined forces.

    But joining forces wasn¡¯t enough for th¨¥m to be able to stand up to the power of an Altar God. Screams of agony rang out as massive amounts of god blood rained down into the world of mortals.

    There was one specific god that the empress¡¯ hand of starlight grabbed and pulled out into the open. The form of the god was a huge eye with three pupils that waspletely golden. Xu Qing had never seen any god eye like this before. There were ancient symbols flickering within the eye, and ¨©t pulsed with an aura of intense heat. ¨©t was clearly a god that came fromnds of burning fire. After ¨©t was dragged into the open by the hand of starlight, ¨©t struggled to break free. Frantic chanting rang out as ¨©t tried to manipte the cosmos. ¨©t didn¡¯t qualify.

    The hand of starlight closed, and a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound rang out as the eye exploded. The god power was crushed. The god soul was extinguished. The god body was wiped out of existence.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    A god had perished!

    As the deafening sound rippled out, endless amounts of god blood poured down. It was purified and without mutagen, and thus, it became nutrients for humankind. It filled the imperial capital. The world trembled.

    ¡°That¡¯s not enough,¡± the empress said calmly. Sh¨¥ looked to the south, to where zeme from the Rend Nobleplexuses was fleeing. ¡°Your godly authority rtes to fire. Why not take a look at my fire?¡±

    The empress¡¯ godfire raged, causing the tilting canopy of heaven to be a world of mes that shot in the direction of h¨¥r gaze. Where it went, heavenly fire burned.

    Off in the distance, the empress¡¯ godfire surrounded zeme. H¨¥ struggled weakly, but that struggling was like the actions of a child. It waspletely and utterly useless. H¨©s godly authority was rted to me, but today... that authority was not h¨©s tomand. God blood rained down on thends to the south. A scream of immeasurable agony erupted from h¨©s mouth, echoing through the world. All who heard it were deeply shaken.

    The empress¡¯ face waspletely expressionless. Sh¨¥ had only looked at zeme for a brief moment. Now sh¨¥ turned h¨¥r gaze to the west. That was the direction in which Nightcorpse from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses had fled.

    ¡°Your godly authority rtes to corpses. Youmand life and death. In that case, let me show you how Imand life and death.¡±

    The moment the words left h¨¥r mouth, the western horizon distorted, revealing a once-invisible figure that had been fleeing into the night. It was as if a veil had been torn away. From a distance, it looked like a ck spot in the light of day. Within that spot were countless corpses, clumped together into a sphere.

    At the moment, all of the corpses had the same expression on their faces. They looked shocked. Then something very gruish happened. All of the corpse¡¯s faces blurred as they transformed into expressionless versions of the empress¡¯ face. Then they opened their mouths and spoke the same words the empress had just spoken.

    The sound of their wordsbined, creating a godly voice that crushed the authority of life and death. That authority couldn¡¯t reverse anything now. An agonized shriek rang out from the depths of the corpses. God blood rained down in the west.

    The empress¡¯ gaze shifted to the north.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s you. Mynds don¡¯t need a north wind.¡±

    The moment the words were spoken, a great wind rumbled on the northern horizon as a huge storm was revealed. Within that storm was Tempest, the god of the Northfate Kings, whose servant had already perished. H¨¥ was now alone. In response to the empress¡¯ godly voice, h¨¥ turned with shining eyes.

    ¡°Empress, the Altar God level is not the current peak in Revered Ancient. You¡ª¡±

    ¡°Pipe down!¡± the empress replied coolly.

    Though sh¨¥ spoke in a cool tone, h¨¥r voice was unyielding. The moment h¨¥r words echoed out, the storm surrounding Tempest shattered. It was not permitted in thends of humankind. No wind from the north could exist.

    As the north wind copsed and Tempest was destroyed, endless amounts of god blood rained down on the humannds in the north. A cry of anguish echoed in all directions.

    The empress was so mighty that with only a few words, sh¨¥ took the lives of three wless Gods, leaving all onlookers shaken in body and soul. This was the power of an Altar God.

    However, the Northfate Kings were ranked second among the top species of Revered Ancient, and no one knew exactly how many gods they worshiped. But there was at least one Altar God.

    Therefore, the sound of wind rose up again.

    ¡°When Sunfire, Starfire, and Moonfire rose to a higher level, I, Northfate, was given leave to depart. As for you... this matter is concluded!¡±

    It was another north wind, but this was different from Tempest. This time, it was a frigid wind, something that could freeze time and seal gods. H¨¥ hade before, only to have h¨©s arm severed by Grand Emperor Swordsage. Now h¨¥ was back. And h¨¥ was also an Altar God.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a snowy storm that formed a huge arm that reached out and grabbed Tempest.

    Simultaneously, a snowy storm sprang into being above the empress¡¯ head. It was sorge it spread to cover the entire imperial capital, then the Imperial Region. It... was going to freeze the entire nation, and seal all humankind within the storm.

    Then the zombie emperors surged with godly might as they extended protection in all directions.

    The empress stepped forward and rose above the snowstorm. ¡°You¡¯re the one I¡¯ve been waiting for!¡±

 Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 1)</h4>

    Sunset and sunrise are separated by the night. But they can still be considered to alternate between each other.

    Xu Qing looked at the statue of the Grand Emperor, and then at the empress up in the air. Countless thoughts ran through his head, and he felt like enlightenment was brewing within him. There was a tug on his mind, and among the more than one hundred faint lineaments in his void soil, there were a handful that were clearly fluctuating.

    At that moment, the sun was rising. Multicolored dawn light spilled out, driving away all of the darkness and gloom.

    Ultimately, Xu Qing¡¯s gaze focused on the empress, and the dazzling light that surrounded her like a seven-colored garment. The light seemed to connect all living beings and make them part of Revered Ancient.

    Five godly auras pulsed from the vortexes on Ancient Emperor.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Eastglory. Mirrorcloud. Sageheaven. Dao Life. Dark War....

    The five emperors were under the control of destiny aura. They wore imperial robes and crowns, and glittered with different types of godly authority as they floated up from the vortexes. They arrayed themselves behind the empress. Their majesty towered into the heavens.

    Wild colors shed, winds screamed, and the terrain in humannds trembled. All humans felt their blood surging. All of it converged into a will that rose high into the sky. It was as if notice was being given to everyone everywhere in Revered Ancient that... humans had gods now. And humankind was going to rise to prominence.

    All human heavenly kings prostrated. The heavenly marquises joined them. So did all the government officials. The Five Greater Celestial Divisions. The Five Lesser Celestial Divisions. Cultivators. Commoners. Countless human sects. All of the human armed forces in the Imperial Region. All of them bowed to the empress and the emperors!

    ¡°Empress!¡±

    The voices of countless humans drifted out. The dome of heaven shook and destiny aura swept back and forth everywhere. They were giving voice to the will of humankind. As that voice spread out, and the light shone, forces throughout Revered Ancient were shaken. And that was true of the gods of many species.

    Especially when... the empress looked up, sending Altar God pressure and energy into the world.

    ¡°Today, imperial blood was spilled. But not enough god blood flowed.¡±

    As those two sentences were spoken, killing intent surged into the heavens. Frigid coldness upended the cosmos. Each word cracked like thunder and shook the canopy of heaven.

    All of a sudden, the various gods that hade to interfere with the proceedings, whether th¨¥y were hidden or not, were rattled deeply. Without any hesitation, th¨¥y turned to flee.

    zeme from the Rend Nobleplexuses. Nightcorpse from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses. Tempest from the Northfate Kings. All three shivered. The fire was sent spinning off to the side, the corpses tumbled backward, and the tempest dissipated.

    It was even more dramatic with the gods in hiding. Some of th¨¥m still harbored malicious intentions, and weren¡¯tpletely certain of the empress¡¯ battle prowess and godly authority. But as the peak state of humankind¡¯s will raged, th¨¥y didn¡¯t dare to cause trouble.

    Unfortunately for th¨¥m, humankind was different than it had been in the past. Although Grand Emperor Swordsage had perished, there was now a new Grand Emperor. And that meant that these gods couldn¡¯t juste and go as th¨¥y pleased.

    It was just as the empress had said. Not enough god blood had flowed.

    The empress lifted h¨¥r hand. Altar God power surged. Sh¨¥ reached out and closed h¨¥r hand into a fist.

    The dome of heaven sank down. It was almost as if heaven had be a curtain, and the empress had grabbed it and pulled it to the side. Infinite starlight poured down from beyond the heavens, gathering above humannds to form the hand of a god.

    It could crush anything, even space and time!

    Revered Ancient trembled. The dome of heaven crumbled. And the entities hidden in cracks in space and time unleashed intense fluctuations, tapping into godly authority and power. Th¨¥y joined forces.

    But joining forces wasn¡¯t enough for th¨¥m to be able to stand up to the power of an Altar God. Screams of agony rang out as massive amounts of god blood rained down into the world of mortals.

    There was one specific god that the empress¡¯ hand of starlight grabbed and pulled out into the open. The form of the god was a huge eye with three pupils that waspletely golden. Xu Qing had never seen any god eye like this before. There were ancient symbols flickering within the eye, and ¨©t pulsed with an aura of intense heat. ¨©t was clearly a god that came fromnds of burning fire. After ¨©t was dragged into the open by the hand of starlight, ¨©t struggled to break free. Frantic chanting rang out as ¨©t tried to manipte the cosmos. ¨©t didn¡¯t qualify.

    The hand of starlight closed, and a heaven-rending, earth-crushing sound rang out as the eye exploded. The god power was crushed. The god soul was extinguished. The god body was wiped out of existence.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    A god had perished!

    As the deafening sound rippled out, endless amounts of god blood poured down. It was purified and without mutagen, and thus, it became nutrients for humankind. It filled the imperial capital. The world trembled.

    ¡°That¡¯s not enough,¡± the empress said calmly. Sh¨¥ looked to the south, to where zeme from the Rend Nobleplexuses was fleeing. ¡°Your godly authority rtes to fire. Why not take a look at my fire?¡±

    The empress¡¯ godfire raged, causing the tilting canopy of heaven to be a world of mes that shot in the direction of h¨¥r gaze. Where it went, heavenly fire burned.

    Off in the distance, the empress¡¯ godfire surrounded zeme. H¨¥ struggled weakly, but that struggling was like the actions of a child. It waspletely and utterly useless. H¨©s godly authority was rted to me, but today... that authority was not h¨©s tomand. God blood rained down on thends to the south. A scream of immeasurable agony erupted from h¨©s mouth, echoing through the world. All who heard it were deeply shaken.

    The empress¡¯ face waspletely expressionless. Sh¨¥ had only looked at zeme for a brief moment. Now sh¨¥ turned h¨¥r gaze to the west. That was the direction in which Nightcorpse from the Netherworld Chasmcorpses had fled.

    ¡°Your godly authority rtes to corpses. Youmand life and death. In that case, let me show you how Imand life and death.¡±

    The moment the words left h¨¥r mouth, the western horizon distorted, revealing a once-invisible figure that had been fleeing into the night. It was as if a veil had been torn away. From a distance, it looked like a ck spot in the light of day. Within that spot were countless corpses, clumped together into a sphere.

    At the moment, all of the corpses had the same expression on their faces. They looked shocked. Then something very gruish happened. All of the corpse¡¯s faces blurred as they transformed into expressionless versions of the empress¡¯ face. Then they opened their mouths and spoke the same words the empress had just spoken.

    The sound of their wordsbined, creating a godly voice that crushed the authority of life and death. That authority couldn¡¯t reverse anything now. An agonized shriek rang out from the depths of the corpses. God blood rained down in the west.

    The empress¡¯ gaze shifted to the north.

    ¡°And then there¡¯s you. Mynds don¡¯t need a north wind.¡±

    The moment the words were spoken, a great wind rumbled on the northern horizon as a huge storm was revealed. Within that storm was Tempest, the god of the Northfate Kings, whose servant had already perished. H¨¥ was now alone. In response to the empress¡¯ godly voice, h¨¥ turned with shining eyes.

    ¡°Empress, the Altar God level is not the current peak in Revered Ancient. You¡ª¡±

    ¡°Pipe down!¡± the empress replied coolly.

    Though sh¨¥ spoke in a cool tone, h¨¥r voice was unyielding. The moment h¨¥r words echoed out, the storm surrounding Tempest shattered. It was not permitted in thends of humankind. No wind from the north could exist.

    As the north wind copsed and Tempest was destroyed, endless amounts of god blood rained down on the humannds in the north. A cry of anguish echoed in all directions.

    The empress was so mighty that with only a few words, sh¨¥ took the lives of three wless Gods, leaving all onlookers shaken in body and soul. This was the power of an Altar God.

    However, the Northfate Kings were ranked second among the top species of Revered Ancient, and no one knew exactly how many gods they worshiped. But there was at least one Altar God.

    Therefore, the sound of wind rose up again.

    ¡°When Sunfire, Starfire, and Moonfire rose to a higher level, I, Northfate, was given leave to depart. As for you... this matter is concluded!¡±

    It was another north wind, but this was different from Tempest. This time, it was a frigid wind, something that could freeze time and seal gods. H¨¥ hade before, only to have h¨©s arm severed by Grand Emperor Swordsage. Now h¨¥ was back. And h¨¥ was also an Altar God.

    From a distance, it was possible to see a snowy storm that formed a huge arm that reached out and grabbed Tempest.

    Simultaneously, a snowy storm sprang into being above the empress¡¯ head. It was sorge it spread to cover the entire imperial capital, then the Imperial Region. It... was going to freeze the entire nation, and seal all humankind within the storm.

    Then the zombie emperors surged with godly might as they extended protection in all directions.

    The empress stepped forward and rose above the snowstorm. ¡°You¡¯re the one I¡¯ve been waiting for!¡±

 Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 962: Empress Executes Gods (part 2)</h4>

    The empress¡¯ eyes shone with ferocity. It was a given that sh¨¥ knew how strong the Northfate Kings were, and that provoking them would have repercussions. But humankind had an Altar God now, and that meant it wasn¡¯t appropriate to <i>conceal one¡¯s strength and bide one¡¯s time</i>. Patiently hiding would only result in many other groups probing humankind to see how strong they were. And of course, the Northfate Kings wouldn¡¯t cast aside their malicious intentions because of that.

    Years ago, Grand Emperor Swordsage had relied on his shocking battle prowess to cow everyone. That was what made it possible for him to keep humankind safe. Even when he was only a clone, he still managed to keep most of the gods away.

    Right now, strength was the best protection!

    Sh¨¥ wanted to tell the Northfate Kings that humankind was like a protruding nail. Northfate might be strong, but striking that nail would stille with a price. Sh¨¥ also wanted to reveal how valuable of an ally sh¨¥ could be. Sh¨¥ wanted everyone to know that sh¨¥ wasn¡¯t just an Altar God. She was a very strong Altar God!

    Therefore, as sh¨¥ spoke the words and then stepped out, sh¨¥ closed her eyes. The sky above all regions in Revered Ancient vibrated.

    There were many suns in Revered Ancient, and it was the same with moons. As a result, at any given time, it could be daytime or nighttime in different locations. It just depended on the region.

    When the empress took that step, all areas with sunlight in Revered Ancient were affected. If the broken face opened h¨©s eyes at that moment, h¨¥ would see a patchwork of white and ck. And just like amp being put out, all of the areas in which daytime existed... suddenly went dark.

    Every single region in Revered Ancient slipped into nighttime. A god had blown out amp, causing all light to temporarily leave Revered Ancient. That included the territory of humankind. What was once day had now be night.

    Except... in the sky above the imperial capital, the empress hovered, h¨¥r eyes closed, and sh¨¥ was now the only source of light in all of Revered Ancient. This was the godly authority of the empress: to remove the concept of light, and collect it in h¨¥rself, to be the only light in the world.

    In fact, it was like a Dawning Sun. When that authority was unleashed, Revered Ancient would enter a long night.

    The empress opened h¨¥r eyes. Infinite light spread from h¨¥r eyes. It was the source of all light in Revered Ancient, like the concept of light for all regions. It was like the dawn breaking the night. Where that light went, heaven and earth became bright. The snowstorm melted. The god Northfate became nothing. That didn¡¯t involve perishing. But it was a grievous wound, simr to the injury suffered by Yu Liuchen years ago. The only thing left behind was a voice that thrummed with fear.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe your godly authority... is that of light....¡±

    The voice faded away. In the end, that godly authority made it impossible for h¨©m to save the god Tempest.

    Tempest¡¯s god blood fell like rain into the world of mortals. That god no longer existed. The world went back to normal. The regions which had lost their concept of light returned to their original state. The sky above humannds was once again filled with the light of day. Two statues of gods descended from the sky,nding in the south and the west.

    One was zeme. The other was Nightcorpse.

    The empress didn¡¯t wipe th¨¥m out of existence, but instead sealed th¨¥m in thends of humankind. Enough god blood had been spilled. The godly ascension ceremony was now concluded. All parties present werepletely silent.

    Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire looked at the empress for a moment before slowly leaving. The deal was concluded. Th¨¥y had no reason to stay.

    Everything everywhere was quiet.

    Humankind as a whole should have been excited. But just as the tide ebbs and flows, after the surge of the species¡¯ will, humans now felt sorrow because of the departure of the Grand Emperor.

    Xu Qing sighed softly as he looked around. Perhaps even heaven and earth were affected. Xu Qing felt like he could just barely hear the heaven of Revered Ancient singing a dirge.

    A cold wind blew over humannds... and it contained a sobbing sound, a coldness that could pierce down to the bones. It grew more intense until fluctuations filled the sky. An endless wind filled the sky, and it seemed full of the howl of ghosts and ghouls. It was endlessly ravenous, as if it came directly from theherworld.

    In the imperial capital, in a certain courtyard, the current pce lord of the Summer Immortal Pce looked up at the heavenly wind. ¡°An inauspicious omen,¡± she said in a hoarse voice that sounded almost like a sigh. ¡°A wind from the Nine Serenities....¡±

    ***

    Someone had opened theherworld. The wind from the Nine Serenities blew stronger and stronger across Revered Ancient.

    The wind hastened across the imperial capital of humankind. It passed the multiple regions belonging to the Firemoons. It swept across empty wastnds. And eventually it gathered... in the Heaveneater Region. In the Heaveneaters¡¯ imperial capital there was a mirror image of the godly ascension ceremony carried out by the empress. There, the wind from the Nine Serenities turned into a massive vortex.

    In all directions, reflected images of the godly ascension ceremony shimmered. In this location, five past Heaveneater emperors raged with godfire. However, they were not in the process of godly ascension. Instead, their fleshly bodies were burning.

    And that made the wind grow stronger! It turned into a Nine Serenities vortex, rumbling loudly as it spread out to cover the imperial capital, everything around it, and eventually the entire Heaveneater Region. The wind didn¡¯t whimper. Instead, it cheered and chanted in anticipation.

    ¡°Return!¡±

    In the vicinity of the ceremony were innumerable Torchlight agents, and countless cultivators in ck robes. All looked up and shouted the same thing.

    ¡°Return!¡±

    The sound grew louder and more majestic, affecting all heaven and earth, kicking up huge winds. Then, the Nine Serenities vortex rumbled up toward the dome of heaven.

    Taking it in as a whole, the Heaveneater Region was awash with rivers of blood and full of mountains of flesh. There were too many corpses to count, and they were arrayed as if for a feast. It was horrendous and appalling. It almost seemed as if the Heaveneater¡¯s imperial capital... was the location of a ceremony of an evenrger scale than that in humannds! This was definitely a ceremony that could shake heaven and shatter the earth!

    And that was exactly what the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was aiming for. He wanted... to restore the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan! He wanted to take his old kingdom and bring it back from ancient times and into the modern era. He wanted his personal nation to once again be a part of Revered Ancient! He wanted to restore his country!

    Years ago, Bai Xiaozhuo had been working toward the same dream. Sadly for him, he had failed.

    As for the crown prince, he desired to bring back the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan in full. It was a task of monumental difficulty! And thus, he needed a massive ceremony!

    He had to... organize, actuate, and participate in an unprecedented ceremony of godly ascension. He needed to take a portion of time and prepare it as a sacrifice to offer to Living God Eminent Destion. And in selecting a location in which to restore his kingdom, he needed to perfectly duplicate the ceremony, in something akin to substituting one life for another.

    Have someone else suffer the tribtion, with the result of both parties seeding! The more majestic, radiant, and unprecedented the ceremony, the more likely he would seed in restoring his kingdom. Therefore, he chose... the godly ascension ceremony of the human empress!

    Humankind originally didn¡¯t want their emperor to be a god. So in that sense, the ceremony was unprecedented.

    For an Imperial Sovereign to cast aside the path of the cultivator to be a god was something that had never happened in all the countless years that had passed. And thus, it was monumentally difficult.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    As of now, the empress had seeded. Therefore, he would seed. He didn¡¯t actually need to personally be there. Everything was ying perfectly ording to his n.

    The broken face was delighted. Deafening rumbling sounds filled the dome of heaven over thends of the Heaveneaters. Cracking sounds rang out as the vortex overhead spread, and the door to theherworld was cracked open.

    ¡°Return!¡±

    ¡°Return!!¡±

    Countless Torchlight agents, ck-robed cultivators, and experimental god bodies howled the same thing. Their voices called out to the souls of the deceased. With a nation-wide ceremony backing it, that sound stretched into theherworld.

    It dragged the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan to the forefront of theherworld, from a section in time before it had been destroyed, and wasplete. Then it descended into the Heaveneater Region.

    The intense sound shattered the sky and crushed thend. An illusory kingdom appeared from within theherworld. It came out of the shattered cosmos down into Revered Ancient.

    This was the very same Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan that, years ago, had shaken all species in Revered Ancient. Shrieks and howls full of defiance and madness echoed out from the illusory kingdom. Countless souls of the deceased cried out from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan that had long since been buried in time.

    They included citizens, soldiers, and government officials.... There seemed no end to the sea of souls that swept out over the Heaveneater Region. They swept toward the rivers of blood and mountains of flesh and began to devour all of it. It was all nutrients for them. All of the flesh and blood of an entire region had been prepared for the people of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan to use as new bodies.

    One after another, new bodies formed, and new auras erupted out. Eyes opened, and they were full of piety. As for their hearts, they were full of hatred toward heaven, earth, and all species!

    They had returned!

    The Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan had been restored!

    A magnificent imperial capital descended upon the Heaveneater imperial capital, recing it. It was now an enormous, violet city. Simr cities appeared in other locations in the Heaveneater Region. In total, there were 99 of them.

    Inside the imperial capital, there was an imperial pce of violet and cyan. There, flesh and blood bodies appeared, and they all looked into the depths of the pce, where the imperial throne was. They kowtowed.

    It wasn¡¯t just them. As of that moment, all of the awakened citizens of Violet and Cyan turned in the same direction and fervently kowtowed. They were waiting. Waiting for their unparalleled crown prince to return and sit on the imperial throne. When he did, he would ascend the throne and be... the Emperor of Violet and Cyan!

    Years ago, when the crown prince fought hisst battle, he made a promise to the entire Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.

    <i>¡°When I return, I will ascend the throne as emperor!¡±</i>

    As of this moment, the emperor for whom they awaited, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, who had already achieved most of hisrger goal, was walking toward the imperial capital of humankind. Every step he took caused the ground to moan and the sky to ripple. His expression was warm, and he was even smiling.

    ¡°I¡¯vee to get that doll, lil¡¯ bro.¡±

 Chapter 963: Zi Qing and Xu Qing (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 963: Zi Qing and Xu Qing (part 1)</h4>

    In the imperial capital in Ningyan¡¯s mansion, there was a courtyard set aside specially for Plumdark.

    Plumdark was struggling. She sat cross-legged in the middle of a host ofplicated sealing marks that floated around her. They formed a sealing barrier that bound her in ce. The sealing marks were made of soul threads that had erupted the moment the ancestral sacrifices began, thus preventing Plumdark from leaving.

    Not very far away in another residence, Erniu sat cross-legged, also struggling. In fact, blue veins bulged out on his forehead, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was surrounded by simr sealing marks. However, these weren¡¯t soul threads. Instead, they had been set up by Master Seventh.

    ¡°Old man!¡± he roared, struggling with all his might. ¡°You damn geezer! I can¡¯t believe you plotted against me like this! You sealed me here? Fool! I refuse to be your apprentice!!¡±

    Outside, the Nine Serenities wind blew through the imperial capital.

    The sky seemed murky above. The door of theherworld was opening, and it couldn¡¯t be hidden. As it was revealed to Revered Ancient, everyone who had been paying attention to the empress¡¯ godly ascension ceremony noticed it. After all, this involved an ancient kingdom being restored. And the ceremony itself was extremely gruish.

    However... it was different from when the empress became a god. No species, and no god, attempted to stop what happened in the Heaveneater Region. They ignored it. It was almost as if it were some sort of taboo. The reason was that it was a sacrifice to a Living God, and Eminent Destion was pleased.

    In the imperial capital of humankind, the empress looked up, and aplicated expression shed across h¨¥r face briefly. An instantter, sh¨¥ was calm. The deal sh¨¥ had made with that certain person was now concluded. Both parties had achieved the desired result.

    In the future, the interests of the species would be the most important.

    Humankind had broken ties with the holynds. The Grand Emperor had perished. Going forward, humans in Revered Ancient would not have the same stability as before. Whether or not humankind would rise to prominence would depend solely on the actions of the empress. Just as sh¨¥ had said before. Sh¨¥ would shoulder the responsibility of all karma!

    Calm at heart, the empress looked out at humankind. The excitement of themoners in the imperial capital was palpable, and the government officials were clearly feeling simrly. The imperial children looked nervous.

    The empress finally looked at Xu Qing. <i>That person¡¯s younger brother in this life is the one the Grand Emperor chose to bear his sword....</i>

    H¨¥r gaze took in Xu Qing, who stood on the War Drum of Humankind, his face bereft of any injuries or wounds.

    Xu Qing sensed her gaze. He bowed.

    The empress nodded h¨¥r head slightly, then looked at the rising sun and spoke in a voice that echoed through heaven and earth.

    ¡°A decree is hereby issued in the east of Revered Ancient, to all regions.

    ¡°The sun is rising. Let all of my people in all of the regions prepare for resettlement. No humans in any outside region are to be killed.

    ¡°King Firecrusher. King Northriver. King Cloudtide.... You will lead seventeen heavenly kings and seventeenmanders-in-chief to the regions controlled by nonhumans in the east of Revered Ancient. Find all of my people... and bring them home.¡±

    Hearts swelled in response to the words.

    From the time of Eastglory and on, there were too many scattered citizens in foreignnds to count. It wasn¡¯t that other emperors hadn¡¯t desired to gather them together. They justcked the power. But on this day, the empress issued a decree as an Altar God. In the east of Revered Ancient, h¨¥r voice was like a naturalw.

    King Firecrusher and the other heavenly kings instantly flew into action. Bowing to the empress, they voiced their assent.

    Continuing, sh¨¥ said, ¡°All other government ministers, imperial princes, and other rted personnel: in seven days in the grand hall of the imperial pce, a new imperial name will be selected, and a new dynasty will be announced!¡±

    In response to the empress¡¯ words, the officials all bowed.

    ¡°The ancestral sacrifices are hereby concluded. Everyone is dismissed. Eleventh, youe with me.¡±

    Ancient Emperor sank back down into its original position. The canopy of heaven went back to normal. The destiny aura of humankind was no longer active. The cultivators on the were teleported away and appeared in the air outside. The grand ceremony was officially over.

    The officials could see that the empress wanted to talk to h¨¥r son, and didn¡¯t wish to be disturbed. After bowing, they took their leave, their minds full of thoughts about the ancestral sacrifices.

    Eleventh Prince¡¯s heart raced with nervousness. He felt like a child who had misbehaved as he walked over to the empress, his head hanging. When he reached h¨¥r, he opened his mouth to speak, except he wasn¡¯t sure what to say.

    However, the empress wasn¡¯t even looking at Eleventh Prince. Sh¨¥ looked into the sky. There, the War Drum of Humankind had disappeared, and now that the officials were all gone, Xu Qing was visible.

    ¡°King Skycrusher,¡± the empress said calmly.

    As Xu Qing floated in the air, he bowed to the empress. ¡°I¡¯m waiting for someone, Your Majesty. He should arrive soon.¡±

    n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The empress looked at him deeply for a long moment. Without saying another thing, sh¨¥ turned and went back in the direction of the imperial pce. Eleventh Prince took a deep breath and nervously followed h¨¥r.

    Heaven and earth were silent. Compared to the dramatic events of earlier, this silence seemed deathly and stifling. Within that pressure, Xu Qing hovered alone in the air. No one appeared anywhere nearby. He just patiently looked at the horizon.

    Truth be told, he was being very patient. He had been waiting a long time for this day. And he was confident that the person he was waiting for woulde. That was his premonition. To be precise, the year he arrived in the imperial capital and first caught sight of the person acting as the imperial preceptor, he knew that this day wasn¡¯t far off.

    Time passed.

    The sun continued to rise until it sent light and heat out over thends. Eventually... it was noon. Intense sunlight wiped all darkness away from thends and cleansed everything. It was so bright that it almost seemed impossible to look at the sky.

    Xu Qing had seen many days like this. There was one in particr that was branded into his soul. It was something he would never forget for his entire life.

    It was thest noon he experienced in Peerless City. The sunlight that day had been very bright and strong, until a figure appeared. And then blood started to rain down in Peerless City....

    On this day, that same figure appeared to Xu Qing at noon in the sun. The color violet invaded the light, cutting off the heat and descending from above. Step by step, he entered the world of mortals. Ultimately, he superseded the light in heaven. He reced the sky. He became the only thing Xu Qing saw, filling his field of vision.

    It was Zi Qing, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan![1]

    He had beautiful facial features, a warm smile, peaceful eyes, and a soft gait.

    Hovering in midair, he looked in the direction of the imperial pce and said, ¡°Congrattions, Your Majesty. You sessfully became an Altar God.¡±

    A calm voice responded from the imperial pce. ¡°You should be in your own region, not here with my people.¡±

    Hearing that, Zi Qing smiled faintly and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re correct, Empress. As soon as I get the doll, I¡¯ll leave.¡±

    With that, Zi Qing turned to look at Xu Qing. His gaze was as gentle as ever, just like back in Peerless City. ¡°Have you been waiting for me this whole time, lil¡¯ bro?¡±

    Xu Qing nodded, his expression unchanging.

    ¡°It seems you¡¯ve really grown up. In that case, let¡¯s go. I¡¯m going to take you home.¡± Zi Qing smiled and reached out with his right hand gently to grab Xu Qing. His act of reaching out caused the dome of heaven to spin. Thends trembled. A terrifying force descended on the world, cutting off time and severing the surroundings from the fate of Revered Ancient.

    Everything around Xu Qing became an instance of space-time separate from Revered Ancient. It was something that couldn¡¯t be prevented or avoided. That hand... was like fate itself.

    In fact, it was hard to say if it was a misconception or not, but within the palm prints on the hand, Xu Qing saw Peerless City, the blood rain, and himself, clutching a doll and crying.

    But then a cold snort echoed out from the imperial pce. There were also five godly auras that erupted from the destiny aura of humankind. They locked onto Zi Qing. In an instant, the spinning of the world ceased, and the rumbling went away.

    Zi Qing¡¯s hand stopped in ce and he looked at the imperial pce. ¡°Your Majesty, this is a family matter between me and my lil¡¯ bro.¡±

    ¡°Xu Qing is one of my officials,¡± the empress replied in a calm but firm tone. ¡°He¡¯s King Skycrusher of humankind, and is the tutor of the imperial princes.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± It sounded as though Zi Qing had just heard something very amusing. His smile widened, and something scintiting appeared in his gaze in addition to the warmth. It was something extremely ancient. His voice changed in a simr way. ¡°From the look of it, my lil¡¯ bro doesn¡¯t want you interfering, Your Majesty. But since Your Majesty already spoke up, I suppose... we should y a little game of choice. What do you say?¡±

    Zi Qing flipped his left hand over to reveal a violet wooden box.

    1. In case you missed it, I have a footnote in <u>chapter 938</u> exining Zi Qing¡¯s name. ?

 Chapter 963: Zi Qing and Xu Qing (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 963: Zi Qing and Xu Qing (part 2)</h4>

    Zi Qing opened the box with a single finger, and... a beam of light shot out from inside! It had no specific color or shape, and in fact, it couldn¡¯t be seen. It could only be felt. But as soon as it appeared, ripples flowed out in the dome of heaven. An intense rumbling sound echoed out. The sun and moon went dark!

    Everyone in the imperial capital, from mortals, to cultivators, to the government officials, all reacted with shock.

    That was because, that beam of light... Was the same light that came when the eyes of the broken god face opened!

    The first time it appeared was years ago in Seven Blood Eyes, when Zi Qing¡¯s servant Night Dove opened a simr box. Later, Xu Qing saw ite out of an experimental god body.[1]

    However, the light that came from the box held by the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was vastly more intense than what appeared in Seven Blood Eyes. No matter what almighty cultivation base someone had, even if they had divine abilities and daoist magics that could transform heaven and earth, none of them... could prevent themselves from trembling. Even gods were affected.

    It came down to a pressure by a greater level of life, and it hung over the heads of the countless species on Revered Ancient, like a death sentence. Levels determined everything.

    When the wooden box opened, a gaze emerged that was formless and shapeless. It couldn¡¯t be perceived with the naked eye. As a result, the clouds seethed as if they were an angry sea. The entire imperial capital blurred, such that nothing was clearly visible.

    It seemed to be apanied by a chanting that could shake the soul, which filled heaven and earth, destabilizing all. Everything in heaven and earth blurred and distorted.

    However, the imperial capital wasn¡¯t Seven Blood Eyes, and the empress was a powerful Altar God. Therefore, the imperial capital¡¯s grand spell formation activated. The destiny aura of humankind rose into the air, bringing with it the five past emperors who were now gods. A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering aura emerged from the imperial pce, bing a gigantic vortex that sucked away all the light in the area.

    However... if Zi Qing said he wanted to y a game with the empress, there was no way he woulde unprepared.

    The next instant, another gaze erupted within the Imperial Region, in a mysterious location that was guarded year-round by a massive military force. It was a location where an ongoing mission was carried out by humans throughout history. For tens of thousands of years, no matter what happened, that location never interfered.

    Other than the massive military force in that location, there was also a very unique sect. It was one of the top ten great sects of humankind, yet no disciple from that sect ever appeared publicly. They were on guard duty all the time! That sect carried out its mission in a deep abyss, and it was called the Hidden Earth Society![2]

    Their mission was to guard the gate in that abyss. They didn¡¯t even need to follow imperial orders.

    That abyss led to Crimson Mother¡¯s home, which was also the home of Li Zihua. It was... the true Revered Ancient maind! It was the battlefield where the Summer Immortals from Deep Earth had fought the Godfolk from Brilliant Heaven.

    The Summer Immortals won that fight, and then sealed the Godfolk from Brilliant Heaven along with th¨¥ir god emperor there. In addition, they took what had once been the heaven of Revered Ancient and turned it into the earth.

    That was what led to theter version of the Revered Ancient maind.

    Beneath Revered Ancient, and above Deep Earth, was the location where the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk were sealed. From then on, the heavenly daos considered that location an abyss.

    There were nine doors leading into the abyss, and humankind guarded one of them!

    Light erupted from one of the abyssal doors, bing a terrifying might that answered the call of the light in the imperial capital. Intense rumbling sounds filled the air as nine cracks appeared on the door to the abyss.

    Deafening chanting then filled the Imperial Region, apanied by howls of defiance. Th¨¥y wanted toe back. Th¨¥y were the true rulers of the Revered Ancient maind. Th¨¥y were the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk!

    Intense fluctuations spread through the Imperial Region, bringing boundless mutagen from the cracks in the abyssal door. It came from underground. From under the sand, the rivers and the mountains. It came out of cities. From out of tiles, bricks, food, and inanimate objects! It came out of every living thing as well, creating a dark mist.

    The mist merged with the cloud cover overhead, changing its color. In the blink of an eye, it turned a ghastly crimson color. Red lightning crackled back and forth, and blood began to rain down. Something unimaginably terrifying, and something unstoppable, was forming thanks to these two beams of light.

    If it wasn¡¯t stopped quickly, and if the abyssal door opened, then humankind and any neighboring regions would descend into pure catastrophe. In an instant, humankind¡¯s destiny aura was thrown into chaos. Heaven and earth trembled as thunder boomed.

    Zi Qing hovered in the air, a warm smile on his face. ¡°Your Majesty, you and those five imperial zombie gods have about an incense stick¡¯s worth of time to suppress the abyss. I doubt you¡¯ll have trouble sealing the cracks. As for me, I¡¯ll take advantage of the time you need to deal with the abyss to take my lil¡¯ bro away.

    ¡°And therefore, ma¡¯am, let the game begin. What is your choice, Your Majesty? Do you choose one person? Or do you choose your people?¡±

    Zi Qing looked at the imperial pce.

    The vortex above the imperial pce rumbled as the empress¡¯ eyes appeared. Three breaths of time passed. Then the five zombie gods surrounding Zi Qing shot in the direction of the abyss. The vortex above the imperial pce vanished. The empress also went in the direction of the abyss. Sh¨¥ chose the people.

    As a result, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was stirred emotionally for the first time in this life. Heughed. Yet as heughed, a gleam of reminiscence appeared in his eyes. He was thinking of a time in the past when a person in a simr circumstance also chose the people. He looked at Xu Qing.

    During this entire time, Xu Qing¡¯s expression hadn¡¯t changed at all. He just watched calmly.

    ¡°The empress abandoned you, lil¡¯ bro,¡± Zi Qing said. ¡°In fact, it seems everyone you care about has abandoned you. None of them want to choose you. Therefore, why note home with me?¡±

    Zi Qing once again reached out with his hand of fate, and this time there was nothing stopping him from grabbing Xu Qing.

    The Emperor¡¯s Sword within Xu Qing thrummed, but he didn¡¯t respond to it. He just looked at Zi Qing and calmly said, ¡°My big brother. The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. All these years, there¡¯s been a question I¡¯ve always wanted to ask you. And that is... what are you afraid of?¡±

    When Zi Qing heard Xu Qing¡¯s words, his smile didn¡¯t falter, and he opened his mouth to say something.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    But then a sound rang out that shook the dome of heaven. It was a howl that seemed to contain infinite determination and madness sufficient to topple the cosmos. And it came from a certain residence in the imperial capital.

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna eat you, fool!¡±

    The sealing marks surrounding Erniu shattered by a mad burst of power that erupted from him. However, he still couldn¡¯t fly up into the air.

    The sky suddenly turned blue. Endless ice sealed the heavens and froze thends. Within that blue sky appeared a host of blue arms, as well as a blue vortex. As it rumbled, auras of reincarnation and death appeared, along with the sound of sealing marks shattering.

    There were also the sounds of someone panting for breath. It was as if some terrifying entity were inside of the vortex, struggling to crawl out!

    Simultaneously, blue snowkes started floating down. Astonishingly, the blue snowkes turned into blue worms that filled the world.

    ¡°Who said Ah Qing has been abandoned? I never abandoned him, fool!¡±

    As the shout echoed out of the imperial capital, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan looked over.

    For the first time since Xu Qing decided to wait for Zi Qing, his expression changed. Looking over at the blue vortex, he could sense the madness pulsing in his Eldest Brother, and could feel the seals being undone.

    ¡°Calm down, Eldest Brother!¡±

    Things seemed to calm for a brief moment, and then another shout rang out. ¡°Calm? Calm?? Now¡¯s the time to go all out!¡±

    The vortex erupted with an even more shocking sound, something that could shake heaven and earth. It sounded as if the act of opening those seals was unimaginably difficult. As a result, the deafening sounds from inside the vortex diminished. Ultimately, there was a shuddering bang, followed by a howl of defiance. The vortex faded away. The snowkes disappeared. The blue color faded from the sky.

    Shortly after, the maddened aura again rose up within the residence in the capital. It tried to explode out again. But then came some booms, and another failure.

    It happened over and over again. The maddened sounds grew more intense.

    ¡°Seems your Eldest Brother is putting on a bit of a show,¡± Zi Qing said with a smile. By this point, his hand of fate hadtched on to Xu Qing and pulled him close. ¡°That¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not going to hurt him today. That said, I¡¯m very curious about the question you just asked. But what makes me even more curious is that you were waiting for me. So... what were you nning to do?¡±

    Xu Qing remained as calm as ever. ¡°Based on your actions earlier, my previous determination was confirmed.¡±

    Zi Qing looked with warm anticipation at Xu Qing, as he was clearly very interested to hear what was going toe next.

    ¡°Back in Sea-Sealing County,¡± Xu Qing continued quietly, ¡°I kept wondering about the same thing. I wondered what I would have to do to kill you. I didn¡¯t know your true level of battle prowess, nor what you were capable of. I thought a lot about the situation, and the only thing I could think to do was get stronger.

    ¡°Yet I never gave up trying to think of a better solution. It was in the Moonrite Region that I realized there was a possibility.¡± Xu Qing looked at Zi Qing. ¡°It was in Firemoon territory that I perfected my idea. Then,st night, I saw you in action, and I saw you unleash your time powers to sever Shopkeeper Zhao¡¯s time, as well as your own. I also saw you use his providence like a nourishing tonic. That was when I made my mind up.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s voice seemed somewhat hoarse, like sand grating against time and drifting into memory. ¡°Why did I experience a sense ofpleteness when striking the drum? Back in Moonrite Region, why did I see images from Peerless City that don¡¯t exist in my memories? Why do I have memories of a kind version of you all those years ago? But at the same time, memories of a cruel version?

    ¡°In that second version, my body is ripped apart much like that tattered doll you gave me. And why did that second memory not exist in me before?¡±

    Xu Qing looked directly at Zi Qing. ¡°Who took those brutal memories away? Who reced them with memories of good times? If it was the same person, then why would the person who ripped me apart then put me back together? That kind of behavior is quite a paradox.¡±

    During the entire time Xu Qing spoke, Zi Qing didn¡¯t interrupt. But at this point, he spoke in a warm, kind voice. ¡°Is it possible that the person saw you ripped apart, and then felt bad? Therefore, he put his lil¡¯ bro back together, and then gave you some warm memories instead?¡±

    As they hovered in the air, Zi Qing and Xu Qing looked at each other. The wind blew, stirring their hair. The patchwork doll at the door of the greater spirit mansion also stirred in the wind.

    1. Night Dove opened the box in <u>chapter 313</u>. Much of the wording above is the same as that chapter. A box and light also showed up in <u>chapter 463</u> when Xu Qing fought Master Shengyun¡¯s father, Chu Tianqun. ?

    2. The Hidden Earth Society was mentioned previously in <u>chapter 749</u>. ?

 Chapter 964: Beyond Time

    <h4>Chapter 964: Beyond Time</h4>

    Zi Qing, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, spoke in a soft tone. He wore a violet robe and had long, violet hair that swayed gently behind him. His pale, violet eyes were focused on Xu Qing, who was bound tightly in his hand of fate. His facial expression was tender and caring. He looked exactly like the perfect older brother that Xu Qing remembered from Peerless City.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it possible that¡¯s what really happened?¡± he said softly. His voice seemed to merge with the wind and dissipated into the ancient past. It was almost like it was supposed to be buried in time, back in Peerless City. ¡°I mean no harm, lil¡¯ bro. This hand of fate is a gift from me to you. It¡¯s formed from thest bit of destiny aura from the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.¡±

    As the words left the crown prince¡¯s mouth, the huge hand of fate rumbled and turned into a violet dragon that pulsed with destiny aura.

    ¡°And the reason I came here today is to take you home. I already pulled the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan out of theherworld. It¡¯s settled in ce in the Heaveneater Region, along with countless citizens and government officials. They¡¯re waiting for me. Once I¡¯m back, I¡¯ll ascend the imperial throne and be the Emperor of Violet and Cyan.

    ¡°You, as my younger brother in this life, are bound deeply to me by karma. That¡¯s why I want to take you back with me. The moment I be the Emperor of Violet and Cyan, then you can inherit Revered Ancient¡¯s ancient title of Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. That title was once the ultimate expression of glory, and I¡¯m prepared to pass it on to you.

    ¡°Once you take it, I canmand the destiny aura of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, blessing you with it so that you can ignite your godfire. You can then surpass your current cultivation base and be a god. Can you ept that, lil¡¯ bro?¡±

    Zi Qing¡¯s voice filled heaven and earth like thunder, shaking the surroundings. His words pulsed with a sensation of fate, confirming that what he was saying was true, and corroborating the determination in his heart. Everything he had just said was true and real. Heaven and earth had borne witness to that.

    In fact, as Zi Qing spoke, he reached up and touched his forehead as if to extract something, although nothing appeared. However, when he extracted that invisible thing, he suddenly seemed to have lost something very important. It was his title. His name. He had extracted the name of Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan and added it into his words. Now he waited to hear Xu Qing¡¯s decision.

    At the moment, Xu Qing had a violet dragon of destiny aura coiled around him, roaring with heaven-shaking, earth-shattering might. All he had to do was nod his head, and it would merge into him. With its help, he could ignite godfire and be a god.

    The cultivators who could see what was happening were reeling.

    Down in the residence, Erniu looked stunned. Then he gritted his teeth and shouted, ¡°You can¡¯t trust him, Ah Qing. He¡¯s lying!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Zi Qing in front of him. The crown prince looked back at him with a tender expression. They were the only two people in the air above the imperial pce. The surroundings rippled and distorted.

    The rumbling from the abyssal gate was still audible, and the two beams of light were still sending out powerful mutagen everywhere. However, the rumbling wasn¡¯t getting any louder. In fact, it was starting to diminish. Clearly, the empress and the five zombie gods were seeding.

    The incense stick¡¯s worth of time was almost up.

    Yet the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan didn¡¯t seem anxious at all, either in his expression or his tone of voice. It was as if this decision of Xu Qing¡¯s was the most important thing in the world to him. Within time, he had seen countless images, most of which concluded with Xu Qing epting the name and bing the new Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. In a few of them, Xu Qing refused, but those were in the minority.

    The conclusion was foreordained, and that was him offering the gift and Xu Qing epting it. Zi Qing¡¯s gaze was soft as he looked at Xu Qing.

    Xu Qing said nothing for a long moment. Truth be told, Zi Qing¡¯s offer had caught him by surprise. As he looked him in the eyes, his mind filled with memories of childhood. After that long moment passed, Xu Qing didn¡¯t state his choice.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you,¡± he said grimly. ¡°In fact, I have a little spection that I¡¯d like to confirm. Back during that brutal section of time in which I was ripped to shreds, isn¡¯t it true that, afterward, something very, very unusual happened?

    ¡°If my spection is correct, then whatever happened after I was ripped apart, it led to you cutting that section of time away so that it wasn''t visible to the world. Then you reced that bit of time with some nice memories. That way, I wouldn¡¯t realize what happened. Afterward, I believed those nice memories to be true.¡±

    This was an alternate exnation of what happened. And as the words entered Zi Qing¡¯s ears, his kind and gentle expression faded away.

    Xu Qing looked at his older brother and continued, ¡°I¡¯m thinking that you had a very specific reason for giving me that patchwork doll. And as my spections grew more clear, I realized that, in all likelihood, that doll is actually a key.¡±

    Normally speaking, Xu Qing didn¡¯t talk this much. But today was unique, and so was the person he was talking to. ¡°It¡¯s a key to open fate. Just like the providence you ripped away from Shopkeeper Zhao.¡± Xu Qing took a deep breath and looked at the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, who no longer looked kind and gentle, and who was now pulsing with a very unusual aura. ¡°Isn¡¯t it true that, back when I was ripped to shreds, you saw something? Or maybe you needed something. Or maybe you feared something. And therefore, you had no choice but to cut away the truth and rece it with something nice. It was like a sealing, wasn¡¯t it?

    ¡°And today you saw an opportunity, which is why you¡¯re here. When you offered to let me be the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, it just further confirmed my spection. If I agreed, then going forward, would the soul inside of me be my own? Or would it be yours?

    ¡°I¡¯m honestly not sure what your true objective is. But it seems like you¡¯re using that name as a gruish possession technique. And that has led me to a realization. My soul has something you want, but can¡¯t get. So this is your only option. Am I right, big brother?¡±

    Zi Qing¡¯s pupils constricted.

    Wind blew through heaven and earth, stirring both of their hair. As the scintiting sunlight shone down and cast mottled shadows, Xu Qing began to pulse with unstable and terrifying fluctuations. They were destructive fluctuations that influenced fate, causing bright colors to sh in heaven and earth, and stimting the wind. It was an aura of self-detonation.

    Xu Qing was unhesitatingly doing somethingpletely and utterly shocking to everyone. He was choosing to self-detonate, thus ripping himself to shreds like what happened all those years ago. That was his answer to the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. He wanted to know what was inside his soul.

    <i>Years ago, Master Shengyun¡¯s father Chu Tianqun used a god magic on me. He wanted to erase all the karma in my soul. But in the end, he screamed in shock.... What did he see...?</i>[1]

    Although Xu Qing didn¡¯t know what Zi Qing¡¯s ultimate objective was, given everything that had yed out, it seemed obvious that past karma was an element. That said, this information didn¡¯t change his existing n.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    There was no way that, afterying eyes on Zi Qing in the imperial capital, he would hold back from crafting a n. That wasn¡¯t his personality. Back when he first realized the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was in the capital, he had secretlymunicated with Master Seventh, and the two of them had hatched a n.

    And the key to the n was to surpass Zi Qing¡¯s level of control over time. The idea was to do something that Zi Qing wouldn¡¯t have any way of seeing within time. Self-detonation was the only thing Xu Qing could think of that would fit the bill. Master Seventh had approved.

    Zi Qing¡¯s face fell. Up to this point, his expression had been warm and gentle. But now, he was visibly taken aback. Not only had his pupils constricted, but also, his heart was pounding. This decision of Xu Qing¡¯s was not something he had predicted could happen. This was not something he had seen within time.

    ***

    A great distance away from the imperial capital of humankind, across the Forbidden Sea, was the continent of South Phoenix. The lord of that continent, me Phoenix, currently glided through the air, his sky-obscuring, sun-blocking wings stretched wide. Wherever he passed, the clouds churned and intense rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Cyclones sprung up beneath him to ravage thends.

    The area over which he circled was a ruined city overgrown with vegetation. It was the location where the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan had died years in the past. That locationter came to be called Peerless City.

    At the moment, there were hundreds of thousands of cultivators seated cross-legged there, forming a shocking spell formation. The formation covered a vast area, and was made of cultivators in Foundation Establishment, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Trove. There were also some Void Returning experts present. If Erniu were there, he would recognize most of them at a nce. The majority were disciples from Seven Blood Eyes, although there were also people from the Violet Lands. Actually, there were representatives from all of the major organizations in South Phoenix.

    The inner ring of the formation was made of a terrifying collection of flesh that caused heaven and earth to shake, and created ripples and distortions in the area. That flesh was clearly extraordinary.

    In the very middle of the formation was a 30,000-meter-tall giant made of mercury. The gianty prone, and its face was an exact replica of Xu Qing¡¯s face. Located on the forehead of the giant was a drop of Xu Qing¡¯s blood.

    Hovering in midair above the giant in a cross-legged posture was Master Seventh. The wind blew, stirring his white hair. He seemed particrly dignified, and his expression was one of unprecedented seriousness. Right at the time that Xu Qing chose to self-detonate, his eyes opened.

    ¡°Activate the formation,¡± he said. ¡°Stimte time!¡±

    The hundreds of thousands of cultivators shouted their acknowledgement. In the dome of heaven, me Phoenix spat out dazzling light. And Master Seventh pulsed with a profoundly ancient aura. That ancient, boundless aura seemed like a measuring stick to use on time itself.

    <i>¡°The supreme star altar adapts unended.</i>

    <i>¡°Expel the ancient, bind the modern, gods protected, spirits defended.</i>

    <i>¡°Wisdom, sensibility, rationality and purity; the heart befriended.</i>

    <i>¡°Three spiritual souls eternal, the physical soul distended.</i>

    <i>¡°My apprentice is stable; reverse the Yellow Springs; hasten as if byws amended!¡±</i>

    Having said that, Master Seventh pushed his left hand down toward the silver giant. At the same time, he put his hand in front of his chest, performed an incantation gesture, and continued speaking.

    <i>¡°The world is free, filthy energy out of sight.</i>

    <i>¡°The deceitful darkness sways the distant light.</i>

    <i>¡°The surrounding gods make me free of fright.</i>

    <i>¡°Treasures and talismans speak to heaven so bright.</i>

    <i>¡°In millennia past lived he named Zi Qing; he died on this spot and meditated before death; hisst energy is nowmanded by the Summer; Immortal guides the energy to this spot; hasten as if byws amended!¡±</i>

    Master Seventh¡¯s eyes seemed full of anger, and each word he spoke boomed like thunder.

    As it turned out, he was attempting to extract the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan¡¯sst bit of energy that he breathed out in the moment of his death! He would extract it from time and from all things!

    1. The incident with Chu Tianqun seeing something inside of Xu Qing was in <u>chapter 465</u>. ?

 Chapter 965: A Fog Inside; A Hidden God of Thunder

    <h4>Chapter 965: A Fog Inside; A Hidden God of Thunder</h4>

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan represented the ultimate level of glory of all time in Revered Ancient. It was a spectacr and peerless identity. He was the most prominent human to rise up since the arrival of the broken face of the god! He was conceived at the behest of the destiny aura of humankind. When he was born, a howl of grief echoed out of all the forbidden grounds in Revered Ancient, and mutated blood flowed from within them. He was sent by this great world of Revered Ancient to save itself, a convergence of the power of the world.

    He was sent down with the mission of uniting Revered Ancient. He basked in the convergence of all the glory in heaven and earth.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    But ultimately, he and his kingdom perished. The day he died, the mountain ranges in Revered Ancient all howled in anguish. The rivers flowed backwards as they wept. The heavenly daos grieved. Just before he died, he breathed out hisst bit of energy, which contained the destiny aura of Revered Ancient, along with all of his glory as well as the providence he had gathered up in his life.

    As he exhaled thatst bit of energy, the providence scattered into heaven and earth. In the end, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was killed in body and soul.

    When he reappeared, he was no longer the hope of Revered Ancient. Instead, he came back full of hatred and a desire for vengeance!

    But on this day, a certain person used himself as a measuring stick on time itself. In the continent of South Phoenix, on the spot where Peerless City stood, which was where the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan died in battle, by themand of the Summer, and guided by an Immortal, heaven and earth receivedmands. Revered Ancient receivedmands.

    Thatst bit of Revered Ancient¡¯s destiny aura that the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan exhaled, which contained his glory and providence... was being extracted from heaven and earth, extracted from time, and extracted from all things!

    At that moment, hundreds of thousands of Seven Blood Eyes cultivators in the continent of South Phoenix joined their voices.

    <i>¡°Commanded by the Summer; Immortal guides the energy to this spot; hasten as if byws amended!¡±</i>

    High in the dome of heaven, me Phoenix soared, time in his eyes, his gaze prating Revered Ancient. His wings obscured the sky, creating a massive wind in all directions, shaking the mountains and sending waves across the Forbidden Sea. He was providing a blessing to this most astounding of spell formations! And in the end, everything converged in the hand of Master Seventh, who hovered above the silver person.

    It turned into a dazzling mist. Within that mist was Revered Ancient and providence!

    Master Seventh looked at the mist with his ancient eyes. Then he lifted his right hand and sent the life mist flowing down to the forehead of the silver person below.

    There, it fused with Xu Qing¡¯s blood. That, in turn, entered the silver person.

    An instantter, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Winds screamed, and the sky went dim. The blurry figures of numerous heavenly daos appeared. The mountains in Revered Ancient trembled. The rivers went wild, and in all locations, anguished howls rose up from forbidden regions and forbidden grounds. Mutated blood flowed from all of the forbidden grounds.

    It was exactly the same supernatural phenomena that appeared when the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan was born!!

    At the same time, Master Seventh¡¯s hair swayed behind him as his aura rose to astonishing levels. With his right hand, he touched the silver person¡¯s forehead, and with his left hand in front of his chest, he performed an incantation gesture. His eyes then shone with the light of suns and moons, which illuminated heaven and earth.

    <i>¡°Dark sects of heaven and earth; myriad energies as the root; numerous cultivators bring infinite tribtions; demonstrate mine divine ability; inside and outside of the three worlds; only the dao is supreme.</i>

    <i>¡°Command the free spirit; a body of golden light; reflect upon the body; ept a myriad variations; eradicate magics and eradicate the respected; five motions bring celebration; thousands of gods offer worship; make use of the thunder; ghosts and demons tremble in fear; the form of the pure fiend dies.¡±</i>

    His words were like the voice of heaven, with every statement like the flow of time.

    ***

    The moment those words echoed out in South Phoenix, the power of self-detonation erupted from Xu Qing in the very distant imperial capital.

    A ck mist swept through his body, shredding his cultivation base, shredding his bones, shredding his flesh, and shredding everything about him. In an instant, his fleshly body was torn to pieces! The power of self-detonation rippled out in all directions. From a distance, it was a ck ring of fog that expanded, crushing anything in its path.

    If that was all there were to it, it might not have been a very big deal. To the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan, the self-detonation of a Void Returning expert could be suppressed with the mere wave of his hand. It was the same even with someone as powerful as Xu Qing. In fact, he could even fiddle with time, and turn the situation around in the blink of an eye.

    But... what Xu Qing was detonating wasn¡¯t just his fleshly body. Put most precisely, the self-detonation of his fleshly body was only a side-effect. The true core of the self-detonation was... his soul!

    His soul ignited as easily as a piece of paper, and then... was ripped to shreds. A burst of energy that could shake heaven and earth erupted from his soul. It was unstoppable and irreversible. A shuddering boom surpassed all the thunder that existed that moment in Revered Ancient.

    In an instant, the bright light of the explosion turned the sky over the imperial capital as bright as day. That daytime spread rapidly to cover the entire region.

    It was like something that could swallow up night, which was essentially the opposite of the empress¡¯ god authority. The world was filled with radiance and light, but at the same time, the darkness was extreme. The boundless ck fog contained the deepest abyss in Revered Ancient. Terrifying howls echoed out from the ck fog that came from the self-detonation of Xu Qing¡¯s soul.

    And just barely visible within that roiling ck smoke was a very ancient tunnel. Within the tunnel were innumerable doors. Some wererge, some were small. They came in all sorts of shapes. But every single one of them was profoundly ancient.

    The howling wasing from within those doors. As the sound of it grew increasingly shocking, the doors started shaking. Then cracking sounds rang out that could shake the ancient past, and struck the hearts and minds of all living beings.

    Whatever entities were inside those doors were frantically trying to break out. They wanted to emerge from the doors!

    At the same time, a terrifying aura spread.

    Even more shocking was that, in the depths of the tunnel of doors, it was just barely possible to see... a chair!

    It was exactly the same thing witnessed by Master Shengyun¡¯s father Chu Tianqun all those years ago. That image had caused him to scream in agony and terror. He had no idea what those doors were, but they had terrified him. And what was even more shocking and unimaginable was the chair that he saw at the end of that horrifying tunnel.

    This was that same chair. Who could possibly qualify to sit on that chair, at the end of that tunnel of terrifying doors?

    Chu Tianqun never found an answer to that question.

    But Zi Qing had an idea of the answer. And thus, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan sighed. He looked at the ck fog that resulted from Xu Qing¡¯s self-detonation. He looked at the doors and the chair at the end of the tunnel.

    Then he softly said, ¡°It¡¯s not mine. But neither is it lil¡¯ bro¡¯s.¡±

    His ultimate objective was that chair!

    When he discovered it years ago, he had many spections about it. For one thing, he knew it had nothing to do with the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan. One thing he did know, however, was that it connected to one of his major goals.

    And that was to be a True God!

    In fact, it was even possible that it could be used to surpass the True God level and reach the level of God Lord. He wanted to acquire that mysterious chair for himself, then use the destiny aura of the returned Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, fuse it with his throne when he became the Emperor of Violet and Cyan, and then use it to reach a higher level as a god.

    By blessing the entire Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, he could reach the highest of heights. That was the entire reason he hade to the godly ascension ceremony. That was his objective. Only bypleting all of the early objectives could hey the foundation toplete his final objective. And thus, he stitched Xu Qing back together, cut away his time, and amended his fate.

    The chair was integrally fused with Xu Qing¡¯s soul, and contained insoluble karma, which meant that taking it away with force would be very difficult. And thus unfolded the events of this day....

    Zi Qing wanted Xu Qing to ept the title of Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan because that would be like them together going forward.

    But Xu Qing had ended up doing something he couldn¡¯t perceive within time. He broke the deadlock.

    Zi Qing shook his head. Given what was ying out, his only option was to take the chair with force, even though that meant there would beplications. He reached out with his right hand toward the spot where Xu Qing¡¯s flesh and soul had detonated. And he shoved his hand into the ck fog.

    That hand, like time itself, could stretch very far. It went into the tunnel, past the doors with their intense banging, all the way to the very end. There, it opened to grab the chair.

    But then....

    An ethereal daoist chant echoed within the tunnel.

    <i>¡°Command the free spirit; a body of golden light; reflect upon the body; ept a myriad variations; eradicate magics and eradicate the respected; five motions bring celebration; thousands of gods offer worship; make use of the thunder; ghosts and demons tremble in fear; the form of the pure fiend dies.¡±</i>

    Along with the chant came an aura that locked onto Xu Qing¡¯s soul and used it as a guide. After the self-detonation, that aura found a specific object, connected to it, and drew it out.

    It was a beam of golden light! And it came out because of the daoist chant! The blinding golden light had been covered with countless dao inscriptions, which glittered brightly as they sealed this object away from any form of omniscience! And the golden light pulsed with a level of destruction that could suppress all other terrifying forces.

    It was an iron skewer!

    Guiding the skewer was a spirit. It was none other than Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior.

    His daoist name was Master Freespirit! The daoist chant had contained the following words: mand the free spirit.¡¯

    Before Xu Qing came to the imperial capital, Master Seventh took the iron skewer and refined it. After Xu Qing got it back, it had been significantly upgraded. But in the end, it was still weak.

    As of this moment, the daoist chant had unlocked it, revealing its true might to the world. It was like a long, sharp thorn surrounded by thunder and lightning.

    And it shot through the tunnel toward Zi Qing¡¯s hand as it stretched toward the chair. It could pierce time, shatter mutagen, and shake godly authority. It moved with speed that could overlook natural and magicalws. Its might could strike fear into the hearts of countless so-called gods.

    Cultivators couldn¡¯t sense it, but gods would be startled by it!

    In the blink of an eye, it reached Zi Qing¡¯s hand. And then, without the slightest pause, it struck with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, and mightiness that was designed to target gods.

    It... pierced through Zi Qing¡¯s hand.

    The hand exploded. The palm ignited. The bones and flesh of the fingers shattered. God blood fell. Outside of the tunnel and outside of the fog, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan¡¯s hand was shredded into ash, andrge amounts of god blood sprayed everywhere. His expression was profoundly serious.

    Turning his head, he looked... in the direction of the continent of South Phoenix.

    ¡°So, there¡¯s still a God-Extinguishing Thorn left in the world!¡±

 Chapter 966: The First Emperor of Revered Ancient

    <h4>Chapter 966: The First Emperor of Revered Ancient</h4>

    Very few people in modern times in Revered Ancient had ever heard about the God-Extinguishing Thorns. It was even hard to find mention of them in ancient records.

    Information could only be found in fragments of ssic works that had been passed down from person to person over the years. And of course, there were certain people from ancient times who knew of them.

    They were a weapon invented by the Summer Immortals back when they came from Deep Earth and fought the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk who ruled Revered Ancient. They weren¡¯t necessarily very dangerous to cultivators. But when used on gods... they could extinguish godsource!

    Even then, considering the rare materials and mysterious methods that went into creating them, back when they were used, only twenty-four had ever been created. Each and every one was stained with vast quantities of Brilliant Heaven Godfolk blood, and as a result, if a god even got a whiff of the presence of one, they would be shocked.

    During the final battle between the Summer Immortals and the Brilliant Heaven gods, most of the God-Exterminating Thorns were destroyed. Those that survived were left stabbed into the body of the Brilliant Heaven god emperor. They served as sealing devices, and were left behind in the abyss that contained the Revered Ancient of that time. There were some people who hade to call that location the abyss of gods.

    Inter generations, there were no God-Exterminating Thorns in the world. And because the Summer Immortals left, the creation method was lost. Until today. Just now, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had unleashed the might of a God-Exterminating Thorn.

    That was the reason for Zi Qing¡¯s shock.

    ¡°Sadly, that wasn¡¯t the full might of a God-Exterminating Thorn,¡± he said coolly as he looked in the direction of South Phoenix. ¡°Well done, Master Seventh! Lil¡¯ bro destroyed his soul, something which is beyond my mastery of time, in the hopes of severing karma. And you used yourself as the measuring stick to call out to myst breath of energy that I exhaled when I died. By tapping into the most profound ancientness, you attempted to sever karma. Unfortunately... the karma between my lil¡¯ bro and I can¡¯t be severed that way!¡±

    The Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan lifted his left hand and reached toward the ck fog that resulted from Xu Qing¡¯s self-detonation.

    That action caused the fog to rumble as the power of time appeared. Apparently, he was nning to pull aside the fog and delve into time itself.

    ***

    When Xu Qing¡¯s soul detonated, something very dramatic happened in thends of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, which provoked shock amongst many of the cultivators there.

    The dramatic event urred... as Sir Firedark was giving a dao lecture to fellow members of his species. Seemingly out of nowhere, he exploded. Blood sprayed everywhere. Sir Firedark wasn¡¯t even able to finish his sentence. Flesh and blood erupted everywhere. His soul shattered.

    It was life substitution. The only thing that remained was a discarnate soul that he had ensconced in the god temple there. As a result, he survived the life substitution, and it was possible that he could be resurrected in the future.[1]

    Something simrly shocking was happening in South Phoenix.

    On the spot where Peerless City once stood, in the formation made by hundreds of thousands of Seven Blood Eyes cultivators, Master Seventh¡¯s right hand pressed down onto the forehead of the silver giant.

    Intense rumbling broke out. Because of imperceptible connections of fate, as well as the guidance of reincarnation, it ensured that the fluctuations caused by Xu Qing¡¯s self-detonation didn¡¯t just cause Sir Firedark to explode. Evidence of time interference became visible on the silver person. Horrifying cracks spread across the surface of the person, which grew deeper by the moment. The silver person seemed to be on the verge of copsing.

    At the most critical moment, the hundreds of thousands of Seven Blood Eyes cultivators went into a dao chant.

    <i>¡°Oh boundless exalted celestial, providefort to the physical form; the apprentice¡¯s spiritual and physical souls, along with the five yin organs are in the dark underworld; azure dragon and white tiger join hands to fight; vermillion bird and ck turtle provide defense of the true and real.¡±</i>

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    As their voices drifted out, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Winds screamed. At the same time, me Phoenix let loose a piercing cry, which shattered the clouds and caused nourishing rain to fall.

    Master Seventh was also chanting something as he pushed his hand down onto the silver person¡¯s forehead. At the same time, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some of his own dao blood. Itnded on the silver person, isting it from outside forces.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out as the cracks on the silver person stopped worsening. Although it didn¡¯t seem like the existing damage could be fixed, it was no longer about to copse.

    Master Seventh looked up and spoke in a voice full of ghastly killing intent.

    ¡°Years ago I made a deal with the Summer Immortal Pce. Afterward, I walked through time, sitting by and watching people live and die, allowing fate to run its course.

    ¡°When Master Sixth died, I felt pain, but could only sigh. When humankind experienced ups and downs, I could only watch indifferently. It was the same even when the empress achieved godly ascension and Swordsage perished. There was no karma between myself and them.

    ¡°Zi Qing, when you sought to restore your kingdom, using the empress¡¯s ceremony to shirk your tribtion and present a sacrifice to the broken face with no harm to yourself, I had no reason to interfere. And that is because I have no karmic connection to any of it.

    ¡°But, you shouldn¡¯t have plotted against my apprentice! My apprentices <i>are</i> my karma. They kowtowed to me. I epted their three cups of tea, the teas of gratitude, the past, and faith. I promised to keep them safe. And therefore... as long as I¡¯m around, no one is allowed to touch them!

    ¡°Zi Qing, because you plotted against my apprentice, and are not willing to sever that karma, then... I had no choice but to conspire against your imperial authority! You don¡¯t want to sever the karma? Fine! Let¡¯s end this!¡±

    Master Seventh looked very awe-inspiring as he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand. Then, only a few breaths of time turned into tens of thousands of them as he pointed up into the dome of heaven.

    Then he spoke in a voice like heavenly thunder.

    <i>¡°In the half-sixty-year-cycle past lived he named Xu Zi; he died on this spot and meditated before death; hisst energy is nowmanded by the Summer; Immortal guides the energy to this spot; hasten as if byws amended!¡±</i> [2]

    As he summoned thest energy of the person named Xu Zi, the world went wild, and a boundless energy sprang up, eventually converging in Master Seventh¡¯s left hand. It was a densely-packed conglomeration of violet energy. As soon as he had it, he pushed it into the chest of the silver person.

    Then he spoke something like a chant ofw.

    ¡°Execute!¡±

    That one word caused the mountains in Revered Ancient to tremble. In all regions, dazzling light rose up from various mountains and rivers as an enormous spell formation chart was revealed. The chart filled all of Revered Ancient as it began to move.

    Then, in the canopy of heaven over the imperial capital of humankind, a saber formed. And it shed down toward the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan!

    Zi Qing shivered as he looked up at the descending de. No one but a True God could stop that saber! The reason was that the saber wasn¡¯t aiming to sever life or the soul. Rather... it was severing the destiny aura and imperial authority of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.

    The sh of the saber caused all living beings in the Heaveneater Region to be shaken to the core. The destiny aura of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, which coiled in the air above the region in the form of a violet dragon, let loose a howl of agony.

    It was cutpletely in two! And something else split in half. It was the throne that represented the Emperor of Violet and Cyan in the imperial pce there! Half of the destiny aura and imperial authority was severed, and it was pulled through the void in the direction of the continent of South Phoenix.

    In the air above the imperial capital of humankind, the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan¡¯s face was ashen as he slowly looked up. A few breaths of time passed, and Zi Qing¡¯splexion returned to normal.

    ¡°Just what I would expect of the first Ancient Emperor of Revered Ancient,¡± he said coolly. ¡°Falling prey to your scheme has been an honor. However, this action of yours has revealed how weak you are. You... are really just an old man. The heaven of Revered Ancient wasn¡¯t yours in the past, and it¡¯s not yours now. As for you, lil¡¯ bro, you can have half of the imperial authority. But take care of it! Next time we meet, I¡¯m going to take it back.¡±

    With that, he looked away from the continent of South Phoenix and back at the dissipating cloud of ck fog. Then he took a step and disappeared over the horizon.

    Shortly after, he reappeared in the Heaveneater Region, within the violet dragon of destiny aura that had recently been cut in half. Using the destiny aura, he remolded his body and formed an imperial robe and crown. As the countlessmoners of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan bowed, as did the government officials, and as the Torchlight agents looked on with shining eyes, he walked into the imperial pce and sat on the throne.

    The moment he did, shouts of praise rang out from everywhere in the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan.

    ¡°Congrattions to our emperor on ascending the throne of our sovereign kingdom!¡±

    As those voices rang out, the broken face of the god in the sky looked at the Heaveneater Region and opened h¨©s eyes. The entire Heaveneater Region rumbled as life was reversed, mutagen overflowed, and the aura of a god abounded. Then a statue of the broken face appeared in the public square outside of the imperial pce. It was the only statue like it in all of the Revered Ancient maind!

    At the same time, the fluctuations of a god altar began to roll out of Zi Qing. He was rising directly to Altar God!

    Shortly after, he smiled. <i>Things are going to be very interesting going forward.</i>

    ***

    At the same time, above the formation with hundreds of thousands of Seven Blood Eyes cultivators in South Phoenix, Master Seventh¡¯s ancient eyes flickered as he unleashed onest bit of magic.

    ¡°Return!¡±

    His voice contained a sensation of a very mysterious ceremony, something that could shake life and death and tap into fate. An instantter, the mounds of flesh in the formation rose up and flew toward the silver person. That flesh pulsed with a terrifying aura that went beyond anything in the world, and didn¡¯t exist within the timescape.

    It was... Eminent Destion¡¯s flesh. As it entered the silver person, the silver person trembled, then slowly shrank down. Silver light turned into skin, until finally...

    It became a fleshly body. It looked exactly like Xu Qing! However, it was moreplete and thorough!

    ¡°Awaken, my apprentice!¡± Master Seventh said, his voice hoarse and full of exhaustion.

    A few breaths of time passed. Xu Qing opened his eyes.

    ***

    <i>¡°The dao is void; without scriptures, one cannot grasp the dao; the dao exists in scripture. Without a teacher, one cannot understand its truths.</i>

    <i>¡°Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity is the great founder. All humans owe him a single bow of respect.</i>

    <i>¡°Heaven, earth, celestial, terrestrial. They bear the weight of all. All humans owe them three bows of respect.</i>

    <i>¡°However amazing the Ancient Emperor was, he did not show you favor. Heaven and earth, and all other living beings in this sea of suffering, have done nothing to save you.</i>

    <i>¡°Only Master will ascend to heaven and descend to hell for you. Only he will show you favor. Only he will save you. Only he will expend all effort so that you can walk a great dao. Therefore, you owe him nine bows of respect!¡±</i>[3]

    1. In <u>chapter 911</u>, it was exined that when Sir Firedark and Xu Qing fought, the loser would have to give a drop of soul blood that could be used as a life-saving item in a moment of crisis. Firedark outright stated the same in <u>chapter 913</u>. ?

    2. This version of the chant is the same as before, except the name is changed. In this case, the Xu is the same surname as Xu Qing¡¯s surname. The Zi is the ¡®surname¡¯ from Zi Qing, which is also the character for ¡®violet.¡¯ It¡¯s unclear what this means, although I thought of a few possibilities. In the Chinesements, I saw all of the exact same possibilities that I thought of, with none backed by enough evidence or logic to seemingly take the cake as the prevailing possibility. Does it mean that Zi Qing¡¯s real name is Xu Zi? Is it supposed to be abination of the names Zi Qing and Xu Qing? Is it referring to Xu Qing (remember, based on what has been revealed in the past couple chapters, he also died in Peerless City, just as Zi Qing did in his previous life). Or does it mean something else? There is no exnation about this at the moment. ?

    3. The apprenticeship ceremony was in <u>chapter 263</u>. ?

 Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 1)</h4>

    Five monthster, in the north of South Phoenix, the sun burned hot in the sky. Golden streams of light fell like sharp swords, stabbing mercilessly into the depths of the Forbidden Sea. The sea sizzled and angry waves surged out, its wild fury suffocating. A strong wind blew, seemingly intent on shoving the entire Forbidden Sea over the horizon. The sound of the waves and the cries of the sea beasts was outright shocking to any who could hear it. It was as if the sound itself wanted to bury any listeners at the bottom of the sea. Mutagen surged along with the waves, bending the light waves and turning everything hazy. Compared to it, everything else on the Forbidden Sea seemed as insignificant as dust.

    At the moment, a lone ship was visible on the horizon, where the sky met the sea. Huang Yany in the boat amidst the haze and the mutagen and the waves. Patting his belly, he let loose a long sigh and looked down toward the bottom of the sea.

    ¡°You can really make a bigmotion,¡± he said, sounding somewhat emotional.

    As the waves crashed, a three-meter-thick vine sshed out from the water, pulsing with fluctuations of excitement. A momentter, it sank back down into the water and dropped down toward the bottom.

    Far under the sea, it was as dark as ink, with no light. Everything was pitch-ck and freezing cold. However, the vine emanated faint starlight that formed the only source of brightness in the depths. As it raced down, the water seemed to part for the vine, and it sucked up the mutagen like nourishing food. Ordinary sea beasts could sense what was happening, and quickly raced away.

    Nothing posed an obstacle for the vine as it shot to the sea floor, illuminating everything around it with the starlight. Thanks to the starlight, it was soon possible to see a massive trench amidst all the ck sand. It was so dark and mysterious that the starlight couldn¡¯t prate it, and it emanated an unusual pressure.

    A person floated cross-legged above the trench. He wore a violet gown covered inplex designs, and had long, violet hair. Apparently, the Forbidden Sea didn''t affect him at all, as he floated there in a very natural manner. His facial features were astoundingly beautiful, and he had skin so fair it sparkled in the starlight. His eyes were like deepkes, and his gaze was so sharp and prating that few people would dare to look into it. There was something heroic and wise about his bearing, and his sharply angled eyebrows would provoke reverence in any who saw him. His entire person glittered like a heavenly body!

    He was none other than Xu Qing! He looked profoundly calm as he floated cross-legged above the trench. In his right hand he held the vine. One end of the vine floated to and fro in the sea, sending out amiable fluctuations. The other end... was inside the trench, struggling.

    A short timeter, Xu Qing yanked on the vine, whereupon a howl of agony could be heard from within the trench. Something terrifying was tied to the end of the vine!

    It was an old woman wearing a gown of fish bones, whose body was covered in tentacles. Her face was extremely wrinkled, andrgely rotting. However, her golden eyes were terrifying, and when she breathed, she exhaled mutagen full of strong godliness. Emerging from the woman¡¯s back, jutting out of the fish skeleton robe, was a massive scarlet tongue covered with innumerable deceased souls. All of them howled in anguish.

    The tentacles covering her had eyes that were also golden, and all of them were open and looking at Xu Qing. That said, many of the tentacles were severed, and the old woman was even missing much of her body. She was not mighty like she had been in the past, and in fact, in Xu Qing¡¯s presence, she trembled.

    She was Joine! She was one of the gods worshiped in the Merfolk Isles in the past. Although she was called a god, the truth was that she was just a godly entity. She had no godfire, and not much godly authority.[1]

    At the moment, Xu Qing was using her as bait. And astonishingly, Xu Qing was using the sageheaven god vine as a fishing line.

    ¡°You¡¯re not letting off enough godliness,¡± he said coolly. He flicked the vine forcefully, provoking a shriek from Joine as he tossed her back down into the trench.

    Joine unleashed stronger fluctuations this time, and much more intense godliness. It led to a much better effect than before. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the sound of heavy breathing emanated from the trench. It was like heavenly thunder that sent the water flowing away in all directions.

    Then, another howl erupted, whereupon Xu Qing yanked back on the vine again. The vine went taut, then started quivering, as if something had bitten onto it. Xu Qing pulled on it with great force.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes glittered coldly as veins bulged on his right arm. As a result, his arm gleamed like mercury, and terrifying fleshly body power pulsed out. The vine emerged from the trench, pulling with it a rotting creature that resembled a lizard.

    It was a god-river dragon! It resembled a lizard, except far more fierce and vicious. And it emanated the rot of death.[2]

    Godly entities like this weren¡¯t verymon in the Forbidden Sea, and were extremely rare in shallow waters. They generally stayed very deep down. It was only when they looked for food that they would venture into the open, where they would eat just about anything alive.

    Whenever a god-river dragon appeared, they brought catastrophe and death to whatever inds they targeted. In fact, many species that inhabited the Forbidden Sea called them ¡®lizards from the Underworld River.¡¯ This specimen was extraordinary even among god-river dragons. It was fully 30,000 meters long, with scales that radiated the light of theherworld. Deceased souls were visible all over it, which were its victims, and it radiated a terrifying aura as it kept its jaws mped onto Joine.

    Joine howled in anguish as the god-river dragon ripped off a section of her body. However, the vine and its razor-sharp teeth hadtched onto the dragon, making it impossible for it to free itself.

    Having been dragged out into the open, it unleashed its aura, causing the Forbidden Sea to seethe. The waves on the surface grewrger, and the sky dimmed, all while massive winds swept back and forth.

    Smoldering God fluctuations rolled off it. They wereparable to a three-world Smoldering God!

    As it howled furiously at Xu Qing, the power of its three dead worlds bolstered it, making its overall aura even more terrifying. It lunged in Xu Qing¡¯s direction, and though it could hardly open its mouth,pared to a human, it was massive. In fact, the opening of its mouth created a huge whirlpool.

    All sea beasts in the area who could sense what was happening trembled in fear.

    Xu Qing calmly rose to a standing position. He looked like a towering pine tree, emanating dignity and might. He strode forth like a dragon or tiger as he reached toward the snarling god-river dragon. As the dragon roared and opened its mouth wide, Xu Qing¡¯s left hand clenched into a fist, and his entire person pulsed with the will of an emperor.

    Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist!

    Heunched a fist strike. The sea shattered as a destructive pulse spread out in all directions. Then the fist mmed into the god-river dragon¡¯s head.

    A muffled thump pulsed across the sea floor, which was followed by a shriek of pain from the dragon as its skull was cracked and many of its teeth shattered. In fact, its head couldn¡¯t stand up to the blow, and it was sent spinning backward, blood spilling out everywhere.

    That said, this was an extraordinary god-river dragon, and despite being injured, it still managed tosh its tail out in a devastating attack. Its tail was covered with bone spurs that the seawater did nothing to hinder. As the tail swept toward Xu Qing, he gripped the vine and stared forward unflinchingly. The tail bore down on him with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. Then something unimaginable happened.

    Xu Qing remained in ce, unmoving.

    But the iing god-river dragon shivered as if it had mmed into an immovable mountain. Much of it shattered. The spurs covering it crumbled. Intense pain spread through it thanks to Xu Qing¡¯s terrifying fleshly body. The dragon emanated a sense of intense terror, then spun in ce to flee. Unfortunately, the sageheaven god vine was still embedded into the flesh in its mouth. As long as Xu Qing held the other end of the vine, there was no way it could escape.

    Xu Qing stepped forward, alighting onto the head of the god-river dragon. Then he pulled hard on the vine.

    A howl of anguish echoed out. The 30,000-meter-long dragon had no choice but to lift its head and shoot toward the surface of the water.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Shortly after, it burst madly out into the open. The sea caved as water sprayed everywhere. As the dragon filled the sky, it cast a huge shadow down on the boat in which Huang Yan sat.

    Water sprayed all over Huang Yan. Huang Yan was not very happy about that.

    Up in the sky, Xu Qing stood on the dragon¡¯s head, where he reached out with his left hand toward the sun. Even with the naked eye, it was possible to see the sun rippling as a result.

    Xu Qing¡¯s fleshly body then seemed to seize some of the radiance of the sun, so that he himself became like a sun, shining with dazzling light. Boundless light and heat radiated off him as he then pressed his hand onto the dragon¡¯s head.

    Intense rumbling sounds echoed out as the god-river dragon trembled and howled. An instantter, its corpse dropped down into the water, where ity floating,pletely still.

    A massive tsunami rolled out in all directions.

    As Xu Qing stood on the head of the corpse, dazzling motes of godliness spread out from the dragon and merged into him. From a distance, it looked like a seven-colored halo of stars and moons was floating around him. He truly looked like a god.

    ¡°This Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic is anything but simple,¡± he said as he stepped off the corpse of the dragon and onto the boat with Huang Yan.

    He rxed his grip on the vine, which threw Joine onto the ship and then circled exultingly around the area. Joine, who was still missing half her body, trembled.

    Also trembling was Little Shadow. It had been resting, but seeing that Xu Qing was back, it cast a very specific sound out into the surrounding water.

    <i>¡°C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch!¡± </i>A moment passed. ¡°Milord... no... reaction. I¡¯m obedient... continuing now....¡±[3]

    1. Joine was mentioned in too many chapters to list them all as references. Here are some highlights. The ind named after her was first mentioned in chapter 111. She ¡°awoke¡± and was described physically in chapter 121, and the Captain got some of her flesh in chapter 125. And don¡¯t forget that Xu Qing¡¯s spirit cruiser resembled Joine, as described in chapter 551.1. ?

    2. The ¡®god-river dragon¡¯ is also a dinosaur name, specifically, styxosaurus. I¡¯m continuing to abide by my previous decision to not use the Latin-based dinosaur names. Given the author¡¯s proclivity for wordy, I¡¯d like to urately render the Chinese characters in these ¡®dragons¡¯ as much as possible. ?

    3. The ¡°C-c-crunch. C-c-crunch!¡± is a reference to how the shadow used that specific sound earlier in the story, specifically in chapters 171 and 174. ?

 Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)</h4>

    Huang Yan wiped the water from his face and looked at the trembling Joine. ¡°Poor Joine. Ever since you caught her, you¡¯ve spent months using her as bait. Every time her body grows back, she loses it again....¡±

    Then he looked at Little Shadow as it made its crunching sounds. ¡°And poor Little Shadow. It¡¯s been <i>c-c-crunch, c-c-crunching</i> for months now too. Sadly, it¡¯s just not working. The giant and the bronze chariot you¡¯re looking for are nowhere to be found.

    ¡°But poorest of all is me!¡± Huang Yan red at Xu Qing. ¡°Your Master is having a great time in seclusion, and tasked me with following you around.... I miss Elder Sister. I haven¡¯t left her like this in a long time. She definitely misses having me around.¡±[1]

    Xu Qing was apparently used to Huang Yanining like this. Inspecting his fleshly body, he said, ¡°I¡¯m just following Master¡¯s orders, Second Brother-in-Law.¡±

    Huang Yan sighed and hung his head dejectedly. Taking out a jade slip that he had been using to record the conversation, he sent the recording to a certain someone. Then he just sat there looking gloomy. About a dozen breaths of time passed, whereupon Huang Yan blinked a few times and suddenly looked very enthusiastic. Chuckling, he said, ¡°Alright, we¡¯re good now. I sent the message. I really have no choice in this. Your Second Elder Sister is just too petty sometimes. After all, her status in the family isn¡¯t very high, and she¡¯s sort of insecure. That¡¯s why I have to care for her in this way.¡±

    ¡°Ohhhhh,¡± said Xu Qing. Over the past few months, Huang Yan had ¡®cared¡¯ for her in this way every few days.

    ¡°As you¡¯ve seen, Xu Qing,¡± Huang Yan said proudly, ¡°my status in the family is the highest in all of South Phoenix! Believe me, I¡¯m just too charming! Your Second Elder Sister is constantly being clingy. It¡¯s like she¡¯s scared I won¡¯t pay enough attention to her. Whether she goes out on errands or to do missions for your Master, she¡¯s always begging me toe with her.

    ¡°It¡¯s really been getting on my nerves over the past few years. Luckily, Master Seventh realized what was happening. We¡¯re all men, right? He understands me! And that¡¯s why he gave me this little bit of freedom!¡±

    Huang Yan looked very pleased with himself. However, though he made it seem like he had a very high position in the family, the reality was he seemed more like one of the prisoners Xu Qing had dealt with in the Seven Blood Eyes cell blocks years ago.

    ¡°So, where are we going next? If you don¡¯t have somewhere specific in mind, I have a suggestion.... Believe me, the ce I have in mind is iparably spectacr. Just thinking about it makes my blood start pumping faster....¡±

    Huang Yan looked furtively left and right to make sure they were alone.

    Xu Qing shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m nning to go to the border of the outer sea region to take a look around.¡±

    The Forbidden Sea was divided into the inner sea and the outer sea. The inner sea was huge, and was where most of the intelligent species lived. It could be dangerous, but as long as you were cautious, it was safe to explore. But the outer sea... was a deste ce full of mysteries. Legend had it that there were many gods sleeping out there.

    ¡°Oh, there? That¡¯ll work.¡± Huang Yan seemed a bit disappointed, but then he thought of something and said, ¡°Oh, right. When you were down there tempering your fleshly body, some news about humankind came in. You got promoted, ya little punk!¡±

    Xu Qing looked at Huang Yan.

    ¡°The empress issued a decree naming Ningyan as the crown prince,¡± Huang Yan continued. ¡°That lucky little bastard. He went to sleep, and when he woke up, the emperor had turned into an empress, and he became the crown prince. From what I heard, he¡¯s still confused by it all!

    ¡°Anyway, you¡¯re now the tutor of the crown prince! And you¡¯re the region lord of the Holytide Region <i>and</i> the Nightspirit Region! If that brat Ningyan eventually ascends the throne, you¡¯ll be the grand imperial preceptor!¡± [2]

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t surprised to hear that Ningyan had been made the crown prince. After all... the empress only had two children. One was Ningyan, and the other was Eleventh Prince. Eleventh Prince obviously wasn¡¯t a suitable choice. Everything that happened during the ancestral sacrifices had been done for the sake of his mother. But he had done some things that the government officials would never be able to forget. Selecting Ningyan was much more reasonable.

    As for why it happened so quickly, there were clues to be had. Of course, ¡®crown prince incense,¡¯ that had been merely paving the way for what was toe.

    <i>Given the empress¡¯ talents, I bet she saw then what was going to happen.</i>

    As the ship cut through the water, Xu Qing thought back to the events of five months ago.

    After what happened in the imperial capital of humankind, a boundless mist of mutagen covered the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan that had appeared in the Heaveneater Region, making it impossible to know what was happening inside. However, based on information avable, humankind knew that there was a terrifying aura inside the Heaveneater Region. Apparently... the citizens of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan who had returned were all mutating.

    ¡°Eminent Destion was pleased, and provided it as a gift,¡± the empress had said.

    It was easy to imagine what would happen when the mist cleared from the Heaveneater Region. Whatever came out of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan was going to be terrifying.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face was grim, and his heart was uneasy. Because he had half of the imperial authority of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, he could sense what was happening. And he could sense something calling out to him. It was the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan calling him.

    Meanwhile, Chen Erniu had left the imperial capital. A few months ago, he sent word that he was on his way back. However, he hadn¡¯t arrived yet, as he chose to visit an old friend in Garmentfolknds on the way. Presumably, he was still having fun with the Garmentfolk girl and his old right hand.

    Plumdark had arrived in South Phoenix some months earlier. After seeing that Xu Qing was in good health, she spent about half a month with him. Then, feeling quite worn out, she sighed and left. She was taking hermp to Dark Serenity¡¯s pce of operations beneath Sea-Sealing County. There, at the phoenix pce, she would ept her legacy from her past life.

    In addition to all that, now that the empress had be a god, humankind had risen to prominence in the east of Revered Ancient. Minor species everywhere trembled in fear, and the vast majority chose to be subsidiary species. That was especially true of the regions that had previously contained lone counties belonging to humankind.

    There were no major obstacles and no unforeseen circumstances. No blood was shed as humans once again took control of those regions. As a result, if you included the regions of Holytide and Nightspirit, humans controlled ten regions.

    Sometimes, just being strong was a big enough threat to get things done.

    Of course, there was little need to mention what happened between humans and the Firemoons. They became official allies, and jointly controlled the entire eastern section of Revered Ancient. Together, they would defend against any covetous enemies.

    At the same time, humans who had been isted and oppressed in foreignnds for countless years were found by King Firecrusher and the other military forces, and were brought back to humannds.

    As for Xu Qing, when he woke up five months earlier, he used his secret key to open his special dimensional space that he had created when he first became a swordsage. Before self-detonating, he had put Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and some other important items, such as the violet crystal, into that dimensional space. The technique for creating the secret key and the dimensional space had been taught to Xu Qing in Sea-Sealing County by the swordsage known as Ailing Ghost, and was specifically designed for swordsages to use to store things. Normally speaking, there were actually two keys that could open such spaces. One key belonged to the swordsage, while the other was in the possession of the pce lord. Other than those two people, no one could open the dimensional space. [3]

    As for Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, he handed him over to Plumdark to keep her safe while she worked on her legacy.

    As Huang Yan had said, Master Seventh chose to go into seclusion. Before doing so, he had a discussion with Xu Qing. He exined many things regarding this new body of Xu Qing¡¯s. It was created using a heaven-defying Summer Immortal magic, with the materials being the flesh of the broken facebined with immortal mercury. It had nearly limitless potential. How much of that potential was unlocked would depend on Xu Qing. He would need to use it in endless battles, constantly seek enlightenment, and gain experience in deadly situations.

    Because the body¡¯s personhood was so terrifyingly high, it was going to be difficult for Xu Qing¡¯s soul to fuse perfectly with it. Master Seventh thus left two sealing marks in it. He also gave Xu Qing a special technique.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    It was the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic.

    By cultivating that magic, it was possible to produce streams of profound sun immortal light, which would be very helpful to the process of fusing his soul with the body.

    ording to Master Seventh, the technique had once belonged to one of the nine Summer Immortals who came from Deep Earth to Brilliant Heaven, and ended up dying when fighting the god emperor. Before perishing, he passed on that technique. Cultivating it topletion would lead to terrifying results.

    Therefore, Xu Qing had two purposes for his sea journey.

    The first was to hunt and kill godly entities as a way to be familiar with the defensive capabilities of his fleshly body, to get used to thebination of this body and his godly authority, and to improve his battle prowess by using the profound sun immortal light. Through all of that, he would be more familiar with the body.

    His second purpose was to try to find the giant and the chariot from which he acquired his golden crow technique. His reason for looking for the chariot and the giant was that things weren¡¯t going very well with the profound sun immortal light.

    After a while, it caused Xu Qing to think about the golden crow. After all, the fundamental basis of the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic was to steal the glory of the sun and turn it into immortal light. By doing so, he would convert his body into a profound sun, like a furnace that burned himself and burned heaven and earth. It was actually simr to the golden crow.

    Therefore, Xu Qing wanted to find the chariot, sit in it, andmand the giant. He wanted to follow the same journey as the golden crow when it became a sun and flew through the sky looking down on Revered Ancient. Hopefully that would provide some enlightenment about the ¡®profound sun¡¯ aspect.

    Thus, he roved the Forbidden Sea. That was why Little Shadow was constantly making the crunching sounds. Xu Qing hadn¡¯t forgotten that Little Shadow had once drawn out the giant and chariot with that same sound. Sadly, even after trying the same thing for months, he hadn¡¯t experienced any sess.

    <i>I suppose the giant is sleeping at the bottom of the Forbidden Sea. I need to check more locations....</i>

    After ncing at the shadow, Xu Qing took out a sea chart and made a notation.

    That was when Huang Yan, who had been sitting there looking very rxed, looked at his jade slip. It was vibrating. He took it out and checked it, then gasped.

    ¡°Xu Qing, something big happened! I have to leave for a bit. This is major! I¡¯m talking heaven-shaking and earth-shattering!¡± Huang Yan suddenly looked very nervous. ¡°I have to take the lead in this matter. If I don¡¯t act quickly, a tempest is going to rock the continent of South Phoenix!¡±

    1. Just a reminder that Huang Yan always called her ¡®Elder Sister.¡¯ I know I probably don¡¯t need to exin this, and in fact, I think I said the same thing hundreds of chapters ago, but in Chinese ¡®sister¡¯ does not necessarily have the familial connotations that English does. For instance, as I mentioned in a footnote a long time ago, my brother-inw has dated women who are older than him, and both he and Madam Deathde and my mother-inw will call those women ¡°older sisters¡± or perhaps ¡°big sisters.¡± So for Huang Yan to refer to her in this way isn¡¯t unusual at all. ?

    2. The title here is slightly different from what I previously tranted as imperial preceptor, but it means essentially the same thing. To make things simple, I¡¯m simply going to use imperial preceptor plus the word ¡®grand¡¯ so that it sounds a bit more impressive. ?

    3. Xu Qing created the secret key and the special dimensional space in chapter 400. ?

 Chapter 968: The Flame of Love (part 1)

    <h4>Chapter 968: The me of Love (part 1)</h4>

    ¡®Heaven-shaking and earth-shattering¡¯ was certainly a description.

    Of course, different people had different concepts of what ¡®heaven¡¯ was.

    For example, to the empress, ¡®heaven¡¯ was humankind. Everything sh¨¥ did was for h¨¥r people. And in a time period in which humans were not flourishing, sh¨¥ was fighting an uphill battle.

    To Xu Qing, ¡®heaven¡¯ consisted of all the people he hade to care about on his journey. There was Sergeant Thunder, Grandmaster Bai, his Master, Erniu, Plumdark, Ling¡¯er, and others.... That ¡®heaven¡¯ also contained things connected to those people, for example, Sea-Sealing County, Seven Blood Eyes, or the Holytide Region. Those things brought meaning to his life, and were a foundational element of his personal human nature. They were like an anchor that enabled him to stay connected to his human nature even when using godly nature.

    That was even more the case considering that his new fleshly body was made from the flesh of the broken face. He was now more like a god than ever, and therefore, the brightness of human nature was incredibly important.

    It was no surprise that Huang Yan had his own ¡®heaven¡¯ in his heart....

    Years ago, he had been soaring proudly through the sky when he casually looked down and caught sight of something stunning. He saw a figure on the Forbidden Sea brandishing a huge sword. That became his ¡®heaven and earth.¡¯ It became his world. His everything.

    Because of that, he joined Seven Blood Eyes as a clone, not concerning himself at all with status or identity as he pursued the object of his desire. He experienced setbacks, but always kept moving forward. He was proud, but for the sake of that person, he could be humble. He was strong, but for that person, he could be weak. For his entire life, he had refused to offer sacrifices to the broken face. He didn¡¯t concern himself with the lives or deaths of other living beings. As the ¡®South Phoenix,¡¯ and in fact, one of the only members of the Phoenix species, he had always held his head high.

    But there was one person that could cause him to bow his head. That was because his heart had been touched. It was the only time it happened in his entire life.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Therefore, after Huang Yan said what he said moments ago, Xu Qing had already guessed what was going on.

    Second Elder Sister was angry.

    ¡°No,¡± Huang Yan said forcefully. ¡°NO! We have to get moving right now!¡±

    Taking a deep breath, he transformed into me Phoenix, causing the Forbidden Sea to turn dark. His massive form could only be described as sky-obscuring and sun-blocking. Where he went, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. When his feathers rippled, winds screamed.

    The majestic ruler of South Phoenix raced across the Forbidden Sea.

    Xu Qing had been around to watch as love developed between Huang Yan and Second Elder Sister. And therefore, he quickly flew up into the sky to follow.

    Moving with the speed of lightning bolts, the two of them disappeared over the horizon. Their target destination was an ind some distance away.

    <i>¡°As you know,¡±</i> Huang Yan projected to Xu Qing,<i> ¡°every few decades Seven Blood Eyes holds the Grand Competition. Last time it was in the Merfolk Isles, and you and I both participated. Well the Grand Competition is happening again, and this time, Elder Sister is officiating. This time, the training is being held in Lobsterfolk territory. Just now, Elder Sister sent me a voice message indicating that the Lobsterfolk summoned their god, which is really just a godly entity.¡±</i> [1][2]

    To truly powerful experts, godly entities weren¡¯t a very big deal. Over the past few months, Xu Qing had killed seven or eight of them. And if Huang Yan took action, he could wipe one out with a single breath.

    But the fact that Elder Sister was angry changed everything.

    Xu Qing nodded and kept a very serious expression on his face. ¡°We¡¯d better speed up!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s my bro!¡± shouted Huang Yan as he elerated in me Phoenix form.

    As they sped along, Xu Qing¡¯s godsource surged, filling his body and making him shine with golden light. When itbined with the silver color within him, it made him seem like a godly devil. That, of course, was what happened because of the fact that his body was made from the flesh of the broken face. The body had actually been created first with immortal mercury, and thenbined with the flesh.

    With the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic, he was elerating the fusion process with his soul, which involved slowly assimting all of the immortal mercury. When it was all gone, and he had no immortal mercury within him, then his soul would be fully fused.

    As for the fleshly body made from the broken face¡¯s flesh, this brought some astonishing transformations that weren¡¯t limited to a flesh-and-blood upgrade.

    His void soil was nowpletely golden. What was more, the golden void soil now had four shimmering god talismans on it. One was a life essence talisman, the others were godly authority talismans. The life essence talisman was made from his dao of mages, dao of emperors, and all of the cultivator techniques he had learned. The most dominant of all of them were his Xeno-Immortal School techniques.

    Surrounding his void soil was an astonishing ring, which formed the border. It was a xeno-immortal lineament!

    As for his three god authority talismans, they represented the violet moon, the misfortune, and the god curse. They weren¡¯t very different from before. The biggest difference to his void soil was to the godly authority lineaments that he had yet to gain enlightenment of and use.

    Before, there had been 100 of them. But right now, that number had increased... to over 1,000! In the past, Xu Qing had sensed that if he could ever gain full enlightenment of all 100 of them, he would be at the peak of Void Returning.

    But now....

    If Xu Qing¡¯s life essence lineament had formed the limit of his void soil, then the 1,000 lineaments brought by the broken face just raised the upper limit of his cultivation base. Now he sensed that if he could cause all 1,000 of them to shine brightly, he would break through from Void Returning and into Smoldering God. And he would be an unrivaled and unequaled Smoldering God. That said, it was also going to make his cultivation a lot more difficult.

    Thankfully, there were other transformations to Xu Qing. As of now, there was no such thing as spirit power to him. In terms of levels, spirit power was so weak to his new body that it essentially didn¡¯t exist. Instead, what flowed through Xu Qing was pure godsource power!

    As a result, it wasn¡¯t just his void soil that was golden. His sea of consciousness had be a golden god sea. All of those things raised his potential. In terms of his defenses, they were terrifying.

    Because his body and soul weren¡¯t fused, if his fleshly body got too strong, it could put negative pressure on his soul. Therefore, Master Seventh had left two sealing marks on him. One was an Imperial Sovereign sealing mark, the other was a Quasi-Immortal sealing mark.

    As Xu Qing cultivated the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic, and continued to fuse his body and soul, the two sealing marks would naturally unseal. In the end, when theypletely unraveled, his fleshly body power would be equivalent to a True God! That was equivalent to a Summer Immortal!

    Before going into seclusion, Master Seventh had exined to Xu Qing that the broken face of Eminent Destion had failed to break into the Living God level, and was stuck at what was essentially the peak of God Paragon. If one of h¨©s arms became an independent entity, it would be as mighty as an ordinary God Paragon, and even a mere finger would be as strong as a God Lord.

    Compared to the boundlessness of the broken face, the body Xu Qing had was barely more than a scrap of flesh. As a result, it could only unleash the power of a True God or Summer Immortal.

    With those two sealing marks in ce, Xu Qing¡¯s soul wouldn¡¯t be influenced by the broken face¡¯s flesh. And even with the seals in ce, his fleshly body power was at an astounding level. Nothing beneath an Imperial Sovereign could even harm him.

    After having fought several godly entities, Xu Qing had verified that. His fleshly body defenses were beyondparison.

    For example, when that god-river dragonshed its tail at him, Xu Qing remained as unshakable as a mountain. And when the tail hit, it shattered.

    Unfortunately, that only rted to his fleshly body, meaning that his cultivation base didn¡¯t receive any benefits. That said, his fleshly body was now so strong that the difference between his battle prowess was vastly beyond what it had been before.

    The past several months of training had enabled Xu Qing to confirm the exact level of his battle prowess. He could kill four-world Smoldering Gods. As for those with five worlds or more... it would be difficult for him to cause trouble for them. That said, they wouldn¡¯t be able to harm him.

    Therefore, Xu Qing knew that his most important task right now was to assimte godly authority to make himself more deadly! At the same time, he had to cultivate the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic and work on removing the sealing marks.

    <i>I need to fight. I need to gain enlightenment. And I need experience in deadly situations.</i>

    After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing and Huang Yan were just about to arrive at Lobster Ind.

    Huang Yan cast his senses about, and after confirming that Elder Sister was safe, he transformed back into the form of a human fatty.

    ¡°By the way, this spot was picked for the training because of its connection to Torchlight. It¡¯s one of Torchlight¡¯s secret bases on the Forbidden Sea. After Seven Blood Eyes found out about it, they picked it for the event.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t react in any way to Huang Yan¡¯s words. After detonating his soul and being resurrected, he had reached the point where talk of Torchlight and Zi Qing didn¡¯t elicit an emotional reaction from him. It wasn¡¯t just his facial expression. He felt that way deep in his heart. He was like a deep sea with no waves on it. But if such feelings did erupt, they would do so with killing intent.

    That was how Xu Qing had always been since he was young. The situation with Zi Qing had been the only exception. But that exception had been resolved.

    Xu Qing¡¯s calm mental state was back. It was withplete calm that he looked at me Phoenix in Huang Yan form.

    Huang Yan cleared his throat. ¡°Elder Sister doesn¡¯t like it when I look like a big bird. She prefers <i>this</i> handsome and dashing look.¡±

    Huang Yan patted his belly, causing his flesh to jiggle a few times.

    Xu Qing chuckled and then looked off into the distance.

    1. The Chinese characters for Lobsterfolk does not include the mostmon characters for ¡®lobster,¡¯ and in fact, it¡¯s a more general term that can refer to a variety of wed crustaceans. For the sake of simplicity, I¡¯m just going to go with the lobster interpretation. ?

    2. Huang Yan actually gave Xu Qing all of the background information about the Grand Competition in <u>chapter 111</u>. The actual event started some chapters after that. ?

 Chapter 968: The Flame of Love (part 2)

    <h4>Chapter 968: The me of Love (part 2)</h4>

    The sea seemed endless, but of course, that was only rtively speaking. At the moment, Xu Qing and Huang Yan were close enough to the ind that they could sense everything happening there. Lobster Ind was shaped like a starfish, and it was possible to hear someone ying a flute there.

    At the same time, numerous Seven Blood Eyes disciples were in the midst of their training. Some fought and killed. Some looted treasure. It just depended on their personalities. Regardless, the majority conformed to the style of the Seventh Peak, which meant that they kept their true strength hidden in the hopes of encountering good fortune. All of this was very simr to the time Xu Qing participated in the training at the Merfolk Isles. Looking down at the action caused him to reminisce about the past.

    Meanwhile, some distance away in the Forbidden Sea, apparently in response to the call of the flute, a huge wave was rushing like a tsunami toward the ind.

    Within that wave was some enormous entity. As it neared, a terrifying aura built up, covering the ind, influencing the dome of heaven, and causing a huge vortex to pick up overhead. All of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples on the ind suddenly felt uneasy.

    Located directly in the path of the wave was something huge that was very simr to Master Seventh¡¯s dreadnaught. It was shaped like a gigantic sword. That, of course, conformed perfectly to Second Elder Sister¡¯s sense of style.

    Second Elder Sister stood on the dreadnaught d in a suit of armor, looking very valiant and formidable. Eyes cold, she red at the iing wave.

    ¡°Screw off!¡± she growled.

    A thousand red sparks lit up within the wave. They looked like numerous pairs of eyes. Around that time, a high-pitched sound rang out that could prate the soul. The ind trembled, the sea churned, and the entity in the wave became visible.

    It was a tattered cloth spread across the surface of the water! It covered an area of dozens of kilometers, and was pitch ck, like the Forbidden Sea itself. In fact, if you looked at it casually, you would probably assume it was part of the sea. Of course, the well over one thousand sparks burning on it made it stand out from the sea. Astonishingly, the sparks were actually a host of scarletmps. They floated above the tattered cloth, casting light in all directions, and adding a red hue to the cloth.

    They also revealed that there were some faint striations on the cloth. The striations looked like the veins of a leaf. And even more gruish was that there was the faint hint of starlight within the crimson. A terrifying aura spread out from it in all directions, giving rise to a dense mist.

    The mist looked like a host of innumerable tentacles, some of which stretched toward Lobster Ind and some of which shot in Second Elder Sister¡¯s direction. However, as the mist tentacles closed in on Second Elder Sister, terrifying mes suddenly erupted off her.

    The mes turned into a projection of me Phoenix, whose wings pped. As a result, everything, including the sky and the sea, burst into mes. That was a defensive measure that Huang Yan had put on Second Elder Sister. Because of the mes, the mist was driven away, and the tattered cloth stopped in ce.

    Second Elder Sister¡¯s eyes glowed with cold light as she leaped off of the huge sword and toward the tattered cloth.

    Before she could get far... a rotund figure appeared right in front of her and hugged her.

    Looking at her tenderly, he cautiously said, ¡°Elder Sister, calm down! You might disturb the baby! I¡¯ll handle this.¡±

    When he finished, he snapped his fingers. A tiny spark flew out from his fingers. It was like a beating heart, full of boundless agility, as it flew through the darkness toward the tattered cloth. Along the way, it emanated a sound like faint whispering. It was as if the spark itself were telling the world about itself. And as the voices proliferated, an intangible power began to gather in the spark. An instantter, it emanated a level of heat that could shock the world.

    The sounds got more intense as well, as if building to a crescendo. Angry howls turned into a sound like a furnace that could burn all of heaven and earth. Itnded on the tattered cloth.

    An anguished scream echoed out as the cloth burst into me. The redmps were also mes. But you can use the word ¡®me¡¯ to describe very different things. In the blink of an eye, all of the redmps melted into g. The tattered cloth burned. The sky burned. The Forbidden Sea burned. Even the air itself burned. Everything burned. In fact, the fire was so terrifying... that even the mutagen ignited.

    Xu Qing was treated to a very rare sight. This part of the Forbidden Sea was no longer ck. Everything was melted away, revealing what this area had looked like countless years in the past. It was blue! It was like a purification! Thanks to that baptism of fire, the impurities and filth were incinerated, leaving behind the pure substructure.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s first time seeing me Phoenix in action.

    It really helped him to understand why me Phoenix could exist in a world of gods, and why he could upy the continent of South Phoenix and be called the southern emperor in Revered Ancient. He did not show respect to gods. He did not sacrifice to them. He was the emperor of South Phoenix!

    And now, that emperor was tenderly hugging Second Elder Sister. To him, that spark was like a mere exhtion. In fact, he wasn¡¯t even paying attention to the things around him. All of his attention was focused solely on Second Elder Sister.

    Meanwhile, Second Elder Sister was ring at Huang Yan as if she were considering berating him. But then she noticed that Xu Qing was with him, and she held back.

    Huang Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to say something, when all of a sudden his eyes hardened and he looked down at the Forbidden Sea.

    Xu Qing had been about to bow in greeting to Second Elder Sister when he sensed the same thing. He looked over at the spot where the ashes of the tattered cloth were drifting down into the water.

    The fire was already out. However, beneath the surface of the water, there was a piece of cloth roughly the size of a palm. Even after the terrifying me of purity that Huang Yan had unleashed, it was still around. And it was sinking rapidly down toward the sea floor. It was still burning, but the fact that it had survived up to this point indicated that it was extraordinary.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that interesting,¡± Huang Yan said thoughtfully.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone, partly with surprise and partly with suspicion. ¡°I only nced at that thing before. Now I realize that there¡¯s something familiar about it.... Second Elder Sister. Second Brother-in-Law. Hold on while I go take a closer look.¡±

    n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    With that, Xu Qing dropped into the Forbidden Sea and raced down toward that scrap of cloth. At the same time, he threw out the sageheaven god vine, which rapidly grewrger and shot down excitedly like an arrow loosed from a bow.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. His sense of surprise from moments ago was because of the clear fluctuations he had felt from the sageheaven god vine. What looked familiar to him were the striations on the tattered cloth....

    <i>It looks very simr to the surface of the sageheaven god vine....</i>

    With such thoughts in mind, Xu Qing sped downward after the god vine and the cloth. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing caught up. However...the piece of cloth had reached the limit of how long it couldst after being set on fire by Huang Yan.

    Even as Xu Qing watched, it burned out of existence. The only thing left behind were a few glimmering bits of starlight.

    <i>That¡¯s definitely the aura of the sageheaven god vine. Does that mean that this type of vine was in Revered Ancient even before Feng Lintao came?</i>

    He looked at the sageheaven god vine next to him. It was zipping around begrudgingly as if looking for something. Then, it suddenly shifted into one specific direction and shot off.

    Xu Qing followed. He pursued it for several hours before arriving in a very mysterious location that was full of densely packed marine trenches. They almost looked like scars.

    The god vine emanated fluctuations of excitement as it shot into one particr trench. Upon reaching the bottom, it started burrowing through the sludge there.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t proceed immediately. He stopped at the edge of the trench, relying on his connection to the vine to get a sense of what it was doing.

    Eventually, the god vine reached an open area on the other side of the sludge. There, it found an object.

    It was a pagoda! A towering but dpidated pagoda! And around it was wrapped a withered sageheaven god vine. It looked like it had been buried in this spot for many years, as it emanated an extremely ancient aura.[1]

    ***

    Around the time that Xu Qing found the pagoda and Huang Yan was in the middle offorting Second Elder Sister, there were five locations in Revered Ancient where the power of a homing signal shot out into the area beyond the heavens.

    Those five homing signals all came from different locations in Revered Ancient. But in each of those spots there was a group of three or four cultivators d in silver robes and seated cross-legged. They were all from different species, but their clothing was the same and they had simr auras. They all resembled the group of three led by Feng Lintao! They were from the holynds!

    The areas where they sat featuredplicated spell formations. As they performed incantation gestures, the spell formations silently rotated and emitted mysterious threads that somehow connected to the starry sky beyond the Revered Ancient maind.

    ***

    Out in the starry sky, starlight rippled and distorted as numerous celestial objects flew along. Some looked likes, some looked likend masses, and some looked like mountains. From the look of it, there were well over a hundred of them.

    They <i>were</i> holynds!

    If there were a pair of eyes that could look down on the starry sky they would see that these holynds... were all heading toward Revered Ancient.

    They formed a line, and they maintained distance between each other. They seemed to be organized into groups.

    In the lead position there were five holynds. Two were terrifyingly huge mountains. One was a boundlessnd mass. And two were gruish statues. Immense pressure radiated out of them and into the surrounding starry sky, which caused countless asteroids to shatter into dust. They were getting closer and closer to Revered Ancient.

    In one of the huge holynds was a mountain, atop which stood an old man in a golden daoist robe. He looked very simr to a human, except that he had bright red skin.

    As he looked at Revered Ancient off in the distance, he muttered in a raspy voice, ¡°I never thought I would live toe back here....¡±

    1. At this point in the story, the author uses a single Chinese character to describe the ¡°pagoda,¡± and that character could be interpreted in different ways, including ¡°tower.¡± In my original trantion pass, I interpreted it in that way (tower). Later, the author adds another character to create the word that more specifically means ¡°pagoda,¡± although usually it¡¯s used to describe very tall, tower-like pagodas, such as the ones in <u>these images</u>. ?

 Chapter 969: Heavenly Portents!

    <h4>Chapter 969: Heavenly Portents!</h4>

    The Forbidden Sea was boundless, and so was the seafloor.

    Before the broken face of Eminent Destion came to Revered Ancient, there wasn¡¯t a single powerful expert who would dare to say they controlled the seafloor. At the very most, they might control a certain portion of it.

    One reason was that the seafloor just covered too much area. Another reason was that there were simply too manyyers of sedimentary rock. And that became more the case the deeper you got into the sea. What was more, you never knew what was underneath thoseyers. There could be stunning underwater caves, or there could be even more of the sea.

    The truth was that the true depths of the sea contained countless mysteries. And some of the most ancient varieties actually surpassed the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk from back in the day. There were even areas where Grand Emperors wouldn¡¯t tread. Therefore, whether it was the Summer Immortals of yesteryear or the Ancient Emperors after them, they all dreamed of controlling the seafloor, but never made that dream into a reality.

    Thankfully, even though the seafloor was mysterious and had a history that stretched back countless years, there had never been an instance in which anything from the seafloor posed a threat to the maind. Gradually, the ancient peoples had juste to ept that it was a very mysterious ce.

    Eventually, Eminent Destion came, and the Sea of Endlessness turned into the Forbidden Sea. When the powerful mutagen reached the seafloor, it went from being simply mysterious to being <i>terrifyingly </i>mysterious. That was especially true of the outer sea, where it was certain... that unknown gods existed!

    Xu Qing had long suspected that the giant and the bronze chariot were capable of going to the outer sea.

    The marine trench he had just reached wasn¡¯t anywhere near the outer sea. Andpared to the seafloor as a whole, it was as minuscule as a single grain of sand on a beach. If the sageheaven god vine hadn¡¯t followed its senses here, Xu Qing would never have encountered it randomly, and definitely wouldn¡¯t have noticed the pagoda hidden in its silty depths. This ce could be called the perfect hiding spot.

    By means of his connection to the god vine, Xu Qing spent some time studying the area to check for threats.

    It was dark there, but not silent. The cries of unknown beings echoed out from the depths of the sea, low-pitched and lingering. After confirming that there was no immediate danger, Xu Qing followed the god vine into the trench.

    It was even darker inside, as if it was a gaping maw ready to mercilessly devour any living thing that came along.

    Thanks to his connection to the vine, and the speed Xu Qing was capable of, it only took about fifteen minutes before he reached a tunnel that the god vine had created when burrowing into the trench. The tunnel was slowly filing in.

    Without any hesitation, Xu Qing shot into the tunnel. Upon reaching the end, he found the god vine.

    If one could look to the bottom of the sea, they would quickly realize that within the sludge at the bottom of this trench was something like a gigantic bubble some 30,000 meters across. There was no sea water in the bubble, nor any sludge. There was just the pagoda with the withered vine wrapped around it. Xu Qing and his god vine were currently just at the edge of the bubble, still inside the sludge.

    When looking at the bubble and the pagoda, Xu Qing didn¡¯t feel any pressure. It was almost as if they were things from the mortal world. But what was very gruish was that though he could look upon them with his physical eyes, he couldn¡¯t see them at all with divine sense.

    <i>You can see them but not sense them?</i>

    Upon realizing how profound this ce was, he looked at the god vine next to him. The god vine was pulsing with emotional fluctuations. Clearly, it wanted to rush to the pagoda, but didn¡¯t dare to actually do so. It seemed to be filled with a sense of admiration, as if for a family member. Eventually, it made a decision. It approached Xu Qing, nuzzled him a few times, and then decisively shot toward the bubble.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t stop it.

    The bubble rippled as the vine burrowed into it and headed toward the pagoda. Compared to the bubble, Xu Qing¡¯s god vine, which was some three meters thick, was still tiny. That said, it was quite long. Upon reaching the pagoda, it wrapped around it a few times like a snake. Then it made contact with the withered vine.

    From the god vine¡¯s emotional fluctuations, Xu Qing could sense that it was receiving a legacy. The sensation onlysted for a brief moment before vanishing. Xu Qing looked on with rapt attention for a moment. Upon noticing no further developments, he stepped forward to enter the bubble.

    However, that was when a shocking force of resistance surged in the bubble, making it impossible for Xu Qing to enter it. His eyes shed as his energy and blood surged. Fleshly body power erupted, which he used to forcefully take a step forward. Hepleted his step, and the touch of his foot caused the bubble to tremble violently. The force of resistance grew stronger, bing a mountain-toppling, sea-draining power that battered him in the opposite direction.

    Xu Qing frowned and took another step forward. Then a third, fourth, and fifth. The bubble didn¡¯t shatter. Instead, as Xu Qing proceeded, it sank inward. As it did, the force of resistance grew disturbingly powerful. After Xu Qing took a sixth step, the force of resistance surged further, creating a crushing bacsh attack that caused Xu Qing to shiver. At this point, he had no choice but to back up.

    Back in his original position, he looked up at the bubble. Blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. It was the first time Xu Qing had been hurt in five months!

    <i>It has Imperial Sovereign might!</i>

    Surprise gleamed in Xu Qing¡¯s eyes.

    Xu Qing¡¯s journey in the Forbidden Sea was for the purpose of tempering his body. Unfortunately, his body¡¯s defenses were so powerful that things had gone too smoothly, which was not what he wanted.

    After finding this bubble, however, Xu Qing experienced a flicker of excitement for the first time in five months. He studied his god vine briefly to confirm that his actions weren¡¯t affecting it negatively. It was absorbing its legacy, and seemed like it needed more time.

    Therefore, determination red in Xu Qing as he took out a me Phoenix feather and used divine will to send a message to Huang Yan exining that he was working on cultivation at the seafloor, and would being backter.

    Although Huang Yan had been tasked by Master Seventh with being Xu Qing¡¯s dao protector, the inner sea wasn¡¯t a very dangerous ce, and given Xu Qing¡¯s battle prowess, he would be fine on his own. What was more, Huang Yan had just reunited with his Elder Sister. Therefore... he quickly agreed, which would give him more time with his Elder Sister.

    And thus, three months passed by rtively quickly.

    During that time, Xu Qing stayed in the marine trench. He would spend time every day training with the immortal light. asionally, he would go out to hunt sea beasts to warm himself up, whereupon he would return to the mysterious bubble to temper his fleshly body. Every time the bubble injured him, he recovered quickly. It was a tempering that turned out to be shockingly effective.

    Xu Qing could sense that he was gaining much more control over his bodypared to before. What was especially noteworthy was that he was slowly getting used to the force of rejection from the bubble. He was able to take additional steps, slowly but surely. And the bacsh attack changed as well. As it turned out, Xu Qing had found the perfect whetstone to hone himself.

    The Seven Blood Eyes training event soon ended. Huang Yan returned to South Phoenix with his Elder Sister, and would asionally check in with Xu Qing using the feather. He was increasingly relieved to realize that Xu Qing really was doing fine.

    After three months, the god vine was close to finishing with its legacy.

    On one particr day, Xu Qing was in front of the mysterious bubble, tempering his fleshly body. After taking several steps forward, he was about to proceed when he suddenly sensed something from the dpidated pagoda.

    The withered vine there was crumbling into ashes, which were being sucked into Xu Qing¡¯s infant god vine. Then it unwrapped from the pagoda as if waking up. After shaking itself out, it turned, shot away from the pagoda, and exited the bubble. It circled around him a few times, nuzzled him gently, and sent forth fluctuations of sadness. It almost seemed like it had just lost a loved one.

    Xu Qing reached out and stroked the vine. He had experienced emotions like that in the past.

    After the god vine¡¯s emotions had stabilized a bit, Xu Qing projected a message with divine will.

    <i>¡°Can you take me in there?¡±</i>

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    The vine immediately gave an affirmative response.

    Xu Qing nodded and sent out Little Shadow. ¡°You stand guard outside. Keep an eye out for anything unusual.¡±

    Little Shadow looked slightly indignant. Ever since the damned vine showed up, the shadow had clearly slipped in the standings. After working so hard to try to outdo Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, it suddenly found that a new favorite had surpassed it. Considering that it had long recovered all of its mental faculties, it now wondered if this was the same feeling Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had experienced years ago.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t pick up on what Little Shadow was feeling, as he was paying attention to the god vine.

    The god vine quickly wrapped around Xu Qing, then carried him toward the bubble.

    It was different than when Xu Qing tried to enter the bubble alone. This time, there was no force of rejection; with the vine escorting him, he was able to enter with ease.

    Once inside, Xu Qing was visibly moved.

    <i>There¡¯s no mutagen here. And this aura....</i>

    The inside of the mysterious bubble was clearly different than what was on the outside.

    <i>There¡¯s no spirit power. Instead, it feels like the starry sky.</i>

    As Xu Qing sensed those things, he stepped forward until he was right in front of the door leading into the pagoda.

    He reached out and pushed. The door opened quietly, and an ancient sensation emerged, like the mottled light of the setting suning out of the ancient past.

    There were three crystal coffins in the pagoda.

    The skeletons inside weren¡¯t human. They had tails, as well as horns on their heads. It wasn¡¯t possible to see what their bodies had looked like in life, as all that remained were bones. It was clear evidence that no matter how strong someone was, time could make them slowly fade away.

    In addition to the coffins and skeletons, there was an altar, atop which rested a chunk of ck jade the size of a head. It was covered with cracks.

    Meanwhile, the walls inside the pagoda were decorated with a map of a starry sky. It was a star chart.

    There was nothing else.

    Xu Qing took it all in, thought back to the withered god vine, and then came to the conclusion that this pagoda was a magical flight device used to traverse the starry sky. Some ident must have resulted in it falling into the Forbidden Sea in Revered Ancient. Considering how old it was, and based on the lingering scraps of time Xu Qing could sense, he could only assume that the event urred in the time before Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. In other words, it arrived before the broken face came.

    <i>There must have been a survivor!</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes narrowed. If there wasn¡¯t, how could the ce be so clean? What was more, although it was technically possible that the coffins had been set up before the deaths urred, it looked more like the result of meticulous work after the fact.

    <i>If I¡¯m right, then countless years ago this pagoda fell here, and the survivor buried his or herpanions before leaving the Forbidden Sea.</i>

    There weren¡¯t enough details to pinpoint the exact time period involved, which meant that it would be that much harder to track down where that survivor ended up in Revered Ancient. What was more, cultivators could easily alter physical evidence, which would make it even more difficult to ascertain the historical details. But Xu Qing didn¡¯t care about that.

    After looking around the interior of the pagoda, he felt a bit disappointed. Finally, he took a closer look at the star chart. He didn¡¯t recognize it, but hemitted it to memory anyway.

    Finally, he turned to leave. Just before taking his first step, though, his expression flickered, and he turned to look at the altar, which he had previously inspected, only to find nothing of note.

    His gaze came to rest on the chunk of cracked ck jade. He sent some soul threads into the jade, whereupon his expression flickered again, and his eyes shone with incredulity.

    ¡°Is that...?¡± Heart rate increasing, he prepared to examine the jade further.

    But then, out of nowhere....

    Little Shadow sent some very urgent emotional fluctuations to him via their connection. They were fluctuations of terror and confusion!

    Along with them came an image. Within that image, it was possible to see the seawater outside the bubble sinking in on itself. It wasn¡¯t just sinking down in this location. The effects were far-reaching. Pressure began to build up on the seafloor, and deafening rumbling sounds rose up. Sea beasts everywhere trembled.

    Xu Qing¡¯s face fell as he burst into motion. After shooting out of the bubble and sensing what was happening, he rocketed upward until he broke past the surface of the water.

    Looking around, he could see that there was a formless power descending from the sky, which was causing the surface of the Forbidden Sea to sink down. Up above, the dome of heaven dimmed. Countless lightning bolts raced back and forth, engulfing the Forbidden Sea, the maind, and all of Revered Ancient. The entire cosmos seemed to be shaking.

    In all parts of Revered Ancient, people could look up and see the same supernatural phenomena.

    And then, at the highest point in the dome of heaven, five shooting stars appeared. They started out as mere pinpricks, but grew brighter andrger with every moment that passed. Eventually, everyone could see two huge mountains, two statues, and a. They brought boundless power, like a tempest from the starry sky, as well as something profoundly ancient, like something from the ancient past that had seen countless vicissitudes of time.

    Each of these objects went in a different direction. Specifically, they split up to go to the east, south, west, north, and center!

    All of Revered Ancient was shaking. Terrifying pressure weighed down on all species, and living individuals everywhere began to tremble uncontrobly.

    Heavenly portents!

    In the north of Revered Ancient were endless ice ins that were controlled by the Northfate Kings. There, the eye of a god peered upward.

    In the west of Revered Ancient, a cold snort echoed out from the Rend Nobleplexuses.

    In the south were the Netherworld Chasmcorpses, where a boundless mist of death rose up.

    And in the east... the three gods of the Firemoon Darkheaven people looked up. In the imperial capital of humankind, the empress, d in an imperial robe and crown, stood outside the imperial pce, looking up with cold eyes. In addition, there were many other gods, some active, some in hiding. All looked up into the canopy of heaven.

    In the east of Revered Ancient were some lonely mountains, where Yu Liuchen sat in a bamboo grove sipping tea. He yawned.

    ¡°What¡¯s with the racket? Aren¡¯t you worried about waking the Father God?¡±

    Some gods were indifferent. Some gods were happy. Some gods were envious. Some gods were apathetic. Some gods were hungry.

    And then there was the Heaveneater Region, which had been covered with a mist of mutagen for months now. In the imperial capital of the Sovereign Kingdom of Violet and Cyan, Zi Qing sat on the throne, a smile on his face.

    ¡°From within time, I saw....¡±

 Chapter 970: Fifth Godly Authority!

    <h4>Chapter 970: Fifth Godly Authority!</h4>

    The holynds wereing! As of this moment, species throughout Revered Ancient reacted. Some trembled, some got excited, some seemed confused. Regardless, at this point in time in Revered Ancient... the holynds arrived and took center stage.

    Ever since the departure of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, stories about the holynds had circted among the species of Revered Ancient.

    The emperors of the species that had left, as well as the chosen they took with them, established numerous holynds. And in the tens of thousands of years that had passed since then, those holynds had been vilified by some, but looked to with anticipation by others. Some people believed them to be cowards who had betrayed and abandoned Revered Ancient at a critical moment. Some people thought they embodied hope, and that when they returned, the suffering of Revered Ancient would be turned into the dawn of a new era.

    Regardless of the reality, they wereing.

    Why were they here? It wasn¡¯t clear!

    Were they friend or foe? It wasn¡¯t clear!

    Out over the Forbidden Sea, Xu Qing looked up into the canopy of heaven. <i>Revered Ancient is like a cage that¡¯s easy to enter but hard to leave.</i>

    Ever since running into Feng Lintao and hispanions, and thus learning that the holynds wereing, Xu Qing had been wondering why the holynds were returning.

    <i>I wonder if they have a way to leave....</i>

    As Xu Qing contemted the situation, he got a voice message from Huang Yan via the feather.

    <i>¡°Are you seeing this, Xu Qing? It¡¯s not just holynds cultivators who areing. These are the actual holynds themselves. It¡¯s not a good sign. My guess is that they¡¯ve figured out a way to leave.</i>

    <i>¡°Based on information I¡¯ve gained from you humans, plus things I know, I can tell you that there are over a hundred holynds. They organize themselves into four categories. From highest to lowest, they¡¯re: heavenly, earthly, celestial, and terrestrial.</i>

    <i>¡°Given the aura of the five that just arrived, I¡¯m fairly certain they¡¯re terrestrial-level holynds, in other words, the weakest variety. Holynds like that make up something like fifty or more of the total number. In terms of the celestial, earthly, and heavenly categories of holynds, it¡¯s hard to say how many there are and which species control them.</i>

    <i>¡°That said, the empress can probably confirm that the Dark Serenity holynd was once heavenly-level. But now... who knows if it¡¯s still that strong.</i>

    <i>¡°Looks to me like, going forward, more and more of the holynds are going to being down. Starting now, Revered Ancient is going to be a chaotic ce. For the time being, I¡¯m going to stay here in South Phoenix to watch over things. You keep working on your cultivation in the Forbidden Sea. Just be careful.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing sent a quick response, then looked in the direction of Sea-Sealing County. By means of a unique magic, he could stay in touch with Sea-Sealing County even at great distances, and now he was being asked for instructions about how to treat the holynds.

    Xu Qing thought about it briefly, then replied, <i>¡°Stay on guard. Observe only.¡±</i>

    After that, he sighed. But only a momentter, his eyes glittered. Given that he had no idea what the holynds were doing here, Xu Qing knew that there wasn¡¯t much he could do about the situation. All he could do was keep getting stronger and react to whatever developments urred.

    Therefore, he dropped back down into the water and once again went to the dpidated pagoda in the marine trench. Before long, he was back in front of the bubble. With the help of the god vine, he returned to the pagoda, where he unhesitatingly sent some soul threads into the cracks in the ck jade. A momentter, he retracted the soul threads.

    <i>My senses were urate. That thing has a vestige of godly authority in it! It¡¯s the same type of vestige that exists in my void soil as a faint vestige.</i>

    Just before leaving earlier, Xu Qing had sensed that faint vestige in his void soil flickering slightly. Now he had confirmed his suspicion from earlier thanks to his soul threads.

    <i>The big question is who originally controlled that godly authority.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes shone as his heart filled with anticipation.

    He was well aware that it was going to be extremely difficult to light up all 1,000 of the faint vestiges in his void soil. It would require him to devour a lot more gods, or at least, things connected to gods. That was why it had been so beneficial for him to hunt godly entities and absorb their godliness. Unfortunately, the process had been going very slow.

    The fact that he could sense this particr godly authority indicated that he had a big destined opportunity at hand. Therefore, he didn¡¯t hesitate at all to sit down cross-legged in front of the ck jade and use his soul threads to seek enlightenment.

    Time passed.

    A few dayster, he opened his eyes.

    <i>It seems to be connected to sound in some way....</i>

    Xu Qing still wasn¡¯t sure of the details, despite the days spent immersed in what had seemed to be sessful enlightenment. He felt like he was looking at flowers in fog, or the moon reflected in water. He wasn¡¯t ready to give up though. Instead, he took out the bottle of holy fardark nectar. He swallowed some. All of a sudden, his mind filled with a profound sensation, and he continued to seek enlightenment.

    A month passed, slowly but surely.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Xu Qing was deep in meditation, and pulsed with an ethereal sensation. In that mysterious state, he was certain he could hear something.

    It was like chanting. It seemed far but near. Then near but far. Apparently, it was describing something, except he couldn¡¯t hear it clearly. The echoing chant stirred the godsource within him, causing that faint vestige in his void soil to start flickering more dramatically.

    A second month passed.

    Xu Qing had now been seeking enlightenment in a sustained manner for two months.

    ***

    During the two months that passed, the newly arrived holynds behaved in different ways.

    The holynd thatnded in the central part of Revered Ancient exterminated a minor species, but the other four didn¡¯t do anything like that. They didn¡¯t make contact with any outside forces, and instead sent out teams to collect resources. They seemed interested in gathering mutagen, especially objects that had been deeply infected with mutagen.

    Their actions were noted by many. In the west, there was one species that relocated to the spot where the holynd had descended. The reason was that the holynd was filled with members of their own species who had left back in the day.

    The most sensational event yed out in the central region, after the statue-shaped holynd wiped out the minor species. A month after they arrived, the top species of Revered Ancient, which was extremely mysterious, and operated in the central region, took action. Two gods emerged from their territory and went to the holynd. When they left the holynd, it was dead silent. All living beings in the holynd had been killed. Then the statue crumbled into ashes that vanished into the air.

    Afterward, a voice echoed through Revered Ancient.

    <i>¡°The holynds may not step into the central regions!¡±</i>

    That incident shook all of Revered Ancient, and it also shook the other holynds that had arrived. In the blink of an eye, the holynds suddenly weren¡¯t as untouchable as they had seemed. In fact, the other holynds started being even more cautious in their actions. The reactions from the various species in Revered Ancient were mixed. Some weren¡¯t sure what to think, while others were relieved. Some seemed confused....

    Then another event took ce that was simr to when the first five holynds had arrived.

    This time, six holynds descended like falling stars into different locations.

    In the days to follow, more events like that urred. Every so often, a group of holynds would show up and fall down into Revered Ancient. Whenever the ancient holynds of different shapes and sizes arrived, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth. Great pressure would weigh down.

    Eventually it reached the point where twenty-three holynds had arrived.

    The strange thing was that all of the holynds seemed interested in gathering mutagen and mutagen-rted objects, and nothing else. It was as if the only purpose of their return was to collect those things.

    ***

    In the pagoda at the bottom of the sea, Xu Qing was reaching a critical point in his enlightenment.

    The vague chanting got stronger, but at the same time, he still couldn¡¯t hear clearly what it was saying.

    However, he could tell that the same chant was being repeated. There was an ancient power within the chanting, something extremely domineering that was slowly filling him, entering his mind and recing his perceptions. From the look of it, it was trying to take away his concept of sound. It almost seemed like it was attempting to enve him. To strip away his sense of self, and make him a servant of the chant.

    It was a very dangerous state to be in. At the same time, there was something very enticing that was taking over his perceptions, subtly attempting to tell him that, as long as he continued, he would gain control over this godly authority.

    Suddenly, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened. They were bloodshot. Godly authority erupted within him. Especially noteworthy was the fact that Hellfei¡¯s eye appeared on his forehead, shining with bizarre light. In an instant, Xu Qing gainedplete lucidity. Then, without any hesitation, he ended the session of enlightenment.

    A sound like a string being snapped echoed within his mind. A tremor passed through him, and he coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. A serious look appeared on his face as he struggled to control his breathing.

    <i>The same feeling of trying to be enved!</i>

    He scowled. During the two months that had passed, he had reached this dangerous state every time he tried to seek enlightenment. Without Hellfei¡¯s eye, and his extensive experience with altered perceptions, it was highly likely that he wouldn¡¯t have survived the first time it happened.

    ¡°But why...¡± he murmured. He had considered that this godly authority might contain some sort of life force of its own, and that it was trying to possess him.

    But after numerous experiments, he noticed that the chanting never changed. It always proceeded in exactly the same way. That certainly didn¡¯t seem like the behavior of a living thing.

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me... that I¡¯m seeking enlightenment in the wrong way?</i>

    When all was said and done, this was technically his first time trying to seek enlightenment of godly authority. All of his current understanding of godly authority was based on pure instinct. He acquired both the violet moon and the misfortune by devouring them, not by seeking enlightenment. As for the godly curse, he had gained it more in the manner of learning a technique.

    For the moment, he decided to stop seeking enlightenment, and take a few days to review what he had experienced over the past few months. At a certain point, a tremor passed through him.

    <i>Perhaps my method of seeking enlightenment isn¡¯t at the right level. That could exin why I keep dealing with the envement attempts. I¡¯m being influenced by the godly authority, except that what I really want is to seize control of it! But how to seize control...?</i>

    After some more thought, his eyes glittered.

    <i>Maybe I shouldn¡¯t be listening. Maybe listening is what¡¯s allowing me to be influenced.</i>

    With a determined expression, he rose and left the mysterious bubble. This time, instead of getting help from the god vine, he tried to force his way back inside.

    After taking a few steps, the mountain-toppling, sea-draining force of resistance mmed into him. Xu Qing ignored it, braced himself, and took another step forward. When the bacsh attack hit him, he redirected the force to his ears. All of a sudden, his head thrummed, and intense pain filled him. His ears started to bleed, his eardrums shattered, and his ear bones crumbled.

    Xu Qing tumbled backward, the world spinning around him. He could no longer hear. That said, his expression was calm. Enduring the pain, he called on the confused god vine, then hurried back into the pagoda.

    The moment he was inside, he sat down cross-legged and sent soul threads into the ck jade to seek enlightenment. This time, he wasn¡¯t listening. Instead, he was sensing with his mind.

    Gradually, he could ¡®hear¡¯ the chanting again. The chanting came from the ck jade, but it was alsoing from the faint lineament within him, as well as the godsource sea within him. A sh of understanding appeared. All of a sudden, he realized that things were differentpared to before. Godsource raged, stimting his senses. It was as if some sort of shackle had been broken, allowing him to reach a new level.

    He understood.

    As long as he didn¡¯t listen, but ¡®sensed¡¯ instead, then he could still hear. And when he used his senses and stepped into the realm of godliness, he could activate power that came from that state. It was something boundless and primeval that originated in primal-chaos itself. Or perhaps it was a very ancient power that existed in the world.

    Cultivators couldn¡¯t control or acquire that power. The only way to do so was to use godsource. The reason was that the source of the power was too profound. By seizing it, one acquired the qualifications to use it. And it would form a sealing mark. That... was godly authority.

    However, that was only rted to using it. To delve into its substructure was something that ordinary gods couldn¡¯t do.

    The faint lineament that had flickered months ago was calling out to the ck jade from Xu Qing¡¯s void soil. And now, it started glowing brightly as it turned into a god talisman.

    It was Xu Qing¡¯s fifth god talisman.

    A god talisman of sound!

    Control of all sound in the world was an essential element of omniscience.

 Chapter 971: Clean and Simple

    Chapter 971: Clean and Simple

    Omniscience was a concept unique to gods, who were, of course, mysterious and unfathomable.

    Many cultivators thought of the word ¡®omniscience¡¯ to be extremely terrifying. Once one wasid bare to omniscience, everything about them, from past to future, and even their fate, could be controlled. There was no way to escape it or change it. To some extent, it was a word that described scope and limitation.

    Before gaining enlightenment of the godly authority of sound, Xu Qing knew more about enlightenment than most cultivators. Butpared to gods, he was like a young child who had only just started to learn things. As of this moment, though, when he truly gained enlightenment and could control that godly authority, thingspletely changed.

    The godly authority of sound was an essentialponent of omniscience. Control of all sound. It was one of the keys to opening the great door of omniscience. In addition to gaining control of the godly authority, the process imparted valuable experience to him.

    He had experienced a revtion unlike anything from the past. This was what godly authority was about.

    Godly authority possessed life force. At the same time, ¨©t did not possess life force. ¨©t was something free and extraordinary. When he was seeking enlightenment, ¨©t possessed life force and the ability to fight back. ¨©t even tried to possess him. But when he didn¡¯t seek enlightenment, yet gained it, ¨©t didn¡¯t possess life force. It was a paradox.

    Those who understood would understand. Those who didn¡¯t understand would never understand.

    Along with the godly authority came drifting bits of information from within the freed god perception.[1]

    The bits of information were deeply ancient. Th¨¥y all had different usages. Some were chaotic and paradoxical, and yet all of th¨¥m inly informed him of th¨¥ir usage upon entering him. Any person qualified to use this godly authority would also qualify to use the bits of information.The bits of information weren¡¯t things that urred naturally. They were like chaotic wills left behind in the godly authority by anyone who had previously qualified to use ¨©t. They came out automatically.

    Understanding the bits of information, and being able to use them, involved a long process. Anyone who did so, and could control their substructure, would be the sole individual qualified to use that godly authority. All other gods would be stripped of their qualifications. That was what happened when gods improved their godly authority, and in some respects, was the most important pir of the god system.

    <em>Godly entities are in the process of stockpiling godsource. When the godsource reaches the right level, godfire can be ignited, and the godly entity will be an actual god. At that point, they use all of their previous stockpiles and enlightenment, along with god perception, to seek enlightenment of a godly authority. They seek the qualifications to use ¨©t.</em>

    <em>Controlling and understanding the substructure of a godly authority is a standard in the Godfire level. It¡¯s also a very dangerous process. But if you seed... you be an Altar God.</em>

    <em>The three gods of the Firemoons used a god domain to achieve th¨¥ir breakthrough to wless God. Now I can see that the key to the point of that breakthrough was to allow th¨¥m to control and understand godly authority substructure.</em>

    <em>Th¨¥ir path to Altar God is now open, which means that, in reality, th¨¥y have already seeded to a certain extent. For the most part, they have already gained understanding and control of th¨¥ir personal godly authorities.</em>

    <em>Then there¡¯s the empress.... When at the peak of being a half-Imperial Sovereign, sh¨¥ used the destiny aura of humankind to be a first-stage Altar God. That means that sh¨¥ skipped the level of ¡®usage¡¯ and went right to control. Bing a first-stage Altar God isn¡¯t an easy thing. Only someone with spectacr talent, and an Imperial Sovereign cultivation base, would be able to solidify the first step. Now I can see that the empress must have been studying godly authority from very early on.... And maybe that¡¯s what led to the Dawning Suns. That¡¯s why sh¨¥ was able to be a first-stage Altar God.</em>

    <em>After Altar God is the level equivalent to the Summer Immortals. True God..... That involves gainingplete control over a godly authority. That¡¯s why the character ¡®true¡¯ is in the name.</em>

    This enlightenment came to Xu Qing from the bits of information in his god perception. However, there was also a possibility that he was wrong about some things. He would have to wait untilter on to verify the truth. But there was one thing that was now much more clear to him than before.

    <em>Godly entities are like Smoldering God cultivators. And the different levels within Godfire are like the different stages of Imperial Sovereign cultivators. An Altar God could fight a Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperor. And a True God would be a match for a Summer Immortal.</em>

    <em>Both True God and Summer Immortal pursue whates next in their respective systems. Unfortunately... whates next on the path after True God is called God Lord. But nobody knows whates after Summer Immortal. People search blindly, and based on different essences, they pursue different paths. Years ago, the Summer Immortals disappeared, and I bet it¡¯s because they sought their own paths to ascension. That¡¯s why the starry sky belongs to the gods.</em>

    Xu Qing took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked at the ck jade. It was now so cracked that it finally just quietly crumbled into ashes.

    <em>What a pity. The godly authority of sound in my god perception is actually possessed by many gods. Too many.... ¨©t¡¯s a very widespread type of godly authority. Because so many individuals can use ¨©t, ¨©ts mightiness is actually scattered. That said, because ¨©t¡¯s so widespread, if someone came along who could wrestplete control of ¨©t, that type of god power would bepletely terrifying.</em>

    Xu Qing closed his eyes again and focused fully on the fifth type of godly authority in his void soil.

    The godsource within him became like a mallet to strike the void soil. A sound like a bell rang in Xu Qing¡¯s mind. In fact, the sound actually seeped out of him. There, it made something like imperceptible ripples. Xu Qing was in the middle of them as they spread out, leaving the dpidated pagoda, entering the marine trench, and eventually spreading through the Forbidden Sea.

    In the blink of an eye, they reached a distance of 50 kilometers. All sound within that 50 kilometer area was instantly within Xu Qing¡¯s god perception. He could hear the sound of water flowing, animals roaring, fish swishing their tails, sand rubbing against sand.... He even heard a sound like breathing from the Forbidden Sea itself.

    It was gruish and lingering....

    All of that appeared within Xu Qing¡¯s god perception. And he got the sense that, with a thought on his part, he could use all of that sound.

    Everything in that 50-kilometer area suddenly went quiet. Xu Qing had taken away all sound with a single thought, and pushed it beyond the 50-kilometer area. By borrowing their sound, he sent the ripple farther.

    250 kilometers. 500 kilometers....

    It was an endless cycle.

    Xu Qing was like a child who had just acquired a new toy, and wanted to y around with it to see how it worked, and what it was capable of.

    In that manner, time passed. It was hard to say exactly how much went by from the moment Xu Qing started sending out the ripples. The range had long since surpassed anything Xu Qing was previously capable of sensing. He could now sense countless sea beasts, numerous godly entities hidden in the seafloor, and all sorts of ships on the surface of the water. Yet none of them could sense him. Xu Qing didn¡¯t do anything to them.

    The process continued.

    Xu Qing perceived numerous scenes with his god perception.

    ***

    A great distance away from Xu Qing¡¯s location, in a spot near Forbidden by the Zombie, there was something like a vast in on the seafloor.

    In the middle of it, a huge spell formation had been set up. And at the center of the spell formation, two figures sat cross-legged. They wore silver robes and had dark skin reminiscent of an octopus. They had no hair, but facial features that resembled humans. Even seated, they were both more than 30 meters tall. Based on their cultivation base fluctuations, they were both at the peak of the two-world Smoldering God level.

    Because of their special clothing and the nature of the spell formation, it was clear that these two were from one of the holynds. As it turned out, they were from the samerger group that Feng Lintao and the others hade with.

    On that asion, a host of teams hade from the holynds, which had then scattered into different parts of Revered Ancient.

    These two hade to the Forbidden Sea. During that time, they gathered information and resources from throughout the Forbidden Sea before setting up the spell formation to send the homing signal to beyond the heavens.

    Right now, they had unleashed their cultivation base fluctuations to strengthen the spell formation and call out to the holynd they called home. They had been lucky in their time in Revered Ancient, as everything had gone smoothly for them. They hadn¡¯t encountered any resistance, and though they had run into some powerful godly entities, by identifying them in advance, they were able to avoid them.

    Now that their mission was wrapping up, both were feeling very relieved.

    But then, a cracking sound rang out from one of them. Specifically, it came from a jade slip he had ced down in front of him. It was a dark jade slip covered withplicated magical symbols that had been painted on with a special ink. Its function was to vibrate in advance if something dangerous was nearby.

    At the moment, the jade slip had started vibrating so intensely, and so suddenly, that it shattered.

    The two holynds cultivators opened their eyes and looked around suspiciously. The sound of the cracking jade slip hadn¡¯t disappeared, and in fact, was like a tempest sweeping the area.

    As everything trembled, the two cultivators¡¯ expressions flickered. They quickly backed up a good distance and checked the surroundings. Then one of them performed a right-handed incantation gesture and pointed out.

    Instantly, a swirling current appeared in the surrounding sea water, which he controlled, causing a lot of sand to float up, shaking many hidden rocks. He was looking for the source of the danger. No such efforts amounted to anything.

    As their suspicions mounted, something incredibly shocking happened. All of the sound created by their actions suddenly went away. That included the echoing of the cracking of the jade slip. All of that sound turned into a gruish and dangerous power that mmed into them. Rumbling filled the area.

    As the two cultivators¡¯ hearts pounded, one of them projected a message to the other.[2]

    <em>¡°A god must have noticed us!¡±</em>

    Even though it was only a projected message, at the same moment that the cultivator¡¯s teammate heard the message, it turned into a gruish attack that caused their heads to vibrate, their faces to drain of blood, and their hearts to race painfully. Terror filled them.

    At the same moment, both of them realized that the sound in the area was being taken away by force. Neither of them dared to speak again. After exchanging a nce and realizing how terrified the other was, they unhesitatingly fled toward the surface.

    However, the faster they fled, the more noise they made, and the more of a disturbance they caused. That sound then turned into an attack power that hit them again. The resulting rumbling booms only added to the deadly power.

    Meanwhile, fish and sea beasts in the area, and even the sand and water itself, were all making various noises. Some were audible, others were not. But that didn¡¯t change the fact that they all existed. It was like a terrifying orchestra in the Forbidden Sea was ying a shocking song.

    The deadly attack power rolled with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force directly toward the two fleeing cultivators. The rumbling grew more intense.

    The two holynds cultivators were trembling. They looked scared and were coughing up blood. Both had already unleashed their major worlds. They used both illusory and corporeal means to fight against the gruish attack. They even used magical treasures in an attempt to get rid of the sound in the area. The danger mounted to unprecedented levels as they sustained numerous attacks, causing their clothing to be ripped and torn, andcerating their flesh.

    Finally, they burst out of the water and into the open. And yet, they couldn¡¯t breathe sighs of relief.

    There was even more noise above the surface. Sea birds cried out as they flew overhead. The waves crashed. There was sound everywhere. Sound roared in all directions.

    And the two cultivators who had just burst up through the surface of the water found themselves right in the middle of it. From a distance, it was like there was a huge sphere of sound, rippling endlessly, filled with terrifying might.

    A voice then rang out.

    ¡°What were you doing on the seafloor?¡±

    Along with the voice came a figure in violet, almost like a god. The figure was outside of the sphere of sound, looking calmly at the two terrified cultivators.

    His question obviously required an answer. And that was because the rumbling inside the sphere of sound was growing more intense.

    The ears of the two holynds cultivators could hardly hear what Xu Qing was saying. All they heard was a vague chanting. The chanting grew more intense, repeating itself over and over, like something from ancient times. A sensation of madness and greed filled them, inundating their minds and taking over their perceptions.

    It was taking away their concept of sound. Their bodies, souls, and even their sense of self was being taken. The answer was naturally there.

    Xu Qing dropped down to the seafloor. On the surface, a pop could be heard, and then blood flowed. The two holynds cultivators had been killed in body and soul.

    The sound sphere vanished, and all the sound therein returned to heaven and earth.

    Clean and simple.

    Xu Qing reached the spell formation on the seafloor. After studying it, he lifted his hand. One strike destroyed it.

    Xu Qing shook his head. <em>Sadly, the signal already went out.</em>

    After some thought, he took out a jade slip and sent messages to Sea-Sealing County, Huang Yan, and others, letting them know to get ready. Shortly after, he disappeared into the Forbidden Sea to continue seeking enlightenment of the sound authority, and to look for the bronze chariot.

    ***

    A weekter, seven shooting stars appeared in the sky over Revered Ancient, dazzlingly bright. One of them started falling toward the spot in the Forbidden Sea between Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and the continent of South Phoenix!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    1. Incidentally, here¡¯s a quick reminder of what I mentioned in a footnote a few hundred chapters ago, that the ¡°information¡± mentioned here has a meaning beyond the mundane definition of the word. Here¡¯s a link to the post from that real-life practitioner of Chinese magic that goes into a brief exnation (same image I included in the footnote back then). ?

    2. It¡¯s noteworthy that the term I generally convey as ¡°project¡± or ¡°transmit¡± literally means ¡°to transmit sound.¡± Though the author usually uses it when cultivators mentallymunicate with each other, he asionally uses it when just meaning ¡°to talk.¡± The point is that it contains the character for ¡°sound¡± in it. ?<blockquote>

    Deathde''s Thoughts

    This chapter is about 1,000 characters longer than average.</blockquote>

 Chapter 972: Vivifiend Holy Land

    <h4>Chapter 972: Vivifiend Holy Land</h4>

    A shooting star fell from the sky, descending toward the Forbidden Sea. As its resplendent light shimmered out, people throughout the continent of South Phoenix and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture looked up in shock. In recent days, holynds had been arriving one after another. But this was the first time that one had appeared in this area.

    It caused widespread nervousness, especially since no one had any idea what was toe in regard to this holynd. Sects and organizations everywhere were on high alert. That was especially true given that the arrival of this holynd was apanied by terrifying pressure, and winds that could shake the starry sky. Deafening rumbling sounds echoed out that shook the mind and heart of all.

    The maritime space near Forbidden by the Zombie was affected the most dramatically. From afar, it was possible to see an area of the sea many thousands of kilometers wide sinking down as a vortex formed. Waves surged into a tsunami that spread out. Soon, the water level sank so much it was possible to make out the seafloor.

    As for the tsunami, it was so huge that, as it spread out, it swept over many inds. Thankfully, it didn¡¯tst for long. What was more, the inds had been given advance notice to make preparations. Were it not for that, the event would have been a major catastrophe.

    Regardless, it just went to show the terrifying force unleashed by this newly arrived holynd.

    Countless sea beasts shivered instinctively and tried to flee the area. Eventually... as wild colors shed in heaven and earth, the holynd began to slow down as it descended.

    Astonishingly, the holynd floating above the Forbidden Sea was a massive blue ice mountain. It was so tall it seemed to vie with the dome of heaven for glory. And it was so wide at the bottom that it was almost as big as Emperor-Receiving Prefecture.

    It didn¡¯te to rest on the water itself. Instead, it floated in the air about 3,000 meters above it, making it look like a huge floating ind.

    Directly beneath it was the spell formation with the homing signal, created by the two Smoldering God cultivators Xu Qing had just killed. In other words, it was above Forbidden by the Zombie.

    Forbidden by the Zombie was a forbidden ground located in-between Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix. It was normally hidden on the seafloor. Over the countless years that had passed, the lord of Forbidden by the Zombie had awoken on a few asions, which caused a huge stir. But ordinarily speaking, the ce was rtively peaceful and quiet. One exception was several years previously, when that huge, ancient door was revealed. On that asion, the lord of Forbidden by the Zombie perished. As a result, the forbidden ground essentially lost its life force, and ever since, had been very quiet. Few people were aware of any of the behind-the-scenes details.

    Obviously, there was some deep significance to the fact that this holy ground hade to this specific spot. Numerous streams of divine will had already arrived from Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix, as well as from locations in the Forbidden Sea. As they focused on the enormous blue ice mountain, the mountain... vibrated.

    Cracking sounds rang out like heavenly thunder. Crevices opened up all over the surface of the mountain, spreading so rapidly that, after only an incense stick¡¯s worth of time, they had covered the entire thing. Then the ice started copsing everywhere, revealing an interior mountain that was the color white. The blue icended in the ocean and quickly melted. However, it caused the temperature to drop so much that chunks of ice formed in the sea beneath the holynd.

    As for the white mountain, it pulsed with intense life force. In fact, it was even possible to see swaying grass starting to grow on its surface, and even trees. Spirit energy pulsed out of it, and auspicious beasts began to wake up and fly around. Immortal clouds even appeared in the area. It didn¡¯t take long for the holynd to reveal that it looked very much like an immortal mountain.

    Then a figure some 300 meters tall strode out from the immortal mountain. Other than some specifics about the facial features, and a few other details, he looked very simr to the two Smoldering God cultivators Xu Qing had killed. It seemed likely that he was from the same species. He had human-like facial features, but no hair. His skin glistened like white jade, making him seem very holy. It was hard to determine his age, but there was something about him that seemed profoundly ancient.

    Most terrifying were his cultivation base fluctuations. His cultivation base fluctuations surpassed the ability of most cultivators to even perceive. He was more terrifying than anything they had ever encountered. In fact, it was something that only the divine will of the most powerful experts could detect.

    He was... an Imperial Sovereign! His presence caused huge waves to roll out over the sea, and provoked a joyful response from the natural and magicalws in the area. Even the heavenly daos were silent. The reason was that he was at the peak of Imperial Sovereign!

    He did not need any blessing of destiny aura. He did not need any external power. He was fully at the peak of the immortal cultivator system of cultivation. He was truly a peak Imperial Sovereign, making him equivalent to a wless God!

    After stepping out of the immortal mountain, he entered the Forbidden Sea and went to... Forbidden by the Zombie!

    All of Forbidden by the Zombie was trembling. Countless cries of grief echoed out from within, and then ck blood flowed out of it, bing part of the surrounding sea water. That blood flowed for seven days. The howls of grief echoed for the same amount of time.

    Everyone was still watching on the eighth day when... the Imperial Sovereign who looked like a cultivator made of white jade emerged from Forbidden by the Zombie. Astonishingly, he was shouldering an ancient bronze door! It was the very same door that had been opened inside Forbidden by the Zombie years ago. A mangled hand had reached out of the door, which resulted in Emperor Zombie perishing. As of now, this cultivator who looked like white jade was carrying the door back to the immortal mountain.[1]

    After he returned, the cultivators of the holynd emerged cheering. This was a very strange holynd. The various members of the species who had made it didn¡¯t all look the same. Some looked like the two Xu Qing had killed. But some had bodies that were stitched together like puzzles. And the puzzle pieces included humanoid body parts, animal body parts, and other fantastical parts. All of them proceeded into Forbidden by the Zombie.

    This strange development caused numerous individuals in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix to observe with even more rapt attention, and at the same time, confusion. All of them stayed on high alert. Armies were mustered in Sea-Sealing County, and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture activated military spell formations.

    What was even stranger, though, was that in the month that followed, the immortal mountain didn¡¯t do anything else. Apparently, the cultivators from there were only interested in going to Forbidden by the Zombie. Inside, they searched for all sorts of resources. Seawater, mutagen, nts from Forbidden by the Zombie, strange grues and godly entities. All such things were among the items they targeted.

    Xu Qing, who was still roving the Forbidden Sea working on his godly authority of sound, and also searching for the golden crow¡¯s dragon chariot, heard about the developments via messages sent to him from various parties.

    A lot of the information came from Huang Yan, who was in close contact with human forces. What was more, he had ess to ancient knowledge that provided a lot of insight.

    Xu Qing nodded. Humankind was in an era of decline. However, though they were far from their glory days, they had many ancient records. Maybe their histories couldn¡¯tpare to those kept by the Summer Immortal Pce, but they were still superior to most other species.

    As Xu Qing sped through the Forbidden Sea, Huang Yan¡¯s voice echoed in his mind via divine will, sent through the feather.

    <i>¡°Xu Qing, you humans have already dug through various ancient documents and found information about the holynd that dropped down at my front door. I have to say, you humans are very adept at keeping historical records.</i>

    <i>¡°The species has a name. They¡¯re Vivifiends. Back in the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, they weren¡¯t exactly a major yer. But partly because of their unusual and fiendish nature, and partly because their emperor acknowledged allegiance to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity very early on, and performed some meritorious services, they went on to achieve a lot of glory.</i>

    <i>¡°The fiendish nature of the species has to do with their innate ability. They¡¯re born extremely weak. And as they grow up, they have to steal the organs and even bodies of other species to rece their own. They¡¯re almost like hermit crabs, constantly shedding their shells to get new ones.</i>

    <i>¡°That¡¯s why members of this species usually look different from each other. Before acknowledging allegiance to Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity, they went around buying and selling bodies and organs all over Revered Ancient. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that they eventually got enough power and influence, they would have been wiped out a long time ago.</i>

    <i>¡°In terms of the category of their holynd, it¡¯s terrestrial-level. Normally speaking, holynds like that will have at least one or two cultivators in the Imperial Sovereign level. The one who went into Forbidden by the Zombie earlier is probably one of the lords of the ce.</i>

    <i>¡°Based on the information your empress was able to dig up, as well as news about various species who¡¯ve made contact with other holynds, plus some of my own back-channel information, I think I have an idea what¡¯s going on. These holynds from beyond the heavens, when the holynds left, they didn¡¯t have such a strict system of categorization. Basically, the Dark Serenity holynd was in charge, and everyone else was lower.</i>

    <i>¡°Butter on, unforeseen circumstances resulted in the different holynds being categorized as either heavenly, earthly, celestial, or terrestrial.</i>

    <i>¡°Terrestrial-level holynds have either one or two Imperial Sovereigns. Above them are the celestial-level holynds, none of which have arrived yet. Most likely, they will have Quasi-Immortal Grand Emperors.</i>

    <i>¡°Then there are the earthly-level holynds.... There¡¯s no way they could have Summer Immortals, which leaves only one possibility. They must have multiple Quasi-Immortals! That¡¯s how they can achieve the earthly level!</i>

    <i>¡°Finally are the heavenly-level holynds. Well, holy </ind<i>. There¡¯s only one.... I suspect there¡¯s an eighty to ny percent chance it has a Summer Immortal.</i>

    <i>¡°Based on the empress¡¯ analysis, the Dark Serenity holynd isn¡¯t heavenly-level. And that means that the Summer Immortal from the only heavenly-level holynd is most likely... not Dark Serenity! It must be someone else!¡±</i>

    Xu Qing stopped in ce in the middle of the Forbidden Sea. <i>Summer Immortal....</i>

    His eyes shone brightly.

    Huang Yan wasn¡¯t done yet. <i>¡°From the moment they arrived until now, all of the holynds have been focused on one thing. And that¡¯s to collect resources! In any case, the fact remains that the holynds are here. Xu Qing, don¡¯t stay out in the Forbidden Sea for too long. Get back as soon as you can.¡±</i>

    At that point, Huang Yan¡¯s message waspleted.

    Xu Qing looked down toward the seafloor. The sea was calm, though there was a light breeze that caused some waves to roll over the surface of the water. The sky was getting dark. A storm wasing.

    <i>I¡¯ll search for two more months. If I haven¡¯t found the golden crow¡¯s dragon chariot by then, I¡¯ll leave the Forbidden Sea and go back to Sea-Sealing County.</i>

    With that, Xu Qing continued on his way. A month went by.

    Three more holynds arrived in the Revered Ancient maind. As of now, a total of thirty-three holynds had arrived.

    Apparently, the forces of the Vivifiend holynd were nearing thepletion of their excavation of Forbidden by the Zombie. Thus, they sent their people out to the surrounding inds. They didn¡¯t perpetrate any wicked acts. The cultivators they sent out all seemed kind and amiable. They politely asked for news about Revered Ancient, and even offered treatment to people suffering from severe mutagen invasions. Upon leaving, they would hand out medicinal pills from their holynd as gifts. Those pills worked wonders in purging mutagen.

    Although the local species were initially nervous, they soon sensed that this holynd seemed to have good intentions. After getting all the information they sought, the holynd sent out three messages.

    The first message went into Forbidden by the Phoenix in South Phoenix, to be delivered to me Phoenix. The second went to Seven Blood Eyes, to be delivered to Master Seventh. The third went to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, to be delivered to the region lord of the Holytide Region.

    The letters were worded differently, but all contained the same general message. They politely informed the three parties in question that the Vivifiend holynd did note with any malicious intentions. They only wanted to collect resources, and didn¡¯t want to make any enemies. They hoped that they could get along well with the other three local powers.

    Sea-Sealing County, South Phoenix, and Seven Blood Eyes conferred and chose to do the same as everyone else in Revered Ancient. They would just continue to keep an eye on this holynd. They wouldn¡¯t do anything rash, and would stay on guard.

    The Vivifiend holynd behaved just as they said they would in their messages. They seemed interested in maintaining peace. In the month that followed, there were no unexpected misunderstandings. They continued to widen the range in which they explored, and made contact with more inds. The entire time, they behaved politely, treated those who needed help, and gave out medicinal pills.

    Seven Blood Eyes got some of the pills and studied them closely, as did Huang Yan. They didn¡¯t seem to contain any potential cmities. From the look of it, it was going to be possible to get along with this holynd.

    However, it also seemed like a storm was building on the Forbidden Sea....

    ***

    Xu Qing had been gone for the better part of a year. Using his godly authority of sound, he had explored much of the sea region between Emperor-Receiving Prefecture and South Phoenix. Though he had encountered some dangers, he didn¡¯t go too deep into the sea. The entire time, he kept looking for the golden crow¡¯s dragon chariot. His search bore no fruit.

    <i>It seems to me the dragon chariot and the giant must have gone to the outer sea.</i>

    At the moment, Xu Qing stood on the corpse of a 3,000-meter-long giantfang shark, which was riddled with wounds.[2]

    The wind blew, stirring his violet hair. His expression was tranquil, and he was surrounded by motes of scintiting light, which were the bits of godliness emanating from the beast beneath his feet. As he absorbed them, he looked off into the distance toward the outer sea. After a moment, he shook his head. Now was not a suitable time to go to the outer sea.

    Just as he was about to give up on his search of the Forbidden Sea and go back to Sea-Sealing County... his transmission jade slip vibrated. After scanning it with divine will, he heard Second Elder Sister¡¯s voice echoing in his mind.

    <i>¡°Little Junior Brother, there¡¯s a matter that needs your attention. Grand-Master Bloodsmelter is at Easher Isle. The venerable old man... sent a message asking for help. He asked for you specifically.¡±</i>[3]

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Second Elder Sister sounded a bit exasperated. For a patriarch to ask a grand-apprentice to go save him was definitely somewhatical. However... it made sense.

    <i>¡°He¡¯s getting old, and has been pretty quiet recently. For him to suddenly ask for you to go over there... well, it seems to me he wants to show off to Guru Easher. Why don¡¯t you just go for a quick visit?¡±</i>[4]

    Xu Qing was initially stunned. However, a momentter he somberly replied, ¡°I¡¯ll head over there right now, Second Elder Sister.¡±

    1. The door opened in <u>chapter 385</u>. ?

    2. Interestingly, Xu Qing first saw a giantfang shark when he originally encountered the dragon chariot in <u>chapter 80</u>. Later in <u>chapter 140</u>, he was pursuing the same kind of shark, only to have it stolen by none other than Wu Jianwu (although we didn¡¯t learn Wu Jianwu¡¯s name until a few chapterster.) ?

    3. Sir Bloodsmelter appeared onscreen for the first time in <u>chapter 116</u>, and most recently in <u>chapter 731</u>. Easher Isle was first mentioned in <u>chapter 119</u>. ?

    4. Guru Easher¡¯sst speaking role was in <u>chapter 542.2</u>, though she was mentioned a couple times after that and even appeared on screen though without any lines of dialogue. ?

 Chapter 973: Musician of the Sun

    <h4>Chapter 973: Musician of the Sun</h4>

    Easher Isle had long been in an alliance with Seven Blood Eyes. Nowadays, that alliance was stronger than ever. After Seven Blood Eyes rose to prominence in Sea-Sealing County, and of course after everything that happened in the Holytide and Nightspirit Regions, Easher Isle became an even more domineering force on the Forbidden Sea.

    Guru Easher, who was Yanyan¡¯s grandmother, was a good friend of Sir Bloodsmelter. In fact, in years past there were some Seven Blood Eyes disciples who audaciously imed that their rtionship went beyond the level of being fellow daoists. In recent years, Sir Bloodsmelter had been taking a lot of trips to Easher Isle, usually every few months, which only fueled such spections....[1]

    At the moment, all of the cultivators on Easher Isle were on guard and had very serious expressions on their faces.

    Seated cross-legged on a high altar in the middle of the ind was a young woman. Just looking at her, it was possible to see evidence of the passage of time. But that evidence was simply the fact that she had grown into a bewitchingly beautiful woman. She had pale skin and looked frail, but was very attractive. She wore a long ck dress, and... was surrounded by numerous collections of beloved ded weapons.

    She was, of course, Yanyan. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping. But her eyshes fluttered asionally as her expression alternated between ferocity, terror, and pain. It was a very unusual sight.

    Most unusual of all was her body. When Xu Qing first met her, he had noticed that she was different from other people. She had no mutagen in her. In reality, mutagen was a godly aura that existed everywhere in Revered Ancient. Only very high-level cultivators couldpletely purge themselves of it. But it was virtually impossible for low-level cultivators to be free of mutagen.

    Xu Qing could do it with his violet crystal.

    As for Yanyan, she had a very unique constitution. But now, her previously mutagen-free body had a ck energy building up in it. It was mutagen.

    Thankfully, even as the mutagen appeared, the spell formation around her lit up. Rumbling sounds could be heard as a majestic, cleansing power drove away all mutagen within the spell formation. It also drove away the sizzling ck energy from within Yanyan. After the mutagen was gone, the pained expression disappeared from her face. Her breathing steadied, and she seemed to truly go to sleep.

    Off to the side controlling the formation were Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher. Both of them breathed sighs of relief.

    After confirming that Yanyan was doing well, Sir Bloodsmelter cleared his throat and looked at Guru Easher. ¡°Well, what do you think? All it took was a single message and I had this spell formation sent over from Sea-Sealing County. It really is an extraordinary formation. In the imperial capital, only heavenly marquises can get them. Don¡¯t worry, my clever grand-apprentice will be here soon. With his help, we can finish the job. It¡¯s no big deal, right? She got hit by the gaze of a godly entity, that¡¯s all. It won¡¯t be hard to deal with.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter was clearly trying to sound very nonchnt.

    Guru Easher nced at him and seemed about to say something snappy. Instead, she just nodded. ¡°How long until he gets here?¡±

    Seeing that Guru Easher was going along with his n caused Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s heart to race. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I already called for him, which means the hard work is already half over. As you know, my status nowadays is different from before. My apprentice is basically a Summer Immortal! I¡¯m essentially the Master of a Summer Immortal. Get it?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter proudly stroked his beard.

    Guru Easher, who had spent nearly half her life bickering with Sir Bloodsmelter, finally couldn¡¯t take it anymore. ¡°You¡¯re quite the expert in tooting your own horn.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter chuckled. ¡°Horn? What horn? There¡¯s no horn! Look, I¡¯m still Ol¡¯ Seventh¡¯s father-inw. What, you want to be his mother-inw? You have to admit, you have a rare opportunity on your hands.¡±

    Guru Easher was apparently struck speechless.

    Sir Bloodsmelter looked more pleased than ever. ¡°Even if you don¡¯t want to admit that I¡¯m the Master of a Summer Immortal, you can¡¯t deny the truth about my two grand-apprentices. One of them is King Skycrusher, the region lord of two regions, the tutor of the crown prince, and the future tutor of the emperor! The other is the daoist partner of me Phoenix!¡±

    Guru Easher tartly responded, ¡°Don¡¯t you have two other grand-apprentices?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter waved his hand dismissively. ¡°I can¡¯t really remember.¡±

    Guru Easher snorted coldly. ¡°Wow. You¡¯re really the picture of an amazing Grand-Master.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter¡¯s eyebrows shot up, but before he could say anything else, the two of them turned to look toward the horizon.

    There, they saw a mass of dramatic lightning. In the blink of an eye, the lightning was right over Easher Isle. However, there was no dramatic crack of thunder as would be expected.

    The bizarre scene caused looks of astonishment to appear on the cultivators of Easher Isle. Even Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher were shocked.

    A figure stepped out of the noiseless lightning, and with one step, arrived at the formation altar. As soon as Xu Qing appeared, he sped hands and bowed with sincere respect to Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher.

    ¡°Greetings, Grand-Master. Well met, Senior Easher.¡±

    As soon as Xu Qing got Second Elder Sister¡¯s message, he raced to Easher Isle, using his godly authority of sound to ensure that the lightning didn¡¯t make any noise. In that way, he was able to make it across the Forbidden Sea in an instant.

    Sir Bloodsmelter quickly suppressed his shock. Stroking his beard, heughed heartily and said, ¡°Well done, my grand-apprentice! It¡¯s been such a long time! Not bad. Not bad at all. Your temperament reminds me a lot of myself, back in the day.¡±

    Xu Qing¡¯s respectful behavior really pleased Sir Bloodsmelter. He couldn¡¯t help but think about the first time he¡¯did eyes on Xu Qing. In the time since then, the young man had be true nobility.

    Guru Easher was shocked to the core, but she took a deep breath and nodded to Xu Qing.

    At that point, Xu Qing looked over at Yanyan on the altar. It wasn¡¯t difficult to guess what was going on. ¡°Grand-Master, did you call me here because of Yanyan?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sir Bloodsmelter said in a much more serious tone now that he was discussing an important matter. ¡°A few months ago, in the middle of the night, some unknown godly entity fixed its gaze on Yanyan. Because of that, it created a strange connection between the two, and it keeps trying to summon her to it. Just before you arrived, I used this mutagen-expelling formation to purify her. Now that you¡¯re here, you can handle the rest.¡±

    Of course, Xu Qing knew that Yanyan was Guru Easher¡¯s only blood rtive, so he looked very serious as he replied, ¡°Let me take a look.¡±

    He walked over to Yanyan on the altar. Inside, his god talismans glittered, giving him a much different view of her. There was a ck energy surrounding her that looked like a host ofherworld souls and evil ghosts. Their howls were constantly assailing Yanyan¡¯s mind. There were so many of them that they seemed almost like a dense fog.

    Visible to Xu Qing via his god perception was a hand inside the fog. It was the severed hand of a woman. In the palm was an eye, closed as if sleeping.

    Xu Qing¡¯s eyes turned cold as he reached out with his right index finger to touch Yanyan¡¯s forehead.

    At that moment, apparently because of being so familiar with Xu Qing¡¯s aura, Yanyan opened her eyes and looked at him.

    ¡°Big Bro Xu Qing...¡± she whispered. All of a sudden, her facial expression changed, bing a mix of joy, infatuation, attachment, and charm.

    What was even stranger to Guru Easher and Sir Bloodsmelter... was that Yanyan¡¯s eyes filled with anticipation, and as Xu Qing¡¯s finger neared, she opened her little mouth.

    Xu Qing¡¯s finger stopped moving.

    Upon noticing that Xu Qing wasn¡¯t saying anything, Yanyan¡¯s face fell slightly, almost like a flower that was about to start wilting and lose its will to live. The ck energy surrounding her suddenly seemed much more ferocious.

    Xu Qing sighed and put his finger in front of her mouth.

    Yanyan instantly lit up. Leaning toward him slightly, she put her lips around his finger and licked it gently. The infatuated look on her face grew stronger.

    Guru Easher stood there silently. Sir Bloodsmelter blinked a few times, looked at Guru Easher, and then simrly stood there silently.

    Xu Qing let Yanyan do as she wished while he simultaneously sent his god perception over her. Because of their physical connection,bined with his senses, he could now see that the ck energy connected to Yanyan¡¯s fate actually stretched out into the Forbidden Sea. It went very, very deep.

    He followed it for a long time to the inky seafloor, which was when he started hearing sounds of weeping and wailing. They came from evil ghosts. Not just one. Many.

    His god perception was eventually able to make out a dpidated pce in the sludge at the bottom of the sea. It looked like one small pce that had once been part of arger pceplex.

    Now it was just a crumbling ruin, fading away in time. There was a host of innumerable ghosts upying the ruins. They looked vicious and sinister. Yet they didn¡¯t notice him. They just let loose ear-piercing screams as they roved about. It almost seemed like they were singing.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Xu Qing¡¯s heart skipped a beat. This was all very familiar. Years ago, he had encountered a host of evil ghosts on the Forbidden Sea. That phenomenon was called... ¡®countless ghosts haunting the night¡¯!

    <i>¡°There is a fantastic symphony in the endless sea; mortals are unable to hear it; it apanies Crimson Yang the golden crow; countless movements be a song; it is called Natural Sounds Wee the Moon.</i>

    <i>¡°The god loved it; the god¡¯s eyes gazed upon it; the endless sea became forbidden; countless movements became sinister.¡±</i>

    Xu Qing still remembered reading about the song in the sea annals in Seven Blood Eyes.[2]

    Especially noteworthy was that, by means of his god perception, he could see that among the evils ghosts in the ruins was the godly entity that was causing trouble for Yanyan.

    It was the severed hand of a woman! It was huge, being some 300 meters from end to end. The eye in the middle of the hand was closed, but the fingers were moving. And those fingers... were moving in time with the howling of the ghosts! It was as if the sounding out of the ghosts was the music that she was ying!

    <i>Don¡¯t tell me this is the origin of the countless ghosts haunting the night?</i>

    All of a sudden, Xu Qing got the feeling that the golden crow¡¯s dragon chariot that he had been looking for to no avail... wasn¡¯t so out of reach after all! After mulling the matter over, he kept his god perception locked onto the severed hand, but spoke with his physical mouth back on the altar formation.

    ¡°Grand-Master, I¡¯m not very familiar with all the legends surrounding the Forbidden Sea. You know a lot more than me, sir. Is there any chance you¡¯ve heard a story about a hand? Something connected to the countless ghosts haunting the night? Maybe something about a hand that can control the sound emitted by the countless ghosts?¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter looked surprised and thoughtful, but it was Guru Easher who responded.

    ¡°I know even more than him about Forbidden Sea legends,¡± she said. ¡°What you¡¯re describing actually conforms perfectly to one particr story. Supposedly, the phenomenon of countless ghosts haunting the night originates with the golden crow sun.

    ¡°As the story goes, before perishing, the golden crow would ride a dragon chariot through the canopy of heaven, turning into a sun that shone down on Revered Ancient. When it was night again, the musicians in the sun¡¯s pce would y a song called Natural Sounds Wee the Moon, which would call out to the moon to rise.

    ¡°When the broken face came, the golden crow perished. The Endless Sea became the Forbidden Sea, and the countless movements in the symphony became sinister. The musicians who yed that most beautiful of music... also died. All that survived of those musicians was a hand that fell into the Forbidden Sea. Xu Qing, did you... actually find the hand from that legend?¡±

    1. Yanyan wasst mentioned in <u>chapter 816</u>, andst appeared onscreen in <u>chapter 726</u>. ?

    2. Xu Qing recalled the description from the sea annals in <u>chapter 82</u> and <u>173</u>. ?

 Chapter 974: Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon (1)

    Chapter 974: Natural Sounds Wee the Moon (1)

    Guru Easher¡¯s words drifted out over the formation.

    To Xu Qing, the raspy sound of her voice seemed to carry with it the passage of ancient time. Her exnation of countless ghosts haunting the night was definitely more detailed than what he¡¯d learned before. Combined with what he could observe with his god perception, Xu Qing was certain... that the delicate but rotting hand was most likely the hand of the musician who had yed Natural Sounds Wee the Moon in the golden crow¡¯s pce. It was also critical to finding the dragon chariot.

    <em>But why is Yanyan tangled up with it...?</em>

    Xu Qing looked at Yanyan. Her special constitution ensured that her body was free from mutagen. However, Xu Qing couldn¡¯t quite figure out what about her constitution produced that result.

    <em>I bet Master could. After he¡¯s out of seclusion, I¡¯ll ask him. Maybe he already knows why Yanyan¡¯s constitution is special.</em>

    After some thought, a look of determination settled on his face. Regardless of the reason, dealing with the hand would resolve the karma that hade to exist with it and Yanyan. That was the most important thing to deal with right now.

    Therefore, he didn¡¯t hesitate about what to do next. All of a sudden, the ruins in that dark section of the sea floor with innumerable evil ghosts... suddenly went silent. It wasn¡¯t that the ghosts had ceased their howling. Instead, Xu Qing had taken away all the sound from that area!

    It became his power, his killing intent, and his weapon! It turned into a gruish attack that he sent with crushing force toward the delicate hand. The noiseless seafloor went wild, as if it had been struck by a tempest. Terrifying mightiness surged from the seafloor to the surface, causing huge waves to break out.

    And yet, there was no noise. There was a new master controlling all the sound in the area. The godly authority of sound was fully unleashed.But as the strange scene developed, the eye on the hand snapped open. The pupil was crimson and radiated endless ferocity. At the same time, the fingers started moving even more frantically as if to pluck the strings of a musical instrument. Something simr to the godly authority of sound erupted from the hand.

    This was different from any of the godly entities Xu Qing had encountered before. Normally speaking, godly entities had godliness and godsource, but no godly authority. In fact, of all the godly entities Xu Qing had killed recently in the Forbidden Sea, he hadn¡¯t seen any godly authority at all. But, contrary to expectation, this severed hand did have godly authority!

    An instantter, the evil ghosts whose sound Xu Qing had taken all shivered. Then, they recovered from their previous state, and the quiet seafloor suddenly exploded with the sound of piercing, ghostly shrieks. And that turned into a power that mmed into the attack Xu Qing had just unleashed.

    Explosive sound swept out across the seafloor, but then, only a momentter, everything went silent again. The sound went back and forth in that manner. Everything got loud, then everything wentpletely silent, as the hand and Xu Qing struggled back and forth.

    It was the same with the evil ghosts. Their screaming came and went in jerks and fits.

    This was a battle over godly authority!

    Godly battles like this were rare, and when they did ur among gods, they usually ended only with the death of one party. When two gods encountered each other who had the same type of godly authority, then the result would be a struggle over that authority.

    And in this case, that struggle was over the sound of the evil ghosts. As the fighting went back and forth, many of the evil ghosts couldn¡¯t sustain the force, and exploded.

    Overall, the power of the sound seized by Xu Qing was increasing. His godly authority had been acquired in an orthodox way, partly by enlightenment and partly because of the vestige in his fleshly body¡¯s void soil. In terms of personhood, it was at the peak. As a result, he had the advantage in this struggle.

    However, though Xu Qing had the upper hand, the delicate hand¡¯s eye, seeing that it was in a deadly situation, grew more vicious. Then veins snaked out from the blood-red pupil, filling the area around it until a blood-red tear formed.

    When the tear appeared, the surrounding evil ghosts shivered, turned, and focused on Xu Qing. Then, without any pause, and without any concern that some of them instantly self-detonated as a result, they howled madly. But, just like that, the sound was taken away.

    Yet again, noiselessness turned into noise, and a soundwave erupted from the blood-red tear. It turned into a blood-colored meteor that shot from the seafloor through the water, out of the surface, and toward Xu Qing in Easher Isle. The entire ind started shaking as a result.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    After having done that, the vicious eye seemed to weaken. Spinning, it swept up the thousands and thousands of surrounding ghosts and prepared to flee into the depths of the sea.

    The cultivators on Easher Isle saw the blood-colored meteor rocketing toward them, and were rocked down to the level of their souls. Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Easher had it a bit better off, but they were still shaken internally.

    Xu Qing looked up at the meteor. This counter attack was by no means unexpected. Given what he knew about this severed hand, he had been prepared all along to deal with the authority of sound. After all, this hand once belonged to a musician of the sun. He had no idea why the hand of this musician survived the arrival of the broken face, nor who was controlling its will. Was it the will of the original musician, or was it some other discarnate will that had taken over?

    Regardless, he had been waiting for the counterattack. He stepped up into the air, and an instantter was in front of the blood-colored meteor. There, he extended his right hand toward the night sky. There was no sun in that sky.

    But that didn¡¯t mean there was no sun in existence. It just meant that the sun that covered this area wasn¡¯t around. In Revered Ancient, there was always a sun shining somewhere.

    The Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic was capable of taking the light of more than just the sun above the head of the person using the technique. An instantter, drifting bits of dawn light floated through the night to gather around Xu Qing. The night turned bright.

    Xu Qing was like an early morning sun, hovering between heaven and earth, casting light out into the cosmos. Extending his hand, he pushed toward the blood-colored meteor.

    Blinding light ripped apart the night and the meteor. They were erased. Xu Qing devoured the darkness. He devoured the blood-colored light. Then, scintiting light surrounded him as he shot down into the Forbidden Sea.

    The cultivators on Easher Isle who saw this happen were shaken to the core of their being. To them, it looked as if an actual sun had dropped into the sea. It was like a legend ying out in real life!

    ¡°The golden crow perished,¡± Guru Easher said quietly, ¡°and the countless movements became sinister. You and I both know that the legend is probably true. Given what we just saw... I¡¯d say it¡¯s absolutely certain it did. And this Xu Qing... I just have to wonder how strong he¡¯ll get eventually.¡±

    Sir Bloodsmelter cleared his throat. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how strong he¡¯ll get. But what won¡¯t change throughout all the eons is that... he¡¯s my grand-apprentice!¡±

    Guru Easher looked quietly at Yanyan, whose infatuated eyes were fixed on the spot where Xu Qing had just disappeared. Then she said, ¡°You haven¡¯t visited with your grand-apprentice very often. Next time you¡¯re here, why not invite him back...?¡±

    The sky over Easher Isle was once again dark, with only a bit of flickering moonlight illuminating the scene below. There was also a bit of shimmering lighting from the water below, although it soon faded away.

    ***

    Xu Qing was in the form of a sun as he sped along the seafloor, casting light in all directions. He was pursuing the severed hand! Along the way, he converted all sound into speed. There was a moon just barely visible in the sky, and perhaps because of his influence, it was violet, causing violet moonlight to shine down into the water.

    Numerous vicious sea beasts who were too slow to get out of the way exploded. Their blood also boosted his speed. Sadly, it was a day of misfortune for those beasts.

    It was also a day of misfortune for the hand and the ghosts that Xu Qing pursued. However, what was misfortune for them was good fortune for Xu Qing. He continued to elerate.

    Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn. Then, in a location on the seafloor covered by ck, epassing seaweed, the fleeing hand experienced doomsday. Dazzling brightness filled the area. Rumbling sounds could be heard as immortal light spread everywhere, filled with good fortune and the effects of the blood.

    Then Xu Qing stepped onto the scene, right into the path of the hand and the ghosts. The Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist gave rise to a tempest on the seafloor, bolstered by the same gruish attack as before. At the same time, the violet moonlight that reached the seafloor became like a sealing power.

    However, the severed hand was extraordinary. In that moment of incredible danger, its eye turned ruthless and cold, and the fingers began to pluck invisible musical strings. Around it, the countless ghosts went mad and began devouring each other. In an instant, the thousands of evil ghosts ravenously reduced their own number down to... exactly one hundred![1]

    The appearance of the one hundred ghosts also changed. They became more vicious as they arrayed themselves in an orderly fashion and began to howl in a way that was unlike what Xu Qing had heard before. It was the same sound from ¡°countless ghosts haunting the night,¡± but it was moreplete!

    The moment the sound spread out, the ocean turned cold and sinister. Xu Qing¡¯s violet moon godly authority shivered and began to move in that direction, as if the song had an indescribable power over the moon.

    Then, gradually, an image appeared within the ghostly sound. A rotting moon began to rise up from the seafloor, upon which was visible a face¡­.

    1. When the ¡°countless ghosts haunt the night¡± appeared about 900 chapters ago, this chapter was not written. And thus we have another wordy that I was unaware of. Literally, the Chinese is ¡°one hundred ghosts haunt the night.¡± However, because the descriptions earlier in the story specifically said there were ¡°countless¡± ghosts, I interpreted the ¡°one hundred¡± character in that way. That character can indeed be interpreted to mean arge, unknown number. Even in thest chapter and this one, it uses the specific term for ¡°innumerable, uncountable¡± to describe how many ghosts there are. It also uses the more specific term ¡°thousands.¡± Now we have this part, in which there is a y on words with ¡°one hundred.¡± If I had known about this back in the beginning of the story, I¡¯m not sure what I would have done. That said, I¡¯m going to keep it as is. Just know that there is some wordy here between the ¡°hundred¡± and ¡°countless.¡± ?

 Chapter 975: Play the Music

    Chapter 975: y the Music

    Dawn would soone to the Forbidden Sea, but right now it was still night. Darkness covered everything, like a hidden god sending godly power out. The water was ck, as was the sky. In the end, it was hard to tell if that god was overhead or under the surface of the water. Was the color of the sea invading the sky, or was the sky crushing down into the sea?

    In the end, it didn¡¯t matter to the various species that inhabited the Forbidden Sea. Day and night were the same to them.

    On the surface of the ck water, boats could be seen bobbing up and down. In the sky, birds soared through the darkness hunting for food.

    And on the seafloor... the severed hand was moving at top speed. asionally, it was clearly visible, and asionally it would be a blur. Whenever that transition urred, it was when the hand was teleporting a great distance. Any sea beasts it encountered would wither in an instant as their godliness and life force was absorbed like nutrients by the hand, lending it additional speed.

    Additionally, everywhere it went, everything went silent. All sound was suppressed by its godly authority. It knew that though sound was its own weapon, it was also the weapon of its pursuer.

    Unfortunately... no matter how much it elerated, that gruish pursuer who could take away sound was always there. No efforts to shake him amounted to anything. And the distance between the two of them was decreasing. That was because Xu Qing wasn¡¯t just using the godly authority of sound to boost his speed.

    Misfortune could aid him as well, plus the violet moon. In fact... the mutagen in the Forbidden Sea itself was an aid to Xu Qing, at least to a certain extent. His fleshly body was terrifyingly shocking.

    Therefore... after another incense stick¡¯s worth of time passed, the sea water around the severed hand suddenly filled with vines made of water. The vines swept out noiselessly to block the hand¡¯s path forward, and its path of retreat. The hand turned to flee in a different direction, but the water vines shifted to block that route as well. In the blink of an eye, every path was obstructed. Endless vines made of water appeared, encircling the severed hand and fusing with each other.

    The hand tried to break free, but there was no end to the vines, and eventually it had to stop moving. As a result, it was quickly surrounded by so many vines of water that it became like a cocoon on the seafloor.A sealing.

    That onlysted for a few breaths of time before the hand finally managed to break free. The vine cocoon copsed, and a rumbling sound echoed out for the first time during the chase. The boom onlysted for a moment before the hand took the sound away. Unfortunately, it was toote.

    Almost as soon as the rumbling urred, Xu Qing stepped out of the sound in bizarre fashion to stand right in front of the severed hand.

    The sageheaven god vine emerged from the vines of water, sending out emotional fluctuations to indicate that it had seeded. Then it became another host of water vines that sealed the hand. Little Shadow wasn¡¯t willing to fall behind, so it spread out to cover the seafloor in all directions. The poison of Xu Qing¡¯s god curse then emerged, making the seawater even cker than before.

    Having aplished these things, Xu Qing looked at the hand with gleaming eyes. This hand was critical to his goal of calling to the dragon chariot.

    Stepping forward, he stomped his foot onto the hand. As he did, the hand¡¯s eye shed with red light, and ghostly figures flew out into the open. Once again, the howl of evil ghosts echoed out. At any moment, deadly music would erupt.

    ¡°I¡¯m the only one allowed to make any sound here,¡± Xu Qing said calmly. The moment he spoke the words, the howling of the ghosts stopped. The sound had been taken away and crushed.

    The severed hand shivered. Then its eye became even redder than before, and a teardrop of blood emerged from it. Terrifying might pulsed off it as it shot toward Xu Qing like an arrow. The teardrop caused the water to boil around it as it bore down on him with venom, madness, and boundless hatred.

    Xu Qing shimmered with light and prepared to unleash immortal light. But then his eyes glittered. Dispelling the light, he advanced, allowing the red teardrop to m into him. It made no sound.

    Xu Qing shivered as a stabbing sensation filled him. But nothing else happened. Nothing short of an Imperial Sovereign could do anything to shake his fleshly body, or make him feel like his soul and body were being separated.

    He lifted his foot and again stomped down onto the severed hand. He let the red light surge, and allowed the evil ghosts to appear around him. He even let the hand perform an incantation gesture with its fingers.

    Clenching his right hand into a fist, heunched a fist strike. The fist seemed Undying, but the reality was that Xu Qing had altered it. By adding Within the Nine Springs, which Master Seventh had taught him, it made the blow even more of abination of illusory and corporeal. As before, there was no sound.[1]

    The hand tumbled backward. The reality was that its battle prowess wasn¡¯t on the same level as its sound-maniption powers. Using <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em> to summon the rotting moon was the most formidable thing it could do.

    Maybe if Xu Qing didn¡¯t have the godly authority of sound, then facing this gruish severed hand would have been very challenging, and would have required much more brute force. But right now... the hand was like a toothless snake. It was being forced to use methods it wasn¡¯t skilled at to engage inbat.

    It was easy to predict who would win and who would lose. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing¡¯s powerful fleshly body and sound-seizing abilities overwhelmed anything the severed hand could produce. He just kept advancing andunching blows.

    The severed hand was being knocked back over and over again. Its evil ghosts were constantly being dispersed, its tears were being shattered, and everything it did failed. As it fell back, it got dimmer and dimmer, and the eye on the palm continuously seemed like it would copse. Its aura was getting weak.

    Eventually, Xu Qing¡¯s hand stopped only a few inches from the eye itself. He didn¡¯tplete the blow. He didn¡¯t want to wipe the severed hand out of existence. He wanted to control it. After damaging it severely enough, he sent his god perception out, surrounded it, and then suppressed it fully, from godsource to god perception to godly authority to personhood.

    The hand shivered. Clearly, it had been fully suppressed. However, the blood-red eye in the palm was ring at him madly. All of a sudden, fluctuations of self-detonation began to rise up in it.

    That was not the result Xu Qing wanted.

    The moment the hand revealed that it nned to self-detonate, Xu Qing sent out the sound of the golden crow. It was a crisp, clear sound that echoed in all directions. A ck sea of mes sprang up with Xu Qing at the center.

    Within that sea of fire was the golden crow, which circled about over Xu Qing¡¯s head. It had a ck body surrounded by ck fire, as well as countless feathers that were like fiery snowkes. The ck color it emanated was starkly beautiful. The severed hand trembled.

    The golden crow circled one more time, then flew to Xu Qing and fused into him, bing an imperial robe and crown. As of this moment, Xu Qing stood there looking very much like the young man who was the golden crow. He even had the same aura!

    The severed hand¡¯s eye saw all of this and shook even harder. It was even possible to hear a piercing chanting from it. This time, Xu Qing permitted the sound toe out.

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t care exactly what it was trying to say. He just looked at the hand and calmly said, ¡°y the music.¡±

    He backed up themand with a st of god perception. This time, the addition of the golden crow resulted in the hand¡¯s struggles growing weaker.

    Next, Xu Qingpletely enveloped the hand with god perception. The eye in the palm closed. Blood oozed out of the severed part of the hand, swirling around until it formed a shadowy figure.

    It was a woman. She wore a white robe and had her head bowed so that her facial features weren¡¯t possible to make out. In her arms she held a zither with its strings severed. The only part that was crystal clear was the right hand, the fingers of which were moving rapidly over the formless zither.

    Music drifted out. <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em>. It was the real version of the song. Back when Xu Qing changed the howling into the real <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em>, it was like this. But this version was different substructurally.

    On the surface, dawn wasing, and the darkness of night was disappearing. Normally speaking, sunlight should have been spreading. But strangely, it waste.

    Deep down on the seafloor, as the musician yed her music, waves kicked up on the surface of the Forbidden Sea. It was almost as if something was about to emerge from the water.

    Eventually, an illusory rotting moon appeared. Sh¨¥ rose from the seafloor, broke the surface of the water, and in the moment that the sun should have risen, reced the sun to shine down on all living things. It looked as if the face of the young woman would soon open h¨¥r eyes.

    Unfortunately, the moon that would normally have ascended into Revered Ancient¡¯s canopy of heaven upon the ying of Natural Sounds Wee the Moon had long since perished. That moon only existed in times past, and the version here was just a projection. Sh¨¥ could not truly rise into the sky. This moon would eventually disappear as surely as a popped bubble. The eyes that opened would eventually close.

    Before it disappeared, though, a soft voice echoed out, speaking to the sun that was about to rise.

    ¡°Brother....¡±[2]

    The voice echoed out of time and into the Forbidden Sea, and was carried by the sea breeze to the outer sea¡­.

    ***

    In the inky waters of the outer sea, where the seafloor was much more terrifying than the inner sea, there was a giant slowly walking forward. Its footsteps thumped loudly through the water. It had a corroded chain draped over its shoulder, on the other end of which... was a rundown bronze chariot.

    The chariot suddenly trembled and stopped moving, and no matter how the giant pulled it, it wouldn¡¯t budge. Inside the chariot was carved the golden crow¡¯s magic, which currently glittered with shining light. The magical symbols rippled and flowed, eventually turning into a golden crow. The crow¡¯s eyes opened and shifted to look toward the inner sea. Eventually... the crow faded away.

    As for the giant, it shifted directions. Instead of continuing into the depths of the outer sea to find a sleeping spot, it started dragging the bronze dragon chariot... toward the inner sea. As it moved, huge waves rolled out over the surface of the sea, carrying with them the sound of breathing.

    ***

    The breathing echoed into the inner sea.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Xu Qing sat cross-legged on the seafloor, meditating. In front of him was the severed hand embodied as the musician, still ying <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em>. The music was elegant and soul-stirring.

    As Xu Qing listened, he could sense that his godly authority of sound was more dazzling than ever. At the same time, he felt a sensation of regret within the music as the rotting moon faded away.

    Time passed. In the blink of an eye, more than half a month went by.

    During those twenty days, Xu Qing remained in ce on the seafloor. <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em> didn¡¯t y continuously. Instead, the music drifted out every day when the sun set. It happened over and over again.

    Eventually, Xu Qing could sense that the water was changing. It was colder than before, and the currents were stronger. It seemed like some colossal entity was approaching. When that happened, he knew that he had seeded. The bronze dragon chariot was approaching from some unknown direction.

    Xu Qing kept waiting patiently.

    In contrast, Little Shadow was getting very anxious. When the god vine showed up, it sensed danger. When the broken hand showed up, that sensation grew more intense. Therefore, it took the initiative to emit some crunching sounds during the daytime whenever <em>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</em> wasn¡¯t ying.

    Seven more days passed.

    ***

    As the temperature dropped and the waves grew bigger, organizations that operated in the area could sense that something was happening. For safety¡¯s sake, most of them refrained from going out onto the open sea.

    And yet... there are some types of danger that wille whether or not you try to avoid them....

    There was a species called the Seaspirits who lived on a specific ind in the Forbidden Sea. They had a poption of only a few thousand, which meant that they had no other option than to be a subsidiary species to one of therger species on one of therger inds. At the moment, the fire of catastrophe was burning on their ind.

    The fire was red. Blood stained the ancestralnd of their species. Corpses of their species were piled everywhere. They included men and women, old and young. There were even newborn infants among them. All were dead.

    The son of Floating Fiend from the Vivifiend holynd sat on a stone hut, enjoying the scent of blood in the air.

    ¡°Smells lovely,¡± he said.

    His nine dao protectors were currently extracting the hearts from all the corpses. Seaspirit hearts came in the form of a type of crystal. The Vivifiends had marked that crystal as an excellent material, and a few thousand would be worth quite a hefty sum. Before long, the crystals had all been collected. Fire raged, and the entire area crumbled into ash. No evidence was left behind.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son stood, took out a map to check where the next set of materials could be obtained. That was when his palm suddenly flickered. He looked at it, and his eyes shed aggressively, all while a smile broke out on his face.

    ¡°That fast? I already found the killer? Well, let¡¯s go take a look. I¡¯m curious what he looks like.¡±

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son smiled, stood, and headed over the horizon. His nine dao protectors followed wordlessly.

    The wind grew stronger.

    1. Xu Qing got Within the Nine Springs in chapter 217. It was previously mentioned in chapter 809, but before then, it hadn¡¯t been used since chapter 417. ?

    2. The word spoken here is an imperial form of address, indicating that both the speaker and the person being spoken to, the brother, are members of the imperial family. He could be a prince or an actual emperor, that much is not clear just from the form of address. In the ¡®imperial capital¡¯ arc, the imperial family members would often address each other in this manner. ?

 Chapter 976: I Changed My Mind

    <h4>Chapter 976: I Changed My Mind</h4>

    The wind blew from the outer sea. The current came from the same direction, causing waves to roll to the inner sea.

    A giant strode expressionlessly across the seafloor. Every step caused massive ripples to spread out in all directions. Even huge undersea mountains posed no obstacle. Wherever it went, everything was crushed. Behind it, the bronze dragon chariot was simrly unstoppable.

    The giant was getting closer and closer to Xu Qing. It emanated terrifying pressure and a shocking aura, except it wasn¡¯t detectable by just anyone. Only someone connected to it by karma would be able to.

    Little Shadow trembled, but the god vine didn¡¯t look any differentpared to usual.

    Xu Qing opened his eyes and turned to look off into the distance. He had sensed the aura of the dragon chariot. He already had some ideas of how to get onto the chariot and have it fly along the same route that the golden crow had once taken through the sky. He had analyzed each possibility thoroughly, and was ready to adjust his actions in an instant to improve his chances of sess.

    At this point, he felt that his chances of sess were at about seventy percent or higher. However... this was the golden crow¡¯s dragon chariot, plus, the giant pulling it was extremely terrifying, as he had personally experienced. Granted, his fleshly body was very powerful now, but he still wasn¡¯t going to take the giant lightly.

    For the better part of the month that had passed, he had been making preparations on the seafloor. Now all he needed to do was wait for the giant to appear.

    <i>That said, to ensure everything goes smoothly, I should get rid of any prying eyes before the chariot arrives.</i>

    Looking away from the direction of the chariot, he lifted his right hand and pointed out with his finger. The water about 3,000 meters away suddenly exploded with sound.

    At the same time, a powerful bacsh attack built up in the same area. A tempest erupted, causing huge waves to break out on the surface. A domineering aura rose up, filled with disdain as it rushed toward Xu Qing. Water raged everywhere, along with a deafening roar as a furious sea dragon appeared. In the blink of an eye, it was about to m into Xu Qing.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was the same as ever, and in fact, he didn¡¯t even look at the sea dragon. He just flicked his finger.

    ¡°Screw off!¡± he said. A majestic might filled the area for 3,000 meters around him. It became a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, apanied by countless evil ghosts, all of them releasing ear-piercing howls.

    An explosion of sound swept out in all directions. The sea dragon was hit first, and it exploded, revealing four individuals within. A few hundred meters behind Xu Qing, the water seethed as an additional three figures were forced out into the open. To his left, about 1,500 meters away, the water shattered, and two attackers were revealed.

    A total of nine figures were now out in the open, all of them ring at Xu Qing as they pulsed with Smoldering God cultivation base power. Their eyes were cold, but after their gazes locked onto him, odd expressions overtook their faces. Then they exchanged nces as they apparently realized who Xu Qing was.

    That was when the sound of pping could be heard from off in the distance.

    ¡°Excellent! So you really were able to kill our scouts? Your setup here is very interesting, as is that severed hand. Could it be that you¡¯re on a fishing expedition? You know, you look somewhat familiar. I feel like I¡¯ve seen you in the jade slips back home.¡±

    Another person appeared some 3,000 meters away. He was none other than the son of Floating Fiend. Instead of personally approaching, he had sent his dao protectors to get close. Now, he was looking at Xu Qing with a curious look in his eyes.

    Xu Qing took it all in without the tiniest change to his facial expression. He actually wasn¡¯t surprised at all. He just looked coldly at the young man off in the distance. He knew immediately that these were cultivators from the Vivifiend holynd.

    He didn¡¯t have a good impression of their holynd, but given that there was tenuous peace with them, he simply said, ¡°You have three breaths of time to leave this ce!¡±

    ¡°Three breaths of time?¡± Floating Fiend¡¯s son looked at him with glittering eyes. He really did recognize Xu Qing. If he was dealing with any other human, he wouldn¡¯t have hesitated. He would have killed them immediately. But because of who Xu Qing was... he did hesitate.

    It was the same with the nine dao protectors. They all had read reports with descriptions of Xu Qing, and thus, they didn¡¯t make any moves. If they did make a move, it would be a big deal, and it would be a vition of the orders governing their species.

    The young man studied Xu Qing for a moment, then turned to leave. He was a silkpants, but he also knew that there were some things that even he would be punished for doing. However, just before leaving, he seemed to notice something. His gaze shifted from Xu Qing¡¯s face to his fleshly body. Then his nose twitched and his eyes widened. He even started breathing a bit more heavily.

    ¡°Smells lovely.... That body of yours....¡± The young man looked visibly moved.

    It wasn¡¯t just him. The cultivators Xu Qing had forced out into the open were also looking at him with surprised facial expressions. Some of them even licked their lips greedily.

    ¡°That¡¯s the aroma of immortal mercury!¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s mixed with... the flesh of a god!!¡±

    ¡°What level of god though...?¡±

    ¡°Hold on, there are also cultivator lineaments in addition to the godly aura!¡±

    The young man¡¯s heart was racing. As a Vivifiend, he had been stealing the organs and fleshly bodies from other species to graft onto himself since he was very young. That practice affected the Vivifiend life force, substructure, and cultivation base. That was the foundation of their entire species.

    And Xu Qing¡¯s body was something he had never seen the likes of before. In fact, their entire species had never seen anything like it, whether in the holynds or Revered Ancient, not even in historical records. It surpassed anything imaginable.

    At the same time, the young man felt an instinct from his innate ability, filling him with intense longing. That longing was like an unstoppable hunger that overtook his mind and told him that he absolutely had to have that body!

    The nine dao protectors were experiencing a simr reaction. They literally couldn¡¯t stop from breathing heavily and staring fixedly at Xu Qing as if they wanted to eat him alive.

    But then Floating Fiend¡¯s son narrowed his eyes and managed to suppress his greed. He smiled.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize it was <i>you</i> here, Region Lord Xu. Sorry to bother you. We¡¯ll leave now.¡±

    Licking his lips, he shot a nce at his dao protectors, then backed away. Their real n was to search the surroundings to confirm that Xu Qing was actually alone, then send a message back to their holynd to ask for further instructions.

    Unfortunately for them, Xu Qing was no fool, and could tell what was on their mind.

    Today was going to involve some killing.

    Eyes turning cold, he said, ¡°I changed my mind.¡±

    And then sound exploded!

 Chapter 977: 500 Kilometers of Hell

    <h4>Chapter 977: 500 Kilometers of Hell</h4>

    Xu Qing''s voice swept out across the seafloor. The noise of the sea current echoed in all directions. There was also the sound of fish swimming nearby, and the cry of the sea beasts in the depths.... The heartbeats of Floating Fiend¡¯s son and his nine dao protectors, as well as the sound of the blood pumping through their veins, all mixed together.

    Combined with <i>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</i> being yed by the severed hand, it created an astonishing tune that surged everywhere.

    Where it went, it killed in gruish fashion. Terrifying power caused the water to seethe violently. Mountain-toppling, sea-draining force crushed down on everything.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son and his dao protectors were astonished, and immediately tapped into their divine abilities. In an instant, their flesh expanded, and they grewrger. That was their innate ability, in which they could take the flesh and blood of all the other species they had stolen in their lives and unleash it at the same time. It was like something that a freakish monster would do, and indeed, they looked like freakish monsters. That was how they attempted to fight back against the tempest created by Xu Qing¡¯s godly authority of sound.

    Intense rumbling could be heard as the power of sound crushed everything in its path. The Vivifiends were sent tumbling as a huge vortex formed. It was a 500-kilometer vortex that sealed and cut off the outside. From a distance, it was like a gigantic orb of sound.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    The sound outside of that area was being sucked in, causing the tempest inside to grow more intense.

    When Xu Qing chose to kill, it happened, no matter what.

    As the astonished Vivifiend cultivators fought back, Xu Qing stood, his facepletely expressionless. His eyes were cold, though. Within that 500-kilometer area, the Vivifiend cultivators were being assailed by the sound tempest, and they werepletely visible to Xu Qing via his god perception. This was <i>his</i> battleground. He had prepared this to use on the giant, but the giant had not yet arrived, so the Vivifiends got to experience it first.

    Xu Qing hadn¡¯t nned to do any killing. But the Vivifiends clearly had malicious intentions, and therefore, ording to the principles Xu Qing lived by, they had to die. As the sound authority raged, Xu Qing walked forward. He stepped into the sound, disappeared, and then reappeared... within the sound, right in front of one of the dao protectors.

    This individual didn¡¯t look like a human at all. He was several dozen meters tall, with four arms. He was extremely skinny with a very small head. What was really bizarre was that the skin on his chest was wriggling. He looked very monstrous. As he performed an incantation gesture, he pulsed with intense energy and blood, which caused his chest to wriggle even more violently. Unexpectedly, as he backed up, he sucked in the sound around him.

    This Vivifiend was extraordinary. Although, to be more precise, it was his heart that was extraordinary, as it could devour sound.

    The moment Xu Qing appeared in front of him, he realized it. Looking up, he lunged at Xu Qing with all four of his arms.

    The only thing waiting for him was a cold snort. The sound of it exploded in all directions, bing the power of sound authority. It surrounded the cultivator, making a smaller sound orb within the huge 500-kilometer sound orb. Within it, wild fluctuations erupted as sounds shed with each other, creating a resonance that caused the Vivifiend¡¯s face to fall.

    When the critical moment arrived, he didn¡¯t say a word. Three major worlds appeared around him. At the same time, his chest split open to reveal a pure white heart! The heart was covered with ancient symbols, and as soon as it was in the open, it turned into a vortex that violently sucked in all of the nearby sound. At the same time, a devilish will swept out.

    It was an extraordinary heart called the Nine Wills Devil Heart, which came from a very mysterious species that lived out in the starry sky. Members of the species were born as Nascent Soul cultivators, and when they grew up, they reached the peak of Smoldering God. Years ago, this Vivifiend cultivator expended immense effort to get this heart. As a result, he was able to quickly rise to prominence in the Vivifiend holynd. He had started out as amoner, but now here he was, dao protector to Floating Fiend¡¯s son.

    Knowing it was a life-or-death moment, he wasn¡¯t holding anything back, and was tapping into the power of the heart to try to turn things around.

    However... despite the heart being extraordinary, he was facing Xu Qing, who was even more extraordinary.

    That was especially true considering that this battlefield had been specially prepared by Xu Qing to deal with the giant and the dragon chariot. He had hidden a lot of sound in the area, and now he was using it to terrifying and deadly effect. And more sound was being added into the mix every moment.

    The extraordinary heart onlysted an instant before it couldn¡¯t sustain so much sound. After trembling in resonance with the sound orb, it shattered. A scream rang out, the sound of which became a sound that shed through the Vivifiend cultivator. Blood sprayed as he was killed in body and soul.

    Xu Qing, in the form of the golden crow, flew out of the crumbling sound orb. The golden crow shimmered and turned into a ck spear, which then shot toward the next Vivifiend cultivator. It was a movement that couldn¡¯t truly be described in terms of ¡®speed.¡¯ Wherever sound was, he could appear. Something like that was perfectly suited to ughter. The spear pierced through the air to appear in front of the second Vivifiend and stab viciously toward him.

    Strength of cultivation base was only a foundational requirement to be a dao protector of the son of Floating Fiend. More importantly was potential. These so-called dao protectors were expected to do more than just keep Floating Fiend¡¯s son safe. Their mission was to grow along with him. ording to the ranking system in their species, after Floating Fiend became an Imperial Sovereign, his son would be a junior chief. The dao protectors were supposed to apany him on his path to bing the actual chief. In other words, he was to eventually be the leader of the whole species.

    That was why, though the first dao protector only had three worlds, to Xu Qing, he felt more like someone at the peak of four worlds.

    In many respects, their status and position was vastly higher than the two scouts from their species that Xu Qing had killed earlier. The scouts sent to Revered Ancient by the holynds could vary greatly in strength depending on the holynd they came from.

    This dao protector was clearly no simpleton. As the spear approached, his eyes shone brightly. Ignoring the injuries being inflicted to him by the deadly sound around him, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture.

    In the blink of an eye, he vanished. He had merged with the surrounding water!

    The fleshly body he was using came from a species in the starry sky that lived mostly in the water. He hadn¡¯t merged with the water before because he wanted to keep that ability as a trump card to use in a critical moment. Seeing that Xu Qing was trying to kill him, he didn¡¯t hesitate to use that ability. The sea around him suddenly surged with a tideflow power that knocked the spear down. Then, what remained of the power formed restraints that bound it in ce.

    Next, he cast his senses out to notify the other dao protectors via divine will.

    <i>¡°Lord of a region? So what!¡±</i>

    At the same time, the other Vivifiend cultivators were taking actions to fight back against the sound and hopefully free themselves. Though their attempts were extraordinary, they were all injured in various ways.

    However... the son of Floating Fiend was the child of a quasi-Imperial Sovereign, and thus, his methods were different from all the others. At a critical moment, he unleashed... the Grand Emperor treasure in his right palm that could stitch karma. It turned into a blood-red streak that zipped around him.

    It could stitch karma, amend fate, and determine the movement of the sound authority. It could cause magicalws to appear and bring naturalws. At the same time...bined with the signal being sent out by the dao protector who had merged with the sea, it could point right toward Xu Qing!

    If sound were likened to ice, then this needle was likeva. Where it went, the sound authority had to retreat.

    ¡°Follow the needle to Xu Qing and kill him!¡±

    As his orders echoed out, the needle glowed red and shot toward Xu Qing¡¯s location. The Vivifiends who had previously scattered all sensed it, and followed the path of the needle to also get close to Xu Qing.

    However, even as they were following that track, the dao protector who had merged with the water was stunned to find that although his tideflow power had locked down the ck spear, that spear... disappeared. Then Xu Qing appeared as if nothing had ever happened.

    The tideflow seemed like nothing more than a gentle breeze that stirred his hair a bit. It didn¡¯t do anything to his fleshly body. He was unable to do anything to stop Xu Qing from walking right up to where he was merged with the water. And before he could retreat, Xu Qing¡¯s sound authority erupted.

    A boom echoed out as the water in that spot was wiped out of existence. He had fused and would never unfuse. He was dead, interred in the water, and to some extent, that was like a return.

    A boom echoed out as Xu Qing moved on.

    At that same moment, misfortune... spread into the 500-kilometer area,bining with the sound authority to produce gruish results.

    When the other dao protectors sensed what had happened, they were shocked.

    The ughter continued. The death of the second dao protector bolstered the sound authority. A few dozen kilometers away was the third dao protector. Even as he heard what happened, a host of innumerable soul threads appeared to him. They formed into a major world that rumbled right toward him.

    Though astonished, he didn¡¯t hesitate to act. A host of bumps appeared all over him, and then started exploding, releasing numerous ck beetles. Astonishingly, his body was made of them! All of them scattered and headed in different directions.

    Seeing that, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes gleamed quizzically. He was really learning a lot about Vivifiend cultivators thanks to this encounter. They were really a strange species.

    Xu Qing¡¯s major world trembled, then copsed, turning into 50,000,000 soul threads that spread rapidly. Sound authority was the guide. Misfortune was the lock. And the soul threads gave chase to deliver the mortal blow. The result was foreordained, and thus, Xu Qing turned to look in a different direction.

    For the most part, the surviving dao protectors had met up with their lord. There was only one who was alone, and Xu Qing was looking in his direction. It seemed like he was on his own intentionally.

    Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing took a step forward and vanished. When he reappeared, he could see the lone dao protector.

    The dao protector apparently noticed, and turned to face him. As he did so... he transformed. In an instant, he came to look exactly like Xu Qing. It wasn¡¯t just his physical appearance. His aura, his karma, his fate, and everything else about him changed.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you for a long time now,¡± the dao protector said coldly. ¡°Your fate and your karma are now connected to me. Going forward, whatever injuries I sustain, you sustain. If I die, you die.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t say a word in response. He just shook his head. He stepped forward andunched a fist strike thatbined the Undying Emperor¡¯s Fist and Within the Nine Springs. A boom rang out.

    The dao protector didn¡¯t try to avoid the blow. He let it hit him, and then stumbled backward with blood spraying out of his mouth. His expression was cold as he looked at Xu Qing. This move of his had never failed in all the many years he used it.

    And yet, Xu Qingunched a second blow. The water raged.

    More blood sprayed dramatically out of the dao protector¡¯s mouth, and he tumbled backwardpletely out of control. And Xu Qing was striding toward him like a war god, seemingly unfazed in any way. Finally, his face fell. He now realized that this terrifying enemy¡¯s blows were indeed hitting both of them. And yet... although his organs were in great pain, his opponent hardly seemed affected at all.

    ¡°You¡ª¡± Nothing like this had ever happened. The previously supremely confident dao protector now backed up in shock. Sadly for him, it was toote.

    Xu Qing appeared in front of him andunched another punch. Then another and another. In a very short period of time, heunched nine fist strikes.

    Being struck by the nine blows caused the dao protector¡¯s body to simply explode. With a boom, he was destroyed in body and soul. An instantter, his body formed anew, a result of the years of unleashing karmic links.

    But... then the golden crow ate him. Very neat and tidy.

    Xu Qing stood there.

    ¡°You can¡¯t handle my karma,¡± he said coolly. Meanwhile, shrill screams echoed out in the sound orb. The screams came from the countless beetles from the third dao protector. They had been unable to evade the innumerable soul threads. The soul threads devoured them. Very neat and tidy.

    ¡°Only a few more,¡± Xu Qing murmured, his eyes cold as he took a step forward.

    The violet moon rose within the 500-kilometer sound orb. Violet moonlight carried killing intent as it shone down. Everything started to get colder. Taboo poison spread, forming something like a huge eye. The eye opened. It was Hellfei¡¯s eye, and it was looking out at the hell that was the 500-kilometer area on the seafloor.

 Chapter 978: Like a God Descending into Mortal Dust

    <h4>Chapter 978: Like a God Descending into Mortal Dust</h4>

    Xu Qing had led a life in which he was no stranger to ughter. In fact, it had been an instinct from childhood on. He lived in a world in which the weak were the prey of the strong, and he had encountered many, many instances of evil and brutality. If he wanted to keep on living....

    Then he had to resort to ughter. Wipe out the evildoer, and the result was safety for oneself.

    The slums. The scavenger basecamp. Seven Blood Eyes. Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. Sea-Sealing County. Moonrite Region. The imperial capital of humankind. Firemoon territory.... That was the path he had walked. He wasn¡¯t even sure of how many people he had killed. And he had long since stopped using that bamboo slip.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Perhaps it was only the cold wind formed by the bodies of the dead that remembered how many had fallen to him. And that wind was now blowing across the sea where Xu Qing was.

    The wind was a dark current moving along the seafloor. It contained no sound, only death. For example, as the violet moon rose, its moonlight became a host of sharp des that, by the time anyone noticed them, would have their weaknesses exposed to them. And then that person would die.

    The six surviving dao protectors clustered around the son of Floating Fiend were yet again shaken to the core. Moonlight shimmered around them, shattering the sea water, slicing the void, and bringing raging coldness.

    At the same time, taboo poison swelled, filling the water with mutagen and turning into an ambassador of death that could wipe out all life. All living beings were cursed as 500 kilometers of seafloor turned into hell itself.

    And thus....

    The moon sought. The poison invaded.

    All of the dao protectors could sense the moonlight rumbling within them, like sharp des. It was a tempest to assail the soul, something that could strip away their memories and raze their life away.

    One of the dao protectors, a tall, burly man, suddenly screamed in agony as secrets he would never tell to anyone were illuminated by the moonlight and became his greatest weakness. His world became violet. And then the poison answered the call of the moon and exploded within him. In the blink of an eye, the screaming burly man¡¯s body melted into a bloody sludge.

    The other Vivifiend cultivators¡¯ faces fell as intense sensations of deadly crisis filled them. What was especially noteworthy was that the entire region had been sealed, cutting them off from the outside and making any calls for help useless. Add in the fact that four of them were already dead, and it was no surprise the survivors were in a daze.

    When they first spotted Xu Qing earlier, they had believed that they could definitely kill him. But now... things had changed. However, they were all chosen cultivators, so despite the danger, their shock was only temporary, and was not very severe.

    That was especially true of Floating Fiend¡¯s son. He was a silkpants, but he always behaved in a way that was befitting of his status. Despite facing death and having already lost four dao protectors, the killing intent still boiled within him, and he was still thinking perfectly clearly.

    ¡°This part of the sea is obviously home turf for him,¡± he said, speaking out loud and not via projection. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here. Once we¡¯re free, we can report the matter to the holynd. At that point it wouldn¡¯t matter if he had an even higher status than he does. He made the first move, so killing him won¡¯t count as our holynd viting the agreement.¡±

    He knew that Xu Qing could hear him speak, and in fact, wanted him to hear. Along with his dao protectors, he began falling back at top speed. As he fled, he sent his Grand Emperor¡¯s needle out, not off into the distance, but rather, to stitch the local karma together in a way to shatter the moonlight and destroy the taboo poison. What was more, if Xu Qing showed up, he would know immediately.

    The five dao protectors also unleashed various trump cards, activating precious organs and body parts, which they sent to converge around the needle. They were preparing a veryprehensive attack.

    In that manner, time passed. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, they had fled a few hundred kilometers. That was when the needle suddenly vibrated, then rotated to the right and shot off through the sea water.

    ¡°Attack!¡± shouted Floating Fiend¡¯s son. He performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, whereupon the third eye in his forehead opened. A red beam of light shot out, piercing through the water to follow the needle.

    Meanwhile, the five dao protectors all unhesitatingly unleashed attacks.

    Taking in the scene as a whole, the five dao protectors¡¯ energy surged, creating a destructive tempest around them. Within that tempest, it was possible to see a huge smander as well as a gigantic hand shaped like a body. Another was even more gruish, as it was a bloody spear made of flesh. They all looked different, but all were terrifyingly deadly.[1]

    Thebined attack made the target area explode, destroying the water and leaving behind nothing but a void. Prating fluctuations rolled out in all directions. The shock waves created by the divine abilities obscured the area, making it impossible to see what happened. But the Grand Emperor¡¯s needle was returning. On its tip was a drop of blood.

    When Floating Fiend¡¯s son saw the blood, his eyes glittered. After scanning it to make sure it was safe, he tossed it to one of his dao protectors.

    ¡°Use that blood for the curse!¡±

    The dao protector didn¡¯t hesitate to take the blood and perform a one-handed incantation gesture. Several major worlds then appeared behind him, within which, all of the living beings responded to the will of the world¡¯s lord. Dropping to their knees, they kowtowed, sending out their wills to form a curse!

    ¡°I curse your body, severing life force!¡±

    ¡°I curse your soul, shattering your spirit!¡±

    ¡°I curse your essence, destroying you in body and soul!¡±

    Countless voices echoed back and forth, whereupon the drop of blood started vibrating. It turned ck, as if it was being cursed, and at the same time, was affecting the flesh and blood that was its origin.

    But then, the dao protector casting the curse suddenly twitched. His face distorted, and his eyes went wide with unprecedented terror and astonishment. His eyes exploded. A shrill scream echoed out, and then he shouted out in a trembling voice full of abject terror.

    ¡°This blood¡¯s origin.... it¡¯s¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, his shivering body turned pitch ck as if he was being invaded by mutagen, or perhaps had observed something he shouldn¡¯t have seen, or perhaps had cursed the origin of his own curse. His body went limp, and he exploded.

    His life force had been severed. His soul had shattered. <i>He</i> had been destroyed in body and soul! It was clearly a bacsh, and it struck fear into the hearts of the others. Even the most unshakable will was now trembling. The things that had happened one after another left the survivors with the gruish sensation that they were facing a god. All of that raged out of control after the cultivator who had been cursing Xu Qing suddenly died.

    Simultaneously, sevenmps lit up in the dark water. It was the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse! They were like the eyes of underworld deities, ring at the Vivifiends.

    The sevenmps flickered, then... went out one by one.

    The four dao protectors had it better off. Their minds reeled, nothing more. But Floating Fiend¡¯s son reacted with visible surprise. A sensation of impending death swept through him like a furious wave. In that critical moment, he didn¡¯t hesitate at all to spit up a huge mouthful of blood and then unleash the Grand Emperor¡¯s needle. In doing so, he linked his karma and fate with the dao protector next to him.

    Instantly, the sensation of impending death vanished from within him. As for the dao protector, he lunged to the side as the curse of the sevenmps exploded within him. His major world was forced open, and moonlight entered his heart, searching for the weaknesses in his soul. Then taboo poison went wild. He died in agony.

    His death caused the bell of terror to toll. As a result, Floating Fiend¡¯s son and the remaining three dao protectors lost their will to fight. They were afraid. They had faced many powerful enemies throughout their lives, whether it was in other holynds, or among the species to be found in the starry sky. They were no strangers to ughter.

    But this was their first time encountering the gruish type of ughter they were seeing y out in front of them. Killing with sound was inherently terrifying. Then came killing with moonlight, killing with taboo poison, killing with a curse bacsh, and then killing with underworld fire.

    From beginning to end, they had only seen Xu Qing in their initial encounter. After that, they hadn¡¯tid eyes on him even once....

    Just like that, six of their number perished.

    In the blink of an eye, they all unleashed every scrap of speed they could muster to flee.

    But then, the water behind them flickered as the seven underworldmps appeared again. Themps immediately started going out.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son gritted his teeth, lifted his right hand, and threw out a hand sign. The hand sign had no power. Instead, it was some sort ofmand. Vivifiend dao protectors had to swear a will oath that they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to substitute their own life to perish instead of the one they protected.

    The order Floating Fiend¡¯s son had just given activated that oath.

    The three dao protectors grimly halted in ce. Eyes shing with determination, they spun in ce and raced backward toward the sevenmps.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son felt pain in his heart. Those nine dao protectors were from his own bloodline, and had apanied him for many years. But now... six had been cut down by Xu Qing. And the other three seemed to be about to suffer the same fate.

    ¡°Xu Qing! I¡¯m going to make you pay for this 10,000 times over!¡¯

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son felt regret rage, which ultimately caused him to scream inside. Behind him, sevenmps were extinguished and a dao protector perished. Next came draconic roaring as Ninedawns appeared. The antemage body formed,bining with taboo poison and moonlight. Xu Qing burst into motion, and another cultivator fell.

    Half an incense stick of time passed.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son was approaching the border of the 500-kilometer hell. His eyes were crimson, and he waspletely bedraggled. As he sent his needle out tobat the moonlight and the taboo poison, he frantically fled.

    The border got closer and closer. His hope grew stronger and stronger. He was confident that once he got past that border, he would be able to use his needle to break through the seal and escape.

    Once in the outside world, he would send a message to the holynd, whereupon his father or the other patriarch would arrive in an instant. He pushed himself to go even faster. However, when he was only about 3,000 meters from the border, a voice echoed into his ears.

    ¡°You¡¯re all that¡¯s left now.¡±

    Along with the voice appeared a figure in a violet robe, with long violet hair. He was as beautiful as an immortal, but cold and grim. He carried a severed head in his hand as he strode into the field of view of Floating Fiend¡¯s son. The currents swept up around him, carrying with them the power over death. It made this neer seem like an actual god of death.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son was struck deeply in his heart and mind. He stopped in ce.

    1. Specifically, this seems to be describing a <u>Chinese giant smander</u>, although the ¡®giant¡¯ part is not a perfect reflection of the Chinese characters in the name of the species. More properly, they are ¡°big smanders¡± when tranted directly. But the author adds the actual Chinese character for ¡°giant,¡± and thus this would actually be a ¡°gigantic Chinese giant smander.¡± Or something like that. ?

 Chapter 979: A Sword Falls, Crushing Soul and Dispersing Body!

    <h4>Chapter 979: A Sword Falls, Crushing Soul and Dispersing Body!</h4>

    Xu Qing stood there as if personally demarcating the border between life and death. He was positioned between Floating Fiend¡¯s son and death itself, bing his whole world, and blocking him off from any hope.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son felt his heart pounding in his chest. It was as if a boulder had fallen from heaven into the sea of his heart, sending out massive waves. That was especially true considering that the severed head Xu Qing held had not closed its eyes in death. They pulsed with a deathly aura as they stared out, as if to gaze upon death itself.

    Even more terrifying was the god vine that swirled around Xu Qing. The vine pulsed with starlight, whichbined with the violet glow of Xu Qing to make something even more godly.

    Then there was the shadow that seemed to merge with the water itself. As it gathered behind Xu Qing, it eventually ¡®stood up¡¯ to form a blurry tree. Upon the tree hung a coffin, which swayed back and forth. And there were also numerous eyes that stared with bloodthirsty gluttony at the son of Floating Fiend.

    All of that made the seafloor gruish to the extreme.

    Then there was the godly authority flickering everywhere. Sound was under his control. The moon was his servant. The poison had him as its source. And misfortune affected everything except Xu Qing himself. It made Xu Qing seem like a god descending into mortal dust.

    Razor-sharp moonlight swept toward Floating Fiend¡¯s son from all directions. It was apanied by the invasive taboo poison, like marrow filling bones. It was the same with the sound. The god vine behind Xu Qing swirled toward Floating Fiend¡¯s son at top speed. Little Shadow, unwilling to be outdone or left behind, spread out dramatically. Everything there on the seafloor converged on the enemy.

    In front of Xu Qing, the seven underworldmps flickered on the verge of going out.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son felt overwhelmed with bitterness. In the end, he didn¡¯t speak. And that was because the sound of his own voice could be used as a weapon by his enemy. Besides, nothing he said at this point would make any difference.

    Threats weren¡¯t going to do anything. Pleas for mercy would be ineffective. All of this had been foreordained the moment this person said that he had changed his mind. Or perhaps it was more urate to say that all of the karma that was created from the moment he made a mistake in judging his opponents battle prowess made this result unavoidable.

    As his heart sank, his eyes filled with intense battle spirit, and his heart burned with the desire to live. Fighting was his only chance to live. Going all out was his only hope.

    Therefore, rumbling sounds rose up as he unhesitatingly ignited his soul, his cultivation base, and his fleshly body. He even started burning his essence and bloodline!

    As a member of the Vivifiend nobility, his bloodline was far purer than ordinary members of his species. At the same time, he had a very extraordinary fleshly body. His father had paid an enormous price to make sure he had it.

    Now, all that was bing kindling. Silver fire broke out all over him, incinerating the surrounding water and incinerating his madness.

    At the same time, his battle prowess spiked! Previously, he was a two-world Smoldering God who could unleash four-world battle prowess. But this burning process caused his battle prowess to leap to a much higher level, and break past his personal limit. A terrifying aura erupted within him, mixing with the silver-colored fire to create a pressure that instantly weighed down on the heart and mind.

    It was the power of a five-world Smoldering God! The difference between four worlds and five might seem like a minor jump in levels. But the reality was that it was massive in terms of substructure. Five worlds was actually the first major threshold of Smoldering Gods.

    Before five worlds, what was ¡®smoldering¡¯ was a will of gestation. After reaching five worlds, what was ¡®smoldering¡¯ was a will of growth.

    What gestated and then grew for these ¡®gods¡¯ was not something rted to actual gods. Instead, it was one¡¯s soul, which was being elevated to be a nascent divinity! When the nascent divinity emerged, it primarily governed natural and magicalws.[1]

    Within that 500-kilometer area at the seafloor, a terrifying aura was building up on Floating Fiend¡¯s son. His fleshly body was withering dramatically, and on top of it was a semitransparent nascent divinity body. The nascent divinity¡¯s eyes were glittering and bright, and its body was magnificent. To a certain degree, it looked even more impressive than Xu Qing.

    The god vine, which had been wrapping around Floating Fiend¡¯s son, had no choice but to back away. Even Little Shadow fell back.

    The needle glittered brightly as it circled in the area, blocking the godly authority. At the same time, Floating Fiend¡¯s son extended the arm of his nascent divinity and pointed at Xu Qing. That gesture sucked in numerous natural and magicalws, making them like threads that shot toward Xu Qing to wrap him up, seal him, and lock him down. It was as if the finger could treat all daos as enemies, all immortals as adversaries, and all cultivators as rebels! In an instant, five-world Smoldering God battle prowess surged with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force toward Xu Qing.

    What met it head on was the Seven Lamps Underworld Fire Curse. In the blink of an eye, the mes were extinguished. But they didn¡¯t bring death. Instead, they just copsed. They couldn¡¯t block the natural and magicalws from that finger. Thus, thews became a tempest that instantly swept over Xu Qing, covering him.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out. There was no longer ack of sound. Atst, a cold voice spoke out, like sounds of nature, surpassing all other living things.

    ¡°Backtracing.¡±

    As the word echoed out, an enormous sundial appeared within the tempest ofws. As it hung in midair, it let the threads ofw pass by it, and seemedpletely unaffected. The gnomon on the sundial was spinning backward. It started out slow, but after only a few breaths of time, it sped up. Astonishingly, time in the area was now moving backward. The water flowed backward. The tempest retreated.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son shook from head to toe as the natural and magicalws from his nascent divinity faded away, and his nascent divinity body copsed. In the briefest of moments, it disappeared without a trace. At the same time, the withered flesh of his body started recovering. Everything was going back to the moment before he ignited himself! That was when he was a four-world Smoldering God, not a five-world one.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son was bbergasted by what he was seeing. His face fell, and immediately prepared to ignite himself again. Except then...

    Xu Qing appeared on the sundial, radiating boundless light. It was as if it had turned into a sun, illuminating everything in the area. And all of that light turned into a binding force.

    It shot toward Floating Fiend¡¯s son. Wherever it went, it destroyed darkness, smashed the air, and devastated everything. It was Xu Qing¡¯s profound sun immortal light. It was as domineering as a sun and brought a tribtion of immortal might.

    It reached Floating Fiend¡¯s son in an instant. He couldn¡¯t stop himself from screaming out in terror, despair, and pain. His fleshly body was instantly mangled so badly it was hardly recognizable, and was clearly on the verge of beingpletely wiped out by the immortal light. At that critical moment, Floating Fiend¡¯s son felt a madness that turned into howl that hardly sounded like it came from the mouth of a sentient being.

    ¡°Come to me, immortal skill!¡±

    Immortal skills were a creation from Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity¡¯s time, and were also considered forbidden magics. In Revered Ancient, they werergely lost, and those that did survive were fragmented. But clearly, the holynds had a lot of immortal skills.

    As Floating Fiend¡¯s son howled, the Grand Emperor¡¯s needle shone with dazzling light and began spinning around him rapidly, leaving a red thread behind it that created various shadowy forms. They looked like souls. In fact, they were the nine dao protectors that Xu Qing had cut down earlier.

    Specifically, they weren¡¯t actually souls, but rather, they were karma. The needle was stitching together the karma of the nine deceased individuals, then linking them together. After it was done, the needle shot into the forehead of Floating Fiend¡¯s son. In an instant, the wounds covering Floating Fiend¡¯s son ceased to worsen. And yet again, silver mes covered him.

    He began burning again. He was fighting back against Xu Qing¡¯s immortal light. Next, his nascent divinity appeared again, and the immortal light began to dim.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son had survived a moment of near death, and was now powering up again. With a vicious facial expression, he looked at Xu Qing.

    ¡°My Smoldering God cultivation base has been permanently weakened to use this magic. I refuse to believe... that it won¡¯t affect you!¡±

    The light of his nascent divinity erupted, reaching a height of some 3,000 meters, and sending waves out over the Forbidden Sea that were even more majestic than before. Then, he once again took a hand that could control natural and magicalws... and thrust it toward Xu Qing.

    The dazzling power of that strike surpassed anything from before. Great vibrations filled the seafloor.

    This time, he wasn¡¯t just burning his bloodline. He was adding in the karma of the nine dao protectors, as well as their fate. To a certain extent, he was burning their future. In that manner, he was able to temporarily gain power equivalent to a five-world Smoldering God. Thanks to the stability provided by the Grand Emperor¡¯s needle, it would be very difficult to reverse time on him now. This was his final move.

    Howling, he sent the huge hand shooting toward Xu Qing. At the same time, the air around him seemed to fill with sealing power, making it impossible for him to flee.

    Xu Qing looked as calm as ever as he looked at the forehead of Floating Fiend¡¯s son, where the needle had entered. ¡°That¡¯s a very interesting needle.¡±

    Then, he didn¡¯t do anything to dodge or evade, and just let the nascent divinity¡¯s hand hit his head. A huge boom rang out, but Xu Qing stood there unmoving.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son stood agape, his mind spinning, his heart filled with incredulity.

    ¡°Th-that... that....¡±

    Yet again he unleashed the power of his nascent divinity, giving the attack everything he could muster, filling it with natural and magicalws.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Xu Qing just stood there.

    Without a word, Floating Fiend shot into motion, trying to circle around Xu Qing, and keeping about 3,000 meters of distance between them. He knew that he couldn¡¯t keep up his current level of battle prowess. Xu Qing¡¯s gruishness surpassed anything imaginable, to the point where he had never even heard of anything simr. At the moment, he didn¡¯t even want to think about what could be the reason for it. By now, his mind was overwhelmed with terror, despair, and shock. All he wanted to do was get away.

    Turning to look at him flee, Xu Qing extended his right hand and pushed it out gently. It created a new boundary within the 500-kilometer area. That boundary was a well. The seawater inside became the well water. It was none other than Fishing the Moon in the Well.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s son lurched to a halt as all of his magical techniques, treasures, and everything else about him were reflected in the water. That included the Grand Emperor¡¯s needle. Around that time, his immobility caused the burning of his cultivation base to naturally cease.

    Xu Qing pulled back his hand as if to fish something up out of the water. A needle flew out.

    When that was done, the rumble of a sword echoed out from within Xu Qing. Sword light glimmered as a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering stream of sword energy swept through the Forbidden Sea. Fate shattered as it shed toward the soul and fleshly body of Floating Fiend¡¯s son.

    The sword shattered his soul and shredded his body! The scream of the sword also became the authority of sound, devastating the battlefield. Floating Fiend¡¯s son had been destroyed in body and soul!

    Having aplished that, Xu Qing looked back into the depths of the sea. After cleaning up the mess, he would go back to waiting for the giant and the dragon chariot.

    However, before he could go more than 3,000 meters, he stopped in ce and looked over his shoulder. For the first time, a serious expression could be seen on his face, and his heart rate increased. It seemed that great danger was on the verge of arriving.

    He had just sensed a terrifying gaze locking onto him! It didn¡¯te from the giant and the dragon chariot. Instead, it came from the Vivifiend holynd, where Floating Fiend had been in seclusion for the past hundred years.

    ***

    A terrifying figure sat cross-legged in the Viviefiend holynd, and his eyes had just opened.

    As a result, the sky outside of the holynd went dark. Endless ck clouds churned, and the sea reacted violently, sending huge waves out everywhere. Boundless energy swept through the cosmos, causing naturalws to bow their heads, and magicalws to prostrate. Surrounding inds trembled, and countless species on the Forbidden Sea were inexplicably shaken to the core with terror.

    As for the Vivifiends in the holynd, their minds and hearts were spinning.

    The might of an Imperial Sovereign rose up, along with a voice that surpassed heavenly thunder. When it spoke, it contained a horrifying killing intent that rolled out over the Forbidden Sea.

    ¡°You killed my son?? I see you!¡±

    1. In this case, I¡¯m using the term ¡®nascent divinity¡¯ because it¡¯s the same term that often appears in other Er Gen works. The word ¡®divinity¡¯ here is the same character for ¡®god¡¯ that appears in the god cultivation system. It also appears in Smoldering God, even though that¡¯s from the cultivator system and not the god system. It follows the same pattern as ¡®nascent soul¡¯ and in other Er Gen works is often a higher-level version of a nascent soul. Up to this point, I¡¯ve generally been rendering that character as ¡®god¡¯ (as opposed to deity, divine, etc.), in an attempt to maintain some continuity as it rtes to gods and the god system of cultivation. That character (god/divine/divinity) ismon, and appears in ordinary words such as mind, nerves, energy (certain types of it), as well as things like divine sense and divine will. Many instances of the usage of this character have nothing to do with the ¡®god¡¯ cultivation system, which is why I¡¯ve been trying to maintain consistency in that regard. Hopefully all of this makes sense. At this point, Xu Qing is basically on apletely different and unique path of cultivation, so as often happens in Er Gen works, the more orthodox system of cultivation bes less relevant the further you go on, and that¡¯s the case here. Minor spoilers in that this ¡®nascent divinity¡¯ concept does not seem to be a major factorter in the story, at least as of me tranting this chapter. It could theoretically be important inter chapters that have not been written yet. ?

 Chapter 980: Imperial Sovereign Authority

    <h4>Chapter 980: Imperial Sovereign Authority</h4>

    It was a gaze that contained a mysterious power!

    The gaze of the broken face could invade heaven, earth, and the void. The gaze of gods could affect all living beings and entities.

    The gaze of an Imperial Sovereign could sever the ancient from the modern. Whenbined with the individual authority of a specific Imperial Sovereign, it could unleash strength akin to that of a god.

    After all, Imperial Sovereign was like a heavenly mountain in the system of cultivators. It was a sublime pinnacle. In the early part of that level, it was possible to fight with gods. Those at the peak were equivalent to the wless God level!

    Although Floating Fiend was only in the early level, his arrival was still like that of a god. And now, Floating Fiend¡¯s gaze had its own unique authority, which caused Xu Qing¡¯s head to spin, and filled his soul with a suffocating sensation. It was a type of suffocation that didn¡¯t just rte to his breathing.

    When it appeared in his soul, it was almost like a will of erasure. It was loneliness, darkness, and despair.

    Xu Qing shivered from head to toe. All of the types of godly authority in his void soil, even the faint lineaments, began to flicker with bright light. And his fleshly body shone as if with mercury. His every asset fought back against the gaze, all while he fell back at top speed. He sent out his god perception, using sound to achieve speeds simr to teleportation.

    At the same time, he took out me Phoenix¡¯s feather. His n was to send a message.

    Unfortunately, that was when a cracking sound rang out. It was as if an extremely sharp and iprehensibly domineering pair of shears had cut off his every connection to the outside world. Mind spinning, Xu Qing put the feather away and elerated as he fled.

    ***

    In that private chamber in the Vivifiend holynd, Floating Fiend himself sat there cross-legged with a dazzling pair of shears floating above his head. The shears seemed ancient, as if they had seen the passage of immense amounts of time. They pulsed with that sensation of age, as well as a terrifying might.

    Floating Fiend slowly rose to his feet, ultimately standing to his full height of 300 meters. That action caused the cosmos to rumble, and great winds to sweep about. A hundred years before, he, who possessed royal Vivifiend blood, and was at the peak of Smoldering God, chose to go into a deadly session of seclusion in an attempt to break through to the level of Imperial Sovereign.

    The news quickly spread among all the terrestrial-level holynds, and countless people paid very close attention to the matter.

    The reason was that Imperial Sovereigns... were lords unto themselves. Those who seeded in that breakthrough were <i>as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns</i>. The Vivifiend holynd was no exception.

    Among the terrestrial-level holynds, the Vivifiend holynd had been on the decline for a long time. For years, they had been relying on the fact that their patriarch was a peak Imperial Sovereign simply to stay afloat. On many asions, they were backed into a corner and couldn¡¯t do anything.

    There was nothing more important to the Vivifiends than Floating Fiend and his session of secluded meditation. If he seeded, then the Vivifiend holynd would rise to a higher level of prominence.

    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the decree toe to Revered Ancient had been impossible for them to defy, they wouldn¡¯t havee at this time. Even though they were given no choice, and came, the fact remained that Floating Fiend¡¯s session of meditation was still the most important thing to them. That was one reason why they hadn¡¯t done anything dramatic, and hadn¡¯t caused any trouble for outsiders.

    What was more, Floating Fiend, who had been in meditation for a hundred years, had no idea what was going on outside his meditation chamber. In past years, he had only been disturbed once, and that was to tell him that the holynds had received orders to go to Revered Ancient. As for Revered Ancient itself, everything he knew about it was based on old information.

    As of now, the fluctuations of the death of his only blood-rted child caused a reaction both physically and in terms of karma, shaking him out of his slumber.

    It was hard to say whether that was good or bad.

    It could be good, because the reality was that it had actually been years since he stepped past the threshold leading into Imperial Sovereign. Unfortunately, his energy and might had been thrown into a state of primal-chaos, as if he had been sent into reincarnation.

    Because of that continuous cycle, he couldn¡¯t wake up. It was something no one could help him with. He had to rely on himself to struggle through sessfully. Only if he woke up could he sessfullyplete the breakthrough.

    It was something virtually all Imperial Sovereigns had to deal with. It was also an experience that led to them forming their personal authority. That so-called authority was substructurally different from godly authority.

    Normally speaking, it was something exclusive to Imperial Sovereigns, although it was possible, though rare, for certain spectacr chosen to do the same thing as a Smoldering God. For some, the process of acquiring authority happened in an instant. In other cases it took a hundred years or sometimes more than a thousand.

    Thus, when the fluctuations appeared, they tugged on him, provoking killing intent and fury in his blood. That, in turn, resonated with his authority, and caused him to wake up.

    When it came to the bad parts... they were the fact that his son had died, and also that his authority had some ws thanks to him waking up earlier.

    Regardless of anything, though, he was now an Imperial Sovereign. Opening his eyes, he peered through the void, opened karma, and searched the sensations of the heart.

    As he had said, he... saw Xu Qing. He wasn¡¯t familiar with the outside location, but based on earlier information, he could tell that they had arrived at Revered Ancient. He didn¡¯t know the identity of the person who had killed his son. But he didn¡¯t need to. It didn¡¯t matter who the culprit was. As of this moment... he was dead-set on killing him.

    That was the only way for him to repair his mental state, and fix the w in his authority. It was rted to his dao!

    That was especially true considering that, though he had used the treasured shears that had once belonged to a Grand Emperor of his species to sever the culprit¡¯s connection to the outside, the culprit had already used some gruish concealment technique to go into hiding. Therefore, Floating Fiend didn¡¯t hesitate at all to take a step forward.

    When his footnded on the floor of his meditation chamber, ripples spread through heaven and earth, shaking all providence. He vanished.

    Because of the tug of the bloodline and the coordinates his gaze had locked onto, that single step was all it took to arrive within Xu Qing¡¯s 500 kilometers of hell. His presence gave the naturalws a master, and made all magicalws servants.

    The heavenly daos of Revered Ancient were influenced by the will of Revered Ancient, and they resisted the holynds which had left so long ago. However, an almighty Imperial Sovereign... would be weed in any location. After all, years ago, the heavenly dao had been created to be in subjugation to cultivators.

    Therefore, when Floating Fiend arrived in the 500 kilometers of hell, the natural and magicalws acknowledged allegiance to him, and almost became an embodiment of his mind. His will became the will of heaven. His spirit became the spirit of heaven. If he wanted a location to be sealed, that location would instantly be sealed. If he wanted to exterminate Xu Qing, then killing intent would erupt in Xu Qing¡¯s area.

    The killing intent was a manifestation of the will of heaven, and that was controlled by Floating Fiend¡¯s thoughts. It was impossible to perceive. Countless streams of invisible killing intent gathered, but because of Floating Fiend¡¯s will, they became corporeal.

    ***

    In front of Xu Qing appeared a bright-red skeletal finger with five digits. The moment the finger appeared, everything around it seemed to solidify. Even thoughts were weighed down. The sea water no longer rippled. The only thing that could move was the killing intent.

    In an instant, it weighed down on Xu Qing, whose heart was racing as he fled at top speed, all while fused with the sound in the area. In that location, the sea water exploded, heavenly will exploded, and killing intent exploded. Terrifying pressure and horrifying killing force bore down on Xu Qing with unstoppable, unblockable momentum.

    Little Shadow wailed. The god vine cracked. Moonlight shattered. Sound authority dimmed. Ninedawns. The Grand Darkheaven Armor. Everything else waspletely useless.

    The finger was like a foreordained doom as it descended upon Xu Qing.

    <i>RUMBLE!</i>

    Every defense he had ceased to be functional. All divine abilities and magical techniques shattered. It was as if none of his assets were meaningful in any way.

    Mountain-toppling, sea-draining force raged through his soul and body with the intention of destroying and crushing it. He was to be destroyed in body and soul! Rumbling filled Xu Qing as he was sent tumbling off to the side like a leaf in the wind.

    Yet he didn¡¯t copse!

    As a result, Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes glittered. ¡°Oh, I see.¡±

    Although Xu Qing¡¯s body hadn¡¯t copsed by the attack of an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s finger, he was coughing up mouthful after enormous mouthful of blood. Cracks spread out across his fleshly body, out of which seeped immortal mercury like fresh blood. The cracks weren¡¯t because of the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s finger. They had always existed within him, a result of the broken face¡¯s flesh, and had been held together by the immortal mercury.

    They were where the seals within Xu Qing were located. The Imperial Sovereign¡¯s finger wasn¡¯t capable of destroying his fleshly body, but... it was already showing it might be capable of doing something to the immortal mercury that was holding it together.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Xu Qing¡¯s body hadn¡¯tpletely fused into one. That was why Master Seventh had told Xu Qing that his fleshly body could defend against anything under the Imperial Sovereign level.

    As his body cracked apart, pain swept through him like a storm, overwhelming his senses and threatening to topple his mind. Xu Qing trembled from head to toe as unimaginable torment filled him. But what really made his eyes go red was the splitting sensation in his soul. A feeling of deadly crisis rose up within him.

    However, Xu Qing had been in a lot of potentially deadly situations in his life. He wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with circumstances like these. And he knew that in a moment like this, he needed to stay clear-headed. Forcing himself to just endure the pain from his body and soul, he gritted his teeth and unleashed the godly authority of sound. Instantly, he merged into the sound and shot off into the distance.

    <i>I need to get out of here and figure out a way to send a message!</i>

    Unfortunately, an Imperial Sovereign hade in person. Even if Xu Qing was stronger than he currently was, he would have limits. Therefore, though he fled within sound, as Floating Fiend¡¯s gaze descended....

    Floating Fiend¡¯s cold voice swept out.

    ¡°Erase.¡±

    It was the power of Floating Fiend¡¯s authority! The words he spoke caused all sound within the 500-kilometer area to vanish. Those sounds weren¡¯t being taken away. They weren¡¯t being controlled. They were being erased! All sounds ceased to exist.

    Because Xu Qing was within the sound, if he didn¡¯t break free, he would also be erased. Therefore, he had no choice but to emerge from the sound.

    The moment he appeared, a huge bright-red hand appeared over his head. The hand had seven fingers with five digits each, and looked extremely gruish, like something straight out of the Yellow Springs.

    It covered the sky over Xu Qing, bing his world as it dropped down to grab him. Before it evennded, it created an intense pressure that caused more cracks to appear on Xu Qing.

    Again, immortal mercury flowed like blood, and he felt more than ever like his body might copse. His soul grew weak from the pressure, and the sensation of potential death became like a tidal wave crashing into him. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his eyes became even more bloodshot. At that critical moment, his eyes gleamed with determination. Without any hesitation, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and then swept his hands out in front of him.

    The fluctuations of detonation rose up within the 500-kilometer area. Xu Qing had set up this area to deal with the giant and the dragon chariot, and had filled it with arge amount of godsource, which was intended to make his godly authority easier to use. But as the self-detonation fluctuations spread out, the entire 500 kilometers of hell noiselessly erupted.

    Areas throughout it where Xu Qing had set up godsource began to explode one after another. There were hundreds of those areas, and every one that detonated added to the terrifying effect. After they all exploded, they created a shocking tempest with Xu Qing in the middle. All of it shot toward that huge hand!

    Because of the authority of erasing, there was no sound in the area. But the tempest still contained violet moonlight and the power of taboo poison, which made the huge tempest even more dominant. It grewrger andrger, until it was like a godly volcano erupting on the seafloor, unleashing heaven-defying force that mmed into the Imperial Sovereign¡¯s hand.

    The hand faltered in midair. The tempest was resisting it!

    But Imperial Sovereigns were like gods, so no matter how grand that tempest was, it could only give it a moment¡¯s pause.

    In the end, the hand kept dropping. It mmed into the seafloor. The seafloor in the 500-kilometer area shattered as a huge crater opened up.

    However, the sh of the two types of power did a bit to ease the authority of erasure. And because of that, there was now a bit of sound present. It started minutely, but quickly expanded.

    That was exactly what Xu Qing wanted: sound.

    The moment the sound came to exist, he ignored his injuries and used the sound to shoot off into the distance. Blood sprayed out into the water. Immortal mercury flowed into the void. Wherever the sound went, it left behind a streak of red and silver.

    Within the sound, Xu Qing was starting to lose consciousness, but he kept fleeing. The direction he was going led toward where he knew the approaching dragon chariot was.

    ***

    Far off in the Holytide Region, in the region controlled by the Garmentfolk, Erniuy snoring in a pile of colorful clothing. Each item of clothing was a woman¡¯s garment, and they were all clustered close to him. Clearly, the Garmentfolk had been very weing, and he had made plenty of friends that he was close enough to that he could slumber alongside them. That one particr glovey on his chest, the fingers all curled up....

    Suddenly, Erniu shivered and opened his eyes.

    As he did, the surrounding pieces of clothing also woke up one after another, and floated up into the air. That included the glove. All of them were now floating in front of him as if asking if something was wrong.

    Erniu shook his head. He looked confused. ¡°No, it¡¯s nothing. I just had a bad dream. In the dream, little Ah Qing was trying to tell me something. Hunh. What a weird dream.¡±

    Upon hearing that, the articles of clothing flew back and forth in what seemed to be aforting manner.

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Erniu said. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ve just been getting too exhaustedtely. Are you going to keep massaging me?¡± He licked his lips. ¡°Alright, I guess I¡¯ll go back to sleep. You just keep up the massage.¡±

    With that, Erniuy back down excitedly. An instantter, he sat back up.

    ¡°No. No way. I need to take a trip back to South Phoenix. It really feels to me like something big is happening. Are all of you going to miss me? Or will youe along?¡±

 Chapter 981: Incoming Dragon Chariot

    <h4>Chapter 981: Iing Dragon Chariot</h4>

    Outside of the continent of South Phoenix, in the depths of the Forbidden Sea, an enormous snake-shaped sea beast was pursuing its prey along the dark seafloor. Moving with astonishing speed, it opened its huge mouth and swallowed its prey whole. Then it let loose a howl of contentment. Its cry echoed out across the seafloor.

    Xu Qing suddenly appeared out of that very sound. The moment he did, his body swelled up until he couldn¡¯t sustain the force, and he exploded. An instantter, the light of the sealing mark within him glittered, and he was back, this time back as his normal size. Only after coughing up seven or eight mouthfuls of blood did he manage to stabilize himself.

    Expression grim, he looked down at his fleshly body. He was covered with cracks that oozed immortal mercury, which made him very horrid to behold. His soul was fractured and looked extremely weak through and through. As a result, Xu Qing¡¯s vision was blurred. As he looked around, everything looked twisted and distorted. Given how deep he was at the bottom of the sea, those distortions looked like demonic monsters, grimacing and scowling at him.

    However, the weakness and dizziness onlysted for a moment before Xu Qing suppressed it. The distortions also vanished.

    Unfortunately, the danger wasn¡¯t gone. Xu Qing knew that time was of the utmost value to him right now, so without any hesitation he tapped into the power of the violet crystal, causing a surge of recovery to sweep through him.

    At the same time, he took out some of the broken face¡¯s blood and drank a mouthful. Instantly, the blood caused intense rumbling sounds to fill him. As a result, the cracks ceased to spread out across him as quickly.

    Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Qing took out me Phoenix¡¯s feather to send a message. But yet again, a cracking sound echoed out. His message had been interrupted, and couldn¡¯t be sent.

    <i>It¡¯s not just a sealing lock. That Imperial Sovereign also has a precious treasure keeping me isted from the outside world.</i>

    Xu Qing¡¯s expression was grim. He knew that in his current state, there was no way he could make aplete getaway. And his fleshly body could only sustain a few more blows.

    <i>I need to think of a way to get out of here. And if I can¡¯t... then time is definitely of the utmost importance!</i>

    He was currently in the inner sea, so the bigger themotion being made, the greater the likelihood that someone would notice what was happening.

    As for the sealing marks left in ce by his master, they were there to protect his soul. If they were forced open... Xu Qing knew that the power of the broken face would cause his soul to disperse. That thought, coupled with the pain from both his fleshly body and soul, caused Xu Qing to feel colder than he had felt in a long time. Having tasted that coldness, he once again entered sound and followed his senses in the direction of the dragon chariot.

    <i>Maybe borrowing the strength of the chariot is my ticket to escaping!</i>

    The moment Xu Qing vanished, he heard Floating Fiend¡¯s voice.

    ¡°Erase.¡±

    The word was like a nightmare. The moment it echoed out, it filled an area that went far beyond Xu Qing¡¯s current location. Not only was all sound erased, but countless sea beasts simply ceased to exist. Xu Qing appeared again, blood spraying out of his mouth.

    ***

    Behind him, Floating Fiend strode in his direction. Every step he took caused the seafloor to tremble. Each stride caused natural and magicalws to bend ording to his will. It was as if heaven itself were trying to kill Xu Qing!

    Then Floating Fiend¡¯s voice echoed out again. ¡°The magicalws here are telling me that when you killed my son, you attacked in this way.¡±

    Xu Qing heard the words, but before he could take control of the sound, it was gone, thanks to the authority of erasure. At the same time, the cracks started spreading out on his fleshly body again. More than ever, he felt like he was about to explode.

    At that moment of crisis, blinding light suddenly erupted from Xu Qing as he turned into a sun. The dazzling light spread out, then converged into a beam. Moving with speed far greater than anything than before, he used a light evasion technique to shoot off into the distance. An instantter, there was no sign that it had even been present to begin with.

    ¡°Immortal light?¡± Floating Fiend murmured as he appeared on the spot Xu Qing had just disappeared from. He looked off into the distance and shook his head. <i>He¡¯s still within my range, though. That said, this human clearly has a lot of karmic connections.... With that much fate stirring in response to him, I can tell that killing him will bring some big negative consequences.</i>

    The ancient shears once again appeared in front of Floating Fiend, which quickly severed all of the threadsing off Xu Qing. However, there were some that, when the shears made contact with them, provoked a grating sound from the shears. Also, it looked more ancient, and even started showing spots of rust. Apparently, even the terrifying and mysterious shears had to pay a price for cutting those threads.

    <i>But at the same time, I can sense that if I do erase them, then... the might of the authority will replenish me. And his fleshly body... no wonder my son died trying to get it. Karma like this, plus such flesh and blood... it¡¯s like a destined opportunity covered with poisoned thorns that need to slowly be peeled away. I can¡¯t rush things. Especially with the threads. I don¡¯t want to destroy my shears in the process. I need to handle this matter with finesse.</i>

    With such thoughts in mind, Floating Fiend advanced like a hunter, focusing all of his might on the prey.

    ***

    Some tens of thousands of kilometers away, Xu Qing appeared again, the might of an Imperial Sovereign bearing down on him from behind.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Gritting his teeth, he sent light glittering out, then again used Light Evasion to flee. Light Evasion was a divine ability from the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic. It was capable of unleashing astonishing speed, but it required two streams of light.

    Xu Qing¡¯s immortal light only had one stream which wasn¡¯t enough to power the technique. Therefore, he chose to burn soul threads, thus emitting soul light. By adding that to the immortal light, he could just barely manage to pull off the technique.

    It was a desperate move, and it wouldn¡¯t work for long. He did it five or six times in a row. But whether it was on the surface of the water or on the seafloor, his situation never changed. It was as if there were <is above and snares below</i>, no matter where he went. He couldn¡¯t break free, and it didn¡¯t seem possible to send messages.

    Even more bizarre was that Xu Qing felt as though his existence was in the process of being erased. He realized this when he noticed that the sea beasts couldn¡¯t detect him. He saw a lot of nonhuman inds on the surface of the water, plus many boats, as well as plenty of Seven Blood Eyes disciples. And yet no one detected even a trace of him.

    There was one instance in which hended on the deck of a Seven Blood Eyes boat, and yet, it was almost as if he was in a different dimension. It was as if he was invisible.

    The realization caused Xu Qing¡¯s heart to sink. In fact, as he got deeper into the sea, hisplexion became increasingly unhealthy, and he seemed weaker and weaker. Gritting his teeth, he kept moving.

    He once again tapped into his soul threads, which resulted in him dropping from his previous level of 50,000,000 to about half of that number. Despite that, he was still unable to escape past Floating Fiend¡¯s range. The next time he appeared in the open, he felt the might of an Imperial Sovereign closing in from behind him.

    However... Xu Qing had reached his target destination.

    Rumbling sounds could be heard from the seafloor up ahead, along with the sound of footsteps. Those sounds seemed to bepletely ignoring the authority of erasure. A terrifying pressure and aura spread madly from the seafloor, prompting Imperial Sovereign Floating Fiend to look down in that direction.

    ¡°Well who could have guessed?¡± Floating Fiend said calmly. ¡°It¡¯s the dragon chariot of the crown prince of the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk, plus his corpse of a servant. No wonder I couldn¡¯t sense this until I saw it personally. The crown prince of the Brilliant Heaven Godfolk....

    ¡°ording to our species¡¯ records, this particr crown prince from ancient times agreed to be incarnated as a sun, while his sister incarnated as a moon. Together, they took turns illuminating Revered Ancient.

    ¡°Thatsted until Eminent Destion came, and both of them perished. The servant also perished, turning into nothing but a corpse. The dragon chariot and the corpse. You think those are your ticket to surviving?¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t respond. The moment he sensed the chariot, his eyes lit up with a crazy light. Then, ck fire appeared around him, turning into a sea of mes. He quickly turned into an enormous golden crow. Within his ws was the severed hand of the musician as he shot toward the chariot and dragon.

    Xu Qing was gambling. He was gambling on the fact that he had the same origin as the golden crow and the chariot, and also had the severed hand. He was gambling on karma, and gambling... that he wouldn¡¯t encounter too much resistance when trying to approach.

    All of a sudden, the severed hand¡¯s eye opened, and the fingers began to move. <i>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</i> drifted out.

 Chapter 982: A Slight Time Advantage

    <h4>Chapter 982: A Slight Time Advantage</h4>

    Sounds of nature drifted about the seafloor.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The aura of death neared. Ahead. Behind. It was the same.

    But Xu Qing in golden crow form had eyes that shed with determination. Gripping the severed hand, he followed the rhythm of the natural sounds as he sped forward. As he did, his eyes glittered, and golden crow fire red around him. He was like a flower made of mes as he moved along the seafloor. As a result, the seafloor shone with dazzling, eye-catching light.

    As he raced inexorably closer to the dragon chariot, his heart felt empty. He kept his thoughts externalized. He waspletely focused on his golden crow form, and the music of the severed hand. He was almost like an actual golden crow as he got closer and closer to the bronze dragon chariot.

    Seafloor sludge was pushed to the side while the ck seawater churned. Xu Qing, surrounded by fire, was the most eye-catching thing as Floating Fiend¡¯s gaze lowered onto him.

    The moment the gazended on him, Xu Qing in golden crow form shuddered. He could again sense the power of an Imperial Sovereign¡¯s gaze. Or perhaps it was most urate to say that he felt the weight of the authoritying from those two eyes.

    The power of erasure caused more cracks to appear. The gaze caused the ck fire on him to start dying down. He shook from head to toe as more cracks spread out. Blood sprayed out of his mouth.

    It was at that exact same moment that Xu Qing in golden crow form saw something incredibly terrifying some distance away in the water. It was a majestic giant. It was enormous and covered with countless tentacles that swayed and writhed. Draped over one shoulder was a massive chain that stretched behind it.

    At the end of the chain was a bronze dragon chariot. The chariot was very rundown, covered with rust and other traces of extreme age. However, the body of the chariot had beautiful carvings that still emanated an imperial air.

    The giant was dragging the bronze chariot behind it as it strode across the seafloor. Each step caused waves of silt to rise up, and sent waves rolling out on the surface. Along with it came the sound of terrifying teeth crunching together.

    The moment Xu Qing heard it, lingering fear rose within him. Despite having a much different cultivation base than thest time he encountered the chariot and giant, the pressure he felt still caused him to tremble instinctively. However, he didn¡¯t slow down. In fact, he sped up. An instantter, he pierced through the currents, passed through the silt, and appeared right in front of the massive giant and chariot.

    Inparison, Xu Qing in golden crow form was incredibly tiny. However, the golden crow aura plus the music of the severed hand... formed a special karma that couldn¡¯t be severed by the shears. Suddenly, the giant stopped in ce and looked up, allowing the golden-crow-form Xu Qing to pass by its head. That caused the giant¡¯s massive form to form an obstacle to Floating Fiend.

    Xu Qing had gambled correctly. However... just as Xu Qing neared the giant and chariot, Floating Fiend looked away from him.

    ¡°Your dazzling body made it easy for me to lock my vision onto you,¡± Floating Fiend said coolly. ¡°You sought to use this giant and chariot to block my path. If my gaze of killing intent touched the giant, then it would meet some unknown conditions and result in certainplications?

    ¡°My son had the treasured needle of a Grand Emperor, and now you have it, right? You can¡¯t connect to my karma, unfortunately. You¡¯re clever, I¡¯ll give you that. But not clever enough.¡±

    With that, he stepped to the side to avoid the chariot. It wasn¡¯t anything difficult as far as he was concerned.

    After all, no matter how shocking the chariot and dragon were in years past, the giant was now just a corpse. It didn¡¯t matter that it could still move around on instinct. Without causing it to do something, it was basically useless.

    That said, though Xu Qing¡¯s enemy immediately realized what he was trying to do, considering how much of a crisis moment it was, how could his n possibly be as simplistic as that which Floating Fiend had just given voice to?

    As Xu Qing shot past the giant¡¯s massive head, the eye of the severed hand he held turned bright red. Countless ghosts appeared. Then, the music that had, moments ago, been lovely sounds of nature, changed into the howling of ghosts.

    It was the same tune, but the sound was piercing and mournful. It had turned into the sound of countless ghosts haunting the night. What was more, the rotting moon that the severed hand had previously used on Xu Qing appeared again.

    Instantly, the seafloor was thrown into chaos. A rotting moon rose up in front of the giant, right by Floating Fiend. The vicious face of the young woman was there, eyes opened and looking directly at Floating Fiend! A godwarding like an ancestral curse spread out in shocking fashion. Godly might abounded. The giant shivered, lowered its head, and then fixed its turbid gaze on Floating Fiend.

    Floating Fiend frowned and stopped in ce, his eyes glittering.

    Meanwhile, Xu Qing put everything on the line by burning more soul threads to flee with Light Evasion. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from his position behind the giant.

    When he reappeared he was 5,000 kilometers away on the surface of the water. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and more immortal mercury seeped out of the cracks in the surface of his body. Together, the blood and mercury dropped into the sea below. He was currently staggering and hardly able to stand up straight. An aura of death spread from his distorted and rotting soul.

    It was the curse power of the rotting moon. Though the curse spreading from the moon projection hadn¡¯t been targeting him, it was still so dangerous that it had affected him. Thankfully, he knew how to negate the curse.

    Therefore, the moment he appeared, he had the severed hand convert to ying the true <i>Natural Sounds Wee the Moon</i>. As the song entered his soul, it caused the will of rot to fade away. Next, he quickly sent a voice message, except that a momentter... his face turned extremely grim.

    <i>I¡¯m still within his range!</i>

    Without any hesitation, he gritted his teeth and used Light Evasion again. He vanished.

    Time passed.

    Waves rolled out over the Forbidden Sea. The sea was ck and seemed to have no end. It looked no different from usual. The species on the inds, the boats on the surface of the water, and the countless living beings all went on like normal. Cultivators cultivated. Hunters hunted. The bustling sound of activity could be heard on many inds as evening fell.

    The afterglow of nightfall spread out across the ck waves. The sky gradually turned forbidding. Night was on the way.

    No one could detect or sense that a fierce chase was going on in the Forbidden Sea. All traces of it were erased. Floating Fiend¡¯s authority of erasure ensured that cultivators who didn¡¯t have the same cultivation base as him couldn¡¯t detect what was happening.

    As for the shears left behind by the Vivifiend Grand Emperor who had once followed Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.... It was an ancestral device belonging to the Vivifiend holynd, and its powers bordered on authority. It had been given to Floating Fiend by the species¡¯ patriarch, where it had floated above his head for the past hundred years, repeatedly severing the misfortunes of failed breakthroughs. But there was something more significant about it. It was how Floating Fiend¡¯s breakthrough to Imperial Sovereign allowed him to get the authority of erasure.

    The moment Floating Fiend had seeded, the blessing of the treasured shears enabled his powers of erasure to reach an incredibly high level. Though Grand Emperor senses couldn¡¯t be easily severed, it was possible for the shears to temporarily erase them. And it increased the range dramatically.

    Before, Xu Qing had definitely appeared in front of people, only for them to not be able to detect him, as if he was in a different aspect of space-time. It was the same right now. From the beginning until now, the chase had been like this: quiet and undetectable.

    As evening was buried by night, Xu Qing¡¯s soul thread count had dropped so low he only had a bit more than 3,000,000. He was reaching the end of what he was capable of. And even now, his sound powers weren¡¯t working.

    It was as if all heaven and earth were within Floating Fiend¡¯s range. Of course, that couldn¡¯t actually be possible. But as night fell, it seemed to extinguish all hope.

    <i>I only have one Light Evasion left....</i>

    Night had fallen by the time Xu Qing reached a location not far from the Lobsterfolk. His face was pale, and both his fleshly body and soul had reached their limit.

    That said, he was stillpletely calm at heart. An Imperial Sovereign was chasing him down to kill him. It was a moment of deadly crisis. But he had experienced many potentially fatal situations like this. This was probably more dangerous of a situation than any of the others, but that didn¡¯t mean he would let himself give in to negativity.

    Taking a deep breath, he took the human nature he had been intentionally wiping away during the chase, andpletely dimmed it. Coldly rational godliness then filled him from head to toe. His eyes suddenly became vastly more profound as he turned to look behind him.

    He began to analyze things rationally. He knew that the giant and the dragon chariot could influence an Imperial Sovereign, but most likely, it wouldn¡¯tst for long. After all, no matter how amazing the chariot, the giant, and the rotting moon were, they were all dead things.

    <i>I bet this guy has a reason for letting me run away. From the look of it, my actions are furthering the erasure effect. He¡¯s basically halfway to sess already.</i>

    Xu Qing looked down at a sea beast swimming through the water beneath him. Normally speaking, if this beast even sensed his aura from a great distance, it would flee trembling. But now it didn¡¯t even notice him.

    <i>He must be afraid of my karma, so he doesn¡¯t want to just directly kill me. Seems to me that continuing to run is pointless.</i>

    Xu Qing wasn¡¯t sure of all the details of this person¡¯s authority, and it was difficult to narrow down its scope and principles via analysis. All he could do was use the clues he had to make a n of action. After a few breaths of time passed, Xu Qing looked down at the seafloor.

    <i>He needs time to erase me. And I also need time for the outside world to realize what¡¯s going on. But theoretically speaking, he needs a lot less time. Therefore, what I need to do is slow him down. And at the same time, give myself more time.... That means there¡¯s one ce that¡¯s perfectly suitable.</i>

    After coldly assessing his remaining soul threads, he unhesitatingly started burning them, almost as if they weren¡¯t his own.

    Using onest Light Evasion, he vanished. When he reappeared, he was in the depths of the sea at a marine trench. At the same time, the severity of his wounds passed a major threshold. His physical body began to crumble. Countless bits of flesh and blood spread out. Thankfully, the immortal mercury and the sealing marks managed to hold everything together.

    Even still, at the moment, Xu Qing hardly looked human. His soul was also crumbling. Despite his godliness bolstering his mind and thoughts, he stillpsed into unconsciousness. However, just before passing out, he calmly sent an order to the god vine.

    As he passed out, the god vine wrapped him up and shot into the marine trench, entered the bubble, and sped toward the dpidated pagoda. After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, Floating Fiend appeared outside of the trench, his eyes gleaming.

    <i>So, the brat came here for hisst stand?</i> Floating Fiend took a step forward and appeared outside the bubble. As he tried to enter, the bubble¡¯s force of expulsion erupted, shoving at Floating Fiend with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. After taking more than ten steps, Floating Fiend stopped. Looking at the dpidated pagoda only a few dozen paces away, he frowned.

    Then he continued onward.

 Chapter 983: A Wind Picks Up On the Forbidden Sea

    <h4>Chapter 983: A Wind Picks Up On the Forbidden Sea</h4>

    Late at night, the ckness of the Forbidden Sea grew even deeper. Using the naked eye, it was impossible to see more than a foot or two before everything was swallowed by inky darkness. Stretch out your hand and you would have a hard time seeing your fingers.

    It was simr with the temperature. As night fell, the wind over the sea grew colder, screaming between the sea and the heaven as it blew northward. The cold wind carried a fishy smell, plus something rotten and decayed, almost like a sick old person with one foot in the grave, whose every exhtion contained an aura of death. That aura swirled about,bining with the cries of various unknown sea beasts. The night was full of mystery and fear.

    It was the same with the dark currents under the surface of the water. They were more violent than they were during the daytime. On the surface, they gave birth to huge waves. Under the surface, they created numerous powerful vortexes. Over the countless years that had passed, nights were always like this on the seafloor. No one knew why the whirlpools formed. They only knew that they were essentially a natural urrence in the Forbidden Sea. It happened that way over and over again, seemingly without end.

    At the moment, a whirlpool rumbled through a particr area, kicking up silt to reveal numerous marine trenches that were almost like scars on the seafloor. Deep in one of those trenches was a huge bubble in the mire. Inside the bubble was a dpidated pagoda. Outside of the pagoda was a god vine, which sent out fluctuations of anxiety and hostility.

    Inside the pagoda... was a horribly mangled corpse. It looked almost chopped to pieces as ity there, motionless. Whatever de had been used to chop the corpse hadn¡¯t been a sharp one. As a result, the flesh hadn¡¯t been fully sliced apart. What was more, it was connected by drooping strands of a silver substance.

    As time passed, the silver strands slowly began pulling the separated pieces of flesh back together. There was also a violet light shimmering faintly within the corpse.

    A few days passed....

    When the pieces of the corpse had all been pulled back together, it looked a bit more human. However, it was still covered with numerous cracks, and was appalling to look at. But then bits of life force began to pulse within it, as if it were being called back from theherworld. The closed eyes slowly opened, and though weak, they pulsed with iparable coldness.

    <i>The fact that I¡¯m here, and alive, proves that I made the right decision. The Imperial Sovereign from the Vivifiend holynd was unable to get through the bubble and into this pagoda. I got back that slight time advantage.</i>

    Xu Qing looked calm on the outside, and was, in fact, very calm on the inside. He still maintained a certain level of godliness, giving him the ability to analyze the situation with cool rationality. His god perception was weak, but he sent it out to check the situation outside.

    Eventually, he sat up. As he did, his body and soul ached with intense pain, such that most people would go mad or pass out. But filled as he was with godliness, Xu Qing apparently didn¡¯t even notice it. However, it did take him quite a bit of time. In fact, it was only after twelve breaths of time passed that he was able to fully sit up.

    Taking out some of the broken face¡¯s blood, he consumed it, then closed his eyes and began meditating. He wanted to speed up his recovery as quickly as possible, and get his cultivation base back to its peak level. Simultaneously, he would use the time he had bought to wait for help toe.

    ***

    Floating Fiend was seated cross-legged on the other side of the bubble, his facepletely expressionless. A pair of rusty shears hovered overhead, shining with dim light. A terrifying mightiness circted within them. They created a power that could cut off anything from the outside world, and erase all signs of everything. It made it so that anyone observing the area would see nothing at all there. Even the shears were fundamentally not there.

    <i>This is quite an extraordinary defensive barrier. The only way to get past it is with that sageheaven god vine.</i>

    Three days had passed in which Floating Fiend had tried a variety of methods to break into the bubble. All had failed. With great force, he could walk twelve steps inside, but couldn¡¯t get any further. At that point, the force of rejection from the bubble was too much for him to sustain.

    <i>That doesn¡¯t mean there¡¯s no way to break inside, though. I just need to temper my Imperial Sovereign authority a bit more. All that will require is time. A hundred days should be enough. There¡¯s another possibility that could work right away, which would be to use the essence power of the shears.</i>

    Forcibly using the essence power of the shears would wear them down much more quickly. Or, if the effect was too severe, it could result in the shears disappearing entirely and returning to be part of a great dao. That was something he couldn¡¯t ept.

    Most importantly, when he was chasing Xu Qing, he had seen too many karma threads that he feared. He simply didn¡¯t dare to sever them directly. Besides, he had already tapped into some of the essence of the shears, specifically, the Grand Emperor might. That was how he had erected the temporary barrier of concealment.

    If he did more than that, the shears would likely melt, once again bing part of a great dao. Then he would never be able to use them again. And all the barriers he had created between himself and those terrifying karma threads would vanish.

    <i>If that happened, powerful experts would definitely show up right away. What¡¯s more, assimting his fleshly body will take time. Time that I wouldn¡¯t have in that scenario....</i>

    After a lot of thought, Floating Fiend focused his gaze on the dpidated pagoda inside the bubble. Gradually, his eyes started shining.

    <i>I can¡¯t quite ept failure. That¡¯s the flesh of the broken face! His body... is probably the only one like it in the world! Combine that with the stories I¡¯ve heard about immortal mercury, and it means that his fleshly body, despite having so much karma....</i>

    <i>Is probably the work of a Summer Immortal or possibly someone even more powerful than that! If I can get it, then I just need to stay hidden until the Emptystar holynd arrives. And then, even if that almighty individual gets greedy, he won¡¯t risk getting involved with Eminent Destion¡¯s karma. In other words, chances are he¡¯ll just let me do my thing....</i>

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    <i>With his protection, then this brat¡¯s karma can be wiped out easily. And the Vivifiend holynd will rise to new heights!</i>

    After a bit more thought, he made his decision.

    <i>I have three options. Maybe it¡¯ll be risky, but </i>those who search for the dao are born in the morning and die in the evening<i>. It¡¯ll be worth it. When destined opportunities are born, anything is possible.</i>[1]

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Floating Fiend closed his eyes. Almost at the exact same moment, a tremor passed through him, and a host of bloody flesh strands began to seep out of him and extend toward the bubble. They were so densely packed they were difficult to count, but there were definitely no less than 10,000,000.

    Soon, the bloody flesh strands had wrapped up the entire bubble, whereupon they started slowly pulling it toward him. It was as if they were trying to pull the bubble right up to him so he could absorb it!

    Floating Fiend paid very close attention to the process. However, what he was looking most closely at wasn¡¯t the absorption process. Instead, he was keeping an eye on the Grand Emperor¡¯s treasure floating overhead, as well as the surroundings. He was also checking to see if Xu Qing was doing anything.

    In that manner, time passed.

    ***

    The following day in the port at Seven Blood Eyes, Second Elder Sister sat in a Seventh Peak pagoda handling various sect matters.

    Because of the arrival of the Vivifiend holynd, and the interactions with the people from there, the situation in the Forbidden Sea seemed to be going smoothly on the outside, but in reality, was very tense. Seven Blood Eyes was active both in the continent of South Phoenix and in the Holytide Region, and was considered an apex power. As a result, they had more responsibilities to handle than before.

    Xu Qing was out training, Erniu seemed reluctant to leave his nonhuman friends, and Third Sib... was roaming the maind, sowing wild oats and disinclined toe back to the sect. Their Master was in seclusion, and the patriarch was experiencing young love for a second time....

    That meant that the only person left behind in Seven Blood Eyes to handle things was Second Elder Sister. Although the other mountain peaks offered a lot of support, it was obvious that the Seventh Peak was in charge of things.

    Second Elder Sister was busy every single day.

    It pained Huang Yan to see his beloved wife in such a situation. He kept herpany constantly, and the ttering look never left his face. He would asionally kneed her shoulders, would sometimes kneel to massage her legs, and would find time to put fresh fruit on her desk. He would even carefully peel pieces of fruit and ce them in Second Elder Sister¡¯s mouth. He took care of her in every possible way. At the moment, he was also cursing her fellow apprentices.

    ¡°The first time Iid eyes on that Chen Erniu, I knew he was a scoundrel. Now he just can¡¯t <i>bear</i> to part with those nonhumans, which directly leads to you being so busy, Elder Sister. Damn him! And then there¡¯s Third Sib. He¡¯s just as bad as Erniu. He¡¯s definitely going to die of exhaustion sooner orter! As for Ah Qing....¡±

    Huang Yan was going to continue speaking when Second Elder Sister suddenly looked up at him.

    Huang Yan cleared his throat. He knew that his wife wasn¡¯t very articte or expressive, but deep down, she cared deeply for her Master and fellow apprentices. He quickly changed his tone.

    ¡°Well, Erniu isn¡¯t <i>that</i> bad. And Third Sib is alright too. Ah Qing is the best, of course.... Speaking of which, I haven¡¯t been in touch with him for a few days.¡±

    Before Huang Yan could say anything else, his transmission jade slip vibrated. It wasn¡¯t just his. Second Elder Sister¡¯s jade slip also received an iing message. They took their jade slips out simultaneously, checked the message, and then looked at each other with serious expressions.

    The message was from Erniu. The Garmentfolk were a great distance away from South Phoenix, so Erniu had sent a message that needed to be routed through transmission portals in multiple prefectures before it finally arrived.

    <i>¡°I recently had an inexplicable uneasy feeling. It¡¯s like something really big happened. Second Sib and Second Brother-in-Law, is Little Ah Qing doing well with you two? I can¡¯t get in touch with him!¡±</i>

    Second Elder Sister immediately sent a voice message to Xu Qing. When she didn¡¯t get a response, she sent a message to Sir Bloodsmelter asking for any information. Herst interaction with Xu Qing had been a request for him to go check on their Grand-Master.

    The patriarch quickly responded. When Second Elder Sister saw the message, her expression turned grave, and she looked at Huang Yan.

    ¡°Fourth Sib went chasing after a godly entity and now nobody can get in touch with him!¡±

    Huang Yan yawned and smiled catingly. ¡°It¡¯s fine, really. There are a lot of things on the seafloor that can disrupt transmissions. It¡¯s totally normal. There aren¡¯t any godly entities that can pose a threat to that little punk. Besides, I gave him one of my feathers. If he runs into anything really dangerous, he would reach out to me. But since you¡¯re worried, I¡¯ll see if I can track him down.¡±

    Huang Yan cast his senses out to his feather. An instantter, his eyes went wide, and mes were visible within them. He couldn¡¯t sense his feather at all. Just looking at Second Elder Sister, he could sense the emotions roiling within her, so he stered a rxed smile onto his face.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I found him! The little punk ran into a sea beast that¡¯s on the verge of igniting godfire. I¡¯ll go take care of it right now.¡± With that, he turned to leave.

    ¡°Huang Yan,¡± Second Elder Sister said.

    He stopped in ce and turned to look at his wife with a genuine smile on his face.

    ¡°Bring Fourth Sib back,¡± she said softly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± With a heartyugh and a rxed facial expression, Huang Yan turned back around and kept walking. As soon as he was facing in the other direction, his expression turned extremely serious. An instantter, he was gone.

    ***

    Out on the Forbidden Sea, in a location not visible from Seven Blood Eyes, dark clouds roiled in the sky, obscuring the sun, and casting the sea into shadow. Endless lightning crashed in the clouds, and something that looked like a phoenix and an eagle could just barely be seen flying overhead. Its brown torso looked like a mountain boulder, and its feathers were like burning mes. Wherever it passed, the sky ignited.

    It was none other than me Phoenix. <i>What powerful entity is out there that blocked my senses?</i>

    1. The saying about ¡®those who search for the dao¡¯ has been used by the author before. Unfortunately, in past trantions not even I maintained consistency in how I rendered the phrase, much less the other trantors. In any case, it came up in <i><u>I Shall Seal the Heavens</u></i> in <u>chapters 597</u>, <u>631</u>, <u>1144</u>, <u>1145</u>. It alsoes up in <i>Pursuit of the Truth</i> in chapter 1422, as well as 12 times in <i><u>Renegade Immortal</u></i>, even being the chapter title of <u>chapter 317</u>. It didn¡¯t show up in <i><u>A Will Eternal</u></i> or <i>A World Worth Protecting</i>. ?

 Chapter 984: An Incoming Hurricane!

    <h4>Chapter 984: An Iing Hurricane!</h4>

    <i>¡°Something happened to Xu Qing!¡±</i>

    ck clouds seethed in the sky over the Forbidden Sea. Crimson fire billowed out in all directions, setting everything aze. It was a sky of fire now. As the mes dropped down onto the sea, the water itself filled with mes. It became an actual sea of fire.

    me Phoenix¡¯s aura apanied the mes as they spread through the dome of heaven and connected to the sea below. He was questioning heaven, questioning the sea, questioning the birds, and questioning the sea beasts in the water.

    <i>Where is he??</i>

    Countless thoughts began to stream into me Phoenix¡¯s consciousness. Gradually, the thoughts began to merge together as if to form aplete picture. Except... a power with no form, no reason, no result, and no will interrupted the thoughts. It came with no sound or voice, rippling and distorting everything, twisting the void, and causing the thoughts to be nothing but chaos.

    The me-wreathed entity that looked like part phoenix and part eagle soared through the sky, letting loose a cry that shook the heavens. A sound that surpassed heavenly thunder exploded out. It was like something that could smash all obstacles, and it caused the interference to instantly shatter.

    Next, hundreds of millions of sensations poured into me Phoenix¡¯s mind. Every single one... contained Xu Qing¡¯s aura, as well as traces of me Phoenix¡¯s feather. Those sensations came... from the fish in the Forbidden Sea, from the countless sea beasts, and even some godly entities. The distribution seemed endless, which obviously wasn¡¯t possible.

    <i>Whoever did this didn¡¯t actually erase my karma. It just scattered it all over the ce.</i>

    me Phoenix¡¯s heart sank. He knew full well that only a god or Imperial Sovereign could do something like this. His enormous frame dropped from the sky, smashed into the water, and sank down at a high rate of speed, wreathed in mes the whole time. The mutagen in the water evaporated, causing the water to change color. At the same time, hundreds of millions of sensations continued to flood into him.

    An incense stick of time passed.

    Countless entities affected by the karma wailed as they burst into phoenix mes and then crumbled into ashes. Backed by the power of the ashes, a low-pitched voice echoed through the Forbidden Sea.

    <i>¡°Turtle Shell the Arousing; Fish Guts the Clinging; Fishtail Offensive the Receptive! Nail the Creative; Halberd the Abysmal; Loom Threads the Gentle Gate! Evening Star the Sun; Malfunctioning Spirit; the Joyous Rises to the Look; Burden the Grass; Using Keeping Still to Seek!¡±</i>[1]

    The voice echoed loudly through the Forbidden Sea. The seafloor trembled, and huge waves formed on the surface. An ancient will apanied it, forming terrifying might filled with hundreds of millions of thoughts.

    <i>Find Xu Qing!</i>

    ***

    Deep on the seafloor, within the marine trench, was Floating Fiend, who had erased all traces of himself within the darkness. He was currently outside the bubble, which waspletely covered by his bloody flesh strands. As they slowly pulled the bubble toward him so he could absorb it, the sphere of flesh shrank down. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and the shears above his head vibrated.

    <i>Discovered so soon??</i>

    Floating Fiend¡¯s face fell, and he quickly performed an incantation gesture. A host of sealing marks flew into the shears, causing the Grand Emperor¡¯s treasure to tremble slightly before going calm. However, only a momentter, it started shaking again. What was more, the rust spots on it started to growrger. It looked like it might bust apart at any moment.

    Seeing that, Floating Fiend quickly bit the tip of his tongue and spat out some precious dao blood, whichnded on the shears. Blood-colored light shimmered on the shears, and the vibrating again ceased. Yet clearly, that wasn¡¯t enough. Only momentster, powerful fluctuations erupted from the shears.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes then shone with determination as he lifted his right hand and viciously grabbed his left arm. With a violent jerk, he ripped his arm off and sacrificed it to the shears. By means of the left arm, the shears released a massive amount of might.

    The authority of erasure in the shears emanated an ancient will, and the trembling ceased. Furthermore, it was locked in that state. However, the price paid, other than Floating Fiend losing an arm, was that a horrendous fissure appeared on the shears. It was something that could not be erased nor repaired.

    ***

    At the same time that the shears ceased trembling, me Phoenix looked up, his eyes shining brightly.

    <i>This person... has a Grand Emperor treasure! However, despite the fact that he erased all traces of himself, I can tell... where he¡¯s from!</i>

    me Phoenix looked over his shoulder at the Vivifiend holynd. In the brief moment of contact moments before, he had sensed the aura of that location. There was now no need to suppress the fire in his heart. As it erupted, mes burst out around him, and he shot in the direction of the Vivifiend holynd, immting the sky and sea alike as he did.

    mes raged everywhere.

    ***

    Back in the marine trench, the bubble in front of Floating Fiend, which was surrounded by his own flesh, had been pulled so close to him that he could suck it into his body. A momentter, a fleshy tumor appeared on his shoulder.

    Eyes narrowing, Floating Fiend spoke coldly into the tumor, saying, <i>¡°Next, I just need to assimte it.... It¡¯ll take some time. But now, you can¡¯t escape.¡±</i>

    With that, he stood and looked off into the distance. He was now considering what to do next. He didn¡¯t even consider going back to the Vivifiend holynd. Although the holynd might seem like a safe ce, he knew that what he had done couldn¡¯t be kept a secret forever. It just didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to go there. Besides, hiding at home wasn¡¯t a long-term solution.

    <i>The patriarch is aware of my dao. There¡¯s no need to exin things to him. He obviously approves. In that case... I suppose I should just go into hiding. On the one hand, I can assimte this little brat, and at the same time, I can just wait for the Emptystar holynd to get here with that almighty individual.</i>

    When Floating Fiend thought about the almighty individual from the Emptystar holynd, he shivered instinctively.

    <i>On the day that venerable individual arrives, it marks the beginning of the glory days of the holynds in Revered Ancient.</i>

    Turning, he shot off along the seafloor and vanished in the distance. As he moved along, he kept exerting pressure on the tumor on his shoulder as he assimted it.

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ***

    A tempest of fire raged across the Forbidden Sea as me Phoenix¡¯s wings pped. Astonishing might weighed down, along with terrifying pressure. And it was all focused on the Vivifiend holynd. The sky was crimson. The Forbidden Sea seemed to be burning endlessly.

    Large numbers of nonhumans on inds here and there looked up in the dome of heaven with wonder and astonishment. Beneath the surface of the sea, countless entities trembled.

    They were witnessing the rage of the South Phoenix!

    Things weren¡¯t limited to that, though. Erniu hadn¡¯t just sent a message to Second Elder Sister and Huang Yan. Because of the deep unease he felt, he had sent messages to lots of people. That included parties in Sea-Sealing County, the imperial capital of humankind, the Moonrite Region, and even to the Firemoon Darkheavens.... The contents of the jade slip were the same as what he sent to Second Elder Sister. Except there was one additional line.

    <i>¡°Something happened to Xu Qing!¡±</i>

    Those words spread through the east of Revered Ancient, creating... a massive hurricanerger than anything kicked up by me Phoenix!

    1. This passage is aplicated mix of all ten of the Heavenly Stems with all of the Eight Trigrams, plus a few other characters thrown in. Maybe the author had some reason for putting them together the way he did, or maybe he just put them together in a way that sounds cool to him in Chinese. I honestly don¡¯t know, as there is never any exnation or depiction of what it all means. My trantion choice involved taking the original oracle bone script meaning of the Heavenly Stems andbining them with the tranted meaning of the Eight Trigrams ording to Richard Wilhelm, and then also tranting the non-stem non-trigram words ording to their most basic meaning. If I were you, I wouldn¡¯t try to decipher the meaning based on the English. All of the stems and all of the trigrams have multiple meanings depending on how you interpret them. I think it¡¯s just supposed to sound like a cool divination/search spell. It doesn¡¯t rhyme, incidentally. Probably most notable are that the characters for ¡°search¡± and ¡°look (for)¡± are in there, making it clear that the intention of the passage is something rting to searching for Xu Qing. ?

 Chapter 985: Dramatic Events in the Forbidden Sea!

    <h4>Chapter 985: Dramatic Events in the Forbidden Sea!</h4>

    The phoenix flying over the Forbidden Sea shook all living beings.

    On this day, countless species on inds everywhere looked up to see heavenpletely obscured! A crimson glow reced the normal color of the sky. The surging tempest overhead reced the air. Burning fire took over the power of the waves. And everything was focused in one direction, bursting with killing intent and rage.

    ¡°The South Phoenix took to the sea!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s me Phoenix!¡±

    ¡°What happened to make me Phoenix so angry??¡±

    Voices full of both astonishment and reverence rose up in inds everywhere. Countless gazes focused on the dome of heaven, and the terrifying figure in the tempest there. Spections ran wild. But regardless, as of this moment... every species in the Forbidden Sea who saw what was happening were stricken with monumental levels of astonishment.

    And without even thinking about it, all of them started looking in the direction that the tempest was heading in.

    ***

    Above what had once been the Forbidden Sea was the mountain-like Vivifiend holynd. The mountain was so majestic that it was hard to see the top of it. And the base covered a massive area. Even from a distance, it was possible to see the mysterious magical symbols flowing just under the surface of the mountain. asionally, they would collide with each other, causing loud rumbling sounds to echo out. Some were faint. Some were like chants. Some were violent. Some were thunderous.

    The sounds came from the Vivifiend holynd¡¯s grand protective spell formation, which had been put in ce years ago by their peak Grand Emperor.

    Holynds were called holynds because they had Grand Emperors. Back when Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity departed Revered Ancient, the species that qualified to leave with him were naturally those who had Grand Emperors. Unfortunately, as time went by, for a variety of unknown reasons, the Grand Emperors perished.

    That was why the terrestrial-level holynds came to be. When a Grand Emperor carved out a holynd, then perished, and no new Grand Emperor seeded, then that holynd... was referred to as terrestrial-level.

    That was exactly what happened with the Vivifiend holynd. That said, though the Grand Emperor had perished long ago, the grand protective spell formation he put in ce had remained there for tens of thousands of years.

    Unfortunately, the fact that no Grand Emperor hade along to maintain and repair the formation, meant it had gradually weakened over the years that passed. Right now, it was far from what it had been at the peak of its mightiness. That didn¡¯t mean it was weak, though. The spell formation glittered brightly, and the thousands of kilometers of ice sludge on the surface of the Forbidden Sea trembled in response.

    Boats couldn¡¯t enter that area, and sea beasts didn¡¯t dare to go there. As a result, the entire location was like a mountainous ind in the middle of the Forbidden Sea.

    Couple that with the starry sky auraing off the mountain, and the incredibly ancient air, and it lent an indescribable grandeur to the ce. What was more, its interaction with the environment of Revered Ancient caused swirling mist to billow out from it. As that white mist spread out from the mountain in all directions, it created a strong contrast with the ck color of the Forbidden Sea. The end result was that, in the hearts of the many nonhumans on nearby inds, the ce was like an immortal paradise.

    But today... a devilish wind had picked up outside of that immortal realm, and it echoed with a devilish sound. That wind was made of fire, and it came from the south. When it appeared, the canopy of heaven turned as crimson as fresh blood. It was as if the end of days hade.

    Burning ck mist on the Forbidden Sea surged, as if innumerable demonic monsters were on the prowl, howling in gruish voices.

    That was only part of the devilish sound. The other part was the screaming of the wind. On this day, heaven howled, earth roared, and all living beings wept mournfully. The soundbined into a deafening, heaven-shaking, earth-shattering cry.

    The Vivifiend holynd bore the brunt of the sound. The thousands of kilometers of icy sludge melted instantly. The white mist surrounding it ignited, bing a part of the fire. And the raging wind quickly made the huge mountain clearly visible....

    The color red filled the canopy of heaven. zing mes covered the Forbidden Sea. The wind howled. And then all of that coalesced into the image of a majestic figure that looked like both a phoenix and an eagle, charging toward the Vivifiend holynd.

    The moment he appeared, the figure reached an enormous w out of the ck clouds. Surrounded by lightning, the w viciously flew toward the mountain! It seemed that the w was going to rip that mountain off the surface of the sea!

    me Phoenix¡¯s w was like the hand of a god. Where it went, the air shattered, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth, and the Forbidden Sea sank down. Terrifying might was joined by maddened rage, to spread out in all directions. The fiery mes spread out to cover the sea water and fill the sky. And of course, they enveloped the entire mountain. Intense rumbling sounds split the sky and shook the sea.

    The Vivifiend¡¯s mountain started trembling violently.

    However, that was when a cold snort coldly echoed out from within the mountain. At the same time, all of the mountain¡¯s magical symbols rose up into the air to create a shimmering shield of light. It was the grand protective spell formation.

    Light swirled dazzlingly in all directions. Within it were countless symbols, all of them radiating majestic power. In an instant, the defensive barrier formed by the shield of light was at maximum power, and it was fighting back against me Phoenix¡¯s w.

    Rumbling sounds echoed out everywhere. Ripples erupted into arge portion of the Forbidden Sea. Enormous waves surged out everywhere.

    me Phoenix¡¯s w couldn¡¯t reach the mountain, and instead mmed into the spell formation shield. Within the formation, the Vivifiends were stunned, and looked out in astonishment at me Phoenix, who obscured heaven on the other side of the formation.

    As they reeled, an old man appeared at the top of the mountain. He was the peak Imperial Sovereign patriarch of the Vivifiend species. He looked through the shield at the outside world. He knew who me Phoenix was, and was aware of his status in the continent of South Phoenix. And he was able to instantly assess his strength and current state.

    It fell in line with his previous judgment regarding the strength of the phoenix. However, when it came to his current state, he wasn¡¯t sure what to make of it.

    <i>He could be considered an extremely rare mutant entity in Revered Ancient, and even the starry sky in general. He has terrifying godsource, and yet, does not have any of Eminent Destion¡¯s karma.... He is walking the path of gods, and yet... hasn¡¯t ignited any godfire!</i>

    <i>He¡¯s contending with our grand protective spell formation with no godfire, only his own godsource. The level of might on disy isn¡¯t quite at the level of an Altar God, nor a Grand Emperor. But I¡¯m afraid he¡¯s roughly on par with me....</i>

    <i>How did he do this? To get to a level like this with godsource reserves alone, and no godfire? I¡¯ve never even heard of anything like that. And if he did ignite his godfire....</i>

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Patriarch Vivifiend looked iparably serious.

    <i>Reserve powers as profound as that could be considered exceptional.... This mutant entity has some extremely high ambitions. Does he want to build up enough reserves to unleash them all at one time, ignite godfire, and be a first-level True God?</i>

    <i>Except, I can sense... ws! He¡¯s stuck! Some unknown entity trapped him in the continent of South Phoenix in this sea, making it impossible for him to go too far away from it. In order to be a first-level True God, he has to break out of that trap?</i>

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Patriarch Vivifiend spoke in a solemn voice that echoed like thunder. ¡°Fellow Daoist me Phoenix, you¡¯re clearly angry. But you still need to exin yourself.¡±

    ¡°Hand over Xu Qing!¡± me Phoenix responded in a simrly thunderous voice as his w pressed down onto the spell formation shield.

    ¡°Xu Qing?¡± Patriarch Vivifiend replied. He had alreadye up with some spections as to why Floating Fiend hade out of seclusion. However, Floating Fiend represented the future of the Vivifiend holynd. He was the individual the patriarch had selected to keep the species safe going into the future, and was in fact the <i>only</i> person who could do it. That made him more important than any other individual in their species.

    That was especially true considering that the patriarch had a lingering wound, which would never heal. In fact, it was urate to say that even if all the other Vivifiends died, as long as Floating Fiend survived, the species could continue. Otherwise, if the patriarch lived out his days and Floating Fiend perished, then the Vivifiend holynd... wouldn¡¯t continue on for much longer afterward.

    There were quite a few other holynds which had long been eyeing the Vivifiends. ording to the holynds¡¯ records, over the tens of thousands of years that had passed, all of the other holynds that lost their Imperial Sovereigns ended up being split up and divided amongst the others.

    <i>Isn¡¯t that what happened to the Fardark holynd?</i> [1]

    He couldn¡¯t help but sigh inwardly at what was obviously a very thorny problem. In fact, it was downright deadly. But he also knew that Floating Fiend wasn¡¯t an idiot, so whatever he had done, he had likely weighed the potential benefits and consequences.

    <i>There must be something about Xu Qing that Floating Fiend felt was such a potential asset to our species that he was willing to risk his life over it.</i>

    Patriarch Vivifiend frowned and put a surprised look onto his face.

    ¡°This Xu Qing you¡¯re talking about. Is he the region lord of the Holytide and Nightspirit Regions?¡±

    As he spoke, he took out a jade slip and pressed down on it gently, causing a host of images to appear above it. They were individuals the Vivifiends had gathered information about recently. One of them was none other than Xu Qing.

    ¡°Fellow Daoist me Phoenix, is this the human you¡¯re talking about? I¡¯ve never met him before.¡± He turned to look at his holynd. ¡°Have any of you met him before?¡±

    All of the Vivifiends shook their heads.

    ¡°You see, Fellow Daoist me Phoenix,¡± the patriarch said calmly, ¡°you¡¯re actually being a bit of a bully here. Did you ever consider that you might have gone looking in the wrong direction?¡±

    However, the moment the words left his mouth, killing intent red in me Phoenix¡¯s eyes. pping his wings, he flew high up into the dome of heaven. After reaching a certain height, he wheeled around and dove down trailing fire like a meteor! The entire process went very smoothly, and he didn¡¯t lose an ounce of momentum. The air shattered, heaven shook and earth trembled, the sea water boiled, and a terrifying aura built up. The surrounding mes wentpletely wild.

    When Patriarch Vivifiend saw that, his heart sank, but his eyes glittered. His immediate n was to bolster the power of the spell formation and absorb me Phoenix¡¯s attack.

    Except that was when intense rumbling sounds could be heard as a massive teleportation portal opened up in the middle of the air.

    The aura of the Moonrite Region erupted out with wild and violent force. Along with it came a cold voice, like a stream of sword energy that could slice through heaven and earth.

    ¡°So what if it¡¯s bullying? We¡¯ll find out if this is the right person or not after we step through!¡±

    Out stepped Ninth Sib from the Moonrite Region, who was also known as Grandpa Ninth. He clearly had a Smoldering God cultivation base, but at the moment, he was pulsing with a ferocity that could threaten Imperial Sovereigns.

    Behind him came the Heir Apparent, Princess Brightblossom, Princess Fifth, and Eighth Sib. All of them pulsed with immense energy and raging authority that was vastly beyond what they had been like years ago. Li Zihua¡¯s children had Smoldering God authority that earned them the praise of Dark Serenity back in the day, which was why they had each been considered a chosen. In the past, they had been tormented by Crimson Mother, but after being freed, how could they possibly be considered ordinary!

    Here they were! After getting Erniu¡¯s message and learning that something happened to Xu Qing, they hade as quickly as possible. They had also brought the Moonrebel Congregation¡¯s precious treasure with them.

    What was even more astonishing was something that Xu Qing or Erniu would have noticed immediately if they were present. They all pulsed with the aura of Li Zihua!

    Ling¡¯er hurried after them anxiously, a furious re on her face as she looked at the holynd.

    Seeing that, me Phoenix stopped in ce.

    And that was because the moment the Moonrite contingent appeared, more majestic teleportation portals opened up. Countless cultivators poured out, all of them bursting with killing intent. It was a huge army from the Holytide Region! They were here to rescue their region lord! Among them were countless Nightshade high priests d in violet robes, with violet moon totems on their foreheads. They... were from the Violet Moon temple, there to fight for the Violet Lord!

    What happened next caused the Vivifiend cultivators to reel, and sent Patriarch Vivifiend¡¯s heart racing.

    An even more majestic teleportation portal glittered into being above the holynd. A terrifying destiny aura power emerged from the portal, spreading through the area as a massive army of cultivators stormed out, virtually exploding with killing intent. Leading them was King Firecrusher!

    And things weren¡¯t even over yet....

    That was because the aura of a god began to emerge from time itself!

    Dramatic events were unfolding on the Forbidden Sea!

    1. The story of the Fardark holynd was told in<u> chapter 919</u>. ?

 Chapter 986: Godly Edict in the East

    <h4>Chapter 986: Godly Edict in the East</h4>

    The sky rumbled, flowing like rippling fish scales, an effect that spread as far as the eye could see. It was as if some immense being were crushing the clouds and causing them to fall like flower petals down to the earth below. The dew in the clouds became like a timescape river, sweeping up the waves of time and then causing them to pause right over the Vivifiend holynd.

    Pressure weighed down on the mountain, the cultivators inside the mountain, and on the sea in all directions. The Vivifiend holynd trembled, and ripples flowed out across the surface of their spell formation shield. The cultivators there were shaken and trembling down to their souls.

    The water in the area sank down, forming a massive whirlpool that reached all the way down to the broken ruins of Forbidden by the Zombie.

    It was profoundly eye-catching. But what was even more eye-catching were the waves in the dome of heaven, and the god that was emerging. This god had a godly aura that created an imperial robe. Destiny aura made an imperial crown above an expressionless face. Godfire roiled left and right, filled with a powerful air of death.

    The god had two eyes that were as calm as dead water. That water was dead, but there was something terrifying beneath the surface that, if it were to erupt, would send out heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing force.

    This was the godly authority of battle! The god that had emerged was one of the five zombie gods of humankind. This was... Emperor Eastglory!

    When h¨¥ stepped out, h¨©s eyes were closed. But when th¨¥y opened, th¨¥y were pitch-ck. At the same time, a sensation of destruction and power erupted within h¨©m. H¨¥ was looking right at the Vivifiend holynd.

    The holynd trembled as Eastglory¡¯s voice echoed out.

    ¡°These are the words of Empress Summer Departure, who wishes to ask the Vivifiend holynd: Considering your species has polluted the karma of Imperial Tutor Xu Qing, does this mean you wish for your entire species to die?¡±

    Eastglory¡¯s voice rang out like heavenly thunder. Summer Departure was the empress¡¯ new imperial name.

    All of the Vivifiends in the holynd were terrified. Only Patriarch Vivifiend reacted with a mere frown. He opened his mouth to speak.

    But then, in the River of Time in the dome of heaven, waves rolled out and the river water turned ck as a sinister sensation erupted from within. Astonishingly, a host of corpses appeared within the river, howling in anguish.

    Simrly, a never-ending host of corpses appeared within the Forbidden Sea. Forbidden by the Zombie seemed to be shaking with exceptional intensity. It was almost as if it were on the verge of awakening. And that was because the iing darkness was a godly authority from theherworld.

    The aura of death spread, and from within the ck river water overhead, a god emerged. This god also had a godly aura as an imperial robe, with an imperial crown made of destiny aura.

    This was none other than Emperor Dark War! Of the five zombie emperors of humankind... two were present!

    Countless Vivifiends were shaking uncontrobly within their holynd. Patriarch Vivifiend¡¯s heart had sunk even further, and inside, he was sighing continuously. His gaze was focused on whaty outside the spell formation.

    To the east was the seemingly endless army from Sea-Sealing County, all waiting inbat readiness. Clearly, a singlemand would send them out to crush anything in their path. To the south was King Firecrusher, killing intent raging, an army of human soldiers behind him pulsing with baleful auras. To the north was the contingent from the Moonrite Region, imposing, threatening, and deadly. To the west... were two gods, with mightiness that shook heaven and rocked the sea. Up above was me Phoenix, who had ceased his dive, but whose outstretched wings would shock the highest heavens.

    Boundless killing intent from all directions was all weighing down on the Vivifiend holynd. And they had alle because of Xu Qing!

    Patriarch Vivifiend could only sigh as his fear intensified.

    Yet, there were still more people on the way!

    The canopy of heaven was split open by a giant that was several tens of thousands of meters tall. It grinned viciously at the Vivifiend holynd as it held open the rift in heaven to reveal the world beyond. Astonishingly, what was visible on the other side of the rift was God Mountain, home to the three gods of the Firemoons. Though separated by the rift, the godly aura from there was still terrifying. Then a cold voice drifted out from God Mountain, through the rift, and down to the Forbidden Sea.

    ¡°Whoever harms our Grand Darkheaven makes an enemy of the Firemoon Darkheavens!¡±

    The words affected the Forbidden Sea itself, causing currents of water to slow. And the Vivifiend holynd¡¯s spell formation began to tremble.

    Patriarch Vivifiend had a very serious expression on his face. He knew exactly who the Firemoon Darkheavens were, and was aware that Sunfire, Moonfire, and Starfire were all terrifying wless Gods. The events that were ying out were now enabling him to personally understand the truth about this Xu Qing, whom he had only heard about from reports up to this point. In the east of Revered Ancient, Xu Qing... was a very significant and important person.

    Floating Fiend had trifled with someone he shouldn¡¯t have trifled with. Patriarch Vivifiend understood that now. Except... if he admitted fault right now, then it wouldn¡¯t matter whether Xu Qing was currently alive or dead. Floating Fiend... would perish. If Floating Fiend hadn¡¯t be an Imperial Sovereign already, then it would have been a simple matter. The patriarch could just track him down and do what needed to be done to resolve the situation. After all, his death wouldn¡¯t have been significantpared to the survival of the species.

    <i>But... as soon as Floating Fiend became an Imperial Sovereign, he became vitally important to the species.</i>

    Having reached this point in his train of thought, Patriarch Vivifiend sighed again. He knew that there was no way to determine the truth of the situation right now. But no matter which angle he analyzed the situation from, and no matter how much of a disadvantage he was in, he needed to protect Floating Fiend. It was the most sensible thing among all the insensible options.

    <i>Floating Fiend, I sure hope you made the right decision.</i>

    Taking a deep breath, he looked at the forces arrayed against him. ¡°I am the patriarch of the Vivifiend holynd, and I hereby swear upon the dao that I have never seen this Xu Qing that you seek. Xu Qing has nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with our holynds. My species¡ª¡±

    Before he could finish speaking, his face fell, and he backed up, his cultivation base powering up.

    He had taken me Phoenix seriously from the beginning. Moonrite couldn¡¯t be underestimated. Sea-Sealing County and the human army caused his heart to sink. The arrival of the two gods from humankind made things very tricky. And the Firemoons were terrifying. But as of this moment, he was truly bbergasted!

    The moment he backed up, a woman¡¯s hand appeared outside the holynd¡¯s spell formation. It pushed down gently on the shield.

    The moment that happened, the spell formation emitted rumbling sounds that quickly grew deafening, followed by loud cracking sounds. Crack spread out from the palm, quickly sweeping over the shield to create what looked like a spider web. As the entire mountain swayed back and forth, immense amounts of spirit energy poured into it to make repairs.

    But the pressure from the hand stopped all of that. A domineering will crushed down with heaven-rending, earth-crushing force.

    At its height, the spell formation that had protected the Vivifiend holynd for tens of thousands of years couldn¡¯t have been broken open by anyone other than a Grand Emperor. But it had be rundown over the years, losing much of its power. And since a second Grand Emperor had never appeared among the Vivifiends, it had never been repaired.

    As a result, the power of that hand was pushing it toward the brink of what it could sustain. The formation started cracking like a broken mirror....

    Intense rumbling sounds exploded out. The formation shattered, and the shrapnel became a tempest that raged directly onto the holynd itself.

    Patriarch Vivifiend¡¯s expression flickered wildly as he threw his hands out and unleashed the power of his cultivation base in an attempt to block it. In the end he managed to block a portion of the tempest. But about thirty percent of the shrapnel hit the holynd.

    The mountain quaked as crevices opened up all over it. The peak itself was wiped out. As for the Vivifiends... many of them didn¡¯t even have a chance to react before they were shredded into ashes.

    Only then did the owner of that hand slowly appear.

    In that instant of revtion, everyone, be they in the east, west, south or north, regardless if they were from Sea-Sealing, Holytide, or Moonrite, bowed their heads. That included me Phoenix.

    ¡°Greetings, Empress!¡±

    This person was none other than Empress Summer Departure of humankind. It was not the empress in the flesh, though, but rather, a projection. Even still, the Altar God might that weighed down was astonishing.

    Sh¨¥ stood as straight and tall as a mountain, surrounded by swirling destiny aura and dazzling light. Looking down at the rubble of the spell formation, the devastated holynd, and the pale-faced Patriarch Vivifiend, sh¨¥ calmly said, ¡°You¡¯re right, Xu Qing isn¡¯t here. And you don¡¯t have anything to do with him. But you have another Imperial Sovereign involved. Plus a third person. Since you¡¯d clearly rather die than cooperate, your Vivifiend holynd will hereby be sealed. And if Xu Qing is dead, then this ce will be your tomb.¡±

    With that, Altar God sealing power descended onto the Vivifiend holynd as well as every member of the species. It became like chains.

    The patriarch was no exception. After being wrapped up in the chains, and feeling the immense pressure, all of the Vivifiends werepelled to drop to their knees. Some of them coughed up blood, and seemed like they might explode.

    The patriarch trembled and tried to resist the pressure. His head swam.... Finally, he bowed his head.

    The empress stood, looking into the depths of the Forbidden Sea, in the general direction of the continent of South Phoenix. A few breaths of time passed in which sh¨¥ seemed very thoughtful.

    Then sh¨¥ looked away and coolly said, ¡°Send an imperial decree throughout the east of Revered Ancient. Seal all borders. No teleports will be permitted. No traveling. No crossing between regions. Whoever finds Imperial Tutor Xu Qing will be awarded with a destined opportunity leading to godfire. All shall heed this order, including heaven, earth, rivers,kes, nts, vegetation, living beings, heavenly daos, and gods!¡±

    The empress¡¯ words were heard throughout the east of Revered Ancient, as well as the Forbidden Sea. Countless living beings trembled in response. Godly entities stirred excitedly, and numerous nonhumans suddenly started thinking about the potential benefit to be had.

    What happened next, though, shook everyone in the east of Revered Ancient even more deeply. Words echoed out from the direction of the Firemoons.

    ¡°Let the east of Revered Ancient heed the dharmic decree of the Firemoons. All living beings including gods will respect these words. Find our Grand Darkheaven Xu Qing. The reward is a destined opportunity leading to godfire.¡±

    Humankind issued a degree. The Firemoons issued a decree. The two decrees ovepped, bing the most paramount level of will possible in the east of Revered Ancient.

    The echo of the words became like an asteroid mming into the sea, sending out endless waves that became a tsunami and a hurricane at the same time. Every location in the east of Revered Ancient was abuzz. Even going back countless years to ancient times, nothing like this had ever happened in the east of Revered Ancient. People everywhere were going crazy for godfire, and as a result, were searching for Xu Qing!

    That was especially true of the godly entities, who were more active than ever before. Gods were no exceptions. This was a destined opportunity leading to godfire! And not just leading to the chance to ignite it, but to the fire itself.

    ***

    Deep in the Forbidden Sea, Floating Fiend had erased all traces of himself, and had even disguised himself as a human as he made his way carefully along. He had also transformed the tumor on his shoulder so that it looked like a huge sword strapped to his back.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Projecting his voice, he said, <i>¡°That pagoda you¡¯re in might be mysterious, you little brat. But there are some things which are simply foreordained.¡±</i>

    Inside that ¡®sword¡¯ was the pagoda, and inside of the pagoda, Xu Qing sat with his eyes closed as he meditated.

 Chapter 987: Floating Fiendâ€™s Pressure

    <h4>Chapter 987: Floating Fiend¡¯s Pressure</h4>

    ¡°Xu Qing has gone missing!¡±

    ¡°The humans issued a dharmic decree saying that whoever finds Xu Qing will have a destined opportunity leading to godfire!¡±

    ¡°The Firemoons issued a simr decree to all the gods in the east!¡±

    The dharmic decrees issued by humankind and the Firemoon Darkheaven people, and especially the rewards offered, instantly sparked a hugemotion in Revered Ancient. It was like a wind that started in the Forbidden Sea, blowing from South Phoenix into Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. From there, it filled Sea-Sealing County and then the Holytide Region. Eventually, it became a hurricane that covered everything in the east.

    In the east of Revered Ancient, all the regions, all the counties, all the prefectures, all the species, all the organizations, and all the sects, whether they were righteous or evil... were all hit by astronomicallyrge waves of shock. Everyone issued orders to start looking for Xu Qing.

    Almost immediately, figures shot out from species and groups, scattering in all directions to start the search. Some experts with high cultivation bases used their respective organizations¡¯ prized treasures to expand the area they could search. Sects and species alike mobilized their members to join the ranks of the search.

    The east of Revered Ancient was buzzing. At any given moment, countless cultivators were out looking for Xu Qing.

    nts and vegetation. Mountains and rivers. Heaven and earth. Countless godly entities. All were going mad. A destined opportunity leading to godfire was inherently an astonishing level of good fortune. After all, the process of igniting godfire was incredibly difficult, and the ceremony involved was veryplex. There was a lot of uncertainty involved, plus it required extensive preparation and precious materials. In addition to all that, there were a host of variables.

    Whether it was Crimson Mother¡¯s godchild or the grand steward of the Firemoon Darkheaven people, both had failed despite all their best efforts. From that it could be seen how difficult the process was.

    But as of now, the human empress had shifted from the path of cultivators to the path of gods. Sh¨¥ was now a first-level Altar God, whose words could surpass natural and magicalws. H¨¥r story had already spread through Revered Ancient, so when sh¨¥ said sh¨¥ would give a destined opportunity that could lead to godfire, then it meant the chances of sess were incredibly high.

    Add in the Firemoon dharmic decree, and it made that destined opportunity even more enticing, and led to a level of madness among countless entities.

    An Altar God and three wless Gods were jointly offering a destined opportunity to reach godfire.... For all intents and purposes that meant that the chances of sess were as close to 100% as could be possible!

    Many godly entities couldn¡¯t hold back from roaring as they burst into motion to join the search. There were even gods in the Godfire level who felt simrly. Wherever th¨¥irirs were, th¨¥y woke up and sent out th¨¥ir godly auras to scour the east of Revered Ancient. To th¨¥m, it wasn¡¯t a matter of malicious intentions or good ones. It wasn¡¯t a matter of being righteous or evil. All th¨¥y cared about was attaining omniscience! And omniscience came from improving a god¡¯s personhood. Finding Xu Qing would just take such gods one step closer to omniscience.

    Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that on this day, the east of Revered Ancient exploded because of Xu Qing. No one didn¡¯t hear about what was happening. No one was unaware.

    The reserve powers being tapped into ensured that Xu Qing¡¯s name, though already in the forefront, now glittered even more brilliantly than before, like a star shining above Revered Ancient.

    The majestic hurricane raging in the east was obviously noticed in other locations in Revered Ancient. And that ensured that Xu Qing¡¯s name spread even farther. Organizations throughout the maind could truly sense that the east... was home to a peak level of power.

    And that power came from the humans and the Firemoons.

    To the Rend Nobleplexuses, the Northfate Kings, and the Netherworld Chasmcorpses, this search for Xu Qing was symbolic of something else. What it truly signified was... the first demonstration of the power and will of the alliance of humankind and Firemoon Darkheavens! Domineering might was being revealed in the east of Revered Ancient! That might was truly shaking things in all directions. The Rend Nobleplexuses and other top species could sense it very clearly.

    There were others who could sense it as well. And they were the other terrestrial-level holynds simr to the Vivifiend holynd. They immediately ordered the members of their own species to return to their respective holynds and keep a low profile. Now was not the time for any of them to cause trouble and incite disaster.

    This disy of power by humankind and the Firemoons resulted in a huge search for Xu Qing. It was a hurricane that just kept getting bigger and bigger until it surpassed the will of heaven, and in fact, everything else. Actually, the discussions among various organizations became part of the growing hurricane.

    For example, out on the Forbidden Sea in a spot somewhat close to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture was an ind upied by the Seamammoths. The chatter in their marketces was a microcosm of what was happening throughout the east of Revered Ancient.

    The Seamammoths were generally humanoid in appearance, but didn¡¯t look like humans much at all. For one thing, their average height was about three meters. They were green from head to toe, were covered with dense scales, and had long trunks that hung down their chest, simr to those of elephants. Surrounding their trunks were masses of tentacles that made them look very gruish and ferocious. Despite their appearance, they were actually more kind and gentle than some of the violent species on the Forbidden Sea. That, coupled with the fact that theirnds were close to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, ensured that theirnds were a popr spot formerce on the open sea.

    The marketces on their inds were usually filled with cultivators from a variety of species. At the moment, the marketces were bustling, with a cacophony of voices filling the air. While many people were doing business, there were also a lot of people discussing the news about Xu Qing.

    ¡°This fellow Xu Qing was actually famous in the Forbidden Sea years ago!¡±

    ¡°Hees from the continent of South Phoenix, and was a disciple of South Phoenix. Over the decades, he¡¯s slowly be a legend!¡±

    ¡°It really defies imagination that someone like him would go missing and cause such amotion!¡±

    ¡°This situation is totally crazy!¡±

    ¡°This one person has thrown the east of Revered Ancient intoplete chaos!¡±

    As the discussions raged, there was one particr middle-aged human cultivator who was making his way through one of the markets. He who wore tight clothing, had a big sword strapped to his back, and he pulsed with the fluctuations of the great circle of Foundation Establishment. As he heard the talk around him, his expression remained neutral. He just listened and walked.

    He was none other than Floating Fiend. Although he had concealed all traces of himself including his karma, he still needed to go out and get information about what was going on in the world, including matters rted to himself.

    Though me Phoenix¡¯s search had ultimately failed, Floating Fiend could sense that he was in great danger. That was why he hade to this ce. In the course of his eavesdropping, he eventually heard people in the marketce talking about what happened at the Vivifiend holynd.

    ¡°Holynd shmolynd!¡±

    ¡°That Vivifiend holynd was acting all kind and virtuous before. But they were obviously harboring evil intentions. How bold and reckless of them to be involved in Xu Qing¡¯s disappearance.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯replete idiots! Didn¡¯t they even take a minute to consider who Xu Qing is?¡±

    ¡°me Phoenix himself stepped in to help Xu Qing. A huge army from Sea-Sealing County came to take the lead, and top experts from the Moonrite Region came as well. The army from the imperial capital showed up, along with the three gods from the Firemoons and two human gods!¡±

    ¡°Even the human empress stepped in, crushing the defenses of that holynd with one blow, and crushing their patriarch. Ultimately, the entire holynd was sealed!¡±

    ¡°Did you hear what the empress said in the end? If Xu Qing perishes, the holynd will be a tomb!¡±

    ¡°The empress¡¯ words were about as domineering as you can get.¡±

    ¡°I know which words you¡¯re talking about. <i>In the east of Revered Ancient, all shall heed this order, including heaven, earth, rivers,kes, nts, vegetation, living beings, heavenly daos, and gods!¡±</i>

    Enthusiastic conversations were going on everywhere. Nobody seemed to notice that one particr middle-aged human cultivator who looked visibly shocked.

    <i>¡°So, it seems your name is Xu Qing,¡±</i> he projected into the sword with divine will.

    Inside the dpidated pagoda, Xu Qing calmly opened his eyes. Although he couldn¡¯t sense what was happening outside, he was able to make an educated guess based on what Floating Fiend had just said. Voice cool, he responded, <i>¡°The fact you know my name seems to indicate news has spread about me going missing. In that case... it makes you wonder how your Vivifiend holynd is doing right now.¡±</i>

    Floating Fiend said nothing in return. The news he had heard about his home caused killing intent to swirl within him. But at the same time, he felt immeasurable pressure weighing down on him.

    Back when he started chasing Xu Qing, he¡¯d known that he was pursuing someone important. That was obvious given the terrifying karma threads. As a result, he had prepared himself mentally beforeing out. However... the fact that this incident had resulted in such a dramatic situation in the east of Revered Ancient was a bit too much for him.

    <i>For that empress to be able to destroy a holynd''s grand spell formation with a single blow would require a cultivation base of Grand Emperor at the very minimum.... And they¡¯re also talking about the three gods of the Firemoons. I¡¯m not sure what level those gods are. In any case, the fact they issued decrees that stirred up the entire eastern portion of Revered Ancient means that this situation has be very tricky indeed....</i>

    Floating Fiend¡¯s heart just kept sinking as he stood there on the ind. Feeling very uneasy, he turned to leave. But then, a frown appeared on his face as he looked off into the distance.

    All of a sudden, the ind trembled. The shaking filled the ind, causing even the mountains to sway back and forth. Countless cultivators looked around in pure astonishment as the rumbling sounds turned deafening. Then, a huge head rose up from the water just outside of the ind.

    The head resembled that of a crocodile, and was about as big as half of the entire ind. ¨©t had ck scales and emanated a terrifying godliness that turned into a massive pressure over the ind. Huge waves surged out in all directions.

    The Seamammoths looked over in abject terror. But after only a moment, they seemed to realize what was going on, and they quickly dropped to their knees and bowed, crying out to their god. At the same time, their high priest flew out excitedly to offer pious obeisance.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    This godly entity was the ¡®god¡¯ that they had worshiped for years on end. However, for many years, this godly being had been little more than a legend, and no matter what calls they issued, never appeared in person. There were even times when their species had been forced to relocate to different inds due to the threat of extinction, and yet, the god never showed up.

    Even the high priest had started to believe that the godly entity they worshiped was nothing more than a legend invented by their earliest ancestors.

    But now... the god had actually appeared! The moment the god was visible, a boundless divine will spread out, almost like a terrifying roar.

    <i>¡°Ye shalt... find... Xu Qing... for me!¡±</i>

    As soon as the divine will spread out, every member of the Seamammoth people prostrated, their minds spinning. At the same time, they instinctively acknowledged the orders. The godly entity¡¯s divine will swept back and forth on the ind for a moment. Then the god sank back down into the sea to continue ¨©ts own search.

    Floating Fiend disappeared the moment the godly entity showed up. After vanishing, he reappeared deep on the seafloor, his expression dour. The news had been bad enough. But then he saw an actual godly entity on the prowl, and he knew full well it wasn¡¯t an isted incident.

    The words he had heard spoken on the Seamammoth ind kept reverberating in his mind.

    <i>¡°In the east of Revered Ancient, all shall heed this order, including heaven, earth, rivers,kes, nts, vegetation, living beings, heavenly daos, and gods!¡±</i>

    However, a momentter, Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes shone with cold determination.

    <i>Alright, let¡¯s see how wide your search for Xu Qing will really spread. Can you really issue orders that all living beings will follow??</i>

 Chapter 988: Floating Fiend Breaks Down

    <h4>Chapter 988: Floating Fiend Breaks Down</h4>

    Simr to the Holytide Region, the Southisle Region bordered the sea. In the wilderness there, Floating Fiend raced along, this time disguised as a nonhuman. He had been traveling in disguise for two days.

    At first, he had intended to go along the seafloor until he reached the outer sea. It seemed to him that if the search for Xu Qing was going on in the east of Revered Ancient, then the outer sea would be a safe ce to hide out. The outer sea was a dangerous ce; it wasn¡¯t somewhere to enter blithely. But it seemed like the perfect ce to stay out of sight.

    Unfortunately, when he realized that there was some sort of invisible sealing magic separating the inner and outer seas, he eventually had to give up on that n. That sealing magic came from the orders issued by humankind and the Firemoon Darkheaven people. By using godly might to manipte naturalws, they sealed all exit routes. Getting too close to that magic would make it difficult to keep his disguise up. After studying it very closely, his heart sank.

    Ultimately, he turned and went in the opposite direction.

    His next n had been to just hide out on the seafloor. But during the two days that had passed, he sensed the streams of divine will scouring the seafloor increasing constantly. There were more of them and they were more densely packed as time went on. It was as if all the godly entities in the sea were joining the search.

    Even the water itself gave Floating Fiend a very strange feeling, as if the currents around him were somehow growing in number.

    <i>And then there¡¯s that me Phoenix, who seems to be scanning the sea constantly. If things keep going on like this, the Grand Emperor¡¯s treasure won¡¯tst much longer.... I need to get out of this area!</i>

    The sense of pressure and danger eventually forced Floating Fiend to give up on his idea of going to the outer sea, and also his n to stay hidden on the seafloor. That was what led him, not to Sea-Sealing County, but to the Southisle Region.

    There weren¡¯t many human forces in the Southisle Region. Instead, the ce was controlled by seven mid-sized nonhuman species. Normally speaking, they didn¡¯t have much contact with outsiders, and thus, the area had a reputation for being istionist.

    The terrain in the region was primarily mountainous, although there was a huge desert on the border. The region seemed like the perfect ce to hide out, except, for that very reason, it was the subject of a lot of attention in the search for Xu Qing. Sadly, Floating Fiend had no other good options.

    <i>The upside is that, even though this ce is in the east, it isn¡¯t controlled by humans....</i>

    Keeping such thoughts in mind, Floating Fiend entered the region. As he traveled, he continued to change his appearance every so often, and made sure to sever all traces of his passage, as well as any karma. And thus, he proceeded carefully through the mountainous wilderness.

    All the while, he continued assimting the dpidated pagoda in the hopes of getting to Xu Qing, who was inside. Sadly for him, the pagoda was mysteriously powerful, and the bubble¡¯s force of rejection kept resisting him. The assimtion process was going very slowly.

    That just increased Floating Fiend¡¯s anxiety. He was particrly frustrated by Xu Qing. He had only said one thing to Xu Qing earlier, only for Xu Qing to use that to deduce some important information. Over the following days, Xu Qing had resisted him with greater intensity, and had asionally attempted to send out messages via divine will. Though he managed to sever all such streams of divine will, preventing them from going out, they still left him feeling increasingly glum.

    Xu Qing, still seated in a cross-legged position, was now about half recovered from his injuries. At a certain point, he sent out a message via divine will.

    <i>¡°You didn¡¯t answer myst question. I guess that just proves that your Vivifiend holynd is in a bad situation.¡±</i>

    He got no answer.

    <i>¡°I suppose another possibility is that... it doesn¡¯t exist anymore.¡±</i> Xu Qing¡¯s expression was cid. With godliness dominant within him, he was iparably rational. Thus, despite the fact that he wasn¡¯t a person who liked to talk much, he knew that his only way of getting information about the outside world was to interact with this Imperial Sovereign. <i>¡°That means that you must be on the run right now, being chased by humans. You¡¯re probably looking for a good hiding ce.¡±</i>

    Floating Fiend was no fool, and therefore, no matter what Xu Qing said to him, he didn¡¯t provide any response or feedback. And yet, his heart only continued to sink and sink.

    Thankfully, his impression of the Southisle Region turned out to be mostly correct. Even after traveling through it for a few days, he didn¡¯t encounter any streams of divine will searching the ce. After weighing all the options, he finally picked a cave in which he sat down cross-legged to hide and focus on assimting the dpidated pagoda.

    However, his moment of peace and quiet onlysted for a few hours. As night approached, rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth outside of Floating Fiend¡¯s cave as several streams of divine will swept through the area. All of them came from powerful experts.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes opened, and they shone with the utmost vignce. About six hourster, the divine will moved on. However, before Floating Fiend could breathe a sigh of relief, an even more terrifying will arrived, apanied by a godly might that could crush anything in its path.

    It filled the area, causing the sky to shake, thend to quake, and mountains to sway back and forth.

    It was from a god!

    Floating Fiend¡¯s expression flickered as he took out his shears. The authority of erasure spread out, adding to the concealment effect he had around him. Outside of his cave, a great wind blew.

    Within that wind was a very gruish voice.

    ¡°Xu Qing... Xu Qing... Xu Qing....¡±

    It was hoarse and seemed to conform to an indescribable rhythm. This was clearly a god who was issuing a cry bolstered by godly authority. Outside, wild colors shed in heaven and earth. Meanwhile, the sword on Floating Fiend¡¯s back vibrated, and within the dpidated pagoda, Xu Qing¡¯s eyes opened.

    At that moment, Floating Fiend quickly made a decision. Biting the tip of his tongue, he spat out some of his precious dao blood onto the shears. The shears vibrated and the rust spots on them expanded. But the shears did manage to erase all traces leading to him. Eventually, the voice faded away.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s face looked incredibly pale. As of now, he didn¡¯t dare to stick around. After confirming that the god was gone, he raced off. This time, he didn¡¯t put the shears away, but instead, used the authority of erasure constantly as he fled.

    In that manner, two more days passed. He passed through countless mountain ranges, shifting directions constantly, until he eventually reached a desert.

    The entire time, he was jumpy with fear. He ran into the will of gods a few times, and without his Grand Emperor shears, he would definitely have been discovered. Sadly, the constant use of the shears was wearing them down significantly.

    And because he was consistently forced to use his precious dao blood, his cultivation base, which had just experienced a breakthrough, was destabilizing. Unfortunately, he had no other options. The pressure he felt kept growing more intense, until he found himself in the desert. There, he transformed into a host of sand grains that started moving with the wind.

    On the first day, everything proceeded normally. On the second day... Floating Fiend in sand form suddenly lurched to a stop as he caught wind of a strange singing off in the distance.

    <i>¡°In ten miles of sand I looked for you; for a hundred miles of swamp I examined each clue; through a thousand mile tomb you fled and flew; ten thousand miles of bamboo passed through my view; Floating Fiend oh Floating Fiend, where could you be; perhaps I¡¯ll just wait for you toe to me.¡±</i>

    The song was gruish and sinister, and when it sank into Floating Fiend¡¯s heart, he felt waves of terror assailing him. And that was because the song mentioned his name!

    As the song echoed through the desert, the sand vibrated and floated up into the air, turning into numerous little hands that almost resembled swaying stalks of grass.

    Astonishingly, the song emanated from those pieces of sand. As it drifted back and forth, it caused a terrifying sensation to build within the visibly astonished Floating Fiend. It gradually turned into an intense sensation of deadly crisis.

    Breathing heavily, he unhesitatingly detonated half of the sand that made up his form, which turned into droplets of dao blood that sttered onto the shears. A loud cracking sound rang out as he severed all karma and all traces of himself. He even severed the time belonging to the shears, as well as its own essence.

    To Floating Fiend¡¯s senses, everything around him turned blurry. When it became clear again, he was away from the desert, having used the essence of the shears to teleport to safety. He was now in an unfamiliar swampy region. The moment he appeared, he couldn¡¯t stop from coughing up a massive mouthful of blood. Before the blood could evennd on the ground, he reached out, took the blood and erased it out of existence. He couldn¡¯t leave any traces of himself. The terror in his eyes was clearly visible.

    <i>What level of god was that?? That god... very nearly had me within ¨©ts omniscience!!</i>

    Breathing unsteadily, Floating Fiend hurried along. Things were just getting more and more dangerous, and also increasingly gruish. Though he had an Imperial Sovereign cultivation base, he felt like he was walking the line between life and death. Before he could get his bearings, his heart lurched all of a sudden.

    And it was because... the water in this unknown swamp was stirring. The mud was trembling, and the nts around him were swaying. Even the bugs seemed to be on the move. It was as if everything around him had a will of its own. There wasn¡¯t much of that will, and it seemed to be pure instinct. But that instinct... was searching for him and for Xu Qing.

    The sense of danger within Floating Fiend exploded to new heights. There wasn¡¯t time to do much thinking. He unleashed more of the essence of the shears, and an instantter, he disappeared without a trace.

    After a number of teleportations through different areas, the shears were getting rustier, and Floating Fiend was feeling increasingly exhausted. That was when he found himself in front of a bare mountain that looked like a tomb. That was when the lingering fear within him disappeared. However, his heart was now like dirt that had been baked by the sun until it cracked.

    N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Xu Qing then sent out another message with divine will.

    <i>¡°You¡¯re running out of time.¡±</i>

    ¡°Shut up!¡± snapped Floating Fiend, which was the first time he had responded after all of the various dangers he had been through.

    Only two words were spoken. But they were enough to cause Xu Qing¡¯s eyes to glitter brightly. He had his answer.

    <i>¡°It seems time... really is running out for you.¡±</i>

    Looking very grim, Floating Fiend cut off the divine will from Xu Qing. The killing will in his heart bubbled.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see which happens first, me assimting Xu Qing, or you people finding me!¡±

    With that said, he turned to leave the mountain. Except that was when boundless and never-ending clouds surged on the horizon. They were like the sea rushing in his direction. Within those clouds, it was just barely possible to see a gigantic baby, crawling along rapidly. Heavenly might came with it, almost apanying it, as the baby wailed and cried out for ¡®daddy.¡¯ It seemed furious. The sound caused naturalw to tremble and magicalw to prostrate.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes went wide.

    ¡°Heavenly dao!¡± he blurted in shock. The shears appeared overhead, and again he unleashed their power. A loud cracking sound rang out as more cracks covered the shears. They now looked to be in horrific shape. However, Floating Fiend did manage to vanish.

    When he reappeared, he waspletely and utterly lost. All he could do was pick a direction based on instinct and intuition. As he fled, he heard the crying baby several times, as well as numerous instances of the aura of gods and spirits. Each time, he used the shears, no matter how much it pained him to do so.

    Over and over again, he spat out dao blood. After fleeing for eight days straight, he was feelingpletely exhausted.

    However, he¡¯d found a location where there was no divine will, no cry of a baby, no chanting of a god. There was only... a bamboo forest that went on for ten thousand miles!

    The bamboo was bright red! When the wind blew, the bamboo leaves rippled like a crimson sea. The sound of the leaves rustling against each other seemed like wind blowing through a desert and causing the sand to scrape against itself. Along with that sound came something like a nursery rhyme that caused Floating Fiend topletely break down.

    <i>¡°In ten miles of sand I looked for you; for a hundred miles of swamp I examined each clue; through a thousand mile tomb you fled and flew; ten thousand miles of bamboo passed through my view; Floating Fiend oh Floating Fiend, where could you be; perhaps I¡¯ll just wait for you toe to me.¡±</i>

    That nursery rhyme mmed into his mind like heavenly lightning. At the same time, a god strolled through the sea of bamboo. The canopy of heaven turned red thanks to h¨©s arrival. The earth became filled with crimson fog thanks to h¨©s presence. Time became a river stained with scarlet thanks to h¨©s approach. All of that red, from heaven, to earth, to time, converged to create a bright red robe.

    The neer was a handsome middle-aged man with long, flowing hair. Each strand of that hair was like flowing light, and h¨¥ emanated a godly might that would cause suns and moons to lose their glory.

    This god¡¯s name was Yu Liuchen!

    Striding forward until h¨¥ was right in front of the trembling Floating Fiend, heughed softly. <i>¡°Floating Fiend oh Floating Fiend, where could you be; perhaps I¡¯ll just wait for you toe to me.</i>¡±

    Floating Fiend¡¯s mind was spinning, and he hadpletely lost any power to fight back. He couldn¡¯t even think properly. The nursery rhyme echoed in his mind, reminding him of everywhere he had been as he fled.

    ***

    Out in the boundless void, there was a host of y figures bearing a shrine as they marched through time. They were headed in the direction of the same bamboo sea where Yu Liuchen stood.

    Erniu was among the y figures, waving his god vine and casting his senses about.

    Anguid voice drifted out of the shrine. ¡°It¡¯s no use, Niu¡¯er. Stop tormenting that little vine. I know where Xu Qing is.¡±

 Chapter 989: A Story-Telling God

    Chapter 989: A Story-Telling God

    A cool breeze picked up outside of the 10,000-mile bamboo forest. The red bamboo stalks swayed back and forth, creating a faint rustling sound. It was not like the sounds of nature. It surpassed that.

    Floating Fiend¡¯s mind and heart were in turmoil as he felt himself bing a part of that sound that surpassed anything from nature. It affected his entire body, until he was trembling everywhere. And his thoughts seemed to be fading into nothing. However, that fading of thought wasn¡¯t happening very quickly, and thus, he had time to recall what had just yed out.

    The ¡®ten miles of sand¡¯ represented the desert he had been to. The ¡®hundred miles of swamp¡¯ was obviously the unknown swamp he had fled through. The ¡®thousand mile tomb¡¯ was definitely the bare mountain, while the ¡®ten-thousand miles of bamboo¡¯ was the forest in front of his very eyes.

    The nursery rhyme had correctly described the exact route he took. It was almost as if everything from the moment he entered the desert had been fabricated by means of the nursery rhyme.

    ¨©t was a gruish type of godly authority. And ¨©ts name was: storytelling.

    By the time Floating Fiend¡¯s thoughts led him to the point of being aware of this godly authority, he was defeated. His mind became nk. His gaze became vacant, and he entered an ethereal daze as he stared at the ten-thousand mile forest and the god standing in front of him.

    To him, the figure in front of him was immeasurablyrge, and could control everything. ¨©t had omniscience regarding everything.

    He had be a character in a story. A fabrication. He couldn¡¯t think, because of course, the thoughts of a character in a story are controlled by the person creating the story. He couldn¡¯t move, as the actions of a character in a story are determined by the person telling the story. He even lost the ability to feel fear or confusion.

    To a certain extent, the person telling the story was actually very kind in that regard. The merciful Yu Liuchen lifted h¨©s right hand and made a cupping motion. A ripping sound could then be heard as the long sword on Floating Fiend¡¯s back was torn off his body. It flew up into the air. As chunks of disgusting flesh and bones tumbled off it, it revealed the very dim bubble, and the pagoda within it.Smiling, Yu Liuchen projected a message into the pagoda. <em>¡°Well, I say! There¡¯s a person in there!¡±</em>

    Inside the pagoda, Xu Qing quietly stood. Then he walked out of the pagoda, through the bubble, and into the presence of Yu Liuchen.

    ¡°Greetings, Senior,¡± he said, bowing his head.

    Although Xu Qing had considered that someone woulde to his rescue, none of his various analyses had featured Yu Liuchen as the rescuer. It was true that Yu Liuchen had, to some extent, worked together with Grand Emperor Swordsage right before thetter perished. But from Xu Qing¡¯s perspective, Yu Liuchen had seemed gruish and unpredictable, both in thought and action. In an instant, h¨¥ could change from being happy to furious, or from being malicious to benevolent. It made it almost impossible to get a read on h¨©m.

    ¡°Hold on, aren¡¯t you Swordsage¡¯s sessor?¡± Yu Liuchen asked with an enigmatic smile.

    Xu Qing cleared his thoughts, sped hands, and bowed very respectfully. ¡°Your grace in rescuing me will be forever engraved in my memory, Senior.¡±

    Yu Liuchen chuckled. H¨¥ waved h¨©s right hand, and a host of bamboo stalks flew over and created a table in front of h¨©m, atop which rested five cups of tea. There was also a furnace off to the side, the mes of which heated a worn teapot. It took only a moment for the water in the teapot to boil. Then, five streams of water flowed out of it, which entered the five tea cups. A fragrant aroma began to fill the area.

    Having aplished that, Yu Liuchen sat down cross-legged, picked up one of the cups of tea, and took a drink. ¡°You say you¡¯ll engrave it in your memory? Are you referring to the current version of you, in which godly nature is dominant? Or are you talking about the version controlled by human nature, the version in which things are easily forgotten?¡±

    Xu Qing thought for a moment. Then he took a nk bamboo slip out of his bag of holding, upon which he carved six words.

    <em>Huge favor owed to Yu Liuchen.</em>

    He put the bamboo slip back into his bag of holding and looked at Yu Liuchen. ¡°I¡¯ll use that to remember.¡±

    Yu Liuchen¡¯s eyebrows shot up in amusement. H¨¥ looked a bit more closely at Xu Qing. ¡°Interesting. Well, sit down and have some tea.¡±

    Xu Qing didn¡¯t hesitate. He sat down, picked up a cup of tea, and took a drink. After the scalding tea passed down his throat, it seemed to explode. Heat spread through his entire body, mming into his mind, and stirring up all of his memories going back to his youth. Those memories were like images floating up in his mind.

    He saw Peerless City. He saw the bitterness he experienced as a child. He saw the first time he killed someone, and how withdrawn he had be afterward. He saw the death of Grandmaster Bai. He saw the camaraderie he had experienced in Seven Blood Eyes. He saw his conflicted reaction to facing Zi Qing. He saw Pce Lord Kong and Grand Emperor Swordsage.... He saw Plumdark, Ling¡¯er, and his Eldest Brother....

    And yet, all of those experiences, all of those images, somehow seemed unfamiliar, as if they were from someone else¡¯s life. The joys and sorrows, the vicissitudes of life, didn¡¯t seem capable of affecting his heart. But then, because of the heat of the tea, the memory images became more colorful and vibrant. The happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy became more obvious. Ultimately, they became so prominent they were like peals of heavenly thunder, cracking endlessly.

    <em>RUMBLE!</em>

    Xu Qing shook from head to toe with joy.

    <em>RUMBLE!</em>

    His mind spun as he felt fear, then anger, then confusion, and then sadness....

    All of the various emotions and longings of human nature came out in force. To him, the world was differentpared to before. It was more colorful.

    Panting for breath, Xu Qing looked up. His expression was no longer calm like it had been before. All of the human nature that he had struggled to keep suppressed before was now bubbling. It was once again forming an equilibrium with the godliness he had intentionally released.

    What was more, uncontroble killing intent toward Floating Fiend appeared in his heart. Xu Qing immediately turned to look at the disoriented Floating Fiend, his eyes burning with the desire to kill. But only an instantter, he took a deep breath and looked back at Yu Liuchen. Standing, he sped hands and again bowed deeply at the waist.

    ¡°Many thanks, Senior!¡±

    Yu Liuchen took a drink of tea. ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me. I came here mostly to satisfy my curiosity.¡±

    Xu Qing hesitated as he tried to wrap his mind around what exactly Yu Liuchen had been curious about.

    Looking closely at Xu Qing, Yu Liuchen said, ¡°I¡¯m curious about a person with a body made of Eminent Destion¡¯s flesh. Before you, nothing like that ever happened. So I came. To be honest, if I hadn¡¯te, someone else would have rescued you. And soon, at that. That¡¯s why you really don¡¯t need to thank me. I don¡¯t want any big karmic connection to develop between us.¡±

    Xu Qing looked down thoughtfully at the bamboo table. Yu Liuchen had drunk tea from one cup, while Xu Qing had drunk from another. But there were three other cups.

    ¡°But I do have to say, this whole thing is very, <em>very</em> amusing....¡± Smiling, Yu Liuchen waved h¨©s hand at the befuddled Floating Fiend.

    Floating Fiend shivered as he regained both his senses and his ability to move. His pupils constricted as confusion and terror returned to them.

    Then Yu Liuchen began speaking in a very casual and rxed manner. ¡°Floating Fiend has some very nice shears. However... they can¡¯t fool my eyes, let alone the eyes of that empress you humans have. Besides, from beginning to end, your Master never said a single word.

    ¡°Of course, you have no way of knowing... that after you went missing, both humankind and the Firemoons issued dharmic decrees. Every organization you can imagine sprang into action. They cooperated perfectly. The east of Revered Ancient has been working together as if it has a single, united will. That was quite intimidating to the other areas of the maind, and it was quite intimidating to the holynds around here. At the same time, many forces used the search for you as an excuse to deploy troops and n for war. Some of the details... are even impossible for me to perceive clearly.¡±

    Yu Liuchen clucked h¨©s tongue in admiration.

    Xu Qing had no trouble picking up on the hidden implications in what Yu Liuchen said. He sighed.

    As for Floating Fiend, what he had heard already had him feeling extremely nervous.

    ¡°My guess,¡± Yu Liuchen continued, ¡°is that your empress¡¯ next move is going to be... using your situation as a justification for kicking the holynds out of the east. It would bepletely logical to im that it¡¯s to make sure nothing like this happens again in the future. By paying only a small price, the entire east can be purged. No wonder Swordsage picked h¨¥r.¡± Yu Liuchen¡¯s eyes narrowed as h¨¥ looked at Xu Qing. ¡°This really must have been tough for you! All twists and turns, right? Gods really can be ruthless. Rough. So rough!¡±

    Xu Qing couldn¡¯t think of anything clever to say. Looking at Yu Liuchen, he said, ¡°That¡¯s pretty deep, Senior....¡±

    Hearing that caused Yu Liuchen to smile happily. H¨¥ was intentionally trying to sow discord, for no other reason than he found it amusing. Except, h¨©s smile faltered when he heard what Xu Qing had to say next..

    ¡°However, Senior, the situation with me isn¡¯t that simple.... If things really yed out as you just described, it seems more likely to me that my Master has been paying attention the whole time. Senior, isn¡¯t it possible that you showing up was actually part of what my Master predicted would happen?¡±

    Yu Liuchen blinked a few times. After what Xu Qing just said, h¨¥ suddenly didn¡¯t feel as amused as before. H¨¥ actually looked thoughtful.

    That was when Floating Fiend¡¯s eyes filled with madness. Spinning, he unleashed every scrap of his cultivation base and aura, paying every price possible, including as much dao blood as he could spare, to try to flee. The Grand Emperor¡¯s shears appeared above him, and they shed down toward him. Then a cracking sound rang out as the shears sliced through the air. Floating Fiend vanished.

    Xu Qing watched it all happen coldly.

    Yu Liuchen, meanwhile, didn¡¯t spare a second nce. Instead, h¨¥ coolly said, ¡°Allow me to tell you a story, kid.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    ¡°The story is about a cultivator named Floating Fiend. He walked through a ten-mile desert, a hundred-mile swamp, a thousand-mile tomb, and a ten-thousand mile forest. Eventually, he got lost. But then he got lucky and managed to find his way back. In a show of gratitude, he blew himself up, and then he took a drink of my tea.¡±

    All of a sudden, the spot where Floating Fiend had just disappeared rippled and distorted. Floating Fiend appeared, dpidated and weak. In fact, he seemed like he was about to copse. The moment he appeared, he looked at the two people present as if he hadn¡¯t seen them for an entire month. His expression was one of absolute astonishment and unending terror.

    A month ago, he had severed his karma with his shears, then detonated the essence of the shears to perform a greater teleportation. After that, he fled for a month, experiencing all sorts of deadly situations. He crossed numerous dangerous regions... only to return to this very spot.

    Trembling, he looked at Yu Liuchen, then unhesitatingly decided to self-detonate. Rumbling built up within him. It was the only way he could think to free himself.

    But then he became lucid again and found himself staring at the same bamboo forest, the same Xu Qing, and the same Yu Liuchen. He did not wake up where he thought he would wake up. Instead, he woke up here.

    ¡°Have some tea,¡± Yu Liuchen said coolly.

    Floating Fiend looked at the cups of tea on the table. Trembling in despair, he reached out, took a cup, and drank.

    Meanwhile, the distant horizon turned gray, as if it were turning into y. The effect spread as a procession of y people appeared, bearing a shrine. Among the team was Erniu. Looking very excited, he waved at Xu Qing.

    ¡°Little Ah Qing! Your Eldest Brother is here!¡±

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